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OF  THE 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY, 

OR, 

"CHIVALRY"  IN  MODERN  DAYS, 

A  PERSONAL   RECORD  OF  REFORM  —  CHIEFLY 

LAND  REFORM, 


THE:    LAST 


BY  THOS.  AINGE  DEVYR. 


"  For  the  Land  is  Mine,  saith  the  Lord,  for  ye  are  strangers  and  sojourners 
with  Me." — Leviticus,  Chap,  xxv.,  v.  23. 

"When  he  can  hide  the  Sun  with  a  blanket,  and  put  the  Moon  in  his 
pocket,  I'll  pay  him  Kent." — SHAKESPEARE. 

"  The  Land  belongs  in  usufruct  to  the  Living" — THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 


"  I  do  not  endorse  all  the  headlong  opinions  of  Mr.  Devyr.  I  believe 
that  he  has  fallen  into  errors  and  made  mistakes.*  But  he  has  labored  so 
long  in  Land  Reform,  and  so  sincerely,  that  I  accord  to  him  the  privilege 
of  having  letters  addressed  to  him,  at  the  Office  of  the  Irish  World,  New 
York,  Box  3,624.  PATRICK  FORD. 

*  Right  1     Pope  says : 

"  Virtuous  and  vicious  every  man  must  be ; 
Few  in  the  extreme,  but  all  in  the  degree."  See    p.    2OO, 

Amc'n  Sec. 


PUBLISHED    BY    THE    AUTHOK,    37    BECOME    ST., 

GREENPOINT,   NEW  YORK. 
Copyright,  \  TjipW,s  Afnge  £evyr,  1882. 


DEDICATION. 

Whoever  rejects  the  word  "  Monarchy/'  and  the 
Frauds,  the  Cruelties,  the  Human  Idolatry  that  lie 
couched  beneath  it.  Whoever  accepts  the  word 
"  Republic,"  and  all  the  Justice  and  Brotherhood  it 
implies,  to  that  Man  I  dedicate  this  book. 

Whoever  prides  in  the  Grand  Traditions  of  the 
Republic,  and  enshrines  in  her  heart  the  Memories 
of  those  who  loved  it,  labored  for  it,  and  died  for 
it,  to  that  Woman  I  dedicate  this  book. 


Thoughts  addressed  to  every  true  and  brave  man : 

The  Creator  either  made  the  land 

Or  He  did  not. 
He  made  it  for  the  dukes  and  lords, 

Or  He  did  not. 
He  made  it  for  the  people, 

Or  He  did  not. 
To  pay  Rent  to  earth-lords,  is  it  a  DENIAL  OF  THE 

CREATOR? 

Or  is  it  not  ? 

Is  it  hard  to  know  His  will  1 
Or  is  it  not  3 

If  you  know  His  will 
And  do  it  not, 

Are  ye  brave  and  true  men, 
Or  are  .ye  not  ? 


itttietttil? 


EVIDENCES. 

The  American  Section  of  this  book  will  present  proofs  that :  — 

FIKST— The  Unbounded  Power  to  Tax  has  filled  all  its  govern- 
ments with  public  Spoilsmen  instead  of  public  Statesmen. 

SEI  OND — That  bad  laws  and  bad  administrations  are  the  natural 
and  inevitable  result. 

THIED — That  an  Army  and  a  Navy  are  a  hotbed  of  aristocracy — 
not  only  unnecessary  to  the  Eepublic,  but  a  great  evil  and  an  open 
insult.  That  the  money  they  cost  would,  under  wise  guidance, 
educate  all  the  youth  of  the  Eepublic  of  both  sexes  and  give  them 
a  fair  start  in  life. 

FOURTH — That  our  "Diplomacy,"  and  all  that  hangs  around  it, 
is  a  mere  importer  of  snobbery.  "  Entanglements  "  that  complicate 
us  with  foreign  lands,  and  may,  assisted  by  the  sailing-about  Navy, 
fish  up  a  foreign  War  for  us  any  day. 

FIFTH— That  our  Eepublic  is  opening  its  arms  to  the  rack-renting 
rogues  of  Europe,  and  rearing  within  its  own  borders  a  breed  of  the 
same  sort  of  villains,  to  establish  here — on  soil,  on  mine  and  on 
waters — the  same  Crime  and  Blasphemy  that  has  for  so  far  cursed 
the  world. 

SIXTH — That  virtue  has  utterly  fled  the  public  councils  since 
the  days  of  Andrew  Jackson. 

SEVENTH — That  the  daily  press,  and  nine-tenths  of  the  press 
generally,  are  mere  business  firms  that  manufacture  public  opinion 
for  those  who  can  best  pay  them.  That  their  news  makes  them 
welcome  everywhere,  and  that  they  criminally  abuse  that  welcome. 
That — with  the  corporations,  politicians,  and  monopolists  generally 
— they  form  a  vast  conspiracy  against  the  liberties  of  the  people 
and  the  life  of  the  Eepublic. 

EIGHTH — That  small  daily  papers  ought  to  be  got  up  at  every 
populous  centre — if  not  to  boycott  the  daily  instruments  of  the  mon- 
opolists, at  least  to  enable  us  to  get  the  news,  and  so  save  ourselves 
from  their  evil  influence. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DATS. 

SUPPRESSION    OF    THOUGHT. 

It  may  be  necessary  to  state  or  repeat  here  that  publishing  firms 
that  call  themselves  "respectable"  will  not  touch  a  thoroughly 
searching  Reform  Book.  This  book  was  offered  to  more  than  one 
such  publisher,  even  of  the  most  "  liberal"  hue.  And  even  put  into 
their  hands  with  all  costs  paid,  and  with  offer  to  make  their  own 
conditions  in  relation  to  profits  !  They,  "not  to  put  too  fine  a  point 
on  it,"  c}id  their  part  toward  its  suppression.  I  suppose  the  state- 
ment of  this  fact  will  rouse  every  true  Reform  paper  and  every 
true  progressive  man  to  defeat  their  purpose,  and  to  give  the  book 
their  countenance  and  support.  True  Reformers— true  men,  and 
women  too — will,  I  think,  be  sure  to  push  this  book  along.  I  expect, 
I  ask,  no  aid  from  any  other. 

I  have  mentioned  elsewhere  that  time  was  when  the  proflt-monger- 
ing  daily  press  could  by  their  silence  consign  to  oblivion,  or  by 
their  vituperation  poison  and  kill  off  any  Book  of  Reform.  That 
time  has  passed  away.  There  are  four  hundred  Reform  papers  now 
in  the  Republic  to  stand  by  and  see  fair  play.  And  the  Irwh  World 
itself  has  opened  a  telegraph  of  Thought — ten  thousand  lines,  over 
which  Thought  can  be  flashed  from,  one  Reform  mind  to  another  all 
over  the  world.  

THE  LATEST. — Professor  White,  of  Cornell,  says : 

"There  seems  among  the  young  men  of  the  present  day  to  be  a  wide- 
spread belief  that  political  life  is  a  game  of  grasping  and  griping;  that 
generous  sentiments  are  the  badges  of  fools ;  that  patriotism  is  an  outworn 
lure  of  tricksters,  and  that  honesty  and  honor  are  entirely  banished  from 
the  public  service.  The  cause  of  it  is  the  spoils  system."  [And  that  exists 
by  the  Unbounded  Power  to  Tax.] 

And  General  Townsend,  of  New  York,  and  all  t'ie  Generals  fueled 
from  Washington,  speak  out  in  this  strain : 

"Within  the  short  period  of  twenty-five  years  the  population  of  this 
country  will  have  swollen  probably  to  one  hundred  million  of  people;  at 
which  time,  being  morally  no  nearer  the  millennial  condition  as  a  people  than 
at  present,  we  shall  sorely  need  a  repressive  force  of  some  kind." 

Our  present  evils  are  to  be  continued,  then  !  People  may  not  be 
content  with  them,  and  a  force  to  sabre  them  down  will  be  "sorely 
needed."  Grenadiers,  to  the  front !  [See  page  187,  American  Section.] 


Somebody  (Job,  I  believe)  has  written,  "0!  that  mine  enemy 
would  write  a  book ! "  A  book  extends  over  a  surface  so  large — 
embraces  subjects  so  various — that  unless  the  author  were  what  man 
never  was  it  will  contain  points  less  or  more  weak — less  or  more 
evil.  I  trust  the  reader  will  remember  this,  and  judge  my  book  by 
the  whole  tenor  and  drift  of  it— not  by  isolated  passages,  plenty  of 
which  doubtless  may  be  found  objectionable. 


THE   ODD    BOOK    OT   THE   NIJ?ETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

And  above  all,  and  beyond  all,  and  in  one  light  most  important  of 
all,  is  the  example  it  presents  of  what  American  Civilization  would 
be,  were  it  not  choked  to  death  by  the  corrupt  politicians.* 
A  NATIONAL  CONVENTION. 

NINTH — That  a  Keforru  Convention,  elected  from  all  the  States 
and  Territories,  should  sit  en  permanence  in  New  York  City.  Take 
charge  of,  and  debate  daily  and  from  day  to  day,  all  the  interests 
of  the  Republic.  In  such  Convention  every  proposed  Reform  would 
have  full  consideration,  and  thus  would  be  realized  the  injunction  of 
Scripture,  "Prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good." 

This  Convention,  and  the  Reform  daily  papers,  and  the  weekly, 
systematic,  imperative  Collection  of  Funds,  are  an  absolute  necessity. 
In  my  inmost  soul  I  believe  that  the  fate  of  the  Republic  pivots  on 
these  three  things.  People  generally  do  not  realize  the  Great  Battle 
that  is  approaching. 

The  small  rubbish — brawls,  burglaries,  swindlings,  etc., — that 
fill  the  big  sheets  waste  time  and  deprave  the  public  taste.  They 
should  have  no  place  in  the  new  papers.  To  criticise  public  vil- 
lainies, and  note  and  stimulate  Public  Progress,  here  and  in  Europe, 
is  the  work  before  them.  The  Ward  I  live  in  supports  a  spirited 
little  daily.  And  once  the  NATIONAL  CONVENTION  is  assembled, 
its  proceedings  will  give  a  lift  to  all  the  Reform  papers.  In  London 
Mr.  Hollyoake  compiles  a  weekly  "Town  Talk"  of  current  events 
that  is  published  in  nearly  all  the  country  papers.  I  could,  from 
the  I.  W.  and  Reform  sources  generally,  publish  a  similar  article 
weekly  for  the  new  papers,  and  I  would  do  it  for  pay  or  without  pav. 
The  Powers  of  Darkness  are  at  work.  Bring  out  the  Powers  of 
Light. 

COLLECTING  FUNDS. 

Every  Land  League  Branch,  every  Benefit  Society  and  every 
Reform  Organization  should  establish  a  WEEKLY  COLLECTION  OP 
FUNDS.  An  average  of  five  cents  a  week  from  those  whose  rights 
and  liberties  are  at  stake  would  yield  more  money  than  is  requisite 
both  to  sustain  Ireland  and  to  commence  the  War  of  Ideas  in  this 
country.  By  envelopes!  seems  to  be  the  best  means. 

And  finally,  this  book  will  show  the  sudden  rise  and  rapid 
progress  of  the  Great  Movement  that,  uprising  in  Ireland,  now 
vibrates  over  the  world. 


*See  page  five,  American  Section. 

f  Thus :  —The  Officers  of  the  Organization  enclose  a  blank  to  each  family 
in  the  School  district,  to  b«  returned  to  them  with  the  amount  written 
therein  of  what  they  will  pay  wf-ekly.  To  receive  these  returns  a  close 
box  might  be  left  at  a  favorable  house  in  the  centre  of  the  School  district. 
These  are  only  hints,  and  no  doubt  can  be  improved  on. 


CONTENTS. 

THE  IRISH  AND  ENGLISH  SECTIONS. 

PRELIMINARY  :—  Chapter  on  Facts—  Wendell  Phillips—  Thoughts  on  Civiliza- 
tion _  Education  —  Modes  of  Entering  on.  Life  —  Political  Economy,  and 
criticism  on  Henry  George  —  Hints  from  Franklin  —  The  two  British  wars. 

INTRODUCTION  :  —  Ncc3ssity  for  "  THE  ODD  BOOK." 

CHAPTER  I  :  —  Early  Thoughts  on  Landlords  —  Their  blighting  influences. 

CHAPTER  II  :  —  Little  biographies  and  less  scientific  research  —  The  Immensi- 
ties _  Man  —  His  Inheritance  —  Emerging  from  the  darkness  —  Great  wealth 
a  great  error  —  Testimony  of  Burns  and  Goldsmith  —  An  imaginary  "  good 
landlord." 

CHAPTER  III  :  —  Indicting  the  British  Oligarchy  for  their  great  crimes— 
Scott,  Lockhart  and  Miss  Edgeworth  on  the  witness  stand. 

CHAPTER  IV  :—  Donegal  —  Dawning  life—  Parish  schools  —  An  outwave  of  old 
books,  among  them  Bomances  of  Chivalry  —  Their  influence. 

CHAPTER  V:  —  Sketches  illustrative  of  aboriginal  manufactures,  trade, 
modes  of  life  and  thought  among  the  wilder  districts  of  Ireland  and  the 
people  who  inhabit  them. 

CHAPTER  VI  :  —  Voyage  to  Liverpool  at  sixteen  in  search  of  work  and 
knowledge  —  Strange  incidents  and  stranger  poetry  —  Uses  of  adversity— 
S<M  fishing  —  An  unregistered  gun  —  Partridge  shooting  —  Irish  wakes- 
Policemen—  Encounters  with  and  "  persecutions-at-law." 

CHAPTER  VII  :  —  Orangeism  —  Things  of  the  arm,  of  the  head,  and  of  the  heart. 
CHAPTER  VIII  :  —  O'Connell  —  Facts  of  his  career  —  The  first  Young  Irelander. 

CHAPTER  IX  :  —  A  night  voyage  —  Bishop  McHale  —  Strange  experience  of  fifty 
years  ago  —  Highlands  of  Donegal  —  The  future  starting  point  for  America 
-—Sea  and  mountain  scenes  and  life  among  them  —  Strange  Providence  — 
Adventures  with  robbers  and  fusilade  with  water  bailiffs—  Reclaimed  and 
Reclaimablo  lands  —  The  bandit  landlords  in  the  way. 

CHAPTER  X:—  Feudal  "Custom"  and  Feudal  Courts  —  "  Levelers,  " 
"  Carders,"  Ten-pennies  and  Tithe  —  Night  picture  of  '98—  Battle  of  New 
Ross  —  Village  blacksmith—  Repressive  literature  —  Recruiting  —  A  strange 
danger  —  Agrarian  Regulators  —  A  Avhole  crowd  of  illustrative  incidentals. 


NATURAL  RIGHTS,"  disproving  land-thief  ownership.  (TAIT,  Higli 
Street,  Belfast,  1836).  :  At  pages  108  to  135  inclusive—  Devote  my  life  to  a 
war  against  Land  Monopoly,  and  go  to  London  to  carry  on  the  war. 

CHAPTER  XI  :  —  London  —  Connection  with  The  Constitutional,  morning  paper 
_  Sharrnan  Crawford  —  Smith  O'Brien  —  Encounter  with  the  Times  —  "Phil- 
osophical Radicals  "  —  The  Irish  Poor  Law—  The  first  sufferer  by  it  —  A 
strange  experience  in  the  police  —  Greenwich—  On  the  press  of  that 
town  _  Princess  Sophia,  sister  of  George  III.  :  the  scrape  she  got  mo  into 
_  Honorable  journalists  —  Reflections  on  London—  Called  to  Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne  —  Stern  Democracy  of  the  Tyno  and  Wear—  The  Northern  Lib- 
erator—Its pure,  high-minded  owners  —  My  connection  wilh  it  —  Chartist 
agitation—  "Address  "  to  the  Irish  people  enrages  O'Connell—  British  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Science  and  Art  ;  Report  on  Foreign.  Policy 


CONTENTS. 

—Incidents  of  arming— Trado  in  muskets,  pikes,  etc.— "  Writers  of  the 
IMerator"  fusilading  tho  Whigs  —  Atrocious  "  Bastile  Poor  Law"- 
National  Convention  in  London— Riots  in  Birmingham — Address  to  the 
Middle  Classes — It  scares  Lord  (Judge)  Abinger. 

CHAPTER  XII : — Bight  of  Public  Meeting — A  scene  in  the  Dock— Debate  in 
Parliament — Riot  in  Newcastle— Scene  in  Police  Court. 

CHAPTER  XIII: — Great  preparations  over  England— Insurrection  in  South 
Wales — Its  ramifications— Failure,  and  why — Frost  sentenced  to  death- 
Unwritten  history — A  more  fierce  and  dangerous  conspiracy — Midnight 
scene — Newcastle  strangely  saved  from  conflagration — High  Treason- 
Singular  escape  to  the  United  States. 

CONTENTS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SECTION. 

Evil  Books — British  Civilization  descending  on  us — American  Civilization : 
A  signal  example  of  it — Present  condition  of  our  City,  State  and  National 
Governments — Their  audacity  in  corruption.  Pago  15. 

Retrospect— Royal  land  grants— What  led  to  the  Revolution.    Page  23. 

John  Adams'  Alien  and  Sedition  and  Navy  Laws — Seagoing  profitmongors 
lead  to  War  of  1812,  and  war  with  tho  Barbary  Pirates — Condition  of  tho 
country  in  1840.  Page  25. 

Hard  Cider  Campaign,  page  27 — The  Hunker  Democrats — First  difficulty, 
p.  31 — Repeal — Irish  politicians :  what  they  did — A  jail :  a  rescue,  p.  30. 
Colonel  Philip  S.  Crooke,  pages  35  and  37 — "National  Reform  Associa- 
tion," that  led  in  the  Homestead  Law,  p.  39. 

Retrospective — Anti-Rent,  p.  42 — It  breaks  down  and  leaves  me  penniless- 
Rescued  by  an  American  gentleman  —  Gain  and  lose  £6,000  —  The 
Great  Famine  of  '47 — Land  Thieves,  tho  Queen  and  Politicai  Economy 
cause  the  death  of  a  million  of  people,  p.  53 — A  Reform  daily :  How  killed 
by  the  politicians,  p.  56. 

Meagher  —  O'Brien  —  Kossuth  —  Taxpayers'  Movement  —  Our  Diplomacy  — 
Panic  of  ''57,  caused  by  gold  "basis,"  p.  74 — Corruption  in  government : 
its  cause,  p.  78— The  South  resist  Land  Reform— The  Civil  War,  p.  80. 

Voyage  to  Europe — Scenes  by  sea  and  land — Pictures  of  the  condition  of 
England  under  its  lord  dukes,  p.  83— Return. 

Horace  Greeley,  and  his  character  as  a  politician — Wendell  Phillips — The 
War  excitement-General  Crooke,  p.  109— Gerrit  Smith. 

ThetFenian  Movement  of  1866 — Its  means,  objects,  mismanagement — Crit- 
ique on  demagogues — Letter  to  Archbishop  McCloskoy — To  Gladstone, 
p.  122. 

Internationals  of  New  York— A  crowd  of  illustrative  incidentals,  songs, 
etc.,  p.  139 — Financial  Swindle  of  '69— Greenbacks  and  land — A  great 
loss,  and  why  I  publish  this  book— Judicial  murders  in  Pennsylvania 
(see  Appendix). 

On  Staff  of  Irish  World—  Home  Rule  and  "  Obstruction  " — How  changed  to 
Land  Reform — Mr  Parnell  in  America — The  Irish  elections— Largo 
meetings  in  Ireland — The  Grreat  Truth  proclaimed,  p.  171 — The  insult 
called  a  land  law — The  laborer,  p.  189— About  the  French  Revolution  of 
1789,  p.  195— The  Great  Land  War :  Ireland  in  the  front. 

America  in  the  hands  of  a  corrupt  daily  press  and  caucus  politicians — How 
to  rescue  it— Shown  in  this  book. 


CRITIC,  JUDGE  AND  AUTHOK  IN  COUNCIL. 

CRITIC.— Judge,  we  have  sent  for  you  to  decide  about  this  book 
of  "Memories."  The  author,  in  every  page  almost,  keeps  him- 
self in  the  front. 

JUDGE.— Well,  what  else  can  he  do  in  relating  his  Memories  ? 

CRITIC. — Besides,  his  main  object,  he  says,  is  to  inculcate  Truths 
that  embrace  the  whole  Human  Family," and  he  stoops  into  tri- 
fling incidents  that  are  derogatory  to  the  main  object. 

JUDGE.— But  are  those  incidents  really  trifling  ?    Do  they  illus- 
trate the  main  design,  and  don't  you  mind  what  Pope  says  : 
"  To  Him  no  high,  no  low,  no  great,  no  small." 

CRITIC. — He  even  seems  impressed  that  a  special  Providence 
has  been  watching  over  him  and  his  enterprise. 

JUDGE. — I  don't  see  much  to  reprehend  in  that.  Most  people 
have  a  vague  hope  of  that  kind. 

CRITIC.— But  in  those  little  matters— and  I  contend  they  are 
little  whatever  Alick  Pope  may  say  about  it — he  runs  counter  to 
public  thought  and  may  cripple  the  circulation  of  his  book. 

JUDGE. — O  !  for  that  matter  the  whole  book  runs  a  little  coun- 
ter to  public  thought.  All  proposed  changes  do.  All  Reforms, 
fill  improvements!  They  have  all  to  run  the  adverse  gaunt- 
let of  public  thought.  We  imprisoned  Galileo,  called  the  Mar- 
quis of  Worcester  mad,  made  merry  with  the  kite  vagaries  of 
Franklin,  pelted  Fulton  with  mud,  smiled  at  the  nonsense  of 
Morse,  and  laughed  outright  at  somebody  who  talked  about  a 
three  thousand  mile  cable  down  among  the  monsters  of  the  deep. 

CRITIC. — "  That's  nothing  to  do  with  it."  Those  great  things 
are  not  to  be  lowered  down  to  a  comparison  with  this  book. 

JUDGE. — They  were  made  great  by  the  perseverance  of  their 
authors.  At  first  they  stood  in  exactly  the  same  place  this  book 
stands  in  now. 

CRITIC. — So  you  encourage  this  author  of  ours  to  go  on  and 
write  down  whatever  comes  in  his  head — little  and  big — affairs  of 
the  heart  even  as  as  well  as  affairs  of  the  head.  The  latter  at 
least  you  will  condemn  ? 

JUDGE. — Why  should  I?  The  Memories  of  a  life  will  be  apt  to 
throw  light  on  both  head  and  heart,  and  the  one  may  need  it  as 
much  as  the  other  in  a  harmless  way. 

CRITIC. — I  see  you  will  let  him  loose.  Thoughts,  incidents,  ad- 
ventures, to  gambol  round  just  as  they  incline,  without  restraint 
and  without  order  ? 

JUDGE. — In  this  cane  it  can't  be  helped.  A  free  lance  may  do 
service  in  its  own  way.  Under  discipline  it  would  do  nothing. 
Besides  no  trouble  in  pointing  out  his  defects.  He  pleads  guilty 
to  them  all  before  hand. 

CRITIC. — Well,  we  will  see,  but  if  he  had  taken  my  advice  there 
would  have  been  another  story  to  tell. 

JUDGE- — Yes,  your  etory.    Let  him  tell  Ms  own. 


JUDGE,    CRITIC   AND    AUTHOR. 

CRITIC. — Such  a  name!  The  "Odd  Book/'  Well,  let  that  stand. 
It  is  indeed  the  oddest  bunch  of  leaves  that  ever  grew  on  one  bush. 
But  " Chivalry  in  Modern  Days."  "Chivalry,"  indeed !  By  fellows 
who  never  climbed  a  mountain,  never  searched  a  forest,  never  backed 
a  horse,  nor  ever  couched  a  lance  to  rescue  knight  or  lady  from  keep 
or  castle.  It  is  a  case  of  false  pretences,  Judge,  and  you  know  what 
that  means. 

JUDGE. — Yos.    Penitentiary. 

AUTHOR. — Does  it?  Well,  it  was  Bulwer,  and  a  whole  crowd  he 
brought  along  with  him,  that  got  me  into  this  scrape.  They  went 
about  telling  us  that  "Chivalry  was  an  extravagant  generosity  of 
enthusiasm  for  the  redress  of  human  wrongs.  A  nobleness  of  senti- 
ment which,  however  latent,  however  modified  (by  time  and  place), 
exists  in  every  genuinely  noble  nature."  * 

JUDGE. — But  what  has  that  to  do  with  your  book? 

AUTHOR. — Everything.  This  book  is  of  Reform  and  Eeformers. 
Is  not  the  Reformer's  life  one  war  against  "human  wrongs?"  Is 
not  a  rascally  government  even  worse  than  a  rascally  baron  ?  Is  not 
the  freedom  of  a  captive  nation  equal  at  least  to  the  freedom  of  a 
captive  knight?  And  as  for  1  seing  battered  and  bruised,  and  ridiculed 
and  ostracized,  cannot  theBeformer — if,  indeed,  he  be  a  Beformer — 
vie  with  the  biggest  and  oldest  knight-errant  of  them  all? 

JUDGE. — Well,  friend  Critic,  what  do  you  say  to  that? 

CRITIC. — I  say  that  I  never  heard  anything  like  it  before.  Why, 
this  Author  must  be  himself  as  mad  as  even  the  knight-errant  he 
talks  about. 

JUDGE. — Exactly.  It  is  on  that  identity  he  claims  the  title  for  his 
book. 


"No  institution," says  the  American  Cyclopedia,  "has  exercised  a 
greater  influence  in  the  world,  yet  of  its  origin  nothing  certain  is 
known.  Brave  men  of  the  ruling  races,  who  were  thoughtful  and 
humane,  united  themselves  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  weak. 
Courage  was  one  of  their  chief  virtues.  Devotion  to  the  fair  sex  was 
the  strongest  manifestation  of  Chivalry.  Their  aspirations  were 
good,  and  were  productive  of  good  both  to  themselves  and  to  woman. 
We  can  form  some  conception  of  the  condition  to  which  society 
must  have  fallen  but  for  Chivalry  when  we  see  upon  what  state  of 
things  (the  Dark  Ages)  Chivalry  was  embroidered." 

Does  not  our  own  "state  of  things,"  in  the  "  dark  age"  we  live  in, 
invoke  that  "nobleness  of  sentiment" — that  "enthusiasm  for  the 
redress  of  human  wrongs"? — for  which  I  can  find  no  name  more 
appropriate  than 

"CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS." 

*Bulwer's  Essays. 


0f 


PEELIMINAKY. 

A    CHAPTER    ON    FACTS. 

Fact  Laws  govern  every  art  and  every  business  of  life.  In  build- 
ing a  ship,  or  fashioning  a  needle,  must  not  one  solid  Fact  follow 
another?  Is  it  not  so  in  all  the  other  arts? — so  in  all  the  Sciences? 

Nobody  attempts  to  make  even  a  pair  of  shoes  without  the  requisite 
skill  and  the  requisite  materials.  Hence,  shoes  are  made.  There 
is  not  even  any  risk  of  failure. 

What  is  any  science  but  a  combination  of  recognized  Facts? 
Chemistry? — its  history  is  a  patient  discovery  and  judicious  arrange- 
ment of  Facts.  Geology? — Mechanics? — Astronomy? — does  not  the 
same  brief  sentence  write  the  history  of  them  all?  They  rejected 
FALLACIES  :— they  accepted  FACTS. 

And  how  did  they  discover  the  Facts?  how  detect  the  Fallacies? 

"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  The  Fact  manifested 
itself  in  harmony  and  success — the  Fallacies  in  derangement  and 
disappointment.  In  vain  was  the  lightning  conductor  opposed  as 
an  impious  attempt  to  wrest  from  His  hand  God's  own  thunderbolt. 
In  vain  did  the  dungeon-  and  the  rack  prop  up  the  Ptolomaie 
system  of  the  sky.  Fact  underlay  the  one,  and  it  was  established ; 
Fallacy  the  other,  and  it  was  destroyed. 

The  systems  of  government  that  exist  now  over  the  world  resemble 
in  their  Gigantic  Errors  the  Ptolomaie  system  of  the  sky.  And  they 
have,  at  "sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners,"  been  brought  to  a 
violent  end.  Why  have  the  same  systems  always  built  themselves 
up  again?  Because  there  was  no  Copernican  system  of  society  to 
take  their  place.  Something  must  bo  established — and  at  once, 
to  get  out  of  Anarchy.  The  Ptolomaie  Errors  in  government 


PRELIMINARY.  11 

were  therefore  again  built  up  suddenly.      And  again,  and  again r 
and  forever  are  failures. 

And  this  is  not  unaccountable.  If  men  will  ignore  the  Fact 
Laws — or  if  they  will  not  study  them  at  all — in  forming  their  govern- 
ments, what  other  result  can  follow?  With  blind  audacity  you  will 
build  an  elaborate  mansion,  without  the  use  of  square,  or  line,  or 
plummet.  You  work  away  by  "the  rule  of  thumb,"  and  are  very 
much  astonished  when  the  monument  of  your  folly  tumbles  down 
about  your  ears. 

Do  Fact  Laws  underlie  the  science  of  government?  What  are- 
those  Fact  Laws?  Let  us  take  France  as  an  example,  and  inquire. 

There  are  thirty  or  forty  millions  of  people  in  France.  They  must 
be  lodged,  and  clothed,  and  fed,  or  they  die.  They  must  be  edu- 
cated, or  they  sink  into  barbarism. 

This  is  a  very  large  and  a  very  obstinate  Fact.  Let  us  call  it  the 
"GREAT  DEMAND  FACT." 

Is  there  a  SUPPLY  FACT,  equally  great?  There  ought  to  be,  or 
Nature  is  a  Discord.  Let  us  search.  Where  is  the  great  Supply  to 
be  found,  that  will  meet  this  great  Demand? 

In  the  streets  and  high  ways?  No.  In  the  lakes  or  streams?  No. 
In  the  ocean?  No,  Well,  then,  in  the  atmosphere? —the  clouds, 
the  sunshine?  Alas  \  no. 

What,  then !  is  there,  indeed,  no  Great  Supply  Fact,  to  meet  this- 
Great,  obstinate  Demand  Fact,  that  is  armed  to  kill  us,  and  will  not 
take  itself  away? — insists  upon  killing  us? 

No.  We  have  already  named  all  the  Facts  that  there  are,  except 
the  soil,  and  that  belongs- to  the  "landlords" — to  the  "nobility." 

Who  gave  it  to  them? 

Charlemagne,  I  suppose,  or  somebody  like  him,  long  ago,  in  the 
dark  ages. 

Ir  "the  dark  ages''!  And  who  was  Charley-man?  In  Avhat  was 
he  different  from  any  other  man? 

Different !  Don't  you  know?  Had  he  not  more  authority — was  he 
not  stronger— than  other  men? 


Ill  PRELIMINABY. 

Ah !  yes.  I  once  saw  your  meaning  illustrated  in  a  man's  house- 
hold. 

It  was  cold  weather,  and  the  Father  was  called  away  on  business 
that  would  detain  Him  from  early  morning  till  late  at  night.  He  left 
their  "daily  bread"  within  reach  of  the  children — a  stove  in  the 
centre,  round  which  all  could  have  sufficient  warmth.  Beds  were 
arranged  in  the  dormitories,  and  upon  the  eldest — and  who  were  also 
the  strongest — He  left  injunctions  to  carry  out  His  Will,  and  see  to 
the  comfort  of  the  whole  family.  He  returned  in  .the  middle  of  the 
night.  He  found  some  of  His  children  stark  and  lifeless  outside  of 
His  house,  others  driven  into  dark  niches  of  the  walls,  just  able  to 
pray  for  their  Father's  return !  He  advanced,  and  He  found  the 
strong  and  the  cunning  ones  rioting  in  what  belonged  to  their  weaker 
and  perishing  brothers  and  sisters.  And  the  Father  was  sorely 
displeased;  and  He  would  not  acknowledge  them  as  His  children. 
He  cast  them  out  "into  outer  darkness" — those  strong  and  cunning 
ones,  who  were  thus  so  inhuman  to  their  brothers  and  sisters. 

The  strength  of  this  Charlemagne  was  not  given  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  brothers.  His  authority  was  given  not  to  injure  but  to 
protect  them. 

In  France  the  Provisional  Government  that  succeeded  Louis 
Phillipe  had  thirty  millions  of  people  requiring  to  be  clothed,  fed, 
educated,  made  secure  in  their  homes. 

A  Great  Want — and  if  the  " Provisional"  had  at  all  opened  their 
eyes,  they  would  have  seen  that  there  was  one  power,  One  Resource 
only  that  could  meet  this  Great  Want. 

That  was,  the  Industry  of  France,  applied  to  the  soil— the  minerals 
— the  natural  resources  of  France. 

Instead  of  that,  they  sought  in  big  rickety  things  called 
"National  Workshops"  the  solution  of  ihis  Mighty  Problem.  The 
Workshops  collapsed.  Then  Lamartine  and  his  brother  "  Pro- 
visionals  "  tried  to  solve  it  by  a  battle  with  the  starving  people. 
They  succeeded  in  slaying  30,000  of  them  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  but 
they  did  riot  at  all  succeed  in  solving  the  Great  Problem.  When 
will  wisdom  descend  on  this  earth?  Or  is  it  the  doom  of  the  Bace 
to  go  on  in  Error  and  its  avenging  penalties  forever? 

Those  are  questions  to  answer  which  is  the  great  object  of  this 
book. 


IT  PRELIMINARY. 

WENDELL    PHILLIPS. 

'  Bright  names  will  hallow  song."  — BYBON. 

Two  or  three  " bright  names"  are  photographed  toward 
the  end  of  this  book,  and  just  as  it  was  about  to  close  I  most 
unexpectedly  discover  this  other  'name/'  so  well  known,  so 
highly  and  so  deservedly  honored.  I  had  been  writing  to 
Mr.  Phillips  deprecating  partial,  detail  issues  of  Keform  and 
expressing  a  wish  to  confer  with  him  on  such  subjects  as 
would  embrace  the  whole  nation  and  reach  down  into  the 
long  future  of  the  Republic — the  subjects,  in  short,  that  are 
set  forth  at  large  in  this  book. 

His  reply  is  a  recognition  of  those  subjects  as  worthy  of 
his  serious  thought — a  strong  evidence  that  they  are  worthy 
the  serious  thought  of  any  true  American  citizen. 

A  still  stronger  recognition  of  a  man  equally  pure,  able 
and  intelligent  will  be  found  in  this  book  farther  on.  That 
man  is  Gerrit  Smith.  It  will  be  also  seen  that  I  have 
differed  with  Mr.  Smith  —  not  in  his  principles,  but  only  in 
his  means — and  yet  he  gives  me  the  most  hearty  recognition. 
Gives  me  his  right  hand  as  a  brother  reformer. 

The  other  names  photographed  are  of  men  equally  honored, 
equally  distinguished,,  equally  alone  in  their  local  sphere. 
How  those  gentlemen  befriended,  counseled,  sustained  me  is 
dimly  outlined  in  the  coming  pages.  From  among  all  the 
men  of  the  Republic,  living  or  departed,  I  would  choose  out 
those  four  men,  and  one  other  who  is  not  photographed,  to 
give  me  a  letter  of  Introduction.  Will  not  what  they  have 
given  me,  in  some  degree  at  least,  serve  the  same  purpose  ? 

The  following  was  written  by  Mr.  Phillips  while  I  was  yet- 
a  contributor  to  the  Irish  World,  and  before  my  identity  was. 
lost  as  a  member  of  its  staff: 


JLs4/y  t<<<^>^/  . 


/ 


PRELIMINARY.  VU 

THOUGHTS    ON    CIVILIZATION. 


THIS     CHAPTER    IS     DEDICATED    TO     THE    YOUNG     PEOPLE    JUST 

ENTERING    ON    LIFE. 
"  You'll  try  the  world  soon,  my  lad, 

And,  Andrew  dear,  believe  me, 
You'll  find  mankind  an  unco  squad, 
And  mucklo  they  may  grieve  you. 
For  care  and  trouble  set  your  thought." 

So  warned  the  Scottish  ploughman  in  the  Old  World  one 
hundred  years  ago.  So  might  he  send  out  the  warning  in 
the  New  World  and  in  the  present  day. 

Why  should  this  be  so  ? 

To  open  that  inquiry  this  paper  is  inscribed  to  the  young 
men  and  young  women  of  the  Republic,  who  are  now  coming 
out  from  school  and  from  apprenticeship  —  out  to  "try  the 
world."  

EDUCATION    OF    YOUTH. 

A  public  school  founded  on,  say,  500  acres  of  suitable  land. 
Pupils  of  both  sexes  already  up  out  of  the  parental  prima- 
ries—  the  first  instruction  should,  for  most  vital  reasons, 
always  be  given  at  home.  In  those  public  seminaries  all  the 
arts,  sciences,  and  handicrafts  taught;  also,  cultivation  of  the 
soil,  to  bring  from  it  everything  of  use  and  of  beauty — from  the 
field  of  wheat  to  the  parterre  of  flowers.  Factory  buildings 
—  embellished  and  beautified  —  of  all  required  varieties. 
Machinery  driven  by  one  head  of  water  (precluding  the  use 
of  steam),  which  may  also  be  the  dwelling  place  of  selected 
fishes.  Everything  useful  taught  under  the  most  attractive 
and  refining  forms.  Every  trade  and  art  RANKED  AS  A  SCIENCE. 
All  equally  honored,  because  each  in  its  way  is  useful  to  man. 
Eegulated  by  aptitude  and  inclination,  all  things  should  be 
taught — from  measuring  the  star  spaces  to  making  or  mend- 


V  PRELIMINARY. 

ing  a  shoe.  The  telescope  to  indicate  the  immensities;  the 
microscope. to  dive  into  the  minute.  Photographic  views  of 
all  countries,  seen  through  magnifying  lenses,  so  arranged 
as  to  give  all  an  idea  of  the  world  we  live  in.  Everything  in 
short  that  could  instruct  and  exalt  to  find  a  place  in  that 
public  seminary.  And  a  thorough  brotherhood  and  sister- 
hood understood,  cherished,  enforced — and  for  the  supreme 
reason  that  ALL  are  Children  of  the  one  DIVINE  PARENT, 
Equal  Inheritors  of  His  Form  and  His  Spirit,  and  of  the  Grand 
World  He  has  prepared  for  their  home. 

Yes!  you  are  all  Equal  Inheritors  of  the  unspeakably  grand 
Estate  which  this  fertile  globe  presents.  Equally  entitled  to 
have  that  home  awaiting  you  on  the  day  your  education  or 
your  apprenticeship  is  completed,  and  you  go  forth  to  give 
to  the  world  an  individual  life  and  an  individual  exertion. 

A  wise  and  just  government  would  have  this  possession 
already  prepared  for  you.  Would  have,  in  the  various 
climates  which  your  country  presents,  Townships,  or  tracts  of 
land  scientifically  laid  out.  Its  central  village — its  park — its 
fountains,  its  factories  and  public  buildings — all  on  a  tasteful 
rural  scale.  Its  roads,  streets,  bridges,  fields  and  fruit-trees, 
all  things  already  prepared  for  the  new  and  welcome  guests 
and  visitors.  Perhaps  it  is  an  old  Township  re-modeled, 
where  friends  already  reside — perhaps  a  new  Township  or 
tract,  to  which  friends  may  remove  to  be  near  you. 

Those  who  prefer  to  go  out  and  battle  for  life  in  the  compet- 
ing world,  of  course  at  liberty  so  to  do — but  with  the  condition 
so  beautifully  set  forth  in  Scott's  best  production: 

"  If  on  life's  uncertain  main 

Mishap  shall  mar  thy  sail,— 
If  faithful,  wise,  and  brave  in  vain-, 

Woe,  want,  and  exile  thou  sustain 

Beneath  the  fickle  gale, — 
Waste  not  a  sigh  on  fortune  changed, 


PRELIMINARY.  IX 

On  thankless  crowds  or  friends  estranged ; 
But  come  where  kindred  worth  shall  smile, 
To  greet  thee  on  the  lonely  isle," 

or  in  this  peaceful  retreat,  among  your  old  school-fellows, 
always  ready  and  joyful  to  receive  you. 

But  now !  You  must  all  enter  this  competing  world.  Enter 
it  to  find  every  avenue  to  a  comfortable  living  blocked  up 
by  those  who  came  before  you.  You  may  have  formed  the 
dearest  friendships  or  the  dearer  loves.  Your  school  part- 
ing-day may  be  a  tearing  asunder  of  the  holiest  tics.  But 
part  you  must !  Very  many  never  to  meet  again.  The  Gov- 
ernment, entrusted  with  all  our  vast  resources,  that  should 
have  prepared  your  home — your  Inheritance — for  you,  pre- 
ferred to  rob  you  of  that  home  and  Inheritance — to  part  it 
between  themselves  inside  of  Congress  and  their  associate 
criminals  outside.  They  preferred  to  set  aside  the  Divine 
Plan  that  ought  to  govern  the  earth — casting  you  out  to 
combat  for  life  in  a  world  in  which  no  home  retreat  is  provided 
for  you.  In  which  your  share  in  fhe  Creator's  Bounty  is  not 
even  spoken  of  at  all. 

No !  the  caucus-born  politicians — whose  four  months'  dead- 
lock about  the  spoils  of  the  Republic  so  recently  stood  forth 
the  scorn  of  the  world — those  are  the  culprits  who  send  you 
forth  DISINHERITED — robbed  of  all  the  Creator  has  made  for 
you.  Those  drive  you  forth,  out  to  an  anxious  strife  with  a 
hard  world — out  to  a  strife  where  there  should  be  no  strife, 
where  tho  Creator  intended  all  should  be  harmony ! 

With  a  rational  and  virtuous  government  guiding  the 
destinies  of  the  nation,  all  that  is  here  indicated,  and  as  much 
more  and  better  as  time  and  experience  would  point  out, 
would  be  yours.  Educated  as  Republican  men  and  women 
ought  to  bb,  and  your  Inheritance  prepared  for  you,  you 
would  never  know  one  anxious  thought  of  how  to  secure  a 
living  in  accordance  with  your  tastes  and  inclinations. 


X  PKELIMINABY. 

But  now !  How  truly  has  one  of  yourselves  written  these 
beautiful  and  sorrowful  lines: 

"  When  first  life's  journey  I  began 

The  glittering  prospect  charmed  my  eyes ', 
I  saw  along  the  extended  plain 

Joy  after  joy  successive  rise. 
But  soon  I  found  'twas  all  a  dream, 

And  learned  the  fond  pursuit  to  shun ; 
Where  few  can  reach  their  purposed  aim, 

And  thousands  daily  are  undone." 

"Why  "undone! "  There  ought  to  be  no  "undoing"  on  this 
Divinely-fashioned  Earth.  And  there  would  be  none  if 
virtuous  statesmen  controlled  the  nations,  instead  of  base, 
sordid,  political  knaves. 

Some  of  you  have  bright  prospects  before  you — homes  to 
return  to :  friends  to  sustain  you.  But,  in  the  present  unjust 
and  criminal  state  of  society,  nothing  is  certain.  Besides, 
among  you  whose  prospects  are  brightest  may  be  found  gen- 
erous natures  that  will  do  even  more  to  aid  your  less  favored 
brothers  and  sisters  in  the  public  effort  than  they  will  do 
themselves. 

I,  who  speak  thus  to  you,  must  soon  quit  the  scene  upon 
which  you  are  just  entering.  My  experiences  of  fifty  years 
are  laid  before  you  in  this  book.  And  far  more  important, 
I  lay  before  you  a  Character  whose  example  points  out  to  you 
the  way  to  a  humane,  exalted,  American  Civilization — founded 
upon  the  equal  rights  and  equal  dignity  of  every  citizen — modi- 
fied only  by  the  aspiration,  the  culture,  and  the  taste  that  will 
then  be  within  the  reach  of  all. 

May  the  Power  that  formed  this  grand  world,  and  formed 
you  His  Children  to  inhabit  it,  inspire  you  to  wrest  your 
homes  and  your  fate,  and  the  fate  of  the  dear  ones  that  are 
to  come  after  you,  out  of  the  hands  of  the  criminals  who  are 
preparing  for  this  nation  all  the  horrors  of  British  Civiliza- 


PRELIMINARY.  XI 

tion.     May  Almighty  God  inspire  and  assist  you  to  wrench* 
the   Republic   out   of  their  felon,    "  dead-locking "  hands ! 

MODE     OF     SETTLEMENT. 

Isolated  farm  life  is  to  some  extent  rude  and  solitary. 
Can  that  condition  be  changed  for  the  better  ?  Let  us  inquire. 

Here  are  two  pictures  taken  from  Nature  —  the  one  an 
improvement  on  the  other,  and  both  an  indication  of  how 
taste  and  science  should  fashion  your  new  home.  The  fol- 
lowing picture  of  Indian  life  was  furnished  to  me  by  F.  W. 
JByrdsal,  a  deceased  brother  Reformer,  who  personally 
sketched  it  on  the  ground: 

"  The  dwelling  houses  -were  of  logs  in  good  condition  —  -with  a  lot  of  ground 
to  each  house,  fenced  in,  and  part  under  cultivation.  The  Council  House  was  really 
a  curiosity ;  the  walls,  the  roof,  the  floor,  the  door — all  were  composed  of  split  cane, 
interlaced  with  singular  firmness  and  taste  —  we  tried  the  walls  with  our  handa,  and 
the  floors  with  our  feet.  The  landscape  was  beautiful,  and  nothing  of  human  kind 
was  visible.  Animals  were  fat  and  sleek  and  very  docile ;  the  houses  without  in- 
mates. The  doors  open,  and  all  indicated  peace  and  comfort.  At  length  three  Indian 
men  presented  themselves,  shook  hands  with  us  all  in  turn,  and  one  of  them 
could  speak  a  ftw  words  of  English.  The  Chief  and  town  folks  were  at  work  in  the 
corn  field.  Under  guidance  we  rode  on  to  the  field,  ABOVE  A  MILE  IN  LENGTH,  the 
majestic  Apalachicola  forming  its  eastern  boundary.  A  shady  covert,  in  which  a 
swarm  of  papooses  of  different  ages  peep  at  us  with  great  attention  but  no  alarm. 
The  Indians  ot  both  sexes  were  at  work,  each  with  a  hoe ;  and  at  the  leading  row  of 
corn  was  the  oldest  man,  the  Chief.  Salutations  exchanged,  the  Indians  resumed 
their  work  ;  an  interpreter,  a  negro  (probably  a  runaway),  was  the  medium  of  com- 
munication. Howawkawpawchasse  was  then  a  grandfather,  but  had  to  hoe  his  row 
as  well  as  any  other.  When  a  series  of  rows  was  hoed  out,  the  old  chief  took  the  lead 
in  another  series,  and  it  would  be  disgraceful  for  anyone  not  to  follow  his  Chief.  The 
large  field  of  corn,  sweet  potatoes,  pumpkins,  and  cow  peas,  was  the  common  property 
of  the  town  to  feed  the  inhabitants ;  also  the  cattle  and  hogs  for  subsistence  during  the 
year.  But  the  lots  of  ground  enclosed  round  the  dwelling  houses  were  private  prop- 
erty, to  raise  produce,  feed,  stock  and  poultry,  at  the  disposal  of  the  individual 

*  There  is  no  difficulty  in  it.  No  Revolution  to  wade  through.  Nothing  necessary 
only  to  !et  the  Representatives  in  Congress  know  that  the  work  must  be  done  —  no 
delay,  no  excuse,  no  off-put.  If  anj  Member  dares  to  plunder  and  disinherit  you 
hold  him  to  personal  account,  even  in  the  extremest  sense.  On  this  principle,  this 
pivot,  turns  the  enduring  fate  of  the  Republic;  and  there  must  be  no  trifling  about 
it.  The  gentlest  means  possible  ought  to  be  used.  But,  that  failing,  use  the  un- 
gentlest  means  that  may  be  necessary. 


Xii  PRELIMINARY. 

owner.  Each  Indian  could  cultivate,  for  his  own  purposes  of  luxury  and  trading 
as  much  ground  as  he  pleased.  In  the  general  or  public  field,  It  was  the  custom  to 
work  no  longer  than  mid-day,  unless  in  cases  of  emergency." 

,  Is  not  the  principle  here  suggested  by  Mother  Nature  to 
the  wild  man  the  same  as  her  suggestion,  carried  more 
perfectly  out,  in  the  Zoar  Community?  And  which  may  be 
improved  to  the  highest  point  in  a  truly  Republican  Civiliza- 
tion. The  Zoar  Community  of  Germans  was  established  in 
Ohio  in  1817.  I  condense  the  description  of  a  recent  visitor 
to  the  establishment: 

"It  is  a  '  little  city.'  Three  straight  streets,  running  parallel  to  the  river,  are 
crossed  at  right  angles  by  four  shorter  ones. 

k<  The  squares  are  divided  into  four  lots,  each  -with  its  own  dwelling,  fenced  in  with 
neat  railing,  and  laid  out  into  vegetable  and  flower  gardens,  cultivated  almost  exclus- 
ively by  the  women. 

"  The  streets  are  marvellously  clean,  and  like  the  fields,  bordered  by  long  rows  of 
apple  trees. 

"Trim  walks  run  out  at  ei-her  side  of  the  street  corners  ;  fountains  of  clear  spring 
w^ter  splash  and  sparkle  in  moss-covered  stone  basins. 

"  In  the  centre  of  the  village  is  a  large  public  garden,  neatly  kept  and  geometrically 
laid  out,  and  filled  with  all  kinds  of  domestic  and  foreign  exotics. 

"  Ijarge  hot  houses  are  connected  with  it,  and  the  sale  of  plants  and  shrubs  forms 
an  important  item  in  the  revenue  of  the  community." 

After  describing  the  houses  and  furniture,  of  the  primi- 
tive cast,  the  writer  proceeds: 

"At  one  side  of  the  village  stands  the  dairy  stable,  50  by  210  feet,  containing  104 
stalls.  It  is  built  with  two  long  rows  of  stalls  divided  by  an  asphaltum  walk  15  feet 
In  width,  over  which  a  tramway  carries  feed.  Over  100  cows  are  kept,  and  are  driven 
morning  and  evening  to  the  stable  to  be  milked.  This  is  performed  by  a  score  or 
more  of  the  village  maidens,  who  carry  the  milk  to  the  dairy-house,  where  it  is 
emptied  into  an  exaggerated  tub,  and  dealt  out  to  the  families  at  required.  A  large 
quantity  ot  cheese  is  manufactured,  and  from  its  superior  quality  commands  a  ready 
market.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  village  are  the  large  stables  for  horses,  and  the 
granaries  for  the  immense  crops  of  cereals  raised  by  the  society,  and  in  different  parts 
of  the  hamlet  are  the  shops  for  the  various  trades,  cider  presses,  public  bakery,  etc. 
Down  by  the  river  are  two  large  flouring  mills,  a  machine  shop,  founiry,  woolen 
mills  and  saw  mills. 

"Though  like  other  people  taking  &  part  in  the  Political  Government,  they  have 
within  it  a  Local  Government  of  their  own  by  trustees  annually  elected.  Three  meals 
and  two  luncheons  are  served  daily.  They  have  their  own  brewery,  their  own  hotel- 
much  frequented  in  the  evening  as  a  place  of  discussion  and  intercourse.  They  have 
also  a  large  general  store,  containing  all  neccisary  things  that  are  brought  from  a 
distance— dry  goods,  hard-ware,  groceries,  etc.— all  purchased  at  wholesale  prices  and 
supplied  without  profit.  This  is  but  a  mere  glance  at  what  has  been  achieved  by  peo- 
ple inspired  only  by  Nature,  and  aided  only  by  their  own  industry*" 


PRELIMINARY.  X1H 

Here,  then,  is  no  mere  theory.  Here  are  the  teachings  of 
Nature  in  two  distinct  stages — the  Primary  and  the  Progress- 
ive. As  much,  nay  more  than  the  Zoar  stage  exceeds  the 
savage  stage,  may  the  progress  of  enlightenment  improve  the 
high  Rational  Civilization  that  would  be  sure  to  come,  if  we 
were  once  clear  of  the  murderous  politicians. 

Those  who  prefer  the  isolated  farm  to  be  suited  accord- 
ingly. 

And  now,  brothers  and  sisters,  a  word  to  you  on  that 
floundering,  misleading  thing  called 

POLITICAL      ECONOMY. 

Man  is  Disinherited  !  In  his  Father's  Household  he  is  denied  his  place — 
driven  out  to  provide  for  his  Natural  Wants,  without  the  means  to  provide 
for  them.  In  that  astounding  Primal  Wrong  behold  the  germ  of  all  the  evils 
that  affect,  or  that  ever  did  affect,  the  Human  Family. 

Alongside  of  that  Disinheritance,  Fraud,  Cruelty  and  Baseness  of  Soul  built 
up  a  Wages  Workhouse,  in  which  to  receive  the  desolate  man,  and  use  and 
abuse  him  for  their  sordid  purposes.  In  that  Structure  to  apportion  him 
work  up  to  the  limit  of  endurance,  and  wages  down  to  the  lowest  verge  of 
subsistence.  The  Structure  is  not  a  prison.  Men  can  go  out  of  it  at  any 
moment.  But  they  must  go  out  burthened  with  their  remorseless  wants,  to 
STAND  UPON  NOTHING  !  And  this  is  what  Political  Economy  essays  to  per- 
petuate. 

And  the  two  Executioners — Hunger  and  Nakedness — stand  outside  await- 
ing them.  So,  if  they  would  escape  death  at  their  hands,  they  must  beg  an 
escape  back  into  the  "  Economy  "  Workhouse.  The  Godless,  sordid  Work- 
house, from  which  all  human  sympathy — all  Divine  Justice — is  barred  out, 
A  code,  formed  and  administered  by  the  Frauds  and  Cruelties  themselves, 
governs  that  house.  They  call  it "  Political  Economy,"  and  enforce  it  under 
penalty  of  death  by  Nakedness  and  Hunger,  the  Executioners,  that  forever 
stand  on  the  outside. 

Within  its  walls  are  one  moan  of  discontent  and  one  snarl  of  contention' 
And  to  allay  that  discontent  and  harmonize  that  contention,  ass-loads  of  books 
(that's  the  way  to  measure  them)  have  been  thrown  out  in  vain. 

In  vain !  in  vain !  For  those  books  accepted  the  great  Wages  Workhouse 
as  a  natural  fact as  if  no  other  provision  were  made  by  God  for  that  deso- 


XIV  PRELIMINARY. 

late,  Disinherited  man.    Accepted  tho  hideous  Lie,  and  never  looked  at  the 
beautiful  and  provident  Truth— the  fertile  soil— that  lay  alongside  of  it. 

The  Truth  distinctly  shown  even  in  this  example.  Mr.  Hoag,  of  Renss,-!- 
aerville,  Albany  County,  N.  Y.,  took  an  axe  and  a  spade  in  his  hand.  He 
struck  into  the  forest,  cleared  his  Held,  and  reared  his  log  cabin  flrst.  Then 
his  house,  his  orchard,  and  his  only  son.  Ho  also  carried  the  land  Patroon 
on  his  back  all  the  time.  I  saw  him  with  his  good  house— his  son,  a  man  of 
taste  and  culture— his  four-acre  orchard  of  grafted  fruit  that  netted  him 
$300  a  year — his  fertile  fields  and  flourishing  wood  lot,  with  the  stream 
running  between  —  both  driving  a  saw-mill  and  furnishing  a  brook  trout  to 
his  table — his  fifty  bee-hives — his  single  and  double  carriages  and  sleighs. 
Tho  interior  of  his  house  replete  with  a  plenty  and  purity  and  freshness  that 
the  city  rarely  or  never  knows — lambs'  wool  and  choice  feathers  combining; 
to  fit  up  his  dormitories.  Those  opened  on  tho  summer  vine  or  closed  on. 
the  wintry  tempest.  Sit  down  to  his  breakfast  table,  and  you  would  hesitate 
to  get  up  again.  And  even  the  clip  of  his  sheep,  sent  to  tho  neighboring 
factory  returned  in  handsome,  durable  cloth.  And  all  this  comes  of  tliQ/ree 
Capital  offered  by  Nature,  and  the  active  Capital  of  intellect  and  force  stored 
in  his  head  and  arm.  There  is  not  a  commodity  of  use  known  to  what  is- 
called  "  Civilization,"  of  which  Mr.  Hoag  could  not  command  his  share.  And 
he  never  paid  Interest  on  a  dollar  in  his  life. 

Political  Economy,  Mr.  George !  *  Advise  the  "students  to  study  Political 
Economy  " !  No,  no  1  Let  the  students  turn  their  thoughts  to  the  study  of 
the  Economy  of  Nature,  and  waste  no  thought  on  the  big  unnatural  Work- 
house or  its  Political  Economy.  Restore  to  tho  Disinherited  ones  what  their 
Benevolent  Creator  made  for  them.  That's  the  work  to  be  done !  Let  us 
further  illustrate  it. 

Once  upon  a  time  a  farmer  erected  a  dove-cote  for  pigeons.  He  loved  to* 
see  the  pigeons  fly  over  tho  fields,  pick  up  grains  and  enjoy  themselves. 
Besides,  if  he  wanted  one  or  two  for  his  use,  ho  expected  to  have  them  in 
good  condition.  But  by-and-bye  he  found  the  birds  in  bedraggled  plumage 
and  wasted  to  skin  and  bone.  In  order  to  find  out  the  cause  he  climbed  up 
at  the  rear  of  the  dove-cote,  and,  looking  in,  he  saw  the  pigeons  come  in  one 
after  another  and  deposit  their  cropfuls  on  a  big  heap  —  receiving  a  few  pol- 
luted grains  from  the  bottom  of  tho  heap,  to  enable  them  to  fly  forth  for 

*  Of  recent  fame.  Probably  the  only  conscientious  writer  that  ever  took 
up  the  subject.  [  See  hi*  book,  "  Progress  and  Poverty."  ] 


PRELIMINARY.  XV 

another  cropful.  He  saw  a  big,  bloated  pigeon  on  the  top  of  the  heap,  and  a 
guard  of  pigeons  perched  round  the  sides  of  it,  enforcing  a  "  law  "  they  had 
made.  The  "  law  "  was  to  the  effect  that  the  bloated  pigeon  owned  all  the 
outside  fields,  and  if  any  bird  touched  a  grain  on  them  without  his  permis- 
sion, and  bringing  in  their  cropfuls  to  him,  the  body-guard  of  pigeons  would 
peck  him  to  death.  The  farmer  saw,  too,  a  Smith  pigeon,  arid  a  Ricardo- 
pigeon,  and  a  Mill  pigeon,  hard  at  work  regulating  how  much  or  how  little 
of  each  cropful  should  be  given  to  the  gatherers ;  and  lastly  a  George  pigeon 
peeped  in,  trying  to  set  them  right,  and  dragging  them  up  out  of  their 
well-earned  obscurity.  And  this  they  called  the  science  of  "  Production  and 
Distribution."  They  had  been  philosophizing  and  "  Economizing  "  at  it  for 
a  hundred  years  and  more,  and  made  for  so  far  not  the  least  advance 
toward  its  settlement.  As  soon  as  the  master  of  the  dove-cote  ascertained 
all  this,  he  wrung  the  necks  of  the  bose  and  his  body-guard,  anil  was  very 
near  serving  the  skin-and-bono  pigeons  in  the  same  way  for  submitting  to 
such  a  stupid,  obvious,  egregious  imposture.  But,  in  pity  for  what  they 
had  suffered,  he  spared  them  and  let  them  fly  forth  free  to  forage  for 
themselves.  And  they  soon  became  fat,  and  feathered,  and  active,  and 
happy,  and  all  that  Nature  intended  pigeons  to  be. 

Mr.  George  perceives  that  Land  Monopoly  is  the  source  of  all  our  social 
disorders,  and  he  exclaims,  "  I  see  the  remedy,  but  it  is  so  radical  a  remedy 
that  I  deemed  it  necessary  to  enquire  whether  there  was  any  other  remedy." 
And,  accordingly,  he  proceeds  to  discuss  "just"  amounts  of  Rent,  that  he 
knows  ought  not  to  have  an  existence  at  all.  A  rather  difficult  task,  when 
we  look  at  the  ten  thousand  or  ten  million  fronts  Bent  puts  on  in  claiming 
"  its  dues."  Speaks  of  "  the  legitimate  earnings  of  Capital,"  and  how  much 
of  an  acre's  produce  ought  to  go  to  the  laborer,  how  much  to  the  capitalist,, 
and  how  much  to  the  land-owner.  All  this  is  beating  about  the  bush,  but 
it  may  be  necessary.  It  may  be  necessary  in  the  present  depraved  condition 
of  the  public  mind  to  go  into  these  considerations  in  order  to  get  a  hearing- 

at  all. 

And,  in  that  case,  Mr.  George's  book  may  be  a  happy  thought  and  a 
good,  practical  stepping-stone  to  the  NATURAL  ECONOMY  that  I  hope  to  see 
supersede  the  Political  Economy.  The  one  being  just  as  true  and  just  and 
simple  as  Nature  itself ;  the  other  as  tortuous,  heartless  and  unjust  as  the 
Politics  it  is  named  after.  I  believe — nay,  I  know — that  Mr.  George's  book 
has  been  studied  by  men  who,  had  he  presented  the  "  radical  remedy  "  which 


XVl  PRELIMINARY. 

he  sees,  would  not  be  likely  to  touch  his  book  at  all.  Besides,  Mr.  George 
had  to  write  a  book ;  and  if  he  had  taken  Natural  Economy  for  his  subject, 
its  elucidation  had  been  so  simple  pud  so  short  that  there  would  be  nothing 
to  write  a  book  about.  The  Township,  with  its  arrangements,  ruled  over 
by  such  men  as  Mr.  Hoag,  aggregating  into  a  county  government,  and  those 
forming  on  a  larger  scale,  answering  to  our  State  governments.  Inheritance 
and  Education,  growing  out  of  it,  would  leave  as  little  room  for  crime  as 
there  is  for  weeds  in  a  carefully  cultivated  field.  Hardly  any  "  law  "  would 
be  required.  None  for  the  collection  of  debts.  None  except  a  Defining  Record 
for  the  holding  or  transfer  of  possessions  in  land.  No  occasion  for  borrow- 
ing and  therefore  no  Interest.  In  a  State  so  constituted,  a  fixed  limit  to  the 
possessory  farm,  say  fifty  acres  now,  and  if  necessary  that  lessened  to  forty, 
thirty,  or  twenty,  more  or  less,  in  succeeding  years.  The  less  the 
farms  the  more  thoroughly  cultivated  and  the  people  living  more  closely 
together:  This  I  take  to  be  the  Natural  Economy.  And  before  the  advent 
of  a  true  man  into  its  ranks  I  felt  inclined,  I  will  just  say  to  expectorate 
my  contempt  upon  the  white-washed  wickedness  called  Political  Economy. 

ME.  GEOKGE'S  EEMEDY 

is  to  make  the  occupier  a  "rent-paying  tenant  of  the  State,"  or  "leave  the 
ownership  in  the  individual  owner  and  appropriate  the  rent  by  taxation." 

I  cannot  accept  this  remedy.  Because,  first,  there  is  or  can  be  no  "  indi- 
vidual ownership  "  in  that  in  which  all  have  an  indefeasible  right. 

Second — Because  the  "State"  plan  would  require  a  horde  of  men  to 
work  it,  every  one  of  which  was  a  fallible,  perhaps  vicious  and  dishonest 
man. 

Third— Because,  with  the  rents  in  his  hands,  the  putative  "  owner  "  could 
employ  a  part  of  them  to  turn  aside  hostile  legislation. 

Fourth— Because,  even  if  the  "owner"  slumbered  till  the  law  against 
him  was  enacted,  he  would  bend  all  his  energy  and  means  to  its  repeal, 
with  an  effect  we  see  every  day  exemplified. 

Fifth — Because  it  would  not  mend  the  matter  to  leave  to  individual 
"land-owners"  (poison  fungi  which  Mr.  George  continues  \o  recognize) 
to  collect  the  land  rents  and  hand  all  but  a  per  centage  over  to  the  State. 

Sixth — Because  the  money,  if  so  handed  over which  is  not  likely — might 

not,  indeed  would  not,  be  applied  to  the  "  common  benefit."  And  this — 


PRELIMINARY.  XVll 

Because  one  tornado  of  taxation  sweeps  over  the  land,  from  tho  petty 
thefts  under  a  village  charter  up  to  the  enormous  villainies,  smugglings 
and  perjuries  and  briberies  clustered  into  one  heap  in  the  Custom  House. 
And  how  much  of  it  goes  to  tho  "common  benefit"?  And  must  wo  wait 
for  justice  till  wo  re-create  these  political  rogues? 

He  very  judiciously  follows  Carlyle's  thought  that  the  dehumanizing 
selfishness  now  holding  such  general  sway  has  its  deep  root  in  the  dread  of 
poverty.  In  my  brief  way  I  have  treated  the  same  subject. 

"Give  labor  a  free  field  and  its  full  earnings,"  says  Mr.  George ;" take 
for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  community  that  fund  which  tho  growth  of  the 
community  creates,  and  want  and  the  fear  of  want  would  be  gone."  Most 
true.  And  more  than  "  gone."  A  vista  of  diffused  splendor  and  boundless 
utility  embracing  all  men,  here  rises  to  our  view.  The  only  doubt  is 
whether  the  means  proposed  by  Mr.  George  (just  look  at  them  ! )  are  likely  to 
achieve  the  end.  I  fear  that  Beform  traveling  on  the  road  that  he  points  out 
would  be  a  long  time  on  the  way.  He  further  speaks  in  this  way : 

"  Call  it  religion  —  patriotism  —  sympathy — the  enthusiasm  for  humanity, 
or  the  love  of  God — give  it  whatever  name  you  will — there  is  yet  a  force  that 
overcomes  and  drives  out  selfishness — a  force  which  is  the  electricity  of  the 
moral  Universe — a  force  beside  which  all  others  are  weak." 

The  picture  is  grand  poetically  and  latent  philosophically — a  reflex  of  his 
own  heart.  Practically  it  is  a  myth.  It  does  not  drive  out  selfishness. 
So  far  from  being  "the  force  before  which  all  others  are  weak,"  it  is 
almost— might  I  not  say  entirely?  — silenced  by  the  actual,  active,  all- 
pervading,  all-dominant  force  of  selfishness,  now  in  full  possession  all 
over  the  world. 

I  by  no  means  believe  in  State  landlordism  and  its  machinery  of  rent- 
gatherers.  I  hold  that  every  man  has  a  right  to  as  much  land  as  he  chooses 
to  cultivate  where  land  is  abundant.  Where  it  is  not  abundant  a  maximum 
must  be  agreed  upon,  up  to  which  he  may  go  and  no  farther.  The  State 
has  no  right  to  charge  him  money  for  what  is  the  Divine  Gift.  For  protec- 
tion he  is  liable  to  its  cost,  nothing  more.  Nor  has  the  State  any  right  to 
prescribe  to  him  where  he  shall  settle.  It  is  his  right  to  settle  on  any  un- 
occupied land  that  may  best  suit  him.  Mr.  George  makes  a  place  for 
4t  capital,"  and  discusses  fair  amounts  of  its  "  earnings."  I  don't  see  any 
place  for  it  in  Nature's  Economy.  Neither  did  Mr.  Hoag  as  already  shown. 
He  discusses,  too,  what  of  an  acre's  product  should  belong  to  the  "  land- 


XV111  PRELIMINARY. 

owner."      In  the  Economy  of  Nature  I  find  no  place  for  a  thing  of  that 
name. 

For  me  it  is  not  necessary  to  consider  his  views  of  modern  Civilization, 
and  whether  it  tends  to  "equality";  and  whether  bishops  did  or  did  not 
"become  by  consecration  the  peers  of  the  greatest  nobles,"  or  whether 
kings  holding  the  stirrup  of  popes  were  or  were  not  hopeful  things. 

EFor  in  this  book  I  have  found  it  necessary  to  ignore,  renounce,  condemn 
nd  execrate  the   robbing,  enslaving,  murdering  thing  that   calls  itself 
Civilization,"  wherever  it  is  to  be  found  all  over  the  world.     The  splendid 
abilities  of  Mr.  George,  his  extensive  erudition,  his  clear  conception  of 
the  Great  Truth  and  his  magnificent  presentation  of  it,  naturally  lead  to  the 
thought  that,  as  he  knows  so  much,  he  must  have  a  keen  insight  into 
everything — our  governing  machinery  for  example,  and  how  to  turn  it 
aright.     Here  would  be  a  dangerous  mistake.     The  mad,  wicked  men 
who  govern  us  would  rejoice  —  feel  safe,  indeed  —  if  we  brought  no  other 
means  to  bear  on  them,  than  the  means  suggested  by  Mr.  George. 

One  Foundation  Truth  only  is  the  thing  they  may  dread.  And  that  is 
rapidly  coming  down  on  them.  The  Truth  that  all  titles  to  land  are  of 
very  necessity  Frauds  and  Forgeries.  That  there  never  did— never  could 
—exist  a  title  save  the  possessory  title  of  the  Occupant  who  cultivates  a 
fair-sized  farm  for  the  support  of  his  family.  That's  the  Truth  to 
which  the  people — in  Ireland,  and  here,  and  everywhere — must  be  roused 
up.  And  that  SUBLIME  TBUTH  will  sweep  away  the  robbers'  titles,  whether 
from  kings,  Cromwells  or  Congresses  —  one  of  which  never  owned  —  never 
could  have  owned  —  an  inch  of  what  they  pretended  to  give  away. 

His  opinion  that  we  should  let  Corporations  grow  to  their  full  height  and 
then  abolish  them  by  taxation  —  is  it  not  equally  erroneous?  He  seems  to 
forget  that  those  Corporations  control  —  actually  own  —  the  Legislatures, 
through  which  only  he  could  lay  a  penny  of  tax  upon  them.  The  one  way 
to  reach  them  is — first,  last  and  always — contained  in  three  words,  "  SPBEAD 
THE  LIGHT."  Once  men  see  the  Great  Truth,  they  will  find  means  to 
enforce  it. 

The  simple  Economy  of  Nature  requires  no  abstruse  study  to  perceive 
It,  and  nothing  more  than  common  sense  and  healthful  labor  to  realize  it. 
Natural  Economy  as  opposed  to  Political  Economy — the  one  as  superior  to 
the  other  as  the  kindly  care  of  Nature  is  superior  to  the  skulking,  swindling 
rapacity  of  Politics. 


PRELIMINARY.  XIX 

Next  in  importance,  and  equally  simple  in  its  nature,  is 
the  question  of 

FINANCE. 

Experience  will  soon  discover  how  many  dollars  per  capita  is  the  necessary 
volume  of  a  circulating  medium.  Kept  do\vn,  and  also  kept  up,  to  that 
amount,  shrinkage,  fluctuations,  panics,  with  their  attendant  evils,  will  be 
unknown.  Then  each  nation  can  regulate  for  itself  —  a  thing  impossible 
under  a  Metallic  System.  Conclusive  evidence  on  this  subject  will  bo 
found  on  other  page?. 

Besides  —  and  this  also  touches  you  young  people  very  nearly  —  gold  and 
silver  were  given  to  civilized  man  for  use,  not  for  a  token  of  exchange.  If 
confined  to  that  use  they  would  come  down  to  their  economical  price — 
probably  not  a  fourth  or  a  sixth  of  their  present  commercial  value.  In  our 
watches,  jewelry,  etc.,  there  need  bo  no  lacquered  imitations.  On  our  tables 
no  corroding,  and  oven  poisoning  mixtures  of  the  baser  metals.  Gold  was 
given  for  those  uses ;  so  was  silver.  Now  they  are  made  the  instruments  of 
confusion,  loss,  robbery,  murder,  and  oven  suicides  by  the  thousand,  statis- 
tical evidences  of  which  ,aro  presented  in  this  book. 

And  throughout  will  bo  presented  the  not  general  but  universal  corruption 
and  absence  of  public  virtue  that  pervades  the  Republic.  In  leaving  to 
government  the  unbounded  power  to  tax,  we  invited  all  the  public  vice  in 
the  country  to  rush  in  and  govern  us.  That  they  did  rush  in,  and  "oar  all  our 
virtuous  citizens  out,  it  is  a  main  business  of  this  book  to  show. 

It  will  do  more.  It  will  suggest  the  means  necessary  to  rescue  the  Repub- 
lic— all  the  means,  at  least,  that  long  experience  and  intense,  anxious  thought 
on  the  subject  enables  mo  to  present.  "We,  you  and  I,  may  bo  the  instru- 
ments of  tho  Higher  Power  in  accomplishing  the  Great  Work.  That  Power 
has  given  us  tho  Steam  Slave  and  tho  ten  thousand  ingenious  machine 
fingers  working  by  its  force.  Tho  printing  press,  tho  telegraph,  and  even 
an  occult  chemical  force  to  equalize  army  force,  and  if  driven  to  extremity, 
make  the  naked  helpless  ones  a  match  for  tho  organized  bands  of  Fraud  and 
Cruelty.  Let  us  implore  and  rely  on  that  Aid  from  Above,  and  this  world 
may  bo  changed,  even  in  our  own  brief  day,  from  the  Hell  that  evil  men 
have  made  of  it,  to  tho  Paradise  which  tho  Creator  evidently  intended  it  to 
be.  I  have  appealed  to  you  young  and  untainted  ones.  Under  the  Divine 
Power,  it  is  you  will  determine  whether  British  Civilization,  now  raising 


XX  PRELIMINARY. 

aloft  its  shiny,  snaky  head  among  us,  shall  bo  suffered  to  rot  out  every 
Republican  virtue,  or  whether  a  humane,  virtuous  Civilization — indigenous 
to  the  Bepublic — founded  on  its  early  virtues — shall  now  bravely  enter  on 
the  scene,  and  drive  out  the  British  spirit  and  example,  as  your  fathers 
drove  out  the  hordes  sent  over  to  enslave  them,  in  two  obstinate,  malignant 
and  murderous  wars.  In  this,  book  I  present  to  you  an  example  of  that 
"  Indignous  Civilization,"  as  it  blossomed  apart  from  the  political  knaves. 


Just  as  I  close  I  find  in  "Franklin's  "Works,"  edited  by 
Jared  Sparke,  (volume  8,  page  416),  the  following  most 
important  suggestion: 

"Accounts  upon  oath  have  been  taken  in  America  by  order  of 
Congress  of  the  British  barbarity  committed  there.  It  is  expected 
of  me  to  make  a  school-book  of  them,  and  to  have  thirty-five  prints 
designed  here  by  good  artists  arid  engraved,  each  expressing  one  or 
more  of  the  different  horrid  facts,  to  be  inserted  in  the  book  in  order 
to  impress  the  minds  of  children  and  posterity  with  a  deep  sense  of 
England's  bloody  and  insatiable  malice  and  wickedness.  Every 
fresh  instance  of  her  devilism  makes  me  abominate  the  thought  of  a 
reunion  with  such  a  people." 

But  the  reunion  now,  at  this  day,  is  being  rapidly  pushed 
in  on  us.  All  that  is  superficial  and  all  that  is  base  in  the 
Republic  are  plunging  headlong  into  this  detestable  "re- 
union." It  is  not  generally  realized  that  the  war  of  1812 
was  a  war  of  subjugation — the  sailor  question  a  mere  pre- 
text. Nor  is  the  vandalism  of  that  war  borne  in  mind  and 
the  tens  of  thousands  of  the  very  flower  of  our  young  men 
— young  and  old  —  murdered  in  it  by  the  revived  "devil- 
ism."  Then  it  was  the  devil  at  his  full  height  touched  by 
Ithuriel's  spear.  Now  it  is  the  same  devil  creeping  into  the 
Garden  and  breathing  evil  into  the  woman's  ear.  Whisper- 
ing that  Civilization  is  a  want  of  her  life,  and  that  she  must 
want  if  she  does  not  take  it  from  England,  and  with  it,  all 
England's  abominations.  Must  take  them  all  —  instead  of 
rejecting  them  all,  and  founding  a  Civilization  indigenous  to 


PRELIMINARY.  Xxi 

America  and  "  New  to  the  "World. "  Who  will  adopt  Franklin's 
idea  ?  Who  will  organize  a  mental  force  to  make  head  against 
this  great  evil?  Who  will  take  the  Fathers  of  the  Eepublic 
for  their  guide  ?  Who  will  help  to  cast  out  the  devil  and  the 
"devilism"  that  Franklin  speaks  about?  Who  will  take  his 
model  and  even  now  force  it  "into  our  school  books,  to 
impress  the  minds  of  our  children  and  posterity  with  a  deep 
sense  of  England's  [her  government's]  bloody  and  insatiable 
malice  and  wickedness"? 


OPINIONS     OF     THE     PRESS.' 


Who  was  that  old  philosopher  that  exclaimed,  "What  evil  have 
I  done  that  these  bad  men  should  speak  well  of  me?" 

Most  books  are  now  ushered  forth  with  a  long  flourish  of  "Opin- 
ions of  the  press.''      As  much  as  to  say,  "I  am  an  honest  book,  a 
good  book — see  my  character  vouched  for  by  one  or  two  hundred     / 
rogues." 

Those  rogues,  riding  on  their  newsbags,  block  up  almost  every 
avenue  to  the  public  mind.  Flatter  them,  bribe  them,  propitiate 
them  in  some  way,  and  they  will  give  any  ordinary  book  an 
onward  lift.  But  not  such  a  book  as  mine.  Between  them  and 
this  book  is  an  antagonism  instinctive  and  irrepressible,  so  decided 
and  so  natural,  withal,  that  "the  devil  and  holy  water"  is  no  more 
than  a  joke  to  it. 

A  very  few  years  ago  those  daily  news-mongers  could  draw  the 
pall  of  silence  over  any  man  or  any  book  of  Reform.  Or,  if  they 
preferred  that  course,  they  could  then  stifle  it  under  an  avalanche 
of  vituperation.  There  was  no  defense  against  them — there  was  no 
escape  from  them — there  was  no  appeal.  A  voice  raised  against 
them  fell  dead  in  the  utterance.  Eight  thousand  "Pharisees  "  and 
their  twenty  thousand  "Scribes"  held  supreme  dominion  over  the 
public  mind.  A  dominion,  it  is  boasted,  that  "they  could  not 
abdicate  if  thev  would." 


PRELIMINARY. 

But  the  fact  that  I  write  this,  and  that  a  very  large  public 
have  an  opportunity  to  read  it,  shows  that  a  change  impends  over 
those  self-crowned  monarchs.  An  electricity  of  mind  now  connects 
Reformers  all  over  the  world.  A  thought  thrown  out  by  one 
reaches  them  all .  Among  the  progressions  of  the  age  this  is  the 
most  progressive.  Do  we  owe  it  to  the  Irish  World? — to  the  Great, 
Vital  Truth  which  inspires  that  journal?  That  Truth — the  Father- 
hood of  God,  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man — and  all  the  grand  rights 
that  this  relation  implies.  That  is  what  gives  a  self-moving  power 
to  the  Great  Bef orm  Paper.  This  carries  it  alike  into  the  Cabin  and 
the  Castle.  Alike  necessary  to  both — to  all  men  who  from  hope  or 
from  fear  strain  to  know  what  new  thoughts  and  new  actions  are 
taking  possession  of  the  world. 

If  I  can  launch  my  book  on  that  great  current  of  thought,  a 
knowledge  of  it  will  reach  four  hundred  similar  currents,  fringing 
along  the  mighty  stream — four  hundred  local  Reform  papers — to 
every  one  of  which  I  am  prepared  to  send  on  application  a  copy  for 
review.  And  so  it  may  reach  men  of  thought  everywhere. 

No,  not  everywhere.  Hid  away  in  the  great  existing  Darkness 
are  some  of  the  best  minds  in  the  country.  Men  who  have  never 
seen  of  Beforni  a  written  sentence — who  have  never  heard  of  Reform 
an  articulate  voice.  I  trust  that  such  men  will  yet  hear  and  yet 
come  to  our  help.  I  may  well  hope  this,  for  without  the  help  of 
just  such  men  this  book  had  never  been  written. 

As  some  authors  write  their  own  reviews,  I  write  my  own 

" OPINIONS  OP  THE  PRESS." 

i 


Farewell!  May  heaven  enlighten  and  arouse  you  to  this 
redeeming  work.  And  remember,  he  who  now  speaks  to 
you  has  already  outlived  the  time  allotted  to  man;  that  he 
never  sought  public  power  or  public  favor;  that  he  seeks 
nothing  from  you — now — but  your  help  to  rescue  your  Repub- 
lic, your  rights,  your  homes  —  the  memories  and  the  works 
of  your  fathers — from  the  collective  sordidness  that  threatens 
to  submerge  the  Republic  in  the  depths  of  that  murderous 
villainy  called  "British  Civilization." 


INTRODUCTION. 

"  Truths  would  you  teach,  and  save  a  sinking  land; 
All  fear,  none  aid  you.  and  low  understand."— PoPBu 
"  But  the  heart  and  the  mind 
And  the  voice  «>f  mankind 
Shall  arise  in  communion, 
And  who  shall  resist  that  proud  union  ?"— BYRON. 

•THERE  is  already  a  great  profusion  of  books.  The  Scientific 
confined  to  its  exact  field.  The  Imaginative,  flashing  over  an 
empire  that  knows  no  bounds  ;  and  all  between  those  wide  ex- 
tremes, every  Department  of  Knowledge  Las  its  books — each,  it 
may  be  presumed,  cleverly  illustrating  the  subject  to  which  it  is 
devoted. 

On  Society,  Government,  Political  Economy,  books  have  suo- 
ceeded  each  other— borrowed  and  patched  from  each  other— and 
put  forth  quite  a  respectable  wilderness  of  leaves.  As  for  fruit, 
there  is  a  great  crop  of  it  to  be  found  in  the  garrets  and  cellars— 
in  the  long  hours  of  ill-requited  labor,  with  ghastly  intervals  of 
no  labor  and  no  requital  at  all. 

Society,  Nations,  Men — in  all  countries  and  in  all  ages — have 
very  sturdily  held  that  whatever  modes  of  life  and  opinion  pre- 
vailed in  any  and  each  of  those  countries,  at  the  then  existing 
time,  was  the  true  opinion — the  true  and  proper  mode  of  life. 
Never  did  two  nations  agree  as  to  what  was  right  and  natuial, 
and  yet  each  was  quite  sure  that  its  own  Institutions  were  right, 
perfect,  not  to  be  quectioned. 

But  change  was  at  work  on  them  all ;  sometimes  gently  and 
imperceptibly,  like  the  autumn  breeze ;  sometimes  with  the  shock 
of  a  social  earthquake.  The  murderous  combats  of  even  de- 
fenceless men  against  wild  beasts  in  the  arena  of  Rome,  the 
Hindoo  widow  on  her  funeral  pyre,  the  Juggernaut,  the  hangings 
and  crucifixions  and  diabolical  tortures— all  these,  in  their  times, 
were  held  as  sacred  things  in  the  countries  where  they  existed, 
and  to  raise  a  voice  against  them  was  likely  to  have  that  voice 
silenced  forever. 

There  was  not  one  of  those  Nations  but  was  just  as  satisfied 
that  it  was  right  as  we  now  are  satisfied  that  we  are  right.  They 
could  see,  just  as  we  also  see,  only  what  existed  close  around 
them,  and  they  accepted  it  for  good,  and  defended  it  with  great 


2  INTRODUCTION. 

earnestness,  and,  indeed,  with  great  injustice  and  cruelty.  The 
prevailing  Errors  knew,  at  least,  how  to  trench  themselves  rounci 
with  terrors  and  with  death.  To  lift  a  hand  against  any  govern- 
ment, even  at  this  day,  is  adjuged  "  High  Treason,"  and  incurs 
condemnation  to  the  most  revolting  death.  This  is  tne  law 
alike  in  Monarchy  and  Republic,  notwithstanding  the  testimony 
which  the  "Declaration  of  Independence"  boars  against  it — bears 
to  the  justifiable  nature  of  all  such  discontents  and  rebellions. 

The  Ptolemean  philosophers  made  this  mudcly  little  Earth  of 
ours  the  centre  of  the  Universe.  From  this  erroneous  stand- 
point they  viewed  all  the  orbital  motions,  and  vainly  tried  to 
make  them  all  fall  into  line  with  their  Erroneous  Scheme.  This 
error  held  possession  of  all  the  seats  of  learning,  and  even  of 
the  Church,  for  fifteen  hundred  years.  They  learned  better 
(and  they  were  quite  unwilling  to  learn)  when  a  man  arose  and 
drove  this  world  of  ours  into  its  proper  place  ;  put  the  great  Sun 
in  the  centre,  and  made  our  Earth  one  among  the  other  little 
orbs  that  revolve  around  him.  This  done,  the  Ptolemean  cycles 
and  epicycles  disappeared.  There  was  no  further  use  for  them. 

Emblem  of  the  problems  of  human  society.  Our  thinkers  and 
our  writers  on  those  problems  have  tried,  and  vainly  tried,  to 
solve  <JUem.  How  could  they  solve  them?  They  left  out  the 
great  underlying  Truth  which,  like  the  Copernican  truth,  can 
alono  famish  the  solution.  To  elucidate  that  Great  Truth  is  the 
object  of  this  book. 

That  profound  thinker,  George  Combe,  throws  a  flash  of  light 
on  this  subject  when  he  thus  speaks  : 

"At  the  time  of  the  Roman  invasion  the  inhabitants  of  Britain  lived  as 
savages,  and  appeared  in  painted  skins.  After  the  Norman  conquest,  one 
part  of  the  nation  was  placed  in  the  condition  of  serfs,  and  condemned  to 
labor  like  beasts  of  burden,  while  another  devoted  themselves  to  war. 
Next  came  the  age  of  chivalry.  These  generations  generally  believed  their 
own  condition  to  be  the  permanent  and  inevitable  lot  of  man.  Now.  how- 
ever, have  come  the  present  arrangements  of  society,  in  which  millions  of 
men  are  shut  up  in  cotton  and  other  manufactories  for  ten  or  twelve  hours 
a  day ;  others  labor  underground  in  mines ;  others  plough  the  fields ;  while 
thousands  of  higher  rank  pass  their  whole  lives  in  idleness  and  dissipa- 
tion. The  elementary  principles,  both  of  mind  and  body,  were  the  same 
In  our  painted  ancestors,  in  their  chivalrous  descendants,  and  in  us,  their 
ehopkeeping,  manufacturing  and  money-gathering  children.  If  none  of 
these  conditions  have  been  in  accordance  with  his  constitution,  he  must 
etill  have  his  happiness  to  seek.  Every  age.  accordingly,  has  testified  that 
it  was  not  in  possession  of  contentment ;  and  the  question  presents  itself. 
If  human  nature  has  received  a  definite  constitution,  and  if  one  arrange- 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

rrent  of  external  circumstances  be  more  suited  to  yield  it  gratification 
than  another,  what  are  that  constitution  and  that  arrangement?  No  one 
cunong  the  pliilosophers  has  succeeded  in  informing  us.  If  we  in  Britain 
have  not  reached  the  limits  of  attainable  perfection,  what  are  we  next  to 
attempt?  Are  we  and  our  posterity  to  spin  and  weave,  build  ships,  and 
speculate  in  commerce,  as  the  highest  occupations  to  which  human  nature 
can  aspire,  and  persevere  in  these  labors  till  the  end  of  time  ?  If  not,  who 
shall  guide  the  helm  in  our  future  voyage  on  the  ocean  of  existence  ?  and 
by  what  chart  of  philosophy  shall  our  steersman  be  directed  ?  Time  and 
experience  are  necessary  to  accomplish  these  ends,  and  history  exhibits 
the  human  race  only  in  a  state  of  progress  towards  the  full  development  of 
their  powers,  and  the  attainment  of  national  enjoyment." 

And  why  has  it  stood  so,  and  why  does  it  so  stand  now? 
Why  did  the  Ptolemean  system  of  Astronomy  stand  for  fifteen 
hundred  years  ?  Why  did  it  mislead  the  lawyers,  the  doctors, 
the  Church,  the  Universities — every  one  of  the  learned  men  and 
learned  institutions?  Why?  Because  all  of  them  accepted 
Ptolemy's  grand  error  for  a  grand  truth.  Because  all  kept 
trying  to  hammer  that  error  into  something  like  a  truth.  Be- 
cause they  all  attempted  to  do  the  impossible ! 

So  it  is  with  the  "  politico-economists,"  "  social  philosophers," 
or  whatever  else  they  may  please  to  call  themselves.  The  first 
grand  fundamental  truth  of  man's  close  relation  to  his  mother 
earth,  the  soil— the  raw  material  of  all  good  things— never  entered 
their  heads,  or  if  it  did,  they  made  no  effectual  use  of  it.  A 
vicious  error  underlay  all  that  they  saw  around  them. 
They  accepted  what  they  saw ;  tried,  and  tried,  and  tried  yet 
again,  and  again,  to  reduce  to  harmony  the  established 
and  time-honored  discords.  And  they  might  try  on  thus  to 
eternity.  Harmony  they  could  never  bring  up  out  of  the  great 
parent  Discord  that  lay  and  lies  below.  Some  writer  has  said 
that  "  the  first  man  who  enclosed  a  field  called  it  his  property, 
and  made  another  pay  him  rent  for  it,  was  the  first  great 
sinner.  "  Had  that  man  never  been,  what  an  ocean  of  suffering 
had  it  spared  the  world !" 

There,  just  at  that  point,  lies  the  great,  the  mathematical 
error  on  which  our  civilization  is  founded.  The  natural  wealth 
of  the  world  belongs  to  the  Power  that  created  it.  He  alone 
is  the  authority  to  dispose  of  it.  His  Will  is  the  only  legitimate 
law  that  can  be  brought  to  bear  on  it.  To  fix  or  to  indi- 
cate the  disposition  that  He  designs  should  be  made  of  it,  is 
the  first  and  holiest  duty  of  man  and  governments.  Is  thero 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

any  difficulty  in  finding  out  His  Will  ?  You  have  wants,  there's 
the  raw  material  of  all  good  things  ;  you  have  intelligence  and 
industry,  make  what  your  wants  require.  There  is  no  mystery 
about  it,  not  the  slightest.  Obedience  to  that  Will  is  necessary 
to  our  harmony  and  our  happiness.  To  man  for  a  most  wise  pur- 
pose has  been  given  imperative  and  undeferrable  wants.  So 
imperative  and  so  undeferrable  that  they  would  and  will  kill  Mm 
if  he  does  not  find  for  them  their  natural  and  immediate  supply. 
Has  the  Heavenly  Father  imposed  this  inexorable  condition  on 
man,  and  then  left  him  unable  to  meet  that  condition,  and  to 
perish  if  he  cannot  meet  it  and  make  it  good  ? 

It  is,  indeed,  a  monstrous  state  of  things  when  it  is  possible  to 
ask  such  a  question.  Is  it  a  blasphemy,  or  is  it  a  truth,  to  say 
that  even  the  CREATOR  HIMSELF  had,  or  has,  or  could,  or  can  have 
no  just  authority  to  do  such  a  great  wrong — to  impose  such  un- 
just and  deadly  conditions  as  I  have  here  supposed  ?  If  HE,  even 
HE,  should  lean  over  the  battlements  of  heaven  and  say  to  yon- 
der miserable  man  and  his  naked  and  "  an  hungered  "  family 
**  The  highway  is  yours,  the  workshop  door,  the  job  on  the  street, 
or  any  other  job  you  can  procure,  is  yours  ;  but  if  you  can't  culti- 
vate bread  on  the  sidewalk,  if  you  can't  get  into  the  workshop 
door  that  is  shut  in  your  face,  if  you  can't  get  a  job  of  some  sort 
to  keep  you  alive,  THEN  DIE.  I,  your  Father,  *iave  made  no 
other  provision  for  you."  And,  having  so  spoken  and  retired 
again  and  hid  His  faoe  within  the  battlements  of  he-aven,  then 
that  man,  perishing  with  his  family,  would  he,  or  would  he  not, 
have  the  right  to  look  up  to  the  sky  and  tax  even  his  Heavenly 
Father  with  injustice,  Cruelty,  the  distress,  the  death,  the  murder 
of  himself  and  his  family? 

Now  the  monstrous  condition  and  cruelty  which  Is  here  im- 
agined is  the  incredible  and  yet  actual  reality  that  has  long  held 
possession  of  this  world — has  long  imposed  this  atrocious  sen- 
tence on  yonder  miserable  man.  A  power  that  the  Creator  Him- 
self dare  not  exercise,  because  a  violation  of  His  Divine  Justice 
is  assumed  and  exercised  by  a  wretched  and  ignorant  man.  Bo 
stupid,  too,  that  he  does  not  know  the  evil  he  is  doing.  And 
there  has  yet  appeared  no  man  to  effectually  question  that 
power,  or  bring  up  to  tribunal  th«  stupidity  that  dares  to 
assume  it.  Thus  it  is  that  the  question  of  Man's  harmonious 
life  on  this  earth  remains  unanswered— "  not  one  among  the 
philosopher/3  has  succeeded  in  answering  it, "says  George  Combe. 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

A  frank  admission  that  yourself,  George  Combe,  can  furnish  no 
answer  to  it — no  answer  to  your  own  question. 

And  so  it  has  stood  for  the  weary  and  sorrowful  centuries. 
Age  succeeded  age— philosopher  philosopher.  Of  these  Dr. 
Young,  the  profound  author  of  "Night  Thoughts,"  speaks  in  this 
way.  What  do  you  think  of  him,  ye  learned  philosophers  of 
u  Social  Science  "  and  "  Political  Economy  ?"  Dr.  Young  was  as 
learned  as  any  one  of  you.  Is  it  possible  that  he  was  wiser  than 
ye  all? 

"  Our  needful  knowledge,  like  our  needful  food, 
Unhedged  lies  open  in  the  common  field, 
And  bids  all  welcome  to  the  genial  feast. 
You  scorn  what  lies  before  you.  in  the  page 
Of  Nature  and  experience— moral  truth. 
And  dive  in  Science  for  distinguished  names. 
Sinking  in  Virtue,  as  you  rise  in  Fame. 
Your  learning,  like  the  lunar  beam,  affords 
Light,  but  not  heat." 

"  Our  needful  knowledge"  does  indeed  lie  open  before  us.  It 
has  not  been  looked  at.  The  "  open  field  "  has  not  been  entered— 
has  not  been  seen  at  all  by  our  learned  patchers  of  social  theories. 
No.  Here's  how  they  get  along.  A  young  gentleman  reaches 
the  writing  age  much  as  he  would  reach  the  marrying  age.  He 
feels  the  necessity  to  write.  It  is  an  instinct— a  very  laudable 
instinct — and  he  must  obey  it.  He  has  studied  rhetoric,  he  has 
read  the  errors  that  have  gone  before  him,  and  he  has  accepted 
those  errors  as  truths.  So  he  quits  a  luxurious  bedroom  for  a  lux- 
urious breakfast— thence  he  makes  short  way  into  a  well-furnished 
library  with  good  writing  materials  at  his  hand.  He  takes  down 
Ricardo,  Adam  Smith,  and  all  the  array  of  social  Ptolemies  that 
march  before  them  and  behind  them.  He  has  already  at  school 
accepted  all  their  Errors  for  Truths.  He  has  seen  the  wilderness 
of  leaves  put  forth  by  them,  but  he  has  given  himself  little  con* 
corn  about  the  resultant  fruit.  And  so  he  goes  to  work  to  patch, 
re- vamp,  reconstruct  the  SOCIAL  EPICYCLES.  He  thinks  he  can  re- 
concile all  the  oppositions  and  harmonize  all  the  discords.  Thinks 
that  when  his  book  comes  forth  it  will  make  a  great  flutter  in 
the  world,  and  that  himself  will  "rise  in  fame"  accordingly. 
And  yet  he  will  merely  add  one  other  to  the  tomes  of  quackery 
that  have  gone  before  him,  and  that  (a,  first  healthy  sign  I)  are 
now  fast  falling  into  ridicule  and  contempt. 


0  INTRODUCTION. 

I  hail  that  contempt  and  ridicule  as  a  signal  that  this  present  time 
may  indeed  be  the  right  time  to  publish  my  ONE  BOOK  on  this  vital 
subject.  Once  it  is  in  the  hands  of  the  public  I  will  regard  my  work 
as  done — successful  or  not — my  mission  as  ended. 

And  such  books — I  mean  books  on  government  and  society — have 
been  and  are  dry  reading.  They  painfully  resemble  a  man  struggling 
in  a  quagmire  and  sinking  deeper  at  every  plunge  ae  makes  to  get 
out.  This  book  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  Just  the  reverse,  indeed. 
It  is  the  same  man  on  firm  ground.  A  varied  landscape  before  him 
— sky  and  clouds,  sunshine  ami  shadow,  over  his  head. 


So  much  of  this  Introduction  was  stereotyped  nearly  four  years 
ago.  At  the  same  time  were  stereotyped  the  Irish  and  English 
sections  of  the  book.  And  this  was  before  the  present  Great  Move- 
ment took  its  rise.  Hence  the  frequent  allusion  to  the  "pall  of 
Ignorance  "  that  covered  the  Earth  and  kept  out  the  Light  of  Heaven. 
Ireland  was  chasing  the  phantom  of  Home  Rule,  or  pausing  to  look 
at  the  rugged  recruit  called  "Obstruction,"  as  he  rushed  in  and  took 
a  hold  of  the  Honorable  Commons  by  the  throat.  He  was  a  new 
combatant,  and  his  vigorous  onslaught  was  just  the  thing  to  arouse 
and  amuse  the  Irish  people.  But  the  people  were  naked  and  hungry 
.and  could  not  afford  to  be  amused.  So  they  turned  away  from  the 
amusement  and  fixed  a  longing  eye  upon  the  land.  Th 3  truth  is — 
and  it  may  as  well  be  spoken  out — the  Irish  World  became  irritated 
at  the  Home  Rule  buffoonery  and  opened  fire  on  it — riddling  it  week 
after  week  with  shot  after  shot  from  across  the  Atlantic.  Two  or 
three  specimens  of  what  may  be  called  "preserved  artillery" — the 
opening  artillery  of  the  present  great  campaign — will  be  found  near 
the  close  of  this  book.  There  is  a  whole  magazine  of  the  same  sort 
preserved  in  the  file  of  the  Irish  World.  It  is  an  immense  reserve 
which  should,  I  think,  be  drafted  instantly  into  action.  Prefaced 
by  a  brief  outline  of  Land  Reform — from  Genesis  down — it  would, 
in  my  judgement,  be  superior  to  any  Reform  volume  ever  published. 


THE 

ODD    BOOK    OF  THE   NINETEENTH  CEiNTURT; 

OK,    THE    SPIRIT    OF 

CHIVALRY     IN     MODERN     DAYS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

SCENES,  EARL  '  IMPRESSIONS,  REFLECTIONS— THE  OPENING  OF  Lira 
AND  THE  APPROACHING  CLOSE. 

"  0  !   how  can  you  renounce  the  boundless  store 

Of  charms  which  Nature  to  her  votary  yields  ? 
The  warbling  woodlands,  the  resounding  shore. 

The  pomp  of  groves,  the  garniture  of  fields. 

All  that  the  genial  ray  of  morning  gilds, 
And  all  that  echoes  to  the  song  of  even ; 

All  that  the  mountain's  sheltering  bosom  shields. 
And  all  the  dread  magnificence  of  heaven, 

0 !  how  canst  thou  renounce  and  hope  to  be  forgiven 

There  is  not  much  trumpet  fame  about  Seattle  as  a  poet.  But 
is  there  anything  even  in  Childe  Harold  better  than  that  ? 

"  Renounce."  Well,  I  did  renounce  scenes  just  like  those.  I 
had  to  renounce  them,  and  how  many  millions  of  my  disinher- 
ited brothers  had  to  make  the  same  renouncement?  Happy 
for  men  if  they  never  learn  to  fully  comprehend  and  deeply  love 
those  sublimities.  Wandering  under  a  strange,  wide  sky,  or 
cramped  down  in  the  narrow  streets  of  a  city,  well  indeed  were 
it  if  they  did  not  carry  about  within  their  bosoms  a  distinct  and 
a  longing  sense  of  what  they  have  lost ! 

My  own  exile  has  been  a  turbulent  one — full  of  antagonisms, 
disquiets,  efforts,  strife.  Hardly  one  glimpse  of  what  all  of  us 
are  formed  to  enjoy  and  what  is  sublimely  pictured  in  that  grand 
motto  which  I  have  dared  to  prefix  to  this  chapter. 

How  peaceful  and  enjoyable  had  been  my  life  in  that  place  to 
which  she  the  Great  Mother  sent  me  !  But  two  or  three  men 
baffled  her  maternal  purpose.  Thrust  me  out  from  her  nursing 


8         THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

bosom— out  into  the  common  lot  of  all  my  brothers— out  to  pick 
up  a  living  in  the  barren  highway  of  the  world  or  perish  if  I 
could  not. 

No  !  I  at  least  did  not  wait  for  them  to  thrust  me  out.  I 
threw  down  my  defiance  to  them.  I  devoted  my  life  to  a  war 
against  them.  "  Our  Natural  Eights,"  published  a  few  pages 
onward,  was  my  gage  of  battle  to  them  forty  years  ago.  And  I 
regard  this  volume  as  the  last  Waterloo  charge  of  the  campaign. 

And  those  two  or  three  men  were  no  stronger  and  no  better 
than  myself— had  from  Nature  just  as  many  faculties  and  just  as 
many  rights  as  myself.  Not  one  faculty  nor  one  right  less  or 
more.  And  how  much  of  suffering,  of  toil,  of  sorrow  unspeak- 
able did  those  two  or  three  men  inflict  on  the  twenty  thousand 
men  that  were  sent  to  inhabit  that  district  of  country  1  How 
much  of  barrenness  did  they  inflict  on  that  country  itself  I  The 
fields  were  hungry— the  "heart"  was  taken  out  of  them  by 
the  absentee  rents.  That  hunger  smote  all  around  it — every- 
thing. The  poor  man's  cow,  if  he  had  one,  and  even  his  dog  was 
about  as  ill  provided  as  himself. 

I  am  yet  in  my  childhood,  but  they  take  me  out  and  show  me 
the  fields,  and  the  waters,  and  the  mountains,  and  the  islands, 
and  they  tell  me  that  all  this  belongs  to  three  strange  creatures 
(as  I  thought)  called  lords.  They  must  be  powerful  creatures 
and  good  creatures  also,  when  they  created  all  I  saw  and  per- 
mitted such  crowds  of  people  to  live  on  it.  What  kind  of  strange 
beings  they  could  be  I  tried  to  image  forth  in  my  mind :  And  I 
saw  one  stepping  down  from  the  mountain  summit  and,  with  one 
step  bounding  over  the  deep  wide  lake  that  lay  at  its  base. 
With  two  steps  more  he  reached  our  village  and  scraped  his 
boot-soles  on  the  seventy-feet  high  chimneys  of  the  old  castle. 
Thence  with  one  leg  on  each  side  of  the  bay  he  took  a  step  or 
two  more,  three  miles,  down  to  its  entrance.  Eested  for  a  mo- 
ment on  the  "  green  islands,"  and  disappeared  thence  into  the 
vast  unknown.  To  my  thought  not  one  man  or  woman  in  all 
that  district  was  in  the  least  worth  his  "lordly"  attention,  for 
I  knew  his  name  was  "  lord." 

Such  was  my  picture,  such  my  thought  when  one  day  a  cry 
arose,  "  There  comes  the  Lord  !"  Wonder,  fear,  and  curiosity 
In  one  whirl,  I  rushed  to  the  cabin  door  crying  out,  "Where? 
where  ?"  "  There  he  is  ?  That's  him  in  the  centre  of  the  group 


OR,   THE  SMETT  O?  CHIVALBY  IS  MODERN  DATS.  9 

— him  with  the  white  hat"  "  No,  that  is  not  the  Lord.  He's  only 
a  man,  and  don't  I  see  hundreds  of  them  every  day  I  look  round  ? 
A  lord  indeed  !  Such  a  thing  as  that  a  lord  1"  I  retired  into  the 
cabin  in  disappointment  and  disgust. 

"  O!  how  canst  thou  renounce  and  hope  to  be  forgiven?" 

Well,  Time  marched  on,  and  I  did  "  renounce,"  I  had  to  re- 
nounce, for  none  of  this  grandeur  of  Nature  lying  profusely 
arouad  was  created  for  me.  It  was  all  sent  to,  all  created  for, 
Colonel  Packenham,  a  clowney  of  him  who  fell  at  New  Orleans, 
and  for  Broughton  Murray,  a  sidelong  descendant  of  the 
"  Kegent  Murray,"  and  for  one  Lord  Arran,  descended,  I  suppose, 
from  somebody  else.  It  is  true  those  great  lords  and  owners 
never  set  foot  in  the  scenes  that  were  created  for  them.  And  the 
fact  began  to  dawn  on  me  that  they  were  very  like  the  dog  in  the 
manger,  they  would  neither  live  in  them  themselves  nor  let  any 
body  else  live  in  them — not  live  in  them  in  any  degree  of  com- 
fort. I  do  not  know  how  others  feel,  but  I  must  myself  confess 
to  even  a  fierce  resentment  against  those  men,  and  all  such  men. 
My  life  has  been  a  trying  and  a  turbulent,  and  at  many  times 
a  tortured  life.  Cut  off  and  cast  out  from  those  calm  rural 
enjoyments — those  guileless  pursuits  that,  while  blessing  on 
earth,  but  prepare  us  for  Heaven. 

Surely  all  things  in  this  world  are  under  a  Supreme  guidance. 
And  as  surely  must  it  subserve  some  good  purpose  when  two, 
three,  or  four  common  men,  not  at  all  distinguishable  from  any 
other  common  men,  could  and  can  cast  such  a  shadow,  such  a 
blight,  on  a  whole  region  of  country.  It  must  be  that  even  such 
ovil  men  subserve  some  grand  purpose  in  this  their  destructive 
mission.  Besides,  are  those  men  evil  ?  Or  are  they  themselves 
victims  enclasped  in  an  evil  system  that  has  formed  them  to  what 
abhorrent  things  they  appear?  A  system  which  thoroughly 
searched  into  does  indeed  injure  themselves  in  some  respects  even 
far  more  than  their  victims.  At  any  rate  they  are  a  part  of  the 
Grand  Scheme,  and  are  entitled  to  the  mitigation  which  that  fact 
presents.  We  may  deplore  and  even  despise  the  part  they  have 
been  appointed  to  act.  But  a  little  reflection  will  modify  the  re- 
sentment we  naturally  feel  against  them.  They  act  out  their 
parts  and,  as  cogs  in  a  wheel,  ar  j  not  much  to  blame. 

But  I,  too,  am  a  part  of  the  Grand  scheme.  It  is  their  nature 
to  make  a  part  of  an  atrocious  system.  It  is  my  nature  to  war 


10          THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

agaiust  that  system  and  against  them.    Is  my  nature  less  or  to 
be  less  respected  than  theirs  ? 

"  In  days  when  daisies  deck  the  ground. 

And  blackbirds  whistle  clear, 
With  honest  joy  my  heart  can  bound 
To  see  the  coming:  year." 

Yes !  That  was  your  nature,  poor  Burns.  But  the  land  cheats 
said  "  No  "  to  both  of  us.  They  sent  you  to  hold  the  plough  for 
them,  to  swing  the  flail,  to  work  on  that  high,  cold,  barren  hill  for 
them,  and  leave  you  to  bitterly  exclaim,  "  D — 1  take  the  life  of 
reaping  the  fruits  that  another  must  eat."  And  so,  having  toiled 
and  tired,  and  tortured  yourself  planting  and  reaping  fruits  that 
they  took  away  from  you,  you  died  ! 

And  though  it  may  be  in  lesser  degree,  every  human  heart 
does  "  bound  to  see  the  coming  year,"  how  often,  how  often  in 
vain  !  Not  a  returning  season  ever  approached  me  since  I  was 
driven  from  my  native  fields  but  brought  a  returning  disappoint- 
ment in  its  train.  And  still  the  hope  would  remain  that  when 
the  spring  again  returned  I  would  have  a  day  or  a  month  on  its 
bosom  under  the  trees  and  among  the  blossoms — renew  faintly 
In  a  far  off  land  the  companionship  so  dear  to  me  in  life's  early 
morning.  But  no !  The  next  spring  came,  and  the  blossoms 
came  and  withered,  and  the  sunderance  between  them  and  me 
became  greater  than  ever.  My  life  became  a  struggle  for  the 
means  to  live.  And  I  thought  of  the  three  men  who  had  marred 
my  life,  and  something — almost  a  curse — would  rise  against  them 
in  my  heart. 

My  life,  all  that  is  worth  in  this  life,  is  now  over.  Justice  can 
never  come  to  me — compensation  for  the  long  natural  life  and 
natural  happiness  from  which  I  was  shut  out  by  those  men. 
That  happiness,  "  our  being's  end  and  aim,"  can  now  never  reach 
me.  If  what  I  write  here  be  a  success,  that  success  will  be  for 
the  world.  It  cannot  be  for  me.  If  it  be  a  failure,  that  failure 
cannot  reach  me,  cannot  take  away  from  me  the  thought  that  I 
have  done,  not  now  but  always,  all  through  my  long  and  varied 
life,  done  all  I  could  do,  and  that  I  now  gather  into  this  volume 
the  warning  Experiences  of  fifty  years— offer  it  as  all  I  have  to 
offer  to  the  brothers  I  must  soon  leave  behind.  This  world  is, 
indeed,  a  beautiful  and  a  glorious  world.  A  symbol  of  it  was  the 
first  garden.  Man  and  woman  are  a  glorious  creation  designed 
even  on  this  earth  to  have  a  foretaste  of  the  immortal  posses- 


OK,   THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN  BAYS.  1] 

sion  that  awaits  them  in  heaven.  Their  wretched  fate,  too,  is 
symbolized  in  the  first  "  fall."  The  hard,  heavy  "  fall "  came  when 
man  first  ate  the  fruit  of  his  brothers'  toil  ana  brought  the  primal 
curse  down  upon  both  of  them.  And  may  I  not  say  upon  both  ? 
In  a  natural  state  of  society  was  there  not  enough  of  happiness 
easily  attainable  to  all  ?  The  whole  human  family  progressing  on 
in  harmonious  march  together.  All  about  equally  enlightened, 
equally  able  to  think  and  to  work.  The  world  around  them  grow- 
ing bright  and  fruitful  and  beautiful  under  their  improving 
hands.  In  such  a  state  would  not  even  the  men  who  now  usurp 
the  Common  Inheritance  attain  a  life  far  preferable  to  the  sickly, 
hot-housed  existence  that  now  afflicts  them?  Like  the  eagle  in 
the  sky,  like  the  lion  in  the  forest,  like  all  created  beings  man 
was  destined  to  pursue  and  procure  the  means  for  his  own  exist- 
ence. The  very  action  necessary  to  this,  wisely  designed  for  his 
health  and  his  enjoyment.  This  book  pities  even  the  usurper 
of  that  Common  Inheritance.  It  wars  against  no  man  ;  it  wars 
against  a  system  that  is  highly  injurious  to  the  rich  man  and  en- 
tirely ruinous  to  the  poor.  If  what  it  inculcates  were  established 
to-morrow  it  would  bring  good  to  every  man,  to  every  class.  It 
would  bring  injury  to  no  class,  no  real  evil  to  any  human  being ; 
but,  again  let  me  repeat  it,  GOOD  TO  ALL  ! 

This  book  will  be  essentially  a  living  array  of  Experiences.  All 
bearing  upon  its  grand  object---the  Eestoration  of  his  Birthright 
to  Disinherited  Man;  the  bringing  in  of  harnony  and  nature  where 
now  such  hideous  discord  so  almost  universally  prevails ;  to  go 
from  science  to  science,  from  art  to  art,  the  disparities  of  con- 
dition, the  antagonisms,  the  wars,  the  jealousies,  the  evils  of 
overtoil,  and  the  equal  evils  of  everidleness ;  the  moral  degra- 
dation, the  falsehood,  the  dishonesty,  all  born  of  the  one  great  ac- 
cepted Lie,  that  man— the  Creator  made  him  with  all  his  equal 
wants,  and  withheld  from  those  clamorous  and  deadly  wants 
their  equal  and  natural  supply.  Men  had  to  live,  and  this  Foul 
System  drove  them  into  every  dirty  little  scheme  that  could  help 
them  to  live — to  bear  up  the  imperative  burthens  that  were  the 
natural  conditions  of  their  life ;  to  call  attention  to  that  Great  Lie, 
to  get  the  Lever  of  human  thought  under  It,  is  the  object  of  this 
I  suppose,  my  last  offering  to  the  world. 


THE  ODD  BOOK   OF  THH  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 


CHAPTER    II. 

APOLOGY — THE  UNCREATED  DARKNESS — THE  COMING  LIGHT — THE 
WOBK  TO  BE  DONE — ITS  GREAT  ADVANTAGE  TO  THE  POOR — ITS 
GREATER  ADVANTAGE  TO  THE  RICH. 

"  What  from  the  barren  be  n :  can  we  reap, 
Our  senses  narrow,  and  our  judgment  frail ; 

Life  short,  and  Truth  a  gem  that  loves  the  deep. 
And  all  things  weighed  in  custom's  falsest  scale. 

Opinion,  an  omnipotence,  whose  veil 
Mantles  the  earth  with  darkness." BYKON. 

A  Reviewer  in  the  London  Times  says  this  of  Robert  South- 
ey  :  "  He  registered  his  recollections  from  earliest  childhood,  but 
the  exquisite  fragment  of  autobiography  ceases  when  he  is  fif- 
teen." Now  let  us  look  at  the  "  lights  and  shades  "  of  this  "  ex- 
quisite" autobiography.  "His  chief  pastime,"  says  the  re- 
viewer, "for  neither  at  this  time,  nor  at  a  later  period,  had 
Southoy  any  propensity  for  boyish  sports — was  pricking  holes  m 
playbills  with  a  pin,  and  reading  "Goody  Two  Shoes"  and 
"Giles  Gingerbread."  And  then  this  reviewer  regrets  "that 
he  did  not  persist  in  his  task,  for  he  would  have  left  behind 
him  an  autobiography  unrivalled  for  personal  and  general  in- 
terest," etc.,  etc. 

I  did  not  know,  and  I  speak  here  with  "  truth  and  soberness," 
that  autobiographies  were  such  exquisite  things,  till  I  saw  the 
foregoing  decree  sent  forth  by  the  leading  journal  of  Europe, 
and  which  with  other  decrees  was  published  in  a  select  volume. 
Up  till  the  time  this  encouragement  descended  on  me  I  had  not 

thought 

"  To  try  my  luck  in  guid  black  prent," 

and  even  then  I  hesitated.  Pehaps  would  be  hesitating  still,  only 
I  got  a  more  recent  jog  of  encouragement,  and  that  decided  me, 
It  came  in  this  way. 

A  learned  discussion  had  arisen,  it  seems,  about  a  hundred 
years  ago.  It  was  to  determine  whether  the  "  Drosera,"  a  plant 
furnished  with  a  fly-trap,  did  or  did  not  profit  personally  by  that 
appendage?  Mr.  Darwin — the  great  Mr.  Darwin — saw  the  im- 
portance of  this  inquiry — its  bearing  on  his  evolving  theory. 
Took  it  zealously  in  hand,  and. "  after  an  investigation  of  fifteen 
years,"  did  at  last  discover  the  important  fact,  that  if  this  Dro- 


OR,  THE  SPIRIT  Off  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS,  18 

eera-plant  sets  a  trap  to  catch  flies,  it  is  for  the  very  laudable 
purpose  of  eating  them.  Indeed  the  analogies  of  nature  might 
have  taught  even  Mr.  Darwin  the  same  thing  without  any  inves- 
tigation at  all.  However,  he  writes,  prints,  and  presents  a  book 
on  the  subject,  and  the  public  encourages  his  effort  as  a  step  in 
the  right  direction — which  indeed  it  is. 

Here,  then,  are  two  samples  of  wares  that  the  public  accepts 
with  good  nature.  Nay  it  rates  the  first  sampler — him  of  tJbe  Lon- 
don Times — as  one  of  the  leading  minds  of  Eiirope.  And  don't 
we  all  look  up  to  Mr.  Darwin — if  it  be  the  same  Darwin — as  the 
only  man  able  to  tell  us  whence  we  came  and  who  our  grand- 
father w  as — whether  an  Adam  or  an  Ape  ? 

Now  there  is  no  better  quality  in  that  same  public  than  a  dis- 
position to  stimulate  thought  and  encourage  inquiry.  It  will 
doubtless  have  reason,  here  and  there,  to  find  fault  with  this  book 
of  mine,  and  with  myself  too,  for  obtruding  it  upon  them.  If  so, 
I  can  truly  say  that  the  fault  was  as  much  their  own  as  it  was 
mine.  The  "  Two  Shoes,"  and  the  "  Gingerbread,"  and  "Drose- 
ra  " — I  speak  seriously  and  truly— those  things  did  lure  me  into 
something  like  a  secondary  fly-trap—led  me  to  believe  the  public 
would  good  naturedly  give  a  hearing  to  anything  that  might  be 
respectfully  offered  to  it,  if  tending  to  suggest  new  Thought  and 
possible  Improvement  Even  this  book  of  mine. 

Having  offered  my  apology,  I  now  proceed  to  unfold  the  work 
before  me,  and  reverentially  and  tremblingly  do  I  implore  God's 
blessing  on  my  attempt. 

Look  around  us,  what  do  we  see  on  this  grand  Earth — our 
home — the  field  of  the  inquiry  that  now  opens  before  us  ? 

First,  a  glance  only  at-  the  twinkling  suns  that  night  reveals 
to  us :  A  thought  only  at  their  systems,  which  to  us  never  cais 
be  fully  revealed.  Our  own  flaming  and  immense  star  !  with  its 
gentle,  soothing,  Hfe-im parting  influence.  Its  attendant  orbs, 
and  their  attendant  orbs.  Their  whirling  seas,  mountains, 
rings  and  revolutions.  Thought  falls  prostrate  under  the 
weight  and  wonder  of  what  it  sees.  But  it  is  not  of  those  we  are 
met  to  consider.  It  is  of  our  own  wonderful  Earth,  and  the  more 
wonderful  families  that  live  upon  it.  Or  rather  of  that  one 
Family — Man— the  most  wonderful  of  them  all. 

Though  a  mere  atom  in  the  universe,  this  earth  is  indeed  of  a 
vast  size.  Cross  the  Atlantic  even,  which  is  but  a  small  seg- 


14  THE  ODD   BOOK    OF    THE   NINETEENTH   CKNTl  1'V 

merit,  an  eighth  part  of  the  circle,  contemplate  the  incessant 
rush  of  the  steamer  through  that  "  world  of  waters,"  for  two  hun- 
dred hours  at  a  stretch.  What  a  vast  surface,  with  a  surface 
equally  vast,  stretching  out,  away,  on  every  side  !  What  an  en- 
ormous weight  of  sea  and  mountain  !  What  a  miracle  that  noth- 
ing underlies  it.  That  the  whole  mass,  unsustained  by  a  founda- 
tion, careers  through  nothingness,  upheld,  it  may  be,  by  the  law  of 
its  own  velocity,  or,  apart  from  such  law,  by  a  Divine  and  direct 
sustainment  of  which  we  cannot  know. 

On  goes  that  Earth  forever.  On,  on,  from  night  to  day,  from 
spring  to  summer,  harvest,  winter  ;  all,  all  of  those  so  useful,  so 
life-sustaining,  so  beneficial,  so  beautiful,  each  in  its  appointed 
way.  From  the  tiniest  insect  that  nestles  in  a  flower  to  the  eagle 
that  sweeps  the  sky,  and  the  monster  that  shakes  the  forest,  all 
have  their  place,  their  inheritance  adapted  most  harmoniously  to 
their  nature  and  their  needs. 

All  but  Man.  His  position  was  not  fixed  arbitrarily  at  the 
first.  His  coat  was  not  like  that  of  all  other  Existences,  furnished 
ready-made  and  fitted  to  his  form  to  remain  unchangeable  for 
ever.  The  realms  of  the  Undiscovered  were  his  storehouse. 
Within  it  lay  his  appropriate  garment,  his  house,  ship,  steam  en- 
gine, printing  press,  telegraph,  all  that  we  now  see  around  us, 
and  besides  the  great,  the  illimitable  possessions  which  the  Un- 
discovered yet  holds  in  store,  and  of  which,  excepting  perhaps  a 
little  by  analogy,  we  know  nothing. 

Yes!  there  is  one  great  possession  of  which  we  do  know.  A 
possession  so  distinct,  so  simple,  and  yet  so  transcending  in  its 
importance  that,  of  all  wonderful  things,  it  is  the  most  wonderful 
that  it  has  not  been  seen  of  all  men,  asserted  and  established  as 
the  foundation  of  all  social  life.  It  is  simply  man's  equal  stains 
before  his  Creator — man's  equal  Inheritance  in  all  the  Creator  has 
given  :  the  material  first,  then  the  intellectual  It  is  that  almost 
the  entire  human  family  must  no  longer  be  degraded  from  their 
natural  rank,  degraded  down  to  a  level  of  ignorance  as  near  as 
possible  to  that  of  the  brute— degraded  down  to  a  heritage  of 
sorrow,  privation,  toil,  mental  anxiety,  and  material  suffering,  out 
of  all  harmony  with  the  Will  of  the  Creator.  A  great  mental  dark- 
ness has  forever  lain  upon  the  earth  and  does  now  lie  upon  it.  Men 
did  not  and  do  not  know  themselves  ;  did  not  know  and  do  no4 


OH,   THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHlv'ALRY   IN    MODERN"   DAYS.  15 

know  that  they  were  and  that  they  are  "  Heirs-at-law  "  *  of  their 
Father's  estate  ;  did  not  know  that  this  Earth  was  God's  estate, 
and  that  themselves  were  God's  children.  No.  They  actually 
believed  that  He,  their  Father,  had  given  them  wants — imperative 
and  undefendable  wants,  that  those  wants  would  kill  them  by  ex- 
posure and  hunger  in  a  day  or  two  if  they  did  not  find  means 
to  supply  them.  Men  thought  that  having  given  them  these — 
shall  I  not  call  them  murderous?— wants  He,  their  Creator,  ha<J 
given  nothing  with  which  to  meet  and  satisfy  them. 

In  this  deep  and  deplorable  mental  darkness  men  have  lived 
and  groped  and  suffered  and  died  from  the  Beginning.  They 
had  only  their  wants.  They  knew  how  miserable  they  were  but 
they  did  not  know  how  unjust  was  their  lot.  That  miserable 
man  has  the  inexorable  lot  inflicted  on  him  by  a  man  no  better, 
no  worse,  than  himself — unjust  men,  calling  themselves  lords, 
dukes,  and  right  honorables  ;  and,  wonder  upon  wonders  !  that 
despoiled  and  disinherited  and  wretched  man  is  so  robbed  of 
even  his  intellect  and  manhood  that  he  takes  off  his  hat  to  the 
despoiler,  bends  before  him  and  calls  him  "  honorable,"  and 
"  right  honorable,"  and  "  your  grace,"  and  "  my  lord." 

Go  into  the  city  and  see  that  crowd  ranged  along,  each  with 
his  bench  or  'basket  of  small  wares.  Every  one  looks  wistfully 
for  a  customer  as  people  hurry  by  on  the  sidewalk  If  the  day 
is  stormy,  or  if  luck  is  bad,  they  sell  almost  nothing,  and  must 
make  their  little  stock  so  much  the  less  for  the  day's  food  and 
shelter.  Not  one  of  them  knows  that  they  own  anything  but 
the  "  sufferance "  of  offering  on  that  sidewalk  their  neglected 
wares  —not  certain  of  even  that  sufferance. 

There  goes  a  tall  young  fellow  driving  a  lean  horse  and  creak- 
ing wagon.  He  is  shouting  himself  hoarse  in  the  effort  to  sell 

«  Unable  to  dispute  the  grand  truth  that  if  men  are  equal  children  of  the  Creator  they 
are  equal  heirs,  heirs  at-law,  to  their  Father's  estate.  Unable  to  dispute  that,  the  advo- 
cates of  the  great  wroi.'g  drag  you  into  a  side  issue  and  ask  you  how  are  you  to  divide  the 
inheritance,  and  then  answer  their  own  question  with  the  most  absurd  plans.  Now.  take 
any  country— Ireland  for  example.  Let  every  man  of  twenty  acres  hold  on  to  it,  relinquish- 
ing the  rest  to  the  state.  To  apportion  out  the  lands  thus  relinquished,  fix  a  limit  both  to 
the  quantity  and  to  the  tax.  Utilize  without  defacing  parks,  demesnes,  hunting-grounds. 
Apply  the  land  tax  to  furnishing  tools  and  machinery  and  other  advantages  to  mechanics  and 
laborers  remaining  in  the  towns.  With  schools  of  art  and  agriculture  seated  each  on  a  him 
dred  or  a  thousand  acres  and  open  to  the  support  and  education  of  the  jrouth  of  both  sexes 
each  school  vicing  with  the  others  in  the  beauty  of  its  grounds  and  the  proficiency  of  it« 
pupils,  those  performing  like  apprentices  moderate  work,  would  make  the  schools  self- 
§ustaining  or  nearly  so.  At  anyrate,  what  is  wasted  now  on  building  and  sustaining  one 
Iron  clad  lor  one  year  would  support  half  a  dozen  such  schools  as  I  have  alluded  f» 


16  THE  ODD   BOOK   OF   THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

his  fish  or  his  vegetables.  He  does  not  know  that  he  owns  any- 
thing in  this  world.  The  light  never  descended  on  him  that,  as  a 
child  of  the  Great  Father,  he  is  not  at  all  the  outcast  screamer 
that  a  big  blundering,  plundering  society  has  made  him.  In 
short,  he  does  not  know  himself ;  has  not  the  least  notion  that 
he  is  cheated  out  of  anything.  The  light  of  heaven  never  de- 
scended upon  him,  the  big,  brooding  pall  shut  it  out  and  he 
mopes  on,  and  screams  on,  utterly  ignorant  of  his  own  nature 
•and  all  that  belong  to  it — manhood,  dignity,  refinement,  property, 
all  that  ought  to  be  his,  the  means  to  procure  which  a  wise  gov- 
ernment ought  to  secure  to  him  without  injustice  to  anybody. 
Secure  it  out  of  the  boundless  natural  resources  of  this  great 
couutry,  this  great  Earth.  Well  might  the  bard  of  the  heart 
speak  this  of  England : 

"  Where,  then,  ah !  whore  sh/sJl  poverty  reside 
To  'scape  the  pressure  of  oo^Siguous  pride  ? 
If  to  some  common's  fenceless  lic&its  strayed 
He  drives  his  flock  to  pick  the  scanty  Wade. 
Those  fenceless  fields  the  sons  of  wealth  divide. 
And  even  the  bareworn  common  is  denied. 
If  to  the  city  sped,  what  waftts  him  there  ? 
To  see  profusion  which  he  must  not  share. 
To  see  ten  thousand  baneful  arts  combined 
To  pamper  luxury  and  thin  mankind.  • 

To  see  each  ioy  the  sons  of  pleasure  know 
Extorted  from  their  fellow-creatures'  woes." 

That's  wiiat  meets  our  tall  screamers  whithersoever  they  may 
turn  their  faces. 

And  yet  Goldsmith — that  humane  and  yearning  heart — did  not 
put  those  "  sons  of  pleasure"  high  up  on  the  pedestal  of  scorn. 
Did  not  even  know  what  unconscious  criminals  they  were.  "  Un- 
conscious "  because  they  do  not  know  it  themselves. 

And  Burns,  the  man  of  many  wants  and  many  sorrows,  he 
who  so  felt  the  crush  and  so  rebelled  against  it,  even  he  did  not 
know  what  criminals  were  the  Lord  Daer  he  was  so  proud  of, 
and  the  Duke  of  Bruarwater  immortalized  by  his  hand.  He 
eays,  to  be  sure — 

"  It's  hardly  in  a  body's  power 
To  keep  at  times  from  being  suur 

To  see  how  things  are  shared." 
And  he  talks  of 

"  Stern  Oppression's  iron  grip 
And  mad  Ambition's  gory  hand 


OB,   THE  SPIRIT   OF  CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN  »AYEL  17 

Sending:,  like  blood-hounds  from  the  slip. 
Woe,  want,  and  murder  o'er  the  land." 

And  then  he  tells  us  how  luxury 

"  Looks  o'er  proud  property  extended  wide 
And  eyes  the  rustic  laboring  hind, 
Whose  toil  upholds  the  glittering  show, 
A.  creature  of  another  kind. 
Some  coarser  substance  unrefined- 
Placed  for  his  lordly  use,  thus  far,  thus  vile,  below." 
Strange,  indeed,  that  Burns,  who  so  suffered  from  the  usurpa- 
tion, whose  judgment  was  so  searching,  should  yet  let  the  usurp- 
ers escape  without  charging  them  with  their  overshadowing 
orime,  without  even  calling  them  by  the  names  that  belonged  to 
them,  without  even  knowing  them,  as  they  are  now  coming  to  be 
known. 

But  the  time  had  not  yet  come.  The  pall  lay  too  dark  and  teo 
heavy  over  the  earth.  As  the  Printing  press,  the  Steam  engine, 
the  Telegraph,  slept  on  undiscovered  till  their  time  came,  so  slept 
this  Great  Truth  till  its  time  had  come.  Has  the  time  come  even 
now  to  lift  up  the  Great  Dark  Pall?  Momentous  question! 
Only  to  be  answered  by  the  All- Wise.  Answered,  as  to  time : 
That  it  will  come,  that  it  will  be  answered,  need  not  be  made  a 
question  of  doubt. 

And  thus  it  has  forever  been,  Man's  material  Inheritance,  and 
with  it  his  intellectual  Inheritance  has  been  spirited,  stolen, 
swindled  away  from  him,  and  the  Pall  of  Ignorance  still  lay  BO 
thick  and  heavy  on  the  earth  that  Man  didn't  know  himself, 
didn't  know  he  was  his  Father's  child,  didn't  know  that  his  Fath- 
er had  given  him  anything.  Anything  but  those  imperative,  un- 
deferable,  miserable  and  murderous  wants  ! 

Is  it  a  fate  that  keeps  this  dark  Pall  resting  on  the  world?  Or 
is  the  astounding  fact  thai  no  man  has  attempted — even  at- 
tempted— to  lift  it  up,  wholly  up,  traceable  not  to  fate,  but  to 
artificial  causes?  Let  us  make  inquiry. 

Under  this  Thick  Darkness,  forever  lying  upon  the  Earth,  a 
small  fraction  of  the  great  human  family  enjoy  light  and  heat 
sufficient  for  their  individual  purposes.  That  is  enough  for  them. 
Their  minds,  unspurred  by  necessity,  do  not  rouse  to  action,  but 
float  on  rather  with  the  stream  which  transits  them  so  placirliy 
and  so  comfortably  along.  There  is  nothing  absolutely  criminal 
in  this.  They  do  not  know  that  society— the  world  in  the  aggie- 


i  *  '£23    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTTTRY 

-;ate— is  turned  upside  down.  That  the  great  multitudes  their 
brothers  and  sisters,  are  unjustly  dealt  with.  Dwarfed  and  dis- 
torted in  their  bodies.  Debased,  blighted,  stagnated  in  their 
minds  !  And  there  is  nobody  to  unfold  fully  to  them  this  appal- 
ing  truth.  The  men  who  write  books,  who  assume  to  speak  with 
authority,  know  or  care  little  about  it.  They  belong,  more  or 
less  decidedly,  to  the  class  I  have  spoken  of ;  bask  in  the  same 
unwholesome  light  and  heat,  and  are  themselves  ignorant, 
through  their  inexperience,  even  when  they  profess  to  teach. 
How  many  of  them  have  been  forced  on  bodily  toil,  till,  like  the 
tired  "  Ploughman,"  they  would  count 

"  A  blink  o'  rest  a  sweet  enjoyment." 

How  many  of  them  have  longed  for  food,  and  gone  to  their  night- 
ly pallet  longing  in  vain?  How  many  of  them  have  fronted  the 
storms  of  winter,  in  the  "  looped  and  windowed  raggedness  "  of 
poverty  ?  How  many  of  them  have  thrilled  with  the  deep  and 
torturing  under  bass  of  their  little  ones  moaning  for  a  crust  of 
bread?  Such  men  have  afflicted  us  with  books,  on  what  they 
called  "  Political  Economy  " — that  economises  all  from  the  poor. 
Written  books  on  subjects  of  which  they  knew  little  or  nothing — 
written  them,  presumably,  because  they  had  "nothing  else  to 
do."  *  They  have  seized  upon  the  name  of  "  Science  "  and  pin- 
ned it  on  to  what  is  not  indeed  science,  but  quackeries.  They 
have  put  forth,  O !  what  a  wilderness  of  leaves,  but  go  to  the 
garrets  and  the  cellars,  to  the  workless,  homeless  millions,  and 
behold  the  fruit ! 

And  turning  to  those  millions  who  endured,  and  do  now  en- 
dure, those  ills,  let  us  ask  how  many  of  them  have  found  a  voice 
to  give  their  sorrows  utterance?  One  perhaps  in  a  million. 
And  even  of  those  the  humblest  class  who  have  found  a  voice, 
how  many  had  sufficient  virtue  to  stand  by  their  voiceless  and 
suffering  brothers?  Where  are  they?  Nowhere.  Who  are 
they?  Nobody.  What  have  thev  done?  Nothing.  At  least 
nothing  effectual. 

And  so  it  has  gone  on.  Age  after  age,  and  century  after  cen- 
tury; and  the  Uncreated  Pall  the  "  thick  darkness,"  still  lay 
heavy  on  the  world.  Nineteen-twentieths  of  the  race,  and  more, 
drearily  lived  on,  degraded  and  suffering.  And  no  man  lifted— 

*  Fronde's  excuse  tor  writing  Irisb  Hi--tory. 


OH,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  10 

no  man  attempted  to  lift — no  man  seemed  even  to  see  the  big 
dark  Pall  that  hung  over  the  earth.  Not  even  Moses,  though 
he  did  let  in  a  grand  flash.  Not  even  the  Graccliii,  with  all  their 
noble  efforts.  Not  even  Thomas  Jefferson  or  Thomas  Spence — 
though  both  enunciated  the  material  truth,  which  evenBlackstone 
acknowledges.  Those  and  many  others,  here  and  there,  and  from 
time  to  time,  lifted  a  corner  of  the  great  Pall.  Let  in  a  flickering, 
fugitive  and  frightened  gleam  of  light,  which  soon  disappeared 
again.  But  the  Pall  itself,  in  all  its  big  darkness,  no  man  ever 
even  attempted  to  lift  up.* 

Authors  have  created  kingdoms  of  fiction  in  whose  delightful 
varieties  of  sun  and  shade,  and  streams,  and  flowers,  and  old 
castles  and  churchyards,  and  mountains  and  seashores  you  could 
wander  entranced  for  hours  and  hours ;  wander,  forgetful  that  a 
substantial  world  lay  without,  around  you,  full  of  sorrows  and 
full  of  cares. 

Men  have  explored  the  stars  and  brought  down  scintillations 
of  their  occult  brightness,  have  dug  down  and  unclosed  the  earth 
into  the  pages  of  a  stone  book,  recording  the  unfathomable  Past ; 
have  skirmished  to  good  purpose  into  the  labyrinths  of  chemis- 
try, have  tamed  the  thunderbolt  to  our  use,  have  put  the  steam- 
slave  on  his  feet  and  set  him  to  work  for  us  like  a  blind  Samp- 
son wherever  there  is  work  to  be  done,  have  clothed  thought  in 
a  white  and  black  garment — endowed  it  with  ten  million  voices 
and  sent  it  a  mental  whirlwind  over  the  earth  ;  have  taken  the 
great  Sun  himself  into  our  apprenticeship  and  made  an  artist  of 
him  before  whom  all  other  artists  are  destined  to  stand  mute 
and  wondering ;  and  finally,  have  done  so  much  in  all  minor, 

*  Spence,  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  published  a  volume  on  land  monopoly  in  the  early  days 
of  tke  present  century.  Its  scope  and  its  spirit  may  be  judged  from  this  extract  that  I  found 
floating  around:  "The  land  or  earth,  in  any  country  or  neighborhood,  with  everything  in 
or  on  the  same,  or  pertaining  thereto,  belongs  at  all  times  to  the  living  inhabitants  of  tha 
said  country  or  neighborhood  in  an  equal  manner.  For  therejis  no  living  but  on  land  or  its 
productions,  consequently,  what  we  cannot  live  without,  we  have  the  same  property  in  as 
in  our  lives."  Is  not  Spence  mistaken  T  Many  things  may  be  on  the  land  that  were  produced 
by  human  industry.  Such  things  do  not  belong  equally  to  the  inhabitants  living  on  the 
land.  "What  the  Creator  made  belongs  in  usufiuct  to  all.  What  man's  work  produced  be- 
longs to  the  producer.  Here  is  another  evidence:  "No  one  is  able  to  produce  a  charter 
from  heaven,  or  has  any  better  title  to  a  particular  possession  than  his  neighbor."— Paley, 
And  even  Blackstono  says:  "There  is  no  warrant  in  nature  or  natural  law  why  a  written 
parchment  should  convey  dominion  of  land."  Thomas  Jefferson  says:  "The  land  belongs 
in  usufruct  to  the  living."  The  Gracchii  were  murdered  by  the  Eoman  patricians  because 
they  sought  a  practical  application  of  the  same  principle.  The  Jubilee  of  Moses  (Lev.  25;. 
asserts  the  same  principle  very  distinctly.  But  of  more  clearness  and  authority  than  «»«»•• 
all  are  the  divine  teachings  ot  Christianity. 


20       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  OENTUBY  J 

useful,  and  beautiful  arts  as  makes  us  stand  still  in  speechless 
astonishment  and  admiration.  From  the  vastness  revealed  by 
the  telescope  to  the  minuteness  which  the  microscope  detects, 
the  ingenuity  of  man  tells  you  that  it  is  not  man  who  has  accom- 
plished those  things — that  he  is  merely  the  instrument  of  an 
Intelligence  from  on  High. 

Is  it  a  fate,  then,  or  is  it  a  natural  cause,  that  keeps  such 
searching  thought  and  such  tireless  action  away,  away  from  the 
grand  Thought  that  ought  to  lead  in  all  other  Thought ;  from 
the  grand  action  that  ought  to  lay  the  foundation  stone  for  all 
other  actions,  the  thought  that  the  Creator  owns  what  He  made, 
and  that  mankind  are  His  children  ? 

And  this  Thought  is  so  big,  and  so  bright,  and  so  clear,  that 
nothing  but  intellectual  blindness  would  have  failed  to  see  it. 
Nothing  but  atrophy  of  mind  could  have  failed  to  seize  upon  it  and 
apply  it  to  its  great  purpose — that  purpose  the  earthly  redemption 
of  the  human  race.  Nearly  all  the  children  of  men  have,  indeed, 
been  cozened,  choused,  swindled  out  of  their  lawful  Inheritance, 
Material  and  Intellectual ;  their  bodies  made  the  abode  of  pain 
and  privation,  their  intellect  stunted,  stifled,  stagnated  within 
them.  Those  bodies  "  in  form  how  like  an  angel,"  those  intellects 
*  in  apprehension  how  like  a  God."  Bodies  capable  of  such  sweet 
enjoyments,  souls  vainly  seeking,  straining  after  the  intellectual 
development  which  ought  to  be  their  own.  All  this  inflicted  on 
nearly  the  whole  human  race !  Inflicted  by  men  of  whom  we 
may  truly  say,  as  the  Divine  Man  said  on  the  cro^s, "  Father,  for- 
give them ;  they  know  not  what  they  do  !"  The  '  surely  do  not, 
cannot  know  their  crime  in  all  its  enormity. 

And  for  what  purpose  is  this  great  evil  done,  tl  is  great  injus- 
tice inflicted  ?  For  the  ease,  pleasure,  aggrandL  sment,  in  one 
word  for  the  good  of  a  comparatively  very  few  p-  rsons?  Alas, 
not  even  that.  The  gain  of  those  persons  is  in  re  lity  their  bit- 
ter IOPS.  Their  lives  are  more  a  burden  to  then  >.  than  a  plea- 
sure. One  of  Burns'  "  Twa  Dogs  "  made  a  very  shrewd  guesa 
at  tbo  condition  of  those  lives : 

"  They  loiter,  louneingr.  lank,  and  lazy, 
Tho'  dei!  hae't  ail-*  them,  yet  uneasy. 
Their  days  insipid,  dull,  and  tasteless. 
Tlieir  nights  unquiet.  Jang,  ami  restlesa. 
And  even  their  sports,  their  balls,  and  race* 
Their  galloping  thro' public  places. 
There's  such  parade,  such  pomp  and  art; 
The  joy  can  scarcely  reach  the  heart." 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  21 

Goldsmith  strikes  even  a  higher  key  on  the  same  subject : 

**  In  these,  ere  trifiers  half  their  ends  attain. 
The  toiling  pleasure  sickens  into  pain. 
And  even  where  fashion's  brightest  arts  decoy 
The  heart,  distrusting,  asks  if  this  be  joy." 

And  one  of  themselves,  almost  the  only  honest  man  to  be 
found  among  them,  Lord  Byron,  condenses  the  truth  into  two 

lines: 

"  Let  this  one  toil  for  bread,  that  rack  for  rent. 
Who  sleeps  the  best  may  be  most  content." 

Contrast  this  with  the  following  picture  drawn  by  thia  hand 
and  published  in  my  first  work  ("Our  Natural  Eight*'")  foity 
years  ago.  I  spoke  thus  to  the  landlord  in  that  far  off  time : 

"  When  we  consider  the  diversity  of  the  human  character,  it  will  appear 
somewhat  strange  that,  of  the  whole  number,  there  would  not  be  found  one 
Individual  landlord  to  do  his  duty.  Laying  aside  all  the  obligations  which 
the  divine  and  beautiful  law  of  Chrisrianity  lays  upon  us— and.  Oh!  these 
should  not  be  entirely  disregarded  !— what  an  honest  tame  could  such  a 
man  acquire,  what  a  glorious  name  could  he  transmit  to  posterity,  by 
giving  us  the  first  practical  example  of  the  great  change  which  must,  ere 
long,  inevitably  take  place.  How  simple  and.  to  a  benevolent  mind,  how  de- 
lightful the  task.  Imagine  his  tenantry  convened,  and  the  good  man  ad- 
dressing them  in  language  like  this: 

'MY  FBIENDS— It  is  acknowledged  on  all  sides  that  the  present  system 
of  society  is  productive  of  many  evils  and  many  are  the  plans  and  measures 
proposed  for  their  removal.  "Repeal  of  the  Union,"  "Abolition  of  the 
State  Church."  "  Poor  Laws,"  "  Public  Works."  and  so  forth,  alternately 
in  fashion.  None  of  these  can  be  effected  without  difficulty  and  delay,  and 
if  effected,  they  would,  I  fear,  rather  alleviate  than  remove  the  evils  of 
society. 

*  Amid  all  these  proposed  reforms  and  remedies,  a  thought  has  struck 
me,  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  every  landlord  to  make  his  tenantry  comfort- 
able, independently  of  legal  enactments,  and  I  intend  to  try  the  experi- 
ment forthwith. 

*  I  will  reduce  my  rents  to  a  fourth  of  their  present  standard,  and  grant 
perpetual  leases  of  all  my  land— to  every  tenant  a  lease  of  what  he  now 
occupies,  except,  where  the  farm  may  exceed  twenty  acres :  in  which  case 
the  overplus  will  be  given  to  those  whose  holdings  are  least.    I  will  reside 
among  you,  and  it  shall  be  my  pleasure  and  my  pri  le  to  improve  and  re- 
fine you.    But  you  shall  not  be  permitted  to  sell  your  interest  in  the  land, 
save  under  certain  restrictions;  neither  shall  you  be  allowed,  in  any  case, 
to  sub-let  at  a  dearer  rent  than  I  charge.    I  shall  also  require  you  to  fer- 
tilize your  farms  and  improve  your  dwellings,  and.  in  doing  so.  I  shall  bo 
happyto  lend  you  all  the  assistance  in  my  power.    I  have  employed  a  skill- 
ful agriculturist,  and  his  business  shall  be  to  give  you  whatever  instruction 
you  may  require.    Your  fields  must  and  will  be  fertile,  and  your  cottages 
neat  and  comfortable. 

*  You.  my  friends,  nmy  suppose  that  I  am  sacrificing  my  inclinations 
and  convenience,  in  order  to  promote  your  good.    I  have  no  such  merit— it 


22  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

is  no  sacrifice  to  quit  the  follies  of  fashion  and  the  sensual  gratification  of 
luxury.  My  days  were  lost  in  pursuits  unworthy  an  intellectual  and  useful 
being,  and  my  nights  sought  an  escape  from  apathy  and  discontent  in  the 
whirlpool  of  amusing  folly.  I  saw  my  wealth  wasted  on  the  worthless,  the 
profligate,  and  the  vile,  and  I  reflected  that  my  conduct  involved  a  virtuous 
and  worthy  people  in  penury  and  distress.  From  that  moment  I  resolved 
to  devote  my  energies  to  other  and  nobler  pursuits,  and  I  am  now  come 
among  my  people  with  a  fixed  determination  to  make  them  happy." 

What  evil,  my  friends,  could  possibly  result  from  a  change  like  this  ? 
On  the  contrary,  what  beautiful  order  would  it  not  produce— what  an  im- 
petus would  it  give  to  agriculture,  what  a  vivifying  spirit  would  it  spread 
over  the  land  ?  Fondly  does  the  mind  picture  to  itself  the  beauty,  the  hap- 
piness that  springs  forth  under  the  regenerating  system.  The  renovated 
fertility  of  the  field,  the  waving  foliage  of  the  hedge-row,  the  smiling  gay- 
ety  of  the  new-moddelled  cottage— its  garden  of  vegetables,  fruits,  and 
flowers,  its  "  bee-hives  hum,"  its  shadowing  poplars— that  cottage  no 
longer  the  receptacle  of  privation  and  misery,  but  the  abode  of  requited 
industry  and  enviable  content." 

Now,  I  put  it  to  those  landlords  themselves,  Would  not  a 
change  to  the  life  and  the  duties  here  indicated  be  not  only  a 
better  but  a  happier  life  than  their  present  life  of  riot  and  de- 
bauchery, and  sin  and  shame,  or  whatever  it  may  be  ?  Even  if  it 
be  comparatively  virtuous,  still  the  life  here  pictured  would  be  far 
preferable  to  anything  that  could  be  devised  under  the  present 
system.  In  justice,  therefore,  to  eveyrbody  all  round,  and  in  espe- 
cial mercy  to  those  wretched,  misguided,  and  unnatural  men  who 
impiously  call  themselves  "  landlords,"  let  us  define  rights  and 
enforce  duties— natural  rights  and  natural  duties— upon  all.  Try 
to  make  every  man  useful  in  society — a  brother  and  helper  to  his 
fellow  man.  This  is  easily  said,  has  been  said  continuously,  al- 
ways, by  every  man  who  takes  the  trouble  to  open  his  mouth  on 
the  subject. 

But  first,  the  only  broad,  deep,  lasting  foundation  for  this  mu- 
tual help  and  mutual  brotherhood,  is  the  recognition  full  and 
hearty,  of  the  great  Divine  Truth  that  all  men  are  One  before  the 
Creator.  That  to  all  men  He  gave  the  same  erect  form  "  after 
his  own  image."  That  all  are  alike  subject  to  the  same  natural 
wants  and  necessities.  That  all  are  capable  of,  and  entitled  to 
a  full  share,  not  merely  of  the  material  resources  created  for  our 
use,  but  also  to  their  assured  share  in  the  Intellectual  Estate  that 
has  been  accorded  to  us  from  on  high.  The  man  who  can  not  see 
these  truths,  what  are  we  to  say  to  him  ?  Nothing  evil.  The  man 
who  does  see  them,  and  will  not  accept  them  and  act  up  to  them, 
of  him  we  will  ask,  what  is  he  but  a  rebel  to  the  Most  High  ? 


OK,    THE    SPIEIT    OF    CHIVALKY    IN    MODERN    DATS.  23 

What  will  be  said  to  him  when  he  comes  up  to  the  last  great 
account  ? 

But  of  one  thing  let  all  men  make  sure.  Of  this :  That  until 
this  Divine  Law  is  seen,  accepted,  and  acted  upon,  there  never 
will  be  either  lasting  happiness  or  lasting  peace  on  this  earth 
among  the  great  One-family.  No  stability  in  any  government 
that  will  not  lay  its  foundation  on  this  rock— this  sublime  Dem- 
ocracy of  Christianity.  I  might  stop  here  as  if  nothing  more 
could  be  said  on  the  subject,  it  is  so  plain  and  so  easily  under- 
stood. But  there  is  very  much  to  say.  Very  many  rocks  to 
point  out.  Very  many  "  Experiences "  to  be  presented,  very 
many  details  of  the  wrigglings  and  falsehoods  that  are  practised 
in  the  governments — the  several  governments — even  of  a  repub- 
lic, as  well  as  of  the  idolatrous  things  called  Monarchies.  Very 
many  of  the  instructive  incidents  that  led,  or  attended,  the  writer 
of  this  book  up  from  early  boyhood  to  the  present  time.  Time 
which,  with  him,  cannot  continue  a  great  deal  longer. 

And  now,  friend  public.  If  you  should  condescend  to  amuse 
yourself  with  this  book,  for  amusing  this  book  will  be,  and  if  at 
any  weak  or  wavering  point  you  should  think  worth  while  to 
<5riticise  it,  I  trust  you  will 

ciaas 

My  faults  even  with  your  own— which  meaneth  put 

A  kind  construction  upon  them  and  me; 

But  that  you  wont,  then  don't  I'm  not  less  free," 

to  remind  you  of  the  "  eagerly  waited  for  "  "  Drosera,"  and  the 
« exquisite  fragments  "  about  "  Goody  Two  Shoes  "  and  "  Giles 
Gingerbread."  You  spread  that  "  fly-trap  "  for  me,  and  if  you 
catch  loss  of  time  and  money  by  it,  it  is  just  what  you  deserve. 


TJUU    UDJJ     JOOi:    OS1    THE    JslNitiTK'ENTli 


CHAPTER    III. 
A.  PUBLIC  ACCUSATION — FACTS  AND  WITNKSSES. 

TO    THE    OLIGARCHY    OF    GREAT     BRITAIN. 

I  must  commence  this  chapter  with  a  reminder  to  you,  the 
"  landlords  "  of.  Great  Britain  arid  Ireland.  Most  oi1  you  that 
are  now  on  the  stage  had  no  hand  in  the  Famine  of  '47.  But  the 
luxuries  that  surrounded  your  cradle  and  your  boyhood  were 
bought  with  rents  wrung  from  the  people  when  they  were  left  to 
die.  Perhaps  if  you  had  been  men  you  would  not  have  starved  a 
whole  people  to  death  as  your  fathers  did.  We  must  not  impute 
a  crime  to  you  till  you  either  commit  or  endorse  it.  You  did 
not  commit  that  great  crime.  Will  you  endorse  it?  Here's  how 
it  commenced  :  The  potato  crop  failed,  and  that  was  all  your 
fathers  left  the  people  to  live  upon.  Now  they  must  die  if  the 
grain  and  the  provisions  are  to  be  sold  and  exported  to  satisfy 
their  demand  for  rent.  Some  of  your  fathers  gleaned  twenty,  lifty, 
one  hundred  pounds  sterling  a  day  off  the  people  whom  they 
thus  left  to  die.  The  distress  warrant,  the  threat  of  ejectment 
were  brought  down  upon  them.  The  crops  must  be  sold  to  dis- 
charge this— shall  I  call  it  Rent  or  Impiety  ?  Notices  were  put 
up  at  night  in  the  seaports.  They  were  answered  in  this  way  : 

"  A  troop  of  the  13th  light  dragoons  have  been  ordered  from  Goit  and 
two  companies  of  the  3()th  from  Loughrea.  to  aid  the  garrison  in  putting 
down  bread  riots  in  Gal  way.  Her  majesty's  war  steamer  Strombol  arrived 
last  night  and  anchored  in  the  roadstead." 

The  meaning  of  this  you  can  comprehend,  "if  you  don't 
submit  to  be  starved,  you  can  take  your  choice  and  be  shot." 
Your  fathers  endorsed  this  great  crime,  do  you  also  endorse  it? 
But  before  you  answer,  let  us  have  a  quiet  lalk  about  your  posi- 
tion in  general  as  well  as  a  few  words  upon  this  artificial  famine, 
created  by  yourselves  and  your  fathers.  You  believe  in  the  Bible, 
don't  you  ?  Well,  the  Bible  talks  after  this  fashion,  and,  take  my 
friendly  word  for  it,  it  will  be  far  better  for  you  if  you  recognize 
Its  truth  and  bring  it  into  the  action  of  your  lives  : 

"The  land  shall  not  bo  sold  forever,  for  the  land  is  MINE."  salth  th« 
Lord.  "  for  ye  are  strangers  and  sojourners  with  mo."— LEV..  CHAP.  25. 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  25 

That  rests  on  an  authority  that  you  profess  to  recognize  in  virtue 
of  its  Divine  origin,  and  this  other  you  did  get  into  your  heads  by 
virtue  of  several  hard  knocks  : 

"  All  legitimate  government  is  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned."—DECLARATION  OF  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE. 

Those  two  mottoes  comprehend  the  whole  ground  of  contro- 
versey  between  you  and  me.  The  first  we  believe  to  be  the  voice 
of  The  Creator  speaking  to  His  servant  Moses.  The  second  is  the 
voice  of  America  speaking  to  everybody's  common  sense. 

I  affirm  these  truths ;  you  solidly  deny  them.  That  is  the  issue. 
Now,  let  me  proceed  to  ask  you  a  few  questions  : 

Have  you  riot  for  long  centuries  usurped  over  the  people  of 
Ireland  a  government  of  FORCE?  A  force  that  delighted  to  dip  its 
hands  in  the  blood  of  every  man  who  might  be  virtuous  enough  to 
deny  its  authority  or  resist  its  crimes? 

During  the  same  dreary  centuries,  have  you  not  —  by  what  right 
I  cannot  discover  —  seized  upon -all  the  soil,  and  all  the  mines, 
and  all  the  waters  and  the  water- falls  of  those  islands?  Have 
you  not  also  formed  the  kindly  Earth  into  an  engine  of  oppres- 
sion?—  that  Earth  which  the  Father  of  us  all  ordained  to  furnish 
His  children  with  food,  and  clothing,  and  homes  and  refinements? 

And  have  you  not  been  guilty  of  a  great  blasphemy  against 
the  Almighty,  and  a  great  crime  against  your,  equal  brother  man? 

IRELAND     IN     184r. 

Have  you  not  taken  away  the  products  of  the  land,  to  satisfy 
the  Fraud,  the  Impiety!  —  which  you  call  "Bent"?  Have  you  not 
murdered  —  by  hunger,  and  consequent  disease  —  the  millions 
who  labored  to  rear  up  those  products?  Have  not  the  strong 
men,  and  the  gentle  women,  and  the  little  prattling  children  had 
to  die  that  your  rioting  might  be  fed? 

You  aro  "Noble"  mon  !  Are  these  the  facts  that  ennoble  you? 
You  aro  "Honorable"  and  "Right  Honorable"  men!  Are  these 
your  "Honorable"  and  "Right  Honorable"  deeds? 

Those  people  died  the  most  horrible  of  all  human  deaths. 
While  hunger  tore  at  the  vitals  of  the  strong  man,  he  had  but  to 
look  into  the  eyes  of  his  poor  partner  to  see  the  glare  of  famine 
where  once  was  girlish  joy,  and  brightness,  and  affection! 

And  are  those  the  lisping  little  ones  crying:  "Papa!  mamma! 


as)  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CJfiNTUKY  : 

we  are  dying !  can't  you  give  us  a  little,  little,  little  bit  or  dread  V 
But  let  me  close  the  door.  Even  imagination  shrinks  back  ap- 
palled from  that  unspeakable  horror.  The  night  is  closing  upon* 
them  and  death  will  be  there  before  the  morning  rises.  Then  we- 
may  enter  and  see  how  near  the  murdered  ones  clung  together 
in  their  last  agony !  Inhuman  men !  did  you  do  these  things  ? ' 

Was  this  natural  death,  or  what  was  it?  Did  the  miserables; 
"  put  hand  on  their  own  lives  ?  "  Did  they  die  by  the  "  visitation* 
of  God  ?  "  Or  can  it  be  possible  that  you,  my  lords,  and  dukes^ 
and  "  right  honorable  gentlemen"  had  anything  to  do  with  it? 

There  is  crime  somewhere.  What  sort  of  crime  is  it?  Is  it 
manslaughter  ?  Alas  !  the  victims  were  unresisting — were  un» 
able  to  resist  their  fate ! 

What !  could  it  be  murder  ? — murder  under  circumstances  the 
most  foul  and  horrible  that  ever  did  or  that  ever  could  exist  ?: 
Did  it  embrace  many  people  ?  Was  it  millions  ?  Or  how  many- 
did  it  embrace?  The  brain  reels  under  the  computation.  How 
many,  O  !  how  many  ? 

And  where  are  they — the  guilty  ones?     vvno  are  they?    Will 
not  Heaven  or  Earth  find  out  who  they  are  and  where  they  are,.  • 
and  give  them  up  to  justice  ? 

Surely,  they  cannot  be  the  great  men  of  the  land.  Surely,, 
there  cannot  be  such  things  in  this  world  as  "  noble  "  guiltiness 
—as  "Honorable  "  and  "  Eight  Honorable  "  crimes  !* 

Wretched  men !  come  down  out  of  your  high  places.  You  can- 
not bring  the  dead  of  hunger  back  to  life.  You  cannot  restore- 
the  pyramids  of  wealth  which  you  have  snatched  out  of  their 
famishing  hands,  for  has  not  that  wealth  been  melted  on  your 
sensual  appetites  ?  You  cannot  blot  out  the  hideous  memories 
of  the  past.  But  there  is  one  thing  that  you  can  do.  It  is  ia- 

•  There  was  no  natural  famine,  no  failure  of  crops  in  Ireland  in  18l5-'6.  Nothing  failed' 
bat  the  potato.  But  as  all  other  produce  had  to  be  sold  and  shipped  away  to  meet  the  rack- 
rents.  As  the  landlord  habitually  left  nothing  to  subsist  the  people  but  the  potato,  and' 
as  the  potato  utterly  rotted  and  disappeared,  then  nothing  but  death  tor  the  people,  if  th« 
other  produce  was  to  be  shipped  away.  The  men  in  the  seaports  saw  that— all  men  saw  it— 
the  land  robber  saw  it,  if  he  only  would  look  at  it.  But  he  wouldn't— the  latest  spark  of  hu- 
man feeling  was  dead  within  him— nearly  dead,  too,  in  Queen  and  "  Consort,"  and  Council., 
and  when  notices  were  put  up  at  night  in  Galway— notices  that  no  more  lood  must  b« 
shipped  away— what  heed  was  given  to  the  approaching  doom  ?  This:  "Five  companies  ot 
the  14th  Infautry  are  ordered  from  Gort  and  a  squadron  of  the  4th  Dragoon  Guards  are  also 
ordered  to  Qalway,  to  keep  down  tne  disorder  which  threatens  that  town."  People !  Th+ 
Queeu,  and  Consort,  and  Council,  give  you  a  choice  :  "  Bents  must  be  paid  t  Tea  tear  to  b* 
•Uuved.  You  must  take  chance  or  if  you  prefer  to  be  shot,  we'll  shoot  you,14 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    O*    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  2t 

your  power,  even  now,  to  cease  from  your  crimes — to  fall  down 
on  your  knees  and  beg  of  God  and  man  for  forgiveness. 

But  will  you  do  even  this?  It  is  not  likely.  Yours  Is  a 
chronic  disease  of  very,  very  long  standing ;  an  immortal  crime 
that  has  descended  to  you  from  father  to  son,  and  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  Can  we  expect  that  you  will  obey  the  Divine 
Will  and  come  down  out  of  your  crimes  ?  It  is  not  likely.  But 
whether  voluntarily  or  otherwise,  down  you  must  come  to  the 
true  level.  I  fear  you  will  like  Pharaoh  "harden  your  hearts." 
But  no  !  that  process  will  not  be  necessary.  Those  hearts  of 
yours  are  quite  ready  for  use.  They  require  no  more  hardening. 

And  If  the  people  should  arise  and  "  go  up  "  themselves  "  out 
of  bondage,"  Pharaoh-like,  will  you  gather  your  horsemen  and 
your  chariots  to  pursue  them  ?  I  suppose  you  will,  even  if  your 
path,  like  his,  should  lie  through  the  Red  Sea ! 

But  what  would  this  earth  do  if  that  Bed  Sea  should  arise  and 
overwhelm  you?  You  have  so  long  been  a  great  blessing  to  the 
world  that  the  thought  of  losing  you  is  insupportable.  Well, 
you  will  at  least  leave  us  your  picture  in  History.  It  will  be  some 
consolation  to  us  when  you  are  gone. 

A  picture,  a  proof  to  the  Future  Ages  that  you  were  no  myth ; 

-  -that  there  really  did  exist  once  on  this  earth  a  class  so  mon- 
strously "  noble,"  so  detestably  "  honorable,"   so  villainously 

*  right  honorable  "  as  yourselves. 

And  now  that  you  are  about  to  pass  away,  be  it  our  care  that 
your  removal  shall  be  accomplished  as  gently  as  possible.  You 
iiave  left  us,  to  be  sure,  many  examples  of  how  "removals  "  may 
l>e  effected.  But  common  men — by  which  I  mean  men  of  common 
humanity— cannot  be  expected  to  emulate  "  Noble  "  and  "  Honor- 
able "  and  "  Right  Honorable "  men  like  you.  I  will  promise 
nothing  of  the  kind  for  them.  1  believe  they  would  not  make 
good  that  promise.  It  would  be  entirely  above  their  capacity  to 
unroot  the  house  over  your  heads,  to  throw  down  Its  walls,  to 
cover  you  with  rags  and  drive  you  forth  to  hunger  and  without 
resource — you,  and  your  wife,  and  your  little  ones  ! — to  the  mer- 
cies of  a  wintry  sky.  No  i  The  "  common  fellows  " — the  fellows 
of  common  humanity  1  mean — cannot  reach  a  refinement  like 
that.  They  will  be  ig-"  noble  "  enough  not  to  disturb  your  old 
bouse  at  all,  until  the  new  one  is  prepared  to  receive  you.  They 
'Will  naiia  you  down  gently— give  you  what  help  and  guidance 


28  TOE    ODD     BOOlv    OF     TTLR    NINETEENTH     CENTURY  ; 

they  can — treat  you,  in  short,  every  bit  as  well  as  themselves; 
that  is,  IL  you  take  their  kindness  in  good  part.  If  you  do  not 
— if  you  try  to  kick  arid  trample,  and  spurn  them — to  do,  in 
short,  what  you  have  been  so  accustomed  to  do,  you  vviil  your- 
selves be  responsible  for  what  may  befal  you. 

But  it  will  be  better  and  safer  for  you  not  to  do  this.  Better 
to  take  it  all  in  good  part.  We  will  do  what  we  can  to  make  the 
change  easy  and  agreeable,  and  even  beneficial  to  you.  in  a  way 
you  cannot  now  understand.  Of  one  pang,  at  least,  you  will  ba 
saved — the  pang  of  envy.  Having  handed  you  carefully  dow& 
from  the  "  high  places  "  in  which  you  have  committed  ?o  much 
sin,  we  will  not  allow  any  neighbor  of  yours  to  ascend  those 
heights  and  set  up  the  same  Idolatry/  On  the  boundless 
plain  below  there  will  be  beauty,  and  room,  and  employment 
enough  for  us  all. 

Still,  I  cannot  deny  that  "  noble "  men  will  become  less 
"noble"  when  they  turn  their  thoughts  to  honesty  and  their 
hands  to  use.  But,  then,  how  can  we  help  that?  God  bless  you! 
there  is  no  unmixed  good  in  this  world,  and  when  you  remembei 
that  you  cannot  be  both  useful  and  "noble" — "Right  Honor- 
able "  and  right  honest — at  the  same  time,  I  trust  you  will  take 
heart  and  be  comforted  ! 

For,  if  even  I  were  there  you  might  reckon  on  my  good  offices 
at  all  times,  and  on  every  reasonable  occasion.  1  am  a  professed 
Christian  ;  and  the  Christian  maxim,  "  love  your  enemies,  do 
good  to  those  who  despitefully  use  you,"  binds  me  to  your  inter- 
est with  an  especial  force.  But  there,  are  other  maxims  in  the 
same  book  ;  there  is  something  about  "  measuring"  and  "met- 
ing," and  " measuring  to  you  again."  I  have  forgotten  the  ex- 
act authority,  and  I  trust  that  nothing  will  arise  on  your  part  to 
make  us  remember  it. 

I  refer  you  to  the  text,  however.  It  may,  perhaps,  awaken  in 
you  that  Christian  forbearance  which  has  lain  asleep  now,  for 
how  many  ages !  Or  if  that  indeed  be  hopeless,  still  the  text 
may  be  of  use.  Jt  may  whisper  to  you  not  to  "  smite  us  on  one 
cheek"  till  you  are  sure  that  we  are  ready  to  present  to  you 
the  other ! 

But  you  are  surrounded  by  foolish  counsellors,  and  those  may 
lead  you  Into  Imprudences  which  even  yourselves  would  be  the 
first  to  deplore.  That  evangelist  of  yours,  the  London  Times, 


OB,    THB    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  29 

lias  been  comforting  you  of  late,  soothing  you  into  pleasant  secu- 
rity, assuring  you  that  England  is  at  your  back,  "  united  as  one 
man."  You  will  be  foolish  if  you  believe  all  this.  A  gentleman 
may,  it  is  true,  calculate  the  whole  mind  of  England  merely  by 
strutting  into  Printing-House  Square  and  taking  a  goose  quill  in 
his  fist.  But  then,  you  know,  he  may  be  mistaken  *  in  his  calcu- 
lation ! 

I  think  he  is  mistaken.  And  if  you  make  careful  inquiry 
about  work  and  wages,  and  disfranchisement  and  poverty,  and 
tne  poorhouse — you  will  find  such  facts,  as  will  make  you  doubt 
that  assurance  given  you  by  the  soothing  Times.  I  think  those 
tacts  will  bring  you  over  to  my  opinion — and  it  is  this :  If  you 
lean  for  support  on  the  masses  of  England  they  will  be  pretty 
sure  to  slip  from  under  you,  and  let  you  tumble,  very  nearly 
into  the  mud. 

LOCKHART,   SCOTT   AND   EDGEWORTH. 

And  don't  you  deserve  to  be  tumbled  into  it  ?  Let  me  call  in 
JSlr  Waiter  Scott  to  answer  the  question — Scott  a  Tory  of  the 
most  clean-cut  stamp ;  Scott  who  would  have  enforced  even  the 
old  penal  laws  of  Ireland ;  Scott  who  organized  his  Galashiels  and 
forest  followers  in  1819,  to  combat  the  men  of  Northumberland, 
who  were  moving  for  popular  government.  Let  him  and  his  son- 
in-law,  Lockhart,  and  the  Edgeworths,  come  up  to  the  witness 
stand  against  you.  Let  us  hear  what  they  have  to  say  about 
you— you  and  your  "  Bight  Honorable  "  deeds. 

"  On  the  1st  of  August,"  says  Mr.  Lockhart,  "  we  proceeded 
from  Dublin  to  Edgeworthstown.  Here  above  all  we  had  the 
opportunity  of  seeing  in  what  universal  respect  and  comfort  a 
gentleman's  family  may  live  in  that  country,  and  in  far  from  its 
most  favored  districts,  provided  only  they  live  here  habitually 
and  do  their  duty  as  the  friends  and  guardians  of  those  among 
wbom  Providence  has  appointed  their  proper  place.  Here  we 
round  neither  mud  hovels  nor  naked  peasantry,  but  snug 
cottages  and  smiling  faces  ail  about.  There  was  a  very 
large  school  in  the  village,  of  which  masters  and  pupils  were 
In  nearly  equal  proportion  Protestants  and  Catholics.  The 
Protestant  Squire  enforcing  discipline  by  his  personal  superin- 
tendence. How  deeply  he  (Sir  Walter)  pitied  and  condemned  tht 

•  He  tas  found  oat  his  mistake.  He  now  discovers  thai  "  Landlord  war  (Ireland)  vaa  * 
ttovbleaome  «n<i  «v«u  Jcmwmu  piece  of  bosineaa." 


80  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

conduct  and  fate  of  those  who.  gifted  with  pre-eminent  talents 
for  the  instruction  of  their  species,  fancy  themselves  entitled  to 
neglect  the  duties  and  charities  of  life.  In  Miss  Edgeworth  he 
hailed  a  sister  spirit,  who  took  the  same  modest,  just,  and,  let  me 
add,  Christian  (the  italics  are  Lockhart's)  view  of  those  duties, 
and  the  blindness  and  vanity  that  would  constitute  their  posses- 
sors into  an  order  apart  from  the  rest  of  their  kind.  Such  fan- 
tastic conceits  found  no  shelter  in  those  powerful  minds." 

And  this  is  Walter  Scott  and  Maria  Edgeworth,  dragging  you 
out  to  view  as  criminals.  How  great  those  appear  on  the 
witness  stand,  looking  down  upon  you,  the  criminals  in  the  dock. 

Culture— the  drilling  of  schools  and  universities— assumes  that 
it  only  creates,  or  at  least  commissions  mind.  Lockhart,  then  a 
very  young  man,  said  something  Like  this,  and  Scott  rebukes  it 
in  this  way  :  "God  help  us,  what  a  poor  world  this  would  be  if 
that  were  the  true  doctrine.  I  have  read  books  enough,  aud  con- 
versed with  eminent  men,  too,  in  my  time,  but  I  assure  you  I 
"have  heard  higher  sentiments  from  the  lips  of  poor  uneducated 
men,  when  exerting  the  spirit  of  severe  yet  gentle  heroism,  un- 
der difficulties  and  afflictions,  or  as  to  the  lot  of  friends  and 
neighbors,  than  I  ever  yet  met  with  out  of  the  pages  of  the 
Bible."  Honor  to  your  Memory,  Walter  Scott ! 

But  they  leave  Edgeworthstown,  and  as  they  proceed  south- 
ward they  see  "  many  castles,  ruins,  wood,  lake,  river,  and  moun- 
tain scenery.  "  Those  "  (says  Lockhart)  "  would  have  made  a  simi- 
lar progress  in  any  other  part  of  Europe  truly  delightful.  But  they 
were  attended  with  spectacles  of  abject  misery  that  robbed  those 
things  of  more  than  half  their  charm."  Yes,  the  rack-renter  had 
been  through  them.  He  then  describes  "  the  shade  of  sorrow 
deepening  on  Sir  Walter's  face  as  they  '  moved  deeper  into  the 
country.  The  bands  of  mounted  policemen,  and  the  squalid, 
rueful  poverty  that  crawled  by  every  wayside  and  blocked  up 
every  village  where  we  changed  horses."  The  contrast  between 
this  and  "  the  boundless  luxury  and  merriment  surrounding  the 
magnates  who  condescend  to  inhabit  their  ancestral  seats  was 
sufficient  says  Lockhart :  "  to  poison  every  beauty  of  Nature." 
"  A  country  so  richly  endowed  by  Providence  with  every  element 
of  wealth  and  happiness,  yet  could  sicken  the  heart  of  the 
stranger  by  such  widespread,  wanton  and  reckless  profligacy." 

What  do  you  say  to  this,  ye  right  honorable  lords? 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALR?    IN     MODERN    DAi'3.  31 

cave  ye  tc  say  but  that,  having  stolen  the  people's  lands,  you 
lived,  rioted,  debauched  and  seared  your  souls  with  crime  aa 
with  a  hot  Iron  ?  Was  tt  a  good  to  you  ?  Look  at  it.  Look  at 
your  "  ancestral  halls,"  and  the  poison  shadow  they  cast  around 
them.  Look  at  your  wicked  lives,  and  compare  them  with 
the  scenes,  the  Dlessings,  that  surround  the  comparatively  hum- 
ble home  of  Maria  and  Lovel  Edgeworth.  But  it  is  to  be  feared 
you  won't  look,  you  won't  listen,  till  the  hand  of  justice  takes 
you  by  the  coat  collar  and,  with  a  shake  or  two,  hands  you  down 
quietly  from  your  stolen  "  ancestral  halls  "—the  den  now  as  they 
ever  have  been,  of  banditti ! 

But  there  is  hope  of  you.  You  are  not  likely  to  remain  in 
outer  darkness  when  all  the  world  is  coming  into  the  light.  Pro- 
gress inarches  on  and  offers  you  the  Inevitable.  Accept  it  In 
peace.  Instead  of  a  loss,  it  will  be  a  gain,  a  salvation  to  you. 
There  exists  no  wish  to  "  visit  the  crimes  of  your  fathers  "  upon 
you,  or  upon  your  children.  And  the  New  Evangel  willeth  not 
the  death  of  a  sinner,  but  rather  that  he  be  converted  and  live. 


£2  IHJL    ODD    BOCE    01    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTDBY ; 


CHAPTER    IV. 

DONEGAL — As  IT  I?  AND  MIGHT  BE — POLEMICS — CHIVALRY — OLD 
BOOKS — EARLY  MEMORIES. 

IN  whatever  else  their  judgment  might  err,  the  old  chief  tains 
and  monks  excelled  in  their  choice  of  the  useful  and  the  beauti- 
ful as  sites  for  their  monasteries  and  their  castles.  Especially 
did  they  justify  this  reputation  when  they  chose  Donegal  for 
the  sites  of  what  are  among  the  finest  and  most  extensive  ruina 
In  Ireland— castle  and  monastery. 

At  this  geographical  point  the  large  bay  of  that  name  pene- 
trates farthest  up  into  the  land.  It  there  meets  the  waters  of  a 
email  lake  (nearly  circular  in  form,  and  about  a  mile  across)  mar- 
gined with  wood,  and  slightly  variegated  with  islands.  This 
lake  (Lough  Eske)  lies  at  the  foot  of  a  curving  chain  of  quite 
lofty  mountains  "fig-leafed"  half  way  up  with  heather,  but  a 
bare  rock  from  that  to  their  summits.  This  chain  would  wall  up 
the  seaboard  slope  from  the  wide  interior  country  were  it  not  for 
the  "  Gap  "  before  spoken  of  which  cleaves  the  mountain  asunder 
at  its  loftiest  point,  and  opens  a  roadway  so  complete,  so  level 
und  so  necessary  withal  as  to  suggest  a  personal  engineering, 
rather  than  any  ordinary  convulsion  of  nature.  Out  from  the 
lake  flows  a  small  but  winding  and  picturesque  river — the  fishery 
of  which  is  "  parchmented  "  to  the  Earl  of  Arran.  But  a  feeling 
like  that  of  Roderick  Dhue  prevailed  among  us,  and  we,  like  him,. 
"  redeemed  our  share "  of  the  fish,  often  with  hook  and  line,, 
sometimes  with  torch  and  trident.  Of  which,  more  anon. 

At  the  confluence  of  this  river  with  the  sea,  some  six 
miles  distant  from  the  mountains,  the  old  chieftains  and  monks 
had  pitched  their  encampments.  Seaward  of  the  mountains, 
and  stretching  five  to  ten  miles  down  to  the  shores  of  the  bay, 
lay  (and  probably  still  lies)  an  amphitheatre  of  hills,  so  alike  in 
size  and  shape  as  to  resemble  the  vast  waves  of  a  petrified  ocean, 
their  ends  ail  pointing  east  and  west,say  three  quarters  of  a  mile 
in  longitude  and  half  a  mile  across  as  if  roused  by  a  northern 
cyclone,  and  then  Instantly  petrified  into  their  present  shape. 
A  little  down  the  bay  are  several  strands  and  sinuosities,  barri« 
caded  In  by  islands-like  projections  through  which  13  one  narrow 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN     DAYS.  33 

Inlet  for  the  rapid  lash  of  the  tide.  Here  sailing,  fishing  and  seal 
and  seabird  shooting  present  their  various  temptations.  Land- 
ward the  hills  and  the  near  mountains  and  moorlands  offer  a 
still  stronger  " eountercharm "  to  the  sportsman.  "The  Spa 
well, "a  most  pungent  sulphur  spring,  with  its  adjoining  grove  and 
walks,  just  beside  the  village,  was  the  pride  of  the  place.  Neat- 
ly covered  in  with  a  roof  of  flags— flag-seated  round,  overshad- 
owed with  hawthorn  and  free  to  every  comer,  it  combined  at 
•once  the  welcome  of  health  and  of  recreation. 

But  the  "  lord  of  the  soil  "  took  hold  of  it.  He  built  a  house 
over  the  unfortunate  spring,  furnished  it  with  baths  and  basins, 
And  shut  it  up,  so  that  without  a  silver  key  there  was  no  admis- 
sion tc  it.  To  enchain  the  spring  the  more  effectually,  he  ex- 
plored its  secret  recesses  with  lead  pipes,  and  otherwise  so  out- 
raged the  nymph  that  presides,  or  did  preside  over  it,  that  she 
has  withdrawn  half  its  virtues,  and  left  the  lord's  enterprise 
•"  stale,  flat "  and,  what  he  deems  worst  of  all,  •'  unprofitable." 

It  was  before  this  vandalism  that  the  Times'  (London)  Com- 
missioner saw  and  described  this  spring  and  this  district  as  "  a 
natural  Bath  or  Cheltenham,  and  would  be  such,  in  fact,  if  situate 
in  any  part  of  England."  Wherever  the  lord  shows  his  face  there, 
•except  in  his  mansion  and  demesne,  blight  and  desolation  follow. 

Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall  has  this  partial  sketch  : 

""  We  entered  on  a  district  stilljwilder  than  any  we  had  yot  visited  and  drove 
through  the  famous  Barnes  Gap.  through  which  the  road  runs  to  the  town 
of  Donegal.  On  the  whole,  perhaps,  it  is  the  most  magnificent  defile  in 
[reland,  less  gracefully  picturesque  than  that  of  Kylemoro  in  Oonnemara. 
and  less  terrific  in  its  shapeless  forms  than  Dunloe  at  Killarney ;  but  more 
•sublime  than  either.  It  is  above  four  miles  in  length,  passing  between 
mountains  of  prodigious  height.  The  road  is  level  the  whole  distance, 
nature  having  as  it  were  formed  it  between  those  huge  mountains,  in  order 
to  surmount  a  barrier  that  would  be  otherwise  impassible.  Through  the 
defile,  from  Its  commencement  to  its  termination,  runs  a  mountain-fed' 
-stream."  (exaggeratedly  Sirs.  Hall,  as  she  passed  it  after  a  heavy  rain 
fall.)  "  When  nearly  through  the  Gap  we  found  ourselves  on  the  brow  of  ft 
high  hill,  from  which  we  looked  down  upon  a  rich  and  fertile  valley,  la 
.-the  centre  of  which  was  Lough  Eske.  one  of  the  smallest  but  one  of  the 
dost  pleasing  and  beautiful  of  the  lakes  of  the  country.  Through  this 
luxurious  vale  we  drove  into  the  town  of  Donegal  and  examined  tne  ruins 
of  its  ancient  castle.  The  town  is  neat  and  clean  and  appears  to  carry  on 
*  considerable  trade  with  the  interior." 

In  this  description  of  this  luxurious  vale — 

"  Is  seen. 
Not  what  it  is.  but  what  it  would  have  been." 

If  the  "landlord"  blight  had  not  settled  over  it    The  capital 

6 


34       Tl!K  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY ', 

that  ought  to  have  returned  to  the  soil,  maintaining,  and  In- 
creasing its  fertility — that  ought  to  have  built  and  beautified  the 
cottage,  planted  the  orchard— stimulated  manufacture  and  trade, 
was  all  swept  away  to  supply  the  luxurious  life  of  the  landlord, 
to  whom  indeed  one  shilling  of  it  did  not  rightfully  belong. 

No  doubt  it  was  a  good,  indeed,  a  religious  feeling  among  the 
unworking,  wealthy  people,  mainly  around  Dublin,  that  formed 
the  "  Hibernian  "  and  "  Kildare  Street "  Societies,  which  between 
them  gave  us  a  parish  school.  Though  of  rather  a  Protestant 
hue  it  held  festival  every  12th  of  March  in  honor  of  Pope  Greg- 
ory. For  this  festival  our  pennies  were  clubbed,  and  tea  and 
cakes  and  whiskey  punch  were  the  consequence.  Of  the  latter 
as  much  was  administered  to  me  (being  some  five  or  six  years 
old)  as  made  me  sick  ;  and  I  never  did — never  could — "  exceed  n 
in  that  way  since.  Was  there  a  cure  in  it  ? 

To  inspect  those  schools,  a  gentleman  named  Henry,  whom  I 
yet  think  of  with  affection,  came  round  periodically  and  brought 
with  him  small  prizes  of  books.  It  so  chanced — for  chance  seems 
to  do  much  in  those  things — that  my  mother,  an  Englishwoman, 
was  a  Methodist,  and  my  father,  an  Irishman,  adhered  to  the 
Primitive  church,  though  by  no  mearfs  in  a  strict  way.  Each  had 
their  friends,  of  their  respective  creeds.  When  those  friendf? 
met  at  our  fireside  polemics  were  the  theme.  Indeed  without 
those  scriptural  encounters, .mind  would,  I  suppose,  have  stagna* 
ted  in  our  neighborhood.  As  soon  as  they  found  out  that  I  wag 
carrying  off  a  share  of  Mr.  Henry's  prizes,  each  wanted  me  for  a 
proselyte.  Each  had  the  New  Testament  in  their  hands,  and 
levelled  at  each  other  texts  about  "  the  Scarlet  Woman/'  and  the 
"  wine  of  her  abominations."  This  on  the  one  side.  On  the 
otner  out  came,  and  with  equal  force,  counter  texts  like  this: 
"  The  Church  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  Truth  "  "  On  thee,  Peter," 
etc.,  etc.  To  me  their  opposing  texts  seemed  ol  about  equal 
force  and  distinctness.  Both  parties  were  about,  equally  intelli- 
gent 01  otherwise,  and  undoubtedly  both  were  equally  honest  in 
their  expressed  views.  On  one  awful  dogma,  and  on  that  one 
only,  did  they  entirely  agree.  Both  most  devoutly  believed  in 
the  existence  of  hell,  as  firmly,  indeed,  as  if  hell  were  a.  necessary 
Institution  in  the  order  of  Creation.  They  never  doubted,  never 
perhaps  heard  its  existence  doubted.  Neither  did  I.  But  hera 
ros<-  a  marked  distinction  between  them  and  me.  They  seemed 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  35 

to  take,  and  indeed  did  take,  no  concern  about  it.  Zigzagei 
along  in  the  usual  course  of  business,  which  not  unfrequently  in- 
cludes Honesty  in  fetters  and  Truth  in  masquerade.  In  short, 
they  went  on  so  that  their  daily  lives  entirely  ignored  the  terri- 
ble belief  that  had  full  possession  of  their  convictions.  Not  so 
with  me  ;  1  felt  as  if  a  trial  for  life  or  for  death  on  the  scaffold, 
and  far  worse  than  that,  were  impending  over  me,  and,  so  well  as 
I  can  remember,  I  did  nothing  but  measure  and  weigh  the  force 
of  their  texts  and  arguments,  and  did  not  for  three  whole  nights 
fall  asleep  at  all,  so  alive  was  I  to  the  terrible  trial  before  me.  At 
the  dawn  or'  the  third  morning,  as  I  could  not  determine  which 
side  to  take,  my  agony  became  insupportable,  and  out  of  it  came 
an  inspiration,  a  thought,  that  I  ought  to  pray,  that  I  had  the 
right  to  ask  for  light.  I  prayed  to  my  Creator,  and,  even  at  this 
far  off  time,  I  remember  the  form  that  prayer  took.  It  was  like 
this :  "  In  looking  down  into  my  heart  He  would  see  its  desire  to 
accept  what  was  true,  and  thus  avoid  the  terrible  doom  before 
me."  The  answer  came  on  the  instant.  "  There  is  no  such  place. 
The  Creator  is  too  just  and  too  merciful,  to  prepare  such  a  doom 
for  His  children.  It  is  a  delusion  of  artful  men  to  obtain  domin- 
ion over  the  ignorant."  The  impression  shaped  itself  into  words 
like,  as  near  as  I  can  recall,  to  what  I  have  now  written.  Till  that 
moment  I  had  never  doubted  the  existence  of  that  Evil  place 
never  heard  it  doubted,  and  from  that  moment  I  never  had  a  doubt 
on  the  subject.  The  whole  change  came  to  ine  in  a  space  of  time 
to  which  I  cannot  attach  any  idea  of  duration.  Whether  this 
was  a  revulsion  from  mental  suffering  or  a  direct  communing 
from  spirits  surrounding  us  I  do  not  know. 

It  may  be  supposed  by  many  that  the  result  was  merely  a 
mental  effort  to  escape  from  the  torture  (for  it  was  intense  tor- 
ture) that  I  had  endured.  But  I  have  always  accepted  it  as  a 
merciful  reply  to  the  first  prayer  I  had  ever  addressed  to  Heav- 
en. The  first  prayer  !  And  (with  two  other  exceptions)  the  only 
prayer  I  have  ever  offered.  The  thousands  of  formal,  got-by- 
rote  prayers,  or  those  read  from  books,  I  do  not  call  prayers.  Of 
those  I  had  my  experience  like  other  people. 

This  conviction  on  my  part  puzzled  the  parties  that  were  striv- 
ing to  add  me  to  their  spiritual  recruits.  My  opinions  of  course 
became  known,  and  I  must  do  the  Church  authorities,  to  whom 
as  tne  son  (»t  my  father  I  belonged,  the  justice  to  say  that,  they 


36       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINENEENTH  CENTURY  , 

never  laid  claim  to  me,  or  annoyed  or  oppressed  me  in  any  way. 
Perhaps  they  did  not  think  it  worth  their  while.  Perhaps  anoth 
er  consideration  swayed  them,  which  shall  present  itself  by  and 
by. 

BOOKS   OF  CHIVALRY. 

i  here  was  in  our  village  a  great  famine  for  books — almost  none 
for  sale,  few  inclined  to  read,  and  very  little  money  to  attract  a 
supply.  My  sister  was  a  governess,  and  had  access  to  a  miniature 
family  library.  When  home  on  a  visit  she  would  story-tell  us 
asleep  with  "  The  Children  of  the  Abbey,"  and  "  Mysteries  of 
Udolpho,"  two  exceedingly  clever  things  in  their  way.  By  and  by 
came  "  Robin  Hood's  Garland,"  a  very  attractive  and  not  a  bad 
thing  for  boys  ;  "Valentine  and  Orson,"  "  Seven  Champions,"  etc. 
Ballads  from  "  Sir  James  the  Koss,"  to  the  "  Tragical  Garland 
of  Jemmy  and  Nancy."  "  Guy  Earl  of  Warwick"  put  in  an  appear- 
ance, with  the  "  Dun  Cow,"  as  indeed,  in  its  primitive  costume, 
«o  did  "  Dorastus  and  Fawnia,"  on  which  Shakespeare  founded 
his  "  Winter's  Tale."  Fairy  tales  we  had— good  things  in  their 
way— and  the  "Tales  of  the  Fairies"  still  better,  with  a  prefix  of 
the  characteristic  song 

"  Come  follow,  follow  me."  etc. 

"  The  Seven  Wise  Masters  of  Greece  "  each  told  a  wonderful 
story,  and  "  The  Seven  Wise  Mistresses  "  each  told  a  story  more 
wondrous  still.  "  The  Seven  Champions  of  Christendom  "  played 
romantic  tunes  with  their  falchions  on  the  steel  armor  of  run- 
away Turks. 

Shakespeare  himself  came  along  in  well-worn  whity  brown 
single  play  "  sewings  "  of  which  I  distinctly  remember  "  Antony 
.,-nr\  r.lpopatra."  The  first  I  saw  of  Pope  was  a  middle  volume 
Ji  me  Odyssey,  printed  by  the  veritable  Bernard  Lintot,  paper, 
•binding,  and  illustrations  all  good  and  in  good  preservation. 

But  crowning  all  and  above  all,  came  two  old  Romances  ot 
Chivalry,  "  Parismus,"  and  "  Don  Bellianis."  Those,  at  a  very  ear- 
ly age,  took  entire  possession  of  me.  All  I  did,  said,  or  thought, 
was  modeled  on  the  character  of  those  brave,  courteous,  and  hon- 
orable knights.  Those  two  small  ragged  volumes  had  takea 
refuge  among  our  far  off  recesses,  to  escape,  I  suppose,  from  the 
pursuing  sneer  of  Cervantes— of  whom  and  of  which  Byron 
talks  in  this  way : 

"Cervantes  smiled  Spain's  chivalry  away. 
A  single  laujfh  demolished  the  right  arm 


OB,    THE    SPIBIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DATS.  B1 

Of  his  own  country.    Seldom  since  that  day 
Has  Spain  had  heroes.    Whilo  Romance  could  charm. 

The  world  gave  ground  before  her  bright  array. 
And  therefore  have  his  volumes  done  such  harm. 

That  all  their  glory  as  a  composition. 

Was  dearly  purchased  by  his  land's  perdition." 

Bishop  Heber,  Bulwer,  James,  I  believe  Scott,  and  certainly 
Cervantes  himself,  and  indeed  a  host  of  others,  bear  witness  to 
the  noble  and  lofty  feelings  of  Chivalry.  A  feeling  which  cart 
just  as  much  be  identified  with  the  insanity  of  Don  Quixote  as 
the  affliction  of  the  religiously  insane  shut  up  in  a  mad  house 
or  wandering  in  the  fields,  can  be  held  up  as  a  disparagement 
and  reproach  to  religion  itself. 

Can  it  be  that  it  is  to  that  noble,  generous,  lofty  spirit,  comiiig 
down  from  the  far-off  times,  that  we  owe  the  few  scintillations  of 
honor  yet  to  be  found  among  us  ?  A  spirit  that,  according  with 
modern  life  and  habits  of  thought,  inspires  the  patriot  and  the 
true  gentleman  of  the  present  day,  and  of  which  I  shall  have  to 
speak  hereafter,  in  several  very  remarkable  examples — examples 
that  are  almost  the  only  redeeming  things,  purely  personal,  that 
I  have  met  in  my  irregular  march  through  life. 

It  was  against  the  giants,  dragons,  enchanters  and  so  forth,, 
which  embellished  some  of  those  romantic  books  that  Cervantes 
made  war.  He  distinctly  approves  of  those  Romances  that  con- 
fined themselves  to  nature  and  probability.  And  yet  even  the  ex- 
travagances he  warred  against  may  have  had  their  use,  may- 
have  roused  wonder  and  fixed  attention  which  tamer  recitals  had 
never  stirred  up  at  all.  In  a  people  there  is  a  mental  infancy  aa 
well  as  in  the  individual. 

I  might  well  be  considered  an  oddity,  especially  in  my  use  ot 
language.  Potato -diggers  make  sport  to  themselves  sometimes. 
by  setting  their  little  boy  "  gatherers  "  to  fight.  I  was  a  "  gather- 
er "  for  the  first  and  last  time  and  so  was  another  little  boy  be* 
side  me  on  the  adjoining  ridge.  He  and  both  our  diggers  could 
not  provoke  me  to  fight  with  him.  My  thoughts  were  with 
knights  and  ladies,  and  I  deemed  he  was  too  vulgar  for  such  an 
honor.  It  was  my  first  essay  at  such  work,  and  my  inefficiency 
at  it  and  my  apparent  cowardice  encouraged  him  to  use  language- 
to  me  the  meaning  of  which  I  did  not  indeed  understand,  for 
nothing  very  coarse  or  at  all  obscene  was  ever  spoken  in  our 
house.  But  I  remembered  that  one  oldish  knight  had  called  ona 


88        THE  ODD  BOOK  OP  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

youngish  knight  an  "  Upstart,"  and  I  intimated  that  if  he  dared 
t,o  call  me  such  a  name  I  would  punish  him.  He  took  up  the 
word  eagerly  and  I  dashed  upon  him  with  all  my  collected  force, 
actually  crying  out  "  I'll  let  you  know  I  read  books  of  knight ' 
errantry.  *  The  fierce  suddenness  of  my  onset  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  rny  tutelary  knights  gave  me  the  victory.  The  same 
action  and  inspiration  did  me  similar  service  on  many  an  after  oc- 
casion, for  in  that  time  and  in  that  country  such  occasion  would 
frequently  present  itself,  as  we  shall  see. 

Those  small  matters  would  indeed  be  contemptible,  and  their 
place  here  inexcusable,  did  they  not  illustrate  a  very  great  matter 
and  even  bear  within  them  a  very  important  lesson,  which  if  the 
reader  does  not  himself  perceive,  it  would  be  vain  to  point  it  out 
to  him. 

I  had  a  companion  a  little  boy  like  myself.  He  and  I  might 
have  spent  our  time  better  and  we  might  certainly  have  spent  it 
worse,  when,  armed  with  wooden  sabres,  we  would  march  into 
the  fields  and  slay  down  the  big  overshadowing  thistles  that 
were  crowding  and  crushing  down  with  their  prickly  spikes  the 
little  flowers  beneath  them.  One,  to  our  thinking,  was  the  fierce 
and  lawless  baron ;  the  other,  the  flower,  was  of  course  ttio  cap- 
tive lady  or  captive  knight  which  the  scoundrelly  baron  had  in 
bis  toils. 

My  language  taking  shape  from  my  thoughts,  often  exposed 
me  to  the  ridicule  of  those  around  me,  all  very  poor  and  wholly 
illiterate.  Taxed  with  falsehood,  one  time  my  offended  honor 
retorted  with  "  Do  you  think  me  capable  of  a  lie '?"  I  remember 
this,  because  there  were  present  some  neighbors  who  kept  ridi- 
culing and  laughing  at  this  reply  for  weeks  to  come.  I  was  quite 
expert  in  the  water.  One  time  gentlemen  on  the  bank  threw  a 
a  compliment  to  my  performance,  to  which  I  replied  that  I 
"hoped  for  excellence  some  day,  but  at  present  I  was  only  a 
young  practitioner."  Doubtless  those  gentlemen  thought  I  was 
a  Somebody  whilst  I  remained  in  the  water,  but  when  I  came  out 
to  dress  in  my  "looped  and  windowed,"  they  found  me  out — 
found  out  that  I  was  a  mere  Nobody. 

"Whatever  that  spirit  might  have  been  in  the  far  off  days,  it  de- 
scended through  those  books,  and  filled  my  whole  beir.or.  T  was 
no  longer  a  Nobody — no  longer  ashamed  ot  tag  tumaie  cottage 

•  A.  literal  fact 


OH,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  39 

and  the  scanty  garment.  In  me  it  were  no  virtue  to  turn  away 
•with  my  poverty  from  millions  of  uncounted  gold.  I  saw  nothing 
noble  in  the  mere  external.  The  coarsest  coat,  if  clean,  and  the 
humblest  shed,  if  pure  and  weatherproof,  and  the  simplest  fare 
that  nature  would  accept — if  these  were  not  equal  to  the  lighted 
hall,  the  elegant  robe  and  the  luxurious  banquet,  still  there  was 
not  between  them  the  difference  of  one  dishonorable  thought.  To 
even  contemplate  a  meanness  would  give  me  more  pain  than  I 
could  hope  of  pleasure  from  them  all  combined.  This  spirit  was 
no  merit  of  mine.  It  was  infused  into  me  by  a  Higher  Power. 

My  parents,  though  in  a  small  way  of  business,  were  very  poor 
—everybody,  almost,  in  Ireland  was  and  is  very  poor.  But  they 
kept  me  closely,  and  in  winter  very  cruelly,  to  school.  The 
"  master  "  had  to  hire  his  own  school  accommodation  and  to 
economise  he  sometimes  hired  it  more  than  a  mile  out  in  the 
country.  I  had  one  brother  and  he  could  endure  any  amount 
of  cold  in  his  bare  feet ;  then  and  always  it  was  and  is  just 
the  reverse  with  myself.  A  sister,  too,  who  still  survives, 
was  so  much  hardier  than  me,  that  I  fairly  gave  up  one  day 
going  to  school  and  stood  still  on  one  foot  crying  and  holding 
the  other  foot  up  out  of  the  snow.  Ignorant  by-passers  jeered 
at  me  and  pointed  to  the  clever  endurance  of  my  sister.  They 
did  not  know  that  children  differ  in  the  capacity  to  resist  cold, 
Just  as  they  may  differ  in  any  or  all  other  capacities. 

And  those  differences  were  well  illustrated  in  the  natures  ol 
my  brother  and  myself.  Domestic  and  industrious,  he  was  al- 
ways doing  something  useful.  He  would  dig  contentedly  for 
days  in  the  field,  where  I  also  had  to  dig  very  very  discontent- 
edly along  with  him.  How  I  would  rejoice  to  see  a  black  storm 
rising  in  the  west !  A  storm  that  would  drive  us  both  home.  He 
to  some  useful  work  about  the  house,  and  myself  to  my  book  at 
the  cottage  window,  deeply  enjoying  the  tales  within,  and  the 
tempest  that  rushed  and  rained  withocrt  I  don't  remember 
that  ever  my  brother  cast  a  line  in  the  water  to  fish,  or  fired 
off  a  gun  at  a  wild  bird.  To  me  those  things  were  the  tempta- 
tions of  my  life.  Attendance  at  school  I  felt  as  an  intolerable 
imprisonment.  I  learned  well  and  rapidly,  but  still  was  present 
to  me  the  thought,  that  the  landscape  lay  without,  with  its  grass, 
and  flowers,  and  streams,  and  with  the  breezes  and  clouds  ca- 
reering over  all 


40  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

My  thoughts  and  aspirations  were  indeed  little  in  accord  with 
;my  condition  in  life.  One  of  my  earliest  sorrows  was  listening 
to  my  poor  father  and  mother  planning  over  their  difficulties, 
ard  lamenting  over  their  hard  fate. 

Faith!  it's  no  wonder  that  my  resentment  is  undviMj>  p;Vainst 
the  despoilers  of  man's  Inheritance,  of  my  Inheritance.  They  so 
impoverished  the  whole  country  I  lived  in,  by  carrying  away  the 
•absentee  black  mail,  that  our  humble  business  (a  oakery)  was 
paralyzed,  all  business  was  paralyzed,  stunted,  starved  by  the 
poverty  those  blind  and  inhuman  "lords"  left  behind  them. 
»  flHix*  '  loL  never  yet  has  been  revealed  to  them  their  great  crime. 

My  father  was  sober,  honest,  truthful,  but  singularly  careless 
and  improvident.  Re  nad  what  he  called  a  "clean  spirit" — that 
is,  that  he  would  not  take  affront  from  any  man.  I  heard  him 
often  say.  "  I  am  a  poor  man,  but  1  never  was  poor  enough  to 
tell  a  lie."  I  am  now  on  reflection  led  to  believe  that  the  right 
to  tell  a  lie  was  a  reserved  right,  to  be  used  when  necessary,  to 
fasten  the  precarious  hold  men  had  on  existence. 

My  mother  was  guileless,  retiring,  and  as  industrious  as  my 
father  was  the  reverse.  Of  a  religious  mind  she  would  sing  a  low 
Methodist  hymn  while  sewing  or  at  the  "  spinning  wneel."  1» 
the  same  low  music  she  would  hum  over  Goldsmith's 

"Turn  gentle  hermit  of  the  dale." 

The  word  hermit  probably  investing  it  in  her  thought  vitfc  a 
semi-sacred  character. 

I  would  not  say  one  word  on  this  subject  of  my  parents  only 
to  impress  my  opinion  in  relation  to  Chivalry.  The  influence  of 
such  a  singular  pair  on  my  dawning  mind  must  have  been 
marked  strongly  and  distinctly,  must  have  slightly  bent  the 
twig  in  its  after  direction.  Good  or  bad,  I  would  wish  to  give  the 
merit  to  that  "parent  pair,"  rather  than  to  two  tattered  old 
books.  But  I  cannot  do  it.  On  the  foundation  laid  by  them  only 
a  narrow,  selfish  virtue  ever  could  have  grown  up.  It  was  the 
Inspiration  descending  through  those  old  books  that  determined 
the  future  bent  and  action  of  my  life. 

And  now  fifty  years  have  sped  away  in  varied  life,  and  action 
and  not'without  suffering.  Have  I  gleaned  up  any  cool  judg- 
ment? Has  that  "  experience"  that  teacheth  even  fools  taught 
me  anything  ?  Perhaps  not,  for  if  I  had  a  million  of  golden  coins 
at  my  disposal  I  would  spend  them  in  pouring  forth  millions  of 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  41 

•of  those  books  of  chivalry  among  the  future  men  of  America  and  of 
the  world.  The  contempt  of  danger,  the  toils,  tho  vigilance,  the 
honor  of  those  brave  men  vindicating  right  and  striking  down  wrong 
and  oppression.  Their  sole  reward — woman's  smile,  and  tho  proud 
consciousness  of  deserved  honor.  Even  if  all  imaginary,  still  that 
imagination  would  ennoble.  Would  lift  men  out  of  the  rut  of 
selfishness — out,  up,  into  a  brighter,  a  happier,  and  a  holier  life. 

Blind  aristocrats !  Shallow,  stupid,  ignoble  men  !  Insensible 
to  truth  and  true  nobility.  Actually  not  knowing  how  base  it  is  to 
riot  in  excess  that  is 

"  Extracted  from  a  fellow-creatiire's  woe." 

The  groat  primal  criminals  of  the  earth,  and  yet  not  even  know  you 
are  criminals  !  How  do  you  need  a  little  of  that  redeeming  spirit, 
at  which,  no  doubt,  you  will  have  the  dull  audacity  to  sneer.  But  it 
is  the  misfortune  of  your  birth  and  bringing  up.  If  your  fathers 
had,  through  a  long  descent,  been  manfully  and  honestly  earning 
their  bread,  you,  too,  would  be  manly  and  honest.  If  you  live  by 
rapine — if  you  criminally  snatch  from  labor  what  it  worked  to  earn 
— if  you  stand  with  hired  manslayers  to  kill  that  laboror  if  he  resists 
your  robbery — if,  in  short,  you  are  what  we  see  you,  all  that  it  is 
possible  to  conceive  of  base  and  dishonorable — and  if  you  are  so 
mentally  blind  that  you  do  not  see  your  c~ime — that,  too,  is  an 
inheritance  that  has  come  down  to  you  with  the  stolen  land.  It  is 
far  more  your  misfortune  than  it  is  your  fault. 

"Your  misfortune!"  For  if  the  order  of  land  robbers  did  not 
exist,  the  harmonies  of  Nature  would  exact  just  as  much  action  from 
a  man  as  the  health  of  his  being  would  require.  As  day  follows 
night,  as  the  seasons  succeed  each  other — so  would  action  and 
health,  harmony  and  happiness,  go  on  together.  Turning  an 
artificial  hell  into  a  natural  paradise.  Removing  the  deep  material 
degradation  of  one  class,  and  casting  out  the  deeper  spiritual  degra- 
dation of  the  other. 


42  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 


CHAPTER    V. 

SKETCHES  ILLUSTRATIVE  OF  ABORIGINAL  MANUFACTURES,  MODES  OF 
LIFE  AND  THOUGHT  AMONG  THE  WILDER  DISTRICTS  OF  IRELAND 
AND  THE  PEOPLE  WHO  INHABITED  THEM. 

CASTE. 

Is  the  spirit  of  caste  inherent  in  human  nature,  or  has  it  been 
crushed  into  it  by  external  high  pressure  of  the  great  Social  Lie  ? 
'Certain  it  is  that  this  stupid  spirit  is  to  be  found  digging  down 
into  the  nethermost  strata  of  social  life.  Let  me  classify  its 
workings  in  my  native  village,  down  in  the  shadows  where  in- 
'quiry  has  seldom  reached. 

The  shop-keeper  knows  his  high  position  and  he  is  always 
either  scrambling  or  thinking  to  get  up,  never  looking  down  to 
•the  mechanic  order  beneath  him.  In  that  order,  too,  the  same 
unmanly  feeling  exists.  The  watchmaker  comes  first,  or  side  by 
side  with  the  saddler.  The  carpenter  and  mason  come  along  to- 
gether, the  first  a  little  ahead.  In  the  shoemaker  and  smith 
there  is  no  essential  difference,  but  the  tailor  stands  by  himself, 
a  pitch  above  the  weaver,  who,  excepting  the  day  laborer,  is  the 
lowest  down  of  all.  I  need  not  observe  that  the  tailor  there,  as 
everywhere,  is  the  butt  of  little  wits,  and  that  the  laborer  is  held 
as  low  down  as  the  furrow  he  digs  in.  The  classification  some- 
what follows  the  established  order.  The  more  useful  the  lower 
down  in  the  scale.  When  it  comes  to  actual  test,  the  laborer, 
and  I  think  the  weaver  too,  is  excluded  from  social  intercourse. 

All  the  rest  assemble  and  half  forget  their  social  distinctions  at 
the  "  Tradesman's  Ball,"  which  comes  annually.  At  the  Servants' 
Ball,  distinctions  are  not  very  marked,  the  day  laborer  would 
be  admitted,  but  he  hasn't  the  necessary  money  or  clothes. 
Those  servants  who  wait  upon  his  "  honor  "  or  "  his  reverence  " 
know  very  well  that  they  are  a  few  pegs  higher  up  than  those  who 
serve  the  heads  of  a  public  house  or  of  a  grocery  shop.  Whether 
distinctions  are  inherent  in  our  nature,  or  whether  they  are 
incident  to  our  discordant  "civilization,"  is  now  open  for  dispute. 
There  stand  my  facts  and  make  what  you  can  of  them. 

In  one  especial  those  gatherings,  Trade  and  Servant,  were  dis- 
tinguished. They  brought  .generally  conflicting  lampoons,  and 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    Of    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  <4S 

odes  out  at  the  heels  of  them.  Those  gave  opportunity  to  eulo- 
gize or  satirize  the  individual  performers,  as  the  rhymer  might 
be  swayed  for  or  against.  There  was  no  libel  law  extant.  If 
there  had  been,  there  would  have  been  more  rhyming  inside  than, 
outside  of  the  jail.  "What !  A  jail  in  your  remoteness?  "  Yes, 
it  is  an  especial  privilege,  accessible  always  in  any  nook  of  the 
world.  But  my  brightest  spots  lay  out  of  doors,  on  water  and  on 
land. 

"  Hillo  !  Tom.  Come  over  the  hills,  here's  the  gun  and  plenty 
of  the  explosive.  You  shall  have  one  shot  to  niy  two."  This 
was  the  salute  of  a  lad  who  lived  in  a  big  house — had  a  good 
shot  gun,  ammunition,  money,  everything  that  1  had  not,  but 
still  an  occasional  companion  of  my  own. 

"  No,"  I  replied.  "  Not  on  such  conditions  ;  I  must  have  shot 
about,  and  the  first  shot  to  begin  with." 

H  Pooh !  There's  "  Dan  Sly "  (we  were  all  sliding  on  the  ice 
pond)  who  will  come  without  a  shot  at  all — merely  for  a  share  of 
what's  here,"  pointing  to  his  game  bag. 

"  Take  him, '  I  suggested,  and  away  I  went  on  the  slide.  I 
guessed  what  was  coming  on  my  return. 

"  Well,  no,  I  won't.  He  can't  tell  stories  as  you  can.  Come 
along,"  handing  me  the  gun  off  his  shoulder. 

We  proceeded  up  the  "  Moor  hill,"  where  were  outlying  stacks 
of  barley.  No  birds  in  view,  level  goes  my  gun  and  off,  and 
down  tumbles  a  rat.  It  had  peered  out  at  the  top  of  one  of  the 
stacks  to  see  what  kind  of  weather  it  was.  My  companion  was 
greatly  amused,  but  wondered  I  would  throw  away  my  shot  on 
such  game.  It  was,  indeed,  an  omen  of  my  c^nai&g  life — of  how 
I  was  to  throw  away  many  a  shot  at  just  such  game  (only  public} 
and  with  an  equal  loss  of  the  ammunition. 

Talk  of  the  undefined  happiness  folded  up  in  ten  thousand 
pounds  a  year !  It  does  not  truly  exceed — does  it  truly  equal  ?— 
a  rural  village  life,  if  uncursed  with  "  lord  "-made  poverty,  and! 
having  the  influence  of  taste,  society,  books,  field,  river  and  se* 
sports.  Even  the  light  labor  to  command,  those  would  itself  be 
a  blessing.  Often  have  I  sat  down  to  a  wholesome  dinner,  cost- 
Ing  not  quite  one  penny  sterling,  with  more  profit  and  zest  thao 
could  be  gathered  round  most  of  the  club  dinners  of  London. 
Nature  is  in  all  things  a  humane  leveller — in  this  as  all  the  rest. 

1  have  forgotten  so  far  to  mention  that  it  was  a  great  discred- 


44  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE     NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

it  to  be  poor — a  disgrace,  almost  a  crime.  II,  too,  any  misfor- 
tune, or  error,  had  befallen  any  of  your  relations,  you  were  held* 
in  disgrace  for  it.  In  short  there  reigned  a  great  mental  oppres- 
sion over  poor  Poverty,  as  well  as  the  material  oppression  that 
crushed  it  down. 

About  this  time  (aetat  14)  a  retired  Army  surgeon  offered  to- 
furnish  bocks  and  assist  in  my  education  for  the  Catholic  priest- 
hood, I  wonder,  if  I  had  accepted  his  offer,  what  change  would' 
it  have  made  in  the  tenor  of  my  life.  But  I  didn't  accept  it.  I 
believed  that  a  life  of  prayer  and  celibacy,  or  even  the  hypocrisy 
that  would  assume  those  virtues,-  though  it  might  accord 
many  men's  natures,  would  not  at  all  accord  with  mine.  I 
my  friend  so,  and  so  ended  the  negotiation. 

Shortly  after  this  I  attended  a  Catholic  meeting.  Captain  James 
Sinclair  and  all  the  liberal  celebrities  of  the  County  Donegal 
were  there.  Whilst  the  eloquence  flowed  on.  at  every  •*  hear, 
hear!"  on  the  platform  the  other  juveniles  and  myself  would  set 
up  a  most  deafening  cheer.  Now,  the  "hear  !  hear ! "  was  an  ap- 
peal for  close  attention ;  and  this  cheer  of  ours  rendered  that 
impossible,  as  it  drowned  the  speaker's  voice.  Still,  it  was  & 
"  glorious  blunder  "  in  its  way. 

That  meeting  was  held  in  the  rural  "chapel : "  and,  on  return- 
Ing  to  town,  the  same  juveniles  fell  into  another  "  glorious  blun- 
der." We  made  a  dash  to  unharness  the  horses,  that  ourselves 
might  draw  the  orators  into  town  in  triumph.  In  the  carriage 
which  I  helped  to  attack  sat  that  corpulent  old  veteran.  Captain? 
James  Sinclair.*  "  Boys,"  said  he,  "  these  demonstrations  are 
wrong-timed  and  improperly  directed,  but  don't  be  ashamed  of 
them.  They  evince  that  ardent  enthusiasm  which,  under  proper 
guidance,  is  an  overmatch  for  the  most  fortified  wrong.  Enthusi- 
asm, rny  boys,  is  the  gunpowder  loaded,  rammed  clown,  and  lev- 
eled against  the  foe  "  [with  a  piece  of  lead  in  front  of  it] .  "  Or  it  i& 
that  same  gunpowder  exploded  in  the  magazine  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  its  owners.  Boys,  you  have  the  work  of  men  before  you. 
Learn  wisdom,  and  do  that  work  well.  Let  the  horses  now  do 

'« At>oat  t.lts  time  savera:  liberals  vere  imprisoned  on  a  cnarge  of  maiming  cattle— sworn, 
against  DV  Informer*.  Captain  Sinclair  sussectec  t^.at  these  were  perjurers.  So  by  a  ser- 
rant  &t  iaa  t^«  ;ail  cuto3  or.eot  £ns  own  cows,  and  advertised  a  "  Rewara."  An  Iniorm. 
•r  sresentea.  »a^  oflerei  tc  twe*r  against  one  of  th«  neighbors.  I'hi*  :ac:  put  an  end;  to  tint 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DATS.  Af 

theirs."    That  was  spoken  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  and  it  lies  sub- 
stantially bright  and  distinct  in  my  memory  still. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

VOYAGE    TO    LIVERPOOL— INCIDENTS,    ADVENTURES,    SEA    SCENE, 
FAILURE,  AND  HKLTRN  HOME. 

AT  sixteen  I  adventured  to  Liverpool.  Book?,  lectures,  the 
telescope,  the  microscope— all  of  which  I  had  got  glimpses  of  in 
stray  leaves  I  would  find  there  in  ful'.  My  father  conveyed  me 
to  Derry,  the  place  of  embarkation.  Near  Convoy  we  passed  the 
demesne  of  Squire  Montgomery,  brother  of  the  hero-general 
who  fell  at  Quebec.  He  was  down  among  the  trees,  but  seeing 
our  cortege,  he  came  briskly  up,  was  soon  in  possession  of  our 
purpose,  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder  and  wished  me  good  luck. 
He  was  well-liked,  notwithstanding  his  French  principles,  both  in 
politics  and  social  life,  and  quite  vigorous  in  body  and  mind  not- 
withstanding his  eighty  odd  years.  Eaphoe  reposed  near  by  un- 
der the  wing  of  the  Bishop's  palace.  The  diocese  has  long  since 
1  een  disestablished,  its  castle  deserted  and  burnt  to  the  ground, 
its  lands  and  revenues  sequestrated.  It  would  not  be  easy  to 
.find  out  who  was  the  better  for  all  this.  Certainly  the  village  oj 
Raphoe  was  a  great  deal  the  worse. 

On  to  Londonderry,  and  took  pacsage  in  the  "  Greyhound," 
Alexander  Keay,  master,  from  whom  I  received  the  first  rebuff 
that  was  offered  to  me  when  entering  on  active  life. 

Being  only  a  deck  passenger,  I  became  a  tresspasser  when  I 
intruded  on  the  after  deck.  There  two  or  three  cabin  passen- 
gers surrounded  the  captain  and  alternated  among  them  the 
large  perspective  glass.  Woody  shores  lay  along  the  margin  of 
Lough  Foyle.  Southward,  in  the  distance,  loomed  up  Ennish- 
owen  Head,  an  obtrusive  and  grand  promontory.  By  and  by, 
away  to  the  north,  the  Giant's  Causeway  lifted  up  its  pillars.  Not 
aware,  at  the  time,  of  the  distinction  created  by  "  deck  "  and 
4<  cabin,"  I  attempted  to  join  in  the  conversation,  and  desired 
greatly  to  get  a  look  through  the  perspective  glass.  The  Cap- 
tain, however,  treateed  me  (a  la  Percy  Shafton)  "  with  a  stare." 
4nd  the  changeful  shores  and  headlands  danced  alike  througU 


46       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  j 

the  perspective  glass  and  their  conversation,  in  neither  of  whicft 
was  I  permitted  to  share.    And  so  night  fell  down. 
Conrad  says  in  that  never-to-be-equalled  "  Corsair  " : 

"  Aye  at  set  of  Sun, 

The  breeze  will  freshen  when  the  day  is  done." 

Our  breeze  freshened  into  a  gale.  Over  the  deck  the  waves  be- 
.gan  to  career,  and  down  into  the  forehold  were  ordered  the  deck 
passengers ! 

The  narrator  of  the  horrors  of  the  "  Black  Hole  at  Calcutta  " 
observes  :  "  If  we  had  known  the  doom  before  us,  we  should 
have  rushed  on  the  bayonets  of  the  Sepoys  as  a  refuge  from  that 
more  horrible  death."  So  with  us,  but  down  we  were,  the  hatch- 
way fastened,  tarpaulined  over,  and  we  hermetically  sealed  down 
before  we  knew  our  danger,  or  thought  of  resistance.  Then  it 
was  too  late.  Darkness,  sea  sickness,  smothering  for  want  of 
air,  and  fifteen  human  beings  down  in  that  narrow  hold,  largely 
filled  with  cargo,  fastened  down,  live  or  die  till  morning.  We 
piled  up  bales,  trusses,  everything  that  was  moveable,  shaping 
them  like  a  pyramid,  its  apex  pointing  to  the  nailed-down  hatch- 
way. I,  the  youngest  and  most  alert,  was  assisted  up  and  sus- 
tained on  the  top.  Poised  on  my  shoulders  and  neck,  I  kicked 
violently  on  the  inside  of  the  hatch.  In  vain,  they  did  not  heed, 
and  I  had  to  sink  down  exhausted,  and  all  had  to  abide  the  issue 
live  or  die,  till  morning.  Had  thare  been  a  few  more  of  us, 
not  one  would  have  seen  that  morning  alive.  Some  years  later 
there  were  seventeen  people  so  nailed  down,  in  a  Sligo  and  Liv- 
erpool steamer,  every  one  of  whom  perished. 

We  reached  Liverpool,  and  I  found  myself  a  white  slave  look- 
ing for  a  master  in  vain.  Day  after  day  I  rose  before  sunrise  to 
seek  a  foothold  on  existence.  In  vain !  I  even  went  out  to  the 
suburban  brick-fields,  but  my  immature  years  and  unknit  frame 
admonished  employers,  and  they  shook  their  heads. 

I  waited  about  the  Exchange  looking  for  a  job.  Poor  business. 
When  an  employer  came  looking  for  hands  he  brought  the  sun 
of  Heaven  along  with  him,  carried  a  few  men  away  with  him, 
and  left  the  rest  darker  than  before.  He  never  brought  me  with 
him.  It  was  men  he  waDted,  not  a  slender  stripling  lik« 
myself. 

In  the  last  week  I  had  only  half  a  day's  work  ;  and  as  I  called 
at  the  office,  I  wondered  when  the  young  gentleman  in  charge 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    O*    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  47 

spoke  very  kindly  to  me,  still  more  did  I  wonder  when  he  paid 
me  eighteen  pence  instead  of  fifteen. 

There  was  nothing  for  it  now  but  a  journey  homeward ;  my 
father  was  known  to  the  Captain  of  the  '•  John."  That  was  suffi- 
cient to  provide  me  a  passage  back  again  to  Derry;  she  was  to 
Bail  at  daybreak ;  I  came  to  the  "  Old  Dock  "  at  the  first  peep  of 
morning.  She  was  gone.  Through  the  dim  twilight  I  could  dis- 
cern the  mainsheet,  covered  with  a  black  anchor,  far  away  down 
the  river.  She  was  burned  and  sunk  the  second  night  out,  about 
ten  miles  off  the  Irish  coast. 

Yes !  On  that  short,  moonless  night  in  June,  the  man  on  the 
look-out  on  the  coast-guard  station  heard 

"  The  minute  jrun  at  sea/' 

and  now  rising  o'er  the  far  dark  waters,  the  forked  flashing  blaze 
of  a  ship  on  fire.  If  ever  I  return  to  the  British  Islands  I  will 
examine  what  record  the  newspapers  kept  of  that  sublime  disas- 
ter. Yes  1  Sublime !  A  vessel  on  fire  on  a  far-off  dark  ocean— 
I  hope  you  may  never  see  the  sight  But  if  you  do,  you  will 
have  seen  at  once  the  terrible  and  sublime. 

There  was  hospitality  on  shore  for  all  that  were  saved  from 
the  conflagration  of  the  "  John ; "  but  men  have  not  so  much 
feeling  for  the  wrecks  of  fortune  as  they  have  for  the  wrecks  of 
ships.  Wrecks  of  fortune !  Mine  was  a  complete  one. 

But  Nature,  for  a  purpose  of  her  own,  seems  to  take  care  ot 
young  people.  At  any  rate,  I  was  taken  care  of.  A  fifty-ton 
eraft  was  about  to  sail  for  my  native  village,  with  a  load  of  rock- 
salt,  crockery,  etc.  The  skipper  and  two  sailors  constituted  the 
crew,  and  an  old  school-fellow  of  mine,  older  and  more  used  to 
the  world  than  myself,  formed  the  passengers.  We  were  entitled 
to  no  rations,  and  after  two  deys  out  our  slender  sea-store  waa 
entirely  gone.  Whether  the  skipper  and  his  crew  knew  of  our 
extremity  I  can't  say,  but  they  did  not  offer  us  anything.  At 
length  my  comrade  made  access  to  the  ship's  pantry,  and  offered 
me  a  share.  This  to  me  was  a  hard  trial.  I  had  formed  my 
standard  of  honor  on  the  principles  of  the  old  knights.  How 
could  I  come  down  from  that  standard  ?  How  could  I  partake  of 
stolen  goods?  Some  old  philosopher  has  said,  "If  you  would 
keep  men  honest,  leave  them  something  to  eat."  I  had  to  illus- 
trate the  truth  of  this  philosophy. 

We  were  two  or  three  days  out  when  a  sharp  storm  overtook 
IUK.  Being  sea  sick  below,  I  got  up  en  the  deck  at  grey  daw» 


|8  THE    ODD    BOOK    OP    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

The  waves  were  tumbling  up  short  and  jagged,  as  high  ae  they 
are  permitted  to  pitch,  which  is,  I  believe,  twenty-eight  feet 
from  hollow  to  crest. 

"  The  wind  was  down,  but  still  the  sea  ran  high." 
Not  a  breath  of  air,  and  the  tide  carrying  us  straight  upon  the 
*  Maiden  Kocks  "  at  the  the  rate  of  five  or  six  miles  an  hour. 

Twenty  years  after  a  lady  visiting  at  our  house  requested  me 
to  write  a  description  of  this  scene.  Retired  for  the  purpose,  and 
without  having  thought  of  versification,  and  without  making  the 
least  mental  effort,  I  returned  within  an  hour  with  the  following 
iwcription ; 

THE    MAIDEN    ROCKS. 

The  tempest  night  swung  round  the  world, 

And  calm  bright  morning  o'er  the  sea, 
Would  soothe,  in  vain,  the  waves  that  hurled 

On  high  their  mountain  energy. 
In  the  dim  distance  Fairhead  mountain, 

Eobed  in  dark  azure,  raised  his  form. 
Bathing  his  feet— the  deep  sea  fountain, 

Lull'd  on  his  breast— the  sleeping  storm. 
Ill  cloudy  curls  the  smoke  ascended 

From  kelp  fires  'round  his  rocky  base. 
And  up  away  in  ether  blended 

With  sky-clouds,  in  their  dwelling  place. 
The  cot  emerges  from  their  shadow. 

Sheening  the  unassisted  eye. 
Through  our  perspective  glass  the  meadow 

Waves  welcome  to  the  morning  sky. 
Firm  seated  in  repose  and  grandeur 

In  that  far  mountain  you  may  trace 
An  imaged  world— around  it,  splendor 

The  ocean  underneath  it— space. 

It  was  sublime,  that  tumbling  ocean. 

Chaffing  on  high  its  tameless  wrath 
With  not  a  breeze  to  urge  its  motion, 

Or  whisper  to  it  of  its  path. 
Yon  white  sail  in  the  far  off  distance. 

Yon  light-house  on  the  far  off  eteep. 
Is  that  a  vision  of  existence  ? 

Is  this  a  refuge  from  the  deep? 
And  both,  far  by  that  hazy  shore 

A  safety  we  must  reach  no  more? 

Steady  and  wtrong;  on,  on,  relentless; 

Dumb  TIDE  has  bound  us  to  his  car ; 
Ol  were  yon  ocean  passage  ventless, 

Or  waged  the  waves  less  lofty  war, 
Not  thus  would  we  be  dashed  into  the  arms 
W.  the  cold  "  Maidens  "  in  their  sea - 


OB,    THE    SPIEIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS. 

Not  thus  their  roused  caress  would  leap  to  meet  us, 
But  gentler  mood  receive,  aud  calmer  transports  greet  us. 
And  we  might,  haply,  from  a  few  caresses, 
Escape  on  broken  planks  and  swimming  dresses. 

But  now  they  bare  their  breasts  before  us. 

The  veil  of  spray  that  clothes  their  brow 
Will  soon  play  cloudy  music  o'er  us. 

Will  lovingly  embrace  us  now. 
The  doom  is,  doubtless,  a  sublime  one. 

The  sepulchre,  no  doubt,  is  grand ; 
Prompt  and  decisive  is  the  time;  one 

Hour  hence  !  Now,  then,  make  a  noble  stand 
Oil  this  small  soot  of  intervening  deck. 
And  meet  with  scorning  nerve  the  coming  wreck. 

One  hour  hence  ?    Kise  the  waves  to  overwhelm 
Our  tiny  skiff  that  breasts  them  like  a  duck. 

^Our  captain  now  himself  has  seized  the  helm, 
Sticks  knife  in  mast,  and  whistles  for  good  luck, 

'Whistling  at  sea  is  danger,  we  allow. 

But  peril  save  us !  or  we  perish  now. 

I'orish !  for  here  they  are ;  the  hour  is  gone, 
The  six-mile  distance  has  been  quickly  passed ; 

If  I  could  lay  my  finger  on  a  stone, 
That  small  round  stone,  how  easily  I'd  cast 

Into  the  "  Maidens' "  lap ;  but  scraps  of  coal 

Fall  short,  as  yet.  of  so  sublime  a  gaol. 

Five  minutes  more !    But  no,  there  is  a  breath 
Just  born  upon  the  wave-tops,  and  it  floats 

Up  to  our  sail,  and  grapples  with  our  death, 
As  vice  and  virtue  grasp  each  others  throats 

And  yet  its  power  to  save  us  don't  avail; 

Still  on  is  our  career :  the  infant  gale 

Yet  vainly  puts  its  shoulder  to  the  sail. 

II  there  be  spirits  hovering  near  me  now, 

Prompting  the  thought  that  knits  my  gathering  brow, 

Oh,  tell  me,  prompt  me,  in  that  fated  hour,       * 

Was  there,  indeed,  a  spirit-wielded  power 

That  came  embodied  in  that  infant  breeze? 

Its  path  upon  the  jabble  of  the  seas. 

i"  Jabble  ?  "  pray  what  is  jabble  ?)   Shake  a.pitcher 

Until  its  liquid  flies  into  your  face ; 
Or  fling  a  stone  into  this  flooded  ditch ;  or, 

Dash !  drive  your  wagon  through  a  slough,  or  placa. 
But  that's  enough ;  in  any  such  thing  dabble, 
And  you'll  find  out  what  sort  of  thing  is  "  jabbie." 

Above  the  jabble,  then,  the  breeze's  wing 
Stretched  its  young  effort  to  the  flapping  sail, 

J^hich.  dull  and  dreamy,  would  do  nought  but  swin£ 
(Perli sips  'twas  searching  for  the  absent  gale,) 


60  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUBYJ 

From  side  to  side,  as  up  we  climbed  the  wave. 
Or  tumbled  down  it— down  as  to  a  grave. 

A«5d  now  the  "  Maidens  "  don  their  best  attira. 

As  near  and  nearer  drifts  the  fated  boat; 
Rises  their  drapery  in  ascending  spire. 

And  up  along:  with  it  their  voices  float. 
Hie  out.  young  breeze,  or  start  at  once  to  vigor, 
Else  useless,  all,  'twill  be  your  growing  bigger. 

And.  imperceptibly,  it  gathers  strength. 

And  grapples  closer  with  the  drifting  timber, 
Blackens  its  speed,  still  slackens,  till,  at  length, 

(As  earth  swings  round  in  June  and  in  December.) 
Our  rock- ward  motion  stands,  and  by  degrees. 
We  slowly  retrograde  it  o'er  the  seas. 

"Within  our  little  cabin  coffee-steams 
Exhale  temptation ;  now  the  danger's  o'er. 

Outside,  around  the  everlasting  streams 
Of  ocean-flood  sweeps  onward :  and  the  shore 

IB  hazy  and  sublime,  amid  the  beams 
That  fold  it  in  their  love,  whose  golden  tie 
Enclasps  the  earth,  the  ocean,  and  the  sky. 

But  we  are  not  all  sunshine.    Clay  and  spirit, 
Though  quite  sublime  in  many  of  their  moodft 

Do  several  little  weaknesses  inherit. 
Among  them  is  a  leaning  upon  foods. 

A  vulgar  weakness  'tis,  but  more  imperious 

Than  higher  things,  from  dreamy  to  delirious* 

And  BO  we  snatch  a  moment  from  the  sky. 

We  leave  the  coast  and  mountain  to  themselves, 
Hor  mark  the  six-knot  tide  still  rushing  by, 

But  down  among  the  tables  and  the  shelves. 
And  having  spent  some  twenty  minutes  there. 
Emerge  again  into  the  upper  air. 

Not  as  that  sea-gull  swooping  on  before  us: 

Not  as  that  porpoise  light'ning  through  the  wavej 
Not  as  the  cloud,  careering  faster  o'er  us; 

As  the  wind  voices  pipe  a  higher  stave. 
Not  iust  like  one.  and  vet  like  all  of  these. 

Our  path  is  onward  in  the  dashing  spray. 
Furrowing  a  green  lane  through  the  azure  seas. 

And  holding  on  our  wing'd  and  eager  way. 
Broad  to  our  right  (or  starboard)  the  Atlantic; 
Close  on  our  left  (or  larboard)  the  romantic. 
Bock-bound,  and  white  sand-bedded  shore  is  seen. 

Brown  with  dark  heath,  or  bright  with  summer  zreeik 
******        -»^— 

When  tempest  thunders  on  the  shaking  sea. 
And  night  and  breakers  close  beneath  our  lee. 
And  when  the  light-house  rises  on  our  sight. 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  61 

Taking  your  part  against  the  closing  night 
And  allied  tempest— don't  you  gaze  and  love  it. 
And  deem  it  brighter  than  the  star  above  it. 
Its  tranqui!  lustre  peering  from  afar, 
Eisirig  above  the  billows  like  that  star: 
It  comes,  it  comes  across  the  billow's  roar, 
A  human  sympathy  from  that  dark  shore. 

And  so  the  high  headlands,  with  their  light-houses,  and  the 
lo\v,  retiring  shores,  with  their  sheltered  cottages,  passed  in  re- 
view before  .us  during  that  long  sunny  Sabbath  day  of  eihgteen 
hours.  It  was  indeed  a  magmficent  run  of  more  than  150  miles. 

Apart  from  the  grand  variety  which  the  passing  coast  present- 
ed, we  had  two  incidents  in  the  run.  One,  a  revenue  cutter's 
••  Heave  to  "  shot,  which  we  disregarded,  and  then  her  six-pound- 
ers sent  dancing  after  us  over  the  waves.  The  skipper,  and  in- 
deed all  of  us,  enjoyed  the  excitement,  and  the  nearer  the  balls 
struck  to  us,  the  louder  rose  our  derisive  cheer.  As  we  neared 
the  Island  of  Tory  the  chase  gave  us  up.  We  were  running 
down  on  that  Island,  and  it  became  necessary  to  tack,  for  the 
iirst  time  that  day,  in  order  to  come  between  the  Island  and  the 
mainland.  I  was  standing  listlessly  on  the  deck  when,  in  coming 
round,  the  heavy  gale  struck  our  sails  sideways,  and  threw  us 
suddenly  almost  on  our  beam  ends.  I  fell,  or  rather  was  flung, 
down  from  where  I  stood,  and  fell  heavily  upon  the  lee  bulwark, 
which,  fortunately,  was  just  high  enough  to  save  me  from  tumb- 
ling violently  and  headlong  into  that  boiling  sea.  Night  closed 
as  we  rounded  Arranmore  Island,  and  sighted  Cape  Telling;  the 
headland  which  sentinels  on  the  north  the  great  bay  of  Done- 
gal. 

I  got  home,  and  though  tenderly  attached  to  the  people  and 
the  scenes,  I  felt  no  joy.  I  was  lost  in  mortification  at  my  great 
failure,  I  discovered,  too,  that  turf-peat,  though  a  vegetable  de- 
posit, was  largely  charged  with  sulphur,  and  that  I,  some  way, 
had  become  a  man. 

An  eccentric  and  liberal  gentlemen  in  our  village  had  institUj 
ted  a  fishing  enterprise.  I,  with  five  or  six  other  boys,  became  m 
hand  aboard.  Our  pay  was  ten  pence  a  day.  Sometimes  we  kept 
on  the  waves  all  night,  increasing  our  ten  pence  to  twenty.  On 
one  of  those  nights  we  were  driven  to  shore  by  a  heavy  snow 
storm.  Bivouacked  under  a  precipitous  bank,  lighted  a  fire  and 
were  about  to  realize  the  comforts  of  a  nap  with  fronts  scorching 
and  backs  coated  with  snow.  But  a  country  man,  searching  in 


52  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

the  storm  for  his  sheep,  came  down  to  the  blaze,  and  hallooing 
from  the  top  of  the  bank,  invited  us  to  the  shelter  of  his  cabin. 
It  consisted  of  one  apartment  some  fourteen  feet  square.  How 
buoyant  is  youth !  Our  slumbers  could  not  hold  ground  against 
practical  jokes  played  on  each  other  till  morning.  One  of  them 
I  remember  yet.  Even  then  I  attached  a  moral  to  it. 

A  naked  foot  belonging  to  one  of  the  sleepers  lay  in  tempting 
proximity  to  the  fire  on  the  hearth*.  A  live  coal  was  placed  near 
it  for  the  purpose  of  producing  sport.  The  foot  began  to  under- 
go sundry  contortions  which  were  quite  amusing  to  look  at.  But 
at  last  the  coal  was  put  a  little  too  near  it— nearer  than  the 
sleeper  could  bear.  It  awoke  him.  He  jumped  up  and  knocked 
down  one  or  two  actors  or  abettors  of  the  wrong.  They  had  put 
the  coal  a  little  too  near.  If  they  had  been  reasonable  in  their 
sport,  the  sleeper  would  have  slept  on,  and  the  game  might  have 
continued  till  morning.  But  they  were  not  reasonable,  my  fac- 
tory lords  and  lord  dukes.  They  put  it  on  a  little  heavier  than 
nature  could  bear.  They  did  exactly  what  you  have  been  doing, 
my  lords,  and  the  natural  consequence  followed.  Do  you  under- 
stand ?  Probably  not  yet.  But  you  may  by  and  by. 

The  more  tempestuous  the  day  the  more  awake  and  hungry 
are  the  fishes.  And  so,  instead  of  rough  weather  keeping  us  on 
land,  it  had  an  effect  exactly  otherwise.  On  those  rough  days 
you  could  see  four-fifths  of  a  boat's  keel  out  of  water  as  she 
seemed  to  jump  from  one  short  high  wave  to  another. 

On  one  occasion,  with  a  lively  wind  and  a  good  "  take  "  at  our 
hand-lines,  light  squalls  arose  at  intervals  from  the  north.  You 
could  easily  see  them  approach,  scudding  on  a  dark  grayish 
cloud.  In  proportion  to  the  darkness  and  size  of  the  (cloud 
would  be  the  force  and  duration  of  the  squall.  Grand  to  look 
on,  and  rousing  the  fish,  we  enjoyed  rather  than  feared  them. 
But,  by  and  by,  one  cloud  showed  up  bigger  and  blacker  than 
all  the  others  combined.  We  were  well  out  in  the  offing  and 
headed  with  all  our  force  to  the  land.  In  vain !  Before  we  got 
under  shelter  of  the  high  coast  the  squall  struck  us  with  the 
greatest  fury,  blinding  and  battering  us  at  the  same  time  with  a 
storm  of  hail.  We  were  blown  off  the  land  across  toward  a 
des 9ft  sand  bar,  called  the  "  Back  Strands."  I  had  been  affect- 
ed with  sea  sickness  the  best  part  of  the  day,  but,  as  we  ap- 
proached the  "  Back  Strands,"  the  swell  rose  so  high,  and  thd 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  53 

breakers  for  miles  before  us  looked  so  horrible,  that  one  of  our 
hands  ("Don  Sly"  we  used  to  call  him)  fairly  cowered  and 
dropped  the  oar.  My  sickness  was  gone  like  a  flash  ;  I  seized 
the  oar,  made  a  footspur  of  Don  Sly's  back,  and,  all  pulling 
steadily,  we  held  our  our  own  till  the  squall  spent  itself  and  then 
we  shot  out  of  the  ground  swell,  and  headed  across  the  bay. 
The  'moment  the  danger  was  over  my  sea  sickness  returned  and 
threw  me  down  as  before.  Yield  to  danger  and  it  will  destroy 
you.  Confront  it  manfully  and  you  will  overcome  it.  One  time 
(I  speak  of  it  here,  though  this  happened  long  after),  I  was  pur- 
sued by  a  dozen  men  with  bludgeons.  I  was  making  for  my 
lodging-house  in  the  hamlet  of  a  wild  mountain  district.  Ex- 
pecting this  assault,  I  had  a  large  horse  pistol  in  my  breast,  and 
wheeling  suddenly  round,  my  pursuers  caught  the  gleam  of  its 
bright  brass  butt  in  my  grasp.  This,  with  the  suddenness  of  my 
wheel  about,  so  disconcerted  them,  that  a  lane  opened  before  me ; 
I  passed  through  them  in  perfect  safety,  and  they  did  not  even 
renew  the  pursuit.  The  moral  is,  "  Take  hold  of  the  danger,  don't 
wait  till  the  danger  takes  hold  of  you ! " 

At  this  adventurous  work  of  fishing,  I  earned  a  small  sum 
which  enabled  me  to  enter  a  rather  humble  field  in  the  world  of 
trade,  but  I  succeeded  tolerably  well. 

My  comrade,  Prank  Bay,  is  off,  a  hand  on  board  the  "  Susau 
Jane,"  bound  for  Liverpool.  I  am  conveying  him  down  the  bay. 

"  That  gun  is  left  behind,"  said  the  Captain.  "Your  sister  de- 
tained it,  hid  it  away,  that  you  yourself  might  return.  I  could 
not  be  rude  to  her,  for  she  is  a  glorious  girl,  though  she  is  your 
sister  Frank."  So  spoke  the  Captain. 

And  she  was.  I  am  looking  at  her  now  of  a  summer  evening 
in  a  pearl  white  dress.  Tall,  straight,  majestic.  Face  and  fea- 
tures slightly  petite  compared  with  her  commanding  figure,  but 
glowing,  regular,  surpassingly  beautiful.  Alas  !  alas !  About 
half  the  time  between  this  moment  and  that  day  she  filled  an 
early  grave.  Tempted  into  it  by  stimulating  drinks.  Why  was 
man  given  thepower  to  create  such  a  temptation  ? 

"  Have  you  any  loose  silver? "  This  by  Frank  to  myself  sotto 
voice.  "A  little."  " Buy  that  fowling  piece;  you  need  it  very 
much,  and  I  don't  like  to  put  the  Captain  to  loss.  He'll  give  you 
an  order  for  it,  and  I'll  write  a  line  to  Anne."  It  is  done,  and 
ashore  with  Alick  Henderson,  the  pilot 


54       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBT ; 

Presented  my  credentials  to  Miss  Anne. 

"No!  she  would  not  part  with  the  fowling  piece.  She  would 
keep  it  in  revenge  for  the  taking  away  of  Frank." 

Too  young  and  too  fond  of  the  chase  to  be  sensible  that  I  was 
doing  a  most  ungallant  thing,  I  summoned  the  young  lady  to  the 
Petty  Sessions.  But  Miss  Anne  took  a  walk  up  to  the  parson- 
age, where  dwelt  at  once  the  regulator  of  legal  morals  and  of  re- 
ligious aspirations — who  could  point  with  equal  readiness  the 
way  up  to  Heaven  or  down  to  the  "  Black  Hole." 

Is  that  the  Peeler  emerging  from  the  home  of  Miss  Bay?  Is 
that  my  gun  on  his  shoulder?  The  Reverend  has  untertaken  to 
protect  the  gun.  Looks  ominous,  but  nil  fasperandum.  The 
day  of  trial  is  yet  to  come.  And  it  did  come  and  proceeded  till 
late,  and  then  adjourned,  shut  up  shop. 

Not  quite.  "  Is  this  not  the  return  day  of  my  suit  us  Miss 
Bay?" 

"Certainly,"  replies  the  Reverend  Justice.  "  Why  did  you  not 
answer  when  it  was  called?  " 

"It  was  not  called!" 

"  It  was  called.  Was  it  not,  Mr.  Clerk  ?  "  Jack  gave  a  gutter- 
al  sound  that  seemed  neither  aye  nor  no.  A  mixture  like  of  the 
one  with  the  other. 

"  It  was  not  called,  I  have  been  here  since  the  court  opened." 

"  Very  well ;  you  shall  have  it  called,  as  you  are  in  such  a  hur- 
ry about  it.  What  is  your  complaint  ?  "  I  stated  the  facts  and 
presented  my  documents. 

"  Have  you  any  witness  ?  " 

"  Yes.    He  is  here,  Mr.  Henderson,  the  pilot." 

Alick  told  a  straight  story  and  to  the  point. 

Then  this  to  myself  from  the  bench.  "What  right  have  you  to 
keep  a  gun  ?  " 

"  What  is  your  honor's  objection  to  me  ?  Is  it  my  character  ?  " 

"  No.    I  know  nothing  against  your  character." 

"  Is  it  my  religion?"  (A  shade  of  irony  seemed  in  this  for  I 
could  not  fairly  shelter  myself  under  either  of  the  churches.) 

"  No,  in  this  country  religions  are  equal  before  the  law,  but  I 
find  this  gun  floating  around,  and  it  is  not  registered." 

"  How  can  the  owner  have  a  thing  registered  till  he  gets  it  in 
possession  ?  Give  me  my  property,  and  take  it  from  me  again 
if  I  don't  conform  to  the  law."  The  bench  pauses. 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DATS.  65 

**  Well,  come  to  the  Moor  at  ten  o'clock  to-morrow." 

I  did,  and  he  handed  the  gun  to  me.    So  far,  good. 

With  a  gun  either  registered  at  6e.  or  smuggled  without  charge 
you  are,  or  were  in  those  days,  entitled  to  sport  round  the  coast. 
But  to  cross  a  field  in  pursuit  of  hare  or  partridge  was  a  sacri- 
lege. Nevertheless  youth,  in  some  of  ite  specimens,  is  headlong 
and  unreflecting  and  I  was  one  of  those  specimens.  Starting  a 
covey  of  partridge  on  adjoining  grounds,  I  jump  over  the  redoubt, 
and  in  on  the  forbidden  fields  of  the  Reverend  Justice.  The  game 
had  pitched  in  front  of  a  hawthorn  knoll.  As  I  approached  the 
Reverend's  two  sons  emerged  from  behind  the  knoll  just  in  time 
to  shoot  a  brace  of  the  covey.  I  "  made  myself  scarce."  I  had 
broken  the  law ;  I  didn't  think  at  the  moment  that  they  also 
had  broken  it. 

A  uniformed  Peeler  favored  me  the  same  afternoon  with  a 
printed  invitation  to  the  Petty  Sessions.  There  was  nothing  for 
it  but  to  obey. 

The  Eeverend  father  is  on  the  bench,  and  the  two  hopeful  sons 
are  on  the  witness  stand.  Oaths  and  recitals  on  their  part,  and  a 
frank  admission  on  mine,  followed.  Sentence,  "  a  twenty  pound 
fine  or  three  months."  Half  belongs  to  the  (with  emphasis)  "in- 
formants," but  the  young  gentlemen  would  remit  that  half.  The 
other  half  must  be  paid.  I  am  "  neither  able  nor  willing  to  pay 
it,"  and  I  frankly  say  so. 

"  Is  he  a  prisoner  ?  "  say  a  couple  of  the  Peelers — I  was  already 
no  favorite  with  them. 

"No,"  says  his  Reverence.  "We  know  where  to  get  him." 
With  a  nod,  "  you  have  a  fortnight  to  make  up  the  sum." 

My  dissent  is  a  shake  of  the  head.  And  so  I  descend  from  the 
dock. 

I  had  been  reading  all  the  loose  leaves  that  lay  within  my 
reach.  Among  them  a  small  tattered  "  Instructions  to  Justices 
of  the  Peace."  In  it  I  found  that  sporting  without  a  license  kill- 
ing game,  even  on  your  own  ground,  incurred  the  penalty  of 
twenty  pounds.  I  found,  too,  that  the  License  was  to  be  obtained 
at  the  nearest  Custom  House,  at  Ballyshannon.  Can  it  be  possi- 
ble that  the  Reverend  and  his  sons  forgot  to  get  the  license  ?  To 
solve  the  doubt  I  make  the  journey  to  Ballyshannon  U  is  only 
twelve  miles  off. 


56  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

It  is  as  I  hoped.  Books  overhauled  Connollys,  Crawfords, 
Kellys,  Treddenicks,  but  none  so  far  down  the  alphabet  as  Welch. 
I  feel  considerably  lighter  as  I  return  home. 

I  never  was,  and  never  probably  will  be,  of  a  reticent  disposi- 
tion. It  soon  got  abroad  that  I  had  been  at  Ballyshannon  for  a 
purpose.  Ten  days  are  past,  and  Jack  Beard,  the  Clerk,  hail* 
me. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  about  that  fine?  A  short  time  only 
remains ;  have  you  gathered  up  the  money?  " 

"No." 

"  Now,  be  sensible.  You  are  entering  life.  Beginning  trade.  It 
will  injure  you  every  way  if  you  are  sent  to  jail" 

"  It  will  not  injure  me.    It  will  do  me  good." 

"  Do  you  good  !    What  do  you  mean  by  doing  you  good  ?" 

Beflectively.  "Let  me  see:  I  can't  earn  ten  pounds  a  month 
outside  of  a  jail,  can  I?  " 

"  Of  course  you  can't.    Why  ask  such  a  question  ?  " 

"  Because  I  can  earn  that  much  inside." 

"  Don't  be  talking  foolishly.  I  want  to  be  your  friend."  And 
he  did.  Jack  was  a  good  free-going  Protestant,  a  smart  fellow 
too,  who  had  been  Secretary  to  a  company  of  United  Men  in  '98 
while  he  was  yet  a  mere  boy. 

"  I  know  you  are  uneasy  about  what  may  happen  to  me.  But 
don't.  I'm  only  going  to  make  money.  I  hold  three  gentlemen 
in  my  hand  for  twenty  pounds  each.  Half  of  that  will  come  to 
me." 

"  Don't  talk  that  way.  You  know  how  it  will  go  in  a  tussle 
between  you  and  a  magistrate  on  the  bench." 

"  There  will  be  no  tussle  with  me.  It  will  be  between  the  law 
and  the  bench." 

"  Don't  think  of  it,"  and  Jack  left  me. 

Next  morning  a  very  venerable  gentleman,  all  the  more  vener- 
able for  being  very  rich,  demeaned  himself  by  stopping  at  our 
cabin  door. 

"  Is  Tom  within  ?  " 

"  Yes."    And  Tom  goes  out  to  him. 

"  I  have  heard  about  that  fine,  and  have  spoken  to  the  magis- 
trate about  it." 

I  give  him  thanks  and  an  assurance  that  he  need  give  himself 
no  such  trouble. 


OB,    THE    8PIBXT    OS    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  67 

«*  Why  not  ?  " 

I  explain. 

"  O !  that  won't  do.  We  must  live  good  neighbors  In  this  far 
off  little  home  of  ours."  He  had  returned  with  a  fortune  from 
America. 

"  I  like  good  neighbors  and  a  good  neighborhood,  if  that  were 
possible." 

"  It  is  possible.    Come  along  up  with  me  to  the  Moor." 

We  go.  We  enter  the  lawn,  religion  and  law  meet  us  and 
speaks.  "  Mr.  McDonnell  wishes  to  make  things  easy  for  you, 
and  has  called  on  me  for  that  purpose." 

"  I  have  already  explained  to  Mr.  McDonnell  how,  and  how 
much,  I  thank  him." 

"  But  I  do  not  myself  wish  to  hurt  a  neighbor  (a  shade  of  de- 
ceit here)  and  I  have  determined  of  my  own  free  will  to  remit 
that  fine,  and  I  hope  there  shall  be  good  neighborhood  for  the 
time  to  come." 

It  is  so  settled,  and  I  make  good  use  of  the  "  good  neighbor- 
hood "  by  marching  across  his  grounds  next  day  with  that  litiga- 
ted gun  on  my  shoulder,  But  that  was  not  all ;  1  was  to  have 
still  another  encounter  with  him. 

It  is  late  on  a  Sunday  night.  There  is  a  wake,  and  a  crowd  of 
boys  are  assembled  at  the  play  of  "  watch  the  candle."  A  most 
hillarious  and  uncivilized  play  it  is  ;  and  the  noise  made  falls 
unluckily  upon  the  outside  night  and  a  couple  of  sancti- 
monious ears  belonging  to  a  'Methodist  class  leader," 
who  is,  besides,  a  Church  Warden.  The  Peelers  have 
just  made  their  appearance  in  the  world,  and  one  of 
them  is  along  with  the  Church  Warden.  Thus  strength- 
ened that  official  comes  in  to  infuse  his  authority  into  us  and  put 
an  end  to  the  mirthful  noise.  To  my  surprise  and  disgust  all 
my  playmates  fled  to  the  garden.  But  my  tutelary  knights 
never  thought  of  running  away.  Neither  did  I.  So  I  was  left  to 
confront  what  was  coming.  "  What  noise  is  this  by  young  vaga- 
bonds on  the  Sabbath  evening  ?  "  Thus  the  Church  Warden.  I 
did  not  appropriate  the  offered  civility,  and  he  followed  it  up  with 
a  hard  look  at  my  face,  and  "  there's  nobody  here  but  idle  ras- 
cals." 

14  The  number  is  increasing.    One  more  since  you  came  in." 


68       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY ; 

"  Take  him  prisoner."  This  to  the  loose,  tall  young  fellow  in 
the  green  uniform.  It  was  probably  the  first  duty  he  was  ordered 
to,  and  he  obeyed  it  right  readily  by  laying  violent  hands  on 
myself.  My  tutelary  knights  had  brought  me  to  this— had  made 
me  stand  whilst  my  companion?  ran  away  They  now  came 
promptly  to  my  aid.  With  suddeD  hold  and  jerk,  J  tore  down 
the  two  fronts  of  the  green  jacket,  buttoned  as  it  was,  a  la  mili- 
taire,  up  to  his  throat.  The  sudden  onset  and  surprise  enabled 
me  to  swing  him  round  and  rush  him  out  of  the  street  door,  I  am 
afraid  with  an  additional  kick  or  two.  Hearing  the  onset,  its  pre- 
liminaries and  result,  the  crowd  of  boys  returned,  and  their  re- 
turning courage  was  brought  to  the  test,  when  quickly  marched 
up  Sergeant  Saunders  with  his  whole  force,  twelve  strong,  to 
escort  me  down  to  prison.  Bayonets  screwed  on  were  on  one 
side,  and  grasped  paving  stones  on  the  other.  There  might  have 
been  danger,  indeed  ;  there  was  danger  and  I  said :  "  Boys,  if  you 
throw  a  stone  in  a  rescue,  the  first  thing  the  guard  does  is  to 
shoot  the  prisoner.  Do  you  wish  that  I  should  be  shot  ?  " 

"  And  besides,"  urged  the  Sergeant,  "  Tom  will  get  no  worse 
treatment  than  myself  till  morning — no  worse  prison  than  my 
rooms."  It  was  so  settled,  and  with  my  body-guard  I  filed  down 
to  the  barracks. 

In  a  village  of  rural  size  everybody  knows  everybody.  Was  it 
strange  then  that  the  Sergeant's  handsome  and  really  good 
daughter,  then  just  a  woman,  knew  myself,  then  just  claiming  to 
be  a  man.  Truth  is,  all  the  young  people  found  means  of  coming 
together  without  the  older  people  showing  them  the  way.  So 
when  I  came  to  my  lock-up,  I  found  the  tea  kettle  steaming,  the 
tea  things  set,  and  a  welcome  for  myself  rarely  indeed  accorded 
to  a  king's  prisoner  by  king's  troops,  and  in  durance  for  a  crime 
committed  against  themselves,  the  king's  forces. 

Nor  was  that  all.  There  is  a  ring  at  the  bell,  and  a  lady  enters 
with  a  paper  in  her  hand.  My  gun-partridge  prosecutor  had 
been  roused  from  his  midnight  sleep,  and  had  written  cabalistic 
?ords  on  this  paper  in  virtue  of  which  I  am  free  to  return  to  the 
wake-house,  as  an  escort  to  the  lady  who  was  niece  to  the  de- 
ceased and  had  money  to  lend.  Hence  her  Influence  with  the 
Rev.  Justice,  i.'he  whole  adventure  was  squeezed  into  little  mow 
(ban  the  midnight  hour 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  •)» 

But  next  day  came  a  piebald  paper  denouncing  very  ugly  crimes 
—dilapidation,  violent  assault,  and  so  forth — which  I  must  justify 
at  the  approaching  Quarter  Sessions,  or  take  a  journey  to  Lifford 
and  a  recess  in  the  county  jail. 

I  was  a  subscriber  to  the  Catholic  Bent.  So  I  wrote  to  the  Asso- 
ciation— it  was  then  in  high  feather  in  Dublin — to  ask  their  advice 
in  my  "difficulty." 

"Apply  to  some  Attorney  in  your  County  who  is  a  member  of  the 
Catholic  Association.  "EDWARD  DWYER,  Secretary." 

I  did  so  apply  to  the  only  professional  member  the  county 
contained.  But  no  reply  came  back  from  Edward  Murray,  Attorney- 
at-law. 

Our  old  friend  Jack  Beard,  the  clerk,  hailed  me  once  more. 
"The  Sessions  are  at  hand,"  he  says;  "what  are  you  going  to  do 
about  officer  Graham  and  his  jacket?  " 

"Stand  trial,  I  suppose.     What  else? " 

"Well,  there  may  be  something  else.  I  have  been  inquiring, 
and  I  think  if  you  pay  costs,  including  the  tailor's  bill,  you  will 
be  let  off." 

I  must  confess,  at  the  present  day,  that  I  would  listen  to  a  similar 
offer  in  a  similar  case  with  more  favor  (such  is  the  quieting  effect  of 
time)  than  I  did  then.  As  it  was,  a  very  resolved  and  distinct 
negative  was  my  answer. 

The  Quarter  Sessions  approached  and  things  looked  squally. 
My  friend  of  the  partridges  sat  beside  the  Assistant  Barrister 
(Major),  and  literally  "had  his  ear."  That  identical  churchwarden 
who  had  got  me  into  all  the  scrape  was  the  first  on  the  jury  list 
to  try  my  offense.  I  objected.  "For  what  cause?"  asked  the 
Court.  I  stated  the  facts.  "  A  very  sufficient  cause — stand  aside, 
Mr.  Corscaden."  My  hero  of  the  partridges  winced — spoke  sub  voce 
to  the  Bench — suddenly  rose  and  exit,  a  sure  sign  of  what  was  to 
follow.  On  evidence  of  the  policeman  and  churchwarden,  them- 
selves, I  was  not  only  acquitted!  but  commended,  and  both  those 
worthies  sharply  reprimanded — told,  in  short,  that  if  they  had 
1  >een  worse  used  they  deserved  it.  How  different  the  result  would 
have  been  had  it  been  tried  by  the  "Reverend  Rector"  himself! 

It  was  this  adventure  that  made  me  the  first  "Young  Irelander  " 
on  record.  I  was  a  subscriber  to  the  Catholic  Association,  and  I  had 
written  to  that  body  for  advice.  They  replied,  as  we  have  seen,  and 
that  reply  led  to  my  enlightenment,  as  we  shall  see. 


THK    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NES2STEJEHXH    CENTURY  J 


OHAPTEB    VH. 
ORANGEISM  AJTD  OTHER  THINGS. 

THB  anniversary  of  tho  Boyne  always  brought  bad  feeling 
with  it.  It  also  brought  a  large  procession  of  Orangmen  into 
the  village,  armed,  on  foot  and  on  horseback.  They  generally 
contented  themselves  with  playing  party  tunes,  and  firing  on  th« 
empty  air.  On  the  occasion  of  which  I  now  write  they  did  more, 
and  one  man  of  the  opposite  creed  was  struck  down  under  a 
cart,  and  received  seventeen  sword  cuts  on  the  face  and  scalp. 

Neal  Gallagher  was  quite  a  smart  young  fellow,  and  what  was 
more  to  the  purpose,  a  chief  officer  of  the  Ribbon  organization, 
and  held  it  in  his  grasp.  He  lived  a  mile  out  of  the  town,  and 
along  hi  the  month  of  June,  hi  walks  towards  his  home,  he  and 
I  projected  a  movement  to  settle  the  Orangemen. 

It  is  Sunday,  the  llth  of  July.  I  sometimes  go  to  chapel 
to  see  the  flounces  and  bonnets,  but  this  time  I  have  other  busi- 
ness. Neal  is  there,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  a  crowd  is  there, 
We  are  all  very  demure,  if  not  very  devout,  till  Mass  is  over. 
Then  outside  there  is  a  talk  about  pikes  and  muskets  and  mus- 
tering against  the  following  day.  The  Tannawilly  men,  reinforced 
by  the  Killymard  men,  insist  that  they  can  do  the  work  them- 
selves without  sending  down  for  the  Inver  men.  Neal  doesn't 
eay  much  till  all  have  spoken.  Then. 

"  Boys,  I  like  that  voice.  It  has  the  clear  ring  in  it.  But  we 
don't  want  any  fighting  if  we  can  gain  the  day  without  it.  Now, 
If  the  Inver  men  also  come  to  the  ground,  we'll  have  such  a 
force  as  the  magistrates  and  their  police  will  not  face  at  all. 
This  is  Sunday,  and  we  will  best  keep  it  holy  by  deciding  that 
there  shall  be  no  blows ;  there  will  be  none  when  the  Inver  men 
show  themselves."  NeaPs  word  was  law,  as  indeed  it  ought  to 
be.  But  how  apprise  the  Inver  men  ?  They  are  at  Mass  now 
In  "  the  Frosses  chapel,"  eight  or  ten  miles  from  here.  They'll 
all  be  gone  home  ;  we  can't  reach  them  in  time. 

"  We  can.  Those  mountain  congregations  are  late  assembling, 
and  they  are  not  in  haste  to  go  back  home  without  a  little  talk 
with  their  neighbors.  I  have  a  horse  and  saddle  on  the  ground 


OR,    THE    SPIKIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  61 

and  an  hour  hence  I  can  be  there.'  "  I  have  another,"  said  John 
McDonagh,  a  young  man  whose  house  had  been  threatened  by 
the  Orangemen.  Neal  off  with  his  hat,  and  out  with  a  sheet  of 
paper  on  it.  Pen  and  ink  were  mysteriously  at  hand,  and  in  a 
twinkling  we  are  armed  with  credentials  to  Jack  McGlenachy, 
and  a  general  invitation  to  a  "  Party  at  Thrushbank  "  by  day- 
break next  morning.  The  messengers  are  in  the  saddle,  and 
don't  pull  up  till  we  are  at  "  the  Frosses  chapel."  The  devotions 
are  over,  but  the  crowd  is  not.  Our  message,  didn't  it  create  a 
stir  !  The  affair  was  arranged  in  ten  minutes.  Effectually,  too, 
as  the  next  morning  light  over  Thrushbank  fully  proved. 

Now  here  let  me  make  confession.  I  don't  think,  on  the  whole, 
that  I  deserved  the  praise  which  this  action  entailed  on  me  for 
weeks  thereafter.  But,  "  as  an  open  confession  is  good  for  the 
soul,"  let  me  make  it  here.  Write  down  that  I  had  an  aiding  mo- 
tive for  this  fast  and  furious  ride.  Winding  along  the  river  as  it 
streamed  seaward  from  the  "  chapel,"  there  was  a  narrow,  smooth 
road,  almost  a  bridlepath,  between  the  house  of  prayer,  and  the 
house  of  a  young  lady,  who  really  was  not,  and  could  not  be,  half 
as  beautiful,  tall,  majestic,  goddess-like  as  I  imagined  her.  But 
she  was  a  good  deal  of  all  that ;  very  proud,  too,  and  quite  a  toast 
with  all  the  dashing  young  fellows  in  that  region.  Now  let  me 
confess  it  to  my  confusion — but  honestly  confess  it — I  expected 
that  she  would  get  a  sight  of  me,  and  see  that  I  could  ride  as 
good  a  horse,  and  was  as  much  of  a  man  as  the  very  "  biggest " 
and  best  of  her  admirers,  I  was  not  disappointed.  She  was 
emerging  from  the  chapel  gate  as  the  douple  gallop  of  two 
horses  covered  with  foam  reined  up  in  front  it.  Though  not  one 
of  the  "  recognized,"  she  knew, 

"  For  quickly  comes  such  knowledge," 

all  about  it,  and  did  slightly  return  as  I  doffed  my  cap  to  her. 
She  passed  on,  and  as  her  form  receded  down  the  river  pathway 
I  am  afraid,  though  I  am  not  sure,  that  she  could  have  bought 
me  over  from  patriotism,  Ireland,  Freedom,  all  things  most  sa- 
cred in  my  thoughts,  with  one  intonation  of  her  voice.  Talk  of 
Heaven  and  golden  harps,  and  hallelujahs !  Give  me,  in  the 
long  immortality  that  lies  before  us,  the  feelings  of  that  day. 

And  why  should  they  not  be  given?  The  Supreme  Intelli- 
gence gave  them  to  us  here.  Why  not  continue  them,  continue 
them  to  us  hereafter  ?  I  at  least  trust  He  will 


651  THE    ODD    BOOK    O»    THB    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

"  If  Heaven  one  draught  of  Heavenly  pleasure  spar*, 

One  cordial  in  this  melancholr  vale. 
'Tis  when  a  youthful,  loving,  modest  pair, 

In  others'  arms  breathe  lorth  the  tender  tale.          , 
Beneath  the  milk  white  thorn  that  scents  the  evening  gale." 

Having  written  thus  far,  I  remember  that  such  men  as  Mira- 
beau,  Barnave,  and  many  another  French  patriot,  and  even  Ed- 
mund Burke,  were  lured  to  the  side  of  the  court  by  the  charms 
of  the  Queen  and  the  court  ladies.  I  fear  that  men,  unapproach- 
able by  all  other  temptation,  may  (but  again  a  say  I  am  not  sure) 
yield  to  that.  Next  day  word  comes  flashing  into  the  village 
that  Thrushbank  is  garrisoned  by  3,000  men.  But  I  antici- 
pate. 

It  is  still  Sunday,  but  now  it  is  Sunday  night,  and  the  word 
goes  round  that  the  Orangemen  have  sworn  to  burn  McDon- 
agh's  house  before  morning.  Not  a  human  being  is  asleep  in 
the  village ;  all  doors  open ;  all  people  out  in  the  street.  In 
front  of  McDonagh's  we  are  assembled.  Arms  may  be  useful. 
Mclntyre  keeps  the  second  "  head  Inn ; "  it  is  our  place  of  re- 
Bort,  and  he  has  a  musket  and  two  horse  pistols.  Will  he  give 
them  ?  "  No ;  you  will  get  yourselves  into  jail.  No  arms  from 
me."  "  Stand  aside  !"  Dash  in,  know  their  hiding  place,  and  the 
captured  arsenal  is  ours.  We  hold  a  council  of  war.  It  ia 
agreed  that  the  people  shall  retire  to  their  rest,  and  that,  if  in- 
vasion comes,  Pat  Cannon  will  summon  to  arms  with  his  key 
bugle.  It  is  twelve  o'clock — one — two  o'clock ;  bright  summer 
moonlight.  Hark !  It  is  the  gallop  of  horses,  bare-backed,  and 
the  riders  almost  guiltless  of  overclothing.  They  had  started 
out  of  bed.  The  Orangemen  are  on  the  march,  they  report,  and 
would  be  here  before  now,  only  they  stop  to  sharpen  their 
swords  on  the  grey  rocks.  Pat  has  the  key  bugle  to  his  mouth 
to  summon  to  arms  the  garrison.  "  Hold !  It  may  be  a  mistake. 
Mulreany  and  myself  will  cross  tho  Moor  Hill,  mark  their  ap- 
proach, and  rush  back  and  report  it.  Till  then,  wait."  We  cross 
the  hill  and  the  hill  beyond  it.  All  is  as  i^acef ul  and  silent  as  if 
a  human  passion  did  not  wust  La  sJh*  world.  We  return  by 
Frank  Ray's  Grove.  It  is  now  in  moonlight  shadow.  Not  so 
thfc  reverend  JuKtioe  at  the  head  of  ROOM*  thirty  or  forty  Peelers 
and  revenue  police.  They  are  marching  down  the  Chapel  road 
to  the  town.  From  our  thicket  saniuaioa  wo  see  two  prisoners, 
our  friend  Neal  and  his  uncle.  They  were  "  taken  in  the  fact  of 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OK    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN     DA  VS.  63 

an  overt  act "—"  running  bullets  of  a  Sunday  morning."  Along 
tbe  shadowy  hill  we  have  a  good  start,  outstrip  the  guard,  and 
report  what's  approaching.  All  retire  and  shut  up ;  I  to  my 
sister's  house,  which  is  next  door  to  the  residence  of  my  gentle 
friend ,  who  had  rescued  me  from  Sergeant  Sa  u odors.  "  You  must 
not  stay  here,  she  says  [she  was  in  along  with  my  sister].  If 
search  comes  you'll  be  safer  in  my  back  parlor.  You  know  I'm 
a  Protestant,  and  loyal,  and  everything  they  wish."  So  said,  so 
done.  And  sure  enough  the  search  did  come  through  all  the 
houses,  and  went  thoroughly  through  that  of  my  sister.  No 
prize.  My  friend  stood  at  her  front  door.  She  was  in  terror 
about  "those  Bibbonmeu,"  and  glad  in  proportion  to  see  his 
reverence  vindicating  the  law.  Myself,  with  my  ear  to  the  key- 
hole all  the  time,  greatly  amused  listening  to  the  loyal  conver- 
sation. 

Next  day  about  3,000  men  assembled,  armed  as  they  best 
could,  principally  with  wool  shears  broken  in  .two,  and  each  half 
forming  quite  a  formidable  pike  blade  of  fifteen  inches  long,  and 
with  a  point  of  very  insinuating  sharpness.  The  mountain  and 
Piedmont  are  sheep-grazing  countries,  and  in  every  cabin  is  a 
pair  or  two  of  wool  shears — every  shears  good  at  a  pinch  for 
two  pike  heads. 

But  morning  rises  over  the  big  blue  mountains,  and  descends 
down  over  the  lake  and  even  down  the  river  to  Thrushbank 
Bridge.  There  they  are  with  Captain  Gibbons  at  their  head. 
Wherever  they  come  from  they  line  a  high  stone  fence  that  lies 
between  them  and  a  quiet  rural  bye  road  that  leads  down  to  and 
across  the  river.  Their  right  flank  rests  on  the  bridge,  and  the 
stream  easily  fordable.  The  left  wing  is  uncovered,  or  resting 
upon  a  front  of  pikes.  John  Hamilton,  a  J.  P.,  and  a  good  kind 
of  a  man  hi  his  way;  Brooke,  of  Lough  Eske  House,  another 
J.  P.,  not  quite  so  good ;  worse  still,  the  Rev.  Joe  Welch,  our 
old  acquaintance.  They  are  on  horseback,  leading  on  the 
rather  fidgety  and  unreliable  Peelers  and  the  wholly  resigned 
"  whiskey  police,"  who  are  in  «,  quiet  understanding  with  the 
rebels.  These  to  fire  over  heads  ;  those  to  rush  in  and  make 
them  prisoners.  All  the  hilltops  are  canopied  with  crowds,  not 
very  "  sedate  to  think,"  but  "watching  each  event."  The  troops 
block  up  the  highroad  with  their  march,  and  no  one  is  suffered 
to  pass  before  them  toward  the  array  of  the  insurgents,  Birt 


C4  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CKNTUHY  : 

the  fields  are  too  wide  to  be  guarded.  I  pass  on  to  the  end  of 
the  hill  (Drimlonagher)  that  overlooks  the  position  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile.  I  have  a  case  of  pistols  only.  If  the  row  be- 
gins I  must  have  a  hand  in.  But  a  parley  is  sounded— a  con- 
ference— a  treaty.  "  Retire  to  homes  "  on  one  side.  "  No  more 
Orange  parades  "  on  the  other.  Release  and  amnesty  to  the  two 
prisoners.  The  first  two  conditions  made  good ;  the  last  vio- 
lated wholly,  I  believe,  by  Welch  and  Brooke,  to  the  disapproval 
and  disgust  of  Mr.  Hamilton.  My  friend  Neal  and  his  uncle  are 
imprisoned  twelve  months  for  "  conspiring  to  fight,"  and  we  were 
all  conspirators. 

Sergeant  Hammond  had  been  at  the  wrong  side  of  the  Ameri- 
can war  of  1812.  He  carried  liberality  home  with  him.  I  don't 
know  what  kind  of  a  parish  clerk  he  made ;  but  as  a  schoolmas- 
ter he  stood  alone.  Never  has  the  sun  risen  on  a  man  who  gave 
more  liberty  and  less  learning  to  his  scholars  than  did  Andy. 

On  a  far-back  12th  of  July  I  and  a  comrade  wreathed  our  capa 
with  green  and  marched  away  in  front  of  the  Orange  procession 
on  its  way  to  Ballintra.  Audacious !  A  tall,  fierce  boy  left  the 
ranks  in  pursuit.  Andy  hadn't  his  eye  playing  the  fife ;  and 
just  as  young  Corscaden  seized  us  the  tune  ceased  sounding,  and 
Andy  was  there.  He  ordered  that  we  should  wear  just  what 
color  we  pleased,  and  it  was  so  ordered.  The  schoolmaster  has 
always  a  potential  voice.  Andy  in  particular. 

But  that  green  affair  was  seven  years  before.  I  am  now  a 
a  young  man,  setting  out  to  Belfast  for  goods.  Two  businesses 
I  have,  and  one  of  them  is  to  get  away  from  the  charge  of  "  con- 
spiracy." I  am  on  foot  to  take  the  mountain  road  to  Killeter— 
the  road  that  skirts  into  view  of 

That  lake  whoso  gloomy  shore, 
Skylark  never  warbles  o'er.  * 

But  just  at  the  approach  to  the  village  on  comes  the  Rev, 
Joseph  at  the  head  of  his  patrolling  force,  and  with  less  or 
more  "  conspiring  "  prisoners.  Andy  is  with  them  in  the  front. 
He  steps  out  and  briskly  forward,  takes  hold  of  rny  hand  ;  in 
short,  identifies  himself  with  me  as  his  personal  friend  and  pro- 
tege. Welch  looks  grimly  on  and  marches  on  with  his  troop, 
leaving  Andy  literally  taking  care  of  me.  The  memory  of  that 
man  is  always  a  soothing  resting  spot  when  I  see  it  far  back  In 
the  distance. 

«  Eyen  th«  p«uilentiftl  Lough  Derg. 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY     IN    MODERN     DAYS.  66 

J  proceed  on  my  journey,  and  before  entering  the  mountain 
road  the  last  man  I  signal  a  recognition  to  is  Jemmy  Stewart, 
whose  after  wretched  fate  Is  seen  in  this  volume.  I  am  at  Castle- 
derg  (named  from  the  lough  and  river)  and  have  time  to  stroll 
over  its  very,  very  narrow  old  bridge,  and  up  to  the  ruins  of 
what  was  once  the  parent  and  the  pride  of  the  village.  Even  In 
the  far  past  times,  there  was  youth,  and  trees,  and  flowers.  Was 
there  a  purer  and  more  golden  light  over  those  days  than  the 
light  that  descends  on  us  now  ?  No,  the  light  Is  still  young,  but 
we  are  growing  older ! 

A.  CLOUDY  SUNBEAM. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  " bridle  path,"  and  the  "seaward  river," 
and  the  "  receding  form,"  and  the  "  train  of  admirers,"  too,  the 
elite  of  coast  and  mountain.  Well,  they  were  all  on  the  retreat, 
carrying  their  damaged  hearts  home  with  them  in  silence.  A 
reasonably  high  priced  government  official,  and  unreasonably 
low-sized  government  man,  was  about  to  carry  off  the  prize. 
What  else  could  be  thought  ?  Position,  ambition,  public  sensa- 
tion, and  friends'  persuasion  are  persuasive  things,  and  they  all 
conspired  to  cast  the  horoscope.  I  am  in  the  "Young  Men's 
Club,"  a  "Chapman,  Billie,"  signals.  Sotto  voce.  "Won't  you 

send  a  farewell  to  Miss before  she  enters  the  dreary  waste 

of  matrimony?" 

Is  it  so  ? 

Certainly  it  is.  This  Is  the  last  free  chance.  She'll  be  "  pro- 
perty "  before  a  week  goes  round. 

"Excuse  me  1  This  pen  and  ink."  In  a  wink  I  am  in  the  next 
room,  and  that  pen  rushing  on  in  this  fashion: 

••  Whilst  ethers  past  the  twilight  hour  No  t  that  is  not  my  present  (hem*. 

In  winding  walk  or  leafy  bower,  That  error,  that  fantastic  dream ; 

Or  roaming  orer  bank  and  scaur;  Away  with  them,  I  can  forget. 

Companioned  with  tht  evening  star.  Or  if  they  be  remembered  yet. 

Or  watching  beauty's  kindling  eyes  Away  with  them  1    'Tis  my  design 

In  smiles  far  brighter  than  the  skies;  To  sketch  thyselt  and  wee  O'Bryan. 

Such  smiles  as  thine  were  wont  to  be,       "  O I  where  has  fled  the  towering  taste 

But  those  are  things  I  needn't  mention :  That  once  delighted  in  the  Ullest, 

For  smile  of  thine  ne'er  shone  on  me,  And  has  it  dwindled  to  tne  least. 

Thy  kindest  gaze  was  inattention ;  To  the  small— small— the  very  smallest, 

All  that  is  past  and  let  it  go,  Foor  Tall !  I  once  thought  it  would  do. 

That  fleeting  dream  is  gone,  is  orer :  And  many  another  thought  so  too; 

Yet  'tis  to  thee  alone  I  owe  But  now  your  chance  is  like  my  own, 

That  e'er  my  heart  became  a  roTer ;  And  that's  a  good  deal  worse  than  none ; 

And  such  it  is,  I  care  not  now  Surveyor,  too.    But  wherefore  speak 

Were  I  this  moment  placed  before  that,  Of  one 'tis  painful  to  remember. 

r«  meet  thee  with  a  changless  brow.  The  recollection  of  whose  cheek 

Fer  I  hare  ceased  to  lore,  adore  thee.  Brings  to  my  memory  bleak  December: 

9 


66 


THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE     NINETEENTH    CENTURI  : 


Yet  oft  63'  Inver's  verdant  lide 

His  moving  billet  met  your  eye. 
And  oil  relaxed  your  stoic  pride 

To  heave  for  him  the  pitying  sigh; 
He  had  a  servant  to  be  sure. 
But  breath  that  no  one  could  endure; 
Another  had  a  short  thick  neck, 
And  his  fine  form  was  not  unlike 
A  small  meal  or  potato  sack; 
He  was  tar,  they  called  him  Jack; 

No,  no— 'twas  Bill,  for  now  I  mind  it; 
1  think  'twas  Bill;  but  just  look  back. 

And  on  his  billetdeux  you'll  find  it 
O !  bad  I  space  to  tune  one  lay, 
To  .smart    O'/ton— 1— big  Gillea  ; 
To  Jialingion  along  the  shor», 
To  Clarke,  and  to  a  hundred  more; 
And  EaVy.-iJiannon  too !— but  hold 

My  nrnsc—  nor  longer  thus  a-mi««  me, 
Or  you  ar.d  I  may  get  n  scold; 

Butgtutlo  lady,  pray  excuse  me. 
And  I'll  not  write  another  line 
But  all  about  wee,  wee  O'Bryan.- 

'  "TSs  said,  but  surely  isn't  true. 
What  recommended  !;im  to  you 
Was  a  email  met  about  the  pay; 
That  weekly  comes  or  every  day. 
However  that,  be,  this  I  know. 

That  you  liave  ever  more  been  prudent : 
Aud  it  would  puzzle  me  to  show 
A  right  good  reason  why  you  shouldn't; 


That  you  arc  Jorftly  nil  agrees. 

And  many  a  time  I've  choug'.it  a  pity 
That  such  a  flower  breathed  not  the  breez* 

Among  the  ?ir.\)«ns  »f  a  city; 
Where  lords,  arid  xnusnti,  and  dukes  ar<j  rift- 

And  -where  you  could  have  justice  done  you, 
Yes.  there  you  would  become  the  wife 

Of  one  whose  coach-aml-fonr  would  run  yon. 
To  theatres— assemblies— balls. 

There  you  would  And  yourself  benighted; 
Not  in  wide  wastes  and  spectre  halls. 
But  Ray  saloons  whose  mirrored  walls 

Would  show  how  much  you  were  delight**; 
But,  as  it  is,  you  must  content 
Yourself  with  what  the  fates  have  sent: 
And  make  the  richest  match  you  can. 

But  that  I  know  you  will  consider. 
And  though  he's  not  the  highest  man, 

O'Bryan  will  be  the  highest  bidder; 
Well,  'pon  my  word  you'll '  eat  a  shine  I ' 
Yourself,  and  wee,  wee,  wee  O'Bryan, 

"  But  wh.it,  if  when  the  job  is  over. 

There  comes  a  stoppage  to  the  pay; 
lie  then  may  be  as  p<5or  a  lover 

As  '  other  dogs  that  had  their  day;1 
And  when  his  temple  fades  to  grey, 

You'll  backward  bend  your  recollection; 
And  think  that  there  has  been  a  day 

When  you  refused  a  J/«n's  protection ; 
'Tis  true,  he  was  not  quite  so  fine, 

As  wee,  wee,  wee,  wee,  wee  O'Bryan." 


I  am  afraid  that  this  squib  committed  murder  on  the  hopes  of 
4  wee  O'Bryan,"  and  even  gave  life  to  hopes  in  another  direction. 
But  destinies  are  shaped  in  heaven,  and  mine  was  shaped  in  an- 
other direction.  I  cannot  distinctly  write  down  the  lesson  I 
would  here  convey.  It  is  something  like  this.  Don't  blench  be- 
fore the  "  congee."  When  you  see  it  coming  meet  it  vigorously 
with  "  Just  stop  that !  I'll  save  you  all  the  trouble.  I  supposed 
you  could  know  an  honorable  man  when  you  met  him.  I  was 
mistaken.  That  is  all.  Good  morning ! "  If  the  scene  be  even- 
ing be  sure  to  say  "  good  morning,"  and  vice  versa. 

"  But  wherefore  all  this?  "What  is  its  drift?  And  why  call  it 
a  cloudy  sunbeam  ?  "  Find  out.  Or  if  you  can't  find  out,  just 
remembei  that  this  is  the  "Odd  Book  of  the  Nineteenth  Cent- 
ury." 

Nest  year  Catholic  Emancipation  was  achieved.  If,  indeed, 
that  could  be  called  Emancipation  which  let  a  few  Catholic  lords 
and  lawyers  into  Parliament,  and  disfranchised  all  the  forty  s/iii- 


OB,     THF     8PIPJT    0V     CHIVALHY     IN     MODERN     DAYS.  67 

ling  freeholders  in  Ireland.  It  was  this  devoted  class  who  re- 
turned Daniel  O'Connell  to  Parliament  for  Clare,  and  thus  forced 
"  Emancipation."  Now  they  were  sacrificed.  Not  only  was  the  right 
to  vote  taken  from  them,  but  the  right  to  live.  My  memory  yet 
goes  back  to  the  long  lines  of  these  miserable  men  and  theii 
wretched  families,  darkening  the  very  highways  in  their  endeav- 
or to  reach  a  northern  port  to  take  shipping  for  Scotland.  They 
thought  they  could  there  exchange  their  work  for  a  morsel  of 
bread.  The  "  landlord  "  (so  called)  had  no  further  use  for  them. 
He  wanted  ten  pound  voters.  He  must  strengthen  his  parlia- 
mentary influence,  and  so  four  families  were  thrown  out  on  the 
highway,  that  the  fifth  one  might  be  hammered  into  a  ten-pound 
voter,  and  vote  for  my  lord  or  my  lord's  Mend  at  the  next  elec- 
tion. I  saw  this,  arid  yet  my  faith  in  O'Connell  was  unshaken. 
I  learned  that  previously,  when  giving  evidence  before  a  commit- 
tee of  the  House  of  Commons,  he  had  consented  to  this  terrible 
wrong,  and  also  to  the  pensioning  of  the  Catholic  Clergy,  and  a 
veto  of  the  crown  on  the  appointment  of  Catholic  bishops.  The 
bishops  and  clergy,  however,  could  protect  themselves,  and  they 
did.  They  refused  to  accept  this  government  bribe.  But  the  poor 
forty  shilling  men  could  not  protect  themselves,  and  they  were 
sacrificed.  Still  my  fai^h  in  Dan  was  such  that  I  only  wished  he 
would  call  us  to  some  glorious  battle-field,  and  let  us  conquer,  or 
let  us  die,  for  the  cause  which  he  represented. 

Such  was  my  ideal  of  the  man— such  my  confidence.  And  yet 
a  single  statement,  almost  a  single  word,  spoken  by  him  destroy- 
ed that  confidence  forever. 

At  a  meeting  in  Dublin,  held  shortly  after  "  Emancipation"  was 
carried,  he  spoke  to  this  effect :  "  The  Tory  press  is  very  anxious 
about  the  winding  up  of  our  affairs.  They  want  us  to  exhibit  a 
balance  sheet  of  the  Catholic  Eent.  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of 
pleasing  the  Tory  press  in  anything,  and  I  won't  please  them  in 
reference  to  this  balance  sheet.  If  I  wished  to  do  so,  it  could  be 
easily  done.  We  received  and  replied  to  (so  many)  letters  a  day. 
Is  not  half-&  crown  the  price  any  professional  gentleman  charges 
for  writing  a  better  ?  [Yes  !  yes  !  from  the  lawyers  on  the  plat- 
form.] Well,  then,  here  is  one  item  of  our  work  that  mounts  up 
to  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling."  [Cheers.] 

As  has  been  aeen,  I  had  received  one  of  those  letters.  It  also 
happened  that  fen  old  playfellow  of  mine  had  been  employed  bv 


68      -THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

the  Catholic  Association  in  this  very  department  of  answering 
letters.  His  wages  were  seventeen  shillings  a  week.  I  put  that 
and  that  "  and  that "  together,  and  rny  faith  in  Mr.  O'Connell 
departed  forevermore.  I  claim,  therefore,  to  be  the  first  rebel 
to  Dan's  authority,  the  oldest  "  Young  Irelander  "  on  record,  and 
that,  too,  by  many  a  long,  long  year.  Succeeding  events  were  not 
such  as  to  alter  my  opinion,  as  shall  appear  as  wo  proceed, 
But  here,  just  here,  let  me  devote  a  chapter  to  him, 


CHAPTER    VIII. 
DA*    O'CONNELL-  -A  GLANCE   AT   THE   FACTS   OF    His    CAREER. 

THE  Monarchy  of  Great  Britain  was  at  this  time  (1798)  an  Oli- 
garchy of  Rotten  Borough  proprietors.  Several  of  the  oligarchs 
being  Catholics.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  returned  seven  members 
to  the  lower  house  through  his  Boroughs,  though  as  a  Catholic 
he  could  not  himself  enter  the  House  of  Peers.  It  was  to  sus- 
tain this  order  of  things  that  Dan  took  up  arms  against  the  Re- 
publican "  United  Men,"  headed  by  such  men  as  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald  and  the  Martyr  Emniett.  And  this  beginning  har- 
monizes exactly  with  all  his  subsequent  career. 

In  that  ill-fated  struggle,  probably  100,000  men,  and  even 
women  and  children,  perished  ;  and  towards  its  close,  to  be  even 
suspected  of  disaffection  was  the  hazard  of  your  life. 

But  Dan,  being  a  government  soldier,  was  not  suspected,  and 
therefore  could  raise  his  voice.  Not  for  "Liberty,"  but  for  such 
freedom  as  would  admit  men  like  himself  into  Parliament.  It 
was  natural  that  young  men  should  gather  to  this  voice.  And  so 
the  Catholic  Association  was  formed,  and  his  praises  soon  rang 
over  the  Island. 

In  my  first  far-off  memories  I  find  such  voices  as  this  : 

"  Brave  O'Conuell  worthy  of  applause, 
A  friend  to  his  country,  religion,  and  laws, 
He  expounds  the  law  in  the  Catholic  cause. 

That  famed  bright  son  of  Erin." 

His  praises  also  took  a  more  vulgar  shape,  and  were  sung  In 
strains  like  this : 


03,     THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN     MODERN    DAYS.  09 

"  The  Judge  he  said, '  O'Oonnell  you  have  set  the  prisoner  tree. 

Ho  may  go  homo  to  Mohill— he's  at  his  liberty.'" 
And  tliis  : 

"  O'Connell,  our  hero,  has  planted  a  tree. 
His  Irishman's  motto  is, '  die  or  bo  free."* 

And  reaching  down  into  the  absurd.    Thus  : 

"  Come  to  the  bower,  and  my  flower's  name  I'll  tell  it, 
"  A.  D.."  and  "  0'0,;>  most  nobly  does  spell  it." 

Terminating  with  some  half  remembered  doggerel  about 
"George's  deep  channel,"  and  the  "flowery  O'Oonnell."  In 
this  way  there  was  not  a  cabin  in  Treland  but  rang  with  the 
praises  of  this  evil  man. 

Nor  was  all  this  without  cause.  The  Catholics  were  a  subject 
caste— had  fallen  for,  and  with,  the  vicious  Stuarts.  Arid  once  at 
least,  on  the  12th  of  July  in  every  year,  the  banners  and  drums 
ot  the  Orangemen,  renewed  remembrance  of  the  "Boyne  and 
Aughrim. 

Protestant  Dissenters  disapproved  of  those  irritating  displays, 
joined  the  Catholic  Association,  and  "  Emancipation  " — so  called 
—was  achieved  in  1829. 

Immediately  thereafter,  the  tory  press  demanded  the  BAL- 
ANCE SHEET  of  the  "  Catholic  Bent." 

The  merits  of  this  demand  is  presented  at  page  67. 

Emancipation  is  gained  and  here  is  t^e  first  condition  imposed 
by  the  Act : 

"  I.  A.  B..  do  sincerely  promise  and  swear  that  I  will  be  faithful  and  bear 
true  allegiance  to  his  Majesty  King  George  the  Fourth,  and  will  defend  him 
to  the  utmost  of  my  power  against  all  conspiracies  and  attempts  whatever 
which  shall  be  made  against  his  person,  crown,  or  dignity;  and  I  WILL 
DO  MY  UTMOST  ENDEAVOR  TO  DISCLOSE  AND  HAKE  KNOWN  TO 
HIS  MAJESTY,  HIS  HEJP.S,  AND  SUCCESSORS.  ALju  TREASONS  AND 
TRAITOROUS  CONSPIRACIES  which  may  be  formed  against  him  or 
them." 

Thus  every  man  taking  office  under  it,  becomes  a  sworn  SPY  of 
the  government.  Following  this  beginning  are  some  twenty- 
seven  sections  of  the  Act,  all  penal  and  prohibitory.  All  in  full 
accordance  with  what  is  here  quoted.  The  disfranchisement  of 
the  Forty-shlllingers',  a  part  of  the  bargain  forms  a  distinct  Act 
by  itself.  One  trumpet  note  of  triumph  peals  over  the  earth. 
The  Catholic  lawyers  are  in  their  new  seats  of  honor.  Those  who 
elected  Dan  are  driven  out  to  destitution  and  death. 


70  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

No  man  heeded  them.      Yes  ! 

Henry  Grattan  Curran,  son  of  the  great  orator,  thus  embalms 
them : 

"  "With  ruddy  chocks  around  his  hearth  six  laughing  children  stood, 
And  kindly  turned  that  old  man's  eye  on  his  own  flesh  and  blood ; 
His  daily  labor  won  for  them  a  home,  and  clothes,  and  food — 
And,  as  they  broke  their  daily  bread,  he  taught  them  Heaven  was  good, 
And  bade  them  eat  in  thankfulness — good  man  of  the  olden  time ! 

"  But  when  election  time  was  come — who  then  too  rich  or  grand 
To  crowd  that  humble  peasant's  floor,  to  seize  his  rugged  hand, 
To  ask  his  vote  and  interest,  and  swear  like  him  to  stand 
And  peril  life  and  liberty  for  faith  and  fatherland ! 
For  he  was  "  a  real  staunch  Forty" — the  pride  of  the  olden  time. 

11  But  times  were  changed — the  fight  was  fought— the  struggle  overpast^ 
And  lost  the  power  the  Forties  used  so  bravely  to  the  last. 
Like  broken  swords  these  dauntless  men  aside  were  falsely  cast ; 
That  hearth  was  quenched ;  that  cabin's  wall  in  ruin  strewed  the  blast : 
And  where  is  he— the  "  Forty" — the  heart  of  the  olden  time?  " 

The  Reform  Bill  of  '32  brought  the  Whigs  into  power,  and  along 
in  '-M  Dan  made  a  splurge  for  "  Repeal."  But  his  motion  met  with 
such  a  hostile  reception  that  he  quailed — knocked  under — and  made 
the  "Lichfield  House  compact"  with  the  Whigs. 

This  disfranchisement  of  the  Forty-shilling  Freeholders  was 
a  public-  calamity,  second  only  to  the  lord-made  famine  of  '47.  It 
affected  the  whole  Island.  It  ruined  all  poor  tenants,  Protest- 
ant and  Catholic  alike.  Discontent  springs  up,  and  there  is  need 
of  a  coercion  law.  The  Tories  were  then  in  power,  and  the  des- 
potic law  would  enable  them  to  transport  to  a  penal  settlement 
any  man  in  a  "proclaimed  district"  who  might  be  found  outsido 
of  his  cabin  after  the  sun  went  down.  Dan  shook  both  Hemi- 
spheres with  his  denunciations  of  this  inhuman  law.  But  such 
laws  are  asked  only  for  a  time,  at  the  end  of  which  time 
they  "expire  by  limitation."  When  this  law  so  expired  the 
Tories  were  out,  and  the  Whigs  were  in  and  demanded  a  renewal 
of  this  atrocious  law.  What  did  O'Connell  do?  As  a  part  of 
his  contract  with  the  Whigs  will  he  sustain  them  in  this  demand? 
He  has  forty  *  of  his  relatives  and  adherents  in  Whig  places. 
Will  he  sustain  them  with  his  vote?  Aye — and  with  his  speech, 
too.  O'Connell  spoke  and  voted  for  this  atrocious  law  which  five 


*  I  had  this  t';n-i    troi»    Mr.  Collins    when   he    was   J'rivat^   Secretary  of 
Joseph  Hume.  M.  P. 


OR,    THE    SPI1UT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN     DAYS,  71 

years  before  he  had  so  vehemently  and  so  righteously  denounced, 
Those  facts  did  not  strike  down  the  popularity  of  the  man,  and 
when  I  was  in  London  in  '36  and  '37  Dan  was  invited  to  Demo- 
cratic meetings  in  that  city.  I  was  present  at  one  of  those,  and, 
among  other  things,  he  used  this  figure  of  speech  :  "  The  sweat 
of  your  toil,  my  friends,  streams  over  your  brow,  and  you  can. 
with  soap  and  towel,  wash  it  away ;  but  there  remains  behind  a 
brand  that  you  can't  wipe  away  in  this  manner.  It  is  the  brand 
of  slavery;  and  that  can  be  wiped  out  only  by  the  soap  and 
towel  of  universal  suffrage."  To  which  there  was  a  loud  re- 
sponse of  applause.  Now  it  was  remarkable  that  in  all  his  pro- 
grammes and  speeches  to  the  Irish  people  the  word  "  universal 
suffrage"  did  not  ever  pass  his  lips.  By  its  use  he  kept  the 
English  Democracy  on  his  side;  but  a  night  was  approaching 
that  would  settle  the  account  between  him  and  the  Beformers 
of  England.  That  night  saw  the  defeat  of  the  Factory  bill  in- 
tended to  relieve  the  factory  children.  Those  little  ones  had 
been  worked  destructive  hours  and  debarred  from  education. 
The  friends  of  the  children  had  introduced  to  Parliament  a  bill 
for  their  relief.  This  bill  the  Manufacturers  resisted.  The  op- 
posing forces,  for  the  bill  and  against  it,  assembled  in  the  lobbies 
of  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  night  fixed  for  the  debate. 
"Don't  lose  time  with  me,"  said  Dan,  to  the  children's  lobbyists. 
"  Look  to  those  that  are  uncertain,  me  you  are  sure  of.  Not 
only  are  the  children  secure  of  my  vote  but  my  humble  voice 
shall  be  raised  in  their  behalf."  He  had  yet  to  pass  the  Manu- 
facturers' lobbyists.  They  got  hold  of  him,  and,  whatever  con- 
siderations they  urged  upon  him,  he  wheeled  right  round,  and 
he  not  only  voted  but  made  a  "sympathetic  "  speech  against  any 
change  in  the  conditions  of  the  lav/.  He  "  had  come  down  to  the 
House,"  he  said,  "  determined  to  vote  for  all  that  was  claimed  on 
the  part  of  the  children  ;  but  he  fortunately  was  shown  that  the 
parents  of  those  children  could  not  spare  any  deduction  from 
the  wages  they  earned,  and  so,  in  justice  to  those  parents,  h« 
must  vote  to  keep  the  children  at  their  work  as  usual."  Such 
was  his  explanation :  but  a  more  authentic  explanation  appeared 
the  following  week.  The  Manufacturers  subscribed  one  thoue- 
and  pounds  sterling  to  the  "O'Cormell  Tribute.^  I  should  have 
previously  stated  that  immediately  after  the  Catholic  rent  had 
ceased  was  commenced  the  "  O'Connell  Tribute,1'  and  it  reached 


72  THE    ODD    BOOK    OP    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

some  seventeen  thousand  pounds  in  a  single  year.  This  trans- 
action was  denounced  by  the  Reformers  as  the  "Sale  of  the 
Factory  children  ; "  and  dimmed,  but  for  a  time  only,  the  popu- 
larity of  Dan, 

About  this  time  the  Duchess  of  Kent  (Victoria's  mother) 
couldn't  live  on  £30,000  sterling  a  year  and  free  palaces.  So  she 
ran  in  debt,  and  application  is  made  to  the  Commons  to  relieve 
her  distress.  The  Commons  refused  to  do  it.  Dan  exhausted 
his  eloquence  in  vain,  and  then  he  said  he  would  "  raise  a  sub- 
scription in  Ireland,  and  even  his  barefoot  coutry-women  would 
tush  in  from  glen  and  mountain,  and  club  their  sixpences  rather 
than  see  their  queen's  mother  in  embarassed  circumstances  ! " 

By  and  by  the  queen  got  married,  and  it  was  proposed  in  the 
Hon.  House  to  grant  Albert  £20,000  a  year.  Dan  leveled  his  indig- 
nation against  the  proposal.  It  was  "  a  beggarly  allowance,"  and 
he  moved  to  amend  ten  thousand  pounds  to  it.  The  House  was 
again  obstinate,  and  to  Dan's  disgust  the  poor  prince  had.  to  sit 
down  with  the  "  beggarly  "  twenty  thousands  pounds  a  year. 

Dan  now  discovered  that  the  royal  stables  were  not  fit  for  the 
new-comer's  horses.  So  he  sustains  a  modest  grant  of  £70,000 
to  build  new  ones.  The  eloquence  of  Dan  failed  once  more,  and 
f  he  prince  had  to  put  up  with  the  existing  stables. 

It  is  '37,  and  the  Canadian  Assembly  has  refused  to  pay  the 
government  officials,  till  certain  grievances  are  redressed.  Lord 
Tohn,  then  premier,  won't  redress  them.  On  the  contrary,  he 
Brings  in  Resolutions  to  seize  upon  the  Canadian  strong-box,  and 
pay  the  officials  out  of  it.  I  was  in  the  strangers'  gallery  that 
tight,  and  heard  the  debate.  Dan  spoke  against  the  Resolutions, 
and  voted  against  them— told  the  minister  that  this  would  pro- 
duce bloodshed  in  the  Colony,  though  the  minister  might  think 
the  prophecy  "  a  fairy  tale ! "  The  measure  was  passed  however, 
and  many  a  Canadian  died  in  opposing  it — many  a  homestead 
was  leveled  by  the  flames — and  many  a  gallant  American  bor- 
derer was  hanged  to  death  for  attempting  to  do  for  Canada  what 
Lafayette  did  for  his  own  Republic.  Could  Dan  have  prevented 
this ?  Let  us  inquire  ? 

Parties  in  the  Commons  were  nearly  balanced  at  the  time. 
Dan,  with  his  "  tail  of  forty  joints  "  held  the  balance.  To  affect 
thia  Canadian  question,  be  well  knew  that  it  was  utter- 
ly useless  for  himself  and  all  his  followers  to  vote  against  it, 
for  the  whole  Tory  side  was  sure  to  vote  with  the  government. 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  7i< 

What  then  could  Dan  do  ?  Simply  take  Lord  John  aside  and 
«peak  to  him  in  this  way :  "  You  gave  those  poor  waifs  in  Cana- 
da a  Constitution,  and  now  you  are  going  to  violate  it  because 
they  ask  a  small  matter  of  redress,  which  is  not  very  unreason- 
able. Take  my  advice  and  give  them  the  trifling  boon,  or  if  you 
don't ! "  Lord  John  needn't  ask  the  meaning  of  this  "  If  you 
don't ! "  He  knows  its  meaning  right  well.  Knows  that  Dan 
can  oust  him  from  office  by  voting  with  the  Tories  on  the  very 
next  close  division — on  the  Malt  Tax  for  example,  or  any  other 
trial  of  strength.  This  word  resolutely  spoken  by  Dan  would, 
as  I  believed  on  that  night,  and  have  ever  since  believed,  have 
saved  all  the  slaughter  and  sorrow  that  ensued  in  Canada,  and  its 
border.  And  this  is  the  only  inferential  charge  I  bring  against 
him.  Judge  whether  it  is  reasonable.  All  the  others  are  direct 
substantial  facts. 

Then  comes  the  burning  of  the  American  steamer  "  Caroline  " 
on  the  Niagara  river,  and  the  murder  of  her  watchman,  Durfee, 
by  a  Scotch  McLeod.  Dan  presents  himself  again.  "Let 
New  York  touch  a  hair  of  McLeod's  head,"  he  exclaims,  "  and 
fire  and  sword  will  rouse  her  midnight  homes." 

When  the  dispute  about  Oregon  arose,  Dan  spoke  to  hia 
followers  in  the  spring  of  1845.  Let  her  majesty  do  "Jus- 
tice to  Ireland  "  (whatever  that  meant.)  "  Then  Ireland  would 
start  forward  with  all  her  chivalrous  and  manly  daring  under 
the  banners  of  Queen  Victoria — then  would  Irishmen  show  their 
devotion  to  the  throne."  This,  too,  from  the  man  who  would  not 
purchase  the  "  greatest  revolution  with  one  drop  of  blood,"  but, 
to  shield  the  loyal  criminal  McLeod,  he  would  spill  any  quan- 
tity that  might  be  desirable.  Yet  hear  him  again,  in  the  same 
breath. 

"  We  tell  them  (the  English  government)  from  this  spot,  that 
they  can  have  us,  that  the  throne  of  Victoria  can  be  made  per- 
fectly secure,  the  honor  of  the  British  Empire  maintained,  and 
the  American  Eagle  in  its  highest  pride  brought  down,  and  the 
British  Lion  put  up  in  his  place.  Let  them  but  conciliate  us,  and 
do  us  justice,  and  they  will  have  us  enlisted  under  the  banner  of 
Victoria,  Oregon  shall  be  theirs,  and  Texas  shall  be  harmless." 

And  now  at  the  close  of  every  session  of  Parliament  he  held  a 
meeting  to  beg  another  year's  trial  for  the  Whigs.  He  organized 
the  "  Volunteers,  "  "  the  Precursors,"  or  "  pray  curse  us  "  as 


74  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

they  were  facetiously  designated.  Every  year  a  new  name 
end  a  new  organization.  At  every  one  of  these  the  first  and 
last  cry  was  send  in  the  money,  and  you  shall  "have  justice 
next  year  or  my  head  on  a  block."  Next  year  came ;  ifc 
brought  neither  justice  nor  the  "head  on  the  block;"  but  it 
brought  many  blockheads  to  sustain  him  for  another  year.  At 
a  meeting  in  Cork  a  poor  fellow  called  out,  "but  what  about  Re- 
peal, Mr.  O'Connell  ?  "  Dan  was  equal  to  the  emergency.  "  Is 
there  nobody  there  to  put  a  wisp  in  that  calf's  mouth  ?  "  This 
was  greeted  with  a  roar  of  laughter  and  applause,  and  that  "  Ee- 
peal  question  was  settled." 

"William  Sharman  Crawford  was  in  Parliament  in  those  days 
— a .  true-hearted  man,  whose  principal  object  was  to  legalize 
"Tenant  Right,"  as  it  practically  existed  in  several  northern 
counties.  Dan  was  especially  hostile  to  Mr.  Crawford  and  this 
law ;  and  as  the  character  of  Mr.  Crawford  was  invulnerable  to 
attack,  Dan  put  in  buffoonery,  and  called  him  "  Sharman  Agrah  I 
with  the  white  waistcoat." 

Disgusted  with  this  action,  Father  Kenyon,  a  Catholic  priest, 
came  out  in  an  eloquent  letter,  recounting  Dan's  crimes  and  de- 
nouncing him.  Dan  was  equal  to  this  even.  He  made  no  re- 
ply, I  ut  he  went  to  the  new  monastery  of  La  Trappe,  made  his 
penitence,  and  presented  it  with  £1,000.  This  brought  the  bish- 
op down  on  Father  Kenyon,  and  he  had  to  "  subside."  Thus  it 
went  for  seven  years.  At  last  the  Whigs  are  out,  and  have 
nothing  to  give.  The  Tories  are  in  and  will  give  nothing.  So 
Dan  raises  his  voice,  and  the  long-proscribed  "Repeal"  echoes 
over  the  world.  This  was  in  '41  or  '42.  Fergus  O'Connor  sends 
in  his  adhesion  and  one  pound  ;  Bronterre  O'Brien  sends  his  and 
one  shilling.  Both  Irishmen  and  leaders  in  England.  Dan 
throws  the  money  back  to  them.  He  "  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  Chartists— physical-force  disturbers  of  the  Queen." 

At  the  same  time  Robert  Emmett,  of  New  York,  resigned  the 
Repeal  treasurership  in  the  following  communication  : 

"Since  our  1,-ist  meeting  I  have  read  the  report  of  the  National  Repeal 
Association  of  Ireland,  by  the  Earl  of  Charlemount.  which  was  drawn  up 
In  a  com  mittee  appointed  for  the  purpose,  and  dated  the  27th  of  December*, 

"In  this  document  they  have  indiscriminately  pronounced  that  the  per- 
sons who  were  engaged  in  the  struggle  for  liberty  in  Ireland  in  1798  wore 
wicked  miscreants  whose  crimes  they  detest  and  deprecate,  and  whom 
they  would  consign  to  the  contempt  and  indignation  of  mankind.  And 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  75 

those  sentiments  appear  to  have  been  adopted  by  that  body  without  even  a 
murmur  of  disapprobation. 

"  Now  I  should  bo  sorry  that  this  attempt,  from  such  a  source  and  on  such 
an  occasion,  to  stigmatize  the  character  of  men.  to  whose  purity  of -motive 
even  their  political  enemies  have  borne  complete  testimony,  had  not  given 
pain  to  many  bosoms  besides  my  own ;  and  I  am  aware  that  it  has  already  eli- 
cited the  most  decided  and  avowed  reprobation  tn>m  many  members  of  the 
Repeal  Association  in  this  city.  But  the  peculiarity  of  my  situation  renders 
It  lit  that  I  should  promptly  free  myself  from  the  possibility  of  having  it 
ever  imputed  to  me  that  I  had  passively  admitted  that  such  language  mi«ht 
be  justifiable  on  any  grounds,  under  any  circumstances,  from  any  quarter. 
And  I  can  perceive  no  mode  of  doing  this  decidedly,  effectually,  and  con- 
sistently, except  that  which  1  now  resort  to." 

And  then  he  resigns  the  Treasurership  of  the  Repeal  Associa- 
tion. Let  me  here  fix  attention.  If  Dan  had  helped  Sharman 
Crawford  at  that  time  nothing  could  have  defeated  nor  even  de- 
ferred a  thorough  Tenant-Right  law.  With  such  a  law  in  opera- 
tion the  lives  of  the  tillers  of  the  soil  would  not  depend  upon  that 
one  solitary  resource,  the  potato.  If  the  potato  failed  for  a 
season  in  America  it  would  be  felt  only  as  an  inconvenience.  It 
would  have  been  no  more  than  an  inconvenience  in  Ireland  in 
the  fatal  year  of  '47  had  Dan  co-operated  with  Mr.  Crawford. 
Mr.  Crawford  had  Ulster  with  him.  Dan  could  have  roused  the 
other  three  provinces.  If  he  would  not,  and  if  a  half  million 
perished  in  consequence,  then  was  somebody  to  blame.  Who  ? 

The  two  or  three  last  movements  of  his  life  were  in  perfect 
keeping  with  all  the  rest.  When  the  monster  half  million  meetings 
of  '46  swept  over  Ireland,  till  they  came  to  Clontarf,  the  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant "  proclaimed  "  that  the  Clontarf  meeting  should  not  be 
held.  With  half  a  million  of  men,  and  all  Dublin  at  his  back,  Dan 
knocked  under  in  the  most  loyal  manner.  He  was  imprisoned, 
but  the  Whig  law  Peers  let  him  out  again.  Great  were  the  re- 
joicings in  Dublin,  and  it  encouraged  him.  to  propose  his  last 
proposition.  That  was  to  form  a  "  Preservative  Society  "  to  con- 
sist of  300  gentlemen  who  would  prove  their  ability  to  take  care 
of  Ireland,  by  each  paying  down  one  hundred  pounds  sterling. 
This  would  have  figured  up  £30,000.  But  the  300  gentlemen  di  J 
not  make  their  appearance.  Then  came  the  last  meeting  or 
nearly  the  last  he  ever  attended.  "They  say  I  am  growing  old," 
said  Dan,  "  but  I'll  give  them  a  good  deal  of  trouble  .yet  before  I 
die.  My  people  keep  their  hair  and  teeth  up  till  ninety."  He 
then  insured  his  life  for  ten  thousand  pounds,  and  transferred 
his  heart  to  Rome  immediately  after.  So  the  last  haul  he  made 
off  the  Insurance  Company.  All  my  early  thought  and  feel- 


76  THE   ODD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

ings  were  with  O'Connell.      But  so  far  as  I  can  judge  every 
should  stand  or  fall — not  by  our  feelings  but  by  his  own  acts. 


CHAPTEE     IX. 

A  VOYAGE — ABCHBISHOP  MCHALE — PERSECUTIONS  IN  THE  LAST 
CENTURY — A  FEUDAL  COURT — KILLYBEGS — SEA  AND  MOUNTAIN 
SCENES — KOBBER  ADVENTUEES — SPORT — CAPITAL — YARN  MARKET. 

IT  is  Spring,  1834.  I  charter  a  small  vessel  to  run  across  to  Killala. 
The  owner  and  one  "hand  "  to  navigate.  I  to  supercargo.  At  the 
last  moment  the  ' '  hand  "  refuses  to  adventure  himself  on  board.  So 
the  owner  had  to  be  captain  and  myself  the  crew.  It  is  grand  to  be 
alone  on  the  desert  waters  in  a  very  small  craft,  when  all  is  silent 
eave  the  moaning  of  the  waves,  and  all  is  dark  save  the  pale  star 
beam  dancing  over  them.  And  then  to  see  in  the  distance,  stalking 
toward  you,  a  tall  ship  holding  on  her  way  as  lonely  and  as  silent 
as  yourself.  Such  a  ship  had  left  Sligo  harbor,  and  was  heading 
northward  across  the  bay.  By  the  nautical  rules  she  ought  to  have 
yielded  to  us  the  right  of  way.  Expecting  that  she  would  do  so,  we 
held  on  our  course — almost  a  little  too  long!  But  no  !  She  stalked 
from  wave  to  wave,  right  onward,  and  we  were  just  rushing  across 
her  bows  when  my  captain  put  down  the  helm — the  crew  (that  was 
myself)  handled  the  mainsail — and  we  swung  round  just  in  time 
to  graze  our  opponent's  side.  Three  seconds  later  and  the  lofty 
ship  would  have  commissioned  us  to  the  bottom  —  how  many 
fathoms  !  There  seems  a  fate  in  those  things.  The  "hand  "  who 
shrank  from  venturing  with  us  that  night  was  drowned  just  a  yeac 
after  on  the  rocky  coast  of  Mulloghmore,  in  the  same  bay. 

Out  of  that  voyage  grew  a  fact  that  bore  fruit  forty  years  after. 
L*et  me  briefly  trace  it  here.  My  shipowner,  who  had  charge  of 
my  freight,  employed  a  watchman,  under  who.se  care  about  three 
pounds'  worth  of  my  property  disappeared. 

After  breakfast,  in  Mrs.  *  *  *  boarding  house,  came  settle- 
ment of  his  freight.  I  stopped  the  value  of  my  lost  property. 
High  words  ensued,  but  not  many — for,  as  reply  to  what  I  deemed 
an  insult,  I  jumped  across  the  table  where  he  sat  opposite,  and 
bore  both  of  us  to  the  ground.  We  got  up  and  (in  deference  to  the 
lady  and  her  daughter)  deferred  the  "issue"  till  we  should  meet 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVAbRY    IN    MODKllN    DAYS.  77 

where  his  vessel  lay.  He  retired  to  the  appointment  at  once, 
and  I  "  sedate  by  use,"  as  Glenalvon  says,  sat  down  and  wrote  a 
long  letter  home,  and  carried  it  to  the  post  office.  Then  walked 
leisurely  down  to  the  "  trysting  place."  My  opponent  was  well 
known  to  a  number  of  young  men  who  worked  in  a  large  factory 
fronting  the  dock.  Those  young  men  persuaded  the  combat  off, 
as  a  thing  of  no  use  to  either  of  us.  He  was  dead  in  a  short 
time  after,  and  this  peaceful  turn  saved  me  many  an  after  re- 
gi?et.  It  is  a  lesson.  Remember  it. 

Returning  by  Ballina,  I  heard  Bishop  MacHale  preach  a  sermon 
in  the  Irish  language.  It  is  difficult  to  believe,  but  the  following 
is  a  true  description  written  forty  years  after : 

"  In  the  spring  of  1834  I  had  occasion  to  visit  Ballina  on  busi- 
ness. The  new  Cathedral  (St.  Patrick's)  had  been  just  roofed 
in  and  was  ready  for  dedication.  I  was  naturally  desirous  of 
seeing  the  man  whose  name  had  already  became  a  household 
word  in  Ireland.  'Twas  true,  he  was  to  speak  in  the  Irish  lan- 
guage, which  I  did  not  understand.  But  I  did  hear  him,  never- 
theless ;  did  stand  (there  were  no  seats),  for  it  may  have  been  two 
hours,  enraptured  with  the  oratory,  one  word  of  which  I  did  not 
understand.  The  picture  is  still  before  me.  The  voice  still  vi- 
brates hi  my  spirit.  Such  a  picture !  such  a  voice !  Now  calm 
and  colloquial,  as  if  a  brother,  not  a  father,  spoke  to  the  assem- 
bled flock.  Bat  in  the  impassioned  flow  of  his  discourse,  as  he 
cast  his  eyes  upward,  and  raised  his  right  arm  aloft,  I  saw  a 
picture,  I  heard  an  eloquence,  the  like  of  which  I  never  saw  and 
never  heard  since  that  day.  Now  in  his  eighty-seventh  year, 
with  his  mind  and  even  his  eye-sight  doing  the  duty  they  did  fifty 
years  ago,  surely  everything  about  him  must  be  of  deep  and 
even  scientific  interest.  Was  he  a  pure  Celt  ?  Was  the  moun- 
tain that  overhung  his  father's  cabin  high  or  low,  coast  or  in- 
land? How  near  to  it  did  the  heather  grow  ?  Was  there  a  lake, 
a  stream,  a  rock  or  spring  adjoining  it  ?  Who  of  his  kin  joined 
the  invading  French ;  what  did  they  do ;  what  suffer  ?  His  rela- 
tives are,  doubtless,  still  numerous  in  that  region.  I  met  several 
of  them  at  that  time.  They  were  in  the  humbler  ranks  of  life, 
80  at  least  they  remain  in  my  memory. 

I  had  realized  ten  pounds  on  my  venture.  Connuaght  hospi- 
tality kept  me  up  that  night  till  2  o'clock  A.  M.,  and  yet  I  was  of? 
at  six — off  on  foot  to  save  five  shilling**,  the  coach  i'aiv  to  Sligu, 


16  THE   ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

a  distance  of  thirty  Irish  miles.  Though  I  had  realized  £10  on 
my  venture,  five  shillings  was  just  what  a  laborer  would  earn 
in  a  whole  week,  digging  witli  his  spade.  But  the  day  was  warm, 
and  in  not  a  house  by  the  wayside  would  they  confess  to  a  cup  of 
water  because  I  didn't  ask  it  in  Irish.  I  was  let  into  this  secret 
by  a  man  who  traveled  with  me  three  or  four  miles.  Then  I 
asked  not  again,  but  walked  up  to  the  "  dresser "  wherte  stood 
the  pail  or  "piggin"  and  helped  myself. 

Nor  was  this  at  all  strange.  Those  people  were  descendants 
of  families  who  had  been  driven  out  of  the  northern  counties  in 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  by  the  cry— an  Orange  cry-— of 
"  To  Connaught  or  hell."  That  terrible  time  when  a  notice 
would  be  put  on  the  cabin  door,  fixing  a  night  in  which  the  house 
would  be  thrown  down  and  the  occupants  driven  away,  if  they 
did  not  in  the  meantime  take  their  departure. 

"Manor  Court "  existed  at  this  time.  A  feudal  institution,  the 
Seneschal  (judge)  appointed  by  the  "  lord  of  the  soil."  I  had 
stopped  the  value  of  my  lost  property  out  of  Captain  John's 
freight.  He  cited  me  to  the  Manor  Court,  and  there  got  a  decree 
against  me.  I  appealed  it  to  the  assizes  at  Lifford.  It  is  midnight 
—dark,  and  the  rain  falling  in  torrents.  I  am  on  horseback, 
with  24  miles  and  Barnes  mountains  before  me.  To  go  alone 
through  that  storm  and  that  mountain.  Well— 

"Loss  of  ease,  though  it  might  grieve  me  sore; 
Yet  loss  of  pence,  full  well  I  knew,  would  trouble  me  much  more." 

But  it  was  not  the  loss  or  gain  of  pence  that  decided  me.  It  was 
that  a  present  pleasure  is  always  dearly  purchased  with  an  after 
regret.  So  I  went,  employed  a  lawyer,  who,  whether  designedly 
or  not,  was  absent  when  the  case  was  called.  I  took  his  brief  and 
had  the  case  won  before  he  returned,  to  the  no  small  amusement 
of  the  Judge  and  the  audience. 

KILLYBEGS.— The  place  is  little  known,  though  it  seems  destined 
In  the  Great  Future  to  be  the  chief  point  of  departure  to  and 
arrival  from  the  New  World,  at  least  in  the  mail  and  passenger 
trade.  It  does  not  lie  so  far  west  as  does  Gal  way,  but  lies  so  much 
farther  north  as  to  balance  the  western  advantage  of  its  rival, 
if  rival  it  can  be  considered,  that  has  no  haven  better  than  an 
open  roadstead.  Killybegs,  on  the  contrary,  has  a  harbor  that 
will  vie  with,  if  it  does  not  excel,  any  in  the  British  Islands.  It 
la  entirely  land-locked  by  high  hills  save  at  the  narrow  entrance* 


OB,  -THE  SPIRIT  OB-  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS.  79 

•where  high  rocky  precipices  divide  to  form  an  inlet  from  the  deep 
sea,  the  entrance  itself  as  deep  and  invariable.  There  is  no 
channel  with  its  attendant  sand  bar,  because  no  stream  falls  into 
it,  save  a  small  one,  draining  a  short  and  narrow  space  of  coun- 
try, and  nearly  dry  in  summer.  The  harbor  is  very  spacious, 
.averaging  nearly  two  miles  long  from  the  entrance  inward,  and 
over  a  mile  wide.  Nearly  half  of  this  area  affords  deep  and  all  of 
it  secure  anchorage.  In  crossing  from  St.  John's,  Newfoundland, 
in  a  propeller,  we  made  Cape  Teeling,  lying  off  Killybegs,  early 
in  the  morning  and  wore  away  the  long  summer  day  before  we 
<?ame  abreast  of  the  Galway  headlands.  It  was  midnight  before 
we  cast  anchor  in  the  roadstead.  We  could  have  anchored  in 
Killybegs  before  mid-day. 

As  illustrative  of  Irish  character  let  me  relate  one  or  two  inci- 
dents connected  with  this  place."  It  is  autumn,  and  a  Regat- 
ta has  summoned  a  multitude  of  row-boats,  and  all  the  white 
sails  on  the  coast.  Crowds  occupy  the  banks,  and  make  the 
usual  calls  into  the  tents  scattered  over  them.  It  is  sunset  and 
the  acquatic  contests  being  over  on  the  water,  other  contests  be- 
gin on  the  land.  The  blackthorns  are  in  requisition,  and  some 
fcur  or  five  groups,  with  intervals  between,  are  at  work  upon 
ach  other.  These  cudgel  encounters  are  rarely,  almost  never, 
productive  of  dangerous  results,  such  is  the  crowding  and  the 
Bkill  of  fence.  But  here  was  an  unusual  danger.  The  contests 
went  on  within  a  few  yards  of  the  precipitous  banks  that  shut  in 
the  sea-waves.  A  slight  change  in  the  war  might  send  the  be- 
iigerents  overboard.  "I'll  pacify  them,"  said  my  cicerone,  a 
smart  young  fellow,  resident  of  the  place.  Swiftly  he  shot  along 
from  group  to  group,  whispering  a  few  words  in  Irish  to  each. 
Though  I  could  not  understand  their  purport,  their  effect  was 
an  instant  cessation  of  arms,  till  we  came  to  the  last  group.  In 
reply,  one  of  the  combatants  cried  out  in  English,  what  "  soit " 
do  you  mean  ?  "  I'll  tell  you,"  said  a  sturdy  bye-stander,  "  if  you 
don't  be  quiet."  I  now  found  that  the  quieting  words  were  an 
appeal  to  their  religious  clanship.  "  Strike  no  man  of  your  own 
sort."  That  the  querist  was  a  Protestant,  who  subsided  before 
the  implied  threat — his  "  sort "  being  in  a  minority  of  about  one  to 
ten. 

Returning  across  the  harbor  every  boat  was  loaded  to  extrem- 
ity. In  ours  twenty-two  people  lelt  about  three  inches  of  gun- 


80  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CKNTUKY  J 

wale  above  water.  At  the  oar  on  opposite  sides  happened  to  be 
two  of  the  late  belligerents.  About  half  seas  over  both  in  the 
harbor  and  in  drink,  those  renewed  their  contest.  The  least  com- 
motion in  the  boat  would  overset  her,  and  half  a  mile  from  the 
shore,  with  such  a  human  freight,  the  prospect  was  not  very  as- 
suring. "  I'll  bet  on  the  bow  oar,"  exclaimed  my  companion.  "  The 
after  oar  for  the  best  bottle  of  whiskey  in  McCloskey's,"  I  retorted. 
"Now  boys!"  Both  stretched  to  their  oars,  we  renewing  our 
bets  and  plaudits,  and  their  combativeness  spent  itself  in  pulling 
us  with  great  rapidity  to  shore.. 

Eight  or  ten  miles  farther  down  it  is  summer,  and  we  stable 
our  horses  at  the  foot  of  Slieve  League  mountain.  Teeling  har- 
bor is  fringed  with  bright  sand,  and  there  is  a  boat  with  spread 
sails  and  a  procession— a  crowd— approaching  it.  We  also  ap- 
proach. It  is  what  may  be  termed  a  living  funeral.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  McNulty  has  fallen  into  a  hopeless  consumption,  desires  to 
go  home  across  the  bay,  to  die  in  his  native  district.  The  scene 
was  especially  strange  and  impressive,  each  man  grasping  the 
departing  hand,  and  .the  "  blessing"  of  the  departing  repeated  to 
every  sorrowing  individual.  In  the  presence  of  death  rises  up 
the  deepest  emotion  of  the  unsophisticated  heart !  But  the  sails 
are  out,  and  when  the  anchor  is  raised  slowly  recedes  their  white 
form  over  the  summer  wave,  bearing  one  at  least  to  a  port 
whither  we  all  must  follow. 

We  cross  over  and  ascend  the  mountain  by  zigzagging  up  its 
side.  We  come  to  an  anchorite's  cell,  with  its  stone  bed  strange- 
ly fashioned  more  than  half  way  up  the  mountain.  Here  we  cast 
one  other  pebble  into  the  monumental  heap  beside  it  A  pair  of 
large,  beautiful,  brown  eagles,  that  had  doubtless  been  luxuriating 
at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  attended  our  zigzagging  path,  some- 
times sweeping  past  a  little  below  us,  sometimes  a  little  above 
us,  but  always  traversing  the  salne  path  with  ourselves,  till  the 
two  parties,  the  one  on  foot  and  the  one  on  wing,  reach  the  sum- 
mit Then,  what  then? 

Then  my  companion,  who  was  also  my  guide,  stood  on  the 
edge  of  a  precipice  that  descended  almost  like  a  wall  sheer  down 
to  the  ocean.  The  height  I  cannot  estimate,  but,  when  lying 
prone  and  holding  on,  I  projected  my  face  and  looked  down  to 
the  water,  a  passing  sloop  showed  like  a  .  tiny  pleasure  boat. 
This  mountain  has  two  nearly  equal  summits,  with  a  connection 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  81 

them  which  forms  on  the  top  a  narrow  Indian-til'  !<ath, 
with  a  lake  on  one  side  and  the  Atlantic  on  the  other.  This 
path  je  frequently  crossed,  for 

" if  the  path  be  dangerous  known 

The  danger's  self  is  lure  alone." 

HISTORY  OF  A  CASE  OF  PISTOLS. 

••  Purchase  for  me  a  small  case  of  pistols— screw  barrels.  Ill 
give  you  the  price  now."  This  by  a  medical  student,  a  mere  boy. 
"  We  don't  know  their  price ;  will  know  it  when  I  return  from 
Belfast." 

I  did  return  with  the  pistols— price,  a  guinea,  which  he  paid. 
Out  to  the  garden,  and  tried  on  the  garden  gate.  Drove  their 
bullets  through,  fifteen  yards  off. 

"  Now  clean  them  up  ;  take  them  home  ;  they  are  yours." 

"Certainly  I  will  not.    Mine  !    Why  should  they  be  mine  ?  " 

44  Because  you  are  out  on  lonely  mountain  roads— at  night, 
too,  when  I  am  safely  at  home.  Those  little  tilings  must 
keep  you  company. 

It  was  so  settled,  and  well  it  was  so. 

It  is  a  summer  day,  and  I  am  returning  from  Belfast  through 
the  Glen  of  Monterloney.  I  am  half  way  through  the  glen  when 
a  gigantic  man  approaches  and  meets  me.  In  his  hand  a 
stable-fork  shaft,  shod  with  its  iron  ring.  Stops  right  in 
front  of  me. 

"  Fine  day." 

I  assent  civilly  and  try  to  pass.  No ;  I  must  wait  and  talk 
a  bit. 

"  How  far  do  you  travel  ?  " 

"  Up  to  N — ,  above  Strabane,  to  visit  an  uncle  that  lives 

there." 

"  Is  there  a  market  there  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no  ;  its  only  a  townland." 

"  What  name  is  your  uncle  ?" 

44  Jemmy  Rogers." 

M  And  what  market  are  you  going  to  ?  " 

"What  is  it  your  business  where  I'm  going?  What  right 
have  you  to  question  me  or  stop  me  on  the  king's  highway?" 

"  Oh,  nothing ;  you  can  pass  on." 

And  he  passed  on.  We  were  on  the  top  of  a  rising  ground, 
within  view  of  a  couple  of  cottages  some  half  mile  distant  on 
11 


82  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

the  opposite  side  of  the  glen.  My  road  descended  to  a  bridge 
and  a  roofless  house  beside  it.  His  along  on  the  other  side  of 
the  height.  I  had  some  misgivings  and  had  fresh  primed  the 
pistols,  when  bob,  bob,  bob,  up  came  the  head  over  the  interven. 
ing  height  of  the  road.  Up  came  the  body,  too,  and  rushing 
down  upon  me  with  the  fork  shaft  raised  high  in  his  right  hand 
to  make  one  blow  of  it  I  wheeled  round  to  him.  My  two  pis- 
tols were  cocked  in  a  second,  and  held  firmly  bne  in  each  hand, 
their  butts  resting  cJose  on  my  breast  to  steady  my  aim.  On  he 
came  down  the  hill  with  the  club  raised  aloft  as  I  have  described 
it,  and  each  stride  the  longest  that  a  man  over  six  feet  high 
could  make  in  a  rapid  rush  down  a  hill.  I  am  thus  particular  to 
give  an  idea  of  what  followed.  He  might  be  within  twelve  or  fif- 
teen yards  of  me  before  he  noticed  the  two  small  brown  muzzles 
pointing  to  him.  Instantly  he  pulled  up,  and  nearly  fell  on  his 
back  as  he  set  his  feet  before  him  to  stop  his  speed.  I  did  not 
move  an  inch  to  advance  upon  him,  but  cordially  invited  him  to 
come  on  till  I  would  "  let  sun  and  wind  through  him."  But  I 
reserved  rny  fire,  and  he  ran  up  the  mountain  as  fast  as  those 
very  extra  legs  of  his  could  carry  him.  Alongside  of  the  road 
were  bog  holes  some  eight  or  ten  turf  (feet)  deep.  One  of  those 
with  its  dark  waters  would  almost  certainly  have  covered  up  all 
traces  of  me  and  my  fate  oily  for  the  pair  of  pistols  so  singu- 
larly and  so  providentially  gifted  to  me  by  my  young  friend — the 
most  erratic,  thoughtless  young  man  I  have  ever  known. 

The  man's  purpose  was  robbery ;  but  robbery  by  such  a  man, 
in  such  a  place,  at  such  an  hour,  could  not  escape  detection,  ex- 
cept concealed  by  murder.  It  is  true  I  was  young,  active,  and 
courageous,  but  not  two-thirds  of  such  a  man  as  this  antagonist' 
His  momentum  and  his  murderous  weapon  could  hardly  have 
failed  to  have  borne  me  down  at  the  onset.  Indeed,  any  guard 
I  could  throw  up  must  have  been  shivered  before  the  heavy 
swinging  blow  of  that  iron-shod  club  urged  by  the  ferocity  and 
the  strength  of  such  a  man.  If  I  had  purchased  .the  pistols  my- 
self, and  so  prepared  them  for  my  defence,  there  would  be  noth- 
ing extraordinary  in  this  occurrence.  But  the  fact  that  they 
were  urged  upon  me  by  a  youth— one  of  the  most  thoughtless 
and  inconsiderate  that  I  have  ever  known— that  without  this 
most  unexpected  and  strange  providence  on  his  part  I  would 
have  been  without  them,  as  before  that  time  I  always  had  been ; 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DATS.  83 

It  te  Just  here  that  I  regard  my  safety  as  provided  for  by  an 
overruling  power— provided  for  weeks  before  this  danger  ap- 
proached me. 

The  life  of  this  friend  was  singularly  unfortunate.  The  only 
chivalrous  character  I  met  in  Ireland  ;  a  physician  of  high  repu- 
tation and  of  a  benevolence  that  labored  as  readily  and  cheer- 
fully for  those  who  could  not  as  for  those  who  could  remuner- 
ate him.  He  came  to  America,  fell  into  the  habit  of  drinking, 
and,  after  a  life  hard  and  checkered  and  fitful,  I  saw  him  at  last 
quietly  reposed  in  his  mother  earth  many  and  many  a  year  ago. 

In  that  same  Glen  I  had  a  kindred  experience,  more  ludi- 
crous and  less  dangerous  than  this.  Owen  Sweeny,  another 
"Chapman,  Billie,J>  and  myself  were  within  three  miles  of  clearing 
the  Glen  of  a  Sunday  night-fall  We  passed  a  shebeen  house,  the 
last  house  till  we  would  reach  "  McGurk's,"  our  stage  for  the 
night.  Some  half  dozen  fellows  were  around  the  shebeen  house 
door,  and  my  comrade  advised  quick  motion.  "  If  there  be  bad 
characters  in  a  neigborhood  they  are  sure  to  be  at  the  shebeen  ol 
a  Sunday  night."  Quick  motion  it  was  then,  and  we  had  gained 
about  a  mile,  when  tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  came  rapidly  and  heavi- 
ly behind  us.  "  I  knew  it,"  said,  Owen  "  there  they  come."  Now 
Owen,  though  a  very  droll  and  amusing  fellow,  was  the  most  dis- 
tinguished coward  in  our  "  profession."  "  We  are  prepared,"  I 
said  ;  under  cover  here  (it  was  a  misty  rain)  is  what'll  "take  a 
couple  of  pets  out  o'  them."  "  So  go  ahead."  We  did  at  a  fast 
run  and  lost  sound  of  our  pursuers  in  a  turn  of  the  road.  But 
Owen  stumbled  and  fell  and  before  he  was  up  again  the  tramp  came 

"  Nearer,  clearer,  deadlier  than  before." 

and  Owen  was  off  again,  guarded  behind  and  encouraged  by  the 
two  pistols.  The  chase  continued  thus  with  little  change  in  the 
distance  between  us,  till  we  came  to  the  end  of  McGurk's  farm, 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  house.  Here  I  wheeled  round, 
and,  heedless  of  my  comrade's  remonstrances,  awaited  the  pursuit* 
pistols  in  hand.  He  said  I  was  mad,  but  he  would  stand  by  me. 
Emerged  from  the  mist,  they  perceived  us  awaiting  them  in  the 
middle  of  the  road.  There  were  six  of  them,  and,  after  brief 
counsel,  four  fell  back  into  the  mist,  and  two  approach- 
ed us.  I  suppose  their  theory  was  this.  If  all  came  forward  we 
would  again  betake  ourselsves  to  our  heels  and  make  McGurk's 
good  before  they  could  reach  us ;  whereas,  if  we  waited  for  two, 


84  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

as  was  more  likely,  those  could  grapple  with  and  detain  us  while 
the  others  rushed  up.  However  that  might  be,  the  two,  came 
running  forward  with  "  Why  didn't  you  wait  for  company  ?  "  "We 
choose  our  company,"  said  Owen,  I  swinging  round  on  their  rear 
presenting  the  pistols.  "You  are  prisoners  or  dead  men"  I 
said,  "  on  with  you,  you'll  rest  in  Derry  jail  to-morrow.  Shout 
and  it  will  be  your  last"  And  so  they  marched  on  in  front  of  us 
a  distance  of  some  fifty  or  a  hundred  yards,  begging  all  the  while 
to  be  let  go.  Owen  was  of  the  same  opinion ;  "  we  could  not  spare 
time"  he  said,  "it  would  damage  our  business ;  better  give  them 
a  few  kicks  and  be  done  with  them."  I  yielded,  deputed  the 
kicking  duty  to  Owen,  still  presenting  the  pistols.  He  performed 
it  in  the  most  praiseworthy  and  ludicrous  manner,  and  so  dis- 
missed them  back  to  their  companions. 

Though  quite  successful  in  trade,  it  was  impossible  that  I 
should  grow  rich  ;  for  if  I  had  twenty  or  thirty  pounds  lying  un- 
used for  a  week  or  two,  I  conceived  a  most  irrational  contempt 
for  it.  My  energy  and  endurance — no,  resistance  to  fatigue — 
were  very  great.  Walk  fourteen  Irish  miles  to  a  market,  active 
on  foot  the  whole  day,  without  breakfast,  till  it  came  by  candle- 
light ;  then  retrace  the  same  fourteen  Irish  miles  home  again,  not 
to  go  to  bed,  but  to  manufacture  torches  out  of  dry  bog  fir,  and 
"burn  the  water,"  i.  e.}  spear  salmon  under  the  light,  on  the 
fords  of  our  beautiful  little"  "  river  "  (we  used  to  call  it,  though  it 
was  only  a  stream  easily  waded  through  in  ordinary  times  of 
the  year) ;  firing  an  odd  pistol  shot  to  keep  the  solitary  water- 
keeper  at  bay,  whilst  we,  I  and  Ward,  my  brother-in-law,  pur- 
sued our  sport.  How  careless  of  consequences  is  youth !  Not 
for  gam,  but  for  the  mere  sport  of  killing  the  salmon,  how  often 
have  we  put  our  necks  within  the  compass  of  a  halter.  Let  me 
relate  one  example  of  this  kind. 

The  following  is  a  conversation    between  Ward,  as  he  eat 
ehoemaking  on  his  bench,  and  half-a-dozen  mountain  men  in 
whose  wild  region  he  used  to  sport  in  times  gone  by  : 
WARD — "Have  you  much  sport  out  there  this  season? " 
MOUNTAIN  MEN—"  Sport !    No.    There  hasn't  been  a  *  splunk ' 
lighted  on  the  Ainey  (a  mountain  river)  since  the  winter  set  in.H 
*  How  is  that  ?    What  has  happened  to  you  all  ?" 
"Troth,  plenty.    Jemmy  Burns,  and  a  strong  guard  along  with 
Him,  patrols  every  night  at  Harrv  Monaghan's  Bridge,  with  fiat- 


OE,    THE    SPIRIT    OP    CHIVAU&Y    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  85 

Tula  of  loaded  muskets.  Ah !  begorra,  they'd  shoot  us  like  mag- 
pies if  we  kindled  the  least  light." 

"  D'ye  think  it  would  be  hard  to  break  up  their  parade  an*  put 
things  on  the  ould  footing  ?" 

"  No  ;  it  can't  be  done.  Jemmy's  as  wicked  as  the  devil.  You 
know  he  was  transported  for  'levelling*  seven  years  ago,  and 
lias  just  come  back  from  Botany  Bay." 

"  O !  I  know  all  that ;  but  we'll  settle  him.  Will  ye  meet  u» 
at  the  bridge  o'  Wednesday  night  ?  I'll  bring  half-a-dozen  along 
with  me." 

"  Yes  ;  we'll  meet  you  with  half-a-dozen  more.  But  I  don't  see 
the  good." 

This  conversation  took  place  between  the  aforementioned 
Ward,  who  was  an  irreclaimable  sportsman,  and  one  of  the 
mountain  men  with  whom  he  used  to  "poach"  (they  call  it)  in 
the  wild  districts  referred  to. 

So  Wednesday  night  came,  and  saw  eight  of  us  on  the  march 
to  the  scene  of  action.  We  mustered  six  guns  and  made  show 
of  the  other  two  by  shouldering  "  quarter  clefts  "  of  ash.  We 
stopped  at  a  sod  house  ;  the  house  of  Owen  the  thatcher ;  but 
let  me  describe  : 

A  "  Turncoat  "  and  an  "  Informer  "  were  the  two  things  most 
detested  and  the  two  names  most  dreaded  as  brands  of  disgrace. 
The  first  for  changing  your  religion,  diverging  from  the  track  your 
father  had  traveled  before  you.  The  second  for  giving  informa- 
tion against  illicit  distillers.  The  latter,  indeed,  was  base  and 
criminal  in  the  last  degree.  It  was  to  bri»g  destruction  on  the 
property  and  imprisonment  on  the  person  ;  in  one  word,  ruin  on 
its  victim.  The  abhorrence  in  which  it  was  held  was,  indeed,  an 
honor  to  the  people. 

Owen,  the  thatcher,  had  been  employed,  I  believe  by  Hector 
Magee,  and  the  contact  led  him  into  the  toils  of  the  Rector. 
Owen  immediately  found  himself  more  detested  even  than  the 
Informers,  and  so  he  retreated  into  the  trackless  moor  that  lay 
near  the  mountain.  As  "  Petersburgh  rose  like  an  exhalation 
from  the  Neva  "  so  did  Owen's  sod  castle  rise  in  a  few  days  an 
'*  exhalation  "  on  the  face  of  the  moor.  Ward  was  too  much  of  a 
sportsman  and  had  seen  too  much  of  the  world  to  hug  in  hia 
heart  this  prejudice  against  Owen.  His  love  of  freedom  and  field 
sports,  his  defiance  of  landlord  temporal  authority,  extended  to 


86  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY? 

a  semi- defiance  of  all  authority,  even  to  what  claimed  to  bo 
spiritual.  So  he  chose  Owen's  fortress  as  his  "  base  of  opera- 
tions "  when  invading  the  Ainey  river.  Thus  it  was  when  we  ap- 
proached the  "exhalation"  on  Wednesday  night.  It  appeared 
in  the  dim  light  like  a  rugged,  bulky,  singular  looking  mound, 
rising  abrubtly  in  the  face  of  the  moor. 

"  This,"  said  Ward,  "  is  the  place.  We'll  prepare  things  here.* 
The  door  of  wicker,  quilted  inside  with  a  straw  mat,  opened,  and 
stooping  we  entered  the  "  sod  castle."  It  was  sufficiently  high 
to  stand  in,  had  an  aperture  in  the  wall  sufficient  for  light  and 
ventilation,  and  two  or  three  panes  of  glass,  a  hole  in  the  roof 
above  the  fire  place  gave  egress  to  the  smoke.  The  moor  was 
all  turf,  and  a  blazing  fire  was  on  the  hearth  that  lighted, 
warmed  and  dried  the  edifice,  which  might  be  fifteen  feet  square, 
and  a  month  or  two  old.  Here  we  prepared  the  torches  and  sped 
on  to  set  at  nought  the  temporal  authority  over  the  salmon,  as 
Owen  had  set  at  nought  the  spiritual  authority  over  the  soul 

Ward,  commander ;  myself  his  henchman,  and  second  in  com- 
mand. Arrived  at  the  bridge,  our  auxiliaries  were  nowhere  to 
be  seen.  But  "Jemmy,"  the  redoubtable  Jemmy,  had  his  men 
mustered  in  a  stone  house  three  or  four  hundred  yards  below 
the  bridge.  Our  commander  crossed  the  stream,  shot  up  the 
mountain  in  quest  of  the  auxiliaries,  and  Jemmy,  seeing  the 
crowd,  marched  out  to  attack  us.  Myself  was  now  in  command. 
Advancing  from  the  shadow  of  the  battlements  to  a  height  on 
the  road, "  Ground  arms ! "  "  Give  your  brass  butts  a  tear  along 
the  rough  stones  to  sound  their  metal  as  a  warning."  "  Stand 
off! — or  you're  dead  men  1 "  But  Jemmy  approached  his  forces 
along  the  height,  eight  in  all,  themselves  and  muskets  relieved 
against  the  dull  «ky.  "Stand  off!"  Jemmy  now  was  within 
parley  of  us— threatened  law  and  extermination ;  but  only  got 
this  reply  :  "  Stand  to  your  guns,  men ! "  "  Make  ready !  * 
Click  went  that  cocking  of  each  piece.  "  Now  fire  when  I  pro- 
nounce 'Three!'"  "Stand  off!"  "One!— two!"-— but  before 
the  "three"  came,  Jemmy  and  his  men  wheeled  and  sought 
once  more  the  safety  of  their  stone  fortress. 

Surely  this  was  providential.  Jemmy  was  a  brave  man,  had 
been  a  leveller,  was  selected  to  this  charge  for  his  headlong 
Courage.  If  he  had  approached  us — if  he  hadn't  retreated,  if 
he  had  merely  stood  his  ground — every  gun  in  our  party  would 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRT     IS    MODERN     DAYS.  87 

nave  been  fire*  at  him  ;  and  so  sanguinary  were  the  laws  at 
that  time,  and  indeed  yet,  that  the  act  of  firing  would  have 
brought  every  one  of  us  under  shadow  of  the  gallows. 

By  this  time  Ward  was  descending  the  opposite  bank  with  his 
reinforcement  of  the  mountain  men.  He  knew  their  rendezvous, 
and  found  them  at  once. 

And  now  was  held  a  council  of  war.  So  far  I  had  been  vic- 
torious, and  had  no  especial  appetite  for  any  more  "glory.1* 
But  Ward  gave  a  spring  and  an  oath  that  he  would  never  spend 
a  night  and  mnroh  so  far  without  having  a  little  sport  for  it.  He 
had  a  "spunk"  in  his  pocket,  i.  e.,  a  live  ember  wrapped  in  a 
large  wad  of  dry  tow.  Out  he  pulled  it — down  on  the  margin  of 
the  stream— and  in  a  minute  the  bright  flash  of  his  torch  shone 
over  the  waters.  "  Fire  at  the  light ! "  is  the  word  of  the  water- 
keepers.  "Jemmy"  didn't  forget  it,  and  balls  and  slugs  from 
his  eight  muskets  flew  over  our  heads.  I  suppose  the  bridge 
battlements  prevented  a  lower  aim.  Crack  and  flame  went  the 
guns  of  our  men,  now  stationed  on  both  banks,  and  up  rose  a 
wild  hurrah,  "  Tannawilly !  Tannawilly!"  the  meaning  of  which 
Jemmy  well  knew,  and  he  rapidly  sought  the  shelter  of  his  stone 
fortress.  Left  to  pursue  our  sport  we  had  plenty  of  it,  varied 
by  incidents  that,  though  very  exciting  to  ourselves,  I  will  not 
stop  to  relate  here.  I  don't  believe  we  comprehended  the  fact 
that  if  one  of  the  water-keepers  had  been  shot,  the  law  would 
have  adjudged  us  all  guilty  of  murder. 

A  "CAPITAL"  SCENE. 

Neighboring  the  famous  shrines  of  Lough  Derg,  and  near  the 
Barnes  range  in  Donegal,  the  road  runs  through  an  extensive 
moorland  without  either  rock  or  sudden  acelevity  for  miles  ex- 
tending on  either  side,  the  surface  one  continuous  layer  of  in- 
tensely black  and  solid  peat.  But,  unlike  the  ordinary  bogs, 
which  reach  anywhere  between  five  and  fifteen  feet  deep,  this 
peat  averaged,  perhaps,  two  feet  in  thickness— a  little  less  or  a 
little  more.  Under  it — all  along  under  it— lay  a  dense  bluish 
clay.  The  two  mixed  together  formed  a  soil  which  vindicated 
our  good  opinion  of  it  in  a  large,  newly-fenced,  newly-cultivated 
field,  I  believe,  by  a  resident  curate  or  rector  of  the  dominant 
church.  He  had  come  ostensibly  to  do  good  things,  but  I  BUS- 


88       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

pect  that  the  very  best  thing  he  did  was  the  breaking  in  of  that 
ten-acre  field  on  the  edge  of  this  vast  moor. 

Traveling  along  from  thence  over  the  moor  afore-described1, 1 
came  to  a  nook,  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  through  which 
flowed  a  stream.  Here  was  found  a  comparatively  well  built 
cottage  and  outhouse ;  a  garden,  and  two  or  three  fields  fenced 
in,  on  which  had  grown  oats,  potatoes,  etc.  Night  fell  heavy  and 
dark,  and  I  was  glad  to  find  hospitality  at  this  remote  home- 
stead. A  porridge  supper  is  held  in  higher  repute  than  one  that 
is  founded  on  potatoes.  Bnt  there  was  no  meal  to  make  it, 
What  then  ?  Why  there  was  a  sack  or  two  of  oats.  A  large  pot 
was  hung  over  the  blazing  fire,  and  a  quantum  sup  of  the  oats 
put  in  and  thus  soon  kiln- dried.  Down  came  the  quearns,  or 
primitive  hand  mill,  and  all  taking  a  twist  at  it,  we  quickly  had 
a  dish  of  new  meal  (always  most  delicious),  and,  with  a  liberal 
supply  of  milk — proverbially  good  in  mountain  regions — we  had 
a  supper  that  ought  to  lift  a  sick  man  into  health  again.  Where 
this  oats  grew  and  this  homestead  stood  was  a  lonely  and  un- 
productive waste  four  or  five  years  before,  as  lonely  as  the 

"  Wilds  immeasurably  spread  " 

that  I  had  passed  over  in  approaching  to  it,  every  acre  of  wtiich 
could  have  been  turned  to  the  same  account. 

Who  does  not  see  the  lesson  taught  by  what  is  here  written  ? 
And  yet  we  are  deafened  and  stunned  with  a  continuous  ory 
about  capital — "  English  capital ! " — to  develop  the  resources  of 
Ireland.  Here  was  the  natural  "  capital "  of  the  country  at  work. 
Here,  on  a  primitive  scale  was  the  effect  it  could  produce,  if  let 
loose  over,  the  whole  face  of  the  country.  But  the  impious 
"  landlord  "  won't  let  it  loose ;  he  has  it  in  chains,  and  keeps  the 
man  and  the  moor  alike  uncultivated — alike  bare  and  hungry. 

Thus  is  the  right  arm  of  industry  paralyzed.  Thus  is  left  in 
primeval  barrenness  the  site  of  many  a  beautiful  lanscape-  and 
home  of  comfort  and  civilization,  the  thought  of  which  calls  up 
Fitzjames'  imaginative  picture  of  a  similar  scene  in  Scotland. 
Scotland !  also  oppressed  and  depopulated  by  her  "  noble  i  ** 
"  honorable,"  and  "  right  honorable  "  criminals. 

And  "  What  a  scene  were  here,"  he  cried. 
"For  princely  pomp,  or  churchman's  pride, 
On  this  bold  brow,  a  lordly  tower; 
In  that  soft  vale,  a  lady's  bower ; 
On  yonder  meadow,  far  away. 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OTf    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  8$ 

The  turrets  of  a  cloister  gray. 

How  blithely  might  the  bugle-horn 

Chide  on  the  lake,  the  lingering  morn! 

Hew  sweet,  at  eve,  the  lover's  lute 

Chime,  when  the  groves  were  still  and  mute, 

And,  when  the  midnight  moon  should  lave 

Her  forehead  in  the  silver  wave, 

How  solemn  on  the  ear  would  come 

The  holy  matin's  distant  hum. 

While  the  deep  peal's  commanding  tone 

Should  wake,  in  yonder  islet  lone, 

A  sainted  hermit  from  his  cell, 

To  drop  a  bead  with  eY«rjr  knell." 

Suppose  an  aray  of  laborers  and  engineers  and"  architects 
should  appear  on  this  now  wild  waste  surrounding  Lough 
Derg.  Suppose  they  came  for  the  purpose  of  changing  its 
barren  dreariness  into  the  picture  here  so  beautifully  described. 
And  further,  suppose  Lord  Leitrirn,  or  some  other  "  lord,"  ap- 
proaching, coming  up  to  them,  ordering  them  off,  telling  them 
that  God  made  all  this  wild  land  for  him,  and  it  must  remain 
wild.  Suppose  all  this,  and  haven't  you  supposed  a  "  capital  '* 
condition  of  things  ? 

THE  OLD  YARN  MABKET. 

I  had  up  to  this  time  been  clerk  to  a  yarn  merchant  My 
duty  to  sit  on  the  wheel  of  a  stationary  cart ;  enter  quantities,, 
prices,  and  names  as  my  principal  purchased  the  yarn  bunches. 
This  trade  has  now  passed  away  forever.  I  cannot  portray  the 
crowd  clamoring  and  jostling,  several  voices  at  once  calling  out 
their  names,  and  my  employer  pronouncing  price  and  quantity— 
the  same  action  and  noise  going  on  at  twenty  other  points  around- 
me.  The  market  was  held  in  the  forenoon,  so  that  the  sellers 
might  have  money  and  time  wherewith  to  make  purchases  IIL 
the  afternoon.  It  gave  me  a  very  sharp  discipline,  which  was 
of  great  service  to  me  in  after  life.  I  was  paid  for  this  service 
half-a-crown  when  I  had  become  proficient,  which  was  twice  to 
three  times  as  much  as  most  other  boys  got  for  the  same  ser- 
vice. My  father's  reputation  for  honesty  helped  to  this,  for  col- 
lusions had  been  detected  between  clerks  and  confederates; 
the  one  entering  a  false  name  and  quantity,  the  other  claiming 
and  receiving  the  price. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  acid  the  yarns  were  spun  on  that  neat  and. 
tidy  machine  the  "  spinning  wheel,"  which  had,  not  long  before^ 
12 


90  THE    ODD    BOOK    OP    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

superseded  the  "rock  and  spindle"  (distaff),  till  it  was  itself 
superseded  by  the  comprehensive  machinery  of  the  mill.  Mill- 
spun  yarn,  though  spun  a  thousaid  threals  at  once,  is,  strange 
to  say,  greatly  superior  to  the  best  produced  on  the  spinning 
wheel,  though  maoipulated  by  the  most  skillful  hand,  one  thread 
at  a  time.  The  following  paragraph  is  in  "  Our  Natural  Rights" : 

"  Our  raen  easterly  seek  the  most  toilsome  work  at  a  remuneration  of  6d. 
to  8d.  a  day.  Ourw.>men  are  si  ill  more  industrious  ;  if  the  price  of  linen 
yarn  afford  them  anything  above  a  penny  for  spinning  a  hank  (3,240  yards}, 
an  excessirely  laborious  day's  work,  the  market  id  overstocked  with  that  ar- 
ticle. What  a  change  would  these  energies  produce  if  properly  called 
forth  and  directed  ! " 


CHAPTER    X. 

SKETCHES.— FEUDAL  "CUSTOM"  AND  FEUDAL  COURTS — MY    FIRST 
OMEN — REPRESSIVE  LITERATURE — A  WILD  PICTURE — THE  "  LEV- 

ELERS"      AND       "  CARDERS "— TfiNPENNlES      AND       TlTHK— FUQU- 

TIVE  HISTORY — BATTLE  OF  NEW  Ross — MRS.  S.  C.  HALL — GLEN- 
FIN— A  STORM  AND  A  STIMULANT— RECRUITING — "OuR  NATURAL 
RIGHTS  " — STANDING  GUARD — A  FISH  PHENOMENON — NIGHT  PIC- 
TURE OF  '98— A  STRANGE  DANGER— THE  VILLAGE  BLACKSMITH — 
MY  COMRADE. 

Low  notes  as  well  as  high  have  their  place  in  a  "  March  "  of  mu- 
sic. So  with  this  book.  It  will  strike  some  pretty  high  notes  as 
it  goes  along,  just  as  surely  will  it  strike  low  notes  when  the  on- 
ward "March  "  demands  it.  Rude  some  of  those  notes  may  be, 
but  never  one  of  them  coarse  or  indelicate.  Even  of  rude  not 
many  will  be  presented,  and  those  only  to  glance  in  upon  phases 
of  humble  life  that  may  interest,  or  to  convey  a  lesson  that  may 
be  useful.  Fiction — even  of  Scott  and  Dickens — descends  into 
hiding  places  into  which  facts  have  no  business  to  follow. 

SNAKES. 

This  is  illustrative  of  a  barbarism  that  was  practised,  and  is 
yet  probably,  by  men  who  claimed  to  be  intelligent  and  assumed 
the  rank  of  gentlemen.  All  our  fields  were  fenced  in  with  high 
clay  mound-walls,  thrown  up  from  trenches  on  either  side. 
Those  are  soon  covered  with  a  luxuriant  vegetation.  On  one  of 
those  fences  Snakes  were  set  and  a  notice  of  "  Snakes  here  "  to 
keep  off  intruders.  Those  snakes  consisted  of  a  steel  prong,  set  in 
a  short  stake  of  wood,  fastened  upright  and  firmly  into  the 
ground.  The  prong  might  be  six  inches  long,  projecting  up  out 
of  the  wood,  brought  to  a  point  with  a  barb  on  it,  and  as  sharp 
as  a  lane.p.  In  pursuit  of  small  wild  peas,  I  crossed  this  mound- 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  01 

like  fence  and  slided  down  on  my  back  on  the  inside.  One  ol 
those  snakes  caught  me  just  behind  the  ankle  and  ran  up  as  1 
descended  to  under  the  knee.  Just  opening  through  the  skin, 
without  sinking  deeper,  as  if  incised  by  the  most  skillful  surgeon. 
I  have  ever  thought  this  fact  providential.  The  danger  from  such 
things  was  very  great  and  their  use  throws  light  on  opinion  as  it 
then  existed  and  does  probably  still  exist  in  that  place. 

"  CUSTOM." 

Major  Nesbit,  of  Ardera,  was  the  last  to  enforce  this  feudal  extortion. 
Cattle  sold  or  exchanged  were  charged  six  pence.  The  Custom  matt 
stood  at  the  entrance  to  the  village  fair  with  a  book  and  a  cudgel. 
Then  pay  six  pence  or  swear  there  was  no  trade.  It  is  worthy  of  notice 
that  the  country  people  who  were  not  his  tenants,  and  who  numbered 
thousands,  submitted  to  this  extortion,  and  that  the  "  Chapman  Billies,** 
of  whom  I  made  one,  resisted  it.  In  ttie  busiest  time  of  the  market  the 
collector  would  come  round  and  pronounce  the  word  "  custom."  It  was 
then  "four  pence  or  a  fight."  If  you  refused  he  caught  the  end  of  a 
piece  of  good* :  then  a  pull  of  strength,  a  volley  of  expletives,  coming  to 
a  conclusion  or  kicks  and  blows.  The  custom  man  was  inspired  only  by 
some  two  shillings  a  day,  and  though  standing  the  tug  bravely  lor  ft 
year  or  two  he  finally  yielded  up  the  victory. 

This  Major  Nesbit  was  the  landlord  and  employer  of  the  men  who  car- 
ried gravel  across  the  moor  tor  four  pence  a  day  (see  "  Our  Natural 
Rights"  elsewhere).  He  acted  in  this  way,  too,  when  entrusted  with  the 
distribution  of  a  cargo  of  "eoaise  oatmeal"  donated  from  England  in 
one  of  our  periodical  famines  about  this  time:  Roads,  bridges,  and 
beautifyings  on  his  demesne  were  irade  and  the  labor  paid  for  by  small 
allowances  of  the  coarse  oatmeal,  a  large  portion  of  which  became  un- 
sound and  went  to  the  manure  heap  along  in  the  autumn,  though  people 
perished  for  want  of  it  during  the  summer.  It  had  been  pleasant  to 
-Count  over  his  ten  or  twelve  silver  pounds  every  fair  night.  This  pleas- 
ure was  no  more;  and,  brooding  over  his  los's,  the  Major  hatched  a 
measure  of  revenge  on  us.  There  existed  au  obsolete  law,  commanding 
the  liege  "billies  "  each  to  pay  for  a  license.  In  the  name  of  this  law  he 
sent  the  police  down  upon  us,  and  seized  every  yard  of  dry  goods  ex- 
posed for  sale,  bundled  them  up,  tied  them  on  a  cart,  and  left  them  un- 
der guard  for  the  night  preparatory  to  their  consignment  next  morning 
to  the  Custom  House  in  Bally  shannon.  It  is  late;  the  sergeant  and  his 
guard  are  watching  the  loaded  cart  at  the  barrack  door.  The  Major 
was  implacable ;  nothing  could  move  him.  But  sometimes 
"  The  best-laid  scheme*  o'  mice  and  men  gang  aft  aglcy," 

and  so  it  befelkwith  the  Major.  One  of  the  "  billies  "  was  a  crony  and  a 
creditor  of  the  sergeant,  and  paid  him  a  friendly  visit  on  his  monoton- 
ous watch.  The  "  mountain  dew  "  had  a  strong  fascination  in  those  re- 
gions and  in  those  times— perhaps  has  yet.  At  any  rate  a  friendly 
bottle  was  produced.  Attention  could  not  be  fixed  at  once  on  the  bottle 
inside  and  the  cart  outside.  Ropes  are  cutfibla.  and  men,  inclined  to  help 
themselves  at  least  to  their  own  goods,  are  quick  of  hand.  The  Major! 

"  He  counted  them  at  close  of  day. 
But  when  the  &un  rose,  where  were  they?" 

Nowhere  that  the  major  could  find  out.  And  so  ended  his  clutch  at  the 
"  Custom." 

AN  OMEN  OF  MY  LIFE. 

The  first  strife  the  world  put  upon  me  came  In  this  way:  Tom 
Gallagher  sought  help  to  gather  his  crop  of  gooseberries.  I  thought  ii 
a  lucky  opening  for  a  little  praise;  I  had  never  earned  any  yet,  and  I 
thought  it  would  be  very  pleasant.  So  I  uoirowed  Tom's  old  conical  bat, 


D2  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

determined  to  carry  off  the  championship.  I  sought  a  seclusion,  lest 
others  seeing  how  rapidly  I  worked  might  do  the  same  and  snatch  from 
me  the  coveted  honor.  Son  John  came  and  urged  me  to  come  up 
to  the  company,  which  1  firmly  declined  to  do.  Tom  also  tried  per- 
suasion with  me,  but  in  vain.  I  never  dreamed  that  they  suspected  I 
sought  the  seclusion  that  I  might  eat  their  gooseberries.  They  sus- 
pected it,  however,  and  a  day  or  two  after  they  got  a  confirmation  of 


their  fence;  and  with  cruelty,  because  I  knew  no  better,  designed  to 
lime  the  poor  birds.  I  met  father  and  son  returning  to  their  cottage, 
and  I  lingered  till  they  were  out  of  sight.  Then  darted  up  the  tree  hid 
by  the  dense  foliage,  and  set  my  sprig  most  wickedly  across  the  bird's 
nest.  John  returned  and  ran  along  the  road  to  discover  if  I  had  passed 
on.  I  had  not.  so  he  and  his  father  sought  through  all  the  recesses  of 
the  orchard.  They  found  nothing  and  returned  to  the  house;  and  I  de- 
scended from  the  tree  and  was  just  out  on  the  road,  leisurely  walking 
down  it,  when  they  turned  a  corner  and  confronted  me.  I  must  have 
looked  condemned,  for  I  thought  they  suspected  me,  though  for  nothing 
worse  than  snaring  birds  on  their  tree.  I  was  mistaken.  Two  or  three 
days  afterward  I  found  I  had  the  reputation  of  a  prowler  who  made  a 
trade  of  stealing  Tom  Gallagher's  gooseberries.  Those  imputation^ 
how  exactly  did  they  foreshadow  the  succession  of  similar  imputations 
that  followed  in  their  train— a  little  in  Ireland,  none  in  England,  a  tor- 
rent of  them  in  America.  Those  who  accepted  those  imputations  little 
knew  the  world  of  romance  and  chivalry  I  lived  in,  in  those  very  imma- 
ture, boyish  years.  I  spent  all  my  waking  hours  out  among  the  hilte 
and  streams,  and  in  close  companionship  with  nature— her  sunshine, 
shadow,  storm,  brake  and  copse,  summer  flowers  and  winter  snows. 
Theae  laid  within  me— what  ?  "  The  deep  foundation  of  my  future  life." 

MISLEADING    SCRAPS. 

There  was  a  sprinkling  of  lie-low-and-be-contented  literature  scat- 
tered among  us.  "  The  Shepherd  of  Salisbury  Plain,"  whose  little  rosy 
Molly  picked  wool  off  the  briers  in  the  sheep-walk.  She  was  so  happy 
at  her  dish  of  potatoes  and  salt— made  more  so  by  the  suggestion  that 
other  people  had  not  even  salt  to  their  potatoes.  Then  came  "Poor  Eich- 
ard  "  with  his  beggarly  talk,  and  "  The  Pleasant  Art  of  Money-Catch- 
ing," telling  you  or  the  virtues  of  bread  and  water.  The  seduction  of 
rfcyme,  too, 

"  Get  what  you  can,  and  what  you  get,  bold. 
'Tis  the  stone  that  will  tarn  all  your  lead  into  gold. 

"  And  when  you  have  got  the  philosopher's  stone  you  needn't  complain 
of  the  heavy  taxes."  And  more  insinuating. 

"If  ceaseless  thus  the  fowls  of  heaven  He  teed*, 
If  o'er  the  fields  such  lucid  robes  He  spreads, 
Will  He  not  care  for  you,  ye  faithless  say  t 
Is  He  unwise,  or  are  you  less  than  they  T" 

And  then  came  another  canting,  hypocritical  voice  with :  '*  I  was  young 
and  am  now  old,  and  never  did  I  see  the  honest  man  '  an  hungered,'  nor 
the  seed  of  the  righteous  man  begging  his  bread."  This  was  a  comfort- 
able footing  to  put  it  upon ;  it  settled  the  whole  dispute.  Poverty  was 
only  a  proof  of  wickedness  in  your  parents  or  yourself,  so  there  was  no 
more  to  be  said  about  it. 

A  "WILD  PICTURE. 

In  the  Bosses,  an  extensive  mountain  coast,  county  of  Donegal ;  nothing 
is  manufactured  but  stockings,  nothing  spoken  but  the  Irish  language. 
The  mode  of  knitting  is  here  different  from  that  in  use  elsewhere.  The 
*'  needles  "  are  plied  under  the  fingers  by  the  sense  of  touch  only.  The 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN  DAYS.  93 

process  is  unseen  by  the  eye;  arid,  strangely  enough,  the  work  accom- 
plished thus  is  about  double  as  much  as  that  which  is  operated  above 
the  fingers  and  assisted  by  the  eye.  Connemara,  the  other  great  stock- 
ing mart,  resembles  this  one  in  all  respects— product,  wildness,  and  the 
primitive  tongue.  At  a  great  fair  in  the  Bosses  .my  business  was  knocked 
in  the  head  by  a  faction  fight  between  the  Campbells  and  the  O'Donnells. 
Conspicuous  in  attempting  to  quell  it  were  half-a-dozen  gentlemen, 
among  them  a  magistrate  or  two.  The  faction  leaders  and  the  magis- 
trates conferred  on  terms  of  more  than  equality,  and,  for  the  time,  a  lull 
took  place.  But  it  is  to  be  succeeded  by  a  hurricane  of  paving  stones 
opened  on  both  sides  along  the  opposing  lines.  The  gentlemen  (including 
Mr.  Foster  the  magistrate)  were  nowhere — neither  were  the  Campbells. 
The  victorious  O'Donnells  slept  the  night  over  their  victory,  and  next 
forenoon,  under  the  leadership  of  a  singularly  powerful  looking  man,  they 
assembled  and  marched  out  some  two  miles  (it  was  on  my  return  home 
path,  and  under  safe  conduct  I  was  along  with  them)  to  where  the  cabins 
of  the  Campbells  were,  some  quarter  of  a  mile  off  the  road  down  a  de- 
clevity.  They  descended  on  them  at  a  run.  They  were  deserted,  and  I 
was  shocked  to  see  them  smash  in  the  doors  and  demolish  as  far  as  they 
could  conveniently  the  houses,  and  I  am  afraid  all  they  contained.  This 
was  within  three  or  four  miles  of  the  ferry  house,  the  picture  of  which 
is  presented  in  "  Our  Natural  Kights  "  contained  in  this  volume.  In  pro- 
portion to  the  wildness  of  the  country  was  the  ferocity  of  the  people. 

THE  "  LEVELERS." 

The  chronic  rebellion  passes  down  through  the  horrors  of  '98  to  my 
own  time  and  the  Levelers  and  Carders.  Scarcity,  if  not  actual  want,  is  in 
every  poor  man's  cabin,  and  I  remember  to  hear  with  joy  that  the  "Card- 
ers" hud  made,  by  the  application  of  a  wool  card  to  his  back,  Jemmy 
Scrupe  reduce  his  meal  six  pence  in  the  peck.  To  this  was  added  the 
more  humane  action  of  the  "  Levelers."  It  is  night;  a  heavy  tramp  is 
heard  in  the  village  street;  a  column  of  men  in  semi-military  array 
march  through  to  the  eastward.  They  have  done  their  work  westerly,  and 
all  the  cattle  pounds  down  to  Glen  Head  are  in  ruins.  Lowing  and  bleat- 
ing prisoners  have  found  their  way  home.  But  cui  buono  ?  What  good  ? 
The  landlord  has  his  eye  and  his  clutch  on  them  still :  and  they  had,  too, 
the  best  of  the  poor  "  levelers."  They  had  money,  lesiure,  troops,  and 
courts  at  their  backs.  The  " levelers "  had  nothing;  no  defence  but  to 
secrete  themselves  as  long  as  they  could,  be  caught  at  last  and  trans- 
ported by  the  law  and  the  "  landlords."  I  think  Protestants  had  most  to 
do  in  those  things;  farther  North  they  had  ail  to  do  in  them.  Of  our 
levelers  1  only  knew  two  personally,  one  a  Catholic,  Jemmy  Burns,  the 
other  a  Protestant,  Bob  Henderson.  His  brother  John,  a  very  respect- 
able man  in  his  way,  kept  a  blacksmith's  shop.  Bob  had  a  wild  reputa- 
tion, was  spoken  of  with  disapproval  and  disrespect.  And  yet,  who 
knows  but  he  was  a  better,  more  manly,  noble,  truly  estimable  man 
than  his  brother  John  whom  everybody  respected  ?  The  Levellers  were 
Knights-errant  in  their  way. 

TEN-PENNY   TRADING  AND   TITHE. 

The  day  is  fine,  and  the  trees  are  budding  out  their  leaves  as  I  pass 
the  gate  house  of  Kev.  Sandy  Montgomery  of  Inver,  a  very  good  man  In 
his  way,  probably  a  close  connection  of  a  far  better  man,  distinguished 
In  American  history.  The  carriage  drive  is  smooth,  winding,  and  over- 
Shadowed  with  trees.  Admiring  the  value  and  the  beauty  of  what  I  saw, 
the  thought,  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  struck  me  that*  all  around  was 
merely  material— every  tree  would  ••  rampeake"  and  perish  by  and  by, 
and  that  time  would  prostrate  the  tall  chimneys  and  fine  house  which 
now  opened  to  my  view.  The  house  is  quite  hospitable.  "  No  surly  por- 
ter stands  in  guilty  state,"  and  I  march  under  its  roof,  am  surrounded 
by  its  inmates,  and  leave  with  rny  pack  a  little  lighter,  and  my  purse  of 
silver  tenpennies  a  little  heavier.  Across  to  the  fishing  village  of  Inver, 


94       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY  J 

being  some  half-a-dozen  of  low,  rather  comfortable  houses  built  just 
above  high-water  mark,  with  a  hard,  bright  sand  margin  before  them, 
and  beyond  the  bay,  Doorin  Head,  and  the  ocean.  The  fishermen  own- 
Ing  those  houses  deal  with  Nature,  and  as  the  "  landlords  "  were  not  also 
the  "  sealords,"  those  fishermen  could  and  did  live  in  tolerable  comfort 
in  reward  of  their  adventurous  toil.  With  them  I  had  also  a  market, 
and  I  believe  they  were  ignorant  enough  to  be  perfectly  content  in  their 
way  of  living.  The  open  season  brought  them  work,  and  the  winter 
"  barred  the  doors  on  frosty  winds."  All  the  more  bright  and  warm 
within  contrasted  with  storms  without. 

Pat  Donlevy  is  collecting  rents  from  one  or  two  hundred  tenants.  He 
buys  half-a-guinea's  worth  of  my  wares,  calls  for  my  bill  in  front  of  the 
crowd.  "  Here  it  is,  10s.  6d."  "  Irish  or  British  currency  ?  "  "  British; 
the  wholesale  markets  have  been  so  those  three  months."  He  speaks  to 
the  crowd :  "You  see  this  is  now  the  lawful  money  of  the  United  King- 
dom. Pay  or  you'll  get  no  receipt  and  you  know  what  will  follow."  He 
thus  made  them  pay  twenty  pence  in  the  pound  more  than  he  was  en- 
titled to,  that  amount  being  the  difference  in  the  two  currencies.  The 
landlords  throughout  Ireland  had  a  similar  chance  offered  to  them ;  and 
I  knew  one  very  large  one  who  availed  himself  of  it.  Poverty  keeps  men 
ignorant,  and  ignorance  keeps  men  poor. 

For  many  years  the  Tithe  question  had  been  discussed  and  denounced, 
and  dangerous  resistance  made  to  it.  Quakers  have  heroically  suffered 
fine  and  imprisonment  rather  than  yield  to  it.  The  great  bulk  of  the 
Irish  people  were  the  reverse  of  Quakers,  and  they  resisted  in  their  own 
way,  and  a  good  sprinkling  of  blood  was  shed  here  and  there  about  it. 
•'  I  don't  begrudge  to  pay  the  landlord  his  rent,"  said  a  recusant  farmer, 
"  he  gives  me  land  for  it.  But  the  parson  gives  me  nothing ;  I  don't  go 
to  his  church,  and  I'll  not  pay  him  any  tithe  as  long  as  I  can  help  it." 
The  man  was  acting  up  to  the  light  within  him ;  he  did  not  know  that 
he  was  uttering  an  unconscious  blasphemy ;  didn't  know  that  the  land- 
lord and  the  parson  stood  exactly  in  the  same  boots.  Just  so  much  of 
heaven  as  the  parson  could  give,  exactly  so  much  could  the  "  landlord  " 
give  of  the  earth. 

FUGT7TTVE  HISTOBY  '98. 

I  met  with  a  sewed  pamphlet,  some  seventy  pages,  nearly  fifty  years 
ago,  which  was  confined  exclusively  to  a  description  of  the  battle  of  New 
Ross— its  preliminaries  and  result.  The  author  was  a  loyalist  surgeon, 
•who,  under  shelter  of  a  cockade  and  a  protection  from  General  Johnson, 
was  present  at  the  battle.  After  the  defeat  at  the  "The  Three  Rocks,'* 
the  flying  Royalists  took  refuge  in  the  walled  town  of  New  Boss, 
Bagenal  Harvey,  in  command  of  the  Republican  forces,  advanced  and  en- 
trenched his  camp  some  two  miles  in  front  of  the  town.  There  was  no 
investment  of  the  place.  The  uprising  people  reinforced  Harvey  during 
the  ensuing  six  weeks,  and  Johnson  employed  the  same  time  in  drawing 
in  reinforcements  from  every  available  corner  of  the  Island. 

At  the  end  of  that  time  he  had  a  force  superior  in  p6int  of  numbers  to 
that  of  the  United  Men.  My  author,  the  surgeon,  puts  Johnson's  force  at 
twenty-six  thousand,  and  that  of  Harvey  about  two  thousand  less. 
Baines,  one  of  the  British  compilers,  is  now  before  me.  He  puts  the 
forces  of  the  United  Men  up  to  thirty  thousand,  and  takes  a  nought  from 
those  under  General  Johnson— leaving  them  at  twenty-six  hundred  !* 
With  these  twenty-six  hundred,  if  we  can  believe  Baines,  he  marches  out 
to  storm  the  entrenched  camp  of  the  thirty  thousand  men !  Those  com- 
prising the  very  men  who  at  the  battle  of  The  Three  Rocks  chased  the 
redcoats  for  "  ten  Irish  miles  on  a  run ! "  This  fact  I  had  from  Jemmy 
Gallagher,  an  itinerant  tailor,  who  belonged  to  the  Donegal  militia,  and 
was  present  at  the  battle. 

*  The  object  of  these  falsehoods  is  to  deter  men  trom  revolting  against  their  accursed 
«way. 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  95 

11  It  was  not  on  the  force  of  arms,"  says  a  French  author,  "  that  Eng- 
land relied  for  success.  It  was  on  gold  to  bribe,  and  corrupt  literature  to 
mislead."  Baines  is  an  example. 

And  then  my  author  describes  the  "  ranks  of  war  "  marching  to  the  at- 
tack. The  repulse.  Renewed  attack !  Repulsed  again!  A  third  time! 
Driven  back,  and  the  Eepublicans  dash  after  them  across  the  trenches 
into  the  open  plain. 

Johnson's  cavalry  are  held  in  hand,  to  charge  as  soon  as  the  melee 
gets  clear  of  the  trenches.  It  is  a  critical  moment.  There  is  a  wooded 
ground  or  high  hedges  on  their  flank.  Under  cover  of  this  a  strong 
body  of  pikemen,  most  of  them  outlaws  from  the  North,  come  down  like 
a  whirlwind  on  the  cavalry's  flank.  It  is  another  Oulart  Hill.  And 
there  is  nothing  for  it  now  but  a  rush  for  the  sheltering  walls  of  New 
Boss.  Those  who  are  left  behind  meet  a  sharp  fate  or  join  the  Republi- 
cans. 

And  then  there  is  desparate  fighting  at  the  four  gates  of  the  town ; 
but  especially  at  the  "  Throe-Bullet  Gate  "  and  adjoining  wall.  Three  of 
the  gates  are  forced.  The  United  Men  enter,  and  after  some  hard  street 
fighting,  the  broken  columns  of  Johnson  are  driven  to  the  other  side  of 
the  river.  Instead  of  following  him,  the  victors  are  content  to  "put  a 
guard  on  the  bridge  "  and  sit  down  to  enjoy  themselves. 

Joviality,  or  anything  to  make  them  jovial,  has  been  a  stranger  to 
them  of  late,  and  now  when  it  comes,  all  other  things  are  forgotten. 
Johnson  understands  this;  returns  and  fires  the  town.  Why  dwell  on 
the  horrible  sequel? 

On  that  day  Ireland's  battle  was  Won  and  Lost! 

Thousands  of  the  disorganized  Republicans  perish  in  the  flames  or 
are  slaughtered  in  the  streets.  The  surgeon  also  relates  this : 

"  Next  day,  accompanied  by  a  youug  acquaintance,  I  wal&ed  through  the  several  streets 
watching  the  bodies  of  men  falling  from  the  burning  houses.  My  companion  said  it  was  a 
deplorable  sight— those  blackened  corpses.  A  guard  overheard  him,  and  seizing  him  by  th« 
collar  swung  him  round  and  shot  him  through  the  head  with  a  pistol,  and  Singing  him 
down  exclaimed:  Make,  you,  one  more  among  them." 

"At  mercy  of  the  waves,  wliusu  mercies  are 
Like  human  beings  during  civil  war." 

No,  Byron;  you  are  unjust  to  the  "  waves." 

STIMULANTS. 

Glentin.  was  more  wild  than  beautiful  before  Sir  Charles  Style  took  it 
in  hand,  and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall  outlined  its  "  rundale  "  agriculture.  It  nes- 
tles under  the  Barnes  range,  and  owns  a  "  decent "  mountain  lake  in  its 
highest  recess.  I  explored  it  only  once  from  Ballybofey  to  Glenties. 
It  was  in  winter,  in  a  snow  storm,  and  I  alone.  The  road  lay  across  an 
open  moor,  untouched  as  it  was  created.  There  must  have  been  furrows 
alongside  of  the  road,  but  they  were  leveled  up  with  the  snow.  I  was 
yet  some  miles  from  the  hostlery,  beside  the  lough,  of  which  they  had 
told  me.  But  just  as  I  was  perplexed  by  the  immense  white  level,  luck 
came  along  in  the  shape  of  one  of  the  natives,  comfortably  on  horseback 
in  a  "soogan"  (straw  saddle).  An  excellent  pilot  he  was— knew  the 
turns  and  windings  of  the  road  and  followed  them.  I  could  not  keep  up, 
but  before  the  tracks  he  left  behind  were  closed  with  the  falling  snow 

"  smoke-flavored 


my  memory 
.  Here's  a  sample.  I 
have  a  heavy  wallet  on  my  back.  There  is  a  rising  road  of  miles  before 
me.  A  glass  of  ale  carries  myself  and  my  load  comfortably  over  the 
upward  way.  But  beware ! 

OUB  NATURAL  RIGHTS. 

With  the  manuscript  in  my  breast  I  was  returning  from  an  unsuccess- 
ful effort  to  have  it  printed  in  Derry.    I  rode  a  very  tali  horse,  and  dark- 


96  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

ness  had  settled  down  as  I  urged  him  through  the  "  gap  "  of  Barnes.  It 
is  unsafe  to  urge  a  horse  to  his  full  speed  down  a  hill.  Mine  foil  headlong, 
flinging  me  what  Christie  of  the  Clinthill  would  call  a  "  gads  length  out 
of  the  saddle."  I  was  neither  hurt  nor  stunned,  and  as  I  gathered  up, 
putting  my  hand  to  my  breast  pocket  I  exclaimed, "  here  lies  what  saved 
me,"  and  even  yet  I  am  not  sure  but  I  was  right. 

However,  I  carried  the  manuscript  to  Belfast,  when  Tait,  of  High 
street,  had  just  discontinued  some  publication,  and  wanting  a  job  for  his 
idle  hands,  undertook  my  business,  500  copies,  6d.  the  price,  I  takinsr  100, 
he  taking  chance  with  the  rest.  I  advertised  it  in  the  extreme  liberal 
"  Newry  Examiner,"  and  began  to  fear  it  was  not  worth  much,  when  the 
editors  took  no  notice  of  the  copy  I  left  at  their  office  for  review.  I  knew 
little  of  the  world  or  of  editors  at  the  time.  In  my  native  village  any- 
body or  everybody  would  take  a  copy  for  nothing,  but  no  solitary  six- 
pence did  I  receive  except  one— the  purchaser  a  "  Still-hunting  police- 
man,"—I  suppose  because  his  craft  was  mentioned  in  the  text. 

But  I  had,  years  before,  devoted  my  life  to  an  unceasing  war  against 
Land  Monopoly.  Thus  I  said  to  my  friends,  "  I  have  dragged  up  the  long- 
forgotten  truth,  that  the  land  is  the  property  of  the  whole  people— that 
those  few  men  who  call  themselves  its  owners,  are  not  owners,  but  im- 
postors. The  first  Reform  we  need  is  a  Land  Beform.  The  first  question 
to  be  solved  is  a  question  of  Inheritance.  The  Inheritance  of  the  whole 
people.  A  day  is  coming  when  I  will  lay  my  head  on  the  death-pillow. 
Will  a  thought  then  come  like  this  ?  "  Coward !  when  you  had  youth  and 
energy,  you  shrank  from  the  great  duty.  Now  your  power  is  gone, 
a  green  sod  will  cover  you— your  day  of  action  has  passed.  A 
great  truth  was  given  to  you — you  were  not  worthy  of  the  mission, 
die  and  bo  forgotten,  a  recreant  as  you  have  lived."  Such  a  thought,  I 
said,  will  not  darken  iny  death  bed.  I  will  present  this  truth,  as  I 
best  may,  in  that  great  turbulent  centre  of  thought,  London,  I  will  try  to 
win  attention  to  it.  I  may  succeed.  If  not,  one  success  is  certain,  the 
consciousness  of  having  done  all  I  could  do, 

STANDING  GUARD. 

We  rented  a  hungry  barren  field  about  an  acre  and  a  half.  It  gave  us 
work,  but  no  wages.  Excepting  some  grass  about  the  margins,  we  lost 
time  and  labor  on  it.  Want  of  room  to  store  our  potatoes,  put  vis  on  the 
shift  to  "  pit "  them  on  the  field  in  a  pile  covered  with  straw  and  clay. 
This  was  broken  into  at  night,  and  a  part  of  the  contents  stolon.  Next 
night,  my  brother,  myself,  and  another  boy,  concealed'ourselve.s  near  by, 
and  as  it  grew  late  we  saw  a  tall  man  approaching  with  an  empty  creel 
on  his  back.  He  crossed  the  fence,  and  throwing  down  the  creel  com- 
menced to  open  the  "  pit."  We  sprang  upon  him.  My  two  companions 
soized  him  by  the  collar,  I  with  my  leveled  gun  covering  him.  So  we 
proceeded  down  the  declivity  toward  the  gap  or  entrance  to  the  field,  on 
our  way  to  town  and  the  "  black  hole."  When  about  h  ilf  way  down,  not- 
withstanding the  leveled  gun  was  at  his  back,  he  gave  a  wrench,  and 
sprang  clear  of  the  hold,  and  ran  at  the  top  of  his  speed.  I  fired  at 
him,  but  the  charge  was  bird  shot,  and  did  him  no  injury.  It  gave  us 
something  to  talk  about,  and  that  was  something  in  those  times  and 
places. 

A  FISH  PHENOMENON. 

It  was  quite  an  honor  for  the  very  common  people  to  be  permitted  in- 
tercourse with  well-to-do  genteel  people.    The  Presbyterian  mini 
Hewston,  was  rather  democratic.    At  least  he  joined  seven  or  eight  of 
us  (boys*  on  a  row  down  the  bay  to  fish  with  cod  lines.    Those  aro  of 
strong  whip-cord.    A  long  narrow  lead  sink  has  a  hole  in  each  ond.    On 
one  end  you  fasten  the  lino,  on  the  other  end  the  "  snid,"  a  fathom  long 
with  a  large  baited  hook  attached.    The  line  is  cast  down  till  bottom  is 
struck.    Then  you  haul  up  a  fathom  so  that  the  hook  and  bait  Avill  \ 
near  the  bottom.    You  then  pull  the  line  a  foot  or  two  up  and  down  with 


OB,    THE    8PIBI1    OF    GHIVALKY    IK    MODERN    DAYS.  97 

a  sawing  motion  on  the  gunwale.  When  tke  fish  strikes  you  feel  the 
weight,  and  haul  up  rapidly  with  the  prize.  I  speak  of  this  because  a 
singular  phenomenon  occurred  on  this  occasion.  The  day  was  cairn  and 
sultry,  a  bad  day  for  "  take."  There  were  seven  lines  out,  hooks,  bait, 
"  snid,"  all  alike'.  Suddenly  a  "  take  "  came  to  my  line,  and  as  fast  as  I 
could  bait  and  haul  them  up  I  caught  seven  fish.  Not  one  of  the  other 
lines  got  a  nibble  excepting  one.  The  eight  fish  were  all  we  caught,  and 
it  just  afforded  one  a  piece  to  us.  Who  can  tell  what  brought  so  many 
fisn  to  my  hook?  Why  did  they  prefer  it  to  all  the  other  hooks  equally 
as  tempting?  Had  magnetic  phenomena  anything  to  do  with  it  ? 

A    NIGHT    MAEOH,    1798. 

My  father,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  carrier.  He  happened  to  be  in  Dublin 
when  "  the  Rebels  broke  out  at  Kilcock,  and  in  one  night,  by  concert,  dis- 
armed all  the  military  outposts  over  a  sweep  of  twenty  or  thirty  miles." 
That  was  his  account  of  it  to  me. 

It  might  have  been  five  or  six  months  later  when  the  French  landed  at 
Killala,  and  opened  the  famous  "  chase  "  in  that  neighborhood.  A  general 
signal  was  made  for  all  the  government  forces  to  con  verge  on  that  point. 
In  the  neighborhood  of  that  grand  and  unique  mountain  pass,  "  Barnes 
Gap,"  was  a  wayside  hostelrie;  carts  loaded  with  furniture  are  at  its 
door,  and  the  "  thud  "  of  a  marching  regiment  is  approaching.  The 
cart-horses  are  quickly  unstabled,  and  hurried  into  a  woody  recess  be- 
hind an  adjoining  fence.  The  carts,  however,  betray  the  truth  that  horses 
can't  be  far  off,  and  so  when  the  songs,  and  curses,  and  clamor  of  the 
regiment  gradually  sank  in  the  distance,  the  horses  are  sought,  but  are 
not  to  be  found.  There  is  nothing  for  it  but  follow  the  advancing  troops. 
A  Major  in  command  of  the  rear-guard  brings  the  owners  and  their  com- 
plaint before  the  "  head  Colonel."  "  Loads  of  furniture  for  the  Rev. 
sandy  Montgomery  and  Rev.  Mr.  Ball  of  Drimholm."  •'  Very  well,  Ma- 
jor, see  that  the  men  have  their  horses."  Good  news  for  the  horses,  for 
each  had  two  tired  men  on  his  back ;  one  was  a  teamster  in  civilian's  dress. 
This  irritated  my  father,  so  he  closed  with  the  offer  of  "  I'll  knock  him 
oft'  if  you  give  me  a  shilling."  A  dig  with  the  butt  of  the  gun— down 
came  blue-coat,  and  the  shilling  was  earned.  Hats  were  off,  and  thanks 
bowed  to  the  Major.  "  Stop,"  said  he,  "  let  the  horses  drink  at  this 
stream."  Up  comes  half  a  dozen  stragglers,  and  thus  the  Major  :  "  Boys 
I  knew  you  were  fatigued,  so  I  have  procured  these  horses  to  help  you 
along."  "  The  Lord  bless  and  be  good  to  your  honor ! "  and  jump,  jump, 
in  a  moment  the  half  a  dozen  are  on  horseback.  But  the  Major  enlight- 
ened them  with  a  cut  or  two  of  the  long  cartwhip,  restored  the  horses  to 
their  owners  to  the  great  amusement  of  all  hands.  Even  the  unhorsed 
went  off  "  cursing  and  laughing."  Returning  down  the  road  they  meet 
another  straggler  running  to  regain  his  colors.  "  Luck  at  last," 'he  ex- 
claims, jumping  on  one  of  the  horses.  He  was  instantly  overmatched 
and  hauled  down  again.  But  he  had  his  revenge.  "  Lord  love  ye,  boys,  I 
wouldn't  touch  your  horses,  but  if  you  don't  hide  them  someway  there's 
a  dozen  coming  up,  mostly  drunk,  and  they'll  be  sure  to  seize  upon 
them."  The  moor  was  level,  and  the  wag  had  the  satisfaction  to  see  man 
and  horse  crossing  it  at  right  angles,  through  knolls  and  "slunks"  to 
get  out  of  view  of  the  crowd  that  was  not  approaching. 

A   STEANGE    DANGEB. 

In  the  hollows  of  the  mountains  are  "  shaking  quas,"  (quagmires)  col- 
lections of  water  overgrown  by  vegetation.  Enter,  and  if  you  don't  sink 
through  it,  the  whole  surface  undulates  to  your  tread.  It  forms  a  trap 
not  confined  to  Ireland  and  its  unheeding  cattle.  In  a  similar  trap  near 
Newburg  N.  Y..  was  discovered  perhaps  the  most  perfect  specimen  of 
the  mastadon  which  we  possess.  It  had  gradually  sunk,  and  was  found 
undisturbed  and  undistorted,  in  a  standing  posture,  as  the  mud  quietly 
closed  over  it.  The  shaking  qua  is  known  and  guarded  against.  But 

13 


98  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

there  is  a  kindred  danger  vory  little  known,  at  least,  that  I  had  never 
even  heard  of,  'till  it  was  on  the  point  oi  claiming  me  for  its  own. 

I  am  traveling  alone.  It  is  a  breezy  summer  day,  and  I  am  on  my  way 
to  Glenties.  To  go  round  by  the  road  is  a  stretch  of  three  or  four  miles. 
To  cross  straight  over  the  mporland  it  is  about  half  the  distance.  No 
path,  no  house,  rocky  acclevities  and  hollow  swamps  diversify  the  sur- 
face. But  then  there  is  variety  in  it,  and  so  I  shoot  up  the  mountain  side, 
and  with  an  easy  energy  bound  from  one  point  to  another  of  the  ine- 
qualities. The  heather,  thick,  and  tough,  and  high  enough  to  form 
almost  my  sole  impediment.  There's  a  smooth,  hard  looking  spot,  en- 
tirely free  of  heather.  I  bound  upon  it.  No !  not  upon  it,  into  it.  In,  up 
to  my  middle  at  the  first  plunge.  It  is  a  thing  of  which  I  had  never 
heard  the  existence.  Of  such  a  tough,  paste-like  consistence,  that  I  am 
held  fast  in  it,  and  I  quickly  realize  the  horrible  fact  that  I  am  gradually 
sinking,  and  that  any  motion  I  might  make  to  extricate  myself  only 
makes  me  sink  the  faster.  Its  bottom  was  probably  fathoms  deep.  If  I 
remained  motionless  it  might  be  half  an  hour  before  I  would  be  sunk 
over  the  head.  Any  attempt  at  motion  would  sink  me  in  half  that  time. 
A  slender  twig  of  heather  grew  on  its  margin  within  reach.  Its  root 
just  edging  on  the  drowning  mud  promised  little  strength  of  hold.  If  it 
gives  way  death  is  inevitable,  and  all  traces  of  it  undiscoverable.  I  had  to 
pull  on  that  twig  gently,  and  only  to  get  such  help  as  would  inclince  me 
a  little  from  the  perpendicular— lean  me  forward  on  the  mud  a  little  at 
first,  then  a  little  more  to  the  horizontal  which  lessened  my  sinking 
motion,  for  I  was  slowly  and  steadily  settling  down.  But  I  had  to  in- 
crease the  pulls,  and  the  anchoring  of  that  slender  twig  was  all  that 
could  save  me  from  a  death  the  most  horrible.  It  held  till  I  got  near 
enough  to  clutch  with  my  other  hand  the  ground  beneath  it.  I  was  saved ! 
That  twig  of  heather !  I  remember  its  form  distinctly.  It  was  branch- 
less to  near  the  top,  and  no  thicker  than  the  pen  I  write  with.  If  it  had 
given  way  another  hour  had  not  struck  till  the  soft  mass  had  closed  over 
me,  leaving  no  trace  of  my  existence.  Keep  out  of  unfrequented  places 
if  you  are  alone.  A  youth  known  to  me  named  Allen  went  to  the  "  big 
woods  "  near  New  York  a  chestnutting.  He  fell  from  one  of  the  high 
trees,  so  fractured  his  limbs  that  he  could  not  move,  and  no  one  within 
sound  of  his  voice,  he  lay  there  till  he  died. 

THE  VILLAGE  BLACKSMITH. 

Cheerful  amusements  are  conducive  not  only  to  bright,  but  also  to  long 
life.  "  Dan  Crilly  is  the  best  company-keeper  about  all  the  Bridge  End." 
It  was  a  high  encomium.  With  it  came  the  couplets : 

"  The  Bridge  End  boys  they  are  going  lads, 
And  search  the  whole  town  there's  none  such  to  be  had; 
II  the  bridge  had  but  teeth  and  a  tongue  tor  to  speak. 
It  could  tell  that  same  night  what  was  done  at  the  wake. 

Derry  down." 

Outlandish  practical  jokes  were  played  outside  of  the  wake-house. 
Dan  was  the  son  of  a  Bridge  End  blacksmith,  and  became  heir  to  the 
»nvil  and  sledge.  Heir  also  to  the  "blacksmith's  tithe."  Whilst  the 
sheaves  were  yet  on  the  field,  Dan  and  all  such  Dan's  borrowed  a  horse, 
and  went  forth  as  a  \v  elcome  tithe  gatherer.  He  had  mended  the  plough- 
irons—was  ever  ready  to  mend  them,  and  the  "tenants"  around  were 
just  as  ready  to  hand  over  as  many  odd  sheaves  of  oats  as  made  each  of 
the  Dan's  such  a  "  inelder  "  (see  Tom  O'Shanter)  as  carried  them  on  till 
the  corn  grew  again.  Exercise  and  love  of  fun  have  kept  Dan  luring- 
and  at  work  to  this  day— a  life  now  close  upon  eighty  years. 

WATER    KEEPING. 

John  Gallagher  was  our  most  formidable  Water-keeper.  He  would 
charge  on  us  with  an  expletive  that  we  abbreviated  into  "  Hilt,"  by  which 
name  only  we  dealt  with  him.  Four  pounds  a  year  couldn't  keep  him 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  99 

always  watching;,  and  when  he  didn't  watch  we  did.  A  tributary  flowing 
into  the  river  forms  an  angle — the  favorite  haunt  of  the  fish.  The  initia- 
ted aware  of  this,  met  the  fish  on  their  own  terms  at  this  angle;  hence 
probably  the  epithet  "angler"  at  first  designated  a  skillful  fisher,  but 
now  degenerated  into  a  common  name. 

At  any  rate  I  am  a  very  little  boy  at  the  point  of  the  angle,  and  John 
is  a  very  active  man  at  the  centre  of  the  hypothenuse.  If  I  run  down  the 
base  line  I  am  cut  off  and  caught.  If  up  the  perpendicular  I  am  a  little 
more  so.  But  worse  than  caught  I  can't  be.  So  my  fish  are  in  the  grass, 
and  my  tackle  In  the  flood,  and  I  off  at  a  run  expecting  the  big  hand  on 
my  shoulder  every  moment.  But  it  didn't  corne,  and  looking  round 
John  was  nowhere  to  be  seen.  Has  the  earth  opened  and  swallowed  him! 

Something  of  the  kind.  The  ground  is  •  low  holm  intersected  with 
narrow,  almost  bottomless  drains  to  keep  it  dry.  The  late  rains  have 
prostrated  a  heavy  growth  of  9ats  across  the  drains  covering  them  up, 
and  making  pitfalls,  out  of  which  I  see  John  emerging  streaming  with 
water,  and  covered  with  mud.  I  am  safe,  interrupt  my  tackle  as  it  floats 
down,  and  in  duo  time  return  for  my  finny  spoils.  The  fall  and  submer- 
gence had  a  cooling  effect  on  John's  ardor.  I  think  he  gave  up  the  em- 
ployment, and  didn't  trouble  us  any  more.  I  mention  this  trifle,  to  say 

never  give  up."  and  to  show  the  absurdity  as  well  as  the  roguery  of  a 
villainous  "  lord  "  standing  between  even  the  fcttle  boys  and  their  natural 
prey,  and  natural  amusement.  The  dangef  «  it,  too,  when  boys  grow 
up  to  be  men  as  we  have  seen. 

A     CONVIVIAL    SKETCH. 

"  Ho  has  arrived,  and  has  brought  along  both  Moore  and  Byrtjn.  Won't 
we  have  a  night  of  it  ?  "  It  was  Campbell,  the  bookseller,  who  iiad  just 
come  along  with  his  enormous  wallet  of  wares  on  his  back. 

And  so  night  came,  and  the  parlor  of  the  haunted  house  browght  us 
together  just  as  the  twopenny  caudles  chased  out  tke  last  gray  glimmer- 
ing of  the  twilight. 

There  was  big  George,  the  brother  of  the  landlord,  and  Httle  Daniel 
the  second,  as  wo  used  to  call  him  at  once  doctor  and  druggist,  whose 
emporium  of  (what's  this  you  call  the  Goddess  of  Health)  lay  next  door. 
Then  there  was  Lynch,  the  chapel  shoolmaster,  whose  smooth  and  ready 
eloquence  always  brought  him  into  the  scrape  of  being  elected  chairman. 
Doctor  M., — no,  the  doctor  was  only  a  boy  keeping  store  for  his  falser 
at  this  time — the  abilities  and  the  follies  that  distinguished  his  afterlife 
were  just  budding  out.  J.B.,  afterward  the  J'amou*  author  otf  "Shaa$y 
Maguire,"  a  mere  boy,  had  just  returned  from  Lefwrkenny  school,  and 
was  preparing  for  M^ynooth.  On  this  night  he  made  the  first  essay  of 
those  brilliant  talent*  that  shone  forth  in  ""Sfeandy  Maguire."  A  work 
worthy  of  Scott  or  Burns.  A  boofc  that  gjvflS'yft  once  immortality  to  his 
own  name,  and  to  the  beautiful  libds  to«D  that  has  the  honor  of  his  birth. 

Big  George  was  a  young  man  *l  some  fifty  summers— always  welcome 
wherever  he  showed" his  undesigning  and  good-natured  face. "  He  was  a 
merchant,  a  farmer,  and  a  smuggler.  And  sometimes,  when  the  friends 
around  him  were  very  select,  he  would  throw  off  the  picture  of  a  broad 
blue  sea,  with  the  moonbeams  jumping  along  the  waves  from  one  crest 
to  another.  The  splash  of  oars — the  long  narrow  white  coast-guard  boat, 
shooting  toward  them— the  trumpet  voice,  ''Heave  to,"  and  then  a  flaw 
of  wind.  The  man  at  the  helm,  he  alvvavs  maintained,  couldn't  help  it. 
But,  so  it  was,  a  sudden  tack  of  the  "Nancy  of  Flushing,"  fairly  ran 
down  nine  bubbling  men,  and  their  gray,  lead-color  boat  along  with 
them.  "Ah,  well!"  he  would  interject,  "if  I  had  known  that  my  old 
school-fellow,  Pat  Kogers,  was  aboard  of  her,  that  flaw  of  wind  never 
"would  have  struck  our  sails." 

It  will  be  seen  by  this  that  George  could  converse  and  tell  a  story  as 
"Well  as  another  man.  A  fact  he  well  knew,  and  presuming  on  it  he  got  up 
"'o  make  a  jpeech  in  honor  of  twelve  empty  tumblers  that  had  been  just 


100  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

drained  to  the  perpetuation  of  his  "  health,  body  and  soul,  here  and' 
hereafter." 

But  leaving  the  conversational,  which  he  knew,  he  plunged  into  the  ora- 
torical, which  he  did  not  know.  He  was  not  made  aware  of  his  rashness 
till  he  had  got  as  far  as  "  Gentlemen,  gentlemen,  gentlemen ! "  three 
times.  He  was  fast— firmly  stuck  in  the  oratorical  bog  as  ever  any  of  us 
had  been  in  the  natural  one. 

But  he  didn't  stick  long.  Turning  around  to  the  Chairman,  he  ex- 
claimed :  "  D n  it,  Lynch !  why  don't  yon  help  me  ?  "  To  which  em- 
phatic appeal  the  Chairman  responded  iri  tins  wise: 

"  Gentlemen,  our  friend  is  so  overpowered  with  his  feelings  that  he  can 
find  no  utterance  for  them.  It  is,  gentlemen,  because  we  do  not  feel  as 
strongly  as  he  does  upon  this  memorable  occasion  (great  cheers)  that 
we  are  enabled  to  retain  that  coolness  and  self-possession  which  our 
friend  has  lost.  To  my  mind,  gentlemen,  it  adds,  and  should  add,  and  will 
forever  add,  to  the  deserved  popularity  with  which  our  friend  is  regarded 
by  all  classes  of  men  and  especially  by  the  ladies."  As  George's  tame 
in  that  direction  was  unrivalled,  one  loud  shout  of  merriment  interrupt- 
ed the  speaker.  "  Well,  gentlemen,"  after  the  explosion  had  died  away, 
"  I  find  you  will  not  permit  me  to  do  justice  to  this  great  subject.  There- 
fore I  will  close  by  proposing  one  other  bumper,  and  nil  it  high  to  Mr. 
O'Flaherty's  maiden  speech ! " 

The  applause  and  the  glass  jingle  died  way,  as  all  things  earthly  must 
die  away,  but  George  came  to  life  again— and  this  time  he  didn't  get  on 
his  legs.  "I'm  glad,"  said  he,  "  to  see  you  all  so  amused,  and  should  be 
glad  if  you  would  show  us  what  you  can  do  yourselves  in  the  plow 
traces.  I  move  that  every  gentleman  round  this  round  table  shall  fol- 
low my  example  and  show  what  literary  stuff  he's  made  of."  This  was 
agreed  to.  Every  man  did  show  his  stuff,  and  poor  stuff  it  was  in  all 
conscience.  I  remember  only  two  brief  snatches.  One  of  them  my  own, 
and  the  other  by  the  iar-famed  author  of  "Shandy  Maguire."  His  (re- 
markable coincidence  with  his  early  death)  was  a  paraphrase  on  the 
"  Wandering  Boy,"  ending  with  these  two  lines : 

"My  limbs  all  relaxed,  In  the  cold  grave  shall  lie 
The  remains  of  a  poor  little  wandering  boy." 

Mine  had  nothing  of  dying  in  it.  Heaven  grant  that  it,  too,  may  b* 
prophetic.  Here  it  is : 

We  want  to  shake  vonr  parting  hand, 

John  Ball, 
And  to  give  to  you  a  starting  hand, 

John  Bull. 

But  when  you  j?o  to  KO, 
If  we  find  that  you  are  slow. 
We'll  give  you  a  touch  o'  th'  toe. 

John  Bull. 

We  have  tried  what  sort  of  stuff  you  are. 

And  we  find  its  very  tough  you  are, 

John  Bull. 

3e  you  tender,  be  you  tough, 
Be  you  smooth,  or  be  you  rouph, 
We  have  nursed  you  long  enough, 

Johc  Boll. 

'Twas  the  devil  brought  you  over  here, 

John  Bull, 
And  you  happened  into  clover  here. 

John  Bill 

I  suppose  you'll  jump  and  rear. 
When  we  slart  y<  u  Irom  your  lair. 
But  hugaeth  arvdhgrirl*  ^^  ^^ 

"•Itevrare'of  the  sharp,  thing. 


OH,     TilK    WiJIKIT    OF    CHIVALRY     IN     MCYDliRN; 
TfcETOTAL. 

About  1830,  Eev.  Dr.  Edgar  of  Belfast  originated  the  first  Total  Absti- 
nence movement  perhaps  on  record.  Jonn  Hamilton,  of  whom  see 
"  Thrushbank."  and  who  yet  survives,  one  of  the  best  of  his  class,  car- 
ried the  thought  into  Donegal.  Aided  by  Prof.  Niblaek,  a  Presbyterian 
ctorgy man— also  one  of  the  best  of  his  class—he  convened  a  meeting  in 
the  session  house.  Many  of  the  young  mon  joined  the  movement,  my- 
self among  the  rest.  But  old  Mr.  Early,  the  parish  priest— ho  was  very 
0}d — was  persuaded  that  the  whole  thing  was  a  lishing  for  proselytes. 
This  was  a  mistake,  but  it  was  fatal  to  the  movement.  He  denounced  it 
from  the  altar,  and  all  of  his  creed  at  once  withdrew.  I  owed  no  allegi- 
ance to  either  church  or  king,  and  so  strictly  did  I  hold  on  to  it,  that  Jor 
just  twelve  months,  though  living  half  my  time  in  public  houses,  I  <iid 
not  encourage  them  by  even  the  purchase  of  a  glass  of  lemonade.  Our 
object  was  to  teach  by  example  and  influence.  It  did  not  make  an  inch 
of  headway,  and  so  I  left  it  at  the  end  of  the  year. 

"TOMMY  DOWNSHIRB." 

It  Is  a  smooth  frost,  and  I  alight  at  a  blacksmith's  forge  near  Killyleagh 
(county  Armagh)  to  get  "  frost  nails  "  in  my  horse's  shoes.  I  speak*  of 
landlords— never  miss  an  opportunity.  "Landlords,"  said  he  of  the 
sledge  hammer,  "  if  one  of  them  attempted  to  put  another  shilling  on  the 
land  in  this  part  of  the  world  we'd  pay  him  the  difference  with  a  few 
inches  of  cold  steel.  The  scoundrels ! '  He  came  out  on  the  road,  pointed 
with  a  sweep  all  round  the  landscape.  "  Do  you  see  that  ?  Every  acre 
that  is  there  is  under  the  shield  of  Tommy  Downshire."  It  is  late  the 
same  night,  and  I  am  proceeding  from  Armagh  to  Tanderagee.  A  body 
of  marching  men  turn  a  curve  just  in  my  Trout.  They  fill  the  whole 
road,  but  civilly  make  way  for  me  to  pass.  Coming  to  the  hotel  I  relate 
the  circumstance,  and  the  landlord  remarks,  "  Tommy  Downshire  is  out 
to  night."  The  way  Tommy  administered  the  law  in  those  times  will  be 
found  a  few  pages  onward  in  Chapter  8  of  "  Our  Natural  Eights." 

Next  day  happened  what  is  noted  in  the  following  memorandum :  Billy 
Bluff  was  a  very  unique,  grotesque,  and  telling  sattire,  published  in  "  The 
North  Star,"  Belfast,  1796  "  The  Nortn  Star  "  was  suppressed  by  the  gov- 
ernment. But  some  judicious  hand  preserved  "Billy  Biuff  and  the  Squire," 
in  the  form  of  a  small  book.  Ttiis,  too,  was  hunted  out  of  all  the  book- 
stores, and  out  of  all  the  stalls.  A  copy  of  it  somehow  got  into  our 
family,  whilst  I  was  yet  little  more  than  a  child,  and  many  a  winter 

-""*-  around  and  reading  its 
las  I  grew  up  to  manhood 
satire  it  contained— but  I 
never  expected  to  see  it  more.  Luckily  my  business  led  me  frequently 
to  the  neigoborhood  of  Belfast.  My  inquiries  among  the  book  reposita- 
ries  were  continuous,  but  always  baffled— always  in  vain.  One  market- 
day,  in  Tanderagee,  I  made  the  usual  inquiry.  "No,"  said  the  chap- 
man, '*  there  is  not  a  copy  can  bo  procured  anywhere."  This  led  to  a 
conversation  in  which  I  found  that  the  chapman  was  a  republican  and 
sinner  like  myself.  "Well,"  said  I,  at  parting,  "try  all  your  skill,  and 
if  you  succeed  in  procuring  me  a  copy,  I'll  pay  for  it  whatever  price  you 
ask."  "  Stop,"  said  he,  and  putting  his  hand  under  the  large  canvas  on 
which  his  wares  were  deposited,  he  brought  forth  the  object  of  my  long 
and  diligent  search.  This  was  forty  years  ago.  Nothing  that  then  be- 
longed to  me  remains  with  me  now,  save  this  brown  time-worn  copy  of 
Billy  Bluff.  I  shall  always  regard  it  as  one  of  the  most  fortunate  cir- 
cumstances of  my  life  that  I  have  been  able  to  preserve  it  through  the 
changes  and  vicissitudes  of  so  many  years.  Some  may  regard  it  only 
as  a  rare  literary  curiosity.  I  regard  it  as  a  great  deal  more.  It  brinars 
us  back  to  the  times  immediately  preceding  the  contest  of  Ninety-eight 
It  is,  indeed,  a  graphic  picture  of  those  times.  The  heart  that  dictated 
and  the  hand  that  drew  the  picture  has  long  since  mouldered  in  tka 


102f    *          TH3-mD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  J 

dust— the  picture  itself,  outlawed  by  the  government,  was  fast  passing 
away.  I  consider  it  one  of  the  important  circumstances  of  my  lite  that! 
had  the  fortune  to  preserve  it.  ' 

EEOEUITING. 

There  was  no  need  of  Conscription  in  Great  Biff  Britain.  "  A  dear  loaf 
is  the  best  recruiting:  sergeant,  was  the  motto.  And  they  kept  the  loaf 
dear,  kept  it  up  to  nearly  double  price,  till  Cobden,  and  Bright,  and  Ebe- 
nezer  Elliott  got  at  them.  Once,  in  the  scare  of  the  French  Bevolution,  a 
draft  was  ordered  in  Ireland.  It  acted  as  a  per  capita  tax,  and  the  local 
magistrates  made  money  by  exemptions  sold  at  a  guinea  a  head.  But 
the  chronic  famine  created  by  the  land  rents  clears  the  way  for  the  crimp 
sergeant,  and  he  does  the  business  a  great  deal  better.  He  is  an  actor, 
an  orator,  and  a  statesman,  as  well  as  a  military  commander.  He  has  a 
corporal,  two  privates,  and  a  drum  and  fife  in  his  command.  A  circular 
cockade  on  his  hat,  many  bright  colors,  with  streaming  ribbons,  floating 
from  it  yard-long  in  the  breeze.  It  is  market  day,  and  he  sallies  from 
the  rendezvous— a  third-rate  public  house.  "  Patrick's  Day  "  is  a  good 
tune  as  it  rushes  out  from  the  fife  and  up  from  the  drum.  The  "  Sprig  of 
Shilelah  "  is  better,  but  "  Garryowen  "  is  best  of  all.  After  circling  round 
and  stirring  up  the  crowd,  the  drawn  sword  gracefully  poised  in  front  of 
his  shoulder,  the  sergeant  signals  "  silence,"  and  every  one  crowds  to 
hear  his  harangue.  "  The  French  have  been  driven  from  Flanders  by 
Lord  Wellington  the  other  day."  This  is  the  first  of  August,  and  her«'& 
a  verse  of  the  song  that  is  already  made  about  it : 

"On  the  twenty-second  ot  July  the  French  they  marched  away,. 
Eight  over  the  river  clearly— remarkable  was  that  day; 
His  lordship  followed  alter  them,  being  fighting  all  the  way, 
He  laid  them  down  on  every  side,  in  thousands  tliey  do  say. 

And  with  Wellington  we'll  co,  we'll  go,  with  Wellington  we'll  f<K 
We'll  cross  the  main,  right  into  Spain,  to  face  our  daring  toe. 
And  we'll  never  be  faint  hearted,  but  boldly  plow  the  main; 
We'll  trade  again  in  Ireland— we'll  wrack  the  French  in  Spain. 

And  with  Wellington  we'll  go,  etc." 

So  much  to  hook  in  the  recruits.  There  stand  a  couple  of  loose-looking- 
young  fellows.  Each  has  a  "  ticking  "  trowsers  and  jacket  on  him.  Last 
year's  shoes,  too,  though  they  are  little  down  in  the  heel.  A  "  bent "  bat 
sewed  out  from  the  neighboring  rabbit  warren,  and  a  "touch  and  go" 
shirt  with  a  pin  in  the  neck  of  it.  Each  had  thirty  shillings  for  the  last 
half  year,  which,  out  into  arithmetic,  makes  five  shillings  a  month,  or 
two  pence  sterling  a  day.  It  is  possible  that  something  better  may  have- 
come  to  the  employer's  family,  but  potatoes  and  buttermilk  is  what  falls 
to  them.  The  day  laborer  has  Sunday,  but  "  the  servant's  a  servant  every 
day— Sunday  and  all."  Their  hours  of  work  "come  and  go  like  a 
market  stocking,"  but  generally  18  hours  a  day.  The  two  boys  confer 
a  little — shake  hands  with  the  sergeant.  In  to  the  rendezvous,  and  out 
with  a  "  three-go  "  of  whiskey  inside  and  a  stream  of  ribbons  outside  of 
their  heads.  A  month  after  they  are  cooped  in  a  transport,  cleaving  the 
blue  to  the  sun  sodden  climate  of  India,  whence  one  out  of  ten  of  them 
never  return. 

But  there  is  opposition  to  the  recruiting  songs  and  the  recruiting  ser- 
geant. There  was  a  rebel  muse  and  a  song  in  this  way: 

"  I  had  a  cousin  called  Arthur  McBride, 
We  both  went  a  walking  down  by  the  sea  side; 
Looking  for  pastime  whate'er  might  betide. 
The  morning  being  pleasant  and  charming. 

M  As  down  by  the  water  we  went  on  our  tramp, 
We  met  Sergeant  Napper  and  Corporal  Crampft 


<OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  \OS 

Likewise  the  wee  drummer  that  beats  up  the  canap, 
It  being  on  a  fine  Christmas  morning. 

"  He  says,  *  my  gay  fellows,  if  you  will  enlist. 
Five  guineas  of  goold  I'll  drop  into  your  flst; 
And  a  crown  to  the  bargain  to  Kick  up  a  dust, 
And  drink  the  king's  health  in  the  morning.' 

** '  Good  fellow,'  says  Arthur,  'just  Keep  your  advance. 
If  we  were  to  take  it  we'd  have  to  run  chance; 
You'd  only  be  wanting  to  send  us  to  France, 
Where  we  would  get  shot  in  the  morning.' 

"  *  No,  no,'  says  the  sergeant,  'we  have  a  fine  life, 
Every  town  we  inarch  into  we  get  a  new  wife; 
And  our  debts  are  all  paid  without  struggle  or  strife. 
With  the  tap  of  the  drum  in  the  morning. 

"  '  Our  coat  and  our  coutrements  all  neat  and  clean, 
When  we  take  a  walk  out  we  are  fit  to  be  seen; 
While  other  young  fellows  go  shabby  and  mean. 
And  eippiug  burgoo  in  the  morning.' 

••• '  Well,  sergeant,  now,  what  makes  you  brag  o'  your  clothe.t, 
You  have  but  the  loan  of  them,  everyone  knows; 
You  dare  not  exchange  them— no,  not  for  your  nose. 
For  lear  of  your  back  in  the  morning. 

•     '** '  An'  tell  us,  agrnh !  what  becomes  of  your  pay, 
That  dirtythirteen,  don't  they  take  it  away; 
For  your  breakfast  and  dinner — two  meals  in  the  day, 
An'  wait  for  your  supper 'till  morning.' 

•'  '  Be  hanaed,'  says  the  sergeant,  '  it  1  take  such  chat, 
From  an  conceity  and  upsetting  brat; 
So  now,  my  good  fellows,  no  more  about  that. 
Or  I'll  cut  off  your  heads  in  the  morning.'. 

"  But  Arthur's  shilelah  came  over  his  crown. 
With  a  kind  of  whisper  that  bade  him  *  lie  down;  * 
We  made  them  touch  timber  while  twisting  around, 
To  grope  for  their  swords  in  the  morning. 

"  The  wee  little  drummer  that  beat  the  row  dow, 
We  made  a  foot  ball  of  his  tow-a-row-row; 
Kicked  it  into  the  water  to  rock  and  to  row. 
And  frighten  the  flsh  in  the  morning. 

"  As  tor  the  bit '  kij))>ins  '  that  hung  by  their  side, 
As  far  as  we  could  we  threw  them  in  the  tide; 
'  And  the  devil  go  with  you,'  says  Arthur  Me  Bride, 
To  buy  you  a  check  in  the  morning." 

Deserting  bothered  the  service  a  little.    And  they  attacked  it  in  songg 
like  the  following,  set  to  very  lugubrious  music : 

"  My  father  reared  me  tenderly,  I  was  his  only  son, 
H«  always  knew  I  was  inclined  to  follow  the  flte  and  drum, 
I  courted  a  maid  both  tall  and  straight  until  she  won  my  heart. 
She  first  advised  me  to  enlist,  and  after  to  desert." 

Then  the  song  scrapes  him  through  thickets  of  misfortune  till  it  leaves 
him  in  a  strain  like  this : 


THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CTCNTURY  t 

"  Once  r  thought  I  never  would  be  in  this  rejected  state, 
A  poor  forlorn  effigy,  bound  up  to  hardships  great; 
It  a  bird  but  flutters  on  a  tree,  the  terror  strikes  my  heart, 
Each  star  J  see  alarms  me,  O  !  why  did  T  desert, 

•'  My  brother  is  a  seaman  bold.    He  knows  that  I  am  here, 
Aloud,  aloud  to  him  I  cry,  to  bring  the  small  boat  near; 
Unt.  the  title  forces  her  away,  he  cannot  bring  her  to, 
And  here  in  sorrow  I  remain,  and  know  not  what  to  do. 

"  But  to  conclude  and  make  an  end  of  my  deserting  eons, 
I  hope  to  shine  in  armor  bright,  and  that  before  its  long; 
My  sergeant  and  my  officers  have  clothes  for  me  in  store, 
If  they  would  combine  and  pardon  me,  I  would  desert  no  more." 

So  much  for  that  make  up.  Indeed  there  has  been  far  less  said  or 
sung  about  this  same  recruiting:  than  it  deserves.  One  other  light 
flashed  in  upon  it  is  all  I  remember.  A  victim  thus  talks  about  it: 

"  'Twas  on  a  certain  Tuesday,  to  Armagh  I  did  go, 
Meeting  with  some  small  offence,  *  that  filled  my  heart,  with  woe; 
J  met  wilh  Sergeant  Arcuson  in  Market  street  jr-hi^  down. 

•  How  would  you  like  young  man  'he  says,  'to  he  a  light  dragoon.' 

"  '  A  soger's  life,  kind  sir,'  T  said,  '  with  me  would  not  agree, 
For  I  am  light  and  airy,  and  at  my  liberty; 
I'll  live  as  h«»ppy  as  a  prince,  my  mind  does  tell  me  so, 
Bo  fare-ye-well,  I'm  going  home  my  shuttle  for  to  throw.' 

•'  '  O !  are  you  in  hurry? '  he  this  to  me  did  say, 

•  Are  you  in  a  hurry,  or  are  you  goiug  away  ? 

Or  is  your  dwelling  nigh  this  place,  as  I  would  wish  to  know; 
Likewise  your  name  young  man,'  he  says, '  and  tbat  before  you  go.' 

•'  I  answered  him,  immediately,  '  my  dwelling's  not  *ar  off, 
My  place  of  habitation's  within  six  miles  of  Armagh; 
Churles  Higgins  is  my  uamo,  iroin  Oaledon  town  I  came, 
And  I  think  I  never  done  the  crime,  I  should  deny  my  name.' 

••  He  says,  '  my  cousin  Chales,  I  think  you  might  do  worse, 
Than  to  go  see  yonr  country  boys,  and  list  in  the  light  hors«.» 
And  by  his  great  persuasions,  with  him  I  did  agree, 
To  go  and  see  my  country  boys,  ^nd  quit  my  liberty. 

"  First  we  marched  to  Tullamore,  where  there  1  called  to  min*, 
Thinking  of  sweet  Caledon  town,  and  all  1  left  behind} 
Farewell  friends,  and  father,  and  mother  also, 
Since  I  have  quit  my  liberty,  I  am  obliged  to  «o." 

Goldsmith  supposes  a  case,  and  says : 

11  Tbe  only  art  her  griefs  to  cover. 
To  hide  her  shame  from  every  eye ; 

To  bring  repentence  to  her  lover, 
And  wring  his  bosom,  is  to  die." 

On  the  very  same  principle  the  young:  man  does  not  "  die,"  "to  wring 
the  bosom  "  of  his  mistress.  But  he  enlists,  which  gives  a  "  wring"  near- 
ly as  painful.  So  Charlie's  mistress  felt— so  she  wrote  to  him— so  Charlie 
deserted.  Back  to  Caledon,  back  through  her  back  garden,  to  a  mutual 
flood  of  love  and  sorrow  at  the  cottage  gate.  A  reward  is  placed  on 
Charlie's  head.  It  is  placarded  all  round.  "  Your'e  the  man,"  says  a 

*  Thore  la  quite  a  romance  attached  to  this  sou.    That  "small  offence 
wit*  hit  wwtb9.rt.    And  such  "small o«mc«i"dW  much  fo7 the ^r^t 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IK    MODERN    DAY!.  106 

big  Peeler,  meeting  Charlie  at  the  grey  dawn  one  morning.  '•  Come  with 
me."  But  under  the  load  of  his  griefs  Charlie  is  as  strong  as  two  of  him, 
and  hurls  him  to  the  kennell.  The  Peeler  holds  on,  crying  for  "  help, 
help!"  and  vengeance  against  some  early  laborers  who  will  not  help 
him.  Charlie  escapes,  and  stag  hunts  are  out  after  him  over  the  coun- 
try next  day,  and  for  several  days.  In  vain.  The  people  are  on  his  side. 
Counsel,  protection,  money  are  furnished  him,  and  the  next  thing  we 
hear  is  a  meeting  between  him  and  his  affianced  on  board  the  brig  "  Dis- 
patch "  from  Derry  quay,  to  the  New  World,  taking  another  item  from 
old  Morld  strength,  and  adding  it  to  the  new.  What  a  villainous  system ! 
What  a  bad,  stupid  aristocracy ! 

MY  OOMEADB. 

He  was  a  peacemaker,  a  "bet"-er  on  the  bow  oar— a  cicerone  up  the 
mountain.  He  was  my  buon  comarado  when  I  ventured  down  there.  But 
one  thing  puzzled  me.  He  loved  solitude,  and  it  was  such  a  solitary 
suburban  walk— that  shore  pathway.  Its  only  drawback,  a  tasteful  two- 
story  hermitage,  embosomed  in  trees  and  flowers,  fortified  by  an  unget- 
overable  white  wall,  and  a  gate  through  which  you  may  look,  but  must 
not  enter.  That  was  all.  I  didn't  like  it.  There  was  an  esplanade  in 
front  of  the  hotel  that  attracted  myself,  and  I  began  to  suspect  that 
there  must  be  some  kindred  attraction  lurking  in  that  green  hermitage, 
and  I  began  to  hum— 

"  Solitude  where  are  the  charms. 
That  sages  have  seen  in  thy  face." 

But  it  wouldn't  be  quite  so  bad— 

"  With  one  to  whisper  •  solitude  is  sweet,' " 

pointing  significantly  to  the  green  hermitage.  "  Have  yon  seen  her  ?  " 
he  said.  "  No,  but  I  have  heard."  "  Are  you  curious  ?  "  "  Not  much — a 


your 

them  there— in  that  hermitage— and  if  you  get  in  its  doubtful  whether 
you'll  ever  get  out  again."  "I'm  not  afraid."  "Try."  "But  hold.  If 
you  succeed,  you  might  suddenly  recollect  that  a  paper  like  this  is  an 
inconvenience  in  your  side  pocket ?"  "Certainly.  Is  that  all?"  "Yes, 
that  is  all."  And  so  I  am  at  the  festooned  gate,  with  a  tinkle  at  the  ring-, 
and  the  paper  in  my  pocket.  Half  back  swings  a  Venetian,  and  half  ap- 
pears— such  a  face !  Up  goes  my  cap,  and  down  goes  a  rather  quizzical, 
beseeching  kind  of  a  bow.  Archly  returned,  as  if  to  say :  "  I  know,  and 
I  will,"  and  a  tripping  foot  is  heard  on  .the  stair-carpet,  the  gate  opens, 
and  I  am  standing  in  paradise,  with  Eve  in  her  girlhood  and  a  summer 
dress  right  before  me.  •'  I  know  about  it,"  she  interjects ;  "  come  in,  you 
shall  see."  Such  a  little  alcove,  tapestry,  flowers,  pictures— a  wilderness, 
but  all  on  the  tiniest  scale.  I  suddenly  recollect.  "  This  happened  into 
my"-  -"Yes  I  know— it  is  the  most  harmless,  amusing  thing;  do  you 
ever  write  poetry?"  "Never."  "But  let  us  see."  She  opens,  reads, 
"Embalm."  O!  that  is  good— " Moonlight,  and  roses,  and  wreaths  of 
snow."  "Do  you  think  he  stole  those  things?"  "But  look!  'power, 
bower,  hour,  flower,  lower,  shower,  and  turn  ower.'  Just  you  read." 
"  Thank  you."  •«  It  is  mine— it  is  addressed  to  me.  It  is  his  heart  he's 
talking  about." 

"  Emhalra  it  in  the  music  of  thy  sighs, 
And  sun  it  in  the  starlight  of  thine  eyes; 
O'ershaclow  it  with  that  oright  wavy  hair. 
Repose  it  on  thy  brow,  as  moonlight  lair; 
Caress  it  on  thy  cheek's  transcendent  glow, 
A  moss  rose  bursting  through  a  wreath  of  snow; 
And  when  you  have  it  fairly  in  your  power. 
Admit  it  for  the  moment  to  your  bower: 
Sport  with  its  leelings  through  the  vacant  hour, 
Breathe  vernal  airs  around  its  budding  flower; 
Nor  let  one  cloud  above  it  seem  to  hover, 
Tiien  down  upon  it,  like  a  thunder  shower. 

,  Turn  ow«rl" 

14 


106  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY ; 

"  Well,  do  you  know  that  is  not  so  very  bad,  but  isn't  it  Scotch  ?  "  **Nu 
indeed !  There  isn't  a  word  here  but  Irish."  Listen 

"  My  heart  went  a  jumping  tip  to  her  large  eyes, 
For  like  stars  they  attract  in  proportion  to  size; 
And  all  of  its  danger  was  qui'.o  unaware, 
Till  it  found  itself  spider-web'd  up  in  her  hair; 
Yes,  her  hair !    And,  in  troth,  its  a  troublesome  place  toe 
As  e'er  summer  fly  of  a  heart  run  a  race  to; 
For  once  it  is  caught,  it  may  flutter  and  bizz  too, 
And  write  what  it  feels  in  the  lines  of  its  phiz  too; 
But  however  it  flutters,  its  little  she  cares, 
The  owner  of  those  pretty  curl'd  silken  hairs; 
So  let  me  get  from  them  as  fast  as  [  can. 
Or  faith  I'll  be  coming  away  a  dead  man; 

And  what  are  those  strange  little  things  that  appears, 

Justin  under  her  hair  ?— 'Pon  my  conscience  they're  ears: 

Such  curves,  heights,  and  hollows !    Well,  is  it  a  wonder 

Such  wonderful  tbinjrs  make  a  fellow  knock  under? 

There's  a  HOCK,  too,  so  lovely,  so  smooth,  and  so  white, 

And  just  the  right  roundness  to  make  it  all  right; 

That  neck!    Why  there  is  something  so  charming  about  it. 

Her  all  other  charms  would  look  nothing  without  H  ; 

Then  her  shoulders  so  round.    (No,  they  arn't  'round  shoulders,*) 

That  they  strike  with  surprise  the  admiring  beholders; 

And  a  waist!  When  set  free  from  the  toil?  ol  the  toilet, 

Its  symmetry  rot  even  marrittge  would  spoil  it; 

Skip  we  clown  to  the  feet,  and  the  ankles  above  them, 

Such  feet!  and  such  an&les,  o:ie  couldn't  but  low  them; 

Then  how  graceful  the  gait:     How  enchanting  the  motion. 

Never  talk  of  the  undulous  swell  of  the  occ;iu ; 

Never  talk  of  the  musical  moun  of  the  tree*. 

When  they  bend  to  the  kiss  of  the  vagabond  breeze ; 

But '  you  will  talk! '  Well,  faith  you'd  have  reason  for  talking. 

If  you  saw  this  fair  dame  in  the  hurnor  ot  walking; 

But  talking  of  walking,  reminds  me  to  say, 

It  is  safest  and  best  to  be  walking  away.1' 

I  got  through.  And  it  was  no  easy  task  to  keep  a  grave  face  on  It,  aad 
w,  ;'-h  the  lights  and  shadows,  the  frowns  arid  the  laughter,  chasing 
e?.eh  other  over  that  child-like,  queen-like  face.  But  I  did  get  over  it 
quiotly,  and  she  did  not.  One  of  the  merriest  and  most  musical  peals 
founded  oft  the  emotion.  And  rising  she  put  that  little  fairy  hand  on  my 
HiK-i'.lder.  "  Do  you  think  he  is  rnad  V  "  •*  Well,  yes !  I  do— think— he  is 
imi'l  in  love  with  somebody."  "You  are  going  now.  Tell  him  he  must 
do  ponanee  for  this  at  moonrise  this  very  night.  I'll  teach  him ! "  Didn't 
I  fall  down  from  Heaven  when  I  came  back  to  that  youth.  It  is  moon- 
rise,  and  passing  by,  just  by  accident,  I  see  through  the  branches  that 
she  is  hanging  her  whole  weight  on  his  arm,  and  otherwise  subjecting 
him  to  "  capital  punishment."  Perhaps  there  is  not  one  critical  eye  that 
may  glance  over  this  sketch  more  aware  of  its  objectionable  presence 
than  I  am  myself.  But  I  give  it  because  it  is  FOUNDED  ON  FACT. 

A  SKIRMISH. 

The  human  mind  as  well  as  the  human  body  demands  action.  Men 
living  in  remote  mountains,  and  wholly  illiterate,  have  not  much  exer- 
ciftf;  for  the  mind,  and  they  are  put  to  shifts  to  keep  it  from  stagnation. 
Ono  of  the  shifts,  and  a  principal  one,  is  to  provoke  quarrelling  adven- 
tures. A  stirring  adventured  this  kind  will  furnish  them  with  conver- 
sa'  ion  for  months  or  years  to  come.  To  make  this  laudabie  provision,  a 


OB,    THE    SrilUT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN  DATa  \0l 

party  of  the  adventurers  attended  the  annual  Regatta  at  Killybcgs.  I 
am  now  keeping:  store  there,  and  some  friends  come  to  visit  me  and  see 
the  Regatta.  Intending  to  return  immediately,  their  jaunting-  cars  are 

at  the  door,  but 

"  Social  mirth  and  glee  sit  down 
All  joyous  and  unthinking," 

as  poor  Bob  has  it    And  though  not  at  all  "  transmogrified," 

"  We  were  all  very  merry  after  coming  o'er  the  ferry, 

For  all  our  men  were  drinking  •» 

a  little,  and  singing  too,  it  must  be  confessed.  Along  came  the  adven- 
turers from  the  mountain.  "  Here's  something  to  talk  about,  we'll  take 
a  ride  on  those  jaunting  cars."  So  the  first  thing  we  hear  is  an  unlocked 
tor  rattle  of  the  cars,  and  out  we  rush  to  the  rescue.  The  enemy  is  driv- 
en off,  and  the  cars  re-captured.  But  they  have  no  thought  of  carrying 
home  a  defeat  to  talk  about.  They  know  whore  to  find  reinforcements. 
They  find  them,  and  return  to  retrieve  what  Ossian  would  call  "their 
fame."  They  arc  young  men,  but  a  man  of  a  thought  born  of  forty  sum- 
mers leads  them.  It  did  not  suit  my  purpose  at  all  to  make  enemies  of 
the  clans  around  where  I  lived,  so  I  tried  to  persuade  this  man  to  "  let  us 
have  peace."  I  did  not  make  much  progress,  for  he  understood  little 
English,  and  I  understpod  less  Irish.  We  are  negotiating  in  this  way, 
when  crack!  crack!  his  party  has  attacked  my  friends  some  twenty 
yards  distant.  He  had  a  heavy  oak  cudgel,  and  raising  it  fiercely  with  a 
r'  honimon  dhoul! "  made  a  rush  to  help  his  associates.  With  the  sudden- 
ness that  was  iny  habit,  I  dashed  upon  the  cudgel,  and  swung  it  out  of  his 
hand — just  in  time,  for  turning  to  the  help  of  my  friends.  A  bareloot  fel- 
low (it  was  early  morning,  and  he  had  been  started  out  of  bed)  was  rush- 
ing forward  with  two  or  three  formidable  stones  on  his  arm,  and  one  In 
his  hand,  which  he  was  just  letting  fly.  It  was  at  the  head  of  our  biggest 
champion,  who  then  was  engaged  with  two  or  three  assailants.  I 
made  a  loud  shout  as  well  as  a  rush  at  the  missile-man,  which  so  discon- 
certed him  that  he  threw  three  stones  all  wide  of  the  mark  before  I  got 
near  him.  Then  turning  he  fled  with  great  rapidity  in  his  barefeet.  I 
never  excelled  in  running,  .but  this  time  I  overtook  him  as  he  turned  to  go 
up  a  lane.  He  fell  under  a  blow  of  the  captured  cudgel,  and  I  rushed  back 
to  the  help  of  my  friends.  They  were  already  victors,  for  six  strong, 
resolute  men  are  an  overmatch  for  three  times  their  number,  if  less 
strong,  and  less  resolute.  But  the  trouble  wasn't  over.  Their  friends  in 
th«  neigiiborhood  were  numerous,  and  we  were  comparative  stangers. 
The  street  soon  became  crowded,  and  the  jaunting  cars,  with  my  visitors, 
were  at  a  stand  still..  In  my  store  were  scythes  for  sale— each  a  two 
handed  sword.  My  wife's  brother  and  myself  rushed  to  the  store,  but 
before  we  had  the  scythes  in  hand,  his  sister  had  the  store  door  locked, 
and  the  key  secreted.  We  had  no  alternative  but  dash  up  stairs  and, 
uscasing  a  window,  make  good  our  descent  to  the  street.  Fortunately  the 
crowd  gave  way  before  the  scythes,  and  let  the  jaunting  cars  with  our 
friends  pass  on.  When  roused  in  this  way  men  are  men  no  longer,  they  are 
wild  beasts.  We  escorted  pur  visitors  to  a  safe  distance,  and  the 
scythes  brought  us  home  again,  safe  and  sound.  But  not  for  aye.  Some 
weeks  after,  six  of  those  men  waylaid  me  in  the  (*Nick  of  the  Balloch,"  a 


.mountain  pass,  on  my  way  to  the  yarn  market  of  Ardera — wounded  me 
dangerously,  and  only  for  one  generous  young  fellow  in  the  gang  who 
took  n  e  under  his  protection,  probably  would  have  killed  me  outright. 


In  tl  ose  encounters  I  found  that  the  heaviest  blow  of  a  cudgel  does  not 
pr  duo )  pain — but,  strange  as  it  may  be  thought,  a  shock  of  warmth — 
why  snould  I  not  add  a. distinct  pleasurable  sensation— for  that  is  just 
the  ic'.'iing. 

AS  a  literary  scrap  I  don't  like  this  sketch.  I  had  no  pleasure  In  writ- 
Ing  it.  The  reader  will  have  less  in  lookipg  over  it.  But  it  shows  .that 
the  spirit  and  the  deeds  enshrined  by  Ossian  stiH  lives  on.  A  natural 
result  of  isolation  and  ignorance. 


"OUR    NATURAL    RIGHTS." 

WHEN  AND  WHY  IT  WAS  WRITTEN. 

FOB  two  or  three  years  previous  to  1836  my  mind  was  deeply 
absorbed  by  the  question  of  Man's  true  relation  to  the  soil  All 
political  discussions  that  I  came  within  the  range  of,  and  even 
all  ordinary  topics  of  conversation,  were  directed,  if  possible,  into 
the  foundation  question  of  the  ownership  of  the  soil.  This  gov- 
ernment succeeded  that — Whig  succeeded  Tory,  and  Tory  "Whig. 
Still  no  relief,  no  change,  save  that  rags  grew  raggeder  and  dis- 
tress more  intense.  I  had,  however,  advanced  far  beyond  the 
standard  that  would  refer  the  evil  to  the  advent  of  a  Eussell, 
and  the  exit  of  a  Peel.  I  had  ceased  to  wander  so  far  abroad  in 
search  of  the  causes  of  the  squalid  misery  I  saw  around  me,  and 
of  which  I  was  the  victim  myself.  I  saw  that  the  earth,  if  vig- 
orously tilled,  would  yield  plenty  of  the  comforts  of  life.  I  saw 
that  jthere  was  abundance  of  willing  nerve  and  sinew.  The  ques- 
tion was  too  plain  and  single— willing  labor,  and  a  fertile  soil, 
would  produce  plenty  to  eat,  drink,  wear.  That  this  plenty  did 
not  exist  was  sufficient  proof  that  there  was  something  wrong 
in  the  relation  between  that  labor  and  that  soil  This  train  of 
thought  once  awakened,  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  lull  it  to  sleep 
again.  Was  a  criminal  executed,  was  a  young  girl  seduced, 
did  a  merchant  fail  in  business,  were  ten  thousand  men  left  on 
the  battle-field,  others  might  refer  the  causes  to  what  they 
pleased,  I  regarded  them  as  the  effects  sprung,  either  directly 
or  remotely,  from  the  absolute  monopoly  of  the  soil. 

My  business  required  that  I  should  travel  pretty  extensively. 
My  intercourse  with  the  farming  and  laboring  population  was . 
unbounded.  I  began  to  treasure  up  facts :  What  caused  this 
man's  hut  to  be  wretched,  and  his  farm  to  be  neglected.  Fami- 
lies driven  out  homeless  on  the  highway,  what  brought  the  ruin 
upon  them  ?  In  brief,  when  I  saw  any  evil  standing  out  from 
among  the  common  order  of  things,  I  traced  that  evil  to  mono- 
poly of  the  soil  by  a  few,  and  exclusion  from  it  o£  the  many. 


OUli    NATURAL    BIGHTS. 

And  so  I  wrote  and  published  "  Our  Natural  Rights  "—my  first 
and  I  think  my  best  work. 

Catholic  Emancipation  was  now  law.  Its  fruits,  a  score  or 
two  of  Catholic  lords  and  lawyers,  thrown  into  Parliament  One 
hundred  thousand  forty-shilling  freeholders  thrown  out  of  their 
homes — Thrown  out ! — all  to  suffer,  mariy  to  die. 

For  must  not  the  landlord  manufacture  the  new  class  of  ten 
pound  voters?  Must  he  not  keep  up  his  power  in  what  is  face- 
tiously called  the  "House  of  Commons  ?  "  What  if  the  highways 
become  darkened  with  these  wretched  men  and  their  forlorn 
families?  What  if  they  die,  as  they  did  die  by  thousands? 
Cannot  the  landlord  do  what  he  likes  with  "  his  own?" 

But  this  brought  people's  thoughts  back  to  the  subject  of 
Landlords  and  land.  My  own  thoughts  were  still  more  forcibly 
arrested  to  the  subject  by  the  following  circumstance  : 

Adjoining  my  native  town  (Donegal)  .lay  certain  fields — "  lord"- 
ed  by  the  Earl  of  Arran,  and  "tenant-"ed  by  "Minister  Craw- 
ford," a  curate  of  the  Established  Church.  The  earl  and  the 
minister  got  to  legal  loggerheads  about  those  fields.  Pending 
two  or  three  years'  litigation,  the  fields  became  a  practical  com- 
mon, and  the  grass  grew  as  heartily  as  if  there  was  neither  a 
lord  nor  a  minister  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

There  were  plenty  of  lean,  hungry  cows  in  the  neighborhood. 
Those  got  in  upon  the  grass— they  grew  fat  and  sleek,  and  it  was 
wonderful  how  much  milk  they  gave.  The  Jubilee  of  the  Israel- 
ites (see  Leviticus)  had  come  back  at  last,  and  every  man  "  re- 
turned unto  his  possession." 

Well,  if  the  twenty  or  thirty  acres  thus  made  free  diffused 
around  so  much  benefit,  what  would  twenty  thousand  acres  ac- 
complish ?  I  began  to  work  the  problem,  and  I  found  out  that 
every  hungry  man  would  have  far  more  than  he  would  be  able 
I-  >  eat,  and  every  hungry  horse  and  cow  would  have  more  than 
they  could  "  roll  in." 

And  then  I  began  to  collect  facts  and  arrange  them  together. 
The  result  was  a  pamphlet.  The  "  contents  of  which — the  follow- 
Ls  a  copy : 


OUR    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

"OUR     NATUEAL     BIGHTS." 

INTKODUCTION. 

CHA3*.  1.    British  Constitution.    The  People  Utterly  Powerleaa  Under  It. 

"  Whose  freedom  is  by  sufferance,  and  at  will 
Of  a  superior,  he  is  never  free."— COWPEB. 

CHAP.  2.  Great  Practical  Evils  of  the  British  System— Mainly  Founded 
on  Monopoly  of  the  Boil— American  Revolution— French  Revolution- 
British  National  Debt,  a  forgery  on  the  People.  Motto : 

"  Truths  that  you  will  not  read  in  the  gazettes, 
But  which  'tis  time  to  teach  the  hireling  tribe 
That  fatten  on  their  country's  gore  and  debts."— BYRON. 

CHAP.  8.  The  Way  the  British  Taxes  go.  Rapacity  and  Meanness  of  the 
Aristoorao jc  Motto : 

"  'Tis  avarice  all ;  ambition  is  no  more. 
See  all  our  nobles  begging  to  be  slaves. 
See  all  our  fools  aspiring  to  be  knaves."— POPE. 

CHAP.  4.    Glance  at  the  Political  History  of  Britain  from  the  American 
Revolution  Downward.    Irish  Volunteers.    United  Irishmen.    Catholic  As- 
sociation.   West  India  Slave  Question ;  True  Merits  of  all  These.    Motto : 
"  Who  can  tread  the  memorable  fields, 
Where  freedom's  battle  has  been  lost  and  won, 
Nor  feel  thy  mighty  spirit.  Independence. 
Great  in  his  bosom."— HETHERINGTON. 

CHAP.  5.  Absolute  Ownership  of  the  Land  the  Foundation  on  which  Rests 
the  whole  Superstructure  of  British  Society.  Reform  Impossible  so  long 
as  that  Ownership  Exists.  Motto : 

"  It's  hardly  in  a  body's  power 
To  keep,  at  times,  from  being  sour, 
To  see  now  things  are  shared."— BURNS. 

CHAP.  6.  Showing  the  mighty  evils  produced  by  Land  Monopoly  in 
Ireland.  Reflections  thereon.  Motto : 

"  Such  dupes  are  men  to  custom,  and  so  prone 
To  reverence  what  is  ancient,  and  can  plead 
A  course  of  long  observance  for  its  use, 
That  even  servitude,  the  worst  of  ills. 
Because  transmitted  down  from  sire  to  son. 
Is  kept  and  guarded  as  a  sacred  thing."— COWPEB, 

CHAP.  7.    The  Nature  of  Land  Ownership  Discussed  on  Philosophical. 
Historical,  and  Scriptural  Grounds.    Its  Absurdity  and  Impiety.    Motto: 
"  Nature  affords  at  least  a  glimmering  light, 
The  lines,  though  touched  but  faintly,  are  irawn  right."— POPE. 

CHAP.  8.  Spontaneous  Risings  of  the  Irish  People  Against  the  Oppres- 
sions of  tae  Landlords.  Interesting  Facts,  Proposed  Reform  and  its  Con- 
sequences.  Motto: 

"  As  to  a  man's  farming  his  own  property  it  is  a  heavenly  lifo:  but  devil 
take  the  lifo  of  reaping  the  fruit  that  another  must  eat."— BURNS'  T*:TTEB 
TO  MRS.  DUNLOP. 

CHAP.  9.    Intention  of  God  and  Nature  in  making  man  Hungry,  and  Bid- 
ding tho  Earth  Produce.    Solicitude  of  Nature  to  provide  us  with  all  our 
natural  reijuiromonts.    Tho  "Divine  Right"  of  Landlords  a  Ridiculous 
Hoax.    Tfieir  whole  liven  one  Social,  Moral,  and  Religious  Crime,    Motto: 
"  Our  noe.lful  knowledge  like  our  needful  food, 
UnhG'ltfnil  lios  OPMII  In  the  common  field. 
Yon  scorn  what  lios  l>ofore  you  in  the  page 
Of  Naturoand  Experience— moral  truth. 
And  Jlvo  in  s«M"nc«»  for  distinguished  namei. 
Sinking  in  virtu«»ns  you  rise  in  lame; 
Yonr  learning,  like  the  lunar  beam,  affords 
t,  but  not  heai."— 


OUR    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 
A     WARNING     WORD     TO     THE     AMERICAN     PEOPLE. 

This  I  got  printed  in  Deny,  in  large-sized  hand  bills.  And? 
in  the  various  towns  where  I  did  business  I  would  fasten  one  up- 
near  the  market-place,  and  when  a  crowd  came  to  read  I  would 
stand  by  with  apparent  unconcern,  and  listen  to  their  comments. 
One  tall,  mechanic-looking  young  man  read  it  aloud  in  Armagh, 
and  discouraged  and  offended  me  greatly  by  exclaiming  "  It  is  a 

d d  nervous   production."    I  thougt  nervous  meant  weak, 

as  "  nervous  debility."  I  did  not  know  that  the  word  could  mean 
at  once  both  strong  and  weak.  Such  and  so  limited  was  my 
knowledge  of  language  at  the  time. 

The  Derry  printers  would  not  touch  the  work  itself.  But  I 
did  not  lose  faith. 

Commenced  at  a  boyish  age,  and  published  over  forty  years 
ago,  I  think  it  dealt  more  thoroughly  with  the  land  questoin  than 
anything  written  by  me  (and  I  have  written  what  would  fill  vol- 
umes) on  the  subject  since.  Though  the  work  of  a  very  inex- 
perienced hand,  in  a  remote  unlettered  neighborhood,  it  anti- 
cipated or  went  a  little  beyond  the  boldest  thoughts  that  now 
stir  up  the  public  mind  on  this  great  subject.  I  may  safely 
present  it,  therefore,  as,  at  least,  A  L1TTEEABY  CURIOSITY. 

OUR     NATUBAL     EIGHTS. 

(TiiT,  High  Slreet,  Belfast.  1836.) 

To  SKABMAN  CRAWFORD,  ESQ..  M.  P. 
SIB:    In  availing  myself  e-f  the  honor  you  allow  me.  I  regret  that  (hav- 


great  principle  I  have  asserted,  but  to  be  the  first  landlord  that  will  set  a 
practical  example  of  the  important  change  that  must  soon  take  place :  and 
I  am  confirmed  in  this  opinion  by  a  review  of  the  manly,  disinterested, 
aye.  and  unfashionable  part  you  have  taken  in  the  cause  of  our  mueh- 
wronged  peasantry. 

That  every  occupier  of  laad  has  an  inalienable  right  in  the  soil  he  culti- 
vates is  the  essential  principle,  the  soul  and  spirit,  of  this  tract.  I  have 
tjndeavored  to  show  that  he  has  been  unjustly  deprived  of  that  right,  and 
inat  it  could  revert  to  him  without  any' infringement  on  the  right— proper- 
ly BO  called— of  property,  or  the  slightest  interruption  of  social  tranquili- 
ty.  In  deeming  that  you,  as  a  landlord,  would  countenance  such  a  princi- 
ple, I  supposed  the  existence  ot  a  virtue  rarely  to  be  met  with  in  these  de- 
generate times. 

Disclaiming  every  private  and  individual  motive,  I  dedicate  this  treatise 
to  you  on  public  grounds  alone.  You  have  fearlessly  grappled  with  abso- 
lute ownership—  that  monster  which  has  long  devastated  society,  and  ren- 
dered it  one  scene  of  desolation  and  misery ;  and  I  am  proud  that  it  is  in 
my  power,  even  by  this  slight  testimony,  to  mark  my  deep  sense  of  your 
well  directed  and  uncalcu'atina  patriotism. 

I  have  the  honor  to  subscribe  myself 

i'our  most  obedient, 

And  most  obliged  servant, 

THE   AUTHOR. 


CUB    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

The  main  object  of  the  following  work  is  to  show  that  ownership  of 
load  cannot  be  absolute  and  unlimited,  like  that  of  other  property,  and 
that  on  this  point,  mankind  have  fallen  into  a  destructive  error — an 
error  which  has  produced,  and,  if  not  rectified,  will  virtually  perpetuate 
the  worst  evils  of  society.  I  am  aware  that  this  question  involves  an 
•ntire  change  in  our  social  relations ;  and  I  almost  hesitate  to  bring  a 
subject  of  such  great  importance  before  the  public. 

We  may  reasonably  presume  that  whatever  accords  with  Justice  has 
been  ordained  or  permitted  by  God.  Thus,  if  absolute,  ownership  nf  !and 
accords  with  Justice,  it  bears  the  impress  of  the  Most  High,  and  b/>  has 
given  His  sanction  to  criminal  luxury  on  the  one  side,  and  gnawing  fam- 
ine on  the  other.  (Absolute  ownership  of  land  must  ever  produce  these.) 
Dare  we  think  God  capable  of  acting  thus  ?  We  dare  if  we  acknowledge 
the  Right  and  Justice  of  "  absolute  ownership."  This  thought  ought  to 
put  every  reflecting  man  on  inquiring  into  its  merits,  and  a  very  sligh' 
inquiry  will  demonstrate  that  it  is  as  unjust  in  its  very  nature  as  it  is  mon- 
strous in  its  effects ;  that  no  earthly  power  could  confer,  nor  earthly  de- 
sert merit,  absolute  ownership  of  the  land.  "The  land  is  mine,  (saith  the 
Lord,)  for  ye  are  strangers  and  sojourners  with  Me." 

The  atrocity  of  the  present  system  is,  indeed,  sufficiently  obvious ;  but 
the  mistaken  notion  of  its  sacredness,  and  the  groundless  dread  of  a  gen- 
eral scramble,  have  hitherto  preserved  it  in  its  rampant  growth.  I  have 
undertaken  to  show  that  the  system  is  neither  sacred  nor  just,  and  that, 
in  avoiding  the  whirlpool  of  Anarchy,  we  need  not  dash  ourselves  against 
the  rock  of  Despotism,  whilst  the  safe  and  sunny  course  of  Limitation  lies 
between  the  ruinous  extremes,  equally  distant  from  either. 

There  is  not  an  evil  of  society  but  has  its  root  in  absolute  ownership  of 
land.  Correct  this,  and  you  destroy  all  our  social  evils.  Limited  owner- 
ship could  not  deprive  the  landlord  of  that  moral  influence  which  natur- 
ally belongs  te  a  good  man,  but  it  would  take  from  him  the  power  of 
coercing  his  tenant's  vote.  Thus,  "  the  Ballot,"  which,  after  all,  is  but  a 
skulking  expedient,  would  be  rendered  unnecessary.  Limited  ownership, 
by  giving  the  occupier  a  perpetual  property  in  the  soil,  by  securing  to  him 
a  large  portion  of  the  fruits  of  his  industry,  and  by  keeping  him  to  his 
duty,  would  fertilize  our  lands,  reclaim  our  wastes,  and  treole  the  agri- 
cultural products  of  the  island.  We  then  would  require  no  Poor  Laws. 
Limited  ownership,  by  exacting  a  duty  *  of  the  landlord,  would  destroy 
the  bad  effects  of  Absenteeism,  the  worst— perhaps  the  only  bad— effect 
of  the  "  Union."  Under  Limited  ownership,  the  Tithe  Question  could  be 
settled  to  the  benefit  of  the  farmer— now  it  cannot.  Limited  ownership 
would  soon  and  easily  deprive  the  Peers  of  their  unnatural  power.  Its 
operation  would  civilize  and  relice  the  people,  destroy  intemperance  and 
crime,  root  out  misery  trom  the  land,  add  to  our  strength  and  impor- 
tance as  a  nation,  by  keeping  at  homo  the  flower  of  our  population,  who 
now  go  to  perish  in  the  American  wilds.  In  fine  it  would  effect  every 
social  good  and  be  unattended  by  one  political  evil. 

Let  us  rouse  9urselves  to  the  moral  strife,  and  we  will  find  leaders 
among  the  enlightened  and  the  Influential.  It  is  impossible  that  an 
O'Connell,  a  Hume,  or  a  Crawford  could  view  the  momentous  struggle 
and  not  join  heart  and  soul  with  the  people;  and  even  if  they  should  de- 
sert us,  leaders  will  start  from  our  own  broad  ranks,  and  demonstrate 
that  intellect  does  not  depend  on  the  quality  of  a  dinner,  the  swing  of  a 
coach,  or  the  jargon  of  a  college. 

*The  duty  of  the  landlord  nhould  he  well  defined,  and,  like  the  merchant's,  might  b«  per* 
formed  either  by  .himself  or  by  i»»»x.y. 

(112) 


OUR    NATURAL    BIGHTS. 


CHAPTER  I.—FOR  THE  LEARNED. 

Ot  God  above,  or  man  below, 

What  can  we  reason  but  from  what  we  know T— Por«. 

There  are  data  given  us,  In  the  search  of  Truth,  a  certain  knowledge  of 
some  things  on  which  to  ground  our  inquiries  in  matters  the  truth  of 
which  is  not  so  evident.  If  men  took  this  knowledge  for  their  data,  and 
wrought  the  problem  by  the  plain  rule  of  reason,  society  would  not  be 
confused  by  the  irreconcilable  opinions  which  at  present  diversify  and 
disgrace  the  human  mind.  But,  instead  of  pursuing  this  certain  and, 
indeed,  obvious  path  to  truth,  men  generally  follow  the  path  which  edu- 
cation and  prejudice  point  out  to  them,  or  take  the  opinions  of  per- 
sons for  whom  they  entertain  respect{  and  adopt  those  opinions  for  their 
own.  Though  this  is,  generally  speaking,  the  fashion  of  the  present  day, 
yet,  as  I  intend  that  my  little  work  shall  have,  at  least,  the  merit  of  sin- 
gularity (no  easy  matter  neither,  amidst  the 

"  Twice  ten  hundred  thousand  daily  scribes. 

Whose  volumes,  pamphlets,  newspapers  illumine  as,") 

I  shall  go  on  the  principle  of  my  motto,  though  I  confess  It  is  rather  a 
stale  and  exploded  one  just  now 

First,  then,  we  know  that  labor  and  industry  produce  plenty  and  com- 
fort: hence,  according  to  my  principle,  plenty  and  comfort  were  destined 
as  the  reward  of  industry  and  toil.  Secondly,  we  know  that  the  diyine  gift 
of  intellect  has  been  dispensed  by  our  Great  Author  to  man,  in  every 
grade,  promiscuously ;  hence  we  must  see  that  the  way  of  education  to 
wisdom  should  be  aliue  open  to  all.  Thirdly,  we  know  that  virtue  and  tal- 
ents are  the  offspring  of  immortal  part  of  man,  the  breath  of  God,  and  as 
such,  infinitely  superior  to  the  gross  adjuncts  of  property  and  wealth,  the 
mere  supports  of  our  corruptible  tenement ;  hence  our  motto  would  lead 
us  to  conclude  that  esteem  and  reverence  are  alone  due  to  talents  and  vir- 
tue, whilst  wealth  and  property  may  fairly  claim  for  their  owners  that 
respect  which  is  due  to  a  herd  of  cattle  or  bale  of  merchandise.  Fourth- 
ly, we  know  that  every  man  is,  by  nature,  subject  to  the  same  wants  and 
necessities ;  hence  we  at  once  see  that  the  supply  of  those  wants  should 
be  pretty  nearly  equal,  and  perceive  the  enormity  of  the  system  which 
gives  one  individual  the  supply  of  thousands,  and  leaves  those  thousands 
in  want  of  the  support  which  nature  demands. 

These  are  truths  which  reasoning  from  what  we  "  know  "  points  out.  I 
admit  that  they  are  not  incontrovertible  to  such  of  the  learned  as  can 
prove  black  to  be  white ;  who  hold  that  the  proper  method  of  manuring 
a  field  is  by  arranging  straight,  well-built  dung-hills  in  regular  order— 
who  admire  the  rank  and  useless  weeds  those  noisome  mounds  produce, 
and  view  with  complacency  the  starved  and  stunted  herbage  which  eve- 
rywhere surround  them ;  who,  if  you  talk  of  spreading  the  manure  over 
the  barren  waste,  raise  an  outcry  about  "spoliation"  and  "anarchy," 
appeal  to  your  feelings  on  the  beautiful  regularity  and  waving  greenness 
of  their  dung-heaps,  and,  finally,  stop  your  mouth  by  exclaiming— 

"  Order  is  Heaven's  first  law." 

Not  caring  to  enter  the  arena  with  this  class  of  logicians,  I  leave  them, 
for  the  present,  to  the  enjoyment  of  their  enlightened  and  comprehensive 
views;  and,  in  return,  I  must  crave  their  forbearance  whilst  I  honestly 
avow  that,  to  me,  few  are  the  charms  of  such  dung-hills,  and  that  I 
would  n  >t  feel  much  remorse  at  spreading  abroad  at  least  a  portion  of 
their  putrid  contents,  nor  would  I  be  apprehensive  of  much  evil  follow- 
ing the  change.  But,  as  a  portion  of  the  learned  (to  whom  this  chapter  is 
especially  addressed)  may  here  stop,  and  cry  "Pshaw!  we  know  all 
these, things  already;  and  acting  on  our  knowledge,  we  have  achieved 
Emancipation,  we  have  battled  for  Ket'orm,  and  we  are  steadily  pursuing 
great  objects,  the  attainment  of  which  will  make  the  people  free  and 

15  (113) 


OUK    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

happy.  To  us,  therefore,  there  appears  nothing  new  in  your  chapter."' 
I  cry  the  patience  of  those  personages,  and  beg-  to  tell  them  that  part  of 
the  chapter  is  yet  to  come,  and  that  they  will  mid  in  it  something  not 
only  new  but  the  novelty  of  which  will  astound  them. 

A  man,  though  endowed  with  a  friendly,  conciliatory  disposition,  may, 
without  much  mental  pain,  quarrel  with  those  whom  he  regards  as  hy- 
pocritical saints  or  licensed  robbers,  but  to  be  compelled  to  disagree,  on 
many  and  important  subjects,  with  fchose  for  whom  he  feels  respect  bor- 
dering on  reverence,  must,  to  such  a  mind,  be  painful  in  the  extreme.  In 
venturing  to  assume  the  name  of  author,  I  am  forced  into  this  dilemma, 
though  I  perceive  that  it  will  in  some  degree  militate  against  my 
success. 

A  considerable  portion  of  the  public  think  that  the  democratic  leaders 
of  the  present  day  are  driving  society  with  lightning  speed  ctown  the 
steeps  of  destruction.  The  great  majority  of  the  community  think  that 
they  are  aiming  at  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  equitable  rights 
of  mankind.  And  few,  if  any,  think  them  too  slow  in  their  motions,  or 
too  moderate  in  their  demands  of  improvement.  This  is,  if  I  mistake 
not,  a  correct  estimate  of  the  public  mind  in  its  present  state;  and  it  is 
difficult,  if  not  dangerous,  to  attempt  steering  my  rude  and  untried  skiff 
over  such  adverse  waters;  but  if  it  go  down  let  it  go;  many  a  nobler  bark 
shared  the  same  fate,  though  never  a  nobler  cargo ! 

The  singular  opinions  which  I  am  about  to  submit  to  the  public,  in  the 
following  work,  are  not  altogether  the  result  of  abstract  reasoning,  still 
less  are  they  grounded  on  sentiments  hackneyed  and  worn-out  by  the 
public ;  of  tnis  they  bear  evidence,  pernaps,  too  clear.  They  were,  ifi  fact, 
*thj:ust,  as  it  were.,  upon  my  mind  by  a  combination  of  circumstances. 
.The  tales  of  oppression  and  innovation  to  which  my  childhood  listened 
with  horror,  rooted  in  my  mind  an  early  and  intense,  though  undefined, 
Jove  of  country,  and  hatred  of  oppression.  Subsequently,  witnessing  tile- 
sufferings  and  privations  of  the  peasantry  of  my  own  district;  and,  per- 
haps, more  than  all,  a  full  participation  in  those  sufferings,  forced  me 
to  look  sharply  into  the  nature  of  the  anamolies  which  I  saw  and  felt  iu 
our  social  system,  and  examine  eagerly  the  plans  proposed  for  their  re- 
moval. In  pursuing  this  inquiry  I  necessarily  became  acquainted  with 
the  great  political  questions  of  the  day— Keform,  .Retrenchment,  Aboli- 
tion of  Tithes,  etc.  The  value  which  these  objects  really  possess,  and 
the  additional  lustre  with  which  they  were  clot&ed  by  the  talent,  patriot- 
ism, and  genius  of  the  age,  for  a  time  convinced  me,  in  common  with 
.others,  that  they  were  all-sufficient  to  remove  the  evils  of  society,  I  re- 
joiced in  the  great  spirits  whose  superhuman  power  was  paralyzing  the 
tyrant's  hand,  and  shaking  from  its  unnerved  grasp  the  plunder  of  ages. 
But  the  bright  illusion  quickly  vamsned  before  the  earnest  thought 
which  the  fore-mentioned  sufferings  and  privations  compelled  me 
to  give  the  subject,  and  in  its  stead  I  beheld  the  fixed,  the  "  cold  real- 
ity." Namely,  that  not  only  all  that  has  yet  been  achieved  in  the  shape 
of  freedom,  but  also  all  our  prospective  improvements,  are  a  bubble  on 
the  sea  compared  to  the  vast  change  that  must  take  place  before  wo  caii. 
have  a  social  system  worthy  of  rational  beings.  A  change  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  rate  of  our  progression,  cannot  take  place  for  centuries  to 
come,  and  which  does  not  appear  to  be  even  contemplated  by  our  most 
sanguine  patriots.*  Of  that  change,  its  necessity  and  consequences,  my 
opinions  are  contained  in  those  pages  throughout. 

*  This  was  written,  tbougli  not  published,  before  Mr.  Crawford  appeared  in  tbe  public- 
councils. 

(114) 


OUR    NUTURAL    RIGHTS 


CHAPTER  H.— WHICH  THE  LEARNED  MAY  NOT  READ. 

Whose  freedom  is  by  sufferance,  and  at  will 
Of  a  superior,  he  is  never  free.— COWPEB. 

Having  addressed  my  introductory  chapter  to  the  learned  and  affluent 
,  icrsons,  with  whom  I  have  little  community  of  purpose  or  feeling1, 1  pro- 
.  cod  to  dedicate  the  remainder  of  the  work  to  my  brothers  of  industry 
and  toil. 

And  as  I  am  aware  that  many  of  these  do  not  rightly  understand 
what  sort  of  hotch-potch  our  social  system  is,  farther  than  to  know  it 
i>ud  by  its  effects,  I  shall  commence  by  laying  down  an  outline  of  its 
iorm;  and  first,  of  the  constitution  of  our  government— King,  House  of 
Lords,  and  House  of  Commons. 

The  kinglv  office  is  hereditary.  The  principal  powers  vested  in  the 
Crown  u  re  those :— Choice  of  the  ministry,  which  conducts  the  govern- 
ment; prerogative  of  convening,  proroguing,  and  dissolving  the  House  of 
Commons ;  of  creating  new  members  of  the  House  of  Peers ;  and  any 
measure,  though  passed  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  cannot  become  a 
law  without  having  received  the  Royal  assent. 

The  House  of  Lords  is  principally  composed  of  the  hereditary  nobil- 
ity, the  King  seldom  exercising  the  power  of  creating  new  Peers.  It  is 
the  prerogative  of  this  House  to  alter  any  measure  which  may  have  been 
passed  by  the  House  of  Commons,  (but  so  altered,  it  cannot  becoome 
a  law,  without  afterwards  receiving  the  sanction  of  the  Commons,)  or  to 
linally  reject  it,  by  which  it  is  quashed  for  the  Session  then  being,  it'  not 
brought  forward  in  an  altered  shape.  This  House  makes  our  Constitu- 
tion a  negative  oligarchy;  but  as  it  opposes  itself  to  every  kind  of 
national  improvement,  it.- is  likely  to  be  new  modeled,  or  entirely  borne 
down,  by  the  reforming  spirit  of  the  age. 

The  House  of  Commons  is  electiye  by  registered  voters.  Of  these 
nine-tenths  are  to  be  found  in  the  middle  and  what  is  termed  the  lower 
classes  of  society;  hence,  we  find,  as  its  very  name  implies,  that  this 
House  ought  to  belong  to  the  common  people. 

But  the  aristocracy  have  long  usurped  all  power  and  authority  there. 
This  they  formerly  effected  chiefly  through  means  of  the  "  Rotten  Bor- 
oughs." And  now  that  an  Indignant  people  have  prostrated  those 
strongholds  of  the  robber,  they  quietly  effect  the  same  purpose  by  the 
absolute  ownership  of  the  land.  This  gives  to  the  landlord  the  power  of 
driving  to  poverty  and  destitution  any  tenant  who  might  dare  to  vote 
contrary  to  his  directions.  Effectually  is  this  ruffian  power  exerted,  and 
it  is  infinitely  worse  in  its  effects  than  the  "Rotten  Borough"  sys- 
tem. That  laid  no  sin  to  the  unfortunate  peasant,  but  this  violates  his 
conscience,  takes  from  him  his  honesty,  and  leaves  him  "  poor  indeed." 
The  House  of  Commons  is  composed  of  105  Irish,  53  Scotch,  and  500  Eng- 
lish Representatives,  in  all  658  members.  To  it  belongs  the  power  of 
imposing  the  taxes,  and  voting  the  amount  to  its  several  uses.  In  it  most 
laws  are  formed,  subject,  as  has  been  said,  to  revision  or  rejection  by 
the  House  of  Lords. 

I  have  observed  that  the  House  of  Commons,  of  right,  belongs  to  the 
common  people.  If  any  man  deny  this,  it  is  plain  that  that  man  would 
allow  the  people  no  power  at  all  in  the  State.  The  King,  the  principal 
gentleman  in  the  realm,  will,  naturally,  be  favorable  to  his  brothers  of 
the  aristocracy;  and  his  power  is  very  considerable.  The  House  of 
Lords  will,  of  course,  have  a  tender  feeling  for  themselves,  and  their 
power  is  absolute,  inasmuch  as  no  law  can  be  enacted  without  their 
sanction.  And  if  the  people  have  no  preponderance  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, then  they  have  no  power  at  all  in  the  State,  but  are  completely  at 
the  mercy  of  the  gentlefolks,  and  must  obey  whatever  laws  these  same 
gentlefolks  choose  to  enact.  Whether  the  people  have,  or  have  not,  that 
tins  to  bo  examined. 
(115) 


OUR    N AIT  UAL    lilUHTS. 

A  very  brief  examination  will  load  us  to  the  truth  of  this  matter.  The 
House  of  Commons  is  divided  into  three  parties—Tories,  Whigs,  and 
Radicals.  The  Tories  are  for  continuing1  tithes,  taxes,  and  every  species 
of  peculation  that  tends  to  aggrandize  the  rich  and  beggar  the  poor. 
This  class  holds  the  opinion  (exemplified  in  the  speech  of  Sir  Kobert  Peel, 
on  the  vote  by  Ballot,  June,  1835,)  that  one  man,  possessing  fifty  thousand 

nnds,  is  equal  to  ./we  hundred  men,  who  may  be  possessed  of  only  one 
dred  pounds  each.  Money,  the  vile  creation  of  man,  according  to  the 
Tories,  possesses  all  discrimination,  and  ought  to  possess  supreme  pow- 
er in  guiding  the  affairs  of  the  State.  And  man,  the  noblest  work  of  the 
Almighty,  ought,  according  to  the  same  authority,  to  possess  no  power 
at  all.  By  the  way,  Sir  Kobert  Peel  is  one  of  the  most  moderate,  as  he  is 
unquestionably  the  most  talented,  of  the  Tories. 

The  Whigs  profess  to  be  the  friends  and  servants  of  the  people,  and 
certainly,  they  are  better  rulers*  than  the  Tories ;  but  still  they  are  aris- 
<?rats,  and  as  such  their  feelings  and  interests  are  at  variance  with  the 
rights  of  the  people.  We  see  a  remarkable  instance  of  this  in  their  op- 
*  position,  as  a  government,  to  the  "  Vote  by  Ballot,"  which,  by  screening 
the  people  from  the  tyranny  of  their  landlords,  would  give  them  the  free 
exercise  of  the  elective  franchise.  Indeed,  if  we  take  a  general  and  dis- 
passionate view  of  the  conduct  of  the  Whigs,  we  cannot  but  perceive  that 
there  is  not  so  much  difference  between  them  and  the  Tories  as  is  gener- 
ally supposed  to  be.  The  Tories  bestowed  useless  places  and  unmerited 
pensions  on  their  friends  at  the  cost  of  the  public.  The  Whigs  refuse  to 
do  the  people  justice  by  aboloshing  those  places  and  pensions.  Instead 
of  collecting  forty-eight  millions  sterling  annually  off  the  people,  as 
would  the  Tories,  the  Whigs  by  great  economy,  might  contrive  to  do 
with  forty-seven  and  a  half  millions.  The  Tories  would  have  withheld 
Catholic  Emancipation.  The  Whigs  strained  every  nerve  to  achieve  that 
measure;  but  mark,  they  were  not  losing  by  the  change.  They  wore 
on  the  contrary,  strengthening  their  party  in  the  State.  The  Tories 
would  allow  the  people  no  power  at  all  in  the  House  of  Commons ;  the 
Whigs  would  allow  them  a  small  modicum  of  power,  important  only 
when  assisting  themselves  to  beat  their  old  foes,  the  Tories,  but  totally 
incapable  oi  effecting  any  good  against  the  wishes  of  the  master  Whigs. 
If  any  man  thinks  that  the  \Vhigs  are  the  staunch  friends  of  the  people, 
that  they  woul.'i  fain  be  considered,  let  him  scrutinize  their  conduct,  and 
then  hold  his  opinion  it'  he  can. 

The  Radicals,  the  the  third  party  in  the  State,  are  chiefly  delegated  by 
the  people ;  but  so  few  are  they,  in  comparison  to  the  Whigs  or  Tories, 
that  they  rarely  venture  to  push  any  question  that  is  not  approved  of  by 
the  master  Whigs;  indeed,  their  doing  so  serves  no  purpose,  save  to 
show  their  OAvn  weakness  and  the  strength  of  the  aristocracy.  Perhaps, 
the  number  of  out-and-out  Radicals  that  represent  the  people  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  is  not  above  fifty  or  sixty,  certainly  not  one  hun- 
dred; hence  it  is  evident  that  the  people  have  no  effectual  check  over 
their  own  House,  and.  consequently,  are  the  slaves  of  a  plundering  and 
vile  oligarchy. 

And  the  Radicals !  What  did  they  do  for  the  people  V  Why  help  the 
starvation  Whigs  to  establish  the  Bastile  Workhouses. 

*I  did  not  know 'the  Whigs  when  thai  was  written. 

<U6) 


OUB    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Truths  that  you  will  not  read  in  the  gazettes, 

But  which,  'tis  time  to  teach  the  hireling  tribe 

That  fatten  on  their  country's  gore  and  debts.— BTRON. 

Having  seen  that  the  aristocracy  are  possessed  of  all  power  in  mak- 
ing; the  laws,  we  come  to  inquire  how  that  power  is  used. 

First,  by  it  they  have  confirmed  to  themselves  the  absolute  owner- 
ship of  all  land,  and  water  too,  as  far  as  they  can  throw  their  chain 
about  it;  they  collect  the  produce  of  the  entire,  leaving  to  the  unfortu- 
nate occupier  what  is  scarcely  sufficient  of  coarse  food  and  wretched 
raiment  to  keep  him  alive  to  work  for  the  next  yearly  supply. 

And  for  what  purpose  is  this  wealth  collected  ?  For  what  great  end  is 
the  virtuous  and  industrious  cultivator  handed  over  to  degradation  and 
distress  V  That  his  landlord  may  be  enabled  to  prosecute  high  researches 
and  ennobling  discoveries  ?  No !  but  that  he  may  be  enabled  to  fling  hun- 
dreds on  the  harlot's  lap,  and  thousands  on  the  gamester's  table.  That 
i  .0  may  support  a  troop  of  worthless,  soulless  dependents— a  crowd  of 
vagabond  singers  and  dancers,  who  pander  to  his  idiot  pleasures,  and 
i'eed  on  him  as  vermin  on  a  putrid  carcass,  that  that  wealth  may  filter 
through  all  the  ramifications  of  a  city,  and  "support  its  every  vice  and 
crime?'  These  are  the  vile  objects,  to  attain  which  he  hands  the  poor 
cultivator  over  to  rags  and  hunger!  Whether  he  has  a  right  to  do 
so  shall  be  examined  hereafter. 

As  the  same  precious  brood  of  landlords  possess  (as  has  been  seen)  all 
power  in  the  government  of  the  country,  it  is  no  way  strange  that  the 
same  reckless  and  plundering  spirit  pervades  that  department.  Though 
six  millions  *  annually  would  (according  to  Mr.  Hume,  the  best  authori- 
ty in  the  empire)  support  a  good  and  efficient  government,  yet  there  are 
forty-eight  millions  annually  collected  off  the  people  of  these  realms. 
This  is  raised  by  a  duty  on  almost  every  article  of  use  amongst  us.  Were 
it  not  for  the  duties,  we  would  have 

Tobacco  for  one  halfpenny  an  ounce,  or  growing  in  our  fields,  affording  employment  to 
thousands  of  our  starving  population;  tea  tor  one  penny  per  ounce;  sugar,  three  p'ence  a 
pcund;  spirits  and  beer  for  half  their  present  value;  window-glass  for  perhaps  a  fourth 
of  vrhatitnow  costs;  superior  Norway  timber  for  tar  less  price  than  we  now  pay  for  in- 
difle rent  Canadian;  papers  and  b;  oks  tor  half,  and  newspapers  for  far  less  than  half  the 
money  they  cost  at  present;  wine  could  be  had  for  a  mere  trifle. 

The  latter  article  is  not,  I  admit,  essential  lo  the  comfort  of  the  commun- 
ity at  large,  but,  in  the  decline  of  life,  a  moderate  quantity  would,  ac- 
cording to  medical  authority,  both  prolong  existence  and  contribute  to 
bestow  health  and  cheerfulness  to  the  last;  and  yet  the  policy  of  our 
lawmakers  forbids  the  poor  man  ever  to  taste  of  it,  though  bending  be- 
neath age  and  infirmity,  and  tottering  on  the  brink  of  the  grave! 

The  above  is  barely  sufficient  to  give  an  idea  of  our  taxation,  and  how 
it  deprives  the  vast  inajority  of  the  community  of  man  3^  of  the  comforts 
of  lire,  by  so  raising  their  prices  as  to  put  them  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
people.  As  it  is  a  forced  and  unnatural  system,  so  it  is  difficult  and  ex- 
pensive in  its  operation.  Bear  witness,  ye  shoals  of  coast-guards  and 
revenue  cruisers,  ye  swarms  of  land  officials,  from  the  Commissioner  of 
Stamps  to  the  still-hunting  Policeman.  These  all,  all*  must  be  supported ; 
consuming  much  and  producing  nothing,  in  order  to  keep  the  enslaving 
system  in  operation— a  system  which  makes  property  of  the  industry 
and  persons  of  the  people.  If  there  existed  no  other  means  of  support- 
ing a  government  for  the  regulation  of  society,  man  would  certainly 
have  a  right  to  give  up  a  portion  of  his  industry  for  that  purpose.  But 
there  do  exist  other  and  legitimate  means— the  means  by  which  all  gov- 
ernments were  originally  supported.  An  inconsiderable  levy  off  the  land 

*  And  this  is  an  estimate  for  upholding  order  in  our  present  monstrous  and  absurd  social 
system.  In  a  rational  state  of  society, 'one  million  would  be  more  than  sufficient 

(117) 


OUB    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

hich  God  has  bestowed  upon  us  would  support  a  vigilant  and  efficient 
government.  And  as  the  proprietors,  or  rather  chiefs  (for  I  deny  that 
they  are,  or  can  be,  proprietors  f)  of  estates,  would  be  the  tax-payers, 
the  collection  would  be  cheap  and  simple. 

Let  us  now  take  a  view  of  the  uses  to  which  this  yearly  forty-eight 
millions  are  applied.  In  the  first  place,  about  twenty-eight  millions 
sterling  go  to  pay  the  interest  of  what  is  denominated  the  "  National 
Debt."  This  debt,  amounting  to  the  astounding  sum  of  eight  hundred 
millions  sterling,  was  contracted  by  our  government  at  different  periods 
during  the  last  150  years,  for  the  purposes  of  war.  Was  there  an 
enemy  landing  on  our  shores  to  destroy  us  ?  No  such  thing.  The 
French  people  wished  to  have  a  particular  form  of  government. 
Oar  Lords  and  Gentlemen  would  not  allow  them  to  enjoy  that 
particular  form;  so  they  purchased  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
fellow-beings,  and  sent  them  over  to  France  to  butcher  and  be  butch- 
ered.:}: Our  Lords  and  Gentlemen  likewise  hired  all  the  foreign  troops 
they  could  procure  to  help  to  butcher  the  French.  To  do  all  this  they 
required  money,  so  they  borrowed  it  of  such  as  had  it  to  lend ;  and  for 
every  fifty  or  sixty  ppunds  which  they  borrowed,  they,  by  a  Species  of  for- 
gery, gave  the  promissory  note  of  the  people  for  one  hundred  pounds, 
without  the  consent  or  even  the  knowledge  of  tho  great  body  of  the  peo- 
ple. Hitherto  they  have  compelled  us  to  make  good  this  forged  coin- 
pact — whether  they  have  a  rignt  to  do  so  common  sense  will  decide— but 
this  I  will  venture  to  say,  that  if  we  had  money  for  throwing  away,  we 
would  not  apply  a  single  penny  of  it  to  such  purposes  of  unnecessary 
war  and  fiendish  slaughter. 

Look  at  the  first  American  war.  In  a  consultation  of  Lords  and  Gen- 
tlemen, they  determined  to  charge  the  Americans  a  certain  sum  for  the 
privilege  of  drinking  tea.  The  Americans  thpught  themselves  at  liberty 
to  drink  tea  when  they  pleased,  without  paying  our  Lords  and  Gentle- 
men for  their  permission;  whereupon  our  Lords  and  Gentlemen  wax 
very  wroth,  and  send  thousands  of  British  soldiers  over  with  a  qommfo- 
sion  to  slay  the  Americans. 

And  here  I  must  remark,  for  the  edification  of  my  simple  readers,  that 
itis  no  sin  to  kill  any  number  of  our  fellow-beings,  provided  our  Lords 
and  Gents  give  you  authority  to  do  so ! 

But  the  brave  Americans  grappled  with  them  on  the  shore,  and  sus- 
tained the  death  struggle  with  invincible  resolution  and  vigor,  until  the 
hireling  phalanx,  exhausted,  sank  before  the  virtuous  and  firm  ranks  of 
independence.  This  was  the  first  ray  of  freedom  that  shot  across  our 
political  horizon  for  ages.  The  dark  tempests  of  ambition  and  the  me- 
teor lights  of  glory  had  long  involved  and  bewildered  degenerate  man, 
and  led  him  back  almost  to  barbarism. 

At  last  this  beam  of  the  west  arose,  to  guide  him  on  the  way  to  truth 
and  happiness.  And  from  whom  did  it  emanate?  From  the  learned 
divine  or  the  profound  philosopher  ?  No,  "  but  from  the  nature-taught 
peasant  of  Ireland  and  the  North  of  Scotland."  ||  In  this  unnatural 
struggle  many  a  father  met  the  death-blow  from  the  hand  of  his  son  — 
many  a  brother  seared  his  soul  with  the  crime  of  Cain.  A  work  of  this 
kind  should  not  be  taken  up  with  any  detail  of  this  scene  of  blood ;  but  I 

\My  reasons  for  this  in  the  proper  place. 

JThig  war  lasted,  with  little  intermission,  for  twenty-two  years,  cost  England  seven  hun- 
dreu  and  fifty  millions  sterling,  and  sacrificed  two  millions  of  people,  the  very  flower  of 
Europe. 

|  A.  D.,  1773.— About  this  time  the  common  people  of  Ireland  and  the  Nortli  of  Scotland 
were  so  cruelly  harassed  by  their  unfeeling  landlords,  who  raised  t!ie  rent  ot  tho  land 
upon  them  witliou.  considering  whether  they  could  pay  it,  that  t;ey  emigrated  to  America 
in  preat  numbers;  and  of  these,  it  is  said,  was  principally  composed  ihttt  army  whic2i  first 
began  the  war  in  that  pnrt  of  the  world,  conducted  it  w  ib.  such  :  eraeverancc,  and  did  uot 
conclude  it  until  they  had  rendered  ihemsc.ves  and  their  new  adopted  country  independ- 
ent ot  their  old  masters.  Oppressed  subjects,  when  driven  to  extremity,  becon.e  the  moat 
dangerous  foes — they  are  actuated  by  a  spirit  ot  revenge  agains.1  their  former  tyrants, 
which  cannot  be  supposed  to  influence  the  natives  of  a  foreign  country.— GoHsmft/V/t  £fag~ 
JancL—ScJiool  Edition.— {Truly  here  i:,  a  lesson  for  our  absolute  l.indlorils.-»Tbe  Author.] 

(118) 


OUR    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

cannot  forbear  pausing  to  sigh  over  the  fate  of  that  youthful  and  gallant 
band,  the  Maryland  regiment  (composed  of  the  finest  young  men  in  that 
province — self-devoted  volunteers),  who  were  almost  to  a  man  cut  off  in 
oppos  ng  the  iast  landing  of  the  British  troops  near  New  York.g  I  re- 
peat, therefore,  that  if  the  Christian  people  of  these  countries  had  gold 
for  throwing  into  the  ocean,  and  human  blood  as  cheap  and  plentiful  as 
the  mountain  stream,  they  would  spill  neither  one  nor  the  other  on  such 
unjustifiable  slaughter.  And  that  same  people,  apathetic  or  misled 
though  they  may  now  be  on  that  subject,  will  yet  rouse  themselves  and 
judge  whether  they  have  a  right  to  pay  what  others  borrowed  for  such 
unchristian  and  inhuman  purposes. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  every  penny  of  the  debt  was  borrowed  by  con- 
Bent  of  Parliament,  and  that  the  people  consented  to  it  through  their 
representatives.  Let  me  ask  who  had  the  representatives  V  The  people 
had  none;  they  have  few  even  yet.  But  this  profligate  debt  was  con- 
tracted under  the  "  Rotten  Borough  "  system,  when  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  entirely  composed  of  the  nobility  and  their  nominees.  It  is, 
therefore,  indisputably  a  debt  of  the  aristocracy ;  and  I  think  it  will  puzzle 
them  and  all  their  hireling  writers  to  prove  that  the  people  have  a  right 
to  pay  it.  But  it  is  nonsense  to  talk  of  payment,  as  it  has  been  compu- 
ted that  all  merchandise,  chattels,  gold,  silver,  and  every  inch  of  ground 
in  the  empire  would  not  be  sufficient  to  pay  off  tin's  monstrous  debt.  If 
the  people  fairly  and  honestly  owed  the  money  they  could  do  what  a 
private  individual  would  do  in  the  like  circumstances,  namely,  turn  bank- 
rupt, and  settle  it  in  that  way.  But  if  the  people  did  not  contract,  and 
consequently  do  not  owe  a  penny  of  it,  the  case  is  altered  completely, 
and  the  path  they  have  to  pursue  is  plain  and  obvious. 

It  is  all  nonsense  to  talk  of  the  inviolability  of  the  national  faith,  and 
the  ruin  a  breach  of  it  would  bring  on  thousands  who  have  vested  their 
fortunes  in  the  government  debt.  To  such  cant  I  reply  that  the  "  national 
faith  cannot  be  broken,  as  it  never  was  pledged:  and  in  common  deal- 
ing if  any  man  purchase  a  bad  article,  he  must  bear  the  IOBS  it  brings ; 
or  if  a  forged  bank  note  be  foisted  on  him,  can  he  compel  the  bank  to 
give  him  payment  of  it  ?  I  think  it  is  both  law  and  common  sense  that 
he  must  pocket  the  loss  or  follow  the  forger. 

But  it  will  by  no  means  be  so  bad  with  the  fund-holders ;  agitation  of 
the  question  will,  like  the  rumor  of  war,  tend  to  lower  the  price  of  stocks 
by  slow  degrees,  and  when  it  is  reduced  to  a  certain  level,  a  reformed 
legislature  may  in  some  sort  indemnify  the  then  holders  by  a  mulct  on 
our  Dukes  and  Lords,  regulated  according  to  the  number  of  votes  exer- 
cised by  each  in  contracting  this  infamous  debt.  In  the  interim,  any  in- 
dividual fund-holder,  who  so  wishes,  may  get  rid  of  the  falling  concern 
at  an  inconsiderable  loss,  and  those  who,  bat-like,  cling  to  the  rotten  fab- 
ric, will  richly  deserve  to  get  a  shock  in  its  ruin. 

CHAPTEB   TV. 

"  'Tis  avarice  all;  ambition  is  no  more: 
See  all  our  nobles  beting  to  be  slaves. 
See  all  our  fools  aspiring  to  be  knaves." 

Let  us  now  examine  what  sort  of  value  we  receive  for  the  remaining 
twenty  millions  sterling,  which  are  collected  off  us  annually.  I  have 
already  glanced  at  the  "  swarms  "  and  the  "  shoals  "  that  are  employed  in 
guarding  and  collecting  the  duties.  The  expense  of  supporting  these  is 
enormous.  A  large  sum  is  next  required  for  the  support  of  the  army 
and  navy.  These,  in  the  present  state  of  society,  when  a  thirst  of  slaugh- 
ter and 'plunder— to  which  we  contribute  our  full  share— is  a  glorious 
vice,  may  be  indispensible  to  our  existence  and  saiety  as  a  nation ;  butlefc 
good  and  rational  government  once  become  general,  and  an  army  and 
navy  would  not  be  worth  two  and  six-pence  a  year  to  this  or  any  other 
state,  as  the  unchristian  and  inhuman  trade  of  war  would  sink  into  total 

$  During  this  war  two  hundred  thousand  men  were  slain. 

(119) 


.OUR    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

disuse,  and  its  name  only  go  down  to  posterity,  steeped  in  the  contempt 
and  disgust  of  all  succeeding  ages. 

Another  very  large  sum  goes  to  support  the  government  offices.  There 
are  the  Premiership,  the  Chancellorship,  the  Secretaryship,  and  a  score 
or  two  of  other  offices,  which  cost  the  country  from  tive  to  twenty  thou- 
sand a  year  each.  With  all  due  respect  for  the  abilities  and  integrity 
"which  the  "  right  honorables"  bring  into  these  offices,  I  may  venture  to 
remark  that  these  same  commodities  cost  the  country  a  little  too  dear. 
The  whole  wealth  of  Cincinnatus,*  was  a  farm  of  seven  acres,  which  he 
tilled  with  his  own  hands;  yet  at  three  different  periods  he  held  the 
office  of  Dictator  to  the  Koman  Commonwealth;  an  office  of  absolute 
and  unlimited  power  over  all  law.  Having,  by  his  wisdom  and  virtue. 
Saved  his  country  from  impending  ruin,  he  laid  down  his  authority  and 
retired  to  his  little  farm,  without  any  reward  save  the  approval  of  his 
own  heart  and  the  blessings  of  his  country.  Lord  Byron,  in  addressing 
Wellington,  has  said: 

"  The  hiah  Roman  fashion,  too,  of  Cincinnatus, 
With  modern  history  has  small  connection." 

It  has,  indeed,  small  connection  with  the  history  of  such  modems  as 
Wellington  and  his  Whig  and  Tory  caste  ;  but  man  is  endowed  with  the 
same  inherent  nature  now  that  he  possessed  in  those  early  and  virtuous 
times  ;"and  shall  we  allow -those  to  trample  over  us  who  continue,  by  their 
influence  and  example,  to  degrade  and  pervert  that  noble  nature  ? 

There  are  also  innumerable  offices  under  government,  at  salaries  of 
£500  to  £5,000  a  year.  Many  of  these  are  sinecures— that  is  to  say,  there 
is  no  duty  to  be  performed  in  them ;  and  the  persons  tilling  these  offices, 
receive  their  salaries  for  doing  nothing.  There  are  other  offices  which 
require  the  performance  of  service.  These,  you  may  think,  are  conducted 
on  straightforward  and  honest  principles.  No  such  thing.  Lords,  or  tlie 
relatives  or  hangers-on  of  lords,  hold  these  offices  at  £500  to  £5,000  a  year, 
clap  in  deputies  at  £100  to  £500,  to  do  the  duty  and  honorably  pocket  the 
remainder.  Can  there  be  more  downright  robbery  than  this  V  Yes,  the 
openest,  the  most  barefaced  robbery  remains  to  be  mentioned  in  the  state 
pensions.  You,  my  friends,  do  not  perhaps  know  what  state  pensioners 
are.  I'll  tell  you ;  they  are  precious  gentlemen,  and  ladies,  too  on  whom 
our  rulers  have  thought  proper  to  bestow  yearly  incomes  out  of  the  pub- 
lic purse.  These  folks  have  nothing  to  do  but  order  their  servants,  call 
their  coaches,  wear  silks  and  jewels,  eat  the  choicest  delicacies,  and  get 
drunk  with  select  wines;  every  quarter-day  brings  them  a  sheaf  of  bank 
notes  wrung  out  of  the  hard  earnings  of  the  people,  to  support  their  idle- 
ness and  luxury.  Is  this  not  shameful  ?  Is  it  not  sinful  ?  Can  the  pepole 
who  must  labor  for  these  idle  vagabonds  call  themselves  free '(  No,  no; 
the  placemen,  the  pensioners,  and  the  holders  of  the  government  debt, 
have  dared  to  assume  an  actual  property  in  our  persons,  and  if  permitted 
their  worthless,  effeminate  descendants  will  assume  the  same  property  in 
our  unborn  offspring  for  all  succeeding  time.  Away,  then,  with  the  name 
of  freedom !  To  us  it  is  all  delusion ;  we  are  slaves,  and  let  us  not,  by  as- 
suming the  name  of  freemen,  stamp  ourselves  idiots  too. 

CHAPTER  V. 

Who  can  tread  the  memorable  fields 
Where  freedom's  battle  has  been  lost  or  won, 
Nor  feel  thy  might3'  spirit.  Independence, 
Great  in  his  bosom  i1— HETHEKIMGTON. 

Having  given  a  slight  outline  of  the  principles  of  our  government,  I 
proceed  to  take  a  retrospective  view  of  the  events  which  led  to  the  pres- 
ent state  of  affairs  in  these  countries,  examine  the  great  political  ques- 
tions of  the  day,  and  discuss  how  far  they  will  or  can  remove  the  evito 
of  society. 

«  Livy,  the  Roman  historian,  baa  poured  a  flood  of  doubt  Into  my  mind  with  retereo«« 
to  this  same  Cincinnati). 

(120) 


CUE    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

The  people  of  these  realms  seem  to  have  evinced  no  rational  idea  of 
freedom  previous  to  the  year  1782 :  and  probably  the  American  struggle 
served  to  give  them  a  knowledge  of  its  nature  -and  importance.  Beiore 
that  period  their  disputes  were  principally  caused  by  the  restless  ambi- 
tion of  their  chiefs,  or  tended  merely  to  a  change  of  masters;  but,  at 
that  memorable  era,  the  Irish  Volunteers  took  up  arms  to  protect  their 
country  from  foreign  invasion.  Those  gallant  bands  soon  turned  their 
attention  to  the  deplorable  state  of  slavery  to  which  that  country  was 
reduced  by  the  despotism  of  England.  At  this  time,  and  up  to  the  Leg- 
islative Union  in  1800,  our  own  nobility  were  not  the  unfeeling  aliens 
which  they  have  since  become.  They  then  had  a  country  and  their  pride 
was  hurt  at  her  humiliation;  nay  more,  they  lived  amongst  their  people, 
and  had  not  learned  to  entirely  disregard  the  voice  of  nature  and  nu- 
manity ;  but  the  Union 

••  ha3  made  tnern  what  we  well  may  liate." 

At  this  period  (1782),  we  had  a  Parliament  in  Dublin,  or  rather  the 
mockery  of  a  Parliament,  as  it  might  spend  six  weeks  in  framing  a  law, 
and,  after  the  whole  trouble,  an  English  Secretary  could,  with  one  dash  of 
his  pen  make  a  jest  of  the  whole  affair.  The  Volunteers,  brandishing 
their  drawn  swords,  protested  against  this  monstrous  and  contemptuous 
stretch  of  power,  and  they  succeeded  in  putting  it  down.  Other  griev- 
ances in  which  their  leaders  partook  were  fiercely  denounced  by  the  Vol- 
unteers, and  immediately  redressed  by  Government;  but  the  principal 
grievances,  and  in  which  their  leaders  (men  of  property)  did  not  partake, 
namely :  rents,  tithes,  and  their  attendant  evils,  were  kept  smouldering 
in  the  public  mind  until  they  broke  into  open  flame  in  the  rebellion  of 
1798. 

That  the  ultimate  intentions  of  the  United  Irishmen  were  to  shake 
off  English  connection,  and  establish  a  Republic  as  in  America,  admits 
of  no  doubt;  but  rents  and  tithes  were  the  original  causes  of  their  com- 
bination ;  indeed,  one  of  their  mottoes  was  "  Half  rent  and  no  titJie." 
The  result  of  that  struggle  is  fresh  in  the  memory  of  Irishmen.  In  it 
one  Hundred  thousand  of  their  brothers  fell.  Of  these  not  a  third  per- 
ished in  the  field;  the  platoon  fire,  the  halter,  and  the  torture  of 

There  is  a  sickening  sympathy  which  we 
premature  death  even  of  a  guilty  per- 
hardened  in  crime,  that  he  deliberately 

took  the  path  to  the  scaffold,  is  not  sufficient  to  reconcile  us  to  his 
hapless  fate.  What,  then,  must  have  been  the  feelings  of  the  desolate 
mother  and  widowed  wife  at  beholding  their  high-souied,  virtuous,  pro- 
tector dragged  to  the  clog's  death?  what  the  maddening  bursting  of  hia 
awn  brain  as,  manacled  arid  helpless,  he  stood,  the  scoff  of  his  cold-blood^ 
ed  executioners  V 

"  With  not  a  friend  to  animate  and  tell 
To  others'  ears  that  death  became  him  well; 
Around  him  toes  to  forge  the  ready  lie. 
And  blct  life's  latest  scene  with  calumny." 

Immediately  after  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  the  measure  of 
tfhe  •'  Legislative  Union  "  between  the  two  countries  was  effected.  It  is 
not  my  intention  to  discuss  the  merits  and  demerits  of  that  measure, 
farther  than  to  observe  (what  cannot  be  disputed),  that  it  promoted  Ab- 
senteeism to  an  extent  unprecedented  at  any  period,  or  in  any  part  of  the 
world. 

The  reluctant  assent  of  the  Irish  Catholics  to  the  Uniftn  was  to  have 
been  paid  by  Emancipation;  but  Mr.  Pitt,  the  then  Premier,  either  would 
not,  or  could  not,  effect.that  measure,  and  in  C9nsequence  resigned  of- 
fice. Then  gradually  arose  .the  "  Catholic  Association."  This  body  must 
be  considered  the  most  important  that  ever  existed  in  any  age  or  coun- 
try, not  because  it  achieved  Emancipation,  but  because  it  discovered  the 
omnipotence  of  moral  power;  that  power  which  can  fling  tyranny  from 
its  high  place,  whilst  it  presents  nothing  tangible  to  its  deadly  gripe. 
Look  at  the  history  of  Reiorm  in  England.  Before  the  Catholic  Association 

16  (121) 


flogging  to  death  did  the  rest.  There  is  a  sickening  sympathy  which  we 
feel  at  beholding  the  violent  and  premature  death  even  of  a  guilty  per- 
son;  the  reflection,  that  he  was  hardened  in  crime,  that  he  deliberately 


OUii     JiATl'UAL 

grew  into  Importance,  we  find  the  Reformers  butchered  in  the  streets  ol 
Manchester  by  the  king's  troops.  Afterwards  we  find  them  constructing 
Political  Unions,  on  the  model  of  the  "  Catholic  Association,"  which  made 
even  Wellington  quail  before  them,  though  holding  the  reins  of  Govern- 
ment, and  backed  by  all  the  Tory  and  military  force  of  the  Empire.*  I 
have  taken  this  retn  spective  glance  in  order  that  the  uninformed  reader 
may  be  enabled  to  form  an  accurate  notion  of  the  present  state  of  affairs 
in  these  countries.  Emancipation  made  Roman  Catholics  eligible  to 
Parliament  and  other  high  offices,  but  as  the  attainment  of  these  is  natu- 
rally restricted  to  the  very  highest  and  wealthiest  of  that  profession, 
the  middle  and  lower  classes  are  "  exactly  where  they  were,  save,  in- 
deed, the  honest  pride  they  must  feel  at  being  no  longer  a  dishonored 
and  degraded  caste.  Reform  shut  against  the  aristocracy  the  Rotten- 
Borough  road  to  oower ;  but  a  road  still  lies  open  to  them  through  the 
absolute  ownerership  of  land.  Look  at  the  Corn-Laws.  The  manufac- 
turing and  commercial  population  have  a  certain  sum  to  lay  out  in  food ; 
the  landlord  says,  "  You  shall  not  go  where  you  please  to  lay  out  your 
money ;  you  must  buy  from  me  and  I  will  charge  you  only  double  what 
you  would  pay  elsewhere,"  and  the  people  must  submit  to  this  extortion. 
Where  then  is  the  freedom,  the  popular  power  about  which  we  hear  so 
much  fuss  and  noise  V  The  creations  of  a  fevered  brain,  they  vanish  be- 
fore the  first  glance  of  returning  reason. 

Another  act  of  our  Whig  and  Tory  aristocrats  was  the  voting  of  twenty 
millions  sterling  to  the  kidnappers  of  the  West  Indies.  A  horde  of  anti- 
Christian,  inhuman  planters  seize  the  poor  negro  on  his  native  fields, 
compel  him  to  work  by  the  cruelest  torture,  and  deprive  him  and  his 
children  of  their  liberty  forever.  If  a  thief  steal  your  horse  and  is  de- 
tected, not  9nly  what  he  has  stolen  is  taken  from  him,  but  the  law  pun- 
ishes his  crime  with  transportation  or  death.  But  the  thief  planters  are 
detected,  and  what  is  the  punishment  awarded  them  by  our  Whig  justi- 
ces ?  Why,  twenty  millions  sterling  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  British 
people. 

OHAPTEIJ      VI 

It's  hardly  in  a  body's  power 
To  keep  at  times  irom  being  sour, 
To  ate  how  things  are  shared.— BaMfe. 

i  now  come  to  examine  the  great  political  questions  of  the  day,  and  dis- 
cuss how  far  they  can  remove  the  evils  of  society. 

The  most  important  questions  which  at  present  occupy  the  public 
mind  are  the  "  Vote  by  Ballot,"  "  Corporation  Reform,"  and  the  tough- 
and-bloody  "  Tithe  Question."  The  "  Vote  by  Ballot,"  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant of  these,  has  been  opposed  and  defeated  by  Whig  and  Tory  com- 
bined. A  stinted  reform  of  the  English  Corporations  has  been  wrung  from 
the  reluctant  Lords,  and  a  breaking  up  of  the  Irish  boroughs  is  likely  to  be 
effected.  This  will,  to  a  certain  extent,  be  an  undoubted  benefit;  but  the 
"  Tithe  Question,"  I  really  cannot  perceive  how  that  can  be  settled  to  the 
advantage  of  the  poor  farmer,  whilst  the  landlord  retains  absolute  own- 
ership of  the  land.  Every  plan  that  has  hitherto  been  proposed  for 
settling  this  question  was  founded  on  the  principle  of  the  parson  losing 
part,  and  receiving  the  remainder  partly  out  of  the  landlord's  income, 
and  partly  out  of  the  public  purse.  This  plausible  remedy  seems  to  have 
satisfied  the  great  body  of  the  liberals,  and  even  Mr.  O'Connell,  who 
warmly  recommended  it.t  By  the  last  Tithe  Bill  (and  the  present,  1836,  is 
a  mere  revival  of  the  last),  the  parsons  were  to  lose  £26  15s.  per  cent,  and 
to  receive  the  remainder.  £68  5s.,  off  the  landlord's  income,  and  £5  out  of 
the  public  money.  By  these  means  the  farmer  would  be  momentarily 

•  My  inexperience  led  me  into  a  grave  mistafce  here.  Moral  force  will  do  nothing  with 
an  onjtLst  government,  nnless  physical  force  stands  behind  it  to  show  fair  play.  D.,  1577. 

t  Vide  his  letter  to  the  Irish  people,  1834,  placing  the  "  Repeal  of  the  Union  "  in  abey- 
ance. 


OUR    NATURAL    JUG  UTS. 

relieved ;  but  when  we  contemplate  the  damning  tact  that  landlords  have, 
in  the  last  fifty  years,  doubled,  aye,  quadrupled,  the  rents  of  land,  we  at 
once  perceive  that,  by  a  gradual  rise  in  rents,  they  can  easily  transfer 
the  burden  of  the  parsons  from  their  own  gentle  backs  to  the  bleeding 
shoulders  that  have  hitherto  borne  it.  Nay,  the  landlord  would  have  it 
in  his  power  to  pocket  the  £26  15s.  which  the  parson  loses,  and  the  £5 
which  he  receives  of  the  public  money ;  as  the  farmer,  eased  to  that 
amount,  would,  by  bringing  him  to  the  old  level,  be  able  to  pay  thin 
money  in  the  shape  of  rent.  And  what  is  to  prevent  this  state  of  things 
from  actually  taking  place  ?  The  conscientious  forbearance  of  the  land- 
lord !  Oh,  save  me  from  such  a  safeguard !  Short  leases  will  be  short 
protection  to  the  farmer.  Long  leases  are  rather  a  scarce  commodity, 
and  as  the  landlord  has  a  great  aversion  to  lessening  his  income,  the  re- 
lief to  leaseholders  will  in  all  human  probability  be  added  to  the  burden 
of  the  yearly  tenant,  already  the  most  oppressed  member  of  the  com- 
munity. Such  a  letter  as  this  from  an  absentee  to  his  agent  would  not 
in  these  times  be  very  extraordinary : 

LONDON,  Sunday  morning. 

"  Jack,  as  usual,  I  took  a  peep  in  at  the  hells  t  last  night  By  a  cursed  run  of  ill-luck  I 
lost  £700.  to  Rifle  the  celebrated  French  pamester.  This  put  me  so  devilishly  out  at  elbows 
that  I  had  to  borrow  a  fltty  for  a  freak  with  a  fine  o  era  girl.  My  Irish  estate  was  wortn  ten 

thousand  a  year  before  this  d d  Tithe  Bill,  which  ha?  reduced  it  to  nine  thousand.    But 

as  1  canLot  afford  to  feed  the  black  cormorants,  you  will  have  to  raise  the  rents  and  send 
me  the  original.sum.  I  am  sorry  that  we  cannot  touch  the  leaseholders  for  the  present,  but 
when  the  leases  drop-we  will  have  fair  play  at  them;  meanwhile,  my  yearly  tenants  must 
make  up  the  deficiency.  Youra  etc.,  SQUANDER." 

As  it  may  be  supposed  that  good  or  ordinary  landlords  will  do  noth- 
ing like  this,  I  shall  relate  a  fact  that  lately  fell  under  my  observation, 
and  which  bears  directly  on  the  point.  A  Scotcn  gentleman  (Murray  of 
Broughton),  who  possesses  considerable  property  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  who  enjovs  and,  comparatively  speaking,  deserves  the  name  of  a 
good  landlord,  paid  a  visit  to  his  property  in  the  autumn  of  '34.  In  an 
arrangement  with  his  tenantry  he  took  upon  himself  the  payment  of 
all  tithes  on  his  estate,  but  so  raised  the  rents  as  to  leave  a  nett  profit  in 
his  hands  after  paying  the  parsons.  This,  it  is  evident,  left  the  tenant  as 
ill  or  worse  off  than  before. 

But  it  will  be  said  that  this  is  an  evil  which  cannot  be  got  rid  of;  that 
the  land  is  the  property  of  the  landlord,  and  as  such  he  can  d9  with  it 
as  he  pleases.  If  this  doctrine  be  true,  farewell  to  all  hope  of  raising  the 
people  to  freedom  and  happiness.  Talk  not  to  me  of  relief  from  the  bur- 
tithes  ortaxes,  while  the  landlords  have  power  to  lay  on-  as  much  addi- 
tional weight  as  we  can  bear.  The  money  which  we  would  save  by  a  re- 
duction ^1  Church-livings,  taxes,  etc.,  would  certainly  make  us  richer; 
but  as  this  money  now  goes  to  the  aristocracy,  in  the  shape  of  places, 
pensions,  etc.,  the  change  would  make  them  proportionally  poorer,  so 
that  this  change  would  create  an  ability  on  the  part  of  the  people  to  pay 
advanced  sums  for  the  rents  of  land,  and  a  necessity,  or  excuse,  on  the 
part  of  the  landlords  for  exacting  them ;  this  would  be  quickly  done,  and 
the  people  would  be  reduced  to  the  old  level  of  ra^s  and  hunger. 

CHAPTER     VH. 

Such  dupes  are  men  to  custom,  and  so  prone 
To  reverence  what  is  anc'ent,  and  can  plead 
A  course  of  long  observance  lor  its  us: 
That  even  servitude,  the  worst  ot  ills,  ' 
Because  transmitted  down  irom  sire  to  soi., 
Is  kept  and  guarded  as  a  sacred  thing.— COWPIB. 

Thus  It  is  plain  that  if  landlords  possess  absolute  ownership  of  land,  the 
people  never  can  become  really  independent.  Either  the  landlords  have 
a  right  to  absolute  ownership,  or  the  people  have  a  right  to  independ- 
ence. One  of  these  two  rights  must  destroy  the  other;  both  cannot  exist 
at  once.  This  forces  us  on  the  question :  Does  this  urjimited  ownership 

t  The  appropriate  name  of  the  noble  gamin?  houses  in  London, 

(123> 


OUK    NATf'KAL    lilttliTS. 

rightfully  belong  to  the  landlords?  This  is  a  question  of  awful  impor* 
tance;  on  it  rests  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  the  human  race. 

The  landlord  answers:  "I  purchased  it  with  money,  or  my  ancestors 
bequeathed  it  to  me  as  an  inheritance."  To  this  I  roply,  you  could  not 
purchase  what  no  man  has  a  right  to  sell — nor  could  your  ancestor  be- 
queath to  you  what  could  not,  and  did  not,  belong  to  himself— namely, 
unlimited  ownership  of  the  soil. 

Before  we  investigate  the  right  of  absolute  ownership,  let  us  examine 
how  it  actually  works;  for  the  good  or  for  the  evil  of  society.  Alas,  we  need 
not  stop  long  on  this  inquiry.  The  splendor  of  dress  and  equipage,  the 
thousand  luxuries,  the  ease  and  sloth,  which  this  power  basely  kqeps  to 
itself,  and  the  shapeless  dirty  rags,  the  miserable  shelter,  the  continuous 
toil,*  and  the  wretched  food  which  it  ruffianly  assigns  to  its  victims, 
show  us  in  a  moment  its  villainous  effects  on  society.  Instead  of  land- 
lords being  the  promoters  of  improvement  and  civilisation,  which, 
under  just  and  proper  restrictions  they  would  be,  they  are  now  an  effec- 
tual drag-chain  upon  agriculture,  arid,  consequently,  on  every  other  kind 
of  improvement;  instead  of  being  the  regulators,  they  are  now,  iu  fact, 
the  derangers  and  disturbers  of  society.  As 

"Facts  a-e  cbiels  that  winna dinf 
And  downa  be  disputed," 

1  shall  here  mention  one  out  of  many  such  that  came  under  my  own 

ouservation. 

Not  long  since,  purchasing  hay  of  a  small  farmer,  f  and  observing  that 
his  little  meadow  had  produced  a  very  bad  and  scanty  crop,  I  was  not  a 
litt-e  severe  on  him  for  his  indolence,  particularly  as  I  saw  that  his  farm 
aftowled  many  facilities  of  fertilizing  the  spot.  "  I  have  no  lease,"  re- 
plied the  poor  man,  "  and  why  should  I  labor  to  improve  when  I  know 
that  my  rent  would  be  raised  to  the  full  value  of  my  improvements. 

This  is  the  true  secret  of  our  want  and  mh^ry — this  fhe  great  blight, 
which  hanging  over  the  land,  keeps  iu  a  state  of  nature  our  reclaimable 
wastes,!  and  blasts  with  comparative  sterility  our  most  fertile  vales. 
Every  shilling  of  capital,  and  every  day  of  toil  that  the  occupier  may 
*3xpend  on  improvement  is  forfeited  to  the  landlord;  and  should  his 
condition  approximate  to  decency,  instead  of  approval  or  encourage- 
ment, he  hears  tha  agfnt  growl  forth,  "  that  fellow  can  li ve  as  well  as 
myself."  There  is,  then,  a  new  valuation  held,  and  a  few  pounds  added 
to  his  rent  reels  him  back  to  the  level  of  wretchedness. 

And  is  this  the  tenure  by  which  land  must  be  held ;  this  the  feeling 
under  which  it  is  to  be  cultivated  ?  And  must  barrenness  and  desolation 
spread  over  God's  earth,  and  discontent  and  misery  dwell  with  His  peo- 
ple, that  the  landlord  may  indulge  in  his  lust  of  unnatural  power  and 

•in  traveling  over  a  mountainous  district  of  Donegal,  some  years  since.  I  observed  a 
xmmber  <•!  men  at  work  repairing  the  highw  iy.  They  were  carrying  gravel  on  their  DUCKS, 
across  a  moor,  in  which  they  sank  almost  up  to  the  knee  at  every  step.  Never  before  had  I 
Keen  human  beings  subject.!  d  to  such  brute  and  excessive  labor.  On  inquiry.  I  found  that 
they  weie  employed  by  theirlandlord  (a  resident  gentleman,  of  consiaerabie  prooe'-ty);  that 
if  they  refused  to  engace  in  the  wors  he  would  thrust  them  out  of  their  miserably  homes; 
and,  hear  it  England!  hear  it  the  world!  that  he  allowed  them  for  this  labor  your  pmce  a 
*»*/ 

t  The  Profestnnt  is  equally  oppressed  with  the  Catholic.  This  man  was  a  Protestant,  and 
bis  ancestors  probably  curne  over  wiih  William  Hi. 

|  On  our  extensive  moors,  beside  the  hut  of  the  cowherd,  I  have  frequently  intertwined 
the  luxuriant  corn-stalk  with  the  henth-shmb  'hat  srrew  beside  it,  without  even  a  fence  di- 
Tiding  t"em.  Those  cultivated  patches  were  too  <mall  to  te.npt  the  voracity  of  the  land- 
lord: o-  flourishing  in  the  tar  waste  they  probably  escaped  bis  cognizance.  Tne  corn  might 
be  worih  six  or  eight  pounds  an  acre,  whilst  the  immeasurable  waste  lying  round,  though 
easily  susceptible  of  tiie  same  improvement,  was  not  worth  in  proportion  as  many  pence; 
•ad  yet  economists,  by  a  strange  Infatuation,  continue  to  insist  that  we  require  the  assist- 
ance ot  EngiUh  capital.  Ireland  has  inexhaustible  c:ipi  al  running  to  waste  in  h  r  t-em- 
i«g  soil,  and  the  vigorous  industry  of  her  sons  and  daughters.  Our  men  eagerlv  seek  ihe 
most  toilsome  work  at  a  remuneration  ot  6(1.  to  8d.  a  d  iv.  Our  women  are  still  more  in- 
dustrious; if  the  price  of  linen  yarn  afford  ttiem  anything  above  a  penny  for  spinning  a 
bank  ^.24  i  yards),  an  excessively  lubo  iou-i  day's  work,  the  msrket  is  overstocked  with 
that  ariicle.  What  a  change  would  these  energies  produce  it  properly  culled  turtfc  aol 

(124) 


OUB    NATUBAL    BIGHTS. 

wallow  in  degrading;  luxury?  The  advocate  of  absolute  ownership 
damns  his  name  anal  authority  by  stamping  them  on  the  vile  and  dis- 
icture. 

erent,  how  beautiful  would  be  the  natural  state  of  things.  The 
occupying  tenant,  secure  of  his  little  farm  forever,  for  a  trifling  rent: 
then,  indeed,  might  he  improve,  certain  that  he  and  his  children  would 
enjoy  the  benefit  of  his  industry;  then  would  he,  (undrained  by  heartless 
extortion,  be  enabled  to  render  his  field  fruitful  and  his  cottage  comfort- 
able. 

What  a  change  to  behold  the  landlord  residing  among  his  hapyy  peo- 
ple, receiving  from  them  just  a  sufficiency  for  his  reasonable  wants, 
comprising  the  real  elegancies  of  life ;  and,  in  return,  stimulating  their 
industry  by  his  advice  and  encouragement,  and  civilizing  and  refining 
i them  by  his  intercourse!  What  a  happy  change  for  the  landlord  him- 
Belf,  from  a  life  of  worthless  indolence  and  criminal  excess,  to  one  of 
useful,  virtuous  activity?  It  would,  indeed,  raise  him  from  being  the 
curse  of  society  to  be  its  blessing.  This  beautiful  and  happy  system 
would  be  rendered  complete  by  prohibiting  the  holding  of  more  than  a 
limited  quantity  of  land  by  any  individual  farmer,  and  forbidding  the 
letting  of  any  land  at  a  higher  than  the  landlord's  rent.  Should  other 
regulating  details  be  necessary  to  its  perfection,  they  would  suggest 
themselves  in  the  working  of  the  system. 

But  it  may  be  thought  this  would  be  only  a  partial  benefit  to  society, 
affecting  only  the  occupiers  of  land.  Now,  it  is  quite  evident  that  the 
industrious  man  who  holds  no  land  would  come  in  for  a  full  share  of  the 
benefit.  In  such  a  salutory  state  of  society  as  this  would  naturally  in- 
duce, and  of  which  at  present  we  can  form  no  exact  idea,  he  would  find 
ample  employment  and  liberal  remuneration  for  his  industry,  whether 
laborious,  mechanical,  or  commercial.))  He  would  be  enabled  to  realize 
capital  with  which  he  could  easily  (if  he  pleased)  purchase  a  piece  of  land, 
where  every  farm  would  be  a  freehold.  I  shall  hereafter  show  (if  it  be 
not,  indeed,  self-evident,)  that  this  change  could  be  effected  without  the 
least  confusion  or  evil  of  any  kind :  that  it  would  be  subversive  only  of 
luxury  and  sloth,  and  productive  of  refinement,  virtue,  and  happiness, 
I  shall  now  proceed  to  show  that  the  landlords  have  no  right  to  withhold 
their  co-operation  from  the  good  work ;  and  in  doing  so  I  shall  not  at  all 
*efer  to  Christian  morality  in  support  of  my  view  of  this  question.  The 
votarist  of  that  beautiful  law  is  commanded  to  part  with  what  really  does 
belong  to  him,  for  the  general  good,  and  the  landlords  would,  I  doubt, 
ecoff  at  such  doctrine ;  but  if  I  can  prove  that  these  same  landlords  have 
Jbong  kept  what  does  not  at  all  belong  to  f/iem,  the  common  laws  of  society 
will  compel  them  to  give  it  up. 

CHAPTER  vm. 

N«ture  affords  at  le»«t  a  glimmering  lizht, 

The  lines,  though  touched  but  faintly,  are  drawn  rijfht.— POFB. 

To  reduce  the  foregoing  question  to  its  most  tangible  shape,  let  us 
take  the  very  best  title  to  land  that  is  to  be  found  in  these  kingdoms, 
and  see  how  far  it  entitles  a  landlord  to  the  unlimited  power  which  he 
now  exercises  over  the  land.  Now,  the  best  title  that  can  possibly  exist 
must  be  that  which  was  handed  down  from  the  patriarchal  and 
pastoral  times,  and  confirmed  to  its  possessors  by  the  different  dynasties 
that  held  sway  since  those  ancient  times.  If  thore  be  any  title  more  per- 
fect than  another,  it  is  this;  and  if  it  be  rationally  proved  that  even  this 
title  is  subject  to  restrictions  and  limitations,  it  follows  that  every  other 

f  An  inevitable  conwquenc?  of  this  hapr>y  change  would  be  an  improvement  in  the  cloth- 
ing, food,  and  oilier  domestic  comforts  of  the  people.  Suppose  every  in.iiviinal  in  Ireland 
•ould  afford  to  expend  two  additional  pounas  annually  on  these  necessaries;  this  by  adding 
Afiqen  additional  millions  to  our  home  cons  -caption,  would  ra  se  a  very  unusual  stir 
aniCTiz  our  tradesmen  and  ehop-fceeners;  and  rurther,  country  people,  comfortable  and 
happy  at  home,  would  not  be  so  reaay  as  they  are  now  to  rush  into  towns,  sad  starve 
the  trade  ot  fhop-keepers  and  mech&a  os. 

(125) 


OUR    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

title  is  subject  to  at  least  the  same  limitations  and  restraints.  In  order 
to  come  at  the  real  nature  and  extent  of  this  title,  we  must  commence 
our  examination  at  its  first  rise  in  the  patriarchal  and  pastoral  times,  and 
If  it  appears  that  the  9\vnership  of  land  was  not  then  absolute  and  un- 
limited, we  must  inquire  when  and  how  it  became  so.  The  first  owner- 
ship of  land  was  unquestionably  that  of  the  patriarch  who  settled  with 
his  family  on  a  certain  extent  or  un9ccupied  soil.  From  the  moment  of 
his  occupation,  he  naturally  acquired  a  property  in  the  land;  and  if 
another  settler  afterwards  came  to  the  same  spot,  he  at  once  acknow- 
ledged the  right  of  the  first  occupier,  and  withdrew  to  an  unoccupied 
place.  But  mark,  if  the  first  settler  should  claim  ownership  of  what 
he  had  not  in  occupation,  the  incomer,  would,  very  naturally,  refuse  to 
recognize  any  such  claim.  These  were  the  circumstances  under  which 
the  first  ownership  of  land  was  asserted  and  recognized,  and  occupation 
alone  gave  that  ownership. 

In  the  lapse  of  time  the  family  of  the  patriarch  became  numerous,  his 
children  and  grandchildren  grew  up  around  him,  and  every  branch  of 


the  family  had  the  "  go"  of  its  flock  and  herd  on. the  common  territory; 
the  unnatural  thought  of  giving  the  entire  property  to  his  eldest  son, 
never  entered  the  head  of  the  good  old  man.  Indeed,  any  attempt  of 


the  unnatural  thought  of  giving  the  entire  property  to  his  eldest  son, 
never  entered  the  head  of  the  good  old  man.  Indeed,  any  attempt  of 
the  kind  would  only  have  produced  anarchy  and  ruin  in  the  little  com- 


monwealth, as  Nature  would  impel  every  member  of  the  community  to 
rise  up  against  this  unjust  and  unnatural  decree.  Well,  then,  we  see  the 
little  state  increasing  in  numbers  and  importance,  their  petty  jealousies 
and  disputes  (if  they  had  such,)  referred  to  their  parental  magistrate; 
we  see  the  person  of  their  common  father  reverenced,  and  his  word  law; 
we  see  him  " gathered  to  his  fathers"  and  his  eldest  son,  their  second 
father,  and  of  course  the  most  experienced  man  in  the  community,  called 
on  to  act  in  the  magisterial  capacity  of  his  father,  still  having  the  "  go  " 
of  his  flocks  on  the  common  property,  and  nothing  more,  save  the  honor 
and  respect  due  his  station.  In  process  of  time,  the  family  becoming 
more  and  more  numerous,  forms  a  clan,  of  which  this  magistrate  or  his 
successor  is  the  chief. 

The  labor  and  attention  necessary  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  the  mul- 
tiplying people,  and  dispense  justice  to  all,  is  daily  increasing,  so  that 
the  chief  in  attending  to  it  cannot  pay  the  necessary  attention  to  his 
flocks,  herds,  and  other  domestic  concerns.  Whilst  his  time  was  thua 
employed  in  the  service  of  the  community,  it  became  equitable  and 
necessary  that  the  community  should  support  him  and  his  family. 
Then,  probably,  it  was  that  each  member  of  the  clan  first  contributed  a 
sheep  or  bullock  towards  the  support  of  their  chief,  not  as  recognizing 
any  right  or  property  on  his  part,  to  the  soil  in  which  the  cattle  pas- 
tured, but  as  a  just  and  indispensable  return  for  his  services  in  regulat- 
ing the  affairs  of  the  clan.  It  was,  in  fact,  neither  more  nor  less  than 
wages  for  service  done. 

Let  us  suppose  for  a  moment  that  the  chief  refused  to  perform  his 
duty,  that  ho  removed  himself  and  family  to  another  country,  and  de~ 

to  be  sent  to  him  for 
the  clan  to  the  vaga- 
country  support  you. 
For  us,  so  far  from  contributing  to  your  support,  we  alienate  and  ut- 
terly deny  your  blood,  and  you  shall  never  more  make  one  of  our 
family."  They  would  follow  up  this  renouncement  by  electing  a  new 
chief,  and  giving  to  him  the  honor  and  emoluments-jjvhich  the  othe  prof- 
ligate had  abandoned. 

If  such  was  the  title  of  the  ancient  chief,  and  if  such  would  have  beea 
his  treatment  should  he  desert  his  post,  let  us  inquire  what  has  altered 
the  case  as  regards  his  successor  or  the  present  day.  In  this  inquiry,  it 
is  above  all  things  necessary  that  we  be  cool  and  impartial.  If  there  haft 
arisen  or  possibly  could  arise,  any  circumstance  or  event  in  the  lapse  of 
ages,  that  could  fairly  and  honestly  do  away  with  the  original  right  of 
the  occupiers,  and  vest  an  absolute  and  unconditional  right  in  the  chief, 

(126* 


OUR    NATUEAL    RIGHTS, 

^M 


him  the  unlimited  ownership  which  he  now  assumes  I  sav  that  in  thL 


rtstc*  fj-id+-  thn  fn  — ~-f-v.u^vi  ^fi*u  vioowiniauu  culu  utJcitn  i  sun*> 

SSl  Sftte  5SSVPq°f  hhe  la^d'  C°uld^e  8eize  it;» in  Opp^sitSn  to  tS 
/5!iiH  fiS  P  PHu  buc,h  a  seizure  would  be  death-deserving  robbery 
Oould  the  people  themselves  bestow  it  on  him  in  reward  of  WserviSt 

^rltH7\Chap'  **V'  *  23'-MThe  land  8ha11  not  be  ^W  forever;  for  tbe  land  is  Mine,  salth 
tfoe  Lord,  for  ye  are  strangers  and  sojourners  with  Me. 

«~ffnth  tai,aU  ,lhe  laDd  °f  y°Ur  P°s8e8siou'  y«a  shall  grant  a  redemption  for  the  land 

.rotter  be  waxen  poor,  and  hath  sold  away  some  ot  his  possession  and  if  anr 
ot  Ju.  km  come  to  redeem  it.  then  shall  he  redeem  that  which  his  brother  sold 

ST-Then'let  him  council  n°"e  *° ™*™m  "'  &M  hmSeU  **  able  tO  redeem  **• 


'          restore 
ay  return  unto  his  possession 


.  ,  ay  return  uno     s  possession 

I!  JV'i?1'  to  re3t°re  "  to  bim'  then  that  wnich  is  8old  8na"  "main  in  th« 

nt  and  hm.!h  *  *  *  antU  *e  year  °f  the  Jubilee-  and  *»  the  J^ilee  it  shall  go 

<mt,  and  he,  (tbe  original  possessor,)  shall  return  unto  his  possession." 

Sl^fH11110  °/f  ?.emarcation  drawn  between  land  pro- 
h,fSject  to  rwutoiwns  and  restrictions,  and  private 
V       Sam°  authority>  is  ^  to  the  absolute  will  of 


ner          ' 


regulation  it  was  impossible  for  an  indi- 

Kefor^He^rffit0   l°m*'  m  WWch  W6  at  present  «roan-  "»* 
M?-e"8flMdVhJ^er,rtindHIsi,?IInK'forye,are6tranSrers  and  sojourners  with 

tte  ?™Sn  of  tr,,?h  '  WH  ^Irt5aUy  acknowledge  that  the  landlord  is 


r 

(127) 


OUtt    NATURAL,    RIGHTS. 

its  rise  in  the  barbarous  middle  ages  of  tho  world,  from  villainous  en* 
croachments,  and  the  "  stand  and  deliver  "  force  of  arms.  Perish  such 
authority ! 

Having  digressed  into  an  imaginary  picture  of  great  exploits  and  vir- 
tuous services,  and  shown  that  even  these  could  by  no  means  purchase 
absolute  ownership  of  the  soil,  I  now  turn  to  the  "  cold  reality,"  to  the 
encroachment  of  the  cheat,  and  the  sword  of  the  bravo. 

We  le it  the  patriarchal  chief  performing  the  duties  and  receiving  the 
wages  of  his  mages terial  office.  So  far  all  was  perfectly  fair  and  just; 
but  as  power  begets  ambition,  and  affluence  generates  indolence  and 
profusion,  he  (or  his  successor)  gradually  increased  his  demand  of 
contributions,  and  began  to  give  wav  to  negligence  arid  caprice  in  the 
discharge  of  his  duty.  Any  person  that  has  observed  the  ideal  superior- 
ity and  ignorant  pride  of  the  strippling  aristocrat,  will  easily  perceive 
that  the  son  of  the  chief,  surrounded  by  attendants,  and  served  with  a 
greater  share  of  respect  than  fell  to  the  lot  of  his  compeers,  very  natur- 
ally imbibed  the  seeds  of  pride  and  arrogance,  grew  up  a  worse  iuaa 
than  his  father,  and,  of  course,  made  further  encroachments  on  the 
rights  of  his  people. 

In  the  lapse  of  ages,  and  the  absence  of  written  documents,  the  origi- 
nal compact  between  the  people  and  the  chief  became  indistinctly  re- 
membered or  entirely  forgotten.  The  annual  sheep  and  bullock  contin- 
ued to  be  paid,  but  whether  for  the  magisterial  service,  of  the  chief,  or 
his  supposed  right  in  the  soil,  does  not  appear  in  these  dark  times  to  be 
perfectly  understood  or  much  attended  to.  Then  came  domestic  war  or 
foreign  invasion.  In  these  commotions,  some  one  chief,  superior  to  the 
rest,  obtained  sway,  and,  on  the  return  of  peace  became  king.  The  neigh- 
boring chiefs  who  acted  with,  or  were  subdued  by  him,  formed  a  union 
under  him,  and  bound  themselves  to  support  his  government  with  sup- 
plies and  men.  The  new  made  king,  in  return,  confirmed  to  them  the 
possession  of  the  land  on  which  their  respective  clans  dwelt,  and  it  is 
probable  that  it  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  chief  first  claimed  "  owner- 
ship "  of  the  soil.  But  whether  it  was  at  this  juncture,  or  before  it,  or 
a-lter  it,  the  claim  was  alike  unjust:  his  own  dishonest  encroachment 
could  not  give  him  such  ownership,  neither  could  the  king  give  it;  in  fact 
what  •  Tar  the  king  only  a  chief  swelled  a  little  bigger  than  his  fellows— 

"  A  pagoti  thing  of  sabre  sway. 
With  front  ot  brass  and  feet  of  clay.' 

And  I  cannot  see  that  such  a  "  thing  "  had  any  right  whatever  to  deprive 
the  occupier  of  his  property,  and  bestow  it  on  the  chief.  But,  however 
the  right  may  have  been,  we  find  the  feudal  chief  in  possession,  not  only 
of  the  soil,  but  of  the  very  lives  and  limbs  of  his  people.  The  remuner- 
ation for  his  services  he  fraudulently  and  impiously  perverted  into  a  pay- 
ment for  the  soil  and  the  seasons;  and  the  natural  duty  of  every  man  to 
arm  in  defence  of  the  community,  he,  by  the  most  villainous  encroach- 
ment, corrupted  into  a  warlike  service  due  to  himself,  when  his  ambi- 
tion or  caprice  chose  to  call  on  it.  In  fact,  the  history  of  the  nobles,  an- 
cient as  well  as  modern,  is  one  scene  of  wrongs  and  oppressions  practiced 
on  the  people,  and  yet  man,  base,  degenerate  man!  reverences  the  de- 
scendants of  these  worthies,  themselves  as  worthy,  merely  because 

" Their  blood 

Has  crept  through  scoundrels  ever  since  the  flood.*1 

But  man  will  yet  break  through  his  mental  thraldom,  and  such  worthtea 
will  receive  their  due  in  the  contempt  and  scorn  of  a  regenerated 
people. 

Scrutinize  the -i  i^tion  in  all  its  bearings;  turn  it  round  and  round, 
and  examine  it  in  «  very  possible  point  of  view,  and  we  find  that  nothing 
could  give  unlimited  ownership  of  land,  except  force  or  fraud,  and  the 
times  are,  I  trust  fast  passing  away  in  which  these  could  give  a  suffi- 
cient title. 

(128) 


OUB    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 


CHAPTER   IX, 

•'  As  to  a  man  farming  his  own  property,  it  is  a  heavenly  life,  bnt  devil  take  the  life  « 
reaping  the  fruits  that  another  must  eat."— BURNS'  LETTER  TO  MBS.  DDNLOP. 

Before  dismissing  the  subject,  another  question  remains  to  be  disposed 
of,  namely,  can  any  people  be  independent  or  happy  under  the  system  of 
absolute  ownership  ?  It  is  useless  to  waste  time  in  discussing  a  ques- 
tion, the  merits  of  which  are,  indeed,  self-evident.  Independent  they 
cannot  by  any  means  be,  even  though  permitted  to  hold  their  land  at  a 
shilling  an  acre;  and  the  happiness  that  exists  only  by  the  sufferenco  of 
another,  is,  at  best  of  a  very  doubtful  quality. 

Tis  true  there  are  in  Ireland  some  districts  comparatively  prosperous 
and  independent,  such  are  the  Northern  manufacturing  counties.  And 
are  those  districts  prosperous  and  independent  under  the  "  absolute  own- 
ership "  of  the  landlords  ?  No  such  thing.  The  industry  and  skill  of 
the  people  of  these  parts  would  be  of  little  service  to  them,  if  the  landlord 
were  not  checked  in  his  career  of  extortion  by  the  deep  undergrowl  of 
the  people.  Our  hereditory  despots  may  talk  as  they  will  of  the  insub- 
ordination of  other  districts  of  Ireland ;  but  in  no  place  has  their  greed 
been  so  effectually  resisted  as  in  the  North.  Who  has  not  heard  of 
"  Tommy  Downshire."  *  The  manner  in  which  he  enforces  his  right  is 
not,  perhaps,  the  most  unexceptionable,  but  the  principle  he  vindicates 
is  the  purest  and  best,  and  it  ought  to  be  contended  for  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  itself,  morally  and  constitutionally,  like  any  other  great  po- 
litical question. 

If  a ly  man  doubt  that  things  are  managed  thus  in  the  "North,"  let 
him  take  the  following  fact  as  a  sample  of  what  is  doing  there :  '*  A  gen- 
tleman resident  in  the  county  Donegal,  some  years  ago,  employee!  an 
efficient  agent  on  an  estate  which  he  possesses  near  Lurgan  (county  Ar- 
magh). This  hireling,  agreeably  to  his  orders,  set  about  raising  rents 
and  harassing  the  tenantry.  Instead  of  patiently  submitting  to  his 
"  absolute  "  power,  the  tenantry  assembled  in  thousands,  at  noon-day, 
breathing  discontent  and  vengeance.  Under  the  influence  of  bodily  fear, 
the  agent  requests  the  presence  of  his  master  to  allay  the  dangerous 
discontent.  When  the  landlord  arrives  on  the  ground,  he  is  presented 
with  a  memorial,  in  substance  like  this :  '  The  discontents  of  your  ten- 
antry do  not  arise  from  any  disinclination  to  pay  a  fair  and  equitable 
rent  for  the  land,  which  themselves  and  their  ancestors  have  occupied 
for  centuries ;  they  beg  to  refer  you  to  the  rate  of  rents  charged  on  the 
neighboring  estates,  and  they  will  cheerfully  pay  as  much  as  their 
neighbors.'  The  landlord  replied  that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  considered 
an  oppressor,  that  he  would  reduce  from  40s.  to  28s.  an  acre,  but  that  he 
would  sell  the  estate  rather  than  make  further  reduction."  These  terms 
were  agreed  to.  The  tenantry  pay  28s.,  whereas,  had  they  quietly  sub- 
mitted to  the  40s.  regimen,  it  is  very  likely  that,  in  a  country  so  rich  and 
fertile,  the  regulation  would  ere  now  be  £3. 

This  principle  is  in  general  operation  in  the  Northern  counties.  It 
effectually  curbs  absolute  ownership :  and  so  far  they  hold  their  prosper- 
ity by  a  direct  departure  from  the  settled  state  of  things.  They  can  now 
enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  industry ;  but  who  would  enjoy  those  fruils  if  the 
landlord  were  permitted  to  fleece  them  as  he  pleased  V  The  sturdy  in- 
habitant of  the  North  would,  I  doubt,  in  that  case,  be  allowed  the  hunger 
.and  persecution  which  now  fall  to  the  lot  of  his  rugged  brother  of  the 

*  The  name  assumed  by  the  agrarian  regulators  of  Armacrti  and  Down,  and  other  oortb 
«m  counties*.    (.Physical  force  looking  on  to  see  lair  play.    1877.J 
17  (129) 


CUE    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

As  the  principle  of  "Tommy  Downshire"  is  a  very  natural  one, 
springing-  out  of  comm9p  sense  and  common  justice,  it  is  no  way 
strange  that  it  has  manifested  itself  in  various  parts  of  the  country, 
but,  like  the  good  seed  that  "  fell  amongst  thorns,  it  has,  except  in  tha 
"  North,"  been  choked  up  by  inefficient  combination  and  isolated  resist- 
ance. The  people  are  already  aware  of  the  vast  importance  of  this 
principle;  let  them  direct  their  attention  to  its  manifest  justice,  and  there 
is  a  moral  power  abroad  that  will  ensure  its  complete  and  speedy 
triumph. 

Indeed  when  we  consider  the  diversity  of  human  character  it  appears 
most  strange  that  among  the  crowds  of  landlords,  or  blackmailers,  who 
infest  Ireland,  there  could  be  found  only  two  or  three  examples  that, 
even  approach  the  teachings  of  justice  and  humanity.  Laying  aside  all 
the  obligations  that  the  divine  and  beautiful  law  of  Christianity  imposes 
upon  us— and  oh !  these  should  not  be  entirely  disregarded— what  an 
honest  fame  could  an  individual  landlord  acquire,  what  a  glorious  name 
would  he  transmit  to  posterity,  by  being  the  first  to  come  forward  and 
do  his  duty,  or  what  appears  to  him  to  be  his  duty — the  duty  that  he  is  so 
well  paid  for  doing!  How  simple  and,  to  a  benevolent  mind,  how  de- 
lighthil  the  task!  Imagine  the  tenantry  convened,  and  the  good  man 
addressing  them  in  language  like  this : 

"  MY  FRIENDS— It  is  acknowledged  on  all  sides  that  the  present  system  of  society  ia  pro- 
ductive of  many  evils  and  many  are  the  plans  and  measures  proposed  lor  their  removal. 
'  Kcpeal  of  the  Union,' '•  Abolition  of  the  State  Church,' "  Poor  Laws,'  'Public  Works,'  and 
no  forth,  are  alternately  in  fashion.  None  of  these  can  be  effected  without  difficulty  ami 
delay,  and  it  effected,  they  would,  I  fear,  rather  alleviate  than  rtmovc  the  evils  of  society. 

"  Amid  all  these  proposed  reforms  and  remedies,  a  thought  has  struck  mo,  that  itis  in  the 
power  of  every  landlord  to  make  his  tenantry  comfortable,  independently  of  legal  enact- 
ments, and  I  intend  to  try  the  experiment  forth  with. 

"  I  will  reduce  my  rents  to  a  fourth  of  their  present  standard,  and  grant  perpetual  leases 
of  all  my  land— to  every  tenant  a  lease  of  what  he  now  occupies,  except  where  the  farm 
may  exceed  twenty  acres;  in  which  case  the  overplus  will  be  given  to  those  whose  holdings 
are  least.  I  will  reside  amonx  yon  and  it  will  be  my  pleasure  and  my  pride  to  improve  and 
refine  you.  But  you  shall  not  be  permitted  to  sell  your  interest  IL  the  land,  save  under  cer 
tain  restrictions:  neither  shall  you  be  allowed,  in  any  cast,  to  sub-let  at  a  dearer  rent  than  I 
charge.  1  shall  also  require  you  to  fertilize  your  farms  anjl  improve  your  dwellings,  anfl. 
in  doing  so,  1  shall  be  happy  to  lend  you  all  the  assi  -tance  in  my  power.  I  have  employed 
a  skillful  agriculturist,  and  his  business  shall  be  to  give  you  whatever  instruction  you  m»y 
require.  Your  fields  must  and  will  be  fertile,  and  your  cottage  neat  and  comfortable. 

.  "  You,  my  friends,  may  suppose  that  I  am  sacrificing  my  inclination  and  convenience,  in 
order  to  promote  your  good.  1  have  no  such  merit— it  is  no  sacrifice  to  quit  the  follies  of 
fashion  and  the  sensual  gratification  of  luxury.  My  days  were  lost  in  pursuits  unworthy  an 
Intellectual  and  useful  being,  and  my  nights  sought  an  escape  from  apathy  and  discontent 
in  the  whirlpool  of  amusing  lolly.  1  saw  mv  wealth  wasted  on  the  worthless,  the  profli- 
gate, and  the  vile,  and  I  reflected  that  my  conduct  involved  a  virtuous  and  worthy  people 
in  penury  and  distress.  From  that  moment  I  resolved  to  devote  my  energies  to  other  an:i 
coLler  pursuits,  aud  I  am  now  come  among  my  people  with  a  fixed  determination  to  makv 
them  happy." 

This  speech  appears  in  the  early  pages,  but  it  is  necessary  here.  It  is  worth  repeating. 
If  It  be  heeded,  it  may  save  a  great  deal  of  very  great  trouble. 

What  evil  could  possibly  result  from  a  change  like  this?  On  the  contrary,  what  beau- 
tiful order  would  it  not  produce;  what  an  impetus  would  it  give  to  agriculture;  what  a 
vivifying  spirit  would  it  spread  over  the  land  ?  Fondly  does  the  mind  picture,  to  itself  th» 
be-iuty,  the  happiness  that  springs  lorth  under  the  regenerating  gysvem.  The  renovated 
fertility  or  the  fleld,  the  wuviug  lolinge  o;  toe  hedge-row,  the  smiiing  gaiety  of  the  new- 
modelled  cottage,  its  garden  of  vegetables,  fruits  and  flowers;  it?  '  l>ee  hive's  hum;'  it* 
•hadowing  poplars:  that  cottage  no  longer  the  receptacle  o<  privation  and  misery,  tut  th« 
»bode  of  re.quitted  industry  ami  enviable  content. 

(130J 


OUB    NUTURAL    RIGHTS. 

And  shall  that  picture  be  realized  ?  Shall  joyous  Independence  bound 
over  the  land,  bringing  plenty  and  comfort  to  every  fireside,  or  shai 
unnatural  tyranny  continue  to  shed  its  withering:  blight  over  God's  cre- 
ation, and  dole  out  to  dependent  j  man  the  wretched  boon  of  rags  and 
hunger  ?  OUBS  is  THE  CHOICE !  What  is  the  power  of  a  bloated  aristoc- 
racy when  arrayed  against  the  will  of  a  great  and  intellectual  people  ? 
Let  the  public  mind  but  rouse  itself  and  send  forth  its  written  decree,  and 
strong  though  tyranny  may  be,  entrenched  in  the  prejudice  and  plunder 
of  a  thousand  years,  it  will  sink  beneath  that  decree,  and  right  and  jus- 
tice will  again  reign  over  all ! 

OHAPTEB  X, 
CONCLUDING— ADDRESSED   TO   THE   WISE   AND   WEfcL-ENOUGH, 

Our  needful  knowledge,  like  our  needful  food, 
Unhedged  lies  open  in  the  common  field. 
And  bids  all  welcome  to  the  vital  least; 
You  scorn  what  lies  belore  you  in  the  oago 
Ot  nature  imd  experience,  moral  iruth. 
And  dive  in  science  lor  distinguished  names. 
Sinking  in  virtue  as  you  rise  in  lame: 
Your  learning,  like  the  lunar  beam,  affords 
Light,  but  not  heat— YOUNG. 

Though  the  Inherent  principles  of  our  nature  undoubtedly  l^an  to  vir- 
tue and  philanthropy,  yet  man,  in  the  present  incongruous  state  of  so- 
ciety, will  be  found  much  wrapped  up  in  self,  and  seldom  lastingly 
affected  by  the  contemplation  of  ills  that  cannot  reach  that  darling  ob- 
ject. Hence  I  anticipate  the  hostility  of  the  well-enough  portion  of  socie- 
ty to  my  views  and  opinions.  But  in  the  retreats  of  toiling  indigence 
certain  wants  and  necessities  will  second  those  viws  and  demonstrate 
the  accuracy  of  those  opinions.  To  those  whose  wisdom  and  wants,  too. 
are  satisfied  with  the  present  "  order  "  of  things,  I  leave  the  task  01 
proving,  first,  that  Nature,  in  yielding  tbe  necessaries  of  life  only  to  the 
hand  of  industry,  intended  those  necessaries  for  such  as  perform  no  in- 
dustry at  ail;  second,  that  in  producing  the  supports  of  life  in  economi- 

t  Th  re  is  what  is  termed  "  du/y  worfr."  In  the  mornings  of  Spring  and  Autumn,  you  will 
meet  droves  of  the  ragged,  wretched  peasantry,  e-.tcb.  bearing  the  badge  ot  ori«i  al  sin  ta 
spade)  on  his  shoulder,  hurrying  to  the  demesnes  ot  our  landlords  and  agents.  Many  of 
these  unfortunates  have  to  travel  a  journey  ot  sixteen  to  eighteen  Irish  miles,  and,  of 
course,  the  same  distance  in  returning  home,  to  perform  a  day's  work  that  naves  tnolr 
task-masters  no  more  than  (3d.  or  bd.  I  once  had  tbe  curiosity  to  go  to  see  these  worse  than 
alaves  at  "duty,"  on  the  ground  ol  an  Absentee's  aerent.  It  was  m  Mav;  an  immense  cal- 
dron ot  potatoes  had  been  boiled  for  their  breakfast:  but  as  the  buds  germiuating  shoots— 
?oiiie  of  them  hali-a-yard  long— had  been  suffered  to  remain  on  them,  it  would  take  an 
irishman  to  tell  whether  they  were  potatoes  or  merely  a  mass  of  concreted  weeds.  These, 
with  half-roasted  salt-herrings  (and  no  over-supply  of  them)  was  the  breakfast  of  which  all 
partoos  eagerly,  with  the  exceptipn  ot  one  young  man,  who  declined  eating  at  all,  and 
kept  walking  ahout  the  ground,  no'tin  the  best  possible  humor,  if  could  augur  »uzht  from 
his  knit  brow  and  compressed  lip.  I  could  perceive  that  the  domestic  menials  had  better 
food  alloted  to  them,  and,  in  particular,  a  couple  ot  stout  young  telrows,  whose  business  it 
was  to  lead  on  the  serfs  at  the  labor;  and  lest  they  might  not  "  lead"  well  enough,  there 
was  an  overseer  apfo'nted  to1' drive"1  them;  not.  indeed,  with  the  ^art-whip,  but  with  a- 
good  national  blackthorn.  The  meal  over,  all  were  on  fieir  sp.ides,  straining  and  striving, 
and  led  O'i  by  the  two  stout  domestics,  the  driver  urging  on  the  hindermost  by  threats  and 
Mow*  /  u  It's  a  great  shame,  Puddy,  that  you  don't  put  the  conceit  out  o'  them  fellows," 
said  a  middle-aged  peasant,  whose  gaunt  visage  and  bare  l;ones  sufficiently  indicated  why 
he  did  not,  ensraee  in  tl;e  contest  himself.  The  athletic  young  man  to  whom  this  was  ad- 
dressed—and who.  I  perceived,  ha<i  not  partaken  ot  tbe  hogs-metd— brougnt  all  his  sup- 
pressed chxrgrin  to  bear  on  his  spade.  The  result  was  an  obstinate  struggle  with  the  "lead- 
ers," whom  he  flairly  distanced  to  the  top  of  the  field.  Another  course  was  commenced, 
but  Paddy  latrged  behind.  For  some  time  the  "driver  "  did  not  heed  him,  prob.ibly  suppos- 
ing that  he  would  in  a  start  take  in  his  lost  ground;  but  Paddy  co"  tinned  to  move  t  lowly 
and  tardily,  far  in  the  rear  ot  his  .ellows.  This  was  »oo  much,  and  the  hoarse  voice  ot  the 
driver  rous°d  him  from  Ids  apparent  lassitude.  To  the  exclaimution  of  *l  move  on,  sir,  and 
no  scheming."  Paddv  replied,  '•  I'll  move  as  I  please."  To  bear  with  this  would  he  to  for- 
feit his  office,  and,  indeed,  ihe  '•  driver  seemed  to  be  excited  out  ot  his  »  rudence  by  lan- 
guage so  new  to  his  ear.  "  Take  that  you  scoundrel,"  i»nd  a  swinging  hlow  of  the  cudjrel 
fell  into  the  hand  t  <at  was  thrown  up  to  receive  it.  "  I'll  take  it.  you  do»;  and  give  itto  you 
too,"  said  Paddy,  as  hi*  iron  grasp  masteied  the  bludgeon,  and  with  the  rapidity  of  a  Bash 
cringing  it  to  bear  on  the  driver's  t<mple,  left  him  sprawliuu  in  the  furrow;  then  snapping 
the  bludgeon  across  his  knee,  he  shouldered  his  spade  and  quitted  the  field.  He  was  u  ser- 
vant to  one  ot  the  tenant*,  and  consequently  beyond  tbe  vengeance  of  agent  and  landlord 

(131) 


OUB    NATUKAL    RIGHTS. 

• 

cal,  illimitably-spread  quantities,  Nature  intended  that  they  should  bo 
consumed  in  pyramidio  and  wasteful  heaps ;  third,  that  in  denying  to 
every  individual  the  capability  of  actually  enjoying  more  than  a  very 
limited  quantity  of  these  supports,  Nature  intended  that  some  individu- 
als should  collect  and  consume  a  thousand  times  the  prescribed 
quantity. 

The  wise  and  well-enough  must  prove  to  me  the  truth  of  these  things ; 
and  further,  they  must  convince  me  that  the  landlords  have  formed  the 
mighty  earth  and  swung  it  on  its  eternal  course ;  that  to  them  we  owe 
the  vivifying  smile  of  Spring,  the  creative  warmth  of  Summer,  and  tho 
serene,  ripening  virtues  of  the  Autumnal  sky;  then  will  I  acknowledge 
their  "  absolute  ownership,"  and  agree,  that  to  them  belongs  the  produce 
of  the  revolving  seasons,  whilst  we,  poor  devils,  should  thankfully  con- 
tent ourselves  with  the  gleanings  of  the  ample  field. 

But  if  we  may  be  permitted  to  divest  them  of  their  divinity,  and  con- 
template them  as  human  and  social  beings,  we  will  find  that  it  is  a  with- 
ering error  to  suppose  that  they  have  no  duty  to  perform.  Yet  this  seems 
to  be  a  universally  received  opinion.  Who  will  withhold  the  name  of  a 
good  landlord  from  him  who  treats  his  tenantry  with  forbearance,  and 
performs  occasional  acts  of  benevolence;  yet  this  does  not,  by  any 
means,  constitute  a  good  landlord.  Like  every  other  member  of  society, 
he  has  a  duty  to  perform,  an  important  and  indispensable  duty,  and  te 
the  non-performance  of  that  duty  society  owes  much  of  its  crime,  more 
of  its  ignorance,  and  almost  the  sum-total  of  its  misery.  The  merchant, 
physician,  and  lawyer,  the  smith,  shoemaker,  and  tailor ;  in  fine  every 
class  in  the  community  have  a  duty  to  perform ;  should  any  of  these  re- 
fuse to  perform  that  duty,  what  a  confusion  would  ensue  1  And  when 
the  most  influential  class  refuse  to  perform  its  duty,  and  leaves  men  lit- 
erally  to  run  wild  without  the  necessary  means  of  support,  it  is  no  way 
strange  that  the  result  is  a  derangement  of  social  order,  ignorance  and 
degradation,  misery  and  crime. 

There  is  not  a  worshiper  of  the  present "  order  "  more  averse  to  giv- 
ing an  uncultivated  people  irresponsible  power  than  I.  I  know  their 
faults.  I  have  been  more  than  once  placed  within  a  huir's-breadth  of 
death  by  their  ferocity,  and  I  shudder  at  the  idea  of  relaxing  for  a  mo- 
ment the  iron  girdle  of  law  by  which  they  are  bound ;  but  I  would  civil- 
ize them,  and  they  would  soon  become  another  and  better  people.  No 
longer  would  they  regard  an  infraction  of  the  lartv  as  a  deed  of  devoted 
virtue  because  the  law  would  protect  their  rights.  No  more  would  the 
stripling,  ere  yet  the  down  is  on  his  cheek,  pant  to  secure  "  his  fame"  in 
the  drunken  broil;  but,  in  the  day  spring  of  civilization,  other  views 
would  dawn  on  his  benighted  mind.*  And  never  can  the  people  be  civil- 
ized by  any  other  than  the  landlords  agency  ?  His  influence  pervades 
all,  practically  any  minutely.  Could  not  that  influence  civilize  and  moke 


iuman  misery  can  be  justly  estimated  only  by  those  who  fed  It, 
may  appear  a  strange  and  novel  doctrine,  yet  experience,  that  "  teacher 
of  fools,"  has  convinced  me  of  its  truth.  In  traversing  the  wilder  re- 
gions of  Dongal,  I  frequently  had  occasion  to  cross  the  ferry  (Guibara,)  on 
one  of  the  estuaries  of  the  coast.  Here  I  witnessed  the  boatman's  family 
at  their  meal  of  bog  potatoes,  often  without  a  relish  of  salt;  never  \yith 
anything  better.  I  saw  his  children,  from  five  to  ten  years  of  age.  with- 
out any  other  covering  than  a  piece  of  ragged  flannel  pending  from  the 
waist?  and  on  one,  a  child  of  about  three  years  old,  I  n-rver  saw  a  rag  of 
clothing  of  any  kind,  although  I  saw  it  many  times,  both  in  Summer 
and  Winter.  It  is  now  several  years  since  I  passed  that  way ;  and  why 
is  the  scene  of  misery  so  deep  in  my  recollection  ? 

•In  the  more  remote  districts  of  Ireland,  the  usual  amusement  of  their  firesides  i*  exag 
Derated  recitals  ot  the  prowess  of  *urh-and-*u'-h  men  displayed  in  nirh-nnd-wh  qunrrcls.  TM 
human  mind  must  have  amusement  of  some  kind,  and  here  these  recitals  nil  np  the  void  «f 
useful  information  and  rational  amusement.    Whoever  is  most  prominent  »a  uiese  tumult! 
4*  familiarly  »tylecl  "  the  bett  man  in  the  parish." 


OUR    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

A  sympathy,  not  so  much  for  the  miserable  as  for  myself,  stamped  it 
Indelibly  there.  Happening  to  be  detained  by  a  tempestuous  water,  f  I 
was  necessitated  to  become  the  boatman's  inmate  for  two  days.  Th« 
couch  of  rushes,  without  any  covering  save  the  hovel's  roof,  and  tha 
scanty  meal  of  potatoes,  that  srnelled  and  tasted  of  the  turf  on  which, 
they  grew,  were  freely  conceded  to  me ;  and  nothing  better  could  be  pro 
cured  for  money,  though  several  abodes  of  man  were  scattered  along  the 
bank.  At  the  close  of  the  second  day,  as  I  crossed  the  water  and  stag- 
gered to  the  next  village,  whilst  my  life  blood  delayed  in  all  its  channels, 
I  could  then  form  an  estimate  of  human  misery. 

And  the  poor  boatman  yet  drags  out  a  life  of  the  same  unvaried  pri- 
vation without  one  consolation,  if  he  cannot  derive  it  from  the  conscious- 
ness of  being  surrounded  by  thousands  as  wretched  as  himself. 

In  contemplating  the  providence  of  Nature,  we  perceive  the  most 
watchful  Denevoience  joined  to  the  profoundest  wisdom ;  and  is  it  not  a 
sin  of  no  common  magnitude  to  counteract  that  beneficence;  to  nullify 
the  decrees  of  that  wisdom  V  In  tropical  climates,  almost  all  water  i» 
impregnated  with  the  sperm  of  insects,  the  use  of  which  would  soon 
prove  destructive  to  human  life.  Pepper,  or  spices  of  any  kind,  destroy 
this  spawn,  and  Nature,  ever  watchful  and  benevolent,  sends  them  grow- 
ing on  almost  every  shrub.  In  our  own  country,  Nature  exerts  the  same 
maternal  watchfulness.  If  we  have  no  spices  growing  on  every  shrub,  it  is 
because  our  pure  waters  require  no  antidote.  Wholesome  food  and  drink, 
and  comfortable  clothing  and  lodging,  are  what  Nature  requires  to  sup- 
port us  in  health  and  vigor,  and  our  tender  parent  has  placed  them  within 
easy  grasp  of  our  industry ;  and  shall  we  permit  a  few  unnatural  mon- 
sters, the  plague  and  curse  of  society,  to  wrest  those  necessaries  from 
our  grasp— to  counteract  the  good  intentions  of  God  and  Nature— and 
deliver  us  over  to  famine  and  disease.!) 

Oh  for  a  spark  of  superhuman  energy  to  impress  on  mankind  the  mo- 
mentous truth :  that  it  is  impossible  to  make  a  people  free  and  happr 
under  the  system  of  "  absolute  ownership ; "  and  that  all  that  is  bad  in 
our  institutions  and  degrading  in  our  morals  would  rapidly  disappear 
under  the  rational  system — a  system  which,  whilst  it  preserved  tho 
landlord  hi  the  station  in  which  he  would  be  the  blessing  and  ornament 
of  society,  would  give  to  the  occupier  the  right  of  which,  for  ages,  he 
has  been  plundered— the  system  of  limited  ownership. 

I  may  be  charged  with  an  attempt  to  subvert  order.  If  so,  I  hurl  the 
charge  contemptuously  back  on  those  who  impiously  counteract  the 
beneficent  designs  of  God  an  Nature.  Established  abuse  I  am  bound 
to  obey  as  long  as  it  is  established.  But  I  am  free  to  call  the  attention  of 
the  people  to  its  startling  injustice;  I  am  free  to  direct  the  electric  shock 
of  the  public  mind  against  its  colossal  and  blood-cemented  bulwarks:  and 
if  that  people  arouse  themselves  to  a  sense  of  their  mighty  wrong,  I  am 
free  to  give  them  a  second  making  up,  in  unconquerable  zeal  and  inex- 

i  Glancing  over  a  newspaper,  some  two  or  three  months  ago,  I  perceived  the  name  of  <mr 
honorable  and  gallant  representative,  Colonel  Connolly,  linked  to  that  ot  the  river  in  queti 
tion  (Guibara).  ot  cour>e  I  was  on  tiptoe  to  learn  what  plan  he  was  about  to  adopt  for 
the  improvement  ot  the  wretched  horderer.-:  but  I  soon  touud  that  his  excursion  to  this 
wnd  region  had  a  holier  obiect.  His  WAS  a  plan  for  their  spiritual  welfare,  by  compelling 
them,  at  the  head  of  a  large  body  ot  military,  to  pay  tithes  into  his  own  apostolic  pocket.- 

1  Not  long  since,  as  I  loitered  in  the  shop  of  a  medical  gentlemen,  in  a  remote  village  <rf 
the  sea  coast,  a  lenvile  applied  for  advice  in  a  disease  of  the  stomach.  "  It  is  a  prevalent 
disease  of  the  neighborhood,"  said  the  Doctor,  "and  I  cannot  be  of  service  except  rod 
change  to  a  better  diet."  I  could  perceive  the  Irish  blood  rising  as  she  retorted,  "  1  usu  at 
irood  diet  as  any  one  in  our  parish.''  The  Doctor  prepared  and  handed  her  some  medicine* 
u  Heiore  using  these."  said  he.  "  t  >ke  your  breakfast  ot  porridge  and  milk."  "  Oh.  flu  -nol 
where  would  1  get  porri  ige  and  milk  ?  There  is  not  a  peck  ot  meal  withi  i  miles  of  wherft 
we  live."  "  And  what  good  diet  d  >  you  live  uoon,"  asked  she  doctor.  "  Why.  potatoes  ana 
(hesitatingly,)  sometimes  a  dr^o  ot  milk,  like  our  neighbors,"  was  the  reply.  After  she  vvafc 
gone,  the  Doctor  into  med  me  ihat  vast  numbers  in  the  neighborhood  were  laboring  uudef 
•imilar  diseases  trotn  the  same  cause.  And  yet  1  saw  their  scanty  crop  oi  grain  being  *o  a 
lor  export,  at  6d.  to  7d.  per  stone  (fourteen  pounds),  and  a<  that  was  insufficient  to  satisfy 
the  landlord,  their  bliicit  cauie  sol  I,  so. ne  ot  them  as  cheap  as  eighteen  shillings  a  head-* 
things,  the  use  ot  which  nature  absolutely  required  to  maintain  *J>em  in  health— to 
the  w_nt,"  of  the  thirty  thousund-a-year  boys ! 

(133) 


OUR    NATURAL    RIGHTS. 

tlngulshable  hatred  of  tyranny,  the  defects  of  limited  abilities  and  an 
Incomplete  education. 

I  have,  it  is  true,  proposed  a  great  and  serious  change.  What  of  that 
if  it  be  as  good  as  it  is  great,  and  as  practicable  as  it  is  important  7 
Many  may  think  it  too  strong  and  sweeping  a  remedy  for  our  social  evils. 
Well,  I  call  on  them  to  point  out  any  other  remedy  by  which  they  can  be 
radically  cured.  Some  change  of  the  kind  must  take  place,  or,  monstrous 
as  is  the  system  now,  it  will,  in  the  lapse  of  time,  become  ten  times  more 
monstrous.  Why,  estates  in  this  neighborhood  which,  some  thirty  or 
forty  years  ago,  were  not  worth  seven  thousand  pounds  annually, 
through  the  fertilizing  improvements  of  the  tenant,  are  now  worth  thirty 
thousand  a  year.  And  though  our  Honorables  will  not  expend  a  penny 
in  enhancing  the  value  of  the  soil,  yet,  as  soon  as  it  is  reclaimed,  they 
honorably  seize  the  whole  benefit.  The  soil  will  go  on  improving,  till  in 
many  districts  it  becomes  live  times  more  valuable  than  it  is  now ;  this 
improvement  .will  be  effected  (in  Ireland  at  least),  as  it  ever  more  has 
been,  by  the  labor  and  capital  of  the  tenant;  and  if  you  leave  absolute 
ownership  unchecked,  the  minion  who  now  receives  thirty  thousand  a 
year  will  then  have  one  hundred  thousand  extracted  fraudulently  from 
the  toil  and  sweat  of  the  people.  Nay,  they  have  actually  invented  a 
plan  for  compelling  the  tenant  to  improve  the  land  for  them  under  pain 
of  utter  starvation.  The  hellish  plan  is  expressed  in  a  familiar  adage, 
eternally  in  the  mouth  of  the  landlord  and  his  subordinates,  "  High  rent 
is  the  best  manure  ever  land  got."  Now,  what  is  the  plain  English  of 
this  ?  Here  it  is :  "  The  present  quality  or  condition  of  the  soil  does  not 
afford  us  more  than  a  certain  portion  of  produce;  now  we  will  exact 
double  the  quantity  of  produce,  and  then  the  tenant  must  reclaim  the 
land  for  us  or  starve  with  his  family ! " 

I  would  never  close  this  pamphlet  if  I  waited  to  embody  in  it  a  tenth 
of  the  wrongs  and  oppressions  which  crowd  into  my  mind.  The  Earl 
of  Gosford,  too,  •'  the  best  landlord  in  Armagh,"  as  somebody  styled  him. 
("  You're  a  sorry  set,  when  I'm  the  best  of  you.")— the  liberal  Earl  of 
Oosi'ord  could  stand  up  in  his  Farming  Society  meeting,  some  four  or 
five  years  ago,  and  make  a  long  speech,  to  show  that  the  farmer  ought 
to  keep  no  horse  to  assist  him  in  his  labor,  and  concluded  a  patriotic  ha- 
rangue by  filling  the  goblet  high  "  to  spade  labor,  the  poor  man's  best" 
and  he  might  have  added,  last  "  resource."  But  Lord  Gosford,  or  any 
other  "  Gos  "  among  them,  need  not  "  lay  the  unction  to  his  soul "  that 
such  will  be  the  poor  man's  last  resource ;  they  will  find  to  their  cost 
that  he  has  other  resources  than  stooping  his  shoulders  to  the  horse's 
labor,  and  bending  the  image  of  God  under  a  burden  of  dung ! 

As  the  present  wretchedness  and  the  growing  intelligence  of  the  peo- 
ple render  a  great  and  speedy  change  inevitable,  what  manner  of  change 
would  be  best,  and  what  the  best  means  of  effecting  it,  becomes  matter 
for  the  serious  and  instant  consideration  of  the  people.  On  the  former 
question  I  have  given  my  opinions  at  length ;  if  the  people  agree  with 
these  opinions,  the  latter  is  of  easy  solution.  An  English  or  Irish  paper 
will  cost  only  fourpence ;  every  to wnland  in  the  empire  should  take  at 
least  one  weekly  paper,  advocating  the  principle  of  limited  ownership. 
This  would  give  to  such  papers  as  would  espouse  the  people's  cause  a 
circulation  which  would  enable  them  to  command  the  first-rate  talent  of 
the  nation.  Association  on  association  would  follow,  and  that  same 
spirit  whose  waking  start  scared  tyranny  from  the  sin  of  intolerance 
and  the  filth  of  Rotten  Borroughs.  would  spring  into  active  and  vigor- 
ous life,  and  establish  and  regulate  the  long  trodden-down  rights  of 
mankind. 

This  concludes  the  pamphlet,  excepting  "  a  warning  word  to 
the  Americans,"  and  here  it  is : 

The  sole  cause  of  American  freedom  is,  that  the  energies  of  her  people 
and  her  political  influence  are  not  under  the  dominion  of  landlords.  So 

(134) 


UUK    NATURAL    KKiliTS. 

lory?  as  land  can  be  easily  purchased  by  the  in-coming  emigrant  all  shall 
go  on  well ;  but  when  it  comes  to  be  wanted  for  the  absolute  owners,  farewell 
to  the  plenty,  and  happiness,  and  freedom  of  the  NEW  WORLD,  and  welcome 
the  rampant,  tyranny,  the  slavery  and  wretchedness  of  the  OLD. 

And  will  the  men  of  America — those  free  spirits  who  quitted  indignantly 
and  forever  the  lands  of  the  tyrant — will  they  tamely  stand  to  see  a  similar 
tyranny  established  in  the  land  of  their  adoption?  Or  will  tho  descendants 
of  those  heroes  that  fought,  and  bled,  and  died  to  save  their  country  from  ,' 
the  pollution  of  the  oppressor,  permit  a  domestic  oligarchy  to  grow  up  and 
gorge  upon  the  vitals  of  the  country? 

Why,  to  borrow  a  simile  from  their  own  great  land,  it  would  be  destroy- 
ing a  den  of  snakes  at  the  peril  and  loss  of  life  and  limb ;  and  afterwards 
suffering  a  nest  of  these  same  reptiles  to  breed  inside  of  the  house,  and 
sting  to  death  themselves  and  their  children ! 

The  last  paragraph  is  not  finished.  The  conclusion  of  it 
is  lost.  It  lies  on  my  memory  a  sketch  of  the  Imagination. 
The  Republic  polluted  with  knaves,  and  Washington  and 
his  great  compatriots  "bursting  their  cerements" — throw- 
ing the  light  of  their  protection  over  their  darkening  land, 
and  "waving  the  sword  of  avenging  justice"  over  the  heads 
of  its  growing  Oligarchy.  A  picture,  in  short,  that  must  be 
realized  very  soon — though  it  may  be  by  hands  less  worthy 
—and  possibly  in  a  rougher  way. 

With  the  exception  of  the  closing  lines,  "OuR  NATURAL 
BIGHTS  "  is  here  presented,  word  for  word,  as  it  was  written 
almost  fifty  years  ago. 

My  resolve  was  now  taken.  I  would  devote  my  life  to  a 
war  against  Land  Monopoly — a  war  to  the  death — till  either 
one  or  the  other  should  die.  The  best  way  I  could  commence 
the  war  was  to  go  to  London  and  open  the  campaign  at  thai 
great  centre  of  Thought  and  action. 


(136) 


186  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THF    MNMTKKNTH    CENTURY; 


CHAPTER    XI. 

ONE  of  my  rivals  for  the  prizes  of  our  village  school,  E.  0.  dot- 
lias,  disappeared  for  years,  and  returned  with  a  treasure  of  Latin, 
Greek,  and  aristocratic  longings.  His  purpose  was  to  become  a 
priest  of  the  Catholic  Church,  was  refused  ordination,  and 
made  his  way  to  London,  where  he  found  employment  on  the 
Foreign  department  of  The  Sun.  This  was  a  very  substantial 
fact  in  favor  of  my  design,  which  was  to  remove  to  London  in 
order  to  carry  on  the  war  to  which  I  had  devoted  my  life.  But 
first  I  reconnoitered.  Went  to  London.  Found  Mr.  Crawford, 
at  his  rooms  in  Cecil  street,  Strand.  My  brochure  had  been 
already  in  his  hands.  He  was  perhaps  the  best  aristocrat  in 
Ireland,  but  I  found  the  superstition  of  caste  slightly  upon  him, 
and  he  rather  discouraged  my  thought  of  removing  to  London. 
One  of  my  tutelary  knights  could  not  have  been  more  sensitive 
to  coldness  or  neglect,  and  I  said  :  "  Well,  sir,  if  I  can't  be  useful 
here— useful  to  Ireland— my  path  is  straight  to  the  United 
States.  Good  morning."  He  followed  me  on  the  stair.  "  Hold ! 
Don't  go  to  America,  Ireland  cannot  afford  to  lose  such  men  as 
you."  "Then  Ireland  shall  not  lose  me.  I  will  return  to  London, 
and  enter  on  the  war  ; "  and  I  returned  home,  broke  up  house,  and 
returned  to  London  with  my  family.  In  Liverpool  we  barely  es- 
caped the  loss  of  all  the  money  we  had  in  gold.  Left  it  in  an 
unlocked  trunk  out  of  which  silver  spoons  were  stolen,  whilst  the 
money  providentially  escaped.  The  gold  symbol  was  too  weighty 
to  carry  about  my  person.  What  bank  notes  I  had  were  per- 
fectly secure.  Take  notice ! 

I  reached  London,  and  Mr.  Collins  instructed,  encouraged,  and 
introduced  me.  The  threepenny  stamp  on  newspapers  had  been 
brought  down  to  one  penny.  And  The  Constitutional  was  started 
as  a  morning  paper  to  inspirit  and  direct  the  democracy.  To 
me,  fresh  from  the  mountain  coast  was  given  the  "Irish  de- 
partment "  of  that  paper. 

Up  to  this  time  all  the  daily  papers  of  London  were  divided 
between  the  two  aristocratic  parties,  Tory  and  Whig.  The  Con- 
utitutional  professed  to  come  out  on  the  broad  ground  of  popu- 
lar rights.  It  was  my  duty  to  collate  and  comment  npon  the 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS. 

current  affairs  and  current  news  of  Ireland.  In  doing  so,  the 
landlords,  and  the  rackrents  came  in  for  a  good  deal  of  my  at- 
tention. The  evil  news  abounded,  and  I  traced  it  all  to  its  evil 
source— the  absolute  ownership  of  land. 

The  stamp  of  my  opinions  quickly  showed  itself  in  the  Consti- 
tutional. And  now  let  me  relate  a  fact  that  has  instruction  in  it. 
I  was  at  Mr.  Crawford's  rooms,  when  Wm.  Smith  O'Brien  came 
up  stairs  with  a  number  of  our  paper  in  his  hand;  "Hillo! 
Crawford,  we  have  got  help.  Have  you  seen  The  Constitutional. 
this  morning?  "  "I  have,"  replied  Mr.  Crawford,  "and  can  pre- 
sent to  you  the  person  who  says  he  is  author  of  the  article  you 
refer  to."  A  blended  chagrin  and  disappointment  came  over 
O'Brien's  face  to  think  the  voice  had  not  come  from  a  higher 
quarter.  "  Who  says  he  is ! "  It  was  an  implied  insult ;  I  could 
feel  that,  the  first,  and  indeed  the  last,  ever  offered  to  me  by 
men  in  their  position.  How  could  I  resent  it  ?  I  believed  them 
to  be  the  best  aristocrats  in  Ireland.  I  believe  so  still.  My 
resentment  found  no  voice.  Better  so.  Far  better.  Ascerbities 
are  better  avoided.  They  leave  less  or  more  of  their  bitterness 
behind  them  in  looking  over  our  memories  of  the  past.  Without 
Intending  it,  I  got  measurably  even  with  both  of  these  gentle- 
men by  and  by,  as  shall  be  seen. 

I  am  now  speaking  to  the  Democracy  of  England  on  that  vital 
subject  which  formed  the  object  of  my  life. 

My  first  encounter  was,  audaciously  enough,  with  The  Times — 
The  Thunderer.  It  came  this  way.  Lough  Erne,  in  addition  to 
being  one  of  the  largest  and  most  beautiful  lakes  in  Europe,  is  a 
fine  fostering  field  for  salmon.  Its  outlet  to  the  ocean  is  at 
Ballyshannon,  three  miles  down  from  the  lake.  At  this  point  is 
what  must  be  one  of  the  most  magnificent  "salmon  leaps"  in. 
the  world.  Often  have  I 

"  Leaned  me  down  upon  a  bank," 

watching  the  feats  of  force,  agility,  anl  perseverance  of  the 
salmon,  as  pitching  from  below,  a  height  of  (estimated)  twelve  to 
twenty  feet,  they  would  reach  the  brow  of  the  cataract,  and  by 
sheer  force  of  fin  and  tail  fight  against  it,  till  they  either  won 
and  went  on  their  upward  way,  or  were  driven  down  again  into 

"  The  hell  of  waters" 

that  boiled  below,  but  only  to  renew  the  combat,  and  give  over 
only  with  victory. 
18 


138  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

The  salmon  fishery  of  those  waters  is,  like  everything  else  that 
God  made  for  His  people,  seized  upon  by  robber  "  landlords,'^ 
measured  and  valued  in  money.  And  very  valuable  it  is.  The 
particular  landlord  who  claims  it  as  his  fief  I  don't  know,  but  it 
was  then  leased  to  the  widow  of  Doctor  Sheil,  a  man  very 
famous  in  his  profession  in  his  day.  It  is  no  discredit  to  Scotch- 
men to  say  that  they  are  enterprising  fellows,  and  they  proved 
BO  here,  by  planting  stake  nets  outside  the  great  sand  bar  which 
juts  up  against  the  ocean.  Those  nets  intercepted  the  salmon. 
Bent  had  to  be  paid — the  relentless  rent ! — and  there  was  noth- 
ing wherewith  to  pay  it.  Word  went  around  that  the  widow  was 
ruined,  and  one  or  two  thousand  men  from  coast  and  mountain 
descended  on  the  stake  nets  and  left  "  not  a  wreck  behind." 

The  event  echoed  itself  into  the  Times  office— what  event  does 
not  ?— and  elicited  a  loud  peal  of  "  thunder,"  indeed,  levelled  at 
the  "agrarian  rioters."  Nor  did  it  disdain  to  estimate  the 
"destruction  of  property"  as  well  as  the  destruction  of  his 
Majesty's  "  peace,  law,  and  order."  Now  it  so  happened  that  my 
relatives  lived  within  ten  miles  of  the  "  riot ; "  knew  all  about  it, 
and  had  just  written  its  whole  history  to  myself.  It  was  not 
a  hard  job  to  throw  the  subject  into  shape,  and  give  it  a  place  in 
The  Constitutional.  A  few  sarcasms  about  the  new  affiiliation  of 
the  Times  with  marauders  who  "devoured  widows'  houses" 
oame  in  naturally  enough  at  the  end  of  my  statement.  Sur- 
prised, and  it  may  be  a,  little  stunned,  by  such  an  unexpected 
attack,  the  Times  took  breath  for  the  better  part  of  a  week,  in- 
formed itself  on  the  subject,  and  then  came  out ;  made  a  frank 
amende  to  the  Irish  net-breakers,  and  to  "  one  of  our  contempo- 
raries," for  having  discovered  the  truth.  It  was  a  conservative, 
preservative,  and  praiseworthy  riot  after  all.  But  the  Times 
did  not  name  the  "contemporary,"  for  that  would  be  adver- 
tising our  new  enterprise.  The  victory  was  with  us,  however. 
The  fact  gave  me  a  lift  in  the  estimate  of  my  employers,  and 
threw  an  especial  brightness  on  my  prospect  of  being  usefuL 
The  work  I  had  to  do  was  not  work,  it  was  a  pleasure — the 
pleasure  I  would  have  chosen  if  all  earthly  pleasures  lay  at 
my  feet 

At  this  time  a  tax  was  on  salt  in  Ireland,  and  it  was  remitted 
MB  a  premium  on  curing  of  fish.  I  had  not  seen,  suffered,  and 
risked  much  in  the  trade  of  fishing,  but  enough  to  put  me  out  of 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  1B9 

conceit  with  it.  The  first  horror  my  childhood  listened  to  was 
the  "  Drowning  in  Bruekless  Bay,"  of  the  whole  fishing  fleet,  I 
know  not  how  many  boat  crews,  in  one  night,  of  which  not  one 
escaped.  Each  succeeding  year  brought  its  average  of  drowned 
men  and  destituted  families.  To  this  was  added  a  fact  still 
more  likely  to  weigh  with  the  school  of  Politico  economists. 
The  pursuit  of  fishing  gave  an  adventurous  habit,  that  looked 
down  with  indifference,  or  contempt,  on  the  plodding  labor  of 
-spade  and  scythe.  Worse,  it  gave  a  spending  habit,  a  contempt 
for  small  outlays  as  well  as  for  small  gains.  On  rare  occasions 
there  was  not  perhaps  an  experienced  fisherman  on  the  coast, 
who  had  not  realized  as  much  as  a  pound  sterling  by  one  night'a 
lucky  fishing.  This  could  only  be  when  there  was  a'  very  large 
haul  and  a  very  high  price,,  and  those  two  things  so  rarely  met 
together  as  to  resemble  gambling.  But  the  golden  memory 
would  remain,  and  it  helped  the  public  houses  materially.  There 
is  intense  friendliness  in  the  Irish  people,  as  well  as  intense  fierce- 
ness. The  readiest,  most  convincing  way  this  friendliness  can 
show  itself  is  by  "  Come  in  boys,  and  let  us  have  a  drop."  Con- 
scious of  present  inability  to  afford  the  cost,  the  next  word  would 
be  "the  company's  health,  they're  wagging  their  tails  (i.  e.  the 
herrings)  will  pay  for  this."  And  so  the  fishing,  as  a  staple  re- 
liance, did,  with  an  uncertain  amount  of  good,  bring  very  certain 
amounts  of  evil.  I  published  my  views  on  the  subject,  in  The 
Constitutional,  I  wrote  to  the  Executive  in  Dublin,  urging  to 
change  the  premium  on  fishing  to  a  premium  on  flax  raising, 
and  reclaiming  the  adjacent  heather  lands  ;  pointing  out  the  al- 
tered homes  and  steadily  increasing  industry  and  gains  that 
would  follow.  To  every  communication  on  the  subject,  I  re- 
ceived a  courteous,  and  somewhat  hopeful,  reply.  Encourage- 
ment to  fishing,  I  believe,  was  withdrawn,  but  no  land  improve- 
ment was  substituted  in  its  place.  The  "landlord,"  as  he  called 
himself,  stood  in  the  way.  And  was  he  not  both  the  "  landlord  " 
and  the  law '? 

The  Constitutional  was  a  re-model  of  the  Public  Ledger,  which 
was  a  continuation  of  the  Public  Advertiser,  immortalized  by 
the  letters  of  Junius.  It  failed,  partly  because  the  five  estab- 
lished papers  would  not  admit  it  to  the  joint  arrangement  for 
**  expressing "  continental  news  up  from  Dover.  Telegraphs 
were  not  in  those  days,  and  even  railroads  had  only  made  their 


140       THE  ODD  BOCK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUKT  ; 

ilrst  footing  between  Liverpool  and  Manchester.  The  Constitu- 
tional employed  a  relay  horse-express  of  its  own,  at  a  cost  thftfc 
helped  largely  and  suddenly  to  sink  it. 

But  a  more  potent  cause  of  its  failure  came,  I  think,  from  an. 
other  quarter. 

There  was,  at  the  time  I  am  speaking  of,  a  knot  of  very  wise 
men,  in  their  own  estimation — Hume,  Eoebuck,  Brougham,  Col- 
Thomson,  etc.,  who  christened  themseleves  "  Philosophical  Radi- 
cals/' and  took  the  field  against  the  poor  people,  and  in  favor  of 
the  poor  landlords. 

Between  those  quacks  and  The  Constitutional  it  was  agreed,  OB 
the  one  hand,  that  the  new  paaer  would  do  nothing  to  add  to  the 
odium  in  which  the  "  Poor  Law  Amendment  Act  "—so  called— was 
held  by  the -people  of  England.  In  return,  the  influence  of  the 
*  Philosophical  "  was  to  be  directed  to  the  great  benefit  of  the 
new  enterprise.  This  fact  blasted  my  own  prospects,  first,  and, 
by  and  by,  it  blasted  also  the  prospects  of  The  Constitutional 

For  (now  1836  or  '7)  the  government  brought  forward  its  plan 
for  a  Poor  Law  in  Ireland—a  counterpart  to  that  already  fastened 
on  England  ;  the  same  in  its  prison  workhouses — locust  host  of 
officials  ;  imprisonment  and  starvation  of  the  poor.  The  subject 
relating  to  Ireland  fell  into  my  department.  I  prepared  an  ar- 
ticle pointining  out  the  evils  of  the  proposed  law — every  clause 
of  it  a  distinct  evil.  I  proceeded  to  set  forth  the  millions 
of  acres  of  idlo  and  easily  reclaitnable  land  that  abounded 
in  Ireland,  and  presented  the  gaunt  owners  of  a  million  of 
idle  bands  vainly  asking  for  something  to  do.  The  remedy 
was  simply  to  set  the  idle  hands  to  work  upon  the  idle  land 
One  or  two  arces,  and  help  to  build  a  cottage  would  fix  any 
poor  family  in  profitable  employment  for  half  of  its  time,  leaving 
the  other  half  to  work  for  hire.  I  urged  that  this  would  bo  a 
complete  remedy — the  machinery  alike  simple  and  inexpensive. 
That  article,  though  it  never  saw  the  light,  brought  upon  me 
great  personal  adversity. 

The  editorial  "  We  "  was,  on  The  Constitutional  at  least,  no 
misnomer.  The  editorial  corps  was  four  or  five  in  number,  and 
the  contribution  of  each  was,  as  it  ought  to  be,  submitted  to 
the  judgment  of  all.  All  were  Radical  Reformers  and  true  mei\ 
and  no  difference  in  judgment  or  action  had  arisen  till  now.  Now 
that  my  article  "  leveled  a  deadly  thrust  at  the  English  Poor 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS. 

Law  through  the  side  of  that  proposed  for  Ireland."  "  We  will 
not  defend  the  new  law,  neither  can  we  attack  it." 

These  were  the  words  of  Laman  Blanchard,  editor-in-chief,  aa 
he  urged  me  to  expunge  four  lines  from  my  manuscript. 

I  refused.  "  Those  lines,"  I  said,  "  are  the  soul ;  without  them 
the  article  would  be  a  '  dead  carcase/  I  left  my  home,"  I  con- 
tinued, "  not  simply  to  earn  a  living,  but  to  diffuse  truth  as  I 
saw  it."  And  I  urged  that  this  understanding  with  the  Koebuck 
fraternity  would  lead  to  a  great  misunderstanding  with  the 
Radical  Reformers  of  England,  and  the  people^at  large.  Impair 
the  usefulness  and  peril  the  existence  of  the  paper.  Poor, 
good  Blanchard  !  He  tried  to  persuade  me  that  the  article  was 
very  much  to  the  purpose  by  merely  showing  my  views  of  what 
was  needed,  that  my  reflections  on  the  proposed  law  could  be 
omitted  without  detriment  to  those  views.  But  my  keen,  yet  I 
will  confess  mistaken,  sense  of  honor  would  not  assent  to  his 
condition.  I  threw  down  my  pen,  walked  out  of  the  office,  and 
carried  that  dark  night  a  darker  gloom  into  my  little  household. 
It  was,  indeed,  a  contrast.  That  very  day  I  had  been  with  my 
wife  along  the  Serpentine  river— then  quite  rural— searching  for 
a  desirable  cottage  near  its  banks.  My  income  from  the  paper 
was  more  than  sufficient  for  my  wants ;  it  was  earned  by  the  per- 
formance of  work  that  was  to  me  a  positive  enjoyment,  and  I 
looked  joyfully  forward  to  a  long  and  perhaps  a  bright  career  of 
usefulness.  How  was  all  this  hope  darkened  in  that  dark  night ! 
Looking  back  at  it  through  the  long  memory,  it  seems  an  in- 
credible, but  a  very  painful  dream. 

For  months  I  did  nothing  save  instruct  myself  in  language, 
and  the  art  of  a  reporter.  I  was  coming  gradually  to  the  last  of 
my  slender  resources.  My  memories  of  London  during  this 
time  would  fill  a  volume,  and  not  without  instruction,  but  it 
would  not  be  to  my  purpose  to  write  all  those  memories  here. 

From  the  eventful  night  in  which  I  left  the  office  of  the  Con- 
Mtitutional,  I  did  not  enter  it  during  the  time  above  indicated. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  I  called  in  the  publishing  office.  Mr. 
Dyer,  who  was  in  charge  of  that  department,  received  me  with 
a  good  will  that  stands  bright  in  my  memory.  Beyond  a  nod  of 
recognition  as  I  passed  through  his  office  to  the  editorial  rooms 
up  stairs,  we  had  known  nothing  of  each  other.  I  might  well  be 
surprised  then,  when  he  invited  me  into  the  back  parlorf  and 


.142      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY J 

(having  learned  that  I  had  been  so  long  without  employment) 
threw  his  purse  of  sovereigns  on  the  table,  and  invited  rne  to 
borrow  from  him  what  I  might  require  for  the  present.  I  suc- 
ceeded in  assuring  him  that  I  had  not  yet  come  to  my  last 
guinea.  He  was,  I  found,  familiar  with  the  circumstances  under 
which  I  left  the  office,  and  was  pleased  to  say  good  things  to  me 
which  I  did  not  at  all  expect  to  hear.  "  Mr.  Blanchard,"  he  said 
"  has  often  expressed  regret  that  he  could  not  find  you  out,'" 
and  on  his  suggestion,  I  appointed  to  call  on  that  gentleman  on 
the  following  evening.  "  You  were  right,"  said  he,  as  he  took  me 
by  the  hand.  "  Our  tacit  assent  to  the  new  Poor  Law  has  done 
its  work.  We  expire  in  four  weeks  from  this  time.  Come,  how- 
ever, and  earn  a  guinea  with  us  so  long  as  we  remain  in  exist- 
ence." "But  you  know  my  opinions,"  I  replied,  "  and  they  ere 
not  altered."  "Do  as  you  think  right,"  he  said,  "  it  is  all  the 
same  now."  And  at  the  end  of  the  four  weeks  The  Constitutional 
ceased  to  exist. 

And  now  I  have  to  look  back  at  a  dreary  effort  to  learn  report- 
ing, to  practise  the  phonetic  alphabet,  invent  short  signs  to  indi- 
cate long  words  and  phrases,  and  to  improve  my  knowledge  of 
language.  I  tried  penny-a-lining,  gave  tolerably  good  sketches 
of  casual  incidents  and  public  meetings.  Multiplied  and 
dropped  them  into  all  the  journal  letter  boxes.  To  see  next 
morning  vapid  accounts  of  the  same  things  published  in  them 
all,  and  mine  neglected.  I  did  not  know  even  that  the  editors 
were  not  likely  to  insert  anything  I  would  send,  not  knowing 
whether  it  was,  or  was  not,  authentic.  And  thus  I  floundered 
on,  not  at  all  aware  that  I  was  ploughing  the  sand  that  hardly 
ever  could,  under  the  circumstances,  yield  me  any  return. 

One  day  I  was  in  St.  James'  Park.  William  IV.  was  yet  above 
ground,  and  a  file  of  mounted  life  guards  were  drawn  up  in 
front  of  the  palace.  This  indicated  the  coming  out  of  the  king, 
and  so  not  much  of  a  crowd  gathered  to  see  how  royalty  looked 
in  its  old  days.  On  its  appearance  a  tall  young  fellow  threw  up 
his  hat  and  raised  a  solitary  cheer.  Not  entirely  solitary,  for  it 
was  greeted  with  a  derisive  laugh  all  round  the  crowd.  I  trans- 
mitted a  sketch  of  the  picture  to  the  Weekly  Dispatch,  headed 
"  Royalty  on  the  Wane,"  and  had  not  the  perception  to  go  for  the 
pay  I  was  entitled  to  on  its  publication.  The  Dispatch  was  a 
professed  Republican  paper,  and  it  ie  likely  mv  extreme  activity, 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DATS,  143 

and  my  extreme  views,  and  my  extreme  need,  would  have  got 
me  a  place  on  it  if  I  had  tried.  Bat  I  did  not  try  for  it.  I  was, 
indeed,  very  simple  and  very  helpless. 

With  the  little  money  I  had  remaining  I  bought  wares  and 
sent  them  for  sale  to  my  brother  in  Donegal.  And  never  was 
missive  more  looked  for  than  the  return  of  his  slender  remit- 
tance. But  the  capital  was  small,  and  the  profits  small,  and  as 
we  had  to  live,  every  consignment,  and  remittance  back,  grew 
smaller  and  smaller,  and  finally  disappeared. 

There  were  four  of  us.  What  had  we  to  pawn?  Almost 
nothing. 

My  Irish  notes  entrusted  to  Mr.  Crawford  had  been  returned 
in  English  money  and  was  all  gone.  I  had  written  telling  him 
that  I  had  left  The  Constitutional,  and  why  I  left  it.  He  did  not 
answer  my  letter,  but  I  did  not  write  again  to  him,  which  I  now 
think  was  strange,  as  I  concluded  that  he  surely  had  not  recieved 
that  which  I  had  written.  I  thought  of  him,  however,  and  hav- 
ing in  my  posession  some  of  his  corresspondence  with  me,  I  took 
it  to  Scotland  Yard,  to  Col.  Rowan,  the  Police  Commissioner,  and 
a  relative,  I  believe,  of  Mr.  Crawford.  He  ordered  my  name  on 
the  lists,  and  myself  to  the  Medical  Examiner.  If  the  examiner 
had  rejected  me,  what  then  ?  Aye,  what  then  ?  It  is  an  easy 
matter  for  political  economists  to  write  and  talk.  They  never 
sank  to  know  what  then  fell  upon  me. 

But  he  did  not  reject  me,  and  day  after  day,  I  don't  know  for 
how  many  days,  I  journeyed  to  Scotland  Yard,  living,  all  of  us 
living,  the  meanwhile  half  on  hope,  half  on  allowance.  At  length 
a  vacancy,  81  of  the  N  division,  stationed  at  Hackney.  There  I 
reported,  and  I  earned  my  first  day's  pay  by  stretching  all  night 
under  the  Inspector's  eye  on  a  wooden  bench  in  the  station 
house.  Next  morning  I  don  the  costume,  and  return  home  to 
effect  a  transit  to  my  new  field  of  work  or  glory.  But  there  was 
sickness  before  me.  A  premature  existence  had  escaped  from  a 
trial  of  the  world,  I  had  outstaid  my  time,  and  when  I  returned 
to  duty  the  local  authority  bundled  up  my  toggery,  and  sent 
myself  and  it  before  the  Commissioner.  It  must  have  been  that 
he  took  unusual  interest  in  me  as  the  correspondent  of  Mr. 
Crawford.  He  spoke  very  kindly  to  me,  and  as  he  did  so  the 
bitterness  of  my  spirit  came  welling  to  my  eyes.  He  spoke  en- 
couragingly too.  In  short,  his  good,  kindly  nature  showed  itself 


144  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

in  such  a  way  as  brings,  at  this  far  off  time,  an  emotion  of  regret 
and  gratitude  to  my  heart.  He  restored  me  to  life,  for  I  had  no 
other  means  of  existence,  ssnt  me  back  on  the  local  command- 
ers. Quite  an  unusual  thing,  I  understood,  and  half  conveying 
a  rebuke  to  them.  The  pay  was  20  weekly  shillings,  of  which 
four  went  for  rent  of  rooms  ;  luckily  the  new  regulation  of  only 
12s.  for  recruits  was  not  yet  established.  It  was  one  other  narrow 
escape.  Luckily,  too,  it  was  summer,  and  my  duty  night  patrol- 
ing  in  a  neighborhood  almost  rural. 

But  night  waking  and  watching  is  a  war  against  Nature.  I 
supposed  that  this  was  my  fate,  my  life,  and  I  set  to  with  my 
usual  shallow  simplicity  to  earn  promotion  by  my  active  vigil- 
ance. I  don't  know,  the  length  of  the  beat  assigned  to  me,  but 
it  just  took  three- quarters  of  an  hour  to  go  round  it.  Every 
sinuosity  of  lane,  stable,  or  out-house  had  to  be  inspected  in 
every  that  length  of  time.  Always  just  at  twelve  o'clock,  as  if 
the  sun  were  shooting  sleep  through  the  earth,  as  in  the  zenith 
he  flings  waking  down  upon  it,  I  could  net  keep  my  eyes  open. 
But  standing  was  not  permitted,  so  I  had  to  walk  on,  though  dis- 
tinctly asleep  for  some  time,  and  over  some  space  that  I  cannot 
now  fix  exactly.  But  as  soon  as  the  "  wierd  hour  "  was  passed 
I  emerged  into  full  life  and  wakefulness.  Whether  this  was  a 
peculiarity  of  my  own  organization,  or  whether  it  is  a  general 
law  might  be  worth  inquiry.  I  was  not  long  in  service  till  I 
made  an  enemy  of  Sergeant  Jones,  the  petty  officer  in  immediate 
command  over  me.  It  was  in  this  way.  Two  men  in  the  small 
hours  emerged  over  a  yard  or  garden  fence  out  into  the  street. 
Of  course  it  was  my  duty  to  confront  them,  I  was  paid  for  it;  be- 
sides in  that  way  lay  promotion.  Sergeant  Jones  happened  to 
come  up  on  his  rounds,  and  I  demanded  that  he  should  assist  me. 
No !  those  men,  he  knew  them,  and  he  ordered  me  to  let  them  go. 
I  refused,  and  someway  we  all  got  up  to  the  station.  My  cap- 
tives once  there  I  returned  to  my  beat,  and  heard  no  more  of 
them.  Lucky  for  me,  for  instead  of  sleep,  I  would  have  had  to 
attend  court  in  the  morning.  I  speak  of  this  because  it  is  a  se- 
rious drawback  on  the  policeman's  immunities.  This  same  Ser- 
geant Jones  was,  shortly  after,  transported  for  life,  for  robbing 
and  attempting  to  murder  his  landlord  by  repeated  blows  on  the 
head  with  a  hammer.  He  had  entered  the  landlord's  office  on  the 
pretence  of  paying  him  rent.  No  doubt  this  bad  man  was  *n 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  i45 

league  with  my  garden  prisoners.  I  had  just  one  other  charac- 
teristic incident  whilst  on  this  really  well  ordered  force. 

On  line  of  my  beat  were  some  pretentious  houses,  inhabited 
either  by  the  upper  middle  class  or  the  lower  upper  class  I  could 
not  determine  which.  It  had  rounded  "  the  short  hour,"  when 
screams  of  "  murder,  murder !"  and  a  sash  thrown  up  made  a  pull 
on  my  heart,  and  a  pull  out  of  my  locust  to  interfere.  The  voice 
and  person  were  those  of  a  lady,  a  fact  confirmed  by  the  style 
of  the  house.  •'  What's  the  matter?"  from  myself,  "Keep  the 

peace,  and  keep  quiet,  or  I'll  be  in  to  take  a  hand."  Go  to  h , 

you  Irish ,  or  I'll  be  out  with  you  to  take  a  hand."  This 

from  a  powerful  looking  gentlemanlike  man  just  behind  the  lady 
on  whom  it  was  clear  he  had  not  expended  all  his  wrath. 

"  I  want  you  to  come  out,  I  want  you  to  the  station  house, " 
was  my  invitation. 

"Stop  a  moment,  1*11  station  you,"  and  vanishing  from  the 
window  with  heavy  tramp  he  rapidly  descended  the  stairs,  and 
flung  open  the  front  door,  to  do,  I  did  not  know  exactly  what  to 
myself.  And  I  never  learned.  Promptitude,  a  thought  of  the 
old  knights,  was  always  my  friend  in  such  cases,  and  it  was  so 
now.  I  was  already  with  my  back  leaned  upright  against  the 
wall  at  the  side  of  the  door  entrance.  He  opened,  and  before  he 
got  clear  out  I  swung  in  on  him  with  all  my  collected  force,  and 
threw  him  heavily  down  on  his  back  on  the  hall  floor,  my  club 
out  and  I  on  the  top  of  him.  The  shock  to  him  gave  me  great 
advantage.  His  writhing,  pitching,  and  cursing  were  very  vig- 
orous, and  did  not  abate  in  the  least  when  I  swung  the  club  and 
threatened  to  disable  him.  Faithful  woman!  The  outraged 
wife  came  rushing  down  stairs,  and  begged  my  forbearance,  as 
only  a  woman  can  beg.  "  But  this  ruffian,"  I  called  him  ruffian, 
though  the  tout  ensemble  called  him  a  gentleman,  "  this  ruffian 
will  murder  you  if  I  let  him  up,  therefore  it  is  far  better  he 
should  be  safe  this  night  in  the  station  house."  "No!  no  !  he 
.  won't,  he's  so  good,  only  a  little  wild  to  night.  Say  you  won't 
Robert  dear,  and  come  up  stairs  with  me.  I  hope,  I  hope  this 
good  polceman  won't  take  you  away ! "  I  certainly  was  soft- 
ened by  her  distress,  and  he,  too,  must  have  softened,  if  not  by 
it,  by  the  fall.  So  he  grunted  a  kind  word  to  her,  and  a  vow 
that  he  would  have  me  extravasated  by  my  superiors  for  draw- 
ing my  club  on  him.  And,  indeed,  to  use  the  club,  except  in  the 


lit  THE    OL>1»    HOOK    OF    THK    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

most  extreme  necessity,  brings,  and  very  properly,  instant  dis- 
missal from  the  London  force. 

That  w:is  my  second  adventure.  My  third  I  would  not  relate 
only  to  honestly  confess  how  far  this  life  was  sinking  me.  Our 
Superintendent,  Molliheu,  rode  slowly  past  me  one  day.  There 
was  still  a  stalk  of  what  Burns  calls  "  carle  hemp  "  in  my  nature, 
arid  I  did  not  touch  my  hat  with  the  expected  salute.  He  passed 
on  but  immediately  wheeled  and  cama  up  with  me.  "  Why  did 
you  pass  without  the  usual  salute  ?  "  I  felt  like  Percy  Shafton, 
when  he  had  not  "  determined  what  answer  he  might  think  it 
perfectly  convenient  to  make."  And  like,  Percy,  I  hesitated. 
"Oil  see,  you  didn't  know  me,  I  am  your  Superintendent."  I 
nodded  an  insincere  and  cowardly  assent.  I  knew  him  well 
enough.  But  in  our  volume  of  "  Instructions  "  (a  very  useful 
manual)  this  saluting  duty  had  no  place,  and  I  should  have 
manfully  told  him  so.  Those  things  teach  me  to  soften  my 
judgment  of  a  man  whom  I  may  find  acting  meanly  and  falsely. 
Two  or  three  times  in  my  life  I  did  both. 

But  I  now  had  been  three  months  in  the  service,  and  I  thought 
it  was  time  to  look  for  that  promotion  which  I  had  been  trying 
to  earn,  trying  by  petty  and  mean  acts  of  which  I  am  now 
vainly  ashamed,  and  for  which  I  offer  the  penitence  of  this  con- 
fession. I  had  so  far  sank  my  manhood  as  to  open  and  search 
little  bundles  belonging  to  people  ;  because  the  regulations  I 
think,  I  am  not  sure,  ordered  it  to  be  done.  I  had  left  home 
with  aspirations  and  a  purpose  as  noble  as  ever  inspired  a  man, 
and  just  see  what  necessity  and  circumstances  had  drive  me  to. 
A  very  little  encouragement,  and  I  would  have  been  an  ignoble 
thief-catcher  for  life. 

And  so  I  wrote  to  Colonel  Kowan,  intimating  my  wish,  and  re- 
counting my  merits.  In  reply  my  Inspector  ordered  me  to  don 
my  private  clothes,  and  go  before  the  Commissioner. 

As  I  departed  I  could  not  forecast  the  upshot,  but  the  know- 
ing ones  said  "there  goes  the  last  of  him."  I  was  soon  before 
the  ColoneL 

"  This  is  your  writing." 

"Yes." 

"  Why  did  you  write  this  ?    Did  some  one  induce  you  to  do 

80?" 

"  No.    Whatever  is  there  is  my  own  thought." 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN  DAYS.  147 

"  This  is  unusual.  Take  your  things.  Eeturn  to  duty/'  That 
was  all.  I  had  no  other  earthly  way  to  live,  and  I  did  not  know 
the  risk  I  ran,  till  I  met  the  general  surprise  with  which  my  re- 
turn to  the  N  division  was  greeted.  Outre  I  believe  I  hav »  been 
tn  all  things.  It  is  not  likely  many  such  incidents  are  recorded 
in  the  annals  of  the  "  force." 

My  situation  now  became  intolerable.  A  crushing  failure  had 
fallen  on  my  life.  I  entered  London  with  the  determination  am  i 
the  hope  to  fix  attention  on  the  great  principle  which  alone  e:m 
give  stability  to  nations  and  happiness  to  the  human  family. 
And  now  it  had  come  to  this !  A  dull  mechanical  patrol  for  nine 
hours  every  night,  and  that  for  seven  nights  in  every  week. 
That  was  the  condition  of  life  now  offered  to  me.  My  system 
refused  the  condition.  The  deepening  gloom  of  my  mind  seized 
upon  my  digestion  and  threatened  to  close  up  the  account.  A 
thought  fell  heavily  upon  me — how  innocent  I  was,  how  unde- 
serving such  a  doom !  At  last  in  the  dead  of  night  I  had  to  re- 
port off  duty  sick.  Our  physician,  a  smart,  intelligent  young 
fellow  put  me  on  a  regimen,  "  light  pudding,  hard  crackers,  no 
meat."  I  quote  because  I  know  it  is  good  in  such  cases,  and  let. 
the  reader  bear  in  mind  that  I  will  lose  no  occasion  to  let  what 
may  be  useful  be  at  least  seen. 

But  regimen  was  of  no  avail.  My  system  distinctly  refused  to 
accept  the  condition  of  life  offered  to  it.  What  then? 

I  wrote  to  Mr.  Blanchard  what  was,  and  what  was  likely  to 
come  of  it.  My  descriptive  letter  ended  thus :  "  Every  night, 
seven  nights  in  every  week,  this  is  repeated.  Brooding  and  bit- 
ter thought  has  taken  hold  of  my  stomach,  and,  in  short,  I  am 
given  « notice  quit '  either  this  work,  or  this  existence." 

My  memory  does  not  hold,  I  suppose  I  never  did  know,  the 
means  by  which  Mr.  Blanchard  accomplished  my  rescue,  but  I 
found  myself  engaged  to  take  charge  of  the  Greenwich  Gazette.'' 

That  is  certainly  a  creditable  Institution,  the  Greenwich  Hos- 
pital. Legless,  armless,  and  generally  stranded  seamen  find 
very  tolerable  refuge  here.  It  also  gives  a  refuge  to  the 
canvas  likenesses  of  the  groat  naval  commanders,  and  in  a  glass 
case  the  moth-devoured  uniform  worn  by  Nelson  at  Trafalgar, 
the  hole,  and  even  the  earnest  little  French  bullet  that  went 
through  it.  The  Park  is  large  and  rural,  the  abode  of  a  good 
many  tame  deer,  and  of  the  Observatory  that  gives  longitudes  to 


148  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

the  world ;  also  of  certain  precipitous  declivities  that  give  rolling^ 
down  velocity  to  the  light-hearted  London  visitors  to  the  Green- 
wich fair.  Blackheath,  an  extensive  common  (unfenced  in  the 
time  I  speak  of,  and  I  suppose  so  still)  juts  up  to  the  interior 
end  of  the  Park,  and  thence  away  a  mile  or  more  into  the  coun- 
try. This  within  five  cents  of  London,  where  people  are  sunk 
down  deep  or  piled  up  sky  high  in  their  habitations.  Monarchy 
and  aristocracy !  What  a  precious  gift  you  are  to  this  happy 
world !  An  excellent  school  for  the  sailor  boys  is  attached  to  the 
Hospital,  of  which  Mr.  Hartnall,  proprietor  of  the  Gazette,  was 
Principal. 

At  the  late  election  the  Gazette  had  hoisted  the  colors  of 
the  Tory  candidate,  and  insisted  that  he  was  a  true  Whig.  The 
young  man  was,  I  believe,  a  nephew  of  Thomas  Atwood,  of  Bir- 
mingham, the  famous  Reformer.  He  was  elected,  and  the  in- 
dignation of  the  Whigs  threatened  to  extinguish  the  Gazette.  To 
avert  this,  Hartnall  bargained  with  a  model  charlatan,  who  signed 
himself  Christopher  Irving,  L.L.D.,  F.A.S.  Of  the  condition  of 
this  bargain  I  knew  notning,  but  Hartnall,  a  very  shrewd  fellow, 
Boon  found  that  the  "  F.  A.  S."  might  honestly  omit  the  F  and 
add  one  S  more  to  his  signature.  Of  this  dilemma  Mr.Bkmchard 
became  aware,  and  signaled  myself  to  leave  "  the  force  "  and  the 
pleasant  neighborhood  of  Hackney. 

My  first  article  in  The  Gazette  was  a  counterpart  of  that  which 
sundered  me  from  The  Constitutional  "We  agree  with  Mr^ 
Sharman  Crawford,"  so  ran  the  article  "  that  the  best  Poor  Law 
for  Ireland  would  be  an  absentee  tax,  or  some  law  that  would 
react  upon  the  landlords,  and  compel  them  to  remain  on  their 
estates,  and  do  their  whole  duty  to  their  tenantries,"  etc.  I  sent 
the  paper  to  Mr.  Crawford,  at  his  residence  near  Bangor,  county 
Down.  He  gave  a  quite  hearty  acknowledgment  of  its  receipt. 
I  had  expressed  in  it  doubts  that  he  had  not  pushed  his  land 
bill  in  Parliament  with  sufficient  energy.  To  which  he.  replied 
"  The  landlords  and  lawyers  ON  ALL  SIDES  of  the  House  were  op- 
posed to  me."  That  when  he  gave  "  notice  of  motion  for  a  certain 
night  in  the  future,"  always  on  that  night  the  government  had 
business  to  do,  before  which  all  other  business  must  give  way^ 
Then  lie  could  do  nothing,  but  give  "  notice  "  for  another  night. 
That  other  night  came  and  brought  the  same  interference  by  the 
government.  So  that  they  "  Obstructed  "  him  from  getting  his 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OB1    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  149 

bill  before  the  House  at  all.  He  then  explained  that  he  did  not 
answer  my  letter  (referred  to  page  167),  becase  he  "  did  hot  see 
what  he  could  do  "  to  aid  me.  This  struck  to  my  heart  with  re- 
gret and  indignation.  I  had,  in  my  trusting  simplicity, concluded 
undoubtingly  that  he  had  not  received  my  letter  at  all,  or  he 
would  have  replied  to  it.  That  illusion  was  now  dissipated.  I 
realized  that  Mr.  Crawford  was  an  aristocrat,  and  I  took  up  the 
thought  that  he  treated  me  with  neglect  because  his  position  and 
his  fourteen  thousand  a  year  entitled  him  to  do  so.  In  short,  I 
concluded  that  he,  too,  assumed  the  superiority  affected  by  his 
insolent  class  to  men  of  my  class.  This  I  never  could  tolerate, 
and  I  wrote  him  my  thought  that  "  to  public  virtue  and  public 
usefulness  I  would  yield  everything,  to  mere  wealth  or  station 
I  would  yield  nothing.  That  if  in  the  long  hereafter  we  ever  met 
or  ever  corresponded,  it  must  be  on  terms  of  perfect  equality."  I 
never  heard  from  Mr.  Crawford  again ;  never  met  him,  though  I 
made  quite  a  chatacteristic  step  in  that  direction  twenty  years 
thereafter,  as  we  shall  see. 

But  to  return.  Weeks  elapsed  before  I  knew  of  the  principal 
fact  that  led  to  my  engagement  on  Tlie  Gazette.  Rumors  floated 
around,  but  I  did  not  helieve  them.  Hartnall  was  a  clever,  lib- 
eral fellow.  I  liked  him.  He  gave  me  all  I  wanted  of  my  own 

way.    ^ut  yet, 

"  Fie  upon  but  yet, 
Bur  yet  Is  but  a  jailer,  to  brine:  forth 
Some  monstrous  malefactor." 

Let  us  see.  The  constituents  of  Mr.  Atwood  gave  him — or  he 
gave  them — a  public  dinner.  Those  public  dinners  are  good,  but 
the  "  after  dinners  "  are  better.  When  you  have  swallowed  all 
you  can  of  her  majesty's  health,  and  taken  another  gulp  of  the 
"royal  family,"  you  come  to  the  earnest  work  of  the  even- 
ing, the  "  guest,"  and  the  "  occasion,"  and  the  crowding  proofs 
that  Dolitics  are  not  always  a  dry  subject.  At  those  dinners 

"  A  man's  a'  man  for  a  that" 

if  he  is  duly  commissioned  with  pencil  and  note  book  to.  arrest 
the  passing  scenes,  fasten  them  on  paper  and  ink,  and  present 
them  next  morning  to  the  awaiting  public.  For  the  time  being 
you  are  the  Peer  of  the  lirst  Peer  in  the  land.  "Very  conde- 
scending of  the  Peers  "  you  will  say.  You  are  mistaken.  It  is 
not  condescension.  It  is  necessity.  The  poor  Peers  must  sub- 
mit to  it,  either  to  it  or  to  oblivion.  They  tried  to  side-table  it 


150  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUKY; 

once  or  twice  I  believe.  A  "  strike,"  a  closing  up  of  notebooks?; 
those  avenues  to  diurnal  fame,  and  next  morning  the  Hon.  rob- 
bers found  themselves  so  sunk  down  in  oblivion  that  nobody 
knew  where  they  had  disappeared  to. 

But  to  return  to  the  dinner,  or  rather  the  "  after  dinner."  To 
every  toast  a  speech  or  two,  with  an  interlayer  of  (by  profession- 
als) the  Briton's  national  songs,  such  as : — 

*'  Where'er  fte  goes,  where'er  he  steers, 

In  every  clirae  he  sees. 
The  fla<?  that  braved  a  thousand  yearsK 
The  battle  and  the  breeze." 

At  length  "The  press,  the  great  palladium,  etc.,"  calls  Mr, 
Hartnall  to  his  legs.  Having  done  a  good  deal  more  than  jus- 
tice to  the  sentiment,  he  came  to  a  private  grievance  of  his  own, 
It  had  "  been  rumored,  and  even  believed,  that  his  paper  had 
helped  their  Hon.  guest  to  his  Honorable  position  for  a  consider- 
ation—he might  as  well  name  it— of  £500.  This  was  untrue. 
There  was  not  a  word  of  truth  in  it.  He  respected  the  abilities^ 
he  honored  the  principles  of  their  Hon.  guest.  He  believed,  as 
the  gentlemen  around  him  believed,  he  would  represent  the  bor- 
ough ably,  worthily,  liberally,  etc.,"  and  concluded  by  a  shadowy 
Invitation  to  that  gentleman  to  confirm  the  truth  of  what  he 
said.  To  the  shadowy  invitation  Mr.  Atwood  responded  with 
"  the  Park,"  "  the  Hospital,"  "  the  general  intelligence  that  dis- 
tinguished the  electors."  In  short — 

"The  speech  was  a  fair  sample,  on  the  whole, 
Of  rhetoric  that  the  learned  call  rigmarole  " 

Everything  was  there  but  what  we  all  (especially  Mr.  Hart- 
nail)  expected  to  be  there,  but  not  a  word  about  the  £5COt 
Perhaps  I  was  wrong  in  drawing  the  natural  conclusion.  But 
I  did  draw  it.  The  Whig  electors  had  the  same  thought,  and 
determined  to  "  cut"  The  Gazette  utterly,  nnd  establish  -a  paper 
of  their  own.  I  very  ignorantly,  improperly,  and  ungratefully 
agreed  to  second  their  enterprise.  I  did  so,  because  at  the  time 
I  considered  that,  with  one  or  two  drawbacks  (most  villainous 
drawbacks  they  were)  the  Whigs  were  the  party  of  progress 
— that  to  deceive  them  was  to  commit  a  sin  against  Freedom 
Itself.  The  new  paper,  was  to  be  owned  by  the  "liberals"  of 
the  borough  and  its  neighborhood.  TliP  charlatan,  Irving, 
was  to  be  ostensible  editor  ;  I  to  be  reporter  apparent,  and  a» 


OB,    THE    SPIIIIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  151 

tual  editor— precisely  the  position  we  both  occupied  on  -JLTie  Ga- 
zette. The  paper  was  started  at  the  time  (1837)  the  Patriot 
Movement  in  Canada  arrested  general  attention.  That  move- 
ment was  exceedingly  popular  among  the  Democracy  of  Eng- 
land, and  enough  of  the  management  was  left  to  me  to  enable 
me  to  name  the  new  paper  The  Greenwich  Patriot.  This,  how- 
ever, was  amended  so  as  to  read,  Greenwich,  Woolwich,  and 
Deptford  Patriot,  Gravesend,  Chatham,  and  Rochester  Adver- 
tiser, and  West  Kent  Reformer.  I  remonstrated  against  this. 
In  vain,  the  "  enlightened  electors  "  would  have  it  so,  and  the 
paper  was  remorselessly  buried  under  its  pyramid  of  names. 

But  it  was  of  little,  importance  to  the  world  or  to  me  what 
name  the  new  enterprise  should  be  known  by.  The  getters-up 
of  the  paper  were  mere  Whigs— ductile  instruments  of  the  ex- 
isting government.  It  was  not  strange,  therefore,  that  my  de- 
termination to  advocate  the  cause  of  the  Canadian  Patriots 
should  lead  to  my  disconnexion  with  the  paper.  The  excite- 
ment throughout  the  Isles  on  the  subject  was  intense.  The 
British  Government  had  given  Canada  a  Constitution.  The  Col- 
onial Assemblies  were  clothed  with  the  power  to  grant  or  with- 
hold the  supplies ;  and  the  moment  the  Home  Government  vio- 
lated that  Constitution,  and  broke  into  the  Candian  Treasury, 
that  moment  the  indignation  of  the  British  Democracy  was  lev- 
eled at  the  ministry  with  an  earnestness  that  could  not  be  sur- 


I  partook  of  this  general  feeling,  and  very  gravely  proved,  in 
the  columns  of  The  Patriot,  the  crimes  of  robbery,  bloodshed, 
incendiarism,  and  all  the  horrors  of  civil  strife  against  the  Gov- 
ernment. No  trifling  thing  to  accomplish  in  the  columns  of  a 
paper  got  up  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  the  ministry  in  all 
things — got  up  by  its  obedient  Jacques,  who  expected  as 
the  reward  of  their  zeal  certain  little  emoluments  lying 
around  Greenwich  Hospital,  Woolwich  Arsenal,  and  Chatham 
Dock  Yard.  That  my  connexion  with  the  paper  could  not  be 
permanent  can  now  be  easily  perceived.  My  breach  with  it  was 
hastened  by' one  or  two  other  matters.  This  was  one  of  them  : 
The  Prince-s  Sophia  was  a  sister  of  George  III.,  and  then  well 
advanced  in  life.  Her  residence  was  on  Blackhcath,  and  she 
attended  divine  service  at  the  principal  church  in  Greenwich, 
always  with  a  large  cortege  of  servants. 


152  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTTJKT  ; 

One  fine  summer  holiday,  the  sun  reigning  high  in  the  heav- 
ens, the  cortege  arranged  itself  in  two  files,  each  file  bearing  a 
line  of  lighted  lamps,  and  through  those  lamps  the  princess 
moved  up  the  avenue  to  the  church.  To  me  the  scene  was  BO 
remarkable,  and  so  foolish  withal,  that  I  publish  o1 1  -lescription 
of  it  in  the  next  number  of  The  Patriot  I  quot  -peare  : 

"  To  gild  refined  gold,  or  paint  the  lilly ; 
To  add  a  perfume  to  the  violet. 

Or  with  taper  light 

To  seek  the  beauteous  eye  of  heaven  to  garnish. 
Is  wasteful  and  ridiculous  excess." 

And,  to  crown  all,  in  describing  the  person  of  her  Royal  High- 
ness, I  spoke  of  the  '*  simplicity,  or  rather  gullibility,  of  counte- 
nance so  characteristic  of  her  family."  I  woke  on  Saturday 
morning  with  such  a  tempest  about  my  ears !  The  princess  wan 
really  a  good  kind  of  woman,  and  the  expenditure  of  her  income 
did  much  good  to  the  borough.  She  was  popular  therefore. 
That  fact  was  handsomely  recorded  in  our  next  paper,  and  my 
peace  was  made.  But  not  for  aye. 

The  English  Reformers  were  already  deeply  and  justly  in- 
censed against  the  Whigs  and  the  starvation  Poor  Law.  The 
coercion  and  war  in  Canada  fanned  the  flame.  I  partook  of  this 
Indignant  feeling,  and  behold  me  charging  on  the  government 
with  a  weapon  created  and  sustained  by  its  own  party  followers. 

But  things  could  not  go  on  in  this  way  forever.  Though 
not  a  sign  appeared  in  the  sky,  yet  the  storm  was 
brewing.  It  came  about  in  this  way :  I  was  beginning 
to  discover  that  Irving  was  not  only  a  dunce,  cheating  the 
committee  who  subscribed  The  Patriot  into  life,  and  contin- 
ued to  sustain  it,  but  also  a  swindler  who  played  into  the 
hands  of  an  assumed  cousin,  who  called  himself  Major 
Campbell,  and  boarded  at  "  The  Mitre,"  one  of  the  best  hotels. 
If  any  thing  shaky  came  on  Irving,  he  referred  to  Major 
Campbell.  In  return  he  held  the  bogus  Major  on  his  feefc 
when  a  shake  came  upon  him.  I  have  ever  been  too  slow 
to  suspect,  and  was  not  certain  of  this.  But  I  was  certain 
that  it  was  injurious  to  the  paper  to  have  two  columns  every 
week  blotted  over  with  the  proceedings  of  the  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety, the  F.A.S.,  of  which  Irving  had  hung  on  to  his  name.  That 
and  another  fact. 


OJJ,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  153 

As  soon  as    the    paper    came   from   the    press    on   Satur- 
day morning,   Irving  would   make    up   a    parcel,   of    a    hun- 
dred or  two  copies,  mount  the  mail  coach  and   off    to   Chat- 
ham,  Kochester,    and    Gravesend,    spending    on    the    trip   as 
much    money    as    the  whole  papers  thus  transported  would 
amount  to.    I  remonstrated  with  him.    In  vain.    I  saw  that 
the  paper  was  doomed,  and  with  it,  of  course,  my  own  pros- 
pects, if   this  should    go    on.    So  I  gave  him  to  understand 
that  I  would  not  consent  to  this  management.    That  if  he  would 
not  alter  his  course  I  would  let  the  committee  know  the  whole 
state  of  affairs.    But  through  a  long  life  Irving  had  doubtless 
been  driven  into  worse  corners  than  this,  and  knew  well  how  to 
get  out  of  them.    So  what  was  my  surprise  when  I  was  sum- 
moned before  the  committee,  as  an  assuming  rebellious  amanu- 
ensis, who  had  set  up  my  claim  to  be  the  author  of  what  I  had 
merely  written  out  at  the  dictation  of  my  superior,  Dr.  Irving, 
the  editor-in-chief.    There  was  a  trial  before  the  committee.    A 
Welsh  attorney,  named  James,  a  slow-thinking  merchant  or  two, 
and  an  ex-butler  who  had  married  a  property,  and  lived  in  the 
Cresent    Did  they  think  it  likely  the  Dr.,  with  his  LL.D.,  F.A.S., 
and  his  standing,  and  all  his  experience  as  an  editor,  would  fabri- 
cate such  a  charge  against  his  assistant?  No.  They  wisely  decid- 
ed that  I  should  receive  the  punishment  of  dismissal,  and  as  a 
further  punishment  the  confiscation  of,  I  believe  it  was  thirty 
shillings,  my  week's  salary.    It  was  snowing  in  my  face  when  I 
returned  home  with  the  intelligence.    In  a  strict  sense  I  de- 
served this  misfortune,  but  not  in  a  moral  sense.    I  had,  with 
what  very  much  resembled  baseness  and  ingratitude,  quit  the 
service  which  that  good  and  friendly  heart,  Mr.  Blanchard,  had 
procured  me.  What  would  he,  what  could  he,  think  cf  me  ?  Hart- 
nail,  too,  had  been  friendly,  and  of  great  service  to  me  in  mas- 
tering my  profession — what  would  he  say  or  think  ?    And  yet  I 
was  not  conscious  of  the  wrong  I  had  done,  and  it  was,  in  truth* 
an  ungrateful  wrong.    On  the  contrary,  I  believed  I  had  per- 
formed a  pulic  duty.    I  had  assisted  in  wresting  power  from  the 
man  who  had  sold  that  power  to  the  Tories,  whom  I  regarded, 
and  not  untruly,  as  the  enemies  of  man  and  progress.    Sold  it 
against  the  Whigs,  whom  I  regarded,  and  very  iftttruly,  as  the 
arrayed  and  resolved  champions  of  both.    Indeed  so  absorbed 
was  I  with  the  proud  and  useful  public  duty  I  was  called  upon 

20 


154  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

to  perform  that,  so  far  as  I  remember,  a  single  thought  of  Mr. 
Blanchard  did  not  occur  to  me  when  I  made  the  change.  Even 
if  it 'had,  such  was  my  stupid  enthusiasm,  that  I  would  not  have 
considered  it  so  as  to  influence  my  determination  in  performing 
what  1  thought  a  great  public  duty.  Which,  indeed,  was  not 
a  public  duty  at  all — I  might  even  call  it  a  public  fraud. 

Being  now  very  nearly  aground  I  advertised  in  The  Sun.  It 
was  then  owned  by  Murdo  Young,  a  good,  homety,  considerate 
Scotchman.  He  absolutely  refused  to  take  money  for  inserting 
my  advertisement.  I  thought  this  strange.  I  did  not  know  all 
the  honorable  esprit  de  corps  that  exists  in  the  brotherhood  of 
jpurnalisrn  in  London.  I  overcame  his  generosity,  however, 
but  only  so  far  as  to  pay  in  four  and  sixpence,  which  was  the 
then  advertisement  duty  for  three  insertions. 

Sir  Thomas  Dumbledon,  of  Leicester  or  Worcester,  replied  to 
my  advertisement.  He  had  been  defeated  at  the  late  election  for 
his  county.  A  weekly  paper  had  been  started  in  consequence, 
but  the  editor,  he  wrote,  "  would  not  forbear  from  attacking  the 
Church  of  England."  It  is  seen  that  I  parted  with  The  Constitu- 
tional rather  than  forbear  my  attack  on  the  new  Poor  Law.  But 
I  had  suffered  a  great  deal  in  consequence.  And  here  I  would 
just  say  if  you  want  to  keep  a  man  honest  and  honorable,  give 
him  something,  ever  so  little,  to  eat  and  drink.  I  wrote  to  Sir 
Thomas,  saying  I  was  willing  to  let  the  Church  sleep  on  in  her 
hoariness,  and  in  compliance  with  his  request  sent  him  an  ar- 
ticle on — what  ?  A  slashing  article  against  the  very  Whig  gov- 
ernment of  which  he  aspired  to  make  one,  and  on  that  self-same 
sore  subject,  the  coercion  of  Canada.  Of  course  the  committee 
protected  their  columns  from  such  political  desecration,  but 
wrote  me  to  meet  their  chairman  at  the  Reform  Club,  day  and 
hour  mentioned.  It  was  Sir  Thomas  himself,  in  person  and  de- 
meanor a  model  English  gentleman.  A  shrewd  man,  too.  In  a 
few  minutes'  conversation  on  public  matters  he  discovered  me — 
knew  I  would  be  far  more  intractable  than  even  the  man  they 
were  compelled  to  get  rid  of.  He  expressed  his  regret,  put  a 
five  pound  note  in  my  hand  for  my  unused  MS.,  and  so  that  an- 
chor parted. 

Two  or  three  other  responses  came  to  me,  one  providentially 
from  Robert  Blakey,  of  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  asking  to  send 
one  or  two  copies  of  tb^  pnjv-r  T  had  hceu  conducting.  I  did  so. 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DA*».  155 

His  decision  came  promptly.  "  Come  on,  our  terms  are  two  sov- 
ereigns a  week,  with  twenty  more  at  the  end  of  the  year  if  your 
work  pleases  us.  You  may  be  the  better  of  traveling  expen- 
ses," and  he  enveloped  a  ten  pound  notej  saying  "  this  don't 
count."  Here,  then,  were  Blanchard,  Dyer,  Dumbledon,  and 
Blakey,  Englishmen,  and  Murdo  Young,  a  Scotchman,  who  all 
acted  most  honorably  by  me. 

This  turn  in  my  fortunes  removed  me  entirely  and  finally  from 
London.  But  before  my  narrative  quits  the  modern  Babylon,  lefc 
me  indulge  in  a  few  reflections  on  the  nature  and  extent  of  such 
a  great  "social  wen."  To  the  rampant  land  thieves,  who  by 
their  accursed  system  of  Rents,  glean  in  the  whole  cream  of  the 
land,  London  is  "the  world," — at  least  till  they  get  to  those 
more  intense  "worlds"— Paris  or  Naples.  The  Theatres,  Ope- 
ras, Public  Gardens,  Coliseum,  etc.,  do  not,  I  believe,  form  much 
attraction  for  the  "Nobility."  Their  Clubs.  Gaming  Hells,  in- 
trigues, charioteering,  "  Parliamentin,"  as  Burns  calls  it,  etc.,  fill 
up  most  of  their  nights  ;  days  they  have  little  or  none— they  are 
all  dozed  away  in  bed.  The  immense  population  of  between  two 
and  three  millions,  is  supported  by  the  unclean  drippings  from 
those  fortunes,  which  in  their  collection  beggar  and  starve  the 
whole  face  of  the  country  where  those  fortunes  are  produced. 
My  Lord  has  his  gaming-house,  his  mistresses,  his  extravagance 
of  every  kind.  So  has  my  lord's  valet,  and  groom,  and  footman, 
on  an  humbler  scale.  Dens  of  vice  and  idleness  are  multiplied. 
Those  dens  require  servants  to  keep  them  in  order,  workmen 
to  keep  them  in  repair,  policemen  to  prevent  them  from  killing 
each  other.  All  these  require  tens  of  thousands  of  stores  to 
supply  them,  ships,  wagons,  railways  to  bring  in  stuffs  for  them 
to  eat  and  wear  ;  but  the  whole  is  brought  and  kept  together 
•mainly  by  the  Land  Rents,  and  such  portion  of  the  government 
plunder  as  is  consumed  in  the  Metropolis. 

London,  to  the  squandering  classes,  furnishes  great  facilities 
towards  achieving  the  end  of  their  existence  in  aa  easy  and  ef- 
fectual way.  But  to  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  nay  millions, 
who  are  thrown  into  the  deep  and  filthy  mud,  to  scramble  for  a 
mouthful  of  the  polluted  life-supply  that  London  offers,  it  is  a 
Lazeretto,  a  prison,  a  hell  !  Want,  sorrow,  disea.se,  utter  lost- 
ness  and  degradation,  cannot  assume  anywhere  else  one  half  of 
the  substantial  terrors  which  they  put  on  in  a  place  like  Lon- 


1  *  '      THE  ODD  BOOK  OP  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

<ion.  The  struggling  wretch,  who  labors  for  six  or  seven  shil- 
lings a  week  ;  thoy  who  beg,  pilfer — wait,  perhaps  days,  foi  the 
chance  of  earning  a  shilling  by  some  fortuitous  job — those,  in 
short,  who  can't  get  half  enough  to  eat,  and  hardly  anything  to 
wear,  those  cannot  even  regale  themselves  with  a  mouthful  of 
fresh  air  and  freedom.  To  reach  the  open  country  is  out  of  the 
question.  From  the  parts  of  the  city  swarmed  by  them,  it  is 
Impossible  for  them  to  get  out  to  the  bona-fide  green  fields,  un- 
iess  they  can  either  spare  money,  which  they  have  not,  or  under- 
take to  walk  such  a  great  distance  out  and  back  to  their  dens 
as  would  incapacitate  them  from  doing  any  other  labor  on  the 
same  day.  The  Parks,  to  be  sure,  are  beautiful,  and  very  exten- 
sive ;  but  even  these,  surrounded  on  every  side  by  lofty  and  in- 
penetrable  rows  of  houses,  very  soon  assume  to  the  prisoner  of 
the  city  a  hue  or  coloring  like  the  rest  of  the  jail. 

The  crush  and  struggle  for  life,  even  among  the  trading 
classes,  is  distressing.  The  golden  links  of  the  aristocracy 
dangling  above  them ;  to  these  their  aim  is  ever  directed,  to 
get  a  hold  by  some  dexterous  sleight,  and  get  up  ;  but  below 
the  dead  sea  of  pauperism,  with  all  its  hideousness,  filth,  and 
tottomlessness,  yawns,  whilst  not  a  moment  passes  over  but 
the  bankrupt  is  falling  down  plash  into  the  abyss  below— 
His  wife,  his  sons,  his  daughters,  along  with  him.  Oh,  here  is  a 
harvest  for  the  tempter.  Out  of  that  abyss  they  are  glad  to  get, 
even  for  a  brief  season,  and  even  upon  the  noisome  and  foul 
banks  of  depravity  and  ruin. 

I  set  out,  by  water,  for  Hull,  a  large  town,  on  the  river  Hum- 
ber,  the  outlet  of  Yorkshire  into  the  German  ocean. 

I  am  thus  particular,  because  I  came  within  an  ace  of  being 
drowned  in  the  Thames  in  the  attempt  to  get  on  board  of  the 
Hull  steamer.  It  was  a  frosty  morning  in  January,  and  the  river 
was  a  good  deal  encumbered  with  drift  ice.  I  employed  a  water- 
man to  row  me  out  into  the  stream,  to  await  the  coming  of  the 
steamer,  then  looming  into  view,  with  her  tall  checqucred  red  and 
white  chimneys.  When  she  reached  where  we  lay,  she  came  to  a 
stop,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  me  on  board ;  but  unlike  the  boats 
that  ply  on  the  river  Thames,  she  had  not  a  ladder  hanging 
over  her  lofty  side  for  the  convenience  of  passengers  getting  in. 
The  entire  inner  surface  of  the  waterman's  boat  was  covered 
with  a  coating  of  the  most  slippery  kind  of  ice.  I  stood  upon  the 


OB,    THB    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  157 

stem-head,  and  got  hold  of  a  staple  In  the  side  of  the  steamer, 
for  the  purpose  of  holding  on ;  but  the  boat  moving  one  way, 
and  the  steamer  another  way,  ,1,  in  an  instant,  found  myself  in 
a  horizontal  position,  holding  on  to  the  steamer's  side  with  my 
hands,  whilst  my  feet  rested  upon  the  prow  of  the  small  boat 
which  was  leaving  me.  I  had  no  alternative  but  to  make  a  vol- 
untary plunge,  as  if  bathing,  or  go  down  helpless.  I  chose  the 
least  evil,  and  swam  towards  the  small  boat,  by  that  time  some 
thirty  yards  off.  I  got  hold  of  her  frail  side ;  and  here  a  singu- 
lar danger  beset  me.  I  had  on  a  cloak,  with  fur  round  a  standing 
collar ;  on  this  collar  the  waterman  seized,  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  me.  In  doing  so,  he  turned  it  so  round  as  to  cover  my 
face,  and  effectually  prevent  me  from  breathing.  Noise  I 
could  not  make  the  least,  any  more  than  if  my  voice  were  im- 
prisoned in  the  centre  of  a  marble  stone.  The  most  violent  ef- 
forts on  my  part  could  convey  no  meaning,  as  the  waterman, 
who  was  Loth  old  and  stupid,  would  understand  them  simply 
as  efforts  to  get  into  the  boat  out  of  the  freezing  water.  I  had 
the  death-hold  upon  the  boat's  gunwale  with  both  my  hands  ;  and 
the  only  alternative  I  had  left  was  to  let  go  one  of  my  holds, 
and  forcibly  wrest,  with  my  right  hand,  the  old  man's  grasp  from 
my  collar.  This  I  accomplished  with  extreme  difficulty,  as  he 
thought  to  relinquish  his  grasp  would  be  to  let  me  sink  in  an 
Instant.  I  got  once  more  a  breath  of  air,  and  a  boat,  in  the  dis- 
tance, rapidly  rowed  up,  and,  with  the  help  it  brought,  I  was  put 
on  the  board  the  steamer,  thoroughly  benumbed,  and  unable  to 
stand. 

The  humane  and  manly  crew  of  that  row-boat  (early  and 
alone  on  the  Thames),  saved  me.  Two  or  three  minutes  longer 
in  the  water,  and  I  must  have  perished. 

Beaching  Newcastle,  I  found  myself  among  a  body  of  Keform- 
ers  remarkable,  indeed,  for  their  zeal,  activity,  and  single- 
ness of  purpose.  Shortly  after  my  arrival,  the  Northern  Politi- 
cal Union,  which  had  been  discontinued  when  the  Reform  Bill 
became  a  law,  was  revived,  and  I  was  elected  its  Corresponding 
Secretary.  This  was  in  the  spring  of  '38.  It  was  a  time  of  greafc 
depression,  and  scarcity  of  money,  caused  mainly  by  the  great 
collapse  of  '36  in  America  and  all  round. 

As  the  multitudes  are  shut  out  from  the  nursing  bosom  of 
their  mother  earth,  as  not  even  an  acre  was  permitted  to  them 


158  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

to  grow  a  stay  for  their  families,  they  were  in  extreme  distress. 
To  help  the  evil  Peel's  gold  bill  had  screwed  the  circulation  down 
to  a  point,  and  all  notes  under  £5  had  been  retired,  the  gentle 
phrase  by  which  is  described  burning  up.  The  English  pub- 
lic, manufacturing,  commercial,  laboring — all  outside  of  the  aris- 
tocracy— felt  this  bleeding  away  of  the  nation's  life-blood.  All 
were  submissive,  hopeless,  under  it.  All  but  Atwood,  Muntz, 
and  other  patriots  of  Birmingham.  Those  formed  a  deputation 
and  waited  on  Lord  Melbourne  (then  premier)  in  London.  They 
demonstrated  the  need  of  a  guaranteed  paper  medium,  with 
notes  of  lesser  denominations  than  £5.  This  would,  to  be  sure* 
revive  business,  but  then  it  would  pay  the  fund  holder's,  interest 
in  the  same  medium  he  had  lent  to  the  government  during  the 
American  and  French  wars.  A  full  paper  currency  which  would 
lighten  the  burdens  of  the  taxpayers,  and  would  lighten  at  the 
same  time  the  receipts  of  the  taxeaters.  Lord  Melbourne  re- 
plied that  "  no  change  would  be  made,  the  House  of  Commons 
was  against  it."  "  We'll  mend  the  House  of  Commons  for  you," 
was  Atwood's  reply,  and  he  returned  to  Birmingham  to  organ- 
ize the  Chartist  Movement 

Newcastle !  How  my  yearning  heart  goes  back  to  that  town, 
then  I  believe  of  60,000  inhabitants,  but  surrounded  by  popula- 
tions perhaps  doubling  that  amount.  The  two  Shields  (North 
and  South)  were  connexions,  almost  tributaries,  of  it,  at  least  in 
thought  and  political  action.  So,  in  a  lesser  degree,  was  Mor- 
peth,  in  the  interior,  and  even  Sunderland,  away  down  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Wear,  and  fronting  the  German  ocean.  Tyne- 
mouth  didn't  count  for  much,  though  it  grew  into  importance 
by  and  by,  because  of  its  castle  and  garrison.  But  Newcastle 
was  the  centre  and  the  soul  of  them  all. . 

If  there  be  in  the  unknown  future  aught  of  public  men,  and 
public  action,  and  if  my  spirit  is  to  be  called  to  such  work  oa 
awaited  me  there  (and  of  the  Great  Future : 

"  What  can  we  reason  but  from  what  we  know  ?  ") 
I  ask  no  nobler  field,  no  more  active,  brave  uncounting  heroism, 
that  awaited  me  in  that  great  town. 

More,  doubtless,  because  I  was  a  sentinel  in  The  Liberator  office 
than  from  any  capacity  that  they  could  discover  in  myself,!  waa 
appointed  "  Corresponding"  Secretary  of  the  just  revived  North- 
ern Political  Union.  Some  seven  years  before,  that "  Union  "  had 


OB,    THE    8PIKIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  1K> 

helped  strongly  to  scatter  the  Botten  Boroughs.  It  now  reor- 
ganized once  more.  Action  present  and  vigorous  was  now  ite 
word  and  its  work.  It  was  a  groundswell  of  the  tempest  that 
very  soon  was  coming.  Early  in  the  spring  of  1838,  John  Mason, 
shoemaker;  Edward  Charlton,  bricklayer ;  Jamie  Ayr,  mason; 
Robert  Lowrey,  tailor  ;  Tom  Horn,  music  dealer  ;  John  Rucastle, 
druggist ;  Richard  Blackball,  workman  ;  Thos.  Gray,  tobacco- 
nist ;  Dr.  Hume,  surgeon,  and  Cokburn,  a  blind  man,  earnest  and 
eloquent,  gave  life  to  our  weekly  meetings.  Thos.  Horn  was  our 
President,  Wm.  Thomasou  our  Recording  Secretary,  and  my- 
self what  is  stated. 

Thomas  Doubleday  and  Robert  Blakey !  If  clear  heads,  pure 
hearts,  and  moral  and  mental  action  could  save  a  state,  those 
two  men  would  have  saved  England.  They  were  now  proprie- 
tors, and,  as  they  signed  their  contributions,  "Writers  of  the 
Liberator." 

The  paper  had  been  established  by  Augustus  H.  Beaumont—a 
native  of  the  United  States— a  member  of  the  Jamaica  legisla- 
ture. He  championed  the  cause  of  the  (yet)  enslaved  negro,  and 
fought  more  than  one  duel  with  men  in  the  planter's  interest. 
He  came  to  Europe  after  Emancipation.  He  made  his  way  to 
Paris,  and  joined  in  the  "  three  days "  that  drove  Charles  X. 
from  the  throne.  With  his  brother,  Dr.  Arthur  Beaumont,  h» 
made  entrance  into  Brussels,  and  fought  in  the  battles  that  then 
drove  the  Holland  troops  out  of  Belgium.  I  had  previously  re- 
ported a  speech  by  him  at  a  meeting  in  the  «•  Crown  and  An- 
chor "  in  London.  It  was  a  meeting  to  sympathize  with  Poland. 
But  his  speech  was  a  fierce  Philippic  against  the  Polish  nobles, 
and  their  treatment  of  the  serfs.  He  was,  indeed,  a  true  Demo- 
crat To  such  a  man  as  this  the  conducting  500  emigrants  to 
help  the  Canadian  patriots  was  a  work  of  far  less  difficulty  than 
it  would  be  to  u  man  of  less  military  experience  and  less  dar- 
ing character. 

That  was  his  object.  So  he  sold  the  paper  to  Mr.  Blakey,  a 
prosperous  furrier  of  Morpeth,  who  had  large  business  relations 
over  the  whole  kingdom.  And  yet  he  \vas  as  simple-minded  oa 
hQ  was  single  of  heart  and  purpose.  We  shall  sea 


1(JQ  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 


COMMENCING  THE  CHARTIST  AGITATION. 

John  Collins  was  a  very  plain,  very  sensible,  very  earnest,  very 
eolloquial  orator,  with  a  magazine  of  facts  in  the  shelves  of  his 
memory.  He  was  selected  to  commence  the  agitation  in  Glas- 
gow. The  workers  crowded  everywhere  to  hear  the  new  evan- 
gel, and  after  stirring  up  the  adjacent  villages  for  a  fortnight  or 
three  weeks,  a  demonstration  was  advertised  on  Glasgow  Green. 
It  was  a  success  far  beyond  our  expectation.  The  movement 
thus  vigorously  commenced,  rolled  southward.  Sunderland,  the 
two  Shields,  the  collieries,  were  vigorously  stirred  up.  As  re- 
porter, I  was  present  at  most  or  all  of  them,  till  they  culminated 
in  a  "  Demonstration  "  at  Newcastle  on  coronation  day.  Lon- 
don papers  had  just  come  to  hand,  printed  in  gold,  as  an  emblem 
of  royalty  and  loyalty.  The  workers  met  on  the  Town  Moor, 
covered  over  by  500  suggestive  banners,  and  intervaried  with 
fourteen  bands.  Numbers  estimated  down  to  fifty  thousand,  and 
up  to  eighty  thousand  men. 

As  the  immense  ranks  filed  past  The  Liberator  office,  I  rushed 
to  our  upper  windows,  and  replied  to  their  deafening  cheers 
with  one  or  two  vollies  from  an  old  musket.  My  employers 
hastened  to  put  a  stop  to  this  proceeding— thought  it  not  only 
a  great  but  a  dangerous  indiscretion,  and  I  suppose  they  were 
right 

However,  we  all  proceed  to  the  platform  prepared  for  us  on 
the  Town  Moor.  Fergus  O'Connor  is  in  full  oratory,  when  out 
from  the  barracks,  and  across  right  toward  us.  came  I  don't 
know  how  many  of,  or  all  the  garrison,  Accoutred,  armed,  and  in 
manuring  order.  It  loomed  like  another  "  Manchester  massacre." 
But  no  !  That  was  a  yoemanry  crime.  The  regular  troops  are 
seldom  set  to  work  of  the  kind.  Those  were  only  out  to  a  fire  a 
feudejoiein  honor  of  the  coronation.  Why  they  crossed  the 
moor  and  passed  close  to  our  meeting  we  could  only  guess'.  This 
happened  !  The  commanding  officer  rode  his  horse  up  sideways 
close  to  the  crowd,  straining  to  hear  what  Fergus  might  be  say- 
ing. One  young  fellow  inconvenienced  by  the  presure  of  the 
horse,  wheeled  round  and,  putting  his  hands  to  the  horse's  side, 
gave  him  such  a  push  as  staggered  him  down  the  declivity.  The 
officer  said  not  a  word,  but  rode  after  his  command.  I  thought 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MOUtURN    DAYS.  161 

then,  and  I  think  even  now,  that  if  this  slight  incident  had  taKen 
place,  especially  with  a  yoemanry  commander,  it  .might  have 
had  a  very  ugly  result. 

The  agitation  was  now  fairly  commenced,  and  what  the  flunkies- 
called  a  "  Political  Methodism  "  seized  upon  the  leaders.    At  six 
o'clock,  throwing  down  their  implements  of  toil,  those  true — not 
mock — noblemen  would  hasten  home,  lunch  bread  and  cheese, 
and  a  glass  of  ale,  and  off  on  foot  to  a  meeting,  generally  one  or 
two,  sometimes  six  or  seven,  miles  off.    The  mode  of  agitation 
projected  in  Birmingham  was  admirable.    There  was  little  talk 
about  Magna  Charta,  Bill  of  Rights,  revolutionary  right  of  the 
reigning  dynasty.    Our  shot  was  of  a  solid  kind  ;  no  flashing 
blanks  in  it.    Sugar,  taxed  up  from  2|d.  to  8d.,  coffee,  from  5d. 
to  2s.  2d.,  tea  in  like  proportion.    The  queen  dowager  in  her 
palace,  or  her  pleasure  ship,  with  three  hundred  pounds  a  day. 
The  worn  out  laborer  in  a  bastile  workouse,  starved  to  death  on 
15£d.  worth  of  food  in  the  week.    A  letter  going  ten  miles,  it 
might  be  to  summon  a  mother  to  the  sick  bed  of  her  son,  could 
not  be  released  without  a  fee  of  10d.,  more  than  the  day's  wages 
of  an  Irish  laborer.    Breadstuffs  so  taxed  by  the  Corn  Laws 
that  the  price  of  wheat  at  Newcastle  was  60s.  a  quarter  ;  across 
in  the  Baltic  ports  it  was  80s.    The  common  land  belonging  to 
the  people  fenced  in  and  swallowed  by  the  aristocracy ;   the 
game  law,  the  big  demesnes  of  the  oligarchy  ;  the  garrets  and 
cellars  of  the  working  people.    The  work,  and  the  no  work ;  the 
big  salaries,  and  the  little  salaries.    The  manhood  of  the  people 
—the  dignity  conferred  by  honest  toil— were  they  not  contrasted 
with  the  voluptuous  idleness  of  an  insolent  crew  that  rioted  on 
the  wealth  toiled  for  by  others,  and  that  dared  to  exclude  Eng- 
lishmen from  all  share  in  making  the  laws  which  they  were  com- 
pelled to  obey.    But  the  foundation  wrong  of  all,  monopoly  of 
the  soil,  and  of  the  mines  of  England — that  estate  given  freely 
by  God  to  all  His  children — our  leaders  wholly  and  against  my 
earnest  advice,  put  in  abeyance.    "  That  will  surely  be  broken 
up  with  every  other  wrong  as  soon  as  we  get  a  government  by 
Universal  Suffrage."    So  they  said,  but  whether  rightly  or  not  we 
shall  see  by  the  lesson  taught  in  America  where  universal  suffrage 
exists. 

Here,  then,  was  political  education.    Taught  orally  it  took  the 
"near-cut"  of  reading  and  writing,  and  tens  of  thousands  of 


1G2  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    MlHifiTEJKJSTH    CKSTUKY  ; 

men  in  England,  who  could  not  read  or  write,  were,  by  ittending 
half  a  dozen  of  those  meetings,  imbued  with  a  clear,  s  ibstantial 
knowledge  of  the  foul  thing  that  their  government  wa3,  and  the 
fair  thing  that  it  ought  to  be.  No  occasion  to  begin  the  alpha- 
bet, and  words  of  one  syllable  about  it,  to  awaken  the  people  to 
the  enormity  of  their  wrongs,  to  the  irrational  greed  and  in- 
justice of  their  Whig  "  liberal "  rulers. 

Education  is  the  way  to  taste,  refinement,  the  truest  and  high- 
est development  and  enjoyment  of  life.  There  is  no  "royal 
road "  to  those  attainments.  But  the  rights  and  the  duties  of 
men,  in  rational,  civilized  communities,  can  be  taught  in  a  very 
short  time,  and  in  a  few  very  short  lessons.  More  surely,  too, 
for  written  "instruction"  very  commonly  bewilders  or  mis- 
leads— 

"  Pride  often  eruides  the  author's  pen. 
Books,  as  affected,  are  as  men ; 
But  he  who  studies  Nature's  laws. 
From  certain  truth  his  maxims  draws." 

The  Five  "  points  "  of  the  Charter  were  Universal  Suffrage, 
Vote  by  Ballot,  Annual  Parliaments.  No  property  qualification, 
and  Payment  of  Members  ;  afterward  a  sixth  was  added — Equal 
Electoral  Districts. 

We  were  now  fairly  in  the  very  storm  of  agitation.  Almost 
the  entire  working  element  was  on  our  side,  and  almost  the 
entire  middle  (we  called  them  "profitmongering  ")  class  was 
against  us.  Incensed  at  them  for  their  servile  attitude,  we  pro- 
jected a  Joint-stock  Company  for  the  sale  of  weekly  supplies 
needed  in  the  families  of  the  workers— chiefly  colliers.  To  this 
there  was  a  very  largo  and  rapid  subscription.  Nine  directors 
were  elected  by  vote  of  the  shareholders,  and  again,  owing 
doubtless  to  my  centralized  usefulness,  I  was  named  a  director 
and  placed  at  the  head  of  the  poll.  I  mention  this  to  show  the 
liberality  which  I  have  found  to  be  a  characteristic  of  the  English 
Democrats.  John  Blake\-,  clogger,  and  Richard  Ayr,  publican, 
went  every  Wednesday  to  Morpoth,  and  bought,  as  I  understood, 
£500  worth  of  bee.f  cattle.  This  was  ready  for  sale,  and  was  sold 
on  the  following  Saturday.  A  man  recommended  by  them  was 
appointed  manager.  But  I  was  so  in  the  hey-day  of  the  agitation 
that  I  knew  little  and  suspected  nothing  of  what  might  pos- 
sibly be  going  on  in  our  trading  venture,  One  thing  I  did  know. 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  109 

On  our  first  opening,  all  the  traders  in  the  Butchers  bank  had 
to  shut  up,  and  the  grocers  and  cheesemongers  down  the  Side§ 
might  as  well  have  followed  their  example.  About  two  thousand 
pounds  worth  were  sold  every  week.  It  ought  to  have  left  a 
good  profit,  as  the  customers,  principally  shareholders,  cheerfully 
paid  the  highest  prices.  And  yet  before  the  winter  was  out  the 
shares  so  depreciated  that  my  own  £5  worth  realized  I  think  30a 
after  iny  departure  in  the  ensuing  January. 

The  foreign  policy  of  Lord  Palmerston  was  at  this  time 
thought  to  be  too  yielding  to  the  movements  of  Russia  iri  the 
East.  Mr.  Urquhart,  the  leader  in  this  discontent,  was  invited 
to  a  public  dinner  in  Newcastle.  The  five  newspapers—  Chronicto% 
Journal,  Courant,  Mercury,  and  Gateshead  Observer— sent  their 
reporters  to  photograph  the  proceedings ;  I,  too,  was  sent  by  Tlie 
Liberator.  For  those  gentlemen  of  the  "  Fourth  Estate"  a  din- 
ner table  was  set  in  an  ante-room.  This  mark  of  inferiority  I 
had  never  seen  attempted  at  public  dinners  in  London  and  its 
vicinity.  Indeed,  the  slightest  aggression  of  any  kind  made  on 
the  London  reporters  would  produce  a  general  "  strike,"  and  a 
march  off,  leaving  the  aggressors  to  the  oblivion  of  next  morn- 
ing. But  those  provincial  reporters  had  no  such  pluck.  They 
left  me  to  resent  alone  the  indignity.  This  I  did  v  ith  my  boot 
heels  sounding  along  the  stone  corridor,  as  loud  as  I  could  strike 
them,  during  the  substantiate  of  the  repast.  With  the  wine, 
and  dessert,  and  speeches,  and  so  forth,  came  "  equality."  I  made 
one,  and  in  the  lulls  of  duty  passed  the  bottle  on  my  own 
terms.  My  employers  were  at  the  dinner,  and  I  think  they  were 
rather  pleased  with  the  spirit  I  had  shown.  More  pleased  still, 
when  on  Saturday  morning  my  report  was  chosen  as  the  best* 
an'1,  several  hundred  copies  of  our  paper  purchased  by  the  com- 
mittee for  far-off  circulation.  As  mere  stenographers  there 
were  far  better  hands  present  than  myself.  But  as  this  foreign 
policy  was  one  of  our  charges  against  tho  government,  I  under- 
stood the  subject  and  they  did  not.  Their  facts,  dates,  amounts^ 
boundaries,  et?.,  W3re  not  preserved  with  entire  accuracy.  I 
speak  of  the  thing  mainly  because  it  led  to  a  matter  of  far 
more  significance.  A  week  or  two  previously  we  had  called  a 
meeting  for  the  purpose  of  sending  an  address  and  deputation 
to  Ireland,  inviting  its  people  to  join  with  our  people  in  the  con- 
teat  for  self-government.  P  so  happened  that  this  address  waa 


164  'i'Hisi    ODD    BOOK.    OJB'    THJbi    KIMJiTEENTH    CENTURY  J 

printed  in  the  same  paper  that  contained  Mr.  Urquhart's  speech 
in  arraignment  of  Lord  Palmerston's  policy. 

The  banqueters  sent  the  paper  to  Mr.  O'Connell,  then  in  Dub- 
lin, and  I  may  as  well  insert  it  here. 


ADDRESS 

OF    THE    NORTHERN    POLITICAL    UNION    OF    NEWCASTLE-TJPON-TYNB    TO 
THEIR   OPPRESSED    BROTHERS    IN    IRELAND. 

Irishmen!  Brothers!  The  outraged  millions  of  England,  Scotland, 
and  Wales  have  arisen  in  their  might  and  majesty  to  assert  those 
rights  which  God  and  Nature  intended  every  man  should  enjoy. 

We  demand  for  every  man  of  mature  age  and  good  Character  the 
right  of  citizenship,  as  well  for  the  honest  peasant  as  for  the  lordiing  or 
the  middleman;  for  the  operative,  as  well  as  for  the  ernploj'er;  in  shorfr 
for  all  men  alike,  without  reference  to  creed,  sect,  or  condition. 

The  elective  franchise  is  the  right  of  every  man  that  comes  into  the 
world  stamped  with  the  image  of  his  Creator.  The  greatest  men  in  your 
own  land,  both  of  the  past  and  the  present  age,  have  again  and  again 
proclaimed  the  important  truth,  that  "  every  man  excluded  from  the 
elective  franchise  is  necessarily  a  slave ! "  Will  Irishmen  continue 
"slaves  ?  "  Will  the  descendants  of  the  Volunteers,  the  kindred  of  the 
brave  men  who  gave  freedom  to  America,  shrink  back  in  the  contest  for 
equal  rigts  ?  Or  will  they  join  hoart  and  hand  with  their  brothers  of 
England,  of  Scotland— aye,  and  of  France,— and  swear  by  the  spirit  of 
their  fathers  that  " slavery"  shall  exist  no  longer  ? 

Brothers,  we  should  not  ask  these  questions.  We  should  rely  with  con- 
fidence on  vour  unsolicited  aid  were  it  not  for  the  artifices  of  designing 
men  who,  through  the  press  and  from  the  platform,  distort  our  objects 
and  belie  our  sentiments,  in  order  to  prevent  you  from  joining  us,  and 
assisting  us  to  put  an  end  to  those  oppressions  undar  which  we  mutually 
groan. 

You  are  told  we  have  joined  the  Tories.  We  fling  back  the  charge  with 
ineffable  scorn;  we  fling  it  upon  those  vile  instruments  who  have  joined 
the  Tories  ;  whose  last  effort  was  to  fasten  forever  the  incubus  of  the 
Tory  Church  upon  the  necks  of  the  dissentient  people.  Who  did  this? 
Why,  the  Whig  Government,  the  Government  Press,  and  the  Govern- 
ment Patriots;  and  yet,  Irishmen,  they  dare  to  insult  your  understand- 
ing, by  telling  you  that  we,  the  Radical  Reformers  of  Great  Brittair\ 
have  joined  the  Tories;  we  who  have  avowed  that  the  rule  of  the  profli- 
gate aristocracy— both  Whig  and  Tory— shall  speedily  and  forever  conie 
to  and  end. 

Irishmen,  in  answering  this  vile  calumny,  we  appeal  to  facts,  and  to 
your  common  sense.  Did  not  the  Tories  resist  all  extension  of  the  frua- 
chise  even  to  a  few  great  towns  ?  Did  not  they  battle  for  the  rotten  BOP- 


OK,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    EAfS,  165 

oughs  to  the  very  last  ?  And  will  these  men  join  a  movement  that  win 
make  the  franchise  universal  ?— that  will  establish  the  power  of  the 
People,  and  prostrate  in  utter  ruin  the  dominion  of  both  factions  of  the 
Aristocracy  ?  Oh !  the  imposition  is  too  gross,  too  palpable,  too  insult' 
lag! 

You  are  told  you  have  a  humane  Government  in  Ireland.  Will  its  hu- 
manity protect  you  from  the  visits  of  the  Tithe  ruffian  V  Will  it  save 
you  from  the  exterminating  power  of  the  Landlord,  when  he  wants  to 
manufacture  a  breed  of  voters  who  will  "drive  kindly  "  to  the  hustings  ? 

But,  Irishmen,  there  are  certain  facts  connected  with  the  conduct  of 
your  Chief  Governor  which  have  considerably  shaken  our  faith  in  his 
humanity.  We  shall  trouble  you  with  one  of  these  facts,  if  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  show  you  that  Englishmen  can  take  note  of  your  suffer- 
ings, can  cherish  a  remembrance  of  your  wrongs. 

In  June,  1836,  the  population  of  an  immense  district  in  the  "Rosscss," 
county  Donegal,  were  driven  to  subsist  on  sea-weed,  and  the  green  gar- 
bage of  the  fields.  A  subscription  was  got  up  to  keep  them  from  perish- 
ing. Earl  Mulgrave  was  appealed  to  for  some  assistance,  and  this  same 
Earl  MuJgrave,  this  good  and  kind  Lord  Lieutenant,  this  paragon  of  hu- 
manity, could  not  afford  a  single  penny  to  relieve  the  furnishers,  though  in 
the  receipt  of  £20,000  a  year  of  the  public  money,  not  to  talk  of  his  pri- 
vate fortune,  and  though  two  of  his  horses  lost  on  the  very  same  week 
several  thousand  pounds  on  the  Curragh  of  Kildare. 

But  you  hear  his  praises  rung  forth  by  the  press  and  the  "liberal" 
public  speakers.  What,  Irishmen,  would  you  think  if  all  those  praises 
were  shouted  by  fellows  that  are  hunting  for  places  under  the  Govern- 
ment ?  The  "  marketable  gentlemen  "  who  "  daily  scribble  for  their  daily 
bread  "  in  the  public  press,  and  the  brirtloss  lawyers  who  spout  at  the 
public  meeting,  may  possibly  do  in  1>!  •»  itter  that  which  will  please 
the  man  who  has  places  and  emoluiao  '  >stow.  We  say  that  these 

things  are  just  possible,  and,  if  so,  a  new  light  is  let  in  on  the  unaccount- 
able proceedings  of  these  gentlemen  for  some  time  past. 

In  a  recent  letter,  the  Iv.-v.  Mr.  Davern  describes  these  worthies  aa 
men  whose  "  views  are  difficult  indeed  to  be  understood,  unless  we  were 
really  to  class  them  among  these  corrupt  place  hunters,  who,  counted  as 
they  are  by  thousands,  it  may  be  truly  said,  swarm  through  every  pettj 
town  in  the  kingdom." 

Irishmen!  beware  of  these  place  hunters.  If  you  love  your  wives 
and  children,  if  you  would  raise  your  lovely  land  into  the  scale  of  inde- 
pendent nations,  if  you  would  avoid  political  damnation,  beware  of  these 
Infamous  place  hunters;  and  truly  may  it  be  said  that  their  "name  is 
legion." 

You  have  had  Reforms,  but  they  have  not  reached  the  industrious  and 
long-suffering  people;  they  have  placed  your  leaders  high  in  eminence; 
they  have  made  them  the  denizens  of  palaces  and  courts,  whilst  tho  sac- 
rificed and  exterminated  forty-shilling  freeholder  has. perished  in  the 
high  way. 

Are  you  not  famishing  in  the  midst  of  fertility?    Is  not  your  labor 


166  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY ; 

seeking  a  market  in  the  farthest  corner  of  the  globe,  whilst  your  own 
immeasurable  wastes  and  green  hills  are  lying  unreclaimed  and  unpro- 
ductive? Your  sublime  waterfalls  spending  their  force  upon  the  naked 
rocks  instead  of  the  Engine  of  Manufactures;  your  noble  bays  arid  ee- 
turies  deserted,  save  by  the  sail  that  bears  away  from  you  the  necessa- 
ries of  life  ?  And  what  attempt  have  your  rulers  made  to  remedy  these 
things  ?  Have  they  said  to  the  landlord :  "  You  must  give  the  people 
"  leave  to  reclaim  the  soil,  and  to  live  upon  it  when  it  is  reclaimed ;  you 
*'  must  establish  manufactories,  and  thus  give  employment  on  the  barika 
"of  your  beautiful  rivers;  you  must  invite  the  ship's  path  to  the  noble 
"  bay,  not  as  now  to  carry  away  the  food,  but  the  manufactures  of  the 
41  people,  and  bring  them  in  return  the  useful  products  of  other  lands; 
"you,  landlords,  must,  in  short,  return  from  your  gambling,  your  idle- 
•*  ness,  and  your  extravagance,  and  do  your  duty  to  the  people  from 
"  whose  labor  your  wealth  is  derived  ?  " 

No,  no,  Irishmen,  your  rulsrs  have  done  nothing  like  this;  they  will 
.aever  do  anything  like  it.  They  could  only  afford  you  Bastile  prison 
reception  for  some  80,000  destitute  poor,  out  of  the  famishing  population 
of  two  millions.  We  assert  that  the  resources  of  your  country  and  the 
industry  of  its  inhabitants  are  sufficient  to  maintain  your  people  in  plenty 
and  happiness.  \Ve  charge  these  men  to  be  unfit  to  govern  you ;  we 
arraign  them  before  a  jury  of  Irishmen  as  being  either  knavish  or  inca- 
pable, and  fearlessly  we  leave  the  verdict  in" your  hands. 

You  are  told  that  if  you  had  rights  equal  to  Englishmen  you  would  be 
well  off;  that  you  would  then  require  no  domestic  Parliament.  Brothers 
we  beseech  you,  as  you  would  avoid  the  wiles  of  Satan — as  you  would 
profit  by  the  experience  which  "  teacheth  even  the  wise,"  to  listen  to  our 
plain  statement,  and  then  judge  how  far  you  ought  to  be  content  with 
the  state  of  things  now  existing  in  England. 

At  the  close  of  the  French  war  the  Whig  and  Tory  landlords  eased 
themselves  of  £17,000,000  of  land  tax  which  pressed  upon  property; 
they  threw  the  whole  burden  upon  the  people  in  the  shape  of  soap  tax, 
ale  tax,  tea  tax,  and  a  tax  on  every  article  used  by  the  people.  Not  con- 
tent with  this  they  established  the  Corn  Laws,  and  doubled  the  price  of 
food,  both  in  Ireland  and  England,  in  order  that  they  might  obtain  high 
rents.  Then  our  manufactures  came  into  competition  With  the  manufac- 
tures of  the  continent,  where  workmen  could  get  the  necessaries  of  life 
at  half  the  price  paid  by  the  English  or  Irish  workmen.  Our  manufac- 
tures naturally  fell  off,  our  people  were  left  without  employment,  and 
they  fell  unwillingly  on  the  poor  rates,  thus  visiting  on  their  own  heads 
the  injustice  and  greed  of  the  aristocracy.  What  did  the  Whigs  do  then? 
Why  they  repealed  the  poor  law  which  gave  every  man  in  England  a 
right  to  employment  or  support  off  the  soil,  and  they  established  tlw 
bastile  law,  which  separates  even  the  aged  husband  and  wife ;  shuts  them 
up  in  separate  cells,  and  treats  them  every  way  worse  than  the  common 
felon.  This  infernal  enactment  had  the  effect  that  was  intended,  and 
now  the  operative  weaver  of  Carlisle,  Glasgow,  Manchester  and  London 
is  fain  to  subsist  on  an  average  of  3s.  or  3s.  6d.  a  week,  Is.  6d.  or  2s.  of 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  167 

which  is  taken  from  him  by  the  Government  in  taxes,  in  order  that  the 
Queen  Dowager  may  have  £100,000  and  the  Queen  herself  £1,300,000  a 
year,  and  all  the  off-shoots  of  the  accursed  aristocracy  allowances  in  the 
€arne  proportion  for  doing  nothing. 

Irishmen !  will  such  a  state  of  things  content  you  ?  Are  horrors  like 
these  the  object  of  your  highest  hopes  and  wishes  ?  Or  dare  you  join 
with  your  Brothers  of  England  and  Scotland,  and  at  once  and  forever 
release  yourselves  from  the  fangs  of  an  aristocracy  which  has  rendered 
your  beautiful  land  a  comparative  desert,  and  sent  your  best  and  brav- 
est and  loveliest  to  a  premature  grave  in  the  land  of  the  stranger  ! 

Brothers !  having  invited  you  to  join  with  us  in  putting  an  end  to  this 
monstrous  state  of  things  by  establishing  the  right  of  the  people  to 
make  the  laws,  it  remains  for  us  to  point  out  to  you  the  means  we  have 
at  our  disposal,  the  agencies  we  intend  to  use,  in  achieving  the  regener- 
ation of  our  common  country. 

First,  then,  every  principle  of  justice,  of  Christianity,  and  of  common 
humanity  are  on  our  side.  We  have  used,  are  still  using,  these  at  all  our 
public  meetings,  and  through  what  is  ours  of  the  press.  We  have  elect- 
ed a  convention  to  sit  in  London  in  order  to  force  those  principles  of 
justice,  and  humanity,  and  reason  upon  our  rulers.  God  forgive  those 
who  tell  you  that  we  do  not  use  argument  and  reason  in  our  cause,  but 
rely  solely  upon  physical  force  for  the  accomplishment  of  our  purpose. 
But,  Irishmen— and  we  are  proud  to  say  it— we  have  spoken  of  physi- 
cal force  in  the  last  resort,  and  we  will  tell  you,  as  we  have  a  thousand 
times  told  our  calumniators,  what  are  our  real  sentiments  on  the  mo- 
mentous question. 

The  Constitution  and  ,the  laws  of  England  guarantee  to  Englishmen 
the  right  to  have  in  their  houses  defensive  arms.  We  are  not  subject  to 
the  spy  system  of  registering  these  arms,  as  are  the  people  of  Ireland. 
The  executive  dare  not  come  to  our  houses  and  seize  upon  them,  as  they 
do  in  your  own  oppressed  country.  The  government  dare  not  suspend 
the  constitution  in  England  as  they  have  done  in  Ireland  by  their  ac- 
cursed coercion  bills.  These  rights  we  have  entire,  inviolate,  undispu- 
ted. Now  we  want  you  to  particularly  mark  our  determination ;  we  are 
resolved  to  have  arms.  Not  to  use  them  unless  the  Government  becomes 
the  aggressors;  unless  they  violate  the  Constitution,  and  break  the  laws, 
as  they  lately  have  done  in  Canada.  In  that  case  we  are  determined  to 
preserve  inviolate  the  laws  and  the  Constitution,  and  put  down,  BY 
FORCE  OF  ARMS,  any  Algerine  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Will  Irishmen  condemn  us  for  this  ?  Will  they  not  rather  bid  us 
Godspeed? 

And,  Irishmen,  we  are  able  to  repel  aggression.  Within  a  few  years 
the  populations  of  our  manufacturing  and  commercial  towns  have 
trebled;  intelligence  has  progressed  in  like  proportion;  and  now  Lan- 
cashire alone  is  able  to  turn  out  300,000  resolute  defenders  of  the  Consti- 
*ion,  a  proportionate  number  will  be  found  bustling  about  on  the  banka 
of  the  Tyne,  and  should  the  hour  arrive  that  will  call  forth  Englishmen, 
in  their  mighty  and  just  wrath,  not  all  the  hordes  that  the  combined  des- 


168  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUBY  J 

pots  of  Europe  could  bring  into  the  field  would  be  able  to  withstand 
thorn  for  a  single  day. 

We  are  peaceable  people,  we  demand  our  rights  in  peace;  but  we  aro  a 
resolute,  a  powerful,  a  prep;  rod  people,  and  the  rights  of  citizens  wo 
must  have,  whether  a  paltry,  pelting  aristocracy  will  it  or  no. 

Which  of  you  does  not  look  back  upon  the  one  bright  spot  in  Irish  his- 
tory, when  your  noble  country— 

"  Sprang  forth  a  goddess  arraert  and  undented  T " 

Which  of  you  does  not  delight  to  dwell  upon  the  glorious  era  of  the 
Volunteers,  when  an  army  of  unpaid  Irishmen  held  the  petition  in  one 
hand,  und  the  sword  to  enforce  it  in  the  other  ?  The  parasites  of  a  trai- 
torous government  may  preach  to  cowards  and  contented  slaves;  but 
Irishmen,  oh !  Irishmen,  will  never  believe  that,  failing  every  other  re- 
source, Englishmen  have  no  right  to  vindicate  their  liberty  with  their 
<own  right  arms. 

Oorne,  then,  brothers,  accept  the  hand  of  friendship  we  hold  foith.  A. 
glorious  opportunity  now  offers  for  the  achievement  of  your  independ- 
ence. Join  us  in  asserting  the  rights  of  citizenship.  Those  once  es- 
tablished, your  fellow- work  men  in  England  will  have  power  to  do  you 
justice.  Your  union  with  England  will  become  your  blessing  instead  of 
your  curse ;  or,  if  it  should  not,  we  swear  before  the  Star  of  Independ- 
ence and  our  country,  that  three  years  shall  not  roll  over  till  you  have 
your  Parliament;  not  a  corrupt  oligarchy  of  landlords  and  place  hunt- 
ers, but  a  purely  Representative  Parliament  In  College  Green. 

We  remain,  brothers  in  bondage,  your  devoted  and  unalterable  friends. 
By  order  of  the  Northern  Political  Union, 

T.  HORN,  Chairman. 

WM.  THOMPSON,         lo^rfltArUw 

THUS.  ANQIEDEVYB,  }** 

HO*T«*RCI  LIBBBATOB,  November  17,  1838. 

When  this  Address  reached  Mr.  O'Connell  he  gave  no  thought 
to  the  "  banqueters  "  who  had  sent  it  along  with  their  own  lucu- 
brations. But  he  summoned  a  meeting  of  his  henchmen,  and 
jead  the  Address,  commenting  upon  its  atrocity  paragraph  by 
paragraph,  and  concluded  by  giving  his  opinion  thus  :  "  If  her 
Majesty's  Attorney-General  does  his  duty  the  heads  of  the  three 
men  who  signed  this  paper  will  roll  on  the  scaffold."  Those 
are  his  exact  words  as  reported  in  the  Dublin  papers  of  next  day. 
On  his  subsequent  trial,  growing  out  of  the  "  monster  meetings,'* 
he  urged  upon  the  judges  the  extenuating  fact  that  there  was 
something  so  attractive  in  Chartism,  that  only  for  his  interfer- 
ence It  would  have  spread  over  Ireland  from  one  end  to  the 
other.  It  Is  no  wonder  that  true  men  wonld  almost  despair  of 
Ireland  when  such  an  open,  outspoken,  and  outvoting  impostor 
could  hold  his  place  in  the  public  mind. 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DATS.  169 

Dan  bad  agreed  to  the  pensioning  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  and 
a  crown  veto  upon  Catholic  bishops,  but,  notwithstanding  this 
treachery  to  that  church,  he  was  held  in  a  half  religious  rev- 
erence ;  virtually  regarded  as  covered  with  her  shield  and  holi- 
ness. The  multitudes  of  his  countrymen  held  that  to  touch 
Dan  was  to  attack  the  Church  itself.  Aware  of  this  I  referred 
the  subject  of  his  patriotic  sentiments  to  my  principals.  "If 
we  deal  justice  upon  him  you  will  lose  probably  two  or  three 
hundred  subscribers."  They  jokingly  said  "  his  desire  for  that 
precious  head  of  yours  naturally  tends  to  make  your  gratitude 
a  little  demonstrative. "  Be  cool,  and  weigh  every  word  in  the 
balance.  After  that  do  justice  without  counting  in  the  least 
what  it  will  or  will  not  cost."  The  justice  was  done,  and  the 
penalty  was  paid  very  nearly  as  above  indicated.  Their  abhor- 
«nce  of  Dan  about  equaled  my  own,  and  they  fearlessly  ex- 
pressed it  : 

About  this  time  ('38)  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  held  its  annual  meeting  in  Newcastle.  In 
capacity  of  reporter  I  had  to  "assist"  at  their  proceedings. 
Those  have  left  with  me  a  pleasing  memory  which  I  take  to  be 
a  good  sign  of  the  reality,  for  I  was  sour  and  cynical  toward* 
all  things  savoring  of  aristocracy  or  distinctions  of  class.  Still 
I  bear  this  half  reluctant  testimony  that  those  were  good  men, 
actuated  by  noble  impulses,  and  judiciously  in  pursuit  of  great 
and  praiseworthy  objects.  Nothing  could  be  more  exalted  than 
their  aims,  nothing  more  judicious  than  transferring  their  labors 
from  city  to  city. 

But  my  especial  gain  that  I  have  not  forgotten  was  that  they 
brought  me  in,  an  indispensible  guest,  at  the  grand  banquet,  with 
which  their  labors  and  their  sojourn  in  Newcastle  terminated. 
The  where  it  was  I  do  not  remember,  but  the  what  it  was  is  still 
before  me.  A  long,  wide  wilderness  of  tables,  white  with  cloths 
as  an  Irish  bleachfield,  enamelled  with  such  a  fretwork  of  china 
and  silver  inlaid  with  gold,  and  still  further  inlaid  with  all  that 
field,  and  forest,  and  sea,  and  stream  could  present.  What  it  is 
to  be  "great."  Of  all  that  scena,  of  the  hundreds  present,  I  re- 
call only  the  presence  of  the  Duchess  and  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land. He,  a  round  good-natured  looking  face  and  figure.  But, 
ss  Lady  Blarney  would  say,  the  Duchess  had  "  my  warm  heart." 

Rounder  perhaps  than  the  Duke,  so  well  preserved  that,  not- 
22 


170  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURA  i 

withstanding  her  sixty  years,  she  looked  a  second  Ninon  in  her 
'low-necked  bodice  and  short  sleeves.  "  Sixty  years !  "  and  she 
was  still  a  comely,  attractive  and  almost  beautiful  woman. 
Alas!  many  a  toiler  was  pressed  down  with  care,  bent  and 
wrinkled  in  working  to  clothe  her  in  the  hues  of  youth  an-i 
affluence.  This  was  even  a  grander  banquet  than  that  given  t 
Mr.  Urquhart,  but  in  reference  to  the  press  there  was  nothing 
exclusive  about  it.  The  Duke  and  Duchess,  and  their  family, 
formed  the  first  estate.  The  "fourth  estate"  came  next  to  them, 
the  better  to  chronicle  the  echoes  converging  from  all  points. 
Burns  brags  that  he  "  dinnered  with  a  lord."  Isn't  it  a  bigger 
-brag  to  banquet  within  two  steps  of  a  Duke  and  Duchess  ? 

To  my  infant  thought,  nobilities  ate  nothing  but  silver,  and 
kings  and  queens  never  tasted  anything  worse  than  gold.  The 
endeavors  of  that  evening  utterly  discredited  any  such  theory. 
And  yet  to  that  grand  assemblage  the  luxuries  spread  around 
brought  little  of  the  zest  of  novelty.  It  is  to  be  fairly  presumed 
that  not  a  man  or  woman  (I  beg  pardon  for  calling  them  men 
^ncl  women)  in  it  enjoyed  the  sights,  and  sounds,  and  tastes. 
•with  more  novel  zest  than  myself.  Yet  action,  fresh  air  and  a 
^moderate  abstinence,  have  hundreds  of  times  brought  up  to  a 
higher  elevation  my  breakfast  of  porrige  and  milk.  Such  is  the 
agrarian  levellings  of  Mother  Nature.  Well  indeed  might  that 
critical,  cynical  and  by  no  means  infallible  little  Pope  say : 

"  Reason's  whole  pleasure,  all  the  joys  of  sense. 
Lie  in  three  word?,  health,  peace  and  competence." 

That  thought  realized  and  practiced  would  whirl  the  world 
round  and  set  it  once  more  on  its  feet.  Into  the  highest  head  it 
is  sure  to  come  by  and  by,  most  probably  driven  in  with  hard 
knocks.  And  this  is  a  pity ;  I  sorrow  to  think  of  it.  The  rank- 
est aristocrat  is  no  more' to  blame  than  the  rankest  Turk.  And 
yet  what  can  we  do  if  only  knocks  will  bring  them  to  their 
senses?  But  our  book  and  the  banquet  hall  must  now  part 
company. 

Foreseeing  what  approached,  the  forward  reformers  all  round 
were  steadily  exchanging  a  little  silver  for  a  little  steel  and  lead. 
There  were  some  neutrals,  not  very  many,  and  whatever  neutral 
had  an  unused  "  shooting  stick  "  found  a  sudden  market  for  it 
Every  neutral  musket  and  fowling  piece  were  taking  sides  and 
changing  hands.  In  obedience  to  the  law  of  "  demand  "  one  case 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    II?    MODERN    DAYS.  171 

0$  fifty  muskets  and  bayonets  came  along  from  Birmingham  to- 
answer  to  a  message  of  Bank  Notes.  Whereupon  an  advertise- 
ment like  the  following  appeared  in  TJie  Liberator : 

."  IMPORTANT  NOTICE.— Whereas  a  large  fleet  of  war  ships  is  now  concen- 
trating on  the  Southern  coast  of  Bussta,  within  throe  days'  sail  of  Newcas- 
tle or  HuiL 

"  And,  whereas  that  Collossus  of  tho  North  has  long  had  a  sinister  eye  o» 
onr  Indian  possessions,  and  might  take  it  into  his  head  any  day  to  try 
and  reach  India  by  a  march  through  England  to  the  utter  subversion  of 
the  liberties  we  have  not,  and  the  paternal  government  that  does  not  exis* 
among  us. 

"  Therefore,  and  for  those  reasons.  It  become*  the  duty  of  every  patriotic 
Englishman  to  provide  himself  with  the  requisite  arms,  and  to  be  ready 
at  a  moment's  warning  to  vindicate  his  liberties  and  the  independence  of 
his  country. 

*'In  view  ot  this  imminent  danger,  a  consignment  of  rauskels  and  bayo- 
nets has  arrived  In  Newcastle  and  is  now  on  sale  at  No.  —  Side.  Price  for 
the  individual  outfit  one  pound  sterling." 

In  response  to  this  notice  two  facts  took  place.  One  a  quick 
and  exhaustive  sale  of  the  fifty  muskets  and  bayonets.  Anoth- 
er a  proclamation  of  ex-radical  John  Fife,  the  Mayor,  designat- 
ing the  notice  aforesaid  and  the  muskets  that  lay  behind  it,  as  a 
most  sly,  insinuating,  covert  desgin  to  overturn  the  throne  of 
her  majesty  and  subvert  the  paternal  government  of  "  Jaw  and 
order"  now  so  happily  established.  Such  traffic  would  bring 
down  police  and  posse  on  its  back,  with  also  a  finger  pointing  to 
1,000  troops  in  the  barracks.  The  fifty  muskets  were  honestly 
"placed  "and  honestly  paid  for,  and  the  traffic  with  Birming- 
ham had  to  be  closed  up. 

But  the  intellectual  broadside  rained,  quick  and  heavy,  on  the 
government  ramparts.  Paper  after  paper  replete  with  the  most 
delicate  and  incisive  satire,  had  been  levelled  at  not  only  its  atro- 
cious measures,  but  also  at  its  atrocious  men.  These  were 
composed  into  a  neat  volume,  the  title  of  which  I  transcribe : — 
"  Noriliern  Lights,  or  the  Whims,  Oddities  and  Digress'hns  of  the 
NORTHERN  LIBERATOR,  A.  D.,  1838."  "  Nos  Hacc  novirms  qff& 
nihil."  I  transcribe  also  its 

RINGING    DEDICATION    TO    THE    WHIGS. 

"  To  you  who  for  the  last  half  century,  up  to  tho  year  1830, 
had  been  preaching  constitutional  doctrines  of  government ;  to 
you  who  during  these  years  strenuously  inculcated  the  doctrine 
that  the  people  were  the  source  of  all  legitimate  power,  and  thai 
any  power  not  derived  from  them  was  ipso  facto  a  tyranny  ;  to 
you  who  had  through  all  this  period  asserted  that  the  posaesr 


172  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUBY  ,* 

sion  of  real  power  by  the  people,  that  is  to  say  the  power  of 
choosing,  actually,  persons  for  members  of  Parliament  who 
thought  as  the  majority  of  the  people  thought,  was  the  only 
cure  for  the  manifold  evils  under  which  they  then  labored,  and 
under  which  they  still  labor  ;  to  you  who  in  the  year  1832  were 
by  the  efforts  of  the  people,  at  last  put  in  possession  of  that  po- 
litical power  which  you  had  so  long  coveted ;  to  you  who,  by 
their  mistaken  confidence,  were  enabled  to  pass  a  bill,  falsely 
called  of  Keform,  which  the  people  fondly  hoped  would,  under 
God,  be  the  means  of  relieivng  them  from  their  manifold  mis- 
eries, but  which  you  knew  would  confer  political  power  only  on 
persons  wedded  to  your  vile  interests,  or  thoroughly  duped  and 
stultified  by  your  still  viler  delusions ;  to  you  who  by  means  of 
that  bill  have  got  three  Parliaments  together  totally  obedient 
to  your  wishes  and  subservient  to  your  interests  ;  to  you,  who 
by  means  of  these  Parliaments,  have  passed  measures  more  de- 
structive to  the  liberties  of  Englishmen  than  any  that  were  ever 
passed  by  the  old  borough-mongers'  corrupt  and  tyrannical 
Parliaments  ;  to  you  who  passed  a  coercion  bill  for  Ireland,  ex- 
ceeding in  atrocity  any  infliction  that  ever  was  laid  upon  that  un- 
happy country ;  to  you  who  under  an  obsolete  Act  of  Parliament 
transported  poor  laborers  from  Dorchester  for  combining  to  ob- 
tain better  wages,  and  then  brought  them  back  from  transporta- 
tion to  avoid  the  condemnation  of  yourselves  by  public  opinion  ; 
to  you  who  sent  down  the  bloody  special  commissioners  to  Win- 
chester and  elsewhere,  to  put  men  to  death  for  crimes  arising 
from  actual  want  and  starvation,  which  starvation  and  which 
want  were  caused  by  the  very  pressure  upon  the  country  which 
was  also  the  cause  of  yourselves  at  length  obtaining  political 
power ;  to  you  who  in  the  midst  of  war,  loans,  and  subsidies, 
got  together  a  bullion  committee,  with  your  oracle  Horner  at  its 
head,  to  recommend  that  the  Bank  of  England  should  be  com- 
pelled to  pay,  which  was  then  totally  impossible,  its  notes  in 
gold  ;  to  you  who,  in  the  midst  of  peace,  have  passed  a  bill  to 
make  bits  of  paper,  purporting  to  be  promissory  notes  of  this 
TBADING  COMPANY  called  the  Bank  of  England,  compulsor- 
ily  receivable  as  real  money  under  the  name  of  "  legal- tender  ;  '* 
to  you  who  have  passed  bills  striking  at  the  institution  of  trial 
by  jury;  to  you  who  have  patronized  schemes  of  tortur- 
ing prisoners  in  jails,  by  solitary  confinement  and  compelled 
silence  ;  to  you  who  have  tacitly  countenanced  schemes  for  pre- 
vailing upon  the  people  to  outrage  nature  by  preventing  the 
fruitfulness  of  their  wives,  and  by  the  actual  murder  of  their  in- 
fant children  ;  to  you  who  have  accused  these  peaceable,  excel- 
lent and  industrious  people  of  vice,  guilt,  and  idleness,  and 
abrogating  the  wisest  and  best  law  that  ever  was  framed— 
the  humane  43d  of  Elizabeth — have  passed  a  bill  savagely  to 
refuse  them  relief  in  old  age.  in  destitution,  in  sickness,  in  fam- 
ine, ajad  in  want  of  employment;  to  you  who  have  hatched  a 


OH,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS,  173 

scheme  to  fill  England  with  hired  slave-drivers  and  spies  under 
the  name  of  rural  police,  in  order  to  compel  the  people  to  re- 
main quiet  under  laws  subversive  of  all  liberty,  subversive  of 
all  allegiance,  and  subjecting  them  to  die  by  hunger  and  cold  ; 
to  you  under  whose  sway  England,  distracted,  miserable,  and 
almost  in  a  state  of  rebellion  at  home,  blazing  with  incendiary 
fires  caused  by  starvation,  and  echoing  with  the  shouts  of 
tumultuous  meetings,  gathered  together  by  hatred  of  such 
sway,  has  also  become  the  pity  and  scoff  of  foreign  nations  ;  to 
you  under  whose  imbecile  rule  Turkey  has  been  sacrificed, 
Canada  convulsed  with  rebellion,  India  threatened  with  con- 
quest and  dismemberment,  and  the  West  India  islands  on  the 
point  of  throwing  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  United 
States ;  to  you  who  in  the  midst  of  all  these  crimes  ar>d  all 
these  disasters,  have  exhibited  incapacity  and  imbecility  more 
ludicrous  and  at  the  same  time  disastrous  than  ever  were  exhib- 
ited by  the  ministers  of  any  country ;  to  you  who  have  reduced 
the  finances  of  the  country  to  a  state  of  embarrassment  and  dis- 
tress, bordering  on  bankruptcy  and  insolvency ;  to  you  who, 
without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  Parliament,  have  spent 
money  to  the  amount  of  four  millions  belonging  to  depositors  in 
savings'  banks,  and  added  the  amount  to  the  national  debt ;  to 
you  who,  in  spite  even  of  this  dishonesty,  have,  by  your  wicked 
extravagance,  rendered  actual  loans  in  the  time  of  peace  neces- 
sary ;  to  you  in  fine  who  by  your  crimes,  ignorance,  tyranny, 
folly,  infatuation  and  imbecility,  have  had  showered  upon  you 
a  more  astounding  inixture  of  curses,  hatred,  contempt,  derision 
and  laughter,  than  ever  yet  fell  to  the  lot  of  mortal  men ;  to 
you  whose  villainies  we  detest,  whose  ignorance  we  ha\7e  ex 
posed,  whose  stupidity  we  have  ridiculed  ;  to  you  we  dedicate 
this  book,  hoping  that  it  will  efficiently  help  to  swell  the  tMe  of 
detestation,  despite  and  scorn  under  which  you  are  sinking,  and 
under  which  you  will  finally  sink  never  more  to  exist  as  a  politi- 
cal party,  but  to  be  buried  forever  under  the  heavy  abhorrence 
and  disdain  of  the  people  of  England,  and  of  none  more  than  of 
THE  WRITERS  OF  THE  NORTHERN  LIBERATOR." 

On  the  third  of  May.  1839,  is  printed  the  following  In  The 
Northern  Liberator: 

"At  a  late  meeting  in  Meath,  held  by  the  Whig  landlords  and  briefless 
place  hunters  of  that  county,  lor  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  vampires 
(Whigs)  in  office,  Mr.  Sharman  Crawford  delivered  himself  after  the  fol- 
lowing fashion : 

"  My  lords  and  gentlemen,  I  felt  myself  especially  called  on  to  come 
forward  on  this  occasion,  in  consequence  of  certain  sentiments  put  forward 
by  Mr.  O'Connell,  at  a  dinner  given  to  that  gentleman  in  Newry  some 
few  days  ago.  He  then  asked  why  would  not  Sharman  Crawford  come 
forward  on  the  present  momentous  occasion,  and  assist  his  iellow  coun- 
trymen ?  Mr.  O'Connell  further  said  that  he  apprehended  some  harsh 
expressions  made  use  of  by  him  might  be  an  impediment,  and  expressed 
a  willingness  that  these  expressions  might  be  forgotten.  Now,  I  most 
oordiaHy  respond  to  this  declaration.  (Tremendous  cheering  among  the 


174  THE    ODD    BOOK    OP    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

Whig  landlords,  which  lasted  several  minutes.)  Every  expression  sav- 
oring of  political  hostility  should  be  forgotten— (renewed  cheering)— and 
as  long  as  the  honorable  and  learned  gentleman  proceeds  :n  this  course^ 
I  promise  him  that  nothing  shall  emanate  from  me  to  revive  past  differ- 
ences. (Great  applause.)  But  at  the  same  time  whilst  I  state  this,  let  it 
be  understood  that  I  will  ma.ntain  those  public  principles  which  I  have 
ever  maintain  d,  but  I  will  endeavor  to  maintain  them  without  offence 
to  the  honorable  and  learned  gentleman,  or  to  any  other  individual.  ] 
can  assure  the  meet  ng  that  il  required  no  submission  from  Mr.  O'Goun«ll 
to' join  in  the  national  movement,  when  I  could,  in  conformity  with  my 
own  principles,  join  in  it.  I  consider  that  any  public  man  wtio,  from  a 
personal  feeling,  would  hesitate  to  join  in  an  effort  for  his  country's  iree- 
dom,  is  unworthy  of  the  respect  or  confluence  of  the  people.  (Hear, 
hear."). 

The  Whigs  were  at  this  time  more  uttrely  detested  by  thfr 
operatives  of  England,  than  ever  was  party  before  or  since. 
The  indescribable  horror  of  the  starvation  poor-laws,  had  fallen 
a  social  pestilence  over  the  whole  land.  The  Writer's  of  Th& 
Liberator  were  continually  dragging  out  its  sin  and  hideous- 
ness  before  people.  The  Whigs  were  then  hard  at  work  fasten- 
ing the  same  heartrending  evils  over  Ireland.  Then  Mr.  Craw- 
ford joined  them.  Was  my  reception  of  the  news  too  savage? 
Here  it  is  as  published  in  The  Libwator : 

" '  No  doubt  the  Godless  Whig  factions  will  chuckle  loudly  over  this- 
new  conversion,  and  hold  it  up  as  a  proof  irrefragable  of  the  justice, 
benevolence,  and  wisdom  of  th»>ir  own  accursed  sway  both  in  Ireland 
and  England.  Doubtless  it  will  be  adduced  as  one  other  evidence  of  the 
unreasonableness  and  'impracticability'  of  Englishmen's  claims  to 
citizenship.  Even  Sharman  Crawford  has  deserted  them;  even  that 
gentleman  sees  the >' national'  necessity  that  exists  for  cherishing  'lib- 
eral' government  in  Irel-ind.  Stiff-necked  Radicals!  some  of  you  even 
denied  the  mildness  and  justice  of  our  rule  in  Ireland ;  what  now  can  you 
say  lor  yourselves?  Doos  not  Sharman  Crawford  know  more  about 
Irish  affairs  than  you  English,  unwashed,  malcontents  can  protend  to 
know?  Look  at  his  testimony  recorded  above,  and  shrink  back  con- 
founded, or  seek  in  your  acknowledged  ignorance  an  excuse  for  your 
wickedness  and  folly ! '  Such,  no  doubt,,  will  be  the  triumphant  burst  of 
virtu  us  Whig  indignation;  and  we  know  not  where  to  take  refuge  from 
it,  save  in  the  following  letter,  addressed  to  Mr.  Devyr  (of  this  journal) 
on  the  6th  of  November,  1837.  This  letter  was  never  before  published, 
and  the  original,  in  Mr.  Crawford's  hand-writing,  is  in  our  possession  at 
the  present  moment.' "  After  referring  to  private  matters,  it  proceeds 
thus: 

"  If  ever  a  country  was  in  a  degraded  position  Ireland  is  that  country. 
I  really  feel  what  I  never  thought  i  should  Jeel,  that  it  is  an  actual  dis- 
credit for  a  man  to  avow  himself  an  Irishman.  There  is  no  public  mind 
Or  opinion,  there  is  no  a-ting  principle  but  the  vile  one  of  a  spirit  of  per- 
sonal hostility  to  the  Tory  party.  1  say  personal  hostility  alone,  for  if 
they  have  vengeance  against  the  individuals  of  that  party,  by  keeping 
them  out  of  power,  they  oire  not  one  straw  about  the  rights  or  interests 
of  the  nation,  and  they  become  the  degraded  slaves,  the  lick-spittles  (to 
use  a  common  phrase)  of  one  man,  and  through  him  of  the  Whig  govern- 
ment. Look  at  the  dissolution  of  that  degraded  body  the  National  Asso- 
ciation, and  the  grounds  for  it ;  they  say  they  trust  this  government,  and 
what  cause  have  they  ?  Do  thev  not  know  the  Corporation  Bill  which 
they  brought  forward,  and  the  'Tithe  Bill,  and  above  all,  that  which  would 
be  the  greatest  curse  of  Ireland,  the  abominable  Poor  Law  Bill— the  Bat- 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  175 

Kte  Prison  Bill;  and  with  all  those  measures  to  be  discussed  for  Ireland, 
this  petty  mock  parliament  of  Ireland  dissolves  itself,  and  the  people  are 
not  to  say  one  word  tor  themselves,  not  even  to  express  an  opinion  as  to 
what  they  want  or  desire.  And  when  I  speak  of  the  tithes,  at  this  very 
moment  the  government  is  affording  all  the  aid  of  the  civil  and  military 
power  of  the  state  to  illegal  services.  The  Irish  Liberals  plume  them- 
selves on  returning  such  a  body  of  what  they  call  Liberal  members ;  and 
what  are  these  Liberal  members  ?  Men  not  pledged  to  a  single  princi- 
ple, except  that  of  being  the  hacks  of  O'Gonnell  and  the  Whig  govern- 
ment. Was  there  ever  such  a  degrading  position  for  any  nation  to  place 
itself  in!" 

Now,  this  glorious  humbuggcr  is  trying  to  humbug  the  English 
»ation,  and  seems  likely  to  succeed.  Read  his  letters  to  the  tradesmen 
London,  and  the  people  of  Stockport,  taking  altogether  a  differnt  tack, 
stimulating  the  people  to  act  for  themselves  iti  P^ngland,  whilst  ho  la 
crushing  the  act  ion  of  the  people  in  Ireland ;  and  this  on  the  idea  that 
the  Irish  have  already  agitated,  and  are  up  to  agitation..  And  what  ia 
the  agitation  they  are  up  to?  To  be  his  humble  slaves  and  tools,  and 
when  ho  gets  the  English  into  the  same  position,  he  will  be  content  with 
the  agitation  there  also.  And  can  the  English  forget  his  conduct  all  the 
last  session  of  Parliament,  and  his  conduct  about  the  factory  question  ? 
«to.,  etc.,  t-to.  This  man's  powers  of  humbug  are,  to  be  sure,  orb-emi- 
nent, when  he  can  thus  cajole  even  Englishmen  and  Scotchmen,  by  keep- 
ing up  the  cry  against  Toryism— AND  AT  THE  SAME  TIME  ACTUALLY 
SUPPORTING  IN  IRELAND  TORY  PRINCIPLES,  UNDER  THE  SHAH  OP 
WHIGGISM  ! ! ! 

There,  Englishmen !  "  Look  on  this  picture  and  on  that."  At  Sharman 
Crawford  then  and  now.  Oh,  ttie  contrast  ia  disgusting— and- .thank 
Providence  that  you  have  escaped  from  m>n,  and  grounded  your  sole 
Confidence  and  hop*  >  on  those  principles  that  will  not  or  cannot  deceive 
you.  Well,  may  we  exclaim  with  Cowper : 

"The  aee  ol  virtuous  politics  is  past, 
Aud  we  are  deep  in  that  of  cold  pretence." 

Thus  we  see  the  Inmate  vice  of  a  landed  aristocracy,  in  eyen  its 
best  and  mildest  specimens.  At  the  time  Mr.  Crawford  wrote 
the  above  ('37)  letter  there  was  no  sign  of  tempest  in  the  politi- 

oul  sky. 

"  All  seemed  as  peaceful  and  as  still. 
As  tha  mists  slumbering  on  yon  hill." 

But  now  ('39)  the  voice  of  England  was  re-echoing  from  every 
city,  and  village,  factory  and  farmhouse.  The  people  were 
making  common  cause  with  the  "order"  proscribed  by  the 
aristocrats — the  order  of  labor  and  starvation. 

The  aristocrats  were  also  making  common  cause  to  stand  by 
their  "  order  "—the  order  of  idleness  and  plunder,  and,  true  to 
the  brotherhood,  even  Sharman  Crawford  is  on  their  side. 

Pertinent  to  the  subject,  and  just  here,  let  me  present  a  con- 
trast furnished  by  "  The  Writers  of  The  Liberator"  Men  whose 
selves,  or  progenitors,  never  stole  a  foot  of  land,  or  clutched  a 
^billing  earned  by  another  man's  toil.  Had  he  not  been  edu- 
cated in  a  Lie  and  an  inheritor  of  Stolen  Goods,  Mr.  Crawford 


I7(i  THK    ulH>    iiu>K    OJf    'JHK    NINKTJiENTH    CKNTURY ; 

might  have  been  a  good  man.  A  man  nearly  as  good  as  <4  The 
Writers  of  The  Liberator."  Now  look  at  the  contrast.  See  iu 
the  foregoing  dedication  bow  they  take  Mr.  Crawford  by  the 
political  throat. 

What  strikes  one  with  utter  astonishment  is  that  those  good 
men  did  not  see  that  the  Land  llobbery  of  England— the  shut- 
ting of  the  people  of  England  out  from  the  soil  of  England,  the 
Demesnes,  Parks  and  Chases  of  England,  driving  the  people 
into  the  hovels,  cellars  and  garrets  of  England,  with  nothing  to 
live  upon.  But  above  all,  and  overshadowing  all  the  rest,  the 
Land  Bents,  that  those  wise  and  good  men  did  not  see  that  here 
was  an  evil  five  times  greater,  more  direct  and  criminal  than 
even  the  blood-bought  Rotten  Borough  Debt.  But  peace  to 
their  memory  !  Never  did  truer  men  lift  a  voice  or  a  pen  in  the 
sacred  cause  of  Humanity.  Of  their  trenchant  ability  let  me 
give  this  highly  instructive  example  : 

WHIG  AND  TOUT. 

JANUARY  20, 1838.— A  Whig  has  rather  a  lean,  sallow,  and  impassioned 
appearance,  HS  if  he  had  long  been  estranged  from  the  pood  things  of 
onlcc,  and  been  subjected  to  an  astringent  course  of  private  and  public 
economy ;  he  is  a  sort  of  political  huckster,  dealing  in  small  wares  such 

ts," 
the 


ors  to  sot  up  in  his  little  establishment  with  every  attention  to  stage 
effect;  he  spouts  liberalism  freely  at  elections  and  public  dinners,  but 
in  the  House  of  Commons  he  sings  small,  and  rounds  his  periods  with 
a  Conservative  prudence;  he  lays  down  all  general  principles  with  a 
saving  portion  of  reservations,  qualifications  and  conditions ;  he  is  bold 
and  warlke  out  of  office,  but  tame  and  pusillanimous  when  in;  pen- 
sions and  grants  are  the  staple  commodities  of  his  eloquent  indignation 
when  on  the  hustings,  but  in  the  House  they  become  sacred  and  vested 
rights;  he  pretends  to  an  intimate  acquaintance  of.  and  a  deep  venera- 
tion for,  the  great  principles  of  constitutional  freedom  and  liberty;  but 
his  sou!  is  a  compound  of  narrow  views,  little  spites,  and  shuflling  expe- 
dients; in  line,  he  makes  a  stepping  stone  of  public  confidence  and 
credulity  for  his  own  selfish  ends,  and  under  the  plea  of  promoting  the 
national  welfare,  is  only  intent  on  consolidating  his  own  power  and  in- 
fluence. 

A  Tory  is,  in  general,  distinguished  by  a  full,  sleek,  rotundity  of  out- 
line, as  if  he  had  long  browsed  at  his  ease  in  the  rich  pastures  of  political 
profusion ;  like  the  rich  man  in  the  parable,  he  gives  evident  indications 
of  having  "  fared  sumptuously  every  day;"  his  mind  (to  use  a  material 
metaphor)  is  soft  and  spongy,  or,  as  common  language  terms  it,  weak 
and  silly,  and  if  ever  it  arrives  above  mediocrii  y,  the  man  turns  a 
knave;  he  entertains  a  morbid  terror  and  hatred  of  all  "Innovation" 
and  always  follows  in  the  wake  of  that  social  and  political  blasphe- 
my Improvement  with  a  sulky  and  growling  step;  he  talks  loudly 
o!  the  sacrcdness  of  the  Church,  while  his  life  is  one  continued 
BOene  of  sensuality,  and  profanation;  he  eulogizes  the  Constitution, 
whilo  lie  knows  as  liUle  of  either  its  history,  or  nature,  as  it  does 
ef  hint;  he  day  by  day  feeds  his  mind  with  the  lowest  intellectual 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  17 '• 

garbage;  his  nightly  slumbers  are  broken  and  disturbed  with  spec- 
tral v.sions  of  massacres,  murders,  and  gibbets;  he  shows  a  sneak- 
ing and  fawning  disposition  to  what  he  calls  respectability,  but 
whatever  promotes  his  own  interests  is  all  ho  has  m  view;  he  is 
never  troubled  with  any  lofty  asp  rations  alter  anything  beyond  tho 
mere  raw  material  of  human  existence;  he  has  no  remembrance  of  past 
political  events,  save  the  simple  fart  that  his  hands  are  now  in  the  pub- 
lic purse;  in  line,  he  is  a  social  and  political  outcast,  smarting  under  the 
Combined  and  mortifying  feeling's  or  envy  and  disappointment. 

The  movement  had  now  continued  for  over  a  year,  and  no 
interference  with  it  was  attempted  by  the  government.  But 
early  In  August,  1838,  the  Birmingham  magistrates  applied  to 
the  government  for  a  body  of  the  London  police  to  put  down  a 
series  of  daily  meetings  then  being  held  in  the  "  Bull  Ring  "  of 
that  town.  This  they  accomplished  by  a  sudden  onslaught  with 
their  olubs,  beating  down  a  passage  through  the  crowd  and 
seizing  upon  the  leaders  on  the  platforms.  This  exasperated  the 
Democracy  all  over  the  country.  In  the  outraged  town  itself 
a  riot  shortly  ensued  that  did  a  good  deal  of  damage  to  iron 
railings,  and  held  possession  for  I  don't  know  how  long,  I  think 
a  night  and  most  of  two  days.  Then  commenced  the  work  of 
"  preparation,"  and  from  that  time  till  November  we  computed 
sixty  thousand  pikes  made  and  shafted  on  the  Tyne  and  .Wear. 

At  this  distance  of  time  and  place  the  number  would  seem  to 
be  exaggerated.  But  I  was  at  the  very  center  of  the  movement, 
not  only  as  a  principal  officer  of  the  Northern  Political  Union, 
but  as  the  reporter  and  working  editor  of  The  Liberator.  In  the 
latter  capacity  I  was  always  on  hand  to  receive  reports  and 
deputations  from  all  the  surrounding  districts,  not  only  on  the 
Tyne  but  on  the  Wear.  And  I  was  present  in  some  part  of 
nearly  every  Saturday  at  the  pike  market,  to  take  sharp 
note  of  tho  sales.  The  market  was  held  in  a  long 'gar- 
ret room,  over  John  Blakey's  shop  in  the  Side.  In  rows 
were  benches  of  boards,  supported  on  tressels,  along,  which 
the  Winlaton  and  Swalwall  chain  and  nail  makers -brought 
in  their  interregnum  of  pikes,  each  a  dozen  or  two, 
rolled  up  in  the  smtth's  apron.  The  price  for  a .  fin- 
ished and  polished  article  was  two  shillings  and  sixpence. 
For  the  article  in  rougher  shape,  but  equally  "serviceable,  the 
price  was  eighteenpence.  I  see  it  noted  elsewhere  that  down  in 
the  Norfolk  region  the  price  was  only  half  that  amount,  but  at 
the  figure  I  mention  our  hand-hammer  manufacturers  could  not 
•supply  the  demand.  Instance.  Enter  three  men  to  the  Liberator 


V78  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

Office.  One  speaks :  "  This  youth  wants  a  pike,  and  they're  all 
sold.  You  must  let  him  have  yours  that  you  bought  last  week." 
"  What  am  I  to  do  myself  ?  I  bought  the  implement  only 
Because  I  wanted  it,  and  friend  M.  has  the  shaft  almost  ready." 
*  But  you  have  a  gun  and  a  case  of  pistols,  and  with  good  use 
^hose  will  keep  you  busy."  "I  have  thought  of  all  that,  but  a 
pike  may  be  more  useful  in  some  contingencies.  In  short  I 
want  it  myself."  "  Well,  if  you  do,  I'll  engage  to  procure'  one 
for  you  before  the  week's  out,"  so  turning  round  to  his  protegee, 
"  out  with  that  half  crown,  you  can't  go  empty  away."  The  ex- 
change was  made,  and  the  three  departed,  all  of  them  furnished 
now.  I  cite  this  fact  as  throwing  light  on  the  condition  of 
things.  It  is  seen  that  the  market  was  unusually  good,  the 
price  unusually  high,  and  the  workmen  all  around  unusually 
willing.  At  the  time,  as  closely  as  we  could  calculate,  we 
counted  sixty  thousand  shafted  pikes. 

The  arming  was  not  at  all  concealed.  By  the  preceding  ad- 
dress to  the  people  of  Ireland,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  was  openly 
avowed,  and  the  right  to  do  so  distinctly  and  defiantly  asserted. 
One  man  brought  before  the  magistrates  for  some  trifling 
offence  was  found  to  have  two  pikes  concealed  under  his  coat. 
He  stated  that  he  was  afraid  of  his  house  being  attacked,  and 
purchased  them  to  defend  it.  He  was  discharged,  and  went 
home,  carrying  his  pikes  with  him, 

The  onslaught  on  Birmingham  set  Newcastle  aflame.  Every 
night  was  a  night  of  business,  of  public  meeting,  or  of  the  coun- 
cil. At  those  the  rioting  at  Birmingham  was  thus  described : 

"  On  Thursday  evening,  the  people  were  assembled  in  the  Bull  Bine  as 
usuiU.  ft  workingman  reading  a  newspaper,  when  police  just  arrived 
from  London,  with  two  magistrates  at  their  head,  marched  on  them  three 
abreast,  and  clubbed  right  and  left  men  women  and  children.  The  men 
rallied  and  attacked  the  police,  who  fled  in  all  directions,  seven  danger- 
ously wounded.  Dr.  Taylor  saved  the  lives  of  two  policemen.  The  Mayor 
and  Col.  Ohatterton  were  soon  on  the  ground,  and.  supported  by  the  Rifles 
and  *th  Dragoons,  read  the  Riot  Act,  cleared  the  streets  and  guarded  their 
entrances.  At  half- past  ten  the  people  chanting  "Fall  Tyrants,  Fall.'  re- 
newed the  combat,  but  having  neither  firearms  nor  pikes,  bludgeons 
and  stones  were  o!  no  avail.  Marching  to  Hollo  way  head,  they  tore  up  the 
iron  railings  of  a  church,  overturning  their  massive  granite  foundations. 
With  tuoae  they  were  again  rushing  to  combat  the  military,  when  Dr.  Tay- 
lor and  McDowal.  of  the  convention  which  was  then  sitting,  came  forward, 
and  dis&uaded  and  drove  back  the  people.  Shortly  after  Dr.  Taylor  was 
arrested  in  his  hotel.  At  nine  o'clock  next  morning  the  convention  reas- 
passed  resolutions,  the  last  one, '  that  the  people  of  Binning- 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  179 

ham  would  judge  of  their  right  to  meet,  and  of  their  power  and  resources 
to  obtain  justice.'  The  people  were  advised  not  to  conflict  with  the  mili- 
tary, but  hold  the  Borough  authorities  responsible.  Lord  John  Russell 
dare  not  enter  a  borough  town  with  military  to  suppress  discussion  with- 
out a  requisition  from  the  local  authorities." 

A  meeting  in  Newcastle  thus  proceeded : 
Mr.  Mason  proposed  the  first  resolution : 

"  That  the  magistrates  of  Birmingham  had  committed  high  treason 
against  the  people,  the  Constitution,  and  the  Queen,  '  Protection,'  he  said, 
had  been  withdrawn,  and  the  peole  now  stood  absolved  from  their 
allegiance." 

Mr.  Thomason  seconded  the  resolution.  Bather  than  see  the 
present  syystem  of  fraud  and  oppression  continue,  he  would 
see  every  town,  and  village,  and  court,  and  castle  one  smoking 
ruin. 

Mr.  Devyr  moved  the  second  resolution : 

"  That  if  the  government  attempted  to  put  down  discussion  In  Newcas- 
tle, the  people  would  meet  their  illegal  act  by  Constitutional  resistance." 

He  adverted  to  the  idle  ruffians  who  rotted  on  £100,000  a 
year,  and  ordered  the  toiling  people  to  starve  on  six  shillings  a 
week.  He  referred  to  the  force  of  the  clubbed  muskets  at 
Bunker  Hill ;  to  the  Circassians  in  arms  against  the  Czar ;  to 
the  United  Men  of  New  Boss  and  Oulart  Hill.  The  middle 
classes  might  talk  of  a  physical  revolution  with  horror.  Not  so 
the  people  ;  even  a  recruiting  sergeant  urged  the  men  of  Birm- 
ingham to  resist  their  tyrants  to  the  death.  Now  the  old  help- 
less, infirm  people  die  100,000  every  year  of  famine  and  a 
broken  heart.  Force  to  force  must  now  be  the  motto. 

Mr.  Cockburn  (blind)  seconded  the  resolution.  "Never  had 
people  moved  for  right  but  tyrants  met  them  with  brute  force. 
The  Whig  Reform  Bill  was  carried  by  physical  force."  He 
urged  a  general  arming.  Now  or  never  they  must  prepare  for 
war. 

Next  day  the  following  placard  was  posted  round  the  streets : 

"  Julien  Harney  was  arrested  last  night  in  Bedlington." 
"MEN  OF  DURHAM  AND  NORTHUMBERLAND.— Your  oppressors  have  Bet 
the  majesty  of  the  people  at  utter  defiance.  They  have  determined  that 
you  shall  live  a  life  of  toil,  and  die  a  death  of  hunger  when  you  can  toil 
no  more.  If  you  do  not  submit  to  this,  they  will  consign  you  to  a  bloody 
grave  by  the  grand  old  argument  the  bayonet,  the  bullet,  the  halter." 

Then  this  comes  from  the  other  side : 

"  Whereas,  Certain  ill-disposed  persons  are  In  the  habit  of  meeting 
within  the  limits  of  this  borough  and  using  inflammatory  and  seditious 


J80  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUEYJ 

language,  calculated  to  make  Hor  Majesty's  subjects  discontented  with 
Iheir  condition,  and  to  produce  terror  in  the  minds  of  the  population. 

"  This,  therefore,  is  to  give  notice  that  those  tumultuous  assemblages  will 
not  be  longer  suffered  to  take  place  within  tho  precincts  ol  this  Borough. 

"  JOHN  FIFE.  Mayor. 

"  God  save  the  Queen.  In  the  name  of  the  Corporation." 

Whereupon  "  The  Council  of  the  Northern  Political  Union " 
met  immediately,  and  before  the  sun  set  the  following  counter  f 
proclamation  anorued  the  walls  : 

"  Wliereas,  Certain  men  calling  themselves  the  Corporation  of  New- 
castle-on-Tyne,  have  presumed  to  call  in  question  the  inalienable  right  of 
Englishmen  to  meet,  discuss,  and  petition  the  Queen  and  Parliament  lor 
a  redress  of  their  grievances ;  and 

"  Whereas.  These  men  have  presumed  to  forbid  the  exercise  of  a  right 
founded  in  the  Constitution,  and  have  assumed  the  power  which  does  not 
belong  even  to  the  Queen  and  the  Parliament: 

"Now.  therefore,  we,  the  Council  of  the  Northern  Political  Union,  pro- 
olaim  to  the  peopleof  this  Borough  and  surrounding  neighborhood,  that 
it  is  their  duty  to  meet  for  the  exercise  of  this  Constitutional  right,  and 
«ho\v  to  the  Corporation  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne  that  this  assumed  power 
of  theirs  is  held  in  utter  contempt  by  all  good  Englishmen. 

*•  God  save  the  People." 

"  POSTSCRIPT.— A  meeting  will  b«  held  in  tho  Forth  every  evening  at  half 
past  six." 

Excitement  rose  high,  and  a  company  of  52  dragoons  pa- 
trolled the  streets.  They  were  loudly  cheered.  A  body  of  dra- 
goons were  ordered  to  service  in  Bedlington.  Notwithstanding 
their  presence  and  that  of  two  magistrates,  a  meeting  of  thou- 
sands was  held  on  the  green  of  that  town. 

In  response  to  our  proclamation  the  Winlaton  and  Swalwall 
bands  marched  into  town,  flanked  by  thousands.  Two  table  plat- 
forms were  constructed  on  the  Forth.  Messrs.  Hepburn,  Ayr, 
Parkinson,  Mason,  Cockburn,  liucastle  and  Byrne,  spoke,  and 
resolutions  to  keep  the  peace,  but  to  resist  illegal  force  were 
adopted.  Fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  men  were  present.  Formed 
«ix  or  eight  abreast,  they  marched  through  the  principal  streets 
when  the  meeting  was  over.  A  letter  was  read  from  Dr.  Taylor, 
that  "he  was  bailed,  but  his  hair  had  been  cut  off  during  his 
brief  confinement."  A  very  foolish,  because  a  very  exasper- 
ating, thing  for  the  magistrates  to  do.  The  letter  was  printed 
as  a  handbill  and  circulated  in  large  numbers.  Next  day  at  4 
Vclock  the  Winlaton  band  came  in,  and  multitudes  (though  they 
were  requested  to  send  only  delegations)  assembled  in  greater 
lumbers  than  the  day  before.  Mr.  Gumbleton,  a  collier,  took 


OK,    THE    SPI10T    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  181 

the  chair.  James  Ayr  arrived  from  Carlisle,  where  10,000 
were  meeting  every  evening  on  the  Sands.  They  projected  a 
convention  from  all  the  large  towns,  and  invited  Newcastle  to 
send  a  delegate.  Mr.  Mason  came  in  from  a  meeting  at  Sneddin 
Hill,  where  the  colliers  could  hardly  be  dissuaded  from  com- 
mencing the  strike.  He  read  from  Birmingham  that  Mr.  Lovett 
and  John  Collins  had  been  arrested.  On  their  examination, 
both  bravely  declared  their  opinion  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
people  to  resist  illegal  force,  brought  against  them  by  men  who 
usurped  the  power  of  making  laws  without  the  consent  of  the 
people.  The  meeting  passed  a  resolution  extolling  the  lofty 
and  straightforward  conduct  of  Messrs  Lovell  and  Collins,  and 
spoke  with  contempt  of  the  "picturesque  politics"  of  Mr. 
Mutz,  M.  P. 

WEDNESDAY.— A  false  rumor  that  the  military  had  been  called 
out  in  Glasgow,  and  that  the  people  of  Carlisle  were  besieging 
the  castle,  gave  increased  intensity  to  public  excitement  About 
one  o'clock  the  Birmingham  paper,  arrived,  and  the  news  was 
Issued  in  a  placard.  The  Convention  sitting  in  Birmingham  had 
issued  an  address,  in  which  was  the  following : 

"  Tradesmen  of  Birmingham.  Englishmen!  The  laws  of  your  country 
have  been  broken  by  blood-thirsty  magistrates;  and  murderous  police- 
men have  spilled  the  blood  of  your  people.  A  committee  must  be  elected 
to  guard  over  the  public  safety,  each  trade  a  delegate  to  represent  itself. 
Decision  and  energy  I  or  you  will  be  driven  back  to  the  curfew  of  the  Nor- 
man invader. 

Endorsed  by  the  Newcastle  council  thus  : 

•'  There  is  a  glorious  example,  follow  it  speedily.    Let  no  time  be  lost." 

Before  seven  o'clock  the  lower  part  of  the  Side  was  occupied 
by  a  dense  crowd,  which  made  way  for  slowly  passing  carriages, 
the  policemen  not  interfering  to  enforce  the  "  Street  Act."  A 
large  procession,  with  bands  and  banners,  crossed  the  bridge  to 
Gateshead,  returned  largely  reinforced,  and  proceeded  to  th* 
Forth  numbering  many  thousand  more  than  any  previous  meet- 
ing. News  from  Birmingham  announced  immense  crowds  at  a 
public  meeting  at  Weighbury,  the  rifles  patroling  the  streets, 
and  the  wounded  policemen  recovering,  which  elicited  expres- 
sions of  glad  sympathy  from  the  crowd.  Mr.  Devyr  read  a  letter 
from  James  Williams,  of  Sunderland,  describing  a  meeting  o£ 
20,000  on  the  Moor,  which  was  joined  by  1,000  which  came  down 
OE  the  railway  from  Thornly,  Howell,  etc.  Never  was  such 


182  THE   ODD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

hospitality  shown  in  Sunderland  as  that  night  to  those  visitors. 
The  men  of  the  West  were  ready  to  stand  by  the  Convention. 

Tho  Council  met  in  the  evening.  News  from  Shields,  and  the 
following  subscriptions:  —  Bensham,  Os.  Gd. ;  Gosforth,  5s.  4d. ; 
Brondling  Place,  3s.  3d. ;  St.  Lawrence,  10s.  lOd. ;  Cookson's  Glass 
Works,  3s. ;  Toward  aid,  2s. ;  Two  gentlemen's  servants,  2a. ; 
Gatoshead,  12s. ;  Uxworth,  £1,  and  £2,  8s.  l#d. ;  Leg  Hill,  £1,  4s-. 
£d. ;  Upworth  and  Ouston,  9s.  3d. ;  J.  Kent,  Is ;  Newcastle,  £8,  10s, 
8^d. ;  Skinner's  Burn  Pottery,  4s.  These  sums  are  interesting 
aa  an  indication  of  the  finance  department.  We  had  no  scarcity  of 
money  for  necessary  use. 

THURSDAY. — Excitement ;  crowds ;  news  from  Birmingham,  and 
the  following  address,  in  handbill,  was  placarded  over  the  town, 
.and  neighborhood.  It  was  also  extensively  circulated  at  a  penny 
by  a  crier  of  first  speech  as,  who  went  about  shouting  "  A  full  and 
true  account  of  the  'Middle  Classes'  of  the  Northern  Political 
Union."  This  was  the  only  sparkle  of  amusement  imparted  to 
the  deep  feeling — almost  anxiety — that  was  expressed  on  every 
countenance.  A  downpour  of  rain  only  quickened  the  march  to  tho 
Forth,  and  packed  all  the  denser  tho  convened  thousands.  Mr. 
Hepburn  (collier),  tho  Chairman,  announced  that  numbers  of  the 
idle  classes  were  joining  tho  movement.  More  news  frora  Birm- 
ingham. Assaults  on  tho  people,  and  meetings  dispersed.  Con- 
vention propose  national  organizations  under  officers.  Mr.  Burns, 
M.  C. :  "  If  the  magistrates  Peterloo  us,  wo  will  Moscow  England." 
This  is  the  address  : 

TO  THE  MIDDLE  CLASSES  OF  THE  NOKTH  OF  ENGLAND. 

GENTLEMEN  :  — Wo  address  you  in  tho  language  of  brotherhood,  prob- 
ably for  tho  last  time.  Up  to  tho  very  last  moment  you  have  shut  your 
senses  to  reason;  but  now  that  the  last  moment  for  moral  appeal  has 
arrived,  perhaps  you  will  listen  to  this  last  appeal  of  tho  people. 

With  n  folly  that  will  bo  the  wonder  of  future  r,ges,  you  have  placed  a 
blind  confidence  in  the  Whig  Aristocracy ;  you  have  surrendered  into  their 
hands  your  "right  of  thought,"  and  any  decree  they  please  to  send  forth 
you  look  upon  as  if  it  were  a  decree  from  On  High. 

And  now  let  us  ask  you  a  few  questions  touching  tho  claims  which  this 
Aristocracy  has  upon  your  respect  and  confidence.  Keflect  upon,  theaa 
questions,  and  answer  them  like  rational  men : 

Are  you  and  your  posterity  mortgaged  to  pay  tho  boroughmongers'  debt? 
Are  you  not  compelled  to  pay  on  an  average  threo  times  tho  valuo  lor  bread, 
meat,  wino,  spirits,  teas  and  everything  you  consume,  in  order  to  support 
the  Jew  swindlers  and  a  perfumed,  insolent  Aristocracy? 

Are  you  not  shut  out  from  tho  manly  sports  and  recreations  which 
•neo  were  tho  health  and  pride  of  Englishmen  ?  If,  after  your  six 
months'  conflnooient  in  the  ware  or  counting  house,  you  wish  for  a  day's 


OR,    THE    61'lliIT    OV    CH1VALHY    IN .  MOUEKN    DAYS.  18$ 

port-  over  the  lake  or  mountain,  arc  you  not  toM  that  th-3  iiali,  tae  fowl, 
and  the  wild  animal,  all  must  be  preserved  lor  my  lord  s  usu  awl  amuse- 
ment, and  it  you  petsifct  to  assert  your  natural  right  over  them,  are  you 
not  punished  wit;i  tine  and  imprisonment  ? 

"WiU  the  Aristocracy  associate  w.th  you— will  they  endure  an  alliaaoe 
by  marriage  with  what  they  Impudently  denominate  your  base  biood  ? 

Do  they  not,  in  one  word,  de-pise  and  oppress  you  as  much  as  they  do 
the  working  men,  the  only  diiference  being  that  you  are  able,  and  would 
appear  willing,  to  bear  the  yoke,  whilst  we  are  unable,  aud,  thank  God, 
neither  are  wo  willing  to  hear  it  V 

Is  not  the  money  piundervd  from  the  people  and  spent  in  the  debauch 
of  the  Court,  or  the  profligacy  of  the  Continent;  is  the  money,  we  ask* 
not  virtually  abstracted  from  your  trade  and  profits  ?  Would  we  carry 
away  our  money  to  squander  it  on  the  dancers,  gamesters,  and  prosti- 
tutes of  the  continental  cit.es,  or  would  we  lay  it.  out  at  home  in  food, 
elotuing,  and  other  necessary  articles,  to  the  great  beuelit  of  domestic 
trade  and  manufactures  V 

We  entreat  you,  not  lor  our  sakes,  but  for  your  own,  not  for  the  soiree- 
of  our  families,  but  for  the  sake  of  your  own  wives  and  children,  to  take 
up  these  questions  like  men,  and  calmly  and  rationally  discuss  titeir 
truth  or  falsehood. 

Discussed  tiiey  now  must  be  physically  or  morally— one  way  or  the 
other— even  if  you  are  content  to  remain  quiescent  slaves,  you  will  be 
permitted  to  remain  so  no  longer. 

But  then  comes  your  bugbear,  "If  you,  the  working  men  had  power 
in  your  hands,  there  would  be  no  security  for  life  and  property." 

One  fact,  you  will  yourselves  admit,  is  worth  t  n  thousand  arguments; 
if  tuese  facts  do  not  convince  you,  to  talk  of  reasoning  any  longer  is- 
altogether  out  of  the  question. 

Look  to  America;  in  the  mercantile  States  of  that  republic  all  power  is 
in  the  hands  of  the  people,  their  will  is  law;  and  Is  the  manufacturer 
less  safe  in  his  business,  the  trader  less  s -cure  of  his  property,  than 
in  England  ?  Why,  the  very  lault  of  American  societs  is  the  over  en- 
eourarnagent  and  importance  that  is  given  to  its  trade. 

Look,  t">o,  to  Switzerland,  whose  laws  must  receive  the  sanction  of  the 
whole  male  population,  assembled  in  arms,  from  sixteen  years  of  age 
upward.  Where  is  the  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth  can  boast  of 
more  security  for  life  and  property,  more  absence  of  crime,  more  posi- 
tive virtues  than  are  to  be  found  in  the  mountains,  vaL  s,  and  cities  of 
Switzerland  ?  Look  at  the  soothing  tranquil >ty  of  these  Democratic 
countries,  and  contrast  them  w.th  the  murderous  anarchy  that  even  at 
this  moment  desolates  Aristocratic  Spain. 

Dear  are  our  families  to  us,  dear  our  humble  nornes;  our  feelings  are 
as  human  as  your  own,  and  if  compelled  to  take  tn«  field  in  vindica- 
tion of  our  sacred  rights,  we  shall  do  so  with  our  hearts  yearning  for 
our  helpless  families,  whom  many  of  us  must  never  see  again ;  to  thig 
alternative  we  are  driven  by  a  dire  and  uncontrollable  necessity;  we  are 
uot "  men  of  blood." 

But  blood  is  on  the  land;  it  falls  without  a  record;  hecatombs,  up- 
wards of  100,000  souls,  are  yearly  sacrificed  to  famine  and  a  brokoa 
heart;  the  old,  the  helpless,  the  unresisting  die,  and  no  man  writes  their 
epitaph. 

If  you  be  not  as  blind,  as  hardened  of  heart  as  ever  Pharaoh  was  of 
old,  you  must  perceive  that  a  mighty,  a  thorough,  a  radical  change 
must  now  very  speedily  take  place  in  the  constitution  of  society  in 
these  islands,  a  change  which  it  is  not  in  your  power  to  avert,  though  it 
is  in  your  power  to  give  it  a  peaceful  character. 

Do  you  call  the  courage  of  the  people  in  question  ?  Why  even  the 
Tory  Times  acknowledges  that  contempt  of  death  is  natural  to  every 
errand-boy  in  England. 

But  it  is  not  a  question  of  courage  we  are  discussing  now,  it  is  a  quee- 


184  THK    ODD    BOOK    OW    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTUBT; 

tioB  of  necessity  ;,  watch  your  own  child  as  with  tears  it  implores  for  * 
morsel ;  see  the  eye  of  your  own  wive  and  sister  grow  dim  with  famine? 
feel  hunger  tearing  your  own  vitals ;  then  hear  the  shot-peal  calling  you 
to  death  or  freedom ;  opening  to  you  a  chance  of  escape  from  the  hell 
you  endure,  and  you  will  rush  into  the  shock  of  battle  with  a  joy  bord- 
ering on  madness. 

And  what  will  be  the  result  of  that  strife  of  blood  which  you  alone 
eon  avert  ?  If  successful,  the  people  will  look  on  their  fallen  brothers, 
and  apostrophize  their  mangled  remains  thus :  "  Well,  you  were  sacri- 
ficed by  the  middle  classes;  they  could  have  saved  you,  but  they  would 
not;  they  assisted  and  encouraged  the  Aristocracy  to  murder  you !  Let 
desolation  dwell  in  the  homes  that  made  your  homes  desolate ! "  Mid- 
dle classes :  vengeance,  swift  and  terrible,  will  then  overtake  you. 

On  the  other  hand,  should  the  people  of  England  be  put  down— suppos- 
ing for  a  moment  the  impossibility— what  then  ?  Why,  to  use  the  word 
of  more  than  one  Whig  journal,  they  will  "  DISPERSE  IN  A  MILLION  OF 
INCENDIARIES,"  your  warehouses,  your  homes,  will  be  given  to  the 
flames,  and  one  black  ruin  overwhelm  England ! 

Are  you  prepared  tor  this  ?  If  you  are  contented  to  be  trampled  and 
spat  upon  by  the  Aristocarcy ;  if  you  have  no  pity  for  your  brothers  and 
sisters  in  the  humbler  walks  of  life ;  if  you  feel  not  for  the  myriads  who 
annually  perish  of  cold  and  hunger ;  still  ask  yourselves,  are  you  pre- 
pared to  see  your  own  homes  in  a  blaze ;  your  property  given  to  flames, 
and  no  insurance  to  redeem  it ;  yourselves,  perhaps  j^our  wives  and 
children  shrieking  to  midnight  outlaws  for  that  mercy  which  in  the  day 
of  your  power  you  denied  to  them  ? 

Praying  that  God,  who  endowed  you  with  common  sense  and  human 
feelings,  will  free  your  mind  from  the  prejudice  and  dispose  you  to  do 
your  duty  in  this  terrible  crisis, 

We  remain  (if  not  you  own  faults)  your  sincere  fiiends, 

THE  COUNCIL  OF  THE  NORTHERN  POLITICAL  UNION, 

This  address  created  great  consternation.  The  arrest  of  Mr. 
-John  Bell,  printer,  and  the  owner  of  The,  Liberator,  Mr.  Blakey, 
immediately  followed.  It  was  like  the  Irish  address,  written  by 
myself  but  not  signed  by  the  President  and  Secretaries  of  the 
Council,  Caution  now  became  one  of  the  virtues. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

WE  had  now  fairly  joined  issue  with  the  Mayor  and  Magis- 
trates. In  despite  of  their  proclamation,  the  meetings  on  the 
Forth  continued,  with  increasing  numbers  and  added  enthusiasm. 
Railroad  or  telegraph  were  not,  and  it  took  the  better  part  of  a 
week  for  instructions  to  come  from  Downing  street.  At  the  end 
of  that  time  horse,  foot  and  artillery,  about  800  or  1,000  men,  were 
ordered  out  of  the  barraks  to  bring  the  dispute  to  an  end.  No 
interference  was  made  to  prevent  the  meeting.  It  assembledf 
spoke  from  two  platforms  and  through  a  tempest  of  disloyal 
speeches,  adopted  a  loyal  address  to  the  Queen  to  dismiss  her 
ministers,  and  do  sundry  other  things  which  she  was  not  likely  to 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  185 

do.  All  so  .far  was  a  triumph  to  us.  We  had  vindicated  the 
time-honored  right,  and  stood  on  the  same  vantage  ground 
for  to-morrow's  meeting,  and  to-morrow's— the  authorities 
compelled  to  look  on  or  oppose  the  right  which  was  held  so 
sacred.  But  the  impetuous  would  not  listen  to  our  reasoning. 
They  would  march,  eight  abreast,  through  the  leading  streets — 
now  guarded  by  horse,  foot  and  artillery — not  to  speak  of  the 
special  constables  who  ran,  and  the  municipal  police  who  did  not 
run.  And  so  they  marched  on  Westgate  street,  where  the  force* 
were  drawn  up  to  receive  them,  special  constables  in  front,  police 
second,  military — horse,  foot  and  artilery — third.  The  specials  fled 
into  an  adjoining  church-yard,  behind  the  upright  tombstones,. 
I  was  in  front  of  the  procession,  doing  all  I  could,  in  word  and 
act,  to  persuade  and  push  it  back.  The  Mayor  and  his  Squire, 
Mr.  Brown,  on  horseback,  were  on  the  same  mission  from  the 
time  we  left  the  Forth;  and  it  was  rumored  and  bell  vert-that  « 
pistol  was  leveled  at  him  and  missed  •  fire;  I?  so,  the  crowd 
escaped  a  great  danger,  for,  with  800  men  and  two  pieces  of 
artillery  drawn  up  in  readiness,  great  destruction  of  life  most 
probably  would  have  followed.  However,  though  the  specials  ran 
the  police  did  not.  They  rushed  on  the  crowd,  seized  the  ban- 
ners, and  laid  round  them  with  swords,  wounding  several,  one 
man  very  dangerously.  Our  people  had  been  well  taught  that 
it  was  not  riot  we  wanted,  but  revolution.  So  not  a  stone  was 
thrown.  Fifteen  or  twenty  prisoners  were  taken.  But  the  police 
acted  with  cool  judgment,  not  touching  one  of  the  leaders,  who 
were  in  the  front  of  the  procession,  expostulating  and  striving 
to  drive  it  back.  The  streets  were  cleared  by  the  dragoons, 
good  natured  fellows,  who  laughed  heartily  as  the  women  and 
girls  ran  screaming  out  of  their  way.  Not  so  the  specials. 
Gathering  from  their  hiding  places  when  they  found  there  was 
no  danger,  they  formed  an  awkward  squad,  and  scouring 
through  the  public  houses  turned  out  the  stragglers. 

"  Hangings  they  pricked  and  counters  with  their  swords, 
And  wounded  several  shutters  and  some  boards." 

The  circuit  judges  were  then  sitting  in  Newcastle,  and  the 
grand  jury  had  found  "  true  bills  "  against  several  of  the  leaders, 
myself  among  them.  They  doubtless  meant  this  as  a  blow  to 
the  most  forward  of  us,  to  demoralize  the  approaching  meet- 
ing. Arraigned  before  their  masquerading  lordships  in  their 

24 


186       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CEKTUKI  ? 

black  gowns  and  white  wigs,  Lord  Denman,  who  was  a 
reminded  us,  in  a  rather  quiet  friendly  way,  that  we  were  "  com- 
mitting not  only  a  crime  but  a  folly,  in  assuming  that  the  mass 
could  govern  instead  of  being  governed.  We  were  seeking/'  he 
said,  "  to  put  society  standing  on  its  head  instead  of  its  feet— to 
put  the  cart  before  the  horse"-— with  other  logic  equally  to  the 
purpose. 

Unmoved  by  the  terrors  of  the  title  and  the  warnings  of  the  wig, 
fche  writer  asked  permission  to  say  a  few  words  in  reply  to  what 
had  just  fallen  from  his  lordship.  "Certainly!  Freedom  of 
speech  is  the  glory  of  England—the  privilege  of  Englishmen." 

PRISONER.  In  proof  of  which  I  and  my  fellow-prisoners  stand 
here  in  the  dock. 

DENMAN.  Taken  quite  aback. 

-PRISONER.  "It  is  a  glorious  "sunset  streaming  through  that 
gothic  window.  Did  your  lordship  ever  hear  of  a  great  country 
lying  away  in  iLs  direction  cf  that  Setting  sun  ?  Did  you  hear 
that  its  people  did  assume  to  govern  themselves  ?  Actually  do 
the  very  thing  that  your  lordship  informs  us  cannot  be  done? 
Nor  need  your  lordship's  thought  travel  so  far  as  that  New 
World.  Even  in  this  old  decaying  world  of  ours,  embosomed 
among  the  rocks  and  glaciers  of  the  Alps,  are  institutions  of 
the  same  kind,  flourishing  for  the  last  six  hundred  years.  And 
surely  your  lordship  will  not  pronounce  Englishmen  less  capable 
of  governing  themselves  than  the  Americans  or  the  Swiss  ?  Are 
your  lordship's  countrymen  less  intelligent,  are  they  less  trust- 
worthy than  those  denizens  of  the  mountain  and  the  forest?" 

It  is  not  often,  perhaps,  that  a  judge  is  catechised  by  a 
prisoner.  His  lordship  did  not  seem  to  have  any  reply  conven- 
ient, that  he  might  make  to  this  unexpected  attack,  and  so  he 
made  none ;  but  fixed  amount  of  bail,  and  motioned  that  we 
might  withdraw  to  prison.  At  that  time  the  American  Republic 
was  a  "pillar  of  fire"  to  inspirit  the  Democracies  of  Europe* 
What  it  is  now  shall  be  evolved  as  we  proceed. 

And  so,  it  is  10  o'clock  at  night,  and  at  that  hour  Thoma- 
son  Ayr,  Dr.  Hume  and  myself  ?re  inured  in  a  large  cell^ 
singing  the  "  Marsellaise,"  "American  Star  "—anything  but 
"God  save  the  Queen."  When  hark!  It  is  tramp,  tramp 
along  the  stone  corridor,  a  pause,  a  turning  of  locks  and  hing.oa 
and  in  crowd  Messrs.  Blakey,  Doubleday,  Thomas  Gray,  Thomas, 


OK,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  187 

Horn,  John  Blakey,  Kichard  Ayr,  Sutherland  and  Nicholson. 
In  short,  they  crowd  in  and  crowd  us  out  along  with  them.  They 
had  sought  the  magistrates  and  perfected  the  bail  at  that  late 
hour,  mainly  through  the. influence  of  my  two  employers,  who 
were  greatly  respected,  even  by  their  political  antagonists. 

Public  meetings  and  their  varied  and  impassioned  proceedings 
were  now  deemed  to  be  more  impracticable  than  lectures,  and  so 
it  is  announced  that  a  quiet  moral  force  lecture  is  to  be  delivered 
on  the  nature  of  the  National  Debt,  and  the  question  of  who  ought 
to  pay  it  ?  In  the  absence  of  one  more  capable,  I  was  myself 
appointed  to  deliver  this  lecture.  It  was  necessary  to  keep  cool 
and  argumentative,  for  seated  near  were  two  police  officers,  an<t 
I  think  Mr.  Winter,  the  reporter  of  the  Chronicle,  who  had  given 
such  evidence  to  the  grand  jury  as  procured  the  indictments 
Against  us,  Tn,  handling  the  subject,  these  facts  came  out;  isfc, 
That  the  debt  was  contracted  anaer  the  Botten  Borough  system 
when  the  landed  aristocracy  owned  both  Houses,  deterariaed  the 
votes  of  both  Commons  and  Lords.  2d.  That  it  was  contracted! 
to  combat  liberty,  first  in  America,  then  in  France.  3d.  That 
those  were  purposes  of  which  the  people  of  England  did  not 
approve.  4th.  That  as  it  was  purely  a  debt  contracted  by  the 
aristoctacy  and  for  the  direct  purposes  and  advantage  of  the 
aristocracy,  so  did  justice  demand  that  it  should  be  borne  by 
the  aristocracy,  and  paid  out  of  the  lands  which  they  call  their 
estates.  The  whole  proceeding  was  calm— the  whole  discourse 
guarded,  cool  and  logical.  It  was  the  usual  hour,  past  tea 
o'clock,  when  the  assemblage  broke  up. 

But  the  Mayor  and  local  magistrates  must  have  been  waiting 
In  session  to  forward  business,  for  at  day-break  next  morning  I 
was  invited  to  arise  and  put  on  a  pair  of  handcuffe  and  march 
under  escort  once  more  to  the  jail,  from  which  I  was  bailed  out 
the  same  day  by  Eichard  Ayr  and  John  Blakey. 

During  all  this  time  Messrs.  Doubleday  and  Blakey  were 
raining  hot  shot  into  the  Government  and  its  flunkies  in  this 

way : 

CONSTITUTIONAL   ABMING. 

THB  Whig  and  Tory  newspapers,  especially  the  Standard,  are  giving  at 
flaming  account  of  a  meeting  held  near  Nowport,  in  support,  they  say, 
of  the  Queen  and  Constitution.  It  was  attended  by  Sir  Charles  Salis- 
bury, Thomas  Protheroe,  Esq.,  William  Brewer,  Esq.,  the  Kevs.  A.  A. 
Isaacson  and  R.  A.  .Roberts,  Messrs  Phillips,  Jones  and  Hall,  and  a  large 
body  of  farmers.  Sir  Digby  Mackworth,  Bart.,  wrote  to  express  his 


188      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENT  CRY  4, 

sorrow  at  being  absent,  and  offered  the  aid  of  his  military  experience  in 
ease  of  a  corps  being  formed.  Addresses  were  moved  and  carried  to  the 
Queen,  and  to  the  Lieutenant  of  the  County,  the  last  offering  tlteir  services 
as  an  armed  body  to  defend  the  Constitution !  A  great  number  of  signa- 
tures were  appended  to  both  addresses. 

Now  this  is  gratifying ;  this  is  right;  this  is  well-timed;  this  is  as  it 
should  be;  this  smacks  really  of  the  •'  Constitution,"  of  which  these  gen- 
tlemen appear  to  be  so  fond.  That  Constitution  lays  it  emphatically 
down,  both  as  a  right  and  as  a  duty,  for  all  Englishmen  to  be  armed  for 
self-defence,  and  for  the  defence  of  their  rights  and  liberties  as  guaran- 
teed to  them  both  by  statute  and  prescription.  These  gentlemen  have 
set  an  excellent  example.  We  trust  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  County, 
whoever  he  may  be,  will  accept  of  their  services  so  properly  and  spirit- 
edly tendered,  and  that  Her  Majesty  will,  at  his  suggestion,  reward 
their  loyalty  by  commanding  them  to  enroll  themselves,  and  sending 
them  a  handsome  pair  of  colors  for  the  occasion. 

The  Rev.  R.  A.  Roberts  seems  to  have  made  a  highly  Constitutional 
speech  on  this  occasion.  He  said  they  had  come  forward  to  oppose 
those  who  were  endeavoring  to  poison  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  to 
subvert  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  country !  He  and  they  were 
resolved  that  these  laws,  the  result  of  ages  of  wisdom,  should  remain 
inviolate !  They  were  met  to  declare  that  England  should  not  be  revolu- 
tionized aii^  bro'ighfc  down  to  the  level  of  "  miserable  T^anci  I  "  Bravo ! 
It  really  warms  the  cockles*  of  GUI'  heart  to  hear  language  like  this ;  en- 
ergetic, English,  truly  Constitutional,  from  the  lips  of  a  beneficed  divine 
ef  the  Established  Church !  The  Rev.  Mr.  Stevens  never  made  use  of 
more  nervous,  more  decided,  nor  more  truly  English  terms !  This  is 
precisely  what  we  say  here  in  the  North  of  England. 

We  will  have  no  Malthusian  "Marcus"  to  poison  the  minds  of  the 
people  by  excitements  to  child-murder!  We  will  have  no  Broughams 
and  Martineaus  to  stigmatize  marriage  as  a  crime,  and  charity  as  a 
folly !  No ;  we  are  for  the  ancient  laws  of  England.  We  join  the  Rev. 
R.  A.  Roberts,  we  insist  upon  the  old  forty-third  of  Elizabeth,  that  Char- 
ter.of  the  Poor  of  England.  We  (like  the  Rev.  gentleman)  will  not  liave 
English  laborers  reduced  to  the  Irish  potato  and  sea-weed  .level!  We 
stand  firm  for  universal  suffrage  and  annual  Parliaments,  as  they  ex- 
isted up  to  the  unfortunate  times  of  Henry  the  Sixth !  We  have  made 
up  our  minds,  as  Mr.  Roberts  has,  to  stand  by  the  trial  by  jury  as  con- 
stituted by  Alfred  the  Great!  We  eschew  all  standing  armies,  and  love 
a  people  to  be  universally  armed,  and  rely  upon  the  "  Posse  UomUatus," 
or  levy  the  county  under  command  of  the  sheriff,  whose  duty  it  is  to  see 
that  all  the  Queen's  male  subjects,  able  to  bear  arms,  have  arms  to  bear  I 
We  hate  "  innovations  "  as  much  as  the  meeting  at  Newport,  and  will 
never  submit  to  a  Bourbon  Police,  whilst  theold  English  name  of  constable 
is  remembered !  In  all  the  Rev.  Mr.  Roberts'  detestation  of  these  Whig 
innovations  we  heartily  concur;  nor  can  he  hate  the  "  Prig  of  the  Globe" 
more  than  we  do,  for  calling  these  time-honored  customs  and  usages 
"  the  prejudice  of  the  rudest  periods !  "  Well,  as  soon  as  the  Newport 
corps  is  enrolled,  we  hope  the  example  will  be  followed.  We  trust  the 
men  on  the  Tyne  and  Wear  will  not  be  backward  in  offering  themselves  to 
defend  the  Queen  and  Constitution.  We  know  they  will  not.  We  can  ven- 
ture to  assure  the  Rev.  Mr.  Roberts  that  if  he  wants  thirty  thousand 
determined  fellows,  well  found  with  muskets,  pikes,  and  pistols,  he  has 
only  to  send  northwards  and  they  will  be  forthcoming.  Arms !  arms  3 
(we  say)  the  Queen  and  Constitution  forever !  and  no  revolutionary  inno- 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  188 

ANOTHER    EXQUISITE    SQUIB    FROM    THE    WRITERS 
OF    THE    "LIBERATOR." 

THE  Whig  Chancellor  is  going  to  opeu  a  trade  for  cotton  goods 
with  the  Moon.  He  has  borrowed  Sir  John  HerschePs  telescope 
to  make  observations,  and  here's  what  he  sees : 

11  A' vision,  at  once  so  glorious  and  so  strange,  swam  into  his  view  that 
he  almost  recoiled  in  astonishment.  His  gaze  seemed  to  rest  on  a  broact 
sweep  of  valley,  bounded  on  either  side  by  bold  and  lofty  hills,  green 
to  their  summits.  In  the  midst,  meandering  on  to  the  sea,  a  silvery, 
quiet  and  winding  stream,  on  the  surface  of  which  at  intervals  the  sun 
from  over  the  hiii  threw  golden  lights  that  glistened  and  glittered,  now 
lost,  now  seen  again,  in  the  distance.  Well  wooded  was  the  vale,  and 
beaut' .fully  well  did  the  autumnal  masses  of  tinted  and  varied  foliage 
give  back  again  with  increased  richness  the  rays  of  mellow  light  that 
nere  and  there,  as  the  landscape  undulated,  fell  upon  them.  Amidst  thp 
whole  was  observable,  not  least,  because  less  floridly  tinted,  the  blue 
amoko  of  many  a  mansion,  farm-house,  parsonage,  hall  and  cottage, 
which  quietly  rose  above  the  woods,  indicating  as  it  rose  many  a  rich 
Mid  many  an  humble  seat  of  contentment,  wealth,  virtue,  peace  and 
joy. 

"Such  was  the  landscape.  When,  on  a  slight  movement  of  the  glass, 
the  Chancellor  descried,  to  the  right,  on  the  foreground,  a  building  or 
pile  6t>  hideous  as  to  throw  at  once  into  shocking  arid  melancholy  con- 
trast the  beautiful  scene  on  which  his  gaze  had  so  recently  dwelt.  It 
was  a  horrid  pile,  dark  as  midnight,  windowless,  and  surrounded  by  a 
huge  rude  and  \ofty  wall.  No  ray  of  light  seemed  to  be  permitted  to 
enter  there;  it  required  no  strong  imagination  to  fancy  that  under  the 
horrid  shadow  of  its  enclosure  toads  and  cold  reptiles  crawled ;  that  to 
its  recesses  joy  wa^  a  stranger,  and  a  smilo  a  thing  unknown,  except  to 
memory,  if  memory  lingered  there. 

"  At  its  gates  stood  three  beings,  with  hellish  features,  but  withal  so- 
cold  that  they  seemed  to  be  cast  iron ;  and  with  lean  and  bony  hands, 
the  bones  of  which  seemed  to  be  living  steel  as  the  hard  fingers  moved 
and- worked  in  their  sockets. 

"  Figure  aftor  figure,  as  m  phantasmagoria,  passed  before  these  mo- 
tionless fiends :  as  they  passed  each  he.'d  out  in  his  or  her  hand  a  scrap 
of  that  same  paper-looking  substance  which  the  Chancellor  had  before 
seen.  Some,  However,  failed  to  produce  it;  and  on  each  failure  the  three 
figures  pointed,  with  their  steel  fingers,  to  the  gate  of  the  horrid  domain,' 
and  tho  shivering  wretches,  as  if  facinated  by  a  snake,  obeyed  and  en- 
tered in.  At  the  further  end  of  this  building  appeared  to  be  a  low  door 
of  exit,  and  as  poor  wretches  shivered  and  entered  at  the  front,  strange' 
funerals  seemed  to  issue  from  behind.  No  mourners  were  there;  no  en- 
siyns  of  woe;  no  ministering  priest;  but  skeletons  bore  a  bare  shell 
upon  their  shoulders,  and  seemed  to  carry  it,  grinning  as  they  went,  .to 
a  dishonored  grave. 

11  At  tli:a  appalling  vision  the  honorable  gentleman  started  back  as  if 
horror-struck.  Gradually  recovering  himself,  however,  he  seemed  to1 
reflect,  and  mutt -red  'strange,  strange!'  wholesome  test!  wholesome 
test!  Poor  Law  Bastiles!  Poor  Law  Bastiles!  The  disorder  of  the  Hon- 
orable Chancellor,  however,  bee  tme  so  serious  that  after  swallowing 
another  tumbler  of  hock  and  Seltzer- water,  it  was  deemed  prudent  to 
persevere  no  longer  at  that  time." 

And  now  in  the  House  of  Lords,  Lord  Melbourn  admitted 


190  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

that  houses  had  been  burned  in  Birmingham  ;  regretted  the  in- 
temperate language  uttered  at  the  public  meetings,  "  but  he 
never  knew  a  time  when  it  would  be  so  extremely  inexpedient 
to  resort  to  strong  measures."  The  Duke  of  Wellington  said 
thirty  houses  had  been  burned,  their  contents  first  taken  out 
and  burned  in  the  street.  Earl  Fitzwilliam  reminded  the  Duke 
that  greater  riots  had  taken  place  in  Birmingham,  in  1789  or 
1790.  The  Marquis  of  Londonderry  referred  to  the  multitudes 
of  colliers  that  were  meeting  around  Sunderland  and  Newcastle. 

In  the  House  of  Commons,  Thomas  Atwood  moved  to  take  up 
the  National  Petition.  In  the  course  of  his  speech  he  de- 
nounced the  existing  currency  system,  and  said  that  there  were 
=no  dangers  that  the  people  ought  not  to  risk  rather  than  sub- 
mit to  their  present  miserable  condition.  He  spoke  of  France. 
Arthur  Young  traveled  200  miles  over  it,  and  found  all  the  cas- 
tles burnt  to  the  ground.  Louis  was  asleep  till  the  Bastile  fell 
about  his  ears. 

Lord  John  Russell  said  no  government  could  secure  contin- 
ued prosperity,  especially  in  England,  which  depends  so  largely 
on  manufactures  and  commerce.  The  petition  before  the  House 
contained  only  1,000,000  signatures,  but  Major  Cartwright  had 
petitions  presented  for  Universal  Suffrage  aggregating  3,000,000 
of  names. 

The  petitioners  say  "  we  are  bound  down  under  a  load  of  taxes, 
which  notwithstanding  fall  greatly  short  of  the  wants  of  our 
rulers.  Our  tradesmen  are  trembling  on  the  edge  of  bank- 
ruptcy, our  workmen  are  starving,  capital  brings  no  profit,  and 
labor  no  remuneration.  The  home  of  the  artificer  is  desolate, 
and  the  wareroom  of  the  pawnbroker  is  full.  The  workhouse 
is  crowded  and  the  manufactory  is  deserted."  He  denied  that 
this  was  so,  and  pointed  to  a  million  of  deposits  in  savings 
banks  within  the  year  (deposited  by  the  Middle  Classes,  the 
workers  had  not  wherewith  to  keep  them  alive).  Increase  oi 
wages,  or  lessening  the  cost  of  living,  alone  could  relieve  the 
people.  Would  Universal  Suffrage  accomplish  either?  (Yes  the 
taxes  make  the  cost  of  living  three  times  as  high  as  it  other- 
wise would  be.  Universal  Suffrage  would  give  us  free  trade  and 
accomplish  both  objects.)  He  said  the  promoters  of  the  peti- 
tion advised  the  people  to  withdraw  their  money  from  the  sav- 
ings banks,  change  it  to  gold,  abstain  from  exciseable  articles, 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  191 

practice  exclusive  dealings,  insist  upon  the  ancient  constitu- 
tional right  to  bear  arms.  Those  things,  he  said,  would  be  fatal 
to  the  government  and  Constitution  of  England.  (!!!) 

Mr.  Dirsaeli  concurred  entirely  in  the  principles  on  which  the 
petition  was  founded.  The  ablest  men  in  the  country  had  pro- 
mulgated those  principles.  The  petitioners  stated  that  the 
energies  of  a  mighty  people  had  been  wasted  in  building  up  the 
power  of  selfish  and  ignorant  men  ;  that  the  few  had  governed 
for  the  interests  of  the  few,  and  that  the  people  had  been  tram- 
pled upon  and  basely  deceived  by  the  expectations  formed  on 
the  Reform  Act. 

Mr.  O'Connell  had  opposed  the  Chartists  outside  of  the  House, 
and  denounced  their  doctrine  of  physical  force  as  high  treason 
but  in  England  only  19  out  of  a  hundred  adult  men  had  a  vote* 
In  Ireland  only  4  out  of  every  hundred.  (He  did  not  dwell  upon 
the  fact  that  himself  urged  the  disf ranch  isement  of  the  40s. 
freeholders.) 

Mr.  Wakely  showed  that  Lord  John  Russell  attempted  to 
mislead  the  House  when  he  said  the  people  were  putting  large 
deposits  in  the  savings  banks.  Workmen  earning  6s.  or  7s.  a 
week  had  nothing  to  put  into  such  banks.  After  which  the 
motion  to  go  into  committee  was  lost  by  235  to  46. 

In  the  next  day's  seession  Mr.  Disraeli  denounced  Lord  Rus- 
6elPs  bill  for  an  added  force  of  5,000  men  to  the  army.  It  might,  he 
said,  be  necessary  to  bring  a  force  against  their  fellow-country- 
men, but  they  must  know  what  was  the  necessity,  and  whether 
5,000  men  were  a  great  deal  too  much  or  a  great  deal  too  little. 
Mr.  Wakely  said  this  5,000  proposition  would  be  favorably  re- 
ceived in  just  two  places,  and  those  were  the  two  Houses  of 
Parliament.  The  bill  was  brought  in,  not  forty  members  present 

The  London  papers  now  group  together  the  demonstrations 
held  throughout  the  North,  at  all  populous  centres.  The  Sun 
quotes  from  our  "  Address  to  the  Middle  Classes,"  and  several 
other  revolutionary  proclamations,  commenting  on  "a  great 
.activity  of  the  national  intellect — a  Sampson-like  striving  that 
must  be  heeded  by  our  rulers."  Richard  Carlisle,  once  an  im- 
prisoned champion  of  the  unstamped  press,  went  round  to 
oppose  universal  suffrage.  Called  meetings  at  some  rich  people's 
expense,  but  nobody  would  go  to  hear  him.  The  subject  of  land 
ownership  was  ignored  in  our  movement.  But  I  got  edged  into 
The  Liberator  now  and  then  such  hints  as  the  following  : 


192  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

"  Immense  tracts  of  land  are  lying  barren  in  Ireland,  and 
immense  numbers  of  men  willing  to  labor  are  going  about 
unemployed.  The  blasphemous  aristocracy  will  not  let  the 
people  reclaim  the  soil  except  on  the  condition  that  all  its 
enhanced  value  shall  go  into  the  accursed  rent  roll,  leaving  the 
people  at  the  same  level  of  rags  and  hunger.  Sharman  Crawford 
tried  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  remedy  this  state  of  things,  but  it  was 
frowned  out  of  existence  alike  by  the  sham  '  Liberal/  Whigs 
and  the  intolerant  Tories.  And  now  comes  another  horrible 
picture  from  Connemara,"  etc.,  etc. 

At  Sunderland  shipwrights,  seamen  and  the  trades  meet,  and 
three  privates  of  the  98th  meet  along  with  them,  and  are  loudly 
cheered.  Proceedings  against  Williams  and  Bicns,  at  which 
their  counsel,  Mr.  Thompso-  ,  informed  the  bench  that  "the  in- 
tentions of  these  gentlemen  were  peaceable,  otherwise  they  could 
have  brought  to  the  ground  20,000  miners." 


•  A    RIOT    IN    NEWCASTLE. 

Summer,  especially  July,  is  a  revolutionary  period ;  and  so  a 
paving  stone  crowd  took  possession  of  Newcastle,  late  on  Satur- 
day night  and  early  on  Sunday  morning.  It  swept  along  Bailiff- 
gate,  Castle  street  and  Castle  Garth,  St.  Nicholas  square,  Col- 
lingwood  street,  and  untou.ching  the  Turf  Hotel,  entered  Mosley, 
Grey  and  Dean  streets,  and  all  down  the  Side  and  Butcher  Bank. 
On  this  range  all  the  street  lamps  were  broken,  and  there  was, 
besides,  a  considerable  shattering  of  window  glass.  It  is  true 
the  Liberator  office  was  loudiy  cheered  by  an  attendant  crowd, 
but  the  actual  rioters  broke  20s.  worth  of  glass  in  our  windows. 
I  quote  a  description  from  Mie  Liberator,  written  by  mvself  as  a 
looker  on : 

"Excitement  and  curiosity  was  up  on  Sunday,  whilst  rumors,  like  a 
circular  wave,  widened  tne  disturbance  as  it  receded  to  a  distance.  Many 
therefore  caino  in  from  the  surrounding  towns  and  country.  Those  moved 
round  to  trace  the  progress  of  the  rioters,  and  all  Sunday  the  streets  pre- 
sented a  crowded  and  animated  appearance.  It  was  amusing  to  hear 
knaves  and  fools  of  respectable  exterior  throwing  the  blame  on  the  cause 
of  the  people.  One  could  hardly  help  a  feeling  of  indignation  mixing 
with  the  contempt  they  excited,  when  you  heard  them  swear  between  their 
teeth  that  they  would  "iang  the  unwashed  ruffians  up  on  the  defaced  lamp 
posts." 

A  few  arrests  were  made.    At  the  examinations  a  mixture  of 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY  IN    MODERN    DAYS.  193 

serious  and  coinic  was  evolved.  Thus,  Robert  Farley  had  1,100 
pounds  of  gunpowder.  Where  did  it  come  from  ?  The  excuse 
was  that  it  was  intended  for  the  Cramlington  colliery,  but  on 
account  of  the  " disturbed  state  of  the  country"  the  proprietors 
would  not  take  it  in.  This  seems  to  have  been  an  "  impromptu." 
It  was  condemned  and  sent  to  the  barrack,  and  Farley  fined 
3s.  for  each  pound,  or  jail  in  proportion.  A  half  formed  pik« 
out  of  an  immense  file  made  its  appearance,  as  also  did  Peter 
Flanmagan,  who  stated  that  he  got  dead  drunk  at  the  "  Bell," 
and,  boxing  with  a  comrade  boy,  lost  his  cap  and  was  taken 
prisoner  by  Kidley,  the  policeman. 

MAYOR. — You  have  an  excellent  memory  to  be  so  drunk? 

PRISONER. — In  troth,  and  that's  true  enough.    (Laughter.) 

RIDLEY. — You  were  not  drunk. 

;FLANNAGAN. — If  I  was  not  would  I  be  all  dirt  as  ye  see  me  ? 

RIDLEY. — You  got  that  on  falls  with  me. 

FLANNAGAN. — An'  if  I  wasn't  drunk  would  I  fall  with  the  like* 
•of  you  ?  (Roars  of  laughter.) 

Fined  20s.  or  "a  month." 

Mr.  Gibson,  of  Dean  street,  heard  one  of  a  group  of  men  say 
that  the  town  could  be  easily  fired,  and  that  by  cutting  the  em- 
bankment at  the  Westgate  the  engines  would  be  useless,  and 
that  the  policemen  didn't  know  how  to  fight.  Reference  to  the 
ji  res  in  Birmingham  were  made  by  some  of  tke  rioters. 


CHAPTER    XIIL 

HENRY  VINCENT  was  a  very  young  man,  a  very  eloquent  speaker 
and  equally  clear  and  vigorous  writer.  He  was  among  the  first 
consigned  to  prison  for  making  "  her  Majesty's  subjects  discon- 
tented with  their  condition." 

This  was  at  Bristol,  I  think,  where  he  published  The  Vindica- 
tor. The  rising  in  South  Wales,  under  John  Frost,  was  precipi* 
tated  by  a  sympathy  for  Vincent,  and  a  determination  to  set 
him  free.  Mr.  Frost  was  the  first  Reform  Mayor  of  Newport ; 
had  acquitted  himself  creditably  as  President  of  the  Conven- 
tion (National)  of  Delegates,  held  in  London  (summer  of  1838), 
and  he  had  done  still  better  in  a  published  correspondence  with 
Lord  John  Russell.  But  he  wanted  entirely  the  stern  qualities 


194  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

of  a  military  chief.  The  rising  had  been  concerted  at  a  meeting 
up  in  the  hills  (Merthyr  Tydvil),  about  a  fortnight  previous  to 
the  3d  of  November.  At  that  meeting  the  delegates  of  three 
sections  of  country  arranged  to  advance  on  Newport,  the  near- 
est military  station,  on  the  night  of  the  3d.  The  country  was 
aflame,  and  it  was  computed  that  each  section  would  move  ten 
thousand  men.  It  is  evident  that  they  did  not  anticipate  any 
check  from  the  small  detachment  of  regulars  stationed  in  that 
town,  for  at  the  meeting  referred  to  a  resolution  was  passed,  as 
we  were  advised,  to  "  hang  any  of  their  own  men  who  might  de- 
stroy either  life  or  property." 

Singularly  enough  a  storm  of  wind  and  rain  set  in  about  the 
first,  and  continued  incessantly  for  three  days  and  nights,  rend- 
ering the  mountain  country  almost  impassable.  The  fragment 
of  one  division  only — the  nearest  under  Frost  himself — reached 
Newport  at  eight  or  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  4th,  in- 
stead of  the  dark  2  o'clock  that  was  intended.  The  troops 
occupying  the  place  took  position  in  the  Westgate  Inn,  a  strong 
stone  building.  The  van  of  the  Insurgents  had  among  them 
some  three  or  four  hundred  pieces  of  firearms  ;  those  were  flint- 
locks, drenched  with  rain,  and  incapable  of  making  much  impres- 
sion in  any  case,  and  none  at  all  on  the  stone  walls  from  which 
volley  after  volley  swept  the  streets.  It  was  stated  that  the 
garrison  had  come  to  its  last  round,  when,  led  on  by  "  Jack  the 
Fifer,"  the  assailants  burst  open  the  door,  and  rushing  into  the 
hall  were  met  by  that  last  round,  which  poured  on  them  with 
deadly  effect.  They  recoiled,  panic-stricken,  leaving  several  of 
their  men  dead  and  wounded.  Jack  the  Fifer,  himself,  whom  I 
met  afterward  in  America,  was  shot  through  the  hand.  Mr- 
Frost,  and  the  leaders  of  the  other  divisions,  Williams  and 
Jones,  were  made  prisoners,  tried,  and  condemned  to  death,  but 
their  sentences  were  afterwards  commuted,  mainly  through  the 
influence  of  the  Middle  Classes,  who  signed  almost  unanimously 
a  memorial  to  the  crown  for  that  object. 

The  first  news  that  we  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne  had  of  the  ris- 
ing was  through  the  London  Times.  It  announced,  by  special 
correspondent,  that  Frost,  at  the  head  of  30,000  men,  was  in 
possession  of  South  Wales.  A  significant  change  on  that  instant 
appeared  in  Newcastle.  For  weeks  previously  not  a  group  of 
three  men  would  be  suffered  to  stand  together  on  the  sidewalk. 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  195 

No  political  paper  was  suffered  to  appear  on  the  walls.  And 
from  the  windows  of  the  Liberator  office  I  have  seen  a  man  cru- 
elly knocked  down  and  dragged  to  prison  for  presuming  to 
question  the  order  to  "  move  on." 

As  soon  as  the  intelligence  of  Frost's  movement  reached  us 
all  this  was  reversed.  The  Eeformers  met  in  exultant  groups, 
and  several  copies  of  a  painted  placard  (painted  in  our  office 
with  printer's  ink)  were  pasted  up  like  this  :— "  The  hour  of 
British  Freedom  has  struck  !  John  Frost  is  in  possession  of 
South  Wales  at  the  head  of  30,000  men."  Past  these  placards 
the  policemen  quietly  walked.  The  fact  will  bear  one  explana- 
tion. In  revolutions  a  large  portion  of  the  people  are  passive, 
and  readily  obey  the  stronger  side,  and  our  policemen,  it  seems, 
were  among  this  number. 


UNWKITTEN    HISTOEY. 

If  I  now  enter  upon  unwritten  history,  I  do  so  because  it  may 
be  useful  to  both  peoples  and  Governments  in  coming  times,  and 
at  this  distance  of  time  cannot  do  harm  to  anybody.  Intelli- 
gence of  the  rising  swept  over  the  neighborhood,  and  the  fol- 
lowing night  delegates  from  65  armed  districts  were  assembled 
in  Newcastle  waiting  for  the  expected  Proclamation  by  Frost. 

The  leaders  were  from  the  numerous  districts  lying  close 
around.  The  two  Shields,  Sunderland,  and  the  more  distant 
districts  of  Durham  and  Northumberland  were  not  present,  but 
they  were  nearly  or  wholly  as  well  appointed  and  prepared  to 
rise  at  the  expected  signal. 

My  indignation,  always  fierce  against  the  unjust  and  man- 
slaying  aristocracy,  was  greatly  intensified  by  what  I  saw  that 
night.  While  in  the  upper  large  room  were  assembled  the 
earnest  and  gloomy  chiefs  of  the  insurrection,  in  the  lower 
rooms  were  numbers  of  unthinking,  good  natured  men,  singing 
and  playing  music,  even  with  their  wives  and  daughters  among 
them,  waiting  for  the  signal.  Those  people !  Is  it  there  they 
ought  to  be  ?  Or  is  it  in  their  peaceful  homes  and  quiet  beds, 
reposing  from  the  toils  of  the  day,  and  recruiting  their  faculties 
for  that  toil  which  the  morrow  was  sure  to  bring  to  them?  But 
here  they  were,  peaceful,  Christian  men  and  women,  willing  to 
labor  honestly  and  well  for  the  sustainment  of  their  families 


196  THE    ODD    BOOK    OJf    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

and  tho  strength  and  greatness  of  the  nation.  Here,  driven  by 
a  heartless,  shall  I  not  add,  a  brutal  handful  of  selfish  culprits,, 
who  wouldn't  even  "  live  and  let  live,"  but  who,  through  their 
starvation  villainy,  drove  those  solid,  innocent,  honest  men — 
honestly  willing  to  work  for  a  mere  living — drove  them  to  this 
dire  necessity !  Here  they  were  in  midnight  muster,  waiting  the 
signal  to  grasp  the  pike  and  level  the  musket — to  give  or  re- 
ceive death — driven  to  it  by  greedy  and  rapacious  men,  indcred- 
ible  in  their  selfishness,  unapproachable  in  their  crimes.  Thoso 
men  who  would  be  content  with  so  little,  and  who  would  work 
so  faithfully  in  return  for  that  little.  The  thought  roused  in  my 
heart  an  impulse,  a  passion,  for  vengeance  that  night.  Venge- 
ance on  the  men  whose  outrageous  selfishness  brought  condi- 
tions down  to  the  scene  before  me  ! 

But  the  more  reflecting  men  are  at  the  top  of  the  house  and  I 
must  go  up  to  them.  It  was  yet  only  midnight.  We  expected 
the  gallop  of  a  horse  every  instant.  The  proclamation  was  to 
radiate  by  horse  express  from  the  centre,  Birmingham,  all 
round.  The  night  mail  from  London  would  be  in  by  2  o'clock, 
and  The  Times  at  least  would  throw  some  additional  light  upon 
the  darkness. 

But  there  comes  a  rap  to  the  door.  An  inquiry  for  me  and  a 
letter  put  in  my  hands.  Our  apartments  were  in  the  Liberate 
building,  and  my  little  household  could  not  and  would  not  be 
asleep  at  such  a  time.  The  letter  had  been  expressed  up  from 
Sunderland  by  Williams  and  Binns.  They  had  just  received  it 
from  a  young  friend  named  Batchelor,  who  resided  in  Newport 
and  was  a  spectator  of  the  conflict.  It  outlined  the  facts  and  very 
distinctly  stated  the  issue  :•— "  Three  days'  storm  in  tho  hills  ; 
only  about  1,000  of  the  first  division  reach  Newport,  tired,, 
drenched,  at  8  A.  M.,  instead  of  2.  The  soldiers  under  cover,, 
the  rebels  in  the  streets.  The  slaughter  all  the  one  side.  Frost 
prisoner." 

The  relations  of  mind  and  matter  form  a  most  interesting- 
and  abstruse  question.  Therefore  I  feel  it  a  duty  to  state  here 
a  distinct  fact  bearing  upon  the  subject.  Mental  pain  every 
man  suffers  now  and  then,  and  I  did  not  pass  through  life  with- 
out my  share  of  it.  I  understood  those  mental  sensations,. 
More  or  less  intense,  they  were  all  of  the  same  purely  spirit- 
ual nature.  But  when  I  opened  that  letter  and  gathered— re  - 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN  DAYS.  197 

alized — its  contents,  there  struck  a  wholly  different  feeling — dis- 
tinctly physical — through  the  material  structure  of  my  heart. 
A  combination  of  sharpness  and  coldness,  as  if  a  quick  incision 
were  made  into  it  by  an  exceedingly  sharp  instrument  made  of 
ice.  Very  sensible  am  I  that  my  feelings  were  of  little  conse- 
quence then  or  now,  what  they  were  or  were  not.  I  write  the 
fact,  as  it  is  possible  it  may  be  suggestive  as  a  mental  phenome- 
non. A  hushed  attention  while  I  read  the  letter,  and  then  n 
sudden  decision.  There  has  been  no  "  overt  act."  Every  man 
to  his  home,  as  if  this  night  and  its  resolve  had  never  had  an 
existence. 

Next  day,  when  the  intelligence  came  on  in  the  newspapers,  I 
was  made  painfully  aware  of  what  was,  I  suppose,  a  very  natu- 
ral fact.  An  entire  revulsion  came  over  the  public  mind.  Men 
seemed  to  be  impressed  with  the  thought  that  the  Government 
was  impregnable.  All  congratulated  themselves  that,  whatever 
course  on  our  part  had  been  taken,  the  Government  knew  noth- 
ing and  could  do  nothing  about  it.  A  meeting  was  immediately 
held  to  found  a  penny  subscription  for  the  defence  of  Frost.  I 
present  a  sketch  of  it  as  amusing  and  instructive.  A  warrant 
is  out  for  the  second  arrest  of  Dr.  Taylor,  and  he  is  now  to  ad- 
dress this  public  meeting : — 

"  '  A  number  of  police,  in  the  disguise  of  honest  men.'  (I  quote  the  Lib 
erator.)  beset  the  entrance.  They  soon  had  the  satisfaction  to  see  the  Dr. 
approach,  enveloped  in  his  broad  blue  cloak,  overshadowing  hat  ttd 
muffler.  The  crowd  was  dense,  and  a  voice  cries  out, '  Make  room  for  tfca 
Doctor.'  But  there  was  no  necessity  for  this  intimation  for  the  'oflotar 
were  sharp  enough  to  know  him  at  once  by  his  coat  and  hat.  even  thxign 
his  distinguishing  whiskers  were  buried  in  the  deep  folds  of  a  large  hand- 
kerchief. '  Doctor.  I  want  you,'  '  Doctor  I  want  a  word  with  you,'  '  Doctor 
I  have  a  warrant  for  your  apprehension.'  echoed  from  a  dozen  pair  of 
Bweetlips.  and  in  another  instant  he  was  in  safe  keeping,  marching  sta- 
tion-ward in  sullen  silence.  No  ebullition  of  feeling  broke  from  him  save 
a  hollow  hem!  hem!  which  swelling  in  his  throat  indicated  the  bootless 
indignation  dwelling  in  the  heart  below.  It  mattered  not ;  on  with  him  to 
the  Westgate  Station  House.  Arrived  there.  Mr.  Inspector  Little  placed 
himself  on  one  side  of  the  culprit-stand  and  the  prisoner  on  the  other. 
The '  shocking  bad  hat '  must  of  course  off.  outside  coats  can  no  longer 
keep  their  places  whilst  muffle  handkerchief  must  uncoil  itself  and  give  to 
view  all  of  hair  and  whiskers  that  have  escaped  the  scissors  of  justice  in 
Warwick  Gaol.  Well,  off  all  did  3ome.  Ralph  rubbed  his  eyes,  and  we  aro 
credibly  informed  was  about  to  drop  down  on  his  knees.  He  had  often 
heard  in  his  native  wilds  of  kelpies,  spunkies.  and  all  that  sort  of  thing, 
together  with  many  a  wonderful  tale  of  illusions  which  the  Devil  delighta 


198  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  : 

to  work  on  his  followers ;  but  here  the  Devil  was  at  work  in  his  own  Sta- 
tion House,  the  Doctor  had  vanished,  and  in  his  stead  stood  one  Wm. 
Byrne,  calmly  inquiring  by  what  authority  he  had  been  brought  there^ 
Ralph,  when  recovered  from  his  horror,  asked  his  myrmidons  why  they 
'  wakened  the  wrong  man  ? '  Bootless  inquiry.  The  henchmen  weren't 
there  to  reply.  They  had  fled  in  terror,  and  Ralph  is  looking  for  an- 
answer  from  them  up  to  the  present  time." 

Meanwhile  the  meeting  was  organized,  Edward  Charlton,  brick- 
layer, (an  energetic  and  true  man,  whom  I  love  to  remember),  in- 
the  chair.  He  "  regretted  the  premature  movement  in  Wales,  but 
that  should  not  prevent  Englishmen  from  insisting  on  their 
rights.  Piece  by  piece  their  freedom  was  disappearing,  and 
when  the  Rural  Constabulary  should  be  formed  they  had  seen 
the  last  of  it."  Mr.  Harney  said  "  John  Frost  had  ever  kept  the- 
onward  path  of  humanity.  They  had  all  seen  the  ability  and 
dignity  with  which  he  had  hurled  his  scorn  at  the  Government, 
when  it  proposed  to  deprive  him  of  the  Commission  of  trie- 
Peace  for  attending  the  patriotic  meetings.  And  in  his  second 
correspondence  on  the  imprisonment  of  Mr.  Vincent,  with  what 
dignity  he  had  showered  his  contempt  on  John  Russell,  the 
scoundrelly  little  lord  !  Though  all  Newport  was  out  on  that 
eventful  morning,  not  one  of  his  townsmen  would  identify  Mr 
Frost,  save  a  spy,  and  a  boy  of  ten  years  old,  who  had  never- 
seen  him  before.  The  English  people  were  sacrificed  to  the 
corn  laws,  to  the  factories,  to  the  bastiles,  to  a  scantier  and 
'coarser  food,  in  order  to  supply  more  luxuries  to  their  in- 
human, idle,  scoundrelly  oppressors."  James  Ayr,  mason,  de- 
fied the  "blues"  present,  and  the  Government  who  sent  them. 
He  was  above  their  power.  They  might  take  his  life  if  they 
pleased  ;  he  had  nothing  to  live  for  but  unrequited  toil  through- 
dreary  years,  and  an  end  to  bis  days  in  a  starvation  bastile.. 
Mr.  Peddie  said  "  The  Whigs  promised  reform  and  we  carried' 
them  into  power.  How  did  they  redeem  their  pledge?  By 
giving  the  Queen  Dowager  £100,000  a  year,  in  addition  to  large- 
domains  and  palaces.  And  to  the  dowager  of  the  workingman 
they  gave  imprisonment  ?nd  starvation.  To  a  Queen  without. 
a  family  they  had  giv\  n  a  '  civil  list "  larger  than  tiie  Tories. 
gave  to  the  profligate  G  o  rge  IV.  Thus  were  they  cheated  by 
that  picture  of  a  monkoy  in  a  consumption,  Lord  John  Russell. 
However  the  poor  ir.i^ht  go  to  bed  hungry  in  the  biistiles,  the. 
Queen,  with  her  £980.000  pounds  a  year,  need  not  eat  the  tongs 


OR,    THE    SPIlilT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODKRN     DAYS.  199 

jr  a  supper.  The  middle  classes  had  no  objection  to  physical 
force,  but.  it  must  be  arrayed  on  the  side  of  oppression.  He  be- 
lieved in  physical  force,  too,  but  he  dind't  believe  it  should  be 
all  on  the  one  side."  He  urged  the  penny  subscription,  and 
there  were  about  500  pennies  laid  down,  many  present  not  hav- 
ing the  penny  with  them. 

All  thought  now  went  forth  to  tho  condemnation  of  Frost 
and  his  compatriots,  which  we  knew  to  be  certain.  Shall  I  say 
that  some  of  us  looked  forward  to  it  with  a  desperate  hope 
that  public  affairs  and  public  feeling  might  take  such,  a  sudden 
wheel  round  as  would  enable  us  to  at  once  snatch  the  prisoners 
from  the  scaffold  and  the  people  from  slavery.  This  much  I  dis- 
tinctly remember,  that  after  the  slow  murderous  solemn,  ordeal 
of  the  trial  was  finished  by  conviction  and  the  old  barbarous 
sentence,  there  were  those  on  the  sidewalk  in  front  of  our  office 
who  gave  a  bound  of  delight  with  "  thank  God  !  The  Govern- 
ment has  just  pronounced  its  own  sentence.  That  on  John 
Frost  will  never  be  excuted  ! 

Frost  was  condemned  to  die.  So  also  were  Williams  and 
Jones,  the  leaders  of  those  two  sections  that  did  not  reach 
Newport.  The  slow,  majestic  paraphernalia  of  terror  that  at- 
tend trials  for  High  Treason  in  England  are,  I  think,  quite  effec- 
tive and  well  judged.  Not  so  the  barbarous  conditions  of  the 
sentence.  The  "  hurdling,"  and  the  "hanging,"  and  the  "be- 
M-,ading,"  and  "  disemboweling,"  and  other  obsolete  barbar- 
"iiiis  might  pass,  but  when  it  came  to  the  "  quartering,"  those 
quarters  to  be  disposed  of  as  "  her  Majesty  (a  girl  of  eighteen) 
should  be  pleased  to  direct,"  there  was  in  it  (to  them)  worse 
than  a  violation  of  humanity,  there  was  a  violation  of  taste. 
It  was  "  worse  than  a  crime  ;  it  was  a  blunder." 

Outdoor  public  meetings  were  now  prohibited,  and  indoor 
meetings  so  interfered  with,  that  we  took  refuge  in  religious 
services  and  sermons.  The  scriptures  afforded  us  no  scarcity  of 
Keform  texts,  and  we  improved  them  to  the  edification  of  the 
policemen,  who  always  attended  to  take  note  of  our  proceed- 
ings. 

In  proportion  as  we  had  to  suppress  expression  of  our  feelings 
did  those  feelings  gather  strength  and  resolve.  Along  in  De- 
cember, a  meeting  was  held  at  Dewsbury  of  delegates  from  most 
Of  the  considerable  towns  in  the  North.  It  was  there  resolved 


1:00  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

that  a  simultaneous  rising  should  take  place  in  those  towns  on 
the  night  of  the  12th  of  January!  The  personal  sympathy  for 
Frost  and  his  unfortunate  associates  precipitated  this  move- 
ment, as  the  sympathy  i'or  Vincent  had  precipitated  the  rising 
in  South  Wales.  Men  were  now  growing  more  desperate,  the 
spirit  of  forbearance  and  humanity  that  actuated  the  former 
movement  (under  Frost)  was  disappearing.  Respect  for  either 
life  or  property  would  no  longer  be  permitted  to  stand  in  the 
way  of  success. 

Every  town  concerned  took  its  own  way  to  action.  Ours 
(Newcastle)  was  this  :  Classes  of  twelve  were  formed,  each  with 
a  leader  chosen  by  themselves.  The  captains  of  each  class,  as 
they  had  to  meet  in  consultation,  were  necessarily  known  to 
each  other,  but  each  knew  nothing  of  the  personnel  of  the  other 
classes.  Nothing  except  their  numbers  and  state  of  prepared- 
ness. For  the  first  time  an  oath  was  resorted  to.  Each  mem- 
ber of  the  combination  was,  with  a  peculiarly  impressive 
solemnity,  sworn  to  impenetrable  secrecy—to  obey  orders— to 
hold  their  lives  of  no  account  in  the  attainment  of  their  object 
—and  to  execute  death  upon  any  one  who  might  be  found  to 
betray  information  of  our  action  to  the  governing  authorities. 

The  men  to  thus  take  the  initiative  were,  of  course,  among 
the  most  resolute  of  the  people.  They  comprised  a  fierce  and 
even  vindictive  element,  but  it  was  hold  in  check  by  the  cool- 
ness and  humanity  of  the  leading  spirits.  For  example,  it  was 
strongly  urged  that  on  the  night  of  the  "  rising  "  all  the  corpora- 
tion police  should  be  slain  on  their  beats.  Personal  feelings  are 
ever  the  most  dangerous,  and  in  this. desire  I  could  detect  that 
of  revenge  for  the  beating  with  their  clubs  and  draggicg  to 
prison  of  our  friends — a  part  those  officials  had  to  act  in  the 
discharge  of  their  vocation.  It  was  decided,  however,  that  no 
injury  should  be  inflicted  on  them.  That  the  several  station 
houses  should  be  captured  and  used  for  the  temporal  impris- 
onment of  the  police,  whilst  the  mayor,  municipality  and  other 
officials  in  power  should  be  confined  in  their  own  houses  or 
elsewhere.  The  work  of  accomplishing  this  we  regarded  as 
nothing.  That  of  vanquishing  the  troops,  consisting  of  some 
800  infantry,  two  companies  of  dragoons,  and  two  of  artillery, 
we  well  knew  to  be  the  main  difficulty. 

And  we  purposed  to  meet  it  with  every  appliance  within  our 


OB,    THJfi    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  201 

reach.  Thirteen-inch  shells  and  four  or  five-inch  grenades  were 
to  form  a  main  part  of  our  reliance.  For  the  construction  of 
these  there  was  no  lack  of  old  metal  everywhere  lying  around- 
The  moulds  to  form  and  the  workmen  to  cast  them  were  fur- 
nished by  Newcastle.  Winlaton  and  Swalwell,  villages  three  or 
four  miles  distant,  engaged  to  construct  the  necessary  furnaces 
and  do  the  casting. 

The  following  sketch,  which  I  find  in  a  diary  of  that  date,  is 
both  a  mental  and  a  material  photograph : — 

It  is  Sunday.  A  December  noon  is  pouring  its  sunshine  on 
the  bright  quiet  snow  that  covers  all  the  fields  and  mantles  the 
trees  and  hedges.  Even  the  Scotswood  road  sparkles  in  its 
frost  pavement  powdered  with  snow.  How  quiet  ancl  lovingly 
Heaven  looks  down  on  that  scene.  How  ill  in  accord  with  the 
purpose  that  directs  my  steps.  Can  I  not  abandon  myself  to  a 
quiet  saunter  up  the  Tyne  ?  No  !  Quiet  and  recreation  are  afar 
from  my  thought.  I  think  of  the  sordid  and  inhuman  me  j 
whose  rapacity  to  the  millions  had  turned  all  this  brightness 
and  beauty — life  itself — into  a  darkness  and  a  curse.  "  And  here 
is  one  of  those  sordid  men,"  I  exclaimed,  as  Aid.  Potter  met  me, 
astride  on  a  saddle  returning  to  town.  We  understand  each 
other.  He  is  one  of  the  respectable,  loyal,  "  law-and-order " 
starvation  men.  I  am  one  of  the  turbulent  and  disloyal  crowd. 
But  he  does  not  know  that  I  am  unthinking  of  the  day  arid  its 
worship — that  my  path  is  across  that  picturesque  bridge  to  the 
iron  villages  beyond,  or  for  what  purpose  ? — does  not  know  that 
before  another  Sabbath  dawn  he  may  hear 

**  The  shot,  the  shout,  the  groan  of  war 

Keverberate  along  that  vale, 

More  suited  to  the  shepherd's  tale," 

or  the  keelman's  song  as  he  floats  his  cargo  down  those  quiet 
waters,  now  darkly  sleeping  in  the  arms  of  the  embracing 
snow.  I  thought  why  did  the  Creator  afflict  the  world  with 
such  men?  Why  did  He  permit  them  to  turn  this  beautiful 
world  into  a  terrestrial  hell?  Immersing  their  own  ignoble 
beings  in  a  sea  of  selfishness — so  sunk  that  they  cannot  even 
see  the  misery  of  body  and  strife  of  soul  that  they  have  created 
around  them.  But  I  am  nearing  Scotswood  bridge,  on  my  way 
to  Swalwal  and  Winlaton,  and  not  at  all  on  a  message  of  peace. 
I  reach  the  headquarters.  Poor  fellows !  They  are  quiet,  or- 


202      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY  ; 

derly,  unimpassioned.  But  they  are  men,  and  to  assert  thei** 
equal  manhood  they  will  peril  their  lives.  Plans  are  unfolded. 
Maps  of  Newcastle  and  Sunderland  barracks  and  Tynemouth 
castle  spread  out — the  various  "  quarters  "  of  the  various  arms 
are  accurately  laid  down.  Their  numbers,  their  nature,  and  on 
which  the  first  blow  shall  fall.  On  this  there  was  but  one 
opinion.  The  officers  hors  du  combat,  the  troops  would  join  us. 
Such  was  our  firm  belief,  and  I  think  it  was  well  founded.  The 
infantry,  I  remember,  were  principally  young  Irishmen — an  in- 
flammable race,  that  had  given  quite  assuring  indications  of 
their  good  will.  The  thought  that  countrymen  of  their  own  were 
leaders  in  the  movement  had  some  weight  with  them.  Of  pikes 
there  was  a  supply  that  had  denuded  the  plantations  around  of 
their  straight  saplings.  Of  firearms  far  less,  but  all  that  could 
be  procured  for  money. 

Those  two  facts  I  knew  of  my  own  knowledge.  Of  powder 
used  for  blasting  in  the  mines  there  was  or  could  be  no  scarcity. 
Old  cast  iron  cannon  had  recently  been  numerous  lying  around. 
Whether  those  or  whether  brass  pieces  were  put  in  requisition 
and  mounted  for  service  I  had  affirmative  report,  but  no  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  their  number  or  efficiency.  Our  chief,  or  I 
should  say  our  first,  reliance  in  the  approaching  conflict  was  on 
13-inch  shells  and  4|-inch  grenades,  to  be  discharged  by  gradu- 
ated fuses.  Here  I  think  we  very  dangerously  miscounted  the 
results.  A  heavily  loaded  13-inch  shell  would,  we  computed, 
blow  down  an  ordinary  brick  wall  or  shatter  a  2-inch  wooden 
gate,  if  exploded  up  close  against  either.  It  strikes  me  with 
astonishment,  now,  that  without  actual  demonstration  we  should 
arrive  at  a  certain  conclusion  on  the  subject,  which  we  certainly 
did— the  more  so,  as  such  grave  consequences  depended.  The 
use  of  the  grenades  was  more  assured,  for  we  didn't  expect  that 
very  heavy  work  would  be  done  by  them.  Well  adjusted  and 
thrown  from  ranks  or  roofs,  or  from  windows,  they  were  not 
likely  to  disappoint  our  expectation.  Still,  I  think  now  that  our 
ardor  carried  us  into  very  dangerous  and  uncertain  conclusions- 

It  was  agreed,  however,  now  this  Sabbath  day  at  Winlaton, 
that  Newcastle  should  have  constructed  models  of  both  missiles 
and  furnish  skilled  moulders  to  cast  them.  On  the  part  of  Win- 
laton and  Swalwal,  it  was  engaged  that  a  blast  furnace,  or  more 
than  one  if  necessary,  should  be  in  readiness  at  a  day  as  early 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN  DAYS.  203 

as  possible  before  the  end  of  the  week.  The  mission  ended,  I 
returned  to  Newcastle,  lighted  by  a  crescent  moon  over  the 
hushed  landscape.  Amid  all  the  offered  happiness  that  lay 
around  me  enfolded  in  that  quiet  of  Heaven  and  earth,  what 
wonder  that  I  thus  thought  as  I  recrossed  the  bridge  and  gazed 
up  and  down  the  waters  on  my  homeward  return,  "  Wretched 
men !  little  do  you  know  the  enormity  of  your  crime  ;  little  how 
base  yourselves  —  how  grovelling  your  selfishness — how  much 
truer  happiness  an  honest  competence  would  bring  to  you  com- 
pared with  the  excesses  for  which  you  now  endanger  alike  your 
bodies  and  your  souls.  And  now  you  enforce  this  conflict  of 
blood  upon  the  innocent  men  I  have  just  parted  from — forced 
upon  them  this  deadly  conflict !  "  The  departed  scenes  of  my 
early  life  rose  up  before  me.  The  regrets  of  Burns  were  in  my 
heart : — 

"  O !  enviable  early  days, 
When  dancing  thoughtless  pleasure's  maze, 

To  care  and  guilt  unknown ! 
How  ill  exchanged  for  riper  times, 
To  feel  the  follies  or  the  crimes 
Of  others  or  my  own." 

The  same  base  and  ignoble  men  who  had  impoverished  and  em- 
bittered his  life  had  also  fastened  upon  mine  and  invited  me  to 
its  one  alternative— mortal  combat— if  I  would  not  submit 
That  combat  was  now  grimly  approaching. 

I  got  home  well  pleased  with  the  full  success  of  my  mission, 
as  I  believed  it  be.  Every  feeling  had  now  left  me  save  resolve 
and  solicitude  that  nothing  should  be  left  undone  that  could  at 
all  contribute  to  our  success.  All  the  trades — nearly  every  man 
who  worked — were  with  us.  We  found  no  difficulty  in  having 
three  molds  made,  one  of  13  inch  and  two  of  4|  inch  diameter. 
For  this  work  we  paid  £1  and  10s.  respectively.  As  little  diffi- 
culty had  we  in  procuring  two  skillful  molders.  Counting  that 
the  blast  furnace  was  ready,  those  men  were  sent  out  to  do  the 
work  on  Tuesday.  The  "  rising  "  was  to  take  place  in  the  early 
darkness  of  Sunday  morning.  But  a  deputation  comes  in  from 
Winlaton  with  the  discouraging  intelligence  that  no  furnace  had 
been  or  could  be  erected.  The  "  workies  "  had  no  ground  on 
which  to  erect  it,  and  the  owners  of  the  ground — Whig  middle - 
class  men— kept  up  a  constant  and  suspicious  watch. 

Always  on  hand  at  the  Liberator  office,  I  generally  had  the 


20-1        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTLHT : 

first  communication  of  every  fact  and  circumstance  affecting1  the 
movement.  If  anything  grave  and  doubtful  presented,  the 
''Council  "  was  at  once  called  together.  It  was  not  on  this  oc- 
casion. Time  was  too  pressing.  All  the  difficulties  connerted 
with  the  furnace  were  present -d  to  myself  alone.  They  were, 
indeed,  most  formidable.  But  my  reply  was:  "If  you  hav« 
not  contrivance,  management,  resources  to  surmount  greater 
difficulties  than  this,  how  can  we  expect  to  dethrone  the  govern- 
ment? The  reasons  that  you  present  are  very  substantial 
things,  but  they  will  be  of  no  use  when  we  come  front  to  front 
with  the  soldiery.  Just  think  of  it !  As  they  pour  in  their  vol- 
leys, think  of  us  shaking  our  fist  at  them,  and  exclaiming  :  '  If 
we  had  the  grenades  and  a  dozen  or  two  of  shells  to  hurl  from 
the  housetops  we  would  be  a  match  for  you.'  No,  no !  We 
must  have  the  shells.  Empty  talk  will  do  nothing  for  us." 
"And  we  sliall  have  them,"  replied  the  deputation.  "Count 
upon  them  sure  and  certain."  And  leaving  this  assurance  they 
returned  home. 

I  had  rooms  in  the  same  building  in  which  a  lively  manufac- 
ture of  five-second  small  and  half- mi  mite,  large  fuses  was  going 
on.  But  it  was  a  trade  that  we  knew  little  about,  and  therefore 
had  a  singeing  of  fingers  before  we  mastered  it:  suHicieutly.  We 
succeeded,  however,  tolerably  well.  The  length  and  caliber  of 
the  fuse  and  the  packing  in  of  the  gunpowder  governed  tbe 
time  of  ignition,  and  this  part  of  our  armament  was,  I  think, 
brought  to  a  precision  sufficiently  practical  for  use.  In  car- 
tridge making  four  or  five  buckshot  went  into  a  companionship 
with  every  bullet.  Bags  of  buckshot  were  as  yet  an  article  of 
commerce  and  were  in  demand. 

Thus  time  and  act  moved  on  toward  the  eventful  Saturday 
night.  Nothing  practicable  was  left  undone  in  Newcastle,  arid 
we  relied  undoubtingly  on  the  Winlaton  men  that  the  explosives 
would  be  forthcoming. 

But  they  were  not.  Nor  was  this  all.  On  the  night  of  move- 
ment there  assembled  not  quite  seventy  men,  out  of  the  secret 
enrollment  nearly  ten  times  that  number. 

Of  course  those  who  did  assemble  were  the  most  daring  and 
desperate  spirits  in  the  movement ;  and,  finding  that  they  wore 
not  in  a  condition  for  a  stand  up  fight,  it  was  strongly  urged 
that  the  torch  should  be  resorted  to.  It  was  urged  that  *.hip 


OB,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  205 

•step  would  cause  a  waking  up  and  excitement,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  which  every  revolutionist  would  rush  to  arms.  Others, 
and  with  better  judgment,  maintained  that  to  break  in  upon  the 
slumbers  of  peaceful  families,  destroy  their  scanty  property  and 
endanger  their  lives  would  be  productive  of  no  one  good,  and  of 
evil  unspeakable.  The  latter  counsel  prevailed. 

It  was  resolved  to  wait  events,  and  in  case  our  friends  made  a 
successful  rising  in  any  one  of  the  various  towns  in  which  the 
rising  was  to  take  place,  it  was  determined  not  to  allow  th« 
.troops  on  the  Tyne  or  Wear  to  march  against  them.  We  would 
'throw  up  barricades  and  give  them  work  to  do  at  home. 

On  proceeding  to  the  rendezvous  one  thought  of  my  family 
did  not  even  cross  my  mind.  But  now  that  the  affair  had  taken 
this  peaceful  turn,  I  thought  of  my  wife's  anxiety,  and  hastened 
home  to  tell  her  the  result,  describing  hurriedly  what  had  taken 
place.  "  Have  they  separated  ?  "  she  inquired.  "  They  agreed 
-and  were  preparing  to  do  so  when  I  left"  "  Throw  on  your 
-cloak,  and  back  as  fast  as  ever  you  can.  They  will  revert  to 
their  first  opinion  and  use  the  torch.  Those  men  are  desperate 
enough  to  do  anything." 

This  seemed  intuition,  though  the  principal  men  were  indeed 
.personally  known  to  her.  Her  earnestness  won  upon  what 
I  thought  my  better  judgment.  I  was  instantly  out.  Rap- 
idly retracing  my  course  to  the  suburban  shvet,  our  ren- 
dezvous. I  don't  now  remember  the  name  of  tho  street, 
but  through  the  long  memory  I  know  it  was  a  new  street, 
in  the  Sandgato  direction,  I  think,  but  interior  some  dis- 
tance from  the  river.  As  I  passed  the  several  policemen 
on  their  beats,  I  could  not  but  contrast  the  reigning  quiet- 
ness with  the  strife  and  uproar  that  would  have  burst  forth 
hod  they  known  what  was  going  on.  Shall  I  confess  it  there 
was  a  feeling  akin  to  pride  in  the  consciousness  of  our  ex- 
clusive knowledge,  in  the  thought  that  I  and  my  associates 
knew  a  fact  so  grave,  ind  of  which  they  were  wholly  Ignorant. 
I  reached  the  centre  of  action,  and,  to  my  dismay,  found  the  men 
formed  into  four  parties,  just  issuing  forth  on  their  most  des- 
perate, and,  indeed,  mad  mission.  I  had  reached  the  large  room 
door  leading  out  to  the  head  of  the  stairway.  John  Mason  \vas 
foremost.  "We  have  resolved  to  do  it,"  said  he,  "we  must 
rouse  the  people  by  some  desperate  action,  and  the  torch  is  to 


206  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

be  the  action " — or  words  to  that  effect.  "  ~ou  will  pass  over 
my  dead  body  first,"  I  retorted,  "  if  you  don't  allow  ine  five 
minutes  to  speak."  Not  one  minute  ;  your'e  a  traitor,"  shouted 
a  voice,  and  Mason  sprang  upon  a  pistol  leveled  at  me  in  the  fel- 
low's hand,  wrenching  it  from  his  grasp.  "  Who  are  you,"  he 
exclaimed,  "  whom  we  dida't  know  a  week  ago,  that  dares  o  con- 
front a  man  who  has  been  acting  vigorously  with  us  from  the 
first?"  Then  turning  to  me  he  urged  me  not  to  delay  them 
even  for  the  five  minutes,  but  I  was  immovable,  and  he  movou 
that  the  time  should  be  allowed  me.  I  spoke : — 

Friends,  brothers !  If  my  heart  revolts  at  this  terrible  resolve,  I.  who  so 
deeply  sympathize  with  your  wrongs,  so  resolve  to  right  them,  how  will 
It  be  with  the  multitude,  even  of  your  own  friends,  \\heu  dawn 
rises  over  the  smoking  ruins  that  once  was  Newcastle?  Ho\v  will  the 
oeho  of  your  desperate  deed  reverberate  over  all  England  ?  How  will  all 
the  crime  and  incendiarism,  falsely  charged  against  you.  uow  be  real- 
ized ?  What  a  change  will  that  morning  bring  forth !  Magistrates.  Milita- 
ry. Police.  Middlemen,  all  sweeping  through  the  streets,  and  you  crouch- 
ing, hiding  among  i;he  ruins  in  vain  from  their  just  vengeance.  If  you 
have  no  though1:  for  that  mother  rushing  undressed  out  from  the  flamoa— 
bringing,  it  maybe,  only  a  part  of  her  children  along  with  her— out  under 
the  skies  of  a  January  night.  If  you  have  no  feeling  for  her  and  her  fam- 
ily, have  feeling  for  the  women  and  children  of  your  own  house  when 
such  a  day  of  horror  has  descended  upon  thorn  through  your  great  mis- 
taken crime.  And,  above  all,  have  feeling  for  the  holy  cause  we  are  en- 
gaged in.  on  which  this  madness  will  fix  a  stain  never,  never,  to  be  cleansed 
out.  You  condemned  this  proceeding  not  an  hour  ago  .and  now  you  adopt 
it.  How  can  you  rely  on  your  judgment,  such  a  judgment  as  this  ?  This 
step  would  be  utter,  total,  irretrievable  ruin!  Some  one  of  our  associiite 
towns  will  make  a  start  to-night,  then  hurra  for  tho  barricades!  Broth- 
ers, if  you  agree  in  this  view,  give  mo  a  show  of  hands  ? 

They  did  unanimously,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  man 
from  whom  Mason  wrenched  the  pistol. 

This  man  was  from  Blaydon,  and  as  I  afterward  learned  by 
letters  to  America,  was  a  traitor  and  a  spy.  But  owing,  I  sup- 
pose, to  the  solemn  oath  taken  by  so  many  men,  he  was  afraid 
to  give  public  evidence  against  us. 

I  now  remained  till  I  saw  the  meeting  dispersed,  every  man 
to  his  home.  But  not  before  we  sent  scouts  out  to  warn  back 
such  of  our  adherents  as  might  be  marching  in  from  outer  vil- 
lages, such  as  Blyth  and  Bedlington.  John  Mason  acted  man- 
fully that  night.  To  his  activity  I  probably  owed  my  life. 

But  the  most  desperate,  among  whom  was  Eobbert  Peddle,  a 
Scotchman,  and  like  Tom  Paine,  a  staymaker,  were  not  at  all  re- 


OK,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  207 

conciled  to  even  a  temporary  inaction,  and  next  evening  I  was 
informed  that  a  party  of  them  were  assembled  in  a  remote 
room  in  "the  Side,"  preparing  to  enter  upon  the  horrible 
work  that  had  been  prevented  the  night  before.  Under  guid- 
ance, I  hastened  to  the  spot  through  dark,  intricate  passages, 
and  up  tumble-down  stairs.  To  my  expostulations  they  replied 
that  I  was  "  too  late."  "  Already,"  they  said,  "  was  the  work 
commenced,  and  they  must  go  on  with  it,  or  abandon  their 
friends  who  had  gone  forth  to  do  it.  Before  midnight  "  they  af- 
firmed "  flame  and  combat  would  have  full  possession  of  New- 
castle ;  I  might  join  in  that  combat  or  I  might  not,  but  the  fact  I 
could  not  alter."  I  believed  them,  retired  home,  and  spent  such 
a  night  of  anxiety  and  horror  as  stands  far  alone  in  the  record 
of  my  life.  I  threw  myself  on  the  bed  with  my  uniform  blouse 
and  arms  on  the  table,  and  I  now  wonder  at  the  mistaken  sense 
of  honor  that  made  me  prepare  to  join  them  on  hearing  the 
first  shot.  Day  dawned  in  quietness,  the  most  welcome  I  have 
ever  seen. 

Let  me  here  record  a  singular  fact  concerning  this  Peddle. 
Ordinarily,  he  was  more  of  a  rhapsodist  than  an  orator.  But  as 
we  neared  this  crisis,  he  made  a  speech  at  one  of  our  meetings 
which,  for  electrical  force  of  thought  and  language,  I  have  never 
seen  equalled.  I  did  not  publish  the  sublimity  of  this  speech, 
but  my  memory  presents  a  faint  outline  of  it.  It  pictured  a 
calm,  bright  landscape,  waving  with  trees  and  blossoming  with 
flowers.  A  darkening  of  the  sky  "  gathering,  gathering  "  of  the 
tempest,  a  frightened  multitude  on  the  fields  below.  Crowns, 
and  coronets,  and  coaches  on  a  grand  dark  mountain  above. 
It  is  a  volcano.  It  shakes  un  der  their  feet,  bursts  asunder,  and 
all  that  defied  heaven  and  cursed  the  earth  sinks  howling  into  it. 
I  mention  the  fact  as  a  very  singular  mental  phenomenon.  It 
was  indeed  a  remarkable  inspiration  of  the  crisis,  similar  to 
Meagher's  apostrophe  to  the  sword  or  his  splitting  eloquence 
in  the  dock  of  Clonmel.  , 

Peddie  was  a  man  of  all  or  of  any  work.  Next  day  he  threat- 
ened the  scaffold  to  myself  and  Mr.  Kucastle,  because  we  would 
not  furnish  horse  and  carriage  to  convey  him  (and  a  few  desper- 
erate  followers)  to  Alnwick  castle.  It  contained  arms  and  treas- 
ure, he  averred,  and  its  pastures  were  filled  with  just  such  ra- 
tions as  the  revolutionary  forces  required.  A  young  butcher 
followed  in  his  train  for  several  days  to  take  charge  in  this  de- 
partment. 


208  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY  I 

But  those  in  chief  control  of  the  movement,  held  to  their  re- 
solve to  await  events  in  the  other  insurgent  towns,  and  to  be 
guided  by  them.  For  several  days,  I  think  four  days,  there 
was  a  lull.  No  intelligence  1  At  last  it  came  ;  to  the  effect  that 
several  risings  in  Sheffield,  Bradford  and  other  towns  had  taken 
place  ;  all  abortive,  and  several  of  the  more  prominent  men  en- 
gaged in  them  made  prisoners.  This,  like  the  news  of  Frost's 
failure,  produced  such  a  revulsion  in  the  public  mind  as  showed 
that  all  chance  of  present  action  had  again  passed  away.  There* 

is,  indeed, 

*'  A  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men." 

We  were  not  without  friends  even  among  the  Government  au- 
thorities.   No  one  who  observed  our  zeal,  activity,  and,  let  mo- 
add,  intelligence,  and  the  vast  numbers  arrayed  on  our  side 
could  fail  to  see  that  we  were  a  most  formidable  power. 

As  such  a  power,  individuals  sought  our  good  will  and  assur- 
ance of  protection  in  the  event  of  a  contest.  They  to  return- 
similar  good  offices  to  us.  Through  this  means  we  were  ap- 
prized that  the  local  magistrates  had  got  possession  of  all  the 
particulars  of  our  "  nightly  muster,"  already  mentioned.  But  it: 
was  represented  to.  us  that  they  had  as  yet  no  sworn  evidence 
of  the  fact  before  them.  This,  we  reasonably  concluded,  would 
not  long  be  wanting.  All  hope  of  resistance  on  our  part  had 
departed  for  the  present.  Months  must  elapse  before  the  tide  of 
popular  feeling  would  rise  again.  Meanwhile,  we  would  be  in 
the  shelter  of  a  prison,  if  not  suspended  between  earth  and 
Heaven,  or  luxuriating  in  the  fields  of  Van  Dieman's  Land, 
whichever  the  Government  pleased.  *  As  we  knew  it  was  in 
full  possession  of  our  desperate  design  upon  the  barracks  and 
the  overt  acts  performed  in  furtherance  of  that  design,!  we 

•Not  a  Reformer  of  note  escaped  the  vengeance  of  the  Government.  Even  Fergus  O'Oon  - 
nor,  who  took  no  part  in  either  of  the  insurrectionary  movements,  was  thrown  into  prison 
for  eighteen  months.  Bronterre,  equally  innocent,  shared  the  same  vengeance.  Holbery, 
of  Sheffield,  (taken  at  the  rising  in  Sheffield.)  was  kept  in  prison  till  he  died. 

+  Four  days  alter  our  abortive  meeting,  Bell,  the  foreman  of  our  printing  office  (who  wa*- 

not  in  our  secret  councils),  signaled  me  into  a  private  room.    "  Mr. ."  naming  an  offl 

cial,  "  sends  yon  word  that  the  magistrates  have  information  of  two  assemblings  in  arm , 
on  Saturday  night  in— —  street.  The  information  is  vague,  not  sworn  to,  and  therefore 
no  warrants  issned.  If  it  be  true,  and  it  you  were  present,  he  desires  to  warn  you." 
'•  Hoot !  it  is  not  true  I  "  was  my  response.  "  Well,  then,  let  me  have  some  copy."  But  ho 
had  got  his  last  "copy  "  from  me.  Consulted  with  Mr.  Rucastle,  who  was  by  no  means 
so  deeply  compromised  as  myself.  The  situation  was  just  this.  Assembling  in  arm,! 
though  not  k  blow  struck,  was  an  act  of  High  Treassn.  No  means  to  resist,  and  no  thought 
of  s»bmission,  I  quitUd  the  field. 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  20$ 

had  little  room  to  doubt  what  it  would  do.  Twenty  minutes 
before  I  started  for  America,  I  had  not  the  remotest  idea  of 
ever  crossing  the  Atlantic.  Mr.  Rucastle  and  myself  cross- 
ed Tyne  bridge  to  Gateshead,  as  if  to  take  a  customary  walk  up 
the  river  bank.  But  crossing  the  hills  to  Chesterle  street,  my 
companion  cast  his  last  longing  look  at  that  river.  I  think  it  i* 
ray  mission  to  see  it  again. 

I  was  under  two  separate  bonds  on  charges  of  sedition.  My 
employers  were  securities  on  one,  and  John  Blakey,  dogger  and 
T  think  Richard  Ayr,  publican,  on  the  other.  The  latter  two,, 
fearing  to  lose  the  amouat  of  recognizance,  had  us  pursued  to 
Liverpool,  whence  we  narrowly  and  singularly  got  away.*  The 
former  retained  an  amount  of  my  salary  which  they  were,  in- 
deed, entitled  to  retain  to  cover  the  risk.  The  Government  did 
exact  the  penalty,  but  returned  it  again  at  the  intercession  of 
the  then  member  for  Gateshead. 

Contrasts  are  striking,  and  there  is  in  human  nature  a  tend- 
ency to  make  itself  bright  by  darkening  its  neighbors.  I  think 
it  not  unlikely  that  individuals  who  never  endured  real  fatigue,, 
or  incurred  real  danger,  or  even  made  pecuniary  sacrafice  in  the 
movement,  whose  co-operation  was  holiday  sunshiny  work,  and 
even  who  made  out  of  it  large  pecuniary  gain,  may  have  spoken 
of  me  after  my  departure  in  this  darkening  spirit.  All  I  can  say 
is  that  I  avoided  no  fatigue,  shrank  from  no  danger,  refused  not 
to  contribute  far  beyond  the  extent  of  my  slender  means  toward 
the  advancement  of  the  common  cause.  At  the  rising  under 
Frost  very  prominent  men  had  a  sudden  call  to  Trance  to  be 
out  of  the  way.  At  the  later  rising,  now  mentioned,  there  waa 
a  still  more  general  avoidance  of  danger  in  a  similar  way.  In- 
deed, the  number  of  distinguished  leaders  who  took  any  part  in 
the  dangers  of  the  work  was  very  small.  I  do  not  remember 
one,  only  John  Mason,  Edward  Charlton,  a  fine  young  fellow 
named  Held,  and  I  think  Jemmy  Ayr,  celebrated  for  his  declara- 
tion that  he  would  agitate  no  more  in  the  old  way,  that  for  the 
time  to  come  he  would  "  agitate  the  bricks  and  mortar."  f 

•John  Rucastle  and  myself  were  proceeding  to  a  shop  to  buy  some  necessaries  lor  th« 
voyage,  and  stept  in  for  a  glass  of  ale.  From  behind  a  screen  came  the  lamiliar  Newcastle 
idiom.  The  incident  led  to  our  escape. 

t  Jemmy  was  a  mason  by  trade,  and  when  arraigned  tor  this  and  other  imputed  sedition. 
lie  got  cleverly  oat,  by  affirming  that  he  meant  simply  that  he  would  give  up  agitation, 
take  to  ail  trade,  and  agitate  the  bricks  and  mortar  for  a  living. 
37 


THE    ODD    BOOK    OP    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

I  was  present,  and  took  a  man's  part  at  all  those  proceedinga 
The  movement  was  alike  dear  to  me  in  its  darkest  as  in  its 
brightest  hour.  I  left  it  when  I  saw  myself  without  means  of 
resisting  the  Government.  I  had  no  disposition  to  submit  to 
its  vengeance.  And  I  am  as  proud  of  the  resolution  and  energy 
with  which  I  preserved  my  personal  freedom,  as  I  am  of  the  un- 
ceasing labors  I  had  given  to  the  public  cause. 

I  had  not  means  to  defray  the  expense  of  my  voyage.  But 
luckily  I  had  from  time  to  time  made  small  remittances  to  my 
mother,  the  last  of  which  was  untouched  by  her,  when  a  letter 
apprising  my  relatives  of  my  position  reached  her  hand.  She 
returned  me  the  Bank  of  England  note  just  as  I  sent  it,  and  this 
enabled  me  to  get  away  from  Liverpool,  leaving  a  stock  in  my 
hand  of  just  fifteen  pence  sterling  when  I  landed  in  New  York. 

I  had  fixed  to  sail  in  a  "  transient  ship,"  but  happened  by  a 
singular  chance  to  meet  two  refugees  from  the  neigberhood  of 
Newcastle,  who  had  manufactured  pikes  during  the  past  season. 
They  informed  me  they  were  to  sail  next  morning  in  the  •*  Inde- 
pendence," a  "liner."  We,  Mr.  R.  and  myself,  determined  to  sail 
with  them,  and  at  the  moment  commenced  to  get  our  luggage 
on  board.  Next  morning  when  we  came  to  embark,  the  vessel 
was  falling  out  of  the  dock  gate,  and  the  dull  sheet  of  water  in 
the  dock  prevented  us  from  getting  near  her.  The  watermen 
would  take  no  less  than  a  sovereign  for  pushing  us  across.  I 
had  only  five  shillings,  which  an  old  boatman  accepted,  not  a  mo- 
ment too  soon,  as  we  had  scarcely  Jumped  aboard  when  she  was 
through  the  gate,  and  every  sail  set,  with  a  fair  wind— blowing 
her  down  the  river,  and  on  to  the  steam  tug  which  had  just 
towed  her  out  of  the  dock,  and  now  had  to  cast-loose  in  order  to 
get  out  of  her  way. 

At  that  moment,  the  Government  officials  who  were  in  close 
pursuit,  reached  the  pier  head.  "Where  is  the  'Independ- 
ence ? ' "  "  Yonder,  under  a  press  of  sail."  "  We  want  to  hire 
a  steamboat  to  pursue  her,  she  has  political  prisoners  on 
board."  "  There  is  no  steamer  on  the  Mercy  can  catch  her. 
See  the  tug  she  employed  is  just  casting  loose  to  avoid  being 
run  over."  As  we  were  to  sail  so  suddenly,  I  did  not  appre- 
hend that  the  pursuit  would  come  so  close  on  us,  so  I  entered 
my  true  name  at  the  shipping  agent's.  The  pursuers  discovered 
it,  and  would  have  succeeded,  only  they  delayed  to  have  their 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  211 

warrants  countersigned  by  the  Liverpool  magistrates,  who  did  not 
come  to  their  office  till  nine  o'clock. 


THE  sketch  of  a  winter  voyage  in  a  sail  ship  would  afford  anything 
but  pleasure,  either  to  the  writer  or  the  reader.  An  overnight 
storm  rattling  down  yards  and  rigging  on  the  deck.  When  at  day- 
break the  "chief  officer"  treads  through  the  wreckage  to  the  fore- 
castle, where  the  crew — chilled,  tired,  worn  out — have  taken  refuge ; 
when  he  commands,  threatens,  expostulates,  to  bring  them  out  in 
vain — the  sceno  is  full  of  instruction  as  to  the  merits  or  demerits  of 
the  sea-faring  life.  It  is  not  an  infrequent  or  a  pleasant  incident 
when  food  and  water  for  the  last  ten  days  give  little  to  the  crew  and 
little  or  nothing  to  the  passengers.  If  we  log  about  in  the  Gulf 
stream  for  three  or  four  weeks — and  if,  going  into  the  wheel-house 
at  midnight,  the  man-at-the- wheel  is  asleep  on  his  feet  and  the  vessel 
heading  in  the  wrong  direction — if  lights  below  are  forbidden  and 
the  order  disobeyed — and  if  smokers  smoke  themselves  to  sleep  in 
their  berths  within  arm's-length  of  the  straw  protruding  from  a  wall 
of  delf  crates  —  you  may  well  rejoice  when  the  "land  clouds  "rise 
before  you,  and  be  happier  still  when  the  low,  white,  sandy  coast  of 
Long  Island  rises  over  the  waves.  A  Yankee  pilot  springs  aboard 
— your  first  connecting  link  with  the  New  "World. 

And  all  teaches  that  there  are  ten  or  twenty  times  more  traveling 
over  the  seas  than  is  necessary — that  it  is  a  school  of  tyranny  in 
the  cabin,  and  that  it  is  a  life  of  homeless,  heartless  degradation  to 
the  "men  before  the  mast." 


The  paging  is  irregular,  owing  to  difficulties  not  worth  describing 
here.  Indeed,  the  book  could  not  come  out  at  all  only  for  one  fact 
that  seems,  or  was,  providential.  None  of  the  large  houses  will 
publish  a  book  of  searching  Keform — even  if  indemnified,  secured 
from  loss.  A  library  edition,  at  a  higher  price,  will  be  required, 
In  which  all  these  irregularities  will  disappear. 


"  Youth,  like  the  softened  wax,  with  ease  will  take 
Those  images  that  first  impression  make." 

There  is  a  very  general,  passive,  useless  assent  given  to  this 
Tery  great  truth.  But  its  importance  does  not  seem  to  be 
realized — certainly  is  not  acted  upon.  If  it  were,  it  would 
put  another  spirit  into  men  and  boys,  and  another  face  on 
the  world.  In  this  book  is  stated  my  own  experience  on  this 
subject — how  one  or  two  fragmentary,  now  obsolete,  books 
gave  bent  and  direction  to  my  whole  life.  Let  me  add — I  read 
ihis  somewhere — "  Stooping  is  characteristic  of  the  clown;  an 
erect  figure,  of  the  gentleman."  Those  two  sentences  took 
the  worker's  growing  stoop  out  of  me.  Somewhere,  too,  I 
remember  this  printed  line  :  "  To  excel  in  dancing,  is  to  ex- 
>cel  in  trifles."  I  had  no  ambition  to  "  excel  in  trifles  ; "  and 
so,  and  not  very  wisely,  I  turned  my  back  on  the  ball-room 
forevermore. 

All  men  favor  education — look  up  to  it  as  the  great  re- 
deeming power.  But  the  education  that  teaches  youth  to 
read  evil  books  and  study  evil  models,  whether  is  it  a  redeem- 
ing or  a  degrading  power  ?  And  yet  those  evil  books  are 
presented  on  every  news-stand  in  the  tempting  form  of  clear 
type  and  brilliant  engravings.  A  man  who  has  to  confine  his 
son  (who  desired  to  "  run  away  and  turn  pirate  "),  procures  a 
list  of  eight  "  rival  youth  traps,"  with  such  titles  as  the  follow- 
ing :  "Black  Adder,  or  the  Pirates  of  the  Channel ;"  "  The 
Two  Kunaways,  a  Story  of  Mystery  and  Thrilling  Incidents  ;" 


2  THE   ODD    BOOK    OF   THE  OTNETEENTH    CENTURY  ; 

"  Jack  Dauntless,  the  Boy  Privateer  ;"  "  Dashing  Dick,  the 
King  of  the  Highway  ;"  "  Charlie,  the  Masher,  or  the  Boss  on 
Boilers ;"  and  so  on,  ad  nauseam.  "  The  illustrations  are," 
pays  this  man,  "literally  murderous."  In  one  story,  the  boy 
hero  enters  a  thieving  den,  called  "  The  Hole  in  the  "Wall ;" 
and,  while  dividing  the  prey,  a  shout  is  raised,  "  Cheese  it ! 
Cops  are  coming."  Charlie  the  Masher  is  troubled  because 
Bob's  mother  "  puts  too  much  awfully  religious  chilling 
between  her  and  Bob." 

For  a  genteeler  grade  of  boys  we  find  another  range.  And 
a  brave  "American  boy "  is  presented  in  a  large  engraving, 
blazing;  his  revolver  in  the  faces  of  a  young  lady's  carriage 
horses,,  herself  seated,  terrified,  with  outstretched,  imploring 
arms;  Following  this  come,  "  How  to  Flirt,"  "  How  to  Get 
BichJ*  how  to  learn  anything,  everything,  but  the  private  or 
public  virtues. 

Obscene  books  are  suppressed,  and  their  venders  pun- 
ished. But  all  this  rubbish  has  unchecked  sway,  and  they 
are  doing  their  deadly  work,  for 

"'Tis  education  forms  the  tender  mind, 
Which  way  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree's  inclined." 

Never  was  truth  more  apparent — never  was  truth  more 
important — never  was  truth  more  neglected — especially  in 
this  boasted  American  Kepublic. 

This  book  sufficiently  shows  the  things  in  Europe — especial- 
ly in  England — that  call  themselves  "Civilization."  And  it 
seems  taken  for  granted  that  America  must  adopt  civilization 
as  it  exists  in  Europe,  or  have  no  civilization  at  all.  And 
this  was  inevitable.  The  civilization  of  England  grew  out  of 
robbery  and  murder,  accomplished  by  the  sword.*  And 

*  It  was  lato  in  the  eleventh  century.  William,  called  the  Conqueror,  was 
a  natural  son  of  the  Duke  of  Normandy ;  and,  having  no  dominion  to  in- 
herit, ho  determined  to  rob  the  English  people  of  their  country.  For  this 
purpose,  ho  gathered  all  the  burglars  that  would  join  him,  and  sailed  for 
England.  It  was  a  happy  household  in  those  days.  The  lands  held  in  allo- 


OK,    THE   SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  A 

the  civilization  now  looming  up  in  the  United  States  is 
founding  itself  on  robbery  and  murder,  accomplished  by  all 
the  skulking,  cowardly  vices.*  Disinheriting  the  people, 
buying  and  selling  votes  in  legislatures — all  the  legislatures; 
and  "  decisions  "  in  the  courts — all  the  courts.  And  having 
practically  shut  the  people  out  from  the  soil,  made  them 
"  free  to  starve,"  then  hire  what  they  want  of  them  at  star- 
vation wages,  and  let  what  they  don't  want  beg,  steal,  or 
perish.  Like  to  like.  Civilizations  founded  on  robbery  are 
necessarily  the  same,  irrespective  of  time  or  country.  So,  if 
the  robbery  be  not  checked  here  now,  in  the  United  States 
the  wretched  Past  of  Europe  is  the  doomed  Future  of 
America. 

dial  posessions,  under  the  Head  Landlord  who  Created  them.  But  there 
is  a  landing  of  the  Burglars  and  a  gathering  of  the  Household  to  resist  them. 
A  conflict.  And  did  not  Hastings  present  a  pitiable  sight  on  the  evening  of 
that  day.  The  murdered  Household  lies  covering  the  ground.  Murdered 
by  the  burglarious  "ancestors"  of  which  British  Civilization  is  now  so 
proud.  Then  come  scenes  like  this :  "  Hark  1  what  sounds  of  mortal  agony 
are  these?  Is  that  a  white  smoke  ascending  over  the  adjacent  wood? 
Skirt  the  wood,  cross  that  dell.  There  !  a  glade  opens  before  us — a  crowd, 
a,  fire  !  A  man  is  hanging  by  the  body  from  a  rope  fastened  to  two  trees, 
and  (does  God  reign !)  is  that  a  fire  burning  under  him  ?  Is  that  a  crowd  of 
the  •  noble  Norman  ancestors  '  gathered  around  ?"  "  Where  have  you  hid 
your  treasure  ?"  they  cry  out  to  the  tortured  man.  Alas  /  he  has  no  treasure, 
no  reply  to  make  but  the  convulsions  of  his  body  and  those  miserable  cries. 
The  "ancestors"  realize  it  at  last.  But  he  must  not  be  taken  down;  it 
might  affect  their  next  experiment.  So  he  is  left  to  die.  Those  "experi- 
ments "  are  given  up  bye  and  bye,  but  not  until  they  have  ceased  to  be  profit- 
able. (See  Niebuhr,  Hallam  and  others'  Histories  of  the  Middle  Ages.)  Then 
they  turn  to  other  work.  What  is  that  other  work  ?  It  is  to  rob  the  people 
of  all  their  lands.  In  this  robbery,  Byron  says,  speaking  of  his  ancestors : 

"  Six  and  twenty  manors 
Was  their  reward  for  following  Billy's  banners." 

Such  was  the  foundation  on  which  rose  the  sinful  abomination  called  British 
Civilization. 

*  The  fact  that  corporations  own  the  legislatures  and  the  courts  has  for 
years  been  known  to  the  public.    Thus  Jay  Gould,  on  the  witness  stand, 


4  THE    3DD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

"  But  could  it  be  otherwise  ?"  "  Is  it  not  the  nature  of  man  ?" 
Such  questions  are  asked,  and  are  deemed  unanswerable. 
But  this  bock  will  answer  them.  It  will  show,  by  proof  and 
example,  that  such  is  only  the  nature  of  bad  men.  It  will 

beforo  tho  Legislative  Committee  of  New  York,  drags  out  the  modus 
operandi,  as  published  by  tho  New  York  Board  of  Trade : 

"  I  do  not  know  how  much  I  paid  toward  helping  friendly  men  We  had  four  States 
to  look  after,  and  \ye  had  to  suit  our  politics  to  circumstances.  In  a  Democratic  dis- 
trict I  was  a  Democrat ;  in  a  Republ  can  district  I  was  a  Rep  iblican .  and  in  a  doubtful 
district  I  was  doubtful  ;  but  in  every  district,  and  at  all  times,  I  have  always  been  an 
Erie  man ." 

And  the  State  legislation  procured  in  this  way  is  law,  is  it?  And  the 
National  legislation  for  the  great  Thief  Railroads  procured  in  this  way  is  law , 
is  it  ?  And  tho  decisions  of  politician  (which  means  corrupt)  Courts  pro- 
cured in  this  way  is  law,  is  it  ?  And  tho  infamous  Court  in  California  that 
drova  men  out  of  their  homes  won  from  the  wilderness,  and  gave  those 
homes  to  the  Thief  Eailroad  Co.,  was  law,  was  it  ?  And  when  government 
(which  means  politician)  officials  killed  seven  of  those  settlers  while  robbing 
thorn  of  their  homes,  it  was  law,  was  it  ?  Or  was  it  murder  most  foul  ? 
Was  it — stripped  of  the  infamous  garment  called  "  law  " — murder  in  the  first 
degree? 

We  are  "  law-abiding  citizens  F'  It  is  the  boast  eternally  ringing  in 
our  cars.  And  yet  how  can  we  be  law-abiding  citizens  when  even  this  big 
conservative  Board  of  Trade  informs  us  that  we  have  NO  LAW  to  abide  by? 

Such  is  our  promising  Civilizing  at  home,  and  here's  how  it  goes  to  im- 
provo  itself  abroad.  Albert  Rhodes,  a  gentleman  well  acquainted  with  the 
subject,  writes: 

"  Among  the  unrepublican  ideas  which  a  foreign  residence  furnishes  to 
the  handsome  sex  is  that  of  marrying  a  title.  This  is  the  cause  of  wit  (ridi- 
cule) at  tho  expense  of  American  institutions.  M.  Le  Comte  states  to  the 
American  family  that  he  desires  so  much  money  for  his  name,  settled  with 
binding  legal  documents,  before  the  ceremony,  or  paid  down  on  the  nail. 
And  the  republican  father  agrees  to  the  proposition,  and  pays. 

"  To  any  one  connected  with  American  legations  in  Europe,  the  extra- 
ordinary efforts  made  by  some  American  women  to  get  presented  at  Court 
is  a  familiar  experience.  The  Head  of  the  Legation  is  besieged  in  a  variety 
of  ways  that  this  may  be  accomplished.  He  is  invited  to  a  dinner,  and  the 
demand  is  sprung  on  him  at  the  dessert.  A  pretty  woman  natters  him  into 
peaceful  satisfaction  with  himself  and  all  the  world,  and  suddenly  over  her 
fan  asks  tho  dreaded  question.  Strategy  and  prayers  are  resorted  to  that 
they  may  bo  the  elect  out  of  many  applicants  to  stand  up  before  royalty  and 
exchange  bows." 

There  is  just  one  power  which,  under  the  Divine  Power,  can  save  the  Re- 
public from  ruin  and  degradation,  and  that  power  reposes  in  the  YOUNG 
MEN  of  America  1 


OK,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  5 

show  what  allures  those  bad  men  into  all  our  various  govern- 
ments, forming  aggregations  so  impure  that  good  and  honor- 
able men  will  not  even  approach  their  contamination. 

I  can  throw  a  flood  of  light  on  this  momentous  fact  by  pre- 
senting a  character  which  shows  what  civilization  in  the  New 
World  ought  to  be — what  it  would  be  if  evil  men  had  not 
seized  control  of  the  nation — and  with  God's  Providence 
what  it  will  be  when  the  evil  men  are  driven  out. 

It  is  a  character  purely  indigenous  to  the  country,  the 
nature  of  which,  and  the  lesson  it  teaches,  slowly  unfolded 
to  me  through  a  close  intercourse  of  thirty  years.  Those 
near  where  I  write  will  recognize  the  character  at  once. 
May  the  honorable  and  manly  lesson  it  teaches  become  known 
to  the  YOUNG  MEN  of  the  Republic — inspire  them  with  Ms 
spirit — turn  them  aside  from  the  vices  of  Europe,  to  emulate 
the  virtues  which  founded  and  which  alone  can  preserve  the 
Republic. 

AN  AMERICAN  CHARACTER. 

He  is  a  chivalrous  young  man  just  from  school.  He  has 
not  given  his  time  and  energies  to  the  dead  languages,  nor 
so  filled  his  mind  with  the  thoughts  of  other  men  that  it  will 
hold  nothing  else.  His  thoughts  are  of  his  own  times — hia 
inspiration  the  traditions  of  his  own  country. 

His  father  is  a  principal  manufacturer*  whose  house  ia  the 

*NOTE. — The  old  gentleman !  I  knew  him  well,  tho'  at  a  late  period  of  his 
life.  As  reporter  at  our  public  meetings  I  was  struck  with  the  sound  com- 
mon sense  which  he  brought  to  bear  on  our  local  affairs — his  purse  as  ready 
as  his  advice.  The  Gas  Light  Company  is  dying  out.  He  brings  it  to  life 
again.  The  village  is  half  bankrupt.  He  saves  its  credit  at  a  sharp  loss  to 
himself.  A  local  Bank.  Tried  in  vain  till  he  takes  hold  of  it.  A  Sayings 
Bank.  Nobody  will  deposit  till  he  takes  it  in  hand.  And  this  in  private 
matters.  "Is  Mr.  *  *  *  returned  yet?"  "No."  "Anything  wrong?" 
"Not  much;  the  Insurance  Company  presses  me  for  interest  money." 
"  Tell  them  to  wait  or  send  the  document  to  me."  His  career  of  usefulness 
was  prolonged  up  to  nearly  his  eightieth  year.  At  its  outset  he  navigated 
his  own  sail  ferryboat  between  what  is  now  Bridge  Street,  Brooklyn,  and 
New  York — a  premonition  of  his  usefulness  for  the  next  fifty  or  sixty  years. 
I  have  seen  him  call  the  servant  to  brush  his  five  year  old  winter  coat  at  the 
time  he  was  signing  a  church  or  a  charity  check  for  $500 — at  one  time  for 
$4,000.  His  brother,  much  his  senior,  was  a  Minute  Man  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  and  was  slain  (shot  through  the  head)  combatting  the  marauders 


THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

resort  of  all  the  refinement  of  the  neighborhood.  Cultivated 
men  and  women  only  one  descent  from  the  days,  and  the  asso- 
ciations of  Hamilton  and  Burr  are  guests  at  that  large  and 
hospitable  house. 

Here  was  a  tempting  field  for  any  young  adventurer  into 
life.  A  superintendence  of  his  father's  business  lies  before 
him,  with  just  as  little  to  do  and  as  much  for  doing  it  as  he 
may  please  to  determine.  But  no !  The  spirit  of  a  true 
man — of  "  Chivalry  in  Modern  Days  " — is  within  him.  Temp- 
tation !  He  does  not  feel  it.  Opportunity !  He  turns  from 
it  away.  He  will  not  rest  even  the  foundation  of  his  fortune 
on  a  dollar  of  his  father's  wealth.  Works  in  his  factory — 
now  with  pen  and  now  with  muscle  as  the  need  presents. 
Intelligent,  vigilant,  and  guardedly  economical  for  he  has  a 
purpose  to  achieve,  he  has  realized  $1,000  and  a  reputation 
worth  $50,000.  He  has  now  attained  his  majority  and  goes 
into  business  for  himself,  borrowing  what  money  he  needs 
from  his  relative  on  strictly  business  principles  and  at  the 
legal  rate  of  interest. 

But  looking  round,  and  resting  on  his  capacity  and  repu- 
tation, he  finds  that  he  can  borrow  at  a  lower  rate  of  interest.- 
And  so  he  closes  up  the  old  account  and  opens  the  new. 

In  the  ever  changing  field  of  American  enterprise  frequent 
opportunity  offers  to  a  man  of  keen  discernment  and  unlim- 
ited resource.  He  is  master  of  both.  And  before  the  first 
ten  years  of  his  majority  are  over  he  is  reaching  up  toward 
the  millions.  He  has  laid  a  foundation  on  which  such  a  man 
could  build  a  fortune  high  as  the  Stewarts  or  the  Yanderbilts. 

But  he  has  other  ambitions.  First  it  is  his  laudable  pur- 
pose to  enjoy  life  and  PROMOTE  CIVILIZATION.  He  has  a  stud  of 
half  a  dozen  horses,  with  carriages  and  sleighs  to  match. 


of  Arnold  in  his  native  Connecticut.  Captain  Lawrence,  whoso  last  words 
were  "  don't  give  up  the  ship,"  (see  ante  notice  of  Greenwich)  was  a  relative 
of  the  family,  and  one  of  its  recently  deceased  members  was  named  after 
him.  Such  were  the  men  who  founded  the  Kepublic,  and  whose  examples 
I  trust  will  yet  save  and  adorn  it  and  .build  it  up. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  7 

Manly  exercise  on  horseback  is  taking  its  place,  in  the  North 
at  least,  among  the  "  lost  arts."  But  he  will  not  lose  it — he 
will  hold  on  to  it — has  its  full  outfit  and,  fashion  or  no  fash- 
ion, he  will  do  in  this  what  he  does  in  other  things,  and  that 
is  just  what  he  pleases.  He  is  by  no  means  particular 
whether  his  associates  are  unreasonably  rich  or  reasonably 
poor — so  that  they  are  not  vulgar  and  have  a  soul  in  their 
bodies  that  he  can  respect.  Has  a  seat  beside  him  in  his 
phaeton  and  lets  some  of  them  know  as  they  never  knew  be- 
fore, and  never  would  have  known  if  he  hadn't  shown  them, 
how  assuring,  how  refining  and  how  pleasant  are  the  atten- 
tions of  a  true  gentleman. 

He  has  businesses  now,  more  than  one,  operated  by  agents. 
They  don't  draw  much  on  his  personal  attention,  for  he  has 
other  thoughts  than  to  give  his  whole  life  to  those  exacting 
cares.  He  confides  in  no  man  at  hap-hazard.  Has  known 
his  agents  well  and  for  years,  and  holds  systematic  accounta- 
bility over  them  all.  In  merely  business  matters  he  is  a 
strict  business  man.  Some  of  those  dealing  with  him  aver 
that  he  leans  rather  to  hardness  in  a  bargain.  But  this  may 
be  born  of  an  expected  softness  that  it  was  disappointing  not 
to  find.  Every  need  for  business-help  now  gravitates  to- 
ward him  as  naturally  as  the  cold  traveler  to  the  warm  fire- 
side. The  large  old  homestead,  a  presence  of  the  conven- 
iences and  pretension  of  fifty  or  sixty  years  before,  is  now  too 
old  and  must  make  way — not  for  the  palatial  residence  of 
modern  fashion.  No !  Around  the  old  mansion  is  a  spa- 
cious enclosure  of  forest  trees.  In  that  enclosure  and  under 
shadow  of  the  trees  rises  a  modest  two-story  cottage.  Mod- 
ernized, it  is  true,  yet  far  less  in  size  and  pretention  than  the 
old  mansion.  But  there  is  a  cellar  in  it  as  free  to  the  invalid 
who.asks  for  a  medicine  of  pure  wine  or  brandy  as  it  is  to 
the  guest  at  his  hospitable  board.  That  unpretentious  cot- 
tage is  replete  with  adornments — gems  of  art,  briefly  every- 
thing requisite  in  a  home  of  refinement  and  truly  Republican 


8  THE   ODD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY J 

Civilization.  A  civilization  that  in  its  exclusiveness — andt 
it  must  be  exclusive  of  what  is  not  of  it — does  not  at  all 
forget  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

His  fortune  has  been  growing  steadily,  and  he,  as  steadily,, 
has  been  keeping  it  down  by  a  generous,  helpful  hand.  In. 
the  routine  of  business,  he  occasionally  intermingles  with  the 
Wall  Street  people,  and  their  contact  Avould  perhaps  throw 
a  tinge  of  frost  over  his  genial  nature  that  might  take  an 
hour  of  home  influences  to  thaw  away.  But  even  "on 
change  "  were  gentlemen,  his  associates,  whose  standard  of 
honor  was,  as  I  learned  from  him,  upon  a  level  with  his  own. 
This  in  their  personal  affairs — but  I  have  no  evidence  that 
they  participated  in  his  public  spirit.  In  that  he  stood  alone> 
of  all  his  class.  TVTany  of  his  class  were  good  men  in 
their  way.  As  we  shall  see.  General  Crooke  was  a  noble 
example  of  what  I  designate  "Chivalry  in  Modern  Days." 
Peter  Cooper,  too,  has  done  good  things  in  the  work  of  edu- 
cation, and  in  one  phase  of  national  reform.  But  the  gentle- 
man, whose  character  I  here  faintly  essay  to  present,  accepted, 
at  first  sight,  the  three  great  reforms  which  can  alone  save 
this  Republic  from  falling  into  Anarchy,  Monarchy,  and  Ruin. 
"  A  constitutional  limit  to  the  power  of  Taxing.  A  strict  pre- 
servation of  the  lands,  and  the  mines,  and  the  waters  of  the 
nation,  as  the  Heritage  of  the  people  forever.  And  a  National 
Money  issued  by  the  National  Government,  regulated  by  the 
authority,  and  resting  on  the  resources  of  the  entire  nation/" 

The  first  to  keep  the  governments  free  from  marauders: 
— what  we  now  call  politicians.  The  second  to  make  available  a 
secure  home  to  every  man  who  is  willing  to  work,  for  the 
support  of  his  family.  The  third  to  keep  the  volume  of 
money  in  the  country  always  full,  never  overflowing.  Freeing" 
the  nation  from  the  fluctuations  in  values,  the  panics,  losses, 
distress,  death,  and  suicides  innumerable,  that  we  have  wit- 
nessed so  often,  and  so  intense  during  the  last  few  years. 

Those  great  principles,  notwithstanding  his  previous  opin.- 


OE,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  V 

Ions,  he  adopted  at  first  sight.  When  told  that  this  latter 
would  take  away  a  large  income  from  his  bank,  his  reply  was 
brief  and  emphatic  :  "I  CARE  NOT  FOR  MY  BANK,  I  CARE  FOR  MY 
COUNTRY  ?"  Where  was  another  banker  in  the  whole  country 
who  acted  or  thought  thus  nobly  ?  Where  one  who  did  not 
even  reverse  it  down  to  that  other  thought :  "  I  care  for  my 
bank,  I  don't  care  for  my  country?"  And  this  chivalrous 
man,  and  such  men  as  this,  were  practically  shut  out  from 
the  government  of  the  nation — shut  out  by  the  aggregation 
of  political  rogues,  with  which  no  honorable  man  could 
associate. 

Addicted  to  field  sports,  he  has  several  trained  pointers, 
one  of  which  is  a  favorite,  and,  ride  or  walk,  is  always  in  at- 
tendance on  him.  Associating  with  the  officers  of  a  near  naval 
station,  he  is  imbued  with  their  nautical  tastes,  but  not  in  the 
least  with  their  hauteur  and  insolence.  He  built  the  first 
American  yacht,  named  the  "Peerless,"  from  the  character 
in  Spenser's  "Fairy  Queen." 

I  believe  an  appreciation  of  "  The  Fairy  Queen  "  indicates 
a  very  high  standard  of  literary  taste,  a  standard  I  never 
could  reach  to.  Here  we  find  that  standard  reached  up  to  by 
a  lady  friend,  to  whom  he  owed  that  romantic  and,  indeed, 
*'  peerless  "  name  given  to  the  first  American  yacht.  A  literary 
taste  indigenous  to  the  Republic,  though  probably  not  attain- 
ed by  one  in  ten  of  the  ladies  who  flaunt  their  pretensions 
within  Buckingham  Palace  and  around  Windsor  Park. 

The  refinements  and  elegancies  to  be  traced  around  and 
inside  of  that  two-story  cottage  realizes,  rather  than  indicates, 
all,  all,  that  American  civilization  need  aspire  to. 

It  is  1850,  and  this  truly  American  gentleman  speaks  to 
me  :  "  See  that  worn-looking  wooden  house,  perched  on  the 
acclivity  on  the  other  side  of  the  Creek  (Newtown).  Many  a 
pleasant  re-union  I  have  enjoyed  in  that  house.  The  young 
men  and  young  ladies  of  the  adjoining  village  and  farm-houses 
formed  a  company  which,  for  frank-hearted  simplicity  and 


10  THE   ODD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTUEY  J 

genuine  taste,  I  neither  hope  nor  wish  to  see  excelled  in  this 
country."  Whether  his  lady  friend  did  or  did  not  favor  those 
re-umons  with  her  presence,  it  would  be  useful  to  know,  as 
throwing  into  view  the  most  delicate  lights  and  shades  of 
Republican  civilization.*  That  lady  friend 

"  Was  to  him  a  crystal-girded  shrine," 

which  no  intrusive  breeze  was  permitted  to  approach.  In  all 
my  intercourse  with  him — in  his  office,  in  his  phaeton,  in  his 
yacht,  in  his  festive  parlor — she  was  never  present,  and  he 
never  spoke  her  name — with  one  exception.  He  said  she 
was  "  pleased  with  something  that  appeared  in  '  The  Post ' 
(my  paper),  recently."  He  believed  "it  was  about  flowers." 
I  said  "it  must  be  something  about  flower  culture  that  ap- 
peared with  which,  as  a  writer,  I  had  nothing  to  do." 

But,  on  reflection,  I  thought  it  might  be  the  f  ollowing  trifle. 
And,  in  the  very  uncertain  hope  that  it  was  so,  I  preserved  it. 
After  the  lapse  of  many,  many  years,  it  was  referred  to  the 
lady  for  recognition.  And  she  wrote  upon  it  :  "  It  is  the 
very  same  ;  I  recognized  it  at  once."  I  present  it  here,  as 
even  the  admirer  of  "  The  Fairy  Queen "  could  reach  down 
to  its  simple  beauties. 


BCRPS  AND  R.QWERS. 

There  are  many  beautiful  birds  and  wild  flowers  in  Europe  that  have  not 
been  transplanted  into  this  western  clime — and  probably  would  not  flourish 
hero  if  they  were.  Of  wild  flowers,  perhaps,  the  primrose  is  that  which  the 
voluntary  exile  misses  most.  Of  birds,  perhaps,  the  cuckoo.  Burns  has 
immortalized  the  daisy — in  his  affecting  and  philosophical  lines  to  one 
which  he  had  crushed  with  his  plowshare ;  but  we  don't  remember  any 
especial  ode  to  the  primrose.  It  is  incidentally  mentioned  very  frequently 
and  very  honorably. 

"  The  daisy  pied,  and  all  the  sweets  the  dawn  of  nature  yields 
The  primrose  pale,  and  violet  blue,  lay  scattered  o'er  the  fields," 

Is  a  couplet  of  one  of  the  finest  songs  in  the  Irish  and  English  languages 
—for  it  is  in  both.    And 

"  Her  modest  looks  the  cottage  might  adorn, 
Sweet  as  the  primrose  peeps  beneath  the  thorn," 

*  Note  by  the  lady.  "She— did— not — her  friend  must  have  been  scarcely  beyond 
boyhood  at  the  time  referred  to." 


OB,  THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  11 

Is  one  of  ths  most  exquisite  images  in  Goldsmith's  exquisite  poem  of  "  The 
Deserted  Village." 

But  of  birds — the  cuckoo  comes  up  with  all  the  vivid  recollectons  of  leafy 
copses — green,  sunny  glades — and  tinkling  waterfalls — our  schoolboy  days 
— our  truant  wanderings,  when  the  young  spirit,  fresh  from  its  Maker, 
deemed  the  earth  one  boundless  paradise. 

The  following  "  Ode  "  has  one  fault.  It  is  far,  by  far  too  short.  We  have 
not  seen  a  reprint  of  it  in  this  country,  and  had  to  fish  it  out  of  a  collection 
printed  in  England  : 

ODE  TO  THE  CUCKOO. 

Hail !  beauteous  stranger  of  the  wood, 

Attendant  on  the  spring ! 
Now  heaven  repairs  thy  vernal  seat, 

And  woods  thy  welcome  sing. 

Soon  as  the  daisy  decks  the  green, 

Thy  certain  voice  we  hear ; 
Hast  thou  a  star  to  guide  thy  path, 

Or  mark  the  rolling  year  ? 

Delightful  visitant !  with  thee 

I  hail  the  time  of  flowers, 
When  heaven  is  filled  with  music  sweet 

Of  birds  among  the  bowers. 

The  schoolboy  wandering  in  the  wood, 

To  pull  the  flowers  so  gay, 
Starts,  thy  curious  voice  to  hear, 

And  imitates  thy  lay. 

Boon  as  the  pea  puts  on  the  bloom, 

Thou  fly'st  the  vocal  vale ; 
An  annual  guest  in  other  lands, 

Another  spring  to  hail. 

Sweet  bird  !  thy  bower  is  ever  green, 

Thy  sky  is  ever  clear ; 
Thou  hast  no  sorrow  in  thy  song, 

No  winter  in  thy  year. 

O !  could  I  fly,  I'd  fly  with  thee ; 

We'd  make,  with  social  wing, 
Our  annual  visit  round  the  globe, 

Companions  of  the  spring. 


Among  my  singularities  was  one  that  would  not  recognize 
the  customs  of  society  in  their  rigid  exclusions.  I  spoke  of 
this,  one  time  to  my  friend,  and  was  reminded  "  that  the  cus- 
tom was  not  at  all  unreasonable.  That  intercourse  on  purely 
business  or  public  grounds  was  one  thing.  And  social  rela- 


12  THE   ODD   BOOK   OP   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTUEYJ 

tions  were  quite  another  thing."  And  so  they  are,  and  so 
they  must  be  and  ought  to  be,  so  long  as  great  inequality 
exists  in  condition,  culture,  and  taste.  Is  it  not  the  mission 
of  a  Republic  to  level  up  that  inequality  ?  The  rigid  exclu- 
sion of  myself  in  this  instance  was  justified,  and  helped  per- 
haps, by  what  I  am  now  going  to  relate. 

It  was  in  the  large  hall  of  the  old  mansion.  A  plainly 
dressed  lady  was  ascending  the  high,  wide  staircase.  My 
idea  of  the  mistress  of  that  mansion — of  her  external  adorn- 
ments— was  very  grand  and  very  erroneous.  It  was  the 
house  of  a  millionaire,  and  I  therefore  mistook  this  lady  for  the 
housekeeper — so  neatly,  so  unpretentiously  was  she  dressed. 
She  paused  for  a  moment  to  reply  to  an  inquiry  brusquely 
modulated  on  my  habit  of  speech  and  my  mistaken  impres- 
sion. Nature,  indeed,  never  did  intend  me  for  the  drawing- 
room.  She  had  rougher  work  for  me  to  do  through  life. 
And  now,  as  always,  my  rough  mission  was  in  my  voice : 
The  voice  that  replied  was  the  most  extraordinary  voice  I 
ever  heard !  It  has  been  truly  said  that  never  was,  never 
will  be,  musical  instrument  made  to  approach  that  divine 
instrument  the  human  voice.  How  did  I  feel  that  truth  now, 
in  contrast  with  my  own  discordant  brusquerie !  May  I  to 
that  contrast  ascribe  the  fact  that  I  never  heard  that  voice 
again?  An  American  lady  requires  no  court  teaching  to 
inspire  and  protect  her  dignity.  I  relate  this  frankly,  because 
I  am  not  at  all  ashamed  of  it,  or  the  slight  to  myself  that  it 

implies. 

"  Honor  and  shame  from  no  conditions  rise ; 
Act  well  your  part — there  all  the  honor  lies." 

My  "  part "  was  to  swing  a  heavy  axe  in  a  forest  of  trees 
that  "brought  forth  evil  fruit."  I  by  no  means  regret  the 
"  part "  thus  assigned  to  nie,  though  I  do  regret  the  rough- 
ness it  entailed  upon  me,  and  the  consequent  exclusion  from 
the  social  refinements,  which  I  trust,  in  the  coming  days,  all 
men  of  worth  and  manhood  will  be  permitted  to  enjoy. 


OR,  THE   SPIRIT   OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN   DAYS.  13 

As  illustrative  of  this  subject,  and  showing  how  this  same 
*'  Society  "  tends  to  mistake  tinsel  for  gold,  I  recall  Mr.  Col- 
lins, who  so  effectually  aided  me  on  entering  public  life.  In 
rather  "looped  and  windowed"  garments,  and  unencumbered 
feet,  we  rivaled  off  the  prizes  in  our  parish  school.  With  a 
.zeal  and  sacrifice  that  descended  to  pauper*  depths,  he 
achieved  a  classical  education  and  a  position  on  the  London 
press.  He  had  written  himself  into  it  by  extreme  denuncia- 
tions of  his  country  and  his  countrymen.  Ireland,  with  him 
Avas  a  grand  appendage  or  Appanage  of  the  British  Crown. 
"  It  would  be  of  great  value  if  submerged  for  twenty-four 
hours  under  the  ocean,  to  clear  it  of  its  existing  inhabitants." 
His  tastes,  manners,  habits,  could  not  have  been  more  refined 
if  they  had  descended  to  him  from  the  far  back  centuries. 
On  his  relatives  he  turned  his  back,  bluntly  and  utterly.  He 
had  one  brother  and  one  sister.  Their  little  paternal  spot  of 
ground  had  been  taken  from  them  by  the  all  present,  ever 
voracious  "  landlord."  Out  of  his  five  weekly  guineas  he  could 
have  spared  them  one  ;  but  he  wanted  all  for  his  own  selfish 
requirements.  His  sister  had  no  means  of  life  but  domestic 
service — her  requital  little  more  than  one  dollar  per  month ! 
"What  became  of  her  I  never  knew ;  but  his  brother,  a  very 
simple  and  very  good  natured  boy,  grew  to  be  a  man,  and 
shifting  to  get  a  job  of  labor  work  round  the  docks  of  Glas- 
gow, he  fell  into  the  water  and  was  drowned.  It  was  the  nature 
of  this  man  to  take  one  extreme.  It  was  mine  to  take  the 
other.  I  have  a  thought  that  he  was  by  no  means  a  better 
mail  than  myself,  and  yet  he  would  be  accepted  where  all 
men  of  my  own  stamp  would  be  excluded — perhaps  reason- 
ably excluded — from  "society."  The  inequalities  of  con- 
dition are  full  of  discords.  In  a  rational  state  of  society, 
those  inequalities  will  be  greatly  both  lessened  and  smoothed 

*  The  "  Poor'Scholar "  was  then,  probably  still  is,  a  fixed  institution  in 
parts  of  Ireland.  Aspiring  to  become  a  priest  he  gets  education  for  nothing, 
and  no  family  will  turn  him  away  from  from  its  door. 


14       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTTJBY  J 

down.     I  quote  this  example  as  a  protest  against  them,  as 
they  exist  now,  and  must  exist,  in  what  we  call  "Civilization." 

"English  Civilization ! "  Where  is  the  rack-renting  " lord  or 
lady  "  whose  character  or  civilization  will  stand  a  moment's 
comparison  with  the  indigenous  American  civilization  here 
dimly  outlined?  The  liveries,  crowns,  coronets,  and  coats  of 
arms  that  ye  are  hankering  after!  What  are  they  but  the 
insignia  of  the  ruffians  who  persisted  in  murdering  your 
fathers  through  a  seven  years'  war,  to  enslave  them.  I  do 
not  say  that  every  one  of  you  who  shows  a  panel,  or  a  cockade, 
or  a  livery  button  on  the  street,  would  have  sided  with  the 
British  had  you  lived  in  the  days  of  the  Eevolution ;  but 
does  not  such  base  conduct  lay  you  open  to  the  imputation  ? 

The  gentleman,  whose  character  I  have  essayed  to  out- 
line, is  now  beyond  human  blame  or  praise.  Years  before  I 
interchanged  a  thought  with  him,  this  incident  fastened  my 
attention  on  him.  Place,  what  is  now  Broadway  and 
First  Street;  time,  the  summer  of  1840.  I  am  standing 
with  the  landlord  of  the  Kings  County  Hotel.  "Who,"  I  ask, 
"is  that  noble-looking  young  man  on  the  opposite  sidewalk?" 
"That  is  *  *  *,  the  best  Democrat  in  Long  Island!'' 
"Democrat!  I  thought  he  was  a  Whig.  I  know  the  old 
gentleman,  his  father  is,  for  I  have  met  him  at  their  public 
meetings."  "  You  misapprehend  me.  The  young  gentleman 
is  not  a  Democrat  in  the  political  sense  of  the  word.  On  the 
contrary,  he  is  a  Whig  in  a  slight  way,  but  the  path  of  poli- 
tics is  a  little  too  crooked  for  him.  He  is  too  honorable  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  them.  He  is  content,  in  a  private 
way,  to  help  those  who  may  be  worthy  of  his  help,  and  many 
a  one  who  is  not  worthy  of  it.  That  is  why  I  call  him  the 
best  Democrat  on  Long  Island.  He  is  certainly  the  most 
generous  and  open-hearted  gentleman  within  its  borders." 

I  left — reflecting  seriously  on  what  I  had  heard.  It  was, 
indeed,  matter  for  grave  thought.  Here  is  a  cause  that  re- 
tires the  best  men  in  the  country  from  the  government  of 


OR,  THE   SPIRIT   OF  CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN  DAYS.  15 

the  Republic.  And  can  the  Republic  be  well  governed  ex- 
cept by  just  such  men  ?  It  was  indeed  a  solemn  thought. 
It  disclosed  a  deadly  evil  that  must  from  its  very  nature 
apply  everywhere.  Politics,  politicians,  had  established 
sway,  not  only  in  *  *  *  *,  but  over  the  whole  Republic, 
and  their  evil  influences  must  necessarily  pervade  all  its  gov- 
ernments from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  No  man  of  true 
honor  venturing  near  it  to  turn  it  aside. 

How  little  do  we  know  of  the  good  or  the  evil  that  lies 
before  us !  How  could  I  deem  that  this  young  man  of  such 
aristocratic  presence,  of  such  strange  and  exceptional  char- 
acter, would  at  a  future  time  understand,  accept,  sustain  me, 
adopt  every  vital  Reform  that  was  presented  to  him  and 
endeavor  long  and  continuously  to  avert  the  wreck  and  the 
degradation  which  this,  book  will  present,  and  which  is 
briefly  epitomized  in  the  close  of  this  chapter.  To  that  now 
let  us  turn. 


OUR  NATIONAL  GOVERNMENTS. 

How  well  in  the  experience  of  forty  years  has  the  ominous  truths  enfolded 
in  these  lines  been  realized  in  this  Republic. 

The  young  disease  that  must  consume  at  length, 
Grows  with  its  growth  and  strengthens  with  its  strength, 

till  we  see  that  everything  good  is  neglected  and  everything  evil  done  or 
permitted.  Why  is  this?  Simply  because  there  is  no  government  in  the 
United  States.  No  Constitution— no  law.  Nothing  but  bargain  and  sale 
and  scramble.  Public  virtue  never  thought  of — the  very  name  an  obsolete 
word.  What  led  to  this  state  of  things  and  what  would  remedy  it  ?  is  the 
business  of  this  American  section  to  disclose.  Let  us  take  a  close  view  of 
the  system  and  see  how  it  WOEKS  IN  DETAIL.  And  first  of  City  Govern- 
ment— as  it  comes  under  my  personal  observation. 

A  Police  Justice  is  to  be  elected.  Our  Alderman  is  popular.  He  intro- 
duces an  utter  stranger.  "  Mr.  So  and  So  is  my  cousin.  He  is  a  good  Democrat 
and  will  make  a  good  Justice. "  Sweeping  round  the  District  they  go  together 
—  especially  to  the  public  houses  treating  everybody.  "  Mr.  So  and  So"  is 


16  THE   ODD   BOOK  OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  ; 

4  'caucused"  and  elected — though  few  voting  for  him  ever  saw  him  before.  He 
turns  out  to  be  a  haunter  of  groggeries ;  oftener  with  two  black  eyes  than  one. 
Fines  are  his  daily  harvest — all  returnable  to  the  city  treasury  under  oath,  but 
never  one  of  them  returned.  Example — Has  thirteen  men  and  boys 
arrested  for  bathing  outside  of  his  jurisdiction.  Two  of  them  appeal  to  a 
jury  trial  and  beat  him  in.  his  own  court.  Eleven  he  fines  twenty  shillings 
each  and  goes  on  several  "  drunks  "  with  the  proceeds.  A  street  lamp  is  put 
up  worth  about  $25.  Its  price  is  assessed  at  $72  on  each  side  of  the  block 
(street),  in  all  $144.  The  owner  on  one  side  pays.  The  other  side  owner 
refuses.  His  property  is  advertised,  sold,  and  must  be  redeemed  at  a  gross 
charge  of  $113  for  one-half  of  the  $25  lamp  1  Sewers  cost  $1  or  $1.50  per 
foot.  Assessed  at  $4 — $2  on  each  side  of  the  street.  Pay  that,  or  your  pro- 
perty will  be  auctioned,  and  then  pay  more  for  permission  to  connect  the 
house  pipes  with  it  than  would  build  it  in  the  new. 

Leased  ground  for  site  of  stable.  Manure  "  ordinanced  "  to  be  kept  in  a 
covered  box.  Stable  owner  neglects  to  close  the  lid  and  the  man  who  leased 
the  site  is  dragged  four  miles  to  court  and  fined  $5.  Asks  why  not  pursue 
the  stable  owner?  Answer. — "  The  law  authorizes  us  to  take  either,  and  we 
choose  to  take  you" — having  a  dislike  to  you.  Lease  a  house  for  a  term  of 
years.  The  water  pipes  go  wrong  and  you  are  summoned  and  fined  al- 
though you  had  no  power  to  enter  the  house  at  all — save  as  a  trespasser. 
That,  too,  for  the  same  "  dislike." 

There  is  a  Board  of  Works  and  a  Board  of  Health.  The  Board  of  Works 
•wants  to  "  raise  the  wind."  Gives  orders  to  cut  connection  between  all  yard 
hydrants  and  water  closets.  Penalty  $50.  A  rush  is  made  for  thousands 
of  permits  at  75  cents  each.  If  too  late  in  responding  you  are  favored  by 
being  let  off  by  a  fine  of  $5  or  $10  instead  of  the  "  lawful"  $50.  Ensues  a  war 
between  the  two  "  Boards."  The  Health  wins,  and  then  another  change  on 
the  hydrants  and  another  expense. 

Across  vacant  lots  is  a  near  diagonal  rural-like  pathway.  " Ordinanced" 
to  fence  up  and  let  the  walkers  go  round.  If  not  done  immediately  vote- 
wallopers  employed  to  do  it,  who  cheat  in  work  and  material— the  charge 
assessed  on  the  owners.  New  fences  disappear  for  firewood.  Again 
ordered  rebuilt — another  small  job  for  the  vote-walloppers.  Commence  on 
your  own  ground  to  dig  a  cellar.  Aro  arrested,  liable  to  fine ;  must  go  miles 
under  durance  to  get  a  permit— fined  or  not  at  pleasure,  and  as  you  may  or 
may  not  have  political  influence. 

Tenement  houses  are  a  perrenial  harvest  to  the  municipal  rogues.  Law 
formed  like  a  net-work — meshes  to  catch  in  every  quarter.  I  am  favored 
with  seventeen  summonses  at  once — every  one  of  them  ominous  of  a  $50 
fine.  General  Crooke  interposes  and  says :  "  I  am  this  man's  friend  and  will 
defend  those  suits."  The  General  was  a  "power  " — the  suits  are  withdrawn, 
and  the  haul  missed  of  seventeen  times  $50. 

I  speak  of  the  city  of  Brooklyn,  where  I  reside.  In  it  are  jails,  arsenals, 
cells,  court-rooms,  etc.  Everything  but  a  public  hall.  Even  the  school- 
houses  are  shut  against  meetings  and  lectures. 


OE,  THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN  DAYS.  17 

An  out-Ward  "  Improvement  Association  "  is  formed  by  the  vultures  in  the 
City  Hall.  They  call  a  "  Champagne  Supper  "  and  discuss  what  way  is  best 
to  go  to  plunder.  They  actually  project  a  Sewer  for  miles  across  an  open 
country  of  farm  lands.  Kush  up  to  Albany  and  for  a  comparative  trifle  buy 
a  lav/  authorizing  them  to  construct  it  at  a  cost  of  §300,000  and  levy  the 
same  off  the  miles  of  farm  lands.  No  opposition— few  of  those  affected 
know  about  it.  An  offer  to  build  it  is  already  in  at  the  $300,000,  but  $600- 
000  would  give  more  plunder,  so  they  go  to  Albany  to  buy  authority  to  that 
effect.  Resistance  is  made,  principally  by  myself.  Public  meetings,  and 
remonstrances,  but  all  only  avail  to  reduce  the  $600,000  to  $500,000.  The 
swindlers  return  to  Albany  the  next  session  and  buy  a  law  for  an  additional 
$125,000.-  More  of  this  hereafter. 

A  boy  makes  a  doggerel  rhapsody  on  a  Fire  Company.  By  their  means  he- 
is  elected  County  Su  pervisor.  A  contract  is  made  to  build  an  armory,  and 
this  boy  who  never  grew  to  mental  manhood  is  made  chairman  of  the  Mili- 
tary Committee.  He  interpolates,  forges,  $10,000  extra  into  the  written 
contract.  General  Crooke,  twenty  odd  years  a  Supervisor,  exposes  the  fraud, 
but  finally  gives  way  and  suffers  it,  as  the  board  is  weightily  against  him. 
He  had  saved  the  county  hundreds  of  thousands,  but  had  to  give  way  occa- 
sionally, as  he  informed  me,  otherwise  he  could  do  no  good  at  all.  Like 
our  friend  Johnson  at  X&maU  i 

"  He  never  ran  away  except  when  running, 
Was  nothing  but  a  valorous  kind  of  cunning/* 

But  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  was  the  happiest  thought  of  all.  It  is  a  perreniaP 
plunder.  Where  it  will  end  it  would  be  vain  to  conjecture. 

Our  Police  are  by  far  the  most  conscientious  men  connected  with  our  gov- 
ernment. As  we  proceed,  it  will  bo  seen  that  every  man  of  them  is  clothed^ 
with  the  right  (or  impunity)  to  kill  any  man  he  may  choose,  and  yet  one  in  a- 
hundred  of  them  does  not  exercise  the  privilege. 

Here  followed  names  prominent  in  political  fraud.  But  on 
reflection  I  omit  them.  I  have  no  personal  war  with  these 
wretched  men.  Victims  of  a  mistaken  system — of  a  tempta- 
tion that  knows  no  bounds — they  are  far  less  guilty  than  they 
are  unfortunate.  If  we  take  that  temptation  away  we  change 
the  whole  aspect  of  the  Republic.  If  we  fail  to  do  that,  by 
no  power  under  Heaven  can  the  Republic  be  saved. 

A  Street  Car  Corporation  gets  an  illegal  grant  from  the  Common  Councir 
of  five  miles  of  street  worth  several  millions  of  dollars.  The  bribe  to  each 
Councilman  is  $1,000,  with  $500  that  he  is  to  distribute  among  his  friends. 
to  "  talk  it  up."  The  briber  approaches  the  Councilman  in  this  way :  "  I  give 
you  this  $1,500  as  a  personal  favor  to  yourself.  We  have  already  plenty  of 
votes.  It  will  go  through  the  Board  whether  you  take  the  money  or  not." 


18  THE  ODD   BOOK    OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  ; 

So  he  takes  the  money  and  the  road  goes  into  operation.  One  man,  onr 
oldest  and  most  influential  citizen,  resists  it  at  law.  Not  one  taxpayer  in  the 
city  stands  by  him  and  he  very  properly  lets  go  and  lets  the  poltroons  suffer. 
Large  tax  on  this  road  left  unpaid — except,  perhaps,  a  little  hush  money, 
A  condition,  too,  is  that  it  shall  keep  the  cobble-stone  pavement  in  repair. 
But  big  sugar-refinery  trucks  are  wearing  it  up.  "  Rail "  and  "  Sugar  "  join 
hands,  and  for  an  "  unknown  consideration"  the  city  sovereigns  give  them  a 
new  unwearing  pavement,  costing  $30  a  running  foot,  assessed  on  the  people 
who  owned  and  had  already  paved  the  streets. 

Mistaken  charges  in  tax  accounts  are  a  profitable  thing.  Up  go  notices 
that,  under  no  circumstance,  will  money  paid  be  returned.  Illegal  notices 
to  be  sure ;  but  they  serve  their  purpose.  Again,  you  pay  a  tax.  By  some 
hocus-pocus,  it  is  not  entered  on  the  books.  Years  after,  you  sell  the  pro- 
perty. On  search,  the  paid  tax  is  found  unrecorded.  If  you  have  preserved 
the  receipt,  in  all  your  migrations,  you  are  safe.  If  not,  the  tax  is  extorted 
again,  before  you  can  give' a  title  for  what  you  have  sold. 

Knowing  they  would  be  robbed,  the  people  of  Brooklyn  voted  three  times 
against  the  introduction  of  water.  But  leading  "  Democrat,"  H.  C.  M., 
and  leading  "Whig,"  J.  B.  T.,  put  their  heads  together  and  went  to 
Albany.  One  had  the  " Democrats "  at  his  back;  the  other,  the  "Whigs." 
So  they  forced  the  water  on  the  city,  the  water  tax  furnishing  a  continual 
margin  of  place  and  plunder.  A  panic  cry  is  raised,  and  a  Reservoir  pro- 
jected miles  away.  Money  sunk  in  it  by  the  million— all  unnecessary — 
most  of  it  stolen. 

A  Collector,  like  all  other  officials,  must  be  a  politician.  He  embezzles, 
defaults,  steals.  Suits  are  entered  against  his  sureties,  who  are  also  politi- 
cians. Not  the  slightest  thought  of  recovering  one  dollar  from  them.  But 
won't  the  Corporation  lawyers  make  a  penny  ?  And  after  years  of  sham 
litigation,  a  motion  is  made  in  the  Common  Council,  suit  discontinued  and 
sureties  discharged,  being  all  brothers,  all  intertwisted  political  thieves. 

A  Park  is  projected.  Only  go  up  to  Albany,  and  get  (for  a  "  consideration  ") 
boundless  authority  to  buy  the  land,  and  the  work,  and  the  materials,  and 
assess  on  local  property,  or  on  the  city,  to  pay  the  cost.  Then  begins  the 
harvest  of  plunder.  I  will  buy  your  land  at  a  fabulous  value,  to  be  agreed  on 
between  us,  each  to  get  a  share  of  the  spoils.  Who  shall  trace  how  the  ten 
millions  went — probably  three-fourths  a  swindle.  And  now,  yearly,  a 
plunder  crop  of  $100,000  for  taking  care  of  the  park. 

All  fines  in  the  Police  Courts  belong  to  the  city  treasuiy.  One  justice  pays 
in,  the  other  three  do  not.  The  paying  justice  is  thrown  overboard  by  the 
caucus  at  the  next  election,  just  because  he  was  an  honest  man — because  he 
did  not  keep  the  fines,  and  give  round  a  part  of  them. 

Liquor  sellers,  kerosene  sellers,  cartmen,  truckmen,  all  must  pay  licenses 
to  a  very  large  aggregate  amount — all  goes  into  the  vortex  of  roguery. 

An  Arrears  Clerk,  is  in  the  Collector's  office.  He  makes  out  the  arrear 
bills,  and  whistles  three-fourths  of  his  time.  An  Arrears  Department  is 


OR,  THE  SPIRIT  OF   CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN   DAYS.  19 

instituted  with  a  head,  at  $4,000,  who  does  almost  nothing  and  has  a  crowd  of 
assistants  to  help  him,  each  from  $800  to  $1,500  a  year. 

In  the  City  Courts,  what  justice  can  you  expect,  when  each  Judge,  with  his 
$10,000  a  year,  appoints  a  crowd  of  henchmen,  at  $4  a  day,  with  little  to  do, 
and  that  little  belonging  to  the  overcrowded  Police  department.  Juries,  too, 
are  a  grim  farce,  as  wo  shall  see. 

A  Board  of  Assessors,  each  at  $4,000  a  year.  Its  business  is  to  extort  as 
much  tax  as  possible.  They  go  so  close  as  to  charge  $12  a  year  for  water 
on  a  rear  shanty,  where  there  is  neither  water  nor  inhabitant.  The  owner 
pays  the  fraud  for  years,  then  throws  down  the  shanty  to  escape  from  it. 

The  general  tax  has  risen  from  $1  to  $3.50  a  year  on  all  property,  produc- 
tive or  unproductive.  But  the  aggregate  of  thieves  ciy  "  more,  more."  So 
they  add  25  per  cent,  to  the  valuations — already  far  higher  than  tho  average 
values  in  the  State — thus  making  the  tax  solidly  4)£  per  cent.  And  tho  '  'appeal- 
ing to  heaven,"  genius,  who  invented  this  roguery,  is  rewarded  by  a  school 
superintendency,  at  $5,000  a  year.*  Above  and  apart  from  all  those  rogueries,. 
the  piling  up  of  debt  went  on  steadily.  The  city  is  now  in  two  districts.  In  '74» 
the  debt  of  the  Western  district  (containing  300,000  inhabitants)  was  $35,000,- 
000,  being  about  $110  per  capita ;  whilst  the  debt  of  London  per  capita,  in  the 
same  year,  was  $7.93. 

And  the  worst  symptom  connected  with  all  this  is  the  sluggish,  stultified 
apathy  of  the  men  who  pay  the  taxes,  and  whose  property  is  pledged  for 
this  debt.  Efforts,  from  time  to  time,  were  made  to  stem  this  flood  of  cor- 
ruption ;  but  it  will  be  seen,  as  we  proceed,  that  there  was  only  one  man  of 
means  and  property  that  ever  lent  aid  to  those  efforts.  Need  I  name  that 
honorable  man? 


STATE  GOVEENMENT. 

Up  till  a  late  date,  the  pay  of  a  New  York  legislator  was  $3  a  day.  It  cost 
an  average  of  $500  to  secure  his  election.  The  loss  of  his  work  at  home  was 
equal  to  $2  a  day.  His  expense,  if  he  lived  decently  in  Albany,  was  $3  to  $4 
a  day.  As  public  virtue  is  not  even  simulated,  his  presence  in  the  capitol 
was  conclusive  evidence  that  he  was  a  political  rogue.  And  a  promising 
market  lay  before  him.  On  an  average,  more  than  a  thousand  bills  come 
before  the  session.  Few  of  them  did  not  aim  at  plunder  of  some  kind,  and 
they  had  to  buy  their  way  into  law.  If  the  legislator  did  not  remunerate 
himself  for  all  his  outlay,  and  go  home  with  a  little  fortune,  he  was  "  behind 
the  times."  Thurlow  Weed  was  quite  a  liberal  broker  in  this  business 
"  How  much  did  you  get  for  that  last  vote  ?"  "  Only  so  much !"  "  It  was  too 

*  Those  Assessors  had  each  $4,000  a  year  beside  what  they  could  make  by  com- 
promising (colluding)  with  large  property  owners.  They  were  sham  Democrats.  The 
sham  Republicans  naturally  wanted  to  get  their  places.  So  up  they  go  to  Albany  and 
jet  a  scratch  from  the  sovereign  thieves  enthroned  there — legislating  the  present  Board 
out  and  seven  sham  Republicans  in.  The  outs  to  still  retain  their  salaries  till  the  end 
of  their  appointed  term.  Thus  were  all  the  patriots  reconciled  to  their  lot. 


20  Tin:  ODD  BO-JK  cr  TEE  NiNErEENTH  CENTOI-LY; 


little,  John.  Take  this  $100,  and  it  will  make  you  well  enough."  John  was  a 
Willianisburgh  man,  and  he  made  no  secret  of  Thurlow's  "  fair  dealiug.'r 
Thus  stimulated,  the  thing  called  "  legislation  "  has  in  New  York  State  run 
up  to  more  than  a  thousand  Acts  in  every  session.  Patch  upon  patch. 
Thus  (I  transcribe).  "An  Act  to  amend,  an  Act  entitled,  an  Act  to  amend 
the  several  Acts  relating  to  the  Board  of  Emigration."  A  turnpike  or  the 
bridge  on  Long  Island  is  sure  to  have  a  steal  in  it,  and  it  must  have  the 
consent  of  the  honorable  members  from  the  interior  county.  He  knows 
and  cares  nothing  about  it.  But  he  has  paid  five  hundred  or  a  thousand 
for  his  election.  He  will  take  you  in  hand  and  the  first  inquiry  is,  "  how 
much  money's  in  it  ?"  Such  an  aspect  is  the  chronic  disease.  But  the  cure 
is  quite  simple.  A  revision  of  the  Constitution  that  will  confine  State  Legis- 
lation to  things  affecting  the  whole  State,  and  to  be  paid  for  out  of  the  State 
tax.  All  local  improvements  remitted  under  Constitutional  regulation  to 
those  who  will  have  to  pay  for  them.  All  corporations  —  business  and  muni- 
cipal —  to  form  themselves  under  well  defined  constitutional  conditions. 
Thus  might  come  a  legislative  session  of  ten  days  and  ten  or  a  dozen  Acts, 
instead  of  a  hundred  days  and  ten  hundred  Acts.  But  a  far  greater  reform 
than  that  is  imperative,  which  shall  be  shown  as  we  proceed. 

New  York  City  had  grown  famous  (or  infamous)  in  its  robberies.  Then 
existing  was  the  New  Court  House  and  the  Tweed  dynasty.  Brooklyn  was, 
still  more  so,  and  why  should  not  Albany  go  in  for  a  share  ?  So  the  press 
is  set  to  howl  about  the  greatness  of  the  State  and  the  littleness  of  the  State 
Capitol.  And  to  work  they  go,  and  throw  away  ten  millions  on  a  building, 
the  chief  merit  of  which  is  that  it  is  so  badly  constructed  that  it  imperils  the 
lives  of  the  aggregated  roguery.  Byron  must  have  been  thinking  of  these 
villainies  when  he  wrote  : 

"All  that  the  mind  would  shrink  from  of  excesses, 

All  that  the  body  perpetrates  of  bad, 
All  that  wo  see,  hear,  read,  of  man's  distresses,. 

All  that  the  devil  would  do  if  run  stark  mad. 
All  that  defies  the  worst  that  pen  expresses, 

All  with  which  hell  is  peopled  or  as  bad, 
Is  here  let  loose." 

STATE  THIEVERY  —  STATE  CANALS. 

In  the  Constitution  it  is  ordered  that  a  certain  portion  of  the  tolls  be  laid 
aside  annually  to  pay  off  their  cost.  Canal  Commissioners  succeed  each 
other  —  now  sham  Democrats  —  now  sham  Republicans.  Instead  of  so  apply- 
ing the  tolls,  they  steal  $6,000,000  additional,  and  the  degraded  newspapers 
suggest  that,  as  both  parties  had  a  hand  in  it,  neither  party  is  to  blame. 
And  instead  of  repudiating  the  securities  forged  and  sold  by  the  Commis- 
sioners, and  putting  the  forgers  in  State  Prison,  the  only  question  pre- 
sented to  the  paper-ridden  people,  is  whether  will  we  pay  off  the  $6,000,000  by 
an  added  tax,  or  fund  it  at  legal  interest  ? 


[A  STRAY  LEAF  PUT  IN  PLACE.] 

THE      GREAT      ERROR. 

"  What  great  events  from  trifling  causes  spring.  " 

Before  I  proceed  an  inch  further  in  this  section  I  hold  It  a 
;sacred  duty  to  vindicate  "The  Republic."  Not  the  Republic  con- 
cealed and  dishonored  by  rogues,  as  it  now  stands  forth  in  the  United 
States,  but  the  pure,  living  principle  of  Republican  Government  as  it 
was  accorded  to  us  from  On  High !  A  principle  that  can  no  more  be 
affected  by  the  corruption  of  men  or  of  a  nation,  of  a  day  or  of  a 
century,  than  the  sun  is  extinguished  by  a  passing  cloud  that  hides 
his  effulgence  temporarily  from  the  earth.  One  omission,  apparently 
the  most  trivial,  made  at  the  founding  of  the  Republic,  led  to  all 
the  public  evils  that  now  exist  in  the  United  States.  As  I  would 
hasten  to  justify  a  dear  friend  from  evil  imputation  that  might  be 
falsely  cast  upon  him,  so  do  I  hasten  to  the  vindication  of  that 
Heaven-ordained  principle,  Republican  Government. 

As  standing  half  a  point  out  of  her  course  will  plunge  the  ship  into 
the  breakers,  so  the  omission  of  a  half  a  dozen  lines  from  the  Con- 
stitution has  brought  the  Republic  of  the  United  States  to  the  over- 
hanging verge  of  ruin.  Lines  like  these : 

"Federal  Taxationshall  be  limited  to  50  cents  per  capita  of  the  pop~ 
ulation ;  *  local  taxation  to  50  cents  per  $100  on  a  standing  valuation 
of  the  property  taxed. 

No  estate  in  land  shall  exceed  100  acres. 

Public  Debt  in  any  of  its  forms  shall  not  be  created." 

Instead  of  restraint  like  this,  the  Republic  virtually  made  pro- 
clamation— 

' '  Hear  ye !  Hear  ye !  All  shrewd,  active,  unprincipled  men,  ye  are 
wanted  to  govern  the  new  Republic ;  but  you  must  govern  constitu- 
tionally. The  privileges  accorded  to  you,  and  the  restraints  imposed 
on  you,  are  thus  set  forth  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Nation  and  of  the 
several  States — to  wit : 

"  You  shall  have  no  power  to  take  away  from  the  citizen  his  vote,  or 
his  musket,  or  his  freedom  of  speech,  or  of  the  press,  or  of  petition, 
or  of  public  meeting.  But 

"  You  shall  have  power  to  create  whatever  offices  you  please,  fill 
them  as  you  please  with  yourselves  and  your  friends — perform  their 
duties  or  leave  them  unperformed,  as  you  please  —  fix  whatever 

*  Indeed,  tax  would  not  bo  wanted  at  all  in  a  wisely  governed  country. 
The  action  of  this  nation's  currency  would  furnish  fifty  millions  a  year,  as 
shown  toward  the  end  of  this  book. 


[A  STRAY  LEAF  PUT  IN  PLACE.] 

amount  of  salaries  you  please,  and  for  whatever  money  you  may  re- 
quire you  can  draw  on  the  public,  and  the  public  engage  to  pay  it 
over  to  you,  whatever  the  amount  may  be,  but  on  this  imperative 
condition — that  you  shall  CALL  IT  TAX  ! 

' '  You  may  take  the  liberty  to  deed  away  to  yourselves  or  others 
the  real  estate  of  the  nation,  and  to  bond  the  people  thereof  and 
their  children.  But  you  must  call  the  deeds  '  Patents  of  the  United 
States,'  and  you  must  register  the  bonds,  and  call  it  a  bonded 
debt.  You  can  sell  these  bonds,  and  do  with  the  money  whatever  to 
you  may  seem  good." 

This  is  the  exact  substance,  the  distinct  and  definite  condition  pro- 
claimed by  the  Eepublic  at  the  commencement  of  its  life.  The  Con- 
stitution did  not  proclaim  it  in  those  exact  words,  but  this  was  its 
exact  meaning,  and  the  shrewd,  unscrupulous  -men  were  not  long  in 
finding  it  out.  The  power  thus  conferred  made  its  attraction  felt, 
less  or  more,  in  the  very  first  elections  that  took  place  in  the  He- 
public.  And  it  grew  with  every  succeeding  election,  and  the  steal- 
ings, at  first  taken  timidly,  slender  in  amount  and  covered  up  in 
their  mode,  increased  with  a  progression  that  outstripped  the  most 
wild  estimates  that  were  thought  possible,  of  which  this  book  will 
present  the  most  astounding  examples. 

And  is  this  any  proof  of  defect  or  evil  in  Republican  Institutions  ? 
No !  If  men  rob  in  the  name  of  Religion,  is  that  a  proof  of  evil  in 
Religion  itself? 

Another  crime  of  appalling  nature  and  magnitude  was  an  inevit- 
able concomitant  of  this  great  primary  vice.  From  a  conclave  of 
such  men,  met  to  legislate,  bad  laws  flowed  forth  as  naturally  as  im- 
pure waters  from  a  putrid  fountain.*  Inefficient  and  corrupt  ad- 
ministration of  the  laws  was  another  necessary  Qutflow  from  the 
same  impure  source.  But  above  all  these  crimes  and  impurities — 
unapproached  by  their  dishonor  —  the  soul  of  Republicanism  has  its 
home  in  the  sky,  ready  to  descend  to  us  and  protect  and  bless  us 
the  moment  we  show  wisdom  and  courage.  With  stupidity  and 
cowardice  the  Republic  will  never  dwell. 

*  In  New  York  City  the  police  arrest  and  imprison  men  and  women  for 
sitting  on  the  benches  of  the  Battery  Park  of  a.sultry  afternoon  in  August. 
Of  a  Sunday  afternoon  in  October  they  swoop  through  a  whole  street,  and 
arrest  the  men  and  women  they  find  sitting  on  their  stoops  or  standing  on 
their  sidewalk.  The  word  of  ti  single  politician  policeman  is  sufficient 
proof  that  they  are  "all  bad  characters  or  idle  persons,"  and  the  politician 
Bencher  sends  them  to  prison  from  two  weeks  to  six  months.  No  crime  ia 
even  imputed  to  them !  And  is  this  law?  "Aye,  marry,  is't?  Crowner's 
quest  law ! " 


OR,  THE  SPIRIT  OF   CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN   DAYS.  21 

NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT. 

From  the  central  fountain  at  Washington  corruption  radiates  over  the 
•whole  land.  Cabinet,  Congress,  Departments,  Army,  Navy,  Diplomacy, 
Custom  House,  Patent  Office — all,  in  short,  is  corruption,  and  this  is  not  the 
place  to  go  into  the  endless  details.  From  stealing  hundreds  of  millions  in 
lands  and  dollars,  down  to  the  pettiest  theft,*  nothing  is  too  heavy  to  lift  up, 
nothing  too  little  to  stoop  down  to.  For  at  this  centre  are  the  Collective, 
picked  and  chosen  Political  Swindlers — the  upfloated  scum  of  the  whole 
corrupt,  fermenting  heap.  Well  might  Judge  Black  defy  the  Senate  to  con- 
vict the  place  seller,  Belknap.  "  If  you  do — if  his  be  a  crime you  convict 

every  man  in  office — President  and  all  down." 

I  will  not  here  enter  upon  the  judicial  murders  perpertrated  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania Courts — Pennsylvania,  where  it  seems  the  worst  and  wickedest 
politicians  are  twisted  together.  Nor  the  unheard  of  tortures  committed  in 
our  prisons  everywhere,  because  without  date  and  evidence  no  man  would 
believe  them.  Those  dates,  incentives,  and  evidences  will  appear  in 
due  place  as  wo  proceed.  As  will  also  the  villainies  committed  gen- 
erally by  the  Courts  and  Legislatures.  But  here  I  may  quote  Mr.  Windom, 
our  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  on  the  nature  of  our  Associated  Press.  In 
speaking  of  Corporations  here  is  what  he  says : 

"  In  order  to  lay  deep  and  sure  foundations  for  the  maintenance  of  their 
power  they  have  now  seized  upon  the  channels  of  thought.  Look  at  it  a 
moment.  One  man,  who  controls  more  miles  of  railroad  than  any  other  in 
the  world,  now  also  controls  the  telegraphic  system  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  and  is  (as  I  learn)  also  the  owner  of  three  out  of  the  seven  news- 
papers which  constitute  the  Associated  Press,  through  the  agency  of  which 
the  news  is  distributed  over  the  entire  country.  He  may  at  any  time  secure 

•*  Another — ;7ie  other — and  myself  applied  for  a  parent  of  submarine  propeller  for 
•steamships.  Model,  drawing  and  £20  for  cavtat.  Patent  refused,  because  the  principle 
•was  published  in  an  untranslated  French  book.  They  cheated  us  out  of  the  ten  dollars, 
thalf  price  of  the  caveat  ,  returnable  to  us  by  law.  Applied  again  and  again  for  it,  and 
-were  again  and  again  met  by  lying  excuses,  but  no  money.  Neither  wa*  it  strange. 
Every  mah  in  that  office  was  a  picked-out  politician,  and  all  politicians  go  into  busi- 
ness to  make  what  they  can.  About  this  time  Nelson,  M.  C.  from  Brooklyn,  brought 
up  a  bill  to  charge  $500  for  each  patent.  I  sent  a  comment  on  this  villainy  to  the  Tri- 
bune. It  suggested  that  at  one  point  in  every  county,  there  should  be  an  "  Inventor's 
Room,"  attached  to  the  shop  of  an  intelligent  carpenter  who  would  furnish  tools,  ma- 
terials, and  handicraft  instructions  to  inventors.  That  at  fixed  periods  competent 
judges  should  visit  those  invention  traps,  and  see  what  they  had  caught.  Horace  so 
far  approved  of  this  as  to  give  it  Leader  prominence.  But  the  subject  fell  to  the  ground. 
Since  that  time  I  improved  this  submerged  propeller,  and  invented  a  means  of  dis- 
charging coal  barges  in  a  few  minutes— avoiding  the  shoveling  and  hoisting  now  in 
use,  and  facilitating  the  coaling  of  steamships.  I  projected  a  means  of  saving  life  on 
Railroads — of  which  as  we  proceed — but  I  never  approached  the  Patent  Office  again  ^ 
partly  through  my  natural  repugnance,  to  hold  intercourse  with  political  thieves,  and 
partly  because  I  had  no  money  to  risk,  where  experience  taught  me  I  would  be  pretty 
SK-re  to  lose  it. 


22  THE    ODD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

the  fourth  paper,  which  will  give  him  absolute  control  over  the  news  which 
the  people  shall  receive.  What  opportunity  will  there  be  then  for  a  fair  dis- 
cussion of  these  questions  ?  The  daily  news  supplied  to  the  myriads  of 
newspapers  must  first  pass  under  the  supervision  of  one  or  two  men  who 
represent  the  Associated  Press.  They  will  have  full  authority,  and  doubtless 
will  be  required  to  suppress,  add  to,  or  color  the  information  thus  sent  out 
ag  may  best  serve  the  interest,  the  ambition,  or  the  malice  of  the  man  to 
whom  they  owe  their  places.  Hence  the  twenty  millions  of  people  who  read 
their  morning  papers  at  their  breakfast  tables  will  daily  receive  just  such 
impressions  as  this  one  man  shall  choose  to  give  them." 

A  gentleman  lecturing  in  Chicago  on  "  The  Press,"  understands  this  sub- 
ject. He  states  that  "eight  thousand  newspaper  proprietors,  with  their 
twenty-thousand  writers,  possess  a  power  over  the  destinies  of  the  Repub- 
lic that  they  could  not  abdicate,  even  if  they  would."  He  hopes  they  will 
awaken  to  a  sense  of  their  responsibility. 

What  is  written  here  is  a  mere  meagre  indication  of  the  actual  condition— 
the  nature  and  the  volume  of  corruption  that  is  now  submerging  the  Re- 
public. But  thence  let  no  man  conclude  that  Republican  government  is  a 
failure ;  far  from  it.  The  discovery  of  those  evils  lead  us  up  directly  to  THE 
CAUSE  that  produced  them,  and  thus  points  out  the  way  to  their  removal. 
That  cause  is  the  UNBOUNDED  POWER  TO  TAX,  left  open  in  the  Constitutions. 
The  whole  wealth  of  the  nation  left  an  unprotected  prey,  and  "  where  the 
carcass  is,  there  will  the  vultures  be  gathered  together."  Now  if  the  young 
men  of  the  nation  don't  see  this,  or  if  the  young  women  don't  box  their 
ears  and  make  them  see  it,  there  is  no  other  power  under  the  Almighty 
Power  that  can  save  the  Republic. 

As  we  proceed,  this  book  will  show  one  solitary  example  of  the  extent  to 
which  individual  virtue  could  and  did  resist  the  corruption.  It  will  also  show 
the  more  effectual  though  less  trying  example  of  one  honorable  man,keeping 
entirely  away  from  it,  and  teaching,  by  his  repeated  and  repeated  efforts,  a 
lesson  without  which  this  book  had  never  been  written.  Those  efforts,  with 
the  Great  Truths  they  embraced,  will  be  unfolded  in  the  pages  that  lie  before 
us.  Again ;  I  pray  may  the  Divine  Power  inspire  the  young  men  of  the  Re- 
public to  take  that  lesson  to  heart,  and  emulate  that  chivalrous  example ! 


We  have  seen  the  horrors  born  of  British  Civilization  by  the  sword.  We 
have  seen  a  sample  of  American  Civilization  born  of  civic  swindling.  But 
the  main  object  now  is  to  indicate  the  true  indigenous  Civilization  that  has 
been  vainly  attempting  to  take  its  natural  place  in  the  Republic.  Through 
a  record  of  years  will  be  shown  the  continuous  effort  thus  made  to  drive 
out  the  vicious  and  false,  and  oring  in  the  true  and  virtuous.  So  far,  that 
endeavor  has  only  realized  the  ominous  lines — 

"  Truths  would  you  teach,  and  save  a  sinking  land, 
All  fear,  none  aid  you,  and  few  understand." 

But  the  example  is  left,  and  unfolds  a  true  Future  to  the  Republic,  Will 
the  young  untainted  manhood  of  the  country  take  hold  of  it  ?  Will  it  be 


OR,  THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN    DAYS.  23 

their  high  destiny  to  wrest  the  Republic  from  the  clutch  of  the  criminal  pol- 
iticians ?  Will  they  drive  out  the  false  and  bring  in  the  true?  Will  they  be 
the  medium  of  au  inspiration  from  On  High  ?  Let  us  hope  so. 

"  Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast." 
Turn  we  now  to  the  serious  work  of  this  section. 


KETBOSPECT. 

The  assumption  by  the  British  Parliament  to  tax  the  Col- 
onists— the  Stamp  Act  and  its  reception — the  discontents 
and  resistances  even  to  the  burning  of  Revenue  vessels — the 
snowballing  in  Boston — the  orders  to  have  those  accused 
of  treason  sent  over  to  be  tried  in  the  English  Courts — the 
Boston  Tea  Party — the  raid  of  Major  Pitcairn  on  Lexington 
and  Concord,  and  the  commencement  of  the  war  are  all  promi- 
nent in  the  abridged  Histories.  But  the  earlier  causes  that 
led  to  the  Revolution  are  not  brought  out  prominently.  The 
Colonists  not  only  bore  the  brunt  of  the  old  French  War, 
but  they  undertook  to  meet  most  of  the  debt  which  was  a 
result  of  it.  Up  to  that  time  it  was  not  considered  worth 
while  to  tax  them.  This  gave  a  hint  which  the  voracity 
of  the  British  Boroughmongers  took  hold  of. 

Long  previous  to  this  the  Colonial  governments  had 
issued  a  much  needed  paper  currency — and  loaned  it  on 
mortgage  to  individuals.  It  was  based  on  the  mortgage  and 
the  stamp  of  the  government  gave  it  currency.  From  this 
source  the  Colonial  treasury  was  greatly  benefited  by  the  in- 
terest accruing  on  the  mortgage  bonds.  But  the  British 
Parliament  abrogated  this  right  and  compelled  the  with- 
drawal of  the  money,  and  that  involved  a  foreclosure  of  the 
mortgages,  and  was  both  a  public  and  a  private  wrong  that 
caused  discontent,  growing  into  disloyalty.  And  records 
like  the  following  well  might  also  cause  discontent. 

In  1718  the  Indians,  some  twelve  thousand  strong,  took 
attitude  to  defend  their  lands  from  "  Patentees  "  who  claimed 
them  under  grants  from  the  Crown.  The  Governor  marched 
on  their  great  Camp  with  1,200  muskets.  There  were  no 
politician  Post-traders  in  those  days  to  furnish  rifles  and  am- 
munition. So  bows  and  tomahawks  had  to  succumb.  But 
not  till  a  full  third  of  the  white  men  were  killed  or  wounded. 
This  was  in  the  Carolinas. 


24  TEE   ODD   BOOK   OF    THE   NINETEENTH    CENTUKY  J 

The  "  Royal  Patentees,"  though  claiming  the  lands  from 
which  the  Indians  were  thus  expelled  would  pay  no  part  of 
the  debt  resulting  from  the  war.  The  legislature  therefore 
sold  the  land.  "  The  terms  offered,"  says  the  Historian  (How- 
ard Hinton)  "  were  favorable,  and  five  hundred  Irish  families 
came  and  planted  themselves  on  the  frontier."  But  the 
"  Royal  Patentees "  deprived  those  settlers  of  their  lands. 
Some  perished  from  want.  Others  fled  to  Northern  Colonies. 
"  And  thus,"  continues  the  Historian,  "  a  strong  barrier  was 
removed  and  the  country  exposed  to  the  incursions  of  the 
savages.  Thus  did  the  great  curse  that  drove  those  people 
from  their  native  land  meet  them  and  murder  them  on  what 
they  vainly  hoped  to  be  their  adopted  home." 

Half  a  point  from  her  course  will  plunge  a  ship  into  the 
breakers.  The  spark  from  a  tobacco  pipe  burnt  Chicago  to 
the  ground.  The  omission  of  a  few  lines  in  the  present  Con- 
stitutions has  brought  this  Republic  to  the  very  edge  of  ruin. 

How  this  half  point  was  mistaken,  and  our  Ship  of  State 
driven  on  the  breakers,  it  is  one  object  of  this  book  to  un- 
fold. One  other  object  is  to  show  how  that  ship  may  be 
rescued  before  she  becomes  a  total  wreck. 

The  murderous  war  of  the  Revolution  is  over.  John 
Adams  succeeds  Washington  in  the  Presidency.  He  keeps 
what  is  called  a  "Republican  Court,"  and  already  public 
parasites  flock  around  him.  He  and  they  accomplished 
the  "Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,"  and  most  unfortunately  by  a 
bare  majority  of  two  votes,  planted  the  germ  of  a  Navy. 

Greedy  profitmongers  of  America,  following  the  example  of 
England,  sail  over  the  world  in 'pursuit  of  gain,  instead  of 
developing  their  vast  home  resources.  To  protect  them  in 
their  outsailing  greed,  we  get  into  a  war  with  the  Barbary 
pirates,  in  which  large  numbers  of  our  most  promising  youth 
perish — the  moiiarchs  of  Europe  looking  on  whilst  we  fought 
the  battle  which  should  be  fought  by  themselves.  Those 
profitmongers  aiid  this  navy  involved  us,  too,  in  a  second 
murderous  war  with  England.  Tens  of  thousands  of  our 
people  are  slaughtered,  and  our  cities  burned  in  this  war. 
All  brought  on  us  by  the  vagabondizing  profitmongers  who 
could  have  worked  more  profitably  even  for  themselves  at 
home. 

"An  unnecessary  and  disgraceful  war,"  (says  Howard 
Hinton),  and  he  adds,  "  the  more  detestable  when  contem- 
plated as  a  series  of  human  sacrifices  for  the  preservation  of  a 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  25 

Commercial  system"  This  same  Navy,  and  for  the  same  "  de- 
testable "  purpose,  now  costs  us  seventeen  to  twenty  millions 
a  year,  and  the  (45th)  Congress  made  good  a  stealing  of  six 
millions  committed  in  its  Department  in  Washington. 

A  twin  monster  is  the  standing  arm}?,  the  twins  consuming 
between  them  far  over  a  million  a  week,  keeping  150,000  citi- 
zens working  every  day  in  the  year  to  support  them.  The 
rnessroom  a  first-rate  hotel — the  cabins  redolent  of  ori- 
ental luxury — the  soldier  and  the  sailor  on  coarse,  meagre 
allowance  and  scanty  pay.  Cheated  and  even  murdered  by 
the  officers  with  impunity. *  Congressmen,  that  is  to  say  corrupt 
politicians,  name  cadets  to  West  Point  for  the  army — to  An- 
apolis  for  the  navy.  "  Common  people  "  admissible  only  to 
the  rank  of  "  petty  officers."  Diplomatists  to  complicate 
us  with  foreign  powers,  deplete  the  Treasury,  and  import 
cargoes  of  Royalist  snobbery — themselves  and  their  long 
tail  of  idle  secretaries  and  attaches.  The  latest  duty  assigned 
to  them,  is  to  gather  statistics  of  how  little  the  European 
worker  can  make  out  to  starve  upon.  And  this  to  prepare 
the  American  workman  to  be  assimilated  to  the  same  condi- 
tion. A  custom  house  filling  the  land  with  smuggling  and  per- 
jury, levying  probably  three  dollars  from  the  people,  andreturn- 
ing  one  to  the  government.  Practically  allowing  our  snob  mil- 
lionaires to  import  what  they  please  from  Europe  in  their  re- 
turn trunks.  And  by  a  recent  order  the  securities  of  smug- 
gling merchants  are  suffered  henceforth  to  go  scot  free. 
Land  monopoly,  Mine  monopoly,  Banks  and  Debts,  imitating 
England  in  all  her  villainies,  and  exceeding  her  in  not  a  few. 


MY  FIRST  EXPERIENCE.— 1840. 

Landed.  It  is  night,  and  I  am  returning  from  a  hotel 
with  refreshments  to  my  wife,  who  is  sick  in  the  cabin  of  the 
vessel.  A  sheet  of  water  lies  between  me  and  the  ship,  and  I 
hail  a  professional  boatman  to  push  me  across.  He  will 
"for  a  shilling."  All  I  have  is  a  sixpence,  which  I 
offer  him.  He  refuses,  not  knowing  it  is  English,  and  while 
negotiating  a  voice  sings  out,  "  Coine  around  this  way  and 
you  can  step  aboard."  I  did.  It  w^is  emblematic  of  what  I 
should  encounter  in  the  country.  Hardness  from  the  pro- 

*  Facts,  figures  and  dates  as  we  proved. 


26  THE   ODD   BOOK   OP   THE  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

fessionals  (politicians),  help  and  kindness  from  the  non-pro- 
fessionals— the  uncorrupted  citizens. 

The  country  was  staggering  up  out  of  the  financial  pros- 
tration of  '36.  There  is  more  merchant  business  done  now 
in  one  street — or  half  a  street — than  was  then  done  in  the 
whole  city.  Brooklyn  had  only  20,000  inhabitants.  The 
materials  for  the  City  Hall  lay  around  in  fragments,  and 
there  was  no  habitable  house  outside  of  Pierrepont  Street  at 
Fulton.  What  is  now  the  Eastern  District,  with  its  200,000, 
had  only  5,000  people.  Aided  by  loans  on  some  fragmentary 
silver  and  gold  trinkets,  I  got  rooms.  Found  employment 
from  the  agent  of  that  able  periodical,  the  Democratic  Review, 
to  canvass  for  subscribers.  But  the  concern  was  so  poor 
that  Mr.  Webster  had  to  borrow  from  his  grocer  on  Saturday 
night  the  little  I  had  earned,  and  so  the  employment  left  me. 
I  wish  some  of  the  misguided  men  who  are  now  driving  the 
Kepublic  to  ruin  could  have  a  little  of  my  experience  at  that 
time.  It  was  worse  than  my  trials  in  Liverpool  ten  years 
before.  Then  I  had  only  myself  to  take  care  of.  Now  I 
had  a  little  family,  and  to  return  to  them  night  after  night 
from  a  vain  search  for  employment  (any  employment  I  would 
have  worked  at,  pick  or  spade,  or  anything),  was  a  trial 
which  words  cannot  describe. 

It  is  the  middle  of  April,  and  a  driving  snow  storm  fills 
the  street.  Indian  meal  and  molasses  furnished  our  unvaried 
fare,  and  after  breakfast — "  Surely  you  are  not  going  out  in 
that  tempest,"  said  my  wife.  "  Surely  I  am,"  was  the  reply. 
"  The  employment-coach  may  drive  up  some  day,  and  I'll 
always  keep  on  the  road  side  to  catch  it."  On  that  day  I 
got  my  first  hold  on  existence  in  the  New  World. 

Win.  H.  Colyer  was  a  relative  of  the  Harpers — a  clever, 
adventurous  man,  a  re-printer  of  books,  and  an  active  Dem- 
ocrat. He  ambitioned  position  in  the  party,  and  Williams- 
burgh  was  a  Democratic  village  with  a  Whig  paper  passing 
for  neutral  Mr.  Colyer  made  a  partnership  with  me  on 
liberal  terms.  He  furnished  all  printing  materials  and 
two  printers,  and  a  page  weekly  of  Master  Humphrey's 
Clock  (Little  Nell)  which  he  was  then  reprinting.  My  duty 
was  to  keep  the  books,  and  report  and  write  for  the  paper, 
and  make  myself  useful  to  the  party.  He  also  furnished  me 
$5  a  week  til  the  business  would  begin  to  pay.  Evidence 
of  partnership  for  a  year  was  deposited  in  the  hands  of  a 
very  conscientious  man,  a  friend  of  his,  named  Fitzgerald. 


Oil,    THE   BPIKIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  27 

HARD  CIDER  CAMPAIGN. 

And  so  on  the  6tli  of  June,  1840,  the  Williamsurgh  Demo- 
crat came  out  and  "  astonished  the  natives,"  under  the  con- 
trol of  a  man  supposed  to  know  little  of  American  affairs — 
\  being  only  three  months  in  the  country.  But  the  Hard  Cider 
campaign  had  just  commenced,  and  there  was  no  time  to 
stand  upon  trifles.  I  thought  the  Democrats  the  embodiment 
of  public  virtue,  and  I  did  not  like  the  exhibition  of  stuffed 
owls,  coon  skins,  toy  cider  barrels  and  miniature  log  cabins 
as  political  arguments.  They  were  employed  however  at  the 
instigation  of  Horace  Greeley,  and  as  I  learned  against  the 
will  of  the  moderate  Whigs  under  the  rule  of  Thurlow  Weed 
and  Governor  Seward.* 

I  attacked  their  programme,  but  in  a  strain  of  good-natured 
sarcasm  like  this  : 

"  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Whigs,  our  opponents,  are  by  far  the  best 
Whigs  in  the  whole  Republic.  Their  Log  Cabin  especially  leaves  compari- 
son far  behind.  Here's  an  indication  of  its  history : 

*  Whigs  carried  the  nation.  The  emblematic  log  cabins  built  everywhere, 
the  owls  and  coons,  living  and  dead,  everywhere  paraded  and  made  a  great 
many  people  believe  that  Harrison  was  a  Democrat  in  his  habits  of '  life. 
Doggrel  verses  helped  them,  such  as 

"  Go  it  for  the  cooney  boys, 

Cooney  in  a  cage ; 
Go  it  with  a  rush  boys, 
Go  it  in  a  rage." 

Horace  Greeley  was  appointed  to  promulgate  their  national  campaign 
sheet,  the  "  Log  Cabin,"  and  it  astonished  me  very  much  that  he  would 
dare  to  belie  the  most  recent  History  in  making  out  a  case  against  his  oppo- 
nents. There  could  be  no  better  political  engineer  than  Horace.  Another 
help  to  the  Whigs  at  this  campaign  was  the  cold-blooded  apathy  which  Pre- 
sident Van  Buren  had  manifested  whilst  the  Canadian  officials  of  Victor!  i 
were  hanging  to  death  American  citizens  who  had  crossed  the  line  to  h^lp 
the  Patriots.  It  was  a  prevailing  and  not  unreasonable  opinion  that  Martin 
could  by  a  quiet  friendly  word  or  two  have  saved  all  those  lives.  A  word  or 
two  like  this :  "  Our  citizens  have  formed  opinions  on  this  matter.  They 
have  read  the  history  of  Lafayette  coming  to  help  us.  I,  too,  could  have 
made  the  matter  hard  for  you  by  just  giving  a  friendly  wink  to  those  desir- 
ing to  cross  the  border.  I  didn't.  I  saved  you  from  that  danger.  And  I 
will  be  greatly  obliged  to  you  if  you  oblige  me  in  return."  But  Martin  didn't 
do  anything  like  this,  and  doubtless  it  cost  him  thousands  of  votes.  He  was. 
indeed,  an  unworthy  and  unlike  successor  of  General  Jackson.  At  any 
rate  he  had  to  step  down  and  out.  I  give  one  or  two  extracts  from  McKen- 
zi</.:>  Almanac*  which  throws  light  on  the  blood-thirsty  things  that  were 
done  in  those  days. 


28       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

OEDEB  FKOM  HEAD-QUAKTEBS,  Juno  9th,  1840. 

Sir :  you  are  requested  to  meet  at  Daniel  Woods  house  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, the  committee  to  build  the  log  cabin  to  proceed  to  woods  of  G-eii.  John- 
son for  the  purpose  of  cutting  timber." 

The  March. — In  obedience  to  the  above  signal,  the  "Tippeys"  mustered 
with  rope  in  hand  and  axe  over  shoulder,  and  marched,  executioner-like,  to 
the  groaning  groves  of  the  gallant,  generous  General. 

"  Hewers  of  Wood" — 'Tis  noon.  Each  succeeding  bang  of  the  axe  sends 
forth  a  succeeding  rush  of  ciderated  perspiration.  Empty  bottles  are  scat- 
tered round  in  exhausted,  useless,  corkless  confusion.  The  cider,  like  them- 
selves, is  exhausted.  So  they  divide  into  two  corps.  One  remaining  "  hewers 
of  wood" — the  other  commencing  "  drawers  of  water." 

Dull  and  muddy  was  the  standing  pool.  Soft,  swampy,  and  singularly 
slimy  were  its  approaches.  On  moved  the  devoted  bands — plash  in  went  the 
bubbling  bottles — as  Ossian  would  say,  "  the  frogs  retreated  to  the  darkness 
of  their  caves." 

Evening. — The  sun  rolls  its  westering  course.  A  mellow  light  floats  upon 
the  forest,  tinges  the  hill  tops,  and  bathes — the  yoke  of  oxen  with  a  big  log  at 
their  tails. 

Magnificent Vesper  has  drawn  her  transparent  veil  over  the  shadowy 

scene.  A  silvery  radiance  lights  up  the  embattled  clouds,  the  queen  of 
night  looks  frern  her  balcony  in  the  sky  and  beholds  a — pile  of  logs  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Grand  street. 

The  Curtain  Falls. — Bepose  has  settled  down  upon  the  world — sleep  seals 
the  eyes  of  the  actors  in  this  noble  achievement — a  gentle  snore  takes  posses- 
sion of  their  nostrils ;  soft,  salutary  and  gently  sounding  be  your  slumbers, 
O  !  worthy  successors  of  revolutionary  sires  ! 

The  Raising. — Another  morn  of  blushing  brightness  has  dawned  upon  the 
patriotic  scene.  Again  the  venturous  "forlorn  hope"  is  astraddle  on  the 
growing  pile.  Again  rings  the  ponderous  axe — quivers  the  echoing  trunk — 
heavenward  speeds  their  progress — they  are  already  eight  feet  from  the 
earth — they  raise  aloft  the  monumental  crown  a  barber's  pole,  with  an  empty 
cider  barrel  at  the  top,  emblematical  of  the  head  of  their  old  General." 

At  tlie  dedication  of  tliis  edifice  I  attended  as  a  Reporter. 
No  doubt  the  "  dedicators  "  were  as  surprised  to  see  me  there, 
as  I  was  when  they  hustled  me  out ! 

And  yet  there  were  real  good  fellows  among  them,  as  we 
shall  see,  though  I  didn't  know  it  at  the  time. 

The  most  noisy  leader  in  our  opposing  host  was  an  English  lawyer 
named  "  Temple  Fay,  Esq."  Ho  was  very  dark  visaged,  and  his  loquacity 
was  unbounded,  and  in.  all  discussions  I  affected  to  believe  that  Templefay 
was  a  village  which  sent  forth  confused  noises.  The  following  doggerel 
b-rought  me  a  good  many  subscribers : 


OR,  THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN  DAYS.  29 

"  Ye  Summer  small  birds  thou  will  be  "  Fall "  birds, 

Ye  bees  that  bumble  o'er  the  flowery  spray, 
Ye  winds  that  rattle  and  ye  waves  that  battle 
Up  and  down  the  Biver  and  all  thro'  the  bay ; 

Ye  trembling  treeses — ye  bustling  breezes, 

Ye  calves  that  stagger,  and  ye  lambs  that  play- 
Be  hushed  your  noises,  be  dumb  your  voices, 
Till  I  sing  the  praises  of  Templefay. 

It's  aspect  clear  as  the  skies  of  midnight, 

When  stars  and  moonlight  are  far  away, 
It's  brightness  beaming  no  bushel-hid  light 

To  guide  the  Locofoco*  on  his  way. 

Sometimes  its  "  moonshine"  would  pass  for  sunshine, 

As  o'er  the  waters  it  loves  to  play, 
Sometimes  it  deares  you — anon  relieves  you 

As  song  or  silence  seizes  Templefay. 

0 1  hour  delightful  when  close  of  nightfall 
Brings  brute  and  broker  from  work  and  play — 

How  sweet  to  float  o'er,  in  ferry-boat  o'er, 
And  hear  the  throat  f  roar  of  Templefay. 

Ye  ghouls  of  Wall  Street,  ye  grubs  of  all  streets 

Come  forth,  come  all  meet,  by  close  of  day 
For  speculation  to  save  the  nation — 

Catch  inspiration  from  Templefay." 

Here  was  my  audacity  before  I  was  quite  three  months  in  the  country.  I 
insert  it  to  show  that  editors — even  daily  editors  have  individual  powe&jf 
they  only  choose  to  exercise  it. 

TAKIFF!    TAKIFF! 

"Unshackled  in  our  opinions — independent  in  the  use  of  our  quill — we  have 
placed  the  names  of  MARTIN  VAN  BUBEN  and  BICHABD  M.  JOHNSON 
at  the  head  of  this  article — not  because  we  believe  them  to  be  infallible  in 
their  whole  line  of  policy — not  because  we  claim  inpeccability  for  the  men 
of  their  appointment  to  office,  seeing  that  they  have  only  poor  human  nature 
to  select  from — but  because  we  believe  that  they  are  right  in  defending  the 
most  extensive  and  unshackled  exercise  of  the  Elective  Franchise— right 
because  they  would  have  the  Public  Treasury  unconnected  with  Banks — 


*7.  e.  a  "locofoco"  traveller— one  who  journeys  on  his  own  two  political 
legs. 

When  the  hold-back  hunkers  turned  off  the  gas  at  a  public  meeting,  the 
progressive  bought  loco-foco  matches  and  lighted  up  with  candles — hence 
the  name. 


30  THE  ODD  BOOK  OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTUBY  ; 

right  because  they  would  purge  the  currency,  and  not  have  us  lie  down  at 
night  with  a  sheaf  of  "  money  "  in  our  desk,  and  find  in  the  morning  it  has 
undergone  a  wonderful  transmutation — right  because  they  would  entrust 
the  nation's  safety  to  the  unbought  gallantry  of  her  free  sons,  and  not  to  the 
evolutions  of  a  mercenary  army — right  because  they  would  preserve  in- 
violate, but  under  the  Constitution,  the  legislative  supremacy  of  each  State 
in  all  its  own  internal  matters — right  because  they  would  save  us  from  the 
eternal  pestilence  of  a  National  Debt — right  because  they  would  steadily  re- 
sist unproductive  improvements  and  encourage  the  wholesome  progress  of 
Agriculture.  For  those  principles  and  others  growing  out  of  them 
or  similar  to  them,  we  support  the  present  Administration,  even  though 
disapproving  of  their  policy  on  the  Tariff  question;  which  disapproval  WE 
HEBE  AVOW,  and  shall  take  another  occasion  to  defend  and  justify." 

I  did  so,  but  the  article  is  lost.  It  likened  the  principle  to 
a  man  trying  to  rear  up  an  orchard  on  a  bank  of  the  ocean 
which  the  sea  blast  would  not  permit  to  grow.  A  high  tariff 
was  a  wall  to  keep  from  our  young  Factories  the  sea-blast  of 
cheap  labor  productions  coming  in  from  Europe.  That  was 
the  truth  as  I  saw  it,  and  there  was  too  much  of  the  old 
Knights-errant  in  me  to  even  keep  silent  on  the  subject. 
The  leaders  remonstrated  with  me,  but  let  me  have  my  own 
way — another  very  strange  fact  in  political  warfare.  But  as 
soon  as  I  found  that  we  had  unbounded  public  lands,  I  saw 
that  there  lay  the  true  "  protection,"  and  I  abandoned  the 
tariff  doctrine  forevermore.  Turned  my  face  to  the  mercies 
of  Nature  and  my  back  on  the  mercies  of  the  Cotton  Lords. 

The  election  is  over.  General  Harrison  is  chosen.  Fresh 
from  the  Chartist  agitation  and  believing  that  the  Demo- 
cratic Party  to  be  all  that  it  appeared  to  be,  I  had  so  acquit- 
ted myself  in  the  "canvass"  that  Judge  A.  D.  Soper,  our 
"Association"  Chairman,  said  this  to  me :  "the  New  York  Com- 
mittee has  been  republishing  your  campaign  articles  in  the 
Sun  and  Planet.  They  think  you  will  be  more  useful  in  a 
wider  field,  New  York  or  Washington."  Of  course  I  was 
at  their  service,  eagerly  desirous  to  be  as  useful  as  I  could. 

But  after  the  turmoil  of  the  election  I  had  leisure  to  look 
around  me,  and  I  soon  discovered  that  the  amassing  of  a  large 
fortune  was  very  generally  considered  to  be  the  end  and  aim 
of  existence.  The  young  man  entering  life  was  pointed  to 
some  "distinguished  person"  who  had  commenced  life  very 
poor  and  ended  it  very  rich.  Against  this  doctrine  I  was 
hardy  enough  to  publish  the  following  protest : 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  3l 

[I  do  not  know  whether  this  article  brought  mo  under  the  notice  of  my 
life-long  sustainer  Mr.  *  *  * .  But  I  do  know  that  the  tenor  of  his  life 
accorded  with  its  suggestions.] 


AMBITION. 

"  O  !  Happiness  !  our  being's  end  and  aim ; 
Good,  pleasure,  ease,  content — whate'er  thy  name — 
Thou  something  art  that  prompts  the  eternal  sigh, 
For  which  we  bear  to  live,  nor  dread  to  die." — POPE. 

"  Human  Ambition  is  nothing  else  than  a  longing  after  a  splendid  and 
exalted  '  Happiness.'  Developing  itself  in  various  forms,  the  goal  of  its 
hopes  and  efforts  is  still  the  same- -some  bright  eminence  where  happiness 
may  be  enjoyed  in  its  highest  and  most  sublime  character. 

The  philosophic  mind,  whilst  noting  the  career  of  distinguished  men, 
even  without  looking  into  its  own  feelings  for  instruction,  easily  discovers 
that  the  approval  and  admiration  of  our  fellow-citizens  imparts  to  the  cup 
of  human  bliss  its  highest  and  most  etherial  zest.  The  Indian  with  his 
tomahawk,  and  the  cizilized  savage  of  scientific  war,  go  forth,  alike,  in  the 
hope  of  being  hailed  with  loud  homage  on  their  victorious  return.  The 
philosopher,  as  he  unravels  the  secret  principles  of  Nature — the  mariner,  as 
he  explores  the  unknown  deeps — even  the  patriot  heart  that  goes  forth  to 
bleed  in  the  cause  of  his  country — all,  all  look  forward  to  the  moment  when 
their  toils  and  dangers  shall  be  rewarded  with  the  general  approval  of  their 
brothers  of  humanity. 

"And  of  all  the  beneficent  laws  of  Nature,  this  law  is,  or  rather  was 
intended  to  be:  the  most  beneficent  to  man.  This,  the  highest  happiness  of 
which  our  mortality  would  seem  to  be  capable,  was  to  be  purchased  only 
by  such  actions  as  would  c^ll  forth  the  approval  of  our  fellows — naturally 
expected  to  be  good  and  virtuous  actions. 

'  But  how  turned  aside  and  perverted  has  been  this  law  !  How  conducive 
to  man's  misery  and  destruction  has  it  been  made  ! 

'  In  the  ages  of  early  barbarism,,  the  Chief  who  first  repelled  an  invading 
foe  was  received,  and  deservedly  so,  with  paens  of  applause  on  returning 
to  his  protected  people.  By  an  imperceptible  transition,  the  same  applause 
was  awarded  to  his  success  when,  instead  of  being  the  victorious  defender, 
he  became  the  ruthless  aggressor.  A  louder  fnmo  hns  ben  71  awarded  to  «°u 


32  THE  otoD  SooK  or  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

Alexander  or  a  Napoleon  than  that  which  encircles  the  nathe  of  a  Washing- 
ton or  a  Jackson. 

"But  there  is  another  kind  of  'glory" — another  species  of  ambition— 
which  bids  fair,  '  like  Aaron's  serpent,'  to  swallow  up  the  rest,  "We  allude 
to  the  '  glory '  which  wealth  imparts,  and  to  the  bastard,  degenerate 
ambition  which  prompts  to  its  accumulation. 

"  We  shall  not  go  back  to  trace  the  times  and  the  countries  of  oppression^ 
in  which  mere  wealth  found  means  to  command  the  homage  of  the  enslaved 
multitude.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  state  that  in  despotic  Europe  '  wealth ' 
has  become  synonymous  with  '  honor,'  and  '  poverty '  with  '  disgrace.' 

"  Here,  too,  we  are  fast  verging  to  the  same  irrational  and  dangerous 
mistake.  Here — even  in  this  Republic— wealth  is  beginning  to  command 
an  homage  which  by  no  means  belongs  to  it — and  here,  too,  the  attainment 
of  a  large  fortune  is  held  up  to  our  youth  as  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  human 
ambition. 

"  In  vain  the  Sacred  Volume  warns  us  that  we  '  cannot  serve  God  and 
Mammon.'  It  is  in  vain  that  the '  camel '  and  the '  needle's  eye '  arc  brought 
into  contact  to  illustrate  the  wickedness,  as  common  sense  illustrates  tho 
folly,  of  giving  up  our  days  to  the  accumulation  of  riches.  The  old  wiU 
teach,  and  the  young  will  learn — that,  a  large  fortune  achieved,  the  princi- 
pal end  of  our  existence  is  fulfilled. 

"  But  it  is  an  error,  and  a  grevious  one — let  who  will  teach,  and  let  who 
will  learn  it.  Shall  we  compare  the  wretches  who  purchased  the  Roman 
Empire  with  their  sordid  millions  to  him  whose  earthly  possession  was  seven 
acres  of  land?  When  the  names  of  our  Washington  and  our  Jackson  go 
down  to  posterity — gathering  a  halo  as  they  descend  into  future  agci — where 
will  be  found  the  names  of  John  Jacob  Astor  and  men  of  his  kind? 

"We  exhort  the  masses  to  beware  of  how  they  render  tho  semblance  of 
homage  to  mere  wealth.  To  virtue,  benevolence  and  public  spirit  let  just 
homage  be  paid;  but  let  all  attempts  of  men  to  arrogate  to  themselves 
respect,  merely  because  they  are  rich,  be  met  and  repelled  by  public  con- 
tempt and  scorn.  "Ambition!"  Go  like  the  noble  bard  and  hold  com- 
with  a  skull— 

'  Look:  at  its  broken  arch,  its  ruined  wall, 
Its  chambers  desolate,  its  portals  foul ! 
Yet  this  was  once  Ambition's  airy  hall — 
The  dome  of  thought— the  palaco  of  the  soul ! ' 


OB, -THE  SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAY*.  66 

"Away  with  all  ambition  that  has  not  for  its  object  the 
welfare  of  tlie  human  race!" 

I  followed  these  articles  with  another,  (which  is  lost),  sug- 
gesting principles  the  adoption  of  wThich  would  tend  to 
prevent  large  accumulations.  No  Land  or  Mine  Monop- 
oly. No  public  debts.  Railroads  made  and  operated  by  the 
people.  Nothing  in  which  to  invest  large  wealth  save  mer- 
chandise that  "moth  or  dust  might  corrupt  or  thieves  break 
in  and  steal." 

This  stirred  up  the  Hunker  leaders  and  notification  was 
sent  to  me  that  I  must  not  publish  such  principles  for  the  time 
to  come.  They  were  not  "Democratic"  they  said,  "because 
they  were  not  adopted  by  the  Party.  I  suggested  that 
they  were  essentially  Democratic,  and  that  the  Party 
should  adopt  them  or  change  its  present  name.  At  any  rate 
they  would  get  no  "monopolizing"  Democracy  from  me. 
80  they  took  away  the  Party  advertising  (Sheriff's  and 
other)  and  gave  it  to  the  Whig  Star,  there  being  only  the 
two  papers  in  the  county.  They  also  refused  to  pay  me  for 
what  advertising  I  had  done  for  them.  And  when  I  sued 
them  they  declared  they  would  appeal  it  up,  up  to  the  highest 
court.  I  was  unable  to  follow  in  such  a  flight,  so  I  had  to 
let  it  go. 

This  discouraged  my  partner.  He  had  two  young  men 
working  on  the  paper  worth  to  him  in  his  book  office  twenty 
dollars  a  week.  He  therefore  proposed  to  pay  me  half  that 
sum  weekly  for  the  unexpired  six  months  of  the  partnership 
if  I  would  consent  to  release  him.  I  was  surprised  at  the 
generosity  of  this  offer  and  he  was  not  less  so  when  I  re- 
plied that  I  would  "take  110  money  that  I  hud  not  earned," 
but  would  do  what  he  required  all  the  samo.  He  volun- 
teered to  leave  me  the  use  of  his  printing  materials  for  a  few 
weeks  to  ascertain  whether  the  advanced  wing  of  the  party 
would  furnish  me  new  materials.  They  did  subscribe  $300 
• — of  which  Henry  Meiggs,  since  famous  in  South  American 
railroad  enterprise  and  General  Crooke  wrho  has  recently 
departed,  subscribed  one  half.  The  General  sustained  the 
paper  for  the  next  six  months  by  sending  in  his  servant  and 


34  THE  ODE  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY; 

wagon  twice  a  week  with  the  choice  products  of  his  farm. 

I  bought  the  press  from  Samuel  Adams  who  was  murdered 
by  Colt,  and  I  met  at  his  ("Adams")  office  that  marine  mur- 
derer (as  we  shall  see)  Slidell  Mackenzie — where  he  was  actu- 
ally having  printed  religious  tracts  of  his  own  composition! 

But  the  best  of  the  "Hunkers,"  Judge  Lott,  got -elected  to 
the  "Assembly,"  and  vigorously  advocated  the  principle  of 
Universal  suffrage  in  a  village  charter  (Chittenango)  where 
it  was  sought  to  restrict  the  voting  to  property-holders.  I 
heartily  approved  his  action  in  The  Democrat.  Now,  the 
General  and  the  Judge  held  different  places  in  the  same 
Party.  The  General  marching  vigorously  in  the  front  and 
the  Judge  cautiously  bringing  up  the  rear.  Venality  had 
already  shown  itself,  and  as  much  in  the  press  as  elsewhere. 
Little  wras  known  of  me.  *  Might  I  not  be  tampering  with 
Judge  Lott?"  Meeting  the  General  he  said  to  me:  I  "see 
you  have  been  praising  Judge  Lott."  Yes,  I  was  glad  to 
find  him  deserving  praise. 

"Don't  you  know  he  is  opposed  to  Progress,  and  that  he 
and  his  friends  did  all  they  could  to  injure  your  paper?" 

"Yes,  but  if  my  worst  enemy  does  public  good  I  will  give 
him  credit  for  it,  as  I  would  denounce  my  best  friend  if  he 
did  public  evil." 

"That's  your  choice.  Mine  is,  if  a  man  gives  me  one  kick 
I'll  give  him  three  kicks  in  return." 

And  so  that  friend,  my  first  and  my  last  in  America,  turned 
away  from  me  in,  I  suppose,  silent  contempt.  He  had  seen 
the  paper  that  he  above  all  men  had  cherished  into  existence 
turned  to  the  exaltation  of  his  political  opponent,  and  he 
uttered  no  word  of  reproach.  But  he  interchanged  no 
thought  or  word  with  me  for  weary  months,  and  I  supposed 
he  never  would  again. 

In  1842  the  Whigs  of  England  got  out  of  power,  and  after 
a  sordid  silence  of  seven  years,  O'Connell  raised  the  cry  of 
"Eepeal." 

A  Repeal  Association  was  got  up  in  Williamsburgh.  I 
refused  to  join  it — denounced  O'Connell  as  a  sycophant  of 
the  British  crown,  and  a  deluder  of  the  Irish  people — who 
wanted  merely  to  transfer  the  tyranny  from  London  to  Dub- 
lin. This  was  the  first  causo  of  difference  between  my  coun- 


OE,    THE   SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALEY   IN   MODEBN    DATS.  35 

tryinen  and  myself  —  though  I  offered  to  aid  an  invading 
force,  and  contribute  to  its  outfit. 

At  the  same  time  they  resolved  to  form  an  "Adopted  Cit- 
izens Democratic  Association,"  from  which  all  native  Demo- 
crats must  be  excluded.  I  am  invited  to  address  them,  and 
I  say:  "This  is  an  ill-advised,  ungrateful  and  even  absurd 
proceeding.  What!  proscribe  men  in  their  own  country. 
The  very  men  who  opened  their  hearts  and  their  doors  to 
you!"  But  they  carried  out  their  purpose,  and  put  nine 
adopted  citizens  forward  as  candidates  for  the  Town  election 
just  approaching. 

Mr.  Minturn,  President  of  the  village  came  into  the  meeting 
and  said  to  me,  "  There  is  to  be  opposition  to  our  Report  on 
the  school  matter  to-morrow  night.  Come  up  and  help  us." 
"Is  it  true,"  I  asked,  "that  you  propose  to  lease  that  under- 
ground cellar  instead  of  building  new  school  houses?'* 
"What  could  we  do?"  he  replied;  "money  is  so  stringent  that 
we  dare  not  lay  a  tax."  "Well,"  I  rejoined  "I  cannot  con- 
sent to  put  the  children  in  that  damp  cellar  for  a  lease  of 
four  years,  and  I  must  oppose  you.  Just  then  a  buzz  ran 
through  the  meeting,  "Be  up  to-morrow  night  and  oppose 

the  d d  *  *  *  *  " — a  ruse  of  the  political  leaders,  for 

there  was  no  religious  issue  at  all  in  the  matter.  Next  night 
brought  a  meeting  in  which  there  was  more  kicks  and 
pushes  than  arguments.  After  a  struggle  of  two  or  three 
hours  the  lease  of  the  cellar  was  rejected,  and  a  resolution 
carried  for  new  primary  school  houses.  In  those  days  every 
local  expenditure  had  to  go  through  the  ordeal  of  a  public 
meeting. 

Against  my  most  earnest  protest,  the  Irish  politicians  put 
nine  adopted  citizens — the  whole  ticket — up  for  Town  offices 
at  the  approaching  election.  I  ridiculed  the  proceeding  in  the 
Democrat,  and  they  only  polled  one-third  of  the  party  vote — 
some  130  out  of  400.  Judge  Soper,  who  was  comparatively, 
even  in  politics,  an  honorable  man,  said  to  me:  "The 
Whigs  are  now  supreme.  You  should  keep  quiet,  and  the 
popularity  you  have  gained  at  the  school  meeting  will  insure 
you  a  share  of  the  Village  printing,  and  that  will  preserve  your 
paper.  There  was  just  one  week  between  the  Town  and  Vil- 
lage elections — the  former  pertains  to  county,  the  latter  to 
village  affairs.  "I  want  to  do  it,"  I  replied.  "I  will  print  an 


36  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

Extra,  calling  'all  hands  to  the  rescue!'  Help  with  all  your 
influence,  and  we'll  re-conquer  next  week."  He  did.  The 
Extra  went  out,  a  meeting  called,  excitement  stirred  up,  and 
we  carried  the  Village  election — the  body  of  the  adopted 
citizens  rallying  to  the  standard.  Their  leaders  only  had 
caused  the  late  dissension  and  defeat. 

And  they  continued  their  work.  There  existed  thus  early 
a  party  fued  in  New  York  on  the  question  of  sectarian  school 
money.  They  had  introduced  it  here,  and  lost  us  a  Senator 
by  it.  They  had  endorsed  John  A.  Cross,  the  Whig  candi- 
date for  Assembly,  because  he  presided  at  a  Repeal  meeting, 
and  gave  $5  to  the  fund.  They  had  electioneered  a  "  black 
ticket, "  from  which  every  name  was  scratched  off  excepting 
Wm.  Lake,  one  of  themselves.  General  Crooke  was  at  the 
time  the  most  wakeful  and  watchful  public  man  in  the 
County.  He  saw  all  that  was  going  on,  and  he  came  and  said 
to  me:  "I  did  not  understand  you  when  we  last  met;  I  do 
now,  and  henceforth  count  upon  me  as  a  friend."  That  sin- 
gle assurance — that  coming  back  of  a  friend  whom  I  thought 
forever  lost — outweighed  all  the  difficulties  that  beset  me. 

There  was  certainly  a  great  deal  of  fight  in  me  in  those 
days.  I  believed  the  Democratic  party  to  be  what  it  pro- 
fessed to  be,  aud  as  I  would  defend  liberty  itself,  I  would  de- 
fend it.  I  resented  in  my  paper  all  this  disloyalty  to  the 
party.  Bat  the  "bolters"  could  still  command  the  "Nom- 
inations" by  rallying  their  followers.  And  the  native  Dem- 
ocrats were  afraid  to  lose  the  nominations  which  was  to  lose 
all  hope  of  place.  So  they  sent  to  me  an  ultimatum  that  I 
must  say  nothing  of  the  rebellion  or  the  whole  force  of  the 
party  would  be  leveled  against  nie.  I  refused,  and  it  was 
done.  A  public  meeting  was  called  to  expel  me.  The  at- 
tendance was  large  and  the  excitement  high.  It  was  a  sin- 
gular meeting.  One  charge  against  me  was  that  I  was  seen 
speaking  to  such  and  such  gentlemen,  who  were  Whigs. 
Another,  that  I  had  spoken  disrespectfully  of  the  Navy. 
Another,  that  I  wanted  to  divide  out  the  public  lands  among 
Individuals,  instead  of  selling  them  as  a  resource  of  the  gov- 
ernment's expenditures,  and  finally  that  I  was  fierce  in  de- 
nouncing those  who  ventured  to  differ  with  me.  In  reply  I 
did  not  admit  it  was  a  crime  to  be  on  speakng  terms  with 
any  fellow-citizens;  maintained  that  the  Navy  was  simply 
infamous.  Henshaw,  of  Boston,  the  Secretary,  retaining  his 


OK,    THE   SPIKIT   OP    CHIVALBY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  37 

own  four  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  reducing  the  laborers 
in  the  navy  yards  to  a  dollar  a  day.  As  for  the  land  charge 
it  was  disposed  of,  when  offered,  by  one  general  shout  in  my 
favor.  And  I  was  proud,  I  said,  of  all  the  fierceness  I  had 
shown  against  the  continuous  underhanded  and  ruinous 
plottings,  all  of  which  I  recounted  from  first  to  last.  A  vote 
was  called,  and  strange  it  was  to  see  all  iny  countrymen 
whom  I  had  attempted  so  much  for — not  the  lea  it  in  my 
recent  attempts  to  keep  them  right  in  their  public  action — to 
see  them  all  voting  against  me,  and  all  the  native  Democrats 
for  whom  I  had  done  or  attempted  very  little  voting  in  my 
favor,  although  I  had  refused  their  ultimatum.  So  close  was 
the  vote  that  the  Chairman,  Judge  Soper,  could  not  decide 
it,  and  called  a  division  of  the  house.  The  crowd  was  so 
equal  on  both  sides  that  two  or  three  active  bolters  took 
hold  of  Peter  Y.  Eemsen  and  Denies  Strong,  pulling  them 
to  their  side  by  main  force.  And  thus  fortified  declared 
themselves  the  victors.* 

This  producing  no  effect,  another  plan  was  resorted  to. 
Edward  Neville  was  our  party  treasurer.  A  clever,  active 
young  man,  but  who,  like  hundreds  of  thousands,  was 
vitiated  and  ultimately  ruined  by  politics.  He  instituted  a 
libel  suit  against  me  for  asking  in  my  paper  what  had  been 
done  with  money  paid  into  the  treasury  for  printing  pur- 
poses. I  had  done  the  printing,  and  instead  of  my  inquiry 
bringing  me  any  money  it  brought  a  Sheriff's  officer  around 
with  a  writ  to  convey  me  to  prison — bail  fixed  at  $4,000.  A 
comparative  stranger,  I  could  not  procure  such  exorbitant 
bail,  and  so  I  was  escorted  into  the  County  Jail — there  prob- 
ably to  remain  till  a  trial  would  or  would  not  release  me. 
Money-resources  I  had  none,  and  now  my  paper,  the  sole 
dependence  of  my  family,  must  go  down.  Eeflection  was  not 
a  pleasant  companion,  as  I  half  undressed  to  throw  myself 
on  the  prison  pallet. 

It  is  midnight.  A  thundering  at  the  prison  gate  is  heard 
• — a  creaking  of  the  hinges — a  heavy  tramping  along  the  cor- 
ridor. Stop  at  my  cell  door.  It  opens,  and  five  or  six  gentle- 

*  I  am  well  aware  that  these  are  very  small  matters,  but  I  present  them 
because  they  illustrate  a  very  great  matter.  A  mixture  of  religion  and 
politics.  A  principle — an  element  that  Republics  will  require  to  very  strictlj 
guard  against. 


38  THE   ODD   BOOK    Oi1    THE    NINETEENTH   CENTtfRYj 

men  enter,  with  one  of  whom  I  had  never  exchanged  a  word, 
though  I  knew  them  all  personally.  They  were  all  Whigs — 
all  my  political  opponents.  They  had  been  at  a  Fireman's 
Meeting — heard  what  had  been  done — took  carriage — drove 
to  the  Sheriff's  house — roused  him  up — entered  bail,  and,  to 
enable  me  to  return  home  with  them,  brought  the  Sheriff 
along  to  insure  my  liberation.  Though  volunteer  Firemen, 
they  were  among  the  most  opulent  men  in  the  village.  I 
have  the  names  only  of  Barnet  Boerum,  John  McBrair, 
Leonard  T.  Coles,  Henry  Ackerly,  and  I  think  Daniel  Woods 
and  one  other.  In  our  local  politics  perhaps  not  one  of  those 
gentlrinen  had  escaped  a  scratch  of  my  pen,  yet  here  they 
surrounded  me,  unasked  and  unexpected,  prompted  only  by 
that  natural  love  of  justice  and  abhorrence  of  wrong  which 
lies  deep  in  the  human  heart,  and  which  would  show  itself 
in  all  our  affairs,  if  we  lived  in  a  natural  state  of  Society. 

It  was  indeed  a  strange  sight.  To  see  those  men  for  whom 
I  had  done  nothing — attempted  nothing — corning  to  rescue 
me  from  the  persecution  of  men  for  whom  I  had  attempted 
everything  possible  to  me — from  the  day  of  the  war  meeting 
at  Thrush  Bank  (see  ante),  to  my  efforts  recently  made  to 
keep  them  within  the  bounds  of  common  sense.  Your  Irish 
politician  is  to  the  full  as  unprincipled  as  politician  can  be, 
He  is  as  able,  too,  as  the  best  of  them — and  he  is  dangerous 
just  in  proportion  to  his  ability.  It  was  half  a  dozen  sense- 
less, greedy  politicians  raised  this  persecution  against  me. 
And  now,  I  repeat  it,  the  strange  sight  is  seen  of  Amer- 
icans, virtually  strangers  to  me,  coming  at  dead  of  night  to 
rescue  me  out  of  their  hands!  If  this  was  not  "CHIVALRY 
IN  MODERN  DAYS,"  I  don't  know  where  to  go  to  look  for  it. 
The  gentleman  with  whose  character  this  section  opens  was 
u  member  of  this  same  Fire  Company.  What  a  prompt, 
generous,  chivalrous  spirit  had  governed  the  Republic,  had 
not  the  worst  men  in  the  country  everywhere  rushed  in  and 
taken  control  of  it — effectually  barring  the  best  men  out.* 

General  Crooke,  residing  at  a  distance,  did  not  hear  of  the 

*  Monarchists  and  Oligarchs,  and  vicious  men  all  over  Europe,  clutch  at 
the  thought  that  all  honor  of  the  Bepublic  lies  buried  in  the  sea  of  selfish- 
ness, and  fraud,  and  snobbery  that  covers  the  whole  land.  They  little  dream 
that,  apart  and  unknown,  keeping  itself  away  from  the  contamination,  there 
exists  a  manhood  that  may  yet  drivo  out  the  politicians,  and  make  the  Re- 
public worthy  of  its  founders — a  light  and  a  hope  to  the  prostrate  nations. 


OK,  THE   ..iPIiilT    OF   OHIVALUY    IX    MODERN    DAYS.  39 

affair  till  the  next  day.  Then  I  found  him  at  my  side  with 
his  characteristic  promptitude.  "Take  care  of  your  busi- 
ness," said  he,  "I'll  take  care  of  your  defense."  But  the 
"  defense  "  was  not  so  easily  taken  care  of  as  he  supposed,  as 
we  shall  see. 

He  entered  into  an  agreement  with  Egan,  Neville's  counsel,  that 
no  step  should  be  taken  without  mutual  notice.  I  expressed  a  doubt 
of  their  good  faith,  and  he  rebuked  me  for  thinking  such  evil  of 
them.  But  a  month  after  he  hailed  me  as  I  was  crossing  New  York 
City  Park.  "This  is  fortunate,"  said  he.  "We  have  no  time  to 
spare,"  and  he  hurried  me  into  the  Court  House.  Those  men  had 
broken  parole !  Secretly  procured  a  Sheriff's  Jury,  and  representing 
that  I  had  no  defense  to  make,  got  a  verdict  against  me  for  $2,000. 
The  General  had  just  time  to  enter  tho  necessary  appeal.  And 
finally,  with  much  labor  to  himself,  he  baffled  their  purpose.  If  he 
had  not  I  had  already  built  a  house  and  they  would  have  taken  it 
from  me  for  their  Judgment  of  $2,000. 

The  Coon  Skin  Log  Cabin  Campaign,  a  singular  proof  of  public 
gullibility,  had  swept  Harrison  into  the  chair,  and  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  Whigs  into  Congress.  In  the  canvass  they  had  disowned 
a  National  Bank  policy,  and  yet  an  Extra  Session  was  called  and  a 
National  Bank,  virtually  $210,000,000  hurried  through  Congress  by 
Henry  Clay — a  very  able,  and  I  believe,  a  very  dangerous  man. 
But  President  Harrison  died  one  month  after  his  Inauguration,  and 
John  Tyler,  now  President,  vetoed  the  bill.  Mr.  Tyler  had  been  a 
life-long -anti-Bank  man.  To  emphasize  their  denial  of  a  Bank  pol- 
icy (they  had  been  three  times  defeated  on  that  issue)  the  Whigs  put 
Tyler  on  for  the  Vice-Presidency.  When  he  vetoed  their  Bank  they 
were  in  great  wrath  against  him.  And  instead  of  sustaining  him  the 
Democratic  leaders  were  scarcely  less  marked  in  their  hostility  than 
were  the  Whigs  themselves.  A  striking  instance  of  politicians'  in- 
gratitude. 

I  had  been  writing  articles  on  the  subject  of  "Preserving  the  Public^ 
Lands."  Geo.  H.  Evans  and  John  Windt  came  to  my  little  printing 
office,  and  there  w£  projected  The  National  Reform  Party  to  pre- 
serve the  Public  Lands-  for  actual  settlers,  called  a  public  meeting, 
which  issued  a  Report,  of  which  I  give  extracts.  After  showing  the 
progress  that  Machinery  had  made  even  then,  (1844),  the  Report  pro- 
ceeds : 

"This  triumph  of  MACHINE  LABOK,  and  ultimate  prostration  of  HUMAN 
LABOR— cannot  be  .averted.  As  well  might  we  attempt  to  alter  any  of  Na- 


40  THE   ODD   BOOK  OF  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTUHY  J 

ture's  fixed  laws,  as  to  attempt  to  arrest  the  ouward  march  of  science  and 
machinery." 

"  The  question  then  recurs — How  shall  we  escape  from  an  evil  which  it  is 
impossible  to  avert?  " 

"  Nature  is  not  unjust.  The  POWER  who  called  forth  those  mechanical 
forces  did  not  call  them  forth  for  our  destruction.  OUR  REFUGE  is  UPON 
THE  SOIL,  in  all  its  freshness  and  fertility— OUR  INHERITAGE  is  IN  THE  PUB- 
LIC DOMAIN  in  all  its  boundless  wealth  and  infinite  variety.  This  heritage 
once  secured  to  us,  the  evil  we  complain  of  will  become  our  greatest  good. 
Machinery,  from  the  formidable  rival,  will  sink  into  the  obedient  instrument 
of  our  will." 

In  Europe  God's  Inheritance  to  man  is  usurped  by  the  Aristocracy. 
There  the  disinherited  man  has  nothing  to  fall  back  upon. 

"  If  to  the  Common's  fenceless  limits  strayed, 
He  drives  his  flock,  to  pick  the  scanty  blade. 
Those  fenceless  fields  the  sons  of  wealth  divide, 
And  even  the  bare  worn  Common  is  denied." 

"  But  in  this  Republic,  all  that  the  Greater  designed  for  man's  use  is  ours 
— belongs  not  to  an  Aristocracy,  but  to  the  People.  The  deep  and  intermin- 
able forest;  the  fertile  and  boundless  prairie;  the  rich  and  inexhaustible 
mine — all — all  belong  to  the  People — are  held  by  the  Government,  in  trust 
for  them.  Here,  indeed,  is  the  natural  and  healthful  field  for  man's  labor. 
Let  him  apply  to  his  MOTHER  EARTH,  and  she  will  not  refuse  to  give  him 
employment— neither  will  she  withhold  from  him,  in  due  season,  the  fulness 
of  his  reward." 

"  Your  Committee  does  not  recognize  THE  AUTHORITY  of  Congress  to  shut 
out  from,  those  lands  such  citizens  as  may  not  have  money  to  pay  ransom 
for  them.  Still  less  do  we  admit  THEIR  AUTHORITY  to  sell  the  Public  Do- 
main, to  men  who  require  it  only  as  an  engine  to  lay  our  children  under 
tribute  to  their  children  to  all  succeeding  time.  We  regard  the  public  lands 
as  a  CAPITAL  STOCK,  which  belongs  not  to  us  only,  but  also  to  Posterity.  The 
moment  Congress  or  any  other  power  proceeds  to  ALIENATE  THE  STOCK  to 
speculators,  that  moment  do  they  attempt  a  cruel  and  cowardly  fraud  upon 
posterity,  against  which,  we  here  enter  our  most  solemn  PROTEST.  Go  to 
Europe.  Mark  the  toil,  the  rags,  the  hunger,  and  the  despair  which  is  the 
sole  inheritance  of  its  countless  millions,  while  a  few  thousands  run  into  the 
opposite  extreme  of  luxury,  excess,  and  guilt  unspeakable .'  Look  at  this 
horrible  state  of  things,  and  whilst  you  do  so  remember  that  the  same  fate 
awaits  our  own  Eepublic,  if  we  permit  a  landed  aristocracy  to  grow  up 
among  us. 

"  The  first  great  object,  then,  is  to  ascertain  and  establish  the  right  of  the 
people  to  the  soil ;  to  be  used  by  them  in  their  own  day,  and  transmitted — 

AN  INALIENABLE  HERITAGE — to  their  Posterity. 

"That  once  effected,  let  an  OUTLET  Reformed  by  the  Government  that  will 
carry  off  our  superabundant  labor  to  the  salubrious  and  fertile  West.  In 
those  regions  thousands,  and  tens  of  thousands,  who  are  now  languishing 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY    IN   MODERN   DAYS.  41 

in  hopeless  poverty,  will  find  a  certain  and  a  speedy  independence.  The 
labor  market  will  be  thus  eased  of  the  present  distressing  competition, 
and  those  who  remain,  as  well  as  those  who  emigrate,  will  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  realizing  ^comfortable  living." 

Such  is  a  brief  synopsis  of  the  Keport.  On  this  basis  we  founded 
The  National  Keform  Movement  that  eventually  led  to  the  Great 
Civil  War.  Every  member  of  the  Association  had  to  pay  and  did 
pay  weekly  two  or  three  cents,  or  whatever  he  could  afford.  Made 
platform  of  a  wagon  and  held  two  or  three  meetings  in  the  Streets 
and  Square  Corners  every  week,  besides  our  weekly  indoor  meeting. 

New  York  had  achieved  the  ten  hour  law,  arid  Massachusetts  call- 
ed a  convention  on  the  subject  in  Boston.  Evans,  Mike  Walsh, 
Bovay  and  myself  were  deputed  to  that  Convention.  Our  consti- 
tuents gave  us  money  to  pay  for  the  best  of  everything.  But  we 
thought  it  our  duty  to  "  rough  it,"  as  our  constituents  would  have  to 
do.  Our  doing  so  disclosed  to  us  a  most  villainous  proceeding  on 
the  part  of  the  Corporation  that  owned  the  line.  Not  a  seat,  not  an 
inch  even  of  freight  left  so  that  you  might  sit  on  it  during  the  night. 
The  officers  when  they  found  Mike  Walsh  aboard  offered  him  all 
hospitality.  He  rejected  it — denounced  the  owners,  and  with  our- 
selves so  exposed  them  when  we  returned  to  New  York  that  by  this  or 
some  other  means  an  end  was  put  to  their  inhumanity.  Their  vil- 
lainy was  carried  from  the  water  to  the  land.  The  despised  car  that 
carried  us  from  Providence  to  Boston  was  left  in  utter  darkness, 
while  the  Select  cars  were  bathed  in  a  flood  of  light.  This  was 
Avithin  a  matter  of  two  or  three  seconds  of  cos-ting  me  my  life. 
Coming  out  from  a  five  minutes'  stop  for  refreshments,  in  the  dark- 
ness and  haste  I  grasped  the  iron  guard  in  front  of  the  platform  and 
stepped  out  in  front  instead  of  upon  it.  Luckily  I  had  hold  of  the 
iron  when  I  fell,  and  just  raised  myself  up  as  the  train  moved  on. 
And  those  greedy  and  inhuman  men  did  all  this  in  order  to  force 
people  to  pay  the  high  fares. 

Our  novel  agitation,  and  the  downright  worth  and  simplicity  of 
the  Keform  itself,  found  such  a  response  in  the  public  mind  that 
early  in  1845  the  New  York  Assembly  endorsed  our  principle  by  the 
unusual  vote  of  103  to  5  dissenters.  And  next  or  second  week 
Daniel  Webster,  then  John  Tyler's  Secretary  of  State,  pronounced 
formally  in  its  favor. 

There  had  already  been  one  raid  into  the  Anti-Kent  district  (Cen- 
tral counties  of  New  York),  to  enforce  the  claims  of  Patroon  Van 
Kensselaer.  Troops  were  now  demanded  from  New  York  city. 
Whereupon  the  Reformers  placarded  New  York,  calling  a  public 


42        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUKY; 

meeting  to  memorial  the  Governor  against  this  use  of  the  military 
and  ask  him  to  refer  the  whole  subject  to  the  Legislature  for  peace- 
ful arbitration.  This  set  the  New  York  dailies  all  in  a  blaze,  and 
they  called  upon  the  lieges  to  be  up — attend  the  meeting — and, 
once  for  all,  squelch  the  ' '  Agrarians."  Such  was  the  villainy  of  that 
press  even  at  this  early  day.  We  found  the  sidewalk  crowded,  our 
room  packed  full,  and  the  Adjutant  from  the  Arsenal  in  possession 
of  our  platform  reading  a  string  of  resolutions  that  breathed  fire 
and  sword.  What  followed  is  honorably  characteristic  of  American 
character.  The  crowd  made  way  for  us.  I  was  pushed  forward  by 
John  Windt  as  our  spokesman.  Appealing  to  their  love  of  fair  play 
the  dense  throng  listened  to  me  as  commencing  with  the  command  : 
"Go  forth  and  replenish  the  earth,"  I  swept  through  the  horrors 
that  Land  Monopoly  had  inflicted  on  the  human  Family  in  all  the  ages 
down  to  the  present  day — now,  when  it  was  introducing  distress 
and  dissension  even  into  our  own  Republic.  At  the  close  of  which 
the  meeting  rejected  the  Adjutant's  war  resolutions,  and  carried 
our  peaceful  memorial  by  a  majority  nearly  unanimous.  And  never 
afterward  did  the  military  appear  in  the  Anti-Kent  region. 

RETROSPECTIVE. 

In  the  winter  of  1840  the  farmers  started  the  Heldeberg  Advocate  in 
a  remote  village.  I  saw  their  advertisement  and  wrote  letters  for 
it.  Of  the  only  one  I  have  I  give  a  sample : 

LETTER  III. 

WLLLIAMSBUBGH,  L.  I.,  Feb'y  22,  1842. 

"  For  the  land  is  mine  saith  the  Lord,  for  ye  are  strangers  and  sojourners 
with  me." — Leviticus,  Chap.  XXV. 
To  STEPHEN  YAN  HENSSELAEB  : 

SIR— That  you  are  a  "great"  man  everybody  is  agreed— but  some  little 
difference  of  opinion  may  exist  as  to  the  particular  class  of  great  men  to 
which  you  properly  belong. 

The  first  class  are  those  who  give  their  labors,  their  wisdom,  and  their 
virtues  to  the  establishment  of  happiness  among  the  human  race— of  this 
class  was  George  Washington. 

The  second  class  comprises  all  those  whose  investigating  minds  opened 
out  new  truths  to  human  ken ;  dragged  latent  agencies  into  the  light,  and 
made  them  subservient  to  our  daily  wants  and  purposes.  Such  was  a  New- 
ton and  a  Watts. 

The  third  class  are  those  who,  content  to  forego  the  dignity  of  man's 
nature  are  willing  to  live  by  preying  upon  the  produce  of  others'  toil. 


OE,  THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN   DAYS.  4 

These  form  a  very  numerous  class,  and  they  comprise,  in  their  own 
estimation  at  least,  the  greatest  men  in  the  community.  To  this  genus 
belong  Dukes,  Earls,  aristocrats  and  Highwaymen." 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  do  more  than  thus  indicate  the  tone  of 
those  letters. 

At  the  seventh  letter,  the  printer,  a  "Party  Democrat,"  would 
publish  no  more  of  my  writings.  The  paper  died  and  another  named 
the  Guardian  of  the  Soil  soon  after  followed  it.  I  attended  their  cele- 
bration of  the  4th  of  July,  18-12,  in  Rensselaerville,  twenty  miles  above 
Albany.  Ratified  a  treaty,  they  help  me  to  free  the  Public  Lands, 
to  actual  settlers  only,  I  to  aid  them  in  their  local  war — write — at- 
tend their  conventions,  and  made  the  condition  that  I  should  pay 
my  own  expenses  which  now  I  was  able  to  do.  The  Know-Nothing 
movement,  then  in  full  career  never  reached  me.  Eesolutions  of 
thanks  and  confidence  met  me  at  all  the  conventions.  One  of  which, 
I  preserved  on  account  of  its  peculiar  terseness  and  style : 

"  Resolved— That  the  Anti-Renters  of  Rensselaerville,  in  public  meeting 
assembled,  do  present  to  our  brethren  throughout  the  county  of  Albany, 
THOMAS  A.  DEVYB  as  a  proper  and  deserving  man  to  receive  their  suffrages 
and  ours  for  Member  of  Congress  at  the  approaching  Fall  Election, 
any  man  labored  in  our  cause  ?  He  has  labored  more.  Has  any  man  sacri- 
ficed ?  He  has  sacrificed  more.  Has  any  man  produced  results  ?  He  has 
produced  greater.  For  this,  therefore,  and  the  consideration  of  his  eminent 
abilities  to  discharge  the  the  duties  of  the  station,  we  make  this  present- 
ment as  our  first  choice.  " 

This  was  in  the  winter  of  '45.  In  the  following  summer,  the 
Whig  and  Hunker  politicians  wormed  themselves  into  the  move- 
ment. In  every  town  of  those  central  counties,  as  indeed  in  every 
town  of  the  State  and  nation,  the  most  live  men  were  active  politi- 
cians. As  soon  as  the  Anti-Bent  movement  could  elect  legislators 
and  decide  governors,  all  those  township  politicians  under  orders 
from  their  Headquarters  set  themselves  to  take  control  of  the  move- 
ment. How  they  tried  to  keep  me  out  of  the  editorship  of  the 
Albany  Freeholder — and  failing,  how  they  tried  to  corrupt  me  to 
seize  on  its  ownership,  how  they  forcibly  locked  the  farmers  out  of 
their  property.  How  I  started  the  Anti-Renter  and  sank  in  it  my 
last  resources  in  trying  to  make  head  against  the  double  combina- 
tion of  Whigs  and  Hunkers.  How  I  attended  most  or  all  their  con- 
ventions and  public  meetings  I  will  not  describe  here — often  left 
by  a  farmer's  wagon,  miles  from  my  hotel,  in  the  dead  of  night.  It 
was  with  the  politicians  of  the  Central  Counties  as  it  was  with  the 
politicians  of  Williamsburgh.  But  it  went  in  the  latter  case  even  to 


44       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  j 

ordering  their  band  to  strike  up,  at  the  last  great  meeting  I  attended, 
to  drown  my  voice.  That  voice  so  broke  down  that  for  days  after 
I  could  not  speak  louder  than  a  whisper.  I  shall  only  preserve  two 
or  three  records  of  all  that  lies  written  before  me.  And  those  be- 
cause they  are  not  surcharged  with  confusion  and  gloom. 

Oct.  7,  '42. 

I  write  from  the  house  of  a  Revolutionary  Soldier — Francis  Garvey,  now 
in  his  82d  year.  He  entered  the  team  service  of  the  Republic  in  his  16th 
year,  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  and  served  three  years  afterward  in  the 
Regular  Army.  He  describes  General  Washington  as  a  large,  portly  man 
not  very  handsome,  but  of  commanding  appearance.  He  speaks  of  a  Review 
at  which  '  Steuben  put  them  through  the  manual  exercise,  by  word  of  com- 
mand ;  by  roll  of  the  drum ;  by  flourish  of  his  (Steuben's)  sword.  This  was 
at  Stony  Point — 4,000  men  present,  and  Generals  "Washington,  Steuben,  Put- 
nam, and  McDougal  were  highly  satisfied  with  their  state  of  discipline.' " 

"  The  old  man's  mental  faculties  are,  with  trifling  abatement,  remarkably 
sound  and  vigorous.  He  imitated  to  great  perfection  the  broken  English  of 
Steuben,  as  he  shouted  to  the  men  in  line,  'Attention!'  'Holt  up  your 
heats !'  (heads.)  '  Look  like  the  Tevil — look  like  me  1' " 

"  General  McDougal  he  describes  as  a  Scotchman,  who  was  promoted  for 
his  natural  talents  and  gallantry,  although  as  the  old  man  confidently  avers, 
he  could  not  write  his  own  name,  but  had  a  man  attending  on  him  in  the 
capacity  of  secretary.  McDougal,  he  says,  carried  a  quantity  of  snuff  loose 
in  his  waistcoat  pocket,  into  which  he  would  dip  a  quill  for  the  purpose  of 
use.  Washington  he  describes  as  mounted  on  a  roan  horse,  and  attended 
by  a  small  mulatto  servant." 

"  He  gives  some  anecdotes  of  him  that  were  current  at  the  time  of  the 
war. 

On  one  occasion  a  ball  struck  the  pummel  of  his  saddle  and  tore  it  up,  leav- 
ing an  unsightly  breach  which  the  general  smoothed  down  with  his  hand, 
observing,  '  the  balls  are  a  little  careless  this  morning.' " 

"  General  Greene  jested  with  him  on  what  the  British  Government  would 
do  if  they  got  hold  of  the  Commander-in-chief.  To  which  Washington  re- 
plied, putting  his  hand  to  his  cravat,  i4  this  neck  was  never  made  for  a 
halter.' " 

"  He  remembers  the  capture  of  Andre  well,  and  states  that  David  Williams 
would  have  been  seduced  by  the  offered  bribes  only  for  the  sterner  virtue 
of  Paulding  and  Van  Wart.  He  affirms,  too,  that  General  Washington 
awarded  to  Williams  the  same  reward  that  was  decreed  to  the  other  two, 
but  accompanied  it  with  the  remark  that  he  did  not  deserve  it." 

"  Mrs.  Garvey  is  now  in  her  82d  year.  Her  brother  was  called  upon  to 
serve  in  the  '  Continentals.'  He  furnished  a  substitute  for  a  service  of 
three  years.  For  this  he  paid  a  bounty  of  '  thirty  silver  dollars,  ten  bushels 
of  wheat,  and  a  barrel  of  pork.'  This,  it  appears,  was  appropriated  to  the 
use  of  his  family,  the  substitute  himself  receiving  the  rations  of  a  soldier." 

"  Their  covered  wagons  reached  along  the  road  for  half  a  mile— ranged  on 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  45 

one  side,  while  their  horses  were  tied  to  the  wagons  and  fences,  and  pro- 
vided from  her  '  father's  meadow,' " 

"  The  old  man  is  very  indignant  as  he  well  may  be,  at  the  treatment  he 
has  received  from  the  Van  Rensselaers.  He  says  that  neither  Land  Monoply 
nor  Bank  Monopoly  was  ever  contemplated  by  the  heroes  of  the  Revolu- 
tion." 

Saw  the  tomb  of  David  Williams  in  Livingstonville.  Met  a 
French  peddler  who  had  served  in  Louis  Napoleon's  army  at  Borne, 
against  Garribaldi.  The  second  draft  of  30,000  men,  he  said,  was 
divided  into  three  brigades,  each  to  take  eight  hours  work,  day  and 
night,  in  the  trenches.  Those  were  cut  zig-zag  to  prevent  raking 
from  the  city.  Each  column  when  on  du!;y  had  a  quantity  of  wine 
in  their  haversack  for  copious  refreshment,  and  so  they  slowly  but 
surely  approached,  and  I  think  the  aid  undermined  the  walls. 

At  a  sale  of  cattle  in  Delaware  County  for  a  distress  of  rent,  a 
party  of  young  men  armed  and  disguised  as  Indians  assembled. 
Deputy  Sheriff  Steele  fired  upon  them.  The  fire  was  returned  and 
both  he  and  his  horse  fell  dead.  O'Connor,  an  Irishman,  and 
Vansteenberg,  an  American,  were  tried  for  murder.  The  previous 
legislature  had  passed  a  law  making  it  felony  to  disguise.  This 
assumed  felony  made  the  shooting  of  Steele  murder  instead  of  man- 
slaughter. But  the  law  was  pronounced  void  as  the  legisla- 
ture had  no  authority  to  interfere  with  the  dress  of  the  people. 
Judge  Parker  charged  the  jury  that  their  most  important  duty 
would  be  to  fix  the  grade  of  the  crime,  and  he  designated  Mitchel 
Sanford  to  defend  the  prisoners.  Sani'ord  admitted  that  the  crime 
was  murder,  and  this  Judge  Parker  seized  upon,  and  in  summing 
up  informed  the  jury  that  it  was  admitted  that  the  killing 
of  Steele  was  murder,  and  that  all  they  had  to  determine  was 
whether  the  prisoners  were  responsible— reminding  them  that 
when  a  body  of  men  were  assembled  to  do  an  unlawful  act 
the  action  of  one  was  the  action  of  all.  The  whole  State 
was  in  a  condition  of  excitement  not  to  be  described.  A  ver- 
dict of  guilty  was  rendered  and  the  young  men  sentenced  to  be 
hanged.  I  criticised  both  Parker  and  Sanford  for  their  conduct  on 
the  trial,  and  also  published  two  successive  letters  to  Governor 
Wright  recounting  the  case  of  Sally  Bodine,  in  Staten  Island,  and 
Bolam,  in  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  to  show  the  wrong  done  to  those 
young  men  by  forcing  on  their  trials  at  a  time  of  great  public  ex- 
citement. The  Governor  sent  for  me  to  his  residence  and  after  a 
long  interview  I  left  with  the  joyful  hope  that  he  would  commute 


46        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

the  sentences.    He  did.    And  in  a  year  both  were  pardoned  out  by 
Mr.  Wright's  successor  in  office. 

It  is  1846  and  the  morning  of  the  Fourth  of  July.  The  politicians 
have  entire  control,  and  I  am  not  invited  to  speak  at  the  Celebration 
— twelve  miles  from  Albany.  Hard  driven  to  get  the  paper  out.  I 
am  at  work  in  the  office  when  two  or  three  smart  young  fellows 
enter.  "  Are  you  going  to  the  celebration?"  "Yes  I'll  start  by  nine 
o'clock!"  "  Don't  trouble  about  a  conveyance.  We  have  carriages 
and  will  call  for  you  if  you  say  so."  I  agreed  and  worked  on  and 
waited  in  vain  for  them  till  I  realized  that  they  came  only  to  de- 
ceive and  keep  me  away  from  the  meeting.  But  I  started  on  foot 
and  (regaling  myself  with  wild  strawberries  along  the  near  cuts,  for 
by  this  time  I  knew  the  country  well)  reached  the  ground  in  good 
time.  Though  uninvited  by  the  leaders,  I  was  called  on  by  the  meet- 
ing, and  I  preserve  the  following  speech  as  it  shows  the  progress 
made  by  the  movement  up  to  that  time. 

ME.  PRESIDENT,  LA.DIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :— From  the  centre  to  the  shores 
of  thja  vast  Kepublic  twenty  millions  of  freemen  are  met  this  day  to  cele- 
bratejthe  most  sublime  event  that  ever  was  written  on  the  page  of  history?"] 

Anoyet,  from  the  hills  of  Maine  to  the  prairies  of  Texas — from  the  Atlafl^ 
tic's  wave  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific — there  is  not  to-day  assembled  a  meet- 
ing of  such  importance  to  the  Kepublic,  and  to  the  cause  of  freedom  over  the 
whole  earth,  as  that  which  is  here  assembled  among  these  mountain  hills. 
How  ?  Let  us  examine : 

When  man  was  created,  and  went  forth  to  people  the  earth  he  soon  turned 
aside  after  evil.  The  thoughts  of  his  heart  were,  in  the  emphatic  language 
of  the  Scripture,  "  evil,  and  only  evil,  and  that  continually."  So  much  so 
that  the  Almighty  sent  a  deluge  upon  the  earth,  that  destroyed  the  race,  saving 
only  Noah  and  his  family. 

These  went  forth  from  the  Ark,  and  again  peopled  the  face  of  the  land, 
and  branched  off  into  various  nations  and  tongues  and  kindreds,  and  selfish- 
ness and  vice  again  spread  over  the  world. 

Why  trace  the  long  and  painful  history  that  succeeded — the  luxury  and  the 
crimes  of  the  few — the  degradation,  misery,  and  bondage  of  the  many  ? 
Kings  and  lords  and  chiefs,  and  mail-clad  robbers  parcelled  out  God's  earth 
among  them.  But,  like  the  LOST  ONE  of  old,  in  assuming  the  power  of  Gods, 
they  fell  and  became  devils. 

Devils  that  tortured  and  starved  and  slew  their  fellow  men  with  a  fierceness 
and  a  ferocity  which  would  bo  wholly  incredible  were  not  the  facts  guaran- 
teed by  what  is  passing  at  the  present  moment  throughout  the  old  world. 
Wickedness  abounded  enough  to  move  the  Creator  to  send  another  deluge 
on  the  earth,  had  not  His  promise  been  given — His  "  bow  hung  in  the  clouds" 
as  a  pledge  that  he  would  not,  again,  destroy  the  world  by  a  flood. 

The  time,  too,  had,  in  the  language  of  the  new  dispensation,  come,  "  not 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  47 

to  destroy  but  to  fulfil."  So  the  All-wise  upheaved  from  the  silent  depths  a 
new,  a  vast,  an  unpolluted  continent.  The  soil  of  Europe  and  of  the  East, 
had  been  too  deeply  polluted  with  crime  and  suffering.  And  a  new,  a  stain- 
less, and  untrodden  world  was  called  into  existence.  It  was,  as  I  iirmly 
believe,  Mr.  President  and  fellow-citizens,  set  apart  for  the  earthly  redemp- 
tion of  the  human  family. 

And  when  great  works  are  to  be  accomplished  it  is  interesting  to  observe 

how  they  are  brought  about.    Does  the  Euler  of  the  World  go  to  the  palaces 

,^of  the  great  or  the  halls  of  learning  to  select  the  instrument  of  His  Will  ?   No. 

The  Republican  fishermen  of  Gallilee  wore  chosen  to  the  work  of  our  spirit- 

ual  Redemption,  and,  the  Republican  fisherman  of  Genoa  was  chosen  to 

i    open  the  path  to  this  last  refuge  and  resting  place  of  Liberty  on  the  earth. 

No  sooner  was  the  path  made  across  the  water,  than  the  men  of  free  spirit 
— those  who  felt  most  impatient  of  insult  and  of.  wrong — embarked  upon 
those  waters  and  crossed  the  desert  billows  to  the  promised  land. 

Then  gleaned  the  axe,  and  followed  the  ploughshare,  and  curled  aloft  the 
cottage  smoke.  Not  by  force  and  rapine  and  bloody  fields  was  their  pro- 
gress marked.  The  men  who  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock  were  pick  men — 
the  adventurous,  the  daring,  and  the  free  came  forth.  Thus  was  it  so  order- 
ed that  the  very  breed  of  men,  destined  to  people  this  new  continent,  was 
the  best  that  the  old  races  could  afford. 

In  those  deep  solitudes,  and  in  the  kindly,  but  at  the  same  time  vigorous, 
strife  with  Nature,  the  germ  of  freedom  expanded,  and  grew  and  struck 
deep  and  universal  root  among  the  rising  people. 

France  had  grasped  a  neighboring  country,  and  the  strife  and  bloodshed 
of  despots  was  transferred  from  Europe  to  the  New  World.  This,  though 
seemingly  a  great  calamity,  was  destined  in  the  All-wise  plan  to  powerfully 
aid  in  working  out  our  independence.  The  defence  of  Crown  Point,  the 
sanguinary  defeat  of  Braddoek,  at  which  Washington  himself  was  present, 
taught  the  Father  of  his  country,  and  the  other  noble  men  of  the  day,  a  les- 
son in  the  art  of  war,  of  which  the  oppressor  was  doomed  to  reap  the  con- 
sequences. 

At  the  close  of  this  Border  War  the  generous  spirit  of  the  settlers  scorned 
to  tax  the  Mother  country  with  the  expense.  They  not  only  furnished 
forces  and  supplies  during  the  contest,  but  they  undertook  to  pay  off  the 
responsibilities  of  the  War. 

How  did  the  Government,  which  means  the  Aristocracy,  of  England  re- 
ward them?  Why,  by  attempting  to  introduce  that  system  of  "  Taxation 
without  Representation"  which  has  so  long  been  doing  its  work  in  the 
British  Isles.  They  concluded  that  if  the  Colonists  had  resources  sufficient 
to  maintain  an  arduous  and  expensive  war,  they  surely  must  be  worth  a 
plucking,  and  so  they  set  about  taxing  the  Colonies  against  their  consent. 

Lordly  mouths  had  been  multiplying,  and  in  those  late  days  one  lordly 
mouth  had  learned  to  swallow  more  than  would  feed  a  score  of  them  a  cen- 
tury earlier.  Out  came  the  stamped  parchment,  and  the  Taxed  Tea — one 


48  THE   ODD   BOOK  OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY; 

of  them  was  met  by  the  Sous  of  Liberty  in  New  York,  and  the  other  was  met 
by  the  Boston  Indians, 

It  would  be  superfluous,  in  me,  to  trace  the  progress  of  that  glorious 
struggle  to  its  glorious  termination.  Let  us  now  draw  from  it  a  lesson,  and 
an  example,  which  ought  to  bind  together  the  men  of  the  East  and  the  West 
— of  the  city  and  the  country — the  glorious  movement  for  Land  Reform 
which  is  now  going  abroad  over  the  earth. 

If  the  Boston  men  had  struggled  for  themselves  only — if  their  whole  en- 
ergies had  been  confined  to  a  repeal  of  the  Boston  Harbor  Bill  —  if  they  had 
been  desirous  of  making  their  own  peace  regardless  of  the  welfare  of  the 
country,  who  would  have  helped  then\?  And  what  could  they  have  effected? 
Nothing.  The  power  of  England  could  have  crushed  that  of  Massachusetts 
in  a  day.  But  when  the  voice  of  patriotism  went  forth — when  it  echoed 
over  the  middle  States  and  into  the  Carolinas — when  the  struggle  ceased  to 
be  a  local  orie^  and  became  national — the  fate  of  despotism  was  decided. 

Then  look  at  the  men  who  assisted  at  the  National  Baptism,  and  attended 
at  our  presentation  among  the  nations  of  the  Earth.  Where  in  history  shall 
we  parallel  the  fame  of  a  Washington,  a  Franklin,  a  Jefferson,  a  Samuel 
Adams,  and  the  other  groat  and  good  men  of  the  He  volution?  The  work  to 
be  accomplished  was  great,  and  the  chosen  men  were  worthy  of  its  accom- 
plishment. 

See,  too,  the  time  selected  for  the  founding  of  this  great  Nation.  At  a 
period  when  the  lost  arts  were  starting  from  their  grave  of  ages.  At  a  time 
when  Modern  Genius  was  about  to  subject  the  Mechanical  forces,  and  even 
the  very  lightnings  of  Heaven,  to  our  will.  At  the  time  when  the  steam 
Engine  careered  the  Ocean  ship — ploughed  up  the  Prairie  wilderness — en- 
tered the  Factory  and  sat  down  patiently  to  spin  and  weave.  At  the  time 
that  the  Printing  cylinder  could  throw  off  ten  thousand  impressions  of 
man's  thought  in  an  hour,  whilst  the  Railway  scatters  them  almost  over  the 
Republic  in  a  day.  At  such  a  time,  my  friends,  was  this  young  and  mighty 
Republic  called  forth  from  the  nonentity  of  the  past. 

Then  contemplate  the  field  chosen  for  the  great  Experiment.  Look  at  its 
extent  of  surface — its  variety  of  clime— the  diversity  and  profusion  of  its 
productions.  We  are  told  of  the  fertility  of  Europe.  I  speak  the  language 
of  experience  when  I  say  the  British  Islands  in  point  of  natural  fertility  fall 
far  short  of  New  York.  And  here  you  can  gather  into  a  quarter  acre  lot  a 
greater  variety  of  fruits  than  can  be  raised  in  the  "  three  Kingdoms."  Look 
at  the  natural  highways  which  intersperse  and  and  spread  over  the  whole 
interior.  Begin  at  our  own  Hudson — trace  its  connexion,  by  Railway  and 
Canal,  with  the  great  lakes,  mark  these,  extending  to  within  hailing  distance 
of  the  vast  southern  outlets — the  Mississippi  and  its  tributary  streams. 
And,  last  and  greatest,  look  at  the  institutions  that  preside  over  all,  founded 
upon  the  eternal  truth  that  men  are  created  equal  and  that  the  legitimate 
source  of  all  law  and  government  is  the  people  at  large. 

Whoever,  Mr.  President  and  fellow-citizens,  will  contemplate  these  things 
can  hardly  fail  to  perceive,  running  through  all  of  them,  ONE  GKEAT  AND 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF    CHIVALRY   IN    MODfcRN    DAYS.  49 

UNIFORM  DESIGN — the  earthly  redemption  of  the  human  race — first  through- 
out this  continent,  ultimately  throughout  the  world. 

That  DESIGN  would  be  frustrated.  Progress,  Liberty,  IndependenceT 
would  be  impossible  if  Land  Monopoly  were  allowed  to  fasten  itself  upon 
the  Republic.  And  think  ye  that  all  this  beautiful  train  of  circumstances 
are  to  be  broken— all  those  bright  hopes  to  be  blasted— in  order  to  make  way 
for  the  little,  crouching,  skulking  cripple  of  Land  Monopoly?  No,  my 
friends — no !  That  heartless  and  ferocious  cripple  is  doomed — he  never  was 
able  to  go  alone,  and  henceforth  no  man  will  be  found  to  carry  him.  He  is 
doomed,  and  we,  my  friends — WE  are  appointed  to  carry  that  doom  into 
execution. 

Men  of  the  Mountain  Towns !  Let  us  perform  the  mission  to  which  we 
are  appointed.  Let  us  this  day,  renew  the  pledge  that  you  war,  not  only 
for  the  freedom  of  your  own  fields,  but  for  the  freedom  of  the  wide  field  of 
the  ichole  Republic.  Tell  the  world,  that,  at  the  bottom  of  this  local  struggle, 
lies  a  principle  deep  as  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  broad  as  the  earth's 
surface — enduring,  in  its  application,  as  the  earth  itself.  On  a  day  like  this 
will  our  sympathies  not  go  forth  to  the  oppressed,  the  houseless,  and  the 
degraded?  Shall  the  cry  of  their  distress  go  up  from  cellar  and  garret — sJiall 
the  poverty  of  our  brotliers — the  rags  of  their  wives — the  hunger  of  their  chil- 
dren, find  no  answering  sympathy  from  the  men  who  first  flung  to  the  breeze 
the  standard  of  man's  earthly  redemption?  Shall  our  watch  light  go  forth 
a  beacon  and  a  hope  to  all  nations  of  the  earth,  or  shall  it  smoke  and  nicker 
and  perish  where  it  arose,  among  the  Helderberg  Mountains? 

And  now,  my  friends,  having  said  so  much  on  the  general  subject,  let  me 
come  nearer  home — let  us  examine  what  we  have  been  doing  for  the  past 
few  years,  and  measure  the  amount  of  work  we  have  performed— of  progress 
we  have  made. 

Ten  years  ago,  none  of  you  were  considered  good  enough  to  own  a  title  in  ' 
fee.  Rents  were  flush — cattle  could  not  find  room  in  the  Patroon's  yard, 
and  his  granaries  were  groaning  under  that  "  merchantable  winter  wheat." 
As  for  "  fat  fowls  "  they  were  a  drug  in  the  market.  The  Rent  was  as  much 
as  the  Patroons  could  possibly  squander,  and  more  too.  How,  then,  could 
you  expect  that  he  would  sell  you  a  title  in  fee.  No— no,  they  would  not  sell 
an  acre,  at  any  price. 

But  hark !  a  signal  gun  is  fired  in  one  of  the  deep  glens  of  the  Helderberg. 
It  is  answered  by  another,  and  another.  The  deepened  rolls  are  blended 
with  many  voices.  The  Patroon  pricks  up  his  ears  at  the  hojrid  noise,  and, 
mixed  with  a  thunder  cheer,  that  shook  the  skies,  he  hears  a  loud  voice  ex- 
claim, "DOWN  WITH  THE  RENT  1" 

Hearing  the  thickening  and  deepening  uproar,  the  Patroon  thought  it  best 
to  call  an  Auction  on  the  lands.  In  ordinary  cases  it  is  usual  for  auctions 
to  begin  low  and  work  up  high.  But  being  somewhat  of  a  Dutchman  himself, 
our  Patroon  thought  it  best  to  do  business  on  the  principle  of  a  Dutch  Auc- 
tion, that  is,  to  begin  high  and  come  down  low.  Well,  he  set  up  sale— price 


50  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY j 

eight  or  ten  dollars  an  acre.  "  Seven,  six,  five,  going,  going.  Who  bids? 
Who  bids?"  "Hurrah!  Hurrah!"  shouts  the  crowd— "  Down  with  the 
Kent ! " 

But  when  he  came  down  to  "  four,"  and  to  "  three  "  some  few  nibbled  at 
him.  To  their  own  grief— for  now  he  is  down  to  "two"— to  "  one  fifty," 
and  since  he  (Mr.  D.)  came  on  the  ground  he  had  been  informed  that  the 
selling  price  now  is  fifty  cents !  Another  jump  or  two  and  he  would  be 
d<  nvn  to  the  right  figure. 

What  followed  from  that  day  till  I  left  the  farmers  to  themselves 
four  months  later,  I  recall  only  as  an  incredible  and  painful  dream. 
At  every  meeting  and  convention,  and  I  attended  all  within  reach,  I 
was  met  by  a  storm  of  sordid  politicians — but  let  me  shut  up  the 
page. 

It  is  November,  and  I  am  without  resource  though  eight  or  nine 
hundred  unpaid  subscriptions  are  on  my  books,  I  am  driven  to  an 
extremity  that  I  will  not  write  down  here. 

But  I  remembered  what  a  gentleman — the  gentleman  had  said  to 
me  when  leaving  Williarnsburgh  for  Albany.  I  had  called  to  pay 
him  a  small  sum  I  was  indebted.  "You  have  acted  honorably," 
said  he,  "  and  wherever  you  may  be  if  you  want  a  friend  write  to 
me.  I  had  previously  built  a  house  and  it  was  about  to  be  sold  for 
mortgage  on  the  lot,  when  he  saved  it  by  taking  up  the  mortgage. 
I  now  wrote  to  him.  "  Farmers  have  not  realized.  I  am  out  of 
money.  Lend  me  $150." 

The  conclusion  related  to  their  local  organization.  But  within 
three  months  that  organization  was  utterly  broken — and  all  lost. 

It  came  by  return  of  mail.  Four  weeks  after  (it  in  now  Decem- 
ber, 1846.)  I  write  again  : 

"  Send  me  six  hundred  dollars,  or  live  hundred,  which  you  please, 
and  take  deed  of  that  house  —  now  held  in  joint  stock  between  us, 
in  Williamsburgh." 

The  answer  came  prompt  as  before — but  not  exactly  to  the  same 
purpose — "Not  a  cent!  What!  Utterly  ruin  yourself  in  the  service  of 
men  who  will  not  furnish  you  even  with  rations  and  ammunition  to  keep 
tJieJield?  Strike  tents.  Come  down  here.  You  have  worlml  for  the  pub- 
lic long  enough.  Now  do  something  for  your  family.  When  here  call  on 
me.  Tell  tJiem  not  a  word,  and  not  a  cent  /" 

I  obeyed  this  friendly  and  wise  summons,  not  without  regret.  A 
mirage  of  great  usefulness  rose  before  me.  If  I  could  hold  out  for 
another  year.  But  I  had  already  held  out  so  long  that  while  it  was 
difficult  to  go  it  was  impossible  to  stay.  Edward  Lawson,  once  a 
Chartist  schoolmaster  in  County  Durham,  England,  had  previously 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  51 

recognized  me  at  A  public  meeting  in  Albany.  Of  course  we  became 
close  friends.  I  had  a  claim  on  the  county  for  some  $30  or  $40.  He 
gave  me  the  money  for  it,  and  I  got  off  down  the  river  just  as  the 
ice  was  closing  in.  My  reception  from  that  true  and  wise  man  ! — but 
it  is  facts — not  feelings  must  make  up  this  record. 

"  Take  your  note  book,"  said  he,  "and  go  round  the  water  front- 
age of  New  York  and  Brooklyn.  Ascertain  what  property  is  to  be 
sold  —  the  description,  the  owner  and  the  price.  Spend  a  whole 
week  at  it.  Then  come  to  me  with  your  notes  and  diagrams."  I 
did  so.  He  put  his  fingers  on  one  of  the  diagrams.  "Secure  that. 
Here's  a  check  for  the  purpose.  You  want  employment,  too.  Begin 
at  once  to  improve  it,  and  draw  on  me  for  means  to  carry  on  the 
work.  Such  property,"  he  added,  "  will  be  wanted,  by  and  by,  and 
that  which  is  even  partially  improved  will  have  the  first  market." 
Wise  foresight.  It  came  out  like  a  prophecy. 

I  am  now  at  work  with  men  and  horses  turning  tide  water  into 
land.  The  ten  hour  system  had  been  achieved  by  the  mechanics  of 
New  York,  but  the  laborers  had  to  work  from  "light  to  dark" — 
wages  75  cents  a  day.  Living  was  cheap,  potatoes,  meat,  butter, 
tea,  sugar,  coffee,  &c.,  &c.,  all  about  half  what  they  cost  now  (bon- 
daged  1881).  The  anti-christian  inhuman  code  of  political 
economy  would  have  given  me  laborers  of  12  to  14  hours  a  day  for 
75  cents.  I  fixed  the  time  at  10  hours  and  the  pay  at  seven  York 
shillings,  87  >£  cents. 

I  had  felt  the  monotony  of  long  hours  at  work,  so  I  broke  it  by  a 
short  rest  and  an  allowance  of  ale  in  the  forenoon  and  the  same  in 
the  afternoon.*  I  had  brought  my  printing  materials  from  Albany, 
and  my  printing  office  in  the  rear  of  my  Grand  street  house  was  let 
at  $5  a  week  and  from  it  was  issued  the  "  Morning  Post,"  by  Joseph 
Taylor,  Geo.  Bennett  and  T.  Anderson  Smith. 

*A  man  toiling  for  live  hours  ;it  a  stretch  feels  considerably  fagged  dur- 
ing the  last  hour.  The  thought  that  he  has  still  a  long  time  to  work  through 
will  tell  upon  him  from  the  beginning.  On  the  contrary,  let  it  be  "  hurrah 
boys ;  four  hours  is  the  time !"  and  they  will  start  \vith  energy,  continue 
with  cheerfulness,  do  the  work  "  with  a  will" — and  the  result  will  not  be  a 
heavy  loss  to  the  employer. 

But,  whether  it  does  or  not,  it  is  just  as  useless  for  the  employer  to  resist 
a  reduction  of  hours  as  it  would  be  for  him  to  resist  the  progress  of  enlight- 
enment. With  the  immense  and  varied  machinery,  chemistry  and  the  arts 
generally,  man  may  have  not  even  three  or  four  hours  per  day  to  work. 
This,  then ,  is  the  time — the  time  intended  by  that  Divine  Power.  As  man 
became  intellectual,  those  arts  were  given  to  him  that  he  might  have  time 
to  cultivate  that  intellect. 


52  THE   ODD   BOOK    OF    THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

[This  I  wrote  at  the  time,  twenty  years  ago,  before  the  Corpora- 
tion reign  commenced.  Under  the  reign  of  those  monstrous  tyrants 
justice  falls  prostrate  and  progress  turns  back.  The  new  condition 
will  be  work  all  your  waking  hours  for  the  smallest  modicum  that 
will  keep  you  alive,  to  work  on,  or  till  enough  of  Chinamen  comes 
over  to  take  your  place.  ] 

Mitchel  Sanford  had  instituted  a  libel  suit  against  me  for  com- 
menting on  his  conduct  at  the  trial  of  Van  Steenberg.  That  libel 
suit  came  on  now  after  my  return  to  Williamsburgh.  My  comments 
had  come  as  hard  on  Judge  Parker  himself  as  they  did  on  Sanford. 
And  yet  that  hardened  politician  managed  to  try  the  suit.  Sanford 
begged  the  jury  for  a  verdict,  assuring  them  that  he  would  not 
touch  a  penny  belonging  to  the  defendant.  The  Judge  charged 
that  though  he  understood  a  part  of  the  jury  was  favorable  to  the 
defendant,  still,  as  Mr.  Sanford  would  not  take  any  money  he  .(the 
Judge)  thought  it  was  their  duty  to  agree  on  a  verdict  for  the  plain- 
tiff. Of  course  he  knew  such  was  not  their  duty,  and  he  knew  San- 
ford would  take  all  he  could  get,  but  the  jury  took  his  advice  to  the 
amount  of  $500.  Sanford  agreed  to  discharge  this  on  the  spot  for  a 
sum  of  $60  of  costs.  Half  of  that  sum  I  paid  him  down  and  the 
other  half  I  sent  him  from  Williamsburgh  by  next  mail.  After  which 
he  entered  judgment  against  me  (in  Kings  County  where  my  prop- 
erty lay)  to  the  amount  of  $700,  including  costs. 


COLONEL  CEOOKE. 

The  reader  has  soon  in  preceding  pages  how  vigilantly  this  Amer- 
ican gentleman  watched  over  and  sustained  me.  He  is  now  pro- 
ceeding with  me  to  Albany  to  move  for  a  now  trial  and  protect  me 
from  this  wrong.  It  is  midwinter — the  steamer  is  cutting  her  way 
through  the  ice  now  forming  on  the  Hudson.  We  are  together  in 
the  saloon  and  he  thus  speaks  : 

"Do  you  know  why  I  come  with  you  on  this  business?" 

I  spoke  of  his  general  disposition  to  do  good. 

"That  disposition,  if  I  have  it,  would  not  bring  me  so  far  and  at 
such  a  season.  No,  let  me  frankly  tell  you  why  I  am  here.  I  have 
noted  that  your  countrymen  are  very  ingenious  fellows — most  of 
them— so  ingenious  that  if  you  ask  them  a  question  they  give  such 
answer  as  may  suit  their  purpose,  whatever  that  purpose  may  be. 
Now,  I  have  watched  you  narrowly,  since  you  came  among  us,  both 
in  our  personal  intercourse  and  your  writings,  and  if  I  had  seen  in 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  53 

you  the  least  tendency  toward  that  kind  of  "ingenuity"  I  would 
not  turn  round  to  serve  you."  And  this  man  was  an  American,  who 
had  labored  through  his  long  life  to  redeem  from  fraud  the  politics 
of  his  country. 

Arrived  at  Albany  he  saw  Sanford  and  gave  him  a  warning  that  I 
will  not  write  here.  It  resulted  in  $600  of  a  saving  to  me,  and  in 
one  other  illustration  of  American  character  and  "  Chivalry  in  Mod- 
ern Days." 


THE  GREAT  FAMINE  IN  IRELAND. 

It  was  now  1847,  and  the  great  land  robbers  of  Ireland 
who  had  always  murdered  on  a  scale  of  .some  70,000*  a  year 
were  now  to  murder  by  the  million.  The  potato  was  a  mass 
of  rottenness.  Nothing  else  had  for  generations  been  left  to 
sustain  the  people,  and  now  that  it  was  gone  the  land  rob- 
bers insisted  upon  the  Blasphemy  called  Rent  for  "  their 
land "  all  the  same.  So  all  the  other  products,  grain,  cattle, 
even  poultry  and  eggs,' were  sold  or  seized  upon  to  pay  the 
Blasphemy. 

What  are  called  Rockite  Notices  were  put  up  in  Galway 
and  other  ports,  declaring  an  embargo  on  the  ships  that  were 
carrying  away  the  food.  For  answer  horse,  foot  and  artil- 
lery were  drafted  in  to  offer  a  choice  between  being  shot  or 
starved.  A  survivor  of  imprisonment  in  the  black  hole  at 
Calcutta  exclaims,  "  Had  we  known  what  was  before  us,  we 
would  have  rushed  on  the  bayonets  of  the  Sepoys  rather 
than  be  driven  into  that  hole." 

The  generous  heart  of  America  arose  up  far  more  gene- 
rally than  it  did  in  the  recent  famine.  For  the  need,  though 
great  in  '80,  was  far  greater  in  '47.  Every  city  and  most 
towns  rose,  and  spontaneously  contributed  with  unparalelled 
generosity.  In  vain !  In  vain !  And  let  us  examine  how 
and  why  it  was  in  vain.  How  the  half  million  dead  would 
have  been  saved,  and  why  they  were  lost. 

In  "Williamsburgh  a  meeting  was  called,  at  which  no  less 
than  six  gentlemen,  the  elite  of  the  place,  made  speeches  from 
the  heart — besides  calling  on  myself,  a  veteran  of  famines. 
I  said  I  had  "  seen  cargoes  of  oatmeal  consigned  to  principal 

*  See  report  of  Government  Commissioner  adduced  on  O'Connell's  trial, 
also  pamphlet  of  Manchester  physician,  declaring  that  number,  and  adding 
that  deaths  rose  or  fell  with  the  price  of  bread., 


54        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUKY  ; 

men  in  my  neighborhood  (Donegal),  for  distribution.  It 
was  grossly  misapplied — reached  only  comparatively  few  of 
those  needing  it.  The  Nesbit,  before  noticed  in  this  book, 
had  his  demesne  adorned  with  walks,  plantings,  and  a  stone 
bridge  out  of  such  a  consignment,  and  half  of  it  made  its  way 
to  the  compost  heap — heated  and  rotted,  while  people  died 
for  want  of  it.  Mere  almsgiving  would  always  run  a  risk  like 
that.  Ample  funds  were  now  in  the  hands  of  the  Relief 
Committees.  The  price  of  breadstuff's  in  New  York  was  two 
to  three  cents  a  pound.  The  true  way  to  meet  the  exigency 
was  to  enter  the  market,  buy  up  and  send  over  by  the  cargo 
to  all  the  Irish  ports — sink  the  freight,  and  sell  at  the  New 
York  prices.  This  would  drive  all  speculators  out  of  the 
market.  It  would  cheapen  food  not  only  in  Ireland,  but  in 
England,  Scotland,  and  even  on  the  continent.  Much  domestic 
work  was  always  to  be  done.  Some  public  works  were  com- 
menced— more  would  follow — men  would  get  work  every- 
where at  say  a  shilling  a  day.  That  would  buy  12  Ibs.  of  In- 
dian meal  or  8  Ibs.  of  wheat  flour.  In  the  cheapest  of  times 
in  Ireland,  oatmeal  was  never  less  than  two  to  three  cents  a 
pound,  and  in  cheap  times  no  one  died  of  hunger."  The 
meeting  applauded  this  view,  and  drew  up  a  resolution  em- 
bodying it,  and  instructing  our  committee  to  recommend  it  to 
the  National  Committee  sitting  in  Wall  Street.  They  did 
not  object  to  this,  but  said  it  would  do  no  harm  to  let  it  lie 
over  for  a  week,  when  they  would  call  another  meeting  and 
take  final  action  on  it.  Alas  !  alas  !  They  broke  their  prom- 
ise— handed  the  money  over  to  Wall  Street,  and  called  no 
other  meeting  !  Had  that  gentleman  who  gave  the  largest 
subscription  ($225)  been  on  that  Committee  that  promise 
had  never  been  broken.  The  absence  of  honor  in  the  local 
and  stupid  obstinacy  in  the  Wall  street  committee  cost,  I 
sincerely  believe,  half  a  million  of  lives. 

When  this  transpired,  the  whole  ghastly  scene  that  was  to 
follow  rose  up  before  me.  I  left  niy  work  in  other  charge, 
and  went  to  the  Committee  in  Wall  Street.  The  Committee 
Avould  not  act  without  the  President.  I  continued  to  call 
four  days  in  succession  before  I  found  the  President.  Stated 
my  purpose — urged  the  facts  known  to  me,  and  the  endorse- 
ment of  our  public  meeting.  "  No  !"  he  would  not  interfere 
with  THE  LAWS  OF  TKADE.  That  was  a  thing  that 
must  not  be  thought  of.  "  But,"  I  rejoined,  "  there  are  a. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN   DAYS.  55 

million  of  lives  at  stake.  THEY  WILL  BE  LOST  if  you 
do  not  suspend  those  laws  for  this  brief  season.  If  you  do 
suspend  them,  and  adopt  the  plan  approved  by  our  public 
meeting,  you  will  xave  every  life.  If  you  do  not,  they  will 
perish."  He  refused  point  blank  to  unsettle  the  "  fixed  prin- 
ciple* of  that  quack  science  called  Political  Economy"  I  re- 
tired. I  stood  stunned  on  the  sidewralk — stunned  with  the 
weight  and  vastness  of  my  defeat.  I  had  fought  for  a  mil- 
lion of  human  lives,  and  lost  the  battle — defeated  by  that 
cast-iron  fiend,  begotten  of  Adam  Smith.  How  truly  was  my 
forebodings  realized.  Misapplication,  fraud  and  rottenness 
fell  upon  the  almsgiving.  In  Mrs.  Nicholson's  "FAMINE  IN 
IRELAND"  (Scribner,  New  York,  1851)  I  find  the  following  : 

"  Let  the  policemen  speak  out  if  they  will,  and  testify  if  many  an  injured 
ton  of  meal  has  not  been  flung  into' the  sea  at  night  from  ports  in  Ireland, 
which  were  sent  to  the  poor,  and  by  neglect  spoiled,  while  the  objects  for 
whom  it  was  intended  died  without  relief." 

I  also  find  this  entry  in  my  records : 
A  ROYAL  FARCE. 

"  There  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun,"  said  some  sage  of  the  olden  time, 
but  he  hadn't  seen  a  "gracious  Queen"  of  England  put  herself  and  her 
household  on  short  allowance  of  broad — and  even  that  of  inferior  quality  ! 

Can  it  bo  that  this  exhibit  of  benevolence  on  the  part  of  her  majesty  is 
made  for  show,  rather  than  for  service.  Really  there  are  so  many  nooks 
and  corners  in  the  least  of  her  majesty's  palaces  that  the  facilities  for  smug- 
gling bread  enough  for  the  "  household  "  will  be  very  great.  When  her  ma- 
jesty's equerry  in  waiting,  who  is  never  less  than  a  lord's  cousin  or  son,  has 
consumed  his  "  pound  of  bread,"  the  chances  are  that  he  will  make  up  the 
difference  in  confectionary,  or  odd  crumbs. 

It  is  melancholy  to  see  a  farce  so  exceedingly  grave  played  in  the  face  of 
a  famishing  nation.  Her  Majesty's  receipts,  a  year,  amount  to  between  half 
a  million  and  a  million  of  dollars.  Now,  if  she  set  apart  five  thousand  dol- 
lars of  this  for  her  support,  and  informed  her  equerrys,  and  grooms  of  the 
stole,  and  ladies  of  honor,  that  they  must  board  themselves  for  the  nex^ 
three  months.  If  she  had  done  this  and  given  the  balance  of  her  income  to 
help  to  save  the  lives  of  her  "subjects,"  there  would  have  been  some  sub- 
stance in  it.  But  her  "  gracious  majesty  "  takes  a  cheaper  path  to  charity. 
Perhaps  the  bare  supposition  that  her  majesty,  and  Albert,  and  the  Lord 
Georges  and  the  lady  Janes,  in  waiting,  will  each  get  only  a  pound  of  coarse 
bread  in  the  24  hours — that  this  supposition  will  be  as  good  to  the  Irish  peo- 
ple as  if  each  of  them  got  the  daily  allowance  himself." 

The  foregoing  I  find  published  at  the  time,  but  it  is  almost 


56        THE  ODD  BOOK  OV  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURA 

too  horrible  for  belief.  If  this  woman  had  called  together 
her  "  faithful  Commons  "  for  a  loan  to  save  life  as  she  is  con- 
tinually doing  for  purposes  of  destroying  it,  life  could  have 
been  saved  by  a  dash  of  her  pen.  Was  not  the  "  pound  of 
bread"  affair  too  clumsy — too  insulting." 

The  Morning  Post  was  feebly  conducted.  The  editor,  I.  A. 
Smith  was  retiring,  and  his  partners,  George  Bennett  and 
Joseph  Taylor  asked  me  to  take  hold  or  lose  the  rent  of 
my  office.  I  did.  I  thought  I  had  no  right  to  touch  a 
penny  of  money  advanced  for  the  dock  work,  and  the 
$5  paid  my  weekly  expenses.  I  was  wrong.  My  work 
was  worth  my  expenses.  But  I  didn't  think  of  that — took 
hold — made  partnership  for  a  year.  Compiled,  reported,  and 
wrote  leaders  for  that  small  daily  for  the  whole  year,  and 
overlooked  and  helped  my  men  at  the  dock  for  ten  hours 
every  day  of  that  time.  That  formed  one  oddity.  In  look- 
ing over  that  file  I  find  another  oddity  —  an  already  ancient 
telegraph  lying  in  ruin  along  our  street — thus  celebrated 

TO    THE    LIGHTNING. 

"  Child  of  the  marshalled  clouds,  whose  playful  form 
I've  watched  careering  through  the  skies  of  night, 

The  storm  illumed  by  thee,  I  deemed  no  storm, 
Thou  wert  so  fitful,  beautiful  and  bright. 

Free'r  than  monarch  of  the  billowy  main, 

Freer  than  eagle  in  his  field  of  space, 
Or  Indian  on  his  undiscovered  plain, 

Earth  was  thy  sport,  and  Heaven  thy  dwelling  place. 

Thy  freaks  were  brilliant  and  thy  voice  was  loud, 
Where  cloud  and  counter  cloud  agreed  to  meet, 

Till  a  chain  rose  from  earth  and  pierced  thy  shroud 
And  brought  thee  trembling  to  the  sage's  feet. 

Thy  limbs  lay  lock'd  in  steel  for  half  an  age, 

Fettered  and  valueless,  until,  at  length, 
Arose  in  Franklin's  land  another  sage 

Who  gave  commission  to  thy  spirit's  strength. 

And  thou — obedient  as  the  carrier  dove, 

Goest  on  thy  errand  o'er  the  hair-line  path, 
Less  frequently,  alas !  the  voice  of  love 

Than  of  contention,  bitterness  and  wrath. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN   MODERN    DAYS.  67 

Nations  and  men  are  rushing  to  thy  shrine, 
Thy  voice  and  fame  are  heard  from  sea  to  sea ! 

But  here— dismantled  poles  and  shattered  twine. 
Are  all  the  homage  that  we  pay  to  thee. 

Is  Williamsburgh,  alas  1  so  dull  and  dead  ? 

Is  it  so  dumb,  and  lame,  and  deaf,  and  blind  ? 
Peace,  fool  I    It  only  goes  so  fast  ahead, 

That  it  has  left  the  Telegraph  behind. 

That's  it,  Mr.  Editor.  How  many  inhabitants  will  AVO  have  by  next  year  ? 
And  what  do  you  think  will  lots  be  worth  ?  LIGHTNING  ROD." 

The  following  are  also  scintillations  from  the  Pout: 
JUNE  12. — "There  is  nothing  presented  in  this  Republic  so.  calcu- 
lated to  give  us  pain  as  the  vulgar,  coarse  and  repulsive  language  and 
general  demeanor  of  too  many  of  our  boys  —  the  future  sovereigns 
of  the  Bepublic.  The  old  Republics  had  their  philosophers,  who 
instructed  the  Youth — taught  them,  in  uubought  lectures,  love  of 
country,  reverence  for  her  institutions,  a  sense  of  their  own  dignity 
and  of  the  important  and  honorable  duties  they  were  destined  to 
fulfil.  But  who  teaches  our  youth?  and  how  are  they  taught? 

"Many  and  many  a  time  have  we  fallen  into  this  painfully  interest- 
ing train  of  thought,  but  we  generally  forbore  giving  expression  to 
it.  We  did  so  under  the  sad  conviction  that  to  speak  of  any- 
thing of  mere  public  interest  and  utility  would  be  singing  lullabys 
to  the  tempest." 

Every  LIVE  man  was  attached  to  one  or  other  of  the  two 
parties.  I  did  not  knowT,  nor  perhaps  care,  how  many  enemies 
I  made  by  such  articles  as  this: 

JUNE  18. — "The  infamous  Slidell  McKenzie,  who  hanged  to  death 
three  American  citizens  in  contempt  of  the  most  solemn  laws  of  the  Re- 
public, has  been  appointed  to  the  command  of  another  of  our  national 
vessels.  The  first  time  he  is  becalmed  again,  in  need  of  a  little 
pleasureable  excitement,  he  has  the  same  permission  to  hang  up  as 
many  more  for  his  amusement.  And  what  are  we  to  say  to  the 
government  that  thus  rewards  him  for  his  heinous  crimes,  and  puts 
him  in  a  way  to  continue  them  ? 

"  'Here!'  the  politicians  will  exclaim,  'this  is  anti-neutral.  You 
are  finding  fault  with  the  Democratic  government.' 

"Gentlemen,  is  it  any  comfort  to  you  to  hear  that  a  Whig  govern- 
ment was  just  as  bad?  When  McKenzie  came  home  with  the  blood 


58  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF  THE  NINETEENTH    CENTURA  ,' 

of  those  three  men  on  his  soul,  the  Whig  government  took  him  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  civil  authorities,  and  transferred  him  to  the 
hands  of  co-criminals  of  his  own  kind,  to  screen  him  from  justice. 
Fellows  who  had  for  long  years  smacked  their  champagne  with  all 
the  more  gusto  that  groans  of  tortured  seamen  still  rang  in  their 
ears  —  seamen,  who  are  treated  worse  than  wild  beasts  - —  who  are 
fed  out  of  a  rice  trough,  while  Oriental  luxury  reigns  in  the  cabin. 
Public  Opinion  stepped  in,  however,  and  rebuked  the  government. 
McKenzie  was  kept  at  home,  and,  riding  out  on  a  spirited  horse,  at 
Tarrytown,  he  was  thrown  —  his  foot  hung  in  the  stirrup,  and  the 
horse  dashed  along  till  he  avenged  the  three  innocent  seamen." 

JUNE  20. — ' '  Discover  a  fossil  turned  out  by  a  stone-breaker.  Advise 
geologists  to  print  instructions  for  quarrymen." 

FOURTH  OF  JULY. — "We  have  wisdom  to  plan,  activity  to  urge, 
strength  and  skill  to  execute.  Many  a  future  city  reposes  in  the 
unawakened  resources  of  this  great  land.  Genius  will  arise;  the 
Arts  be  restored  and  pushed  forward ;  Science  will  tower  to  heights 
proportioned  to  the  extent  of  our  domain.  But  there  is  danger  — 
danger  that  all  those  resources  will  be  directed  too  much  to  indi- 
vidual aggrandizement.  On  that  single  pivot  hangs  the  fate  of  the 
Kepublic.  Let  us  begin,  then,  individually,  to  lay  the  foundation 
for  national  virtue.  If  you  can  do  good  to  anyone  without  loss— or 
even  with  trifling  loss  —  do  it.  Better  your  axe  should  be  blunted 

—  your  umbrella  lost  —  your  wheel-barrow  broken  —  than  that  you 
should  contract  that  impenetrable  selfishness  which,  when  it  be- 
comes general,  destroys  nations." 

YACHTING.  — AUGUST  16. 
"  Once  more  upon  the  waters — yet  once  more ; 
And  the  waves  bound  beneath  me  like  a  steed 
That  knows  his  rider." 

"Unquestionably,  usefulness  you  are  a  useful  thing,  and  we  could 
delight  to  see  you  going  down  into  the  deep  future  growing  more 
perfect  and  powerful  — till  at  last  you  made  the  long  latent  forces 
of  Nature  do  all  the  work  —  and  gave  man  —  every  man  —  one  long 
and  joyous  holiday. 

But  the  quick  and  accelerating  march  of  utility  has  a  mortal  and 
relentless  tendency  to  crush  out  the  beautiful  —  itself  from  existence 

—  its  worship  from  the  human  heart. 

The  chivalry  of  ancient  times  is  gone,  and  in  its  field  stands 
modern  conventionalism.  The  short,  quick  bang  of  the  fowling 
piece  has  forever  (or  has  it  forever?)  chased  away  tho  primitive, 


OR,  THE   SPIRIT   OP   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  59 

graceful  and  intensely  interesting  sport  of  "Hawking."  The  echoes 
of  America  have  hardly  ever  been  awakened  by  the  ' '  Horn  of  Chase" — 
nor  has,  that  we  know  of,  the  deep  baying  of  the  "opening  pack" 
ever  loaded  the  breeze  of  a  cis- Atlantic  vale.  The  free  saddle  has 
given  place  to  the  parlor  snuggery  of  the  light  wagon.  Men  fish 
now-a-days  with  a  silver  hook,  and  sail  in  steam  tugs  ! 

Utility  !  stern,  loveless,  unpoetic  power !  We  welcome  your  sway 
—  universal  drudge  of  a  universal  holiday.  But  why  should  you 
kill  off  all  the  beautiful  things,  and  sear  up  the  still  more  beautiful 
feelings  of  the  past?  What  were  the  holiday  you  promise  us,  if  those 
beautiful  things  and  those  delightful  feelings  are  not  to  make  a  part 
of  it? 

Well,  it  is  one  consolation  to  know  that  the  iron  of  the  times  has 
not  entered  into  all  the  souls  among  us  —  that  there  are  still  a  few 
(and  their  number  increasing)  who  hold  the  philosophy  that  enjoy- 
ment, under  guidance,  is  wealth  —  the  only  wealth  a  man  really 
possesses,  and  that  all  other  merely  slips  through  his  fingers." 

In  the  absence  of  news  I  strove  to  give  variety  to  the  paper, 
and  force  it  into  usefulness.  I  mention  this  as  a  contrast  to 
what  follows. 

But  at  last  the  year  had  run  round,  and  the  partnership 
expired.  The  paper  had  paid  every  one  connected  with  it  a 
fair  compensation.  To  make  it  day  work  for  the  printers, 
it  had  been  changed  to  an  evening  paper.  It  was  a  complete 
success.  But  it  was  only  an  honest  success,  and  to  my  aston- 
ishment the.  partners  declared  off.  Bennett  was  going  to 
journey  work,  he  said,  and  he  wished  me  to  remove  the  ob- 
ligation to  take  my  materials  at  $500,  which  had  been  agreed 
upon.  It  would  do  me  no  good  to  hold  it  over  him,  and  have 
it  weigh  on  his  mind  wherever  he  might  go  to  work.  I 
believed  his  falsehood  for  truth,  and  gave  him  a  formal  quit- 
tance. That  accomplished,  out  came  the  prospectus  of  the 
Williamsburgh  Times.  Behind  it  stood  all  the  prospective 
thieves  of  both  the  political  parties,  .and  the  prospective 
harvest  was  so  tempting  as  to  seduce  men  naturally  inclined 
to  be  honest.  Incensed  at  this  baseness,  and  foreseeing  its 
object,  I  resolved  to  carry  on  the  paper,  and  employed  two 
brothers  —  professed  Land  Reformers,  and  good  printers— 
to  help  me  through.  Of  money  I  had  all  that  was  necessary. 
I  changed  it  back  to  a  morning  paper.  But  the  prospective 
thieves  seduced  those  two  men  so  effectually  that  they  blew 
out  the  lights  and  left  the  office  late  in  the  night  without  a 


fiO  THE   ODD    BOOK    OF    THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

word  of  warning.  I  could  not  discharge  my  men  at  the  dock, 
and  cease  their  work.  When  my  family  got  floating-about 
printers  from  New  York,  a  chum  would  beckon  them  out, 
and,  after  brief  conference,  they  would  return  for  hat  and 
coat,  and  disappear.  The  conspirators  (for  that  the  sequel 
proved  them  to  be)  had  money  and  political  preferment  to 
offer,  and  several  of  the  seduced  got  political  places  which 
they  hold  to  this  day.  The  tax-payers  looked  stupidly  on, 
not  realizing  what  was  to  come.  I  concluded  that  the  taxes 
would  be  doubled  —  perhaps  trebled.  But  I  had  not  the 
least  apprehension  of  the  audacity  shown  by  those  political 
thieves.  First  they  went  to  their  brother  rogues  in  Albany, 
and  got  the  public  meetings  abolished  »,kat  heretofore  author- 
ized the  public  expenditure.  They  substituted  an  elected 
Board  of  Finance.  But  in  its  first  year  the  rogues  spent 
(stole)  $30,000  above  what  the  Finance  Board  prescribed. 
The  next  or  second  year,  their  brothers  in  Albany  abolished 
the  Finance  Board,  and  let  them  loose  at  taxing  (stealing) 
without  restraint.  In  the  seven  years  ending  1855,  the 
population  had  doubled,  and  the  taxes  went  up  from  $23,000 
to  $313,000,  or  over  twelve  dollars  for  one. 

An  instructive  phenomenon  here  presents  itself.  During 
the  existence  of  the  Post  the  activity  of  Thought  was  remark- 
able, if  not  unprecedented,  in  a  population  of  10,000  people. 
The  Lyceum,  the  Land  Reformers,  the  Liberty  Party,  the 
Workingmen's  Library  Association,  were  in  full  activity, 
with  lectures,  meetings  and  discussions.  In  the  f oh1  owing 
year,  under  the  sordid  reign  of  the  thieves'  organ,  all  this 
was  reversed.  Meetings,  discussions,  lectures  —  all  passed 
utterly  away.  There  is  a  theory  that  it  is  not  only 
the  sophistry  of  dishonest  writers  that  misleads,  but  that  the 
virus  of  their  corrupt  minds  flows  into  and  vitiates  the  mind 
of  the  public.  The  going  out  of  the  Pout  and  the  coming  in 
of  the  Times  furnished  a  very  distinct  evidence  on  this 
subject.  And  this:  . 

A  negro  troupe  advertised  a  week's  performance  in  Lexing- 
ton Hall,  of  singing  and  stuff  like  this: 

Miss  Lucy  had  a  baby, 

And  just  when  it  was  bo'n 
She  dipped  it  in  the  batter  pot, 

And  called  it  Lucy  Long." 

"Like  to  like,"  the  Times  gave  them  the  full  use  of  its 


Oil,    THE    SPIRIT    OP    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS. 

columns,  and  bespoke  for  them  a  full  success.  The  Post  (it 
was  yet  in  existence)  denounced  an  exhibition  so  degrading 
to  public  taste,  and  after  the  first  abortive  night,  it  disap- 
peared. 

MEAGHER    AND    O'BRIEN. 

About  this  time  ('52)  Thomas  Francis  Meagher  made  his 
way  from  Australia  to  New  York.  His  fame  had  long  pre- 
ceded him,  and  the  announcement  of  a  lecture  by  him  brought 
together  some  5,000  people.  I  was  present,  and  in  relation 
to  it  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Meagher,  which  I  abridge : 

"This  letter  is  to  convey  to  you  my  protest  against  the  manner  in 
Which  you  trifled  with  the  time  and  attention  of  the  thousands  of 
ardent  men  who  attended  at  your  lecture. 

No  human  being  who  believed  in  your  reputation  could  deem  it 
possible  that  you  would  lecture  on  any  other  subject  than  the  late 
disastrous  events  in  Ireland — her  present  position,  and  the  condition 
of  things  in  Europe  and  here,  as  those  might  bear  upon  and  affect 
that  position. 

Instead  of  that  you  gave  us — you  gave  that  immense  meeting — a 
lecture  on  the  twaddling  inanities  of  Australian  History.  Australian 
History  !  Well  and  truly  did  you  tell  us,  at  the  outset,  that  her  his- 
tory is  "a  white  page."  That  she  had  no  history. 

What  were  you  afraid  of,  sir,  that  you  would  not  approach  the 
"imperfect  light"  that  now  hangs  over  Ireland,  and  endeavor  to 
lessen  that  imperfection.  Who  were  you  afraid  of,  sir,  that  you 
would  not  approach  her  "defeat,"  for  the  purpose  of  preparing  the 
way,  that  it  might  one  day  be  turned  into  victory? 

"Our gracious  little  Queen,"  as  Dan  used  to  call  her.  "Her popu- 
larity it  is  that  holds  Republican  ideas  in  check!"  so  you  tell  us. 
Ah,  sir,  that  mind  which  could  have  the  least  reverence  for  such  a 
piece  of  furniture  is  but  poor  soil  for  the  growth  of  Kepublican  prin- 
ciples. How  many  good  women  in  England,  and  in  Ireland,  too,  die 
yearly  of  famine  and  the  diseases  it  induces?  Is  not  every  brilliant 
in  that  woman's  hair — every  hair  itself — purchased  with  a  human 
life? 

You  mistake  the  field  of  your  power,  if  you  suppose  it  lies  in 
paying  court  even  to  female  crowned  heads,  or  sly,  gouty  conserva- 
tives. Such  field  will  lead  you  to  nothing,  sir,  but  ignoble  sloth  and 
obscurity. 

Once  a  true  Republic  shall  be  formed  in  this  country— and  a  true 


62        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

Republic  must  guarantee  to  every  one  of  its  citizens  the  right  to  dig  bread 
out  of  that  Republican  soil— once  this  is  done,  and  done  I  trust  it  soon 
will  be,  let  us  cast  about  for  a  wise  disposition  of  the  hearts  and  rifles 
that  are  ready  for  work .  in  this  country.  Such  a  disposition  as  will 
send  forth  from  these  sliores  that  redemption  to  Ireland,  and  to  Eng- 
land, too,  that  those  unhappy  nations  are  not  likely  to  soon  achieve 
by  their  owrn  unaided  exertions.  I  have  the  honor  to  remain, 
Your  obedient  servant, 

THOMAS    AINGE    DEVYR." 

For  this  a  torrent  of  anonymous  vituperation  was  dashed 
upon  me  in  our  local  press,  ending  in  this  way: 

"  '  Tis  sweet  for  one's  country  to  lie;' 

to  die  for  it  is  trifling.  This  is  the  teaching  of  our  second  Daniel,  and  truly 
he  ought  to  know.  Practice  is  said  to  make  perfect,  and  he  must  therefore 
be  as  near  perfection  in  this  matter  as  it  is  possible  for  man  to  attain." 

I  was  not  very  long  out  of  London  at  the  time,  where 
those  connected  with  the  press  must  take  the  ten-pace  risk 
if  they  are  insulted.  So  I  wrote  to  the  editor: 

"  Now,  sir,  this  is  not  the  fair  thing.  You  know  it  isn't— and  I  trust  if  any 
of  your  correspondents  has  anything  personal  to  growl  out  for  the  future,  you 
will  let  him  growl  it  himself,  not  make  you  his  mouth-piece.  You  and  I,  Mr. 
Editor,  know  the  code  in  respect  to  these  things ;  your  correspondent  evident- 
ly does  not.  But  probably  he  will  bear  teaching.  I  am  likely  to  enter  upon  a 
work  in  which  I  must  adopt  the  motto  of  Ossian's  Fingal,  'Never  seek  the 
combat,  nor  shun  it  when  it  comes.' 

Now,  sir,  if  things  have  gone  to  the  devil  in  Europe,  and  if  they  are  going 
to  the  devil  here ;  if  the  sword  reigns  supreme  in  the  one,  and  if  cheating 
and  corruption  and  hypocrisy  are  beginning  to  reign  supreme  in  the  other ; 
and  if  I  am  little  over  forty  years  old,  and  have  little  else  to  do  than  amuse 
myself  by  making  war  on  these  things  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  to  come — 
and  if  I  should  determine  so  to  do,  it  will  be  necessary,  at  the  outset,  for 
the  conditions  to  be  made  known.  These  public  things  are  the  legitimate 
field  of  controversy.  It  is  not  necessary  for  men  to  turn  aside  from  that 
field,  for  the  purpose  of  slandering  my  private  character.  No  man  of  honor 
and  taste  will  do  it ;  and  if  others  will,  I  can  only  defend  myself  as  circum- 
stances may  require. 

This  is  indeed  a  grave  matter ;  far,  far  too  grave  for  buffoonery,  though 
buffoons  may  not  be  aware  of  the  fact.  Liberty  is  openly  struck  down,  and 
writhing  from  the  White  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean,  In  Great  Britain  she  is 
permitted  to  danee  in  her  chains,  to  the  tune  of  "Britons  never  will  be 
slaves."  In  America,  corruption  is  throned  in  our  capitals,  and  stalking 
abroad  over  the  land.  Is  there  nothing  to  do  for  such  men  as  Meagher — in 
view  of  the  ruin  accomplished  in  Europe  and  impending  here?" 


OR,    THE   SPIBIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN   DAYS.  63 

The  editor  actually  tried  to  show  that  there  was  nothing 
in  the  foregoing  paragraph  to  which  I  could  take  exception. 
And  the  libeler  came  out  with  the  following  denial  of  his  pub- 
lished words.  I  quote  it  to  show  the  depths  to  which  vicious 
natures  will  descend: 
To  THE  EDITORS  OF  THE  "INDEPENDENT  PKESS:" 

Gentlemen— You  are  quite  right  in  the  construction  which  you  place  upon 
the  sentence  in  my  last  communication  to  which  the  great  Devyr  takes  such 

signal  exception.    To  assail  the  personal  character  of  Mr.  D ,  least  of  all 

in  respect  to  his  veracity,  was  never  my  thought.    I  have  no  knowledge 
upon  which  to  base  such  an  assault,  and  no  cause  to  make  it  if  I  had. 

"When  Mr.  O'Brien  touched  these  shores  I  enclosed  to  him 
these  strictures  on  Mr.  Meagher's  debut.  I  told  him  of  the 
degrading  uses  to  which  our  unreflecting  countrymen  are 
put  by  their  self-seeking  leaders.  I  had  been  pre- 
sented to  Mr.  O'Brien,  in  London,  so  early  as  1836,  as  a 
Land  Reformer,  in  which  good  work  he  was  then  ardently 
engaged.  But  I  waited  for  some  days  in  vain  for  any  response 
to  my  communication. 

Fearing  to  misinterpret  him  into  a  mere  member  of  the 
Irish  Gironde,*  I  again  wrote  to  him,  that  there  might  be  no 
mistake.  The  following  is  his  reply : 

"WASHINGTON,  March  9, 1859. 

Sir :  —I  did  not  answer  your  ilrst  letter  because  I  was  unwilling  to  say  any- 
thing that  would  offend  you ;  but  since  you  seem  to  interpret  my  silence  as 
a  want  of  respect,  I  think  it  right  to  say  that  the  perusal  of  any  publication 
disparaging  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Meagher,  can  afford  me  no  gratification,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  much  pain.  I  have  the  honor  to  be 

Your  obedient  servant, 

WM.    SMITH    O'BRIEN. 
THOMA.S  A.  DEVYB,  Esq. 

To  this  note  I  sent  the  following  reply — intended  less  for 
Mr.  O'Brien  himself  than  for  the  public: 

WILLIAMSBULG:T,  March  16, 1859. 

Sir :  — I  did  not  suppose  my  strictures  on  any  of  your  compatriots  of  '48 
would  afford  you  "gratification."  I  did  not  intend  to  pay  court  to  you  in 
any  such  dishonorable  way.  How  could  you  suppose  I  did? 

On  the  contrary,  I  believed  it  would  give  you  "  pain"  to  read,  as  it  gave 
me  pain  to  be  compelled  to  write  them. 

But  what  then?  Can  you  not  look  a  truth  in  the  face  because  it  may  give 
you  pain?  Will  you  give  no  heed  to  facts  bearing  on  the  fate  of  the  Irish 

*"  Gironde"  was  the  middleocracy  of  France,  who  would  substitute  their 
own  power  for  that  of  the  monarchy. 


64        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

nation  because  they  also  bear  on  the  conduct  of  one  of  your  friends?  Revers- 
ing  the  famous  aphorism,  do  you  indeed  exclaim,  "Not  that  I  love  Home 
less,  but  that  I  love  Ccesar  more  ? " 

And  yot  Ireland  looks  up  to  you,  and  her  children  and  friends  in  this 
country  look  up  to  you,  with  a  vague  hope.  A  hope  that,  perhaps,  God  has 
chastened  you  into  a  great  deliverer. 

Tell  them  to  dismiss  that  hope.  And,  above  all,  tell  them  that  their  own 
domestic  oligarchs  press  upon  them  with  a  weight  closer  and  heavier  than 
the  foreign  chain ! 

"Where  is  enslaved  man  to  turn  his  eyes  for  hope?  Those  who,  like  myself, 
had  an  early  struggle  with  poverty — who  know  what  it  is  to  stare  actual 
famine  in  the  face— have  they  any  power  to  make  themselves  felt?  Alas !  no. 
Their  sense  of  wrong  may  drive  them  to  the  shadowy  hillside,  and  the  night- 
echoes  of  their  musket  may  ring  tho  knell  of  the  individual  oppressor.  But 
they  possess  no  other  eloquence. 

" Knowledge  to  their  eyes  her  ample  page, 

Rich  with  the  spoils  of  time,  did  ne'er  unroll ; 
Chill  penury  repressed  their  noble  rage, 
Aud  froze  the  genial  current  of  the  soul." 

Sir,  if  you  realized  the  wrongs  of  these  unhappy  men — if  you  were  fit  to  be 
their  deliverer— you  would  bid  "friendship"  stand  back.  You  would 
trample  on  politeness.  You  would  thank  God,  who  had  spared  your  days 
and  given  you  power  to  aid  in  righting  them,  and  you  would  devote  to  the 
holy  work  every  waking  moment  of  your  future  life. 

But  will  you  do  this  work?  Do  you  oven  comprehend  it?  Do  you  under- 
stand the  right  of  that  miserable  man  bending  over  his  spade.  His  right  to 
a  sustaining  spot  on  this  earth  as  a  child  of  our  common  Father?  Do  you 
realize  this  Great  Truth:  that  as  the  "structure  of  his  lungs  gives  him  a 
man's  right  in  the  atmosphere,"  so  does  the  "  structure  of  his  stomach  "  give 
him  a  man's  right  in  the  soil? 

No,  sir,  you  do  not  realize  those  things.  You  are  a  gentleman — an  "  esta- 
ted"  gentleman — yourself.  It  is  two  thousand  years  since  the  Gracchii 
perished.  And  their  order— has  it  produced  one  inheritor  of  their  virtues 
up  to  the  present  day.  "Ireland  for  the  Irish."  What  does  it  mean,  sir? 
Is  it  that  a  few  Irish  lawyers  and  Irish  gentlemen  shall  "play  at  govern- 
ment" and  TAXES  without  interference  from  British  power?  If  so,  a  fig  for 
it.  I  would  not  raise  my  linger  to  produce  such  a  change.  But  if "  Ireland 
for  the  Irish"  means  that  the  Irish  land  "  belongs  "  to  the  Irish  people ;  that 
It  ought  to  furnish  them  with  "  plentiful  tables  "  and  "  happy  homes ;"  that 
the  landlord  or  sheriff  shall "  not  vex  them  "  any  more ; — if  it  means  that  the 
government  of  Ireland  shall  be  the  collective  will  of  her  whole  adult  man- 
hood ;  that  its  paramount  duty  shall  be  to  regulate  equitably  the  ownership 
of  this  Irish  land— then,  sir,  is  he  worthy  the  name  of  man  who  would  not 
almost  wade  the  Atlantic  to  strike  for  such  a  Revolution? 
I  have  the  honor,  &c., 

THOMAS   AINGE   DEVYJ$, 


OK,   THE   SPIBIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  65 


KOSSUTH — HUNGARY — ENGLAND. 

I  find  the  following  in  my  printed  records  of  1851 : 
Men's  opinions  differ  now  and  then.  I  suppose  it  is  right.  At  any  rate, 
it  is  our  nature.  In  reference  to  the  Hungarian  affair,  mine  agreed  with  my 
fellow-citizens'  up  to  the  point  where  Kossutli  so  zealously  endorsed  the 
British  Government.  Now,  that  government  is  distinguished  from  the  other 
despotisms  of  Europe  only  by  its  subtlety — as  the  serpent  in  the  garden  was 
distinguished  "from  all  tho  other  beasts  of  the  field."  When,  therefore, 
Kossuth  told  the  people  of  England  that  they  were  "not  free  because  they 
were  great  and  prosperous,  but  they  were  great  and  prosperous  because 
they  were  free,"  I  stopped  short.  When  he  told  the  English  people  that  the 
bulwark  of  their  freedom  was  their  municipalities,  it  is  no  wonder  I  cried, 
"  hold ! "  For  those  very  municipalities  had  put  steel  handcuffs  upon  me  at 
the  bidding  of  the  government.  In  fact,  the  big  tarantula  has  his  den  in 
Downing  street  (London),  and  all  the  municipaUties  are  so  many  of  his 

\claws. 

~~  I  believed  that  these  empty  and  lying  boasts  about  British  liberty  were 
calculated  to  discourage  the  democratic  element  everywhere,  so  I  published 
my  views  on  the  whole  matter,  and  sent  them  on  to  Washington.  They  did 
good,  and  helped  to  kill  off  the  impostor  when  he  reached  that  capital.  The 
following  is  an  extract  I  wrote  and  published  while  Kossuth  was  yet  in  Eng- 
land, and  before  he  reached  this  land,  where  the  shrewd  Yankees  let  him 

x-    swindle  them  out  of  some  seventy  thousand  dollars : 

Hopes  are  built  upon  it  that,  in  the  event  of  Hungary  again  raising  the  standard  of 
Independence,  England  •will  join  in  aiding  the  new  nationality.  I  have  no  evidence 
before  me  that  England  will  do  any  such  thing— especially  if  the  new  nation  aspires 
to  the  rank  of  a  Republic  resting  on  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  people.  Let  us 
briefly  analyze  the  nature  of  England's  institutions,  social  and  political. 

All  the  land  of  the  British  Islands,  and  all  the  minerals,  are  in  the  hands  of  an 
aristocracy— " the  landed  aristocracy."  Nearly  all  the  capital,  the  manufacturing 
machinery,  and  the  commerce  of  the  nation  are  in  the  hands  of  another  aristocracy— 
"  the  moneyed  aristocracy."  The  Itglslation  of  the  country  is  divided  between  them, 
and  pretty  equally  divided.  The  laboring  millions  are  excluded  from  all  participa- 
tion in  the  controlling  of  public  affairs.  These  two  aristocracies  issue  their  will, 
christened  by  the  name  of  "law,"  and  enforce  obedience  to  it  by  the  mediation  of  50.- 
000  bayonets,  aided  by  an  army  hardly  less  numerous  of  rural  police  and  municipal 
constables.  Liberty  perished  alike  beneath  Augustus  and 

«*  The  thirty 
Mock  tyrants  when  Rome's  annals  wax  but  dirty.1* 

The  first  typifies  your  Russian  Czar,  the  second  your  British  Oligarchy.  The  one 
is  the  iiend  touched  with  Ithuriel's  spear  up  in  its  natural  proportions  The  other  is 
the  same  fiend  groveling  on  its  bellv  in  the  garden  and  breathing  falsehoods  into  the 
xr<  man's  ear.  Which  of  the  vwo  despotisms  is  the  best  or  the  w-»rst  in  practice  I  will 
not  undertake  to  say.  The  English  Parliament— the  Reformed  Parliament— voted 
to  Adelaide,  dowager  of  William  IV.,  half  a  million  of  dollars  a  year,  and  a  seventy- 
four-gun  ship  to  jaunt  her  up  the  Mediterranean  for  the  benefit  of  her  health.  This 


66  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

to  the  very  woman  who  drove  the  country  to  the  verge  of  civil  war  in  1832,  by  oppos. 
ing  the  Reform  Bill.  The  workingman,  or  his  wife  or  mother  in  poverty  and  old  age 
were,  by  the  vote  of  that  same  Parliament,  consigned  to  a  prison  workhouse,  starved 
upon  fifteen  pence  worth  of  food  in  the  week,  and  the  very  hair  shaved  off  their  heads, 
as  an  indignity  added  to  their  miserable  condition  ! 

This  is  a  sample  of  government  justice  in  England.  Of  government  rapacity  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  it  has  the  working  millions  formed  into  one  vast  gang  of  white 
slaves,  toiling  in  the  field,  and  in  the  mine,  and  in  the  factory,  ior  a  subsistence  far 
less  adequate  and  assured  than  is  given  to  the  very  horses  that  are  yoked  to  the 
wagon  and  the  plough.  Two  dollars  and  a  half  per  week  will  more  than  average  the 
reward  of  labor.  "With  five  hundred  dollars  a  week,  an  English  aristocrat  would  con- 
sider himself  a  beggar.  The  one  produces  all  England'*  wealth ;  the  othtr  docs 
nothing  but  debauch  in  London,  or  ride  after  his  hounds. 


TAX-PAYEES'     MOVEMENT. 

It  is  now  1855,  and  local  taxes  have  so  enormously  increased  that 
Directors  of  the  City  Bank  and  others  subscribed  three  or  four  hun- 
dred dollars  to  start  a  weekly  paper  to  combat  and  expose  the  rob- 
bery. At  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  *  *  *  they  appoint  me  to  take 
charge  of  it,  with  Field,  Cashier  of  the  Bank,  to  assist  me.  He 
showed  me  the  list  of  subscribers  names,  and  said  he  would  collect 
the  monies.  Meanwhile  I  need  not  delay.  I  could  borrow  a  sum 
from  Mr.  *  *  *,  which  I  did.  Purchased  press  and  material. 
Founded  the  Tax-Payer's  Association — held  weekly  meetings  for 
several  months.  About  twenty  reformers,  all  poor  men,  attended 
those  meetings,  and  an  opposing  number  of  taxeaters  also  attended 
them.  Not  an  owner  of  property  came  to  help  us.  Not  a  subscriber 
to  the  press  fund  excepting  that  one  man  whom  we  all  know  by  this 
time.  He  subscribed  double  and  paid  it.  But  I  came  out  a  loser  of 
several  hundred  dollars  and  six  months  effort.* 

Floating-about  printers  are  easily  bribed,  and  the  taxeaters  had 
plenty  of  money  to  bribe  them.  So  as  soon  as  I  employed  one  a 
visitor  would  come  and  ask  him  out  to  confer.  He  would  return, 
put  on  his  coat,  and  leave,  just  as  it  was  done  by  the  same  political 
rogues  in  the  affair  of  the  Morning  Post.  Mr.  Field  went  over  bodily 

*It  is  believed  that  Tax  Assessors  connive  with  rich  men.  And  if  a  formi- 
dable opposition  presents  itself  lower  the  tax  demands  to  get  rid  of  the 
opposition.  This  was  probably  done  in  the  present  instance.  I  presented 
that  thought  to  Mr.  *  *  *.  He  gave  me  written  authority  to  have  the  Bank 
taxes  so  examined  as  to  either  disprove  or  confirm  the  suspicion.  Finding 
what  my  purpose  was  the  Bank  officials  baffled  it  for  weeks,  and  finally 
\vouUl  not  allow  the  books  to  be  examined. 


OK,    THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DA^S.  67 

to  the  taxeaters— foil  into  ill  health,  and  his  brother  had  to  take  care 
of  him  till  he  died. 

I  worked  at  case  and  the  press  myself,  with  my  two  little  sons  to 
help  me,  and  finally  fell  dangerously  sick,  and  the  politicians  were 
triumphant,  and  the  taxpayers  were  and  are  just  where  they  ought 
to  be,  Bobbed — by  taxation  the  highest,  local  Debt  the  largest,  and 
government  perhaps  the  very  worst  in  the  world. 

The  programme  of  the  Taxpayers'  Party  was  thus  set  forth  : 

"  The  object  of  the  Party  is  to  put  down  fraud,  waste  and  oppression 
in  our  City  and  County  government,  and  to  rouse  up  into  life  its  laziness 
and  inefficiency. 

To  restore  the  rate  of  taxation  that  prevailed  ten  years  ago.  A  man  who 
paid  live  dollars  on  his  house  and  lot  then,  ought  not  to  pay  one  cent  more 
now, 

There  have  been  as  many  improvements  made  since  that  time — houses  built, 
factories  established,  wharves  and  stores  erected— as  are  sufficient  to  bear 
the  legitimate  increase  in  the  expense  of  government. 

Tax-payers !  Have  your  burdens  rapidly  increased  from  year  to  year  till 
they  are  now  insupportable? 

Have  these  burdens  driven  away  New  York  capital  to  other  places?  Is 
not  Williamsburgh  left  as  poor  as  a  church  mouse? 

Does  anything  flourish  but  the  office  holders? 

Have  the  watch  dogs  of  the  Press  leagued  with  the  robbers?  Have  they 
remained  silent?  Have  they  taken  their  share  of  the  spoils?  Have  they 
worried  and  bitten  the  good  men  among  you  who  would  dare  to  disturb  the 
public  thieves? 

Have  they  driven  out  all  truth  from  their  columns?  Have  they  presented 
you,  for  years,  with  falsehood  and  carricatures? 

There  are  in  every  town  and  ward  discreet  and  intelligent  men  who  have 
not  been  much  mixed  up  in  politics.  Let  these  men  consult  with  each 
other,  and  fix  upon  a  proper  'man  say  for  the  office  of  Alderman. 

Let  a  requisition  be  got  up  asking  him  to  serve — Let  that  requisition  be 
carried  round  to  every  voter — let  all  sign  it  who  are  determined  to  put  an 
eTfid  to  this  state  of  affairs.  Primary  meetings  have  become  odious,  and  in 
our  programme  they  are  unnecessary.  A  gentleman  nominated  in  this  way 
can  hardly  fail  of  being  elected . 

Ten  years  ago  we  used  to  meet  in  mass  convention,  men  of  all  parties, 
and  debate  what  reforms  we  wanted  from  the  Legislature.  We  used  to  ad- 
journ from  night  to  night  until  we  agreed  upon  the  necessary  measures. 
Then  we  sent  a  deputation  to  Albany  with  those  measures,  and  they  came 
back  to  us  enacted  into  law.  Why  is  this  not  done  now?  "  O  !  the  Bennetts, 
the  Fields,  the  Sparks,  the  Comstocks,  the  Huntlys  and  their  drummed  up 
recruits,  would  not  let  us"  do  it."  Ah  well !  If  that  indeed,  be  so,  let  us 


68  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  J 

like  the  falling  Csesar,  cover  our  faces  with  our  garment  and  decently  resign 
ourselves  to  our  fate." 

THE    COKKUPT    COKPOKATION    PRESS. 

The  main  reason  urged  by  me  against  feeding  this  foul  press,  was,  not 
the  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  more,  that  it  costs  the  city — not  the 
many  thousands  more  that  it  sacks  by  the  numerous  Sheriff's  sales  brought 
upon  us  by  the  deplorable  state  of  our  affairs — not  the  sums  of  blackmail 
which,  to  my  cost,  I  know  it  is  in  the  habit  of  levying :  O  !  no— NOT  these 
by  any  means.  If  George  Bennett  would  take  his  sheep's  head  back  to 
Cockneydom  and  keep  it  there ;  and  if  the  other  men  of  types  and  lamp- 
black (who  are  less  hurtfull,  because  they  are  less  mendacious  and  veno- 
mous than  he  is),  if  they  would  all  take  themselves  off,  and  guarantee  us 
against  another  batch  of  the  same  sort — I,  for  one,  would  vote  them  tJie  fifty 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  during  their  natural  lives — rather  than  not  get  rid 
Of  them. 

And  never  did  a  plundered  city  make  as  good  a  bargain  before,  as  this 
would  be  for  us.  Why?  Simply  because  the  $1,800,000,*  which  are  plun- 
dered off  us  yearly,  is  plundered  off  us  by  means  of  this  corrupt  and  vil- 
lainous press.  Their  falsifications — their  concealments — their  slanders  of 

our  best  public  men who  does  not  know  these  were  the  things  which  run 

the  plunder  up  to  an  amount  so  enormous?  Well  did  Madame  de  Sael  say : 

"  In  the  same  way  as  regular  troops  are  more  formidable  than  militia 
to  the  independence  of  the  people,  so  do  hired  writers  deprave  and  mislead 
public  opinion  much  more  than  could  take  place  when  men  communed 
only  by  words,  and  formed  their  opinions  by  facts  which  fell  under  their 
own  observation." 

We  have  now  "  hired  writers"— hired,  paid,  fed,  by  the  men  who  literally 
"  reel  to  bed  "  under  the  weight  of  our  plunder. 

"  The  Flint,  one  day  reproached  the  Steel,  for  striking  it  so  hard  in  order 
to  bring  forth  its  fire.  "  It  is  no  pleasure  to  me,"  said  the  steel.  "  This 
hard  striking  injures — wears — and  cuts  me  up — as  much  as  it  does  you. 
But,  though  you  are  full  of  fire,  when  would  you  give  sparks  if  I  did  not 
strike  you  hard?"  "  There  may  be  some  reason  in  that,"  returned  the  flint, 
"and  is  it  possible  this  hard  striking  is  disagreeable  to  you  as  well  as  to 
me?  And  does  it  happen  only  because  I  will  not  give  fire  without  it?  Let 
me  reflect." 

The  enemies  of  Reform  will,  of  course,  resort  to  every  possible  untruth. 
\  Among  the  rest  I  am  too  "  impetuous — too  fiery."  I  am.  Far  too  much  so 
I  for  my  own  welfare  and  quiet.  I  am  The  Steel  because  they  are  The  Flint. 

Here  follow  items  and  incidents  connected  with  this  effort: 
"  Of  our  first  number  we  printed  3,000  copies.  The  printer's  bill  amounted 
to  just  $27 — paper,  15.50— placards,  advertising.  &c.,  brought  up  the  total  to 

It  is  now  some  eight  or  ten  millions,  with  a  debt  approaching  forty  millions. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  69 

over  $77,  leaving  all  the  editorial  work — all  the  examination  into  public 
records.  &c.,  to  go  "  free,  gratis,  for  nothing." 

Now,  3,000  copies,  at  three  cents  each,  would  come  to  ninety  dollars,  out 
of  which  the  carriers  receive  $30  for  their  labor.  Then  there  is  the  trouble 
and  loss  in  collecting,  which  will  bring  down  the  receipts  to  $50,  or  less,  for 
what  cost  $77,  with  editorial  labor,  office  rent,  &e.,  <fcc.,  thrown  into  the 
bargain. 

I  did  some  advertising,  but  got  no  pay  for  it.  Mr.  *  *  *  ordered 
the  Insurance  Co.  and  Bank  to  advertise.  They  did,  but  so  managed 
as  not  to  pay  me  a  cent. 

I  give  here  the  record  of  one  of  our  meetings  as  published  at  the 
time  in  the  Taxpayer.  It  is  strikingly  illustrative  of  the  good  that 
may  lie  dormant  in  the  human  mind  : 

"  Mr.  Field,  now  justly  doubtful  of  his  power  to  further  perplex  and  mis- 
load  us ;  was,  by  some  lucky  chance,  accompanied  by  ex-Maj7or  Wall.  That 
gentleman  threw  himself  into  the  breach.  Told  us  that  we  "wanted  no  re- 
formers." That  we  "  would  have  none."  That  men  were  elected  before  as 
'  Reformers"  who,  as  soon  as  they  got  in  "  set  to  stealing  the  money,"  this 
was  said  with  an  emphasis  and  gesture  toward  Mr.  Devyr ;  as  if  that  indi- 
vidual had  been  a  public  plunderer,  and  was  now  at  last  detected,  and 
dragged  to  light  by  the  great  discernment  of  Mr.  Wall. 

Mr.  Devyr  said :  If  knaves  called  themselves  Reformers  and  got  into 
office  by  that  means,  it  did  not  sully  the  character  of  those  true  men  who 
labored  for  Reform  and  neither  received  nor  asked  office  or  reward.  He, 
Mr.  D.  defied  Mr.  Wall  and  the  most  malignant  press  in  the  city,  to  charge 
him  with  one  dishonest  or  dishonorable  act  during  the  seventeen  years  he 
hid  been  connected  with  Williamsburgh.  He  could  say  as  much  for 
the  Chairman,  Jas.  A.  Pyne,  and  Secretary  John  Tobitt,  who  always 
were  Reformers  of  abuse;  and  for  Mr.  Stearns,  also,  who  had  done 
much  for  the  public  cause.  This  stale  plan  of  abolishing  a  church  because 
two  or  three  knaves  might  creep  into  it,  was  scarcely  worthy  of  Mr.  Wall. 

Thus  admonished  Mr.  Wall  proceeded  to  address  the  meeting.  A 
most  able  address,  little  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  he  indicated  a 
few  minutes  before.  He  said  : 

"  Though  frequently  in  public  office,  this  was  the  first  time  he  presented 
himself  to  address  a  public  meeting.  He  did  so  now  because  he  felt  a 
deep  interest  in  the  subject  that  had  brought  them  together.  That  interest 
had  extended  to  the  whole  consolidated  city,  but  especially  to  the  Easter^ 
District.  He  had  long  watched  the  movements  that  were  going  on ;  and  it 
was  now  time  for  every  man  to  buckle  on  his  armor.  He  had  seen  a  "  Re- 
form Party"  arise  before  now ;  and  it  elected  a  City  Clerk  and  Street  Com- 
missioner—and in  their  time  of  office  nothing  but  ignorance  und  careless- 
ness prevailed ',  except,  indeed,  they  contrived  to  do  wrong.  Contracts  for 


70  THE  ODD   BOOK  OF   THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

streets  were  estimated  at  $2.94  per  foot,  and  entered  on  the  books  at  $4.94. 
These  things  were  followed  by  defalcations— public  stealings  he  must  call 
them ;  and  so,  every  man  who  owned  a  piece  of  property,  or  rented  a  house 
was  compelled  to  pay  them.  Why  was  this  done  ?  Because  people  let 
evil  men  control  their  affairs.  Men  looked  at  their  tax  bills — grumbled — 
swore  a  little — but  paid ;  and  when  the  next  election  came  round,  voted  for 
whatever  man  their  party  might  nominate,  be  he  bad  or  good. 

He  had  known  nominating  committees  the  chairman  of  which  ought  to  be 
in  the  Penitentiary.  Let  us  break  these  nominations— let  us  henceforth 
know  the  men  we  vote  for.  If  we  do  not  know  them  ourselves,  let  us  in- 
quire of  our  neighbors,  who  do  know  them.  A  Tax  commissioner  even 
boasted  that  with  $1,200  salary  he  made  $20,000  a  year,  though  the  same 
man  was  not  fit  to  earn  $700  a  year  in  any  legitimate  capacity. 

This  was  the  kind  of  men  we  sent  to  the  Common  Council,  instead  of  men 
who  would  stand  up  fearlessly  and  do  their  duty.  Did  any  man  ever  know 
of  such  a  robbed  city  ?  And  who  was  to  blame  ?  Every  one  of  us  who  did 
not  compel  Justice  to  be  done.  When  he  found  that  a  Collector  with  a 
salary  of  $1,200  a  year  could  spend  $1,200  to  secure  his  re- election  he  said  to 
the  Comptroller :  That  man  must  be  stealing.  Tho  Comptroller  replied  that 
couldn't  be  as  he  made  oath  every  week  that  he  returned  all  the  monies  re- 
ceived by  him.  Oh  yes  !  he  swore  first  rate.  At  last  he  (Mr.  W.)  called  a 
private  meeting  of  the  Council  and  on  examination  it  was  found  that  the 
money  was  gone,— and  soon  after  the  Collector  followed.  Then  the  Know- 
Nothings  nominated  a  man  who  could  wield  a  club  as  a  Sheriff's  deputy 
and  knock  an  Irishman  down.  This  man  was  to  show  them  a  "  model  Col- 
lector," but  such  a  model  he  (Mr.  W.)  did  not  wish  to  see  again.  Here  a 
gentleman  in  the  crowd  (Mr.  Miller)  asked  did  not  he,  Mr.  Wall,  as  Mayor, 
certify  to  his  election  ? 

Mr.  Wall  replied  that  he  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  That  he  had  no  author- 
ity in  it. 

Mr.  Miller  said  when  in  the  lobby  of  the  Common  Council,  he  had  objected 
against  the  election  of  Mr.  Braisted  there  was  a  cry  raised,  "  put  him  out" 

Mr.  Wall  had  named  no  man. 

Mr.  Miller.    We  all  know  him. 

Mr.  Wall — Oh !  ye  do — do  you  ?  (Laughter  and  cheers.)  He  resumed : — 
One  bill  for  $8,000  was  presented — it  was  returned  and  cut  down  to  $5,000. 
Then  an  Aid.  asked  was  it  low  enough.  He  (Mr.  Wall)  said— No !  He  be- 
lieved very  little  if  any  of  it  was  due.  The  Aid.  said  ho  thought  so  too,  but 
he  voted  for  it  notwithstanding  and  it  was  passed.  They  had  all  been 
asleep :  but  now  they  were  going  to  wake  up.  He  spoke  of  part  of  a  lot 
that  had  been  bought  for  an  engine  house,  at  $2,200.  He  (Mr.  W.)  owned 
land  in  the  same  place  and  would  be  glad  to  get  $1,000  for  a  full  lot.  He 
asked  the  man,  who  told  him,  how  the  price  came  to  be  so  high  ?  "  Ob." 
said  he,  "  it  was  bought  for  an  Engine  house !"  (Laughter  and  cheers.) 

Thus  acted  our  Aldermen.  And  they  could  act  thus  for  two  years  after 
we  elected  them.  If  we  hired  a  servant  and  found  he  was  unfaithful  wf> 


OR,    THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  71 

could  discharge  him.    But  we  couldn't  discharge  an  Alderman  and  if  you 

-  talked  of  such  a  thing,  he  would  raise  h — 11  with  you.    So  badly  were  our 

.  ptreets  paved  that  a  gentleman  coming  to  one  of  them  was  requested  to 

turn  back — as  the  Inspector  was  coming  to  view  it,  and  if  the  horse  trod  on 

it  some  of  the  stones  might  sink  in.    (Great  laughter  and  cheers.) 

Mr.  Wall  concluded  by  saying  that  there  was  sickness  in  his  family — that 
money  could  not  purchase  him  to  be  present  to-night ;  but  that  he  felt  it  was 
the  sacred  duty  of  all  good  men  to  come  forward  and  put  an  end  to  those 
things.  He  retired  amid  a  round  of  applause. 

Byron  talks  thus  of  first  speeches  : 

"  I  had  forgotten  but  must  not  forget 
An  orator,  the  latest  of  the  session, 
Who  had  delivered  well  a  very  set, 
Smooth  speech,  his  first  and  maidenly  transgression, 
Upon  debate— the  papers  echoed  yet, 
With  his  debut  which  made  a  strong  impression, 
And  ranked  with  what  is  every  day  displayed 
The  best  first  speech  that  ever  yet  was  made." 

There  was  nothing  "  set"  or  at  all  "  smooth"  in  this  first  speech 
of  Mr.  Wall.  It  was  the  welling  up  of  the  honest  feeling  that  lay  at 
the  bottom  of  his  heart.  If  Mr.  Wall  had  cherished  and  brought 
out  those  feelings  that  were  natural  to  him  he  would  have  been  a 
very  useful  and  very  distinguished  man.  But  the  base  natures  that 
surrounded  him 

"  Repressed  his  noble  rage 
And  froze  the  genial  current  of  his  soul." 

as  those  base  natures  did  with  many  a  naturally  good  man  like  Win. 
Wall.  I  give  these  details  because  they  are  sharply  illustrative  of 
American  government  and  American  character. 

POLICE. 

About  this  time  I  had  not  as  good  an  opinion  of  our  police  force  as 
I  afterwards  found  it  deserved.  I  had  not,  as  yet,  realized  that  my 
life,  or  the  life  of  any  citizen,  was  absolutely  at  their  disposal.  And 
•when  I  found  that  not  one  in  a  hundred  of  them  availed  himself  of 
his  privilege,  I  could  not  but  feel  both  kindly  and  grateful  to  them. 
Many  a  time  since,  I  have  taken  off  my  mental  hat  and  thanked 
them  for  not  killing  me  as  they  passed  me  by.  But  the  Tax-payers' 
Movement  roused  animosity,  I  think  on  both  sides.  Mine  took  this 

satirical  shape : 

"  Let  others  sing  of  battle  steeds, 

Of  rifles  and  of  wars, 
And  tell  us  of  their  gallant  deeds 
Beneath  the  stripes  and  stars; 


72  THE  ODD   BOeE   QP   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  J 

Give  me  the  star  beneath  whose  beam 

You  neither  work  nor  beg — 
The  star  below  my  shoulder  seam, 

The  stripe  upon  my  leg. 

The  Freedom's  star,  whose  gallant  show 

Waves  to  the  breeze  on  high ; 
The  stripe  that  joins  that  star— a  bow 

Of  promise  in  the  sky. 
Well,  you  look  up  to  see  them  float — 

You — hoist  them  up  a  peg ; 
But  I— my  star  is  on  my  coat, 

My  stripe  is  on  my  leg. 

That  stripe,  you  say,  in  better  days 

Waved  o'er  young  Freedom's  Band — 
That  star  shot  down  its  virgin  rays, 

To  light  a  happy  land ! 
Bosh !    Put  this  lager  to  your  throat, 

And  drink  it  to  the  dregs ; 
And  toast  the  star  upon  my  coat, 

The  stripe  upon  my  legs ! 

No  more  of  stripe,  by  tempest  driven 

Above  its  wall  of  oak — 
Of  star,  that  from  the  blue  of  Heaven 

Lights  up  the  cannon's  smoke ! 
Tobacco  smoke  is  sweeter  far, 

Among  those  brandy  kegs. 
Hurrah !  then,  tor  the  stripe  and  star 

On  me  and  on  my  legs ! 

The  following  appears  in  one  of  the  last  numbers  (VII.)  of  the 
Taxpayer : 

"  Tte  incessant  thougl*  and  physical  labor  which  have  pressed  upon  me  in 
this  movement,  have  so  utterly  broken  my  health  that  I  must  travel.  My 
own  family  pant  this  sheet.  They  are  obtaining  proficiency  daily,  and  will, 
1  think,  keep  up  the  weekly  issue  during  my  absence.  But  let -the  citizens 
count  nothing  on  me.  If  they  are  ready  to  free  this  distressed  city  they  can 
easily  do  so.  If  they  are  not,  they  must  suffer  on,  on." 

And  they  did  and  do  suffer  on  to  an  extent  which  we  shall  see  as 
we  proceed. 


It  was  my  purpose  to  record  impunity  given  to  crime  by 
American  Jurisprudence.  But  the  early  records  preserved  for  this 
purpose  were  dwarfed  out  of  existence  by  the  examples  almost  in- 
credible that  now,  '81,  force  themselves  on  our  attention  every  day. 

If  a  sailor  drowned  passengers  in  mid-ocean  and  got  off  with  three 


f"  OR,  THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN  DAYS.  73 

months  imprisonment — if  a  U.  S.  Commander  murdered  at  the  yard- 
arm  three  innocent  men  in  contempt  of  the  express  law  of  the  Ke- 
public  and  got  off  without  censure  —  if  a  counsel  betrayed  to  the 
gallows  the  prisoner  he  was  appointed  to  defend,  later  events  far 
more  atrocious  crowded  in  so  fast  as  by  comparison  to  render  such 
small  mattefs  not  worth  notice. 

Our  absurd  and  wicked  diplomacy  began  to  attract  attention  at 
this  time.  It  drew  forth  expositions  like  this  : 

HOME    MISSIONS    AND    FOKEIGN    MISSIONS. 

"  It  is  true  another  kind  of  diplomacy  belongs  to  the  Kepublic.  A 
mission  of  our  pioneer  ambassadors  into  our  royal  back  woods. 

This  Home  Missionary,  after,  felling  and  digging,  and  ploughing 
enough  for  his  family's  use,  has  a  little  extra  time  which  he  would 
fain  apply  to  fencing,  humanizing  the  precincts  of  his  cabin,  perhaps 
constructing  a  rude  cradle  in  which  to  rock  little  Billy.  But  this 
would  be  quite  unreasonable.  He  should  rather  employ  this  extra 
time  to  raise  «xtra  corn  or  wheat,  drive  it  ten  or  twelve  miles  to 
market,  and  turn  it  into  money.  One  will  bring  fifty  cents  per 
bushel  and  the  other  fifteen. 

The  price  may  be  small.  The  labor  to  produce  it  may  be  ardu- 
ous. The  very  toil  of  carrying  it  to  market  may  be  worth  half  the 
amount  that  his  sales  will  bring.  But  he  has  at  least  one  thing  to 
cheer  him  in  his  hard  struggle.  It  is  the  reflection  that  when  he  has 
succeeded  in  scraping  together  $200,  and  when  he  has  paid  it  into 
the  National  Treasury  for  his  land,  it  will  be  patriotically  applied 
to  buy  "Opera  tickets "  for  the  young  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  our 
foreign  Ambassador's  suite. 

It  is  true,  when  returning  from  market,  empty-handed  to  his 
lonely  cabin  in  the  woods — when  the  barefooted  little  ones 

run  to  lisp  their  sire's  return, 

And  climb  his  knee  the  envied  kiss  to  share," 

a  thought  may  come  over  him — a  fierce  and  sorrowful  thought — that 
the  money  which  he  received  for  his  wheat  and  corn  would  have 
bought  many  a  little  necessary  bitterly  wanted  by  his  own  wife  and 
children. 

Well,  they  must  put  up  with  the  privation.  There  is  no  cure.  A 
patriotic  government  has  decided  that  the  backwoodsman  should 
rather  furnish  the  Ambassador's  family  with  opera  tickets  than  his 
own  family  with  the  necessaries  of  life, 

And  if  the  backwoodsman  should  repine  at  this  application  of 
his  money,  he  ought  to  remember  that  we  could  never  get 


74       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

along  with  those  mighty  and  redoubtable  monarchies  of  Europe  and 
elsewhere  if  we  did  not  send  forth  our  ' '  Mission"-aries  to  feast  and 
coax,  and  conciliate  and  cajole  their  Diplomatic  corps.  Our  insti- 
tutions are  so  tottering — and  theirs  so  firm  !  Our  resources  are  so 
limited — and  theirs  so  vast!  Our  industry  is  so  sluggish — and 
theirs  is  so  active !  Their  mercenaries  are  so  brave — and  our  vol- 
unteers so  pusillanimous  !  Our  Treasury  is  so  empty »—  and  theirs 
is  so  full !  Our  trade  is  so  worthless  to  them — and  theirs  is  of  such 
immense  value  to  us  !  And  finally,  and  above  all,  their  subjects  are 
so  happy  and  loyal — and  our  citizens  are  so  miserable  and  malcon- 
tent— that  some  terrible  thing  might  come  of  it,  if  we  had  not  our 
"  entertaining'  corps  to  eat  and  drink  European  ambassadors  into 
good  humor  with  us,  and  thus,  and  by  that  means,  obtain  for  this 
Republic  their  magnanimous  forbearance. 

One  fine  day  in  June  Victoria  opened  her  first  Parliament.  Wasn't 
there  a  cavalcade  of  Ambassadors?  and  wasn't  the  importance  of 
each  nation  written  on  the  diplomatic  coaches  in  letters  of  flaming 
gold?  That  plain  American  carriage  of  Andrew  Stevenson — what  is 
it  doing  there?  It  is  the  statue  of  Brutus  in  the  procession  of  Caesar. 

Really,  it  is  very  condescending  in  the  other  Ambassadors  to  suf- 
fer it  among  them  at  all.  It  speaks  a  whole  volume  of  politics  to 
the  assembled  thousands  of  workingmen  who  came  to  see  the  show. 
The  thousands  cheer  it  along  St.  James',  down  Whitehall,  and  all 
away  to  the  Old  Abbey.  They  cheer  the  American  brown  carriage, 
and  some  of  them  grin  and  jeer  at  the  fine  European  tinsel  and  gold. 
The  savages  !  What  a  taste  they  must  have.  But  we'll  set  the  mat- 
ter right — we'll  get  gilded  carriages  too." 

And  all  this  diplomacy  costing  millions  is  not  merely  useless  to 
us.  It  is  both  dishonoring  and  dangerous.  A  political  parvenue 
goes  out  to  a  foreign  Court  with  a  train  of  paid  "loblolly  boys  "  at 
his  heels.  All  on  the  watch  to  pick  up  "noble  and  royal"  snobbery 
to  astonish  the  native*  when  they  return  home  again.  If  there  be 
any  Republicans,  (not  thief  Republicans),  in  the  country,  they  have 
a  worthy  job  before  them  to  regulate  this  villainy  along  with  the 
rest.  

THE    PANIC    OF    1857. 

At  this  time  the  Banking  law  of  New  York  State  enjoined  specie 
redemption  of  all  bills  issued  by  the  Banks.  For  this  purpose  the 
banks  retained  what  they  called  "a  solid  basis."  But  now  the 
"basis"  takes  flight  to  Europe,  and  to  avoid  a  breach  of  the  law 
and  consequent  bankruptcy  they  cease  to  discount.  Then  there  is  no 


OK,  THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN  DATS.  75 

money — no  manufacturing — no  employment.  Everything  is  at  a 
stand  still.  Mr.  *  *  *  explains  to  me  the  condition  of  his  bank — 
That  it  was  only  by  drawing  on  the  resources  of  all  his  friends  he 
was  enabled  to  redeem  the  torrent  of  inrushing  bank  bills.  But  by 
resolutely  withholding  discounts  the  storm  must  blow  over.  He 
could  not  sleep  at  night  at  the  thought  of  the  bare  possibility  of  his 
father's  name  (as  President)  and  his  own  as  Director  being  dishon- 
ored, and  owing  to  his  resources  and  vigilance  they  were  not.  At 
his  desire,  and  enlightened  by  his  practical  knowledge,  I  wrote 
"Currency  Explosions,  their  Cause  and  Cure."  From  it  I  give  ex- 
tracts : 

1st  Extract. — "  Gold  is  simply  a  commodity  of  use  in  the  arts,  but  if  the 
credit  of  a  nation  is  broken  down  by  anarchy  or  war,  it  will  be  found  useful 
as  a  temporary  medium  of  exchange." 

2(Z "  The  permanent  currency  of  any  Nation  ought  to  be  based  on  the 

nation's  resources  and  credit.  If  that  credit  is  good,  its  currency  will  be 
convertible  into  all  commodities— including  gold." 

3d. — "  To  base  a  currency  on  gold  is  to  base  a  house  upon  moveable  bricks 
that  may  be  withdrawn  at  any  time,  especially  by  a  foreign  demand, 
leaving  the  structure  to  tumble  into  ruins." 

±th — Settlement  Of  Land — "Nature  intended  man's  relation  to  the  soil  to 
be  very  close  and  permanent.  On  the  bosom  of  his  great  Nursing  Mother 
he  finds  security  from  the  collapses  of  trade.  Health  invigorates  his  frame 
and  his  position  is  the  best  for  cultivating  both  the  private  and  the  public 

5th  Extract.— FOREIGN  EXCHANGE. 

11  The  foreign  merchant  sells  his  cargo  of  goods  and  gets  paid  for  it  in 
currency,  but  that  won't  do  to  take  home  with  him.  The  banks  are  no  lon- 
ger compelled  to  give  him  gold,  and  the  premium  on  that  metal  is  up  to 
five  per  cent.  He  can't  afford  that ;  it  takes  away  all  his  profits.  So  he 
goes  to  an  exporting  firm  and  asks  can  they  sell  him  an  Exchange  on  Liver- 
pool. 'No.'  The  prices  of  grain  and  cotton  here,  with  freight,  &c.,  add- 
ed, are  about  equal  to  what  they  would  bring  in  Liverpool.  Therefore  they 
are  not  shipping  and  have  no  exchange  to  sell.  « But,'  replies  the  merchant, 
'  I'll  give  you  three  per  cent  premium  for  a  bill.'  '  Well,'  returns  the  other, 
'  let  me  see.  There  is  the  ship  Washington  waiting  for  a  freight.  She  car- 
ries 20,000  barrels  of  flour— which  at  $5  amounts  to  $100,000  net,  the  sum 
you  want.  Your  premium  of  3  per  cent  amounts  to  $3,000.  A  very  fair 
profit.  Yes,  we'll  ship  the  flour,  and  give  you  a  Bill  of  Exchange  on  the 
conditions  you  have  mentioned.' " 

And  thus  the  flour  is  sold  only  because  the  foreign  merchant  could 
not  compel  the  bank  to  give  him  gold. 

He  goes  home  and  calculates  for  another  adventure.  But  he  finds 
that  if  he  cannot  sell  his  wares  at  three  per  cent  or  more  advance 
on  his  last  sales,  it  will  not  do  to  take  them  to  America.  This 


76        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

checks  our  imports  and  by  the  double  action  the  balance  of  trade  is 
rapidly  adjusted  without  in  the  least  affecting  our  currency  or  our 
domestic  trade. 

But  under  the  "gold  basis"  system  excessive  importation  could 
only  be  checked,  not  by  screwing  the  foreign  merchant  who  brings  on 
the  necessity,  but  by  bringing  down  all  prices  to  the  European  level 
— contracting  the  whole  currency  of  the  nation — producing  confu- 
sion, loss,  and  ruin  widespread  as  the  whole  continent  and  vibrating 
over  the  world. 

Thus  compelled,  all  the  banks  in  New  York  State  held  a  Conven- 
tion in  the  city — repudiated  the  "redemption"  folly,  issued  their 
bills  untrammelled  with  gold.  Everybody  was  glad  to  get  them. 
Trade  revived.  Gold  would  not  command  50  cents  premium  on 
$100.  Up  till  we  were  one  year  into  the  war  it  did  not  reach  2  per 
cent,  and  never  would  if  the  central  government  had  not  basely  and 
criminally  repudiated  its  own  "lawful  money,"  and  become  a  bor- 
rower, when  it  could  and  should  have  been  a  lender,  as  will  be  seen 
by  a  Memorial  forwarded  to  Congress  in  February  1863,  by  the 
same  gentleman  without  whose  influence  this  book  had  never  been 
written.  THAT  MEMOKIAL. 

After  showing  that  the  State  Banks  had  no  legal  existence  and 
how  to  "  retire  "  them,  it  proceeded  thus  : 

"  The  rubbish  cleared  away,  let  the  Government  issue  a  National  Cur- 
rency to  take  its  place.  The  Currency  must  be  a  large  amount,  probably 
two  thousand  millions  of  dollars  in  "1865.* 

"  To  this  amount  the  nation  will  accept  the  bills  of  the  Government.  Will 
the  nation  redeem  them  ?  Yes.  At  sight.  In  flour,  beef,  cloth,  houses, 
lands,  everything,  in  short,  contained  in  the  nation.  Every  man  will  be 
glad  to  get  them.  There  will  bo  no  other  money  in  the  country." 

"  With  this  2,000,000,000  of  new  National  Currency  the  Government  can 
extinguish  its  incipient  debt  and  have  a  large  surplus,  which  may  be  loaned 
to  bankers  or  others  on  a  deposit  of  State  stocks  at  an  interest  of  five  or  six 
per  cent,  an  annual  gain  of  twenty-five  millions.  (This  was  in  February 
1863,  when  the  debt  was  small.)  The  casual  destruction  of  the  bills,  especi- 
ally in  war  times,  would  on  the  above  amount  average  1^  to  2  per  cent  — 
thirty  to  forty  millions  yearly.  Increase  of  business  and  population  would 
demand  a  steady  increase  of  nearly  an  equal  amount.  Making  in  all  well 
up  to  one  hundred  millions  a  year  of  legitimate  resource  to  the  Govern- 
ment." And  yet  the  blocklieaded  rogues  went  and  borrowed  money  from  the 
Shyloeks — more  rogue  than  the  blockhead. 

The  Memorial  continued : — 

"The  bills  of  the  National  Currency  must  not  be  a  "Promise  to  pay." 

"Strange  coincidence.  This  turned  out  to  be  the  exact  volume  in  circulation  in  1865. 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  77 

They  are  a  draft  by  the  Government  on  the  people.  An  evidence  of  a 
debt  due  by  the  people  to  the  bearer,  and  should  bear  that  evidence  on  their 
face,  thus : 


$10      TO    THE    PEOPLE    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 


CBEDIT  THE  BEAKER  TEN  DOLLARS  AT  SIGHT. 
VALUE  RECEIVED  BY  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT. 

LEGAL  TENDER. 

SIGNED,  A.  B.  ATTEST,  C.  D.  $10 


' '  The  bill  once  issued,  the  nation  takes  it,  and  the  Government  has 
nothing  further  to  do  with  it,  save  perhaps  renew  it  when  worn  out." 

By  the  help  of  unfortunate  Preston  King,  a  naturally  good  man  who  sank 
under  the  sea  of  corruption  he  floated  in,  I  had  this  Memorial  laid  on  all 
the  desks  in  Congress.  The  gentleman  who  inspired  this,  himself  a  banker 
and  a  millionaire,  when  reminded  that  it  would  take  largely  from  the  profits 
of  his  own  bank,  replied  as  we  have  seen  "  I  CARE  NOT  FOR  MY  BANK,  i  CASE 

FOR  MY  COUNTRY ! " 

When  I  reached  Washington  with  this  Memorial  I  could  not  get  access  to 
Mr.  Chase.  His  ante-room  was  filled  with  place  beggars — his  deputy,  Har- 
rington, thought,  I  suppose,  that  I  was  one  of  them,  and  spoke  to  me  in 
such  strain.  I  told  him  my  business  was  not  with  him  but  with  Mr.  Chase, 
and  he  took  care  that  I  should  not  see  Mr.  Chase.  To  what  follows  let  me 
ask  especial  attention. 

Edmund  C.  Stedman,  a  clever  writer  and  somewhat  of  a  Reformer,  occu- 
pied a  large  office  room  in  the  Treasury  Department.  I  told  him  my  mis- 
sion. "  You  can  accomplish  nothing,"  said  he.  "  Mr.  Chase  will  borrow  and 
will  have  National  Banks."  "  But  what  will  the  people  say,"  I  ask,  "when 
they  see  him  avoid  this  Great  Gain  and  embrace  this  great  Annual  Loss?" 

"  The  people !"  he  replied,  "  If  we  bid  them  put  their  heads  in  that  cor- 
ner (pointing  to  it)  till  we  put  our  foot  on  their  necks  they  will  do  it." 

And  he  was  just  out  from  a  long  probation  in  Greeley's  Tribune  office, 
when  he  voiced  this  appalling  sentiment.  Here,  just  here,  lies  the  great,  the 
terrible  danger  of  the  Republic ! 

I  returned  home.  O  !  how  discouraged  !  It  is  midnight.  A  big 
dark  cloud  rises  up  in  the  sky.  Flashes  of  sheet  lightning  play 
round  its  margins,  and  plant  an  immense  tree  of  fire  on  its  disk.  It 
disappears — returns — seems  to  play  hide  and  seek  behind  and  before 
the  cloud — presents  a  nocturnal  view  of  which  the  European  skies  can 
present  no  idea.  It  was  a  celestial  landscape  that  I  never  saw  equalled 
before  or  since.  And  I  found  myself  asking,  "Is  there  no  Spirit 
making  a  part  of  this  sublime  scene  that  will  come  down  and  help 
us  to  save  this  glorious  land?"  The  sublimities  of  Nature  have  a 
tendency  to  stir  up  those  deep  thoughts.  "When  Winter  flung  down 
its  night  shadows  and  howled  its  sleety  breath  through  the  trees  an 


78        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

impulse  would  coine  over  me  to  invoke  even  the  spirit  of  the  tem- 
pest to  suggest  some  thought  that  might  preserve  the  Eepublic. 
Through  the  vigil  of  many  a  night  how  indignantly  have  I  thought 
that  the  property  I  had  achieved  by  friendly  aid  and  personal 
effort  was  being  wrenched  out  of  my  hand— confiscated  to  the  use  of 
banded  politicians.  The  means  of  supporting  and  educating  my 
children  fast  going  or  gone. 

At  last  the  thought  dawned  on  me  of  a  Constitutional  Limit  to 
Taxation.  Mr.  *  *  *  adopted  it  at  once,  and  ordered  several  thou- 
sand copies  of  a  Circular  embodying  it  to  be  printed  and  circulated. 
Of  the  hundreds  sent  to  them,  not  a  newspaper  noticed  it  only  Mac- 
kenzie's* Messenger,  published  in  Toronto. 

These  are  points  of  the  Circular : 

"  The  Constitution  of  New  York  State  declares  that  Municipal  Governments 
must  be  restricted  in  their  power  of  taxation,  and  it  makes  it  the  duty  of  the 
Legislature  to  restrict  them  and  prevent  the  abuse  of  that  power." 

"2d. The  Legislatures  HAVE  NOT  performed  that  duty.  Apart  from  the 

immense  sums  expended  on  local  improvements,  New  York  City  is  taxed 
about  $30,000f  a  day,  besides  the  rents,  licenses,  and  so  forth,  that  come 
into  the  city  treasury,  and  the  fees  and  fines  that  are  levied  off  the  people." 

"  Brooklyn  is  much  more  heavily  burthened  than  New  York,  in  proportion 
to  her  ability  to  pay.  With  her  very  slender  resources,  the  tax  extorted 
from  her  is  over  $6,000  a  day,  whilst  the  fees  and  fines  levied  by  her  officials, 
and  largely  applied  to  their  own  private  use,  make  up  a  considerable  aggre- 
gate in  the  year.  The  local  improvements  are  a  distinct  tax,  and  a  source 
of  much  waste  and  oppression.  The  water  tax,  in  both  cities,  is  apart  from 
these  estimates." 

"  Judicious  and  liberal  men  believe  that  the  above  amounts  are  four  or  five 
times  larger  than  an  honest  and  efficient  government  ought  to  cost.  And 
yet  the  governments  of  these  cities  are  as  little  remarkable  for  efficiency  as 
they  are  for  economy." 

"  Thus  the  constitutional  guarantee  above  recited  is  set  at  nought.  And 
while  in  seven  years— /rora  1848  to  185 5 — the  taxes  in  the  four  wards  of 
old  Williamsburfjh  were  increased  from  about  $23,000  a  year  to  $308,000, 

*Wm.  Lyon  Mackenzie  was  a  Scotchman,  a  wonderful  repository  of  facts. 
An  able  and  a  true  man.  He  was  a  principal  actor  in  the  Canadian  "outbreak" 
of  '37.  He  and  two  of  his  confederates  were  out  one  night  and  met  and 
captured  one  of  their  most  dangerous  enemies,  but  did  not  search  and 
disarm  him.  So,  falling  back  for  a  moment,  he  shot  down  one  of  his  captors 
and  made  his  escape.  This  I  had  from  Mr.  Mackenzie,  and  there  is  instruc- 
tion in  tht  fact. 

But  though  a  gazeteer  of  knowledge  it  took  a  great  deal  of  fact  and  argu- 
ment to  enlist  him  against  land  monopoly.  But,  he  did  join  in  our  movement 
by  and  by,  and  became  one  of  our  most  efficient  auxiliaries. 

'58.    Now,  '81,  it  is  three  times  as  great  in  both  cities, 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  79 

the  Legislature  did  not  interpose  to  "restrict"  this  enormous  abuse  of 
power." 

"  Thus,  then,  stands  the  case.  The  Constitution  guarantees  that  our  pro- 
perty shall  not  be  taken  from  us  by  unreasonable  and  unjust  taxation.  But 
it  places  the  enforcement  of  that  safeguard  in  the  hands  of  the  Legislature, 
which  neither  WILL  nor  CAN  enforce  it." 

"  This  right  is  a  fundamental  one.  If  it  is  not  preserved  inviolate,  no  man 
can  call  any  property  his  own:  and  thus  the  strongest  bond  of  the  social 
compact  is  broken*  and  society  itself  tends  to  anarchy." 

'•  The  framers  of  the  Constitution  did  not  foresee  that  the  vital  principle, 
thus  wisely  proclaimed  by  them,  would  be  set  at  naught  by  the  guardians  to 
whom  they  entrusted  it.  If  they  had  foreseen  this,  it  would  have  been  an 
easy  matter  for  them  to  have  made  this  limiting  a  DISTINCT  and  definite 
provision  in  the  Constitution.  In  this  way — ' 

Data  of  the  legitimate  cost  of  government  lay  everywhere  within  their 
reach.*  And  based  on  this  data,  they  could  have  fixed  a  MAXIMUM  TAX 
to  be  levied  off  the  ASSESSED  VALUEf  of  property  in  the  various  cities. 
Under  this  provision,  the  governing  powers  would  be  assured  a  fair  com- 
pensation. The  owners  of  property  would  be  compelled  to  pay  this  "fair 
compensation."  Beyond  this  legitimate  tax,  their  property-rights  would  be 
inviolable. 

Increasing  value  in 'the  taxable  property  would  keep  exact  pace  with  the 
legitimate  necessities  of  government :  and  thus  would  all  cities  be  DULY 
TAXED  and  DULY  PROTECTED.  The  same  principle  could  be  applied 
to  the  COUNTIES — to  the  STATE  governments :  and,  based  upon  population, 
even  to  the  government  of  the  UNITED  STATES. 

But  the  present  government  of  our  cities  has  been  thus  described : 

"Gathering  in  corner  groceries,  and  stimulated  by  the  prospect  of  plun- 
der, the  most  worthless  and  ignorant  of  our  populace,  under  guidance  of 

*Some  twenty-odd  years  ago  taxation  in  New  Jersey  was  limited  by  law  to 
75  cents  on  the  $100  valuation.  But  only  by  "  law."  A  legislature  assem- 
bled one  winter  and  repealed  the  law — making  it  read  as  it  reads  in  New 
York  State,  and  all  over,  "  steal  as  much  as  you  please,  only  be  sure  to  call 
it '  tax.' "  And  from  that  day  to  this  it  has  been  one  succession  of  political 
thieving  in  Jersey,  about  equal  in  proportion  to  what  has  been  going  on  in 
Brooklyn  and  New  York.  Jersey  has  not  boen  so  able  to  bear  up  under  the 
robberies  as  the  other  cities,  that  is  all  the  difference.  If  the  above-men- 
tioned limit  had  been  studded  into  the  Constitution  of  New  Jersey  she  would 
not  as  now  be  prosecuting  an  interlaced  government  of  thieves.  The  last 
culprits  are  Collector  and  four  "Chosen  Freeholders"  in  Somerset  County, 
with  "  more  coming,"  "  coming." 

But  after  all,  the  question  comes  up,  is  even  a  Constitution  of  any  avail? 
It  is  a  fortress,  to  be  sure,  but  of  what  use  is  a  fortress,  if  garrisoned  by  the 
enemy?  By  order  of  Gran',  Bradley  and  Strong  turned  the  U.  S.  Consti- 
tution inside  out  in  an  hour'b  time. 

fBut  in  taxing  real  estate  this  could  not  be  done.  The  percentage 
fixed  in  the  Constitution  —  the  valuation  also  fixed,  the  payer  would  know 
exactly  what  he  had  to  pay,  and  he  would  not  be  likely  to  pay  more  than  the 
law  imposed  on  him.  But  "laws"  to  make  up  deficiencies,  or  contract 
debt,  must  bo  Constitutionally  forbidden. 


80        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

political  knaves,  undertake  to  provide  us  with  a  government..  They  mako 
a  combined  rush  upon  the  polls — they  succeed — and  that  success  lays  the 
entire  property  of  the  city,  as   '  SPOILS,'  at  their  feet,  to  take  what  they 
please,  to  distribute  it  as  they  please." 
"This  corruption  of  our  city  governments  diffuses  its  evil  in  every  direction." 

"It  burthens  the  mechanic's  house  and  lot  (frequently  mortgaged)  with  a 
tax  sometimes  equal  to  the  rent  and  tax  of  a  similar  house  in  Europe." 

"  It  discourages  improvements,  and  so  renders  real  estate  unsaleable." 

"It  incites  evil  minded  and  incapable  men  to  '  manage'  themselves  into 
municipal  power — not  for  the  good  they  can  do  the  public,  but  for  the  per- 
sonal gain  they  can  make  out  of  this  unrestrained  license  to  tax. 

"  It  thus  excludes  our  virtuous  citizens  from  the  public  councils. 

"  It  brings  dishonor  upon  the  Republican  name,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

"  It  fills  monarchists  with  joy  and  exultation ;  and,  finally,  it  lays  the  axe  to 
the  very  root  of  our  Republican  Institutions." 

Hundreds  of  these  were  mailed  to  newspapers  all  around.  It  was 
indeed  a  discouraging  indication  when  only  one  paper  noticed  it, 
and  of  the  hundreds  of  people  who  read  it,  not  one  man  gave  us  the 
slightest  response. 

It  is  now  January,  1860,  and  under  the  same  auspices  and  aid 
*  *  *  I  addressed  a  Circular  to  the  Southern  Senators  who 
were  persistently  resisting  the  Homestead  bill.  I  give  an  outline 
of  it: 

"A  remarkable  phenomenon  has  arisen  in  our  history — the  Anti-Slavery 
feeling  now  aspires  to  control  the  country. 

In  proportion  to  the  rapid  increase  of  this  power  has  its  adverse  element 
in  the  South  increased  also  ;  and,  as  those  hostile  forces  are  rapidly  ap- 
proaching each  other,  we  cannot  but  recognize  in  them  great  danger  to  the 
peace  of  the  country. 

How  shall  we  avert  that  danger?  This  is  the  great  problem  of  the  day. 
A  problem  which  partisans  on  either  side,  are  far  more  likely  to  complicate 
than  to  solve.  The  writer  of  this  has  r.ever  been  identified  with  either  of 
the  great  parties  that  divide  the  country.  He  has  no  prejudice — not  the 
slightest  feeling  on  one  side  or  the  other.  From  1848,  when  the  contest  as- 
sumed form  under  Mr.  Van  Burcn,  he  has  watched  it  anxiously.  He  be- 
lieves that  its  most  important  element  has  to  a  groat  extent  been  overlooked 
both  in  the  North  and  South,  and  he  further  believes,  that  an  examination  of 
this  element  will  show  first,  the  GKEAT  CAUSE  that  has  called  up  these  opposing 
forces ;  secondly,  the  means  by  which  that  same  cause  can  be  made  to  bring 
about  both  lasting  prosperity  and  lasting  peace. 

But  first,  he  must  have  it  admitted  that  Thomas  Jefferson  and  Andrew 
Jackson  were  Democrats.  Nay,  that  they  did  more  to  found  and  consoli- 
date that  party  than  any  other  two  men  that  ever  belonged  to  it. 

Mr.  Jefferson  laid  down  the  philosophic  truth,  that  the  "  earth  belongs  in 
usufruct  to  the  living."  And  Andrew  Jackson,  in  his  Message  of  1832,  re- 


OR,    THE  SPIRIT   OP   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  81 

commended  that  our  public  lands  be  reserved  for  the  free  use  of  actual  set- 
tlers only.  It  is  because  the  "  Democratic  Party"  of  the  present  day  have 
turned  their  backs  upon  this  greatest  principle  of  Democracy,  that  they  find 
themselves  in  their  present  position. 

For  this  is  the  true  source  of  the  preponderance  of  the  Republican  power 
in  the  Northern  States.  Take  away  this  source,  and  this  preponderance 
will  disappear. 

Its  origin  is  in  the  Wilmot  Proviso  that  slave  labor  should  not  cross  the 
dividing  line.  Appeals  made  to  sectional  feeling  on  behalf  of  that  doctrine 
produced  some  effect.  But  it  could  not  form  a  party  powerful  enough  to 
sway  the  nation,  on  the  simple  issue  of  whether  a  slave  should  work  on 
this  side  or  on  that  side  of  a  geographical  line. 

From  early  in  1844  the  "  Freedom  of  the  public  lands  to  actual  settlers" 
had  been  earnestly  discussed  by  the  masses,  in  all  the  North-Eastern  and 
Western  States.  A  substantial  principle  it  was,  that  afforded  no  ground  for 
mystification.  It  gained  general  acceptance  from  men  of  all  parties  who 
lived  by  labor,  and  who  had  families  .ooking  to  them  for  support. 

Defeated  in  1852.  the  Whig  leaders  saw  it  was  useless  to  come  again  be- 
fore the  people  with  their  present  issues.  Banks  and  Tariffs  had  gone 
down  stream,  and  the  movement  for  Land  Reform  had  sunk  "  Distribu- 
tion "  *  to  the  bottom. 

The  old  issues  were  therefore  put  in  abeyance,  and  the  Whigs  rallied  to  their 
aid  every  shade  of  opinion  that  believed  no  slave  should  work  on  the  northerly 
side  of  a  geographical  line. 

But  there  was  little  soul  in  this  issue,  and  still  less  substance.  Little  en- 
thusiasm could  it  create  among  white  men,  most  of  whom  were,  themselves, 
in  anxious  circumstances — living  precariously  from  hand  to  mouth. 

And  so  the  Whigs,  now  Republicans,  took  up  the  "Freedom  of  the 
Public  Lands,"  and  spoke  it  kindly.  Their  principal  organ,  the  New 
York  Tribune,  though  a  late  convert,  was  now  its  foremost  advocate; 
and  Col.  Fremont,  in  his  letter  of  acceptance,  put  his  adherence  to  it  beyond 
a  doubt. 

This  great  Democratic  principle  had  been  repeatedly  rejected  by  the 
Democrats.  It  had  been  distinctly  offered  at  the  Cincinnati  Convention, 
and  was  very  distinctly  treated  with  contempt.  And  so  the  Democratic  Re- 
formers went  Corward  for  Col.  Fremont. 

The  present  position  of  our  public  affairs  is  a  just  retribution  on  the 
"  Democratic  party."  To  go  against  a  landed  Democracy  — to  repudiate  the 
principles  of  its  OWN  FOUNDERS — was  no  common  crime,  and  already  it 
has  the  foretaste  of  no  common  retribution. 

But  the  retribution  may  still  be  averted  by  doing  justice,  even  now  "  at 
the  eleventh  hour." 

This  can  only  be  done  by  the  Democratic  Party  in  the  Senate  taking  up 

*0f  the  public  lands  to  the  States,  or  rather  to  the  State  stock  jobbers,  long 
a  rallying  cry  of  the  Whigs. 


£2  'i"5Z   ODD   BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTUBY; 

the  measure  and  passing  it  through  by  a  vote  that  WILL  SHOW  THEY  ABE 
IN  EAKNEST. 

The  passage  of  this  law  would  be  at  once  a  just  and  a  final  compromise 
of  the  existing  difficulties  of  the  country.  Honorable  to  all  parties,  it  would 
place  the  Southern  citizen  on  equality  with  other  citizens  in  the  eye  of  terri- 
torial law.  Speculation  would  be  at  an  end ;  and  with  abundance  of  land 
to  choose  from,  what  temptation  would  the  Northern  settler  have  to  crowd 
down  on  the  regions  of  rice  and  cotton  and  sugar  ?  And  as  little  tempta- 
tion would  the  planter  have  to  crowd  up  on  the  merely  grain  growing  land. 
Nature  assigns  to  each  his  field  of  operation.  She  bids  them  live  as  neigh- 
bors ought  to  live — apart,  in  peace. 

With  the  unchained  enthusiasm  of  the  Northern  States  for  Free  Homes, 
the  vessel  of  State  would  rapidly  swing  round  to  her  old  moorings. 

There  is  not  a  Southern  Senator  but  sees  by  the  votes  in  either  House  that 
few  statesmen  north  of  the  dividing  line  will  venture  to  oppose  this  meas- 
ure. They  see,  too,  the  revolution  it  has  effected  in  Minnesota.  They  see,  in 
short,  that  it  is  building  up  the  "  Republican"  power  and  striking  down  the 
"  Democratic  party  "  in  all  the  Northern  States. 

The  imputation  is  out  upon  them  that  they  despise  the  poor  men  of  the 
North.  Let  them  show  that  that  imputation  is  unjust.  Let  them  no  longer 
stand  between  the  Northern  laborer  and  his  undoubted  right.  If  they  do 
this,  good  will  and  gratitude  will  go  forth  to  them,  and  that  good  will  and 
gratitude  will  bring  to  them  security  and  peace.  But  let  it  become  clearly 
known  that  this  right  is  withheld  obstinately  by  combined  Southern  votes, 
and  what  will  be  the  result  ?  Why,  it  will  be  a  great  weakening  of  the  bonds 
of  unio;i.  

So  early  as  1852  I  addressed  a  letter  to  Gen.  Shields,  then  U.  S.  Senator  from 
Illinois,  of  which  the  following  is  a  fragment : 

"  Marmontel,  though  a  courtier  of  Louis  XIY,  describes  the  Senators  who 
slew  the  Gracchii,  as  '  mere  senators  whose  motto  was  that  the  people  were 
made  only  to  obey  and  to  suffer.'  They  consummated  their  crime,  and  its 
penalty  overtook  them  not  in  their  children  but  in  themselves,  in  the  ter- 
riblo  proscriptions  of  Marius  and  Sylla ;  in  the  wild  beast  fury  of  the  '  Social 
War:  ' 

As  things  are  beginning  to  loom  up  now,  this  warning  would  seem  a  pro- 
phecy. 

"  If  the  Homestead  Bill  now  before  the  Senate  be  quietly  passed  into  a  law 
it  will  produce  a  change  .n  this  world  far  greater  than  came  over  it  when  we 
presented  ourselves  a  new  nation  among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

'  Help  that  change  if  you  be  a  man — if  you  be  a  Democrat.    For  a  Com- 

:     monwealth  of  Freeholders,  look  at  your  own  happy  State.    For  the  ragged, 

starved,  tattered  tenant — the  idle,  luxurious,  inhuman  landlord— look  back 

to  the  land  you  left  behind  you.    It  is  greener  now  than  when  you  last 

looked  on  it — green  with  famine  graves  1 

"  Do  as  you  please.    Do  all  of  you  as  you  please.    I  will  not  go  down  on 


OB,    lila   SPIBIT    OF    CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS. 

my  knees  to  you.  I  will  not  kiss  the  dust  at  your  feet,  and  implore  you  to 
save,  at  once,  this  Republic  from  ruin,  and  your  own  names  from  etcrn.d 
reproach.  But  I  will  tell  you,  that  when  the  wail  of  suffering  and  tho  hov.i 
of  strife  shall  hereafter  arise  in  this  land— ion:  STEIFE,  too,  will  start  up  bo- 
fore  this  drama  is  ended — there  will  bo  names  uttered  with  a  hissing  curso ; 
the  names  of  those  men  who  could  have  averted  the  destruction  but  who 
WOULD  NOT," — Hunter,  Toombs,  all  the  Southerners,  all  but  Andrew  Johnson. 

THOMAS   AINGE   DEVYR. 
WILLIAMSBUEGH,  January  1, 1860. 

But  those  Southern  Senators  hardened  their  hearts  as  rash,  arrogant  men 
ever  do ;  and  as  such  rash,  arrogant  men  are  doing  now  (1881). 


TRIP    TO    EUKOPE. 

1860.  The  dead  weight  of  gold  redemption  thrown  off  by 
the  banks,  they  discounted  freely,  and  work,  wages,  business 
of  every  kind  improved.  The  question  of  "Tenant  Eight" 
was  up  in  Ireland,  chiefly  under  the  auspices  of  the  Catholic 
Prelates,  and  I  resolved  to  go  and  see  what  I  could  do  to 
help  it.  I  had  not  much  money  at  my  disposal,  but  I  had 
Mr.  *  *  *  at  my  back.  He  it  was  who  both  encouraged  and 
enabled  me  to  go.  After  presenting  me  with  liquors  and 
wines  from  his  cellar  for  the  voyage,  he  gave  my  hand  a  part- 
ing clasp — wished  me  a  "good  time,"  and  said,  "traveling's 
expensive,  if  you  fall  short  of  money  drop  me  a  line." 

Take  passage  in  the  screw  steamer  Brazil,  for  Galway,  call- 
ing by  St.  John's  Newfoundland.  Custom  House  officers 
conveyed  our  officers  of  the  ship  down  .the  bay.  They  made 
a  carouse  of  it.  And  the  sailors,  too,  followed  their  example. 
So  that  only  for  half  a  dozen  active  passengers  the  Brazil 
would  have  been  burnt  (by  the  upsetting  of  a  tall  lamp- 
torch  in  the  lower  hold)  before  we  reached  Sandy  Hook.  In 
four  days  got  into  the  fogs  of  Newfoundland,  and  our  proxim- 
ity to  the  coast  could  only  be  estimated  by  the  kind  of  mud 
brought  up  by  the  plummet.  We  overshot  St.  John's  some 
miles,  and  by  daybreak  brought  up  in  front  of  what  looked 
like  two  diamond  mountains,  standing  as  close  together  as 
the  pillars  of  an  immense  gate.  They  were  anchored  in  forty 
fathom  water,  towering  some  100  feet  high.  They  formed 
picture,  unequaled  in  grandeur,  as  they  reflected  the  rays  of 
the  rising  sun.  But  the  sublimities  of  this  world  the  chained 
laborer  never  sees  i 

Lofty  rock  banks  form  the  coast  of  Newfoundland  through 


84  THE   ODD   BOOK   OP   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTUKYJ 

which  breaks  a  narrow  entrance  to  the  harbor  of  St.  John's. 
A  fortification  on  the  high  summits  on  each  side  of  the  en- 
trance is  garrisoned  by  soldiers  from  the  "  Condemned  Regi- 
ment" stationed  on  the  Island,  and  which  is  formed  of  the 
hardest  characters  taken  from  all  the  British  regiments  of 
the  line. 

We  had  the  two  bishops  of  the  Island,  of  the  rival  creeds, 
passengers  so  far.  It  was  the  2d  day  of  June,  but  not  the 
promise  of  a  bud  could  I  discover  in  the  most  sheltered 
nooks  of  Governor  Bannerman's  grounds.  The  established 
bishop  showed  me  the  interior  of  his  very  handsome  church. 
But  his  rival  bishop  showed  me  a  sight  still  more  remarkable. 
As  he  passed  along  the  streets  of  St.  John's  people,  one  after 
another,  knelt  to  him  for  a  blessing,  quite  regardless  of  the 
mud.  I  remembered  that  in  Dr.  j.-'arnelTs  "Hermit"  when 
the  angel  discloses  himself,  he  says: 

"  For  this  commissioned  I  forsook  the  sky ; 
Nay,  cease  to  roieel — thy  teiiow  servant  I." 

Not  so  thought  our  friend  the  bishop.  He  took  the  kneel- 
ing as  a  thing  he  was  accustomed  to.  The  scene  lowered 
my  estimate  very  much  both  of  the  bishop  and  the  people.* 

The  fisheries  are  the  sole  stay  of  Newfoundland,  and 
seals  and  codfish  rival  each  other  in  importance — with  also  a 
heavy  reserve  of  salmon.  For  many  months  the  coast  is  em- 
braced with  icefields,  to  which  the  fishermen  fasten  their 
boats,  "land''  on  them,  and  capture  the  young  seals  with  the 
stroke  of  a  bludgeon.  Many  Scotch  adventurers  are  thus 
engaged,  and  also  in  the  trade  growing  out  of  it.  An  active 
man,  I  was  told,  can  here,  in  the  season,  realize  a  pound 
sterling  a  day,  though  in  Ireland  (1700  miles  distant)  the 
same  man  would  have  to  work  nearly  a  month  for  the  same 
money. 

Next  morning  headed  for  Ireland  through  the  fog  and 
warm  waters  of  the  Gulf  stream.  Surprisingly  few  vessels 
hove  in  sight  till  we  came  abreast  of  the  Irish  coast,  the 
headlands  of  Donegal,  at  daybreak  of  the  9th. f  It  was  mid- 

*0n  enquiry  it  was  explained  that  the  homage  was  not  at  all  paid  to  him, 
but  to  the  Power  he  represented  on  earth. 

fWe  had  two  escapes  from  adding  to  the  list,  "Lost  at  sea."  1.  Two 
boys  are  sent  for  liquors  to  the  Jower  hold.  There  is  no  light— they 
have  u  lamp  and  matches.  The  bottles  are  packed  in  straw  and  the  boys 
are  in  a  skylarking  mood.  Lighting  the  lamp  they  threw  the  still  burning 


OK,    THE   SPIEIT    OF    CHIVALRY    IN    MODERN    DAYS.  85 

night  before  we  had  warped  through  the  rocks  (which  for  miles 
out  in  the  sea  encircle  the  Connaught  coast)  and  anchored  in 
the  Galway  roadstead.  We  could  have  anchored  in  Killybegs 
by  six  A.  M.  Custom  House  officers  ransank  our  luggage — 
native  boats  are  alongside  and  at  6d  each  convey  us  to  land 
It  is  eight  o'clock  and  the  city  is  still  asleep.  Knocking 
Vainly  at  two  hotels  we  succeeded  in  rousing  a  third  to  give 
us  a  breakfast.  In  the  afternoon  took  train  for  Dublin. 
"  What  a  fine  fruit  country,"  said  an  American  gentleman, 
as  he  gazed  on  the 

"  One  boundless  blush — one  white  empurpled  shower 
Of  mingled  blossoms  " 

of  hawthorn  trees — spreading  around  everywhere.  When 
told  of  the  "fruit," — how  utterly  valueless — he  exclaimed, 
"  What  a  stupid  people  :  The  ground  occupied  by  those 
hawthorns  would  produce  millions  worth  of  grafted  fruit." 
He  did  not  think  at  the  moment  that  evil  men  calling  them- 
selves landlords,  or  landgods,  stood  in  the  way  of  all  im- 
provement. 

At  every  Police  station  Notices  are  up  forbidding  foreign 
enlistment.  The  Pope  is  at  war  with  Insurgents  and  hund- 
reds of  young  men  are  emigrating  from  Ireland  to  recruit 
his  army.  Met  Catholic  students  in  Dublin.  Told  them  my 
purpose.  "Di-timed,"  they  said.  Thought  was  now  ab- 
sorbed in  the  emigration  to  aid  the  Pope.  Spent  some  days 
in  Dublin.  Interviewed  the  Governor  of  the  Bank  of  Ire- 
land and  one  of  the  city  M.  P's.,  urging  them  to  invite  Amer- 
ican visitors  to  the  old  homes,  by  opening  free  or  very  cheap 
railroad  travel  to  them.  Explored  the  Phoenix  Park, 
with  its  forest  cf  centennial  hawthorns.  Its  horseback  in 
saddles  and  side-saddles,  cantering  around — more  pictur- 

match  close  to  the  straw  where  fortunately  it  died  out.  2.  Saturday  is  a  fes- 
tive day  on  shipboard.  The  weather  is  fine,  the  sailors  oddly  costumed  are 
improvising  a  drama  on  tho  main  deck — the  cabin  passengers  gyrating  on 
the  Quarter  deck  to  the  strains  of  a  Galway  fiddler  captured  from  among 
the  steerage  passengers.  Fortunately  (in  this  case  at  least)  I  am  always  sick 
at  sea.  -Retiring  from  tho  gay  scene,  1  met  the  steward  who  told  me  he  had 
left  a  light  in  my  room.  It  was  a  sperm  candle  in  a  spring  socket.  Ho  sup- 
posed he  had  fastened  the  spring  but  it  was  held  only  by  the  hard  substance 
of  the  candle.  As  it  burned  down  that  holding  melted,  and  as  I  entered, 
the  blaming  stump  was  projected  by  the  spring  into  the  berth  and  bed- 
clothes. This  was  in  the  lower  tier  and  1  was  just  in  time. 


86  THE  ODD  BOOK   OF   THE  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

esque,  exciting  and  exercising  than  the  wagons  and  "  sulkies" 
of  the  United  States.  Northward  to  Enniskillen,  rested  on 
the  Island  which  divides  the  upper  and  lower  Lough  Erne. 
A  beautiful  sheet  of  water  dotted  with  innumerable  islets. 
One  of  which  a  land-thief  formed  into  "his  estate,"  and  built 
a  grand  house  amid  its  embowering  trees. 

Twenty-four  years!  I  pass  over  the  changes  and  the 
memories  associated  with  the  Donegal  of  my  boyhood  as  in- 
teresting only  to  myself.  It  contains  the  grandest  ruins  I 
have  seen  in  Ireland,  the  lofty  stone-sashed  castle  of  the 
O'Donnell's,  and  the  classic  Monastery  in  which  was  written 
centuries  ago,  "The  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters." 

The  lofty  chain  of  Barnes  mountain  circles  in  the  coast 
country  five  miles  landward  of  the  village.  See  ante.  In 
this  desert  "gap"  I  found  two  sod  hovels,  and  two  wretched 
families  huddled  in  them — shut  out,  disinherited  by  the  land 
rogues,  and  striving  to  dig  starvation  among  the  interstices 
of  the  rocks  »  Beach  Deny  of  "  the  Siege."  An  hour  in  the 
"  Mayor's  Court "  was  full  of  instruction.  With  a  clerk  and 
two  officers  he  dispensed  justice  with  promptness  and  ap- 
parent fairness.  "  I'll  have  you  to  the  Mayor's  office  "  is  a 
sharp  restraint  on  evil-doers.  There  ia  no  " Mayor's  office" 
in  New  York  or  Brooklyn  now,  except  for  signing  bills  to  de- 
plete the  treasury  or  holding  caucus  with  politician  rogues. 

Alas !  for  the  virus  of  aristocratic  pride !  Met  two  or 
three  clever  educated  gentlemen  in  Derry — whose  father  was 
known  to  my  father  when  both  were  servant  boys.  When  I 
spoke  of  this  they  shrank  from  the  record  as  if  their  father 
were  their  disgrace — that  clever,  energetic  man — who  found- 
ed lor  them  the  respectability  which  they  were  thus  striv- 
ing to  guard  from  the  supposed  contamination  of  his  name ! 

I  was  thus  far  on  my  way  to  London,  but  took  train  for 
Belfast.  Purpose  to  call  on  Sharman  Crawford.  Twenty- 
four  changeful  years  had  passed  over  since  my  public  con- 
nection with  him  in  London.  I  had  then  admonished  him 
that  any  future  intercourse  between  us  must  be  on  terms  of 
exact  equality.  I  had  now  totally  forgotten  his  defection  to 
O'Connell  and  the  starve-pauper  Whigs  (in  1839)  (see  ante) 
and  my  sharp  exposure  of  it  in  the  Newcastle  Liberator. 
Whether  he  now  remembered  it  is  doubtful,  for  now  he  was 
over  eighty  years  of  age.  At  any  rate  this  happened :  Landed 
at  Bangor  and  thence  to  Crawfordsburn,  a  walk  of  two  miles 


OR,    THE   SPIEIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN   DAYS.  87 

over  a  pleasant  road  and  pleasant  surroundings.  The  cot- 
tages white  and  neat,  and  though  in  June,  not  a  little  boy  or 
girl  barefooted.  \  made  inquiries,  by  which  I  found  that 
the  people  under  Mr.  Crawford's  influence  were  comfortable 
and  contented — a  striking  contrast  to  what  I  had  hitherto 
noted  in  my  tour.  I  wrote  a  note  and  sent  it  with  his  gate- 
keeper, informing  him  that  I  would  remain  at  the  hotel  in 
Bangor  for  two  or  three  hours,  to  which  he  might  send  a 
messenger  if  he  desired  to  see  me.  It  was  my  old  monitors — 
of  chivalry — that  prompted  me  to  this  course.  I  paid  his 
gate-keeper  liberally  and  gave  money  to  workmen  employed 
outside  of  his  gate.  I'm  afraid  this  liberality  will  not  stand 
to  my  credit  in  the  last  Great  Account  as  it  was  intended  to 
show  Mr.  Crawford  that  I  sought  no  favors  from  him — that 
I  was,  in  my  way,  as  independent  as  himself.  I  stayed  at  the 
hotel,  but  the  messenger  did  not  come  for  me.  Returned  to 
Belfast  —  embarked  for  Liverpool,  and  made  observations 
which  convince  me  that  man  (since  the  invention  of  steam) 
is  armed  with  a  power  sufficient  to  MASTER  THE  OCEAN, 
and  navigate  in  perfect  security  through  its  largest  waves — 
trampling  them  down  in  their  most  boisterous  moods. 

To  London.  One  commotion  of  volunteering  to  repel  an  ap- 
prehended Invasion  urged  by  the  French  Colonels.  Met  of 
my  old  fellow-laborers  only  Bronterre  O'Brien — his  fine  in- 
tellect a  good  deal  unbalanced,  but  leaning  more  fiercely  than 
ever  against  the  "Right  Honorables"  that  have  made  Eng- 
land a  hell.  George  Jacob  Hollyoake  put  his  rooms  at  my 
service,  and  'here  I  met  Col.  Alsop,  and  one  or  two  others 
who  were  regretting  that  certain  efforts  made  by  them  had 
been  unsuccessful  in  removing  Louis  Napoleon  to  a  better 
(or  a  warmer)  world.  A  grandson  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  too, 
of  our  revolutionary  times.  He  was  horrified  at  my  expres- 
sed opinion  that  if  the  French  came,  not  a  workingman  in 
England  ought  to  lift  a  hand  for  the  protection  of  a  country 
in  whose  lands,  mines  and  governments  they  were  not  permit- 
ted to  share.  Bradlaugh  was  beginning  to  peep  out  from 
behind  the  name  of  the  "  Iconoclast."  He  has  since  learned 
to  be  a  Malthusian  —  to  abolish  population  —  for  you  see 
there  is  not  room  for  it  because  of  the  ducal  hunting  grounds. 
He  proposes  to  go  peacefully  to  work  and  abolish  Royalty  by 
Act  of  Parliament.  He  may  be  mistaken  in  both  his  pro- 
grammes, but  he  certainly  is  prudent.  It  is  far  easier  to  war 


88        THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

against  tlie  uncreated  than  to  war  against  the  ducal  hunt- 
ing grounds  while  the  duke  stands  over  them  with  a  sword 
in  one  hand  and  a  musket  in  the  other.  And  as  for 
"  Monarch  or  no,  no,  no  monarch?"  Parliament  will  argue  the 
question  with  him  till  the  "  crack  of  doom " — a  good, 
round,  sound  encounter  of  eloquence  that  will  hurt  nobody. 
That  was  my  thought  of  him  twenty  years  ago.  If  he  has 
changed  since  that  time  I  hope  it  is  for  the  better. 

Nothing  in  the  shape  of  reform  could  be  done  in  London, 
and  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Doubleday,  of  Newcastle,  and  also  to 
Joseph  Cowen,  then,  as  now,  the  leading  Democrat  of  that 
region.  Replies  did  not  come  direct,  but  a  letter  reached  me 
from  Glasgow  which  caused  me  to  cross  the  Cumberland 
hills,  to  that  stirring  town.  My  purpose  all  through  was  to 
present  man's  INHERITANCE  in  the  land  and  a  FIXED 
LIMIT  to  the  taxing  power.  But  I  got  no  efficient  help. 
While  in  Glasgow  a  letter  reached  me  via  London  from  Mr. 
Doubleday.  He  was  in  "  Moffat,  (a  watering  place)  at  the 
house  of  his  daughter,  looking  for  health."  A  hearty  friend- 
liness ran  through  his  letter,  and  after  wishing  success  to  my 
aims  concluded  thus:  "The  British  Constitution  is  good 
enough  for  me — if  ice  only  had  it."  Pure,  clever  and  noble 
hearted  man  !  How  my  heart  holds  your  memory !  I  gave 
up  the  thought  of  going  to  Newcastle,  and  took  up  the 
thought  of  returning  to  New  York.  It.  is  true  I  remem- 
bered that  a  gentleman — the  gentleman — in  Williamsburgh, 
in  wishing  me  ban  voyage,  said,  "Traveling  is  expensive;  if  you 
fall  short  of  the  needful  just  drop  me  a  line."  But  I  now 
saw  no  prospect  of  use  in  remaining.  A  letter  from  Mr.  Cowen 
was  on  the  way  heartily  inviting  me  to  Newcastle.  But,  and 
greatly  to  my  regret,  only  came  to  hand  after  I  reached  New 
York. 

What  a  world  it  is?  By  sea  or  land  injustice  will  confront 
you.  Having  examined  the  accommodations,  I  paid  seventy 
dollars  for  second  cabin  passage  in  the  Cunard  steamer 
"Asia."  Approach  to  our  saloon  and  state  rooms,  the  grand 
entrance.  But  when  at  sea,  this  was  closed  against  us,  and 
a  forecastle  kind  of  fixture  opened,  with  a  break-neck  kind  of 
ladder  attached,  in  direct  violation  of  our  contract.  Held 
council,  and,  half  in  fun  half  in  fear,  we  signed,  in  a  "round 
robin  "  of  remonstrance,  a  circle  of  signatures,  in  which  there 
is  neither  first  nor  last.  The  "  despots  of  the  deep  "  insisted  on 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF    CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  89 

knowing  who  was  foremost  in  this  mid-way  meeting.  "  Well, 
then,  if  I  am  the  man,  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  ?  " 
"  You  shall  see."  "  Be  quick  then ;  I  am  writing  my  experi- 
ence for  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  this  proceeding  will  form 
an  incident ! "  The  public  press !  "Why,  it  carries  its  suprem- 
acy out  to  sea,  and  the  grand  entrance  was  re-opened  to  us. 

Watching  the  heave  of  the  ship — its  rising  and  descending 
forces  disclosed  an  immense  "  power,"  which,  if  it  could  be 
utilized,  would  do  immense  work.  I  think  it  could  be,  but 
under  what  conditions  I  will  not  present  here.  With  a  good 
deal  of  labor  and  some  cost  I  made  a  model  embodying  iny 
thoughts  ;  but,  partly  owing  to  my  antipathy  to  the  Patent 
Office,  and  partly  to  my  distrust  of  patent  lawyers,  etc.,  I 
turned  away  from  the  subject.  I  fell  sick,  too,  and  the  brass 
of  my  model,  I  suppose,  made  its  way  to  the  junk  shop. 

The  following  brief  sketches  taken  on  the  ground,  are 
all  that  I  retain  in  my  notes,  written  of  this  visit  to  England  : 


CONDITION     OF    ENGLAND. 

"  She  holds  what  might  have  been  tho  noblest  nation."— BYBON. 
"  A  little  rule,  a  little  sway— 
A  sunbeam  in  a  winter  day- 
Is  ^}1  the  proud  and  mighty  have 
Between  the  cradle  and  the  grave." — DTEK. 

I  am  on  a  hill  looking  down  over  a  tranquil  valley.  There  are 
groves  and  orchards,  and  pastures  and  corn-fields,  and  "jocund 
labor  "  at  work  over  them  all. 

That  scene !  It  has  not  the  majestic  grandeur  of  a  mountain- 
coast.  Bavine,  precipice,  and  desert  wold  are  not  there.  But  the 
man  who  blends  a  little  of  the  solid  with  the  sentimental  could  not 
look  upon  a  scene  more  beautiful.  The  very  arch  above  it  seems 
more  a  shelter  than  a  sky.  Some  bard  has  written  the  following 
over  it : 

"  Fair  plenty  now  begins  her  golden  reign, 
The  yellow  fields  thick  wave  with  ripened  grain ; 
Joyous  the  swains  renew  their  sultry  toils, 
And  bear  in  triumph  home  the  harvest's  wealthy  spoils." 
"  This  must  be  England,"  said  I.     "Happy,  home-like  England. 
How  rich  her  pastures  !    How  over-flowing  her  fields  ! " 

"Yes!     This    is  England,"  said  a  venerable-looking  man,  who 


90  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

stood  by  my  side.     "It  is  fruitful  England  still— but,  alas!  it  is 
happy  England  no  longer.     Come  with  ine." 

We  stood  beside  a  brook  overshadowed  with  trees.  A  man  in  a 
smock  frock  sat  upon  its  margin.  In  his  hand  was  a  crust  of  dark- 
colored  bread,  and  with  a  small  brown  pitcher  he  took  water  from 
the  eddies  beside  him.  This  was  his  dinner,  and  a  hard  green 
apple,  plucked  from  some  hedge,  supplied  the  dessert. 

My  guide  said  in  a  low  voice,  "  Do  you  understand  ?" 

"Yes,  oh  lyes,  I  do  indeed  understand.  And,  of  all  the  teeming  plenty 
around  us,  is  this  all  that  can  be  afforded  to  him?  To  him — THE 
LABORER — whose  toils  are  rewarded  with  such  abundant  fruits?" 

"  Dont  you  know,  "said  my  guide,  "  this  land — the  sun  that  warms, 
and  the  showers  that  nourish  it — are  the  property  of  my  lord  duke  of 
Devonshire?  That's  what  his  Grace  allows  to  the  laborer.  And 
can't  he  '  do  what  he  likes  with  his  own? '  " 

"  I  suppose,  yes.  But  is  the  earth,  and  the  sunshine,  and  the 
showers  '  his  own  ! '  WHO  GAVE  THEM  TO  HIM?  ' 

Did  you  ever  expect  to  hear  such  a  question,  my  lord  dukes  !  Yet 
men  are  beginning  to  ask  it.  Where  will  we  get  an  answer  to  give 
them? 

THE    COAL    MINE. 

We  are  descending  in  darkness — so  rapidly  descending  that  I  can 
scarcely  hold  my  breath.  Dark,  dark  !  and  down,  down  ! — we  are  a 
half  a  mile  below  the  surface. 

At  last  !  A  light  is  before  us,  fitfully  struggling  with  the  dark- 
ness. We  are  in  a  coal  pit,  and  have  just  touched  bottom.  Let  us 
approach  the  light.  Isn't  this  a  rail-track?  Do  cars  run  here  ? 
Yes,  cars  run  here,  and  now  a  train  of  them  comes  along.  Five  or 
six  strange-looking  creatures  are  drawing  them.  I  never  saw  such 
beasts  of  draught  before.  They  are  a  new  invention  of  the  great 
lord  who  owns  the  mines. 

They  approach,  and  through  the  blackness  sticking  over  them  we 
discover  that  they  are  women !  Finely-formed,  well-developed 
women,  of  the  true  old  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Straps  are  over  their 
nude  busts,  for  the  place  is  suffocating,  and  they  are  drawing  the 
train  of  cars  to  the  mouth  of  the  pit ! 

There  is  an  inscription—"  These  mines,  granted  to  the  Marquis  of 
Londonderry  by  Charles  II.,  A.  D.  1675."  "It  should  have  read 
thus,"  said  my  guide,  and  he  placed  two  written  words  on  the  in- 
scription. "That's  ridiculous,"  said  I.  "It  is  time  it  was  made 
so,"  said  my  guide — and  tTvus  he  left  it; 


OR,  THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRT  IN   MODERN   DAYS.  91 

"These  mines  were  CHEATED  FOB  the  Marquis  of  Londonderry  BY 
CHARLES  II.,  A.  D.  1675." 
Let  it  stand  so. 
And  doesn't  it  look  sensible,  my  lord  dukes? 

THE    COAL    MINER, 

We  find  ourselves  on  the  river  Tyne,  in  the  home  of  a  collier. 
Everything  in  it  is  surpassingly  clean  arid  neat.  The  Bible  is  in  a 
recess  of  the  window,  and  The  Northern  Liberator,  a  Chartist  news- 
paper, is  lying  on  a  table  hard  by.  An  elderly  woman  is  rasping  the 
crust  off  a  brown  loaf.  That's  the  coffee.  It  is  a  new  kind  of  coffee, 
invented  by  the  lord  of  the  mines.  That  sugar  is  very  black,  and 
milk  is  dear.  Too  dear  for  people  who  hew  coal  and  draw  trucks  far 
down  below  the  surface  of  the  earth  ! 

But  a  frying-pan  is  at  work  making  a  feeble  noise.  Just  such  a 
noise  as  six  ounces  of  bacon  can  afford  to  make  when  drowning  in  a 
quart  of  Water.  The  man  and  his  wife  come  in  from  their  subterra- 
nean toil.  Its  covering  of  blackness  is  upon  them,  but  they  are 
hungry  and  cannot  wait.  The  bread,  and  the  bacon-soup,  and  a  bowl 
of  the  new-fashioned  coffee  disappear.  The  toilers  disappear,  too, 
into  an  inner  room.  But  they  soon  return  in  decent  harmony  with 
the  clean  furniture  and  the  shining  eight-day  clock.  They  are  going 
to  a  Chartist  meeting.* 

My  lord  dukes,  dare  I  call  you  great  fools  for  suffering  a  school 
to  be  built  in  your  land? 

"No,  our  design  was  to  teach,  'Honor  the  king,'  'Render  unto 
Caesar,'  '  Obey  the  powers  that  be.1  " 

I  understand!  You  didn't  know  that  the  "windows  of  Heaven 
would  be  opened !  " 

But  the  collier  arid  his  wife  are  gone  to  the  Chartist  meeting  and 
we  must  go  elsewhere. 

THE    RECRUIT.  i 

Away !  We  are  in  a  railway  train.  A  crimp-sergeant  is  beside  us, 
and  a  young  recruit. 

"  You  think  they  will  come?  "  said  the  crimp-sergeant.  "All  your 
comrades ! " 

"I  am  sure  they  will,"  said  the  recruit.  "They  have  to  work  all 
their  waking  hours  in  field  and  barn,  and  have  nothing  for  it  but  the 


*  The  text  is  a  literal  description  of  a  scene  to  which  I  was  an  eye-witness 
in  1839. 


9iJ  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE  NINETEENTH   CENTtJfcY  ; 

morsel  they  eat,  and  such  covering  as  this."  He  pointed  to  his 
fustian  jacket,  stiff  with  toil  and  clay,  and  his  corduroys  of  the 
same  fashion. 

That  recruit  1  I  am  looking  at  him  now.  Finely-formed,  and  but 
little  bent  by  his  long  drudgery.  His  face  spoke  of  the  quiet  house- 
hold virtues— save  that  a  radiance  broke  through  it,  for  he  was  now 
escaping  into  a  twenty-three  years'  servitude  more  intense  and  equally 
ill-rewarded.  He  will  never  have  a  home !  The  gentle  ministerings 
of  woman  his  can  never  be !  The  voice  of  his  children  must  lie 
silent  in  the  unborn  tomb !  Himself  will  lose  those  rural  virtues 
that  now  beam  forth  so  legibly  in  that  open  countenance.  He  will 
be  brutalized  in  the  camp,  if  death  does  not  save  him — does  not 
grant  him  an  early  discharge  upon  some  bloody  field  ! 

And  this  is  England  under  its  lord  dukes ! 

THE    MAIDEN. 

But  away,  away!  We  are  in  London.  In  front  of  that  grand 
entrance  to  Hyde  Park — the  Marble  Arch. 

Gorgeous  liveries  and  superb  barouches  are  there.  Those  gallantly- 
mounted  young  "noble  fellows''  are  chatting  with  that  vulgar-look- 
ing dowager  in  the  barouche.*  No  doubt  she  has  (at  her  banker's) 
a  solid  attraction  for  the  dashing  young  beaux. 

One  of  these  wheels  his  horse  suddenly  round,  and,  waving  to  the 
dowager  a  graceful  "good  bye,"  comes  back,  riding  close  to  us 
on  the  sidewalk.  Won't  the  middle  of  the  broad  street  do  him.  No, 
he  has  business  at  the  sidewalk. 

For,  promenading  along  it—going  and  returning  in  short  lengths — 
is  a  young  girl  attended  by  an  elderly  woman,  both  of  them  clad  in 
decent  black. 

A  most  lovely  girl,  Just  budding  into  womanhood.  Hardly,  yet 
quite,  at  her  growth,  she  is  about  the  middle  size.  And  yet  there  is 
a  majesty  around  her — rare,  almost  wonderful,  in  one  so  young.  It 
is  the  majesty  of  beauty — 

"  Like  the  night 
Of  cloudless  climes  and  starry  skies, 

And  all  that's  best  of  dark  and  light 
Meet  in  her  aspect  and  her  eyes." 

*Fact.  I  pledge  my  accuracy  upon  it.  The  most  broad,  twfyar-faced 
women  I  saw  in  England  were  those  grand  dowagers.  I  do  not  know  the 
cause  of  this.  Leading  slothful,  sensual  and  unnatural  lives  would,  1  sup- 
pose, produce  the  effect.  At  any  rate,  the  effect  was  there, 


OR,  THE  SPIRIT  OP   CHIVALRY    IN   MODERN   DAYS.  93 

A  signal  of  intelligence  passes  between  the  "noble"  fellow  and 
the  duenna.  The  latter  conveys  it  to  her  protege,  who  returns  a  dis- 
sentient shrug  of  the  shoulders  and  motion  of  the  head.  The  ' '  noble'1 
fellow  has  to  pass  on  for  the  present.  Poor  thing !  Can  it  be  that 
she  is  putting  off  till  the  latest  moment  the  accomplishment  of  her 
shame? 

"And  that  girl  ought  to  have  been  the  recruit's  wife,"  said  my 
guide.* 

It  was  enough.  Imagination  presented  their  festooned  cottage — 
their  contented  toil — their  beautiful  and  healthy  children,  playing 
with  their  rural  companions,  and  growing  up  the  stay — the  wealth — 
and  the  ornament  of  the  land  !  Both  will  die  childless.  One  in  the 
sun-sodden  climes  of  India.  The  other  in  a  squalid  cellar  of  one  of 
the  God-forsaken  back  lanes ! 

And  this,  my  lords  and  dukes,  is  your  administration  of  the  af- 
fairs of  England.  This  is  the  way  you  increase  her  prosperity,  and 
add  to  her  power. 

"  How  long  !  how  long !  O  !  Lord  !'" 

THE    POOK    HOUSE. 

The  gay  scene  is  gone  and  a  gray  scene  is  around  us.  There  are 
high  dead  walls  that  imprison  even  the  vision.  It  is  the  Yard  of  a 
London  Workhouse.  The  inmates  are  seated  around  on  long  wooden 
benches.  Oh,  misery !  what  a  pitiful  expression  in  that  long  line  of 
ghastly  faces !  There  is  no  conversation.  They  are  looking  away 
into  vacancy — or  it  may  be  into  the  far  past  days.  No  voice — no 
motion — save  as  they  move  uneasily  their  skeleton  bones  on  the  hard 
bench,  f 

"No,  it  is  not  sick  they  are,"  said  my  guide,  in  answer  to  my 
appealing  look.  "They  are  STARVING !  Starving  on  fifteen  pence 
half -penny  worth  of  taxed  food  in  the  week."  "Oh,  give  me  some- 
thing to  relieve  them,  or  take  me  away ! " 

1 :  Believe  them !  There  are  a  thousand  hells  like  that  in  these 
Christian  islands." 

And  is  this  the  England  you  have  made  it,  my  lords  and  dukes? 

THE    FACTORY    SLAVE. 
We  are  now  wandering  in  the  streets  of  Manchester.    It  is  winter, 

*  These — Recruit  and  Maiden — are  presented  here  just  as  I  saw  them 
in  England. 
fOf  this  scene  I  was  an  eye-witness. 


$4  THE   ODD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEE5JTH    CENTURY  ; 

and  not  yet  day.  There  is  a  knocking  at  one  of  the  doors,  and  a 
voice,  "Jenny,  Jenny,  here's  little  Eddy."  "I  can't  take  him,"  re- 
plies a  voice  from  within,  "you  did  not  give  me  the  two  pence  last 
time."  "Oh,  do  take  him !  I'll  pay  you  all  on  Saturday.  You  know 
I  was  sick  last  week,  and  little  Susan  and  myself  earned  only  four 
shillings." 

The  door  opens,  the  mother  hands  in  her  baby,  and  she  and  Susan 
(seven  years  old)  wend  their  way  to  the  factory.  I  don't  know  how 
far,  but  they  reach  it  before  it  is  day.  Poor  little  Susan !  I  hope 
your  childish  limbs  will  not  sink  under  you  during  the  next  weary 
twelve  or  fourteen  hours ! 

Can  it  be,  my  lords  and  dukes,  that  your  stealing  up  all  the  lands 
of  England  has  anything  to  do  with  the  sorrows  and  the  sufferings  of 
that  mother  and  child ! 

THE    GALLOWS. 

We  are  in  the  centre  of  London  now.  In  the  front  of  Newgate 
prison.  Shall  we  go  in?  No!  IT  will  come  out  by-and-bye ;  don't 
you  see  the  crowd  gathering? 

Day  has  not  yet  risen,  and  the  peaceful  moon  looks  down  through 
the  cloud-spangles  of  that  tranquil  sky — down  on  the  gathering 
crowd — down  on  those  sordid  walls.  Heaven  contrasted  with  earth. 
How  beautiful  the  one,  how  hideous  the  other ! 

But  the  day  has  risen  now.  It  is  looking  at  a  sea  of  upturned 
faces. 

There  is  a  shout,  a  cry,  neither  of  joy,  nor  sorrow,  nor  triumph, 
nor  fear.  A  cry  not  natural  to  the  human  soul ;  but  habitual — made 
so  by  the  scene  before  us. 

For  there  is  a  landing-place  of  wood  or  iron  jutting  out  from  the 
high  wall.  And  there  are  several  persons  standing  on  it,  strangely 
attired.  Three  of  them  have  ropes  round  their  necks.  They  are 
going  to  be  killed.  Yes !  I  now  comprehend  it  all. 

"One"  stands  forward.  He  stands  beside  eternity,  and  speaks  to 
the  earth  for  the  last  time. 

He  was  a  little  child  once,  he  says,  and  a  cabin,  a  garden,  and  a 
brook  are  his  first  memories.  He  was  growing  up,  with  his  brothers 
and  sisters ;  manhood  was  coming  and  the  garden  was  small.  He 
had  to  go  forth,  and  he  had  no  place  to  go  to.  Every  spot  was  taken 
up.  The  poor  had  small  bits  of  land,  too  little  for  themselves. 
There  were  large  tracts  lying  idle,  but  these  were  my  lord's  parks, 
and  my  lord's  mountains.  Nobody  dared  to  approach  them.  He 


OB,   THE  SPIRIT  OP   CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN   DAYS.  95 

Came  to  the  city,  and  for  many  weeks  sought  to  find  a  master.* 
In  vain.  He  had  coino  unbidden  on  the  earth.  Nature's  wants  were 
his  only  heritage.  Her  bounties  wcro  not  for  him.  "And  so,'  said 
he,  "I  had  to  eat,  or  I  would  die — to  find  shelter,  or  I  would  perish. 
The  laws  of  society  ignored  me.  I  ignored  its  laws.  Had  it  given 
me  a  foothold,  and  such  instructions  as  it  could  afford,  would  I  be 
here  this  day  ?  I  and  my  two  wretched  brothers ?  Society  is  stronger 

than  me.    But  whilst  it  c^o "    The  drop  falls — the  rope  breaks ! 

The  word  dies  in  the  utterance.  For  the  wretched  man  fails,  stunned 
and  bleeding,  on  the  hard  pavement  thirty  feet  below.  He  is  taken 
up,  moaning  piteously;  and,  half  walked,  half  carried — to  the  hos- 
pital to  staunch  his  miserable  wounds?  Xo !  to  the  gallows  once 
more  that  he  may  be  killed  effectually  this  time  !f 


"Coming  struggle!"  Those  words  were  written  twenty- 
one  years  ago.  And  the  struggle  has  come  in  earnest.  Tiie 
writers  in  Paper  and  Pamphlet,  and  the  orators  in  Pulpit  and 
Platform,  are  standing  bravely  by  the  side  of  the  ducal  vil- 
lainy— all  agreeing  that  the  world  was  made  for  the  debauch- 
ing dukes.  But  the  Will  of  the  Creator  is  letting  the  light 
in  on  them.  That  Will  is  too  plain  to  be  mistaken,  and  too 
sacred  to  be  disobeyed.  The  mortal  hunger  and  nakedness 
of  His  children  on  the  one  side;  the  ducal  debauchees  on 
the  other.  Who  can  doubt  for  which  of  the  two  was  this 
grand  world  formed  ?  And  men  are  stupid  enough  to  endorse 
the  dukes,  without  even  knowing  that  they  are  denying  God 
at  the  same  moment.  They  have  been  born  and  bred  in  the 
Impious  Falsehood,  and  it  will  take  time  and  effort  to  drag 
them  up  out  of  it.  For  it  is  not  in  a  day  or  a  month  that 
you  can  make  the  Turk  turn  Christian. 

*I  went  through  such  an  experience,  as  we  have  seen,  when  I  was  just 
entering  manhood.  I  had  a  homo  to  return  to.  If  I  had  not,  whether  must  I 
die  or  take  something  to  keep  me  alive? 

fThfs  scene  is  a  reality.  Three  brothers,  Paddy,  Jemmy,  and  Aliok 
Stuart  were  hanged  in  Lifford,  county  Donegal,  about  fifty  years  ago.  I 
knew  them  personally,  and  the  facts  were  just  as  I  have  related  them- 
excepting  the  speech.  Ignorance  left  them  dumb  — they  could  raise  no 
voice  in  their  agony.  Left  them  blind — they  could  not  see  the  lords  and 
dukes  at  the  bottom  of  their  crimes  and  their  fate.  They  were  Protestants 
—belonged  to  that  very  class,  on  whom  the  lord  dukes  rely  to  help  them  In 
their  coming  struggle. 


96  THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  5 

HOEACE    GEEELEY. 

I  had  now  returned  to  New  York,  and  at  his  request  had 
furnished  a  description  of  my  voyage  to  Mr.  Greeley  for  pub- 
lication. He  asked  what  would  I  do  to  help  him  in  the 
election  of  Lincoln  now  close  at  hand.  I  replied  ihat  I  must 
oppose  him  by  reviewing  the  many  errors  he  fell  into  since 
I  came  to  the  country — that  reminding  him  of  those  errors 
might  make  him  pause  in  his  present  course.  It  was  very 
simple,  or  stupid,  of  me  to  hope  such  a  thing,  but  I  actually 
did  hope  it.  Apart  from  the  light  it  throws  on  Greeley's 
true  character,  as  a  resume  of  public  events  not  prominent 
in  history  the  letter, is  of  value.  Personally  I  felt  most 
jdndly,  and  thus  expressed  what  I  felt: 

MB.  GREELEY — I  write  this  letter  from  my  heart  to  yours.  You 
are  the  only  public  man  in  the  country  who  has  been  uniformly  kind 
to  me.  Would  to  God  my  voice  might  reach  your  better  nature,  and 
open  your  eyes  to  the  dangerous  course  you  are  pursuing. 

'•  Coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before," 

and  such  events  sometimes  come  suddenly,  j  In  tracing  the  fate  of  the 
Eoman  Republic,  Marmontel  compresses  a  grave  lesson  into  one 
solid  sentence.  "The  Eostrum  and  the  Campus  Martius,  that  had 
never  before  seen  violence,  were  inundated  with  gore,  and  Eome 
became  a  slaughter  house."  On  this  particular  subject  history  has 
but  one  warning  lesson. 

You  know  that  so  long  as  I  had  the  least  hope  that  your  party 
would  act  in  good  faith  with  us  in  relation  to  the  Public  Lands,  I,  as 
well  as  my  brother  Land  Eeformers  throughout  the  country,  acted  with 
you,  honestly,  zealously. 

I  would  not  now  interfere  between  you  and  your  opponents,  in  your 
battle  for  the  national  spoils,  did  not  another  great  question  present 
itself. 

That  question  is  whether  we  shall  remain  one  strong  and  harmon- 
ious Eepublic,  or  wade  through  civil  strife  to  disruption  or  future 
antagonism.  Alas !  for  yourself,  Mr.  Greeley,  and  doubly,  alas !  for 
your  country,  that  you 

"  Born  for  the  Universe,  narrowed  your  mind, 
And  to  PAETY  gave  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind." 

What  a  greatness  you  might  have  achieved  for  yourself — what  a 
salvation  for  your  country— had  there  been  a  little  less  of  earth  ifc 
your  nature  I 


OB,   THE  SPIRIT   OF  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DA7B,  97 

Conducting  the  Log  Cabin  for  the  Whigs,  you  put  whatever  shape 
suited  your  purpose  upon  history — even  the  most  recent.  With  your 
consent  and  approval  the  streets  were  filled  with  processions,  dead 
owls,  living  ccons,  and  mock  log  cabins  as  political  arguments.  You 
asked  a  "generous  confidence."  You  got  it,  and  used  it — 

"First — To  commence  a  National  Debt  in  time  of  profound  peace, 
A  $12,000,000  loan. 

"Secondly — To  t&xsalt,  sugar,  tea,  coffee,  molasses,  etc.,  and  let  gems, 
all  manner  of  precious  stones,  in  free. 

"Thirdly — To  alienate  t he  PUBLIC  LANDS,  as  the  'Common  Lands* 
have  been  alienated  from  the  people  of  England. 

"Fourthly — To  establish  at  Washington  a  National  Bank  of  two 
hundred  and  ten  millions  of  dollars  to  begin  with,  and  extending  its 
controlling  ramifications  over  the  whole  Republic." 

President  Harrison  was  called  to  his  fathers  after  one  month's 
official  life.  John  Tyler  succeeded  him,  and  twice  vetoed  the 
National  Bank — through  and  by  which  your  party  expected  to  sustain 
their  other  evil  measures.  The  sequel  is  soon  told.  Out  of  twenty- 
six  States  and  three  Territories,  you  held  the  reins  in  no  more  than 
five  after  the  next  election,  in  1842 ! 

Now,  Mr.  Greeley,  as  editor  of  the  Log  Cabin,  you  know  that  you 
did  more  to  bring  this  great  disgrace  and  this  great  danger  on  the 
Republic  than  ten  thousand  of  the  common  men  that  shouted  under 
your  banners.  You  cannot  but  see — for  you  believe  in  Providence — 
that  the  country  was  saved  from  this  Great  Conspiracy,  in  which  you 
acted  so  largo  a  part,  by  the  removal  of  Gen.  Harrison,  and  tiio  stern 
virtue  of  John  Tyler. 

But,  as  this  is  a  subject  you  are  not  likely  to  see  through  clearly, 
let  me  illustrate : 

If  you  had  been  a  pilot,  say  in  1840.  If  you  had  asked  a  "generous 
confidence"  from  the  ship's  crew,  and  they,  believing  your  protesta- 
tions of  skill  and  honesty,  had  put  you  in  command  of  the  vessel  of 
State.  If,  in  return  for  that  "generous  confidence,"  you,  either 
through  ignorance  or  design,  headed  the  ship  right  into  the  breakers. 
If  God,  in  his  mercy  to  the  gallant  vessel,  took  your  man  at  the  wheel 
to  Himself,  and  inspired  the  man  who  succeeded  him  to  head  her  off  the 
rocks.  If  the  crew  rallied  against  you,  chased  you  from  the  quarter- 
deck, and  locked  you  down  under  hatches  for  your  attempted  crime. 
If  that  were  so  then  (1840),  how  could  you  now  (18GO)  present  yourself 
and  your  associates  as  the  right  men,  the  reliable  pilots,  to  take  charge 
of  the  gallant  ship?  Yet  this  is  exactly  your  present  position.  Cannot 


98       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

you  realize  that  it  is?  And  do  you  not  despise  the  man  who  would 
impose  himself  on  the  public  for  that  which  he  is  not? 

How  is  it,  then?  When  you  acted  so  foolishly  or  so  wickedly  in 
1840 — how  are  you  sure  that  you  are  not  acting  as  foolishly  or  as 
wickedly  now? 

But  it  is  possible  you  may  think  that  you  have  gleaned  up 
wisdom  and  added  to  your  stock  of  public  virtue  since  that  time. 
Perhaps  you  think  your  success  in  life  is  a  proof  of  this. 

And  yet  you  know  that  the  corrupt  system  which  prevails  in  polit- 
ical cabals  excludes  the  best  men  ice  have  from  all  participation  in 
public  affairs.  You  know  that  the  sorrowful  lines  of  the  poet  never 
applied  more  truly  to  his  own  unhappy  land  than  they  now  apply  to 
this  unhappy  country ; 

"  Unprized  arc  her  sons  till  they've  learned  to  betray 

Undistinguished  they  live — if  they  shame  not  their  sires, 
And  the  torch  that  would  light  them  through  dignity's  way 
Must  be  caught  from  tho  pile  where  their  country  expires." 

Above  all  things,  Mr.  Greeley,  distrust  your  success — your  great 
public  success.  A  wiser  man,  I  think,  than  either  you  or  I  has 

said: 

"  When  vico  prevails  and  impious  men  bear  sway, 
The  post  of  honor  is  a  private  station." 

You  know  that  the  politicians  of  all  parties,  yours  among  the  rest, 
are  sneaking,  self-seeking,  corrupt  men ;  that  people  are  beginning 
to  regard  the  very  name  "politician"  as  synonymous  with  infamy. 
And  yet  your  "post  of  honor"  has  not  been  "a  private  station."  You 
have  been  always,  and  now  are,  the  essential  leader  of  one  of  those 
bands  of  politicians  by  trade.  How  could  you  glean  up  public  virtue 
where  it  was  not?  How  could  you,  indeed,  maintain  your  superiority 
among  them  if  you  were  not  the  Paul  Clifford  of  the  gang?  Paul  had 
genius,  energy,  generosity,  and  even  a  slender  brilliant  thread  of 
honesty  running  through  his  character.  And  did  not  those  qualities 
render  him  all  the  more  valuable  to  the  gang — all  the  more  formid- 
able to  the  country  which  he  infested? 

But  let  us  re-enter  on  your  career,  and  step  along  from  fact  to 

KHODE    ISLAND. 

The  people  of  that  State  had  been  ruled  under  the  exclusive  and 
insulting  charter  of  one  of  England's  worst  kings,  Charles  II.  This 
charter  had  secured  all  power  to  the  local  aristocracy — disfranchis- 
ing the  people  at  large — and  they  were  white  people  too — very  much 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  99 

as  the  negroes  of  the  South  are  disfranchised.  Did  you  not  hail  the 
new  "  Declaration  of  Independence"  issued  by  the  people  of  Rhode 
Island?  Did  you  not  support  it  with  ardor  in  your  paper?  Did  you 
not  maintain  that  "all  legitimate  government"  was  indeed  "  derived 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed  "?  This  in  the  first  week  or  two  of 
the  movement.  How  was  it,  then,  that  a  new  light  fell  upon  you  the 
week  following  ?  How  was  it  that  you  wheeled  rapidly  into  the  ranks 
of  the  "Algerines,"  and  opened  upon  the  republicans  such  a  heavy 
and  sustained  fire  as  only  you  knew  how  to  direct? 

MINE  BOBBERY. 

When  the  government  of  James  K.  Polk  undertook  to  deed  away 
the  immense  copper  regions  of  Lake  Superior  to  its  favorites,  the 
National  Reform  Association  protested  against  the  robbery.  I 
called  upon  you,  and  asked  you  to  h  elp  us  to  oppose  it.  You  wouldn't. 
On  the  contrary,  you  employed  your  Washington  correspondent  to 
abet  this  immense  fraud.  Some  of  the  Reformers  found  a  key  to  this 
strange  conduct  of  yours  in  the  fact  that  you  were  yourself  a  share- 
holder in  those  grants.  I  could  not  think  so.  I  merely  regarded  you  as 


r. 


By  some  confusion  led 

That  almost  looked  like  want  of  head.' 


You  accepted  the  doctrines  of  Fourier,  that  splendid  dreamer. 
But,  alas  !  as  soon  as  the  politicians  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
M.  Fourier,  you  put  him  out  in  the  cold,  and  would  not  allow  his 
friend,  M.  Brisbane,  to  bring  him  into  warm  himself.  Does  not  this 
little  fact  show  what  reformers  may  hope  from  you  in  the  hour  of 
their  need. 

'  LAND  REFORM. 

But  you  "have  always  done  justice  to  my  great  measure,  the 
Freedom  of  the  Public  Lands  to  Actual  Settlers."  Let  us,  Mr. 
Greeley,  approach  this  question  with  reverence.  It  is,  indeed,  "  holy 
ground. 

I  need  not  remind  you,  sir,  that  you  had  been  the  right  arm  of  that 
party  which  saw  no  better  useior  those  lands  than  to  •  DISTRIBUTE" 
them  amonsr  the  several  States — which  you  know  means  the  several 
politicians  and  money-lenders  throughout  the  States.  I  need  not  re- 
mind youthatwhenagallant  "forlornhope"  of  workingmen  commenced 
a  regular  movement  for  the  preservation  and  freedom  of  those  lands — 
that  from  the  Spring  of  1844  to  the  Fall  of  1845,  eighteen  long  months, 
you  looked  on  at  their  patriotic  efforts,  and  instead  of  giving  them  one 
word  of  cheer,  kept  hammering  on  at  your  scheme  of  "  Distribution  !' 


100  THE  ODD  BOOK   OF  THB  NINETEENTH  CKNTTTBY  ; 

1 '  Distribution  "  of  the  lands  among  the  States !  All  this  time  the  Phil- 
istines had  you  like  a  blind  Sampson  chained  in  their  mill,  grinding 
corn  for  them. 

And  thus  for  eighteen  long  months  you  could  not  see  the  noble 
efforts  of  those  great-hearted  men.  At  last  you  saw  them.  Their 
efforts  struck  your  "Distribution"  scheme  stone-dead;  and  then 
the  Philistines  unchained  you,  and  let  you  look  abroad  and  see  what 
was  going  on  in  the  world. 

And  you  found  a  new  state  of  affairs — you  found  that  a  Resolution 
in  favor  of  Land  Reform  had  passed  the  Assembly  of  New  York  by 
the  instructive  vote  of  one  hundred  and  two  affirmatives  to  Jive  nega- 
tives. You  found  that  the  farmers  of  the  central  counties  had  joined 
issue  with  that  British  legacy  to  us — Landlordism. 

And  so  you  found  "Distribution"  dead — killed  by  our  labors  in 
New  York  City,  and  that  vote  in  tho  Assembly  of  New  York  State. 
And  from  that  moment  you  and  your  party  abandoned  the  "Dis- 
tribution" scheme  forevermore. 

And  then  you  became  a  Land  Reformer !  Then  you  turned  from 
the  selling  to  the  rising  sun !  j 

GENERAL    JACKSON. 

In  the  Summer  of  1845  the  obsequies  of  General  Jackson  were  cele- 
brated in  New  York  City  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  old  hero's 
fame  am!  services.  The  Tribune  carricatured  the  whole  ceremonial 
with  a  bitterness  which  I  thought  in  exceedingly  bad  taste.  I  criti- 
cized the  Tribune  for  this  bad  taste,  in  tho  Farmers' paper,  then  under 
my  control ;  and,  being  on  the  subject,  expressed  a  thought  like  this : 
' :  For  every  true  reformer,  created  by  Nature,  there  come  into  this 
world  ten  thousand  quacks.  Mr.  Greeley  has  not  yet  said  a  word 
against  land  monopoly;  and  ho  is  a  puzzle  to  us — whether  to  call  him 
tho  one  true  reformer,  or  to  place  him  among  the  ten  thousand 
quacks."  Tho  very  next  week  I  was  gratified  to  see  you  come  out  with 
your  first  article  on  Land  Reform. 

But  1  was  then  at  Albany,  publishing  a  paper  in  the  interest  of  the 

\   farmers  — and  the  paper  circulated  among  fifty  thousand  voters. 

Then  you  camo  personally  to  my  office  and  gave  in  your  adherence. 

POLICE. 

Fernando  Wood  made  our  police  system  a  political  machine.  You 
removed  Fernando's  creatures  to  make  way  for  your  own.  Fernando 
hadn't  armed  his  creatures  with  secret  revolvers.  You  remedy  this 


03,   THE  SPIRIT  OP  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN   DAYS.  101 

defect.  Fernando  made  us  pay  $600  to  his  creatures ;  you  order  us 
to  pay  $800  to  yours.  And  here  is  a  sample  of  what  they  can  do  for 
the  money : 

One  of  them  (Cairns)  arrests  a  citizen  ILLEGALLY.  The  citizen 
(Hollis)  very  naturally,  and  very  properly,  too,  resists,  frees  himself, 
and  runs  away.  Your  creature  follows  the  man,  (who,  mind  you,  had 
violated  no  law)  fires  at  him  shot  after  shot,  regardless  of  the  crowded 
street— Fulton.  The ' '  FUGITIVE, "  to  save  himself  from  being  mur- 
dered, takes  hold  of  an  apple  stand  and  stops,  to  give  himself  up.  The 
cruel  wretch  comes  forward  and,  while  his  victim  is  so  standing, 
shoots  him  through  the  back,  dead!  A  political  grand  jury  is  called. 
They  absolve  the  murderer ;  without  even  putting  him  on  his  trial, 
he  is  let  loose  again  on  the  community,  and  his  brother  policemen 
make  up  a  purse  of  gold  (one  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars)  and 
present  it  to  him  as  ' '  a  slight  mark  of  their  approval. ' '  Now,  I  ask  you 
solemnly,  Mr.  Greeley,  if  this  murder  had  been  committed  on  a 
"fugitive  slave'  in  the  streets  of  New  York,  wouldn't  you  have  in- 
voked heaven  and  earth  for  justice  upon  his  murderer?  And  yet, 
when  your  white  brother  is  murdered,  you  are  essentially  dumb! 
Indeed,  your  teachings  have  so  debauched  the  public  mind  that 
when  I  went  to  a  public  meeting  of  "Progressives, "  in  the  Bowery, 
to  call  their  attention  to  this  outrage  on  liberty,  they  wouldn't  enter- 
tain the  subject  at  all.  They  had  two  negro  orators,  and  were  too 
busy  (I  state  a  literal  fact)  discussing  the  more  important  concern 
of  "Whether  the  ancient  Egyptians  were  black,  white,  or  tawny"  ! 

Even  the  temperance  preachers  who  try  of  an  evening  to  make 
converts  along  the  docks  are  repeatedly  thrown  into  prison  by  these 
police ;  and,  though  repeatedly  discharged  by  the  Courts,  are  again 
thrown  into  prison  by  the  police.  The  Tribune  abets  this  outrage. 
"The  police,"  it  says,  "are  determined  to  enforce  their  authority." 
What  authority  have  they,  sir,  to  trample  on  law  and  right? 

I  grant  you  that  your  political  opponents  are  corrupt,  mean,  selfish 
and  dishonorable.  To  finish  the  picture,  1  have  only  to  add  that  your 
party  is  WORSE — beyond  all  comparison.  The  one  uses  "rods,"  the 

other  "scorpions." 

TAX-EATEKS. 

From  1848  to  1855  the  journeymen  politicians  raised  the  taxes  of 
Williamsburgh  from  $23,000  to  $378>000.  About  the  latter  period  'I 
established  the  Tax-Payer,  to  expose  and  put  a  stop  to  this  enormous 
fraud.  I  called  personally  on  you.  I  implored  your  assistance  in 
favor  ol  my  effort.  I  put  Into  your  hands  the  proofs  (printed  from 


102  THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CKNTUBY  J 

the  public  records)  of  the  open  robbery  that  was  practiced  upon  us. 
You  would  give  me  no  help ! 

I  was  one  day  on  a  Staten  Island  ferry-boat.  Sunday  it  was,  and 
the  immense  crowd,  many  of  them  intoxicated,  were  admitted  with- 
out stint.  One  or  two  fights  were  commenced,  and  if  they  had  gone 
on  nothing  could  have  saved  the  careening  boat  from  capsizing.  I 
took  notes  of  what  I  saw,  intending  to  publish  the  facts  in  a  New 
York  paper.  I  had  forgotten  for  a  moment  that  the  editor,  whoever 
he  might  be,  would  cry  out : 

Hillo!  Mr.  Guideall,  how  do  we  stand  on  Staten  Island  matters? 
Does  the  ferry  line  advertise  with  us?  Has  any  of  our  friends  real 
estate  that  might  be  affected  by  publishing  an  article  on  the  unsafe 
ferries? 

"  Why,  yes  sir,  we  advertise  for  them  occasionally,  and  Mr.  Paper- 
Share  has  also  shares  in  the  line."  "Ah,  well ! "  (Chuck  under  the 
table.) 

As  this  image  passed  in  review  before  me  I  put  up  my  note-book. 
Within  that  very  month  a  large  number  of  people  were  killed  or 
drowned  on  that  same  ferry  bridge. 

PBOTECTION  TO  AMEKICAN  LABOE. 

Can  you  propose  nothing  better  for  it  than  the  choking  dust,  the 
unwholesome  gases,  the  stupefying  noises  of  a  factory?  Can  you 
propose  nothing  better  for  it  than  having  the  gate  slammed  in  its 
face,  if  a  human  thought  or  a  human  action  keeps  it  a  minute  too 
late  in  answering  the  morning  or  the  noon-tide  bell?  Toiling  as  if 
they  were  dead  parts  of  the  machinery — stifling  not  developing  their 
faculties — obeying  not  thinking — suffering  not  enjoying  life.  A  band  of 
white  slaves,  toiling  out  a  life  worse  than  death,  to  build  up  princely 
fortunes  for  heartless — and  may  I  not  say  inhuman? — employers.* 

*The  following  is  an  official  document  presented  to  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  in  1843,  and  late  movements  in  that  State  show  us  that  things 
are  not  improving  since  that  time : 

"  We,  the  undersigned,  females,  dependant  upon  the  labor  of  our  hands 
for  subsistence,  having  left  the  employment  of  the  Middlesex  Manufacturing 
Company,  on  account  of  a  violation  on  their  part  of  the  agreement  existing 
between  the  undersigned  and  said  Company,  are  now  suffering  persecution 
from  said  Company,  and  are  hunted  from  place  to  place,  that  we  may  find 
no  employment  by  which  to  earn  a  living.  Not  being  able  to  contend 
against  our  rich  persecutors  by  bringing  a  suit  at  law  for  satisfaction,  we 
are  compelled  to  seek  redress  or  protection  from  the  powers  which  created 
said  Company.  The  '  Regulation  Paper '  which  accompanies  this  memorial 
reads  as  follows :  'All  persons  entering  into  the  employment  of  the  Company 
are  considered  as  engaged  for  twelve  months,  and  those  who  leave  sooner 


OR,   THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  103 

Now,  Mr.  Greeley,  though  you  and  I  may  be  brother  reformers  in 
some  things,  we  differ  very  much  ir»  this.  "Protection  to  American 
Labor!"  The  unglossed  realities  of  yaw  picture  are  before  us. 
Permit  me,  beside  it,  to  present  mine. 

I  would  have  a  very  large  majority  of  the  American  people  gentle- 
men farmers— living  on  their  estates,  and  raising  solid,  bountiful 
'material,  with  which  to  feed  and  clothe  their  own  nation — and  a 
reserve  withal,  sufficient  to  meet  famine  wherever  it  might  appear  in 
the  world.  I  would  have  the  needful  arts  follow  them  and  found 
manufactures  wherever  the  water-fall  offered  them  its  free  force; 
growing  up  from  little  to  large,  and  owned  by  their  operators,  just  as 
the  farmer  would  own  his  grounds.  I  would  found  this  manufactur- 
ing life  on  men's  free  not  constrained  action.  I  would  throw  across 
it  a'dash  of  sunshine,  an  opening  to  the  sky,  a  prospect,  and  if  need 
be  a  ramble  over  meadows  and  hills.  I  would  associate  it  with  the 
teeming,  plenty,  and  the  perennial  purity  of  Nature.  I  would  have  a 
market  spring  up  between  it  and  the  fanners  around.  I  would  develop, 
by  those  means,  our  brothers  and  sisters  into  dignified  and  complete 
men  and  women.  And  any  manufactures  that  would  not  grow  up 
spontaneously  under  circumstances  like  these,  why  I  would  leave 
them  to  the  houseless  disinhe.rited  peoples  of  Europe ;  and  when  those 
brought  their  products  to  our  shores  I  would  give  them  of  the  super- 
abundance of  our  soil  in  exchange. 

And  so  would  you,  too,  Mr.  Greeley, — I  have  that  faith  in  you  still 
— if  the  cotton-lord  white-slave  party  would  only  let  you.  But  they 

will  not  receive  a  regular  discharge.'  We  did  not  imply,  by  agreeing  to  this, 
that  our  wages  were  to  be  subject  to  any  reduction  which  the  Company 
might  see  fit  to  make,  and  when  they  gave  us  official  notice  that  they  were 
going  to  cut  our  wages  down  twenty-five  per  cent,  we  considered  it  a  viola- 
tion ot  the  agreement  between  us.  We  therefore  quit  working  for  said 
Company.  Some  of  us  went  to  work  for  other  Companies,  but  these  Com- 
panies soon  received  our  names,  and  we  were  immediately  turned  off. 
Some  of  us  applied  for  work  where  hands  were  wanted,  but  were  informed 
that  they  could  employ  none  'of  the  turn  outs  from  the  Middlesex,'  and 
many  who  labored  with  us  have  been  obliged  to  leave  Lowell,  and  seek 
their  bread  wo  know  not  where,  on  account  of  the  persecution  carried  on 
against  them  by  the  Middlesex  Company.  Our  names  are  upon  all  the 
corporations  in  Lowell  that  we  may  find  no  employment.  We  therefore 
pray  that  you  will,  if  consistent  with  your  constitutional  powers,  stay  the 
hand  of  our  persecutors ;  and  if  not,  that  some  law  may  be  enacted  which 
will  prevent  our  brothers,  sisters,  and  friends  suffering  as  we  suffer,  if  ever 
they  should  resist  injustice  from  Manufacturing  Companies. 

"  Buth  Hancock,  Mary  J.  Stowell,  Caroline  J.  Sweetser,  Debora  Smith, 
Betsey  Tenney,  Lydia  Or.  Bates,  Julia  A.  Taylor,  Maria  French,  Mary  W. 
Honey,  Lucinda  Keeler,  Ennice  G.  Ilsley,  Kebecca  H.  Flynn,  Amy  Little- 
field,  Jane  G,  Morton,  Mary  A.  Morgan."  lAad  this  villainy  continues  to  the 
present  day.] 


104  THE  ODD  BOOS  OP  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

won't.  It  would  not  suit  the  Abbot  Lawrence  school  of  politicians. 
And  yet  it  might  suit  them  just  as  well  as  to  be  breaking  their  firms 
in  the  attempt  to  bribe  Tariff  Laws  through  Congress ! 

GBAND    JURIES, 

in  this  neighborhood  at  least,  are  mere  political  machines,  each 
member  named  by  the  supervisor  of  his  district.  I  was  named  one 
time.  We  visited  the  wretched  prisoners  in  King's  County  Jail,  who, 
according  to  our  "Young  Men's  Christian  Association,"  are  the  most 
'  'barbarously  treated  of  any  prisoners  in  the  State. "  I  took  note  of  the 
facts  and  submitted  a  presentment  to  my  brother  jurors.  One  of 
them — a  trading,  and  withal  a  most  stupid  politician — said:  "It 
would  make  a  very  good  newspaper  article,  but  he  'guessed'  they 
would  not  adopt  it."  To  this  the  other  twenty  politicians  agreed, 
having  an  undefined  dread  of  Devyr.  I  took  the  paper  to  the  Tribune 
office,  thinking  that  surely  it  would  not  turn  its  back  on  those  brut- 
ally treated  prisoners.  Your  locum  tenens,  Mr.  Dana,  said  he  "would 
take  care  of  it ; "  and  so  he  did — such  good  care  that  it  never  saw  the 
light.  The  Sheriff  was  a  Republican,  it  seems^and  coming  up  for 
re-election ;  my  paper  might  possibly  injure  his  prospects,  and  so  the 
prisoners  were  left  without  a  voice ! 

Tired  with  this  uncertainty,  I,  once  for  all,  wrote  a  private  letter  to 
you,  enumerating  ten  subjects  of  reform  that  I  proposed  to  discuss 
through  your  columns:  First — on  the  Patent  Laws;  secondly — the 
evil  of  building  houses  and  ships  that  will  burn  up ;  thirdly — Consti- 
tutional Limit  to  Taxation,  and  so  forth.  You  tacitly  agreed  to  my 
proposal,  publishing  my  first  article  on  reform  of  the  Patent  Laws. 
The  second  you  would  not  publish,  though — if  human  life  and  prop- 
erty be  of  any  worth — it  was  the  most  valuable  I  had  ever  offered 
to  you.  It  struck  at  the  business  of  the  Insurance  Companies,  and 
those  companies  advertise  in  the  Tribune.  Alas !  that  reform  must 
be  clogged  by  such  considerations. 

LAND    REFORM. 

A  notice  appeared  in  the  Tribune,  inviting  some  one  who  knew  the 
literature  of  land  reform  to  come  forward  and  publish  a  history  of 
that  reform  that  would  enure  to  the  benefit  of  the  Republican  party. 

I  called  at  the  Tribune  office,  and  stated  that  I  was  willing  to 
undertake  this  work,  provided  that  it  was  no  "make-believe,"  to 
catch  votes.  Mr.  Dana  referred  me  to  the  central  committee  at 
Washington.  I  sent  to  them  specimens  of  the  literature,  and  offered 
to  do  the  work  without  reward.  I  added  that  I  had  seen  much  polit- 


OR,    THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS. 


105 


ical  insincerity,  and  if  any  was  to  be  practiced  now  they  had  better 
keep  clear  of  me.  Mr.  Grow,  the  chairman,  returned  my  specimens 
without  a  word  of  reply ! 

But  it  was  hard  for  me  to  give  up  the  hope  that  I  had  so  long  cher- 
ished— the  hope,  namely,  that  your  party  would  help  us  truly  in  this 
great  Reform  on  the  Public  Lands.  So  I  called  on  yourself,  sir.  Yov 
^vere,  naturally,  the  last  man  in  whom  my  trust  would  die  away.  In 
reply  to  my  offer,  and  its  one  condition,  you  said  an  article  in  the 
Tribune  would  serve  the  same  purpose ! 

It  was  a  discouragement,  indeed,  when  you  squeezed  the  whole 
work  down  to  one  article  in  the  Tribune;  so  I  said,  "Well,  even  that 
is,  perhaps,  better  than  nothing ;  but,  compress  it  as  I  may,  it  will 
be  a  long  article."  You  "did  not  think  so,"  and  you  intimated  that 
it  would  be  best  to  confine  myself  to  "half  a  column!" 

Mr.  Greeley,  you  were  my  last  hope.  I  looked  through  the  political 
leaders  opposed  to  you  —  I  saw  only  selfishness  and  hypocrisy;  I 
looked  at  your  own  political  associates — they  were  equally  selfish 
and  hypocritical.  To  you,  therefore,  I  clung,  as  would  the  sailor  to 
his  plank  in  a  drowning  ocean.  But  you  would  not  let  me  write  this 
history.  That  was  certain.  And  yet,  why  not?  The  proposition 
came  from  yourself.  It  would  help  in  the  approaching  election.  I 
would  work  as  I  am  used  to  work,  without  pay.  I  returned  home 
mournfully  thinking  of  those  things.  I  turned  to  the  papers  I  had 
written  from  time  to  time  on  this  subject.  Among  them  I  found  the 
following  APPEAL  TO  THE  WHIGS. 

"You  demand  that  a  slave  shall  not  be  permitted  to  work  on  the 
northerly  side  of  a  geographical  line.  You  do  not  propose  to  lessen 
the  number  of  slaves.  You  do  not  propose  to  ameliorate  their  con- 
dition. But  you  want  to  restrict  slavery  to  its  present  limits.  You 
want  to  preserve  the  Territories  to  free  labor. 
' '  Is  that  all  ?  '  Yes,  that  is  all. ' 

"Well,  now,  if  that  be  all,  there  is  no  need  to  dispute  with  the 
South  about  it.  Will  you  not  be  obliged  to  me  if  I  show  you  a  plan 
by  which  you  can  accomplish  that  object — certainly,  effectually,  and 
with  no  danger  at  all?  A  plan  in  which  the  whole  masses  of  the 
North — not  a  fraction  of  them — will  back  you.  A  plan  that  will  range 
at  your  side  all  the  white  proletarians — the  homeless  men — of  the 
Southern  States.  A  plan  that  will  not  leave  to  the  slave-holder  the 
shadow  of  an  excuse  to  break  the  peace,  or  a  shadow  of  power  to 
carry  out  such  a  purpose. 

Would  the  freedom  of  the  Public  Lands  to  actual  settlers— forever  limit' 


106      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

ing  the  farm  to  160  acres — would  this  simple  measure,  or  would  it  not,  keep 
slavery  out  of  the  Territories? 

"  Reflect  upon  this  question,  and  give  me  a  distinct  answer  to  it. 

' '  But  you  do  not  need  to  reflect.  You  know  that  such  a  law  would 
fill  the  Territories  with  poor  men  from  the  South,  and  energetic  men 
from  the  free  States.  You  know  that  this  law  would — not  in  terms, 
indeed,  but  in  effect — shut  out  the  slave-holder.  Could  he  pursue  his 
vocation  on  160  acres  of  land?  Or,  if  he  could,  what  inducement 
would  he  have  to  enter  a  Territory  from  which  slavery  would  be  sure 
to  be  driven  as  soon  as  it  becomes  a  State? 

"Gerrit  Smith  loves  the  slave  as  well  as  you  can  pretend  to  love 
him,  and  he  answers  the  question  in  these  words  :  '  Land  reform  Is 
the  mightiest  and  most  thorough  of  all  anti-slavery  measures. 
Abolish  slavery,  and  land  monopoly  will  reproduce  it.  But  abolish 
land  monopoly,  and  make  every  man  an  acknowledged  owner  of  the 
soil — and  there  will  be  no  room  left  for  the  return  of  slavery.'  " 

But  you  make  the  matter  worse  when  you  tell  us  that  New  York 
City  can  furnish  as  many  volunteers  as  will  keep  South  Carolina  in 
order,  at  a  very  small  figure  of  pay.  It  is,  indeed,  deplorable  that 
such  shallow  flippancy  can  show  itself  in  discussing  the  life  or  death 
of  this  glorious  Union. 

Mr.  Douglas  left  his  party  in  '52  and  stood  by  you  on  the  Nebraska 
bill.  This  severed  him  from  the  Buchanan  Administration.  In 
return  you  spoke  out  that  he  should  be  returned  to  the  Senate.  He 
was  your  ally,  and  devoted  to  political  death  by  his  own  party. 

But  the  hungry  office-seekers  of  Illinois  would  not  suffer  your 
generous  purpose.  Their  base  little  party  newspapers  came  along, 
day  after  day,  howling  at  you  for  speaking  of  a  generous  return  for 
the  help  Mr.  Douglas  had  given  you. 

Now  that  the  whole  Administration  pack  opposed  his  return  to  the 
Senate,  there  was  a  chance  for  the  hungry  office-seekers  of  Illinois. 
By  this  help,  they  would  surely  be  able  to  turn  Douglas  out  of  a  seat 
—periled  only  by  the  aid  he  lent  to  themselves.  You  succumbed  to 
those  base  and  ungrateful  men,  and  joined  them  in  their  bitter  and 
ungrateful  warfare.  But  you  gained  nothing  by  it.  The  sturdy  men 
of  Illinois  saw  the  ingratitude,  and  they  rebuked  it  as  it  deserved. 

And  now  you  take  the  man  (Lincoln)  foremost  in  that  ingratitude — 
who  stumped  the  State  against  Douglas— and  you  use  him  to  push  aside 
Wm.  H.  Seward,  a  far  abler  man,  whom  you  have  so  long  personally 
and  bitterly  opposed. 

The  letter  concluded  with  this  paragraph. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DATS.  107 

With  gratitude  for  tho  personal  kindness  you  have  ever  shown  me, 
and  in  the  liopo  that  you  will,  even  yet,  pause  and  have  pity  on  your 
country,  permit  me  to  subscribe  myself  your  friend, 

THOMAS    AINGE    DEVYK. 

Before  it  went  to  press  I  sent  him  a  proof  of  it,  offering 
to  print  any  denials  or  explanations  he  might  choose  to  make, 
reserving  the  privilege  oi  commenting  on  them.  The  follow- 
ing waj  his  reply : 

NEW  YORK,  Nov.  20,  1860. 
MR.  T.  A.  DEVYR  : 

The  only  favor  I  shall  ever  ask  of  you — and  I  never  asked  one 
before — is,  that  you  procure  and  read  Benedict  Arnold's  letter  to  his 
betrayed  countrymen  after  he  escaped  from  West  Point  to  the  British 
camp,  and  then  take  a  steady  look  at  your  own  face  in  a  mirror.  I 
loathe  you  too  much,  for  your  treason  to  the  rights  of  man,  to  Lpeak 
of  you :  but  for  what  you  have  said  or  may  say  about  me  I  care 
nothing. 

I  remain,  glad  that  you  have  ceased  personally  to  infest  me, 

HORACE    GEEELEY. 

To  which  I  rejoined: 

Greeley,  are  you  the  "rights  of  man?"  Are  the  political  knaves 
associated  with  you  the  "patriots  of  the  last  century? "  Is  the  man 
who  denounces  you  both  ' '  Benedict  Arnold? "  It  is  long  since  _  knew 
your  vices ;  but  I  never  thought  you  were  such  an  able  and  malig- 
nant scoundrel.  THOMAS  AINGE  DEVYR. 

He  had  asked  favors  of  me — to  edit  the  Land  Reformer  in 
favor  of  Fremont — to  write  him  letters  from  Europe;  and 
I  had  written  hundreds  of  dollars  worth  of  correspondence  for 
his  paper,  without  ever  mentioning  the  word  "cent"  in 
requital.  Lincoln  is  elected,  and  Greeley, 

"  Scared  at  the  sound  himself  has  made," 
publishes  the  following: 

Nov.  17,  '60. — "If  the  Cotton  States  are  satisfied  that  they  can  do 
better  out  of  the  Union  than  in  it,  we  insist  on  letting  them  go  in 
peace.  The  right  to  secede  may  be  a  revolutionary  one,  but  it  exists, 
nevertheless.  We  must  ever  resist  the  right  of  any  State  to  remain 
in  the  Union  and  nullify  the  laws  thereof.  To  withdraw  from  the 
Union  is  quite  another  matter.  Whenever  a  considerable  section  of 
our  Union  shall  deliberately  resolve  to  go  out,  we  shall  resist  all 
coercive  measures  designed  to  keep  them  in.  We  hope  never  to  live 
in  a  Republic  whereof  one  section  is  pinned  to  the  other  by  bayonets." 


108      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

ON  THE  20th. — "If  the  Cotton  States,  unitedly  and  earnestly,  wish 
to  withdraw  from  the  Union,  we  think  they  should  and  would  be 
allowed  to  do  so.  Any  attempt  to  compel  them,  by  force,  to  remain 
would  be  contrary  to  the  principles  enunciated  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence — contrary  to  the  fundamental  idea  on  which  human 
liberty  is  based." 

DECEMBER  7th. — "If  the  Declaration  of  Independence  justified  the 
secession  from  the  British  Empire  of  three  millions  of  Colonists  in 
1776,  we  do  not  see  why  it  would  not  justify  the  secession  of  five 
millions  of  Southerners  in  1860." 

We  have  seen  how  he  battled  for  land  reform  when  it  had 
power.  Now  that  his  vicious  party  had  poisoned  it  to  death, 
I  find  this  record  in  a  rural  paper,  the  Southport  Telegraph  : 

GREELEY  ON  LAND  REFORM.— Greeley  thinks  that  all  men  have  a 
natural  God-given  right  to  the  earth;  but  then,  he  says  that  the 
public  lands  stand  pledged  in  the  most  solemn  manner  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  late  war  debt,  and  therefore  he  cannot  go  for  freedom  of 
the  public  lands.  Let  us  examine  this  position  a  little.  Man  has  a 
natural,  God-given  right  to  the  land  ?  Yes.  Well,  what  makes  slaves  ? 
Why,  depriving  them  of  their  natural,  God-given  rights.  Well,  then, 
if  the  government  had  pledged  the  persons  of  our  citizens  and  their 
children  forever,  for  the  payment  of  this  debt,  would  not  the  pledge 
have  been  equally  binding  and  sacred.  The  idea  that  one  generation 
has  a  right  to  perpetrate  an  admitted  fraud  upon  the  succeeding  one 
is  certainly  not  worthy  of  Horace  Greeley.— Southport  (N.  Y.)  Telegraph. 

A  mistake  of  the  Telegraph.  It  was  pre-eminently  "worthy 
of  Horace  Greeley." 

On  December  5th,  1879,  Wendell  Phillips  in  a  lecture  says: 
"Mr.  Greeley  was  most  pretentious.  The  philosophy  of  his  edit- 
ing was  the  most  tyrannical,  unjust,  cruel  and  arbitrary  that  a  decent 
man  ever  avowed.  He  said  that  he  did  not  undertake  to  tell  the 
truth ;  that  his  only  object  was  to  tell  the  news,  and  if  any  man's 
character  was  offended  or  injured  in  the  Tribune  he  was  at  liberty  to 
set  himself  right.  The  doctrine  was  cruel,  unjust,  insolent,  and 
hard-hearted,  and  has  never  been  avowed  by  a  respectable  man.  As 
if  anybody  had  a  right  to  make  his  living  by  printing  a  spicy  lie 
about  you,  to  make  his  paper  more  saleable,  and  then  you  were 
allowed  to  devote  your  days  to  hunting  up  evidence  to  disprove  it, 
and  arrange  matter  for  the  press,  and  send  your  carefully-prepared 
document,  with  your  affidavit,  to  the  Tributw — all  of  which  trouble  he 


OR,   THE  SPIRIT   OF  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DATS.  109 

had  no  right  to  subject  you  to — and  when  you  had  done  it,  and  when 
he  printed  your  answer,  it  was  to  be  riddled  with  insult,  to  be  merci- 
lessly torn  to  pieces,  you  ridiculed — to  be  treated  as  if  you  were  a 
highway  robber  on  trial,  instead  of  a  worthy  citizen  who  had  been 
used  to  get  a  penny  into  the  pocket  of  a  dishonest  knave." 

There  lives  not  a  man,  perhaps,  who  will  impugn  the 
purity  of  heart  of  Wendell  Phillips,  and  he  here  draws  even 
a  worse  picture  of  Greeley  than  the  facts  I  was  reviewing 
compelled  me  to  draw. 

The  foreman  of  the  office  in  which  my  letter  was  printed 
was  a  creature  of  Greeley  and  a  speaker  at  the  Ward  meet- 
ings. He  so  contrived  as  to  spoil  1,500  out  of  2,000  of  the 
impressions  for  want  of  ink.  He  disappeared  soon  after  from 
New  York,  charged  with  embezzling  lecture  noneys.  Whether 
it  was  Greeley  got  between  the  paper  and  the  ink  I  don't 
know.  But  I  do  know  that  the  printer  lost  if  some  one 
other  than  myself  didn't  pay  him. 


GENEKAL    CBOOKE— THE    WAR. 

I  had  a  conversation  with  him  before  hostilities  commenced 
in  Charleston  harbor,  to  this  effect: 

D. — I  fear  we're  on  the  edge  of  a  Civil  War. 

C. — Civil  War !  No :  It  will  be  essentially  a  foreign  war.  The 
seceding  States  must  be  dealt  with  as  we  would  deal  with  a  foreign 
enemy.  There  will  be  frontier  lines  contended  for — battles — quarter 
and  exchange  of  prisoners. 

D. — But  the  Democratic  Party — its  leaders — at. the  late  Albany 
meeting  declared  common  cause  with  the  South  !  If  they  act  up  to 
that  declaration,  the  fighting  will  begin  here,  and  you  and  I,  General, 
may  confront  each  other  from  opposite  sides  of  a  barricade. 

My  fast  friend  of  so  many  years  was  instantly  transformed  into 
one  of  the  most  fierce  and  hostile  men  I  have  ever  encountered.  "If 
you  strike  hands  with  those  Albany  dough-faces,  and  array  yourself 
against  the  forces  of  the  government,  if  you  are  captured  within  this 
district  I'll  hang  you  with  my  own  hands." 

I  treated  this  demonstration  as  one  of  his  habitual  jests,  but 
observed  that  they  "put  on  a  terrible  front  this  morning. " 

"It  is  no  jest,"  said  he,  "I  mean  it  seriously,  and  I  mean  it  to  be 
personally  offensive  to  you.  I  regret  that  I  ever  interested  myself 


110      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY ; 

in  a  man  who  would  stir  up  civil  war  in  a  State  that  received  himself 
as  a  refugee  so  hospitably— a  State  that  did  so  much  for  him.  " 

D. — New  York  State  did  nothing  for  me.  Individuals  like  yourself. 
General,  did  much.  So  did  the  natural  resources  of  the  country, 
But  New  York  State  left  me  without  protection  against  plunderers 
and  libelers  like  *  *  *  *  whilst  it  never  knocked  at  my 
door  but  with  a  Tax-bill  such  as  neither  Czar  nor  Sovereign  had  ever 
ventured  to  present  to  their  oppressed  subjects. 

C. — Be  that  as  it  may,  you  will  not  be  permitted  to  commence 
civil  war.  The.  militia,  of  which  I  have  command,  will  act  simply 
as  a  Police,  to  forward  volunteers  to  the  seat  of  war.  That  man 
must  have  a  bad  heart  who  would  oppose  us  in  this,  and  so  bring 
war  of  the  most  remorseless  kind  to  our  own  doors.  And,  he  added, 
I  mean  this  for  you,  personaly. 

D. — Even  language  like  this  will  not  make  me  forget  what  you 
have  been  to  mo.  Are  you  just?  Is  it  true  that  a  man  "must  have 
a  bad  heart,"  if  he  dared  to  defend  in  the  field  a  principle  sustained 
by  him  at  the  ballot  box? 

C. — Then  you  are  a  Secessionist. 

D. — I  have  no  occasion.  I  will  obey  the  laws  of  New  York  State 
so  long  as  I  remain  within  her  boundaries.  If  I  leave  those  bounda- 
ries, she  has  no  right  to  follow  me  and  bring  me  back  by  force. 

C. — I  don't  believe  she'd  think  you  worth  the  trouble. 

D. — There  she'd  be  right.  So  I  think  of  the  South,  she  isn't 
"worth  the  trouble." 

C. — These  new  Southern  allies  of  yours  are  aristocrats  —  insolent 
and  avowed.  You,  a  life-long  and  extreme  democrat,  to  be  found  in 
the  ranks  of  men  who  would  not  recognize  your  equality  if  you  were 
among  them ! 

D. — Have  we  not  aristocrats  in  the  North,  darkening  their  crimes 
under  the  cloak  of  hypocrisy?  To  the  Southern  aristocrats  I  would 
say — "Go!  a  good  riddance,"  even  if  I  did  not  believe  their  "con- 
sent "  necessary  to  their  legitimate  government. 

C.— The  very  argument  adduced  an  hour  ago  by  our  Hunker  *  *  * 
— a  man  who  has  ever  been  tied  to  the  South  by  place  and  profit. 

D. — Well,  I  at  least  have  no  such  interest.  Never  had.  Never 
favored  them — denounced  them — warned  them  of  what  their  inso- 
lence would  bring  on  them.  But  now  that  they  ask  permission  to 
govern  themselves  — from  a  proposition  so  just  and  so  simple  I 
cannot  withhold  my  consent,  even  if  I  did  not  most  heartily  wish  to 
get  rid  of  them. 


OK,  THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  Ill 

C. — They  take  permission ;  they  do  not  ask  it.  They  capture  our 
forces,  seize  our  forts,  plunder  our  Treasury  at  New  Orleans — with- 
out so  much  as  saying  "by  your  leave!"  Would  you  not  resent 
such  deeds?  or,  has  all  resentment  died  within  you? 

D. — Appeals  to  the  feelings  are  misleading  things  in  discussing 
public  questions.  And  when  such  appear  I  always  think  there  is 
not  much  of  fact  to  appeal  to.  The  seceded  States  were  partners  in 
the  Union.  A  part  of  the  assets  as  well  as  of  the  liabilities  belong  to 
them.  They  naturally  take  that  portion  which  is  found  within  their 
own  limits — leaving  to  us  all  that  lie  within  ours.  They  take  Nor- 
folk Navy  Yard  and  arsenal ;  they  leave  Brooklyn  and  West  Troy. 
They  take  half  a  million  in  the  Sub-Treasury  in  New  Orleans ;  they 
leave  five  millions  in  the  Sub-Treasury  in  New  York.  Must  a  man 
"have  a  bad  heart "  because  he  sees  things  in  this  light? 

C. — Perhaps  not.  A  man  may  bo  mistaken  and  not  have  a  bad 
heart.  The  truth  is,  I  had  just  been  goaded  by  the  opposition  of  a 
notoriously  corrupt  man,  and  when  I  found  you  urging  the  same 
considerations  that  he  urged,  I  transferred  to  you  a  portion  of  the 
resentment  that  had  been  roused  by  him. 

Saying  this,  he  offered  me  his  hand.  He ' '  regretted  having  spoken 
so  offensively  to  me ; "  and  I  truly  rejoiced  that  I  had  refused  to 
take  offence  from  a  man  who  had  done  so  much  for  me — the  goodness 
of  whoso  heart  I  had  so  often  experienced. 

"  When  you  have  got  a  former  friend  for  foe," 

many  a  bitter  consequence  might  be  avoided,  if  you  would  only  call 
up  the  good  and  kind  things  that  "former  friend"  had  said  and 
done  to  you.  Surely  it  is  more  like  a  man  to  call  up  those  grateful 
witnesses,  than  to  give  way  to  the  mere  animal  instinct  of  re- 
sentment. 

The  "war  fever"  was  a  moral  epidemic.  Men  everywhere  caught 
the  contagion.  Its  intensity  may  be  estimated  from  the  effect  it 
produced  on  the  humane  and  noble  hearted  gentleman  here  re- 
'erred  to. 

The  Southern  Senators,  and  "  chivalries  "  generally, 
were  indeed  insolent,  inflated  aristocrats.  They  re- 
quired a  lesson  which  would  teach  them  man's  equality — 
and  they  got  it,  and  deserved  it.  At  the  same  time  the 
Northern  slave-drivers  of  the  factories,  and  of  most  other 
hired  work,  were  even  more  detestable — adding  hypocrisy 
to  inhumanity. 

So  State  after  State  seceded,  and  siezed  upon  all  of  the 


112       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY} 

United  States  property  that  lay  within  their  borders — forts, 
arsenals,  etc. — declaring  that  the  national  assets  and  liabili- 
ties should  be  referred  to  a  peaceful  arbitration.  All  but 
Fort  Sumpter  in  Charleston  harbor.  Judge  Campbell  was  in 
Washington  on  the  part  of  the  South,  in  negotiation  with 
Seward  and  Lincoln.  A  statu,  quo  was  understood,  and  Char- 
leston furnished  the  garrison  of  Sumpter  with  an  open  market. 
Meanwhile  Seward  organized  a  fleet  to  "relieve"  that  fort. 
It  was  met  by  the  shore  batteries  and  driven  back,  and  fire 
opened  on  the  fort  on  its  refusal  to  surrender.  Lincoln 
issued  a  call  for  75,000  men  to  bring  the  South  to  order. 
Indeed  Greeley  had  previously  declared  that "  New  York  city 
could  furnish  two  or  three  regiments  to  establish  order  in 
Charleston  at  a  small  figure  of  pay."  Such  was  the  short- 
sighted shallowness  of  the  two  men. 

Congress,  every  member  of  which  was  the  spawn  of  a  cor- 
rupt political  caucus,  seized  the  opportunity  (when  men  were 
watching  the  changing  fortunes  of  the  war)  to  plunder  the 
nation  of  lands  and  money  on  a  scale  incredible  in  its  vast- 
ness.  Two  hundred  millions  of  acres  and  almost  two  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  were  plundered  wlien  the  war  was  at  the 
hottest,  and  nobody  watching  the  plunderers — divided  by  a 
great  Conspiracy  inside  and  outside  of  Congress.  Of  the  issue 
of  the  war  there  could  be  little  doubt.  Southern  incapacity 
encouraged  blockade  runners  to  bring  in  foreign  goods  and 
luxuries  and  bring  away  in  payment  the  gold, — on  which  their 
paper  money  rested — each  trip  depreciating  the  Southern 
paper.  Even  the  Northern  paper  money  went  down  to  240. 
Both  rested  on  a  fugitive  basis  of  gold ;  the  basis  left  for  other 
parts,  and  down  tumbled  the  paper.  As  for  men's  lives,  they 
were  of  no  account  in  the  armies  of  the  North.  It  had  all 
Europe  from  which  to  recruit  soldiers  and  workmen.  We 
read  of  migratory  swarms  rushing  into  fires  in  volume  suffic- 
ient to  extinguish  them.  On  the  same  principle  Grant  threw 
the  Northern  soldiers  on  death,  knowing  that  if  he  destroyed 
one  of  the  enemy  for  every  four  or  five  he  lost  victory  would 
be  his  in  the  long  run. 

I  now  turn  to  a  man  who  was  as  politically  pure  as  Greeley 
was  politically  villainous. 


OB,  THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN  DATS.  113 


GEKEIT    SMITH. 

Strange  phenomenon  of  the  human  mind!  One  of  the 
most  pronounced  peace  counsellors  of  the  age  was  Gerrit 
Smith.  At  an  anniversary  of  the  Peace  Society,  held  in 
Boston  in  '56,  he  was  its  chosen  orator,  and  urged  the 
doctrine,  "if  you  are  smitten  on  one  cheek  present  the  other." 
He  pictured  a  nation  refusing  to  lift  its  hand  even  for  self- 
defense,  and  other  nations  rushing  in  to  protect  it  in  its 
obedience  to  the  great  Christian  precept.  And  yet,  in  his 
canvassing  tour  for  Governor  of  New  York,  two  years  after, 
he  deliberately  said  within  my  own  hearing  that  before  he 
"would  see  injustice  done  to  ono  black  baby  he  would  see 
oceans  of  blood  flow."  And  yet  Gerrit  Smith  was  a  man  of 
great  ability  alike  as  an  orator  and  a  writer,  and  of  a  purity 
of  heart  rarely  paralleled.* 

r  Though  the  home  of  Gerrit  Smith  was  the  abode  of  taste 
and  refinement  of  the  highest  order,  it  was  accessible  on  terms 
of  perfect  equality  to  any  honest  man,  in  whatever  coat  or  of 
whatever  color.  Indeed,  I  suspect  the  colored  man  had  the 
preference,  just  because  he  was  ostracized.  At  the  time  I 
speak  of  (1858)  he  made  the  tour  of  the  State,  addressing 
crowded  assemblages  everywhere.  His  presence  was  most 
commanding — his  tall  figure,  classic  features,  and  long,  pro  - 
fuse  white  beard — his  voice  a  silver  trumpet — his  elocution 
keeping  in  modulated  bounds  the  enthusiasm  and  the  passion 
of  his  great  heart.  And  yet  it  is  my  lon^-iixed  judgment 
that  few  men  ever  did  more,  by  a  sin  of  omission,  to  substan- 
tially injure  America  than  Gerrit  Smith.  lie  had  fully 
mastered  the  great  foundation  principle  on  which  all  govern- 
ments and  enduring  institutions  must  repose,  and  thus  de- 
scribed it: 

"Land  Reform  is  the  greatest  of  all  Anti-Slavery  measures. 
Abolisii  Slavery  to-morrow,  and  Land  Monopoly  would  pave  the  way 
to  its  re-establishment.  But  abolish  Land  Monopoly — make  every 
American  citizen  the  owner  of  a  faim  adequate  to  his  necessity — and 
there  will  be  no  room  for  the  return  of  Slavery." 

Founded  on  this  declaration,  I  got  out  a  "  Broadside  "  in 
his  favor,  and  armed  with  10,000  copies  of  this  "  Broadside  " 

*  His  heart  overtaxed  his  brain,  insomuch  that  he  had  once  to  be  put 
temporarily  under  medical  treatment  in  one  of  the  public  Institutions. 


114  THS  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

I  proceeded  to  the  central  counties.  I  came  to  Clarksville, 
twelve  miles  from  Albany,  at  a  time  when  the  sham  Demo- 
cratic leaders  were  assembled  to  make  their  nominations  for 
local  offices  for  that  county.  I  walked  up  the  street,  dis- 
tributing my  sheets  at  the  houses  and 'to  the  crowd;  and, 
having  done  so,  returned  to  the  hotel.  Immediately  a  crowd 
of  "  Democrats  "  rushed  into  the  house  after  me,  and  robbed 
me  by  force  of  half  the  sheets  I  had  remaining.  Had  not 
several  ladies  belonging  to  the  hotel  come  to  the  rescue,  I 
would  have  lost  all  the  papers.  Indeed,  it  was  with  great 
difficulty  they  were  able  to  save  me  from  great  personal 
violence.  They  (those  "  Democratic  "  leaders)  carried  their 
prize  out,  and  made  a  bonfire  of  them  in  the  street.  The 
loaded  whips  that  came  nearest  my  head  in  the  melee  were 
wielded  by  Irishmen,  though  it  has  been  seen  how  much 
cause  they  had  to  abhor  Parker.  \ 

But  how  and  whence  was  it  ?  An  hour  after  this  outrage 
I  took  my  remaining  Broadsides  under  my  arm,  and  pro- 
ceeded through  the  crowd  to  search  for  some  conveyance 
that  would  speed  me  on  my  way.  I  felt  perfectly  secure 
that  no  one  would  hurt  me.  And  I  did  go  safely  through 
that  undiminished  crowd,  and  achieved  my  purpose  of  pro- 
ceeding along  on  a  farmer's  wagon. 

This  robbery  and  burning  of  my  property  was  accomplished 
in  broad  daylight,  within  twelve  miles  of  the  Governor's 
Executive  Chamber.  Next  day  I  made  affidavit  of  the  facts 
before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  and  forwarded  it  to  Governor 
King.  He  found  it  compatible  with  his  official  duty  to  take 
no  notice  of  it.  So  also  with  the  great  and  good  Horace 
Greeley,  to  whom  I  sent  a  transcript  of  the  proceedings. 
Thurlow  Weed's  paper  published  the  affair,  but  seemed  to 
think  nothing  of  it. 

I  proceeded,  and  the  remaining  five  thousand  copies  fell 
into  good  hands.  Parker  was  so  beaten  that  he  never  showed 
on  a  public  ticket  from  that  day  to  this. 

Mr.  Smith  was  idolized  in  his  own  neighborhood.  In  it 
he  was  elected  to  Congress  in  opposition  to  both  the  polit- 
ical parties.  But  on  this  trial  not  more  than  five  or  six 
thousand  votes  were  returned  in  his  favor  in  the  whole  State. 
The  reason  for  this  was  twofold.  .  First,  his  friends  knew  he 
had  no  chance  against  the  regular  nominees  of  the  old 
parties,  and,  therefore,  voted  for  Morgan,  their  second  choice. 


OB,   THE  SPIBIT   OP   CHIVALBY   IN   MODERN  DATS.  115 

And  secondly,  half  the  votes  he  did  receive  were  not  counted 
to  him.  The  district  in  which  I  resided  gave  him  several 
votes  to  my  own  knowledge,  yet  the  returns  did  not  show 
that  one  vote  had  been  cast  for  him.  He  paid  the  expense 
of  my  Broadside  and  the  cost  of  my  traveling  connected 
therewith.  Ole  insisted  upon  paying  for  my  time  and  labor. 
But  to  this  I  did  not,  indeed  I  could  not,  consent,  as  at  my 
very  outset  in  public  life  I  resolved  never  to  make  profit  by 
my  efforts  to  put  down  Land  Monopoly,  and  it  was  on  that 
score  alone  I  supported  Mr.  Smith.  On  the  Negro  Slave 
Question  we  differed,  at  least  in  the  importance  attached  to 
it.  He  practically  put  it  first  and  foremost  in  his  efforts, 
though  his  theory,  as  we  have  seen,  gave  precedence  to 
Land  Reform.  Evil  indeed  was  it  to  his  country  that  his 
theory  went  one  way  and  his  practice  another. 

For  Mr.  Smith,  in  his  Address  already  quoted,  gave  the 
most  eloquent  discussion  to  the  first  great  want  of  the  nation 
that,  perhaps,  ever  was  spoken  or  printed.  With  his  undi- 
vided co-operation — his  resources,  which  were  ample — his 
character,  so  pure  and  uninipeached — and  his  genius,  so 
lofty,  clear  and  demonstrative — we  could  have  knocked  Land 
Monopoly  on  the .  head.  In  fact  the  contest  was  virtually 
won  when  this  Slavery  Question  carried  the  public  thought 
away  from  it.  On  account  of  my  work  in  this  matter  Mr. 
Smith  made,  on  my  suggestion,  a  charitable  donation  of  $25. 

And  yet  this  great  thinker  utterly  deserted  Land  Eeform, 
and  whilst  he  gave  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  month  to  sustain 
the  border  war  in  Missouri,  waged  by  the  heroic  John  Brown, 
he  refused  to  give  thirty  or  forty  dollars  a  month  to  sustain 
that  pure-hearted  man,  George  H.  Evans,  in  publishing  his 
Land  Ref  orm  paper  in  New  York.  Evans  was  literally  starved 
back  to  his  mortgaged  spot  of  ground  in  New  Jersey. 

Greeley  held  a  mortgage  on  it  for  $200 — had  imperative 
need  and  must  get  the  money  he  lent — but  would  take  no 
Interest.  Mr.  *  *  *  ,  ever  ready  to  do  good,  lent  George 
half  the  sum  without  security  and  without  Interest.  Instead 
of  cultivating  the  stony  public  mind  George  went  to  cultivate 
melons,  and  out  of  the  first  return  from  his  crop  he  came  and 
paid  off  this  $100  loan  of  honor. 

The  war  is  over;  Mr.  Smith's  great  object  has  been  achieved; 


116  THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  <jkirJriiBr  J 

the  negro  is  free—"  free  TO  STARVE,"*  and  I  write  this 
letter: 

GREENPOINT,  N.  Y.,  August  26,  1872. 
MY  DEAB  MB.  SMITH: 

It  gives  me  a  confused,  mixed,  perplexed  pleasure  to  see 
by  the  newspapers  that  you  are  still  throwing  your  influence 
upon  public  affairs.  In  the  right  direction,  too;  if,  indeed, 
such  a  thing  as  "right  direction"  exists  in  this  lost  Republic. 
Lost!  by  the  intense,  insane  selfishness  that  everywhere 
and  with  front  unbroken  stares  you  in  the  face.  Liberty! 
"Why,  the  very  ideal  of  it — the  grand,  sacred,  ethereal  im- 
personation that  held  the  hearts  of  your  fathers  of  '76,  of 
mine  of  '98 — the  goddess  whose  feet  just  touched  the  high 
summit  of  the  mountains — her  robe  stainless  as  its  untrodden 
snow — her  smile  the  inspiration  of  the  gallant  cohorts  arrayed 
beneath  her  standard !  Alas !  alas !  she  is  gone,  as  if  forever 
— gone,  leaving  not  a  trace  of  even  her  departure  behind. 

Gross,  greedy,  sordid  mercenaries  follow  in  the  trail  of  an 
immoral  drab,  "which  in  their  degradation  they  call,  and  I 
suppose  believe  to  be,  "Liberty."  Sight  of  torture!  W3  can 
find  refuge  from  thee  only  in  the  thought  of  another  sphere 
of  existence ! 

Indirect  slavery — nominally  the  least  odious,  practically  the 
worst  of  its  forms — is  now  enthroned  high  and  unquestioned. 
DISINHERITED  MAN  !  you  ask  through  your  Trades'  Unions  and 
Labor  Conventions  only  a  modification  of  the  inferior  con- 
dition that  has  been  forced  on  you,  and  which  you  accept. 

The  Equal  Children  of  The  Creator — Heirs-at-Law  of  His 
Grand  Estate — you  do  not  breathe  a  word  of  your  INHER- 
ITANCE— you  ask  only  sucli  a  state  of  servitude  as  will  be 
tolerable — as  will  give  you  a  reasonable  pittance  for  your 
families,  in  return  for  your  all-creating  labor.  And  you  will 
not  get  even  that.  Oh,  no !  That  selfish  thing  on  its  velvet 
cushion — that  wretch  rolling  in  its  glancing  chariot,  to  its 
banquet  of  a  dozen  wines — is  not  content.  He  wants  "MORE" 

*  The  inhuman  politicians  that  constituted,  and  still  do  constitute,  our 
Government,  would  not  give  him  the  smallest  patch  of  laud  to  sustain  his 
«'  freedom."  If  they  did  so,  how  could,  they  refuse  it  to  the  white  citizen? 
To  do  so  would  upset  their  whole  purpose,  which  was,  and  is,  to  seize  all 
the  lands,  disinherit  tho  people,  and  turn  them  into  a  vast  gang  of  wages 
slaves,  arid  build  u;>  in  Air. erica  an  aristocracy  such  as  has  forever  cursed 
the  world. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  117 

— he  will  for  ever  want  "  more."  He  wants  you  to  take  another 
loaf  from  your  children,  that  he  may  add  another  wine  to  his 
table.  He  is  insane !  He  is  execrable !  You  strike  against 
him,  do  you?  Alas!  it  is  the  strike  of  weakness  against 
strength,  of  poverty  against  wealth,  of  hunger  against  plethora. 
You  ha\  e  given  up  your  INHERITANCE — your  right  to  own,  and 
use,  and  enjoy  your  own  property.  In  that  you  have  given 
up  everything  —  LIBERTY,  SECURITY,  KNOWLEDGE,  REFINEMENT, 
CHEERFULNESS — all  that  makes  life  true  and  dignified.  You 
have  accepted  SERVITUDE,  SUBJECTION,  DEGRADATION,  IGNORANCE. 

You  have  cast  aside  and  turned  your  back  upon  all  the 
God-like  attributes  of  your  nature.     You  are  no  longer  the 
MAN  you  were  created!    You  are  the  DRUDGE  that  is  made 
of  you  by  wicked  men,  and  you  are  not  even  aware  that  you  / 
are  only  a  drudge. 

In  writing  the  name  of  "  Gerrit  Smith,"  why  did  my  thought 
start  away  and  lose  itself  in  the  maze  I  have  just  traced? 
Why?  How  could  it  do  otherwise  when  that  name,  "Man's 
Inheritance,"  flashes  across  the  political  gloom  like  lightning 
across  a  midnight  sky.  "Man's  Inheritance ! "  Can  I  forget 
that  you,  the  ablest  advocate — you,  the  purity  and  devotion 
of  whose  life  won  for  it  a  little  of  that  consideration  and 
respect  which  attaches  to  your  own  character — you,  oh, 
misery!  alas  for  the  coming  ages!  you,  even  you,  adandoned 
that  God-like  effort,  in  the  vain  attempt  to  efface  lines  of 
black  and  white — to  annul  a  distinction  fixed  by  the  Creator 
of  us  all?  THOMAS  AINGE  DEVYR. 

How  relentless  are  Time  and  Fate !  Seventeen  or  eighteen 
years  have  rolled  over.  His  great  idea  of  Negro  Emancipa- 
tion has  been  carried  triumphantly  through  ponds  of  blood 
and  over  fields  of  dead  bodies  and  broken  hearts,  and,  in 
answer  to  the  foregoing,  I  receive  this  last  recognition  from 
Gerrit  Smith: 

PETERSBORO',  December  18,  1874. 
THOMAS  A.  DEVYR: 

My  Old  and  Dear  Friend — -Your  highly  esteemed  letter 
finds  me  an  old  man  (nearly  78)  and  in  greatly  impaired 
health.  I  have  to  answer  it  briefly,  and  by  the  hand  of 
another. 

I  scarcely  wonder  at  your  getting  out  of  patience  with  me. 
so  shrunken  am  I  from  what  I  was  in  my  brighter  and  better 


118      THE  ODD  BOOK  OP  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

days,  when  you  first  knew  me.     But  age  and  sickness  must 
tell  upon  their  sufferer. 

I  can  do  no  more  in  the  sphere  of  political  economy.  May 
God  preserve  you  to  work  in  it  many,  many  years.  Our  old 
Land  Reform  cause  is  still  dear  to  me,  though  I  may  no 
longer  have  strength  to  serve  it. 

My  dear  wife  will  be  pleased  to  know  that  you  still  remem- 
ber her.  She,  too,  is  in  broken  health,  and  is  in  the  hands  of 
a  physician  in  New  York. 

With  kind  regards  to  all  the  members  of  your  family, 

I  am,  as  ever,  your  friend, 
T*V  T?  Q  MTT,  GBRRIT    SMITH. 

JDY  XL  b.  JMlLLEB. 

Very  soon  after  this  date  that  pure  spirit  left  the  sphere 
of  its  great  exertions.  Mrs.  Smith,  too, — a  glorious  woman, 
an  equal  partner  even  for  such  a  man — followed  him  to  his 
rest  two  or  three  months  after.  Never  did  a  wedded  pair 
leave  a  purer,  brighter,  loftier  memory  behind  them.  Of 
my  sustained  correspondence  with  Mr.  Smith  I  find  in 
my  always  carelessly  kept  records  only  the  foregoing  letters 
and  one  autograph,  which  I  preserve  as  a  foe-simile  of  his 
most  singular  handwriting: 


122       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

THE    FENIAN    MOVEMENT. 

The  chronic  discontent  which  underlies  and  inspires  the 
chronic  war  so  long  existing  in  Ireland  became  vigorously 

've  at  the  close  of  the  Great  American  Civil  "War,  1865-6. 

etings  were  held,  speeches  made,  papers  printed,  but  not 
a  word  written  or  spoken  about  the  great  foundation  griev- 
ance of  Ireland  —  THE  LAND  GRIEVANCE.  "The  English  op- 
pression of  seven  centuries  " — the  contrasted  figures  of  "  Celt 
and  Saxon" — a  sprinkling  of  "green  fields,"  "blue  moun- 
tains" and  "pellucid  waters,"  and 

"The  long-faded  glories  they  cover.  " 

This  was  the  burden  of  all  that  was  said,  sung  or  written  ; 
in  the  midst  of  which  the  thief  who  dares  to  call  himself  a 
"lord"  lay  hid  away,  unseen  and  unheeded.  The  Irish 
People,  Organ  of  John  O'Mahoney  and  the  Fenian  Brother- 
hood, was  two  weeks  old,  and  had  got  no  farther  than 
"Saxon"  and  "Sunburst,"  when  I  broke  in  upon  them  with 
a  letter  which  I  abridge : 

THE    LAND    QUESTION    IN    IKELAND. 

'•  What  art  thou,  Freedom?    O !  could  slaves 
Answer  from  their  living  graves 
This  demand,  tyrants  would  flee 
Like  a  dream's  dim  imagery. 

Thou  art  not  as  impostors  say, 
A  shadow — soon  to  pass  away — 
A  superstition  and  a  name 
Echoing  from  the  cave  of  Fame. 

For  the  laborer,  thou  art  bread, 

And  a  comely  table  spread, 

From  his  daily  labor  come, 

In  a  neat  and  happy  home."— SHKLLEY. 

"An  empty  sack  won't  stand." — Irish  Proverb. 

The  first  grand  step  towards  Freedom  is  Nationality. 

And  yet  Nationality  per  se  is  not  Freedom.  Europe  is  full  of  nationalities 
—but  where  is  its  Freedom?  Tumble  the  Swiss  Alps  cut  of  the  map,  and 
you  will  leave  very  little  freedom  behind. 

"  But  Ireland  will  establish  universal  suffrage,  and  surely  from  the  adult 
manhood  of  Ireland  will  come  forth  a  government  commensurate  with  her 
wants." 

Such,  doubtless,  is  the  impression.  Let  us  take  care  to  have  that  impres- 
sion realized. 

France,  whose  advance  step  shakes  Europe  like  an  earthquake  —  high- 
minded,  chivalrous,  intellectual  France  —  what  is  the  amount  of  substantial 
freedom  wrested  out  of  her  frequent  and  glorious  revolutions?  The  conlis- 


Oix,  THE   bPittlT   UF    CH1VALKV    IN    MODERN   UAVS.  123 

cated  lauds  of  the  "emigrant  nobles"  form,  now  many  a  happy  homestead 
for  the  people— but  only  for  a  small  portion  of  the  people  of  France. 

And  this  breaking  up  of  tho  "  emigrants'  estates  "  was  only  an  incident  of 
the  Revolution.  Those  "  nobles  "  turned  their  backs  on  Franco  to  join  her 
invaders.  And  then  the  Republic  took  their  lands  to  redeem  the  national 
assignats.  Those  who  had  assignats  got  land.  Those  who  had  no  assignats 
get  no  land.  And  those  of  tho  nobles  who  tolerated  the  Republic.  Have 
not  they  or  their  representatives  a  clutch  on  tho  soil  of  Franco  to  tho 
present  day  ? 

A  recent  English  traveler  says  that  much  of  the  lands  of  Southern  France 
are  in  the  hands  of  small  proprietors,  and  he  adds  that  in  tho  owner  of  one 
hundred  acres  (much  of  it  in  vines)  he  found  the  refined  gentleman,  sur- 
rounded by  a  train  of  assistants,  cultivating  his  crops,  and  realizing  just 
such  a  happy  life  as  we  rarely  find  except  in  tales  of  romance. 

But  the  artisans  and  laborers  of  the  French  cities  and  on  the  French  soil, 
what  do  they  realize?  Can  it  be  possible  that  an  American  workman  will 
receive  as  ranch  money  for  one  day's  toil  of  ten  hours  as  the  French  work- 
man receives  in  return  for  his  labor  of  a  whole  week?  Can  it  be  possible 
that  the  million:?  of  gallant  Frenchmen — alter  all  their  victories— rtill  livo  in 
i hr  presence-  of  poverty? 

Behold,  then,  the  contrast !  Reflect  how  things  might  have  been  if  the 
French  nation  had  resumed  the  French  soil,  and  opened  its  bosom  to  the 
whole  French  people. 

And  would  it  have  been  unjust  to  apportion  to  those  "nobles/'  each,  a 
farm  <;f  reasonable  s.;ze,  and  lot  them  work  for  their  living  like  honestcr  and 
better  men?  Well,  France  did  not  do  so — and  is  there  no  instruction  in  tho 
result? 

Are  we  Irishmen  wiser  and  better  than  our  brothers  <  >t'  1  'ranee?  Y,'e  are  not. 

And  now  for  a  short  Christian  Catechism : — 

Are  the  poorest  men  and  women  equal  to  the  richest  in  the  sight  of  their 
Creator? 

Are  they  made  in  His  Image? 

Do  they  inherit  His  Spirit,  as  He  "breathed  it  into  the  nostrils  of  Adam," 
tho  first  man? 

Has  he  given  to  all  His  Children  the  same  wants  and  necessities? 

Has  He  created  any  means  by  which  those  common  wants  may  be 
supplied? 

Are  there  such  things  as  a  fruitful  soil,  varied  and  inexhaustible  mines 
infinite  mechanical  forces? 

Are  those,  with  the  condition  of  labor  annexed  to  them,  sufficient  to 
supply  all  our  wants — first  the  material,  then  the  moral  and  intellectual ! 

Who  performs  that  condition  of  labor?  Who  should  enjoy  its  fruits? 
Does  your  reason  suggest  no  answer  to  those  questions? 

Think  those  things  over  till  you  hear  again  from 

THE  SON  OF  A  UNITED  IRISHMAN. 


1*2 -1-  THE   ODD   BOOK    OF   THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY; 

O'Mahoncy  tlien  commissioned  mo  to  write  tlio  leaders  of 
his  paper,  which  I  did  up  to  the  seventh  number.  The 
London  Time*  took  the  alarm  —  declared  we  wanted  to 
"  establish  the  Jewish  Theocracy  of  Land, "  called  on-  the  land- 
lords 1o  "standby  the  government  andn^ht  for!  heir  estates," 
and  had  our  paper  shut  out  from  the  mails.  The  paper  rose 
from  10,000  to  30,000  in  circulation.  At  tho  seventh  number, 
Sullivan  (the  printer)  -would  publish  nothing  more  from  my 
pen.  The  first  thing  ho  refused  to  publish  was  tho  following 
critique  upon  an  "Address  to  Southern  Irishmen,"  by  Judge 
O.  A.  Lochrane,  of  Georgia  —  sucli  a  sample  of  literary  rub- 
bish as  rarely  ever  made  its  way  into  print.  As  a  sharp 
etching  of  a  puro  demagogue,  and  for  other  reasons,  I  pre- 
serve it. 

"And  Brutus  is  an  honorable  man." — SEAKESPEAE::. 
To  tlie  ''Honorable"  O!  A !  Lochrane: 

Sir.—  "  Honorable  "  is  a  grand  prefix  to  a  man's  name.  They  use 
•it  —  ?r  abuse  it — a  good  deal  in  the  British  Islands. 

But  hero,  it  13  not  abused  at  all.  Hero,  every  man  who  has  the 
prefix  must  necessarily  bo  an  honorable  and  an  honest  man. 

For  lias  he  not  first  taken  a  plunge  into  tho  pure  fountain  of  Party 

Politics?    Has  he  not  been  "cleansed"  in  that  fountain,   of  all 

>crisy  and  double  dealing?    Has  he  not  been  "'sprinkled  with 

the  hyssop"  of  patriotism  and  public  virtue,  and  come  out  "whiter 

than  snow"? 

To  bo  sure  ho  has.  You  have  been  in  the  bath,  and  know  all 
about  it.  I  wish  to  remind  tho  Southern  Irishmen  of  tho  fact,  so 
that  they  may  givo  you  such  respect  as  i.3  your  due. 

For  you  have  been  addressing  a  letter  to  them  recently,  and  that 
letter  i.3  to  mo  a  tempting  invitation  to  sit  down  arid  have  a  talk 
with  you. 

Our  purpose,  you  are  told,  is  to  "free  Ireland  from  the  British 
Government."  A  most  atrocious  purpose,  to  be  sure  1  "To  form  an 
Irish  Republic."  How  preposterous  !  To  make  it  one  day  an  out- 
post "of  the  United  States."  Yvrorse  and  worse!  How  could  you 
think  wo  would  bo  guilty  of  such  wickedness? 

It  ii  true  the  oU  monarchies  have  their  anchoring  grounds  in  all 
corners  cf  the  globe.  But  what  then!  "  Royal"  men  and  "noble" 
men  surely  ought  to  have  prerogatives  above  and  beyond  common 
fellows  like  us.  Don't  you  judge  so — most  honorable  Judge? 

And  you  tell  us  that  "a  revolution  commenced  without  sufficient 


OR,   THE  SPIRIT   OP   CHIVALRY  IX  MODERN   DAYS.  125 

resources  to  sustain  it,  is  the  highest  crime  against  both  God  and 
man." 

O!  A!  is  it  indeed?  Away,  ye  Folanders  under  Kosciusko !  we 
will  revere  your  heroism  no  longer.  Ye  Circassians  fighting  for 
your  mountain  homes  !  how  dare  you  commit  such  a  crime  !  Resist 
the  mi-hty  Russian  Empire,  indeed.  Oh,  ye  criminals  !  Fathers  of 
Seventy-six,  too  —  you  little  knew  how  near  you  ^tood  to  that 
''  moral ''  precipice  !  Had  the  tiJo  not  turned  in  the  Delaware  —  had 
the  gallant  French  come  to  help  your  enemy  instead  of  yourself — I 
shudder  to  think  of  what  "  criminate  "  you  would  have  been  "before 
God  and  man."  Heroes  of  Ninety-eight !  But  you  will  be  forgiven, 
I  hope.  Lochrane  ha-1  not  yet  arisen  to  make  you  aware  of  your 
"great  crime." 

And  then  you  shako  i:i  our  faces  that  "one  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  inhabitants"  which  "England  owns"  in  all  quarters  of 
the  globe.  Vrhat  a  smothering  we  will  get  when  all  this  power 
comc.3  down  upon  us.  AVe  had  been  under  the  impression  that  much 
of  England's  power  had  to  go  away,  away — abroad  to  keep  doicn  those 
myriadicol  inhabitants.  Tvro  were  foolish  enough  to  regard  them  as 
our  very  practical  allies.  It  was  cruel  of  your  "honor"  to  dispel  this 
pleasing  illusion. 

And  that  "thousand  ships,  and  hundred  thousand  seamen,"  which 
you  count  up  for  England  —  how  many  of  them  is  a  free  gift  of  your 
own?  It  i.3  of  importance  to  us  to  know  this.  "We  were  counting 
on  no  more  than  her  own  ships,  and  we  remember  the  Briton's 
national  song : 

"  Where'er  he  goes — where'er  he  steers — 

In  every  clime  he  sees 
Tho  fl  .g  that  braved  a  thousand  years, 
The  battle  and  the  breeze." 

And  so  we  expected  only  a  sprinkling  of  those  flags  along  the 
Irish  coast.  One  in  every  ten  or  twenty  miles.  It  was  very  unfair 
and  ill-"  judge  "-ed  and  un-"neutral"of  you,  Judge  Lochrane,  to  make 
a  present  of  five  or  six  hundred  ships  to  one  of  the  belligerents,  to 
the  great  damage  of  the  other.  Besides,  if  your  paper  ships  will  turn 
out  to  be  as  heavy  metal  as  your  paper  bullets,  they  will  send  us 
every  one  to  the  bottom. 

And  now,  would  you  please  stand  up,  till  I  put  you  through  a 
short  catechism? 

Do  you  know  the  extent  of  water  front  Ireland  presents  —  bays, 
headlands,  creeks,  inlets  and  all  manner  of  indentations  ?  Can  you 


126  THE    ODD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY; 

guess  how  many  heavy  ships  it  would  take  to  watch  it?  How  close 
must  the  cordon  be?  links  of  five  miles,  ten  miles  or  twenty  miles? 
The  consequence  of  putting  weak  links  in  the  chain  —  such  as  vessels 
of  less  weight  than  fifty  guns  ?  How  many  open  coast  landing  places 
of  a  fine  summer  evening?  How  long  it  might  take,  with  ready 
boats  and  launches,  to  throw  a  thousand  men  on  shore?  How  they 
could  bring  with  them  say  sixty  rounds  and  a  week's  rations?  Have 
you  given  your  sage  thoughts  to  the  element  of  steam?  How  it  has 
changed  things  since  the  days  of  Napoleon  ?  Can  you  guess  how  far 
off  a  ship  may  be  descried  even  in  daylight?  How  far  off  at  night? 
How  long  a  vessel  would  be  in  making  the  land  after  she  hove  in 
sight  of  it?  Do  you  know  the  difference  between  a  blockade  runner 
forced  to  make  a  port,  and  an  Invader  jumping  to  get  his  foot  on 
any  point  of  the  shore?  If  you  fall  in  with  a  war  vessel,  do  you 
know  that  her  first  shot  must  be  a  harmless  ' '  Heave  to  "  ?  Her  next, 
a  boat  with  an  officer  to  inspect  your  papers?  Could  you  imagine 
us  driven  right  aboard  that  war  ship?  Our  grappling  irons?  A 
thousand  men  starting  from  under  the  shade  of  our  bulwarks? 
Their  boarding-pikes  and  six-shooters  !  "Won't  you  pray  "God  have 
mercy"  on  the  souls  of  your  friends,  if  they  resist  now? 

You  believe,  doubtless,  that  nothing  of  this  kind  can  be  done.  It 
is  natural  for  you  to  believe  so.  But  let  me  assure  you  that  such 
things  have  been  done  a  thousand  times.  Done,  even,  without  the 
help  of  steam.  Done,  even,  by  mercenaries  with  no  higher  incentive 
than  a  love  of  fighting  and  a  day's  pay. 

Now,  Judge,  between  you  and  me,  I'm  afraid  you  never  troubled 
yourself  about  these  things  at  all.  I'm  afraid  you  rushed  forward 
to  instruct  the  public  before  you  took  the  least  trouble  to  instruct 
yourself. 

"O !  A ! — but  I  think  you  haven't  the  ships,  or  the  army,  or,  may- 
be the  men  and  the  bravery  to  do  this." 

Well,  I'll  leave  you  to  guess  at  those  things.  But  don't  look 
into  your  own  soul  as  a  mirror  of  what  we  can,  or  cannot,  do.  You 
will  find  little  belonging  to  us  reflected  there. 

What  a  delectable  Judge  you  are,  sure  enough!  You  inform  us 
that  the  power  of  England  has  "swept  over  Ireland"  from  sixteen- 
ninety  to  eighteen-forty-eight — as  indeed  it  has  for  a  much  longer 
period.  And  you  assure  us  in  the  same  breath  that  we  have  for  all 
this  time  "borne  along  the  highways  of  the  world"  a  bright 
escutcheon,  "blazoned  all  over  with  fame,"  and  "wreathed  all  over 
with  laurels ! "  How  that  bright  escutcheon  could  stand  up  while 


THE  .si'JKiT  or  uuvAUtY  is  MODERN  DAYS.  127 


England  thus  "swept  over"  it!  —  how  those  wreaths  of  laurel  could 
grow  on  the  brows  of  a  "swept  over"  people  —  you  do  not  wait  to 
inform  us  ! 

Out  upon  you,  Lochrane  !  Out  upon  all  the  shallow,  selfish 
demagogues  (and  their  name  is  legion)  who  could  offer  to  the  en- 
slaved people  of  Ireland  this  imaginary  heritage  in  the  Past,  in  lieu 
of  the  real  living  heritage  —  their  own  land  —  in  the  Present,  and  in 
the  long  Time  to  come  ! 

See  the  Irishman  in  his  empty  cabin.  The  land-thief  has  been 
there  and  taken  away  the  food.  That  infant  has  nothing  to  get  now 
from  its  wretched  mother.  The  fountain  is  dry  and  beginning  to 
shrivel  up.  "Hush!  baby!  here  is  a  cupfull  of  that  'glory'  sent 
over  by  Judge  Lochrane,  of  Georgia,  in  the  United  States."  His 
favorite  boy  (five  years  old)  cries  through  his  choking  sobs,  "Papa, 
won't  you  give  poor  little  Tommy  something  —  oh  !  something  to 
eat  !  He  is  sick  !  he  will  die  !"  "  Yes,  darling  !  here  is  a  morsel  of 
4  twined  poetry  '  which  an  '  Honorable  '  Judge  sent  you  from  beyond 
the  seas!"  May  Heaven  forgive  you,  Judge  Lochrane  —  if  it  can! 
You  don't  feed  your  own  wants  on  "  vanquished  laurels  "  and  "trod- 
den down  glory  "  ! 

But  what  !  though  demagogues  speak  falsehood  about  our  history  ! 
What!  though  laurels  do  not  enwreathe  —  though  glory  does  not 
over-shadow  it  !  Is  that  history  less  dear  to  us  because  dimmed  by 
a  flood  of  tears?  Is  the  memory  of  our  fathers  less  cherished  by  us 
because  they  fell  and  died  (alas  !  vainly  died)  in  defense  of  their 
country  and  their  homes? 

The  aspiration  was  there.  The  devotion  was  there.  The  strong 
right  hand  was  there.  But  the  cool  thought  and  wise  foresight 
were  not  there.  Impetuous  valor  swept  them  away.  But  not,  I 
hope,  forever  ! 

The  United  Irishmen  won  the  battle  of  New  Boss  —  on  which 
turned  the  fate  of  Ireland.  But  what  their  impetuous  valor  gained 
was  quickly  lost  again  for  want  of  that  cool  thought  which  ardent 
valor  is  unwilling  to  listen  to.  Fatal  error  !  How  have  you  been 
atoned  for  !  with  what  a  torrent  of  blood  and  tears  ! 

But  it  leaves  no  stain  on  the  manhood  of  Ireland.  And  neither 
does  England's  victory  of  '48,  which  you  point  to  with  such  exulta- 
tion. 

Smith  O'Brien,  Dillon,  Doheny  and  Stephens  had  their  Head- 
quarters in  a  remote  village  of  Tipperary.  It  was  a  Summer  day. 
A  captain  of  dragoons  with  his  troop  rides  into  the  narrow  street, 


128  THE   ODD    BOOK   O±'   THE   MSETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

and  they  are  brought  up  all  standing  by  a  barricade.  The 
rifles  behind  it  cover  the  gallant  captain,  who  is  so  fascinated 
by  the  attention  that  he  hasn't  power  to  move.  The  insurgent 
leaders  are  in  council  hard  by.  They  send  a  herald  (John  Dillon) 
to  know  if  the  gallant  captain  has  indeed  come  out  to  make  arrests, 
as  is  reported?  But  the  captain  (being  himself  under  arrest  just 
then)  is  glad  to  say,  "No!"  He  is  merely  out  taking  a  harmless 
ride.  Oh  !  very  well ;  if  that  is  the  case,  open  this  barricade  to  the 
gallant  captain.  And  so,  he  and  his  troop  go  on  their  way  rejoicing, 
to  the  great  disgust  of  the  men  who  had  shut  them  up  in  the  coop. 
Michael  Doheny  gives  the  particulars  in  his  "  Felon's  Track, "  and 
adds: 

"Tnis  WAS  THE  REVOLUTION,  IF  WE  HAD  ACCEPTED  IT." 

Bnt  they  did  not  accept  it.  Judge  Lochrane  was  there  in  spirit, 
and  he  would  not  let  them. 

The  Almighty  hand  seems  to  have  preserved  us  so  far  from  the 
"high  commanding  influence "  which  the  London  Times  desires  so 
much  to  see.  Let  us  preserve  ourselves  from  it  for  the  time  to 
come. 

I  must  now  lump  a  lot  of  "  honorable  absurdities"  together,  and 
get  rid  of  them  in  one  batch.  You  speak  of  the  "  Komance  of 
Revolution,"  with  the  ground  you  walk  upon  (consecrated  in  '76) 
staring  you  in  the  face!  Of  "compromise"  between  that  bloated 
1 '  landlord  "  and  his  perishing  victim  !  The  '  •  blood  of  God  is  our  anti- 
dote," you  say.  It  has  flowed  before  the  tyrant's  eyes  for  centuries, 
unheeded.  You  speak  of  bringing  out  the  doomed  ones  to  this  land. 
How  many  could  we  bring  out,  and  how  many  must  remain  to  perish? 
You  dwell  on  the  "plunder,  murder  and  massacre  of  war,"  but  forget 
the  70,000  who  die  annually  of  famine.  And  isn't  that  a  brilliant 
discovery  of  yours — we  are  not  "  Irishmen  "  any  longer,  we  are  only 
"Fenians."  O!  A!  Yes.  The  "Volunteers"  of  '82,  and  the 
"  United  men  "  of  '98  ceased  to  be  Irishmen  the  moment  they  took 
up  their  distinctive  names.  They  didn't  know  it,  to  be  sure,  for 
Judge  Lochrane  wasn't  on  the  ground  to  tell  them.  But  the  Southern 
Fenians  haven't  that  excuse,  and  I  trust  they  will  deport  themselves 
accordingly. 

But  I  am  afraid  they  are  stiff-necked  fellows.  I  am  afraid  they 
will  not  hearken  to  "  Honorable  "  wisdom,  when  it  is  offered  gratis  to 
them  at  their  own  doors.  They  have  been  through  the  war,  too. 
No  doubt  they  have  suffered,  Judge  Lochrane,  probably  as  much  as 
you  did  yourself.  Yet  they  don't  seem  to  be  shaking  in  their  shoes 


OR,    THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN   DAYS.  129 

with  fear.  I  suppose  the  slices  they  wear  are  not  '  'Honorable " 
shoes.  Little  Tommy's  famishing  voice  is  ringing  in  their  ears. 
Can  it  be  that  they  are  preparing  to  bring  him  some  other  deliverance 
a  little  more  substantial  than  your  "wreathed  laurels"  and  your 
twined  poetry"? 

0!  A!  "but  they  can't  do  it,"  you  say.  The  American  Govern- 
ment won't  let  them.  You  cite  big  names,  and  even  quote  Latin  to 
prove  this.  But  then  again  you  disprove  it  all  when  you  admit  that 
there  is  no  law  "to  prevent  the  citizen  [from]  emigrating."  Well, 
that  privilege  is  quite  sufficient  for  us.  We  want  no  more,  if  we 
only  make  good  use  of  it. 

But  I  cannot  close  until  I  give  the  Northern  Fenians  one  undiluted 
ray  of  light,  just  as  it  shoots  from  your  sunny  intellect.  Here's 
what  you  say : 

"The  Revolution  is  not  the  people,  but  a  woman  fond  of  show  and 
ornament,  and  given  to  dance  and  exhibition*."  Now,  I  believe  that 
such  a  revolution  (or  woman)  would  be  a  fit  consort  for  Judge 
Lochrane  himself;  arid,  taking  off  my  hat  and  making  my  best 
bow,  in  that  congenial  company  let  me  leave  him. 

THE  SON  or  A  UNITED  IRISHMAN. 

Sullivan  was  an  active,  able  man  in  his  way.  He  wrote 
"Desmond,"  quite  a  clever  tale  of  the  South  of  Ireland.  But 
his  position  brought  temptation  to  him,  to  which  he  appears 
to  have  yielded,  greatly  I  think  to  his  own  loss.  J.-Doran 
Killian,  too,  (called  "the  brain  of  the  movement"),  was  a 
clever  writer  and  speaker,  but  entirely  unsuited  to  the  leader- 
ship of  a  revolutionary  movement.  In  both  respects  the 
same  'may  be  said  of  Wm.  E.  Robinson,  who  figured  a  good 
deal  at  the  public  meetings.  The  atmosphere  of  New  York 
is  not  a  pure  place  to  breathe  in.  The  rottenness  of  politics 
pervades  it  thoroughly,  and  the  men  I  here  speak  of  did  not 
resist  its  contagion. 

Finding  the  paper  in  bad  hands,  I  started  the  Fenian 
Brotherhood,  and  published,  in  its  first  number,  this 

LETTER     TO     ARCHBISHOP     M'CLOSKEY. 
RIGHT  REVEREND  SIR: 

I  take  the  liberty  of  presenting  to  your  notice  two  facts  of  history. 
Both  of  them  are  significant,  and  may  at  the  present  moment  be 
studied  by  you  with  great  profit.  Lady  Montague,  an  Englishwoman, 
draws  the  following  picture  of  France  in  1718 : 


130  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY J 

"  I  think  nothing  so  terrible  as  objects  of  misery,  and  the  country  villages 
of  France  show  nothing  else.  While  the  post  horses  are  changed,  the  whole 
town  comes  out  to  bog,  with  such  miserable,  starved  faces,  and  thin,  tat- 
tered clothes,  that  they  need  no  other  eloquence  to  persuade  one  of  the 
wretchedness  of  their  condition.  This  is  all  the  French  magnificence  you 
see  till  you  come  to  Fontainbleau,  where  you  are  showed  jifteen  hundred 
apartments  in  the  king's  hunting  palace." 

So  much  for  the  effect.    Now  for  the  cause : 

"  Supposing,"  says  high  Tory  Allison,  "  the  produce  of  an  •  cr  )  worth  £3 
2s.  9d.,  the  proportion  that  went  to  the  king  was  £1  18s.  -id. ;  to  tti-j  1  indlord 
18s.,  and  to  the  actual  cultivator  5s.  If  the  produce  of  an  acre  were  divided 
into  twelve  parts,  nearly  seven  and  a  half  went  to  the  king,  three  and  a  half 
to  the  proprietor,  and  ONE  to  the  actual  cultivator ! " 

That's  the  way  they  ordered  things  in  France  in  those  days. 

And  there  were  three  "orders"  in  France  at  this  time,  who  kept 
the  people  in  this  deplorable  condition.  One  was  the  "Royal" 
order  —the  sensual  and  detestable  Bourbons.  Next  came  the  '  •  Noble '' 
order — the  thieves  wno  had  stolen  all  the  lands  of  France  from  their 
true  owners,  the  people.  This  "Noble"  order  not  only  excused 
itself  from  paying  taxes,  but  was  continually  besetting  the  Court  to 
get  pensions,  sinecures,  all  manner  of  plunder  out  of  the  national 
treasury — out  of  the  "  seven  and  one-half  parts"  plundered  by  the 
king.  Then  there  was  a  third  order — that  of  the  bishops  and  clergy. 
This  order  was  a  political  body,  with  legislative  power  equal  to  that  of 
the  nobles.  They,  too,  excused  themselves  from  all  payment  of 
taxes ;  and  all  its  high  dignitaries  vied  with  the  highest  nobles  in 
the  splendor  and  luxury  of  their  lives ! 

This  order,  naturally  enough,  took  part  with  the  oppressors  of 
France.  I  do  not  say  that  they  were  oppressors  themselves-,  but  I 
ask  you,  Bight  Reverend  Sir,  what  do  you  think  about  them? 

And  I  ask  you  further,  do  you  think  they  did  right  in  siding  with 
the  oppressors  of  France?  You  will,  of  course,  be  guarded  in 
answering  this  question,  as  it  has  a  personal  leaning  toward  your- 
self. 

And  I  would  further  ask  you,  what  effect  did  this  conduct  of  the 
French  clergy  produce  upon  the  French  people?  Had  it  anything 
to  do  with  making  France  a  nation  of  Infidels? 

The  founder  of  the  Christian  Religion  was  not  an  oppressor  of 
the  poor.  He  did  not  league  himself  with  their  oppressors.  The 
people  of  France  ought  to  have  remembered  that  great  truth.  They 
ought  to  have  held  firmly  to  the  Christian  faith.  They  ought  to 
have  seen  that  the  French  political  clergy  were  one  thing,  and  the 


OR,    THE  SPIRIT  OF   CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN  DAYS.  131 

Christian  religion  was  quite  another  thing.  But  they  didn't.  They 
turned  their  backs  and  bccarr.e  infidels. 

Do  not  follow  the  example  of  the  French  bishops.  Bo  not  throw 
yourself  or  your  clergy  as  a  shield  over  the  crimes  of  the  English 
and  Irish  n,ri,;tocracy.  Do  not!  No  shield  can  save  them  Irom  the 
indignation  of  an  uprisen  and  virtuous  people.  The  shield  may  get 
itself  tarnished,  but  it  cannot  either  screen  or  protect  thorn  ia  their 
crimes. 

I  have  shown  3*011,  sir,  the  witness  borne  by  a  woman  against  tho 
atrocious  S3~otc:n  in  France  — a  system  of  which  your  order  was  at 
once  partaker  and  defender.  Let  me  now  place  before  you  the 
witnessing  of  another  woman — an  American  woman — Mrs.  Nichol- 
son, who  visited  the  land  of  green  graves  and  ruined  households  iu 
1847. 

Look ! 

"A  former  rector,  named  Wilson,  died  in  tLp  Sumraor  of  '17  leaving  .a  wife 
and  four  children  on  :i  pivtty  spot  where  they  had  resided  for  jxv.rs.  Here 
I  w;is  invited  to  spend  a  few  weeks,  and  with  doep  sorrow  I  saw.  step  by 
step,  all  taken  for  TAXES  und  KENT.  Everything  that  had  life  out  of  doors 
was  sold  at  auction--tlion.  everything  of  furniture.  Tho  cottage  was  left 
desohi  e  —  tho  moth  :r  w  is  put  injii.'l,  and  is  now  looking  through  its  gr.itod 
windo-.vs,  whilst  her  children  are  scattered  abroad,  trying  to  got  a  morsel 
of  bread." 

And  this,  a  woman  of  refinement—  one  of  that  class,  too,  which 
the  foul  government  would  fain  enlist  under  their  unholy  standard. 
And  Sir  Richard  O'Donnell  (one  of  the  old  Celtic  names)  was  the 
desolator  of  this  poor  lady's  household.  Well  and  truly  does  Mr. 
Q!Mahoney  say  in  his  Irish  book  that  the  "  village  tyrants,  though 
some  of  them  be  of  Gaelic  name  and  blood,  and  a  few  of  them  even 
of  the  national  faith,  are  now  the  only  foreign  enemy." 

But  to  return  to  the  picture : 

"To  see,"  says  Mrs.  Nicholson,  '-the  tumbled  cabin,  with  the  hopeless 
inmates  lingering  around  it,  and  wailing  in  despair  -scraping  the  rubbish 
for  some  little  relic  of  mutual  affection ,  the  ragged,  barefooted  little  ones 
clinging  around  them  —  one  on  the  back  of  the  weeping  mother,  and  the 
father  looking  on  in  despair!  Then  they  take  their  way  to  some  ditch  to 
encamp,  supperless,  for  the  night-  without  covering  for  the  head  or  foot,  or 
a  scrap  of  blanket  to  put  over  them  -  into  whatever  ditch  they  may  crawl. 
Village  upon  village,  and  company  after  company  have  I  seen.  And  a 
magistrate  who  was  traveling  informed  me  that.,  at  nightfall  the  preceding 
day,  he  had  found  a  company  who  had  gathered  a  few  sticks  and  fastened 
them  into  the  ditch,  and  spread  over  what  miserable  rags  they  could  collect 


132  THE   ODD  BOOK  OP  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

(for  the  rain  was  fast  pouring),  and  under  these  more  than  two  hundred 
men,  women,  and  children  were  to  crawl  tor  the  night.  He  alighted  from 
his  car  and  counted  them.  They  had  that  day  been  driven  out,  and  there 
was  not  one  pound  of  any  kind  of  food  in  the  encampment  1 " 

Now,  Eight  Keverend  Sir,  what  do  you  say  to  those  horrors?  We 
are  going,  1  trust,  to  put  an  end  to  them.  You  don't  like  our  way 
of  doing  it?  Well  then,  show  us  a  better  way,  and  we'll  take  it. 
We'll  be  very  glad  indeed  if  you  point  out  a  better  way.  If  you  don't 
do  this — if  you  don't  show  us  a  better  way — be  assured  that  we  will 
take  our  own ! 

For  this  hellish  system  shall  not  continue.  Even  your  inertia 
defense  of  it  will  be  unavailing.  If  people  must  die  —  sacrificed  to 
this  Moloch  of  aristocracy  —  the  mode  of  sacrifice  must  be  changed. 
Hunger  will  have  to  give  place  to  the  sword  !  Hitherto  the  victims 
have  been  all  on  the  one  side.  Wouldn't  it  be  well  now  to  let  the 
other  side  have  a  turn? 

Oh,  no  !  That  would  be  shocking.  But  scenes  like  the  following 
are  not  shocking  at  all : 

'•The  road  was  rough,"  says  this  good  Mrs.  Nicholson,  "and  we  were 
constantly  meeting  with  pale,  meagre  men  on  their  way  from  the  mountains, 
to  break  stones  and  pile  them  high  for  the  compensation  of  one  pound  of 
meal  a  day !  Flocks  of  children  went  to  school  for  the  "  bit  of  bread  '  there 
supplied  to  them ;  some  crying  with  hunger,  and  some  begging  to  get  in 
without  the  penny  required  for  their  tuition.  The  poor  little  emaciated 
things  went  weeping  away.  We  saw  multitudes  in  the  last  stages  of  suffer- 
ing, yet  not  one  through  that  day  asked  charity !  and  in  one  case  the  common 
hospitality  showed  itself  by  offering  us  milk  when  we  asked  for  water." 

At  Kossford,  in  Erris,  this  picture : 

"A  young  lady  lived  back  two  miles  upon  the  mountain.  She  was  edu- 
cated in  the  popular  genteel  style,  and  her  family  had  some  of  them  died, 
and  all  broken  down,  she  was  staying  in  a  thatched  cottage,  which  had  yet 
the  remains  of  taste  and  struggling  gentility.  Two  of  the  peasant  women 
had  seen  Mr.  Bourne  and  me  going  that  way,  and  by  a  shorter  path  had 
hastened  and  given  Miss  notice,  so  that  when  we  entered,  the  cottage  was 
in  trim  and  she  in  due  order  to  receive  us.  That  pitiful  effort  was  painful 
to  witness.  She  was  suffering  hunger,  and  had  no  possible  way  of  escape. 
Yet  she  assumed  a  magnanimity  of  spirit,  and  complained  not.  She  only 
expressed  much  pity  for  the  poor  tenants  on  the  land  about  her,  and  begged 
us,  it  possible,  to  send  relief.  Her  table  was  spread  with  those  pretty  little 
ornaments  which  adorn  the  drawing-rooms  of  the  rich ;  and  she,  with  a 
light  scarf  hung  carelessly  about  her  shoulders,  genteel  in  form  and  beauti- 
ful in  features,  was  already  looking  from  eyes  that  were  putting  on  the- 
'famine  stare.'  'What  can  be  done  with  that  helpless,  proud,  interesting 


OR,    THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN  DAYS.  13& 

girl? '  said  Mr.  Bourne,  as  we  passed  away.  '  She  must  die  in  all  her  pride, 
if  some  relief  is  not  speedily  found.  She  would  not  go  to  the  work-house, 
and  there,  on  that  desolate  mountain,  she  will  probably  pine  away  and 
die  unheeded." 

This  was  the  famine  when ,  directly  and  indirectly,  millions  perished. 
In  ordinary  time  o.ily  sevei.t,  thousand  die  annually  of  hunger  and  its 
attendant  diseases.  Have  we  lost  all  manhood  ?  Must  such  crimes  and 
such  suffering  endure  forever? 

And  this  American  lady  —  this  honest,  true  hearted  woman  — does 
not  throw  a  screen  over  the  " Noble,"  and  "Honorable,"  and  "  Right 
Honorable"  criminals.  No,  indeed,  she  speaks  to  them  in  this 
way : 

"  Ye  miserable  oppressors !  what  will  ye  do  when  the  day  of  God's  wrath 
shall  come?  What  'rock  and  mountain'  will  ye  call  upon  to  screen  your 
guilty  heads?  Ye  lords!  when  the  Lord  of  lords  shall  gird  on  His  sword, 
then  shall  these  poor  be  a  swift  witness  against  you.  You  who  call  your- 
selves lords,  after  the  name  of  Him  whose  mission  was  mercy !  When  look- 
ing at  those  exiles,  my  heart  has  said  —  How  much  more  woeful  is  the  case 
of  him  who  drove  you  into  the  storm !  Well  might  the  apostle  James  say, 
'  Go  to  !  ye  rich  men,  weep  and  howl  1 '  " 

But  the  good  woman  concludes  with  the  prayer,  "Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

Offering  up  on  your  behalf  the  same  prayer,  and  extending  to  you 
the  same  Christian  spirit,  permit  me,  Bight  Reverend  Sir,  to  take 
my  leave. 

The  feeling  evoked,  so  far  as  I  could  judge,  was  a  political 
instinctive  feeling  to  strike  down  the  domination  of  England, 
without  much  thought  about  the  ownership  of  the  land. 
Its  intensity  breathes  in  this  article : 

TO     SHIP!     TO     SHIP! 

"Come  as  the  winds  come, 

When  forests  are  rended ; 
Come  as  the  waves  come, 

When  navies  are  stranded^ 
Faster  come  1  faster  come  1 

Thicker,  and  faster ! "— SCOTT. 

Not  to  arms !  To  arms  !  But  To  ship !  To  ship !  There  is  one  spot  still 
living  on  this  earth.  One  spot  in  which  Soul  is  up  —  enthroned  —  sovereign 
of  thought  and  action.  One  spot  where  a  divine  enthusiasm  carries  men 
above  the  low  sordid  pursuits  that  are  the  disgrace  of  the  age.  One  spot 
where  deeds  approach  that  will  electrify  the  nations.  That  spot  is  Ireland. 
To  the  ship !  To  the  ship  1  Hurra !  for 


134.  THE  ODD   BOOK   OF   THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

'  A  wet  sheet  and  a  flowing  sail, 
A  wind  that  follows  fast." 

Hurra !  for  the  steam  giant  that  works  so  bravely  down  in  that  deep  hold. 
Hurra !  for  the  gallant  vessel,  crushing  beneath  her  the  subject  waves,  and 
bounding  (like  the  Irish  wolf  dog)  to  the  help  of  our  brothers  in  the  field  — 
to  the  rescue  of  our  brothers  in  the  dungeon. 

Back !  Back !  To  the  land  of  Palaces  and  Prisons.  Back  for  a  look  at 
the  riot  of  the  Court,  and  the  starvation  of  the  Cottage.  Hold  the  breath  ! 
Set  the  teeth !  Bring  up  the  memories ! 

Our  brothers  must  soon— MAY  NOW—  be  in  the  field.  "  Why  stand  we  here 
loitering?" 

Crowd  in  the  money.  Make  way  for  the  crowding  men.  Emigration  is 
free  1  Gunpowder  an  article  of  commerce.  Hurra !  Hurra ! 

Bottom  has  been  struck.  The  lowest  depth  has  been  sounded.  That 
nation  sunk  deepest  is  the  first  to  rebound.  The  pre-eminence  is  ours. 
This  the  turning  point  of  earth's  history.  Ignorance  darkened  the  Past — 
enlightenment  dawns  over  the  Future.  Mind  is  emancipated.  Voice  and  pen 
unchained.  Hurra !  Hurra ! 

Our  brothers  were  poor.  They  must  toil,  toil,  and  forever  toil,  to  keep 
themselves  alive.  What  was  to  dread  from  them?  They  buy  rifles,  indeed ! 
Why;  they  hadn't  the  price  of  caps.  They  forge  pikes !  Why,  they  couldn't 
pay  for  a  pound  of  steel. 

And  so  the  tyrants  were  comforted. 

For  they  didn't  know  that  America  was  here.  They  did  not  dream  of  the 
American  dollar.  They  did  not  know  that  Irishmen  had  such  a  thing. 
That  they  would  throw  it  out  so  freely.  That  workshops  would  clank. 
That  foundries  would  spit  fire.  That  powder  and  shot  would  roll  them- 
selves up  together  by  the  magic  of  that  American  dollar.  No !  Dead,  them- 
selves, to  every  noble  impulse—  consumed  by  their  own  base  desires — they 
did  not  know  that  there  was  anything  nobler  in  this  world  than  sordid  riot- 
ing and  sloth.  They  did  not  think  of  the  American  dollars !  Of  the  men 
and  women  who  sent  them  along.  But  they  are  beginning  to  think  of  them 
now— Hurra  1  Hurra  I 

To  think !  Aye,  and  to  speak.  "  Oh,  those  bombs,  and  grenades,  and 
rifle  bullets !  They  were  good  servants  when  we  nad  them  all  to  ourselves. 
But  they  have  divided  forces  — half  gone  over  to  the  mob.  Alas  1  for  those 
"  sinews  of  war,"  sent  on  by  the  women  and  men,  and  girls  and  boys  of 
America  i  That  noble  lords  and  ladies  like  us  should  ever  see  this  day  ! " 

But  the  day  has  come.    In  with  the  money  !    Up  with  the  sails,  or — 
"  By  Jove,  we'll  be  too  late  for  the  first  cut." 

Up  and  at  them  !    Hurra  !    Hurra ! 

BARGAIN     AND     SALE.      - 

"When  the  Irish  Peojjle  became  formidable  —  when  it  struck  at  that 
sensitive  sore,  the  Land --when  its  circulation  trebled,  from  10,000 


OH,    THE    SP1H1T    OJb'    CHIVALRY    J\    MODEBN    DAYS.  135 

to  30,000  in  five  weeks  —  then  it  became  worth  a  buying.  Whether 
it  was  bought  or  not  by  Mr.  Archibald,  the  British  Consul,  I  cannot 
say — ;ueh  things  are  done  in  a  very  close  and  dark  market — but  the 
reader  can  judge  from  what  follows.  He  forged,  quoted  this,  sheer 
forgery,  as  if  from  the  London  Spectator  : 

"England's  war  expenses  have  been  increased  three  millions 
of  dollars  a  day,  or  the  expenses  of  the  American  government  during 
the  late  war." 

"  We  are  thus  weakening  and  exhausting  England  without  striking  a  blow 
and  the  '  longer  we  keep  011  this  game '  the  more  powerless  we  are  making 
her,  and  the  more  '  influential  Fenianism  is  becoming.'  " 

"  England  has  now  all  the  expense  without  the  least  prospect  of  recruit- 
ing her  army.  "We  are  crushing  the  vitals  out  of  England  by  a  moral  phys- 
ical revolution  alone,  and  every  day  we  can  safely  protract  the  struggle  is  a 
gain  to  us,  and  a  loss  to  her." 

On  which  my  comment  at  the  time  was,  "Get  out,  you  scoundrel!" 

In  one  thing  this  Sullivan  was  honest — honester  t'lan  most — I  do 
not  say  all  —  of  the  leaders.  He  did  not  profess  to  be  actuated 
by  principle.  "The  excitement  would  die  out  by-and-bye,"  he  said, 
"but  it  would  leave  an  established  newspaper  in  his  hands."  This 
to  myself,  personally.  At  the  election  of  '68  he  wheeled  his  paper 
round  for  Grant,  and  got  a  $1,000  check  from  "Wilkes,  of  the  Spirit 
of  the  Times,  for  doi  \g  so. 

Enthusiasm  was  intense.  The  New  York  'Longshoremen's 
Society  presented  $2,700.  Headquarters — the  large  and 
grand  house  in  Union  Square — was  crowded  with  similar  busi- 
ness. A  meeting  was  called  in  Williamsburgh  (my  own 
home.)  I  was  standing  uninvited  in  the  crowd  when  Colonel 
Powers  called  me  up  to  the  platform.  Mr.  Wm.  E.  Kobinson 
was  speaking  with  his  usual  fluency,  and  he  kept  speaking 
on  till  Mr.  Killian  arrived.  Mr.  K.  asked  me  had  I  spoken 
yet.  No,  that  pleasure  was  before  me.  He  presented  him- 
self. A  fine  presence  and  effective  speaker,  he  kept  the  audi- 
ence interested  till  the  lateness  of  the  hour  compelled  an 
adjournment.  In  the  course  of  his  speech  he  said,  "  Much 
as  had  been  said  about  contributions— they  had  only  reached 
half  a  million  of  dollars." 

The  Civil  War  was  over.  Blockade  runners  could  be 
bought  cheap.  More  than  100,000  men  who  had  breathed 


136  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY J 

gunpowder  for  years  were  straining  to  volunteer  for  the 
Invasion.  Yet  noiiiing  was  doi 

And  it  was  fortunate  that  nothing  was  done.  For  the 
Fenian  Movement  had  not  the  first  idea  of  the  Grand  Truth 
that  the  world  is  the  Creator's  world,  and  that  the  people 
HE  sent  to  it,  every  one  of  them,  came  with  his  title  deed 
in  his  stomach  and  in  the  dependent  wants  clustered  around 
it.  All  the  wants — material  first,  then  moral  and  intellectual. 
It  was  a  chivalrous  inspiration  for  nationhood — a  transfer  of 
tiie  Government  from  London  to  Dublin.  But  the  transfer 
of  not  an  acre  from  the  Thief  to  the  Owner. 

I  could  do  nothing  with  the  leaders.  They  split  into  two 
factions.  One  would  send,  and  did  send,  individuals  over  to 
organize  the  Irish  people.  Those  were  can-  h',  and  impris- 
oned, and  tried — and  brought  Isaac  Butt  out  a  5  their  counsel. 
The  oiner  faction  was  headed  by  Mr.  Roberts,  a  dry  goods 
merchant  of  little  public  experience,  and  General  Sweeny,  a 
brave  man  who  won  a  commission  and  lost  an  arm  in  thd 
Mexican  war,  and  distinguished  himself  in  the  recent  civil 
war.  Those  called  for  an  invasion  of  Canada.  Purpose  to  "make 
it  a  Republic,  and  found  on  it  belligerent  rights,  with  pri- 
vateers to  sweep  the  seas  of  English  commerce."  But  instead 
of  making  friends  of  the  Canadians,  the  General  proclaimed 
that  "20,000  who  fought  under  Grant  would  beat  60,000 
Kanucks."  To  show  the  folly  of  this  talk,  and  for  another  far 
more  important  purpose,  I  quote  from  Captain  Preston's 
"  Three  Years  in  Canada,"  ending  '39 : 

"The  French-Canadian,"  says  Captain  Preston,  "is  disloyal  to 
England.  Ho  argues  thus :  If  you  keep  me  down  by  force  I  must 
submit ;  but  if  you  relax  that  force  it  will  be  the  signal  for  my  rising 
against  you." 

After  describing  the  sullen  apathy  of  the  Canadian  militia, 
and  the  serious  apprehension  that  they  would  join  the  invad- 
ing force  threatened  from  the  United  States,  Preston  thus 
continues: 

"But,  fortunately,  between  the  utterance  of  the  Invasion  and  its 
execution  a  sufficient  interval  elapsed  to  admit  of  reflection,  and 
when  it  was  understood  that  an  invasion  of  the  Province  concealed  a 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODEPN   DAYS.  137 

war  against  life  and  property,  despondency  gave  way  to  indigna- 
tion," etc.,  etc. 

"Well  does  the  Marseillaise  say  tliat 

"  Falsehood's  dagger  tyrant's  wield." 

Never  was  concocted  a  more  poisonous  falsehood  than 
this.  And  Preston  discloses  that  it  was  spoken  from  every 
platform  and  echoed  through,  every  newspaper,  and  preached 
by  the  French-Canadian  priests,  who  had  the  especial  ear 
of  the  people.  And  he  illustrates  the  result  by  this  picture : 

"One  militia  man  rushed  from  the  ranks,  and  singling  out  an 

antagonist,  plunged  his  bayonet  into  him,  exclaiming:  '  You 

scoundrel,  you  wanted  to  rob  mo  of  my  farm.      There !  take  that 
instead.'  " 

Never  was  a  more  unmixed  lie.  The  gallant  American 
borderers  wanted  none  of  tiieir  land — would  not  tone  tne  gift 
of  it.  But  the  Lie  served  a  terrible  purpose. 


I  did  not  suit  the  Fenian  leaders  it  seemed  any  more  than 
I  had  suited  the  Political  leaders,  and  alter  publishing  eight 
or  nine  numbers  of  my  paper  I  came  out  of  the  tug  a  loser  of 
much  time  and  labor,  and  I  don't  know  how  many  hundred 
dollars.  I  shall  conclude  my  account  of  Fenianism  with  a 
letter,  which.  I  abridge : 

To  HON.  AND  LIBERAL   MB.  GLADSTONE,  CHANGELLOB  or  THE  BRITISH 

EXCHEQUER : 

SIK — You  a:ad  your  coadjutors  are  great  "  liberals  "  if  we  take  your  own 
word  lor  it.  You  put  four  horses  to  your  carriage,  and  a  burden  of  manure 
on  the  back  of  the  small  t  Miant— ho  who  cultivates  the  fields  which  you  have 
the  frontleas  impudence  to  call  yours.  You  put  I  don't  know  how  many 
descriptions  of  wine  on  yoi:r  table,  and  you  leave  not  even  a  pint  of  butter- 
milk on  the  tablo  of  your  brother  man — him  whom  you  have  robbed  of  his 
natural  right  on  tii«  earth.  You  take  a  palace  to  yourselves  and  give  a 
hove1,  or  the  ditch  side,  to  your  cheated  brother.  You  dispense  rags  to  the 
robbed  multitudes,  and  you  take  "  purple  and  fine  linen  '•  to  yourselves. 
To  them,  e  loct,  and  ignorance ;  co  yourselves,  education  and  wisdom.  To 
them,  all  earthly  toil  and  suffering;  to  yourselves,  all  earthly  idleness  and 
enjoyment. 

vTiberall"    Faith  you  are  liberal,  nobody  can  deny  that.     Liberal  to 


138      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

yourselves !    Liberal  of  the  stolen  goods  which  you  have  stolen  from  your 
outraged  brothers. 

And,  Gladstone,  you  are  a  pet  and  a  paragon  of  "  liberality" — and,  may 
we  not  add,  of  candor  also? 

For  you  have  been  talking  about  the  Fenians  the  other  day  in  Liverpool ; 
and  you  spoko  of  them  as  if  they  were  enemies,  not  of  you  and  your 
"  liberal"  government,  but  of  the  Canadian  people.  You  innocently  assume 
that  the  Canadian  people  are  all  full  of  loyalty  to  the  "  authority  of  her 
Majesty."  You  forget  all  about  the  butcheries  committed  by  her  Majesty, 
"  aided  and  abetted"  by  such  "  liberal."  men  as  you — committed  on  those 
same  Canadian  people  in  '37,  thirty  years  ago !  Huudi  jds  of  patriots  hung 
to  death  by  Head,  your  commander,  for  which  murders  he  received  a 
message  of  thanks  from  your  "liberal"  predecessors,  Melbourne  and 
Russell. 

To  you,  sir,  those  barbarous  murders,  perpetrated  in  cold  blood,  on  pris- 
oners taken  in  war,  may  appear  all  as  matters  of  course.  You  think  doubt- 
Jess  that  those  murderers  were  doing  ^od  a  service — that  the  "  divine  right " 
of  kings  and  queens  gave  them  a  right  to  murder  their  fellow-creatures. 
The  Canadian  people  will  probably  think  otherwise.  Time  may  have 
dimmed  their  memory  of  those  inhuman  crimes  committed  by  you.  But 
we'll  try  to  jog  that  memory  of  theirs.  If  we  in  the  United  States  have  only 
a  little  common  sense  we  will  send  a  snow-storm  of  documents  into  Canada 
during  the  warm  weather  that  will  create  a  light  and  a  reflection  all  over 
that  laud.  Wo  began  wrong.  That  is  admitted.  Make  your  best  of  it. 
But  mistakes  lead  the  way  to  success.  They  form  that  experience  which 
"  teacheth  even  fools."  When  this  paper  reaches  you,  and  I  will  send  it  on 
carefully,  you  and  your  "  liberal "  brothers  will  bo  aware  of  the  news 
of  our  confusion  and  incapacity ;  that  will  reach  you  at  the  same  time.  But 
be  not  too  quick  in  arriving  at  conclusions.  This  Kepublic — one  State  of  it, 
indeed — has  more  men  willing  and  able  to  demolish  you  and  your  govern- 
ment than  would  do  the  business  in  a  week.  Do  you  think  that  a  little  in- 
terruption or  the  incapacity  of  half  a  dozen  half-leaders  will  alter  the 
determination  of  those  in  on  ? 

There  never  was  a  more  helpless  despotism  than  yours — once  the  test  is 
brought  to  it.  The  Irishman,  the  agricultural  laborers  of  England,  and  the 
denizens  of  the  factory-hells,  if  let  fairly  loose  upon  you,  by  a  force  that 
could  marshal  them  for  action,  would  break  the  egg-shell  that  you  live 
in,  and  scatter  all  the  chickens  like  yourself  in  a  week's  time.  Even  your 
soldiers  and  sailors— you  know  all  about  what  they  are,  or  if  you  don't 
know,  you  may  have  the  fortune  to  be  instructed. 

You  have  youx*  victory — such  as  it  is — over  those  unresisting  men  that  are 
shut  down  in  your  deep  dungeons.  But  at  what  cost?  Why,  sir,  you  have 
reduced  that  government  of  yours  to  the  most  passive  imbecility.  .  No 
matter  what  is  going  on  in  Europe  you  cannot  appear  in  its  councils  as  a 
National  Power.  Your  representative  at  Valparaiso  had  his  instruction 


OR.    THE  8PIKTT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  139 

and  he  went  aside  out  of  the  way  pf  the  Spanish  shells.  He  couldn't — you 
couldn't — afford  to  incur  the  resentment  of  such  a  fourth-rate  power  as 
Spain.  Soon  will  your  situation  be  known  to  all  men.  Known  that  the 
Irish  element  everywhere  are  watching  you, — 

"  For  never  yet  was  human  power, 
That  could  escape,  if  unforgiven, 
The  patient  search  and  vigil  long 
Of  him  who  treasures  up  a  wrong." 

Prepare  yourself  therefore.    There  is  no  uncertainty  about  the  future — 
save  a  trifling  uncertainty  in  the  matter  of  time. 

VOLUNTEER. 

If  this  letter  did  not  make  an  impression  on  Mr.  Gladstone, 
the  rescue  at  Manchester,  the  blowing  up  of  Clerkenwell,  the 
attempt  on  Chester  Castle  did,  and  his  well-meant  but  abor- 
tive land  law  was  the  result. 


ITEMS. 

I  now  present  a  number  of  Items,  promiscuously,  in  which 
there  is  instruction: 

THE  Sun  informs  us  that  the  Land  Leaguers  of  New  York  are  "  neither 
more  nor  less  than  English  Chartists  transported  to  this  country." 


It  is  '465  and  a  Revolutionary  veteran  is  refused  a  seat  in  the  Troy  and 
Albany  Coach,  because  he  is  not  respectably  dressed.  The  old  spirit  is 
rapidly  dying  out.  The  stage  manager  knows  little  about  Revolutions  and 
cares  less.  

Orestes  A.  Brownson,  while  yet  a  Freethinker,  delivered  a  lecture  ir  New 
York  City  on  the  "  Civilizing  Effects  of  British  Commerce."  Most  of  the  Social 
Reformers  were  of  his  way  of  thinking  on  religious  matters,  and  I  lost  some 
friends  among  them  by  criticising  Brownson's  discourse.  I  cited  the 
monopoly  of  food  in  the  East  Indies  till  the  very  rivers  were  sodden  with 
the  dead  of  hunger — the  poisoning  with  opium  and  slaughtering  of  the 
Chinese.  I  dealt  with  him  in  this  manner  to  the  especial  displeasure  of  Mr. 
John  Hecker— then  a  smal'  store  baker — since  a  millionaire,  flour  miller,  and 
vender  o  printed  paper  bags  Hecker  went  into '  The  Churchman  "  business, 
and  Brownson  became  famous  in  his  Native  American  Catholic  Review. 


1    find    the    following    in    my   papers : 

'  The  Governor  (Gilmer)  of  Virginia  has  resigned  office.  Some  time  since  a 
slave-stealer  retreated  on  New  York  State,  and  a  requisition  was  made  on 
Governor  Seward  to  give  him  up.  This  Governor  Seward  refused  to  do 


140       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

and  very  soon  a  culprit  from  New  York  took  refuge  in  Virginia.  A  requisi- 
tion was  made  on  Governor  Gilmer,  but  the  Virginian  would  not  give  up 
the  offender  till  his  claim  on  the  New  York  Executive  would  bo  complied  with. 
His  legislature  expressed  a  different  opinion,  and  so  Gilmer  resigned.  This 
complication  may  lead  to  non-intercourse  between  the  States— or  even  worse." 
[  It  did  indeed  lead  to  inconceivably  worse.  ] 


Faneuil  Hall  is  sacred  by  its  association  with  the  earliest  history  of  the 
Eevolution.  It  is  an  immense  building — the  lower  story  of  which  presents 
four  fronts,  or  blocks,  occupied  by  stores.  The  upper  stories  are  set  apart 
for  public  use,  such  as  armories  for  the  military  companies,  etc. ;  the 
middle  story  belongs  to  the  public  and  can  be  had  for  the  purposes  of  public 
meetings,  on  the  requisition  of  100  citizens.  Its  ample  interior — its  plat- 
forms and  galleries — the  fine  paintings  of  Washington,  Warren,  Knox,  the 

two  Adams',  Samuel  and  John  Q a  bust  of  the  elder  Adams,  Commodore 

Freble  and  Tom  Paine — they  are  all  finely  executed,  and  seem  as  if  they 
were  listening,  with  the  most  profound  attention,  to  every  sound  that 
echoes  through  the  immense  Hall. 


If  Governments  listened  to  the  admonitions  of  Nature — and  Nature  is  the 
direct  and  unerring  manifestation  of  God  himself — if  they  did  that  they 
would  not  be  found  conferring  upon  a  man  what  they  have  no  authority  to 
confer,  and  that,  too,  which  he,  owing  to  the  fragility  of  his  nature,  has  not 
the  capacity  to  receive — namely,  ownership  of  the  Land.  Social,  as  well  as 
political  salvation,  depends  upon  finding  out  what  Natural  Eight  is,  and 
bravely  adopting  it.  Before  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  any  man 
who  contemplated  separation  from  England  was,  so  George  Washington  in- 
forms us,  looked  upon  as  a  madman.  Every  Keformer  that  ever  showed 
face  in  the  world  was  regarded  by  the  "wise  men  "  of  their  day  as  "very 
rash  " — "  very  reprehensible,"  "  very  dangerous  people." 


In  Senate,  January  26,  1828,  pending  the  discussion  of  the  bill  granting 
"  pre-emption  to  actual  settlers,"  Mr.  Clay  of  Kentucky  said :  "  In  no  shape 
in  which  the  bill  could  be  placed,  could  he  be  brought  to  vote  for  it.  The 
whole  pre-emption  system  was  a  violation  of  all  law,  and  an  encourage- 
ment to  persons  to  go  on  the  public  lands  and  take  the  choicest  portions  of 
them  as  suited  their  interests  or  inclinations." 

In  Senate,  January  27,  1833,  Mr.  Tipton  said :  "  He  understood  that  the 
Senator  from  Kentucky  denounced  the  settlers  on  the  lands  as  a  lawless 
Danditti  of  land  robbers,  unjustly  grasping  at  the  public  treasure." 

Here  Mr.  Clay  rose  and  said :  "lie  would  repeat  what  he  did  say  on  the 
occasion  referred  to  by  the  honorable  Senator  from  Indiana,"  as  above. 


UK,    THE   SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  141 

Prom  measuring  the  velocity  of  light  to  the  construction  of  a  glass 
button,  from  the  vast  to  the  minute,  tho  march  of  Science  and  of  Art  strikes 
us  with  a  consciousness  that  those  things  are  not  emanations  of  the  human 
mind— that  they  come  from  a  great  Superintending  Benevolence  that  sees 
what  wo  want,  and  gives  it  to  us  with  a  profuse  hand. 

All  that  Art  and  Science  points  out  to  us  is  received  with  welcome  by  all 
people.  The  truths  of  Astronomy — the  records  of  Geology — the  art  of  form- 
ing and  fashioning  cloth,  of  fusing  and  utilizing  metals— steam,  electricity— 
every  improvement  and  discovery  in  material  Science  and  material  Art  is 
accepted  and  put  to  use.  They  do  not  infringe  upon  the  great  established 
Social  Wrongs.  Indeed  all  those  things  go  now  to  pamper  those  wrongs.  To 
the  great  mass  of  toilers  those  progressions  are  as  if  they  were  not.  Chained 
by  their  necessities  to  incessant  toil,  the  world  around  them — its  use,  Its 
grandeur,  its  boundless  resource  of  all  things — is  not  for  them.  They  are 
Disinherited ' 


In  1842  The  Boss  manufacturers  of  New  England  and  Pittsburgh,  and  in- 
deed all  round,  made  dividends  of  from  20  to  33  per  cent  annually.  Having 
set  forth  this  fact,  the  Mechanics'  Association  of  Fall  River  proceeded  thus : 

"  1.  The  system  of  labor  to  which  we  have  alluded  in  our  preamble,  re- 
quiring of  the  Mechanic  and  Laborer  of  New  England  from  twelve  to  fifteen 
hours  labor  per  diem,  is  more  than  the  physical  constitution  of  men  can 
bear.  We  have  only  to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the  bills  of  mortality  which 
are  annually  rendered  through  the  public  journals  of  the  day,  with  the  em- 
ployment of  those  who  have  died — the  nature  of  the  disease  which  ter- 
minated their  earthly  existence,  and  we  shall  find  that  three-fifths  of  all  the 
deaths  which  occurred  among  us  are  attributable  to  the  system  of  labor  by 
which  wo  are  governed ;  and  yearly  there  are  thousands  who  come  down  to 
a  premature  grave  in  consequence  of  a  system  of  labor  which  levies  such,  a 
heavy  tax  upon  the  physical  t-trenyth  of  man  as  to  render  him  wholly  unable  to 
pay.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  influence  of  that  system  of  labor  is  such  as 
must  of  necessity  extinguish  the  intellectual  fire  which  heaven  desired  should 
burn  upon  and  in  every  soul  of  man."  And  yet  they  still  hang  on  to  that 
condition  instead  of  turning  their  thoughts  to  the  only  thing  that  can  rescue 
them— THE  LAND ! 


The  Marquis  of  Lafayette,  of  an  old  noblesse  family,  did,  in  the 
ardor  of  his  youth,  fight  and  sacrifice  heroically  for  the  young  American 
Republic.  But,  returning  to  France,  he  breasted  the  French  Revolution  in 
favor  of  the  Monarchy  till  he  had  to  fly  across  to  the  Austrian  lines  from  the 
hostility  of  his  own  soldiers.  But  the  old  remembrances  of  what  he  had 
done  in  America  brought  him  up  and  out  in  1830  against  the  despotism  of 
Charles  X.  Unfortunately,  for  it  was  almost  entirely  through  his  influence 
that  the  Revolution  accepted  Louis  Phillipe  under  the  deceiving  title  of 
"  Citizen  King."  The  sordid  scheming  and  tyrannical  reign  of  the  "  Citizen 
King ''  cost  France  seventeen  years  of  suffering,  and  no  moderate  waste  of 
in  several  attempts  to  throw  him  off  the  throne.  One  of  the  most  re- 


142  THE   ODD  BOOK   OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  \ 

markable  of  those  attempts  is  portrayed  in  Hugo's  Les  Miserdbles — em- 
bellished in  fact,  but  not  at  all  in  spirit. 

The  funeral  of  General  La  Marj'ie  was  well  calculated  to  rouse  the  en- 
thusiasm of  all  the  young  and  ardent  Republicans  in  Paris.  Those  judging 
the  public  mind  by  their  own  threw  up  barricades,  and  how  they  fought 
behind  them  is  master  of  undying  History.  But  the  excitement  was  partial, 
personal— not  national.  Hence  thoso  gallant  mon  failed  and  perished.  A 
lesson,  mark  it. 

One  of  my  first  controversies  with  our  local  authorities  is  thus 
described : 

BATHING.— The  men  of  the  Republic  ought  to  bo  men  —  accomplished  in 
all  the  manly  exercises  —  shutout  from  no  improvement  that  would  make 
them  :nore  vigorous  and  efficient  in  all  the  necessities  and  emergencies  of 
life.  Bathing  —  swimming,  diving,  and  performing  every  practicable  motion 
in  the  water —  is  one  of  the  manly  and  useful  exorcises.  Hardihood  — self- 
reliance —  health,  and  enlarged  capacity  to  bo  useful  —  would  result  from 
sea  bathing. 

In  a  little  book,  entitled  "A.  Picture  of  the  Seasons," the  following  passage 
occurs,  when  it  comos  to  describe  the  fervid  heats  of  Summer:  "Bathing 
too,  is  a  delightful  amusement,  and  h;ippy  is  tho  swimmer  who  alone  can 
enjoy  in  full  zest  this  healthful  exercise." 

We  are  persuaded  that  in  the  restriction*  put  upon  this  "healthful  exer- 
cise "  an  injury  is  done,  to  the  working  classes  especially  —  a  serious  injury, 
and  that,  too,  quite  unnecessarily. 

AN    INTERVIEW  — 1878. 

Monopolist  —  Step  in  and  take  a  seat.     Glad  to  see  you. 

Reformer— Glad  to  hear  it.  I  called  to  see  if  you  wouldn't  help  us  to 
direct  this  great  upheaval  of  the  people  for  financial  Reform. 

Monopolist — I  know  of  no  upheaval  of  the  people.  I  hear  of  a  clamor 
raised  by  idle,  thriftless  scalawags  inclined  to  liquor  and  averse  to  work. 

Reformer— Your  picture  is  not  a  true  one.  There  was  no  discontent no 

idlers— no  tramps— seven  years  ago.  Whatever  men  are  now  bad  govern- 
ment has  made  them. 

Monopolist — No.  Idleness  and  drunkenness  and  turbulence  have  made 
them.  And  look  at  their  leaders.  Ben  Butler,  a  thief;  Denis  Kearney,  a 
vulgar,  ignorant  demagogue.  Where  will  they  lead  them  to? 

Reformer— Of  yourself,  you  know  nothing  of  Ben  Butler.  Of  Denis 
Kearney  you  know  only  that  he  has  as  much  practical  knowledge  as  has 
stirred  up  the  whole  hive  of  national  plunderers.  You  don't  like  those 
leaders.  But  how  have  you  and  your  class  led  the  people?  You  have  Dis- 
inherited them— not  yourself  I  admit,  but  your  class— stolen  their  Inherit- 
ance and  given  it  to  Railroad  thieves— their  mines,  everything  that  belonged 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT   Of   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYB.  143 

to  them  and  to  their  posterity.  Now  you  vituperate  them.  You  daro  to  spea  k 
as  if  you  were  thoir  master.  Fifteen  years  ago  you  endorsed  this  paper 
for  reform.*  You  paid  your  part  for  sending  it  on  to  Congress.  But  a  man 
(the  *  *  *  man)  stood  then  at  your  shoulder,  and  infused  public 
virtue  into  you.  Ho  is  now  gone,  and  you  are  what  I  see. 

Astonished  that  a  representative  of  the  ''lower  class"  would  daro  to 
board  him  in  his  offlco,  the  Monopolist  flashed  with  rage.  It  was  as  fiercely 
returned  by  tho  Kef  of  mo  r,  and  a  quasi  acquaintance  of  thirty-five  years 
ended  with  Denunciation  on  one  side,  Defiance  on  the  other. 


Impressed  with  the  ability  of  Mr.  Boucicault  and  the  evident  force  of  his 
character,  I  wrote  to  him  suggesting  a  theme  that  would  bring  out  the  man 
hood  of  tho  American  mechanic  and  tho  ladylike  dignity  of  the  American 
girl  who  dared  honorable  work  and  became  reined  through  tho  innate  ex- 
cellence of  her  nature.  Unluckily  he  was  in  bad  humor  at  tho  time,  and 
wrote  me  the  following  note.  I  say  unluckily,  for  I  hold  that  this  was  a 
better  and  everyway  more  profitable  field  than  some  ho  so  sedulously 
cultivated : 

DEAR  SIB  :— In  reply  to  yours  of  April  the  4th  I  regret  to  say  that  it  is  my 
present  intention  to  retire  from  my  position  before  the  American  public  at 
the  conclusion  of  this  season. 

Tho  influence  of  the  Press  upon  art  and  artists  in  this  country  is'  so  de- 
basing that,  although  tho  public  are  both  generous  and  appreciative,  the 
associations  of  tho  artist  aro  beneath  contempt,  and  tho  artists  themselves 
become  subservient  to  an  association  of  men — I  mean  the  journalists — un- 
paralleled in  infamy  and  presumption. 

No  public  reward  can  compensate  a  gentleman  for  the  degradation  of 
being  brought  into  contact  with  such  persons,  or  having  his  name  spelt  by 
such  pens. 

Your  aspirations,  sir,  do  you  extreme  credit;  but,  alas!  they  belong  to 
another  country  and  a  different  time.  I  am,  vours  truly, 

"    DION    BOUCICAULT. 
39  E.  15th  street,  Now  York,  April  li,  1860. 

Strange  and  wayward  fate  I  With  tho  ability  to  powerfully  assist  the 
wronged,  belied,  half  prostrate  people,  this  man  will  go  a  little  way  down  to- 
ward posterity  as  a  mere  amusement-maker — for  reward.  Then  be  xitterly 
forgotten. 


ANTI- KENT  — 1842. 

Guarantee  to  tho  people  the  position  which  their  Creator  intended  for 
them— guarantee  to  them  the  fruits  of  their  honest  toil.  Do  this,  and  they 
will  guarantee  to  you  the  power— the  prosperity  and  the  undecaying  sta- 
bility of  the  Republic. 

But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  you  insist  upon  propping  up  barbarous  and 

*  Memoii.U  to  Trragress  (see  ante). 


144  THE    ODD    BOOK    OF    THE   NINETEENTH    OENTUKY 

selfish  feudalism— if  you  persist  in  domesticating  in  this  Republic  a  system 
at  war  with  Religion  and  Reason,  with  both  the  letter  and  spirit  of  our  Insti- 
tutions— a  system  from  which  has  ilowed  evils  so  vast,  and  so  unmitigated 
— a  system  from  which  no  good  ever  did  or  can  ever  come.  If  you  do  this, 
gentlemen,  you  will  find,  when  it  is,  perhaps,  too  late,  that  you  arc  plunging 
right  into  Anarchy  first,  and  Monarchy  afterward.  By  a  strange  obliquity 
of  vision  you  are  rushing  upon  the  precipice.  The  old  Rattlesnake,  Land 
Monopoly,  stands  glaring  upon  you.  Like  squirrels,  or  small  birds,  you  are 
preparing  to  dash  into  its  devouring  jaws. 


"SQUATTERS"  — 1844. 

I  learn  by  the  Common  Council  proceedings  a  few  daye  ago  that  a  reso- 
lution passed  the  Board  of  Aldermen  "  in  favor  of  taking  measures  to- 
collect  rents  from  squatters  on  the  public  lands  in  the  12th  and  16th  Wards." 
Some  poor  people,  anxious  to  get  a  living  by  honest  labor  rather  than  be- 
come paupers,  have  gone  to  the  unsettled  and  unenclosed  parts  of  this 
island  (which,  a  "  long  time  ago/'  some  Dutchmen,  who  had  no  right  to 
buy  it,  pretended  to  buy  off  some  Indians  who  had  no  right  io  sell  it,  for 
about  twenty-eight  dollars,)  and  have  erected  huts  and  shanties  to  live  in 
on  it.  That's  what  our  political  Aldermen  want  rent  for.  Subsequently 
the  .xdermen  forged  titles  to  this  land,  and  give  them  now  (1881)  to  success- 
ful profitmongers.  Those  come  with  their  "  crowbar  brigades  "  and  tear 
down  the  shanties,  and  throw  out  the  people  living  in  them.  By  what  right 
f-sjlid  the  Aldermen  first  charge  rent  and  then  forge  titles  to  those  lands  ? 
God's  title  must  be  vindicated  m\  nil  land  or  this  Republic  is  lost. 


A      M  O  B  M  O  N      S  T  A  T  E  8  M  A  N  . 

Joseph  Smith  was  the  Mormon  candidate  for  President  in  1844.  Thus 
he  wrote: — "As  soon  as  the  greater  National  evils  could  be  remedied, 
so  that  slavery  could  not  occupy  one-half  of  the  United  States,  for  specula- 
tion, competition,  prodigality,  and  fleshly  capital,  and  so  that  enormous 
salaries,  stipends,  fees,  perquisites,  patronage,  and  the  wages  of  spiritual 
wickedness  in  '  ermine  and  lace, '  could  not  swallow  up  forty  or  fifty 
millions  of  public  revenue,  I  would  use  all  honorable  means  to  bring  the 
wages  of  the  mechanics  and  farmers  iip  and  the  salaries  of  public  servants 
down;  increase  labor  and  money  by  a  judicious  tariff,  and  advise  the 
People,  who  are  the  only  sovereigns  of  the  soil,  to  petition  Congress  to  pass 
&  uniform,  land  lair  !  that  UK;  air,  tho  water,  and  the  land  of  tho  '  Asylum 
of  the  Oppressed,'  might  bo  free  to  freemen ! 

With  considerations  of  the  highest  regard  for  unadulterated  freedom, 
I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  obedient  servant, 

JOSEPH  SMITH." 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS,  145 

THE     A  L  P  8  — A     LESSON. 

When  Hannibal,  the  Carthaginian  General,  succeeded  in  flghting  his  way 
over  the  Alps,  "  conquered  not  only  the  Alpine  nations,  but  the  Alps 
themselves,"  he  found  himself  in  Italy,  and  approached  by  the  gathered 
armies  of  Rome.  He  then  made  a  speech  to  his  men  that  has  been  pre- 
served in  History,  in  Vhich  ho  pictured  the  situation  like  this:  "Before 
you  is  the  Po,  a  river  as  broad  and  more  rapid  than  the  Rhone.  Behind  you 
are  the  Alps,  over  which,  with  your  hopes  high  and  resources  undiminished, 
you  could  scarce  force  a  passage.  Here,  then,  you  must  conquer  or  die 
the  moment  you  meet  the  enemy.  Let  this  bo  but  firmly  implanted  in  your 
minds,  and  once  more.  T  say,  you  are  victorious."  And  they  were 
victorious. 

Now  there  is  a  very  brief  catechism  which,  if  the  Irish  people- --the  Ameri- 
can people— ALL  peoples,  will  only  spend  some  minutes  in  learning,  and  then 
keep  it  present— always  present — in  mind,  so  surely  as  Hannibal's  men 
•won  the  battle  of  Ticiu,  so  surely  will  the  outraged  Human  Family  win  iho 
battle  of  right  and  of  true  Freedom.  We  say  true  Fr  oedom,  for  it  is  a.sham 
Freedom  that  leaves  the  people  no  Inheritance  in  the  soil.  Xo  means  to 
support  tho  wants  of  their  nature. 

ILLUSTRATIVE.  .^ 

James  B.  Taylor,  a  shrewd,  selfish  man,  started  as  a  Whig  politician,  ;md 
when  the  Brooklyn  Water  Works  had  been  twice  voted  dowh  by  the  people 
he  and  his  "Whig"  friends  joined  with  H.  C.  Murphy  and  his  -'Demo- 
cratic" backers,  and  got  a  law,  through  the  "  sr -ereign  power"  of  corrupt 
politicians  assembled  in  Albany,  to  build  tho  Water  Works.  ' '  Water  bonds ' ' 
flew  about  into  the  hands  of  the  politicians,  and  formed  a  particular  and 
enormous  "  steal,  "  apart  from  the  general  stealing  out  of  the  general  taxes 
of  tho  city.  Taylor  became,  rich,  and  speculated  in  other  ways.  The  City 
of  Now  York  owned  tho  Washington  Market,  It  had  been  built  on  ground 
filled  in  from  tho  Hudson  River  front.  Taylor  discovered  that  the  State's 
title  to  this  "  land  under  water"  had  not  been  given  to  the  city.  He  went 
and  procured  an  Act  giving  thotitlo  to  himself ,  and  commenced  proceed- 
ings of  ejectment  against  tho  city.  He  was  bought  off,  and  made  half  a 
million  in  this  way.  Similar  \vas  his  action  on  the  "  Gansevort  property," 
at  G3d  street  and  the  River,  and  a  similar  amount  of  plunder  was  th.-i  result. 

But  his  great  "  success  "  ended,  as  is  generally  tho  case,  in  a  coffin,  and 
great  wrangling  in  tho  courts  and  newspapers  about  his  will. 


WEBSTER:  HE   WANTS  A   FOREIGN   MISSION  — 1845. 
A  large  tract   of   land  and  water— intrinsically  of  considerable  value 
but  doubly  valuable  from    its   geographical   position— is    "  negociated '' 
from  us  by  Lord  Ashburton,  tho  wily  instrument  of  wily  and  dishonest 


146       THE  GDI)  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

employers.  Ask  who  conducted  the  negociations  that  gave  latitudes  of 
Oregon  to  our  must  forward  enemy  ?  The  answer  is  DANIEL  WEBSTEK ! 
Of  diplomatic  service  such  as  Mr.  Webster  performs  wo  have  had  enough 
It  would  be  worth  some  millions  of  dollars  to  this  Eepublic  if  our  Boundary 
question  stood  now,  as  it  stootl  when  Mr.  Webster  took  it  under  his  diplo- 
matic wings  twelve  months  ago.  It  is  now  brought -to  light  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons  that  Webster  and  Ashburton  cozened  us  out  of  a 
large  portion  of  our  dominions.  Ashburton's  employers  are  aware  of  the 
cheat.  He,  himself,  is  aware  of  the  cheat.  We  are  tricked  out  of  our  prop- 
erty by  a  fraud,  and  when  the  fraud  is  brought  to  light— when  the  maps 
are  produced  in  the  House  of  Commons  Avhich  settle  the  question — which 
fix  to  a  hair's  breadth  the  ground  belonging  to  each  nation — does  any 
Honorable  member  get  up  in  his  place,  and  move  that  the  fraud  committed 
by  Webster  and  Ashburton  be  set  aside  and  justice  set  up  in  its  place  ?  No 
such  thing.  Their  standard  of  morals  does  not  comprehend  any  other  line 
of  action  than  to  pocket  the  fruits  of  the  roguery. 


BIGHT    OF    MAN    TO    THE    EABTH— 1846. 

When  men,  or  nations,  commence  wrong,  they  fall  from  blunder  to  blun- 
der, and  nothing  but  difficulty  besets  them  at  every  step.  A  Government 
ought  never  to  part  with  the  fee  of  a  foot  of  land.  In  point  of  fact  it  has  no 
authority  to  do  so.  The  government  of  to-day  does  not  set  up  an  cibidiny 
control  even  over  the  laws  that  affect  men's  every  day  affairs ;  and  how 
much  less  have  they  a  right  to  setup  an  abiding  control  over  the  Eternal 
Earth  which  will  be  green,  and  flowery,  and  fruitful — full  of  springs  and 
rivulets,  and  waving  woods — fresh,  youthful  and  life-sustaining  as  it  is  now 
when  the  men  who  now  exercise  an  unbounded  authority  over  it  will 
have  betaken  themselves  to  other  spheres — higher  or  lower  as  the  r-ase  may 
be— and  will  have  done,  forever,  with  all  earthly  affairs. 

The  true  theory,  then,  is  for  the  aggregate  of  the  people  represented  by 
their  existing  government  to  *hold  the  fee  of  all  lands— at  the  same  time 
securing  each  individual,  his  heirs  or  assigns,  in  the  possession  and  use  of 
all  that  reasonable  share  of  which  he  may  have  become  the  rightful  occu- 
pant. If  this  were  done  all  minerals  would,  as  a  matter  of  course,  vest  in 
the  State,  and  if  an  exceedingly  rich  mine  turned  up,  it  enured  to  the  benefit 
of  the  Nation — not  to  the  building  up  of  a  particular  fortune.  This  in  1844. 
And  look  at  the  condition  now ! 

But  our  Government  thinks  that  it  is  possessed  of  all  wisdom  in  this  and 
every  other  matter.  So  does  every  other  government  on  the  lace  of  the 
earth,  from  the  Chinese  to  the  British.  Their  opinion  is  not.  however,  any 
proof  that  such  is  the  fact.  Only  one  voice  of  sound  wisdom  in  relation  t«  > 
government  has  ever  been  heard  in  tin's  world,  ami  that  is  the  voice  of 
Nature. 


OB,  THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN  DAYS.  147 

PAY-MILEAGE  — CONGRESS. 

The  growing  rapacity  among  the  politicians  and  the  gradual  decay  of 
public  spirit  among  the  people  is  sharply  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the 
Pay  and  Mileage  allowed  to  Members  of  Congress.  Originally  it  was  $3.00 
per  day,  and  the  same  amount  for  every  twenty  miles  travel  in  going  to  and 
returning  from  the  seat  of  Government.  Bye  and  by  this  was  changed  to 
$8.00  a  day,  and  the  same  amount  for  twenty  miles  travel.  In  1816  another 
rise  was  accomplished,  and  so  many  of  those  who  favored  it  were  defeated 
at  the  polls  that  it  was  repealed  at  the  next  session.  So  it  remained  till  1856, 
when  the  salary  was  raised  to  $5,000  a  year — mileage  as  before,  though  now 
two  hundred  miles  could  be  traveled  for  the  price  previously  paid  for  twenty. 
Besides,  though  the  railroads  straightened  the  routes  one-third,  members 
computed  the  old  distance,  and  got  paid  accordingly.  Then  came  con- 
structive mileage.  A  session  closes  on  Monday,  an  extra  session  opens  on 
Tuesday,  and  Hon.  Members  vote  themselves  another  Mileage  forgoing  and 
returning  an  imaginary  journey  to  their  homes  on  the  intervening  night* 
Follows  an  open  Stationery  Account,  into  which  Hon.  Members  intro- 
duce not  only  paper  and  penknives,  but  fans,  reticules  and  other  adorn- 
ments for  the  females  of  their  families.  In  its  printing  jobs  the  official 
newspaper  made  more  money  than  the  President  of  the  United  States  then 
received  for  his  four  years'  salary. 

After  exposing  and  condemning  all  this  fraud,  Horace  Greeley  takes  his 
share  of  the  "  Mileage  swindle  "  on  the  plea  that  he  ought  to  take  it  when 
every  other  member  was  doing  the  same  thing.  Ono  member  only  declined 
to  participate  in  the  plunder,  and  he  lived  so  near  Washington  that  his 
share  would  have  been  nil 


THE    INTERNATIONALS. 

In  1873  several  of  their  men  had  been  clubbed  and  imprisoned  in  New 
York  for  walking  in  procession.  I  was  present  at  one  of  their  meetings. 
A  committee  reported  that  they  had  consulted  a  lawyer  who  would  not  act 
against  the  police  without  a  considerable  fee.  There  was  no  money  in  the 
treasury — could  not  be,  with  members'  dues  fixed  at  25  cents  a  month. 
Motion  carried  to  let  the  police  escape,  and  so  encourage  them  to  further 
outrages!  Ira  B.  Davis  and  myself  protested  each  with  a  $5  bill. 
In  vain !  Not  a  man  would  help  us.  Secretary  half  an  hour  reading 
bye-laws  —  words  —  words  —  words.  A  meeting  in  Tompkin's  Square 
ordered.  I  am  one  of  Committee  on  Resolutions.  Propose  a  path 
out  to  the  Public  Lands.  My  colleagues  are  surprised  at  me.  Have.  \ 
long  since  passed  that  old  opinion.  "Government  must  cultivate  the 
lands,  work  the  factories,  and  afford  everything  at  cost  price."  I  could  not 
agree  to  this  programme,  and  resigned  from  the  Committee.  Next  week  the  ' 
public  meeting  came  off  in  Tompkin's  Square,  and,  singularly  enough,  in, 
speaking  I  had  to  recount  the  following  rascalities  which  passed  through 
Congress  on  the  preceding  day : — 


148       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 

1st "  Unanimous  consent  was  given  to  place  on  the  Calendar  a  bill  to 

pay  back  to  all  State  officers  the  tax  paid  (during  the  war)  on  their  salaries 

2d "  Bill  to  give  away  to  the  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  all  it  as^ed  of  the 

Public  Lands  in  Florida, 

3d—"  A  bill  to  pay  claims  for  rent  in  States  that  were  in  rebellion  when 
the  rent  accrued. 

4th — "  Appropriation  of  $50,000  to  favorite  newspapers. 

5th — "An  amendment  which  raised  the  salaries  of  all  heads  of  bureaus 
to  $4,000  a  year. 

6th "A  bill  to  give  half  the  Island  of  Yerba  Buona,  in  the  Bay  of  San 

Francisco,  to  a  Railroad  Company,  sustained  by  a  vote  of  94  to  75.  Passed. 

7th— "A  subsidy  to  a  Paciiic  Steamship  Company  of  $500,000.  This  to  en- 
courage the  brutalizing  of  our  young  men  as  '  common  sailors.'  " 

At  this  meeting  I  urged  tho  Land  and  Loan  Bill— that  Congressmen  voting 
against  it  must  be  held  to  personal  account — by  hooting  them  in  tho  streets 
on  their  return  from  Washington ;  and,  if  a  row  followed,  be  prepared  to  an- 
ticipate their  shot.  The  other  speeches  and  resolutions  demanded  Govern- 
ment to  manufacture  everything,  cultivate  the  lands,  and  furnish  all  products 
at  cost  price.  And  this  machinery  asked  by  men  both  intelligent  and  honest ! 


COMMUNE. 

Ill  omened  word !  How  many  lives  have  been  sacrificed  to  it  1  How 
much  evil  is  it  now  doing — how  much  has  it  yet  to  do !  From  tho  first 
dawn  of  electoral  liberty  in  France  the  people  communed  personally,  orally, 
with  each  other  in  inhabited  sections  about  answering  to  our  school  dis- 
tricts. To  communicate  means  intercourse  of  persons  at  a  distance  from 
each  other  by  the  intermediaries  of  letters,  messages,  etc.  To  commune  is 
to  meet  face  to  face,  and  speak  or  commune  with  each  other.  Hence  the 
small  compact  districts  were  very  properly  called  "  Communes."  The  Prin- 
ciple of  Diffusion  as  opposed  to  Centralization  was  called  "  The  Commune.  " 

All  this  the  assassins  of  liberty  in  Europe  and  here  knew  and  know— ex- 
cepting, indeed,  tho  vulgar  hangers-on  at  their  heels  who  do  not  know  much 
of  anything.  "Whoever,  therefore,  confounds  the  word  or  the  thing  "Com- 
mune" with  a  community  of  gooda  is  and  must  be  either  a  dangerous  knave 
or  an  untaught  blockhead. 

A  sketch  ot!  tho  history  and  siege  of  tho  "  Commune  "  at  the  ignoble  close 
of  the  Franco-Prussian  war  lies  before  me.  It  is  written  by  an  eye-witness 
— the  American  Minister — a  man  of  aristocratic  proclivities,  which  frequently 
burst  out  offensively  to  view.  It  commences  March  3d,  1871,  and  with  this 
picture : 

"  The  city  was  dull  and  lifeless.  Walking  to  my  hotel  in  the  Rue  Rivoli 
the  few  people  I  met.  in  their  dark  and  lowering  faces  I  eould  read  half 
starvation  and  discontent." 

There !  Behold  the  foundation  of  all  the  troubles  I  The  German  forces 
were  marching  out.  of  the  city,  and  a  Junta,  at  Bordeaux  was  plotting  a  n»- 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  149 

turn  of  the  Bourbons.  The  writer  tells  us  that  "  the  honest  sentiment  of 
the  moment  was  discontent,  produced  by  long  years  of  oppression."  "  They 
dreaded  the  return  of  Kings— demanded  the  Constitutional  Bepublic,  with 
the  Municipality  governed  by  men  elected  by  the  inhabitants  instead  of  the 
rulers  proposed  to  bo  imposed  on  them  by  the  Thiers'  government."  That 
government,  on  tho  capture  of  Napoleon,  formed  itself,  and  wan 
now  sitting  in  Versailles.  Thiers  and  that  central  Junta  desired  to  rule 
France  by  holding  the  governments  of  the  cities  in  their  hands.  This  Paris 
repelled.  Tho  National  Guards  fraternized,  drove  out  Palladine's  regular 
army — seized  his  cannon  and  fortified  Montmartre.  Here  it  was  that 
Generals  Thomas  and  Le  Comte  were  detected  as  spies,  with  plans  of  the 
fortifications  on  their  persons,  tried  and  shot.  This  has  been  pronounced 
an  "  unnecessary  act  of  cruelty.  "  Whether  it  was  or  not  the  case  of  Major 
Andre  goes  far  to  decide-. 

It  would  seem,  however,  that  the  Versailles  government  and  its  army 
showed  no  mercy  to  any  of  the  Commune  people  that  fell  into  their  hands — 
armed  or  unarmed.  The  besieged  people  imprisoned  the  Archbishop, 
Darboy,  and  others  as  hostages,  proclaiming  that  they  should  be  shot  if  the 
Versailles  government  continued  those  indiscriminate  murders.  The  same 
condition  was  laid  down  by  the  Southern  Confederates  when  some  of  their 
men  were  under  sentence  of  death  in  the  North.  Man  for  man  and  grade  for 
grade  were  selected  (Colonel  Corcoran  was  one  of  them)  from  Northern  prison- 
ers, cast  into  condemned  cells,  and  held  for  whatever  fate  tho  North  might  in- 
flict on  those  condemned  Southerners.  Humanity  prevailed  at  Washington. 
onl  a  jail  delivery  was  the  result.  A  thirst  of  blood  prevailed  at  Versailles, 
and  mutual  murder  was  the  result.  I  state  the  conditions.  It.  is  for  the 
reader  to  judge  them. 


With  a  free  soil,  and  really  free  people,  we  ought  to  have  a  com- 
merce as  free  as  the  winds  that  waft  it.  Why  should  our  sugar  cost 
us  more  than  its  natural  price — three  to  four  cents  a  pound?  Why 
should  the  Government  levy  $300,000,000,  and  the  smugglers 
far  more  every  year,  from  the  consumers  of  our  taxed  goods  ?  Is 
it  to  give  factory  slave  labor  to  our  population  ?  We  go  for  a  free- 
hold soil  labor — for  every  man  to  be  the  monarch  of  his  own  two 
hands — not  worked  like  an  automaton  fourteen  hours  a  day,  for 
barely  what  will  keep  up  the  steam  of  his  miserable  existence.  Let 
the  factory  lord  make  his  own  fortune.  Let  the  laborer  make  his 
upon  the  land.  Under  a  rational  system,  five  millions  a  year,  and 
less,  too,  would  support  our  National  Government.  That  ought  to  be 
raised  off  property — the  richest  paying  most — the  very  poor  paying 
nothing.  Let  us  open  our  ports  to  the  enslaved  world.  Let  us  show 
an  example  to  the  fallen  nations  of  the  earth,  and  they  will  thank- 


160      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY J 

fully  pour  in  their  produce  and  manufactures — and  take  in  return 
the  abundance  of  our  Free  Soil.  This  they  would  do  with  their  own 
ships,  if  we  didn't  like  to  venture  ours  without  a  guard  of  honor  at  a 
cost  of  ten  millions  a  year ;  and  which  could  not  guard  them  after  all. 
With  a  Free  Commerce,  where  would  be  our  need  for  a  Navy  ?  With 
a  Free  Soil,  where  would  be  our  need  for  an  Army  ?  We  could  op- 
pose four  millions  of  armed  Freemen  to  all  the  mercenaries  in  the 
world. — 1844.  And  things  have  been  steadily  steadily  growing 
worse  and  worse.  

DEAD    OF    FAMINE. 

The  Beport  of  your  own  Government  Commissioners  declares  that 
seventy  thousand  human  beings  perish  annually  in  Ireland  from  the  effects 
of  famine. — Daniel  0' Gannett"  s  Speech  on  the  State  Trial. 

The  extraordinary  mortality  in  the  manufacturing  districts  is  induced 
by  famine,  filth  and  the  absence  of  fresh  air.  Probably  100,000  die  pre- 
maturely in  England  alone  from  diseases  having  their  origin  in  these 
causes. — Pamphlet  by  a  Manchester  Physician,  published  in  1842. 

Such  is  the  fate  that  has  descended  on  our  brothers  and  sisters, 
who  toil,  and  travail,  and  famish  in  the  Old  World.  Twenty  millions 
of  the  human  race  come  into  existence  only  to  weep  and  to  suffer, 
and  die.  To  bear  the  burthen  of  life,  perched  upon  NOTHING — with- 
out permission  to  set  their  foot  on  that  solid  earth  which  would 
enable  them  to  bear  it  with  ease  and  comfort.  And  so  they  labor 
on  for  a  brief  season,  till  death  puts  a  period  to  their  sufferings. 

And  then  another  twenty  millions  succeed  them,  more  decrepid, 
miserable,  and  short  lived  than  the  last.  And  the  United  States  of 
America  is  trying  to  plunge  into  the  same  condition,  Men  !  wake  up, 
or  you'll  be  murdered  while  you're  sleeping. 

SINGULAR     DEMAND     MADE. 

"A  Republic  without  a  Name."— So  the  Historical  Society 
sets  to  work  and  fashions  out  "Alleghani."  But  out  comes  an  out- 
sider, and  suggests,  "  Dollarland."  Then  a  sound  comes  over  the 
hills  very  like  Yankee-doodle-dum,  and  it  dies  into  an  echo  of 
Disnmlswarnpism.  This  disgusts  the  "  Historicals, "  and  they  retire 
from  the  field,  leaving  the  Republic  "a  deed  without  a  name." 

LEGAL    COLLECTION    OF    DEBTS. 
Whether  credit  does  more  good  than  evil  to  men  in  business  is  a 
subject  not  much  inquired  into.     And  yet  it  is  a  most  important 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DATS.  151 

subject.  It  is  true,  it  seems  to  be  a  matter  over  which  legislation 
has  little  legitimate  control.  If  A  desires  to  buy  on  credit,  and 
B  desires  to  sell  to  him,  it  looks  like  a  private  transaction  with 
which  the  public  have  nothing  to  do.  But  has  it  not  as  little  to  do 
with  the  after  payment  that  forms  a  part  of  the  bargain?  If  A  re- 
fuses to  pay  B  for  the  goods  he  has  sold  to  him,  does  it  not  also 
seem,  that  that  is  their  own  affair,  the  public  having  no  more  busi- 
ness to  interfere  with  the  last  part  of  the  bargain  than  with  the  first. 
The  law  to  collect  debts  breeds  a  swarm  of  lawyers,  and  helps  on 
the  ruin  of  the  Republic. 


GEORGE  H.  EVANS  ON  FOURIERISM. 

Now  what  does  Fourierism  propose  to  do?  To  restore  Capital  to 
Its  rightful  owners?  No.  To  prevent  its  use  to  extort  more  Capital 
from  the  laborer?  Oh,  no.  To  give  the  laborer  a  right  to  get  his 
own  living  on  the  soil  of  his  birth,  and  to  accumulate  Capital  for 
himself?  Certainly  not :  the  soil  of  his  birth  belongs  to  Capital. 
Well,  then,  at  least,  you  will  allow  the  laborer  to  go  into  the  primae- 
val forest  and  begin  a  "Re-organization  of  Industry"  based  on 
Equal  Rights?  Decidedly  not.  The  Landless  shall  unite  with  those 
who  have  got  possession  of  their  accumulated  labor,  that  this  Capi- 
tal shall  have  the  power  of  re-production  without  the  labor  of  the 
possessor,  and,  to  all  eternity,  live  without  labor  on  the  toil  of  the 
industrious.  Such  is  Fourierism ! 


YOUNG      IRELANDERS. 

From  my  National  Reformer  1845 : — We  have  not  seen  that 
"  Nation"-al  humbug,  the  Dublin  Nation,  for  some  time  past.  The 
cowardly  impostors  are  afraid  to  exchange  with  us,  because  they 
know  we  have  a  knack  of  distinguishing  between  words  and  deeds — 
between  solid  facts  and  windy  declamation.  They  know,  too,  that 
wherever  we  alight  upon  dishonesty,  we  are  sure  to  toss  it  up  to 
public  scorn.  We  have  not,  therefore,  seen  the  Nation  for  a  great 
while.  But  we  see  in  the  last  number  of  the  Irish  Volunteer  an  ex- 
tract from  it,  sneering  at  the  labors  of  the  Times1  Commissioner  in 
searching  out,  and  spreading  before  Europe,  the  horrid  details  of  Irish 
hunger,  nakedness,  and  utter  degradation.  Ah,  ye  most  hypocrit- 
ical and  base  crew,  that,  Rodin-like,  play  upon  the  passions  of  our 


162  THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY; 

unhappy  countrymen !  The  Times1  Commissioner  did  more  service  to 
the  cause  of  humanity,  by  his  expose  of  the  people's  wretchedness, 
than  the  "Veiled  Prophet  "(Dan  O'Connell)  and  his  accomplices  have 
done  of  harm  during  the  last  twelve  months.  And  that  is  saying  a 
good  deal. 

"THE   CITY   GOVERNMENT   AND    THE   NEWSPAPERS." 

Such  is  the  caption  in  one  of  the  New  York  newspapers.  Now  let 
us  see  how  the  New  York  plunderers  are  going  to  be  exposed.  Look ! 
"An  attempted  steal  of  four  millions  of  dollars,  and  an  accomplished 
steal  of  three  millions."  Well !  it  is  something  to  have  newspapers 
to  let  in  the  light  on  those  crimes.  But  what?  Is  it  indeed  the 
newspapers  themselves  that  are  making  this  steal?  Is  it  for  three 
years'  advertising  of  the  city  government  that  they  ask  four  millions 
and  a  half  of  dollars?  Have  they  already  received  three  millions, 
and  demand  half  as  much  more?  Was  this  the  wages  of  their  con- 
nivance or  their  defense  of  the  public  frauds.  This  ! — though  a  city 
bulletin  issued  by  authority  once  a  week  would  do  the  municipal 
work  ten  times  as  well,  and,  sold  at  two  cents  a  copy,  would  not  cost 
the  city  one  dollar !  This,  then,  is  the  • '  butter  horn"  that  silences  the 
watch-dogs  or  inspires  them  with  an  approving  growl.  The  New 
York  Tunes  assaulted  this  machinery,  and  damaged  it  a  trifle  that 
will  be  soon  repaired,  and  for  the  suggestive  reason  that  itself  had 
asked  a  taste  of  the  butter  horn,  value  $30,000  —  and  was  refused. 


BEN    BUTLER. 

In  approaching  Mr.  *  *  *  fs  office  one  morning  he  put  the 
paper  into  my  hand,  saying,  "  Butler  has  stolen  your  thunder  and 
vollied  it  through  Congress  yesterday."  I  wrote  to  him  encourag- 
ingly. In  reply  to  my  recognition  Ben  sent  me  a  dozen  copies  of 
his  speech,  to  which  I  responded,  "Good  so  far,  but  a  national 
movement  should  commence  at  once  by  an  imposing  meeting  in 
New  York  City.  Its  reported  speeches  would  make  the  subject  known 
over  the  whole  country  as  matter  of  news,  and  he  was  just  the  man 
to  lead  off  in  such  a  movement."  I  urged  this  on  him  again  and 
again,  but  discovered  that  his  zeal  stopped  short  with  the  mere  cir- 
culation of  his  speech.  Mr.  *  *  and  myself  had  founded  a 
hope  on  him.  It  was  disappointed.  I  saw  the  opportunity  that  was 
lost,  and  expressed  my  regret  that  he  could  not  see  it  and  seize  upon 


OB,   THE  SPIRIT  OP  CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN  DAYS.  153 

it.  Kegret  that  he  was  not  big  enough  to  commence  this  great 
Reform— adding  that  "  I  did  not  blame  him.  He  could  make  himself 
no  bigger  than  God  made  him.  "  He  replied  that  "some  men  make 
themselves  lesser  than  God  made  them."  I  assented — acknowledged 
that  his  "own  life  proved  his  position."  So  ended  the  corres- 
pondence, short  and  sharp. 


ON     TEMPERANCE. 

I  find  this  in  my  correspondence  with  Gerrit  Smith: 
"There  is  a  deep  meaning  in  the  thirst  for  exciting  drinks.  The 
human  soul  is  not  like  the  human  body,  a  mere  machine.  To  rise 
day  after  day  to  the  monotonous  routine  of  eating,  working,  and 
going  to  sleep  again,  does  not  satisfy  its  longings.  It  will  not,  at 
the  bidding  of  an  Inhuman  Civilization,  stagnate  into  a  petrifaction. 
It  realizes  the  burying-alive  agony  to  which  the  philosophic  bard 
has  given  an  immortal  voice : 

'  The  keenest  pangs  the  wretched  find 

Are  raptures  to  the  dreary  void — 
The  leafless  desert  of  the  mind — 
The  waste  of  feelings  unemployed.' 

44  You  have  found  water  sufficient  for  your  wants.  So  have  I.  But 
throw  back  the  immortal  within  us  to  rot  in  a  mental  dungeon,  and 
how  would  we  feel.  Eot !  Oh,  no  !  IT  will  not  rot.  It  will  quaff 
the  maddening  draught — it  will  burst  the  dungeon — it  will  revel  in 
Imaginations,  first — then  in  madness.  If  either  you  or  I  attempt  to 
wrest  the  bowl  from  its  hand  it  will  exclaim :  ' '  Give  my  soul  its 
natural  sphere,  and  it  will  trouble  you  for  no  maddening  substitute. 
But  beware  how  you  break  that  bowl,  the  last  resource  of  a  madman." 

"If  it  were  not  Gerrit  Smith  that  is  identified  with  those  things, 
they  should  provoke  from  me  no  criticism.  The  superficially  and, 
as  I  hold  them,  stupidly  benevolent  men  who  surround  and  over- 
shadow you,  might  prepare  their  nostrums,  and  with  them  mock 
our  mortal  sickness.  But  they  should  have  no  attention  from  me. 
How  often  have  I  said  that  you  do  not  belong  to  those  men.  But, 
alas !  alas !  spirit,  like  body,  takes  the  hue  of  reflected  light." 

If  Gerrit  Smith  had  done  for  the  white  man  as  much  as  he  did  for 
the  negro,  Land  Monopoly  would  have  been  killed  stone  dead  in  this 
country.  Now,  as  ages  roll  on,  the  future  of  Europe  looms  up  dark 
before  us. 


154  THE  ODD  BOOK   OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  J 

ELECTIONS. 

They  were  originally  managed  in  this  way.  Meeting  to  appoint 
delegates  to  nominate  candidates.  Meeting  to  ratify  or  reject 
those  nominations — which  often  did  reject  names  and  substitute 
others.  This  has  disappeared,  and  primary  balloting  substituted, 
under  an  Inspector  appointed  at  "Headquarters."  The  duty  of  the  In- 
spector is  to  "  count  in  "  the  nominee  of  Headquarbers.  This  is  the  pro- 
cess in  both  the  Big  Parties.  The  candidates  so  presented  are  both 
necessarily  corrupt  instruments  of  "  Headquarters,"  and  your  sole 
privilege  is  to  vote  for  one  that  is  bad,  to  keep  out  one  that  is,  if 
possible,  worse.  There  is  no  secrecy  in  it.  The  opposing  ballots 
are  known  by  the  printed  endorsements  on  their  backs.  Some- 
times candidates  are  "stuffed  in,"  in  this  way.  Tickets  thrown 
out  on  the  table,  for  the  purpose  of  assorting  them.  The  In- 
spector or  other  "stuffer"  gathers  together  100  or  150  of  the 
tickets  he  wants  to  defeat,  counts  them  exactly  so  as  to  correspond 
in  number  with  the  "  little  jokers  "  he  has  up  his  sleeve.  When  all 
is  ready  he  gives  a  signal,  and  two  or  three  roughs  commence  a  row. 
In  the  confusion — quick  as  lightning — the  obnoxious  tickets  are 
swept  off,  and  the  "little  jokers "  take  their  place,  and  the  "stuffed 
in"  candidate  comes  out  with  the  handle  of  an  "  Honorable"  stuck 
to  his  name.  Such  is  the  treason  of  politics  in  the  cities.  In  the 
virtuous  rural  districts  they  would  scorn  to  go  through  such  tor- 
tuous bye-paths.  They  march  "  honestly  "  up  to  the  polls  with  their 
ballots  in  one  hand  and  their  roll  of  bills  in  the  other  to  buy  and 
sell  the  votes  as  they  would  any  other  commodity.  And  this 
Anarchy  at  the  ballot  box  is  the  lawful  child  of  the  Great  Anarchy 
in  Washington.  It  is  several  years  since  I  discovered  this ;  and  when 
I  said  the  farmers  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  themselves,  the  answer 
was,  "  Why  should  they?  They  don't  pretend  to  be  any  better  than 
Members  of  Congress  or  Honorables  in  Albany.  Don't  those  sell 
their  votes?  What  those  are  doing  every  day,  on  a  large  scale,  and 
with  little  or  no  disguise,  has  not  the  farmer  as  good  a  right  to  do 
above  board  on  a  small  scale,  and  only  for  one  day  in  the  year?"* 


MR.        *        *        * 

A  discussion  in  our  local  papers  caused  me  to  write  an  article  from 
which  I  extract : 

*  A  correspondent  of  the  New  York  World  hud  published  a  full  description 
of  those  trafficings. 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DATS.  156 

"From  the  time  (1847)  this  gentleman  rescued  me  out  of  Albany 
(where  the  anti-rent  fanners  let  me  spend  my  last  dollar  in  their 
cause),  I  was  honored  a  good  deal  with  his  countenance  and  his  con- 
fidence ;  and  I  tell  you,  sir,  that  his  principle  was  to  do  good  himself 
with  his  money,  rather  than  bequeath  the  good-doing  to  those  who 
were  to  come  after  him.  '  The  less  I  die  worth  the  more  will  it  be 
to  my  honor,'  was  an  accepted  motto  of  his.  No  entries  were  made 
of  his  unceasing  charities.  I  thought  I  knew  something  of  them 
myself,  but  on  the  day  of  his  interment  I  met  an  individual  gentle- 
man who  told  me  more  of  his  charities  than  I  had  discovered  in  an 
acquaintance  of  thirty  years. 

44  With  reference  to  the  Public  Library  of  which  you  speak,  he  held 
that  far  better  use  could  be  made  of  $50,000  than  to  give  it  to  any 
such  purpose.  He  held  that  there  were  more  books  in  the  Public 
School  libraries  than  were  made  use  of;  and  if  not,  the  necessary 
additions  could  be  easily  and  cheaply  made  —  that  men  of  learning 
and  research  were  generally  men  of  leisure,  who,  if  they  wanted  rare 
books,  could  afford  to  go  and  get  them  in  the  Astor  Library.  He 
also  held  that  the  old  gentleman,  his  father,  was  unadvised  when  he 
signed  a  paper  promising  to  the  scheme  three  or  four  thousand 
dollars.  And  yet,  when  the  old  gentleman  was  deceased,  and  when 
other  signers  sought  protection  from  the  courts,  though  utterly 
disapproving  it  himself,  he  (like  the  honorable  gentleman  he  was) 
paid  over  the  $4,000  without  a  word  of  questioning.  The  $50,000 
you  speak  of  he  did  indeed  bequeath  to  the  poor  of  the  District  —  its 
interest  a  perpetual  charity. 

"  His  settled  purpose  was  to  do  far  more  for  Williamsburgh,  and 
far  more  wisely.  But  disease  seized  upon  him — eat  into  his  mind — 
distracted,  weakened,  dimmed  it  for  one  or,  I  think,  two  years  before 
it  took  him  away  from  us.  It  is  not  necessary  to  state  here  what 
his  purposes  were,  and  what  he  did  to  iorward  them  —  the  less  so 
because  it  is  likely  to  come  out  in  the  movement  for  public  parks  in 
the  District,  which,  I  trust,  is  now  approaching. 

4 '  I  write  this  in  discharge  of  a  duty  which  I  owe  to  the  memory 
of  a  man  highly  honored  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  yet  whose 
rarest  worth,  (I  do  not  mean  his  charities),  was  not  known  to 
the  public  at  all. 

THOMAS    AINGE    DEVYB." 


156  THE  ODD  BOOK  OP  THE  HJLNKl'KENlTH   CENTUBY  } 

THE     GBEAT     DIFFICULTY. 

It  would  undoubtedly  be  a  difficult  matter  to  construct  a  fortress 
that  would  be  impregnable  in  itself,  without  a  garrison  to  defend  it, 
or  with  a  garrison  of  sluggards  and  cowards.  In  like  manner  will 
constitutional  protections  be  of  little  avail  to  a  submissive,  degene- 
rate people.  It  is  seen  that  the  Constitution  of  New  York  State 
affirms  the  principle  of  "  Limited  Taxation."  In  vain.  It  lies 
there  a  dead  letter — "abuse "  has  been  pushed  into  robbery  incred- 
ible in  its  audacity  and  vastness,  and  yet  no  resistance  to  it  has 
appeared  in  any  quarter.  To  refuse  payment  of  a  robbing  tax  bill — 
bring  it  into  the  courts,  and  rest  your  defense  on  Art.  8,  sec.  9,  of 
the  Constitution,  would  put  the  courts  on  their  mettle,  and  it  would 
arouse,  if  anything  could  arouse,  the  "two-legs" — I  don't  call  them 
men — out  of  their  stupid  apathy.  But  no  man  in  the  whole  State  of 
New  York  has  attempted  anything  of  the  kind.  The  "In"  band 
of  robbers  are  exposed  and  denounced  in  election  times.  But  by 
whom  ?  By  the  "  Out "  band  of  robbers,  who  strive  and  scream  to 
get  power  to  themselves  in  order  to  commit  the  same  crimes. 

Still,  it  seemed  that  if  a  definite  limit  were  fixed  to  local  taxation 
— fixed  in  the  Constitution— that  limit  must  be  observed,  because  if 
a  Collector  presented  a  bill  any  higher  than  the  limit,  why,  the  Tax- 
payer would  refuse  to  pay  it,  and  his  property  could  not  be  seized 
upon,  and  so  the  extortion  would  be  baffled. 

Not  at  all.  The  Tax  swindlers  would  have  nothing  to  do  but 
steal,  steal,  steal,  and  create  "deficiencies"  by  the  million.  This 
they  have  been  doing  every  year — and  putting  the  deficiency  of  this 
year  into  the  Tax  levy  of  the  next.  An  aggravated  example  of  this 
kind  on  a  large  scale  has  just  been  furnished  by  the  Canal  Board  of 
New  York  State.  This  Board  is  constituted  as  follows : — It  consists 
of  nine  members,  three  Commissioners,  chosen  for  six  years — 
one  to  go  out  every  two  years,  at  which  period  one  is  elected  in  hia 
place.  Then  the  Lieut. -Governor  is  chairman,  and  the  Secretary 
of  State,  Controller,  Treasurer,  Attorney-General  and  State  Engi- 
neer make  up  the  Board.  Elected  at  various  times,  and  of  both 
political  parties,  it  is  claimed  that  neither  party  is  responsible  for 
their  fraud,  and  this  seems  to  be  accepted,  generally — though  it  takes 
small  discernment,  indeed,  to  see  that  both  parties  are  responsible. 

Well !  This  precious  Board,  made  up  of  picked  and  polished  chiefs 
from  both  parties,  has  gone  on  for  several  years  back  "stealing," 
as  even  the  Ring  newspapers  have  to  admit,  until  the  "  deficiency" 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DATS.  157 

reaches  six  millions  of  dollars.  Then  steps  in  the  Legislature,  and 
proposes  that  the  people  shall  take  their  choice  by  a  general  vote 
whether  they  will  pay  this  forged  paper,  that  the  "Board"  issued, 
now  at  once,  or  fund  it  as  a  permanent  debt  of  the  State.  No- 
body talks  of  repudiating  the  swindle  and  prosecuting  the  thieves. 
Is  it  possible  that  any  machinery  of  government — any  safeguards, 
however  wisely  instituted — can  save  such  a  submissive  people? 

And  one  Great  Pacific  Railroad  presents,  like  "Hamlet, "a  play 
within  a  play — a  swindle  within  a  swindle.  The  gross  Company,  in- 
terwoven with  and  forming  part  of  a  corrupt  Congress,  seize  upon 
Public  Lands,  empires  of  public  lands,  and  screw  out  of  us  65  mil- 
lions of  U.  S.  Bonds.  Then  forms  the  inner  Bing  of  the  sharpest 
knaves  of  the  Company.  Those  make  what  they  call  a  "  Credit 
Mobilier,"  based  upon  our  Public  Bonds,  which  sell  at  10  or  12  per 
cent  above  par.  The  road  is  contracted  out  in  the  lump  to  a  dummy 
contractor  at  $50,000  a  mile— $25,000  dollars  being  the  outside  value 
of  constructing  it.  The  "Mobilier"  takes  the  job  into  its  own 
hands,  includes  a  large  extent  of  the  already  finished  road,  and 
makes  thirty  or  forty  millions  to  themselves  and  such  of  their  pals 
in  the  Congress  as  they  have  selected.  An  Inquiry  is  set  on  foot. 
Before  whom  ?  "Who  but  a  selection  of  members  from  that  same 
thief  Congress,  which  does  not,  perhaps,  contain  a  man  who  has  not 
in  some  shape  participated  either  in  the  gross  swindle  of  the  big 
Company  or  the  nett  swindle  of  the  condensed  Mobilier?  To  secure  its 
loan  the  Government  had  taken  a  first  mortgage  of  the  road  and 
rolling  stock.  It  is  by  Congress  turned  into  a  second  mortgage,  not 
worth  a  cont,  and  the  swindle  is  complete.  However,  the  road  is 
there  and  the  lands  are  there  waiting  for  their  true  owners  when  the 
people  come  to  their  senses. 


GOVERNOR    HOFFMAN. 

I  write  the  following  particulars  because  he  was  mixed  up  with 
bhe  ignorance  that  cost  the  lives  of  fifty  or  sixty  people  shot  in 
New  York  streets,  and  for  other  reasons : 

A  Brooklyn  Sewer  over  throo  or  four  miles  of  open  country,  was 
concocted  at  a  Champagne  Supper  by  the  City  Hall  thieves.  Got  an  act 
through  in  Albany,  authorizing  an  outlay  of  $300,000;  amended  it  to 
$600,000.  I  had  Governor  Hoffman's  letter  that  he  would  not  sign  the  Act 
till  he  would  give  me  an  audience  in  opposition  to  it.  Went  to  Albany  for 
that  purpose,  but  found  that  his  signature  had  crossed  mo  on  the  way.  He 
skulked  from  seeing  me,  and  signed  another  bill  tor  $125,000  additional.  I  note 


158  THE   ODD   BOOK    OK    THK    NINETEENTH   CENTURY; 

this  complicity  of  Hoffman  because  he  made  himself  notorious  by  sending 
Jim.  Fisk's  regiment  (the  9th)  to  guard  a  procession  of  Orangemen  in  New 
York.  Somebody  throw  an  old  shoe  at  the  procession,  and*  the  regiment 
opened  fire  along  the  sidewalks  and  shot  fifty  or  sixty  people.*  Because, 
too,  his  block-headed  example  caused  the  stupid  British  Government 
to  repeal  the  "  Public  Processions  (Ireland)  Act,"  and  re-introduce  the 
party  feuds  that  had  been  for  years  well  nigh  got  rid  of. 
In  this  connection  I  wrote  Hoffmann  this  letter : 

Nassau  Avenue  and  Fourth  Street,  j 
Greenpoint,  May  XO,  1870.        ' 
John  T.  Hoffman,  Politici.iu-Governor  of  New  Totk  State : 

The  time  honored  adag«  "  Honor  among  thierts  "  is  of  two  kindi.  One  eonfl»ed 
to  themselves,  and  relating  to  secrecy  and  a  fair  dirision  of  their  spoils.  Another, 
where  the  captain  or  a  a  individual  of  the  gang  may  interpose  protection  to  a  victim 
•who  has  had  the  misfortune  to  fall  into  their  hands. 

I  recal  this  as  an  illustration,  merely.  I  could  not,  you  know,  apply  it  literally  to 
the  politicians  of  New  York,  and  the  can  whom  they  "  delight  to  honor." 

But,  nevertheless,  it  was  some  such  unwarranted  expectation  a*  this  that  pointed 
my  thought  to  Governor  Hoffman— the  thought  that  he  would  not  lend  himself  to  a 
fraud  so  new  in  the  history  of  cities  as  a  half  million  sewer,  te  afflict  the  com  fields 
of  Bushwick  and  poison  the  three-mile-long  narrow  waters  of  Newtown  Creek. 

As  the  pleasant  romances  of  life  stiver,  one  by  one,  into  fragments  of  "  cold 
reality,"  we  feel  uncomfortable,  and  get  into,  at  least,  momentary  bad  humor  with 
ourselves  and  everybody  else.  So  it  was  with  mo  when  I  found  that  Mr.  Governor 
Hoffman  had  "  shivered  "  the  respectable  ideal  I  had  formed  of  him  into  the  "  c«ld 
reality"  of  what  he  is. 

But  on  reflection  I  found  that  I  was  unjnit  in  this— that  the  ptr  te  Governor  Hoff- 
man was  not  mu:h  to  blame.  If  Nature  infused  into  him  a  little  weakness,  or  even 
if  it  were  baseness,  could  he  help  that  ?  He  certainly  could  not.  And  if  circum- 
stances threw  him  into  a  peculiar,  and  not  very  pure,  moral  atmosphere,  was  it  any 
wonder  that  the  natural  weakness,  "  or  even  if  it  were  baseness,"  of  which  I  have 
spoken,  should  crop  out  into  offensive  size  and  vicious  action  t  Can  we  censure  the 
ptr  te  Hoffman  for  a  result  so  natural !  He  could  not  help  it— could  he  I 

And  so  I  transferred  my  bad  Lumor  from  that  blameless  gentleman  to  myself.    I 

*When  the  Orangemen  of  New  York  proposed  to  commemorate  the  discord  of 
the  Boyue,  in  1688— and  the  slaughter  and  torture  of  the  gallant  and  United  Irishmen, 
one  hundred  and  ten  years  later — 1  prepared  a  briei  articlo,  ahowiug  their  historical 
merits — that  their  banner  was  stained  wi'h  the  bloud  of  Emmet,  Lord  Edward 
Wolie  Tone,  Bagenal  Harvey,  William  Orr,  amd  other  thousands  of  Protestant 
Presbyterians  who  perished  in  that  great  struggle  for  republicanism.  I  went  to  the 
New  York  (Democratic)  World  with  the  lesson. 

"If  you  have  news,"  «aid  the  autocratic  editor,  "  we  will  gladly  receive  it,  but  we 
advise  the  people  ourselves." 

"And  if  you  don't  understand  this  subject,"  I  replied,  "  and  if  I  do ;  if  there  is 
great  danger  approaching,  will  you  not  allow  a  warning  voice  to  go  forth  that  may 
avert  that  danger?"  The  reply  was,  "We  take  news,  but  not  advice."  And  this 
was  three  dnyu  before  took  place  that  wanton  and  uuprovoked  massacre  on  the  12th 
of  July.  Now,  if  the  gentlemen  of  the  World  had  brought  a  masculine  understand- 
ing to  bear  upon  the  (subject;  if  they  had  realized  its  nature  and  its  danger  ;  if  they 
had  exerted  themselves  to  see  Governor  Hoffman  and  instruct  his  ignorance,  it  is 
very  probable  tkat.  an  innocent  man  or  woman  would  not  have  bean  slaughtered  on 
that  uuhappy  day. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY    Ilf    MODERH    DAT*.  159 

knew  all  about  "birds  of  a  feather,"  and  their  habits.  Why  did  I  expaet  to  find, 
in  Governor  Hoffman,  a  game  bird  companioned  with  carrion  crows  ? 

And,  so,  having  reflected  that  Mr*  Hoffman  could  not  help  being  what  he  ia,  and 
having  forgiven  myself  (we  are  all  sure  to  do  that)  for  the  error  I  had  fallen  into 
respecting  him,  I  am  all  right  again.  Right,  and  prepared  to  estimate  more  truly 
the  vote-sellers  of  Albany,  and  their  eustomeis  in  Brooklyn  and  New  York.  And 
the  vote-sellers  are  all  right,  too.  They  delivered  the  goods — the  spurious  legislation 
—and  got  their  money.  So  far  as  they  are  concerned  the  account  is  closed.  But  it 
is  not  closed  yet  in  favor  of  the  buyers  of  this  spurious  legislation.  It  is  just  possible 
that  they  may  not  be  able  to  pass  the  counterfeit  article — the  bonds  BO  authorized — 
for  the  genuine.  If  representative  government  has  disappeared — if  bargain  and  sale 
has  usuipcd  its  place — and  if  the  people  should  at  last  open  their  eyes  and  take  note 
of  this  fact,  you  know  the  logical  result  that  is  likely  to  follow ;  that  not  only  the 
bonds,  but  the  legal  forgers  of  the  bonds — biggest  of  whom  is  John  Hoffman — will 
be  repudiated  by  the  people."  (And  he  was.  most  effectually.) 

Bennett,  of  the  Times,  (see  ante.)  was  a  very  active  engineer  of  this 
Sewer  Fraud.  It  was  litigated,  and  facts  like  this  came  out  in  the 
referee's  report:  — "The  Board  ($ewer  Commissioners)  gave  Friel  a 
contract  at  a  fraud  of  $163,000.  For  draining  that  was  not  done,  $150,000. 
The  law  required  that  the  city  maps  should  be  used.  They  gave  T. 
W.  Field  $35,000  for  new  ones.  For  engineering  and  inspecting  $81,- 
000  was  charged.  The  detail  entree  showed  only  $28,000.  They  is- 
sued interest-bearing  bonds  before  the  money  was  wanted,  causing  a 
loss  of  $20,000— making  direct  frauds  of  over  $300,000,  which  the  indirect 
frauds  ran  up  to  over  $400,000.  For  a  solvent  bid  was  in  to  do  the  whole  work 
for  $300,000,  and  there  was  $625,000  expended  (or  stolen)  on  it. 

In  the  meetings  called  to  combat  the  swindle  this  Field  kept "  appealing  to 
Heaven,  and  hoping  his  course  would  be  graved  on  his  tombstone  " —  his 
villainous  course !  He  had  carried  through  a  rise  in  the  Tax  valuation  of 
the  city  of  25  per  cent,  and  was  made  Superintendent  of  Schools  ($5,000  a 
year)  as  the  reward  of  that  public  villainy.  I  lost  a  little  money,  and  a  great 
deal  of  time  and  effort,  opposing  this  swindle— thought  something  was  gained 
when  $100,000  was  struck  off  the  Act.  But  they  quietly  returned  to  the 
charge  next  year,  and  got  $125,000  additional— the  odd  $25,000  used  pro- 
bably to  bribe  it  through  the  Legislature.  The  sum  only  is  uncertain,  for 
no  law  could  be  procured  without  a  bribe,  and  no  law  refused  if  a  proper 
bribe  was  offered.  And  this  is  "law,"  and  this  is  a  Eepublic,  and  there  is 
nothing  better  than  this  —  and  the  people,  fanned  by  wings  of  the  daily 
vampires,  sleep  on !  sleep  on !  But  not  forever  —  surely,  not  forever ! 


FINANCIAL    SWINDLING. 

1868. — Walker,  an  Ex,  and  M'Culloch,  an  Existing,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  published  two  letters  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  Great 
Fraud  of  '69.  Those  letters,  in  one  binding,  hung  together,  as  in- 
deed their  authors  should  have  done  if  merit  were  duly  rewarded. 


160  THE   ODD    BOOK    OF  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

I  spent  a  day  in  Cooper  Institute  searching  newspaper  files  for  those 
letters,  but  could  not  find  them,  to  the  great  loss  of  this  book  and  its 
readers.  For  never  in  the  records  of  financial  villainy  was  anything 
to  compare  with  the  glaring  impossibilities  presented  as  facts  in 
those  letters.  A  big,  broad,  undisguised  insult  offered  by  those 
swindlers  to  the  understanding  of  the  people.  In  "  The  Currency 
of  the  Future,"  published  at  that  time,  I  find  this  about  them  : 

SAMPLES    OF    STATESMANSHIP. 
FBOM  OUR  Ex  AND  EXISTING  SECRETAIRES. 

MoCulloch — We  are  "  afflicted  with  a  redundancy  of  currency."  Witness 
the  "  inactivity  of  trade"  and  scarcity  of  employment. 

Walker— Pay  the  bondholder  "  800  millions  "  extra.  It  will  be  a  "  gain  in 
values."  Added  to — the  burdens  of  the  Nation. 

McCulloch — "  Reckless  and  extravagant  men  are  a  public  nuisance." 
They  let  their  money  fly  into— the  channels  of  trade,  and  my  own  Custom 
House. 

Walker — "My  elaborate  essay  converted  the  38th  Congress  to  create  the 
National  Banks,"  and  bestow  on  them  thirty  millions  a  year.  Gain  to  them 
— Loss  to  the  Nation. 

McCulloch— The  "  late  contraction  "  "  stimulated  labor,"  "  increased  pro- 
duction," and — made  "  incomes  light "  and  "  trade  inactive." 

Walker— I  sold  250  millions  of  bonds  to  the  Dutch  bankers.  Price  35  cents 
on  the  dollar.  They  have  risen  to  82  cents,  but  it  is  a  "  burning,  blushing  " 
shame  il  ive  don't  make  it  up  to  100  in  gold. 

McCulloch— We  have  gone  through  a  difficult  war,  and  are  "afflicted" 
with — the  agent  that  pulled  us  through  it. 

Walker — "To  establish  our  gold  oasis  we  must  borrow  250  millions  more 
from  the  Dutch  for  home  circulation."  Ono  half  to  go  back  to  them — in 
premium  on  their  present  stocks,  t'other  half  to  pay  off  those  stocks  returnedto 
hansel  our  "  specie  payment." 

McCulloch — "  Contraction"  must  be  enforced  by  Congress  as  a  means  to 
resumption — because  "  nothing  ^c  ill  be  gained  by  forced  resumption."  When 
the  country  is  ready  it  will  resume  as  a  matter  of  course,  but  a  first  thing 
necessary  is  etiforced  contraction. 

Walker — "  With  paper  money  we  must  go  into  the  extremes  of  contraction 
and  expansion."  For  why !  Congress  is — too  stupid  to  fix  a  proper  mean. 

McCulloch — "  Diminution  "  of  the  currency — "  increases  the  supply  of  it." 
—A  McCulloch  truth. 

Walker— Hates  "national  debts,"  and  would  commence  to  pay  off  the 
present  2,500  millions — with  "  ONE  million  in  a  year." 

McCulloch — A  currency  redeemable  in  lands,  goods,  chattels,  everything 
that  is  for  sale  in  the  nation  is — not  redeemable  at  all.  Why?  Because  it  is 
"  IRREDEEMABLE." 

Walker — "  We  will  be  twenty  times  richer  twenty  years  hence  than  we  are 
now." —  Walker's  word  for  it. 

McCulloch — "  Our  obligations  "  will  be  "dishonored"  if  we  pay  them—- 
according to  our  agreement. 

Walker  (becomes  poetic) — "  2,300  millions  of  currency  is  a  grim  monster" 
— won't  it  hunt  our  people  "  into  dismal  caverns,  the  abodes  of  want  and 
misery,  where  would  wander  in  ngony  and  despair  the  wretched  victims  " 
of  this  terrible — creation  of  Walker's  brain. 

McCulloch—"  Money  is  wanted  in  the  moving  of  crops,  but  is  not  wanted 
in  their  production."  Labor  is  the  grand  element  of  production,  but  wno 
would  think, that  laborers  want  money? 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN   DAYS.  161 

Walker  (Is  again  poetic)—"  If  wo  don't  double  our  debt."  and  that  very 
speedily,  our  "  wealth  and  our  labor  will  leave  our  shores  "  in  one  "  vast 
exodus."  For,  the  people  will— never,  never,  stand  the  oppression — of  light 
taxes. 

McCulloch — If  banks  did  not  exist,  "  I'd  none  of  them,"  but  as  they  do 
exist,  I'll  punish  them— with  a  bonus  of  many  millions  a  year. 

Walker—"  National  currency  is  11  forced  loan."  Because,  don't  you  see,  it 
is  taken — withpleasure  and  profit  by  the  people. 

McCulloch— If  National  Banks  were  not,  Btate  Banks  must  l>e.  Because 
Congress  has — neither  the  power  nor  the  brains  to  issue  a  currency  of  its  own. 

Walker "  Wo  cannot  carry  on  foreign  trade  if  we  nave  a  depreciated  cur- 
rency," because  there  was — 200  millions  worth  of  foreign  trade  done  by  New 
York  alone  in  the  depreciated  currency  year  just  dosed. 

McCulloch — "  Credit  is  curtailed,  and  some  say  more  money  is  wanted  to 
do  the  business  for  cash.  Wanted !  Nonsense.  Those  who  have  no  money 
can  draw  checks  on  a  bank."  And  so  forth,  and  so  on,  to  the  end  of  the 
chapter. 

Freed  from  bewildering  circumlocutions,  these  are  a  sample  of  the  out- 
rageous and  absurd  propositions  -which  the  two  worthies  dared  to  flaunt  (n 
the  face  of  the  nation.  History  may  record  the  fact,  but  will  posterity  be- 
lieve it,  that  two  such  men — so  superficial  in  understanding,  irould  have  the 
audacity  to  attempt  such  an  unheard-of  crime  against  the  nation,  and  get 
no  other  punishment  than  a  drumming  out  ot  the  service,  to  the  tune  of  the 
"  Rogue's  March  "? 

A   FALSE   SYSTEM. 

The  Ptolomaic  system  of  the  Universe  made  the  whole  heavens  revolve 
diurnally  round  this  muddy  little  earth  of  ours.  The  sun  had  to  travel  some 
550  millions  of  miles  every  day,  and  the  nearest  fixed  star  could  not  come 
to  time  unless  he  stept  out  at  tho  rate  of  2,500  millions  of  miles  in  a  single 
second.  This  profound  philosophy  kept  possession  of  the  learned  world  for 
many,  many  centuries,  and  when  assailed  by  one  Copernicus,  the  learned 
Universities  disowned  him,  and  the  Church  tumbled  him  (or  his  disciple 
Galileo)  down  on  his  bare  knees,  to  ask  pardon  for  having  doubted  the 
orthodox  philosophy.  All  this,  however,  did  little  practical  harm  to  the 
world.  The  Universe  went  on  in  its  old  jog  trot  way—"  seed  time  and 
harvest "  came,  Avhatever  the  learned  blockheads  might  say  or  do  about  it. 

But  the  case  is  far  different  under  our  Ftolomaic  philosophy  of  finance. 
We  make  ail  tho  material  wealth,  the  productive  energies,  the  commercial 
activities,  and  even  tho  credits  and  the  authorities  of  the  nations  revolve 
round  one  of  the  least  and  least  useful  metals  that  wo  know.  And  wo  have 
the  results  that  might  bo  expected.  Our  "  system  "  keeps  toppling  over  our 
heads  for  a  brief  time,  and  then  tumbles  down,  crash  1  on  tho  top  of  us. 

Even  philosopher  Walker  has  to  record  the  fact,  that  we  have  had  chaos 
come  again  in  our  ftnaiK"  s,  '•' eight  times  in  sixty-four  years."  But  what 
cares  Walker.  A  small  per  centage  out  of  the  Dutch  bankers  will  bring  him 
safe  out  of  the  storm— away  up  into  the  fruitful  regions  of  the  National 


162  THE   ODD    BOOK  OF   THE  NINETEENTH   OENTUBYJ 

Banks  themselves — there  to  bask  in  the  perpetual  sunshine  ho  has  created— 
and  among  the  patriotic,  prosperous  progeny  of  his  prolific  pen.* 

It  will  be  hard,  too,  if  all  the  gas  blown  out  by  the  honorable  McCulloch 
does  not  inflate  a  balloon  big  enough  to  translate  him  into  the  same  per- 
ennial skies !  There  the  kindred  souls  may  serenely  look  down,  as  the 
thunders  roll  and  the  tempests  break  on  the  common  crowd  beneath  them 

But  Walker  has  got  six  feet  by  two,  and  a  mocking  devil  has  got  a  hold  on 
McCulloch. 

NEW     YOBK     WOBLD. 

The  New  York  World  is  a  light  of  the  old  philosophy — though  its  own 
nature  and  the  blasts  from  without  make  it  rather  flickering  and  unsteady. 
It  wants,  by  the  sheer  force  of  paper  and  lampblack,  to  make  a  creed  for 
the  Democratic  party.  It  would  be  difficult  to  say  what  influence  brings  it 
to  strike  hands  with  Greeley  and  the  Evening  Post.  Like  them  it  yearns  for 
the  "  gold  standard"— the  "  specie  basis  "—the  "  true  measure  of  value." 
Still,  when  it  comes  to  a  closer  view,  it  gets  afraid,  and  would  put  the  con- 
summation off,  and  for  the  following  very  sufficient  reasons : 

"  If  a  European  war  should  break  out,  or  any  great  disaster  should  over- 
take that  quarter  of  the  world,  causing  large  amounts  of  our  bonds  to  be 
returned  to  this  country  for  sale ;  or  if  the  exchanges  from  any  other  cause 
should  be  greatly  against  us  (as  they  will  almost  necessarily  be  if  we  im- 
port much  and  export  little)  a  great  drain  of  gold  would  ensue,  forcing  the 
banks  to  suspend,  cancelling  their  charters,  compelling  the  Government  to 
redeem  their  notes,  and  reducing  it  to  insolvency  by  its  inability  to  do  so." 
And  again,  in  the  same  article :  "  If  the  Greenbacks  were  withdrawn  and  the 
(pet)  banks  should  (thus)  break,  the  people  would  be  without  any  other 
currency  than  gold  and  silver,  which  would  produce  guch  stringency  and 
distress  as  would  bring  universal  ruin." 

And  at  what  time,  may  we  ask,  would  those  reasons  not  exist?  At  what 
time  would  wars  not  be  ready  to  spring  into  destructive  action?  But  the 
writer  forgets  that  even  Greenbacks  could  afford  him  no  protection  under 
a  return  to  the  specie  sham.  Would  not  they,  too,  like  the  other  paper 
credits,  be  reducible  to  gold?  Would  not  the  holders  of  them  make  a 
"  rush  "  and  "  redeem  "  them  in  gold  just  as  eagerly  as  would  the  holders 
of  all  other  paper?  Would  not  their  "conversion"  leave  us  naked  to  that 
gold  "  stringency,  distress  and  universal  ruin."  so  unwillingly  sketched  by 
the  gentleman  himself? 

GBEELEY  AND  GOLD. 

That  vibrating  philosopher,  the  New  York  Tribune,  is  now  floundering  in 
the  Ptolomaic  vortex,  like  all  the  other  philosophers.  So  long  as  our  cir- 
culating paper  was  in  the  hands  of  Bank  monopolists  and  per  centage 
shavers,  Mr.  Greeley  blew  the  loudest  kind  of  a  trumpet  in  its  praise.  In 
1858  he  had  no  bondholders  to  back  up  in  their  rapacious  demand  for  gold, 

•  But  he  did  not  stay  up  long.     He  was  flaunting  $25,000  gold  bonda  in  Washing- 
ton when  he  unexpectedly  tumbled  into  the  grave. 


OR,   THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  163 

and  so,  taught  by  the  recent  great  calamity  of  '57,  he  sent  forth  a  votce  like 
the  following : 

'•  Gold  and  silver  are  a  real  necessity  as  a  measure  of  value  in  such  times 
as  the  period  of  our  own  Revolution,  and  the  great  Revolution  in  France. 
When  the  omission  of  Government  paper  was  such  as  to  overwhelm  the 
nation's  credit,  of  course  its  value  sunk  to  any  indefinite  fraction  of  its  face ; 
when  to  this  was  superadded  the  Machiaveliau  policy  of  England  in  forging 
alike  our  '  Continental  paper '  and  the  French  Assignats ;  when  the  re- 
spective countries  (America  and  Franco)  were  overrun  with  those  forgeries, 
it  became  impossible  for  the  genuine  paper  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
spurious,  and  then  those  securities  ceased  to  have  any  value  at  all.  But 
those  times  have  passed  away,  and  with  them  has  passed  all  necessity  for 
the  use.  of  gold.  * 


Somebody,  about  the  time  of  the  War  ('63),  I  suppose  he  was  an 
Irishman,  sang  all  this  in  honor  of  Mr.  Greeley : 

CHORUS. 

Oh,  dear !  what  can  the  matter  be? 
Oh,  dear  I  what  can  the  scatter  be? 
Dear  me,  what  will  the  damage  be? 
Greeley's  undone  by  the  war. 

Ye  toul'  us  at  first  that  the  North  wasn't  right  at  all ; 
If  South  wish'd  to  go,  she  might  go  any  night  at  all. 
Then  ye  foun'  out  that  her  men  wouldn't  fight  at  all — 

And  so,  that  there  could  be  no  war. 

That  their  bones  were  all  "  boase,"  and  their  sinews  all  vigorloss, 
Their  swords  hadn't  blades,  and  their  muskets  were  triggerlew  j 
Nothin'  to  do  only  knock  them  down  niggerless — 

And  put  an  end  to  the  war. 

First  out  from  the  Union  ye'd  cut  them  and  carve  them  out ; 

Next  bullets  and  steel  and  gun-powder  you'd  sarve  them  out; 

And  lastly  you'd  stap  all  their  rations,  and  starve  them  out — 
Famish  them  out  of  the  war. 

For  their  land,  you  swore,  wouldn't  give  praties  or  oats  at  all ; 

They  couldn't  get  goold,  and  they  hadn't  bank  notes  at  all. 

And  how— without  brogans,  or  breeches,  or  coats  at  all- 
How  could  they  go  to  the  war? 

But  Greeley,  asthore  !  this  fair  talk  has  been  foul  to  us ; 

The  good  things  ye  promised— the  wise  things  ye  toul'  to  us — 

Where,  all,  are  they  now?    Gone  aglee,  bi  me  s— 1,  to  us — 

Hammered  aside  by  the  war. 

You  boozeled  and  foozeled  our  "  Prince  o'  Wales  Corcoran ; "  * 
From  the  dock  of  Clonmel,  too,  ye  hooked  our  friend  Meagher  in : 
First  you  sent  both  of  their  senses  a  shuugheriu-  - 

Then  you  sent  them  to  the  war. 


*Bo  distinguished  for  refusing  to  turn  out  the  69th  Regiment  to  honor 
th«  Prince  of  Wales  in  New  York. 


164       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY J 

For  you  know  when  the  two  wero  across-the-Atlantlo-men, 
Their  love  for  "  Repeal "  was  resolved  and  romantic  then ; 
Now,  *'  Union  by  bayonets  I "  like  any  two  frantio  men 

Shouting,  they  rush  to  the  war. 
And  afther  all  this  you  won't  be  afther  lavin'  us 
In  quateness  to  think  how  you  have  been  desavin  us ; 
But  day  afthar  day  you  kape  tellin'  us,  deavin'  us, 

All  what  you  think  of  the  war. 


What  you  think,  you  ass !— I've  been  murdhered  an  kilt  for  yo«  I 
The  best  drap  of  blood  that  I  had  has  been  spilt  for  you  ! 
Till  you're  in  the  "  big  house  the  county  has  built  for  you "'  f 

We'll  see  no  end  to  the  war. 

Our  tay  once  was  tay— but  it's  now  like-cr  dry  turf  moul' ; 
Our  sugar  was  six-pence — It's  now  twice  as  high,  am  toul ; 
And  coffee  was  coffee — it's  now  burnt  rye — dher-dioul ! 

Someway  bewitched  by  the  war. 

The  cottin's  so  scarce,  my  last  shirt  is  too  nice  a  fit ; 

The  treacle's  got  sour,  and  I  can't  get  of  rice  a  bit ; 

An'  whiskey  i    Och,  murdher !  you've  trubbled  the  price  of  it ! 

Bad  luck  to  yourself  an'  the  war. 

"  Bad  luck  •«  *'    Och,  it's  seldom  I've  leisure  to  pray  at  all ; 
And  now  it's  so  late  I've  no  time  to  delay  at  all ; 
But  my  blessin'  I'll  leave  you,  before  I  go  way  at  all 

Lave  to  yourself  au'  the  war. 

Och,  "the  curse  of  the  crows  on  ye,"  Greeley,  ma  augenarjh  ! 

May  the  d 1  himself  pound  you  up  in  his  knockin'  trough  ! 

I'll  meet  you  some  darracht  night,  gu  lean  ire  rudh  imttacJi— 
An'  give  you  a  touch  of  the  war. 
Oh,  dear  J  what  can  the  matter  be? 
Oh,  dear!  what  can  the  scatter  bo? 
Dear  me  I  what  will  the  damage  be? 
Groeley's  undone  by  the  war. 


As  a  contrast  to  this  rhapsody,  and  a  compensation,  let  me  present 
a  picture  of  early  life  and  heroism, 

THE  WAR  SONG  OF  THE  VERMONTEBS  ('76). 

Ho !  all  to  the  borders?    Vermonters,  come  down, 
With  your  breeches  of  deer-skin  and  jackets  of  brown ; 
With  your  red  woolen  caps  and  your  mocassins,  come, 
To  the  gathering  summons  of  trumpet  and  drum. 

Come  down  with  your  rifles  !    Let  gray  wolf  and  f  ox 
Howl  on  in  the  shade  of  their  primitive  rocks ; 
Let  the  bear  feed  securely  from  pig-pen  and  stall— 
Here's  a  two-legged  game  for  your  powder  and  ball. 

Ho  I  all  to  the  rescue !  for  Satan  shall  work 
No  gain  for  the  legions  of  Hampshire  and  York; 
They  claim  our  possessions,  the  pitiful  knaves, 
The  tribute  we  pay  shall  be  prisons  and  graves. 

"fJall. 


OB,  THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHIVALRY   IN  MODERN  DAYS.  165 

Let  Clinton  and  Ten  Broek  with  bribes  in  their  hands 
Still  seek  to  divide  us  and  parcel  our  lands, 
We've  coats  for  our  traitors,  whoever  they  are, 
The  warp  is  of  feathers,  the  filling  of  tar ! 

Does  the ' '  Old  Bay  State  "  threaten  ?   Does  Congress  complain  ? 

Bwarms  Hampshire  in  arms  on  our  borders  again? 

Bark  the  war-dogs  of  Britain  aloud  on  the  lake? 

Let  'em  come,  what  they  can  they  are  welcome  to  take. 

What  seek  they  among  us?    The  pride  of  our  wealth 
IB  comfort,  contentment  and  labor  and  health, 
And  lands  which,  as  freemen,  we  only  have  trod, 
Independent  of  all  save  the  mercies  of  God. 

Yes !  we  owe  no  allegiance ;  wo  bow  to  no  throne ; 
Our  ruler  is  law,  and  the  law  is  our  own ; 
Our  leaders  themselves  are  our  own  fellowmen, 
Who  can  handle  the  sword,  or  the  scythe,  or  the  pen. 

Our  wives  are  all  true,  and  our  daughters  are  fair, 
With  their  blue  eyes  of  smiles,  and  their  light  flowing  hair; 
All  brisk  at  their  wheels  till  the  dark  even-fall — 
Then  blithe  at  the  sleigh-ride,  the  husking  or  ball. 

We've  sheep  on  the  hill-sides,  we've  cows  on  the  plain, 
And  gay-tasseled  corn-fields,  and  rank  growing  grain ; 
There  are  deer  on  the  mountains,  and  wood  pigeons  fly 
From  the  crack  of  our  muskets  like  clouds  in  the  sky. 

Like  a  sun-beam  the  pickerel  glides  through  the  pool ; 
And  the  spotted  trout  leaps  where  the  waters  are  cool, 
Or  darts  from  his  shelter  of  rock  and  of  root 
At  the  beaver's  quick  plunge  or  the  angler's  pursuit. 

And  ours  are  the  mountains  which  awfully  riso 

Till  they  rest  their  green  heads  in  the  blue  of  the  skies ; 

And  ours  are  the  forests  unwasted,  unshorn — 

Save  where  the  wild  path  of  the  tempest  is  torn. 

And,  though  savage  and  wild  be  this  climate  of  ours, 
And  brief  be  our  season  of  fruits  and  of  flowers, 
Far  dearer  the  blast  round  our  mountains  which  raves 
Than  the  soft  summer  zephyr  that  breathes  over  slave*  I 

Hurrah  for  Vermont  1  for  the  land  which  we  till 
Must  have  sons  to  defend  her  from  valley  and  hill ; 
Leave  the  harvest  to  rot  on  the  field  where  it  grows, 
And  the  reaping  of  wheat  for  the  reaping  of  foes. 

From  far  Michiscoui's  wild  valley  to  where 
Poosooinsuck  steals  down  from  his  wood-circled  lair, 
From  Shockticook  river  to  Lutterlock  town, 
Ho  1  all  to  the  rescue  I    Vermonters  come  down ! 

Come  York  or  come  Hampshire,  come  traitors  and  knaves, 
If  ye  rule  o'er  our  land,  ye  shall  rule  o'er  our  graves  ; 
Our  vow  is  recorded,  our  banner  unfurled — 
In  the  name  of  Vermont  we  defy  all  the  world  ! 

In  1762  New  York  laid  claim  to  64  townships  in  Vermont  under  a 
grant  from  Charles  II.,  and  made  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  dla. 


166  THE  ODD  BOOK   OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY; 

possess  the  settlers.  Offered  a  reward  for  Ethen  Allen  and  seven  of 
his  associates.  Those  in  turn  proclaimed  that  they  would  ' '  kill  and 
destroy'1  any  force  daring  to  approach  them.  New  Hampshire  laid 
claim  to  the  whole  of  Vermont ;  Massachusets  to  two-thirds  of  it. 
Britain,  too,  was  hovering  round  its  skirts,  but  the  little  State  de- 
clared and  maintained  its  independence  for  fifteen  years,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  Union  1791. 

The  above  War  Song  has,  I  believe,  no  place  in  the  libraries.  Is 
a  fugitive,  and  was  likely  to  be  lost.  The  same  is,  I  suppose,  true  of 
"The  Poacher,"  written  by  Thomas  Doubleday —  pure,  high-minded 
patriotic  Thomas  Doubleday ! — once  my  associate  on  the  Northern 
Liberator  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne.  Let  me  preserve  it. 


THE    POACHER. 

They  feast  and  they  snore,  whilst  we  hunger  and  toll  ; 
They  rejoice  in  the  title  of  "  Lords  of  the  Soil." 
Kay,  as  "  Lords  of  the  Soil,"  not  content  with  their  share, 
They  resolve  to  be  "  Princes  and  Powers  of  the  air  1" 
Not  content  with  their  reign  o'er  the  wet  and  the  dry, 
Their  dominion  would  have  all  that  run  or  that  fly  ; 
But  their  "  High  and  Low  "  are  no  more  than  a  name, 
And  we  swear  there  shall  always  be  "  Jack  and  the  Game  I" 

See  the  Pheasant  rise  stately,  all  glistening  with  gold  I 
Bee  the  Covey,  alarm'd,  flash  in  fear  from  their  hold  ; 
See  the  Woodcock,  alone,  from  the  well-head  take  wing; 
From  the  grass-tangled  bank  see  the  Leveret  spring. 
Who's  the  Rearer,  the  Tender,  the  Feeder  of  those? 
'Tis  the  Woodman  who  plants,  and  the  Ploughman  who  sows, 
For  here  "  High  and  Low  "  are  no  more  than  a  name, 
And  afield  there  will  always  be  "  Jack  and  the  Game." 

A  "  Poacher's  "  a  title—  a  "  Lord  ;'  is  no  more  ; 
And  both  have  been  won  by  brave  fellows  of  yore  ! 
The  Mitre's  the  Bishop's—  the  Crown  is  the  King's  ; 
But  who  ever  saw  "  goods  and  chattels  "  with  wings? 
Then  scour  out  your  barrels,  your  powder  keep  dry; 
There  can  be  no  "  Manorial  Bights  "  in  the  sky, 
For  there  "  High  and  Low  "  are  no  more  than  a  name, 
And  not  half  so  well  sounding  as  "  Jack  and  the  Game  I  " 


Do  ye  preach  up  "  *he  Peace?"  do  ye  threaten 

If  a  cover  we  beat,  or  a  trigger  we  draw? 

Bemember  the  time,  in  its  ripeness  may  come, 

When  your  ears  maybe  stunn'd  by  the  roll  of  the  drum  I 

To  fight  for  your  fields,  shall  it  then  be  our  will, 

Or  to  bleed  for  the  birds  we're  forbidden  to  kill? 

Not  while  "  High  and  Low  "  is  made  more  than  a  name, 

And  the  lawyer  dares  stand  betwixt  "  Jack  and  the  Gam* 


OE,   THE  SPIRIT   OP   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  167 

When  ye've  tied  down  the  eagle  with  parchment  and  wax, 

And,  by  law,  made  the  wild  swan  his  pinion  relax ! 

When  the  crane  and  the  wild  duck  ye  stop  on  their  way, 

And  set  up  a  turnpike,  the  woodcock  to  stay — 

When  this  ye  have  done,  we  shall  yield,  as  we  must, 

The  heritage  true  and  the  privilege  just ; 

But  till  then  "  High  and  Low"  shall  be  only  a  name, 

And  we  swear  there  shall  always  be  "  Jack  and  the  Game." 


ENGLISH    CHARACTER  — GOOD    ENGLISHMEN. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  men  now  in  England  are  University 
Professor  John  Ruskin,  and  Joseph  Co  wen,  M.  P.  for  Newcastle-on- 
Tyne.  Yet  Mr.  Ruskin  dwells  with  prido  on  the  great  minds  that 
English  Colleges  have  sent  forth  to  carry  enlightenment  into  far-off 
lands  Enlightenment !  written  with  the  sword  in  tho  blood  of  the 
far-off  peoples.  In  China,  India,  Canada,  as  well  as  Ireland,  Scotland, 
and  the  besavaged  state  of  her  own  people,  under  her  own  eyes  and 
her  own  procurement. 

And  Mr.  Cowen !  How  and  where  shall  I  place  him?  As  a  Re- 
former standing  alone  in  Parliament:  And,  owing  partly  to  his  posi- 
tion as  an  Englishman,  distinguished  above  them  all.  Dragging 
forth  into  distinct  and  damning  contrast  the  Bright  and  Glad- 
stone ' '  Out "  and  the  Bright  and  Gladstone  ' '  In."  Brave,  uncounting 
and  unapproachable.  And  yet  Mr.  Cowen  prided  so  much  in  England's 
foreign  "possessions  and  power  "that  he  went  along  with  Disraeli, 
sustaining  on  the  floor  of  Parliament  his  wildest  villainies,  mistaking 
them  for  an  extension  of  England's  greatness.  Such  is  the  dull 
prestige  of  birth,  bringing  up,  and  country  —  even  in  men  of  such 
large  heart,  keen  perception,  bravo  devotion  to  tho  right  and  defiance 
t.>  the  wrong  as  John  Ruskin  and  Joseph  Cowen.* 

In  close  affinity  with  those  is  George  Jacob  Hollyoake,  a  natural, 
persistent,  life-long  Reformer  —  yet  he,  too,  with  a  remarkable 
peculiarity. 

It  has  been  seen  how  he  aided  my  purpose  twenty  years  ago  —  and 
later  took  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  procuring  papers  necessary  to 
the  English  Section  of  this  book.  I  don't  know  but  the  sect  of 
"  Secularists  "  was  originated  by  Mr.  Hollyoake.  He  is  at  least  one 
of  its  most  active  members.  "Co-operation "  is  his  forte,  and  prob- 

*Juat  as  I  close,  M~.  Cowen  h,.s  made  a  speech  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne.  Nothing 
could  be  more  searching  and  scraping-up  than  he  gave  the  surface  of  things.  But 
all  on  the  surface.  He  took  no  more  notice  of  the  Divine  Truth  than  if  it  had  no 


168          THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTTTRY  \ 

ably  he  has  done  more  to  advance  it  than  any  other  man  living.  He 
speaks  as  he  writes — calmly  and  lucidly ;  and  in  his  recent  visit  to 
the  United  States  he  commanded  the  attention  and  (outwardly  at 
least)  the  respect  of  men  who  were  at  the  moment  worming  their 
way  toward  the  destruction  of  the  Eepublic  —  working  to  hand  it 
over  to  the  Destroying  Corporations,  and  eventually  to  a  "Crown." 
Mr.  Hollyoake  fills  his  place  \voll  as  a  local,  practical,  partial 
Reformer.  Bnt  to  me  it  seems  that  his  nature  and  abilities  are 
worthy  of  a  loftier  and  wider  range.  And  I  hope  that  he  will,  even 
yet,  give  them  a  higher  range.  Laying  their  foundation  on  the 
solid  Land  instead  of  the  shifting  Storehouse.  I  commend  1o  his 
thought,  and  the  thought  of  all  thoughtful  men,  to  study  the  Nature- 
inspired  examples  elsewhere  presented  by  the  "Indian  Settlement" 
and  the  "Zoar  Community." 


The  high  consideration  in  which  all  true  men  must  hold 
Mr.  Hollyoake  has  been  expressed  already  in  this  book. 
And  now*  at  this  late  hour,  my  heart  goes  forth  to  the  writer 
of  the  following  letter.  I  anxiously  hope  that  a  copy  of  "  THE 
ODD  BOOK  "  will  find  him  in  good  health  and  usefulness.  He 
is — he  must  be — an  embodiment  of  the  patriotism  of  New- 
castle in  its  past  days.  Otherwise,  he  never  could  have  pre- 
served and  cherished  a  memento  of  "The  Writers" — the 
pure,  good,  able,  devoted  "  Writers  of  the  Liberator"  In  the 
interim  of  four  years  I  had  lost  reams  of  papers  and  letters 
(through  my  irregularity),  and  I  regard  it  as  providential  that 
this  of  Mr.  Longstaffe  comes  to  my  hand  at  the  last  moment: 

NORTON.  Htoekton-on-Tees,  October  1,  1877. 

DEAR  SIR  :  I  send  you  the  little  book  referred  to  in  Mr.  Devyr's  letter  of  Aug. 
13  last— which  I  return  you,  with  thanks  for  its  perusal.  You  can  tell  him  I 
lend  him  '•  The  Northern  Lights  "  on  the  terms  of  his  letter  with  very  great 
pleasure,  as  it  .always  affords  mo  satisfaction  to  assist  others  in  elucidating 
the  history  of  the  "  North  Counterie,"  and  I  have  no  doubt  Mr.  Devyr's  book 
will  throw  considerable  light  on  an  important  epoch  in  our  political  organ- 
ization. Yours  faithfully, 

SAMUEL  FRANCIS  LONGSTAFFE.  F.ll.H.8. 
To  G.  J.  HOLLYOAKE,  Esq.,  22  Essex  St.,  London,  W.  C. 

POST  SCRIPT. —  Mr.  Devyr's  letter  would  be  interesting  to  Tyneside 
friends.  I  therefore  beg  to  ask  your  permission  to  insert  the  enclosed 
communication  in  the  columne  of  the  "Notes  and  Queries  "of  the  Weekly 
Chronicle,  Newcastle. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT    OP    CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  169 

If  you  consent,  please  send  it  either  direct  to  the  editor  or  return  to  me 
for  that  purpose  —  and  if  you  could  add  a  note  on  Mr.  Devyr's  life  and 
history,  it  would  add  to  the  interest  of  the  letter.  Yours  truly,  S.  F.  L. 

Much  was  done  at  the  time  —  much  favorable  notice  con- 
ferred on  me  —  by  those  two  gentlemen.  I  have  lost  the 
evidences  of  this,  but  I  have  not  lost  my  sense  of  gratitude 
for  it.  I  believe  I  am  a  younger  man  than  Gladstone  —  and, 
if  things  go  favorable,  iny  voice  will  yet  be  heard  in  "  Cannie 
Newcastle." 

The  Constitution  of  New  York  State  is  called  up  for  re- 
vision every  twenty  years.  Delegates  to  revise  it  are  elected 
in  the  same  way,  and  unluckily  by  the  same  machinery,  as 
Members  of  Assembly.  It  was  the  corruption  and  proflig- 
acy of  those  very  men  which  made  the  revision  necessary, 
and  to  elect  such  men  to  restrict  their  own  plundering^  would 
be  not  a  little  absurd.  I  spoke  of  this  to  Mr.  ***.... 
"The  supreme  want,"  said  he,  "is  a  Constitutional  Limit  to 
Taxation.  But  if  all  others  stand  still  our  moving  will  serve 
no  purpose.  You  know  our  men  of  note  and  influence.  Will 
you  interview  some  of  them oa  the  subject?"  He  gave  me  a 
memorandum,  setting  iurth  tho  vital  and  far-reaching  import- 
ance of  this  Reform  and  his  belief  that  I  had  zeal  and  ex- 
perience to  aid  in  carrying  it  out.  I  took  the  paper  (it  is  now 
mislaid),  but  on  reflection  I  decided  not  to  call  on  men  who 
had  acted  so  contemptibly  in  the  Taxpayers'  Movement.  And 
I  so  reported.  "  Well,  I'll  try  another  plan."  And  he  sent 
round  notes  to  a  number  of  those  gentlemen  to  meet  at 
Firemen's  Hall  and  discuss  the  subject.  He  instructed  the 
messenger  to  deliver  the  notes  personally,  and  ascertain 
whether  they  would  promise  to  attend.  They  all  promised 
to  meet,  and  not  one  of  them  fulfilled  the  promise.  A  note 
came  from  Mr.  *  *  himself,  expressing  regret  that  he 

couldn't  be  present  till  nine  o'clock.  That  hour  came  and  he 
came,  and  no  other  came,  and  there  was  no  meeting. 

But  the  politicians  roused  all  over  the  State,  and  elected 
themselves  by  the  old  machinery,  and  so  tinkered  the  Consti- 
tution— so  made  it  worse  instead  of  better — that  it  was  re- 
jected when  submitted  to  the  popular  vote,  all  but  a  lease  of 
fourteen  years  to  the  judges — round  which  all  the  lawyers 
rallied  at  the  polls. 


170 


THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY; 


And  so  that  effort  also  fell  to  the  ground.  It  was  about  the 
last  he  was  destined  to  make.  And  the  scene  closes  as  follows  : 
I  am  slowly  recovering  from  a  sickness  that  kept  me  on  life's 
extreme  confines  for  almost  a  year.  Mr.  *  *  *  is  in 
Boston  himself  under  medical  treatment.  My  mind  had 
been  unbalanced  for  months,  and  I  wrote  some  incoher- 
encies  to  him  on  matters  of  business.  He  replied,  "Take 
no  trouble  about  those  matters.  What  you  have  to  do  is  get 
well.  An  occasional  drive  out  will  help  you,  and  I  have 
given  instructions  that  my  coachman  shall  attend  to  this  when 
required."  Why  do  I  relate  those  things?  Why,  but  to 
show  the  strangely  good  and  considerate  nature  of  a  man 
who  at  the  moment  was  himself  in  the  grasp  of  a  fatal 
disease.  He  returned  home  only  to  leave  us  for  a  better 
world.  I  was  indebted  to  him  in  every  way  —  as,  indeed, 
almost  everybody  was  who  came  near  him.  And  now  in  his 
great  last  affliction  I  do  not  ask  to  attend  on  him,  for  would 
it  not  be  imputed  to  me  as  a  mean  seeking  of  personal  ad- 
vantage? I  write  to  him,  stating  my  bitter  regret  that  I 
cannot  be  at  his  side.  The  following  reply  comes  to  me. 
One  of  the  last  he  has  ever  written.  The  stamp  of  his  waning 
powers  is  upon  it  as  compared  with  the  bold,  vigorous  im- 
press of  his  hand  in  the  days  gone  bye.  But  the  heart,  the 
goodness,  the  kindness  is  still  the  same: 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  171 

No  shadow  of  regret  or  sorrow.  The  latest  effort  a  ray— 
a  sunset  ray — of  departing  hope  and  brightness.  His  whole 
life  a  presence  of  "CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS."  Surely  an 
immortality  lies  before  us.  A  higher  and  purer  life  where 
this  world's  inequality  will  not  stand  a  barrier  between  soul 
and  soul. 


In  looking  back  at  my  varied  career,  I  could  not  help 
thinking  that  it  contained  Thought  and  Experience  that 
might  form  a  chart,  less  or  more  useful  to  future  voyagers  on 
the  same  turbulent  sea.  To  that  end  I  had  been  gathering 
them  up,  with  a  vague,  undetermined  purpose  of  presenting 
them  under  the  title  of 

"MEMORIES    OF   A   LOST    LIFE." 

"Lost,"'  I  now  thought,  irretrievably,  by  the  loss  of  its 
sole  encourager  and  inspirer.  As  I  proceeded  in  my  task 
the  full  character  of  that  gentleman  gradually  unfolded  to 
me.  How  distinctly  it  brought  out  and  emphasized  the 
cause  of  our  early  decay! — how  it  suggested  an  example  to 
the  nations! — how,  with  "the  modifications  of  time  and 
country  and  existing  habits  of  thought,"  it  revived  the 
Chivalry  of  ancient  days.  And,  under  whatever  title  and 
whatever  circumstance,  I  determined  to  present  that  example 
to  his  countrymen,  first  —  then  to  mine,  and  to  the  world  — 
but  still  under  the  name  and  title  of  "A  Lost  Life  " — when 
this  happened : 

FIKST  CONNECTION  WITH  THE  "IRISH  WORLD." 
I  had  suffered  so  much  fatigue,  vexation,  loss  of  health  and  loss  of 
money  in  my  effort  to  give  direction  to  the  Fenian  Movement,  and 
had  given  up  in  such  utter  despair,  that  the  word  "Irish,"  prefixed 
to  any  printed  matter,  made  me  recoil  from  the  sight  of  it.  General 
Crooke  had  put  a  number  of  the  Irish  World  in  my  hand  years  before, 
but  I  would  not  look  at  it.  So  it  might  have  been  to  the  end,  only 
this  happened : 

Passing  a  news-stand  I  saw  the  name  of  Archbishop  McHale  on  a 
newspaper  (the  Irish  World)  in  large  letters.  It  fronted  the  descrip- 
tion of  a,  fete  given  in  celebration  of  his  fiftieth  year  as  a  prelate.  In 
that  description  men  of  note  were  eloquent  in  depicting  his  career. 


172  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY  J 

But  the  thought  struck  mo  that  the  incident  of  forty-five  years  before 
(see  ante — Irish  section)  enabled  me  to  pay  a  higher  tribute  to  his 
powers  than  had  been,  or  indeed  could  be,  offered  to  him  by  even  the 
most  eloquent  of  his  eulogists.  I  embodied  the  fact  in  a  communi- 
cation to  the  Irish  World.  I  also  had  been  skirmishing  in  a  jocund 
way  with  our  local  metal-heads  on  the  subject  of  finance,  and  en- 
closed the  following  ironical  letter  to  Wendell  Phillips : 

"•Rag  Money! '  Don't  you  know,  Mr.  Phillips  that  it  is  a  vile  thing?  Who 
invented  it  ?  How  nearly  did  it  aink  us  during  the  war  !  How  little  has  it  done  /or 
us  since  the  advent  of  peace  1  We  have  been  afflicted  with  it  now  for  about  16  years 
We  have  '  flaunted  in  rags '  all  that  time,  for  what  tailor  would  give  good  broadcloth 
for  '  rag  money '  ?  And  ia  it  strange  if  we  have  not  broken  our  fust  during  the  while 
—fir  why  should  butcher  or  baker  give  fresh  beef  or  bread  for  mere  *  rag  money '  ? 
How  we  have  gone  through  sun  and  Btorma,  without  a  roof  to  cover  us !  for  what 
landlord  is  such  a  fool  as  to  take  '  rag  money '  for  rent  ?  Debta,  of  course,  have  stood 
still,  for  what  creditor  would  accept  payment  in  'rag  money'?  Why,  the  very 
creators  of  the  vile  thing  disowned  their  own  buby ;  would  not  care  it  themselves, 
and  had  not  the  face  to  affront  the  foreign  banker  with  the  sight  of  it  I  Ah,  Phillips, 
Phillips,  Wend-ill  Phillips  1  How  could  you  wend  your  way  into  such  a  mud,  and 
try  to  wend  the  whole  world  in  along  with  you ! 

"  'Tis  true,  you  saw  that  the  bonds,  the  flx*d  6  per  cents,  were  made  of  exactly  the 
same  'rage,'  created  by  exactly  the  same  authority,  resting  exactly  upon  the  sam« 
banis — you  saw  those  Jlxed  bond*  some  10  per  cent  better  thi\n  gold,  and  that  I  suppose 
was  the  reason  why  you  put  the  circulating  bonds,  the  greenbacks  ou  the  strne  level 
as  to  assuredness.  God  bless  you,  there  ig  between  them  the  greatest  difference  in 
the  world.  The  one  bears  a  big  crop  of  gold  every  year,  the  other  be  trs  nothing .  It 
takes  a  great  machinery  to  collect  this  gold  crop  together,  and  just  see  how  many 
honest  fellows  in  the  Custom  House,  and  all  around,  make  a  decent  living,  besides 
'pickings,'  as  t crews  in  that  machinery.  Think,  too,  of  the  enterprising  smugglers, 
what  would  become  of  them  if  this  machinery  were  broken  up  ?  And  would  not  it 
all  go  to  the  dogs,  if  you  only  could  persuade  people  to  turn  the  Jixed  bonds  into 
circulating  tonds  ?  But  then,  you  know,  there  would  be  no  gold  crop  for  the  bond- 
holders, everybody  would  take  the  circulating  bonds,  and  glad  to  get  hold  of  them, 
without  asking  interest  on  them  from  the  government,  which  means  from  themselves, 
They  would  find  u«o  for  them  all,  too.  If  France  uses  $30  per  capita,  we  require  a 
far  bigger  amount,  for  is  not  everything  here  about  twice  as  dear  as  it  is  in  France  ? 
Our  fields,  forests,  and  factories,  too  ;  don't  they  require  a  far  bigger  outlay  for  their 
development  f 

"  But  then ,  if  you  take  a  pen  and  combine  these  facts  ek'llf  ully,  they  would  play  the 
devil  with  the  National  Debt,  the  Custom  House,  the  smugglers,  and  all  those  evang- 
elizing influences  which  now  reign  over  the  whole  nation.  Fse,  Wtndell !  don't 
you  see  what  you  are  driving  at?  What  would  result  if  your  doctrine  prevailed? 
But  it  won't  prevail.  We  will  meet  it,  and  confound  it,  and  upset  you  and  it.  We 
have  nothing  to  do  only  shout  *  rag  money/  '  rag  money ' !  and  the  thing  ia  done." 

To  my  astonishment  I  found  that  the  Irish  World  was  as  Green- 
backed  as  myself — my  two  contributions  coming  out  with  strong 


OR,  THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN  DATS.  173 

approval  in  its  next  number.  I  found,  too,  that  it  was  earnest  and 
far-seeing  on  the  question  of  Land  Ownership.  I  made  several  con- 
tributions to  it ;  from  one  of  which,  August,  '76, 1  extract  what  seemed 
a  prophecy : 

THE     COAL     MINER. 

"  Working  in  constrained  and  unnatural  positions,  begrimed  with  dirt,  he  ia  in  all 
respects  a  blacker  and  less  protected  slave  than  ever  was  the  negro.  But '  hold  on ' ! 
says  Gowan.  '  Half  a  million  a  month  more  will  bring  up  the  dividends,  and  secure 
our  positions  and  our  big  pay.  There  are  such  a  multitude  of  those  miners  that  10 
per  cent  struck  off  their  present  wages  will  make  up  just  the  sum  we  want.  Men 
who  now  receive  $50  a  month  will  si  ill  receive  $45,  and  they  ought  to  be  thankful,  lor 
when  they  look  round  they  will  see  plenty  of  meu  who  can  get  NO  WORK  and  MO 

WAGK8  at  Ull.' 

"And  so  the  miner  at  his  long,  unnatural,  dangerous,  dark  and  dirty  toil,  is  docked 
a  tenth  of  the  pittance  he  had  been  earning,  to  add  to  the  hoards  of  the  foreign  and 
domestic  sha'ks.  His  little  ones  may  want  a  bigger  yard  of  cloth  than  they  did  last 
year ;  a  bigger  dish  of  potatoes ;  but  what  business  has  he  with  a  wife  or  lictle  ones  ? 
That  twenty  millions  of  London  gold  vested  in  the  mines  is  a  very  big  fact.  A 
paring  of  it  would  buy  ns  many  spies  as  might  be  found  necessary,  as  many  and  as 
good  lawj em  as  ever  proved  black  to  be  white,  as  many  ink  voices  as  ever  howled 
through  the  column*  of  ihe  press,  and  it  is  a  melancholy  thought  that  juries  may  be 
as  leadily  packed  in  one  country  as  another.  One  or  two  resentful  and  desperate 
men  may  break  through  the  law,  may  '  cover  their  tracks,'  and  make  it  h<*id  to  trace 
th  m.  Such  men  are  not  likely  to  be  the  leading,  thinking  men  among  the  miners. 
But  what  matier!  The  thinking  men  are  the  modt  obnoxious  to  the  monopolists, 
because  th  y  are  the  most  formidable.  Unable  to  trace  and  clutch  the  real  reckless 
offendeis,  it  is  just  possible  that  they  might  take  hold  of  the  thinking,  leading  me  a, 
and  bring  the  machinery  uf  nired  spies  and  paid  lawyers,  and  even  packed  juriee,  to 
bear  down  upon  them.  Such  things  have  been  done  a  thousand  times,  and  never, 
perhaps,  on  an  occasiou  that  looked  more  suspicious  than  toofcj  the  whole  aspect  of 
affairs  as  now  presented  in  the  Coal  regions  of  Pennsylvania." 

All  here  spoken  of,  and  far  more  and  far  worse,  actually  took  place 
ten  months  after  this.  The  dates  and  facts  will  be  found  in  the 
Appendix.  They  are  so  horrible  and  so  disgusting  that,  if  it  were  at 
all  compatible  with  my  duty,  I  would  exclude  even  an  allusion  to 
them  from  this  book. 


ON    THE    STAFF. 

My  coming  on  the  staff  of  the  Irish  World  was  hardly  less 
singular  than  my  first  correspondence  with  it.  I  had  written 
a  letter  describing  the  overthrow  of  gold  by  the  banks  in  '57 
and  notifying  that  I  would  write  no  more  —  take  no  more 
trouble  with  a  people  that  were  so  dull  and  apathetic.  At 
the  same  time  Mr.  Ford  had  written  inviting  me  to  help 


174  THE  ODD   BOOK   OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTUBY  J 

him,  and  the  two  communications  crossed  each  other  on  the 
way.  Mr.  Ford  introduced  me  with  this  very  flattering 
notice : 

"  It  is  with  pleasure  we  announce  that  we  have  added  to  the  staff  of  the 
Irish  World  Mr.  Thomas  Ainge  Devyr.  His  name  is  already  known  to  the 
reader,  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  make  any  flourishes  in  this  introduction. 
Mr.  Devyr  is  a  man  of  conscience  and  a  man  of  ideas.  He  is  a  time- 
honored,  but  by  no  means  a  time-worn,  reformer.  His  whole  life  has  been 
devoted  to  the  service  of  humanity ;  and  now,  moving  toward  three-score 
and  ten,  his  one  absorbing  thought  is  to  spend  the  remaining  days  that  God 
shall  give  him  in  the  same  noble  work." 

And  the  very  first  work  I  had  to  do  on  the  paper  was  a 
criticism  on  the  writings  in  the  press  that  led  to  the  un- 
paralleled Judicial  Murders  that  followed  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  which  are  outlined  in  the  Appendix  to  this  book : 

RATTLESNAKES. 

"Where  at  each  step  the  stranger  fears  to  wake 
The  rattling  terrors  of  the  vengeful  snake." 

— GOLDSMITH. 

The  New  York  Sun  is  one  of  those  snakes.  It  has  got  more  rattles  than 
most  of  the  other  snakes.  A  more  venomous  bite,  too.  It  has  sprung  all 
its  rattles  this  week,  and  makes  a  hideous  noise  in  the  train  of  one  Gowen. 
The  particular  Gowen.  The  Gowen  who  took  the  coal  fields  of  Pennsyl- 
vania across  the  Atlantic  on  his  back,  and  pledged  them  for  twenty  millions 
to  the  London  Jews.  According  to  the  rattles  of  this  rattlesnake,  one  band 
of  assassins  peoples  the  entire  coal  regions.  He  calls  them  "cut-throats," 
who  "  stab  in  the  dark,"  and,  on  slight  provocation,  "  shoot  from  behind." 
The  venom  of  the  snake  must  be  in  gross  quantity 'when  it  overboils  in  this 
way. 

Now,  this  same  Gowen  has  given  the  miners  not 'very  "  slight,"  but  very 
great  provocation,  if  seeking  their  lives  and  cutting  down  their  pittance  of 
wages  be  provocation.  If  that  be  a  gage  of  war,  this  Gowen  has  thrown  it 
in  their  faces.  Isn't  it  strange,  then,  that  men  so  numerous,  so  "  lawless," 
so  "  stab-in-the-dark,"  so  "  shoot- from-behind,"  as  this  villainous  writer 
describes  them  —  isn't  it  strange  that  they  have  not  so  much  as  turned  a 
hair  on  this  Go  wen's  head? 

Now,  the  wicked  man  who  wrote  this  knew  nothing  what- 
ever of  the  men  whom  he  murders  in  this  way.  (Yes, 
murders  followed  those  atrocious  writings.)  But  Gowen  had 
come  to  New  York  and  "instructed  "  him.  And  those  writings 
brought  on  the 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  175 

JUDICIAL    MURDERS    IN    PENNSYLVANIA, 
which  are  faintly  set  forth  in  the  Appendix. 

John  Kehoe  was  a  man  of  weight  and  intelligence.  He  had  in- 
terested himself  in  behalf  of  men  arrested  by  the  Coal  Thugs,  which 
so  exasperated  them,  it  seems,  that  they  determined  to  hang  him- 
self. They  had  the  wretches  ready  to  swear  the  halters  off  their  own 
convicted  necks  and  on  to  that  of  John  Kehoe.  Summoning  the 
Court  of  Pardons  to  meet  him  at  Harrisburgh  to  review  this  Judicial 
Murder,  the  Attorney-General — their  own  Attorney-General — pro- 
ceeds to  write  down  this  paragraph — a  damning  paragraph,  that 
tells  the  whole  story.  He  had  previously  told  them  that  he  had  no 
hope  they  would  alter  their  judgment,  and  he  finishes  in  this  way  : 

"  But  I  will  be  in  Harrisburgh  on  the  17th,  at  eleven  o'clock.  My  hands 
are  washed  of  Kehoe's  blood,  and  if  others  want  to  do  the  same,  I  will 
aid  them." 

On  which  the  infamous  Miners'  Journal  comments  in  this  way, 
"  The  concluding  remarks  had  been  better  left  unuttered." 

Yes !  The  Judicial  murderers  might  well  wish  those  words  of 
even  their  own  Prosecuting  Attorney  "  unuttered."  Those  words 
are  a  death  sentence  to  the  reputation  of  every  official  man  engaged 
in  compassing  the  death  of  John  Kehoe.  Right !  Attorney-General, 
you  could  have  little  hope,  indeed,  of  the  men  who  could  see  "no 
doubts  in  the  case  before."  Such  men  had  taken  their  stand,  and 
were  not  to  be  driven  from  it.  Strictly,  there  could  be  no  "  Pardon- 
ing "  in  the  case.  How  could  there  be  when  the  evidence  was  by 
condemned  murderers  swearing  to  save  their  own  lives? 

Besides  the  Judicial  Murders  recorded  in  the  Apendix  there  were 
more  added  sufficient  to  make  up  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  in  all. 
All  on  the  evidence  of  real  convicted  murderers  swearing  to  save 
their  own  forfeited  and  accurst  lives.  In  the  case  of  one  of  them, 
M 'Donald,  the  noose  was  three  times  slipped  over  his  head,  and  his 
long  beard  as  often  lifted  up  on  pretense  of  fixing  the  rope  aright  on 
his  bare  innocent  neck.  Will  not  those  unspeakable  crimes  invoke 
a  heavy  cursoon  the  Republic? 


To  reprint  articles  from  an  ordinary  ephemeral  newspaper 
in  a  book  like  this  would  be  unpardonable.  But  a  paper 
the  authority  of  which  was  so  repeatedly  recognized  in  both 
Houses  of  the  British  Parliament  is  not  an  ordinary  paper. 


176  THE  ODD  BOOK   OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

Recognized  as  the  only  publication  that  was  a  terror  to  them. 
There  are  few  well-informed  men  in  Europe  who  have  not 
heard  of  the  -Irish  World  in  this  connection.  They,  too,  may 
be  curious  to  see  a  sample  of  the  artillery  that  shot  its  way 
through  the  two  Honorable  Houses.  Even  the  two  or  three 
specimens  I  give  will  throw  a  suggestive  light  on  the 
Great  Movement  —  a  movement  that  now  fixes  the  attention 
of  the  world.  I  offer  them,  therefore,  with  this  explanation, 
and  without  further  apology.  Thus  was  rained  the  hot  shot 
into  the  "Home  Rulers"  that  drove  them  from  their  guns. 

First  —  In  tracing  the  progress  of  the  movement  comes 
this  picture  of 

THE    HOME    BULE    D  E  LU  S  I  0  N—1877. 

Enter  a  village  in  Ireland.  There  is  a  meeting  convened  in  the  lower 
end  of  the  street  to  consider  the  wrongs,  and  thier  remedies,  of  Ireland.  A 
man  of  plain  speech  and  ragged  exterior  is  telling  them  that  they  have  a 
right  to  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  "  in  the  land  of  their 
birth.  He  is  telling  them  that  it  is  a  mortal  sin  to  submit  to  plunder  and 
slavery.  He  has  got  so  far  as  to  say,  "  Resistance  to  tyrants  is  obedience 
to  God."  Hark  I  There  comes  a  great  noise  of  trumpets  and  cymbals  and 
all  brass  instruments.  On  horseback  and  in  chariots  come  on  a  great  cav- 
alcade grotesquely  attired,  waving  flags  and  shouting  gibberish.  The 
meeting  at  the  lower  end  of  the  street  breaks  up,  and  comes  rushing  to  see 
the  bedizined  mountebanks  and  watch  their  performances.  It  is  a  grand 
success  for  the  mountebanks.  They  break  up  the  down  street  meeting. 
The  actors  are  so  big,  so  various,  and  of  such  name  and  of  such  note.  The 
brazen  trumpets  and  tinseled  costumes  are  so  loud,  and  so  bright,  and  so 
grotesque,  withal,  that  the  crowd  is  carried  away,  and  loses  siftht  for  the 
moment  of  the  man  in  the  ragged  coat,  and  his  sober  speech  about  "  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

And  then  there  is  to  be  a  great  Conference  held  in  Dublin. 
Mr.  Butt  wants  admission  to  be  very  select — ministers  of  the 
gospel  and  ministers  of  the  government.  Biggar,  Parnell  and 
Ferguson  oppose  this,  and  the  meeting  breaks  up  in  confusion. 
On  which  the  Irish  World  goes  to  prayers  in  this  way : 

A  foreshadowing,  we  trust,  of  the  final  break-up  of  the  great  Obstructing 
Home  Rule  party.  That  done,  we'll  have  a  chance  to  fall  back  upon  the 
homely  meeting  at  the  foot  of  the  street,  and  hear  once  more  about  "  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  with  all  the  land  of  Ireland  for  a 
hunting  ground. 

Second  —  And  this  assault  on 


OB,    THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN   DAYS.  177 

THE    HOME    RULE    P  H  A  N  T  0  M._ 1878. 

This  Home  Rule  Conference  may  well  look  forward  to  the  pleasant  play 
in  which  they  are  to  be  the  admired  actors.  "  The  liberals,"  "  the  friends  of 
progress,"  "  the  people's  champions,"  the  admired  of  all  beholders.  There 
will  be  placards  and  processions  to  arouse  the  admiring  public.  The  lead- 
ing patriots,  in  the  full  bloom  of  exuberent  "liberalism,"  will  march  or  be- 
driven  to  the  lighted  halls.  The  crowd  will  cheer  them  along  the  streets, 
and  redouble  the  cheer  when  they  mount  the  rostrum.  There  is  a  glow  of 
warmth  and  a  blaze  of  light  around  them.  They  have  arisen  from  a 
delicious  dinner  and  a  glass  or  two  of  exhilarating  champagne.  The 
reporters  are  ranged  before  them,  to  catch  their  world  -  redeeming  words 
from  their  eloquent  mouths.  The  morrow's  sun  will  rouse  an  admiring 
public  to  snatch  the  morning  paper,  and  read  with  rapt  wonder  the  elo- 
quence inspired  by  the  good  dinner  and  the  ten-year-old  wines  and  the 
reverberating  magnetism  of  last  night's  crowd.  Reconnoitering  in  front  of 
the  hotel  and  around  the  street  corners,  Curiosity  will  be  poised  on  its  tip- 
toes to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  patriotic  orator  of  last  evening,  and  hurra !  — 
his  carriage  drive  to  the  station,  whence  he  whirls  away  to  gather  fresh 
banquets  and  fresh  laurels  in  the  next  admiring  town.  His  lungs  are 
sanitarially  inflated,  his  appetite  aroused,  his  bodily  health  is  set  firmly  on 
its  legs.  His  mental  vigor  is  ever  so  far  ahead  of  even  his  material  exuber- 
ance. Wherever  may  be  that  man  in  the  dilapidated  frieze  coat,  bending 
over  the  spade  after  a  hungry  breakfast — wherever  he  may  be,  the  "  liberal,'' 
"patriotic"  Home  Eule  leaders  are  as  well  and  as  satisfied  as  heart  can 
wish. 

But  how  is  it  with  what  is  left  of  the  frieze  coat?  We  will  suppose  that 
he  is  the  rack-rented  tenant  of  six  acres  of  land.  It  used  to  be  only  four 
acres,  but  they  have  got  the  "statute  acre,"  the  "English  acre,"  and  that 
bedeviled  the  four  acres  Irish  up  to  six  acres  English,  with  a  rent  marching 
up  to  keep  it  company.  He  has  been  thinking  if  that  spot  of  ground  were 
his  own,  subject  only  to  a  national  quit  rent,  there  would  soon  be  another 
face  upon  it.  Many  a  time  he  has  thought  what  a  sheltering,  sunny  little 
orchard  that  half  acre  behind  the  cabin  would  make.  That  dale  rising 
beyond  and  above  the  two-acre  meadow,  how  the  wintry  streams  from  its 
potato  and  flax  ridges  might  be  led  over  that  meadow  and  irrigate  and 
improve  its  crop.  In  the  adjoining  hollow  may  be  turf,  and  on  the  knoll 
beyond  it  limestone.  Here,  then,  with  a  little  care  is  plenty  of  -manure. 
The  oats  and  barley  and  hay  and  straw  that  now  must  be  carted  into  the 
big  maw  of  the  land  rogue,  how  their  essentials  might  again  return  to  the 
ground  and  recruit  its  fertility.  All  this  he  has  many  and  many  a  time 
pictured  to  himself,  and  with  it  the  warm,  secure  home  and  its  contented 
and  comfortable  inmates.  But  he  has  not  anything  like  this ;  he  has  not 
the  least  chance  of  anything  like  it.  It  must  not  be  even  spoken  of  until 
the  Home  Rule  party  getg  another  chance  at  the  six  hundred  aliens — another 
ciuurge  at  them,  with  Isaac  Butt  leading  on  the  wordy  war.  Yes,  that  man 


178      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

and  his  unimproved  fields  and  his  half-naked,  half-starved  family  must  wait 
till  the  eloquent  sixty  overthrow  the  pig-headed  six  hundred,  and  get  leave 
to  transfer  their  gymnastics  from  London  to  College  Green. 

Well,  if,  at  the  end  of  fifty  or  five  hundred  years,  this  victory — the  victory 
of  the  sixty  over  the  six  hundred  —  should  be  accomplished,  then  —  what 
then? 

Freed  from  imperial  cares,  the  local  lawyers  and  land  thieves  could 
direct  all  their  attention  to  bamboozling  the  people.  The  great  Land 
Blasphemy  would  not  be  approached  by  them,  and  if  others  approached  it 
those  others  would  be  met  with  a  howl  about  the  "  sacred  rights  of  property." 
Press,  platforms,  pulpits  would  level  their  artillery  against  that  man  in  the 
frieze  coat,  and  if  that  didn't  do  they  would  level  the  artillery  of  lead  and 
gunpowder  upon  him.  If  he  said,  "  I,  too,  am  a  child  of  the  Great  Father, 
and  give  me  this  small  four-acre  modicum  of  my  Father's  estate?  "  the  first 
work  of  the  Home  Eule  Dubliners  would  be  to  choke  him  into  silence,  and 
if  he  would  resist,  then  choke  him  into  death. 

Among  all  the  leading  men  now  pursuing  this  fugitive,  far-off  Phantom  of 
Home  Rule,  how  many  of  them  ever  toiled  a  day  in  the  field  and  sat  down  at 
night  to  a  scanty  supper?  We  look  at  the  long  list  of  M.  Ps.,  and  T.  Cs., 
and  M.  Ds.,  and  Q.  Cs.,  and  reverends  and  right  reverends.  They  are  all 
there,  standing  in  one  imposing  group,  and  they  force  upon  our  unwilling 
thought  that  they  are  not  of  the  class  that  needs  to  speak  out  and  bo  heard 
The  Great  Foundation  class,  on  whose  intelligence  and  industry  depends 
the  prosperity  of  the  individual  and  the  greatness  of  the  land.  We  very 
much  mistake  that  great  sovereign  class,  if  they  are  contented  to  remain  in 
their  rags  —  to  live  in  their  dens  and  dig  in  their  uncertainties  —  whilst  Mr. 
Murphy  and  Mr.  Butt  and  Mr.  Mitchell-Henry,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  "  half 
sirs,"  lead  on  another,  or  ten  other,  or  fifty  other  annual  assaults  on  the 
alien  six  hundred. 

Third  —  And  this  on  the  same  subject: 

TO  THE  MEN  OF  I  R  EL  AN  D.— 1876. 
The  United  States  have  recently  been  a  political  battle-field  from 
North  to  South  and  from  one  ocean  to  the  other.  We  had  to  take  a 
hand  in,  the  more  especially  as  the  two  great  conflicting  parties 
agreed  between  themselves  to  continue  all  our  existing  evils — want 
of  money,  want  of  land — everything.  Their  "  sound  and  fury," 
and  glaring  torches,  and  banners,  and  bands,  all  trooped  out  to  be- 
wilder and  humbug  the  people.  We  couldn't  stand  by  to  look  and 
listen ;  we  raised  our  voice  against  it.  Our  indignant  voice  against 
the  Party  Factions  that  are  working  to  enslave  this  country  to  Mon- 
opolists and  stock-gamblers.  This  gave  a  half  direction  to  our 


OR,   THE  SPIRIT   Of   CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS.  179 

thought — turned  it  half  away  from  the  "noble"  criminals  that  en- 
slave, and  outrage,  and  slay,  and  starve  the  people  of  Ireland. 

If  they  had  taken  moderate  rents,  instead  of  starvation  rents ;  if 
they  had  done  as  the  Edgeworth  family  did  in  Longford,  and  as 
Sharman  Crawford  did  in  the  County  Down ;  it  they  had  lived  among 
contented  and  comfortable  tenantries,  leading  in  agriculture,  arts, 
and  refinements ;  if  they  had  been  a  little  less  selfish  and  inhuman, 
it  would  have  been  a  little  better  for  themselves,  and  a  good  deal 
worse  for  the  people. 

"Worse!"  for  under  a  system  like  that — a  humane  system — men 
might  have  remained  under  the  delusion  that  God's  land  did  belong 
to  liars  who  called  themselves  landlords.  That  those  liars  and 
plunderers  were  "noble,"  and  that  the  multitudes  of  honest  men 
were  base — "base  born!'  That  to  sport  and  spend  and  steal  the 
product  of  other  men's  toil  made  them  "  honorable"  and  "  right 
honorable.'  The  more  they  stole,  the  more  the  honor.  Under  the 
mild  sway  of  the  Edgeworths  and  the  Sharman  Crawfords  the 
GKEAT  1  IE  about  land  ownership  might  have  remained  unexposed, 
unquestioned  even,  for  centuries.  But  now  the  light  has  broken  out 
It  is  in  the  heavens — it  is  edging  with  gold  and  silver  every  cloud — 
it  is  raining  its  effulgence  down  on  every  field  and  forest  tree — it  is 
curling  round  the  blaze  of  every  cottage  fire,  and  gilding  every 
ascending  cottage  smoke.  This  Glorious  Truth,  that  the  land  is 
GOD'S  LAND,  that  the  people's  are  GOD'S  CHILDREN,  that  the  Land 
Thief  is  the  great  foundation  criminal  of  the  world.  That  he  is  the 
inflicter  of  all  the  poverty  on  the  people — of  all  the  ignorance — of  all 
the  crime.  That  no  man  sorrows  or  dies  in  hunger  and  in  rags,  but 
this  Land  Thief  kills  him.  That  no  man  languishes  in  a  dungeon, 
or  is  forced  out  to  die  upon  the  scaffold,  but  the  Great  Land  Thief 
Mas  lured  him  there — into  that  doom  ! 

Men  of  Ireland  1  Make  way  for  this  Great  Light.  Open  your 
hearts  to  it.  Impart  it  to  your  brothers  of  your  own  and  of  the 
other  lands.  Let  yours  be  a  "  voice  in  the  wilderness ;  prepare  ye 
the  way,  make  its  path  straight." 

So  sure  as  every  heart  becomes  the  altar  of  this  Truth,  so  sure  as 
this  divine  Thought  lifts  a  man  up  to  a  knowledge  of  himself — of  his 
true  dignity — of  his  true  place  on  the  earth,  so  sure  will  there  arise 
within  him  a  God-like  strength  that  will,  of  itself,  almost  without 
the  design  or  the  consent  of  the  man  himself,  rise  up  in  its  might  and 
majesty,  and  hurl  the  GBEAT  LIE  from  before  it,  down  into  the 


180       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY} 

pit  of  scorn  and  forgetfulness,  and  hurl  with  it  the  High  Priest  of 
that  Great  Lie— the  blasphemous  Landlord. 

Talk  not  of  Revolution.  Think  not  of  the  rifle  or  the  pike  till, 
first,  the  groat  Truth  of  man's  NATURAL  RIGHTS  is  enthroned  in 
all  your  hearts.  Once  in  full  possession  of  that  Great  Truth — of 
man's  Equal  Birthright  in  his  Father's  Estate — once  every  man  of 
you  knows  he  is  an  heir-at-law  of  a  ten  or  twenty-acre  field — then 
prepare  the  artillery !  But  not  till  then.  Till  then  not  a  word  about  it. 

Fourth. — The  following  article  is  especially  valuable,  as 
embodying  a  ruling  of  the  "law  lords"  which  kills  off  all  the 
titles  in  Ireland.  For,  if  Force  is  not  in  some  titles, 
Fraud  is  in  them  all. 

MAN'S    NATURAL    RIGHTS.— 1878 
"  On  Lough  Neagh's  banks  when  the  fisherman  strays 

As  the  clear  cold  eve's  declining, 
He  sees  the  round  towers  of  other  daj 
In  the  waves  beneath  him  shining." 

There  is  some  poetry  and  no  truth  in  those  lines,  but  Lough  Neagh 
is  worthy  of  some  notice  and  deep  interest  for  all  that.  It  has  from 
the  first  claimed  distinction  in  two  grand  essentials.  Ireland  is  but 
a  green  dot  on  the  map,  and  yet  Lough  Neagh  happens  to  be 
one  of  the  largest  lakes  of  Europe.  It  possesses,  also,  the  very 
singular  quality  of  petrifying  wood  into  stone.  The  holly  is  a  solid, 
close-grained  wood.  Saw  it  into  any  size,  and  carve  it  into  any 
figure  you  please,  immersed  in  the  lake  for  a  time  proportioned  to 
its  bulk,  and  it  returns  to  you  a  stone  of  a  smoothness  and  fineness 
of  grain,  and  as  free  from  grit  as  the  wood  you  immersed  six  or 
seven  years  before.  An  old  familiar  cry  in  the  northern  fairs  and 
markets  was  "  Lough  Neagh  hones  for  the  razors."  . 

But  another  distinction  has  fallen  on  Lough  Neagh — a  new  dis- 
tinction that  will  take  its  place  above  the  two  old  ones.  Nature,  it 
seems,  had  a  sharp  eye  on  Lough  Neagh  from  the  first — knew  from 
its  bulk  and  depth  and  coolness  and  clearness  that  it  would  be  a 
good  large  nursery  for  good  large  fish.  Onq  of  those  reprobates  who 
shake  the  devil's  club  over  Ireland  twice  or  three  times  every  year 
had  an  ancestor,  as  it  appears,  named  Lord  Donegal.  This  ancestor 
lived  in  the  pure  and  pious  precincts  of  the  court  of  Charles  II.  of 
England.  Well,  by  some  parasitical  process  doesn't  he  coax  this 
exemplary  monarch  into  a  belief  that  Lough  Neagh,  its  waters  and 
its  fish,  did  belong  to  and  were  specially  created  for  him,  Charlee  tL 


OB,   THE  SPIRIT  OP   CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN   DAYS.  181 

"  But,"  says  he,  "  your  Majesty  has  '  other  fish  to  fry'  than  the 
fish  of  Lough  Neagh  ;  and,  for  fear  they  would  go  to  loss  or  to  the 
fishermen  along  its  banks,  would  it  not  comport  more  with  your 
royal  dignity  to  grant  them  to  me  and  my  heirs  —  lifting  the  burden 
and  the  thought  of  them  off  you  and  your  heirs  forever?" 

"  Well,"  responds  His  Majesty  of  the  Mistresses,  "  yes;  I  don't 
see  what  business  Nature  had  to  create  them  for  me.  I  wash  my 
hands  out  of  them,  both  the  water  and  the  fish.  There's  my  sign 
manual.  Take  them  along  with  you.  As  Nature  gave  them  to  me  so 
do  I  give  them  to  you,  and  not  otherwise  "/ 

So  far  so  good. 

Tears  rolled  on,  two  hundred  of  them,  and  neither  has  Lord  Done- 
gal nor  his  blessed  heirs  had  time  to  attend  to  the  fish  at  Lough 
Neagh.  And  the  fish  and  the  fishermen  got  along  very  well  without 
them.  At  the  end  of  that  time  a  justice  of  the  peace  named  Cromelin 
raised  a  war  about  the  fish — didn't  see- why  this  latent  "  Donegal '' 
ownership  should  not  bo  brought  up  out  of  the  depths  again  in  his 
own  favor.  So  away  he  goes  to  the  present  Donegal  —  not  the 
town  or  even  the  county,  but  the  man — buys  his  "royalty"  of  fish 
from  him  for  a  "  good  song  "  or  two,  and  comes  back  with  a  voice 
issuing  from  the  dead  grave  of  Charles  of  the  Mistresses,  and  tele- 
phoned through  the  live  carcass  of  the  Marquis  of  Donegal,  ordering 
the  fishermen  to  "  hands  off"  and  let  Cromelin  into  his  "  royalty." 

Thefishermen  heard  the  voice,  but  they  heeded  it  not,  and  Cromelin 
disappears  off  the  scene,  leaving  a  group  of  trustees  behind  him  to 
uproot  the  fishermen  and  scatter  their  nets.  They  cite  the  fisher- 
men, as  thieves  and  robbers,  before  the  nearest  justice — we  believe 
before  Cromelin  himself,  who  very  quickly  denounces  fine  and  im- 
prisonment, but  is  stopped  short  by  an  appeal  to  the  court  above. 
The  one  side  pleads  natural  right  and  "  immemorial  iisage,"  the  other 
interposes  the  not-to-be-questioned  right  of  the  defunct  Charles  to 
make  disposition  of  the  fish  forever  and  ever.  The  two  naked  issues 
came  up  before  Mr.  Justice  Lawson  and  a  jury,  at  the  Assizes  of 
Belfast,  and,  as  a  good  judge,  learned  in  the  stupidities  of  the  law, 
he  hooted  at  the  disputation.  The  right  of  Charles  to  give  and 
Donegal  to  receive  and  his  heirs  to  transfer  to  Cromelin,  and  Crome- 
lin to  transfer  to  the  trustees  (the  staff  and  the  dog  and  the  kid  and 
the  bush  of  blackberries)  were  all  affirmed  by  Mr.  Justice  Lawson, 
His  Justiceship  refusing  to  let  it  go  to  the  jury  at  all.  But  up  it 
went  oh  another  appeal  to  the  Courts  in  Dublin,  and  thence  pro- 
gressed across  the  Channel  to  the  House  of  Lords. 


182       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  OENTUBY } 

Here,  strange  to  say,  a  rebellion  broke  out  among  the  "law  lords" 
against  the  supremacy  of  the  dead  Charles,  and  this  is  the  shape  it 
took.  Here's  what  they  agreed  upon  : 

First — Lawson  had  no  right  to  abolish  the  trial  by  jury. 

Second— A  patent  from  Charles  II.  was  not  at  all  sufficient  to  settle 
the  question  of  ownership. 

Third — The  Lord  Chancellor  observed  that  "  no  evidence  was  given 
how  the  Croim  became  possessed  of  the  fishery" 

Fourth — Lord  Blackburno  said  that  "  on  the  evidence  before  them 
the  jury  would  have  been  justified  in  finding  a  verdict  for  the  defend- 
ants"— that  is,  for  the  public. 

Fifth — (and  most  important  of  all)  Lord  Cairns  asks — actually,  and 
to  the  horror  of  all  land  thieves  in  the  rack-rented  islands — asks  this 
question:  "How  DID  CHARLES  II.  GET  THE  FISHERY  OF  LOUGH 
NEAGH?"  and  adds : 

"  If  Charles  II.  got  the  fishery  of  Lough  Noagh  by  VIOLENCE  or  FRA  VD 
or  by  any  ILLEGAL  MEANS,  he  had  no  more  right  to  give  it  to  the 
Marquis  of  Donegal  than  he  had  to  give  him  the  fee-simple  of  the  planet 
Neptune." 

"  The  fee-simple  of  the  planet  Neptune !"  Here  let  us  pause  and 
take  breath,  abd  assure  ourselves  that  we  are  actually  alive  and 
awake,  and  that  we  are  quoting  the  singular  and  sublime  words  of 
such  a  body  as  the  law  peers  of  England — sublime  for  once,  if  they 
never  were  so  before  and  never  will  be  again.  Powerful,  indeed, 
must  the  truth  be  when  it  forces  itself  into  the  learned  brains  and 
out  through  the  learned  mouth  of  such  a  body. 

Let  us  now  repose  the  Whole  question,  then,  on  a  query  or  a  conun- 
drum, or  whatever  you  like  to  call  it :  If  the  man  giving  the  title 
— say  William  or  Cromwell  or  James — got  his  own  title  by  "  violence, 
or  fraud"  had  he  or  had  he  not  a  right  to  give  a  title  to  anybody 
else?  That's  the  conundrum.  The  Chancellor  and  the  ' '  law  lords,"  to 
our  joyful  surprise  and  astonishment,  say  "THEY  HAD  NOT."  So 
the  only  question  that  remains  is  whether  the  land  thieves  or  their 
ancestors  did  or  did  not  come  to  their  title  by  "  fraud  or  violence." 
— a  question  I  leave  the  historic  records  to  decide. 

About  this  time  (1878)  all  the  liberal  papers  and  liberal 
platforms  and  liberal  pulpits  in  Ireland  rang  out  in  favor  of 
that  open,  palpable  delusion, "  Home  Kule."  All  their  clamor 
in  its  favor  was  re-echoed  by  the  "liberal "  armies  on  this  side 
of  the  ocean.  The  Irish  World  stood  alone  exposing,  oppos- 


OK,    THE  SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY    IN   MODERN   DAYS.  183 

ing  and  ridiculing  it.  It  was  incepted  by  Isaac  Butt,  a  born, 
bred  and  natural  Tory.  He  called  around  him  gentlemen, 
none  but  "gentlemen,"  of  both  political  parties,  and  a  first 
canon  of  their  creed  was  protection  of  the  vested  robberies 
which  they  called  "vested  rights!"  Didn't  the  Irish  World 
attack  it  in  this  way? 

HOME    BULE  — ITS    DYING    FLUKEY.— 1878. 

"When  the  monster  of  the  Northern  deep  feels  the  harpoon  of  the 
hunter  he  lashes  the  waters  into  a  foam  and  spouts  to  any  height 
and  any  distance.  The  dying  Home  Kule  party — that  assemblage  of 
hollow-hearted,  picked-out,  propertied  aristocrats — is  in  the  condi- 
tion of  the  whale  just  now.  The  people  had  got  tired  and  disgusted 
with  its  performances.  Its  out-branches  were  dying  out  or  dead. 
Its  machinery  run  down  flat  for  want  of  the  mainspring — public  sup- 
port. The  first  petty  "flurry  "  they  made  of  "Obstruction "  having 
subsided  down  toward  the  quietude  of  death,  the  party  gives  one 
more  dying  heave  to  the  waters.  It  takes  the  shape  of  a  three  days' 
Conference  in  Dublin,  ending  23d  October.  Whether  this  splurge 
will  attract  much  attention  we  shall  see,  and  whether  it  should 
attract  anything  but  contempt  or  execration  let  us  now  examine. 

It  proposes  a  war  against  Mr.  Butt.  To  what  end?  Is  not  Mr. 
Butt  already  a  dead  cock  in  the  pit?  "  Ah  !  well,  but,  you  see,  can't 
we  make  a  noise  crowing  over  him?"  Gallant  fellows,  those  Ob- 
structionists !  If  they  haven't  gained  a  victory  over  the  alien  House 
they  expect  to  have  it  over  Isaac  Butt.  And  isn't  that  something? 

And  so  with  the  flush  of  this  great  unachieved  victory  on  their 
cheek,  they  boldly  advance  farther  on  their  regenerating  path.  How 
advance?  and  to  what  end?  Why,  they  will  make  a  "  tour  through 
the  entire  Island  "  and  rouse  the  people.  House  them  to  what?  To 
the  great  question  of  "  Obstruction!"  They  will  rouse  the  constit- 
uencies; they  will  march  candidates  into  the  field  pledged  to  "ob- 
struct" the  alien  House  so  as  "to  stop  Parliamentary  business.1' 

Can  they  do  this?  Not  at  all — not  the  least  approach  to  it.  But 
they  will  "  force  the  Parliament  to  expel  them  " — can  they  not  effect 
that  much?  We  say  again,  not  at  all — not  the  least  approach  to  it. 
For,  by  a  simple  change  of  the  "  rules  of  the  House,"  in  shortening 
debate,  similar  even  to  our  "previous  question,"  the  alien  Parlia- 
ment may  spit  upon  their  "  obstruction  "  without  expelling  or  im- 
prisoning, or  even  voting  a  censure  on  any  one  man  engaged  in  it. 

And  now  Mr.  ParneU  and   the  other  booted  and   spurred   and 


184       THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBT  J 

mounted  horsemen  of  Home  Oppression,  which  happens  to  be  the 
true  name  of  Home  Eule — the  rule  of  the  rack-renters — will  fly 
around  the  country  offering  to  the  people  a  clumsy,  transparent  false- 
hood as  a  truth.  Offering,  in  short,  a  gross  insult  to  the  people,  in 
addition  to  a  murderous  wrong.  Daring  to  presume  that  the  people 
of  Ireland  are  so  ignorant  that  they  cannot  even  see  through  this  insult 
of  "expulsion,"  which  the  itinerant  mountebanks  who  travel  round 
the  country  offer  to  them. 

But  what  can  they  do — those  booted  and  spurred  gentlemen? 
"Where  do  they  get  the  boots  and  spurs?  Do  they  not  get  them  from 
the  great  land  thefts,  either  directly  or  indirectly?  At  any  rate, 
those  land  thefts  are  quite  compatible  with  their  enjoyment  of  boots 
and  spurs.  Abolish  the  land  robberies  to-morrow,  and  the  boots  of 
most  of  them,  might  change  into  brogans.  Instead  of  cultivating 
Home  Eule  delusions,  it  is  possible  that  they  might  legitimately 
come  to  cultivate  a  ten-acre  patch  for  a  living.  No,  no  !  The  Land 
Robbery  must  be  kept  in  the  background.  Away,  kept  out  of  sight — for 
if  the  [people  are  allowed  to  think  of  it  there  may  be  some  slight 
change  from  boots  to  brogans. 

But  the  people  will  be  allowed  to  think  of  it  and  roused  up  to  think 
of  it.  What  though  one  vast  conspiracy  to  screen  that  Bobbery 
covers  the  whole  land?  What  if  the  "  patriot  '  endorses  it,  the  pul- 
pit consecrates  it,  the  editorial  army  covers  it  with  its  guns?  What 
if  a  thousand  Home  Bule  screamers  rush  from  post  to  pillar  round 
the  island,  begging  attention  away  from  it — away  to  their  buffoonery  ? 
What  if  they  shut  it  down — this  Laud  Bobbery  and  Blasphemy — 
down  into  the  caverns  of  their  silence  and  lock  the  door  of  their 
mouth  upon  it?  The  Great  Truth  of  man's  Equal  Inheritance  in  kin 
Fathers  Estate  will  burst'  through  the  buffoonery — will  crack  open  the 
cerements  of  their  dead  mouths — and  out  it  will  come,  placidly  and 
peacefully  or  with  a  crash  that  will  be  neither  placid  nor  peaceful 
— out  into  the  light  even  of  the  nineteenth  century  before  its  close. 
This  buffoonery,  this  last  gross  insult  offered  to  the  people  of  Ire- 
land !  Are  ye,  indeed,  so  stupid,  Messrs.  Home  Shammers,  as  to 
think  it  will  keep  out  the  light? — keep  the  Irish  people  eternally 
working  in  the  rattle  and  the  weight  of  the  land  thief's  chain? 

No,  no  !  That  uncreated  orchard  on  the  hillside ;  that  undrained 
meadow;  that  quarter  cultivated  field;  that  cabin  with  the  grcou 
water  tracks  trickling  down  its  inside  walls ;  that  man  with  the 
"windowed"  garment  and  bent  frame  and  asking  stomach;  that 
woman  once  so  lovely  in  her  girlhood,  now  with  disheveled  hair  and 


OR,  THE  SPEMT  OF  CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN  DATS.  185 

care-worn  countenance ;  those  barefoot  little  ones  with  the  out-worn 
;  raggedness  napping  around  them ;  all  this  must  be  changed,  good 
"Messrs.  Home  Shammer*.  The  orchard  must  bloom,  the  meadow 
flourish,  the  cottage  smile;  decent  clothes,  cheerful  hearts  and 
faces;  no  dread  of  the  robber  bailiff  or  exterminating  sheriff;  a 
thought  of  brightness  and  hope  for  the  morrow,  instead  of  a  thought 
of  darkness  and  despair.  All,  all  this  must  come.  And  all  this 
would  be  better  for  all  parties,  even  for  the  rack-rent  thieves.  So 

look  to  it !     All  this  must  come,  or  doom  must  come?" 

i 

Those  teachings  wero  faithfully  followed  up.  The  famine 
that  set  in — the  necessity  that  called  aloud  for  help — called 
attention  to  the  cause  of  the  necessity.  Mr.  Parnell's  visit 
to  America  intensified  that  attention,  and  the  drift  of  events 
on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  gave  strength  and  impetus  to  the 
Great  Truth  and  the  Great  Necessity.  Just  at  this  juncture, 
too,  Beaconsfield  over-reached  himself  and  dissolved  Parlia- 
ment. The  Great  Truth  was  sufficiently  in  motion  to  force 
its  way  in  some  shape  into  all  the  turmoils  of  the  Elections. 
For  it  or  against  it,  it  was  introduced  into  them  all.  The 
impetus  thus  given  to  it  who  shall  estimate?  What  is  here 
stated  aided  also  to  give  it  both  force  and  direction. 

It  was  snowing  heavily  when  Mr.  Parnell  held  his  last  levee 
in  New  York  on  his  departure  to  take  part  in  the  elec- 
tions. Home  Rule  was  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  he  was  ex- 
horted to  substitute  "  Land  "  for  "  Home  Rule,"  and  let  the 
latter  drop  out  of  the  programme.  He  did  so.  "  Land — 
land  as  God  gave  it,"  became  the  rallying  cry,  and  it  carried 
all  before  it  in  Ireland.  The  Land  League  was  formed,  and 
at  its  first  session  demanded  a  two  years'  suspension  of 
evictions,  and  actually  proposed  to  buy  out  the  Blasphemers 
at  some  twenty  odd  years'  purchase.  They  were  reminded 
that  this  was  at  least"  premature — that  the  matter  should  be 
referred  to  the  judgment  of  the  people  at  the  numerous  pub- 
lic meetings  that  were  now  to  come.  This  was  acceded  to, 
and  Gladstone  sat  down  to  incubate  his  bill.  He  had  done 
something  ten  years  before,  and  it  was  expected  that  the 
experience  and  reflection  of  the  ten  years  would  enlarge  and 
strengthen  him.  Forster  had  been  a  pilgrim  to  the  famine 
thirty  odd  years  before,  and  John  Bright  had  said  brilliant 
and  even  ominous  words  on  the  subject  at  the  close  of  the 
late  session.  Sir  Cliarlea  Dilke,  too,  a  professed  Republican, 


186  THE   ODD   BOOK    OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY; 

selected  by  Gladstone  roused  expectation.  But  not  a  mem- 
ber either  in  House  or  in  Cabinet  had  the  least  sense  of  the 
GREAT  ISSUE  now  up  for  judgment.  Not  one  of  them  realized 
that  to  clutch  and  huxter  out  what  the  Creator  had  given 
freely  was  an  IMPIETY  riding  horseback  on  a  LIE.  And  likely 
not  a  man  among  the  double  squad  but  would  have  made  a 
most  orthodox  Turk  had  he  been  bred  up  in  Constantinople. 
Discussions  of  the  subject  in  Parliament  could  do  good  only 
so  far  as  those  discussions  were  re-discussed  outside,  not 
in  the  Isles  alone,  but  on  the  continent,  in  America,  every- 
where. It  formed  a  grand  opening  to  spread  abroad  the 
Divine  Truth  that  had  now  come  down.  To  tell  the  nations 
that  the  Creator  made  the  land  a  free  gift,  not  to  the  Liars 
and  Rogues,  but  to  the  whole  Human  Family.  But  it  seems 
the  "Parliamenters"  themselves  did  not  want  the  Truth  to  be 
known.  At  least  they  did  not  attempt  to  make  it  known. 
Indeed  it  is  to  be  questioned  whether  one  of  them,  up  till  very 
recently,  realized  or  accepted  it  at  all. 

And  80  light  skirmishing  went  on  in  Parliament  and 
heavy  skirmishing  went  on  in  the  large  and  quickly 
succeeding  meetings  that  now  rang  all  over  Ireland.  Even 
at  these  the  speakers  and  the  writers  kept  almost  dumb 
about  the  Great  Truth.  But  the  primitive  strata  did 
not  keep  dumb.  Explosions  burst  forth  everywhere.  "  No 
Rent!"  "No  Land  Thieves!"  "God  made  the  Land  for  the 
People!"  Weekly  vollies  from  the  Irish  World  boomed 
across  the  ocean,  and  aided — at  least  aided — the  explosions, 
and  gave  them  an  echo  far  and  wide.  Dunraven  and  Orra- 
no-more  did  not  mend  the  matter  when  they  proclaimed  in 
the  House  of  Lords  that  the  Irish  newspapers  did  them  (the 
peer-less  thieves!)  no  harm.  The  harm  "came  from  that 
organ  of  American  Thought,  the  New  York  Irish  World." 
Buckshot  Forster  denounced  it  in  the  Commons,  and 
Gladstone,  too,  acknowledged  its  power  by  guarding  the 
ports  and.  post  offices  against  it.  Vainly  guarding.  The 
paper  got  in  about  as  effectually  as  before. 

Thus  it  stood  when  Gladstone  brought  in  two  bills  which 

were  indeed  a  direct  challenge  to  physical  conflict.     I  do  not 

pretend  to  determine  the  reception  the  bills  merited.     But, 

like  others,  I  am  free  to  offer  my  opinion  about  it. 

It  has  been  seen  from  the  first  that  Mr.  Parnell  inherits 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALBY    IN    MODERN    DATS.  18? 

the  energy  and  pluck  of  his  naval  ancestor.  Never  reaching 
after  the  sublimities — sedate,  cool,  imperturbable — never  off 
his  guard,  and  never  hesitating.  No  one  doubts  that  he 
had  decision  and  pluck  sufficient  to  take  up  Gladstone's 
gauntlet  and  throw  it  back  in  his  face,  if  he  had  only  thought 
of  doing  so.  Suppose  he  had  thought  of  doing  so.  Suppose 
he  had  met  the  challenge  in  this  way : 

"You,  Mr.  Gladstone,  have  MAN'S  LAW  at  your  back.  You 
have  a  compact  force  of  prepared  mercenaries — drilled  in  the 
art  of  killing  people.  You  have  the  platform,  the  press,  and 
the  non-resisting  pulpit  sustaining  you.  To  your  money  re- 
source there  is  no  practical  limit.  As  little  bound  is  there 
to  your  skill  in  applying  it.  The  inhuman  ferocity  with 
which  you  enter  conflicts  of  this  kind  has  left  an  undying 
stamp  on  the  pages  of  '98  in  Ireland  and  '37  in  Canada.  I 
know  your  nature,  but  am  not  afraid  of  it.  You  have  un- 
just "  laws,"  50,000  mercenary  forces,  and  the  murderous 
traditions  behind  you.  I  have  the  LAW  OF  GOD  and  Nature 
to  sustain  me,  and  a  million  of  men  and  well-grown  boys  be- 
hind it.  They  are  "spoiling  for  a  fight,"  too;  and  have  a 
means  in  their  hands  that  equalizes  war.  Hand  grenades 
were  at  one  time  an  arm  of  war — hence  the  name  grenadiers. 
They  were  superseded  by  the  musket  ball,  only  because 
the  musket  ball  was  more  destructive. 

"Now  a  change  has  taken  place — a  discovery  made — that 
makes  the  grenade  more  destructive  than  the  musket  ball.  As 
an  arm  of  war  they  are  sure  to  return  to  the  field. 
Their  use  by  assassins  developed  their  power — not  their 
true  use.  Assassinations,  individual  destructions,  are 
not  their  true  use.  If  even  directed  against  man-enslavers 
and  their  guards  the  use  is  unwise.  Their  true  field  of  action 
is  the  opon  field,  or  the  open  street,  or  wherever  you  may 
array  your  mercenaries  to  enforce  the  robbings  and  murder- 
ings  of  what  you  call  "  law."  In  the  evolution  of  things  a 
Great  Truth — the  Great  Truth — has  come  down  to  us,  and 
with  it  has  been  sent  down  a  Power  that  neutralizes  all  your 
perfected  skill  in  the  science  of  killing  people.  Its  -use  re- 
quires neither  drill  nor  skill.  So  you  may  count  whether 
my  million  of  men  and  boys  are,  or  are  not,  a  match  for  the 
force  behind  you. 

"  This  understood,  we  may  come  to  business.  Your 
Arms  Bill  is  to  disarm  my  friends,  is  it  ?  Your  Coercion 


188       THE  ODD  BOOK  OP  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  ; 

Bill  is  to  imprison  my  officers,  is  it?  I  don't  propose 
to  disarm  your  men  or  to  imprison  your  officers,  and  I 
will  by  no  means  consent  that  you  shall  disarm  or  imprison 
mine.  If  I  did  there  could  be  no  negotiation  between  us— 
nothing  but  dictation  on  your  part  and  submission  on  mine. 
No!  The  odds  aro  now  very,  very  largely  in  my  favor,  and 
this  robbing  and  degrading  and  murdering  of  tho  Irish 
people  has  gone  on  long  enough."* 

Such,  it  seems  to  me,  was  the  logical  attitude  into  which 
Gladstone  had  forced  him.  And  at  the  same  moment  affairs 
were  transpiring  in  the  little  Transvaal  that  lent  very  de- 
termined countenance  to  that  attitude.  One  county,  one 
city  in  Ireland,  had  more  resource  both  of  men  and  material 
(and  as  much  of  resolve,  too,  I  may  venture  to  add)  than 
the  entire  Transvaal. 

It  was  fortunate.  It  was  providential  that  Mr.  Parnell  did 
not  realize  the  position  Gladstone  had  crowded  him  into.  If 
he  had  realized  that  this  was  a  direct  challenge  to  him — that 
it  carried  a  gross  personal  insult  to  him  and  to  his  friends  in  dar- 
ing to  disarm  and  imprison  them,  Parnell  would  have  accepted 
the  challenge  as  readily  as  he  would  an  invitation  to  pistols  and 
a  ten-yard  shot.  It  was  providential  that  he  did  not  realize 
it.  It  is  not  yet  lime,  and  will  not  be  till  the  most  rugged, 
ragged  and  oppressed  man  in  Ireland  conies  to  know  that  no 
man  EXISTS  better  than  himself — clothed  more  than  himself 
with  Manhood's  BIGHTS  and  DIGNITY  !  The  men  who  have 
assumed  the  teaching  of  Ireland  have  thrown  their  dirty 
little  exhalations  between  it  and  the  sky.  But  the  exhal- 
ations are  not  of  a  nature  to  remain  there.  It  is  from  a  flood 
of  light  from  Heaven,  not  from  a  torrent  of  blood  on  the 
earth,  that  man's  earthly  redemption  must  come.  That  con- 
viction reconciles  us  to  the  illogical  attitude  of  Mr.  Parnell. 

For  Gladstone  would  doubtless  have  been  glad  to  take  refuge 
from  his  moral  nakedness  even  in  the  convulsions  of  war. 

To  keep  in  hiding  the  Great  Truth  is  now  the  greatest  sin 
against  man — against  the  Creator.  Heaven  forbid  that  I 
should  charge  any  man  with  a  wilful,  cowardly  conceal- 
ment of  the  Great  Truth.  It  is  far  more  likely  that 

*Tho  Groat  Convention  showed  that  tho  Light  was  diffused.  And  now 
Mr.  Parnell's  arrest  shows  that  ho  should  havo  met  Gladstone  at  tho  time 
and  in  tho  way  indicated. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OF    CHIVALRY   IN    MODERN    DAYS.  183 

the  Great  Blasphemy  has  been  so  grounded  into  them 
from  generation  to  "generation  that  it  forms  a  part  of 
their  inherited  life.  But  their  amount  of  guilt  or  of  inno- 
cence is  of  little  consequence.  If,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  the 
consuming,  degrading,  murdering  LIE  is  to  be  overthrown, 
and  the  Divine  Truth  enthroned  up  in  its  stead — if  that  time 
has  now  at  last  come,  no  earthly  obstacle  can  prevent  its  ac- 
complishment. No  new  rent-charge  yoke,  no  fixing  of  the 
fixities,  no  bargaining  with  Blasphemers. 


THE    NEW    LAND     LAW. 

It  lifts  the  personal  odium  of  cruelty  in  all  its  forms — rack- 
renting,  seizing,  selling  out  and  evicting  out — entirely  off  the 
shoulders  of  the  Blasphemers,  and  rests  it  upon  that  intangible 
and  morally  unapproachable  thing  called  "  Law."  Thus  now 
speaks  the  Blasphemer:  "You  are  on  the  sidewalk,  are  you? 
you  and  your  family  ?  Your  cabin  is  leveled  to  the  ground. 
But  from  the  passage  of  the  Land  Bill  into  law  I  had  no  part 
in  fixing  your  burthens  or  throwing  down  your  house.  It 
was  the  law  did  it.  '  The  law  took  its  course.'  I  had  neither 
the  direction  nor  the  control  of  it.  So,  'thou  canst  not 
say  I  did  it.'  "  And  that  "law,"  and  the  administration  of 
that  law  in  all  its  ramifications,  are  in  the  supreme  hands  of 
born  and  bred  aristocrats.  Commissions,  Land  Courts — all  in 
control  of  it — all  of  one  breed — all  empowered  to  do  just  what 
the  Blasphemer  himself  had  heretofore  to  take  the  odium 
and  the  risk  of  doing. 

A  remarkable  distinction  of  this  bill,  also,  is  that  it  enjoins 
not  even  an  hour's  duty  nor  a  shilling's  sacrifice  of  any  kind 
on  the  Blasphemer.  Leaves  him  nothing  to  do  only  go 
about  where  he  pleases  and  do  what  he  pleases  with  the 
collected  Blasphemy,  without  even  the  condition  of  planting  a 
fruit  tree,  to  adorn  the  lands  lie  is  authorized  to  desecrate. 

Persons  who  have  not  studied  out  the  nature  of  this  Great 
Criminal  may  think  the  name  "Blasphemer"  harsh  and  ill- 
timed.  But,  if  it  be  true  that  the  good  God  intended  this 
earth  for  an  unspeakably  happy  as  well  as  unspeakably  grand 
home  for  His  Great  Family — and  if  this  evil  man  mars  the 
DIVINE  PURPOSE — robs,  starves,  desolates  and  kills,  even  by 
millions  upon  millions,  his  brother  man  and  his  sister  woman 


190  THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTTTRTj 

— the  name  of  "Blasphemer  "indicates  only  his  crime  against 
the  Creator.  His  crimes  against  his  fellow-creatures — what 
name  can  describe? 

THE      LAB  O  R  E  K. 

Singularly  enough,  the  first  voice  in  his  favor  was  raised 
by  himself  at  a  meeting  in  Portadown,  County  Armagh.  It 
was  caught  up  and  echoed  in  the  Irixh  World.  At  the  meet- 
ing to  receive  Davitt  in  Jones'  Wood,  New  York,  a  resolution 
on  the  subject  was  presented  to  the  appointed  committee, 
and  it  was  embodied,  after  a  feeble  fashion  of  their  own,  in 
the  regular  proceedings.  More  than  one  missive  was  sent 
through  the  mail  to  Gladstone,  asking  him  to  secure  at  least 
an  acre  or  two  to  every  laborer,  and  a  loan  to  build  a  cottage 
on  it.  Not  only  was  he  disinclined  in  this  direction,  but 
Forster,  at  a  late  period  of  the  incubation,  told  a  deputation 
on  the  subject  that  there  would  be  no  room  for  them  in  the 
coming  law.  He  reversed  his  talk,  however,  a  few  days 
after.  Such  is  governing  shallowness.  Grade,  caste,  land 
thievery,  and  all  injustice,  are  so  deep  and  so  ramified  in  Ire- 
land that  it  would  be  wonderful  if  the  "tenant  farmers" 
escaped  their  contagion.  And  they  didn't  escape  it.  But 
time  and  events  will  teach  them  better.  And  now  comes  up 
a  disposition  to  galvanize  the  dead  carcass  of  Home  Rule. 
It  was  well,  therefore,  to  level  at  it  once  more  the  artillery 
that  first  vollied  it  off  its  legs. 

And  now  the  same  gentlemen  are  putting  the  same 
Phantom  into  the  foreground.  There  is  just  one  condition 
on  which  they  should  be  recognized  as  true  men,  as  reformers, 
as  anything  but  shams  and  impostors.  And  that  condition 
is  a  very  short  and  a  very  simple  one.  After  they  have  done 
homage  to  Home  Rule — after  they  have  sacrificed  to  Home 
spinning  and  weaving — let  them  whisper  to  their  audience 
before  it  disperses  one  little  sentence  like  this,  "  Remember, 
and  carry  home  with  you  the  Thought,  that  your  Creator  did 
not  send  you  as  a  beggar  or  a  slave  to  this  earth;  that  the 
soil  is  His  ESTATE,  and  that  you  are  His  EQUAL  CHILDREN."  If 
the  gentlemen  Instructors  had  done  this  constantly,  persist- 
ently from  the  first,  the  thieves  would  now  be  on  their  knees 
before  the  people  instead  of  riding  on  their  necks.  There  is 
a  little  hope  that  they  will  do  it,  even  yet — but  there  is  a 
bright  hope  that  they  will  be  unhorsed  if  they  don't  do  it. 


OB,   THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHIVALBY  IN  MODERN  DAYS.  191 

I  am  hastening  to  a  close  of  the  book.  This  was  adopted 
at  a  recent  public  meeting.  It  condenses  the  first  great  need : 

LAN  D    R  E  FOB  Ml 

Three  powerful  forces  are  now  settling  down  on  the  Republic.  Corpora- 
tions have  arisen  within  the  memory  of  man.  They  are  increasing  with 
great  rapidity.  Already  they  have  all  the  cotton  mills,  the  railroads,  the 
coal  mines,  gold  and  silver  mines,  shoe  and  leather  manufactories ;  nearly 
all  the  great  industries  are  in  their  hands.  They  are  usurping  the  PUBLIC 
LANDS  by  hundreds  of  millions  of  acres,  cultivating  them  by  machinery, 
from  15,000  to  20,000  acres  of  wheat  in  one  field ;  grazing  ranches  as  large 
as  counties.  They  control  all  the  Legislatures,  and  the  Courts  are  their 
obedient  tools.  That  is  one  great  force  setting  in  upon  us.  Machinery  is 
another  force,  illimitable  in  its  power.  The  Empire  of  China  contains  400,- 
000,000  of  people,  and  can  send  as  many  fifty-cent  laborers  over  in  one  year 
aa  would  do  all  the  work  in  this  country.  No  disposition  of  the  currency 
can  save  us  from  those  forces ;  no  regulation  of  wages  or  hours  of  labor 
can  save  us.  One  thing  only  can  save  us — 

THE  PUBLIC  LANDS,  AND  A  FREE  PATH  TO  THEM  ! 

And  a  loan  to  begin  the  settlement.  The  following  orders  were  sent  on 
to  Congress  from  a  public  meeting  of  Land  Reformers  in  New  York.  City : 

WHEREAS — There  are  large  numbers  of  our  people  unemployed  and  in 
distressed  circumstances ;  and, 

WHEREAS— There  are  large  areas  of  fertile  Public  Lands  lying  untilled 
and  unproductive ;  therefore, 

Resolved — That  it  is  the  instant  and  imperative  DUTY  of  Congress  to  take 
up  the  LAND  AND  LOAN  BILL,  introduced  by  the  Hon.  Hendrick  B.  Wright, 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  pass  it  into  a  law  without  delay. 

Eesoloed — That  the  lands  o(  all  nations  are  the  Inalienable  Inheritance  of 
the  peoples  of  those  nations ;  and  that  wo  shall  "hold  as  traitors  and  public 
enemies  any  men  in  authority  who  shall  dare  to  shut  out  the  people  of  this 
nation  from  the  lauds  of  this  nation.  And  no  matter  under  what  guise  or 
pretense  they  may  try  to  cover  up  this  crime,  we  shall  not  submit  to  it. 
Better  that  the  whole  existing  generation  should  perish  than  that  our  pos- 
terity should  bo  enslaved. 

Resolved—  That  DISINHERITANCE  is  SLAVERY— Wages  Slavery — which,  in 
most  of  ita  phases,  is  worse  than  Chattel  Slavery ;  more  easily  worked  and 
more  profitable  to  the  slave-driver— more  crushing,  and  even  exterminating, 
to  the  slave. 

Twenty  thousand  miners  in  Pennsylvania  petitioned  for  this  law,  but  it 
was  thrown  out  In  the  last  Congress  by  a  vote  of  212  to  22 !  Both  political 
parties  voted  against  it — both  alike  enemies  of  the  people. 


An  aspiration  to  rise  and  become  great  in  the  world  is  a 
natural,  and,  under  proper  direction,  it  would  be  a  laudable 
aspiration — as  all  truly  natural  impulses  are.  But  in  the 


192      THE  ODD  BOOK  Of  THE  NUSETEENTH  CENTURY  \ 

United  States  this  impulse  is  working  incessantly  for  evil. 
There  is  no  standard  of  Public  Yirtue  set  up  for  emulation. 
Labor  is  greatly  overtaxed  and  proportionately  underpaid. 
As  everything  else  is  turned  upside  down,  why  should  not 
work  be  slighted? — assumed  to  be  an  evidence  of  inferior 
mind?  Backing  your  brains,  and  cutting  into  your  truth 
and  manhood — in  law,  in  politics,  or  in  profit-hunting — are 
assumed  to  be  pursuits  more  dignified  than  honest,  down- 
right work.  Work !  which  is  almost  the  only  nurse  of  the 
virtues  that  remains  among  us.  The  lawyer  stands  high,  as 
he  can  "make  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason."  The 
same  faculty  (and  it  is  a  mean,  ignoble  faculty)  is  brought 
into  action  in  the  world  of  trade  and  the  world  of  politics. 
If  nothing  can  sustain  a  true  Republic  but  truth  and  honor, 
then  a]l  those  three  work  directly  toward  its  destruction. 
Both  law  and  commerce  are  embodied  insincerities.  Politics 
is  gambling  direct.  The  public  spoils  are  the  faro  bank,  the 
whole  nation  is  a  "hell,"  and  every  politician  is  a  player. 
The  professional  gambler  is  not  more  sunken  and  lost  than 
is  the  professional  politician.  And  the  unnatural  pressure 
put  upon  the  wage  worker  tends  to  undermine  even  his 
honest  manhood.  Tired  to  exhaustion,  is  it  wonderful  that 
he  tries  to  evade  a  part  of  his  heavy  task,  even  by  duplicity? 
To  remedy  all  this  turn  your  back  on  the  examples  set  us  by 
England.  She  has  unbounded  Monopoly  of  the  Soil  and  DIS- 
INHERITANCE of  the  people.  She  has  a  metal  currency  that 
makes  all  trade  tributary  to  money-lenders.  She  has  un- 
stinted power  to  tax  the  people  to  any  amount  the  "  Collective  " 
criminals  choose  to  extort.  She  has  a  drilled  army  to  compel 
their  submission  under  pain  of  death.  It  is  because  we  have 
forgotten  the  murders  she  committed  upon  our  fathers;  it  is 
because  we  are  untrue  to  the  traditions  of  the  Eepublic;  it  is 
because  we  have  followed  her  accurst  example — that  all  our 
existing  evils  have  fallen  upon  us. 

Civilization  we  must  have.  It  is  part  of  the  SUPREME  PLAN. 
Shall  we  accept  British  "Civilization,"  springing  out  of  the 
ages  of  ignorance,  rapine  and  murder?  Or  shall  we  adopt 
an  American  Civilization,  founded  on  the  teachings  of  Christ 
Jesus  and  the  Bublime  traditions  of  the  Republic? 

British  Civilization,  indeed!  British  inhumanity — British 
wallo wings  in  unearned  luxury !  No,  no !  Surely  God  has 
not  forsaken  us. 


OB,  THE  SPIRIT  OP  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS.  193 

I  have  a  thought  that  the  death  of  President  Garfield 
would  have  signaled  the  subversion  of  the  Kepublic.  That 
he  was  providentially  saved,  even  for  a  time,  is  to  me  a 
promise  that  help  from  On  High  will  come  to  us,  and  that 
the  Republic  will  be  rescued  out  of  the  sordid  and  insane 
hands  that  threaten  its  destruction.*  The  danger  is  now 
so  great — the  destruction  so  nearly  accomplished — that  I 
believe  no  earthly  effort  could  save  it.  No  power  but  the 
Power  from  On  High. 

To  enumerate  all  the  watchful  care  which  General  Crooke 
held  over  me  would  be  tiresome.  But  two  or  three 
things  I  must  add  before  taking  leave  of  him.  A  bogus  In- 
surance Company  would  have  swindled  me  out  of  the  only 
really  valuable  possession  I  ever  had  —  some  30  acres  of 
land.  He  said  to  me,  "That  land  is  rooted.  It  will  not  take 
wing  and  fly  away,  as  this  Insurance  stock  may  do."  As  it 
did  do  a  few  months  after.  Its  President  gathered  all 
of  its  assets  he  could  scrape  together  and  fled  abroad  with 
them.  My  possessions  had  gone  with  the  rest  only  for 
Philip  S.  Crooke. 

The1  Pennsylvania  Coal  Company  notified  that  it  would  not 
make  good  an  agreement  for  a  dock  lease  it  had  made  with 
me.  They  knew  the  General,  and  as  soon  as  he  notified 
them,  they  at  once  gave  up  their  design,  and  it  saved  me  a 
matter  of  $30,000  and  more.  All  of  which  left  me  through 
the  inhuman  taxation  of  Brooklyn's  political  rogues  and  the 
destruction  brought  about  by  the  Currency  Screw  of  John 
Sherman. 

Before  that  screw  descended  my  property  paid  its  heavy 
taxes  and  interest  on  its  debt,  and  left  me  $3,000  a  year  to 
live  on.  The  screw  came,  and  employment  fell  and  wages 
fell,  and  the  rent  of  my  houses  could  not  be  paid,  and  I  had 
to  request  my  creditors  (heirs  of  Mr.  *  *  *  )  to  take  all 
the  property  and  make  what  they  could  of  it.  Though  that 

*When  the  crime  of  Guiteau  was  consummated  General  Grant,  in  an, 
interview  published  iu  all  the  papers,  said,  '•  If  this  Nihilism  is  an  outgrowth 
in  our  country,  if  the  President  dies  /  will  proceed  to  Washington  and  hang 
the  Nihilists  and  their  followers."  Here  was  a  declared  abrogation  of  all 
law.  An  ushering  in  of  the  Dictatorship.  Bouse,  men  I  Understand,  at 
least,  the  volcano  you  are  standing  on. 


194 


THE  ODD  BOOK   OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CJBNTUET  $ 


friend  was  gone,  enough  of  his  spirit  remained  to  decline 
this  offer  and  leave  the  property  in  my  hands  in  hopes  I 
might  one  day  redeem  it.  So  it  remains  at  this  day  managed 
by  my  son,  and  I  believe  it  stands  one  lonely  and  honorable 
example  amid  all  the  desolations  that  the  Contracted  Cur- 
rency spread  over  the  whole  country.  Just  before  I  was 
compelled  to  take  the  above  step  General  Crooke  wrote  me 
the  following,  which  I  preserve  to  his  honor: 


And  now  when  the  poor  or  perplexed  man  comes  to  Brook- 
lyn for  the  one  adviser  that  never  failed  him  he  searches  and 
searches  for  his  office.  It  is  not  there,  he  is  told  —  he  has 
removed.  "Oh!  where?  I  must  find  him!"  An  Invisible 
Power  takes  him  by  the  hand.  The  streets  vanish.  He  is  in 
a  place  of  graves.  "  There  he  sleeps,"  whispers  its  voice. 


OB,  THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHTVAUIY   IN   MODERN  DAYS.  195 

"He  has  at  last  closed  his  last  office?"  "And  what  am  I  to 
do?  Where  seek  the  sure  aid  and  the  wise  counsel?" 
"Aye!  where?  where?"  repeats  the  voice! 

Surely  the  life  of  such  a  man  is  a  proof  of  immortality. 
I  once  said  to  him,  "Is  not  the  hoped-for  future  existence  a 
grand  mystery  ?  "  "  That  we  live,"  said  he,  "  is  a  grander 
mystery.  That  the  life  given  should  be  continued  to  us  is 
no  mystery  at  all." 


THE  GREAT  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

Before  I  left  England  Mr.  Doubleday  said  to  me,  "Bronterre's 
•Life  of  Robespierre1  puts  a  new  face  upon  the  atrocities  of  the 
French  Revolution."  Up  to  that  time  all  the  writers  ascribed  all 
the  guilt  to  the  French  people — picturing  the  aristocrats  as  innocent 
lambs  led  to  the  slaughter.  In  the  lull  after  '48  I  got  together  all 
the  available  data  and  commenced  to  arrange  it  under  the  title  of 
"  Dug-up  Facts  of  the  Great  French  Revolution."  In  pursuing  my 
task  I  found  the  most  astounding  falsehoods,  suppressions  and  self- 
contradictions — and  deductions  the  direct  reverse  of  what  the  facts 
authorized.  Allison  gave  a  list  of  four  hundred  authorities  he 
derived  from.  Of  these  just  two  were  Democrats,  and  he  does  not 
quote  a  line  from  either.  Each  writer  he  quotes  from  outdid  those 
who  went  before  him  in  truculent  mendacity,  to  gain  Court  favor  for 
himself  and  sale  for  his  book.  And  as  for  Allison  himself,  he  is  the 
bravest  falsifier  of  them  all.  On  one  page  he  tells  us  that  "it  was 
ths  feudal  nobles  who  laid  the  foundations  of  freedom,"  and  in  the 
next  page  he  thus  shows  us  a  sample  of  the  freedom  they  brought 
into  the  world  :  "The  most  important  operations  of  agriculture  were 
fettered  or  prevented  by  the  game  laws.  "Wild  boars  and  herds  of 
deer  were  let  loose,  and  did  damage  which,  in  four  parishes  only, 
amounted  to  nearly  £8,000  a  year.  Hoeing  and  weeding  restricted, 
lest  the  young  partridges  should  be  destroyed.  Corn  had  to  be 
ground  at  the  landlord's  mill,  and  bread  baked  at  his  oven.  Permis- 
sion to  grind  barley  between  two  stones  had  to  bo  purchased.  And 
of  twelve  parts,  the  produce  of  an  acre,  the  king  got  seven  and  one- 
half  parts,  the  seigneur  three  and  one-half,  and  the  actual  cultiva^r 
ONE."  And  this  is  but  an  indication  of  the  self-contradictions  and 
falsehoods  that  distinguish  all  the  compilers,  with  the  one  single 
exception  of  Carlyle.  I  showed  my  plan  to  Dana — of  the  Tribune  he 
was  then.  He  encouraged  me  to  go  on  and  he'd  help  to  get  me  a 


196  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE  NmETEENTH   CENTURY J 

publisher.  I  disclosed  my  purpose  to  the  Harpers,  who  then  had 
Parson  Abbot  puffing  up  to  the  skies  the  usurper  and  purjurer  Louis 
Napoleon.  They,  too,  encouraged  me  to  go  through  with  it.  But 
before  I  was  half  through  out  they  came  with  a  book  on  the  subject 
by  Abbot  —  the  first  notice  of  which  I  saw  was  Dana  making  merry 
with  its  peurile  absurdities  !  So  much  for  the  honor  and  the  enter- 
prise of  the  Harpers.  When  I  had  the  work  in  a  forward  condition 
I  called  on  the  Appleton's  and  thought  it  good  fortune  to  find  Dana 
there  before  me,  expecting  he  would  aid  me  in  accordance  with  his 
promise.  He  was  working  on  their  Cyclopedia  at  the  time,  and  had 
very  much  the  diffident  air  of  a  man  that  feared  to  be  turned  off.  I 
suppose  this  was  assumed  to  lessen  in  appearance  the  meanness  of 
breaking  his  promise,  which  he  did  most  effectually.  The  manuscript 
lies  untouched  to  this  day.  One  peculiarity  I  enforced  in  it.  At 
the  end  of  each  fact  stated,  I  ask  the  reader  to  pause  and  criticise, 
and  form  his  own  opinion  of  what  it  is  worth — urging  him  to  carry 
the  same  critical  judgment  always  into  all  he  should  read,  whether 
in  book  or  newspaper,  so  that  he  might  not  permit  the  ' '  His-story " 
makers  to  do  all  the  thinking  for  him. 


Is  not  the  mean  selfishness  that  has  taken  among  us  such 
deep  and  "wide-spread  possession  —  is  it  not  traceable  to 
the  one  foundation,  all -pervading  sin  of  DISINHERIT- 
ANCE? Had  Disinheritance  not  been,  would  not  men  have 
worked  their  condition  up  to  its  natural  place  and  perfection 
centuries  and  centuries  ago?  Opportunity  for  development 
had  been  afforded  to  all  minds,  and  the  growth  and  greatness 
of  mental  wealth  had  been  in  proportion.  Destitution  had 
been  unknown,  and  with  it  the  distress,  the  deaths  and  the 
suicides  resulting  from  it  never,  never  had  appeared.  A 
sight  of  these  terrible  examples  was  to  men  like  the  sight  of 
people  crushed  over  to  the  edge  of  a  precipice  and  the 
weakest  falling  down  it  to  death.  So  long  as  the  precipice 
existed — so  long  as  large  numbers  of  people  were  crushed 
over  it  —  was  it  strange  that  the  sight  made  men  take  every 
means,  even  the  sordid  and  the  base,  to  get  away  from  it? 
Had  the  precipice  never  existed  —  had  the  ample  provision 
made  by  THE  CREATOR  been  made  available  to  all — would  this 
selfishness  have  such  a  deadly  hold  on  men?  Would  it  have. 


OR,    THE    SPIRIT    OF    CHIVALRY   IX    MODERN   DATS.  197 

any  hold  on  them  at  all?  Is  not  a  restoration  of  man  to  his 
INHERITANCE  the  first  work  to  be  done  ?  Is  it  not  the  founda- 
tion on  which  alone  you  can  regenerate  society?  Abdicate 
that  Inheritance— leave  it  in  the  hands  of  evil  men — and  all 
the  Reform  you  may  build  will  be  built  on  a  quicksand. 
Holding  in  their  hands  the  GRANARY  OF  EXISTENCE,  those  men 
could  mould  into  any  shape — trample  down  into  any  depths 
— the  condition  of  all  the  peoples  in  all  the  nations.  Establish 
the  DIVINE  LAW  on  the  Soil!  Throw  down  the  corrupt  laws 
of  criminal  kings,  Cromwells  and  Congresses!  Arouse,  men! 
Look  around  ye.  Comprehend  the  great,  great  work  that  is 
to  be  done. 

This  great  work,  which,  though  commenced  in  Ireland, 
must  be  fought  out  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  —  it  is  fighting 
under  Deadly  disadvantages  in  Ireland.  How  many  writers, 
how  many  speakers,  how  many  preachers  present  in  its  full 
proportions  the  DIVINE  LAW  to  the  acceptance  of  the  Irish 
people?  "Whoever  is  not  with  the  Great  Truth  is  against 
it."  .  And  has  it  not  been  proclaimed  in  the  House  of  Lords 
that  the  Irish  papers  did  them  (the  thieves)  no  harm?  That 
the. Irish  World  of.  New  York  was  alone  their  great  enemy? 
Under  circumstances  like  these,  would  it  be  wise  to  risk  the 
GREAT  ISSUE — its  success,  or  its  discomfiture,  or  even  its  delay 
— on  the  conflict  now  going  on  in  Ireland?  In  that  conflict 
as  it  now  stands,  is  that  Great  Issue  brought  squarely  up  at 
all?  If  its  writers,  speakers  and  preachers  were  equal  to  the 
Great  Occasion  —  if,  instead  of  clouding  it,  they  would  flash 
in  the  Heaven-born  LIGHT  upon  the  people  —  if  they  would 
directly  and  vigorously  oppose  the  Divine  Law  to  the  Bobber 
Law  • —  we  might  help,  and  await  their  victory  whilst  prepar- 
ing to  take  the  field  for  our  own.  But  it  is  not  so — the  very 
thieves,  speaking  out  of  their  den,  proclaim  that  the  writers 
of  Ireland  do  them  no  harm.  Is  not  the  issue,  then,  upon  us? 
May  we  not,  here  now  in  the  United  States,  exclaim  with 
Bruce  at  Bannockburn? — 

Now's  the  day  and  now  the  hour; 
See  the  front  of  battle  lower  1 
See  approach  the  LAND  THIEF'S  power  I  — 
Chains  and  slaverie ! 

"Approach,"  indeed !  That  Thief  is  among  us— is  welcomed 
among  us  by  our  governing  traitors.  He  has  "  grants  "  filtered 


198  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  J 

through  Spanish  and  Mexican  marauders  of  the  last  century, 
who  did  not  own  an  inch  of  the  land.  He  has  "grants"  from 
kings  and  Holland  Companies,  that  did  not  own  an  inch  of 
the  land.  He  has  "grants  "  from  corrupt  and  criminal  stewards 
in  Congress,  that  didn't  own  an  inch  of  the  land.  He  has 
"grants"  from  Farmer  occupants,  who  did  not  own  an  inch  of 
the  land.  And  he  thinks  —  they  think  —  the  foreign  and 
domestic  land  thieves  think  —  that  the  one,  for  a  few  dollars 
in  hand  paid  down,  and  the  other,  for  no  dollars  paid  —  will 
have  nothing  to  do  but  rack-rent,  degrade  and  murder  the 
American  citizen — a  citizen  no  longer — through  all  future 
time! 

Yes !  Our  atrocious  "  law  "  gives  the  Irish  Land  Thief  a  very 
encouraging  slap  on  the  shoulder  and  the  struggling  Irish 
people  a  very  discouraging  slap  in  the  face.  Is  not  the 
nature  of  those  insane  monopolists,  and  their  brother  traitors 
caucused  into  our  government,  clearly  brought  out  in  the 
Judicial  Murders  of  innocent  men  in  Pennsylvania? — in  the 
unheard-of  crimes  and  cruelties  and  murders  in  our  prisons? 
—  in  the  Consular  scrapings  among  the  oppressed  workers 
of  Europe,  to  find  out  how  little  wages  they  can  contrive  not 
to  die  upon? — in  the  coalition  of  militia  officers  of  the  North 
with  Beauregard  and  his  unhanged  brothers  of  the  South, 
in  their  proposed  army  of  200,000  chosen  scalawags,  political 
scalawags,  (700  picked  out  in  each  Congressional  District)  to 
be  drilled,  appointed  and  officered  from  that  concentration 
of  political  traitors  now  usurping  government  in  Washing- 
ton?—  in  their  street-firing  drill,  to  slay  our  citizens  should 
they  rise  against  "Consular  starvation"?  The  GREAT  ISSUE 
is  indeed  upon  us.  Let  us  accept  it  at  once.  And  whilst 
with  one  hand  we  throw  help  and  encouragement  over  to 
our  friends  in  Ireland,  with  the  other  hand  let  us  take  our 
own  domestic  traitors  by  the  throat  —  reprint  the  Mary- 
borough motto: 

"NO  AIE-LOKDS!  NO  WATER-LORDS!  NO  LAND-LOKDS!" 

and  scatter  it  broadcast  over  the  country.  Any  public  meet- 
ing that  separates  without  proclaiming  this  Great  Truth  will 
not  be  a  land  meeting — it  will  be  a  landlords'  meeting.  So, 
if  it  is  not  proclaimed  from  the  platform,  let  some  brave 
fellow  proclaim  it  from  the  crowd. 


OH,   THE  SPIRIT   OJf  CHIVALRY   IK  MODERN   DATS.  19$ 

PAKNELL    IN    BKOOKLYN. 

It  is  a  great  meeting.  The  Academy  of  Music  is  full.  You 
pay  your  half  dollar  to  a  "rosette"  politician  outside.  And  every 
"rosette"  you  encounter  inside  insignias  another  politician. 
Parnell  ia  in  front  —  tall,  erect,  impassive  as  a  steel  statue. 
He  is  telling  a  plain  story  of  desolation  and  ig-" noble"  crime. 
But  there  is  a  stir,  a  buzz,  and  a  "  Hail  to  the  chief! "  A  broad, 
burly  bulk  makes  a  lane  through  the  crowd  on  the  platform. 
"Who  is  it?"  I  ask.  "Who?  Don't  you  know  Beecher?" 
"What I  the  'bread  and  water*  man?"  and  I  begin  to  hiss 
with  great  vigor,  not  doubting  that  everybody  would  join  in. 
Instead  of  that  rosettes  and  policemen  have  me  by  the  neck, 
and  I  can  just  twist  round  in  their  hands  and  stentor  out, 
"Bread  and  water!  Bread  and  water ! "  before  I  am  telegraphed 
safely  out  to  the  sidewalk.  Beecher  had  just  been  a  royal 
"birthdaying"  in  Montreal,  and,  surcharged  with  love  and 
loyalty,  who  knows  how  much  of  it  he  would  have  scattered 
over  the  meeting,  if  he  hadn't  got  that  "  bread  and  water  " 
in  the  face?  That  helped  to  cool  him  off.  And  the  land 
rogues  and  royalties  will  never  cite  the  speech  he  made  that 
evening.  In  a  printed  review  of  the  meeting,  one  of  the 
first  —  if  not  the  very  first  —  of  the  leaders  in  the  movement 
thus  characterized  it:  "There  was  only  one  man  in  the  meet- 
ing, and  that  man  was  put  out." 


"Tax !"  There  should  be  no  such  thing  in  any  civilized  nation — 
the  United  States  for  example.  Our  50,000,000  of  people  require  $40 
per  capita.  France  has  $30.  Of  this  2,000  million  two  per  cent  is 
lost  annually  in  the  circulation — a  gain  to  the  Government  of  forty 
millions  annually.  Increase  of  population  and  trade  would  require 
an  increase  of  one  or  two  per  cent  in  the  currency  to  keep  it  up  to 
the  per  capita  standard — making  thirty  or  forty  millions  more.  The 
standing  Army  is  a  great  evil — the  sailing-about  Navy  is  a  great  evil 
—  our  diplomacies  abroad  are  a  great  evil  —  our  Custom  House  is  a 
great  evil — our  office-holders  in  the  General  Government  are  a  great 
evil  —  our  swarms  of  lawyers  are  a  great  evil.  With  our  ports  open 
free  to  all  foreign  nations — all  monopoly  of  lands  and  mines  and 
waters  abolished — Townships  settled  on  just  and  scientific  principles 
and  converging  into  simple  State  governments — it  is  not  clear  that 
we  would  either  have  "foreign  entanglements"  or  any  need  for  a 


200      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY J 

"General  Government."  Few  laws  required.  None  for  land,  save  a 
Record  defining  Boundaries,  Possessors'  Names,  and  Transfers.  None 
for  interfering  with  commerce  by  collecting  debts.  Our  criminal 
law  proportioned  to  our  criminals,  which  would  be  steadily  going 
down  to  nil  There  is  no  need  of  Tax,  Mr.  George ;  and  if  there  is 
no  property  in  land,  how  can  you  tax  it? 


I  had  occasion  to  examine  the  records  of  suicides  in  Brooklyn,  and 
for  two  and  one-half  years  of  Contraction  and  distress  I  found  seventy 
extra  above  the  number  recorded  in  the  two  and  one-half  years  before 
Contraction.  This  would  indicate  an  aggregate  of  7 , 0  0  0  extra  in  the 
whole  country  during  those  two  and  one-half  years,  as  Brooklyn 
contains  one  hundredth  part  of  the  entire  population.  Two  Germans, 
who  lost  their  mortgaged  houses  and  lost  their  work,  went,  one 
after  the  other,  to  a  dilapidated  house  and  hanged  themselves.  Two 
small  traders  in  groceries  broke  down  and  resorted  to  the  same 
remedy.  And  the  owner  of  one  of  the  prettiest  houses  and  grounds 
in  the  same  neighborhood  lost  it  by  foreclosure,  and  threw  himself 
before  a  train  and  was  killed.  All  these  took  place  within  a  radius 
of  one  or  two  miles.  The  guilt  of  those  political  criminals 
in  Washington  never,  never  will  be  measured.  Docs  it  not  stand  up 
side  by  side  with  the  crimes  and  murders  of  the  land  thieves  of 
Ireland?  Men  wondered  when  I  stated  at  a  public  meeting  that  "if 
I  were  to  be  driven  out  of  the  world  in  this  way  (and  I  ran  a  close 
chance  for  it)  I  would  step  up  to  Washington  and  take  on  the  journey 
a  few  companions  along  with  me." 


Though  still  on  the  staff  of  the  Irish  World,  uncertain  health  has 
estranged  me  a  good  deal  of  late  from  my  principals.  It  is  with 
deep  regret  that  I  look  back  upon  the  time  when  we  were  much 
together,  engaged  in  the  holiest  work  that  can  fall  to  the  lot  of  man. 
I  have  preserved  one  evidence  of  their  good  will  to  me  when  I  entered 
on  the  service  of  the  paper.  That  was  five  years  ago.  Two  years 
later  their  kindly  feeling  toward  me  surely  over-tinted  the  following 
picture : 

"  MB.  DEVYP  FOB  CONGRESS. — All  through  this  campaign,  and  all  the 
campaigns  though  admonishing  the  friends  of  Industrial  Keform  to  exercise 
all  diligence  in  making  their  nominations,  we  have  ourselves  refrained  from 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT    OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DATS.  201 

presenting  any  names.  There  were  two  reasons  for  our  not  doing  so.  In 
the  first  place,  we  had  neither  the  time  nor  the  disposition  to  canvass  the 
personal  merits  of  individuals.  And,  in  the  second  place,  we  feared  that 
any  such  suggestions  might  be  thought  to  be  a  piece  of  impertinence  on  our 
part.  There  is  one  name,  however,  whose  full  significance  we  understand, 
and  the  presentation  of  which  we  feel  to  be  an  act  of  duty — that  name  i  s 
Thomas  Ainge  Devyr.  When  most  of  us- were  in  our  cradles  the  man  who 
bears  that  name  was  battling  for  the  cause  of  humanity.  To-day  there  is 
not  in  the  forefront  of  Keform  a  soldier  who  fights  more  vigorously,  more 
unselfishly  or  more  zealously  than  he.  Not  one  !  Mr.  Devyr  is  now  up  for 
Congress.  Greenback-Labor  men  of  Greenpoint!  honor  yourselves  by 
sending  him  to  the  National  Legislature.  Think  not  because  Mr.  Devyr  is 
on  the  staff  of  the  Irish  World  that  we  are  anxious  to  see  him  chosen  as 
your  Bepresentative.  Think  not  this,  we  say,  for  it  was  for  this  very  reason 
— because  ofJds  connection  with  this  paper — that  we  have  kept  his  name  out 
of  our  columns  till  this  moment.  No,  no !  Did  we  take  a  narrow  and  selfish 
view  of  the  matter,  we  should  prefer  rather  to  see  him  defeated  in  the  nomi- 
nation. We  should  consult  only  the  interests  of  this  paper.  But  we  are 
capable  of  rising  to  a  holier  conception  of  our  duty.  Serviceable  as 
Mr.  Devyr  is  to  us,  he  can  be  of  still  greater  service  to  the  nation  at 
Washington." 

Well,  I  can  do  no  more  than  here  and  now  bear  testimony  to  the 
fact  that  the  cause  of  Human  Progress  owes  more  to  the  Messrs. 
Ford  than  it  owes  to  any  other  men  now  living.  For  have  they  not 
opened  a  communion  of  mind  to  Beformers  all  over  the  world,  and 
which  they  never  had  before?  And  have  they  not  inaugurated  the 
Great  Movement  that  now  shakes  the  earth?  They  were  and  are 
the  men !  Davitt,  Parnell — all  the  leaders  of  the  movement — were 
and  are  merely  their  disciples.  As  for  Patrick  Ford,  as  a  literary 
swordsman — a  zealous,  wary,  fierce  gladiator  of  Reform — I  would 
advise  the  hollow  hearts  to  keep  out  of  his  way. 


A  lecturer  in  Chicago  informs  us  that  "there  are  eight  thousand, 
odd,  newspapers  in  the  United  States,  which  wield  a  power  over  the 
public  mind  that  they  could  not  abdicate  if  they  would,"  and,  let  me 
add,  would  not  abdicate  if  they  could.  As  soon  would  the  most 
despotic  monarch  abdicate  his  crown.  The  lecturer,  as  well  as 
the  outspoken  Chicago  Times,  admits  that  newspapers  are  enterprises 
to  make  money.  The  time  is  coming  —  has  come  —  when  Thought 
shall  govern.  The  retailers  of  news  were  not  slow  to  perceive  this, 


202  TEDS  QDI>  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  j 

and  they  improved  the  opportunity.  Their  business  gave  them 
almost  exclusive  access  to  the  public  mind.  How  they  used  their 
"opportunity"  is  mirrored  in  the  present  condition  of  the  country. 

They  did  not  levy  inhuman  taxes.  They  did  not  Disinherit  the 
people,  steal  the  Public  Lands,  or  "scramble"  the  public  mines. 
They  did  not  embody  soulless  Corporations  to  take  possession  of 
all  our  public  resources  and  utilize  them  by  the  disinherited  slavery 
of  wages.  It  would  be  difficult  to  put  your  finger  upon  one  wrong 
or  robbery  wrought  directly  by  the  daily  newspapers.  And  yet,  by 
indirection,  '  'by  counsel,  by  concealment,  by  partaking,  and  by  defense 
of  the  ill-done,"  they  are  guilty  of  them  all.  The  measure  of  the 
country's  distress  and  degradation  is  the  measure  of  their  guilt. 

But  as  the  day  rises  and  the  light  grows  another  change  comes 
over  the  world.  Men  realize  the  Almighty  Will,  and  we  see  in  the 
distance  the  Great  Land  Movement  in  America  getting  under  way.  A 
NATIONAL  CONVENTION  of  Delegates,  one  or  more  from  each  State 
and  Territory,  sitting  en  permanence  in  New  York,  and  holding  con- 
tinuous communion  with  their  constituents.  Their  debates  on  the 
Land  Robbery,  and  all  other  public  robberies,  published  in  their 
newspapers  and  read  as  news,  enlightening  the  whole  nation.  A 
small  daily  at  every  centre  of  population,  superseding  the  corrupt 
"enterprises  "  in  the  matter  of  news,  wresting  out  of  their  hands  their 
power  over  the  public  mind.  Trades  Unions  could  help  this  change. 

Such  is  the  vision  that  rises  up  before  us.  It  is  yet  in  the 
distance.  The  only  way  to  approach  it  and  to  realize  it  is  to  let  in 
THE  LIGHT — to  force  the  GKEAT  TKUTH  on  public  attention. 

In  this  let  ail  men  help.  And  women  and  boys  and  girls.  Small 
hand  presses,  with  type  and  instructions,  can  bo  had  for  little  money. 
In  an  incredibly  short  time  boys  and  girls  would  learn  to  use  them. 
Select  from  Reform  papers  and  books  short  articles,  and  print  and 
scatter  them  around  in  the  shape  of  tracts.  The  Iritth  World  file  is 
a  mine  of  Reform  diamonds.  Useful  things  will  be  found  even  in 
this  book.  Wherever  found,  print  them  and  scatter  them  —  every 
tract  surrounded  by  a  tasteful  border,  which  may  be  deftly  colored 
with  a  toy  brush  in  tiny  little  hands.  The  whole  process  would 
greatly  improve  the  tastes  and  the  knowledge  of  the  young  persons 
engaged  in  it.  I  have  copper-plates  of  the  "Deserted  Village,"  with 
a  preface  and  sketch  of  the  author.  And  of  Burns'  "Twa  Dogs," 
with  a  picture  of  Burns,  and  critique  on  his  character.  The  whole 
containing  thirty  pages,  including  twelve  illustrations.  I  will  send 
twelve  copies  of  it,  post  paid,  for  one  dollar.  It  will  form  a  patri- 


OR,   THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHIVALRY  US   MODERN   DATS.  203 


otic  souvenir,  intrinsically'  'woT  thra  cart-load  ^of.  gift  -books.  The. 
two  greatest  blows  ever  struck  at  the  aristocracy  are  the  "Deserted 
Village"  and  the  "Twa  Dogs."  The  man  who  circulates  if  it  is  but 
one  copy  will  be  helping  along. 

The  work  before  US'  is  an  immense  work.    It  will  take  the  resources 
of  all  our  minds  and  all  our  means  to  accomplish  it.      1  may  err  in 
my  suggestions  —  any  of  us  may  err.      But  as  brothers  let  us  judge 
each  other  kindly,  and  all  pull  together.     Let  me  add— 
"  I've  paced  much  this  weary  mortal  round, 

And  sage  experience  bids  me  this  declare  "  — 

that  the  lawyers  and  the  politicians  —  and,  more  dangerous  than  both, 
the  daily  newspapers  —  now  loom  up  the  greatest  danger  ahead  of  us. 
Even  among  those  are  good  and  patriotic  men.  Let  them  throw 
their  heart  into  this  great  redeeming  work,  and  admonish  their  less 
worthy  brothers  to  do  the  same  thing. 


POLITICAL     SCUM. 

"The  hum 
Of  cities  that  boil  over  with  their  scum."— BTEON. 

If  the  "scum"  of  the  city  is  bad,  is  not  the  scum  of  the  "caucus " 
worse?  All  kinds  of  people,  good  and  bad,  go  to  make  up  the  city. 
Only  one  kind  of  people  go  to  make  up  the  caucus — a  kind  it  is  not 
necessary  to  re-describe  here. 

The  man  who  notes  the  sidewalks  of  New  York  —  who  sees  the 
DISINHERITED  man  and  woman  trying  to  snatch  a  precarious  existence 
out  of  their  sale  of  small  wares,  the  whole  stock  not  worth  a  dollar — 
who  sees  their  asking  faces  turned  to  every  passer-by,  in  the  "forlorn 
hope"  of  a  pause  and  a  purchase — that  man,  if  he  has  a  heart  in  his 
body,  will  feel  almost  a  curse  rising  within  it  against  the  inhuman, 
spoils-scrambling,  dead-locking  "Scum"  that  shut' those  people  out 
from  the  rural  homes  which  the  All-Wise  created  for  them. 

The  lordly  Scum  of  Europe  can  plead- in  mitigation  of  their  crime 
that  they  were  born  to  it.  Our  Scum  have  not  even  that  excuse. 
They  were  not  "born  to  it."  By  their  own  self-debasement  they 
have  come  to  it— come  to  be  the  ignoble,  criminal,  execrable  things 
that  you  see.  

EMIGRATION. — Load  with  warlike  stores.  Take  out  papers  for  any  foreign 
port.  Charter  or  take  the  loan  of  steamers  to  transport  emigrants,  each 
having.a  rifle  in  his  baggage.  Meet  the.  storeships  on  the  ocean,  at  a  point 
fixed  upon.  I  accept  the  fact  that  our  caucus  government  at  Washington 


204  TEE  ODD  BOOK.  OX*  THE  jnOTOTCETOH   CJESTTK"?  \ 


will  do  all  it  can  to  protect  the  Thugs  of  England.  But  can  it  stop  emigra- 
tion? The  British  Government  in  1860  (see  ante.)  could  not  interpose  when 
hundreds  of  young  men  from  Ireland  emigrated  to  Italy  to  aid  the  Pope. 
Three  thousand  men  could  "rough  it"  for  ten  days  on  one  steamer,  and 
three  or  four  such  steamers,  manned  by  veterans  of  our  late  war,  would 
soon  settle  the  dispute.  New  York  State  alone  could  furnish  a  volunteer 
volunteer  force  that  would  settle  the  land  thieves  in  quick  time. 


Working  girls—  "Mr.  M.,  we  cannot  possibly  do  this  work  on  those  con- 
ditions— the  hours  longer,  the  pay  less." 

Mr.  M.—"  But  we  had  to  take  the  job  at  a  low  price  or  *  *  *  would  have, 
and  then  you'd  have  no  work  at  all.  It  will  only  last  a  week  or  two,  and 
then  comes  back  the  old  work  and  the  old  wages." 

[  The  "  week  or  two  "  passes  over,  and  no  change.  ] 

"Can't  change,"  he  says;  "that  firm  *  *  *  down  street  won't  let  us." 

One  of  the  girls — "  Well,  I'll  go  home  and  work  no  more  for  you." 

Another  girl  (follows  her  out)—"  Oh !  how  I  wish  I  had  a  home  to  go  to  I 
But  I  haven't.     I  must  work  and  work  on  on  till  I  die ! " 
[  SCENK — Greenwood  Cemetery.  ] 

"Whose  grand  monument  is  that?      How  much  did  it  cost?" 

"  That  is  Mr.  M.'s  monument,  and  it  cost  eighty  thousand  dollars." 

"  What !    Mr.  M.  of  the  long  hours  and  low  wages?  " 

Yes !  that  was  the  man.     [  A  literal  fact.  ] 

And  yet  don't  despair !  Of  the  best  Reformers  I  ever  knew,  two  were 
millionaires  and  two  lawyers.  Nature  still  lives  in  that  class.  If  she 
didn't  these  pages  had  never  seen  the  light. 


EGOTISM 

Every  man  is  to  himself  the  centre  of  the  Universe.  From  such  a  stand- 
point few  are  likely  to  make  a  depreciating  estimate  of  themselves.  Bather 
the  reverse.  And  so  much  so  that  it  has  given  birth  to  the  significant  word 
"  egotism."  To  this  rule,  no  doubt,  there  are  exceptions.  But  the  gentle- 
man whose  example  I  present  forms  the  one  only  distinct  exception  to 
it  that  I  have  ever  known.  The  capacity  which  grasped  first  principles  at 
first  sight,  and  the  active  devotion  he  threw  into  their  service,  indicate  at 
once  the  statesman  and  the  patriot.  But  added  to  those  was  another 
capacity,  as  remarkable  in  its  place.  He  was  a  born  writer  as  well  as  a 
"  born  gentleman."  *  His  correspondence  flowed  from  his  quill,  clear,  fluent 
and  unstudied,  as  his  language  in  conversation.  And  yet  not  only  did  he 
not  assert  this  accomplishment  but  he  positively  disclaimed  it.  II  a  fact  or 
incident  would  strike  him  as  remarkable,  he  would  note  it  in  his  diary. 

*So  called  by  his  associates. 


OR,    THE   SPIRIT   OP   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DAYS.  205 

Nothing  could  be  more  concise,  lucid  and  well-judged  than  those  sketches. 
Yet  he  would  by  no  means  admit  that  they  were  so,  and  he  always  denied 
my  request  to  have  any  of  them,  published  sub  rosa.  To  fix  more  distinctly 
his  estimate  I  shall  have  to  relate  an  incident  which  I  would  not  relate  if  I 
had  less  respect  for  the  truth  and  more  respect  for  men's  captious  opinions. 
Talking  of  inequalities  ho  said  to  me:  "Nature  has  given  me  capacity  in 
business  to  make  money.  What  she  has  given  to  you  is  in  the  higher 
sphere  of  intellect."  Now,  the  truth  was  that  his  mind  was  cooler,  clearer, 
far  more  haraiomously  balanced  than  mine.  If  it  never  took  pitches  so  high 
it  never  took  stoops  so  low.  It  was  a  bird  always  on  the  wing,  always  main- 
taining its  onward  flight  in  all  hours.  To  what  objects  the  records  in  this 
book  sufficiently  indicate. 


NATURE'S    "POLITICAL    ECONOMY." 

In  1845,  when  my  heart  and  hopes  were  high,  at  the  head  of  the  Anti- 
Bent  Movement,  I  find  this  picture  — so  graphic,  so  sorrowfxil  —  recorded 
in  the  paper  I  then  published  in  Albany : 

"How  IT  WORKS  IN  ENGLAND.— The  abomination  which  has  so  long 
overspread  the  earth — the  blight — the  leprosy  of  landthiefism  is  departing 
and  must  utterly  depart  from  among  men.  God  has  marked  it  for  destruc- 
tion. In  the  decree  that  ENLIGHTENMENT  should  go  forth,  THE  DOOM  or 
LANDLORDISM  went  forth  also.  The  "Beast  of  the  Revelations !".  His 
thousand  years  is  up,  upon  the  earth,  and  he  returns  to  the  Hell  he  came 
from.  Bead  the  following  statement  of  an  English  laborer,  William  Parry, 
of  Charlton: 

"  '  I  have  come  twenty  miles  to  tell  my  distress.  I  have  six  children,  a 
wife  and  myself  to  maintain  on  eight  shillings  per  week,  bread  being  fifteen 
pence  per  gallon.  A  gallon  a  day,  being  one  pound  to  each,  is  what  wo 
want  in  my  family.  Then  there  is  clothing  and  firing  wanted,  and  house 
rent  to  pay— but  there  is  nothing  to  pay  for  them.  The  relieving  officer 
sent  me  an  order  for  one  of  my  children  to  go  into  the  workhouse.  I  could 
not  part  with  ne'er  a  one.  I  had  the  cries  of  my  poor  children,  which  were 
piercing  to  my  heart,  '  Don't  send  me,  father !  don't  send  me ! '  Was  not 
that  enough  to  try  a  man,  without  the  pressure  of  starvation?  I  spoke  a 
few  words  at  a  meeting  at.Upavon,  and  master  told, me  the  farmers  might 
have  done  me  some  good  but  for  that.  I  wa'nted  potato  land,  but  master 
wanted  eight  pounds  an  acre  for  it.  I  could  not  pay  that.  If  I  could  get 
THREE  ACRES  at  the  same  price,  that  the  farmers  get  it-^-t wo  pounds  an  acre — 
I  could  provide  for  myself  and  family.  But  they  won't  agree  to  it.' " 

There  is  more  solid,  practical  information  in  that  man's  statement  than 
in  ten  volumes  on  "  Political  Economy." 

Wilkio  Collins  said  to -the  farmers  of  Norfolk,  "  for  the  love  of  Christ  give 
those  laborers  what  will  enable  them  to  live."  By  the  same  Sacred  Name 


206  tfHU  Ot>D  fcOO*   01*  TBH  NINETEENTH   CENTUKY  J 

let  me  invoke  help  to  enlighten  those  Disinherited  men— to  teach  them  that 
God  created  plenty  of  land  for  them  all,  and  that  of  all  the  Impiety  that 
ever  was  committed  on  this  earth  robbing  that  land  from  them  was  the 
greatest  Impiety.  Many  a  Christian  man  and  woman  have  given  Charity — 
many  a  bequest  was  made  for  charitable  purposes.  Was  ever  an  object  so 
holy  as  to  let  the  Light  of  God's  Benevolence  into  the  dark  minds  of  the 
people?  It  is  only  enlightenment  ever  can  lift  them  out  of  their  wretched 
condition. 

"CIVILIZATION." 

The  word  has  been  associated  with  civility  —  forbearance  —  kindliness, 
etcetera— and  hence  has  derived  a  respect  that  does  not  at  all  belong  to  it. 
I  do  not  by  any  means  assail  those  things  when  I  execrate  all  established 
Civilizations  The  Duke  of  Argyle  thus  describes  the  criminal  "  Civiliza- 
tion "  which  this  book  assails,  and  in  which  himself  takes  so  prominent  a 
part: 

"We  cannot  contend  that  a  civilized  condition  involves  any  of  the  higher 
elements  of  character.  It  is  a  consequence  of  that  instinct  that  leads  us 
to  identify  our  own  passions  and  our  own  sympathies  to  any  brotherhood 
[  even  the  brotherhood  of  land  thieves  ]  to  which  we  may  belong,  whatever 
that  brotherhood  may  be.  Men  of  great  refinement  may  be,  and  often  are, 
exceedingly  corrupt.  And  what  is  true  of  individuals  is  true  of  communi- 
ties. The  idea  of  Civilization  is  in  itself  separate  from  the  idea  of  virtue." 

Does  not  this  justify  my  undying  hostility  to  the  thing  called  "Civiliza- 
tion "  ?  Does  it  not  everywhere  exist  only  to  pamper  and  spiritually 
degrade  a  few  men,  and  oppress,  degrade,  and  in  the  ultimate  starve  and 
murder  the  great  bulk  of  the  Human  Family? 

Embosomed  in  the  Kepublican  virtues,  and  there  alone,  can  a  true 
Christian  Civilization  exist.  Don't  insult  Heaven  and  outrage  common 
sense  by  giving  that  name  to  the  Brigandage  of  England ! 

On  looking  over  the  facts  embodied  in  this  book,  and  especially  in  the 
Appendix,  do  we  not  find  that  the  ruling  forces  in  this  country  are  more 
corrupt,  more  base,  more  blood-thirsty  than  they  are  even  in  England?  A 
Great  Movement  is  about  to  arise  to  dethrone  those  corrupt  men,  and  dis- 
rupt and  scatter  their  insane  accumulations.  My  time  is  not  long  here 
now,  but  I  hope  to  see  them  overthrown  and  the  Eepublic  restored  to  its 
primitive  purity.  And  that  hope  rests  on  a  Supreme  Providence. 


OK,    THE   SPIRIT   OP   CHIVALRY  IN   MODERN  DAYS.  207 

TITLES Congress  being  a  temporary  two-year-old  steward,  and  all  its 

acts  repealable,  could  not  give  title  to  what  belongs  to  all  the  people  and  to 
posterity.  Pennsylvania  first  levied  a  "  Royalty  "  on  all  the  coal  mined  and 
carried  away.  Then  her  political  "one-year-olds"  hocus-pocused  spu- 
rious titles  to  the  Coal  Companies  —  which  titles  are  of  very  necessity 
waste  paper. 

Forty  years  ago  the  rocks  and  swamps  constituting  most  of  Manhattan 
Island  were  so  unusable,  so  fortified  in  their  natural  ruggedness,  as  to 
be  unapproachable  even  by  speculative  greed.  No  MAN  CLAIMED  OWNEK- 
SHIP  of  the  rocks  and  swamps,  till  the  love  of  fresh  air,  freedom  and  some 
green  possibilities  reared  in  interstices  of  the  rocks  brought  several  settlers 
first  and  then  a  great  many  to  build  shanties  on  them.  The  political  rogues 
enthroned  in  New  York  Municipality  exercised  the  first  ownership  of  the 
Sahara  of  rocks  and  swamps.  Charged  rent  to  the  settlers,  and  after  a 
time  forged  titles  to  rich  profit-mongers  who  wanted  grand  mansions  in 
which  to  repose  their  evening  of  life,  made  happy  by  their  unjust  trading. 
Bo  out  come  cable  brigades,  swing  the  cables  round  the  shanties  and  throw 
them  to  the  ground.  And  if  any  spirited  man  spoke  of  resistance,  the  police 
pack  first  and  then  the  newspaper  pack  opened  howl  on  him  for  daring  to 
oppose  himself  to  "the  law" — drawn  up  by  scoundrelly  Corporation  attor- 
neys and  rushed  through  the  bargain-and-sale  shop  established  in  Albany. 


HELP  ALL  ABOUND.- -The  man  working  for  wages  has  no  help  but  his 
two  hands.  The  man  on  even  a  small  piece  of  land  may  have  -a  strut  of 
turkeys,  a  flock  of  geese  and  a  crowd  of  chickens,  all  out  picking  up  some- 
thing for  him.  Volunteer  pigs,  too,  rooting  up  bacon  for  him.  Emit  trees 
grown  wherever  the  rain  and  sunshine  fall,  would  help  him.  A  couple  of 
cows  would  lend  him  a  hand,  and  even  an  undersized  pony  stands  ready 
to  work  for  him.  Pigeons  would  fly  home  to  him,  each  with  a  pie  on  his 
back,  and  the  whole  country  is  his  grazing  ground  for  a  stock  of  bees. 
Every  season  presents  him  its  variety  of  work.  His  mind  employed  as 
well  as  his  person,  planning  experimenting,  learning.  And 

"  The  wish  that  ages  have  not  yet  subdued 
In  man,  to  have  no  master  but  his  mood," 

is  realized.     No  slavish  obsdiQUCQ  to  a.  boss.     No  cheating  him  out 


208      THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUBY J 

of  his  natural  wages.      No  sudden  loss  of  the  job  —  either  to  him  or 
to  his  children.     Well,  we'll  see  nbout  it. 


ELECTIONS They  are  just  closed.  Ever  returning — they  bring  a  con- 
fused selfishness  into  almost  every  household.  Scarcely  one  but  has  some 
friend  it  desires  to  see  elected — simply  for  the  place,  the  "  spoils."  Thus 
the  healthful  stirring-up  of  mind  which  elections  would  be  in  a  pure  system 
is  turned  into  a  spreading  and  confirming  of  corruption  and  mental  degra- 
dation. It  costs  ten,  perhaps  twenty,  millions  to  gather  up  the  public  will, 
and  it  is  not  gathered  up.  And  if  it  were  it  is  not  worth  the  grathering-up 
—a  mere  reflex  of  corrupt  newspapers  and  political  spouters.  That  is  the 
present  condition.  All  resulting  from  the  Boundless  power  to  Tax. 


SAMPLES. 

JAY  GOULD'S  BRITISH  "  CIVILIZATION." — August,  "  Ten  in  a  cell  in  Kings 
County  Jail.  Intense  suffering.  Th<3  interior  like  a  furnace."  "  Forty  in 
Loredo  Jail,  Texas.  Seventeen  escape  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Two  hundred 
shots  are  fired  at  them  in  the  water.  All  but  three  kilted  or  recaptured. 
Mexicans  firing  across  to  -save  them."  Win.  Creever  left  to  stand  on 
nothing  at  13.  Imprisoned  five  years  in  a  "  Reformatory."  Time  up. 
But  not  free.  Forced  to  the  brutalizing  life  of  the  forecastle.  After  one 
voyage  to  Liverpool  leaves  it  for  work  in  the  New  York  Bible  House.  Five 
taxeaters  of  the  city  have  "law"  to  drag  him  back  to  the  "Reforming" 
hell.  "What  for?  "he  asks:  "I'm  at  work  and  living  with  my  mother." 
They  take  out  the  handcuffs,  and  at  the  thought  of  going  back  to  the 
"  Reformatory"  he  dashes  himself  to  death  out  of  the  three  story  window. 
The  news  scribbler  said,  he  had  "  no  reason  to  dislike  the  Reformatory." 
That  "  his  statement  was  not  believed  by  the  officials,  but  they  made  no 
inquiry."  His  statement  was  true.  I  called  on  his  mother,  at  174: 
Delancey  Street — a  German  woman,  of  pleasing  address.  She  sobbed 
hysterically.  "  He  was  a  tall,  handsome  youth,"  she  said,  and  added — 
this  unsophisticated  woman  added — "How  many  young  men  are  driven  to 
destruction  by  not  getting  a  fair  start  in  life?"  But  what  care  our 
"Scum  "  politicians  "how  many"  go  to  destruction?  Are  those  politicians, 
or  are  they  not,  rebels  to  the  Will  of  The  Most  High?  Did  not  the 


OB,    THE   SPIRIT   OF   CHIVALRY   IN   MODERN   DATS.  209 

Divine  Power  create  a  benevolent,  bountiful  supply  for  the  wants  of  all? 
Is  not  the  Divine  Will  trampled  out  of  sight  by  the  junketing  plunderers 
who  reign  in  Washington? 


OUTBAGING  NATUKE. — Ballet  master,  interviewed: 

.  "Yes.  We  advertised,  and  a  hundred  girls  present  themselves.  We 
select  by  the  age  and  height  and  weight.  Under  20,  height  five  feet,  weight 
135,  won't  do.  120  is  about  the  right  development."  "  Girls,"  he  continues, 
"understand,  you  are  to  wear  tights  and  short  dresses."  '  He  selects  35. 
The  rest  go  away  disappointed.  "  There  is  no  difficulty,"  ha  adds,  "till 
they  come  to  rehearsal.  That  makes  some  of  them  wince."  This  exhib- 
ition of  themselves  is  an  outrage  on  Nature.  How  many  of  them  would 
"  wince  "  out  from  him  only  for  the  two  executioners,  Hunger  and  Naked- 
ness, standing  outside !  Is  it  necessary  to  add  that  this,  too,  is  chargeable 
to  the  supreme  "  Scum  "  assembled  in  Washington?  With  the  lands  sur- 
veyed, prepared,  and  a  path  out  to  them,  there  would  Boon  be  a  scarcity  of 
ballet  girls. 

And  now  we  have  some  $150,000,000  of  surplus  revenue,  and  we  have 
been  so  tied  up  by  Sherman  and  the  corrupt  Congress  that  we  cannot  apply 
it  to  pay  detet  without  giving  the  bond  lords  the  "  market  price,''  which  is 
now  113,  and  if  we  went  in  to  buy  it  would  soon  be  120  or  more.  England 
can  reduce  interest  on  her  debt  at  anytime,  offering  the  bondholder  his 
principal  if  he  declines  the  reduction.  Another  proof  that  we  "follow 
England  in  all  her  abominations,  and  exceed  her  in  most."  Instead  of 
paying  off  our  debt,  it  is  now  coolly  proposed  to  begin  with  forty  millions 
in  building  new  ships  to  "protect"  our  sailing  profltmongers,  or  prepare 
for  any  war  they  might  drag  us  into.  The  profit-hunters  need  no  protec- 
tion if  they  obey  the  laws  where  they  visit.  But  the  naval  families  need 
"  protection,"  to  live  a  life  of  well-fed  sloth — rob,  insult  and  spit  upon  the 
'•"common  citizen." 


DEATH  PENALTY. — Mr.  Phillips  is,  as  usual,  on  the  right  side.  He  is 
deeply  read  on  the  subject,  and  brings  armies  of  texts,  commentations,  and 
interpretations  to  his  aid.  Dr.  Cheever  is  his  principal  opponent,  a  .d  the 
Doctor  says:  "  'Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood  by  man  shall  his  blood  be. 


210  THB   ODD   BOOK   OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY; 

shed.' — (Gen.  ix.,  v.  6.)  This  is  the  citadel  of  our  argument,  commanding 
and  sweeping  the  whole  subject."  Mr.  Phillips  contends  that  the  original 
may  be  translated,  "  by  man  will  his  blood  be  shed,"  making  it  a  prophecy, 
not  a  command.  But  if  it  be  "  shall,"  and  if  it  were  a  law  of  the  Jews,  has 
it  any  authority  over  us?  Jewish  law  authorized  the  father  to  slay  the  son 
—authorized  "stoning  to  death  '  for  a  breach  of  morality?  Does  Chris- 
tianity accept  the  one?  Does  not  the  Saviour  rebuke  the  other?  What 
need,  therefore,  wasting  shot  on  this  "  citadel  of  the  argument"?  The  solid 
question  is :  Did  society  do  all  its  duty  to  the  criminal?  Did  it  give  him  a 
good  bringing  up,  and  what  poor  Mrs.  Creever  called  "a  fair  start  in  life"? 
If  it  did  not,  how  dare  it  speak  of  killing  him? 


OUB   CONDITION— OUR    DANGEK. 

Our  diplomatic  leeches  with  their  return  cargoes  of  Royal  snob- 
bery have  done  their  work.  And  now  when  the  "noble"  tourist 
returns  from  America  he  has  "met  all  through  the  States  a  growing 
friendliness  to  England."  He  has  found  in  their  Sunday  books 
imported  pictures  of  Queen  Victoria  riding  out,  and  talk  like  this 
underneath  the  pictures:  "All  the  Queen's  subjects  love  her  most 
dearly  for  her  many  virtues  and  the  pattern  she  sets  us  of  being  not 
only  a  good  Queen  but  a  dutiful  daughter,  an  affectionate  wife  and 
a  good  mother.  Do  you  see  that  boy  riding  beside  her?  He  will 
be  King  of  England."  Here  is  a  distinct,  dangerous,  deliberate 
falsehood,  forged  to  mislead  the  children  and  poison  their  minds. 
On  the  very  day  that  human  idol  was  crowned  80,000  Englishmen 
assembled  in  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  to  denounce  this  whole  Royal 
Impiety. 

Those  Sunday  books  don't  tell  the  children  that  this  human 
idol  of  a  "good  Queen  "  costs  half  a  million  of  pounds  sterling  every 
year — wrung  from  people  who  are  even  clothed  in  rags  and  starving 
for  food ! 

If  the  school  children  don't  cry  out,  "Wouldn't  it  be  nice  to  have 
a  good  Queen?"  it  is  not  the  fault  of  the  profit-hunting  publishers 
and  the  clerical  School  Trustees, 


6ft,   THS  SPIRIT  0*  CHtVALfct  IK  kODltttH  DAYS.  2ll 

Then  "Lord"  Backer  opens  his  distressed  mouth  and  speaks  in 
this  way  :  "The  League  is  too  strong  for  me.  I'll  go  to  the  United 
States  and  buy  land,  and  its  'enlightened  laws,'  for  the  'dollar  now 
in  hand  paid,'  will  give  me  a  •  vested  right.'  "  To  do  what?  Why, 
only  to  rack,  and  starve,  and  murder  our  citizens.  The  "right"  to 
do  this  "vested"  in  himself  now,  and  the  heirs  of  his  dead  body 
forever !  He  has  bought  the  "  right,"  he  has  paid  for  the  "  right," 
and  the  thing  we  call  "  law "  will  execute  the  "right " — even  to  the 
extreme  of  murder,  as  with  United  States  troops  it  has  murdered 
the  farmers  of  Colorado ! 

And  our  caucus-born  rogues  think  all  this  can  be  done.  And  the 
gaping  speculators  think  it  will  continue.  And  the  mad  thief  Kail- 
raiders — and  indeed  all  the  thieves  —  count  that  the  British  horrors 
have  been  fastened  on  us  forever.  That  there  is  such  a  network  of 
"vested  "  plunders  that  we  never  can  grapple  with  them  at  all. 

They  may  be  slightly  mistaken.  They  do  not  seem  to  know 
that  there  is  just  one  steel  wedge  that,  driven  under  them,  will 
upturn  their  whole  mad  Impiety.  Take  a  look  at  the  wedge.  Here 
it  is :  There  EXISTS  NO  TITLE  to  land  save  the  occupancy  title  of 
the  man  who  cultivates  a  farm.  None !  For  the  conclusive  reason 
that  there  NEVER  DID  EXIST  a  power — King,  Cromwell  or  Congress — 
which  had  authority  to  give  such  title.  This  Sublime  Truth  is 
plain  and  patent  to  all  honest  men.  It  has  been  again  and  again 
demonstrated  in  this  book.  But  it  is  of  such  vital,  such  vast,  such 
all-reaching,  never-ending  importance  that  I  must  again  and  again 
urge  it  in  these  concluding  pages. 

Mind  and  money,  viciously  directed,  are  destroying  the  Kepublic. 
Mind  and  money,  virtuously  directed,  alone  can  preserve  it.  Have 
we  the  mind?  We  have.  Standing  on  the  rock  of  Truth  we  are  an 
overmatch  for  the  most  adroit  fencing-master  of  Error  stuck  in  the 
quicksands  of  Falsehood.  Who  are  the  men  that  started  Ireland 
to  her  feet?— that  carried  dismay  into  Lords  and  Commons? — that 
shook  and  are  now  shaking  the  social  world?  It  is  not  necessary 


212  THE   ODD   BOOK   OF   THE  NINETEENTH   CENTtJEY  J 

here  to  say  who 'they;were,  but  it  may  be  pertinent 'to  say  that  the 
intellect  of  one  of  those  men  was  never  swathed  with  a.  college 
cobweb.  Have  \ve  money?  How  much  would  ten  cents  a  week — 
some  more,  some  less — from  the  wages  and  mortgage  slaves  amount 
to?  There  are  twenty  or  thirty  millions  of  them.  "But  they 
wouldn't  give  it."  Just  stop  'that  calumny.  The  money  is  there, 
waiting  for  the  collector.  But  have  we  the  energy  and  skill  to 
collect  it?  Ask  the  hundreds  of  Benefit  Societies. 

Life,  spirit,  sotTL !  is  all  that  is  wanted.  Have  we  writers  and 
orators  to  stir  those  up?  Have  we  business  management,  to  give 
the  writers  and  the  orators  a  hearing? — to  circulate  the  writings  and 
let  the  orations  be  heard  everywhere — in  every  corner?  That  we 
have  all  those  elements  of  success  within  our  grasp  no  thoughtful 
man  Can  doubt. 

Is  there  not  one  descendant  of  the  Bevolutionary  heroes  to  make 
head  against  our  danger?  Are  the  descendants  of  even  the  "Minute 
Men  "all  dead?  Phillips!  Emerson!  Is  there  another?  Kouse, 
rouse!  Form  a  nucleus  that  will  attract  round  you  all  that  is  true 
and  virtuous  in  the  Bepublic.  Those  who  remember  Ireland  will 
be  with  you  to  a  man.  UndeT  God  there  is  no  other  way  to  save 
the  country  from  being  amalgamated  with  that  murdering,  Infidel 
nation  called  England.  May  that  Divine  Power  inspire  you  to  give 
this  one  last  chance  to  the  Bepublic !  The  hearts  of  the  people  are 
sound — of  all  the  people  whom  honest  work  has  preserved  from 
selfish  wickedness.  •  Baise  the  standard,  and  they  will  rush  to  your 
side. 


HINTS  FOB  LAND  BEFOBM  OBATOBS. 
FIEST — The  Young  Irelanders  were  merely  "  Tenant  Bight  "men. 
Man's  right  to  the  land  never  entered  their  minds.  Middle  class 
men  of  talent  they  were,  who  aimed  to  substitute  their  own  power 
for  that  of  O'Coimell.  Dispersed  and  discouraged,  in  '48  they  dis- 
appeared, chiefly  into  the  ranks  of  the  •  liberal  Whigs." 


OB,    THE  STOUT  OF   CHTVALBT  IN   MODERN   DATS.  213 

SECOND— Interregnum.  In  which  the  Phoenix  Society  arose  sec- 
retly and  merged  openly  into  the  "Fenian  Brotherhood."  Object — a 
revolution :  an  Irish  Kepublic.  Man's  right  to  the  land  spoken  of, 
but  little  heed  given  to  it.  Fenian  prisoners  in  Dublin  ably 
defended  by  Isaac  Butt.  His  popularity  thereby.  He  starts 
"  Home  Rule  " — a  mere  control  of  roads,  bridges,  Grand  Juries,  etc., 
and  even  that  under  Viceroyal  veto.  A  "  Home  "  declaration,  too, 
that  they  would  defend  the  landlords  in  what  they  called  their 
"vested  rights."  "Obstruction"  in  the  House  of  Commons  then 
came  on  the  stage.  And  that  was  "something  to  look  at,  if  it  was 
nothing  to  eat."  But  the  Irish  World  vollied  both  shams  off  their 
legs,  and  threw  up  for  the  first  time  "THE  IBISH  LAND  FOB  THE 
IKISH  PEOPLE."  Bound  and  round  it  the  people  instantly  rallied. 
The  famine  helped.  Home  Rule  was  struck  down,  and  the  Land 
League  established.  Gladstone's  sham  Land  Bill  and  coercions 
brought  out  the  manifesto  of  "No  Rent."  The  issue  now  is  between 
the  lords  and  dukes  and  American  dollars.  The  dukes  to  evict — 
the  dollars  to  sustain  the  evicted.  If  the  dollars  hold  out  the 
longest,  the  dukes — big  and  little — will  be  bankrupt,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment in  such  a  "fix"  as  never  was  government  before.  Every 
branch  of  the  League,  therefore,  and  every  friendly  Society,  must 
now  become  a  centre  of  weekly  collection — from  five  cents  upward. 
Half  a  million  of  dollars  (£100,000  sterling)  can  easily  be  collected 
each  week.  A  part  of  it  will  bankrupt  the  dukes  and  break  down 
the  British  Government ;  and  the  balance  will  be  on  hand  to  nullify 
our  Congressional  forgeries  called  titles,  and  restore  the  American 
lands  and  mines  to  the  American  people.  First  in  order  is  gather- 
ing up  "the  sinews  of  war." 

Our  lands  in  the  hands  of  thief  Bonanzas  and  domestic  swindlers 
and  imported  lords.  Our  mines  in  the  clutch  of  scrambling  rogues. 
Even  our  ponds  and  running  streams,  that  belong  not  to  us 
but  to  posterity.  The  wretched  monomaniacs  who  have  seized 
these  lands  and  mines  and  waters  are  at  war  with  Nature.  They 
cannot  use  them— they  would  be  happier  without  them. 


214       THE  ODD  BOOK  OP  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  J 

V   '  -**-.   ;  •     •>  *"*=:"••   -•'•  '       ••'  "     r-*"f  3          •••  *    «•*«  v-fc*..       i>..' 

"  Reason's  whole  pleasure,  all  the  joys  of  sense, 
Lie  in  three  words — health,  peace  and  competence."       * 

Those  three  things  the  monomaniacs  may  have — nothing  more. 
"We  don't  intend  to  sacrafice  ourselves  and  our  posterity  to  appease 
their  madness— their  man-killing  madness— their  British  land-thief 
madness.  In  their  life  this  madness  is  a  sore  perplexity  to  them. 
And  what  is  it  at  their  death?  Somebody  has  written : 

"  Accumulated  with  such  anxious  care, 
Bequeathed  will  be  to  gaping,  thankless  heir." 

Thackeray,  in  "Vanity  Fair,"  pictures  the  sad  condition  of  an  old 
man,  poor  and  dependent  on  "  friends  "  who  wish  to  get  rid  of  him, 
and  the  still  worse  condition  of  the  rich  man,  surrounded  by  people 
whom  Bryon  indicates  in  this  way : 

"  Sweet  is  a  legacy,  and  passing  sweet 
The  unexpected  death  of  some  old  lady 

Or  gentleman  of  seventy  years  complete, 
Who've  made  us  youth  wait  too,  too  long  already 

For  cash,  or  an  estate,  or  '  country  seat.' " 

Speak  those  truths  to  the  rich.  And  if  you  point  to  the  exit  of 
A.  T.  Stewart,  it  will  do  no  harm. 

Of  how  to  live  and  how  to  die  this  book  furnishes  more  than  one 
Chivalrous  example,  of  the  true  American  citizen. 

Don't  forget  that  population  is  pressing  in  on  the  one  side — 
machinery  on  the  other.  Don't  forget  that  Hayes  and  his  co- 
traitors  sent  orders  to  their  tax-eating  consuls  to  fish  up  the  wages 
that  European  workmen  can  manage  to  half-starve  upon — that  those 
wages  were  published  at  Government  expense  in  15,000  volumes  and 
sc&ttered  broadcast  over  the  country  by  the  Washington  traitors. 
To  prepare  our  workers  for  what  was  to  come.  Don't  forget  that 
street-firing  drill  was  made  a  science,  to  murder  our  citizens  if  they 
should  rebel  against  the  starvation  wages.  And  don't  hide  away  the 
fact  that  a  discovery  in  chemical  science  has  been  made  that  EQUAL- 
IZES the  man-killing  business,  and  puts  an  end  to  the  reign  of  bullets 
and  bayonets  and  brute  force.  And  remember  that  the  settlers  in 


OB,   THE  SPIRIT  OP  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS.  215 

Colorado,  who  had  irrigated  their  farms  twenty  years  before,  were 
swindled  out  of  them  by  a  Pacific  Railroad,  which  had  deflected  its 
map  over  those  grounds,  and,  armed  with  a  corrupt  decision  of  a 
local  United  States  Court,  drove  those  men  from  their  homes 
—called  out  the  United  States  troops,  murdered  seven  of  them, 
and  imprisoned  all  the  rest.  For  ' '  contempt  and  resistance  "  to  this 
atrocious  knot  of  politicians,  calling  itself  a  Court  of  the  United 
States! 


As  I  close,  the  President's  Message  is  out,  and  it  is  ominous  of 
evil.  Our  late  war  was  a  great  harvest  to  all  the  public  rogues. 
Another  war  would  be  as  great  a  harvest.  We  have  profit-hunting 
ships  and  man-killing  ships  sailing  up  and  down  through  our 
"  foreign  relations."  If  desired,  it  will  go  hard  or  they  will  be  able 
to  fish  up  some  pretext  for  a  war.  The  possibility  of  a  domestic 
broil  with  Utah  also  has  "money  in  it."  Our  revenue  is  increasing 
and  our  debt  could  be  paid  in  a  brief  time.  National  Banks  would 
then  fall  asunder,  and  national  money  take  their  place.  A  great 
evil  to  the  banks  —  avertible  by  another  war  and  a  new  debt. 
Besides,  there  would  be  jobs,  contracts,  robberies  of  all  kinds, 
rested  on  the  new  debt.  All  scope,  in  this  Message,  is  given  to  army, 
navy,  foreign  relations,  banks,  deposits,  and  so  on.  Not  a  word  to 
the  domestic  affairs  of  the  country.  Clouds  of  evil  loom  up  through 
the  Message,  and  a  blast  from  Washington  can  give  those  clouds  any 
shape  the  political  rogues  may  determine.  Action,  sharp  and  sudden, 
must  confront  them — mental  and  moral  action.  Get  together  the 
"sinews  of  war"  1 


The  sole  use  we  have  for  a  man-killing  Navy  is  to  provide  for 

political  chickens  hatched  in  Annapolis— to  brutalize  our  youths  in 

the  forecastle — to  insult  our  citizens  by  declaring  that  they  cannot 

rise  higher  than  a  "  petty  officer  " — to  guard  our  sailing-about  profit- 

/    hunters— and,  finally,  to  fish  up  that  most  desirable  thing  for  our 


216  THE  ODD  BOOS  OF  THE  JttkrTEEm  CEffTtJKY; 

political  thieves  in  Washington  and  elsewhere — a  War,  with  its 
contracts,  robberies,  debts,  and  all  other  attendant  evils.  This  they 
are  likely  to  accomplish  before  the  Peru  Ambroglio  is  ended. 
Elaine  (mackerel  Elaine)  and  his  Minister  Christiancy,  are  giving 
each  other  the  lie  direct.  And  Elaine* — mackerel  Elaine — has  sent 
a  challenge  to  all  Europe,  daring  them  to  interfere  in  the  settlement 
between  conquering  Chili  and  conquered  Peru.  And  this  pro- 
found Mr.  Elaine  informs  all  Europe  that  the  United  States  must 
have  supreme  control  over  the  ship  canal  across  the  Isthmus. 
Justifies  this  by  the  unjust  example  of  England  in  respect  to  the 
short  route  to  India.  Wherever  England  marches,  Mr.  Elaine  is 
quite  ready  to  follow.  In  more  things,  too,  than  in  this  Ship  Canal. 
He  is  gone,  to  be  sure,  from  the  head  of  affairs,  but  his  spirit 
remains  in  Washington.  Hurra !  for  the  "  foreign  entanglements  " 
that  George  Washington  warned  us  against. 


THE    QUESTION    OP    INTEREST. 

It  is  now  an  accepted  doctrine  by  nearly  if  not  all  Reformers  that 
to  take  interest  or  usance  for  the  use  of  lent  money  is  both  unnatural 
and  immoral,  and  is,  besides, — next  to  shutting  up  the  Creator's 
Gifts  from  the  Creator's  Children — the  most  deadly  means  of  enslav- 
ing men  and  nations.  In  the  present  mad  epidemic  of  selfishness 
that  reigns  over  the  world,  this  doctrine  seems  to  be  incontrovert- 
ible. But  whether  the  evil  lies  in  the  mere  taking  of  interest  on 
money,  or  the  use  that  is  made  of  it  when  taken,  may  well  be  in- 
quired into. 

To  take  it  and  build  it  up  in  an  ever-increasing  pile  is  an  outrage 
upon  common  sense — a  monument  of  the  meanest  insanity  that  can 
afflict  the  human  mind.  At  every  quarter-day  the  monument  throws 

*  In  the  debate  on  Victoria's  mackerel,  Blaine  declared  it  would  be  more 
honorable  to  give  the  millions  to  somebody  who  didn't  pretend  to  have 
giren  us  any  value  for  them  — and  next  day  he  voted  to  give  "Vic"  the 
millions !  And  such  are  the  men— is  there  one  of  them  a  whit  better?— to 
whom  the  interests  and  the  honor  of  this  Republic  are  entrusted? 


OB,  THE  SPIRIT  OF  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS.  217 

but  a  shower  of  bricks  at  his  feet.  The  man  has  no  use  for  them 
only  the  work  of  building  them  on  the  top  of  the  pile,  where  they 
will  add  to  the  shower  to  come  down  on  the  next  quarter-day.  In 
looking  up  at  the  growing  pile  the  eye  takes  a  moral  squint  and 
hardly  can  see  anything  else.  Used  for  such  a  purpose,  the  taking 
of  interest  is  an  evil  second  only  to  monopoly  of  the  land. 

But  taken  by  a  large-hearted,  benevolent  man,  it  may  be  turned 
to  a  positive  good,  instead  of  an  evil.  It  may  be  likened  to  the 
purifying  law  that,  raising  vapor  from  the  stagnant  marsh,  rains  it 
down  again  in  fructifying  showers  over  adjoining  land.  Here  is  a 
"smart  fellow.'*  By  his  work  he  can  gain  $1,000  a  year.  By 
employing  himself,  and  using  others  as  he  now  is  used,  he  can  realize 
$5,000  in  the  year.  To  enable  him  to  do  so,  I  lend  him  $10,000,  and 
I  say  to  him,  "Keep  to  yourself  all  you  can  make,  and  when  yoU 
are  done  return  me  the  $10,000," 

Or,  I  say  to  him,  "It  is  my  wish  to  help  others  along,  as  I  have 
helped  you.  Therefore,  I  condition  that  you  shall  pay  me  interest 
at  seven  per  cent,  that  I  may  continue  my  help  to  others  in  their 
need.  In  the  one  case  that  "smart  fellow "  keeps,  like  the  stagnant 
marsh,  the  whole  gain  buried  in  his  own  selfishness.  In  the  other 
case,  a  part  of  the  interest  would  exhale  up  and  condense  into 
reviving  showers  so  far  as  its  volume  would  extend.  This  symbol- 
izes exactly  what  wise,  unselfish  men  would  do — what  the  three 
principal  characters  presented  in  this  book  did  do,  each  through  an 
administration  of  thirty  or  forty  years.  Peter  Cooper  did  a  special 
hedged-up  measure  of  good  by  his  accumulations — gleaned,  it  may 
be,  from  under-wages  and  over-profits—things  surely  more  repre- 
hensible than  taking  interest. 


SKETCH    OP    SIR    GrAVAN   DUFFY. 

Not  an   individual   man   of  the  Young  Irelanders   dreamt  of 
anything  but  a  stupid,  sordid  softening  of  the  land  yoke  on  the 


218  THE  OBD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY, 

neck  of  Ireland.*  And  just  as  "Sir  Gavan"  proclaimed  nis  own 
disgrace,  when  he  sought  the  royal  tail  and  pinned  it  to  nis  coat 
skirt ;  so  now  he  exhibits  his  slavish  soul  in  a  full  acceptance  of  She 
land-thieves  as  embodied  in  the  Sham  of  Gladstone.  If  they  will 
only  make  their  thieving  a  little  less  —their  right  to  steal,  so  far  as 
Sir  Gavan  has  power,  he  will  by  no  means  suffer  any  man  to 
question.  And  so  he  comes  out  and  asks,  What  was  the  Young 
Irelanders'  complaint  against  the  land  system?  And  he  replies  :-— 

"  Because  it  kept  the  tenant  in  perpetual  poverty — left  him  open  to 
eviction — coerced  his  vote  on  election  day — sent  his  children  to  a  forbidden 
school — made  him  pull  off  his  caubeen  in  the  presence  of  his  master — sent 
in  his  duty  fowls  (and  he  might  have  added  duty  work)— gave  his  improve- 
ments to  his  lord — brought  the  Crowbar  Brigade  in  at  the  tail  of  the  famine 
— sent  judges  in  gowns,  and  soldiers  in  jackets,  to  quiet  resistance — forbade 
him  by  law  to  be  prosperous  and  contented." 

These  natural  outbranches  of  the  great  Upas  Tree  were  all  that 
annoyed  Sir  Gavan.  It  was  exercise,  at  /east,  and  amusement  to 
swing  the  literary  bill-hook  at  them.  But  the  tree  itself !  No  ! 
Sir  Gavan  was  too  fast  a  brother  of  the  land-thieves  to  permit  an 
axe  in  your  hand  or  a  stroke  at  the  root  of  it. 

To  this  rarely  distinct  specimen  of  the  ' '  decorated "  sham  I 
should  not  give  the  slightest  attention,  save  to  help  on  the  poetic 
justice  that  he  invites  now  at  the  nearing  close  of  his  career.  Lest 
men  might  have  forgotten  him  and  that  career — his  desertion  of 
Ireland  in  her  darkest  hour  (in  the  face  of  the  Great  Famine) — his 
blaze  of  glory  at  the  antipodes,  as  "Her  Majesty's  Minister'' — his 
past  submission  to,  and  his  present  endorsement  of,  the  GKEAT  LAND 
LIE — even  the  wagging  tail  to  his  name,  carried  about  with  him — all 
these  might  have  sank  quietly  into  oblivion  if  he  had  only  kept 
quiet — kept  himself  away  from  the  public  gaze.  But  the  man  had  so 
basked  in  prosperity,  power,  and  "royal  distinctions"  that  he  did  not 

*They  proposed,  John  Mitchel  assenting,  that  out  of  six  stacks  in  the 
"Haggard,"  one  should  go  to  county  cess,  three  to  the  laborer,  and  the 
remaining  two  to  the  land-thief. 


\NjtsTCAT£ KOAD. 


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s//>m. 
s 


OB,   THE  SPIBIT  OP  CHIVALRY  IN  MODERN  DAYS.  219 

know  himself.  And  so  he  comes  forward  and  offers  his  political 
carcass  to  a  public,  dissection  that  will  be  a  substantial  gain  to 
political  science. 

And  yet  I  cheerfully  admit  that  he  was  an  able  sham.  He  invented 
that  scathing  rebuff,  "  'Vested  rights' ! — vested  balderdash  !" 

At  page  18  of  the  Irish  section  I  took  occasion  to  refer  to  just 
such  men. 

At  page  167  I  threw  a  brief  criticism  at  Mr.  Cowen,  M.  P.  for 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne — pouring  forth  his  just  indignation  on  Captain 
Gladstone  of  the  national  banditti,  and  on  Forster  (usually  called 
Buckshot),  his  second  in  command. 

In  that  criticism  I  did,  in  one  sense,  less  than  justice  to  Mr. 
Cowen.  His  scathing  philippic  was  leveled,  I  think,  wholly  at 
those  odious  surface  quacks — never  deepening  into  the  Great  Primal 
Wrong  of  the  Human  Family.  That  murderous  Wrong  has  so  long 
held  possession  of  my  own  mind — of  my  very  being — that  I  over- 
looked the  fact  that  it  is  only  just  beginning  to  enter  into  the  mind 
of  the  public — that  it  took  two  years  of  "hesitation"  even  of  Par- 
nell  before  he  accepted  it.  Mr.  Cowen  acted  bravely,  in  all  things,  up 
to  the  light  that  had  reached  him.  It  was  the  spirit  of  an  independent 
Englishman  that  carrried  him  away,  with  Disraeli,  from  his  political 
associates,  in  pursuit  of  what  he  deemed  (oh  !  how  mistakenly  !)  the 
greatness  of  England.  It  was  the  same  manly  spirit  that  ranged 
him  on  the  side  of  oppressed  Ireland,  and  presented  him  a  foe  to 
Gladstone,  at  least  as  (and  in  one  sense  a  great  deal  more)  formid- 
able than  any  of  her  own  sons.  May  the  All- Wise  inspire  him  to 
become  the  Great  Apostle  of  England — to  rouse  her  robbed  and 
murdered  ones  to  a  sense  of  their  status  on  this  earth.  House  them 
to  a  sense  of  their  own  manhood,  rights,  dignity.  Surely  there  is 
no  man  in  England  so  worthy  to  be  chosen  FROM  ABOVE  to  this 
high  mission — this  highest,  greatest,  holiest  mission  that  ever  was 
confided  to  man. 

I  communicated  with  Mr.  Cowen  very  recently  on  this  momentous 
subject,  and  sent  him  an  outline  of  this  book.  I  am  encouraged 
by  his  reply,  a  fac  simile  of  which  is  here  presented.  If  Mr.  Cowen 
takes  up  this  work — this  mission — all  the  Proletarians  of  England, 
in  field  and  in  factory,  will  rally  round  his  flag  and  make  it  a  wind- 
ing-sheet for  Landthiefism. 


220  THE  ODD  BOOK  OF  THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  J 

EBBATA -In  times  not  long  ago  "Errata  "  was  a  standing  page.  I  must 

revive  it.  At  page  12  an  r  is  wanted ;  page  20  wants^a  y  In  and  a  d  out,  and 
ry  instead  of  yr ;  21  wants  a  the  in ;  at  22  i  for  a ;  at  45  /  inverted  and  an  e 
too  much ;  at  46  a  for  e ;  at  47  e  for  a ;  at  49  ao  for  oa ;  at  53  an  our  too  much ; 
at  57  hg  for  gh ;  at  68  a  t  too  much ;  at  69  I  for  i ;  at  74  a  t  too  much ;  at  83  s 
too  much ;  at  94  the  too  much ;  at  95  a  for  e ;  at  98  o  for  a ;  at  105  w  and  e 
inverted ;  at  107  p  for  n ;  111  wants  an  h  in  and  a  T  out,  and  to  instead  of 
oi ;  at  116  t  in  and  Me  out,  and  o  for  i ;  at  123  den  of  omitted ;  at  125  not 
omitted,  and  i  for  p ;  at  120  o  for  a ;  at  133  d  wanted ;  at  140  an  in  too 
much,  and  a  for  p  r  at  146  drive  ought  to  be  driven ;  at  157  the  too  much ;  at 
161  h  wanted ;  164  wants  an  h  in  and  a  t  and  a  d  out ;  at  170  a  d  wanted ; 
at  171  gi  for  ig;  at  174  the  out  and  re  for  er\  at  175  c  for  e\  at  179  y  too 
much ;  at  180  n  for  d ;  at  183  two  errors  of  type,  and  encouragement  mis- 
spelled ;  at  184  wive  ought  to  be  wife,  same  page  wants  a  the  out  and  a  c  in ; 
at  185  I  wanted ;  at  192  "  1839  "  instead  of  "  1838  " ;  at  196  a  d  too  much ;  at 
197  officers  imperfect ;  at  203  n  inverted ;  at  206  6  too  much.  This  does  not 
refer  to  the  American  section, 

The  "Errata  "  is  a  relic — a  curiosity — now  nearly  obsolete.  That  I  revive 
it  adds  a  little  to  the  "  oddness  "  of  THU  ODD  BOOK. 


CONCLUSION. 

If  this  book  has  shown  tltat  MAN'S  DISINHERITANCE  is  the 
great  primitive  curse  of  the  earth  —  many  other  men  and 
many  other  books  have  also  shown  it. 

If  it  has  presented  the  ruin  so  often  worked  by  the  attempt 
to  make  Metal  a  currency,  or  the  "basis"  of  a  currency  — 
other  and  abler  hands  have  done  the  same  thing. 

If  it  has  tried  to  prove  that  an  unbounded  power  to  tax  is 
a  direct  signal  to  the  most  active  rogues  of  a  nation  to  rush 
in  and  rule  it  —  other  men,  and  even  States,  have  illustrated 
the  same  principle. 

But  if  this  book  has  shown  that,  freed  from  such  governing 
rogues,  an  INDIGENOUS  CIVILIZATION  would  spring  up  and 
nourish  in  the  United  States — better,  purer,  higher  than 
ever  yet  appeared  in  the  world — then  has  this  book  given 
to  a  great,  Vital  Truth  its  first  public  expression, 


irir  fa0k  of 


APPENDIX. 

As  a  pilot  balloon  to  this  book  I  published  "A  War  of  Classes: 
How  to  Avert  It."  It  contained  "The  Deserted  Village,"  and  mot- 
toes and  illustrations  the  best  I  could  command.  I  purpose  to 
re-print  it  singly,  with  observations  and  a  sketch  of  the  author  and 
his  surroundings.  It  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  every  man  and 
woman  and  boy  and  girl  — not  only  as  a  patriotic  inspiration,  but 
as  an  easy  stepping-stone  from  the  ordinary  songs  and  rhymes  up 
to  a  taste  for  and  appreciation  of  classic  poetry.  Bound  up  with 
"Our  Natural  Eights"  (as  contained  in  this  volume),  it  will  make 
a  most  judicious  present — especially  from  one  young  person  to 
another  young  person,  but  by  no  means  excluding  the  old. 

It  has  been  said  of 

"  A  pleasant  city — 
Who  has  not  seen  it  will  be  much  to  pity." 

"Much  to  pity,"  indeed!  There  are  thousands  of  "pleasant 
cities"  in  the  world,  but  there  is  only  one  "  Deserted  Village" — and 
the  man  or  the  woman  or  the  boy -or  the  girl  who  has  not  seen  it  is 
indeed  "much  to  pity."  To  lose  its  exalting  and  refining  influence 
— to  never  have  dwelt  over  its  incomparable  pictures  of  rural  life — 
to  never  have  seen  the  Desolator,  wallowing  in  sloth,  luxury  and 
crime,  as  Goldsmith  unveils  him — it  is  no  figure  of  speech  to  say, 
that  man  is  indeed  "much  to  pity." 

The  scenes  presented  in  this  immortal  work  are  at  once  so 
beautiful  and  so  sorrowful  that  it  was  essayed  to  break  their  force 


THE   DESERTED   VILLAGE. 

by  denying  their  accuracy.      Goldsmith  refers  to  this  circumstance 
in  his  dedication  to  Joshua  Reynolds,  the  celebrated  painter,  thus : 

"  Several  of  our  best  and  wisest  friends  concur  in  the  opinion  that  the 
depopulation  it  deplores  is  nowhere  to  be  seen,  and  the  disorders  it  laments 
are  only  to  be  found  in  the  poet's  imagination.  To  this  I  can  scarce  make 
any  other  answer  than  that  I  sincerely  believe  in  what  I  have  written ;  that 
I  have  taken  all  possible  pains,  in  my  country  excursions  for  three,  four 
or  five  years  past,  to  be  certain  of  what  I  allege,  and  that  all  my  views  and 
inquiries  have  led  me  to  believe  those  miseries  real  which  I  her^  attempt 
to  display." 

In  dedicating  his  other  remarkable  poem,  "  The  Traveler,"  to  his 
brother  Henry,  he  greets  him  as  "a  man  who,  despising  Fame  and 
Fortune,  has  retired  to  Happiness  and  Obscurity  on  forty  pounds  a 
year."  And  in  "The  Traveler  ".  itself  he  thus  appeals  to  that 
brother : 

"  Have  we  not  seen,  at  pleasure's  lordly  call, 
The  smiling,  long-frequented  village  fall? 
Beheld  the  duteous  son,  the  sire  decayed, 
The  modest  matron  and  the  blushing  maid 
Forced  from  their  homes? — a  melancholy  train, 
To  traverse  scenes  beyond  the  western  main." 

"The  Deserted  Village"  forms  an  easy  and  beautiful  stepping- 
stone  from  a  crude  taste  for  rude  rhyming — street  ballads,  etc., — 
up  to  a  true  taste,  and  appreciation  of  the  classical.  In  this 
respect,  I  can  convey  no  idea  of  its  usefulness  to  the  young,  and 
even  to  the  older  who  aspire  to  a  correct  literary  taste. 

Romantic  skirmishing  against  Land  Robbery  has,  through  the 
past  centuries,  woke  many  a  moonlight  echo  in  Ireland.  Menta1 
skirmishers  have  reconnoitered  it,  especially  in  the  last  fifty  years. 
And  now  when  nations  are  confronting  it — now  when  its  patched 
mantle  (patched  over  with  "orders"  of  "noble"  rogues  and  "honor- 
able" rascals)  is  being  torn  from  its  back — let  us  press  in  Oliver 
Goldsmith  to  help  us.  He  is  the  first,  and  in  one  point  of  view  the 
,greatest,  Reformer  of  us  all.  The  man  who  helps  to  circulate  "The 
Deserted  Village  "  has  not  lived  in  vain. 

I  present  these  brief  specimens  ; 


I)1GSEBTED   VILLAGE. 

"  Oh,  Luxury !  thou  curs'd  by  Heaven's  decree, 
How  ill-exchang'd  are  things  like  these  for  thee\ 
How  do  thy  potions,  with  insidious  joy, 
Diffuse  their  pleasures  only  to  destroy ! 
Kingdoms  by  thee,  to  sickly  greatness  grown, 
Boast  of  a  florid  vigor  not  their  own ; 
At  every  draught  large  and  more  large  they  grow, 
A  bloated  mass  of  rank  unwieldy  woe ; 
Till  sapp'd  their  strength,  and  every  part  unsound, 
Down,  down  they  sink,  and  spread  a  ruin  round." 

And  this  grand  Invocation  to  Poetry : 

"And  thou,  sweet  Poetry  I  thou  lovliest  maid, 
Still  first  to  fly  where  sensual  joys  invade ; 
Unfit,  in  these  degenerate  time*  of  shame, 
To  catch  the  heart,  or  strike  for  honest  fame ; 
Dear  charming  mymph,  neglected  and  decried, 
My  shame  in  crowds,  my  solitary  pride ; 
Thou  source  of  all  my  bliss,  and  all  my  woe, 
Thou  found'st  me  poor  at  first,  and  keep'st  me  so ; 
Thou  guide  by  which  the  nobler  arts  excel. 
Thou  nurse  of  every  virtue,  fare  thee  well ; 
Farewell ;  and  oh !  where'er  thy  voice  be  tried, 
On  Torno's  cliffs,  or  Pambamarca's  side ; 
Whether  where  equinoctial  fervors  glow, 
Or  winter  wraps  the  polar  world  in  snow ; 
Still  let  thy  voice,  prevailing  over  Time, 
Redress  the  rigors  of  the  inclement  clime ; 
Aid  slighted  Truth  with  thy  persuasive  strain, 
Teach  erring  man  to  spurn  the  rage  for  gain ; 
Teach  him  that  states  of  native  strength  possest, 
Though  very  poor,  may  still  be  very  blest ; 
That  trade's  proud  empire  hastes  to  swift  decay, 
As  ocean  sweeps  the  labor'd  mole  away ; 
While  self-dependent  power  can  time  defy, 
As  rocks  resist  the  billows  and  the  sky." 

I  give  the  above  though  it  is  least  easiest  to  be  understood  in  the 
whole  poem.  All  before  it  flows  in  a  clear  ripple,  like  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"  Sweet  Auburn !  lovliest  village  of  the  plain, 
Where  health  and  plenty  cheered  the  lab'ring  swain ; 
Where  smiling  Spring  its  earliest  visit  paid, 
And  parting  Summer's  ling'ring  bloom  delayed." 


THE    SONGS    OF    THE    UNITED    IKISHMEtf. 

THEY  were  originally,  about  1794,  gathered  together  and  printed 
in  a  small  book  entitled  "  Paddy's  Kesource."  At  that  period 
the  songs  of  a  nation  were  considered  a  very  formidable  power. 
Indeed  one  authority  went  so  far  as  to  exclaim  :  "  Give  me  the 
making  of  the  songs  of  a  nation  and  I  will  give  you  the  making 
of  its  laws."  "Without  claiming  such  a  power  for  songs  at  the 
present  day,  it  is  certain  that  they  exert  great  influence,  espe- 
cially over  young  and  enthusiastic  minds.  Enthusiasm  is  the 
one  impetuous  foe  that  tyranny  most  dreads,  and  Liberty, 
when  the  conflict  comes,  can  most  surely  rely  upon.  The  songs 
here  presented  come  down  to  us  a  sacred  memory !  In  another 
part  of  this  hand-book  some  light,  heretofore  suppressed,  is 
thrown  on  a  most  important  point  of  the  history  of  that  day. 
There  it  will  be  seen  that  what  the  bravery  of  our  fathers  won 
at  the  last  decisive  conflict  their  inadvertent  confidence  lost. 
Meanwhile  let  me  ask  with  an  inspired  poet  of  our  own  day : — 

M  Who  fears  to  talk  of  Ninety-eight? 

Who  blushes  at  the  name  ? 
When  cowards  mock  the  patriot's  fate 

Who  hangs  his  head  for  shame? 
He's  all  a  knave  or  half  a  slave 

That  slights  his  country  thus; 
But  a  true  man.  like  you  man. 

Will  fill  your  glass  with  us." 

The  close  affinity  between  the  French  and  the  Irish  peoples  has 
never  been  made  so  signally  apparent  as  it  is  in  these  songs.  It 
is  noticeable,  too,  that  in  them  a  shade  of  foreboding  is  often 
manifest — a  foreboding  of  what  was  to  come  ?  Some  of  the  songs 
are  of  high  poetic  merit.  In  all  sound  judgment,  aspirations 
the  most  exalted,  and  devotion  to  principle  the  most  intense. 
Here  and  there — indeed  frequently — there  is  a  dash  of  humor 
and  sarcasm  almost  equal  to  some  of  the  prose  passages  in 
"  Billy  Bluff."  At  any  rate,  I  am  proud  that  a  combination  of 
circumstances  has  enabled  me  to  preserve  this  precious  remem- 
brance of  the  men  of  "  Ninety-eight ! "  I  hope  it  and  the  in- 
imitable satire  of  Billy  Bluff  will  be  taken  home  and  cherished 
by  Irishmen,  and  the  sons  and  grandsons  of  Irishmen,  as  I  have 
cherished  and  x  reserved  them  for  the  last  fifty  years. 

As  the  History  of  Ireland  at  this  period  was  closely  connected 
with  the  American  Eevolution,  those  relics  will  be  interesting  to 
the  American  citizen  of  the  present  day.  As  a  rare  literary  cu- 
riosity they  will  arrest  the  attention  of  the  man  of  letters  every- 
where and  in  all  time. 

THOMAS    AINGE    DEVYB 


-SPECIMENS  OF  "SONGS  OF  THE  UNITED  IRISHMEN." 


THE    BUSHLIGHT. 

In  the  gay  domains  of  France,  where  the  graces  skip  and  trip,  sir, 
A  famous  light  arose,  which  they  called  a  will-o'-the-wisp,  sir, 
This  light  it  shone  as  bright  and  clear  as  Moses'  famous  bush-light, 
But  the  Emperor  of  Germany  swore  'twas  but  a  rushlight. 
And  he  puffed  at  the  rushlight,  he  pulled  at  the  rushlight, 
But  all  that  he  could  do,  he  could  not  puff  out  the  rushlight. 

The  Don  he  curled  his  whiskers,  and  the  little  King  of  Naples,  sir, 
Likewise  the  King  of  Turin,  and  they  did  what  they  were  able,  sir, 
With  a  host  of  foes  from  Tuscany,  determined  to  crush  light — 
Though  all  Italy  was  squalling,  they  could  not  put  out  the  rushlight 

The  "  Tigress  of  the  North,"  so  famed  for  spoil  and  plunder,  sir, 

Whose  eyes  can  send  forth  lightning,  with  a  voice  as  loud  as  thunder, 

sir, 
With  her  petticoats  raised  such  a  wind  as  she  surely  thought  would 

crush  light — 
But  it  only  served  to  fan  the  flame  that  issued  from  the  rushlight. 

Her  crafty  Prussian  neighbor,  rejoiced  at  this  resistance, 
Affected  still  to  lend  his  aid,  but  kept  aloof  his  distance ; 
For  though  he  screwed  the  bayonet  on,  yet  he  resolved  to  push  light, 
And  puny  was  the  blast  he  blew  at  putting  out  the  rushlight. 

Poor  purblind,  cuckold,  Johnny  Bull,  begins  to  fear  at  home,  sir, 

That  the  people  will  lead  him  a  dance,  'cause  under  him  they  groan, 

sir, 

But  Freedom's  sons  now  form  the  line,  tyrants  tremble  at  the  sight, 
The  rush  is  dipped,  the  flame  is  caught ;  see !  'tis  spreading  glorious 

light. 

Huzza  for  the  rushlight !  Huzza  for  the  rushlight ! 
Johnny  Bull,  your  wig's  on  fire,  blazing  with  the  rushlight 


CHTJBCH   AND    STATE,    OB    THE   BECTOB'S   GBEED. 
TUNE— "Slack  Joe." 

A  Bector  I  am,  do  you  mind  what  I  say  ? 
In  the  church  every  Sunday  I  preach  and  I  pray, 
With  my  black  coat,  and  cravat  so  white. 

Ye  men  of  my  parish,  I  pray  you  take  heed, 
Till  I  give  you  a  sketch  of  my  time-serving  creed; 
My  creed  it  is— cash,  and  my  stipend  salvation, 
For  which  I'd  destroy  all  the  swine  in  the  nation, 
With  my  black  coat,  etc. 

I  believe  in  my  church,  I  believe  hi  my  manse, 
I  believe  that  religion  is  all  a  romance; 

With  my  black  coat,  eta. 

I  believe  that  the  only  two  comforts  of  life 
Are  counting  my  stipend  and  kissing  my  wife; 
I  believe  that  the  people  were  born  to  be  slaves, 
To  be  pilfer'd  and  plunder'd  by  us  artful  knaves, 
With  our  black  coats,  eta 

I  believe  that  my  head  is  the  store-house  of  senses 
From  which  the  pure  gospel  I  freely  dispense, 

With  my  black  coat,  eta. 

As  it  was  forbid  by  an  ancient  divine, 
To  throw  precious  pearls  to  ignorant  swine; 
Complying  with  this,  my  ambition  should  be 
To  keep  them  still  bond  slaves,  ourselves  being  free 
With  our  black  coats,  etc. 

I  believe  that  my  brethren  all  think  me  sincere, 
For  at  church  evey  Sunday  I  read  a  long  prayer, 
In  my  black  coat,  etc. 

And  if  they  want  grunting,  I'll  make  the  house  rinj?, 
For  at  grunting  they  know  me  to  be  just  the  thing, 
I'll  sigh  and  I'll  groan,  turn  my  eyes  up  to  Heaven, 
For  no  other  cause  than  the  tithe  that  is  given— 
To  buy  black  coats,  etc. 

And  now,  my  dear  friends,  for  the  sake  of  connexion, 
I'll  end  my  discourse  with  a  word  of  reflexion; 
In  my  black  coat,  etc. 

To  believe  as  the  great  folks,  for  better  for  worse^ 
Is  the  only  sure  method  of  filling  the  purse ; 
Which  method  I'll  follow,  in  spite  of  detraction; 
I'm  sure  of  my  pay  while  the  court  has- protection 
From  the  black  coats,  eta. 


BONGS    OB    THX 

Tm  resolved  my  opinion  shall  be  the  same  still 
With  the  court,  whilst  in  pow'r,  let  them  be  what  they  wilL 
With  my  black  coat,  etc. 

Should  they  become  Jews,  I  would  join  them  in  that, 
My  faith  in  religion,  I'd  throw  to  the  cat ; 
For  my  creed  it  is  cash,  and  my  stipend  salvation, 
For  which  I'd  destroy  all  the  swine  in  the  nation, 
With  my  black  coat,  etc. 


THE    EIGHTS    OF    MAN. 
Trom— "  God  Save  the  King." 

God  save  the  rights  of  manl 
Give  him  a  heart  to  scan 

Blessings  so  dear ! 
Let  them  be  spread  around. 
Wherever  man  is  found, 
And  with  the  welcome  sound 

Bavish  his  ear ! 

See  from  the  universe, 
Darkness  and  clouds  disperse; 

Mankind,  awake! 
Reason  and  truth  appear, 
Freedom  advances  near, 
Monarchs  with  terror  hear — 

See  how  they  quake  I 

Long  have  we  felt  the  stroke ! 
Long  have  we  borne  the  yoke, 

Sluggish  and  tamo; 
But  a  new  era  shines, 
Enlight'ning  all  darkon'd  mind»| 
Spreading  to  distant  climes, 

Liberty's  flame ! 

Let  us  with  France  agree, 
And  bid  the  world  be  free,  - 

Leading  the  way. 
Should  tyrants  all  conspire, 
Fearless  of  sword  and  lire. 
Freedom  shall  ne'er  retire, 

Freedom  shall  sway ! 

Godlike  and  great  the  strife, 
Life  will  indeed  be  life, 
When  we  prevail; 
Death  in  so  just  cause, 


Crowns  us  with  loud  applause^ 
And  from  tyrannic  laws, 
Bids  us  all  hail! 

O'er  the  tyrannic  pow'ro, 
Big  indignation  lowr's, 

Ready  to  fall! 
Let  the  rude  savage  host, 
In  their  long  numbers  boast, 
Freedom's  our  mighty  trust, 

Spite  of  them  all. 

Fame !  let  thy  trumpet  sound. 
Tell  to  the  world  around, 

Frenchman  are  free. 
Tell  ribbons,  crowns,  and  stare, 
Kings,  traitors,  troops  and  \var% 
Plans,  councils,  plots  and  jar*, 

We  will  be  free. 

God  saye  the  rights  of  man 
Give  him  a  heart  to  scan 

Blessings  so  dear; 
Let  them  be  spread  around, 
Wherever  man  is  found ; 
And  with  the  welcome  sound 

Kavish  his  ear ! 

THE    TEEE    OF    LIBEBTY. 
TUNE— " Roalin  Castle" 

The  great  reformation  approaching,  we  hail ! 
'Gainst  statesmen  and  knaves,  truth  and  reason  prevail 
With  rapture  the  heroes  of  liberty  see, 
Preparing  the  soil  of  the  globe  for  the  trer\ 
Still  hoping  that  freedom  triumphant  will  sway, 
Whilst  the  voice  of  the  people  shall  hail  the  new  day, 
And  end  the  dark  councils  of  traitors  combin'd 
A  downfall  of  tyrants,  and  peace  to  mankind ! 

Ye  Irish,  for  courage  in  battle  renown'd 
For  freedom  and  riches— alas,  empty  sound ! 
Triumphant  we  came  from  the  field  and  the  main, 
To  be  conquer'd  and  plunder'd  by  statesman  again 
Away  with  the  splendor  and  pomp  of  a  court; 
Our  toil  shall  no  longer  the  baubles  support; 
No  longer  the  slaves  of  a  statesman  or  king, 
Inspired  by  the  muses  of  Freedom  we  sing. 

Te  trees  of  corruption  in  courts  ye  abound. 


OF   THB 

The  fruits  ye  produce  are  a  curse  to  the  ground; 
In  the  soil  where  ye  flourish  no  other  can  grow  I 
But  see  how  the  axe  at  your  root  aims  the  blow; 
Ever  dear  be  the  day,  ever  sacred  the  deed, 
Ever  dear  be  the  day  on  which  millions  were  free! — 
Yes,  dear  be  the  day  which  restor'd  reason's  sway, 
And  fill'd  royal  robbers  with  rage  and  dismay. 

Still  be  firm,  0  Hibernians— still  nobly  disdain, 
And  always  the  rights  of  your  country  maintain, 
Till,  with  souls  of  aversion,  mankind  shall  arise, 
Burst  the  bands  of  oppression,  and  please  the  Allwise. 
May  Heaven  guard  the  people  and  their  rights  that  are  dea^ 
May  they  crush  all  their  foetnen  where  e'er  they  appear  i 
And  end  the  dark  councils  of  traitors  combined, 
A  downfall  to  tyrants  and  peace  to  mankind. 

THE    JOVIAL    FEIENDS. 
TUNE—"  When  bidden  to  the  Wake  or  Fair.n 

My  jovial  friends  with  social  glee, 

The  flowing  can  we'll  quickly  pass; 
Each  breast  will  warm  to  liberty, 
While  whiskey  crowns  each  sparkling  glaas» 
A  bumper  filled,  the  toast  shall  be, 
Give  us  death  or  liberty ! 

While  Gallia's  sons  with  martial  fire, 
And  warm  with  patriot  ardor  glow ; 
While  they  to  warlike  deeds  aspire, 
And  panting  long  to  meet  the  foe. 
To  Gallic  arms  by  land  and  sea, 
We'll  drink  success  with  three  times  thim, 

May  French  exertions  never  cease 

Till  Europe  shall  reformed  be, 
And  union,  liberty  and  peace, 
Succeed  oppression's  fell  decree. 
Then  every  freeman's  toast  will  be 
Union,  peace  and  liberty. 


THE    STAE    OF    LIBEETY. 
TUNE-"  General    Wolf." 

O'er  the  vlne-coyer'd  hills  and  gay  regions  of  France, 

See  the  day-star  of  liberty  rise ! 
Through  the  clouds  of  detraction,  unwearied  advance, 

And  hold  its  new  course  through  the  skies* 


tttflTED    IBISHMEfc. 

An  effulgence  so  mild,  with  a  lustre  so  bright,  • 

All  Europe  with  wonder  surveys ; 
And  from  deserts  of  darkness,  and  dungeons  of  night, 

Contends  for  a  share  of  the  blaze. 

Let  Burke  like  a  bat,  from  his  splendor  retire, 

A  lustre  too  strong  for  his  eyes, 
Let  pedants  and  fools  his  effusions  admire, 

Entrapped  in  his  cobwebs,  like  flies ; 
Shall  frenzy  and  sophistry  hope  to  prevail  * 

Where  reason  opposes  her  weight  ? 
When  the  welfare  of  millions  is  hung  in  the  scale, 

And  the  balance  yet  trembles  with  fate  ? 

Ah !  who  'midst  the  horrors  of  night  would  abide, 

That  can  taste  ctie  pure  breezes  of  morn  ? 
Or  who  that  has  drank  of  the  crystuline  tide, 

To  the  feculent  flood  would  return? 
When  the  bosom  of  beauty  the  throbbing  heart  meets, 

Ah !  who  can  the  transport  decline  ? 
Or  who  that  has  tasted  of  liberty's  sweets, 

The  prize  but  with  life  would  resign  ? 

But  'tis  over— high  Heav'n  the  decision  approves— 

Oppression  has  struggled  in  vain ; 
To  the  hell  she  has  formed  Superstition  removes ; 

And  Tyranny  bites  his  own  chain. 
In  the  records  of  time  a  new  era  unfolds,— 

All  nature  exults  in  its  birth— 
His  creation,  benign,  the  Creator  beholds, 

And  gives  a  new  charter  to  earth. 

O  catch  its  high  import,  ye  winds  as  ye  blow ! 

O  bear  it  ye  waves  as  ye  roll ! 
From  ^regions  that  feel  the  sun's  vertical  glow, 

To  the  farthest  extremes  of  the  pole. 
Equal  rights,  equal  laws,  to  the  nations  around, 

Peace  and  friendship  its  precepts  impart  ? 
And  wherever  the  footsteps  of  man  shall  be  found, 

May  he  bind  the  decree  on  his  heart. 

At  page  101  Irish  Section  is  an  account  of  how  I  procured  and 
preserved  that  imcoinparable  satire,  "Bluff  and  Firebrand."  I  here- 
with subjoin  specimens  of  it.  I  printed  2,000  copies  of  it,  and  the 
same  number  of  the  "Songs  of  the  United  Irishmen."  They  are  all 
gone.  But  I  have  the  plates,  and  can  print  more  if  required.  Every 
Means  should  now  be  pressed  into  the  service. 


BILLY    BLUFF    AND    SQUIRE    FIREBRAND. 

"O.  your  honor,  I  did  expect  that  they  would  stop  at  the  sign  where  the 
United  Irishmen  meet;  the  sign  that  your  honor  hates  so  much." 
"  What,  the  sign  of  Adam  and  Eve  ?  "  •'  The  very  same^- the  father  and 
mother  of  us  all."  "  I  always  thought  it  an  impudent,  immodest,  rebel- 
lious sign.  Can  there  be  greater  impudence  than  to  suppose  or  say  that 
we  are  all  from  one  stock— gentry  and  commonality,  lords  and  beggars, 
from  the  same  first  parent?  ?  "  *'  No,  no,  Billy,  the  thing  is  impossible  in 
the  presence  of  God."  "  So  it  surely  is,  your  honor."  '*  And  then,  what 
an  immodest  sight;  both  as  naked  as  the  hour  they  were  born,  and 
everybody  peeping  at  them  from  behind  and  before.  But  the  worst  of  it 
all  is,  that  it  is  the  sign  of  liberty  and  equality.  They  had  liberty,  for 
they  walked  about  without  anything  to  control  them  but  the  walls  of  a 
big  garden,  nearly  half  the  size  of  all  Europe.  They  had  equality,  that's 
certain ;  and  every  rascal  claims  relationship  and  equality  with  his  bet- 
ters on  that  account  ever  since.  It  is  for  these  reasons  that  the  United 

Irishmen  meet  in  that '  receptacle ' but  I'll  soon  down  with  it;  I'll 

soon  banish  Adam  and  Eve,  and  their  damn'd  liberty  and  barefaced 
equality." 

"  How  will  your  honor  do  it  ?  "  "  How  will  I  do  it !  Why,  I'll  write  to 
my  lord,  who  will  write  to  the  general,  the  general  will  order  the  colonel, 
the  colonel  will  order  the  lieutenant-colonel,  the  lieutenant-colonel  will 
order  the  captain,  the  captain  will  order  the  lieutenant,  the  lieutenant 
will  order  the  ensign,  the  ensign  will  order  the  sergeant,  and  the  ser- 
geant will  order  the  soldiers  to  cut  it  down  with  their  swords;  and  there 
will  be  an  end  to  Adam  and  Eve."  "  O,  your  honor,  that  will  be  fine : 
it  just  puts  me  in  mind  of  the  story  of  the  staff,  and  the  dog,  and  the  kid, 
and  the  bush  of  blackberries."  "  1  don't  know  what  the  devil  it  puts  you 
mind  of,  but  it  puts  me  in  mind  of  my  duty.  Well,  go  on  about  the  plot." 
•'  Your  honor,  1  have  told  you  all  I  saw,  but  what  I  heard  I  cannot  tell, 
for  they  spoke  so  low  I  could  not  hear  them,  only  some  dropping  words." 

"  Then  where  the  d 1  is  the  plot  ?  "  "  Your  honor  knows  that  the  plot 

must  have  been  very  deep,  when  they  durst  not  speak  out,  when  they 
both  rode  on  one  horse,  and  when  they  went  into  that  wicked  place." 
"  Well,  what  were  the  dropping  words  you  heard  ? ;'  " '  Ireland,'  for  one; 
alter  a  little,  *  Union,'  then  '  Independence ; '  after  that  *  Slavery ; '  then 
again  '  Union.'  After  that  I  could  not  hear  a  word  for  above  a  mile.  At 
length,  I  heard  '  Liberty  yet,'  then  I  heard  only  three  words—'  Caution. 

Obedience,  Death.' "  '•  It  is  very  bad,  Billy,  d d  bad,  and  d d 

deeptobesur6;  but  who  can  make  a  plot  out  of  it?  His  Majesty's 
Attorney-General  could  manage  such  a  matter,  to  be  sure,  but  how  could 
we  fill  up  the  intermediate  parts  ? "  "  E'dad,  as  I  am  an  honest  man,  if 
your  honor  makes  up  the  middle,  I'll  swear  to  the  whole."  "  That  will 
do,  Billy,  that  will  do  completely;  I'll  have  that  part  settled.  In  the 
meantime,  go  to  the  kitchen  and  get  some  broth.  There's  Mr.  Noddle- 
drum  arrived.  Go  to  the  kitchen,  Billy,  arid  make  yourself  comfort- 
able." "  God  bless  your  honor." 

"  Mr.  Nodd.'edrum,  I  am  very  happy  to  see  you." 

"  Neighbor  Firebrand,  your^ei  \  ant,  I  am  equally  grlad  to  seo  you,  I  do 
assure  you." 

FIRE.— Please  to  take  a  chair. 

NOD.— Well,  Mr.  Firebrand,  anything  particular  in  the  packets  this 
morning  ? 

FIRE.— No,  nothing  to  call  particular ;  some  details  about  the  Arch- 
duke changing  his  position,  which  shows  his  prudence  and  great  general- 
ship. 

NOD.— Any  thing  from  Italy  ? 

FIBB.— No,  very  little.  It  appears  Bonaparte's  army  is  almost  ruined, 
notwithstanding  the  trifling  advantages  lately  gained  over  General 
Wurmser.  Two  hundred  thousand  men  will  certainly  arrive  from  Hun- 
gary in  the  course  of  a  fortnight,  to  drive  the  French  entirely  out  of 
Italy. 

NOD. -That  would  be  good  news,  Mr.  Firebrand. 


BILLY    BLUTF    AND    SQUIKB    FIREBBAND. 


not  appear,  I  think,  that  the  junction  of  the  two  fleets 
had  any  other  object  than  to  exercise  their  men;  and  it  is  generally  be- 
lieved that  the  equinoxial  tempests,  which  are  excessively  severe  in  the 
Bay  of  Biscay,  will  drive  them,  every  ship,  to  the  bottom;  indeed  there 
<3an  be  little  doubt  of  it. 

NOD.—  Why.  'tis  true,  such  an  event  is  not  impossible  ;  but  I  never 
build  too  much  on  contingency.  What  wiU  be,  will  be,  Mr.  Firebrand  ; 
that,  I  believe,  may  be  admitted  as  an  undoubted  truth.  Anything  from 
fche  West-  Indies  ? 

FIRE.—  No,  not  a  syllable.  Yes,  there  is  some  mention  of  the  yellow 
fever,  but  nothing  very  important.  Government  can  easily  supply  the 
place  of  any  men  carried  off  by  that  pestilence  ;  we  have  men  and  ships 
plenty.  What  think  you  of  our  times  at  home,  Mr.  Noddledrum  ? 

NOD.  —  That's  a  hard  question,  I  acknowledge.  I  have  often  heard  it 
said  that  '  time  is  wise,'  out  whether  past,  present,  or  future,  d'ye  see,  I 
do  not  know;  but  my  Lord  Mquntinumble  is  in  a  devil's  pother  about 
the  times  ;  I  had  a  letter  from  him  yesterday  ;  he  is  most  certainly  very 
much  frightened.  Here  is  a  hand  bill  which  is  privately  circulated 
everywhere,  which  he  enclosed  me;  he  says  it  ought  to  fill  every  man 
in  the  country  with  dread  and  fear: 

HAND  BILL. 

The  last  speech,  confession,  and  dying  words  of  the  Times,  which  was  executed  on 
Alarm  Hill,  on  Thursday,  the  7th  instant,  tor  the  wilful  and  bloody  murder  of  Tyranny, 
Superstition,  and  Hypocrisy—  Whereas,  I  was  born  of  a  wise,  industrious,  and  provident 
parent,  who  supplied  me  with  all  knowledge,  experience,  and  virtue,  suited  to  my  station. 
Having  occasion  to  300  the  perfidy  of  courts,  the  arrogance  of  princes,  the  duplicity  of 
statesmen,  th3  bigotry  of  fools,  the  roguery  of  knaves,  the  struggles  of  despotism,  and 
the  triumph  of  freedom,  I  was  led  into  daily  temptation.  I  was,  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
blamed  ana  blaming,  exposing  and  exposed;  in  me  did  wickedness  thrive;  in  me  was 
every  villainy  attempted,  in  me  was  the  sword  of  war  continued  unsheathed,  and  in  me 
has  the  liberty  of  opinion  bceu  stifled  with  the  penalty  of  the  forfeiture  of  life.  For  these 
atrocities  I  have  been  condemned  to  death,  and  die  an  unheeded  and  unregretteci  monitor 
of  the  works  of  God.  THE  TIMES. 

FIBB.—  A  very  insinuating  hand  bill,  Mr.  Noddledrum.  I  don't  at  all 
wonder,  upon  my  s  —  1,  that  my  lord  Mountmumbie  should  be  sur- 
prised and  alarmed  and  petrified  at  such  unaccountable  insinuations. 
No  man  can  be  too  particular  in  exposing  circumstances. 

NOD.—  Well,  but  neighbor  Firebrand,  the  great  question  is,  whether  the 
times  brought  on  the  circumstances,  or  the  circumstances  the  times  ? 
There's  the  point,  Mr.  Firebrand—  there's  the  di  faculty;  show  me  the 
man  who  can  clearly  draw  the  distinction. 

FIBB.—  Why.  Mr.  Noddledrum,  there  is  something  puzzling  in  the 
questipn,  or  riddle,  or  whatever  it  is.  But  I'll  tell  you  what—  there  is 
one  thing  clear.  That  all  things  are  very  dark  at  present. 

NOD.—  All  things  are  dark,  if  silence  and  quietness  are  darkness.  But 
there  is  one  comtort—  little  said  is  soon  mended. 

FIRE.—  Silence  !  by  G—  ,  Mr.  Noddledrum,  if  the  present  silence  goes 
on  it  will  turn  the  world  not  only  dumb  but  deaf.  But  I  have  hit  upon 
some  real  plans  that  I  hope  you  will  approve  of;  all  men  should  set  tneir 
heads  to  work  at  the  present  time.  A  man  is  no  man  who  will  not  do 
something.  The  last  time  I  planned  the  county  road  over  the  big  hill,  to 
accommodate  my  lord's  quarry,  you  agreed,  and  we  carried  it;  now 
give  me  your  assistance,  and  I  am  sure  we'll  do.  My  first  plan  is  to 
swear  the  county. 

NOD.  —  To  swear  the  county  ! 

FIRE.  —  Yes,  to  swear  the  county  ;  not  a  comity  meeting,  but  a  county 
ewearing. 

NOD.—  Well,  and  what  then  ? 

FIKE.—  O,  my  dear  sir,  the  happiest  consequences,  the  very  happiest 
9ousequeuces  must  ensue.  Loyalty  will  be  found  out;  silence  will  be 


BILLY    BLUFF    AND    SQTHRE    FIREBRAND. 

obliged  to  speak  out;  my  lord  will  know  the  chaff  from  the  wheat;  all 
things  will  then  be  known  that  ought  to  bo  known ;  all  things  will  then 
be  seen  that  ought  to  be  seen,  and  all  will  be  convinced,  and  satisfied, 
and  happy. 

NOD.— Why,  Mr.  Firebrand,  we  may  try,  I  say  we  may  try.  But  there 
Is  one  thing  m  my  mind  which  weighs  with  mo  about  this  forced  swear- 
ing— 

•*  A  man  convinced  ag.'iinst  his  will 
Is  of  the  same  opinion  still." 

FIRE.— No  matter  about  that;  my  idea  Is  new,  and  large,  and  grand. 

NOD.— I'll  be  glad  to  hear  it. 

FIBE. — Why,  it  is  this :  I  will  get  a  bible  on  a  new  plan ;  one  that  will 
produce  awe,  and  terror,  and  veneration,  and  loyalty,  and  piety,  and 
love,  and  allegiance.  For,  do  you  see,  Mr.  Noddledrum,  a  fellow  now-a- 
days  thinks  no  more  of  switching  the  primer,  as  as  he  calls  it,  on  a  little 
common,  dirty,  custom-house,  thumb-bible,  than  he  would  think  of 
swallowing  a  glass  of  whiskey.  Now  I  will  get  Lord  Mountmumble  to 
lay  my  plan  before  government.  The  bible  must  be  the  size  of  a  large 
chest  of  drawers,  made  of  wood,  painted,  gilt,  lettered,  and  bound  like  the 
outside  of  a  book,  and  just  so  large  that  when  turned  edge-wise  it  may  be 
brought  in  at  the  door  of  a  church,  meeting-house,  or  chapel.  Instead 
of  being  called  the  Holy  Bible,  it  shall  be  called  the  Koyal  Bible,  and 
there  shall  be  on  the  back,  these  words,  in  great  gold  letters,  M AX- 
EM1CO  ROYALICO  BJBLlCO.  Now,  my  dear  Noddledrum,  is  it  not 
as  clear  as  noon-day  that  when  the  church  is  full,  or  when  the  chapel  is 
full,  or  when  the  meeting-house  is  full,  and  the  royal  bible  in  the  middle, 
every  man  will  swear  at  the  word  of  command  ?  My  lord,  or  the  agent, 
or  the  clergyman,  gets  up,  and  says  with  a  loud  voice: — 

" SWEAR  AM,!  SWEAR  ALII!  HWEAR  ALL!" 

NOD.— And  what  will  they  swear  ? 

FIRE.— First,  the  oath  of  allegiance,  which  will  be  printed  on  one  side 
of  the  bible,  and  by  the  way  ot  explaining  the  whole  meaning  of  it,  there 
will  be  the  following  addition  printed  likewise: 

"  And  furthermore,  I  do  so'crnnly  swoar  that,  the  king  being  a  constituent  part  ot  the 
constitution,  the  constitution  is  therefore  perfect,  and  entitled  to  all  men's  veneration  and 
obedience. 

"  And  furthermore,  I  do  solemnly  swear  that  the  House  of  Commons,  being  a  branch  of 
the  constitution,  is  a  house  of  wisdom,  a  house  of  purity,  a  house  of  virtue,  and  the  real, 
true,  faithtul  representative  of  the  people. 

"  Furthermore,  I  do  solemnly  swear  that  the  Borrougha,  being  a  part  of  our  constitution, 
are  the  great  source  of  our  liberties,  insomuch  as  they  are  never  bought  or  sold  ;  that  the 
men  who  represent  them  are  freely  chosen,  and  never  receive  the  wages  of  corruption. 

"  And  furthermore,  I  do  solemnly  swear  that  the  House  of  Lords,  being  a  branch  or  the 
constitution,  is  endowed  with  all  knowledge,  and  goodness,  and  patriotism,  to  the  end  of 
the  world  and  lorever. 

"  And  furthermore,  I  do  solemnly  swear  that  the  Church  as  by  law  established,  being  a 
branch  of  the  constitution,  insomuch  as  she  is  the  lawful  spouse  ot  the  State,  is  a  pure,  vir- 
tuous, royal  and  divine  Church,  the  supporter  of  kings,  the  receiver  of  tithes,  the  oncour- 
*ger  of  agriculture,  the  promoter  of  peace,  and  the  saviour  ot  men's  souls. 

"  And  furthermore,  I  do  solemnly  swear  that  whatever  is  told  me  by  my  landlord  is 
right,  whether  true  or  false;  that  no  man  can  have'virtue  or  common  sense  who  is  not  rich 
in  land;  that  the  more  money  Is  given  to  courtiers,  the  happier  will  the  people  be,  and  that 
a  reform  in  parliament  would  be  the  ruin  of  the  country. 

•'  And  all  this  I  swear,  without  hesitation  or  reservation,  on  the  great  new   royal  bible, 
named,  called,  aud  denominated  according  to  act  of  parliament 
XAXEMICO  ROYALICO  BIBHCO." 

There  is  an  explanation  for  you,  Mr.  Noddledrum ;  there's  an  oath  that 
may  be  called  ai>  oath,  and  goes  '-  +-he  root  narrow,  and  meaning  of  the 


Dir.LY    BLUyiT    AND    SQUIRE    S1REBBAND. 

allegiance  oath.  It  cost  my  lord  Mountmumble,  councillor  Elthorside, 
and  myself,  three  days  and  nights  to  bring  it  to  the  perfection  you  see. 

NOD.— It  is,  no  doubt,  very  comprehensive  and  very  significant;  but 
suppose  the  people  refuse  to  take  it  ? 

FIBE.— That's  impossible.  The  size  of  the  book  will  frighten  them; 
the  splendor  of  it  will  dazale  them;  the  novelty  of  it  will  captivate 
them,  the  loyalty  of  it  will  charm  them.  The  idea  of  it  is  so  big,  it 
will  drive  all  other  ideas  out  of  our  heads,  and  they  will  swear  instantly, 
without  dread  or  fear.  Besides,  Mr.  Noddledrum,  there  is  a  speech  to  be 
delivered  on  such  occasions,  which  speech  was  made  at  th3  same  time 
with  the  oath;  it  will  be  given  gratis  with  the  book,  and  will  run  thus: 

"  All  pood  people,  take  re  notice,  that  the  times  in  which  you  live  are  times  ol  wonder 
and  times  of  peril;  observe  that  your  forefathers  lived  before  you,  and  that  your  children 
will  live  alter  you,  and  that,  therefore,  ye  all  live  in  the  middle  ol  time,  which  is  most  im- 
portant to  yon,  and  of  which  you  should  take  heed.  To  assist  and  support  you  in  your  pres- 
ent alarming  state  of  ignorance  and  inattention,  the  present  wise  and  good  administra- 
tion, in  whom  you  live,  move,  and  have  your  being,  hath  had  commiseration  on  your  dan- 
ger »nd  distress,  and  forthwith  hath  sent  this  royal  hible  for  your  relief  and  instruction. 
This  noble  and  disinterested  clemency  extends  to  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich,  showing 
and  demonstrating  unto  you  the  impartiality  of  onr  laws  and  wisdom  of  our  rulers.  Hith- 
erto you  have  been  mocked  with  trifling,  insignificant  and  petty  bibles,  fit  only  for  common 
oaths  between  subject  and  subject;  but  very  unworthy  and  unflt  for  securing  the  subject's 
loyalty  to  his  king.  Whence  it  folio  ws  that  all  oaths  and  obligations  heretofore  taken  or 
entered  into  by  you,  either  voluntary  or  involuntary,  shall  be  swallowed  up,  lost,  and  anni- 
hilated in  the  solemnity,  magnitude,  and  importance  of  the  present  sacred  oath  of  allegi- 
ance,  and  which  will  fill  you  with  wisdom,  with  piety  and  patriotism,  as  shall  more  fully 
appear  by  the  said  oath  and  its  explanation,  as  printed  ou  the  left  side  of  MAXEMICO  ROY- 
ALICO  BIBLICO» 

There's  a  speech  for  you—there's  eloquence  and  conviction,  persuasion, 
all  together.  Could  Cicero  have  equalled  that  ?  Could  Charles  Fox  or 
Arthur  O'Connor  match  it  ?  No,  faith,  it  would  be  far  from  their  hand. 
That  puts  an  end  to  all  disputes,  all  doubts,  all  fears  at  once. 

NOD. — But  pray,  neighbor  Firebrand,  would  not  an  oath  taken  on  this 
huge  wooden  bible,  which  puts  me  in  mind  of  the  monstrous  wooden 
horse  that  took  Troy,  be  a  hollow,  empty,  good-for-nothing  wooden 
oath. 

FIBE.— By  no  means ;  for,  to  make  all  things  sure  and  certain,  I  will 
have  enclosed  in  each  a  new,  large  guinea  bible. 

NOD.— And  would  not  this  guinea  bible  do  without  a  large  case  ? 

FIKE. — In  ordinary  times  it  might ;  but  these  are  extraordinary  times. 
and  require  extraordinary  measures;  besides  I  will  candidly  confess  I 
have  another  view  in  this  scheme. 

NOD.— What  is  that  ? 

FIBE. — Why,  the  French  may  come,  wars  may  happen,  blood  may  be 
spilled,  throats  may  be  cut ;  should  not  every  man  have  a  hiding  place 
in  the  hour  of  danger,  who  wishes  well  to  his  own  safety  V 

NOD.— What  then  ? 

FIRE. — Why,  1  have  contrived  a  trap  door  in  the  side  of  the  bible. 
When  the  day  comes  that  drums  beat,  trumpets  sound,  and  cannons 

roar,  by  H s,  let  them  fight  that  will  fight,  I'll  creep  in  and  lie  down 

with  Moses  and  the  prophets.  What  think  yoii  of  that  ? 

NOD. — I  must  confess  there  is  a  deal  of  contrivance  in  all  that;  but  as 
to  the  wisdom  or  necessity  of  it,  I  will  not  take  upon  me  to  say.  But 
pray  Mr.  Firebrand,  what  will  be  on  the  right  side  of  the  royal  bible  ? 

FIBE.— The  questions,  Mr.  Noddledrum,  the  questions. 

NOD.— What  questions  ? 

FPRE. — Every  man  will  be  questioned  on  his  oath.  Here  are  the  ques- 
tions prepared  and  ready,  which  will  be  all  printed  on  the  right  side  of 
the  big  bible. 

QUESTION  1st.   What  is  your  name  ? 


BILLY    BLUFF    AND    SQUIRE    FIREBRAND. 

2d.   Do  you  know  any  secret  of  which  everybody  else  knows  ? 

3d.    Did  you  ever  meet  a  large  body  of  men  where  nobody  saw  you  ? 

4th.    Did  you  ever  take  an  oath  not  to  tell  any  body  that  you  did  take 

5th.    Did  you  ever  talk  treason  with  any  person  in  private,  where  there 
was  no  person  to  hear  you  ? 
6th.    How  many  United  Irishmen  are  yet  to  join  the  Union  as  they 

7th.    How  long  will  it  be  till  the  whole  nation  becomes  United  ? 

8th.  Is  not  the  silence  that  prevails  in  the  country  a  proof  of  uproar 
and  rebellion  ? 

9th.  Ought  not  every  man  who  complains  of  the  king's  ministers,  and 
who  asks  a  reform,  be  hanged  ? 

10th.  If  the  United  Irishmen  in  the  different  jails  of  the  kingdom  are 
put  to  death,  will  not  all  their  brethren  who  are  not  in  jail  DOW  their 
heads  to  the  ground,  lick  the  dust,  and  pray  for  their  persecutors  till  the 
end  of  the  world  ? 

These  are  the  ten  primitive  questions,  which  are  to  be  printed  in  room 
of  the  ten  commandments.  Many  smaller  questions  will  no  doubt  arise 
as  the  examination  goes  on. 

NOD. — Now,  neighbor  Firebrand,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  where  all  this 
will  end.  This  is  driving  very  fast;  and  drovers  will  tell  you  that, 
when  cattle  are  driven  too  fast,  they  will  either  give  up,  run  off  the  road, 
or  turn  upon  their  drivers.  For  my  part,  it  has  always  been  a  maxim 
with  me  that  easy  and  fair  goes  far  in  the  day.  .  I  have,  to  be  sure, 
joined  in  getting  the  two  young  men  imprisoned  for  shooting  the  wood- 
cock ;  in  putting  farmer  M in  the  stocks  for  striking  my  lord's 

spaniel  that  worried  his  lamb ;  I  assisted  you  in  levying  the  double  fine 
off  the  old  Quaker  for  not  paying  his  tithes ;  I  gave  my  consent  to  have 
the  muskets  taken  out  of  the  two  popr  men's  houses,  because  they  were 
not  qualified  to  keep  them ;  and  I  joined  in  promoting  the  loyal  depre- 
dations of  the  Orangemen.  God  forgive  me.  No  surer  proverb  hi  my 
mind  than  "  It  is  a  long  lane  that  has  no  end." 

FIRE.— Aye,  Mr.  Noddledrum,  has  it  come  to  that  V  Foregad,  I  feared 
as  much.  I  thought  I  saw  you  wavering  for  some  time  past.  A  melan- 
choly affair.  Wifl  you  be  so  good  as  to  oblige  me  with  your  reason  for 
this  change  ? 

NOD. — I  can't  tell  how  it  happened,  but  things  came  strangely  about. 
Last  Wednesday  three  weeks  upwards  of  three  hundred  reapers  came 
to  cut  down  my  pats.  I  thanked  them,  told  them  my  oats  were  all  cut 
but  one  field,  which  was  not  ripe.  I  offered  them  drink,  which  they  re- 
fused ;  I  forced  thirty-seven  of  my  own  tenants,  who  were  among  them, 
to  stay  and  dine  with  me.  I  asked  them  what  all  this  was  for ;  and  I 
understood  that  it  all  proceeded  from  my  having  turned  off  the  two  spies 
you  hired  for  me,  and  from  my  giving  orders  that  Barmy  Foam,  the 
guager,  should  bring  me  no  more  stories  about  his  neighbors. 

FIBE.— So  then  the  two  spies  are  discharged  without  having  sworn 
away  a  single  life ! 

NOD.— They  certainly  are. 

FIBE. — Good  God !  and  Barmy  Foam,  my  lord  Mountmumble's  old 
footman,  is  gone,  too ! 

NOD.— He  is  no  longer  to  bring  news  to  me. 

FIBE. — So  much  the  more  pity ;  by  my  s — 1,  the  fellow  could  squeeze 
loyalty  out  of  the  dregs  of  a  beer  barrel,  and  smoke  treason  in  a  roll  of 
tobacco. 

NOD. — No  matter,  I  wash  my  hands  clean  of  them  all. 

FIBE. — Then  you  may  say  that  you  wash  your  hands  clean  of  all 
information  respecting  the  country.  Give  up  spies  and  informers,  and 
you  give  up  the  king  and  constitution ;  J  see  nothing  else.  There's 
Bluff;  now  you  have  no  conception  what  news  I  get  from  him.  Early 
and  late  he's  on  the  watch,  nothing  escapes  him,  and  he's  ready  at  any 
moment  to  swear  any  thin?  that  would  serve  the  cause.  Thero'a 


BILLY   BLUWT    AND    BQTJXRE    ETEEBRAJTIX 

nothing  wanting:  now,  to  have  things  on  a  proper  footing,  but  to  htff* 
jury  by  trial,  instead  of  trial  by  jury. 

NOD. — How  do  you  mean  ? 

FIRE.— Why,  instead  of  having  a  parcel  of  silly,  senseless,  conci' 
entious  blockheads  chosen  in  every  county.  I  would  recommend  to  have 
a  true,  staunch,  tried  jury  to  travel  the  circuit:  a  jury  that  would  not 
flinch ;  a  jury  that  would  stick  to  their  orders.  In  short,  I  would  have 
them  every  man  sworn  to  find  such  verdicts  as  the  crown  lawyers 
desired.  Then  let  me  see  the  man  who  dare  say  or  think  that  adminis- 
tration ever  did  wrong,  or  ever  will  do  wrong;  that  a  reform  was 
wanting,  that  public  virtue  was  wanting,  or  that  anything  was 
wanting  but  halters  and  gibbets.  E'gad,  I  would  make  short  work  of 
it.  So  you  see,  Mr.  Noddledrum,  you  and  I  have  got  different  views  of 
things  now. 

NOD.— So  it  appears. 

FIEE.— Well,  but  how  did  you  and  your  tenants  part  ?  I  suppose  you 
made  them  all  drunk. 

NOD.— Hearty:  just  hearty.  They  sung  songs,  drank  toasts,  and 
made  merry.  My  heart,  do  you  see,  warmed  to  the  boys,  and  I  joined 
them  in  everything.  They  sung  a  favorite  song,  "Erin  go  bragh,"and 
when  they  came  to  a  verse  that  says : 

•  Let's  love  one  another,  and  never  more  part  O ! ' 

Standing  up.  we  were  grasped  in  each  others  hands  around  the  table; 
my  heart  melted  within  me ;  the  tear  stood  in  my  eye ;  the  rogues  took 
me  in  the  moment  of  my  weakness,  seized  their  glasses,  and  in  a  bum- 
per drank— Union  to  Irishmen !  I  swallowed  it  at  one  mouthful.  It 
was  no  sooner  down  than  a  new  and  inexpressible  sensation  ran 
through  all  my  frame;  my  head  was  filled  with  ecstacy  and  my  heart 
with  joy.  I  thought  I  was  enchanted.  Another  song  and  another  bum- 
per crowned  my  delight.  The  boys  got  up,  departed  with  three  huz- 
zas. I  went  to  my  bed-chamber,  ordered  the  bed  to  be  brought  from  be- 
hind the  wall  where  you  said  I  could  sleep  in  safety,  and,  instead  of 
undressing  in  the  dark,  as  you  do,  I  ordered  two  candles  to  be  placed  on 
the  table.  I  threw  my  pistols  into  the  fire,  and  my  blunderbuss  out  at 
the  window;  I  gave  my  fusee  to  the  gardener ?  and  bid  him  shoot  mag- 

Fies;  I  ordered  the  groom  to  take  the  two  pitchforks  into  the  stable: 
gave  the  pole  and  bayonet  to  the  butler,  to  stab  rats  in  the  cellar;  and 
I  ordered  Jean  Jelly,  the  housekeeper,  to  take  my  broad  sword  and  de- 
fend herself  against  Hosier's  ghost,  which,  she  says,  haunts  her  every 
night  in  her  sleep.  I  tumbled  into  bed  and  slept  for  ten  hours,  the  only 
sound  sleep  I  got  these  fourteen  months.  I  would  not  give  what  happi- 
ness I  have  enjoyed  since  for  Lord  Mountmumble's  estate.  An  honest 
man  need  not  be  afraid ;  and  I  remember  a  text  that  my  grandfather 
used  U>  preach  on  four  times  in  the  year : 

'  The  wicked  fleeth  when  no  man  pursueth.' 

For  my  part,  I  will  take  the  chance  with  my  country,  and  live  and  die 
in  peace ;  so,  Mr.  Firebrand  good  morning  to  you. 

FIEE.— Sir,  your  servant— —The  man  is  mad out  of  his  senses 

—The  old  scoundrel  1 his  damn'd  proverbs  have  turned  his  head— 

Drank  Union  to  Irishmen!     He'll  take  chance  with  his  country! 

He'll  die  in  peace !— H— 1  and  d tion ! 

(Enter  Billy  Bluff  in  great  haste.) 

"Tour  honor,  your  honor!  —  news,  news  — horrid  nows!'  "What 
news?"  "The  vessel's  lost!"  •'  What  vessel?"  "  The  vessel  that  was 
bringing  over  the  bloodhounds  from  the  West  Indies  to  hunt  the  United 
Irishmen  1  She's  taken  by  the  French."  "  The  devil  take  her  and  them 
both."  "Here's  a  horrid  song."  'What  about?"  "About  Lord  Mal- 
mesbury,  and  the  peace,  and  a  journey  to  Paris  1  How  he  and  a  hair- 
dresser fought  a  duel ;  and  how  a  republican  coachman  told  him,"  <fcc.,  &c. 


WfcONGS  OP  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE. 

1  now  proceed  to  the  most  important  object  of  the  Appendix.  And 
remember  —  always  keep  distinctly  in  mind  —  that  the  unparalleled 
crimes  that  it  discloses  are  no  reproach  to  [Republican  government 
per  se,  in  its  pure  and  unimpeachable  character.  As  had  been  abund- 
antly shown  in  this  book,  all  that  was  unprincipled  in  the  country 
were  drawn  in,  attracted,  invited  to  the  government  of  the  Kepublic ; 
that  those  formed  an  aggregation  of  impurity,  with  which  pure  men 
could  not  and  would  not  come  in  contact ;  that  they  committed  such 
almost  incredible  crimes  as  have  grown  familiar  to  us ;  that  they 
Judicially  Murdered  poor  men,  under  circumstances  the  most  foul  and 
revolting ;  that  of  the — but  why  enumerate?  All  I  need  say  is :  Keep 
distinctly  in  mind  that  all  atrocities  acted  or  screened  in  this  nation 
do  not  disgrace,  or  disparage,  or  even  approach  The  Kepublic  in  its 
abstract  nature.  It  will  yet  be  vindicated  as  the  appointed  Institu- 
tion—appointed  from  On  High— under  which  alone  men  can  be  justly 
and  legitimately  governed. 


HANGING    INNOCENT    MEN    IN    PENNSYLVANIA. 

I  have  a  paper  prepared  on  the  facts  which  led  to  the  execution 
of  ten  men  in  the  coal  regions  in  June  1877.  The  published  evidence 
did  not  justify  their  execution.  I  wrote  to  many  of  the  officials  on 
this  subject,  several  times  to  the  Governor.  Not  a  word  of  answer 
from  any  of  them.  One  of  those  letters  I  here  present : 

37  BECOME  ST.,  GREENPOINT,  N.  Y.,  June  18, 1877. 
Governor  Hartranft: 

SIR — At  the  time  I  took  the  liberty  of  addressing  you  this  morning  I  had 
not  seen  the  paper  (Irish  World)  to  which  I  now  take  the  liberty  of  soliciting 
your  attention.  I  am  a  contributor  to  that  paper,  and  in  looking  over  it,  I 
cannot  help  seeing  that  if  the  statements  made,  and  which  I  mark  for  your 
perusal,  aro  true,  then  are  murders  about  to  be  committed  in  Pennsylvania. 
If  a  hair  of  those  men's  heads  falls  to  the  ground  on  such  evidence  as  has 
been  brought  against  them,  then  will  it  be  murder,  and  every  man  assisting 
in  it  will  be  before  God  and  man  a  MURDERER  ! 

I  only  say  this  if  the  statements  relating  to  the  evidence  referred  to  be 
true.  If  they  be  not  true,  the  fact  ought  to  be  made  officially  known. 

It  will  be  a  dangerous  thing  indeed,  if  the  impression  is  confirmed  in  the 
minds  of  the  multitude,  that  poor  men  can  be  hanged  to  death  for  what  would 
not  cause  the  detention  of  a  rich  man  for  a  day  or  an  hour.  I  know  nothing 
of  those  condemned  men ;  I  arn  neither  of  their  church  nor  of  their  "  order." 
But  I  am  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  a  WAR  OF  CLASSES  is  approaching. 
The  learned,  the  well-to-do,  and  the  snobs  who  affect  "respectability,"  on 
the  one  side ;  the  toiling,  trodden- down,  tortured  multitudes  on  the  other. 
If  this  War  comes,  it  will  bo  an  end  of  tho  Republic.  The  "Respectables " 
will  certainly  have  the  best  of  it  at  first.  But  the  beginning  of  the  strife  is 
not  at  all  likely  to  be  the  end.  If  there  was  any  evidence  against  those  con- 
demned men  but  the  evidence  of  informers,  swearing  to  save  their  own  lives, 
let  us  know  it.  Do  not  give  countenance  to  the  opinion  that  what  would  not 
ruffle  a  rich  man's  shirt  collar  will  hang  a  poor  man  to  death. 

THOMAS    AINGE    DEVYR. 


WEONGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE. 

MOEB    ABOUT    THE    PENNSVANIA    JUDICIAL     MUB- 

DERS. 

In  addition  to  the  judicial  murders  recorded  in  a  previous  page 
comes  a  letter  from  Harrisburg  to  the  New  York  papers,  from 
which  I  take  the  following :  "  John  W.  Ryan,  Esq.,  defended  the 
six  men  who  were  excuted  [murdered]  on  the  21st  of  June  last 
Thomas  P.  Fisher  is  to  be  hanged  on  the  28th  of  February,  un- 
less commutation  is  granted  by  the  « Court  of  Pardons.'  Mr. 
Ryan  [in  his  application  to  this  court],  declares  that  the  convic- 
tion of  Fishar  was  due  ENTIRELY  to  the  testimony  of  two 
men  whose  souls  were  stained  with  robbery  and  murder,  and 
who,  as  a  reward  for  their  statements,  were  GIVEN  their  lib- 
erty." The  letter  then  states  that  of  the  six  men  [maliciously 
called  Molly  Maguires]  hanged  in  Pottsville,  one  "  Duffy  was 
convicted  almost  entirely  on  the  evidence  of  Kerrigan,  a  NO- 
TORIOUS murderer,  who  turned  State's  evidence  to  save  his 
OWN  neck  from  the  gallows."  How  providentially  the  truth 
bursts  out  through  even  this  hostile  correspondent  of  the  infa- 
mous Herald.  It  was  not  "  almost  entirely,"  but  wholly  and  en- 
tirely, on  the  evidence  of  this  "  notorious  murderer,  Kerrigan,  to 
save  his  own  neck."  And  it  was  not  Duffy  alone  that  was  judi- 
cially murdered  on  the  unsupported  evidence  of  this  murderer 
swearing  to  save  his  own  life.  The  whole  six  men — all  of  them 
— were  murdered  by  the  Courts,  and  Juries,  and  Governor,  of 
Pennsylvania,  on  the  single  unsupported  evidence  of  this  "  no- 
torious murderer  swearing  to  save  his  own  neck  from  the  gal- 
lows." 

And  how  stand  the  men  who  brought  about  this  great 
judicial  murder  ?  Does  not  every  man  assisting  in  any  way  at 
the  judicial  murder  of  those  innocent  men  stand  ipso  facto  a 
murderer?  And  do  they  not  deserve — every  one  of  them  de- 
serve—the penalty  of  death  ?  Stand  to  your  arms,  men !  Take 
possession  through  the  ballot-box  of  the  once  pure  and  stainless 
State  of  Pennsylvania.  Rescue  it  from  such  murderers.  Re- 
construct its  corrupt  Legislature  into  purity.  Clear  out  its  cor- 
rupt courts !  Set  up  law  where  murder  now  reigns.  It  is  your 
bounden,  sacred,  holy  duty  to  impeach  and  put  on  their  trial  for 
their  lives  every  ruffian  who  had  a  hand  in  this  judicial  murder 
of  those  most  innocent  men.  Murdered  I  do  not  say  because 


WRONGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE* 

they  were  poor.  Murdered  I  do  not  say  because  they  were  in- 
telligent men,  and  would  make  a  signal  example  to  deter  the 
multitudes  from  questioning  the  starvation  wages  of  the  coal 
monsters.  I  do  not  say  that  those  were  the  causes  ;  let  every 
man  judge  for  himself  whether  they  were  or  not.  All  I  do  say 
is  that  those  men  were  murdered,  most  foully,  most  barbarous- 
ly, and  the  guilt  of  murder  lies  upon  the  soul  of  every  man 
who  in  any  manner  assisted  in  the  perpetration  of  this  unex- 
ampled and  horrible  crime. 


THE    WAR    OF     CLASSES. 

I  intended  not  to  publish  anything  more  on  the  crimes  of 
Pennsylvania,  but  I  see  its  governor  is  straining  all  law  and 
usage  to  get  more  hanging  done. 

Ten  men  in  one  day !  Ten  innocent  men  were  murdered  in 
Pennsylvania  on  the  gallows.  Choked  to  death  on  the  perju- 
ries of  which  I  here  present  au  outline.  Yost,  a  policeman,  was 
killed.  He  had  clubbed  and  locked  up  Kerrigan,  who  is  describ- 
ed by  the  papers  as  "  never  having  done  an  honest  day's  work  in 
his  life.*'  This  Kerrigan  vows  to  be  revenged  on  Yost,  and  shortly 
after  Yost  is  killed.  Kerrigan  is  arrested.  And  on  condition 
that  his  own  life  shall  be  spared,  he,  to  oblige  the  Pennsylvania 
athorities  and  save  his  own  accursed  life,  agrees  to  swear  to  this 
story.  Mark  it  well. 

That  he  went  to  James  Boarty,  a  "  Body  Master,"  and  to  Hugh 
McQeehan,  an  ex- Supervisor,  and  persuaded  them  to  employ 
Duffy,  Carroll,  Munley  and  Boylo  to  kill  Yost ;  for  no  other 
reason,  even  pretended,  than  to  oblige  this  idle,  drunken  scoun- 
drel Kerrigan,  of  whom  his  own  wife  on  the  witness  stand 
answered  thus  under  the  solemnity  of  her  oath  : 

"  "When  did  you  stop  writing  to  your  husband  ?  "  "  When  he  committed 
the  crime,"  she  answered.  "  Crime,  what  crima  ?  "  "  Ever  since  he  tried  to 
put  his  guilt  on  innocent  men."  In  her  opinion  it  was  worse  to  be  an  in- 
former than  a  murderer,  and  he  was  both. 

On  this  impossible  lie.  sworn  to  by  the  villain  to  save  his  own 
neck,  the  Judicial  murderers,  Courts  and  Governor  of  Pennsyl- 
vania hung  to  death  in  one  day  six  men  in  Pottsville.  And  four 
men  in  Mauch  Chunk,  on  precisely  a  similar  oath  of  a  confessed 
.murderer  (Mulhern)  swearing  to  save  his  own  accursed  life. 


WBONGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE. 

Poor  Carroll,  on  tbue  night  before  his  Judicial  murder,  sets* 
a  card  to  his  lawyer  in  which  is  the  following : 

"  Now.  gentlemen,  I  do  here  confess  to  be  innocent  of  the  crime  that  I 
am  charged  with.  I  never  wished  for  the  murder  of  Yost  or  any  other 
person:  or  I  never  heard  any  one  say  they  wanted  murder  committed, 
only  Kerrigan,  and  heard  him  often  say  that  he  would  shoot  Yost  the  first 
chance  he  got." 

What  incited  the  Courts  and  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  to 
commit  this  unheard  of  crime?  There  must  have  been  some 
motive.  The  coal  miners  had  been  starved  down  by  repeated 
screws  on  their  scanty  wages,  till  they  struck  work,  and  it  was 
thought  good  for  the  Coal'Robbers  (for  they  are  not  owners)  to 
make  examples  that  would  strike  terror,  and  make  the  workers 
work  and  starve  quietly.  At  first  I  could  not  believe  it  possible 
that  those  Courts  and  Governor  would  dare  to  murder  those 
men  on  the  unsupported  and  impossible  Lie  sworn  to  by  Kerri- 
gan. I  wrote,  therefore,  to  the  Governor  (see  ante)  and  other 
officials,  and  to  local  newspapers,  asking  for  other  proof  if  it  had 
been  given  on  the  trials.  I  told  the  Governor  that  I  would  pub- 
lish this  horrible  crime,  not  only  before  America,  but  in  my 
forthcoming  book  ("The  Odd  Book  of  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury"), before  England  and  Europe.  But  they  had  no  other 
proof  and  could  send  me  none. 

There  must  have  been  a  motive  to  this  great  crime,  and  the 
primary  motive  is  easily  traceable  to  the  robber  Corporations 
that  do  not  own  the  coal  mines.  They  it  was  who  employed  the 
villain  Pinkerton  to  send  his  spy  McParlan  to  live  among  the 
coal  miners  and  find  out  their  secrets  to  work  their  destruction, 
The  men  had  no  secrets,  and  at  the  end  of  three  years  he  was 
discovered  by  them,  and  they  did  not  touch  a  hair  in  his  head. 

And  now  the  reporter  describes  the  agony  of  the  friends  of 
the  six  innocent  men  murdered  in  Pottsville : 

"  Mrs.  Carroll  is  frantic,  imploring  even  the  bystanders  to  save  her  hus- 
band. Poor  Roarty  strove  to  comfort  his  wife,  telling  her  it  would  '  be  all 
right '  at  a  higher  tribunal.  At  Mauch  Chunk.  Jack  Donohue's  wife  and 
eight  children  came  to  take  leave  of  him ;  he  patted  her  on  the  back  and 
strove  to  comfort  her  ana  them  in  their  frantic  grief,  Campbell's  wife 
and  brothers  and  sisters  came.  He  'received  them  stoically,'  but  Mrs. 
Campbell  made  the  moct  frantic  threats  of  vengeance  against  those  who 
are  '  murdering  her  husband.' " 

"  Murdering  her  husband ! "  Well  indeed  might  she  thus  give 
vent  to  her  great  agony.  And  remember,  workers,  not  only  of 


WRONGS    OF    THE    AMEKICAN    PEOPLE. 

Pennsylvania,  but  of  everywhere  throughout  the  Kepublic,  that 
those  innocent  men  were  murdered  by  the  Politicians  I  There 
was  not,  perhaps  in  the  whole  accursed  crowd  of  officials  that 
compassed  their  deaths,  a  single  man  who  had  not  come  to  his 
office  by  his  connection  with  the  politics  of  either  one  or  the 
other  of  the  corrupt  Parties.  In  this  WAK  OF  CLASSES  both 
these  corrupt  parties  are  equally  pitted  against  the  men  whom 
they  have  DISINHEKITED  of  their  land,  and  would  reduce  to 
helpless,  hopeless  slavery. 
Look  at  this  beastly  picture : 

"  A  nutner  of  young  ladies  came  from  Slatington  and  Hazleton,  accom- 
panied by  several  Presbyterian  clergymen,  to  examine  the  gallows,  and  '  a 
monster  of  questionable  taste.'  says  the  the  reporter,  was  standing  under 
the  trap  explaining  those  CLASS  reverends  and  class  ladies  how  it  would 
fall." 

Then  is  lightly  presented  this  other  picture  by  the  reporter  : 

"A  band  of  '  wild  spirits  '  broke  into  the  house  of  Mrs.  O'Donnell  and 
shot  her  and  one  of  her  sons  to  death  with  eighteen  bullets  because  they 
suspected  her  sons  to  be  murderers  of  Jones.  The  father  and  a  son  es- 
caped." 

"  Because  they  suspected  her  sons  "  they  shot  the  mother  and 
son  to  death  !  And  was  there  any  trial  of  these  midnight  assas- 
sins ?  Go  and  ask  the  ruling  assassins  af  Pennsylvania. 

Let  us  now  approach  that  appalling  scene — the  judicial  mur- 
der in  Pottsville.  In  the  tender  brightness  of  that  young  sum- 
mer day,  in  a  world  clothed  with  verdure,  and  flowers,  and 
fruit  by  the  love  of  its  Creator,  this  horrible  scene  is  presented, 
even  by  the  hostile  mercenary  reporter  of  a  hostile,  mercenary, 
accursed  press : 

"  MeGeehan  and  Boyle  came  forth  with  steady  steps.  The  ropes  are  at 
the  extreme  end  of  the  scaffold,  and  they  were  compelled  to  walk  clear 
across  the  dread  vehicle  of  death.  Boldly  they  went  forward,  however, 
and  each  took  his  place.  MeGeehan  was  very  neatly  dressed  in  a 
blue  suit,  fitted  in  a  way  to  exhibit  the  symmetry  of  his  frame. 
Boyle  also  wore  a  Sunday  suit.  MeGeehan  toyed  with  the  noose  that  was 
soon  to  strangle  him.  and  Boyle  stood  as  cooly  as  if  he  was  only  standing 
on  the  hustings, at  a  political  meeting.  MeGeehan  was  the  first  to  speak, 
and  hi  only  said  that  he  had  nothing  to  say,  but  asked  forgive- 
ness of  all  the  world  for  any  evil  he  might  have  done.  Boyle,  said  '  we 
have  nothing  to  say.  gentlemen,'  in  a  tone  entirely  free  from  emotion, 
'  whether  we  are  guilty  or  not  guilty.  I  have  done  everything  I  could  to 
save  my  soul.'  (Mark,  it  is  the  slave  of  a  corrupt  Class  press  that  reports 
this.)  Boyle  died  easily,  his  death  being  as  nearly  instantaneous  as 
death  on  the  sallows  can  be  instantaneous.  MeGeehan  was  not  so  fortu- 


WKONGS    OF    THE    AMERTCL1N    PEOPLE, 

aate.  IKs  sufferings  were  intense  and  long  continued.  His  strong  frame 
Quivered  with  the  death  struggle  long  after  Boyle's  spirit  had  passed 
away.  In  flvo  minutes  from  the  time  the  drop  fell  the  physicians  began 
to  feel  their  pulses,  and  after  twenty  minutes  the  bodies  were  cut  down." 

To  realize  what  this  innocent  man,  McGeehan,  suffered,  let  us 
commence  at  one,  and  distinctly  count  one,  two,  three,  etc.,  up 
to  60.  Choking:,  straining  after  the  film  of  air  that  makes  il;s  way 
through  the  compressed  windpipe,  this  tortured  man  had  to 
wait  till  the  sixty  was  reached.  Then  he  had  to  wait  again, 
choking  all  the  time  till  sixty  more  counts  slowly  on,  and  again, 
and  again,  and  yet  again  five  times,  ten  times  again,  before  this 
damnable  tribunal  of  Politicians  permits  him  to  die.  The  man 
who  sees  this,  and  ever  throws  a  vote  that  will  endorse  those 
murdering  Politicians,  let  him  not  dare  to  call  himself  a  man 
any  longer,  let  him  take  his  proper  place  among  the  army  of 
crouching,  stupid,  obedient  slaves.  This  hired  CLASS  reporter 
continues : 

Carroll  and  Boarty  come  next. 

"  Carroll  stood  facing  the  rope  with  his  back  to  to  the  beam,  and  during 
the  service  the  priest  stood  before  him  obstructing  the  view.  He  wan 
calm  and  unmoved.  Eoarty  was  excessively  nervous." 

He  spoke,  and  these  were  his  words: 

"  Well,  gentlemen,  I  want  to  talk  a  few  words,  and  only  a  few  words.  I 
stand  here  to-day  before  the  public,  and  I  must  say  the  truth  for  them. 
Thomas  Duffy  is  blamed  for  giving  me  $10  for  the  shooting  of  a  man  I 
never  saw.  Benjamin  F.  Yost,  of  Tamaq.ua.  Thomas  Duffy  I  am  going  to 
meet,  and  my  Lord.  I  never  saw  Duffy  but  three  times  in  my  life  before  I 
saw  him  in  Pottsville  jail.  What  I  can  say  for  him  is  this,  that  I  never 
agreed  in  Tamaqua  about  Yost  or  about  $10.  or  anything  concerning  the 
thing  at  all.  And  another  thing  I  must  say  for  Hugh  McGeehan  and 
James  Boyle,  that  I  never  asked  them  to  go  over  and  shoot  Benjamin  Yost 
or  any  other  mau,  and,  if  they  come  after  me  let  them  say  so.  I  ask  for- 
giveness of  the  world  and  everybody,  and  I  hope  they  will  forgive  me.  I 
hope  the  Lord  will  forgive  me.  That's  all  I  have  to  say." 

CARROLL'S    LAST   WORDS. 

Carroll  then  stepped  to  the  front  of  the  platform  and  eaid:— "I  have  not 
much  to  say,  except  that  I  die  innocent."  Here  Eoarty  said:— "  Excuse 
me.  gentlemen,  I  forgot  to  say  that  I  die  innocent." 

And  so  they  both  die  and  after  twenty  minutes  their  bodies  are  cut  down. 

There  had  been  a  rumor  that  Duffy  would  be  reprieved  if  all  the  dying 
men  would  plead  his  innocence.  Boarty  did  most  distinctly.  The  others 
probably  never  thought  of  him  or  knew  that  anything  might  avail  him. 
Arid  so  Duffy  and  Munley  die  also  for  the  Kerrigan  murder  of  Yost. 

With  reference  to  the  murdered  men—Judicially  murdered 
at  Mauch  Chunk— here's  the  sort  of  perjury  on  which  that  ac- 
cursed Court  and  jury  hanged  four  innocent  men  on  the  same 


WRONGS    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE. 

day.  Mulhern  ("the  squeeler")  swore  that  one  hundred  men 
were  assembled,  and  that  fifty  of  them  paid  down  each  a 
dollar  to  pay  for  the  murder.  Then  it  was  stated  that  four 
(above  named)  were  selected  to  go  twenty  or  thirty  miles  to 
kill  Powell;  and  that  these  had  to  get  some  men  in  Powell'* 
neighborhood  to  point  him  out,  thus  implicating  more  than 
one  hundred  men  in  the  murder;  and  that  the  whole  cause 
of  it,  as  stated  by  the  "  dug  up "  witness,  Mulhern,  was  that 
Powell  would  not  promote  a  man  from  the  level  of  a  LABORER 
up  to  the  dignity  of  a  MINER  —  from  seventy-five  cents  a  day 
up  to  ten  shillings!  I  state  here  simply  what  came  out  as 
evidence  on  the  trials.  And  upon  this  obvious  perjury  of  a 
man  "swearing  to  save  his  own  neck,"  this  Mauch  Chunk  Court 
and  Jury  send  four  innocent  men  to  be  choked  to  death. 
And  the  political  press  of  both  the  great  thief  parties  actual]  v 
howled  with  joy. 

CONTINUED    ATROCITIES    IN    PENNSYLVANIA. 

"  With  not  a  friend  to  animate,  and  tell 
To  others'  ears  that  death  became  him  well ; 
Around  him  foes'to  forge  the  ready  lie, 
And  blot  life's  latest  scene  with  calumny." 

I  did  not  dwell  upon  the  most  foul  Judicial  Murders  com- 
mitted upon  Hester,  McHugh  and  Tully,  because  it  was  simply 
a  repetition  of  the  crime  committed  on  the  ten  victims  last 
Summer,  substituting  for  the  murderer  Kennedy,  as  perjured 
witness,  that  other  murderer  "Kelly  the  bum." 

But  when  I  saw  a  confession  imputed  to  Tully,  I  remem- 
bered the  above  lines,  and  determined  to  make  sharp  inquiry 
in  relation  to  this  paraded  "confession." 

The  night  before  the  execution  a  Herald  reporter  writes  : 
"  Mr.  Elwell  has  been  trying  to  get  Tully  to  confess,  but  so  far 
has  failed."  Next  day,  and  after  the  execution,  the  same  re- 
porter says,  Tully  did  put  a  confession  in  Mr.  Elwell's  hands 
and  "there  is  no  reasonable  doubt  but  it  is  genuine."  This 


WfiONGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PBOPLJ5. 

remark  raised  In  my  mind  a  most  reasonable  doubt.    So  I  wroter 
to  Mr.  Elwell  who  promptly  and  politely  thus  replied :-~ 

Patrick  Tally  did  place  in  my  hands  a  confession  for  publication  after 
hla  death.  The  New  York  Herald  contains  a  correct  copy.  The  statement 
was  read  to  Father  Koch,  of  Shamokin,  in  Tally's  presence,  about  an  hour 
before  the  execution,  so  the  priest  can  affirm  its  genuineness.  Hester  and 
McHugh  both  admitted  their  guilt  the  night  before  th«.  execution,  after 
being  informed  that  Tully  had  confessed.  GEO.  E.  ELWELL. 

Now  as  the  Herald  reporter  had  sent  on  the  intelligence  the 
night  before  that  Mr.  Elwell  had  not  succeeded  in  getting  a  con- 
fession, it  narrows  very  closely  the  question  of  veracity  between 
them. 

Besides,  this  phrase  "did  place  in  my  hands"  would  be  the 
better  of  a  little  explanation.  Did  Tully  write  it,  and  have  it 
ready  to  "  place  "  in  Mr.  ElwelFs  hands  ?  Or  did  counsel  himself 
write  it  ?  When  was  the  writing  done  ?  By  whom  ?  Who  was 
present  at  this  writing  ?  Perhaps  those  things  might  admit  of 
explanation,  and  perhaps  they  might  not  At  any  rate,  when 
Mr.  Elwell  proceeds  to  state,  vaguely  enough,  that  "  Hester  and 
McHugh  both  admitted  their  guilt,"  and  refered  me  to  Father 
Koch,  I  determined  to  refer  rather  to  Fathers  McGovern  and 
Schtutzer  for  such  information  as  they  might  be  warranted  in 
affording.  I  wrote,  also,  to  Mr.  Elwell,  Informing  him  that  I  had 
done  so,  and  suggesting  that  he  might  hold  conference  with 
those  gentlemen,  and  among  them  throw  whatever  additional 
light  they  could  on  the  subject.  To  those  last  appeals  I  re- 
ceived no  answer. 

Anxious  to  find  out  the  truth,  if  possible,  I  wrote  to  Mr.  Wol- 
verton  (of  the  victim's  counsel),  who  politely  responds  thus : — 

The  only  confession  that  I  know  of  to  be  a  confession  of  Tully,  that  I 
know  to  be  genuine,  is  the  one  made  to  George  E.  Elwell,  Esq..  one  of  his 
counsel,  a  copy  of  which  I  enclose.  There  appears  by  the  papers  to  have 
been  another  statement  signed  by  him.  purporting  to  be  made  to  Benja- 
min Franklin  and  Thomas  Alderson.  a  copy  of  which  I  enclose.  The  first 
was  published  in  the  paper  printed  by  George  E.  Elwell,  who  was  one  of 
the  counsel  for  Hester,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  is  correct.  Where 
there  is  stars  it  omits  the  names  of  parties  mentioned  in  the  original. 

This  answer  has  been  delayed  because  of  your  letter  having  boen  direct- 
ed to  Bloomsbwrg  instead  of  Sunbury.  Pennsylvania. 

VeryresnectfuHr.  8.  P.  TOLTOBXON. 

The  above,  it  will  be  perceived,  is  a  very  loose  way  of  dealing 


WRONGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLR. 

with  "  facts  "  that  are  doubted.  "  That  I  know  to  be  genuine,"' 
says  Mr.  Wolverton.  But  he  does  not  tell  us  how  he  knows 
it  to  be  genuine. 

In  short,  Mr.  Wolverton  adds  nothing  to  our  knowledge,  save 
the  fact  that  there  was  another  so-called  "  confession  "  of  Tully, 
made  to  a  couple  of  Iron  policemen.  In  it  I  find  the  fol- 
lowing : — 

Question.  Did  Kelly  tell  the  truth  about  the  circumstances  of  the  Rea 
murder  ? 

Answer.  He  swore  to  some  lies,  but  most  he  said  was  true.  Neither  Hes- 
ter nor  McHugh  told  me  to  do  the  deed.  What  I  done  was  done  of  my  own 
accord.  But  Hester  was  Bodymaster.  and  McHugh  was  County  Delegate, 
and  if  they  had  said  the  thing  shouldn't  be  done,  they  could  have  stopped 
it.  It  wasn't  so  much  the  Order  (referring  to  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hiber- 
nians) as  it  was  whiskey  that  led  me  into  it.  If  I  had  followed  my  early 
teachings  I  never  would  have  got  into  this  trouble. 

Here  are  two  facts  worthy  of  especial  note.  One  that  Hester 
and  McHugh  were  men  of  note  and  influence,  "Bodymaster" 
and  "  County  Delegate."  If  sacrifice  must  be  made  to  the  Mo- 
loch of  the  coal  mine,  this  was  just  the  kind  of  men  to  sacrifice  1 

The  other  fact  goes  strongly  to  prove  what  I  never  doubted, 
namely  : — That  there  never  was  a  Molly  Maguire  organization 
in  Pennsylvania.  It  was  on  the  "Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  " 
that  the  nickname  was  fixed.  Little  did  the  agrarian  regulators 
of  the  county  Cavan  know  the  murders  that  would  be  commit- 
ted under  the  name  they  assumed.  The  purpose  of  that  organ- 
ization was  made  no  secret,  published  in  all  the  newpapers  of 
the  day  (1843).  I  have  the  original  mislaid  among  my  papers,  but 
have  its  substance  preserved  in  my  memory.  It  runs  thus  :— 

The  crualt/es  of  landlords  have  called  you  together  to  provide  for  the 
common  defence. 

Ejectments  must  bo  resisted  and  punished  till  two  years'  rent  is  due. 

Good  landlords  must  be  assisted  to  get  their  rents,  and  treated  with 
kindness. 

Bad  landlords  and  agents  must  be  severely  dealt  with  for  their  crimes— 
punished— abducted,  but  in  no  ca«e  must  fatal  violence  be  resorted  to.  It 
would  be  cruel,  and  it  would  rouse  public  feeling  against  us.  Signed, 

MOLLY    MAGUIBE. 

I  now  turn  the  whole  "  confessions  "  over  to  the  consideration 
of  those  who  believe  in  them,  frankly  admitting  that  I  cannot 
believe  either  in  Tully's  imputed  "  confession,"  or  the  other  vic- 
tims' "  admission  "  of  ffuilt.  I  believe,  on  the  contrary,  that  not 


WRONGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE. 

a  mail  engaged  in  those  judicial  murders  but  will  be  put  on. 
trial  for  their  lives,  if  God  inspires  the  honest  workingmen  of 
the  nation  to  hurl  out  (as  I  trust  they  will  at  the  next  election) 
the  corrupt  politicians  now  in  power,  and  so  purify  the  legisla- 
ture and  the  courts,  that  justice  may  be  lawfully  done  on  those 
judicial  assassins. 


THE    BKUTAL    PRESS. 

I  present  here  a  few  specimens  of  the  most  gentle  objurgations 
of  the  atrocious  press.  This,  the  New  York  Times,  which  claims 
to  be  the  most  decent  of  its  class  :-— 

MOLLIE   MAGUIRES    HANGED. 

"  BLOOMSBURG,  March  21.— Three  Mollie  Maguires  were  hanged  at  this 
place  to-day— Patrick  Hester.  Peter  MoHugh  and  Patrick  Tully— all  Irish 
Catholics,  all  middle  aged  men.  and  all  richly  deserving  of  the  haltera 
that  encircled  their  necks  this  morning. 

"This  gallows  strangled  several  Mollie  Maguires.  It  is  to  go  back  to 
Mauch  Chunk  to  hang  Thomas  Fisher  on  Thursday.  It  goes  galloping- 
about  the  oountry  dropping  off  Mollies  wherever  it  strikes. 

*'  Tkey  looked  fit  subjects  for  the  gallows.  Every  one  of  them  was  a  brutal 
and  dangerous  looking  man.  Hester,  very  large  and  powerful,  was  more 
refined  in  feature  than  either  of  the  others,  but  he  looked  like  a  man  to 
be  avoided  on  a  dark  night.  Not  one  of  their  necks  was  instantly  brokenr 
hut  all  died  by  strangulation,  at  very  nearly  the  same  time,  in  from  11  to 
12  minutes." 

Bead  in  a  previous  page  the  analysis  of  time  and  pain  en- 
dured in  hanging,  and  reflect  upon  the  continued  suffering  of 
those  dying  men.  Let  us  turn  away  from  those  horrible  judi- 
cial crimes ! 

May  the  Supreme  Power  that  called  this  Kepublic  into  exist- 
ence, inspire  its  honest,  oppressed  citizens  to  arouse  and  re- 
sume possession  and  direction  of  the  Republic.  Preserve  for 
themselves  and  their  imploring  posterity  the  rights  and  the 
dignity  that  belong  to  them — which  they  have  not  now — which 
have  been  feloniously  stolen  from  them  by  Class  and  Politicians 
the  most  false,  criminal  and  execrable  that  ever  afflicted  any 
nation  of  God's  Earth,  or  any  part  of  God's  Family. 


WRONGS   OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE. 


MOKE    ABOUT    THE    GKEAT    COAL     THIEVES. 

The  secret  falsehood  and  villainy  of  those  coal  mine  plunderers 
are  just  what  the  people  deserve  who  permit  them  to  seize  upon 
those  mines,  in  open  violation  of  all  the  rights  of  the  existing 
generation  and  of  the  generations  yet  to  come.  Those  thievec 
went  prospecting,  and  where  the  coal  was  found,  they  bought 
from  the  farmer  the  surface  fields,  and  then  seised  for  nothing 
upon  the  mines  beneath — a  "  royalty  "  that  belongs  to  the  State. 
By  this  means  they  tell  you  that  the  mines  were  created  only  for 
them,  and  that  their  keen,  villainous  heirs  shall  sell  to  your  blunt, 
blockheaded  heirs  this  coal  supply  forever.  Well !  You  accept 
this  Lie,  and  then  the  thief  of  the  coal  mine  is  complete  "  master 
both  of  the  situation"  and  your  purse.  The  combined  coal 
thieves  can  take  from  you  just  as  much  money  as  they  please. 
They  let  British  capitalists  "  go  snacks  "  with  them.  They  want 
big  dividends,  and  the  miner,  honestly  worth  three  dollars  a 
day,  is  starved  on  eighty  cents.  Then  they  employ  a  full 
force,  produce  an  immense  quantity,  and  then-— what  then? 
Why,  then  they  reduce  wages  to  a  starvation  figure  that 
is  sure  to  produce  a  strike.  When  that  comes,  they  cry 
"scarcity,"  and  put  up  the  price  of  coal,  falsely  shout- 
Ing  that  "there  can  be  no  more  mined."  By  this  villainy 
they  can  add  from  50  cents  to  a  dollar,  or  more,  a  ton  to 
the  price.  In  war  time  they  added  $5  or  $6.  Meanwhile 
the  miners  and  their  poor  families  are  starved  into  submission, 
and  by  the  time  the  intriguing  scoundrels  want  them  again,  they 
are  begging  to  work  at  any  price  those  scoundrels  may  offer. 
By  this  means,  and  hanging  as  many  as  they  choose  by  ready 
perjuries,  they  strike  terror,  and  keep  the  wretched  miners  in  a 
subjection  that  will  bring  God's  vengeance  on  them  and  on  the 
Republic,  too,  for  permitting  such  enormous  crimes.  Much  of 
this  doomed  region  is  infested  with  kindred  rattle  snakes,  and  a 
Polander,  who,  with  his  family,  was  nearly  starved  to  death  in 
it,  informs  me  that  from  ten  to  twenty  growing  children  die  an- 
nually of  their  bite.  Of  the  number  of  men  killed  in  the  mines 
Annually  no  account  is  made. 
A  little  care  and  a  little  outlay  would  lessen  this,  but  why 


WRONGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE. 

should  the  coal  kings  take  any  care  ?  Why  lay  out  any  money  ? 
No  matter  how  many  are  killed,  they  are  called  to  no  account 
Living  men  are  ready  to  take  the  places  of  the  dead,  and  in  turn 
risk  their  lives  to  gain  the  same  starvation.  A  young  man 
named  Adams,  sometime  resident  among  the  miners,  gives  me 
this  account,  and  adds — "  Though  rugged  with  toil  and  rough  in 
aspect,  I  found  those  men  of  kindly  hearts  to  the  stranger,  and 
though  presenting  a  strange  sight,  going  with  lamps  on  their 
heads,  there  seem  to  be  no  men  more  devoted  to  their  fam- 
ilies, starving  themselves  to  divide  with  them  the  morsel  of 
bread  which  they  earn  under  the  blasting  breath  of  Gowen." 
Him  of  the$20,000  a  year. 

An  epidemic  of  blood  took  possession  of  heathen  Eome  at  the 
close  of  the  Republic.  Tens  of  thousands  would  gather  to  see 
gladiators  slay  each  other  in  the  Arena.  Those  gladiators  were 
slaves,  and  when  one  would  sink  wounded,  his  victor  would 
put  his  foot  on  the  prostrate  neck,  and  point  the  sword  at  his 
heart  waiting  for  a  signal  from  the  benches  whether  he  should 
kill.  This  signal  was  made  by  a  peculiar  motion  of  the  thumbs, 
and  the  very  women  looking  on  would  give  the  signal  as  often 
to  murder  as  to  spare. 

Wronged,  disinherited,  enslaved  men  of  America !  It  is  hard 
for  you  to  realize  the  murderous  instincts  which  the  accursed 
xace  of  enslavers  have  shown  in  all  countries  and  in  all  times, 
and  never  more  wickedly  than  they  are  now  shown  in  the  dis- 
lionored,  guilty  State  of  Pennsylvania.  That  guilt,  and  that 
dishonor,  equally  divided  between  the  two  atrocious  political 
parties. 

Now,  men,  if  you  show  the  submission  to  those  thief  parties 
that  you  have  shown  up  to  this  time  ;  if  you  continue  to  look  on 
with  a  stupid  stare,  whilst  they  to  continue  pick  out  from  among 
you  just  whoever  they  please,  pass  them  through  the  hands  of 
Kennedy  and  "  Kelly  the  bum,"  and  into  the  hands  of  the  hang- 
man—if you  do  this,  it  will  be  bad  for  you,  and  it  will  be  far 
worse  for  the  Judicial  murderers.  The  more  the  pressure,  the 
more  loud  and  destroying  will  the  explosion  be.  Act  wisely, 
then,  circulatethe  truth  by  every  means  in  your  power.  I  will,  if 
you  desire  it,  detach  this  section,  "  Wrongs  of  the  American 
People,"  from  my  book,  and  furnish  it  at  a  nominal  price  for  dis- 


WRONGS    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE. 

tribution.  In  the  Irish  World  from  week  to  week  you  will  have 
a  watchful  friend  and  a  wise  adviser.  But  here,  and  now,  let  me 
summarize  down  my  advice  to  you. 

You  are  equal  citizens.  Be  armed !  That  single  fact  may 
prevent  a  conflict  now  heavily  impending.  Spread  the  truth, 
disable  the  accursed,  mercenary,  venomous  newspapers.  Pre- 
pare resolutely  for  the  next  election,  mark  every  man  with 
your  contempt  as  a  born  slave,  or  a  born  office  beggar, 
who  will  cast  a  vote  for  either  of  the  criminal  parties.  In 
every  school  district  meet  together  once  a  week  rn  the  school 
house.  If  those  who  have  authority  refuse  its  use,  write 
them  down  as  public  enemies,  and  meet  even  at  the  scanty 
houseroom  of  each  other.  Prepare  beforehand,  and  proclaim 
a  GENERAL  STKIKE  from  work  on  the  week  ending  elec- 
tion day.  Keenly  watch  the  count  of  votes,  for  the  scound- 
rels now  in  power  know  how  to  cheat.  Hope  for  the  best,  but 
be  "PREPARED  FOR  THE  WORST!"  You  have  Constitu- 
tional guards  around  you,  but  those  will  be  required  to  be  vig- 
orously guarded.  The  inhuman  and  unjust  men  now  riding 
over  you  will  make  desperate  efforts  to  keep  their  seats.  They 
will  stop  at  neither  fraud  nor  force.  If  serious  trouble  threat- 
ens them,  they  can  by  one  dash  of  their  pens — for  you  know 
they  have  all  power— destroy  the  Constitution  by  simply  pro- 
claiming Martial  Law.  If  that  is  done,  and  the  moment  it  is 
done,  accept  the  gage  of  battle,  march  into  the  arsenals,  capture 
the  gun  rooms  of  the  militia,  relieve  governors,  and  authorities 
of  every  kind  of  their  onerous  duties.  Especially  capture  the 
ruffian  newspaper  offices,  and  make  their  types  tell  truth  for 
once  in  their  lives.  Take  possession,  and  let  not  a  lie  flash  over 
the  telegraph.  It  is  probable  that  in  doing  all  this  you  may  not 
have  to  spill  one  drop  of  blood.  Acting  as  men  of  intelligence 
and  resolve  you  will  not  be  likely  to  have  much  trouble.  Your 
enemies  are  thieves,  not  an  honest  man  among  t^esa,  and 
thieves,  whea  justice  overtakes  them,  are  mostly  found  to  be 
cowards. 

By  acting  like  citizens,  determined  not  to  be  either  dragooned 
or  cheated  out  of  your  rights,  the  whole  dispute  will  be  peace- 
fully settled.  Your  inheritance,  stolen  and  given  to  the  rail- 
roads, will  be  restored  to  you.  The  mines  of  gold,  silver,  copper, 
iron,  coal,  everything  in  the  shape  of  minerals,  will  be  wrested 
out  of  the  wicked  clutch  of  the  Great  Fiend  Monopoly,  and  hon- 
estly handed  down  to  that  posterity  which  truly  owns  them. 

Ail  this,  citizens,  is  not  a  Declaration  of  War.  It  is  simply  a 
preparation  for  war.  And  that  has  ever  been  one  of  the  grand- 
est essentials  towards  "  preserving  the  peace." 

.THOMAS   AINGE   DEYYB. 

GBEENPOINT,  April,  1878. 


WBONGS    OF    THE    AMEBIOAN    PEOPLE. 


THAT    NAVY    TOO. 

Thii^y-flve  years  ago,  Henshaw  of  Boston,  then  its  Secretary, 
redv  oed  the  laborers  in  the  navy  yards  to  a  dollar  a  day,  retain- 
ing at  the  same  time  his  own  $6,000  a  year.  Working  citizens, 
"fou  are  not  only  robbed  and  degraded,  but  you  are  shamefully 
'!m.alted  by  your  government  of  thieves,  for  where  is  there  an 
honest  man  among  them  ?  Don't  you  see  what  the  twenty  mil- 
lions, all  told,  which  this  abomination  costs  you  yearly ;  don't 
you  see  what  it  would  do  for  your  boys  and  girls  in  education 
and  a  start  in  life  ?  Oh  !  brothers,  awaken  from  your  sickly  and 
degrading  dream.  If  you  have  no  pity  for  the  rude,  ill  clad, 
ill  cared  for,  ill  taught,  *nd  for  that  reason  ill  mannered  boys  you 
see  together  on  the  sidewalk.  Warming  their  inanity  and  ignor- 
ance into  life,  instead  of  being  in  the  way  of  education  to  be- 
come wise,  useful  and  dignified  men.  li  you  have  no  pity  for 
the  poor  shop  girls,  shut  in  from  the  fields  and  the  fresh  air, 
working  their  fingers  to  the  bone,  for  a  mere  pittance  to  sus- 
tain them  alive,  have  pity  at  least  on  your  own  little  ones.  Do 
not  give  up  their  Inheritance,  their  dignity,  their  future  happi- 
ness, at  the  bidding  of  party  rogues  and  criminal  newspapers, 
steeped  to  the  very  lips  in  corruption. 


Unlike  the  atrocious  monarchies  of  Europe,  everything  can  be 
settled  rationally  and  quietly  in  this  country.  That  is,  if  you 
stand  on  your  guard,  and  let  the  traitors  who  would  enslave 
you  see  and  know  that  you  are  men  of  sense  and  resolution. 
No  matter  how  bad  a  power  may  be,  it  will  make  desperate  ef- 
fort to  keep  its  place.  You  have  the  full  right  of  speech.  Speak 
out  the  truth  fearlessly.  You  have  the  full  right  to  arm.  Use 
it.  You  have  the  full  right  to  vjte.  Guard  it  from  being 
44  counted  out."  You  have,  in  short,  the  right  to  live  and  act 
resolutely  and  peaceably  under  the  Constitution. 

But  mark  !  If  driven  out,  as  tne  corrupt  usurpers  are  I  trust 
sure  to  be,  they  can  in  their  desperation  forge  an  excuse  and 
proclaim  Martial  Law.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  will  not  at- 
tempt this.  But  if  they  do.  it  is  the  gage  of  battle.  Accept  it. 
If  they  attempt  to  seize  your  leaders  at  the  same  moment,  it 
will  be  necessary  for  you  to  seize  theirs.  If  it  is  war  on  the  one 
side,  it  must  instantly  be  war  on  the  other.  Not  otherwise. 
Keep  the  law,  the  order  and  the  justice  on  your  side.  But  trust 
nothing  to  the  forbearance  of  those  bad  men.  Fraternize  peace- 
fully with  the  militia.  Show  them  that  you  ask  nothing  but 
what  is  right— what  is  their  interest  as  well  as  your  own.  That, 
and  keep  your  leaders  to  strict  account.  Do  these  things,  and 
'the  liepublic  is  saved. 


PUBLIC  MARAUDERS,  rushing  from  all  points  of  the  compass. 
corrupted  the  polls,  and  usurped  the  government— usurped  it  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  virtuous  men  whom  GOD  and  Nature  designed  should  govern 
the  Republic. 

If  this  were  so,  what  could  possibly  follow  but  what  we  see  and  what  we 
suffer  ?  The  robberies  that  have  rushed  through  Congress  since  the  days  of 
President  JACKSON  are  all  traceable  to  this  source.  The  floods  of  corruption 
which  swept  through  the  New  York  legislatures  would  never  have  shown 
themselves  only  for  this  unfortunate  omission— this  fatal  mistake— af  mis- 
take that  can  and  must  be  rectified.  Impious  men  may  seize  the  name  of 
the  Christian  religion,  may  put  a  royal  crown  upon  its  head,  deface  it  with 
bishops  at  twenty  thousand  pounds  a  year,  and  conceal  its  nuro.  lowly 
simplicity  with  all  external  abominations.  Does  that  affect  the  holiness, 
the  lowliness,  the  purity  of  the  Christian  religion  ?  Such  a  question  needs 
no  reply. 

And  such  is  exactly  the  state  of  this  Republic  in  the  hands  of  men  who 
have  been  seduced  Into  wickedness  by  the  immense  temptation  thus  laid 
out  before  them.  -A  temptation  that  laid  the  whole  wealth  of  the  nation  as 
plunder  at  their  feet. 

Now  let  us  examine  how  it  would  have  been,  and,  we  trust,  quickly  will 
be,  with  lines  like  the  following  fastened  and  immovable  in  the  Constitu- 
tions. Thus: 

"  The  power  to  tax  shall  be  strictly  defined  and  limited.  Present  valuations 
shall  stand.and  no  more  than  50  cents  per  $100  shall  be  levied  thereon  for 
all  purposes— city,  state,  and  county.  No  new  assessments  except  for  new 
improvements.  A  graduated  tax— sacred  to  the  purposes  of  education- 
shall  be  levied  on  large  fortunes  of  $100,000  and  upward1. 

"The  national  government  shall  be  put  upon  a  similar  allowance— say 
W  cents  per  capita.  No  standing  army ;  no  sailing-about  navy;  no  publio 
debt;  no  monopoly  of  mines  or  lands  shall  be  granted."  And  now  a 
word  or  two  in  vindication  of  these  regulations: 

First— The  50  cent  regime  will  keep  greedy  men  from  seeking  publio 
office.  A  man  who  is  not  heartily  willing  to  serve  the  Republic  for  a  decent 
living  'say  $2,000  a  year,  and  no  man  leas  than  $1,000).  is  not  worthy  to 
serve  it  at  all.  Neither  would  such  a  man  be  likely  to  serve  it  efficiently. 
It  might,  indeed,  be  affirmed  that  the  higher  the  pay  the  more  negligently 
will  the  service  be  performed. 

Second— The  "  no  public  debt"  clause:  It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  shut 
out  the  eating  leech  of  Usury  that  is  depleting  and  poisoning  all  the 
nations— the  United  States  worst  of  all. 

Third— Under  a  just  and  peaceful  government  there  would  be  no  incen- 
tive to  war— there  could  be  no  war  save  one  of  aggression  upon  us  from 
without,  which  our  entire  manhood  would  rise  up  to  repel.  And  whilst 
that  manhood  protected  the  wealth  of  the  country  that  wealth  must 
equitably  pay  its  expenses.  No  standing  army— no  oppressed  "  strikers  " 
to  shoot  down ! 

Fourth— Under  this  virtuous  arrangement  the  National  Government 
would  have  very  little  to  do.  No  "  foreign  entanglements."  No  navy  sail- 
ing about,  liable  by  its  indiscretions  to  drag  us  into  foreign  complications. 
The  police  of  the  soas  left  to  the  peddling  nations  which  have  no  lands  for 
their  peoples,  or  which  shut  the  peoples  out  from  the  lands.  Let  them 


have  the  "  carrying:  trade  "  by  sea.  The  worst  fate  yon  could  Inflict  ur>on 
the  youth  of  America  would  be  the  forecastle  of  the  ship  and  the  New 
York  dance  house.  • 

To  build  and  equip  one  "Ironclad"  and  keep  her  in  service  lor  a  year 
would  endow  fifty  agricultural  and  scientific  schools,  each  on  a  thousand- 
acre  farm.  And  which  would  be  best— the  Schools  or  the  Ironclad  ? 

The  great  historical  fact  now  stands  forth  that  this  Republic  has. 
through  this  one  fundamental  mistake,  (the  boundless  power  to  tax  left 
In  the  hands  of  the  politicians.)  been  a  murdering  during  many  years.  If 
it  had  not  unparalleled  vitality  it  would  have  been  stone  dead  long  before 
now.  Let  us  join  together  and  save  it. 

Under  this  new  and  purifying  arrangement  Republican  Institutions  will 
get  fair  play.  When  there  will  be  no  spoils  there  will  be  no  plunderers. 
Patriotic  men  will  naturally  take  control,  and  good  laws  in  all  things  will 
naturally  supersede  the  evils  we  now  endure.  Intelligence  and  efficiency 
in  every  department  of  the  Republic  will  move  steadily  on.  confined  to 
their  path,  just  as  the  street  railcar  is  confined  to  its  iron  track.  The  Re- 
vised Constitution  A\ill  be  the  confining  rail,  beyond  or  out  of  which  the 
business  of  the  public  can  by  no  means  be  driven.  Efficiency  and  hon- 
esty will  prevail  in  every  department  as  naturally  as  ever  cause  produced 
its  effect.  Its  sunshine  will  throw  light  into  the  hearts  of  the  uprising 
Democracies  of  Europe,  and  it  will  strike  the  knell  of  coming,'  doom 
into  the  hearts  of  monarchy,  oligarchy,  land-stealing,  and  all  the  "royal" 
and  "  noble  "  and  "  right  honorable  "  villanies  that  afflict  the  world. 

THOMAS  A.  DEVYR  intends  to  found  a  Movement  to  carry  out  this  GREAT 
CHANGE  of  limiting  the  power  to  tax.  In  the  meanwhile,  look  out  for  the 
"  Odd  Book  of  the  Nineteenth  Century."  now  going  through  the  press. 
Communicate  with  him  at  Greenpoint.  N.  Y. 


"  What  art  thou  freedom  ? 
Thou  art  not  as  impostors  say, 
A  shadow  soon  to  pass  away : 
A  superstition  and  a  name. 
Echoing  from  the  cave  of  fame; 
Fur  the  laborer  thou  art  bread. 
And  a  comely  table  spread ; 
From  his  daily  labor  come, 
In  a  neat  and  happy  home. 


"What  is  slavery? 
It  is  to  work  and  have  such  pay. 
As  just  keeps  life  from  day  to  day ; 
In  your  frame,  as  in  a  cell, 
For  the  tyrants  use  to  dwell ; 
Bo  that  you  for  him  art  made,  [spade ; 
Loom,  and  plough,  and  sword,  and 
With,  or  without  your  own  will  bent, 
To  his  defence  and  nourishment." 
— SHELLED. 


BRITISH    ARISTOCRACY. 

See  these  inglorious  Cincinnati  swarm. 

Farmers  of  war— dictators  of  the  farm ; 

Their  ploughshare  was  the  sword  in  hireling  hands, 

Their  fields  manured  with  gore  of  other  lands. 

Safe  in  their  barns,  those  Sabine  tillers  seat 

Their  brethren  out  to  battle— why  V    For  rent; 

Year  after  year  they  voted  cent  per  cent, 

Blood,  sweat,  and  tear-wrung  millions.    Why  for  rent; 

The  peace  has  made  on  general  malcontent. 

Of  those  high  market  patriots  war  was  rent; 

Their  love  of  country— millions  all  misspent, 

How  reconcile?    By  reconciling  rent. 

And  will  they  not  repay  the  treasures  lent? 

No.  down  with  everything  and  up  with  rent. 

Their  good.  ill.  health,  wealth,  joy  or  discontent. 

Being,  end.  aim,  religion— rent,  rent,  rent.— 


A    CONTRAST. 

Never  was  presented  a  more  momentous  contrast  than  by 
those  two  pictures  on  the  following  pages.  They  ought  to 
be  enlarged  and  elaborated  by  artists  and  engravers  in  the 
highest  order  of  the  Art.  In.  large  size  for  framing.  On 
India  proof  paper,  with  the  expression  of  face  preserved  in 
the  groups  of  each  picture.  Of  suffering,  sorrow  and  despair 
in  the  one  group.  Of  courage,  manhood  and  exultation  in 
the  other.  Beautifully  executed  and  framed,  they  would 
form  at  once  the  most  interesting  and  instructive  pictures 
that  ever  adorned  either  court  or  cottage.  I  suppose  the 
two  plates  would  cost  $300.  I  will  commence  a  subscription 
for  the  purpose  with  ten  dollars.  Who  comes  next?  "This 

is  the  hour  of  heroes." 

AUTHOR  OF  "TnE  ODD  BOOK." 

And  now,  brothers,  I  take  my  leave,  at  least  for  the  present. 
I  have  given  you  my  experience  of  fifty  years.  And  I  offer 
you  such  advice  as  that  long  experience  suggests.  I  had 
vowed  a  war  against  Land  Monopoly — till  either  it  or  I 
should  die.  "  Our  Natural  Eights  "  (see  ante)  was  my  gage 
of  battle  to  them.  Five  years  ago,  ere  I  entered  the  Irish 
World  office,  I  had  commenced  this  book.  I  then  thought 
the  old  Thieves  would  outlive  me,  and  I  named  my  volume 
"MEMORIES  or  A  LOST  LITE."  I  don't  think  so  now.  Since 
that  time — and  especially  in  the  last  two  years — a  change 
has  come  over  the  order  of  battle,  and  now  I  have  reasonable 
hope  that  I  will  yet  live  to  see  the  last  of  the  Thieves.  And 
I  hope  to  leave  a  memory  behind  me,  that  I  helped  to  make 
honest  men  of  them. 


\  P      F= 

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