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ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA.
EIGHTH EDITION.
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THE
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA,
OR
DICTION AKY
OF
/
ARTS. SCIENCES, AND GENERAL LITERATURE.
EIGHTH EDITION.
WITH EXTENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS AND ADDITIONS;
AND NUMEROES ENGRAVINGS.
VOLUME V.
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, EDINBURGH.
MDCCCLIV.
[The Proprietors of this Work aive notice that they reserve the right of Translating it]
      - ■ ——:
NF.TI;L AND COMPANY, PHINTERS, EDINBX7RGH.
ENCYCLOPEDIA BKITANNICA
BOMBAY.
Bomljay. This island, which is tlie seat of government for the west-
ern part of India, is situated in Lat. 18. 57. Long. 72. 53.
Descrip- -^ts from north to south is eight miles, and its breadth
tion. about three. It is separated from the mainland by an
arm of the sea, and forms, in conjunction with the adjacent
islands of Salsette on the north, and Colaba with Old
Woman’s Island on the south, a large, commodious, and
well-sheltered harbour. The two islands on the south,
separated from Bombay and from each other by narrow
channels, have been united by causeways, which are now
entirely raised above the sea at high water. To the north
Bombay is connected with Salsette also, by a causeway with
an arched stone bridge ; and, more recently, a second cause¬
way has been thrown over the strait for the purposes of the
Great India Peninsular railway. The islands thus linked
together form a continuous breakwater, stretching for several
miles from north to south. Near the southern extremity of
Colaba Island stands the lighthouse, a building of circular
form, rising from the sea to the height of 150 feet, and show¬
ing its light at the distance of twenty-one miles. Within
the harbour, and about a mile from the city of Bombay, is
Cross Island, N.E. of which, and at the distance of three
miles, is Butcher Island. Abreast of the latter, but more to
the eastward, lies the celebrated Island of Elephanta. Ca-
ranja Island, to the southward of Elephanta, on the east side
of the harbour, and opposite its entrance, is of considerable
extent, being four miles long and nearly two broad; it is
covered with woods, and has little elevation with the excep¬
tion of two remarkable hills called Great and Little Caranja
Hills. Besides the above there are two small islands, Oon-
daree and Kundaree, lying at the entrance of the harbour.
Town of The town of Bombay within the fort is nearly a mile in
Bombay, length, from the Apollo Gate to that of the Bazaar, and about
a quarter of a mile broad in the widest* part, from the cus¬
tom-house across the Green to Church Gate, which is nearly
in the centre between the Apollo and the Bazaar Gates.
There are likewise two gates towards the sea, having com¬
modious wharfs and cranes built out from each, with a land¬
ing-place for passengers. Between these gates is Bombay
Castle, a regular quadrangle, built of hard and durable stone,
and having the advantage, in one of the bastions, of a large
reservoir of water. The fortifications are extensive, and
they have been improved in proportion as the place has
risen into greater importance from its increasing trade.
They have received a considerable accession of strength
VOL. r.
from Dunganee Hill, which commanded the town, having Bombay,
been included within the fort; and towards the sea they are
extremely strong, the harbour being completely commanded
by ranges of batteries placed one above another.
In the centre of the town is a large open space called the
Green, around which are many large, well-built, and hand¬
some houses. Here is also the church, which has an ex¬
tremely neat and light appearance; and on the left of the
Church Gate is the government-house, which is a showy
edifice, but liable to the inconvenience of having the largest
apartment in each floor a passage-room to the others. On
the right of the Church Gate is the bazaar, which is crowded
and populous. Here the native merchants reside ; and at
the entrance to the street stands the theatre, which is a
handsome building. In the year 1803 this part of the town
was greatly injured by a destructive fire, which destroyed
nearly three-fourths of the bazaar, together with the bar¬
racks, custom-house, and many other public buildings, be¬
sides property of immense value belonging to native mer¬
chants. Another extensive conflagration occurred in 1845,
when nearly 200 houses were destroyed. During its pro¬
gress, information reached the police that one of the houses,
the upper part of which was in flames, contained on the
lower basement a number of barrels of gunpowder. A party
of seamen had been drafted from the ships in the harbour
to assist in arresting the progress of the fire; and these
men, with the cool intrepidity which characterizes the
sons of the ocean, forced their way into the burning pre¬
mises, and actually succeeded in removing the entire quan¬
tity of powder, consisting of several thousand pounds in
weight. A large and handsome church, intended as a mo¬
nument to the British heroes who fell on the banks of the
Sutlej, has been recently built on the island of Colaba,
where the cantonments are situated. About a mile N.W.
of the fort is the Black Town.
At Bombay the rise of the tides has been found suffi¬
cient to admit the construction of docks on a great scale.
The highest spring tides rise to the height of seventeen feet,
and the height of the ordinary tides is fourteen feet. In
consequence of these natural advantages, the dry dock of
Bombay has scarcely its equal for size and convenience;
having three divisions, with a pair of strong gates to each,
so that it is capable of receiving three ships of the line at a
time. Near this dock is a convenient place to heave down
several ships at once; and this operation is well executed,
2
BOMBAY.
Bombay, and with great expedition, by the Parsees, who are generally
accounted excellent ship-carpenters. Here is a rope-walk,
equal to any in England, with the single exception of the
king’s yard at Portsmouth, where cables and all sorts of
lesser cordage are manufactured. It has also a covering to
protect the workmen from the heat or inclemency of the
weather. The dockyard is large and well contrived, having
ample supplies of naval stores deposited in the warehouses,
together with large quantities of timber for repairing and
building ships, and forges for all kinds of smith-work. With
these advantages Bombay claims a distinguished rank as a
naval arsenal. Many merchant-ships of from 600 to 1300
tons, partly for the country trade and partly for the service
of the East India Company, have been built in its docks,
and, in beauty of construction, good workmanship, and dura¬
bility, they have been considered superior to any other class
of merchant-ships in the world. Some ships of the line, and
several frigates for the British navy, have also been built at
this port. Among them may be mentioned the Minden, a
74-gun ship launched in 1810; this was followed some years
later by the Wellesley, also a 74-gun ship; and more re¬
cently the Meeanee of 80 guns has been added to the list.
These ships were all built of Malabar teak, which is esteemed
superior to any in India. The teak forests, from which sup¬
plies of wood are derived, lie along the western side of the
Ghaut Mountains, and other contiguous ridges to the north
and east of Bassein; the numerous streams which descend
from them affording water-carriage for the timber. The
docks belong to the Company. They are entirely occupied
by Parsees, who are esteemed remarkably skilful and assi¬
duous. Bombay, thus possessing, in the skill of its work¬
men, the excellence of its timber, and the superiority of its
docks, all that is necessary for a naval arsenal, is a station
of the first importance to the British power in India.
From its position, Bombay commands an extensive com¬
merce with the countries situated in the Persian and Ara¬
bian Gulfs. It also possesses much facility of commercial
intercourse with different parts of the territories subject to
the other presidencies of India, and it carries on a valuable
trade with Europe, America, and China. The chief articles
of export are cotton, cashmere shawls, wool, opium, coffee,
pepper, ivory, and gums. The principal imports are British
manufactures, raw silk from China, wine, beer, and tea.
The foreign trade has more than doubled within the last
twenty years ; and its exports alone now amount to seven
millions sterling. The value (in rupees) of the impoxts and
exports to the United Kingdom has increased thus :—
1813-14.
1823-24.
1833-34.
1843-44.
1852-53.
Imports.
Rs. 926,980
5,571,313
9,042,390
24,335,718
29,319,750
The shipping that entered
1852-53, was as follows :—
Exports.
Rs. 3,051,543
5,953,859
10,184,795
17,046,748
29,385,955
and cleared the port in
Square-rigged,
Country craft
Arrived.
Vessels. Tonnage.
522 227,751
41,719 679,696
Departed.
Vessels. Tonnage.
522 215,209
41,696 693,119
Population. According to the census of 1849 Bombay Island, with
Colaba, contains a population of 566,119. This amount is
inclusive of the military and also of the floating population
of the harbour. More than one-half of the inhabitants are
Hindus. The Mahometans somewhat exceed one-fifth of
the entire population. Next in point of numbers are the
Parsees. Many of this last-mentioned class are extensively
engaged in commerce ; they are the brokers and factors of
Eui'opeans, and share largely in most of the foreign specu¬
lations of European mercantile houses. They are a rich,
industrious, and active body of men, who contribute greatly
to the prosperity of the settlement. The Parsees are the
descendants of the ancient fire-worshippers of Persia, who Bombay,
took refuge in Khorassan upon the conquest of that country
by the Moslems in the seventh century. Their first ap¬
pearance in India occurred about the year 766, and their
earliest settlement was the island of Diu, on the south coast of
the peninsula of Kattywar. From thence they migrated to
Surat and Broach, and finally to Bombay. The various
castes into which the total population of Bombay is distri¬
buted, and the proportion comprised in each, are thus par¬
ticularized :—
Jains, Lingaehs, or Boodhists,   1,902
Brahmins  6,936
Hindus of other castes  289,995
Mussulmans  124,155
Parsees  114,698
Jews  1,132
Native Christians   7,456
Indo-Britons   1,333
Indo-Portuguese  5,417
Pure European   5,088
Seedee, Negro, African   889
Other castes  7,118
Total, 566,119
It has been often remarked that the people of India differ
from Europeans, not only in race, in language, and in creed,
but also in their manners and modes of thought. A strik¬
ing illustration of the truth of the observation is afforded in
the organization and existence to a very recent period of the
great plundering confederacy of Bombay. This partnership, plundering
composed of upwai'ds of forty individuals, and affording em- confeder-
ployment to between two and three hundred subordinates, acy.
had been established upwards of thirty years for the receipt
of goods stolen from merchant-ships. The harbour was
the principal scene of plunder, where the members of the
gang were each day systematically distributed at the dif¬
ferent quays, from which their boats and canoes were sent
off to the loading and unloading ships. The plunderobtained
was conveyed openly to the shore as though legally acquired,
and thence ti’ansported to the partnership v/arehouses, where
each morning it was brought to auction without any attempt
at concealment. The books were kept with strict regularity,
and the division of profits made with scrupulous honesty; two
shares being invariably x'eserved to be distributed in clxarity.
This successful perpetration of offences, though practised
without interruption for a series of years, had been carried
on without suspicion on the part of the European officers
of the government; while the silence of the natives was
secured either by the respect for caste, or by resort to in¬
timidation. It was not till the year 1843 that the system
was discovered, and those concerned in it brought to justice.
The Company’s naval force at Bombay, including frigates, Naval
iron steamers, and other craft, consists of forty-six vessels, and force,
to man this navy a regular establishment of officers and sea¬
men is required. The western coast of India, from the
shores of the Persian Gulf to Goa, was formerly infested by
hordes of pirates, who wei*e distinguished, particularly those in
the northerly tracts, by courage, address, and habits of ex¬
treme ferocity. It was to pi-otectthe country trade against
the depredations of these banditti, who had haunted those
seas since the time of Alexander the Great, that the East
India Company found it necessary to maintain an armed
maritime force.
The military force of the presidency, composed of the Military
regular troops of the Crown and Company, but exclusive of force,
local and police coi’ps, amounts to 41,426 men, of whom
10,244 are Europeans, and 31,182 natives. If the strength
of the local and police corps be added, the aggregate will
be swelled to 59,430. An augmentation of fox*ce being re¬
quired, consequent upon the x’ecent extension of the British
dominions in India, another European regiment is about to
be added to the infantry of this presidency.
Bombay.
Education.
Judicial
establish¬
ment.
• BOMBAY.
3
The principal divisions of the Bombay army are as fol¬
low :—
European
Presidency Garrison—•
Headquarters, Bombay 
Southern Division—
Headquarters, Belgaum 
Poonah Division—
Headquarters, Poonah 
Northern Division—
Headquarters, Ahmedabad
Asseerghur fortress  
Aden force  
Sinde Division—■
Headquarters, Kurrachee..
Rajpootana field force 
Deduct Madras troops.
Deduct local and police corps.
Total regular troops, Crown )
and Company’s  J
678
1,399
3,736
1,376
14
659
2,461
181
10,504
207
10,297
53
10,244
Native.
3,264
8,117
10,729
11,828
573
1,405
12,964
3,757
2,637
3,504
49,133
17,951
31,182
Total.
3,942
9,516
14,465
13,204
2,587
15,425
3,938
63,141
3,711
59,430
18,004
41,426
A board of instruction presides over the government edu¬
cational establishments of this presidency. These institu¬
tions consist of two principal classes. The first comprehends
all the vernacular schools in which knowledge is communi¬
cated through the medium of the native languages. Under
the second are ranked the institutions in which the higher
branches of learning are taught through the medium of
English. Various particulars connected with these semi¬
naries are detailed in the following table.
Expense.
English and mixed Instruction.
Elphinstone Institutions—
College 
Schools (two) 
Branch schools (two) 
Grant Medical College 
Poonah school 
Ahmednuggur school 
Surat school 
Ahmedabad school 
Broach school 
Rutnagherry school 
Dharwar school 
Poonah Sanscrit College  
Vernacular Instruction.
No. of Schools.
Presidency  7
First Division  133
Second Division  37
Third Division  56
Teachers
} M
Pupils.
42
520
404
27
169
52
290
99
67
51
40
305
62 2,066
7
133
37
56
429
5,059
2,298
3,608
233 11,394
Total Rs. 1,50,408 | 295 13,460
In 1827 a supreme court of justice was established at
Bombay, constituted under letters-patent from the crown,
under powers granted by act of parliament. It consists of
a chief justice and one puisne judge, from whose decision
an appeal lies to the queen in council. The modes of pro¬
cedure in this court are assimilated to those of the courts
at Westminster; but its jurisdiction is restricted to the
city of Bombay, except in regard to British subjects.
Bombay is the seat of a bishopric, subject to the ecclesi- Bombay,
astical jurisdiction of the bishop of Calcutta as metropolitan. ^
The ecclesiastical establishment consists of a bishop, an Ecclesias-
archdeacon, seven chaplains, and sixteen assistant chaplains, tiral esta-
There are also at this presidency two ministers of the Church blishment.
of Scotland, appointed and maintained by the East India
Company.
Subject to the superintendence, direction, and control of population
the governor-general of India in council, the government and extent
of the territories of Bombay is vested in a governor and of presi-
three councillors, styled “ the Governor in Council of Bom- dency.
bay.” The following table exhibits the details of the area
and population of the several subdivisions into which the
Bombay territories are distributed :—
Area
in Population.
Square Miles.
Surat  1,629 492,684
Broach  1,319 290,984
Ahmedabad  4,356 650,223
Kaira  1,869 580,631
Khandeish  9,311 778,112
Tannah, or Northern Con can 5,477 815,849
Poonah  5,298 666,006
Ahmednuggur, including the
sub-collectorate of Nassick 9,931 995,585
Sholapore  4,991 675,115
Belgaum  5,405 1,025,882
Dharwar  3,837 754,385
Rutnagherry, or South Cou-
can  3,964 665,238
Bombay Island, including
Colaba  18 566,119
Kolaba Territory, now in¬
cluded in Tannah  318 58,721
Sattara  10,222 1,005,771
Sinde—
Shikarpore.   6,120 350,401
Hyderabad  30,000 551,811
Kurrachee  16,000 185,550
Native States in connection
with the Bombay govern¬
ment—
Baroda (Guicowar)   4,399
Khyrpore (Sinde)  5,000
Kattywar   19,850
Kolapore  3,445
Sawunt Warree  800
Cutch  6,764
Mahratta jaghiredars  3,775
Petty States in Guzerat   16,617
52,120
11,109,067
60,650
325,526
105,000
1,468,900
500,000
120,000
500,536
419,025
1,030,938
4,469,925
180,715 15,578,992
Facilities of communication, so important to the prosperity Roads anc
of commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, as well as so railways,
essential to social improvements, are for the most part rare
in India. In the Bombay territories government has made
considerable efforts to effect beneficial changes in this re¬
spect, but the difficulties are many, various, and sometimes
almost insurmountable. The great expense of constructing
roads of materials calculated for durability, with drains,
bridges, and other appurtenances essential to their complete¬
ness, and of maintaining them in a state of efficiency, is but
one among those difficulties. Another is the character of
the country to be traversed; roads, in many cases connecting
places of some importance, have in the intermediate space
to pass through a tract of country little if at all removed
from the character of a desert. A further, and in a great
degree a peculiar difficulty arises from the frequent deficiency
of water. The construction of roads in the hot climate of
Bombay is useless unless water can he found for the con¬
sumption of the beasts of burden, and this has frequently to
be provided by additional works, involving an increased out¬
lay. If to these sources of difficulty and expense be added
that arising from the rugged and mountainous character of
4
B O N
BON
Bomb- a large part of the country, the feeling likely to be excited
Ketch w;n 0f surprise that so nnich should have been
Bona effected. The grand obstacle, after leaving the coast, is the
) range of mountains known as the Western Ghauts, the prin¬
cipal passes in which are at present the Tull and the Bhore
Ghaut, traversed by what may be termed two radical roads,
connecting the port of Bombay with the interior. A rail¬
way from the city of Bombay, traversing the country in a
northerly direction, and intended to effect a junction with
the Calcutta and Delhi trunk line, is now under construc¬
tion, and has been opened as far as Tannah. A branch line
from this will connect the cotton districts of the valley of
Berar with the port of shipment on the western coast;
while another in a south-eastern direction, via Poonah and
Bellary, is projected, to facilitate communication with Ma¬
dras.
History. Bombay Island appears to have been first occupied by the
Portuguese about the year 1530, having been previously
dependent on the ruler of Guzerat. In 1661 it was ceded
by the crown of Portugal in full sovereignty to Charles the
Second of England, by the treaty of marriage concluded with
that power when he espoused the Infanta ; and shortly after
it was transferred by royal grant to the East India Company.
In process of time it superseded in importance the factory
at Surat, and became the principal British settlement on the
western coast. Aurungzebe, emperor of Delhi, invaded the
island in 1688 and laid siege to the town, but was prevailed
upon to withdraw his troops upon the receipt of a sum of
money.
The extensionof the British dominionson the western side
of India was both slow and subject to frequent checks. Bona Dea
Previously to the year 1775 the possessions of the East In- ||
dia Company in this quarter of the empire were limited to BonaM.
the island of Bombay, the harbour of Bankote, with Port
Victoria, and the factories of Ahmedabad, Broach, and Surat.
In the year last-mentioned, Salsette and the adjacent islands
were obtained by treaty with the Peishwa. About the same
period various acquisitions were made in Guzerat, but these,
after a brief occupation by their new masters, again reverted
to the Mahrattas. It was not till the close of the eighteenth
century that the company obtained the grant of the city and
territory of Surat, nor until the commencement of the nine¬
teenth, that the district of Broach became permanently a
British possession. By the treaty of Baroda in 1805, por¬
tions of the collectorates of Ahmedabad and Kaira were
ceded by the Guicowar, as were the ports of Malwan, Vin-
gorla, and some others, by the rajahs of Kolapore and Sa-
wuntWarree. 1 hese, however, in the aggregate constitute
but a fragment of the territory now comprised within the
presidency, the great bulk of which is of' still more recent
acquisition. One vast accession took place in 1818, upon
the downfall of the Peishwa, when the possessions of that
potentate were incorporated with the Company’s dominions.
Since that period the limits of the British empire on the side
of Western India have been still further extended by the
annexation of Sinde, and the transfer to the Company of
the Angrias territories, and the principality of Sattara. The
first of these became subject to British rule by the results
of war ; the latter two lapsed to the paramount power upon
the failure of heirs to their last native rulers. (e. t.)
BOMB-Ketch. See Bomb-Vessel.
BOMBUS (/Sop/Sos), literally, a deep hollow sound or
humming noise, such as the buzzing of bees. The word
was used to denote a kind of applause with the hands in an¬
cient auditories. (Suet. Nero, 20.) This term is also em¬
ployed to designate a genus of insects, of which our com¬
mon Humble Bee is the type. See Entomology.
BOMBYX, the silkworm. See Entomology.
BOMONIC7E (/Sw/j-oveLKau), the name given to those La¬
cedaemonian youths who contended at the altar of Artemis
Orthia for the prize of endurance, by submitting their bodies
to the lash. (Hyg. Fab. 261.)
BONA, Giovanni, a learned and pious cardinal, was born
in 1609, at Mondovi in Piedmont, and died at Rome in 1674.
His principal work is his Rerum Liturgicarum Lib. II.,
Rome, 1671, which is an authority on all that pertains to
the Romish service of the mass.
Bona, a fortified town and seaport of Algiers, in the pro¬
vince, and 85 miles N.E. of the town, of Constantine, is situ¬
ated on an open bay at the mouth of the Seybouse in Eat.
36. 54. N. Long. 7. 47. E. The town is about two miles in
circumference, and is surrounded by a high wall with square
turrets and four gates. It has been much improved since it
came into the possession of the French, by the formation of
good streets and squares, and the erection of many handsome
and commodious houses. It now has bazaars, markets, coffee¬
houses, reading-rooms, hospitals, two Roman Catholic chapels,
synagogue, mosque, theatre, barracks, and several schools ;
and it is the seat of a tribunal of primary instance. It is the
principal seat of the coral fishery, and has a considerable
trade in corn, wool, hides, and wax ; and manufactures of
native garments, tapestry, saddles, &c. The town and har¬
bour are defended by a citadel, Casbah, on a hill a little to
the north of the town, and surrounded by thick walls, about
a quarter of a mile in circuit.
Remains of the ancient Hippo-regius, celebrated as the
see of St Augustine, are to be found about a mile to the
south of the town, and consist principally of large cisterns,
and part of the Roman walls. The population of Bona in
1850 amounted to 8134, of whom 5250 were Europeans.
Bona Dea, a Roman divinity, who is described as the
wife, sister, or daughter cf Eaunus, and so famous for her
chastity that after her death she was deified. Her sacrifices
were performed only by women, and in so secret a manner
that it was death for any man to intrude himself into the as¬
sembly. Cicero reproaches P. Clodius with having entered
this temple disguised as a singing woman, and by his pre¬
sence polluted the mysteries of the Bona Dea. What kind
of mysteries these were, we learn incidentally from Juvenal,
Sat. vi. 313, where the abominations practised in them are
very significantly pointed at.
Bona Fides, in Laiv. When a person performs any ac¬
tion which he believes at the time to be just and lawful, he
is said to have acted in bona fide, “ in good faith.”
Bona Mobilia, movable effects or goods.
Bona Notabilia are such goods as a person dying has in
another diocese than that in which he dies, amounting to
the value of five pounds at least; in which case the will of
the deceased must be proved, or administration granted, in
the court of the archbishop of the province, unless, by com¬
position or custom, any dioceses are authorized to do it, when
rated at a greater sum.
Bona Vacantia, goods, such as royal fish, shipwrecks,
treasure-trove, waifs, and estrays, in which no one can claim
a property.
BONALD (Louis Gabriel Ambroise) Vicomte De,
a French philosophical writer, was born in the year 1754 at
Monna, near Milhau, in the department of Aveyron. He be¬
gan life as a soldier, but having little sympathy with the re¬
volutionary principles then abroad, he emigrated in 1791
and joined the army of Conde. Soon afterwards he quitted
the service and retired to Heidelberg, where he devoted
himself entirely to literature. His first work, entitled Theorie
du Pouvoir Politique et Religieux, was published at Con-
BON
Bonaparte stance in 1796, but was interdicted by the French Di¬
ll rectory. It was republished at Paris in 1843. Though a
Bonaven- staunch supporter of the Bourbons, Ronald returned in 1804
ture- J to Paris, where he supported himself for many years by his
pen, refusing various advantageous offers from the family of
Napoleon. In 1815 he was chosen deputy for Aveyron,
and distinguished himself by his efforts to check the abuses
of the press. In 1823 he was nominated a peer of France, and
accepted office under the government; but he lost both his
title and his place by refusing to take oath to the new govern¬
ment of 1830. In that year be retired to his birthplace,
where he died on the 23d November 1840, at the age.of
eighty-six. His philosophical, social, and political theories
are based on this proposition, “ L’homme pense sa parole,
avant de parler sa pensee. Loin que la parole soit le pro-
duit de la pensee c’est elle-meme qui en est le principe.
Or, si la parole est anterieure a la pensee d’ou peut elle
venir, si non de Dieu meme?” The principal works ol
M. Bonald, besides thatalready mentioned, are La Legislation
Primitive, Paris, 1821, 3 vols. 8vo ; Recherches Philoso-
phiques sur les premiers Objets des connaissances morales,
2 vols. 8vo, 1818 and 1826 ; Demonstration Philosoplnque
du principe constitutif de la Societe, Paris, 1830, 8vo.
BONAPARTE, or Buonaparte. See Napoleon.
BONARELLI, della Royere, Count Guid’ Ubaldo,
an Italian poet, born at Urbino, a.d. 1563, was the son ot
Count Pietro Bonarelli, minister of the Duke of Urbino.
He was intrusted with several important negotiations, and
was esteemed an able politician and learned philosopher. He
was the author of a pastoral entitled Filli di Sciro, printed
for the first time at Ferrara in 1607, with cuts, 4to; and of
an amatory production entitled Discorsi in difesa del doppio
Amor della sua Celia, first printed at Ancona in 1612, 4to.
He died at Fano in 1608. His brother Prospero and his
nephew Pietro were also writers of poems, &c.
BONASONE, Giulio, an admirable engraver, born at
Bologna about 1498. He studied painting under Lor.
Sabbatini, but attained small proficiency in that branch.
The freedom and expression, however, of his etching needle
and burin are most excellent, and we owe to him engravings
from the works of Michael Angelo, Raffaello, Titian, and many
other illustrious painters, that will always hand down his name
as among the most eminent in that department of the arts.
BONASSUS. See Mammalia, Index.
BONAVENTURE (Bonaventura) St, one of the
brightest luminaries of the scholastic age, was born of a
good family, atBagnareain Tuscany, in 1221. His original
name was Giovanni di Fidenza, butfroma particular incident
in his childhood he received the name by which alone he is
now generally known. In 1243 he entered the order of St
Francis, and after several years’ study at Paris under the
celebrated Alexander of Hales, he was in 1253 appointed
to lecture publicly on the Sentences of Lombard. In 1255
he took his doctor’s degree on the same day with Aquinas.
The year following he was chosen general of his order,
which he governed till his death with vigour and prudence.
He is said to have declined the offer of the see of York from
Clement IV. in 1265 ; and might on the death of that pope
have been elected in his stead, the cardinals having solemnly
engaged themselves to abide by the choice of Bonaventure,
even if he should nominate himself. The person whom he
recommended was Theobald, archdeacon of Liege, at that
time in the Holy Land. The new pope, who assumed the
name of Gregory X., appointed Bonaventure in 1273 to the
bishopric of Albano, and soon after raised him to the dignity
of a cardinal. Bonaventure died July 15. 1274, while at¬
tending the second council of Lyons as legate of the pope.
His remains were attended to the tomb by the pope and the
whole council: they were exhumed in the sixteenth century
by the Huguenots, burnt, and cast into the Saone.
Bonaventure was canonized in 1482 by Sixtus IV., and
BON 5
ranked in 1587 by Sixtus V. as the sixth great doctor of Bonavista
the church. The city of Lyons chose him as her patron II
saint. The purity and gentleness of his character, and the ^ondman->
heavenly thoughts with which his writings abound, procured
him among scholastic divines the title of the seraphic doctor.
By the Franciscans he is regarded as the greatest doctor of
their order, and held up as a rival to St Thomas, the glory ot
the Dominicans. His works, printed at Rome 1588-96, in
eight vols.folio, comprise commentaries on the Scriptures and
on the Book of Sentences, numerous tracts chiefly on ascetic
and practical subjects, sermons, letters, &c. This collection in¬
cludes several apocryphal works, among which is the famous
Psalter of the Virgin. His efforts to make philosophy (which
with him is a combination of Peripateticism and Neoplato¬
nism) subservient to faith, resulted in a pious mysticism which
makes his meaning often obscure. Union with God he re¬
gards as the sovereign good, and this principle he has de¬
veloped in his Itinerarium Mentis in Deumsend his Reductio
artium in Theologiam. The latter treatise is devoted to a
proof of the thesis that theology is the final consummation
of all science and art. Bonaventure is distinguished above
all the schoolmen by his freedom from trivial subtleties, his
religious fervour, and the practical tendency of his spirit.
His commentary on Lombard contains a most acute re¬
futation of the doctrine of the eternity of the world, and
some new arguments for the immortality of the soul. He is
eulogized by Luther as an excellent man {Bonaventura,
prcestantissimus vir); and characterized by Bellarmin as a
doctor alike beloved by God and man.
BONAVISTA, or Boavista, an island near the western
coast of Africa, forming part of the group called Cape de
Verd, from their vicinity to that remarkable promontory. It
was the first of the number discovered by the Portuguese
in 1450. Captain Porter describes the island as consisting
of a level plain, rising in the centre into rugged and rocky
eminences. A great part is capable of cultivation, and
might yield in abundance cotton and indigo, were these
properly attended to by the indolent natives. Pop. 4395,
chiefly engaged in the manufacture of salt. There are three
good roads for shipping. The north-west point is in Long.
22. 56. 24. E. and Lat. 16. 13. 18. N.
BOND, John, a commentator on Horace and Persius,
was born in Somersetshire in 1550, educated at Winchester
school, and at New College, Oxford, by which society he
was appointed master of the free school at Taunton. In
this situation he acquired some reputation; but growing
weary of teaching he applied to physic, and practised, it is
said, with considerable success. He died in 1612. His
short marginal annotations upon Horace and Persius (1606
and 1614, 8vo) are generally feeble, and without erudition;
yet his edition of the former has often been reprinted. Saxius
describes him as minorum gentium philologus.
BONDAGE properly signifies slavery, but in old law
books it is used for villenage. Tenants in bondage paid
kenots, did fealty, and were prohibited from felling trees in
their own garden, without license of the lord. The widow
of a tenant in bondage held her husband’s estate quamdiu
vixerit sine marito, as long as she lived single.
Bondage by the Forelock, or Bondagium per anteriores
crines capitis, was when a freeman renounced his liberty,
and became a slave to some great man, which was done by
the ceremony of cutting oft’ a lock of hair from the forehead,
and delivering it to his lord. If he reclaimed his liberty, or
became fugitive from his master, he might be drawn again
to his servitude by the nose, whence the origin of the popu¬
lar menace to pull the nose.
BONDMAN, in Old English Law, a villain, or tenant
in villenage. The Romans had two kinds of bondmen;
one, called servi, who were those either bought for money,
token in war, left by succession, or acquired by some other
lawful title; the other, born of their bondwomen, and called
6
BON
Bondou verruB. We may add a third kind of bondmen mentioned
ll by Justinian, called adscriptitii glebce, or agricensiti, who
Bones. were a species of serfs or boors, not bound to the person,
but to the gi’ound or place, and who followed him who had
the land. These in our old law are called vilains regard-
ants, as belonging to the manor or place.
BONDOU, a kingdom of Western Africa, between 14.
and 15. N. Lat., and 11. and 13. W. Long. The country
is elevated, and the mountains are generally unproductive,
and covered writh stunted wood. The intervening valleys,
however, are fertile, and finely clothed with the baobab, the
tamarind, and various valuable fruit trees. They are traversed
by beds of torrents, which flow rapidly during the rains, but
are empty in the dry season. Cultivation, though it extends
over only a comparatively small proportion of the whole sur¬
face, is carried on with considerable activity. The products
consist of four species of grain, rice, cotton, indigo, and
fruits. The workmen in the different parts display consider¬
able dexterity, though they employ very rude and defective
tools. The people consist chiefly of Foulahs, though the
country is much frequented by Mandingoes and Serawoollies
for purposes of trade. The exports consist of provisions and
cotton cloth manufactured in the country, in exchange for
slaves and salt. The caravans, bringing the former from the
interior to the coast, pass usually through Bondou.
The religion and laws of this country are Mahommedan,
though the precepts of that faith are not observed with the
same rigour as in more northern countries. There are
schools, however, in every town, where the Koran and the
reading and writing of Arabic are taught; but the scholar
is treated as the servant of the teacher, for whom he is ob¬
liged to perform the most menial offices. The king is nearly
absolute, and commands a considerable body of troops, who
are much employed in predatory expeditions, chiefly for the
purpose of collecting slaves. His revenues are derived from
a tenth part of the produce of the land, and of the salt im¬
ported, as also from duties on goods passing through his
territories, with numerous presents expected or extorted.
Mr Park experienced to his cost the rapacity of the reign¬
ing prince, being obliged to give up even the coat which
he wore. He was introduced to the king’s twelve wives,
who had never before seen a European, and thought that
the white skin had been produced by his having been bathed
in milk by his mother, who had also artificially pinched up
his nose into its unnatural elevation. The royal residence
was then at Fatteconda; but when Major Gray visited Bon¬
dou it had been removed to Boolibani, a small town sur¬
rounded by a strong clay wall. The palaces of the king
and his sons consist merely of inclosures about an acre in
extent, containing a number of cottages, somewhat larger,
but not more commodious, than those of his subjects.
BONE DUST. See Agricultural Chemistry.
Bone, Henry, R.A., the most eminent enamel painter
of Great Britain, was born at Truro in 1755. He was much
employed by London jewellers for small designs in enamel,
before his merits as an artist were well known to the pub¬
lic. In 1800 the beauty of his pieces attracted the notice
of the Royal Academy, of which he was then admitted as
an associate, and in 1811 as an academician. From the be¬
ginning of this century until 1831, he executed many beau¬
tiful pieces of much larger size than had been attempted be¬
fore in this country: among these his 85 portraits of the
time of Queen Elizabeth, of different sizes, from 5 by 4, to
13 by 8 inches, are most admired. They were disposed of by
public sale after his death, which took place in 1834. His
“ Bacchus and Ariadne,” after Titian, painted on a plate,
brought the great price of 2200 guineas.
BONES. See Anatomy and Index.
Bones of the Dead. Different usages and ceremonies
relating to the bones of the dead have obtained in different
ages; as gathering them from the funeral pile, washing,
BON
anointing, and depositing them in urns, &c. Among the an- Bonet
cients, the bones of travellers and soldiers dying in foreign II
countries were brought home to be buried ; ‘but during the B°nga™-
Italic war this was prohibited by the senate.
I he Romans acknowledged a deity, called Ossipaga, or
Ossipanga, to whom the care of the induration and knitting
of the human bones was committed, and who on that account
was invoked by pregnant women.
BONET, or Bonnet, Theophilus, an eminent physi¬
cian, born at Geneva, March 5. 1620. He took his degree
in 1643, and then applied himself to the practice of his
profession, in which he acquired great reputation. On re¬
tiring from practice, he found leisure to collect all the obser¬
vations he had made during an experience of forty years.
But his principal title to distinction is rather as a medical
writer than a practitioner, and as having in some measure
created pathological anatomy, which Morgagni afterwards
illustrated. He died March 29. 1689. His most valuable
work is Sepulchretum, sive Anatomia Practica ex cadaveri-
bus morbo denatis, a valuable mine of morbid anatomy. The
best edition is that of Magnetus, Geneva, 3 tom. folio,
1700. His other works are, Mercurius Compitalitius, Geneva,
1682, fob; Zodiacus Medico-Gallicus; Medicina Septen-
trionalis Collatitia, Geneva, 1684-86,2 vols. fob; Polyan-
thes, sive Thesaurus Medico-Practicus, Geneva, 1690-93, 3
vols. fob; Theodor i Turqueti de May erne Tractatus de Ar-
thritide, Geneva, 1671, 1674,12mo, Jacobi Rohaultii Trac¬
tatus Physicus, Geneva, 1674,8vo, both translations; Biblio-
theque de Medecine et de Chirurgie, Geneva, 1670, 4 vols.
BONFADIO, Jacopo, a celebrated Italian writer, born
at Gazano, in the diocese of Brescia, about the commence¬
ment of the 16th century. He was secretary to Cardinal
Merinos, archbishop of Bari, and afterwards to Cardinal
Ghinucci at Genoa. He read public lectures on Aristotle’s
politics, and on rhetoric, and was appointed professor of phi¬
losophy and historiographer to that republic. He had com¬
pleted five books of the annals of that state, which were to
have been followed by others; but having spoken too freely of
some noble families, they resolved upon his ruin, and accused
him of an unnatural crime. As witnesses were found to con¬
vict him, he was condemned to the flames ; but the sentence
was commuted, as an act of special grace, into beheading. This
took place in 1550. Authors have varied in their opinions as
to Bonfadio’s alleged guilt; Tiraboschi among others, main¬
tains the affirmative of the question. His works are, \.An-
nalium Genuensium ab anno 1528 Recuperates Libertatis
usque ad annum 1550, libri quinque, Pavia, 1586, 4to;
2. Lettere Famigliari di Jacopo Bonfadio, con altri suoi
Componimenti in prosa ed in verso, with a life of the author
by Mazzuchelli, Brescia, 1746, 8vo.
BONFINI, Anthony, a Latin historian,born at Ascoli,
in the marquisate of Ancona, in December 1472. His lite¬
rary fame induced Matthias Hunyadi, king of Hungary, to
invite him to his court, where he was retained and pensioned
by that sovereign, as well as by his successor Wladislaus.
He wrote by royal command the early history of Hungary,
which he brought down to the year 1495. It is a well-ex¬
ecuted work, and has gone through several editions. Bon-
fini died in 1502. He has left, 1. Rerum Ungaricarum
decades tres, Basle, 1545, fob; 2. Flavii Philostrati Lem-
nii Libri ii. de VitisSophistarum, 1516, 4to; 3. Hermogenis
Libri de Arte Rhetorica et Aphthonii Sophistce Progym-
nastica, Lyons, 1538; 4. In Horatium Flaccum Com-
mentarii, Rome, without date, 4to; and, 5. Symposion
Beatricis, Basle, 1572 and 1621, 8vo.
BONFRERE, James, in Latin Bonfrerius, a learned
Jesuit, born at Dinand-sur-Meuse in 1573. He wrote a
commentary on the Pentateuch, and notes on the Onomas-
ticon, or description of the places and towns mentioned in
Scripture. He died at Tournay in 1643.
BONGARS, or Bongarsius, Jacques, counsellor and
BON
Boni maitre d’hotel to Henri IV., and one of the ablest crities of
II his time, was born at Orleans in 1546. He studied the
Boniface, belles-lettres at Strasburg under an anabaptist professor, and
law at Bourges under Cujas. He was for about thirty years
employed in the most important negotiations of Henri IV.
at the courts of the princes of Germany, first as resident,
and afterwards as ambassador. Bongars was a Protestant, and
happening to be at Rome when Sixtus V. fulminated his
famous bull of excommunication against Henri IV., he wrote
a spirited answer, which he had the boldness to post up in a
conspicuous place, and which was afterwards published with
his name in the Memoires de la Ligue. He died at Paris
July 29. 1612. His printed works are, 1. A Collection of
the Historians of the Crusades, under the title of Gesta Dei
per Francos, Hanau, 1611, fob ; 2. Jacobi Bongarsii Epis-
tolce, Lugd. Bat. 1641 ; 3. Collectio Hungaricarum Rerum
Scriptorum, Francf. 1600, fob; 4. An edition of Justin,
with learned notes ; besides notes on Petronius, and various
readings of Paulus Diaconus.
BONI, or Bony, a state in the island of Celebes, stretch¬
ing for part of its extent along the western shores of a great
cognominal bay which indents the southern side of the island
to the depth of nearly 180 miles. The inhabitants of this
once powerful and independent country are the Bugis,—a
people in many respects the most remarkable of the Eastern
Archipelago. Their numbers, by the Dutch census in 1824,
amounted to about 200,000. Living, as they do, surrounded
by nations notorious for treachery, piracy, and indifference
to the arts and objects of civilized life, they have always
shown themselves honest, industrious, and ingenious. Agri¬
culture is by them more extensively practised than by any
of the adjoining tribes ; and of the cotton cloth called cam-
bays worn in these regions, they not only manufacture
enough for their own use, but also export considerable
quantities to the Malay islands. They likewise carry on a
considerable traffic in the mineral and vegetable productions
of their country, such as gold dust, tortoise-shell, pearls,
nutmegs, camphor, and various medicinal preparations; and
for these they find a ready market at Singapore, the chief
commercial entrepot of these Eastern seas. In the form
and constitution of their government, likewise, they approach
more nearly the spirit of true civilization than any other
Asiatic people. The highest officer of state is the king or
president, who is elected generally for life, and always from
their own number, by the chiefs of the eight petty states that
compose the nation. Elis power, however, is so limited that
he cannot decide upon any measure of public polity, with¬
out the consent of the minor chiefs by whom he was origi¬
nally appointed. In some of the petty states the office of
chief is the hereditary prerogative of a family ; in others any
member of the privileged classes may aspire to that dignity.
Hence it happens not unfrequently that the state comes to
be governed by a woman, as the principle of the Salic law is
here unknown. Of the history of Boni not much is known.
According to Temminck, it first acquired importance in
the year 1666, when the rajah Palakkah, whose father and
grandfather had been murdered by the family of Hassan the
tyrant of Sumatra, made common cause with the Dutch
against that despot. From that date till the beginning of
the present century the Dutch influence in the polity of the
kingdom remained undisputed. In 1814, however, Boni fell
into the hands of the British, who retained it for two years;
but by the European treaties concluded on the downfall of
Napoleon it reverted to its original colonizers.
BONIFACE, the name of several eminent men, parti¬
cularly of nine popes. To the first of these, who was chosen
pope in December 418, St Augustin dedicated his four
books in answer to the two epistles of the Pelagians.—Boni¬
face II. was elected pope in October 530, and succeeded
Felix IV., who had been nominated by apart of the clergy,
the senate, and the people assembled in the basilica of Con-
B 0 N 7
slantine, and whose memory he caused to be condemned- Boniface
His pontificate was distinguished only for its turbulence.— II
Boniface III. was elected in February 606. He prevailed v Bonn- }
upon the emperor Phocas to consent that the title of Uni-
versal Bishop should be conferred on no other but the
bishop of Rome, and that the Holy See should have the
supremacy over that of Constantinople.—Boniface IV.,
raised to the papal chair in August 608, obtained from the
same emperor the Pantheon, or temple of all the gods, built
by Agrippa, and converted it into a church, which he con¬
secrated to all the martyrs and the Virgin, under the name
of Santa Maria della Rotonda.—Boniface V. was elected
in December 618, and died in October 624.—Boniface VI.
was elected in April 896, but died of the gout fifteen days
thereafter.—Boniface VIE, called Franco, is styled an anti¬
pope. He was suspected of having caused Benedict VI. to
be strangled in prison in 974 ; and after the election of
Benedict VII. he removed the treasures of the church to
Constantinople. He returned on the death of Benedict,
whose successor John XIV. was disposed of in the same
way as Benedict VI. This intruder died in December 985.
—Boniface VIII., a pontiff conspicuous for his pretensions
to temporal authority, was elected in December 1294. He
canonized St Louis in 1297, and in 1300 appointed the
jubilee to be solemnized every hundred years thereafter.—
Boniface IX. was elected pope on the 2d November 1389,
after the death of Urban VI., and during the schism of the
west. He supported Ladislaus of Hungary in his preten¬
sions to the kingdom of Hungary, against Louis of Anjou,
protected by the Avignon pope, Clement VII. Some writ¬
ers have praised his moral character; but the greater number
have accused him of simony, of cupidity in order to enrich
his family, and of exactions for the support of his govern¬
ment. He died on the 1st October 1404.
Boniface, a saint designated as the Apostle of Germany,
was an Englishman, by name Winifrid, and was born in
Devonshire, a.d. 670. He went to preach the gospel among
the barbarous nations of Germany; and although created
archbishop of Mayence, he soon after resigned his office, in
order to preach in East Friesland, where during a tumult he
was murdered by the pagans, June 5. 755. With him also
perished Eoban a bishop, three priests, three deacons, four
monks, and forty-eight laics. The Bollandists collected the
Acta Bonifaciana, containing an account of the miracles of the
saint; and a collection of his Letters, amounting to 152, was
published by Serrarius in 1605, 4to. In the Spicilegium of
D’Achery may be found the canons which he promulgated for
regulating the conduct of his clergy ; and one of his sermons
is preserved in the Thesaurus Anecdotorum Novissimus, tom.
iii. part 2, published by D. Bernard Fez, at Augsburg, 1729.
BONIFACIO, a town in the island of Corsica, beyond
the mountains, near the strait called Bocca di Bonifacio.
It is well fortified, and has a secure harbour, with some trade.
Pop. 3120. Long 9. 9. 16. E. Lat. 41. 23. 10. N.
BONN, the chief town of the circle of the same name in
Rhenish Prussia, is pleasantly situated on the left bank of the
Rhine, 15 miles S.S.E. of Cologne, with which it is connected
by railway. The town has several good streets and a fine
market-place. A statue of Beethoven, who was born here
on the 17th December 1770, was erected, in 1844, in one of
the squares. The cathedral is a fine old edifice in the Byzan¬
tine style, surmounted by five towers. Bonn is chiefly cele¬
brated for its university, established by the king of Prussia in
1818, and occupying the extensive palace of the electors of
Cologne. It has faculties of philosophy, law, medicine, and
theology, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. The number
of students in 1849 was 833, of whom 116 were foreigners.
It has numbered among its professors Niebuhr and A. W.
Schlegel, and among its students, H.R.H. Prince Albert.
The library contains about 150,000 volumes. A beauti¬
ful avenue of chestnut trees, about a mile in length, extends
8 BON
Bonnefons from the university to the chateau of Poppelsdorf, which
[| contains a valuable museum of natural history, and has at-
Bonner. tached to it a spacious botanic garden. Bonn has one Pro-
Vs—'v'w' testant and three Roman Catholic churches, a synagogue,
a gymnasium, and riding-school. Pop. (1849), including the
military, 17,688, of whom 14,725 are Catholics. Its prin¬
cipal manufactures are cotton, silk, tobacco, and soap; and
it has a considerable trade in wine, grain, &c. The circle
has a population of 55,872.
BONNEFONS, or Bonefonius, Jean, a Latin poet,
born at Clermont in Auvergne, a.d. 1554. He studied law
under Cujas at Bourges ; became an advocate in the parlia¬
ment of Paris ; was appointed lieutenant-general of Bar-sur-
Seine ; and by his poems acquired great but unmerited repu¬
tation, especially by his Pancharis, written in the style of Ca¬
tullus. He died in 1614. He must not be confounded with
John Bonnefons, his son, another Latin poet, nor with Dom
Elia Benedict Bonnefons, alearned Benedictine of the congre¬
gation of St Maur, who died in 1702. The most complete edi¬
tion of Bonnefons’ works is that of Amsterdam, 1767, 12mo,
entitled, JoannisBonnefonii patris, Arverni, Opera Omnia.
BONNER, or Boner, Edmund, an English prelate, no¬
torious for his persecutions of the Protestants during the
reign of Queen Mary, was born at Hanley in Worcester¬
shire about the end of the fifteenth century, and generally
passed for the natural son of George Savage, a priest, who
was the natural son of Sir John Savage of Clifton in the
same county. Strype, however, says he was positively as¬
sured that Bonner was the legitimate offspring of a poor
man, who lived in a cottage long afterwards known by the
name of Boner’s Place. About the year 1512 he entered
as a student of Broadgate Hall (now Pembroke College),
Oxford ; and in 1519 was admitted as bachelor of the canon
and of the civil law. Having been admitted into orders, he
obtained some preferment in the diocese of Worcester. In
1525 he took his degree as doctor; and having attracted
the notice of Wolsey, that prelate took him under his pa¬
tronage. Bonner was with the cardinal at Ca-wood when
he was arrested on a charge of high treason. After the death
of Wolsey he saw his way towards adopting Lutheran senti¬
ments, and found means to insinuate himself into the favour
of Henry VIII., who made him one of his chaplains, and
employed him in several embassies abroad. In 1532 he
was sent to Rome with Sir Edward Carne, to answer for
the king, who had been cited to appear in person or by
proxy. In 1533 he was again despatched to Pope Clement
VIE, then at Marseilles, to intimate Henry’s appeal to a
future general council from the sentence which had been
pronounced against his divorce. On this occasion he
threatened the pope with so much resolution, that His Holi¬
ness talked of having him burned alive or thrown into a
cauldron of melted lead. Bonner accordingly judged it
prudent to decamp without the ceremony of taking leave. His
Holiness did not foresee that the man whom he had thus me¬
naced with the flames was destined to burn heretics in Eng¬
land in support of the very faith which, under Henry, he had
lent his aid to overthrow. In 1538, being then ambassador at
the court of France, he was nominated bishop of Hereford ;
but, before consecration, he was translated to the see of
London, and enthroned in April 1540. Henry VIII. died
in 1547, at which time Bonner was ambassador at the court
of the emperor Charles V. During this reign he was con¬
stantly zealous in his opposition to the pope; and, in com¬
pliance with the king, favoured the Reformation. Henry
VIII. was a man to exact a rigid compliance with all his
whims and caprices ; but on the accession of young Edward,
Bonner refused to take the oath of supremacy, and was com¬
mitted to the Fleet, where he remained until he thought fit
io promise obedience to the laws. After his release he con¬
tinued to comply with the Reformation, but with such ma¬
nifest neglect and reluctance, that he was twice reprimanded
BON
by the privy council, and in 1549 was, after a long trial, Bonnet,
committed to the Marshalsea, and deprived of his bishopric,
The succeeding reign, however, gave him ample opportu¬
nity of revenge. Mary was scarcely seated on the throne
when Bonner was restored to his bishopric, and soon after¬
wards appointed vicegerent and president of the convoca¬
tion. From this time he became the chief instrument of
persecuting cruelty, and is said to have condemned no less
than 200 Protestants to the flames in the space of three
years. Nor was this vindictive and persecuting priest less
remarkable for his impudence than his cruelty. On the ac¬
cession of Elizabeth he appeared with the rest of the bishops
at Highgate, to congratulate her on the occasion ; but the
queen refused to permit him to kiss her hand. Having, in
the second year of her reign, refused to take the oath of al¬
legiance and supremacy, he was again deprived and com¬
mitted to the Marshalsea, where he died, Sept. 5. 1569, after
a confinement of ten years’ duration. The character of
Bonner was remarkable for obstinacy and inflexibility in
everything save principle; yet even in this respect it exhi¬
bits some striking contrasts. In the early part of his career
he accommodated his principles to his convenience and am¬
bition ; in the latter, after his return to Catholicism, he re¬
mained stedfast in his adherence to the church, and, when
disgraced, bore his deprivation and imprisonment with ap¬
parent calmness and resignation. The charge of atheism
brought against one so defiled with blood was superfluous.
He was constitutionally merciless and austere; fitted by
nature for a persecutor of all opinions adverse to his own;
and equally capable of employing the same burning zeal
either against or in favour of any cause that he espoused.
BONNET, Charles, an eminent naturalist and philo¬
sophical writer, born at Geneva on the 13th March 1720, of
a French family whose religious principles had obliged them
to leave their native country. At the early age of sixteen
his attention was so deeply engaged by the study of Pluche’s
Spectacle de la Nature, that it seems to have given a bias
to his future studies. The history and habits of the ant-
lion, formica leo, particularly attracted his attention. He
discovered the haunts of this curious insect, studied its ha¬
bits, and added many observations to those of Pluche and
Reaumur. Reaumur’s memoir on Insects he also perused
with great avidity ; and to the observations and experiments
of that naturalist Bonnet added many new facts, the detail
of which he communicated to Reaumur ; who was not less
surprised than pleased to find so much sagacity and acute¬
ness of research exhibited by a youth of eighteen.
Bonnet had been destined by his father for the profession
of the law; but the bias of his mind leaned too strongly to
natural history to permit him to occupy his attention with
other pursuits, and the study of law was submitted to merely
as a task. In 1738 and 1739 he sent to Reaumur many in¬
teresting observations on different species of caterpillars;
and in 1740 he communicated a paper to the Academy of
Sciences respecting the propagation or multiplication of
aphides, or tree-lice, without actual conjunction. This ques¬
tion, which had been left unsettled by Reaumur, was now
determined by decisive experiments ; and his paper on the
subject obtained for Bonnet the honour of being admitted a
corresponding member of the Academy. His experiments
on the generation of these insects were conducted with such
close attention and minuteness of research as permanently
to affect his eyesight. In the year 1741 he instituted a set
of experiments on the division of worms ; and he found that
many species possessed in some degree the same reproduc¬
tive power as the polypus. In the following year his inves¬
tigations and experiments were directed to the respiration
of caterpillars and butterflies ; and he proved that this func¬
tion was performed by means of pores to which the name
of stigmata has been given. It was about the same time
that he made some curious discoveries respecting the
B 0 N
J] 0 N
9
Bonnet, or tape-worm. In 1743, when he became a doctor oflaws,
—v/—he procured a ready dispensation from the further prose¬
cution of his legal studies, which he now relinquished for
ever. A memoir on insects which he communicated to the
Royal Society of London in the same year procured his
admission into that body. Next year he published his
Insectology, and prefixed to it a preface, in which he ex¬
hibits a philosophical sketch of his ideas concerning the
system of the development of germs, and the scale of organ¬
ized beings. This work was in general well received, though
by some of the journals it was taxed with a want of delicacy in
the descriptions of the mode of propagation of tree-lice.
Bonnet’s health now began visibly to decline. His eyes
particularly were affected with severe pains, which obliged
him to lay aside the use of the microscope, and to forego for
a time all reading and writing. Like a true philosopher, he
bore his afflictions with patience ; yet, although he was in¬
terdicted from all observation, his mind was fully occupied
in reflection. He was at last restored to tolerable health;
but he never could employ his eyes with the same freedom
as formerly. About the year 1746 he undertook a course
of experiments on the vegetation of plants in moss and other
substances; and in the following year his researches were
directed to the functions of the leaves of plants, with the
view of ascertaining the different action of the two sides of
the leaf. He also made experiments on the ascent of the
sap; and to determine whether it rose by the bark or
wood, he employed coloured injections. This investigation,
with some observations which he made on vegetable mon¬
sters, was the foundation of one of his most interesting and
original works, entitled Inquiries into the use of the Leaves
of Plants, Leyden, 1754, 4to. A supplement was added
to it in 1779.
Bonnet’s inquiries in natural history now led him on to
physiology and metaphysics, where he followed in the foot¬
steps of Malebranche and Leibnitz. The first fruit of his me¬
ditations was a kind of abridgment of the materials he had
collected, under the title of an Essay on Psychology, pub¬
lished in London in 1754, but without his name, nor did he
acknowledge it till nearly thirty years afterwards. This
work contains, in a concise form, the fundamental principles
of his philosophy; some account of which will be found in Mr
Stewart’s Dissertation, §§ 3, 4, and 5. It met with some
censure, yet its success was brilliant. His next work was a
development of the same subject. In 1760 he published, at
Copenhagen, in 4to, his Analytical Essay on the Faculties
of the Soul, in which, like Condillac, he supposes a statue
organized like the human body, which by degrees he ani¬
mates, and shows how its ideas would arise from impressions
on the organs of sense. This essay was well received,
though it subjected the author to a charge of materialism,
which it cannot be denied was the logical result of its prin¬
ciples. In the case of Bonnet, however, the charge was of
easy refutation. His retired and studious habits, together
with his deafness and other bodily infirmities, rendering do¬
mestic comforts more essential to him, he married, in 1756,
a lady of the family of De la Rive, and with her he passed
thirty-seven years of domestic happiness. The celebrated
Saussure was nephew to his wife, and was brought up as a
son by Bonnet, who had no children of his own.
His next work, Considerations on Organized Bodies, 2
vols. 8vo, Amst. 1762, was properly the physical part of his
great system. Its principal objects were, to give in an
abridged form all the most interesting and well-ascertained
facts respecting the origin, development, and reproduction
of organized bodies; to refute the different systems founded
upon epigenesis; and to explain and defend the system of
germs. His Contemplation of Nature, Amst. 1764-65, 2
vols. 8vo, was a popular work, in which the principal facts
relative to the different orders of created beings are displayed
in a manner both instructive and entertaining, and set off
VOL. v.
by the charms of an eloquent style ; with a continual refer- Bonneval.
ence to final causes, and proofs of creative wisdom and be-
nevolence. It has been translated into most of the Euro¬
pean languages. The concluding work of Bonnet was his
Palingenesie Philosophique, Geneva, 1769, 2 vols. 8vo.
In this he treats of the past and future state of living beings,
and supports the idea of the survival of all animals, and the
perfecting of their faculties in a future state. Attached to
this work is An Inquiry into the Evidences of the Christian
Revelation, and the Doctrines of Christianity, which, with
a treatise On the Existence of God, was published separately
at Geneva in 1770 and 1771.
Again directing his attention to natural history, he pub¬
lished in 1 773, in Rozier’s Journal, a memoir on the me¬
thod of preserving insects and fishes in cabinets; and, in
the following year, another on the loves of plants, originat¬
ing in the discovery of a kind of cleft of mouth in the pistil
of a lily. This was followed by various memoirs and ob¬
servations on subjects in natural history. His reputation
was now fully established. Most of the learned societies of
Europe enrolled him among their members; and in 1783
he was elected into the small and very select number of
foreign associates of the Academy of Sciences at Paris. Al¬
though attached by inclination to scientific pursuits, he did
not entirely withdraw' from public duties. He entered into
the great council of the republic in 1752, and kept his seat
in it till 1768; having frequently distinguished himself by
his manly eloquence in support of moderate measures, and
his zeal in the cause of morals and religion. The last
twenty-five years of his life he passed entirely in the country,
in a simple and uniform mode of life, happy in an easy com¬
petence, and in a small circle of friends. It appears that he
was for some time engaged in the education of youth, in
which employment he secured the warmest attachment of
his pupils. His health was greatly impaired by the excessive
labour he bestowed for nearly eight years on a collective
edition of his works. This appeared at Neufchatel in 1797,
in 8 vols. 4to, and 18 vols. 8vo. Besides the works al¬
ready mentioned, it contains a number of smaller pieces,
both in natural history and metaphysics. They are all writ¬
ten in French. After a long and painful illness, which he
bore with exemplary patience and serenity, this excellent
man died on the 20th May 1793, at the age of seventy-
three. Public honours were rendered to his remains by his
fellow-citizens, and his funeral oration was pronounced by
his illustrious friend and kinsman M. de Saussure.
BONNEYAL, Claude Alexandre, Comte de, known
afterwards as Achmet Pasha, was descended from an illus¬
trious family of Limousin, and was born July 14. 1675.
He entered at the age of sixteen into the service of the
crown, and married the daughter of Marshal de Biron. He
distinguished himself at the combats of Dieppe, La Hogue,
and Cadiz ; a,nd he made the campaign of Flanders in 1690.
He soon after left the French army, and, entering into the
imperial service under Prince Eugene, signalized himself
greatly on several occasions, particularly at the battle of
Peterwardin, where the victory was due in a great measure
to his intrepidity. The intrigues of the Marquis de Prie,
however, ruined his credit at the court of Vienna, and caused
him to be banished the empire. He then offered his ser¬
vices to the republic of Venice and to Russia; and these
being declined in both instances, his next tender was to the
Sultan, who gladly received him. It was stipulated that he
should have a body of 30,000 men at his disposal; that a
government should be conferred on him, with the rank of
pasha of three tails, and a salary of 10,000 aspers a-day;
and that, in the event of war, he should be commander-in¬
chief. The first expedition he engaged in after his arrival
at Constantinople, was to quell an insurrection in Arabia
Petraea, which he happily effected. On his return he had
large offers made him by Kouli Khan, which, however, he
10 BOO
Bonny- f]]d not choose to accept. Some time after, he commanded
east;!6 Turkish army against the emperor, over whose forces
Boodroom ga‘ne^ a victory on the banks of the Danube. Bonneval
v y afterwards fell into disgrace, and notwithstanding his ser¬
vices, was first imprisoned, and then banished to the island
of Chio. The sultan, however, continued his friend ; and,
the evening before his departure, made him pasha of the
Archipelago, which, with his former appointment of beg-
lierbey of Arabia, rendered him one of the most powerful
persons in the Ottoman empire. In this island he found a
retirement quite agreeable to his wishes, but was soon re¬
called, and made topidgee or master of the ordnance, a post
of great honour and profit. He died in 1747. Doubts have
been thrown on the genuineness of the Memoires du Comte
de Bonneval, purporting to be his autobiography.
BONNYCASTLE, John, an eminent English mathe¬
matician, long professor of mathematics at Woolwich, and
well known by his valuable Elements of Algebra, in 2 vols.,
1813, his Guide to Arithmetic, and other works. He died
in 1821.
BONONCINI, or Buononcini, Giovanni Maria, of
Modena, a composer of music in the seventeenth century,
whose merit as compared with that of Handel for some time
caused a division of public opinion. Bononcini was also
the author of a work entitled II Musico Pratico, published
in 1673, and translated into German in 1701.
BONONIA. See Bologna and Boulogne.
Bononia, a town in Pannonia Inferior, between Meursa
to the N.W. and Taurinum to the east; also a town in
Mcesia Superior, on the Danube, now Bonus in Bulgaria.
BONVINCINO, or Bonvicino, Alessandro, called
II Moretto, an eminent Italian painter, born at Brescia,
a.d. 1514. He wras originally a pupil of Titian, whose style
he imitated admirably ; and afterwards, by the diligent study
of Raphael’s works, he united in some degree the peculiar
excellencies of both those masters. His works were eagerly
bought up, being admired for the tenderness of the pencil¬
ing, the correctness and expression of the figures, and the
rich variety of the draperies. Pie was also excellent in por¬
trait, and by many was placed in competition even with
Titian himself. He died in 1564.
BONZES, a general term employed by Europeans to
denote the sacerdotal orders of China, Japan, Cochin-China,
Burmah, &c., but more particularly applied to the priests of
the two first-named kingdoms. The bonzes, like the Ca¬
tholic priests, practise celibacy, and some of them, like the
ancient monks, live in monasteries. Some of their orders
are remarkably superstitious, and pay homage to symbolic
figures, and not unfrequently to hideous idols. Far from
enlightening their countrymen, they mystify them by the
practice and inculcation of their ridiculous devotions; and
being grossly ignorant themselves, they cannot be expected
to dispel the thick darkness in the midst of which they live.
Some of them lead lives of contemplation and reflection, and
if they do no positive good, set a praiseworthy example by
the purity of their lives. In the eighteenth century, the
philosophes often allegorically designated the clergy of the
Latin church under the name of bonzes, whom they repre¬
sented as intolerant bigots. The allegory, however, was
unjust, for the bonzes, though they disdain other forms of
worship than their own, bear no personal ill-will to those
that practise them. They differ still more from the clergy
of most Christian countries in this, that in civil affairs they
have neither influence nor authority of any kind.
BOODROOM, or Baudrun, a small town of Anatolia, in
Asia Minor, situated at the bottom of a deep bay. It is sup¬
posed to occupy the site of the ancient Halicarnassus, and
the vicinity abounds with many relics of antiquity. The
houses are irregularly built along the shore, and are inter¬
spersed, as is usual in Asiatic cities, with gardens,, burying-
grounds, and cultivated fields. Throughout the streets,
BOO
and in different parts of the bazaar, are scattered fragments Book,
of columns and mutilated sculptures. The castle stands on ^ v
a broad square rock, which projects into the bay, and has a
small harbour on the western side, which, though it has
fallen into decay, is still convenient and safe, and is fre¬
quented by f urkish cruisers. This castle is adorned with
the most exquisite sculptures in different parts of the walls,
and is said to have been built by the knights of Rhodes in
1402. I here are still some traces of the ancient walls, and
above the town are the remains of a theatre, about 280 feet
in diameter, which appears to have had thirty-six rows of
marble seats. Near the harbour is the palace, with some
small mosques. Pop. about 11,000, consisting chiefly of
Greeks and Turks. Long. 27. 33. E. Lat. 37. 7. N.
BOOK, the common name for any literary production of
bulk; but more particularly applied to a printed composi¬
tion forming a volume.
\ arious substances have been used for writing upon ;
such as plates of lead and copper, the bark of trees, bricks,
stone, wood, &c. Josephus speaks of two columns, the
one of stone and the other of brick, on which the children of
Seth wrote their inventions and astronomical discoveries;
and Porphyry mentions some pillars preserved in Crete, on
which the ceremonies observed by the Corybantes in their
sacrifices were recorded. Hesiod’s works were originally
written upon tablets of lead, and deposited in the temple of
the Muses, in Bceotia; the ten commandments delivered to
Moses were written upon stone ; and the laws of Solon were
inscribed upon wooden planks. Tablets of wood and of
ivory were common among the ancients ; but when of wood,
they generally received a coating of wax, on which the let¬
ters were traced with a pointed style. The leaves of the
palm-tree were afterwards used instead of wooden tablets;
and also the inner bark of such trees as the lime, the ash,
the maple, and the elm ; whence the word liber, literally the
inner bark of a tree. As these barks were rolled up, the
rolls were called uo/wmew, a volume; a name afterwards given
to similar rolls of paper or parchment.
The first writing was upon blocks and tablets ; but when
flexible matter came into use it was found more convenient
to make books in the form of rolls, which were composed
of several sheets fastened to each other, and rolled upon a
staff, the whole forming a kind of cylinder. The ends of the
staff were usually ornamented with bosses of wood or ivory,
and sometimes of silver, and even gold and precious stones.
The title (titulus index) was either suspended to the roll or
pasted on the outside; and the whole volume, when extended,
might be about a yard or more in breadth, and sometimes
fifty in length. The square form composed of separate
leaves was also known, though little used by the ancients.
The internal arrangement of books has undergone many
modifications. At first the letters were divided only into
lines ; then into separate words ; and these, by degrees,
were noted with accents, and distributed by points and stops,
into periods, paragraphs, chapters, and other divisions. In
some countries, as among the orientals, the direction of the
lines was from right to left; in others, as among the northern
and western nations, from left to right; while the early
Greeks followed both directions, writing alternately from
right to left and from left to right, which was called boustro-
phedon, from its analogy to the path of oxen in ploughing.
In this manner Solon’s laws were written. In most countries
the lines run from one side to the other; in some, particu¬
larly among the Chinese, their direction is from top to bottom.
The Egyptian monumental writing, or hieroglyphics, is ar¬
ranged in all these directions, and in several peculiar to itself.
Sometimes we find it proceeding from right to left; some¬
times from left to right; very frequently from top to bottom,
in regular parallel columns; in a few instances, and but a
few, boustrophedon ; occasionally ai’ranged in groups or clus¬
ters, as in anaglyphs; and where the space was irregular
B 0
Book, as on the sides of obelisks, disposed in an arbitrary manner,
varying according to the circumstances. But this total want
of system, or rather this mode of arranging the characters
upon all systems and in all ways, can never be productive
of any difficulty or ambiguity, as the disposition and true
sequence of the writing is in every case clearly and almost
intuitively indicated by tbe direction given to the principal
figures, more especially to those which represent animals,
or the human form. With regard to the other modes of
writing practised by tbe ancient Egyptians, that called the
hieratic follows to a certain extent the varieties of the hiero¬
glyphic ; but the demotic, enchorial, or civil form, is gene¬
rally disposed from right to left, in the ordinary manner of
oriental writing.
Of the scarcity of books during the seventh and subse¬
quent centuries Warton gives the following curious account:
—“ Towards the close of the seventh century,” says this
writer, “ even in the papal library at Rome, the number of
books was so inconsiderable, that Pope Saint Martin re¬
quested Sanctamund, bishop of Maestricht, if possible, to
supply this defect from the remotest parts of Germany. In
the year 855 Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, in France, sent two
of his monks to Pope Benedict III. to beg a copy of Cicero
de Orators, and Quintilian’s Institutes, and some other
books: ‘ for,’ says the abbot, ‘ although we have part of
these books, yet there is no whole or complete copy of them
in all France.’ Albert, abbot of Gemblours, who with in¬
credible labour and immense expense had collected a hun¬
dred volumes on theological, and fifty on profane subjects,
imagined he had formed a splendid library. About the year
790 Charlemagne granted an unlimited right of hunting to
the abbot and monks of Sithin, for making their gloves and
girdles of the skins of the deer they killed, and covers for
their books. We may imagine that these religious were
more fond of hunting than reading. It is certain that they
were obliged to hunt before they could read; and at least
it is probable that, under these circumstances, and of such
materials, they did not manufacture many volumes. At
the beginning of the tenth century books were so scarce in
Spain, that one and the same copy of the Bible, Saint Je¬
rome’s Epistles, and some volumes of ecclesiastical offices
and martyrologies, often served several different monasteries.
Among the constitutions given to the monks of England by
Archbishop Lanfranc, in the year 1072, the following injunc¬
tion occurs. At the beginning of Lent the librarian is or¬
dered to deliver a book to each of the religious : a whole
year was allowed for the perusal of this book, and at the re¬
turning Lent those monks who had neglected to read the
books they had respectively received are commanded to
prostrate themselves before the abbot, and to supplicate his
indulgence. This regulation was partly occasioned by the
low state of literature which Lanfranc found in the Eng¬
lish monasteries. But at the same time it was a matter of ne¬
cessity, and is in a great measure to be referred to the scar¬
city of copies of useful and suitable authors. In an inven¬
tory of the goods of John de Pontissara, bishop of Winches¬
ter, contained in his capital palace of Wulvesey, all the books
which appear are nothing more than Septendecim species
librorum de diversis scientiis. This was in the year 1294.
The same prelate, in the year 1299, borrows of his cathe¬
dral convent of St Swithin at Winchester, Bibliam bene
glossatam ; that is, the Bible with marginal annotations, in
two large folio volumes ; but gives a bond for due return of
the loan, diawn up with great solemnity. This Bible had
been bequeathed to the convent the same year by Pontis-
sara’s predecessor, Bishop Nicholas de Ely; and in con¬
sideration of so important a bequest, that is, pro bona Biblia
dicti episcopi bene glossata, and one hundred merks in
money, the monks founded a daily mass for the soul of the
donor. When a single book was bequeathed to a friend or
relation, it was seldom without many restrictions and stipula-
0 K. 11
tions. If any person gave a book to a religious bouse, he be- Book,
lieved that so valuable a donation merited eternal salvation ; i
and he offered it on the altar with great ceremony. The
most formidable anathemas were peremptorily denounced
against those who should dare to alienate a book presented
to the cloister or library of a religious house. The prior
and convent of Rochester declare that they will every year
pronounce the irrevocable sentence of damnation on him who
shall purloin or conceal a Latin translation of Aristotle’s
Physics, or even obliterate the title. Sometimes a book
was given to a monastery on condition that the donor should
have the use of it during his life; and sometimes to a pri¬
vate person, with the reservation that he who receives it
should pray for the soul of his benefactor. The gift of a
book to Lincoln Cathedral by Bishop Repingdon, in the
year 1422, occurs in this form, and under these curious cir¬
cumstances. The memorial is written in Latin with the
bishop’s own hand, which I will give in English, at the be¬
ginning of Peter’s Breviary of the Bible. ‘ I Philip of Repyn-
don, late bishop of Lincoln, give this book, called Peter de
Areolis, to the new library to be built within the church of
Lincoln ; reserving the use and possession of it to Richard
Trysely, clerk, canon, and prebendary, of Miltoun, in fee,
and to the term of his life ; and afterwards to be given up
and restored to the said library, or the keepers of the same,
for the time being, faithfully, and without delay. Written
with my own hand, a.d. 1422.’ When a book was bought,
the affair was of so much importance, that it was customary
to assemble persons of consequence and character, and to
make a formal record that they were present on this occasion.
Among the royal manuscripts in the book of the Sentences
of Peter Lombard, an archdeacon of Lincoln has left this
entry : ‘ This book of the Sentences belongs to master Ro¬
bert archdeacon of Lincoln, which he bought of Geoffrey
the chaplain, brother of Henry vicar of Northelkington, in
the presence of master Robert de Lee, master John of Lir-
ling, Richard of Luda clerk, Richard the almoner, the said
Henry the vicar, and his clerk, and others ; and the said
archdeacon gave the said book to God and St Oswald, and
to Peter abbot of Barton, and the convent of Barden.’ The
disputed property of a book often occasioned the most violent
altercations. Many claims appear to have been made to a
manuscript of Matthew Paris, belonging to the last-men¬
tioned library ; in which John Russel, bishop of Lincoln,
thus conditionally defends or explains his right of posses¬
sion. ‘ If this book can be proved to be or to have been the
property of the exempt monastery of St Alban, in the dio¬
cese of Lincoln, I declare this to be my mind, that in that
case I use it at present as a loan under favour of those monks
who belong to the said monastery. Otherwise, according
to the condition under which this book came into my pos¬
session, I will that it shall belong to the college of the blessed
Winchester Mary at Oxford, of the foundation of William
Wykham. Written with my own hand at Buckdane, 1st
Jan. a.d. 1488. Jo. Lincoln. Whoever shall obliterate or de¬
stroy this writing, let him be anathema.’ About the year 1225,
Roger de Insula, dean of York, gave several Latin Bibles to
the university of Oxford, with a condition that the students
who perused them should deposit a cautionary pledge. The
library of that university, before the year 1300, consisted
only of a few tracts, chained or kept in chests in the choir
of St Mary’s church. In the year 1327 the scholars and
citizens of Oxford assaulted and entirely pillaged the opu¬
lent Benedictine abbey of the neighbouring town of Abing¬
don. Among the books they found there were one hundred
psalters, as many grayles, and forty missals, which un¬
doubtedly belonged to the choir of the church ; but besides
these there were only twenty-two codices, which I interpret
books on common subjects. And although the invention
of paper at the close of the eleventh century contributed to
multiply manuscripts, and consequently to lacilitate know-
12 BOO
Book- ledge, yet, even so late as the reign of our Henry VL we
binding, have discovered the following remarkable instance of the
inconveniences and impediments to study which must have
been produced by a scarcity of books. It is in the statutes
of St Mary’s College at Oxford, founded as a seminary to
Oseney Abbey in the year 1446: ‘Let no scholar occupy
a book in the library above one hour, or two hours at most,
so that others be hindered from the use of the same.’ The
famous library established in the university of Oxford, by
that munificent patron of literature Humphrey Dukeof Glou¬
cester, contained only 600 volumes. About the commence¬
ment of the fourteenth century there were only four classics
in the royal library of Paris. These were one copy of Cicero,
Ovid, Lucan, and Boethius. The rest were chiefly books
of devotion, which included but few of the fathers ; many
treatises of astrology, geomancy, chiromancy, and medicine,
originally written in Arabic, and translated into Latin or
French ; pandects, chronicles, and romances. This collec¬
tion was principally made by Charles V., who began his
reign in 1365. This monarch was passionately fond of read¬
ing ; and it was the fashion to send him presents of books
from every part of the kingdom of France. These he or¬
dered to be elegantly transcribed and richly illuminated ;
and he placed them in a tower of the Louvre, from thence
called La Tour de la Librairie. The whole consisted of
900 volumes. They were deposited in three chambers,
which on this occasion were wainscotted with Irish oak, and
ceiled with cypress curiously carved. The windows were
of painted glass, fenced with iron bars and copper wire. The
English became masters of Paris in the year 1425, on which
event the Duke of Bedford, regent of France, sent the whole
library, then consisting of only 853 volumes, and valued at
2223 livres, into England, where perhaps they became the
groundwork of Duke Humphrey’s library just mentioned.
Even so late as the year 1471, when Louis XL of France
borrowed the works of the Arabian physician Rhases from
the faculty of medicine at Paris, he not only deposited, by
way of pledge, a quantity of valuable plate, but was obliged
to procure a nobleman to join with him as surety in a deed,
by which he bound himself to return it under a considerable
forfeiture. Of the excessive prices of books in the middle
ages there are numerous and curious proofs. I will mention
a few only. In the year 1174, Walter, prior of St Swithin’s
at Winchester, afterwards elected abbot of Westminster, a
writer in Latin of the lives of the bishops who were his pa¬
trons, purchased of the monks of Dorchester in Oxfordshire,
Bede’s Homilies and St Austin’s Psalter, for twelve measures
of barley, and a pall, on which was embroidered in silver the
history of St Birinus converting a Saxon king. Among the
royal manuscripts in the British Museum there is Comestor’s
Scholastic History in French, which, as it is recorded in a
blank page at the beginning, was taken from the king of
France at the battle of Poictiers ; and being purchased by
William Montague, Earl of Salisbury, for 100 marcs, was
ordered to be sold by the last will of his Countess Elizabeth
for forty livres. About the year 1400 a copy of John of
Meun’s Roman de la Roze, was sold at Paris for forty
crowns, or L.33, 6s. 6d.” (VV arton’s History of English
Poetry, vol. i.) For further information regarding books,
see Bibliography.
BOOKBINDING is the art of fastening together the
sheets of paper composing a book, and inclosing them in
cases of pasteboard covered with leather of various kinds,
or other materials ; the object of which is the preservation
of the book, and its protection from injury while in use.
At the time when books were rarities,—either manuscripts
produced by patient secluded labour, or the productions of
the printing-press during the infancy of typography,—they
were naturally very highly prized ; and as much labour, skill,
caie, and expense were bestowed upon the protection and
embellishment or a cherished folio as would suffice at the
BOO
present day to the building of a house. The wooden cover Book-
of a book, with its metal hinges, bosses, guards, and clasps, Binding,
seems, in all but dimensions, fit for a church door; but since
the great improvement in all the mechanical arts connected
with the production of books, together with the extension
of education to all classes, and the consequent diffusion of
knowledge, literature has become almost as necessary as
clothing and shelter to ..the comfort of civilized man ; hence
the multiplication of books, and the gradual but radical
changes witnessed during the present century in the art of
bookbinding. When libraries were comparatively of limited
extent, large sums of money were expended upon binding;
but, at the present day, when a well-selected library must
of necessity be extensive, a substitute for the old method
of binding is sought and obtained in the recent adoption
of cloth covers.
As the binding of a book adds considerably to its cost,
we find that in France, Germany, and other Continental
countries, as well as in the United States of America, most
books when first published are merely sewed together, and
covered with a paper wrapper, like our magazines. In Eng¬
land, the now elegant and durable cloth binding presents so
finished an appearance when ranged upon the shelves of a
library, as to supersede the necessity of resorting to the style
of binding so long prevalent. The libraries of the affluent,
however, continue the demand for that durable and orna¬
mental style of work which has continued in vogue, with
slight variations, for the past century; and since all the
essential features of other descriptions of binding are con¬
tained in this, we shall briefly describe the operations in the
successive stages of binding a book, and afterwards indicate
the variations included in the other kinds of binding.
The dimensions of the sheets of paper upon which a hook is
printed, together with the number of pages into which the
sheet is divided, necessarily determine the size of a book ; for
instance, a sheet of the size known as foolscap may, according
to the number of times it is folded, make a folio book, a quarto,
or an octavo ; and so with other sheets of different dimensions,
such as demy, royal, imperial, &c. Previous to the present
century, folios and quartos were the predominating sizes of
library books; but, at the present time, the more portable and
convenient octavo is preferred, generally the demy sheet folded
into that form, making sixteen pages.
The sheets of a book are readily distinguished from each
other by signatures at the foot of the first page of each sheet;
and it is to these, and not to the paginal number, that the
binder looks in arranging and collating. In foreign countries
these signatures consist of consecutive numbers ; while in this
country alphabetical letters are adopted : we give the prefer¬
ence to the former, as being less productive of error in colla¬
tion, and as possessing certain other advantages.
The operations of binding may be conveniently grouped
under two main divisions—“ forwarding” and “ finishing.”
Under the first is comprehended everything necessary to the
preservation of a book—the second concerns merely the em¬
bellishment.
In the first place, the sheets of a book axe folded in such a
manner that the pages follow^ each other in consecutive order.
In this operation the binder is guided by the “ signatures,”
which indicate the part of a sheet to be superimposed upon an¬
other. This labour is performed by women and girls, who ac¬
quire incredible dexterity by long-continued practice. The
sheets, after being folded, are loose and bulky. The next ope¬
ration has for its object the bringing them into a more compact
form, which is accomplished either by beating them with a
broad-faced hammer upon a smooth flat stone, or by passing
them between the cylinders of a “ rolling machine,” invented
for that purpose by Mr Burn of Hatton Garden, London. A
book must not be submitted to the “ beating” process until it
has been printed one or two years; for the heat generated by
the compression of the air under the blows of the hammer,
causes the printing-ink to soften, and “ set off” or transfer a
portion of its substance to the opposite pages, by which the
book is always disfigured, and frequently entirely ruined. This
objection does not lie against the rolling machine, provided
BOOKBINDING. 13
Book- the cylinders are kept clean ; while a great saving of time is
binding, effected by its use.
■. j The next operation is that of sewing sheets together,
^ and to the bands of string or cord by which the book is sub¬
sequently secured in its case. The sheets being carefully col¬
lated, are given to the sewer, who sits before a contrivance
called a “ sewing machine,” in which the bands are fixed at
suitable distances apart j the number of these bands depends
upon the size of the volume and the. quality of the binding ;
six bands are usually allowed to folios, and five or four .to
quartos and octavos : the sewer places a folded sheet with its
back to the bands, and pierces it through the middle fold with
a needle carrying the thread, at distances corresponding to the
bands. The thread, when passed through the sheet, is twisted
round the contiguous band, and so with each in succession, until
all the sheets composing the volume are fastened to the bands.
This method involves what are termed raised bands, which
are recognised by a projection over each on the back of the
book; but if the back is required to be flat and smooth, sunk
bandsare adopted. To obtain these, thesheets,before beinggiven
to the sewer, are by means of a saw grooved at the back, suf¬
ficiently deep to admit the bands. If plates are to be inserted,
they are either pasted in at the appropriate places, or, which
is preferable, stitched through a marginal fold. When , the
book is released from the sewing machine, about half an inch
of each band is left attached on either side: these ends are
“ frayed” out and beaten flat, to prevent their forming protu¬
berances on the cover to which they are fastened; the “ end¬
papers” intended to line the inside of the cases are now
attached, and the back of the book is covered with glue. Before
the glue is quite dry the back is rounded with a hammer, and
subsequently placed between two feather-edged boards, above
which the back of the book slightly projects ; these are then
placed together in a press, for the backing process; that is,
the back of the book is well beaten until it projects a little over
each side of the levelled boards, so as to form a groove or place
for the millboard covers to lie in. The book is now removed
to the “ cutting press,” where, by means of an instrument
termed a plough, the edges are smoothly cut; but, in order to
preserve the concavity of the fore-edge, the back is temporarily
flattened, and after the edges are cut, it is restored to its
former roundness. The boards were formerly, as the name
indicates, really of wood, but now of thick brown paper or mill-
board, of various thicknesses, according to the size of the book.
They are cut a little larger than the book itself, and attached
by the ends of the bands, left for that purpose, being passed
through holes in the sides of the boards, glued down, and then
hammered flat and smooth. The edges of the volume are now
coloured, marbled, or gilt and burnished.
The head-band is an ornamental appendage employed for
the purpose of concealing the leather folded over the back. It
consists of a piece of parchment or card-board, worked over
with coloured silk, which is sewed to the glued back of the
sheets, and gives an elegant finish to that part of the book.
Sometimes books are preferred with hollow backs, that is,
when the leather of the cover is not attached to the glued back,
but this latter is covered with a piece of thick paper. The
book is now ready to receive its external covering.
This external covering may be of various materials. For the
x most part of modern books it is of calf-skin dyed of various
colours ; but kid-skin, and its imitation in sheep-skin or roan,
and sheep-skin acknowledged as such, in which school-books and
many law-books are bound, are also used in great quantities.
The piece of leather, cut to a proper size, is moistened with
water, next covered on the inner side with paste or glue, and
then applied evenly to the millboard sides; the superfluous
edge of the leather, first pared to reduce its thickness, is turned
over on the inside, and concealed from view by the end papers
attached to the sheets forming the book, which are subsequently
pasted down upon the millboards. The book is now “ corded,”
that is, firmly tied between two boards until it is dry, so as to
insure perfect smoothness in the cover; it is next removed
from these boards and transferred to the finishers. Besides
the “lettering” at the back of a book, there is generally a variety
of ornamental work, on the back, edges, and sides, the patterns
of which may be executed either in blind-tooling, wherein the
leather is simply embossed, without the use of gold-leaf; or
the metal may be applied only partially to the patterns,
or they may be executed wholly in gold-leaf. This is a matter
affording much room for the display of taste and skill on the Book-
part of the binder, and in many instances is taken advantage binding,
of; by none more, at the present day, than by Mr James '
Hayday of London, whose productions fully equal those of
the most eminent binders of past times. The embossing is
performed with the aid of brass tools cut to various patterns ;
when leaf-gold is applied, it is made to adhere by moistening
the leather with the glair of egg mixed with olive oil; the gold-
leaf being laid upon this, the hot embossing tool is carefully ap -
plied, and the pattern permanently impressed upon the leather.
There are many other minute details into which it is not our
purpose to enter. Enough has been said to indicate the vari¬
ous operations to which a book is submitted in being “ bound
but as good binding is necessarily expensive, those who have
large libraries to bind are frequently obliged to study economy.
This end is attained without in any degree sacrificing elegance
of appearance, or any of the essential qualities of binding, by
adopting the method of having the books /ia//-bound, as it is
termed. The only difference between this method and that just
described consists in the sides of the millboards being covered
with paper or cloth, while the back and corners of the cover
are protected with leather : the edges of the leaves are often not
cut on the front and bottom, but only on the. top, which is
usually gilt, to protect the book from disfiguration by dust.
The various styles of binding are distinguished from each
other by appropriate names, according to the material which is
used for the covers. Russia leather is much prized on account of
its not being liable to mhuld in damp apartments, nor to the at¬
tacks of insects. T hese qualities, together w ith its agreeable odour,
it derives from being treated with the empyreumatic oil of birch
bark : its peculiar red colour is due chiefly to a dye of Saunders’
wood. Many of the Continental books are bound in vellum, a
very elegant but expensive style. In Holland and Spain much
hog-skin was formerly used. Besides these various leathers, tex¬
tile fabrics have at all periods been extensively employed for
the purposes of binding ; some specimens of the earliest dates
are covered with velvet and satin ; in recent times silk was in
great demand for annuals and kindred works ; but lately cot¬
ton cloth embossed and dyed has, in the extent of its appli¬
cations, exceeded any other material ever employed. Previous
to the year 1825, new books were generally published in
boards ; that is, millboards covered with drab paper, upon
which the title, printed on a white label, was pasted. Although
this was greatly superior to the Continental mode of cover¬
ing new books with thin paper, something more elegant and
durable was needed, and Mr Archibald Leighton of London en¬
deavoured to meet this want by introducing coloured cloth
(glazed calico). One of the first books of importance bound in this
material was the edition of Lord Byron’s works in 17 volumes.
Since that period there has been a progressive improvement
in the adaptation of coloured cloth to the purposes of binding,
both in the colours imparted to it, and in “ embossing” upon
its surface the grain peculiar to morocco and other kinds of
leather; and so perfect is this imitation, that an experienced eye.
can scarcely detect the difference. The sides and backs of
“ cases” covered with this fabric are also ornamented in bold
relief, with elegant patterns, by means of brass tools applied by
powerful arming-presses; while the “lettering,” at first so clum¬
sily executed, is now as perfect as that impressed upon leather.
Skilful artists are constantly employed in designing ornamental
patterns ; and a new class of tool-cutters, who cut these patterns
in solid brass, has been called into existence. Expensive ma¬
chines also for folding, pressing, cutting the edges, &c., have
been contrived.
This style of binding has been received with so much favour
that the rapidity of its extension is almost incredible. At one
of the numerous large establishments in London, 310 persons
are employed, distributed as follows:—200 women and girls
are occupied in folding, collating, and sewing ; and 110 men
and boys in the more advanced stages : of these, 40 men are
engaged in backing, cutting the edges, &c. ; .5 in gilding or
marbling the edges ; 15 in making cases ; 24 in stamping the
sides ; 12 as extra binders and finishers of the better kind of
work : and 14 as clerks, porters, &c. Ten arming presses for
stamping the sides of the covers, each worked by two men,
will furnish 3000 impressions per day from a brass block “ in
blind,” i.e. without gold leaf, or 1500 impressions if with the
gold. The value of the gold leaf consumed amounts to L.4000
per annum. The superfluous gold wiped off the pattern is saved,
BOOKBINDING.
14
Book- and sold for L.800 per annum. The quantity of millboards
binding. USed is at the rate of 8 tons per month. Four men are con-
stantly employed at as many cutting-machines, each of which
yields a hundredweight of shavings per week. One man is
employed solely in sawung the backs of books ; two others in
cutting millboard to the required sizes, and four pairs of men
in making cloth cases, each pair producing on the average 1200
cases per diem.
The operations in the process of cloth-binding differ from
those described under calf-binding in this,—the sheets are not
beaten or rolled, nor the edges cut, except that th.e fore-edge
and the tail are usually trimmed; the cases are made sepa¬
rately, and not fastened to the sheets by the bands, but only by
the end papers, or by a strip of coarse muslin attached to the
glued back of the sheets, being also fastened to the inside of the
case. Cloth-covered books have always hollow backs.
There is a recent improvement in fastening together books
of plates, music, account-books, &c., which are required to lie
open flat; these are not sewed, but the back edge of the leaves
is cut even, rasped, and cemented with liquid India-rubber.
The material with which books are covered should be
selected with reference to the “ tear and wear” to which they
may be subjected. For public libraries, the very best work¬
manship in the forwarding should be secured, w*hile the finish¬
ing bestowed must have reference to neatness and economy.
The lettering of books rarely receives the consideration it de¬
mands ; a simple rule is, that it should clearly indicate, 1. The
author’s name ; 2. The subject, and even the divisions of a sub¬
ject ; so that the book may be identified without removing it
from its place. In serial works, besides the consecutive number,
the date should be affixed, and sometimes even the place of
publication. These details may appear trifles, but whoever
has to do with large libraries will appreciate their utility. If
they are left to the discretion of the binder, he generally con¬
tents himself with lettering a book “ History of Rome,” or
“ Travels in Europe,” which obviously necessitates the opening
of the volume before its individuality can be ascertained. For
private libraries of large extent there is no better style of
binding than “ half morocco” with gilt tops, occasionally inter¬
spersed with specimens of other styles.
The classification of books in large libraries may be greatly
facilitated by appropriating certain colours to specific subjects ;
e.g. theology might be clothed in black or dark purple ; his¬
tory in scarlet ; poetry in light-blue or green. In this manner,
and by combining them with coloured labels of various hues,
the labour of sorting and replacing books upon the shelves
may be much lightened to the librarian.
Bookbinding still lacks its historian : it is much to be re¬
gretted that on a subject so well deserving the attention of
the curious and learned, no researches have been made into
the origin, progress, and decline of this art. Beyond a few
incidental and fragmentary passages in the writings of biblio¬
graphers and travellers, merely descriptive, we may seek in
vain for reliable information. In this place we have en¬
deavoured to collect the scattered materials, and present
them in a concise form.
Although it is customary to refer binding to remote anti¬
quity, it obviously could not have been practised before
books assumed their present form. The manuscripts of
the ancients consisted of continuous rolls of papyrus or
parchment, a form which did not admit of being bound
like the single leaves of a modern book.1 These manu¬
scripts were wound upon rollers, as our maps are mounted,
to which labels bearing the titles were attached at the ends:
these rolls were inserted in parchment cases, and preserved
from dust and injury in cylindrical boxes with lids (see
Cell’s Pompeii, &c.) It is more probable, however, that
the modern book derived its form from the means taken to
preserve the waxed tablets of the Greeks and Romans which Book-
were inclosed in covers of wood, ivory, &c. {diptycha, trip- binding.
tychd). It would be easy to substitute pieces of papyrus or v—~
parchment for these pieces of waxed wood, upon which the
writing was graven by the stilus. These diptycha were fre¬
quently elaborately carved and ornamented,and many of them,
preserved to the present time, very nearly resemble our mo¬
dern octavos in size. When parchmentcame to be exclusively
employed as a writing material, it gave rise to the invention
of libri plicatiles and volumina, names which very clearly
indicate the form given to manuscripts. The volumen, so
called a volvendo, was the form mostly employed with papy¬
rus and parchment, and now that our books are square or
oblong, the term is anomalous; the word remains, but the
thing itself has long since entirely disappeared.
It would be exceedingly difficult to determine what the
art of bookbinding, or that which occupied its place, was
during the middle ages, as no evidence remains, and the light
of discovery has not been thrown upon it. All that we can
at present learn is, that in the ninth and tenth centuries,
owing probably to the impulse given to letters, and to every¬
thing connected with literature, by Charlemagne and the
princes of his line, the external decoration of manuscripts
was carried to a high state of perfection. The parchment,
in leaves, was inclosed between two tablets of wood or ivory,
inlaid and incrusted with jewels and precious stones, bosses
of gold and silver, sometimes with hinges and clasps of these
metals. The Bibliotheque Imperiale at Paris is very rich in
this description of bindings.
The library of the Louvre contains the celebrated Book
of Hours, written with letters of gold upon purple parchment:
it is covered with red velvet. This book was given to the
city of Toulouse by Charlemagne. A New Testament of the
eighth century, bound in wooden covers, covered with black
satin, in an excellent state of preservation, enriches a private
collection.
It was probably only at the epoch of the invention of paper
from rags, and its extended use, that modern binding arose :
this was towards the end of the thirteenth century (1280).
From this period to the sixteenth century the bindings are
numerous, but no name of a binder has reached us; they
generally followed the good or bad taste that prevailed at
the time in other ornamental arts. Thus, during the fifteenth
century, binding, like architecture and the ornamental let¬
ters of MSS., abounded in foliages and flowers {arabesque),
but at no period do we find the elegant simplicity that pre¬
vailed in the arts at the commencement of the fourteenth
century. The most beautiful bindings preserved to us of the
fifteenth century are those of the famous library formed at
Buda by Matthias Hunyadi, king of Hungary ; it consisted
of nearly 50,000 volumes of Greek and Latin manuscripts.
They are but very little known. The greater portion of the
treasures of this sort collected by Matthias are now in the
public library at Munich.
Apart from mere decoration, the main object aimed at in
the early bindings was strength and durability, and whether
it was owing to the binders being fettered in their ideas to the
ivory or wooden covers of the tablets they first imitated,
or from an excess of care in securing the preservation of
the treasure they inclosed, it is certain they laboured over¬
much in their vocation. A folio of this era, with its timber
and metal, must have been a formidable affair ; and the very
means employed for the preservation of the book doubtless
frequently led to its destruction.2
1 The oft-repeated anecdote which attributes the erection of a statue to Phillatius, an Athenian, for the invention of bookbinding, is
evidently founded upon a misconception of the text of Photius; all that the Athenian did was to glue together into one continuous roll
{volumen) the pieces of papyrus, which were previously sewed together.
2 In the Laurentian Library at Florence is Petrarch’s manuscript of Cicero’s Epistolce ad Atticum, remarkable for its calligraphy and
workmanship. The binding is only of the time of Cosmo. The old wooden covers of this volume, so often handled by the poet, had so
wounded him by falling repeatedly on his left leg, that he narrowly escaped amputation. So rude and almost murderous were literary
pursuits at that period. This volume has still, as before, brass clasps and corners, but they would not inflict such a wound.—FaZery.
BOO BOO 15
Book- The sixteenth century, the epoch of the Renaissance,
keeping. is doubtless that in which the art of binding attained its
greatest perfection, and the books extant in various public
and private libraries confirm this view. It would be out
of place to enumerate these treasures, but it would be
difficult to meet with one more beautiful than that of the
Hours of Margaret of Savoy. At the court of France,
during the time of Catherine de’ Medicis, there was a per¬
fect rage for ornamental binding, its greatest promoters
being Diana of Poictiers, the treasurer Grollier, the presi-
c’ent De Thou, and M. d’Urfe.
In the seventeenth century, with the exception of the
bindings executed by Ruette, bookseller and binder to
Louis XIV., the art at first remained quite stationary, and
afterwards quickly declined; the intrigues and troubles of
this period were by no means favourable to so innocent
and harmless a passion as that for choice bindings. The
eighteenth century was, however, more congenial ; the
names of eminent binders are sufficiently numerous to in¬
dicate that their vocation was in the ascendant. We can
only enumerate Enguerrand, Boyer, Desseuille, Padeloup,
Gascon, Derome, Chameau, Pontchartrain, Simier, father
and son, Purgold, Vaugelles, and Bauzerian. Bauzonnet
was cotemporary with our Lewis. Upon the whole, the
bindings of France excel those of any other nation ; they
always exhibit a refined taste, and perfect manipulation in
the tooling. At the present day the best designs are ge¬
nerally but close imitations of the productions of the past.
The most eminent cotemporary binders of France are Book-
Madame Gruel, MM. Niedree, Lortic, Simier, Cape, and keeping.
Ottman.
The earliest ornamental binding extant in England is
of the time of Henry VII.; many specimens of this period
are preserved in the British Museum and the Record Office.
Stamping the covers with brass tools appears to have been
first practised in the reign of Henry VIII., many of which
are supposed, upon what authority we know not, to have
been designed by Holbein. In the reign of Elizabeth vel¬
vet covers embroidered with gold and silver thread and
coloured silk were fashionable. It was only in the eighteenth
century that binding assumed importance as an art in Eng¬
land. The first, and still unsurpassed binder, is Roger
Payne, who was so completely the founder of his art, that he
performed every operation with his own hands, from folding,
beating, sewing, cutting, mending, headbanding, colouring
his end-papers, covering, tooling, even to the cutting of the
brass tools and letters. The other eminent names since his
time are Johnson, Lewis, Kalthoeber, Baumgarten, Bohn,
Staggemeir—the last four being Germans; Mackenzie,Clarke,
Bedford, Jones, Hering, Hay day, Wright, Riviere. In the pre¬
sent day we have produced no original style of decoration for
leather-binding; our highest achievements are in imitating
the productions of past centuries. When these imitations
combine good taste with good workmanship the highest
aim of binding is accomplished, until a new style is origi¬
nated. (c. M—L.)
BOOK-KEEPING.
Book-keeping is the art of keeping books of account,
whether in public offices, manufacturing establishments, or
mercantile counting-houses ; but the name is generally ap¬
plied to the books of merchants, on account of the com¬
plexity of their transactions, and the care consequently
required to prevent obscurity or confusion. It was ac¬
cordingly among merchants, and in particular among those
of Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and other trading towns in Modern
Italy, that book-keeping was first reduced to a system, and
that the remarkable refinement of double entry was adopted.
This, like the discoveries of the Italians in manufactures,
the fine arts, navigation, and commerce, was owing, not, as
some imagine, to any peculiarity of disposition, or power of
invention, inherent in that people, but to their country
being the part of Europe in which, in modern times, town-
population first became considerable, and men derived ad¬
vantage from living together in large communities. It is
in populous towns that employment is divided and sub¬
divided ; that discoveries and inventions take place; and
that the education of youth exchanges its antiquated and
scholastic form for one of direct utility, adapted to the
progress and the wants of the existing generation.
The first printed work on book-keeping was the production
of an Italian teacher, who, without knowing much of trade by
bis own experience, observed the manner in which the intelli¬
gent merchants of his country kept their accounts. It was
published as early as 1495, and was followed in the succeeding
century by several works on book-keeping in French, composed
with evident care and solicitude to explain the art, but afford¬
ing by their complexity a remarkable contrast to the short and
clear system afterwards adopted by merchants. English pub¬
lications on book-keeping came forth somewhat later, but all
resembled the foreign treatises in being the composition, not
of merchants, but of teachers and accountants. In 1652 Collins,
a well-known London accountant, published a long work en¬
titled An Introduction to Merchants’ Accounts, which, like
the work of one of his contemporaries on a very different topic
(Rich On Short Hand), continued during a century the best,
or, to speak more correctly, the least imperfect publication
on the subject of which it treated. About a hundred years
later, Mair, a well-known writer of books on education, pub¬
lished his Book-Keeping Modernized, a work containing a
correct statement of the principles of double entry, but in
other respects much less clear and concise than it might have
been had the author adopted the method of our principal
merchants, who had now greatly simplified their plan of keep¬
ing accounts.
In 1789 appeared the work of a practical merchant, under
the title of A Complete System of Book-Keeping, by Benjamin
Booth, London, 4to.
The favourable expectation excited by Mr Booth’s expe¬
rience in business was fully confirmed by his book, which con¬
tained a great deal of information in short compass, unembar¬
rassed either by minute detail or fanciful theory. The plan
which he recommended and exemplified was the Italian method
of double entry, in conformity with the practice of the first
merchants in this country and the Continent, for more than a
century. Practical men could no longer complain of the non¬
existence of a correct summary of the principles and practice
of book- keeping; and the Italian method seemed likely to be
as firmly fixed in the admiration of our young merchants as
it had long been in that of their predecessors, when its title to
clearness and accuracy was strongly called in question by a
writer at that time unknown to the mercantile public.
Mr Edward Thomas Jones, an accountant in Bristol, had oc¬
casion, like Mr Booth, to see a series of perplexities and losses
arising from books being badly kept, namely, disputed ac¬
counts, actions at law, and occasionally even bankruptcies. In
the case of many merchants the books submitted to him had
remained for years unbalanced ; in others the balancing had
been incorrect, and deception had been practised either on a
partner or the creditors. Such irregularities, ascribed by Mr
Booth wholly to the misconduct of book keepers, is charged by
Mr Jones on the system itself, which (the Italian method) he
does not scruple to describe as “ insufficient to prevent or de¬
tect error, rendering the process of balancing very difficult,
and not necessarily correct when the balance is completed.”
To find a safeguard against such errors, to devise a method
by which accuracy in book-keeping might be insured, and the
perplexity in balancing removed, was, said Mr Jones, a work
of great time and difficulty. He began to give his plan to the
public in 1796, and improved on it in the succeeding years.
He published a treatise on this subject in 1821, and again in
a much more extended form in 1831. Of this work we shall
16 BOO K-K
Book- treat more fully in the subsequent part of the present article,
v eePing- after explaining to our readers the nature of the system in
^ question.
In the earlier stages of commerce, such as the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries were for the north of Italy, and
the seventeenth for England, the transactions of mer¬
chants, though varied in their nature, were on a small
scale as regarded any particular department. The same
individual did business in a number of articles, but in
none to an extent to require separate books of account.
Hence the practice of recording all transactions, whether
purchases, sales, receipts, or payments, in a diary, which,
from the rough manner in which it was kept, was com¬
monly called a waste-book. The practice in those days
was for a merchant or his chief clerk, as soon as any trans¬
action was made or agreed on, to insert a memorandum
of it in this book, minuting the particulars correctly, but
taking little trouble as to the form of the entry: for that
they relied on the book-keeper, who was not then a part¬
ner, or even clerk in the house, but generally gave his aid
by intervals in different counting-houses, passing one or
two days in the week at each, and bringing the rude en¬
tries in their waste-books into regular form in the jour¬
nal. At present, and for a great length of time, each
EEPING.
mercantile house has its own book-keeper; the art being Book-
simplified so as to be within the attainment < f most clerks keeping,
of ability, instead of being, as in remote times, a mystery
to all except men of long standing and more than usual
instruction. But in process of time, as mercantile con¬
cerns have acquired extension, the art of book-keeping has
been simplified, because particular departments of business
have required separate books. Thus money receipts and
payments, instead of being mixed, in the waste-book, with
the amount of invoices, account sales, and other entries
quite different in their nature, are all registered in the
cash-book, or book for that special purpose. The same
principle of division holds in regard to bills; also as to
invoices, account sales, and, in short, every department
of business.
We shall now give a practical illustration of book-keep-
ing, by exhibiting the course followed by a mercantile
establishment. Let the example to be given be a London
house under the supposed firm of Baring, Hall, & Co.,
established during several years, and engaged in the West
India and North American trade. Their journal ought to
contain, at the beginning of each year, a summary of the
monies owing by and to them; in other words, of their
debts and assets, in the following form.
Folio of
Ledger.
3
4
5
8
7
52
9
10
12
14
16
19
.20
21
January 1, 1831.
SUNDRIES Das. to STOCK.
For the following Assets and Balances due to the House.
Cash ; amount at the Bankers’ this day  L.3,730 0
Petty cash in the house  45 10
Exchequer Bills; amount in hand 
Three per Cent. Consols; L.15,000, valued at L.82 per L.100 Stock * *
Debenture Account; sundry drawbacks on articles exported, payable at the Custom-house
Bills Receivable ; in hand as follows :—
(Here give a list taken from the Book of Bills Receivable) 
Ship Hector ; our three-eighths of that vessel   .
Adventure in St Domingo Coffee ; cost price of 100 tierces purchased on speculation..
Adventure in Lint Osnaburghs ; cost price of 20 bales do. bought on speculation...
James Anderson, Dublin; balance due by him 
Thomas Story & Co. Liverpool; do 
George Fox, Kingston, Jamaica; do   
James Annand & Co. New York; balance due by them 
Allan Dewar & Co. do. do   
Henry Stephens, Kingston, Jamaica; do     
David Reynolds, Philadelphia; do     
L.3,775 10
10,750 0
12,300 0
1,473 10
14,715 10
4.500 0
2.500 0
540 0
1,561 0
1,382 10
3,350 0
3,138
2,890
2,243
2,673
L.67,792 0 0
Folio of
Ledger.
26
28
30
32
33
35
37
39
STOCK Dr. to SUNDRIES.
For the following Sums due by the House.
To Bills Payable ; amount of acceptances at this date, as per Book of Bills Payable..
(Here recapitulate the Bills.) 
To Insurance Account ; premiums due to various underwriters; amount in all 
To Gregg and Lindsay, Liverpool; balance due to them 
To Thomas Hughes, Jamaica ; do. to him   
To John Ravenshaw, New York; do. to him 
To John Campbell, senior, & Co. Glasgow; do. to them 
To Henry Tritton & Co. London ; do. to them 
To Robert Dimsdale & Co. London ; do. to them 
Balance, being the capital of the House.
L.5,785 10 0
2,915 10 0
713 10 0
1,236 5 0
831 10 0
2,351 15 0
3,153 0 0
2,673 0 0
L. 19,660 0 0
48,132 0 0
L.67,792 0 0
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
17
Book- Such is the form of the inventory of the debts and
keeping, assets of a mercantile house; and the foregoing is, it
must be admitted, much more satisfactory than balance
sheets in general; because, from the nature of foreign
business, the funds of almost every house become un¬
avoidably much more scattered than is stated in this out¬
line. All countries recently settled, such as North Ame¬
rica and the West Indies, are bare of capital, and have an
interest in drawing money from Europe. This they have
found it practicable to do to a great extent from England
and Holland, where money is in general abundant, and
the rate of interest low. In recently settled countries
there generally prevails a spirit of adventure, a strong de¬
sire to extend their undertakings; hence a high interest
for money, and sometimes little scruple as to the means
of obtaining it. To apply to a merchant in London or
Amsterdam for a loan of L.2000, for a year, at five per
cent, interest, would in general be fruitless; but the case Book-
is different when the correspondent abroad holds out the keeping,
tempting prospect of selling manufactures to the amount of
L.2000, and remitting for them in cotton, tobacco, or su¬
gar. Such a transaction offers a double commission, viz.
5 per cent, on the amount exported, and 2^ per cent, on
the amount received in return; advantages which incline
a merchant, in particular a young merchant, to take a
favourable view of the chances of the proposition. The
usual result, however, is, that the balance sheet of a house
in such a line of business generally exhibits a long list of
debts on the part of correspondents abroad, the recovery
of which is more or less doubtful according to the pru¬
dence, integrity, or health of the debtor, or according to
the degree of prosperity in the country of his residence;
for, being obliged to sell on credit, his means are gene¬
rally dependent on those of his customers.
The Cash-Book.—Of the entries for the various receipts and payments which daily occur in a counting-house, the
following is a specimen :—
Dr.
Cash.
1831.
Jan. 1
12
18
19
To balance in hand 
To Bills Receivable, received
payment of No. 320, James
Jacobs 
To Ship Hector, received of
James Williamson & Co. for
freight   
To Thomas Story & Co., re¬
ceived from James Hender¬
son per their account  
ToDebenture Account, received
drawback on tobacco export¬
ed by the Three Friends 
To Bills Receivable, discounted
by Smith, Payne, & Smiths,
No. 321, on Baring, Brothers,
& Co., due 26th February 
To Profit and Loss, received 2^
per cent, discount on paying
the accounts per contra, not
due for four months—•
John Wilson L.3 16 0
James Henderson....2 8 9
John Jackson 3 5 9
Charles Norton 2 3 6
L. s.
2,510 0
To Bills Receivable, discounted
by Smith, Payne, & Smiths,
No. 330, Williams & Co.,
20th March 
To Ship Hector, received for
freight, of J. Johnson 
To Debenture Account,received
drawback on paper and print¬
ed books, exported by the
Fingal 
To Profit and Loss, ^ per cent,
commission on a year’s divi¬
dends received on L.1200, 3
per cent, consols, of Jacob
Van Neck of Amsterdam 
To Thomas Story & Co., re¬
ceived from John Maxwell
on their account 
351 10
179 10
210 3
16 10 0
1,567 0 0
11 14 0
513 10
215 7
Contra.
1831.
Jan. 1
10
12
19
23
12 16 0
3 0 0
143 16 0
L.5,734 16 0
By James Davis & Son, paid
them for linen per bill of
parcels   
By Bills Payable, paid No. 250
to J. Anderson.... 
By James Anderson, paid J.
Thomas & Co. for him 
By Charges paid packet postage
of letters received this day...,
By Interest paid discount to
Smith, Payne, & Smiths, at
5 per cent  
By John Wilson, paid his bill
of parcels 
By James Henderson do 
By John Jackson do  
By Charles Norton do 
By Bills Payable, paid No. 221,
James Morrison 
By Interest, paid discount to
Smith, Payne, & Smiths,
e contra 
By James Anderson, paid J.
Johnson for his account 
By Charges, paid postage and
petty disburse this week. 
By Bills payable, paid No. 227,
J. Simpson,  
By James Davis & Son, paid
them farther for linen 
By balance to next month
Cr.
L. s. d.
157 10 0
1,251 5 0
131 10 0
3 13 0
10 6 0
152 0 0
97 10 0
131 10 0
87 5 0
135 10 0
4 12 7
145 3 0
4 7 0
146 10 0
164 15 0
3,111 9 5
L.5,734 16 0
VOL. V.
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
18
Book-
keeping.
These entries, when transferred to the Journal, are arranged as follows: 
Folio in
Ledger.
Date.
12
40
1831
Jan. 2
5
12
18
CASH Dr. to SUNDRIES.
Received during this Month.
To Bills Receivable.
Received payment of No. 320, James Jacobs   L.351 10 0
Discounted by Smith, Payne, & Smiths, No. 321, on Baring &
Co. 26th February  1^57 0 0
by do. No. 330, onWilliams&Co. 20thMarch... 513 10 0
Do.
To Ship Hector.
Received for freight from James Williamson   L.179 10 0
Do. do. from J. Johnson     215 7 0
To Thomas Story & Co.
Received from James Henderson     L.210 3 0
Do. from John Maxwell  143 ig 0
To Debenture Account.
Received drawback on Tobacco by the Two Friends  L.16 10 0
Do. do. on Paper and Printed Books by the Fingal.. 12 16 0
To Profit and Loss.
Received discount from—
John Wilson .L.3 16 0
James Henderson  2 8 9
John Jackson  3 5 9
Charles Norton....   2 3 6
Commission per cent, on L.60, a year’s dividend on L.1200,
3 per cent, consols, of Jacob Van Neck, Amsterdam 
L.ll 14 0
3 0 0
L.2,432 0 0
394 17 0
353 19 0
29 6 0
14 14 0
L.3,224 16 0
Book.
keeping.
Folio in
Ledger.
42
26
10
44
46
47
48
49
50
Date.
1831.
Jan. 1
23
2
9
19
3
12
9
12
SUNDRIES Drs. to CASH.
Paid during this Month.
James Davis & Co.
Paid them for linen per bill of parcels    L.157 10 0
Paid them further for do. per do  154 15 0
Bills Payable.
Paid No. 250 to J. Anderson L.l 251 5 0
Paid No. 221 to J. Morrison  135 jq 0
Paid No. 227 to J. Simpson.  145 jq q
James Anderson.
Paid J. Thomas & Co. for their account   L.131 10 0
Paid J. Johnson for his ditto  145 3 q
Charges.
Paid packet postage of letters received this day  L.3 13 0
Paid postage and petty disburse this week....   470
Interest.
Paid discount to Smith, Payne, & Smiths.........  L.10 6 0
t0 do  ‘ 4 12 7
Do.
John Wilson, 9th, paid his bill of parcels.
James Henderson,  do 
John Jackson,   do 
Charles Norton,   do 
L.322 5 0
1,533 5 0
276 13 0
8 0 0
14 18
152 0
97 10
131 10
87 5
L.2,623 6 7
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
Book¬
keeping.
These entries, few as they are in number, suffice to con-
vey an idea of the advantage of putting them in the jour¬
nal form. There are, in most of the preceding, two trans¬
actions belonging to each account, and these two are
merged in the journal in one entry, which abridges and
simplifies the posting in the ledger. But in houses of ex¬
tensive business the cash transactions for a month are as
ten, or rather as twenty to one compared to the preceding
specimen, and the number of entries collected under one
title, such as bills receivable or bills payable for the month,
is consequently large. The result is to facilitate greatly
the posting in the ledger, and of course the balancing of
the books at the end of six or twelve months.
19
What, it may be asked, is the rule for making cash debtor in Book-
some cases and creditor in others? The rule is clear and uni- keeping,
form. For all monies received cash is made debtor, or account-
able, as these sums are to be accounted for under the head
of cash; while for all monies paid, cash is made creditor, the
parties who have to account for the sum being made debtors.
Bill Books.—Next in importance to the cash are the
bill transactions of a mercantile house, whether bills re¬
ceivable or drafts on other merchants, or bills payable,
meaning by the latter the acceptances or bills which the
house are bound to pay. For each is appropriated a sepa¬
rate book, in which the respective bills are entered, with a
minute notice of particulars, thus :
N o- Received.
151
152
153
5 Feb.
12 do.
15 do.
BILLS RECEIVABLE. Form of Entry.
From whom.
Jas. Anderson
T. Story & Co.
Geo. Fox
Drawn by
J. Thomson
Jas. Wilson
Thos. Smith
Date.
Dublin, 20 Jan.
Liverpool, 2 Feb.
Jamaica, 8 Feb.
Term.
2months’date
1 do.
60 days’ sight.
Drawn on To order of
J. Greig
T. Gray
J. Allan
Wm. Dick
John Smith
J. Jackson
Due.
23 March
5 do.
14 May
Sum.
L.17310 0
232 0 0
197 10 0
How disposed of.
Smith, Payne, & Smiths
Overend & Co.
Kept till due
The preceding bills are to be entered in the Journal as follows:
Ledger
Folio-
10
12
14
To James Anderson.
No. 151, on J. Greig, due 23d March
Tp T. Story & Co.
No. 152, on T. Gray, due 5th March
To George Fox.
No. 153, on J. Allan, due 14th May..
BILLS RECEIVABLE Dr. to SUNDRIES.
For the following bills remitted.
L. s. d.
173 10 0
232 0 0
197 10 0
L.603 0 0
Bil^s Payable are acceptances of the house payable to other parties, and may be termed the reverse of Bills Re¬
ceivable. The following is an example of the mode of entering them in the bill book.
To order of
Jas. Shaw
His own order
J. Knowles
No.
270
271
272
Drawn by
J. Robertson
T. Hughes
J. Williams
Liverpool, 2 Mar.
Jamaica, 20 Jan.
St. Kitts, 30 Jan.
Qn account of
Gregg & Lindsay
Thos. Hughes
Jas. Anderson
1 month’s date
90 days’ sight
60 days’ sight
When accepted-
5 March
7 do.
10 do.
Due.
8 April
8 June
12 Mav
Sum.
L.215
320
185
Held by
Atkins & Co.
J. Miller & Co.
T.Watson&Co.
When brought into the Journal, these bills stand thus:
SUNDRIES Das. to BILLS PAYABLE.
For the following Bills drawn and accepted.
Gregg & Lindsay.
No. 170, J. Robertson’s draft on their account, due 8th April.
James Anderson.
No. 272, J. Williams’ draft on their account, due 12th May...
Thomas Hughes.
No. 271, his draft at 90 days’ sight, to his own order, due 8th June.
L. s. d,
215 0 0
185 0 0
320 0 0
L.720 0 0
Bills of Exchange were introduced several centuries
ago to enable merchants to make payments to each other
without the risk and delay attendant on transmitting the
precious metals to a distance. A, a merchant in Liver¬
pool, Dublin, or in Jamaica, having a payment to make in
London, instead of collecting and forwarding specie, looks
out on his own exchange until he find another merchant,
B, who having money to receive in London, is inclined to
give him an order to obtain it in his stead. They discuss
the terms or rate of exchange ; and when these are agreed
on, the bill is drawn by B and delivered to A, who then,
or soon after, pays the amount to B. The result is, that
the one acquits his debt in London, and the other draws
his funds from it, without quitting their place of residence
or incurring any expense of consequence.
Bills of Exchange first became general in the middle ages,
and were used chiefly by Jews. In the case of this, as of
many other discoveries, the time and manner of their in¬
troduction is uncertain; but the accommodation from
them must have been so great, and the mode of obtaining
it so obvious, that we may safely take it for granted that
they were adopted as soon as merchants accounted each
other trust-worthy, or the transactions of towns at a dis¬
tance from each other became such as to supply sums of
any considerable amount to be drawn for.
Town Notes are bills drawn by persons residing in the
20
BOO K-K E E P 1 N G.
Book, same town with the acceptors, generally by the seller of
Keeping, goods on the purchaser, who, instead of paying for them
in cash, gives his acceptance, payable in two, three, or more
months after date. Take, for example, the draft of a West
India merchant in London on a sugar refiner, for sugar
sold by the former to the latter ; or by a wholesale ware¬
houseman on a West India merchant for linen or cottons
supplied to the merchant. It is evident that bills between
parties residing in the same town are not strictly en regie,
as in their case there can be no expense or risk in for¬
warding money. Still they can hardly be objected to in
transactions like the preceding, which are evidently bona
Jide from the respective lines of business of the parties.
The Bank of England sanctions town notes as regards the
metropolis, by appropriating a day in each week (Wed¬
nesday) for discounting them, and by often carrying such
discounts to a very large amount. During the war, when
monied capital was comparatively scarce, town notes were
extremely common. They are still very frequent, but
not in so great a degree, first-rate houses being unwilling
to give their acceptances where a payment in cash is the
regular mode of settling an account. This feeling differs
according to the line of business of the parties. Thus,
London houses in the East India trade being generally
large establishments, confine their acceptances to bills
from abroad, and decline giving them to persons in Lon¬
don, such as the wholesale dealers in cloth or hardware,
from whom they purchase goods for shipment. They pre¬
fer paying such persons in cash, even when not altogether
convenient, to the animadversions that might attend their
affixing their acceptance to a town note. On the other
hand, London booksellers, though often possessed of con¬
siderable capital, are obliged, by the nature of their busi¬
ness, to give such long credits, that the postponement of
a payment during several months, obtained by giving their
acceptance, is an accommodation they readily embrace.
Besides, the custom of the trade, in this as in various
other lines of business, prevents such acceptances from
being an object of much animadversion.
The Invoice Book. A mercantile house connected,
as we have supposed, with North America and the West
Indies, receives from time to time requisitions, or, as they
are commonly termed, orders, from their correspondents
abroad for manufactured goods, whether woollens, linens,
cottons, or hardware. An order of only moderate amount
is generally of the length of several pages, embracing both
a number of different articles and various qualities of each Book-
particular article. The first step on the part of the Lon- keeping,
don merchant is to analyse this order, and to share or dis-
tribute its various parts among a number of wholesale
dealers, whether in London, Manchester, Birmingham, or
Sheffield, that each may supply the articles in his line of
business. A few weeks suffice for their getting ready the
goods, when they send in their several accounts, or bills
of parcels, as they are termed, thus :
A. D.
& Co.
No. 1.
London, \st February 1831.,
Messrs Baring, Hall, & Co.
Bought of Alexander Balmanno.
10 Pieces best Lint Osnaburghs, 152
yards each, at 6d. per yard...
Inside Wrappers, 14 yards, at 3d...
Cord, bale, and press packing 
L.
38
0
0
d.
0
6
0
L.38 13 6
{From another dealer.')
A. D.
& Co,
No. 2,
Messrs Baring, Hall, & Co.
Bought of John Oakey & Co.
L. s. d.
1 Case containing 2 dozen
Youth’s Hats and Bands, L. s. d.
at 14s. each   16 16 0
Case  0 6 0
3. 1 Case 6 dozen Felt
(coarse) Hats for Ne¬
groes, at 24s. each...  7 4 0
Case..........    0 12 0
17 2 0
7 16 0
L.24 18 0
These are specimens of the simplest class of accounts—
of those accounts which form the groundwork of the “ In¬
voice,” or general statement of the shipment. The form
of that statement is as follows :
Invoice of goods shipped by Baring, Hall, & Co. in the
Hector, James Robertson, from London to New York, on
account and risk of Messrs Archibald Dixon & Co. there.
A. D.
and Co.
No. 1.
2, 3.
4, 5.
6, 7.
8, 9.
10, 11.
1 Bale Best Lint Osnaburghs, by A. Balmanno’s bill ot parcels.
2 Cases Hats, by J. Oakey & Co. do 
1 Case White Platillas, Spitta & Co 
2 Cases Linen Tick, J. Jobson & Co 
2 Trunks French Calf-Skin Shoes, J. Jackson & Co.... 
2 Puncheons strong do. W. Skipwith   
L. s. d.
Entry, Bond, and Debenture    2 6 0
Duty on part of the amount, ^ per cent  1 12 0
Cartage, Wharfage, and Shipping Charges         2 18 0
Freight and Primage (paid in London)  14 3 6
Bills of Lading  0 3 6
Insurance on L.500, at L.l. 10s. per L.100  7 10 0
Policy Duty       15 0
Commission 5 per cent, on L.451     L.22 11 0
Ditto,, -1 per cent, on L.500 insured  2 10 0
Errors excepted.
At nine months’ credit; due 10th December 1831.
London, \Qth February 1831.
L. s.
38 13
24 18
78 10
69 10
49 12
160 5
d.
6
0
0
0
0
0
L.421 8 6
29 18 0
25 1 0
Baring, Hail, & Co.
L.476 7 6
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
21
Book- Invoices are in general much longer and larger in amount
keeping, than the preceding, but they are almost always drawn in
the same form, containing many particulars in short com¬
pass ; viz. the mark, numbers, and value of each pack¬
age, also the nature of the goods contained in it, as far
as can be expressed by a short general notice. It was
formerly the practice to make invoices very long, and
to copy into them each bill of parcels literally; but the
usage is now to assign only one or two lines in the in¬
voice to the articles supplied by each dealer, and to send Book-
out duplicate bills of parcels by the vessel. The house Keeping,
abroad has thus the satisfaction of seeing the different
bills of parcels exactly as furnished by the dealer or
tradesman.
The sum insured is somewhat more than the amount of
the Invoice, that, in the event of a loss, there may be enough
to pay two per cent, commission for recovering it from the
underwriters.
Journal Entries from the preceding Invoice.
Ledger
Folio.
51
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
28
44
40
Archibald Dixon & Co. Drs. to Sundries.
For Goods shipped to them per Hector, Robertson, as per invoice.
To Alexander Balmanno ; Lint Osnaburghs, per account 
To John Oakey & Co.; Hats, do 
To Spitta & Co.; Platillas, do 
To James Jobson & Co.; Linen Tick, do 
To Thomas Jackson & Co.; Shoes, do 
To W. Skipwith ; Shoes, do   
To Freight Account, Freight Primage, and Bills of Lading 
To Insurance, Premium, and Policy 
To Charges, Entry, outward Duty, and Shipping Charges 
To Profit and Loss for Commissions 
L. s.
38 13
24 18
78 10
69 10
49 12
160
14
8 15
6 16
25 1
L.476 7 6
Account of Sales.—Having seen in the invoice a
specimen of the mode of conducting our exports, we are
now to show the manner of disposing of our imports.
While our exports are generally in manufactures, our im¬
ports are commonly in raw produce, because, except in
silks, and a few petty articles of manufacture, foreigners
are quite unequal to a competition with the capital and
machinery of this country. Cotton, sugar, coffee, rice,
indigo, form the main articles of import to England from
tropical latitudes; while wine, brandy, olives, drugs, are
sent to us from temperate climates; and corn, timber,
hemp, flax, tallow, hides, reach us in large quantities from
the Baltic. We shall take, as an example, an account sale
of the staple article of our West India colonies.
Account Sale of 20 Hogsheads Sugar by the Andromeda, James Wilson, from Antigua to London, per account
of James Robertson, Esq. merchant there.
Insurance on L.700 at 60s.
per L.100 L.21 0 0
Policy  1 15 0
Freight of 234 cwt. 1 qr. at 5s. per cwt.
Primage, Pierage, and Trade 
Duty on 234 cwt. 1 qr. at 24s. per cwt..
Entry 
Dock Dues 
Landwaiters and Entry 
Warehouse Rent, 14 weeks 
Sampling 
Insurance from Fire 
Brokerage, 1 per cent 
Commission on Sale, 2 per cent 
Do. 1 per cent, on L.700 insured 
Net Proceeds, due 2d November 1831.
L. s. d.
22 15
58 11
1
281
0
5
3
2
6
10
0 19
2 19
6
9
15
13 10
3 10
L.397 16
281 10
L.679 6 6
J. R.
1 to 10.
Cwt. qrs. lbs.
20 hhds. weighing....261 2 14
Deduct draft 2 lb.
per hogshead  0 1 12
261 1 2
Deduct tare of the
casks  27 0 2
L. s. d-
Net 234 1 0
at 58s. per cwt.
679 6 6
L.679 6 6
London, 2d October 1831.
Errors excepted.
Baring, Halt. * Co
In former times the form of an account sale was some- were subjoined; but the plan of putting the goods on one
what different from the above. It began with a statement side, and the charges on another, on the principle of
of the contents of the packages sold, and the charges debtor and creditor, is evidently an improvement. Seve-
22
Book¬
keeping.
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
ral other entries in this account are entitled to the atten¬
tion of a commercial student. The freight is charged, not,
as might naturally be expected, on the total weight brought
home, but on the weight of the goods exclusive of the
packages. Of the allowances for weight, the larger, tare,
is the exact weight of the cask; the lesser, draft, is a de¬
duction made by the seller to the buyer, its rate being
fixed by custom, and bearing no reference to the weight
of the package.
If there be found a deficiency in the original weight, from
sea damage, from waste, or any other cause, the amount of
such deficiency, and the manner of its occurring, must be
explicitly stated in the account sale. The same holds in re-
gaid to coffee, of which we shall now exhibit an account sale.
Book¬
keeping.
Account of Sale of 40 Tierces Coffee, by the Hector, Robertson, from Jamaica to London, per
Simon Taylor, Esq. Jamaica. r
account of
Charges.
Insurance on 40 Tierces at L.20 a
Tierce, L.800, at 50s....L.20 0 0
Policy  2 0 0
Freight on 167 cwt. 0 qr. 20 lb. at 9s.
per cwt 
Primage, Pierage, and Trade 
Landwaiters, Entry, and Bond 
Dock Dues 
Insurance from Fire 
Public Sale Charges 
Brokerage, 1 per cent, on L.660 
Commission on Sale 2^ per cent, on
L.660 ...!. 
Ditto ^ per cent, on L.700 insured...
L. s. d.
22 0 0
Net Proceeds, due 2d November.
75 4
1 11
2 1
11 3
0 15 0
1 10 0
6 12 0
16 10 0
3 10 0
L.140 17 0
520 0 0
L.660 17 0
S. T.
1 to 40
Gross Weight.
Cwt. qr. lb.
190 1 12
(Here specify
the gross
weight and
tare of each
tlPTPPA
Deduct 23 0 20
Tare.
Cwt. qr. lb.
21 1 4
Trett 1 3 16
L. s. d.
Together 23 0 20
Net   167 0 20 at 76s. per cwt 
Trett.
Cwt. qr. lb. Cwt. qr. lb.
1 overtaker 6 1 2 0 3 12
1 ditto  5 2 4 0 3 4
11 3 6 1 2 16
Deduct  1 2 26 Trett 0 0 10
1 2 26
10 0 8 at 64s. per cwt....
Discount 1 per cent.
635 5 6
32 4 V
London, 2d October 1831.
Gross Proceeds  L.660 17 0
L.667 10 1
6 13 1
Errors excepted.
Baking, Hall, & Co.
Journal Entries resulting from the preceding Account Sales.
Folio
Ledger.
60
61
61
61
59
28
62
44
60
40
63
61
28
59
44
60
40
64
October 1831.
Trueman & Cook, Drs. to Sundries.
To Sugar per Andromeda.
Proceeds of 20 Hhds., J. R. Nos. 1 to 20, sold by them at one month from 2d inst.
To Coffee per Hector, Robertson.
40 Tierces, S. T. Nos. 1 to 40, at one month from 2d instant 
Sugar per Andromeda, Dr. to Sundries.
To Freight Account; for Freight, Primage, and Pierage 
To Insurance Account; Premium and Policy 
To Customs Inward ; Duty and Entry 
To Charges; Dock Dues, Landwaiters, Fire Insurance, Warehouse Rent, Samplii
To Trueman & Cook ; Brokerage, 1 per cent 
To Profit and Loss; for Commissions 
To James Robertson; Proceeds due 2d November 1831 
L.
679
660 17 0
LJ340 3 6
Coffee per Hector, Dr. to Sundries.
To Insurance; for Premium and Policy 
To Freight Account ; Freight, Primage, and Pierage 
lo Charges; Dock Dues, Landwaiters, Fire Insurance 
To Trueman & Cook ; for Brokerage 
To Profit and Loss; Commissions 
To Simon Iaylor; Net Proceeds due 2d November 
59 14 6
22 15 0
281 8 0
10 3 6
6 15 1
17 0 2
281 10 3
L679 6 6
22 0 0
76 16 0
15 9 0
6 12 0
20 0 0
520 0 0
L.660 17 0
Book¬
keeping.
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
23
We have now given examples of journal entries from
the principal books in a counting-house ; from the cash¬
book, the invoice and account sales book, as well as from
the bills payable and receivable. After these comes the
petty journal or record of such occasional entries as do
not belong to the preceding, or any other subsidiary books.
Such entries are in general very few, because, in every re¬
gular counting-house, the subsidiary books contain almost
every transaction that takes place.
Insurances.—It is customary to have an insurance policy
book, a folio book of the length and breadth of a printed
policy, and containing a quantity of such policies bound
up, unstamped. In these are filled in, by a clerk, literal
copies of the insurances effected by the house, with the
names of the underwriters, and the amount of their respec¬
tive subscriptions. From this is posted the insurance
ledger, containing the accounts of the underwriters for
nremiums and returns.
Bought Book, or Book of Bills of Parcels.—In former
times, when mercantile transactions were on a limited
scale, the practice of a merchant, as of private indivi¬
duals at present, was merely to fold up the bills of par¬
cels, or accounts delivered to him by dealers, in a uni¬
form size, and, after writing on the back the names of
the parties, to put them away in bundles. But the pre- Book-
ferable plan, wherever such accounts are numerous, is, keeping,
after arranging them alphabetically, to have them pasted
in a large quarto or folio volume of blue or sugar-loaf
paper. A surprising number of accounts may be con¬
tained in one of these books; and its pages being num¬
bered, any account may, by the aid of an alphabetical in¬
dex, be referred to with the same ease as an entry in a
ledger.
Drawbacks payable at the custom-house on goods ex¬
ported, and for which the merchant holds a debenture or
acknowledgment of debt on the part of the custom-house.
Of these a list or register should be kept, either in a small
separate book, called the debenture book, or in a specific
part of one of the larger books.
The petty cash-book contains the disburse for postages
and other small matters; the amount is entered weekly
or monthly in the regular cash-books.
We have now recapitulated the various subsidiary books
which form the groundwork or authorities for the journal.
The ledger comes next, and by way of affording a speci¬
men of this, the finale of book-keeping labour, we shall
exhibit the preceding journal entries, carried to their re¬
spective heads in the ledger.
Dr.
LEDGER.
Stock.
Cr.
1831.
Jan. 1.
Folio
Journal.
To Sundries,
L. s. d.
19,660 0 0
1831.
Jan. 1.
Folio
Journal-
By Sundries.
L. s. d.
67,792 0 0
Dr.
Cash.
Cr.
Jan. 1.
 31.
To Stock 
To Sundries.
3,775 10 0
3,224 16 0
Jan. 31.
By Sundries.
2,623 6 7
Dr.
Exchequer Bills.
Cr.
Jan. 1.
To Stock,
10,750 0 0
Dr.
Three per Cent. Consols.
Cr.
Jan. 1.
To Stock.
12,300 0 0
Dr.
Debenture Account.
Cr.
Jan. 1. 1 To Stock
Jan. 1. 3 By Cash
29 6 0
Dr.
Bills Receivable.
Cr.
Jan. 1.
— 31.
To Stock....
To Sundries.
14,715 10 0
603 0 0
Jan. 9.
By Cash,
2,432 0 0
Dr.
Ship Hector.
Cr.
Jan. 1.
To Stock  4,500 0 0 Jan. 9. 3 By Cash
394 17 0
Dr.
Adventure in St Domingo Coffee.
Cr.
Jan. 1. 1 To Stock  2,500 0 0
24
Book¬
keeping.
Dr.
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
Adventure in Lint Osnaburghs.
1831.
Jan. 1.
Folio
Journal.
To Stock,
L. s. d.
540 0 0
1831.
Folio
Journal.
Dr.
James Anderson, Dublin.
Jan. 1.
 12.
 31.
To Stock 
To Cash 
To Bills Payable.
1,561 0 0
276 13 0
185 0 0
Jan. 31.
By Bills Receivable.
Drs.
Thomas Story & Co. Liverpool.
Jan. J.
To Stock  1,382 10 0
Jan. 19.
  31.
By Cash 
By Bills Receivable.
Dr.
George Fox, Kingston, Jamaica.
Jan. 1 1 To Stock
3,350 0 0
Jan. 31.
By Bills Receivable...
Drs.
James Annand & Co. New York.
Jan. 1.
To Stock.
3,138 0 0
Drs.
Allan, Dewar, & Co. New York.
Jan. 1.
1 To Stock,
2,890 0 0
Dr.
Henry Stephens, Kingston, Jamaica.
Jan. 1. 1 To Stock  2,243 0 0
Dr.
David Reynolds, Philadelphia.
Jan. 1.
1 To Stock.
2,673 0 0
Dr.
Bills Payable.
Jan. 19. 4 To Cash
1,533 5 0
Jan. 1.
  31.
By Stock 
By Sundries.
Dr.
Insurance Account.
Jan. 1.
Feb. 10.
Oct.
Cr.
Book¬
keeping
L. s. d.
Cr.
173 10 0
Crs.
353 19 0
232 0 0
Cr.
197 10 0
Crs.
Crs.
'1
Cr.
Cr.
Cr.
5,785 10 0
720 0 0
Cr.
By Stock 
By A. Dixon & Co 
By Sugar Andromeda.
By Coffee per Hector.....
2,915 10 0
8 15 0
22 15 0
22 6 0
Drs.
Gregg Lindsay, Liverpool.
Crs.
Jan. 31.
To Bills Payable.
215 0 0
Jan. 1.
By Stock.
713 10 0
Dr.
Thomas Hughes, Jamaica.
Cr.
Jan. 31.
To Bills Payable.
320 0 0
Jan. 1.
By Stock.
1,236 5 0
Bonk.
keeping.
Dr.
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
John Ravenshaw, New York.
25
Cr.
Book-
l:eeping.
1831.
Folio
Journal.
d.
1831.
Jan. 1.
Folio
Journal.
By Stock.
L. s. d.
831 10 0
Drs.
Drs.
Drs.
John Campbell, Senior, & Co. Glasgow.
Crs.
Jan. 1.
By Stock.
2,351 15 0
Henry Tkitton & Co. London.
Crs.
Jan. 1.
By Stock.
3.153 0 0
Robert Dimsdale, & Co. London.
Crs.
Jan. 1.
By Stock.
2,673 0 0
Dr.
Profit and Loss.
Cr.
Jan. 19.
Feb. 10.
Oct.
By Cash 
By A. Dixon & Co 
By Sugar per Andromeda
By Coffee per Hector 
14 14 0
6 16 0
17 0 0
20 0 0
Dr.
Jan. 12.
To Cash.
Charges.
8 0 0
Feb. 10.
Oct.
By A. Dixon & Co 
By Sugar per Andromeda
By Coffee per Hector 
Cr.
25 1 0
10 3 6
15 9 0
Dr.
Jan. 12. 4 To Cash...,,
Dr.
Jan. 9.
To Cash.
Dr.
Jan. 9.
To Cash.
Dr.
Jan. 9. 4 To Cash
Dr.
Jan. 9. 4 To Cash
Drs.
Jan. 23.
To Cash,
Drs.
Feb. 10.
To Sundries
vol. v.
Interest.
14 8 7
John Wilson, London.
152 0 0
James Henderson, London.
97 10 0
John Jackson, London.
131 10 0
Charles Norton, London.
87 5 0
James Davis & Co. London.
322 5 0
Archibald Dixon & Co.
476 7 6
Cr.
Cr.
Cr.
Cr.
Cr.
Crs.
Crs.
BOO K-K E E P I N G
26
Book.
keeping. Dr>
1831.
Folio
Journal.
Drs.
Drs.
Drs.
Drs.
Dr.
Dr.
Drs.
Oct.
To Sundries.
Dr.
Oct. 31.
To Sundries,
Dr.
Oct.
To Sundries.
Dr.
Dr.
Dr.
Alexander Balmanno.
Cr.
Book¬
keeping.
L. s. d.
1831.
Feb. 1.
Folio
Journal.
By A. Dixon & Co.
L. s. d.
38 13 6
John Oakey & Co.
Crs.
Feb. 1.
By A. Dixon & Co.
24 18 0
Spitta & Co.
Crs.
Feb. 1.
By A. Dixon & Co.
78 10 0
Jas. Jobson & Co.
Crs.
Feb. 1. 5
By A. Dixon & Co.
69 10 0
Thos. Jackson & Co.
Crs.
Feb. 1.
By A. Dixon & Co.
49 12 0
Wm. Skipwith.
Cr.
Feb. 1.
By A. Dixon & Co 
160 5 0
Freight Account.
Cr.
Feb. 10.
Oct.
By A. Dixon & Co 
By Sugar per Andromeda
By Coffee per Hector 
14 7 0
59 14 6
76 16 0
Trueman & Cook.
Crs.
1,340 3 6
Oct.
By Sugars per Andro¬
meda  
By Coffee per Hector 
6 15 1
6 12 0
Sugar per Andromeda.
Cr.
679 6 6
Oct.
By Trueman & Cook.
281 10 3
Coffee per Hector.
Cr.
660 17 0
Oct.
By Sundries,
520 0 0
Customs Inward.
Cr.
Oct.
By Sugzx'pe.r Andromeda.
281 8 0
James Robertson, St Vincent.
Cr.
Oct.
By Sugar per Andromeda.
281 10 3
Simon Taylor, Jamaica.
Cr.
Oct.
7 By Coffee per Hector  520 0 0
BOO K-K E E P I N G.
27
Book¬
keeping.
The entries in the ledger are very concise, containing
generally nothing more than the head or title of the entry
in the journal to which they refer. It was formerly the
practice of book-keepers to insert some explanatory words
in almost every line : thus under profit and loss, instead of
such short notices as
January. By Cash L.14 14 0
February. By A. Dixon & Co 6 16 0
October. By Sugar per Andromeda...17 0 0
a book-keeper in a former age would have thought it ne¬
cessary to write
Jan. By Cash received for sundry discounts...L.14 14 0
Feb. By A. Dixon & Co. commission on goods
shipped per Hector 6 16 0
Oct. By Sugar per Andromeda, commission
on insurance and sale 17 0 0
Such explanations are not without their use, as by means
of them a person looking over the account is quickly in¬
formed of the nature of the different entries. They may
therefore be inserted wherever the business is on a small
scale, because in such a case they do not add much to the
labour of the book-keeper; but wherever the business is
extensive, all detail in the ledger ought to be avoided, and
the entries made in the most concise form possible, for
the following reasons.
1. The explanations never can be so full and circumstan¬
tial as to supersede the necessity of an account-current
book.
2. Nor can they supersede a reference to the journal in
what may be called collective entries, such, we mean, as
the bills payable discharged, or the bills receivable en¬
cashed, in a particular month ; entries in which a number
of particulars are collected in the journal, and carried to
the ledger in one sum. And,
3. It is desirable to have as many of such collective en¬
tries as possible, limiting thereby the number of postings
in the ledger, and lessening the difficulty of balancing it
at the end of the year. Such was the recommendation
of Mr Benjamin Booth, in his printed work, more than half
a century ago; and such had long before been the practice
of our best merchants.
It follows therefore that the ledger ought to be merely
an index to the journal, exactly as the journal is an index
to the various subsidiary books of the house. To aim at
more, and to repeat in any one of these books statements
or particulars already contained in the other, would be
quite a work of supererogation.
Balancing the Ledger.—At the end of each year, and,
in some houses, of each half year, the ledger is balanced;
that is, the debtor and creditor side of each account in
the ledger is added up, and the balance or difference en¬
tered in a general list or balance-sheet. Thus a few ac¬
counts taken from the preceding fragment of a ledger ex¬
hibit the following balances :—
Debtors.
J. Anderson & Co. L. 1849 3 0
Thos. Story & Co. 796 11 0
Creditors.
Bills Payable L.4972 5 0
Gregg & Lindsay 498 10 0
The balance-sheet is generally very long, comprising
on one side or the other every open or unclosed account
in the ledger. The rule in all regular counting houses is
to make the sum of the debtors in the balance-sheet cor¬
respond with the sum of the creditors, and to spare no
pains to accomplish such agreement, because until it be
done there must evidently be an error in some part or
other of the journal or ledger. Unluckily, the amount of
the difference gives almost no clue towards tracing either
how it has taken place, or the part of the journal or ledger
where it is to be looked for: it may be in any day of the
year, or in any of the entries (1000, 2000, or perhaps
3000) which the ledger for the year contains. The dif¬
ference is sometimes very small; a few pounds, a few shil- Book-
lings, or a few pence ; but the fractional errors are often as peeping,
difficult to detect as a large sum ; and in fact it is not unfre-
quent, in the process of examining, to discover new errors,
which, instead of diminishing, add to the amount of the
existing difference, carrying it from L.10 to L.100, or even
to L.1000. Hence the necessity of experience and habitual
accuracy in a book-keeper. To one deficient in these re¬
spects balancing a ledger of length is generally a most
laborious and tedious task, requiring week after week to be
passed in the dry labour of collating, adding, and subtract¬
ing. Mr Jones’ method will, it is to be hoped, be the
means of preventing the continuance of these unprofitable
searches; for we are satisfied that the labour given to the
precautionary arrangements recommended by him will be
saved, and doubly saved, in the final winding up of the books.
We have already adverted to Mr Jones’s first publica¬
tion on book-keeping; his second, in 1821, was intended
to counteract the inconvenience attendant on the form of
his ledger, which required that the accounts should be
opened anew each year. His third and most important
work, published in 1831, is of a much more comprehen¬
sive character, and may be said to exhibit the result of
more than thirty years’ experience as a public accountant.
It is printed in the quarto form, and consists of a number
of distinct parts ; first, explanatory statements of his mode
of book-keeping by single as well as double entry, with a
number of formulce, in which the same transactions are
exhibited by the Italian and by his method, so as to bring
into view the various advantages of the latter. These are
followed by a series of instruction to persons in different
branches of business, viz. bankers, manufacturers, brokers,
wholesale and retail dealers, in regard to the books of ac¬
count best fitted to their respective occupations; the whole
followed by a treatise in the form best adapted to the
government offices. Such are the contents of the first or
printed half of Mr Jones’s book; the other half is litho¬
graphed, and exhibits two sets of books, each for a year,
one kept by single, the other by double entry. Along
with these are given a balance-book and an abstract-book,
devised for the purpose of leading promptly to the detec¬
tion of errors or false entries. This they will fully accom¬
plish if the plan laid down by Mr Jones is carried into ef¬
fect ; and they seem to us also well calculated to save the
perplexity and loss of time at present so often incurred
in efforts to find the general balance. The Italian method,
ingenious as it was, and a surprising improvement at the
time on the primitive system of single entry, is not an ef¬
fectual preventive of erroneous or fraudulent insertions in
the books; nor does it present any ready method to faci¬
litate the laborious task of balancing the ledger. It is
consequently the practice of Messrs Barings, and several
mercantile houses of the first rank, to keep two sets of
books as a check on each other; but the object of Mr
Jones is to attain correctness in the first instance, by sub¬
mitting to some extra trouble as the posting of the books
proceed. Thus, his abstract-book is a classed epitome of
his journal, and forms the first check against posting en¬
tries to wrong accounts; while his balance-book is an epi¬
tome of the ledger, and forms another check, both against
carrying entries to a wrong head, and making a mistake in
the figures so carried. In many counting-houses the un¬
certainty of the Italian method is counteracted by habitual
accuracy in the book-keeper; but Mr Jones’s auxiliary
books are devised with the view of enabling even a me¬
diocre book-keeper to avoid mistakes, or to detect them
soon after they are made. By means of these books he
may prove his ledger not only in any month, but in any
week, or even in any day, of the year.
Nothing is more desirable than frequent balancing of
28
BOO K-K
keeping 11e ^00^s °f a merchant, and frequent transmission of ac-
counts to his connections. A year is evidently too long
for accounts-current to remain open ; to settle every six
months is more suitable; and if the improvements we have
described have the effect of lessening the difficulty ofge-
E E P I N G.
neral balances, an important service will thereby be ren- Book,
dered to persons in trade.1 keeping.
An index is indispensable to a ledger, but it ought to be
very short and plain, containing merely the titles of the
accounts; thus,—
Index to the preceding portion of a Ledger.
Anderson, James, 
Annand & Co. James 
Allan, Dewar, & Co 
Balmanno, Alexander 
Bills receivable 
Bills payable 
Campbell, Senior, & Co. John,
Cash 
Charges 
Coffee, adventure in 
Coffee per Hector 
Customs, inward 
Davis & Co. James 
Debenture account  
Dimsdale & Co., Robert 
Dixon & Co., Archibald 
Exchequer Bills 
Fox, George, 
Freight account 
Gregg & Lindsay 
Henderson, James 
Hector, ship 
Hughes, Thomas 
Folio.
10
16
18
53
6
26
35
2
U
52
61
62
42
5
39
51
14
59
30
48
8
32
Jackson, John 
Jackson & Co., Thomas!.'.”.*.”.”
Insurance account 
Interest do 
Jobson & Co., James ”
Lint Osnaburghs, adventure in.
Norton, Charles 
Oakey & Co., John 
Profit and loss 
Ravenshaw, John 
Reynolds, David 
Robertson, James 
Skipworth, William 
Spitta & Co 
Stock 
Story, Thomas, & Co....
Stephens, Henry 
Sugar per Andromeda....
Taylor, Simon 
Three per cent. Consols.
Iritton and Co., Henry,
Trueman and Cook 
Wilson & Co., John 
Folio.
49
57
28
46
59
9
50
54
40
33
21
63
58
55
1
12
20
61
64
4
37
60
47
Size of the Ledger.—In some houses of very extensive
business the rule is to have a new ledger for every year •
but three or four years are the more usual time of a” ledo-er
remaining in use. Ihe latter has the advantage of show¬
ing the transactions of a long period in succession, as well
as of saving the repeated opening of the same accounts.
The stock account has no entries during the currency
of the year, but at its close (on 31st December} the ba¬
lances of profit and loss, bad and doubtful debts, and a few
such accounts, are carried, as the case may be, to its debit
or credit.
Collective Entries in the Journal.—It may be proper to
explain what is meant by such entries in the journal.
W hile in the bill-books every bill is entered the day it
comes to hand, and in the cash-book every payment or
receipt is entered on the day it takes place, the journal
entries are made to comprise in one amount a number of
transactions occurring at different dates in the course of
the month. Thus the entry of “ Sundries Drs. to Bills
Payable” exhibit in succession all the bills accepted during
the month; they are then added in one sum, which sum
alone is carried to the ledger. In like manner, in the en¬
try of “ Bills Receivable Drs. to Sundries,” the aggregate
alone is posted in the ledger; and the same in a variety of
cases, the effect of which is to lessen greatly the difficulty
of agreeing the books at the end of the year. W'T cannot,
therefore, approve of the practice of those book-keepers
who, to save themselves the trouble of re-writing the cash¬
book in the journal form, are content to post each separate
sum directly from the cash-book to the ledger. They thus
avoid, it is true, the copying of eight or ten folio pages a
month ; but by giving up the advantage of joining in one
sum the different payments made under such heads as
bills payable, charges, house expenses, they have to carry
to the ledger during the month above 100 entries instead
of perhaps only thirty or forty.
The Waste-Book.—This book has long been disused by
icgular merchants, and the name itself would have been
forgotten, had it not been reprinted from one work on book*
keeping to another, the authors of which, being generally
teachers, were unacquainted with the improvements in¬
troduced into the practice of merchants. The waste-
book of former times consisted of a series of memoranda,
so miscellaneous as to comprehend every transaction of
the house, whether a sale, a purchase, a payment, or a re¬
ceipt. 10m Biis general receptacle the book-keeper com¬
posed the journal, which was then, as at present, a narra¬
tive or record, in regular form, of the transactions of the
house. As mercantile establishments acquired extension,
separate books became necessary, as well for the cash and
bills as for goods exported and imported. These books
were round the fittest authorities for the journal, and the
waste-book or diary fell altogether into disuse.
Single Entry—A wholesale dealer occupying a ware¬
house, and whose business consists in supplying such ar¬
ticles as woollen, cotton, linen, or hardware, to exporting
' The tUle °f Mr J°neS’3 Publication is the of Book-keeping Exemplified, 4to, London, 1831, L.4. 4S.
BOO K-K
Book- merclmnts, is generally satisfied with few books. He is
accustomed to enter each delivery of goods in his day-
book, and to get copied into his invoice-book the bills of
parcels made out for his customers, of which examples
have been given above in the names of Balmanno and
Oakey & Company. He seldom keeps a journal, but a
ledger is indispensable, though not kept by double entry.
It consists on one part of the names of his customers (the
exporting merchants), and, on the other, of those of the
manufacturers from whom he makes his purchases. From
the latter he receives credit, and to the former he gives
it; hence the necessity of opening accounts for both. At
the end of the year, a person in such a line of business is
accustomed to form an estimate of the state of his affairs
by adding up on one side the sums due by him to the
manufacturers, and on the other those due to him by the
merchants. He takes, moreover, an account of his stock,
or goods in hand, which being valued, and the amount
added to the sums due to him, the difference between
their conjunct amount and the total of his debts affords
a tolerably correct idea of the state of his property. It
would, however, be much more clear and satisfactory
were his books kept by double entry, that is, were every
debtor to have a creditor, or, in other words, were every
entry to have its counterpart. Suppose him, for example,
to make a purchase from Messrs Greenup of Halifax, for
L.1250 of the coarse woollens called penistones, he mere¬
ly enters in his ledger that sum to the credit of Messrs
Greenup ; but the proper course would be to find a debtor
for the same amount by such an entry as “ Penistones
Dr. to Messrs Greenup, L1250.” Subsequently, on ef¬
fecting sales of the article to exporting merchants, the
proper course would be to make entries such as “ Baring,
Flail, & Co. Drs. to Penistones for L.225 and by con¬
tinuing such entries, that is, by crediting the account of
Penistones for the sales as successively made, until the
whole was disposed of, the ultimate result would be that
the creditor side would exhibit a total equal to the L.1250
paid to Messrs Greenup, and to the profit accruing from
the transaction.
Double Entry has farther and more important advan¬
tages to a merchant than to a tradesman, because his deal¬
ings are much more varied and complicated. It forms the
connecting link of his accounts, and shows in what manner
his funds have been successively invested. As every debtor
in his books has a creditor, no part of his property is unac¬
counted for; and when in doubt as to any specific portion,
he will find a solution of the difficulty in his own journal.
Those who know how soon money becomes absorbed,
or at least appropriated in business, and in how few years
E E P I N G. 29
a large sum may be vested in machinery, shipping, or Book-
other fixed capital, are aware that merchants would often keeping,
consider themselves deceived, if they had not in double
entry an unfailing clue to the appropriation of their
capital.
Next, as to the degree of intricacy in double entry. In
the case of a shipment of goods, the merchant abroad who
receives the goods is made debtor to the several dealers
at home who have supplied them; e. g. A. Dixon & Co.
of New York are Drs. to Spitta & Co., Jobson & Co., &c.
In like manner, in the case of produce imported, the brok¬
ers, Irueman & Cook, who sell it and receive the amount,
are made debtors to Simon Fraser, for whose account the
produce was shipped. All this is clear and free from in¬
tricacy, as also such farther entries as Cash Dr. to True¬
man & Cook, on their paying over the proceeds of the
sale, or Bills Receivable Drs. to A. Dixon & Co., on their
remitting or sending home a bill for the amount of the
goods forwarded to them. It is true that a young mer¬
chant beginning to study book-keeping will not all at once
comprehend such an account as Bills Receivable, nor its
counterpart Bills Payable, nor a few other accounts, such
as Charges and Merchandise; but practice will convey
a distinct conception of them, and render them in time as
clear as personal accounts.
I he advantages of double entry may fortunately be im¬
parted to almost any account-books, without sacrificing
much time and labour. Persons engaged in such busi¬
ness as that of wholesale warehousemen, manufacturers,
or retailers, may keep the chief part of their books by
single entry, making use of double entry to the extent of
a few pages at the end of the month or quarter, to obtain
a clear and summary view of their transactions.
As to the money or currency in which the books of a
merchant should be kept, it is evident, first, that it can be
money of one kind only; and, next, that it must be the
money of the country in which the merchant resides.
Ihus, an English house in Bordeaux must keep its ac¬
counts in French money, although its chief business may
be the export of wines to London and Dublin.
\\ e come, in the last place, to Accounts-current, which,
though a most important portion of the accounts of a mer¬
chant, are rather the result than a constituent part of his
system of book-keeping, being in general written out from
the ledger and journal, with very slight variation or addi¬
tion. Accounts-current are prepared for transmission to
the correspondents whose names they respectively bear,
and contain the various receipts, payments, and other
transactions on their account during the proceeding six or
twelve months ; thus-—
Messrs Archibald Dixon & Co. of New Fork, in Account-current with Baring, Hall, & Co. London.
1830.
Jan. 1.
Mar. 1.
June 2.
Sept. 3.
Dec. 31.
Drs.
To Balance from last Account
Invoice of Goods per Commerce.
Your Draft to Edward Jones..
Paid J. Jones on your account
Postage and Petty Charges du
ring the year 
Commission ^ per cent, on
L.325, paid for your account
Do. on L.330 received ...  
Balance of Interest 4705, di¬
vided by 73 
L. s. d.
950 10 0
762 0 0
152 0 9
173 0 0
7 18 0
1 12 6
1 13 0
65 5 6
Days |
to 51st
Dec. i
Inte¬
rest.
365
306
202
119
3469
2332
307
206
1830.
Feb. 28.
Apr. 30.
July 10.
Dec. 31.
Crs.
By your Remittance on J.
Schneid r, due 30th June...
Proceeds of 20 hhds Sugar, per
Hector, due 31st May.....
Cash received on your account
from J. Bransby 
Balance of Interest carried to
Dr 
Balance of Account carried to
your Dr. in new Account...
London, 3 Li Deceviler 1830.
L.2113 19 0 6314
Errors excepted.
L. s. d.
150 0 0
473 0 0
180 0 0
1310 19 0
Days
to 51st
Dec.
184
214
174
276
1012
261
4765
L.2113 19 0 6314
Baring, Hall, & Co.
30
Book¬
selling.
v/
BOO
It is a rule in the best managed counting-houses to de¬
spatch the accounts-current to the different correspondents
as soon as possible after the day to which they are made up.
To effect that, they ought to be copied out, in part at least,
before the 31st December or 30th June, the dates at which
they generally close, particularly as the interest and com¬
mission cannot be calculated until they are written out; and
the whole has then to be copied into the account-current
book.
Mode of computing Interest.—To do this correctly on the
different sums in an account-current, it is requisite to take
the number of days between each transaction, and the state
at which the account-current is closed. Take, for example,
a sum of L.53I paid on 5th October, and bearing interest
consequently during eighty-seven days, until 31st Decem¬
ber. On ascertaining the number of days, compute the in¬
terest, either by referring to a book of interest tables, or by
the following operation.
Multiply the pounds, 531, by 87, the number of days, and
the product will be 46,197 ; divide that sum by 7300, and
the quotient, L.6, 6s. 7d., will be the interest required. The
reasons for this process are as follows : interest at 5 per
cent, for one year forms a twentieth part of the principal,
there being a shilling of interest for every pound of prin¬
cipal. On multiplying the number of pounds by the num¬
ber of days, the product, 46,197, is so many 365th parts of a
shilling; divide it by 365, and the quotient,L.126, Os. 7d., will
be the interest. But as it is desirable to have the quotient
in pounds, alter your divisor so as to obtain it in that form ;
that is, multiply 365 by 20, and make the product 7300
your divisor, or, preferably, 73 by striking off two figures
from it, and the same from the dividend: the quotient is the
interest in pounds, shillings, and pence.
As to the comparative ease of the two processes, where
the entries are few the interest tables may be used with ad¬
vantage ; but whenever they are numerous, as they very
often are in accounts-current, it will save time to multiply
and divide as above.
The product by that process gives the rate of interest at
/
BOO
5 per cent., making on L.400 for a year  L.20 0 0 Book-
But if 4 per cent, be the agreed rate of inte- selling,
rest, deduct one fifth, viz  4 0 0
And the remainder is the interest at 4 per
cent., viz  l.16 0 0
A compounding subtraction will give the interest at other
rates, such as 3^, 3, or 2^ per cent.; so that the plan of
multiplying the pounds by the days, and dividing by 73, is
applicable to any of the different rates of interest.
W hen accounts-current are made out, as in general they
ought to be, every six months, the 30th June is the con¬
cluding date for the earlier half year. West-India houses
are accustomed to balance their books and close their ac¬
counts-current once a year, viz. on 30th April.
There are two modes of preparing accounts-current in a
counting-house. 1 he more usual course is to write them
out from the ledger and journal, and afterwards to copy
them into the account-current book. The other plan is to
make no reference, in the first instance, to the ledger or
journal, but to post the account-current book from the cash¬
book, bill-books, account-sales, invoices, and other authori¬
ties in the counting-house, so as to render it (the account-
current book) a check on the ledger. This, however, is of
less importance than may at first be thought, because, from
the plan of the journal and ledger, omissions are not so
likely to occur in them as in the account-current book ; and
the chief advantage of a separately posted account-current
book consists in having it brought up to a day, as it may
easily be at a time that the journal and ledger are in arrear.
Books of Account required by a Merchant.—Journal ;
ledger; cash-book; bills payable, or book of his accept¬
ances ; bills receivable, or book of bills on other merchants,
to be paid to his order ; order-book ; bought-book, or book
for bills ot parcels delivered in ; letter-book ; invoice-book;
account of sales book; insurance policy book ; petty journal,
or book for such occasional entries as are not inserted in
the other books ; petty cash-book, or book of petty dis¬
burse. (j. L—E.j
BOOKSELLING. Among the Greeks the trade of the
bookseller (/SqSAioKaTr^Aos) was unknown. It arose towards
the end of the republican age at Rome, when the literary
taste of the nobles demanded an increased supply of books.
The Roman booksellers were called bibliopolce, and some¬
times librarii, though this term properly belonged to the
slaves who were employed in the transcription of MSS., &c.
The bookseller’s shop was called libraria or taberna libraria.
In Rome, the principal marts for books were the Argiletum,
and the Vicus Sandalarius, as St Paul’s Churchyard, Fleet
Street, and Paternoster Row, have been in London. The
great booksellers of the time of Augustus were the Sosii.
(Cic. Be Leg. iii. 20, Phil. ii. 9 ; Mart. iv. 71, xiii. 3, i. 4 ;
Aid. Gell. xviii. 4 ; Hor. Ep. i. 20, 2 ; Ars. Poet. 345, &c.)
Booksellers are in many places ranked among the mem¬
bers of universities, and entitled to the privileges of stu¬
dents ; as at Tubingen, Salzburg, and Paris, where they
have always been distinguished from the vulgar and me¬
chanical traders, and exempted from various taxes and im¬
positions laid on other companies. An acquaintance with
booksellers’ marks or signs, as expressed on the title-pages
ot their books, is of some use, because many books, espe¬
cially in the last century, have no other designation. The
anchor is the mark of Raphelengius at Leyden ; and the
anchor, with a dolphin twisted round it, is that of the Manutii
at Venice and Rome. The Arion denotes a book printed
by Oporinus at Basle ; the Caduceus or Pegasus, one
printed by the Wecheliuses at Paris and Frankfort; the
cranes, by Cramoisy ; the compass, by Plantin at Antwerp ;
the fountain, by Vascosan at Paris ; the sphere in a bal¬
ance, by Janson or Blaew at Amsterdam ; the lily, by the
juntas at Venice, Florence, Lyons, and Rome; the mul¬
berry tree, by Morel at Paris; the olive tree, by the Stephens
at Paris and Geneva, and the Elzevirs at Amsterdam and
Leyden ; the bird between two serpents, by the Frobeni-
uses at Basle ; the Truth, by the Commelins at Heidelberg
and Paris; the Saturn, by Colinseus; the printing-press, by
Badius Ascenius ; and so of the rest. See Bibliography.
I he traffic in books was in ancient times very inconsider¬
able, so that the book merchants of England, France,
Spain, and other countries, were distinguished by the ap¬
pellation of stationers, as having no shops, but only stalls
or “ stands” in the streets. During this state the civil
magistrates took little notice of the booksellers, leaving the
control of them to the universities, of which they were sup¬
posed to be the more immediate retainers, and which ac¬
cordingly gave them laws and regulations, examined the
correctness and fixed the prices of their books, and punished
them at discretion. But when, by the invention of printing,
books and booksellers began to multiply, it became a matter
of more consequence to regulate their proceedings ; and
hence sovereigns took the direction of the bibliopoles into
their own hands.
As despotism and a free press are incompatible, wherever
the power of the sovereign has been unlimited, or ecclesi¬
astical authority has prevailed, the trade of bookselling has
been put under rigorous restraints. It is only under free and
constitutional governments that it is open and unrestricted.
In Britain the business of bookselling is carried on by
three classes of tradesmen : 1^, Those who are chiefly en-
B00KSELL1N G.
31
gaged in the publication of books, who may be considered
as the manufacturers. 2d, The wholesale booksellers or
middle-men, who purchase large numbers from the pub¬
lishers, with the view of supplying from their extensive stocks
the demands of the retail dealers. ?>d, The retail booksellers,
through whom the public are more directly supplied. The
terms on which books are published vary according to the
agreement made by the author with the publisher. Some¬
times the bookseller purchases the copyright for a fixed sum,
and takes the whole responsibility upon himself; some¬
times the author and bookseller agree to divide the risk
and the profit, or only the profit that may be realized on an
edition or editions ;1 or the author may publish on his own
account, taking the chance of profit or loss upon himself,
paying a commission to the bookseller on the amount of sales.
London is the great seat of the publishing trade in Great
Britain ; the only other towns where it is prosecuted to any
considerable extent are Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh,
Glasgow, and Dublin. The following is the number of per¬
sons returned as booksellers and publishers in England and
Scotland at the census of 1851 :—
Males. Females. Persons.
England and Wales  6047 858 6905
Scotland  1434 52 1486
Total  7481 910 8391
In Ireland, from the calculation of an extensive book¬
seller in Dublin, the numbers are as follow:—
Booksellers and publishers in Dublin 40
Shops for small periodicals in do.  20
— 60
In the other towns of Ireland  108
— 168
The editor of the Publishers’ Circular says, that after
careful calculation he finds that “ the issues of new publica¬
tions and new editions are now averaging together 4380
volumes per annum, which, after making full allowance for
•the improvements in our system of registration, shows an
annual issue of nearly one-fourth over that of ten years
back. This conclusion is drawn from a pretty safe average,
that of four years, thus :—
New books.
1839   2302 vols.
1840  2091 „
1841    2011 „
1842   2193 „
1839-42, 8597 „
1849  3281 „
1850   3025 „
1851   3454 „
1852  3359 „
1849-52, 13,119
New editions.
773 vols.
821 „
741 „
684 „
3019—Total, 11,616 vols.
1062 vols.
1186 „
1016 ,,
1140 „
4404—Total, 17,523 vols.
“ This does not include pamphlets, of which we have only
taken the record during the last three years:—In 1850,
there were 1198; in 1851, 940; and in 1852, 908; the
noticeable excess for the first year arising from the pamphlet¬
writing on the Papal question, upon which there w ere no less
than 180 published during one month.”
The book trade of France is carried on much in the same
way as in England.
From the last number of the Journal de VImprimerie
for 1851 we gather the following statistics of the produc¬
tions of the French printing-houses during the last ten years :
1842   6,445
1843   6,009
1844   6,477
1845   6,521
1846   5,816
1847   5,530
1848.
1849.
1850.
1851.
7,234
7,378
7,608
. 7,350
In ten years, 64,568
or an average per year of 6436 works. The same presses Book-
printed, in 1851, 485 musical wmrks, and in the ten years selling.
3336, or an annual average of 333.
There have also been published 1014 engravings and litho¬
graphs, and during the ten years 13,085, or an average of
1308.
Two hundred and fifty-three maps and topographical plans
have also been published during the year ; during the ten
years 1005, or a mean of 100 a year.
Thus it appears that nearly in every department of press-
work the year 1851 is in advance of the average of the last
ten years. The grand total of works published in France
during these ten years, engravings, musical works, maps, and
plans, is 81,994.
The bookselling and publishing trade in Germany is
differently organized from that of either England or France,
and, upon the whole, is carried on by a class of persons of
superior intelligence. The principal booksellers of llussia,
Holland, Italy, and Hungary, are Germans or their descend¬
ants. In Germany there is a much larger number of pub¬
lishers than in any other country of the same size, and they
are not, as in Great Britain or France, confined to a few of
the principal towns, but are scattered about over the whole
country, though, of course, their chief sales are in the nu¬
merous small capitals and university towns. The German
publishers generally, owing to the small cost of paper and
print compared with the expense in England or France, and
the comparatively small remuneration to the author, realize,
if they sell the whole of an edition, a much larger per-cen-
tage of profits ; but owing to the system there prevailing of
sending almost all their works in the first year on sale to the
different parts of the country, they are generally obliged, in
order to give a book a fair chance, to print a much larger
edition than there is any immediate prospect of selling. On
the other hand, by this means of making known new books,
very little is expended in advertising.
There are no wholesale booksellers in Germany, as the
term is understood in England and France, the publishers
being generally in direct communication with all the prin¬
cipal retail booksellers in every town on the Continent, many
of them keeping as many as 1000 to 1500 trade accounts
open. But every retail bookseller has his agent or “ com¬
missioner” at Leipzig, and sometimes in other towns in the
south of Germany, to whom all parcels for him are sent
and forwarded in one package once or twice a-week. This
agent also acts as his banker with the trade, almost all pay¬
ments being made at Leipzig from one agent to another,
their weekly or bi-weekly settlements being carried on in
a small way on the plan of the clearing-house of the Lon¬
don bankers. At Easter, however, when the general
balances of all the booksellers connected with the German
trade are made and paid on the booksellers’ exchange at
Leipzig, the sums are very considerable.
Owing to the facility with which the trade of publishing
can be carried on in Germany, the absence of all difficulty
in immediate communication with the whole retail trade
creates a much larger number of publishers in proportion to
the number of books published than elsewhere; in fact, al¬
most every bookseller is a publisher to some extent. Never¬
theless, the principal publications are in the hands of a limited
number of publishers in the strict sense of the word ; and,
to some extent, they confine themselves to particular classes
of publications.
In the United States of America the business of book¬
selling is carried on to a large extent, principally in books
reprinted from English copyright works. These being
produced at the mere cost of paper and printing, the
authors deriving no benefit from their writings, the American
In this case authors should keep In mind that they are, as far as the publication in question is concerned, copartners with the book¬
seller, and in case of the bankruptcy of the bookseller they are liable for all debts against the book.
BOOKSELLING.
Book- booksellers are enabled to sell at prices greatly below those
SG in-g' > ^le English market. Of late years, however, they have
published many valuable original works, chiefly in theology,
law, and natural history.
The publisher of Norton’s Literary Gazette estimates
the number of volumes published in the United States from
July 1850 to July 1851 at 1298, embracing 213,049 pages,
and forming 1176 distinct works. The principal towns in
which the bookselling business is carried on in the United
States are Boston, in which there are 78 booksellers and
publishers; New York, in which there are about 130; and
Philadelphia, in which there are about 120. In Baltimore,
Cincinnati, St Louis, as well as in all the considerable
towns throughout the United States, some books are pub¬
lished'; and everywhere there are retailers of school and mis¬
cellaneous books.
Repeated attempts have been made to induce the Ameri¬
can legislature to sanction an international copyright law.
Committees of the senate have reported in favour of the mea¬
sure, but the lower house, composed of the representatives of
the people, have constantly resisted it; nor is it likely they
will agree to a measure, though just in itself, which would
prevent their constituents from appropriating the productions
of British authors at a greatly reduced price, and which
might at the same time diminish the trade of paper-makers,
printers, bookbinders, and all engaged in the manufacture
of books. (See CoprRiGHT.) From the low price at which
the reprints of popular English books can be produced,
the sale is often four or five times greater than in Britain.
It is calculated that 125,000 copies of Macaulay’s “England”
were sold in America, when scarcely a fifth of that number
were sold in Britain. The profit of these, at the selling
price of 32s. or $8, would amount to #1,000,000, but as they
were supplied at 80 cents, the profits amounted to only
100,000. In this case there is no remuneration to the author,
the type is small, and the paper thin and inferior; and as a
large sale can be calculated on with certainty, very large
editions are thrown off by machinery, so that the cost is re¬
duced to little more than that of the paper. “ But it will
be asked,” says Mr Carey,i “is it right that we should read
the works of Macaulay, Dickens, and others, without com¬
pensation to the authors ? In answer it may be said that
we give them precisely what their own countrymen have
given to their Dalton, Davy, Parry, and the thousands of
others who have furnished the bodies of which books are
composed, and more than we ourselves give to the men
among us engaged in cultivating science—fame.” Authors
have often had but scanty fare, but if they were confined
to Mr Carey’s luxuries their condition would hardly be im¬
proved. Mr Carey informs us that there have been sold in
the United States in five years 80,000 volumes of the 8vo
edition of the Modern British Essayists; of Macaulay’s
Miscellanies, in 3 vols. 12mo, 60,000 volumes ; of Miss
Aguilar’s writings, 100,000 volumes in two years ; of
Murray’s Encyclopadia of Geography, more than 50,000;
M‘Culloch’s Commercial Dictionary, 10,000; of Alexander
Smith’s poems, in a few months, 10,000. The sale of
Thackeray’s works has been quadruple that of England, and
that of Dickens’ works counts by millions of volumes. Bleak
House alone sold to the amount of 250,000 in volumes,
magazines, and newspapers. Bulwer’s last work reached
about two-thirds of that number ; Alison’s Europe 25,000
copies; of Jane Eyre there have been sold 80,000.
ihe universality of education in the United States is the
main cause of an extensive publication of books. Everybody
mustieam to read and write, and everybody must have books;
enc e the great circulation, not only of foreign but of do¬
mestic literature. Ihe sale of many of their more popular
wor s, especially of educational publications, is prodigious :
the sale of the works of Peter Parley counts by millions ; of
Morse’s Geography und Atlas (50 cents), not less than 70,000
are sold yearly ; of Abbots’ histories, 400,000 ; Emerson’s
Arithmetic and Header count almost by millions ; of the
Boston Academy’s collection of sacred music, costing a dollar
per volume, the sale has exceeded 600,000 ; and the a<rore-
gate sale of five books by the same author has probably ex-
ceeded a million. Of Webster’s in 4to (price
#6), the sale has reached from 60,000 to 80,000 volumes,
and of the royal 8vo (#3.50), 250,000. Of all American
authors, excepting the writers of school-books, Washington
li ving has circulated the greatest number of volumes. Prior
to the publication of the edition of his works by Mr Putnam,
the sale had amounted to some hundreds of thousands, and
yet of that edition, selling at 5s. per volume, the sale has al¬
ready risen to 144,000 volumes. Of Unde Tom’s Cabin
the sale has amounted to 295,000 copies. Of the works of
Prescott, Bancroft, Kent, Barnes, Hawthorn, Longfellow,
Bryant, Willis, Curtis, Sedgwick, Sigourney, and many
others, the sale is exceedingly great. The copyright of
Judge Storys books is understood to yield above L.1600
a-year, and other American authors have received large
sums for their copyrights. The term of the copyright is the
same in the United States as in Britain—forty-two years.
The number of semi-monthly, monthly, and quarterly jour¬
nals, according to the last census, was 175. Every pursuit
in life, and almost every shade of opinion, has its periodical.
Dental surgery alone has five, while in all Europe there are
but two. The proportion which republications of British
books bore to original works published in America during
the six months ending June 30. 1853, was 169 republica¬
tions to 522 original.
“ Less than half a century since,” says Mr Carey, “ the
race of literary men was scarcely known in the country, and
the amount now paid for literary labour is greater than in
Britain and France combined, and will probably be in twenty
years greater than in all the world beside.” This is cer¬
tainly an American exaggeration : liberal as the remunera¬
tion has been to authors in the United States, it is not to
be compared to the sums paid for copyrights in Britain ; but
looking forward to the next century,—when the English lan¬
guage shall be spoken in the whole of North, and in a great
part of South America, when new nations of the Anglo-
Saxon race will occupy Australia, and when the English
colonies in all quarters of the globe shall have extended their
boundaries and increased their inhabitants, and when edu¬
cation shall have been universally spread,—what a glorious
prospect opens for the English authors and booksellers of
future generations!
The profits allowed to booksellers appear to the superfi¬
cial observer unreasonably large ; but that they are probably
smaller than those of other trades is proved by the fact that
the same amount of capital, industry, and intelligence em¬
ployed in other branches of business, is generally found to
yield a larger income to those engaged in them.
Ihe selling price of a book, compared with the cost of
the paper, printing, and binding, appears extravagant; but
let us follow the process by which the individual volume
reaches the individual reader. The reader in Edinburgh
desires his bookseller to supply him with a volume published
in London at 20s.; he writes to his usual correspondent, as
it is impossible to keep accounts with every publisher; if
his correspondent allows 25 per cent, he will expect 10 or
15 from the publisher for himself; and before the volumes
reach their ultimate destination, many of them percolate
through three or four different hands, each entitled to a
share of profit which is not too much for risk, &c.; so that
before the demand reaches the original publisher, in many
instances, he does not receive a half of the selling price,
1 Letters on International Copyright, by H. C. Carey, author ol Political Economy, &c. Philadelphia, 1853.
Book¬
selling.
BOO
BOO
S3
Boom
I!
Boorhan-
poor.
and is glad at the end of three or four years, if, besides the
loss of interest of money, he has not a large proportion of
the edition lying on his hands as waste paper.
In 1852 the booksellers of London formed a kind of
trade-union, by which they attempted to exclude from
the trade all who would not keep up their prices to
what was called the regular rate. This, like all associations
of the kind, soon fell to pieces, and various plans were
proposed by which the readers might be furnished with
books at a smaller deduction from the cost of production.
It has not, however, been found possible to dispense with
the machinery by which the productions of the press can
be distributed through the mass of readers; and this con¬
venient machinery must be paid for till one less costly be
discovered which will accomplish its objects as well. (a. b.)
BOOM (Dutch, ioom, abeam), in naval language, along
spar for spreading out the clew or corner of particular sails ;
as the jib-boom, studding-sail boom, main-boom, square-
sail boom, &c.
Boom denotes also a strong chain or cable stretched
across the mouth of a river or harbour, with spars lashed to
it, to prevent the entrance of an enemy’s ships.
BOOMERANG, a missile instrument of the Australian
aborigines, with which they are said to be very dexterous
in hitting birds. It consists of a piece of hard wood, with
the curve of a parabola, and is about 2 feet long, 2^ inches
broad, ^ inch thick, and rounded at the extremities. One
side is flat, the other is rounded, and it is brought to a blunt-
ish edge. It is discharged with the hand by one end, the
convex edge being forward and the flat side upwards. After
advancing some distance, and ascending slowly in the air
with a quick rotatory motion, it begins to retrograde, and
finally falls to the ground behind the projecter. The prin¬
ciple of the boomerang has been attempted to be applied to
the propulsion of ships. See Steam Navigation.
BOOMING, among sailors, denotes the application of
a boom to the sails, in order to accelerate the speed of the
ship.
BOONDEE,a town of Hindustan, in the province of Raj-
pootana, situated on the southern declivity of a long range
of hills which run nearly from east to west. The palace of
the rajah is a massive building of stone, and was intended
to serve as a fortress, though it would not be long tenable
against modern tactics and artillery. The territory of which
this town is the principal place contains an area of 2291
square miles, and a population estimated at 230,000; and
the revenues of the rajah are returned at L.50,000 per an¬
num. During the progress of the Pindarrie and Mahratta
war, this prince had espoused the cause of the British, and
shown himself a warm supporter of their views ; and upon
its termination in 1818, a treaty of alliance was concluded
between the two governments, containing the usual stipula¬
tions of friendship and protection on the part of the para¬
mount power, and of subordinate co-operation on the part
of the allied state. Boondee is distant from Delhi, south¬
west, 245 miles. Lat. 25. 26. Long. 75. 43. (e. t.)
BOORHANPOOR, a decayed town of Hindustan, in
the territory of Gwalior, or possessions of the Mahratta
family of Scindia, situated on the north bank of the river
Taptee. It was formerly a large and flourishing city, being
the seat of government of the kings of Candeish, one of
whom, Malik Nasir, founded it in the year 1414. Akbar,
emperor of Delhi, annexed it with the adjacent territory
to the imperial dominions in 1599; and during the reign
of his son Jehangir it was visited by the English ambassa¬
dor Sir Thomas Roe, on his route from Surat to the Mogul
court. In the early part of the last century it was wrested
from the empire by the Nizam of Hyderabad, and at a later
period became the prize of Madhajee Scindia in his rapid
career of conquest. During the Mahratta war of 1803 it
was occupied by Colonel Stevenson’s army without opposi-
VOL. V
tion, but restored at the conclusion of the peace in Decern- Booro
ber following. Distance from Oojein 132 miles; from II
Bombay 280. Lat. 21. 18. Long. 76. 20. (e.t.) ( A°otan.
BOORO, an island in the Asiatic Archipelago, situ- ,v-—
ated between Lat. 3. and 4. S. and Long. 126. and 127. E.
It is of an oval shape, and may be estimated at seventy-
five miles in length by thirty-eight in average breadth.
This island is fruitful, producing large quantities of rice,
sago, oranges, lemons, citrons, cocoa-nuts, bananas, and
pine-apples ; also the cajeput tree, from the leaves of which
the cajeput oil is procured. Fine timber grows on this
island, and many kinds of beautiful wood, fit for inlaying ;
besides black and white ebony, and the palm and the teak
trees. Ships may be supplied here with rice, cattle, and
other refreshments ; and the woods abound with wild boars,
goats, and deer, and, among the latter, the babyrussa, or
true hog-deer, as its name implies. The natives consist of
two races, the aborigines, who live in the interior of the
island among inaccessible mountains, and of whom little is
known; and the Moors or Mahometans, who inhabit the
northern coast, and acknowledge the authority of the Dutch.
The Chinese trade here for cabinet woods and different
species of dye-woods. At Cajelli bay on its north side there is
good anchorage, and at the east end is a Dutch station.
BOOROOJIRD, a flourishing city of Persia, in the pro¬
vince of Irak, situated at the foot of a mountain. It is the
chief town of a district peopled by a tribe called Lack, who
seldom wander far from the spots to which they are partial,
but settle in villages, and employ themselves in the improve¬
ment of their estates. Population, 12,000.
BOOT, a defence of leather for the foot and leg. Boots
seem to have derived their name from their resemblance to
a sort of jacks or leathern bottles formerly in use, called
bottce in Latin, and in the old French bouts.
Boot, an instrument of torture, by which the leg was
squeezed with great violence, for the purpose of extorting
confession. (See Wodrow’s Hist, of the Sufferings of the
Church of Scotland.)
BOOTAN. This extensive region is situated between Bound-
Bengal and Tibet, and between the 26th and 29th degrees aries.
of north latitude. To the north it is separated from Tibet
by the eastern ridges of the Himalaya range ; Assam and
Goalpara, with the native state of Cooch Behar, form its
boundaries to the south; on the east it is bordered by a
tract inhabited by uncivilized mountain tribes ; and on the
west by the native state of Sikkim. Its length from east
to west is 230 miles, its breadth 120, and the area contained
within its limits falls little short of 20,000 square miles. A
slip of land varying from ten to twenty miles in breadth
extends along the base of the mountains from east to west,
and separates the hill-country of Bootan from the province
of Bengal. With the exception of this narrow tract, the physical
whole of Bootan presents a succession of lofty and rugged Aspect,
mountains, abounding in the most picturesque and sublime
scenery. “ The prospects,” says Captain Turner, “ between
abrupt and lofty prominences were inconceivably grand;
hills clothed to their very summits with trees, dark and deep
glens, and the high tops of mountains lost in the clouds,
constituted altogether a scene of extraordinary magnificence
and sublimity.”
As might be expected from the physical structure and
elevation of this alpine region, numerous rivers are sent
forth in a southerly direction, which, forcing their passage
through narrow defiles, and precipitated in tremendous cata¬
racts over frightful precipices, eventually pour their tributary
streams into the Brahmapootra. One torrent is mentioned
by Turner as issuing from the high grounds in a collected
body, but as descending from so great a height that before
it reaches the thick shade below it is nearly dissipated, and
appears like the steam arising from boiling water. Of the
rivers traversing Bootan, the most considerable is the Monas,
E
34
B O O T A N.
Bootan.
Animals.
which in its progress to the Brahmapootra flows under the
walls of Tassgong, beyond which place it is unfordable. At
the foot of Tassgong Hill it is crossed by a suspension bridge.
The other principal rivers are the Matchoo, the Tchinchoo,
the Toorsha, the Manchee, and the Durla.
The more southern portions of the plains of Bootan bor¬
dering upon Bengal are under rice cultivation. Between
the cultivated tracts and the mountains occurs an interven¬
ing space covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, but
pervaded by an atmosphere so deleterious to the human con¬
stitution that even those most inured to the climate rarely
pass through it with impunity. In the hilly part of the
country the climate varies according to the difference of ele¬
vation. At the time when the inhabitants of Punakha (the
winter residence of the rajah) are afraid of exposing them¬
selves to an almost vertical sun, those of Ghassa experience
all the rigour of winter, and are chilled by perpetual snows ;
yet both these places are within sight of each other. On
the elevated mountain heights it is cold and moist, and here
the clouds are intercepted and descend in rains. The rains,
however, in the vicinity of Tassisudon, the capital, are mo¬
derate. There are frequent showers, but nothing that can
be compared to the tropical rains of Bengal. Owing to the
great elevation and steepness of the mountains, dreadful tem¬
pests of winds arise among the hollows, which are often at¬
tended with fatal effects. A considerable village, situated
on the browr of a lofty hill, was nearly destroyed by one of
these tempests. In one night a hurricane swept nine houses
with their unfortunate inmates down the steep ; and though
search was afterwards made, not the slightest trace of them
was ever found. Three houses remained; and their tenants,
unawed by the dismal fate of their neighbours, still retained
their occupation.
The people are industrious, and devote themselves to agri¬
culture, but from the geological structure and physical aspect
of the country, the pursuits of husbandry, except in the plains,
which are under rice cultivation, are limited to comparatively
few spots. In the vicinity of the cottages which are inter¬
spersed throughout the mountains, the land is cleared for culti¬
vation, and produces thriving crops of barley, wheat, buck¬
wheat, and others of less importance. Turnips of excellent
quality are extensively grown ; they are free from fibres, and
remarkably sweet. The climate is generally well adapted to
the production both of European and Asiatic fruits and vege¬
tables. Potatoes have been introduced, but the cultivation of
this valuable root has not been attended with success. The
forests abound in a variety of stately trees. Among them are
the beech, ash, birch, maple, cypress, and yew; firs and pines
cover the mountain heights ; and below these, but still at an
elevation of eight or nine thousand feet, is a zone of vegetation,
consisting principally of oaks and rhododendrons. Among
these mountains, in the vicinity of Murichom, grows the cin¬
namon tree. Some of the roots and branches were examined
by Turner in the course of his journey to Tibet; but the plant
being neither in blossom nor bearing fruit, it was impossible
to decide whether it was the true cinnamon or an inferior kind
of cassia. The leaf, however, corresponded with the descrip¬
tion given of the true cinnamon by Linnseus.
Notwithstanding the great diversity of climate, the unin¬
closed character of the country, and the difficult fastnesses in
which it abounds, there is no great variety nor large number
of wild animals. Thickets of dense vegetation extend along
the base of the mountains, and afford shelter to the elephant,
tiger, buffalo, and deer. But in the hills of Bootan wild ani¬
mals are extremely rare ; and Turner mentions, as an extra¬
ordinary circumstance, that he one day saw a multitude of
monkeys playing their gambols by the road side. They are
of a large and handsome kind, with black faces surrounded
by a streak of white hair, and have very long slender limbs.
They are held sacred by the Booteans as well as by the Hin¬
dus. The horse, a certain species of which is indigenous to
Bootan, and is used as a domestic animal, is called tangun,
from Tangustan, the general appellation of that assemblage
of mountains which constitutes the territory of Bootan. It is
peculiar to this tract, not being found in any of the neighbour¬
ing countries of Assam, Nepaul, Tibet, or Bengal, and unites Bootan.
in an eminent degree the two qualities of strength and beauty, v r -
being remarkable for symmetry and just proportions. The
Tangun horse is usually about thirteen hands high, short¬
bodied, clean-limbed, and deep in the chest, yet extremely
active. Being constantly accustomed to struggle against accli¬
vities, there is a surprising energy and vigour in all his move¬
ments ; and this indomitable spirit is supposed by Europeans
to proceed, from a headstrong and ungovernable temper, while
in reality it is only an excess of eagerness in the performance
of any allotted task. The colour of this horse usually inclines
to piebald, and those of one colour are rarely to be found.
I he Booteans are not a warlike people, and the military re- Military
sources of the country are altogether on an insignificant scale, resources.
Beyond the guards necessary for the defence of the various
castles, there is nothing like a standing military force in the
country. An insuperable difficulty to the maintenance of such
a force would, indeed, be presented in the inadequacy of sup¬
plies, and the great distance from which they must be drawn.
In so barren and rude a country the manufacturing industry Manufac-
of its people must necessarily be at a low ebb, and the few tures.
articles produced are all destined for home consumption. These
consist , of coarse blankets and cotton cloths, made by the vil¬
lagers inhabiting the southern tract bordering upon British
territory. Leather, from the hide of the buffalo, imperfectly
tanned, is principally used for the soles of snow-boots. Circu¬
lar bowls are neatly turned from various woods. A small
quantity of paper is made from the plant described as the
Daphne papyrifera; and, if to these be added the straight
sword worn by the men, iron spear and arrowheads, and a few
copper caldrons fabricated from the metal obtained in the
country, the list of the manufactures of Bootan may be consi¬
dered nearly complete.
T be inhabitants of this elevated tract are of active habits Inhabit-
and of a herculean make, many of them being six feet high, ants,
and are entirely different from the feeble and timid natives of
Bengal. A general resemblance of features pervades the whole
race of these hardy mountaineers. They are fairer than their
Bengal neighbours, and have generally broader faces, with
high cheek-bones. They have invariably black hair, which it
is their fashion to cut close to the head. The eye, which is a
remarkable feature in their face, is small and black, with long
pointed corners, as if stretched and extended by artificial
means. Their eye-lashes are so thin as to be scarcely percep¬
tible. Their face is rather flat, narrowing from the cheek¬
bones to the chin, and broadest below the eyes,—a physiogno¬
my which somewhat resembles that of the Tartars, though it is
far more strongly marked among the Chinese. They have
very small beards, and generally reach an advanced age
before they have the appearance of any; in this also resem¬
bling the Tartars. They are social and cheerful in their
manners. The women and the men mix freely together; and
they are frequently seen sitting under the cavities of the rocks
or other sheltered places, chatting together in great good
humour, and occasionally indulging in obstreperous laughter.
They generally exhibit a picture of rosy health; the women in
particular, with their jet black hair, and clear, brisk, black
eyes, possess a ruddiness which, according to Turner, the most
florid English rustic would in vain attempt to rival. Yet they
are far from being cleanly in their habits ; nor are their man¬
ners and amusements of a refined cast. Their mode of living
is simple; their food consisting of fruits, vegetables, and roots.
Tea is as common a refreshment as in China, but the mode of
preparation is by an admixture of water, flour, butter, and salt.
A spirit is extracted from rice, wheat, barley, and other
grains.
The supreme ruler of Bootan is called the Deb Raja. Govern-
He resides at Tassisudon, and possesses unlimited swayment \
over his subjects. The people follow the religion of^?1^10"’
Buddha; and the priests form a distinct class, and are 18 01
bound by the most rigid vows of celibacy. They are dis¬
persed throughout the country in monasteries, and other
buildings appropriated to their use. The Deb Raja has
always manifested the strongest inclination to extend his
territories by incroaching on those of his neighbours. In
1772 he suddenly invaded the principality of Cooch Behar,
a dependency of Bengal; but its rajah having applied to
BOO
Bootes the British for aid, a force under Captain Jones was de¬
ll spatched to Cooch Behar, by means of which the invaders
Booton. were expelled and pursued into their own territories. Upon
meeting with these reverses, the Booteans implored the
assistance of the Tibetan authorities: in compliance with
the request of the Teshoo Lama, then regent of Tibet, a
cessation of hostilities ensued, and in 1774 a treaty of
peace was concluded between the East India Company and
the ruler of Bootan. In 1783 Captain Turner was deputed
to Bootan, with a view of promoting commercial inter¬
course, but his mission was not regarded as successful.
From this period little intercourse took place with Bootan,
until the occupation of Assam by the British in 1826. It
was then discovered that the Booteans had usurped several
tracts of low land lying at the foot of the mountains, called
dooars or passes, and for these they then agreed to pay a
small tribute; but failing in their obligations, and availing
themselves of the command of the passes to commit depre¬
dations in the British territories, Captain Pemberton arrived
in Bootan in 1837, commissioned to adjust the points of
difference. His negotiation was productive of no definite
result; and every other means of obtaining redress and secu¬
rity proving unsuccessful, the dooars were wrested from
the Booteans, and placed under British management, (e. t.)
BOOTES, a constellation of the northern hemisphere.
It contains Arcturus, a star of the first magnitude.
BOOTH, Barton, a celebrated English tragedian, born
of an ancient family in Lancashire, in 1681. He was edu¬
cated in Westminster school under the celebrated Dr
Bushby, where his success in the Latin plays customarily
performed by the scholars gave him an inclination for the
stage. He was intended for the church; but at seventeen
years of age he ran away from school, and joined a thea¬
trical company at Dublin. His first appearance was hailed
with applause; and from this time he continued daily im¬
proving. After two successful campaigns in Ireland he
returned to his native country, having first reconciled him¬
self to his friends. Betterton, to whom he had an intro¬
duction, received him with great cordiality, and gave him
all the assistance in his power. His success at London was
complete, and he established his reputation as only second
to his great instructor. He was indebted to a happy coin¬
cidence of merit and chance for that height of fame which
he at length attained in the character of Cato. The Whigs,
in favour of whose principles this tragedy was apparently
written, thought it their duty to support it strongly; while
the Tories, at every passage susceptible of a popular turn,
were no less vehement in their approbation. Booth was
twice married; first to a daughter of Sir William Barkham,
Bart., and afterwards to Miss Hester Santlow, an actress of
great merit. During the twenty years of his management,
the theatre was in the greatest credit; and his death, which
happened on the 10th of May 1733, contributed not a
little to its decline. Booth was a man of excellent cha¬
racter, and greatly esteemed for his amiability and good¬
ness of heart.
BOOTHIA FELIX, an extensive peninsula of British
North America, between Lat. 69. and 75. N. and Long. 92.
and 97. W. It was discovered by Captain, now Sir J. Ross,
in 1830, and named after Sir Felix Booth. It forms the
western side of the gulf of the same name, into which
Prince Regent’s Inlet leads from Baffin’s Bay. It is almost
separated from the American shores by a chain of lakes;
and is perhaps joined to North Somerset, discovered by
Sir E. Parry in 1819.
BOOTON, an island in the Eastern Archipelago, situ¬
ated off the south-eastern extremity of Celebes, about the
5th degree of south latitude. It is estimated at eighty-five
miles in length by twenty miles in average breadth. It is
separated from the island of Angaosani by a narrow strait;
and is productive, yielding rice, maize, yams, and a variety
BOO 35
of tropical fruits. The inhabitants are of a short stature Booty
and tawny complexion. They speak the Malay language, II
and are Mahometans. The Dutch had formerly a settle- Acid^
ment here in the bay of Booton. i ' ,
BOOTY, plunder, pillage. See Spoil. * v ^
BOPAL, an extensive town of Hindustan, in the pro¬
vince of Malwah, surrounded with a stone wall, on the
outside of which is a large gunge or mart, with wide and
straight streets. On a rising ground to the S.W. of
the town is a fort called Futtehgur, built on a solid rock,
and surrounded with square towers. Under the walls of
the fort is a tank or lake four miles and a half in length.
The territory of which this town is the principal place
contains an area of 6764 square miles, and belongs to a
native chief, whose revenues amount to L.220,000 per
annum. The political relations of the British government
with this state commenced in 1818, when a treaty was con¬
cluded, the leading articles of which are of the usual cha¬
racter—protection by the British government, and acknow¬
ledgment of its supremacy by that of Bopal, with a stipula¬
tion for subordinate co-operation.
The state of Bopal boasts of no great antiquity. Its
founder, Dost Mahomed Khan, exercised subordinate autho¬
rity within its limits, under the Emperor Aurungzebe, at the
commencement of the eighteenth century; and, upon the
death of that prince he assumed the title of Nawaub. Sub¬
sequently Bopal attracted some notice; first, in 1778, from
the circumstance of its ruler rendering assistance to a British
force under General Goddard, which traversed a large part
of India through states then, with the exception of Bopal,
all unfriendly; and again, in 1813, when the city of Bopal
sustained a nine months’ siege from a combined Mahratta
force amounting to at least six times the number of the
garrison, by whom the assailants were ultimately compelled
to abandon their attempt. The Nawaub, with whom the
British treaty of 1818 was concluded, died shortly afterwards
from the effect of an accidental pistol shot, and was suc¬
ceeded by an infant nephew, between whom and the daugh¬
ter of the deceased prince, also of tender age, a marriage
was negotiated. When, however, the age of the young
prince entitled him to look for admission to actual power,
his claim was opposed by the Begum, widow of the deceased
Nawaub, a woman of some ability, and who had enjoyed
since the death of her husband a large share of influence
and authority. She disputed not only his right to the throne,
but also the claim founded on his betrothal to the infant
heiress, and he was obliged to relinquish both in favour of a
younger brother, who, however, when the time came for
asserting his rights, received similar treatment from the
Begum, who was resolved to retain her position at the head
of the state as long as possible. The prince’s marriage at
length took place, but sovereignty was still withheld, and
would have been withheld so long as the Begum lived, had
not arms achieved what negotiation was unable to accom¬
plish. The new ruler did not long survive his recognition,
and as his daughter, a child only six years old, was his suc¬
cessor, the necessity of the case enforced the re-establish¬
ment of a regency, in which the Begum managed finally to
gratify her ambition and love of intrigue by attaining a chief
part. Such is the present state of affairs in Bopal, where
he who shall be so fortunate as to secure the person of the
youthful princess in marriage will hereafter wield the sceptre
of authority. (e. t.)
BORACIC ACID (Sassoline or native boracic acid;
boraxsaure), in Mineralogy, the only known compound of
boron and oxygen, occurs in white pearly scales, which are
soft and greasy to the touch, and have an acidulous taste.
It fuses easily in the flame of a candle, and yields a glossy
globule, which on cooling becomes opaque if any gypsum be
in combination. When dissolved in alcohol it communicates
to the flame a fine green tinge; a test which affords the
36 BOR
Boracite best possible indication of the presence of boracic acid. Its
Borda sPec^c gravity is equal to 1*48 ; and, according to Berzelius,
i ^ 0r j it consists of boron 25*83, and oxygen 74*17. The most cele-
brated deposit of this substance is the Solfatara, within the
ancient crater of Volcano, one of the Lipari isles, where it is
sublimated in the form of a thin filament or cake on the sur¬
face of the sulphur and around the fumaroles, whence it
arises. These incrustations are usually about an inch in
thickness, have sometimes a fibrous structure, and are always
more or less tinged with sulphur. It occurs both massive
and pulverulent; in which last case the particles form merely
a filament or loose covering on the surface of the sulphur,
without any attachment or adhesion to each other. Boracic
acid is likewise deposited by several of the lagunes in Tus-
cany, and at the hot springs of Sasso, a locality which has
procured it the trivial name of Sassoline. The mineral from
these deposits, however, differs materially in appearance from
that of Volcano. It is grayer in colour, considerably harder,
and shows traces of indistinct crystallization. Klaproth found
that the Tuscan variety contains eleven per cent, sulphate of
magnesia, an ingredient totally foreign to that from Volcano.
BORAK, a fabulous animal, on which Mahomet was sup¬
posed to have been carried in his nocturnal flight from Jeru¬
salem to heaven.
BORASSUS, agenus of the natural order of Palmae. The
best known is B. jlabelliformis or Toddy-palm, which in India
yields a vinous juice and much sugar. This palm is 20
feet high, the leaves 4 feet long on foot-stalks of the same
length. I he juice is obtained by crushing the inflorescence,
cutting off the upper part, and fastening the lower part to
a vessel of bamboo, into which it drains. The fruit has the
bigness of a small human head. See Botany.
BORAX, in Mineralogy ; borate of soda, tinkal, soude
boratee. This salt is usually of a white or gray colour, trans¬
lucent, feebly alkaline to the taste, soluble in water, and con¬
sists, according to Klaproth, of soda 14*5, boracic acid 37*0,
and water 47*0. It intumesces before the blow-pipe, and
then melts into a transparent globule: when in solution it
changes the blue colour of litmus into green. Its chief lo¬
cality is Tibet, where it is found on the surface of the soil,
in the vicinity and at the bottom of certain lakes. It is there
collected and sent to Europe in the form of a brownish-gray
impure salt, from which the artificial borax is obtained by
the addition of a greater quantity of soda. It is made use
of as a flux, in forming imitation gems, and in the process of
soldering. It is also of great utility in analysis by the blow¬
pipe, and in some cases in glass manufactories. See Che¬
mistry and Mineralogy.
BORDA, John Charles, a mathematician and nau¬
tical astronomer, celebrated for his improvements in the
theory of hydraulics and pneumatics, and in the construc¬
tion of instruments for observation. He was born at Drax,
on the 4th of May 1733, and was originally destined for the
bar; but abandoned the pursuit of the law in favour of a
military life, which he considered as better calculated to
afford him opportunities for the cultivation of his mathe¬
matical talents, and for the application of the results of
his studies to practice. His acquirements in science had
very early attracted the attention of D’Alembert, who
predicted his future eminence, and warmly recommended
his turning his thoughts to the occupation of a place in
the academy. He obtained a commission in the light ca-
valry, and was appointed teacher of mathematics to the
corps; and, in 1756, he presented to the Academy of Sci¬
ences (A) A Memoir on the Paths of Bombs, which was or¬
dered to be printed in the collection of the Savans Etran-
gers, but which has not excited much attention. He was
elected in the same year a member of the academy; and
in the next he was^ present at the battle of Hastinbeck,
m the capacity of aid-de-camp to the celebrated General
B O B
Maillebois, to whom he looked up as a great master in the Borda.
art of war.
He was afterwards admitted into the corps of engineers,
without the usual form of examination into his qualifica¬
tions ; and being stationed at a sea-port, the occurrences
of the place naturally directed his attention anew to the
phenomena of the resistance of fluids. He published, in
1^63, a detailed memoir on this subject (B. Mem. Ac. Par.
1763, p. 358), in which he relates a variety of experi¬
ments, showing that the resistance of the air is actually
proportional to the square of the velocity, as had com¬
monly been supposed from theoretical considerations. He
also determines, by other experiments, the magnitude of
the resistance to the motion of a sphere, and proves that
nothing can be more erroneous than the supposition that
the resistance to an oblique surface decreases as the
squaie of the sine of the angle of incidence. He also finds,
that the resistance to the motion of a cube, in the direc¬
tions of the diagonal of its base and of one of the sides, are
as 21 to 16, while the calculations of former theorists had
made the resistance greatest in the direction of the side.
In 1 /66 he published an Essay on the discharge of
fluids through the orifices of vessels (C. Mem. Ac. Par.
1766, p. 579), in which he first states the objections to
considering the different strata of a fluid as descending in
all cases very nearly in parallel directions; he examines
the contraction of the jet after its escape from the orifice,
and determines some of the effects of abrupt changes in
the velocity of the fluid passing through pipes or apertures
of different forms.
He contributed, in 1767, to the publications of the aca-
demy, an important Memoir on Water Wheels (D. p. 270),
which has escaped the notice of his able biographer M.
Lacroix. He observes, in this paper, that the simple hy¬
pothesis of a resistance varying as the square of the velo¬
city, which is so near the truth in common cases, where a
number of particles, proportional to the velocity, strikes, in
a given time, upon a small exposed surface with a force also
proportional to the velocity, is totally inapplicable to the
action of a confined stream upon the floatboards of a wheel,
since in this instance the number of particles concerned
cannot vary materially with the velocity, the whole stream
being supposed to operate in all cases upon the successive
floatboards; so that the analogy would require us to sup¬
pose the force in this case nearly proportional to the sim¬
ple lelative velocity; a conclusion which agrees remark¬
ably well with the experiments of some practical authors.
ihe same volume contains a continuation of M. Borda’s
researches relating to the resistance of oblique surfaces
(\b. M6m. Ac. Par. 1767, p. 495), with a statement of ex¬
periments still more conclusively confuting the received
hypothesis respecting oblique impulse than his former
investigations had done. We also find in it an Essay on
isoperimetrical problems (F. p. 551), in which it is shown
that Euler s method of treating them, which had been in
great measure abandoned by its equally profound and
candid author, in favour of the more general and more
elegant calculations of Lagrange, was still capable of af¬
fording all the results that had been derived from the me¬
thod of variations ; and he even pointed out some deficien¬
cies in the first memoir of Lagrange, which contained the
detail of his ingenious invention. These investigations of
M. Borda afford collateral evidence of the strict truth
of the demonstrations of both his great predecessors ; and
though they have been little employed by later mathema¬
ticians, yet it must be admitted to be of some importance,
in enabling us to appreciate the value of a new mode of
calculation, to determine whether its results are or are not
such as might be obtained with almost equal convenience
by methods before in use.
BOR
B O R 37
Borda. His memoir, inserted in the collection of the Academy
for 1768 (G. Mem. Ac. Par. 1768, p. 18), is devoted ex¬
clusively to the theory of pumps; and he considers espe¬
cially the effect of the passage of the fluid through valves
and other contracted parts in diminishing the quantity of
the discharge. His results are derived from the principle
of the preservation of the living force or energy of a sys¬
tem of bodies, throughout all the vicissitudes of its mo¬
tions, v/hich had before been employed with success by
Daniel Bernoulli in problems of a similar nature ; but it
was not until the experiments of Buat had afforded suf¬
ficient grounds for the determination of the friction of
fluids, that cases of this kind could be submitted to exact
calculation.
In his Essay on the curve described bv cannon-balls,
published among the Memoirs for 1769 (A. Mem. Ac. Par.
1769, p. 247), he has greatly simplified the practical theory
of projectiles, which had been treated in a satisfactory
though very general manner by John Bernoulli, and had
been reduced into a much more convenient form by Euler.
M. Borda has substituted some approximate expressions
for the true value of the density of the air, and has thus
been enabled to integrate equations which, in their more
strictly correct form, had resisted the powers of Euler
himself; and he has justified the adoption of the formulas
thus obtained by a comparison with experiment.
In the mean time his talents were very actively em¬
ployed in the naval service of his country, which he en¬
tered in 1767, by the nomination of M. Praslin. The
time-keepers of Le Roy and Berthoud were beginning to
rival those of the English artists, and the French govern¬
ment ordered several vessels to be fitted out for cruises,
in order to examine the accuracy of these time-keepers.
M. Borda was appointed a lieutenant on board of the
Flore, and acted jointly with M. Pingre as a delegate of
the Academy of Sciences for the purposes of the expedi¬
tion. The voyage occupied about a year, and extended
to the Canaries, the West Indies, Newfoundland, Iceland,
and Denmark. M. Borda had a considerable share in the
account which was published of the observations; and the
formula which he has here given for the correction of the
effects of refraction and parallax is considered as equally
elegant and convenient. He also presented to the aca¬
demy a separate memoir on the results of the expedition.
(I. Voyage pour eprouver les Montres de Le Roy. 4. Paris.
K. Mem. Ac. Par. 1773, p. 258.) After an interval of
six weeks, these watches were found capable of determin¬
ing the longitude within about fifteen minutes of the truth.
In order to supply some deficiencies in the observations
made at the Canaries, Borda was sent out a second time,
with the Boussole and the Espiegle; and he published,
after his return (L.), a very correct and highly finished
map of these islands. He was soon afterwards promoted
to the rank of captain, and served under the Count d’Es-
taing as a major-general, an appointment nearly similar
to that of our captains of the fleet. In this capacity he
observed the inconvenience of too great a variety in the
sizes of the vessels constituting a fleet, and proposed to
abolish the class of fifty and of sixty-four gun ships, as too
small for the line of battle, and to build ships of three
rates only, the lowest carrying seventy-four guns, so that
a smaller quantity of stores should require to be kept
ready for use in the dock-yards, than when ships of more
various dimensions were to be refitted. In 1780 he had
the command of the Guerrier, and in 1781 of the Solitaire,
which was taken after a gallant resistance by an English
squadron. He was thus compelled to pay a visit to Great
Britain, but was immediately set at liberty upon his parole.
He proposed to the academy in this year (M. Mem. Ac.
Par. 1781), a mode of regulating elections, which was
adopted by that body. Its peculiarity consisted in hav- Borda.
ing the names of the candidates arranged by each voter
in a certain order, and collecting the numbers expressing .
the degrees of preference into separate results, so that the
simple majority of voters did not necessarily establish the
claim of any individual, if he was placed very low in the
list by any considerable number of those who voted
against him. But it must be allowed that this mode of
election is by no means wholly unobjectionable.
M. Borda appears to have rendered an essential service
to the cultivators of practical astronomy by the introduc¬
tion and improvement of the repeating circle, although
this instrument has probably been less employed in Great
Britain than elsewhere, on account of the greater perfec¬
tion of those which were previously in common use. It
had been suggested by Mayer in 1767, that a circle with
two movable sights would enable us to observe a given
angle a great number of times in succession, and to add
together the results, without any error in reading them
oft’, and thus to obtain a degree of precision equal to that
of much larger and better instruments of a different con¬
struction ; but the proposal had been little noticed until
ten years afterwards, when Borda pursued the path point¬
ed out by Mayer, and trained Lenoir, then a young and
unlicensed artist, to the execution of the improved instru¬
ment, notwithstanding the opposition of the rival opticians,
and the want of encouragement from the opulent public.
He published in 1787 (N.) his Description arid Use of the
Reflecting Circle, with different Methods for Calculating
the Principal Observations of Nautical Astronomy; but
the officers of the French navy, for whom this work was
intended, appear to have profited but little by his instruc¬
tions. Flis instrument was, however, much employed in
the operations for determining the length of the terrestrial
meridian; and he himself took charge of the experiments
required for ascertaining the length of the pendulum, and
for the comparison of the different standards with each
other. He invented some very ingenious methods of over¬
coming the difficulties which present themselves in the
pursuit of these objects ; but he was interrupted in his re¬
searches by the horrors of the Revolution, nor did he live
to see the whole of the operations completed. He en¬
deavoured, also, to promote the introduction of the new
mode of subdividing the circle, by the laborious computa¬
tion of Tables of Logarithms (O. 4to, Par. 1801) adapted
to decimal parts of the quadrant; a work in which he
was assisted by M. Delambre. From the increasing indis¬
position of M. Callet, who had undertaken to correct the
proofs of these tables, some very material errors had been
committed in the first half of the tables, and M. Borda
thought it necessary to cancel a great number of the
pages ; and in order to meet the expense thus entailed on
him, he was obliged to dispose of an estate which he had
lately acquired in his native place. He was also engaged,
towards the close of his life, in the measurement of the
force of magnetism, and in the calculations of astronomi¬
cal refraction. His health had been threatened for several
successive winters, and he died the 10th of March 1799.
In his manners he was animated and unaffected. He
avoided those who sought his acquaintance merely from
the vanity of being intimate with a man of talents, what¬
ever pretensions to importance they might derive from
their casual relations to general society. He never mar¬
ried ; and he was too much absorbed in the pursuit of
science to associate with a very extensive circle even of
private friends. Though not a man of learning, he was
not deficient in literary taste ; and he was, in particular, a
passionate admirer of Homer. He seems to have posses¬
sed a considerable share of that natural tact and sagacity
which was so remarkable in Newton, and which we also
38
Borde
Bordeaux
BOR
discover in the works of Daniel Bernoulli; enabling them,
like a sort of instinct, to elude the insurmountable difficulties
with which direct investigations are often encumbered; while
Euler, on the contrary, as M. Lacroix most truly observes,
seems to have taken pleasure in searching for matter which
would give scope to his analytical ingenuity, although wholly
foreign to the physical investigations which had first led him
to the difficulties in question. It would have been fortunate
for the progress of science if some of the most celebrated
of M. Borda’s countrymen had profited by his example, in
studying to attain that unostentatious simplicity which is
the last result of the highest cultivation. (Lacroix, in Rap¬
port des Travaux de la Societo Philomathique, vol. iv. 8.
Par. 1800). ■ (x. Y.)
BORDE, Andrew, a physician, jocularly styled by him¬
self Andreas Perforatus, was born at Pevensey in Sussex,
about a.d. 1500, and educated at Oxford. After travelling
through various parts of Europe and Africa, he settled first
at Pevensey, afterwards at Winchester, and finally in Lon¬
don, where he is said to have become a fellow of the College
of Physicians, and to have acted in the capacity of physician
to Henry VIII. But notwithstanding his success in his pro¬
fession, he died insolvent in the Fleet prison in 1549. He
was the author of several small jocular histories and cheap
books, such as formed the light reading of those times. He
descended to the arts of a mountebank, making humorous
speeches at fairs to attract the people; and from him the
term “ Merry Andrew” is said to be derived. Wood says
that “ he was esteemed a noted poet, a witty and ingenious
person, and an excellent physician.”
BORDEAUX (the ancient Burdigala), an important
commercial city and seaport town of France, capital of an
arrondissement of the same n-ame, and also of the depart¬
ment of Gironde. It is situated in the centre of an exten¬
sive plain on the left bank of the Garonne, 60 miles from
its mouth, in Lat. 44. 50. N. Long. 0. 35. W. Large ves¬
sels come up to the town by means of the river, which at its
narrowest part here has a breadth of upwards of 2000 feet,
with a depth of 16 feet at low, and of 30 at high water. A
magnificent bridge of 17 arches, 1534 feet in length, crosses
the river. In the old part of the city the streets are narrow
and crooked, and the houses ill built; but in the new part
the streets are well laid out and handsome, containing many
elegant buildings. Among the public edifices of Bordeaux
are the theatre, one of the finest in Europe, and seated to
hold 4000 persons; the cathedral, a fine Gothic structure,
with two elegant spires 150 feet high; the remains of the
Palais Gallien, supposed to have been built in the time of
the emperor Gallienus; the churches of Ste Croix, St Michael,
&c. Bordeaux is the seat of an archbishop, of a national
court and court of assize, tribunals of primary instance and
commerce, and has a museum, a public library of about
110,000 volumes, picture gallery, botanic garden, exchange
bank, public baths, &c. It has also several hospitals and
other charitable institutions ; several literary societies ; a
university academy ; academy of arts, sciences, and belles-
lettres ; a royal college, school of medicine, normal school,
and a school of navigation. The river here describes a
semicircle, and is lined by quays for about three miles.
The trade of Bordeaux is very extensive, particularly in
wines, brandy, plums, almonds, and other fruits. It is
greatly promoted by the Languedoc canal, which commu¬
nicates with the Mediterranean. The wine trade, though
still large, has been greatly reduced by the prohibitive sys-
tem of commercial policy pursued in France. Previous to
1790 the department of the Gironde exported annually
above 100,000 tuns of wine to the north of Europe: the
export, at present is not above 25,000 tuns. In 1842,497
foreign vessels of 103,461 tons, and 3293 French vessels
of 226,694 tons, entered the port; and 491 foreign ves¬
sels of 101,719 tons, and 3038 French vessels of 204,611
Borelli.
BOB
tons, departed. There are numerous docks and building Boreas
yards for vessels of every size, even ships of the line. Its 11
manufactures are numerous, especially tobacco and snuff,
brandy, sugar, vinegar, iron and steel goods, chemicals, lea¬
ther, liqueurs, cottons, woollens, kid gloves, &c. Pop.
(1851) 123,935; of arrondissement, 296,632.
1 he origin of this city dates prior to the conquest of Gaul
by the Romans, at which time it was the capital of the Bi-
tuiiges Vivisci, a powerful Gallic tribe. It is first men¬
tioned by Strabo, who describes it as being a celebrated
commercial city. Hadrian made it the metropolis of Aqui-
tania Secunda. In 415 it was taken by the Visigoths, and
letaken by Clovis in 509. In 729 it was pillaged by the
k aracens, and afterwards suffered much from the ravages of
the Normans about the time of the fall of the Carlovingian
empire. It was rebuilt by the dukes of Guyenne about
the beginning of the tenth century. By the marriage of
Lleanora, daughter of William X., last Duke of Guyenne,—
to Hemy, Duke of Aormandy, afterwards king of England,
it came into the hands of the English; in whose possession
it remained till 1452, when it was again united to the French
dominions.
BOREAS(BopeasorBoppas), the Greek nameof thenorth
wind blowing from the Hyperborean mountains. In mytho¬
logy, Boreas was the son of Astraeus and Eos (Aurora), or
of the river god Strymon. He dwelt in a cave on Mount
Haemus, whence he issued and carried off Orithyia, the
daughter of Erectheus, king of Attica, by whom he begot
Zetes, Calais, and Cleopatra the wife of Phineus, who are
therefore called Boreades. During the Persian war the
Athenians invoked Boreas, who destroyed the enemy’s fleet.
In gratitude they dedicated a temple to him ; and a festival,
called Boreasmus or Boreasmi, was celebrated with banquets
m his honour. By the mares of Ericthonius he begot twelve
horses of such fleetness, that in passing over the sea they
scarce touched the waves. Boreas was represented with
wings, white hair, and the tails of serpents instead of feet.
BOREL, Pierre,a learned physician and antiquary, born
at Castres in Languedoc, about 1620. He took his doctor’s
degree at Montpellier in 1640, and practised with great suc¬
cess in his native city. In 1653 he settled in Paris, having
been named counsellor and physician in ordinary to the king;
and in 1674 was admitted into the Academy of Sciences. He
died in 1689. His works, chiefly on medical subjects,
are numerous. The principal are, Historiarum et Obser-
vationum medico-physicarum Centurice quinque, Castres,
1653, 12mo; Bibliotheca Chimica, Paris, 1654, 12mo;
De vero Telescopii inventore, cum brevi omnium conspiscil-
lorum histona, Hague, 1655, 4to ; Hortus, seu Armamen-
tarum Simplicium, plantarum, et animalium ad Artem
medicam spectantium, Castres, 1666, 8vo; Observationum
Microscopicarum Centuria, Hague, 1656, 4to. He was also
the author of several works in French, particularly two treatises
on Antiquities, and a discourse on the Plurality of Worlds.
BORELLI, Giovanni Aleonso, the head ofwhat has been
called the iatro-mathematical sect,—or that which, misled
by the great progress that the application of the mathematics
had produced in the physical sciences, attempted to secure
the same advantage for medicine, by subjecting to calcula¬
tion the phenomena of the living economy,—was born at
Naples, J anuary 28.1608. He professed his system of iatro-
mathematical philosophy in some of the most celebrated uni¬
versities of Italy, particularly at Florence and Pisa, where
he rose into high favour with the princes of the house of
Medicis ; but having been engaged in the revolt of Messina,
he was obliged to retire to Rome, where he spent the re¬
mainder of his life under the protection of Christina queen
of Sweden, who honoured him with her friendship, and by
her liberality softened the rigour of his fortune. He died of
a pleurisy, December 31. 1679. Borelli, more judicious than
Bellini, restricted the application of his system chiefly to
1
BOR
Borga muscular motions, or to those phenomena of the animal
II economy which are in certain points subject to the laws of
Borgia, mechanics: and it cannot be denied that it conducted him
to the discovery of some principles new in themselves, and
directly opposed to the received belief of his time. But his
followers, less cautious, wished to generalize the application
he had made; and in framing hypotheses, on which time
and the return to a sound medical philosophy have done
justice, they greatly retarded the restoration of the science.
The works of Borelli are, 1. Della Causa delle Febri ma-
ligne, Pisa, 1658, 4to; 2. De Renum usu judicium, Stras-
burg, 1664, 8vo ; 3. Euclides Restitutus, 1628, 4to ; 4. Apo-
lonii Pergcei Conicorum, libri v. vi. et vii., Florence, 1661 ;
5. Theories Mediceorum Planetarum ex causis Phgsicis
deductee, Florence, 1666, 4to ; 6. Tractatus di vi Percus-
sionis, Bologna, 1667, 4to ; 7. Historia et Meteorologia in-
cendii AEthnei, Reggio, 1669, 4to; 8. De Motionibus natura-
libus a gravitatependentibus, Bologna, 1670,4to; and, 9. De
Motu Animalium, opus posthumum, Rome, 1680, 1681, 4to.
BORGA, or Borgo, a seaport town in Russian Finland,
in the laen of Nyland, 28 miles E.N.E. of Helsingfors. It
is the seat of a bishop, contains 2138 inhabitants, and car¬
ries on trade in linen and in timber.
BORGHESE,anoble Sienese family, one of whom, being
elected pope in 1605, assumed the name of Paulo V., after
which the family became among the most powerful of the
Roman nobility by their union with the Aldobrandini. The
late prince in 1803 married Pauline, sister of the Emperor
Napoleon, and widow of General Leclerc. This prince sold
to his imperial brother-in-law the noble Borghese collection
of antiquities for 13,000,000 francs.
BORGIA, Alexander. See Alexander VI., Pope.
Borgia, Caesar, a man distinguished both for his
talents and his crimes, was the illegitimate son of Rodriguez
Lenzuoli, afterwards Pope Alexander VI., and of a Roman
lady named Vanozza. At a time when the court of Rome was
a school of falsehood and licentiousness; when the frequency
of political iniquities had utterly effaced all shame; when
treaties afforded no guarantee, and oaths inspired no confi¬
dence, Borgia may be said to have systematized crime, and
to have carried utter disregard of all ties, human or divine,
to an extent previously unknown. He had scarcely com¬
pleted his studies when he obtained the archbishopric of
Pampeluna; and in 1492 his father, who was now pope,
made him archbishop of Valentia, and soon afterwards gave
him a cardinal’s hat. When Charles VIII.of France appeared
before the walls of Rome, the pontiff was obliged to treat
with him for the preservation of his capital from invasion.
The king, who knew the character of the pope, demanded
that his son Caesar should accompany him as a hostage ; but
scarcely had the French army quitted Rome when Borgia
contrived to escape from the camp. In 1497 Alexander be¬
stowed the duchy of Benevento, together with the counties
of Terracina and Pontecorvo, on his eldest son, who had al¬
ready received from the king of Spain the duchy of Gandia.
His brother’s elevation excited Caesar’s jealousy; and when
the duke was murdered about a week after his investiture,
public opinion ascribed the deed to the cardinal. By his
father’s permission he now laid aside the purple, and de¬
voted himself to the profession of arms. He was invested
with the honours of his brother, and employed to carry to
Louis XII. the papal bull of divorce which that monarch
had long desired to obtain. In return for this favour Louis
made Borgia Duke of Valentinois, and gave him a pension
of 20,000 crowns, with a body-guard of 100 men. In 1499
Borgia married a daughter of King John of Navarre, and
accompanied Louis XII. to Italy. He first undertook the
conquest of Romagna, and caused the lawful possessors of
the land to be treacherously murdered. He was appointed
Duke of Romagna by his father in 1501 ; and he then
wrested from Jacopo d’Apiano the principality of Piombino.
BOR 3S>
In his endeavours to make himself Duke of Bologna and Borgia
Florence he was unsuccessful. For the conquest of Came- II
rino he demanded soldiers and artillery from Guidobaldo of Borg°g’
Montefeltro,Dukeof Urbino. Camerino was taken by storm, v none' ,
and Julius of Barona the lord of the city, and his two sons,
were strangled. This fate Borgia reserved for all whom he
had pillaged. He scrupled not to attain his ends by the vilest
treachery ; and, by fallacious promises to spare life on the
condition of surrender, he ensnared many in his toils. His
violence at length aroused the powers of Italy to form a
league against him; but he found means to dissolve this
alliance by assembling a body of 3000 Swiss, and winning
over their troops to his interest by advantageous offers.
There now seemed no obstacle to his being proclaimed king
of Romagna, of the March, and of Umbria, when Alexander
VI. was suddenly cut off on the 17th August 1503, by par¬
taking accidentally of the poison which he and Borgia had
prepared for nine newly-elected cardinals, in order to seize
upon their possessions. Borgia likewise suffered severely
from the same poison, but by the use of antidotes he re¬
covered. Having obtained possession of his father’s trea¬
sures, he assembled his troops in Rome, but found him¬
self deserted by his officers, and surrounded on every side
by enemies, one of the most bitter of whom was the new
pope, Julius II. Borgia was arrested, and sent to Spain,
where he was imprisoned by the Spanish court for two
years, but at length made his escape through a window, and
fled to his brother-in-law the king of Navarre. He ac¬
companied that prince in his expedition against the Cas¬
tilians, and fell fighting under the walls of Pampeluna, the
seat of his first diocese, March 12. 1507.
Borgia may be regarded as an incarnation of whatever is
most detestable and infamous among men. Many princes
have shed more blood, many have inflicted more terrible
vengeance, but the name of Caesar Borgia is attainted with
a surpassing infamy. Others have been hurried on by their
passions ; but with Borgia everything was the result of cool
deliberation. His manners were as dissolute as those of his
celebrated sister Lucrezia; yet, like that princess, he was
a patron of letters, even produced specimens of poetic
talents, and found panegyrists to celebrate his genius and
taste. His situation imposed upon him the necessity of
temperance, but in this is included everything that can be
said in his favour, unless credit be given him for that seduc¬
tive eloquence of which he was an undoubted master’ and
which he employed for the purpose of inveigling his intended
victims into his toils. It is not without reason, therefore,
that Machiavelli, in his Prince, has taken Caesar Borgia as
a model: he could not among men have chosen a hero better
qualified to inspire unmitigated horror and detestation.
Borgia, Lucrezia. See Alexander VI., Pope.
BORGO, San Donino, a walled town in the duchy of
Parma, fourteen miles N.W. of the city of Parma. It has
a fine cathedral and town-hall, and manufactures of silk
and linen goods. Pop. 4200.
Borgo, San Sepolcro, a town of Tuscany, province of
Florence, on the Tiber, fifteen miles N.E. of Arezzo. It
has a strong citadel, a cathedral, and numerous churches.
Pop. 4500.
BORGOGNONE, Jacopo Cortese, so called from
Burgundy, the place of his birth, was born at St Hippolite
in 1621. He studied at Bologna, where Guido was in full
reputation, and was befriended by that great artist, whose
mode of colouring he studied with advantage. Cortese was
chiefly remarkable for the life and spirit which he imparted
to his battle pieces, which he always represented as scenes
that he had witnessed. He resided long at Florence, where
he acquired a handsome independence by his profession,
which he assiduously practised till 1655, when some reli¬
gious scruples induced him to become a Jesuit monk. Yet
even then he continued to employ his pencil on his favourite
40
BOR
Borgoo subjects, until apoplexy put a period to his life in 1676.
Ij Many of his spirited pictures are in British collections, parti-
v orin^' j cularly four in the Earl of Derby’s residence at Knowsley,
two of which are battle pieces, another a Turkish march,
and the fourth the overthrow of the host of Pharaoh in
the Red Sea. (t. s. t.)
BORGOO, a large kingdom in the interior of Africa,
bounded on the east by the Niger, on the south by Eyeo or
Yarriba, on the west by Dahomey, and on the south by
Gourma. It is about thirty days’ journey in length, and
eleven in breadth. It has generally a level surface, though
crossed by a considerable range of "mountains. The soil is
mostly fertile, and tolerably cultivated, producing in abun¬
dance corn, yams, plantains, and limes. The cattle are not
numerous, but there is a copious supply of all the species
of game that prevail in Africa. A considerable inland trade
between Houssa and the coast passes through this territory.
M hen Clapperton entered it from Eyeo, he was warned to
be on his guard, as the people were the greatest robbers and
plunderers in all Africa, and he would run the risk of being
stripped of everything he possessed. Pie found this bad
report altogether unjust, and declares, on quitting it, that
the people had always behaved honestly, and never robbed
him of the slightest article. They were cheerful, obliging,
good-humoured, and communicative. The acts of robbery,
too frequent in that country, were perpetrated by slaves of
the chiefs and governors, who were natives, not of Borgoo,
but of Houssa. These persons, in virtue of the service in
which they are employed, think themselves entitled to pilfer
whatever comes within their reach. The kingdom of Bor¬
goo is divided into the four states of Boussa, Wawa, Kiama,
and Niki, the three last of which were visited by Clapper-
ton in his journey through interior Africa. Boussa, remark¬
able as the scene of the disastrous fate of Mungo Park,
holds the first rank, and all the others are considered as in
a degree of dependence upon it.
Borgoo, another country of the same name in Central
Africa, of which little is known, and that little by hearsay,
as it has never been explored by Europeans. It lies to the
N.E. of Lake Tsad, about midway on the road to Egypt.
It forms a connecting link between the basin of that lake
and that of the Nile. It is mountainous; the atmosphere is
said to be very pure ; its numerous valleys are irrigated by
perennial rivers, and are extremely fertile in date trees. It
is inhabited by the Uelad Soliman, a well-known powerful
Arab tribe. In the latter end of 1851 Dr Barth and Dr
Overweg, then at Kuka, determined to visit and explore this
interesting region, and set out with a large army despatched
by the sheikh of Bornu for the invasion of the countries
eastward from Lake Tsad. Unfortunately, however, this
army was soon met by the enemy, defeated, and put to
flight so suddenly, that Barth and Overweg saved their lives
and instruments only by a quick retreat. They conse¬
quently did not succeed in reaching Borgoo, which is al¬
lied to Bornu. (a. p.)
BORING, generally speaking, is the art of perforating a
solid body. In the present article it is proposed to give
some account of the boring of Cannon, of Cylinders, of
Muskets, of Portland Stone, of Rocks, and of Wooden
Pipes.
Cannon. 1. Boring of Cannon is performed by placing the can¬
non on an axis, which is turned by a very strong power,
whilst a steel cutter, in form of a drill, is pressed against
the metal, and excavates the cylindrical cavity which is re¬
quired. Boring may be considered as a branch of the art
of turning, which, in general, is the formation of cones,
cylinders, and other figures that have an axis, by making a
straight line or curve revolve round the axis on which the
material is fixed, or by making the material revolve whilst
the generating line remains at rest. In turning bodies of
no great degree of hardness, and where it is required to take
BOR
off only a small portion of the surface at once, a small power
is sufficient to put the turning machine in motion ; and the
longer the edge of the cutter which is applied to the metal
is, and the harder the metal, the greater force is required to
turn the machine.
Cannon, at first, were frequently made of bars of malle¬
able iron, placed longitudinally, and these bars covered
with iron hoops, the whole welded or brazed together. Ord¬
nance of this construction was not sufficiently strong to re¬
sist the explosion of the powder, and did not admit of the
cylindrical cavity being formed with much accuracy. Its
use was, therefore, gradually laid aside, and guns of cast-
metal were employed. And before the casting of cannon
became general, guns of cast-metal were reserved for the
most important situations ; thus the ships of the admiral and
vice-admiral alone had cast-metal cannon, the other ships
of war being armed with wrought-iron guns only.
Copper, without mixture, has been employed to cast
guns, as appears from two large cannon made in the time
^[^nry VldL> and bearing his name, in the armoury of
the lower of London. But the only two materials now
used for cannon are bronze, which is a mixture of copper
and tin, and cast-iron. In modern times the use of cast-
iron cannon has become more general, as that metal has the
advantage of not being softened by the heat of the inflam¬
mation of the powder ; whereas brass guns, when fired many
times in rapid succession, become heated so nearly to the
melting temperature of the metal, that the muzzle of the
gun droops, and the touch-hole is much enlarged.
The first cannon made of cast-metal were cast hollow,
with a cavity as nearly cylindrical as could be executed by
casting. I he surface of this cavity was then smoothed on
a boring machine by steel cutters set in a copper head, and
disposed so as to describe a cylinder terminated by a half
spheroid. Ihese cutters (in French alezoirs, and the opera¬
tion alezer) are represented in the French Encyclopedic—
planches, Ponte. This method of making guns has long
been laid aside on account of the holes and inequalities in
the cavity thus formed, and the difficulty of casting the cavit y
so as that its axis shall coincide with the axis of the piece.
Cannon are now always cast solid, and the cylindrical cavity
is formed by boring in this solid mass.
The power employed for boring cannon ought to be in
proportion to the hardness of the metal of which they are
composed, and to the size of the pieces. For the boring of
guns of brass, as it is called, that is, a metal composed often
parts of copper, one of tin, and two of brass, or of these
metals in other proportions, a metal softer and more easily
bored than cast-iron, horses are sometimes employed as a
moving power ; but the strong moving powers of water or
steam must be had recourse to for boring large guns of cast-
iron, which is the material used for making the largest guns
now in use, and is also the hardest substance used in their
manufacture. Indeed, some kinds of cast-iron are too hard
to admit the action of the borer ; and for the making of guns
it is necessary to melt pig-iron of different qualities together
in order to have a metal that shall possess no more than the
required degree of hardness.
The quality of pig-iron is known by the appearance
of its surface, but more decisively by the appearance
which its fracture presents. To obtain this fracture, a
man takes one end of a pig in each hand, and lifting it as
high above his head as 'he can, throws it with force, so
that the middle of the pig shall fall across another pig
placed on the ground. In this way the pig thrown down
is broken. Soil or gray pig-iron, which is the most valu¬
able, breaks with difficulty, and the surface of its fracture
is of a gray colour, composed of pretty large crystalline
grains. Hard or white pig-iron breaks easily ; the surface
of the fracture is white, and not sensibly granulated, the
grains that compose it being small. The pig-iron here
Boring.
BOR
Boring, spoken of is that smelted by the coke of pit-coal. Pig-
iron smelted with charcoal of wood has a fracture of a
different appearance, sometimes lamellar, like the fracture
of metallic bismuth. Formerly guns used to be cast from
the blast furnace; that is to say, immediately from the
ironstone. I his was attended with uncertainty in respect
to the nature of the metal; for the nature of the metal
given by the blast-furnace varies frequently and suddenly,
from causes either unknown, or not under the command
of the iron-master, tor this reason guns are no longer
cast from the blast-furnace, but pig-iron already formed is
taken, of such qualities and in such proportions as to form
a metal neither too soft nor too brittle and hard for guns.
The different kinds of pig-iron thus selected are melted
together in a furnace, called in iron manufactories an air-
furnace, and by some writers a reverberatory furnace, by
the flame of pit-coal; the flame being impelled by a strong
current of air produced by the rarefaction of the air in a
chimney of thirty or forty feet in height. The column of
the atmosphere of which the air in the chimney makes a
part being lighter than the unrarefied columns of the at¬
mosphere next it, its equilibrium with these columns is
destroyed. The neighbouring columns, therefore, rush
through the grate of the furnace, which is the only aper¬
ture by which they can attain the bottom of the rarefied
column; and they carry the flame of the coal against the
pig-iron, which is thereby brought into fusion. From the
iron thus fused only one large gun is cast at a time, the
furnace not being capable of melting more metal than is
requisite for that purpose.
The gun is cast with two appendages, which are to come
off before it is finished and ready for use. The one is a
square piece beyond the cascabel, for fixing the gun so as
to revolve with the axis of the boring-mill; and the other
is the head.
The head in cast-iron cannon is a mass of cast-iron two
or three feet long, and somewhat bell-shaped. It is a pro¬
longation of the mass of metal beyond the muzzle ring, and,
in the position in which the gun is cast, the head is the
top of the whole mass, the square beyond the cascabel be¬
ing the lowest part. After the metal has cooled, the upper
surface of the head is cavernous, as is the case with the
surface that is uppermost during the casting and cooling
of any large body of cast-iron. The sides of the cavities
in the head are frequently formed of cast-iron crystallized
in a fern-leaf form. The intention of the head is to pre¬
vent these cavities, which are formed most abundantly at
the upper surface of the cooling cast-iron, from forming
in the gun itself. But, notwithstanding the precaution of
casting the gun with a large head, and of mixing proper
kinds of cast-iron in the air-furnace, it frequently happens
that small cavities occur in the guns.
Vertical The gun with its head being cast and allowed to cool, it is
boring. conveyed to the boring-mill, where the head is to be taken
off, the cylindrical cavity or bore is to be formed, and the
outside of the gun is to be turned. Formerly the boring
of guns was done in an upright position; the gun being
placed above the boring-bar, was fixed in a frame sliding
vertically in grooves. This frame was suspended on each
side by a block and tackle, and the end of each of the two
ropes was wound round a windlass. By turning these
windlasses the gun might be raised or lowered, and by
this means might be allowed either to press with its whole
weight on the boring-bit, or with any part of its whole
weight. A figure of this apparatus may be seen in the
French Encyclopedic—planches, Fonte. Another verti¬
cal apparatus for boring cannon is represented in Rinman,
Eergiverks Lexicon, Stockholm, 1789, tab. iv.
Horizontal The practice which has long been followed in this coun¬
ting* try is to place the gun horizontally in the boring-mill; and
VOL. v.
I N G. 41
it is fixed on the axis of the mill by means of the square Boring,
piece at the cascabel. w-y-w
In a boring-mill constructed by Smeaton, one gun is
placed on the horizontal axis of the water-wheel itself,
and, consequently, revolves with the same velocity. On
this same axis is a toothed wheel with seventy-eight teeth,
which works two wheels, one placed on each side of it,
and each having twenty-nine teeth. On the axis of each
of these a gun is placed ; their power is J^ths of the power
of the centre wheel. (See Smeaton’s Reports, vol. i.) On
the axis where the power is least, smaller sized guns are
bored; on the axis of the greatest power the large guns
are bored. A crane, movable on a vertical axis, with a
sweep that extends over all the carriages, with a tackle
hanging from its beam, and wrought by a windlass, serves
to place the gun on the carriage where it is to be bored,
or to remove it from one carriage to another if required;
and afterwards, when the gun is bored and turned, the
crane serves to remove the gun from the boring-mill.
The gun, when placed on the machine, has the square
at the cascabel fixed in a square iron box (G, Plate
GIX. fig. 5) on the axis. This box has a screw pass¬
ing through each of its sides, and by the operation of
these screws the square of the gun is adjusted, centred,
and fixed ; the chace of the gun is also fixed in a collar
N, in which it is to revolve. (The collar in the figure is
represented too near the muzzle ring.)
The axis on which each gun is fixed may be set in gear,
or put in connection with the revolving axis of the ma¬
chine, so as to move round with it; or taken out of gear so
as to remain at rest, although the other parts of the ma¬
chine continue in movement. There are various methods
of doing this. One is given by Smeaton in the work above
cited. After the gun is fixed on the axis, and before be¬
ginning the operation of boring, the head, which has been
described above, is cut off near the muzzle ring. For this
purpose the gun is set in gear so as to revolve on its axis
with the moving power; and a bar of steel, in shape
and size like the coulter of a plough, is applied at right
angles to the axis of the gun. The narrow side of this
bar is sharpened to a cutting edge, so that it has the form
of one tooth of a very large saw; and this cutting edge
is opposed to the direction of the revolving motion of the
gun, and held strongly on to the gun by a screw pressing
on the bar; the cutter takes off an angular portion at right
angles to the axis, till the cylindrical part connecting the
head with the gun is so much diminished, that the head
is made to fall off by the blow of a hammer applied on it.
In brass guns, cast with a core, the head was sawed off by
hand with a blade of steel, whose edge was toothed as a
saw, while the sides were toothed as files. See the French
Encyclopedic—pi anch es, Fonte.
A great degree of heat is generated by the violent fric¬
tion of the steel-cutter on the cast-iron during the opera¬
tion of cutting off the heads of guns. The quantity of
this heat has been estimated by Rumford in one of his
Essays on Heat.
After the head is taken off, the workmen proceed to
bore the gun. This is done by exposing the revolving
gun to the action of a steel-cutter, fixed on the end of a
bar, which bar is placed on a carriage, and impelled con¬
tinually towards the gun. The operation of boring is done
on the same axis on which the head was cut off, if the
power be sufficient; if not, the gun is removed, by means
of the crane, to an axis, where it is made to revolve by a
stronger power.
The boring-bar is fixed on a carriage sliding in iron
grooves, which are truest when made triangular. The
carriage, which, in the apparatus represented at fig. 5,
consists merely of the bar on which the rack is, is pressed
42
Borinff.
BORING.
forward by a pinion P, whose gudgeons are on a fixed frame
' BB ; and this pinion works into a rack 11. The axis of the
pinion has mortised holes in it, through which one end of
a lever L is passed ; and the other end of this lever is load¬
ed with a weight W, which causes the pinion to propel
the carriage and boring-bar towards the gun. In many
boring-machines there are two pinions on the same axis,
acting on two racks; in others, the carriage is propelled
by two upright levers, on the end of one of which acts a
weight, hanging from a rope, that passes over a pulley ;
the lower end of the upper lever acts on the upper end
of the lower, whilst the lower extremity of the lower lever
presses forward the carriage. This method, which is free
from any inequalities that may arise from the teeth of the
rack, is figured by Smeaton in his Reports, vol. i. p. 396.
Another method of propelling the carriage of the boring-
bar, is by a screw acting on the end of the carriage. See
Meyer in the Transactions of the Academy of Stockholm,
1782, tab. ix.
The boring-bar is a very strong piece of wrought iron, of
less diameter than the intended calibre of the piece, in
order that the boring dust or shavings detached by the
cutter may be got out. The boring bar is increased in
diameter near the end, for some inches, see fig. 6, B; in
this part there is a superficial groove for receiving the
sides of the steel-cutter or bit, which is to be firmly fixed
in the bar. The bit T, fig. 6, is made from a rectangular
piece of a steel bar, in which the two upper angles are cut
olf obliquely, so as to form two cutting edges like an ob¬
tuse-angled drill; the side of the rectangle, opposite to
the point of the drill, is then hollowed out in the form of a
pigeon hole ; and this hollow fits into and embraces the solid
part of the boring-bar, whilst the sides of the pigeon hole
fit into the grooves of the bar. The point of this obtuse-
angled bit is pressed against the revolving metal of the
gun, by the force which propels the boring-bar; and the
edges coming in contact with the revolving metal, a coni¬
cal cavity is produced; so that, by taking off successively
a multitude of similar shells or shavings, the cylindrical
bore, with a conical termination, is formed. The diameter
of the pointed bit first used must be less than the intend¬
ed calibre of the piece, as the boring is to be repeated
again at least once, in order to make the internal cylin¬
drical surface as smooth as possible, by taking off any in¬
equalities that have been left by the first cutter. In
finishing the bore, a cross bit may be employed. It is a
rectangular piece of steel, ground to a cutting edge at
each end, and put through a hole in the boring-bar, in
vhich it is fixed. The edges of this cutter, in revolving,
describe a cylindrical surface. After the cylindrical sur¬
face of the bore is made sufficiently true, and of the re¬
quired calibre, a bit without a point, and rounded off to
the desired curve, is used to form the bottom of the
chamber.
Some recommend that the boring-bit for cast-iron
should have its cutting edges brought to an acute angle,
by being filed hollow; but in this case the two edges can¬
not be brought into one point; for the obtuse-angled edge
formed by the thickness of the metal of the bit joins the
two cutting edges crossways, and forces itself forwards by
being near the centre, requiring, however, a considerable
pressure. These hollow-edged bits are not so well adapt¬
ed to continuance of grinding as the plain ones, but they
make amends by their much less frequently wanting sharp¬
ening. It does not appear, however, that these hollow-
edged bits have been found advantageous in gun-boring.
i he howitzer appears to have had its origin in Ger¬
many. I his piece of ordnance, the mortar, and the car-
ronade, in all of which the diameter of the chamber for
the powder is smaller than the diameter of the rest of
the bore, are first bored all through, nearly to the intend- Boring,
ed calibre of the chamber, and then that part of the bore
that requires it is enlarged.
I he cutters in gun-boring become magnetic, in conse¬
quence of being continually rubbed in the same direction,
so that the boring dust is seen adhering and hanging from
their edges when they are withdrawn from the gun.
It is required that the bore shall be a cylindrical cavity
whose axis coincides with the axis of the gun: for this
purpose, care must be taken to place the axis of the bor¬
ing-bar, and that of the gun, both in one horizontal line,
and it is requisite that these two lines continue in this
position during the whole operation of boring. The
centring of the boring-bar for this purpose requires to be
done by an experienced workman, and an accurately-con¬
structed boring-machine is necessary for the continuance
of the right position.
Whilst on the axis of the mill, the gun has a smooth
outer surface given it by turning tools, which are applied
in the way usual in turning metals; a wooden gauge, or
cut-out profile, of the gun, with its intended mouldings,
being applied to know when the turning has been con¬
tinued to a proper depth. When this is done the gun is
taken out of the boring-mill; the square at the cascabel
is cut oft by the chisel; and the trunions, and other parts
which are not susceptible of being turned, are dressed by
the chisel. The cyphers and arms which had been cast
on the gun are finished by the chisel.
A cannon is said to constitute the ultima ratio regum,
the last argumenUhat governments have recourse to ; and
even this severe kind of argument has sometimes been em¬
bellished. Amongst ornamented cannon, the brass three-
pounder in the Tower, brought from Malta, is a master¬
piece ; it is covered with carving in a good taste by a
sculptor of Rome.
The touch-hole is drilled by stock and bit, or by drill
and bow; the drill being propelled by a lever placed on a
carriage, movable on wheels. A figure of this apparatus
is given in the Encyclopedie—planches, Fonte. Another
apparatus for this purpose is figured in Rinman, Bergwerhs
Lexicon, table xiv. fig. 9, 10. See also Monge, De¬
scription de VArt de Fabriquer les Canons, in 4to, Paris,
1794. This work was published by order of the revolu¬
tionary government, and distributed to the iron-masters
and founders in different parts of France, for their instruc¬
tion. It contains, amongst others, figures and descriptions
of two kinds of vertical boring machines, of three kinds
of horizontal boring machines, of a machine for turning
the trunions, of two different machines for boring the
touch-hole, of a machine for putting copper boshes in
brass guns, and of various instruments for examining and
proving guns.
Before the gun is sent off, it is examined and proved in
various ways. And first, to ascertain whether the bore is
free from holes, an instrument is employed, consisting of
several elastic steel prongs disposed in a circle, and with
their sharp points turned outwards. This being fixed on a
pole, is introduced into the bore of the gun, and drawn to
and fro; the points of the prongs press against the sides
of the bore, and the presence of a hole is known b}^ one
of the prongs getting into the hole, and preventing the in¬
strument from being drawn out directly, unless by the use
of a ring that is pushed over the prongs to unbend them.
There is another instrument, composed of a board twice
as long as the bore of the piece. Along the middle of the
board is a groove proceeding in a straight line. In this
groove a button is movable, and on the button, as a centre,
are fixed two radii or arms; the two ends of these arms
within the gun describe a line on the inside ofthebore when
the button is pushed inwards, whilst the extremities of the
BORING.
43
Boring, arms on the outside describe two similar lines on the part
' of the board that is situate without the bore. In this way
the outline of a longitudinal section of the bore is describ¬
ed, and its sinuosities or deviation from the axis are ren¬
dered sensible. This instrument is seldom used; it re¬
quires to be made by a workman skilled in the construc¬
tion of mathematical instruments, or in watchmaking.
A lighted wax-candle is introduced into the gun for the
purpose of seeing any defects there may be in the bore,
or the light of the sun is reflected into the bore by a mir¬
ror. The strength of the gun is proved by firing it with
a large charge of powder; and by forcing water into the
bore by a powerful forcing pump, the touch-hole being
stopped, and also the mouth of the piece, so that water
forced in by the mouth cannot return that way.
Cylinders. 2. Boring of Cylinders for steam-engines, and for
blowing machines, and the boring of the working barrels
of large pumps, and other hollow cylinders in which pis¬
tons are to work, is performed by making the steel-cutters
describe a cylindrical surface on the inside of the cylin¬
der, whilst the cylinder remains fixed. The first steam-
engine cylinders in this country were of brass, or of a mix¬
ture of copper and tin. This was the case with the cylin¬
der of the steam-engine erected in the early part of the
eighteenth century for lifting water from the colliery of
Elphinston in Stirlingshire. But since that period the
. construction of steam-engines, and the manufacture of
cast-iron, have been greatly improved; the uses of both
have been much extended; and cast-iron has now for a
long time been the only material employed in making
cylinders for steam-engines, and other large cylinders in
which pistons are to move!
In the boring of cylinders the steel-cutters are fixed in
a cutter-head, which revolves with the boring-bar at the
same time that it is impelled along the interior surface of
the cylinder by a rack, with a pinion moved by a lever and
weight as already described. The axis or boring-bar em¬
ployed for cylinders is a hollow tube of cast-iron, and has a
groove passing through it; the length of this groove being
proportioned to the length of the cylinder to be bored.
The cutter-head consists of two cast-iron rings, the first
of which is accurately fitted on the boring-bar, which is
turned truly cylindrical, so that this ring may slide along
the boring-bar ; the second ring is fixed round the first by
wedges, its diameter being proportioned to the diameter of
the cylinder to be bored; and on its circumference are
eight notches to receive the steel-cutters, which are fixed
in by wedges. The firstring is fixed on the boring-bar so as
to make the whole cutter-head move round with the bor¬
ing-bar, by means of two small iron bars, which go through
notches in the first ring, and pass through the groove of
the boring-bar. These small bars have each a round hole
in the part which passes through the geometrical axis of
the boring-bar; through these round holes there passes a
bolt, which forms the end of the rack; a key is put
through the end of the bolt, which prevents the rack from
being drawn back by the lever and weight; and by this
means the rack, impelled by the lever and weight, pushes
forward the cutter-head, which is at the same time revolv¬
ing with the boring-bar ; while the connection of the rack
and cutter-head being round, and in the axis of motion,
the rack is thereby free from the circular motion of the
cutter-head. This mode of constructing the boring-bar
was invented in the works of Mr Wilkinson, at the time
when accurately-bored cylinders came to be required in
consequence of Mr Watt's improvements in the steam-
engine. In the machines about to be mentioned the cut¬
ters are made to advance by a train of wheels deriving
their motion from the power that turns the boring-bar.
An apparatus of great merit was contrived and describ¬
ed in 1802 by Mr Billingsley, engineer of the Bowling Boring,
iron-works, near Bradford. (See Repertory of Arts, second /
series, vol. ii. p. 322.) According to his method the cy- Billings-
linder is placed with its axis perpendicular to the horizon. "^ema'
The object of this is, first, that the boring-dust may fall
out, and not remain on one side of the cylinder, wearing the
cutters; so that in this way the cylinder may be bored
through without changing the cutters, by which means a
more regular bore is obtained. Secondly, That the cylin¬
der may not deviate from its cylindrical form by its own
weight, a deviation which is found to take place in large
and slender cylinders when laid on their side ; the verti¬
cal diameter being then less than the horizontal diameter.
A similar loss of shape may happen to cylinders that are
improperly wedged and strapped down for the purpose of
being bored. In this method the cylinder is fixed with
screws by the flanges, where it is most capable of resist¬
ance, and the screws are disposed so as to press the cylin¬
der equally all round. Thirdly, That the operation may
be sooner completed, which is effected in consequence of
less time being employed to fix the cylinder in this me¬
thod. In the usual mode of propelling the cutters de¬
scribed above, the attendance of a man is necessary to
change the position of the bar on the axis of the pinion,
and to raise the weight. This attendance is dispensed
with in the machine under consideration, the mechanism
for propelling the cutters being as follows : A leather strap
passing over the boring-bar communicates the revolving
motion of the boring-bar to a wheel, which communicates
a slow motion by a train of wheels and pinions to an axis,
bearing two pinions which work into two racks ; and these
racks push the boring-head and cutters slowly forward on
the boring-bar, at the same time that the boring-head is
revolving with the boring-bar. The velocity with which
it is required that the cutters shall advance varies as the
diameter of the cylinder varies, the moving power re¬
maining the same. And by altering the train of wheel-
work, the cutters may be made to advance with any velo¬
city required.
Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, Plate CIX., are different views Murray’s
of the machine for boring cylinders, invented by Mr
Murray of Leeds. Fig. 1 is an elevation, and fig. 2 a
plan, of the machine. W, figs, land 2, is the spur wheel,
deriving its motion from water or steam, and communi¬
cating a revolving motion to the boring-bar. The toothed
wheel A, fig. 1, moves round with the boring-bar B on
which it is fixed; it gives motion through the wheels U
and E, and to the screw S, whose threads act on the two
racks, which racks are fixed to the cutter-head H, and
revolve with it. The velocity with which the cutter-head
is impelled along the cylinder depends upon the number
of threads of the screw in a given length, and on the pro¬
portions of the wheels A, C, I), and E, to each other. By
varying the velocity of the screw, the cutter-head may be
made to move in either direction up or down the cylinder.
F is a pinion whose axis ends in a square, which may be
wrought by a key, so as to bring the cutter-head out of
the cylinder, or push it home by the hand when that is
required. The cylinder is fixed in its bed by screws
passing through two iron rings, as represented at fig. 4;
and in this way the cylinder is equally pressed in the dif¬
ferent parts of its circumference. Fig. 3 is a transverse
elevation of the collar in which the end of the bar at A,
fig. 1, turns; X is the gudgeon in which the spindle X,
fig. 1, turns. In fig. 3 are also seen the two apertures
through which the two racks pass. By this machine also
the flanges are turned truly plane, so that the lid of the
cylinder may fit on exactly.
The patent granted in 1799 to Mr Murdoch, engineer,
Redruth, for new methods of constructing steam-engines
44 BOR
Boring. (See Repertory of Arts, vol. xiii.), contains some articles
Jt'- relative to boring. He employs an endless screw, which
patent^ 3 turne(^ ^.v ^le moving power, and works into a toothed
wheel, whose axis carries the cutter-head; and this me¬
thod, he says, produces a more smooth and steady motion
than the usual mode of fixing the boring-bar immediately
on the axis turned by the moving power.
Another article in Mr Murdoch’s patent that relates to
boring, is his method of forming the cylinder and steam-
case. He casts them of one solid piece, and then bores
a cylindiical interstice, by means of a boring-tool, made
of a hollow cylinder of iron, with steel-cutters fixed to its
edge, and acting like a trepan.
I he chambers of brass pumps, whose diameter does not
exceed a few inches, are fixed within iron rings, by means
of screws, in the manner described above when speaking
of Mr Murray’s apparatus. The rings are made accu^
rately cylindrical by turning, as is also the boring-bar.
I he boring-bar has four cross arms on its outer extremity,
to one of which a handle is fixed, whereby a workman
makes the boring-bar revolve. The cutter-head is made
to advance along the boring-bar by a screw.
Muskets. 3. Boring the Barrels of Muskets and other
Small Arms. Rectangular pieces of iron are forged of a
proper length and breadth ; these are heated in the fire,
and the two long edges, which had been previously thinned
off, are welded together on a mandril. The barrel thus
formed is fixed by a screw on a carriage that moves in
iron grooves; this carriage is propelled towards the boring-
bar by a rope which passes over pullies, and has a weight
hanging from its end. The boring-bar is turned by the
power of the same mill that turns the grinding-stones for
polishing the outside of the barrels. (See Encyclopedie—
planches, Arquebusier ; and Rozier, Introduction aux
Observations sur la Physique, tom. i. p. 157.) Water is
thrown on the barrels whilst boring from a trough placed
underneath. After the barrel is bored, the interior sur¬
face of the bore is polished by the action of the boring-
bar. The barrel is tried during the operation, by an iron
gauge of an inch and a half in length, and of a diameter
equal to the intended diameter of the musket. When the
barrel is bored, it is held to the light and looked through,
and if it contains any flaw, the place of that flaw is mark¬
ed on the outside with chalk, and the barrel is put on the
mandril again, and the defective place heated and ham¬
mered ; the workman also examines with a gauge whether
the barrel is crooked. When the bore has no flaws, the
barrel then undergoes the operation of the grinding-mill,
to the effect of polishing its exterior surface.
Rifled barrels are put on a bench twelve feet long. The
boring-bar is guided by a matrix or female-screw, whose
spiral curve is similar to the spiral of the rifles intended
to be made ; the boring-bar being fixed to a male-screw,
which passes through the female-screw, and fits it exact¬
ly. The female-screw is fixed to the bench, and has four
threads and as many furrows; and these threads, in general,
return to the point of the circumference from which they
set out, or make a revolution in the length of two feet.
I he male-screw, which fits into the female-screw, has at
one end an iron bar attached to it, by which it is put in
motion ; at the other extremity is fixed the boring-bar,
which passes through the barrel to be rifled; and the bor¬
ing-bar has a cutter fixed in it, which forms a spiral furrow
in the barrel when the screw is turned by the handle.
I he number of spiral threads in rifle-barrels is from three
to twelve. Sometimes the threads and furrows of the rifle-
barrel are required to be in straight lines ; in which case
a straight-lined matrix is used. In order that the threads
may be placed at an equal number of degrees of the cir¬
cumference from each other, the bench is furnished with
I N G.
a brass plate, div ided in the same way as the plate of the Boring,
machine for cutting the teeth of clock-wheels.
.. Boring of Portland Stone, so as to form pipes. Portland
1 hat kind of calcareous stone called by geologists oolite,stoIie-
which is quarried for building at Portland, Bath, in the
neighbourhood of the city of Paris, and other places, ad¬
mits of being cut by means of an iron blade, acting as a
saw, with sand and water. The more compact limestones
and marbles are also cut in this way, but not so easily.
I he other kinds of stone that can be squared for building,
such as ^sandstone and granite, do not yield to the saw,
but aie wormed into the desired shape by the chisel and
hammer. A modification of this mode of working Port¬
land stone consists in forming it into pipes. The method
of Sir George Wright, proposed in 1805, is as follows : A
hole is drilled through the block of stone, in which a long
iron bolt is inserted for the saw to work round as a centre ;
this bolt forms the axis of the cylinder which is to be
taken out, and projects considerably beyond the block at
both ends. Another hole is drilled in the intended circum¬
ference ; and into this the blade of the saw is introduced.
The frame of the saw is so disposed, that when it is
wrought to and fro, the blade is guided, by means of the
centre bolt, so as to describe the intended cylindrical cir¬
cumference. In this way a solid cylindrical core of stone
is detached, and a cylindrical cavity or pipe left in the
block. Or the saw may be made to describe a circle with¬
out drilling a hole in the centre, by drilling a hole in the
circumference, and fixing on the surface of the stone two
metallic concentric rings, so that the hole shall be includ¬
ed in the interstice between the rings. The saw is then
introduced into the hole, and being worked, it cuts in the
circular path formed by the interstice of the rings. See
Repertory of Arts, second series, vol. viii.
Mr Murdoch’s method, for which he obtained a patent in
1810, is preferable in practice to the above-mentioned
method. He employs a cylindrical saw to form the pipe.
A plug of wood is inserted in the centre of the intended
pipe ; this plug receives the lower end of a vertical spindle,
longer than the intended pipe; and this spindle is square,
with sockets sliding on it. On the upper part of the spindle
is a pulley or toothed-wheel, by which the spindle is made
to revolve. Near the lower end of the spindle is a wheel,
having a circumference like a hoop, three inches broad.
The diameter of this wheel is somewhat less than that of
the pipe to be bored. It regulates the motion, and fits
in the inside of a tube of metal attached to the spindle.
The diameter of the tube is nearly equal to that of the in¬
tended pipe ; but its length is greater by two feet. On the
lower edge of the tube is a rim of metal, so much thicker
than the tube that the groove cut in the stone by the rim
may admit the tube to move freely in it. This rim has
an edge like that of a stone-cutter’s saw, and in fact per¬
forms the office of a saw. The tube is caused to make a
reciprocating circular motion round the spindle. There
is a cistern placed above the tube, for the purpose of con-
veying a mixture of sand and water into the cylindrical
groove formed in the stone, whilst the machine is working.
Stone pipes, made in the above described way, have
been tried for conveying water in London. They were
joined by means of Parker’s cement, which consists of clay
ironstone, burnt, ground to a fine powder, and mixed with
mortar. This was the best material that could be got for
forming the joints; but these joints cracked and allowed
the water to escape, in consequence of the motion of the
carriages on the streets under which the pipes were laid,
or of the requisite beating down of the superincumbent
earth.
5. Boring of Rocks, for the purpose of blasting, hasRock
already been treated of under Blasting, and we shall only °C S"
Wooden
pipes.
BOR
Boring, add here a description of Hunter’s Stone-boring Machine.
—This implement consists of two parallel bars of steel, bound
together at the ends, supporting a traversing carriage, through
the centre of which passes a spiral auger attached to a
screwed bar ; this bar fits into a female screw-clamp above
the carriage, and on the upper end is a winch with four cross
handles. When the instrument is to be used, it is fixed
down to the stone to be pierced by a moveable screw-cramp
at each end, and the auger being made to revolve by means
of the winch, scoops out at each revolution as great a depth
of stone as is equal to the distance which the screw de¬
scends. I he chips ascend through the spiral channel of
the auger, and are thrown off at the top. The peculiar
shape of the point of the auger prevents its being rapidly
abraded, as it operates by chipping the stone and not by
grinding it away. Ihis implement has been used very suc¬
cessfully at various wrorks. At Arbroath harbour, in parti¬
cular, upwards of 30,000 linear feet were bored for receiv¬
ing the oaken trenails which were used for strengthening
the masonry against the action of the waves. The Arbroath
stone is from a bed which underlies the old red sandstone.
It is fissile in one plane like slates, and it is this property
which fits it for street pavements. It consists of fine grit
and schistose debris. (Vide Minutes of Institution of Civil
Engineers, vol. ii., p. 146.)
A Mr Talbot of America is reported to have recently
invented a boring machine of immense power, which was
applied with success to tunnelling through solid rock. We
have had no means of ascertaining the accuracy of this
report, and any notice of it must be deferred for the
present.
6. Boring of Wooden Pipes is done by means of a long
auger, beginning with one of small diameter, and proceeding
to employ successively spoon-formed augers of larger dia¬
meter. Elm is the w ood generally preferred for pipes to con¬
vey water. When a tree is to be bored, it is fixed on a car¬
riage, with a rack on the under part. This rack fits into a
pinion, the axis of which passes through gudgeons on a fixed
frame. On the axis of the pinion is a ratchet wheel, moved
by two catches, which derive their motion from the wind or
water power that turns the auger; and the pinion is moved
in a direction that briijgs the tree towards the auger. (See
a figure in Belidor, Architecture Ilydraulique, i. 1, 341.)
This apparatus is the same as the one employed in saw¬
mills. Wooden pipes are frequently bored by an auger
having at its outer end a wooden drift or handle, which is
put in motion by the workman. The trees are placed on
tressels, and there are also tressels of a convenient height
that support the auger; there is also a lathe to turn one
end of the tree conical, so as to fit into a conical cavity in
the end of the adjoining tree, and thus form a water-tight
joint. The end of the tree which receives the adjoining
pipe within it has a surface at right angles to the axis of the
pipe. Into this surface is driven an iron hoop, the diameter
of which is some inches greater than the diameter of the
aperture of the pipe. This precaution prevents the tree
from splitting when the conical end of the next tree is driven
home. When the tree is crooked, a bore is driven in from
each end, and the two bores meet, forming an angle. An
auger whose stalk is formed spirally for some way up is
figured in Bailey’s Machines of the Society of Arts. The
object of this is that the chips may be delivered without
taking the auger out of the hole.
A patent was granted in 1796 to Mr Howell, coalmaster,
of Oswestry, for boring wooden pipes by a hollow cylinder
made of thin plates of iron, about an inch less in diameter
than the hole to be bored. To one end of this cylinder is
fixed a, flange about a quarter of an inch in breadth, one
part of which is divided, so that, being constructed of steel,
it forms a cutter. The object of this method is to bore out
a solid cylinder of wood, capable of being converted into a
bor
45
Borlase.
smaller pipe, or of being applied to some other use in car- Borissov
pentry. {Repertory of Arts, vol. ix.) This kind of borer
is like the trepan, which is a hollow cylinder of steel, saw¬
toothed on the edge, and, when made to revolve rapidly
on its axis in the hand of the surgeon, saws or bores out
circular pieces of the flat bones of the head. (w. A. c.)
BORISSOV, a town of European Russia, government,
and 40 miles N.E. of the town, of Minsk, on the left bank
of the Berezina. It is only memorable for the disastrous
passage of the Berezina effected in the neighbourhood
by the remains of the F rench army on its retreat from
Moscow.
BORJA, a towm of Spain, province of Zaragoza, the
chief place of a partido of the same name, on the confines
of Navarre and Castile. Pop. 4239, chiefly engaged in
agriculture.
BORKUM, an island of Hanover, on the coast of East
Friesland, situated between the mouths of the East and
West Ems. It is about twelve miles in circumference, and
so low in the middle that it is separated into two parts at
high water. A considerable proportion of the inhabitants
consists of seafaring people, and the remainder draw their
support from the rearing of cattle, or in picking up the
fragments of vessels wrecked on their coast. It has a go¬
vernor, a Calvinistic minister, and a schoolmaster. The
spire of the church, which serves as a lighthouse, is in Eat.
53. 35. N. Long. 6. 41. E. Pop. about 500.
BORLACE, Dr Edmond, an eminent physician and
English writer, was the son of Sir John Borlace, who was
master of the ordnance, and one of the lords justices of Ire¬
land in 1643. He studied in Dublin College, and after¬
wards at Leyden, where he took the degree of doctor of
physic. He practised with success at Chester, and was in¬
corporated doctor of the faculty in the university of Oxford.
Among other works he published the following:—The
Reduction of Ireland to the crown of England, London,
1675, 8vo; The History of the Irish Rebellion, London,
1680, 8vo ; Brief Reflections on the Earl of Castlehaven’s
Memoirs, London, 1682, folio. He died about 1682.
BORLASE, William, a learned antiquary and naturalist,
born at Pendeen in Cornwall, of an ancient family, Feb. 2.
1696. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where
he took his degree as master of arts. In 1720 he was
ordained as priest; instituted in 1722 to the rectory of Ludg-
van in Cornwall; and in 1732 was presented to the vicarage
of St Just, his native parish. In the parish of Ludgvan are
rich copper works, abounding with mineral and metallic
fossils, of which he made a collection, and thus was led to
study at large the natural history of the county. In 1750
he was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society; and in
1(53 he published in folio, at Oxford, his Antiquities oj
Cornwall, a second edition of which was published at Lon¬
don, 1.69, with the title of “ Antiquities, Flistorical and
Monumental, of the County of Cornwall; consisting of
several essays on the ancient inhabitants, Druid supersti¬
tion, customs, and remains of the most remote antiquity in
Britain and the British isles, exemplified and proved by
monuments now extant in Cornwall and the Scilly Islands ;
with a vocabulary of the Cornu-British language.” His
next publication was Observations on the ancient and pre¬
sent state of^ the islands of Scilly, and their importance to
the trade of Great Britain, Oxford, 1756, 4to. In 1758
appeared his Natural History of Cornwall, Oxford, folio.
He presented to the Ashmolean Museum a variety of fos¬
sils and antiquities which he had described in his works ;
for which, and similar benefactions, he received the thanks5
of the university, and the degree of LL.D. Fie died Aug.
31. 17(2, at the age of seventy-seven, leaving twro sons.
Besides his other literary connections, he had a particular
correspondence with Pope; and there is still extant a large
collection of the poet s letters to Dr Borlase. Besides the
46
BOR
BOR
Bormio works above mentioned, he contributed many curious papers
II to the Philosophical Transactions.
°rn* , BORMIO, a town of the Austrian kingdom of Lorn -
^ hardy, in the province of Valteline, 29 miles N.E. of Son-
drio. It is situated at the foot of a lofty hill of the same
name, on the left bank of the Adda, is wrell built, and con¬
tains about 2000 inhabitants. Long. 9. 51. E. Lat. 46.
28. N. In the vicinity are the celebrated Bagni di Bormio,
still in repute.
BORN, Ignatius, Baron Yon, counsellor in the aulic
chamber of the mint and mines at Vienna, an eminent
mineralogist and metallurgist, was born of a noble family,
at Karlsburg in Transylvania, in 1742. He was educated
in a Jesuit college at Vienna, and afterwards entered into
that order, which, however, after sixteen months, he quitted.
He then studied law at Prague, and afterwards travelled into
Germany, Holland, and France. On his return to Prague
he engaged in the study of mineralogy.
The mines in the dominions of the house of Austria sup¬
port a numerous population. Idria produces mercury; Bo¬
hemia, tin and cobalt; and the other metals are obtained
in sufficient abundance, not only for the home supply, but
also for export. Maria Theresa did much for the regulation
of the mines ; and, with a view to diffusing the knowledge
of mineralogy amongst the nobles, she appointed lecturers
on that science in the universities. The administration of
the revenue arising to government from this source is con¬
ducted by a board of managers, overseers, assayers, and
other officers, who are instructed in metallurgy and minera¬
logy, and reside at the mines. The operations of these
functionaries are under the control of the aulic chamber of
the mint and mines at Vienna. An administration thus
constituted offers a field of some preferment; and Von Born
was received into the department of the mines and mint at
Prague in 1770.
About this time he met with an accident which nearly
proved fatal. In the course of a mineralogical journey
through Transylvania, he came to Felso-Banya, where the
gangue is rendered brittle and detached from the rock by
exposing it to the flames of wood heaped up in the mine and
set on fire. Having gone into the mine soon after the com¬
bustion had ceased, whilst the air was hot, and charged with
arsenical vapour, he was deprived of sensation for fifteen
hours, and long afterwards continued to suffer from a cough
and general pain. Some time after this accident he was af¬
fected with violent colics, which a large dose of opium re¬
moved ; this was succeeded by a numbness of the lower ex¬
tremities, and lameness in the right leg. In the latter part
of his life he was deprived of the use of both legs. These
calamities, however, did not repress the activity of his mind.
One of the chief objects of his exertion was to introduce
amalgamation in Hungary, in place of smelting and cupella-
tion, for extracting silver from the ores. At this time he
published his book upon the subject, in which he gives the
chemical theory of operation, and describes the method he
had adopted at Schemnitz. Von Born met with much op¬
position in his attempts to introduce amalgamation. After
he had succeeded in getting silver from the ore publicly at
Vienna, his detractors endeavoured to prove that the pro¬
cess was inferior to that already in use : and when at last
his process was tried successfully in the great way by orders
of Joseph II. at Schemnitz, his opponents shrugged up their
shoulders, saying, “ It is only the old Spanish process of
amalgamation.” The emperor ordered that his method should
be employed in some of the mines belonging to government,
and that he should receive a third part of the savings aris¬
ing from the improvement during the first ten years, and
four per cent, of this third part of the savings for the next
twenty years.
\ on Born was a satirist, though his attempts in that walk
were not particularly successful. The Staats Peruche, a
tale published without his knowledge in 1772, and an at- Born
tack on Father Hell, the Jesuit, and king’s astronomer at
\ ienna, are two of his satirical works. The satirical descrip¬
tion of the Monastic Orders, written in form of an academic
inaugural dissertation, entitled Monachologia, is generally
ascribed to Von Born. In this piece the monks are de¬
scribed in the technical language of natural history; but it
is supposed that he was assisted by Professor Herman of
Strasburg, the author of the very ingenious work on the
mutual affinities of animated beings, entitled Tabula Affini-
tatum Animalium Commentario illustrata. (Of this clever
work a new edition, with additions and illustrations, was pub¬
lished in Edinburgh, 8vo, 1852.)
Von Born wtis well acquainted with Latin, and the prin¬
cipal modern languages of Europe. He also possessed in¬
formation in many branches of science not immediately con¬
nected with metallurgy and mineralogy. He took an active
part in the political changes in Hungary. After the death
of Joseph, the diet of the states of Hungary passed a great
many acts, rescinding the innovationsof that scheming ruler ;
and it conferred the rights of denizen on several persons
who had been favourable to the cause of the Hungarians,
and, amongst others, on Von Born. At the time of his death
in 1791, he was employed in writing a work entitled
Leopoldini, probably relating to the prudent conduct of
Leopold II., the successor of Joseph, towards the Hungarians.
Von Born lived in splendour, and his house at Vienna
was resorted to by scientific men of all nations. It is likely
that his profits from the process of amalgamation were not
considerable, as at his death his affairs were in a state of in¬
solvency. His family consisted of a wife and two daughters,
who survived him. (See Townson’s Travels in Hungary ;
and Pezzil, Ostreich Biographien, 1792.)
The following is a list of his principal published writings,
and of the works of others which he edited.
Lythophylacium Borneanum, 1775, 8vo. This is a catalogue of his
collection of minerals, which he afterwards sold to Mr Greville.
It now forms a part of the magnificent Greville collection in the
British Museum. Index rerum naturalium Museci Ccesarei Vindo-
bonensis. Pars I. Testacea. Vindob. 1778, fol. maj. This splendid
volume contains the description and figures of the shells in the mu¬
seum at Vienna. On the Amalgamation of Ores containing Gold
and Silver, published in German, 4to, 1786; It has been translated
into English by Raspe. Catalogue mhhodique et raisonnl de la Col¬
lection des Fossiles de Mademoiselle Eleonore de Ilaab, 8vo, 1790.
Poda’s Description of the Machines used in the Alines of Schemnitz,
edited by Von Born. Ferber’s Letters from Italy, written to and
edited by Von Born. Ferber, in return, published the letters ad¬
dressed to him by Von Born, under the title of Briefe iiber mineralo-
gische gegenstande auf seiner reise durch das Temeswarer Bannat, Sie-
benburgen, Ober und Nieder Hungarn. Frankf. 1774. There is an
English version by Raspe, and a French one by Monnet. Some papers
in the Abhandlungen der Bbhmischer gesellschaft den Wissenchaften.
Several papers in the Transactions of a Private Society at Prague,
for the improvement of mathematics, natural history, and the
civil history of the country. Von Born published an annual pe¬
riodical work in German, entitled the Philosophical Transactions
of the Alasons’’ Lodge of Concord at Vienna, of which institution
he was the founder and patron. He was also a zealous member of
the Society of Illuminati; and when the Elector Palatine of Bava¬
ria suppressed the masonic societies in his dominions, Von Born who
was a member of the Academy of Sciences at Munich, on being re¬
quired to declare whether he would withdraw from the masonic so¬
cieties, resigned his place in the academy. He wrote some articles
in the German work published by Trebra, mine-director at Zeller-
feld in the Hartz, entitled A System of Instruction in the Art of Work¬
ing Alines, 4to; also Observations in support of the Aletallization of
the Alkalies, in Crell’s Annals, 1790, 1791. Ruprecht and Tondi
thought at that time that they had reduced the alkalis and barytes
to a metallic state, by the heat of a furnace urged by bellows ; but
it was afterwards found that the metallic substance thus obtained
was phosphate of iron, proceeding from their crucibles and fluxes.
The honour of obtaining this result was reserved for Sir Humphry
Davy. Relatio de Aurilegio Dacice Transalpince, 1789, in the Nova
Acta Academice Naturae Curiosorum, tom. viii. p. 97. This is an ac¬
count of the method employed in Transylvania in collecting gold
from the sand of the rivers. (w. a. C.)
B O R N E 0.
Borneo. BORNEO, or, as it is called by the natives Brune, an
island forming part of the great East Indian Archipelago,
and, next to New Holland, which may be considered as a
species of continent, the largest in the known world. It
reaches from about 7° north to 4° south latitude, and from
109° to 118° east longitude. Its length may be estimated
at 750 miles, its greatest breadth at 600, and its average
breadth at 350. Its area has been calculated by Baron
Melville of Carnbee at 12,745 geographical square leagues.
It exhibits the usual insular structure, a mass of lofty moun¬
tains in the centre, sloping gradually down to level and al¬
luvial tracts along the sea shore. It is in every part inter¬
sected by fine rivers, many of them navigable to a consi¬
derable distance from the sea. The interior of Borneo is
covered with immense forests, filled with wild animals, par¬
ticularly orang-utans. A great part of the coast is marshy,
so that it is in portions only that it displays the exuberance
of tropical fertility. Of all the East Indian islands, Borneo
ranks lowest as to civilization and improvement. Nothing,
perhaps, has tended so powerfully to check its progress as
the solid and unbroken form of its coasts, destitute of those
large bays or inland seas which have always proved the nur¬
sery of commerce.
The Portuguese discovered Borneo in 1526, though, from
the superior wealth promised by the Spice Islands, it at¬
tracted comparatively little attention. Yet they, as well as
the Spaniards, the Dutch, and the English, formed establish¬
ments on different parts of the coast; but the small force
defending them, and the fierce animosity of the natives,
made their tenure generally of very short duration. The
physical structure of Borneo, the vast forests, mountains,
and jungles of the interior, obstruct communication between
the different parts of its coast, as completely as if an extent
of sea had intervened. It is thus split into a number of
petty districts, entirely detached from each other, and which
cannot be satisfactorily described, unless in detail.
Borneo Proper occupies the northern coast, and is reckoned
a state of great antiquity. The soil is comparatively fertile,
supplying rice sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants,
as well as most of the camphor for which the island is cele¬
brated. The city, called also Borneo, is built upon alluvial
ground, about ten miles above the mouth of the river of the
same name. It is compared to Venice ; canals are conducted
through every street, and all business is conducted in boats,
usually rowed by women. The houses are built upon posts,
and ascended to by ladders. The river is navigable for large
vessels considerably above the town ; but there is a bar at its
entrance, over which there is scarcely a depth of seventeen feet
at high water. The sultan is treated with those marks of pe¬
culiar respect which in this part of the world usually indicate
an ancient dynasty ; but the chiefs or pangerans exercise great
power in the state. The commerce of this city and district
is almost entirely engrossed by the Chinese, who bring annually
from Amou four or five junks, of about 500 tons burden. As
the neighbourhood abounds in excellent timber, they frequently
build their junks here, and carry them away loaded with the
commodities of the country. Since the settlement of Sarawak
by Sir James Brooke, in the neighbourhood of this state, it has
some communication with the English.
On the eastern coast of Borneo, Mangedava and Pappal are
populous, fertile, and well-watered districts. Malloodoo pos¬
sesses these advantages in a still superior degree, and grows
also a large quantity of rattans. Tiroon produces sago in
abundance, and birds’ nests more copiously than any other
part of the Eastern Archipelago. None of these states, how¬
ever, are much frequented by or known to Europeans. The
chief state on the eastern coast is Passir, situated about fifty
miles up a river of the same name. This district is very low
and flat; and, were it not cooled by the sea breezes, would be
intensely hot. Being marshy and filled with woods, it is ex¬
tremely unhealthy. The town is said not to contain above 300
wooden houses, which are built along the river. The sultan
has a palace and wooden fort along the northern bank. The
people of Passir have an extremely bad reputation as to their
conduct in mercantile transactions. They use false weights
47
and measures, manufacture counterfeit articles, and embrace, Borneo,
in short, every opportunity of cheating that offers. The Eng- v ^ /
lish East India Company made an attempt, in 1772, to esta¬
blish a factory here, but it did not succeed.
Ban jar Massin is the principal state on the southern coast
of Borneo ; and, like the others, it owes its prosperity to a
large river, on the banks of which it is situated. This river
is five or six fathoms deep ; but, unfortunately, the bar does
not allow above twelve or thirteen feet of water, and requires
the aid of the tide to produce even that depth. Ships, how¬
ever, may anchor in the port of Tombangou or Tombornio,
near the mouth of the river, where they are well supplied
with water and provisions. See Banjakmassin. The sultan
resides at Martapura, about three days’ journey up the river,
to which place he is attached by the circumstance of its being
an uncommonly fine hunting station. The district of Ban jar
produces gold and diamonds, both of superior quality to those
found in other parts of the island. Pepper is so abundant that,
in a commercial view, it may be considered as the staple com¬
modity. The iron is very excellent, and peculiarly fit for steel;
though Dr Leyden asserts that the inhabitants do not them¬
selves understand the art of manufacturing it.
Succadana, or, as Dr Leyden calls it, Sacadina, was once
the most powerful state on the western coast of Borneo. The
Dutch began to trade there in 1604, but they soon afterwards
attached themselves, in preference, to Sambas. In 1623 they
abandoned their factory at Succadana. In 1786 they united
with the sultan of Pontianak in an expedition against this
place, which they took and entirely destroyed. It appears to
have been since rebuilt, but is entirely in the hands of the
Malays, and scarcely ever visited by Europeans. Pontianak
is a state of very recent origin, but it now exceeds in wealth
and power all others upon the western coast of Borneo. This
distinction it owes to the wisdom of the Arab prince by whom
it was founded. He renounced from the first the pernicious
policy, almost universal in these petty states, of embarking in
trade, and monopolizing its principal articles. He confined
himself to his proper functions of dispensing justice and se¬
curing protection to all, of whatever country or religion, who
resorted to his dominions. Under this salutary policy Pon¬
tianak soon rose to be the greatest emporium in those seas.
It is situated on a large river, formerly called Laua, and the
country behind produces diamonds the most abundantly of any
district in Borneo. The Dutch established a factory here in
1776, and maintained ever after a good understanding with the
sultan. In 1813, after the British force had taken possession
of Batavia, that prince, dreading an attack from Sambas, soli¬
cited the protection of a British garrison, which was immediately
sent: and he afterwards assisted our troops in the reduction of
Sambas. Momparwa, situated a little to the north of Pontianak,
is the best market for opium upon this coast. The city lies
nineteen miles up the river, the entrance of which is obstructed
by a bar and by several small islands. This is probably the
same district called Mattan by Dr Leyden, who says that the
king possesses the finest diamond in the world, for which a high
price was offered by the Dutch, which he refused to accept.
Sambas is situated about thirty miles up the river of the same
name. Like most other towns in Borneo, it is built of timber
and bamboos, and raised by stakes above the swampy founda¬
tion. Sambas has always been a powerful state, but for some
time past has devoted itself so entirely to piracy as to render
its existence scarcely compatible with that of its civilized neigh¬
bours. Upon this principle the British, in 1812, undertook
an expedition against it; but they were repulsed with great
loss in the attack, and suffered still more from the malignant
influence of the climate. In the following year, however, a
new expedition was undertaken under Colonel Watson, who,
on the 3d of July, carried the fort by storm, and obliged the
rajah to retire into the interior of his dominions.
Besides Sambas and Pontianak, the Dutch government claims
possession of all the coast to the river Roti on the east, includ¬
ing the whole of the southern half of the island. With the
exception of a few years, the possession of this extensive
country has been in the hands of the Dutch since 1787, but
they have done very little either to promote the civilization
of the natives, or to develop the resources of the island. They
reckon the population of the residences of Sambas and Pon¬
tianak, their possessions on the west, at 590,100, and by census
made in 1836, 1837, and 1838, they7 calculate the population
BORNEO.
48
Borneo, in their dependencies on the south and the east, including
Banjarmassin, Mandawa, Sampet, Boeti, &c., at 736,600; in
the islands along the coast at 22,000; making the total popu¬
lation of the states dependent on the Dutch government
1,348,700.
On a general view of the state of culture and civilization in
Borneo, Mr Hamilton estimates the population at 3,000,000,
which we should suppose to be rather above than under the
truth. I he interior is entirely occupied by a native race,
called variously, according to the parts of the island which
they inhabit, Dyak, Idaan, and Tiroon. Those who subsist
by fishing are commonly called Biajoos. The appellations of
Horaforas and Maroots have also been applied to these races.
The whole may be considered as one, almost savage race, and
nearly similar to that which occupies the interior of Sumatra.
Some, indeed, cultivate the ground, some display considerable
industry in fishing, and a few employ themselves in collecting
gold , but their institutions in general indicate the very rudest
state of human society. It has been strongly asserted that
they devour the flesh of their enemies; an assertion not no¬
ticed by Dr Leyden, and which has in many instances been
made without foundation. All accounts agree, however, as to
the existence of another truly savage custom, by which every
man is debarred from the privilege of matrimony till he has,
with his own hand, cut off the head of an enemy. Those,
therefore, who are desirous of entering into that state form
themselves into, what they call head-hunting expeditions.
They make .an inroad into the territories of a neighbouring
’ an<?’ ^ their strength appear sufficient, endeavour to
effect their object by force ; if otherwise, they conceal them¬
selves behind thickets, till an unfortunate individual passes,
whom they can make their prey. Some are also said to im¬
molate human victims on the altars of their divinities.
The inhabitants of the towns along the coast consist chiefly
of that race so universally diffused throughout the Indian
islands under the name of Malays. This name, to a European
ear, has usually suggested every extreme of perfidy and atro-
(TtT- .W® have perused, however, a very different estimate
of their character, formed by an intelligent gentleman, who
spent several years in this part of India. He describes them
as honest, frank, simple, and even gentle in their manners,
decidedly superior, in a moral view, to the degenerate Hindus!
The sanguinary deeds which have exposed them to so much
reproach he. ascribes to a proud and almost chivalrous sense of
honour, which makes them regard blows, or any similar per¬
sonal insult, as an. offence only to be expiated by blood. The
coarse and unfeeling treatment which they often experience
from Dutch and Chinese masters drives them to these dread¬
ful extremities.. Piracy, however, is a vice of which this race
cannot be acquitted ; and the western coast of Borneo, situated
on the great naval route to China, may be viewed as the grand
field for its exercise. To a poor and hardy race, who see half
the wealth of Asia passing along their shores, the temptation
is almost irresistible. Like the Arabs, they have formed for
themselves, a code of morality, in which plunder is expunged
from the list.of vices. Tet, though individually brave, they
possess no skill or discipline which could render them formid¬
able to the crew of a European vessel. The cowardice of the
Lascars, by whom. Indian trading vessels are usually navi¬
gated, is the only circumstance which has made our trade suffer
so severely from their ravages.
Next to the two classes above enumerated, the most nume¬
rous are the Chinese. These are considered as the most valu¬
able subjects whom an uncivilized state can receive into its
bosom. The difficulty of finding subsistence in their own
country has led them to emigrate in vast numbers into Borneo.
Nothing, perhaps, except the lawwTiich prohibits female's from
leaving the empire, could have prevented this almost unoccu¬
pied island from being entirely filled with a Chinese popula-
mn. from this circumstance, however, the Chinese colonists
are composed entirely of men in the vigour of life, and of the
most enterprising and industrious character. Their chief set- Borneo
tiement is at Sambas, on the western coast, where the numbers v
cannot be estimated at less than 36,000, composing a sort of
independent state. Their almost sole occupation is that of
extracting the gold which abounds upon this coast. It is found
m alluvial soil, and is purified by the simple process of passing
a stream of water over the ore. The processes employed for
this purpose are daily improving; and the annual yield is cal¬
culated at about half a million sterling.
1 he commerce of Borneo, though not equal to its extent and
natural capacities, is by no means inconsiderable. Gold is its
principal export. Mr Milburn estimates the annual quantity
exported at 200 peculs, or 26,000 lb. avoirdupois, which would
com into upwards, of 900,000 guineas. Like some other com-
modities, it is divided, by a grotesque scale, into three kinds,
called the head, the belly, and the feet; the first being the
best, and the two others gradually diminishing in value.
Camp hire is exported to the extent of thirty peculs (3990 lb.),
all to China, where it is more esteemed than that of Sumatra.
J he singular Chinese luxuries of blche-de-mer or sea-slug, and
edible bird-nests, are found in Borneo, as over all the Indian
Archipelago. . Pepper to a considerable amount, canes and
rattans of various descriptions, sago, and a little tin, complete
the list of exports. The chief import is opium to a very great
extent, with piece-goods, hardware, coarse cutlery, arms, and
toys. By far the greater proportion of the trade is in the
hands of the Chinese.
The enterprise of one man, James Brooke, has within the
last few years directed increased attention to this interestino-
region.
In 1838 Mr Brooke fitted out with his own funds a
schooner of 142 tons, for the purpose of exploring the shores
of Borneo. He had previously sailed in the Chinese seas, and
was deeply impressed with the importance of the magni¬
ficent islands to the S.E. of the Straits of Malacca, and con¬
ceived the design of reclaiming them from the piratical tribes
whose prahus infest the surrounding waters. His first object
was to obtain more accurate knowledge of the geography
and condition of the islands. He arrived at Sarawak on
the N.W. coast of Borneo, in August 1839, and was well
received by Rajah Muda Hassim, the uncle of the then
reigning sultan of Borneo, and under him the governor of
Sarawak. Hassim was then engaged in a war with his re¬
bellious subjects. After remaining some time at Sarawak,
making himself acquainted with the country, Mr Brooke
sailed for Singapore, but soon returned. The civil war still
raging, Muda Hassim solicited his assistance, offering him
the government of Sarawak if he succeeded in putting down
the rebellion. Mr Brooke joined the rajah, and having com¬
pelled the rebels to surrender, he was then formally instituted
rajah of Sarawak, with the usual native ceremonies.
This appointment was ratified by the sultan, and the
amount of revenue to be paid by Mr Brooke, as rajah of
Sarawak, to the sultan of Borneo, settled at 2500 dollars
annually.
1 he wise and vigorous rule of the new rajah was soon
visible in the increasing prosperity of his subjects. They
were, however, cruelly harassed by the numerous pirates
by whom they were surrounded. At the conclusion of the
Chinese war in March 1843, H.M.S. Dido, under Captain
Keppel, cruising in the straits of Malacca, inflicted a severe
chastisement on the pirates.1 In February 1845 Captain
Bethune arrived at Sarawak with despatches from the British
government, appointing Mr Brooke Her Britannic Ma¬
jesty’s regent in Borneo. In 1847 it was resolved by the
British government to take possession of the small island of
Coti which^lies on°thp^pic+' Ers^ln® ^urray> Wlth two vessels, entered on a trading expedition to Tanganon, the capital of the Sultan (
river Is inhabfled entireTv hTn °f ^ Same name- The first large town, Semerindon, near the mouth of th
srmon and in the conrso nf ve JUS1S> tlle most bloodthirsty nation of all the tribes of the Archipelago. Passing this, he reached Tar
Sons for the seizure o?Thfi-S ne^tlatiT f?r °Peni^ a trade ^discovered that the sultan was betraying him, and making prepari
the shore and from the ni* ^ destl'u®tlon of’ the crews- With difficulty the two vessels made their escape from the batteries o
himself was killed nUmerous war and g™ boats which followed; and in the encounters during the retreat, Captain Murra
BOR
Borneo. Labuan, lying to the north of the town of Borneo, and the
—^ N.W. of the island, and which had been ceded by the sultan
to Gieat Britain. Phis was occupied with the view of form¬
ing a convenient naval station between the East Indies and
China. Sir James Brooke was appointed governor of this co¬
lony, and took possession on the 2d October 1848. Endea-
vouis were made to induce the sultan to co-operate in the
suppression of piracy, but he was either insincere or unable
to induce his subjects to relinquish their cruel practices.
In August 1845 Admiral Sir Ihomas Cochrane, with a con¬
siderable force, came to demand reparation for the deten¬
tion of two British subjects. He proceeded against a strong
body of pirates who occupied a fortified position at the head
of Maludu Bay, and totally destroyed their works and the
town. This lesson, however, had no lasting effect on the
sultan of Borneo; he resolved to take vengeance on his two
uncles, Muda Hassim and Bundureen, who advocated the
abandonment of piracy. He treacherously attacked them
both during the night in their own houses, and murdered
them and their families.
Sir Thomas Cochrane in the Spiteful, accompanied by
Sir James Brooke, ascended the river to Borneo to de¬
mand an explanation from the sultan, and after destroying
the forts and batteries on the river took possession of the
town, which was found entirely deserted.
The people, however, soon returned, but the sultan fled
into the interior. After remaining eleven days in the city
without being able to compel a satisfactory arrangement, Sir
T. Cochrane, with the view of procuring at least a tem¬
porary security to those who were favourable to the British,
left a proclamation to be delivered to the sultan on his return,
showing how completely he and his people were at the
mercy of the British; offering to live with him at peace, but,
at the same time, thi’eatening him with condign punish-?
ment should he again evince hostility to Great Britain.
All these lessons seem to have been lost on the piratical
Dyaks, but a much more severe chastisement awaited them.
When Rear-Admiral Sir F. A. Collier was stationed at
Sarawak in August 1849, information was received that a
very large piratical flotilla, consisting of upwards of 100
prahus, averaging 35 men each, had passed the entrance of
the Raluka from the Sarebas, with the intention of attack¬
ing Sareki, atown on the Rejang. The admiral and Sir James
Brooke concerted a plan for intercepting them in their pro¬
gress, which was completely successful; the piratical flotilla
was almost entirely destroyed, about 500 men killed, and a
larger number are supposed to have perished in the jungle.
Sir James Brooke, while acting as governor of the British
colony of Labuan, retains his dignity and rights as rajah of
Sarawak, from which he considers himself entitled to draw
such revenue as is consistent with the prosperity of his
domains. He holds the monopoly of antimony in his own
hands, and his income from all sources is about L.6000
a-year; but this, as he says in a letter to his friend J. C.
Templer, even in addition to his private fortune, is small
when opposed to the numerous calls upon it, and is all laid
out to advance the good of the country.
The inhabitants of his province of Sarawak he calculates
at 12,000 in the town, and from 12,000 to 15,000 in the
country, besides from 3000 to 4000 Malays along the coast.
“ Sarawak,” says Sir James Brooke, “ extends from Tanjong Datu
to the entrance of the Samarahan river, a distance along the coast
of about sixty miles E.S.E., with an average breadth of about fifty
miles. It is bounded to the westward by the Sambas territory to
the southward by a range of mountains which separate it from the
Pontianak territory of Sadony. Within this space there are several
rivers and islands besides the river of Sarawak. There are two
navigable entrances to this rivery and numerous smaller branches
for boats, both to the westward and eastward; the two principal
entrances combine at about twelve miles from the sea, and the river
flows for twenty miles into the interior, in a southerly and westerly
direction, when it again forms two branches—one running to the
right, the other to the left hand, as far as the mountain range. Be-
vol. y.
N E O.
sides these facilities for water communication, there exist three
other branches from the easternmost entrance, called Moratabas,
one of which joins the Samarahan river, and the two others flow
from different points of the mountain range. The country is diver¬
sified by detached mountains, and the mountain range has an ele¬
vation of about 3000 feet. The aspect of the territory may be
generally described as low and woody at the entrance of the rivers,
except a few high mountains; but in the interior, undulating in
parts, and presenting fine level plains. The climate may be pro¬
nounced healthy and cool, though during the six months from Sep¬
tember to March a great quantity of rain falls; the thermometer
stands generally about 78°, never above 85°. The more serious
maladies of tropical climates are very unfrequent; the only com¬
plaints to which we have been subject are rheumatism, colds, and
ague. The soil and productions of this country are of the richest
description, and it is not too much to say, that within the same
given space, there are not to be found the same mineral and vege¬
table riches in any land in the world. The soil of the plains is
moist and rich, and calculated for the growth of rice, for which
purpose it was formerly cleared, and used until the distractions of
the country commenced. From the known industry of the Dyaks,
and their partiality to rice cultivation, there can be little doubt
that it would become an article of extensive export, provided secu¬
rity were given to the cultivator, and a proper remuneration for
his produce. The lower grounds, besides rice, are admirably cal¬
culated for the growth of sago, and produce canes, rattans, and
forest timber of the finest description for ship-building, and other
useful purposes. The Chinese export considerable quantities of
timber from Sambas and Pontianak, particularly of the kind called
Balean by the natives, or the lion wood of the Europeans ; and at
Sarawak it is to be had in far greater quantity, and nearer the place
of sale. The undulating ground differs in soil, some portions of it
being a yellowish clay, while the rest is a rich mould; these
grounds, generally speaking, as well as the slopes of the higher
mountains, are admirably calculated for the growth of nutmegs,
coffee, pepper, or any of the more valuable vegetable productions of
the tropics. Besides the above-mentioned articles there are birds’-
nests,bees wax, and several kinds of scented wood in demand at Singa¬
pore, which are all collected by the Dyaks, and would be collected in
far greater quantity, provided the Dyak were allowed to sell them.
“ Of the principal riches of the country, there are diamonds, gold,
tin, iron, and antimony ore ; and when the country is explored by
men of science, it may be expected that its mineral wealth will be
found more abundant. The quantity of gold yearly procured at Sam¬
bas is moderately stated at half a million sterling. The most intelli¬
gent Chinese are of opinion that the quantity got here exceeds the
quantity at Sambas, and there is no good reason to suppose it would
fall short of it, when once a sufficient Chinese population is settled in
the country. Antimony ore is a staple commodity, which is to be pro¬
cured in any quantity. Tin is said to be plentiful, and the Chinese
propose working it.
‘ In describing the inhabitants I feel sure that their sufferings
and miseries will command the interest and sympathy of every
person of humanity, and that the claims of the virtuous and
most unhappy Dyaks will meet the same attention as those of
the African. And these claims have this advantage, that much
good may be done without the vast expenditure of lives and
money which the exertions on the African coast yearly cost, and
that the people would readily appreciate the good that was con¬
ferred upon them, and rapidly rise in the scale of civilization. The
inhabitants may be divided into three different classes, viz., the
Malays, the Chinese, and the Dyaks; of the two former little need
be said, as they are so well known. The Malays are not numerous,
and, generally speaking, with the exception of the Borneo pan-
gerans, are well inclined to aid me as far as lies in their power.
The Chinese are about four hundred in number, and the only im¬
pediment to their immigrating is their poverty, and the present high
price of provisions. The Chinese are industrious, but greedy, supple,
and oppressive; they are divided into kunsis or companies, and a
rival company to the one at present at Sarawak offers to bring
three thousand men in a few months, provided they can get per¬
mission to do so. The Dyaks, by far the most interesting portion
of the inhabitants, are confined almost entirely to the mountainous
country, where they have fastnesses to. which they fly on the slight¬
est alarm. These people are mild, industrious, and so scrupulously
honest, that a single case of theft has not come under my observa¬
tion, even when surrounded by objects easily appropriated, and
tempting from their novelty. In their domestic lives they are
amiable, and addicted to none of the glaring vices of a wild state;
they marry but one wife, and their women are always quoted
amongst the Malays as remarkable for chastity, nor are they de¬
graded as in many communities. J
J he head-hunting, or taking the heads of their enemies, is a fea-
tuie by no means new or extraordinary, and like the scalping of
G
49
Borneo.
50 BOR
Borneo, the North American Indian, is a trophy of victory and prowess.
Amongst the hill Dyaks this custom is confined entirely to the
heads of enemies, and is the effect, not the cause of war; their wars
are by no means bloody, and are never carried on hut by small
companies, who enter on the enemies’ ground, and lie in ambush
for parties or individuals of their foes. The exaggerated accounts
of some travellers have been drawn from the more savage and pre¬
datory tribes of the coast; but these tribes have forsaken their ori¬
ginal customs, and have joined piracy to their former practice of
taking heads, and they are not different from other pirates who
destroy as well as plunder.
“ The hill Dyaks, such as I have briefly described them, are a most
interesting race, and present more facilities for the amelioration of
their condition than any other people. In general, however, they
are sunk in misery, and too frequently exposed to famine; but,
when only moderately oppressed, I have seen tribes who brought
to mind the simplicity, if not the happiness, of primitive society.
The number of these people in the country of Sarawak may gene¬
rally be stated at ten thousand, but, with the slightest protection,
numbers who have retired beyond the reach of their cruel oppres¬
sors, would return to their former habitations. Their freedom
from all prejudice, and their scanty knowledge of religion, would
render their conversion to Christianity an easy task, provided they
are rescued from their present suffering and degraded state; but,
until this be done, it will be vain to preach a faith to them the
first precepts of which are daily violated on their own persons.
Never, indeed, were people more oppressed, or more wretched;
those who are far removed from witnessing their suffering and
their patience may consider my sympathy and enthusiasm exag¬
gerated, but I cannot help expressing it. The Dyaks are always
considered an inferior race, and a heavy penalty is imposed on them
for committing any offence against a Malay; to kill a Malay under
any circumstances of aggression, would subject them to death, or even
worse punishment; to strike or scufiie with a Mahometan, though
he be caught in the act of stealing their property, would likewise
be a grave offence; even an accidental injury by a Dyak could only
be expiated by the confiscation of all, or nearly all, his property to
the Alalay. On the other hand, a Malay killing a Dyak is rarely
punished, even by the imposition of a small fine, and the only in¬
convenience he suffers is being unable to visit that particular tribe,
from a just fear of retaliation. The direct tax paid by the Dyaks
to their local rulers is trifling in amount, but they suffer afterwards
from all sorts of exactions, carried on by means of the most flagrant
artifice or violence, by which they are often reduced to famine and
starvation.”
Sir James Brooke, in his generous and romantic enter-
prize, has had to contend with obstacles of appalling magni¬
tude,—the barbarism of the inhabitants ; chiefs whose power
was exercised in cruel oppression and extortion over the
down-trodden natives; rajahs who dreaded his power and
influence; the jealousy of the neighbouring Dutch settle¬
ment ; the envy of unsuccessful traders ; and, above all, the
dreadful scourge of extensive piracy. Nothing but an in¬
domitable courage, and an earnest zeal for the welfare and
prosperity of the people and government intrusted to his
care, could have sustained him, and carried him forward in
his successful career. But in such a contest it was not to
be expected that his enemies would refrain from attempts,
open or concealed, to counteract his benevolent exertions
if they interfered with their selfish designs. Attacks were
made upon him in the Straits Times newspaper, and re¬
peated in England, charging him with cruelties perpetrated
on the natives; and, on the 10th of July 1851, a motion
was brought forward in the House of Commons for a com¬
mission of inquiry into the proceedings of Sir James Brooke
on the coast of Borneo, which was followed by an elaborate
debate. The motion was rejected, and the conduct of Sir
James virtually approved by a majority of 230 to 19. These
attacks were renewed in the summer of 1853, when the go¬
vernment was persuaded to issue instructions to the gover¬
nor-general of India, directing him to issue a commission
to inquire how far the position which Sir James Brooke holds
in Sarawak is advantageous to the commercial interests of
Great Britain.
In the island of Labuan, next to the monster evil of piracy
which scourges the Eastern Archipelago, one of the greatest
difficulties the colony has to contend with is the panic w hich
B 0 11
arose in consequence of the sickness which prevailed in the Bornholm
first year of the settlement. The improved sanitary condi- ||
tion of the island by the removal of a portion of the jungle, Bornou.
and a partial drainage in the vicinity of the habitations, has
abated this apprehension, and the climate of Labuan, as
compared with other tropical countries, may be considered as
salubrious as any other. The population in 1851 was 1385.
Of these 800 were a migratory population of Malay labourers;
the fixed population was 585. Of these the deaths were 29,
being 4*2 of the mortality of the year. This per-centage is un¬
duly increased by including the Chinese, who, from their
gross and dissipated habits, always exhibit a large mortality.
The island possesses considerable coal-fields, which are
worked by the Eastern Archipelago Company, but in a way
so unscientific—that is, by only quarrying the outcrops—as
to prove both dilatory and expensive. In 1851 they ex¬
ported 5032 tons. The examination that has been made
of these coal measures has established their extent and value
to be fully equal to the expectation formed of them. The
large seam alone cannot contain less than 700,000 tons lying
above tide-level.
The local revenue of 1850 only amounted to L.1798, and
the total expenditure to L.4140. No public work of any
great extent has been carried on ; the chief outlay has been
made in cutting down the forest, and making drains on the
plain and near the site of the town, with the view of im¬
proving the sanitary condition of the island. (Leyden’s De¬
scription of Borneo, in the Asiatic Journal; Hamilton’s
Gazetteer; Milburn’s Oriental Commerce; Temminck’s
L’lnde Archipelagique ; Letters of Sir James Brooke, by
J. C. Templer ; and Reports on the State of H.M. Colonies?)
BORNHOLM, an island in the Baltic, belonging to
Denmark, in the Stiff of Seeland, between Lat. 54. 59. and
55.18. N.and Long. 14.42. and 15.8. E. It is about 20 miles
in length, by 14 in breadth, with a generally mountainous
surface, and steep and rocky shores. It yields a good free¬
stone, which is largely exported for building ; and also lime¬
stone, blue marble, coal, and clay. The principal products
of the soil are oats, flax, and hemp. The population amounts
to about 26,000, chiefly engaged in agriculture, fishing,
brewing, distilling, and the manufacture of earthenwares.
The capital is Roenne.
BORNOU, an extensive kingdom, situated in Central
Africa. With the exception of Houssa, now subject to the
sultan of the Fellatahs, it is superior in power and influence
to any other state in that quarter of the continent. Major
Denham, to whom we are indebted for the first full and
authentic description of this country, places it between the
12th and 18th degrees of east longitude, and the 10th and
15th of north latitude, which would form an extent of nearly
400 miles in every direction. His own map and description,
however, oblige us to restrict these dimensions to little more
than one-half. Bornou is bounded on the west by Soudan
or Houssa, on the east by the Lake Tchad (or Tsad), on the
north by the Great Desert, on the south by the kingdoms of
Baghermi (or Begherme), Loggun, and Mandara.
According to the more recent information derived from
the expedition under Richardson, Barth, and Overweg, the
limits of Bornou have materially changed since the time
of Major Denham, by having extended to the west as far
as 9. 30. E. Long. The grandest natural feature of this
country is Lake Tchad, an extensive inland water, at
least 120 miles in length and 60 miles in breadth. A
remarkable variation, however, takes place, according as
the rivers by which it is fed are swelled by the tropical
rains, or their channels reduced by the continuance of the
dry season. At this period the waters on every side re¬
cede, and leave uncovered a tract of many miles in extent,
to be again overflowed when the rains have swelled the
lake. The inhabitants, however, derive little advantage
from the short and precarious interval during which they
BOR
Bornou. have access to this portion of their territory. There is
''-’’"Y'*-' neither leisure nor opportunity to bring it under regu¬
lar culture; and the luxuriant fertility derived from the
inundation is wasted in producing a rank vegetable growth
of grass from ten to twelve feet in height, with impenetrable
thickets of trees and underwood. Man scarcely dares to
penetrate into these gloomy regions, which are filled by
numerous and formidable wild animals, elephants, lions,
hyenas, and enormous broods of the serpent species. These
creatures, when the inundation comes on, seek refuge in
the cultivated and inhabited tracts, where their arrival
diffuses consternation and dismay.
The rivers by which this great expanse of water is fed
are the Yeou and the Shary. The former, which enters it
from the west, excited great interest on its first discovery,
from being considered, or at least suspected, to be a con¬
tinuation of the Niger of Park. Further observation has
completely disproved this supposition, and shown it to be
a river of only secondary magnitude. Rising in a range
of hills to the south of Houssa, it flows first north, then
eastward through Bornou, till it falls into the Tchad; but
it never, unless when swollen by the rains, presents any
great body of water. The Shary is a much more con¬
siderable river. It rises in the far unknown interior to
the south. Dr Barth crossed it on his journey to Bag-
hermi, and traced its course by native informations as
far south as 8. 30. N. Lat. At Kusseri, not far from
Lake Tchad, it received a large tributary, the River Log-
gene, which was mistaken by Denham for the Shary itself.
The territory of Bornou, extending along the whole
western and part of the southern and northern shores of
the great lake, is generally level and fertile. The climate,
especially from March to the end of June, is oppressively
hot, rising sometimes to 105 and 107, and even during
most of the night not falling much below 100. In May
the wet season commences, with violent storms of thun¬
der and lightning. In the end of June the rivers and
lakes begin to overflow, and for several months the rains
are almost incessant, accompanied with damp, cloudy, and
sultry weather. Jhe inhabitants at this season are severe¬
ly afflicted with fever and ague, which carry off great
numbers of them. In October the rains abate ; cool, fresh
winds blow from the west and north-west; and for several
months the climate is both healthful and agreeable.
No mention is found of Bornou among the geographers
of antiquity, although it may be conjectured that the great
lake of Nigritia, placed by Ptolemy in the centre of Africa,
was perhaps the Tchad. Edrisi, however, in the twelfth
century, describes this country under the appellation of
Kuku, which is still borne by its capital. He represents
the king as absolute and powerful, with a numerous army
and many attendants; the people as martial, though rude ;
and the merchants as carrying on an active trade and pos¬
sessing great wealth. Leo, who visited it about two cen¬
turies after, gives a description nearly similar. The people
are represented as Pagans, and extremely rude, though
numerous, and the country well cultivated. The mer¬
chants from Barbary supplied the king in his expeditions
with arms and horses, while he made an annual expedi¬
tion to procure slaves to be given in payment.
No further relations respecting Bornou were communi¬
cated to Europe during a very long period; yet it is re¬
markable that, in the maps of Sanson, Delisle, and others of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there is found a
lake of Bornou, and in some of them a large lake with the
name of Guardia, which does not sound very dissimilar to
that of Tchad. It is difficult to conjecture the ground
upon which these features were delineated; yet their coin¬
cidence with those recently discovered seems to show that
they were founded upon some information with which we
N O U. 51
are now unacquainted. D’Anville, however, proceeding Bornou.
upon his rigid principle of admitting no object for which
he could not find a positive authority, expunged these
names from his map, and has been generally followed by
modern geographers.
When the African Association in 1788 commenced their
operations, they early received some information, collected
by Mr Lucas at Tripoli, with other particulars related by
Ben Ali, a Moorish merchant resident in London. From
these sources were derived pretty copious notices, both
concerning Bornou and Cassina; the former being de¬
scribed as what it then appears to have been, decidedly
the ruling power in the interior of Eastern Africa, all the
kingdoms of which it had reduced into a state of vassalage.
In arranging these accounts, however, a considerable error
was committed as to the position of this country. Mr Lu¬
cas had been informed that it was fifty journeys, or about
six hundred and fifty miles, south from Fezzan ; but his
informant added that it was only twenty-five journeys west
from the Nile. To meet this statement Major Rennell
conceived it necessary to extend the route, not due south
as it really was, but south-east, so as to place it in the
heart of the desert, seven degrees north and eight degrees
east of its real position. Kuku, likewise believed, from
the statement of Edrisi, to be a separate kingdom, was
placed in the same quarter, still nearer to the Nile; and
thus the desert tract to the west of Nubia was filled with
countries which, in that quarter, have no existence.
The expedition sent out by the British government in
1822, under Denham and Clapperton, completely adjust¬
ed the geography of this part of the continent. It was
discovered that Bornou, instead of being so far removed,
as our maps represented, from Houssa and Cassina, was
close on their eastern frontier, and formed a continuation
of that extensive, fruitful, and finely w atered plain, which
extends from the mouth of the Senegal across Central
Africa. Its relative political circumstances had also un¬
dergone, during this interval, a very complete change.
Instead of holding all the surrounding states in vassalage,
it had been itself completely subjected to the dominion of
the Fellatahs, who, after subjugating all Houssa, had in¬
vaded Bornou, and committed the most dreadful ravages,
destroying its capital and other large cities, and bringing
the whole country into a state of entire bondage. There
was still, however, among the people a strong spirit of
valour and independence. A mere private individual,
in the northern province of Kanem, pretending to, and
perhaps himself trusting in, a celestial mission, hoisted
the green flag of the Prophet, and, under the title of the
servant of God, undertook a series of struggles for the de¬
liverance of his country. The Fellatahs appear to have
been taken very much by surprise, and, being defeated
in successive encounters, were in ten months driven com¬
pletely out of Bornou. They seem to have now given up
all attempts at reconquering it, although a hostile spirit
still reigns between the two countries.
The conqueror, called, from his native province, El
Kanemy, having the army wholly devoted to him, might
probably have with little difficulty assumed the sovereign
power. More moderate, and perhaps more prudent, he
drew forth the nearest heir of the ancient sultans, and
invested him with all the appearance and pomp of sove¬
reignty; reserving only for himself, under the title of
scheik, all its reality. I he court of the sultan was esta¬
blished at New Bornou, which was made the capital, in¬
stead of the old city, which had been entirely destroyed
dm mg the Fellatah invasion ; while the scheik, in military
state, resides at the city of Kuku or Kouka.
The Bornouese throne in former times had been elec¬
tive, at least among the members of the same family; and
52 BOR
Bornou. the nobles possessed this and other high privileges: but
at present the scheik possesses a power nearly absolute,
which he exercises with salutary vigour. Bands of rob¬
bers who desolated the country have been nearly extir¬
pated, and travelling and property rendered secure, at
least in the interior. Justice within each city is admi¬
nistered, as in other Mussulman countries, by the cadi,
with an appeal to the scheik. Murder is punished, on
conviction, by delivering the offender to the relatives of
the deceased, who dispatch him with clubs. A young
thief is buried in the ground up to the head, which being
covered with butter and honey, is exposed under the burn¬
ing sun to the attack of innumerable flies and mosquitoes.
Insolvent debtors are rather hardly dealt with. But the
scheik s zeal was peculiarly directed against moral offences,
of which conscience and public opinion have been gene¬
rally considered as the most appropriate guardians. Such
were the non-observance of the Mahommedan fasts, upon
which severe and relentless penalties were levied. He
was also most strict in punishing those failings in the fe¬
male sex which are elsewhere considered as sufficiently
visited by disgrace and exclusion from society. Here not
only the most ignominious punishments, but often death
itself, awaited them. On one occasion sixty of these un¬
fortunate offenders were brought before him, of whom
five were hanged, and four whipt so severely that two af¬
terwards expired ; an outrageous virtue, which seems with
reason to have been branded as almost diabolical. The
most frivolous female offences, as talking too loud, and
walking in the street with the face unveiled, were consi¬
dered as ground of public indictment at this severe bar.
Bven the spending in courtship or otherwise a larger sum
than a man was supposed to be able to afford, gave ground
for dragging him before the national tribunal. Major
Denham saw one thrown into prison for presenting to his
bride two robes or turkadoes, when his station was consi¬
dered as not authorizing more than one ; although he
proved that the lady had refused her consent on any other
terms; which, however, drew upon her also a severe ani¬
madversion.
The sultan of Bornou is surrounded by a mounted
body-guard, who likewise compose his principal nobles
and chiefs. Their attire and equipment is the most gro¬
tesque and unwieldy, perhaps, to which fashion in any
country has given rise. It is indispensable to the chief
of rank that he should possess a huge belly, the singular
importance attached to which is probably founded on the
idea of its being an indication of plenty and luxury; and
it is held so essential, that even when high feeding can¬
not produce the effect, stuffing is employed to give the
appearance of it. Again, even in this burning climate,
the body is enveloped in successive robes, amounting
often to ten or twelve, the number being always consi¬
dered as indicating the rank of the wearer. The head like¬
wise is inclosed in numerous successive turbans, which
are supposed to be rendered more ornamental by leaving
only one side of the face uncovered. The sultan studies
to be still more protuberant and more loaded with cloth¬
ing than any of his courtiers. Yet in this attire he and
they advance together into the field; but of course they
can have no real efficiency in the duties of active warfare.
The last sultan had fallen in consequence of the impossi¬
bility, caused by his ponderous equipment, of flying with
sufficient speed before a victorious enemy.
I he military force of Bornou consists almost entirely
in cavalry, amounting to about 30,000, who are mounted
on small but active steeds, which, as well as their riders,
being cased in iron mail, present a very formidable ap¬
pearance. They also manage their horses with the ut¬
most skill, and perform all the manoeuvres of the field most
N O U,
rapidly and dexterously. Their only defect is, that when Bomou.
placed in the field against an enemy at all formidable,
they can by no impulse be induced to fight. They look
on as spectators till the contest issues in victory, when
they engage eagerly in pursuit and plunder, in both of
which they excel; whilst, in case of defeat, they take to
flight with the utmost rapidity. As, however, the cavalry
of the armies with which they contend are nearly on a level
in point of prowess with themselves, the match is tolerably
equal. There are usually on each side about a hundred
chiefs, raised to distinction by bodily strength and prow¬
ess, who engage in single combats, and display often the
most desperate valour. Barca Gana, the scheik’s general,
had obtained the reputation of possessing charms that
rendered him invulnerable. The main dependence of that
prince is upon a body of 9000 spearmen from his native
territory of Kanem, who rally round him with the most
enthusiastic attachment. Though almost naked, and
equipped only with shield and spear, they display a discip¬
line beyond that of almost any other African army. They
march by tribes, and keep in front of their line a regular
chain of piquets, with sentinels, who every half hour pass
the war-cry along it; precautions very rarely employed in
barbarian armies. All the sovereigns of Central Africa
likewise consider themselves fortunate if they can engage
the services of even a small party of Arab caravan follow¬
ers, who, being brave and armed with muskets, an instru¬
ment yet almost unknown in this region, are objects of
something like supernatural dread.
The territory of Bornou is fertile and well watered,
yielding large crops even under very imperfect cultiva¬
tion. The labour is chiefly performed by female slaves,
who, at the commencement of the rainy season, scratch
rather than turn the ground, and scatter rather than sow
the seed. They are also obliged to watch the growth, in
order to guard against numerous animal depredators; a
very perilous occupation, in the course of which they are
liable to be carried off by the wild beasts, who are roam¬
ing about in every direction. The rice and wheat are
inferior, and grown in small quantity. The grain which
forms the staple food of the people is a species of millet
called gussub, which they form, not into bread, an article
here entirely unknown, but into a species of paste, that,
by the addition of butter and honey, forms the highest
boast of Bornou cookery. Cotton and indigo are also
valuable productions, affording the material for the cloths
finely dyed with blue stripes, which form the staple fa¬
bric of the country. All the domestic animals are reared,
and very numerous herds of oxen are possessed, chiefly
by an Arab tribe called Shouaas. Major Denham reckons
20,000 on the shores of the Tchad, and double that num¬
ber on the banks of the Shary. The empire, however,
is remarkably destitute of the products of horticulture.
There is neither a fruit nor a vegetable, except some
onions in the vicinity of the large towns, and a very few
limes and figs reared with great difficulty in the garden
of the scheik.
Ihe wild animals are very numerous, finding both
food and cover in the extensive woody and marshy dis¬
tricts. Lions prowl about in considerable numbers, ap¬
proaching even the walls of the towns. The Bornouese
delight in taming and even making a pet of this noble ani¬
mal. Ihe scheik, as a special favour, sent Major Den¬
ham a present of a young lion, which he very prudently
returned, lamenting the want of space for his accommo¬
dation. Elephants, in herds of fifty to four hundred, wan¬
der over the tract inundated by the Tchad, and are hunt¬
ed and killed both for the flesh and the ivory. Hyenas
also, in huge and formidable bands, invade the cultivated
fields, and are with difficulty prevented from penetrating
JB O R
Bomou. into the towns. The tall form of the giraffe is not un-
frequently seen cropping the leaves of the dense forest.
The waters abound with crocodiles and hippopotami, and
the flesh of both is valued for food; that of the former,
indeed, is described by naturalists as extremely delicate.
The country is filled with swarms of bees, which often
obstruct the passage of the traveller; and the honey,
though only partially collected, forms one of the chief
Bornouese delicacies. Antelopes, gazelles, ostriches, and
various other quadrupeds and feathered animals, are pur¬
sued as game.
The population of Bornou is calculated by Major Den¬
ham at 5,000,000; but by Dr Barth, basing his estimate
on the experience and explorations of three years, at no
less than from 8,000,000 to 9,000,000. The leading
people, called Bornouese or Kanowry, present a complete
specimen of the negro form and features; having large
mouths, thick lips, broad noses, an unmeaning face, but
good teeth and high foreheads. The females heighten
their want of beauty by a most extensive and injudicious
system of puncturing and tattooing. The people are peace-
ably disposed, friendly and courteous in their manners,
and distinguished by a sort of good-natured heaviness.
Though endowed with a slender degree of courage, they
are resentful, and addicted to petty larcenies. The
law allows of polygamy, but the richest have seldom more
than two or three wives, and the rest of the community
only one. The favourite amusement is wrestling, not
performed in person, but viewed as a spectacle while per¬
formed by slaves taken in war from the neighbouring na¬
tions, particularly the Beghermes and Musgows. The
displays of strength made by these men are said to be
often very extraordinary. A powerful wrestler sells at a
high price, and the masters place extraordinary pride in
the performance of their slaves, cheering them during the
combat, and, on its successful issue, often presenting them
with valuable robes. Even the ladies of Bornou engage
occasionally in public contests, where they often throw each
other with violence to the ground. Another favourite
amusement consists in a rude game bearing some resem¬
blance to chess, played with beans and holes in the sand.
The Mahommedan religion is universally professed in
Bornou, and even with violence and bigotry. Through
recommendations brought with them, the English travel¬
lers secured good treatment; but, as unbelievers, they were
viewed with the deepest horror, and almost as a species
of monsters. Even from those who showed at first the
most friendly disposition, the disclosure of their creed
drew forth deep groans, sometimes screams, and usually
arrested all progress to intimacy. A man who had serv¬
ed them for two or three weeks, although he pleaded that
it was only under the most extreme necessity, was declar¬
ed unfit on that ground to be received as a witness in a
court of law. There are resident in Bornou a considerable
number offighis (writers or doctors), who have visited
Mecca, and are well skilled in Arabic. It is even an em¬
ployment to write copies of the Koran, which are sent in¬
to Barbary, where they bear a considerable price. Its
verses are much used as charms or amulets, in the pre¬
paration of which the scheik was understood greatly to
excel, gaining almost as many victories by his pen as by
his sword. The Bornouese, like other negroes, have songs
relating to love or war, some of which are said to possess
merit; but their intellectual character in general seems to
rank extremely low.
The pastoral districts of this country are occupied by a
tribe called Shouaas, who are accounted Arabs, and speak
that language, though they have scarcely any resemblance
to those in the north bearing that appellation. They have
fine open countenances, with aquiline noses, large eyes,
N O U. 53
and a complexion of light copper; and they exhibit a Bornou.
strong though improved resemblance to the European
gipsies. Their deportment, however, is not very favour¬
ably spoken of. They do not want courage, and can fur¬
nish the government when necessary with 15,000 horse;
but they are arrogant and deceitful, imposing upon the
people by the manufacture of charms, and by pretensions
to prophecy and fortune-telling. Having thus gained
admission into the houses, they not only sell these gifts
at a high rate, but embrace opportunities of pilfering.
Probably they were observed to disadvantage in the heart
of the cities. One of their tribes, called Dugganahs, who
were visited in their native tents on the Shary, presented
a most pleasing picture of patriarchal simplicity. Their
countenances were noble and expressive, and the attach¬
ments of kindred and domestic affection were displayed in
peculiar force. Another tribe, called the La Salas, almost
independent of Bornou, inhabit a number of low islands in
the Tchad, covered with rich pasture, and separated from
the continent by channels so shallow as to be fordable on
horseback. A knowledge of the tracts is however requi¬
site ; and those troops who without it attempted to pene¬
trate through them have got entangled in mud, sunk into
deep pools, and signally defeated.
The towns in Bornou are of considerable size, surround¬
ed with walls thirty-five or forty feet in height, and twen¬
ty feet in thickness, having at each of the four corners a
triple gate,^ composed of strong planks of wood, with bars
of iron. The abodes of the principal inhabitants form an
inclosed square, in which are separate houses for each of
the wives; whilst the chief himself resides in two or more
elevated structures resembling turrets, connected together
by terraces. These are well built, of a reddish clay, highly
polished, so as to resemble stucco; whilst the interior roof,
though composed only of branches, is tastefully construct¬
ed. The horns of the antelope and gazelle are employed
to fasten together the different parts, and have suspended
from them the quiver, spear, and shield of the owner. The
ordinary houses are small, being built partly of mud and
thatched, partly only of straw or coarse grass mats. Major
Denham was accommodated in one of eight feet diameter,
having a hole two and a half feet high, by which he crept
in and out; but this deficiency of aperture was rendered
almost necessary by the crowds of tormenting insects who
would otherwise have made good their entrance. Though
New Bornou and Kouka were the residences, the one of the
sultan and the other of the scheik, neither is equal in
magnitude to Angornou, estimated to contain 30,000 in¬
habitants, who, on market days, are swelled to 80,000 or
100,000. On the Yeou are seen the ruins of Old Bornou
and Gambarou, which appear to have been greater and
better built cities than any now in the kingdom; but they
had been so entirely destroyed by the Fellatahs in their
late invasion, that the very site is in a great measure
covered with shrubs and vegetation. The vicinity is al¬
most laid waste by the inroads of the Tuaricks; and, in¬
deed, all the kingdoms of Central Africa suffer the disad¬
vantage of having their frontier exposed to the ravages of
predatory tribes who occupy the rude and desert borders.
The English travellers have held out favourable hopes of
the commerce which might be opened with Bornou. They
observed the increased and increasing demand, among a
numerous population, for goods which Britain either does
or could produce cheaper than any other country; and
these goods were found selling at an advance of 300 per
cent, above their price at Tripoli. On the other hand, it
must not be forgotten that the route from that city,
though the nearest of any from the coast, greatly exceeds
a thousand mdes, through the most dreary and desolate
tracts, amid the domains of numerous predatory tribes.
54
BOR
BOR
Borough.
Borodino The merchant has to encounter, therefore, not only ac¬
cumulated hardships, but all the perils of famine, battle,
and pestilence. It would be vain, therefore, to expect that
any one would conduct such a trade without very high
profits. It is at present carried on by merchants, or
rather chiefs, each with a large body of armed followers,
alike prepared for commerce or war. The European who
should engage in such a trade would be obliged to follow
this example, and might expect to encounter their enmity
and rivalry. It seems doubtful, therefore, how far such a
trade could now be carried on by any other than its present
channel.
Amongst the commodities which find a market in Bor-
nou are mentioned writing paper, beads, coral, silks and
cottons of gaudy patterns, turbans, small carpets, brushes,
caftans, and shirts ready made ; brass basins tinned, small
mirrors, pistols, and other arms ornamented, but cheap.
The commodities taken in return are almost exclusively
slaves, obtained by purchase or capture ; and we fear it
will be more difficult than Major Denham supposed to di¬
vert the trade from this bad channel. Neither gold nor
silver are seemingly to be procured in Bornou. Elephants’
teeth, ostrich feathers, raw hides, musk, indigo, and senna,
are mentioned as commodities suited to the market of
Europe. (h. m.)
B ORODINO, a village in Russia, near the river Moskwa,
about ninety miles west of Moscow; remarkable for the ter¬
rible battle fought there on the 7th of September 1812,
between the French and Russians, in which the latter were
defeated.
BORON. See Chemistry.
BOROUGH, Burrough, Borow, or Burgh (Saxon
heorg), is a term frequently used for a town or corporation
which is not a city. A borough is by some supposed to
have primarily meant a tithing or company consisting of ten
families, who were bound and combined together as sureties
for one another. Afterwards, as Verstegan informs us,
borough came to signify a town that had something of a
wall or inclosure about it: so that all places which amongst
our ancestors had the denomination of borough, were
one way or other fenced or fortified. But in latter times
this appellation was also bestowed on several of the villce
insigniores, or country towns of more than ordinary note,
though not walled. The ancient Saxons, according to
Spelman, gave the name of burghs to what in other coun¬
tries were called cities. But different canons being made
for removing the episcopal sees from villages and small
towns to the chief cities, the term city came to be attributed
to episcopal towns, whilst that of borough included all the
rest, even although they had the appearance of cities, as
being governed by mayors, having bye-laws of their own
making, sending representatives to parliament, and being
fortified with a wall and castle, and the like.
Royal Boroughs or Burghs, in Scotland, are corpora¬
tions originally created for the advantage of trade, in virtue
of charters granted by several of the kings, and having
the privilege of sending commissioners to represent them
in parliament, besides other peculiar privileges. The
royal burghs are not only so many distinct corporations, but
also constitute one entire body, governed by, and account¬
able to, a general court, anciently called the court of four
boroughs, which was held yearly, to treat and determine
concerning matters relating to the common interest. The
four burghs which composed this court were, Edinburgh,
Stirling, Roxburgh, and Berwick; but the last two falling
into the hands of the English, Linlithgow and Lanark were
substituted in their room, with a saving to the former when¬
ever they should return to their allegiance. But this court
not being sufficient to answer the necessities of the roycil
burghs, they were all empowered under James III., in 1487,
to send commissioners to a yearly convention of their own,
which was then appointed to be held at Inverkeithing, but Borough
is now held at Edinburgh, under the denomination of the |]
Convention of Royal Burghs, which was vested with great Borromean
powers, and had for its object the benefit of trade, and the Islands,
interest of the burghs generally. See Municipal Corpo- v>—
RATIONS.
BoROUGH-English, a customary descent of lands or tene¬
ments, in some ancient boroughs and copyhold manors, by
which the youngest son, and not the eldest, succeeded to
the burgage tenement on the death of his father.
Boroughs, Representation of. See Parliament.
BOROUGHBRIDGE, a borough and market town of
England, in the west riding of Yorkshire, wapentake of
Claro, and parish of Aldborough. It is situated on the
south bank of the river Ure, which is navigable here, and is
crossed by a stone bridge seventeen miles N.W. of York.
It is chiefly indebted for its importance to its situation on
the great road from York to Edinburgh ; and, previous to
the passing of the Reform Act, it returned two members to
parliament. Many British and Roman antiquities have
been found in the town and vicinity, of which the most cele¬
brated are the three obelisks called “ The Arrows,” about
half a mile south of the town. Several fairs are annually
held here. Pop. (1851) 1095.
BOROVSK, a town of European Russia, capital of a
circle of the same name in the government of Kalouga. It is
situated on the Prorva, 55 miles S.W. of Moscow. Pop. 5000.
It has considerable manufactures of sailcloth, and in the
vicinity is a rich convent, founded in 1444.
BORRELISTS, a sect of Christians in Holland, so called
from Borrel, their founder. They reject the use of the sa¬
craments, public prayer, and all external acts of worship.
BORRICHIUS, or Borch, Olaus, one of the most
learned men of his age, was born in 1626, at Borchen in
Denmark. He studied medicine at Copenhagen, and be¬
gan to practise during a terrible plague which ravaged
that city. He was appointed professor of botany and che¬
mistry ; and in 1660 he visited Holland, England, and
France ; was received as doctor at Angers ; and visited Rome
in 1665. In the course of his travels he attended the most
celebrated schools, and was selected by Queen Christina as
her master in chemistry. He returned to Copenhagen in
1666, and discharged the duties of his office wdth great as¬
siduity, as his works abundantly testify. He was made a
member of the supreme council of justice in 1686, and coun¬
sellor of the royal chancery in 1689. He died of the opera¬
tion of lithotomy in 1690.
The following are the principal works of Borrichius :—1. Boki-
masia Metallica, Copenhagen, 1660, 8vo; 2. Be Ortu et Progressu
Chemice Bissertatio, ibid. 1668, 4to ; 3. Hermetis, PEgyptiorum, et Che-
micorum Sapientia, ibid. 1674, 4to; 4. Lingua Pharmacopceorum,
ibid. 1670, 4to; 5. Cogitationes de variis Linguae PEtatibus, ibid.
1675, 8vo ] 6. Be Causis diversitatis Linguarum, ibid. 1675, 4to;
7. Be Somno et Somniferis, Francfort, 1680, 1683, 4to ; 8. Be Usu
Plantarum Indigenarum in Medicina, Copenhagen, 1688, 1690, 8vo ;
9. Bissertationes V. de Poetis Grcecis et Latinis, ibid. 1676; 10. Con¬
spectus Chemicorum Scriptorum lllustriorum, ibid. 1696, 4to; 11. Be
Antiqua Urbis Romce Facie, ibid. 1697, 8vo; 12. Be Urbis Romce
Primordiis, ibid. 1687, 4to; &c., &c.
BORROMEAN Islands, a group of four small islands
on the western side of Lago Maggiore, in Continental Sar¬
dinia. Up to the middle of the seventeenth century these
islands were mere barren rocks. About this time Vitaliano,
Count Borromeo, master-general of the ordnance to the
king of Spain, directed that they should be covered with
earth from the neighbouring banks of the lake; and, at an
enormous expense, the islands were converted into pleasure
gardens. The most celebrated of these are the Isola Bella,
and the Isola Madre. The others are called the Isola S.
Giovanni or Isolino, and the Isola Superiore or de’ Pisca-
tori, which contains a small fishing village of about four
hundred inhabitants, with a parish church. Isola Bella
BOH
BOR
55
Borromeo. appears in ten successive terraces, rising one hundred and
thirty feet above the level of the water, each regularly de¬
creasing in size from the base to the summit, which is an
oblong surface, seventy feet by forty in extent, paved and
surrounded by a balustrade. The whole are environed by
gigantic marble statues of gods, goddesses, and horses, or
other figures ; and the walls are clothed with the finest fruit-
trees and evergreens, many of which belong to the southern
climates. There is, besides, a magnificent palace towards
the western end of the island, close to the lake, which al¬
most washes its walls. It is built on arches, which are
formed into grottos, with a floor of mosaic, representing
various objects, and decorated also with shell-work and
marble. The palace itself contains a profusion of marbles
and paintings ; and some flower-pieces executed on marble,
have been particularly admired, as also busts and statues.
At the angles of the garden, which has a southern exposure,
there are two round towers with lofty chambers adorned
with red and white marble ; and in the vicinity are groves
of laurels, orange-trees, lofty cypresses, and other odorife¬
rous plants, rendering it a delightful retreat. Isola Madre,
which is the largest of the islands, is between one and two
miles from Isola Bella; it consists of a superstructure of
seven terraces, apparently lower, but not less beautiful, than
the other. It is, however, of equal height in reality, the
base being a perpendicular rock, rising considerably out of
the water, and on that account not requiring so much cover¬
ing. Here also there is a palace embellished with paintings
and different ornaments; and in the gardens are groves of
citrons, cedar, and orange-trees, besides a summer-house
close to the lake. All the decorations are necessarily on a
limited scale; and it excites the wonder of the spectator,
that in a space so small so much has been done. When
any foreign prince visited these islands in the night, or re¬
sided upon them, they were illuminated with various coloured
lights. The expense of keeping them in the same state
since 1671, about which time they seem to have been
finished, has of course been very great. They are fre¬
quently called the “ Enchanted Islands.” “ If anything,”
says Coxe, speaking of the Isola Bella, “justly gives this
island the appellation of enchanted, it is the prospect from
the terrace. The gradual diminution of the mountains,
from the regions of eternal snow to the rich plain; the sinu¬
osity of the lake; its varied banks ; the bay of Marzozzo,
bounded by vast hills; the neighbouring borough ofPalanza,
and more distant view of Laveno, the numerous villages,
the Isola Madre, and another island sprinkled with fisher¬
men’s huts, form a delightful assemblage.”
BORROMEO, Carlo, a Romish saint, was the son of
Ghiberto Borromeo, Count of Arona, and of Mary of Medi-
cis, and was born at the castle of Arona, upon the Lago
Maggiore, in the Milanese, Oct. 2.1538. When he was about
twelve years old, Julius Caesar Borromeo resigned to him
an abbacy, the revenue of which he applied wholly in charity
to the poor. He studied the civil and canon law at Pavia
under the learned Francis Alciat. In 1554 his father died;
and, although he had an elder brother, Count Frederick, he
was requested by the family to take the management of
their domestic affairs. After a time, however, he resumed
his studies, and in 1559 he took his doctor’s degree. In
the following year his uncle Cardinal de’ Medicis was raised
to the pontificate, by the name of Pius IV.; and Borromeo
was made prothonotary, intrusted with both the public and
privy seal of the ecclesiastical state, created cardinal deacon,
and soon after archbishop of Milan. In compliance with
the pope’s desire, he lived in great splendour; yet his own
temperance and humility were never brought into question.
He established an academy of select and learned persons,
each of whom was to write on some chosen subject, either
in verse or in prose, and to communicate to the society the
fruits of his studies. The works thus produced were pub¬
lished in several volumes at Venice in 1748, under the title
of Nodes Vaticance. About this time he also founded and
endowed a college at Pavia, which he dedicated to Justina,
virgin and martyr.
Upon the death of his elder brother Frederick, his friends,
and even the pope himself, advised him to quit the church,
and marry, that his family might not become extinct. Con¬
trary to expectation, however, he declined the proposal;
and from that time became more fervent than ever in the
exercises of piety, and more zealous for the advancement
of ecclesiastical knowledge.
On the death of Pius IV., January 7. 1566, the skill
and diligence of Borromeo materially contributed to stifle
the cabals of the conclave. As soon as tranquillity had been
re-established, Borromeo devoted himself wholly to the re¬
formation of his large and important diocese, where the most
flagitious irregularities were openly practised. He began
by making pastoral visits in his metropolis; and by a variety
of wise and necessary regulations, he soon restored proper
decency and dignity to divine service. In conformity to the
decrees of the council of Trent, he cleared the cathedral of
its gorgeous tombs, rich ornaments, banners, arms, &c.,
sparing not the monuments even of his own relations. Nor
did his zeal stop here. He divided the nave of the church
throughout its whole length into two compartments, so that
the sexes, being separated, might perform their devotions
with feelings suitable to the place. He proceeded next to
the collegiate churches, and even to the fraternities of peni¬
tents, particularly that of St John the Baptist. The refor¬
mation of the monasteries followed that of the churches; and
the vigilance of the archbishop soon extended itself from
the city to the country round it. The great abuses which
had overrun the church at this time arose principally from
the ignorance of the clergy. In order, therefore, to attack
the evil at its root, Borromeo established seminaries, col¬
leges, and communities, for the education of young persons
intended for holy orders. He met with much opposition in
his endeavours to bring about a reformation of manners;
but by an inflexible constancy, tempered with great sweet¬
ness of manners, he prevailed against every obstacle, and
succeeded in rendering the most important services to the
cause of morals as well as religion. The governor of the
province, and many of the senators, apprehensive that the
cardinal’s ordinances and proceedings would incroach upon
the civil jurisdiction, addressed many remonstrances and
complaints to the courts of Rome and Madrid. These,
however, in as far as concerned the king of Spain, Philip
II., were referred entirely to the decision of the pope. But
Borromeo had more formidable difficulties to struggle with,
in the inveterate opposition of several religious orders, par¬
ticularly that of the Brothers of Humility. Three provosts
of the society entered into a conspiracy to cut him off; and
one of their confederates, Jerome Donat, surnamed Farina,
took upon him to carry the design into execution. For this
purpose he mixed with the crowd in the archiepiscopal
chapel, where Borromeo spent an hour every evening in
prayer with his domestics and other pious persons; and
having watched his opportunity, he fired at him with a
heavily loaded arquebuss. The shot, strange to say, took
no effect, though it was affirmed to have ruffled the rochet
of the cardinal. His escape was believed to be miraculous,
and was certainly wonderful, considering that the assassin
had taken his station within five or six paces of his intended
victim. At the moment when the shot was fired the choir
were chanting the fine old melody, Non turbetur cor vestrum
neque formidet; and it is said that the cardinal continued
the service without any apparent emotion.
In the year 1576 the city and diocese of Milan were visited
by the plague, which swept away great numbers. On this
occasion Borromeo, with a spirit truly Christian and heroic,
went about giving directions for accommodating the sick and
Borromeo.
56 BOR
Borromeo burying the dead, avoiding no danger, and sparing no ex-
Borse- Pense* Nor did he content himself with establishing pro¬
holder. Per regulations in the city, but went into all the neighbour-
*ng parishes where the contagion raged, distributing money,
providing accommodation for the sick, and punishing those’
especially the clergy, who were remiss in discharging the
duties of theii calling. Notwithstanding the fatigue and per¬
plexity which he experienced in thus executing his pastoral
charge, he abated nothing of the usual austerity of his life ;
bi ead and watei constituting his humble daily fare.
But continual labours and austerities combined to shorten
his valuable life. He was seized with an intermittent fever
and died at Milan, Nov. 4. 1584. He was immediately wor¬
shipped as a saint, but was not canonized till 1610. Besides
the Nodes f aticanat, to which he appears to have contributed,
the only literal y relics of this intrepid and zealous reformer
are some homilies, discourses, and sermons, with a collection
of letters. Several lives of him have been published, viz.,
by Godeau; by Touron, a Dominican; by Ribadeneira, a
Spanish Jesuit; and by Bimeus, and others. Through all
the mist of absurdity and superstition in which the character
and actions of Borromeo have been involved, it may safely
be affiimed that if the Church of Rome had had many such
men, religion might have been spared some grievous wounds,
and Europe many afflicting and sanguinary convulsions.
Borromeo, Frederigo, nephew or cousin-german of the
preceding, and likewise a cardinal and bishop of Milan
is chiefly known as the founder of the Ambrosian library’.
SfLjBRARnss. He died a.d. 1632. He was the author
of Meditamenta Litleraria (published in 1633, 4to) and
some other works.
BORROMINI, Francesco, an Italian architect, born
at Bissone in 1599. He was much employed in the middle of
the seventeenth century at Rome; but in’his style he affected
oi iginality and richness, which corrupted the noble simplicity
of the older schools, though his compositions are occasionally
imposing. His principal works are the church of St Agnese
in Piazza Navona, the church of San Carlo alle Fontane,
^ church of Collegio di Propaganda, and the restoration
of San Giovanni in Laterano. He died by his own hand at
Rome in 1667.
BORROWS TOM NNESS, by abbreviation Bo’ness, one
of the oldest seaport towns of Scotland, is in the county of
Linlithgow, onthe shore of the Firth of Forth, N. Eat. 56. 2.
W. Long. 3. 35. Though now decaying, it was formerly a
place of considerable traffic, and had many ships engaged in
colonial and foreign trade. Its commerce is now for the
most part confined to the Baltic, but it still sends a few
ships annually to the whaling. The harbour is excellent,
but is now no longer able to defray current expenses, espe¬
cially since Grangemouth began to rise into importance. In
the town there are extensive manufactories of salt, of which
30,000 bushels are annually exported. A good many ships
were formerly built here, and the patent slip is still fre¬
quently used. Besides the salt works, there are two distil¬
leries, a pottery, rope-work, and vitriol and soap works. There
are also valuable collieries in the neighbourhood, some of
which have been worked for centuries, and extend under
water to the distance of a mile. Besides the parish school,
there are several private institutions. The most interest¬
ing objects in the parish are Graham’s Dyke (a part of the
Roman wall of Antonine), and Kinniel House, for many
yeD^i 6 residence of Dugald Stewart. Pop. (1851) 2645.
ORSEHOLDER {borough’s elder), among the Anglo-
Saxons, one of the lowest magistrates, whose authority ex¬
tended only over one free burgh, tithing, or decennary, con¬
sisting of ten families. Every freeman who wished to enioy
the protection of the laws, and not to be treated as a vaga-
lon , was unt er the necessity of being admitted a member of
the tithing where he and his family resided ; and in order
to obtain this admission, it was necessary for him to main-
B 0 S
tain a good reputation, because all the members of each Boryg.
tithing being pledges for one another, and the whole tith- thenes
mg sureties to the king for the good behavour of all its mem- II
hers, they were very cautious in admitting any into their -Boscawen.
society who were of bad or doubtful character. Each tith-
ing formed a little state or commonwealth within itself, and
chose one of its most respectable members for its head,
who was sometimes called the alderman of such tithing or
free burgh, on account of his age and experience, but most
commonly borseholder, from the Saxon words borch, a se-
cmity, and alder, a head or chief. This magistrate had
authority to call together the members of his tithing, to pre¬
side m their meetings, and to put their sentences in execu¬
tion. The members of each tithing, with their tithing-man
or borseholder at their head, constituted a court of justice,
in which all the little controversies arising within the tithing
were determined. Any dispute of great difficulty or im¬
portance was referred to the next superior court, which was
that of the hundred.
BORYSTHENEb, in Ancient Geography, the largest
river of Sarmatia Europaea, now called the Dnieper. Its
sources were unknown to the ancients. (Herod, iv., Mela, ii.)
BOS. See Mammalia, Index.
Bos (/3o£>s), a very ancient Attic silver coin or didrach-
mon : it was sometimes, though rarely, struck of gold. This
coin was so called from having on it the impression of an
ox ; hence the phrase Bos in lingua, applied to one who
had taken a bribe to hold his tongue.
BOS A, a city on the western coast of the island of Sar¬
dinia, in a fine valley on the northern bank of the Termo.
It is well built and paved; is the see of a bishop; and
has a cathedral, a diocesan seminary, and several schools.
I he harbour is safe, being sheltered by the islet of the same
name. Pop. 6000. Long. 8. 25. 31. E. Lat. 40. 16. 40. N.
BOSCAGE, a grove or thicket. It is used in old laws
for the food of cattle yielded by trees and bushes.
BOSCAN, Almogaver, Juan, a Spanish poet, born of
a good family at Barcelona about a.d. 1500. He was the
intimate friend of Garcilaso de la Vega, and with him con¬
tributed essentially to the improvement of Spanish poetry.
He was the first who introduced endecasyllabic verse into
Spanish poetry; and he translated into the Castilian tongue
the sonnets and other poetical forms consecrated by the
usage of the best Italian authors. His poetry is divided into
three books, the first of which contains only redondillas,
while the two others are filled with the pieces which he com¬
posed after he adopted his new method, namely canciones,
sonnets, tercetts, compositions in the ottava rima, and in
blank verse. Boscan was tutor to the celebrated Ferdinand
of Toledo, Duke of Alba, and appears to have died about the
year 1544. His works were printed in conjunction with
those of his friend Garcilaso, at Lisbon in 1543 ; at Leon
in 1549 ; and at Venice in 1553. (Bouterwek, i. 232.)
BOSCAW EN, Edward, a brave British admiral, was
the third son of Hugh Lord Viscount Falmouth. Having
eixrly entered into the navy, he was, in 1740, captain of the
Shoreham ; and he behaved with great intrepidity as a vo¬
lunteer under Admiral Vernon, at the taking of Porto-Bello.
At the siege of Carthagena, in March 1741, he had the
command of a party of seamen who resolutely attacked
and took a battery of fifteen 24-pounders, though exposed
to the fire of another fort of five guns. In 1744, when in
command of the Dreadnought of sixty guns, he captured the
Medea, a French man-of-war commanded by M. de Hoc-
quart, the first ship taken in that war. In May 1747 he sig¬
nalized himself under the admirals Anson and Warren, in
an engagement with the French fleet off Cape Finisterre,
and was wounded in the shoulder with a musket-ball. Here
M. de Hocquart, who then commanded the Diamond of
fifty-six guns, again became his prisoner ; and all the French
ships of war, ten in number, were taken. On the 15th of July
BOS
BOS
57
Boscoi following, he was made rear-admiral of the blue, and com-
II mander-in-chief of the sea and land forces employed on an
Boscovich. expedition to the East Indies. On the 4th November he
sailed from St Helen’s, with six ships of the line, five frigates,
and 2000 soldiers ; and on the 29th July 1748 he arrived
at St David’s, and soon after laid siege to Pondicherry. The
men, however, growing sickly, and the monsoons being ex¬
pected, the siege was raised, and Boscawen in his retreat
displayed the skill of an able military commander. Soon
afterwards he received news of the peace, and Madras was
delivered up to him by the French. In April 1750 he ar¬
rived at St Helen’s in the Exeter, and found that in his ab¬
sence he had been appointed rear-admiral of the white. He
was the next year made one of the lords commissioners of
the admiralty, and chosen an elder brother of the Trinity-
house. In February ] 755 he was appointed vice-admiral of
the blue. On the 19th of April, sailing in order to intercept
a French squadron bound to North America, he fell in with
the Alcide and Lys of sixty-four guns each, which were both
taken. On this occasion M. de Hocquart became his pri¬
soner for the third time, and Boscawen returned to Spithead
with his prizes and 1500 prisoners. In 1756 he was ap¬
pointed vice-admiral of the white, and in 1758 admiral of
the blue and commander-in-chief of the expedition to Cape
Breton, when, in conjunction with General Amhetst, and
a body of troops from New England, the important fortress
of Louisberg, and the whole island of Cape Breton were
taken ; services for which he received the thanks of the
House of Commons. In 1759, being appointed to com¬
mand in the Mediterranean, he arrived at Gibraltar, where,
hearing that the Toulon fleet, under M. de la Cue, had
passed the Straits in order to join that at Brest, he got
under sail, and on the 18th of August saw, pursued, and en¬
gaged the enemy. His ship, the Namur of ninety guns,
losing her mainmast, he shifted his flag to the Neicark; and,
after a sharp engagement, took three large ships and burnt
two, in Lagos Bay, after which he returned to Spithead
with his prizes and 2000 prisoners. On the 8th Decem¬
ber 1760 he was appointed general of the marines, with a
salary of L.3000 per annum, and was also sworn a member
of the privy council. He died in 1761, in the fiftieth year
of his age,
BOSCOI, or Bosci (fioo-Koi), the name given to a class
or tribe of monks in Palestine, who took no care about pro¬
vision, but when eating time came, went into the fields and
ate what they could find.
BOSCOVICH, Roger Joseph, a celebrated natural
philosopher, born May 18. 1711, at Ragusa, a seaport on the
Adriatic. His youth appears to have been marked by no
precocity of talent while he studied grammar and philosophy
in the schools of the Jesuits. Among these shrewd ob¬
servers, however, his docility and obedience were sufficient
to procure him particular attention. In his fifteenth year,
after he had gone through the ordinary course of education,
he was admitted into the order, and sent to Rome. Here
his studies changed their character and direction : the rules
and constitutions of the order claimed his attention for two
years ; after which he was instructed in rhetoric, and became
well versed in general literature, particularly Latin poetry.
After completing his noviciate, he was sent to the Roman
college to study mathematics and physics; and it was in
these sciences that his genius and abilities shone forth so
conspicuously. He soon arrived at eminence, and after
being exempted from the operation of a law, by which the
novices were bound to teach Latin and the belles-lettres for five
years before they commenced the study of theology, he was
appointed mathematical professorin the Jesuit’s college. For
this chair he was eminently qualified, as, besides a thorough
knowledge of all the modern productions in the science, he had
acquired a classical severity of demonstration by studying
the works of the ancient geometricians. Notwithstanding his
VOL. v.
arduous duties as an instructor of youth, it was about this
period that he formed some of those refined and original no¬
tions which were destined to grow up into the system that
afterwards became so celebrated. The animating spirit of
discovery and invention led him to consider every portion
of physical science; and indeed so versatile and vigorous
was his mind, that we should be at a loss to specify any one
portion which, within a few years, it did not comprehend,
elucidate, and advance. In confirmation of this it will be
sufficient to enumerate the principal subjects on which he
published dissertations while he continued in the professor¬
ship, These were, the transit of Mercury over the sun, the
spots in the sun, the aurora borealis, the construction of
spherical trigonometry, the figure of the earth, a new tele¬
scope to determine celestial objects, the ancient arguments
for the rotundity of the earth, oscillating circles ; on infinites
and infinitely small quantities, the motion of bodies in unre¬
sisting spaces, the aberration of the fixed stars, the inequali¬
ties in terrestrial gravity ; on astronomy, on the limits of
certainty in astronomical observations ; on the solid of great¬
est attraction, the cycloid, the logistic curve lines, the vires
vivce, the comets, light, the tides, the rainbow, the calcula¬
tion of fractions, the centre of gravity, the moon’s atmosphere,
the law of continuity, lenses and dioptrical telescopes, the
objective micrometer, and the divisibility of matter. Some
of these are short, but all of them contain curious and valu¬
able matter. It is only by perusing them that we are able
to discover the gradual progress of his mind, and to un¬
derstand the manner in which he arrived at that theory of
natural philosophy which is now known by his name.
About this time a taste for philosophical poetry was very
prevalent amongst the learned, and some of Boscovich’s ac¬
quaintances had laboured in it with success. Of these we
may mention Father Noceti, who wvote on the rainbow and
the aurora borealis, and Benedict Stay, whose poems on the
philosophy of Descartes, and on the more modern philosophy,
are considered as excellent examples of Latin composition.
Boscovich published the works of both with annotations and
supplements which display a rich fund of information and
learning. By such undertakings his fame soon became
widely diffused. The learned societies of many countries
in Europe conferred on him unsolicited honours, and seve¬
ral foreign princes invited him to their courts. His opin¬
ions on various subjects of civil architecture, topography, and
hydrodynamics, were solicited by Pope Benedict XIV., John
V. of Portugal, and others. These applications necessarily
required his presence in difterent states of Europe, where he
never failed to enhance his reputation, and often terminated
disputes which, but for his judicious interference, might
have had disagreeable consequences. He was employed to
correct the maps of the papal dominions, and to measure a
degree of the meridian there. In this operation he was as¬
sisted by an English Jesuit named Christopher Maire. An
account of their expedition was printed at Rome and Paris,
and is interspersed with some curious anecdotes ; but it is
chiefly valuable for the detail which is given of their obser¬
vations.
In 1757 he was sent to Vienna by the republic of Lucca,
to settle some differences concerning the draining of a lake,
in which the grand duke of Tuscany, the emperor Francis I.,
and that republic, were concerned; and after succeeding in
the object of his mission to that city, he published there his
Theoria Philosophies Naturalis in 1758. Another occa¬
sion for his mediating powers, that more nearly interested
him, soon presented itself. The British government having
suspected that some ships of war had been fitted out at
Ragusa for the service of France, and that its neutrality had
thus been infringed, the senate of Ragusa became alarmed
at the suspicion, and employed Boscovich, who had often
been successful in similar missions for other powers, to pro¬
ceed to London, where he effected the object of his mission,
H
Boscovich.
58
BOS
V T111, Aon°ur t0 himself, and satisfaction to his native state.
. i ^GO he visited the Koyal Society, which received him
ivitli distinguished marks of respect; and he soon afterwards
complimented, that body with a Latin poem on the solar
and Junar eclipses. Boscovich was invited by the Royal
Society to be of the party of their members about to pro¬
ceed to America in order to observe the transit of Venus
over the sun’s disc; but the nature of his embassy, and
the necessity of returning home, prevented his accepting
he invitation Soon after his return, he was appointed by
the senate of Milan to the mathematical chair in the uni¬
versity of I avia with the superintendence of the observa¬
tory of the royal college of Brera. He continued in this
situation for six years, when the empress queen appointed
him professor of astronomy and optics in the Palatine
schools of Milan and also requested that he would continue
to superintend the observatory; Admired by the learned,
beloved by his friends, and having an adequate income, with
a sound and vigorous constitution, he promised to himself
much happiness in the tranquil cultivation of the sciences.
i5ut a cloud ong impending now burst over his head, in
V£JdlC5/0r the ab°liti0n °f his order’ which t«ok place in
11 A iNmeXxfmPtl0n from the edict could be procured;
all who held offices were dismissed; and Boscovich sought
i efuge in I ans. I hither indeed he was invited by Tur¬
got, through whose means he was made one of the directors
of optics for the sea service, and received a pension; but he
never ceased to mourn his exile, and the ruin of his order
He remained there however, for ten years, on the expiry
of which he obtained leave to visit Italy; and he published
at Bassano, m five volumes quarto, a collection of the works
which he had completed in Paris.
The following is a pretty accurate enumeration of their contents-
forcer^f SmUT f°r determining the refracting and diverging
the TWt d aphan0^s bodies; a demonstration of the falsehood of
the Newtonian analogy between light and sound; the algebraic
cul^S ffcSar<i!ng- the f<lC1 °f lenses’ and their applications for cal¬
culating the sphericity of those which are to be used in achromatic
telescopes; the corrections to be made in ocular lenses, and the
oi of the sphericity of certain glasses; the causes which hinder
elLe^andThYf 6 S°lar rayS by meanS °f the Sreat bu™ing
glasses and the determination of the loss arising from it; the me-
od of determining the different velocities of light passing through
the rmT* by™eansof two dioptric telescopes, onecommom
fri® rther, .f a ^CW klnd’ containing water between the objective
meters the , °f ^ ima^ a neW kind objective micro!
meters the defects and inutility of a dioptric telescope proposed
one dWt th Wl’-1Ch giV6S tW° imageS of the same objec!, the
!hle nW Vhe other inverse, with two contrary motions of mov-
. ble objects, masses floating in the atmosphere, as hail of an ex-
snn!Idl!nry S1i.Ze’ See’- 0n the Sun With the telescope, and resembling
spots, the astronomical refractions, with various methods for de-
ermining them; different methods for determining the orbits of
comets and of the new planet, with copious applications of these
doctrines to other astronomical subjects, and still more generally to
geometry and to the science of calculation; the errors, rectifica¬
tions and use of quadrants, sextants, astronomical sectors the
meridian line telescopes called transit instruments, the meridian
and the parallactic machine; the trigonometrical differential for’.
mulaa which are of so much use in astronomy; the use of the mi¬
crometrical rhombus, extended to any oblique position whatsoever •
e error arising from refractions in using the astronomical rin<r
ora sun-tlml, and the correction to be made; the appearing and
tationSnf ?!aring featurn s ^g; methods of determining the ro-
sible in SU” by meanS of the spots; the greatest exactness pos-
second nf u16 *enSto of a pendulum oscillating every
"ravitv • n ^ b7 the comParison of terrestrial and celestial
taininJ’+hn TPen<? °f astTOnomy for the use of the marine, con-
mical fnstr imeTr^ the, heavenly motions, and of the astrono-
month • a method’ f° ^ e,XPIa.lned to a Prince in the course of one
the LreaLsT exaL d®termming the altitudes of the poles with
tne greatest exactness, by means of a gnomon alone where other
theS retrotaTre? °b/vVed 0n the mmudian ; a method of using
mhiinl theTes! n T ° ^ t0 the Same longitude, for deter-
imning the less certain elements of her orbit; a method for correct¬
ing the elements of a comet, of which the longitude of the node Is
BOS
given, and the inclination of the orbit has been nearly found- an-
orbit" whlnthe01, ^ T™" PUrP0Se' and for finding the elliptical
method fo" ^ paTabokc 0De does n°t agree with observation; a
lions tlm ' ; !18 c eIements °f a Planet ^ toree observa-
+-.. A projection of an orbit inclined in the plane of the eclip-
calculation^nf Ci>I0n i°f an.0rbit Inclined in any other plane; the
calculation of the aberration of the stars, arising from the succes-
sive propaga^on of light; and some beautiful theorems belongin’o-
ang es, which are of great use in astronomy, reduced to the
most simple demonstrations?
After the publication of these works, Boscovich quitted
Bassano, and went to Rome to visit the companions of his
youth. Prom Rome he proceeded to Milan, where he
revised some of his own works, and prepared for publica¬
tion the two last volumes of Stay’s poems. His death took
place on the 13th of February 1787, in the seventy-sixth
year of his age. J
Besides the different works above mentioned, Boscovich
wrote several others on various subjects, as on the project
o turning the navigation to Rome from Fiumicino to Mac-
carese; on two torrents in the territory of Perugia; on the
embankments of the river Ponaro; on the river Sidone in the
temtory of Placentia; on the embankments of the Po; on the
harbours of Ancona, of Rimini, of Magna Vacca, and Sa¬
vona; besides some others, almost all of which were printed.
A,°r an account of the system developed in the Theoria
Fhilosophitz Naturahs, see the article Physics.
BOSJESMANS, or Bushmen, a race of Hottentots who
inhabit the sides and valleys of the Sneuwberg, or Snowy
Mountains, which form the northern boundary of the colony
of the Cape of Good Flope. They are rude and savage in
the extreme, and in their persons present a caricature of
that form which characterizes the Hottentot, the hollow
back, protruding, belly, and large buttocks. Destitute of
cultivation, and inhabiting the most desolate tracts, they
procure with difficulty even a scanty supply of the most
wretched aliments. Wild animals, roots, and the larvae of
ants and insects, form their usual resources. To this, in¬
deed, they add frequent predatory excursions to the store-
farms in the plains; but this involves them in a severe and
unequal contest, since their arrows, though tipt with deadly
poison, and shot with surprising dexterity, are no match for
the fire-arms of the colonists. The cruelty with which
they have been pursued by the colonists still renders them
extremely shy of strangers. Mr Barrow met with a youn°-
man who had made a journey along part of their territory
anil who being asked if he had seen any of them, replied
with an air of disappointment, that he had shot only four.
Judging from the accounts of travellers who have been
among them, and from the individuals of their race exhi-
oited in this country, they appear to be by no means un¬
susceptible of civilization. They display nothing of that
s uggish and gloomy deportment which characterizes the
servile Hottentot. They bound with wonderful agility from
lock to rock, either in flight or in chase of their prey; and
on certain festive occasions, they give way to an extrava¬
gant gaiety, dancing whole days and nights, especially by-
moonlight. Even the pictures of animals which they deli¬
neate on the rocks are not altogether destitute of spirit or
resemblance. See Burchell’s Travels.
BO SNA SERAI, or Serajeyo (ancient Tiber iopolis),
a city of European Turkey, capital of the province of
Bosnia, is situated on the Migliazza, 246 miles south of
Buda, Eat. 43. 54. N. Long. 18. 26. E. The town is well
built, occupying the declivities of several small hills, and its
numerous turrets and minarets give it a rather imposing
aspect. It is defended by a strong citadel, but the walls
which formerly surrounded the town are now in ruins. It
derives its name from the Serai or palace built by Mo¬
hammed II., and contains numerous mosques, and several
Greek and Roman Catholic churches. The chief manu¬
factures are fire-arms, jewellery, leather, and cotton and
Bosjesmaus
II
Bosna
Serai.
*
Bosso.
BOS
Bosnia woollen stuffs. In the vicinity are extensive iron mines.
Population estimated at from 40,000 to 60,000.
BOSNIA, the most north-westerly province of Turkey
in Europe, comprising Bosnia Proper, Turkish Croatia,
and Herzegovina. It extends from Lat. 42. 30. to 45. 15.
N. and from Long. 15. 40. to 21. 2. E., and is bounded on
the north and west by the Austrian dominions, south by
Montenegro and Albania, and east by Servia. Area esti¬
mated at 18,800 square miles; pop. (1844) 1,100,000. The
whole province is mountainous, many of the summits reach¬
ing to the height of 6000 feet. From the nature of the
soil, it is more appropriate for the breeding of cattle than
the operations of the plough. The chief kind of cattle
reared, are sheep in large flocks, some good horses and
cows, with here and there a few buffaloes and goats. There
are a few mines of copper; and formerly some of gold and
silver were worked, especially a very celebrated one at
Jlatnizza; but they are now neglected. Bosnia has some
quarries of good marble; and at Tuzla is a very copious and
strong spring of salt water, which is converted into culinary
salt. The manufactures are of the domestic kind, and up¬
on a small scale, including leather, cloth, and iron wares.
Bosnia is under the government of a pasha of three tails,
and is divided into six circles, and forty-eight smaller divi¬
sions.
BOSPHORUS, or rather Bosporus, the name given
by the Greeks to any straits. Bosporus is synonymous
with the Italian faro, the Latin fretum, and the French
pas or manche. The word is formed of /?oik, an ox, and
Tropos, passage, probably from the idea that an ox might
swim across. The origin of the name is not disputed; but
various mythological legends were invented to account for
its first application; as that of its having derived its name
from lo, who crossed it under the form of a heifer. The
name of Bosporus is chiefly confined to two straits, namely,
the Bosporus of Thrace, commonly called the Strait of
Constantinople, or Channel of the Black Sea; and the
Cimmerian or Scythian Bosporus, now known as the Strait
of Yenikale. See Black Sea.
BOSQUETS, in Gardening, groves, so called from bos-
chetto, an Italian word which signifies a little wood.
BOSSCHA, Hermann, a distinguished scholar and anti¬
quary, born at Leeuwarden in Friesland, March 18. 1755.
After having been rector of the Latin schools at Franeker
and Deventer, in 1795 he was appointed to a chair in the uni¬
versity of Harderwyck. He was subsequently a professor at
Groningen; and in 1807 he was appointed to the chair of
history in the Athenaeum at Amsterdam. Bosscha died on
the 12th Aug. 1819. He was an excellent Latin poet, and
the author of various works on classical subjects, besides
translations, and a history of the revolution in Holland in 1813.
BOSSCHAERT, Thomas Willibrord, a Flemish
painter, born at Bergen-op-Zoom in 1613, and educated at
Antwerp under Gerard Seghers. After a residence of four
years at Rome he returned to Antwerp, and acquired a high
and merited reputation. His works, which are in the style of
Yandyck and Reubens, are harmonious and tender in colour¬
ing, the drawing is free and spirited, and the finish is fre¬
quently exquisite. He died in 1656.
BOSSINEY, a small village in the parish of Tintagel, on
the north coast of Cornwall, and consisting of little more than
a group of cottages. Previous to the passing of the Reform
Act it united with the small neighbouring village of Trevenna
in returning two members to parliament. The ruins of a
castle near it are said to be those of the palace in which
King Arthur was born, and where the ancient dukes of
Cornwall resided. Pop. of parish in 1851, including; both
villages, 1084.
BOSSO, in Latin Bosses, Matteo, distinguished by his
virtue and his learning, was born at Verona in 1428. In
1451 he joined the congregation of regular canons of St
BOS
John de Lateran; and he afterwards taught divinity at Padua.
His orations, sermons, and letters, have often been printed ;
and he also wrote a sort of apology for Phalaris, and other
works. He died at Padua in 1502.
BOSSU, Rene Le, an eminent French critic, born at
Paris, March 16. 1631. He studied at Nanterre; and in
1649 entered among the regular canons of Sainte-Gene-
vieve. After having professed the humanities in different
religious houses for twelve years, he withdrew into retire¬
ment. His first publication was Parallele des Principes de
Physique d, Aristote et de celle de Pene Pescartes, which
appeared in 1674. He attempted, says Voltaire, to recon¬
cile Aristotle and Descartes, not aware that it had become
necessary to abandon both. His next work, entitled Traite
du Poeme Epique, was published in 1675, and often re¬
printed afterwards. Its leading doctrine is that the subject
should be chosen before the characters, and that the action
should be arranged without reference to the personages who
are to figure in the scene. Nevertheless, Boileau. in his
Third Reflexion on Longinus, pronounces this work ‘Tun des
meilleurs livres de poetique qui, du consentement de tous
les habiles gens, aient ete fails en notre langue.” In abate¬
ment of this commendation, however, it may be stated, on
the authority of Le Courayer, that Le Bossu had defended
Boileau against Saint-Sorlin, by whom he had been attacked;
that Boileau expressed himself exceedingly grateful for this
service; and that a sense of obligation may perhaps have
dictated the commendation he bestowed on the work. Bossu
died March 14. 1680.
BOSSUET, Jacques Benigne, one of the most illus¬
trious prelates which the church of France—so fruitful in
great men—has ever produced, was born at Dijon on the
27th September 1627. He was descended from an ancient
and noble family in Burgundy. On the establishment of
the parliament of Metz, his father was appointed one of its
counsellors. Being destined by his parents for the church,
the young Bossuet took the clerical tonsure before he had
completed his eighth year. At first he was placed under
the care of his uncle, the first president of the parliament of
Metz ; and he used to relate that while a mere boy under
his uncle’s roof he read the Old Testament with a relish and
delight far exceeding any pleasure he afterwards felt on the
perusal of any other work. His uncle afterwards placed him
at the college of the Jesuits at Dijon, where he applied him¬
self to his studies with such labour and success that they
desired to attach him to themselves; but in 1642 his uncle
sent him to Paris to the college of Navarre. Here, under
the direction of the celebrated Nicholas Cornet the princi¬
pal, Bossuet made rapid progress in Greek and philosophy,
relieving his studies from time to time by reading the best
works of antiquity; but the Scriptures and religious books
always occupied a large share of his time. At the age of
sixteen he supported his first thesis in a manner which gave
indications of his future greatness, and which caused him to
be already regarded as a prodigy. An extempore sermon,
which he shortly afterwards delivered at the Llotel of Ram
bouillet, in presence of an assembly partly composed of the
most celebrated men of the time, excited general admiration.
He was admitted into the corporation of the college at the
age of twenty, on which occasion he chose for the subject
of his thesis a comparison between the glory of this world
and that which awaits the just in the next. During the
delivery of this discourse, the great Conde, who had just
dazzled France by the splendour of his victories, suddenly
entered the hall, surrounded by a number of his companions
in arms. The orator, without interrupting his harangue,
immediately addressed himself to the young conqueror, and,
in the name of France, paid him a just and appropriate tri¬
bute of admiration and praise ; but he told him at the same
time how vain and perishable was the glory which he had
acquired. Forty years after, Bossuet repeated the same
59
Bossu
Bossuet.
60
B 0 S S U E T.
Bossuet.
truths over the bier of the princely warrior. During the
whole of that long period he had enjoyed his friendship and
esteem.
In 1652 Bossuet took the degree of doctor, and received
also the order of priesthood. In thus devoting himself to
the cause of religion, he exclaimed, “ Under thy auspices,
O sacred Truth, I will joyfully approach those altars which
are to witness the oath I am about to take; an oath which
our ancestors have often heard ; that most pleasing and most
sacred oath, by which I am to bind myself, even to death,
to the holy cause of truth.” After passing some time in
the retreat at St Lazarus under the discipline of St Vincent
de Paul, whose friendship he had obtained, he went to Metz,
in cathedral church of which city he had previously ob¬
tained the preferment of a canonicate, and where he was
successively raised to the rank of archdeacon and dean. He
now applied himself wholly to the duties of his ministry, edi¬
fying those who surrounded him by the purity of his life,
and astonishing them by the splendour of his talents. His
first appearance as an author was in 1655, when he published
his Refutation of the Catechism of Paul Ferry, a Protestant
minister highly esteemed for his learning and talents. This
work advanced his reputation greatly with his own party,
and, it is said, gained him even the respect of the Protes¬
tants. The affairs of the cathedral rendering his presence
necessary in Paris, he often preached there; and his ser¬
mons were so universally applauded, that he was appointed
to preach in the chapel of the Louvre before Louis XIV.
during the Lent of 1663. His Majesty signified the pleasure
he derived from his sermons in a letter which his private se¬
cretary wrote by his desire to Bossuet’s father.
In 1669 he was nominated to the bishopric of Condom;
but being appointed preceptor to the Dauphin the following
year, he resigned his see, because he considered his new
charge as inconsistent with the duty he owed to his diocese,
h or the instruction of the Dauphin he composed his work on
universal history, which he divided into three parts. The
first part is purely chronological; but it has been well ob¬
served that it scarcely contains a sentence in which there is
not some noun or verb that conveys an image or suggests a
sentiment of the noblest kind. The third part, which is
historical, contains the most profound reflections on the rise
and fall of empires. “ But in the second part of it,” as one
of his biographers observes, “ the genius of Bossuet takes
its highest flight. He never appears on the stretch of exer¬
tion ; he is never lost in the mazes of argumentation ; but,
in a continued strain of sublime eloquence, he displays the
truths and proofs of the Christian religion with a grandeur
of thought, a magnificence of language, and a force of evi¬
dence, which nothing can withstand. A nobler work in
support of Christianity has never issued from the press.” This
work was first published in 1681. Ten years previous, he had
published his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic
Church in Matters of Controversy, which was speedily trans¬
lated into all the living languages of Europe. Pope Inno¬
cent XL formally approved of it by two successive briefs on
the 22d November 1678 and the 12th July 1679; and the
Gallican clergy in their assembly of 1682 gave it also the
seal of their approbation. It has therefore, we believe, been
regarded as a correct exposition of the tenets of the Roman
Catholic Church. The publication of the Exposition gave rise
to the famous conference between Bossuet and Claude,
one of tbe ablest divines of the Reformed church in France.
Having finished the education of the Dauphin in 1681,
the king nominated Bossuet to the bishopric of Meaux, and
he entered with zeal upon the duties of his new episcopate.
He took a very active part in the general assembly of the
church of France held the following year, and drew up the
celebiated declaration of 1682 against the attempted en¬
croachments of the see of Rome. Bossuet now directed all
the energies of his powerful mind to the most important of
all bis controversial works, the History of the Variations of Bossuet.
thx Protestant Churches, which was first published in 1688.
Gibbon in his younger years was converted to the Roman
( atholic faith by perusing this work, retiring for a while,
like Chillingworth, (to use the expression of Dr Johnson in
his Life of Dryden,) into the bosom of an infallible church.
It has been remarked as a singular coincidence, that al¬
though no writers were ever more opposed in sentiment
than Bossuet and the author of the Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, yet the latter (c. 54) adopts and aggravates
the charges made by Bossuet, in his History of the Varia¬
tions, of the alleged Socinian tendency of the principles of
the Reformation.
During the last years of his life Bossuet was much occu¬
pied in the hopeless scheme of effecting a union between the
Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. The negotiation
was first carried on with Molanus, who limited his views to
a junction between the Roman Catholic and Lutheran
churches, a plan which many persons considered by no
means impracticable. But Leibnitz, who succeeded Mo¬
lanus on the part of the Protestants, being desirous of in¬
cluding the whole Protestant churches in the arrangement,
the negotiation failed, as might have been expected, after
a correspondence of ten years.
It was the fate of Bossuet to be involved in religious
controversy during the greater part of his life. He entered
the arena at the age of twenty-eight, and during the fifty
years which followed, his pen was in constant requisition.
He composed with ease, but, like Burke, he laboured hard
to improve his writings, and did not cease to alter them till
they issued from the press; yet the style of both is as free
as if it had been quite spontaneous. Some of Bossuet’s
principal writings against the Protestants have been men¬
tioned. He was also engaged in controversies with persons
of his own communion. That with the amiable Fenelon is
the most conspicuous. The mystical speculations of Ma¬
dame Guyon of Port Royal having found an abettor in the
person of the author of Telemachus, in a work on the
maxims of the saints, Bossuet drew up his Relation du
Quietisme, in which the archbishop was attacked with great
severity. Fenelon published a reply, in which meekness,
simplicity, and grandeur of mind were admirably blended.
The writings in this controversy are amongst the finest in
French literature; but Quietism being a perishable topic,
these writings are now seldom read, "in this contest the
eagle of Meaux carried off the palm of victory.
Among the writings of Bossuet, his sermons and funeral
orations are particularly to be distinguished. Of the latter,
the finest is that on the death of Henrietta-Anne, the
daughter of our Charles I. and wife of the Duke of Orleans.
As his funeral orations place him in the first class of orators,
so his sermons unquestionably rank him in the first line of
preachers. It has been observed that Bourdaloue and
Massillon alone can dispute his pre-eminence. In the opi¬
nion of Voltaire, the eloquence of Bossuet stands unrivalled.
This great prelate died on the 12th of April 1704, in the
77th year of his age. Massillon and other French writers
have eulogized the talents and virtues of Bossuet in terms
of the highest admiration: and he is thus noticed by the
Reverend Mr Eustace in his Classical Tour: “ Bossuet
was indeed a great man, and one of those extraordinary
minds which, at distant intervals, seem as if deputed from
a superior region to enlighten and astonish mankind. With
all the originality of genius, he was free from its eccentri¬
city and intemperance. Sublime, without obscurity—bold,
yet accurate—splendid, and yet simple at the same time,—
he awes, elevates, and delights his readers, overpowers all
resistance, and leads them willing captives to join and to
share his triumph. The defects of his style arise from the
imperfection of his dialect. And perhaps he could not
have given a stronger proof of the energies of his mind
BOS
BOS *61
Bossut than in compelling the French language itself to become
II the vehicle of sublimity. His works, therefore, are supe-
Boston. rjor ^ all other controversial writings in his own or any
other language.” His works were collected and published
soon after his decease in twelve volumes quarto. The Be¬
nedictines of St Maur published another edition ; but a
more complete edition, in forty-three volumes octavo, was
published in 1815-20. Cardinal de Bausset wrote a his¬
tory of the life of Bossuet, which was published in four
volumes octavo. (j. b—e.)
BOSSUT, Charles, an eminent French mathematician,
born at Tarare, near Lyons, August 11. 1730 ; died January
14. 1814. He was the friend and associate of Condorcet,
D’Alembert, Badly, and Lavoisier. His principal work is
entitled Traite Elementaire de Mecanique et de Dynamique.
BOSTON, a parliamentary and municipal borough and
seaport town of England, in the county of Lincoln and
wapentake of Skirbeck. It is situated in a rich agricultural
district on the Witham, six miles from the sea, and 28 miles
S.E. of Lincoln. Lat. 52. 59. N. Long. 0. 2. E.
Boston is by some supposed to have been a Roman station
in the province of Slavia Ccesariensis, of which Lincolnshire
formed a part, but of this sufficient evidence does not seem
to exist. According to the Saxon Chronicle, St Botolph,
the patron of sailors, founded a monastery at Icanhoe in
654, which was destroyed by the Danes in 870. From
this Boston is said to have taken its name (Botolph’s town).
It became a place of considerable commercial importance
after the Norman conquest, and, in 1204, when the quin-
zieme tax was imposed on the ports of England, that of
Boston amounted to L.780, and was exceeded only by that
of London, which was L.836. A great annual fair was
held at Boston about this time. By 27th Edward III. it
was made a staple for wool, woolfells, leather, and lead.
Its prosperity about this time induced merchants from
the Hanseatic and other Continental commercial cities to
settle here, who, however, about a century later, were
obliged to leave, in consequence of a quarrel with the
townsmen. From this time it rapidly declined. The disso¬
lution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. injured the town,
though compensation was in some degree made by granting
the town a charter of incorporation, and Philip and Mary
endowed it with upwards of500 acres of land. It afterwards
suffered from the plague and from inundations, to which its
low situation rendered it particularly liable. During the
civil wars it was for some time the headquarters of Crom¬
well’s army.
Boston is well built, paved, and lighted, and contains
many good dwelling-houses, shops, and warehouses. It
is divided into two nearly equal parts by the Witham,
here crossed by an elegant iron bridge of one arch 86
feet in span. Until recently the supply of water was
very deficient, but in virtue of an act passed in 1847 it
has now a plentiful supply conveyed by pipes from a dis¬
tance of twelve miles. The principal building is the parish
church of St Botolph, founded in 1309. It is one of the
largest churches without aisles in the kingdom, being 290
by 98 feet within the walls. The tower, 290 feet in height,
resembles that of Antwerp cathedral, and is crowned by a
beautiful octagonal lantern, forming a landmark seen forty
miles off. There is a chapel of ease, erected in 1822, and
chapels of Independents, Methodists, Baptists, &c.; a free
grammar-school, founded in 1554, Laughton’s charity school
for the sons of poor freemen, a bluecoat, national, infant,
Sunday, and other schools. There is also a dispensary, a
town-hall, market-house, assembly rooms, theatre, borough
gaol, house of correction, union poor-house, Vauxhall, me¬
chanics’ institution, public baths, two subscription libraries,
custom-house, four banks, and a savings-bank. The manu¬
factures consist chiefly of sail-cloth, canvass, sacking, ropes,
beer, leather, hats, and bricks. There are also two iron and
brass foundries, and three ship-yards, with patent slips,
w'here vessels of 200 tons are built.
From neglect to clear the river, it became so obstructed
that in 1750 a sloop of forty or fifty tons could with diffi¬
culty come up to the town at spring tides. Since that
period great improvements have been made, and vessels of
300 tons are enabled to unload in the town. The foreign
imports are chiefly timber, pitch, tar, and hemp from the
Baltic, and coal and manufactures coastwise; the exports,
wool, wood, corn, and other agricultural produce. In 1849
there belonged to the port 177 sailing vessels of 8377
tons, and two small steamers; 1253 vessels of 60,298 tons
entered, and 570 vessels of 24,622 tons cleared; custom-
duty received, L.31,355. By means of the river and the
canals connected therewith, Boston has a navigable com¬
munication with Lincoln, Gainsborough, Nottingham, and
Derby. The East Lincolnshire railway connects it with
Louth, Grimsby, and other towns in the north, and the
Great Northern with Peterborough and the south; another
line extends to Lincoln. Market-day, Wednesday. Bos¬
ton is divided into two wards, and is governed by a mayor,
six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. It has returned
two members to parliament since the reign of Edward IV.
Registered electors (1851-52), 987. Population (1851)
within the parliamentary boundaries, 17,518; within the
municipality, 14,733.
Boston, the second commercial city in the United
States of North America, and capital of the state of Mas¬
sachusetts, is situated at the head of Massachusetts bay, near
the confluence of the Charles and Mystic rivers, 207 miles
N.E. by E. from New York. Lat. 42. 21. 23. N. Long.
71. 4. 9. W. It takes its name from the cognominal town
in England, whence many of its original settlers had emi¬
grated. They established themselves, in 1630, on the small
peninsula, of about 600 acres in extent, connected with the
continent by a narrow isthmus, and now known as Old Bos¬
ton. As early as 1740, it was a place of some importance,
and distinguished for its commercial enterprise, particularly
in ship-building and the fisheries. Its population was then
17,000. For more than half a century, its progress was
checked by the Indian, French, and English wars, and the
restrictive policy of England; so that in 1790 its popula¬
tion amounted to only 18,038. Boston took the lead in oppos¬
ing those obnoxious duties that resulted in the independence
of the States, and suffered severely during the revolution,
from the effects of which its recovery was slow: its stores
and public buildings had been injured or burned down, and
its commerce entirely ruined. Since 1790, however, it has
made rapid advances in trade and commerce. The original
limits were soon found inadequate for the growing town ;
and the state in 1804 annexed to it Dorchester Point, an¬
other peninsula of about the same extent, and which now
constitutes South Boston. At a later period Noddles Island,
having an area of 660 acres, was included within the bounds
of the city, forming what is now called East Boston. Some
hundred acres have also been reclaimed from the sea.
Though the chartered extent of the city is thus small, being
only about three square miles, its real limits are much more
considerable; and, indeed, the population outside its char¬
tered boundaries is at least equal to that within. If we
include the numerous towns and villages in the suburbs,
where many of the merchants and others of the city reside,
and which the numerous omnibuses and railways render
easy of access, the population will be much more consider¬
able. The followingare the decennial populations since 1790:
—in 1800, 24,937; 1810, 33,787; 1820, 43,298; 1830,
61,392; 1840, 93,383; and 1850, 138,788. The popula¬
tion of the district within a circuit of nine miles from the
exchange, and of which about one-fourth is occupied by
water, marsh, or rocky hills too steep for building, amounted
in 1850 to 269,874.
Boston.
62
Boston.
BOSTON.
The Peninsula of Old Boston was originally called Shaw-
niut, or Trimountain, from its springs and three lofty hills.
I hese last have been to a great extent preserved, and being
covered with buildings, give a picturesque appearance to the
city. The streets, however, having been originally laid out
upon no systematic plan, and accommodated only to the
nature of the ground, are in general crooked and narrow,
though modern improvements have greatly remedied these
inconveniences. The houses are generally of brick, but
large and well built. The numerous eminences, risingVrom
oO to 110 feet above the level of the sea, furnish many
admirable sites for building, and many of the private resi¬
dences are unsurpassed in elegance and taste by those of
any other city in the Union. Numerous bridges open com¬
munication in various directions for Old Boston. The prin¬
cipal of these are—the Charles river bridge, 1503 feet Ion"
connecting Boston with Charlestown ; West Boston bridge5
2758 feet, with a causeway of 3432 feet, leading to Cam¬
bridge ; South Boston bridge, 1550 feet, from the “ neck”
or isthmus to South Boston; Canal bridge, 2796 feet, to
East Cambridge, from the middle of which an arm extends
to States Prison Point in Charlestown ; Boston free bridge,
1828 feet, to South Boston ; Warren bridge, 1390 feet, to
Charlestown. The Western avenue leading to Brookline
is a solid structure 7000 feet long, faced with granite on
each side, and filled up with earth; and constitutes a tide-
dam inclosing a pond of 600 acres.
South Boston is united to Old Boston by four bridges
and is regularly laid out into streets and squares. In the
centre are the “ Dorchester Heights,” 130 feet high, famous
in the revolutionary war as the site of a fortification which
compelled the British to abandon the harbour.
East Boston is connected with the old town by a ferry
and with Chelsea on the mainland by a bridge. This por¬
tion of the city has taken its rise since 1833. A wharf 1000
feet long is devoted to the use of the Liverpool steamers.
°l>t(nn’ Wltl1.tIlc t°wn of Chelsea, constitutes he country
of Suffolk. It is divided into twelve wards ; and is governed
by a mayor 8 aldermen, and 48 councillors, all chosen
annually by the citizens. Besides these, each ward has a
warden, an overseer of the poor, a clerk, 5 inspectors, and
2 school committee men. There is a police court of three
justices, for the trial of minor offences and the examination
of criminal charges; as well as a municipal court, held by
a single judge, with jurisdiction in all criminal cases not
capital.
Among the public buildings of Boston the principal is the
State house, a large and commodious edifice on Beacon Hill,
110 feet above the level of the sea, and fronting the “ common.”
It nas erected in 1/98, and is 173 feet long, by 61 wide, built
of brick, but painted so as to imitate stone. It is ornamented
by two iron fountains, and has a fine dome 52 feet in diameter
with a cupola 230 feet above the level of the harbour, from
which a magnificent view is obtained. Faneuil Hall, an ancient
brick edifice, 100 feet long, by 80 wide, and three stories high,
is celebrated as the spot where the revolutionary orators roused
the people to resistance. Faneuil Hall market is an elegant
granite building 536 feet long, 50 feet wide, and two stories in
height. The city hall or old state house is another venerable
®dlfice of revolutionary memory, and now used for public offices.
1 he : lassachusetts general hospital is a beautiful granite struc¬
ture 168 feet long, by 54 wide, surrounded by four acres of
ground on the bank of the Charles river. The custom-house
is a splendid granite building of Grecian architecture. Among
. 0™er public buildings are the Massachusetts eye and ear
infirmary ; the institute for the blind at South Boston; the or-
phan asylum ; the merchants’ exchange ; the athenaeum; a
club-house in the Italian style; three theatres; a museum;
two large buildings for concerts and lectures; and a quaran¬
tine hospital at Ramsford Island. An extensive jail, and a
spacious alms-house have recently been erected. In the vi-
cim y are wo arge and elegant town houses of Denham and
Cambridge ; the Quincy market, a granite structure 500 feet
^7 , the Quincy town house ; a collegiate building at New¬
ton ; the Harvard university buildings, an observatory, and a
lunatic asylum at Cambridge.
rhe “ common” is a beautiful park in Old Boston, encircled
by an iron fence; the public garden is well laid out, and con¬
tains 14 acres. Several of the squares and areas are embellished
by public fountains.. Although originally well supplied with
water by natural springs, these soon proved insufficient for the
wants ot the town,, and in 1795 pipes were laid by a private
company for bringing water from Jamaica pond, 5 miles from
the exchange. This source also proving inadequate, a new
aqueduct was constructed for supplying the city with water
from Cochituate lake, 20 miles distant. This was commenced
m 1846, and opened for use in October 1848. The water is
brought by a brick conduit of an elliptical form, measuring 6
teet 4 inches by 5 feet, to a large reservoir in Brookline, cover-
mg an extent of 22 acres, and capable of containing 100,000,000
gallons, r rom. Brookline the water is carried in large iron
pipes for 5 miles to two large reservoirs, one on Beacon Hill
holding 2,500,000 gallons, and the other on Dorchester Heights,
South Boston, holding 6,000,000 of gallons, and each about 120
feet above the level of the sea. From these it is sent through
the city by /0 miles of pipes, and is also conducted in pipes to
East Boston In 1831 Mount Auburn, in Cambridge, a spot
remarkable for its natural beauties, was selected for a rural
cemetery. It extends over 118 acres, and is tastefully laid out
containing a chapel, and many elegant marble monuments!
1 here is another handsome cemetery at Forest Hill, Roxbury
and one or two others are in the course of formation. Few in¬
terments are now made within the city. The wharfs of Boston
are extensive, and all lined with continuous rows of warehouses
Long Wharf is 1800 feet long and 200 wide ; Central Wharf
1379 feet long and 150 wide; India Wharf 980 feet long; Gra¬
nite, Commercial, and Lewis’s Wharfs are of similar size. The
warehouses are numerous and large, many of them four or five
stories high, and extending backwards from 60 to 100 feet.
The religious and charitable institutions of the city are nu¬
merous and well supported. It has nearly 200 churches and
places of worship, some of which, as Trinity and St Paul’s
churches, are elegant edifices.. There are also a general hospi¬
tal, 2 lunatic asylums, a blind asylum, an eye and ear in¬
firmary, a maternity hospital, an orphan asylum for girls
and a farm school for boys.
Boston has long been celebrated for the number and excel¬
lence of its schools and literary institutions. The medical
branch of Harvard University has its seat here. The athenmum
occupies two large buildings, the one containing a library of
about 30,000 volumes ; the other a picture gallery, a hall for
public lectures, and other rooms for scientific purposes.
In 1850 there were 178 primary schools, with 11,376 scholars,
and 22 large grammar-schools, with 9154 scholars, besides other
schools with 471 scholars. The teachers of the primary schools
receive a salary of $300, and the masters of the grammar-schools
$1500. per annum. Boston has also a Latin and a high school,
in which the higher branches are taught. These schools are
open to all classes free of charge. Without the chartered
limits are Harvard University, with its law and theological
schools, a Baptist college, and many excellent schools and aca¬
demies. See Massachusetts.
Among the literary societies are the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and
the.Boston Natural History Society. Deserving of particular
notice among the literary institutions of Boston is the Mer¬
cantile Library Association. There are now several of these
in the United States, but Boston has the honour of having
taken the initiative in their establishment. As the name in¬
dicates, it is chiefly intended for the mercantile classes of the
community ; but the public generally are admitted as mem¬
bers, although on somewhat different terms. Its object is to
prepare those of the rising generation who are to be the future
merchants of the city, to assume that position with credit to
themselves and honour to their country. It has a library,
reading-room, classes, and lectures, with a gymnasium and
riding school. The library contains about 16,000 volumes,
and the annual addition is upwards of 2000. The annual sub¬
scription is only two dollars. In 1852 it had 2215 members;
the income was $7559, and the expenditure $5806. The pre¬
sent premises have been found inadequate, and a new edifice is
about to be erected, at the cost of from $50,000 to $60,000. The
Boston.
BOS
Boston, athenseuin library, the Boston and mercantile library, the law
■ r library, the state library, and the several libraries of Harvard
University, contain together more than 150,000 volumes.
There are 80 periodicals and newspapers published in Boston,
in almost all departments of literature and science. Among
these is the North American Review, which has long had a
high reputation.
The harbour of Boston is one of the best in the United
States, being spacious, safe, and easily defended. It is land¬
locked, accessible to ships of the line, and rarely if ever ob¬
structed by ice. At the N. entrance, Lat. 42. 20. N. Long.
70. 54. W., is a lighthouse, with a revolving light 90 feet above
the level of the sea. The passage is so obstructed by islands as
to be barely sufficient for two large vessels to sail abreast. It
is effectually commanded by two large fortresses on George’s
and Castle Islands, constructed with all the improvements of
modern science: a third, the Citadel, on Governor’s Island, is in
the course of construction. F rom Point Alderton to Medford, the
harbour is 14 miles in length, and from Chelsea to Hingham,
8 miles in width, covering an area of 75 square miles, and
capable of containing all the ships of the Union. The bay
contains numerous small islands, many of which afford excel¬
lent pasture. The United States have expended large sums
on their fortresses and arsenal, extensive navy-yard, dry dock,
rope-walks, stores of cannon, arms, and other materials, cus¬
tom-house, and hospitals for sick and infirm seamen. All
these are situated on Boston harbour, and are valued at eight
millions of dollars.
In 1852 , 381,088 tons of shipping belonged to the port of
Boston. The arrivals from foreign ports in 1850 were 2877
vessels, of the aggregate burden of 478,859 tons, and the
clearances for foreign ports, 2839, of 437,760 tons. In 1849-50,
23,480 tons of shipping were built. The foreign arrivals in
1852 amounted to 2864, and the clearances to 2863 vessels.
In that year the coastwise arrivals and clearances, so far as
known—those laden with wood, stone, and sand not reporting
at the custom-house—were,arrivals 6286, clearances 3291. The
value of foreign imports for 1849 was #24,117,175; exports,
#8,843,974 ; duties, #5,031,995 ; for the first half of 1850. im¬
ports, #16,329,501; exports, #4,426,216; duties, #3,126,472.
The reports of the trade of Boston for 1852 indicate a con¬
siderable and healthy increase. The following list shows the
state of trade in some of the principal articles during the years
1851 and 1852. The receipts include goods brought into the
town, either by sea or by railway: besides the exports, large
quantities of many of the articles are sent out by railv/ay.
Keceipts. Exported.
1851. 1852.
86,469 106,147
47,007 62,669
BOS
63
Boswell.
1851.
162,368
204,232
369,560
32,576
773,512
1852.
177,305
281,166
440,613
41,084
896,454
2,175,367 2,118,338
496,911 849,173
169,766 168,225
405,044 762,939
177,346 269,771
94,161 74,180
8,890 25,187
153,912 195,120
99,578 96,482
Coffee, . bags,
Cotton, . bales,
Dry goods, . packages,
Coal, . tons,
Coal, . chaldrons,
Flour, . bushels,
Corn,
Oats,
Rye and Shorts,
Wheat,
Boots and Shoes, cases,
Ice, . tons,
It has also an extensive trade in iron, tobacco, sugar, mo
lasses, oils, leather, dye-woods, &c. Immense quantities of ice
are sent to South America, the East and West Indies, China, and
other parts. Although the number of tons exported in 1852
was somewhat less than that of 1851, it much exceeded that of
any preceding year; being in 1848, 57,507 ; 1849, 66,308 ;
1850, 69,623. The ice is chiefly brought by railway from
Wenham, and the other lakes near Boston. Large cattle
markets are held weekly at Brighton and Cambridge, in the
vicinity. The rapid growth of Boston and its environs during
the last ten years, is undoubtedly to be attributed, in a great
measure, to the establishment of the numerous lines of railway,
affording it facilities of commerce with the interior. In 1839
there were only 167 miles of railway radiating from Boston,
while in 1850 it was connected with 1000 miles of railway in
^Massachusetts, and about 2000 in other states. Within nine
miles of the exchange, seven railways branch into sixteen;
and two hundred and forty trains enter or leave Boston daily.
In Boston there are thirty-two banks, three savings-banks,
numerous mutual assurance companies, and several foreign
agencies. The assessed valuation of property in 1853 was, Boston
real, #116,090,900, personal, #90,423,300; and the amount
of tax, #1,569,507. The amount of city debt at 1st January
1853 was #1,746,510, to meet which there were specially ap¬
propriated to that object, bonds, notes, and mortgages, amount¬
ing to #1,007,689, besides the public lands and other disposable
property of the city.
Boston was the birthplace of Dr Benjamin Franklin.
(Hunt's Merchants' Magazine; JDe Bow’s Industrial Re¬
sources of the South and West; Gazetteer of the United
States, &c.)
Boston, Thomas, a popular and learned Scottish divine,
born at Dunse, May 17. 1676. He was educated at Edin¬
burgh, and in 1699 became minister of the parish of Simprin,
from which he was translated in 1707 to Ettrick. He died
May 20. 1732. His writings were numerous; but he is
best known by his Fourfold State, the Crook in the Lot,
and his Body of Divinity, a work much esteemed by Pres¬
byterians. His treatise on Hebrew accents is a learned
production ; and, besides many other works, he also left
Memoirs of his own Life and Times, published in 1776.
BOSWELL, James, Esq. of Auchinleck, in the county
of Ayr, was the eldest son of Alexander Boswell, Lord
Auchinleck, one of the judges of the supreme courts of
session and justiciary in Scotland. He was born in 1740,
and successively prosecuted his studies at the universities
of Edinburgh and of Glasgow. He was destined by his
father for the bar; and, as the study of civil law at one of
the foreign universities was then included in the most li¬
beral plan of education for a Scottish advocate, it was de¬
termined that he should repair for that purpose to Utrecht,
with a permission, before his return, to make the tour of
Europe.
He was very early ambitious of being admitted into the
society and friendship of men distinguished by talent and
public estimation, more especially those of eminence in the
literary world; and his natural urbanity, as well as gaiety
of disposition, rendered it no difficult matter to gratify this
propensity. While at the university of Glasgow, he had
formed a particular intimacy with Mr Temple, the friend
of Gray, afterwards vicar of St Gluvias in Cornwall; and
he was known to many of the conspicuous characters at
that time in Scotland, among others, to Lord Kaimes, Lord
Hailes, Dr Robertson, and Dr Beattie. But the most re¬
markable acquisition which he made of this kind was his
acquaintance with Dr Johnson, which commenced in 1763,
and proved at once the principal era in his own life, and the
means of adding not a little to the fame of that great man.
Boswell had visited London for the first time in 1760,
when he accidentally became acquainted with Derrick,
afterwards King Derrick, as the master of ceremonies at
Bath was then fantastically titled, and by him wras initiated
into the arcana of London life. In 1763 he proceeded to
Utrecht. Llaving passed a year at that university, he tra¬
velled into Germany and Switzerland, was entertained by
Voltaire at his castle of Ferney, and conversed with Rous¬
seau in the solitudes of Neufchatel. He continued his
route to Italy; but, led by his natural enthusiasm, forsook
the common lines of travel, and passed over to Corsica,
which, after a contest of more than thirty years, was still
struggling for independence wdth the republic of Genoa.
Of his visit to this island he published a narrative on his
return to Scotland, entitled An Account of Corsica, with
Memoirs of General Pasquale de Paoli, Glasgow, 1768.
It was translated into Dutch, German, French, and Italian.
He likewise printed, in the following year, a collection of
British Essays in favour of the Brave Corsicans ; and made
such attempts as he could to interest the British government
in favour of that people, before they w'ere finally crushed by
the pressure of the French arms. His friendship with Ge¬
neral Paoli was afterwards renewed in London, when that
chief, having escaped with difficulty from his native isle,
64
BOS
Boswell, found an asylum in the British dominions. From Corsica
he repaired to Paris; and, returning to Scotland in 1766,
he was admitted to the bar. Soon after, he published a
pamphlet on the Douglas Cause; written while that great
suit was depending in the Court of Session, with a view to
excite the public interest in favour of Mr Douglas. In
1769 he was married to the daughter of David Montgo¬
mery, Esq.; an accomplished lady, in whose society he en¬
joyed every domestic happiness. By her he had two sons
and three daughters.
In 1773 Boswell was admitted into the Literary Club,
which then met at the Turk’s Head in Gerard Street, Soho,
and of which Dr Johnson had been an original member.
Here he had the pleasure of associating with Burke, Gold¬
smith, Reynolds, Garrick, and other eminent persons. Dr
Johnson had long projected a tour to the Hebrides; and
Boswell at last prevailed upon him, in the course of this year,
1773, to put the plan in execution, and became the compa¬
nion of his journey from Edinburgh. During this excursion
they saw whatever was most remarkable in the Western
Highlands and Isles; and Boswell, alive to the advantages
which he enjoyed, improved every opportunity of know¬
ledge and remark, and has preserved a faithful record of
all. Both travellers gave to the world an account of this
tour. Boswell’s Journal was published in 1785.
In 1786 Boswell removed with his family to London,
towards which, as a great centre of literature and life, his
inclinations had always tended. He had recently been
called to the English bar. He did not, however, prosecute
the profession, but gave himself up to his natural bent for
society and letters. After Dr Johnson’s death, iu 1784, he
was occupied for several years in collecting and arranging,
with indefatigable diligence, the materials for a narrative,
which he had long projected, of that eminent man’s life.
This most unique and valuable work was published in two
vols. 4to, London, 1791.
Besides the works already mentioned, he was the author
of two political Letters addressed to the People of Scotland.
Mr Boswell died on the 19th June 1795. In his private
character he was loved by his friends, and was a favourite
in the circles of social life. His talents would probably
have been rated higher if they had not been obscured by
certain eccentricities of character ; yet his writings bear suf¬
ficient testimony to his natural abilities, and to the delicacy
as well as aptness of his intellectual touch. To be dis¬
tinguished was his ruling passion, and he indulged it freely.
He sought those whom the world, on whatever account,
held in honour; and he was desirous of being known as
one who possessed their friendship. He was fond of his
pedigree and family connections, and he aspired after literary
fame. While some of these propensities have been com¬
mon to the great and good in every age, others, it must
be confessed, are more frequently harboured than avowed.
Boswell adopted the latter and more unusual course.1 He
fairly owned his passion, and, if not thus secured from attack,
had all those advantages, at least, which are gained by com¬
plete ingenuousness. Nor was evidence of a substantial
sort wanting to show the independence of his mind. For,
however ambitious of exalted patronage, he was neither an
instrument of party nor a server of the time. Of Dr John¬
son’s sincere attachment to him there are many and une¬
quivocal proofs in their correspondence.
But it is not on account of his private character, or of a
certain domestic celebrity which he enjoyed during his life,
that he is here commemorated, but as an author, and parti-
Botal.
BOS
cularly as a writer of biography. Here he is almost an in- Eosworth-
ventor , he has at least carried this species of composition Market
to a degree of accuracy and detail formerly unattempted. ■'
Homer, sayS Mr Macaulay {Essays, vol. i.), “ is not more
decidedly the first of poets, Shakspeare is not more decidedly
the nrst of dramatists, than Boswell is the first of biographers.
Lie has no second. He has distanced all competitors so de¬
cidedly that it is not worth while to place them. Eclipse is
hrst, and the rest nowhere.” Boswell paints the whole man,
presents the incidents of his life in their actual order of suc¬
cession, and preserves him as it were entire; fulfilling in
the history of the moral, what Bacon has assigned to phi-
losophy as her genuine work in that of the natural world,
faithfully to return its accents and reflect its image, not
to add anything of her own, but to iterate only and re-
P-f- j01 ll'6 task of writing Johnson’s life he was peculiarly
qualified. Lie had lived in intimacy with the sage for a period
of tvv enty years, had early conceived the plan of such a work,
and received from Johnson himself, to whom his intention
uas known, many particulars of his early life and personal
history. Johnson’s conversation is the matter of the book ;
and, as the philosopher did not, in the midst of his studies,
give up the advantages of society, there was in his dis¬
course a range and diversity of subject not often found in
combination with classical knowledge and habits of profound
thinking. Nor does this work exhibit a series merely of
witty and sententious sayings : it is interspersed alike with
miscellaneous narrative and criticism ; and, what consti¬
tutes its principal feature, it contains a mass of opinions on
subjects of a more common nature, where the powers of
reasoning and illustration are applied to familiar topics, and
the ordinary occurrences of life. Valuable as a deposit of
liteiaiy anecdote, it is still more so as a collection of ethical
discourses, to which its popular form gives a singular cur¬
rency and effect; so that there are few books extant where
the leligious and social duties, as well the love of science,
in its largest acceptation, are impressed more agreeably, or
with greater force, upon the mind.
BOSWORTH-Market, a market-town and parish of
England, county of Leicester, and hundred of Sparkenhoe,
11 miles west of Leicester, and 106 from London, near the
North-Western railway and the Ashley canal. The town
is neatly built, occupying an eminence in the centre of a
fertile district, and has a handsome church surmounted by a
spiie, several charities, and a well-endowed grammar-school,
in which Dr Johnson was once an usher, and which has
two fellowships and four scholarships in Emmanuel Col-
lege, Cambridge. Pop. (1851) 1058; many of whom are
employed in the knitting of worsted stockings. Market,-
day, Wednesday. Near the town was fought (22d Au¬
gust, 1485) the decisive battle in which Richard III. was
slain.
BOTAL, or Botalli, Lionardo, a celebrated physician,
was a native of Asti in Piedmont, and flourished in the latter
part of the sixteenth century. After studying under Fal¬
lopius he went to France, where he was appointed chief
physician to Charles IX., and also to the Duke of Alen^on,
whom he accompanied to England. Subsequently he was
physician to Henry III. Botalli, relying on the authority
of Hippocrates, Galen, and the Arabian physicians, carried
the practice of blood-letting to an extent that occasioned
much animadversion, and perhaps with justice. He made
some valuable contributions, however, to the science. L’he
best editions of his several medical and surgical works is
that published by Van Hoorne at Leyden, 1660, 8vo.
may nfune^ir^n f9^8*16’ ln hls Letter published in 1785, “ are the indigenous plants of my mind : they distinguish it. I
he something not so o-cmd ^ 1 entlrely clear ^ °f them : for then 1 should he no longer as I am, and perhaps there might
]
65
BOTANY.
Botany. The term Botany is derived from the Greek word Borav??,
—-v/—^ meaning an herb or grass. As a science it includes, every¬
thing relating to the vegetable kingdom, whether in a living
or in a fossil state. Its object is not, as some have supposed,
merely to name and arrange the vegetable productions of
the globe. It embraces a consideration of the external forms
of plants—of their anatomical structure, however minute—
of the functions which they perform—of their arrangement
and classification—of their distribution over the globe at the
present and at former epochs, and of the uses to which they
are subservient. It examines the plant in its earliest state of
development, when it appears as a simple cell, and follows
it through all its stages of progress until it attains maturity.
It takes a comprehensive view of all the plants which cover
the earth, from the minutest lichen or moss, only visible by
the aid of the microscope, to the most gigantic productions
of the tropics. It marks the relations which subsist between
all members of the vegetable world, and traces the mode in
which the most despised weeds contribute to the growth
of the mighty denizens of the forest. It is a science,
then, which demands careful and minute investigations—re¬
quires great powers of observation and research, and is well
fitted to train the mental powers to vigorous and prompt
action.
Botany may be divided into the following departments:—
1. Structural Botany, having reference to the anatomical
structure of the various parts of plants, including vegetable
Histology, or the microscopic examination of tissues. 2. Mor¬
phological Botany, or the study of the form of plants and
their organs; these two departments are often included under
the general term of Organography. 3. Physiological Botany,
by some termed organology, the study of the life of the
entire plant and its organs, or the consideration of the func¬
tions of the living plant. 4. Taxological Botany, or the ar¬
rangement and classification of plants. 5. Geographical
Botany, the consideration of the mode in which plants are
distributed over the different quarters of the globe. 6.
Palceontological Botany, the study of the forms and struc-
tures of the plants found in a fossil state in the various strata
of which the earth is composed.
PART I.
STRUCTURAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY;
OR,
VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY AND PHYSIOLOGY.
This division includes a consideration of the minute struc¬
ture of the various parts of plants, of the changes which they
undergo during their growth and development, of the forms
which they assume, and of the functions which they perform.
It is the foundation of the science, and without a thorough
knowledge of it there can be no correct ideas in regard to
classification.
CHAPTER I.
ELEMENTARY TISSUES OF PLANTS.
I.—GENERAL REMARKS ON MICROSCOPIC VEGETABLE
STRUCTURE.
The study of the elementary tissues of plants is included
under Vegetable Histology (toros, web or tissue). These
tissues are few and simple. They consist of organs to which
the names of Cells and Vessels have been given. The for¬
mer are minute bladders or
vesicles (Fig. 1), varying in
size and form, which, when
united together, constitute
Cellular tissue (Fig. 2);
wfoile the latter are closed
tubes of an elongated form,
frequently tapering to each
end* (Fig. 3), and, when Fig- L T'r0 cells °r vesicles taken
• i . T-r from the Elder.
Combined., constituting Vas- ... 2. Hexagonal cellular tissue from
cular tissue. The distinction £ee ^dU^edraTand'doUed?118
between cells and vessels is founded on their comparative
length. Occasionally, however, cells become lengthened, as in
the case of some hairs, and the filamentous or thread-like tissue
of Fungi, so as not to differ from vessels as regards length
vol. v. ° &
Such long cells are distinguished chiefly by the thinness and
delicateness of their texture.
The primary form of the elementary organs of
plants is a closed spherical or elongated vesicle
or utricle, having its walls composed of a mem¬
brane, and containing a fluid. If it still remain
closed after its development is completed, then
it receives the name of Cell; but if a row of
utricles arranged in lines become united in the
course of development so as to form a tube with
an uninterrupted cavity by absorption of the
cross walls, then a Vessel is produced.
On making a transverse section of a suc¬
culent stalk, such as that of Rhubarb, or of a
Cucumber or Melon, we perceive, by the aid of
a glass, circumscribed angular meshes and
rounded openings; and, in a longitudinal section
of the same stalk, similar meshes are also seen
with long tubes of various kinds. The angular
spaces, as seen in Figure 4, are sections of cells,
while the rounded openings are the sections of
vessels. The membrane forming the walls of
both cellsand vessels is composed of a substance Flg 3
called Cellulose, in many respects resem- Vascular tissue,
i i t n. . . . . .. composed of
dotted closed
tubestapering
at each end,
ami overlap-
pin g each
other.
bling starch, but differing in giving a yellow
in place of a blue colour, with iodine. The
membrane has in general no visible pores or
perforations, but fluid matters pass through it
easily. Some plants, such as Sea-weeds, Mushrooms, and
Lichens, consist of cellular tissue alone, and hence are called
Cellular plants; while others, such as ordinary flowering
plants, consist of cells and vessels combined, and receive the
name of Vascular plants.
Botany.
66
Botany.
B O T A N Y.
Fig. 4.
Section of a Bamboo, showing an angular net¬
work of cells, and rounded tubes or vessels.
In studying the minute structure of plants, it is necessary
' to call in the aid of the microscope. A simple microscope is
the most useful instrument for a botanical student. By
means of it the object is
viewed directly through
a lens or set of lenses,
so arranged as to be ca¬
pable of being adjusted
by means of a screw to
the exact focal distance,
and of being moved over
different parts of the
object. In examining
structures in the fields, Gairdner’s portable microscope1 is the
best. In the study of very minute tissues, and especially in
physiological researches, the achromatic compound micro¬
scope is required, by means of which the object is not viewed
directly, but an image of the object is formed by one lens, or
set of lenses (the objective), and the picture thus produced is
viewed as an original object through another lens or set of
lenses (the ocular or eyepiece).2 By means of this instru¬
ment the observer is enabled to approach very close to the
object, while the field of vision is greater than with the
simple microscope.
II. CELLS AND CELLULAR TISSUE.
1. Anatomy of Cells.
Cellular tissue (Fig. 2) is generally called Parenchyma
(mipa, through, and ey^u/xa, anything poured in—applied to
tissue), and it also receives the names of Areolar, Utricular,
and Vesicular tissue. It exists more or less in all plants, and
abounds in fleshy roots, stems, and leaves, and in succulent
fruits. It constitutes the pith and outer bark of trees, and
the central part of rushes. Chinese rice-paper consists of
the central cellular tissue of Aralia papyrifera, cut into thin
sheets, which show structure under the microscope. By
cultivation, the turnip, carrot, cabbage, and other esculent
vegetables, acquire much cellular tissue, and become tender
and succulent. The bladders or cells of which the tissue is
composed, vary in size. In a cubic inch of a leaf of the car¬
nation, there are said to be upwards of three millions of cells.
They are frequently seen XoVo fh, g^th, and x^th of an inch
in diameter. In some of the cucumber tribe, and in the pith
of aquatic plants, large cells, -g-Vth and ^th of an inch in
diameter, occur. Mold says, that the general average dia¬
meter of cells is gVth f° Too^h °f a him; that of the cellular
spores of Fungi and of the yeast cells, is -g-^th of a line;
while in succulent plants, and in the pith of the Elder, it rises
to x^th of a line or more.
Cells are either surrounded by a simple thin membrane,
or by thickened walls. The thickening of the walls of cells
takes place by a deposit of woody matter on the inside, as
seen in the microscopic structure of the hard shell of the
Coco-nut and Piassaba fruit, in the stone of the peach and
cherry, and in the seed of the Ivory and Date palms. Occa¬
sionally, rounded portions of
the cell-wall are left uncovered
by deposits, giving rise to the
formation of Porous, or Pot¬
ted, or Pitted cells (Fig. 5);
while, at other times, the thick¬
ening matter assumes the form
of a ring or of a spiral coil thus r>ol’0ns or Pitted ceil from
Constituting Jxnnular (Fig. 6) ... 6. Annular cell from the Mis-
and Spiral cells (Fig 7). In ... 7. Spira'l’cell from an Orchid.
Vauchena, Chaetophora, and other sea-weeds, peculiar re¬
productive cells called spores are met with, having thread-
Fig. 7.
like filaments (Fig. 8) which exhibit a vibratile motion re¬
sembling that of the cilia of animal mu¬
cous membranes. In Equisetum or
Horsetail, there are reproductive cells,
surrounded by two filaments, with thick¬
ened clavate or club-shaped extremi¬
ties (Fig. 9), which are remarkably hy-
grometric, and exhibit movements when „ „ ,4T Tls‘s- C1
Y 1.1 j Cell with vibratile fila-
DFeatneCl upon* merits from Chaetophora.
Botany.
Fig. 9,
Spore or reproductive cell of Equisetnm, Horsetail, with two clavate hygro-
metric filaments ; a, the filaments expanded in a dry state; b, the filaments
culled round the spore on the application of moisture.
When formed of cells composed of a homogeneous or
uniform membrane, the tissue is called Membranous cel¬
lular tissue; when of spiral cells it is denominated Fibrous
cellular tissue, or Inenchyma (tVes, fibres). Elongated
cells or tubes, with pointed extremities, when united to¬
gether, form the tissue called Prosenchyma. The mem¬
branous walls of some elongated cells occasionally unrol
in a spiral manner. Spiral cellular tissue exists in many
Orchids; also in the cells of Sphagnum, the hairs of Cac-
taceae and the seed-coat of Casuarina, in the outer covering
of the seed of Collomia linearis, and of the fruit of Salvia
verbenaca, or wild Clary. The spiral cells in the last two
mentioned cases, when placed in water under the microscope,
exhibit interesting movements, owing to the solid spiral fibre
rupturing the softened membrane of the cell, and expand¬
ing in all directions. The spongy elastic character of the outer
cellular covering of the roots of tropical Orchids and Aracese,
of the sepals of Illecebrum verticillatum, of the pericarp of
Cachrys Morisoni and C. odontalgica, and of the ribs of
the fruit of AEthusa Cynapium, is due to the presence of
spiral cells. In the reproductive cells of Liverworts, spiral
fibres called Elaters are found. Reticulated or netted cells,
caused by fibres forming a sort of mesh or network, occur
in the wing of the seed of Swietenia, in the pericarp of Pi-
cridium tingitanum, and P. vulgare, in the seed-coat of
Cucurbita Pepo, in the parenchyma of the leaf of Sanseviera
guineensis, and in isolated cells of the pith of Rubus odora^
tus, and of Erythrina corallodendron.
Cells differ in form according to the mode in which they
are aggregated. They are frequently rounded or spherical,
at other times they present angular or elongated forms, such
as pentagonal or five-angled, hexagonal or six-angled, pris¬
matic, square, fusiform or spindle-like. When the cells are
so placed as to touch each other on every side, the Paren¬
chyma is called complete. This is seen in the dodecahedral
or twelve-sided (Fig. 2), and prismatic Parenchyma of pith,
and in the flat tabular Parenchyma of the outer corky bark
of trees. When the individual cells touch each other only
at certain points, the Parenchyma is incomplete. This occurs
in the case of the spherical and elliptical cells (merenchyma,
pr/pvav, to revolve) of succulent plants, such as the Cactus,
and in the stellate or star-like cells (actinenchyma, uktiv, a ray)
of the Rush, Callitriche verna, and Bean (Fig 10). In incom¬
plete Parenchyma spaces are left between the cells, which
are either large circumscribed cavities called Lacunce, or
continuous passages called Intercellular Canals. The
spaces between the cells are filled either with fluids of dif¬
ferent kinds, or with air. Occasionally the intercellular
1 See figure and description in Balfour’s Class-Book of Botany, p. 1072.
tor the use and construction of the microscope, see article Microscope. See also Quekett on the Microscope.
of Botany. Bennett’s Lectures on Clinical Medicine. Schacht on the Microscope.
Balfour’s Class-Book
9
BOTANY.
Botany, substance assumes a thickened or corky consistence, and
unites the cells firmly; and it appears to be
sometimes prolonged over the surface of the
plant in the form of a cuticular coverino-.
o
67
Fig. 10.
Stellate or star-like
cellular tissue of
the Bean, with in¬
tercellular spaces
or Lacunae.
2. Physiology of Cells.
When we consider that cellsare of univer¬
sal occurrence in the Vegetable Kingdom,
and that they constitute, in some instances’
the entire structure of plants, we can easily
understand their importance in a physiolo¬
gical point of view. They are capable of carrying on all the
functions of plant-life. The life of an individual cell may re-
present that of the entire plant. In the case of a unicellu¬
lar Alga, as Palmella (Fig. 11), we meet with
a simple cell which absorbs nutriment from
the atmosphere and the soil, and forms cer¬
tain organizable matters, some of which are
employed in building up its texture, while ■*.; n>
others are secreted or set apart for ulterior Unicellular Alga
purposes in its economy. Those actions are ^ceilTlb'
frequently accompanied by an evident move¬
ment of fluids and granules. In the pro¬
gress of time cellules are developed in the
interior of the cell which are discharged as mi0 tour parts, c.
independent cell-plants capable of performino- all the func¬
tion of the parent cell. In other instances, the original cell
gives origin to the new cells, either by means of nuclei (Fig.
12), or by a constant process of division (Fig. 13), until at
length acellu-r, ° '
lar plant is
producedcon¬
sisting of nu¬
merous cells
variously ar¬
ranged. In
higher plants,
cells undergo
transforma¬
tions fitting
them for their
special func¬
tions. Vital
sorbs, secretes,
and forms new
cells by a process
of fissiparous di¬
vision , first into
two, 6 6, and then
into four parts, c.
obliqua, showing the
parent-cell containing
five nucleated cells in
its interior ; b. cell from
the young bud of a spe¬
cies of Aloe, containing
two cells with nuclei or
cytoblasts.
cr
Big- !-■ Fig. 13.
Fig. 12. Cells containing nuclei or cytoblasts, from which
new cells are produced by intra-cellular cyto-
genesis. •
, 13. Diatomaceous Alga, the cells of which are increased
by a constant process of fissiparous or meris-
matic division. The plant increases by abscis¬
sion of segments. 3
operations are carried on in all plants by means of cells, the
constitution and functions of which vary according to the na¬
ture of the plants and the position in the scale of organization
which they occupy. In the higher classes of plants, certain
cells are concerned in the secretion of organizable products,
which are elaborated by others into new tissues. The life of
plants consists in the regular action of different kinds of
cells, which are concerned in the formation of new organs
and of new products. In cells there are observed the absorp¬
tion and movements of fluids, the elaboration of these by
exposure to air and light, and the formation of new cells.
In its early state a plant consists of one or more cells.
These appear to be produced from a viscid substance of an
albuminous nature, to which the names of Protoplasm Cy-
tohlastema, and Vegetable Mucus have been given. This
substance is first homogeneous, then granular ; and accord¬
ing to some exhibits minute fibres. It is coagulated by al¬
cohol, and coloured yellowish-brown by iodine. It is con¬
sidered as the earliest stage of vegetable tissue, and as beino-
endowed with a certain formative power. By Barry the
organizing matter is called Hyaline (va\os, glass), from its
pellucid nature. Some say that in this protoplasm nuclei
are developed which give origin to cells ; others state that
the nitrogenous matter becomes at once divided into cell¬
like cavities, each of which produces a covering of cellulose
for itself. _ The formation of nuclei or cells in a protoplas¬
mic matrix, without the influence of another cell previously
existing, may be called extra-cellular.
W hen a cell has been proauced, we can then trace some Botany,
of the stages by which new cells are formed. This process ^
is called cell-development or Cytogenesis (kvtos, a cell, and
yevecrts, origin), and it has engaged the attention of many able
physiologists. I here appear to be four modes in which
vegetable cells are multiplied, viz., by nuclei, by division,
by gemmation, and by conjugation. New cells originate
in the protoplasmic fluid contained in a parent cell by
a process of intra-cellular formation. The new cells
may either proceed from a nucleus, or, as Schleiden calls
it, Cytoblast (fiXacrros, a germ) ; or they may be formed at
once m the protoplasm. In the former case, the nucleus
becomes as it were the centre of vital action, and on one side
of it a bladder-like vesicle arises (Fig. 14, b). This original
vesicle is bounded by a protoplasmic
membrane, which ultimately becomes
covered with a deposit of cellulose. The
protoplasmic membrane forms the inner
lining (primordial utricle of Mohl) of
the new cell, and to it all the subsequent
vital actions of the cell are referred. The
nucleus either remains in the cell-wall, Fig u
or it is absorbed. The newly-formed
cell contains a formative fluid in which '
nuclei are produced, which, in their
turn, give origin to other cells. Besides
a nucleus, there are seen occasionally
in cells very minute bodies called nu- -  
cleoli, which some consider as being concerned in forming
the wall of the nucleus. The nuclear formation of cells has
been fully illustrated by Schleiden in the case of the Em-
bryo plant. According to Mohl the nucleus is in the centre
o the cell, and is attached to its walls by filamentous pro-
cesses of protoplasm, as seen in the hairs of Tradescantia.
11 611 I,p,1.nucleus is Present> die protoplasm at once forms
cells. This is called non-nuclear or free cell-formation. In
both instances the formation of new cells takes places in the
interior of previously formed cells. In progress of increase,
nucleated and non-nucleated cells cause absorption of the
walls of the parent cell, which finally disappears. It some¬
times happens that the nucleus itself divides into two by a
contraction in the middle, and each of its parts gives origin
to cells. In this way a rapid multiplication of cells takes
place. In Figure 14, 6, there is represented a parent or
mother cell, containing two nucleated cells
in its interior. These gradually increase, cause
absorption of the walls of the parent cell, and
become free. In Figure 14, a, a parent cell
is shown enclosing five nucleated cells.
After a cell is formed, we often remark that
its contents divide into two or four parts. This
is accomplished by the folding inwards of the
protoplasmic inner lining, the primordial utri¬
cle of Mohl. Each division forms for itself a
covering of cellulose. These newly-formed
cells increase, cause absorption of the walls of
the parent or mother cell, and separate from it
as distinct cellular formations capable of going
through the same process of division. Some¬
times a cell divides into two or more parts, each
of which becomes a separate cell, without any
destruction of the walls of the original one, as
shown in Figure 15. This is accomplished by
a similar folding of the inner lining, and a sub¬
sequent formation of cellulose in each division, r   
but it differs from the previous method of division in the cir¬
cumstance that the walls of the parent cell remain without
being absorbed. These modes of cell-multiplication are called
fissiparous, or merismatic {fissum, cleft, /xepioy/os, division).
Cells are also produced by a process of budding; in other
words, by a continuous growth from various parts of pre-
Fig. 15.
Portion of a cell¬
ular plant
{Conferva glo-
merata), show¬
ing at a the pri¬
mordial utricle
or inner cell-
wall folding
inwards, so as
to make a sep¬
tum or parti¬
tion, which is
represented at
5 in a com¬
pleted state.
BOTANY.
viously formed cells. A cellular protuberance or mammilla
appears either at the apex or at the sides of these cells, which
elongates and ultimately divides by a partition or septum
into two, one of which is arrested in its development, and
the other goes on elongating and dividing. In this way a
continuous row of cells is produced, as in certain Algae and
in the Yeast plant (Fig. 16), or a branching filament, as in
some kinds of Confervae (Fig. 17), and moniliform Fungi
(Fig. 18), or a flattened thallus composed of interlacing cells,
Fig. 16.
Fig. 17.
Fig. 18.
Fig. 16. Cells of the Yeast plant (Torula cerevisice), in different stages of
growth ; a, single cells ; b, cells giving off' buds either at one or both
ends; c, a congeries of cells united, those at the extremities pro¬
ducing new cells in the form of cellular buds.
... 17. Cells of an Alga (Chcetophora), giving ott'new cells, a, by a process of
budding.
... 18. A species of Mould-fungus (Penicillium), consisting of long cells, m,
producing cellular buds, which form a continuous row of cells, p’,
by gemmation and division, bearing branching moniliform threads,
c, composed of a congeries of united cells.
as in Lichens. This mode of cell-multiplication is gemmi-
parous, and is said to take place by a process of gemmation.
Another mode in which new cells are formed is by the
conjugation or union of two cells having different contents
(Fig. 19). This is well seen in Zygnema
and other allied plants, and it will be
particularly noticed under Embryogeny.
This process may he called generative
cell-production. The cell developed in
this way constitutes the spore or germ
in the lower class of plants, and the first
cell of the embryo in the higher plants.
The embryonic cell produces nuclei, by
means of which a multiplication of cells
is effected.
The rapidity with which cells are de¬
veloped in some cellular plants is aston¬
ishing. Ward observed Phallus impu-
dicus shoot up three inches in the space
of twenty-five minutes. Bovista gigan-
teum (gigantic puffball) has grown in a
single night in damp weather from the
size of a mere point to that of an enor¬
mous gourd. From an approximate
calculation, it is found that in this plant
not less than 20,000 new cells were formed
every minute. Kieser calculated that the tissue
of some Fungi augmented at the rate of60,000
cells per minute. Large tracts of snow in the
arctic regions and in alpine districts are some¬
times suddenly reddened by the development
of innumerable cells of the Red Snow-plant.
Cellular tissue is very hygroscopic. If cellu¬
lar plants, such as Sea-weeds, are dried, and
then put into water, they take up the fluid
rapidly. Some ofthem,asthe different species
of Tangle (Laminaria), have been used as hy- ^ ^ v
grometers. In mosses, the cellular teeth of the Sporangium u of
peristome (Fig. 20, /?), curve inwards on the er-moss (Enca-
application of moisture, by the distension of Seeth of thf
the outer row of cells. The twisting of the peristome, p,
stalk of Mosses, and of the awn of the wild wards “when
Oat, are accounted for in a similar manner. pi^d.ure is ap'
Alga {Zygnema), unit¬
ing by tubes, p, which
allow the contents of
one cell, c, to pass into
another, d, and thus
give origin to new cells,
s, which receive the
name of spores.
Fig. 20.
The fronds of a species of Lycopodium (L. squamatum or
Selaginella convoluta), from Brazil, curl inwards in the dry
season, so that the plant appears like a brown ball, and dur¬
ing the wet season they spread out so as to cover the soil.
I he plant called Rose of Jericho (Anastatica hierochuntina),
shows a similar hygroscopicity in its pod; and some of the
Cape species of Mesembryanthemum open their seed vessels
when moisture is applied. The spores or germs of Horse¬
tails (Equisetum) are provided with cellular clavate filaments
(Fig. 9), which contract and expand under the influence of
moisture and dryness, and thus assist in placing the germ
properly in the soil. These Equisetum spores are interesting
objects under the microscope, and their movements are seen
by breathing upon them. Hairs, which are composed of cells,
also show hygroscopic properties.
Liquids pass through the walls of cells by a process of
imbibition. 1 hin-walled cells take up fluids very rapidly,
fo the movement of fluids through membranes of different
kinds Dutrochet has given the names of Endosmose (evSov,
inwards, and wa^os, impulsion), or inward movement, and
Exosmose (e£o>, outwards), or outward movement. These
movements take place both in living and in dead tissue,
and they are influenced by the nature of the fluids and
of the membrane. The fluids on either side of the mem¬
brane must differ from each other in density, and they
must have an affinity for the interposed membrane, and for
each other. By the endosmotic process, a thin liquid passes
in large quantity and with great force through a vegetable
or animal membrane, in order to mix with a denser liquid,
while the latter passes outwards in small quantity by a slower
exosmotic movement. If a unicellular plant, as one of the
cells of the Yeast plant, is placed in a dense liquid, the con¬
tents of the cell pass outwards rapidly, and the cell becomes
more or less collapsed; if, on the other hand, it is put into
a thin liquid, the reverse takes place, so that the cell is dis¬
tended.
The cells of plants contain liquids of different densities,
and hence these movements must be constantly taking
place, so as to cause an interchange of their contents. The
bursting of the seed-vessel of the Elaterium (Ecbalium pur-
gans), and of the Balsam (Impatiens), is traced in part to
the distension of cells by endosmose, which causes a curva-
tion in the parts and an ultimate rupture. It must, however,
be borne in mind, that endosmose is modified in the living
plant by the vital actions going on in the cells, and that it
is to these actions we must refer the continued movements
of fluids through the cell-walls.
The endosmotic phenomena may be illustrated by means
of a tube of glass, containing syrup or a saturated solution
of salt, the end of which is covered by a membrane, such as
a piece of bladder, and then placed in water. In this case
the water will enter in such quantity into the interior of the
tube, through the membrane, that the fluid will rise. With a
membrane about 1*6 inch in diameter, a tube of about l-12th
of an inch, and syrup of density 1*083, the fluid rose, accord¬
ing to Dutrochet, more than an inch and a half in an hour
and a half; when the syrup had a density of 1*145, the fluid
rose nearly three inches; and when the density was 1*228,
the rise was four inches. The force with which the move¬
ment takes place is very great. Dutrochet estimated that
in the case of syrup of density 1*3, the force of endosmose
was equal to the pressure of 4^ atmospheres.
In many cells there is observed a distinct motion of fluids
and granules. Schleiden thinks that this takes place in
all active formative cells at a certain stage of growth.
Mold looks upon it as a universal phenomenon, and says
that it is connected with the protoplasm, and not with the
watery cell-sap. This intra-cellular movement or circula¬
tion is seen in many aquatic plants as well as in certain
hairs. It has received the names of Rotation and Gyration.
It is confined to individual cells, and its direction is more
Botany.
BOTANY.
69
Fig. 21.
A small portion of a Chara
magnified to show the
intra-cellular circulation.
The arrows mark the di¬
rection of the fluid and
granules in the dift'erent
cells. The clear spaces are
parts where there is no
movement.
Botany, or less spiral. In Characeae (Fig. 21)
this spiral intra-cellular movement is
observed easily under a moderate
microscopic power. During the
healthy state of the plant, a constant
motion of fluid containing granules
takes place, the current passing ob¬
liquely up one side, changing its di¬
rection at the extremity, and flowing
down the other side. The stream
takes a spiral course, and the ascend¬
ing and descending currents are
bounded by transparent spaces which
appear to be caused by the adhesion
of an internal membranous sac to the
outer envelope. The space between
the outer and inner wall is thus di¬
vided into two cavities, which com¬
municate with each other at the ends
of the cell. The fluid does not pass
from one cell to another, and if one
of the long cells is divided by a liga¬
ture, a separate movement is seen
in each division. Rotation continues
for some days in detached cells placed
in water. ” '
In the cells of Vallisneria spiralis (Fig. 22), a dioecious
aquatic found in ditches in
the south of Europe, an in¬
tra-cellular movement takes
place, and is easily seen un¬
der the microscope by lay¬
ing a portion of the leaf in
water, and making a slanting
section of the end of it, so as
to render the object more
transparent by transmitted
light. If the movement is
not Visible, the leat may be Vallisneria spiralis, an aquatic plant
immprspd for n <shnrt tlmp found in the south of Europe. In the
immerseu ror a snoi t time cells of the plant the movements of
in water of the temperature Rotation are well seen under the mi-
c srrvo c,r\ o rru . croscope. a. The male plant; b, the
Ot 70 Or oO. i he piece ot female plant.
the leaf should always be prepared for an hour before it is
exhibited. In the cells there are numerous
green chlorophyll grains, some starch gra¬
nules, and an occasional large nucleus, which
are carried with a mucilaginous fluid round the
interior of the walls of each cell, as represented
in Fig. 23. This movement is seen not only-
in the cells of the leaf, but also in those of
the root, flower-stalk, spathe, and calyx. The
movement takes different directions in differ¬
ent cells, but it seems to keep the same course
in any given cell; for if stopped, it resumes the
same direction. The motion continues for
many days in a detached piece of the leaf
when kept in water. The rapidity of the
movement varies from half an inch to five
inches per hour.
In Vallisneria the motion ceases entirely at
about 45° Fahr., while in Chara it goes on at
a lower temperature. A moderate heat quickens
the circulation, but if above 150° the motion
ceases. It is said to go on even in darkness,
and the presence of green granules does not
appear to be necessary, for it is seen in the 0fT'vernal
transparent roots of Vallisneria. Prussic acid, imria,allowing
solutions of opium, of acetate of lead, and of $e
corrosive sublimate, alcohol, acids, and alka- rents in intra-
V .• r i c,. . cellular rota-
lies, cause cessation of the movements, bum- tion.
lar motions are seen in many other aquatics, more espe-
Botany.
$
Fig. 23.
cially in the cells of Anacharis Alsinastrum, a plant which
seems to have been introduced into Britain from America,
and is now naturalized.
The cause of these intra-cellular motions is obscure. They
appear to be connected with the nourishment of the cell and
the process of cytogenesis. Some have attempted to account
for them by physical causes, but the explanations given are very
unsatisfactory. Certain authors have referred the phenome¬
non to endosmose depending on different densities in the cell
contents, while electrical agency has been called into requisi¬
tion by others. Amici thinks that in Chara the rows of chloro¬
phyll-granules which line the walls of the cells exercise a gal¬
vanic action upon the sap, and thus give rise to the motion. The
action of the nucleus has also been thought to account for the
phenomenon. It is not connected with the general circulation
of the sap, but is a special movement in individual cells. As
yet no good explanation has been brought forward, and all we
can say is, that the movements are of a physico-vital nature.
Some cells connected with the lower tribes of plants move
about in a liquid medium. Species of Oscillatoria have an
undulating movement, and when placed in water in the field
of the microscope, they seem to pass from one side to the
other. Their elongated filamentous cells sometimes twist,
and then project themselves forward by uncoiling. Oscillat¬
ing movements are also seen in species of Pleurosigma and
other Diatoms. In many Algals the cellular spores are sur¬
rounded by vibratile hairs called cilia (Fig. 8), which con¬
tinue to move for some time in fluid after the spore (zoo¬
spore) has been discharged from the plant. The ciliary mo¬
tions cease when the spore begins to sprout.
III. VESSELS AND VASCULAR TISSUE.
1. Anatomy of Vessels.
The vessels of plants which collectively form vascular tis¬
sue or Angienchyma (ayyos, a vessel) may be considered as
differing from cells chiefly in their length. They are closed
tubes tapering to each extremity. Their walls are composed
of the chemical matter called cellulose in a membranous
form, and they are thickened and altered in various ways by
the formation of deposits in their interior.
Woody Tissue.—This is composed of thickened tubes or
elongated cells, with conical extremities overlapping each
other, as seen in Figure 24. The tubes are said
to be fusiform or spindle-shaped, and the tissue
has received the name of Pleurenchyma, from
a Greek word TrXevpa, meaning a rib, on account
of the support which it furnishes to the stems
and leaves of plants. The woody portion of
trees and shrubs, and of all the ordinary flower¬
ing plants, consists in part of this tissue. It
exists also in the inner bark, and in the veins of
the leaves. The materials used for ropes and
cordage, linen, certain Indian muslins, mummy
cloth, and mats, consist of the woody fibre of
plants from which the more delicate tissues have
been removed by maceration in water. Flax or
lint is thus procured from the bark of Linum
usitatissimum,* hemp from Cannabis sativa, New ‘ *pj CX^T
Zealand flax from Phormium tenax, Pita flax
from Agave americana, Sun-hemp from Hibis- 1
cus cannabinus, and bass or bast from the com¬
mon Lime or Linden-tree. Fibres are also pro¬
cured for manufacture from the Pine-apple plant ’f ' i
(Ananassa sativa), from Yucca gloriosa, from Fig. 24.
Boehmeria nivea, which yields the Chinese grass WordpieurSene
fibre, from most of the plants belonging to the chyma, con-
mallow and nettle tribes, and from some of the
leguminous plants, such as Crotalaria juncea
which supplies a kind of Bengal hemp. If the
maceration of the fibre is carried to a great ex-  
tent, a pulp is formed from which paper is manufactured
!\
sisting of
fusiform or
spindle-
shaped
tubes over-
lappingeach
other.
70
Botany.
BOTANY.
Pleurenchyma does not occur in cellular plants, such as
■'/ Lichens, Sea-weeds, and Mushrooms. The tissues of these
plants speedily disappear under the action of water, and
hence, perhaps, the reason of their rarity in a fossil state.
In the very young state woody tubes are delicate, and it
is only in proportion as they attain maturity that their walls
acquire a thick consistence. This depends on the formation
of layers of cellulose, which have received the name of lig¬
neous matter. In the sap-wood of ordinary trees the woody
tubes are thickened in their walls, but are pervious; while
in the heart-wood they are rendered solid by the deposited
matter, which is often variously coloured. Some of the
fully-formed woody tubes, when cut across, exhibit distinct
zones or circles of ligneous deposit. The diameter of the
woody tubes varies from ^^th to g J^th of an inch.
Punctated or Disc-bearing Woody Tissue.—This kind of
woody fibre or pleurenchyma is seen in firs and other cone¬
bearing trees. It is sometimes called glandular woody tis¬
sue. When a section is made in the direction of the rays
running from the centre to the circumference of the stem,
the fibres exhibit under the microscope discs or large cir¬
cular dots, which are saucer-like spaces or depressions on
the walls of the tubes. They are seen in Fig. 25. When
two woody tubes lie
together face to face,
the depressions or
hollowed-out spaces
on each of them are
applied like two
watch-glasses leav¬
ing lenticular cavi¬
ties, which are some¬
times filled with air.
When viewed by
transmitted light un¬
der the microscope,
these appear like
circular discs. The
dot seen in the
centre of the disc
depends on a portion
of the wall being
thinner than the
rest. In Fig. 26
this structure is seen
in a magnified form.
The walls of
fibres or tubes are
marked pf, the in¬
ternal cavity of the
fibre c f and the
lenticular cavities c l
formed between the two contiguous fibres, r m being one
of the cellular rays proceeding from the centre to the cir¬
cumference, interposed be¬
tween the walls of two con¬
tiguous fibres. In the case
of some fossil ■woods, pieces
of silica like double-convex
lenses have been removed
from the cavities. The discs @0|
are in single, double, or triple ®@|
rows (Figs. 27, 28). When ^
there is more than one row,
the individual discs in the Fl^27-
TOWS are either at the same double row of discs on each fibre.
level, that is, opposite to
each other (rig. 27), as in rows of discs.
the case of ordinary pines ; or they are at different levels,
that is, alternate with each other (Fig. 28), as in Araucaria.
Sometimes spiral fibres are seen between the discs. Woody
Fig. 25
Fig. 26.
.i Fig. 25. Punctated woody tissue of the fir.
the ... 26. Vertical section of part of the stem of a fir, to
show the formation of the discs, p f marks
the walls of the same fibre or woody tube,
c/ is the cavity of a woody tube, c l one of
the lenticular cavities formed by two con¬
tiguous tubes. These cavities appear as discs
by transmitted light, r m medullary ray,
consisting of cellular tissue proceeding
from the centre to the circumference.
Fig. 28.
tissue with discs, but without the central dot, occurs in many Botany,
plants, as in Drimys Winteri,* and Illicium floridanum.
Dotted or Pitted Vascular Tissue.—The vessels, or, as *pi. CXI.
they are often called, Ducts, forming this tissue, are usually
continuous tubes of a larger size than the other vessels of
plants (Fig. 3), and presenting often broad or oblique ex¬
tremities in place of pointed ones like other vessels. Their
dotted or pitted appearance depends on the mode in which
the encrusting matter or cellulose is formed inside. This
matter in place of being deposited equally over the whole sur¬
face of the membrane, as in ordinary woody fibre, leaves
rounded uncovered spots at various intervals; and these,
when viewed by transmitted light, appear from their thin¬
ness to be perforations or holes. Hence the name Por¬
ous, which is often applied to these vessels. In old dotted
ducts it is occasionally found that the thin membrane of the
dots or pits has been absorbed, and actual perforations have
taken place. Dotted vessels frequently exhibit contractions
at intervals, giving rise to a jointed or bead-like appearance.
In such cases, as in Figure 29, they are seen to
be formed of dotted cells placed end to end, with
the partitions between them obliterated, so as
to form continuous cylindrical and sometimes
branched tubes. Occasionally they seem to be
formed, as in Rhubarb, by a filling up of the in- _ _
terspaces between fibres, until a small pit only
remains ; or, as in Alnus serrulata, by a number
of lines arranged at first like those of a ladder, and
then united by transverse ones forming a grating,
the angles being finally filled up and rounded ; or,
as in Populus tremuloides, by a uniform deposit „ -
over the whole membrane. In the Elm and Lime ed
the dotted ducts have sometimes spiral fibres 7romSo1
ramifying between the dots. The membranous r°m the
walls of dotted vessels occasionally unrol in a
spiral manner. Dotted ducts are found in the
wood of trees, and they constitute the large rounded
openings which are seen in the transverse section of the stems
of Oak, Poplar, W illow, &c. They also abound in the Bamboo
(Fig. 4), and in other plants of rapid growth. The names of
Bothrenchyma and Taphrenckyma, given to this tissue, are
derived from Greek words [ioOpos and ra^po?, signifying a pit.
Spiral vessels.—These form the tissue called Trachen-
chyma (rpa^us, rough) on account of its resemblance to the
tracheae or air-tubes of animals. They are tubes tapering
to each extremity, and having their membranous
walls strengthened by the formation of elastic
spiral fibres within (Fig. 30). They vary from
sqWth t° ^ocj-th °fan inch in diameter. When
lying together the vessels overlap each other at
their extremities, and occasionally, by the ab¬
sorption of the membrane, perforations of their
walls take place, so as to establish a communi¬
cation between two contiguous tubes. The
fibres are usually rounded and simple; but some¬
times two or more are combined so as to form
a flat band. These flat ribands, consisting of
fibres which vary in number from 2 to 25, or
more, are met with frequently in the stems of
Bananas and Plantains, and in the shoots of As¬
paragus. The spirals in such cases are called
compound, and the vessels Pleiotrachese (ttAciW,
more). The spiral fibres have such tenacity,
that when the vessels are ruptured they can be .Fis- 30-
pulled out and separated from the inside of the PofatheeSMe-
membrane. This capability of being unrolled ingtheeUs-
characterizes the fibre of true spiral vessels. On ^ c 0 f/e')3
breaking the young shoots or leaf-stalks of the andtheves-’
Geranium, Strawberry, and Rose, or the leaves iapSpingTeat
of the Hyacinth, Amaryllis, and Banana, and e^extremi
pulling the parts gently asunder, the fibres can ties.
Fig. 29.
Melon. It
is formed
by the
union of
dotted
cells.
BOTANY.
71
Botany, be easily seen in the form of a fine cobweb. When the aerial
stems of the Banana and Plan tain are cut across, the spiral fibres
may be pulled out in large quantity so as to be used for tinder.
The coils or volutions of the fibre are said to be in gene¬
ral left-handed, that is, turning to the left of a person supposed
to be in the axis. In the garden lettuce vessels are met with,
some having the fibre turning to the left, others to the right.
In the scarlet bean the coils of the fibres are left-handed, while
the plant itself turns to the right in twining. Spiral vessels
are abundant in young plants and shoots, while in the hard
stems of trees and shrubs they chiefly surround the pith.
Modifications of Spiral Vessels.—The spiral vessel is the
type of what is called the Fibro-vascular tissue, or that
tissue which is composed of vessels having membranous
walls strengthened by fibres of some sort. In their perfect
condition the vessels have a complete spiral or cork-screw¬
like coil inside, which is elastic, and can be unrolled. In
different plants, however, and in different parts of the same
plant, the spiral vessel undergoes certain modifications and
changes. Sometimes, as in ferns, the spiral fibres become
united to the membrane so that it cannot be unrolled.
This constitutes what is called the Closed spiral. At other
times the fibre is broken up into rings, reticulations, bars, or
dots. These changes take place in the progress of growth,
(Fig. 31) and
their various
stages may be
traced in the ves¬
sels of such plants
as the garden
balsam or melon.
Annular (annu¬
lus, aring) vessels
are those in which
the fibre is in the
form ofrings(Fig.
32). These rings
in Mammillaria
Fig.31. Fig. 32,
Fig. 34.
from the melon plant.
32. An annular vessel taken from the melon plant.
33. Vessel partly annular and partly reticulated,
taken from the melon plant. The dots are
in this case opaque, and thus differ from pits
in porous vessels.
34. Scalariform or ladder-like prismafic vessels of
tree ferns.
quadrispina, and Fig. 31. Vesselpartly spiral and partly annular taken
in some other
plants of the Cac¬
tus tribe, are very
deep, and leave
only a small hole
in the centre of the vessel. Annular vessels are from gtroth
to ¥ ^Tyth of an inch in diameter. Re¬
ticulated (reticulum, a net) vessels
(Fig. 33) have interlacing fibres on
the membrane, while in Scalariform
(scala, a ladder) vessels (Fig. 34) the
fibre is so broken up as to appear in
the form of bars or lines like the steps
ofa ladder, whence their name. The
entire walls of some scalariform ves¬
sels are capable of being unrolled in
a spiral manner. In Ferns we meet
with scalariform vessels which as¬
sume a prismatic form. In place of
lines, the fibre is in some instances
so broken upas to appear in the form
of dots or opaque points. The ap¬
pearance of bars, dots, and reticula- Laticifero J£8s3e5ia or Cinen.
tions, may sometimes be traced not chyma from the dandelion,
to a thickening of the membrane by means of fibres, but to an
actual thinning of the membrane, such as has been already
noticed in the case of dotted ducts.
Laticiferous Vessels.— These vessels (Fig. 35) consist of
long branching tubes or passages, having a diameter of about
TirWth of an inch, forming, by their union, an anastomosis or
net-work, like the veins of animals. They receive their name
from containing a fluid called Latex, of a granular nature,
often milky or coloured, and well seen in the India Rubber and Botany.
Gutta Percha plants, the Mudar plant, the Cow-tree, Spurges, ^
Dandelion, Lettuce,* Chicory, and Celandine. It frequently *P1CXXIII
contains a large quantity of caoutchouc. The Latex exhibits
movements which have given origin to the name Cinenchyma
(haveav, to move), applied to Laticiferous vessels by some au¬
thors. When fully formed, the vessels of latex exhibit in
their course contractions and dilatations of an irregular kind.
They are considered by some as composed of cells placed
end to end, with their partitions more or less completely ab¬
sorbed ; while others look upon them as inter-cellular canals
lined with a special membrane. These vessels are found
especially in the bark and leaves of plants. The milky sap of
Euphorbia phosphorea, according to Martins, is luminous.
2. Physiology of Vessels.
We have seen that the plant, in its earliest stage of deve¬
lopment, consists entirely of cells. It is from them, according¬
ly, that the other structures are formed. Some cells become
elongated, so as to form fusiform tubes, the walls of which are
thickened and strengthened by deposits of different kinds,
and thus give rise to woody tubes, dotted vessels, and fibro-
vascular tissue. In connection with these vessels are observed
nucleated cambium cells, which appear to be concerned in
their development. Barry maintains that in every instance in
which fibres are present in tissues, he has noticed filaments
of a similar nature in the earliest state. Agardh has recently
stated that fibres are the origin of the tissues, and that the
cell-walls are made up of bundles of solid fibres interwoven
together. The tubes forming the wood (Fig. 24) are pervi¬
ous to fluids in their young state, but their walls soon be¬
come thickened by deposits of lignin, and in the heartwood
of trees their cavities are obliterated. This filling up of the
tube takes place often in a concentric manner, and when it
is completed the active life of the cell or tube may be con¬
sidered as having terminated. The dotted or porous vessels
(Fig. 3) constituting bothrenchyma, do not exist in all vas¬
cular plants. Thus they do not usually exist in Conifers.
These vessels appear to be employed in the rapid trans¬
mission of fluids, and they are so constructed as to unite
the utmost possible strength with the greatest lightness.
The functions of the fibro-vascular tissue (Figs. 30-34)
have been long a subject of dispute. Early authors, such as
Grew and Malpighi, considered them as tubes for the trans¬
mission of air, probably from their resemblance to air-tubes
of animals. Hales mentions that air-bubbles arose from the
vessels of the Vine when cut, and Bischoff, in his Disserta¬
tion on the Functions of the Spiral Vessels, says that he dis¬
tinctly observed air to come from the spirals of Cucurbita
Pepo when the stem was cut across with a very sharp knife,
as well as when the vascular bundles were placed under wa¬
ter and gently pressed. During the day the air was found
to contain 27’9 to 29‘8 per cent, of oxygen. When the cut
stem was inserted in coloured solutions, he found that the
fluid in these circumstances entered the spiral vessels as
well as the other tissues. The recent experiments of Hoff¬
mann confirm in a great measure these observations. He
found that in Monocotyledons and Ferns, spiral vessels, and
those allied to them, such as annular and scalariform vessels,
usually contained air in their normal condition ; but if there
was a rapid and copious entrance of sap, then the fibro-vas¬
cular tissue took up liquids as well as air. When the roots
were cut across and immersed in water, then the liquid
passed into all the tissues, including the spirals. From all
the observations made, it would appear that spiral vessels
and their allies are receptacles for gaseous matter formed in
the course of the movement of the sap.
Laticiferous vessels (Fig. 35) are distinguished from others
by their branching and anastomosis. Most authors believe
that they contain the elaborated sap which has been exposed
to the influence of air and light. The fluid contained in these
BOTANY.
vessels is sometimes clear and transparent; at other times
opaque, from the presence of granules of resin, caoutchouc,
and other matters. In plants with milky and coloured
latex, as the India Rubber plant (Urostigma elasticum),
the Gutta Percha tree, Dandelion, Euphorbia, and Celan¬
dine, when examined under the microscope, evident move¬
ments have been perceived in the laticiferous vessels. In
making this examination, it is necessary to fix upon a more
or less tiansparent organ, and to examine it while still
attached to the plant, so as to avoid all sources of fallacy. In
the calyx of Celandine (Chelidonium majus) the orange-co-
ouied fluid contained in the laticiferous vessels can be dis¬
tinctly seen moving with great rapidity, so as to resemble
in many respects the appearance presented by the circula-
tion in the web of a frog’s foot. In the stipule of the India
Rubber plant, a similar motion, but usually slower and less
apparent, may be detected without injuring the plant. These
movements were noticed by Schultz, and were called by
him vital. Mohl and others have recently attempted to show
that the movements are merely caused by injury done to
the tissues in submitting them to microscopic examination.
Rut this will not account for those cases where the motion
of the latex was seen in an organ without detaching it from
the plant. Moreover, it is by no means difficult to distin¬
guish between the continuous rhythmical motion in these
vessels and that caused by pressure or by injury. When the
stipule of Ficus, still attached to the plant, is laid gently on a
glass plate under the microscope, we may, by applying artifi¬
cial piessure, show that the oscillation thus caused is different
from the circulation in the vessels. The movement in the la¬
ticiferous vessels has received the name of Cyclosis (kvkXwctls,
motion in a circle). It seems to take
place in all directions, the currents, as
shown in Fig. 36, running in contrary
directions in contiguous vessels. The
movement is said to be most vigorous
in parts which are in the progress of
development. It is promoted by the
application of heat, and it is checked
by cold and by an electric shock. Car- t
penter considers it as analogous to the k
capillary circulation in animals. It
is not caused by a vis a tergo, because
it is by no means constant in its direc¬
tion, and there is no organ to supply a
propelling force ; and it cannot be
attributed to a vis a fronte, like that
which operates in causing the sap to
ascend from the roots to the leaves.
Moreover, it goes on for some time
in parts detached from the rest, where
neither of these powers can be exerted. There is no evidence
of contraction in the vessels themselves to account for the
phenomenon. It seems to be a peculiar vital movement con¬
nected with formati ve actions, and attributable to affinities ex¬
isting between the tissues and the fluids concerned in nutrition.
Fig. 36.
Branching and anastomos¬
ing tubes of laticiferous
vessels. The arrows mark
the direction of the cur¬
rent.
IV.-
-CONTENTS OF THE ELEMENTARY TISSUES.
It is not proposed at this place to give an account of all
the substances which are found in the tissues of plants, but
simply to notice a few of the more evident contents of cells
and vessels. Some substances are found generally in the
cells and vessels of all plants, while others are very limited
m their distribution. To the former class belong cellulose,
igmn, starch, gum, sugar, oils, colouring matter, and certain
n‘tl'(i)».c]nous,an(;1 saIine compounds; to the latter belong
alkaloids and some special secretions.
Cellulose. This is an essential part of the structure of
ce s aiu vessels. It is in many respects allied to starch,
am is c langed into starch by the unaided action of heat, or
by sulphuric acid, or caustic potash. When iodine is applied
to it, it becomes yellow, and if sulphuric acid is added, a bl ue Botany,
colour, hke that of iodide of starch, is produced. Cellulose
was long considered as peculiar to vegetable tissues, but it
has been recently detected by Schmidt, Lowig,and Kolliker,
in the tunics of ascidia and other molluscous animals. The
thickening of the cellular membrane is accomplished by
the deposition of layers of encrusting matter, to which the
name oi Sclerogen (o-zcA^pos, hard) or Lignin has been given.
I his substance may be looked upon as a modification of
cellulose. It is frequently seen in the form of distinct con¬
centric layers, which vary in their composition in different
cncumstances. I he hard cells in the stone of the peach,
and in the shells of other fruits and seeds, consist of cellu-
ose, with deposits of lignin. So also woody fibre, the en-
crustmg matter of which varies in hardness and colour in
different trees and shrubs. The spiral threads, rings, and
oars, m the membrane of cells and vessels, consist apparently
o two layers, one being cellulose, the other woody matter.
Fork is a nitrogenous substance, which, next to cellulose,
accoiding to Mitscherlich, is the most important constituent
of the cell-wall. It occurs in a marked degree in the outer
bark-cells of many trees, and it is also found in other plants,
such as in potatoes. In the latter the cork-cells do not
contain starch, and they are thus distinguished, as well as
by chemical properties, from the cells made up of cellulose.
Cellulose, corky substance, and fatty matters, seem to be
ound in the same cell; and when the cellulose has been
absoibed, the corky substance alone remains. It forms the
outermost part of the cell-wall, and unites the cells together.
Starch Is one of the substances found in great abun¬
dance in the cells of plants, where it is stored for the pur¬
poses of nutrition. It is composed chemically of Carbon
and the elements of water (Hydrogen and Oxygen), its for-
nil^a being C12H10010. It is not found in animal tissues,
although a substance isomeric with it is stated to have been
detected in them by Gottlieb. A distinguishing character
of starch is the blue colour which it assumes on the addition
of iodine. It occurs in fine grains, more or less oval or
rounded, which vary in diameter from the 4000th to the
240th of an inch. The individual grains either lie distinct
from each other in the cells, as in the potato, wheat, and
peas (Fig. 3 /), or they are aggregated so
as to form compound grains, as in West
Indian Arrow-root, and Portland Sago
procured from Arum maculatum.* Grains /
of starch frequently present at one end a (
spot called the hilum, which is seen in the
grains given in Fig. 37. It is a concavity
or nucleus over which successive layers
have been deposited, giving rise to the
striated appearance seen in potato starch. Fig. 37.
Starch is accumulated in the internal, and starch ceils of the pea
often m the subterranean parts of plants. th^Uterior!'
it occurs abundantly in fleshy roots, and 6 Separate starch
in stems, as well as in seeds and fruits, ^iium.with striaJ and
and is easily separated by washing. The ordinary cultivated
grains yield starch in considerable quantity, so also do the
lotato, Arrow-root and Cassava plants,* the Sago-palms, and *P1. CXIII.
.banana fruit. That procured from the Arrow-root plant Fig. 1.
(Maranta arundinacea) consists of dull white grains, while
that from the potato, and from various species of Canna
supplying tous-les-mois, is in the form of large shining par¬
ticles. Sago and Tapioca are granulated forms of starch,
the former being procured from the cells of various species
of Sagus and Metroxylon, the latter from the Cassava plant,
ihe existence of starch in the bark and young wood of
trees, such as the Birch and Pine, renders them useful as
articles of food in cold countries. Fichenin is a form of
starch existing in the cells of Iceland moss and other lichens;
whde Inuhne is the starchy matter supplied by the roots of
the Dahlia, Dandelion, and Elecampane. By the action of
* Plate
CXXX7.
BOTANY.
73
Botany, prolonged heat, as well as by the addition of diluted sul-
pliuric acid, and of malt, starch is converted into a soluble
gummy substance called dextrin. The same change we shall
find occurs during germination or the sprouting of the seed.
Gum — Is another substance contained in vegetable
tissues. When pure, it is clear, soluble in water, and also
in dilute acids, but not soluble in alcohol or ether. It is
one of the forms through which vegetable matter passes in
being applied to the purposes of plant life. It exists largely
in the vegetable juices. From the bark of many trees it
is procured in the form of an exudation. Two well-marked
kinds of gum are met with: Arabine, soluble in cold water,
constituting the chief ingredient of gum-arabic, procured
from various species of Acacia; and Cerasine, insoluble in
cold water, and readily soluble in boiling water, constituting
the gummy secretion obtained from the cherry and plum.
A substance called Bassorin, or vegetable jelly, is found in
Tragacanth, the roots of some Orchids, as well as in Car¬
rageen (Sphaerococcus crispus), and other sea-weeds. It is
allied to gum, but differs in swelling up and becoming gela¬
tinous when mixed with water. Another jelly-like sub¬
stance called Pectic acid exists in the juice of turnip, beet,
and carrot, as well as in the apple and pear.
Sugar—Occurs abundantly in the sap of plants. When
pure, and in a solid state, this substance is crystalline, and
soluble in water. It occurs, however, in an uncrystallizable
form. There are two marked varieties of it. Cane sugar,
procured from the sugar-cane, sugar-maple, beet, carrot, and
many other plants; and grape-sugar, occurring in numerous
fruits, as grapes, gooseberries, currants, peaches, and apricots.
The formula for Dry Grape-sugar is C12 Hi2 012. During the
sprouting of the seed, starch is converted into grape-sugar, and
a similar change is induced by the action of malt, and of any
ferment. A sweet substance (not a true sugar), called Mannite,
is procured from the Manna-ash, as well as from various sea¬
weeds, from species of Eucalyptus, and from the Dandelion.
The substances which have been noticed as occurring in
the elementary tissues are important as organic products
concerned in the growth and nourishment of plants. Some
differences of opinion exist among chemists as to their
exact atomic composition; it is sufficient at present to notice
that they all consist of a definite proportion of carbon, united
to oxygen and hydrogen, the elements of water. They are
convertible into each other by the action of heat and of
various chemical re-agents, and by the powers of vegetation.
The ultimate composition of several of them is identical, and
the difference of their properties, in such instances, seems to
depend on differences in the arrangement of their atoms.
Another class of substances, found in the tissues of plants,
and essential for the process of vegetation, consist of carbon
and the elements of water, with the addition of nitrogen or
azote. Hence they are called nitrogenous or azotized.
They occur abundantly in the gluten of wheat flour.
Schleiden includes them under the general name of vege¬
table mucus. The chief substances which enter into tile
composition of this nitrogenous matter are albumen, fibrine,
caseine, legumine, and emulsine.
Nuclei.—The cells of plants, at some period of their ex¬
istence, usually contain what are denominated nuclei or
cytoblasts. The nucleus is a small rounded body resem¬
bling a minute cellule, which is either loose or attached to
the walls of the cell containing it (Fig. 12). It frequently
contains smaller bodies called nucleoli. The nucleus has
an important function to perform in cell growth, as has been
noticed under cytogenesis or cell-development, and after a
certain period it frequently disappears.
Chlorophyll and Colouring Matters.—Chlorophyll or
Phytochlor, is the matter which gives the green colour to
plants. It is a coloured fatty or wax-like substance, which
may be separated by the action of alcohol and ether. The
green colour is associated with globules of various sizes,
VOL. v.
which are either free or united together. The globules of Botany,
chlorophyll can be seen under the microscope in any of the
green parts of plants. In delicate structures, such as the
cellular tissue of mosses and liverworts, they are easily ex¬
amined. The colour is only produced under the action of
light; hence chlorophyll exists in the superficial cells of the
parenchyma, thus differing from starch, which is produced
in the internal and subterranean organs, whence light is ex¬
cluded. It undergoes changes according to its state of oxi¬
dation; hence the tints which the green leaves acquire in
autumn. There would appear, therefore, to be a colourless
chlorophyll present in plants, which is acted on by light,
oxygen, and other agents, so as to give rise to green, yellow,
and red tints. Schleiden says, the yellow leaves in autumn
contain proportionately more wax than the green leaves of
summer, the yellow rind of the ripe fruits more than the
green rind of unripe fruits. The tints of flowers depend
either on variously-coloured insoluble globules, which are
considered to be of a nitrogenous nature, or on soluble sub¬
stances which have not been fully examined. Colouring mat¬
ters not green are included under the name of Chromule.
Oily, Fatty, and Resinous Matters.-^- These are con¬
tained in cells and in special canals and cavities, called re¬
ceptacles of secretion. The oils are either fixed or volatile;
the former being divided into drying, fatty, and solid; while
the latter are distinguished according as they consist of car¬
bon and hydrogen alone, or of these elements combined
with oxygen or with sulphur. Resinous matter occurs either
in the form of fluid balsams, or of the various kinds of solid
resin and pitch. In the rind of the orange and lemon, re¬
ceptacles of oil occur. These are represented in Fig. 38,
which is a vertical sec-
tion of part of the rind
of the orange, the reser¬
voirs of volatile oil being
marked r n r. The cel¬
lular tissue of the rind is
seen surrounding the oil
cavities, and the cells are Vertical section of part of the rind of the
. ’ , . orange, showing receptacles of volatile oil,
elongatedandcondensed, r r r surrounded by ceils,
so as to form a compact tissue in the walls. Turpentine canals
are met with in the bark of Pines; and Vittae or oil-canals in
the fruit of Umbelliferous plants,* such as the Coriander. In*Pl. CXXI.
the fleshy covering of the fruit of the Olive, there are mime- Figs. 2 & 3.
rous oil-cells. The fruit of the Guinea-palm yields a solid
oil called Palm oil. The dotted appearance of the leaves of the
orange, myrtle, Eucalyptus, and St John’s wort, depends on the
presence of numerous cells or cavities containing essential oil.
As allied to these secretions,
we may notice Caoutchouc, which
is found in the milky juice of
plants, especially those belonging
to the Fig, Spurge, and Dogbane
orders. The trees most prolific
in this substance are, Siphonia
Caoutchouc, Urceola elastica,
and Urostigma elasticum. Gutta
Percha is the concreted milky juice
of the Taban plant (Isonandra
Gutta). Wax is also found in the
tissues of plants, and it frequently
occurs as a secretion on the stems,
as in the Wax Palm, and on the
surface of fruits, as in the bloom
or glaucous secretion of the plum
and the candleberry myrtle.
Air-Cavities.—Cells and in¬
tercellular spaces containing air
are found in many aquatic and
marsh plants, apparently with the view of rendering them
buoyant (Fig. 39, a). In some cases they are regular in
K
Fig. 38.
Fig. 39.
Fucus vesiculosus, a common sea¬
weed, showing vesicles or blad¬
ders a, full of air; 6 c the cellu¬
lar frond; d the fructification.
74
Botany.
their formation, being surrounded by cells which are built
up on a uniform plan in each species of plant, as in Pond-
weeds (Fig. 40, /). In other instances they are formed by
the destruc- J
tion or ab-
BOTANY.
v , Fig. 40.
Vertical section of the leaf of Potamogeton or Pondweed
SKS-sssssar »»*i5sa
or
sorption of
part of the cel¬
lular tissue,
as in the case
of many hol-
*P1. CXX. low stems*
Hap hides
or Crystals.
—Cells and
vessels also contain various mineral and organic acids, com¬
bined with alkaline substances. The most important of
these acids and alkalies will be noticed when considering the
chemistry of vegetation, and the products furnished by dif¬
ferent natural orders. At present we shall consider the
composition of certain crystalline matters found in cells, to
which the name of the Raphides (pacfrU, a needle), has been
given. I hese are present in greater or less quantity in al¬
most all plants. They consist of oxalic, phosphoric, malic,
sulphuric, and carbonic acid, in combination with lime, and
they exhibit various forms. Crystals of phosphate of lime
occur usually in the form of acicular crystals, varying from
thp n!0 T"Vth °i an mch11.n1 length (Fig- 41, r) ; to these
the name of needles or raphides was originally given. Cells
with clusters of raphides may be seen attached to the divi¬
sions between the cells in the Banana. Crystals of oxalate
of lime assume an toctohedral form, and vary from JUh to
' 0t!"l “fv* ,len«thJZig- 42)- They are abundant
in the root of Turkey 
Rhubarb, to which they
impart grittiness, and in
Old-Man-Cactus they
constitute 60 to 80 per
cent, of the dried tissue.
The Squill bulb, and the
bulb of the onion, ex¬
hibit raphidian cells,
which are easily sepa¬
rated during the decay
of the plants. In a
single cell of the Poke
(Phytolacca decandra),
twenty to thirty crystals 'pig 41.
may be seen. Fig. 41. Cells of Ilumex, 0, containing raphi-
O• /• ,, des, r. Tlie cells are called Raphi-
iolliceous matter OC- dlan- The raphides consist of aeicn-
curs in the walls and ^orneedle-like crystals united to-
cells, and enters into - 42‘ ^lomelawystai’s containins con-
their composition. This is the case with Grasses and
-Horsetails, and, in a remarkable degree, with those peculiar
organisms supposed by Ehrenberg to be Infusoria, but now
referred to the vegetable kingdom under the name of Dia-
tomaceae.
X. INTEGUMENTARY SYSTEM.
The general Integumentary covering of plants consists of
cells variously aggregated, and may be considered in connec¬
tion with the elementary tissues. It has been divided into
two parts—the Proper Epidermis, and the Outer Pellicle
or Cuticle. I he epidermis is formed of one or more layers
of colourless thick-walled cells cohering together, so as to
constitute a firm membrane, which can be pulled off from
t le subjacent tissue. The colour of the epidermis in gene-
ra depends on that of the parenchymatous cells below, from
1C, 1 tan e separated as a colourless layer. Occasion-
y, owever, the epidermal cells contain colouring matter,
as well as waxy siliceous, and calcareous substances. In
the case of Orchids, it is not uncommon to find spiral cells
covers6!)]!61’1?13 their aerial r00tS- The epidermis
1 Par.ts fpJants exposed directly to the air except
of tho S WhlCh 18 ^°rmed 0f 10086 Cells at the uPPer P^t
the pistil or central organ of the flower. The epidermis
s sometimes much thickened, as in the Oleander and Ame-
rican Aloe, by being composed of numerous layers of cells,
Taflid at "*er is very thin. A delicate epidermis
called Epithelium., lines the internal cavities of certain or¬
gans, such as the ovary containing the young seeds. The
oundanes of the epidermal cells frequently assume a waved
or sinuous aspect (Fig. 44). The outer cuticle is a thin
fi-nm \trUf ^‘dermis, and apparently formed
from the cells of the latter. It may be merely a changed
condition of the walls of these cells, or a modification8 of
the inter-cel- k
lular sub- / ,>—"—
stance which» '
surrounds the /V\ ) (
cells. It forms |\ '
the cover- \
ing of hairs,
as seen in
Figure 48 Cuticle, or outer internment of the Cabbage (Brassica
which re- ^^!d^tsZOt the
extends8 int!? CU^e °f t!le c^bbage with hairs, h, and it
extends into certain openings in leaves called stomata (Fig.
1’ ln Pjants constantly under water, and in certain of
verinffVerTh beS’fthe Cl!tl1c1^ 18 the only integumentary co-
g- The outer cuticle is considered by Mitscherlich as
fur! kyTSRbStanCe’ Thich Prevents the penetration of mois-
cell-walls Same Substance’ according to him, cements the
^\SdZm(l1 APPeJlda9es- These consist of openings to
«-hnd ■ be/aT °f S^mates is given, as well as of hairs,
Pnt f ’ and/cales; 1 hey are not invariably present in the
p lermis of all plants, and some of them, after having been
i eveloped, disappear in the progress of plant growth. Their
presence and absence, as well as their form and structure
give rise to important botanical characters. A surface with-
haws is called glabrous, while one having hairs is pilose.
'.'hen the hairs are short and soft, the surface is pubescent;
viien long, djstmct, unci tolerably soft, towte; whenlongand
sti t hispid. ; when the hairs arise in tufts, the term bearded
01 .9 upose is applied. When they are entangled like cotton,
and at the same time rather rigid, the term tomentose is given.
stomata or /SVomafe?.—These are orifices between the
6pi eivna cells situated on the leaves and other green parts
° fn^8 exPosed to the air, and communicating with inter¬
cellular spaces. They are sometimes called breathing-pores.
P . Fig. 44. Fig. 45.
’ '};lwfirvraiS °,f.the garden Balsam (Balsamina hortensis), showin!? wavv
45 Vt,viS bo,.lndl.ngtlie flattened cells,and stomata, it, of an elliptical fornf
... 45. Epidermis of Lily, showing the lines bounding the comOTessed a^d
elongated cells, and stomata, st, composed of two cells with an open
mfti°crcents!)etWeen them’ Some granular matter^ seen taTheX'
These openings are bounded by two (sometimes three or
our) cells (Fig. 45, si), of a delicate nature, which have the
Botany.
BOTANY.
75
Botany, power of opening or closing the orifice. When moist, these
cells become swollen, and, while they lengthen, curve out¬
wards in the middle, so as to leave a free opening ; when
dry, they are shortened and straightened, and thus their
sides are applied to each other, so as to close the orifice.
They are not found in underground roots, nor in plants which
have grown excluded from light; and they are rarely seen
in those which are constantly under water. They are best
seen on the under surface of leaves. When the epidermis
becomes hard and glazed, stomata sometimes disappear, or
are altered in their appearance. Their form is usually oval
or elliptical, but in some instances they are spherical or
quadrangular. They are either scattered singly at regular
or irregular intervals over the epidermis, or they are arranged
in clusters. Their number varies from 200 to 160,000 or
more in a square inch of surface. In the leaves of the White
Lily there are 60,000 in a square inch on the under surface,
and about 3000 on the upper ; on the leaves of the Cherry-
Laurel there are 90,000 on the lower surface, and none on
the upper.
Hairs—are prolongations of the epidermal cells. They
consist either of single cells, more or less elongated (Fig.
46), or of several cells placed in a linear series, like beads,
as in Figure 47, or united both longitudinally and laterally,
as in Figure 48, where the lower part of the hair consists of
numerous cells. In Figure 49, the hair divides at the apex
into two, in a forked manner. In Figure 50, a, it splits into
Fig. 46.
Fig. 50.
Fig. 51.
Fig, 47. Fig. 48.
Fig. 46, Unicellular hair of the common Cabbage.
... 47. Moniliform or necklace-like hair of Virginian Spiderwort ( Tradescan-
tia virgimca).
... 48. Sting (stimulus) of Nettle ( Urfica <i?'oiea) ; its base is formed by nu¬
merous cells containing irritating fluid; from these arise a simple
flu'(l Ular conical llair> which serves as a duct for conveying the
— £9- Forked or bifurcated unicellular hair of Draba or Whitlow-grass.
... 50. Unicellular hair a, of Alyssum, dividing into rays at the apex. The
.stellate or star-like arrangement is represented in the lower figure 6.
... 51. ulandular multicellular, or many-celled hair of Frogsmouth (Antir¬
rhinum rnajus). It is a partitioned capitate hair,
several cellular projections, which in the lower figure, b, are
represented spreading out in a star-like or stellate manner.
A forked hair sometimes has the divisions hooked (uncinate),
at other times barbed (glochidiate). In Figure 51 is seen
a multicellular hair having a rounded top, and called capitate.
Hairs are sometimes attached to seeds, as in the Cotton plant,
for the purpose of scattering them. The cotton hairs consist
of elongated cells, the walls of which in drying collapse in the
centre, so as to present a twisted appearance. Various parts
of plants are transformed into hairs. Thus in Rhus Cotinus
or the Wig-tree, the flower-stalks are changed into hairs,
and in the common Dandelion and other composite plants,
the outer covering of the flower, called the calyx,
assumes a hairy or pappose aspect. Hairs which
have secreting cells at their apex, as in the Chinese
Primrose, and in Sage (Fig. 52), are called glan¬
dular. The cells of the hairs occasionally se¬
crete colouring matter, more especially when G1
they arise from parts of the flower, as in the Iris
and Virginian Spiderwort. When the cells of
hairs are hardened by deposits, as in the Rose and
Bramble, they are called Prickles (aculei). Bris¬
tles (seta;) are rigid hairs usually formed of a  
single cell; while stings (stimuli), as in the common Nettle
(Fig. 48) and Chili Nettle, are stiff hairs arising from a series
Fig. 52.
andular
unicellular
hair of Sal¬
via. The
hair is call¬
ed capi¬
tate, from
its rounded
head.
Fig. 53.
hairs or
scale in Elseag-
nus, the Oleaster.
Such scaly hairs
frequently give
out waxy and
other secretions.
of cells which secrete an irritating fluid. The scales produced Botany,
on the leaves of Oleaster (Fig. 53), and of some Begonias, the
scurf on those of Bromelias, and the chaff (ra-
mentum) covering the fronds of Ferns, are all
modifications of epidermal cellular tissue.
Glands—are epidermal cells containing
various fluid and solid secretions. They are
either applied closely to the surface (sessile),
as in the Ice-plant, where they appear as
elevations of the epidermis, containing a RadiaGng'
transparent fluid like ice, or in the Hop
(Fig. 54), where they appear as resinous
scales of different shapes ; or they are raised
on stalks (stipitate) of different lengths,
and then may be called glandular hairs, as in the Sundew.
The bases of undeveloped hairs sometimes assume the
appearance of
glands. The se¬
cretions of glands
are of an oily,
waxy, resinous,
gummy, saccha¬
rine, saline, acid,
or irritant nature.
The honey-like
matter of the
flower is secreted
by glands. In
Figure 55 is re¬
presented one of
the leaves of the
flower of the
Crown- imperial,
showing the de¬
pression, g, at its
base, in which
the honey is se¬
creted ; a similar pit is seen in the common Buttercup. The
cells at the base of the Nettle hair (Fig. 48) contain an ir¬
ritant secretion, those at the apex of the Sundew hairs con¬
tain viscid matter. The glands on the flower-stalk of Dit¬
tany and Rose secrete oil, while those of the Chick-pea have
an acid fluid in their interior. On the inner surface of the
base of the stipules of Cinchona and allied genera, there
are numerous small sessile glands which secrete a gummy
matter.
CHAPTER II.
NUTRITIVE ORGANS OF PLANTS.
Having now considered the Elementary Tissues of plants,
their composition, and contents, we proceed to view them
in combination, as forming various compound organs. These
are naturally divided into the organs destined for the nourish¬
ment or Nutrition of the plant, and those concerned in Re¬
production, or in the formation of the new plant. Viewed
as individual beings, plants present various aspects. Some,
like the Red-snow plant (Fig. 56), « J «
are composed of single isolated
cells, which are capable of perform¬
ing the functions both of nutrition
and reproduction. Others, as Fungi
and sea-weeds, are composed of Ceils of the Red-snow plant
numerous cells, united either in a (I’rotococmsmvaiis),in ditfer-
linear series or as a flattened ex¬
pansion, some of which are appro¬
priated to the nutritive, and others
to the reproductive functions.
These plants are denominated Cel¬
lular. The higher classes of plants have cells and vessels
ig. 55
Fig. 54. Superficial glands of the Hop, containing a
resinons secretion, called Lupulin.
55. One of the petals or leaves of the flower of
Fritillaria imperialis, Crown Imperial,
shewing a pit or depression g at the base
containing a honey-like secretion. This
gland is sometimes called a nectary. A
stamen is attached to the petal.
Fig. 56.
ent stages of growth and de¬
velopment; a, cell in the
young state; 5, cell fully
formed, with cellules in its
interior ready to be dis¬
charged, and to form inde¬
pendent plants; c, cell after
its contents have been dis¬
charged.
76
BOTANY.
Botany, combined, presenting more complicated organs of nu-
trition and reproduction, and they are denominated Vas-
cular.
In the lower classes of plants there are no evident flowers
—their organs of reproduction are obscure, and hence they
are called Floiverless and Cryptogamic ; while the higher
classes have conspicuous flowers, and evident organs of re¬
production, and hence are called Flowering and Phanero-
gamous or Phmnogciinous. In both classes the young
plant, or embryo, in its earliest state, is cellular. This state
is retained by the embryo or
spore (Fig. 8) of the former;
while in the latter it assumes
a high degree of develop¬
ment in the seed, and at
maturity exhibits the parts
which are to form the root,
stem, and leaves, associated
with certain temporary leafy
Fig. 57
appendages or lobes, called ^ =7 x- ± • ,
1 : y i ^ sr,. __n’ Fig. 57. Embryo contained
✓ f T ' i , ,/1,1.. .. / I, . *7 \ . 1 I. 1  ....
 , _  in the seed of
the Barberry. The lower portion
of the axis gives origin to the
radicle or young root which pro¬
trudes at the micropyle. The
upper portion afterwards appears
as the ascending portion of the
axis.
.. 58. Germinating spores of a cellular
plant (Prolifera rivularis); a,
spore giving out a conical root¬
like process, r, while the other
extremity, containing a nucleus
and granules, forms a cellular
frond ; b, the same spore, with
the root-like process, r, divid¬
ing.
There is no cotyledon
cotyledons (Fig. 57)
When the spore of Cryp¬
togamic plants is sown” in
the soil, it gives off root-like
processes (Fig. 58), and
either sends upwards a con¬
spicuous stem vith leaves,
or produces a peculiar flat¬
tened expansion, called a
Frond or Thallus, bearing
organs desfiped for forming spores. ^u^icuun
or seed-leaf; hence the plants are called Acotyledonous (a,
priv., and KoryXrjSwv, a seed-lobe). In Phanerogamous plants,
on the other hand, when the seed is planted, the young root
of the embryo, proceeding from one end of the primary axis,
descends, while the stem ascends, bearing leaves and con¬
spicuous flowers. This process is represented in Figure 59,
where r is the
young root com¬
ing off from the 7 “
radicular end of
the axis ; and t
is the stalk sup¬
porting the two
cotyledons or
seed-leaves c c,
whence the plant
is called Dico¬
tyledonous (8t?,
twice); g g are
the first leaves of
the plant. The
same process is
seen in Figure 60,
plants, and the Flowers in Phanerogamous plants, are the Botany
organs of -reproduction. v :
I.—ANATOMY OF THE NUTRITIVE ORGANS.
I- THE R0QT OR THE DESCENDING. PORTION OF THE AXIS.
I he root (Fig. 59, r), generally speaking, is that part of
the plant which descends into the soil, avoiding the light,
ft is the first organ developed from the axis of the embryo.
The portion of the axis from which it arises is called radi¬
cular. In Figure 61, the
embryo of a Pea exhibits, at
r, the portion of the axis from
which the young root pro¬
ceeds. This portion is called
the Radicle; while the part
t is connected with the
ascending axis bearing the
cotyledons (seed-lobes), c c,
and the young stalk, g, which T. n. f Fig-61
i;oa in a rlon.oo,;™ xU_ ^.^tyledQuous embryo^ .of the
i^ealaia open ;.c c, the two»fleshy co¬
tyledons, or seed-lobes, which re¬
main under ground when the plant
sprouts; r, the radicular extremity
axis whence the root arises ;
the axis bearing the young stalk and.
leaves, g, which lie in a Repression of
tho cotyledons,/.
Fig. 59
the r00jS Fi*-59-Haricot or French bean, a nfcoTyledonous
SPPF1 plant, vermina.f.inor • /»* ~„ „.—
are seen proceed¬
ing from the
lower part of
the axis t; the
steni
1 . , . d» lecionous
plant, germinating; r, the roots coming oif
trom the radicular end of the axis ; t, the stalk
bearing the two cotyledons c c; the young
stem and leaves g g.
60. Grain of Maize or Indian Corn, a Monocotyle-
oonous plant, germinating. Roots come’off
YOURo- cfprrt ic ,°rillower of ^tlle ax*3 ! c, the single cb-
' UI Stem 18 tyledon; g, the young stalk and leaves.
marked <5^ and a single cotyledon or seed-leaf is seen at
one) t le ^'ant ca^ed Monocotyledonous (/tovos,
When we take a comprehensive view of the Vegetable
S!w\We ind that f” the organs 'of Pjants are formed
upon one harmonious plan. All are produced from cells,
orp fi tPrTfrn?hlfieC fn,d„ negated in various ways, and
nnrtfnf l 0r/heu^ecia functions performed by the different
parts of Plants. The organs called Hoot, Stem, and Leaves,
Jh^eir modifications, are those destined for nutrition or
vegetation, while certain cellular bodies in Cryptogamic
%/ o 7 C7 7    
lies in a depression, /, of the
cotyledons. The root con¬
sists at first entirely of cel¬
lular tissue; and, in cellular
plants, this continues to be
the case throughout life. In vascular plants it is strength¬
ened by the addition of woody fibres and vessels, and pre¬
sents the same internal structure as is seen in the stem.
It may be considered a downward prolongation of the
stem.
The extremities of the roots are composed of loose cells,
w lich appear to be the terminal tissue of the radicle, carried
forward by the elongating root. These cells have been
called Spongioles or Spongelets, but they ought not to be
reckoned special organs. I hey do not consist of the newly-
foi med tissues, but they are in reality an annual mass of
older cells, pushed forward by the root as it is developed,
and when they decay, they are replaced by the layer be¬
neath. Tims, according to Schleiden,
the point of the root consists of older
and denser tissue than that imme- tp
diately behind it. In the structure of
the root we rarely meet with true
spirals. The epidermal covering
floes not present stomata; but hairs,
usually formed of a single elongated
cell, are produced, often in great
abundance, which appear to serve
the purpose of absorption. Figure
62 represents the magnified ex¬
tremity of a young root of Orchis ;
c c being the cellular tissue, passing
into fusiform dotted cells and vessels,
f p ; the cellular extremityj of the
root, called the spongiole, being
marked s p. The extremities of Sp
some roots, as those of Duckweed
and Pistia, are covered by a little
cap-like process, or Pileorhiza,
OflAos, a cap, and pt£a, a root), which ^ ^^T^feUs"
consists of a cellular layer, separating
from the external parenchyma, but
still retaining its connection with
.the point of the root, which perishes if the covering is re¬
moved.
The young roots of Cryptogamic or Acotyledonous plants
arise from every part of the surface of the cellular axis or
spore (Fig. 58), and hence the plants have been called by
Richard IIeterorhizal(erepo?, diverse, and pi£a, root). In Mo-
nocotyledonous plants, the young roots arising from the ra¬
ng. 62.
Or-
gradually pass into dotted
cells and vessels,the
extremity of the root, call¬
ed a spongiole, sp.
BOTANY.
77
Botany, dicular portion of the axis separate into numerous fibres
(Fig. 63, r), which, in piercing the axis, are covered with a
sheath (Fig. 63, co), called a Coleorhiza (koAeo's, a sheath).
These roots have been called Endorhizal, (eVSov, within).
Schleiden considers them as being adventitious. In Di¬
cotyledonous plants the young root elongates directly from
the extremity of the radicle (Fig. 64), and afterwards di¬
vides. It is called Exorhizal (e£a), outwards). These divi¬
sions of Richard are not adopted by Schleiden.
Roots have no proper leaf-buds ; but in certain circum¬
stances they are capable of producing them. Roots occa¬
sionally arise from different parts of the stem. Thus, when
a cutting of willow is placed in moist earth, or branches are
bent so as to be inserted into the ground, roots are given off,
in the form of cellular prolongations, from the surface, or from
small lenticularpoints to which the nameof Lenticels has been
given by some. Such roots are Adventitious, Secondary,
or Abnormal The term Aerial is given to roots which
arise from the stem and branches of plants, and which, dur¬
ing the whole or part of their growth, are suspended in the
air. Remarkable instances of these aerial roots are seen in
the Banyan tree (Fig. 65), and in various other species of
Fig. 65.
Ficus (TJrostigma) Indica, the Banyan tree, sending out numerous adventi¬
tious roots, which reach the soil, and support the branches.
Ficus ; jn the Screw-pine (Fig. 66), and in the Mangrove
(Fig. 67), in Tree-ferns, and in some Palms, as Iriartea
exorhiza. The extremities of these roots, when in the air,
are sometimes covered, as in the Screw-pine, with a pe¬
culiar cap-like covering. These abnormal roots ultimately
reach the soil, and become subterranean, serving to support
and prop up the trees to which they are attached.
Botany.
Fig. 66.
F ig. 67.
Fig. 66. Pandanus odoratissimus, the Screw-pine, giving off numerous aerial
roots near the base of its stem.
... 67. Rhizophora Mangle, the Mangrove tree, supported, as it were, upon
piles by its numerous roots, which raise up the stem.
The aerial roots of Iriartea are covered with numerous
spines. In Epiphytes, or plants growing in the air, at¬
tached to the trunks of trees, such as Orchids, the aerial
roots produced do not reach the soil. They continue al¬
ways aerial and greenish, and they possess stomata. Deli¬
cate hairs are often seen on these Epiphytal roots, as well as
a peculiar investment over their true epidermis. The aerial
roots of the Ivy are not the proper roots of the plants, but
simply processes intended for mechanical support.
Parasitic plants, as the Mistletoe, Boom-rape and Rafflesia,
send root-like processes into the substance of the plant
whence they derive nourishment. In the Dodder,* the bark
over the roots swells into a kind of sucker (Jiaustorium), which
is applied flat upon the other plant, and ultimately becomes
concave, so as to attach the plant by a vacuum. From the
bottom of the sucker the root protrudes which penetrates
the supporting body. In the case of parasitic Fungi, such
as mould, there are cellular filaments which spread among
the tissues of plants, and which may be looked upon as equi¬
valent to roots and stems united. They form the spawn or
mycelium of these plants, and in some cases cause rapid de¬
struction of the tissues of plants, as in the disease called
Dry-rot.
Roots vary in their duration. In plants which grow up,
flower, and die in one year, they are annual. In such cases
they are usually composed of slender fibrils, which are de¬
ciduous, like leaves. These roots, consisting of numerous
fibrils, springing from one point, are called Fibrous (Fig.
68). They are seen in many annual grasses.
Plants which spring from seed one year,
and flower the second season, and then die,
have biennial roots ; while those which con¬
tinue to live and flower for many years,
have perennial roots. In the last two cases
the roots are often of a fleshy or woody con¬
sistence.
Perennial woody roots, when cut trans¬
versely, exhibit a structure similar to that
seen in stems. Fleshy roots contain much
starch, sugar, and gelatinous matter in
their structure. They either descend singly,
in an elongated tapering form, without
branching, giving rise to various forms of
Tap-root—conical in the carrot, fusiform or
spindle-shaped in the radish, and napiform in
the turnip ; or they branch off in a fibrous-
like manner, giving rise to Fasciculated*
roots, as in Ranunculus and Dahlia, and Tuberculate or Tu-
Fig. 68.
Fibrous root of a
grass. Numerous
fibrils coming off * pi fVVf
from one point. ' * ‘
78
Botany.
BOTANY.
f herons roots, as in Orchis (Fig. 69). In Ipecacuan there is a
peculiar Annulated root, showing con¬
tractions at short intervals, while in
Spiraea Filipendula the root becomes
Nodose, presenting irregular swellings
on its fibrils. Occasionally a Tap-root
is suddenly arrested in its growth, and
in place of tapering to a point, ends
abruptly. This is seen in the Bitten-
rooted Scabious, the root of which is
called Premorse. In some cultivated
plants, as turnip, the central root is
sometimes injured, so as to end ab-
ruptly, and it then divides into nume¬
rous branches, resembling a fasciculated
root. This gives rise to the disease
called Fingers and Toes, which is very
injurious to the crop. The mode in
which the fibres of roots are produced
and developed, thus gives origin to dif¬
ferent forms of Rhizotaxis (pi£a, root,
and ra^ts, order), or root-arrangement.
Fig. 69.
Orchis, showing tuber-
cvtles or tuberous roots,
which contain a gummy
matter called Bassorin.
H. the stem or the ascending portion of the axis.
1. Various Forms of Stems and Branches.
I he stem is the ascending portion of the axis which is
developed in an opposite direction from the root. It differs
fiom the latter in usually seeking light and air, in bearing
leaf-buds, which are produced at regular intervals, and in
growing throughout its whole extent. In flowering plants
conspicuous stems are met with, which differ in their tex¬
ture, some being herbaceous, and dying down annually to
the ground, others being woody and permanent, as in trees
and shrubs. When stems are weak and trail on the ground,
they are called prostrate or procumbent, when such stems
rise towards their extremity they are decumbent, and when
they lise obliquely from near the base they are ascending.
Some stems are so slender that they require the aid of other
plants for their support. I hey are either climbing and
scandent plants, such as the Passion-flower, which clings
to other plants by tendrils, or the Ivy, which adheres to
rocks and walls by its root-like processes; or they are
twining, when the whole stem coils round other plants in a
spiral manner, the coils being either from right to left, i.e.,
to a person supposed to be in the centre of the coil, and the
stem twining across his chest from his right to his left, as
in Convolvulus, Phaseolus vulgaris, and Dodder; or from
left to right, as in the Hop and Tamus.
Names are given to plants according to the nature and
duration of their stems. Herbs, or herbaceous plants, have
stems which die down annually. In some of them the whole
plant perishes after flowering; in others, the lower part of
the stem forming the crown of the root remains, bearing
buds, from which the stem arises next season. In what are
called biennial herbs, the whole plant perishes after two
years, while in perennial herbs the crown is capable of pro¬
ducing stems for many years, or new annual products are
repeatedly added many times, if not indefinitely, to the
old stems. 1 he short permanent stem of herbaceous plants
is covered partially or completely by the soil, so as to pro¬
tect the buds.
Plants producing permanent woody stems are called
rees and Shrubs. 1 he latter are less than five times the
eight or a man, and produce branches from or near the
ground; while the former have conspicuous trunks, which
attain at least five times the height of a man. Shrubby
pants of small stature are called Under-shrubs or Bushes.
Ihe limits between these different kinds of stem are not
a ways well defined; and there are some plants occupying
an intermediate position between shrubs and trees, to which
the name of arborescent shrubs is occasionally given. The
usual name given to the herbaceous stem is Caulis; in
grasses the stalk is called a Culm; while in Palms and
Free-Ferns the stem is denominated Caudex and Stipe.
Stems sometimes assume anomalous forms. In the Tor¬
toise-plant, or Elephant’s-foot-plant, the stem forms a large
irregular thick mass, with a rough and tuberculated exterior.
In the Melon-Cactus it is globular, in other species of
Cactus, it is jointed, columnar, or angular ; while in
many Orchids (Fig. 70) it assumes an
oval or rounded form, and is called a
Pseudo-bulb. The stem is so short in
some plants, as the Primrose, Cowslip,
Gentian, and Dandelion, that they are
called Stemless or Acaulescent. A simi¬
lar term is given in ordinary language
to plants whose stems are buried in
the soil, such as Cyclamen or Sow¬
bread.
The stem, although it has a tendency
to rise upwards when first developed, in
many instances becomes prostrate, and
either lies along the ground, partially Fig. 70.
covered by the soil, or runs completely An Epiphytic orchid
underneath its surface, giving off roots stem^cafied1 Pseudo^
from one side, and buds from the other, wr the
Some stems are therefore subterranean, fisure-
and are distinguished from roots by the provision made for
regular leaf-buds.
I he points where leaves or leaf-buds are produced are
called Nodes. In certain jointed stems or branches, as the
Bamboo, these are well marked; but in stems which are
not articulated, the nodes are often distinguished chiefly by
the leaves which they bear, or by the scars left after their
fall. I he intervals between the nodes are denominated
Internodes, and they are of different lengths, according to
the distance at which the leaves are placed from each
other.
The stem may be considered as formed of a series of
leaves, at first closely aggregated on a shortened axis, and
afterwards separated by more or less evident intervals. As
the leaves decay and fall off, the stem becomes more con¬
spicuous and uninterrupted. Buds may be regarded as
shortened leaf-bearing axes, capable of elongation, so as to
form stems and branches, with nodes and internodes. Some
buds are terminal, or are produced at the extremity of the
primary axis, just as the first bud in the Embryo-plant.
These buds in their after-growth continue to add to the
length of the stem. Other buds are lateral, or are pro¬
duced on the sides of the axis. These are concerned in
the production of branches.
In trees which do not ramify, as most palms, there are no
lateral buds. In plants which have permanent stems, and
in which the leaves are deciduous, provision is made for
subsequent growth, by the production of buds which lie
dormant during the winter, or the season of repose, and are
ready to burst forth when the spring or the rainy season re¬
turns. The buds are situated at the angles where the
leaves join the stem, or in what is called the Axils of the
leaves. In cold and temperate climates these buds are pro¬
tected by a coarse external scaly covering, and sometimes
also by a waxy, glutinous, or resinous matter, as is well seen
in the Horse-chestnut.
Buds, in place of producing branches, are in some in¬
stances abortive, or remain latent, ready to be developed
when any injury has been inflicted on the terminal buds or
branches. Occasionally, after a partial development as
branches, buds are arrested and form knots or nodules.
The embryo-buds or nodules of the Beech, Cedar, and
Olive, are apparently of this nature. Sometimes several
Botany.
BOTANY.
Botany, buds unite together in the axil of a leaf, and form a pecu-
liar flattened branch.
Branches are sometimes long and slender, and run along
the ground, producing roots and leaves at their extremity
or apex. This is seen in the Runner (flagellum) of the
Strawberry. In the ITouseleek (Sempervivum) there is a
similar prostrate branch of a shorter and thicker nature,
producing a bud at its extremity capable of independent
existence. It receives the name of Offset (propagulum).
A Stolon differs from these in being a branch which curves
towards the ground, and, when reaching a moist spot, takes
root and forms an upright stem, and ultimately a separate
plant. It is a sort of natural layering, and the plant pro¬
ducing such branches is called Stoloniferous.
Spines or Thorns are usually abortive branches ending
in sharp points. This is shown by their producing leaves
occasionally (Fig. 71), and by their being frequently
changed into ordinary branches during cultivation. Plants
bearing thorns (modifications of branches or leaves) are de¬
nominated spiny, spinose, or spinescent. Tendrils (cirrhi)
are frequently an altered state of leaf-buds or branches, as
in the Passion-flower and the Vine, enabling the plants to
climb. In the Vine, as represented in (Fig. 72), the ten-
79
Fig. 73.
Fig. 71.
Fig. 72.
Fig. 71. Branch of the Sloe (Prunus spinosa), producing spines or thorns
-to . Ci1Aro fborti7e branches, as shown by their bearing leaves.
... 72. Part of the stem of the Vine, showing the formation of tendrils, each
ot which are considered as terminating axes. Between each leaf
dril rdnl a bud 18 given off which forms an axis ending in a ten¬
drils, V V V, are considered by some as the terminations of
separate axes. The lowest leaf in the figure is connected
with the first axis, which ends in a spiral tendril, v; and
between this tendril and the leaf a bud is given off, formino-
a second axis, which ends in the second tendril, v; between
which and this second axis another bud is given off, formino-
a third axis, ending in a third tendril, v, and so on. The
different axes are in this case called cirrhose.
Subterranean Stems and Branches are sometimes short
and thick, at other times they are elongated. Some are
completely under ground, while others are only partially so;
some increase by lateral, others by terminal buds. Manv
of them are in the ordinary language called roots, from
which, however, they are distinguished by the power of
forming regular buds, or by having rudimentary leaves or
scales on their surface. Many of them contain much
nourishing matter, which is stored up for the future growth
of the plant.
Rhizome, or root-stock, is the name given to certain
root-hke forms of creeping stems, which are more or less
completely subterranean. They are seen in Iris, in Ginger, Botany,
and Convallaria (Fig. 73). Such
stems exhibit on their upper sur¬
face the marks or scars of leaves,
and it is to the scale-like appear¬
ance of these markings that the
plant called Solomon’s seal (Fig.
i 3) owes its name. Of a similar
nature is the Soboles, or creeping
stem of Carices, Papyrus, and
other grass-like plants, which spread
through the sand and loose mud
in such a way as to bind the par¬
ticles together.
In the Banana (Fig. 86), there is i (0
an underground stem which sends Rhizome) root.'sto;k, or par.
up shoots of a herbaceous na- tlally subterranean creeping
ture to bear the flowers and the gonatum multiflorum). ^ ^
fruit. In Asparagus the shoot developed from the sub¬
terranean stem is called a Turio; it is the part used as an
article of diet; at first it is covered with scales, but it after¬
wards gives off branches, which bear leaves, flowers, and
fruit. In the Rose and Mint a subterranean branch arises
from the stem, which runs horizontally to a certain extent,
and ultimately sends up an aerial stem, which becomes
mi independent plant. Such branches are denominated
Suckers, and the plants are called Surculose, The gardener
divides the connection between the sucker and the parent
stem, in order to propagate these plants.
The Tuber is a subterranean branch, which is arrested in
its growth, and becomes remarkably thickened, in place of
being elongated. It is seen in the Potato and Jerusalem
Artichoke; and the eyes produced in these instances are
true leaf buds. When the older parts die away, these
tubers are found to belong to one axis with the new struc¬
tures, which are subsequently formed. In the Arum,* Col- * Plato
chicum, and Crocus, the tubers are perfected after the other CXXXV
parts, which belong to the same
axis with themselves, so that they
and the new structures belong to
two axes, or at least to two differ¬
ent processes or shoots of the same
axis. Such tubers are called Cor ms.
They have a central axis, which is
sometimes covered by thin scales ;
and they may be looked upon as
shortened axes with scaly leaves,
or as subterranean buds. Corms
may be regarded as dilated stems
intervening between the first buds
and the roots. They give off buds
in the form of young corms, and
occur in monocotyledonous plants.
In Gladiolus, the new corms are
so superimposed upon each other,
that they gradually rise above
ground. In Colchicum (Fig. 74)
the new corm, b, is produced alter¬
nately at either side of the old one,
a, which shrivels. Sometimes three
generations may be seen at the
same time—the old corm, the new
corm, and the bud of next year.
The Bulb is also a short subter¬
ranean axis, which is covered with fleshy scales containino-
succulent cells. It is a bud produced under ground, the
centre corresponding to the axis, which is clothed with
scales, and which sends flowering stems upwards, and roots
downwards. In the Lily the thick and narrow scales are
arranged separately in rows, and the bulb is called scaly;
while in the Leek the scales are broad, and inclose each
Fig. 74.
Corms of Meadow-saffron (Col¬
chicum autumnale) ; a, old
corm shrivelling ; b, young
corm produced laterally from
the old one.
80
BOTANY.
Botany, other in a concentric manner, the outer ones being thin and
membranous, and the bulb is said to be tunicated. The scales
are equivalent to leaves, and they produce buds in the form
of cloves or young bulbs at the part where they join the axis.
At the base of the bulbs there is a flattened rounded por¬
tion, which produces roots from one side,
and scales and leaves from the other.
The central bud produces the flowering
stem. The lateral buds or cloves some¬
times remain attached to the axis, and
produce flowering stems, so that the same
bulb continues to flower for many years,
as in the Hyacinth and Tulip; at other
times the young bulbs are detached, and
form separate plants. In the case of some
plants, as Lilium bulbiferum (Fig. 75);
bulbs are also produced on the stem, in
the form of bulbels or bulblets, b, which
are scaly buds, ^capable of being detached,
and of forming independent plants.
2. Internal Structure of the
The forms of the stem having been considered, we now
proceed to examine its anatomical structure. This struc¬
ture consists of the elementary tissues combined and arranged
in various ways. In some plants the part which serves the
purpose of a stem is composed entirely of cells arranged in
the form of very narrow filaments, which are simple or
*F]ate branched, as in some Fungi* and Confervae, or which form an
CXXXVI. expanded surface, called a Thallus or frond. Such cellular
plants have received the name of Thallogens or Thallophytes
(OaXkos, a frond); while those producing stems composed
both of vessels and cells are sometimes called Cormogens
or Cormophytes (Kopgos, a stem or stipe). In ordinary conspi¬
cuous stems, both cellular and vascular tissue are present.
The arrangement and development of the cellular and
vascular systems give rise to three marked forms of stems :
—1. Acrogenous, in which the bundles of vessels are simul¬
taneously developed, and the additions to the stem take
place at the summit, by the union of the bases of the leaves.
Plants having this kind of stem are called Acrogens (d/qoo?,
summit, and yewaav, to produce), or Summit-growers.
Tree-ferns furnish an example. 2. Endogenous (evSov, in¬
wards), in which the bundles of vessels are definite, and are
deposited towards the centre, which becomes filled up with
them in the progress of growth, so that the diameter of the
stem increases in a great measure by the new matter push¬
ing out that previously formed. Such plants are called
Endogens, or Inside-growers. Palms and Screw-pines sup¬
ply examples. 3. Exogenous (efw, outwards), in which the
bundles of vessels are produced indefinitely in an outward
direction, and the stem increases in diameter by the annual
formation of a new layer of woody matter formed on the out¬
side of the preceding layers. Such plants are called Ex¬
ogens, or Outside-growers. Ordinary trees, such as the Oak
and Ash, furnish instances.
While the structure of the stem supplies obvious charac¬
ters, it will be found that other distinguishing marks sepa¬
rate these three great classes of plants even in their earliest
state. Thus, Acrogens are Acotyledonous (Fig. 58); En-
dogens are Monocotyledonous (Fig. 60) ; and Exogens are
Dicotyledonous (Fig. 59).
a. Exogenous Stem or the Stem of Dicotyledonous Plants.
Exogens are the largest class of plants in all parts of the
globe, and the structure of their stems is familiar to us in
the trees of cold and temperate climates. In Britain the
trees of our forests are all exogenous in their formation. Such
trees, however, occur also in warm regions, associated with
others exhibiting endogenous and acrogenous structures.
Stem of bulbiferous
Lily (Lilium bulbi¬
ferum), showing bul¬
bels or bulblets, b,
produced in the axils
of the leaves,
Stem.
An exogenous stem, in its earliest condition, is entirely
cellular. When the plant begins to grow and send up its
first leaves, the cellular tissue of the axis is seen to be tra¬
versed by bundles of vessels (vascular bundles), which soon
divide the stem into two marked portions ; an internal,
forming the central pith or medulla, and an external, forming
the cortical pith or bark, covered by epidermis. The connec¬
tion between the central pith and cellular bark is kept up by
means of lines of cellular tissue, called medullary rays, which
are interposed between the vascular bundles. At the end
of a year’s growth, we observe, in the exogenous stem, a
central cellular pith, a circle of vascular bundles in the form
of wedge-shaped masses, an external bark and integument,
and rays passing from the pith to the bark. This is the
complete structure of exogenous herbaceous stems, which
die down annually. The appearance is exhibited in Figure
76, which is
the young
stem of a
melon cut
horizontally ;
m is the me¬
dulla or pith,
composed of
loose cells
containing
fluid; t,
tracheae or
spiral vessels
immediately
surrounding
it, and form¬
ing a medul¬
lary sheath ;
r m, medul¬
lary rays,
composed of
more or less
flattene d
cells, which
extend from
the pith to the
external cel¬
lular bark or
Botany.
Fig. 76.
Fig. 76. Horizontal section of
the stem of a Melon,
showing exogenous
structure of one
year’s growth. Pith,
m, consisting of
loose cells ; t, spiral
vessels, forming the
medullary sheath,
which is inter-
rupted at dift'erent Fig. 77.
points to allow medullary rays, r m, to pass from
the pith to the bark. The medullary rays divide
the stem into ten wedge-shaped vascular bun¬
dles, the outer part of the bundles forming the
fibrous layer of bark, and the inner constituting
the wood ; the pitted vessels are represented by
large round openings. The circumference is the
outer portion of the bark, consisting of cells which
are covered by the general integument bearing
hairs.
Fig. 77. One of the vascular wedges of the Melon separated
to show its composition ; m, medulla or pith ; t,
spiral vessels of medullary sheath ; r m, medul¬
lary ray ; /, woody fibres ; v p, pitted vessels; c,
cambium cells between wood and bark ; l, inner
bark, consisting of woody fibres, and called en-
dophloeum ; v l, laticiferous vessels; p c, cellular
envelope of the bark ; e, general integument.
cortical layers ; on the outside of the bark is the integu¬
ment with projecting hairs, and between the medullary rays
are ten wedges of fibro-vascular bundles, consisting of woody,
porous, annular, reticulated, and spiral vessels ; in these
wedges the porous vessels are represented by large rounded
openings. In Figure 77 is given a horizontal section of one
of the fibro-vascular bundles, in order to show its composi¬
tion. The section extends from the pith to the outer in¬
tegument ; m, medulla or pith ; t, tracheae or spiral vessels,
forming the sheath round the pith, the fibres being unreli¬
able ; r m, cellular medullary ray at the side of the vascu¬
lar wedge; f woody, annular, and reticulated vessels ; vp,
porous or pitted vessels of large calibre ; c, a layer of green
and active cells, forming what is called the cambium layer;
/, woody fibres, constituting a layer called the inner bark ;
v l, ramifying laticiferous vessels ; p c, cortical cells, consti¬
tuting the cellular bark, which is covered by the common
integument, e.
In stems which are not annual, the growth of the second
year consists of a new formation of vascular bundles out¬
side the previously formed layer, between it and the bark—
the connection between the pith and the bark being still
kept up by cellular rays. Between the pith and the bark
there are annually formed a layer of active formative cells,
called cambium cells, which are concerned in the develop¬
ment of new woody fibres. In Figure 78 is shown a trans¬
verse section, A, and a vertical section, B, of one of the
B 0 T A N Y.
Botany, fibro-vascular bundles of the maple at the commencement
of the second year of growth
—the letters referring to both
sections ; t, tracheae, or spiral
vessels, forming the medul¬
lary sheath, which allows the
medullary rays to pass through
at different points ; v p, por¬
ous or pitted vessels, consti¬
tuting bothrenchyma or ta-
phrenchyma, and presenting
large rounded openings ; f, f,
fibres formed of fusiform
tubes, the inner, /, marking
the fibres forming the wood
of the stem, and the outer,/,
those which form the cortical
fibres of the inner bark; c,
cambium cells between the
wood and bark ; p c, p c, cor¬
tical polyhedral cells, often of
a greenish colour, forming a
cellular layer of bark ; s,
outer cellular layer of bark,
composed of cubical or tabu- Fig 78i
lar coloui'less cells, often of a Section of the stem^of a Maple at the
corky nature, and hence called
suberous ; this cortical layer
is covered by the general in¬
tegument. Thus, at the com¬
mencement of the second
year’s growth there is a dis¬
tinct formation of cambium
cells, by the action of which
a new layer of wood, and a
new layer of fibrous bark is
formed ; and these cambium cells, being in connection with
the medullary rays, keep up the connection between the
medullary and cortical cells.
Let us now trace the changes which take place in the
permanent woody stem of the Maple, after three years’
growth, as represented in Figure 79. The yearly growth
81
Botany.
commencement of its second year’s
growth. A, Horizontal section ; B,
Vertical section. Spiral vessels
round the pith t, pitted vessel vp,
and woody fibres/, forming the layer
of wood of the first year; c, cambium
cells formed between wood and bark
in second year’s growth ; p c, p c,
cellular layer of bark with fibres,/,
constituting the inner bark (liber or
Endophloeum); s, suberous layer of
bark (Epiphlosum), seen in the se¬
cond year’s growth as distinct from
the cellular layer below ; on the out¬
side of the suberous layer is the
general integument, with projecting
hairs.
v f v
Fig. 79.
Horizontal section of one of the vascular wedges of the Maple, taken from a
stem three years old.
of the woody bundles is marked by the Figures 1, 2, 3 :—
1. The Pith, m, is surrounded by tracheae, t, which are not
repeated in the growth of subsequent years ; outside these
are the pitted vessels, v, and fibrous tissue, / of the first
year’s growth. 2. Pitted vessels, v, and fibres,/ or woody
and other vessels of the second year’s growth. 3. Pitted
vessels, v, along with fibres, / of third year; c, layer of
cambium cells outside the wood of third year. The outer
part of the section consists of the layers of bark ; s, the su¬
berous, or outer layer of bark cells ; immediately within, is
p, the cellular layer, and 11, the fibrous layer of the bark of
the first year; then follows the bark of the second year, p l;
and, finally, the cortical layers of the third vear, p l, which
voe. v.
are separated from the wood by a cortical layer of new cells,
m c, and the cambium layer, c. v-—•
In examining, therefore, the growth of an Exogenous
stem, it will be seen, that while additions are yearly made
to the layers of wood in an outward direction, so as to give
rise to the term Exogen, or outside-grower, the bark, on the
contrary, increases by annual additions on the inside. The
increase of the diameter of such stems takes place by suc¬
cessive deposits of vascular wedges in concentric circles,
year after year, and during this growth the bark becomes
gradually distended. On examining old stems the dif¬
ferent annual layers can be counted, especially in trees
of cold and temperate climates, where there is a marked
cessation of growth during winter.
Let us now proceed to examine the different parts of an
Exogenous stem proceeding from the centre to the circum¬
ference.
The Pith (Fig. 76, m)—consists of cellular tissue (pa¬
renchyma), at first succulent, but afterwards becoming dry,
as its juices are absorbed for the use of the young plant.
The dry pith of the stem is sometimes used for paper, as in
the case of Rice paper or Schola, which is produced in
India from the stem of iEschynomene paludosa, in the
Malay Archipelago from that of Scsevola Taccada, and in
China from that of Aralia papyrifera (Tung-tsaou). In
the progress of growth its cells are sometimes broken up,
so as to form large empty cavities, as in the Walnut, Poke,
Jessamine, Horse-chestnut and Hickory; at other
times the whole pith gives way, owing to the rapid disten¬
sion of the outer part of the axis in its early state, and then
the stem becomes hollow, with shreds of pith attached to its
interior, as in Umbelliferse* and Grasses. The cells of pith *pi# CXX.
are well seen under the microscope in the Elder.
The Medullary Sheath—is the first formed vascular layer
(Fig. 77, t). It consists principally of spiral vessels (Fig.
30), the fibres of which can be uncoiled. This is the only
part of an exogenous stem in which these vessels ordinarily
occur. This medullary circle is not always complete, spaces
being left between the vessels where the medullary rays and
the pith communicate. The tracheae traverse the cellular
tissue so as to reach the leaves.
The Wood.—The layers of wood (Fig. 77,/) are formed
outside the medullary sheath. They consist of woody fibres
(prosenchymatous tubes) such as those represented in Figure
24, mixed with dotted ducts (Fig. 3), and occasionally with
a few annular (Fig. 32) and reticulated (Fig. 33) vessels
belonging to the spiral type. On making a transverse sec¬
tion of the stem of the Chestnut, Ash, or Oak, the extre¬
mities of the dotted ducts (pitted vessels) will be seen in
the form of large rounded openings on the inner side of the
woody circle or zone. In the Maple (Fig. 79), Plane, Lime,
and Hornbeam, the openings are large, and are diffused
throughout the annual zones, mixed with pleurenchyma.
In coniferous (cone-bearing) plants, as the Fir and Pine,
the woody layers are composed of disc-bearing pleurenchyma
(Fig. 25), without any dotted ducts, and hence under the
microscope no large rounded openings are seen in the
woody layers.
In the young state the pleurenchymatous tubes of the
woody zones are pervious, but by degrees they are oblite¬
rated by the deposits of ligneous matter (lignin). In old
exogenous trees the central wood is hard and durable, con¬
stituting the Heart-wood or Duramen, while the exterior
wood is soft, forming the Sap-wood or Alburnum. The
lignin deposited in the heart-wood frequently acquires a
marked colour, as in the Ebony tree, where it is black ; in
the Black Walnut, where it is dark-brown ; in the Barberry
and Judas-tree, where it is yellow ; in the Red Cedar,
where it is purplish-red ; and in the Guaiac tree, where it
is greenish. The relative proportion between alburnum and
duramen varies in different trees. Those in which the hard
L
82
Botany,
BOTANY.
• wood predominates are best fitted for building, and for with-
^ standing the effects of moisture, dry rot, and the attacks of
insects and other animals. The durability of woods depends
on the nature of the ligneous matter deposited in their pleu-
renchyma, and this varies much.
The woody zones annually formed are not always of the
same size. Much depends on the state of the climate and
season, the exposure of the plant to air and light, and the
nourishment which it receives. A narrow ring of wood may
be considered as recording a cold season, while a wide one
indicates a warm season. The same zone also varies in size
at different parts, so that, in many cases, the pith is excen-
tric—that is, not exactly in the centre of the stem, owing
to the circles being thicker on one side than on the other.
Bravais and Martins noticed a Scotch Fir in which the two
semi-diameters of the stem were to each other as nine to
nineteen, or the one more than double the other. In such
cases, it usually happens, that the side of the tree having the
greatest thickness is that which has been best exposed to
air and light.
From the mode in which layer after layer of wood is
formed, it follows that the age of an exogenous tree may be
estimated by counting the number of woody circles (Fig.
80.) In trees of cool climates, where there is a marked
cessation of growth, this may be
done with tolerable accuracy up
to a certain age at least; but in
trees of warm climates, where
there is a less marked period of
repose, this cannot always be
done accurately. It is said that
in some of the trees of tropical
America monthly circles are
formed ; while in species of Cac¬
tus and Cycas more than one
year is required to form a single
Fig. 80.
In estimating the age of Tran!ye,rse,section of the stem of
& , an Oak, showing the pith in the
centre; the woody layers formed
in concentric circles around it,
and the layers of bark on the
outside. There are six woody
circles, indicating that the stem
is the growth of six years, and
the same age is indicated by the
cortical layers. The dark dots
on the inner side of the dift'erent
woody layers mark the situation
of the dotted vessels.
zone.
# O ~0~ 
trees in temperate climates, the
rings or zones of woody matter
must be counted from the pith
to the bark. Mistakes have been
committed, in many instances,
by merely making a section of a
stem, embracing a few zones,
and then estimating from their size for the whole diameter
of the tree.
The Medullary Rays.—These connect the pith and the
bark (Fig. 76, r, m). They consist of flattened quadrangu¬
lar cellular tissue, having an appearance like bricks in a
wall, and hence called muriform. In the young stem these
rays are large, while in the more advanced woody stem they
are seen as lines only. They constitute the silver-grain so
conspicuous in the Maple, and they give the peculiar silvery
lustre to many woods when cut in the direction from the
pith to the bark. These rays do not proceed in a continu¬
ous plane from the top to the bottom of the tree. They
pass through the woody layers in such a way as to be inter¬
rupted in their course, and when a section is made perpen¬
dicularly to the rays, or, in other words, as a tangent to the
circumference of the stem, their ends are seen projecting
irregularly through the woody fibres. They are said by
some authors to represent the horizontal system of the stem,
or, as it were, the woof, which is traversed by the vertical
woody bundles, like the warp. The medullary rays are in
some cases, as in Clematis and Aristolochia, large and broad,
while the woody wedges are comparatively small. Besides
complete medullary rays, there exist others which only ex¬
tend partially through the stem.
Jhe Cambium Layer. This is a layer of nucleated cells,
lying between the wood and the bark, and originally con¬
nected with both. They ai'e formed in a mucilaginous fluid
called Cambium, and they are concerned in the formation
of the woody tubes of the inner bark, and of the pleuren-
chyma, as well as in the additions made to the cells of the
medullary rays. When these cells are carrying on the
process of growth with activity, during the flow of the
sap in spring, the bark can be easily separated from the
wood.
The Bark—is at first composed of uniform cellular tissue,
resembling that of the central part of the stem (Fig. 77). In
the progress of growth transformations of the tissue take place,
by which fusiform prosenchymatous tubes are formed in the
inner portion of the bark next to the woody circle. This
portion is called the Inner Bark or Liber (Endophlceum
evSov, within, and c^Aotos, bark). It consists of thickened
pleurenchyma with some laticiferous vessels. It is the
fibrous part of the bark, and is often called Bast tissue. The
fibres of the liber are long and tenacious, and are employed
for various useful purposes. Those of the Lime-tree, Hemp,
Mallow, Hibiscus, Boehmeria, Nettle, and Daphne cannabina,
are employed for different articles of manufacture. The fibres
sometimes separate, so as to form meshes, as in the Lace-bark
tree. The inner bark of Antiaris saccidorahas tenacious fibres,
which are used in India for cordage and matting. The tree
is common in the jungles near Coorg, according to Dalzell,
and the people manufacture curious sacks from it. A branch
is cut corresponding to the length and breadth of the sack
wanted. It is soaked a little, and then beaten with clubs
until the liber separates from the wood. The liber, in the
form of a sack, is then turned inside out until the wood is
sawed off, with the exception of a small piece left to form
the bottom of the sack. These sacks are in general use
among the villagers for carrying rice. The inner bark of
various trees has been used for writing upon, and hence the
name liber.
On the outside of the liber lies the cellular portion of the
bark, consisting of two layers, the Cellular Envelope, called
also Mesophloeum (//.eo-os, middle), and the Corky or Su-
berous Envelope, called also Epiphloeum (hrl, upon, on the
outside). The former is composed of loose thin-walled
polyhedral cells, containing chlorophyll, and hence often
denominated the green layer; the latter consists of flat¬
tened tabular parenchyma, giving the peculiar colour to
the branches and young stems of trees and shrubs. The
epiphloeum is rarely green ; it is generally some shade
of ash-colour or brown. It is sometimes developed to a
great extent, constituting the cellular substance called cork,
procured from the Cork-oak, and produced also by various
species of Elm. In some trees the epiphlceum falls off at
certain intervals. In the Cork-oak it does so in eight or
nine years, leaving a tabular layer of cells below. In the
Birch the outer bark is the part which separates in layers,
owing to the formation of a stratum of thin-sided cells below
the lamellae, which easily separate into fine powder when
disturbed. On the outer surface of the epiphloeum is the
Epidermis, or general integument, which in old trunks is
thrown off.
The different layers of bark increase by additions of new
cells to their inner surface. The cellular layers, however,
soon cease to grow, while the liber continues to increase by
additions from the cambium layer. The thickening of the
pleurenchyma of the liber takes place by concentric deposits
of lignin, in the same way as in the case of woody tubes.
Sometimes the different annual circles of bark may be traced,
but in genera], after a certain length of time, all the layers
are more or less amalgamated by the growth and pressure
of the parts below, so that it is impossible to ascertain the
age of the tree by the cortical layers. It is obvious that,
by the constant additions to the wood on its outside, and
the bark on its inside, the latter is distended, and when the
cellular portion has ceased to grow, it cracks and splits in
various ways, and ultimately falls off. The distension and
83
Botany.
BOTANY.
Botany, increase in diameter of an Exogenous stem is such, that a
J woody climbing plant, for example Bauhinia or Honey¬
suckle, when surrounding it, gives rise to marked grooves
on the surface, and often arrests its growth entirely by pres¬
sure on the sap wood.
Although all these parts are generally observed in Exo¬
genous stems, and present the order now mentioned, still,
various peculiarities occur, especially among exogenous trees
of warm climates, which often obscure
the arrangement. Thus, in some trees
of great age only one marked zone or
circle of woody matter is seen, consisting
of a series of separate wedges; in other
trees there are several such zones, each
of which is the produce of more than one j
year’s growth. In such cases the stem in¬
creases in diameter by the formation of i
new wedges, or by additions to the old 1
ones. Occasionally the woody matter is
so formed as to be in separate masses,
surrounded by cellular tissue, which pre- rig- si.
sents the same appearance as the outer Pesct"^a^f /
bark (Fig. 81). Such a stem looks as if ceous plant of South
it was formed by several united to- iS Dicotyledonous,
gether.
Some Exogenous plants with twining stems become much
altered by compression ; other exogens exhibit fluted stems.
In the Yarroura wood, or Paddle-wood (Aspidosperma ex-
celsum), the stem is singularly fluted, and presents a waved
or sinuous aspect. The same kind of appearance is seen in
some woods which are imported for the purpose of furnish¬
ing dyes, such as Logwood, Nicaragua wood, and Rio de la
Hache wood (Caesalpinia echinata), &c.
T7te Branches of Exogens.—In Exogenous stems a pro¬
vision is usually made for the formation of branches, or, in
other words, the stems grow, not merely by producing buds
at the apex, which cause an increase in height, but also by
lateral buds which give origin to branches. These are con¬
nected with the centre of the stem, and their tissues can be
, traced to the pith and its sheath. From this mode of growth
Exogenous trees have a form more or less tapering as re¬
gards their stem and branches. In the arrangement of their
parts, branches resemble the stems from which they proceed.
When regularly developed they taper to a point, and con¬
tinue to produce buds, which again form smaller branches
and twigs by constant subdivision.
The mode in which branches grow and subdivide gives
rise to different aspects in forest trees. In the Cedar, the
branches spread nearly at right angles; in the Italian Poplar
they come off at an acute angle with the upper part of the
stem; in some plants, as the Weeping Elm, they come off
at an obtuse angle. In the Birch and Willow the branches
become so slender at their extremities that they bend by
their own weight. When the terminal bud of a stem or
branch of an Exogen is cut off or arrested in its growth, the
lateral buds are produced abundantly, and thus give rise to
the appearance seen in pollard trees, and in the clustering
of the twigs of the Birch and other trees. The compara¬
tive length of the branches in the upper and lower parts of
trees tends also to give them a peculiar physiognomy. When
the lowermost are longest, and the others are gradually
shorter as we proceed upwards, the conical form is produced,
as seen in the Douglas Pine (Abies Douglasii). When the
uppermost are longest, as in Pinus pinea, the form is some¬
what like that of an inverted cone. When branches are
produced under ground, and in darkness, they frequently
become thickened and contorted in various ways, as seen
in the potato, the tuber of which is a branch of this kind.
When the potato is allowed to grow above ground, but in
darkness, the ordinary branches sometimes assume the form
of tubers.
b. Endogenous Stem, or the Stem of Monocotyledonous
Plants.
This kind of stem is not seen in its fullest development
in northern climates. We must look to the Palms and
Screw-Pines of warm regions, in order to see the striking
effect produced by its mode of growth. The trunks of palms
differ much in their aspect from the trees of this country,
They have usually simple unbranched, cylindrical stems,
towering to a great height, and covered by a large mass of
remarkable foliage (Fig. 82).
In the structure of the woody endogenous stem there is
no marked distinction between pith, wood, and bark ; there
are no medullary rays, nor concentric circles. Definite
vascular bundles are diffused through the cellular tissue
without apparent regularity, and the v/hole is enclosed by
an external covering which differs from the bark of Exogens,
in not having annual layers, and in not being separable from
the wood. In Figure 83, which exhibits a transverse sec¬
tion of a Palm-stem, this arrangement of tissues is seen.
On the outside is the cortical portion not separable from the
rest; the vascular bundles are marked f and the cellular
portion, which is looser towards the centre, m. In the early
state the stem is entirely cellular, but in the progress of
growth vascular bundles are produced, consisting of woody,
spiral, dotted, and laticiferous vessels. In Figure 84, there
Fig. 84.
Fig. 82. Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera).
This is the Tamar of the
Bible.
... 83. Transverse section of the stem
of a Palm, which is endogen¬
ous ; m, the central loose cel¬
lular portion ; /, the outer
fibrous portion, showing nu¬
merous vascular bundles. The
whole being covered by a false
bark or rind.
Fig. 84. One of the vascular bundles of a Palm-stem, the lower part of the
figure being that next the centre. Upper p, the general cellular
parenchvma surrounding the bundle; lower p, woody fibres; l l,
fibrous thickened woody vessels, resembling those of the liber of
exogens; t, trachea; (spiral vessels); v, large dotted vessels; v l,
laticiferous vessels.
is represented a transverse section of one of the fibro-vas
cular bundles of an Endogenous stem ; upper p marking
the general cellular parenchyma surrounding the bundle;
lower p, woody fibres ; 11, woody vessels analogous to those
of the liber ; t, tracheae (spiral vessels) ; v, dotted vessels
of large calibre ; v l, laticiferous vessels. The vascular
bundles are most abundant near the circumference, while
the cellular tissue is in larger quantity in the centre. In
the bundles the woody vessels (Fig. 84, l V), generally sur¬
round the other vessels.
The vascular bundles may be traced from the leaves
downwards, some proceeding more or less directly towards
84
BOTANY.
Botany, the root, others curving outwards towards the cortical inte-
' gument or rind (Fig. 85, fv). The mode in which these bun¬
dles proceed from the leaves towards the centre, in the first
instance, has given rise to the term
Endogenous, or inside-growers ;
the idea originally entertained by
physiologists being, that the vas¬
cular bundles were always pro¬
duced on the inside of those which
preceded them. The bundles,
however, although they have a
tendency towards the centre at
first, do not always remain there,
but follow a curved course to¬
wards the periphery, and in this
way the outer rind becomes com¬
pletely incorporated with them, so
as not to be separable. The struc- Vertical ^ct^ofaPaim-Btem,
ture of the bundles varies in dif- showing the vascular bundles,
r, , . r • xt f curving downwards and in-
ferent parts of their course. JNear teriacing.
the base of the leaves they contain all the vessels already
mentioned, but as we trace them downwards, the spiral, dotted,
and laticiferous vessels disappear, and the woody fibres alone
remain when they reach the rind, or, as it is often termed,
the false bark.
From the mode in which the vascular bundles are added,
it will be seen, that the tendency is to push the older ves¬
sels outwards, and to render the periphery hard. In Palms,
therefore, the hardest part of the stem is external, which is
the reverse of wdiat takes place in Exogens. By the inter¬
nal addition of vascular bundles from terminal buds only,
and by the interstitial growth of cells, the stem of a Palm
increases in diameter until it acquires the full limit to which
the outer rind can be distended, and attains ultimately a uni¬
form diameter throughout. Thus, there appears to be a
definite limit to the lateral growth of a Palm, while no such
limit can be seen in the case of Exogens, in which vascular
bundles go on increasing indefinitely, and the bark is se¬
parable. Palms consequently do not exhibit trunks of a
diameter equal to that of Exogenous trees, nor does their
bole present a tapering form. The first part of the stem of
a Palm is formed by vessels which are connected with the
first crown of leaves ; the next crowm, or terminal bud, pro¬
duces more woody bundles internal to the first, and thus the
stem is thickened during successive seasons, until at length
the lower part is fully formed. The same process goes on
throughout the whole stem, until it acquires a continuous
cylindrical form. From the structure and mode of growth
of a Palm-stem, it follows, that a woody twining plant does
not produce the same injury as in the case of an Exogen.
Palms grow in a uniform manner as regards height in
their native countries, and their age may in general be de¬
termined by the length of their stem. The destruction of
the terminal bud of the Palm stops its growth, in conse¬
quence of the want of provision for lateral buds. In some
instances, however, as is particularly seen in the Doum Palm
of Egypt (Hyphsene thebaica), branches are given off in a
forked, or what is called a dichotomous manner. There are
also many endogenous stems which produce lateral buds. The
Screw-Pine (Pandanus), for instance, and species of Dracaena,
have branching stems. In the Dragon trees (Dracaena), a re¬
markable increase of stem takes place in consequence of the
cortical integument remaining soft, and capable of unlimited
distension. The vascular bundles, after reaching the cir¬
cumference in these plants, descend towards the root, and
being produced both by terminal and lateral buds, they are
developed in large quantity, and thus give rise to enormous
stems. Such a stem is seen in the famous Dragon tree of
the Canaries, which near the ground is 70 feet in circum¬
ference. When numerous buds are produced laterally, the
lower part of the stem receives more bundles than the upper,
and thus the stem tapers. This is seen in the Asparagus Botany,
and Bamboo, which in this respect resemble Exogens.
In some Endogenous stems the rapid growth of the outer
part gives rise to a rupture of the central cells, and thus the
hollow stems of many grasses are produced. In the Bam¬
boo the hollow cavities in the stem are separated by parti¬
tions formed by the crossing of the vascular bundles. In
Xanthorrhcea Hastile, the grass-tree of New Holland, a lilia¬
ceous plant, the structure of the stem and branches is pecu¬
liar. On making a vertical section the structure appears to
be that of an Exogen. The woody part is formed of verti¬
cal loose fibres like Palms, and there are other fibres, radiat¬
ing from the centre, and
cutting the preceding at
right angles. These hori¬
zontal fibres resemble the
medullary rays, but differ
in their structure. They
probably serve for the
origin of leaves, which are
numerous, and are dis¬
posed throughout the
whole length of the stem.
Endogenous stems
sometimes remain under
ground. The corm is in
fact a shortened endoge¬
nous subterranean stem.
Bulbs, are under-ground
endogenous stems, co¬
vered with scales. In the
Banana (Fig. 86), as well
as in the Asparagus, the Fig. 86.
true Stem is subterranean, Banana (Musa sapientum), having an nn-
and sends up shoots hear-
ing leaves, flowers, and leaves, flowers, and fruit,
fruit, which, after dying down, are succeeded by other
shoots. The peripherical portion of some subterranean en¬
dogenous stems, as Sarsaparilla, presents a circle of vascular
wedges, resembling in appearance the stem of certain exo¬
gens ; and the false bark of some aerial endogenous stems,
as Testudinaria, becomes much thickened by the formation
of cellular matter resembling cork.
c. Acrogenous Stem, or the Stem of Acotyledonous Plants.
This stem, in its complete development, is seen in the
Tree-ferns of foreign countries. It resembles the Endo¬
genous stem in being unbranched, and in producing a crown
of leaves at its summit. The Tree-fern form gives a pecu¬
liar aspect to the vegetation of the countries in which it oc¬
curs. The structure of the stem, which is called a caudex,
consists of cells and vessels, arranged in a peculiar manner.
The vascular bundles are formed simultaneously. They
consist of w oody tissue, often of a dark colour, surrounding
a paler layer of vessels, chiefly scalariform, and dotted. The
bundles assume various shapes, giving rise to the zig-zag
appearance, presented in a transverse section, as seen in
Figure 87. The bases of these leaves (or fronds as they are
called) by their union form the stem, which is increased by
additions to the summit; hence the name given of Aero-
gens, or summit-growers. The growing point is carried
upwards by the leaves, and when once formed the stem in¬
creases very little in diameter. It is often hollow by the
rupture of the internal cellular portion. On its outside the
scars of the leaves remain (Fig. 88), with the markings of
the vascular bundles. These bundles follow a course simi¬
lar to that of the woody tissue of the liber of Exogens. The
stem of Tree-ferns, then, is of moderate diameter, and does
not produce lateral buds. Sometimes it terminates in two
buds, which, by their growth, produce a forked stem. In
the stems of the ordinary ferns of this country the aero-
BOTANY.
85
Botany.
genous structure is seen, although they seldom attain any
height, but usually creep along the ground, forming rhizomes.
Fig. 88.
Fig. 87. Transverse section of the stem of a Tree-fern (Cyathea); celln’ar
tissue in the centre, m ; that of the circumference, p ; vascular
bundles,/v, consisting of dark-coloured woody fibres,/ ; and paler
vessels, chiefly scalariform and dotted, v ,• the outer cortical por¬
tion formed by the bases of the leaves, e.
... 88. Rhizome of Male Fern (Lastrea Filix-mas), showing the scars (cica¬
trices) of the leaves (fronds), with the markings of the vascular
bundles, c.
The acrogenous stem occurs in Horsetails, in Club-
mosses, and in true Mosses, but in these plants it does not
exhibit the same marked characters as in the permanent
woody stems of Ferns. Many acotyledonous plants pro¬
duce stems which consist entirely of cellular tissue with¬
out any admixture of woody fibre or vessels. Such stems
are either aerial or subterranean. They often present a
flattened expansion or thallus lying on the surface of the
ground. Sometimes these cellular stems float in water,
as in the case of Sea-weeds; at other times they creep
under ground, or among the tissues of other plants, as in
the case of Fungi. The spawn (mycelium) of Fungi is
a sort of cellular creeping stem, which insinuates itself
among the dead tissues of plants and other decaying sub¬
stances. The cellular stalk of some Thallogens occasion¬
ally presents, on a transverse section, an appearance like
that of an Exogenous stem. Thus Lessonia fuscescens, a
species of sea-weed, has stems which are often five to ten
feet long, and as thick as the human thigh, and which show
concentric elliptic cellular rings. Such is also the case with
Usnea melaxantha, a tree-like lichen. In these plants, how¬
ever, the structure is entirely cellular, and quite distinct
from that of Exogenous plants.
III. THE LEAVES AND THEIR MODIFICATIONS.
Leaves proceed from the nodes of the axis, and com¬
mence as cellular processes at the extremities of the medul¬
lary rays. In the progress of development the cells multi¬
ply, vessels are produced which ramify in the form of veins,
chlorophyll is elaborated, and the foliar or leaf organs are
thus completed. These organs usually spread horizontally,
so as to expose one surface to the sky and the other to the
earth—the surfaces differing in appearance and structure.
In some plants, as Alstrcemerias, the leaf is twisted naturally
upon itself, so that what should be the under surface be¬
comes the upper. Erect or vertical leaves occur, in which
both sides are equally exposed to light. In some New
Holland plants the leaf-organs present their edges to the
earth and sky.
1. Arrangement of Leaves on the Axis.
The mode of arrangement of leaves on the stem has been
denominated Phyllotaxis (fvXXov, a leaf, and ra£is, order).
It is regulated by certain definite laws, and depends on the
development of the nodes and internodes of the stem and
branches. When the internodes are so short that the stem
is apparently wanting, the leaves are denominated Padical,
*Pl.CXXIVas in the Cowslip, and in the Dandelion.* In such cases
there is often at first sight some difficulty in determining Botany,
the leaf-arrangement. When the internodes are elongated,
and the nodes thus separated from each other, then the phyl¬
lotaxis is easily seen.
Each node is capable of producing a leaf or leaf-bud.
When each of the nodes on an elongated axis produces a
single leaf, the leaves are said to be Alternate (Fig. 89),
because they are placed alternately on different sides of the
axis. When two leaves are produced at a node, they are
called Opposite (Fig. 90), because they are situated on
opposite sides of the axis ; while the production of three or
more leaves at a node gives origin to a circle or whorl of
leaves, which are then said to be Verticillate (Fig. 91).
commences the second cycle. The fraction expressing the diver¬
gence of the leaves is two-fifths.
... 90. A stem with opposite leaves. The pairs are placed at right angles
alternately, or in what is called a decussate manner. In the lowest
pair one leaf is in front, and the other at the back ; in the second
pair the leaves are placed laterally, and so on.
... 91. Verticillate or whorled leaves of a species of Madder. There are five
leaves in the verticil or whorl.
Alternate Leaves.—This arrangement is a very common
one, occurring generally in Monocotyledons, and also being
frequent among Dicotyledons.* The simplest arrangement *pi. CXV.
is that in which the third leaf is placed directly above the fig. 2.
first, while the second is placed on the opposite side of the
stem, separated by half the circumference of the circle. In
this case there are two rows of leaves, one on each side of the
stem, and the arrangement is said to be Distichous (Si's, twice,
and crri^os, a row). When the fourth leaf is above the first,
on the same principle of the leaves being placed at equal
distances on the axis, the arrangement will be Tristichous,
or in three rows, each leaf being separated from that next to
it by one-third of the circumference of the circle. If the
fifth leaf is placed above the first, the arrangement will be
Tetrastichous, or in four rows ; if the sixth leaf, Pentasti-
chous, or in five rows. The last-mentioned arrangement is
delineated in Figure 92, which represents the branch of an
oak with six alternate leaves, the sixth being placed verti¬
cally over the first.
It will be observed that, in following the course of the
alternate leaves on the stem, we proceed in a spiral or screw¬
like manner, and that the termination of the spiral cycle is
to be found in the leaf directly above that from which we
commenced. On reaching it the cycle begins again, and
goes through the same course as regards the number and
arrangement of the leaves. Thus, in Figure 92, the cycle
ends at the sixth leaf, which, in fact, commences the new
spiral coil. In completing this spiral cycle we may make a
single turn round the stem, as in distichous leaves, or we
may make two or more. Thus, in the pentastichous cycle
we make two turns round the stem, and encounter five
leaves besides the first (Figs. 89 and 92). The arrangement
has, therefore, been marked by a fraction, of which the nu-
86
BOTANY.
Fig. 92.
Branch of Oak (Quercus pedunculata),
showing the Pentastichous or Quincun-
cial arrangement of leaves. The leaves
are numbered 1, 2, 3,4, 5,6, according to
their position.
Botany, merator indicates the number of turns round the stem, and
the denominator the num¬
ber of leaves in the cycle.
This fraction at the same
time gives the angular
divergence of the leaves,
or their distance from each
f other, expressed in parts ^
of the circumference of f ) IV
the circle. Thus the frac- .
tion indicates distichous
leaves, where the angular
divergence is one-half of
the circumference of the
circle, or 180°; the frac¬
tion ^ implies tristichous
leaves, where the angular
divergence is one-third of
the circumference of the
circle, or 120° ; the frac¬
tion f applies to the Pen¬
tastichous or Quincuncial
arrangement (Fig. 89), a very common one among Exo¬
gens, in which the sixth leaf is immediately over the first,
and two turns of the circumference are made before coming
to it, the angular divergence being 144°.
The alternate phyllotaxis, and the angular divergence of
leaves is explained more fully by Figures 93 and 94. In these
it is shown that, in the case of alternate leaves, perpendi¬
cular lines may be drawn through the leaves placed directly
over each other, and that the number of these lines indicates
the number of
leaves in each
spiral cycle, or the
number of leaves
between any leaf
on the stem and
that directly above
it. In both these
Figures it will be
seen that the num¬
ber of these lines
is seven, and this,
consequently, is
the number of
leaves in each
cycle. It is, there¬
fore, a Heptastichous cycle, ending with the eighth leaf which
commences the new spiral coil. But it will also be noticed
that the number of turns made round the stem in completing
the cycle is different. Thus, in Figure 93, commencing with
leaf No. 1, we reach leaf No. 8, or that directly above 1,
after making three turns round the stem, and the fraction
indicating this is ^; whereas, in Figure 94 we reach No. 8
after one turn, and the fraction, therefore, is •!■. These
fractions mark the angular divergence between any two
leaves of the cycle, as represented in the divided circles at
the upper part of the stems. In Figure 93, between 1 and
2 the angular divergence is obviously ^ of a circle, or f of
360° = 154f°, while in Figure 94 the divergence is of
the circle, or } of 360° = 51f°.
Among the common arrangements of leaves may be noted,
h t> t» t63> A if) and fY On looking at these frac¬
tions, it will be seen that they bear a constant relation to
each other, for the numerator of each fraction is equal to the
sum of the numerators of the two preceding fractions, while
the denominator is the sum of the two preceding denomi¬
nators ; and the numerator of each is likewise the denomi¬
nator of the next but one preceding. In the case of stems
with marked internodes, with few leaves in the cycle, and
with the points of insertion small, these arrangements can
Fig. 93.
Fig. 94.
Diagrams to illustrate the arrangement of the
leaves on the stem. In each figure the spiral cycle
consists of seven leaves.
be easily detected; but when the internodes are much short- Botany,
ened, and the leaves are very numerous, it is difficult to
trace the arrangement.
There is thus a general tendency to alternation in the
foliar arrangements of plants, and when they grow regu¬
larly the law of phyllotaxis can be ascertained correctly.
The arrangement, however, is often much altered by inter¬
ruption in growth, and other causes, so that we cannot in all
cases detect its normal condition. The Phyllotaxis is uni¬
form in the same species, but it frequently varies in species
of the same genus. Thus, in the European Larch it is ^T,
while in the American Larch it is f. The spirals proceed
either to the right or to the left. The phyllotaxis of the
branches is usually the same as that of the axis, and it is then
called homodromous (6/aos, similar, and Spd/xos, course) ; but
sometimes it is different, and called heterodromous (erepos,
diverse).
In typical arrangements, such as those noticed, there are
always certain leaves placed directly over others in a straight
series, the angle of divergence dividing the circumference
into an exact number of equal parts. Such leaves are Rec-
tiserial, and are considered as being normal. Cases, how¬
ever, occur, in which the angle of divergence is such, that
it is not possible to divide the circumference by means of it
an exact number of times, and hence no leaf can be exactly
placed above another. Such cases are called by Bravais
Curviserial, being disposed in an infinite curve, and hence
incapable of being placed in straight rows.
Opposite and Verticillate Leaves.—In these arrange¬
ments two or more leaves are given off at a node. There is
here also a tendency to alternation and spiral arrangement
as regards the pairs and whorls. Thus, in Opposite leaves,
the second pair is not directly above the first, but is placed
either at right angles (Fig. 90), and then called Decussate,
as in the Mint tribe ; or slightly to one side, so that the third,
or some higher pair of leaves, is that which is superimposed
over the pair with which we commence, as in the Box and
in Purging Flax.* In Verticillate leaves, as in Galium and*Pl. CXV.
Madder, those of the second whorl are not directly over those *•
of the first whorl, but are so situated as to be above the in¬
tervals between the leaves of the lower whorl.
The arrangement of the leaves furnishes characters in
some families of plants. Thus, the Cinchona-bark tribe
have opposite leaves ; the Borage tribe alternate ; Labiate
plants, opposite and decussate; the Madder tribe, verticillate
or whorled. The arrangement of the leaves, however, is
not always constant, and we occasionally meet with alternate
and opposite leaves in the same plant. In some instances
this anomaly may be traced to a non-development of the
internodes, by which two cr more single-leaved (unifoliar)
nodes are brought together. Thus, in Rhododendron pon-
ticum, the alternate leaves, by such an arrestment, are some¬
times seen almost verticillate. Again, in such plants as the
Larch, Cedar, and Pine, the arrestment of the internodes,
according to a certain natural law in their development,
gives rise to clustered or fascicled leaves.
In the embryo state of dicotyledons, the leaves or coty¬
ledons are opposite ; while in monocotyledons the produc¬
tion of one leaf at the node shows the tendency to alterna¬
tion. The early cotyledonary leaves are called Seminal;
those afterwards produced, and constituting the ordinary
leaves, are called Primordial. Leaves inserted on a short¬
ened stem close to the ground, have been already noticed
as Radical, those on the main axis are Cauline, on the
branches, Ramal, and on the flowering stalks, Floral.
Vernation, or Prcefoliation.—These names are applied
to the arrangement of the leaves in the leaf-bud, and include
both the mode in which each leaf is folded, and the relation
which the leaves bear to each other. The leaf-bud is pro¬
duced in the angle where a leaf joins the stem ; it contains
the growing point of the stem or branch, with its leaves and
BOTANY.
87
Botany.
Fig. 96. Fig. 97.
Fig. 95. Transverse section of a conduplicate leaf.
96. Transverse section of a plicate or plaited leaf.
97. Transverse section of an involute leaf.
certain protective appendages called scales, tegmenta or
perulae. These scales or outer leaves are often of a coarse
nature, covered with resinous matter, and arranged differ¬
ently from the leaves in the interior, as may be seen in the
common Sycamore.
The individual leaves in the bud are folded and rolled up
in different ways.
When the leaf is
folded from its
midrib, so that its
halves are applied
with their upper
surfaces towards
each other, as in 9;’'-
the Oak and
Magnolia, it is
Conduplicate (Fig 95) ; when the apex is bent towards the
base, as in the Tulip-tree, it is Reclinate, or Injlexed; when
folded like a fan, as in the Maple and Vine, the leaf is
Plaited, or plicate (Fig. 96) ; when the leaf has each of its
edges rolled inwards towards the midrib, as in the Violet
and Water-Lily, the vernation is Involute (Fig. 97); when
outwards, as in Rosemary and Azalea, Revolute (Fig. 98);
when the leaf is
rolled from one
edge into a sin¬
gle coil, with the
other edge ex¬
terior, as in the
Apricot and
Plantain, it is
Convolute (Fig.
99) ; when
rolled from apex to base like a crosier, as in Ferns and
Sundew, it is Circinate (Fig. 100).
The relative position of the leaves in the bud gives origin
to the following terms:— Valvate, when leaves are placed in
a circle, so as to touch each other at their edges only, with¬
out overlapping; Imbricate, when the outer leaves succes¬
sively overlap the inner to a greater or less extent (Fig 101).
These kinds
of vernation
occasional¬
ly become
Twisted or
Contortive.
When invo¬
lute leaves
are applied
in a
without
overlapping
the verna¬
tion, is In¬
duplicate
Fig. 98. Fig. 99. Fig. 100.
Fig. 98. Transverse section of a revolute leaf.
... 99. Transverse section of a convolute leaf.
... 100. Circinate vernation.
Fig. 101. Fig. 102. Fig. 104. Fig. 103.
rirolp Transverse section of a bud, in which the leaves are
^ lL'IC arranged in an imbricate manner.
102. Transverse section of a bud, in which the leaves are
arranged in an equitant manner.
103. Transverse section of a bud, showing two leaves
folded in an obvolute manner. Each is condupli¬
cate, and one embraces the edge of the other.
104. Transverse section of a bud, showing two leaves ar¬
ranged in a snpervolute manner. Both the leaves
areconvolute.and one is rolled up within theother.
when conduplicate leaves successively embrace each other,
as at the base of the Iris, they are equitant (Fig 102); and
when the half of one conduplicate leaf covers half of another,
the term Half-equitant or Obvolute is applied (Fig. 103);
when a convolute leaf incloses another which is rolled up in
a similar manner, the vernation is Supervolute (Fig. 104).
2. Anatomy or Structure of Leaves.
The leaf consists of a cellular and vascular portion; the
former constituting the Parenchyma—the latter the Ribs
and Veins. The whole is covered by an integument. The
flat expanded portion is called the Lamina, blade or limb (Fig.
105, l), consisting of cells traversed by vessels, and the nar¬
row portion is called the Petiole, or leaf-stalk (Fig. 105, p),
in which the cellular tissue is less abundant, and the vessels
are more closely united. At the base of the petiole there
Fig. 105.
are sometimes certain leafy appendages denominated Stipides Botany.
(Fig. 105, s). The petiole is some¬
times wanting, and the leaf is then
Sessile ; at other times the blade
is transformed, so as to appear like
a petiole. The leaf may be deno¬
minated a flattened expansion of the
green layer of the bark, strength¬
ened by woody fibres and vessels.
The Parenchyma vai'ies much in
its extent, and in the form of its
cells. In fleshy leaves it is abun¬
dant, and its cells are loose, and
more or less rounded. In an ordi¬
nary flat leaf there are two surfaces,
one of whieh Ohe unnerl i< ex- Oblique, petiolated and serrated
une oi wine a Vtne upper; is ex leaf, of the Lime-tree (TUia),
posed to the light. The epidermis witb stipules, s, at the base of
1 : . 1 _J? 1 • . n the petiole, p. The lamina or
covering these surfaces consists OI blade is marked l.
compressed colourless cells. That of the lower surface is
often of a paler colour, and is provided with stomata and
hairs ; while on the upper side the epidermis is more tough
and dense, and is either entirely destitute of stomata, or pos¬
sesses them in small number. In leaves placed vertically,
the stomata sometimes exist in equal number on both sides;
in floating plants, as Water-Lilies, the stomata exist only on
the upper surface of the leaf; while in submerged leaves no
stomata occur on either surface, and the true epidermal layer
of cells is absent. De Mercklin states, that leaves have
their origin in cellular papillae arising from the axis. Their
apex is the first part formed, and it is pushed forward by the
growth of the part below. The leaf-stalk is formed after
the blade, the lower part of it being the last developed.
Leaves are undivided in their early state; all the divisions
which take place in them are subsequent formations. The
mode in which the parenchyma increases, and the arrange¬
ment of the veins, give to the leaves their varied forms.
Parenchyma.—In ordinary leaves, this consists of two
distinct layers of cells, one connected with the upper sur¬
face (looking to the sky), and consisting of compact oblong
cells, placed endwise (Fig. 106,/w); the other, connected
with the lower side, consisting of loosely-aggregated cells,
having numerous
cavities between
them (Fig. 106, es
pi), and, when of
an elongated*'*
form, placed with
, • V T m
their long diame¬
ter parallel to the 1
epidermis. The
cavernous nature
of the lower epi¬
dermis seems to^
be connected in
some degree with Cl
the stomata and
their functions.
The cells on the
upper side are
usually placed
close to each
other, without
any space be¬
tween them, except in cases where stomata occur (Fig. 106,
st). Sometimes there are several layers of epidermal cells,
more particularly in plants exposed to the heat of the tropi¬
cal sun, as the Oleander. The parenchyma is occasionally
deficient at some parts of leaves, giving rise to deep inden¬
tations or to perforations. In Monstera pertusa there are
distinct holes in the leaves; and in an aquatic plant of
South Africa (Ouvirandra fenestralis), the tissue of the leaf
fv 
Fig. 106.
Section of a Melon-leaf, perpendicular to the surface;
es, upper epidermis ; ei, lower epidermis ; p, hairs ;
st, stomata : ps, upper layers of parenchymatous
cells ; pi, lower layers of parenchymatous cells ; m,
meatus, or canals connected with stomata ; they are
sometimes called hypostomatic spaces; 1,lacuna;,or
cavities between the loose cells in the cavernous
lower parenchyma ; /n, bundles of fibre-vascular tis¬
sue, consisting of woody, dotted, spiral, and other
vessels.
88
Botany.
BOTANY.
is made up of interlacing filamentous cells, with perforations
between them, giving the appearance of a skeleton leaf. In
Victoria regia there are peculiar perforations in the leaves.
The surface of leaves is sometimes smooth (glabrous), at
other times hairy (hirsute), downy (pubescent), or woolly.
The hairs are either lymphatic or glandular. In the case of
the Sundews (Drosera) the leaves are fringed with glandu¬
lar hairs (ciliated), and their surface is covered with them
(Fig. 107); while in Venus’s Fly-Trap
(Dionaea muscipula) there are irritable hairs
on the leaves, which, when touched, cause
the two sides of the leaf to fold together.
Vascular system.—This consists of a
double layer of vessels which may be sepa¬
rated by maceration. It is composed of
woody, laticiferous, dotted, and various
kinds of spiral vessels. These vessels col¬
lectively form the petiole or stalk of the
leaf, and spread out in the lamina or blade,
so as to constitute the veins. When a leaf
is macerated, the cellular tissue is separated,
and the vascular bundles alone remain. In
some leaves, as in the Barberry, the vessels sundew
forming the veins are hardened, producing (J)rosera rotundi-
Fig. 107.
spines without any parenchyma.
The har- cohered
~i  -------- ^ < with glandular
dening of the extremities of the vascular hairs,
tissue is the cause of the spiny margin of many leaves, such
as the Holly, of the sharp-pointed leaves of Madder, and
of mucronate leaves, or those having a blunt end with a
hard projection in the centre.
The firm and prominent bundles
of vessels in the leaf are called Ribs
(costae), and others less conspicuous
are denominated Veins. The term
Nerve, as applied to the vessels of the
leaf, is now generally given up to
avoid ambiguity as to function. In
(Fig. 108) there is given a represen- l
tation of a vertical section of a branch,
showing the mode in which the vas- c
cular bundle, f v, gives off a prolon¬
gation to the leaf-stalk,/. The vessels
pass from the sheath surroundingpc
the pith, m, through the parenchyma,
pc pc, and communicate with the
young bud, b, in the axil of the leaf.
Venation.—This
Fig. 108
term has refer- Vertical section of a branch.
ence to the arrangement of the vas¬
cular tissue of the leaf. There are
two marked forms of venation, one
in which the vessels from the petiole
or stem, on entering the leaf, are
continued in the form of one or
more ribs, which give off branches ^    ,
on either side, and form an anasto- in the axil of the leaf,
mosis or net-work of vessels (Fig. 109) ; the other, in
Fig. 109.
Fig. no.
showing the mode in which
the vascular tissue of the
leaf communicates with
the centre of the stem ; m,
pith ; /v, fibre-vascular
tissue around the pith,
giving off a branch to the
leaf,/, which is articulated
to the axis ; pc, pc, paren¬
chyma of the stem; c,
cushion or cellular swell¬
ing below the leaf; 6, bud
the
Fig. 109. Leaf of Dead-nettle (Lamium), showing reticulated venation.
... 110. Leaf of Fan-Palm {Chamcerops), showing the veins running from
base to the margin, and not forming an angular net-work.
which the vessels, when entering the leaf, divide into several
veins or ribs, which run more or less parallel to each other, Botany,
and are united by simple transverse veins, as in Palms (Fig.
110), grasses, and the leek (Fig. Ill); or in which the mid¬
rib gives off lateral veins which run parallel, as in the Banana
(Fig. 86). The former are Reticulated or Netted leaves, and
are common in dicotyle¬
dons, while the latter
are Parallel-veined, and
are characteristic of mo¬
nocotyledons.
In reticulated leaves
there is either one pri¬
mary rib called Midrib,
or there are several pro¬
minent ribs, as in Cin¬
namon. When a single
midrib is present it gives
off branches or veins,
which either proceed
directly to the margin,
as in the Feather-veined
leaves of the Oak (Fig.
92) and Chestnut, or
which end within the
margin in curved veins,
as in Lilac and Dead- Fig. in.
nettle (Fig. 109) ; in Leek Porrum), with parallel-veined
the latter case, marginal sheathingleaves Proceedillg from a bulb-
veinlets proceed from the curved veins. When there are
three prominent ribs, as in Cinnamon, the leaf is Tricostate ;
when five, Quinquecostate. When the midrib gives oft two
ribs a little above the base, the leaf becomes Triplicostate;
when it gives off five, Quintuplicostate.
In a many-ribbed leaf, the ribs may converge towards
the apex, as in Cinnamon, or they may diverge. In the
latter case they are said to radiate, and they give origin to
Palmate and Palmatijid leaves, as in the Sycamore. Paral-
lel-veined leaves have either a single midrib, the veins from
which come off' in a parallel manner, and run to the margin
without forming a net-work, as in the Banana (Fig. 86),
and Indian Shot (Canna); or they have numerous veins or
ribs running from base to apex (Fig. Ill), converging as
in Grasses and Lilies; or diverging, as in Palms (Fig. 110).
In very succulent plants, as the American Aloe (Agave
americana), and Fig-Marigolds, where the parenchyma
abounds, the veins are obscure, and in plants such as Mosses
and Sea-weeds, the so-called veins are composed of an ag¬
gregation of long cells, without any woody fibre. In many
plants belonging to the Myrtle order (Myrtacese), which
have ribbed leaves, there is an obscure vein which runs
from the base to the apex of the leaf, close to the margin,
and in which the lateral veinlets end. I he primary veins
come off' from the midribs of leaves at different angles, and
thus contribute to give form to the leaf. Primary veins
coming off at a very acute angle, and converging, give rise
to narrow leaves; those proceeding more at a right angle
frequently produce broad leaves; while those coming oft at
obtuse angles cause prolongations at the base of the leaf.
So also with veins radiating from a point, their greater or
less divergence gives origin to leaves of a broader or a nar¬
rower form.
The arrangement and form of the foliaceous appendages
of plants depend much on the number, the development,
and the relation of the fibro-vascular bundles of the stem.
In vascular plants the skeleton of the leaf is formed by an
expansion of the fibro-vascular bundles of the stem. The
leaves contain vessels similar to those forming the bundles
at the point where they escape from the axis. The vascular
bundles, as well as the parenchyma of the stem, expand in
the leaf in various ways.
M‘Cosh thinks that the venation of leaves bears an ana-
BOTANY.
89
Botany, logy to the distribution of the branches, so that the leaf and
v ^ / its veins represent the stem and branches of the plant. He
considers that in plants there are three homotypal parts,
morphologically allied, and representatives of each other,
viz., the root and its ramifications, the stem and its branches,
and the leaf with its veins. These parts he looks upon as
typically analogous. He has carried out his researches
chiefly in regard to reticulated leaves. The angles at which
the veins are given off, he considers as being the same as
those at which the branches come off, and he has attempted
to prove this position by numerous measurements of angles.
In trees there is a certain normal angle at which branches
are given off, producing a peculiar physiognomic effect.
This angle may be much modified by circumstances, and it
may vary according to the age of the branches. The de¬
termination of this angle is a point to which M‘Cosh calls
attention, and his researches lead him to adopt the view
that the same angle will be found to prevail in the leaf-
formation.
3. Conformation of Leaves.
With few exceptions, every plant has leaves at some
period of its growth. Even
those which produce leafless
stems have generally seed-
leaves (Cotyledons) in their
embryo state. ' 1 he Dodders
fig. 1. ancl a few other plants, are
exceptions to this rule.
Leaves present various forms,
from the scales of Broom-
rapes, and the linear leaves
of Asparagus and Pines, up
to the large foliar expansions
of the Banana, and of the
Talipot Palm. To the na¬
ture of the venation and the
development of parenchyma
all the leafy forms must be
traced. Leaves are usually Fig. 112.
arranged under the heads of £entil (Ervum Lens), having compound
Simple and Compound; the ‘'e" h
former havinsr a blade com- several (often six) pairs of leaflets
. 0 . j 1 (foliola or pinnse), which are stalked
posed ot One piece, and Xiav- and articulated to the midrib or
ing no articulation beyond common petiole,
the point where they join the stem, as in the Oak (Fig. 92);
the latter having a blade divided into separate pieces or
leaflets, which are articulated with the petiole (Fig. 112.)
Simple Leaves.—These, although formed of one piece,
Fig. 113.
Fig. 115.
Fig. 113. Ovate-lanceolate leaves of a species of Senna. The leaves are ob¬
lique at the base and acute at the apex.
... 114. Leaf of Ground Ivy (Nepeta Olechoma), having a kidney-like form,
and hence called reniform. Its margin is crenate.
.. 115. Oblong leaf of a species of Senna. The apex is obtuse, and the base
oblique.
may have their blades variously divided, provided the se-
vol. v.
parate portions are not supported on stalks, nor articulated Botany,
to the petiole, nor to the midrib. In their very young state v—/
they are entire or undivided, and equally developed. When
they increase more on one side than on the other, they
become either oblique, as in the Begonia and Lime (Fig.
105), or slightly unequal at the base, as in Senna (Fig. 125);
and when the cells and vessels increase and elongate only
at certain points, divisions take place in the margin of the
leaves, and in the substance of their laminae.
In the circumscription or margin of the leaf, the follow¬
ing varieties occur :—Entire, without any divisions (Fig.
113) ; Crenate, with superficial rounded divisions (Fig.
114) ; Serrate, with acute points, arranged like the teeth of
a saw (Fig. 109) ; Dentate, with similar pointed projections,
not arranged in a saw-like manner;* Repandand Undulated,
when the margin is wavy and
sinuous, or, as it is often called,
crisp, as in curled leaves; some¬
times, as in the Holly, the leaf is
undulated, with
spiny teeth. When
the apex of a leaf
is blunt and
rounded, it is called
Obtuse (f\g. 115);
when sharp, and
forming an acute
angle, it is Acute
(Fig. 113). The
apex is Abrupt or
Truncate, when it
is terminated by a
straight transverse
line, as in the
Tulip tree ; Re
tuse, when it is
rounded and
slightly depressed;
Emarginate, when
there is a defi¬
ciency or notch at the apex (Fig. 116) ; Obcordate, when
the deficiency is very evident, and the lobes large, so as to
resemble an inverted heart on cards. When the apex is^
drawn out into a long point, as in Ficus religiosa, the leaf
is Acuminate or pointed ; when the apex is blunt, and pre¬
sents a stiff hard point, it is Mucronate.
When the substance of the lamina is divided to about the
middle, the terms Cleft (in composition fid) and Lobed are
applied; and when the division extends to near the base or
midrib, the term Partite is used. These divisions, occur¬
ring in aradiating-veined leaf,
give origin to the terms, bifid
(twice cleft), trijid (thrice
cleft), quinquefid (five-cleft),
and multifid (many-cleft);
also to the terms bilobate
(two-lobed), trilobate (three-
lobed), &c., when the divided
portions of the leaf are large;
and tripartite (Fig. 117),
quinquepartite (Fig. 118),
and multipartite, when the
divisions extend to the base ; Fig ng
Palmate (like the palm of the Fire-partite leaf of Aconite. Such a
hand), when there is a broad ia sometimes called paimi-par-
r, tite, palmately-partite, or dissected,
lamina, divided into five parts, The venation is radiating, and the
•  • c o •,  segments of the leaf are cuneate, and
as in Some species ot l assion- each of them is cleft and toothed at
flower; Palmatifid, or Pal- the ai>ex-
mately-cleft, when the divisions are more than five, as
in Castor oil (Fig. 119). The terms palmate and palmatifid
are, however, often used indiscriminately to mark a leaf
M
Fig. 116. Fig. 117.
Fig. 116. Emarginate leaf of a species of Senna. Ihe
leaf in its contour is somewhat obovate, or
inversely egg-shaped, and its base is ob-
lique.
117. Tripartite leaf of Ranunculus. Each of the
segments is lobed, and toothed at the mar¬
gin. The petiole is dilated at the base.
Venation radiating.
90
BOTANY.
Botany, having a broad portion like the palm of the hand, and
either five or more lobes.* When the parts of a palmatifid
*P1. CXIV. leaf are narrow, like the fingers, the term digitilobed,
*P1. CXIII.digitipartite* and
Fig. 1. dissected, are ap¬
plied ; and when
they are cut into
thread - like divi¬
sions, as in the sub¬
merged leaves of Ra¬
nunculus aquatilis,
they are said to be
JUiformly dissected.
The term Pedate
(like the foot of a
bird) is applied when
the lateral divisions
of a three-lobed leaf
are again divided, as
in stinking Helle-
*P1. CX. bore* (Fig. 120). T ,
T p P / , I-eaf of Castor-oil plant commwm’5). It is
in a reatner-vemea palmately-cleft, and exhibits seven lobes at the
loaf eimilar rli^aiona margin. The petiole is inserted a little above
lear Similar Uivisions the base, and hence the leaf is called peltate or
give origin to the shieid-iike.
terms Pinnatifid, with large lateral divisions, as in the Oak
(Fig. 92); Pectinate (comb-like),
with very narrow divisions; Pin-
natipartite, when the divisions ex¬
tend near to the midrib (Fig. 121);
Pinnatelg-divided, when the di¬
visions extend to the midrib.
When the primary divisions of
Fig-120, Fig. 121.
Tig. 120. Pedate leaf of stinking Hellebore (Helleborm fcetidus). The vena¬
tion is radiating. It is a palmately-partite leaf, in which the late¬
ral lobes are deeply divided. When the leaf hangs down it resem¬
bles the foot of a bird, and hence the name.
... 121. Pinnatipartite leaf of a species of Poppy. The leaf is feather-veined,
and the divisions take place laterally to near the midrib. The seg¬
ments are pinnatifid, and pinnatipartite. The leaf may be called
bipinnatipartite.
such leaves are again subdivided in a similar way, the terms
bipinnatifid and bipinnatipartite (Fig. 121) are applied;
and when not only the primary, but also the secondary seg¬
ments are divided in a similar way, the terms tripinnatijid
and tripinnatipartite are used, In a pinnatifid leaf it some¬
times happens that there are few divisions, in consequence
of the lobes at the apex or base being united, thus giving
rise to the Lyrate leaf (like an ancient lyre), with a large
terminal lobe, and segments becoming smaller as they ap¬
proach the petiole (Fig. 122); and the Panduriform, when
the lobes have a recess or sinus between them, so as to make
the leaf resemble a violin. When the divisions of a lyrately-
pinnatifid leaf have acute terminations, and point down-
waids, as in the Dandelion, the term Runcinate is applied
(Fig. 123).
In the case of reticulated leaves, the angle which the veins
foim with the midrib, and their comparative lengths in dif-
ferent parts determine in a great measure the contour of the Botany,
leaf. The following are some of the usual terms employed :
—Linear, when the leaf is narrow, and the veins proceed-
Fig. 124.
Fig. 123.
Fig. 122. Lyrate leaf of Turnip (Brassica Rapa). It is a simple leaf with re¬
ticulated venation, in which the terminal lobes are united, so as to
make the leaf resemble an ancient lyre. When the lateral divi¬
sions of such a leaf become leaflets articulated to the petiole, then
the leaf is compound, and is said to be lyrately-pinnate.
... 123. Runeinate leaf of Dandelion (Leontodon Taraxacum). It is a pinna¬
tifid leaf, with the divisions pointing towards the petiole.
... 124. Ovate acute leaf of Coriaria myrtifolia, one of the adulterations of
Senna. Besides the midrib there are two intramarginal ribs which
converge to the apex. The leaf is therefore tricostate.
ing from the midrib are very short, and nearly equal. When
linear leaves are sharp-pointed, as in Pines and Juniper, they
are called Acerose; when linear leaves taper, so as to be like
an awl, they are called Subulate ; leaves are Oblong, when
the veins from the midrib are longer than in linear leaves,
but still nearly equal, and the apex is rounded (Fig. 115);
Rounded and Elliptical, when the veins from the centre of
the midrib are longest, and the forms approach more or less
to the circle or ellipse.
When the veins coming off from near the base are the
longest, and the leaf has the shape of an egg, it is called
Ovate (Fig. 124) ; it is Obovate (inversely egg-shaped) when
the veins at the apex are longest, and the leaf is thus like an
ovate one reversed (Fig. 116); when the apex of an obovate
leaf is straight, or not uniformly
rounded, it becomes Cunei¬
form (wedge-shaped); when an
obovate leaf, with a round apex,
tapers to the base, as in the
Daisy, it is called Spathulate ;
a leaf is Lanceolate (Fig. 125)
when the veins near the base
are longer than those above
and below, and the leaf tapers
towards the apex; Ovato-lan-
ceolate, when the general form
is lanceolate, but tbe base is
broad (Fig. 113).
When the lower veins come
off at an obtuse angle from
the midrib, and are curved
back so as to form with the „ ,
parenchyma two large round lg‘ 'd' oTsenifa.6 iTis’obiiqueat
lobes at the base, with a nar- ... 126. SagfttatTleafof aspecieaof
row recess or sinus, like the convolvulus,
heart on cards, the leaf is Cordate (Figs. 105 and 109); it
(
BOTANY.
91
Botany.
* Plate
cxxxv.
fig. 1.
is Reniform when the recess is large, and the contour
rounded, so that the leaf resembles a kidney (Fig. 114);
Sagittate, when the lobes of a cordiform leaf are acute, so
as to resemble the head of an arrow, as in species of Convol¬
vulus (Fig. 126), and Arum;* Hastate, udien the lower veins
proceed nearly at right angles, and form two lateral narrow
lobes, as in Rumex Acetosella (Fig. 127); Auriculate, when
the lobes at the base of a hastate leaf are separated from the
lamina, so as to be distinct segments; Deltoid-hastate, when
a hastate leaf is short, and resembles the Greek letter delta,
as in Ivy. Sometimes a leaf cordate at the base (next the
petiole), has a rounded contour, and it becomes Rotundato-
cordate (Fig. 128, a).
The lobes at the base of leaves are sometimes united more
or less completely, thus giving rise to the Peltate or Shield¬
like form, as in the Indian Cress (Fig. 128, b), and Castor
Fig. 127.
Fig. 127. Hastate (Halbart-shaped) leaf of Sheep’s sorrel {Rumex Acetosella).
The lobes at the base are in this specimen unequal.
... 128, a. Rounded leaf of Mallow {Malva rotundifoliaA It is cordate at the
base, and is hence called rotundato-cordate. The margin is toothed
and crenate.
oil (Fig. 119); and the Orbicular form, when the petiole is
attached in the
centre of alarge
rounded leaf, as
in Pennywort
(Hydrocotyle
vulgaris) and
Victoria regia.
Very succulent
leaves, until ob¬
scure veins, as¬
sume certain
thickened
forms, so as to
become cylin¬
drical, conical, Fig. 128,6.
SWOrd - shaped, Peltate (Shield-like) leaves of Indian Cress(Trop&olutn
and axe-shaped. majus).
Simple parallel-veined leaves usually have their margins
entire, especially when the veins converge. They assume
some of the forms already noticed, such as linear, oval, el¬
liptical, oblong, and ovate. It is comparatively rare to find
any marked divisions of their laminae. When the veins di¬
verge at the base, or come off at obtuse angles, we meet
with hastate, sagittate, and cordate forms, and their various
modifications. In some Palms, where the veins running in
straight lines diverge, the margin of the leaf is cut into
linear segments of different lengths (Fig. 110). In some
Monocotyledons the leaves present a reticulated venation,
and they are hence called Dictyogenous (Slktvov, a net).
Compound Leaves.—These originate, like simple leaves,
in the form of undivided cellular projections from the axis.
When fully formed, they consist of laminae divided down to
the petiole or midrib into distinct pieces or leaflets, which
are articulated, more or less distinctly, to the common stalk
(Fig. 129). These leaflets (foliola) are either supported on
stalklets of their own, or are sessile. Compound leaves may Botany.
Fig. 129.
Fig. 129. Pinnate leaf of
Melilot {Melilo-
tus officinalis),
consisting of
three leaflets
(pinnae), two of
which are late¬
ral, and one ter¬
minal. The
leaves do not all
come off at one
point, as in the
ternate leaf. The
leaf is sometimes
said to be pin-
nately trifolio-
late. Adherent
... 130. Impari-pinnate (unequally pinnate) leaf of Robinia. There are nine
pairs of shortly-stalked leaflets (foliola, pinnae), and an odd one at
the extremity. At the base of the leaf stipules are seen.
be reduced to two well-marked forms ; those formed by the
divisions of a feather-veined unicostate leaf, and including
the various pinnate forms (Fig. 130) ; and those traced to
the division of a radiat-
ing-veined multicostate
leaf, including the vari¬
ous digitate forms (Fig.
131)-
When there is a dis¬
tinct midrib giving off
primary veins laterally,
which are covered with
parenchyma in such a
way as to form separate
articulated leaflets, the
leaf is Pinnate, as seen
in Figure 130, which
represents a compound
leaf composed of nine
pairs (juga), of shortly
petiolated pinnae, and an
odd leaflet at the end.
If a pinnate leaf ends in Septenate leaf of the Horse-chestnut {JEscu-
a nair nf Ipuflpfs; thp pv- lus Uippocastanum). Such leaves, espe-
a pair OI leanois, Uic cx dally when there are five leaflets, are called
tremity of the midrib digitate.
being either leafless or ending in a tendril or point, the leaf
is said to be Equally or Abruptly-pinnate (pari-pinnate).
When there is a leaflet at the point, the leaf is said to be
Unequally-pinnate (impari-pinnate), as in Figure 130. When
a lyrate leaf becomes truly pinnate, i. e., has its divisions ar¬
ticulated to the midrib, it is Lyrately-pinnate; and when
the leaflets of a pinnate leaf are of different sizes, the term In-
terruptedly-pinnate\s&\)Y>\\e&. Some parallel-veined leaves,
as those of the Coco-nut, Date, and Sago Palms, are pinnate.
The number of pairs (juga) of leaflets in a pinnate leaf
varies. There may be only three leaflets (Fig. 129), in which
case two are lateral, and one is terminal. Such a leaf ap¬
proaches to the ternate leaf which belongs to the radiating
venation, and is distinguished by the distance intervening be¬
tween the two articulated lateral pinnae and the terminal one.
When the leaflets of a pinnate leaf are divided into separate
pieces or pinnules, the leaf becomes Bipinnate (twice pin¬
nate), as in Figure 132. When the subdivision takes place
)
BOTANY.
Botany, to a further extent, the leaf becomes either Tripinnate or
• Fig. 132.
Bipinnate (doubly pinnate, twice pinnate), leaf of Gleditschia triacanthos.
Each of the primary pinnae is divided into small leaflets. It may be said to
be a pinnate leaf, with the leaflets also pinnate.
multicostate with diverging ribs, are distinguished from those
referred to the feather-venation, by the leaflets coming off
from one point. When the leaflets coming from one point
are two, the leaf is Binate or Unijugate (one pair) ; when
three, Ternate ox Trifoliolate, as in Woodsorrel and Straw¬
berry; when five, Quinateox Quinquefoliolate, as in Hemp;
when seven, Septenate or Septemfoliolate, as in the Horse-
chestnut (Fig. 131). When the leaflets are five, the leaf is
often called Digitate. Similar forms may occur among pinnate
leaves (Fig. 129), but in them the leaflets will be seen not to
come off from the point of the petiole, but at certain distances
from each other. In the case of a ternate leaf, the two lateral
leaflets may disappear, while the central one remains articu¬
lated to the petiole. Some consider this as being the case in
the Orange leaf (Fig. 133), which is therefore looked upon as
a compound leaf with a single jointed leaflet. A ternate
(trifoliolate) leaf may divide in such a way as to form three
leaflets on the secondary veins, proceeding from each of its
primary veins, and thus become Biternate (doubly ternate) ;
while a further subdivision, in a similar way, will render it
Triternate (triply ternate).
4. Petiole or Leaf-Stalk.
The stalk supporting the blade of the leaf is denominated
the Petiole (Fig 105, p). It is absent in the case of sessile
leaves; and, in certain instances, the distinction between
the lamina and the stalk is not well defined. The petiole
consists of a definite number of vascular bundles enclosed
in a small amount of parenchyma. The vessels are woody,
dotted, spiral, and laticiferous, and they are derived from
the internal part of the stem, as shown in Figure 108, where
the vessels,/?;, surrounding the pith, m, are traced into the
leaf-stalk,/.
At the point where the vessels leave the stem there is
often a small enlargement (pulvinus), composed of cellular
tissue, and an articulation or joint. When the leaf dies, it
separates from the stem at the joint, leaving a mark or scar
(cicatrix, cicatricula) in which the ends of the different vas¬
cular bundles are seen arranged in a definite order. The
form of the scar, and the arrangement of the bundles, differ
in different plants, and furnish, in some instances, distinct
characters. In the case of many Palms, and of Tree-ferns,
the scars left by the leaves are very conspicuous.
When there is no articulation between the petiole and
the stem, as is the case with many Endogens, the leaf is
continuous with the axis, and is not deciduous, but withers
on the stalk. In many Liliaceous plants, the leaves during
their decay continue attached to the plants. In compound
leaves there is usually an articulation, where the leaflet or
leaflets join the petiole. At this joint also a cellular swell¬
ing (struma) occurs. In many pinnate leaves, as those of
the Sensitive plant, the axial and foliolar joints and swellings
(pulvinus and struma) are very evident. Where the petiole
joins the blade its vessels diverge, so as to form the ribs
and veins—the vascular bundle which continues in the di¬
rection of the stalk being the midrib. The epidermis of
the petiole has few stomata.
The petiole is usually either round, or half cylindrical, with Botany,
a flattening or grooving on the upper surface. In the Aspen
it is compressed laterally, or at right angles with the blade
and hence the trembling of its leaves from
the slightest breath of air. When the leaves
of a plant float in water, the petiole is some¬
times distended with air cavities, as in the
Water Chestnut. The edges of the petiole
in plants such as the Orange (Fig. 133),
the Quassia plant, Venus’ Fly-trap, the
Sweet Pea, and other species of Lathyrus,
are bordered by a leaf-like expansion called
a Wing, and hence they are denominated
Winged or Bordered petioles. Such leaf¬
stalks are occasionally united to the axis for
some extent, and thus become Decurrent.
In many Endogens, especially grasses, the
leaf-stalk forms a Sheath round the stem;
this sheath in grasses terminates at the up- rus Aurantium),
per part, in a process called a Ligule, as seen ®etioiefp,Wwhich
in Figure 134, where g is the sheath (va- is articulated to
gina), I the blade of the leaf, and lig the i^cor^idered a
ligule. In Umbelliferous plants* the petiole hayingUoniy ’one *P1.CXX.
is expanded, and forms a conspicuous sheath leaflet,
round the stem. This sheathing portion of the petiole is
formed by the divergence of the vascular bundles on either
side. The vessels thus surround the stem, and are covered
with parenchyma. This petiolary sheath may be considered
as a modification of stipules.
In some Australian plants belonging to the genera Acacia
and Eucalyptus, the petiole is flattened, and becomes a foliar
expansion, which occupies the place of true leaves. Such
petioles have received the name of Phyllodia (f)vXXov, a leaf).
The trees bearing them give a peculiar character to some
forests in New Holland. These phyllodia are usually placed
vertically, presenting their edges to the sky and earth, and
their venation is parallel. They occasionally bear pinnate or
bipinnate laminae, and in such cases they are frequently much
narrowed in their dimensions. In Figure 135 a bipinnate
leaf is represented, with its flattened petiole or phyllodium,
the venation of which is straight. On the same tree may
be seen naked and leaf-bearing phyllodia. By this, as
—)— p
Fig. 133.
BOTANY.
93
Fig. 136.
*P1
Botany, well as by their venation, their petiolary character is deter-
mined. Trees producing naked vertical phyllodia only
have a singular effect as regards light and shade. Some
shrubby species of Wood-sorrel exhibit phyllodia, which are
either naked, or bear ternate leaflets.
5. Stipules or Stipulary Appendages.
Stipules are leafy appendages situated at the base of
the petiole, and having normally a lateral position as re¬
spects the leaf. They have usually the same structure
as leaves, and, in some instances, as in Lathyrus Aphaca,
they constitute the only leaves which the plant produces.
In the Pansy (Fig. 136), they are as conspicuous as the or¬
dinary leaves. In the Pea, they are also
large, and in many of the pea tribe they
assume peculiar sagittate forms. Stipules
are not present in all plants. Those hav¬
ing stipules are called Stipulate, those
without stipules are Exstipulate. At a
certain stage of their growth, some stipules
are larger than the leaves or leaflets pro¬
duced before them. Thus they serve as
a protection to the leaves in the young
state, as in the India-rubber Fig, Potamo-
getons, Magnolias, and the Beech. These
protective stipules generally fall off when
the leaf expands.
The form and appearance of stipules
vary; some are leaf-like, others cirrhose;
some are small, others large; some assume
a scaly or membranaceous appearance,
others are hard and spiny; some are sepa- Leaf °[ faPs>T’ ®e-
ti. parated from the
rate and tree, others are united. In this flower; the lyrate-
way the nature of the stipules gives cha- ^"Tr^^iatmotTy
racters in many natural orders. In the pybie, and their
Lmchona bark trees, which have oppo- seen,
site leaves, the stipules unite, so as to form one on each side
of the stem between the petioles, hence they are called In-
terpetiolar. In the Rhubarb tribe, which have alternate
CXXX.leaves, the stipules unite, so as to form a sheath or Ochrea*
round the stem. In the Plane tree, and in the Astragalus,
they unite, so as to form a leafy expansion on the opposite
side from the leaf, and in the Rose tribe they are united
to each other and to the petiole, thus becoming adnate.
The petioles of many plants have a sheathing portion at
their base (Fig. 117), which may be considered as adherent
stipules. On this account the reticulum, or mat-like sub¬
stance, at the base of the leaves of palms, is often called
stipular. Besides the leaves at the base of the petiole,
smaller leaflets (stipels) are occasionally produced at the
base of the pinnae of compound leaves, as in the bean.
6. Transformations of Leaves and their Appendages.
Some of these transformations have been already noticed,
but there are others to which it is necessary to direct atten¬
tion. The morphological relations between leaves, scales,
and spines—between petiole and laminae, and between
stipules and petioles, have been adverted to. All these nu¬
tritive organs are sometimes changed into tendrils (cirrhi),
with the view of enabling the plants to twine round others
for support. In Leguminous plants (the pea tribe) the pinnae
are frequently cirrhose. Sometimes a whole leaf becomes
cirrhose. as in some species of Lathyrus. In Smilax there
are two stipulary tendrils, while in the Cucumber tribe there
is a single one at the base of each leaf. In the Passion¬
flower the lateral leaf-buds, and in the Vine the terminal
ones, become tendrils.
The leafy parts of plants are also liable to become har¬
dened and spinescent. The leaves of some species of As¬
tragalus and Barberry, and the stipules of the False Acacia
(Robinia) are spiny. In these instances the vascular bun¬
dles are developed in a marked degree, while the paren- '
chyma is deficient. To the same cause is attributed the
spiny margin of the Holly-leaf. In the Gooseberry, the
swelling (pulvinus) at the base of the petiole, and below the
leaf, assumes a spinose character.
Changes in the appearances of leaves are produced by
adhesions and foldings of various kinds. When two leaves
unite at their bases, as in some species of Honeysuckle
(Fig. 137), they are called Connate. When the lobes at
the base of a leaf unite on the opposite side of the stem
Botany.
Fig. 138.
Fig. 137.
Fig. 137. Connate leaves of a species of Honeysuckle (Lonieera Caprifoliumy
Two leaves are united by their bases.
... 138. Perfoliate leaf of a species of Hare’s-ear (Bupleurum rotundifolium).
The two lobes at the base of the leaf are united, so that the stalk
appears to come through the leaf.
from the lamina, a Perfoliate leaf is the result, as seen in
some species of Bupleurum (Fig. 138) and Baptisia. The
formation of Peltate and Orbicular leaves has been traced
to the union of the lobes of a cleft leaf. In the case of the
Victoria leaf the transformation may be traced during ger¬
mination ; the first leaves produced by the young plant
are linear, the second are sagittate and hastate, the third
are rounded-cordate, and the next are orbicular. The cleft
indicating the union of the lobes remains in the large leaves.
Many forms of stipules, such as petiolar, interpetiolar, and
sheathing, are traced to adhesion.
Folding of the leafy appendages, and union of their edges,
give rise to the formation of a hollow leaf or Pitcher (asci-
dium, ascus). In the Side-saddle flower the ascidia are
considered as being formed by the petiole or phyllode, a
part of which, in an unadherent state, is prolonged upwards
(Fig. 139). In the
Pitcher-plant there ^
is an evident lid,
united to the pit¬
cher by a joint
(Fig. 140,/). The
lid is looked upon
as the metamor¬
phosed lamina, ar¬
ticulated to the hol¬
low petiole or phyl¬
lode. It may be
said to resemble
the jointed leaves
of the Orange, or
Dionaea, with their Fiff. 139. Fig. 140_
petioles folded >0 Fig. 139. Pitcher (Asridium) of a species of Sirle-sad-
as to adhere by the die plant(Sarraceniapurpurea). The pit-
j ],,. cker is supposed to be formed by the folded
edges, and their petiole, which is prolonged.
140. Pitcher, of a species of Pitcher-plant {Ne¬
penthes distillatoria'). It is supposed to be
laminae reduced in
size, so as to form
a lid (operculum).
The hollow (fistu-
lar) leaves of the onion, and of other species of Allium, may
formed by a folded petiole, p, the edges of
which are united. The lid, l, at the top is
supposed to represent the lamina, united
by articulation to the pitcher.
—
94
BOTANY.
be traced to the folding and adhesion of the margins of the
foliar appendages.
It has been already remarked, that buds and bulbils are
produced at the
points where
leaves join the
stem. In some
instances, how¬
ever, we find that
budsare produced
from the margins
or surfaces of
leaves. In Bryo-
phyllum (Fig.
141), this is a com¬
mon occurrence, veins.
and it is met with in many plants of the order Gesneraceae>
the leaves of which, when placed on the surface of moist
earth, become what is called proliferous, or bud-bearing.
ii_physiology op the nutritive organs.
I. CHEMISTRY OF VEGETATION. CONSTITUENTS OF PLANTS,
AND SOURCES WHENCE THEY ARE DERIVED.
It is impossible to study the functions of plants without
knowing their chemical composition, and the sources whence
they derive the materials necessary for carrying on their
vital processes. Hence, before proceeding to consider the
plant in a state of activity, and as performing vital actions,
it is necessary to give a general view of the Chemistry of
Vegetation. This subject has engaged the attention of
many distinguished chemists, among whom may be men¬
tioned Saussure, Sprengel, Davy, Liebig, Dumas, Mulder,
Boussingault, and Johnston. The subject has assumed im¬
portance in an agricultural point of view, and a knowledge
of it is essential for carrying on farming operations in an
enlightened manner. The theory of manures, and the prac¬
tical application of them, is intimately connected with the
knowledge of the composition of plants and of soils.
1. Organic Constituents of Plants.
The materials of which the substance of plants is com¬
posed are of two kinds, Organic and Inorganic. The or¬
ganic constituents form the great bulk of the tissues of
plants; they are completely consumed when the plant is
burnt; they are produced by living organs alone, and can¬
not be manufactured in the laboratory of the chemist. The
inorganic constituents, on the other hand, form a small por¬
tion of the tissues ; they are incombustible, and remain in
the form of ash after the organic constituents have been
consumed by fire ; and they can be produced in the labo¬
ratory of the chemist. The former may be called the com¬
bustible materials produced by living plants ; the latter in¬
combustible materials, found not only in plants, but also in
the mineral kingdom. Both are derived originally from un¬
organized matter, and both enter into the composition of
organized structures in a greater or less degree. The ve¬
getable organic constituents are composed chiefly of Carbon
(C), Oxygen (O), Hydrogen (H), and Nitrogen (N). The
inorganic constituents are composed of metallic bases in com¬
bination with oxygen, acids, and metalloids. In the fresh
plant there is always a large quantity of water (H O). This
is removed by drying. The quantity varies in different
plants—succulent and fleshy species containing a larger pro¬
portion of water than those which are dry and hard.
After the plants have been dried so as to remove the
water, an estimate can be made, by burning, of the relative
proportion of organic and inorganic matter—the former be¬
ing dissipated by the action of fire, and the latter remaining
in the form of ashes. Boussingault gives the following
tabular view of the quantity of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen,
Nitrogen, or the organic constituents, and of Ash or the in¬
organic constituents:—
Botany.
Carbon  
Hydrogen
Oxygen ...
Nitrogen
Ash 
Wheat.
Grain. Straw
461
5-8
43-4
2-3
2-4
100
48-4
5-3
38'95
•35
7-0
100
Grain. Straw
50-7
6-4
36-7
2-2
4-0
100
50-1
5-4
390
•4
5-1
100
46-5
61
401
4-2
3-1
100
o
49-4
5-8
35-0
7-0
2-8
100
45-8
5 0
38-7
1-5
9-0
100
42-9
5-6
42-2
1-7
7-6
44-0
5-8
44-7
1-5
4-0
100 100
This table shows that the quantity of ash is small, and
that of the organic elements Carbon and Oxygen are the
most abundant. The relative proportions of the different
organic elements, it will be seen, vary in different plants,
and in different parts of the same plant. Thus nitrogen is
more abundant in the grain than in the straw of wheat and
oats. It is also more abundant in yellow peas and in clo¬
ver seed, than in the cereal grains and hay. Some of the
organic vegetable compounds consist of Carbon, Oxygen,
Hydrogen, and Nitrogen or Azote, and are hence called
Nitrogenous or Azotized. Others are composed of Car¬
bon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen, without the addition of Nitro¬
gen, and are hence called Non-Nitrogenous or Unazotized.
In considering these constituents, we shall make some
remarks on the elements of which they are respectively
formed.
a. Non-Nitrogenous or Unazotized Constituents and their
Elements.
The organic compounds, denominated unazotized, are
important constituents of all plants. Some of them, such as
cellulose, lignine, starch, gum, sugar, and oily matters, are
universally diffused over the vegetable kingdom. Others,
such as vegetable acids, bitter principles, and resins, are
more limited in their distribution. All of these substances,
except cellulose and starch, which are organized, and gum,
which is amorphous, are crystalline when they can be got
in a solid state. Those unazotized matters, which are still
subject to the law of crystallization, do not take part in the
formation of tissues. Starch and cellulose, on the other
hand, are concerned in the development of the organized
parts of plants, but in order to effect this, they require the
addition of certain azotized products as well as some inor¬
ganic matters. Cells and vessels cannot be formed without
the presence of albuminous matter, which contains nitrogen
and sulphur in its composition, and which cannot be pro¬
duced without the presence of phosphates. 1 he physico-
vital energies of the plant effect the union of carbon, oxy¬
gen, and hydrogen, in different proportions. These ele¬
ments, existing in certain states of combination in the at¬
mosphere, are within the reach of plants at all times.
Carbon—enters largely into the composition of plants.
It is said to form two-thirds of the weight of dried plants in
general. This substance is familiar to us in the form of
wood-charcoal, and in its purest state it is seen in the dia¬
mond. Charcoal is porous, and has the power of absorbing
soluble gases in large quantity, of separating saline and other
matters from solutions, and of taking away disagreeable
odours. When combined with two equivalents of oxygen,
carbon forms carbonic acid (CO2), and it is in this condition
that it is taken up by the leaves and other parts of plants.
Some maintain that this carbonic acid is derived by plants
entirely from the atmosphere, which contains about 1-1000th
of its volume of the gas. T he quantity contained in the air,
although it appears small when compared with the whole
BOTANY.
Botany, bulk of the atmosphere, is nevertheless sufficient to supply
all the carbon of plants. A room 40 feet long, 24 feet wide,
and 16 feet high, will contain in its atmosphere 15 cubic feet
of carbonic acid, equal to 28 ounces by weight of carbon.
The leaves of plants have a great power of absorbing car¬
bonic acid. Boussingault proved this by passing air con¬
taining the usual proportion of carbonic acid over a vine leaf.
Even by coming for a few seconds into contact with the leaf,
the air was deprived entirely of its carbonic acid. The car¬
bonic acid in the atmosphere is derived from various sources.
Amongst the most evident of these are—1. The respiration
and transpiration of man and animals. 2. The decomposi¬
tion of dead animal and vegetable matter. 3. Various pro¬
cesses of combustion on the surface of the earth. 4. Volcanic
action going on in the interior of the earth in different
countries.
The function of respiration in animals consists in the giv¬
ing out ol carbonic acid, or, in other words, the oxidation
of carbon, while the great function of vegetables is the eli¬
mination of oxygen or the deoxidation of carbonic acid.
The two processes are antagonistic, and a balance is kept up
between the carbonic acid given off by animals, &c., and the
oxygen given out by plants. A grown person is said to give
off 3^- lb. of carbon in a day, and every pound of carbon
burnt or oxidized yields more than 3-^ lb. of carbonic acid.
While active volcanoes give out carbonic acid, there are also
extinct ones which do so. The soil in the country on the
Rhine, to the south of Bonn, gives out carbonic acid; and
all the waters in that district are charged with it. The
carbonic acid of coal arises from the decay of vegetable
matter.
When plants decay they furnish to the soil a large supply
of carbon in the form of humus or common vegetable mould.
This cannot be taken up directly as food by plants, but it
is acted on by air and moisture, and undergoes certain
changes by which a portion of carbonic acid is probably
formed. It also has the power of absorbing gases, such as
ammonia, and sulphuretted hydrogen, as well as saline sub¬
stances, and of making them available for the use of plants.
Oxygen—is another organic element of plants. It is known
to us in a gaseous state as forming 21 per cent, of the bulk
of the atmosphere, and as supplying materials for respira¬
tion and combustion. When one atom of oxvgen is com¬
bined with one of hydrogen, water is formed, and carbonic
acid is the result of the union of one atom of oxygen with
two of carbon. In its combinations with metals and metal¬
loids, oxygen forms a large proportion of the solid materials
of the globe. All the oxygen in plants seems to be derived
from carbonic acid and water. No vegetable contains more
oxygen than can be accounted for by these two sources.
Hydrogen—is another element of plants which is known
to us in the state of a gas. It does not, however, occur free
and in a simple state in nature. It exists in small quantity
in animal and vegetable substances, forms l-9th of the
weight of pure water, and enters into the composition of
coal. The hydrogen of plants is derived from water.
As carbonic acid and water therefore exist at all times,
more or less, in the atmosphere, it appears that the air is
the source whence plants procure the carbon, oxygen, and
hydrogen, which enter so largely into their composition. At
the same time, it cannot be denied, that these elements also
exist in the soil, and may be taken up by the roots of plants
in the form of carbonic acid and water. The various non-
azotized vegetable products {i.e. the products consisting of
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen) can be derived from car¬
bonic acid (C02), and water (HO), by a process of deoxida¬
tion ; and as this process is constantly going on in every
plant, by means of which oxygen is given out, we may con¬
jecture that it is in this way that the products are formed.1
95
b. Nitrogenous or Azotized Constituents, and their
Elements.
Another class of substances found in the tissues of plants,
and essential to the process of vegetation, consists of carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (N), with the addition ot
sulphur (S), and alkaline or earthy phosphates. They are
commonly called Nitrogenous or Azotized or Azoto-sul-
phurized substances. Some authors include them under the
general name of Mucus or Protoplasm. The constituents
of these organic matters are known by the names of vege¬
table albumen, fibrine, and caseine. The general name of
gluten is given to the glutinous part of wheat which remains
after the starch and soluble constituents of the grain have
been removed. This gluten consists usually of fibrine and
albumen. Wheat contains from 8 to 24 per cent, of gluten ;
barley 3 to 6; oats 2 to 5.
Nitrogen enters largely into the composition of the tis¬
sues of animals, and hence it must be supplied to them in
their food. Without the presence of azotized compounds,
no blood nor muscle can be formed. Hence the quantity
of these compounds in plants, along with phosphates which
form bone, indicates their blood-forming or sanguigenous
value. Nitrogen is known to us as a gas forming 79 vo¬
lumes per cent, of the atmosphere, and moderating the effect
of oxygen on all oxidable bodies. Like hydrogen, it is
sparingly soluble in water. It enters into combination with
hydrogen, and forms ammonia, composed of 1 equivalent of
nitrogen and 3 of hydrogen (NH3). Ammonia is given off
during the decay of animal tissues, in the form of a pungent
vapour, which is readily absorbed by water, and also in com¬
bination with other substances, such as carbonic acid and
sulphuretted hydrogen. The nitrogen of the air may also,
as some think, combine with hydrogen in the soil, and form
ammonia. The presence of ammonia in the atmosphere
was determined by Saussure in 1806. Ville has recently
stated that the nitrogen of the air is assimilated by plants,
but his observations have not been confirmed.
In order that azotized matter may be formed, plants must
have a supply, not only of nitrogen, but also of sulphur and
phosphates. The two latter are derived from the soil, in
the form of soluble compounds of sulphuric and phosphoric
acids, while the former is derived, according to Liebig, not
from the nitrogen of the air, but from the ammonia diffused
through it. This ammonia constitutes only 1-10,000th of
the bulk of the air at the utmost; it is usually much less.
This, however, has been shown to be sufficient for the sup¬
ply of nitrogen to plants. Ammonia is returned to the air
during the processes of putrefaction which go on in dead
animals and plants, as well as in the excreta of the former,
such as the urine. It is also yielded by transpiration. Thus
ammonia is continually sent into the atmosphere, and by
the constant movement of the air the supply is diffused.
Ammonia is also absorbed by the soil, and may thus be
rendered available for the use of plants. It is known also
that in some instances volcanic action gives rise to the for¬
mation of ammonia. Daubeny believes that the ammonia,
as well as the carbonic acid which formed the food of the
first plants, was produced, not by processes of animal decay,
but by such as were proceeding within the globe prior to
the creation of living beings, and that the disengagement of
both these compounds has been going on slowly and con¬
tinually from the earliest period to the present time. Others
think that part of the nitrogen of plants is derived from
nitric acid and nitrates, and this view is gaining ground.
Nitric acid is produced during thunder storms, and in the
rain which falls during these storms this acid has been de¬
tected in small quantities. The nitric acid in these instances
probably proceeds not only from a combination between the
Botany.
1 Gregory’s Handbook of Organic Chemistry, p. 460.
96
BOTANY.
Botany, nitrogen and oxygen of the air, but also from a combina-
ti°n between the ammonia and oxygen. The minute quan¬
tity of nitric acid and nitrates in some springs may also sup¬
ply nitrogen. The nitric acid in these instances appears to
proceed from the decay of animal matter, and from the oxi¬
dation of ammonia.
All the azotized matters to which we have alluded are
formed by a process of deoxidation from carbonic acid
(C02), water (HO), hydrated ammonia (NH3HO), nitric
acid (NOg), and sulphuric acid (S03). They all contain
much less oxygen than is necessary to convert their hydro¬
gen into water, their carbon into carbonic acid, and their
sulphur into sulphuric acid. They are never found alone
in plants, but generally two of them together. They can¬
not exist without the presence of phosphates. Hence the
ashes of plants are in part derived from the sanguigenous
(blood-producing) matters, such as albumen and fibrine,
which enter along with cellulose into the composition of the
cell-walls.
2. Inorganic Constituents of Plants.
The terrestrial or telluric food of plants, as it is termed,
consists chiefly of certain inorganic matters, the amount of
which is ascertained by the ash left after burning. While
the organic constituents of plants are destroyed by a high
temperature, and undergo decay under the agency of mois¬
ture and warmth, the inorganic constituents are incom¬
bustible, and do not undergo the putrefactive process.
There are at least 12 inorganic elements which enter into
the composition of plants :—
Sulphur, S, as Sulphuric acid, S03.
Phosphorus, P, as Phosphoric acid, P06.
Silicium, Si, as Silicic acid, Si03.
Calcium, Ca, as Lime, CaO.
Magnesium, Mg, as Magnesia, MgO.
Potassium, K, as Potassa, KO.
Sodium, Na, as Soda, NaO.
Chlorine, Cl, in combination with metals.
Iodine, I, do. do.
Fluorine, F, do. do.
Iron, Fe, in combination with oxygen, Fe203.
Manganese, Mn, do. do. MnO.
Alumina (A1203), the sesquioxide of Aluminum, which has
been noticed by some authors as another inorganic con¬
stituent of plants, seems to be an accidental ingredient,
being sometimes present, and at other times absent. Mr
Stevenson Macadam has recently obtained indications of
the presence of Bromine (Br.) in plants.
The quantity of inorganic matter in plants is small when
compared with the organic constituents. It is neverthe¬
less essential to the life and vigour of plants. The cell-
walls cannot be formed without inorganic matters, and some
of them enter into the composition of the azotized sub¬
stances formed by plants. Thus sulphur and salts of phos¬
phoric acid are necessary for the formation of albumen,
fibrine, and caseine. In some rare instances of plants form¬
ing mould, no ash has been detected.
The quantity of ash left by 100 parts of the following
plants is thus given by Johnston:—
Grain. Straw.
Wheat   1-2 to 2‘0 3'5 to 18'5
Barley   2-3 to S’S 5'2 to 8‘5
Oats   1-6 to 2-8
Rye  1-0 to 2-4 2T to 5-6
Indian Corn   1-3 2'3 to 6‘5
Field Peas  2-5 to 3-0 4'3 to 6-2
Wood. Leaves.
Larch  0-33 6.0
Scotch Fir  0T4 to 0T9 2-0 to 3'0
Beech  0T4 to 0-60 4-2 to 67
Wood.
1-97
Poplar 
Willow   0'45
Birch  0-34
Elm  1-88
Ash....  0-4 to 0-6
Oak  0-21
Leaves.
9-2
8-2
5-0
11-8
4-5
Botany.
Thus the quantity of inorganic matter in the same weight
of different crops varies. It will be seen, for instance, that
the grain of barley yields more ash than wheat or rye.
The quantity of inorganic matter also in different parts of
the same plant varies, as seen in the grain and straw of
cereal grains, and the wood and leaves of trees.
The following comparative results are given by Johnston
of experiments made by different chemists regarding the
more important inorganic constituent in 100 parts of some
of the cultivated plants and trees:—
NAMES OF PLANTS.
Wheat
Barley
Oats ..
Rye ...
Maize.
Rice ..
Beans..
Peas ..
Wheat Straw
Barley do 
Oat do 
Rye do 
Maize do 
Rice do 
Bean do 
Pea do 
Red Clover ..
Potatoes  
Turnips 
Beet  
Cabbage 
Potato Haulm
Turnip do 
Elm Bark 
Elm Wood   
Lime Bark 
Lime Wood 
Cherry Bark 
Cherry Wood ...
Scotch Fir Seeds
33
22
26
34
33
30
44
44
13
7
29
18
35
14
55
5
36
57
47
56
32
44
34
12
35
21
41
23
36
23
3
3
6
5
1
1
6
5
7
10
8
9
8
0
20
55
33
2
14
9
21
17
23
72
47
60
29
44
35
2
o.z;
12
7
10
10
16
12
8
8
4
3
4
2
7
5
7
7
8
5
5
5
6
7
3
3
7
8
4
5
11
15
59
39
44
50
45
53
38
33
3
3
3
4
17
1
7
5
8
13
8
8
12
8
9
17
3
4
4
3
9
45
P-'d
's'S
0-25 1
0-10 27
11
1
3
0
1
4
6
2
3
1
0
4
1
7
3
14
14
2
22
7
13
0-6
1-2
07
5
0-8
4
3
0-4
1
3
1
0-51
65
71
48
65
28
74
7
20
7
4
8
10
074
4
1
8
3
2
5
21
2
10
From this table it will be seen that the quantities of dif¬
ferent mineral matters vary in different plants, and in differ¬
ent parts of the same plant. Silica is present in large
quantity in the stems of grasses, while it forms usually a
small proportion of grains, leguminous plants, and succulent
roots. Phosphoric acid is more abundant in the grain of
cereal plants than in the straw; it exists also in consider¬
able quantity in nutritive seeds and in potatoes and turnips.
Lime abounds in the stems of beans and peas, in clover,
and in the bark and wood of trees; while it exists in small
quantity in the cereal plants and grasses. The proportion
of lime in the bark of trees is greater than in their wood.
Potash and soda enter more largely into the composition of
green crops than into that of white crops; they are also
more abundant in the wood than in the bark of trees.
Most plants contain more or less of potash and soda in
their composition. The former prevails in inland plants,
BOTANY.
97
Botany, the latter in maritime and marine plants. Some succulent
sea-shore plants, such as Salsola Kali, and Salicornia her-
bacea, yield a large quantity of soda in their ashes. Some
species of plants which grow both in maritime and inland
situations contain a preponderance of soda in the former
locality, and of potash in the latter. This is the case with
the common Sea-pink (Armeria maritima), Scurvy-grass
(Cochlearia officinalis), and sea-side Plantain (Plantago
maritima).
The presence of lime has been detected in almost all
plants. It is an abundant ingredient of the soil, and is
often associated with magnesia. In combination with phos¬
phoric acid, it is an essential ingredient of the nitrogenous
matter of cereal grains, and of many other cultivated plants.
As sulphate it occurs largely in some of the Charas and
Medicks. It sometimes appears as an incrustation on the
cells of plants, in the form of carbonate. This is seen in
species of the genus Chara (especially Chara hispida) which
grow in ponds. In the interior of cells, salts of lime are
often seen in a crystalline form, constituting Raphides.
Oxalate of lime crystals occur in Rhubarb root; in the best
Turkey Rhubarb they constitute 35 per cent, of the dried
tissue, in East India Rhubarb 25 per cent., and in English
Rhubarb 10 per cent. In some of the Cactus tribe, espe¬
cially in old specimens of Polocereus senilis, these crystals
are so numerous as to render the stem brittle. Crystals of
phosphate, sulphate, carbonate, tartrate, malate, and citrate
of lime also occur in the cells of plants.
The presence of silica (Si03) in plants give solidity and
firmness to their stems. The quantity in some plants, such
as Equisetum, is very large. In these plants, as well as in
grasses, the silica exists in the form of small plates, grains,
or needles, as may be shown by the action of sulphuric
acid. In the Bamboo (Bambusa arundinacea, and other
species) the quantity of silica at the joints is frequently very
large, and may be collected in masses, to which the name
of Tabasheer is given. In the Diatomaceae, belonging to
the lowest tribe of Algae, the cells have a siliceous cover¬
ing, which enables them to retain their form, even after being
acted on by strong acids.
Iodine was considered formerly as an ingredient of ma¬
ritime and marine plants only, but it has been recently
detected in fresh-water plants, as well as in many ordi¬
nary land plants, by Chatin and by Macadam. The pre¬
sence of fluorine in plants was first detected by Will of
Giessen, and his observations have been confirmed and
greatly extended by Dr George Wilson. It occurs in
small quantity in plants, and it is often associated with
silica, from which it is separated with great difficulty.
Plants growing on the .sea-shore, such as Sea-pink and
Scurvy-grass, have been proved by Voelcker to contain
fluorine. The test for the presence of fluorine is the etch¬
ing which hydrofluoric acid produces on glass.
Plants derive all their inorganic materials from the soil,
and it is consequently of importance to determine the com¬
position of the latter. Some plants, however, are enabled
to grow without coming into contact with the soil. Thus
in the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, Urostigma elasticum,
Ardisia crenulata, Agave (Littaea) gemmipara, Billbergia
nudicaulis, and Phoenix farinifera, have continued to grow
for nearly four years suspended in the air, and merely mois¬
tened by common water allowed to come into contact with
the roots by the capillary action of a worsted thread. Uro¬
stigma australe has grown suspended in the air for nearly
twenty-five years. The plants have produced leaves and
some of them flowers. They derive their organic nourish¬
ment from the air, and the quantity of inorganic matter in
the M'ater appears to be sufficient to supply their wants in
that respect for a long period. Air-plants or Epiphytes,
such as Tillandsias and Orchids, are usually attached to
other plants, from the decaying bark of w. .ch they may de-
VOL. v.
rive inorganic matter. In hothouses these Epiphytes have
also a quantity of moss round their roots, which is another
source of inorganic matter. Lichens seem to have the
power, in many cases, of acting upon hard rocks, and deriv¬
ing from them inorganic matters. Mulder states that mould
plants found on the surface of saccharine and gummy solu¬
tions, as well as in vinegar and other organic substances,
consist of cellulose and nitrogenous compounds, without any
inorganic matter. These plants, according to him, leave
no ash on being burnt.
Botany.
3. Composition and Properties of Soils as supplying
Food for Plants.
Having considered the various organic and inorganic
matters which enter into the composition of plants and
of vegetable products, and having noticed the chief sources
whence plants derive their carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and
nitrogen, we shall now examine generally the nature of the
soil, as the source whence the mineral or inorganic matters
required for vegetable growth and nutrition are derived.
We have seen that the atmosphere, with its carbonic acid,
water, nitric acid, and ammonia, is capable of supplying the
organic constituents of vegetables. At the same time we
have found that sulphur and phosphates enter into the com¬
position of some of the most important sanguigenous (blood-
producing) products. To the salts of sulphuric and phos¬
phoric acid in the soil, we must look, therefore, for the
means of enabling plants to assimilate their organic pro¬
ducts. While we allow that the atmosphere is the great
reservoir whence the organic elements are derived, still we
cannot consider it as the exclusive source. It is probable
that some of the carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen of
plants may be supplied by the soil, and at all events we
have seen that these elements cannot be combined in the
form of albumen, fibrine, and caseine, without certain
mineral matters of telluric origin.
The atmospheric supply of food is pretty uniform, and is
not under the control of man. It is to the terrestrial (tel¬
luric) supply he must look as that which can be increased
and modified by his efforts. The horticulturist and farmer
direct their attention to the soil, and by alterations in its
composition endeavour to effect changes in the plants which
they cultivate. It is therefore of importance to ascertain
the mechanical nature and chemical composition of the soil.
The following are the substances which enter generally
into the composition of soils:—Silica, clay, lime, and hu¬
mus or vegetable mould. According to the preponde¬
rance of one or other of these ingredients, soils are usually
classified.
The presence of sand and gravel in soils renders them
loose and friable. Such soils part with moisture easily, and
are usually dry. When the proportion of sand is very
large, the soils are barren and unproductive. The addition
of clay, chalk, and marl, is useful in rendering sandy soils
more tenacious. As silica enters more or less into the
composition of plants, it must be taken up from the soil by
the roots of plants. In order that this absorption may take
place, the silica must be dissolved in water. In its uncom¬
bined condition it is insoluble, but by combining with alka¬
lies such as potash, it forms soluble silicates, which enter
the cells of plants.
Clayey soils contain a large quantity of insoluble silicates,
and of alumina, which does not appear to be an essential
constituent of plants, although it is occasionally found as an
accidental addition to their tissues. The presence of clay
has a tendency to make soils stiff and firm, so that they can
retain the roots of plants and give them support. Clay
soils are usually moist, impervious, and cold. Heavy clay
land is improved by draining, by burning, and by mixing
chalk and sand with it. Way finds that clay in the soil re¬
moves various important matters from the manures put upon
N
98
BOTANY.
Botany, it, and does not allow the active ingredients to pass off into
^.»» v ^ jlie drains. It retains the alkalies, as ammonia, potash, soda,
and magnesia.
Calcareous soils contain upwards of 20 per cent, of lime.
This substance exists abundantly in the vegetable juices,
and hence its presence is required in all productive soils.
Calcareous soils exhibit different physical characters accord¬
ing to the proportion of lime, clay, silica, &c., which enter
into their composition. The addition of lime to soils is
often highly beneficial, by destroying noxious weeds, and
by preventing disease in crops. Lime, in combination with
phosphoric acid, is a valuable ingredient of soils. Sulphate
of lime or gypsum seems to be useful, not merely in supply¬
ing sulphuric acid and lime, but also in fixing ammonia. In
marly soils lime exists in proportions varying from 5 to 20
per cent. In loamy soils lime is in smaller quantity, and
the clay does not exceed 50 per cent.
Humus soils contain much vegetable mould. This is in
itself insoluble, and cannot be taken up by plants. By the
action of air and moisture, &c., the humus is decomposed,^
and various acids are formed, which seem to be capable of
supplying carbon to plants. Vegetable moulds also absorb
gases, such as ammonia, in large quantity, and thus supply
nutritive matter to plants.
The alkalies, potash and soda, are important constituents
of plants, and they exist in greater or less quantity in soils.
They enter into the composition of minerals, such as felspar.
They are taken up by plants in combination with acids.
They render silica soluble, and they are essential to the
development of acids, such as oxalic, citric, and malic, with
which they are found in combination. They appear to re¬
place each other in certain circumstances. In many fertile
soils magnesia exists in combination with carbonic acid,
phosphoric acid, and lime. In flax there is a large propor¬
tion of magnesia. In its caustic state magnesia is injurious
to vegetation.
Iron has been detected in greater or less quantity in the
ashes of all plants. It exists in the soil in combination with
oxygen, sulphur, and carbon. The oxides of iron are found,
more or less, in all soils, and the peroxide, which is the
most abundant, imparts that reddish colour so often ob¬
served on the earth’s surface. The protoxide of iron is of
less value than the peroxide for vegetation, as it readily
forms salts which are injurious to plants. It frequently ab¬
stracts oxygen from the soil, and becomes fully oxidized.
Manganese exists sparingly in plants, and it is found in the
soil combined with peroxide of iron. The presence of
iodine in plants has been fully recognised by many ob¬
servers. Chatin believes that there is an appreciable quan¬
tity of iodine in the atmosphere, in rain water, and in the
soil, varying in different districts, and that the relative
amount of iodine, in any one locality, determines, to a great
extent, the presence or absence of certain diseases, such as
goitre and cretinism. Mr Stevenson Macadam, from a very
accurate series of experiments, has been led to the conclu¬
sion, that air and rain water do not contain iodine, at least
in such quantity as to be detected by the most delicate
tests. It is probable that it is derived from soluble iodides
in the soil. Iodine is said to exist in coal and in the waters
of the globe. The waters from igneous rocks, and from the
rocks of the coal formation, are said to contain a consider¬
able quantity of iodine. It is found in combination with
sulphur, the ores of iron and manganese, and the sulphuret
of mercury.
The sources of the Fluorine found in plants, Wilson re¬
gards as pre-eminently two—Simple fluorides such as that
of calcium, which are soluble in water, and through this
medium are carried into the tissues of plants; and Com¬
pounds of fluorides with other salts, of which the most im¬
portant is probably the combination of phosphate of lime
with fluoride of calcium. This occurs in the mineral king¬
dom in apatite and phosphorite, and in the animal kingdom
in bones, shells, and corals, as well as in blood, milk, and ^
other fluids. Fluorides are much more widely distributed
than is generally imagined. They exist in well, river, and
sea water.
The productiveness of soils is very various. Some are
entirely barren, such as quartz rock. This kind of soil is
seen in many mountainous districts in which the bare quartz
rock continues to show itself without any vegetable cover¬
ing whatever. Others contain materials fitted for nourish¬
ment, but not available until they are disintegrated. This
is the case writh many granitic rocks containing valuable
nutritive matter which can only be taken up by plants after
the rocks have been pulverized by the action of the weather.
Some hard granites which are not thus acted upon are
barren. Some soils are unproductive on account of their
physical characters, such as very stiff clays; others are so
on account of being too loose and sandy; while others, from
excess of water, are too moist, and require draining before
they can be productive. The presence of substances in an
unavailable form is the most common cause of sterility in
soils. Barren felspar soils may be rendered fertile—by ex¬
posure to the air, or in other wmrds, by lying fallow; by fre¬
quent ploughing and turning up; by the use of quicklime,
w hich acts by accelerating the decomposition of felspar and
clay, and separating the silica and potash from the former;
by burning or calcination which acts in the same way as
lime. Thus fallow, ploughing, liming, and burning act in
the same way on barren felspar soils, by causing decompo¬
sition, and separating the materials required for the nourish¬
ment of plants. They all promote the solubility of different
parts of the soil. Below the ordinary soil there occurs what
is called the subsoil, in which there is less organic matter
than on the surface. Into this soil many soluble matters
are carried down by rains. The effect of subsoil and trench-
ploughing is to bring up these matters and render thein
available for the use of plants. The beneficial results of
this kind of ploughing will depend upon the composition of
the subsoil.
4. Rotation of Crops and Application of Manures.
Some plants require certain inorganic matters in larger
quantity than others, and it is upon the knowledge of this
that the rotation of crops is founded. The soil is constantly
losing inorganic matters. By continuing to cultivate the
same crop, we deprive the soil, to the depth to which the
roots extend, of certain materials, while others are left nearly
untouched; but by alternation of crops the latter may be
made available for the purposes of growth. Farmers on this
account have different crops succeeding each other in the
same field. Wheat, barley, and oats are described as silica
plants ; peas, beans, and clover as lime plants; turnips and
potatoes as potash plants. These ci'ops, from the difference
in their predominant inorganic ingredients, are made to al¬
ternate with each other. In some virgin soils, rich in phos¬
phates and other inorganic matters, the same plants may be
cultivated successfully for many years.
There is often a great quantity of fertilizing matter in the
soil, but not in a condition immediately available for the
growth of plants. Hence, in some cases where the crop is
deficient, there are valuable materials still in the soil unas¬
similated. Thus phosphates exist often potentially in a dor¬
mant state in the soil in great abundance, but it is not until
they have been brought into a soluble form that they are
of any use as the food of plants. It is of importance for an
agriculturist to discover the dormant inorganic materials, and
to adopt means of rendering them available. Allowing the
ground to lie fallow, and stirring and pulverizing of it, are
methods by which air and moisture are admitted, and time
is allowed for the decomposition of the materials, which are
thus rendered available for plants.
Botany.
Botany.
'-V—'
BOTANY.
The materials of which plants are composed, and which
are all withdrawn from the unorganized world, are given
back to the air and soil again by the disintegration of the
living structures of which they have formed a part. If plants
were not used for food, they would by their decay restore
all that they had taken away for the purposes of growth.
But as they contribute to the nourishment of man and
animals, it follows that a portion of vegetable matter is con¬
stantly removed in order to build up the animal structures.
This portion must be again supplied in order that the plant
may be nourished. This is the principle of the application
of manures. The farmer and horticulturist add to the soil
what has been removed from it by crops. In order to do
this properly, there must be a knowledge of the composition
of the plant, of the soil, and of the manure ; and hence the
importance of accurate chemical analyses. In addition to
this, attention must be directed to the functions of plants,
and to the mode in which they take up nourishment; and
the materials of growth must be supplied in such a way as
to be made available for the purposes of plant-life.
The object of manuring is to improve the properties of
the soil, and to supply what has been taken from it by crops
which have been used for the food of man and animals. We
may either supply the whole or some portion of the vege¬
table constituents in a soluble state, or we may add to the soil
something which will decompose and act on its insoluble
ingredients, so as to render them fit for the use of plants.
Natural manures, such as those of the farm-yard, are excel¬
lent, because they restore to the land nearly all the sub¬
stances which have been taken from it. Other manures
supply one or two ingredients only. The exposure of the
soil to the influence of the weather tends to make up for
loss, by causing the decomposition of substances previously
unfit for vegetable nutrition. Fallow then acts, in a certain
degree, in restoring the fertility of the soil, but it will not
give us all that is required, and, moreover, involves loss of
time and money.
In the case of cultivated plants, those manures are con¬
sidered the most valuable which furnish the materials neces¬
sary for forming the azotized compounds required for the
sanguigenous food of man and animals. Hence the impor¬
tance of manures containing ammonia and phosphates, sub¬
stances which do not usually exist abundantly in the soil,
and which are annually required in large quantity by crops.
It has been found by comparative experiments that the
quantity of gluten in wheat and other cereal grains is in¬
creased by the use of ammoniacal and phosphatic manures.
The sewerage of towns, in this point of view, is one of the
most valuable manures, and it is to be regretted that so little
is done to save it for the purposes of the farmer and horti¬
culturist.
The soil has a great power of absorbing ammonia, and
supplies it gradually to the roots of plants in a state fit for
their nutrition. The vigour of plants is much increased by
the judicious application of ammonia either in the soil or in
the air. It is essential that ammonia should be supplied in
moderate quantity at a time, and at the proper season. It
requires also the presence of phosphates, in order that its
full effect may be secured in the production of nitrogenous
matter. Some manures give off ammonia in large quantity
by a process of fermentation ; and in order to prevent the
loss thus occasioned, it is frequently necessary to add sul¬
phuric acid or sulphate of lime, so as to procure a non-vo¬
latile sulphate of the alkali.
Manures maybe divided into—1. Farm-yard manure,
containing all the ingredients required for a crop. This,
when applied to the soil, is slowly decomposed, and its effects
extend over several years, so that it exerts a beneficial in¬
fluence upon all the crops of a rotation. It may be called
in general a slowly-acting manure. 2. Special manures, com¬
posed of ingredients which are intended for the special bene¬
90
fit of the crop to which they are applied, while comparatively Botany,
little effect is expected to be produced on those that succeed
it. These may be called rapidly-acting manures. The first
is of importance for cereals which are slow-growing plants;
the second are valuable for green crops, which of all others
require the greatest quantity of nourishment in a given time.
While ammonia may be supplied by both, still, in the for¬
mer it is slowly produced by a gradual combination between
nitrogen and hydrogen, while in the latter it is ready formed,
and capable of being at once used by the plant.
Farm-yard manure consists of complex animal and vege¬
table compounds, which by free exposure to the air under¬
go a kind of fermentation, so as to be converted into other
substances, of which carbonic acid and ammonia are the
most important. This fermentation is promoted by mois¬
tening and turning over the manure, in order to permit the
free access of air. It may be applied in a solid or in a more
or less fluid state. The term liquid manuring is properly
given to the use made of the urine of cattle, containing a
large amount of urea, which, by decomposition, becomes
carbonate of ammonia. Of late, however, this has been
mixed with other matters from the farm-yard, as well as with
carbonaceous and peaty substances, and the whole has been
pumped over the field in the form of a fluid containing solid
ingredients suspended in it. This kind of fluid manure
is more beneficial than liquid manure properly so called.
Among Special manures there are some which supply
ammonia and phosphates either separately or united, others
furnish acids or bases, such as Sulphuric acid, Nitric acid,
Potash, Soda, Lime, &c. The liquor of gas works and soot
owe their manurial value principally to ammonia. Bones
are prized on account of the phosphate of lime in their com¬
position, which amounts in general to about 50 per cent.
In place of using bone-dust, which acts slowly, from the
insoluble nature of the phosphate of lime, farmers are in the
habit of mixing bones with sulphuric acid, and thus getting
a soluble compound of phosphoric acid and lime (super¬
phosphate), which, when dissolved in water, is easily taken
up by the roots of plants. The addition of sulphuric acid
also acts beneficially in supplying sulphur for the azo¬
tized compounds. One of the most important special ma¬
nures is Guano, or the dung of sea-fowl, which has accu¬
mulated for centuries in some parts of the coast of South
America and Africa, and now forms enormous deposits. Its
value depends partly on ammoniacal salts and partly on
phosphates. Some guanos, as Peruvian, Anagamos, and
Bolivian, are rich in ammonia ; while others, as Patagonian
and Saldanha Bay, are rich in phosphates.
Various other special manures have been recommended,
containing one or two of the inorganic constituents of plants.
Nitrates and Carbonates of Potash and Soda appear to act
by furnishing alkaline matter as well as nitrogen and car¬
bon. Sea salt (Chloride of sodium) is considered by Mr
Way as beneficial both to white and green crops. He
thinks that it probably acts on the silicates of lime present
in the soil setting the lime free, and acting on the silica so
as to render it fit for the purposes of vegetable life. In the
case of cultivated plants which naturally grow near the sea,
such as Sea-kale, Asparagus, Cabbage and its varieties, salt
may be expected to be useful. Lime acts beneficially as a
manure in the case of some plants, prejudicially as regards
others. Occasionally a green crop is grown with the view
of being afterwards ploughed into the soil, and of supplying,
during its decomposition, materials which had been taken
up by its roots from a considerable depth in the soil. This
is called green manuring. Sea-weeds are also used as
manure.
II. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE DESCENDING AXIS OR ROOT.
The Root is the descending system of the plant, and is
100 B 0 T A N Y.
Botany. t]^e organ directly concerned in the absorption of nourish-
'■“’■v"""' ment from the soil. In its earliest state it is a cellular pro¬
longation from an axis which is common to it and the stem.
In cellular plants, the root consists also of cells. Root-cells
are developed in a downward direction, and the fibrils
spread through the soil, so as to absorb nutriment and to fix
the plant firmly. The additions to roots are made at their ex¬
tremities, and there it is that the chief absorbing cells are
situated, constituting what have been called Spongioles
(Fig- 62). Connected with young roots there are hairs or
cellular prolongations from the epidermis, which also absorb
fluid food. These hairs die early with the epidermis from
which they sprung ; the root then becomes covered with a
corky layer, while its extremity continues to grow and send
out fresh hairs. Any injury done to the absorbing extre¬
mity interferes more or less with the proper nutrition of the
plant.
As plants are fixed to a spot, their food must be always
within reach, and it is requisite that the roots should have
the power of spreading, so as to secure renewed supplies of
nutriment. A beautiful provision is made for this by the
elongation of the roots taking place at their extremities, so
that their advancing points are enabled easily to accommo¬
date themselves to the nature of the soil in which the plant
grows. If roots had increased by additions throughout their
whole extent in the same way as stems, they would in many
instances, when meeting with an impenetrable soil, have
been twisted in such a way as to unfit them for the free
transmission of fluid. But by the mode of lengthening at
the point, they insinuate themselves easily into the yielding
part of the soil, and when obstacles are presented to their
progress, they wind round about them until they reach a
less resisting medium. They are thus also enabled to move
from one part of the soil to another, according as the nourish¬
ment is exhausted.
The root, in its growth, keeps pace with the development
of the stem and its branches. As the stem shoots upwards
and develops its leaves, from which water is constantly
transpired, the roots continue to spread, and to renew the
delicate cells and fibrils which absorb the fluid required to
compensate for that lost by evaporation, or consumed in
growth. There is a constant relation between the horizon¬
tal extension of the branches and the lateral spreading of
the roots. If the roots are not allowed to extend freely, they
exhaust the soil around them, and are prevented from receiv¬
ing a sufficient supply of food. The plants in such a case,
deprived of their proper means of support, become stunted
and deformed in their appearance.
If we wish trees to be firmly rooted, we must allow the
branches to spread freely. When they are so planted that
the branches and leaves of contiguous trees do not inter¬
fere with each other, and thus all parts are exposed to air
and light equally, the roots spread vigorously and exten¬
sively, so as to fix the plants in the soil, and to draw up co¬
pious supplies of nourishment. But in crowded plantations,
where the branches are not allowed freedom of growth and
exposure, and the leaf-buds are consequently either arrested
or feebly developed, the roots, also, are of necessity injured.
They do not spread, and the trees are liable to be blown
over by the wind; they exhaust the soil in their vicinity,
circumscribed by the roots of the trees around ; their func¬
tions become languid, and thus they react on the stem and
branches, so that the additions to the wood are small, and
the timber is of inferior quality. The spreading of roots in
favourable circumstances is often remarkable. Thus, the
roots of trees and other plants, when they reach reservoirs of
water, as wells or drains, are found to increase very rapidly,
and extend to a great length. Drains are sometimes com¬
pletely blocked up by roots, in consequence of a single
fibril entering at a small crevice, and then expanding into
a large fibrous mass.
Roots, by depriving the soil of certain nourishing matters, Botany,
render it unfit for the growth of the same species of plant, v*.
although it may still be able to contribute to the growth of
other species. This is the principle of the rotation of crops,
to which allusion has already been made. This exhaustion
of the soil affords an explanation of the phenomenon called
fairy rings, consisting of circles of dark green grass seen in
old pastures. These have been traced to the successive
generations of certain fungi spreading from a central point,
exhausting the soil at first, and afterwards by their decay,
causing a luxuriant crop of grass.
The spongioles and cellular hairs of the fibrils of roots
absorb fluid food, and by diffusion communicate the matter
absorbed to the neighbouring cells, and these in turn send
it through their membrane upwards into the stem. Sene-
bier proved by experiments that the absorption takes place
principally by the cells at the points of the roots. After the
corky layer is formed, the cells seem to have less power of
taking up fluids through their walls. The imbibition by
the roots may be traced in part to the process of endosmose
already described, and in part to certain vital actions going
on in the cells. By virtue of the chemical composition of
its cell-walls and juices, and by vital affinity, a plant absorbs
one substance more quickly than another, and consequently
in a given time more of one than of another.
That the roots of plants have a certain power of selection
was proved by the experiments of Saussure. He immersed
the roots of plants in water, containing in solution an equal
weight of two different salts, and when the plants had ab¬
sorbed half the water, he took them out and evaporated the
remaining water, so as to determine how much of the salts
remained. This of course indicated what the plants had
taken up. The salts were not absorbed in equal quantities.
This difference in the proportion of salts taken up was only
observable so long as the roots were entire ; for when their
extremities were cut off the different saline matters were taken
up in the same proportion. The absorption of saline matters
by the roots of plants varies in individual plants of the same
species, as well as in plants belonging to different species.
The absorption, according to the observations of Saussure,
does not seem to have reference to the value of the sub¬
stances as nutriment. Substances are taken up which prove
injurious to plants. Trinchinetti placed different species of
plants in mixtures of two salts—nitre and common salt—
which do not decompose each other, and he found that one
plant absorbed the one, and another plant the other salt, in
preference.
Besides absorption, it has also been stated that excretion
takes place by roots, or in other words, that matters which
have been taken up from the soil, and which are not re¬
quired for the use of the plant, are again returned by the
roots. This subject was investigated by Macaire, who
looked upon these excretions as injurious to plants. The
recent observations of Gyde and others, however, lead to
the belief that the excretions of roots are in small quantity,
and that they do not possess the deleterious properties
which were attributed to them. It is probable that the
substances given off by roots may be referred to a process
of exosmose.
Some roots which do not ramify have reservoirs of nutri¬
ment stored up in the form of nodulose or tubercular
masses. This occurs in terrestrial Orchids, and in Dahlias.
In the case of Spondias tuberosa, the tubercles of the roots
contain a large quantity of watery fluid. In climbing plants,
such as Ivy, the root-like processes by which they are at¬
tached to trees or walls seem to be means of support rather
than organs of nutrition. Aerial roots take up nourishment
from the atmosphere chiefly. This is the case with the
roots of many Epiphytic Orchids, and in consequence of
not being in a resisting medium like the soil, the elongation
in them seems not to be confined to the extremities, as
EOT
Botany, shown by the experiments of Lindley on Vanilla and Aerides
cornutum. The roots of these Epiphytes or air-plants may
derive some nourishment from the decomposition of the
bark of the trees on which they grow, as well as from the
decay of mosses, lichens, &c., which accumulate around
them, but their principal nutriment appears to be supplied
by the water, carbonic acid, and ammonia of the air. Roots,
when exposed to the air, lose their fibrils, and take on the
functions of stems, so as to produce leaf-buds.
Some plants, in place of sending their roots into the soil,
or extending them into the air, have the power of attaching
themselves to other plants in such a way as to prey upon
their juices. These are called Parasites. Some of them
have green leaves, such as the Mistleto; others have only
white or brown scales, as the Scalewort and Broom-rape.
In the former, the juices, after being taken up by the plant,
are altered in the leaves by exposure to air and light.
Some of these are root-parasites, in other words, become
attached to the roots of other plants ; as Broom-rape, Eye-
bright, Bastard Toad-flax, and Cow-wheat; others are stem
parasites, growing by attachment to the stems of other
* PI ate plants; as the Mistleto, Myzodendron, RafHesia, and Dodder.*
CXXV. All of them send cellular prolongations more or less deeply
into the tissue of the plants on which they feed, and by
means of these, which act as roots, they derive nutriment.
They often cause great injury to the plants on which they
grow.
m. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE ASCENDING AXIS OR STEM.
The stem produces buds which are developed as branches,
leaves, or flowers. It conveys fluids in various directions,
and allows the organs of plants to be exposed to the influ¬
ence of air and light. In the case of subterranean stems,
the leafy and flowering branches are sent upwards into the
air, and they perform the functions of aerial stems. Her¬
baceous stems carry on their functions for one year, or for a
limited period, while those of a woody nature continue to
perform their functions for many years. While the former
attain a moderate size, and perish after a brief period of ex¬
istence, the latter are permanent, and frequently, as in the
case of trees, acquire a great height and diameter. Her¬
baceous axes occasionally attain a large size, as may be seen
in Bananas. Many cone-bearing trees, as Pines, Spruces,
Larches, Araucarias, Sequoia, and Wellingtonia, have stems
varying from 100 to 300 or more feet in height. Other
dicotyledonous forest trees in Britain sometimes attain
the height of 120 feet; while on the Continent and in Ame¬
rica, they are sometimes 150 feet high. Monocotyledonous
stems, such as those of Palms, are usually unbranched, and
their height is sometimes 150 or even 180 feet. The Cable
Palm runs among the trees of the forest to the length of 500
feet. Acotyledonous stems, as those of species of Alsophila,
Dicksonia, and other Tree-ferns, attain a height of 50 or 60
feet. Some cellular stems also attain a large size. Dr
Hooker mentions a sea-weed—Lessonia fuscescens—with a
trunk 5-10 feet long, and as thick as the human thigh. Stems
often attain a great thickness. The stem of the Dragon-
tree of Orotava is 70 feet in circumference ; that of the
Baobab has a circumference of 90 feet; some Cedars of
Lebanon at the present day have a girth of 40 feet. Chest¬
nut trees have occasionally a circumference of 60 feet, and
trees of the South American forests are mentioned by Mar-
tius with a girth of 84 feet at the base of the trunk. While
some Palms, such as Kunthia montana and Oreodoxa frigida,
have slender reed-like stems ; others, such as Cocos butyra-
cea and Jubaea spectabilis, have trunks which are three or
even five feet in diameter.
By means of terminal and lateral buds, stems increase in
height and diameter. In their earliest state they are com¬
posed of cellular tissue, in the midst of which there is de-
ANY. 101
veloped vascular tissue, which is arranged in different ways, Botany,
as already described. The cellular tissue of the young di-
cotyledonous stem is early separated into two portions—a
medullary or inner, and a cortical or outer—by the forma¬
tion of vascular and woody bundles, which increase in con¬
centric zones. In its young state, the pith is succulent and
seems to be a reservoir of nourishment for the embryo
plant during its early growth. The sheath surrounding
the pith contains numerous spiral vessels, which extend up¬
wards and outwards to the leaves. In ordinary circum¬
stances these vessels contain air. The outer cellular por¬
tion of the stem constitutes the bark, which protects the
other tissues, and often contains secretions, such as gums,
resins, and alkaloids. When the bark is green, it seems to
exercise the same functions as leaves. It is united to the
pith by medullary rays which give a character to the wood.
The cells and vessels of the stem are concerned in the cir¬
culation of sap, as will be afterwards noticed, and the woody
tubes, when fully formed, give stability and durability to the
trunk.
Between the pith and bark, as well as at the extremities
of the buds and roots, there exist cambium cells, which, ac¬
cording to Schacht, form the first stage of the vascular
bundles, and give origin to the proper parenchyma or nourish¬
ing tissue. A cylindrical layer of this cambium or organiz¬
ing tissue is distributed in all the most perfect plants, so as
to divide the parenchyma into pith and bark, as well up¬
wards in the stem, as downwards in the root. In Dicotyle¬
dons, this cylindrical layer, called by Schacht the thickening
zone, is active as long as life remains. It is by means of it
that the stem enlarges—the cells of the tissue forming, to¬
ward the interior, new wood, and, towards the exterior, new
bark.
In Monocotyledons and the higher Cryptogams, the
thickening zone—in other wmrds, the cylindrical layer of or¬
ganizing tissue—continues active only for a short period of
time, and hence these plants do not enlarge beyond a cer¬
tain point; and at length they grow only in one direction—
namely, in height. This thickening layer of cambium, while
it adds to the size of the stem of Monocotyledons, causes the
increase of the vascular bundles. After a certain period,
however, this zone becomes woody, and then the vascular
bundles only grow at their extremity, by means of unchanged
cambium cells which are in immediate connection with the
bundles. This cambium of the vascular bundles is essential
to them, and gives them their character. In Monocotyledons
it is situated in the centre of the bundles, and is surrounded
by spiral, pitted, or woody vessels; in Cryptogams it sur¬
rounds the vascular bundles. The vascular bundles in both
these classes of plants are limited, and they can only increase
laterally by ramifying, as in Dracaena and some Tree-ferns.
The cambium appears to be the immediate agent in the
development of new tissues. The origin of the cambium
cells, and the mode in which the wood of trees is formed,
as well as the influence exerted by the leaves and green
parts of plants, have long been subjects of dispute among
physiologists. Grew and Malpighi thought that the new
woody layers were formed by the bark, while Hales main¬
tained that they were formed from the previously existing
wood. Dr Hope loosened the bark of trees, and found new
layers of alburnum formed on its inside. Duhamel put
plates of silver between the woody and cortical layers, and
found the new formation on the outside of the plates; he
also removed a portion of the bark of a plum-tree, and re¬
placed it with a similar portion of a peach-tree, and after
union had taken place, he ascertained that at the point of
junction a thin layer of wood had been formed by the peach
bud, and none by the wood of the plum. Hence these ex¬
perimenters concluded that the new wood was produced by
the bark. De Candolle, as the result of his observations,
maintained that both the bark and the wood were concerned
102
Botany.
BOTANY.
in the formation of woody matter. All appear to agree in
looking upon the cambium layer as concerned in the de¬
velopment of the wood.
We have seen that recent authors have ascertained more
fully the nature of cambium, and that they consider it in
the'light of active formative tissue, developing cells and
vessels in an upward and downward direction. Some adopt
the view that there are in reality two systems in plants, an
ascending and a descending one; and that what takes place
in the sprouting of the embryo continues to be manifested
during the life of the plant. This view, variously modified,
was adopted by De la Hire in 1708, was supported by Dar¬
win and Knight, and w^as particularly espoused by Aubert
du Petit-Thouars in 1806, and subsequently by Gaudichaud
and others.
According to Petit-Thouars and Gaudichaud, we see in
the embryo a radicular and a caulinary portion, the one
having a' tendency to ascend, the other a tendency to
descend. In both of these systems cells and vessels of dif¬
ferent kinds occur. In Dicotyledons the ascending system
is connected with the medullary sheath, and passes into
the buds and leaves, while the descending system is the
woody tissue sent down from the leaves between the sheath
and the bark. The woody fibres of the leaves, favoured by
the cambium, are developed from above downwards. In
the wood the ligneous tissue of the upper leaves envelopes
that of the inferior ones, w hile in the bark the fibrous tissue
is inserted in the reverse way—the internal layer, corre¬
sponding also to the superior leaves, being the newest. The
extension of the cellular tissue of the stem takes place in a
horizontal or transverse direction.
The Radicular or vertical theory of wood formation has
been supported by reference to the arrangement of the vas-
cidar bundles in Palms (Fig. 85) and Dracaenas, and to the
development of aerial roots from different parts of the stems
of Screw Pines (Fig. 66), Figs, Vellosias, and Tree-ferns.
Many travellers, such as Gardner, who examined Palms in
their native countries, have espoused the vertical theory of
wood formation. In these plants the bundles of woody
vessels can be traced from the base of the leaves, taking a
peculiar curved direction downwards, and interlacing in a
remarkable manner. In many Palms the fibres burst ex¬
ternally through the stem, and appear as roots. In the case
of Screw Pines, the formation of external or adventitious
roots is very remarkable ; in them the thickness of the
stem is diminished below the points whence the roots
proceed, as if the woody matter had appeared externally in
place of proceeding internally. Adventitious descending
roots are also seen in many of the Fig tribe, sucb as the
Banyan (Fig 65) and the Peepul tree. In Tree-ferns the
lower part of the stem is often much enlarged by these
aerial roots being applied closely to it. Brown says that in
Kingia (an Australian plant) the leaves send down, be¬
tween the true stem and the bases of the petioles which
form the only bark of the tree, a series of adventitious roots
closely covering the stem, and resisting to a great degree
the action of external destructive agents, such as fire. A
further development of this root structure is seen in Barba-
cenia and Vellosia, where the whole outer part of the stem
is made up of interlaced roots, which are traced inwards and
upwards to the leaves. In Bananas and Plantains, as grown
in the hothouses of Britain, we often see roots proceeding
from the base of the leaves forming the herbaceous shoot.
Roots are to be seen proceeding from sound portions of the
wood of Willows, and running into those which are de¬
cayed, and wounds made in the stems of trees are some¬
times covered by radicular fibres sent down from the upper
part.
These views of Gaudichaud and others have been opposed
by many able physiologists, more especially by Mirbel,
Payen, Naudin, and Trecul. Mirbel has examined in a
particular manner the development of the Date, and he has Botany,
been led to the conclusion that the fibres increase from be- »«
low upwards, and not from the leaves downwards. He
says that a Monocotyledon produces at its summit a mass
of cellular tissue called a phyllophore, into which the vessels
from the stem penetrate to form the vascular system; that
after this the leaves are produced; that the vessels come
from the internal periphery of the young part of the stem,
arising at all heights, and that the roots have at first no im¬
mediate connection with the leaves. Trecul has examined
the stems of Dicotyledons, and has been led to deny the
downward tendency of the wood formation. He states that
after the bark has been removed, a new layer of woody
tissue and bark is formed at detached points, into which the
medullary rays are continued directly without the slightest
interruption. He thinks that the woody tissue is a lateral
development from the already existing longitudinal cells;
that fresh bark is formed on the woody tissue by the de¬
velopment of cells from the tissue, while the medullary rays
penetrate directly into the new patches of wood; and that
the woody fibre is equally capable of throwing off lateral
cells, which, while in immediate connection with the old
fibre, exhibit more or less imperfectly the character and
form of the tissue from which they arise, while the free ends
are mere parenchymatous cells. According to him the
fibro-vascular bundles are not continued without interrup¬
tion from the extremities of the leaves to the rootlets; the
diameter of the stem may increase without the intervention
of ligneous fibres descending from the leaves or buds; and
the tissue of the wood and vessels, as well as the medullary
rays and bark, are formed in situ, independently of the
tissues higher up.
Amidst these opposing views, it is difficult to come to a
decided conclusion. There is undoubtedly an ascending
and a descending system in plants—a stem developed in an
upward, and a root in a downward direction. The leaves
are also of importance in the formation of wood, and the
cambium cells are the active tissue of the stem. In so far
all are agreed. The points of difference are the exact re¬
lation which the leaves bear to the woody fibres of the stem,
and the direction in which these fibres are developed. The
peculiar arrangement of fibres in the stems of Palms, and
the production of aerial roots from various stems, favour in
some measure the vertical theory of wood formation; while
the woody excrescences occurring in the bark ot some trees,
and the production of particles of woody matter in the centre
of decorticated portions of wood, and at the lower part of
wounds, as shown by Trecul, seem to show that woody fibres
are formed in some instances without any direct connection
with leaves. While the weight of authority is in favour of
the view s recently propounded by Trecul, there are many
facts brought forward by Gaudichaud which still require
explanation, and which are not easily accounted for, unless
we suppose an upward and downward tendency to be im¬
pressed on the tissues of the stem and of the buds, in the
same wray as on the embryo at its earliest growth. Physio¬
logists in general concur in believing, that without the pre¬
sence of leavds on the stem, no woody matter is formed.
IV. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE LEAVES.
The leaves are arranged upon the axis in such a way as
to be fully exposed to the influence of air and light. They
are thus enabled to perform very important functions. As
regards the development ofleaves, Trecul states that some
are developed from below upwards, as in the Lime; others
from above downwards, as the pinnate leaves of Sanguisorba
officinalis and Rosa arvensis, and the digitate veins of ra¬
diating leaves ; a third set, as the leaves of Acer, exhibit
both kinds of development, the lobes being formed from
above downwards, and the secondary venation and toothing
BOTANY.
Botany, from below upwards ; and a fourth set, as those of Mono-
—— cotyledons, have their veins formed in a parallel manner, the
leaf lengthening by the base of the blade or petiole. Leaves
having sheaths, or their lower portion protected by other
organs, grow most at the base ; those of which the whole pe¬
tiole is very early exposed to the air, grow more towards
the upper part of the petiole. The fluids which reach the
cells and vessels of the leaves undergo changes by which
they are elaborated and fitted for the formation of various
vegetable secretions. In ordinary plants the non-develop¬
ment of the leaves arrests the formation of woody matter
and of many important products. Leaves have the power
of absorbing carbonic acid, ammonia, water, and aqueous
solutions. They also exhale a certain amount of water, and
they give off1 gaseous matters, especially oxygen. Thus leaves,
in the performance of their functions, absorb and exhale
watery and gaseous substances.
1. Absorption by Leaves.
When liquids are brought into contact with the leaves of
plants, absorption takes place. Bonnet found that plants
of Mercurialis, with the surface of their leaves in contact
with water, absorbed as well, and kept for a time nearly as
fresh as those of which the roots were immersed in the liquid ;
that the under surface of ordinary leaves took up liquids
rapidly in consequence of the thinness of the cuticle, the laxity
of the cellular tissue, and the presence of stomata; and that
the thick and hard epidermis on the upper surface having
few stomata, presented an obstacle to absorption. The hairs
which occur especially on the under surface of leaves, seem
to act like cellular rootlets, and to absorb moisture. Hoff¬
mann ascertained that liquids are absorbed by the leaves in
large quantity, and that in such cases they pass downwards
by the tracheae and the prosenchyma immediately surround¬
ing them, displacing for a time the air usually contained in
the spiral vessels. He states that after every fall of rain or
dew there is an absorption by the leaves, and that this is
followed by an immediate descent of sap. The absorption
takes place with greater or less rapidity according to the
nature of the leaves, and the fluid passes through the inter¬
cellular spaces, as well as the cells and vessels. The greater
and the more rapid the absorption, so much the more have
the fluids a tendency to enter the spiral vessels. The ab¬
sorbing power of the epidermis of leaves varies. When com¬
posed of delicate thin-walled cells, with numerous stomata,
the imbibition of liquids is carried on rapidly ; but when the
epidermal cells are hardened, and have thick walls, absorp¬
tion is much impeded. Some gaseous matters are taken up
rapidly by leaves. Boussingault found that air was speedily
deprived of carbonic acid by coming into contact with the
leaves of the Vine for a few minutes. Chevandier calcu¬
lates that the trees of a forest, during the five summer months
in which they bear leaves, withdraw from the column of
air around them about l-9th of its contents of carbonic
acid.
Some researches have been made by Garreau in regard
to the absorption of different liquids by the external sur¬
faces of plants, and more especially by the leaves. In mak¬
ing his experiments, he employed endosmometers (long
tubes with large open bulbs at the end) of nearly equal cali¬
bre, the diameter of the orifice of the ball being in all of
them about half an inch, and the diameter of the tube about
one-twelfth of an inch. Each epidermis, or cuticular sur¬
face, was fixed to the end of the endosmometer by means
of a wax thread, and covered by wax at the margin. The
fluid in the bulb of the endosmometer was a solution of
one part of sugar in two parts of water. He found that
the young epidermis is endosmotic, or has the power of ab¬
sorbing fluids, but that it loses this property as it gets old.
He attributes the absence of absorption in the epidermis of
old leaves to the fatty or waxy matter which covers them,
103
and with which they are impregnated. His conclusions are : Botany.
—1. The cuticle possesses a decided endosmotic property, ^
the intensity of which is greater the younger the organ
which it covers; when leaves become old they seem to lose
their absorbing power. 2. The absorption of the cuticle is
greater, the less there is of fatty or waxy matter in it. 3.
The cuticle which covers the superior surface of the ribs,
and more especially that which covers the petiole at the
point where it joins the stem, is that part of the foliar sur¬
face which has the most marked power of absorption. 4.
In some instances in which the cuticle or outer skin is ab¬
sorbent, the epidermis or inner layer of integument presents
obstacles to absorption. 5. Simple washing with distilled
water, more especially washing with soap and water, aug¬
ments the absorbing property of leaves. 6. When leaves
have lost their power of absorbing water, they can still take
up carbonic acid.
2. Exhalation by Leaves.
a. Exhalation of Watery Fluid, or Transpiration.
The leaves of plants, in the performance of their func¬
tions, give off a quantity of watery fluid. This constitutes
what is commonly called Transpiration. The quantity of
liquid transpired varies according to the structure of the
leaves and the nature of the climate. When the texture of
the leaf is hard and dry, as in Banksias, Proteas, and many
other Australian plants, or the skin covering the leaf is thick
and dense, as in the American Aloe and the Oleander, the
amount of transpiration is comparatively
small. In this way certain succulent
plants, as Cactuses (Fig. ] 42), are ena¬
bled to withstand the effects of dry and
hot climates, without being destroyed
by the great loss of water by exhalation.
The thick covering of hairs on some
leaves, as on those of Culcitium, seems
to be connected also with the amount
of transpiration. Some very hairy plants,
as Shepherd’s Club, have been known to
resist the effects of great drought. The
hairs have the power of becoming more
or less erect, and of absorbing the dew, Species of Meion-Cact«s,
while in dry weather they lie flat on a succulent plant,
the surface and hinder the passage of fluid. In leaves with
a very thin epidermal covering or skin the exhalation is
great.
Schacht remarks that in the epidermis of plants the ex¬
ternal sides of the cells become thickened generally more
than the internal. They offer, especially when corky, re¬
sistance to the evaporation of the liquids in the parts filled
with sap. They would completely prevent transpiration,
were it not for the presence of stomata, which allow gaseous
and vaporized substances to be exhaled as well as absorbed.
The epidermis of the stem, as soon as it dies, is replaced by
cork, which, when completely formed, prevents all transpi¬
ration, although by its porosity it may condense gases at the
surface of the plant. The presence of corky matter in the
cell-walls, which has been noticed by Mitscherlich, may thus
materially modify the functions of absorption and exhalation.
In order that leaves may perform their functions properly,
there must be a certain degree of exhalation. If from the
leaves being covered with soot or dirt, or with the cottony
productions of scale insects, the proper amount of exhala¬
tion is prevented, much injury is done to the plant. Hence,
the importance of having the leaves of plants, when growing
in hothouses and conservatories, well washed and cleaned,
in order that they may perform their healthy functions.
The passage of vapour through the pores of the leaf is an
imperceptible process, which is constantly going on, and the
existence of it is ascertained by its effects. Woodward and
104
B O T A N Y.
Botany. Hales made various experiments on the amount of exhala-
tjprv The latter found that a common Sun-flower, 3^ feet
high, weighing 3 lb., with a surface of leaves equal to 5616
square inches, exhaled 20 ounces of liquid in the course of
a day ; a Cabbage plant, with a surface of 2736 square inches,
was found to exhale, on an average, 19 ounces; a Vine of
1820 square inches, from 5 to 6 ounces; and a Lemon-tree
of 2557 square inches, 6 ounces per day. He remarked
that Evergreens exhaled less than plants with deciduous
leaves, and he associates this with their capability to endure
the cold of winter. The exhalation from leaves, according
to Henslow, depends chiefly upon the effect of light on the
vital energies of the plant.
Garreau made a series of experiments on the exhalation
of leaves, by enclosing a living leaf between two bell-jars,
one applied to the upper, and the other to the under sur¬
face, and ascertaining the quantity of liquid exhaled, by
means of chloride of calcium which absorbs water with
great rapidity. He found that the exhalation from the
lower surface of the leaf was usually double, and even
triple or quadruple, that of the upper surface. The quan¬
tity of water exhaled has a relation to the number of sto¬
mata. The exhalation is greater at the line of the ribs, or
at the part of the epidermis where there is least fatty or
waxy matter. The secretion of this matter in abundance
during the warm days of summer, may tend to prevent the
plants being injured by rain and by the heat of the sun. By
impeding exhalation, it tends to retain the moisture which
is necessary for the functions of the leaves.
In some plants, when water is supplied abundantly, there
is a sort of distillation of liquid from the leaves. Arendt
noticed this in a stalk of the Nettle when immersed in
water. The liquid passed upwards in the grooves on the
upper surface of the petiole, followed the ribs of the leaves,
and then dropped from the apex of the leaves. From the
extremity of the leaves of Richardia africana (Calla aethio-
pica) a watery fluid has been observed to drop in consider¬
able quantity. The amount varies at different periods of
the day, being most copious after mid-day. It ceases with
the development of the spathe and organs of reproduction.
A similar watery secretion has been noticed in other Ara-
ceous plants, such as Arum, Colocasia, and a plant called
Caladium distillatorium; the water in these instances flows
from an orifice near the point of the leaf, upon the upper
surface, in w’hich terminates a canal running along the
margin of the leaf, while smaller canals, running along the
principal ribs, open into the marginal one. Williamson
found that from each healthy leaf of the latter plant about
half-a-pint of liquid dropped during the night. Water also
drops from the margins of the leaves of Canna indica, an-
gustifolia, and latifolia. In the hollow leaves of plants, such
as Nepenthes, Sarracenia, Dischidia, and Cephalotus, a quan¬
tity of watery exhalation accumulates. Voelcker analyzed
the liquid in the pitcher of Nepenthes, and found it to con¬
sist of water, containing in solution malic acid and a little
citric acid, chloride of potassium, carbonate of soda, lime,
and magnesia.
The exhalation of watery fluid from the leaves of plants
influences the climate of a country. Humboldt remarks,
that plants exhale water from their leaves, in the first place,
for their own benefit, but that various important secondary
effects follow from this process. One of these is, maintaining
a suitable proportion of humidity in the air. Not only do
they attract and condense the moisture suspended in the
air, and borne by the wind over the earth’s surface, which,
falling from their leaves, keeps the ground below moist
and cool; but they can, by means of their roots, pump it
up from a very considerable depth, and, raising it into the
atmosphei’e, diffuse it over the face of the country. Trees,
by the transpiration from their leaves, surround themselves
with an atmosphere constantly cold and moist. They also
shelter the soil from the direct action of the sun, and thus Botany,
prevent evaporation of the water furnished by rains. In ^
this way they contribute to the copiousness of streams.
When "forests are destroyed, as they are everywhere ia
America by the European planters, with an imprudent pre-
cipitation, the springs are entirely dried up, or become less
abundant. In those mountains of Greece which have been
deprived of their forests, the streams have disappeared.
The inconsiderate felling of woods, or the neglect to main¬
tain them, has changed regions noted for fertility into scenes
of sterility. The sultry atmosphere and the droughts of
the Cape de Verd islands are attributed to the destruction
of forests. Dr Cleghorn states, that in large districts of
India, climate and irrigation have rapidly deteriorated from
a similar cause, and that the government are now using
means to avert and remedy the mischief. In wooded coun¬
tries, where the rains are excessive, as in Rio Janeiro, the
climate has been improved by the diminution of the trees.
Gardner says, that since the axe has been laid on the dense
forests surrounding the city of Rio Janeiro, the climate has
become dry. In fact, so much has the quantity of rain di¬
minished, that the Brazilian government was obliged to
pass a law prohibiting the felling of trees in the Corcovado
range. Muller states that the cultivation of grain, which
has so completely transformed one part of the wilderness of
Australia, has already exercised a most beneficial influence
on the increase of rain.
It is necessary to keep up the correspondence between
the fluid given off by the leaves and that taken up by the
roots. If the former exceeds the latter, the leaves become
languid and fall off. This is one cause why plants growing
in the rooms of dwelling-houses succeed badly. The atmo¬
sphere is too dry, and the exhalation from the leaves is not
compensated by the fluids taken up by the roots. 1 his
cannot be remedied by an extra supply of water, for the
roots are not capable of taking up the additional quantity
required. Hence the use of Wardian Cases in preventing
the loss caused by transpiration, and thus enabling the
plants to live even in a warm and dry room.
b. Exhalation of Gaseous Matter.— Vegetable Respiration.
The leaves of plants give off gases, the nature and quan¬
tity of wdrich vary according to the circumstances in which
the plants are placed, and their state of vigour or decay.
Hence leaves produce important effects on the atmosphere,
and we shall find that they are employed as the means of
keeping up its purity. In the year 1771, Priestley observed
that plants were able to grow in air vitiated by the breath¬
ing of animals, and that they soon restored such air to its
original purity. Percival confirmed these observations, and
showed that air containing so much carbonic acid as to prove
destructive to animal life, was rendered fit for respiration
after plants had grown in it.
Ingenhousz examined the subject more fully, and made
an extensive series of experiments. In air that had been so
far depraved by respiration as to extinguish a lighted candle,
he placed a plant of Peppermint, and then exposed the ves¬
sel for three hours to the sun, at the end of which time the
air again supported flame. When a Nettle was put into a
similar portion of impure air during the night, the air was
not improved ; but when exposed to the sun for two hours,
its original purity was restored. Such was also the case
with plants of Mustard. When similar portions of the
same impure air were confined in vessels with similar plants,
and respectively placed in sunshine and shade, the air
exposed to the sun recovered its purity in a few hours, while
that in the shade continued impure. Ingenhousz also per¬
formed experiments with immersed leaves, and found that
they purified the air in the course of a very few hours in
sunshine.
BOTANY.
105
Senebier also instituted a series of experiments which
proved the production of oxygen gas by plants exposed to
the direct rays of the sun. He considered the oxygen as
derived from the decomposition of carbonic acid ; and he
thought that plants in a healthy state do not give out carbonic
acid in darkness. Ellis, De Saussure, Daubeny, and others,
have corroborated these statements more or less fully. Aquatic
plants appear to surpass all others in their power of decom¬
posing carbonic acid. In some lakes in volcanic countries,
where carbonic acid rises in great quantity through the wa¬
ter, vegetation is very vigorous, and the separation of oxy¬
gen goes on rapidly. Schleiden mentions that there is a
rich vegetation round the springs in the valley of Gottingen,
which abound in carbonic acid.
Physiologists still differ in regard to the actual amount of
change produced in the air by leaves during the perform¬
ance of their functions. Some maintain that oxygen is
given off by the leaves during the day, and a moderate
quantity of carbonic acid is exhaled by a process of endos-
mose during night; others say that carbonic acid is exhaled
by plants in greater or less quantity at all times, and that
during the day it is decomposed so as to give out oxygen;
while a third set of authors state that no carbonic acid is
evolved by leaves in a healthy state, and that their true
function is one of deoxidation, or rather decarbonization,
which consists in the fixation of carbon and the elimination
of oxygen.
The first of these views was for a long time generally
adopted, but some recent experiments have tended to throw
doubts upon it, and to confirm the views of Senebier. Mold
still supports this view. He says plants have a double re¬
spiration—one consuming carbonic acid and exhaling oxy¬
gen by day in the green-coloured organs, and one connected
with a consumption of oxygen and a formation of carbonic
acid in the green organs by night, and in those not green,
by day and night. If we wish to speak of a respiration in
plants, he says, this oxygen-consuming breathing deserves
the name far more than the exhalation of oxygen by the
green organs connected with the nutrient processes.
The second view was propounded by Burnett, who con¬
siders the constant exhalation of carbonic acid both by day
and by night as true vegetable respiration, while the decom¬
position of carbonic acid during light, accompanied with the
evolution of oxygen, is regarded by him as a process of di¬
gestion ; respiration thus going on at all times, and consist¬
ing, like that of animals, in the separation of carbon, while
digestion only goes on during light. He has been sup¬
ported by Carpenter, who says that the respiration of vege¬
tables is not an occasional process, but one which is con¬
stantly going on during the whole life of the plant—by day,
by night, in sunshine, and in shade—and consists in the dis¬
engagement of the superfluous carbon of the system, either
by combination with the oxygen of the air, or by replacing
with carbonic acid the oxygen that has been absorbed from
it. If the function is checked the plant soon dies, as when
placed in an atmosphere with a large amount of carbonic
acid, and without the stimulus of light which enables it to
decompose the acid gas. Garreau has also recently adopted
these views. Henfrey says a distinction is to be drawn be¬
tween the process of respiration in which the liberation of
superfluous oxygen takes place, leaving the other elements
combined in an assimilated or organic condition, and that
process in which the assimilated matter is again chemically
altered by the oxidation of a certain amount of carbon, which
is liberated as free carbonic acid by plants unprovided with
leaves, but under most circumstances decomposed again by
green plants. He thinks that carbonic acid is given off by
living plants as a vital process even during light, and he
suggests that the re-absorption of the evolved acid gas dur¬
ing the day has disguised the fact in most previous experi¬
ments.
VOL. v.
The third view of vegetable respiration has been brought
prominently forward of late years by Mr Haseldine Pepys.
From careful experiments, conducted during several years,
he is satisfied that leaves which are in a state of vigorous
vegetation, always operate so as to keep up the purity of the
air, by absorbing carbonic acid, and disengaging oxygen;
that this function is promoted and accelerated by the action
of light; that it continues during night, although more slowly;
and that carbonic acid is never disengaged when the leaf is
healthy. He also finds that the fluid abundantly exhaled
by plants during their vegetation is pure water, and con¬
tains no carbonic acid; and that the first portions of car¬
bonic acid gas contained in an artificial atmosphere are taken
up with more avidity by the plant than the remaining por¬
tions. The giving out of carbonic acid by leaves is attributed
to disease, or to a change in the healthy state of the tis¬
sues ; and in many experiments, the abnormal condition of
the plant may perhaps account for the appearance of car¬
bonic acid. In some of Mr Ellis’s experiments, the decay¬
ing condition of the leaves gave rise to a fallacy in the re¬
sults. Cloez and Gratiolet confirm Pepys’ observations.
They state that oxygen is disengaged rapidly in solar light,
insensibly in diffused light, and not at all in darkness, and
that in the latter case no carbonic acid whatever is given off
by plants.
From all that has been stated, it would appear that an
absorption of carbonic acid by the leaves of plants and an
elimination of oxygen takes place during daylight, and that
this process ceases in a great measure during the night.
The exhalation of carbonic acid by healthy leaves is still
doubtful, and the appearance of this acid gas may in many
of the experiments be traced to an abnormal condition of
the leaves. The great function of the leaves thus seems to
be deoxidation, by means of which they are instrumental in
keeping up the purity of the atmosphere. This function of
plants is antagonistic in its results to animal respiration ; for
while the latter takes oxygen from the atmosphere, and re¬
places it by carbonic acid, the former removes carbonic acid,
fixes carbon, and gives out oxygen. The processes of re¬
spiration and combustion are pouring into the atmosphere a
large quantity of carbonic acid gas, while the active leaves
of plants are constantly removing it, and, under the action
of light, substituting oxygen. While plants thus get car¬
bonaceous food, the air is by them kept in a state fitted for
animal life.
As the decomposition of carbonic acid is only carried on
vigorously during the day, it follows that an accumulation
of it will take place in the atmosphere during darkness.
Saussure found, from a mean of fifty-four observations made
in a country district, that the proportion of carbonic acid in
the atmosphere during the night was to its proportion in the
day-time as 432 to 398; or in other words, the carbonic
acid in the atmosphere was diminished nearly 10 per cent,
during daylight. It is said also that during summer, when
animal life is more active, the proportion of carbonic acid is
greater than in winter, as 7T3 to 4-79 parts in 10,000. The
usual quantity of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, before
being drawn into the lungs, is about l-2500th; in that re¬
turned from the lungs it is about l-25th,orit has increased
100 times in quantity. So long as plants are kept in a
vigorous and healthy state, they do not give off any carbonic
acid. If, however, they are kept long in the dark they be¬
gin to fade; the green colouring matter called chlorophyll
is not produced as it ought to be; the plants are blanched
or etiolated, and in fact get into a state of disease. In such
circumstances no oxygen is given off, but, on the contrary,
carbonic acid is produced.
Experiments have been made by Draper as to the parti¬
cular rays of the spectrum which are concerned in the de¬
composition of carbonic acid by the green parts of plants.
They were made with a series of tubes half an inch in
o
Botany.
106
B 0 T A N Y.
Botany, diameter and six inches long, which were arranged so that
^ v -m / die coloured spaces of the spectrum fell on them. In these
tubes water impregnated with carbonic acid and a few
green leaves of Poa annua were placed. In the tube that
was in the red space a minute bubble of gas was sometimes
formed, sometimes none at all^ that in the oiange contained
a considerable quantity; in the yellow ray a very large
amount was found, comparatively speaking; in the green a
much smaller quantity; in the blue, indigo, and violet, and
the extra-spectral space at that end, not a solitary bubble.
Hence he drew the conclusion that the light-giving rays
and those nearest the yellow have the greatest effect in the
decomposition.
It has been stated that plants, when blanched, give off
carbonic acid. Morot says that in partially etiolated plants,
when exposed to the direct rays of the sun, the yellow por¬
tion of the tissue gave out carbonic acid, while the green
parts gave out oxygen. Plants having no green leaves ex¬
hale carbonic acid. Thus Lory found, from thirty experi¬
ments, that Orobanches in every stage of their growth,
whether exposed to light or not, absorb oxygen and give
out carbonic acid. Lory took two parts of the same weight,
one of Orobanche Teucrii, and the other of the leafy stalk
of Teucrium Chamaedrys, on which it was parasitic, and
placed them in two jars of the same capacity, filled with six
volumes of air to one of carbonic acid. Both were exposed
to light from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. of the succeeding day, and
at the end of that time the air in which the Teucrium was
placed contained no trace of carbonic acid, w'hile that in
which the parasitic Orobanche was placed yielded a large
quantity of carbonic acid and a diminished amount of
oxygen.
3. Influence of Leaves on Vegetable Secretions.
By means of the processes of absorption and exhalation
which are carried on by leaves under the influence of air
and light, the contents of the cells and vessels are elaborated
and fitted for the production of various important secretions.
To the action of the leaves must be traced in a great mea¬
sure the elaboration of the azotized and unazotized com¬
pounds, to which allusion has already been made. When
the functions of the leaves are interrupted by non-exposure
to light, or by the attacks of disease, and when plants are
deprived of their leaves by injuries of various kinds, their
secretions are either wholly stopped, or they become altered
in their nature. When leaves are blanched by being ex¬
cluded from air and light, they lose their properties, their
fragrant oils and resins are not developed in a proper man¬
ner, chlorophyll is not formed, nor is woody matter pro¬
duced. Potatoes grown in the shade become watery, and
produce little starch in their tubers.
The importance of leaves in the production of timber is
universally acknowledged. If they are prevented from per¬
forming their functions properly, by being kept in darkness
or in the shade, wood is imperfectly formed ; and if the
leaves are constantly stripped off a tree, no additions are
made to its woody layers. Some troublesome weeds with
underground woody stems may be enfeebled and ultimately
extirpated by repeatedly cutting off their whole foliage.
The difference of the wood in crowded and properly thinned
plantations, depends in a great measure on the growth and
exposure of the leaves. Wood grows more rapidly, and the
zones or circles are larger, when there is free exposure.
Hence the necessity of judicious planting if we wish to have
good timber. When a tree forms large circles of woody
matter, and thus grows rapidly, it has been found that the
quality of the timber is better than when the same species
forms small circles and grows slowly.
While in the cultivation of trees, shrubs, and ordinary
flowering plants, the object of the gardener is to allow the
leaves to perform their functions perfectly, there are certain Botany,
cases in which he endeavours to interrupt these functions, and
to produce an unnatural condition, by which the plants are
rendered more suitable for domestic purposes. All are fa¬
miliar with the fact that blanching deprives the leaves of their
green colour, and prevents them from acquiring their usual
qualities. This depends on the effect of darkness in arrest¬
ing the formation of chlorophyll or the green colouring mat¬
ter, and in hindering the production of various secretions.
In the case of Asparagus and Sea-kale, gardeners succeed by
artificial etiolation (blanching) in preventing the plants from
producing woody tissue—cells and thin-walled vessels being
alone formed, which are delicate in their texture. The
tenderness and succulence of the heart of the cabbage are
due to the outer leaves obstructing the access of light. In
Celery the effect of blanching is to deprive the plant not
only of the woody tissue, but also of certain other secretions
which render it in its ordinary condition unpalatable. It is
thus distinctly proved that leaves owe their green colour to
the action of light, and that it is only when light and air are
supplied freely, that they can form the secretions which are
requited for the vigorous and normal growth of the plant.
Effects of Various Gases upon Leaves.-
Cases.
■ Wardian
In considering further the functions of the leaves, it is of
importance to notice the effects produced upon them by
different gases. The atmospheric air, with its oxygen,
nitrogen, carbonic acid, and ammonia, is the gaseous mix¬
ture best fitted for the growth of plants. Certain gases in
their unmixed state are poisonous to plants, while others do
not seem to produce any deleterious effects further than
the retardation of growth caused by the exclusion of atmo¬
spheric air. Saussure found that a plant of Lythrum Sali-
caria flourished for five weeks in hydrogen gas, and the
Messrs Gladstone ascertained that nitrogen, oxygen, and
nitrous oxide were innocuous. Plants would not of course
continue to be vigorous in such atmospheres, inasmuch as
they are deprived of the cai’bon which is necessary for them,
and which can only be procured from carbonic acid.
Plants, when exposed to light, will thrive in an atmo¬
sphere containing a considerable amount of carbonic acid,
but they cease to perform their functions in an atmosphere
composed of carbonic acid alone. Daubeny found that
Ferns and Lycopodiums, which are the plants most nearly
allied to those of the coal epoch, can at the present day
exist without injury in an atmosphere containing at least 5
per cent, of carbonic acid, and he thinks that this in some
degree supports Brongniart’s hypothesis as to the cause of
the enormous production of carbon by the plants of that
epoch. While plants in bright light can live in an atmo¬
sphere containing 5 to 10 per cent, of carbonic acid, Dau¬
beny ascertained that the addition of a larger per-centage
caused injurious effects.
In the atmosphere of towns, more especially those in
which chemical and other manufactories exist, there are
many gaseous and other matters present which interfere in
a marked degree with the growth of plants. Every culti¬
vator knows the difficulty of growing Roses and many valu¬
able garden flowers in such situations. Drs Turner and
Christison were led to examine the influence of gases on
plants, on account of having been called upon to give evi¬
dence as to the effects of a black-ash manufactory on the
vegetation in its neighbourhood. I hey found that many
gases, even in minute quantity, injured and destroyed the
leaves of plants, some of the gases acting as irritant poisons,
others as narcotic poisons. The former destroyed the
texture of the leaves and altered their colours, while the
latter killed the leaves without producing any local effects
on the textures. Sulphurous acid gas, which is very com-
BOTANY.
107
Botany, monly met with in the atmosphere of towns was found to
be exceedingly deleterious. Where four or even only two
cubic inches were introduced, along with a young Migno¬
nette plant, into the air of a glass jar, capable of containing
470 cubic inches, the leaves of the plant became greenish-
gray and drooped much in less than 2^ hours ; and, though
then taken out and watered, it soon died altogether. In
some of the experiments, the proportion of the acid gas was
a ten-thousandth only, the quantity being one-fifth of a
cubic inch, and yet the destruction of the leaves was com¬
plete in 48 hours. This proportion of the gas, although
destructive to plants, is hardly or not at all discoverable by
the smell. The effects of other irritant gases, such as hy¬
drochloric and nitric acid, on the leaves of plants were also
well marked. The former destroyed the whole vegetation
of a plant of considerable size in less than two days, even
when diluted with 10,000 parts of air.
Acid gases attack first the tips of the leaves and then ex¬
tend to the stalks, and it is found that when the quantity is
not great the parts not attacked generally survive, if the
plants are removed into the air. Narcotic gases act very
differently. Thus, Drs Turner and Christison found that
4| cubic inches of sulphuretted hydrogen in 80 volumes of
air, in the course of 24 hours, caused several of the leaves
of a plant to hang down perpendicularly from their stalks
in a flaccid state, without injuring their colour ; and though
the plant was then removed into the air, the whole stem
soon began to droop, and the plant died. When 6 cubic
inches of the gas were mixed with 60 times their volume of
air, the leaves began to be affected in 10 hours; they be¬
came quite flaccid, but did not appear changed in colour.
When the leaves had once drooped the plants did not in
any instance recover when removed into the air.
The effects produced by ammonia, cyanogen, carbonic
oxide, and common coal gas, are in many respects similar
to those now described, viz., a drooping of the leaves with¬
out alteration of colour, and the death of the plant even
though removed into the air. The phenomena, when com¬
pared with what was observed in the instances of sulphur¬
ous and hydrochloric acid, would appear to establish, in re¬
lation to vegetable life, a distinction among the poisonous
gases nearly equivalent to the difference existing between
the effects of the irritant and narcotic poisons on animals.
The gases which rank as irritants in relation to animals
seem to act locally on vegetables, destroying first the parts
least supplied with moisture. The narcotic gases, includ¬
ing under that term those which act on the nervous system
of animals, destroy vegetable life by attacking it throughout
the whole plant at once—the former probably only abstract¬
ing the moisture of the leaves, the latter acting by some
unknown influence on their vitality.
The experiments just detailed show the importance of
attending to the nature of the atmosphere in which plants
grow. The blighting effects of the air of large cities are
owing to the gases contained in the smoke, and unless means
are taken for guarding against these, it is not to be expected
that town vegetation can be luxuriant. The common gas
used in houses is also prejudicial to vigorous growth, and
this combined with the dry atmosphere of rooms is the cause
of plants not succeeding well in private dwellings. The
transpiration from the leaves in such circumstance is very
great, and it is impossible to make the roots take up suffi¬
cient moisture to supply the loss. Hence the leaves fall off
and the plants become sickly.
With the view of enabling plants to grow in the atmo¬
sphere of towns, notwithstanding the fuliginous matter and
gases with which it is loaded, Mr N. B. Ward invented
closely-glazed Cases, in which he succeeded in cultivating
tender plants, even in one of the most populous and smoky
localities of London. One of these Cases is represented in
Figure 143. It consists of a strong box or trough, a, made
of well-seasoned wood, containing earth. The bottom of
Fig. 143.
A Wardian Case, made by Messrs Drummond and
Son, Canonmills, Edinburgh.
the box is covered
to a moderate depth
with gravel and
broken bricks, over
which the soil is
spread, composed of
fibrous loam, sand,
and peat. The na¬
ture of the soil may
be vai'ied according
to circumstances,
and the box may be
divided into com¬
partments contain¬
ing soils of different
kinds. The soil is
well watered, and
the superfluous wa¬
ter is allowed to run
freely from two holes
in the bottom of the box. After draining fully, the holes
are tightly closed with corks, and the glazed roof or cover,
b, is fitted on carefully in a groove round the upper part of
the box. This glazed cover may be formed in various ways.
It is frequently made of zinc, with large panes of glass, the
upper one being curved.
Plants in these Cases are enabled to stand great changes
of temperature without being injured, and they are pro¬
tected from noxious matters in the atmosphere, besides hav¬
ing always sufficient moisture. Ferns and Lycopodiums, in
an especial manner, succeed in such Cases. Those ferns
which require much moisture and shade, such as Tricho-
manes radicans, can be grown successfully. The atmo¬
sphere, however, can be varied as regards moisture and dry¬
ness, and thus can be suited to different tribes of plants.
The cases are well fitted for rooms or dwelling-houses, in¬
asmuch as they prevent the excessive exhalation which so
generally injures plants grown in these circumstances. The
Cases have been applied most successfully to the transport
of living plants, and many valuable productions have thus
been introduced into different countries.
Botany.
5. Coloration of Leaves.
The green colour of leaves depends on the production of
chlorophyll, which is only developed under the agency of
light. The leaves in the young bud are of a pale yellowish
hue, and assume their green tint in proportion as they are
exposed to light. The change of colour takes place more
or less rapidly, according to the intensity of the light. The
leaves of French Beans, which sprung white out of the
earth, were observed by Senebier to become green in one
hour under exposure to very bright sunshine. Plants, when
grown in darkness, have pale leaves, which become green
on exposure to light. It is said that an etiolated plant,
when exposed to light, becomes green at the end of twenty-
four hours, even under water. Diffuse daylight, and even
the light of lamps, will cause a green coloration, but the in¬
tensity of the colour is much less than in full sunshine.
Experiments have been made in regard to the effects of
the difterent rays of the spectrum in the production of the
green colour of leaves. Senebier ascribed it to the violet
rays, and Ritter and Wollaston to the chemical or tithonic
rays, which are next the violet. Plunt thinks that the
blue rays are the most active in this respect, while Morren,
Daubeny, Draper, and Gardner, say that the yellow rays,
or those having the greatest illuminating power, have the
greatest effect in producing chlorophyll, as well as in de¬
oxidation. The subject requires further elucidation.
In temperate climates the leaves during the period of
108
Botany.
BOTANY.
their diminished activity exhibit changes of colour which
jrive rise to the yellow, brown, and red autumnal tints.
These colours seem to depend on different states of oxida¬
tion in the chlorophyll. Hunt thinks that the brown co¬
louring of the autumnal leaves is due to the rays called by
Herschel parathermic, which can scarcely be said to have
a defined place amid the calorific radiations, but which are
usually most strongly manifested in the red rays. A slight
tint of green was found to stop these parathermic rays, and
on that account glass stained green with oxide of copper
has been used in glazing the Palm-House at Kew.
Variegation in leaves is produced either by an alteration
in the green chromule or chlorophyll, or by the presence
of air in certain foliar cells. Sometimes a single group of
cells contains the yellow product of the decomposition of
the chlorophyll, as in Phalaris arundinacea picta, a variety
which appears in a dry soil, and disappears in a wet one ;
or as in variegated varieties of Holly. At other times the
epidermis separates itself from the cells lying under it in
particular places, and the layer of air lying between these
appears like a bright silvery spot, as in Begonia argyro-
stigma and Carduus Marianus. Treviranus states that in
Monocotyledons the variegations form bands parallel to the
veins ; in Dicotyledons, such as Carduus Marianus, the
white is produced in the veins, while in such as Aucuba
japonica, the yellow spots are distributed without order.
He states also that variegation is sometimes visible on the
upper surface of the leaves, and not on the under. Varie¬
gation, according to Morren, has its seat deeper in the leaf
than what is called spotting. The latter is confined to the
cuticle or skin, while the former extends to the parenchyma
or cellular tissue below.
6. Irritability and Contractility of Leaves.
Certain leaves display evident movements under the influ¬
ence of light, heat, and a stimulus either of a mechanical
or chemical nature. The effects of light and darkness are
frequently very marked in causing the elevation and depres-
oion of leaf-stalks, and the expansion and folding of leaves.
The changes which take place in leaves during darkness
were included by Linnaeus under what he called the sleep
of plants. During darkness leaves often hang down, and,
in the case of compound leaves, there is also a folding of the
leaflets, either in an upward direction, as in the sensitive
Mimosas, or downwards, as in Tephrosia caribaea.
Very obvious movements occur in the leaves of many
species belonging to the natural orders Leguminosae, Ox-
alidaceae, and Droseraceae. Among Leguminous plants
may be noticed species of Mimosa, Robinia, iEschynomene,
Smithia, Desmanthus, and Neptunia; in the family of Ox-
alidaceae, many species of Oxalis exhibit a certain degree
of irritability, but it is chiefly observed in the pinnate-leaved
Biophytum sensitivum ; while among Droseraceae the leaves
of Dionaea muscipula have a remarkable irritability, and
those of the species of Drosera also exhibit traces of it. In
some plants the movements are most marked in the young
state. The movements exhibited by the leaves of plants
may be divided into—1. Those which depend upon the pe¬
riodical returns of day and night; 2. Those, which, besides
being influenced by light and darkness, are also occasioned
by any external or chemical agency; 3. Those independent,
to a certain extent, of external influences.
In Mimosa pudica and sensitiva, which usually receive
the name of Sensitive plants, the motions of the leaves are
very conspicuous. They are influenced by light and dark¬
ness, and they are exhibited on the slightest touch. In these
plants the leaf, as represented in Figure 144, is a compound
bipinnate one, having four partial leaf-stalks proceeding from
a common petiole. The small pinnules or leaflets are ex¬
panded horizontally when the plant is in the light and in
Branch and leaves of Sensitive plant
(Mimosa pudica), showing the pe¬
tiole in its erect state, a, and in its
depressed state, b; also the leaflets
closed, c, and the leaflets expand¬
ed, d.
its natural state, but when it is in darkness, as we 11 as when
the leaves are touched or
irritated, the pinnules fold
upwards, so as to bring their
upper surfaces into contact,
and at length the petiole is
depressed, so that the en¬
tire leaf falls down. When
the whole leaves are thus
folded and depressed the
plant appears as if it were
withered and dead. When
light is introduced, or when
the irritation is removed,
the leaflets gradually unfold,
and the leaf-stalk rises. In
the ordinary state of the
plant these motions go on
daily. If two of the leaf¬
lets at the extremity are touched, or are irritated by heat
from a lens, or by electricity, without agitating other parts,
they fold upwards, and a similar movement takes place in
the adjoining leaflets in regular succession from the apex to
the base of the petiole. The irritation is also communicated
to the neighbouring partial petiole, the leaflets of which fold
in a reverse order, namely, from base to apex. The move¬
ment may be propagated until the partial petioles converge
and fall down; and, finally, the general leaf-stalk is depressed.
If the lower leaflets are first irritated, the foldings take place
from the base to the apex of the petiole; if the middle
leaflets are touched then the foldings occur on each side.
The stem itself seems not to be directly concerned in the
motions. It may be injured in various ways without caus¬
ing contractions to take place. A section may be made of
it with a leaf attached, and yet the leaflets may remain ex¬
panded. Artificial light from six lamps, according to De
Candolle, caused the expansion of the leaves ; and Zante-
deschi states that the lunar rays also affect the motions.
The action of the wind, or any general agitation, causes
the simultaneous folding and depression of the leaves ; but
the quick repetition of an irritation exhausts the sensitive¬
ness towards it. It appears that the plants may become
accustomed to a weak stimulus. The more vigorous the
plant, and the higher the temperature to which it is exposed,
the more sensitive it is. The leaf of the Mimosa is sensi¬
tive of various kinds of stimuli, such as shaking, wounding,
burning, contact of irritating fluids, electric and galvanic
shocks. Many chemical stimuli cause the leaves to fold.
Thus the vapours of prussic acid, of chloroform, and of ether,
Fig. 145. Fig. 146.
Fig. 145. Leaves of Venus’s Fly-trap (Diontra muscipula), wliicli exliibit evi
dent irritability. The leaf consists of two parts, a lamina or blade
l, and a petiole or leaf stalk, p. The two halves of the blade are
anited by a sort of hinge, a, and there are on each of them three
hairs, which, when touched, cause the folding of the lamina: in the
way represented at J and 6.  . ,
146. A portion of the branch and leaf of the moving plant of India(l/e<ty-
sarum or Desmodium gyrans). The leaf is impari-pinnate, and often
pinnately-trifoliolate. The large leaflet or pinna, a, the smaller
leaflets, 6, of which there are either one or two pairs.
are found to produce this eftect; and in such cases the irri-
BOTANY.
109
Botany.
tability of the leaves is either destroyed, or, at all events, a
considerable period elapses before it is restored.
The Yellow-water Sensitive plant (Neptunia plena), found
in the East and West Indies and in South America, exhi¬
bits irritability in its petioles and leaflets. The leaves of
Venus’s Fly-trap (Dionsea muscipula), an American marsh
plant, are provided with a jointed blade (Fig. 145), on each
half of which are placed three hairs, with swellings at their
base. When these hairs are touched or irritated in any way,
the two halves of the leaves close. Flies and other insects
are often found inclosed in the leaf, and hence the name given
to the plant. It is said that the Sundews (Drosera) of our
marshes also exhibit a certain degree of contractility, but
this has not been distinctly proved. Their leaves (Fig. 107)
are provided with viscid glandular hairs, to which insects are
often found adherent, while the leaves are partially folded.
In the case of Hedysarum (Desmodium) gyrans, a native
of the East Indies, the phenomena of leaf-motions are very
remarkable. The leaf, as represented in Figure 146, is un¬
equally pinnate, having a large leaflet or pinna a, at the ex¬
tremity of the stalk, and two pairs of small pinnae b, placed
laterally. The large leaflet exhibits oscillatory lateral move¬
ments, as well as the ordinary sleep movements, in an up¬
ward and downward direction. During the day it rises and
appears to have slow motion from one side to the other, so
that it often is seen in an oblique position as regards the
stalk ; during the night it is depressed and motionless. The
little pinnae, on the other hand, constantly exhibit a jerking
motion, by which they first approach to each other, and then
retire, the length of time required to complete their move¬
ments being about three minutes when the plant is vigorous
and exposed to bright light. The leaflets exhibit motions
even in darkness, although to a less extent. Other species
of Hedysarum exhibit similar movements.
The cause of these phenomena is obscure. Some have
supposed that they are to be ascribed to the presence of a
peculiar nervous system in plants. But there is no evidence
of the existence of such a system, and the motions do not
require that we should have recourse to such a theoretical
explanation. All may be accounted for by changes in the
contents of the cells. In the case of the sensitive Mimosas,
there are evident cellular swellings at the base of the small
leaflets, as well as the base of the petioles. These swell¬
ings, when touched directly, communicate motion to the
leaves. They consist apparently of two kinds of cells, some
of which display contractility, and others distensibility. When
in their ordinary state these functions are balanced; but
when mechanical or chemical stimuli are applied, a change
in the cell-contents takes place, accompanied with a de¬
rangement of equilibrium. When the swellings at the base
of the leaflets are touched gently on the superior surface,
then the liquid contents of the upper contractile cells are
sent into the distensible inferior ones, and the leaflets fold
upwards. This change, however, is not effected by touch¬
ing cautiously the lower surface of the swellings. Again,
in the swelling at the base of the petiole, the reverse is the
case, for there the lower cells are contractile, and the upper
distensible, and the movement caused is in a downward di¬
rection. Touching the upper side of the intumescence at
the base of the petioles does not give rise to the movement.
If a portion of the lower side of the swelling is removed, then
the balance between its resistance and the expansive ten¬
dency of the cells on the upper side is destroyed, and the
petioles remain depressed. Any irritation applied to one
part of the leaf is propagated by means of the vascular sys¬
tem to another part, and more especially it is communicated
to the distensible portion of the cellular swellings just men¬
tioned.
In the daytime, and under the influence of light, ac¬
cording to Fee, the fluids drawn to the surface of the plant
are kept in equilibrium by rhythmical evaporation. There
is a constant renewal of fluids to supply those which have
been transpired. A blow or wound, or the application of
cold, interrupts the equilibrium, the circulation is deranged,
and liquids pass quickly from the cells into the vessels, and
thus cause distension. During the night the sap is feebly
drawn to the surface, and thus a change takes place in the
relative contents of the different cells and vessels. The
phenomena are thus referred to changes in the fluid con¬
tents of the cells and vessels caused by certain vital actions.
Mohl refers the movements partly to the distension of the
cells, and partly to different states of tension in the tissues,
and he considers the movement of irritability as not identi¬
cal with the sleep movement. He says that the articula¬
tions are composed of numerous parenchymatous cells con¬
taining chlorophyll, each also exhibiting in its interior a
larger or smaller globular mass of a substance strongly re¬
fracting light. The parenchymatous tissue, he says, exhi¬
bits a considerable distension. If a flat portion is cut longi¬
tudinally out of the middle of the joint, and afterwards this
portion is cut lengthways into thin strips, the cellular tissue
forming the sides of the strips immediately expands about
one-fifth longitudinally, while the vascular bundle in the
middle continues as before. Hence, he says, the vascular
bundle appears to be too short in proportion to the turges-
cent mass of cellular tissue of the articulation, while the lat¬
ter is compressed in the direction of the longitudinal axis in
the uninjured part. In the ordinary state of the plant, the
expansion of the cellular tissue of the upper side of the
articulation maintains the equilibrium with the cellular tissue
forming the under side, and thus curvation is prevented.
But if the cellular tissue is cut away down to the central
vascular bundle on the upper side of the articulation of a
leaf still attached to the plant, the cellular tissue of the
lower side having now lost its antagonist can pursue its ex¬
pansion, and the leaf becomes at once pressed upwards at
a sharp angle—the reverse occurring when the cellular tissue
of the under side is removed.
In the case of Hedysarum gyrans and other species, the
movements are probably referable to changes in the con¬
tents of the cells and vessels, not directly induced by me¬
chanical irritation, and only partially influenced by the stimu¬
lus of light and heat. In Venus’s Fly-trap (Dionaea mus¬
cipula) the irritation of the hairs is apparently communicated
by means of vessels to the cells between the two halves of the
leaf-blades, in such a way that distension takes place in the
lower cells, and thus the leaves close. The object of these
various movements is not known.
Botany.
7. Defoliation, or the Fall of the Leaf
Leaves continue to perform their active functions for a
certain length of time, and are then replaced by others. In
temperate climates these functions go on vigorously during
spring and summer, but towards the end of autumn they
become languid. In the ordinary trees of this country the
leaves fall off during winter, a latent bud having originated
in their axil whence new leaves arise in spring. In warm
climates the dry season often causes a similar exuviation of
the leaves. This is observed in the Brazilian forests called
Catingas. The times of the appearance and of the fall of
the leaves vary in different countries, and from them may
be deduced conclusions as to the nature of the seasons.
The fall of the leaf has not received the attention it de¬
serves from physiologists. The reason frequently given for
this phenomenon is the choking up of the cells and vessels
of the leaf by deposit of earthy and saline matters, in con¬
sequence of the process of absorption in autumn not keep¬
ing pace with the exhalation of watery fluid. There is
no doubt that mineral substances do accumulate in the
leaves in autumn, but there seems to be no proof that this
is the sole cause of their fall. When autumn approaches, it
110
BOTANY.
Botany.
is found that a gradual separation takes place between the
leaf-stalk and the stem or the axis to which it is attached.
This is not a mere accidental occurrence, but is a process
for which regular provision is made. According to Inman
a process of disjunction goes on from the time the leaf¬
stalk is fully formed until the leaf has ceased to perform its
functions.
In cold climates various causes operate in causing defolia¬
tion. As the light and heat diminish there is a cessation of
the functions of cells and vessels, evaporation takes place
from the surface, inorganic matters accumulate in the tissues,
the leaf becomes dry, its attachment to the stem is loosened,
and then it either falls by its own weight, or is detached by
external agencies of different kinds. Dr Fleming states, that
winter is not the immediate cause of defoliation. Many leaves
fall before the approach of winter, others perish in spring. He
divides trees in reference to the duration of their leaves into
three classes:—1. Those in which the leaves cease to per¬
form their functions when the bud is complete. 2. Those
in which the leaves continue to perform their functions until
new ones appear the following season. 3. Those in which the
leaves continue to perform their functions for several years.
The leaves of the first class are Deciduous, and they
seem to be connected with the ripening of the bud. When
this takes place, these leaves change their colour and perish.
In Willows, even in midsummer, many of the branches be¬
come naked from the fall of such leaves. In trees having
two evolutions of buds in the season, as the Beech, the
leaves produced in spring fall sooner than those which are
developed on the summer shoots. Leaves of the second
class Dr Fleming calls Annual. These continue till new
leaves are produced, and are cast off in the order of their
development. In Evergreen trees and shrubs the leaves of
one season continue their functions until those of the next
season are produced. The leaves of the third class Dr
Fleming calls Persistent. Their duration does not seem to
be regulated by the perfection of the bud, nor by the de¬
velopment of new leaves. They continue their functions
for several years. This is the case with ordinary Evergreen
Firs. In these plants the leaves of various years seem to
be required for the complete formation of the stem and its
secretions. On the same tree, may be seen leaves two,
three, or more years old.
The sap absorbed by the roots, and which contains va¬
rious inorganic matters in solution, reaches the leaves, and
is thus exposed to air and light. There is a large transpi¬
ration of watery fluid, and the inorganic matters not required
for the organism and secretions of the plant are stored up
in the leaves, forming at times incrustations on the walls of
the cells. The quantity of ash left after burning leaves
varies at different periods of the plant’s growth. Vernal
leaves contain a small amount of ash, while autumnal ones
leave a large quantity when burned. The latter contain
from 10 to 30 times more ashes than the wood of the same
plant.
T.—GENERAL CIRCULATION OR MOVEMENT OF THE SAP.
Plants are not provided with a circulating system like
that of animals, and they do not exhibit movements of fluids
to and from a common centre. Liquids are diffused through¬
out the whole plant by the action of cells and vessels having
a different chemical constitution and different functions.
One cell takes the juice from another, and acts by diffusion
on the others. The cells of the rootlets imbibe by endos-
mose fluid matters which are carried into the stem, and the
cells of the leaves, by their exhaling functions, aid in pro¬
moting a general movement of sap throughout the whole
system.
It is not easy to make experiments on the motion and
course of the sap, both on account of the minuteness of the
vegetable tissues, and the unavoidable injury which must Botany,
be inflicted on them in any attempt to observe these living
actions under the microscope. We cannot, as in animals,
put ligatures on vessels, nor by an injecting apparatus send
coloured matters into them. Endeavours, however, have
been made to trace the course of the sap by causing the
roots to absorb solutions of substances which can be easily
detected by chemical reagents at different parts of their pro¬
gress. Thus a weak solution of acetate of lead has been
employed, which can be detected by iodine, sulphuretted
hydrogen, and other tests; also a solution of ferrocyanuret
of potassium, which can be tested by chloride of iron, or by
sulphate of the peroxide of iron. The last has been used
recently by Hoffmann in his experiments, and he finds the
blue colour produced by the action of salts of iron on the
ferrocyanuret a good means of tracing the course of the
sap. As the Prussian blue thus formed is insoluble in water,
a little care in dissecting enables us to avoid the spreading
of the colour to unaffected parts.
It may be remarked in general, in regard to these expe¬
riments, that very different results followed, according as
the absorption took place by the uninjured roots, or by the
cut surfaces of plants. In the latter instance, the fluids
were found in vessels which they did not enter in the former
case. In cellular plants the sap seems to move through all
parts, and is not confined to any definite set of cells. In
vascular plants it appears in general that the sap enters
the cells and woody vessels (and perhaps the intercellular
spaces); and that the spiral vessels and those allied to them,
such as annular and scalariform vessels, very generally con¬
tain air when the sap enters slowly. But when there is a
rapid movement of sap either from the root upwards or from
the leaves downwards, especially in Dicotyledons, then the
spiral vessels take up fluids as well as air. It seems pro¬
bable that the spiral vessels and their allies are receptacles
for gaseous matter formed in the course of the movement
of the sap.
In truly cellular plants, as Fungi, the course of the cir¬
culation has no accurately fixed boundaries, and presents
no anatomical peculiarities. The fluid is found to proceed
both forwards and laterally in the cells and intercellular
spaces, proceeding most rapidly in those parts where the
tissue is most lax. In plants such as Lichens, where the
tissue is dense, and in which there is not much fluid, the
sap passes with great slowness between and through the
cells. In the case of mosses possessing leaves, the fluid was
found to pass through the stem and fruit-stalk, and in the
leaves it moved most rapidly in a peculiar layer of cells
along their margin and not in the midrib. Probably the
condensed cells and vessels of the midrib are concerned in
the conduction of fluids from the leaves in a downward
direction.
In Ferns it was observed that the scalariform vessels and
closed spirals contained air, and that they did not take up
any of the solution of the ferrocyanide. If the petiole of
the frond is cut across and inserted in the solution, then the
latter passes into the scalariform vessels, driving out the air.
The leaf of the Fern, when dipped in the liquid, absorbs it,
but it does not pass into the scalariform vessels. In Ferns
there did not appear to Hoffmann to be any path for de¬
scending juices, and this is probably connected with their
mode of growth, which is by additions to their summit
(acrogens). The streaked vessels in Ferns seem to be
destined exclusively for gaseous matters, while the fluids
absorbed from the earth first ascend within the loose cellu¬
lar tissue in the vicinity of those vessels, and are from them
diffused throughout the remainder of the tissues after suit¬
able elaboration. In Monocotyledons the solution of the
ferrocyanide ascended chiefly through the elongated cells
surrounding the spiral vessels, and the latter contained, in
ordinary circumstances, air in their interior.
BOTANY.
Botany. In regard to the course of the sap in Dicotyledons, nu-
—✓ merous experiments have been made. Walker, Burnett,
and others made incisions into the bark and wood of trees in
spring and summer, and marked the points where the sap
made its appearance. In this way they endeavoured to trace
the course of the fluids in the stem. Walker concludes,
from his experiments, that the spring sap begins to flow at
the root, that it ascends slowly upwards, and bleeds succes¬
sively as it ascends to the very extremity of the tree; that
there is no descent of sap until after the development of the
leaves. Burnett cut notches in the trunks of various trees
in spring, at different heights in each tree, from one to six
feet from the ground ; and in every instance the sap was seen
distinctly exuding from the lowest side of the lowest section
first, and progressively rising to the others day by day. The
chief cun-ent was axial in the first instance, and afterwards
the sap entered the branches. To the progress of the sap
in the direction of the axis he attributes the early develop¬
ment and vigour of terminal buds. Mold states that when
a ring of bark is taken off, the flow of sap to the parts above
it is not interrupted; but if a portion of the wood is care¬
fully removed without injury to the bark covering it, then
the portion of the plant above the wound dries up at once.
Hoffmann bored holes in the stems of trees, such as the
Sycamore, and inserted quills with the inner ends cut off
obliquely, and the orifices looking upwards—the quills being
cemented in their place. He made experiments with the
spring sap, by inserting the roots of plants in a solution of
the ferrocyanuret of potassium, and testing the fluid at dif¬
ferent heights as it was discharged in drops from the quills.
He found that the exudation of the sap in spring occurred
obviously earlier in the lower than in the upper part of the
stem, and that the ascent of the fluid was confined to that
side of the stem which corresponded to the absorbing root.
In spring, it appears that the sap, as it increases in quan¬
tity, besides filling the cells and vessels of the wood, also
enters the spiral vessels. This is the time when the plant
bleeds freely on being wounded. As the leaves expand,
transpiration of fluids takes place, and then the spiral vessels
contain air. In some climbing plants, this state of fulness
in the spirals, as well as in the w ood, continues permanently.
After the leaves expand, in ordinary trees the conduction of
sap takes place through the newer woody vessels and cells,
and not through the fibro-vascular tissue. The circulation
of the sap during summer, when the leaves are most active,
differs from that in spring, in the circumstance that the trees
do not bleed when wounded. In summer, as in spring, there
exists a rapid ascent of crude sap; but in addition to this,
there is a descent of the elaborated fluids from the leaves to
all parts of the plant. Hoffmann states that there is also a
descent of unelaborated fluids after every shower of rain.
Some authors believe that the chief channels by which the
sap ascends are the intercellular canals, which are more or
less continuous from one end of the plant to the other, and
that from them it passes to the other parts, each cell and
vessel taking from the general circulation what is required
for its growth and nutrition. In this view the cells and ves¬
sels would be regarded as secreting organs, acting in various
ways on the general mass of crude sap, and separating from
it by a chemico-vital action different liquid and gaseous mat¬
ters. The recent experiments of Hoffmann do not support
this theory of sap movement, and the general opinion of phy¬
siologists appears to be that in its upward progress the sap
passes through the newer pleurenchyma, as well as through
the intercellular spaces, until it reaches the leaves, where it
is elaborated. The different layers of wood convey sap in
different quantity, the youngest being those chiefly con¬
cerned in the process. The conveyance of sap is not car¬
ried on by the old layers of w ood when they become hardened
by deposits. Hence trees with a large amount of hard
wood, and a moderate quantity of sap wood, dry readily,
111
while trees, like the Birch, with a large quantity of alburnum, Botany,
have sap movements even in the central layers of wood.
While such is the way in which the sap of Dicotyledons
ascends, it is not easy to trace the mode of its after-diffusion.
The usual opinion is, that after undergoing changes in the
leaves and other green organs, it descends in the direction
of the bark, and is thence conveyed to all the active cells
and vessels of the stem. Experiments similar to those al¬
ready detailed were made by Walker and Burnett as to the
descent of the sap. When incisions were made in the bark,
after the sap had reached the leaves, it was found that the
upper portion of the cut was first moistened apparently by
liquid from the upper part of the stem. If a complete ring
of bark is cut off, then the growth of the portion below the
wound ceases, the thickness of the stem is not increased,
and, in the case of the potato, according to Mohl, no tubers
are formed. At the same time the part of the stem above
the wound increases much, and, in the case of trees, a thick
layer of wood is formed. It woidd thus appear that there is a
descent of elaborated sap from the leaves towards the bark,
and that from this it is diffused through the rest of the tissue.
Rainey thinks that the descent is through the vessels, and
not the cells nor intercellular spaces; and Schultz considers
the laticiferous vessels as those through which the elabo¬
rated sap descends.
Thus, as represented generally in Figure 147, the sap in
Fig. 147.
Ideal section of the stem of a Dicotyledon, showing the general course of the
sap, as indicated by the arrows. The roots, a a, absorb liquids, which pass
through the newer pleurenchyma and intercellular spaces, 6 fc, reach the
leaves, c c, and after elaboration descend towards the outer part of the
trunk, d d, whence they are diffused in various directions; e marks the sec¬
tion of a branch.
a Dicotyledonous tree describes a sort of circle not in de¬
terminate vessels, but by a definite path, through different
parts of the plant; passing upwards from the roots, a a,
through the newer woody tissue, b b, reaching the leaves, c c,
and after elaboration descending towards the exterior of
the trunk, d d, whence it is diffused in various directions,
both internally and externally. An absorption of water, con¬
taining various matters in solution, is constantly going on
through the extremities of the rootlets. I his crude sap is
carried forward through the cells, vessels, and intercellular
passages, by a force which acts by propulsion. The stimulus
of light, acting on the cellular tissue of the leaves, or on green
stems when no leaves are present, enables these parts to ela¬
borate the organic compounds which are necessary for vege¬
table nutrition. The leaf-action may be reckoned one of at¬
traction or suction. The diffusion of the elaborated matters
constitutes the descent of the sap. Gaseous matters are also
carried up with the sap.
Various causes conspire in originating and keeping up the
movement of the sap. During winter, when vegetation is
arrested, the cells of perennial plants are filled with albu¬
minous and starchy matters. The conversion of starch into
112
BOTANY.
Botany, sugar in spring will at once determine an endosmotic action
inlhe cells. The cells of the root, with their delicate walls,
allow the fluids from the roots to pass readily by imbibition.
A physico-chemical endosmotic action takes place, by which
the fluid is propelled upwards. As the sap is constantly
parting with its fluid contents, more especially when it
reaches the leaves, the fluid in the upper cells is thickened,
and consequently the thinner fluid below passes in by en-
dosmose. In addition to this, there are vital actions going
on in the cells and vessels, which give rise to a constant in¬
terchange of ingredients.
Schacht says the property which certain cells have of ab¬
sorbing and elaborating one substance more abundantly than
another, produces an ascending and a descending current.
It is possible that each cell may direct the substances it holds
in solution upwards, laterally, or downwards, according to
the demands of the neighbouring cells. The current of sap
will consequently be directed according to the wants and the
degrees of vital activity of cells having different functions.
The active processes of cell-formation going on at the ex¬
tremity of the stem powerfully promote the ascent of nutri¬
tive juices. As the cambium of the vascular bundles extends
from the extremity of the root to the apex of the stem, there
is a constant transmission of fluids from cell to cell. As
new cells are constantly formed at the extremity of the stem,
by means of which azotized and other matters are consumed,
there is a constant demand for a supply from below. The
exhalations going on in the leaves naturally give rise to a
constant flow of fluids to supply the place of those which
have been carried off. The capillary action of the inter¬
cellular canals may also aid in the movement, in proportion
as watery fluid is removed from their extremities.
The various physical, chemical, and vital causes operat¬
ing in the movement of the sap may be thus enumerated:
—Endosmose acting as a vis a tergo or propelling power,
and commencing in the cells of
the root; chemico-vital actions
causing changes in the contents
of the cells and vessels; capil¬
larity in the intercellular canals;
and a vis a fronts or attracting
power depending on the trans¬
piration from the leaves. Heat
and light materially promote
the movement of the sap.
The force with which the
sap ascends in the stem was
measured by Hales by means
of an apparatus such as is repre¬
sented in Figure 148. A bent
tube,/d b, was firmly attached
to a stem, a, the top of which
had been cut off, and the force
of the sap was estimated by the
rise of the mercury previously
introduced into the tube, so as
to fill the curvation between e
and /. The force of the sap
in one experiment was equal
to 38 inches of mercury, which
Hales states is nearly five times
greater than the force of the
blood in the crural artery of a
horse, and seven times greater
than the force of the blood in the same artery of a dog.
Brucke found that in a Vine, the spring sap, having a
specific gravity of l-0008, raised a column of mercury to the
height ot 14^ inches, and therefore exerted a pressure equal
to that of a column of water 195 inches high. In another
experiment sap of specific gravity 1-0009 raised the mercury
to the height of 17^ inches.
CHAPTER III.
Botany.
Fig. 14a
Instmuient used by Hales to ascer¬
tain the force of ascent of the sap.
A bent glass tube, f ff e d, is at¬
tached to the upper part of a cut
Vine stock, a, by means of a copper
cap b, which is secured by a lute
and a piece of bladder, c. The
level of the mercury at the com¬
mencement of the experiment is
marked by the letters e and /.
The sap as it rises in the stem of
the Vine passes into the tube, so as
to press the mercury down in the
limb, e, and up in the limb,/.
REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF PLANTS.
I.-ANATOMY OP THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.
I.—REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF FLOWERING PLANTS.
The flower or Floral organs concerned in the production
of seed, containing the young plant, are called Organs oj
Reproduction. In Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons they
are usually obvious, and hence these plants are called Phce-
nogamous or Phanerogamous (</>aiVeiv, to show, or <£av£pos,
conspicuous, and yduos, marriage), while in Acotyledons they
are obscure, and hence the plants are called Cryptogamous
(kpvttto?, concealed, and ydpos, marriage), the former being
Flowering plants, the latter Flowerless.
1. The Inflorescence.
This term designates the arrangement of the flowers on
the flowering stem or branch. Flowers are produced from
flower-buds, as leaves are from leaf-buds. These two kinds
of buds have a resemblance to each other as regards the ar¬
rangement and the development of their parts ; and it some¬
times happens, from injury and other causes, that the part
of the axis which, in ordinary cases, would produce a leaf-bud,
gives origin to a flower-bud. It will be afterwards shown that,
morphologically considered, the flower is to be looked upon
as a shortened branch bearing parts analogous to leaves. The
flower-bud contains either one or many flowers.
Bracts.—Like leaf-buds, the flower-buds arise either from
the extremity of an axis, and are then terminal, or they are
produced from the axil of leaves called Bracts. These
bracts are sometimes like the ordinary leaves, as in many
species of Speedwell, Periwinkle, and Pimpernel, where they
bear single flowers, and in the common Bugle, Dead-nettle,
and some species of Veronica, where they produce several
flowers. They have the colour of leaves in such instances, and
consist of cells and vessels, similarly arranged, in the form of
parenchyma, ribs, and veins, with epidermis and stomata.
Bracts, however, in many plants, as regards colour, size,
and form, present a differ¬
ent appearance from leaves.
In Amherstia nobilis, and
in some species of Salvia,
they are large, and of a fine
scarlet colour, so as to give
a marked character to the
flow-ers. In Palms, and in
species of Arum,* the
bracts are large and sheath¬
ing, and are called Spathes;
they inclose numerous
flowers, supported on a
common succulent stalk,
called a Spadix. In some
South American Palms,
such spathes inclose up¬
wards of 200,000 flowers,
and they are sometimes
twenty feet long. In the
species of Narcissus (Fig.
149) and Snowflake,
sheathing bracts are seen. In Grasses, the bracts consti¬
tuting the outer covering of the spikelets of flowers are
called Glumes (¥ig. 150, gl).
In the case of numerous flowers on a common stalk, the
bracts are often numerous also, and are arranged in a whorl
or Involucre, as it is called. An assemblage of involucral
bracts, called phyllaries, is seen in composite flowers, such as *Plate
the Daisy, Dandelion,* and Marigold (Fig. 151), and inCXXJV.
Umbelliferous plants, such as Hemlock.* In some Umbelli- *P1. CXX.
♦Plate
cxxxv.
Fig. 149.
Flowers of Polyanthus-Narcissus (-Yur-
cissus Tazetta), bursting from a sheath¬
ing bract, b.
Botany, ferae there are two rows of bracts in each head of flowers,
—one, denominated the general involucre, at the base of
the large umbel; the other the partial involucre, or invo-
lucel, at the base of the smaller umbels, or umbellules.
*P1. CXIxJn Fool’s Parsley* (iEthusa Cynapium), the involucre con¬
sists of three deflexed leaflets. The bracts connected with the
flowers, in the cat- •.
kins of the Poplar,
of the Willow, the ^ v ^ //
Walnut, and other ^
amentiferous (cat- *'  
kin-bearing) plants, —
are called Scales.
Bracts some- \
times fall off when ^ H' l j ]
the flowers expand; LJ/ /
at other times they f. p / / ,/
continue during i '
flowering, and, in ///
certain instances, / /
they form part of ijf
the fruit. The cup Ijjj
(cupula) of the if
Acorn (Fig. 152, f
a), and the husk of Fig. 150.
the PTaypl-rmf nrp Spikelet of Oat (Avena sativa) laid open, showing
~ iii’ the bracts, pi, pi, which are denominated Glumes ;
formed by bracts ; p e’ tlle onter pale or glumellule, with a dorsal
 J .i awn, a; pi, the inner pale; fs, an abortive
so also are the flower.
scales of the Hop-fruit, of the Fir-cone, and of the Pine¬
apple.
Fig. 151.
Fig. 151. Head (Capitulum) of Marigold (Calendula), showing a congeries of
flowers, inclosed by rows of bracts or phyllaries.'i, at the base,
which are collectively called an Involucre.
... 132. Fruit of the Oak (Quercus pedunculata), showing a collection of
bracts, a, forming the cup (cupula) of the acorn, 6.
Bracts are said to be empty when they do not give origin
to flowers. Thus, in Salvia Horminum, the top of the
flowering axis ends in a series of coloured empty bracts,
and in the Pine-apple plant the fruit is terminated by a
crown of leaves, which are to be considered as empty bracts,
terminating the axis. The outer row of scales in the involucre
of some compound flowers consists of empty bracts, which
occasionally produce buds, as in the case of the Hen-and-
chickens daisy. In Cruciferous plants, such as Wallflower,
and in the Borage tribe, such as Forget-me-not, bracts are
very rarely developed, and hence they are called ebracteated.
When an axis bearing numerous stalked flowers arises
from a bract, there are sometimes smaller leaves, called
Bractlets or Bracteoles, at the base of the small flower-
stalks. When bracts or bractlets are placed, so as to be
close to the outer envelope (calyx) of the flower, there is
occasionally some difficulty in determining what parts are
to be referred to each of these organs. In the Mallow
tribe the outer calyx (epicalyx) seems to be of this nature.
W hen bracts adhere to the flower-stalk and become decur-
vol. y.
rent, as in the Lime-tree (Fig. 153), they appear like
winged branches, giving origin to the inflorescence.
Flower-stalk.—The axis bearing the flower or flowers
is called the floral axis. It is a branch coming from a
flower-bud. The term Peduncle is that usually given to a
stalk supporting a single
flower, or numerous
flowers, which are either
sessile (applied closely to
the peduncle) as in the
catkin, or are placed on
stalks called Pedicels.
When the peduncle pro¬
ceeds in a straight line
from the base to the
apex of the whole inflo¬
rescence, it is often b
called the Rachis, or
axis of inflorescence. A
peduncle arising from a
stem, either subterra¬
nean or close to the
ground, and bearing a
solitary flower, as in the
Primrose, or bearing nu-
merous stalked (pedi- Leaf and flowering branch of the Lime-tree
cellate) flowers, as in the ( Tilia). The bract, b, is adherent to the
_ r at • peduncle or flower-stalk. The flowers are
L^OWSlip, rs arcissus (r Ig. arranged in a corymbose cyme.
149), or numerous sessile flowers, as in the Daisy and Dan¬
delion, is called a Scape or Radical peduncle. In the female
flower of ^ allisneria (Fig. 22, b), the scape is spiral, and
uncoils, so as to allow the flowers to appear above the sur¬
face of the water in which the plant grows.
The peduncle is usually rounded like a branch, but this
is by no means its
invariable form. js/V j *
Thus, in various \ -o \ / ^
species of But- —, .og Mg;
cher’s - broom / **
(Fig. 154), and
Epiphyllum, it is a  y/
broad leaf-like ^ amj h
(phylloid) expan-
sion. In the Ca- T cSTTNjj—-/
shew-nut* the pe-
dicels supporting
single flowers be- K
come succulent, Fig VA Branch'o^Bntcher’s broom (LiifciiTaeulea.
and are used as  ’ -
food. When the
peduncle bears
numerous flowers,
in place of being
elongated, it
sometimes is
shortened and _ . 111!
thickened, especially at its apex, so as to form a broad flat¬
tened disk, as in the Thistle and Dandelion (Fig. 155), a
conical projection, as in the Daisy, a concave surface, as in
Dorstenia (Fig. 156), or a hollow fleshy pear-like body, as in
the Fig(Fig. 157). The peduncle is transformed, in some in¬
stances, into tendrils or spines, at other times its apex is hol¬
lowed out, so as to form part of the calyx, as in Eschscholt-
zia, or of the fruit, as in Hovenia. Flower-stalks, bearing
hairs in place of flowers, occur in the Wig-tree (Fig. IdS*.
The arrangement of the flowers on the peduncle or floral
axis exhibits considerable variety. The simplest kind of
inflorescence (floral arrangement) is that in which single
flowers are supported on flower-stalks, as is seen in the
Gentianella, and in the common Periwinkle, the Pimpernel,
and Fumitory. In these instances there is a difference in the
Botany
tu.s), bearing male flowers, a, on the tipper
snrface of leaves, which must be reckoned
leafy (phylloid) pedicels. The flowers are
sometimes called epiphyllous, from growing
on leaves.
155. Receptacle or flattened apex of the scape of
Dandelion (Leontodon Taraxacum), in a dry
state, throwing off' the frnit, a, with its
stalked hairs (stipitate pappus). The Invo¬
lucre, b, is turned downwards (deflexed), in
order to aUow the scattering of the fruit,
and for the same reason the receptacle be¬
comes slightly convex.
*Plate
CXVI.
^Plate
cxnr.
fig. 7.
114
Botany.
mode of floral development
the flower, b, with
two leaves at its
base, terminates
the general or pri¬
mary flowering
axis, a; in the
Fumitory (Fig-
160) the floral
axis elongates,
producing leaves, while
the flowers are borne on
secondary axes or stalks,
which are axillary and la¬
teral. In the former case
the axis is arrested in its
growth, and the inflores¬
cence is Definite or De¬
terminate ; in the latter
the axis is progressive,
and the inflorescence is
Indefinite or Indetermi¬
nate. These plants illus¬
trate, in their simplest
forms, two marked forms
of Inflorescence, which it
is necessary to bring more
fully under notice.
Indeterminate or Inde¬
finite Inflorescence.—The
simplest form of this in¬
florescence is that in which
the flowers arise singly
from the axil of ordinary
leaves, which, in this in¬
stance, serve the purpose
BOTANY.
In the Gentianella (Fig. 159) when the floral axis elongates, they form a raceme. If the Botany.
Fig. 153.
Ki-anta wlBlf. 1T1P F, Fig. 15G. Peduncle, o, of Dorstenia, ending
Ot Diacts, wmie tne axis & in a multjflorai concave recep-
      .-ecep-
tacle, b. The broad receptacle
bears numerous flowers.
157. Peduncle, a,of Fig. (Ficus Caricd),
ending in a hollow receptacle, b,
inclosing numerous male and fe¬
male flowers.
158. Flowering branch of the Wig tree
(Rhus Cotinus). Only one of the
pedicels bears a flower, the others
are abortive, and are covered
with hpjrs.
goes on elongating and
bearing leaves at its apex.
In place of a single flower,
however, there are fre¬
quently several flowers
produced on a floral axis
in this kind of inflores¬
cence ; as is seen in some species of Speedwell, in which there
arises from the axil of a bract a cluster of flowers expanding
in an ascending series from below upwards. As the flowers
in the indefinite inflorescence are produced like buds in the
axils of leaves, they are denominated Axillary; and, when
numerous, they follow the ordinary law of leaf development
—the lowest («'. e., those next the primary axis), expanding
first when the floral axis is elongated (Fig. 160), or the outer¬
most when the axis is depressed or abbreviated (Fig. 151).
The expansion of the flowers, in such cases, is denominated
Centripetal, in consequence of proceeding in a progressive
manner towards the centre or apex.
Axillary flowers, on elongated and shortened axes, pre¬
sent different forms of inflorescence, according as the flowers
are stalked or sessile, the stalks simple or branched, and
equal or unequal in length. When the primary floral axis-
(peduncle or rachis) lengthens and bears equally stalked
(pedicellate) flowers, each originating from a bractlet, a Ra¬
ceme is produced, as in the Hyacinth, Currant, and Fumi¬
tory (Fig. 160). In this instance, the lowest flowers, i.e.,
those next the primary axis, are first expanded, and the
others follow in succession from base to apex. When the
raceme has the lower flowers supported on longer stalks
than the upper, in such a way that all form nearly a level
top, as in the Hawthorn, and some species of Cerasus (Fig.
161), a Corymb is formed. In Cruciferous plants the flowers,
when first produced, frequently appear as a corymb, and
Fig. 159. Big- 160.
Fig. 159. Flowering stem of Gentianella (Gentiana acaulis). The plant pro¬
duces a single flower, and it is called unifloral. The termination of
the axis, a, bears two leaves or bracts, c. The flower, 6, with its
calyx and corolla, terminates the axis. This is the simplest form of
definite inflorescence. If other axes are produced in such a case,
they arise from the axil of the bracts, e. and the flowers expand
after the central one, 6, or in what is called a centrifugal manner.
Each axis ends in a solitary flower. , ^
160. Peduncle or floral axis of Fumitory (Fumana officinalis), bearing
numerous flowers (multifloral). Each flower is attached to the
rachis or floral axis by a short stalk called a pedicel, arising from a
small floral leaflet or bractlet.
primary axis of a raceme is shortened, so that the floral
stalks all proceed from apparently the same point, form¬
ing nearly equal radii, as in
the Cowslip, an Umbel is pro¬
duced. In the indefinite umbel,
the outermost flowers, i. e. those
of the circumference, expand first.
The simple Raceme, Corymb,
and Umbel, may become com¬
pound by the stalks of the flowers
branching. In the case of the
umbel, the branching takes place
by the secondary stalks coming
off from a point like radii of a
circle, in the same way as the
primary ones did (fig. 162).
When bractlets occur at the base
of the primary stalks, or, in other
words, at the base ot the primary pin<i 0f cherry (Cerasus Maka-
umbel, they are arranged in a leb)- A .multifloral peduncle,
whorled manner, and form an
Involucre, and such is also the
case with the bractlets at the
base of the secondary flower-  
stalk or secondary umbel. The secondary, or partial umbels,
are called Umbel-
p, arises from a bract, and bears
pedicellate flowers, the lower
pedicels being longer than the
upper, so that the flowers form
nearly a flat surface above. The
lowest flowers expand first, and
hence the order is centripetal.
lules, and the ver-
ticillate bractlets*
receive the name
of Involucel. In
some instances, as
in Fool’s Parsley,
there is no gene¬
ral involucre, but
simply an involu¬
cel (Fig. 163, b b);
while, in other
cases, as in Fen¬
nel, neither invo-
luClL noi involu Q0 0UI1(J of Common Dill (Anethum grave-
cel are developed. Olens), having both primary f
nnound umbels
*P1.CXX
Fig. 162.
Compound umbels
are frequent
and secondary umbels,
wiLiiv/Liu involucel. The petiole
of the leaf is large and sheathing, and has been
denominated pericladium.
Botany.
*Plate
cxx.
Umbelliferous plants, such as Hemlock, *
Parsley.
In compound inflorescences
there occurs a combination of
these forms. Thus, the primary
divisions may be racemose, or
corymbose, or umbellate, while
the secondary are of a different
nature. A raceme in which the
secondary branches assume the
form of a corymb, or a corymb in
which the secondary branches are
racemose, is called a Panicle, a
form of inflorescence met with in
many grasses, and in some rushes.
This term, however, is
vaguely applied, and includes
often definite, as well as indefinite,
forms of inflorescence. It is usu¬
ally applied to any loose racemose
inflorescence in which the stalks are irregularly elongated
and branched. When the panicle is shortened, as regards
its secondary branches, and forms a compact cluster resem¬
bling a bunch of grapes, as in Lilac and Horse-chestnut,
it is called a Thyrsus.
In the instances of inflorescence which we have noticed,
the flowers are all supported on stalks either of the same or
different lengths. When the flowers are sessile, i.e., with¬
out stalks, different forms of the indefinite inflorescence
arise. A raceme, with sessile flowers, becomes a Spike,
as in Plantago (Fig. 164). In grasses the flowers are
arranged in small spikes called Spikelets (Locustce), as seen
BOTANY.
Carrot, and
Fig. 163.
rather Compound umbel of Fool’s-pars-
ley (JEthusa Cynapiuni). The
peduncle, a, bears a general
umbel without an involucre,
while the radii bear umbel-
lules, b, b, with an involucel-
lum composed of reflexed pen¬
dulous bracts.
Fig. 164. Spihe of Rib-grass {Plan¬
tago) consisting of a ra-
chis (general peduncle),
bearing sessile flowers,
which expand centripe-
tallyfrom belowupwards.
.. 165. Spikelet of Wheat (Triti-
cwm), composed of a num¬
ber of sessile flowers,
b, b, inclosed within two
bracts (glumes),a, a. The
stamens hang by long
thread-like filaments,and
the anthers are versatile.
. 166. Spadix of Cuckow-pint
(Arum maeulatum), con¬
sisting of numerous male
flowers, 6, female, a, and
abortive flowers, c, sessile
on asucculentrachis,and
inclosed in a spathe,
which in the figure has
beenremoved. Therachis
ends in a succulent club-
shaped mass of cellular
tissue, d.
Fig. 166.
Fig. 164.
*Plate
IXXXV.
in Figure 165, and these spikelets are themselves arranged
either in a panicled form, as in Oats, or in a spiked form as
in Wheat. The latter may be called a compound spike,
consisting of a series of small spikes sessile on a common
rachis. Occasionally, as in Egyptian wheat, several com¬
pound spikes proceed from the top of the stalk or culm. A
Spadix is a succulent spike, inclosed in a sheathing bract
called a Spathe, as in the Cuckow-pint* (Fig. 166), and
^Ethiopian Calla, where it is simple, and in Palms, where
it is branching and compound. A Catkin, or Ament, is a
Fig. 167.
Catkin (Amentum) of Willow, bear¬
ing male flowers, each of which
arises from a scale (Squama), or,
in other words, a scaly bract.
There are numerous flowers and
bracts in the catkin.
spike having scaly bracts. It occurs in the Willow (Fig*
167), the Walnut, the Hazel, the Birch, the Poplar, and
in many other trees which are hence called Amentiferous.
Catkins bearing sterile flowers ./
only, generally fall off early, and ;
in one piece. Some restrict the
term catkin to such deciduous
forms of inflorescence ; while
others include also the fertile
scaly spikes of Hazel, of Birch,
and of Willow. The catkin is
sometimes branching, i. e., pro¬
duces numerous separate cat¬
kins on a common axis, as in
the male flowers of the Fir.
The Cone of the Pine, Spruce,
Fir, and other cone-bearing
plants, is a female spike of
flowers with hard scales cover¬
ing naked seeds, while the Stro-
bilus of the Hop is a similar
kind of spike with membranous
scales covering seed-vessels.
Some of these modes of inflo¬
rescence determine the nature
of the fruit.
In the Spike, the Spadix, and the Catkin, the floral axis
is elongated. Other cases occur in which sessile flowers
are produced on a shortened axis. The Head (Capntulum)
is a congeries of sessile flowers, supported on a more or less
flattened axis (receptacle), and expanding centripetally. In
the American Button-bush the heads are globular, in some
species of Teazel elliptical, while in Scabious, and in Compo¬
site plants, as Sunflower, Dandelion, Thistle, Burdock, and
Marigold (Fig. 151), they are somewhat hemispherical, with
a flattened, slightly hollowed, or convex disk. In the latter
class of plants, besides the general bracteal envelope, called
the involucre, there are frequently chaffy and setose bracts
at the base of each flower. In Dorstenia (Fig. 156) the
receptacle of the flowers varies from a flattened disk to one
in which the edges are incurved and turned upwards. When
this incurvation of the receptacle is complete, so as to form
a hollow cavity bearing the flowers inside, the inflorescence
is like that of the Fig (Fig. 157). By this mode of formation
the flowers at the circumference are turned towards the apex,
while the real centre remains next to the stem of the plant.
Determinate or Definite Inflorescence.—In this inflores¬
cence, the flowers, in place of arising from axillary buds,
are considered as represented by terminal buds, beyond
which the axis does not extend. The simplest form is that
in which a single floral axis is produced, terminated by a
solitary flower, as in Gentianella (Fig. 159), with two oppo¬
site leaves, c, at the base of the inflorescence. When such
an inflorescence branches, it is by the production of axillary
buds, whence arise floral axes, terminated, as the first axis,
by solitary flowers. The axes are thus arrested in their de¬
velopment, and do not grow in an indeterminate manner.
This kind of inflorescence is very commonly associated with
opposite leaves, but it occurs also in plants with alternate
leaves, as Lint.*
If such a plant as Gentianella, with opposite leaves, pro¬
duces additional flowers, it does so in a descending series,
that is to say, the buds produced by each of the opposite
leaves on the stem (Fig. 159, c), and bearing solitary flowers,
expand after the flower terminating the primary axis, and
successively later as we proceed downwards. Thus, the ex¬
pansion of the flowers is centrifugal, i. e., farther and farther
from the central terminal bud of the primary axis, and later
as regards time. A racemose or spiked inflorescence of this
kind would be at once distinguished by the upper flowers
being first expanded, and not the lower, as in the indefinite
*n. CXV.
2.
116
B O T A N Y.
Botany, raceme and spike. The order in which the flowers expand ox scorpioid. The terms gyrate and circinate are also some-
determines the nature of the inflorescence. Attention must times applied. The same thing occurs also in alternate-
be paid to the axis terminating in a single flower, to the bract leaved plants, where each leaf or bract produces one flower,
which it gives off laterally, and to the flower-bud produced and a flower-bud which elongates into an axis between the
between the bract and the axis. first flower and the bract. In such cases the flowers seem
When the different floral axes in the definite inflorescence to be placed opposite the leaves, and when the leaves dis-
Cotany
come off close to each other, and are much shortened, there
is often apparent confusion in the arrangement, and it is
onlv by noticing the development of the flowers in the dif¬
ferent clusters that we can pronounce on the nature of the
inflorescence. The branched kind of definite inflorescence
is seen in the Cyme. This is a corymbose inflorescence,
more or less branched, forming a cluster of flowers, which
is either flattened at the top, or has a rounded contour. It
is illustrated in the Elder, the Hydrangea, and the Laurus-
tinus. It appears like a combination of the umbel and co¬
rymb, but is known by its centrifugal floral expansion.
The mode in which the cyme is formed may be studied
in the common Spearwort, and other species of Chickweed.
In them, as shown in Figure 168, there is a solitary flower,
a, which terminates the primary axis, and has two opposite
leaves, b, at its base. Each of these leaves (bracts) gives
appear, or are abortive, as in
many of the Borage tribe, it is
difficult to determine whether
the inflorescence isaone-sided
(unilateral) raceme, or a series
of single-flowered axes, pro¬
duced in a racemose manner.
The appearance of the heli¬
coid cyme is represented in
Figure 170, in the case of the
Forget-me-not ; on the axis
a leaf, c, gives origin to a
flower-stalk, ending in a soli¬
tary flower, a; there are no
bracts developed on this pri¬
mary floral axis, but two race-
origin to flower-buds, which form axes, c c, ending in soli- mose cymes, b b, are given off,
tary flowers. Each of these secondary axes in their turn each of which curls up in a
bear opposite bracts, or leaflets capable in the same way of circinate manner. These
forming tertiary axes, with solitary flowers, and so on until cymes are formed by a series
the plant is exhausted, or the axes produced have no leaf-
nodes. This division, by pairs of axes, forms a spreading,
loose, dichotomous (dividing by pairs, 'n two waYs> anfi
ro/xi), a section) cyme. If three whorled leaves develop axes,
the cyme becomes trichotomous (dividing by threes). Some¬
times the two bracts on the axis do not produce flower-buds,
and then the primary axis, with its single flower, is alone
present, with two empty bracts on the stalk, as seen in the
Heart’s-ease (Fig. 169, b) which produces a unifloral cyme.
axis arises from a leaf, c, and ends
in a solitary flower, a. From this
axis proceed in a dichotomous man¬
ner helicoid or scorpioid cymes, 6 b.
Each flower is the termination of a
separate axis, developed on one side
only (unilateral or secund), and the
whole inflorescence is curved like
the shell of a snail, or the tail of a
scorpion. The inflorescence is ebrac-
teated, i. e., the bracts are sup¬
pressed.
Fig. 169.
F'ig. 168.
Fig. 168.
Dichotomous cvme of Mouse-ear Chickweed (Cerastium). The pri¬
mary floral axis ends in a solitary flower, a, which expands flrst.
The'axis bears two bracts, b, each of which gives origin to secondary
axes, each ending in a solitary flower, and bearing two bracts, c c,
which in their turn give rise to unifloral tertiary bract-bearing
axes, and so on. When three bracts are produced, and thiee axes,
the cyme becomes Trichotomous. When the axes are much
shortened, and the flowers are brought nearer to each other, the
formation of the cyme is rendered obscure. .
... 169. Unifloral cyme of the Pansy (Fioto tricolor). The primary axis bears
a single flower, and below it are two bracts, b> indicating the points
where secondary axes would appear if present. The bracts arte
empty. The leaf is marked / / s s, stipules.
At other times the primary axis produces a solitary flower,
and only one of the bracts developes a flower-bud, as in the
common Bind-weed, in which we meet with bifloral cymes,
and also unifloral cymes.
If the flower-buds on one side of a dichotomous cyme are
the only ones developed, it becomes unilateral, and often
turns round in a peculiar way, so as to resemble a snail, or
the tail of a scorpion, and hence it is denominated helicoid
of single-flowered axes, which
are produced in a secund man¬
ner, i.e., only on one side. The Fig m
theoretical formation of this Helicoid cymes of Forget-me-not
inflorescence is given in Figure The floral
171, where the primary floral
axis, 1, ends in a solitary
flower, and so do the other
axes from 2 to 10. The small
dotted lines indicate the points
where floral leaves (bracts)
occur. The expansion of the
flowers is centrifugal. The flower of axis 1 expands first;
this axis gives origin to \ .
a flower-bud forming
axis 2 ; in its turn axis
2 expands its solitary
flowrer, and gives rise to
axis 3, and so on. Thus,
the inflorescence is com¬
posed of a series of uni¬
floral axes produced from
each other, and not al¬
ternating to right and
left, but always de¬
veloped on one side,
forming a broken line,
which has a tendency to
return upon itself. In
the diagram ten uni¬
floral axes are shown,
each bearing a solitary
flower. When the bracts
are abortive, as in the
Borage tribe, the nature of the inflorescence is not detected
at first sight. The formation of the different axes between
the previously expanded flower and the bract, indicates the
nature of the inflorescence. When the internodes of such
a floral axis are shortened, and the bracts disappear, some
anomalous inflorescences are produced, as in Solanacese.*
The appearance of a peduncle opposite a leaf leads often
to a correct conclusion in regard to the morphology of
the inflorescence; in the same wray as has been already
noticed in the case of the tendrils of the Vine, which are
leaf-buds producing separate axes, in a centrifugal manner.
1
Fig. 171.
Diagram to illustrate the formation of a
scorpioid cyme. The first axis, 1, ends in a
solitary flower. On one side of this axis a
node is produced, which gives rise to the
secondary axis, 2, bearing a solitary flower,
which is developed after 1. This axis in its
turn produces a floral node, giving rise to
a tertiarv unifloral axis, 3, and so on, up to
10. At the same time the inflorescence be¬
comes curved, as the development of the
axes takes place on one side. The non-
developed nodes are marked by dotted lines
opposite the points whence the floral axes
arise.
*Plate
CXXVL
Botany.
■*n. cxiv.
BOTANY.
117
In some kinds of cymose inflorescence the flowers are
sessile on an elongated axis, forming a cymose spike; in
other instances they are nearly sessile, and form a rounded
head or short spike, called a Glomerulus, as seen in species
of nettle, and in the
Box. Sometimes
stalked flowers arise
from the same part
of the axis, in the
form of a cluster,
called a Fascicle, as
in the Mallow* (Fig.
172), and in species
of Pink. In the case
of Labiate plants, as
Mint, and Dead-
nettle (Fig. 173),
the flowers appear
to be in whorls, but
in reality they arise
in two clusters or
fascicles, called Ver-
ticillasters, which
are cymes bearing
a few nearly sessile
flowers, expanding centrifugally. Each cluster is produced
from one oi the opposite leaves. What are properly called
whorled flowers are seen in the Common Mare’s-tail (Hip-
puris vulgaris), in which each leaf of the whorl produces a
single flower.
Mixed Inflorescence.—There are certain kinds of inflo¬
rescence in which there is a combination of the definite and in¬
definite forms. These have been called Mixed. They are by
no means uncommon in the Vegetable Kingdom, and they re¬
quire to be studied carefully. In Composite plants, the branches
bearing the heads of flowers (capitula) are often developed
centrifugally, while in the individual heads the expansion is
centripetal. The general inflorescence, in such a case, may
be said to be definite, while the partial inflorescence is in¬
rig. 172.
Fascicle of Mallow (Malva sylvestris). The inflo¬
rescence is definite, with centrifugal expansion.
The flowers come off from the same point, and
are supported on stalks. The stem is prolonged
beyond the flowers, so that the general develop¬
ment is indefinite, while the clusters of flowers
are definite.
Fig. 173. Flowering stalk of the White Dead-nettle (Lamium album). The
bracts, b, are like the ordinary leaves of the plant, and produce
clusters of flowers in their axil. The clusters are called Verticil-
lasters, and consist of flowers which are produced in a centrifugal
manner, the central one expanding first. Hence the inflorescence
is definite. The flowering stalk continues, howe ver, to elongate in
an indefinite manner.
... 174. Flowering stalk of a kind of Groundsel (Senec"o). The flowers are
in heads (capitnla), and open from the circum erence inwards in an
indefinite centripetal manner. The heads o'*" flowers, on the other
hand, taken collectively, expand centrif ugally—the central one,a,
first. Each head of flowers terminates a separate axis. They form
together a definite corymb. The inflorescence is called mixed.
definite. Thus, in Figure 174, the central head a, of flowers
is expanded, while the others are only partially so ; the in¬
florescence is mixed, and the whole puts on the aspect of a
corymbose cyme, with the flowers in each head centripetal.
In Labiate plants (Fig. 173) the general inflorescence is
centripetal, while the verticillasters are centrifugal.
Botany.
2. The Flower and its Different Parts.
a. Symmetry and Morphology of the Flower.
The term Flower, in botanical language, is not confined
to the mere showy parts in which the gay and brilliant hues
reside, but embraces all the organs, however inconspicuous,
which are concerned in the production of seed. These or¬
gans, or parts of the flower, must all be considered as modifi¬
cations, or, as it may be more properly expressed, analogues
(f leaves. In their structure and arrangement they are
similar to the foliar organs, and they follow the same laws
of development. When a student,
therefore, has acquired a knowledge of
the anatomy and arrangement of leaves,
he is prepared to enter upon the consi¬
deration of the floral organs.
When the flower is complete it con¬
sists of four whorls (verticils), placed
alternately within each other. The two
internal are the Stamens and Pistils,
which are the essential organs of repro¬
duction, and the two external are the
Calyx and Corolla, constituting the
floral envelopes, or protective coverings.
In Figure 175, an ideal section of a com¬
plete flower is given, each whorl consist¬
ing of five parts, which are arranged al¬
ternately. In Figures 176 and 177 the
parts of the flower are represented ; the
calycine whorl (calyx), s, the corolline
whorl (corolla), p, the staminal whorl
(stamens), e, and the pistilline whorl (pistil), sti, being all
Fig. 175.
Diagram of a completely
symmetrical flower,
consisting of four
whorls, each consist¬
ing of five parts. The
outer row is the calyx
formed of five sepals ;
the second is the co¬
rolla of five petals, al¬
ternating with the
sepals; the third is
the androecium, con¬
sisting of five stamens,
alternating with the
petals ; the central
whorl is the gynoe-
cium, consisting of five
carpels, alternating
with the stamens.
Fig. 17G. Flower of Wallflower (Cheiranthus Cheiri). The stalk of the flower
is called the peduncle, ped,- the calyx, s, consists of four sepals; the
corolla, p, is formed of four petals, arranged crosswise ; the sta¬
mens, e, constitute the andrcecium or staminal whorl, and in the
centre is the pistil.
... 177. The Essential organs of reproduction of Wallflower. The stamens, c,
are tetradynamous, i.e. four long and two short, with glands, gl,
at their base, and are inserted into the receptacle or torus, r j
the pistil is in the centre, and the summit of it, or the stigma, is
marked sti.
inserted into a common receptacle, r, which may be consi¬
dered as the termination of the peduncle, ped, or flower-
stalk.
The Calyx is the outer covering (Fig. 176, s), formed of
whorled leaves, called Sepals, which are generally of a
greenish colour. The Corolla is the next covering, com¬
posed of whorled leaves, called Petals (Fig. 176, p), often
showy, arranged alternately with the sepals. The calyx
and the corolla are sometimes included under the common
name of Perianth or Perigone flepi, around, avOos, flower,
and yovg, offspring), especially in cases where both are
similar in appearance, as in the Tulip. A flower with a
113
BOTANY.
of Goosefoot (Chenopo-
dium), consisting of a
single perianth (calyx)
of five parts, inclosing
five stamens, which are
opposite the divisions of
the perianth, owing to
the absence of the petals.
Botany, single perianth (Fig. 178) has a calyx only, while one with
a double perianth may be considered as having both calyx
and corolla. Some restrict the term
perianth to cases where the envelope
surrounds a staminiferous flower, while
perigone is applied to the envelope of
a flower having both stamens and pistil,
or a pistil only.
The Stamens (Fig. 177, e) are placed
within the petals, with which they al¬
ternate. Each stamen consists of a pe¬
culiar folded leaf, called the Anthev Monochlamydeous flower
Fig. 179, a), either sessile (unstalked),
or supported on a stalk, denominated
a Filament (Fig. 179,/), and contain¬
ing powdery matter called Pollen (Fig.
179, />), which is discharged through
slits or holes. The whole staminal whorl, taken collectively,
is styled the Andrcecium (avrjp, male, and olklov, habitation).
The Pistil is the central organ (Fig. 180), below and
around which the other floral whorls are arranged. It con¬
sists of one or more folded leaves, called Carpels (/capTros
fruit), either separate (Fig. 181), or combined (Fig. 180), and
collectively forming the pistilline whorl, which is denomi¬
nated the Gt/noecium (yvvrj, female, and olklov, habitation).
The parts distinguished in the pistil are the Ovary (Fig.
180, o), which is the lower portion inclosing the Ovules
destined to become seeds, the Stigma (Fig. 180, g), a por¬
tion of the loose cellular tissue, uncovered by epidermis,
which is either sessile on the apex of the ovary, as in the
Poppy, or is separated from it by a prolonged portion called
the Style (Fig. 180, /. The essential organs must be pre¬
sent, in order that seed may be produced, but the floral en¬
velopes may be wanting, and still the reproductive func¬
tions may be performed. When both calyx and corolla are
present, the flower is Dichlamydeous (Sts, twice, xXa/xvs, a
covering), when the corolla is wanting, the flower is Mono-
chlamydeous (/iovos, one), and when both are wanting, it is
Achlamydeous (a, privative).
All the organs of the flower are attached to the extremity
of the flower-stalk, and the part on which they are situated
has received the names of Thalamus, Torus, and Recepta¬
cle (Figs. 177, 180 r). The different organs are verticillate
leaves, produced at nodes which are placed close to each other,
without the intervention of marked internodes. Each organ
forms one or more whorls, and the parts of each whorl are
g
St'J-
) 
Fig. 182.
Fig. 179. Stamen, consisting of a filament (stalk),/, and an anther,
a, containing powdery matter, p, denominated pollen,
which is discharged through slits in the two lobes of the
anther.
... 180. The pistil of Tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum), consisting of
the ovary, o, containing ovules, the style,*, and the capi¬
tate stigma, g. The pistil is placed on the receptacle, r,
at the extremity of the peduncle.
... 181. The gynoecium (pistil) of Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris),
situated on the receptacle, r, which occupies the summit  ^
of the peduncle, p. The pistil consists of five carpels,
each of which has an ovary, o, containing ovules, a style, * ‘S-
sty, and a stigma, stig.
... 182. Calyx and pistil of Fraxinella (Zlicfamnw* Fraxinelld). The pistil
consists of several carpels, which are elevated on a stalk prolonged
from the receptacle. The stalk is called Gynophore or Thecaphore.
placed alternately in relation to those of the whorls next it.
In certain instances the internodes are lengthened, and thus
the different whorls are separated from each other, just as in
verticillate leaves. Thus, in some plants of the Caper tribe,
there is an enlarged, rounded, disk-like receptacle (antho¬
phore, av#os, flower, and <f>opuv, to bear), bearing the petals,
from the centre of which arises a stalk or internode (andro-
phore, avrjp, stamen), bearing the stamens, and finally, another
lengthened internode (gynophore, ywr], pistil) bearing the
pistil. In some cases the pistil is stipitate, or supported on
a stalk which proceeds from the centre of the receptacle.
This is seen in the Caper-plant, in the Passion-flower, in
some of the Chickweed order, and in Fraxinella (Fig. 182).
In the Geranium, the part of the receptacle bearing the
pistil is prolonged in the form of a long beak-like (rostrate)
process, to which the styles are attached (Fig. 188, d). In
Botany.
Fig. 183.
Fig. 183. The calyx and beak-like process of Geranium, with the parts of the
pistil (the carpels) curled upwards, so as to scatter the seed; a, the
extremity of the rostrum or beak, whence the name crane’s bill is
derived); b, the carpels curled up by means of the styles which are
attached to the beak ; c, the calyx.
... 184. Fruit of the Strawberry (Fragaria vescd), consisting of an enlarged
succulent prolongation of the receptacle, bearing on its surface nu¬
merous carpels, which are often erroneously called seeds. The
calyx is seen at the lower part.
... 185. The fruit of the Rose cut vertically. The receptacle, re, lines the
interior of the calyx, ca,and the carpels with their ovaries, ov, and
styles, sty, are attached to it. The stamens and petals are seen at
the upper part, attached to the calyx.
the Strawberry (Fig. 184) the receptacle, after giving origin
to the calyx, corolla, and stamens, becomes enlarged and
succulent, bearing the parts of the pistil on its surface, and
constituting what is commonly called the fruit. The sacred
Bean of India and of the Nile (Nelumbium), has a large top¬
shaped (turbinate) receptacle inclosing the pistils. In the
fruit of the Rose the portion of the receptacle (Fig. 185, re),
bearing the parts of the pistilline whorl, ov, is adherent to
the inner surface of the calyx, ca. In some monstrous speci¬
mens of Avens and Rose there is occasionally an unusual
development of the central part of the receptacle, so that the
pistilline leaves become arranged alternately on an axis which
ends in an abortive flower-bud.
The leaves and the different parts of the flower are con¬
sidered by botanists as homologous (o/mAoyos, having an
agreement). In other words, they are constructed on the
same plan, and the forms which they assume depend on the
nature of the functions which they are required to perform.
Leaves being concerned in nutrition and in the assimilation
of food, assume an arrangement and colour fitted for these
purposes, and have all their parts developed in conformity
with the functions allotted to them. The parts of the flower,
on the other hand, are concerned in the function of repro¬
duction, and in their structure and development are fitted
for the office which they have to perform. The parts of the
flower originate in the same way as the leaves, in the form
of simple cellular projections from the axis. The appear¬
ances which they afterwards present depend on organogenic
(organ-producing) laws of development—the arrangement
of the cells and vessels, and their contents, being modified
in each special organ.
The leaf is considered as the Type of all. This idea was
started by Linnaeus, and was afterwards more fully brought
forward by Goethe. In speaking of the parts of the flower
BOTANY.
119
Botany, as metamorphosed or modified leaves, it must not be sup-
posed that we mean that these parts have, at any period of
their existence, been true leaves. All that is implied in
the statement is, that both are formed on the same general
plan, that both are arranged upon the same principle, and
that one law pervades their morphology. The cell from
which the leaf is formed is no doubt very different as re¬
gards the organogenic law impressed upon it from the cell
which gives rise to a sepal, a petal, a stamen, or a carpel.
Nevertheless, when we examine the parts scientifically, we
perceive certain homologies in form and structure belong¬
ing to the one set of organs which are represented in the
other. This morphological view of the organs of the flower
associates them with the leaves in a very interesting man¬
ner, and enables us to give a philosophical exposition of the
harmonies subsisting between them.
In passing from leaves to flowers, there are certain inter¬
mediate organs called bracts, which are merely altered or
modified leaves, producing flower-buds at the part where
they emerge from the stem. From these we proceed to
the flower-stalks, which are branches bearing flower-buds
in place of leaf-buds. The outer whorl of the flower has
generally more or less of the appearance and colour of
leaves, and, in many instances, the leaflets produced on the
flower-stalk pass by insensible gradations into sepals. Be¬
tween sepals and petals there are transition forms, as seen
in the White Water-Lily, the Magnolia, and many plants
where the colour of both is similar. The petals, in their
turn, sometimes become narrowed and altered, so as to
pass into stamens, as in the White Water-Lily, where it
is scarcely possible to say where the different whorls end.
It is very rare to find the stamens passing into the pistil.
In the case of monstrosities, however, produced by cultiva¬
tion, the pistil undergoes such changes as to prove that it is
formed on the same type as the rest. Occasionally all the
parts of a flower, as in some monstrous specimens of Dutch
Clover, are converted into leaves.
When sepals are changed into petals, petals into stamens,
or the latter into carpels, the alterations are said to be in
the ascending series, and it is called a case of ascending
or 'progressive metamorphosis. By cultivation, and other
causes, this series of phenomena is sometimes reversed.
Thus, in the double cherry, the pistil is frequently altered,
so as to appear in the form of one or more leaves (Fig. 186, a
and 5); and in double flowers the stamens are changed more
or less completely into petals. In Figure 187 is exhibited
o 6
Fig. 180.
Fig. 186. The carpel of the Uouble-flowering Cherry. In this plant the fruit
is abortive, and in its place one or more leaves are produced. The
carpellary leaf is either expanded, a, or folded, b. This shows that
the fruit of the Cherry is formed on the same type as the leaf.
... 187. Transformations in the stamen of the Hose. The complete stamen,
6, is altered gradually, passing through the states represented at
5, 4, and 3, until it becomes a complete petal, 2, and the petal at 1
begins to assume the appearance of a sepal, with a strongly-marked
midrib prolonged beyond the apex.
the series of changes through which a stamen of the Rose
passes, from the normal state, 6, until the complete petal,
2, is formed, and this, in its turn, becomes altered, as seen
in 1, so as to resemble a coloured sepal, with a prominent
and projecting midrib. In some cultivated flowers the
petals assume a green colour, so as to resemble the calyx,
which, in its turn, often appears like true leaves. This is
called retrograde metamorphosis. In certain cases the
floral axis, in place of bearing flowers, produces whorls of
leaves. The alteration in such instances is either complete,
or there is a partial change of the organs, some of them re¬
maining unaltered. It sometimes happens that, from the
centre of the flower, a leaf-bearing axis is prolonged at the
expense of the pistil. All these cases prove the general
law of development in leaves and flowers to be in reality
the same, and they point out the means of explaining many
of the anomalous appearances presented by the flower.
The parts of the flower being thus considered as modi¬
fied leaves, we naturally look for a similar mode of arrange¬
ment. As leaves are alternate, opposite, and verticillate,
we may expect the parts of the flower to be arranged in the
same manner. We might conceive a flower, as in the ideal
representation in Figure 188, to be formed of a sepal, c, a
petal, p, a stamen, s, and a pistil,/; each of the parts alter¬
nating with that next to it, and separated by an internode,
and all arising from a single bract, b. In plants such as
Hippuris, with one stamen, and one pistil, and an abortive
calyx, such may be reckoned the tendency, although, from
non-development of certain parts, the flower becomes incom¬
plete. We generally find that the parts of the flower are
arranged in twos, threes, fours, or fives.
When the parts of a flower appear in pairs, they may
be considered as formed of opposite decussate leaves. In
Figure 189, there is an ideal representation of such a flower,
with its bracts, 6, its sepals, c, petals, stamens, s, and car¬
pels, / separated by marked internodes. If the internodes
in Figures 188 and 189 were taken away, or very much
shortened, we would then have the arrangement usually
seen in the flower. These diagrams also illustrate what
occurs in the case of some plants, where the different floral
whorls are distant from each other. When the parts of a
flower are arranged in threes, fours, or fives, they may, if
placed in a circle at the same level, be regarded as verticils,
or, if at different levels, as following a spiral arrangement.
A flower is said to be Symmetrical when each of its
whorls consist of an equal number of parts, or when the
parts of any one whorl are multiples of that preceding it.
Thus, a symmetrical flower may have five sepals, five petals,
five stamens, and five carpels, or the number of any of these
parts may be ten, twenty, or some multiple of five. In
Figure 175 there is a diagram of a symmetrical flower, with
five parts in each whorl, alternating with each other. In
Botany.
Fig. 188.
Fig. 188. An ideal representation of a flower arising from a bract, 6, and
formed by a single sepal, c, a single petal, p, a single stamen, s,
and a single carpel,/; the parts being alternate, and separated by
internodes.
... 189. An ideal representation of a dimerous flower, formed of two parts in
each whorl. The bracts, 6, the sepals, c, petals, p, stamens, s, and
carpels,/. The parts of the flower are decussate, and thus follow a
law of alternation. Each whorl is separated by an internode. If
the internodes were removed the whorls would be closely applied
to each other, as in ordinary flowers.
... 190. Diagramatic section of a symmetrical pentamerous flower of Stone-
crop (Seduni), consisting of five sepals externally, five petals alter¬
nating with the sepals, ten stamens in two rows, and five carpels
containing seeds. The dark lines on the outside of the carpels are
glands.
Figure 190 there is a section of a symmetrical flower of
120 EOT
Botany. Stone-crop, with five sepals, five alternating petals, ten
stamens in two rows, and five carpels. Figure 191 shows
a flower of Heath, with four divisions of the calyx and co¬
rolla, eight stamens in two rows, and four divisions of the
pistil. In Figure 192 there are three divisions of the calyx,
corolla, and pistil, and six stamens in two rows. In all
these cases the flower is symmetrical. Flowers in which
the number of parts in each whorl is the same are Iso-
merous (icros, equal, and p.epos, a part); when the number in
some of the whorls is different, the flower is Anisomerous
(dncros, unequal). When the parts of any whorl are not
equal to, or some multiple of the others, then the flower is
Unsymmetrical. This is seen in Veronica as given in
Figure 193, where there are four divisions of the calyx, four
of the corolla, and only two stamens, and two parts of the pistil.
Fig. 191. Diagram of the flower of Heath (Erica), having four sepals, four
divisions of the corolla, eight stamens in two rows, and four divi¬
sions of the pistil. The flower is tetramerous, complete, symmetri¬
cal, and regular.
... 192. Diagram of the symmetrical trimerous flower of Fritillary, having
three divisions of the two outer whorls, and of the pistil in the
centre, and six stamens in two rows.
... 193. Unsymmetrical flower of Speedwell ( Veronica). The two outer whorls
consist of four parts each, while the two inner have only two
parts.
Symmetry, then, in botanical language, has reference to
a certain definite numerical relation of parts. A flower in
which the parts are arranged in twos is called Dimerous (Sis,
twice, and /xepos, a part), the symmetry being Binary, and
the arrangement marked thus ty. When the parts of the
floral whorls are three, the flower is Trimerous (rpls, thrice),
and the symmetry being Ternary ox Trigonal, is marked^.
When the floral pieces are in a series of four, the flower is
Tetramerous(rerpa, four times), its symmetry being Quater¬
nary, and marked V. A Pentamerous (irevre, five) flower,
marked V, has Quinary or Pentagonal symmetry. The
symmetry which is most commonly met with in the vege¬
table kingdom is trimerous and pentamerous—the former
occurring generally among Monocotyledons, the latter among
Dicotyledons. Tetramerous symmetry occurs also among
Dicotyledonous plants, and the numbers 2 and 4 prevail in
the reproductive organs of Acotyledons.
The parts of the flower are, generally speaking, arranged
so that those of one whorl are alternate with those of the
next whorl. Thus, the petals alternate with the sepals, and
the stamens with the petals. When the numbers in any
series, such as the stamens, are multiplied, and the flower is
still symmetrical, then the organ is found to consist of a de¬
finite number of whorls alternating with each other. Thus,
in diagram 192, the stamens are six in place of three, and
they are arranged in two alternating whorls—the parts of
the outer whorl alternating with the petals, and with those
of the inner series. The pistilline whorl is more liable to
changes than the other parts of the flower. It frequently
happens, that when it is fully formed, the number of its
parts is not in conformity with that of the other whorls. In
such circumstances, however, a flower is still called symme¬
trical, provided the parts of the other whorls are normal.
The various parts of the flower have a certain definite
relation to the axis. The terms superior and inferior have
reference to their position. Thus, in axillary tetramerous
flowers (Fig. 191) one sepal is next the axis, and is called
superior or posterior; another next the bract, is inferior or
A N Y.
anterior, and the other two are lateral; the petals (when Botany.
Fig. 194.
Fig. 194. Diagram of flower of Rose, showing one division of the calyx superior
or next the axis, and two inferior or next the bract. The petals
are arranged alternately with the calycine segments, and lienco
two of them are superior, and one inferior.
... 195. Diagram of flower of Sweet-pea (Lathyrus), showing five parts of the
calyx, of which two are superior, one inferior, and two lateral ; five
parts of the corolla, of which one is superior, two inferior, and two
lateral; ten stamens in two rows; one carpel, in consequence of
four being undeveloped.
two are posterior, and two anterior; while the four stamens
are arranged like the sepals. In a pentamerous flower it
happens, that either one sepal is superior, two inferior, and
two lateral, as in the calyx of Rosaceae (Fig. 194); or two
are superior, one inferior, and two lateral, as in the calyx of
Leguminosae (Fig. 195). The reverse, of course, by the
law of alternation, is the case with the petals.
A flower normally consists of four whorls, calyx, corolla,
stamens, and pistil, and when these are all present, the
flower is complete. When each whorl consists of the same
number of parts, or of a multiple of the parts, successively
alternating with one another, we have seen that the flower
is symmetrical. When the different parts of each whorl are
alike in size and shape, the flower is regular. The absence
of any of the whorls renders the flower incomplete. Want
of correspondence in the number of the parts of the whorls
causes want of symmetry, as has been already shown, while
differences in the size and shape of the parts of a whorl makes
the flower irregular, as in the papilionaceous flower repre¬
sented in Figure 195.
In their earliest stage of development all the parts of the
floral whorls are regular and symmetrical, consisting of
similar minute cellular papillae arising from the axis. The
alterations in their regularity and symmetry depend on
changes taking place during their growth. These altera¬
tions are traced to the adhesion of one part to another, the
union of different whorls, irregular growth, complete suppres¬
sion of one or more parts or whorls, degeneration or degra¬
dation, multiplication of parts, and chorisis or deduplication.
A flower becomes incomplete by the non-development,
or by the transformation of one or more whorls. It becomes
irregular by one or more parts of a whorl being enlarged or
diminished in size, and by irregular cohesions; and it be¬
comes unsymmetrical when some of the parts of one or
more whorls are suppressed, so that their numerical rela¬
tions do not correspond. The consideration of all the
changes which the parts of plants undergo, or, in other
words, the permanent deviations from what may be con¬
sidered as their normal state, is included under the term
Teratology (repas, a monster, and Aoyos, discourse). Every
alteration in the organs of the flower may be traced to the
morphological laws to which we have already alluded. In
treating of the separate floral whorls, notice will be taken
of the changes which they undergo ; in the meantime some
general remarks will be made on the causes to which these
changes are referred.
Union or adhesion of the floral whorls, or of the parts
composing them, gives rise to various changes in form and
symmetry. The adhesion is sometimes very irregular, so that
certain parts are more completely united than others. Many
forms of irregular flowers are due to this cause. The non-
BOTANY.
121
Botany, development of whorls gives incompleteness to the flower.
The absence of the corolline whorl renders a flower Ape-
talous or Monochlamydeous, the absence of both the caly-
cine and corolline whorl makes the flower Naked or Achla-
mydeous. The suppression of the stamens, or of the
pistil, renders the flowers Unisexual. The non-appearance
of a whorl deranges the relation of the different parts, and
destroys their alternation. Thus, in the apetalous flower of
the Nettle, the stamens, in place of being alternate with
the whorl on their outside, are opposite to it, and this re¬
lation of parts leads to the detection of the suppressed whorl.
Various parts of the flower are apt to become abnormal,
or degenerate by Transformations of different kinds. Some
of the parts may be converted into scales or into hairs.
The floral leaves of the catkin of the Willow, and those of
the Hop, are membranous scales, while those of the Cone are
hardscales; the Wig-tree (Fig. 158) produces hairs instead of
flowers on some of its peduncles, and the calyx of the Dan-
♦Plate delion,* and other compound flowers, assumes the form of
CXXtV. hairs, which remain attached to the fruit. In double flowers
‘ the stamens and pistils degenerate by being converted into
petals.
Sometimes the parts of a flower are increased in number
by the growth of additional parts, or by the splitting of
organs during their development. This latter process is
called Chorisis (^wpims, separation), and seems to account
satisfactorily for the appearance of certain anomalous parts
which do not follow the law of alternation. This chorisis
consists in the formation of two parts out of one, the sepa¬
rated parts being either placed one in front of the other by
transverse chorisis, or side by side by collateral chorisis.
The lamina of a petal may be split in such a way that a
scale is produced on part of it, as seen in Lychnis. Sta¬
mens may be divided so that two standing collaterally are
produced in place of one ; in this way some account for the
abnormal state of the stamens in cruciferous flowers, such
as Stock and Wallflower. In these plants, while the calyx
and corolla consist offour parts, the stamens are six (Fig. 177),
owing, it is said, to collateral chorisis of two of them. The
flowers are thus considered normally tetramerous. In the
Fumitory there are two sepals, four petals in two rows, and
six stamens. The latter consist of two perfect stamens,
and four incomplete, which are considered as being pro¬
duced by collateral chorisis of two stamens. In this way
the flower would be normally dimerous. When the parts
of contiguous floral whorls are opposite to each other, in
place of being alternate, the occurrence may be accounted
for, either by suppression of a whorl, or by chorisis.
b. The Flower-Bud.
The various parts of the flower, consisting of the floral
envelopes and the essential organs of reproduction, are con¬
tained in the flower-bud. They appear at first in the form
of small cellular mammillae, or prominences, the parts of
each verticil being equal and separate. In their develop¬
ment (organogeny) they follow the same order as leaves—>
the extremities of each of the parts being first formed, and
irregularities, caused by adhesion and other causes, occur¬
ring only during the progress of growth. In general the
whorls are developed successively, from the calyx to the
pistil; but, in some instances, the petals are retarded in
their growth, so that the stamens are completed before
them.
The terms Prcefloration (prce, before, and flos, flower)
and ^Estivation (cestivus, pertaining to summer) are used
to express the arrangement of the different parts of the
flower in the flower-bud. The relation of these parts to
each other is similar to that which occurs in the leaf-bud,
and which has been considered under praefoliation. The
same terms are also used to express the nature of many of
these arrangements. As regards each leaf of the flower, it
VOL. v.
is either spread out, as the sepals in the bud of the Lime-
tree ; or folded upon itself (conduplicate), as in the petals of
some species of Lysimachia; or slightly folded inwards or
outwards at the edges, as in the calyx of some species of
Clematis, and of some herbaceous plants; or rolled-up at
the edges (involute or revolute); or corrugated and crumpled,
as the petals of the Poppy.*
I he position of the parts of the flower
relative to each other, in the bud, gives
origin to the terms valvular, contortive
or twisted, and imbricated. In the first
two the parts are placed at the same
level, in a circular manner, while in the
latter they are at different heights, and
follow a distinctly spiral order. The
aestivation is Valvular, or the parts are ng. x™.
arranged in a valvate manner (Fig. 196), Diagram to illustrate
when they are so applied as to be in IftivalfoV^nVwhfch
contact at their edges without any folding. ^iSwitholTovov-
Fhey are in a circular verticil. When Japping or folding,
the parts of the verticil are slightly folded inwards at their
edges the aestivation is Induplicative (Fig. 197), when folded
Botany.
*P1. CXII.
Fig, 197. Fig. 198. Fig. 199.
Fig. 197. Diagram to illustrate induplicative or induplicate .-estivation, in
which the parts of the verticil are slightly turned inwards at the
edges.
... 198. Diagram to illustrate reduplicative or reduplicate sestivation, in
which the parts of the whorl are slightly turned outwards at the
edges.
... 199. Diagram to illustrate contortive or twisted aestivation, in which the
parts of the whorl are overlapped by each other in turn, and are
twisted on their axis.
outwards Reduplicative (Fig. 198). When the parts of the
corolla are united they are occasionally folded in a plaited
manner.
In Contortive sestivation the parts are in a circle, or ap¬
parently so, and one edge of each is directed inwards, so as
to be overlapped by the contiguous part, while the other
edge covers the margin of the part adjacent on the other
side; each part also is, as it were, twisted on its axis, and
the whole whorl exhibits a convolute appearance (Fig. 199).
It is well seen in the unexpanded petals of Malvaceous
plants,* in the corolla of Cyclamen, and in that of many Apo- CXIV.
cynaceae, which were called Contortae by old authors.
The aestivation called Imbricated or Imbricative em¬
braces those bud arrangements in which the parts are placed
at different heights so as to overlie each other, and form a
more or less evident spiral cycle (Fig. 200). When the
parts of a floral whorl are five, as is the case in many Exo¬
gens, it is often found that there are two parts wholly on
the outside, two completely internal, and one intermediate,
overlapped at one edge by one of the outer parts, whilst its
other edge covers one of the inner parts (Fig. 201). This
is Quincuncial or Spiral imbrication, and is the normal ar¬
rangement in pentamerous flowers, corresponding with the
f arrangement in leaves. In personate flowers, as Frogs-
mouth, a variety of imbricated aestivation occurs, called
Cochlear, in which the second part of the cycle, in place of
being external (as in the ordinary quincuncial arrangement),
becomes wholly internal. When imbricated aestivation oc¬
curs in trimerous flowers, there is one part outside, one in¬
side, and one intermediate, the arrangement being i, as in
leaves. When the flower is tetramerous, there are two
outer parts and two inner parts; this being analogous to
what occurs in opposite decussating leaves. In pea-like
Q
122
BOTANY.
Botany, blossoms it is usual to find a modification of imbricated
Fig. 200. Diagram to illustrate imbricative or imbricated aestivation, in which
the parts are arranged in a spiral cycle, following the order in¬
dicated by the figures X, 2, 3,4,5,
201. Diagram to illustrate the quincuncial aestivation, in which the parts
of the flower are arranged in a spiral cycle, so that 1 and 2 are
wholly external, 4 and 5 are internal, and 3 is partly external and
partly overlapped by 1. .
202. Diagram of a papilionaceous flower, showing vexillary aestivation, 1
and 2 the alae or wings, 3 a part of the carina or keel, 4 the vexillum
or standard, which, in place of being internal, as marked by the
dotted line, becomes external, 5 the remaining part of the keel.
The order of the cycle is indicated by the figures.
gestivation, called Vexillary, in which the large petal called
the vexillum, and which is superior or next the axis, over¬
laps the rest (Fig. 202). In some instances, as in the Judas-
tree, the vexillum is included between the lateral petals
(alse), as represented by the dotted lines, 4, Figure 202.
The different verticils of the flower have not always the
same aestivation. In the Mallow tribe the calyx is valvate,
while the corolla is twisted; in St John’s Wort the calyx
is imbricated and the corolla twisted ; in the Rock-rose the
three inner sepals are twisted in one direction, while the
petals are twisted in an opposite direction.
c. The Floral Envelopes.
* The Calyx or Outer Floral Envelope.
The Calyx is the outer floral envelope, and is composed
of a whorl of leaves called Sepals. These leaves have usu¬
ally the structure and appearance of ordinary leaves, as re¬
gards the distribution of their cells and vessels. They are
frequently of a greenish hue, having chlorophyll in their
cells, and stomata on their low-er (outer) epidermal covering.
When not green the calyx is said to be coloured, as in
Columbine, Monkshood, Larkspur, Fuchsia, and Indian
It is not common to find the individual sepals di¬
cress.
vided. Sepals are usually sessile leaves, having no stalks.
They are either distinct from each other, as in Wallflower,
or they are combined, as in the Melon. M hen the sepals
are of the same size and form, the calyx is regular, when
not so it is irregular.
When the sepals are separate the calyx is Polysepalous,
Polyphyllous, or Dialysepalous (ttoXvs, many, SiaXveiv, to
separate), the number of sepals being marked by the Greek
numerals prefixed. Thus, disepalous means a calyx with
two distinct sepals; trisepalous with three ; tetrasepalous
with four ; pentasepalous with five ; hexasepalous with six:
or the Greek word phylla, meaning leaves, is used, and a
disepalous calyx is denominated diphyllous, and so on.
When sepals are united by adhesion, they form a Gamosepa-
lous or Gamophyllous (ydgos, union) calyx (Fig. 203), terms
implying union of sepals or leaves, and there¬
fore preferable to monosepalousand monophyl-
lous, which mean literally one sepal or leaf.
This adhesion of sepals varies in extent, and
thus gives rise to the terms entire, when the
union is complete, and there are no divisions at
the top, toothed, cleft, and partite, when the
divisions are mere toothings, or extend to the
middle, or to near the base. Thus, a gamo-
sepalous calyx (Fig. 203), may be five-toothed
(quinque-dentate), five-cleft (quinquefid), or
five-partite (quinque-partite), the number of
divisions usually indicating thenumberof se¬
pals of w hich the calyx is composed. In an entire gamose-
Fig. 203.
Gamosepalons,
five- toothed
(quinque - den¬
tate) calyx of
Campion(X?/cA-
nis).
palous calyx the venation assists in the determination of the
number of sepals.
When the union of the sepals is not equal in all the parts,
the calyx has an irregular form, as in Labiate flowers (Fig.
204). In the latter case the calyx is ttvo-lipped (bilabiate),
the upper lip being composed of three sepals, one of which
is either arched or stands out from the rest in a marked
manner, and the lower lip being formed of two sepals.
The united parts of a gamosepalous calyx form the tube,
the free portions at the apex are the lobes or segments
of the limb, and the orifice of the tube is the throat
(faux).
The tube of a gamosepalous calyx frequently adheres
more or less completely to the other whorls, especially to the
Botany.
Fig. 204. Bilabiate gamosepalons calyx of the Dead-nettle (Lamiurti), It is
composed of two lips, the upper lip formed by three sepals, the lower
by two. One of the upper sepals stands prominently out from the
rest.
... 205. Calyx of Madder (Rubio), adherent to the pistil, its limb appearing
in the form of a rim. The calyx is called obsolete.
... 206. Feathery pappus attached to the fruit of Salsafy (Tragopogonporri-
folius). The calyx adheres to the fruit, and its limb is pappose.
pistil. In the latter instance the calyx remains persistent,
and forms part of the fruit, as in the Gooseberry. In such
instances the limb of the calyx often becomes degenerate,
and is either absent, or appears in the form of scales or
pointed projections, or of a circular rim (Fig. 205), or ot
pappus, as in Composite flowers (Fig. 206). In the adhe¬
rent calyx of Valerian, the limb is at first a ring, but ulti¬
mately expands in the form of hairs, and hence is called
pappose.
The calyx may continue persistent, and yet be separable
from the fruit, as in Henbane,* and
in the Peruvian Winter-cherry and
other species of Physalis (Fig. 207),
where it increases after the flower
has withered, and surrounds the
fruit like a bladder. It sometimes
continues in a withered state, as in
the Heath, and is called marces-
cent. The term superior is applied
to the calyx or perianth when it is
so united to the fruit as to appear to
arise from its summit, as in Melon,
and Iris. In the Rose (Fig. 185) the
tube of the calyx bears numerous
carpels on its concave surface, and
the limb at the summit is divided
into five segments.
In place of being persistent, the
calyx is frequently deciduous, fall¬
ing off immediately after the flower
expands, as in Crowfoot. In the
Poppy* (Fig. 208) the two sepals are detached before the *P1. CXU.
anthesis or the opening of the flower, and they are said
to be caducous. In Eschscholtzia,* the calyx is composed *P1-£XI11-
of sepals united together, and joined by an articulation to hS- •
the thalamus; as the flower expands, they give way at the
joint, and fall off in the form of a candle-extinguisher. By
the irregular development of one or more sepals, the spurred
(calcarate) calvx of Larkspur and of Indian Cress is pro¬
duced, as well as the hooded or helmet-shaped (galeate)
calyx of Monkshood. In Grasses and Rushes the perianth
J
!/
Fig. 207.
Bladder-like calyx of tbe
Winter Cherry (Physalis
Alkekengi), laid open to
show the mode in which it
surrounds the fruit without
adhering to it. The calyx
is persistent, but not adhe¬
rent. It enlarges after the
flower withers, and is call¬
ed accrescent.
BOTANY.
123
Bo*&nv.
* Plate
cxxxir.
figs. 2 and
3.
assumes a glumaceous or scaly appearance. It is very rare
to find the calyx wholly
absent. This, however,
occurs in some of the Eu¬
phorbias,* in which the
flowers are naked (achla-
mydeous), as shown in Fi¬
gure 209. In these plants
there is a series of bracts
which at first sight appear
to be the calyx; but they
are really an involucre in¬
closing several distinct
flowers (Fig. 210). In
the Strawberry, Poten-
tilla, and Mallow, the ca¬
lyx consists of two alter¬
nating whorls, the exterior
of which has been called
Epicalyx, and is by some
considered a row of bracts.
An epicalyx is also seen
in the Carnation. When
there is only one floral
envelope present, as in
Goosefoot (Fig. 178), it
belongs to the calycine
whorl, whatever may be
its form or colour.
Fig. 210.
\
Fig. 209.
Fig. 208.
Fig. 208. Caducous calyx of Poppy (Papel¬
ver). It is composed of two sepals,
which fall off before the petals
expand.
... 209. Male flower of Spurge (Euphorbia),
consisting of a single stamen, a,
without any envelope. The flower
is hence called Achlamydeous.
The peduncle,p, has a bract, b, at
the base, and is united to the
flower by a joint at a.
... 210. Calyx-like (Calyciform) involucre
of Euphorbia, inclosing numerous
male flowers, and one female
flower,/, with three forked styles.
The individual flowers are really
naked or achlamydeous, in con¬
sequence of the floral envelopes
being suppressed.
f The Corolla or Inner Floral Envelope.
The Corolla is the inner envelope of the flower, and is
composed of a whorl of leaves called Petals (ttctoAoj', a
lamina or leaf), which alternate with the sepals, as seen in
Figure 175, and are frequently equal to them in number
(isomerous), or some multiple of them. The petals differ
from the sepals in being rarely green. They usually ex¬
hibit showy colours, and are often odoriferous. Structurally
they are composed of cellular and vascular tissue, the latter
being spiral vessels and delicate tubes. The epidermis of
petals does not in general exhibit stomata, but it sometimes
displays beautiful hexagonal and radiating markings under
the microscope. It is usually smooth (glabrous), but occa¬
sionally coloured hairs occur on it, as in the Bogbean. Pe¬
tals originate in cellular projections, which are either con¬
nected by a ring of cellular tissue, or are separate, accord¬
ing as the parts are ultimately to be united, or to remain
distinct. Even when the petals become irregular in after
growth, they are equal in the first instance. Some petals
continue to increase in size after the flower has expanded.
The forms of petals vary. Sometimes they resemble
sessile coloured leaves, as in Crowfoot (Fig. 211) ; at other
Fig. 211. Fig. 212. Fig. 213. Fig. 214. Fig. 215.
Fig. 211. Petal of Crowfoot (Ranunculus), without a claw, and thus resem¬
bling a sessile leaf. At the base of the petal a nectariferous scale
is seen.
... 212. TJnguiculate or stalked petal of Wallflower (Cheiranthus Cheiri); c,
the claw or unguis; i, the blade or lamina.
... 213. One of the lateral petals of Mignonette (Reseda). Its blade is cut
into numerous segments, and has been called laciniated.
... 214. Tubular petal of Hellebore (Helleborus), formed by folding and ad¬
hesion, in the same manner as pitchers.
... 215. Horn-like hollow petal of Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris), formed
by folding and adhesion of the edges.
times they are separated into two portions, as in the Wall¬
flower (Fig. 212), one narrow, c, forming the claw, and the Botany,
other broad, l, constituting the limb or lamina. Petals
being like leaves, exhibit varieties in their outline or cir¬
cumscription. In some plants they are split at the apex,
so as to be bifid or trifid, or cut into numerous segments
(Fig. 213). When a small portion of their apex is deficient
they become emarginate and obcordate, and when lobed at
the base they are cordate. The apex of petals is some¬
times prolonged in the form of a narrow thread, as in Stro-
phanthus, or it ends in a point, which is either straight or
inflexed, as in Umbelliferous plants.* Some petals are folded, *pj cXXI.
so as to assume a tubular or pitcher-like form, as in the fig. i.
Hellebore* (Fig. 214), a spurred form, as in Columbine *pi. CX.
(Fig. 215), Violet, and Larkspur,
a gibbous form, as in Fumitory,
or a horn-like aspect, as in the
petals under the helmet-shaped
sepals of Monkshood (Fig. 216).
These anomalous petals some¬
times assume a normal form, as
in a variety of Columbine, in
which the spurs disappear.
When the petals are separate
(free and distinct) the corolla is
Polypetalous or Dialypetalous
(ttoXv?, many, and SioAueiv, to se¬
parate), and the number of the
petals is indicated by prefixing
the Greek numerals to the term
petalous, in the same way as in
the case of the sepals ; thus, in
Figure 217, the corolla is penta-
petalous. In the Vine (Fig. 218),
in which the corolla is polypeta-
lous, the petals in their early state
are un ited together by their apices,
and afterwards separate and fall
off. When the petals are united, the corolla is Gamopeta-
lous or Monopetalous (yd/aos, marriage or union, /adi/o?, one),
and the number of its parts is marked by the venation, or
by the divisions of the apex, just as in the case of the calyx.
Thus, in Figure 219, the corolla consists of five petals
united, their number being ascertained by the lobes at the
apex, as well as by the midribs. The united portion is
called the tube, the divisions are called lobes, and the orifice
is the throat (faux). The term limb is often given to the
expanded and free part of a gamopetalous corolla.
Fig. 216.
Two peculiar horn like stalked
petals, p, of Monkshood (Aconi-
tum Napellus). They are situ¬
ated under the helmet-shaped
(galeate) coloured sepal, and
they consist of a grooved stalk
supporting a hollow spurred pe¬
tal.
Fig. 217. Polypetalous or Dialypetalons corolla of Biting Stonecrop (Sedum
acre). It is composed of five separate petals, and hence is penta-
petalous.
... 218. The flower of the Vine (Vitis vinifera) in the young state, showing
the union of the petals at their upper part, and the mode in which
they separate before they fall off.
... 219. Regular gamopetalous bell-shaped (campanulate) corolla of Harebell
(Campanula rotundifolia). It is composed of five petals united.
The ovary is inferior, and is united to the calyx, c.
Some varieties of polypetalous corollas deserve notice.
Of the regular forms may be mentioned the rosaceous,
as in the Rose and the Strawberry (Fig. 220), in which
there are spreading petals, without claws or with very short
■——
124
Botanv.
* Plate
cxvir.
B 0 T
claws ; the liliaceous, where the petals gradually taper from
the apex to the base, as in the Lily; caryophyllaceous, where
the petals have long, narrow, tapering claws,
inclosed in the calyx, as in the Carnation
and Pink; cruciferous or cruciate, in which
there are four petals, usually with claws
(Fig. 212) and arranged in the form of a
cross, as in Wallflower (Fig. 176).
Among the irregular forms of polypeta- . ^
Ions corollas we may notice the papiliona- Rosaceous2'corolla
ceous (butterfly-shaped) corolla,* as seen in
the Pea (Fig. 221), consisting of five parts, composed of five
flittering in size and shape, the upper, st, called claws,
the standard (vexillum), the lower, car, called the keel
(carina), formed of two partially-united petals, and the two
lateral, a, called wings (alae). These parts are separately
represented in Figure 222, a being the vexillum, b the
carina, and c one of the alae.
Fig. 221. Fig. 222.
Fig. 221. Flower of Pea (Pimm sativum), showing a papilionaceous corolla,
with one petal superior, st, called the standard (vexillum), two in¬
ferior, car, called the keel (carina), and two lateral, a, called
wings (ala;)- The calyx is marked c.
... 222. Parts of the papilionaceous flower of Broom (Sarothamnus scoparius).
a. The vexillum or standard cordate at the base; t>, the carina or
keel, composed of two petals partially united in a boat-like man¬
ner ; c, one of the alee or wings.
In Monocotyledonous plants the coloured perianths are
often polyphyllous, and there is a peculiar irregular kind
vpnidnr anti irrpnnlnr spur, s, extends backwards from
l egutar anu crregular thelabellum. The ovary.o, is in¬
forms. In the former ferior, i.e., below the divisions of
. , . the perianth,
the parts are equal in ... 221. Regular gamopetalous funnel-
siyp and pnmllv iinitpd shaped (infundibuliform) corolla,
Size, anu equally uniteu, of Tobacco (Nicotiana Taba-
while in the latter they CMm)- it is composed of five petals
... J united. The calyx, 6, consists of
are unequal in these re- five sepals united. -
spects. Regular forms are bell-shaped (campanulate), that
is, shaped like a bell, and swelling out regularly from base
to apex, as in the Flarebell (Fig. 219) ; funnel-shaped (in¬
fundibuliform), in which the tube is narrow below, and ex¬
pands towards the summit, as in Tobacco (Fig. 224); tu¬
bular, or nearly uniformly cylindrical, as in some compo¬
site flowers ; salver-shaped (hypocrateriform), when the
limb or lobed portion spreads out at right angles to the
tube, which is long, as in Auricula and Primrose ; and
wheel-shaped (rotate), when a salver-shaped corolla has a
A N Y.
Fig. 225.
Regular gamopetalous wheel-shaped (rotate) corolla of Forget-me-not (Myo-
sotis), consisting of five petals united, with a very short tube, a, corolla
entire; b, corolla laid open to show the short tube, the five stamens at¬
tached to the corolla, and the five scales on the petals alternating with the
stamens.
are also intermediate forms, as in Comfrey, in which the
corolla is campanulately-tubular, presenting a combination
of the bell-shaped and tubular forms.
Irregular gamopetalous corollas are seen in the lipped
(labiate and bilabiate) forms (Fig. 173), in which the union of
the petals takes place in such a way as to produce an upper
and lower portion, with a gap (hiatus) between them, like the
mouth of an animal (Fig. 226). The upper lip is usually com-
Fig. 228.
Fig. 22G.
Fig. 227.
Fig. 226. Irregular gamopetalous labiate corolla of the
Dead-nettle (Lamium album). The upper lip,
u, is composed of two petals united, the lower
lip, l, of three. Between the two lips (labia)
there is a gap (hiatus). The throat is the part
where the tube and the labiate limb join. From
the arching of the upper lip this corolla is
called ringent.
... 227. Personate corolla of Frogsmouth (Antirrhinum
majus), showing the gibbous base, b, of the co¬
rolla. The lower lip, l, is pushed up on the upper, u, leaving a
chink (rictus).
... 228. Irregular gamopetalous ligulate flower of Ragwort (Senecio). It is
a tubular floret, split down on one side, with the united petals
forming a strap-like projection, l. The lines on the flat portion in¬
dicate the divisions of the five petals. From the tubular portion
below, the bifid style projects slightly. The terete fruit (achse-
nium), a, is surmounted by pilose pappus, which is the metamor¬
phosed calycine limb. The flower is female, having no stamens.
posed of two petals, the lower of three. The same form is met
with in the calyx (Fig. 204), but the number of parts in the
lips is reversed. A la¬
biate corolla or calyx, i '
with the upper lip
much arched, like a
helmet (galea), is said
to be ringent (Fig.
226). Sometimes the
upper lip is very short
and nearly wanting,
as in Bugle. When
the lower lip is ap¬
proximated to
upper, so as to leave
only a chink (rictus),
with a projecting
portion below it,
called the palate, the
corolla is denominated masked (personate), as seen in Frogs¬
mouth (Fig. 227). In Calceolaria there is a peculiar irre¬
gular corolla with two hollow lips. When a tubular corolla
is split down on one side (Fig. 228), as in the florets of the
Fig. 229.
Fig. 230.
gamopetalous personate
thp Fig. 229. Irregular _ . ...
flower of Snapdragon (Linaria), with
a long spur, c (calcar), at the base.
230. Irregular gamopetalous wheel-like co¬
rolla of Speedwell (Veronica). The ir¬
regularity consists in the different
sizes of the lobes of the corolla, espe¬
cially the lower lobe, l, which is
smaller than the rest.
BOTANY.
125
Fig. 231.
Fig. 232.
Ilumes are bracts or floral
eaves which constitute the
outer covering of the spikelet.
232. External (outer) palea or glu-
mella of the flower of Wheat. It
is a glumaceous scale marked
with two ribs on each side of the
midrib.
233. Internal (inner) palea or glu-
mella of the flower of Wheat.
It is thinner and more mem¬
branous than the outer glu-
mella, its edges are folded in¬
wards, and its apex is bifid.
Botany. Dandelion,* and in the white florets of the Daisy, it is called
strap-shaped (ligulate).
* Plate The lower part of some gamopetalous corollas, such as
CXXIV. Valerian and Frogsmouth (Fig. 227 h\ projects in the
fig. 2. form of a bag or sac, and is called saccate or gibbous. Some¬
times the projecting part assumes the form of a spur (cal¬
car), as in Red Valerian, and Snapdragon (Fig. 229).
In some gamopetalous corollas there is a very slight irre-
* Plate gularity of form. Thus, in Digitalis* the corolla has a
CXXIX. somewhat campanulate form, but its development is not
equal; the Speedwell (Fig. 230) has a form nearly rotate,
but the lobes are unequal; the Bugloss has a funnel-shaped
corolla with a curved tube.
In some gamopetalous co¬
rollas with a single spur, it
happens occasionally, that
what are called Pelorian
varieties occur in which five
spurs are produced. This
occurs in common Snap¬
dragon frequently, as well
qciv-» o "f* Y' r n ct c _ Biff. 231. On 6 of tlic glumes of Wlies/t ( Tti-
ab in species OI r logs 6 ticum), seen in profile. These
mouth.
In Grasses and Sedges
the arrangement of the
parts of the flower is pecu¬
liar. In place of verticillate
leaves forming the flower,
there are alternate scales
or glumes. The flowers
of grasses usually occur in
■ Plate spikelets* (Fig. 165), which consist of one or two glumes, a,
'XXXVII. covering several flowers, b. In Wheat each spikelet con¬
s’ 4’ sists of two glumes,
having the form re¬
presented in Figure
231, and inclosing
flowers which are
composed of scales
(paleae or glumellae),
delineated in Figures
232 and 233—the
former being the
outer, and the latter
the inner pale or glu-
mella, which are
placed at different
heights in an alternate
manner. In the
flower of the
(Fig. 234), after re¬
moving the outer pale
or glumella, the inner
one, pi, is seen with
two scales (lodiculae
or squamae), sq, at the
base, inclosing the
essential organs of
reproduction. In
Carices the male flowers are borne on scales, and so are
the female, as shov/n in Figure 235, in which the scale, s,
is placed on one side. Within the scale the female flower
is situated, having a peculiar bag-like covering, u, termed
perigyniutn.
Abnormalities in the Coralline Whorl.—The parts of
the corolla are frequently adherent to those of the calyx,
and any change taking place in the latter also causes an
alteration in the former. Some of the petals are occasion¬
ally suppressed, and sometimes the entire corolla is want¬
ing. The latter occurs normally in apetalous monochlamy-
deous flowers, such as Chenopodium (Fig. 178) ; and it also
Fig. 234. Fig. 235.
Oat Fig. 234. Flower of Oat {Avena sativa), with the
two glumes, and the outer glumella
or palea removed. The inner glu-
mella or palea, pi, is seen, of a lan¬
ceolate form, and bidentate at the
apex. By removing the outer glu¬
mella there are seen two scales (lodi-
culse, squamse), sq, with the three
stamens and two feathery styles.
235. Female (pistilliferous or pistillate)
flower of a Sedge (Carex), with a
single glume or scale, s. The pistil is
covered by an urceolate glumaceous
bag, u, called perigynium. There is
one style, st, with three stigmas at its
summit.
occurs accidentally. Petals, which are in general coloured, Botany,
sometimes become green. A corolla, normally gamopetal-
ous, is sometimes divided into separate petals. Flowers
become double by the multiplication of the parts of the co¬
ralline whorl. This arises in general from a metamorphosis
of the stamens. Union of separate flowers (synanthos, orv,
together, and avQos, flower) occasionally occurs, and the
adhesion which thus takes place causes various changes in
the whorls.
Connected with the inner surface of the petals, there
are placed occasionally appendages in the form of scales* or *P1.CXXV.
filamentous processes. 2’
These are considered
as being modified pe¬
tals, and they are usu¬
ally traced to trans¬
verse chorisis, in con¬
sequence of their being
placed opposite to the
petals. In many of the
Borage order, such as
the Comfrey (Fig. 236),
Forget-me-not (Fig.
99^ K\ ac well oc in Fig. 236. Regular gamopetalous corollaof Com-
AAO, O), as wen as in me ^ (S*mph£tum)t laid 0pen> 8how-
ing the tube, t, and the limb, l. At
the part where the tube and limb
unite, the five stamens are placed,
attached to the corolla (epicorol-
line). Between the stamens, and
alternating with them, are five
coloured scales.
237. Petal of the grass of Parnassus (Par-
nassia palustris). bearing a remark¬
able fringed glandular scale, which
may be considered as a modified
petal, produced by transverse cho¬
risis, or as an altered condition of
the stamens.
Fig. 236.
Fig. 237.
Chickweed tribe, and in
the Crowfoot(Fig.211),
petaline scales or lamel-
lai of this nature are
observed, which, like
many other processes
connected with the
flower, received, in the
days of Linnaeus, the
name of Nectaries. Peculiar changes in an inner row of
petals and in the stamens may also give rise to corolline
appendages, as, for instance, the beautiful fringes of the Pas¬
sion-flower, the crown of the Narcissus (Fig. 149), and
the glandular scales of the grass of Parnassus (Fig. 237).
d. Essential Reproductive Organs.
These organs constitute the inner whorls (verticils), and
originate, like the floral envelopes,
from the thalamus or torus (the up¬
per part of the axis or peduncle),
in the form of minute cellular pro¬
cesses. In their development they
resemble leaves, but in general they
differ much more in their appear¬
ance from the leaves than the floral
envelopes do. The essential organs
are the stamens and pistil, as shown
in Figure 238, where there are five
stamens%rising from the thalamus, Fig. 238.
and surrounding one pistil. The Andrmcium and Gynoecium,
stamens constitute the Andrcecium, semTai^rgTnrfTumen^and
and the pistil the Gyncecium. pistil) of the v
These organs are necessary to
form a perfect flower, and without
them no seed is produced in flower¬
ing plants. When, by cultivation,
they are changed into floral envelopes, the flower can¬
not perform its proper functions. These organs are not,
however, always present in every flower. When both
are present in the same flower, it is Bisexual, Her¬
maphrodite, or Monoclinous (/xdvo?, one, and kXlv'q, bed),
and is marked 5 • When one of the organs only is present,
the flower is Unisexual or Diclinous, and is marked 5 ? ;
being called Staminate, male or sterile, when the stamens
alone are developed, as indicated by the mark 5 ; and Pis¬
tillate, female or fertile, when the pistil only is produced, as
indicated by the mark ?. Unisexual Plants, such as the
pistil) of the Vine (Fitis vi-
nifera). There are five sta¬
mens, with introrse two-
lobed anthers, a. Between
the anthers at their base
are scales forming the disk.
The ovary is large, sty e
short, and stigma undided.
126
Botany.
BOTANY.
Hazel and Arum (Fig. 166), in which the staminiferous and
pistilliferous flowers are on the same individual, are deno¬
minated Momrcious (fxovos, and olkcov, habitation), and are
marked J—?; unisexual plants, such as the Willow and
Hemp, in which the staminiferous and pistilliferous flowers
are on separate individuals, are denominated Dioecious (Sts,
twice, and oi/abv, habitation), and are marked 5 : In the
case of Palms it often happens that, while some flowers are
staminate and others pistillate, there are others which are
perfect or hermaphrodite; on this account such plants are
called Polygamous (ttoAvs, many, and ya/xos, marriage), and
are marked 5 5$. In all cases in which one of the whorls
of the essential organs is absent, it is considered as depend¬
ing on suppression or non-development; and this view is
confirmed by the fact that, in many unisexual flowers, the
rudiments of the suppressed organ may be seen, and that in
certain circumstances it is developed.
* Andrcecium or Staminal Organs.
The stamens are placed immediately within the petals.
When there is one whorl the stamens are usually equal in
number to the petals, and alternate with them (Fig. 175).
When the stamens are twice as many as the petals, they
are in two whorls, alternating with each other (Figs. 191 and
192). When there are more than two whorls, each succes¬
sive verticil alternates with that preceding it. When, in place
of being alternate with the petals, the stamens are opposite
to them, as in the Primrose, the abnormality is considered
as depending, either on the suppression of an outer row, or
on transverse chorisis of the petals, or vertical chorisis and
union of the stamens.
In cases in which the stamens are not equal in number to
the petals, the abnormality may be traced to suppression of
a certain number, to abortion, adhesion, or chorisis. In
Cruciferous plants there are four sepals, four petals, andjux
stamens, four of which are longer than the others (Fig. 177).
It is supposed that in this case each pair of long stamens is
in reality one which has been split by lateral chorisis. This
is confirmed by finding teeth only on one side of the fila¬
ments of these stamens, while in the tw^o shorter ones teeth
exist on both sides, and also by the fact that partial adhe¬
sions between them are sometimes seen, as in Streptanthus,
and that some cruciferous plants have only four stamens.
A perfect stamen consists of two parts, the Filament (Fig.
239,/), representing the petiole of the leaf, and \}aQ Anther
the Virginian Spiderwort (Tradescantia), Anthericum, and
Verbascum, where the stamens are called stupose, and in
Anagallis tenella, where the hairs have a beautiful knobbed
appearance.
The anther, like the lamina of the leaf, is developed be¬
fore its stalk. It consists originally of a cellular mammilla,
containing a mass of thin-walled cells (Fig. 240, ce and ci).
In the progress of growth larger cells are produced in the
interior (Figs. 241 and 242, cm), forming four separate
clusters, each of which is surrounded by a special cellular
covering (Fig. 242, cl). These larger cells are destined
Botany,
Fig. 241.
Fig. 242.
Fig. 240.
Fig. 239.
Fig. 239. Stamen with its filament, /, anther lobes, a, connective or union of
the lobes, <7, suture or line of‘ dehiscence, £, which is longitudinal
and lateral, pollen or antherine fertilizing powder,p p.
... 240. Vertical section of the young anther ot Melon (Cucumis Melo). It
consists entirely of cells, some of which form an outer epidermal
row, ce, and others fill up the interior, ci.
(Fig. 239, a) analogous to the blade, containing minute cells,
in the form of Pollen (Fig. 2?>(d,pp). The filament, like the
petiole, is sometimes wanting, and the anther is then sessile.
The filament is usually articulated to the thalamus, so that
the stamen falls off after performing its functions; but in
some instances it is persistent and not articulated.
In the filament cellular tissue exists in a condensed form,
surrounding a central bundle of spiral vessels, which repre¬
sents the fibro-vascular system of the petiole. It has a
thin epidermal covering, which sometimes presents stomata.
Cellular prolongations also occur in the form of hairs, as in.
Fig. 241. Vertical section of an anther lobe of the Melon in the progress of
growth, showing two large central cells, cm, filled with smaller
nucleated cells. The outer epidermal layer, ce; the inner cells, ci,
being partially absorbed.
... 242. Vertical section of an anther lobe of the Melon, showing the two
large central cells filled, with other cells, containing pollen, cm.
The latter are called mother pollen cells. The two large cells
in the centre are now surrounded by a special covering, cl,
which constitutes ultimately the endothecium, or inner lining of
the anther. The parenchyma, ci, is being absorbed. The outer
epidermis, ce, constitutes the exothecium, or outer covering of the
anther. The endothecium, and the cells between it and the exo¬
thecium, usually contain spiral fibres.
for the formation of pollen, and the four places at which their
development commences may be seen on a transverse section
of a very young anther. These clusters of pollen cells in¬
crease in size, and gradually cause absorption of the sur¬
rounding parenchyma. It generally happens that two of
the adjacent clusters of pollen ceils unite by obliteration of
their special covering at one side, and thus ultimately two
pollen cavities are found in the anther, in place of four.
In its fully developed state, the anther presents two lobes
(Fig. 239, l), like the two halves of the blade of the leaf;
these lobes being united by a partition, called the Con¬
nective (Fig. 239, g), representing the midrib, and consist¬
ing of cells and spiral vessels. Each anther lobe has one
or two cavities, which are receptacles of the cellular grains
of pollen. These cavities correspond to the large cells seen
in Figure 242, cm, with their special
covering, cl, which forms the inner
lining of the anther case, called Endo¬
thecium (cvSov, within, Opidov, a box
or loculament). This lining exhibits
elastic Spiral fibres, which probably Broken-down fibrous cells’
. . f . . , . j 1 /. of the endothecium of
assist m bursting the outer epidermal the anther of the Melon.
covering of the anther called Exo-
thecium (Ifw, without), corresponding are set free. The exo-
to the cells marked ce in rigures mis is marked ce.
and 242. In the cells of the endothecium, as the anther
approaches to maturity, the membrane becomes some¬
times obliterated, so that the delicate fibres alone are left,
as is seen in the Melon (Fig. 243), and in Cobaea. These
spiral fibres appear also to fill up the space between the
twro coverings in many full-grown anthers.
Thus the anther represents the lamina of a leaf, with its
two halves divided by a midrib, surrounded with a double
epidermal covering, the inner being fibro-cellular, and con¬
taining cellular tissue which assumes the form of pollen.
When there are four cavities (loculi or thecae as they are
called) in the anther, they may be considered as represent-
Fig. 243.'
BOTANY.
127
Botany, ing the two halves of the leaf, each with its upper and
lower stratum of cells. This division into four is seen in
the young state of anthers, and is considered as the normal
state. When it remains in the fully developed anthers they
are called quadrilocular or tetrathecal (Fig. 244). When,
owing to obliteration of some r
■ II
of the partitions, only two
loculi remain, as is very ge¬
nerally the case, the anther
is bilocular or dithecal (Fig.
239 a).
It happens occasionally
that, by the suppression of
one lobe, as in Gomphrena,
or by the disappearance of
the partition between the
two lobes, the anther be¬
comes dimidiate, or one-
celled,
the divergence of the base
of the anther lobes, and
their complete union at the
apex, render them one-
celled (unilocular, monothe-
cal); while in Labiate plants, by the turning of one of the
lobes, a union takes place by their bases, so that they form
one cavity. The long connective of the Sage and other
species of Salvia separates the anther lobes, so that each
appears a monothecal anther (Fig. 245), one of which, a,
contains pollen, while the other, b, is abortive.
The stamens vary in number, and names are given to
flowers accordingly. Thus,—
Fig. 244. Fig. 245.
In Mil Ilnur triVio 244- Quadrilocular or Tetrathecal
in Uie iviauow moe anther of the flowering Rush
(Butomus umbellatus). The
anther entire, a, with its fila¬
ment ; section of anther, b,
showing the four loculi.
245. The distractile connective of
Sage (Salvia), bearing a single
sessile anther lobe, and an
abortive one, b.
A
■S
' 1 stamen is Monandrous (/jlIvos, one, and avija, male or sta¬
men). Hippuris.
2 stamens is Diandrous (Sif, two). Veronica.
3 stamens is Triandrous (roi7s, three). Grasses.
4 stamens is Tetrandous (rirpu;, four). Alchemilla.
5 stamens is Pentandrous (arivrt, five). Primula.
6 stamens is Hexandrous (t|, six). Tulip.
7 stamens is Heptandrous (swra, seven). Trientalis.
8 stamens is Octandrous (oktu, eight). Heath.
9 stamens is Enneandrous (Ima, nine). Butomus.
10 stamens is Decandrous (U»u, ten). Saxifrage.
12 stamens is Dodecandrous twelve). Asarum.
20 stamens is Icosandrous (uxom, twenty). Strawberry.
Numerous and indefinite stamens is Polyandrous oo (waA-i/f,
many). Poppy.
In the common Mare’s-tail there is only one stamen in
each flower, while in Cereus nycticalus 400 have been
counted. The number of the stamens determines some of
the classes in the Linnaean artificial system of classification.
In the case of Euphorbia, flowers are met with, consisting
of a single stamen ,, ~
(Fig. 246), and others ""
consisting of a single
pistil. These, when
inclosed in one com¬
mon involucre, or
bracteal envelope
(Fig. 247, i), seem to
be stamens and pistils
in the same flower.
But on examination
it is seen that a joint
occurs at a part of
the supposed filament
(Fig. 246, a), indi¬
cating its connection
with the peduncle,/*,
and so also in the
case of the pistil. In some of the species of Euphorbia a
proper floral envelope appears at the joint indicating the
Fig. 246. Fig. 247.
Fig. 246. Male flower of Euphorbia. The whole
flower consists of a stamen, 6, sup¬
ported on a peduncle,}?, to which it is
united by an articulation at a. The
flower is naked (achlamydeous). In
some Euphorbias a perianth appears
at the joint.
... 247. Numerous male and one female flower,
p, of Euphorbia, inclosed in a com¬
mon involucre, i, composed of gamo-
phyllous bracts. The plant is monoe¬
cious.
true nature of the organ. The flowers represented in
Figure 247 are therefore naked or achlamydeous male and
female flowers on one plant, which is therefore said to be
monoecious.
The position of the stamens is normally within the
petals, and outside the pistil. They arise from the part of
the peduncle below the latter, and hence they are Hypo-
gynous, which means under the pistil (viro, under, and yvvr],
female or pistil). But, as in all other parts of the flower,
adhesions take place by which changes in apparent position
are produced. Thus the stamens, in place of being free
and truly hypogynous, sometimes adhere to the tube of the
calyx, becoming Perigynous (wept', around), which means
surrounding the pistil; while at other times they adhere
completely to the ovary, and appear to arise from the top
of it, and are hence called Epigynous (eVt, upon). When
the stamens adhere still more completely to the pistil, the
union extending above the ovary, they become Gynan-
drous (yvvr], female, and avrjp, male), as in Orchis, and in
Birthwort (Fig. 248), and form with the pistil a column in
the centre of the flower.
Botany.
Fig. 249.
Fig. 250.
Fig. 248. Essential organs of Birtbwort (Aristolochia).
Above the ovary, o, are the stamens united in a
column with the style, so as to be gynandrous.
On the summit is the stigma above the
stamens.
... 249. Andrcecium of Mallow (Malva). The stamens
are monadelphous, i. e., united into one cluster
by their filaments. The anthers are one-celled,
and open by a slit all round.
Stamens and pistil of Sweet Pea (Lathyrus). The stamens are dia-
delphous, nine of them being united by their filaments,/, while
one of them, e, is free; the upper part of the pistil is marked st,
the calyx, c.
,24a
In place of adhering to the contiguous organs, the
stamens may be distinct from them, but united to each
other either by their anthers or by their filaments. When
the filaments are combined into one mass, more or less
completely, the flowers are Monadelphous (p.dvos, one, and
abeXcfibs, brother), as in the Mallow (Fig. 249); when in
two sets or bundles they are JJiadelphous, as in Fumitory,
and in some papilionaceous flowers, in which the bundles
are often unequal, nine stamens being united in one set,
and only one (which is superior) in the other (Fig. 250);
when in three sets they are Triadelphous, as in St John’s
Wort; and when in more sets Polyadelphous, as in the
Castor-oil plant (Fig. 251). The numerous stamens in the
Mallow and St John’s Wort, and Castor-oil plant, are by
some traced to collateral chorisis, or repeated divisions of
the stamens. Sometimes the filaments are united by means
of an interposed membrane (a sort of crown), as in the Pan¬
cratium. When the stamens are united by their anthers,
the flowers are termed Syngenesious or Synantherous (crvv,
together, yeVecm, origin, avOrjpa, anther), as in Composite
(Fig. 252), in Violet, and in Lobelia.
Stamens are often shorter than the corolla, and are then
said to be included ; but at times they elongate and extend
beyond it, when they are exserted. In some flowers we
find certain stamens constantly longer than others. Thus,
in many Labiate flowers (Fig. 253), and in Frogsmouth,
we meet with two long and two short stamens, the flowers
being Didynamous (3ts, twice, and SiW/us, superiority),
and in Cruciferous flowers there are four long and two
short (Fig. 177), the flowers being Tetradynamous (rerpas,
128
BOTANY.
Botany.
our, Swa/us, superiority). Stamens in general stand regu-
arly round the pistil, but occasionally their upper portions
Fig. 252.
Fig. 251. Male flower of Castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis). The perianth
is reflexed, and the stamens are seen in numerous clusters, united
by their filaments. The flower is polyadelphous. The different
clusters are branching, owing to the filaments being united up to
different heights.
... 252. Regular gamopetalous tubular corolla of one of the flowers of Rag¬
wort {Senecio). The single-seeded ovary, o, is united to the tube
of the calyx, while the limb of the latter is seen above the ovary in
the form of hairs (pappus) surrounding the corolla. In the centre
of the flower above are seen the syngenesious stamens forming a
tube, through which the style passes before it ends in a bifid
stigma, s.
... 253. Irregular gamopetalous labiate flower of Germander (Teucrmm),
seen in profile. The upper lip, u, is short, and the didynamous
stamens, s, are much exserted beyond it.
are curved to one side of the flower, and they become de¬
cimate, as in the Amaryllis and Horse-chestnut.
The filament is slender and cylindrical, or slightly flat¬
tened. It is curved and elastic in the Pellitory (Fig. 254)
Fig. 254. Stamen of Pellitory (Parietaria), with its two-lobed anther, and
elastic curved filament.
... 255. Stamen of Borage (Borago officinalis). The anther lobes, s, are
pointed, the filament is appendiculate, i.e., is furnished with an
appendage, a. in the form of a long slightly-curved process.
... 256. One of the anthers of Asclepias, showing the filament,/,- anther, a,
containing pollen masses, and the peculiar staminal appendages, J3.
... 257. Adnate anther of Barberry (Berberis vulgaris). The lobes of the
anther open by hinged valves.
and in the Nettle, petaloid in the White Water-Lily, and
in Indian Shot and Ginger, broadened at the base in Cam¬
panula, thickened in Barberry (Fig. 257), with appendages
in Borage (Fig. 255) and Asclepias (Fig. 256). The fila¬
ment is attached to the anther lobes, either by adhering
along their whole length on one side, called the back, and
the anther is then adnate, as in Magnolia, Crowfoot, and
Barberry (Fig. 257) ; or it extends only to the base of the
lobes, which are firmly fixed to it, and the anther is innate,
as in Carex (Fig. 258), or its apex is attached to a single
point of the anther, which then swings easily about, and is
called Versatile, as in Grasses (Fig. 165).
The anther presents a groove or depression between its
lobes, indicating the place where the septum or partition
is situated (Fig. 239, </). Each anther lobe also presents a
line or furrow running from top to bottom, and placed more
or less laterally. I his is called the Suture, or line of dehis¬
cence, and marks the place where the anther opens to dis¬
charge the pollen (Fig. 239, l'). The suture corresponds to
the edge of the leaf, and in innate anthers it is lateral,
while in others its position is more or less distinctly on the
face of the anther, or on the side opposite to the attach¬
ment of the filament. At the suture the epidermal tissue
is thin, and the endothecium is wanting.
The face of the anther is usually directed towards the
centre of the flower, in which case the anther is called
Introrse, as in the Vine (Fig. 238); at other times it is
directed towards the circumference of the flower, and the
anther is Extrorse, as in the Meadow-saffron and in the Iris.
The mode of opening or of dehiscence varies in different
anthers. Sometimes the lobes split along the whole face,
either in the centre or at the side, longitudinally (Fig. 239),
at other times transversely (Fig. 259). Sometimes the slit
Fig. 258. Fig. 260.
Fig. 258. Male flower of a species of Sedge {Carex). It consists of a glume or
scale supporting three stamens, with slender thread-like filaments,
and innate anthers.
... 259. Stamen of Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla), with the anther opening
transversely.
... 260. Stamen of a species of Nightshade (Solanum), showing the diverg¬
ence of the anther lobes at the base, and the dehiscence by pores
at the apex, a.
... 261. The stamen of the Barberry {Berberis vulgaris), showing one of the
valves of the anther, v, curved upwards, bearing the pollen on its
inner surface.
... 262. Two stamens of Pansy (Viola tricolor), with their two anther lobes,
and the process, p, extending beyond them. One of the stamens
has been deprived of its spur, the other shows its spur, c.
only takes place at the apex, so as to present two holes or
pores, as in Rhododendron and Solanum (Fig. 260), or
four pores, as in.Poranthera, or two tubes, as in the Heath,
or so as to form a separable lid, as in Gamboge. In the
Barberry, each lobe of the anther opens by a single valve,
which is rolled upwards (Fig. 261, v) ; and the same thing
occurs in many Lauraceae, in which, however, there are
frequently four valves, that is, two to each lobe, correspond¬
ing to the antherine cavities.
The union of the anther lobes is effected either by a con¬
tinuation of the filament (Fig. 257), or by a mass of cellu¬
lar tissue with spiral vessels, called tYieConnective (Fig. 238).
This extends to a greater or less height between the lobes,
and is sometimes so narrow as to be inconspicuous, as in
Euphorbia. Sometimes it reaches beyond them in the form
of a cellular expansion, as in Magnolia, Violet (Fig. 262, p),
and Asarum, or of a long feathery appendage, as in Olean¬
der ; while at other times it proceeds backwards in the form
of a spur, as in the Violet (Fig. 262, c), and in the Heath.
It divides into two branches occasionally, each bearing an
anther lobe, as in Sage (Fig. 245), and then it is distractile.
The Pollen—is contained in the anther, and presents
the appearance of a minute, usually yellow powder, which,
1 2 3
Fig. 263.
Pollen grains of Melon {Cucumis Melo) in various stages of development. No.
1, the grains in a young state, and free ; No. 2, the grains farther advanced,
and nearly ripe ; No. 3, a pollen-grain in a ripe state, fully developed.
BOTANY.
129
Botany, when examined by the microscope, is found to consist of
cellules (Fig. 263) of different forms, varying from g^th
to yjtfth of an inch in diameter. Pollen-grains, when fully
formed, are usually spherical, oval, or triangular (Figs. 267,
268, 269). In Podostemon the pollen is of an oblong shape,
with an hour-glass contraction in the middle ; while in Zos-
tera it consists of long slender threads.
Pollen-grains are developed in the large cells seen in the
early state of the anther (Figs. 241, 242, cm). Each of these
cells is called a parent or mother cell (Fig. 264, cm). Its
contents divide first into two, and then into four parts, each
of which becomes covered with cellulose, so as to constitute
an independent cell or pollen-grain (Fig. 264, p). These
■ grains either burst through the parent cell and become free,
or they remain united in fours or some multiple of four, as
in many species of Acacia; or in large masses, such as those
seen in Orchids (Fig. 265), and in Asclepias, where they
constitute Pollinia. The remains of the partially destroyed
mother cells sometimes remain in the form of threads.
Each pollen-grain has usually two coverings, the outer
called Extine, being a firm membrane marked frequently
.big. 200.
Fig. 264, Parent cells, cm, from the anthers of the Melon, each containing
four grains of pollen, p. The parent cell divides first into two by
a merismatic process, and then each of these parts subdivides into
two, thus forming four cells. The grains of pollen are represented
with nuclei in their interior.
.., 265. Pollinia, or pollen-masses, separated from the point above the stig¬
ma, with their retinacula or viscid matter attaching them at the
base. The pollen-masses,p, are supported on stalks or caudicles.
These masses are easily detached by the agency of insects.
... 266, Round ripe pollen of Hollyhock (Alcea), with its extine covered with
prominent points.
with bands, reticulations, or rough points (Fig. 266) ; the
inner, denominated Intine, being thin and capable of ex¬
tension. The intine alone is present in Zostera. In the
ripe pollen of the Fir (Fig. 267) the distension of the intine
is such as to separate the extine into two hemispherical
parts.
In the interior of pollen-grains a minute granular matter
exists called Fovilla, mixed with starch and oily matter.
The fovilla granules vary from to ^oihnrfh of an inch
in diameter. These display motions which are looked upon
by some as molecular, or such as are seen under the mi¬
croscope among minute particles suspended in fluid; while
by others they are regarded as analogous to the phytozoic
movements seen in the antheridia of Cryptogamic plants.
Fig. 269.
Fig. 267. Pollen of Fir (Firms), in which, by the increase of the intine, the
extine is separated into two hemispherical portions, marked by the
dark spaces at each end of the grains.
... 26&, Ripe rounded pollen of Cherry (Cerasus), discharging its fovilla
through a tubular opening formed by the intine. There are other
two points at which the intine is seen protruding.
... 269. Triangular pollen of Evening Primrose (CEnothera), with one pollen
tube, t, protruded. This tube is formed by the intine, which is also
seen projecting at the other angles.
vol. y.
The surface of pollen-grains is often marked by grooves Botany,
or folds, or by rounded markings. At these parts the ex-
tine is either deficient, or separates like a lid, as in the
Passion-flower. When the pollen is moistened in water its
grains absorb it and become enlarged, and the intine bursts
at one or more points, sending out the fovilla (Fig. 268).
When the pollen is scattered on the pistil, and is moistened
on one side by the fluid of the stigma, the intine, in place
of bursting, protrudes in the form of a tube called a pollen-
tube (Fig.269, t). The number of tubes protruded in differ¬
ent kinds of pollen-grains varies.
Transformations of Stamens.—Changes take place in the
stamens by suppression and degenerations of various kinds.
Whenever the stamens are below the number of the parts
of the calyx, we may suspect that there has been some sup¬
pression. In many irregular flowers, such as Figwort and
Dead-nettle, four stamens only occur, although the parts of
the calyx and corolla are five. This depends on the sup¬
pression of one stamen, and in the case of Figwort we find
a rudimentary stamen in the form of a staminodium attached
to the corolla on the upper side. Again, in allied plants,
such as Pentstemon, the fifth stamen is produced. The
stamens are suppressed in the case of pistilliferous flowers.
In flowers with numerous stamens, such as Poppies, Roses,
and Crowfoots, there are always some of the stamens abor¬
tive, for we do not find two flowers in which the number is
the same. It seems to be a law in vegetable organography
that the number of the floral organs is less constant the
greater it is. Stamens in some plants have a great tendency
to be changed into petals, especially in cultivation. When
the anther is abortive the filament sometimes produces hairs
in its place. In the case of Carina, where only one anther
lobe is perfected, the filament becomes petaloid. It is pro¬
bable that the peculiar gland-like scales of Parnassia are
only an altered state of the stamens (Fig. 237), Occasion¬
ally the anthers are converted into carpels,
The Disk.—The organ which botanists call the Disk
seems to be in many cases an alteration of some of the
staminal whorls. This is more especially true of such cases
as Gloxinia and Gesnera, where
the scales alternate with the de¬
veloped row of stamens, and where
the fifth stamen assumes the form
of a scale. The Disk may be
said to consist essentially of pro¬
cesses arising from the thalamus
between the developed stamens
and pistil. In the Orange the disk
is in the form of a ring surround¬
ing the base of the pistil; so also
in Rue, where it is very large and
conspicuous. In the Vine (Fig.
238), the disk-scales are evident.
In the Tree Paeony (Fig. 270) the
disk forms a dark red expansion
which covers the follicles. In Um¬
belliferous plants,* the remains of the disk are seen at the*pj cxxi
upper part of the fruit.
Fig. 270.
Flower of Tree Pseony (Moutan
officinalis), deprived of its co¬
rolla, and showing the disk in
the form of a fleshy expansion
covering the ovary.
f Gyncecium or Pistilline Organs.
** Pistil before becoming the Fruit.
The pistil is the verticil which terminates the axis of
growth, and is placed in the centre of the flower. It is
composed of leaves called Carpels or Carpidia (Kapirbs,
fruit), from their connection with the fruit. These leaves
are folded, so that their lower surface is external, and they
are well seen in the Cherry, with double flowers, in which
the organs of reproduction are more or less completely
altered. In this plant one or more leaves (Fig. 271) occupy
the place of the pistil. When there is a single carpel (Fig.
K
130
BOTANY.
Botany.
272), the pistil is Simple, and the two terms (carpel and
pistil) are synonymous ; when there is more than one car¬
pel, the pistil is Compound (Fig. 273, c). The carpels are
either distinct or united ; and it frequently happens, that
by adhesion and obliteration, changes take place by which
Fig. 271. Fig. 272.
Fig. 271. Folded carpellary leaf of tlie double-flowering Cherry. In place of
fruit the plant produces leaves.
... 272. Pistil of Broom, consisting of ovary, o, style, s, and stigma, t. It is
formed by a single carpel. The terms pistil and carpel are here
synonymous.
... 273. Vertical section of the flower of Meadow-sweet (Spircea). The pistil
is apocarpous, consisting of several distinct carpels, e, each with
ovary, style, and stigma. The stamens are indefinite, and inserted
into the calyx.
the number of the carpels is diminished, so that they do
not equal the other whorls. It is rare to find the parts of
the pistilline whorl symmetrical with the others. A flower,
however, is still called symmetrical if the numbers of the
three outer whorls are equal to or multiples of each other.
S
V
Fig. 274.
Fig, 276.
Fig. 274. Compound syncarpous pistil of Primrose {Primula). The five car¬
pels of which it is composed are completely consolidated so as to
appear one. The ovaries, o, the styles, t, and stigmata, s, are united.
The flower is called Monogynous, although in reality there are five
parts of the pistil.
... 275. Pistil of Apricot (Prunus Armeniaca), cut vertically. The solitary
ovule, ov, is contained in the ovary, which consists of three coats,
the inner, end, which corresponds to the upper epidermis of the car¬
pellary leaf, and which finally becomes the hard stone of the Apri¬
cot. The middle, me, corresponding to the mesophyllum or paren¬
chyma of the carpellary leaf, and which ultimately becomes the
fleshy part of the Apricot; and the outer, ep. corresponding to
the lower epidermis of the carpellary leaf, and which finally con¬
stitutes the separable skin of the Apricot. The style is prolonged
upwards, containing a canal, tc, and ending in the stigma, St, con¬
sisting of loose cellular tissue uncovered by epidermis.
... 276. Pistil of the Pea (Pisum sativum), laid open. It consists of a single
carpel containing numerous ovules, ov, which are attached to the
placenta, pi, or ventral suture in two rows, by means of umbilical
cords (funiculi),/. The wall of the carpel consists of three layers,
the outer, ep, corresponding to the lower epidermis of the leaf, the
inner, en, corresponding to the upper epidermis of the leaf. Be¬
tween these two layers there is a small amount of cellular tissue
like the parenchyma of the leaf. The parenchymatous portion is
not so much developed as in Figure 275. The calyx, c, is persist¬
ent. The style and stigma are marked s.
A pistil is called Apocarpous or Dialycarpous (dvro, sepa¬
rate, StaXvetv, to separate, and Kaptros, fruit) when all the
carpels are separate (Fig. 273); and Syncarpous (crw, to¬
gether or united) when they are combined into one (Fig.
274). The parts of a perfect pistil are the Ovary, con¬
taining ovules or rudimentary seeds, the Style, and the
Stigma. These terms are rather vaguely used, as applying
either to the parts of a single carpellary leaf, or to the parts
of a pistil formed of more than one carpel, and in which
the ovaries, styles, and stigmas are united completely. In
Figure 275 the lower portion is the ovary containing the
ovule, ov, the style is marked tc, and the stigma st. The
style is not always present, and, when absent, the stigma is Botany,
sessile, as in the Poppy.*
The ovary of a simple pistil consists of the folded blade *pi. CXII.
of a single leaf (Fig. 276), and resembles it in structure, fig. 2.
The outer surface of the ovary (Figs. 275 and 276, ep) re¬
presents the lower epidermis of the leaf, sometimes covered
with hairs, and, when green, exhibiting stomata ; the inner
surface (Fig. 275, end, and 276, en) represents the upper
epidermis ; between these surfaces are placed the paren¬
chyma, and the vascular tissue consisting of woody, spiral,
and dotted vessels of various kinds (Fig. 275, me). The
midrib is on the outer or dorsal surface, and therefore is in¬
ferior, while the two edges of the leaf (Fig. 276,/>f) are united
at their inner part or face next the axis, and are superior.
The face of the ovary is called the ventral suture, while
the back is called the dorsal suture. At the ventral suture
there is a cellular growth called the Placenta (Fig. 276,
pi), to which the ovules, ov, are attached often by a distinct
cord,/. As each margin of the folded leaf or carpel forms
a placenta, this organ is essentially double, and it some¬
times shows its formation by appearing as two lamellae
(Fig. 276, pi). Along the placenta the ovules are placed
in one or more rows. Sometimes they occupy a small part
of the placenta, as in cases where they are reduced to one
(Fig. 275) or two. The parenchymatous tissue sometimes
becomes hard, as in the nut; at other times it is much de¬
veloped, and forms a succulent covering, as seen in fleshy
fruits (Fig. 275, me).
When the style exists, it is a prolongation of the cells
and vessels of the leaf upwards, and represents the narrow
portion of an acuminate leaf, folded so as to form a canal
(Fig. 275, tc), with loose cells inside. It is terminated by
the stigma (Fig. 275, st), which is a loose cellular portion
divested of epidermis, and moistened with fluid, so as to
detain the pollen-grains when scattered. The stigma is
sometimes a mere point, at other times it extends along one
or both sides of the style. It is to be considered as con¬
tinuous with the placenta.
WThen the pistil is formed of a single carpel, it terminates
the axis, and appears to be continuous with it. When the
pistil is bicarpellary, that is, formed of two carpels, they are
placed opposite to each other, and if they unite, it is by
their ventral sutures. The carpels, in such a case, are
usually placed so that one is superior, that is, next the axis,
and the other inferior, next the bract of the axillary flower,
as in the Figwort order. Sometimes, however, they are
lateral, that is, to the right and left of the axis in a plane at
right angles to the axis and bract, as in the Gentian order,
and Cruciferae. When the carpels are more than two, they
follow the usual laws of alternation with the other parts of
the flower. It is chiefly in apocarpous pistils that the alter¬
nation can be satisfactorily seen ; for in syncarpous pistils
the adhesion which takes place often obscures the arrange¬
ment.
The number of carpels in an apocarpous pistil, or the
number of separate styles in a syncarpous one [i.e., one in
which the ovai’ies are united), is indicated in the following
way:—A flower with a simple pistil or one style is Mono¬
gynous (jxovos, one, and yvvr], female); with two separate
carpels or two separate styles, Digynous ; with three, Tri-
gynous ; with four, Tetragynous ; with five, Pentagynous ;
with six, Hexagynous ; with seven, Heptagynous ; with
eight, Octogynous ; with nine, Enneagynous ; with ten,
Decagynous ; with twelve, Dodecagynous ; with a greater
number, Polygynous. These differences are employed by
Linnaeus in forming some of his Orders.
In an Apocarpous pistil, the carpels may be arranged in
one circle (Fig 273), or in several (Fig. 277). In the lat¬
ter case, the inner whorls alternate in succession with the
outer. Sometimes they are placed on a flattened receptacle
or thalamus, as in Marsh Marigold; at other times on an
BOTANY.
131
Botany, elevated one, as in the Crowfoot (Fig. 277), and in the
Strawberry (Fig. 184) ; while at other times they are placed
on a concave one, as in the Rose (Fig. 185).
In a Syncarpous pistil, various degrees of adhesion take
place. The carpels may unite merely at their inner angles,
leaving marked external divisions, as in the Rue; or the
ovaries may be completely united while the styles are se¬
parate, as in Flax (Fig. 2 < 8); or the whole may be conso-
t'ig. 277.
Fig. 279.
lidated into one, as in the Primrose (Fig. 274). In rare
cases the styles and stigmas are united into one body,
while the ovaries are separate, as in the Labiate and the
Borage orders.
In syncarpous pistils, the number of carpels entering into
their composition may be traced by observing the grooves
or lobes of the ovary, by the number of styles and stigmas,
and, when complete union takes place, by the venation, or
by the divisions seen in the interior of the ovary. Thus,
in the Lily, the syncarpous pistil is composed of three car¬
pels united, and, by cutting across the ovary (Fig. 279),
we observe three loculi containing ovules. The carpels are
generally united in such a way, that partitions or dissepi¬
ments (septa), more or less complete, are seen on making
a transverse section. These are formed by the union of
the margins or sides of the carpellary leaves, each septum
being essentially double or composed of the laminae of two
contiguous carpels. The septa of collateral carpels are
therefore vertical, and equal to the number of carpels.
There can be no true septum in a single carpel, but spu¬
rious divisions (phragmata) may be formed, either in a
transverse manner by cellular processes proceeding from
the walls of the carpel, as in Cassia Fistula and Desmo-
dium; or in a vertical manner, by projections from the
dorsal suture, as in Flax; or by prolongations of the pla¬
centa, as in Cruciferae, where a replum is produced; or by
a turning inwards of the ventral suture, as in some species
of Oxytropis, or of the dorsal suture, as in Astragalus. In
the Thorn Apple, the ovary, when cut transversely at the
upper part, shows two cavities ; but when the section is
made at the lower part of the ovary there are four cavities
formed by a spurious vertical septum.
When the partitions in the pistil extend to the axis, a
transverse section shows a number of contiguous cavities or
Loculaments (loculi), with the placentas in the centre bear¬
ing ovules (Fig. 280). A compound pistil of this sort com¬
posed of two carpels is two-celled (bilocular); of three, three-
celled (trilocular), as seen in the Lily (Fig. 279); of four,
four-celled (quadrilocular); of five, five-celled (quinquelo-
cular), as in Campanula (Fig. 281) ; of many, without dis¬
tinct reference to number, many-celled (multilocular or
plurilocular). In these cases the placenta is in the centre, but Botany,
still connected with the walls of the ovary by means of septa. 8-^—
When the partitions do not extend to the centre, all the
cells or loculi communicate, and hence such a compound
pistil is really unilocular, or has one cavity, as in the Poppy
and Orchis (Fig. 282). In these unilocular syncarpous
Fig. 280.
Fig. 282'.
Fig. 278.
Fig. 277. Apocarpous compound pistil of Crowfoot (Ranunculus), consisting of
numerous separate uni-ovular carpels, arranged in several rows on
an elevated receptacle. The flower is polygynous. Each carpel
consists of ovary, style, and stigma. Two of the stamens are left
to show their insertion below the pistil into the thalamus. The
stamens are hypogynous, and the plant belongs to Thalamitiorse.
... 278. Syncarpous pistil of Fla.x(Linum). It consists of five carpels, united
by their ovaries, while their styles and stigmas, s, are separate.
Hence, the flow er is pentagynous.
... 279. Ovary or lower part of the pistil of the Lily (Lilium), cut trans¬
versely. There are three loculaments, indicating the union of
three carpels, and the ovary is said to be trilocular. The divisions
in the ovary, called septa or dissepiments, are formed by the sides
of the carpellary leaves. Each septum is double, and the number
of septa corresponds with the number of the carpels. The ovules
are placed collaterally, in pairs, in each loculament, and are at¬
tached to a central placenta, formed by the union of the three ven¬
tral sutures.
Fig. 281.
Fig. 280. Diagramatic section of a quinquelocular or pentathecal ovary, com¬
posed of five carpels, the edges of which are folded inwards, and
meet in the centre. The ovules, o. are attached to a central pla¬
centa, formed by the union of the five ventral sutures. The five
partitions, septa or dissepiments, s, are composed of the two sides
of contiguous carpels. Dorsal suture, l.
... 281. Ovary of Bell-flower (Campanula), cut transversely. The placenta
is m the centre, consisting partly of a prolongation of the axis in
theform of a column, and partly of the true placentaries, bearing
olh 
numerous ovules, arranged collaterally in pairs. The ovary is
quinquelocular, being formed by five carpels, which are attached
to the calyx, s. The back of each of the carpels corresponds to the
midrib, s, of a sepal.
282. Unilocular or monothecal ovary of an Orchid (Orchis), cut trans¬
versely, showing three parietal placentas bearing ovules. The
edges of the carpels are slightly folded inwards.
pistils there may be seen partitions proceeding to a greater
less extent into
or
the cavity of the
ovary, and bearing
placentas on their
edges. Such placen¬
tas are called Parie¬
tal, and their num¬
ber indicates the
number of united
Fig. 283. Fig. 284,
(.ovnplc TIiasp Til.-i Fig. 283. Diagramatic section of a quinquelocular
caipcia. iiie&e put ovary.in which the edges of the carpels
centas are sometimes bearing the p'
i -i ,, are not folded
nearly sessile on the
walls of the ovary
(Fig. 283), at other
times they are sup¬
ported on distinct
parietal septa (Fig.
284). Such are called
cases of parietal placentation, and are considered as showing
the formation of marginal placentas, on the edges of car¬
pellary leaves more or less completely folded inwards to¬
wards the axis. The ovules, in these instances, are ana¬
logous to buds on the margins of leaves, as seen in Bry-
ophyllum (Fig. 141).
Cases occur in which the carpels are united so as to have
no apparent fold
placentas and ovules,
are not folded inwards. The placentas
are parietal, and the ovules appear
sessile on the walls of the ovary. The
compound ovary is unilocular, and the
edges of its carpels are applied to each
other in a valvular manner.
284. Diagramatic section of a quinquelocular
ovary, in which the septa, .?, proceed
inwards for a certain length, bearing
tho placentas and ovules, o. In this
case the ovary is unilocular, and the
placentas are parietal. Dorsum, J.
ingin wards of their
edges, and in which
the placentas are
placed in the cen¬
tre, quite separate
from the walls of
the ovary, as in
the Chickweedand
Fig. 285.
Fig. 286.
rifnmiluiic Fig. 285. Diagramatic section of a compound unilo-
rrimrose famines. cular ovary, formed by five carpels, the
edges of which are very slightly folded in¬
wards, as represented by short lines on
the inner surface of the circle. The ovules,
o, are in the centre, and not attached to
the walls of the ovary.
286. Diagramatic section of a compound uni¬
locular ovary, in which there are no
indications of partitions. The ovules, o,
are attached to a free central placenta,
which has no connection with the walls of
the ovary.
This is called Free
Central placenta¬
tion (Figs. 285 and
286). It is by some
considered as being
produced by the
disappearance of
the septa, or by their rupture, at an early period of the
growth of the ovary, so as to leave the placentas in the
*
132
Botany.
BOTANY.
middle. This view is strengthened by seeing in some of
the Chickweed tribe septa in a very early stage of growth,
and imperfect remains of these partitions on the wall o
the ovary, even in an advanced stage fi ig. ooj. n
some instances, however, especially in the Primrose tribe,
no vestiges of septa are found, and no marginal ovules at any
period of growth (Fig. 286). Hence this kind of free central
placentation is supposed to be produced by a prolongation
of the axis, and it is therefore denominated Axile—the leaves
of the gynoecium being looked upon as united in a valvate
manner, and as being verticillate round the placentary axis,
which bears ovules like leaf-buds. Those who adhere to
the view of all placentas being formed on the margins of
leaves, have endeavoured to account for cases oifree central
placentation like those of the Primrose, by considering the
placenta as formed by chorisis from the edge of carpellary
leaves, or by placentas produced only at the base of the car¬
pel, and, after uniting together in the centre, becoming elon-
gated and enlarged. On the other hand, some advocates of
axile placentation not only apply this view to such cases as
those of the Primrose, but to all cases of placentation what¬
ever ; and, in the case of parietal placentas, think that the
axis divides into a number of cellular prolongations, which
become attached to the edges of the carpellary leaves.
Marginal placentas are formed either by the edges of a
single carpel, or by the edges of two
contiguous carpels. I he former takes
place in apocarpous pistils (Fig. 276,
jo/), and in syncarpous pistils with com¬
plete septa (Fig. 287) ; the latter in syn¬
carpous pistils with parietal placentas
(Fig. 282). The placenta does not al¬
ways bear ovules throughout its whole
extent. Sometimes it is ovuliferous Fig_ 287-
(ovule-bearing) only at or near its summit,
Pistil of Meadow-saflfron
or in its middle or at its base. _ In such consist-
placentas the ovules are sometimes re- which finally separate
* , • .I ^   from each other at the
duced to one, <is in the Common oed- apex, showing the
Pink, ami in Composite plants. The tSS
nlacenta in some instances extends from dehiscence is called
r, . i ii i septicidal, because it
the margin of the carpellary leaves over takes place through
the whole inner surface of the ovary, as the septa..
in the Flowering Rush, and in the White Water-Lily. T. he
spreading of the placenta over the surface may give rise to
the appearance of ovules proceeding from the doisal sutuie,
especially when that is the only part of such a placenta
which bears ovules.
The carpellary leaves forming the pistil or Gyncecial
verticil are usually sessile, but cases occur in which they
appear to be stalked so as to raise the ovary. Such an oc¬
currence may be considered as depending either on a pro¬
longation of the axis supporting the pistil, as seen occasion¬
ally in certain monstrosities of Rose and of Geum, or on
the union of the petioles of carpellary leaves. In the Pas¬
sion-flower, there is a distinct stalk or gynophore (ywr/,
female, and (popetiv, to bear), bearing the pistil. The same
thing takes place in some of the Caper tribe, as well as in
Lychnis, in the Pink, and in Dictamnus (Fig. 182), where
the stalk is short and thick.
When the pistil is free in the centre of the flower it is
called superior, and the other verticils are inferior or hypo-
gynous. It is often united to the calyx and the other
whorls. When the adhesion between the ovary and calyx
or perianth is complete, as in the Gooseberry, the ovary
is said to be inferior. In such instances, the petals and sta¬
mens, which are attached to the calyx, appear to arise from
the summit of the ovary, and are called Epigynous (tVt,
upon, and ywi), pistil). Between these two conditions, there
are intermediate stages of adhesion, as seen in some Saxi¬
frages, where the ovary becomes half-inferior.
In certain cases it has been supposed that the axis forms
. m
Uni-ovular carpel
of Lady’s-mantle
(Alchemilla) with
the style, s, aris¬
ing from the ap¬
parent base. It
is called a basilar
style, although
it arises from
the organic apex
which is here
turned round.
The stigma at the
summit of the
style is capitate.
part of the walls of the ovary by spreading out in a concave Botany,
manner, in the same way as the expanded axis of Esch- v'—
scholtzia* seems to form part of the calyx. In the Rose the *pi. CXIII.
axis becomes united to the tube of the calyx (Fig. 185), fig. 7.
and is prolonged so as to form a hollow cavity or disk, on
the inside of which numerous separate carpels are placed.
The Style—is the prolonged apex of the carpellary leaf,
and is not an essential part of the pistil. In some cases it
seems to be a process from the placenta, as shown by Lind-
ley in Babingtonia. It may, therefore, consist merely of
cellular tissue, with spiral vessels, or it may also have woody
tubes and other vessels of the midrib and
blade of the leaf entering into its composi¬
tion. A canal traverses it (Fig. 275, tc),
containing loose cells, called conducting
tissue, which is continuous with the pla¬
centa. The style (Fig. 274, t) is situated
at the proper apex of the leaf {apicilar),
but, by changes in the direction of the apex,
it frequently happens that the style appears
to be lateral, as in the Strawberry, or even
basilar, i.e., from the apparent base, as in
Lady’s-mantle (Fig. 288). In syncarpous
pistils the styles are frequently united, so
as to appear single (Fig. 274). W hen the
carpels are placed round an enlarged axis,
so that their apices are united to the summit
of it, the styles, when united, appear to come
from the axis of the plant, as in many of
the Borage order, and in the Sage. The ^
carpels are called in such cases Gynobasic (ywrj, pistil,
and /Maoris, foot). In the Geranium the styles are united
to the prolonged axis or beak, from which they separate
when the fruit is ripe (Fig. 183).
The style in its form is generally rounded, but at times
it becomes flat, like a petal, as in Indian-shot. In the
Bell-flower there are peculiar hairs on the style, apparently
connected with the application of pollen. The style in the
pistil of Clematis is also hairy, so as to render the fruit cau¬
date or tailed. A style, apparently simple, may be formed of
several united. Frequently the divisions of such a style
extend downwards for a certain length, showing the parts
of which it is composed, and thus indicating the number of
carpels. But there are cases in which the style, proceed¬
ing from a single carpel, actually splits into two parts, be¬
coming/or-Aerf, as in Euphorbia. This splitting is accounted
for by the circumstance that the style is in reality double,
formed of two sides of the leaf.
The Stigma—is a part of the pistil, composed of loose
cells, which secrete a viscid fluid, and which are uncoveied
bv epidermis. This organ is either sessile on the summit
of the ovary, as in the rl ulip and Poppy, or it is placed at
the apex (Fig. 274, s'), or on the side of the style. It may
be said to be continuous with the placenta, diffeiing fiom
it in not bearing ovules. This connection with the placenta
is evidently seen in cases where it can be traced along one
or both sides of the style as far as the ovary. Being
formed like the placenta, the stigma is essentially double,
and sometimes shows a division on one side, as in Drosera
and some Euphorbias. The half of one stigma occa¬
sionally unites to the half of that next it, thus giving lise
to a peculiar abnormality in the relation ot the parts.
Stigmas in a svncarpous pistil are either united or free.
In the latter case their lobes or lamellae indicate the num¬
ber of carpels. The united stigmas sometimes become
large and orbicular, as in Rock-rose, or capitate, as in Prim¬
rose (Fig. 274, s), or they radiate along a shield-like body,
as in the Poppy.* In the Periwinkle the stigma is covered *pi. CXII.
with hairs, and exhibits a marked contraction in the middle
like an hour-glass, with a broad rim below. In the Nettle
the stigma is covered with hairs radiating from a point, and
BOTANY.
Botany, is called penicillate. In the Violet (Fig. 289. ,v), the
v>—stigma has a hooded and
hooked appearance.
The name of stigma is
sometimes erroneously given
to parts of the style. Thus
the upper petaloid portions
of the style of the Iris (Fig.
290, sty) have been called
stigmata, a term which ought
to be restricted to the little
slits at their apex (Fig. 290, Fig. 289,
stig). So also the umbrella¬
like stigma of Sarracenia is
in reality an expansion of
the styles with the stigmata
at their edges. In some stig-  
mata, as those of Mimulus, 9Rq p. t.. , ^ 290- . , ,, .
4.1 ^ . i n . . . , J 289. Pistil of the Pansy (Violet tn-
the lo^^Uoo^ *„ui„ color) it consists of ovary,
style, and a peculiar hooded
and hooked stigma, s, with a
marked hole, as represented
by the dark round spot.
290. Gynoecium of the Flower-de-
Luce (/ns), consisting of an
ovary, o, adherent to the pe¬
rianth, and a style, sty, which
divides into three petaloid
segments bearingstigmas,stigu
The ovary is inferior, and the
perianth superior.
133
the two lamellae are irritable,
and close when touched. In
Orchids the stigma is sessile
on the common column (gy-
nostemium, yw?), pistil, and
oTTy/iw, stamen), and ap¬
pears as a viscid space im¬
mediately below the anther
lobes.
Transformations of the Pistil.—These are of frequent
occurrence, and depend, generally, on abortion of a certain
number of carpels, and on adhesions of various kinds. In the
apocai pous pistils of Aconite, Nigella, Larkspur, and Pasony,
we find on the same plant pistils composed of two, three,
four, five, and six carpels. In some of the Brambles, Mo-
quin-Tandon has seen all the carpels except one disappear,
thus making the fruit resemble that of the Plum. In the
case of Leguminous plants, there is usually only a single
carpel, although the flower is pentamerous; this state has
been traced to abortion of carpels, and the view is confirmed
by finding plants in the same natural order with more than
one carpel. Pistils of a succulent nature, such as those of
the Sloe and Bird-cherry, sometimes assume the form of a
pod, like that of the Pea. Occasionally stamens are changed
into carpels, and at other times the carpels are transformed
into stamens, and bear pollen.
The Ovule—is the rudiment of the future seed (Fig. 275,
ov), and in its early state it appears as a minute cellular pro¬
jection or mammilla of the placenta. It is analogous to a
bud produced on the edge of a leaf, or to a bud formed on
a branch in cases where the placenta is axile. The cells
multiply until the ovule assumes a more or less enlarged
ovate form, constituting what has been called the Nucleus,
or the central cellular mass of the ovule (Fig. 291, n).
The ovular nucleus alters in the progress of growth, so as
to be prepared for the development of the embryo plant in
its interior. At the apex of the nucleus an absorption or
obliteration of cells takes place, by which a hollow cavity is
formed, which becomes lined with a thin cellular membrane
(epithelium), and forms the sac in which the rudiments of
the embryo first appear (Fig. 292, s). This embryo-sac is
surrounded by a cellular layer derived from the nucleus
(Fig. 292, n), to which the name of Tercine has been
given. In some instances the tercine appears to be the
only covering of the sac, as in the Mistleto. In most
cases, however, other cellular layers are formed, which first
appear in the shape of annular appendages at the base, and
then gradually spread over the central mass. These ovular
coverings are usually two, one next the nucleus, and first
ormed (Fig. 293, s), called the Secundine, and the other on
the outside (Fig. 293, p), called the Primine. These two
coats or coverings of the ovule are sometimes incorporated
so as to appear one.
At the base of the ovule these coverings and the nucleus Botany,
are intimately united at one point by a cellular and vascu- 'v'»
lar process, called the Chalaza (Fig. 292, ch), where the
Fig. 291.
end
Fig. 293.
ch ‘ii-Jtli
Fig. 292.
Fig. 291. Young ovule of Celandine (Chelidonium majus) before its coverintrs
are developed. It consists of the nucleus, n, which at this staveof
growth is naked. The base of the nucleus,’where the nourithing
vessels enter, is marked ch. This point is called the clnla/-! S
... 292. Orthotropous or Orthotropal ovule of Polygonum, showing the em-
£2'°'% *’ in V’e nuoI®us.> n- ^e different ovular coverings, the
base of the nucleus or chalaza, ch, and the apex of the ovule with
its foramen, m.
... 293. The ovule of Polygonum, with its nucleus, n, covered bv the inner
coat, s, orthe secundine, and theouter coat, »,orthe primin'* The
opening in the secundine, end, is called the endostome, that in the
primine, ex, is the exostome. The point of the n ucleus is seen pro¬
jecting at the foramen. Ihe end by which the ovule is attached to
the placenta is marked/.
nourishing vessels enter from the placenta. At the apex
of the ovule they leave an opening called the Foramen or
Micropyle (plxpos, small, and irv\v, a gate), through which
the influence of the pollen is afterwards conveyed. This
foramen extends through both ovular coats, the opening in
the outer (big. 293, ex) being the Exostome (t^w, outside,
and (rro/xa, mouth), and that in the inner (Fig. 293, end)
being the Fndoscome (tvdov, within). The foramen indi¬
cates the organic apex of the ovule, while the part connected
with the placenta by means of the stalk (Fig. 293,/) called
the A umculus or Podosperm (ttops, a foot, o-n-lpua, a seed)
is the base or Eilum.
Ihe relation which the hilum, the micropyle, and the
chalaza bear to each other, varies in different ovules. In an
Orthotropous (op^os, straight) or straight ovule (straight as
regards its axis), the chalaza is at the hilum, and the micro¬
pyle at the opposite extremity (Fig. 292). In such an ovule
the chalaza, ch, is at the base, and the micropyle, m, at the
apex, and no curvature nor inversion takes place either in
the nucleus or in its coverings. In a Campylotropous
(KayTTvAos, curved) or curved ovule, the chalaza is still at
the hilum, but the whole ovule is bent upon itself, so that
the micropyle or apex approaches the hilum. This is shown
^ Fjgure 294, which exhibits a vertical section of the ovule
of W allflower; the nucleus, n, is curved on itself, and so are
the) primine, p, and secundine, s; the chalaza, eh, is at
the base of the ovule, s
and the foramen or
apex is close to it. In
an Anatropous (ava-
Tpeireiv, to subvert)
or inverted ovule
(Fig. 295), an inver¬
sion of the nucleus,
n, takes place, so that
its base, ch, is re¬
moved to the opposite
side from the hilum, cTf/,ot„ro„... c.meT,.Sp.T„nIO
h, or base of the ovule, °[ W^n^oWeT(Cheiranthus), showing,/
the funiculus which attaches the ovule
to the placenta, p the primine, s the
secundine, n the nucleus, ch the cha-
laza. The ovule is curved upon itself,
so that the foramen is near the funi¬
culus.
295. Anatropons or Anatropal ovule of Dan¬
delion (Leontodan Taraxacum,), showin g
the coats of the. ovule surrounding the
nucleus, n. to  
h, or base of the ovule,
and the micropyle,/,
is so placed as to be
close to the hilum.
In this case the cha¬
laza, ch, is at the ap¬
parent apex of the
ovule, and its con¬
nection with the pla¬
centa is kept up by
a cord, r, called the
Paphe, consisting of cellular tissue and of spiral vessels.
  -- * uuiiiuiiig tilt?
nucleus, n, which is inverted, so that
its hase. cA, where the chalaza exists,is
removed from the base or hilum of the
fvale, h, while the foramen,/, is near
the base. The connection between the
base of the ovule and the base of the
nucleus at s is kept up bjT raeans of the
raphe, r,.
134
BOTANY.
Botany. When the hilum is placed midway between the micropyle
 V ' and the chalaza, the ovule becomes Heterotropal (ercpos,
diverse), and in such cases it frequently happens that the
funiculus proceeds at right angles from the ovule, so that
the latter becomes horizontal. Such ovules are considered
by some as produced by a partial adhesion of the funiculus
to the upper part of one side of the ovule.
Anatropous ovules are very common. They appear to
be formed with the view of allowing the pollen tubes to
reach the foramen easily. Campylotropous ovules are by
no means uncommon. They are met with in Cruciferous
and Caryophyllaceous plants, in Mignonette, and in the
Bean. The orthotropous form is rare as a permanent con¬
dition of the ovule ; it is met with in a few natural orders,
such as the Buckwheat and Rock-rose tribes. Many look
upon it as being the earliest state of all ovules, and refer the
other forms to changes produced during growth.
Ovules vary in number. Sometimes there is a solitary
ovule in each ovary, or in each loculament, at other times
there are several. W hen the number is not great, and is
uniform, the ovules are said to be definite, when very nu¬
merous they are indefinite. They are attached in various
ways to the placenta, and their position in the ovary varies.
When the placenta at the base of the ovary is the only part
ovuliferous, then the ovule is erect, as in Polygonum. When
the ovuliferous part is above the base, and the ovules pro¬
ceed obliquely upwards, they are ascending, as in the Pel-
litory, and if they are developed equally on either side of the
attachment, they are horizontal or peltate, as in Crassula.
When the ovuliferous part of the placenta is at the apex of
the ovary, the ovules are pendulous, as in Valerian, when
below the apex, they are suspended, as in the Apricot (Fig.
275). In the Common Thrift, a funiculus extends from the
placenta to the apex of the ovary, and curves downwards
so as to suspend the ovule. When an ovary is multi-ovular
(contains many ovules), the ovules may be all attached in
the same way, and be placed either collaterally or one above
the other (Fig. 279) ; or they may be attached in different
ways, so that some are erect and others pendulous. These
terms apply only to the position of the ovule as respects the
ovary, and they have reference alike to orthotropous, cam¬
pylotropous, and anatropous ovules. Ihus, an anatropous
ovule may be either erect or pendulous as regards its posi¬
tion in the ovary. The same terms apply to the seed in its
relation to the seed-vessel. . .
Some ovules are not contained in a true pistil, i.e., in a
carpel consisting of true ovary
and stigma. These ovules are
* Plate met with in the Cycas* and
CXXXIV. cone-bearing orders. In the
former, the ovules are arranged
on the edges of metamorphosed
leaves, and the pollen from the
male flowers is applied directly
to them, without the interven¬
tion of a stigma. In the latter
the ovules (Fig. 296, ov) are
covered by scales, eca, which are
hardened bracts or floral leaves
covering the female flowers. In
this case also the pollen is applied
to the micropyle, mic, of the
ovules, without the intervention
of a stigma.
tf Pistil after becoming the Fruit.
The Fruit—is, properly speaking, the pistil arrived at
maturity, containing the ripe seeds, in which the embryo
plant is developed (Fig. 297, joZ). The simplest form ot fruit
is that formed by a single carpel, inclosing one or more
seeds (Fig. 276). It often happens that changes take place
by which some parts of the carpel are rendered succu- Botany,
lent, and, then, in place of a dry fruit, there is produced a
fleshy one. This is well seen in the case of the Peach, in
which the outer epidermal covering of the carpel forms
what is called the shin, the parenchymatous cells of the
mesophyllum constitute the fiesh, and the inner epidermis
of the carpellary leaf is changed into the stone; the kernel
being the ripe seed containing the embryo plant. In the
Coco-nut, in place of fleshy cells, woody fibrous ones are
produced; the outer layer of the husk representing the ex¬
ternal epidermis of the ovarian carpel, the fibrous portion
being the parenchyma of the carpel, and the hard shell
being the inner epidermis of the carpel inclosing the seed
and the embryo.
As in the case of the pistil, so in the fruit, the carpels
composing it may be distinct or united. When the fruit
consists of a single ripe carpel, or of several separate and
distinct carpels, it is said to be Apocarpous or Dialycarpous,
as in the Pea (Fig. 276) where there is a single carpel, and
in the Ranunculus (Fig. 277), and Columbine (Fig. 298),
FifT. 296.
Pistillate flower of a Fir (Pi-
nus\ consisting of a scale,
eca, which, is a hardened
bract, and two ovules, w,
attached to its base. The
apex of the ovules is indicat¬
ed by the foramen ,mic. Some
look upon the scale as an ex¬
panded carpellary leaf. The
ovules are called naked, be¬
cause they are not contained
in a true ovary, with astigma
attached to it.
Fig. ?U0.
Fig. 298.
Fig. 297.
... 298.
... 299,
... 300
Fruit of a species of Dock (Rumex), cut vertically. It is a mono-
spermous indehiscent dry fruit, called an Achene, or Achamium.
The outer part, ov, is the pericarp or seed-vessel containing the
seed, with its coverings. The seed contains nourishing matter,
called albumen or perisperm, alb, and the embryo plant, pi, with
its cotyledons pointing downwards, and its radicle upwards, the
seed is orthotropakand the embryo is inverted. At the upper pait
of the pericarp two of the styles and stigmas are seen curving
downwards. At the base, part of the perianth is represented.
Apocarpous fruit of Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris), consisting ot
five separate mature carpels, with styles and stigmas. ,
Transverse section of the Acorn (glans), showing the three carpi Is
with two ovules in each, of which it is originally composed. iw»
of the carpels and five of the ovules are obliterated during the pro¬
gress of growth, so that the mature fruit is unilocular and mono-
fpermal. Surrounding the ovary the mass of bracts is seen.
Acorn, or fruit of the Oak consisting of the -
taining a single seed, and surrounded by a senes of bracts which
form the cup or cupula.
in which there are several separate mature carpels. When
the mature carpels are combined, as in the Poppy, the fiuit
is Syacarpous. Sometimes the mature pistils of several
flowers are incorporated into one hard or succulent mass, as
in the Cone, in the Mulberry, and in the Fig (Fig. 157),
and in these instances, what is commonly called the fruit,
consists, in reality, of a great number of fruits united to¬
gether. Such fruits are called Collective or Multiple.
The fruit may be formed not merely by the pistil, but
also by other parts of the flower united to it, moie oi less
completely. Thus, in the Apple, Pear, Gooseberry, Cur¬
rant, and Melon, the calyx is combined with the pistil; in
the Hazel-nut, the Acorn (k ig. 300), and Chestnut, bracts
form the husk, the cup, and the burr; in the Rose the i e-
ceptacle is enlarged, and covers the pistil. Occasionally the.
fruit seems to consist not merely of a number of lows of
transformed leaves, but of a transformed branch in addition.
By ascertaining the anatomy and structure of the pistil,
we are led to a knowledge of the nature of the fruit, and
we are enabled to see the changes which take place during
growth. These changes depend on increase of the paren¬
chyma, adhesion of one part to another, obliteration of o-
B 0 T A N Y.
135
jSWJi
mtk
Botany, culaments or of ovules, and the development of additional
v-*-' processes or partitions from the placenta, and from other
parts of the pistil. Thus, the Coco-nut in its young state,
is formed by three carpels, each containing a single ovule,
while in its mature condition there is only one loculament
and one seed. In this case the partitions between the car¬
pels are obliterated, and one ovule is developed at the ex¬
pense of the other two. These changes may be traced on
careful examination; and even in the ripe fruit indications
of them are seen in the markings on the shell. The Acorn
in its early condition (Fig. 299), is formed of three carpels,
with two ovules in each, as seen in the Figure, but in the
progress of development changes are induced by which the
fruit (Fig. 300) becomes one-celled and one-seeded. In
these cases a trilocular sex-ovular pistil becomes a uni¬
locular and monospermic fruit. In the Hazel, the Ash,
the Elm, the Beech, and the Horse-chestnut, similar
changes are produced in the pistil by the abortion of ovules,
and the obliteration of divisions. In the Thorn-apple the
pistil is formed of two carpels, separated by a septum, while
the fruit exhibits four loculaments, produced by prolonga¬
tions from the placentas, forming a spurious septum in each
carpel.
It sometimes happens that the receptacle or peduncle be¬
comes succulent, and is called the fruit in ordinary language
Thus, in the Strawberry (Fig. 301), the true
fruit consists of small single-seeded (mono¬
spermic) dry seed-vessels (commonly called
seeds), scattered over a succulent convex
receptacle ; in the Rose, the true fruit con¬
sists of similar seed-vessels arranged on a
fleshy concave receptacle (Fig. 185); and
in the Fig the true fruit consists of mono¬
spermic seed-vessels produced by separate
flowers, and scattered over the inner surface The
of a concave succulent receptacle (Fig. 157).
Pl.CXVI. In the Cashew,* the nut or true fruit is
borne on a coloured succulent stalk, which
enlarges during ripening.
In the interior of some fruits a pulpy
substance is produced, apparently as a se¬
cretion from the inner lining of the ovary.
This kind of pulpy matter is met with in the
Gooseberry, Currant, Grape, Orange, and
pod of Cassia Fistula. Occasionally the organs adjacent
to the pistil become the succulent parts of the fruit. In
Strawberry-Blite, the calyx surrounding the pistil, and sepa¬
rate from it, becomes red and juicy; in Gualtheria procum-
bens, the free calyx, after flowering, becomes red and suc¬
culent, surrounding the true fruit, which is dry. In the
Yew, the bracts enveloping the seed become succulent.
The fruit, generally speaking, con¬
sists of the seed-vessel or Pericarp (-rrepl, me
around, and Kapiros, fruit), and the Seed. en
It cannot be said to be perfect unless the
seed and embryo are produced. In many
cultivated fruits, however, the seeds are
abortive. Thus, in the case of the
Bread-fruit, Banana, and Pine-apple, the
best fruit is seedless, and such is often Fig. 302.
true of the Orange and the Grape. The DrnPe of the cherry
Pericarp, in its simplest state, represents cai™,Showing vethe
the carpellary leaf; and, like it, can be
separated into three parts ; the outer epi¬
dermal covering (Fig. 302, ep), called
Epicarp, or Exocarp, (im, upon, e£io,
Fig. 301.
fruit of the
Strawberry (Fra-
garia vesca) con¬
sisting of the en¬
larged succulent
receptacle, or
growing point,
bearing on its sur¬
face numerous
single-seeded car¬
pels or achenes.
Each achene has
a style and stig¬
ma, and is thus at
once distinguish¬
ed from a seed.
skin, or epicarp, ep,
the flesh or mesocarp,
me, and the stone,
putamen, or endocarp,
en, inclosing the seed,
g, with the embryo.
three coverings are well seen in the Peach, in the Cherry,
and in the Date. In their original structure these parts
correspond with the leaf, but changes take place during
ripening, by which some cells are hardened and others be¬
come succulent, and thus the resemblance to the leaf is much
obscured. That succulent fruits, such as the Peach, Apricot,
and Cherry, are to be regarded as altered carpellary leaves,
is shown in the case of the double Cherry, where true leaves
occupy the place of the fruit (Fig. 186). Dr Wyville Thom¬
son records instances of the common Sloe and Bird-cherry
producing red-coloured follicular pods. In many fruits, as
in the Nut, the different pericarpial layers are so blended
that it is not easy to mark their separation.
Some fruits fall without opening or dehiscing, the seeds
being liberated during the process of decay ; such fruits are
Indehiscent (indehisco, not to open). Other fruits open or
dehisce in various ways, so as to scatter the seeds, and are
called Dehiscent. The dehiscence takes place either in a
vertical or in a transverse direction ; the former is the usual
mode. Vertical dehiscence takes place through the sutures,
or by the separation of the parts of which a syncarpous fruit
is composed. The separate parts are called Valves. In
fruits formed by a single carpel, the dehiscence occurs either
at the ventral or dorsal suture, or both. In the follicles of
the Paeony, the Columbine (Fig. 298), and the Marsh Mari¬
gold, the dehiscence is ventral; in Magnolia grandiflora the
dehiscence is sometimes dorsal; while in the pod of the Pea
(Fig. 276) and of the Bean, it is both ventral and dorsal.
When the fruit consists of several carpels united, or is
syncarpous, the dehiscence takes place either by a separa¬
tion of the constituent carpels through the dissepiments
(h ig. 303), and in that case is Septicidal {septum, partition,
Botany.
si
Fig. 303. Eig. 304. Fig. 305.
Fig. 303. Diagram to illustrate the septicidal dehiscence in a pental ocular
capsule. The loculaments, l, correspond to the number of the
carpels, which separate by splitting through the septa, s.
... 304. Diagram to illustrate loculicidal dehiscence. The loculaments, l,
split at the back, and the valves separate, bearing the septa, s, in
their centres. ,
... 305. Diagram to illustrate septifragal dehiscence, in which the dehiscence
takes place through the back of the loculaments, l, and the valves
separate from the septa, s, which are left attached to the placentas
in the centre.
and ceedo, to cut), as in Figwort and Gentian, where there
are two valves, in Meadow-saffron, where there are three
valves, and in the Fig-Marigold and the Rhododendron,
where there are five or more valves ; or the dehiscence
takes place by the dorsal suture of each carpel (Fig. 304),
and in that case is Loculicidal {loculus, a loculament, and
ccedo, to cut), as in the Iris, the Pansy, the Lily, and the
Horse-chestnut.
There are modifications of these kinds of dehiscence.
Thus, in the septicidal form the valves, on separating,
sometimes carry the placentas with them, as in Gentian and
Colchicum (Fig. 287) ; at other times, the placentas or pla-
centaries are left attached to the central axis or columella, as
in Rhododendron. In the case of Hura, Euphorbia, and
Janipha,* each carpel, or coccus as it is called, separates 4tpi cXIir
from the columella, carrying w ith it an inclosed seed. In fig. 2.
the loculicidal dehiscence the dissepiments may remain
attached to the middle of each of the valves, and separate
along with them, or the septa may adhere to the axis, and
outside Kapno'i, fruit); the middle parenchymatous portion, allow the valves to fall off without them (Fig. 305) as in
me called Mesocarp (/^ecros middle), and when succulent, the Thorn-apple and Purple Convolvulus. The latter kind
^rcocarp (aap£ flesh), and the inner epidermal covering, of loculicidal dehiscence is called Septifragal {septum, a par-
sfn’nv P , hndoc“rP and when hard and tition, and/m^o, to break). In some cases the dehiscence
stony Putamen {putamen, the shell of a nut). These is at first loculicidal, and afterwards the carpels separate
i.
136
BOTANY.
Botany, from each other in a septicidal manner. This union of the
v'—two kinds of dehiscence is seen in some Spurges, in the
♦PI. CXV. Castor-oil fruit, and in the Purging Flax.*
fig-1- In Orchis, the placentas, as represented in Figure 282,
are parietal, and the seed-vessel opens by three valves
(Fig. 306, v), which are placentiferous in their middle, but
Fig. 308.
Fig. 309.
Fig. 306. Seed-vessel of an Orchid {Orchis), opening by three valves, v v v,
which bear the placentas and seeds in their middle. 3 he midribs
of the carpels remain united at the base and apex, and the withered
floral envelopes, e, are seen attached at the apex.
307. Siliqua or seed vessel of Wallflower (Cheiranthus Chein), opening by
two valves, which separate from the base upwards, leaving the
seeds attached to the placentas in the middle, with a replum
... 308. Seed-vessel or capsule of Campion (Lychnis), opening by ten teeth
at the apex. The placenta is free central The calyx is seen sur¬
rounding the seed-vessel, but not adherent.
... 309. Capsule of Poppy (Papaver), opening by pores, p, under the broad
peltate stigma.
*PJ. CXII.
fig-2.
* PI ate
CXXVIII.
the midribs of the three carpels remain united at their base
and summit, and the withered floral envelopes, e, are seen
attached at the apex. In the pod of cruciferous plants,
such as Wallflower, Whitlow-grass, and Shepherd’s-purse, as
well as in the pod-like fruit of Celandine, two valves sepa¬
rate from the base upwards (Fig. 307), leaving the parietal
placentas united together by a cellular frame or replum,
which is either entire or perforated. In vertical dehiscence
the splitting sometimes takes place only at the apex of the
fruit, so that the seed-vessel opens by teeth, as in Campion
(Fig. 308), and Mouse-ear Chickwee'd, or by pores, as in the
Poppy* (Fig. 309), or by rupturing, as in Frogsmouth, or by
one large orifice, as in Mignonette. In the Bell-flower,
the seed-vessel dehisces in a loculicidal manner laterally, or
near the base.
Transverse dehiscence is of rare occurrence. It is seen
t Henbane* (Fig.310),
Pimpernel, Purslane,
and in various species
of Monkey-pot (Fig.
311), in which the
upper part of the fruit
separates like a lid.
This is called Circum-
scissile {circum, around,
and scissilis, cleft) de¬
hiscence, and seems to
indicate that the seed-
vessel in these cases
is formed by jointed
Fig. 310.
niger), opening by circumscissile de¬
hiscence. The upper part of the
seed-vessel comes olf in the form of
a lid, and the capsule has been on
tliis railed Pvxis 01* Pyxi-
leaves which separate _ 3n. FrmUpvxidium) of the Monhey-pot
at the articulations  (Lecythis ollaria), opening by a lid.
.i *4. j 4.* i c The dehiscence is transverse or cir-
the Unit6(i petioles form- cumscissile, and the capsule is
ing the lower part of operculate or lidded.
the fruit, and the united laminae constituting the lid.
Carpology.—A classification of fruits ought properly to
be founded on a consideration of their original formation, Botany,
and of their anatomical structure in the early state. This
is often puzzling to the student, inasmuch as it requires that
he should trace the fruit during its different stages of de¬
velopment. By so doing, however, he is enabled to observe
the various changes which take place by absorption, oblite¬
ration, adhesion, and division of parts, and he is in a condi¬
tion to explain many apparent anomalies. Thus, in the
Coco-nut, he sees that there are at first three loculaments
and three ovules, but as the fruit ripens, two of each of them
disappear, and finally only one remains. The three ridges,
however, which remain on the endocarp, are at once ex¬
plained by a reference to the early condition of the nut.
Such is the case with many fruits, the structure of which
would be obscure without a knowledge of the morphologi¬
cal alterations which have taken place. The names applied
to fruits have a reference chiefly to their fully developed
condition.
Without attempting to give a rigorous and minute defini¬
tion of Carpological (^apTros, fruit, and Aoyos, discourse)
terms which have been multiplied to a cumbrous extent,
we shall merely explain some of those which are most fre¬
quently employed, arranging them according as they refer
to fruits formed by a single separate flower, and which are
called Simple or Monogyncecial (formed by one Gyncecium);
or to fruits formed by a combination of numerous flowers,
and which are called Collective, Multiple, Anthocavpous
(<XV0OS, flower, and Kapirbs, fruit), or Polygyncecial (formed
by many Gynoecia).
Simple or Monogyncecial Fruits.—These may consist
either of a single mature carpel, or of numerous separate car¬
pels, arranged in one or more rows in a circular manner,
on flat convex or concave receptacles. They may be formed
not only of the pistil but of the other parts of the flower
united to it, and they may either be dehiscent or indehiscent,
dry or succulent.
A Follicle is a fruit formed by a single mature carpel de¬
hiscing by the ventral suture (Fig. 312).
The fruit may consist of a single follicle, as
is seen occasionally in the Paeony ; more
commonly it is formed by two or more sepa¬
rate follicles arranged in a circular or spiral
manner, as in the Marsh Marigold, and
Columbine (Fig. 298). In some follicular
fruits the opening takes place by the dorsal
suture.
A Legume. This is commonly known by Fob^ce]e(0i^7a
the name of pod, and is well seen in the case vulgaris), con-
of the Pea (Fig. 276). It consists of a sin- poiyspcrma'iclr-
gle mature carpel dehiscing both by the ven- ^ sbuy.
tral and by the dorsal suture, so as to separate ture.
into two halves. This kind of fruit is characteristic of the P ea
order,* which has hence been called Leguminous. Some le- * Plate
gumes, as those of Cathartocarpus Fistula, do not open; others CXV II.
have divisions between each of the seeds formed by trans¬
verse foldings, as in Sainfoin (Fig. 313), and Bird s-foot. The
latter is called a lomentaceous or moniliform legume or a
Lomentum, and when mature it usually separates into pieces,
each of which contains a single seed. In some legumes, a
spurious division is formed in a vertical manner by a pro¬
longation from the placenta, or by a folding inwards of the
dorsal suture. The legume is sometimes twisted, and
spiral; at other times it has a leafy and inflated aspect, as in
Bladder-Senna. In some legumes, the outer portion or the
exocarp (epicarp) separates from the endocarp, which still
remains covering the seeds. In some indehiscent monosper-
mal legumes the coverings become succulent; so that they
are really drupaceous, thus establishing a connection between
the Leguminous and Rosaceous orders.
A Siliqua is another kind of pod, formed (according to
most authors) by the union of two carpellary leaves with
Fig. 312.
B O T
Botany, parietal placentas, and dehiscing by two valves which sepa-
rate from below upwards. It is well seen in the common
Wallflower (Fig. 307), and in other Cruciferous plants. The
two valves separate from the placentas, leaving them united
Plate
'XXXII.
g. 7.
’J
Fig. 313.
Fig. 313.
... 315.
Fig. 314.
Lomentnm or lomentaceous legume of a species of Sainfoin (Hedy-
sarum). Each seed is contained in a separate cavity l)y the folding
inwards of the walls of ihe legume at equal intervals ; and the le¬
gume, when ripe, separates transversely into single seeded portions.
Compound ovary (Siliqua) of Wallflower (Cheiranthus), consisting of
at least two carpels united. One valve has been removed to show
the partition or replum, cl, formed of a double layer from the pla¬
centae, en, on either side, to which the ovules ov, are attached by
means ot funiculi. The style and stigma, s, are at the upper part of
the ovary.
Silicula of Whitlow-grass (Drabd), opening by two flat valves, o,
from below upwards, leaving the parietal placentas,}?!, in the cen¬
tre, united by a membrane or replum. The partition of the seed-
vessel is broad, and hence the name Latiseptse.
... 316. Silicula or pouch of Shepherd’s-purse (Capsellct), opening by two
folded valves, which separate from below upwards. The Phragma
is narrow (angustiseptse).
by acellular prolongation or replum (Fig. 314, cl), which di¬
vides the seed-vessel vertically into two loculaments. A
broad and short siliqua has received the name of Silicula.
In it (the silicic) the carpellary leaves are either united to¬
gether, so that the septum is in the broadest diameter of the
pod (latiseptae), as in Thlaspiand Draba (Fig. 315) ; or the
carpels are folded so that their dorsal suture is prominent,
and the replum is narrow or linear (angustiseptae), as in
the Shepherd’s-purse (Fig. 316). The Siliqua and Silicula
are occasionally indehiscent and monospermal (jmovog, one,
crTTep/xa, a seed).
A Capsule is a dry syncarpous fruit dehiscing either
vertically by valves, teeth, or pores, or transversely by a
lid. It is composed of several carpels united, and it may
exhibit all the kinds of dehiscence to which reference has
already been made. In Caryophyllaceous plants, the de¬
hiscence of the capsule often takes place by short valvular
teeth (Fig. 308), in the Mahogany fruit by complete valves
which separate from below upwards, in Colchicum and in
Cotton, by valves separating from above downwards, in the
Poppy (Fig. 309) by pores below the stigma, in Frogs-
mouth by rupturing at the apex, in Mignonette by becom¬
ing patent at the apex, in Campanula by irregular openings
near the base, in Henbane (Fig. 310) by a lid, in which
case the capsule sometimes receives the name of pyxidium,
in Spurges* by the sudden separation of elastic cocci or car¬
pels, each containing one seed, and in the Balsam by the
separation of five elastic valves which coil upwards.
An AcluBnium or Achene (a, priv., and ^atvetv to open) is
a dry indehiscent one-seeded (monospermous) fruit, as in
C rowfoot (Fig. 317). It is formed of a single carpel which
VOL. v.
A N Y. 137
is closely applied to the seed. At first sight it is difficult Botany,
to distinguish this kind of seed-vessel ^ ~ 7
from a seed, and hence Linnaeus termed
some achene-bearing plants naked-seed¬
ed (gymnospermia—yv/xvos, naked, crTrep-
pa, a seed). It is common to find several
separate achenes forming the fruit. In
Buttercups, the achenes are aggregated
on a convex receptacle (Fig. 277), in
the Strawberry they are placed on a con- Fig. 317.
vex succulent receptacle (Fig. 301), and Achsenium of Crowfoot
in the Rose on a concave receptacle (Fig. (.RaPwncu}u*) ■ a
185). In all these cases, the presence
of styles and stigmata enables the student
to ascertain that what are commonly
called seeds are in reality fruits. In the
instances already noticed, the numerous
achenes are the produce of a single flower, but cases occur,
such as the Fig (Fig. 157) and Dorstenia (Fig. 156), in
which they are each the produce of a separate flower. In
the Borage and Mint orders, the two or four achenes form¬
ing the ripe fruit (Fig. 318) are at first united, and even
when matured, there is a common style which is attached
to the apparent base of each achene. Cases also occur in
which the achaenia are united to the tube of the calyx.
single-seeded seed-
vessel, with the peri¬
carp applied closely
to the seed. Such
fruits resemble seeds
in appearance; the
style and stigma, s,
aid in distinguishing
them.
Fig. 319.
Fig. 318. Calyx and fruit of Comfrey{Symphytum), cut vertically. The fruit is
divided by the folding of the ovary into four single-seeded portions
or achsenia, two of which are seen in the figure, and the style ap¬
pears to arise from the base of the carpels.
... 319. Flower of Fenwel (Fceniculum vulgare), one of the ITmbelliferse, cut
vertically, showing the fruit,/, composed of two single seeded’ear-
pels, or achenes, united, so as to form a oremorarp. The pendulous
seeds are seen in the carpels or mericarps. The two styles are seen
at the apex of the fruit, with their dilated bases formed by an epigy-
nous disk. The points (apicula) of the petals, v. are turned in¬
wards. The calyx tube is adherent to the fruit, and the limb of
the calyx is often obsolete.
Thus in Composite plants, such as the Thistle and Dande¬
lion, what are called seeds are in reality single-seeded fruits,
each produced by a separate flower, with the tube of the calyx
united to it, and the limb of the calyx appearing as a rim
or as a hairy appendage, called pappus (Figs. 206 and 252).
In Umbel-bearing plants, such as Hem¬
lock and Fennel, two achaenia, invested
by the tube of the calyx, are united by
their faces, so as to form a compound
fruit called a Cremocarp* (/epe/xaeu/, to sus¬
pend, and Kapirbs fruit), with a division
or commissure between them (Fig. 319).
This fruit, when ripe, show's its composi¬
tion by separating into two achenes (call¬
ed here, mericarps or hemicarps, pepos,
part, ypio-vs half), which are suspended by
a slender central stalk or axis (Fig. 320),
called a Carpophore (rapTi-os, fruit, and
<f>opeeiv, to bear). The outer surface of
these mericarps is marked by ridges and
furrows, and there are often peculiar vittae
or receptacles of oil present in the peri¬
carp.
A Caryopsis (sapya, a nut, and oi/aS, appearance) is a dry in-
*P1.CXXI.
figs. 2 & 3.
Fig. 320.
The fruit of the Fen¬
nel (Fosniculum vul¬
gare) arrived at ma¬
turity. It separates
into two cocci or
achEeuia, each of
which is marked
with obtuse promi¬
nent ridges on the
surface, and is sus¬
pended from the
summit of a process
of the axis (colu¬
mella), called a car¬
pophore.
138
BOTANY.
Fig. 321.
Caryopsis, or single-
seeded grain of Oats
(Avena). The fruit
and seed are incor¬
porated. The peri¬
carp, o, hears the
styles and stigmas,
and incloses the
seed, t, with its al¬
bumen, or peri-
sperm, a, and its
embryo, consisting
of the cotyledon, c,
the gemmule, ff, and
the root, r.
Botany, dehiscent monosperntious seed-vessel resembling an achae-
nium, but differing in the complete ad¬
hesion and incorporation which exists
between the pericarpial covering and the
seed. It is seen in the common culti¬
vated grains, as Wheat and Oats (Fig.
321) , and in general in all Grasses. In
these plants the pericarp cannot be sepa¬
rated from the seed. Hence the grains
of Wheat, Maize, Barley, Rye, and Oats,
are in common language called seeds.
It is only by examining them in the early
state, and noticing the styles, that we can
determine their real nature.
A JVut is a dry unilocular one-seeded
indehiscent fruit with a hard covering.
In its early state, it is usually composed
of two or more carpels, with one or more
ovules in each ; but, in the progress of
growth, all disappear except one. It is
illustrated by the Hazel-nut, the Chestnut,
the Acorn (Fig. 300), and the Coco-nut.
In many cases it is surrounded by a series
of bracts forming an involucre, seen in
the husk of the Nut, the cup of the Acorn, and the burr
of the Chestnut. Some restrict the term nut (glans) entirely
to such cases. The pericarp of the nut has its parts fre¬
quently so united as not to be distinguished from each other.
In the Coco-nut, however, the pericarp can be separated into
an epicarp or outer covering, a fibrous mesocarp, and a stony
endocarp, marked with three ridges and three depressions,
one of which is perforated. The epicarp of the nut of the
Sago-Palm is scaly.
A Samara {Samera, seed of Elm), is a nut or achaenium,
in which the pericarp is ex¬
tended in the form of a winged
margin or apex. There are
originally two carpels united,
but one of them is frequently
abortive. This samaroid fruit
occurs in the Maple (Fig.
322) , and Sycamore, the Ash,
and the Elm. The samara
of the Sycamore opens by
splitting into two in a septi-
cidal manner.
A Drupe is the general
name given to what are called
stone - fruits, such as the
Peach, the Plum, the Cherry,
the Apricot, the Date, the
Olive, and Coffee. It is a one-
eelled, one or two-seeded indehiscent fruit, having a fleshy
mesocarp, which is hence denominated sarcocarp. In the
Peach, the epicarp is the separable skin, the sarcocarp is the
flesh which is eaten, and the endocarp is the hard shell or
putamen, which can be split into two parts. In the Walnut,
the putamen is divided in a marked manner into two, and
from its interior bony partitions extend, so as to form lobes in
the seed or kernel. Some fruits, such as the Almond, are
called drupes or drupaceous, in which the sarcocarp is not
succulent. Many call the Coco-nut a drupe, with a fibrous
mesocarp. There seems to be, in reality, in such cases, a
transition from the drupe to the nut. The aggregation of
several drupes forms the fruit of the Raspberry, the Bramble,
and the Quassia plant.
A Berry or Bacca, is the name given to all indehiscent
syncarpous fruits, the seeds of which are immersed in a pulpy
or fleshy mass. Such fruits are collectively called baccate or
berried. In the true berry, such as the Gooseberry and Currant,
the calyx adheres to the fruit, and the placentas are parietal
Fig. 322.
Branch of the Sugar-Maple {Acer
saccharinum), hearing a cluster of
samaroid fruit.
*Plate
CXXVI.
^Plate
CXXVII.
showing the seed
attached to parietal
placentas, and im¬
mersed in pulpy mat¬
ter, which is formed
partly from the en¬
docarp and partly
from the testa of the
seed. The fruit ia
called a Bacca.
(Fig. 323), while in the grape (C/m) the ovary alone is present, Botany,
and the placentas are central. Instances
of baccate fruits are seen in Solanaceous
plants,* such as the Potato, Belladonna,*
Winter Cherry, (Fig. 207) and Mistleto.
In the Pomegranate there is a peculiar
succulent berried fruit, called a Balausta
(balaustium, the flower of the Pome- Fig. 323.
granate), in which the pulpy cells are ar- Fruit of the Goose-
ranged in two rows, some ot which are laria), cut vertically,
in the centre round the axis, and others showine: the s06®8
are placed outside, all being adherent to
the calyx. In the Orange there is a mo¬
dification of the berry, called Hesperi-
dium (the golden fruit in the garden of the
Hesperides) in which there is a separable
rind not formed by the calyx, consisting of epicarp and me¬
socarp, and pulpy separable cells formed by the endocarp.
A Pepo is a fruit allied to the berry, occurring in the
Cucumber and Melon (Fig.
324) . It consists of three
carpels united, covered
by a firm rind, which
is partly formed by the
calyx. The placentas are
by some considered as pa¬
rietal, and as sending pro- 1
cesses inwards, by others pl
they are looked upon as
central, and as sending
processes outwards, which
reach the walls of the fruit
and then curve backwards,
bearing the seeds. The
processes proceeding from
the axis to the walls are usu¬
ally obliterated, according
to the latter view, giving
rise to the appearance of
the placentas being parie¬
tal. The fruit thus be¬
comes one-celled. A trans¬
verse section of the Melon
is given in Fig. 324, in which pl indicates the placentas,
cl the septa, and s the processes connecting the curved pla¬
centas with the centre. In the Plantain and Banana, the
fruit is allied to the pepo, consisting of three carpels, with
parietal placentas, the perianth being adherent to the ovary,
and the seeds immersed in a pulpy mass when ripe.
A Pome is a fleshy syncarpous fruit composed of two or
more scaly, or horny, or bony carpels, covered by a pulpy
mass, which is incorporated with the calyx. The outer
fleshy portion may be considered either as the combined
epicarp and mesocarp, or it may be reckoned the receptacle
enlarged, as in the Rose, and united to the calyx, This
kind of fruit is seen in the Apple (tig-
325) , the Pear, the Quince, and the Med¬
lar. The cartilaginous cells inclosing the [
seeds of the Apple, and the bony coverings
(nucleus) of the seeds of the Medlar, may be
reckoned either as the endocarp, or as the
entire pericarp, according to the view taken
of the formation of the pulpy exterior. F;g 32S
Multiple, Collective or Polygyncecial Section of the fruit of
FTwits> These fruits are formed by the
Gyncecia of several flowers united, and the of a fleshy covering
1 . , v j u partly formed by
name anthocarpous is also applied, because the calyx, and five
they consist usually of the bracts and floral ^with seed’s! The
envelopes combined with the ovaries. They fruity i^caUed^a
are either indehiscent or dehiscent, sue- iar the endocarp
culent or dry. stony,
Fig. 324.
Transverse section of the fruit of the
Melon {Cucumis Melo), showing the pla¬
centas, pl, with the seeds attached to
them. The three carpels forming the
pepo are separated by partitions, cl.
From the centre, processes, s, go to
the circumference, t, ending in curved
placentaries bearing the ovules. These
placentas by some aro considered as
parietal, formed on the walls of the
fruit, by others they are looked upon
as the curved terminations of the cen¬
tral processes, s.
BOTANY.
139
Botany.
Fig. 326.
Fruiting branch of the
Bread-fruit tree (ylr?o-
carpus incisa), with its
large pinnatifid leaves.
The fruit, b, is antho-
carpous, and consists of
numerous female flowers
united together so as to
form a succulent mass.
It is often seedless. The
male flowers, a, are ar¬
ranged in a spike.
A Cone, Strobilus (aTpoftiXos, a fir-cone), is a form of
collective fruit, composed of scales or bracts covering one or
more naked seeds (Fig. 296). Some consider these scales
as carpels spread out, but from the absence of style and
stigma, they seem more properly referable to floral leaves
or bracts. The cone gives name to the natural order Coni-
ferse, or Cone-bearers, such as the Fir and Larch. In the
Juniper the scales of the cone are succulent, and the fruit
has sometimes received the name of Galbulus. In the Yew
the bracts enveloping the naked seed also become succulent.
In the Fig (Fig. 157) a multiple fruit occurs, called
Sr/conus (o-vkov, a fig), consisting of numerons flowers in¬
closed in a hollow receptale. What are called the seeds of
the Fig, are in reality monospermous seed-vessels (achenes),
with styles and stigmata. In the Mulberry, Bread-fruit
(Fig. 326), and Pine-apple, the ovaries
and floral envelopes of several flowers
are all united into one fleshy mass,
placed on a more or less convex or
elongated receptacle, and the fruit is
called a Sorosis (o-wpos, a congeries or
cluster). The crown of the Pine-apple
may be regarded as a series of empty
bracts terminating the axis. In the
strobili of the Hop, the bracts covering
the flowers are membranous in place of
being succulent.
Transformations in Fruits.—The
same causes which produce alterations
in the other parts of the flower, give
rise to anomalous appearances in the
fruit. The carpels, in place of bearing
seeds, are sometimes changed into
leaves, with lobes at their margin.
Leaves are sometimes produced from the upper part of the
fruit, which is then called frondiparous, (from, a leaf, and
pario, to produce). In the genus Citrus, to which the
Orange and Lemon belong, it is very common to meet with
a separation of the carpels, so as to produce what are called
horned oranges and fingered citrons. In this case a syncar-
pous fruit has a tendency to become apocarpous. In the
Orange we occasionally find a supernumerary row of car¬
pels produced, giving rise to the appearance of small and
imperfect oranges inclosed within the original one. It
sometimes happens that, by the union of flowers, double
fruits are produced. Occasionally, a double fruit is pro¬
duced, not by the incorporation of two flowers, but by the
abnormal development of a second carpel in the flower.
The Seed.—When the ovule arrives at maturity it con¬
stitutes the seed, which is contained in a seed-vessel in the
plants which are called Angiospermous (ayyos, a vessel, and
enrippa, a seed); while, in Gymnosperms (yu/ivos, naked, and
enreppa, a seed), such as Coniferae and Cycadaceae, it is
naked, or, in other words, has no true pericarpial covering.
By far the larger number of flowering plants belong to the
former division. It sometimes happens in Angiosperms,
that the seed-vessel is ruptured at an early period of growth,
so that the seeds become more or less fully exposed during
their development; this occurs in Mignonette, where the
capsule opens at the apex, and in Cuphea, where the pla¬
centa bursts through the ovary and floral envelopes, and
appears as an erect process bearing the young seeds.
The seed (Fig. 327) consists of a nucleus, c, usually co¬
vered by two cellular integuments, e, and te, which are some¬
times included under the general name of Spermoderm
(erveppa, a seed, and Seppa, skin). The outer integument is
denominated the Episperm, Exosperm, or more commonly
the Testa (Fig 327, te). It corresponds usually to the pri-
mine of the ovule, but it is frequently formed by a union of
both primine and secundine. It varies in its texture, being
sometimes thin and membranaceous, at other times thick and
hard. It presents various colours, being brown, white, red, Botany,
black, and mottled. Its surface sometimes presents ridges
and furrows, as in Larkspur, reticulations, as in the Water
Fig. 328.
Fig. 327. The seed of the Pea (Pisurri), deprived of one-half of its integument
or spermoderm. The outer covering, called either epicarp, exocarp,
or testa, is marked te,the inner, called endocarp, e. Within these in¬
teguments is the nucleus, consisting of cotyledons or seed-lobes, c,
containingnourishing matter,the gemmnle,or young leaf-bud,<7, the
radicle, or young root, r, the tigelle or stalk between root and bud, t.
The seedisattachedtotheplacenta,p?,bya cord or funiculus,/. The
nourishing vessels, rap, enter the nucleus at the chalaza, cA, and
the root of the embryo points to the micropyle or foramen, m.
... 328. Seed of Fir (Pinus), with a membranous appendage, w, to the testa,
called a wing; The seed is said to be winged.
... 329. Seed of Asclepias, with a cluster of hairs arising from the edges of
the micropyle, and by some considered as a hairy aril. These hairs
are for the purpose of scattering the seed.
Cress, alveolar depressions, as in the Poppy, and tubercular
eminences, as in Chickweed. Occasionally, the seminal in~
tegument is furnished with appendages in the form of wings,
as in Pine seeds (Fig. 328) and Bignonia, or with a margin
as in Sandwort; and at other times it is provided with hairs,
as in the Cotton plant, Asclepias (Fig. 329), and the Willow.
It is of importance to distinguish between such hairs and the
pappus of Composite plants, and of Valerian,* which is in
reality an abortive calycine limb attached to the fruit. We cxkn.
have already stated that the presence of the style or stigma fig. 3.
distinguishes single-seeded fruits from seeds.
The seed of some Polemoniaceous plants has a covering,
consisting of small cells or hairs containing spiral fibres in¬
side. These hairs are closely applied to the surface of the
episperm, and are confined by a mucilaginous coating. When
placed in water, the mucilage dissolves, and the hairs are
liberated, so as to spread out in all directions. The walls of
the cells are also usually ruptured, so as to allow the spiral
fibres to uncoil, and form a beautiful object under the mi¬
croscope. The same kind of structure occurs in the pericar¬
pial covering of some Labiate plants, such as Salvia, and of
some Composite plants, such as Senecio. The spreading
out of these fibrous cells is apparently intended for the pur¬
pose of fixing the seed in the moist soil, into which they
are carried by the wind. Sometimes the secundine of the
ovule assumes a succulent consistence in the seed, and
forms a lining to the episperm.
The Endopleura or Tegmen is the inner seminal envelope
or integument. In general, it is formed from the tercineor
the membrane of the nucleus, and it is sometimes united with
the embryo-sac. In some cases, as in the Water-Lily,Gin¬
ger, and Pepper, this sac remains as a distinct covering of
the young plant under the name of the vitellus (Fig. 333,
e s). The endopleura is often incorporated with the testa,
and scarcely separable from it. It is composed usually of a
thin layer of cellular tissue, and when the nucleus is sinuous,
as in the Walnut, it follows its windings, so as to enter be¬
tween the lobes.
The spermoderm, or general seminal integument, has
certain markings corresponding to those mentioned in the
ovule. Thus, we observe the micropyle or small opening
in the coats which extends to the nucleus (Fig. 327, m), the
chalaza (Fig. 327, cli) or the fibro-vascular connection be¬
tween the nucleus and the coats, and the base or hilum by
BOTANY.
which the seed is connected with the funiculus (Fig. 327,/).
These parts bear the same relation to each other as they do
in the ovule. Thus, in an ovtliotvopous seed, the hiluin and
chalaza are united, and the micropyle is at the opposite end
or apex; in a campylotropous seed, the hilum and chalaza
are united, and the micropyle is slightly removed from the
has received the name of Aril (arillus). It proceeds from Botany,
the placenta or top of the funiculus in some instances, while
in others it arises from the foramen of the seed. In the
former case it is called a true or funicular aril, while in the
latter it is called a false or micropylar aril, or sometimes Aril-
^ . ^ ^    _ _ . o lode. In the Passion-flower and Water-Lily, a funicular aril
hihim; while in an anatropous seed, the nucleus is inverted— exists, while in the Spindle-tree, Nutmeg, Spurge, and Milk-
its base and the chalaza being removed from the hilum, and wort, a micropylar aril (Fig. 332, a) is seen. In the Nut-
the micropyle being close to the hilum. meg,* the arillode is laciniated and of a fine scarlet colour, *Plate
The micropyle is smaller and less distinct in the full- constituting the mace. Certain cellular processes are occa- ^X^XI<
grown seed than it was in the ovule. It indicates the place sionally seen at the base, apex, or sides of the seed, which S- •
where the radicular extremity of the embryo is situated, have received the names of Caruncles and Strophioles.
Its situation in the Bean and Pea, when they begin to sprout, The different parts of a seed are represented in Figure
is marked by a little lid-like process {embryotega) which is 333, n being the nucleus or central portion, composed of
pushed upwards rr,v,Q -Balova ;c mni-o nr 1p«s nvirfpnt. in nourish in w matter inclosing the embrvo-sac. es. with the
The chalaza is more or less evident in
different seeds. It is conspicuous in anatropous seeds, such
as the Orange (Fig. 330, c), where the raphe (Fig. 331, r)
or vascular connection between it and the placenta exists.
The raphe forms a cord usually along the inner side of the
ch
Fig. 330. Anatropal seed of the Orange {Citrus Aurantium) opened to show the
chaiaza, c, which forms a hrown spot at one end.
■ ... 331. Entire anatropal seed of the Orange (Citrus), with its rugose or
wrinkled testa, and the raphe or internal funiculus, r, ramifying in
the thickness of the testa on one side.
332. Arillode, a, the false aril of the Spindle-trec (Euonymus), arising from
the micropyle,/. . „ .
... 333. Young anatropal seed of the White Water-Lily Nymphaia alba), cut
vertically. It is attached to the placenta by the funiculus or um¬
bilical cord,/, cellular prolongations from which form an aril, a a.
The vessels of the cord are prolonged to the base of the nucleus, n,
by means of the raphe, r, composed of cells and spiral vessels. The
base of the nucleus is indicated by the chalaza, eft, while the apex is
at the micropyle, m. The covering of the seed is marked i. The
nucleus, n, is composed of albumen or perisperm, surrounded by its
covering, and inclosing the embryo-sac, es, which remains in the ripe
seed in the form of a vitellus. The embryo, e, with its suspensor, is
contained in the sac, the radicle pointing to the micropyle, m.
... 334. Seed of Wallflower (Cheiranthus) cut vertically. The seed is exalbu-
minous or aperispermic—all the nourishing matter being incorpo¬
rated with the cotvledons, c. On removing the integument which is
marked by the dark lines, the embryo alone is found in the interior.
The radicle, r, is folded on the edges of the cotyledons, which are
accumbent; the plant belongs to the division ot cruciferse, called
... 335. The seed of the Pansy (Viola tricolor) cut vertically. The embryo,
pi, is axial, in the midst of fleshy albumen, al. The seed is anatro¬
pal, and the embryo is orthotropal, the_cotyledons, co, point to tho
base of the nucleus or chalaza, eft, while the radicle, or the other
extremity of the embryo, points to the foramen,close to the hilum, ft.
The hilum or base of the seed, and the chalaza or base of the nucleus
are united by means of the raphe, r.
seed, and may be considered as a prolongation from the fu¬
niculus, along with a covering derived from the integument
of the seed. The scar or hilum is of different sizes and
colours, and indicates the base of the seed or the place where
it is attached to the placenta. This attachment is either
direct, or is accomplished by the intervention of a stalk or
cord called the funiculus, which in Magnolias becomes much
elongated. In the Bean the scar is of a black colour; in
other cases it is white or brown. It sometimes extends over
a large portion of the seed, as in the Horse-chestnut.
On the outside of the integument of the seed there is
sometimes an additional partial covering of a cellular nature
which is developed after the ovule is fertilized, and which
nourishing matter inclosing the embryo-sac, es,
embryo-plant, e, the radicle of which points to the micro¬
pyle, m; f the funiculus, ch the chalaza, r the vessels
running from the placenta to the base of the nucleus, i the
integuments or spermoderm, and a a the funicular aril.
The nucleus or kernel of the seed (Fig. 333, it) is the
fully-developed central portion of the ovule. It is much
altered in general by the deposition of starchy, azotized, and
ligneous matter, and by the development of the embryo.
It consists either of the embryo alone, as in Wallflower
(Fig. 334), or of the embryo along with a separate deposit
of nourishing matter called the Albumen or Perisperm, as
in the Pansy (Fig. 335). This albumen consists of starchy,
ligneous, oily, saline, and nitrogenous substances contained
in cells of various consistence. It is, therefore, not merely
what chemists call vegetable albumen ; and hence it is bet¬
ter to give it the name of perisperm or endosperm.
A seed is said to be albuminous or perispermic when it
has a separate store of albumen distinct from the embryo, as
in the Coco-nut, Wheat, and Pansy (Fig. 335); and ex-
albuminous or aperispermic when the nutritious matter is
incorporated with the lobes of the embryo, as in Cruciferous
plants (Fig. 334), in the Bean, the Pea (Fig. 327), and
Almond. The perisperm varies in its consistence accord¬
ing to the nature of the deposit and the state of the cells.
In the Vegetable-Ivory Palm, the cells are thickened by
ligneous deposits, and the perisperm is of a horny consist¬
ence ; so also in Coffee. In the Cereal grains, as Wheat,
it is mealy and farinaceous ; in the Poppy it is oily ; in the
Coco-nut it is cartilaginous; in the Mallow, mucilaginous.
When cut, the perisperm may present a uniform appearance,
as in Castor-Oil, or it may have a mottled or ruminated
appearance, as in the Nutmeg* and Betel-nut. I he latter *piate
depends on some unaltered cells of the endopleura or of the CXXXI.
embryo-sac ramifying through the substance and forming fig. 11-
convolutions. The proportion which the perisperm bears
to the embryo varies much. Sometimes, as in the Coco¬
nut, in the Date, and in Monkshood, the embryo is very
small, while the albumen is abundant; at other times, as in
the Nettle, the embryo is large and the albumen small. The
deposit of albumen takes place within the integuments of the
seed. It either occupies the space between the endopleura
and the emhryo-sac, when it is called exospermic, as in the
Water-Lily and other plants which have a distinct vitellus ;
or it is deposited within the sac, and then is endospermic ; or
it occupies both positions at once, and then may be called
by the general name of perisperm.
The Embryo—is the young plant contained in the seed.
It is the part to the production and nourishment of which
all the floral organs contribute. It is contained originally
in a cavity called the embi’yo-sac (Fig. 333, es), and appears
at first as a small vesicle or cell (Fig. 333, e), attached to
the sac by a cellular process called a suspensor, which is
often very long, as in Cruciferous plants. I he embryo-sac
is sometimes separated from the endopleura by a quantity
of perisperm (Fig. 333, n), at other times it is incorporated
with it. The embryo-sac exhibits necuhar tubular prolon-
BOTANY,
141
Botany, gations from its base and apex in some instances, as in the
Eyebright.
The Embryo in its structure exhibits cells and spiral
vessels. It consists of a general axis, one part of which is
concerned in the production of the root (Fig. 335, pi), and
another in the formation of the stem (Fig. 335, co). The
radical or root-portion of the axis always points to the mi-
cropyle of the seed. Hence, in orthotropal seeds, the em¬
bryo is said to be inverted, because its radicle points to the
apex of the seed where the micropyle is situated, while in
anatropal seeds (Fig. 335) it is erect. The axial portion of
the embryo is provided with foliaceous or fleshy organs
called seed-leaves (Fig. 335, co) or Cotyledons (KOTvXrjSiov,
name of a plant with fleshy leaves), which serve a tempo¬
rary purpose in nutrition. From the upper part of the axis,
the stem called the Plumule rises, bearing the ordinary, or
primordial leaves of the plant. These separate parts are
well seen when the young plant has begun to grow, as in
Figure 59, where t is the general axis, with the roots, r, at
the base, the cotyledons, c c, above, and the plumule with
the primordial leaves, g g, coming from between the coty¬
ledons.
The embryo is sometimes placed in the centre of the
albumen, or in the axis of the seed, and in a straight direc¬
tion (Fig. 335), it is then axile or axial; when not in the
centre of the seed it is abaxile or eccentric. In place of
being straight it is often curved in various ways. This
may depend on the curvature of the seed itself, as in the
Snake-nut, and in Campylotropous seeds; or the seed may
be straight, and the embryo alone curved. In the Chick-
vreed order the embryo is curved round the albumen (Fig.
336), becomingperipherical. In other cases, as the Thorn-
*Plate apple an;1 Solanum,* it
CXXVT. is curved in a similar
fig- way within the albu¬
men. In Grasses it
is situated at the base
of the seed, and out¬
side the albumen (Fig. Fig. 336. Seed of the Red Campion {Lychnis), cut
In tl-io Pr>r>.-vTr vertically, showing the peripherical
•*dl Uie Jroppy embryo, with its_two cotyledons and
the embryo is in the
axis, but is curved or
arcuate, in Geranium
the cotyledons are
twisted and doubled,
in Convolvulus they
are corrugated, and in
die Potato and in Bu-
nias they are spiral.
In some Cruciferous
plants the cotyledons
are bent like a leaf folded laterally on its midrib, and
they are then called conduplicate, and marked o$>; in
other Cruciferous plants, they are flat, and the radicle is
either bent along their edges, as in Wallflower (Fig. 337, r),
and marked o =; or lies on the back of one of them, as in
Pocket (Fig. 338, r), and marked o ||. In the former case,
the cotyledons c are accumbent, in the latter incumbent.
Some authors speak of the position of the embryo not
merely in reference to the seed, but also in reference to
the fruit. This is apt to lead to confusion. A superior
or ascending radicle is the name given by them when it
points to the apex of the fruit, while an inferior or descend¬
ing radicle points to the base of the fruit; a centripetal
radicle points to the centre or axis of the fruit, while a cen¬
trifugal one points in the opposite way.
In some plants, the embryo is entirely cellular and has no
cotyledons. They are denominated Acotyledonous. They
correspond to Cryptogamic or flowerless plants. The em¬
bryo, in such cases, is called a Spore (Fig. 8). It gives off
roots and stems from different parts of its surface, and not
Fig. 33S.
and its radicle. The embryo is curved
round the albumen, so that its cotyle¬
dons and radicle both come near the
hilum. The embryois sometimes called
amphitropal.
337. Transverse section of the seed of the
\Vallflower (OAeirant/ms). The radicle,
r, is folded on the edges of the cotyle¬
dons, c, which are said to be accum¬
bent. The radicle is lateral, hence
the name Pleurorhizete.
338. Transverse section of the seed of the
Dames-Violet (Ilesperis). The radicle,
r, is folded on the back of the coty¬
ledons, c, which are said to be incum¬
bent. The radicle is dorsal; hence the
name Notorhizese.
2 C
Fig. 339.
1 dicotyledonous em¬
bryo,in different
stages of develop¬
ment, within the seed.
At 1 it appears as a
globular cellular
mass at the extrem¬
ity of a cellular cord
or suspensor; at 2 it
becomes more ovoid;
enlarges still more at
3; and at 4 it presents
two distinct portions,
a, the radicle attach¬
ed to the suspensor,
and b the two cotyle¬
dons.
from any fixed points. It may either be regarded as an Botany,
ovule remaining in a cellular state, or as a simple cellular "•-v/*™*''
embryo. It will be noticed when treating of the organs of
Cryptogamic plants.
Plants which possess cotyledons in their embryo (Figs.
57 and 61) are called Cotyledonous, and they are divided
into those having two cotyledons (Fig. 59), and which are
called Dicotyledonous, and those having one (Figs. 60 and
63), called Monocotyledonous. The former correspond
with the Exogenous division of Phanerogamous or flower¬
ing plants, the latter with the Endogenous. A dicotyledon
ous embryo at first appears in the form of a cell (Fig. 333,
e), the production of which in the embryo-sac depends on
the application of the pollen to the stigma.
This cell is nucleated, and develops
others in succession, until the embryo as- I
sumes the appearance of a congeries of
cells suspended by a cellular filament (sus¬
pensor) as shown in Figure 339, 1. The1
globular cellular mass becomes afterwards
more elongated, and passes through the
stages 2 and 3 of Figure 339 until it as¬
sumes the appearance seen at 4, having
an oblong or cylindrical form, with one
extremity, a, undivided, and the other, b,
lobed or notched. The undivided por¬
tion is the radicle (young root), and it may
be considered as part of the rudimentary
axis, from one end of which the roots are
given off, and from the other the primary
bud or plumule. The split portion of the embryo is com¬
posed of two lobes or cotyledons, formed at one node, and
placed opposite to each other.
The cotyledons vary in their consistence, being some¬
times leafy, at other times fleshy. They are sometimes so
large as to form the great bulk of the seed, as in the Bean,
Pea, and Almond. They form the first bud of the axis,
which may thus be said to consist of a radicular and cotyle¬
donary portion—their point of union being the Collum, neck,
or crown. The part interposed between the neck and the
cotyledons, which is often very short, is sometimes called
the Cauliculus or Tigellus. The dicotyledonous embryo
then is composed of two leaves or two unifoliar phytons, as
they are called, united together so as to form one axis. The
sheathing lower part of the cotyledons helps to form the
caulicule ; and from the axil of the cotyledons, or from the
axis between them, is produced the plumular or gemmular
bud (Fig. 59, g g), which forms the stem and leaves. This
embryo may be represented by the ideal Figure 340, in
which b is the axis or tigellus, a the radicular portion, con¬
nected with the soil and darkness, d the two cotyledons,
united at their lower part so as to form the tigellus, and e
the primary bud or plumule, connected with air and light.
The embryo may be called a bifoliar phyton.
Although this is the usual state of the embryo in Exo¬
gens, nevertheless there are a few exceptions. In some
Exogens without leaves, as the Dodder* and Rafflesia, the *-piate
cotyledons are also suppressed. The embryo of these plants CXXV.
has a resemblance to the spore of Acrogens. In Cone-bear- fig. 8.
ing plants, as the Pine, Spruce, Fir, and Cedar, the cotyle¬
dons are split by collateral chorisis, so as to be divided into
several (Fig. 341), and this has given rise to the term poly-
cotyledonous applied to them. The cotyledons of the Ger¬
anium and Lime-tree are divided into lobes. Accidental
divisions are also seen in the cotyledons of the Sycamore
and Rue. In Schizopetalon and some other Cruciferae, the
cotyledons are usually bipartite, so as to appear to be four.
A monocotyledonous differs from a dicotyledonous em¬
bryo in having only one cotyledon or seed-leaf (Fig. 63, c).
It is composed of an axis having a radicular portion, r, and
a cotyledonary portion, c, and it may be represented by a
»
142
BOTANY.
Botany, single leaf or a unifoliar phyton. In Figure 342 is given
an ideal representation of a monocotyledonous embryo, with
its tigellus or axis, b, having a radicular portion, a, one coty-
Fig. 340.
Fig. 342.
Fig. 341.
Fig. 340. Ideal representation of a dicotyledonous embryo or bifoliar pbyton,
with its radicular extremity, its two cotyledons, a c, with their
sheathing bases embracing the axis, 2>, and the primary bud, 6. A
dicotyledonous plant may be considered as composed ot a series ot
such'bifoliar phytons. ^ . • * .
... 341. Pol vcotyledono us embryo of the Pine (PiWws)begiT>ning to sprout. Ihe
axis, t\ shows its radicular portion, r, and cotyledonary portion, c.
The cotyledons, c, appear to be numerous, but this is^considered as
being produced by chorisis or the division of two. Within the coty¬
ledons the primordial leaves are seen, constituting the plumule or
first bud of the plant. ,
... 342. Ideal representation of a Monocotyledonous or unifoliarphvton. l he
axis, by has a radicular extremity, a, and a plumular bud, e. Ihe
cotyledon, d c, has a sheathing base embracing the axis, and giving
oifthe plumular bud, e, from its axil. h. monocotyledonous plant
may be considered as composed of a series of such phytons.
ledon, d c, with a sheathing base, and a bud in its axil, e,
which rises as the stem. When this embryo is examined
in the seed, it frequently exhibits no marked divisions—the
cotyledon being coiled round the axis like a sheath, and
embracing the plumule so as to conceal it. This is the case
with the embryo of the Coco-nut. Sometimes a monocoty¬
ledonous embryo has more than one cotyledon. In that
case, the second cotyledon alternates with the first, being
produced at a second node, which is separated from the first
by an internode.
Transformations in Seeds.—Changes take place in seeds
by abortion, degeneration, and union. There are few plants
in which all the ovules become perfect seeds. Many are
suppressed during the progress of growth, so that frequently
one seed is developed at the expense of several ovules.
Sometimes the seeds are converted into leaves. There is
usually a single embryo in each seed, but cases occur in
which a plurality of embryos is produced. This is a very
common occurrence in the Orange, Cycas, and Cone-bear¬
ing orders. In the case of the two latter orders, the sus-
pensor often ramifies so as to produce numerous separate
embryos on its branches. These embryos are frequently
abortive. In the seed of the Fir there are certain cellular
bodies, called corpuscles by Brown, which give origin to
filaments by which the embryos are suspended. Accidental
union of embryos also take place.
n. REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF FLOWERLESS PLANTS.
It has already been stated that Flowerless or Cryptoga-
mic plants are composed either entirely of cells, as occurs
in Seaweeds and Mushrooms; or of cells and vessels united,
as seen in Ferns, Mosses, and their allies. The vascular tis¬
sue consists chiefly of pleurenchyma (Fig. 24) with closed
spirals, annular (Fig. 32), and scalariform vessels (Fig. 34).
In the simplest plants, as Protococcus (Fig. 343), the cell
performs all the functions necessary for the nourishment and
reproduction of the plant. In the more complicated Flower¬
less plants, there are some organs specially adapted for nu¬
trition or vegetation, and others for reproduction. In the
higher Cryptogams, there are roots, conspicuous stems, and
leaves, for the purposes of nutrition, and certain special organs
destined for reproduction. As these tribes produce a foli-
aceous axis or corm, they are denominated Cormogens or
Oormophytes, and when their stems are woody, they pre¬
sent the acrogenous structure already described. In the
lower Cryptogamics there are no true roots, nor stems,
ridis), consisting of single cells,
which perform all the functions of
nutrition and reproduction. The
parent cells contain numerous cel¬
lules, which are discharged when
the outer general covering gives
way. Each of the cellules so separat¬
ed "gives rise to a distinct plant, and
they may he considered either as
spores or as cellular buds.
344. Elliptical spore of the Brittle Blad¬
der-fern (Cystopteris fragilis). The
outer covering is marked with
pointed projections.
345. Sporidiumofa Lichen,containingtwo
cells within a common covering. It
is sometimes called a bispore.
346. Theca or ascus, t, of a Lichen, with
nucleated cells (Sporidia) in its in¬
terior. Along with it are paraphy-
ses, p.
nor leaves, and their nutritive and reproductive organs are Botany,
frequently assimilated. These tribes, from having no foli-
aceous axis, but simply a cellular expansion, have been called
Thallogens or Thallophytes.
While the nutritive organs of Cryptogamic plants bear
a greater or less re¬
semblance to those of
Phanerogams, the case
is very different with
the reproductive or¬
gans. Cryptogams Fig. 343. Fig. 344. Fig. 345. Fig. 346.
have no flowers and no Fig. Green-snow plants {Protococcus vi-
true seeds ; they are
propagated by cellular
bodies denominated
Spores (Fig. 344),
which are cells capable
of sprouting and form¬
ing new plants, (Fig.
58), and which some
have called cellular em¬
bryos without cotyle¬
dons, or leafless phy¬
tons. The plants are
consequently A cotyle-
donous.
The term spore (o-tropa, seed) should be confined to the
ultimate germinating cell of Cryptogamics. It is frequently,
however, applied to the cell in which the true spores are formed.
Hence spores have been called simple or compound, accord¬
ing as they are formed by one or by several cells. The term
Sporidium is applied to the compound spore of Lichens
(Fig. 345).
Spores are developed either in the interior of the cell
which gives origin to them, or on the outside of it. In the
former case, they are called Endospores, in the latter, Ex¬
ospores or Gymnospores. In Protococcus (Fig. 343), the
fructification consists of numerous spores in the interior of a
mother-sac, more or less spherical; in Palmella (Fig. 11),
the mother-cell contains two or four spores; while in Vau-
cheria, only one spore is produced. A cell containing one,
four, six, eight, or numerous spores or sporidia, receives the
name of Theca (Fig. 346, f).
The exospores or naked spores in certain Moulds consist
of elongated filaments w’hich are formed by a series of cells
placed end to end (Fig. 18, c). When ripe, the cellules separate.
In Botrytis a single spore only constitutes the exospore, while
in Cantharellus there are two, and
in Agarics four (Fig. 347, sp). Le-
veille called the mother-cell, on the
exterior of which one, twro, four, or
many spores are formed, a Basidium
(Fig. 347, b). In Agarics, the ba-
sidia bearing four spores at their ex¬
tremity are in general united together
so as to form a tissue called Hyme- Fig. 347.
nium (Fig'. 347, If). In Lichens, Fig. 347. Portion of the ia-
- - - 0 - — - ■ ’ mella or gill of the Mush-
Toom(Agaricus campestris),
cut transversely, showing
one of the lateral surfaces.
The Hymenium, h, has a
layer of cells below it call¬
ed" the sub-hyinenium, sh ;
the four spores, sp, are on
the outside of a cell called
basidium, b, and the spores
are on stalks (sterigmata).
Sphaerias, and Pezizas, the thecae
containing four, six, or eight spores
or sporidia placed one above the other
are often separated by filaments or
Paraphyses (Fig 346, p) ; and the
united thecae and paraphyses con¬
stitute the hymenium, which is placed
on the tissue forming the cortical or medullary layers called
the subhymenium (Fig. 347, s/f). The spore-bearing tissue
is sometimes called generically the Excipulum ; it may be
flat, as in Usnea, and is then called Apothecium, or hollow,
as in Peziza, and then called Receptacle ; or it may form a
closed cavity with an opening (ostiolum) only at one part,
and then it is called a Conceptacle. In h erns and Mosses,
Botany, the hollow cavities containing the spores receive the name
—of Sporangia (cnropa, seed, ayyos, a vessel) or spore-cases.
Spores are generally regarded as being produced by the
agency of certain organs equivalent to the stamens and
pistils of Phanerogams. These organs have been demon¬
strated more or less completely in all the orders of Crypto-
gamic plants, and they have received the names of Anthe-
ridia (Fig. 348, a), and Pistillidia or Archegonia (Fig.
Fig. 350.
Fig. 348. Antheridium, a, ofthe Hair-moss {Polytriclmm), consisting of cellules,
c, containing phytozoa coiled up in their interior. Thephytozoa
nave a thickened extremity, whence proceeds a tapering tail-like
process. Along with the antheridium are two separate filaments
hVSPS. r> Whu'/h a VO v-iv/vVio ‘Kl-.r „ Vx i-t  x-L • J ■
349,
yses,», which are probably abortive antheridia.
x istilliaiuin of Li'vrOT'"r/"'T’+   ,
 a; vjyjL Cl > ci dll untrriuiit.
-   : xjiverwort (Marchantia), surrounded by its cellular
covering, 6, and by septate filaments called paraphyses, c ,• and sur-
mounted by a style-like calyptra, a.
350. Spore, s, of a Fern (Ffm's longifolia) sprouting, giving off a root-like
process, r, and a fiat cellular expansion, p, called the pro-thallus or
pro-embryo. On this expansion antheridia and pistillidia are said
to occur. *
349 dpx*7> beginning, and yov^, offspring), the former repre¬
senting the stamens or the male, the latter the pistil or the
female. The antheridia were early noticed by Hedwig in
the case of Mosses, and their presence has of late years been
detected in nearly all the Cryptogamic tribes. In Mosses
and in Liverworts antheridia and archegonia occur on the
fully-developed plants. In Ferns and Horse-tails, they are
seen on a cellular structure of a leafy character, called the Pro¬
embryo or Pro-thallus (Fig. 350), developed from the spores.
In antheridia there have been detected cells containing
moving filaments, Phytozoa, or Spermatozoids, or Anthe-
rozoids (£5ov, an animal—Fig. 348, c). Each phytozoon
(<j)VTov, a plant, and £oW, an animal) is formed in a special
cell, is rolled upon itself in a spiral man¬
ner, and escapes either by a pore or by
a dissolution of the wall of the cell.
It is often furnished with slender threads
at one extremity (Fig. 351). In the
thecae and sporangia, also, of many
Cryptogamics, certain moving spores
have been observed, furnished with vi-
bratile threads or cilia (Fig. 8). These ng.^x.
spores have been denominated Zoo- PI!yto??on, or sperma-
„ c< • i / v to,. tozoid, from the an-
spores or bporozoids (rriropa, a seed, ^WOV, theridium of Chara.
an animal, elSos, resemblance). Their me prlcede^al^ne
motions seem to be connected with «tremity, and to
•v .m u- i. • t these its movements
vibratile processes which vary in number, are referred,
and which proceed from different parts of the spore.
Fdices or Ferns.—These Cryptogamic plants are composed
of cellular and vascular tissue. They have roots, leaves, an
acrogenous stem, containing scalariform vessels, and an aco-
tyledonous embryo. The stem or Caudex either rises con¬
spicuously into the air, as in the case of Tree-ferns with
their elegant foliage, or it appears as a rhizome running
along the surface of the earth or under ground, as seen in
the native Ferns of Britain. The trunk of Tree-ferns is
hollow when fully formed, generally simple, sometimes di¬
chotomous, having on the outside leaf-scars which display
the markings of the vascular bundles (Fig. 88). The leaves,
which are called Fronds, are produced at the summit of the
stem, and they form a very graceful crown or coma. In the
young state, they are rolled up in a circinate manner, so as
to resemble a crosier (Fig. 100). They consist of veins and
parenchyma, the former being usually of equal thickness
throughout, and divided in a forked (furcate) or reticulated
manner. The epidermis has stomata, but they are not very
numerous. The fronds bear the fructification. In some
instances they produce bulbils or gemmae, which, when sepa¬
rated from the plant, take root and give rise to new indivi¬
duals ; such Ferns are called Bulbiferous or Gemmiparous.
The fructification in its fully developed state appears as
Sporangia, or Spore-cases, situated on the veins on the
back, or on the margins of the leaves, containing spores.
These spore-cases are arranged in clusters {sori) of a round
(Fig. 352, s') or elongated form, and they are either naked
s
Fig, 352.
Fig. 352. Frond (fructiferous leaf)of a Fern(JVipAo6oZus), showing sori, or round
clusters of sporangia at the ends of veins. As these sori are on the
back ofthe frond, the Fern is called dorsiferous.
... 353. Sorus or cluster of Sporangia of a Fern (Aspidium trifoliatum). The
Sporangia are covered by an indusium or involucre, derived from
the epidermis ofthe frond. The involucre is round (orbicular), and
attached by its centre in an umbilical manner. The annulate spo¬
rangia are seen at the lower edge of the involucre.
or covered by a layer of the epidermis, which forms an In¬
volucre or Indusium (Fig. 353). This indusium presents
various forms, and is pushed off during growth in different
ways, according to its mode of attachment to the leaf. It
sometimes happens that the sporangia, in place of being in
clusters on the back of the frond, as in the dorsiferous fruc¬
tification, appear in the form of a simple or branched spike,
as in Osmunda.
The sporangia commence as cellular buds from the paren¬
chyma. Some of the cells constitute the stalk when present
(Fig. 354, p), others form the sporangium, s, in the inte¬
rior of which spores are formed. It frequently happens
that the cells outside the sporangium form an Annulus or
ring (Fig. 354, a), which is either vertical, and attached
by its base, as in Polypody, or horizontal and free, as in
Hymenophyllum. The cells composing the ring have walls
which vary in thickness on the inner and outer side, and by
their unequal contraction finally rupture the delicate spo¬
rangium, so as to allow the spores to escape. The ring is
very obscure and imperfect in some Ferns, as Osmunda,
and it is wanting in Moonwort and Adder’s-tongue, and in
many other Ferns. Hence, some Ferns are called annulate
(having a ring), others exannulate (not having a ring). The
spores are covered by a double membrane, and the outer
layer is marked with points (Fig. 344). These spores,
during germination, give rise to the pro-thallus or pro¬
embryo (Fig. 350), bearing the antheridia and archegonia.
Equisetaceoe, or Horse-tails.—The plants of this Crypto¬
gamic order exhibit cells, vessels, a siliceous, striated epi¬
dermis, and stomata. I hey have roots, rhizomes, or under¬
ground stems, and aerial branches, but no true leaves. The
rhizomes sometimes extend to the depth of many feet.
Botany.
7
144
Botany.
BOTANY.
The stalks sent up from the rhizomes are hollow and
jointed, the articulations being separable, and surrounded
by toothed sheaths (Fig. 355, s).
The fructification in its advanced state consists of spore-
cases inclosing spores, attached to the under surface of
shield-like hexagonal scales (Fig. 356), and collected into a
Fig. 354.
Fig. 358. Fig. 359.
Fig. 358. Fructification of Club-mess (Ly¬
copodium), situated in the axil
of a leaf. It consists of a case
containing minute cellular
bodies, which are discharged in
the form of powder.
... 359. Larger spores of Club-moss (Ly¬
copodium), inclosed in an invo¬
lucre. It is sometimes called an
oophoridium in consequence of
containing germinating bodies
(ovules). It is considered as re¬
presenting the female organ.
The involucre opens trans¬
versely to discharge the spores.
Fig. 355.
Fig. 357.
Fig. 354. Mature sporangium of the Male Fern (Lastrea Filix-mas). It is sup¬
ported on a stalk, p, some of the cells of which form an elastic ring
or annulus, a, round the spore-case. The spore-case, i, opens at the
side to discharge the spores.
... 355. Fructification of a species of Horse-tail Telmateia). The
stalk is surrounded by a series of membranous sheaths, ss, which
are fringed by numerous sharp processes or teeth. The fructifica¬
tion,/, is at the extremity of the frond, in the form of a pyramidal
mass of polygonal scales, bearing spores on their under surface.
... 356. Polygonal scale, s, of a species of Horse-tail (Equisetum), bearing
membranous sacs, t, which open on their inner surface to discharge
spores.
... 357. Fructification of a Club-moss (Lycopodium clavatum). The branch
is covered with minute pointed leaves, l; from it proceeds a stalk
bearing at its extremity two spikes,/, consisting of modified leaves,
with fructification.
common pyramidal head (Fig. 355,/). The scales (Fig.
356, s) bear on their under surface a circular row of mem¬
branous sacs elongated like teeth, t. The sacs open
towards the centre of the scale, or that part to which the
stalk is attached. Within these sacs there are mother-cells
which produce each a single spore. This spore is provided
with two elastic spiral appendages, which at first completely
cover the wall of the mother-cell and inclose the spore, but
finally spread out so as to burst the walls of the sac (Fig.
9, a, b). The spore, when sprouting, produces a pro¬
embryo or pro-thallus, which at first appears as a green-
lobed leaf supported on a stalk. The lobes of the pro¬
embryo extend and subdivide until a number of cellular
septate tubes are produced, containing green matter. It is
in this state that bodies resembling the antheridia of Ferns
have been detected, as well as peculiar cells, which have
been regarded as equivalent to archegonia.
Lycopodiacece, or Club-mosses.—These plants have
creeping stems or corms, which produce leafy branches,
having some resemblance in general appearance to Mosses.
Structurally they consist of cells and vessels, the latter
occurring in the form of woody and annular vessels, which
occupy the axis or central part of the stems. Roots are
given off from the primary stem, as well as from different
parts of the branches. The leaves are small and sessile,
imbricated (Fig. 357, /), or verticillate, and on their epi¬
dermis stomata exist in small quantity. The fully-developed
fructification occurs in the axil of leaves, which are often
collected together in the form of a spike/. The fructifi¬
cation is of two kinds, one
being kidney-shaped, two
valved cases (Fig. 358),
containing minute cells,
which are discharged in
the form of yellow dust,
known as Lycopode pow¬
der, and used, from its
inflammable nature, in
place of sulphur. The
other kind of fructifica¬
tion consists of a roundish
and somewhat four-sided
body, called by Muller
Oophoridium (wov, an egg,
and cpopeeiv, to bear), con¬
taining four large spores in its interior, and opening by two
valves (Fig. 359). These large spores, called omdes by some,
germinate and reproduce the plant. While the first men¬
tioned organ is considered by some as an antheridium con¬
taining grains like those of pollen, the latter is looked upon
as the pistillidium with ovules.
Marsileacece, Rhizocarpeee, or Peppenvorts.— These
plants have creeping stems with leaves, which are divided into
three or more cuneate portions, and have a circinate verna¬
tion. The leaves have stomata and veins. The stem in¬
creases by its extremity. It contains a central vascular
bundle consisting of woody and scalaritorm vessels sur¬
rounded by parenchyma. The fructification is produced at the
base of the leaf-stalks. It consists of Sporocarps (o-rropa, a
seed, and Kap-rrbq, fruit), or ovoid sacs inclosing organs of re¬
production. In Figure 360 is represented
the two-valved sporocarp or involucre, s,
of Marsilea open, and giving out a cellu¬
lar cord (called by some the midrib of the
modified leaf forming the involucre), which
at first was curved in a ring-like manner
so as to unite the valves, and which finally
is detached at one end, p, bearing the re-
productive spike-like masses,/ on its sur¬
face. These masses consist of antheridia
and pistillidia inclosed at first in sacs, and
attached to mucilaginous placentas. The
pistillidia give origin to the sporangia or
ovules, each containing a single germinat¬
ing spore.
Musci or Mosses.-—These plants have
stems bearing minute cellular leaves. The
stems consist of cells which in the peri¬
phery are polyhedral, while in the centre
they are elongated. There is no pleu-
renchyma nor true vascular system. In
many Mosses the stem terminates at a cer¬
tain epoch, by bearing the organs of re¬
production. Such stems are determinate,
and the Mosses are called Acrocarpous
(aKpos, top, and KapTrbq, fruit). In other
cases the principal stem ends in a leaf-
bud, and continues to elongate, the or¬
gans of reproduction appearing on lateral
branches. Such stems are indeterminate,
and the Mosses are called Pleurocarpous
(rrXevpa, side, and Kap-Tros, fruit).
The leaves, when produced on the stem, are called caul-
inary ; when they surround the reproductive organs they
are called pericluetial (irepl, around, and stalk). The
latter are usually more approximated than the others, and
Botany.
Fig. 360.
Fructification of a spe¬
cies of Pepperwort
(Marsilea Fabri).
The sporocarp, s,
opens to give out a
peculiar cellular
cord or peduncle, p,
which at first was
curved in a ring-like
manner. This cord
bears spike l ike fruc¬
tification,/, consist-
ingof antheridia and
pistillidia inclosed
in sacs, and attach¬
ed to a common axis
or placenta.
JB 0 T A N Y.
Botany, form a sort of rosette, in the centre of which the reproduc-
v——' tive organs are situated. The leaves are very thin in their
texture, and are frequently composed of a single cellular
layer. The cells usually contain chlorophyll, but some¬
times, as in Sphagnum, they are colourless. The cells are
either uniform in their size and appearance, or a certain
number towards the centre are elongated, so as to form
veins or ribs. The phyllotaxis of Mosses is usually -J, f, or
f. Buds, or what are called Innovations, are often pro¬
duced in the axil of the leaves. These buds, when detached,
become new plants.
Occasionally the reproductive organs of Mosses have a
peculiar leafy covering or Perigone, formed by the adhe¬
sion of three or six small leaflets, which are quite distinct
from the perichaetial leaves. The organs of reproduction
are of twn kinds : one, consisting of cylindrical, pear-shaped,
or ellipsoidal stalked sacs, containing minute cells, with
phytozoa or spermatozoids in their interior (Fig. 348); the
other being also stalked sacs, of a more or less spherical
form, containing germinating spores. The former constitute
the antheridia, the latter the pistillidia or archegonia. These
organs sometimes exist together on the same plant; at other
times they are on separate plants. In the former case the
Mosses are monoecious, in the latter dioecious. When both
these organs are not only on the same plant, but also sur¬
rounded by the same perigone, the term hermaphrodite has
been applied by some.
The antheridia of Mosses are produced from little clusters
of leaves, which differ from those of the stem. They appear in
the form of cellular, cylindrical, clavate bodies (Fig. 348, a),
containing at first a mucilaginous fluid, and finally very mi¬
nute, quadrilateral cellules, c, (sometimes called Zoothecce—
££01/, animal, fb/zoy, a sac), in each of which a spiral phyto-
zoon is seen. The antheridia dehisce by irregular openings
at their apex, so as to discharge their contents. Along with
theantheridia therearecellular jointed filaments (Fig. 348,/>),
called Paraphgses, which are considered to be an abortive
state of these organs. The archegonia, often mixed with,
paraphyses or abortive filaments, arise also from small clusters
or rosettes of leaves (Fig. 361,/), and
appear in the form of spherical or ob-
ovate bodies having an outer enve¬
lope {epigone) and a central cellular
nucleus. In the progress of growth,
the central portion increases and rises
upwards, and, at the same time, the
epigone is ruptured near the base
—one portion of it remaining below
in the form of a small sheath {vagi-
ruld), the other being carried up on
the fruit-bearing stalk in the form
of a Calyptra (Fig. 361, c). This
calyptra is sometimes split at one side
(Fig. 361), so as to become dimi¬
diate (halved), and at other times
it is either entire or split equally all
round the base, and it is then called
mitriform. The nucleus or central
portion, when fully developed, con¬
stitutes the Sporangium. The spor¬
angium is usually supported on a
stalk ox seta (Fig. 361, p), formed by
the lower cells of the nucleus. The
seta is often twisted, and, from its
hygrometric property, it produces
changes in the position of the spor¬
angium, according to the state of
dryness or moisture of the atmosphere. A species of Fun-
aria or Cord-moss, receives the name of hygrometrica, on
this account.
The sporangium in its young state is a mass of cellular
VOL. v.
145
Fig. 361.
Hygrometric Cord-Moss (Fu-
naria hygrometrica), with
its urn-like sporangia, u,
supported <>n stalks, p,
which arise from perichfe-
tialleaves,/. Thesporangia
are covered by a calyptra,
c, which splits on one side.
The operculum or lid, o, is
seen in one of the sporangia
from whichthe calyptra has
fallen. The seta is twisted,
and displays hygrometric
properties.
tissue, the cells of which are homogeneous, and contain
green matter. When mature, it is an urn-like body (Fig.
20), with a cellular central axis called columella, and a ca¬
vity containing spores. In some instances the sporangium
is indehiscent; in other cases it opens either by four lateral
valves, as in the Split-moss (Andraea), or by means of a lid
called an Operculum (Fig. 20). Sometimes there is a
thickening or swelling called apophysis, at the union of the
seta and urn.
W hen the operculum is removed, the opening (stoma or
mouth) of the sporangium is seen. This is sometimes en¬
tire, as in Mosses called naked-mouthed {gymnostomi, yv/jvbs,
naked, and crToga, mouth); at other times it is surrounded
by a Peristome {rrept around, and erro/xa, mouth), formed
by prolongations and divisions of the two inner parietal
layers of the sporangium (Fig. 20, p). The peristome con¬
sists of one or more rows of hygrometric cellular teeth,
which are either four, or some multiple of that number.
When there is one row of teeth, the Mosses are called
Aploperistomi (a/n-Ados,
single) ; when there
are two rows, the
Mosses are called Dip-
loperistomi (diTrXdos,
double). The peristo-
matic processes (teeth)
are sometimes twisted
as in Tortula. In
some Mosses the inner
parietal layer appears
as a membrane called
Epiphragm or Tym¬
panum, stretched
across the mouth, from
the walls of the spo¬
rangium to the colu¬
mella.
Hepaticce or Liver¬
worts.—In these plants
the vegetative system
(organs of nutrition)
consists either of a sim¬
ple cellular expansion
or thallus, or of an axis Fig.
bearing cellular leaves. A species of Liverwort (Marchantia poly¬
in Marchanti l thk thol uiorpha),yf\ih. its green thallus, t, bearing a
1 iiafUianUd.tillstnai cup-like body, g. in which minute cells or
lus (h itr. 362) bears the trce buds ar0 soen’ ar,d a stalked receptacle,
° r y . s r. In the substance of the disk-like recep-
Ol’gans Ot reproduc- tae’e, r, cells are produced containing phy-
tion, as well as cup- tOZOa' 'i'Ut'9e considered anthericiia.
like bodies with toothed edges, containing little germs or bul¬
bils, g, which are not traced to a reproductive process, and
differ from buds, in being contained in peculiar organisms.
In Plepaticm, the reproductive organs consist of zoothecae
or antheridia, and archegonia or pistillidia, either on the
same or on different plants. The antheridia are small
cellular sacs of a globular, ovoid, or flask-like form, (Fig.
363). They have a single or double cellular covering, in¬
closing viscid matter, in which are developed four-sided
cells, in each of which is a small filiform body, rolled up in
a circular manner, and displaying rapid movements. These
bodies, called phytozoa, are finally liberated, and unrol
themselves, appearing as filaments swollen atone extremity,
and gradually tapering to the other.
The archegonia or pistillidia of Hepaticm are either
situated in the substance of the thallus, as in Riccia, or
they are raised upon stalks, as in Marchantia and Junger-
manniae. In Marchantia these stalks bear radiated recep¬
tacles on the under surface of which the sporangia are
placed. I hese sporangia have a membranous covering
called epigone or calyptra, the upper end of which elon¬
gates like the neck of a bottle (Fig. 349 a), so that the
T
Botany.
146
BOTANY.
Botany.
pistillidium resembles a pistil, with its ovary, style, and
stigma. When the sporangium is raised on its stalk, the
cafyptra is ruptured irregularly; its lower portion remaining
Fig. 333.
Vertical section of the disk-like receptacle of Liverwort (Marchantia),
showing the antheridia, a a. in its substance, these anthendia aie
flask-shaped sacs containing phytozoary cells. They communicate with
the upper surface, and their contents are discharged through it. Between
the antheridia there are air cavities, cc, connected with stomata, ss.
in the form of a sheath round the base of the stalk. The
pistillidium, thus formed by the central cellular spore¬
bearing sac and the epigone, is surrounded also by a cellu¬
lar sac called the perigone (Fig. 349, b), which begins in
the form of a ring at the base, and ultimately forms a cup¬
like covering. Occasionally there are certain cellular fila¬
ments, or perichaetial leaves, surrounding the perigone
(Fig. 349, c). In Marchantia the perigone incloses a
single pistillidium; in Jungermannia it incloses several,
but only one is developed. Along with the spores in
Hepaticse there are elastic spiral fibres called elaters.
Lichenes or Lichens—are cellular plants growingon stones,
on the surface of the earth, and on trees, and taking up
nourishment by all points of their surface. They belong to
the Thallogenous division of Cryptogamics, in which no
vascular tissue is seen. Their vegetative system varies
much in its form and appearance. Sometimes it appears as
fine pulverulent matter in the form of a leprous or mealy
crust; sometimes it is a foliaceous expansion, as in Parme-
lia (Fig. 364), and in Iceland Moss; sometimes it is in the
form of filaments, as in Archil, of horn-like processes, or of
branching stalks, as in the Rein-deer Moss ; and sometimes
it is a gelatinous mass.
The vegetative system is sometimes called the thal-
lus. It consists of two layers of tissue, one called cortical,
in which the cells are more or less rounded, the other medul¬
lary, in which there are both round and filiform cells. The
spherical cells of the medullary layer (Fig. 365, <7), are gen¬
erally filled with green matter, and, in certain circumstances,
Fig. 334.
Fig. 364. A Lichen (Parrnelia), with its cellular expansion (thallus), and its
rounded apothecia, or spots of fructification. j j
... 363. Vertical section of an apothecimn and thallus of a Lichen. Rounded
free cells, <7, of a green colour, and called gonidia, are seen in the
centre of the thallus. These gonidia, which are called free buds
by some, are capable of germinating and reproducing the plant.
They constitute the active part of the Lichen, and are surrounded
on each side by integumentary lavers. Sometimes they burst
through the surface of the thallus. the apothecium, a, consists of
theca' and paraphyses. Its upper surface is often coloured and
covered by a perithecium.
they become detached and form separate individuals. These
green cells have received the name of Gonidia.
The reproductive organs of Lichens consist of thecce
(sporangia of some), often accompanied with paraphyses. Botany.
While these represent the archegonia or pistillidia, there is
no good evidence of the existence of true antheridia. It-
zigsohn has recently indicated the presence of antheridia
containing spermatozoids, but his observations have not been
confirmed by Tulasne and others. The thecae contain
four, eight, twelve, or sixteen sporidia (Fig. 346), which are
cells with spores in their interior. The sporidium in its
early state consists of two nucleated cells (Fig. 345), which
in the progress of growth become changed, so that ultimately
the mature sporidium contains numerous minute spores.
The thecae and paraphyses are usually united together, so
as to form a mass of fructification of a circular, cup-like,
globular, or linear form. The fructification, when circular,
is called Apothecium and Patella (Fig. 364), when linear,
Lirella. Sometimes the fructification is covered by a cor¬
tical layer of cells {perithecium) varying in colour, black,
red, or pale, which ultimately gives way, either by a pore or
by irregular dehiscence. This is seen in what are called
Anqiocarpous Lichens.
Fungi.—These are cellular plants having neither leaves,
nor stems, nor roots. The organs of nutrition or vegetation
consist of whitish anastomosing filaments called Mycelium
{yvKYjs, a fungus) or spawn (Fig. 18, m), which spread like
a network through the substances on which the Fungi grow.
From this network proceed bodies resembling globes, cir¬
cular disks, mitres, cups, and coralline branches, which bear
the organs of reproduction. The mycelium is developed
either under ground, or in the interior of the substance on
which the plant grows. The filaments of the mycelium are
composed of elongated colourless cells.
The organs of reproduction are produced at different
points of the mycelium, sometimes solitary, sometimes seve¬
ral together. They at first appear as small tubercles com¬
posed of very minute hexagonal cells. I hese tubercles in¬
crease and present different phenomena according to the
nature of the plant to which they belong. Thus in iEgerita,
the tubercle, after attaining its full development, is covered
with filaments, each bearing a spore at its extremity; in
Peziza, it is hollowed out into the form of a cup more or
less deep, the interior of which is lined wfith thecae or asci;
in Agaricus,* it produces a pileus or cap-like body borne on *piatp
a long stalk which comes from the interior of the tubercle, CXXXVT.
and bears the fructification externally; in Lycoperdon it figs- 5 & 6'
forms in its tissue numerous lacunae, from the circumference
of each of which are produced elongated cells bearing four
spores on their surface. Some Fungi vegetate under the
surface of the ground, and either produce their fructification
there, as the Truffle (Fig. 366), or above ground, as the
Fig. 337.
•iff see. The Truffle (Tuber cibarium), a subterranean Fungus, -with a black
tuberculated or warty external covering, and a white cellular inte¬
rior containing sporiferous cells.
337. Vertical section of a Mushroom {Agancus campestru); my, mycelium
or spawn ; vol, remains of volva or wrapper ; st, stipe or stalk ; an,
annulus or ring, being the remains of the velum, veil, or cortina; la,
lamelhe or gilis of the hymenium, h; p, the pileus.
Mushroom (Fig. 367). A very large number, however, are
BOTANY.
147
Botany, developed as parasites in the interior of living or dead or-
' ganized bodies.
* Plate The organs of reproduction of Fungi* are spores,
CXXXVI. either naked or contained in thecae or asci, which are
mixed with certain filaments called antheridia. Little
is known in regard to the latter. When spores are pro¬
duced in the interior of distinct sacs, called Thecce or Cys-
tidia (Fig. 368, cys—kvcttis, a bladder), they are denomi-
JFig. 369
Fig. 3GS. P 'vtion of a lamella or gill of the Mushroom (Agaricus campestris"),
cut transversely, showing the two lateral surfaces hearing basidia,
has, with four spores, spo, at their apices, and cystidia, cys, or sacs
containing minute cells. The hymenium is marked h. At a and b
are represented the four spores.
... 369 a. A species of Mould-fungus (Botrytisi), consisting of a mycelium, m,
bearing a septate cellular stalk, .s, which branches at the apex, each
division bearing ji rounded spore.
nated Endospores, and the plants are said to be thecaspo-
rous ; when they are developed on the exterior of sacs called
Basidia (Fig. 368, bas—/Sdcrts, foot), they are denominated
Exospores, and the plants are basidiosporous; when pro¬
duced in the midst of a gelatinous mass, without any evi¬
dent organization, they are called Myxospores (pv£a, mu¬
cus), the plants being myxosporous.
The fructification is composed either of a single trans¬
parent colourless cell, of a rounded or spindle-like form, at
the end of each filament (Fig. 369 a); or it is composed
of several cells united in a linear series (Fig. 18) or irre¬
gularly. The cystidia and basidia are either monosporous
or tetrasporous (Fig. 368, spo). When either of these kinds
of fructification are united into a mass along with paraphyses,
they form what is called the Hymenium (Fig. 368, h—
v/xrjv, a membrane). The hymenium is either naked, as in
the Hymenomycetous Fungi, or it is inclosed in a mem¬
brane called Peridium, as in Gasteromycetous Fungi. This
membranous covering may be either single or double.
In the Mushroom (Fig. 367) and other species of Agari-
Plate cus,* the following are the usual organs observed :—A my-
!XXXVI. celium or spawn, my, developed under ground, bearing tu¬
gs. 5 & 6. bercles which consist of the reproductive organs inclosed
in a volva or wrapper. This volva, vol, is ruptured in the
progress of development. The Agaric is then seen to be
composed of a pileus, p, supported on a stalk, st, called a
stipe. On the lower side of the pileus is the lamellar hy¬
menium or gills, la, bearing spores. The hymenium was
first covered by the veil or indusium, which finally gives
way, leaving only a ring, an, round the stalk.
Algce.—Under this name are included numerous plants
which grow in the sea, in rivers, lakes, marshes, and hot
springs. Their structure is such that they can only grow
in water; when exposed to the air they wither and cease to
grow. They have no true leaves and no proper stem, but
consist of a thallus or cellular expansion which varies in
colour—being brown, red, green, or yellow. In some of
the larger Seaweeds, as D’Urvillaea utilis and Lessonia
fuscescens, the thallus is supported on a thick stalk, which
exhibits in its structure the appearance of concentric circles.
These stalks, however, are composed entirely of cellular
tissue arranged in a peculiar manner. There is no vascular
system and no woody fibre in their composition. Some spe¬
cies have root-like processes by which they are attached to
rocks. These are only intended for fixing them to a spot
so as to allow the fronds to be properly exposed to the water,
and they do not appear to act as special nutritive organs.
The structure of Algae is cellular, and the cells vary much
in form. Some of the cells are round or elliptical, others
square, others elongated. The absorption of nourishment
takes place throughout the whole substance of the thallus.
On the surface of some Algae, as the Charas, carbonate of
lime is deposited, and sometimes, as in Corallines, the whole
texture is so permeated by this substance, as to become of
a hard and stony consistence.
In Algae the reproductive organs vary in their appear¬
ance. They consist of spore-cases, which are often aggre¬
gated together in Conceptacles (Fig. 369 b), along with
Antheridia containing spermatozoids (Fig. 370, a). The
spores are often united in fours in a mother-cell, forming a
tetraspore (Y\g. 371, t). There are also present in many
Eotanj.
Fig. 369 b.
Fig. 369 b. Transverse section ofaconcoptacle of aSeaweedCF'MCMSt/esicMjosMs),
showing the spores in the coverings, p, and paraphyses lining the
cavity. The spores escape by an orifice, o.
... 370. Antheridium, as, or Zootheca of a Seaweed (Fucus serratus), contain¬
ing phytozoa.
... 371. Tetraspore, t, of one of the rose-coloured Seaweeds (Callithamnion
cruciatum).
Algae Zoospores or Sporozoids, which exhibit movements
during a certain period of their existence, and are provided
with filamentous vibratile processes.
In some of the lower plants of this order, such as Diato-
maceae (Fig. 13), an evident division of cells takes place;
and in this way the plants are propagated. In Protococcus,
the plant of Red and Green Snow (Figs. 56 and 343), and
in Palmella, the plant of Gory Dew (Fig. 11), and their
allies, the whole plant separates into cells, which may be
considered either as buds or spores. In these plants no
special reproductive organs have been detected. In some
of the Confervae, as well as in Diatomaceae, the union of cells
takes place in a singular manner, so as to give rise to the
formation of germinating spores (Fig. 19).
Diatomaceaeor Brittleworts—are among the simplest forms
of Algae. They are usually composed of united rectangular
fragments of a brittle nature, which separate at certain
periods of growth, and form new individuals (Fig. 13). The
true Diatoms have a siliceous covering, so that they retain
their form when dry, and are not destroyed by fire ; while
the division called Desmidieae have no siliceous covering,
and alter much on drying. In some of the plants of the
order, the union of cells, called Conjugation, has been ob¬
served, similar to what takes place in Confervae.
Confervas and their Allies.—These are plants usually of
a green colour, consisting of round or cylindrical cells united
(Fig. 17), so as to form a filamentous or a flattened thallus.
In their simplest form they are seen in the Palmella (Fig.
11), consisting of a single globose cell, dividing first into
two, and afterwards into four cells, which finally burst the
mother-cell, and escape. Each of these divisions, like the
parent cell, has the power of vegetating, and of dividing, by
a merismatic process, into four, so as to multiply the plant.
In Vaucheria, the terminal cell is concerned in the produc¬
tion of a germinating cell or spore, which has peculiar mo¬
tions. In Achlya prolifera the terminal cell discharges nu¬
merous moving spores. In Zygnema and other Confervas
(Fig. 19), the cells composing the filaments have the power
of giving out lateral cellular pi’oeesses, by means of which a
union takes place, the result being the production of a spore,
either in the tube between the filaments, or in one of the
148
Botany.
cells of the filaments. The cells in these plants appear to
have different functions, and to correspond to the antheridia
and pistillidia of the higher Cryptogams.
Florideae, or Rose-coloured Seaweeds.—These Algse are
usually of a rose or purplish colour, and consist of variously-
formed cells, arranged either in a single row, or in several
rows, so as to form an articulated or an expanded flat and
often divided thallus. The organs of reproduction are re¬
stricted to particular parts of the thallus, and consist of
spore-cases, containing spores, frequently four in number,
intermixed often with antheridia, or filaments containing
spermatozoids, these organs being placed in the interior of
conceptacles. The reproductive organs exist either in ca¬
vities of the thallus, or in distinct sacs produced on the sur¬
face of the thallus, or at the apex of some of its divisions.
The occurrence of Tetraspores, (Fig. 371), or mother-cells
containing four spores, is general in this division of the Al¬
gal alliance. The antheridia consist of septate filaments, the
terminal cell of which assumes a clavate form, and contains
phytozoa. The latter become free by the dissolution of the
walls of the cell. Besides the tetraspores,
sacs (coccidia or ceramidia) of a rounded
form exist, containing minute spore-like
bodies (Fig. 372), which some call sporules.
They appear to germinate, and differ from
buds, in being contained in special sacs; some
consider these cellular bodies as bulbils,
which separate from the parent plant; others
look upon them as another kind of spore.
Fucaceae, or Brown Seaweeds.—These is*. 372.
are usually brown or olive-coloured plants, part of the fructi-
- - - - — • fication of a rose-
coloured Sea¬
weed (Bonnemai-
sonia asparagoi-
des). It consists
of an ovate sac
called cerami-
dinra, with a ter¬
minal pore, and
containing a tuft
of pear shaped
germinating cells
or spores.
EOT A N Y.
cells in the interior of the valvular cavity are filled, like
growing chiefly in salt water. They consist
of cells, which are united so as to form va¬
rious kinds of thalli. Sometimes the thallus
is supported on a distinct stalk, formed of
elongated cells ; and in the frond there oc¬
cur also thickened cellular lines, having the
appearance of veins. The cells of the thal¬
lus are often agglutinated together by a
gelatinous intercellular substance. The reproductive organs
consist of spore-cases and antheridia, contained in concep¬
tacles (Fig. 369 b), which are aggregated together in re¬
ceptacles, or large club-shaped expansions, at the extremity
or margin of the thallus and its divisions (Fig. 39,/r). The
antheridia are sacs (Fig. 370, a) borne on jointed filaments,
and containing moving phytozoa. Antheridia and spore-
cases are seen on the same or on different plants.
Characete or Charas.—These plants are considered as
allied to Algae, although they present
many marked peculiarities. They consist
of an axis formed by elongated tubular
cells (Fig. 21), either transparent, or in-
crusted with carbonate of lime. From the
axis arise branch-like processes, arranged
in a verticillate manner. In the interior
of the tubes of these plants, distinct cir¬
culating motions are seen under the mU
croscope. The reproductive organs of
Charas are of two kinds, one called the
Globule (Fig. 373, g), a spherical body,
containing filaments with phytozoa, the
other denominated the Nucule (Fig. 373,
ri), an oval body containing a germinating
cell or spore. The nucule is produced on
the axil of a branch, and consists of a
large central cell or spore, surrounded by
five cells, which are wound round it in a spiral manner, and
ending in five tooth-like processes at the apex. The globule
is usually placed immediately below the nucule, and con¬
sists of eight valves, inclosing a cavity in which the fila¬
mentous articulated phytozoary cells are contained. The
Fig. 373.
Axis of Chara, with
branches, from the
axil of w li ich arises
the nucule, 11, and
below the globule,
II.—PHYSIOLOGY OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS.
I. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE FLORAL ENVELOPES.
The appendages of the flowers which assume a green
colour perform the same functions as leaves, giving out
oxygen under the influence of light. The cells ot the floral
leaves or bracts, and of the calycine leaves or sepals, com¬
monly contain chlorophyll, which is produced under the
agency of light by a process of deoxidation, carbon being
fixed and oxygen separated. The bright-coloured parts ot
flowers do not appear to decompose carbonic acid; on the
contrary, they exhale this gas. I he corolla is associated
with the thalamus or receptacle in producing abundance oi
starch, which is changed into sugar during flowering, so as
to afford nutriment to the stamens and pistils. While the
calyx and green parts oi the flower are concerned in the
elaboration of the juices under the influence of light, the
corolla is more immediately concerned in the protection oi
the internal organs, in the ibrmation of coloured juices, and
in the production of amylaceous and saccharine matter.
The quantity of starch accumulated in the receptacles oi
flowers is oiten large. This is well seen in Compositae, such
as the Artichoke and Thistle. The amylaceous matter
during flowering in these plants becomes saccharine, and is
absorbed by the flowers for their nourishment.
The flower, according to Saussure, in the exercise of its
functions, absorbs oxygen gas, and gives out carbonic acid.
The absorption of oxygen is carried on by the coloured^ co¬
rolla, along with the essential organs ot reproduction. I he
organs of plants which consume most oxygen are those
which wither most quickly, viz. the stamens, styles, and
petals. The quantity of oxygen absorbed is much greater
when the stamens and pistil are perfect than when they are
abortive or wanting. A perfect flower, with the latter
organs present took up more oxygen than one which had
become double by the more or less complete conversion ot
the stamens and pistil into petals, i hus
Common Stock, Single Red, consumed 11 times itsvol. of oxygen.
„ Double „ 7'7 „
Common Tuberose, Single „ 9' »
„ Double „ 7-4 „
Indian Cress, Single „ 8-5 „
,, Double „ 7'25 ,,
In proportion to their volume the essential reproductive
organs absorb more oxygen than the entire flowers; and
male flowers consume more oxygen than female ones.
At the same time that oxygen is absorbed there is a con¬
version of starch into grape sugar, an evolution of carbonic
acid gas, and in many instances a very marked elevation ot
temperature, caused by the combination between the carbon
of the flower and the oxygen of the air. I he starch, which
is stored up in the receptacle and at the base of the petals,
by passing into the state of dextrin and grape sugar, be¬
comes fitted for vegetable nutrition. At the same time im¬
portant purposes are served in the economy of the plant.
Thus the saccharine and honey-like matter which often col¬
lects in the cup of the flower, and sometimes in special pits
or depressions, as in Crown Imperial (Fig. 55), attracts bees
B 0 T A N Y.
149
Botany, and various insects, which are thus made instrumental in
scattering the pollen. According to Vaucher, the saccha¬
rine matter is applied to the stigma and other parts of the
pistil, so as to favour the application and bursting of the
grains of pollen.
An evolution of heat takes place during flowering; but
from the large surface exposed, it seems to be in most in¬
stances carried off by the atmosphere as soon as it is deve¬
loped. Cases occur, however, in which the temperature can
be noted. Thus the flower of a Cistus showed a tempera¬
ture of 79°, while that of the air was 76°, and those of a
Geranium 87° when the air was 81°. Otto ascertained that
the flowers of Victoria regia at Hamburg gave out heat when
the anthers were mature. Mulder found the flower of Cereus
grandiflorus 1° to 2° F. warmer than the atmosphere. M.
Teysman at Burtenzorg, in Java, observed an elevated tem-
*Plate perature in the male cone of Cycas circinalis.* By means of
CXXXIV an air thermometer Saussure found the flowers of Polyan-
fig- 2. thes tuberosa ^°, those of Bignonia radicans 1°, those of Cu-
curbita Pepo 1° to 3° F. above the temperature of the air.
The most marked instances of the evolution of heat,
however, occur in the blossoms of plants belonging to the
natural order Araceae. In them the inflorescence consists
of a thick fleshy spadix (Fig. 166) containing much starch,
and bearing numerous male and female organs inclosed in
a large sheathing bract or spathe. Senebier found that the
^Plate temperature of Arum maculatum* rose to 15'5° F. above
CXXXV. that of the air, and Dutrochet measured it from 25° to 27°.
Goeppert states that the temperature of the spadix of Arum
Dracunculus rose to 31*5° F. above that of the air surround¬
ing it. Brongniart in 1834 found the temperature of Co-
locasia odora IQ’S0 F. above the air of the conservatory in
which the specimen grew. From Dutrochet’s examination of
the spadix of Arum maculatum it appears that the maximum
of temperature in the spadix occurred at 5’30 p.m., one hour
and a half after the complete opening of the spathe, and that
the heat was 18’7° above that of the surrounding air.
The seat of the highest temperature changes during
flowering. When the spathe opens, the staminal organs
show the greatest heat; and after the pollen is discharged,
their temperature falls, and the part of the spadix above
them grows warm. Hubert states that the outer surface of
the spadix is that in which the temperature is principally
developed. The male organs of the Arum have a higher
temperature than the female. There is also exhibited
during flowering a daily maximum and minimum of tempe¬
rature, which, however, do not appear to occur at regular
periods. In the case of Arum maculatum, Dutrochet
found the maximum temperature at 5.30 p.m., while Se¬
nebier noticed it after six in the evening. In Colocasia
odora, Brongniart found the maximum at 5 p.m. ; Vrolik
and De Vriese, as well as Van Beek and Bergsma, at 3
p.m. ; Hasskarl, in Java, at 6 a.m. ; Flubert, in Madagascar,
after sunrise. In the gardens of Paris, Amsterdam, and
Leyden, Colocasia odora attains its maximum temperature
at noon. The production of heat in Arum italicum, ac¬
cording to Saussure, attained its maximum from 4 to 7 p.m.
Brongniart gives the following results of his observations
on Colocasia odora as regards the time and degree of maxi¬
mum heat:—
DATE OF
OBSERVATION.
Spathe opened
March
Pollen dis¬
charged,
HourofMax.
Tempera¬
ture.
"4 I’.M.
4£ »
5 „
5 „
11 A.M.
10
Tempera¬
ture of Air.
76- l°
75-2
74- 8
75- 2
80-6
77- 9
Tempera¬
ture of
Spadix.
84-20
93-2
93-2
95
95-3
82-4
Tempera
ture above
Air.
8-1°
18
18- 4
19- 8
14-8
4-5
I he rise of temperature bore an evident relation to the
development of the stamens and the emission of the pollen?
and after the latter had taken place, the temperature fell?
and the spadix withered.
Garreau made observations on the heat given out by the
spadix of Arum italicum. In an experiment conducted on
8th June 1851, the atmospheric temperature being 66’2° F.
he found that the mean heat per hour was 11’2° F., the
mean of the oxygen consumed 76’6, and its mean volume,
when compared with the organ as unity, was 16’9. The
oxygen consumed during the 6 hours of the paroxysmal
heat was 460 cubic centimetres, and that consumed during
the 18 succeeding hours was 230, making in all, in 24 hours,
690 cubic centimetres. The quantity of oxygen consumed
increased with the temperature. In three distinct experi¬
ments the results were—
No. 1. Mean heat, 9'90 F. Oxygen consumed, IG’l cubic cent.
No. 2. — 11-2 — — 16-9
No. 3. — 13-1 — — 17-3 —
Garreau says that the nature of the surface of the spadix of
Arum seems to facilitate absorption. It consists of nume¬
rous projecting cells, giving a velvety appearance to the or¬
gan, with two or three open stomata. Saussure found that
the blossom of Arum maculatum, when cold, consumed five
times its volume of oxygen, but when warm, thirty times.
In a flower during the paroxysm, he found that the spathe
consumed five times its volume of oxygen, the bare portion
of the spadix 30 times, and the part covered with flowers
132 times.
The relation which the evolution of carbonic acid bears
to the heat produced is thus shown by Dutrochet:—
NAME OF ORGAN.
Spathe of Arum maculatum
Spadix of do.
Male organs of do.
Female organs of do.
Female flower, Gourd
Mean Temp, above
Air in ll> Hours.
0-06°
18-00
12-00
2-7
0-16
F.
CO2 evolved in
24 Hours.
Cubic centimetres.
4-0
38-0
135-0
10-0
7-6
The quantity of carbonic acid evolved is in direct proportion
to the oxygen absorbed, and the degree of chemical action
which takes place determines the amount of heat.
The presence and contact of oxygen gas is necessary for
these phenomena. When the spadix of an Arum is put into
oxygen gas, the heat is developed rapidly and powerfully,
the maximum difference between the heat of the oxygen¬
ated spadix and another in the air varying from 5° to 12b F.;
and when the spadix is placed in carbonic acid gas or nitro¬
gen, the evolution of heat ceases. The production of heat
is prevented by covering the spadix with olive oil, grease,
tallow, honey, or starch.
Periods of Flowering.—The age at which different
species of plants produce flowers varies. Some spring from
seed and produce flowers in the course of a single year and
die, others produce flowers the second year after germinat¬
ing and then decay, while a third set continue to flower for
many years in succession. Hence the division into annual
(0), biennial (^ ), and perennial (2f), plants. In some
cases flowering is long delayed, and when it does occur the
development of the flowering stalk takes place with great
vigour and rapidity, and the plant dies after producing fruit
and seed. Any cause, whether natural or artificial, which
retards flowering, is attended with results of a similar kind
more or less marked. When fruit trees have been in a
non-flowering condition, they sometimes suddenly produce
abundance of blossoms. A season in which blossoming has
been scanty is often succeeded by one in which it is profuse.
When the flower-buds are taken off early, it sometimes
happens that an annual plant, such as Mignonette, is ren¬
dered biennial or perennial. The tree Mignonette is pro-
Botany.
150
Botany.
BOTANY.
duced in this way. When plants grow in a rich soil it
sometimes happens that, in place of producing flow ers, they
develop branches and leaves luxuriantly. In these in¬
stances cutting the roots, pruning the branches, taking a
rintr of bark out of the stem so as to retard the descent of
sap, and transplanting into poor soil, frequently cause the
plants to flower. Injuries inflicted on forest trees late in the
season sometimes give rise to autumn flowering. When a
branch is grafted on a vigorous stock it often happens that
its flowering is accelerated. By this process a check is put
to luxuriant branching, and the sap of the old stock stimu¬
lates the young graft or scion.
The different periods of the year in the various countries
and climates of the globe are marked by the flowering of
certain species of plants. Each climate has its peculiar floral
calendar. Thus in Scotland we have the Winter Aconite
(Eranthis hyemalis) and the Snow-drop (Galanthus nivalis)
flowering in February, the Primrose (Primula vuigaris) in
March, the Cowslip (Primula veris) and Daffodil (Narcissus
Pseudo-Narcissus) in April, the Hawthorn (Crataegus Oxya-
cantha) in May, numerous successive species expanding
their blossoms during each month of summer, the Ivy (He-
dera Helix) flowering in September, and the autumn Crocus
(Colchicum autumnale) pushing up its flowering-stalks in
October. Every month and every week has thus its pecu¬
liar flowers. The expansion of certain flowers indicates the
revival of vegetation after winter in temperate and cold
regions, and after the dry season in warm countries.
The time of expansion of the flowers of the same species in
different countries gives indications in regard to the climate ;
and the difference of seasons in the same locality is also
marked by the dates at which the same species flower. The
registration of the periodical phenomena of flowering or
florescence is suggested by the British Association as one
of the points to be attended to in determining the nature of
different seasons. In 1829 Schubler states that the Lily of
the Valley (Convallaria majalis) flowered at Rome on the
26th April, at Tubingen on 10th May, at Berlin on 17th
May, and at Greifswald on 10th June. According to Berg-
haus the same species flower at Zurich 6 days later than at
Parma, at Tubingen 13 days later, at Jena 17, at Berlin 25,
at Hamburg 33, at Greifswald 36, and at Christiania 52.
The Almond is said to flower at Smyrna early in February,
in Germany at the beginning of April, and in Christiania
not till the commencement of June. There is thus perio¬
dicity in flowering as regards the seasons, and plants retain
the tendency to expand their flowers at a definite period of
the year even when transported to countries where the sea¬
sons are reversed. In these circumstances they do not im¬
mediately accommodate themselves to the opposite condi¬
tions of the seasons in which they are placed, but for a while
continue to show symptoms of flowering at the usual time
to which they were accustomed in their native clime. Some
varieties flower earlier than others of the same species. 1 his
has been noticed in the case of species of J horn, Horse-
chestnut, and many other plants. By means of slips taken
from such plants gardeners perpetuate early flowering
varieties.
Temperature is a most important agent in causing plants
to flower, but in each species the range of flowering-tem¬
perature is definite. A high temperature, in the case of
plants belonging to cold regions, often makes them produce
leaves in place of flowers, or if flowers are produced, they
drop off and are abortive. Fruit trees of temperate regions,
when grown in tropical countries, are frequently unproduc¬
tive. In cultivating plants in hot-houses, it is of importance
to regulate the temperature, and at the same time to attend
to the state of moisture and ventilation, if we wish the
plants to flower properly.
There are differences in regard to the hours of the day
at which flowers expand. Some open at dawn of day,
Fig. 375.
One of the Cichoraceoiis plants,
the Chicory (Cichorium Inty-
bus\ which opens its flowers
early in the morning.
others a few hours later, others at mid-day, others in the
evening, and a few after dark¬
ness has come on. Roemeria
violacea expands its blossoms early
in the morning, and the petals
have generally fallen off two or
three hours before noon. Many
Composite plants, as Chicory
(Fig. 375), show a remarkable
tendency to open and close their
florets. Species of Goat’s-beard
(Tragopogon) receive the com¬
mon name of go-to-bed-at-noon
on account of closing their florets
at mid-day. Ornithogalum um-
bellatum (Fig. 376) is called Lady-
Eleven-o’Clock, on account of
its flowers expanding about that
hour in the forenoon. (Eno-
thera biennis is called Evening
Primrose from opening its flowers
in the evening. The vigils of plants attracted the attention
of Linnmus, and he constructed what he called a Floral
Clock, in which the
hours of the day were
indicated by the open¬
ing of certain flowers,
and which were hence
called horological.
Fritzsch has paid par¬
ticular attention to the
opening and closing of
flowers, and gives the
results of observations
made at Prague, in Bo¬
hemia. He states that
these phenomena are
rarely momentary, but
that they are slow and
continuous processes,
which at all hours of Fig. 376.
the dav are in varying' A species of Star of Bethlehem {Ornithogalum
, ^ o • j. S nmhe,Untum\. which opens its flowers about
degrees of intensity.
He examined 140 spe¬
cies of plants belonging
to 29 natural orders,
and found that the
phases exhibited by - =
flowers in regard to sleeping and waking are influenced by
light, by temperature, and more especially by insolation or
exposure to the direct rays of the sun. Jhey are also, in a
certain degree, dependent on colour.
Although there seems to be no time of day when the
blossoms of certain plants do not open, yet in the greater
number of cases they are closed soon after sunset. Hie
number of species which begin to awake increases slowly
at the early hours of the morning, then more rapidly from
2 a.m. to 7 A.M., and decreases again rapidly after mid-day.
After that hour only those species open which are night-
bloomers. With the exception of a few hours about mid¬
night there is no hour of the day at which blossoms do not
begin to close ; there are, however, only a few about mi
day, from which time the number increases, reaching its
maximum at 6, and then again decreasing.
When blossoms begin to open after the cessation of sleep,
the change usually takes place in the first instance slow y,
then more rapidly, and, as it approaches its maximum there
is another retardation. In a few plants only the comp ete
expansion lasts an hour, more commonly not so much , t icy
then begin to close again, at first slowly, afterwards more
rapidly, and, as they approach the maximum of approxima-
Botany.
umbellatum), which opens its flowers about
11 a.m., and is hence called Lady-Eleven-
o’Clock. The flowers come off from the com¬
mon rachis in a corymbose torm. The bulb,
<x. is scaly, and produces small bulbs or
cloves in the axis of the scales. This bulb is
supposed to be the Chirionim, or cab of Doves
Dung mentioned in Scripture as being sold
during the famine in Samaria for a large sum.
—2 Kings vi. 25.
BOTANY.
151
Botany, tion of their petals, the progress is again slow. The flower
—vy—^ remains many hours in a more or less closed condition,
until the time returns for a new cycle of phases. The
state of expansion of the corolla varies. In some cases the
limb spreads out at a right angle with the tube, in other
cases the angle is less, while in some the limb is turned
down so as to form an oblique angle with the tube.
The time of the greatest expansion of the flowers varies
in different species. In general the number of species
whose blossoms attain the maximum of their phase increases
from sunrise to mid-day, and then decreases till sunset.
None of the day-bloomers are open till 7 a.m., or later than
5 p.m. A similar law seems to hold good with the night-
bloomers, which generally seem to open their corolla fully
towards midnight, while at mid-day they are completely
closed. In those blossoms which are fully expanded in the
morning, the duration of expansion is short. In those
blossoms which expand in the afternoon, the condition of
waking is limited by the length of time the sun is above the
horizon. In those blossoms which are fully expanded in
the night, the duration of sleep is shortest. Those blos¬
soms which are fully expanded in the morning open in gene¬
ral more rapidly than they close, while in those which open
in the afternoon the contrary law prevails. While the
time of sleep of plants is in close connection with the ap¬
parent daily course of the sun, the degree of expansion
depends on the temperature of the air and various meteoric
conditions, as well as on insolation or exposure to the direct
rays of the sun.
Exposure to artificial light causes some flowers to ex¬
pand. The flowers of Crocus have opened under the light
of an Argand lamp, those of Gentiana verna expanded fully
when exposed to the light of a gas-burner. Gloomy
weather and rain cause flowers to close. Those which are
very sensitive to such influences are called meteoric.
There is a periodicity in flowering which is not easily in¬
terrupted. If a plant is accustomed to flower in daylight
at a certain time, it will still make an effort to expand its
flowers at the wonted time, even when confined in a
dark room ; showing that light is not the only cause of the
expansion. As regards the connection between the colour
of flowers and their expansion, Fritzsch says that yellow
blossoms possess the strongest tendency to contract and
expand, then follow white, red, and blue.
The direction and position of the flowers on their stalks
appear in some cases to be controlled by the sun’s rays.
This is particularly the case in Composite plants. The
capitula of some of them are erect during the day, and droop
at night. Species of Hypochaeris are said to incline their
heads towards the quarter of the heavens in which the sun
is shining. The name Sun-flower (Helianthus, Girasole)
was given to a genus of Composite plants on account of the
supposed influence of the sun on the direction of their heads.
In Victoria regia there is a spontaneous motion of the flower
and the flower-stalk, the cause of which appears to be very
obscure.
Occasionally movements of irritability are observed in
petals. Morren observed them in the labellum of some
Orchids, such as Megaclinium falcatum, and they have been
noticed also in the stalk of the labellum of Drakea elastica,
which bends in a hinge-like manner when irritated. Va¬
rious species of'Pterostylis, and many Bolbophyllums, espe¬
cially B.barbigerum andB. Careyanum, show labellar move¬
ments. In Caleana nigrita, a Swan Biver Orchid, the
column is a boat-shaped box, the lid of which is formed by
the labellum. The latter is hinged on a claw, which reaches
the middle of the column ; when the flower opens the label-
hun turns round within the column and falls back, so that,
the flower being inverted, it stands fairly over the latter;
whenever an insect touches its point the labellum makes a
sudden revolution, brings the point to the bottom of the
column, and thus imprisons any insect which the box may Botany,
contain. If an insect is caught, the labellum remains shut;
but if there is no insect, it recovers its position. The la¬
bellum of Spiculaea ciliata is also moveable.
Colours of Flowers.—The colours of flowers naturally
attract the attention of all, and their varied hues are in an
especial manner an object of interest to the florist. These
colours usually reside in the corolla, but in the case of many
plants, especially Monocotyledons, they occur both in the
calyx and corolla (perianth); and in some instances, as in
Salvia and Amherstia, the bracts are highly coloured. The
changes produced by culture on the colours of many plants
are familiar to every one, and they may be well illustrated
in the case of the Tulip and Dahlia, the flowers of which are
naturally of a yellow colour, but in the hands of the florist
assume all varieties of red, white, and yellow. From its
variable nature, colour is not taken much into account by
the practical botanist in the determination of the species of
flowering plants. It is chiefly in Cryptogamic plants, such
as Fungi and Seaweeds, that this character is regarded of
value. It is probable, however, that too little attention has
been paid to this subject, owing to the want of an accurate
nomenclature, such as has been adopted by Werner in the
characters of minerals.
In reference to their colours, flowers are divided by De
Candolle into two series—1. Those having yellorv for their
type, and which are capable of passing into red and white,
and never into blue. 2. Those having blue for their type,
and capable of passing into red and white, but never into
yellow. The first series is called Xanthic, the second Cy¬
anic. The following is a tabular view of the two series,
green being considered as an intermediate state of equili¬
brium between the two :—
Red
Orange-red
Orange
Yellow-orange
Yellow
Yellow-green
1
/
Xanthic Series.
Green. Colour of Leaves.
Blue-green
Blue
Blue-violet
Violet
Violet-red
Red
Cyanic Series.
Green, which is made up of blue and yellow, is the centre
whence the two series diverge, and they meet again in red.
It would appear that all flowers capable of changing colour
do so in general by rising or falling in the series to which
they belong.
The original colour of the Tulip is yellow, and although
by cultivation it is made to assume all the varieties of colour
in the yellow series, we do not find it becoming blue. Such
is also the case with the common Dahlia and the Rose. No
one has succeeded in getting a blue variety of either of the
latter. The Geranium, on the other hand, although it pre¬
sents all shades of blue, red, and white, does not become
yellow. There seems thus to be a certain limit in the range
of colour which a species can be made to assume. These
remarks apply only to the change of colour in a given
species. They will not apply in all cases to every species
of a genus. Thus, while most of the Gentians belong to
the blue series, and do not become yellow by cultivation,
there is a yellow species of the genus (Gentiana luteaj
which never changes into blue. Again, we find certain
plants exhibiting, in the same flower, blue and yellow
colours. I his is seen in Dendrobium sanguinolentum ;
also in I ansies, and in many other parti-coloured flowers,
as in Convolvulus tricolor, and in species of Myosotis, which
have a yellow zone round the corolline tube, while the upper
fa
152
B 0 T A N Y.
Botany, part is blue. In these last mentioned cases each of the co-
loured portions of the flower vary in general only in their
proper series—the part which is yellow never becoming
truly blue, nor the blue yellow. The florets of the ray of
Composite plants often exhibit blue colours, while those of
the disk are yellow. The law by which the changes of
colour are regulated has not been ascertained, and it is im¬
possible, in the present state of our knowledge, to predict
what colour a florist’s flower will assume. The different
rays of light have different effects as regards colours. It
would appear, also, that the nature of the soil sometimes
alters colours. Thus, Hydrangea hortensis (Hortensia spe-
ciosa) produces blue in place of pink flowers, when planted
in some kinds of bog earth and of yellow loam. 1 he co¬
lours of flowers often appear to depend on the state of
oxygenation of the juices. Certain flowers have a pale
hue when first produced, and change under the influence
of sunlight. The colouring matter of flow-ers is usually
of a fluid nature, and has not the composition of chloro¬
phyll. .
The arrangement of coloured flowers in the parterre is
a matter deserving the attention of gardeners. Chevreul
has written very fully on the subject. He states that an
important principle is to combine such colours as produce
white light. Thus red, blue, and yellow, form, by their
union, a white ray. Hence flowers of these colours may
be, with propriety, placed together ; or a flower of one of
these primary colours may be combined with one whose
colour is made up of the other two in the shape of a binary
compound. Thus, red agrees well with green, which is
made up of yellow and blue. I his may be seen in the case
of the scarlet Pelargonium, where the colour harmonizes
with its own green leaves, or with the green of other plants
around it; so also in the case of red Dahlias. Again, blue
harmonizes with orange compounded of yellow and red, as
may be illustrated by a combination of the Brachycome
iberidifolia with Erysimum Perofskianum. Yellow har¬
monizes with violet, composed of blue and red, as seen in
the petals of Pansies, d o produce the best effect the co¬
lours should be as nearly as possible of the same tone. In
cases where colours do not agree, placing white between
them restores the effect.
Odours of Flowers.—The odours of flowers, as well as
their colours, vary much. The sources of odours in flowers
are very obscure. Ihey are often traced to the piesence
of fragrant volatile oils or resins. The effluvia are of such
a subtle nature as to elude chemical analysis. Ihey aie
usually developed under the influence of sunshine, but in^
certain instances odours are emitted during the absence of
light. Some flowers are only odoriferous in the evening.
This is the case with Cestrum nocturnum, with several spe¬
cies of Catasetum and Cymbidium, and with Lychnis ves-
pertina. Certain flowers, such as Hesperis tristis, and IN yc-
tanthes arbor tristis, receive
their specific names (tristis, sad)
from giving out their fragrance
only at night.
The exudation of odours by
nocturnal flowers sometimes
takes place in a peculiarly in¬
termittent manner. Thus in the
night-blooming Cereus (Cereus
grandiflorus) the flowers are
fragrant only at intervals, giv¬
ing out puffs of odour every
half hour, from eight in the 0n? of 111 ? Ca/r\iol!
. • -i • i t\t lia vanegatd), belonging to tne
evening till midnight. Morren natural order Asclepiadace*.
.i , • .i T-fc receives its English name on
states that on one occasion the account of the fetid odour of its
flower began to expand at six dark brown flowers,
o’clock in the evening, when the first fragrance was per¬
ceptible in the hothouse. A quarter of an hour afterwards
Fig. 377.
the first puff of odour took place, after a rapid motion of the Botany,
calyx; at 6‘23 there was another powerful emanation of fra- v''—
grance ; by thirty-five minutes past six the flower was com¬
pletely open; at a quarter to seven the odour of the calyx
wras the strongest, but modified by the petals. After this
time the emanations of odour took place at the same periods
as before. The odours of flowers have frequently peculiar
effects on nervous individuals, particularly when the odours
are connected with the presence of hydrocyanated oils. The
odour of some flowers is remarkably overpowering, and that
of others, such as Stapelias or Carrion flowers (Fig. 37 <),
is very offensive.
II. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE ESSENTIAL ORGANS OF
REPRODUCTION.
1. Sexuality of Plants. Maturation of the Organs con¬
cerned in Reproduction ; and changes preceding the De¬
velopment of the Embryo.
The idea of the existence of separate sexes in plants was
entertained in early times, long before separate male and
female organs had been demonstrated. The production of
Dates in Egypt, by bringing two kinds of flowers into con¬
tact, proves that in very remote periods some notions were
entertained on the subject. Female Date Palms only were
cultivated, and wild ones were brought from the desert in
order to fertilize them. Herodotus informs us that the
Babylonians knew of old that there were male and female
Date-trees, and that the female required the concurrence
of the male to become fertile. This fact was also known to
the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, and other nations of Asia
and Africa. The Babylonians suspended male clusters from
wild Dates over the females; but they seem to have sup¬
posed that the fertility thus produced depended on the pre¬
sence of small flies among the wild flowers, which, by enter¬
ing the female flowers, caused them to set and ripen. The
process was called palmification. A similar statement was
made in regard to the Fig. The process of caprification,
or bringing wild Figs in contact with cultivated ones, so as
to cause the latter to ripen soon, is mentioned by Aristotle,
who observed that a certain insect was generated on the
flowers of the Caprifig (wild Fig), which, having become a
fly, entered the unripe fruit of the domestic Fig, and caused
it to set.
Grew, in a paper on the Anatomy of Plants, read before
the Royal Society in November 1676, seems to have been
the first who really observed the functions of the stamens
and pistils. Up to this period all was vague conjucture.
Grew speaks of the attire, or the stamens, as being
the male parts, and he mentions having spoken of the sub¬
ject to Sir Thomas Millington, Savilian Professor at Ox¬
ford, who entertained the same opinion. Ray adopted C rew’s
views, and states various arguments to prove their correct¬
ness in the preface to his work on European Plants, pub¬
lished in 1694. In 1703, Mr Samuel Morland, in a paper
read before the Royal Society, stated that the farina (pollen)
is a congeries of seminal plants, one of which must be con¬
veyed into every ovum or seed before it can become proli¬
fic. In this remarkable statement he seems to anticipate
in part the discoveries afterwards made as to pollen tubes,
and more particularly the views promulgated by Schleiden.
In 1711, Geoffrey, in a memoir presented to the Royal Aca¬
demy at Paris, supported the views of Grew and others as
to the sexes of plants. Linnaeus was the next botanical au¬
thor who took up the subject of the sexes of plants, and he
may be said to have opened anew era in the history of Bo¬
tany. He first published his views in 1736, and divided
plants into sexual and asexual, the former being Phanero¬
gamous or flowering, and the latter Cryptogamous or flower¬
less. In the latter division of plants he could not detect
stamens and pistils, and he did not investigate the mode in
BOTANY.
Botany, which their germs were produced. He was no physiologist, and
■ did not promulgate any views as to the embryogenic process.
Soon after the promulgation of Linnaeus’ method of classi¬
fication, the attention of botanists was directed to the study
of Cryptogamic plants, and the valuable work of Hedwig on
the reproductive organs of Mosses made its appearance in
1782. He was one of the first to point out the existence
of certain cellular bodies in these plants which appeared to
perform the functions of reproductive organs, and to them
the names of antheridia and pistillidia were given. This
opened up a new field of research, and led the way in the
study of Cryptogamic reproduction, which has since been
much advanced by the labours of numerous botanical in¬
quirers.
In 1815, Treviranus roused the attention of botanists to
the development of the embryo, but although he made valu¬
able researches, he did not add much in the way of new in¬
formation. In 1823, Amici discovered the existence of
pollen-tubes, and he was followed by Brongniart and Brown.
The latter traced the tubes as far as the nucleus of the ovule.
These important discoveries mark a new epoch in Embryo¬
logy, and may be said to be the foundation of the views now
entertained by physiologists, which have been materially
aided by the subsequent elucidation of the process of cyto-
genesis, or cell-development, by Schleiden, Schwann, Mohl,
and others. The whole subject has been investigated re¬
cently with great assiduity and zeal by physiologists, both
as regards Cryptogamous and Phanerogamous plants. The
formation of germinal vesicles in the ovule, and the develop¬
ment of the embryo in flowering plants, have been fully con¬
sidered by Schleiden, Mirbel, Mohl, and others; the em¬
bryogenic process in Coniferous plants and in the higher
Cryptogams by Hofmeister, Suminski. and Mettenius ; and
that of the lower Cryptogams by Thuret, Decaisne, and
Tulasne. We have thus been enabled to come to certain
general conclusions on this obscure subject, and future ob¬
servers have been directed in the proper path of investiga¬
tion.
In flowering plants the organs concerned in reproduction
are the stamens and pistils, while in flowerless plants, organs
called antheridia and archegonia, as well as peculiar cells,
exist, which appear to perform this function. As regards
the former class of plants, many proofs have been given that
the pollen discharged from the anthers must be applied to
the stigmatic surface of the pistil in order to produce per¬
fect seed. Among the best evidences of the functions of
the stamens and pistil in flowering plants, are those derived
from species in which these organs are separated, and in
which, when contact is carefully prevented, no seed is pro¬
duced. Experiments of this kind require much caution to
avoid fallacy arising from pollen being wafted from a dis¬
tance, so as to cause female plants to produce fruit. More¬
over, it sometimes happens that in plants usually producing
pistilliferous flowers only, stamens are developed. Such
a case might be considered, by careless observers, as an
instance of a female plant producing fertile seed without
the action of pollen. When flowers are completely double,
that is, when the stamens and pistils are entirely converted
into petals, no seed is produced. Occasionally, however, in
flowers apparently double, a single stamen may exist, with
sufficient pollen to fertilize the plant, or the pistil maybe per¬
fect, so that pollen from other plants may affect it, and lead
to the production of perfect seed. In certain instances, it
has been stated that perfect seed has been produced without
the agency of pollen. But the cases require further inves¬
tigation. Henslow has conjectured that cases where fertile
seed is stated to have been formed without the action of
pollen, may be analogous to what is seen in Aphides, where
one impregnation is sufficient to produce eight or ten gene¬
rations.
In Phanerogamous plants provision is made for securing
VOL. v.
the application of the pollen to the stigmatic portion of the
pistil or to the ovule. The relative
lengths of the stamens and pistils,
in erect and pendulous flowers, are
varied on this account, and the mode
in which the anthers open is also
made subservient to the same end.
In the case of some plants, the elas¬
tic filaments are bound down by the
floral envelopes until such time as
the pollen is ripe, and then they
are set free so as to scatter the pol¬
len with great force. This pheno¬
menon is seen in the common Net¬
tle (Urtica dioica), and in the Pel-
litory of the wall (Fig. 378). In
the species of Kalmia a similar phe¬
nomenon is observed, the anthers being held for a time in
little pouches or sacs of the corolla, and then moving with
a jerk towards the pistil.
In the Barberry (Fig. 379), the filaments are very irri¬
table on their inner surface, at the point where they join
Pig. 378.
Male flower of Pellitory (Pa-
rietaria officinalis), having
four stamens with incurved
elastic filaments, and an
abortive pistil in the centre.
When the perianth expands,
the filaments are thrown out
with force, so as to scatter
the pollen on the female
flowers in the vicinity.
Pig. 380.
Fig, 379. Flower of the Barberry {Berberis vulgaris), the stamens of which are
irritable, and move towards the pistil when touched at their base.
... 380. A species of Stylewort {Stylidium tenuifolium, which displays irrita¬
bility in its reproductive column. 1. Plant, with its narrow leaves
and numerous flowers, from each of which a column projects formed
by the united stamens and pistil. 2. Flower separated, showing
calyx, corolla, and column ; at the extremity of the latter the an¬
ther lobes are placed, surrounding the stigma in the centre. 3. A
similar flower, showing the column in the act of passing from one
side of the flower to the other.
the receptacle, and when touched in that situation they
move towards the central organ. The motion, like that of
the leaves of the Sensitive plant, seems to be connected with
a small cellular swelling or gland at the base. In species of
Stylidium (Fig. 380), the stamens and pistil are united in
a common column, which is jointed and irritable, and which,
when touched at the joint, passes with force and rapidity
from one side of the flower to the opposite one, so as to
burst the anthers and scatter the pollen on the central stig¬
ma. The stamens of the common Rock-rose (Helianthe-
mum vulgare), and of species of Cistus, exhibit movements
which are apparently connected with the application of the
pollen. In Parnassia palustris (Fig. 381), and in Rue, the
stamens move forward in succession towards the pistil.
Insects are sometimes employed in scattering pollen. The
bees in collecting the honey secreted at the base of the pe¬
tals are made instrumental in applying the pollen to the
stigma. In Orchids, in which the anthers are placed on the
upper part of a column with the stigmatic surface separated
from them, and the pollen is in masses (Fig. 265), the
agency of insects seem to be required for fertilization. The
flowers of these plants exhibit remarkable animal forms,
probably with the view of attracting insects. The flowers
also secrete a large amount of saccharine matter, and are
odoriferous; their pollen-masses are very easily detached.
All these circumstances seem to be connected with their
mode of impregnation. In Asclepiadaceae, which have
u
153
Botany.
154
BOTANY.
Botany, also peculiar pollinia (Fig. 382), insects are attracted by
—the odour of the flowers, which is sometimes very fetid, as
Fig. 381. Flower of the Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris), the stamens
of which move in succession towards the pistil, in order to scatter
their pollen. In the Figure, some stamens are seen applied to the
pistil, and others removed from it.
... 382. Pistil of one of the Asclepiadacese, with the calyx and flower-stalk,
a, the pollen masses, p, adhering to the stigma, s. Pollen-masses, 6,
separated with the gland uniting them.
... 383. Separate flower of Common Birthwort (AratolocAia Clematitis),formed
by a single perianth inclosing the stamens and pistil at its base.
The inside of the tube of the perianth is lined with stiff hairs point¬
ing downwards, which allow the entrance of an insect called Tipula
pennicornis, but prevent its exit until the pollen has been scattered
on the stigma, and the flower has withered.
in Stapelia (Fig. 377), as well as by saccharine matter.
In various species of Birthwort (Fig. 383), in which the
essential organs are contained in a tubular perianth, in¬
sects are employed to effect the application of the pollen.
Species of Tipula enter the expanded portion of the perianth,
and then crawl down through the long tube to the cavity at
the base containing the stamens and pistil. On attempting
to return they are prevented from getting out by numerous
hairs pointing downwards, which act like a trap. While
moving about in the lower chamber, the insects spread the
pollen when ripe, and afterwards when the flower fades they
escape.
Pollen grains in general require to be protected from the
direct action of moisture, which causes them to burst pre¬
maturely. The closing of flow'ers during rain accomplishes
this object. In the Daisy and other Composite plants the
outer florets close over the inner ones, and thus prevent in¬
jury from wet. When plants grow in water the pollen is
sometimes of a peculiar nature, and the anthers are placed
along with the pistils in a covering to protect them from the
effects of moisture. In other aquatics, the peduncles rise
above the water at the time when the flowers are developed.
In Vallisneria (Fig. 22), the female plant, b, sends up a
long spiral peduncle, which sometimes increases in length
14 inches during twenty-four hours, and which enables the
flower to appear above water, and to be accommodated to its
depth, at the same time that the root remains attached to
the mud below; the male plant, a, on the other hand, is
detached from the bottom of the water, floats on the sur¬
face, and there perfects its pollen, which is ultimately wafted
on the pistilliferous plant.
The fertilizing power of the pollen is retained for a dif¬
ferent length of time in different species of plants. Accord¬
ing to Kolreuter and Gmrtner, the pollen continued fresh
in some species of Tobacco only for 48 hours; in Datura
Stramonium, D. Tatula, and D. ferox, and in Lychnis dioica
for 2 days; in Hibiscus Trionum and the Clove-pink for
3 days; in Lobelia syphilitica and L. splendens for 8 or 9
days; in Wallflower for 14 days ; in Orchis abortiva for 2
months. The pollen of the Hemp, Tea, and Camellia, has
been kept fresh for a year ; and Michaux mentions the pol¬
len of Chammrops humilis and of the Date as having been
used successfully after 18 years. Pollen may be carried to Botany
a distance and retain its fertilizing power.
The quantity of pollen produced in some cases is enor¬
mous. In the case of Firs and Pines, this seems to be con¬
nected with the fact that the cones or female organs are
separate from the staminal clusters, and that, moreover, the
leaves are usually evergreen, and thus present an obstacle
to fertilization. The yellow powder in Pine forests falls to
the ground in vast quantity, and it is sometimes carried by
the winds to a great distance, so as to fall in the form of
what have been called sulphur showers. Morren counted
the number of pollen grains in a plant of Cereus grandiflorus
which grew in the stove of the Botanic Garden of Liege.
He found that in each flower there were 500 stamens, and
as 40 flowers were produced, the total number of stamens
on the plant was 20,000, and of pistils 40, each having 24
stigmas. Each anther contained 500 pollen grains, and
hence the total number of grains in each flower was 250,000,
and upon the entire plant 10,000,000. In many catkin¬
bearing plants, which are monoecious or dioecious, the pollen
is abundant, and the essential organs are developed before
the leaves are produced. Examples of this occur in the
common Hazel, and in Willows.
Observations have been made by Gsertner and Kolreuter
as to the quantity of pollen required the fertilize the ovules.
One grain, or at most three, are sufficient to impregnate the
ovule of Mirabilis longiflora and M. Jalapa. In a single
flower of Hibiscus Trionum, Kolreuter counted 4863 pollen
grains, and he ascertained that 50 or 60 were sufficient to
fertilize all the ovules in the ovary, usually amounting to
30; when fewer grains were employed, impregnation was
not complete ; thus 25 grains only impregnated from 10 to
16 ovules. In most cases the pollen of a single fertile
anther is sufficient for the perfecting of the ovules, and the
additional anthers are produced with the view of insuring
the result. Morren states, that in the flower of Cereus
grandiflorus he found 150,000 grains of pollen, out of
250,000, which had not been applied to the stigma, while
the number of ovules in each ovary was about 30,000.
During the evolution of the stamens and the maturation
of the pollen, the pistil undergoes changes, more especially
as regards the stigma, which becomes enlarged, lax in its
texture, and covered with a viscid secretion. In species of
Campanula, during the discharge of the pollen, the style,
which is covered with hairs (hig- 384), elongates, and in
Fig. 384.
Fig. 384. Style of a species of Bellflower (Campanula) covered with hairs,
which collect the pollen. . .
... 3S5. The ovule of Celandine (Chelidonium), with its prmnne.p, secnndine,
3. and nucleus,n, projecting through the foramen, which is slightly
turned round in 1, and completely turned in 2. By this change m
the position of the ovule the foramen is brought near the placenta,
and the pollen tubes reach it more easily. The funiculus or um¬
bilical cord./. , i J.X. r.
... 386. Ovule of Polygonum, showing the nucleus, n, and the embryo-sac.
containing a vesicle or germinal cell, c, formed before impregna¬
tion. This cell, after fertilization, develops the first embryonal
... 387. Stamen’, s, of Wallflower (Cheiranthus), scattering the pollen, p,
from the anther,a. The filament,/.
its upward progress brushes the pollen from the anthers.
The hairs which collect the pollen apply it to the stigma,
the branches of which, s, are at first erect, and afterwards, by
changes in their cells, become re volute. In Goldfussia(Kuellia)
B O T
Botany, anisophylla, the style has a curved stigmatic apex, which gra¬
dually becomes straightened so as to come into contact with
the hairs of the corolla on which the pollen is scattered.
The stigma in species of Mimulus, is bilamellar, and the
two lamellae close when touched with pollen or any extra¬
neous body.
Before the process of impregnation, certain changes also
take place in the ovule. I he relative position of its parts
is frequently altered, so that the micropyle is brought near
to the placenta (Fig. 385). Moreover, one of the central
cells becomes much enlarged and developed, so as to form
the embryo-sac (Fig. 386, s). At the end of this sac, next
to the micropyle, several delicate free nucleated cells are
produced, to which the name of embryo-vesicles or germinal-
vesicles has been given (Fig. 386, c). In this way the
ovule is prepared for the action of the pollen, and for the
production of the embryo plant.
1 he essential organs, when performing their active func¬
tions, absorb much oxygen and evolve carbonic acid. At
the same time they acquire a certain elevation of tempera¬
ture. 1 his has been already noticed when speaking of the
floral envelopes. The time of the emission of pollen seems
to be that at which the maximum heat is produced, and the
stamens have a higher temperature than the pistil. When
the stamens and pistil are mature the anther bursts (Fig.
387), and scatters the pollen, p, on the stigma (Fig. 388, stiff).
1 here it is detained, and is acted on by the viscid secretion,
n p Stig
styl
Fig. 388. Grains of Pollen, p p. applied to the viscid cellnlar stigma, stig, of
Frogsmouth {Antirrhinum majus). The style, sty, is laid open to
show the pollen tubes passing down to the ovary.
... 389. Spherical grain of pollen of the Cherry (Cerasus), showing a pollen
tube formed by the intine, with its extremity ruptured, so as to dis¬
charge fo villa,/.
... 390, Pistil and pollen of Polygonum. 1. Stigma, stig, with pollen grains,
p, adherent to it, sending tubes, tp, down the conducting tissue of
the style, styl; the ovary, o, containing the ovule with its covering
and central cellular mass or nucleus, n, containing a'rudimentary
embryo-sac, ve, in which ultimately the embryo is developed. The
base of the ovule attached to the placenta is marked by the cha-
laza, ch. 2. Pollen grain,p, separated, with pollen tube, tp.
by means of which tubes are developed from the intine
(Figs. 269, and 390, 2). This is a sort of germination of
the pollen cell. These tubes pierce the stigmatic tissue, and
convey the fovilla (Fig. 389,/), through the canal of the
style to the ovule. In Figure 390, 1, the ovary, o, with the
ovule, n, and embryo-sac, ve, is represented; the pollen,/?,
is applied to the stigma, stig, and its tubes, tp, pass
through the conducting tissue of the style, styl, to reach the
embryo-sac.
The emission of tubes sometimes commences half a
minute after the pollen has been applied to the stigma; in
other cases, as in Mirabilis Jalapa, it takes from 24 to 36
hours. In the Larch Geleznoff says that the tubes do not
emerge for 35 days. The length to which the tubes extend
is often very great. In Cereus grandiflorus, Morren esti¬
mated that the tubes when they reached the ovary ex-
ANY.
tended as far as 1150 times the diameter of the pollen
grain; in Crinum amabile, Hassall says they reach 1875
times the diameter of the grain, in Cleome speciosa 2719
times, in Oxyanthus speciosus 4489 times, and in Colchi-
cum autumnale 9000 times. The length of time which the
pollen tube takes to traverse the conducting tissue of the
style varies. The time does not always correspond with the
comparative length of the style. In some short-styled
plants the time taken is very long, while in the case of the
long-styled Cereus grandiflorus and Colchicum autumnale
a few hours is sufficient. In the case of some Coniferous
plants, as Finns sylvestris, Pineau states that a year elapses
before the tubes reach the embryo-sac.
2. Embryogeny in Cryptogamous or Acotyledonous Plants.
In the simplest Cryptogamic plants, composed of a single
rounded cell, as in the Red-snow plant (Fig. 56), the pro¬
cesses of reproduction and nutrition cannot be separated.
The same cell appears to perform both functions. At a
certain period of growth divisions take place in the cell-
contents, and, by the bursting of the parent cell, germs are
discharged which are capable of producing new individuals.
As we ascend in the scale the plants become more complex.
In place of one cell they consist of several united together
either in a single or branched linear series, and combined
both end to end and laterally, so as to form cellular expan¬
sions. In this state the nutritive and reproductive cells are
often separate and distinct, as may be seen in common
Mould, and in Fungi generally. In Conferva? (Fig. 19)
and in Diatomaceae (Fig. 13) the existence of reproduc¬
tive cells with distinct functions has been observed. In
many of them we perceive at certain stages of growth cells
united by a process of conjugation, the result of this union
being the production of a cellular embryo or spore (Fig.
391, c). This conjugation is a very interesting process, and
tends to throw light on the subject of
reproduction throughout the whole
vegetable kingdom. The cells in these
plants have in their interior a granular
endochrome, which appears to have dif¬
ferent functions in the different cells.
When certain cells are brought into
contact, tubes are emitted which unite
the two (Fig. 391, b), the endochromes
come into contact, and the result is the
formation of a spore, the mixed endo¬
chromes being surrounded with a pro¬
per membrane. Sometimes the con¬
tents of one cell considered as the male
pass into the other in which the spore
is produced, as in Zygnema, and some¬
times the contents of both cells unite,
and the spore is produced in the tube
between them, as in Diatoms. ¥ig ^
In many of the Conferva?, however, Filaments of zygnema,
spores appear to be produced without tJ/ tXi“ Minf/two
the conjugation of separate filaments, ceils are seen at 6,and si-
in such instances it is conjectured that ™pper cells5a anIi/* The
different cells in the same filament per- tTmingie^and sporesZ
form different functions, and are so sporoid embyros, c and ct,
placed that at a certain period their cells1*,rin whlcii thlfrelsno
contents by coming into contact de- nsnai^onwntsfn wiiue
velop a germ. The same filament some of the lower ceils
may thus contain both male and female andUorUare produced
cells ; although botanists as yet have 111 others-
not been able to show the difference between them. In
some species of Meloseira the endochrome at each end
of the cell appears to have a different property, and mixture
takes place in the cavity of a single frustule. In this case
there is a movement towards the centre of the cell when
the spore is formed.
Botany. Proceeding to other divisions of Acotyledons, we find dif-
ferent kinds of reproductive organs, which can, however,
only be observed at certain periods ot development, and
frequently cannot be seen after the embryo has been fully
formed. In the same way as in the flowering plants, when
the seed has been ripened the stamens have generally
withered and fallen off, and sometimes also the style and
stigma. It is of importance, therefore, in all investigations
into Cryptogamic reproduction, to examine the plants at
their early period of growth. The reproductive organs have
received different names in different natural orders of Cryp¬
togams. They are generally called antheridia and arche-
gonia or pistillidia, from their supposed analogy to anthers
and pistils. The antheridia contain sperm-cells, in each of
which is a moving ciliated phytozoon, spirillum, or sperma-
tozoid, and the pistillidium or archegonium contains a germ¬
cell or embryonal cell, which produces a germinating body.
Spermatozoids are considered as analogous in their func¬
tion to the spermatozoa of animals. They have been traced
to the archegonia, or the cells in which the rudimentary
embryo is formed. Hofmeister states
that he has often seen spermatozoids
swimming about around the arche¬
gonium, in longitudinal sections of
the involucres of Jungermanniese
(Fig. 392); he has also seen them in
a motionless state after the rudiment
of the frmt began to be developed.
Similar observations have been made
in regard to Mosses and Ferns; and
Suminski is disposed to think that
the extremity of a spermatozoid in
Ferns is developed as an embryonic
cell, in the same way as Schleiden
thinks the end of the pollen tube
constitutes the first cell of the em¬
bryo in flowering plants. Thuret has
observed in dioecious Fuci, that the Archegonia of Jungermannia
embryo-cell in the archegonium was
not developed as a germinating body,
when the antheridian cells were kept
separate. After the application of
the contents of the antheridia to the
archegonia, a cellular body is pro¬
duced in the latter, which may be
called a sporoid embryo. This cell
may be discharged at once, or it may go through certain
phases of existence without being separated from the plant
on which it is produced.
In Mosses there is a free germ-cell (embryonal cell) at
the base of the archegonium. Spermatozoids, from the
sperm-cells of the antheridium, reach it in all probability,
and then it is developed into the sporangium or spore-case
(Fig. 393), which is the second generation of the plant,
according to some authors. The spores produce the leafy
plant, bearing antheridia and archegonia. In Figure 394 is
shown the confervoid prothallium, p, of a Moss produced
from the spore, and bearing buds, a, b, which produce leafy
individuals with organs of reproduction. After the contact
of these organs, a single cell of the archegonium is developed
into the complete fruit (theca or sporangium) which is often
borne upon a stalk (Fig. 393). The complete fruit contains
spores, which, when discharged, again develop the folia-
ceous plant. Bruch and Schimper say that Mosses having
antheridia and archegonia upon the same stem always bear
fruit, and that in dioecious Mosses the capsule is not de¬
veloped unless the plants bearing sperm-cells and those pro¬
ducing germ-cells are in proximity.
In Ferns the prothallium, pro-embryo, or prothallus (Fig.
395), bears antheridia and archegonia at the same epoch.
It is produced from the spore, and consists of cells, as shown
Fig. 392.
Tungei
bicuspidata. a. Unimpreg¬
nated, archegonium, with
a tube leading to a cavity,
near the base of which is a
cell, b, Archegonium after
impregnation, with the cell,
c, divided into two nucle¬
ated portions. This double
nucleated body is the rudi¬
ment of the fruit-bearing
stalk. At the apex of the
canal leading to the cell
are seen spermatozoids, s 5.
Fig. 394.
Fig. 393. Sporangium of a Moss {Polytrichum), supported on a stalk. This
stalked sporangium is produced by the impregnated cell of the
archegonium. It constitutes the second generation.
... 394. Prothallium p, of a Moss (Funaria hygrometrica), consisting of a con¬
geries of cells arranged in a filiform manner. This prothallium
originates from the spore, and bears a bud, a, and a young stem, b,
from the base of which roots proceed. This stem bears antheridia
and archegonia. An impregnated cell in the archegonium pro¬
duces the stalked theca or sporangium.
of the prothallium, and they consist of a cellular papilla
having a central cavity (Fig. 396, a). This cavity contains
free cellules, which are discharged by a rupture at the apex,
b, and these little cellules, in bursting, give exit to a cili¬
ated spiral filament or spermatozoid (Fig. 397), which swims
actively in water. The archegonia (Fig. 398) exist on the
under side of the prothallium, near the notch of the border.
They are less numerous (varying from three to eight), and
consist of cellular papillae formed by ten or twelve cells.
They are larger than the antheridia, and have a central
canal, a, leading down to a large globular cell, c (called by
some, ovule), imbedded in the substance of the pro thallium
or pro-embryo, and containing the embryo germ, e. This
canal is closed at first, and then opens. In the globular
cell at the bottom of the archegonium, a free cell is first
formed, which, it is supposed, is reached by the sperma¬
tozoids. After a time this cell divides, and is gradually
Fig. 397.
Fig. 395. Young plant of a Fern (Pteris paleacea), showing the commencement
of the sporangiferous frond,/, arising from the impregnated ovule
in the archegonium ; the prothallium, p, being still attached.
... 396. Antheridia from the prothallium of the Common Brake (Pteris aqui-
lind). a. An unopened antheridium; b, antheridium bursting at
the apex, and discharging free cellules, each containing a sperma¬
tozoid ; c, antheridium after the discharge of the cellules.
... 397. A spermatozoid with cilia, discharged from a cellule in the anthe¬
ridium of the Forked Spleenwort (Asplenium septentrionale).
... 398. Archegonium of the Forked Spleenwort {Asplenium septentrionale)
immediately after impregnation, a. Canal leading to the ovule or
large cell, c, at the base of the archegonium; e, nucleated embry¬
onic cell, whence the sporangiferous frond proceeds. Spermato¬
zoids from the antheridium reach the canal of the archegonium,
and impregnate the ovule.
converted into an embryo, with a bud above and a radicle
157
Botany.
BOTANY.
Botany, below, from which the regular leafy stem of the Fern grows
^ (Fig. 395,/). The life of the sporangiferous plant is inde¬
finite, as in Tree Ferns, while the prothallium is usually of
very short duration. Thus in Ferns the spores contained in
the sporangium form the prothallus (Fig. 395, p) with¬
out impregnation, and this latter process is necessary for
the development of the germ (Fig. 398, e), which gives rise
to the leafy sporangiferous stem or frond; while in Mosses
the spore forms the prothallus and the leafy stem without
impregnation, and this latter operation only causes the de¬
velopment of the stalked theca, or spore-producing part of
the plant (Fig. 393).
Hofmeister and Mettenius have examined the reproduc¬
tion of Club Mosses (Lycopodiaceae), and have detected an-
theridia and archegonia. They find that the small spores
of Lycopods discharged from the antheridia (Fig. 358), do
not produce new plants, but have an office analogous to that
of the pollen, namely, to effect the fertilization of a germ
produced by the large spore (Fig. 359). The small spores
contain cellules with spiral filaments or spermatozoids (Fig.
399, c) ; the other spore emitted from the oophoridium or
sporangium is much larger than the pollinic spore, and is the
Fig. 400.
a
Fig. 401.
Fig. 399. Small spore (pollinic spore) of a Lycopod (Selaginella helvetica),
bursting and discharging cellules, c, containing spermatozoids.
... 400. Large spore discharged from the oophoridium of a Lycopod (Selagi¬
nella Mertensii), with the outer coat removed to show the young
cellular prothallium,p, at the upper end.
... 401. Vertical section of a small portion of the prothallium and upper part
of the large spore of a Lycopod (Selaginella denticulata), showing
the embryo, e, developed from a central cell of one of the arche¬
gonia, a, carried down by the growth of the suspensor, so as to be
imbedded in the cellular tissue at the upper part of the spore.
Fig. 403.
Fig. 402.
analogue of the ovule. The large spore forms a cellular
prothallium in its interior (Fig. 400, p), on which arche¬
gonia are developed. The process of impregnation is sup¬
posed to take place here by the spermatozoids of the small
spores coming into con¬
tact with the large
spore, after the coat of
the large spore has burst
at its apex, so as to ex¬
pose the cellular pro¬
thallium and its arche¬
gonia. The free cen¬
tral cell of the archego-
nium then enlarges, di¬
vides, and elongates
into a filament, which
grows down into the
prothallium (Fig. 401).
A suspensor is thus
formed, at the end of
which is the embryo, e,
imbedded in the cellular tissue at the upper part of the large
spore. The embryo finally produces its radicle and its
bud, which is developed as the leafy frond. In Rhizo-
carps the antheridia are sacs containing small spores, which
emit cellules with spermatozoids (Fig. 402). The large
spores contained in the sporangia of Rhizocarps produce
a prothallium like that of Lycopods, in which archegonia
appear (Fig. 403). The prothallium usually develops only
one central archegonium. To this the spermatozoids get
access, and then the development of the embryo takes
place.
Fig. 402. The small spore of a Rhizocarp (Pilu-
laria globulifera, Pillwort). The
inner coat is protruded, an d the outer
coat has burst, so as to discharge
cellules containing spermatozoids.
Some of the spermatozoids are sepa¬
rate , and are seen coiled up in a spiral
form.
... 403. Archegonium, a, of a Rhizocarp (Pi7m-
laria globulifera')cwt vertically after
impregnation, showing the prothal¬
lium, with the embryo in its interior
in an advanced state. This embryo
gives origin to the leafy stem.
3. Embryogeny in Gymnospermous Phanerogams.
In Gymnospermous plants, such as Coniferae and Cyca-
dacese,* impregnation is effected by direct contact between
the pollen and the ovule. There is no true ovary bearing
a stigma. In the Coniferae the scales covering the seeds are
either reckoned as bracts or as expanded ovarian leaves. In
Cycadaceae the naked ovules are produced on the margin of
modified leaves. In both these orders it is usual to meet
with more than one embryo in the perfect seed. In the
Coniferae there is also a peculiar delay in the production of
the embryo, after the contact of the pollen. The phases
through which the embryo passes in the seed may be
reckoned as somewhat similar to those observed in the case
of Lycopodium. Brown long ago noticed in the albumen of
Coniferous seeds semicylindrical bodies, three to six in
number, which he called corpuscles and which are produced
before the pollen tube reaches the ovular sac (Fig. 406, d).
They are arranged in a circle near the apex, and differ from
the mass of the albumen in colour as well as consistence.
Hofmeister gives the following views as to the production
of the embryo in Gymnosperms. The ovule of Conifers con¬
sists of a short nucleus inclosed in a single integument, and
having a large micropyle (Fig. 404). In the delicate cel¬
lular nucleus there is developed an embryo-sac, h, sometimes
more than one, as in the Yew tribe. The pollen grains
enter the large micropyle and come into contact with the
nucleus, and then send their tubes into its apex (Fig. 405,
c). This process sometimes requires several weeks or
months. After this the embryo-sac (Fig. 405 &) becomes
gradually filled with cellular tissue or endosperm cells, and
at the same time enlarges. This development ot endos¬
perm cells occupies frequently a long time, especially in the
-a.
I
Fig. 407.
Fig. 404. Fig. 405.
Fig. 404. Vertical section of the ovule of the Austrian Pine (Pinus austriaca),
showing the nucleus, a, consisting of delicate cellular tissue con¬
taining deep in its substance an embryo-sac, fc, formed before im¬
pregnation by the coalescence of a vertical series of a few cells.
The micropyle,wi, is very wide, and through it the pollen grains
come into contact with the summit of the nucleus, into the sub¬
stance of which they send their tubes. . .
... 405. Vertical section of the ovule of the Scotch Fir (Pinus sylvestns) m May
of the second year, showing the enlarged embryo-sac, b, full of en-
dospermal cells, and pollen tubes, c,penetrating the summit ot the
nucleus after the pollen has entered the large micropyle oi the
. 406 Vertical section of the embryo-sac, 6, and of part of the nucleus, a, of
the ovule of the Weymouth Pine (Pinus Strobus). At the micro-
pylar end of the embryo-sac, two cells called corpuscles, d, have
made their appearance. Each of these is at first separated from
the inner surface of the micropylar end of the sac by a single
cell, which afterwards divides into four, leaving a passage from
the surface of the sac down to the corpuscle. The pollen gram,
c, on the summit of the nucleus, then sends down a tube which
perforates the embryo-sac, and reaches the corpuscle through the
intercellular canal. . .
407. Nucleated cells of what Hofmeister calls the pro-embryo, mthe ovule
of the Weymouth Pine (Pinus Strobus). The cells are pushed down¬
wards into the cellular tissue of the nucleus by the elongation of
the upper cells, which finally form the suspensor.
Abietinese, which require two years to ripen their seeds.
After the embryo-sac has become filled with cellular tissue,
certain cells at the micropylar end of the sac enlarge and.
form the corpuscles of Brown, the secondary embryo-sacs
of Mirble and Spach (Fig. 406, d). Each corpuscle is at
first separated from the inner surface of the embryo-sac by
a simple cell, which afterwards divides into four by the for¬
mation of two vertical septa crossing each other; then a
passage is formed between the inner angles of these cells
leading to the corpuscle. In the cavity of each corpuscle
free cells appear. After the corpuscles become evident,
* o
158
BOTANY.
Botany, the pollen tubes resume their growth, pass through the tis-
^sue of the nucleus, and reach the outside of the embryo-sac,
one over each corpuscle. The tubes then perforate the
membrane of the embryo-sac, reach the canal between the
four cells, and come into contact with the corpuscle (Fig.
406, d). A cell at the lower end of the corpuscle then en¬
larges, and forms the embryonal vesicle. A free cell in the
vesicle divides into eight cells by vertical and transverse
septa, and these together constitute a short cylindrical cel¬
lular body (Fig. 407), the pro-embryo, as it is called by
Hofmeister. The four lower cells of this pro-embryo, by
the elongation of the upper
ones (Fig. 408), are finally
pushed into the substance of
the nucleus. The four elon¬
gated pro-embryonic cells
(Fig. 409, 1) now appear as
isolated suspensors (Fig. 409,
2), and the cell at the end of
each suspensor becomes an
embryo, g. There are thus
four times as many rudimen¬
tary embryos as there are
corpuscles. Usually one of
these only becomes developed FiS- 408- The same pro-embrvonic body
y . i in the ovule of the Weymouth
Fig 408.
Pine, with the lower cells
pushed farther down by the
elongation of the upper sus¬
pensory cells.
409. Suspensors taken from the
ovule of the Weymouth Pine
(Pinus Strobus). In No. 1
the four suspensors are
united. They form a cylinder
composed of four elongated
cells, and at the end, p, are
seen some of the lower nu¬
cleated cells of the pro em¬
bryo. In No. 2 the suspen¬
sors have separated, three
of them, a, are cut off, and
the remaining one, b, is con¬
nected with the embryo, <7, at
its extremity.
as the embryo of the ripe seed.
The view which seems to
be supported by the best
physiologists is thus given by
Henfrey. In Conifers and
Cycads, which embrace Gym-
nospermous plants, the pollen
grains are applied to the mi-
cropyle of the ovule, without
the intervention of a stigma;
they then traverse the cells
of the nucleus, and reach the
embryo-sac. The endospermal cells which fill this sac de¬
velop corpuscles consisting of an enlarged cell surmounted
by four others, which leave a canal between them leading
to the large cell. The pollen tube enters the canal between
these cells, and impregnates the large cell of each corpus¬
cle, just as the spermatozoid acts in the case of Ferns. The
large central cell then produces four suspensors, each of
which presents at its extremity a rudimentary embryo, only
one of which becomes fully developed.
4. Embryogeny in Angiospermous Phanerogams.
In regard to Phanerogamous Angiosperms, when the pol¬
len grains are discharged from the anther, they are applied
to the stigmatic surface of the pistil, and the viscid fluid there
secreted causes a rupture of the extine and the protrusion
of the in tine in thelbrm of a tubular prolongation (Fig. 269, f),
which gradually elongates as it proceeds down the loose con¬
ducting tissue of the style. The closed extremity of the
pollinic tube sooner or later comes into contact with the
ovule, and, in some cases, it appears to be met by a tubular
prolongation from the ovule itself. When the pollen tube
reaches the ovule it proceeds through the foramen or micro-
pyle so as to come into contact with the embryo-sac (Fig.
386, s). Consequent on this is the development of the cel¬
lular embryo. The determination, however, of the steps of
the embryogenic process has given rise to disputes among
physiologists. Schleiden maintains that the end of the pol¬
len tube enters or introverts the embryo-sac, and becomes
the rudimental cell of the embryo, while most physiologists
think that the tube merely comes into contact with the sac,
in which a germinal vesicle has been previously formed ready
for impregnation. Schleiden states that a cell of the nucleus
is developed into the embryo-sac (the quintine of Mirbel),
seen in Figure 410, s, and that this occurs in all Phanero¬
gamous plants; that the embryo-sac contains a substance
which is gradually transformed into
cellular tissue, and which ultimately
constitutes (when not absorbed by the
growth of the embryo) the endosperm
or albumen; that the pollen tube can
be traced from the stigma to the mi-
cropyle in a very large number of
plants, and that in Helianthemum den-
tatum he has not unfrequently ex¬
tracted the pollen tube free, in un¬
broken continuity, from the pollen
grain to the ovule ; that the tube next
reaches the embryo-sac, s, the walls of
which it presses in before it, and thus
becomes surrounded by it, although
in reality external to it, like the intes¬
tines and their peritoneal covering;
that in some instances it causes absorp- Ovule of piaiydrum lann
. ^ . ii r* i i 1 gmosum, shortly aftei
tion Ol the walls ot the sac and. enters impregnation,^according
it, and that the end of the pollen
tube, e, forms the rudiment of the
embryo or the germinal vesicle, in
which cells are developed from cyto-
blasts, while a portion of variable
length, at the upper part of the tube,
remains as the suspensor or embryo-
phore.
The views of Schleiden, when first
propounded, stimulated all vegetable
physiologists. The facts were new, and seemed to upset all
former ideas as to the nature of the stamens and pistils. Mir¬
bel and Spach, Meyen, Amici, Hofmeister, Muller, Tulasne,
and others, entered the field, and the result has been that
Schleiden’s opinions have not been confirmed. These au¬
thors agree in tracing the pollen tube downwards to the
ovule, and they maintain that in the embryo-sac there exists
one or more vesicles before impregnation, and that one of
these vesicles, after the impact of the pollen tube with the
embryo-sac, becomes altered and enlarged, so as to form
the rudiment of the embryo.
Amici maintains that there exists an embryonic or ger¬
minal vesicle before the application of the pollen; that the
pollen tube (Fig. 411, i) reaches the upper portion of the
Botany.
th
Fig. 410.
to Sclileiden. The pollen-
tube, t. Inis reached the
foramen (micropyle), and
has passed through the
ovular canal to the nu¬
cleus and embryo-sac, s ;
it has entered the latter
either by perforating its
walls or by introverting
them. The end of the
pollen tube, e, according
to Schleiden, constitutes
the first cell of the em¬
bryo. 1, the primine; 2,
the secundine; ch, the
chalaza ; r, the raphe.
Fig. 411. Tig 412.
Fig. 411. Section of ovule of an Orchis {Orchis Morio), showing the pollen
tube passing through the endostome, and reaching the embryo-sac
in the nucleus. The closed and enlarged end of the tube, f, is ap¬
plied to the sac, in which a vesicle had been previously formed.
Transudation of fluids takes place, and the embryo, e, is developed
at the lower end of tlie germinal or embryonal vesicle, while the
upper part of the vesicle elongates, and forms a contervoid sus-
... 412. Sectionof the ovule of OEnothera, showing the pollen tube, t, with
its enlarged extremity applied to the end of the embryo-sac, and
introverting it slightly; the germinal vesicle in the sachas been
impregnated, and has divided into two parts, the upper part form¬
ing a confervoid septate suspensor, s, and the lower dividing into
4 parts, which form a globular mass—the rudimentary embryo,
surrounded by endospermal cells, e.
embryo-sac, e, where the germinal vesicle bad been pre¬
viously formed : that imbibition of fluid then takes place be¬
tween the end of the tube and vesicle, giving rise to the de¬
velopment of the embryo at the lower end of the vesicle, and
B 0 T
Botany, the elongation of the upper part in the form of a confervoid
filament, which acts as a suspensor of the embryo. Hof-
meister has examined the mode of fecundation in species of
(Enothera, Godetia, and Boisduvalia, and the result of his
researches is that he finds an embryo-sac containing at first
numerous minute granules floating in a viscid mucilaginous
fluid (protoplasm) ; in the midst of this granular matter cer¬
tain nuclei appear, which develop cells varying in number
from one to three or more (Fig. 412, v). These nucleated
cells appear before impregnation ; one of them becomes pyri¬
form, and touches the membrane of the embryo-sac by its
conical extremity, while its other extremity hangs free in
the embryo-sac. This cell is the germinal vesicle—the
embryonary vesicle of Amici. The pollen tube, in passing
through the micropyle, is often contracted in its diameter.
The end of it is expanded when it reaches the embryo-sac,
to which it is applied either at the apex or near it (Fig 412, t).
Sometimes the end of the tube, still closed, introverts the
sac, as seen in the Figure, or even perforates it, so as to
come into contact with the germinal vesicle. In either case
an endosmotic action takes place between the contents of
the tube and the sac or the vesicle. In consequence of this
action, cell-formation begins in one, rarely more germinal
vesicles. The vesicle increases, and is transformed into a
compound cellular mass, which Hofmeister calls the pro¬
embryo. Ihis divides into two by the formation of a sep¬
tum ; the upper part elongates, and forms a septate cellular
suspensor, s, while the lower portion becomes globular, di¬
vides into four, and is developed as the embryo, surrounded
by endospermal cells, e. Similar observations have been
made by Mold, Tulasne, Henfrey, and others.
The following may be given as a Resume of the facts as¬
certained relative to the process of impregnation in Angio-
spermous Flowering plants. The pollen grains are applied
to the stigmatic portion of the pistil, and by the action of
the viscid secretion of the stigma a sort of germination com¬
mences—often in a few minutes, sometimes not for many
hours, by means of which minute tubes are developed from
the inner lining of the grains. These tubes, by continuous
growth at their ends, are elongated, and pass through the
conducting tissue of the style into the ovary—attaining, in
some long-styled plants, a length exceeding the diameter of
the grain many thousand times. Before the tubes reach the
ovary the ovules have undergone changes in their interior ;
the embryo-sac has become enlarged, so as sometimes to
occupy nearly the entire nucleus, and occasionally to project
out of the micropyle in the form of an ovular tube or bag.
The protoplasmic matter contained in the embryo-sac imme¬
diately before impregnation becomes altered, so as to pro¬
duce endospermal cells. Nuclei appear in the protoplasm
at the upper end of the sac next the micropyle. These nu¬
clei, which are usually three, give origin to as many cells,
which are termed the germinal or embryonal vesicles, and
which are essential for the formation of the embryo. The
pollen tube, subsequent to this, reaches the upper part of
the embryo-sac, after penetrating through the micropyle and
any nuclear cells that may lie between it and the sac.
On reaching the embryo-sac the pollen tube is either ar¬
rested or it elongates still more, so that its swollen extremity
penetrates latterly between the embryo-sac and the sur¬
rounding cellular tissue, or in certain rare instances intro¬
verts the embryo-sac, and even penetrates it so as to come
into contact with the germinal vesicles. When the end of
the tube comes into contact with the sac, it is probable that
there is a transudation of the fluid matter of the fovilla,
which passes through the membrane of the pollen tube,
through the embryo-sac, and through the wall of the ger¬
minal vesicle, and thus impregnation is effected. After
reaching the sac, the pollen tube begins to decay; its con¬
tents acquire a granular, half-coagulated aspect; and it
finally disappears by absorption. It usually happens that
A N Y. 159
only one germinal vesicle is impregnated, and in the pro- Botany,
gress of its subsequent growth it causes absorption of the
others ; sometimes, however, several are impregnated, and
thus there may be a plurality of embryos formed (polyem-
bryony). The impregnated vesicle enlarges, acquires an
ovate, cylindrical, or clavate form, constituting the pro-em¬
bryo of Flofmeister. The vesicle divides in all cases by a
transverse partition into two cells, one above the other ; the
lower of these produces cellular tissue in its interior, and is
sometimes at once transformed into the embryo. At other
times, and more frequently, there is a successive production
of cells in the pro-embryonic body, so that the upper division
of the vesicle forms a confervoid-like filament, the suspensor,
while the low^er is transformed into a globular cellular mass,
which is the rudiment of the embryo. The suspensor is
sometimes of great length; it is attached to the radicular end
of the embryo, while the cotyledons are formed at the op¬
posite side- In monocotyledons a single sheathing cotyle¬
don is developed; in dicotyledons two opposite leaves, and
after their formation the apex produces the terminal bud or
plumule. The embryo is thus suspended in an inverted
manner in the seed. In the progress of development a
marked division takes place between the radicular extremity
and the suspensor, and the latter finally shrivels.
5. Hybridization, or the production of Hybrids in Plants.
In connection with the subject of fertilization, the pro¬
duction of hybrids or mules deserves attention. When the
pollen of one species is applied to the stigma of another
species, so as to effect fecundation, the seeds thus formed
give rise to individuals which are intermediate in their cha¬
racters between the two parents. The plants produced by
this heterogeneous fertilization are called hybrids or mules.
A true hybrid is a cross between two species, but the term
is often applied to crosses between mere varieties, races, or
sub-species. The latter sort of crosses have been occasion¬
ally denominated sub-hybrids in order to avoid confusion.
In hybridizing it is necessary to bring together species which
are allied, as, for instance, the species of the same genus, or
those of allied genera. It is not, however, easy to deter¬
mine the plants which can produce hybrids. Many plants
which seem to be nearly allied do not inoculate each other.
Sageret failed in his endeavours to fecundate an apple tree
by a pear tree, and no one has succeeded in getting hybrids
between the gooseberry and currant, nor between the straw¬
berry and raspberry. It is not common to meet with hybrids
in a wild state, because there is a much greater likelihood
of the pistil being impregnated by the pollen of the anthers
beside it, than by that from a distance ; and if fecundation
has taken place, then pollen applied from other sources has
no effect.
It has been found that for successful hybridizing the pollen
must be in perfection, and the stigma also must be fully
developed. There appears always to be a preference for its
own pollen on the part of the stigma. When strange pollen
is applied, even in the case of species which hybridize, it
does not act so effectually on the ovules as the pollen be¬
longing to the flower. Dichogamous plants, that is, those
in which the sexes are separate, are not so susceptible of the
influence of strange pollen. This seems to be a provision
to guard against hybridity in such cases.
When impregnation takes place between two pure species
the characters of the parents never remain pure and unal¬
tered in the formation of the hybrid. In general every part
of the new production is modified, so that it presents a de¬
cided difference from either of the parents, though re¬
sembling the one more than the other. Sometimes the in¬
fluence of the male predominates, sometimes that of the
female. Hybrids occur in which the characters of the pa¬
rents are intimately blended, so that it is impossible to say
160 B O T
Botany, to which there is a greater resemblance. Sometimes the
number of the organs is curiously intermediate; thus Cu-
cubalus has three stigmas, and Lychnis five, and a hybrid
between them has four. Again, hybrids occur in which one
part or other approaches the paternal or maternal form,
though the characters of the parent never pass altogether
pure into the new organism. There is a third set of hybrids
in which there is a resemblance to one of the parents,
whether male or female, so decided, that the agreement is
at once perceptible and beyond doubt.
Hybrids, although they may be fertile at first, rarely
continue so for many generations. The cause of sterility in
mules has not been fully ascertained. Henslow could not
find in a hybrid Digitalis any structural changes which could
account for barrenness. Hybrids may be fertilized by
pollen taken from one of the parents, and then the off¬
spring approaches in character to that parent. Hybrids
impregnated for a third or fourth time with the pollen of the
original male plant, approach more and more to the male
type. Such is also the case when the impregnation is
effected by pollen taken from the original female type, but
in this instance the change is usually more slow. Gsertner,
to whom we are indebted for most of these remarks on
hybridity, gives a tabular view of the number of impregna¬
tions requisite to complete changes of species by hybridiza¬
tion. He produced hybrids between the two species named,
and then, by using the pollen of the original male or female
parent, he found that in progress of time the species are
brought back to the male or female type.
Hybridizing is an important horticultural operation. By
it the gardener endeavours to increase the size of flowers, to
improve their colour, to approximate their forms to some
assumed standard of perfection, to enlarge the foliage as in
esculents, to render tender plants hardy, to heighten the
flavour of fruits, and to exchange early for late varieties.
The changes produced by muling on the size and colour ot
the blossoms are very remarkable. By inoculating Cereus
speciosissimus with C. grandiflorus, we find that the imme¬
diate result is a seedling whose flowers are ten inches in
diameter. The hues resulting, however, from the union are
not necessarily intermediate. Blue and yellow do not pro¬
duce green, as proved by a hybrid between Verbascum
phoeniceum and V. phlomoides. By muling, beautiful varie¬
ties have been produced between Rosa indica and R. mos-
chata, Azalea pontica and A. nudiflora coccinea, Rhodo¬
dendron arboreum and R. caucasicum, catawbiense, ponti-
cum and companulatum; between Rhodothamnus Chamse-
cistus and Phyllodoce caerulea, Veronica fruticulosa and
saxatilis, Cereus speciosus and speciosissimus ; also between
species of Fuchsia, Mahonia, Potentilla, Pelargonium, Cal¬
ceolaria, Viola, Dahlia, Erica, Narcissus, and numerous
others. In the case of Rhododendrons, gardeners have been
able to secure the fine colour of the Indian R. arboreum
with the hardiness of the American species. By inoculating
the common Heartsease with the large-flowered Pansy of
the Altai Mountains, a degree of vigour has been infused
into the former which we could not hope to obtain by ordi¬
nary means. The fine varieties of Pelargonium have been
obtained, by cultivation and by hybridizing, from the small-
petaled Pelargonium of the Cape. Fruits and culinary
vegetables are sometimes improved by hybridity. These
hybrids cannot be continued from seed. They must be pro¬
pagated by offsets or cuttings. The effect of hybridizing or
crossing is very marked in the case of certain Cereal plants.
This subject has important bearings on the origin and
limitation of species. If, as some old authors supposed, there
were only a few species originally formed, and all the rest
are the result of hybridization, there would be no limit to
the production of species, and no permanence in their cha¬
racters. This opinion, however, is not supported by facts.
It is believed that the types of all the species now on the
A N Y.
globe were originally placed on it, and have given origin to Botany
offspring like themselves, capable of reproducing the species. •
We have already mentioned that hybrids are rare in a wild
state, and they are seldom permanent and fertile, and they
have always a tendency to revert to one of the original
types.
TIL—PHYSIOLOGY OF THE FRUIT.
While the object of fecundation is to develop the embryo
in the seed, it causes at the same time changes in the pistil.
The stigma and style become dry, and either fall off, as in
the Peach, Orange, and Nut, or are persistent, as in the
Poppy (Fig. 309), Mangosteen, Clematis, and in many pods.
(Fig. 314). The pericarp in some instances becomes swollen,
even although the ovule is not fecundated. In such cases the
fruit is abortive in as far as reproduction is concerned,
although it may be valued for domestic purposes. Many of
the best Oranges and Grapes contain no perfect seeds, and
the fruit of the Banana, Plantain, Bread-fruit, and Pine¬
apple, is most palatable when it is seedless. The age of trees
seems to have an influence over the production of seeds.
In the case of the Orange, it is said by Bullar that old trees
often produce seedless fruit.
The fruit during its growth attracts nourishment from
the surrounding parts, and it is of importance that it should
receive a large supply of elaborated sap. In their natural
state some plants exhaust themselves in the production of
fruit, and die after one year, if annuals, or after two, if bien¬
nials. Sometimes fruiting is long delayed, and ultimately
takes place vigorously and abundantly. This is observed
in plants such as the American Aloe, which only fruits once
after many years, and then dies. The division of plants into
Monocarpic (/xdvos, one, and Kapirbs, fruit) and Polycarpic
(ttoXvs, many) is founded on their times of flowering and
fruiting. The former are such as flower and fruit only once
in their life and then die; and this may take place at the
end of one year, two years, or many years. The latter are
such as flower and fruit many times in the course of their
lives. A plant which has been prevented by an inclement
season from perfecting its fruit, will often bear a large quan¬
tity the following season, if genial. An annual, by being
prevented from fruiting, may be made to endure for two or
more years. The increased vigour of perennials enables
them to withstand the exhaustion induced by fruiting.
In the case of cultivated plants, where the object of the
gardener is to have a supply of good fruit, many artificial
means have been adopted to promote the development and
maturation of the pericarp. The application of manure to
the soil, by increasing the vigour of the plants, aids in this
matter; also checking the branches by judicious pruning,
so as to cause a great flow of sap to the fruit; and cutting a
ring of bark from the branches, so as to produce accumula¬
tion of sap above the wound. In ringing the bark, care
must be taken to make the cut so that the two lips of the
wound may reunite in the course of a few months. If the
cut is large, then the branch may be destroyed. It is pru¬
dent not to ring the bark of the main stem, but only that of
branches; and the wound should be covered with grafting-
clay and damp moss, so as to allow the healing process to
go on. Checking the roots has an important influence on
the production of fruit. When fruit sets in large quantity,
it is prudent to thin it early, and thus allow only a moderate
quantity to come to perfection. As the sap is distributed
to the whole fruit, this operation will permit more nourish¬
ment to go to that which remains. By judicious thinning,
although the quantity of fruit is diminished, its quality is
much improved.
The pericap sometimes preserves its green colour and
leafy aspect, as in the Pea, and continues to act as leaves
do, decomposing carbonic acid during daylight, and giving
BOTANY.
Botany, out oxygen. Sometimes the cells of the pericarp become
hardened and thickened by the deposit of lignine, and the
seed-vessel becomes dry, assuming a white or brown colour.
In these circumstances its active vital functions cease, and
it no longer produces any marked effect on the air. In other
instances the pericarpial cells contain matters which, in the
progress of maturation, undergo chemical changes, so that
the fruit becomes succulent, and its epicarp assumes various
tints of red, yellow, and blue. As transpiration and evapora¬
tion take place from the surface of succulent fruits, the fluids
in the outer cells become thickened, and thus promote the
endosmotic action between them and the cells containing
thinner liquids. In this way the fruit swells considerably.
When the fruit has attained its full size the stalk dries up,
and may be easily detached from the plant; at the same
time waxy matter is deposited in the cuticle, which prevents
the drying process from going on rapidly.
During their early state pulpy fruits are tasteless or
slightly bitter, and they have at that time the structure and
chemical constitution of leaves. In their second stage of
development they acquire a sour taste from the production
of acids, such as malic acid in the Apple and Gooseberry,
tartaric acid in the Grape and Tamarind, citric acid in the
Lemon, Orange, Red Currant, and Cranberry. In the third
stage, or that of ripening, the acids diminish in quantity,
they are more fully neutralized by the alkalies present in the
fruit, and are partially decomposed ; the cellulose forming
the walls of the cells and vessels is also transformed, and
along with the gum is converted into grape sugar. Sac¬
charine matter may be formed from the acids in the fruit,
by the addition of the elements of water, and the separa¬
tion of oxygen. The changes which take place during
ripening consist chiefly in a diminution of the quantity of
water and of ligneous matter, and an increase in the quan¬
tity of sugar. Saussure and Couverchel state that ripe
Grapes, Apples, and Pears, when separated from their re¬
spective plants, and kept at a temperature of about 60° Fahr.
gave out carbonic acid.
Berard thinks that these changes in fruits depend essen¬
tially on the action of the oxygen of the air. Fleshy fruits,
he says, may be preserved with little alteration for many
weeks in vacuo, in nitrogen, and in hydrogen gas ; Peaches,
Plums, and Apricots, may be kept from twenty to thirty
days, and Pears and Apples for three months, in a sealed
bottle, containing a little sulphate of iron, lime, and water,
which remove the oxygen of the air. Fremy found that
the ripening of the fruit was arrested by covering it with
varnish, which he supposes to act partly by preventing the
access of air, and partly by stopping the transpiration, and
thus checking the flow of sap into the fruit. Couverchel
says that the sugar of fruits is formed by the action of or¬
ganic acids on the gum, dextrin, and starch ; while others
think that the cellulose and lignine are also transformed into
sugar by the action of acids.
Certain fruits, more especially those belonging to the
natural orders Pomaceae and Ebenaceae, after being ripe,
undergo a series of chemical changes when pulled and al¬
lowed to remain in a room at a moderate temperature. The
austerity of Medlars is diminished under this process, to
which the name of bletting (French, blette) is given by
Bindley. It is a stage intervening between what if com¬
monly called ripeness and decay. The, chemical changes
consist in a loss of weight, in consequence of a separation
of water and a diminution in the quantity of saccharine and
ligneous matter. There is a slight increase at the same
time in the albuminous matter and in the malic acid. Dur¬
ing the maturation of certain fruits, oily and aromatic sub¬
stances are produced which give a peculiar flavour. In
fruits which form jellies, there is developed a gelatinous
matter, to which the name of Pectic acid is given.
The greater number of plants ripen their fruit consider-
vol. v.
ably within a year from the time when the flower expands,
and some require only a few days for the purpose. Some
trees, as certain species of Oak, require eighteen months;
Juniper fruit, and cones of the Firs, the fruit of some Ame¬
rican Oaks, and of the Metrosideros of New Holland, hang
above twelve months ; and the Cedar requires twenty-seven
months to mature its fruit or to bring its seeds to perfec¬
tion. The Orange presents a singular phenomenon in re¬
spect to maturation of its fruit. This is generally looked
upon as ripe at the end of the first year; but it often hap¬
pens in the south of Europe that, in order to obtain Oranges
of the best quality, the fruit is allowed to remain for a second
summer on the tree. It is not easy then to say what is the
real term of maturation in this fruit in its natural state.
Discussions have arisen as to the time when the fruit of the
cereal plants is most productive to the farmer. Many think
that wheat ought to be cut before the fruit reaches perfect
maturity, inasmuch as it then yields most flour. When al¬
lowed to remain till fully ripe, then the outer covering or
bran thickens at the expense of the flour. Such is also said
to be the case in Oats. About a fortnight before ripening
is said to be the proper time for cutting corn, as the skin is
then thinner, the grain fuller, the bushel heavier, and the
yield of flour greater.
The period in which fruits ripen is materially accelerated
by an increase of temperature, and their flavour is also im¬
proved. Flence the use of putting fruit under glass, or on
slates of a dark colour, or wrapping it up in thin bags. The
maturation is also accelerated by removing a ring of bark
from the branch or stem, which leads to an accumulation
of descending sap above the cut. When fruit trees be¬
longing to a cold climate are transferred to a hot one, it
frequently happens that no fruit is produced; the leaves
become luxuriant, and the flowers, if they expand, are
abortive. A high temperature sometimes seems to cause
the production of unisexual male flowers only. Hence
plants in hothouses when over stimulated by continued
heat, are often abortive. They require a season of rest or
repose in order to perform their functions properly.
IV.—PHYSIOLOGY OP THE SEED.
1. Maturation of the Seed, and Modes in ivhich Seeds are
scattered and deposited in the Soil.
The production of an embryo is the object of fertilization.
In the case of flowering plants this embryo is contained in
the seed, in which it attains a certain degree of develop¬
ment. In these plants after impregnation the ovule under¬
goes evident changes. The embryo plant enlarges, at¬
tracts nourishment from the surrounding tissues, and either
absorbs all the contents of the ovule, or becomes, surrounded
by a store of perisperm (albumen) which is deposited within
or on the outside of the embryo-sac, or in both situations.
The nucleus of the ovule is either absorbed or becomes
filled with various azotized and unazotized matters, while
the coats (especially the outer one) become denser and
firmer, and the foramen is closed. Lignine is often deposited
on the walls of the cells of the episperna The seed by
means of these changes is rendered more fit to resist vicis¬
situdes of temperature and other accidents which might in¬
jure the vitality of the embryo.
An aperispermic embryo (Fig. 334) has all the nutriment
contained in its own substance, especially in its cotyledons,
and when the coats of the seed are removed the embryo
alone is found within. A perispermic embryo has a sepa¬
rate store of nutriment beside it, and when the seed-coats
are taken off' the embryo is found surrounded more or less
completely by this nutritive matter or perisperm (Fig. 335).
The perisperm consists of amylaceous, gummy, and saccha¬
rine matters, with oils, resins, nitrogenous substances, and
161
Botany.
162
BOTANY.
Botany. certain sa]tS) guci1 as phosphates, sulphates, and chlorides.
The presence or absence of perisperm seems to be connected
with the mode in which the seed germinates, and the nature
of the perisperm varies according as the seeds sprout ra¬
pidly or lie long dormant in the soil. The store of nourish¬
ment laid up in the seed is greater than the embryo re¬
quires in ordinary circumstances. When the perisperm is
not allowed to be fully formed before the seed is detached
from the plant, it sometimes happens that owing to the soft
and succulent condition of the albumen, the embryo sprouts
rapidly. In such cases, however, the embryo does not ger¬
minate vigorously, and is apt to fail from want of a due sup¬
ply of nutriment. Some seeds continue to be of a soft tex¬
ture, while others assume a stony hardness, as is the case
in the Date, and in the Ivory Palm. Some ripe seeds are
of greater specific gravity than water, and sink when thrown
on it. In other instances, especially when air is contained in
the envelopes, as in the Indian Cress, the seeds float in water.
When the seed is ripe, it is either discharged from the
seed-vessel, or the fruit remains indehiscent, and falls
with the seed still contained in it. Fleshy fruits, such as
Apples and Peaches, fall from the tree when ripe, and their
succulent portion serves as nutriment for the young embryo
while sprouting. Many dry fruits, especially such as are
monospermal, (Fig. 317) fall along with the seed which
they inclose. In the cereal grains the pericarpial covering and
the* integument of the seeds are incorporated, and in the
fruit of Labiatas and Boraginacese these two coverings con¬
tinue attached when the seed is ripe. In Compositse (Fig.
206) and Valerian the hairy calyx remains attached to the
fruit, so as to be the means of dispersing it along with the
contained seed, and in samaroid fruits (Fig. 322) there are
winged appendages for the same purpose. In the case of
the Dandelion (Fig. 155), the receptacle, which is at first
succulent and flattened, becomes dry and convex, and the
phyllaries, which are erect, become deflexed, so as to allow
the fruit to be easily scattered. Other dry fruits dehisce in
various ways, as already mentioned, so as to scatter the
seeds. The opening of the seed-vessels takes place either
as the result of a drying process, as in Mahogany, or from
the effects of moisture, as in species of Mesembryanthemum,
and in the pod of Anastatica hierochuntina, commonly called
the Rose of Jericho. Some plants are called Hypocarpogean
(vvro, under, KapTros, fruit, and yea, earth), because their fruit
is subterranean—that is, it is either produced on peduncles
underground, or, after being ripened in the air, is pushed
into the soil by a curvation of the fruit-stalk. Vicia amphi-
carpos and Lathyrus setifolius var. amphicarpos produce
fruit both on aerial and subterranean branches. Arachis
hypogaea, called Earth-nut, produces on its aerial branches
abortive flowers, while on those underground it develops
perfect pods. The peduncle of Linaria Cymbalaria at the
time of flowering is straight and short, but it afterwards elon¬
gates and curves irregularly, until it comes to a fissure in
the rock or wall on which it grows ; there it inserts the cap¬
sule, which subsequently allows the seeds to escape. The
extremity of the peduncle of Trifolium subterraneum is pro¬
vided with a hard point, by means of which, after its curva¬
tion, it penetrates the soil and deposits its pods.
Seeds are sometimes provided with hairy and winged ap¬
pendages, as seen in the case of Gotten, \\ illow, Asclepias
(Fig. 329), Pine (Fig. 328), Mahogany, and Bignonia, for the
purpose of being wafted to a distance by the agency of winds.
The seeds of plants valuable as food have been dispersed by
man over various quarters of the globe. Streams also convey
to a distance the seeds of plants which grow on their banks.
The pulpy covering of some fruits renders them fit for the
food of birds and other animals, and when the seeds are hard
and inclosed in a stony endocarp, they may escape the ac¬
tion of the gastric juice, and be deposited in a state fit for
germination. Seeds are scattered in such a way as to reach
the soil best fitted for their growth, whether the plants are
terrestrial or aquatic.
2. Germination.
Germination (Germinatio, springing), is the term applied
to the sprouting of the embryo when placed in circumstances
favourable for its growth, in the case of flowerless plants
a cell or spore separated from the parent plant is developed
into a new organism, while in flowering plants an embryo
plant already in a certain stage of development within the
seed, begins to send out first its root, and then its cotyledons
and primary stem-bud. In the case of the latter class of
plants, germination may be defined the act by which the
fecundated embryo of a seed leaves the state of torpor in
which it has remained for a longer or shorter period, starts
into life, as it were, comes out from its envelope, and sus¬
tains its existence until such time as the nutritive organs are
developed.
Requisites for Germination.—In order that germination
may go on, certain conditions are necessary. The most im¬
portant of these requisites are moisture, a certain tempera¬
ture, and air. The absence of light is also favourable for
the process, and, according to some, electricity promotes it.
In general, seeds do not sprout until they are placed in the
position which the plants are subsequently to occupy. Occa¬
sionally, however, seeds begin to germinate before being de¬
tached from the plant, as in the case of the Mangrove tree.
A certain amount oi moisture is required for germination.
If seeds are kept in a dry state they can be preserved for a
long time without sprouting. Water is required for the so¬
lution of the nutritive matter of the seed, as well as for ex¬
citing the endosmotic action of the cells. No circulation
nor movement of fluids can take place in the seed until
water is taken up. The nourishment of plants is absorbed
chiefly in a liquid state. Seeds imbibe a large quantity of
water, and in so doing their cells become much distended.
By this means they are enabled to burst the hard endocar-
pial coverings which often surround them, as in the case of
what is called stone-fruit.
The amount of heat required for the development of the
embryo varies much. Some seeds, as those of plants be¬
longing to cold regions, require a moderate temperature, others
belonging to hot countries demand an elevated one. It may
be said in general that a temperature varying from 60° to
80° F. is the most favourable for germination. In cold re¬
gions the spores of Cryptogams germinate at a very low
temperature. In other instances germination proceeds at
high temperatures. Dr Hooker states, that on the edges of
hot springs in the valley of Soane in India, the tempera¬
ture of which was sufficient to boil eggs, there occurred six¬
teen species of flowering plants ; he also mentions Ranun¬
culus sceleratus as growing in the vicinity of hot springs
near Monghyr in India, at a temperature of 90°.
The necessity of air for germination was demonstrated
by Ray, Boyle, and others, before the chemical composition
of the atmosphere was discovered. Scheele, Senebier, and
Saussure showed that the presence of oxygen gas was re¬
quired in order to aid in the changes which take place in
the seed. When seeds were placed in an atmosphere of
hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid, they did not germi¬
nate. When they are buried deeply in the soil, so as to be
deprived of the access of air, they do not grow. In such
circumstances, when the soil is turned up so as to bring the
seeds near the surface, germination often commences. In
this way seeds, which have been long dormant, spring up on
the embankments of railways, and white Clover frequently
appears when the soil is stirred. Some substances which
supply oxygen, as weak solutions of chlorate of potass and of
oxalic acid, are said to be useful in promoting germination,
Chlorine acts in the same way by decomposing water and
setting oxygen free.
EOT
Seeds germinate more rapidly in shade than in light, and
in diffuse daylight more quickly than when exposed to the
direct solar rays. Experiments have been made as to the ef¬
fect of different rays on germination. Senebier found that the
plants illuminated by the yellow rays grew most rapidly in
height; next those in the violet rays ; afterwards those in
the red; and he concluded that the height and size of a
plant was proportionate to the intensity of the illumination,
while its verdure depended more on the quality of the rays.
Hunt made experiments on the effects of coloured rays on
the germination and growth of plants by passing the sun’s
rays through variously coloured glass. He concluded that
the processes of germination and budding are essentially in¬
fluenced by the chemical principle actinism, transmitted
through the blue media ; and that while the rays connected
with blue light promoted germination, the luminous yellow
rays impeded it.
While moisture, heat, air, and darkness, are favourable to
germination, it is of importance that these requisites should
be properly supplied. In nature seeds are sown in the
earth to a moderate depth, so as to be excluded from light,
and at the same time to be acted on by air; moisture is sup¬
plied by rains and dews, and a certain temperature is given.
Such is the plan which we ought to imitate in garden and
field operations. In order that seeds when scattered may
be placed at a proper depth, the soil must be properly
ploughed and pulverized. The preparation of the soil ma¬
terially promotes germination ; when properly ploughed the
seeds sink to the same depth throughout the field. The
advantage of equal machine-sowing is, that the seeds ger¬
minate about the same time, and the crop is also all ripened
at once, and the diminution in the quantity of flour caused
by allowing some part of it to remain long in a ripe state is
avoided. When seed is sown broadcast by the farmer, a
certain quantity remains uncovered even after harrowing,
and hence it does not germinate freely. This may be one
reason why dibbling is more successful as regards the num¬
ber of seeds w hich germinate, and why with a smaller ex¬
penditure of seed an equal return is made.
The experiments made in regard to the depth at which
seeds should be placed, agree in showing the advantage of
shallow sowing. The more slightly the seed is covered by
the earth, the more rapidly the bud makes its appearance,
and the stronger afterwards is the stalk. The deeper the
seed lies, the longer the shoot remains before it comes to
the surface. Ugazi, from observations made in Bavaria,
gives half an inch and one inch as being the best depths at
which ordinary cereal grains, as well as Peas, Millet, Maize,
Buckwheat, and Lentils, should be sown in argillaceous
soils, while two to three inches is the depth proposed in
sandy soils.
Draining.—In order that land may be productive in the
case of cultivated grains, moisture must be supplied in pro¬
per quantity, and a certain amount of heat must be imparted
to the soil. This is accomplished by the operation of drain¬
ing, which has been carried to great perfection of late. Much
injury is inflicted on the soil by stagnant water. The land
is rendered cold, inasmuch as the sun’s rays, in place of be¬
ing expended in heating the soil, are absorbed by the water,
the temperature of which is not raised so rapidly as that of
the earth or of the air. There is thus a great loss of heat.
Drained land in summer is from 10° to 20° warmer than
water-logged land. Moreover, by the exclusion of air there
is often an imperfect decay of vegetable and animal matters
in the soil, so that acids are produced which are deleterious
and hurtful to vegetation. The importance of giving bot¬
tom heat to plants cannot be too strongly insisted on.
The object of draining is not so much to get rid of the
water, as to make it percolate freely through the whole of
the soil, laterally as well as perpendicularly, and thus obtain
from it the nutriment, in the shape of ammonia, carbonic
A N Y.
acid, &c., wEich it contains. As the water disappears, air
occupies its place, and hence drained soil is aerated. The
effects of draining are both mechanical and chemical. It
gives rise to improved efficiency in ploughing, harrowing,
and weeding, besides saving seed. It also aids the fertil¬
izing power of manures, ameliorates the climate, raises the
temperature of the soil, accelerates the harvest, and improves
the herbage and other crops.
The depth of drains, and their distance fi'om each other,
must be regulated by the nature of the soil, and of the sub¬
soil. Drains should of course never be shallower than the
known depth to which the roots of annuals descend. By
making deep, and at the same time efficient drains, we in¬
crease the quantity of soil available for the purposes of plants.
In the case of deep-rooted plants, it is essential that water
should be removed from the lower as well as from the upper
portion of the soil. Drains must be kept clear, otherwise
their good effects will be lost. Occasionally they become
choked up, the roots of plants getting access to them. All
that can be done to prevent this, is to make deep drains, and
not to allow them to pass near trees; also to keep the land
clean.
Vitality of Seeds.—Some seeds must be sown imme¬
diately after they are ripe, otherwise they lose their vitality,
and decay. This is the case with the seeds of Magnolia,
Coffee, Clove, and with those of an oily and mucilaginous
nature. Even though the germinating power is lost, the
seeds may be in a state fit for food. The seeds of the
double Coco-nut (Lodoicea Seychellarum), when carried
from the Seychelles Islands to the Maldives, and those of
Entada(Pursaetha) scandens, when borne by the Gulf-stream
from the Antilles to the outer Hebrides, are to all appear¬
ance fresh, although they will not sprout when planted.
Seeds with very delicate integuments can seldom be kept
longer than a few weeks or months, while hard and bony
seeds have been known to germinate after the lapse of
many years. Certain seeds are known to retain their ger-
minative powers for a long time. The seeds of Cucumber
have germinated after seventeen years, those of Colsa and
Malva crispa after eighteen, of Althaea rosea after twenty-
three, Maize after thirty, Haricots or French beans, after
thirty-three, Melons after forty-one. For sixty years a bag
of seeds supplied the Jardin des Plantes annually with Sen¬
sitive plants. Haricots taken from the Herbarium of Tour-
nefort, and which were at least one hundred years old, were
found to germinate, as were also seeds of Hieracium, fifty
years old, from Fries’ Herbarium. Grains of Rye have
been found fertile after one hundred and forty years.
Seeds placed in particular circumstances have retained
their vitality for a great number of years, and even for cen¬
turies. Savi saw for ten years young Tobacco plants con¬
tinue to spring up in his garden from seed which had been
sown naturally. All the young plants were regularly rooted
out, and yet the supply continued for the length of time
mentioned; showing that many seeds remained dormant,
and only appeared as the soil was turned up and exposed to
air. Duhamel noticed the re-appearance of Datura Stra¬
monium, after twenty-five years, in a ditch which had been
filled up and afterwards cleared. Miller noticed Plantago
Psyllium grow in a ditch at Chelsea which had been newly
cleared, and where it had never been known to grow in the
memory of man. Findley mentions the germination of
Raspberry seeds found in 1834 or 1835 in an ancient bar-
row (tumulus) near Maiden Castle, along with coins of the
Emperor Hadrian. The seeds were found in a coffin thirty
feet below the surface, and may have been 1600 to 1700
years old. In Stirlingshire germinative seeds of the Corn
Marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum) were found under six
or seven feet of peat moss. When new land is turned up
it frequently happens that seeds spring up which have lain
long dormant. White Clover (Trifolium repens) appears
164
BOTANY.
Botany, in these circumstances. Fumaria micrantha has been known
to appear in large quantity on newly stirred ground near
Edinburgh. After extensive conflagrations plants often
make their appearance which had not been previously seen
in the neighbourhood.
It is not easy to account for the manner in which the vi¬
tality of many seeds is thus preserved. Uniform tempera¬
ture, moderate dryness, and exclusion from light and oxy¬
gen, appear to be essential requisites. If the temperature
is elevated, and moisture and oxygen are present, then ger¬
mination commences. The vitality of seeds in certain fa¬
vourable circumstances may thus be preserved for a very
extended period, but it is by no means easy to imitate these
conditions. The statements made in regard to the preser¬
vation of Mummy Wheat have not been confirmed by care¬
ful observation. Even in the cases which appeared to be
conclusive, fallacies have been detected. Thus Mummy
Wheat, supplied by Sir G. Wilkinson to various parties, was
found in some cases to contain grains of Maize, a plant of
the New World, which leads to the conclusion that in this
case the grains had been tampered with. We have no evi¬
dence that the Wheat now cultivated as Mummy Wheat
was that deposited 3000 years ago in the mummy cases.
Preservation of seeds in a germinating condition is a
matter of importance in as far as the introduction of plants
from abroad is concerned. Seeds brought from India to
Britain round the Cape rarely vegetate freely, while those
brought overland succeed well. Seeds are best transported
in their pericarps. The flinty coatings of many foreign
legumes will preserve the living germ for an indefinite pe¬
riod. In preserving seeds an important requisite is to have
them ripe and dry. Such seeds should be put into dry pa¬
per, and exposed during transportation to free ventilation in
a cool place, as for instance in a coarse bag suspended to a
nail in a cabin. Many seeds which cannot be transported
when exposed to air, will retain their vital properties if
buried in clay. Oily seeds, and those having much tannin
in their composition, as Beech-Mast, Acorns, and Nuts,
must not only be ripe and dry, but also must be excluded
from the air. They are usually put into dry earth or sand
pressed hard: or they are preserved in charcoal powder,
and enveloped in tin or wax. Exalbuminous seeds, and those
having dense and fleshy albumen, bear transportation best.
Mr M‘Nab has suggested a mode of transmitting seeds by
having a strong box about ten inches square, with the sides
three quarters of an inch thick, in which alternate layers of
earth and seeds are placed, the whole being firmly pressed
together. On the arrival of such a box the layers of earth
and seeds are taken out in succession and put into separate
boxes. Wardian Cases may also be employed for the trans¬
mission of seeds in earth. The seeds will thus be brought
frequently in a germinating condition.
Alphonse De Candolle finding that there have been fal¬
lacies in regard to the vitality of seeds, from not attending
to the particular circumstances in which they have been
preserved, made experiments on the subject by taking seeds
of different natural orders, collected simultaneously in the
same garden, transported and preserved in the same man¬
ner, sown in equal numbers, and in similar conditions of soil,
humidity, and temperature. The seeds were collected in
the Florence Garden in 1831, and were sown on the 14th
May 1846, being nearly 15 years old. He selected 368
species belonging to about ioO different genera, and 53
families. Twenty seeds of each were sown in peat mould
in pots, and watered. The pots were kept under examina¬
tion till autumn. The mean temperature in June, the pe¬
riod when several species sprung up, was 66'2° F., that of
July F., and the maximum reached 86° and 87*8° F.
Out of the 368 species only 17 germinated; of the 17 spe¬
cies which came up, Dolichos unguiculatus was the only one
that yielded more than one-half the seeds sown, viz., 15 out
of 20; others had 1, 2, or 3 germinations in 20 seeds. La-
vatera cretica approached nearest Dolichos, but there were
only 6 out of 20 that germinated. Woody species seem to
preserve the power of germinating longer than others, whilst
biennials are at the opposite extreme. Perennials probably
lose the power of germination more quickly than annuals.
Large seeds appeared to De Candolle to preserve the power
of germinating longer than small ones. The presence or
absence of separate albumen did not seem to make any dif¬
ference. Some albumens, such as those of Coffee and of
Umbelliferae, are difficult to preserve from special chemical
conditions. Compositae seem to lose their germinating
power very early. From other experiments, De Candolle
concludes, that the duration of the faculty of germination is
frequently in an inverse proportion to the power of germi¬
nating quickly.
Time required for Germination.—The time required for
the germination of seeds depends greatly on the texture of
their coats, as well as their age. Some exalbuminous seeds,
such as Cresses, which are also very hygroscopic, sprout in
twenty-four hours, others require many days, or even months.
Hard seeds, such as those of some Palms, lie long dormant.
Large seeds are slower in germinating than small ones, be¬
cause they require more water, and their absorbing surface
does not increase in proportion to their size. Seeds having
an osseous or stony spermoderm, and those which are sown
naturally while contained in a hard pericarp, as nuts and
achenes, germinate more slowly than others. The germi¬
nation may be expedited by thinning or chipping the en¬
velope, so as to allow water to penetrate more easily. Many
of the seeds inclosed in a hard shell or stone germinate in
the midst of a decaying mass, which must contribute to the
decomposition of the shell. Soaking hard seeds in water, or
causing them to pass through the digestive canal of animals,
greatly accelerates germination. The seeds of Hawthorn,
and others of a similar nature, are thus often deposited by
birds in peculiar localities in a state fit for immediate ger¬
mination.
Alphonse De Candolle examined the germination of seeds
in the open air and in a stove, and the following table shows
the general results :—
NUMBER OF DAYS REQUIRED FOR
GERMINATION.
In the open air,
46'I0 to o3-6° F.
10
8
10
11
22
14
11
14
7
8
22
In a stove.
64-I0 to 77° F.
2
4
3
5
5
5
5
10
6
7
16
NAMES OF SPECIES.
Brigeron caucasicum .
Thlaspi ceratocarpum.
Dolichos abyssinicus .
Zinnia tenuiflora 
  coccinea  
Grahamia aromatica .
Solidago hirta 
Lablab vulgaris  
Anthemis rigescens .
Rheum undulatum ....
Duvaua dependens ....
The rapidity with which some annuals germinate in arctic
regions when the heat of summer returns is very remark¬
able. They pass through their periods of germination,
flowering, and fruiting in a very short period. Such is also
the case in warm countries after the dry season. After the
dry season in the Brazilian plains, and when the first few
showers have fallen, Gardner remarked that the annual
Grasses pushed forth their blades with astonishing rapidity
and vigour. Spruce states that on the sandy shores of the
Amazon and Tapajoz, after the waters leave them, several
small annual or rather ephemeral plants spring up. They
start up from the sand, flower, and ripen their seeds in the
course of a few days, and then wither. Amongst them are
BOTANY.
165
Botany.
an Alisma, two or three Eriocaulons, a Xyris, and some mi¬
nute Cyperaceae.
Chemical changes during Germination.—During the
germination of seeds, alterations take place in the nature of
their contents. When the embryo occupies the entire seed,
changes occur in the cotyledons, by means of which nutri¬
tive matter is prepared; when there is a separate store of
perisperm, its constituents are acted upon by moisture, heat,
and air, so as to undergo chemical changes. Alterations
take place in the azotized matter, and part of the fibrin gives
origin to diastase, which acts as a ferment; acetic acid is
also formed, and the starchy matter is converted into dex¬
trin and grape-sugar. Thus insoluble matters are rendered
soluble, and a large amount of saccharine matter is produced.
At the same time there is an evolution of carbonic acid, in
consequence of a combination between the oxygen of the
air and the carbon of the seed, and as the result of this che¬
mical action a certain amount of heat is developed. The
heat is carried off very rapidly by the soil in ordinary cases,
so that it is difficult to ascertain its amount; but when seeds
are laid in moist heaps the increase of temperature becomes
apparent.
In the malting of Barley these changes are well seen. The
grain is steeped in water in the first instance, so as to soften
and swell; it is then laid in heaps 30 inches deep for 20 or
30 hours. In this situation it becomes warm, and germina¬
tion commences. This is moderated by laying the grain in
thin strata of a few inches thick, on large airy but shaded
floors. There it remains 12 or 14 days, until germination
is sufficiently advanced, being frequently turned in the
meantime, in order to allow each grain to germinate equally,
and to prevent entangling of the radicles of contiguous
grains. During this process sugar is formed, which is in¬
tended for the nourishment of the young plants, and if left
long it would all be absorbed. This is prevented and germi¬
nation stopped by exposing the grain in a kiln to a tempera¬
ture rising from 100° to 160° or more. Thus the grain is
dried and its vitality destroyed.
During germination it is probable that there is a certain
electric disturbance. Carpenter says, the conversion of the
starch of the seed into sugar involves the liberation of car¬
bonic acid, and of a small quantity of acetic acid. Now as all
acids are negative, and as like electricities repel each other,
it is probable that the seed is at that time in an electro-ne¬
gative condition. Hence germination is said to be quickened
by connecting the seed with the negative pole of a feeble
galvanic apparatus, whilst it is retarded by being connected
with the positive pole.
Acotyledonous germination.—When the spores of the
lower Acotyledonous plants germinate, they send out cel¬
lular processes of a
more or less conical
form, which serve the
purpose of roots, and
which often divide.
These cellular prolon¬
gations may be formed
from the entire walls Fig. 413. Fig. 414.
of tho cnnro nr frnm Fis'413' G«rmiyatinfr,spores ofaspecies ofl^iver-
ui uiti hjJUl (J, or irum wort {Marchantia polymorpha), in dif-
its inner covering. In
Figure 413 are seen
the germinating spores
of a species of Liver-
wort (Marchantia), in
which there is a pro¬
trusion of root-like pi’o-
cesses. When these
tubular prolongations protrude through the outer coat of a
spore, they exactly resemble the pollen tube, which may be
considered as the result of the germination of a single cell
placed on the stigmatic surface—the soil fitted for its growth
ferent stages of growth. A small cel¬
lular protuberance first appears, a,
which ultimately elongates, as seen
at b. In the progress of development
roots are produced, and a thalloid ex¬
pansion bearing fructification.
414. Germination of spore of a Seaweed
(Fucus canaliculatus). Cellular fila¬
ments are seen bursting through the
outer covering of the spore. These
filaments appear to be formed by a
prolongation of the inner coat of the
spore.
(Fig. 388). In Figure 414, the spore of a Seaweed (Fucus
canaliculatus) is represented during germination, with its
cellular roots protruded through the epispore. In these
germinating spores one part appears as a root-like portion,
while the opposite end is developed as a thallus bearing
fructification.
In the case of Fungi, there is produced a peculiar sub¬
terranean axis called mycelium or spawn, on which the
fructification is ultimately developed (Fig. 369 ra). This
mycelium spreads equally on all sides fi’om the oi'iginal
point of development. In this respect it is analogous to
the thallus of Lichens. In the case of many Agarics nu¬
merous pilei arise from the outer part of the mycelium
in the form of a circle, and thus a fairy ring is formed;
in the same way as in many Lichens the thallus spreads
in a circle, and at its extremities produces fructification or
apothecia. A large fairy I’ing, formed apparently from
many individuals of one species of Fungus disposed in a
circle, really constitutes the organs of fructification of a
single individual only.
The spores of many of the lower Acotyledons, such as
Fungi, are so minute as to be easily scattered by the wind,
and thus they are sometimes developed in very anomalous
situations. Spores sometimes find a nidus in diseased struc¬
tures in man and animals. Thus, in the disease of the skin
called Pomgo favosa, as well as in Mentagra and Aphthae,
peculiar cellular bodies are produced, which appear to be
altered and metamorphosed vegetable forms. In the case
of the Silkworm, a Cryptogam called Botrytis Bassiana is
found in a disease to which they are liable, and which has
been called Muscardine. Caterpillars exhibit occasionally
germinating spores of species of Sphaeria. Sphaeria Ro-
bertsii grows on the larva of Hepialus virescens in New
Zealand. Other Sphaerias ai’e produced in similar situa¬
tions. Species of Polistes are seen flying about in the West
Indies with vegetable growths projecting from them. They
are called vegetating wasps. Leida finds numerous fungal
forms infesting the intestines of different species of lulus,
and also attacking the Entozoa in the intestinal tube of the
animal. The spores of Fungi ai'e diffused in the air, ready
to alight on any body which can furnish a nidus for them.
In this way various kinds of Mould are developed—the
spawn or mycelium produced fi’om the spore ramifying
through the decaying matter, and sending up at intervals
fructification. In some cases the mycelium becomes re-
mai’kably developed, and does not produce ordinary spore¬
bearing organs. Thus in vinegar and syrup a fungoid mass
is often produced, which is probably a modified form of
some kind of Mould. The Vinegar-plant seems to be a
peculiar mycelial development of the Mould called Peni-
cillium glaucum. During the germination of the spoils,
certain changes are induced in the fluid sui’rounding them.
Thus a saccharine solution is converted into vinegar. The
mycelium is sometimes formed in separate layers, which
can be detached from each other, so as to foi'm independent
vegetating masses. The spores of a Fungus (Merulius
lachrymans), when introduced into wood, germinate, and
produce the disease called dry-rot.
In higher Cryptogams the spore produces first a cellular
prothallus, whence roots and reproductive organs proceed.
In Mosses the germinating spore forms, in the first instance,
a cellular prolongation, which becomes a conferva-like
germ, whence buds arise, bearing the leafy plant with its
fructification. This is shown in Figure 415, where a ger¬
minating spore, a, of a Moss is seen protruding a cellular
process, which elongates and divides, as seen at h, and
finally, as showm in Figure 416, forms a jointed cellular
prothallus, p, whence buds are produced, a, b, bearing the
leaves and the organs of reproduction. In Ferns the spore
gives origin to a thalloid expansion, the prothallus, whence
roots proceed, and ultimately the sporangiferous frond. In
Botany.
166
BOTANY.
Botany. Figure 417 there is represented the spore, s, of a Fern
' forming a cellular prothallus, which gives out root-like pro¬
cesses, r r, and finally bears the organs of reproduction.
Fig. 416.
Fig. 415. Spore of a Moss (Funaria hygrometrica) germinating. The spore, a,
gives out a cellular process, which elongates and divides, as seen at
6. This produces the cellular prothallus.
i.. 416. The same Moss further developed, showing the cellular prothallus,
p, or pro-embryo, with its roots, r, and buds, a, fc, whence arise leafy
stems bearing the organs of reproduction.
In a monocotyledonous seed there is generally a supply
of albumen, which is gradually dissolved and absorbed as '
germination proceeds. Sometimes the whole of the peri-
sperm and its cells disappear; at other times, as in the seed
of the Ivory Palm (Phytelephas macrocarpa), a portion is
removed, and a sort of cellular skeleton is left within the
seed. The radicular portion of the axis is more or less
truncated, and sends off numerous rootlets, which pass
through sheaths or coleorhizae formed by the lower part of
the axis. This is shown in the germinating grain of
Wheat (Fig. 419), in which the rootlets, r, are covered
with cellular hairs for the purpose of absorption. The
central root is first developed, and the others come off in
succession as secondary rootlets. When there is no albu¬
men present, the cotyledon is usually pushed upwards be¬
yond the seed.
In many perispermic monocotyledonous seeds the coty¬
ledon is partly contained within the seed, and partly appears
externally. That portion within the seed is called intra-
seminal, and corresponds to the blade or lamina of the
leaf; the narrow protruded portion, which varies much in
length, represents the petiolary portion, which often ends
in a sort of sheath embracing the axis. In Figure 420, a
representation is given of the seed of the Indian Shot in
different stages of germination. A portion, c, of the single
cotyledon remains within the seed, while another portion, a,
protrudes, ending in a sheathing portion, s, which surrounds
an axis, t, whence spring the radicles, rr', which pass
through sheaths, col, and a primary bud, b, which rises to
Monocotyledonous germination.—The em¬
bryo of a Monocotyledon has often at first
sight no marked division of parts (Fig. 418).
There is seen a slight projection at one end,
r, which ultimately forms the root, and a uni¬
form conical mass, which consists of the
cotyledon, c, with the primary bud and axis;
at the lower part there is a slit, s, which, as
germination proceeds, gradually opens, so as
to allow the plumule to protrude. The en¬
veloping body is the single cotyledon.
b Cl
Fig. 418.
Fig. 419.
Fig. 417. Spore of Fern (Pteris serrulata) germinating. The spore, s, gives rise
to a cellular prothallus, p, whence cellular roots are given off, r, r.
The prothallus bears the organs of reproduction, and gives origin to
the sporangiferous frond.
... 418. Embryo of a species of Arrow-grass ( Triglochin Barrelieri), showing
a uniform conical mass, with a slit, s, near the lower part. The
cotyledon, c, envelopes the young bud, which protrudes at the slit
during germination. The radicle is developed from the lower part
of the axis, r.
... 419. Grain of Wheat (IViticttm) germinating. The embryo lies at one side
of the grain, g. The radicular portion of the embryo gives off] root¬
lets, rrrrr, covered with cellular hairs. The principal root is the
central one; the others being developed subsequently in succession.
The roots pass through sheaths, cc c. The ascending axis, t, sheathed
in the cotyledon, rises upwards.
Botany.
The seed of the Indian Shot (Ganna indica) in different stages of germination.
The embryo is seen surrounded by the perisperm or albumen,p, which is
inclosed within the integuments of the seed, or the general spermoderm, i.
The micropyle is the point where the first part of the embryo protrudes,
and the opening shows a lid-like process, l, which is raised in order to allow
the passage of the germinating part. 1. The seed in its early germinating
state, with the radicular axis, r, protruding, sheathed by the cotyledon. ‘2.
The embryo enlarged and the perispcrm diminished, the radicular portion,
r', more fully protruded, and the radicle, coming through a sheath or coleo-
rhiz.a, col. 3. The embryo still further increased, and the perisperm, p,
diminished, a narrow portion of the cotyledon, a, protruded, ending in a
sheathing portion, s, which embraces the axis, t, whence proceed the ra¬
dicles, r r', passing through coleorhizte, col; and the first bud of the ascend¬
ing axis, plumule, 6, ascending.
form the stem. A similar development is observed in the
Coco-nut.
In Grasses, as shown in Figure 63, the cotyledon, c,
enlarges within the seed, and, on one side of the perisperm,
roots, r, are protruded through sheaths, co, while the
plumule, g, rises upwards, consisting of sheathing leaves
arranged alternately. The sheathing cotyledon, c, with
the radicle and the plumule, are also represented in the
Maize or Indian Corn, in Figure 60. In all cases of mo¬
nocotyledonous germination, after the radicles have descend¬
ed into the soil, the plumule or first bud of the axis is de¬
veloped, and the leafy stem is gradually formed. The
leaves are usually alternate, and are often sheathing.
Dicotyledonous germination.—In dicotyledonous germi¬
nation the radicle is protruded through the foramen of the
seed, and then the cotyledons are either protruded, so as to
appear above ground as epigeal leaves of a green colour,
or they remain within the covering of the seed as fleshy
hypogeal lobes, containing much nutriment in their sub¬
stance. The first kind of germination is seen in Figure
421, where the embryo of a Sycamore is depicted with its
radicular axis, r, giving origin to roots, its ascending axis,
BOTANY.
!•—PROPAGATION OF PLANTS BY BUDS AND SLIPS.
Besides the propagation by means of seeds containing an
embryo, or by cellular spores, plants are also capable of ex¬
tension by division. In unicellular plants, and others of the
lowest class, it is common to find each cell possessing the
power of producing a new individual, either by simple ^divi¬
sion or by the formation of a cellular bud. In higher plants
this mode of propagation is carried out by means of an assem¬
blage of cells, which are developed into an organ or bud of
a more complicated nature, before it is detached. Multipli¬
cation by division of cells is very common among the lowest
Algse, such as Desmidiaceae and Diatomaceae0 (Fig. 13).
In the case of Lichens the thallus produces gonidia (Fig.
385, ff), which appear to be a collection of cellular buds
capable of producing independent individuals. On the
thallus of Liverworts (Marchantia) cup-like bodies (Fig.
362, g), are produced containing gemmae. In Mosses the
power of reproduction by gemmae is very marked.
The higher classes of plants may be considered as con¬
sisting of numerous buds united on a common axis. These
possess a certain amount of independent vitality, and they
may be separated from the parent stem in such a way as to
give origin to new individuals. In some instances buds are
produced which are detached spontaneously at a certain pe¬
riod of a plant’s life. The bulbils or bulblets of Lilium bulbi-
ferum (Fig. 75), and the cloves formed in the axils of the
scales of bulbs are gemmae or buds which can be detached
so as to form new plants. Such is also the case with corms,
as in Colchicum (Fig. 74). In these instances the buds are
developed in the usual way in the axils of leaves or scales,
that is to say, at the points where they join the stem. Some
leaves naturally produce buds on their surface, as may be
observed in Malaxis, Aspidium bulbiferum, and Nymphaea
micrantha. Other leaves, when placed in particular circum¬
stances, give rise to leaf-buds at their margin. Thus the
leaves of Bryophyllum calycinum, when placed on the sur¬
face of damp soil, exhibit little shoots all around their edge
(Fig. 141). The leaves of Dionaea muscipula can also be
made to produce buds, and so can those of species of Ges-
nera, Gloxinia, and Achimenes. In some instances plants,
in place of producing seeds, bear peculiar bud-like bodies on
their floral axis. This occurs in what are called viviparous
or proliferous plants, such as I estuca ovina var. vivipara,
Aira alpina, A. caespitosa var. vivipara, Poa alpina, Cyno-
surus cristatus, Polygonum viviparum, and in some species
of Allium. In these viviparous plant (which are often alpine)
alterations take place in different parts of the flower by which
young plants are produced.
Besides this natural mode of propagation by gemmae,
new plants are also produced by divisions of the stem and
branches. Many of the lower class of plants increase by a
constant division of their axis or filaments. In the higher
plants similar modes of propagation occur. Thus the potato
is naturally reproduced by means of tubers which are short¬
ened under-ground branches, and sections of tubers contain¬
ing buds (eyes) produce separate plants. When some under¬
ground stems are cut to pieces every fragment is capable of
giving origin to buds and new plants. This may be seen
in many Carices growing in sand, in creeping grasses, and
in the Horse-radish. Hence the difficulty of eradicating
these plants. By means of slips or cuttings of the steiiL
g;ardeners propagate plants, more especially important varie¬
ties. I hese slips may be at once put into the soil, as in the
case of Willows and Cactuses, and be made to put forth
roots, or to strike, as it is called. By cuttings gardeners
propagate Gooseberries, Currants, Figs, Vines, and some
other plants. In deciduous trees the operation is best per¬
formed in winter. Sometimes gardeners employ layering,
by bending down a branch into the earth, keeping it there
with pegs, allowing it to form roots, and then cutting it off
from the parent stem. In order to cause layers to form
roots, they sometimes make a slit or notch on the shoot,
or put a ligature round it, or ring the bark. In striking
cuttings of plants, it is of great importance to attend
to heat, light, and moisture, and to supply them in proper
proportion. 1
Grafting.—Another mode of propagating plants is by
grafting, or by taking a part of one plant and making it grow
upon another plant. This process sometimes takes place
naturally. The branches of trees, when they come into
contact, especially when there is an abrasion of the bark,
unite. The subject of grafting has received particular at¬
tention from Thouin and D’Albret, and it is fully discussed
in the aiticle Horticulture. By means of this process we
propagate many woody, resinous, soft, or herbaceous plants,
which either supply seeds rarely, or are difficult to strike
167
Botany.
168 EOT
Botany, from cuttings or layers ; and we perpetuate certain varieties,
'v—' valued either for their fruit, the structure and form of flower,
their colour, perfume, the nature of their wood, their general
aspect, or the shades and variation of their foliage.
There are certain important requisites which must be
attended to in grafting. In the case of Dicotyledonous
trees, care must be taken to bring the growing parts into
contact—the two alburnums and the two libers. The plants
on which grafting is practised must be botanically allied, or
at all events there must be a similarity in the composition
of their sap. Union may take place between plants which,
in their natural state, require the same chemical ingredients
in the same proportions. This is generally the case with
varieties of the same species, more rarely with plants of dif¬
ferent species, and least frequently with such as belong to
different genera.
Several advantages are derived from the multiplication of
vegetables by grafts. We are enabled to perpetuate re¬
markable varieties which could not be produced by seed;
we procure quickly many valuable trees, which are with dif¬
ficulty multiplied by other means ; we hasten the period of
fruit-bearing; and we improve and propagate varieties of
fruit trees. " In the case of cultivated Apples and Pears, the
seeds of our best fruits, such as the Ribston Pippin, the
Nonpareil, and the Jargonelle, if sown, will not produce
plants bearing these varieties of fruit, but they will have a
tendency to reproduce the original species, viz., the Crab-
apple or Pear. By means of grafting we are enabled to con¬
tinue esteemed varieties, and at the same time to impart
vigour to young slips by putting them on good and well-
grown stocks.
The seeds of certain plants have a tendency to sport, as
it is called, especially when highly cultivated and supplied
with abundance of good nutriment. This is the case with the
seed of the Crab-fruit when sown in good soil. By the art
of the gardener an improvement is produced in fruit natu¬
rally sour and inedible. The seeds of such fruits, especially
after a long period of cultivation, have a tendency to pro¬
duce plants which bear fruit of a better quality than the
Crab. Plants showing such a tendency are carefully pre¬
served, and slips are taken from them and grafted on well
grown stocks, and thus additional vigour is imparted.
Grafting has the effect of supplying to the scion a store of
nutriment ready prepared and at once fitted for use. More¬
over, the nature of the stock imparts often certain qualities
to the fruit borne by the graft.
Mr Knight entertained the idea that the only true mode
of continuing plants was by seed, and that a young shoot
taken from an old tree could not be made to live longer
than the natural term of life of the tree from which it was
taken. On this principle he accounted for the disappear¬
ance, or at least the scarcity, of many well-known fruits,
such as the Red Streak, the Golden Pippin, and the Golden
Harvey. According to Mr Knight’s theory, the vegetable
individual is a plant which has originated from the develop¬
ment of a single seed ; this individual may consist of many
detached portions, each of which may exist apart from the
others. A cutting of a tree is a part of the individual from
which it was taken, and although it may have become a
tree, still, according to Knight’s view, it is no more than a
developed state of a portion of the original plant. All parts
of a tree are viewed as having a common end of their life,
and different trees raised from one and the same tree by
grafts are considered as decaying about the same time as the
parent plant.
These views have not been confirmed by the observa¬
tions of physiologists. Experiments show that young shoots
of old trees, when used as grafts or slips, furnish as vigorous
plants as the shoots of young trees. A whole series of cul¬
tivated plants, such as the Vine, the Hop, the Italian Poplar,
and the Weeping Willow, are constantly propagated by
,1 N Y.
division without any decreased power of vegetation being Botany,
observed. There is no truth in the statement that propa- V—
gation by seed is the only natural method of reproduction
in plants. Many are propagated naturally by stems, bulbs,
and tubers. The Sugar-cane propagates by the stem,
which, when blown down by a storm, emits roots at every
joint, the Tiger-lily propagates by bulbils, the Jerusalem
Artichoke and the Potato by tubers, and the species of
Achimenes by scaly bodies like tubers. Such modes of
propagation do not cause debility, and there is no evidence
of plants multiplied by division wearing out. There is
however no doubt that cultivated plants become feeble by
the influence of various causes, such as exhaustion of the
soil, improper food, mutilation, the effects of cold, &c. It
is also true that seeds or slips taken from diseased and weak
plants will partake often to a certain degree of the constitu¬
tion of the plants from which they have been taken.
While numerous experiments have proved that the young
shoots of old trees, when used as grafts, furnish as vigorous
plants as the shoots of young trees, and that Knight’s views
in regard to there being one common period of death for all
parts of a tree, are erroneous, there is still wanting definite
information as to the age which trees attain. The duration
of their life has not been accurately determined. It exceeds
so much the limit of man’s life that it is not easy to collect
data on the subject. Some exogenous trees attain a very
great age. Trees which, in individual cases, attain great
ages, belong to the most different natural families. Among
them may be mentioned the Baobab, the Dragon-tree,
species of Eucalyptus, Taxodium distichum, Pinus Lam-
bertiana, Hymensea Courbaril, species of Csesalpinia and
Bombax, the Mahogany tree, the Banyan, the Tulip-tree,
the Oriental Plane, Limes, Oaks, and Yews.
Some maintain that the stock and scion are incapable of
producingany influence upon each other respectively, and that
each retains to the last its own peculiar quality. This seems
to be true, so far as their visible organization is concerned ;
for when grafted trees are cut down, the timber of the stock
and scion remains just what it is in cases where no grafting
has taken place, and the shoots that proceed from them
generally manifest in like manner exactly their original
nature. There can be no doubt, however, that the nature
of the stock has a decided effect on the slip or scion, both
as regards its nutritive and its reproductive organs. Thus
it is stated, that Pears grafted on the Mountain Ash are
rendered more hardy, and bear fruit earlier; and when
grafted on Quinces they become higher coloured. Apples
grafted on the Siberian Bitter-sweet Apple are more highly
coloured than when grafted on the Crab. Peaches on
Plum stocks are coarser than on Peach stocks. The
Beurre-Diel grafted on the Thorn produces hard fruit.
This shows that the stock has an influence on the graft,
and points out the importance of selecting stocks of good
quality. The plan of ennobling fruit trees proceeds on the
principle of grafting on superior stocks.
In some instances it appears that the slip or scion has a^
decided effect on the stock. Thus, according to Hales, if
Ave bud the variegated Jasmine on a non-variegated one, it
sometimes happens that the buds sent out from the latter
bear variegated leaves. It is reported that at Chelsea the
variegated White Jasmine was budded upon a branch of a
fine plant of Revolute Jasmine with green leaves, and in
the succeeding year a slight appearance of variegation came
out on the leaves of the Revolute Jasmine. The next
year the branch which had been budded was cut out, so that
the Revolute Jasmine was thus apparently deprived of all
influence from the variegated bud. Nevertheless, the varie¬
gation in the remainder of the plant continued to increase,
and the leaves and branches ultimately became all variegated,
even more than the White Jasmine, whose bud was origi¬
nally inserted.
B 0 T
Botany. II.—DEVELOPMENT OF HEAT, LIGHT, AND
ELECTRICITY BY PLANTS.
Temperature of Plants.—We have already seen that,
during the periods of flowering and germination, a con¬
siderable amount of heat is evolved. This seems to
depend on the combination between the oxygen of the air
and the carbon of the plant, and is accompanied with the
formation of grape sugar and the evolution of carbonic
acid. The heat at these stages of growth is often very evi¬
dent, more especially in cases where numerous germinating
seeds are placed together, and numerous flowers are inclosed
in a common covering. The phenomenon requires to be
noticed in circumstances in which the heat cannot be car¬
ried off rapidly by the air or the soil. It is a matter of
interest to determine whether or not heat is produced dur¬
ing the ordinary vital actions going on in the cells and ves¬
sels of plants. The investigation of this point has called
forth the labours of several physiologists. Hunter instituted
a series of experiments respecting the temperature of trees.
He bored holes to the depth of ten or twelve inches in the
trunks of trees, and inserted thermometers. He found that
in spring, autumn, and winter the temperature of the inter¬
nal part of a tree was usually about two degrees above that
of the air. The results, however, were variable, and no
satisfactory conclusions were deduced. Schoepf, Bierkan-
der, Maurice, Pictet, and Schubler, made similar experi¬
ments, and they agree in giving to trees with thick trunks
a temperature lower than that of the air during great heat,
and higher than that of the air during extreme cold. In all
these experiments the results seem to depend on the effects
°f the sun s rays, on evaporation, on the temperature of the
soil as influencing the ascending sap, and on the bad con¬
ducting power of the wood.
While the nutritive processes are going on in the plant
there is a ceitain amount of heat produced. This, however,
is speedily carried away by evaporation and other causes,
and it is not easily rendered evident. Dutrochet, by means
of Becquerefs thermo-electric needle, showed an evolution
of heat in plants. In doing this he required to prevent
evaporation by putting the plant in a moist atmosphere.
In these circumstances the temperature of the active vege¬
tating parts, the roots, the leaves, and the young shoots, in¬
dicated a temperature above the air of to f of a degree
Fahrenheit. Van Beekand Bergsma, in their experiments
on Hyacinthus orientalis and Entelea arborescens, found the
proper heat of the active parts of plants about D80 F. above
that of the air. The vital or proper heat of plants, accord¬
ing to Dutrochet, is found chiefly in the green parts, and it
undergoes a quotidian paroxysm, reaching the maximum
during the day, and the minimum during the night. When
stems become hard and ligneous, they lose this vital heat.
Large green cotyledons gave indications of a proper heat.
The hour of quotidian maximum varied from 10 a.m. to 3
p.m. in different plants.
Rameaux repeated the experiments relative to the tempe¬
rature of the trunks of trees, and likewise those relating to
the heat of the active vegetating parts of plants, and* he
came to the conclusion that the temperature of plants de¬
pends on two distinct sources—1. Organic actions goin°-
on in the young, soft, and herbaceous parts of plants, and
which give rise to a temperature so slight that it requires
delicate instruments to show it. 2. Meteorological influ¬
ences, either immediate, as exercised on parts of plants ex¬
posed to the air, or mediate, as exercised on the soil and on
the sap which is drawn up from it; the former being the
most energetic. He remarks that in a tree at any one in¬
stant there are as many different temperatures as there are
'joints unequally accessible to external sources of heat;
hat the sum of all these temperatures, or the entire heat of
the tree, augments and diminishes with the surrounding
vol. y. ®
ANY. 169
temperature ; that the variations of temperature are more Botany,
rapid and more intense in the superficial than in the deep
layers, and that parts having a small diameter are cooled
and heated with more rapidity and energy than those whose
diameter is great; that during day the temperature of the
different concentric layers of a tree diminishes in going from
the surface to the centre, and that this diurnal distribution
is established more or less quickly and completely accord¬
ing to the nature of the surrounding temperature and the
diameter of the tree; that during the night, on the contrary,
the temperature of the different layers increases from the
surface to the centre, the nocturnal distribution varying in
the same way according to the surrounding temperature
and the diameter ; that the action of solar rays is the most
powerful cause of the temperature of plants; and that the
ascending sap increases or diminishes the temperature of
the parts it traverses according as these parts have a tem¬
perature lower or higher than its own.
Luminosity of Plants.—Considerable differences of opi¬
nion exist as to the luminosity exhibited by plants. Light
is undoubtedly given out by Fungi in certain circumstances,
but the occurrence of luminous phenomena in the higher
plants is still a matter of dispute. Luminosity has been
noticed in many species of Agaricus growing on dead or
decaying wood, such as Agaricus olearius, indigenous in the
south of Europe; Agaricus Gardneri, in Goyaz, Brazil;
Agaricus igneus, in the island of Amboyna ; and Agaricus
noctilucens, in Manilla. The first two are of an orange
colour, the third of an ash colour, and the fourth white.
The light of the Agaric of the Olive-grounds (Agaricus
olearius) may be compared to that of phosphorus ; it is a
continued white light without scintillations, very bright
when the plant is young and recently gathered. Agaricus
igneus has a bluish light. The whole plant of Agaricus
Gardneri gives out at night a bright phosphorescent light,
somewhat similar to that emitted by the larger fire-flies,
having a pale greenish hue. From this circumstance, and
from growing on a Palm, it is called by the inhabitants of
Villa de Natividade, Flor de Coco.
Drummond describes two species of light-giving Agari¬
cus found in the Swan River district. They grew pa-
rasitically on trunks of trees such as Banksias. When
placed on paper, the Agarics emitted by night a phospho¬
rescent light sufficient to allow a person to read by it, and
they continued to do so for several nights with gradually
decreasing intensity as the plant dried up. Another phos¬
phorescent Agaric was noticed by Mr Drummond in Aus¬
tralia on the trunk of a dead Eucalyptus occidentalis. The
upper surface of the pileus was nearly black, while the cen¬
tral portion and the gills were milk-white, the stipe being
attached to one side of the pileus.
Some species of Rhizomorpha (which appear to be my-
celia of Fungi) are remarkable for the phosphorescence
which they display. These plants vegetate in dark caverns,
and in the coal mines of Germany. They are seen hang¬
ing from the roof in great numbers. Their luminous quali¬
ties are most developed in the furthest recesses of the mines.
Prestochas noticed that the spawn of the Ti’uffle (Fig. 366)
is luminous, and that it may thus be collected at night
in the Truffle-grounds. These are instances ofluminosity
in living Fungi, which disappears with life. Luminosity
has also been observed in plants in a state of putrescence, as
in rotten wood and in half-decayed potatoes.
Tulasne has made observations on the light given out by
Rhizomorpha subterranea. By preserving it in a proper
state of humidity the phosphorescence was kept up for
several evenings. When the Fungus began to dry it lost
its luminosity. Tulasne considers the light as similar to
the phosphorescence in decaying plants, and he concludes
that the same agents, namely oxygen, water, and heat, fur¬
nish the combination necessary for producing phospho-
Y
170
Botany.
BOTANY.
rescence, both in organized living beings and in those which
have ceased to live. In both cases the luminous pheno¬
menon accompanies a chemical reaction, which consists
chiefly in the combination between organized matter and
the oxygen of air, that is to say, a slow combustion, giving
rise to carbonic acid.
The younger Linnaeus states that the flowers of Nastur¬
tium, the African Marigold, the orange Lily and other
orange flowers, give out, at the end of a hot summer day,
intermittent phosphorescence resembling little flashes of
light. Dowden also mentions a luminous appearance of a
similar nature in the common Marigold (Calendula vulgaris).
He noticed it on the 4th of August 1842 at 8 p.m. after a
week of very dry warm weather. A gold-coloured lambent
light seemed to play from floret to floret, and to make a
course round the disk of the flower. The light given out
by flowers has been remarked by various other observers.
These luminous phenomena in flowers are considered by
Professor Allman as being merely optical illusions. He
says they are only seen in orange and gaudy flowers, and
at twilight, not in darkness, and that they must be traced
to an intermittent effect on the retina.
The sap of plants is said to be luminous in certain in¬
stances. Mornay describes a tree in South America called
Cipo de Cunanam, with a milky juice, which gave out in
the dark a bright light when wounded. The phosphores¬
cent light appeared at every cut in the stem, and each drop
of the milky juice was luminous. Martius also observed the
same kind of light in the sap of Euphorbia phosphorea, a
Brazilian plant, when wounded. When this was observed,
the temperature was 97'25° F., but it ceased when the heat
sank to 68° F.; he did not find that it affected the galvano¬
meter in the least.
Electricity of Plants.—Some observations have been
made relative to the electricity of plants, which may be re¬
ferred to at this place. Pouillet stated that electricity was
developed during the ordinary process of growth in vege¬
tables. Several pots filled with earth, and containing differ¬
ent seeds, were placed on an insulated stand in a chamber,
the air of which was kept dry by quicklime. The stand
was placed in connection with a condensing electrometer.
At first no electric disturbance was manifested; but the
seeds had scarcely sprouted when signs of it were evident;
and when the young plants were in a complete state of
growth they separated the gold leaves of the electrometer
half an inch from each other. The exhalation from leaves
may be considered as a cause of the development of elec¬
tricity, as well as the changes effected by leaves on the
oxygen and carbonic acid of the atmosphere. Plants are
considered as generally in a negatively electrical state. Dr
Graves thinks that in this way, in tropical climates, where
the superincumbent atmosphere is rendered positively elec¬
trical by evaporation from the sea, the negative state of
plants leads to thunder storms. It is said that the pith and
bark, as well as the two extremities of fruits, are in opposite
states of electricity.
Wartmann has made an extensive series of observations
on the influence of atmospheric electricity, and that of the
battery, in the development of plants ; on the influence of
electricity on the circulation of the sap ; and on the electric
currents existing in the soil and in plants. He states that
there are electric currents in almost all parts of plants ; that
in the roots, stems, and branches, there exists a central de¬
scending current and a peripherical ascending one ; that
there are also lateral currents between the pith and the
cambium ; that the electric state of the soil, and probably
also the exhalation which takes place by the organs fur¬
nished with stomata, influences the electricity of the atmo¬
sphere around. Becquerel says, that in the act of vegeta¬
tion the earth acquires continually an excess of positive
electricity, the bark and part of the wood an excess of nega¬
tive electricity; that the leaves act like the green part of Botany,
the parenchyma of the bark—that is to say, the sap which
circulates in their tissues is negative with relation to the
wood, to the pith, and to the earth, and positive with regard
to the cambium ; that the electric effects observed in vege¬
tables are due to chemico-vital actions ; and that the oppo¬
site electric states of vegetables and the earth give reason
to think that, from the enormous vegetation in certain parts
of the globe, they must exert some influence on the electric
phenomena of the atmosphere,
III.—VEGETABLE NOSOLOGY, OR THE DISEASES AND
INJURIES OF PLANTS.
It would be difficult to name any department of vegetable
physiology concerning which so little is positively known,
even to those most conversant with such matters, as the
nature of the diseases to which plants are liable. The
number of writings on the subject is inconsiderable, and the
information afforded by them still more so. The subject,
nevertheless, is one of great importance. It is intimately
connected with the prosperity of our forests and the pro¬
ductiveness of agriculture. Plants, like all other organized
bodies, are subject to a great many accidents and diseases.
The most common causes of disease are improper soils, un-
genial climates, frosts, long-continued rains, great drought,
violent storms, parasitic plants, insects, and wounds of
various kinds.
According to Schleiden, plants in a state of high cultiva¬
tion are all more or less in a condition predisposed to dis¬
ease. There is an unnatural and excessive development of
particular structures or particular substances, and thus, the
equilibrium being destroyed, the plants are liable to suffer
from injurious external influences. The general morbid
condition produced by cultivation is heightened into spe¬
cific predisposition to disease when the conditions of culti¬
vation are opposed too strongly or too suddenly to those of
nature. The outward forms of diseases are sufficiently
known, but the internal appearances are less understood,
and for their proper apprehension they require a knowledge
of vegetable anatomy, and especially of the physiology of
cells. The characters are essentially similar in all living
vegetable cells. There is a wall or membrane, com¬
posed of cellulose, lined by a viscid layer (the primordial
utricle), composed of an albuminous matter abounding in
nitrogen ; the cavity of the cell is filled with watery juice,
containing little nitrogenous matter, but having all the
other compounds, such as gum, sugar, vegetable acids,
inorganic salts, &c., dissolved in it. The chemico-vital
force of the plant appears to reside in the nitrogenous layer;
all growth depends upon it, and it does not disappear until
the cell-wall has become properly developed. When
diseased plants are examined in the early stage, the first
morbid appearance occurs in the nitrogenous layer, which
becomes discoloured, coagulated, and granular, and the
disease then extends to the cellular wall.
The diseases of plants may be divided in the following
way:—1. Diseases which are caused by an excess or defi¬
ciency of those agents which are necessary for the vigorous
growth of plants ; such as soil, light, heat, air, and moisture.
2. Those which are either originally caused, or, at all events,
aggravated and modified by the attacks of parasites, more
particularly belonging to the natural order Fungi. 3. Those
due to the action of poisons, either taken up from the soil
or from the atmosphere. 4. Those caused by mechanical
injuries of different kinds, as by the attacks of animals, more
particularly insects. Diseases caused by changes in the
atmosphere are often epidemic, and spread over extensive
districts of country. Those which are due to parasitic
Fungi are propagated by contagion—the minute spores be¬
ing carried by the winds. Exciting causes operate with
great intensity in cases where plants are previously predis-
BOTANY.
atany,
posed to disease. Thus, if a plant is in an enfeebled or
^ weak condition, it is very liable to suffer both from epidemic
and contagious diseases.
The cryptogamic diseases of plants must be considered
contagious, since they are produced by the contact of one
portion of organic matter with another. The contact of
diseased cells produces disease in healthy cells. Thus, if a
healthy plant of Cactus be inoculated with some of the fluid
from a plant affected with moist gangrene, diseased action
will immediately commence and extend more or less rapidly.
The action is analogous to what takes place with ferment
when introduced into a saccharine liquid. The liability of
the plant to the development of epidemic disease is pro¬
duced by the state of the atmosphere as regards moisture,
the prevalence of hot or cold weather, the amount of light,
and probably the electrical condition of the air and earth.
The natural decay of plants also renders them liable to at¬
tacks of Fungi.
Some of the causes we have noticed may operate together
in producing disease. If, from defect of nourishment in the
soil, a plant is stunted or weak, it becomes predisposed to
disease, and is very liable to the attacks of parasites. A
sudden frost coming on in spring, after the sap has begun
to flow, causes severe injury, and either kills the plant or
renders it liable to disease. This occurrence is common in
Britain, and is the cause why many half-hardy exotics re¬
quire to be covered or kept in a dormant state until the
season has advanced beyond the risk of frost. Many such
plants grown on a wall with a southern exposure are stimu¬
lated by the heat of a fine day in early spring, and are thus
unable to resist later frosts. Warm sun during the day, and
frost at night, have proved fatal to many exotics introduced
into Britain. Plants are fitted by their constitution for dif¬
ferent climates. Some will bear a great range of tempera¬
ture without injury ; others can only bear a limited one.
Some require a hot summer and a cold winter ; others re¬
quire a medium summer and a moderate winter.
It has often been stated that tender exotics may by long
cultivation be made to bear the climate of Britain. It has
been thought that they may become accustomed to it by
degrees, and thus be acclimatized. Some have even hinted
that by sowing the seeds of such plants, in the first instance,
in a warm temperate region, then collecting the seeds pro¬
duced by the plants and sowing them in colder districts, the
species may be rendered hardy. We are constantly told
that plants which, when first introduced into Britain, were
put into stoves and greenhouses, are now growing in the
open border freely, and that they can stand a climate which
they could not do at first. Such statements do not rest on
a sound basis ; each species of plant bears a certain range
of temperature, and we cannot extend its natural limits.
The plants said to be acclimatized were not tried in the
open air when first introduced, otherwise they would have
been found to be hardy, without any previous process of
cultivation in greenhouses. The well-known shrub Aucuba
japonica was treated in a stove when first introduced, and
was afterwards planted out, and found to stand our climate.
This was not an instance of acclimatizing, but indicated an
error regarding the constitution of the plant, which was
brought from the colder parts of Japan, and was capable of
enduring the cold of this climate naturally. Man did no¬
thing in the way of changing its constitution and powers of
endurance. A plant called Aponogeton distachyum flowers
freely in the open pond of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden.
This plant was introduced from Southern Africa, and was
at first grown in stoves. A specimen was accidentally
thrown into the garden pond many years ago, and there it
has continued to thrive ever since, flowering during almost
the whole year. The roots of the plant are deep in the
water, and the pond is supplied by springs. Had it been
put into the pond when first introduced, the same result
171
would have followed. We are too apt to suppose that plants Botany,
coming from countries called hot, must necessarily be stove v—
plants; not reflecting that they may have grown in very
elevated and cold regions in these countries. Such is the
case with many species introduced from Chili, Nepal, and
Japan. There is no evidence that plants long cultivated in
this country are able to withstand our winter cold better
than formerly. The Dahlia, the Heliotrope, and the
Potato, are affected in the same way by frost as when they
were first introduced. Long cultivation has done nothing
to increase their hardiness.
Cold and bad soils are fruitful sources of disease. When
plants are grown without the influence of light, they assume
a white or yellowish aspect, thus becoming blanched or
etiolated. In certain instances plants, even when exposed
to light, present a pale and sickly hue, which is often refer-
rible to the nature of the soil, or to constitutional weakness.
In many crops we observe plants having a pallid aspect
owing to ungenial weather and damp soil in the first in¬
stance. The diseased state thus induced is called by Ber¬
keley chlorosis; some have recommended for its removal
the application of a weak solution of sulphate of iron along
with draining. Plants, whose natural habitat is shady, be¬
come diseased when excess of light is supplied. Frosts, as
well as excess of heat, render the stamens and pistils abor¬
tive. Spotting of the leaves, and canker of the stem, are
often due to similar causes. When moisture is supplied in
too great quantity, the plants become dropsical; and when
the transpiration exceeds the absorption, the leaves often
fall off. The dry and hot atmosphere of rooms often causes
defoliation and disease in plants. Excessive development
of hairs is sometimes a consequence of growing plants in
very dry air. Diseases caused by changes in the atmosphere
are often epidemic, and attack large districts of country.
I he influence of the sea breeze, carrying with it saline
matter, is prejudicial to most plants. Plantations are fre¬
quently injured from this cause. A good illustration is seen
at Gosford, near Edinburgh, where the trees, on reaching
the top of a wall, are stopped in their growth by the sea
breeze, and their tops form an inclined plane proceeding
inwards from the wall as a base. Some plants withstand
this influence better than others.
Ihe attacks of parasitic Fungi cause extensive injury and
disease in plants. Some think that the spores of Fungi
coming into contact with the plant act both as the predis¬
posing and exciting cause of disease ; others, perhaps more
correctly, think that some change is first produced in the
cells of the plant, which enables the spores to find a nidus,
and then the disease goes on rapidly, assuming a peculiar type
on account of the presence of the Fungus. In the same way
as vegetable organisms found in diseases of the skin are not
to be looked upon as the origin of the disease, but as being
developed in textures previously morbid, and as giving often
a peculiar character to the disease. Many of the diseases
of cultivated crops are attributed to Fungi. The spores of
Fungi are very minute, and are constantly floating in the
air. I hey can easily be applied to the surfaces of plants.
When they find an appropriate soil they send out extensive
filiform ramifications which spread under the epidermis of
plants, raise blisters, and finally burst forth in the form of
orange, brown, and black spots constituting the fructifica¬
tion. They attack the stem, leaves, flowers, and fruit.
Different species are pestricted to different plants, and even
to different parts of the same plant. The forms which the
same Fungus assumes seem to vary sometimes according
to the plant on which it grows.
The disease called Bunt, Smutballs, or Pepper-brand, is
occasioned by the plant called Uredo Caries by De Can¬
dolle, and Uredo foetida by Bauer. It attacks the grains of
Wheat, and may be detected in them in their earliest state.
It is represented in Figure 422. It consists of extremely
172
BOTANY.
Pig. 422.
The Fungus ( Uredo Caries
or Uredo fostida) which
causes the disease called
Bunt, Smutballs, or Pep¬
per-brand.
Fig. 423.
Botany, minute globules of a dark colour, at first attached to a thread-
v—“v—like matter or mycelium. The pow¬
dery matter or spores have a disgusting
odour ; hence the specific name given
to it. The disease is propagated by
contact.
Another disease, called Smut or
Dust-brand, is caused by a Fungus
called Uredo segetum. It resembles
the Bunt Fungus in colour and shape,
but its spores are not half so large,
and it does not possess a fetid odour.
This Fungus destroys the ear of Corn
by first causing the innermost parts
of the flower to become abortive,
while the pedicels on which these are
seated swell and become very fleshy. The Fungus then con¬
sumes the whole of this fleshy mass, and at length appears
between the chaff scales in the form of a black soot-like
powder.
The disease denominated Rust, Red-rag, Red-robin, and
Red-gum, is caused by
a Fungus called Uredo
Rubigo (Fig. 423). It
forms yellow and brown
oval spots and blotches
upon the stem, leaf, and
chaff. The spores burst
through the epidermis,
and are dispersed as
very minute grains.
The disease is com- Fig. 424.
mon in Corn and in Fig. 423. Fungus (Uredo Rubigo') which is met
Grasses. Mildew is a
disease caused by a
Fungus denominated
Pucciniagraminis (Fig.
424). The ripe spore-
cases of this plant are small dark-brown club-shaped bodies,
their thicker end being divided into two chambers, each filled
with minute spores, and their lower end tapering into a fine
stalk. The sori or clusters of spore-cases burst through
the epidermis sometimes in vast numbers. The minute
spores seem to enter the plant by the stomata. In the
Vine a kind of mildew is traced by Berkeley to the attack
of a Fungus called Oidium Tuckeri. For this disease sul¬
phur, and the pentasulphide of calcium, have been recom¬
mended as remedies.
Henslow has shown by experiment, that if the diseased
seeds of Wheat be steeped in a solution of sulphate of
copper, they will not produce diseased grain, and that the
sulphate of copper does no injury to their germination. The
solution used is one ounce of sulphate of copper to a gallon
of water for every bushel of Wheat, Grain also steeped in
hot water did not reproduce these fungoid diseases. In
East-Lothian, with the view of preventing Smut, seed Wheat
is often steeped in stale urine, and afterwards some newly
slaked lime sifted on it. Sometimes a solution of salt is
used as a pickle.
Ergot is a monstrous state of the grain, in which the
enlarged and diseased ovary protrudes in a curved form
resembling a cock’s spur; hence the name, from the French
ergot, meaning a spur. The ovary is black externally,
spongy internally, and contains much oily matter. Some
consider it as produced by the attack of a Fungus, which
induces a diseased condition in the ovarian cells. The
*Plate disease is usually met with in Rye,* and the name of
CXXXYTI. Spurred Rye is applied to it. It sometimes occurs in
Wheat and in Barley, and it has also been noticed in other
grains. Ergot consists of a very dense tissue formed by
polygonal cells united intimately with one another, and filled
with in the disease called Rust or
Red-gum.
424. Fungus (Puccinia graminis) which is
found in the disease called Mildew.
It consists of dark brown club-
shaped bodies, the thicker end of
which is divided into two cavities
filled with spores.
with an oily fluid. It is developed in the unimpregnated
ovule of Rye ; for although extremely dilated by the ento-
phyte, and rendered difficult of recognition, the integuments
of the ovule increase without completely losing the form
which they would have assumed if they had grown into a
true grain. The solid mass which has been called Sclero-
tium Clavus by De Candolle, and the filamentous portion
called Sphacelia, by Leveille and Fee, and Ergotaetia by
Quekett, are only, properly speaking, organs of vegetation.
The Fungus destined to grow from this apparatus is an
elegant Sphaeria, probably that called by Fries Cordyliceps
purpurea.
The disease which has recently attacked the Potato in
various parts of the world, is by many
attributed to the attack of Fungi. This
view has been strongly advocated by
Berkeley, who describes the Fungus
as Botrytis infestans (Fig. 425). The
spores are supposed to enter the sto¬
mata, and to cause disease in the
leaves in the first instance, which
afterwards extends to the tubers. The
effects produced on the leaves by this
disease resemble much those caused by
poisonous gases, such as hydrochloric,
sulphurous, and nitric acids. Berke- Fungus
Botany
toes, and which is sup¬
posed by Berkeley,Mor-
ren, and Townley, to be
the original cause of the
late Potato disease. The
Fungus is represented
spreading through the
substance of the leaf by
means of its mycelium,
which sends up, through
the leaf, fructification
bearing numerous
spores.
Fig. 425.
(Botrytis infest-
ley attributes the Potato disease en- diseas^ieav^ofFota-
tirely to Fungi. He states that the
disease commenced in the leaves.
They were attacked by the Mould,
which ran its course in a few hours,
and from the rapidity of the action
the period for examination of the
leaves was often passed over. The
Fungus acted by feeding on the juices
of plants, preventing the elaboration of the sap in the leaves,
obstructing the admission of air and the emission of tran¬
spired fluids. While there is no doubt that the Botrytis is de¬
veloped in the progress of the Potato disease, the question
arises whether or not it is the originating cause. The view
which seems to be most consonant with the phenomena is,
that changes are induced in the cells of the Potato by cul¬
tivation, which render the leaves liable to disease. Atmo¬
spheric influences are thus enabled to act upon them, so as
to cause alterations in their cells; and the attack of a Fungus
such as the Botrytis accelerates the morbid action, aud causes
it to assume a peculiar form.
Crum attributed the disease of the tubers of the Potato
to rupture of the starch cells and mixture of their contents
with nitrogenous matter, thus causing fermentation, as in
the Apple and Grape. Solly objects to the Fungus theory
of Potato disease. He thinks that the disease is caused by
the presence of putrifying azotized matter in the stem, just
below the surface of the soil; that this is carried to all parts
of the plant, causes a struggle between vital and chemical
forces, and induces decomposition by a process of fermen¬
tation. The azotized matter, in a condition to act as fer¬
ment, is produced by the state of the season, by deficiency
of light, and by other meteorological causes. Liebig attri¬
buted the Potato disease to diminished or suppressed tran¬
spiration depending on the hygrometric state of the atmo¬
sphere. He refers to Hales’ accurate researches in regard
to the Hop-blight, in which the disease is traced to the want
of correspondence between absorption and transpiration, and
a consequent stagnation and decomposition of the juices.
The same thing, he thinks, takes place in the Potato in con¬
sequence of cold and an atmosphere loaded with moisture.
Klotzsch proposes to check the Potato disease by repeatedly
pinching off the extreme points of the branches and twigs.
This check to the stem and branches leads, he thinks,
to increased development of tubers, and strengthens the
BOTANY.
irs
Botany, leaves and stalks. Tombelle Lomba of Namui' says that he
—v-w' has saved Potatoes from disease by cutting off the stems,
after flower ing, with a very sharp sickle, and then covering the
ground with earth to the depth of not less than one and a
half inch. The top dressing thus applied was not disturbed
until the Potatoes were ripe. The haulm was removed after
being cut. It is said that the tubers acquired a good size,
and were of excellent quality. If these facts are true, it
would appear that, while leaves are necessary to the de¬
velopment of tubers, the latter, on acquiring a certain size,
can continue their growth by their own proper and unas¬
sisted vitality. Bollman suggests drying the tubers at a
high temperature as a remedy for the disease.
The general conclusions to be drawn from all that has
been said relative to the Potato disease are, that changes
are induced in the cells and vessels of the Potato by certain
obscure meteorological and epidemic causes, that an altera¬
tion takes places in the cellulose and in the contents of the
cells, which speedily leads to decay ; that parasitic Fungi
find a nidus in the decaying organic matter, so as to accele¬
rate and give a character to the disease, and that as yet no
remedy has been devised.
Dry rot is a disease to which the wood of trees is liable.
It may be traced in the first instance to some alteration in
the woody tissue produced by moisture or other causes, and
the subsequent development of a Fungus which spreads its
mycelium through the texture, and produces rapid disor¬
ganization. Trees growing in wet and ill-drained soil are
subject to rot. The more abundant the alburnum or sap-
wood, the more liable are trees to decay. The disease
which has recently attacked the Larch is attributed by some
to the roots reaching ungenial soil, and to the production of
dry rot. In dry rot the decay takes place in the first in¬
stance in the contents of the woody tubes, and thus a suitable
soil is supplied for the spores of Fungi, such as Merulius
lachrymans or vastator, and Polyporus destructor. When
these plants begin to grow, they spread their mycelium with
great rapidity. If air is allowed to circulate freely around
wood, dry rot does not attack it. But if it is placed in a
damp situation without a circulation of air, then decay takes
place. The spawn of the dry-rot Fungus deprives the
woody tubes of their contents, for the purpose of getting
the nourishment it requires, and the wood loses its con¬
sistency and toughness, the walls of the tubes becoming
brittle and ruptured.
The great cause of decay in wood is moisture. Wood
in a dry state may be preserved for a long time, as may be
seen in the case of wood in some old buildings as West¬
minster Hall. To have timber in the driest state, it ought
to be felled between the fall of the leaf and the spring, the
nearer the former time the better. The timber of some
trees is much more subject to decay than that of others.
The wood of the Cypress is very durable. A great error in
building is painting wood early, and thus inclosing within
it the elements of decay by not allowing the escape of
moisture. In olden times the wood was left bare, and ex¬
posed to currents of air which kept it dry, and hence its
durability.
Various means have been proposed for preventing timber
from being attacked by dry rot. Boucherie caused grow¬
ing trees to absorb fluids of different kinds, which he con¬
sidered as acting on the contents of the woody tubes in such
a way as to render them less liable to disease. The solu¬
tions he employed were acetate of lead, pyrolignite of iron,
and corrosive sublimate. Fie also found that trees, imme¬
diately after being cut down, when their extremities were
immersed in these solutions, absorbed them with rapidity.
Timber, after being cut, has been subjected to various pro¬
cesses for the purposes of rendering it durable. Kyanizing
is performed by subjecting the wood to the action of corro¬
sive sublimate, by means of which it is probable that the
cxxv.
albuminous matter is coagulated, fermentation is prevented, Botany,
and hence the wood is rendered less liable to decay and to
the attacks of Fungi. Kyan’s solution is made to pass
rapidly through wood in vacuo. Sir William Burnett found
that the application of chloride of zinc to vegetable matters,
such as wood and canvas, had the property of effectually
guarding them against all the ordinary causes of destruc¬
tion, without communicating any bad property to the sub¬
stance prepared from it. Canvas so acted on was kept long
in damp cellars, and exposed to various vicissitudes, with¬
out being injured, while ordinary canvas in similar circum¬
stances became rotten. The process has received the name
of Burnettizing. Burnett’s antiseptic solution, of one pound
of chloride of zinc to five gallons of water, has been tried
in Woolwich Dockyard with success. Mr Bethell uses
creasote for the preservation of wood. The creasote acts
by coagulating the albumen, and preventing putrefactive
decomposition.
Phanerogamous parasites are also injurious to plants.
Among them may be noticed
especially species of Cuscuta*
or Dodder (Fig. 426), which
prove destructive to crops of
Flax and Clover. Their seeds
are sown with these crops, and
germinate like other plants.
Ere long they become attached
to the stems of the plants in their
vicinity by means of suckers,
and then they act as true pa¬
rasites, living on the sap of
the plants, and finally destroy¬
ing them. Other parasites, as
Broom-rapes, and Mistleto, in a
certain degree injure the plants
on which they grow, but they
are by no means so injurious
as the Dodders. Loranths in
Guatemala, by growing on the
ends of branches of trees, cause
the woody matter to be de¬
veloped in a horizontal manner,
so as to give rise to remarkable
curved processes not unlike
carvings.
Many substances act as
poisons to plants as well as
animals. We have already
given full details in regard to
the effects of poisonous gases
on vegetation. The experiments of Turner and Chris-
tison distinctly show that irritant gases, such as sul¬
phurous, hydrochloric, and nitric acid, act by destroying
first the parts to which they are applied, more especially
those where there is abundance of moisture ; while narcotic
gases, like hydrosulphuric acid, have a general effect on the
irritability of the plant. Marcet and Macaire experimented
on the influence of fluid poisons on plants. They con¬
cluded that metallic poisons acted on vegetables in the same
way as on animals. They were absorbed, and destroyed
the organs to which they were applied ; while narcotic vege¬
table poisons destroyed the whole vitality of the plants, with¬
out any local irritation.
Injurious effects are produced on plants by insects of
various kinds. Some of them feed on the plants; others
form habitations for themselves in the leaves and flowers;
others puncture different organs with the view of depositing
their ova. Earcockle, Purple, or Peppercorn, is a disease
caused by a minute animal called Vibrio Tritici, or the Eel
of the Wheat. The disease was noticed by Needham more
than a century ago. The infected grains turn dark green
Fig. 426.
V parasitic plant called Dodder
{Cuscuta), which grows from seed
in the usual way, with its roots in
the soil, hut afterwards twines
round other plants, such as Tre¬
foil and Flax, and attaches itself
to them by means of suckers, a.
It loses all connection with the
soil, and lives on the plant, which
it finally destroys.
BOTANY.
174
Botany. at first, and ultimately nearly black. They become rounded,
v>—resembling a small Peppercorn, but with one or more deep
furrows on their surface, i he husk of the chaff spreads
open, and the awns are twisted. The blighted grains are
full of a moist, white, cottony substance, and contain no
flour. When the cottony matter is placed in a drop of
water under the microscope, a multitude of minute eel¬
shaped animalcules are seen in active motion. They retain
their vitality long. The mass may be allowed to dry, so
that the slightest touch would reduce it to powder, and yet,
when moistened with water, the animalcules will revive and
become active. They may be dried and revived many
times before they are killed.
Many trees, especially the Oak and Willow, are liable to
the disease called Galls, which is due to attacks of insects
(species of Cynips, &c.) The insects wound the bark and
leaves while depositing their ova, and the irritation causes
a formation of a deposit around them. The galls of com¬
merce are produced on Quercus infectoria. In blue galls
the insect is still in the interior, while in white galls the in¬
sect has escaped by a perforation. The Oak spangle is an
appendage of the leaf attached by a central point to its under
surface ; the inner side is smooth, the outer red, hairy, and Botany,
fringed. Each contains a single insect, which retains its
habitation till March, long after the leaves have fallen to
the ground. These spangles resemble parasitic Fungi in
their appearance, and have often been mistaken for them.
The species of Spruce (Abies) are liable to a peculiar dis¬
ease produced by the attacks of an insect called Adelges
Abietis. This disease consists of an alteration in the colour
and form of the leaves, which are aggregated together in
the shape of cone-like excrescences.
The remedies proposed for the attacks of insects are nu¬
merous. Quick-lime, Sulphur, Turpentine, Tobacco, have
all been recommended. In the case of Aphides the vapour
of Tobacco is useful. It is not easy to get rid of the species
of Coccus with their cottony covering. The only remedy
seems to be the cleaning of the leaves and other parts of
the plant by the hand. The vapour of sulphur will kill
many insects, but then it acts injuriously on plants. A so¬
lution of Tobacco, the crushed leaves of the Cherry Laurel
which give out a hydrocyanated vapour, ammoniacal liquor,
coal tar, and many other substances, have been employed
in different instances.
PART II.
TAXOLOGICAL BOTANY, OR THE CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL REMARKS ON CLASSIFICATION.
In examining the Vegetable Kingdom, we observe that
the individuals composing it are formed by the Almighty in
accordance with a principle of order, as well as a principle
of special adaptation. We have already remarked the order
pursued in the arrangements of the various parts of the
root, stems, leaves, and flowers of plants, and we have traced,
in some degree, the modes in which they are fitted to per¬
form their different functions. W e now proceed to apply the
facts of Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology to the classifi¬
cation of plants, and to consider the plan according to which
they are grouped together in classes and families.
We see around us various kinds or sorts of plants which
more or less resemble each other—or, in other words, are
more or less related to each other. In Taxological or Sys¬
tematic Botany we endeavour to mark these resemblances,
and to determine their relations. It is impossible to give
a scientific arrangement of the plants of the globe without
a thorough knowledge of structure and morphology, and
without an extensive acquaintance with the vegetation
of all parts of the world. We cannot expect to deter¬
mine the system on which plants have been grouped until
we are familiar with all the forms which they present.
Hence, in the present state of our knowledge, there must
be imperfection in our attempts at systematizing. The
Floras of many regions in Africa, India, China, Australia, and
America, are still unknown, and we may therefore conclude
that in all systems there will be gaps to be filled up as our
knowledge increases. Sufficient, however, is known to en¬
able us to group plants according to certain evident alliances.
The necessity for arrangement is evident, when we re¬
flect that there are more than 120,000 known species of
plants on the earth. In order to make these available for
scientific purposes, it is absolutely essential that they should
be named and classified. In associating plants in certain
groups we naturally proceed on an idea of resemblance or
likeness. While in ordinary language this idea is vague,
and is often founded on imperfect data, it is clear that in
science it must be strict and rigorous. It is not enough to
say that one plant resembles another in its general aspect,
we must ascertain the particulars of agreement, and the
points in which they differ; we must weigh well the im¬
portance of the characters, and must compare organs which
are equivalent in value ; and thus we shall often find, that
plants which to common observers appear alike, are in re¬
ality totally different. The study of organography gives us
a strict and accurate technical language which must be
rigidly adhered to in classification.
Plants as they occur in nature are viewed as individuals
resembling or differing from each other. Some individuals
are so decidedly alike, that we at once give them the same
names. Thus a field of Wheat is composed of numerous
similar individuals which can be separated from each other,
but cannot be distinguished by any permanent or marked
difference. Although there may be some difference in size
and other minor points, still we at once say they are stalks
of Wheat. Every grain of Wheat when sown produces a
stalk of Wheat; these stalks yield grains which produce in¬
dividuals like their parents. The shoots or buds given off
from the base of Wheat by tillering, also produce stalks of
Wheat. On such universal and inevitable conceptions as
these, our idea of Species is founded.
A Species may be defined as an assemblage of individuals
presenting certain constant characters in common, and de¬
rived from one original protoplast or stock. The individuals
are thus considered as having arisen from one parent stock.
They may differ slightly in size, or in colour, and other unim¬
portant respects, but they resemble each other more closely
than they resemble any other plants, and their seeds produce
similar individuals. Observation and common daily expe¬
rience demonstrate, in the actual circumstances in which we
exist, the permanence of the types which constitute the
species of living bodies. There is no evidence whatever of
a transmutation of species. The erroneous statements re¬
garding the conversion of Oats into Rye have proceeded
on imperfect observations. The individuals, however, of a
species may present certain differences in regard to size,
B 0 T
Kotany. colour, See., these difrerences depending on soil, and on dif-
ferent conditions of heat, light, and moisture. Such differ¬
ences are not incompatible with the idea of a common
origin, and moreover, there is always a tendency to return
to the original type. What are called Varieties, therefore,
are variations in species which are not in general of a per¬
manent character, and cannot be kept up in ordinary cir¬
cumstances by seed. By cultivation, however, such varie¬
ties are sometimes perpetuated. This is usually accom¬
plished by means of cuttings or grafts, and in certain in¬
stances even by seed. Thus the varieties of the cereal
grains and of culinary vegetables have been propagated so
as to constitute permanent races.
Plants which are cultivated are liable to sport, as it is
called, and the peculiarities and variations thus produced
are sometimes kept up. All the varieties of Cabbage, Cau¬
liflower, Brocoli, Savoys, and Curled Greens are derived
from one stock, Brassica oleracea. This plant grows wild
on the sea-shore, and when cultivated it undergoes remark¬
able changes. Thus it forms a heart, as in ordinary Cab¬
bage ; its flower-stalks become thickened and shortened, as
in Cauliflower and Brocoli; or its parenchyma is largely de¬
veloped between the vessels, so as to give rise to the crisp
and curled appearance of Greens. This tendency in the
plant to produce monstrosities was early noticed by cultiva¬
tors, and care was taken to propagate those individuals which
showed abnormal appearances. The seeds of such were
saved, put into good soil, and no plants were allowed to re¬
main except such as presented the required form. In this
manner certain races of culinary vegetables have been esta¬
blished. If, however, these cultivated plants are allowed to
grow wild and scatter their seed in ordinary soil, they will
in the progress of time revert to the original type or species,
Instances such as these show the remarkable effects of cul¬
tivation in perpetuating varieties by seed.
I In regard to the cereal grains, Wheat, Barley, Oats, &c.,
they have been so long cultivated that we are at a loss to
know the original types or species. We have been forced,
in the mean time, to call them species, although they are
probably mere cultivated varieties of unknown species, per¬
petuated as races. That Wheat is an abnormal state of
some plant, it has been remarked, might be conjectured
from the fact that it does not become wild ; if left to itself
it disappears. Fabre has stated recently that the Wheat is
a cultivated variety of the grass called /Egilops ovata. This
plant first undergoes a change by which it becomes what
has been called flEgilops triticoides, and then in successive
years is converted into true Wheat. This discovery, as
Bindley says, does not invalidate the characters by which
the genera Aigilops and Triticum (as taken from wild spe¬
cies, such as Triticum maritimum, &c.) are separated, any
more than the existence of a Peloria in Linaria invalidates
the chai’acters derived from the distinction between regular
and irregular flowers.
It is of great importance to distinguish between mere va¬
rieties and true species, and to determine the limits of varia¬
tion in different species. By not attending to this, many
varieties have been described as species, and by their change
or disappearance have given rise to great confusion and in¬
correctness both in descriptions and in arrangements. An¬
other source of fallacy arises from hybrids being occasionally
reckoned as true species.
Certain species not identical in origin, have common fea¬
tures of resemblance, and are associated together under what
is called a Genus. A genus, then, is an assemblage of
nearly related species, agreeing with one another, in gene¬
ral structure and appearance, more closely than they accord
with other species. Thus the Scotch Rose, the Dog Rose,
the China Rose, and the Sweet-briar, are all different spe¬
cies included in one genus, Rosa. It may happen that a
single species may be reckoned as forming a genus, when
A N Y. 175
the peculiarities are as marked as those constituting other Botany,
genera. Thus, if there was only one species of Oak, it s—-s/—
would be sufficient to constitute a genus, as much so as at
present when it includes 200 species. It is distinguished
by its acorn from other allied genera, such as the Beech,
the Hazel, and the Chestnut. The species in a genus pre¬
sent one general plan, and may be said to be formed after
the same pattern. Some species of a genus, having special
points of resemblance, may be grouped together in a Sub¬
genus. /
On looking at genera, it will be seen that some of them,
such as Oaks, Hazels, Beeches, and Chestnuts, have a strong
resemblance or family likeness, and that they differ remark¬
ably from such genera as Firs and Pines, Maples and Ashes.
Certain genera may in this way be grouped so as to form
Orders or Families. While genera are groups of allied spe¬
cies, Orders are groups of allied genera, or, in reality, more
comprehensive genera. Thus, Firs, Pines, and Larches,
belong to different genera, but all agree in being cone-bear¬
ing, and are grouped under Coniferae. The Rose, the Rasp¬
berry, the Bramble, the Strawberry, the Cinquefoil, the
Cherry, and the Plum, all agree in their general organo¬
graphy, and are united under Rosaceae. Certain genera
have more points in common than others, and are grouped
together under sub-divisions of orders called Sub-orders.
Thus, the Plum and the Cherry have a drupe as their fruit,
and are more nearly allied to each other than they are
to the Apple ; again, the Strawberry, Raspberry, and
Bramble, are more allied to each other than to the Cherry
or Apple. We have thus Sub-orders of Rosaceae, namely,
Amygdaleae, including the Plum, Peach, Cherry, and Al¬
mond ; Pomeae, including the Apple, Pear, Medlar, and
Quince ; Potentilleae, including the Strawberry, Cinquefoil,
and Raspberry ; and Roseae, comprehending the Roses.
Certain orders agreeing in evident and important general
characters are united together so as to form Classes ; and
subdivisions of classes are made in the same way as in the
case of orders. There are thus Sub-classes associating cer¬
tain orders included in one Class. The usual divisions are
Classes, Orders, Genera, and Species. These occur in all
systems of classification. A more minute subdivision may
be made as follows -
I. Classes.
a. Sub-classes,
II. Orders or Families
а. Sub-orders.
б. Tribes.
c. Sub-tribes.
An enumeration of the marks by which one Class, Order,
Genus, or Species is distinguished from another is called its
Character. In giving the characters of any division, we no¬
tice merely those which are necessary to distinguish it from
others. This is called its Essential Character. A plant
may also be described completely, beginning at the root,
and proceeding to the stem, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit,
seed, and embryo. This is not essential, however, for the
purposes of classification, and would be quite superfluous in
that point of view. In the character of the Classes the im¬
portant points of structure on which they are constituted
are given. In the character of Orders (the ordinal charac¬
ter) we give the general structure of the included plants, es¬
pecially of their flowers and fruit. In the Generic charac¬
ter, we notice the modification of the ordinal character in a
given genus—the character being taken from the parts of
the flower and fruit, as in the order. In the Specific cha¬
racter are included certain less important modifications of
form, whether in the stem, leaves, or flowers, which serve
to distinguish allied species.
The essential character of a genus, when given in Latin,
is put in the nominative case, that of a species in the abla¬
tive. The names of the Classes are variously derived, ac-
III. Genera.
a. Sub-genera or Sections.
IV. Species,
a. Varieties.
BOTANY.
cording to the views of the authors in regard to the classi¬
fication. They express some points of structure or develop¬
ment which are of marked importance or permanence. The
Orders are named from some characteristic genus included
in them, except in artificial methods, where some organ is
taken as the means of distinction. Genera are derived
either from the Latin name of one of the species, from the
structure or qualities of the included species, or from the
name of some botanist, See. Thus Prunus is a genus in¬
cluding the Plum, the Sloe, Sec.; Rosa, the Rose ; Papa-
ver, the Poppy ; Hookeria is a genus named after Hooker;
Lithospermum, from two Greek words signifying a stone
and seed, is given to a genus, the species of which have
hard stony nuts or achenes.
In giving the name of a plant we mention its genus and
species. Thus the common Dog-rose is called Rosa canina,
the first being the generic name, the second the specific.
Specific names may indicate the country in which a plant
is found, the locality in which it grows, the form of its roots,
stem, or leaves, the colour of its flowers, Sec. A species
named in honour of its discoverer or describer has the spe¬
cific name usually iu the genitive, as Veronica Jacquini,
named after Jacquin. When the name is given in compli¬
ment to a botanist, without reference to the discovery, then
the specific name is in the adjective form, as Veronica Lind-
leyana. Sometimes a generic name is used specifically, and
then it is put as a noun after the genus, with a capital letter,
and the two names may not agree in gender; thus we have
such names as Crataegus Oxyacantha, iEthusa Cynapium,
Viburnum Opulus, Veronica Chamaedrys. To the genus
and species are added certain letters, indicating the botanist
who founded them. Thus Valeriana L. is the genus Va¬
lerian, as constituted by Linnaeus, and Valeriana officinalis
L. is the officinal Valerian, as described by Linnaeus ; Oxy-
tropis, DC., is the genus so called by De Candolle. Some¬
times authors happen to describe the same plant by different
names. It is of importance, therefore, to give the Syno-
nymes of other botanists, with their names. Thus Salva-
dora persicaof Garcin is S. Wightii of Arnott, and S. indica
of Wight’s Illustrations. After the description of a plant
we usually mention its Habitat, that is, the country or pro¬
vince in which it grows, with the nature of the locality,
whether alpine or lowland, dry or moist, Sec.
The following are some of the common abbreviations and
symbols used by botanists :—
The names of Authors are abridged in Botanical works, by giving
the first letter or syllable, &c.—Thus, L. stands for Linnaeus ; DC.
for De Candolle; Br. for Brown; Lam. and Lmk. for Lamarck;
Hook, for Hooker; Hook. fil. for Hooker junior; Lindl. for Lind-
ley; Arn. for Arnott; H. and B. for Humboldt and Bonpland ; H.
B. and K. for Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth; ~W. and A. for
Wight and Arnott; Berk, for Berkeley ; Bab. for Babington, &c.
The symbol oo or 00 means an indefinite number; in the case of
stamens, it means above 20.
O © © °r A. means an annual plant.
©© © © or means a biennial plant.
2£ A or P. means a perennial plant,
b 1) or Sh. means a Shrub ; T. a Tree.
) turning to the left; ( turning to the right.
0 = Cotyledons accumbent, radicle lateral.
0 |] Cotyledons incumbent, radicle dorsal.
0^3 Cotyledons conduplicate, radicle dorsal,
o || || Cotyledons plicate or folded twice, radicle dorsal,
o || || I] Cotyledons folded thrice, radicle dorsal.
5j5 Hermaphrodite flower, having both stamens and pistil.
J Male, staminiferous, staminate, or sterile flower.
2 Female, pistilliferous, pistillate, or fertile flower,
j 2 Unisexual species, having separate male and female flowers.
J — 2 Monoecious species, having male and female flowers on the
same plant.
J : $ Dioecious species, having male and female flowers on dif¬
ferent plants.
2 2? Polygamous species, having hermaphrodite and unisexual
flowers on the same or different plants.
! Indicates certainty as to a genus or species described by the
author quoted.
? Indicates doubt as to the genus or species.
0 indicates absence of a part.
v. v. s. Vidi vivam spontaneam, indicates that the author has seen
a living native specimen of the plant described by him.
v. v. c. Vidi vivam cultam, indicates that he has seen a living
cultivated specimen.
v. s. s. Vidi siccam spontaneam, indicates that he has seen a dried
native specimen.
v. s. c. Vidi siccam cultam, indicates that he has seen a dried
cultivated specimen.
CHAPTER II.
SYSTEMS OF CLASSIFICATION.
There are two systems pursued in the arrangement of
plants; one is called the Artificial method, and the other
the Natural method. In both of them the genera and spe¬
cies, or the minor divisions, are the same, but the higher
divisions of classes and orders are totally unlike, and are
founded on entirely different principles. The genera and
species are very differently arranged in the two systems. In
artificial methods one or two organs are selected in an arbi¬
trary manner, and they are taken as the means of forming
classes and orders; while in the natural method plants are
grouped according to their alliance in all their important
characters. Plants belonging to the same class and order
in the former system may have nothing in common except
the number of the stamens and pistils, or the form of their
flowers, or some other arbitrarily selected character; while
in the latter, plants in the same class and order are related
by true affinity, and correspond in all the essential points of
their structure and organography. When a student knows
the artificial class and order to which a plant is to be referred,
he does not thereby become acquainted with its structure
and properties; plants diametrically opposed in these re¬
spects may be associated together. When he determines,
on the other hand, the place of a plant in the natural sys¬
tem, he necessarily acquires a knowledge of its structural
relations and affinities. Hence a knowledge of the latter
system is that which must be the aim of every botanical
student.
I.—ARTIFICIAL SYSTEMS OF CLASSIFICATION.
Attempts at an artificial methodical arrangement of plants
were made by Csesalpinus, Morison, Rivinus, and Tournefort,
but the system which was most universally adopted was that
of Linnaeus, which was founded on the sexes of plants, and
hence has been denominated the sexual system. It is called
an artificial method because it takes into account only a few
marked characters in plants, and does not propose to unite
them by natural affinities. It is an index to a department
of the book of nature, and as such is useful to the student.
It does not aspire to any higher character, and although it
cannot be looked upon as a scientific and natural arrange¬
ment, still it has a certain facility of application which com¬
mends it to the tyro. In using it, however, let it ever be
remembered, that it will not of itself give the student any
view of the true relations of plants as regards structure and
properties, and that by leading to the discovery of the name
of a plant, it is only a stepping-stone to the natural system.
In the artificial system of Linnaeus, plants are divided into
Flowering and Flowerless—the latter being included in the
twenty-fourth class, under the name of Cryptogamia, and
BOTANY.
177
■tany.
the former, or Phanerogamia, being divided into twenty-
three classes, the characters of which are founded on the
number, the insertion or position, the relative length, and
the connection of the stamens. Among flowrerless plants
the orders are similar to those of the natural system, while
in flowering plants they are determined by the number of Botany,
the styles, the character of the fruit, the number and con-
nection of the stamens in those classes where these charac¬
ters are not already taken into consideration, and on the her¬
maphrodite or unisexual nature of the flowers.
The following are the Classes and Orders of the Linnacan artificial system:—
A. Flowering Plants, Phanerogamia.
I. Stamens and Pistils in every flower,
1. Stamens unconnected.
a. Stamens either of equal length, or at all events neither didynamous nor tetradynamous :-
in number Class I. Monandria
II. Diandria.
III. Triandria ....
IV. Tetrandria ..
V. Pentandria ..
VI. Hexandria ,.
7    VII. Heptandria..
8   VIII. Octandria 
9   IX. Enneandria..
10   X. Decandria ...
12 to 19,,..,   XL Dodecandria
20 or 1 perigynous   XII. Icosandria...
more j hypogynous  XIII. Polyandria ..
/ Order 1. Monogynia  1 free Style.
' — 2. Digynia   2 free Styles.
3. Trigynia  3 —
4. Tetragynia  4 —
5. Pentagynia  5
6. Hexagynia  6 —•
^ — 7. Heptagynia   7 —
— 8. Octogynia   8 —
•—• 9. Enneagynia   9 —
— 10. Decagynia  10 —
— 11. Dodecagynia  12 to 19
— 12. Polygynia    20 or more.
b. Stamens differing in length in certain proportions :—
Two long and two short XIV. Didynamia j
Four long and two short
2. Stamens connected^—
XV. Tetradynamia j
Order 1. Gymnospermia    Fruit, Achenes.
— 2, Angiospermia  Fruit, Capsular.
Order 1. Siliculosa  Fruit, a Silicula.
—- 2. Siliquosa      Fruit, a Siliqua.
^parceUrtabe"4!™.!.”?} XVL
By their Filaments ini v-rTTT -p.- , •
two parcels    } XVI1- Dradelphia....
their F ilciineiits in ^ "wtttt i tit*
three or more parcels } XYm- MjaMplna
BL“rflAowe5!^.“:} XIX. Syngenesia.
With the Pistil on a column XX. Gynandria
II. Stamens and Pistils in separate flowers.
r Orde:
{ and s
Order Triandria    3 Stamens.
•— Pentandria   5 —
Decandria   10 —
•—< Polyandria  Numerous stamens.
and so on as in the first 13 Classes.
Order 1. Polygamia sequalis, florets all
—< 2. Polygamia superflua, florets of the disk ty, those
of the ray 2, but fertile.
— 3. Polygamia frustranea, florets of the disk 2. those
of the ray abortive.
— 4. Polygamia necessaria, florets of the disk J, those
of the ray J, and fertile.
— 5. Polygamia segregata, each flower with a separate
involucre.
Order Monandria   1 Stamen.,»
Diandria  2 Stamens.
so on as in the first 13 Classes.
On the same Plant  XXI. Monoecia.
On separate Plants  XXII. Dioecia...,
III. Stamens and Pistils in the same
and in separate flowers on the XXIII. Polygam
same or on separate Plants
B. Flowerless Plants.
ia....'<
U
Organs of reproduction! XXIV. Cryptogamia
inconspicuous  / Jr &
The system of Linnaeus, even when regarded simply as
an index to the vegetable kingdom, is by no means com¬
plete. The parts of flowers often vary in number, and can¬
not be confined within the strict rules required by this
method of arrangement; moreover, unless the stamens and
pistils are perfect and complete, and the plant is in full
VOL. v.
Order Monandria  1 Stamen.
— Diandria      2 Stamens.
— Hexandria     6 —
— Polyandria    Numerous Stamens.
and so on as in the first 13 Classes.
Order Monadelphia., ...Stamens monadelphous.
Order 1. Moncecia, 2, <$> and 2 on the same plant.
•— 2. Dioecia, £ , J, 2, on two plants.
*— 3. Trioecia, on three plants.
Order 1. Filices, Ferns.
— 2. Musci, Mosses.
—• 3. Hepaticas, Liverworts.
.—. 4. Lichenes, Lichens.
— 5. Algae, Seaweeds.
—. 6. Fungi, Mushrooms.
flower, it is impossible to determine its class and order.
When the system is rigidly adhered to, we find that species
belonging to the same genus are separated. Thus the genus
Lychnis has most of its species hermaphrodite, with ten
stamens and five styles, but there is at least one British
species dioecious. In order, therefore, to keep the genus
178
BOTANY.
Botany, entire, and not separate the species, Linnaeus adopted the
v ^ ^ plan of putting Lychnis in the class Decandria and order
Pentagynia, and under the class Dicecia order Decandria,
placing the name of the dioecious species, and referring the
student to the 10th class for a description. In this way
the genera—which are founded on natural affinities, and are
not constructed by a mere arbitrary method—are preserved
in their integrity. All the species of one genus are placed
together, whether they accord or not with the characters of
the class and order; the place of the genus being determined
by the characters of the majority of the species. The names
of the anomalous species are given in italics, in the classes
and orders to which they belong according to the Linnaean
method, and reference is made to the description of them as
given under the genus.
II.—NATURAL SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION.
In arranging plants according to the Natural System, the
object is to bring together those which are allied in all
essential points of structure. It is called natural, because
it proposes to follow the system of Nature, and thus takes
into account the true affinities of plants on a comparison of
all their organs. One of the first natural methods of classi¬
fication was that proposed by Ray about 1682. He sepa¬
rated flowering from flowerless plants, and divided the for¬
mer into Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons. His orders
were founded on correct views of the affinities of plants, and
he far outstripped his contemporaries in his enlightened
views of arrangement. He may be said to have laid the
foundation of that system which has been elucidated by the
labours of Jussieu, De Candolle, Brown, Lindley, Endlicher,
and others.
In arranging plants according to a natural method, we
require to have a thorough knowledge of structural and
morphological botany, and hence we find that the advances
made in the latter departments have materially aided the
efforts of systematic botanists. We may regard plants in
various points of view, either with reference to their elemen¬
tary tissues, their nutritive, or their reproductive organs.
The first two are the most important, as being essential for
the life of individuals, while the latter are concerned in the
propagation of the species. These sets of organs bear a
certain relation to each other, and we find that plants may
be associated by a correspondence in all of them. In com¬
paring the characters of plants, we must take care that we
contrast organs belonging to the same class of functions,
and the value of the characters must depend upon the im¬
portance of the functions performed by the organs.
Cellular tissue is reckoned of the highest value, as being
of universal occurrence, and as carrying on, in many in¬
stances, all the functions of plants. In considering the
elementary tissues alone, we divide all plants into Cellular
and Vascular—the former including the lower tribes, such
as Lichens, Seaweeds, and Mushrooms, the latter including
the higher flowerless plants with scalariform vessels, and all
the flowering plants with spiral vessels. In the nutritive
and reproductive organs there is nothing which can be con¬
sidered of the same value as cellular tissue. In the nutri¬
tive organs the embryo occupies the highest place, and by
examining it we divide plants into Acotyledonous, having
no cotyledons, but occasionally producing a prothallus,
Monocotyledonous, with one cotyledon, and Dicotyledon¬
ous, with two cotyledons. Proceeding to the secondary
organs in the nutritive class, we find that the root gives rise
to the divisions of Heterorhizal, Endorhizal, and Exorhizal
of Richard. Next the stem is Cellular or Thallogenous,
Acrogenous, Endogenous, and Exogenous. The thallus is
veinless, the frond of Acrogens has often a forked venation,
the leaves of Endogens are parallel-veined, and those of
Exogens reticulated. In the reproductive system the sta¬
mens and pistils occupy the highest place, as being the
essential organs of flowering plants (Phanerogamia), while
antheridia and archegonia have the same value in flowerless
plants (Cryptogamia). Succeeding these organs in value
comes the fruit, which is either a theca with spores, or a
pericarp with seed. The floral envelopes are the next in
the series; they are absent in Cryptogamous plants, and
present in Phanerogamous ; their arrangement is ternary ir
Monocotyledons, quinary and quaternary in Dicotyledons
The inflorescence and bracts, as found in flowering plants,
occupy the lowest place in the subordination.
We thus find, that by comparing these different organs
in plants, we arrive at certain great natural divisions, in¬
cluding plants which are associated by affinity of structure
and function, as exhibited in the following table:—
Cellular Plants
without Vessels
or Stomata.
Acotyledonous j
Heterorhizal.
Thallogenous.
No Venation.
Cryptogamous.
Thecae with )
Spores, or >
naked Spores j
Flowerless.
No Inflorescence
nor Bracts.
Vascular Plants
with Scalariform
Vessels, and
Stomata.
Vascular Plants with Spiral
Vessels, and Stomata.
Acotyledonous,
with Prothal¬
lus.
Heterorhizal.
Acrogenous.
Forked Venation.
Cryptogamous.
Thecae with
Spores.
Flowerless.
No Inflores¬
cence nor
Bracts.
Monocotyledon¬
ous.
Endorhizal.
Endogenous.
Parallel Vena¬
tion.
Dicotyledonous
Exorhizal.
Exogenous.
Reticulated Ve^
nation.
Phanerogamous.
Angiospermous or Gymnosperm-
ous.
Floral Enve¬
lopes Ter¬
nary.
Flor. Env. Quater¬
nary or Quinary
Having Infloresence and Bracts.
It is impossible to represent the affinities of plants in a
linear series. Different groups touch each other at several
different points, and must be considered as alliances con¬
nected with certain great centres. We find also that it is
by no means easy to fix the limits of groups. There are
constantly aberrant orders, genera and species, which form
links between the groups, and occupy a sort of intermediate
territory. I n this, as in all departments of natural science,
there are no sudden and abrupt changes, but a gradual
transition from one series to another. Hence exact and
rigid definitions cannot be carried out. In every natural
system there must be a certain latitude given to the
characters of the groups, and allowance must be made
for constant anomalies, in as far as man’s definitions are
concerned.
Having examined the general principles upon which the
natural system is founded, we shall now give a sketch of
some of the more important Taxological plans which have
been propounded. Jussieu divided plants into three pri¬
mary groups—Acotyledones, Monocotyledones, and Dico-
tyledones, and included under them fifteen classes. One
of the classes is Acotyledonous, three Monocotyledonous,
and eleven Dicotyledonous. The three Monocotyledonous
classes are distinguished by the position of the stamens,
whether inserted on the thalamus (hypogynous), attached
to the calyx (perigynous), or to the ovary (epigynous). Di¬
cotyledonous plants are divided into Apetalous (monochla-
mydeous), plants having a calyx only; Monopetalous (ga-
mopetalous), plants having united petals; Polypetalous,
plants having separate petals; and Diclinous, plants which
are unisexual and incomplete; the last constitutes the
fifteenth class, while the other ten classes of Dicotyle¬
dons included in the other three divisions are determined
chiefly by the position of the stamens and the corolla in
relation to the ovary. Under these classes he included 100
orders.
BOTANY.
Tabular View of Jussieu’s Natural System
Acotyledones,
Monocotyle-
179
bones,
/ Apetalae,
(No petals).
Class I. Acotyledones.
( Stamens Hypogynous, II. Mono-hypogynae.
■j Stamens Perigynous, III. Mono-perigynae.
( Stamens Epigynous, IV. Mono-epigynae.
( Stamens Epigynous, V. Epistamineae.
< Stamens Perigynous, VI. Peristamineae.
I Stamens Hypogynous, VII. Hypostamineae.
I Corolla Hypogynous, VIII. Hypocorollae.
Monopetalae,
(Petals unit¬
ed).
Corolla Perigynous,
Corolla Epigynous,
IX. Pericorollae.
X. Epicorollae, Syn-
antherae (An¬
thers united).
XI. Epicorollae, Co-
risantherae (An¬
thers separate).
XII. Epipetalae.
XIII. Hypopetalae.
XIV. Peripetalae.
XV. Diclines.
Polypetalae, ( Petals Epigynous,
(Petals sepa- s Petals Hypogynous,
rate). (. Petals Perigynous,
Flowers unisexual, or without a Pe-
\ rianth,
De Candolle’s system is in many respects similar to that
of Jussieu. He has the same primary divisions. Under
Dicotyledons there are four groups, under Monocotyledons
two groups, and under Acotyledons two groups. Among
Dicotyledons the sub-classes are founded on the number of
the floral envelopes, the union or separation of the petals,
and the insertion of the stamens. Among Monocotyledons
he included some Cryptogamous plants, and he formed two
divisions, according as the floral envelopes were present or
absent. The Acotyledons or Cellular plants were divided
into those having leaves and those without leaves.
Tabular View of De Candolle’s Natural System.
A. Vasculares or Cotyledone.®.
Class I. Dicotyledones or Exogenae.
Sub-class 1. Thalamiflorae. Petals distinct, stamens hy-
pogynous.
2. Calycifloras. Petals distinct or united, sta¬
mens perigynous or epi¬
gynous.
3. Corolliflorae. Petals united, hypogynous,
usually bearing the sta¬
mens.
4. Monochlamydeae. Having a calyx only, or no
floral envelope.
Class II. Monocotyledones or Endogenae.
5. Mono-Phanerogamse. Having floral envelopes.
6. Mono-Cryptogam*. Without floral envelopes.
B. Acotyledone.e or Celetjlares.
7. Folios*. Having leaves.
8. Aphyllae. Leafless.
The following is the arrangement adopted by Lindley in
his recent work on the Vegetable Kingdom :—
Class I. Thallogens—Asexual or Flowerless plants with¬
out proper stems or leaves, such as Fungi.
... H. Acrogens—Asexual or Flowerless plants, with stems
and leaves, such as Ferns.
Ill- Bhizogens—Sexual or Flowering plants, with Aco-
tyledonous embryos and fructification springing
from a thallus, such as Baffiesia.
... IV. Endogens —- Monocotyledonous flowering plants
with Endogenous stems, parallel venation, and
ternary symmetry. This class is subdivided into
4 sections—
1. Plants with glumaceous flowers formed by
imbricated bracts, such as Grasses.
2. Petaloid unisexual flowers, such as Palms.
3. Petaloid hermaphrodite flowers adherent to
the ovary, such as Narcissus.
4. Petaloid hermaphrodite flowers free from
the ovary, such as the Lily.
... V. Dictyogens—Monocotyledonous plants with reti¬
culated venation, including such orders as Diosco-
reaceae and Smilaceas.
Class VI. Gymnogens—Polycotyledonous Exogens with naked Botany,
seeds, as Coniferae and Cycadaceae.
... VII. Exogens—Dicotyledonous plants with seeds in a
seed-vessel. Under this class he puts the fol¬
lowing sub-classes:—
Sub-class 1. Diclinous Exogens, or Dicotyledons
with unisexual flowers, and no tendency to
form hermaphrodite flowers, such as Amenti-
ferae.
Sub-class 2. Hypogynous Exogens, or Dicoty¬
ledons with hermaphrodite or polygamous
flowers, and stamens entirely free from the
calyx and corolla, such as Banunculaceae.
Sub-class 3. Perigynous Exogens, or Dicoty¬
ledons with hermaphrodite or polygamous
flowers, the stamens growing to the side of
either the calyx or the corolla, ovary superior,
or nearly so, such as Bosaceae.
Sub-class 4. Epigynous Exogens, or Dicoty¬
ledons with hermaphrodite or polygamous
flowers, the stamens growing to the side of
either the calyx or corolla, ovary inferior, or
nearly so, such as Umbelliferae.
The following is the arrangement which we propose to
follow—De Candolle’s system being taken as the basis,
and some of the divisions being derived from Jussieu and
Lindley:—
Class I. DICOTYLEDONES, EXOGEN^E, or ACBAM-
PHIBBYA, in which spiral vessels are present;
the stem is exogenous; stomata are present, the
venation of ths leaves is reticulated; the flowers
have stamens and pistils, and the symmetry is qui¬
nary or quaternary; the ovules are either in an ovary
or naked ; and the embryo is dicotyledonous. In
this class there are included four Sub-classes:—
Sub-class I. ThalamiflorjE.—Flowers usuallydichla-
mydeous, petals separate, inserted on the thala¬
mus, and stamens hypogynous.
Sub-class II. Calyciflora:.'—'Flowers usually dichla-
mydeous, petals either separate or united, stamens
either perigynous or epigynous. This sub-class
has two subdivisions—
!• Polypetalai or Dialypetalce—in which the
petals are separate.
2. Monopetalce or Gamopetalce—in which the
petals are united.
Sub-class HI. Corolliflora •— Flowers dichlamy-
deous, petals united, corolla hypogynous. In this
sub-class there are two subdivisions :—
1. Hypostamineae—in which the stamens are
inserted into the receptacle and not united
to the corolla.
2. Epicorollce or Epipetalce — in which the
stamens are inserted on the corolla.
Sub-class IV. Monochlamydea, or Afetala —
flowers either with a calyx only or achlamydeous.
In this sub-class there are two subdivisions—
1. Angiospermce—in which the ovules are con¬
tained in a pericarp, and are fertilized by
the action of the pollen on the stigma.
a. Spermogenae, having true seeds and
a cotyledonous embryo.
b. Sporogenae, having spore-like seeds and
an acotyledonous embryo.
2. Gymnospermai—in which the ovules are not
contained in a true pericarp, and are ferti¬
lized by the direct action of the pollen with¬
out the intervention of a stigma, and the
embryo is polycotyledonous.
Class II. MONOCOTYLEDONES, ENDOGENA5, or AM-
PHIBBkA, in which spiral vessels are present;
the stem is endogenous ; stomata occur; the vena¬
tion is usually parallel, sometimes slightly reticu¬
lated ; the flowers have stamens and pistils, and the
symmetry is ternary ; the ovules are contained in
an ovary ; the embryo is monocotyledonous. Un¬
der this Class are included three Sub-classes ;■—<
180
' Botany.
BOTANY.
Sub-class I. DicTYOGENiE—plants with reticulated
venation in their leaves.
Sub-class II. Petaloide^:, or Feorida:—in which
the leaves are parallel-veined ; the flowers usually
consist either of a coloured perianth or of whorled
scales. This sub-class is divided into—-
1. Epigynce—in which the Perianth is adherent,
the ovary is inferior, and the flowers are
usually hermaphrodite.
2. Ilypogynw—in which the Perianth is free,
the ovary is superior, and the flowers are
usually hermaphrodite.
3. Incompletce—flowers incomplete, often uni¬
sexual, with no proper perianth, or with a
few verticillate scales.
Sub-class III. Glum jeer.e—flowers glumaceous, con¬
sisting of imbricated bracts, venation parallel.
Class III. ACOTYLEDONES, or ACROGEN2E,and THAL-
LOGENiE, or THALLOPHYTA and ACRO-
BRYA, in which the plants are either entirely cel¬
lular, or consist partly of scalariform vessels ; the
stem when woody is Acrogenous; stomata occur
in the higher orders ; the leaves are either veinless
or have a forked venation ; no flowers are present;
the reproductive organs consist of Antheridia and
Archegonia; spores or cellular embryos are pro¬
duced which have no cotyledons. Under this class
there are two divisions :—
Sub-class I. Acrogenas, Acrobrya, or Cormogena;
—with a distinct stem, bearing leaves or branches.
Sub-class II. Thallogena, Thallophyta, or Cel-
lulares—having no distinct stem nor leaves, but
forming a cellular expansion of various kinds which
bears the organs of reproduction.
CHAPTER III.
ARRANGEMENT AND CHARACTERS OF THE
NATURAL ORDERS.
Having now considered the primary divisions of the natural
system, we proceed to give the characters of the natural
orders, which are associated under the different classes and
sub-classes. We have already stated, that in a linear series
it is impossible to group the orders according to their affini¬
ties. Each order is allied, not merely to those which im¬
mediately precede and follow it in such a series, but to
various other orders which are necessarily removed from it.
On the confines of classes and sub-classes, orders occur
which have characters common to two or more of the groups,
and we constantly meet with aberrant genera which form a
connecting link between two orders. In Botany, as in all
departments of natural science, there are no rigid lines of
demarcation, but one division seems to pass into another by
an insensible gradation. Our definitions express the most
marked and important characters of the groups, without at¬
tempting to embrace all the anomalies; and as oui know¬
ledge of the vegetation of the globe advances, we are enabled
to improve the definitions of the groups, and to form inter¬
mediate divisions.
I.—PHANEROGAMEiE, COTYLEDONEiE, OR
FLOWERING PLANTS.
CLASS I. DICOTYLEDONES, EXOGE1UE, OR ACRAM-
PHIBRYA.
SUB-CLASS I.—THALAMIFLORiE.
Natural Order 1.—Ranunculacejf, the Buttercup order
(Figs. 427 to 429).—Herbs, rarely shrubs, with an acrid watery
juice, and generally with much-divided, exstipulate leaves,
the petioles of which are dilated, and sheathing (b igs. 117,
118, and 120). Sepals 3-6, usually deciduous, sometimes de¬
formed. Petals 3-15, sometimes anomalous (Figs. 214, 215,
216), at other times suppressed. Stamens usually oc, with
adnate anthers (Fig. 428). Carpels numerous, one-celled
(Figs. 181 and 277), or united into a single, many-celled Botany,
pistil. Fruit, achenes (Fig. 317),
follicles (Fig. 298), or baccate.
Seeds anatropal, with horny al¬
bumen, and a minute embryo
(Fig. 429). The plants of this
order characterize a cold, damp
climate, and when met with in
the tropics, they occur on the
sides and summits of mountains.
They have narcotico-acrid pro¬
perties, and are usually more or
less poisonous. The acridity
varies at different seasons, and
in different parts of the plant ; merous stamens and carpels,
it is frequently volatilized by heat, and destroyed by drying.
Among the plants of this order may be noticed Aconitum
Napellus, Monkshood, used to allay pain in neuralgia; Delphi¬
nium Staphisagria, Stavesacre ; Helleborus officinalis (the
black Hellebore of the ancients), H. niger, fcetidus* and *PI. CX.
other species, famed as drastic purgatives ; and Podophyllum
peltatum, May-apple, used in North America as a cathartic.
Fig. 427.
Fig. 429.
Fig. 428.
Fig. 428. Section of flower of Ranunculus, showing sepals, s, petals, p, nume¬
rous stamens, with adnate anthers, placed below the carpels.
429. Anatropal seed of Aconite, cut vertically, showing abundant homo¬
geneous albumen, and a small embryo.
Nat. Ord. 2.—Dilleniaceje, the Dillenia order.—Trees,
shrubs, or under-shrubs, with alternate, exstipulate leaves,
five persistent sepals in two rows, five deciduous imbricated
petals, indefinite stamens often turned to one side, a 2-5-
carpellary apocarpous or syncarpous fruit, arillate anatropal
seeds, and homogeneous albumen. The species occur chiefly
in Australasia, India, and Equinoctial America. They have
astringent qualities, and some of them are large trees, which
afford excellent timber.
Nat. Ord. 3.—Magnoliace^e, the Magnolia order (Fig.
430).—Trees or shrubs, with alter¬
nate coriaceous sometimes dotted
leaves, and convolute stipules,
which cover the buds, and are de¬
ciduous. They are remarkable for
the beauty of their foliage, and the
fragrance of their flowers. Sepals,
usually 3-6, deciduous. Petals,
three or more, imbricated. Sta¬
mens oo, distinct, with adnate an¬
thers. Carpels, one-celled, nume¬
rous, on an elevated receptacle. < .
Fruit, of numerous, dry or succulent, dehiscent or indehis-
cent, carpels. Seeds often arillate, and suspended from the
fruit by a long funiculus ; albumen fleshy and homogeneous;
embryo minute. Magnolias abound in North America. T e
plants of this order have bitter, tonic, and aromatic qua i-
ties. Drimys Winteri* yields Winter’s bark; Illicium*pjtCXI-
anisatum, on account of its flavour and the stellate arrange¬
ment of its fruit, receives the name of Star-Anise, Linoden-
dron tulipifera is the Tulip-tree (Fig. 430), remarkable for
its abrupt or truncated leaves.
Nat. Ord. 4.—Anonacea:, the Custard-apple order.—
Trees or shrubs with alternate, entire, exstipulate leaves, three
persistent sepals, six petals in two rows, usually valvate m
Fig. 430.
The Tulip-tree (Liriodendron
tulipifera).
BOTANY.
181
Botany, aestivation, sometimes combined, numerous stamens cover-
ing a large hypogynous receptacle, numerous carpels con¬
taining one or more ovules, a succulent or dry fruit, consist¬
ing of a number of one or many-seeded carpels, distinct or
combined, seeds with a brittle spermoderm, ruminate albu¬
men, and a minute embryo. The species occur in tropical
regions, and many of them furnish valuable fruits. The
plants of this order are generally aromatic and fragrant.
Anona squamosa yields the sweetsop, A. muricata the sour-
sop, and A. reticulata the netted Custard-apple; A. Cheri-
molia produces the Peruvian Cherimoyer, said to be one
of the finest fruits known.
Nat. Ord. 5.—Schizandrace^e, the Schizandra order.—
Trailing shrubs, with alternate exstipulate leaves, allied to
Anonacese, but differing in their habit, their unisexual
flowers, their imbricate aestivation, and their homogeneous
albumen. The stamens are often monadelphous, and the
fruit consists of numerous baccate carpels. The species
occur in India, Japan, and the hotter parts of North America.
Nat. Ord. 6.—Menispekmacea;, the Moon-seed order.—
Trailing shrubs with alternate, simple, usually entire leaves,
and unisexual (often dioecious) flowers. Symmetry gene¬
rally ternary. Stamens distinct or monadelphous, and at¬
tached to an androphore. Carpels supported on a gyno-
phore, one-celled, containing a single curved ovule. Fruit
drupaceous, one-celled, curved around a placental process.
Seed solitary and curved; embryo with the cotyledons
coiled up in a peripherical form. The woody matter is
often closely compacted in wedges, separated by large me¬
dullary plates, giving the stem a peculiar aspect on a cross
section. Menispermads are common in the tropical woods
of Asia and America, and they climb among the trees to a
great height. The plants of this order have narcotic and
bitter properties ; some of them are very poisonous. Ana-
mirta paniculata yields the bitter narcotic fruit known in
commerce as Cocculus indicus, and which has been some¬
times illegally used to impart bitterness to malt liquor;
Jateorrhiza palmata {Cocculus palmatus) supplies the
bitter tonic root known as Calumba ; Cissampelos Pareira,
furnishes the tonic and diuretic root, known by the name of
Pareira brava.
Nat. Ord. 7.—Lardizabalace^e, the Lardizabala order.
—Twining shrubs, with alternate exstipulate leaves, ternary
symmetry and unisexual flowers, resembling Menispermads',
but differing in their compound leaves, ovules sunk on the
inner surface of the ovary, and minute embryo in abundant
solid albumen. They are found in the cooler parts of
South America and China.
Nat. Ord. 8.—Berberidace^e, the Barberry order (Fig.
431).— Shrubs or herbaceous peren¬
nial plants, with alternate compound
leaves, which are often spiny from non¬
development of the parenchyma. Se¬
pals, three, four, or six, deciduous, in a
double row. Petals equal to the se¬
pals in number, and opposite to them,
or twice as many. Stamens equal in
number to the petals, and opposite to
them, anthers with two cells, each
opening by a recurved valve from be¬
low upwards (Figs. 257 and 261).
Carpel solitary, one-celled; stigma
orbicular. Fruit baccate or capsular.
Seeds anatropal; albumen fleshy and
horny (Fig. 57). They are found in
temperate parts of the northern and southern hemispheres.
In their properties they are acid, bitter, and astringent.
The fruit of Berberis vulgaris, the common Barberry, con¬
tains oxalic acid, and is used as a preserve; while its bark
and stem are astringent, and yield the bitter yellow crystal¬
line matter Berberine.
Nat. Ord. 9.—Cabombacea;, the Cabomba or Water- Botany,
shield order.—Aquatic plants with floating peltate leaves. •/-»-
Sepals and petals three or four, alternating. Stamens 6-36.
Carpels distinct, two to eighteen. Seeds definite ; embryo
in a vitellus, outside abundant fleshy albumen. They are
allied to Nymphaeaceae and Nelumbiaceae, and differ in their
distinct carpels, definite ovules, abundant albumen, and
nearly complete absence of a torus. They occur in America
and New Holland.
Nat. Ord. 10.—Nympireace^e, the Water-Lily order
(Figs. 432 to 434).—Aquatic herbs with large showy flowers,
Fig. 431.
The flower of the Bar¬
berry, showing its se¬
pals, petals, and irrit¬
able stamens having ap¬
pendages at their base.
Fig. 434.
Fig. 432. Section of flower of Nymphsea alba, showing peduncle, torus or disk
sot e hia7'.T-'a:i1 ('ys with petaloid filaments, and radiating stigmas
beed of Nymphgea alba, cut vertically, to show the embryo in the
yitellus or embryo-sac, with perispermic albumen.
434. Victoria Regia, the largest known Water-Lily.
and cordate or peltate leaves arising from a prostrate rhi¬
zome, which is sunk in the mud. Sepals usually 4, per¬
sistent. Petals numerous, deciduous, inserted on a fleshy
torus, and passing by a gradual transition out of the sepals
into the stamens, which are numerous, have petaloid fila¬
ments, and are inserted into the torus (Fig. 432). Ovary
surrounded by the torus, many-celled, many-seeded, with
radiating stigmas. Fruit indehiscent, pulpy when ripe. Seeds
anatropous, attached to spongy dissepiments; embryo small,
in a vitellus, outside farinaceous albumen (Fig. 433). There
are considerable differences of opinion as to the position of
this order. The structure of the rhizome resembles that of
Endogens. The Water-lilies chiefly inhabit quiet waters
in the northern hemisphere ; they are rare in the southern
hemisphere. The order possesses bitter, astringent, and
some say narcotic properties. The plants contain much
starch in their rhizomes, which are used for food in the
same way as potatoes. Their petioles have large air-tubes,
as well as spiral fibres, which can be separated and used for
wicks, Victoria regia, Victoria Water-lily (Fig. 434), is
found in the still waters of the whole of the warm parts of
Eastern South America. Its flowers, when
expanded, are a foot and more in diameter.
Its leaves vary from four to six or eight
feet in diameter.
Nat. Ord. 11.—Nelumbiacer, the
Nelumbium or Water-Bean order (Fig.
435).—Aquatic herbs resembling Water-
lilies, but differing in their large exalbumi-
nous embryo, and their remarkably en- m
larged tabular torus, in the hollow of The enlarged honey-
which the nuts are half buried, and finally c^bed torus of n©-
i t i • • J lumbium with th©
become loose, r ouncl in quiet waters nuts immersed in it.
of temperate and tropical regions in the southern hemi-
182
BOTANY.
Botany, sphere ; very frequent in the East Indies. The plants of
the order are remarkable for their large showy flowers and
leaves. Their nuts are eatable.
Nat. Ord. 12.—S arracekiacete, the Water-Pitcher or¬
der.—Perennial herbs growing in bogs, with hollow pit¬
cher-shaped or trumpet-shaped leaves (Fig. 139). Calyx
usually consists of five persistent sepals. Petals five or 0.
Stamens oo. Style often expanding at its summit into a
large peltate plate, with a stigma beneath each of its five
angles. Fruit, a 2-5-celled capsule with axile placentas,
bearing numerous albuminous seeds. The pitchers formed
by the petioles of the leaves contain a peculiar secretion,
the use of which is unknown. Sarracenia receives the
name of Sidesaddle flower, in allusion to its tubular leaves.
The plants are found abundantly in North America. He-
liamphora occurs in Guiana.
*P1. CXIL, Nat. Ord. 13.—Papaverace^e,* the Poppy order (Figs.
ferous or Cabbage order (Figs. 440 and 441).—Herbaceous
plants with alternate, exstipulate leaves, racemose or corym¬
bose flowers, usually yellow or white, and an ebracteated in¬
florescence. Sepals four, deciduous. Petals four, cruciate (Fig.
441). Stamens tetradynamous (Fig. 177). Fruit, a siliqua
Botany.
Pig. 438.
Fig. 436. Diagram of the flower of the Poppy, showing two sepals, four crum¬
pled petals, numerous stamens, pistil with parietal placentas.
... 437. Tetrapetalons corolla of Celandine and numerous stamens inserted
helow a pod-like pistil.
436 to 438).—Herbs with milky or coloured juice, and al¬
ternate exstipulate leaves (Fig. 121). Sepals
two, rarely three, caducous (Fig. 208). Petals
four (Fig. 437), rarely six, usually crumpled in
aestivation. Stamens 8-24 or more. Fruit uni¬
locular, siliqusefbrm (pod-like), with 2-5 pa¬
rietal placentas, or capsular (Fig. 309), with
numerous placentas. Seeds numerous, with
embryo in the midst of fleshy and oily albu- ecmhryoTnd albu¬
men (Fig. 438). The order is chiefly confined men-
to Europe. Narcotic properties characterize the order. Some
of the plants yield an acrid juice. Papaver somniferum is the
Opium Poppy, the unripe capsules of which yield a milky
juice, which, when concrete, constitutes opium. The active
principle of opium is the alkaloid called Morphia, which is
combined with meconic acid. Turkey opium is that chiefly
used in Britain.
Nat. Ord. 14.—Fumariacea:, the Fumitory order (Fig.
439 and Fig. 160).—Herbs with brittle
stems, a watery juice, alternate, cut, exsti¬
pulate leaves, and irregular unsymmetrical
flowers. Sepals two, deciduous. Petals
four, cruciate, irregular, one or two of them
often saccate or spurred, and the two inner
irequently cohering at the apex, so as to in¬
clude the anthers and stigma. Stamens
either four and free, or six and diadel-
phous, each bundle being opposite the outer Fig 439-
petals, and the central anther being two- Diagram of flower of
celled, while the two outer are one-celled. fin^iebract^ow8,
Fruit, a round and indehiscent nut, or a two sepals, two on t-
,,, . i ojer and two inner
one-celled and two-valved pod. Seeds petals, six stamens
crested, with a minute embryo and fleshy theTta^ensper0
albumen. Fumeworts occur chieflv in tem- feet and four imper-
perate regions ot the northern hemisphere, tu with a single
Some of them, as Diclytra spectabilis, are see<1,
very showy. They possess very slight bitterness and acridity.
Nat. Ord. 15.—Ceucifeice or Brassicace^e, the Cruci-
opposite the lateral sepals, the four long in pairs opposite the ante¬
rior and posterior sepals, siliquose fruit, with two divisions to the
right and left of the axis,separated by a replum, seeds attached by
a funiculus to each side of the placentas. The floral symmetry is
quaternary, but the stamens become six by collateral chorisis of
two of them, and the fruit bicarpellary by "abortion of two of the
carpels.
... 441. Cruciferous flower of Brassica Eruca.
(Fig. 314), or silicula (Figs. 315, 316). Seeds exalbumi-
nous (Fig. 334) ; embryo with the radicle folded on the
cotyledons (Figs. 337, 338). The plants are generally
distributed, but abound in cold and temperate regions, es¬
pecially in Europe. The order has been divided into sec¬
tions, according to the nature of the fruit and of the em¬
bryo. The following are the divisions founded on the na¬
ture of the fruit: — 1. Siliquosae,—a siliqua, opening by
valves (Fig. 307). 2. Siliculosae, Latiseptae,—a silicula,
opening with two flat or convex valves, replum in the broad¬
est diameter (Fig. 315). 3. Siliculosae, Angustiseptae,—
a silicula with folded or keeled dehiscent valves, replum in
narrow diameter (Fig. 316). 4. Nucumentaceae,—an in-
dehiscent silicula, often one-celled, having no replum. 5.
Septulatae,—valves with transverse phragmata on their in¬
side. 6. Lomentaceae,—a pod dividing transversely into
single-seeded portions, the beak sometimes containing one
or two seeds, while the true pod is abortive. The divisions
founded on the nature of the embryo are :—1. Pleurorhizeae
(Fig. 337),—cotyledons accumbent o=. 2. Notorhizeae
(Fig. 338),—cotyledons incumbent o ||. 3. Orthoploceae,
—cotyledons conduplicate o^>. 4. Spirolobeae,—cotyle¬
dons twice folded o || || . 5. Diplecolobeae,—cotyledons
thrice folded o || || ||. Crucifers are antiscorbutic and pun¬
gent, and occasionally acrid in their properties. None of
them are poisonous. The order contains many of the culi¬
nary vegetables in constant use, such as Cabbage, Cauli¬
flower, Turnip, Radish, Sea-kale, Cress, and Mustard. The
plants have much nitrogen and sulphur in their composition.
Many garden flowers, as Wallflower, Stock, Rocket, and
Honesty, belong to this order.
Nat. Ord. 16.—C ape arid acea^, the Caper order.—
Herbs, shrubs, or trees with alternate leaves and tetrame-
rous flowers ; allied to Crucifers, but distinguished by the
stamens being often indefinite, and if six, scarcely ever tetra¬
dynamous, by the want of a replum in the one-celled ovary,
which is often supported on a gynophore, and by their re-
niform seeds. Capparids are chiefly tropical plants. In
their properties, they resemble Crucifers. They have pun¬
gent, stimulant, antiscorbutic qualities. Capparis spinosa,
in the southern parts of Europe, C. rupestris in Greece, C.
Fontanesii in Barbary, and C. cegyptiaca in Egypt, supply
Capers, which are the flower-buds of the plants.
Nat. Ord. 17.—Resedace^e, the Reseda or Mignonette
order.—Herbaceous plants,' rarely shrubs, with alternate
leaves having minute glands at their base, and racemose or
spiked inflorescence. Sepals 4-7, sometimes united. Petals
2-7, lacerated and unequal, with broad or thickened claws
(Fig. 213). Stamens definite, inserted on a fleshy disk.
Fruit usually one-celled, opening early at the apex, with
BOTANY.
'Otany.
3-6 parietal placentas. Sometimes it appears as carpellary
leaves surrounding a central placenta. Seeds several, reni-
form, or curved 'and exalbuminous ; embryo arcuate. The
plants of the order chiefly inhabit Europe and the adjoining
parts of Asia and Africa.
Nat. Ord. 18.—Flacourtiace^ or Bixace^e, the Ar-
notto order. Shrubs or small trees, with alternate exstipu-
late leaves, often marked with round transparent dots. Se¬
pals and petals 4-7, the latter sometimes 0. Stamens, same
number as the petals or a multiple of them. Ovules attached
to parietal placentas. Fruit one-celled, either fleshy and
indehiscent, or a 4-5-valved capsule containing pulp, in
which numerous albuminous seeds are enveloped. The
plants are almost entirely natives of the hottest parts of the
East and West Indies and of Africa. Some of the plants
of the order are bitter and astringent, others yield edible
fruits. Bixa Orellana has angular seeds covered with an
orange-red pulp, which constitutes Arnotto, and is used for
a red dye.
Nat. Ord. 19.—Cistacea:, the Rock-rose order (Figs.
442 and 443).—Shrubs or herbs,
often viscid, with simple, en¬
tire leaves, and showy flowers.
Sepals 3-5, persistent, unequal,
the three inner with twisted
aestivation. Petals five, very
rarely three, caducous, often
crumpled, twisted in an opposite
direction from the sepals. Sta¬
mens definite or oc, distinct. Fig. 442.
Fruit a one-celled capsule with Diagram of the flower of Helian-
parietal placentas, or imperfectly then?um- showinK two outer
ok 11 . 1 i .. p sepals, three inner contorted,
O-O-celleu by means ot dissepi- five petals twisted in an opposite
ments arising from the middle of r^liamensfa one-^^d^tu
the valves, and bearing placentas Wltb three Parietal placentas,
at or near the axis (dehiscence being loculicidal). Seeds
usually orthotropal, with mealy albumen; embryo curved
or spiral. The
plants are found
chiefly in the south
of Europe and
north of Africa
The Rock - roses
are generally resi¬
nous and balsamic.
Cistus creticus,
and other species ^
r i n -r l s \ Section of flower of Helianthemum, showing sepals,
laaanijerus, C. petals, indefinite stamens, ovary with numerous
Ledon), furnish the ov ules’short style and peltate stigma-
resinous substance called Ladanum, which is used as a
stimulant and emmenagogue.
Nat. Ord. 20.—Violacea:, the Violet order (Figs. 444
and 445).—Herbs or shrubby plants, with usually alternate,
stipulate leaves
(Fig. 136 and
169), having an
involute verna¬
tion, and flowers
often irregular.
Sepals five, per¬
sistent, attached
above their base. Fig. 444.
Petals five, often „. ^ Fig. 445.
unenual nnp hp S- r’iagr1am,of tte flower of the Pansy.having five
unequal, one DC- sepals, five petals, five stamens with append¬
ing spurred. Sta- agcs> a three-valved fruit with parietal pla-
mens five, with ••• 415- Section of the flower of a Violet, showing the
cVinrt j spurred petal, with a staminal appendage
snort ana Droaa within it, and the ovary with numerous ovules,
filaments, which are often elongated beyond the introrse an¬
ther lobes; in the irregular flowers two of the stamens have
appendages (Fig. 262); anthers sometimes united. Style
declinate, with an oblique hooded stigma (Fig. 289). Fruit
183
Fig. 44a
a three-valved capsule, with parietal placentas in the middle Botany,
of the valves (loculicidal). Seeds definite or 00, albuminous, v'—
anatropal, with a straight embryo. The species are found
in Europe, America, Siberia, and Africa. The Violet-
worts are generally emetic, and some have purgative pro¬
perties. In the roots of many of them a principle called
Violin, similar to Emetin, has been found.
Nat. Ord. 21.—Droseracea:, the Drosera or Sun-dew
order.—Flerbaceous marsh-plants, often covered with glan¬
dular hairs (Fig. 107); they have alternate leaves, with
fringes at their base, and a circinate vernation. Se¬
pals five, persistent. Petals five, imbricate. Stamens as
many as the petals, or two or three times as many, distinct,
withering. Styles 3-5, sometimes united. Fruit a one-
celled, 3-5-valved capsule, with loculicidal dehiscence.
Seeds numerous; embryo small, in the base of fleshy al¬
bumen. The plants are found in marshy grounds in vari¬
ous parts of the world, and have acid and slightly acrid pro¬
perties.
Nat. Ord. 22.—Polygalacea:, the Milkwort order (Fig.
446).—Herbs or shrubs with simple exsti-
pulate leaves. Pedicels have three bracts,
and the flowers are irregular, unsymmetri-
cal, and falsely papilionaceous. Sepals
five, irregular, odd one posterior, 'two in¬
ner ones (wings) usually petaloid. Petals
more or less united, usually three, of which
one (the keel) is anterior, larger, and
sometimes crested. Stamens 6-8, usually
combined into a tube which is split on the Fig_
upper side; anthers one-celled, opening Diagram of the flower
by pores. Ovary usually two-celled, with °f P-olygala’ with
a single pendulous, anatropal ovule in
each cell; style curved. Capsule flattened
with albuminous, carunculate seeds, con¬
taining a straight embryo. The order is
considered by St Hilaire and others as
allied to Sapindaceae, and some authors place it near Legu-
minosae, from which it differs in its hypogynous stamens, and
in the odd sepal being superior and the odd petal inferior.
The plants are scattered over various quarters of the globe.
They are generally bitter and acrid, and their roots yield a
milky juice. Polygala Senega, Snake-root, is a North Ame¬
rican species, the root of which is used as an emetic, cathar¬
tic, and sialagogue.
Nat. Ord. 23.—Krameriacea:, the Rhatany order.—
The genus Krameria is the only one in this order which
differs from Polygalacese in the want of the falsely papilio¬
naceous flowers, in its simple one-celled ovary, and in the
absence of albumen. Krameria triandra, which yields the
Rhatany-root, is a native of South America. The root is
very astringent.
Nat. Ord. 24.—Tremandracea:, the Porewort order.—
The plants of this order are slender, heath-like shrubs, with
hairs usually glandular. They are allied to Polygalacem,
and differ in their regular symmetrical flowers, valvate calyx,
and hooked appendages at the apex of their seeds. They
are found in New Holland.
Nat. Ord. 25.—Tamaricacea:, the Tamarisk order.—
Shrubs or herbs usually growing by the sea-side, with entire,
scale-like leaves, and spiked or racemose flowers. Calyx
4-5-parted, persistent. Petals 4-5, withering, imbricate.
Stamens 4-5, or twice that number, free or united; anthers
introrse, opening longitudinally. Styles three. Fruit, a
three-valved, one-celled capsule, with three basal or parietal
placentas, bearing numerous anatropal, comose, exalbumi¬
nous seeds. Embryo straight. The species abound in the
basin of the Mediterranean, and are confined to the north¬
ern hemisphere of the Old World. They have an astrin¬
gent, and slightly bitter and tonic bark.
Nat. Ord. 26.—Frankeniacea:, the Frankenia order.—
three bracts, five un¬
equal sepals, two in¬
terior large and pe¬
taloid, five (usually
only three) unequal
petals, eight sta¬
mens diadelphous,
and a two-celled
ovary.
BOTANY.
Herbs or undershrubs, with opposite exstipulate leaves, and
flowers embosomed in leaves. -They are allied to Caryo-
phyllacese, and differ in their parietal placentation, and
straight embryo. They have a tubular furrowed calyx, and
long-clawed petals with appendicular scales. They occur
chiefly in the north of Africa and south of Europe. Their
properties are mucilaginous.
Nat. Ord. 27.—Elatinace^e, the Elatine or Water-
pepper order.—Small annuals growing in marshes, with op¬
posite leaves, interpetiolary membranaceous stipules, and
minute axillary flowers. Sepals and petals 3-5. Stamens as
many, or twice as many as the petals, distinct. Fruit a 3-5-
celled septicidal capsule. Seeds numerous, attached to a
central placenta, exalbuminous; embryo straight. The
order is perhaps allied to Rutaceae, in which alliance it is
placed by Lindley. The plants are found in all quarters of
the globe. Their properties are said to be acrid; hence
the English name of the order.
Nat. Ord. 28.—Caryophyllaceje, the Clovewort order
(Figs. 447 to 449).—Herbaceous plants with stems tumid
trorse, opening transversely (Fig. 249) ; pollen hispid (big-
266). Ovary many-celled, with placentas in the axis; or
several ovaries, separate or separable when ripe ; styles equal
in number to the carpels, distinct or united. Fruit composed
of several monospermal or poly-
spermal carpels, either combined
or separate. Seeds with little albu¬
men ; embryo curved with folded
cotyledons. The plants abound in
tropical regions, and in the hotter
parts of the temperate zone. The
properties of the Mallowworts are
mucilaginous and demulcent. They
supply various kinds of fibres. Al~
thcea officinalis, Marsh Mallow, is
used medicinally to supply muci- Diagram of flower of Mallow,
lage. Various species of Gossypium sh.owins .thre,e. --S',
furnish cotton, which consists of the
hairs attached to the seeds. These
hairs are usually hollow cells, but
occasionally they become flattened.
There are probably four distinct species of plants furnishing
the Cotton of commerce:—1. Gossypium herbaceum, the
Botany,
calyx or involucre, five parts
of the valvate calyx, five
contorted petals, numerous
monadelphous columnar sta¬
mens, ovary composed of nu¬
merous carpels united round
a central axis.
Fig. 447.
Fig. 448. Tig. 449.
Fiz 447. Diagram of the flower of Dianthus, showing five imbricated sepals,
which are united below, five imbricated and contorted petals, ten
stamens in two rows, ovary at first with partitions, hut finally one-
celled with a free central placenta. ... , , ,
... 448. Flower of Lychnis with gamosepalous calyx, five ungmculate and bifid
petals having scales at the throat. .
449. Flower of Lychnis cut longitudinally, showing the capsule with its
central placenta and numerous ovules. Three out of five styles are
left.
at the articulations, entire, opposite leaves, and cymose in¬
florescence (Fig. 168). Sepals 4-5, distinct or united (Fig.
203). Petals 4-5 (Fig. 448), unguiculate, sometimes 0.
Stamens as many, or twice as many as the petals, some¬
times fewer. Ovary often supported on a gynophore,
usually one-celled, with a free central placenta (Fig. 449).
Styles 2-5, papillose 'on their inner surface. Fruit a cap¬
sule opening by 2-5 valves, or by teeth at the apex (I ig.
308), which are twice as many as the stigmas. Seeds
usually indefinite; embryo curved round mealy albumen
(Fig. 336). The various species of Pink {Dianthus),
and duckweed {Stellaria), are included in this order.
The plants are found principally in temperate and cold
regions. . .
Nat. Ord. 29.—Vtvianiace^e, the Viviama order.—Her¬
baceous or suffruticose plants, with opposite or whorled ex¬
stipulate leaves and regular flowers in corymbose cymes.
They are characterized by a ten-ribbed valvate calyx, a
marcescent corolla, ten free stamens, a three-celled locu-
licidal capsule, and albuminous seeds, with a curved embiyo.
They are found in South America.
*P1. CXIV. Nat. Ord. 30.—Malvaceae, the Mallow order* (Figs. 450
and 451).—Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with alternate, stipulate,
palmately-divided leaves, often stellate hairs, and showy in-
volucrate flowers on axillary peduncles (Fig. 172). Sepals
five, rarely three or four, united at the base, valvate, often
having an epicalyx. Petals of the same number as the se¬
pals, twisted. Stamens oo, monadelphous (Fig. 451), united
to the claws of the petals ; anthers one-celled, renifbrm, in-
Yertical section of the flower of Mallow, showing epioalyx, calyx, corolla,
monadelphous stamens, and the carpels.
common Cotton plant of India, a variety of which supplies
the Chinese or Nankin Cotton. 2. G. arboreum, the Tree-
CottonVIndia. 3. G. barbadense, Barbadoes Cotton, called
in India Bourbon Cotton; this supplies the highly-esteemed
Sea Island Cotton. 4. G. peruvianum of Cavanilles, or
G. acuminatum, which supplies the Pernambuco or Brazil
Cotton. The inner bark of Hibiscus canabinus furnishes a
kind of Sun-hemp in India.
Nat. Ord. 31.—SterculiacEuE, the Silk-cotton order.—
Large trees or shrubs, with simple or compound leaves, and
occasionally unisexual flowers, resembling the Malvaceae in
their general characters, particularly in their columnar sta¬
mens, but differing in their two-celled extrorse anthers.
They are tropical plants. The Sterculiads resemble the
Malvaceae in their properties. Adansonia digitata, the
Baobab tree, Monkey-bread or Ethiopian Sour-gourd, is one
of the largest trees in the world, its trunk attaining a dia¬
meter of 30 feet. Bombax Ceiba, the Silk Cotton-tree, has
a cottony matter surrounding its seeds, which is used for
stuffing cushions and other domestic purposes. Duno
zibethinus, the Durian, yields an edible fruit with a civet¬
like odour. ,
Nat. Ord. 32.—Byttneriaceje, the Chocolate order (rig.
452).—i-Trees, shrubs, and undershrubs, with simple leaves,
resembling the Sterculiaceae and Malvaceae, but differing
from the 'former in their introrse anthers, slightly mona¬
delphous, and often partially sterile stamens; and from the
latter in their usually definite not columnar stamens, two-
celled anthers, and smooth pollen. The fruit is a capsule com-
4
BOTANY.
185
Fig. 452.
Cacao beans, whence
cocoa and chocolate are
made. The large cap¬
sular fruit is shown
which contains pulp
and seeds.
Botany, posed of a few carpels. They are chiefly tropical or subtro-
^ pical plants. In their properties Bytt-
neriads resemble Malvaceae. Theobro-
ma Cacao, the Cacao-tree (Fig. 452),
is a small tree which abounds in the
forests of Demerara. From the seeds
called Cacao-beans, the substances called
Cocoa and Chocolate are prepared.
Nat. Ord. 33. Tiliace^e, the Linden
order.—Trees or shrubs with alternate
leaves having deciduous stipules (Fig.
105), floral envelopes tetramerous or
pentamerous, calyx valvate, stamens co ,
outer ones sometimes petaloid and abor¬
tive, anthers two-celled, a glandular T1*^1r1°™eo whTch0)iekis
disk, style one, fruit dry or pulpy with
several cells, often by abortion one-
celled, seeds anatropal and albuminous.
They are chiefly tropical plants. In
northern temperate regions some form timber-trees. The
plants of the order possess mucilaginous qualities. Many of
them yield timber, fibres, and edible fruits. Corchorus
capsularis yields the textile material called Jute, or Jute
Hemp. Tilia europcea, the Lime or Linden tree, has a
fibrous endophlceum, which furnishes the Bass or Bast em¬
ployed in the manufacture of Russian mats.
Nat. Ord. 34.—Dipterocarpaceal or Dipterace^e, the
Sumatra-Camphor order.—Large trees with resinous juice,
alternate, involute leaves, convolute stipules ; long wing¬
like, imbricate, unequal, calyx lobes ; contorted petals ; in¬
definite, distinct, or polyadelphous stamens, subulate anthers;
coriaceous, one-celled fruit, surrounded by the calyx, the
enlarged divisions of which form winged appendages ; single,
exalbuminous seed. Tropical Indian trees. The plants
of this order yield a resinous balsamic juice which assumes
various forms. Dryabalanops Camphora or aromatica, sup¬
plies the hard Camphor of Sumatra, and a resinous oily fluid
called the liquid Camphor, or Camphor-oil of Borneo. The
wood of Shorea robusta is much used in India under the
name of Sal. Vateria indica furnishes the Piney Resin of
India.
Nat. Ord. 35.—Chlasnaceas, the Leptolaena order.—Trees
or shrubs with alternate, feather-veined, entire leaves, con¬
volute stipules, involucrate flowers, which have three im¬
bricate sepals, five convolute petals, numerous stamens,
often monadelphous, a three-celled ovary, a capsular fruit,
and albuminous seeds. They are found in Madagascar.
Nat. Ord. 36.—Ternstromiaceae, the Tea order (Figs.
453 and 454).—Trees or shrubs with alternate coriaceous,
Fig. 453.
Fig. 454.
Fig 453. Thea Bohea, or CantonensiSjthe plantwhich yields Black and Green
Tea at Canton.
... 454. Thea viridis, the plant of the best Tea districts of China, which sup¬
plies the Black and Green Tea generally used in Britain.
usually exstipulate, and entire leaves, showy and generally
unsymmetrical flowers. Sepals 5-7, with imbricate aesti¬
vation. Petals 5, 6, or 9, often combined at the base.
Stamens, co, distinct or united. Fruit a 2-7-celled capsule,
usually with a central column. Seeds large, very few, with
vo l. v.
or without albumen. They are ornamental plants, found Botany,
chiefly in Tropical America and in Eastern Asia. Ihose
cultivated in Britain are principally from North America
and China. The plants of the order have stimulating and
slightly narcotic properties. Numerous varieties of Camel¬
lia japonica are cultivated, which are highly esteemed by
florists. Thea is the genus which includes the various spe¬
cies and varieties of Tea. According to Fortune, there are
two species of Tea, Thea Bohea (Fig. 453), and Thea viri¬
dis (Fig. 454), from each of which Black and Green Tea is
manufactured. The latter species is that which supplies the
Tea sent from China to Britain. The difference in the ap¬
pearance and quality of Teas depends partly on the climate
and species, but chiefly on the time of gathering, and the
mode of manufacture. The young leaves, quickly dried
and subjected to a particular kind of manipulation, supply
the Green Tea, while the older leaves dried more slowly,
and after undergoing a process of fermentation, constitute
the Black Tea. In some instances Tea is dyed of a green
colour by means of a mixture of Turmeric, Prussian Blue,
and Gypsum.
Nat. Ord. 37.—Olacace^e, the Olax order.—Trees or
shrubs, often spiny, wfith alternate, exstipulate leaves, a
cup-shaped calyx, being enlarged with the fruit and often
covering it, five valvate petals, 5-10 stamens, partly
sterile, five fertile ones being opposite the petals, a disk, a
succulent fruit with a hard endocarp, and an albuminous
seed without integuments (exutive). An order of mostly
tropical shrubs, containing few species. Some yield edible
fruits.
Nat. Ord. 38.—Icacinace^e, the Icacina order.—Ever¬
green trees and shrubs allied to Olacaceae, but differing in
the calyx not enlarging with the fruit, stamens being alter¬
nate with the petals, ovary plurilocular, with axile placenta-
tion, and seeds having the usual integuments (indutive).
The order is chiefly tropical.
Nat. Ord. 39.—Cyrillaceae, the Cyrilla order. Ever¬
green shrubs with exstipulate leaves, allied to Olacaceae and
differing chiefly in their imbricate not valvate petals, which
are not hairy. They are found in North America.
Nat. Ord. 40.—Aurantiaceae, the Orange order (Figs.
455 and 456). Trees or shrubs with alternate, compound,
exstipulate, dotted
leaves (Fig. 133),
and fragrant flowers.
Calyx short, urceo-
late or campanulate,
3-5-toothed. Petals,
3-5. Stamens equal
in number to the pe¬
tals, or a multiple of
them, inserted along
with the petals on a
hypogynous disk
(Fig. 456); filaments Fig. 455. Diagram of the flower of the Orange,
sometimes united in with five divisions of the calyx, five im
one or more bundles.
Ovary free ; style
cylindrical ; stigma
tbickish. Fruit a hesperidium, sometimes, as in fingered Ci¬
trons and horned Oranges becoming monstrous by the separa¬
tion of the carpels, or by the multiplication of carpels, so that
one fruit is included within another. Seeds exalbuminous,
often polyembryonous. Chiefly East Indian plants. The
leaves and the rind of the fruit contain a volatile fragrant oil,
and the pulp of the fruit is more or less acid. JEgle Marme-
los, the Indian Bael or Bela, yields a delicious fruit; its root
and bark are antispasmodic ; the decoction and jelly of the
fruit are used in diarrhoea. Citrus Aurantium, the Sweet
Orange, has been so generally distributed over different quar¬
ters of the globe, that its native country can scarcely be
2 A
Fig. 455.
Fig. 456.
hricate petals, irregularly polyadel¬
phous stamens, and pulpy ovary.
456. Pistil of Orange, with hypogyno'us disk
and stamen inserted into the lower
part of it.
BOTANY.
Fig. 457.
Diagram of the flower of
Hypericum, with five
sepals, two of them ex¬
terior, five twisted pe¬
tals, numerous poly¬
adelphous stamens,
three united carpels,
with numerous seeds on
a central placenta,
which sends processes
outwards.
determined. It has been naturalized in Europe. The rind
of the fruit yields an oil called Oil of Orange, while the
flowers supply another kind of oil. The pulp of the fruit
contains malic acid. C> vulgcvris (O. Higtxrcidia of some
authors), the Bitter or Seville Orange, is probably a variety.
It differs from the Sweet Orange in the larger vying of its
petiole, its more fragrant flowers, its darker fruit, and its
more bitter rind and pulp. In the young state, the fruit is
known as Orangettes or Curacoa Oranges. The flowers
yield an essential oil called Neroli oil. I he distilled water
of the flowers has hypnotic qualities. C. Limonum, the
Lemon, yields an acid antiscorbutic juice. It contains citric
acid. C. Limetta produces the Lime, and var. Bergamia,
the Bergamot; C. medico, is the source of the Citron ; C.
Decumana furnishes the Shaddock ; C. paradisi the for¬
bidden fruit ; C. Pompelmos the Pompelmoose ; and C.
japonica, the Kumquat of China.
Nat. Ord. 41.—Hypericace^;, the St John’s Wort order
(Fig. 457).—flerbs, shrubs, or trees, with a resinous juice,
regular flowers, opposite, entire, exsti-
pulate leaves, usually with transparent
dots and blackish glands. Sepals 4-5,
persistent, two outer often smaller.
Petals 4-5, unequal-sided, twisted in
aestivation, often bordered with black
dots. Stamens generally cc and poly¬
adelphous. Carpels 3-5 partially united.
Fruit a capsule with septicidal dehis¬
cence. Seeds numerous and exalbu-
minous. The order is generally dis¬
tributed both in warm and temperate
regions. There are 280 known species.
The properties of the plants are usually
purgative ; some are tome and astrin¬
gent. Many species of Hypericum
yield a yellow juice and an essential oil. Species of Vis-
mia yield a gum-resin like Gamboge.
Nat. Ord. 42.—GurriFERiE or Clusiace^e, the Gamboge
order.—Trees or shrubs with a resinous juice, opposite cori¬
aceous entire leaves, and occasionally unisexual flowers.
Sepals and petals 2, 4, 5, 6, or 8, the former often unequal,
the latter equilateral. Stamens numerous, often united.
Disk fleshy. Ovary one or many-celled; stigma usually
sessile and radiate. Fruit dry or succulent, one or many-
celled. Seeds exalbuminous, often immersed in pulp. Na¬
tives of humid and hot places in tropical regions, chiefly
South America. The properties of the order are in gene¬
ral acrid and purgative. The plants yield a yellow gum re¬
sin. Cambogia Gutta (Hebradendron cambogioides of
Graham) is the source of Ceylon Gamboge. Different spe¬
cies of Garcinia yield a substance like Gamboge. Garcinia
cochinchinensis has been said to be the source of the Siam
Gamboge, the best commercial specimens ot which are in
the form of pipe Gamboge, but this is very doubtful. Gar¬
cinia elliptica, found in Sylhet and f avoy, also supplies a
kind of Gamboge. Coorg or Wynaad Gamboge is also the
produce of a Garcinia, perhaps G. pictoria. Gamboge is
used as a pigment and as a drastic purgative. Garcinia
Mangostana, a native of Malacca, produces the Mangosteen,
one of the finest known fruits. JMammea americana pro¬
duces the Mammee Apple.
Nat. Ord. 43.—Marcgraviaceac, the Marcgravia order.
—Trees or shrubs allied to Guttiferse, and differing chiefly
in their alternate leaves, unsymmetrical flowers, and versa¬
tile anthers. Some of the plants have remarkable pitcher¬
like bracts. They are found in equinoctial America chiefly.
Nat. Ord. 44.—Hippocrateacea:, the Hippocratea or¬
der.—Shrubby plants with opposite simple leaves having de¬
ciduous stipules. Sepals and petals five, imbricate. Sta¬
mens three, monadelphous. Fruit either consisting of three
winged carpels or baccate. Brown and Findley put the or¬
der near Celastraceae, notwithstanding its hypogynous sta- Botany,
mens. They are principally South American plants ; some
occur in Africa and India. The nuts of Hippocratea com-
osa are oily and sweet. The fruit of Tontelea pyriformis
is eaten in Sierra Leone.
Nat. Ord. 45.—Malpigitiacea;, the Malpighia order.—
Trees or shrubs, often climbing, with opposite or alternate
leaves, and short deciduous, sometimes intrapetiolar, stipules ;
occasionally showing peltate hairs. Sepals five, combined
at the base, glandular. Petals five, unguiculate. Stamens
ten, often monadelphous. Ovary generally of three car¬
pels. Fruit a drupe, a woody nut, or a samara. Seed or-
thotropal, suspended by a cord, exalbuminous, embryo
straight or curved. Malpighiads are nearly all tropical
plants. Their properties are generally astringent. Many
are handsome trees or climbers with showy flowers. Ihe
wood is sometimes formed in an anomalous manner (Fig.
81).
Nat. Ord. 46.—Erythroxylacea:, the Erythroxylon or¬
der.—Allied to Malpighiads, and distinguished by the flowers
growing from among imbricated scales, the absence of caly-
cine glands, the presence of plaited scales at the base of the
petals, and by the ovules being anatropal and cordless. They
are West Indian and South American plants. Some of
them have stimulating qualities, others yield a tonic bark.
Erythroxylon Coca, a Peruvian plant, called Ipadu by the
Indians of the llio Negro, is famed for exciting the nervous
system.
Nat. Ord. 47.—Aceracea:, the Maple order.—Trees
with opposite, simple, often palmate, exstipulate leaves, and
corymbose or racemose unsymmetrical flowers. Calyx
usually of five parts. Petals as many as the sepals, or none.
Stamens generally eight, inserted on or around a hypogy¬
nous disk. Ovary of two carpels, more or less united;
ovules in pairs. Fruit samaroid. Seed solitary, exalbu¬
minous ; embryo coiled. Found in the temperate parts of
Europe, Asia, and America. Their properties are sac¬
charine, the trees yield light and useful timber. Acer
Pseudo-platanus is the Common Sycamore or Greater
Maple, which thrives well even when exposed to the sea.
A. saccharinum, the Sugar-Maple, supplies the maple sugar
of America.
Nat. Ord. 48.— Sapinbacea:, the Soapwort order.—
Trees, shrubs, or climbers with tendrils, rarely herbs ; hav¬
ing alternate or opposite, usually compound leaves, and un¬
symmetrical, generally irrregular and polygamous flowers.
Calyx with 4-5 sepals. Petals 4-5, occasionally 0, some¬
times with an appendage inside. Disk fleshy. [Stamens
usually 8-10. Ovary 2-3-celled; style undivided, or 2-3-
cleft. Fruit capsular or fleshy, sometimes winged. Seeds
exalbuminous, arillate ; embryo usually curved. Found
chiefly in the tropical parts of South America and India.
The Hippocastanece or Horse-chestnuts, distinguished by
opposite leaves (Fig. 131), and two ovules in each cell, one
erect, and the other suspended, occur in the noi th of India,
Persia, and the United States. The properties are various.
Many of the plants have saponaceous qualities, hence the
name of the order. Some are astringent; others yield
edible fruits and seeds, and not a few are poisonous. The
bark of AEsculus Hippocastanum, the Horse-chestnut, is
febrifugal. Cupania (Blighia) sapida, furnishes the Akee
fruit, with its remarkable succulent edible arillus. Nephe¬
lium {Euphoria) Litchi, supplies the Li-chi fruit ot
China. Ophiocaryon paradoxum is the Snake-nut-tree
of Demerara. Paullinia sorbilis is the Guarana plant,
the seeds of which supply an important tonic beverage in
Brazil.
Nat. Ord. 49.—Rhizobolacea:, the Suwarrow-nut order.
—Trees with opposite, digitate, exstipulate leaves. Sepals,
5-6, more or less combined. Petals 5-8, unequal. Sta¬
mens oo, arising with the petals from a hypogynous disk.
BOTANY.
187
Botany. Fruit of several combined indehiscent, one-seeded nuts.
Seed reniform, exalbuminous, with a cord dilated into a
spongy excrescence ; radicle very large. Found in South
America. The plants of the order are large timber trees,
some of which yield edible fruit. Caryocar butyrosum
(Pekea tuberculosa) is a gigantic tree of Demerara, pro¬
ducing the Souari, Suwarrow, or Surahwa nuts, the kernels of
which are esteemed the most agreeable of all the nut kind.
Nat. Ord. 50.—Meliacea:, the Melia order.—Trees or
shrubs with alternate, exstipulate, simple or compound
leaves. Sepals 3, 4, or 5, more or less united. Petals, the
same number. Stamens twice as many as the petals. Disk,
cuplike. Ovary, with cells varying from 3 to 12. Fruit
succulent or capsular. Seeds not winged, with or without
albumen ; embryo with leafy cotyledons. They are chiefly
tropical plants, and are found in Asia, America, and Africa.
The properties of the order are bitter, astringent, and tonic.
Some of the plants act as powerful purgatives and emetics.
Melia Azedarachta, the Neem-tree or Pride of India, has
febrifugal qualities. The pericarp yields an oil used for
lamps.
Nat. Ord. 51.—Humiriacea;, the Humirium order.—
Balsamic trees or shrubs, with alternate, simple, exstipulate
leaves. Calyx in five divisions. Petals five, imbricate.
Stamens co monadelphous; anthers two-celled, with a
membranous connective beyond the lobes. Disk often pre¬
sent. Ovary five-celled. Fruit a drupe. Seed albuminous;
embryo orthotropal. Natives of tropical America. The
Balsam of Umiri is procured from Humirium Jloribundum,
by making incisions into its trunk.
Nat. Ord. 52.—Cedrelacea:, the Mahogany order.—
Trees with alternate, pinnate, exstipulate leaves, allied to
Meliacem, and chiefly distinguished by their indefinite and
winged seeds. The fruit is capsular, the valves separating
from a thick axis. They are common in the tropical parts
of America and India. The properties of the order are
fragrant, aromatic, and tonic. Many yield timber. Ce-
drela febrifuga has a febrifugal bark. Soymida febrifuga,
the Red-wood tree, is febrifugal and astringent. Swietenia
Mahagoni, the Mahogany, grows in dense forests, and forms
one of the most lofty and gigantic tropical trees.
Nat. Ord. 53.—Vitacea; or Ampeudea, the Vine order
Botany.
Fig. 458.
The Vine (Vitis vinifera). showing the leaves with radiating venation, the
clusters of flowers, and the tendril or cirrhus, coiled up in a spiral form.
(Fig. 458).—Shrubby plants climbing by tendrils, with tumid
joints, simple or compound leaves, opposite below, alternate
above, and small green flowers arranged in a racemose or
Fig. 459.
Diagram of the flower of a Gera¬
nium, with five imbricate sepals,
five twisted petals, ten perfect
stamens in two rows, and an
outer row of abortive stamens,
five bi-ovular carpels forming
the ovary.
umbellate manner. Calyx small, nearly entire. Petals 4-5,
induplicate, inserted outside a disk, sometimes cohering at
their tips, and caducous (Fig. 218). Stamens 4-5, opposite
the petals, inserted on the disk (Fig. 238). Ovary usually
two-celled, with two erect ovules in each cell. Fruit a uva.
Seeds with a bony spermoderm; embryo small in horny
albumen. The tendrils in this order are abortive branches
(Fig. 72). Vineworts inhabit the milder and hotter regions
of the globe. They are common in the East Indies. The
Grape Vine (Vitis viniferd) is said to be a native of the
shores of the Caspian, whence it has been widely distri¬
buted. The plants of this order have acid leaves and a
pulpy fruit more or less acid at first, but developing grape-
sugar as it ripens. They have frequently large dotted ves¬
sels abounding in sap, and they bleed copiously. Spiral
vessels with air are common in the Vine.
Nat. Ord. 54.—Geraniacea, the Cranesbill order (Fig.
459).—Herbs or shrubs, with tumid joints, opposite or al¬
ternate leaves, usually palmately-
veined and lobed, often stipu¬
late. Sepals 5, imbricate, one
sometimes spurred. Petals 5,
unguiculate, contorted in aesti¬
vation. Stamens usually 10,
monadelphous, occasionally some
sterile. Ovary of five bi-ovular
carpels placed round an elon¬
gated axis to which the styles
adhere. Fruit formed of five
one-seeded carpels, which finally
separate from the base of the
central axis or beak, and curve
upwards by means of the at¬
tached styles (Fig. 183) ; the fruit is said to be gynobasic,
and the long beak or carpophore gives origin to the name
of the order. Seed exalbuminous ; embryo curved and
doubled up, with plaited cotyledons. Distributed over vari¬
ous parts of the world. The species of Pelargonium
abound at the Cape of Good Hope. The order has as¬
tringent and aromatic properties. Many of the plants are
fragrant. Some have a musky odour.
Nat. Ord. 55.—Linacea, the Flax order (Fig. 460).—
Herbs with entire, sessile, alternate or opposite or verticil-
late leaves, which are exstipulate
or have occasionally a pair of
minute glands at their base. Flowers
regular and symmetrical. Sepals
3-5, imbricate. Petals 3-5, con¬
torted in aestivation. Stamens
united at the base, 3-5, usually
with intermediate abortive ones in
the form of teeth opposite the
petals. Ovary 3-5-celled ; styles
3-5 (Fig, 278). Fruit a plurilocu-
lar capsule, in which the cells are Diahg„r^g0ffivteei™brrcatea's,et-
more or less completely divided
into two by spurious divisions pro¬
ceeding from the dorsal sutures.
Seeds, one in each cell, anatropal,
with little or no albumen; embryo straight, cotyledons
flat. Distributed over various quarters of the globe,
but most abundant in Europe and the north of Africa.
The order is distinguished by its mucilaginous properties,
and by yielding valuable fibres. Some species are purgative
and diuretic. Linum catharticum* is called Purging-flax, *pi cxv
from its properties. L. usitatissimum* the cultivated Flax, fig 'j
yields tenacious fibres, used in the manufacture of linen. Its *P1. CXV.
seeds are demulcent and oily. fig. 2.
Nat. Ord. 56.—Oxalidacea, the Wood-sorrel order
(Fig. 461).—Herbaceous or shrubby plants with alternate,
rarely opposite, simple or compound leaves, and regular
Fig. 460.
pals, fire contorted petals,
fire alternating stamens, and
five divisions of the ovary,
each of which is divided into
two by a spurious septum
from the dorsal suture.
188
BOTANY.
Fig. 461.
Oxalis Acetosella, the common
Wood-sorrel, with tern ate
leaves, and obcordate leaf¬
lets. By some it is consi¬
dered as the true Irish
Shamrock.
Botany, flowers. Sepals five, imbricate. Petals five, twisted. Sta-
s—mens ten, more or less monadelphous, of different lengths.
Fruit usually a five-celled capsule, sometimes drupaceous.
Seeds with a fleshy outer coat, which bursts in an elastic,
manner when ripe, so as to ex¬
pel the seeds; embryo straight
and large in thin albumen. The
plants are allied to Geraniaceae,
and differ chiefly in their gynce-
cium. The plants of the order
are met with both in hot and in
temperate regions. They are very
common in America and at the
Cape of Good Hope. The
shrubby species are confined to
warm climates. The Oxalids or
Wood-sorrels have generally acid
properties, from the presence ot
oxalic acid in the form of binox-
alate of Potass, which is called the
salt of sorrel. Some of them have
sensitive leaves. Averrhoa Bil¬
imbi, the Blimbing of the East
Indies, has an acid fruit, which is used as a pickle. Oxalis
crenata bears tubers which are used as potatoes. O.
Deppei has fleshy roots, which are used as culinary vege¬
tables.
Nat. Ord. 57.—Balsaminaceae, the Balsam order (Fig.
462). — Annual succulent herbs, with
simple, exstipulate leaves, and irregular
flowers. Sepals five, coloured, irregular,
the odd one spurred. Petals five, irre¬
gular, distinct or cohering. Stamens
five. Ovary of five united carpels; stig¬
mas sessile. Fruit, a capsule opening
septifragally by five elastic valves, which
become coiled up (Fig. 462). Seeds
exalbuminous; embryo straight. The
flowers are usually showy. The ripe
capsules burst elastically when touched,
so as to scatter the seeds; hence the
name of Impatiens noli-me-tangere
given to one of the species. The
plants abound in India.
Nat. Ord. 58.—Tropa:olack/E, the
Indian Cress, or Nasturtium order (Fig. 463).—Trailing or
twining herbs, with alter-
Fig. 462.
Capsule of Impa¬
tiens, with five re¬
curved valves,
which separate
with elasticity
from the central
placenta so as to
scatter the seeds.
nate, exstipulate, and pel¬
tate or palmate leaves.
Calyx spurred, formed by
five united sepals. Petals
five, the two upper aris¬
ing from the throat of the
calyx, remote from the
three lower unguiculate
petals. Stamens usually
eight, distinct. Ovary of
three united, one-seeded,
carpels. Fruit indehiscent, Fig. 463.
monospermal, carpidia se- SnCr^ofgarde^^as8-
paratinff from a common turtimn, with its coloured, spurred
1 . o j i, • (calcarate) calyx, and five petals,
axis. Seeds exalbummous, three of which are stalked.
filling the cells; embryo large. They are chiefly South
American plants. The properties of the order are acridity
and pungency, resembling in this respect some of the Cru-
ciferae. Tropceolum majus is the common Indian Cress, or
garden Nasturtium, the unripe fruit of which is pickled, and
used as a substitute for Capers. The roots of T. tuberosum
are eaten in Peru.
Nat. Ord. 59.—Limnanthaceas, the Limnanthes order.
—The plants of this order differ from Tropseolacese in their
regular flowers, their erect ovules, and in the tendency to
adhesion between the stamens and the calyx. Probably
the order should be placed among Perigynous Exogens.
It contains a few North American species, which have pro¬
perties similar to Indian Cresses.
Nat. Ord. 60.—Prrmsi’ORACEAC, the Pittosporum order.
—Trees or shrubs, with alternate, simple, exstipulate leaves.
Sepals and petals, 4-5, distinct, or slightly cohering. Sta¬
mens five ; anthers often porose. Ovary 2-5-celled ; style
one. Fruit, a capsule or berry. Seeds numerous, ana-
tropal, often covered with a resinous pulp; embryo minute,
in fleshy albumen. New Holland plants chiefly. They
have more or less resinous qualities. The berries of some
Billardieras are eatable. In Cheiranihera linearis the
anthers are thrown to one side, and have a hand-like
aspect.
Nat. Ord. 61.—Brexiacea:, the Brexia order.—Trees,
with alternate, simple, stipulate leaves, and green flowers in
axillary umbels. Calyx five-parted. Petals five, con¬
torted. Stamens five, arising from a narrow cup, with teeth
between them. Style one. Fruit drupaceous, five-cor¬
nered, five-celled, rough. Seeds numerous, albuminous.
Madagascar plants, of which little is known.
Nat. Ord. 62.—Zygophyllacea:, the Bean-caper and
Guaiacum order (Fig. 464).—Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with
opposite, stipulate, usually pinnate, not
dotted leaves. Calyx 4-5-parted, con¬
volute. Petals unguiculate, at first
minute, afterwards large, imbricate.
Stamens 8-10, often arising from the
back of scales. Ovary 4-5-celled, sur¬
rounded by glands or a disk; style
simple. Fruit usually a capsule, 4-5-
angled, opening in a loculicidal man¬
ner by 4-5 valves. Seeds usually al¬
buminous (Tribulus is exalbuminous);
embryo green. Bean-capers are ge¬
nerally distributed. Some are peculiar Gnaiaoum officinale, Gnai-
to America; others are found in ^a^Xtlshining
Europe, India, Africa, and New Hoi- leaves,
land. The plants have diaphoretic and anthelmintic pro¬
perties. The wood of the arborescent plants of the order is
very hard and durable. Guaiacum officinale {Lignum
Vita), a West Indian tree, supplies the resin called
Guaiac, which exudes from it spontaneously and after
incisions. The resin and the wood are stimulant and
diaphoretic. Zygophyllum Fabago, Bean-caper, is so called
on account of its flower-buds being used as substitutes for
Capers.
Nat. Ord. 63.—Rutacea:, the Rue order (Figs 465 and
Botany.
Fig. 464.
Fig. 465.
Fig. 46(5.
Fig. 465. Diagram of Ruta graveolens, common or garden Rue, showing five
divisions of the calyx, five twisted petals, ten stamens in two rows,
five divisions of the ovary with two ovules in each.
436. Flower of Rue, showing the hooded petals, the stamens, the hypogy-
nous punctated disk, and the ovary with its carpels; the flower
being pentamerous.
466).—Herbs, shrubs, and trees, with exstipulate dotted
leaves and perfect flowers. Calyx in 4-5 divisions. Pe¬
tals 4-5, occasionally 0. Stamens, as many, or twice, or
thrice as many, as the petals, placed outside a hypogynous
disk. Ovary, sessile or stalked, 3-5-lobed; styles united,
occasionally separated at the base, bruit of several car-
i
BOTANY.
Botany, pels, either combined, or more or less distinct, often sepa-
rating when ripe, and dehiscing by one or both sutures.
Seeds, one or two in each carpel; the true Ruteae (Euro¬
pean plants) have albuminous seeds, while the Diosmeae
(from the Cape and New Holland) have exalbuminous seeds.
The plants are found in Europe, Cape of Good Hope, New
Holland, and America. The order is characterized by its
peculiar penetrating odour. The plants are employed me¬
dicinally as antispasmodics, tonics, and febrifuges. The
leaves of Correa alba are used in Australia for tea. Dic-
tarnnus Fraxinella, False Dittany, abounds in volatile oil.
Diosmas are the Bucku or Buchu plants found at the Cape
of Good Hope, which are remarkable for their overpower¬
ing and penetrating odour, owing to the presence of a yel¬
lowish volatile oil. Galipea officinalis furnishes a tonic,
febrifugal bark called Angustura. Ruta graveolens, com¬
mon Rue, has antispasmodic properties.
Nat.Ord. 64.—Xanthoxylace^e, the Prickly-Ash order.
—Trees or shrubs, with exstipulate, dotted leaves, resembling
the Rutacese, and distinguished by their polygamous flowers.
They are chiefly found in tropical America. They have
pungent and aromatic qualities, and have been used medi¬
cinally as stimulants, sialagogues, and tonics. They yield
a volatile oil, and a bitter principle called Xanthopicrine.
Nat. Ord. 65.—Ochnace^, the Ochna order.—A small
group of undershrubs or trees allied to Rutacese, and dis¬
tinguished by their simple, dotless, stipulate leaves, and their
enlarged fleshy gynobase or torus. They are found in the
tropical parts of India, Africa, and America. The order is
characterized by bitter, tonic properties. The plants want
the aromatic qualities of the Rueworts.
Nat. Ord. 66.—Simakubacea:, the Quassia order (Fig.
467).—Trees or shrubs, with alter¬
nate, exstipulate, dotless, usually com¬
pound leaves. Calyx in four or five
divisions. Petals 4-5, imbricated. Sta¬
mens 8-10, arising from the back of
hypogynous scales. Ovary 4-5-lobed,
stipitate ; style simple. Fruit, con¬
sisting of 4-5 drupes arranged around
a common receptacle. Seeds, one in
each drupe, pendulous, anatropal, exal¬
buminous. Natives chiefly of the tro¬
pical parts of India, America, and
Africa. Bitterness prevails in this order,
the plants being used as tonics. Pi- Fig. 4G7.
Crasma (Picrcend) eXCelsa, BitterWOod, Quassia amara, true
is a large tree, the wood of which is nam-a, pl?hoVingSttfts
the common Quassia of the shops. It ^if^Fnge^peUoieT,
is bitter and tonic, and is sometimes and racemose flowers;
used as a substitute tor hops. Quassia consisting of five
amara, (Fig. 467) the true Quassia plant, commonSurr«cedpucie
is a tall shrub found in Surinam, having with a simple style,
pinnate leaves with winged petioles. Simaba Cedron is a
tree of New Grenada, which has long been celebrated
as an antidote to snake bites. The bark of the root of
Simaruba amara or officinalis is used as a substitute for
Quassia.
Note.—Apetalous species occur in the following Thalamifloral
orders:—Ranunculacese, Menispermaceae, Papaveracese, Fla-
courtiaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Sterculiaceas, Byttneriaceae, Tili-
aceae, Malpighiaceae, Geraniaceae, Rutaceae, Xanthoxylaceae.
Some species belonging to the orders Anonaceae and Rutaceae
are Gamopetalous.
%
SUB-CLASS II. CALYCIFLOILE.
1. Polppetalce, or Dialypetalce.
Nat.Ord. 67.—Stackiiousiace/E, the Stackhousia order.
—Herbs, occasionally shrubs, with simple, alternate, stipu¬
late leaves. Calyx five-cleft, tube inflated. Petals five,
arising from the top of the calycine tube, claws united.
Stamens five, distinct, perigynous. Styles 3-5. Fruit of
3-5 monospermal, indehiscent carpels, with a central column.
Seed anatropal, albuminous. The order contains a few New
Holland plants.
Nat. Ord. 68.—Celastraceas, the Spindle-tree order.
—Shrubs or trees, with alternate, rarely opposite, simple,
stipulate leaves. Sepals and petals 4-5, imbricate. Sta¬
mens 4-5, inserted on a large disk which surrounds the
ovary. Fruit superior, 2-5-celled capsular or drupaceous.
Seeds usually arillate, albuminous, with a large straight
embryo. Chiefly natives of the warm parts of Europe,
North America, and Asia; also of the Cape of Good Hope.
The order is more or less acrid, and some of the plants yield
oil. Catha edulis is the Kat or Khat of the Arabs, the
leaves of which are stimulant. Celastrus scandens has a pur¬
gative and emetic bark. Euomjmus europoeus, the common
Spindle-tree, has a beautiful scarlet arillode.
Nat. Ord. 69.—Staphvleacea:, the Bladder-nut order.
—Shrubs allied to Spindle-trees, and distinguished by their
compound leaves, with stipules and stipels, more or less
separate carpels, and a bony spermoderm. Some consider
them as having hypogynous stamens, and place them near
Sapindaceae. They are scattered over the globe. They
receive the name of Bladder-nut from the membranous
inflated fruit of some species, such as Staphylea pinnata.
Their bark is often bitter, while their seeds are oily and
acrid.
Nat. Ord. 70.—Chailletiace^e, the Chailletia order.—
Trees or shrubs with alternate stipulate leaves. Calyx 5-
parted; aestivation induplicato-valvate. Petals five, alter¬
nate with the divisions of the calyx, sometimes united ;
stamens five, with glands at their base. Ovary superior,
2- 3-celled ; ovules two, pendulous. Fruit 1-3-celled, dry.
Seeds solitary, exalbuminous. Natives of tropical America
and Africa, and of the East Indies. Chailletia toxicaria
has a poisonous fruit called Ratsbane in Sierra Leone.
Nat. Ord. 71.—Riiamnace^e, the Buckthorn order.—
Shrubs or trees, often spinose, with simple, alternate leaves,
and small flowers. Calyx 4-5-cleft, valvate. Petals 4-5,
cucullate or convolute, inserted on the throat of the calyx,
sometimes 0. Stamens 4-5, opposite the petals. Ovary
sometimes adherent to the calycine tube, immersed in a
fleshy disk ; ovules solitary. Fruit a capsule, berry, or
drupe. Seeds erect, albuminous, not arillate. Generally
distributed. The properties of the order are usually acrid
and purgative. Some are bitter, tonic, and astringent;
others yield dyes. The fruit of some is edible. Hovenia
dulcis is remarkable for the enlargement of its peduncles,
which become succulent, and are used as a fruit in China.
Rhamnus, Buckthorn, is the type of the order. R. ca
tharticus yields a cathartic fruit. Jujube paste is pre
pared from the fruit of Zizyphus Jujuba and vulgaris. Z.
Lotus is the Lote-bush, the fruit of which is used by the
Arabs.
Nat. Ord. 72.—Anacardiace.e, the Cashew order (Fig.
468).—Trees or shrubs, with alternate,
exstipulate, dotless leaves, and small,
sometimes unisexual, flowers. Sepals
3- 5, united. Petals 3-5, imbricate. Sta¬
mens equal in number to the petals,
and alternate with them, or twice as
many or more, perigynous or attached
to a disk. Ovary one-celled; styles and
stigmas usually three ; ovule solitary,
with a long curved cord attached to a Diagram of the flower of
basal placenta. Fruit indehiscent, a S’osfh0thenfa1yl,dfive
nut or drupe. Seed exalbuminous; em- imbricate petals, five
. , rpi j c . alternating stamens, a
bryo curved. I he order torms a part one-ceiied ovary, with a
of the Terebinthaceae of Jussieu. 80lltary ovmie-
Chiefly found in tropical America, Africa, and India.
Fig. 468.
190
BOTANY.
Botany. The plants abound in a resinous, or milky, acrid, and
poisonous juice, which often becomes black in drying. The
fruit, however, in some cases is eatable. Anacardium
* Pl.CXVI. occiGfe?ztafe, the Cashew-nut,* has a fleshy edible peduncle
supporting a nut, the kernel of which can be eaten, while
the pericarp is acrid. Mangifera indica produces the Mango,
a highly valued tropical drupaceous fruit. Pistacia Lentis-
cus and atlantica yield the resin called Mastich. P. Tere-
binthus, the Terebinth-tree, is the source of Chian turpen¬
tine. P. vera produces the Pistachio nut. Rhus Toxicoden¬
dron, the Poison-oak, has been used as a remedy in para¬
lysis. R. Cotinus, Venetian Sumach, often produces hairs
in place of flower-stalks (Fig 158), and is called the Wig-
tree. Its wood is known as young fustic.
Nat. Ord. 73.—AmyridacEvE, the Myrrh order.—Trees
or shrubs, with alternate or opposite compound, occasionally
stipulate and dotted leaves. Calyx 2-5-divided. Petals 3-5,
valvate. Stamens twice as many as the petals. Ovary 1-5-
celled, surrounded by an annular disk; ovules in pairs;
placenta apicilar. Fruit 1-5-celled, hard and dry; exocarp
splitting into valves. Seeds anatropal, exalbuminous. Some
consider the order as allied to Aurantiaceae. Natives of
tropical India, Africa, and America. The order abounds in
balsamic resin. Some of the plants are bitter, others poi¬
sonous. Amyris hexandra and A. Plumieri are two of
the sources whence Elemi is procured. Balsamodendron
Myrrha, or an allied species, appears to be the source of the
Myrrh of commerce, which is an aromatic, bitter gum-resin,
containing volatile oil. Boswellia thurifera (serrata) and
B. glabra supply Olibanum.
Nat. Ord. 74.—Connarace^e, the Connarus order.—
Trees or shrubs with alternate, compound, dotless, and
usually exstipulate leaves. Calyx 5-parted, imbricate. Pe¬
tals 5, usually imbricate. Stamens 10, perigynous or hypo-
gynous, opposite the petals, usually united. Carpels one or
more; style terminal; ovules 2, orthotropal. Fruit folli¬
cular. Seeds with or without albumen, often arillate. Tro¬
pical American plants. The aril of some Omphalobiums is
eaten, and Zebra-wood is furnished by O. Lamberti.
Nat. Ord. 75.—Leguminosas or FabacevE,* the Legu¬
minous order (Figs. 469 to
471).—Herbs, shrubs, or trees,
with alternate, usually com- >
pound, stipulate leaves (Figs. »^ 'l(i¥ « V'
129, 130). Calyx 5-divided,
hypogynous, odd segment in¬
ferior (anterior). Petals
usually five, sometimes one or
more abortive, papilionaceous Diain-a.mofthe papilionaceous flower
(Figs. 221 and 222) or re- ^
grular, odd petal (if any) supe- anterior, five irregular petals, con-
. / , • \ , ‘ ' , sisting of vexillum, two alee and
nor (posterior). Stamens de- carinse, the odd petal being^ pos-
finite or indefinite, perigynous,
rarely hypogynous, distinct or
united in one or more bundles (Figs. 470). Ovary supe¬
rior, one-celled, one or many-seeded, sometimes consisting
* Plate
CXVII.
terior, ten stamens, diadelphous,
and a one-celled ovary, which be¬
comes the legume in fruit.
Fig. 470.
Fig. 471.
Fig. 470. Section of the flower of Lathyrus, showing the essential organs in¬
closed in the carina, and the vexillum above.
... 4il. Flower of Cercis Siliquastrum, Judas-tree, showing the vexillum or
upper petal interior, as in the sub-order Csesalpiniese.
of one carpel (Fig. 272), sometimes of two or five. Style and
stigma simple. Fruit a legume (Fig. 274), or a drupe.
Seeds w ith or without albumen ; embryo with large coty¬
ledons (Fig. 61). The order is a very extensive one, and
the plants belonging to it are found in all parts of the world. '
They are most abundant in warm regions, and diminish on
approaching the poles. Leguminous plants have been di¬
vided iuto three sub-orders.—Sub-order 1. Papilionaceae,
petals papilionaceous, imbricate, upper one exterior (Fig.
221). Sub-order 2. Csesalpineae, petals imbricated, upper
one interior (Fig. 471). Sub-order 3. Mimoseae, petals val¬
vate in aestivation.
The properties of the order are very various. Some are
nutritious, others tonic ana astringent, others purgative,
and some poisonous. The plants supply timber, fibres,
gums, dyes, and various other economical articles. Among
the plants of the order may be noticed Beans, Peas, Len¬
tils, Kidney-beans, and Pulse of various kinds, Lupins,
Clover, Lucerne, Medick, Saintfoin, Liquorice, Traga-
canth, Indigo, Kino. The greater number are more or
less nutritious or wholesome. There are, however, some
poisonous plants, as Coronilla varia, the seeds and bark
of Laburnum, the Calabar bean, and others. JEschynomene
paludosa supplies Indian Rice-paper, the Shola of India.
Astragalus gummifer, verus, and other species, furnish Gum
Tragacanth. Butea frondosa, the Dhak-tree or Pulas of
India, yields a kind of Kino. Glycyrrkiza glabra supplies
Liquorice-root. Indigofer a tinctoria, and I. ccerulea, supply
the Indigo of commerce. The Legumes of Mucuna pru-
riens andprurita, Cowitch, are covered with irritating hairs,
which are used mixed with syrup as a vermifuge. Myro-
spermum peruiferum yields the Balsam of Peru, and M. tolui-
ferum that of Tolu. Pterocarpus Marsupium, an Indian tree,
is the source of Malabar Kino. Ccesalpinia brasiliensis
furnishes the Brazil-wood. Divi-divi, or Libi-divi, is the
twisted legumes of C. coriaria, which are used in tanning.
Species of Cassia, such as C. acutifolia, lanceolata, elongata,
and obovata, furnish the various kinds of Senna. Ceratonia
Siliqua, the Algaroba-bean or Carob-tree, has an edible
legume, which is used as food for horses. Various species
ot Copaifera yield the West Indian and Brazilian Balsam of
Copaiva. Hcematoxylon campechianum, the Logwood-tree,
is used as a dye. Tamarindus indica, the Tamarind-tree, con¬
tains in its pod a laxative pulp, which isa secretion from the en-
docarp. Various species of Acacia, such as A. Ehrenbergii, tor-
tilis, vera, and arabica, yield Gum Arabic and Gum Senegal.
Nat. Ord. 76.—Moringaceae, the Moringa order.—This
order is considered as allied to Leguminosae, the plants
differing chiefly in their petaloid sepals, stamens arising from
a perigynous disk, a pod-like capsular fruit with three valves,
three parietal placentas, and loculicidal dehiscence, with the
seeds buried in the substance of the valves. Trees with
pinnate or tripinnate leaves, found in the East Indies and in
Arabia. The properties of the order are usually stimulant
and pungent. Some
species yield a fragrant
oil. Moringa pterygos-
perma, Horse - radish
tree, has winged seeds.
Its root has the taste
of Horse-radish, and
its seeds are called
Ben - nuts, supplying
Ben-oil, used by per¬
fumers and watch¬
makers.
Nat. Ord. 77.—Ro¬
sacea, the Rose order
(Figs. 472 to 474).— Fig. 472.
Trees, shrubs, or herbs, Diagram of the flower of the Strawberry, show-
. , , 1, ing five outer calycine segments (epicalyx)
with alternate, usually five inner segments, odd one superior, five
Stipulate leaves, and petals, numerous stamens and carpels.
regular, rarely unisexual, flowers. Calyx 4-5-lobed, some¬
times calyculate, fifth lobe posterior. Petals 5 (Fig. 220),
Botany
f
B 0 T
Botany, rarely 0. Stamens definite or indefinite. Disk lining
■ the tube of the calyx, or surrounding its orifice. Ovaries
solitary or several, one-celled, with one or few anatropal
ovules. Styles lateral (Figs. 288, 473), or terminal. Fruit
achenes (Fig. 474), drupes (Fig. 302), follicles (Fig. 273),
or pomes (Fig. 325). Seeds one or more, exalbuminous,
with a straight embryo having flat cotyledons. This order
is generally distributed over the globe, but the species are
most abundant in temperate climates, where they supply
many important fruits. The following are the divisions of
the order:—Sub-order 1. Chrysobalaneae, trees or shrubs,
carpel solitary, cohering more or less to one side of the calyx,
ovules two, erect, style basilar, fruit a drupe, stipules not
united to the petiole. Ex. Chrysobalanus. Sub-order 2.
Amygdaleae, or Drupiferae, trees or shrubs, with a decidu¬
ous calyx-tube, carpel solitary, free, style terminal, fruit a
drupe, stipules not united to the petiole. Ex. Arnygdalus,
Primus. Sub-order 3. Rosese, herbs and shrubs, carpels
not adhering to the tube of the calyx, styles terminal or
lateral, fruit achenes or follicles, stipules united to the petiole.
Under this sub-order there are four tribes :—Tribe 1. Spir-
aeidae, fruit a whorl of follicles, not inclosed within the calycine
tube (Fig. 273). Ex. Spircea. Tribe 2. Potentillidae (Dry-
adese of some), calyx-tube short or nearly flat, not inclosing
the fruit; fruit achenes or drupes (acini), five or more, upon a
flat or convex receptacle (Fig. 474 and 184). Ex. Rubus,
Fragaria, Potentilla. Tribe 3. Sanguisorbidae, achenes
1-2, inclosed within the dry calyx-tube, petals often 0
(Fig. 473). Ex. Alchemilla. Tribe 4. Rosidae, achenes
numerous, inclosed within the fleshy calycine tube, which
is contracted at the orifice (Fig. 185). Ex. Rosa. Sub¬
order 3. Pomeae, trees or shrubs, carpels 1 -5, adhering more
or less to the tube of the calyx and to each other; fruit a
pome ; stipules not united to the petiole (Fig. 325). Ex.
Pyrus.
Astringent properties are exhibited by the bark and
root of most of the plants of the order. Prussic acid
occurs in the sub-orders Amygdaleae and Pomeae. Many
of the plants supply edible fruits, such as the Apple, Pear,
Quince, Medlar, Loquat, Plum, Cherry, Peach. Chryso¬
balanus Icaco, the Cocoa-plum, is a West Indian stone-
fruit. Amygdalus communis, the Almond-tree, is a native
of Asia and Barbary, and is cultivated extensively to the
south of Europe. There are two varieties,—one producing
sweet, and the other bitter almonds. The kernels of the
former contain a fixed oil and emulsine, while those of the
latter contain in addition a nitrogenous substance called
Amygdaline, which, by combination with emulsine, produces
a volatile oil and Prussic acid. Cerasus Laurocerasus,
Cherry-laurel, or common Bay-laurel, yields a hydrocyanated
oil. Primus communis is the source of the common Plum.
Brayera anthelmintica, Cusso or Kousso, an Abyssinian
plant, is used as a vermifuge. Rosa centifolia, the common
ANY.
Cabbage-rose, and its varieties R. damascena and R. mos-
chata, yield a fragrant essential oil, called Attar of Roses,
which is distilled from the petals.
Nat. Ord. 78.—Calycanthace^e, the Calycanthus or¬
der.—Shrubs with quadrangular stems, having four woody
axes surrounding the central one, opposite, entire, exstipu-
late leaves, and solitary lurid flowers. Calyx of numerous
coloured sepals confounded with the petals, and all united
below into a fleshy tube, bearing numerous stamens on its
rim. Outer stamens extrorse; inner, sterile. Ovaries
several, one-celled, adherent to the calycine tube; ovules
one or two. Fruit, achaenia inclosed by the calyx. Seed
exalbuminous ; cotyledons convolute. The plants are found
in North America and Japan. Their flowers have an aro¬
matic fragrance, and their bark is sometimes used as a car¬
minative. Calycanthusfloridus, Carolina Allspice, furnishes
a bark which is sometimes used in place of Cinnamon.
Nat. Ord. 79.—Lythrace^e, the Loosestrife order.—
Herbs, rarely shrubs, often with quadrangular branches, with
usually opposite, and entire exstipulate leaves. Among the
allied exalbuminous perigynous orders it is distinguished by
its tubular calyx inclosing a 2-6-celled ovary which is free
from it, its united styles, membranous capsular fruit, and
stamens inserted on the calycine tube below the petals.
The plants are chiefly tropical; some are found in Europe
and in North America. Astringency is met with in many
plants of the order. Some of them furnish dyes. Lawso-
nia inermis is the Henna or Alkanna of Cyprus and Egypt,
which is used in the East for dyeing the nails, the palms
of the hand, and the soles of the feet, of an iron-rust
colour.
Nat. Ord. 80.—Rhizophoracea:, the Mangrove order.—
Trees or shrubs, with simple, opposite leaves, having deci¬
duous interpetiolary stipules. Calyx adherent, with 4-12
valvate lobes. Petals 4-12. Stamens twice or thrice as
many. Ovary 2-4-celled, with 2 pendulous ovules in each
cell. Fruit monospermal, indehiscent, crowned by the calyx.
Seed exalbuminous; embryo germinating in the pericarp.
The plants grow in the unhealthy maritime swamps of
the tropics. Mangroves have usually astringent barks, em¬
ployed as febrifuges and for tanning. Some are used for
dyeing black. Rhizophora Mangle, the Mangrove tree
(Fig. 67), has remarkable aerial roots. Its bark is used for
tanning.
Nat. Ord. 81.—Vochysiacea:, the Vochysia order.—
Trees or shrubs, with their young branches often quadran¬
gular, leaves entire, usually opposite and stipulate. Sepals
4-5, upper one spurred. Petals 1-5, unequal. Stamens 1-5.
Fruit a triquetrous, 3-celled capsule, with a central placenta.
Seeds exalbuminous, usually winged. Found in equinoctial
America. Some of the plants are timber trees.
Nat. Ord. 82.—Comb retag EvE, the Myrobalan order.—
Trees or shrubs, with alternate or opposite, entire, exstipu¬
late leaves, often apetalous. They are distinguished from
the orders near them by their one-celled ovary, containing
2-4 suspended ovules, but only a single seed in the fruit, and
convolute cotyledons. Natives of tropical regions. The
plants of this order have astringent properties. Some species
are cultivated for ornament; others yield timber. Ternii-
nalia belerica, and T. Chebula, yield the astringent fruit
known by the name of Myrobalans.
Nat. Ord. 83.—Melastomacea:, the Melastoma order.—
Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with opposite, ribbed leaves, and
showy flowers. The anthers are long, rostrate, and bent
down parallel to the filaments in aestivation, lying in spaces
between the calyx and ovary. The plants diifer from Ly-
thraceae in the calyx-lobes not being valvate, and from Myr-
taceae in the leaves not being dotted. Memecylon has some¬
times been made the type of a separate order on account of
its adherent calyx, ribless leaves, and convolute cotyledons.
The plants of this order are chiefly tropical. They possess.
191
Botany.
/
ii
192
BOTANY.
Botany. a slight degree of astringency. Some yield dyes, others
edible fruits. None are poisonous.
Nat. Ord. 84.—Alangiace^e, the Alangium order.—
Trees or shrubs, with branches often spiny, leaves entire,
alternate, exstipulate, and without dots. Calyx adherent,
5-10-toothed. Petals 5-10, linear, reflexed. Stamens equal
in number to the petals, or two or four times as many ; fila¬
ments villous at the base; anthers adnate, linear. Fruit a
drupe adherent to the calyx. Seed anatropal, pendulous,
albuminous; cotyledons flat. Natives of India and North
America. Many of the plants supply timber ; others have
edible fruits. Some are aromatic.
Nat. Ord. 85.—Philadelphace^:, the Syringa order.—
Shrubs, with opposite, deciduous, exstipulate, dotless leaves.
Calyx adherent, 4-10-lobed, valvate. Petals alternate with
the calycine segments. Stamens indefinite. Styles distinct
or united. Fruit a half-inferior 4-10-celled capsule, with an
axile placenta. Seeds albuminous. The species are scat¬
tered over Europe, North America, and India. The flowers
of Philadelphus coronarius, common garden Syringa, have
an overpowering odour, and yield an oil. It is called Mock
Orange in America. The leaves of the plant taste like
Cucumbers. The leaves of the species of Deutzia, espe¬
cially D- scabra, are covered with beautiful star-like hairs
or scales.
Nat. Ord. 86.—Myrtace^e, the Myrtle order (Fig. 475).
Trees or shrubs, with entire, exstipulate, usually opposite
and dotted leaves, often having an intramarginal vein. Calyx
adherent (Fig. 476), cleft, sometimes operculate. Petals
Fig. 475.
Fig. 476.
Fig. 475. Diagram of the flower of Myrtns, showing five segments of the calyx,
five petals with quineuncial eestivation, numerous stamens, a three-
celled ovary with seeds attached to a central placenta.
... 476. Flower of the Myrtle cut vertically, showing adherent calyx, sepa¬
rate petals, numerous stamens inserted into the calyx, inferior
ovary with ovules and a simple style.
4-5, sometimes none. Stamens usually oo with long fila¬
ments and ovate anthers. Style simple. Fruit baccate in
true Myrtese and capsular in Leptospermeae. Seeds usually
numerous, exalbuminous. Tropical and sub-tropical plants.
The plants of this order are generally aromatic, and yield a
pungent volatile oil. Some of them are astringent, others
yield gummy and saccharine matter. The unexpanded
flower-buds of Carnophyllus aromaticus constitute the Cloves
of commerce. Eugenia Pimenta bears an aromatic fruit,
having the flavour of Cloves, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg, and
which, when dried, constitutes Allspice, Pimento, or Jamaica
Pepper. The leaves of Melaleuca minor furnish the green
pungent oil of Cajeput. Species of Psidium supply the fruit
called the Guava. Punica Granatum yields the Pomegra¬
nate.
Nat. Ord. 87.—Cham^elauciacEvE, the Fringe-Myrtle
order.—Small heath-like bushes, with evergreen leaves
abounding in oil. Allied to Myrtaceae, but differing in their
fringed or feathery calyx, sterile staminal row, and I -celled
ovary. They are fragrant New Holland plants.
Nat. Ord. 88.—Lecythidace^e, the Monkey-pot order.
—Large trees, with stipulate leaves and showy flowers.
Allied to Myrtaceae, but distinguished by their large almond¬
like seeds, their alternate, dotless leaves, and by their sta¬
mens being in part collected into a hooded plate. The fruit
Fig. 478.
Diagram of the male flower
of the Melon, showing
five divisions of the ca¬
lyx, five imbricate seg¬
ments of the corolla, five
stamens with sinuous
anthers, four of the sta¬
mens being united in
pairs, and the fifth one
free ; in the centre is
seen the abortive ovary.
Petals 4-5, usually
is a woody capsule, often with circumscissile dehiscence Botany
(Fig. 311). Natives of the warm regions of South America. v*
Many of the plants yield edible seeds. Their seed-vessels
are sometimes used as cups and bowls, and their wood is
put to economic uses. The seeds of Bertholletia excelsa
are the Brazil or Castanha nuts of the shops. Lecythis
ollaria is one of the largest trees in the Brazilian forests.
Its seed-vessel receives the name of Monkey-pot. The
seeds are called Sapucaya nuts.
Nat. Ord. 89.—Barringtoniace-E, the Barringtonia
order.—Trees or shrubs referred by most authors to the
Myrtle alliance, but distinguished by the presence of a large
quantity of albumen, alternate, dotless, and often serrated
leaves. The fruit is pulpy. Natives of the tropics. The
bark of some of the plants is bitter and tonic.
Nat. Ord. 90.—Onagrace-e, the Evening-Primrose order
(Fig. 477).—Herbs or shrubs, with alter¬
nate or opposite, simple, exstipulate, dot¬
less leaves, and showy tetramerous
flowers. Calyx superior, tubular, limb
4-lobed, valvate. Petals usually 4,
twisted in aestivation. Stamens epigynous,
generally 4 or 8 ; pollen triangular (Fig.
269). Ovary 2-4-celled ; styles united;
stigma capitate or 4-lobed. Fruit capsu¬
lar or baccate. Seeds exalbuminous.
Chiefly natives of the temperate parts ot
America. The plants of this order have
mucilaginous and astringent properties.
Some yield edible roots and fruits.
Fuchsia is remarkable for its coloured
calyx and succulent subacid fruit. (Eno-
thera, Evening Primrose, is so called, be¬
cause many of the species open their
flowers at night.
Nat. Ord. 91.—Halorageaceas, the
Hippuris or Mare’s-tail order.—Herbs
or undershrubs, often aquatic, with al¬
ternate, opposite, or whorled leaves, and
small, frequently incomplete flowers.
They may be regarded as an imperfect,
form of Onagraceae, from which they are F.g 4_7
distinguished by their minute calyx, and Flower of Epiiobinm,
their solitary pendulous seeds. They are po,n‘ke ovary'"aA
frequently apetalous, and the stamens are herent to the tube of
sometimes reduced to one. i bey are nous petals and sta-
found in all quarters of the globe. Some ™"es’ ^
of the plants of the order yield edible lobed stigma,
seeds; others have a fragrant odour. Trapa natans, the
Water-Chestnut, furnishes edible seeds. T. bicornis has a
remarkable horned fruit like the head of a bull.
Nat. Ord. 92.—Loasaceae, the Loasa or Chili-Nettle
order.—Herbs with rigid or stinging hairs, opposite or al¬
ternate, exstipulate leaves, and showy
flowers. Calyx adherent, limb 4-5-
parted. Petals 5 or 10, often cucul-
late. Stamens oo, distinct or united
in bundles. Ovary 1-celled, with se¬
veral parietal placentas ; style single.
Fruit capsular or succulent. Seeds
albuminous. American plants, some
of which receive the name of Chili-
Nettles on account of the stinging pro¬
perty of their hairs.
Nat. Ord. 93.—Cucurbitace^e, the
Gourd order (Figs. 478 to 480).—Suc¬
culent climbing plants, with extra-
axillary tendrils (in place of stipules),
alternate, palmately-veined, scabrous
leaves, and unisexual flowers. Calyx
adherent, limb 5-toothed or obsolete.
BOTANY.
193
Botany, united, reticulated. Stamens generally o, distinct or com-
bined ; anthers long and sinuous. Ovary 1-celled, inferior,
with 3 parietal placentas; stigmas thick, dilated or fringed.
Fruit a pepo (Fig. 324). Seeds flat, exalbuminous; cotyle¬
dons leafy. Chiefly natives of hot countries; they abound
in India and South America. The plants of the order
may be said in general to possess a certain degree of acri¬
dity, which is sometimes so marked as to give rise to
drastic purgative qualities. In many cases, however, as in the
Melon, the Cucumber, the Vegetable Marrow, Gourd, Pump¬
kin, and Squash, the fruit is edible when cultivated. The seeds
are usually harmless. Bryonia alha and B. dioica have
large roots, which are powerful purgatives. Citrullus (Cucu-
mis) Colocynthis, Coloquintida, or Bitter Apple (Fig. 480),
i'ig. 479. Diagram of tlie female flower of the Melon, showing a similar ar¬
rangement of the floral envelopes, as in fig. 478, an abortive circle
of stamens, and the ovary, with three parietal curved placentaries
sending processes towards the centre.
... 480. Citrullus or Cucumis Colocynthis, the Colocynth plant, with its pal-
mately-veined leaves, cirrhose stipules on one side of the leaf, and
a pulpy fruit or Pepo.
has a round fruit, the pulp of which is the Colocynth of the
shops. Cucumis sativus, yields the common Cucumber; C.
Melo, the Common Melon ; Cucurbita Citrullus, the Wa¬
ter Melon, and C. ovifera, Vegetable Marrow. Ecbalium
purgans (Momordica Elaterium), is called Squirting Cu¬
cumber, on account of the elastic mode in which its seeds
are scattered. The feculence deposited from the juice of
the fruit constitutes the hydragogue cathartic called Ela¬
terium.
j * Plate Nat. Ord. 94.—Papataceje, the Papaw order* (Fig.
Evni5 481).—Trees or shrubs often having
° ' 'an acrid milky juice, with alternate,
lobed, long-petioled leaves, and uni¬
sexual flowers. The plants are dis¬
tinguished from Cucurbitacese by not
climbing, and by having a free ovary
with 5 placentas and albuminous seeds.
The natural order Pangiacese may be
included, which differs only in having
a polypetalous corolla and scales at¬
tached to the throat of the female
flower. Papayacese are chiefly found
in South America; Pangiaceae in In¬
dia. Many of the Papaw-worts have
an acrid milky juice, while the Pan-
giads are poisonous. Carica Papaya
(Fig. 481), the Papaw-tree, has an
edible fruit.
Nat. Ord. 95.—Bei.yisiacea:, the
Belvisia order.—Shrubs, w ith simple,
alternate, leathery, exstipulate leaves.
Calyx, a thick coriaceous cup, with 5 segments, valvate.
Corolla of 3 distinct gamopetalous rings, the first being
large and conspicuous, and consisting of 5 lobes, each wnth
7 ribs and 7 teeth, the second being a narrow membrane
cut into sharp pointed segments, the third being an incon¬
spicuous membranous cup finely cut. Stamens 20, in an
erect cup-like form, unequally united. Disk fleshy, cup¬
like, covering the ovary, and standing as high as the stigma.
YCL, V.
Carica Papaya, the Pa¬
paw-tree, belonging to
the natural order Pa-
payacese. It is a South
American tree, with
large lobed leaves sup¬
ported on long petioles.
The fruit is borne at the
upper part of the stem.
Ovary 5-celled; ovules 2 in each cell, suspended from an
axile placenta ; style and stigma pentagonal. Fruit a large
round berry crowned by the calyx. Seeds large and reni-
fbrm. Natives of tropical Africa. The pulp of the fruit
is eatable, and the rind contains so much tannin as to be
used for making ink; the wood is soft, and contains nume¬
rous dotted vessels. Bentham considers the order as a
section of Myrtaceae, while Bindley considers it as allied to
Rhizophoraceae.
Nat. Ord. 96.—PassifloraceuE, the Passion-flower
order.—Herbs or shrubs usually climbing by tendrils, with
alternate, stipulate, sometimes glandular leaves. Calyx of
5 sepals, united below, the throat bearing 5 petals and fila¬
mentous or annular processes. Stamens 5, monadelphous,
surrounding the gynophore ; anthers extrorse. Ovary free
from the calyx, 1-celled; styles 3, club-shaped. Fruit
mostly fleshy, stalked, 1 -celled, with 3 parietal polyspermous
placentas. Seeds albuminous, arillate. They are com¬
mon in tropical America. Astringent and narcotic qua¬
lities appear to prevail in the order. Many of the spe¬
cies, however, produce edible fruits. Passiflora quadran-
gularis produces the granadilla, a well-known West Indian
fruit.
Nat. Ord. 97.—Homaliacea:, the Homalium order.—
Trees or shrubs with alternate leaves with or without sti¬
pules. Calyx infundibuliform, with 5-15 divisions. Petals
equal in number to the segments of the calyx and alternate
with them. Stamens arising from the base of the petals,
either singly or in bundles of 3 or 6. Ovary adherent,
1-celled; ovules numerous, pendulous; placentas 3-5,
parietal ; styles 3-5. Fruit a capsule or berry. Seeds
albuminous. Tropical plants of India, Africa, and America,
having astringent properties.
Nat. Ord. 98.—Turnerace^e, the Turnera order.—
Herbs, sometimes shrubby plants, having a Cistus-like
habit, with alternate, exstipulate, pubescent leaves. Calyx
5-lobed, bearing 5 petals and 5 stamens. Ovary free,
1-celled, with 3 parietal placentas and 3 styles which are
often forked or multifid at the apex. Fruit a 3-valved cap¬
sule. Seeds albuminous, strophiolate at one side. The
plants have astringent, tonic, and occasionally aromatic
qualities, and are natives of South America and the West
Indies.
Nat. Ord. 99.—Portulacaceae, the Purslane order.—
Succulent herbs or shrubs, with alternate or opposite, en¬
tire, exstipulate leaves. Calyx of 2 coherent sepals. Petals
5. Stamens variable in number, sometimes opposite the
petals; anthers versatile. Ovary 1-celled, formed of 3
united carpels. Fruit capsular, usually dehiscent by valves
or by a lid. Seeds numerous, albuminous, attached to a
central placenta; embryo peripherical. This order has
the stamens sometimes hypogynous, and it has been
placed near Caryophyllaceae by some authors. The plants
are found in dry places, in various parts of the world,
more particularly in South America and at the Cape of
Good Hope. Esculent and antiscorbutic qualities pre¬
vail in tbe order. Some have showy flowers which are
ephemeral.
Nat. Ord. 100. IlLECEBRACEAE or PARONYCHIACEiE,
the Knotwort order.—Herbaceous or suffruticose plants,
with opposite or alternate, often clustered, sessile, entire,
stipulate leaves, and minute flowers. Sepals 3-5, distinct
or cohering. Petals small, sometimes 0. Stamens oppo¬
site the sepals, if equal to them in number. Ovary supe¬
rior ; styles 2-5. Fruit dry, 1-3-celled, indehiscent or
opening by 3 .valves. Seeds either numerous and attached
to a free axile placenta, or solitary and pendulous from a
cord attached to a basal placenta. Seeds albuminous ; em¬
bryo curved. This order is by some placed near Caryo-
phyllaceae, from which it differs in the presence of scarious
stipules and in its perigynous stamens. The plants are
2 u
Botany.
194
BOTANY.
Pig. 482.
Botany, natives chiefly of barren places in the south of Europe and
north of Africa, and their properties are astringent.
Nat. Ord. 101.—Crassulace^e,
the Stonecrop order (Fig. 482 and
Fig. 217).—Succulent herbs or
shrubs, with exstipulate leaves and
cymose, often secund flowers. Se¬
pals 3-20, more or less combined.
Petals 3-20, separate or united.
Stamens equal in number to the
petals, or twice as many. Carpels
1-celled, of the same number as
the petals, having hypogynous scales
attheirbase. Fruit follicular. Seeds Diagram of Sedum, Stonecrop,
niimprmin nlbnmmous bJatlVCS of showing five sepals, fi\e pe-
numerous, aiuumuiuus. rMctuves taiS; ten stamens in two rows,
dry places in all parts of the world. and five carpels with hypo-
i i r gynous scales.
Acridity prevails in many plants ot
this order. Some species are refrigerant, others astringent.
Bryophyllum calycinum has a gamopetalous corolla, and
produces marginal buds on its leaves (Fig. 141). Sedum
Telephium has been employed in diarrhoea as an astringent.
S. acre, Biting Stonecrop, possesses acridity, and has emetic
and purgative properties.
Nat. Ord. 102.—Mesembryanthemaceje or Ficoide.e,
the Fig-Marigold order.—Succulent shrubs or herbs, with
opposite simple leaves and often showy flowers. Sepals
4-8, more or less united. Petals and stamens go. Cap¬
sule usually many-celled, opening in a stellate manner ;
placenta central or parietal. Seeds numerous, albuminous ;
embryo curved or spiral. Natives ot the hot sandy plains
of the Cape of Good Hope ; a few also are found in Eu¬
rope, South America, and China. Some of the plants
are esculent, others furnish alkaline matter, while a few
are diuretic. Mesembryanthemum crystallinum is called
the Ice-plant, on account of the watery vesicles on its
surface.
Nat. Ord. 103.—Tetragoniace^e, the Tetragonia order.
—Succulent plants nearly allied to Fig-Marigolds, but dif¬
fering in the want of petals and in having definite stamens.
The fruit is either an indehiscent nut or a pyxidium. They
are found in the South Sea Islands, the Mediterranean, and
the Cape of Good Hope. Many of them are saline, others
are esculent. Tetragonia expansa is used as Spinage in
New Zealand.
Nat. Ord. 104.—Cactace^e, the Cactus order (Figs.
Eig. 483.
Fig. 484.
Fig. 483. Opuntia vulgaris, Prickly Pear, or Indian Fig, with its succulent
jointed stem and stellate spines.
... 484. Diagram of the flower of Opuntia, showing numerous sepals and
petals, which pass insensibly into each other, indefinite stamens
(often 300 or 400). and a one-celled ovary formed of several carpels,
with parietal placentas.
483 and 484).—Succulent often spiny herbs, with remark¬
able stems, which are angular, two-edged, or leafy, and
have their woody matter often arranged in a wedge-like
manner. Calyx of numerous sepals combined and epigy-
nous. Petals indefinite. Stamens oc, with long filaments.
Ovary 1-celled, with parietal placentas; style single; Botany,
stigmas several. Fruit baccate. Seeds exalbuminous.
Natives of America. The fruit of many of the Indian
Figs is subacid and refreshing. In some instances, it is
sweetish and insipid. The stems of some of the species are
eaten by cattle. The plants of the Cactus tribe present
remarkable stems; sometimes spherical (Fig. 142), some¬
times articulated or jointed (Fig. 483), and sometimes as¬
suming the form of a tall upright polygonal column. Cereus
grandiftorus is a night-flowering plant, so is also C. nycti-
calus and some other species. Opuntia cochinellifera, the
Nopal plant, affords nourishment to the Coccus Cacti or
Cochineal insect in Mexico and Peru.
Nat. Ord. 105.—Grossulariace^e, the Gooseberry
order.—Shrubs which are either spiny or prickly or un¬
armed, with alternate palmately-lobed leaves without true
stipules. Calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, limb 4-5-
lobed, sometimes coloured. Petals small, 5. Stamens 5.
Ovary 1-celled, with 2 parietal placentas; styles more or
less united. Fruit a berry, crowned with the remains of
the flower, with two parietal placentas (Fig. 323). Seeds
numerous, albuminous; embryo minute. Natives of the
temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and America. Whole¬
some plants, furnishing often edible fruits, containing malic
and other organic acids. Ribes Grossularia, the Gooseberry ;
R. nigrum, the Black Currant; R. rubrum, the Red Cur¬
rant, furnish valuable fruits.
Nat. Ord. 106.—Escalloniacea;, the Escallonia order
—Evergreen shrubs, often odoriferous, with alternate exsti¬
pulate leaves, allied to the last order, and differing from it
in their capsular bicarpellary fruit, epigynous disk, axile
placentas, and oily albumen. By some they are placed
among Saxifrages, from which they differ in their simple
style and oily albumen. Natives chiefly of South America.
Escallonias attain a high elevation on the mountains.
Nat. Ord. 107.—Saxifragace.e, the Saxifrage order
(Fig. 485).—Herbs with alternate leaves. Calyx of 4-5
more or less cohering sepals. Petals
5 or 0. Stamens 5-10. Ovary
more or less completely inferior,
consisting of 2 carpels which di¬
verge at the apex. Fruit a 1 or
2-celled capsule. Seeds nume¬
rous; embryo straight in fleshy
albumen. Natives of northern
alpine districts. Their properties
are astringent. Heuchera ameri-
cana is called alum-root on ac¬
count of its astringency.
Nat. Ord. 108.—Hydrange-
aceas, the Hydrangea order.—
Shrubs with simple exstipulate leaves, often considered as
a sub-order of Saxifragaceae, but differing in their opposite
leaves, their tendency to form abortive radiant flowers, and
in the carpels being often more than two. Natives of the
temperate regions of Asia and America. Hydrangeas from
China and Japan are commonly cultivated. Some of the
species are used instead of Tea.
Nat. Ord. 109.—Cunoniaceas, the Cunonia order.—
Trees or shrubs allied to Saxifragaceae, and differing in
their shrubby growth, opposite leaves, and interpetiolar
stipules. The latter character separates them from Hy¬
drangeas, which are exstipulate. Natives ot the Cape of
Good Hope, South America, the East Indies, and Aus¬
tralia. Their properties are astringent.
Nat. Ord. 110.—Bruniaceai, the Brunia order.—Heath-
like shrubs, with small, rigid, entire leaves. Calyx usually
superior, 5-cleft. Petals and stamens 5$ anthers extroise.
Ovary 1-3-celled, with 1-2 suspended ovules in each cell;
style simple or bifid. Fruit either dehiscent and 2-celled,
or indehiscent and 1-celled. Seeds solitary or in pairs;
Diagram of the flower of Saxi-
fraga tridactylites, with 5 di¬
visions of the calyx, 5 petals,
10 stamens in 2 rows, and a
bicarpellary pistil with nu¬
merous ovules.
BOTANY.
195
Botany.
^Plates
CXIX.,
CXX., and
CXXI.
embryo minute, in fleshy albumen. Natives chiefly of the
Cape of Good Hope.
Nat. Ord. 111.—IIamamelidacea;, the Witch-Hazel
order.—Trees or shrubs, with alternate, feather-veined
leaves, having deciduous stipules. Calyx 4-5-divided.
Petals 4, 5, or 0. Stamens 8; anthers introrse. Ovary
2-celled, inferior; ovules solitary or several; styles 2. Fruit
a 2-valved loculicidal capsule. Seeds pendulous, albu¬
minous. Natives of North America, Asia, and Africa.
Rhodoleia Championi is a showy plant, with red involucral
leaves, found in China. Hamamelis virginica furnishes
edible oily seeds.
Nat. Ord. 112.—Umbellifera: or Apiace.e, the Um¬
belliferous order,* (Figs. 486, 487).—Herbs with solid or
03__/
Fig. 487.
Fig. 486,
Fig. 486. Diagram of the flower of Foeniculum vulgare, common Fennel. The
calyx limb is obsolete; there are 5 petals, 5 alternating stamens,
and a cremocarp consisting of two achenes or mericarps united by
their faces, with 5 primary ridges or juga, and valleculse between
them. There are 4 vittse on each side marked by dots between the
ridges, and 2 on each side of the commissure. The albumen is
solid, not furrowed or involute at the suture.
... 487. Transverse section of cremocarp or fruit of Angelica, showing the 2
hemioarps or achenes forming it. There are 5 ridges on each
achene, and the two lateral ones expand into long wings. The
albumen is solid.
hollow stems, alternate leaves generally compound and
sheathing at the base, and umbellate involucrate flowers
(Fig. 163). Calyx adherent to the bicarpellary ovary,
limb 5-toothed or obsolete. Petals 5, indexed at the
point (Fig. 319), often unequal, the outer ones being
radiant. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals, and inserted
with them on the outside of an epigynous disk or stylopod
(Fig. 319). Styles 2. Fruit a cremocarp (diachaenium),
the 2 carpels or mericarps separating when ripe by their
inner faces or commissure, and being suspended by a forked
carpophore (Fig. 320); the carpels marked with ribs or
ridges called juga and intervening spaces called valleculae,
and often containing vittae. Seed solitary, pendulous;
embryo mi ute, in the base of horny albumen. The Sec¬
tions formed from the nature of the albumen, whether flat
or curved, are not now adopted, inasmuch as they are found
to be unsatisfactory. In the genera, the ridges on the
fruit, the presence or absence of vittae, and the form of the
albumen, are taken into account. The umbels are somer
times reduced to a sort of head by the absence of peduncles.
Natives of the northern parts of the northern hemisphere,
and found high on the mountains of the tropics.
The properties of Umbelliferous plants are various,
Some are harmless and esculent, such as the Carrot, Par¬
snip, Skirret and Parsley; others are acro-navcotic poisons,
as Hemlock; a third set are antispasmodic, owing to the
presence of a gum-resin containing a fetid sulphur oil, such
as Assafcetida; while a fourth set are carminative from con¬
taining a volatile oil, as Caraway (Carum Carui\ and Cori¬
ander {Coriandrum sativum}. Conium maculatum, Hem-
*P1. CXX. lock,* used medicinally as an anodyne, contains a very
active volatile oleaginous alkali called Conia, which causes
death by paralysing the muscles of respiration. Dorema
Ammoniacum, or Diserneston gummiferum, a Persian
plant, yields gum Ammoniac. Narihex Assafcetida, a
plant found in Persia and Affghanistan, furnishes the true
Assafcetida. Opoponax Chironum, or Pastinaca Opoponax,
produces the gum-resin called Opoponax.
Nat. Ord. 113.—Araliace^e, or ITederacea:, the Ivy
order. I rees, shrubs, or herbs with the habit of Umbelli-
ferae, from which they differ in having the ovary composed Botany,
of more than 2 carpels which do not separate in fruit, but
become drupaceous or baccate, and in having fleshy in
place of horny albumen. They are found in tropical and
sub-tropical regions. The properties of the order are aro¬
matic, stimulant, and tonic. Aralia papyrifera, Bok-
shung of China, found in the island of Formosa, is the
plant which supplies the Chinese Rice paper. The black
berries of Hedera Helix, common Ivy, are emetic and pur¬
gative. Panax Schinseng is the Asiatic Ginseng root, ex¬
travagantly prized by the Chinese as a stimulant and re¬
storative.
Nat. Ord. 114.—Cornacea:, the Cornel .order.—Chiefly
trees or shrubs, with leaves almost always opposite and ex-
stipulate; flowers in cymes or in involucrate heads. Calyx
adherent, limb 4-toothed. Petals 4, valvate in aestivation.
Stamens 4, alternate with the petals. Styles united into
one. Ovary 2-celled; ovules solitary, pendulous. Fruit a
2-celled drupe. Embryo in fleshy albumen. Natives ot
the temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and America.
The plants of this order have tonic and febrifugal pro¬
perties. Some are astringent. The bark of various species
of Cornus, as C. Jlorida, C. sericea, and C. circinata, are
used as substitutes for Cinchona in the United States.
2. Monopetalce or Gamopetalce.
Nat. Ord. 115.—Loranthace^e, the Mistleto order (Fig.
488).—Parasitic shrubs with articulated branches, opposite
exstipulate fleshy leaves, and her¬
maphrodite or unisexual flowers.
Calyx tube adherent to the ovary,
bracteated. Corolla of 4-8 united
petals, Stamens 4-8, opposite the
petals. Ovary 1-celled; ovule
solitary, pendulous. Fruit inferior,
succulent. Albumen fleshy. Ip
place of one order, Miers makes
two, Loranthaceae and Viscaceae.
Loranthus, which is the type ot
the first, has showy dichlamydeous
hermaphrodite flowers, lengthened
stamens, and an ovary containing a
solitary suspended ovule; while
Viscum (Fig. 488), the type of the
second, has small, monochlamy-
deous, dioecious flowers, with nearly
sessile stamens, and an ovary containing 3 ovules attached
to a free pentral placenta, one of the ovules only being per¬
fected in the baccate fruit. The order Viscaceae is placed
near Santalaceae. Natives chiefly of the equinoctial regions
of Asia and America; a few are European and African.
Astringent properties prevail in the order. The plants are
truly parasitic, and they have often a peculiar woody struc¬
ture with scalariform vessels. Occasionally 2 or 3 embryos
are produced in the seed.
Nat. Ord, 116.—Caprifoliacea), the Honeysuckle
order.—Shrubs or herbs, often twining, with opposite, ex¬
stipulate leaves (Fig. 137). Calyx adherent to the ovary,
limb 4-5-cleft, usually bracteated. Corolla regular or ir¬
regular. Stamens 4-5, alternate with the corolline lobes.
Ovary 3-5-celled; stigmas 3-5. Fruit usually a berry,
one-celled, crowned by the calyx-lobes. Albumen fleshy.
Natives chiefly of the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and
America. Some of the plants are astringent, others have
emetic and purgative properties. Many have showy and
fragrant flowers. Lonicera Periclymenum, common Honey¬
suckle or Woodbine, possesses emetic and purgative qualities.
The flowers of Sambucus nigra, common Elder, yield a
volatile oil, and the berries are used in making a kind of
wine.
Nat. Ord. 117.—Cinchonaceje, the Cinchona order
Fig. 488.
Viscum album, the Mistleto,
a parasitic plant, illustrat¬
ing tlie natural order Lo-
ranthacese. By some it is
placed in a Monoelilamy-
deous order called Visca-
196
BOTANY.
Botany. (Figs. 489 to 491).—Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with simple
with one cell and 2 abortive ones ; ovule solitary. Fruit
dry and indehiscent, with 1 fertile cell, sometimes pappose
(Fig. 495). Seed suspended, exalbuminous. Natives of
temperate climates in Europe, Asia, and America. Many
Botany.
Fig. 489.
Fig. 490.
Fig. 491.
^Flate
CXXII.
Fig. 489. Cinchona, the genns whence the order is named. It embraces the
species of Peruvian or Jesuit’s Bark. The plants have opposite
leaves and interpetiolar stipules, with a 2-celled seed-vessel, and
flowers in corymbose cymes.
... 490. Cephaelis Ipecacuanha, w ith its annulated root.
... 491, Coffea arabica,the Coffee tree, a native of Arabia and the confines of
Abyssinia, It has a succulent reddish-brown fruit and horny al¬
bumen, which, when roasted, supplies the beverage called Coffee.
opposite leaves, interpetiolar glandular stipules and cymose
inflorescence. Calyx adherent, entire, or toothed. Corolla
regular. Stamens attached to the corolla. Ovary 2-celled;
style 1. Fruit inferior, separating into 2 cocci, or indehis¬
cent and dry, or succulent. Seeds definite and erect or
ascending, or indefinite and attached to a central placenta ;
embryo small, in horny albumen. Chiefly found in tropi¬
cal regions. This extensive order furnishes many import¬
ant products. The plants have tonic, stimulant, febrifugal,
emetic, and purgative properties. Some species are said to
have intoxicating and even poisonous qualities. Many ol
the plants of the order have flowers remarkable for their
beauty and odour. Cephaelis Ipecacuanha 490) has
an annulated root which is the Ipecacuan of the Pharmaco-
pceias. It is emetic and diaphoretic, and contains a princi¬
ple called Emetine. Cinchona (Fig. 489), is the genus
which furnishes the species of Peruvian-bark trees. They
contain three important alkalies, Quinine, Quinidine, and
Cinchonine, combined with Kinic acid, and a peculiar variety
of tannin. Coffea arahica (Fig. 491), the Coffee tree, has
a succulent fruit of a reddish-brown colour when ripe. The
hard albumen is used to furnish the well-known beverage.
It contains a bitter principle called Caffeine, which is iden¬
tical with Theine. An astringent extract called Gambeer
is prepared by the Malays trom the leaves of Uncaria
Gambir*
Nat. Ord. 118.—Galiaceje or Stellate, the Madder
order (Fig. 492).—Herbs agreeing in most
points with Cinchonaceae, and often in¬
cluded with them in a common order called
Rubiaceac. The chief distinguishing marks
are their square stems, verticillate and ex-
stipulate leaves. The name Stellatae is
derived from the star-like arrangement of
the leaves. Some look upon the verticils Diagra^g0V4t9h2;flQwer
as made up partly of true leaves, and
partly of stipules. Natives of the north¬
ern parts of the northern hemisphere and
of high mountains in South America and
Australia. The plants supply important dyes. Some have
tonic and diuretic properties. The horny albumen of Ga¬
lium Aparine has been used for Coffee. Rubia tinc-
torum, Madder root, is a most important dye-stuff used in
giving the colour called Turkey-red. The roots of R. cor-
difolia (Munjista) furnish the dye called Munjeet in India.
Nat. Ord. 119.—Valerian ace.®, the Valerian order,*
(Figs. 493 to 495).—Herbs with opposite exstipulate leaves
and cymose inflorescence. Calyx superior (Fig. 494), limb
obsolete or forming a kind of pappus (Fig. 495). Corolla
tubular, 3-6-lobed, sometimes gibbous, or spurred at the base
Fig. 494.
of Madder with the
rim-like calycine
limb, 5 parts of the
corolla, 5 stamens,
and a 2-celled and
2-seeded ovary.
, ,  7  
(Fig. 494). Stamens 1-5, inserted on the corolla. Ovary
Fig. 495.
Fig. 493. Diagram of Valerian, showing calycine feathery pappus, 5 lobes of the
corolla, one gibbous, 3 stamens, and one perfect ovarian cell with a
single ovule.
494. Flower of Valerian, with adherent calycine tube, l, obsolete limb, e,
which becomes pappose, irregular corolla gibbous at the base and
with a 5-lobed limb, 3 stamens, and one style with 3 stigmas.
495. Fruit, c, of Centranthus ruber, Red Valerian,indehiscent, containing
one perfect seed (2 others being abortive), and having a feathery
pappose calyx-limb at the apex, i.
of the plants in the order are strong-scented or aromatic,
owing to the presence of a peculiar volatile oil. In medi¬
cine, they are employed as tonics andantispasmodics. The
leaves of Centranthus ruber, Red Valerian, are used as a
salad. Nardostachys Jatamansi appears to be the plant
which supplied the ancient Spikenard. Valeriana offici¬
nalis* furnishes the Valerian root of the druggists, which *pja^e
yields Valerianic acid, and is used as an antispasmodic in CXXII.
nervous affections.
Nat. Ord. 120.—Dipsacaceai, the Teazel order.—Herbs
or undershrubs, with opposite or whorled, exstipulate leaves,
and flowers in capitula surrounded by an involucre. Calyx
adherent, membranous, surrounded by an involucel. Corolla
tubular, with an oblique 4-5-lobed limb. Stamens 4, an¬
thers distinct. Ovary 1-celled; ovule pendulous. Fruit
dry, indehiscent, crowned by the pappus-like calyx. Seed
albuminous. Natives of the south of Europe, the Mediter¬
ranean, and the Cape of Good Hope. Some of the species
are used in dressing cloth. Astringent qualities reside in
some of the plants. The dried heads of Dipsacus Fullonum,
Fuller’s Teazel, with their uncinate spiny bracts, are used
by fullers.
Nat. Ord. 121.—Calycerace.e, the Calycera order.—
A small order of herbs with alternate exstipulate leaves, and
capitate flowers, intermediate between Dipsacaceae and Com¬
posite, differing from the former in their united filaments
and partially united anthers, and from the latter in their pen¬
dulous ovule, albuminous seed, and in their anthers. 1 hey
inhabit the cooler parts of South America.
Nat. Ord. 122,—Comeosit.e or Asterace.e, the Com¬
posite order (Figs. 496 to 499).—Herbs or shrubs with alter¬
nate or opposite, exstipulate leaves, and hermaphrodite or
unisexual flowers (called florets) collected into dense capi¬
tula on a common receptacle (Figs. 496 and 174), and sur¬
rounded by a set of bracts (called phyllaries), forming an
involucre (Fig. 151), the separate florets being often fur¬
nished with bractlets in the form of chaff (called squamae or
paleae). Calyx adherent, limb entire or toothed, or mostly
BOTANY.
197
Fig. 496.
Capitulum of Onopordum Acanthium, called Scotch Thistle hy gardeners;
showing involucre b, receptacle a, and florets/.
genesious (Fig. 252). Ovary single ; style 1, bifid at the
apex when fertile (Fig. 498); stigmas on the inner sur¬
face of each branch of the style (Fig. 499). Fruit an achene.
Fig. 497. Fig. 498. Fig. 499.
Fig. 497. Tubular gamopetalous corolla of Milfoil (Achillcea) with an inferior
ovary, and an obsolete calycine limb.
... 498. Ligulate flower of Milfoil (Achillced), with the forked style projecting
beyond the tube. There is no pappus. The flower is pistilliferous
(female).
... 499. Style of Achillsea Millefolium, Milfoil, forking so as to form 2 papil¬
lose stigmatic surfaces, which are curved outwards.
crowned with the limb of the calyx (Fig. 155). Seed soli¬
tary, erect, exalbuminous ; embryo straight. The plants
are found in all parts of the world. In warm countries they
sometimes assume arborescent forms. There are between
9000 and 10,000 known species.
The plants of this very extensive order have been va¬
riously divided by authors. They were included by Lin¬
naeus in his class Syngenesia, the divisions of which have
been already given. By Jussieu the following divisions
have been established:—1. Cichoracese, the florets all ligu-
late and perfect. Ex. Cichorium. 2. Cynarocephalae, the
florets all tubular, homogamous, or those of the ray neuter;
style swollen below its branches. Ex. Carduus. 3. Co-
rymbiferae, florets of the same head all homogamous (usually
tubular); or those of the circumference filiform or tubular
and pistilliferous, or ligulate ; style of the perfect florets not
swollen below its branches. Ex. Anthemis. De Candolle
gives the following primary divisions :—1. Tubuliflorae (em¬
bracing Cynarocephalae and Corymbiferae of Jussieu), her¬
maphrodite flowers, tubular, with 5, rarely 4, equal teeth.
2. Labiatiflorae, hermaphrodite flowers, or at least the uni¬
sexual ones, two-lipped. This includes chiefly some peculiar
American genera. 3. Liguliflorae(Cichoraceae of Jussieu), all
the florets hermaphrodite and ligulate. Under these sub¬
orders De Candolle formed tribes from the form and nature
of the style and stigma, attention being paid to the mode in
which the branches of the style separate, the nature and ex¬
tent of the papillae, and the hairs on the stigmatic surface and
on the style, &c.
The properties of Composite plants are various. Bit¬
terness seems to prevail in the order to a greater or less
degree. This is accompanied with tonic, stimulant, aro¬
matic, or even narcotic qualities. Cichorium Intyhus
Chicory, or Wild Succory (Fig. 375), is much cultivated,
especially in France and Germany. Its roots are used as a ®otaDy-
substitute for Coffee, or as an addition to it. C. Endivia is
the Endive or garden Succory, the leaves of which are used
as a salad when etiolated. Lactuca virosa* Wild Lettuce,*Plate
gives out abundantly a white juice which, when inspissated, CXXIII.
constitutes the anodyne narcotic called Lactucarium, or Let¬
tuce-opium. L. saliva, common Lettuce, also yields a simi¬
lar juice. Leontodon Taraxacum* common Dandelion, has *riate
a milky juice which, when concrete, has been used medi- CXXIV.
cinally as a diuretic, and economically as Coffee. The dried
flowers of Carthamus tinctorius, Safflower, yield a pink
dye. Cynara Scolymus, or the common Artichoke, has a
succulent receptacle, which is used for food. Anacyclus
Pyrethrum, Pellitory of Spain, is used medicinally to pro¬
mote the flow of saliva. The flowers of Anthemis nobilis,
Chamomile, act as an emetic and diaphoretic; the extract is
bitter tonic. Arnica montana, Leopard’s-bane, or Moun¬
tain Tobacco, has been given in nervous diseases as an acrid
stimulant. Artemisia Absinthium, and other species of
Wormwood, are bitter stomachic, and anthelmintic.
Nat. Ord. 123.—BrunoniacEjE, the Brunonia order.-—
Herbs with radical exstipulate leaves, and capitulate, invo-
lucrate flowers supported on scapes. Calyx free, in 5 divi¬
sions. Corolla 5-parted, inserted at the base of the calyx.
Stamens inserted with the corolla. Ovary 1-celled; ovule
solitary; stigma inclosed in a 2-valyed cup. Fruit a utricle,
inclosed in the hardened calycine tube. Seed erect, exal¬
buminous. Australian plants.
Nat. Ord. 124.—Goodeniace^e, the Goodenia order.—
Herbs, rarely shrubs, not lactescent, with scattered exstipu¬
late leaves, and distinct, not capitate flowers. Calyx usually
superior, 3-5-divided. Corolla more or less superior, usually
irregular, with a split tube and a 5-parted lipped limb; aesti¬
vation conduplicate. Stamens 5, separate. Ovary 1-2-
celled ; placenta free, central; stigma surrounded by an in-
dusium. Fruit capsular or drupaceous. Seeds albuminous.
Natives chiefly of Australia, and the islands of the southern
ocean. Some of the plants are used as esculent vegetables,
and their pith is employed for economical purposes. Sccevola
Taccada furnishes Rice-paper in the Malay Archipelago.
Nat. Ord. 125.—Styeidiacea:, the Stylewort order (Fig.
380).—Herbs or undershrubs, with scattered or whorled
exstipulate leaves. Calyx adherent, with 2-6 divisions. Co¬
rolla usually irregular, 5-6-divided; aestivation imbricate.
Stamens 2 ; filaments united with the style into a column;
anther-lobes on the top of the column lying over the stigma.
Ovary usually 2-eelled, often with 1 or 2 epigynous glands
in front. Fruit usually a 2-celled and 2-valved capsule.
Seeds albuminous. Peculiar plants, remarkable for their
gynandrous structure and for their irritable column. Na¬
tives chiefly of the swamps of Australia.
Nat. Ord. 126.—Campanulacea:, the Hare-bell order
Fig. 500. Diagram of the flower of Campanula Rapuneulus, Rampion, showing
5 divisions of the calycine limb, 5 reduplicately-val vate divisions
of the corolla, 5 stamens, alternating with the corolline lobes, and
a 3-celled ovary.
... 501. Yertical section of the flower of Campanula Medium ; superior calyx,
ovary with central placenta and numerous seeds, stamens with
filaments dilated at the base, and anthers applied to the collecting
hairs on the style.
(Figs. 500 and 501).—Lactescent herbs or undershrubs,
198 B O T
Botany, with alternate exstipulate leaves, and usually showy blue or
v ^ white flowers. Calyx superior, limb commonly o-cleft, pei-
sistent (Fig. 501). Corolla regular, campanulate, usually
5-lobed, marcescent (Fig. 501 and Fig. 219). Stamens 5,
distinct. Style with collecting hairs (Fig. 384). Fruit a 2
or many-celled capsule, loculicidal, dehiscing by openings
at the sides or by valves at the apex. Seeds numerous,
albuminous, attached to a central placenta. Chiefly natives
of the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and North America.
Those with capsules opening by lateral pores appear to be
natives of the northern hemisphere; those with apicilar
valves, of the southern. The Belloworts have an acrid
milky juice, but occasionally the young shoots and roots are
cultivated as articles of food. Campanula Rapunculus,
Rampion, is used as an esculent vegetable.
Nat. Ord. 127.—Lobeliace^e, the Lobelia order.—Lac¬
tescent herbs or shrubs, with altei’nate, exstipulate leaves.
Calyx superior, limb often 5-lobed. Corolla irregularly
5-lobed, often deeply cleft. Stamens 5, epigynous, synan-
therous. Stigma fringed. Fruit capsular, 1 or more celled,
dehiscing at the apex. Seeds numerous, albuminous. Na¬
tives chiefly of tropical or sub-tropical climates. The Lo-
beliads have usually an acro-narcotic milky juice, and hence
the species are often poisonous. The milky juice is some¬
times used for caoutchouc. Lobelia infiata, a North Ameri¬
can species, is used medicinally under the name of Indian
Tobacco, as an antispasmodic and sedative, as well as an
emetic.
Nat. Ord. 128.—Styracacea: or Symplocace^e, the
Storax order.—Trees or shrubs, with alternate, exstipulate
leaves, usually with stellate tomentum. Calyx free, per¬
sistent, with 5 or 4 lobes, or entire. Corolla 5 or 10-divided.
Stamens definite or indefinite, arising from the corolla, more
or less cohering. Ovary 3-5-celled. Ovules partly erect
and partly pendulous. Fruit succulent, inclosed by the
calyx, often unilocular by abortion. Seeds albuminous.
Miers divides this into two orders, Styracacese and Sym-
plocaceae, the former distinguished by their uniserial sta¬
mens, linear anthers, superior ovary, free central placenta,
one-seeded drupe, and stellate hairs. Sparingly distributed,
chiefly in tropical and subtropical regions. Some of the
plants are bitter and aromatic, others yield a fragrant stimu¬
lant resin. Styrax Benzoin, a tree of the Malay Archi¬
pelago, produces the concrete balsamic exudation Benzoin,
which is employed medicinally as an expectorant, and is also
used for incense. S. officinale, a native of Syria, produces
the resin called Storax, which is prescribed as a pectoral
remedy.
Nat. Ord. 129.—Columelliace.se, the Columellia order.
—Evergreen shrubs or trees, with opposite exstipulate
leaves and yellow flowers. Calyx adherent, 5-parted. Co¬
rolla rotate, 5-8-parted Stamens 2, on the corolla. An¬
thers sinuous. Disk epigynous. f ruit a 2-celled polysper-
mal capsule. Seeds albuminous. A small and doubtful
order, placed by Bindley in his Cinchonal Alliance. Na¬
tives of Mexico and Peru.
Nat. Ord. 130.—Vacciniace^;, the Cranberry order —
Shrubs with alternate exstipulate leaves. Calyx superior.
Corolla 4-6-lobed. Anthers biporose, with appendages.
Fruit succulent, 4-10-celled. Seeds albuminous. The order
differs from Ericaceae chiefly in its epigynous calyx. Natives
of temperate regions, and found often in sub-alpine swamps.
Astringent properties prevail in the order. The berried
fruit is subacid and eatable. Oxycoccus palustris ( Vacci-
nium Oxycoccus), a marsh plant, produces the Cranberry
in Britain. O. macrocarpa is the American Cranberry.
Vaccinium Myrtillus is the Bilberry or Blaeberry.
Note.—In some Calycifloral Exogens the insertion of the stamens
is so near the base of the calyx, that it is difficult to separate
them from Thalamifloral Exogens. This may he seen in Legu-
minosae and Portulacaceas. Occasionally the petals are abor-
A N Y.
tive, so that the plants become monochlamydeous. The orders Botany,
in which this anomaly occurs are :—Celastraceae, Rhamnaceae, v _ j
Amyridaceae, Leguminosae, Rosaceae, Lythraceae, Combretaceae,
Myrtaceae, Ilalorageaceae, Passifloraceae, Portulacaceae, lllece-
braceae, Tetragoniacea1, Saxifragaceae, Cunoniaceas, and Loran-
thaceae.
SUB-CLASS III.—COROLLIFLORiE.
1. Hypostaminece.
Nat. Ord. 131.—Ericaceas, the Heath order* (Figs.502, *piate
503).—Shrubs or undershrubs with evergreen, rigid, entire, CXVIII.
whorled or opposite, exstipulate leaves (Fig- 503). Calyx figs- 6-1 h
inferior, 4-5-cleft, persistent. Corolla 4-5-cleft. Stamens
8-10 or twice these numbers, hypogynous. Anthers 2-
celled, biporose, with appendages. Ovary surrounded by
a disk or scales. Fruit capsular, rarely baccate. Seeds
numerous, with an adherent testa, and cylindrical embryo
in the axis of fleshy albumen. They abound at the Cape
of Good Hope, and occur also in Europe, America, and
Asia. Some of the Heathworts are astringent, others have
edible fruit, and others, such as species of Rhododendron,
Kalmia, and Ledum, are poisonous. The species of Erica
have no active properties. Arbutus Unedo bears a fleshy
fruit like a Strawberry, and hence it is called the Straw¬
berry tree. Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi, Bearberry, is an
astringent. An infusion of its leaves is prescribed in dis¬
charges from the mucous membrane of the bladder.
Nat. Ord. 132.—Pyrolace^e, the Pyrola, or Winter-
green order.—Herbs, with simple leaves, generally included
as a sub-order of Ericaceae, but distinguished by their habit,
their more or less declinate styles, loose testa, and minute
embryo at the base of fleshy albumen. Natives of northern
countries. Chimaphila umbellata is tonic and diuretic.
Nat. Ord. 133.—Monotropaceae, the Monotropa, or
Fir-Rape order.—Parasitic plants of a brown colour, allied
to Pyrolaceae, but differing in their scaly stems, in the longi¬
tudinal dehiscence of their anthers, and in their minute
embryo being at the apex of the albumen. They are also
considered by many as a sub-order of Ericaceae, from which
their habit, their antherine dehiscence, loose testa, and
minute embryo, separate them. Chiefly found parasitic on
Firs in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Nat. Ord. 134.—Epacridacea:, the Epacris order.—
Shrubby plants, with usually alternate, simple, and parallel-
veined leaves, having overlapping bases ; flowers commonly
pentamerous. They represent the Heaths in Australia,
and differ from Ericaceae principally in having one-celled
anthers without appendages. Natives of the Indian Archi¬
pelago and Australia.
2. Epiccrollce or Epipetalce..
Nat. Ord. 135.—Ebenaceae, the Ebony order.—Trees
B O T A N Y.
199
Botany, or shrubs not lactescent, with alternate, exstipulate, coria-
ceous, entire leaves, and polygamous flowers. Calyx 3-7-
cleft, persistent. Corolla 3-7-cleft, often pubescent. Sta¬
mens usually twice or quadruple the number of the corol-
line segments ; anthers with longitudinal dehiscence. Ovary
3 or several-celled; style with as many divisions; ovules
1 or 2 in each cell, pendulous. Fruit a round or oval berry;
seeds large and bony, albuminous. Chiefly tropical plants.
Many are found in India, a few in colder climates. The
trees of this order are remarkable for their hard and valu¬
able timber. The bark of some of the species is astringent,
while the fruit is in many cases eatable. The heartwood of
several species of Diospyros constitutes different kinds of
Ebony.
Nat. Ord. 136.—AQUiFOLiACEiE or Ilicaceas, the Holly
order.—Evergreen trees or shrubs, with coriaceous, exsti¬
pulate leaves, and small axillary flowers. Calyx of 4-6
sepals. Corolla 4-6-parted. Stamens 4-6, alternate with
the corolline segments; anthers dehiscing longitudinally.
Ovary 2-6-celled; a single pendulous ovule in each cell.
Fruit fleshy, containing from 2 to 6 nucules. Embryo
minute in fleshy albumen. Natives of various parts of the
world, but sparingly distributed. Bitter, tonic, astringent,
and emetic properties exist in the order. Some are used as
tea. Ilex Aquifolium, the common Holly, has a tonic bark,
which has been used in intermittents. I. paraguayensis is
called Mate in South America, where its leaves are used
for tea ; they contain Theine.
Nat. Ord. 137.—Sapotace.e, the Sapodillaorder.—Trees
or shrubs, often with milky juice, alternate, coriaceous, en¬
tire, exstipulate leaves, and hermaphrodite flowers. Calyx
4-8-parted. Corolla 4-8-cleft, sometimes with numerous
segments. Stamens definite, half of them petaloid and
sterile ; anthers extrorse. Ovary 4-12-celled, with a single
pendulous ovule in each cell; style 1. Fruit baccate. Seeds
with a bony testa, usually albuminous. Natives of the
tropics chiefly. The fruit of many of the plants of this
order is edible. The bark is bitter and febrifugal. Some
furnish caoutchouc, and others fatty ma ter. Achras Sapota
produces the edible Sapodilla Plum. Bassia butyracea has
an oily fruit which furnishes a kind of butter used in Nepal.
The Shea, or Galam butter of Mungo Park, is the product
of another species. Isonandra Gutta is the Taban-tree,
which furnishes Gutta Percha.
Nat. Ord. 138.—Myrsinace^e, the Myrsine order.—Trees
or shrubs, with coriaceous, exstipulate, smooth leaves, and
flowers often marked with glandular dots or lines. Calyx
and corolla 4-5-cleft. Stamens 4-5, opposite the corolline
segments, occasionally 5 alternate sterile ones. Ovary
unilocular, with a free central placenta in which the ovules
are imbedded. Fruit fleshy. Seeds 1 or more, with horny
albumen. The plants are said to resemble Primulacese in
everything except their arborescent habit, fleshy fruit, and
pitted placenta. They are limited in their geographical
range, and abound in islands with an equable temperature,
as the islands of the Indian Ocean, Mauritius, Bourbon, and
Madagascar. Many of them are handsome evergreen
shrubs. The seeds of Theophrasta Jussicei supply flour for
bread in St Domingo, and the fruit of Myrsine africana is
mixed with barley for the food of asses in Abyssinia.
Nat. Ord. 139.—Jasminace^e, the Jasmine order.—
Shrubs, often twining, with opposite or alternate, usually
compound leaves. Calyx and corolla regular, with 5-8 divi¬
sions. Stamens 2, included within the hypocrateriform
corolla. Ovary 2-celled. Fruit a double berry or capsule.
Seeds with little or no albumen and a straight embryo.
Natives principally of tropical India. They are remarkable
for their fragrance. The oil of Jasmine is obtained from
Jusminum officinale and ,/. grandiflorum.
Nat. Ord. 140.—Oleace^e, the Olive order (Fig. 504).—
Trees or shrubs with opposite, simple, or pinnate leaves. Calyx
Fig. 504.
persistent, sometimes 0. Corolla 4-cleft, sometimes of 4 pe¬
tals connected in pairs, some¬
times 0. Stamens usually 2.
Ovary 2-celled ; ovules 2,
pendulous in each cell.
Fruit fleshy or dry, often 1-
seeded by abortion. Seeds
albuminous; embryo
straight. Natives of tempe¬
rate climates. Some of the
plants of the order have
emollient and laxative pro¬
perties ; others are bitter,
tonic, and febrifugal. Some
supply oil, others manna.
Fraxinus excelsior, the Ash,
is distinguished by its sama-
roid fruit. Olea europcea
(Fig. 504), the Olive, has a „ , ^ _
i ° / /■ • , i • , Branch of Olea europsea, Olive, with
drupaceous truit which drupes.
yields, on expression, Olive Oil.
Nat. Ord. 141.—Salvadorace^e, the Salvadora order.
—Small trees or shrubs, with opposite leaves and minute
panicled flowers. Calyx of 4 minute sepals. Corolla 4-
partite. Stamens 4. Ovary superior. Fruit baccate, 1-
celled. Seed solitary, exalbuminous. The order is con¬
sidered by Plan chon as allied to Oleaeeae. Natives of Syria
and India. The plants are acrid and stimulant, and some
of them have properties like Mustard. Salvadora persica
appears to be the Mustard-plant of Scripture. It has a
small seed which grows into a tree.
Nat. Ord. 142.—Asclepiadace.e, the Milkweed order.
—Lactescent, often twining shrubs or herbs, having entire,
usually opposite leaves, with interpetiolar stipulary cilia,
Calyx 5-divided. Corolla 5-lobed, aestivation imbricate,
rarely valvate. Stamens 5 ; filaments usually connate ;
pollen in wax-like masses (Fig. 382), cohering in pairs and
attached to glands at the five angles of the stigma, which
is common to the two styles. Fruit consisting of two folli¬
cles, containing numerous comose seeds (Fig. 329), with
thin albumen. Chiefly tropical plants, found in Africa,
India, and America. The Asclepiads have acrid, stimulat¬
ing, purgative, diaphoretic, and emetic properties. Most of
the species have milky juice containing caoutchouc. As-
clepias tuberosa, the Butterfly-weed or Pleurisy-root, is
employed medicinally in North America as a laxative and
diaphoretic. Calotropis gigantea is the Mudar plant of
Bengal. The bark is employed medicinally as an emetic
and diaphoretic. Cynanchum monspeliacum has a purga¬
tive juice which is used at Montpellier to adulterate Scam-
mony. Hemidesmus indicus is called Indian Sarsaparilla,
because its roots are used in India as a substitute for that
drug.
Nat. Ord. 143.—Apocynaceac, the Dogbane order—
(Fig. 505).—Trees or shrubs, usually milky, allied to the
Asclepiadaceae,and differing from them in the contorted aesti¬
vation of the corolla, distinct filaments, granular pollen, and
a peculiar hourglass-like stigma (Fig. 506). Natives of the
tropics of Asia, America, and Africa. Many of the plants
are poisonous, some are drastic purgatives. The bark is some¬
times tonic and febrifugal. The milky juice of several spe¬
cies supplies caoutchouc. Vinca, the Periwinkle, is the
only British genus in the order. Apocynum cannabinum
has emetic roots. Aspidosperma excelsum supplies the
fluted Yarroura-wood used for paddles. Roupellia grata
produces what is called Cream-fruit in Sierra Leone. Ta-
berncemontana utilis is the Cow-tree of Demerara. Tan-
ghinia venenata yields the famous ordeal poison of Mada¬
gascar, called Tanghin.
Nat. Ord. 144.—Loganiaceje or Spigeliace.e, the
Strychnia order.—Shrubs, herbs, or trees, with opposite.
Botany.
B 0 T A N X
entire, stipulate leaves. Calyx inferior, 4-o-parted. Co¬
rolla 4, 5 or 10-cleft; aestivation convolute or valvate. Sta¬
mens varying in number, not always isomerous with the
corolla. Fruit a 2-eelled capsule, with loose placentas, or
a berry, or succulent, with 1 or 2 nucules. Seeds usually
peltate, albuminous. Chiefly tropical. The plants of this
Tig. 505.
Fig. 507.
Fig. 506.
Fig. 505. Diagram of the flower of Vinca, Periwinkle, showing 5 divisions of
the calyx, alternating with five of the twisted corolla, 5 stamens
alternating with the corolline segments, and 2 carpels forming the
. 506. Pistil of Vinca separated, showing the remarkable stigma, s, covered
With hairs, and having an hour-glass contraction in the middle.
Ovary, o, with disk, rf, style, t.
507. Strvchnos Nux-Vomica, the Poison-Nut, a tree abounding on the
Malabar and Coromandel coasts. It has opposite ribbed leaves, a
round fruit, 5, of a reddish colour, about the size of a small orange.
The seeds c, are circular, flat, and umbilicated on one surface.
They contain abundant albumen, d, and a small embryo.
order are highly poisonous. They produce tetanic convul¬
sions and narcotism. Some of them are used medicinally
as active remedies in certain kinds of palsy. Intense bit¬
terness is met with in some of the species, and in very' mo¬
derate doses they act as tonics. Ignatia amara, St Igna¬
tius’s Bean, produces convulsions and death. The peltate
seeds of Strychnos Nux- Vomica (Fig. 507), produce
powerful effects on the spinal marrow, and cause death by
tetanus. They contain the alkaloid called Strychnia. Ihe
bark constitutes false Angustura.
Nat. Ord. 145.—Gentianaceai, the Gentian order (Fig.
508, and Fig. 159).—Herbs, rarely
shrubs, with opposite, entire, exsti-
pulate, usually ribbed leaves, and
showy variously-coloured flowers.
Calyx divided, persistent. Corolla
persistent, imbricate, in duplicate,
often twisted in aestivation, some¬
times with a fringed limb. Stamens
alternate with the coralline seg¬
ments. Ovary of 2 carpels, placed
Fig. 508.
vided, often spathaceous. Corolla writh a swollen throat, and Botany,
a more or less irregular 4-5-lobed limb. Stamens 5, un-
equal, one generally abortive ; sometimes didynamous.
Ovary surrounded by a disk, 2-celled ; carpels anterior and
posterior ; placentas in the axis. Fruit a 2-valved, often
pod-like capsule, divided by a spurious placental dissepiment.
Seeds winged, exalbuminous ; embryo with broad leafy coty¬
ledons. Natives of America. The bark of Jacaranda
bahamensis, Palo de Buba, is used in the isthmus of Pan¬
ama as an anthelmintic. Bignonia Chica supplies a red
dye.
Nat. Ord. 147.—GesneracezE, the Gesnera orders (in¬
cluding Cyrtandraceae).—Herbs or shrubs, often growing
from scaly tubers, with rugose, usually opposite and whorled
exstipulate leaves, and showy flowers. Calyx half-adhe¬
rent, 5-parted. Corolla more or less irregular, 5-lobed. Sta¬
mens 2, or 4, didynamous, with the rudiment of a fifth ; an¬
thers often combined. Ovary 1-celled, surrounded by a
disk in the form of glands or a ring. Fruit capsular or suc¬
culent, 1-celled, with 2 lobed parietal placentas to the right
and left of the axis. Seeds numerous, albuminous. They
are natives of various parts of the world, chiefly the warmer
regions of America. The succulent fruits are occasionally
eatable, and some of the species yield a dye.
Nat. Ord. 148.—Crescentiace.e, the Calabash-tree or¬
der.—Small trees, with exstipulate leaves, and flowers grow¬
ing out of the old stems and branches. The plants are allied
to Bignoniaceae, from which they differ in their parietal pla¬
centas, their wingless seeds, fleshy cotyledons, and in the
pulpy contents of their woody indehiscent fruit. Natives
of tropical regions. Grescentia Cujete, the Calabash-tree,
has a gourd-like fruit with a hard shell which is used for
bottles.
Nat. Ord. 149.—PedaliacEzE, the Pedalium order.—
Glandular herbs, with exstipulate leaves and large bracteated
flowers. They are allied also to Bignoniacese, from which
they differ in their parietal placentation, their wingless seeds
with a papery episperm. From Crescentiaceae they are dis¬
tinguished by the want of pulp in the fruit. The ovary, at
first 1-celled, sometimes becomes divided by placental septa
into 4 or 6 cells. Natives of tropical countries, especially
Africa. The plants of the order have generally a heavy
odour. Their seeds yield oil as well as starchy matter.
Nat. Ord. 150.—PolemoniacEzE, the Phlox order (Fig.
509).—Herbs, with opposite or alter¬
nate leaves. Calyx 5-cleft. Corolla
regular, 5-lobed, convolute. Stamens
5, alternate with the corolline lobes ;
pollenblue. Ovary superior, 3-celled;
style 1 ; stigma trifid. Capsule 3-
celled, 3-valved, valves separating
from the axis. Seeds albuminous, of¬
ten with a mucous covering contain¬
ing spiral threads, which spread out
to the right and left of the axis, one- «7» ”'rS“t “ coil* w^en is “Pi"- N»- d,=
celled with 2 parietal, often intro- the calyx,five imimcate dm- tives chiefly ot tne temperate parts or ing five (]jV;Si0T13 0f the
. - . —11:1 America. Polemonium cceruleum is
Fig. 509.
of the flower of Po-
leraonitim cseruleum.show-
_ , , - | , sions of the corolla, five sta-
flexed, placentas ; style i ; stigmas menS) and a bicarpeiiary
■ ■ Seeds ovary, with numerous ovules.
Na-
2. Fruit a capsule or berry.
numerous, with fleshy albumen and a minute embryo,
tives of almost all parts of the world. Some are found at
an elevation of 16,000 feet, others in hot tropical plains.
Bitterness is the property which prevails generally in this
order. Occasionally the species have emetic and narco¬
tic qualities. Gentiana lutea, the yellow Gentian of the
Alps, is a medicinal plant. Its root is used as a bitter
tonic.
Nat. Ord. 146.—Bignonaciae, the Trumpet-flower or¬
der.—Trees or twining or climbing shrubby plants, with ex¬
stipulate usually opposite and compound leaves, and showy,
often trumpet-shaped flowers. Their woody stem is some¬
times divided in a cruciform manner. Calyx entire or di-
calyx, five convolute lobes
of the corolla, five alternat-
commonly cultivated under the name mg stamens, and a tricar-
of Greek Valerian. peiary ovary.
Nat. Ord. 151.—HydrophyllacEzE, the Hydrophyllum
order.—Herbs or small trees, usually with alternate and
lobed hispid leaves. Calyx 5-cleft, often with appendages,
persistent. Corolla regular, somewhat bell-shaped. Sta¬
mens 5, alternating with the corolline lobes. Ovary supe¬
rior, with 2 parietal placentas, which often line the ovary ;
styles 2. Fruit a 2-valved, 1-celled, or spuriously 2-celled
capsule, filled with a large placenta. Seeds reticulated;
embryo small in hard albumen. Natives chiefly of the tem¬
perate parts of America. Some species are tropical.
Nat. Ord. 152.—DiapensiacEzE, the Diapensia order.—
Prostrate shrubby plants, with crowded heath-like exstipu-
BOTANY.
201
Botany, late leaves and solitary terminal flowers. They are in many
respects allied to Polemoniaceae, from which they differ
chiefly in their imbricated bracts, transversely 2-celled an¬
thers, and peltate seeds. These characters with the 3-celled
ovary also separate them from Hydrophyllaceae. Natives of
northern Europe and North America.
Nat. Ord. 153.—Convolvulace^e, the Convolvulus or¬
der (Figs. 510 to 512).—Herbs or shrubs, usually twining
Fig. 511.
Fig. 510. Diagram of the flower of Calystegia (Conyolvulus) sepium, Great
Bindweed, showing two bracts, five divisions of the calyx,five lobes
of the plaited campanulate coroila, five stamens, and a two-celled
ovary, with two ovules in each cell.
... 511. Convolvulus Scammonia, the Scammony plant, found in Greece and
the Levant. The concrete milky juice of the large root constitutes
Scammony, which is imported from Smyrna.
(Fig. 511), and lactescent, with alternate, exstipulate leaves
and regular flowers, having a unifloral or
multifloral cymose inflorescence. Calyx 5-
divided, imbricated, persistent. Corolla
plaited. Stamens 5, alternate with the co-
rollinelobes. Ovary free, 2-4-celled; ovules
1-2 in each cell, erect; styles united, often
divided at the apex. Capsule 2-4-celled, ge ^ Fig. 512. ^
sometimes by absorption 1-celled, septiffa- ' sepium cut verti-
gal. Seeds large, with mucilaginous al- cCul“vye’dseh^try^and
bumen; embryo curved (Fig. 512), with plaited cotyledons,
crumpled cotyledons. Chiefly natives of the Jnoustaibumen.la'
tropics. The order is characterized by purgative proper¬
ties, and it contains some important medicinal plants. Con¬
volvulus Scammonia (Fig. 511), is the source of the purga¬
tive gum-resin, Scammony. Exogonium (Ipomoea) Purga
is the plant which yields Jalap.
*P1. CXXV Nat* Orc*- 1^4.—CuscuTAGEAi, the Dodder order* (Fig.
426).—Leafless parasitic twining herbs, generally reckoned
a sub-order of Convolvulacem. They are marked by scales
alternating with the corolline lobes, and a filiform spiral
acotyledonous embryo. The seeds gei'minate in the usual
way, and afterwards the plants become true parasites. Some
of them destroy Flax, Clover, and other crops. Natives of
temperate regions.
Nat. Ord. 155.—Cordiacea:, the Sebesten order.—Trees
with alternate, exstipulate, rough leaves. Calyx 4-5-toothed.
Corolla 4-5-cleft, regular. Stamens alternate with the co¬
rolline segments ; anthers versatile. Ovary superior, 4-8-
celled ; stigma 4-8-cleft. Fruit drupaceous, 4-8-celled, with
a single exalbuminous seed in each cell, pendulous by a long
cord. Embryo with plaited cotyledons. The plants of
this order are natives of the tropics. The drupes of Cordia
Myxa and C. latifolia are called Sebesten plums, and are
used as food. The bark is tonic.
Nat. Ord. 156.—Boraginaceje, the Borage order (Figs.
513 and 514).—Herbs or shrubs with round stems, alternate,
rough leaves, and flowers in scorpioidal cymes (Fig. 170).
Calyx 4-5-divided, persistent. Corolla usually regular
and 5-cleft (Fig. 513 and 225), imbricate, often with fau¬
cial scales (Fig. 236). Stamens alternate with the corolline
segments. Ovary 4-lobed ; style basilar (Fig. 514). Fruit
2 or 4 distinct achenes. Seed exalbuminous. The plants
were called Asperifbliae from their rough leaves. Natives
of the northern temperate regions principally. Demulcent
mucilaginous qualities pervade the order. Some of the
VOL. v.
Fig. 514.
plants yield a dye, others are used as pot-herbs. Anchusatinc- ^ Botany.
toria, Alkanet, yields
a reddish brown dye.
Borago officinalis,
Borage, when steeped
in water, imparts cool¬
ness to it. Mertensia
maritima, a sea-shore
plant, has leaves which
taste like oysters.
Nat. Ord. 157.—Eh-
retiace.e, the Ehretia ris- sis.
,srU(,r TBo nlanf-c nf 51S. Flower of Symphytum, Comfrey, with
, ’ ^ OI a five-partite hail’y calyx,and aflve-
tllis order are often lobed tubular-campanulate corolla.
, , ,   514. Fruit of Myosotis; (», four achenes with
reckoned a sub-divi- basilar style ; f>, fruit cut vertically,
ainn tLo Ttr>ran-o nv showing: two achenes attached to the
sion OI tne mirage or- axis, whence the style appears to
der, from which they proceed.
differ in their terminal style, proceeding from a concrete
4-celled ovary, and their drupaceous fruit. Some of them,
as the Peruvian Heliotrope, have a fragrant odour. They
are generally tropical trees or shrubs.
Nat. Ord. 158.—Nolanace^e, the Nolana order.—Her¬
baceous or shrubby plants with alternate exstipulate leaves,
having characters in common both with Convolvulacese and
Boraginacese. Their distinguishing characters are their
straight inflorescence, valvate calyx, plaited corolla, ovary
composed of 5 or more separate carpels, variously combined,
united styles, somewhat capitate stigma, and embryo curved
in a small quantity of albumen. South American plants.
Nat. Ord. 159.—Solaxace,e, the Potato order.*—Herbs *PJate
or shrubs with alternate, often geminate leaves, cymose, L
generally extra-axillary inflorescence, and isomerous flowers.
Calyx and corolla, with 5, rarely 4, partitions. Corolline
lobes nearly equal, aestivation valvate or induplicato-val-
vate. Stamens 5, very rarely 1 sterile ; anthers opening by
slits or pores (Fig. 260). Ovary generally bilocular ; style
simple ; stigma 2-lobed or clavate. Fruit capsular or bac¬
cate (Fig. 207), with two cells, rarely more, from placental
septa. Seeds albuminous ; embryo curved (Curvembryeae)
or straight (Rectembryeae). Natives of various parts of the
world, and abundant within the tropics. The plants of this
order do not display the marked narcotic properties of the
next order, and their juice, according to Dr T. Anderson,
does not cause dilatation of the pupil. Some of them yield
edible tubers and fruit, others are tonic, pungent, and sti¬
mulant. The species of Capsicum yield Cayenne-pepper
and Chillies, which are acrid and irritant. Lycopersicum es-
culentum produces the Tomato. Physalisperuviana yields
an edible berried fruit called Peruvian Winter Cherry. So-
lanum tuberosum, the Potato, has starchy tubers. *S. Dulca¬
mara,* Bitter-sweet, or woody Nightshade, is used as a dia- opiate
phoretic in cutaneous CXXVI.
diseases. S. Melon- 2*
gena and S. ovige-
rum, produce edible
fruits known by the
name of Egg-apples.
Nat. Ord. 160.—
Atropace^e, the
Deadly Nightshade
order* (Figs. 515 JJ/ *Plate
and 516).—This or- Fig. 515. Fig.sio. CXXVII. &
der agrees in most Fig. 515. Diagram of the flower of Nicotiana Tafia-
cum, Tobacco, showing five divisions of
the calyx, five imbricate corolline lobes,
five stamens, alternating with these
lobes, and a dimerous ovary.
516. Flower of Atropa Belladonna, Deadly
Nightshade, showing a five-divided ca¬
lyx and a five-lobed campanulate co¬
rolla.
respects with the
last, of which it may
be considered a sec¬
tion. Miers makes
it a separate order,
distinguished from Solanaceae by its corolline aestivation
being more or less imbricate, never valvate. The lobes of
the corolla are somewhat unequal. Stamens 5, of which
2 c
202
Botany.
* Plate
C .XXVII.
^Plate
CXXVIII.
BOTANY.
sometimes 1, very rarely 3, are sterile; anthers dehisce
longitudinally. 1 he geographical distribution is similar to
that of Solanaceae. The plants of this order are in general
narcotic poisons. Their juice has the property of causing
dilatation of the pupil. Atropa Belladonna, Deadly Night¬
shade,* has shining brownish-black berries. It contains an
alkaloid, Atropia, to which its narcotic properties are due.
Datura Stramonium, Thorn-apple, is so called from its
spiny capsule, which is spuriously four-celled. The leaves
and seeds contain a narcotic alkaloid Daturia. Hyoscyamus
niger, Henbane,* is a narcotic plant, the juice of which
dilates the pupil. Its seed-vessel is a pyxidium. Mandra-
gora officinalis, the Mandrake, stimulates the nervous
system. Nicotiana Tabacum (Fig. 224) supplies American
Tobacco.
Nat. Ord. 161.—Orobanchacea;, the Broom-rape order.
—Leafless, scaly herbs, parasitic on the roots of other plants.
Calyx 4-5-toothed, persistent. Corolla with an irregular or
bilabiate limb, imbricate. Stamens 4, didynamous. Ovary
1 -celled, with 2 or more parietal placentas; the 2 carpels
forming the ovary placed to the right and left of the axis.
Fruit a capsule, covered by the withered corolla, 1-celled,
2-valved. Seeds albuminous, minute. Natives of Europe,
middle and northern Asia, North America, and the Cape of
Good Hope. The properties of the order are bitter, astrin¬
gent, and escharotic.
Nat. Ord. 162.—Scrophulariace-E, the Figwort order
(Figs. 517 to 519).—Herbs or undershrubs, with opposite,
♦P'ato
CXXIX.
leterious qualities. They are generally aromatic and fragrant. Botany.
Some are tonics. Many of them, such as Lavender, Mint,
St to
Fig. 517.
Fig. 519.
Fig. 520.
Fig. 522.
Fig. 518.
Fig. 517. Diagram of the unsymmetrical, slightly irregular, flower of Veronica,
with four divisions of the calyx, four of the corolla, inihricato,
two stamens, and a bilocular ovary.
... 518. Diagram of the flower of Antirrhinum majus, Frogsmouth, showing
single bract below, five divisions of the irregular calyx, five seg¬
ments of the irregular personate corolla, four perfect stamens, and
a rudiment of a fifth above the ovary, a two-celled ovary composed
of two carpels placed posteriorlv and anteriorly as regards the axis.
... 519. Irregular lipped flower of Scrophularia, Figwort, with a transverse
staminodium or abortive fifth stamen.
whorled, or alternate leaves, and anisomerous flowers. Ca¬
lyx of 5 or 4 parts. Corolla irregular (Figs. 227, 229, and
230), lobes unequal, imbricate in aestivation. Stamens 2
(Fig. 230) or 4, didynamous, rarely 5, or with a rudimentary
fifth (Fig. 519). Ovary bilocular, carpels anterior and pos¬
terior. Fruit capsular, rarely baccate, usually 2-celled. Seeds
albuminous, with a straight or slightly curved embryo. Na¬
tives of all parts of the world, cold as well as hot. Some are
root-parasites, as Eyebright, Cow-wheat, and Yellow-rattle.
The Figworts are more or less suspicious in their properties.
Some are acrid, others sedative. There are many showy gar¬
den plants in this order. Digitalis purpurea, Foxglove,* is
used medicinally as a diuretic and sedative of the heart’s action.
Nat. Ord. 163.—Labiata. or Lamiacea, the Labiate or
Dead-nettle order (Figs. 520 to 522).—Herbs or under¬
shrubs, with tetragonal stems, opposite, exstipulate, often
aromatic leaves, and flowers in verticillasters (Fig. 173).
Calyx tubular, persistent, 5 or 10-toothed (Fig. 204), or
bilabiate. Corolla bilabiate (Fig. 521). Stamens 4, didyna-
mous (Fig. 253), or by abortion 2 ; anthers 2-celled, or 1-
celled by abortion (Fig. 245). Ovary deeply 4-lobed, on a
disk, style basilar (Fig. 522); stigma bifid. Fruit 1-4 achenes,
inclosed by the calyx. Seeds erect, with little or no albumen.
Natives of temperate climates. Labiate plants have no de-
Fig. 521.
Fig. 520. Diagram of the flower of Lamium album, White Dead-nettle, showing
five segments of the calyx, five segments of the bilabiate corolla,
two of which form the upper lip and three the lower, tour stamens,
didynamous, and a four-parted ovary.
... 521. Irregular bilabiate corolla of Laminin', showing upper and under lip
and didynamous stamens.
... 522. Vertical section of flower of Salvia, showing two of the achenes, o,
with the single style, st, the corolla, co, the calyx, c, and the discoid
receptacle, r.
Thyme, Sage, Rosemary, Marjoram, Basil, Savoury, and
Hyssop, are used as carminatives and antispasmodics, and
are cultivated in gardens for culinary purposes. Many con¬
tain a kind of stearoptine like camphor. Oils are procured
trom the leaves of most of the species, and to these their
fragrance is due.
Nat. Ord. 164.—Verbenacea, the Vervain order (Fig.
523).—Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with exstipulate, usually op¬
posite leaves, resembling much the La-
biatae in their characters, and differing
in their achenes being concrete, their
style terminal, and their leaves usually
not containing receptacles of oil. Co¬
rolla generally irregular. Stamens 4,
didynamous, or 2; anthers 2-celled.
Seeds erect or ascending; radicle infe¬
rior. Natives both of tropical and of tem- Fig. 523.
perate regions. In the order are included Diagram of the flower
the Myoporacece, which ditrer only in showing a bract be-
their seeds being pendulous and in the
radicle of the embryo being superior.
Bitter, tonic, as well as aromatic proper¬
ties are found in the Vervains. Verbena
was supposed to have many valuable qua¬
lities, and was an object of superstitious regard among the
Druids. Aloysia {Lippid) citriodora, is commonly culti¬
vated under the name of Sweet Verbena. Tectona grandis
is the Teak-tree of India.
Nat. Ord. 165.—Selaginacea or Globulariacea, the
Globularia order.—A small group of herbaceous or shrubby
plants, with alternate exstipulate leaves and bracteated
flowers resembling Verbenaceae, from which they differ in
their 1-celled anthers, pendulous ovules, and superior radicle.
Globularia has a solitary carpel. Allied to this order and
Vervains is a small group, Stilbacece, of which the Cape
genus Stilbe is the type ; they have slightly irregular flowers,
with 4 or 5 stamens, one often abortive, anthers 2-celled,
ovary 2-celled, style terminal, fruit 1-seeded, seed erect,
embryo inferior. Some of the species of Selaginaceae are
fragrant. They are natives of the Cape of Good Hope
chiefly ; some are European.
Nat. Ord. 166.—Acanthacea, the Acanthus order.—
Herbs or shrubs, with simple, opposite, exstipulate leaves
and bracteated showy flowers. Calyx of 5 sepals, distinct
or combined, persistent. Corolla usually irregular, lipped.
Stamens 4, didynamous, often 2 by abortion. Ovary of 2
carpels, placed anterior and posterior; placentas parietal,
but extending to the axis ; style 1. Fruit a 2-celled cap¬
sule, opening by elastic valves. Seeds 1, 2, or many in
each cell, attached to hooked placental processes, exalbumi-
low the flower, 5 seg¬
ments of the calyx,
5 divisions of the co¬
rolla, 4 stamens di¬
dynamous, and a
4-celled ovary, con¬
sisting of 4 concrete
1-ovuied carpels.
EOT
Botany, nous. Chiefly tropical plants, some ot them, as Justicia
^ Rudlia, Aphelandra, and Hexacentris, remarkable for the
beauty of their flowers. The lobed and sinuated leaves of
Acanthus furnished the ornaments of the Corinthian
capital.
Nat. Ord. 167.—Lentibulariace^e, the Bladderwort
order.—Herbs growing in water or in wet places, with
radical leaves which are either undivided or cut into filiform
root-like segments bearing little bladders, and irregular
showy flowers. Calyx divided, persistent. Corolla bila¬
biate, irregular. Stamens 2, included; anthers I-celled.
Ovary superior, 1-celled; placenta free, central; ovules
go. Fruit a 1-celled capsule. Seeds exalbuminous. Found
in various parts of the world, most abundant in the tropics.
The name Butterwort, applied to Pinguicula, is said to in¬
dicate its property of giving consistence to milk.
Nat. Ord. 168.—Primulace^e, the Primrose order (Figs.
524 and 525).—Herbs with opposite, or alternate, or
whorled, exstipulate leaves, and flowers often on scapes.
Calyx 5-cleft, rarely 4-cleft, regular, persistent. Corolla
regular, 5 or 4-cleft, very rarely 0 (as in Glaux). Stamens
opposite the corolline segments (Fig. 525). Ovary supe¬
rior, 1-celled, with a free central placenta; style 1; stigma
capitate (Fig. 274); ovules mostly indefinite, and amphi-
tropal. Fruit a capsule opening by valves or a lid. Seeds
peltate, albuminous; embryo straight, transverse. The
plants abound in cold and in northern regions. Sedative,
diaphoretic, and even drastic purgative plants are found in
this order. Under the genus Primula are included the
various species of Primrose, Cowslip, Oxlip, and Auricula.
Fig. 524. Diagram of the flower of Cyclamen europreum, Sowbread, showing
5 imbricate divisions of the calyx, 5 contorted divisions of the co¬
rolla, 5 stamens opposite the corolline segments, and a 1-celled
pistil, with a free central placenta, and numerous ovules.
... 525, Vertical section of the flower of Primula, showing calyx, corolla,
epicorolline stamens, pistil with unilocular ovary, single style and
capitate stigma.
,.. 526. Ovary of Armeria maritima, Sea-pink, cut vertically ; showing the
ovule, on, with its coverings, suspended by a cord or funiculus, cor,
which rises from the bottom of the cell. The conducting tissue of
the style, Use, passes for a certain extent into the ovary.
Nat. Ord. 169.—Pdumbaginace^e, the Leadwort order
(Fig. 526).—Herbs or undershrubs, with alternate or clus¬
tered, entire, exstipulate leaves, which are somewhat sheath¬
ing, and flowers in panicles or in heads. Calyx tubular,
plaited, persistent. Corolla salver-shaped, with a 5-parted
limb, or composed of 5 unguiculate petals. Stamens oppo¬
site the lobes of the gamopetalous corolla, and hypogynous
or attached to the claws of the polypetalous corolla. Ovary
superior, 1-celled, with a single ovule pendulous from
a long funiculus which arises from the base of the cell
(Fig. 526); styles 5, separate or partially united. Fruit a
utricle, or opening by 5 valves. Seed inverted, albuminous.
Found in salt marshes and on the sea-coasts of temperate
regions; some are tropical. The species have tonic, as¬
tringent, and acrid properties; some cause blistering.
Plumbago europcoa, Toothwort, is used for toothache.
A N Y. 203
Nat. Ord. 170.—Plantaginace^e, the Ribgrass order. Botany-
(Fig. 164).—Herbs having usually ribbed and radical leaves,
with spiked, occasionally unisexual flowers. Calyx 4-
parted, persistent. Corolla scarious and persistent, 4-parted.
Stamens 4, alternate with the corolline segments ; filaments
long and slender. Ovary of one carpel, 2 rarely 4-celled
by placental prolongations; style 1. Fruit a membranous
pyxis with a free placenta. Seeds 1, 2, or many, albumi¬
nous. The plants are generally distributed, but are chiefly
natives of temperate climates. They have bitter and as¬
tringent properties. The seeds of some are demulcent.
Note,—In the natural orders Oleacese and Primulaceae, apetalous
and even achlamydeous species are met with, which therefore
belong properly to the sub-class Monochlamydeae. Among
Ericaceae, Pyrolaceae, Monotropaceae, Epacridaceae, Primulaceae,
and Plumbaginaceae, there occur polypetalous species with
hypogynous stamens, which consequently belong properly to
the sub-class Thalamiflorae.
SUB-CLASS IV. MONOCIILAMYDEJE OR APETALiE.
1. AnGIO SPERMJE.
a. SpermogencE.—Having true Seeds ivilh a Dicotyledonous
Embryo.
Nat. Ord. 171.—Nyctaginace^e, the Marvel of Peru
order.—Herbs or shrubs, with opposite leaves, and involu-
crate, often showy flowers. Perianth tubular and funnel-
shaped, the limb plaited, coloured, and separating from the
hardened base, which incloses the one-celled utricular fruit,
and appears to be incorporated with it. Stamens hypogy¬
nous, 1-20. Embryo coiled round mealy albumen. Na¬
tives of warm regions. Their roots are purgative, as seen
in the case of Mirabilis Jalapo.
Nat. Ord. 172.—Amaranthacea:, the Amaranth order.
-—Herbs or shrubs, with opposite or alternate, exstipulate
leaves, and capitate or spiked, bracteated coloured flowers,
which are occasionally unisexual. Perianth of 3-5 scarious
sepals. Stamens 5, hypogynous, distinct or monadelphous ;
anthers often 1-celled. In other respects resembling Che-
nopodiacese. Most common within the tropics. They
have mucilaginous properties, Some are used as pot-herbs,
and many of them are cultivated on account of their dry,
persistent, and finely coloured bracts and perianth. Ama¬
ranths are know n in gardens by the name of Princes Feather
{Amaranihus hypochondriacus) and Love-lies-bleeding (A.
caudatus). Celosia cristata, the Cockscomb, has astringent
properties.
Nat. Ord. 173.—Chenopodiaceje, the Goosefoot order
(Fig. 178).—Herbs or undershrubs, with exstipulate, alter¬
nate, and occasionally opposite leaves, and small herbaceous,
often unisexual flowers. Perianth divided deeply, some¬
times tubular at the base, persistent. Stamens inserted
into the base of the perianth, and opposite to its divisions.
Ovary free, 1-celled, with a single ovule attached to its
base. Fruit a utricle or achene, sometimes succulent. Em¬
bryo coiled round mealy albumen, or spiral without albumen.
Inconspicuous plants, found in waste places in various parts
of the world, chiefly in extra-tropical regions. Many ot
the plants of this order are used as pot-herbs, for instance,
Spinage, Garden Orach, and Beet. Soda is supplied by
some of the species of Salicornia and Salsola growing on
the sea-shore. Anthelmintic and antispasmodic properties
are also met with in the order.
Nat. Ord. 174.—Basellace^e, the Basella order.—A
small order of climbing, herbaceous, and shrubby tropical
plants, closely allied to Chenopodiaceae, and differing chiefly
in their coloured double perianth, and in their stamens being
attached to its sides. Some species of Basella are used as
B O T A N Y.
■*Plate
cxxx.
^Plate
CXXX.
Spinage. Melloca tuberosa has a tuberous root, which is
used in Peru as a substitute for the Potato.
Nat. Ord. 175.—Scleranthace2E, the Scleranthus or
Knawel order.—Inconspicuous weeds, often included among
the Illecebraceae, but differing from that order in their ape-
talous flowers, exstipulate leaves, hardened tube of the
perianth inclosing the 1-celled fruit, and perigynous stamens.
They seem to be more nearly allied to Chenopodiacese.
They occur in barren places in various parts of the world.
Nat Ord. 176.—Phytoeaccace^e, the Poke-weed order.
—Herbs or undershrubs, with alternate, exstipulate, often
dotted leaves, and racemose flowers. Perianth of 4-5
leaves, often petaloid. Stamens hypogynous or nearly so,
indefinite, or 4-5 and then alternate with the divisions of
the perianth. Ovary of 1 or many united one-seeded
carpels; styles and stigmas distinct. Fruit either succulent
or dry. Embryo curved round mealy albumen. Many of
the plants are American. They have acrid, emetic, and
purgative qualities. The berries of Phytolacca decandra,
Poke or Pocan, yield a deep purple juice. Its root is emetic,
and is used in rheumatic and syphilitic pains. The young
shoots are eaten as Asparagus. Gyrostemon, a genus with
unisexual flowers, is considered as a type of an allied order,
Gyrostemonacece.
Nat. Ord. 177.—Petiveriace^e, the Petiveria order.
—A small order of plants separated from Phytolaccaceae on
account of their stipulate leaves, exalbuminous seeds, straight
embryo, and convolute cotyledons. Tropical American
plants. They have acrid properties and an alliaceous odour.
Nat. Ord. 178.—Porygonace.e, the Buckwheat order*
(Figs. 527, 528).—Herbs, rarely shrubs, with alternate
Fig. 527. Diagram of the flower of Itumex, Dock, showing a six-partite peri¬
anth, in two alternating rows, six stamens in pairs, and aone-celled
ovary formed of 3 carpels. . ^
... 528. Fruit of Rumex cut vertically, showing the triquetrous achene
closely invested by the inner segments of the perianth, two out of
the three styles, and the arcuate embryo on one side of tarinaceous
albumen.
leaves, ochreate stipules, and occasionally unisexual flowers.
Perianth often coloui’ed. Stamens definite, and inserted
into the base of the Perianth. Ovary formed of 3 carpels,
1-celled, containing a single orthotropal ovule. Fruit a
triangular nut, often covered by the perianth (Fig. 528).
Embryo usually on one side of mealy albumen. Generally
distributed both in cold and warm climates. Acid, astrin¬
gent, and purgative qualities are met with in the plants of
this order. Pagopyrum esculentum, and other species, are
cultivated as Buckwheat. Polygonum Bistorta* has a
twisted rhizome, which is used as an astringent. Various
species of Rheum yield the different kinds of Rhubarb.
R. paimatum is generally said to be the plant which supplies
Russian or Turkey Rhubarb.
Nat. Ord. 179.—Begoniaceae, the Begonia order.—
Herbs or succulent undershrubs, with alternate oblique stipu¬
late leaves, and cymose, pink, unisexual flowers. Perianth
superior, coloured, with 4 divisions in the male flower, and
5-8 in the female. Stamens oo , distinct or united ; anthers
collected into a head. Ovary winged, 3-celled, with 3 pla¬
centas meeting in the axis. Fruit capsular, winged, 3-
celled. Seeds oo, exalbuminous, reticulated. Found in the
East and West Indies, and in South America. They are
said to have bitter and astringent qualities. Begonias
receive the name of Elephant’s-ear from the appearance of
Fig. 530.
# AAlctgI ctHI VI liUV 111_ _
flower of Laurus nobilis, Sweet Bay,
showing four divisions of the perianth,
twelve stamens in three rows, some
fertile, some abortive, and the abortive
pistil as a point in the centre.
530. Diagram of the female or pistilliferous
flower of Laurus nobilis, showing a four-
divided perianth, and a one-celled
ovary in the centre, with two abortive
stamens.
their oblique leaves. Their succulent stalks are sometimes Botany,
used like Rhubarb.
Nat. Ord. 180.—Laurace/E, the Laurel oi’der (Figs.
529, 530).—Trees with exstipulate, usually alternate, dotted
leaves. Perianth
4-cleft, or 6-cleft in
2 rows. Stamens
often 8-12, the 3
or 4 innermost
being abortive sta-
minodia, and the
outer fertile ; fila¬
ments sometimes
bearing glands, an¬
thers 2 - 4 - celled,
opening by re¬
curved valves.
Ovary superior, f-
celled, with 1 or 2
pendulous ovules.
Fruit a berry or
drupe; pedicel often thickened; seed solitary, exalbumi¬
nous; embryo with large cotyledons. Tropical aromatic
and fragrant plants, yielding fixed as well as volatile oils
and camphor. Some have tonic and febrifugal barks; others
supply edible fruits. The timber of some of the plants is
valuable. Camphora officinarum, a tree found in China
and Japan, supplies camphor. Cinnamomum zeyla?ricum,
is the Cinnamon-tree, the bark of which constitutes the
Cinnamon of commerce. Laurus nobilis, Sweet-bay, yields
a concrete green oil, called Oil of Bays. Its branches were
used to crown the victors in the ancient games. Nectandra
Rodicei (N. leucantha, var. N. ab. E.), yields the Bebeeru-
bark, which contains an antiperiodic alkaloid Bebeerine. Its
wood is called Green-heart, and is used in ship-building.
Nat. Ord. 181.—Atherospermace^:, the Plume-Nut¬
meg order.—Trees, with opposite exstipulate leaves, and
bracteated unisexual flowers. Perianth tubular, divided at
the top into segments, in 2 rows, the inner partly petaloid.
Stamens numerous, inserted in the bottom of the perianth;
filaments with scales at their base; anthers with valvular
dehiscence. In the female flow’ers, there are often abortive
stamens in the form of scales. Carpels numerous, each
having a single erect ovule. Fruit achenes, inclosed in the
tube of the perianth, having persistent feathery styles. Seed
solitary, erect; embryo minute in the base of fleshy albu¬
men. Fragrant plants from Australia and Chili.
Nat. Ord. 182.—Myristicacea:, the Nutmeg order.*--opiate.
Tropical trees, with alternate, exstipulate leaves, and uni- CXXXI.
sexual flowers. Perianth 3-4-cleft, valvate. Stamens 3-12,
distinct or monadelphous; anthers extrorse, often united.
In the female flowers, the perianth is deciduous. Carpels
1 or many, each with a single erect anatropal ovule. Fruit
succulent, 2-valved. Albumen ruminate. Some regard
this order as an apetalous unisexual form of Anonaceae.
Natives ol the tropical parts of India and America. 1 he
plants of this order are acrid and aromatic. I heir bark
yields a red juice. Myristica moschata* is the Nutmeg-opiate
tree of the Moluccas. The fruit is drupaceous and dehisces, CXXXI.
so as to display the scarlet mace, which consists ot a reti¬
culated arillode covering the shell in which the seed or
Nutmeg is inclosed.
Nat. Ord. 183.—Monimiace^e, the Monimia order.—
Trees or shrubs, with opposite, exstipulate leaves, and uni¬
sexual flowers, resembling Atherospermaceae, from which
they differ chiefly in the anthers dehiscing longitudinally,
in the ovule being pendulous, and in the want of featheiy
styles to the fruit. The plants are chiefly South American,
and possess aromatic qualities.
Nat. Ord. 184.—Peoteaceas, the Protea order.—Shrubs
or small trees, with hard, dry, exstipulate leaves. Penantl
BOTANY.
205
Botany.
divided into 4, valvate. Stamens 4, placed on the segments
of the perianth. Ovary of one superior carpel, containing
1 or more ovules; fruit dehiscent or closed. Seed exalbu-
minous; embryo straight. Natives of Australia and the
Cape of Good Hope chiefly. Leucadendron argenteum
is the Witteboom or Silver-tree of the Cape. Prolea grandi-
flora is called Wagenboom.
Nat. Ord. 185.—El/eagxace^:, the Oleaster order.—
Trees or shrubs, jusually lepidote, with exstipulate leaves,
and unisexual, rarely hermaphrodite, flowers. Male flowers
in the axil of scales; perianth of 2-4 leaves, sometimes
united; stamens 3, 4, or 8. In the ? and 5 flowers, perianth
tubular, with a fleshy disk. Ovary free, 1-celled, with a
single ascending ovule. Fruit a crustaceous achene, in¬
closed in the succulent perianth. Found chiefly in the
northern hemisphere. Many are cultivated for their silvery
scaly foliage. The scales are beautiful microscopic objects
(Fig. 53). Hippophae rhamnoides, Sea Buckthorn, is a
spiny plant which thrives on the sea-shore. Elaagnus
parvifolia, small-leaved Oleaster, bears clusters of red edible
berries, mottled with scales.
Nat. Ord. 186.—Peseeaceas, the Pensea order.—-Shrubs,
with opposite exstipulate leaves. Perianth inferior, bracte-
ated, salver-shaped, limb 4-lobed. Stamens 4 or 8, inserted
on the perianth. Ovary 4-celled, with 4 appendaged stig¬
mas. Fruit a 4-celled capsule. Seed exalbuminous; em¬
bryo with minute cotyledons. Evergreens, found at the
Cape of Good Hope. Some yield a gum-resin called Sar-
cocol.
Nat. Ord. 187.—Thymel^eace^e, the Mezereon order.
—Shrubby plants, with stipulate leaves, and $ rarely 6 2
flowers. Perianth coloured, tubular, with a 4-5-lobed im¬
bricate limb. Stamens often twice as many as the lobes of
the perianth, and inserted on its tube, Carpel solitary, su¬
perior, with a single pendulous ovule. Fruit nut-like or
drupaceous. Seed with or without albumen; embryo
straight. Natives both of cold and of warm climates in
various parts of the world. The plants of this order possess
acrid, irritant, and occasionally narcotic qualities. The
bark of many of them is tough and tenacious, so as to be
used for cordage. Daphne cannabina has a fibrous inner
bark, which is used for ropes and for the manufacture of
paper. Lagetta lintearia is called Face-bark tree, on ac¬
count of the beautiful meshes of its inner bark.
Nat. Ord. 188.—Aquilariacea:, the Aquilaria order.—
Trees, with exstipulate leaves. Perianth tubular, with a 4-
5-lobed imbricate limb. Stamens usually 8-10, inserted
into the throat of the perianth. Ovary superior, 2-celled,
with 2 suspended ovules. Fruit a 2-valved capsule, or
succulent. Seeds exalbuipinous. Natives of the tropical
parts of Asia, Some of the plants yield resinous matter,
which is used as a stimulant.
Nat. Ord. 189.—Samydaceas, the Samyda order.—-
Trees or shrubs, with alternate, stipulate, usually dotted
leaves. Perianth 4-5-parted; aestivation imbricate. Sta¬
mens inserted into the tube of the perianth, 2, 3, or 4 times
as many as its divisions, some of them occasionally sterile;
filaments united. Ovary superior, 1-celled, with nume¬
rous ovules. Fruit, a leathery, 1-celled, 3-5-valved cap¬
sule. Seeds albuminous, arillate, attached to parietal pla¬
centas. Tropical, chiefly American plants, with astringent
bark and leaves.
Nat. Ord. 190.—Santalacea:, the Sandal-wood order.
—Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with alternate, entire, exstipu¬
late leaves, and small flowers, sometimes $ 2. Perianth
adherent, 4-5-cleft, valvate. Stamens 4-5, inserted into
the throat of the perianth opposite its segments. Ovary 1-
celled ; ovules 1-4; placenta central. Fruit monospermal,
dry, or succulent. Seed albuminous. Found in Europe,
Asia, America, and Australia. Some of the species are
astringent, others yield edible fruit. The wood is in some
instances fragrant, and the bark is tough and tenacious. Botany.
Santalum album, a Malabar tree, from 25 to 30 feet high,
produces Sandal-wood, which is used as a perfume in China,
and in India as an astringent.
Nat. Ord. 191.—A histolociii ace a:, the Birthwort order
(Fig. 531).—Herbs or climbing shrubby plants, with alter¬
nate leaves, solitary or clustered brown or greenish coloured
2 flowers, and wood arranged in separable wedges. Perianth
tubular (Fig. 383), adherent, valvate. Stamens 6-12,
epigynous, distinct or adherent to the style and stigmas
(Fig. 248). Ovary 3-6-celled ; ovules oo ; stigmas radiat¬
ing. Fruit a 3-6-celled polyspermal capsule or berry.
Seeds albuminous; embryo minute. Found in various
parts of the world, but abundant in the tropical parts of
South America. Birthworts have pungent, aromatic, stimu¬
lant, and tonic properties. Some have been celebrated for
their effects on the uterus, others as antidotes for snake¬
bites. The root of various species of Aristolochia have
been used as emmenagogues. The root of A. serpentaria,
Virginian Snake-root, formerly of repute in typhus fever,
and also in cases of snake-bite, is a valuable stomachic.
Fig. 531. Diagram of the flower of Asarum europseum, Asarabacca, showing
three divisions of the perianth, nine stamens in three rows, and a
three-celled ovary.
... 532. Flowering branch of Nepenthes distillatoria, the Pitcher-plant. The
racemose flowers are seen with the operculate ascidia at the end of
the leaves.
Nat, Ord, 192.—Nepenthaceai, the Pitcher-plant order
(Fig. 532).—Herbaceous or suffruticose plants, with alter¬
nate leaves, having calyptrimorphous ascidia at their ex¬
tremities (Fig. 140), wood in separable wedges, and race¬
mose dioecious flowers. Perianth inferior, 4-leaved, imbri¬
cate. Stamens columnar, with anthers collected into a
head. Ovary superior, tetragonal, 4-celled; ovules oo;
ascending. Fruit a 4-celled, 4-valved capsule, loculicidal.
Seeds with a loose testa, albuminous. Found in marshy
ground in the East Indies and China.
Nat. Ord. 193.—Datiscace,e, the Datisca order.—
Herbs or trees, with alternate exstipulate leaves, and £ 2
flowers. Perianth, 3-4 divided, adherent to the ovary.
Stamens 3-7, ovary unilocular, with 3-4 polyspermous
parietal placentas. Fruit a 1-celled capsule opening at the
apex. Seeds strophiolate, exalbuminous. The plants are
scattered over various parts of the world, chiefly in the
northern hemisphere. Bitter and purgative properties are
met with in the order. Some yield fibres.
Nat. Ord. 194.—Empetracea:, the Crowberry order.—
Shrubs, with heath-like, evergreen, exstipulate leaves, and
small axillary unisexual flowers. Perianth of 4-6 hypogy-
nous persistent scales, the innermost sometimes petaloid
and united. Stamens 2-3, alternate with the inner row of
scales. Ovary free, on a fleshy disk, 2-9-celled; ovules
solitary. Fruit fleshy, with 2-9 nucules. Seed solitary,
ascending; embryo with an inferior radicle. A small group,
allied to Euphorbiacese, and distinguished chiefly by its
ascending seeds and inferior radicle. Natives chiefly of
the northern parts of Europe and America. Their leaves
206
BOTANY.
^Plate
CXXXII
Pig. 534.
inferior, lobed, with
glandular, scaly, or
petaloid append-
Botany. and fruit are often subacid. Empetrum nigrum, Crow-
berry, has black watery fruit.
Nat. Ord. 195.—Euphorbiaceje, the Spurgewort order*
(Figs. 533, 534).—
Trees, shrubs, or
herbs, with opposite
or alternate, often
stipidate leaves, and
involucrate (Fig*
533), unisexual,
sometimes, achla-
mydeous flowers
(Fig. 209), Peri- Fie.'m
anth, when present, Fig. 533, Involucre, *, of Euphorbia, containing
- - - - 1 , ... numerous naked male flowers, m, and
one female, />, supported on a stalk,
and having three forked styles at the
summit of the three-celled ovary.
^ - - 534. Section of tricoccous fruit of Euphorbia.
ages. Stamens definite or co , separate (Fig. 246), or united
in one or more bundles (Fig. 251). Ovary 1, 2, or 3 or
more celled ; ovules 1 or 2, suspended. Fruit usually tri-
coccous (Fig. 534), the carpels separating with elasticity,
sometimes fleshy and indehiscent. Seeds albuminous, often
arillate. Embryo with a superior radicle. Lindley con¬
siders this a dichlamydeous order, and as becoming mo-
nochlamydeous or achlamydeous by abortion. The plants
abound in equinoctial America. Some are found in North
America, Africa, India, and Europe. The plants of the
order are generally acrid and poisonous, abounding in a milky
juice. Starchy matter is procured from many of the spe¬
cies, as well as oils and caoutchouc. Croton Eleuteria
produces a tonic bark known by the name of Cascarilla.
The seeds of C. Tiglium yield, by expression, Croton-oil,
which is a drastic purgative in doses of one or two drops.
Euphorbia Lathyris, Caper-spurge, has been used as a pur¬
gative. E. ojfficinarum is the source of the purgative resin
*n CXIII caFe(l Euphorbium. Janipha Manihot* is the Cassava or
g ’ ’ Manioc plant, Oldfieldia africana is the tree which supplies
the African Teak. The seeds of Ricinus communis yield
Castor-oil by expression.
Nat. Ord. 196.—Scepace^e, the Scepa order.—Trees,
with alternate stipulate leaves and unisexual flowers, resem¬
bling Euphorbiaceae, and differing chiefly in being amenti¬
ferous. The perianth is 4, 5, or 6-leaved; stamens 2-5 ;
ovary 2-celled, ovules in pairs ; seeds arillate, often buried
in hairs. Natives of India.
Nat. Ord. 197.—C allitrt c h ace as, the Starwort order.
—Aquatic herbs, with opposite leaves, and minute axillary
unisexual achlamydeous flowers. Stamen 1, rarely 2 ; an¬
ther reniform, 1-celled. Ovary solitary, tetragonal, 4-celled;
ovules solitary in each cell; styles 2, Fruit 4-celled, 4-
seeded, indehiscent. Seeds peltate, albuminous ; embryo
with a superior radicle. Na¬
tives of still waters in Europe
and North America.
Nat. Ord. 198.— Cera-
tophyllacejE, the Horn-
wort order.—Aquatic herbs,
with verticillate leaves and
monoecious flowers. Perianth
inferior, 10-12-cleft; anthers
sessile, 12-20; ovary 1-celled,
with 1 pendulous ovule. Fruit Fig. 535. Diagram of the barren flower
.r . of Urtica, Nettle, showing
an achene ; seed exalbumi-
nous; embryo with an inferior
radicle. Found in ditches in
various parts of the world.
Nat. Ord. 199.—Urtica-
CE.E, the Nettle and Hemp
order (Figs. 535, 536).
Fig. 535.
Fig. 536.
of Urtioa, Nettle, showing
four parts of the perianth,
four stamens opposite
them, and the abortive
pistil.
536. Diagram of the fertile flower
of Urtica, Nettle, showing
four divisions of the peri-
gone (perianth), two of
which may be reckoned
bracts, and a single-celled
ovary in the centre, con¬
taining one ovule.
Trees, shrubs, or herbs, with
watery juice and alternate stipulate leaves, often covered
with asperities or stinging hairs (Fig. 48). Flowers uni- Botany,
sexual, rarely $, scattered or collected into heads or cat-
kins. Perianth divided ; stamens definite, opposite the
lobes of the perianth, and inserted into its base; filaments
sometimes curved and elastic (Fig. 378); ovary superior,
1-celled, with a solitary ovule ; fruit indehiscent, with a
single seed. Embryo straight, hooked, or spiral, with or
without albumen ; radicle superior. Natives chiefly of
temperate regions. Some of the plants have caustic juice
connected with stinging hairs ; others yield valuable fibres.
Occasionally narcotic qualities are present. Bohmeria
nivea supplies the fibres whence Chinese grass-cloth is
made. Cannabis saliva, is the common Hemp plant. An
Indian variety, C. indica, possesses powerful narcotic
qualities. Humulus Lupulus, the Hop, is cultivated on ac¬
count of its bitter principle, Lupulin, which exists in the
resinous scales (Fig, 54) surrounding the fruit.
Nat. Ord. 200.—Artocarpaceas, the Bread-fruit* and *riate
CX XXIII,
Fig. 537. Fig. 538.
Fig. 537. Male flower of Morus nigra, Black Mulberry, showing four stamens
opposite the four segments of the perianth, and the rudimentary
pistil in the centre.
... 538. Fruit of the Mulberry, consisting of numerous female flowers united
into a succulent mass. It is a polygynoecial or anthocarpous fruit.
Mulberry order (Figs. 537, 538).—Trees or shrubs, with a
milky juice, and alternate lobed leaves, having large stipules.
The flowers are 5 $, and are collected into dense heads or
catkins. The plants are considered by many as a section
of U rticacese, from which they differ chiefly in being lacte¬
scent, in their fruit being a sorosis (Fig. 326), or syconus
(Fig. 157). Perianth divided (Fig. 537), often wanting;
ovary 1-celled; ovules erect or pendulous. Fruit poly¬
gynoecial or anthocarpous, consisting of achenes immersed in
the persistent fleshy perianths (Fig. 538), or situated upon
(Fig. 156) or within large fleshy receptacles (Fig. 157),
Seeds albuminous or exalbuminous ; embryo straight or
hooked. The plants of this order supply, in many instances,
edible fruits ; their milky juice often abounds in caoutchouc,
and, in some instances, is bland and nutritious, while their
inner bark supplies fibres. Bitter, tonic, as well as acrid
and poisonous properties, are found in the order, An*
tiaris toxicaria is a large tree, whence the Javanese poison
called Upas-Antiar is obtained, and which owes its activity
to a peculiar principle Antiarin. Artocarpus incisa,* the *Plato
Bread-fruit tree (Fig. 326), has large pinnatifid leaves, CXXXIH.
while A. integrifolia, the Jack-fruit, has undivided leaves.
Galactodendron utile, the Cow-tree of South America,
has a nutritive milky juice. Dorstenia Contrayerva, and
other species (Fig. 156), have a stimulant, tonic, and dia¬
phoretic rhizome. Ficus Carica, the common Fig (Fig.
157), is used as a laxative and as a cataplasm. Urostigma
(Eicus) elasticum, and other species, supply caoutchouc
abundantly. U. indicum (benghalense) is the Banyan-tree
of India (Fig. 65).
Nat. Ord. 201.—Ulmace^e, the Elm order.—Trees or
shrubs, with scabrous, alternate, stipuled leaves, and $ or
J 2 flow'ers in loose clusters. Perianth inferior, membranous,
campanulate, irregular. Starhens definite, attached to the
base of the perianth. Ovary 1-2-celled; ovules solitary,
pendulous; stigmas 2. Fruit 1 or 2-celled, indehiscent,
dry, or drupaceous. Seed solitary, without or with little
albumen. Bitter and astringent properties exist in the bark
and fruit of some of the plants of this order. Many are va¬
luable timber-trees.
B 0 T A N Y.
Botany. Nat. Ord. 202.—Stilaoixacete, the Stilago order.—Trees
v—or shrubs, with alternate, stipuled leaves, and minute 5 ?
flowers in scaly spikes. They are allied to Urticacea;, and
are chiefly distinguished by their large disk and vertical an-
therine cells, opening transversely, and having a fleshy con¬
nective. Their fruit is drupaceous, and seed suspended
and albuminous. Natives of the East Indies and of Mada¬
gascar.
Nat. Ord. 203.—Lacistemaceas, the Lacistema order.—
Shrubs, with alternate, simple stipuled leaves, and $ or 5 2
flowers in axillary catkins. Perianth free, divided, with a
large bract. Stamen 1, hypogynous; connective separat¬
ing antherine cells, which open transversely. Disk often
fleshy. Ovary 1-celled; placentas parietal. Fruit a 1-celled
2- 3-valved capsule, loculicidal. Seeds suspended, arillate,
albuminous. Natives of the tropical woods of America.
Nat. Ord. 204.—Podostemonacea:, the River-weed
order.—Submersed aquatic herbs, with capillary or minute
leaves, which are often densely imbricated. They have the
aspect of Mosses or Liverworts. Flowers usually Pe¬
rianth imperfect or 0, sometimes of 3 parts, with a spathe.
Stamens 1, or many, hypogynous. Ovary 2-3-celled; pla¬
centa parietal or axile. Fruit a 2-3-valved capsule. Seeds
numerous, exalbuminous; embryo orthotropal. Chiefly
natives of South America. Some of the species are used
for food.
Nat. Ord. 205.—Chloranthaceas, the Chloranthus
order.—Herbs or undershrubs, with jointed stems, opposite
simple leaves, sheathing petioles, interpetiolar stipules, and
spiked 5 or J ? flowers. Scaly bract, no perianth. Sta¬
mens definite, lateral, 1 or more; anthers 1-2-celled, with
a fleshy connective. Ovary 1-celled; ovule orthotropal.
h ruit drupaceous. Seed pendulous; embryo minute, at the
apex of fleshy albumen ; no vitellus. Natives of the warm
regions of India and America chiefly. They have aromatic
and stimulant properties. The leaves of Chloranthus in-
conspicuus are sometimes used to perfume tea.
Nat. Ord. 206.—Saururaceas, the Lizard’s-tail order.—
Marshy herbs, with alternate, stipuled leaves, $ spiked
flowers, each supported on a scale. Perianth 0. Stamens
3- 6, hypogynous, club-shaped, persistent. Ovaries 3-4,
distinct or united. Ovules few, orthotropal. Fruit of 4
achenes, or a 3-4-celled capsule. Embryo in a vitellus, out¬
side mealy albumen, at the apex of the seed. Natives of
North America, China, and Northern India.
Nat* Ord. 207.—Piperaceas, the Pepper order (Figs.
539 and 540).—Shrubs or herbs with jointed stems, usually
207
Eig. 539.
Fig. 540.
Fig. 539. Branch of Piper longura, a species of Chavica, perhaps C. Rox-
burghii, showing its spiked female flowers, which, when dried con¬
stitute Long Pepper. The leaves are cordate acute. Chavica' nee-
puloides and C. officinarum, also supply the officinal Lon? IVnrii.r
according to Miquel. 6
... 540. Piper nigrum, the plant which yields Black and White Pepper with
its spiked flowers and cordate acuminate leaves.
opposite or verticillate leaves, stipules sometimes present,
flowers 2 in spikes, each supported on a bract, no perianth.
Stamens 2 or more ; ovary free, 1-celled; ovule 1, erect,
orthotropal. Fruit somewhat fleshy, indehiscent, 1-celled’
1-seeded. Seed erect; embryo in a vitellus or fleshy sac
outside the albumen, and at the apex of the seed. The
stems of Pepper have a peculiar arrangement of the woody
matter in wedges and not in concentric zones. Natives of
tropical regions, especially in America and Asia. The
plants of this order are pungent and aromatic, owing to
the presence of an acrid resin, an oil, and a crystalline
matter called Piperin. Some possess narcotic qualities,
others are astringent. Chavica Roxburghii, and other
species (Fig. 539), produce Long-pepper, which is the
dried female spikes. Cuheha officinalis, and other spe¬
cies, produce the aromatic pungent fruit called Cubebs.
Piper nigrum (Fig. 540) is a climbing East Indian plant,
the dried unripe fruit of which constitutes Black Pepper.
Nat. Ord. 208.—Myricaceae, the Gale order (Fig. 541).
—Amentiferous shrubs or small trees, with resinous glands,
alternate leaves, and unisexual flowers. Perianth 0. Sta¬
mens 2-8, usually in the axil of a bract; anthers 2-4-celled.
Ovary 1-celled, with hypogynous scales; ovule solitary,
orthotropal; stigmas 2. Fruit drupaceous, often covered
with wax, and with adherent fleshy scales. Seed soli¬
tary, erect, exalbuminous ; embryo with superior radicle.
Found both in temperate and in tropical countries. The
plants have aromatic, tonic, and astringent properties. Tan¬
nic and benzoic acids, as well as wax, resin, and oil, are pro¬
cured from different species. The berries of Myrica ceri-
fera, Wax Myrtle or Candleberry (Fig. 541), furnish a
greenish-coloured wax when put into hot water.
Botany,
Fig. 544.
9
Fig. 543.
Fig. 541.
Fig. 541. Myrica cerifera, Wax Myrtle, or Candleberry bush. Its succulent
fruit is covered with a waxy secretion.
... 542. Single male flower of a Willow, showing the single bract, hr, bearing
2 stamens, with a gland, g, at the base. The flower is called naked
or achlamydeous.
... 543. Single female flower of a Willow, with bract, hr, bearing a stipitate
or stalked ovary, with 2 stigmas, st, at the summit, and a giand, q,
at the base. The flower is also naked.
... 544. Comose seed of the Willow, showing the hairs proceeding from its
base.
Nat. Ord. 209.—Salicaceae, the Willow order (Figs.
542 to 544).—Amentiferous trees or shrubs (Fig. 167), with
alternate, simple, stipuled leaves, sometimes with petiolary
glands, and 5 2 flowers. Perianth 0, or cup-like. Stamens
2-30. Ovary superior, 1-celled; ovules numerous, erect,
attached to the bottom of the cell, or to the base of 2 parie¬
tal placentas ; stigmas 2. Fruit leathery, 1-celled, 2-valved,
polyspermal. Seeds covered with basal silky hairs, exalbu¬
minous ; embryo erect, with an inferior radicle. Chiefly found
in northern regions; some grow on the high mountains of
Soutli America, others in antarctic regions. The plants of
this order are useful timber trees, and they are employed for
various economical purposes. Their bark is tonic and astrin¬
gent. The downy matter surrounding the seeds is used for
stuffing cushions, and for making paper. The bark of Salix
alba, S. Helix, S. purpurea, S. fragilis, S. caprea, S. pent-
andra, and many other species, contains a bitter tonic prin¬
ciple called Salicin.
Nat. Ord. 210.—Altingiace-e or Balsamifluae, the
Liquidambar order. Amentiferous unisexual trees, with
alternate, stipuled leaves, and involucrate catkins. Anthers
go , nearly sessile, with a few minute scales. Ovaries 2-
208
BOTANY.
Botany.
celled, collected into a round mass, each with a few scales;
styles 2 ; ovules oc, amphitropal. Fruit, consisting of 2-
celled capsules, inclosed in scales, and forming a sort of
cone. Seeds winged, peltate, albuminous; embryo inverted,
radicle superior. Natives of the warmer parts of India and
America; also found in the Levant. Fragrant and balsamic
properties are met M ith in this order. The bark of some
of the plants is bitter.
Nat. Ord. 211.—Betuxace^:, ihe Birch order (Fig. 545).
—Amentiferous trees or shrubs, with alternate, simple, sti-
puled, often feather-veined leaves, and unisexual flowers,
which have small scales in place of a perianth. Stamens
opposite the scales. Ovary 2-celled ; ovules 1 in each cell,
pendulous, anatropal; stigmas 2. Fruit dry, indehiscent, 1-
celled, 1-seeded. Seed exalburoinous; radicle superior.
In Alnus there is a 4-leaved membranous perianth. The
plants of this order are usually timber trees, such as the
Birch and Alder, with deciduous leaves, chiefly found in
northern and cold regions. Their bark is tonic and astrin¬
gent.
Fig. 546.
Fig. 545. Betnla alba, the common Birch. Its male flowers, a, are produced in
scaly catkins, and they have no proper perianth ; its female flowers,
b, are in scaly spikes or catkins, and ate also naked.
... 546. Flowering branch of Corylns Avellana, the Hazel or Hasel, bearing
male flowers J in catkins (amentiferous), and female flowers J in
rounded clusters.
Nat. Ord. 212.—Corylaceje or Cupelifera:, the Ha¬
zel and Oak order (Fig 546).—Amentiferous trees or shrubs,
with simple, alternate, stipulate, often feather-veined leaves,
and monoecious flowers (Fig. 546). Barren flowers in catkins.
Stamens 5-20, inserted in the base of scales, or of a mem¬
branous valvate perianth. Fertile flowers aggregate (Fig.
546, $ ), or on a spike. Ovary, with several cells, crowned
by the remains of an adherent perianth inclosed in an in¬
volucre or cupula (Fig. 299). Ovules in pairs or solitary,
pendulous or peltate ; stigmas several. Fruit a glans (Fig.
300); seed solitary, exalbuminous. The plants abound
in the forests of temperate regions in the form of Oaks,
Hazels, Beeches, and Chestnuts. The plants of this order
afford valuable timber and edible seeds. Astringency also
prevails in a marked degree in the bark.
Nat. Ord. 213.—Casuarinace2E, the Beefwood order.—
Leafless trees, with pendulous, jointed, striated, sheathed
branches, and spikes or heads of unisexual flowers proceed¬
ing from bracts. Barren flowers in spikes, and whorled
round a jointed rachis. Perianth 2-leaved, with 2 alternat¬
ing bracts. Stamen 1, carrying up the united 2 leaves of
the perianth in the form of a lid. Fertile flowers, capitate,
without a jointed rachis, and naked. Ovary 1-celled; ovules
1 or 2, orthotropal; styles 2. Fruit, winged achenes, com¬
bined into a bracteated cone. Seed exalbuminous; epi-
sperm with spiral cells; radicle superior. Tropical or sub¬
tropical plants, having the aspect of Equisetums. They
abound in Australia. Their wood is hard and heavy, and
on account of its colour is called Beefwood. The bark of
some of the species of Casuarina is tonic and astringent.
Nat. Ord. 214.—Pratanacea:, the Plane order (Fig.
547) .—Amentifer¬
ous trees or shrubs,
with alternate, de¬
ciduous, palmate,
or toothed, stipu¬
late leaves, and uni¬
sexual naked flowr-
ers in globose cat¬
kins (Fig. 547).
Barren flowers.
Stamens single,
mixed with scales.
Fertile flowers.
Ovary 1-celled;
style thick and su¬
bulate. Ovules 1-
2, orthotropal, sus¬
pended. Nuts cla-
vate, with a per¬
sistent style. Seeds
usually solitary and albuminous ; radicle inferior. Natives
of the Levant and North America chiefly. The species of
Platanus are fine trees, but their timber is not durable.
Nat. Ord. 215.—Juglandacea:, the Walnut order (Fig.
548) .—Trees, with alternate,
pinnate, stipuled leaves, and
unisexual flowers. J: Amen¬
tiferous. Perianth 2-3-6-
parted, with a scaly bract.
Stamens 3 or more. 9:
terminal clusters or in loose
racemes, with distinct or
united bracts. Perianth ad¬
herent, 3-5-divided. Ovary
2-4-celled at the base, uni¬
locular at the apex. Ovule
solitary, orthotropal, and
erect; style 1 or 2. Fruit
a tryma, endocarp stony and
often 2-valved. Seed exal¬
buminous, 2-4-lobed at the
base, and partly divided by
partial dissepiments. Na¬
tives chiefly of North Ame¬
rica. Some are found in the
East Indies, Persia, and the
Caucasus. The plants are fine
trees with edible oily seeds
and an acrid bark. Purgative
qualities are found in some of the species. Carya alba, the
common Hickory-tree, produces an eatable nut. Juglans
regia is the Walnut-tree (Fig. 548).
Nat. Ord. 216.—Garryaceje, the Garrya order.—
Shrubs with opposite, exstipulate leaves, and amentiferous
unisexual flowers, surrounded by united bracts. Pe¬
rianth of 4 leaves, alternating with 4 stamens. 9: Perianth
adherent, bidentate. Ovary 1-celled; styles 2; ovules 2,
pendulous with long cords. Fruit a 2-seeded berry. Em¬
bryo minute in the base of fleshy albumen. The wood is
not arranged in circles, and there is an absence ot dotted
vessels. Natives chiefly of the temperate parts of America.
Botany.
Fig. 548.
Branch of Jnglans regia, the Walnut-
tree, with an impari-pinnate leaf and
a cluster of drupaceous fruit.
BOTANY.
209
b. Sporogence or Rhizanthce.—Having Spore-like Seeds
with an Acotyledonous Embryo.
Nat. Ord. 217.—Rafflesiace^e, the liafflesia order (Fig-
549).— S temless
and leafless para¬
sites, consisting only
of ? or $ : J flowers
growing on the
branches of trees.
Perianth superior,
with a 5-parted
limb, thickened pro¬
cesses or calli, either
distinct or united
into a ring, being J^afjjes;a Arnold!, parasit’C on a species of Cissus.
attached to the The perianth has a 5-lobed limb. The throat
, C U l shows a projecting ring. In the interior is the
throat Ot the tube. column bearing the essential organs of reproduc-
The essential or- tl0n-
gans are combined in a column (synema) which adheres to
the tube of the perianth. Anthers 2-celled, either distinct
and opening by vertical apertures, or combined together,
so as to become a multicellular mass opening by a common
pore. Ovary 1-celled, placentas parietal. Fruit indehiscent.
Seeds cc ; embryo cellular, undivided. East Indian and
South American plants, parasitic on species of Cissus and
on some Leguminosse.
Nat. Ord. 218.—Cytinacea;, the Cistus-rape order.—
Root-parasites, having £ or S 2 flowers, which are either
solitary and stemless, or proceed from bracts arising from a
scaly stalk. Perianth has a tubular form, and a 3-6-lobed
limb. Anthers sessile, 2-celled, opening longitudinally.
Ovary inferior, 1-celled; placentas parietal. Fruit contain¬
ing pulp. Seeds oo, immersed in pulp, and with a leathery
covering; embryo undivided. Natives of the south ot
Europe and the Cape of Good Hope. Parasitical on the
roots of Cistus, and on those of some succulent plants.
Nat. Ord. 219.—Balanophoracea, the Balanophora
order.—Leafless root-parasites, with tubers or rhizomes,
whence proceed naked or scaly peduncles, bearing heads of
unisexual bracteated flowers, mixed with filaments. J:
Flowers generally white. Perianth tubular, 3-5-lobed or
entire. Stamens 3-5, rarely 1 ; anthers free or united into
a multicellular mass. 2: Perianth having its tube closely
investing the ovary, and its limb 0 or bilabiate; rarely 6-
leaved. Ovary 1-celled; ovule a pendulous, cellular nu¬
cleus; styles 1-2. Fruit somewhat drupaceous. Seed soli¬
tary, albuminous; embryo undivided. Parasitic on the
roots of various Dicotyledons, and abounding on the moun¬
tains of tropical countries, especially the Andes and Him¬
alaya.
2. GyMNOSPEHMJE Or GYifXOGENJE.
Nat. Ord. 220.— Conifera or Pixacea, the Coniferous
or Pine order (Figs. 550 to 553).—Resinous trees or shrubs,
with disk-bearing woody tissue (Fig. 550), linear, acerose or
lanceolate, parallel-veined leaves, sometimes clustered and
having a membranous sheath at the base (Fig. 551) ; flowers
unisexual and achlamydeous. Male flowers in deciduous
catkins, each consisting of 1 stamen or of several united;
anthers 2 or many-celled, dehiscing longitudinally, often
crested above (Fig. 552). Female flowers in cones; scales
arising from the axil of membranous bracts supplying the
place of ovaries ; no style nor stigma; ovules naked, 1, 2,
or several, at the base of each scale, with a large micropyle
at the apex (Fig. 296). Fruit a cone formed of hardened
scales, sometimes with the addition of bracts also, which
either disappear, or become enlarged and lobed. Seed with
a hard crustaceous spermoderm, sometimes winged (Figs. 553
and 328) ; embryo in fleshy oily albumen, sometimes poly-
vol v.
cotyledonous (Fig. 341); radicle having no definite boun-
dary, but losing itself among the lax cells of the albumen
near the apex of the seed. Conifers are found in various
parts of the world, both in cold and in warm climates. They
are most abundant in temperate regions, both in the north¬
ern and southern hemispheres. In the former they occur in
Botany.
Fig 551.
Fig. 550. Punctated or disk-bearing woody tissue of a Conifer.
... 55L Linear leaves of PinusStrobus in a cluster offive,with a scaly sheath
at the base.
... 552. Stamen of a Conifer, with longitudinal dehiscence, val, containing
pollen,pot, and terminated by a crest at the apex.
... 553. Scale of a mature cone, with two winged seeds at the base, the mi¬
cropyle, m, and the chalaza, ch.
the form of Pines, Spruces, Larches, Cedars, and Junipers,
while in the latter we meet with species of Araucaria,
Eutassa, and Dammara. The two following divisions have
been adopted:—Sub-order 1. Abietineae, the Fir tribe;
ovules inverted, pollen oval, or curved (Fig. 267). Sub¬
order 2. Cupressineae, the Cypress tribe ; ovules erect, pollen
spheroidal, cone occasionally succulent, forming a galbulus.
Conifers supply valuable timber, and yield resin, oil, pitch,
and turpentine of various kinds. Abies balsamea, the Balm
of Gilead Fir, and A. canadensis. Hemlock Spruce, yield
Canada Balsam. Cedrus Libani, is the Cedar of Lebanon ;
C. Deodara, the Deodar, is a noble Himalayan Cedar,
which some have thought to be a variety of the Cedar ot
Lebanon. Dammara australis, is the Kaurie or Cowdie Pine
of New Zealand, which attains a height of 200 feet, and sup¬
plies valuable timber for masts, as well as a hard useful resin;
D. orientalis yields the Dammar resin of India. Eutassa
excelsa is the famous Norfolk Island Pine, which grows to
the height of 181-224 feet, and
the wood of which is very valuable.
The species of Juniperus have a
succulent cone called galbulus.
Nat. Ord. 221.—Taxacea, the
Yew order (Figs. 554 and 555).
Trees or shrubs, having narrow,
evergreen, alternate, or distichous Fig. 554.
leaves which are either veinless or Fig. 554. stammiferous flower of
the Yew, with bracts
at the base and nu¬
merous monadel-
phous stamens. Some
consider this as one
stamen divided into
numerous antherine
cells by the connec¬
tive.
555. Fruit of the Yew, a
naked seed partially
inclosed in a succu¬
lent receptacle.
Fig. 555.
have a forked v enation. Closely al¬
lied to Coniferae, and generally in¬
cluded as a section of the order^
but differing in not producing true
cones. They have monadelphous
stamens (Fig.554); solitary, naked
ovules, and their seed is supported
on, or inclosed by, a succulent
cup-shaped receptacle (Fig. 555)
temperate regions, and abound in Asiatic countries. They
They are natives of
210
BOTANY.
Botany, are found also in Europe, New Zealand, and the Cape of
Good Hope. Like the Conifers they yield valuable and
durable timber, along with resinous and astringent matter.
Some are poisonous. The seeds of Taxus baccata, the
common Yew, are narcotico-acrid.
Nat. Ord. 222.—Gnetace^e, the Jointed-Fir order.—
Small trees or creeping shrubs, not resinous, with jointed
stems and branches, and opposite, reticulated, sometimes
scaly leaves. They are closely allied to Coniferaeand Tax-
aceae, and are chiefly distinguished by the want of true
cones, by the male flowers having a 1-leaved perianth, by
the anthers being 1-celled and porose, by a third ovular
covering next the nucleus being protruded through the
foramen in a style-like manner, and by their long, twisted
embryonic suspensor. The episperm is succulent. Natives
of temperate as well as warm regions in Europe, Asia, and
South America. The seeds of several of the species are
eaten. Within the succulent episperm of Gnetum urens,
stinging needle-like cells exist.
Nat. Ord. 223.— Cycadacea£, the Cycas order (Fig.
556).—Small palm-like trees
or shrubs, with unbranched
stems, occasionally dichoto¬
mous, marked with leaf-scars,
and having large medul¬
lary rays, along with pitted
tissue. Leaves pinnate, and
usually circinate in vernation.
Flowers 5 2 and achlamyde-
ous. Males in cones, the scales
bearing clusters of 1-celled
anthers on their lower surface.
Females consisting of ovules
on the edge of altered leaves,
or placed below or at the base
of scales. Seeds either hard,
or having a soft, spongy sper-
moderm, sometimes polyem- Cycas rev0iuta!om5of the false Sago
bryonous ; embryo hanging plants found in Japan,
by a long suspensor in a cavity of fleshy or mealy albumen ;
cotyledons unequal. Natives chiefly of the tropical and tem¬
perate regions of America and Asia. Cycads have a muci¬
laginous juice, in which there is often much starch, which is
used fbi food. Cycas revoluta (Fig. 556), a Japan species,
has starchy matter in its stem, which is collected and eaten
* Plate like Sago. C. circinalis* in the Moluccas, yields a similar
CXXXIV. kind of false Sago. Species of Encephalartos supply what
is called Caffre-bread.
Note.—Among Thalamifloral Exogens, the following orders con¬
tain Monochlamydeous or Achlamydeous species: — Ranuncu-
laceae 1, Menispermacese 6, Papaveraceae 13, Flacourtiaceae 18,
Caryophyllaceae 28, Sterculiaceffi 31, Byttneriaceas 32, Tili-
aceas 33, Malpighiaceae 45, Geraniacese 54, Rutacese 63, Xan-
thoxylaceae 64. Among Calycifloral Exogens, the following
orders contain Monochlamydeous or Achlamydeous species :
—Celastraceae 68, Rhamnaceae 71, Amyridacese 73, Leguminosse
75, Rosaceae sect. Sanguisorbeae 77, Lythraceae 79, Combre-
taceae 82, Myrtaceae 86, Halorageaceae 91, Cucurbitaceaj 93,
Passifloracea3 96, Portulacaceae 99, Illecebraceae 100, Tetragoni-
aceae 103, Saxifragaceae 107, Cunoniaceae 109, Loranthaceae
115. AmongCorollifloral Exogens, the following orders contain
Monochlamydeous or Achlamydeous species:—Oleaceae 140,
Primulaceae 168.
CLASS II.—MONOCOTYLEDONES, ENDOGEXJE, OR
AMPHIBRYA,
SUB-CLASS I.—DICTYOGE1GE.
Endogens having Net-veined Leaves, which usually disar¬
ticulate with the Stem. Woody Matter of the Rhizome
disposed in a circular wedge-like manner.
__ Nat. Ord. 224.—Dioscoreace^e, the Yam order.—
rJ wining shrubs, with epigeal or hypogeal tubers, usually
alternate leaves, and small bracteated, unisexual flowers
growing in spikes. Perianth 6-cleft, in 2 rows, herbaceous,
adherent. Stamens 6, inserted into the base of the perianth.
Ovary inferior, 3-celled ; ovules 1-2, suspended ; style
trifid. Fruit compressed, 3-celled, 2 cells often abortive,
sometimes fleshy. Seeds albuminous ; embryo in a cavity.
Chiefly found in tropical countries. Tamm grows in tem¬
perate regions. Acridity prevails in the order, but is often
associated with a large amount of starch. Various species
of Dioscorea, such as I). saliva, D. alata, and D. aculeata,
produces edible tubers, which are known by the name of
Yams, and are used like potatoes. Tamm communis, Black
Bryony, has an acrid purgative and emetic root.
Nat. Ord. 225.— Smilace^e, the Sarsaparilla order
(Fig.557).—Herbs or shrubby
plants, often climbing, with
petiolate leaves jointed to the
stem, and hermaphrodite or
unisexual flowers. Perianth
6-parted. Stamens 6, perigy-
nous or hypogynous. Ovary
3-celled ; stigmas 3 ; ovules
orthotropal. Fruit a few or
many-seeded berry. Seed al¬
buminous. Natives of tem¬
perate and tropical regions.
The plants of the order have
demulcent, mucilaginous, and
diuretic properties. Smilax
embraces the various species
of Sarsaparilla, the roots of
which are used medicinally as
tonics and alteratives. S. offi¬
cinalis supplies Jamaica Sarsaparilla, and according to See-
mann, Lisbon or Brazilian, Guatemala, and llio Paraguay
Sarza.
Nat. Ord. 226.—Trilliaceas, the Trillium order.—Herbs
with tubers or rhizomes, verticillate leaves, and large ter¬
minal 5 flowers. Perianth of 6 or eight parts, in 2 rows,
the inner sometimes coloured. Stamens 6, 8, or 10, with
apicilar processes. Ovary superior, 3-5 celled; placenta
axile ; styles 3-5. Fruit succulent, 3-5-celled. Seeds cc,
albuminous. Natives of the temperate parts of Europe,
Asia, and North America. The properties of the order are
acrid, narcotic, and emetic.
Nat. Ord. 227. — RoxBURGHiACEiE, the Roxburghia
order.—Twining shrubs, with large, solitary $ flowers, al¬
lied to Trilliaceae,and distinguished chiefly by their 1-celled,
2-valved fruit, with a basal placenta. Perianth 4-leaved,
coloured. Stamens 4, hypogynous. Ovules anatropal.
Natives of the hot parts of India.
Nat. Ord. 228.—Philesiace^e, the Philesia order.—A
small order, nearly allied to the last, from which it differs in
its trimerous symmetry, parietal placentas, and orthotropal
ovules. The plants are found in Chili, and seem to have
properties like Smilax.
Botany,
Eig. 557.
Smilax rudis, with cordate acute
leaves which are jointed with the
stem.
SUB-CLASS II.—PETALOlDEAi OR FLORIDjE.
1.—Epigynje.—Perianth adherent, Ovary inferior,
Floivers usually Hermaphrodite.
Nat. Ord.229.—Hydrocharidacea:, the Frog-bit order.
—Aquatic plants, with spathaceous, 5; or unisexual flowers.
Perianth of 6 leaves, the three inner petaloid. Ovary 1-
celled, or spuriously 3-9-celled ; stigmas 3-9 ; placentas
parietal. Fruit dry or fleshy, indehiscent; seeds exalbu-
minous; embryo straight, orthotropal. This order ought
probably to be placed among the unisexual plants, and close
to Naiadaccae. Its perianth, however, differs from that of
the plants in the division Incompletae. Found chiefly in
BOTANY.
Botany. Europe, Asia, and North America. Movements in the cells
are seen under the microscope (Fig. 23). Anacharis Al-
sinastrum has become naturalized in many parts of Britain,
and grows so rapidly as to fill up water-courses. Vallis-
neria (Fig. 22) is remarkable for its mode of impregnation.
Nat. Ord. 230.—Orchidaceje, the Orchis order (Figs.
558 and 559).—Terrestrial or epiphytic herbs or shrubs,
Fig. 559.
Fig. 558.
Fig. 558. Diagram of the flower of Orchis, 5, si, si, the three divisions of the
outer perianth, the first being inferior and the other two lateral ;
pi pi, the two lateral divisions of the inner perianth, ps, the su¬
perior division or the labellum, which becomes inferior by the
twisting of the ovary; c, the fertile stamen, with its two pollen
masses in the anther-lobes, the two lateral stamens are abortive ;
c, the one-celled ovary cut transversely,having three parietal pla¬
centas.
... 559. Flower of an Orchid, consisting of three outer divisions of the peri¬
anth, ss three inner pZ, the latter being the labellum, which
is inferior in this figure by the twisting of the ovary ; e, the spur of
the labellum; o, the twisted ovary; s£, the stigma; a, the anther
containing pollinia.
with fibrous or tuberous roots (Fig. 69), a short stem or a
pseudo-bulb (Fig. 70), entire, often sheathing leaves, and
hermaphrodite showy flowers. Perianth of 6 segments, in
two rows, mostly coloured, one, the lowest (so situated
from the twisting of the ovary) generally differing in form
from the rest, and often spurred ; it is called the labellum
or lip, and has sometimes 3 marked portions,—the lowest
being the hypochilium, the middle the mesochilium, and
the upper the epichilium. By adhesion or abortion, the
parts of the perianth are sometimes reduced to 5 or 3. Es¬
sential organs united on a common column or gynoste-
mium. Stamens 3, the 2 outer, sometimes the central one,
being abortive ; anthers 2-4-8-celled ; pollen powdery, or
adhering in masses called pollinia (Fig. 265), attached to
the rostellum by a naked or saccate gland. Ovary 1-celled,
with 3 parietal placentas, stigma a viscid space in front of
the column. Fruit usually a 3-valved capsule, which often
opens by 6 portions, owing to the midribs of the valves se¬
parating, Seeds go , exalbuminous, with a loose reticulated
episperm ; embryo solid and fleshy. This order is well dis¬
tinguished by its peculiar gynandrous flowers, labellum, and
pollinia. Fragrant, aromatic, tonic, and mucilaginous pro¬
perties are met with among Orchids. The roots of some
of the terrestrial species contain. much bassorin, and they
constitute the nutritious substance called Salep. Blue
colouring matter, like indigo, is met with in the leaves and
flowers of some species. Orchis mascula, and other species,
such as O. Morio and O. papilionacea, yield Salep. Vanilla
planifolia and aromatica yield the fragrant Vanilla, used
in confectionary and in the preparation of Chocolate.
Nat. Ord. 231.—Apostasiace^e, the Apostasia order.
*—A small order of herbaceous plants closely allied to Or¬
chids, from which they differ chiefly in their regular flowers,
3-celled loculicidal fruit, and in the style being free from
the stamens throughout a considerable part of its length.
Ihe column is short, and is formed by the filaments along
with the lower part of the style. Natives of the hot forests
of India.
Nat. Ord. 232.—Burmanniace^e, the Burmannia order.
—A small order of herbaceous plants, with tufted, radical,
acute leaves, or none, and a slender stem bearing alternate
bract-like leaflets. They resemble Orchids in their minute
Fig. 560.
Zingiber officinale,
the Ginger plant,
with its rhizome
or rootstock and
spathaceous
flowers.
seeds with a loose reticulated episperm, their parietal pla¬
centas, and their solid embryo ; and are chiefly distinguished
by their regular tubular flowers, stamens 3 or 6, dehiscing
transversely, free, and inserted into the tube of the coloured
perianth. Natives chiefly of tropical regions in Asia, Africa,
and America.
Nat. Ord. 233.— Zingiberaceye or ScitamineyE, the
Ginger order (Fig. 560).— Herbs, with a
rhizome, simple sheathing leaves, the veins
parallel and diverging from a midrib, and
flowers arising from membranous spathes.
Perianth tubular, irregular, and in 3 rows,
the outer (calyx) 3-lobed, the middle (co¬
rolla) and inner (staminodes) each 3-parted,
with a segment differing from the rest.
j. Stamens 3, free, the two lateral abortive;
anthers 2-celled. Fruit a 3-celled capsule
or berry. Seeds numerous, albuminous;
embryo in a vitellus. Nearly all tropical
plants ; abundant in the East Indies. The
plants of this order have aromatic, stimu¬
lating properties, and are used as condi¬
ments, and as stomachic remedies. Their
flowers are often very gaudy, and their bracts
are sometimes finely coloured. The capsules of Arr.omam
Cardamomum are called round Cardamoms ; those of A.
dngustifolium are the Madagascar Cardamoms. Curcuma
longa has a yellow coloured rhizome, the branches of which
constitute Turmeric. Zingiber officinale (Fig. 560) has
an aromatic rhizome which constitutes Ginger.
Nat. Ord. 234.—Marantace^e or CannaceyE, the Ar¬
row-root order.—Herbaceous plants closely allied to Zingi-
beraceae, from which they differ chiefly in the want of aroma,
in having one of the lateral stamens fertile (the other two
being abortive), in the single stamen having a petaloid fila¬
ment, which bears a 1-celled anther (the other antherine
lobe being sterile), in the style being petaloid, and in the
embryo not being contained in a vitellus (Fig. 420). Na¬
tives of the tropics of America, Africa, and Asia. Amy¬
laceous qualities prevail in this order, and starch is prepared
from many of the species. The corms or rhizomes of Canna
coccinea, C. edulis, and C. Achiras, all yield starch, some of
which is known as 1 ous-les-mois. Maranta arundinacea
yields Arrow-root.
Nat. Ord. 235.—MusacEyE, the Banana order (Fig. 561).
—Plants with underground stems, their
petioles forming a spurious aerial stem
(Fig. 86), their leaves having parallel
veins diverging from a midrib, and their
flowers being bracteated. Perianth ir¬
regular and petaloid, 6-parted in 2 rows.
Stamens 6, inserted on the perianth.
Anthers linear, 2-celled, often crested.
Fruit a 3-celled loculicidal capsule, or
succulent and indehiscent (Fig. 561).
Seeds albuminous ; embryo orthotropal.
Tropical plants, which are valuable as re¬
gards food, clothing, and other domestic thfsanana*
purposes. They yield much nutritive *apientum).
food, as well as useful fibres. Musaparadisiaca, the Plan¬
tain, and M. sapientum, the Banana, supply well-known
fruits, which serve for the food of the inhabitants of many
tropical countries. M. textilis produces Manilla Hemp,
which is used in manufacture.
Nat. Ord. 236.—IridaceyE, the Iris order (Figs. 562 and
563).—Herbs with corms, rhizomes, or fibrous roots, and
mostly equitant leaves, and spathaceous flowers. Perianth*
6-divided in 2 rows, sometimes irregular. Stamens 3, in¬
serted at the base of the outer row of the perianth ; an¬
thers innate, extrorse. Style dividing into 3 petaloid stigma-
tiferous portions (Fig. 563). Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved,
211
Botany.
Fig. 561.
0
212
BOTANY.
Botany, loculicidal. Seeds with hard albumen. Found in various
   temperate and warm parts of the world. The order has its
maximum at the Cape of Good Hope. Acrid purgative,
and emetic properties are met with in some plants ol the
563.
Fig. 562. Diagram of the flower of Iris, showing a hract or spathe helow, three
outer divisions of the perianth with hairs, three inner, three sta¬
mens, and three divisions of the ovary.
563. Power of Iris, with the limb of the perianth removed. The ovary
o, tube of perianth, t, upper petaloid and divided part of the style,
sty, stigma, stiff.
order. Some are fragrant and aromatic; others supply
starch and materials for dyeing. The dried stigmatic pro¬
cesses of Crocus sativus constitute Saifron. The rhizome
of Iris florentina, the Florence Iris, is the aromatic Orris-
root, which has the odour of Violets.
Nat. Ord. 237.—Amaeyllidace^i, the Amaryllis order
(Fig. 564).—Bulbous, some¬
times fibrous-rooted plants, with
ensiform leaves, and showy
flowers, which are mostly spatha-
ceous and on scapes (Fig. 149).
Perianth coloured, limb 6-parted
or 6-cleft, sometimes with a co¬
rona, as in Narcissus (Fig. 149).
Stamens 6, inserted at the bot¬
tom of the segments, sometimes
united by a membrane, as in
Pancratium ; anthers introrse. Fig. sei.
Stigma 3-lobed. Fruit a 3-Celled, Diagram of the flower of Leuco-
3-valved, loculicidal capsule, with
many seeds ; or a berry with 1-3
seeds, spermoderm not crusta- ticils, and a three-celled ovary
ceous; albumen fleshy; embryo with a central placenta.
with radicle next the hilum. Natives of various parts of
the world, but attaining their maximum at the Cape of
Good Hope. Many Amaryllids display poisonous pro¬
perties. Some are emetic and purgative, and some yield
useful fibres. The bulbs of the Snowdrop and Snowflake
are said to be emetic. Agave americana, American Aloe,
is used in America for the manufacture of an intoxicating
beverage. Its fibres constitute Pita F lax, and are some¬
times made into paper.
Nat. Ord. 238.—-Hypoxidaceas, the Hypoxis order.—
Herbs, with tuberous or fibrous roots, linear, dry, often
hairy leaves, and trimerous flowers in scapes. Closely allied
to Amaryllids, and differing chiefly in their strophiolate
seeds, anil embryo with the radicle remote from the hilum.
Natives of warm regions.
Nat. Ord. 239.—H^emodoraceas, the Blood-root order.
—Perennial plants, with fibrous roots, ensiform equitant
leaves, and woolly hairs or scurf on their stems and flowers.
Perianth tubular, 6-divided. Stamens 3, opposite the seg¬
ments, or 6 ; anthers introrse. Ovary 3-celled, sometimes
1-celled ; style and stigma simple. Fruit usually capsular
and valvular, covered by the withered perianth. Embryo
in cartilaginous albumen, radicle remote from the hilum’ Botany.
Natives of America, the Cape, and New Holland. Bit-
terness is found in some of the plants of the order
(Aletris). Their roots are sometimes nutritious, and many
of them are of a red colour, whence the name of the order.
Nat. Ord. 240.—TACCACEiE, the Tacca order—Peren¬
nial herbs, with tuberous roots, radical curve-veined leaves,
and flowers in scapes. Perianth tubular, 6-divided. Sta¬
mens 6, inserted in the base of the segments; filaments
petaloid; anther below the points of the filaments. Styles
3. Fruit baccate, 1-celled, or half 3-celled. Albumen
fleshy. Acrid plants found in the warmest parts of India
and Africa, as well as in the South Sea Islands. The tubers
of Tacca pinnatifida, and other species, yield starch.
Nat. Ord. 241.—Bromeiaacea5, the Pine-apple order.—
American and chiefly tropical plants, with rigid, channelled,
often scurfy and spiny leaves, and showy flowers. Outer
perianth 3-parted, persistent; inner of 3 withering leaves.
Stamens 6, inserted in the tube of the perianth ; anthers
introrse. Style single. Fruit capsular or succulent, 3-
celled, many-seeded. Embryo minute, in the base of mealy
albumen. Many of the plants grow in an epiphytic manner,
and are called air-plants. This is the case especially with
Tillandsias. Some of the species have anthelmintic pro¬
perties. Some supply edible fruit, gum, colouring matter,
and valuable fibres. The fibres of Ananassa saliva* the
Pine-apple, are used in manufacture.
2. Hypogy^sm.—Perianth free, Ovary superior, Floivers
usually Hermaphrodite.
Nat. Ord. 242.—Liliace^e, the Lily order (Figs. 565
and 566).—Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with bulbs (Fig. Ill),
Fig. 565.
Fig. 566
Fie 565. Diagram of the flower of Fritillaria imperialis, Crown Imperial,
showing a perianth of 6 parts, in two verticils, 6 stamens in two
rows, and a 3-celled ovary. . ,, „
566. Flower of Lilium album, White Lily, with a 6-leaved perianth, 6
stamens, and 1 style.
corms, rhizomes (Fig. 73), or fibrous roots, simple, sheath¬
ing, or clasping leaves,, and regular flowers. Perianth
coloured, of 6 leaves (Fig 566), or 6-cleft. Stamens 6, in¬
serted in the perianth; anthers introrse. Ovary 3-celled
(Fig. 279); style 1 ; stigma simple or 3-lobed. Fruit tri-
locular, capsular, or succulent. Seeds in 1 or 2^ rows,
sometimes in pairs or solitary ; albumen fleshy. Natives
both of temperate and tropical regions. In the latter we
meet with arborescent species, such as the Dragon-trees,
and with succulent species, as Aloes. In temperate climes
we have species of Tulip, Lily, Hemerocallis, Convallana,
Fritillary, Hyacinth, and Star of Bethlehem. The pro¬
perties of the order are various. Some ot the plants are
used as emetics and purgatives, while others are stimulant
and diaphoretic. Some yield resinous and astringent mat¬
ter, while others supply valuable materials for manufac¬
tures. Aloe is the genus which supplies the drug called
Aloes. It is the inspissated juice of various species, sue
as A. spicata, vulgaris, socotrina, indica, andpurpurascens.
Phormium tenax supplies New Zealand flax.
Scilla, known as Scilla or Squilla maritima, a Mediter¬
ranean sand plant, has an acrid bulb which, when dried,
BOTANY.
213
Botany, constitutes the common Squill of the shops. It is used as
an emetic, expectorant, and diuretic.
Nat. Ord. 243.—Melanthacea: or Colchicacea:, the
Colchicum order (Fig. 567).—Herbs, with bulbs, corms
(Fig. 74), or fasciculated roots, and
white, green, or purple flowers, which
are sometimes polygamous. Perianth
petaloid, of 6 leaves, which are either
separate, or united below into a tube.
Stamens 6, anthers extrorse. Ovary
3-celled ; style 3-parted; capsule 3-
valved, septicidal (Colchicum), some¬
times loculicidal (Uvularid). Seeds Fig. 567.
with a membranous episperm, and ^cSTcnm^auttZfaief
dense, fleshy albumen. Generally dis- ^e^eavclf perianthWinnI
tributed Over the World, but most abun- verticils, 6 stamensand
i . . . . mi an ovary formed of 3 car-
dant in northern countries. I he pels,
plants of this order have acrid, emetic, purgative, and
sometimes narcotic properties. They are all more or less
poisonous, and nearly all seem to contain the alkaloid called
Veratria. Asagrcca officinalis, is the chief source of the
Cevadilla or Sabadilla seeds, which contain veratria, and are
used in neuralgic and rheumatic affections. The corms
and ripe seeds of Colchicum autumnale, the Meadow Saffron,
contain an alkaloid Colchicia, and are prescribed in gout
and rheumatism.
Nat. Ord. 244.—Gilliesiace.e, the Gilliesiaorder.—Bul¬
bous herbs, with grass-like leaves, and umbellate, spathace-
ous flowers. Perianth of 2 portions,—outer petaloid and
herbaceous, of 6 leaves, called by Bindley bracts ; inner
minute, either a single lobe or urceolate and 5-toothed.
The latter is by some considered an abortive staminal row.
Stamens 6, sometimes 3 sterile. Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved,
loculicidal, polyspermal. Episperm black and brittle ; em¬
bryo curved ; albumen fleshy. Chilian plants.
Nat. Ord. 245.— P ontederi ace.e, the Pontederia order.—
Aquatic plants, with leaves sheathing at the base, petioles
occasionally dilated, and spathaceous flowers, either solitary
or in spikes. Perianth coloured, tubular, 6-parted, irregular,
persistent. Stamens 6 or 3, perigynous ; anthers introrse.
Capsule sometimes slightly adherent, 3-celled, 3-valved, lo¬
culicidal. Seeds numerous ; placenta central ; albumen
mealy. Natives of America, India, and Africa.
Nat. Ord. 246.—Xyridaceae, the Xyris order.—Swampy
rush-like plants, with ensiform or filiform radical leaves
sheathing at the base. Flowers in scaly heads. Perianth
of 6 parts, 3 outer glumaceous. Stamens 6, 3 fertile in¬
serted on the inner perianth. Anthers extrorse. Ovary 1-
celled ; placentas parietal; ovules orthotropal. Capsule 1-
celled, 3-valved, polyspermal. Albumen fleshy; embryo
remote from the hilum. Tropical plants. Some species of
Xyris have been used in cutaneous affections.
Nat. Ord. 247.—Philydracea:, the Water-wort order.
—Plants allied closely to Xyrids, and differing chiefly in the
want of an outer perianth, in the inner perianth being 2-
leaved, in having 3 stamens, 2 of which are abortive, and in
the embryo being large in the axis of the albumen. The
flowers have spathaceous bracts ; the roots are fibrous, the
stem simple, leafy, and often woolly, and the leaves sheath¬
ing at the base. Natives of New Holland and China.
Nat. Ord. 248 —Commelynacea:, the Spider-wort order.
—Herbs, with flat leaves, usually sheathing at the base.
Outer perianth of 3 parts, herbaceous; inner also 3, coloured,
sometimes cohering. Stamens 6, or fewer, hypogynous.
Anthers introrse ; ovary 3-celled ; placenta central; style
1. Capsule 2-3-celled, 2-3-valved, loculicidal. Seeds with
a linear hilum ; embryo pulley-shaped, in a cavity of the al¬
bumen, remote from the hilum. In Tradescantia the fila¬
ments are provided with jointed hairs, which show rotation in
their cells. The rhizomes of some species of Commelyna
are amylaceous and edible.
Nat. Ord. 249.—Mayacaceae, the Mayaca order.—Moss¬
like plants, with narrow leaves, resembling Spider-worts,
but differing in their 1-celled anthers, carpels opposite the
inner divisions of the perianth, 1-celled ovary and capsule,
and parietal placentas. Natives of America.
Nat. Ord. 250.—Juncacea:, the Rush order (Figs. 568
and 569).—Herbs, with fasciculate or fibrous roots, fistular or
Fig. 569.
Fig. 568. Diagram of the flower of Liwula, Wood-rush, showing 6 divisions of
the perianth in 2 rows, 6 stamens, and a 3-celled ovary.
... 569. Perianth of Lunula, with 6 divisions of its glumaceous perianth, 6 sta¬
mens, pistil with 1 style and 3 stigmas.
flat and grooved leaves, and glumaceous sometimes peta¬
loid flowers in clusters, cymes, or heads. Perianth dry,
greenish or brownish, 6-parted (Fig. 569). Stamens 6 or 3,
perigynous ; anthers introrse. Ovary 1 or 3-celled ; ovules
1, 3, or many in each cell; style 1 ; stigmas often 3. Fruit
a 3-valved loculicidal capsule, or monospermal and indehis-
cent. Seeds with a thin spermoderm, which often becomes
gelatinous when moistened; albumen fleshy; embryo mi¬
nute. Natives chiefly of cold and temperate regions. The
leaves are used to form matting and the bottoms of chairs,
and the pith for the wicks of candles.
Nat. Ord. 251.—Palma:, the Palm order (Fig. 570 to
573).—Arborescent plants, with a simple (Fig. 570), some-
Fig. 570.
Fig. 570. Phoenix dactylifera, the Date Palm.
... 571. Diagram of the j flower of Chamserops, Fan-palm, showing six divi¬
sions of the perianth and six stamens.
’... 572. Diagram of the flower of Chamserops, showing six divisions of the
perianth in two rows, and three cells of the ovary.
times branched stem, marked by the bases of the leaves or
their scars, leaves in terminal
clusters, pinnate or fan-shaped
flowers 5 $ or $5 > 011 a simple or
branched spadix, inclosed in a 1
or many-valved spathe. Perianth
in two verticils, each of 3 parts
(Figs. 571 and 572). Stamens
usually 6, seldom 3, sometimes cc.
Ovary 1-3-celled, with a single Fig. 573.
ovule in each cell. Fruit a nut Section ofthe seed of the Coco-nut,
- , . showing the central cavity in
or drupe, or berry. Albumen car- the albumen, and the embryo
tilaginous or hard, often ruminate, whilhif remote from the hfium.
Botany.
214
BOTANY.
Botany, with a central cavity ; embryo in a particular cavity remote
• v ' from the hilum (Fig. 573), its cotyledon often becoming en-
larged during germination, and filling the cential cavity*
Chiefly tropical plants, requiring a mean temperature of 780,2
to 81°-5 F. Some, however, extend to temperate regions.
Charruerops humilis, the dwarf Fan-palm, is found native in
the south of Europe, and C. Palmetto grows in the milder
parts of North America. Some have slender, reed-like stems,
others attain a considerable diameter. Some have a low
caudex, or a subterranean stem, while others have an erect
trunk 190 feet high. Palms yield numerous important pro¬
ducts, and they are applied to a great many uses. They sup¬
ply starch, sugar, oil, wax, and edible fruits ; their buds are
eaten like vegetables ; their leaves form coverings for habi¬
tations, and materials for manuscripts, the reticulum makes
coarse cloth, and the saccharine juice is sometimes fermented,
so as to form a spirit called arrack, or palm-wine called
toddy. Areca Catechu furnishes the Betel-nut, used all
over the East as a masticatory. Cocos nucifera, the Coco¬
nut Palm is perhaps put to a greater number of uses than
any other Palm, both as regards food, luxuries, clothing,
habitations, and utensils. Elais guineensis supplies the
solid Palm-oil. Metroxylon lave, a native of Borneo and
Sumatra, is one of the sources of the starchy matter called
Sago. Phytelphas macrocarpa, a Palm of the Magdalena
River district, is called the Vegetable Ivory-Palm, because
the hard horny albumen of its seed is used like ivory. Sagus
Rumphii is the Sago-Palm of Malacca.
Nat. Ord. 252.—Alismaceas, the Water-plantain order.
—Floating or marsh plants, with a creeping rhizome, narrow
or broad leaves, and flowers in umbels, racemes, or panicles.
Perianth of 6 pieces ; outer 3 herbaceous ; inner 3 petaloid.
Ovaries several, 1-celled ; ovules solitary, or 2 superposed.
Fruit indehiscent. Seeds exalbuminous ; embryo like a
horse-shoe, undivided. Natives chiefly of northern coun¬
tries. The fleshy rhizomes of Alisma and Sagittaria are
edible.
Nat. Ord. 253.—Juncaginace^e, tbe Arrow-grass order.
—Marsh plants, with narrow radical leaves, and $ flowers
in spikes or racemes. Perianth greenish. Stamens 6 ; an¬
thers extrorse. Carpels 3-6, united, or distinct; ovules 1
or 2, erect. Fruit dry, 1-2-seeded. Albumen 0 ; embryo
straight, with a lateral cleft. A small order of plants found
in cold and temperate regions.
Nat. Ord. 254.—Butomace^e, the Flowering-rush order.
—Aquatics, with very cellular leaves, often milky, and um¬
bellate handsome flowers. Perianth of 6 pieces, 3 inner pe¬
taloid. Stamens definite or go. Ovaries 3-6 or more, dis¬
tinct or united ; ovules go. Fruit, follicles, distinct or united.
Seeds oo, attached to a reticulated placenta, spread over the
whole inner surface of the fruit ; albumen 0. Natives
chiefly of northern countries.
3. Incomplete.—Flowers incomplete, generally Unisexual,
without a proper Perianth, or with a few Verticillate
Scales.
Nat. Ord. 255.—Pandanace^e, the Screw-pine order.—
Trees or bushes, often branching dichotomously, or in a
candelabra-like manner, having adventitious roots (big. 66),
leaves imbricated, linear-lanceolate or pinnate or fan-shaped,
and spiny; and flowers unisexual or polygamous, spathaceous,
covering a spadix completely. Perianth 0, or a few scales.
Stamens numerous ; anthers 2-4-celled. Ovaries 1-celled,
collected into parcels ; stigmas sessile ; ovules solitary or
numerous. Fruit either 1-seeded fibrous nuts, or many-
seeded berries. Albumen fleshy ; embryo minute, without
a lateral slit. Natives of tropical regions, and abundant in
insular situations.
Nat. Ord. 256.—Typhacea:, the Bulrush order.—Herbs,
growing in marshes or ditches, having stems without nodes,
rigid, ensiform leaves, and monoecious flowers on a spadix,
without a spathe. Perianth 3 or more scales, or a bundle Botany,
of hairs. Stamens 1-6, distinct or monadelphous ; anthers
innate. Ovary solitary, 1-celled ; ovule solitary, pendulous.
Fruit dry or spongy, indehiscent, 1-celled, angular by pres¬
sure. Seed solitary, pendulous, with a membranous sper-
moderm adhering to the pericarp. Embryo in the axis of
mealy albumen, straight with a lateral cleft; radicle next
the hilum. Most abundant in northern countries. Starch
is a product of the rhizomes of many species of Typha, and
the pollen, which is very abundant, is inflammable, and is
also used for food.
Nat. Ord. 257.—Araceve, the Arum order.*—Herbs or
shrubby plants, sometimes climbing, often with corms; leaves "
sheathing at the base, convolute in aestivation, sometimes
compound, and usually with branching veins ; flowers mo¬
noecious, on a spadix (Fig. 166), mostly with a spathe. Pe¬
rianth 0. Stamens definite or oo; anthers extrorse, 1 or
2-celled or more. Ovary with 1 or more cells. Fruit suc¬
culent ; seeds pulpy; embryo in the axis of fleshy and mealy
albumen, with a lateral cleft. Abundant in tropical climates;
rare in cold or temperate regions. Acridity prevails in the
order, and many of the plants are irritant poisons. Tbe
corms sometimes supply starch, which is separated from the
acrid matter by washing. Arum maculatum, Cuckow-pint,
or Wake-Robin, has an amylaceous acrid corm. The starch
used to be separated in large quantities at Weymouth and
in the island of Portland, and sold under the name of Port¬
land Sago. Colocasia esculenta, and other species, have
edible corms, which are called Cocoes and Eddoes in the
West Indies.
Nat. Ord. 258.— Orontiaceas or Acoraceas, the Oron-
tium or Sweet-flag order.—Herbs with broad, occasionally
ensiform leaves, and spadiceous flowers inclosed by a spathe.
They are usually associated with Araceae, from which they
differ in their hermaphrodite flowers, and in having fre¬
quently a perianth consisting of 4-8 scales. Bindley, on ac¬
count of their $ flowers, places them near Juncaceae. Na¬
tives both of tropical and cold regions. Acridity is met with
in this order, which also contains nutritious, bitter, and aro¬
matic plants. Acorus Calamus, common Sweet-Sedge, has
an agreeable odour, and has been used as a stimulant, tonic,
and antispasmodic. Its starchy matter is associated with a
fragrant oil, and is used as hair-powder.
Nat. Ord. 259.—Pistiacea: or Lemnacea:, the Duck¬
weed order (Fig. 574).—Floating
plants with lenticular or lobed leaves
or fronds, bearing 1 or 2 monoecious
flowers inclosed in a spathe,^ but
with no perianth. Stamens definite,
often monadelphous. Ovary 1-
celled; ovules 1 or more, erect or ho¬
rizontal. Fruit indehiscent or mem¬
branous, or bursting transversely,
or baccate, 1 or more-seeded. Seeds
with a thick ribbed episperm and
an indurated micropyle ; embryo in
the axis of fleshy albumen, with a
lateral cleft, or at the apex of the
nucleus. Natives both of cool and
of w arm regions. Lemnas form a
green covering of pools in Britain.
Pistia Stratiotes, Water - lettuce, Eig. 574.
floats in the ponds of warm coun- Re¬
tries. feet flowers produced on the
■xt ./"v i "xt frond a.Tid. tho distinct pi-
Nat. Ord. 260.—Naiadaceje or or sheaths, r, at
POTAMOGETONACEA:, the Naias or the extremities of the roots.
Pondweed order.—Plants of fresh or salt water, with cel¬
lular leaves and stems, and inconspicuous spiked flowers
which are sometimes hermaphrodite. Perianth of 1-4 sea f
pieces or 0. Stamens definite, hypogynous. Ovary free,
of one or more carpels, 1-celled; ovule solitary, erect or
BOTANY.
215
Botany, pendulous, rarely 3 and erect. Style simple, or 2-3-cleft,
v—' Fruit indehiscent, dry, 1-celled, and usually 1-seeded; albu¬
men 0; embryo with a lateral cleft. What is called the
perianth in Potamogeton, and a few other allied genera, is
considered by some as composed of bracts, bearing uni¬
sexual flowers. If that is the true view, then this order will
not include any plants. Natives of temperate and warm
climates. Some species are styptic, others yield edible roots,
and a few, as Zoster a, are used for stuffing cushions and beds.
Nat. Ord. 261.— I riuridace.®, the Triuris order.—A
small tropical order of cellular, unisexual plants, allied to
Naiadaceae, but distinguished in part by their peculiar seed,
which consists of a hard striated integument, containing an
embryo in the form of a multicellular nucleus.
Nat. Ord. 262.—Restiace^e, the Restio order.—Herbs
or undershrubs, with narrow leaves or 0, naked or sheathed
stalks, and flowers in bracteated heads or spikes, generally
5 ?; glumaceous bracts 2-6, sometimes 0. Stamens 2-3 ;
anthers usually 1-celled. Ovary 1 or more-celled; ovules,
one in each cell, pendulous. Fruit a capsule or nut. Em¬
bryo lenticular, outside the albumen. Natives chiefly of
South America, Australia, and South Africa. Their wiry
stems are used for baskets and brooms, and for thatching.
Nat. Ord. 263.—Eriocaulonaceae, the Pipewort order.
' Marsh plants, with minute, unisexual flowers, allied to
the last order, and differing principally in their capitate in¬
florescence, 2-celled anthers, ovary surrounded by a 2-3-
toothed membranous tube, and seeds with rows of hairs.
The species abound in South America, and they are also
found in Australia and North America. Eriocaulon sept-
angulare, jointed Pipewort, is the only species found in
Britain. It is met with in Skye and Galway.
Nat. Ord. 264.—Desyauxiace^®;, the Bristlewort order.
Small herbs, like species of Scirpus, having setaceous
leaves, flowers glumaceous in a spathe, distinguished from
Restiaceae principally in having separate ovaries attached to
a common axis, and fruit consisting of utricles opening lon¬
gitudinally. They inhabit the South Sea Islands and New
Holland.
SUB-CLASS III. GLUMIFERAE.
Nat. Ord* 265.—Cyperaceas, the Sedge order (Figs.
575 to 577).—Grass-like, caespitose plants, have solid, usu-
ally unjointed, and frequently angular stems, leaves with en¬
Fig. 57o. Stamimferous flower of Carex, consisting of a scale or glume bearing
TT° stamens with long filaments and innate anthers.
... o76. Hermaphrodite flower of Scirpus, Club-rush. The glume has been
removed, and there are seen six hypogynous, retrorsely-toothed
bristles, three stamens with innate anthers, and the pistil with a
,77 smgle style and three stigmas.
- o/7. The ripe pistil of Carex cut vertically, showing the minute embrvo
in the base of the albumen. 3
tire sheaths, and $ or <!> $ flowers, each with a solitary bract
or glume (Fig. 575), imbricated on a common axis, so as
to form a spikelet. The lowermost glumes are often empty,
erianth 0, or existing in the female flowers in the form of
a membranaceous covering called perigynium (Fig. 235). Botany.
Stamens hypogynous, definite, varying from 1 to 12, most
commonly 3 ; anthers innate, 2-celled. Ovary superior,
often surrounded by hypogynous bristles called setae (Fig.
576); ovule 1, erect; style single, 2-3-cleft; stigmas 2-3.
Fruit a crustaceous or bony achene. Embryo lenticular, in
the base of fleshy or mealy albumen (Fig. 577). Generally
distribufed all over the wrorld, and growing abundantly in
moist situations. Some of the Sedges are diaphoretic and
demulcent, others are bitter, stomachic, and astringent.
1 he creeping stems of Carex arenaria are used as a sub¬
stitute for Sarsaparilla.
Nat. Ord. 266.—Gramineae, the Grass order (Figs. 578
and 579).—Herbaceous plants, with round, usually hollow,
Fig. 578.
Fig. 578. Diagram of a spikelet of Arena, Oat, showing two glumes, (77 (?£, in¬
closing three flowers, one of which, a, is abortive; the two pales
or glumelles, 6 6 6, the inner apparently formed by the union of
two; two scales, lodicules, p p, the third being abortive and
marked by a dotted curve; three stamens, e, ovary, c, with two
feathery styles.
... 279. Caryopsis, grain of Oat; pericarp, o, spermoderm, t, farinacoons al¬
bumen, a. Embryo plant lying at one side at the base, with radicle,
r, plumule, g^and cotyledon, c.
jointed stems; narrow, alternate leaves, having a split
sheath and often a ligule at its summit (Fig. 134); herma¬
phrodite or monoecious, or polygamous flowrers, either soli¬
tary or arranged in spiked or panicled locustee (Fig. 165).
The flowers are considered as composed of a series of bracts ;
the outer, called glumes (Figs. 150 and 231), alternate, often
unequal, usually 2, sometimes 1, rarely 0; the next, called
pales or glumelles (paleae or glumellae), usually 2, alternate
(Figs. 232 and 233), the lower or outer one being simple,
the upper or inner having 2 dorsal or lateral ribs, and sup¬
posed to be formed by 2 pales united ; sometimes 1 or both
are wanting. The glumes inclose either one flower, as in
Fox-tail grass, or more flowers, as in Wheat (Fig. 165), and
among the flowers there are frequently abortive florets (Fig.
150). Stamens hypogynous, 1-6, usually 3 (Fig. 234) ;
anthers versatile. Ovary superior, 1-celled, with 2 (rarely
1 or 0) hypogynous scales called lodicules (Figs. 234, sq);
ovule 1; styles 2 or 3, rarely united; stigmas often feathery
(Fig. 234). Fruit a caryopsis. Embryo lenticular, exter¬
nal, lying on one side, at the base of farinaceous albumen
(Fig. 579). Germination endorhizal (Fig. 419). Grasses
are widely distributed, and are found in all quarters of the
globe. Schouwr conjectures that they constitute l-22d of
all known plants. They are usually social plants, forming
herbage in temperate regions, and sometimes becoming ar¬
borescent (50 or 60 feet high) in tropical countries. This
is perhaps the most important order in the vegetable king¬
dom, as supplying food for man and animals. To it belong
the cultivated grains, Wheat, Oats, Barley, Rye,* Rice, opiate
Maize, and Millet. Most of these have been so long under CXXXVIL
constant cultivation that their native state is unknown. The
properties of the order are nutritive in a marked degree.
Some yield fragrant oils, others produce sugar. The fra¬
grant odour given out by Anthoxanthum, and other grasses
used for hay, has been attributed to benzoic acid. Lolium
BOTANY.
temulentum, Darnel-grass, has been said to be narcotic and spike-like form, sessile on the margin of a contracted frond,
poisonous, but this has not been fully proved. Andropogon without reticulation or a ring (exannulate), 2-valved; fronds
Schcenanthus, Lemon-grass, and A. Calamus aromaticus, with straight vernation.—Sub-order 4. Danaeacese, the
Botany.
yield a fragrant oil. Bambusa arundinacea, the Bamboo,
attains a great height, and in hothouses in Britain it has
sometimes grown at the rate of a foot or more per day.
Saccharum officinarum, is the Sugar-cane.
IL-
-CRYPTOGAMEiE, ACOTYLEDONEiE, OR
FLOWERLESS PLANTS.
CLASS III.—ACOTYLEDONES OR ACRO-THALLOGENiE.
SUB-CLASS I.—ACROGEXvE, ACROBRYA, OR CORMOGESLE.1
Nat. Ord. 267.—Filices, the Fern order (Figs. 580 to
582).—Leafy plants, the leaves, or more properly fronds, being
circinate in vernation (Fig. 100), and arising from a rhizome
(Fig. 580), or from a hollow arborescent trunk (Fig. 87),
having the acrogenous structure. The fronds bear on the
veins of their lower surface (Figs 580 and 581), or along
with straight vernation.—Sub-order 4. Danteacese,
Danaea tribe; Sporangia dorsal, combined in masses, ex-
annulate, splitting irregularly by a central cleft. A moist
insular climate is that best adapted for ferns in general.
Ferns characterize the flora of New Zealand. Some
Ferns are used medicinally as anthelmintics, while others
are demulcent and astringent. The rhizomes of several
species, are used as food in Australia, the Sandwich
Islands, and India. Adiantum Capillus Veneris, true
Maiden-hair, has been used in the preparation of Syrup of
Capillaire. Lastrea Filix-mas is an effectual vermifuge in
cases of Tape-wurm.
Nat. Ord. 268.—Marsileace^: or Rhizocarpe^e, the
Pepperwortor Rhizocarp order.—Aquatic plants, with creep¬
ing stems, bearing leaves, which are usually divided into 3
or more cuneate portions, and have a circinate vernation.
The fructification is produced at the base of the leafstalks,
and consists of sporocarps or involucres inclosing clustered
organs (Fig. 360), which consist of antheridian and pistilli-
dian cells. The germinating body has an oval form, and
occasionally a mammilla on one side, whence roots and
leaves proceed. Found in ditches in various parts of the
world, chiefly in temperate regions.
Nat. Ord. 269.—LycopodiacejE, the Club-moss order.—
Plants with creeping stems or corms, which produce leafy
branches (Fig. 357), somewhat resembling Mosses. The
leaves are small, sessile, and imbricated or verticillate. The
fructification occurs in the axil of leaves, and often in a
spike-like form (Fig. 357, f), and consists of kidney-shaped,
2-valved cases, which contain antheridian or spermatozoidal
cells (Fig. 358), and roundish or four-sided bodies, called
oophoridia, opening by 2 valves, and containing 4 large spores
(Fig. 359). In the interior of the latter a pro-embryo is de¬
veloped, in which archegonia are produced (Fig. 400), and
thereafter impregnation gives rise to the germinating body.
Natives both of cold and warm climates, but abounding in the
tropics, and especially in insular situations. Some of the plants
their margins, sporangia, which open in various ways in have emetic and purgative properties. The powdery matter
order to discharge minute spores. The supposedjwgans of —;c anrl ,« known
\
Fig. 580.
Fig. 581.
Fie. 580. Short-fruited Spleenwort or Lady-fern (Athynum Filix-fcemina).
1, The entire fern with its short rhizome, and its delicate trends,
which, in the young state, arc rolled up in a circinate manner;
2, one of the pinna;, with its pinnules, hearing the oblong slightly-
curved sori (clusters of sporangia) on their back. The fern is dor-
581. Portion of the frond of the male Shield-fern {Lastrea Felix-mas),
showing two sori, s s, or clusters of sporangia covered with a rem-
form involucre or indusium attached by the sinus.
reproduction, called antheridia and archegonia (Figs. 396
and 398) are seen on the young frond, when first developed
from the spore in the form of a prothallus.
The following divisions have been adopted: Sub¬
order 1. Polypodiacese, the Polypody tribe (Fig. 580); Spo¬
rangia, in variously-shaped clusters, called sori, on the back
or margins of the fronds, each
sporangium having a vertical, in¬
complete ring (annulus), or a
horizontal complete one, which,
when mature, straightens so as
to open the spore-case trans¬
versely, or irregularly, and thus
discharge the spores (Fig. 354).
The sori are covered by an in¬
dusium or involucre (Fig. 581),
or by the reflexed margins of
the frond.—Sub-order 2. Osmun-
daceae, the Flowering-fern tribe
(Fig. 582); Sporangia dorsal, or
clustered on the margin of a
transformed frond, with a termi- Frond of tbAo'yaTrern (Osmun-
nal or dorsal ringr, more or less da regain), bearing divided
i . .•1.1 J pinnae./. The frond is bipinnate.
complete, reticulated, and open- the extremity of the frond
mo* vertirallv Snb-ordpp 3 the pinnae are altered so as to
ing veruumy. ouu oruer o. bear fructjficatj0n, consisting of
Ophioglossacese, the Adder’s- sporangia, arranged in a spike-
, 1 . -u o • • like manner on a number of
tongue tribe; Sporangia in a short axes.
contained in their fructification is inflammable, and is known
as Lycopode powder or vegetable brimstone.
Nat. Ord. 270.—Equisetaceai, the Horse-tail order (Fig.
355).—Cryptogams having rhizomes or underground stems,
bearing hollow, striated, siliceous branches, which are jointed
and have membranous sheaths at the articulations. The
place of leaves is supplied by green-coloured branchlets,
which are sometimes verticillate. The fructification con¬
sists of cone-like bodies bearing peltate polygonal scales,
under which are spore-cases opening inwards by a longitu¬
dinal fissure, and inclosing spores with 2 hygrometric club-
shaped elaters (Fig. 9). The plants have a confervoid pro¬
thallus, and on it antheridian and archegonial cells are de¬
veloped. Found in ditches and rivers in all parts of the
world, both warm and cold. A large amount of silica is
found in the cuticle of the Horse-tails, associated also with
fluorine. The rhizomes contain starch.
Nat. Ord.271.—Musci,the Moss order (Fig.361).—Erect
or creeping, terrestrial or aquatic plants, with cellular stems,
bearing minute cellular leaves. The organs ot fructification
consist of cylindrical, pear-shaped, or ellipsoidal stalked sacs,
containing antheridian cells with phytozoa (Fig. 348), and of
spherical or obovate archegonia, from which, after impreg¬
nation, are developed urn-shaped sporangia (Fig. 393), sup¬
ported on stalks called setae, and containing germinating
spores. The sporangia have a calyptra, an operculum, and
frequently a peristome, consisting ot processes called teeth
(Fig. 20), which are either 4 or some multiple of that num-
142 and 155.
1 For full details in regard to structure and reproduction in the different Cryptogamic natural orders, see pages
B O T A N Y.
Botany, ber. They aie found in all parts of the world, and abound
' in moist temperate regions. Species between 1100 and
1200. There are two divisions of the order. Sub-order I.
Andraeacese, Split-mosses; Sporangia calyptrate, splitting
longitudinally into 4 etjual valves, which are kept together
at the summit by a persistent operculum. Sub-order 2.
Bryaceae, true Urn-mosses; Sporangia calvptrate, opening
at the summit, and not by valves.
Nat. Ord. 272.—Hepaticas, the Liverwort order (Fig.
362)-—Plants having a cellular axis of growth which bears
leaves on a thallus (Fig. 362). Antheridia (Fig. 363, a)
and archegonia (Fig. 349) are placed either in the substance
of the thallus, or on sessile or stalked processes. The stalks
suppoi t sporangia or peltate sporangiferous receptacles. Spo¬
rangia sometimes open by valves, and bear elaters. The plants
are generally distributed both in cold and warm climates, and
moi e especially inhabit damp places. Some of the species
of Marchantid) especially ]\I% hewtisphcericci, have been re-
commended as poultices in cases of Anasarca. The follow¬
ing are the divisions of the order:—Sub-order 1. Junger-
manniaceae, the Scale-moss tribe ; Sporangia opening by 4
valves, the spores mixed with elaters. Sub-order 2.t,]Vlar-
chantiaceae, the true Liverwort tribe ; Sporangia not open¬
ing by valves, bursting irregularly, spores mixed with ela¬
ters. ^ub-order 3. Ricciaceae, the Crystalwort tribe ; Spo¬
rangia not opening by valves, and having no elaters. •
sub-class ii. thallogena:, thallopiiyta, or
CELLULARES.
Nat, Ord. 273.—Lichenes, the Lichen order (Fig. 364).—
Cellular plants, growing on stones, on the surface of the earth,
or on trees, and taking up nourishment by all points of their
surface, liaving a foliaceous, crustaceous, or leprous thallus
( ig. 364). 1 heir fructification consists of thecae or asci,
containing 4, 8, 12, or 16 sporidia (Fig. 346). The thecae
are often mixed with paraphyses, aud by their union form
circular, cup-shaped, or linear masses, which are called
shields. 1 here are also spermogones or conceptacles, con¬
taining cells with antherozoa, which are motionless, and
have received the name of spermatia. The spermogones
are either in the substance of the thallus, or superficial1, and
the spermatia are discharged through a pore. Between the
upper and lower thalloid layers, green cells, called gonidia
(rig. 365), are found. Lichens are found in various parts
of the world. The pulverulent species are the first plants
which cover the bare rocks of newly-formed islands. Many
of the Lichens are used for dyeing, others are employed
as articles of food and medicine. Some Lichens are aro¬
matic, and a fragrant powder called Cyprio at Rome is in
pait made from them. Oxalate of lime exists largely in
some species, more especially in Variolarias. Cetraria
islandica, Iceland-moss, contains starch, along with a bitter
principle; it has been used as a tonic and demulcent.
Uadoma rangiferina, is called Reindeer-moss, on ac¬
count of supplying food for that useful animal. Lecanora
tartarea, called in commerce Rock-moss, supplies the dye
denominated Cudbear. Roccella tinctoria is one of the
Lichens imported under the name of Orchella-weed The
colouring matter is called Archil or Orchil; it is used for
dyeing purple and red.
ayyi ^rC * —Fung!, the Mushroom order (Fig. 367) *
XVL ~7Cflular Plants> wi.th a spawn, mycelium (Fig. 18, m) by
which they are nourished, and which bears organs of fructi¬
fication of various kinds. Spores are produced, which are
either naked (Figs. 18 and 368), or inclosed in thecse and
mixed with elaters. There appear to be antheridian cells con¬
taining spermatozoids, by the action of which on archegonial
cells germinating sporesare developed. In Agarics (Fig. 367)
e m>celium bears tubercles inclosed in avolva, which rup-
ures so as to allow of the development of the stalked pileus,
vglS y 6 30 and hymenium* Tllis order contains esculent
217
and poisonous plants ; the genus Agaricus, to which the true Botany.
Mushroom belongs, contains both, and it is not easy to give V—
rules for distinguishing the two kinds. Their qualities seem to
depend in part on the mode in which they are prepared for
food, and this may account for species which are eaten in some
countiies having proved poisonous in others. Fungi con¬
tain much nitrogen in their composition, and they do not
appear to give out oxygen gas. They are often developed
with great rapidity. I he spawn spreads under ground,
or in the interior of living or dead organisms, and when
favourable circumstances occur, the fructification bursts
forth with astonishing quickness. Many of them are de¬
veloped on living plants, and cause disease and death
by their parasitic growth. Agaricus campestris is the
common Mushroom of Britain ; it is distinguished in part
by its pink gills. A. Georgii is another edible British spe¬
cies, which sometimes attains a large size. A. prunulus is
said to be the most delicious Mushroom. Amanita mus-
caria* is a poisonous species, which produces giddiness and *Plate
narcotic symptoms. Morchella esculent a, Morel, is an edi- CXXXVJ.
ble Fungus. Penicillium glaucum is the common Mould fiS- T
developed wherever organic substances are in fitting condi¬
tions of moisture and temperature. The Vinegar-plant
seems to be the abnormally developed mycelium oi' P. glau¬
cum, or perhaps P. crustaceum. Sphceria sinensis, is a
f ungus parasitic on a caterpillar. It is a celebrated drug in
China. Puber is the genus which embraces the various
kinds of I ruffle (Fig. 366), an underground Fungus, which
is scented out by dogs and pigs.
Nat. Ord. 2 /5.—Characea;, the Chara order (Fig.21).'—
Aquatic plants composed of parallel cellular tubes, which <>ive
off whorled branches (Fig. 21), and which are often incrusted
with carbonate of lime. In their tubes, rotation is observed.
Their reproductive organs consist of globules containing an-
thei idian cells with spirilla, and spiral nucules containing
geiminating cells or spores (Fig. 373). Cbaras are found
submersed in stagnant fresh or salt water in various part of
the world. They have a fetid odour.
Nat. Ord. 276.—Alga:, the Seaweed order (Fig. 39).—
Cellular plants, found in the sea, in rivers, lakes, marshes, and
hot springs, all over the world, consisting of a brown, red, or
green thallus, sometimes stalked, which bears the organs of
fructification (Fig. 39). These consist of antheridian cells
containing phytozoa, and of others containing germinatin'’'
spores of different kinds(Figs. 370and37l). These organs of
reproduction are often united in the same conceptacle (Fig.
369 b). In other cases, they are on different parts of the same
plant, or even on differentplants. The spores sometimes have
moving cilia, and are called zoospores (Fig. 8), at other times
four are united so as to constitute tetraspores (Fig. 371). In
some of the filamentous Algae there is a conjugation of 2
cells, so as to produce a spore (Fig. 19), in others there is
a fissiparous division of cells (Fig. 13). Species of Algae
abound both in salt and fresh water, whether running or
stagnant, and in mineral springs. There are three colours
in Algae, grass-green, olivaceous, and red. Some Sea¬
weeds are microscopic, others growing in the depths of the
Pacific have trunks exceeding in length those of the tallest
forest trees, and fronds rivalling the leaves of the Palm.
Many of the lower Algae approach nearly to some of the
lowest animal forms, and it is difficult to form a line of de¬
marcation. Species of Navicula, Pleurosigma, and other
allied forms, are placed by some among Diatoms, by others
among animals. Peculiar forms are met with in diseased
states of the stomach and bladder, which are referred to Dia¬
toms ; one of them is called Sarcinula ventriculi. Achlya
prolifera is sometimes produced on the gills of gold fishes,
and other animals in a state of disease. The order has been
divided in the following manner:—Sub-order 1. Melano-
sperme® or Fucace®, brown-coloured Seaweeds (Fig. 39);
Marine plants of an olive-green or olive-brown colour, con-
2 E
218
BOTANY.
Botany, sisting of multicellular fronds, which assume a thalloid or a
—V—' filamentous form ; fructification consisting of conceptacles,
containing archegonial and antheridian cells, the latter con¬
taining phytozoa, the former being developed as germinating
spores. Sub-order 2. Rhodospermese or Ceramiacese, rose-
coloured Seaweeds (Fig. 371); Marine plants of a rose-red,
purple, or red-brown colour, leafy, cylindrical or filamentous;
fructification consisting of conceptacles containing spores, and
clavate filaments considered as antheridia. The spores are
arranged often in fours, and are called tetraspores. Sub¬
order 3. Chlorospermese, or Confervaceae, green-coloured
Seaweeds (Fig. 17); unicellular or multicellular (Figs. 11
and 19), marine or fresh-water plants; the cells contain a green
(rarely purple or red) endochrome; reproduction effected
by conjugation of cells (Fig. 19); zoospores (Fig. 8) often
produced. Sub-order 4. Diatomaceae, Brittleworts (Fig.
13); plant a frustule, consisting of a unilocular or a septate
cell; cells composed of 2 symmetrical valves ; gemmiparous
increase by self-division; reproduction by conjugation and
the formation of sporangia. There are 2 distinct sections:
a. Diatomeae; invested with a siliceous epidermal covering,
and found both in salt and fresh water, b. Desmidieae;
minute fresh-water plants of a green colour, without a sili¬
ceous epidermis. Agardh divides Algae into Fucoideae,
corresponding to Melanospermeae of Harvey, Florideae equi¬
valent to Rhodospermeae, and Zoospermeae corresponding
to Chlorospermeae. The primary divisions into orders he
bases on the structure and development of the sporiferous
nucleus.
Many of the Algae supply nutritious matter, and are used
as food. Among them may be noticed species of JRhody-
menia (Dulse), Sphoerococcus, Alaria, Iridcea, Laminaria,
Porphyra, Ulva, (Laver), and Gelidium. The edible nests
formed by swallows in China have been supposed to be made
of portions of gelatinous Seaweeds. Chondrus {Sphcero-
coccus) crispus and C. mammillosus, receive the name of
Carrageen or Irish Moss. Their fronds consist in great
part of a substance somewhat allied to starch, which is ex¬
tracted by boiling in water. On cooling it forms a jelly.
Diatomacece occur in the form of extensive deposits in va¬
rious parts of the world. It is said that the city of Richmond,
in Virginia, is built on a stratum of Diatomaceous remains
18 feet in thickness. Extensive tracts in arctic and antarc¬
tic regions are covered with similar relics of a former vege¬
tation. Laminaria saccharina yields upwards of 12 per
cent, of Mannite. Nostoc edule is employed in China as an
article of diet. Sargassum bacciferum constitutes the Gulf-
weed, which has been noticed by all who have crossed the
Atlantic. The Gulf-weed has never been found attached,
but always floating.
Botany.
INDEX OF NATURAL ORDERS AND SUB-ORDERS.
Order
Abietineae  220
Acanthacese   166
Aceraceae  47
Acoraceas   258
Alangiaceae  84
Algae  276
Alismaceae   252
Altingiaceae  210
Amaranthaceae  172
Amaryllidaceae  237
Amentiferae, 209, 210, 211, 212
Ampelideae  53
Amygdaleae  77
Amyridaceae  73
Anacardiaceae   72
Andraeaceae   271
Anonaceae  4
Apiaceae   112
Apocynaceae  143
Apostasiaceae   231
Aquifoliaceae  136
Aquilariaceae  188
Araceae  257
Araliaceae  113
Aristolochiaceae   191
Artocarpaceae   200
Asclepiadaceae   142
Asteraceae  122
Atherospermaceae  181
Atropaceae  160
Aurantiaceae  40
Balanophoraceae   219
Balsamifluae  210
Balsaminaceae    57
Barringtoniaceae  89
Basellaceae   174
Begoniaceae   179
Belvisiaceae  95
Berberidaceae   8
Betulaceae  211
Bignoniaceae  146
Bixaceae  18
Boraginaceae  156
Brassicaceae  15
Brexiaceae  61
Bromeliaceae  241
Order
Bruniaceae  110
Brunoniaceae  123
Bryaceae  271
Burraanniaceae   232
Butomaceae  254
Byttneriaceae  32
Cabombaceae  9
Cactaceae   104
Caesalpinieae    75
Callitrichaceas   197
Calycanthaceae  78
Calyceraceae  121
Campanulaceae  126
Cannabinaceae, see Urticaceae
Cannaceae  234
Capparidaceae   16
Caprifoliaceae   116
Caryophyllaceae   28
Casuarinaceas  j  213
Cedrelaceae  52
Celastraceae   68
Ceramiaceas   276
Ceratophyllaceae   198
Chailletiaceae  70
Chamaelauciaceae   87
Characeae   275
Chenopodiaceae  173
Chlaenaceae  35
Chloranthaceae  205
Chlorospermeae  276
Chrysobalaneae  77
Cichoraceae  122
Cinchonaceae    117
Cistaceae   19
Clusiaceae   42
Colchicaceae   243
Columelliaceae   129
Combretaceae  82
Commelynaceae  248
Compositae  122
Confervaceae  276
Coniferae   220
Connaraceae   74
Convolvulaceae   153
Cordiaceae  155
Cornaceae  ;  114
Order
Corylaceae  212
Corymbiferae  122
Crassulaceae   101
Crescentiaceae   148
Cruciferae   15
Cucurbitaceae   93
Cunoniaceae   109
Cupressineae     220
Cupuliferae   212
Cuscutaceae   154
Cycadaceae  223
Cynarocephalae  122
Cyperaceae  265
Cyrillaceae   39
Cyrtandraceae   147
Cytinaceae   218
Danaeaceae  267
Datiscaceae   193
Desmidieae   276
Desvauxiaceas   264
Diapensiaceae   152
Diatomaceae   276
Dilleniaceae   2
Dioscoreaceae  224
Dipsacaceae   120
Dipteraceae   34
Dipterocarpaceae   34
Droseraceae   21
Drupiferae  77
Dryadeae   77
Ebenaceae   135
Ehretiaceae  157
Elaeagnaceae    185
Elatinaceae   27
Empetraceae   194
Epacridaceae  134
Equisetaceae   270
Ericaceae   131
Eriocaulonaceae  263
Erythroxylaceae   46
Escalloniaceae   106
Euphorbiaceae   195
Fabaceae  75
Ficoideae   102
Order
Filices   267
Flacourtiaceae   18
Frankeniaceae   26
Fucaceae   276
Fumariaceae   14
Fungi   274
Gialiaceae  118
Garryaceae   216
Gentianaceae  145
Geraniaceae   54
Gesneraceae   147
Gillesiaceae   244
Globulariaceae   165
Gnetaceae   222
Goodeniaceae  124
Gramineae  266
Grossulariaceae  105
Guttiferae   42
Gyrostemonaceae   176
Haemodoraceae   239
Halorageaceae   91
Hamamelidaceae   HI
Hederaceae  H3
Hepaticae   272
Hippocastaneae  48
Hippocrateaceae   44
Homaliaceae   97
Humiriaceae   51
Hydrangeaceae   108
Hydrochar id aceae  229
Hydrophyllaceae   151
Hypericaceae  41
Hypoxidaceae   238
Icacinaceae...
Ilicaceae 
Illecebraceae
Iridaceae 
38
136
100
236
Jasminaceae  
Juglandaceae 
Juncaceae 
Juncaginaceae 
J ungermanniaceae,
139
215
250
253
272
Krameriaceae.
23
BOTANY.
219
Botany.
Order
Labiatas  163
Labiatifloraa   122
Lacistemacese  203
Lamiaceas  163
Lardizabalaceas  7
Lauraceae  180
Lecythidaceae  88
Leguminosae  75
Lemnaceae  259
Lentibulariaceae  167
Leptospermeae   86
Lichenes  273
Liguliflorae   122
Liliaceae  242
Limnanthaceae  59
Linaceas  55
Loasaceae  92
Lobeliaceae  127
Loganiaceae  144
Loranthaceae  115
Lycopodiaceae  269
Lythraceae  79
Magnoliaceae  3
Malpighiaceaa  45
Malvaceae  30
Marantaceae   234
Marcgraviaceae  43
Marchantiaceae  272
Marsileaceae  268
Mayacaceae  249
Melanospermeae  276
Melanthaceae  243
Melastomaceas    83
Meliaceae  50
Menispermaceae  6
Mesembryanthemaceae  102
Mimoseae  75
Monimiaceae  183
Monotropaceae  133
Moraceae, see Artocarpaceas
Moringaceae   76
Musaceae  235
Musci  271
Myoporaceae   164
Myricaceae  208
Myristicaceae  182
Order
Myrsinaceae  138
Myrtaceae  86
Naiadaceae  260
Nelumbiaceae  11
Nepenthaceae  192
Neuradeae  77
Nolanaceae  158
Nyctaginaceae   171
Nymphaeaceae  10
Ochnaceae  65
Olacaceae  37
Oleaceae  140
Onagraceae  90
Ophioglossaceas  267
Orchidaceae  230
Orobanchaceae    161
Orontiaceae  258
Osmundaceae  267
Oxalidaceas  56
Palmae  251
Pandanaceae  255
Papaveraceae  13
Papayaceae  94
Papilionaceae  75
Paronychiaceae  100
Passlfloraceae  96
Pedaliaceae  149
Penaeaceae  186
Petiveriaceae  177
Philadelphaceae  85
Philesiaceae  228
Philydraceae  247
Phytolaccaceae  176
Pinaceae  220
Piperaceae  207
Pistiaceae  259
Pittosporaceae  60
Plantaginaceae  170
Platanaceae   214
Plumbaginaceae  169
Podostemonaceae  204
Polemoniaceae    150
Polygalaceae   22
Polygonaceae  178
Order
Polypodiaceae  267
Pomeae  77
Pontederiaceae  245
Portulacaceae  99
Potamogetonaceae  260
Potentillidae  77
Primulaceae1  168
Proteaceae   184
Pyrolaceae  132
Quillaieae  77
Order
Spigeliaceae  144
Spiraeidae  77
Stackhousxaceae  67
Staphyleaceae   69
Stellatae  118
Sterculiaceae  31
Stilaginaceae    202
Stilbaceas   165
Stylidiaceae  125
Styracaceae  128
Symplocaceae  128
Botany.
Rafflesiaceae  217
Ranunculaceae  1
llesedaceae  17
Restiaceae  262
Rhamnaceae  71
Rhizobolaceae  49
Rhizocarpeae  268
Rhizophoraceae  80
Rhodospermeae  276
Ricciaceae  272
Rosaceae  77
Roseae  77
Roxburghiaceae  227
Rutaceae  63
Salicaceae  209
Salvadoraceae  141
Samydaceae  189
Sanguisorbidae   77
Santalaceae  190
Sapindaceae  48
Sapotaceae  137
Sarraceniaceae    12
Saururaceae  206
Saxifragaceas  107
Scepaceae  196
Schizandraceae  5
Scitamineae  233
Scleranthaceae  175
Scrophulariaceae  162
Selaginaceae  165
Simarubaceae  66
Smilaceae  225
Solanaceae   159
Taccaceae  240
Tamaricaceae  25
Taxaceae  221
Terebinthaceae   72
Ternstrbmiaceae  36
Tetragoniaceae  103
Thymelaeaceae  187
TLliaceae  33
Tremandraceae  24
Trilliaceae  226
Triuridaceae   261
Tropaeolaceae    58
Tubuliflorae   122
Turneraceae  98
Typhaceae   256
Ulraaceas  201
Umbelliferas  112
Urticaceae  199
Vacciniaceae    130
Yalerianaceae  119
Verbenaceae  164
Violaceae  20
Viscaceae   115
Vitaceae    53
Vivianiaceae   29
Yochysiaceae  81
Xanthoxylaceae  64
Xyridaceae  246
Zingiberaceae  233
Zygophyllacese  62
PART III.
GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY, OR THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
OF PLANTS.
This department of Botany is one of vast extent and im¬
portance, and the consideration of it would require much
more space than can be allotted to it in the present article.
All that we can attempt to do is to give some general facts
regarding the distribution of plants over the globe, and to
point out some of the causes which regulate this distribu¬
tion.
The nature of the vegetation covering the earth varies
according to climate and locality. Plants are fitted for dif¬
ferent kinds of soil, as well as for different amounts of tem¬
perature, light, and moisture. From the Poles to the Equa¬
tor there is a constant variation in the nature of the Flora.
Between the Lichens and Mosses of the Arctic and Antarc¬
tic regions, and the Palms, Bananas, and the Orchids of the
Tropics, there is a series of regulated changes in the num¬
ber and forms of the membei's of the vegetable kingdom.
The same thing is observed in the vegetation of lofty moun¬
tains at the Equator, in descending fi'om their summit to
their base. As we proceed from the Poles to the Equator,
vegetation increases in amount and in variety. From a re¬
gion characterized by the presence of Lichens, Mosses,
Saxifrages, and Gentians, we come to that of Cruciferseand
Umbelliferae; we then reach the grassy pastures, and the
Coniferous and Amentiferous trees of temperate regions ;
and passing through the districts of the Vine, the Orange,
and the dwarf Palm, to those of the Date, Coffee, Cotton,
Sugar-cane, and Pine-apple, we arrive at the luxuriant ve¬
getation of Equatorial regions. In this progress, as Hum¬
boldt remarks, we find organic life and vigour gradually
augmenting with the increase of temperature. The num¬
ber of species increases as we approach the Equator, and de¬
creases as we retire from it. Each zone, however, has its
own peculiar features. The Tropics have their variety and
grandeur of vegetable forms, while the North has its mea¬
dows and green pastures, and the periodical awaking of na-
tui'e in spring.
I.-—INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE, MORE ESPECIALLY OF
TEMPERATURE AND MOISTURE, ON THE DISTRIBU¬
TION OF PLANTS.
In determining the effects of climate on vegetation, our
attention is chiefly directed to temperature and moisture,—
to the daily, monthly, and annual distribution of heat, and
BOTANY.
220
Botany, to the amount of rain. We must also take into account
's—-v—' light, the nature of the plant, its exposure, and many other
causes, the effects of which are by no means easily estimated.
They operate, however, usually within narrow limits, heat
and moisture being the general agents. While in a given
place the quantity of heat received varies according to dif¬
ferent circumstances, it is found that the mean is pretty uni¬
form. The quantity of heat is modified by winds and mois¬
ture. In China, for instance, the N.E. monsoon causes a
great depression of temperature. The general preponder¬
ance of moist warm winds over dry cold ones is the reason
why mild winters are more frequent in Europe than severe
ones. Mountain chains, by intercepting winds, often pro¬
duce a marked effect on climate. The effect of the sea in
modifying the temperature is seen in insular climates, which
are more equable than those of vast continents. Marine
currents have also a decided influence on temperature. Thus
the gulf-stream in the Northern Atlantic Ocean carries warm
water towards the Arctic regions, and materially affects the
temperature of the coasts around which it flows ; while the
Peruvian coast current, by bringing cold water from the
antarctic regions towards the Equator, also modifies tempera¬
ture. The temperature of the globe varies both as regards
latitude and altitude, and vegetation at the same time un¬
dergoes changes. Latitudinally the globe, as regards tem¬
perature, may in a general way be divided into a tropical re¬
gion extending from the Equator to 23° 28 ; a sub-tropi¬
cal, as far as 40° ; a temperate from 40° to 60° ; and a cold
region beyond 60°. In a hypsometrical or altitudinal point
of view, different zones of temperature are recognised, cor¬
responding more or less with those of latitude. On an aver¬
age, it may be said, that there is a difference of 1° of Fahren¬
heit for every 300 or 400 feet of ascent, and a difference of
1° of the thermometer in the boiling point of water for every
5o0 feet of ascent.
Each species of plants can bear a definite range of tem¬
perature. A certain amount of heat is also required during
a given period of time, in order that a plant may be enabled
to perform all its functions properly. Although a plant may
continue to live in a certain climate, it may not thrive. The
only true indication of climatal adaptation is, that the plant
can perfect its seed and produce its various secretions. The
latitude of a place does not at once tell the range of tem¬
perature. Many places in the same parallel of latitude dif¬
fer widely in this respect. Lines, called Isothermal, have
been drawn through places in which the mean annual tem¬
perature is the same, and it is found that while at the Equa¬
tor these correspond nearly with the lines of latitude, as we
recede from the Equator the two are widely separated.
Yearly isotherms run in curves, rising in their course from
the east of America towards the west of Europe, and sink¬
ing towards the south in the interior of the Continent. The
yearly isotherm of 50° passes through latitude 42° 30' in the
east of America, 51° 30’ in England, 47° 30' in Hungary, and
40° in Eastern Asia. The want of conformity between the
isothermal and latitudinal lines will be easily understood,
when we consider that a place having a moderate summer
and winter temperature may have the same annual mean as
one having a very cold winter and a very warm summer.
The vegetation in such districts would, however, be very
different, and thus the annual isotherms are not sufficient
for the purposes of botanical geography. Plants which
stand the winter of London will not withstand the cold of
places in Hungary in the same annual isotherm. In esti¬
mating, therefore, the effect of different climates on vegeta¬
tion, attention must be paid also to the summer and winter
heat. Lines passing through places with an’ equal mean
summer heat are called Isotheral, while those indicating an
equal mean winter temperature are called Isocheimal or Iso-
cheiminal. The latter in continents bend considerably to¬
wards the south, while the former bend towards the north,
but approach nearer the parallels of latitude in the interior Botany,
of continents. Some plants require a long period of winter
repose and a few weeks only* of warm and continued sum¬
mer ; others demand a dry season succeeded by a moist one.
Some require a hot summer after an extremely cold winter
of moderate duration ; others succeed in a climate where
the temperature of both seasons is moderate. In determin¬
ing the limits of distribution in the vegetable kingdom, we
must know the mean monthly and the mean daily tempera¬
ture during those periods when vegetation is active. We
must ascertain the number of days which a plant requires to
produce successively its leaves, flowers, and fruit, and we
must estimate the mean temperature during that period. The
conditions which define the limits of a plant require that we
should know at what degree of temperature its vegetation
begins and ends, and further, the sum of the mean tempera¬
tures during that time.
Light and heat are so intimately connected, and so gene¬
rally accompany each other, that the laws of the one are
very nearly those of the other. Both of them are of the ut¬
most importance in vegetation. Light is concerned in the
various functions of plants. The physiological action of the
leaves cannot go on without it, and the activity of vegetable
life is in no small degree dependent on it. Some plants re¬
quire full exposure to light, others luxuriate in the shade.
The difference of the intensity of light in different countries
influences the secretions of plants, and has a certain effect
on the nature of the vegetation. While the chemical con¬
stitution of the atmosphere is nearly the same everywhere,
its density varies much. This depends both on eleva¬
tion and on the matters which may be suspended in it.
It is probable that the varying density of the atmosphere
at different elevations produces little or no effects in com¬
parison with those which result from the modifications which
the temperature, light, and humidity of the air undergo.
Moisture is an agent which exerts a powerful influence
on the distribution of plants. Vegetation develops itself
only when moisture is present. Very dry regions are defi¬
cient in vegetable productions, while the luxuriance of tro¬
pical vegetation is connected with great heat and moisture.
Plants differ in regard to the quantity of moisture they re¬
quire. Some are of a loose, spongy texture, with large, soft
leaves, little or no pubescence, and many stomata, and de¬
mand a great deal of water. Others, growing in sandy,
dry situations, where little rain falls, are firm and succulent,
and often have long hairs and few stomata. The hard dry
texture of the leaves of Banksias and other Australian plants,
seems to be connected with the small amount of moisture
in the atmosphere. Forests have a marked effect on the
humidity of climates, and the felling of them has often been
productive of very injurious consequences, by diminishing
the quantity of water. In warm climates, the dry season
may be said to correspond to our winter in its effects on ve¬
getation. In some parts of South America, where no rain
falls for many months of the year, the leaves during the dry
season fall; buds are developed in their axils, and it is only
when the w7et season arrives that the trees become clothed
wuth verdure, and the herbage appears.
Epirrheology or the influence of various physical agents
on plants, is well illustrated by the variations in the epochs
of foliation, defoliation, flowering, and fruiting. The un¬
folding of the leaves takes place at different periods of the
year in different countries. Thus the Elm (Ulmus cam-
pestris) unfolds its leaves at Naples at the beginning of
February, at Paris in the month of March, in England 15th
April, and at Upsal about the middle of March. Schubler
found in general that in the middle latitudes of Europe and
North America, the flowering of plants is delayed four days
for each degree of latitude towards the north. Berghaus
remarks that in higher latitudes, in districts situated in the
north of Germany, the development of vegetation is less re-
BOTANY.
221
Botany, tarded than in more southern positions. The delay in the
period of flowering, between Hamburgh and Christiania,
amounts to only 3 4 days for one degree of approach to¬
wards the north, while that between southern Germany and
Smyrna, in Asia Minor, which is in the same parallel as the
most southern portions of Europe, amounts for the same
space to 7‘4 days.
Wheat harvest begins at Naples in June, in central Ger¬
many in July, in the south of England and the middle dis¬
tricts of Sweden about the 4th of August. Barley harvest
commences at Naples in June, in central Germany about
the end of July or beginning of August, in the south of Eng¬
land about the 14th of August, and in the middle districts of
Sweden about the 4th of August. Ripe Cherries may be had
at Naples during the first days of May, at Paris and in central
Germany about the end of June, and in the south of Eng¬
land about the 22d of July. From observations made during
two years in Saxony, we find, as a mean result, that from
the flowering to the ripening of the fruit, 56 days are re¬
quired for Wheat, 59 for Rye, 31 for Barley, 45 for Oats.
Thurmann states that in the Jura, generally speaking, a de¬
lay of 17 days in the harvest corresponds to a difference of
altitude of 1000 feet. On the Alps, according to Schlagint-
weit, there is a delay of 11 days in the development of ve¬
getation for every i000 feet. Quetelet finds that in the
climate of Europe every 600 or 700 feet produces a delay
of about 4 days, which is equal to about 1° of latitude.
As regards the fall of the leaf, or defoliation, Berghaus
remarks, that the Hazel-nut tree, the Ash, Lime, Poplar,
and Maple, lose their leaves at Upsalaat the very beginning
of autumn ; while in the neighbourhood of Naples they re¬
main in full foliage during the whole month of November.
The Apple-tree, the Fig-tree, the Elm, Birch, and different
kinds of Oak, which in Paris are deprived of their leaves at
the beginning of November, retain them at Naples till the
end of December. In England, the Walnut is one of the
first trees that loses its leaves ; and after it the Mulberry, the
Ash (especially when it has had much blossom), and then
the Horse-chestnut
II.—INFLUENCE OF SOILS ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF
PLANTS.
Soils, or the media in which the roots of plants grow,
regulate to a certain degree their distribution. In estimat¬
ing this influence we must take into account the geognostic
nature of the soil, its state of aggregation, its temperature,
moisture, and exposure. Some plants are terrestrial, others
are aquatic; some grow suspended in the air, others
are parasitic. The effects produced by ordinary soils de¬
pend perhaps more on their mechanical nature than on their
chemical composition. Hard, undecomposed felspar will
bear a scanty vegetation, but when disintegrated and loose
it affords abundant nourishment. The vegetation of lime¬
stone and trap rocks is more luxuriant than that of sandy
soils. The moisture retained by aluminous soils is much
greater than that by siliceous soils. Many plants seem to
thrive best on chalky soils, others on siliceous, argillaceous,
or peaty soils. Certain species grow only on soils impreg¬
nated with saline matters ; others require to be within the
influence of the sea. Parasites are often confined to pecu¬
liar species of plants.
Plants, in reference to the physical localities or stations
in which they grow, have been divided into terrestrial, aqua¬
tic, marshy, epiphytic, and parasitic. Among terrestrial
plants, the nature of the soil in which they grow gives rise
to various groups. Arenaceous or sand plants have a pecu¬
liar character in all parts of the world, and the greater num¬
ber are probably grasses. Some of them bind the loose sand
by their creeping stems. Calcareous or chalk plants are
found on limestone rocks. Many Orchids belong to this
division, especially species of Ophrys and Cypripedium.
Saline plants are those found in maritime situations, or near
salt lakes, and which seem to require much soda in their
composition, and which have been called Halophytes. Among
them are species of Salsola, Salicornia, and Statice. Ru-
pestral and mural plants are those found on rocks and
walls, such as species of Saxifrage, Sedum, Draba, Sisym¬
brium, Parietaria, Linaria Cymbalaria, Asplenium Ruta-
muraria, A. Trichomanes, Lichens, and Mosses. Some also
Botany.
grow on the ruins of old buildings, and on rubbish-heaps,
&c., near the habitations of man and animals. Among these
are included Nettles, Docks, Hyoscyamus, Xanthium, and
Sempervivum tectorum. Plants which grow in cultivated
grounds, as in fields and gardens, may be said to form a spe¬
cial division. Among them may be noticed Centaurea
Cyanus, Lychnis Githago, Spergula arvensis, Sinapis ar-
vensis, Lolium temulentum, Stellaria media, species of La-
mium, Chenopodium and Euphorbia.
Plants of uncultivated ground are:—Meadoiv and Pas¬
ture plants, such as Grasses, Trefoils, Clovers, species of
Ranunculus, Veronica, Campanula, Galium, and Myosotis,
Beilis perennis, Lotus corniculatus, Pimpinella Saxifraga,
Gentiana campestris: Heath plants, such as Calluna vul¬
garis, the species of Erica, Juniperus communis, species of
Ledum, Andromeda, and Polytrichum: Forest plants, grow¬
ing in woods, such as the different kinds of trees ; and the
plants which grow under their shade, as Oxalis Acetosella,
Trientalis europaea, Linnaea borealis, Geum rivale, Hepa-
tica triloba, Vaccinium Myrtillus, and species of Orchis:
Bush-plants, or those growing in bushy places, as Origa¬
num vulgare, Corydalis bulbosa, Vincetoxicum officinale:
Mountain plants, which vary much according to elevation,
and which include species of Saxifraga, Gentiana, Primula,
Rhododendron, Salix, Cyperaceae, Juncaceae, Labiatae, &c.:
Hedge plants, such as Hawthorn and Sweet-briar, and the
plants which twine among their branches, as Lonicera, Hu-
mulus, Bryonia, Tamus, Clematis, Lathyrus, as well the spe¬
cies of Viola and Adoxa, which grow at their roots.
Aquatic plants may either grow in salt or in fresh water.
Among the former are marine species, such as the common
species of Fucus, and other Seaweeds which grow buried
in the ocean, and the Sargassum, or Gulf-weed, which floats
on its surface; with them may be included such Phanero¬
gamous plants as Zostera. Among the latter are some which
root in the mud, and flower above the water, as species of
Nymphaea, Nuphar, Potamogeton, Ranunculus, Utricularia,
and Sagittaria; others flower under water, as Subularia
aquatica; while others float in the water, as species of
Lemna, Pistia, Stratiotes, and various green fresh-water
Algae. Some aquatics are fluviatile, as Ranunculus fluvia-
tilis and CEnanthe fluviatilis; others grow in fresh clear
water springs, or near them, as Montia fbntana.
Marshy plants are those which grow in different kinds of
wet soil. Some of them, as Comarum, Menyanthes, species
of Bidens, (Enanthe, Cicuta., and Carex, grow in very wet
places, which are not always easily accessible; others, as Pri¬
mula farinosa, and Pinguicula alpina, grow in firmer, peaty soil.
To this class may be referred certain amphibious plants,
which generally grow submerged, but which can live in dry
soil. Among them are included various forms of Ranun¬
culus, Polygonum amphibium, Nasturtium amphibium, Li-
mosella aquatica, as well as species of Rhizophora and Avi-
cennia, which are found in warm countries at the muddy
mouths of rivers.
Epiphytic plants are those which send their roots into the
air, and grow attached to other plants. Among them are
enumerated numerous species of tropical orchids (Fig. 70),
and other air-plants, such as species of Tillandsia and Pothos.
Parasitic plants are those which derive nourishment from
other plants. Among them are included those growing on
living vegetables, such as species of Loranthus, Viscum *piate
(Fig. 488), Lathreea, Orobanche, Cusouta* (Fig. 426), Raf- CXXV.
222
BOTANY.
Botany, flesia (Fig. 549), and many Fungi; those growing on dead
vegetable or animal tissues, as the various Mould-plants
(Figs. 422 to 425).
HI —DISTRIBUTION OF CLASSES, ORDERS, GENERA,
AND SPECIES OF PLANTS OVER THE GLOBE.
Some plants are generally distributed over the globe, oc¬
curring in both hemispheres, and having an extensive lati¬
tudinal range ; others are restricted and endemic in their
distribution. There are numerous interesting facts in re¬
gard to geographical distribution in Hooker’s Antarctic
Flora, a work from which many of the following examples
are taken. Trisetum subspicatum is a Grass having a very
wide range. It extends from Tierra del Fuego over the
whole of the Peruvian Cordilleras, and over the Rocky Moun¬
tains to Melville Island, Greenland, and Iceland; it is found
in the Swiss and Tyrolese Alps, on the Altai, in Kamtschatka,
and in Campbell’s Island. The range is from 54° S. Lat. to
74^° N. Lat., through 128J degrees of latitude. Drimys
*P1. CXI. Winter!* extends over no less than 86 degrees of latitude, or
5160 geographical miles, forming at the southern limit of its
growth one of the trees which advance nearest to the ant¬
arctic circle, and reaching as high a latitude as any flower¬
ing plant, save the solitary Grass of the South Shetland
Islands. Gentiana prostrata has a great range, both in lon¬
gitude and latitude. In southern Europe it inhabits the
Carinthian Alps between 6000 and 9000 feet high ; in Asia,
it occurs on the Altai Mountains about N. Lat. 52°; in Ame¬
rica, on the tops of the Rocky Mountains, in Lat. 52° N.,
at an elevation of 15,000 to 16,000 feet; and on the east
side of the Andes of South America, in 35° S. It descends
to the level of the sea at Cape Negro, in the Straits of Ma-
galhaens, in* Lat. 53° S.; and at Cape Good Hope, in Beh¬
ring’s Straits, Lat. 68£° N. Potentilla anserina is widely
distributed both in the northern and southern hemispheres.
It grows throughout Europe, from the shores of the Medi¬
terranean to the Arctic Sea; over all Asia to the north of
the Altai range; in North America, from Lat. 40° to Whale-
fish Island in 70° N. Lat.; and from the Oregon River to
Kotzebue’s Sound on the west coast. Epilobium tetrago-
num, a British plant, extends from Canada to Fuegia. Cal-
litriche verna is universally diffused through the temperate
regions of both hemispheres. Many species in the Falk¬
land Islands are identical with those found in Iceland. Ga¬
lium Aparine is a British plant, found at the Cape of Good
Hope, at the Straits of Magalhaens, in the island of Chiloe;
and in North America it ranges between the latitude of Fort
Vancouver and the Mississippi River. Cryptogamic cellu¬
lar plants have generally a very wide range ; many of them
are universally distributed.
Some plants which have a great latitudinal range are re¬
stricted to a narrow space as regards longitude. This is the
case with the species of Erica, which extend from the Cape
of Good Hope to northern regions. Certain species of Rho¬
dodendron, Magnolia, Azalea, Actaea, and Andromeda, occur
on the east of the Rocky Mountains, and are not found on
the western side. In the western part of Ireland we meet
with Daboecia polifolia, Erica mediterranea, and Arbutus
Unedo, which are not met with in other parts of Britain,
and which again appear on the mountains of Asturias. On
the western side of the Cordilleras of Chili, Calceolarias grow,
which are not found on the eastern side. Lobelia Dort-
manna seems to be confined to the western European coun¬
tries.
While some plants are generally and widely distributed,
others are limited to particular countries, and sometimes
confined within very narrow limits. The floras of the dif¬
ferent quarters of the world contain certain plants, which
are restricted to them, and some which are only found in
a few localities. One region in the Andes is marked by the
occurrence of species of Bejaria, and another by Cinchonas.
Certain plants belonging to the natural order Polemoniaceae
are peculiar to California; an Orchid, called Disa grandi-
flora, is confined to Table Mountain ; Codon Royeni and
Protea acaulis are restricted to a few localities at the Cape
of Good Hope. Numerous instances of a similar kind may
be given, more particularly in the case of islands. The flora
of islands near continents partakes of the character of that
of the mainland. Those remote from continents, however,
have often a more or less endemic flora. St Helena had a
peculiar flora, which has been strangely altered by foreign
introductions. Pringlea antiscorbutica, Kerguelen’s Land
Cabbage, is an interesting plant growing on an island, the
remotest of any from a continent, and which, according to
Hooker, yields, besides this esculent, only 17 other flower¬
ing plants.
We sometimes meet with marked centres, where the
maxima of the genus of an order, or of the species of a
genus, occur, the number of the genera or species diminish¬
ing as we recede from these centres, and ending perhaps in
a solitary representative in some distant country. Gentians
and Saxifrages have their maxima in the European Alps;
Eriocaulons have their great centre in Brazil, but a few
species are found in other countries. Epacridaceae are re¬
stricted to Australia. The genus Viola has two marked
centres, one in Europe and another in America. The form
of the European and American species are quite distinct.
The maximum of the genus Erica is at the Cape of Good
Hope ; hut members of the Heath family extend to northern
regions in the form of Erica Tetralix, E. cinerea, and Cal-
luna vulgaris. The tropical Myrtaceae have Myrtus com¬
munis to represent them in Europe, Leptosperraeae in Aus¬
tralia, and Metrosideros lucida in Lord Auckland’s group,
Botany.
Lat. 50^° S.
An order, or a genus, or a species, in one country is occa¬
sionally represented in another by forms which are either
allied, or have a physiognomic resemblance. There is thus
sometimes a repetition of resembling or almost similar forms
in countries separated by seas or extensive tracts of land.
The Ericaceae of the Cape have in Australia a representa¬
tive in the nearly allied Epacridaceae; the Cactaceae of
America are represented by certain succulent forms of Me-
sembryanthemaceae and Euphorbiaceae in Africa; and by
some Crassulaceae in Europe. Trientalis europaea has a re¬
presentative form in America, T. americana; Cornus sue-
cica occurs in Europe, C. canadensis in Canada. Empe-
trum nigrum, in arctic regions, has E. rubrum to take its
place in the antarctic; Pinguicula lusitanica, in the northern
hemisphere, has P. antarctica closely resembling it in the
southern ; Hydnora africana and H. triceps in South Africa
are represented in South America by H. americana.
The mode in which the globe has been clothed with
vegetation, has given rise to much discussion. We know
from the Sacred Record, that on the third day of the
Creation the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding
seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit after his
kind; but whether the whole earth was at once clothed
with vegetation, or certain great centres were formed,
whence plants were gradually to spread, we have no means
of knowing. The endemic limitation of certain orders,
genera, and species, would certainly lead to the opinion,
that, in many instances, there have been definite centres,
whence the plants have spread only to a certain extent.
But the general distribution of other tribes of plants, and
the occurrence of identical species in distant parts of the
world, would favour the view, that countries with similar
climates had originally many species of plants in common.
In the case of Grasses, we would naturally suppose that they
must have been produced in their social state, forming pas¬
ture for the nourishment of animals; and such we might
conjecture to be the case with social plants in general.
Edward Forbes advocates strongly the view of specific
EOT
Botany, centres, and endeavours to account for the isolation of cer-
tain species or assemblages of plants from their centres, by
supposing that these outposts were formerly connected, and
have been separated, by geological changes, accompanied
with the elevation and depression of land. Schouw opposes
this. He thinks that the existence of the same species in
far distant countries is not to be accounted for on the sup¬
position of a single centre for each species. The usual means
of transport, and even the changes which have taken place
by volcanic and other causes, are inadequate, he thinks, to
explain why many species are common to the Alps and the
Pyrenees on the one hand, and to the Scandinavian and
Scotch mountains on the other, without being found on the
intermediate plains and hills ; why the flora of Iceland is
nearly identical with that of the Scandinavian mountains ;
why Europe and North America, especially the northern
parts, have various plants in common, which have not
been communicated by human aids. Still greater objec¬
tions to this mode of explanation, he thinks, are founded on
the fact that there are plants at the Straits of Magalhaens,
and in the Falkland and other antarctic islands, which be¬
long to the flora of the arctic pole ; and that several Euro¬
pean plants appear in New Holland, Van Diemen’s Land,
and New Zealand, and which are not found in intermediate
countries. Schouw, therefore, supposes that there were
originally not one, but many primary individuals of a species.
Provision has been made for the extension of plants over
the globe. The usual modes of transport are man, tides of
the sea, rivers, winds, and birds. The Coco-nut wafted on
the ocean is able to resist the action of the salt water by
means of its fibrous covering, and lands on islands and
shores in a state fit for germination. In this way recently
produced coral islands are covered with vegetation. The
hairy fruits and seeds of many plants are wafted to a dis¬
tance by the winds, and rivers carry down the seeds of
plants which have grown at their source. Birds which feed
on pulpy fruits, often deposit the hard seeds at distant parts.
Man, in his migrations, has distributed many plants, includ¬
ing common weeds, as well as plants useful for food or
clothing.
Great changes have taken place in the distribution of many
useful plants, chiefly by the agency of the Caucasian races,
who have transplanted to their own countries the charac¬
teristic plants of other nations. Thus Schouw remarks—
they have brought the Apricot, the Peach, and the Almond,
from Asia Minor and Persia, and the Orange from China;
they have transplanted Rice and Cotton to the Mediterra¬
nean coasts ; they have brought the Maize and Potato from
America to Europe. They have also carried their own
characteristic plants to their colonies, and have transported
into various climates useful and ornamental vegetable pro¬
ductions. European Corn plants have been widely spread
through North America, in Mexico, the elevated countries
of South America, Chili, Buenos Ayres, in South Africa,
in the temperate parts of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.
The Vine has been spread to Madeira, the Canary Islands,
South Africa, and the high lands of South America. The
Coffee-tree and Sugar-cane have been transplanted by man
into the West Indies and Brazil; the Nutmeg and Clove
into the Mauritius and Bourbon, and various West India
islands; plantations of Tea have been formed in Brazil,
Java, and India; Rice and Cotton have been cultivated in
the warmer parts of North America and Brazil, and New
Zealand Flax in New Holland.
The consideration of the distribution of the Cereal grains
and of the Potato is a subject of much interest. The former
have been so long cultivated, and so extensively spread,
that it is difficult to discover their native country. They
are not seen in a wild state, unless it be true, as Esprit
Fabre says, that ACgilops ovata is the wdld condition of
M/heat, and they have a wide geographical range, so as to
A N Y. 223
be fitted for various climates. Rice is the grain which fur- Botany,
nishes food to the greatest number of the human race ; it
is extensively used in warm countries, and more espe¬
cially in China. Maize bears the greatest range of tem¬
perature, and succeeds in the hottest climates. Millet also
is associated with it in hot countries. Wheat succeeds best
on the limits of the sub-tropical region, and, as we proceed
north, is succeeded by Rye, and then by Barley and Oats,
which extend farthest north in Europe.
IV.—PHYSIOGNOMY OF VEGETATION IN DIFFERENT
QUARTERS OF THE GLOBE.
In this department of botanical geography we consider
plants according to the distribution of forms, marking the
predominance of this or that form of plants by the absolute
mass of its individuals or by the impression it makes from
the character given to the flora. The prevalence of a single
form will often produce a much greater physiognomic effect
than the number and variety of the floral productions. Hinds
says that a general physiognomic impression is sometimes
conveyed by the prevalence of colour. Social plants in an
especial manner, affect the landscape from growing in
masses. There are certain marked vegetable forms which
are concerned in determining the aspect or physiognomy of
nature in different countries. Some of these leading forms
coincide with natural orders ; at other times, several dis¬
tinct botanical groups require to be united.
The Palm Form (Fig. 82)—gives a marked character
to the warmest regions of the globe, between 10 deg. north
and 10 deg. south Eat. The true Palm climate has a mean
annual temperature of 78‘2 deg. to 8P5 deg. F. South Ame¬
rica is conspicuous for the beauty and number of its Palms.
With the Palm form has been associated the Cycadaceous
order (Fig. 556),* which resembles it somewhat in the ap- *p]ate
pearance of its naked stems and tufts of pinnated leaves. CXXXIV.
The Banana and Plantain Form (Fig. 86)—is usually
associated with the Palms in the torrid zone. In this form
the physiognomist includes the natural orders Musaceae,
Zingiberaceas, and Marantaceae. The plants representing
this form have succulent herbaceous stems and long deli¬
cately-veined verdant leaves.
The Malvaceous Form*—represented in warm climates *piate
by trees with thick trunks, large soft cordate or lobed leaves, CXIV.
and gorgeous flowers. It includes the orders Malvaceae,
Byttneriaceae, Sterculiaceae, and Tiliaceae.
The Mimosa Form—is represented by Leguminosae, with
delicately pinnate leaves (Fig. 132), and is met with both in
warm and in temperate regions. It is not seen in the tem¬
perate zone of Europe, though found in the United States.
The Heath Form—belongs especially to the African con¬
tinent and islands, as well as to Australia. Under it are in¬
cluded the species of Erica (Fig. 503) and Calluna, the
Epacridaceae of Australia, the sub-order Diosmeae of the
order Rutaceae, and some Proteaceae.
The Cactus Form (Figs. 142 and 483)—with its peculiar
jointed or spherical or polygonal stems without true leaves,
is exclusively American. Some of the stems become hard
and ligneous, and are very indestructible. Certain Euphor¬
bias may be said to represent this form in Africa.
The Orchideous Form (Fig. 70)—is represented by the
epiphytes which enliven the rocks and the trunks of trees in
tropical climates, and which are distinguished by the animal
shapes and colouring of their flowers.
The Casuarina Form—consists of leafless trees, with
branches resembling those of Equisetums, found chiefly in
the islands of the Pacific Ocean and in India. Alono-with
phyllodiferous Acacias and some Myrtacese, Casuarinas give
a uniform character to the Tasmanian flora.
The Coniferous Form—\s represented by the needle¬
leaved trees of northern regions, the Pines, Cypresses, and
Thujas; and by the broader-leaved Dammara and Sails-
224
BOTANY.
Botany, buria of more southern regions. In the Himalaya and
'  ' the Mexican mountains Coniferous and Palm forms are as¬
sociated.
The Pothos Form—prevails chiefly in the tropics, and is
*Plate represented by Pothos, Dracontium, Caladium, and Arum.*
CXXXV. They have succulent stalks, large thick-veined leaves, and
flowers more or less spathaceous.
The Liane Form—\s represented by the twining rope-
plants, the Paullinias, Banisterias, Bauhinias, Bignonias,
Passifloras, and Aristolochias, of the hottest parts of South
America, and the Hop and Vine of temperate climes.
The Aloe Form—consists of plants with succulent tufted
leaves, found in arid regions, often growing singly, and im¬
parting, according to Humboldt, a peculiar melancholy
character to the tropical regions in which they are found.
The Gramineous or Grassy Form—illustrated in tropical
regions by arborescent Bamboos, and in temperate regions
by meadows and pastures. Along with true Grasses are
associated Cyperaceae, Juncaceae, Restiaceae, and Eriocau-
lonaceae. The genus Carex, is one of the Grassy forms of
cold regions.
The Fern Form—gives a character to the landscape of
warm and tropical regions. Like Grasses, Ferns have a
gigantic appearance in the hotter parts of the globe. On
the Andes they are associated with the Cinchona trees. In
temperate insular climates, such as that of New Zealand,
Ferns predominate.
The Liliaceous Form—includes the orders Liliaceae,
Amaryllidaceae, and Iridaceae. In Southern Africa the spe¬
cies of Amaryllis, Ixia, and Gladiolus, with their ensiform
leaves and gorgeous blossoms, represent this form. In
America the Liliaceous form is represented by Alstrceme-
rias and species of Pancratium, Haemanthus, and Crinum,
which, however, are less social than the European Iri¬
daceae.
The Willotv Form—is represented by the species of
Salix which spread over the northern hemisphere from the
equator to Lapland. They increase in northern countries.
The Myrtle Form—gives a peculiar character to the
south of Europe, especially the Mediteranean islands; to
New Holland, in species of Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, Metro-
sideros, and Leptospermum ; and to the district of the Pa¬
ramos in the Andes, where certain species of Escallonia,
Symplocos, Myrica, and Myrtus, are found.
The Melastoma Form—is represented by the species of
Melastoma and Rhexia, with their ribbed and beautifully
veined leaves, which abound in tropical America, and some
of which ascend to 10,000 and 11,000 feet on the Andes.
The Laurel Form—is represented in South America by
species of Laurus and Persea, as well as by some of the
Guttiferae.
The Form of Dicotyledonous Trees—is represented in
northern climates by the Oak, Beech, Elm, Horse-chest¬
nut, Poplar, Alder, and Birch ; in warmer climates by the
Olive, and in the hottest regions by the large-leaved Bread¬
fruit trees and Cecropias.
The Moss Form—is characteristic of cold regions. Hooker
mentions, that in New South Shetland there are specks of
Mosses struggling for existence. In Cockburn Island five
Mosses are found.
The Lichen Form—is associated with Mosses, and may
be said to extend still farther. It forms the limit of terres¬
trial vegetation. On Deception Island Lichens only exist.
V.—THE STATISTICS OF VEGETATION OVER THE
GLOBE.
This subject involves the consideration of the number of
known vegetable species in the world, their numerical dis¬
tribution, and the relative proportion of classes, orders,
genera, and species in different countries. In the present
imperfect state of our knowledge of the floras of different Botany,
countries, it is impossible to tell the exact number of spe- v
cies of plants in the globe. Those known at the present
day, described and undescribed, amount probably to nearly
120,000, and from this estimates have been made of the
total vegetation, the numbers varying from 150,000 to
200,000. The following is the estimated number of known
and described plants :—
Genera. Species.
Acotyledonous plants  1,400 15,000
Monocotyledonous plants  1,450 14,000
Dicotyledonous plants  6,300 67,000
9,150 96,000
The relative numerical proportion of these great classes
of plants varies in different quarters of the world. It is esti¬
mated that Cryptogamic plants are to Phanerogamous
plants as 1 to 7. In northern and alpine regions the pro¬
portion of the former increases. In equatorial regions, Mo¬
nocotyledons are to Dicotyledons in the proportion of 1 to
5 or 6 ; in temperate regions as 1 to 4 ; and arctic regions
as 1 to 3. In temperate and cool climates there is an in¬
crease of Monocotyledonous plants, particularly of Grami¬
neous forms. Tropical islands in general possess propor¬
tionally more Monocotyledons than do the continents ; the
usual proportion in these islands is said to be 1 to 4. An
equable temperature, and a rather humid climate, are
favourable to Monocotyledons. They diminish both under
the extreme cold of the arctic zone and the great heat of
the tropics. They increase towards the southern temperate
and antarctic zones. Llooker remarks, that in St Helena
Monocotyledons are to Dicotyledons nearly as 1 to 5, in
the Society Islands as 1 to 4’2, in the Sandwich Islands 1
to 4, in the Cape de Verd Islands 1 to 5, in the Canaries 1
to 6, in Madeira 1 to 5A, in the Azores 1 to 4'1, in Great
Britain I to 4, in Shetland 1 to 3’3, in the Faroe Islands 1
to 2^. There is thus an increase in the proportion of Mo¬
nocotyledons in passing from the Canaries, Lat. 28°, to Ma¬
deira, Lat. 32°, the Azores, Lat. 38°, Great Britain, Lat.
50° 57’, Shetland, Lat. 60°, and Faroe, Lat. 62°. In the
arctic regions, on the other hand, Hooker remarks, the pro¬
portion seems to be inverted. In central and southern Eu¬
rope, the proportion of Monocotyledons to Dicotyledons,
which is 1 to 4 in the plains, decreases with the elevation
on dry mountain slopes, till, at the height of 8526 feet, it is
1 to 7. Moist mountain slopes favour Monocotyledons, the
proportion on them being as 1 to 3. In South Australia,
Monocotyledons are to Dicotyledons as 1 to 4, varying,
however, according to latitude, the mean being between
the vegetation of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s
Land. In Western Australia, the proportion is 2 to 9,
while the Acotyledons are to Dicotyledons as 1 to 6.
In the low plains of the great continents within the
tropics, Ferns are to Phanerogamous plants as 1 to 20 ; on
the mountainous parts of the great continents, in the same
latitudes, as 1 to 8 or 1 to 6 ; in Congo as 1 to 27 ; in New
Holland as 1 to 26. In small islands, dispersed over a wide
ocean, the proportion of Ferns increases ; thus, while in
Jamaica the proportion is 1 to 8, in Otaheite it is 1 to 4,
and in St Helena and Ascension nearly 1 to 2. In the
temperate zone, Humboldt gives the proportion of Ferns to
Phanerogamous plants as 1 to 70. In colder regions the
proportion increases, that is to say, Ferns decrease more
slowly in number than Phanerogamous plants. The pro¬
portion is least in the middle temperate zone, and it in¬
creases both towards the equator and towards the poles ; at
the same time, it must be remarked, that Ferns reach their
absolute maximum in the torrid zone, and their absolute
minimum in the arctic zone.
Taking other natural orders, we find that Juncaceae, Cy¬
peraceae, and Gramineae increase in proportion to all the
B 0 T
Botany. Phanerogamous species as the latitude becomes higher;
■—thus, in the torrid zone, the proportion is 1 to 11, in the
temperate zone 1 to 8, and in the arctic zone 1 to 4. Cin-
chonaceae, Leguminosge, Euphorbiacese, and Malvaceae, in¬
crease in theii pioportion to Phanerogamse as we approach
the equator.. The natural orders Cruciferae, Umbelliferae,
and Compositae, have their highest quotients in the tempe¬
rate zone. Piperaceae are plants of the hottest regions ;
Papaveraceae aie chiefly European ; Chinchonaceae, within
the tropics, form l-29th of the flowering plants ; Scrophu-
lai iaceae, in the middle of Europe, are to Phanerogams as 1
to 26, in North America as 1 to 36. Labiate have their
maximum between 40 and 50 N. Eat. Boraginaceae are
chiefly confined to the temperate regions, while Primulaceae
and Gentianaceas abound in colder zones.
The proportion of species as well as of genera, belonging
to the same natural order, varies in different countries. Of
Ranunculaceae l-5th of the species are European, l-7th
North American, l-17th South American, and l-25th
Indian ; of Papaveraceae nearly 2-3ds are European ; of
Cruciferae 205 species, according to De Candolle, are found
in the frigid zone of the northern hemisphere, 30 in the
tropics (chiefly on mountains), 548 in the northern tempe¬
rate zone, and 86 in the southern temperate zone. De
Candolle states that about 1600 species ol Leguminosae are
found in the equinoctial zone, about 1300 to the north of
the tropics, and about 500 to the south. Of 9030 Com¬
positae mentioned by authors, 3590 are found in America,
2- 24 in Africa, 1827 in Asia, 1042 in Europe, and 347 in
the South Sea Islands. Of 2500 species of Euphorbiaceae
3- 8ths aie found in equinoctial America, l-8th in tropical
Africa, l-6th in India, 50 species in America, and 120 in
Europe. Lomler calculates that 165 Coniferae exist in the
northern and 51 in the southern hemispheres. There are,
according to him, 22 in Europe, 87 in Asia, 16 in Africa,
83 in America, and 35 in Australia.
VI.—ZONES OF VEGETATION AS REGARDS LATITUDE.
We have already seen that the vegetation varies accord¬
ing to latitude, and that we may trace a series of changes in
the flora from the equator to the poles. Meyen proposes to
mark out round the world a number of climacteric zones or
belts, and to connect with the fact of these zones of climate
the peculiarities of the vegetation of the belts. Meyen’s
plan is not quite correct, because he has made his belts to
correspond with the parallels of latitude, and has asserted
that between such and such parallels a certain form of ve¬
getation would be found all over the world. The boundary
lines of the zones, in order to be accurate, should be undu-
latory j they should correspond with the isotherm of the
particulai month in which there is the greatest development
of vegetable life. Such undulatory zones, in which the plants
present a certain resemblance to each other by sea and land,
are denominated by Forbes Homoizoic.
As regards vegetation, Meyen divides the Torrid zone
into—1. The equatorial, extending 15° on both sides of the
equator, having a mean annual temperature of 78°'8 to 82°-4
F. 2. The tropical, reaching from the 15th degree on each
side of the equator to Eat. 23°, having a mean annual tem¬
perature of 730-4 to 780,8, a summer heat of 80°'6 to 86°, and
a winter temperature in the eastern coast countries of 59°.
The Temperate zone is divided by Meyen into—1. The
sub-tropical, from the tropics to 34° Eat., with a mean an¬
nual temperature of 62°’6 to 7l°‘6, and a summer tempera¬
ture of 730,4 to 82°-4. 2. The warmer temperate zone, from
Eat. 3^4° to 45°, having a mean annual temperature of 53°-6
to 62°-6, the summer temperature, in North America 77°
in Europe 68° to 75°-2, and in eastern Asia 82°*4; the5
mnter temperature in America being 32°-54 to 44°-6, in
Europe 34°*7 to 50°, and in eastern Asia 260,6. 3. The
vol. y.
any. 225
colder temperate zone, between the parallels of 45° and 58°, Botany,
the temperature of the year 420,8 to 53°*6; the minimum
summer temperature on the west coast 56°-31, in the inte¬
rior of the continent 68° ; the minimum winter tempera¬
ture in the interior of Europe 14°. 4. The sub-arctic zone,
from Lat. 58 to the polar circle in Lat. 66°‘32, mean annual
temperature 39°-2 to 42°-8; temperature of summer in
America 66°-2, in the Old World 6Q°-8 to 68°; winter
temperature of America 14°, of western Europe 24°-8, and
of the interior of Russia 10 ’4 to 143. The Frigid zone is
divided into—1. The arctic, from the polar circle to Lat 72°,
mean annual temperature being 28°-4 to 32°, and towards
the eastern continental regions much lower. 2. The polar,
beyond 72° of latitude ; mean annual temperature in the Old
World ]60*7, in the New World l°-4; the summer of the
former 38°-3, of the latter 37°-4; winter of the former
-- 20,2, of the latter -»28°.
Equatorial Zone.—This embraces central Africa, in¬
cluding the Guinea coast and Abyssinia, &c., Ceylon, the
southernmost part of Hindustan, Malaya, Cochin-China,
Sumatra, Borneo, Java, New Guinea, islands in tire eastern
seas, the northernmost part of Australia, the northern part
of South America, including Columbia, Peru, the Guianas,
and part of Brazil. The vegetable forms characteristic of
this zone are Palmae, Musaceae, arborescent Grasses, Zingi-
beraceae, Marantaceae, Orchidaceae, and Lianas. Species of
Bombax and Ficus occur here, with gigantic trees such as
the Baobab, species of Swietenia, Hymenaea, and Caesal-
pinia. The orders Malpighiaceae, Anonaceae, Anacardiaceae,
Lecythidaceae, Sapindaceae, Artoearpaceae, Sterculiaceae,
Ebenaceae, Meliaceae, Lauraceae, and Rafflesiaceae, are also
well represented in this zone.
Tropical Zone.—This includes parts of Bolivia, Brazil,
and Paraguay in South America, the majority of the West
India Islands, Y ucatan, Guatemala, and part of Mexico,
Nubia and Senegambia in Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius,
and North Australia, part of China and India, Burmah, and
the south of Arabia. As Palms and Bananas may be said
to characterize the equatorial zone, so may arborescent Ferns
and species of Ficus be said to predominate in the tropical
zone. Besides many equatorial forms, we meet here with
plants belonging to the orders Piperaceae, Melastornaceae,
and Convolvulaceae.
Sub-tropical Zone.—This embraces the north of Africa,
including the Great Desert, Morocco, Barbary, Algiers,
Tunis, Tripoli, and Egypt; in Asia, Palestine, Syria, north
of Arabia, Persia, Cabul, Beloochistan, Thibet, the north of
India, and China; the southern part of Australia; south
Africa; Paraguay, La Plata, Chili, and Banda, in South
America; the Bahamas, Bermuda, Mexico, Texas, the
Southern States, and California, in North America. In this
zone vegetation is green throughout all the year, like the
forests of the damp regions of the torrid zone. It is called
the region of Myrtaceae and Lauraceae. Certain Palm forms
are seen, such as Phoenix dactylifera in Egypt (represented
in India by Phoenix sylvestris and P, humilis), Hyphaene the-
baica, Chamaerops Palmetto. In this zone we meet with suc¬
culent Crassulaceae, Mesembryanthemaceae, Cactaceae, and
arborescent Euphorbiaceae, plants belonging to the orders
Ternstromiaceae and Magnoliaceae; and in the southern
hemisphere especially Proteaceae, Epacridaceae, and Eri¬
caceae, along with species of Zamia and Diosma.
Warmer Temperate Zone.—lw Europe this includes the
southern flora as far as the Pyrenees, the mountains in the
south of France, and those in the north of Greece. Asia
Minor, the country between the Black Sea and the Caspian,
the north of C hina, and Japan he in this zone. It has been
called the region of evergreen trees. Chamaerops humilis
represents the Palms, Erica arborea the Heaths, Laurus
nobilis the Laurels, and Myrtus communis the Myrtles, in
this zone, in which there are many sub-tropical forms. Spe-
2 F
226 B 0 T
Botany, cies of Cistus, Vaccinium, Smilax, Eucalyptus, and Mela
leuca are met with, as well as many forms of Composite,
also Figs, Oranges, Pomegranates, and the Vine.
Colder Temperate Zone.—In the northern hemisphere
the characteristic forms of the vegetation of this zone are
seen in England, the north of France, and Germany. The
forests consist of Dicotyledonhus trees and especially Coni-
ferae ; the successful cultivation of Wheat scarcely extends
beyond the limits of this zone. Heaths, covered with Cal-
luna vulgaris, add a feature in the physiognomy of this zone.
The floras of Tierra del Fuego, the Straits of Magalhaens,
the Falkland Islands, and Kerguelen’s Land, are also in¬
cluded in this zone. We meet with Drymis Winter!, Fagus
antarctica, and F. Forsteri, Dactylis caespitosa, Pringlea
antiscorbutica, and many other interesting forms described
by Dr Hooker in his Flora Antarctica.
Sub-arctic Zone.—This zone is of less extent than the
preceding, and in the interior of Asia it is perhaps not so
easily distinguishable from it as it is in Europe. In the
northern hemisphere it is the zone of Firs and Willows. In
the southern hemisphere it embraces a few barren islands.
The northern parts of Siberia and Norway, the Faroe
Islands, and Iceland, belong to this zone. In the Faroe
Islands Barley does nut always ripen, but the Turnip and
Potato succeed. The Amentiferae in them, as well as in
Iceland, do not become trees. Grasses, Calluna vulgaris,
and Juniperus communis, form features in the physiognomy
of Iceland, and Alpine species come down nearly to the sea
level. In Siberia, forests of Pinus Cembra, Larch, Spruce,
Poplar, and Birch occur.
Arctic Zone.—In this zone the Birch predominates, and
along with it are seen Pinus sylvestris and Abies excelsa.
The Birch reaches nearly to North Cape, and Firs extend
to 69° or 70°. Grasses are also found, and numerous Lichens
and Mosses. At Hammerfest, in Lat. 71°, Potatoes, Tur¬
nips, Carrots, and Cabbage succeed. Species of Rhododen¬
dron, Andromeda, and Azalea occur in the American arc¬
tic zone.
Polar Zone.—In this zone there are no trees nor bushes,
and no cultivation of plants for food. Species of Saxifrage,
Dryas, Papaver, Ranunculus, Cardamine, Cochlearia. Pedi-
cularis, Silene, Potentilla, Salix, Juncus, Eriophorum, Parrya,
Platypetalum, Phippsia, Dupontia, and a few others, are
found in this inhospitable belt. In Melville Island there are
67 species of flowering plants, in Spitzbergen 45. In cold
zones we find more genera and fewer species than in warmer
regions.
VII.—ZONES OF VEGETATION AS REGARDS ALTITUDE.
The vertical range of vegetation has been divided into
zones similar to those of the horizontal range. The rela¬
tion of plants to such zones of elevation is called Hypsome-
trical. As we ascend from the plain to the top of a moun¬
tain we pass through different belts of vegetation, the extent
and variety of which differ in different countries. When
Tournefort ascended Mount Ararat he was struck with the
circumstance, that, as he left the low ground at the base of
the mountain, he passed through a series of belts, w'hich re¬
minded him of the countries he had passed through in tra¬
velling from the south to the north of Europe. At the base
the flora was that of the west of Asia ; as he ascended higher
he reached the flora of the countries on the north of the Medi¬
terranean, then that of northern Europe, and when he reached
the summit he found the Lapland plants. Humboldt found
that on all mountains there occurs such a representation of
different floras, and that particular alpine forms are found
almost over the whole world at a particular elevation. In
describing the South American alpine flora, he says—
“In the burning plains scarce raised above the level of the
Southern Ocean, we find Musaceae, Cycadaceae, and Palmae,
in the greatest luxuriance; after them, shaded by the lofty
ANY.
sides of the valleys in the Andes, arborescent Ferns ; next Botanji
in succession, bedewed by cool misty clouds, Cinchonas
appear. When lofty trees cease, we come to Aralias, Thi-
baudias, and Myrtle-leaved Andromedas; these are suc¬
ceeded by Bejarias abounding in resin, and forming a purple
belt around the mountains. In the stormy region of the
Paramos, the more lofty plants and showy flowering herbs
disappear, and are succeeded by large meadows covered
with Grasses on which the Llama feeds. We now reach
the bare trachytic rocks, on which the lowest tribes of plants
flourish. Parmelias, Lecideas, and Leprarias, with their
many-coloured thalli and fructification, form the flora of
this inhospitable zone. Patches of recently fallen snow now
begin to cover the last efforts of vegetable life, and then
the line of eternal snow begins.”
Madden and Strachey give the following account of the
Himalayan vegetation, proceeding from the plains of India
through Kemaon to Thibet:—“ Ascending, we find forms
of temperate climates gradually introduced above 3000 feet,
as seen in species of Pinus, Rosa, Rubus, Quercus, Berberis,
Primula, &c. At 5000 feet the arboreous vegetation of the
plains is altogether superseded by such trees as Oaks, Rho¬
dodendron, Andromeda, Cypress, and Pine. The first ridge
crossed ascends to a height of 8700 feet in a distance of not
more than 10 or 12 miles from the termination of the plains.
The European character of the vegetation is here thoroughly
established, and although specific identities are comparatively
rare, the representative forms are most abundant. From
7000 to 11,000 feet, the region of the alpine forest, the trees
most common are Oak, Horse-chestnut, Elm, Maple, Pine,
Yew, Hazel growing to a large tree, and many others. At
about 11,500 feet the forest ends, Picea Webbiana and Be-
tula Bhojpatra being usually the last trees. Shrubs continue
in abundance for about 1000 feet more; and about 12,000
feet the vegetation becomes almost entirely herbaceous. On
this southern face of the mountains the snow-line is probably
at about an elevation of 15,500 feet. The highest dicoty¬
ledonous plant noticed was at about 17,500 feet, probably a
species of Echinospermum. An Urtica also is common at
these heights. The snow-line here recedes to 18,500 or
19,000 feet. In Thibet itself the vegetation is scanty in
the extreme, consisting chiefly of Caragana, species of Ar¬
temisia, Astragalus, Potentilla, a few Gramineae, &c. The
cultivation of Barley extends to 14,000 feet. Turnips and
radishes on rare occasions are cultivated at nearly 16,000
feet. Vegetation ends at about 17,500 feet, scanty pasturage
being found in favoured localities at this elevation ; and the
highest flowering plants are Corydalis, Cruciferae, Nepeta,
Sedum, and a few others.”
If we examine the vegetation of the mountains of Europe
we shall find a series of similar changes. In the regions of
the plains and lower hills of the Alps, extending to 1700
feet, the Vine grows; to this succeeds the zone of Chest¬
nuts, which extends to 2500 feet; the zone of the Beech,
and of the higher dicotyledonous trees, reaches from 2500
to 4000 feet; we then come to the sub-alpine region, the
zone of Coniferae, extending to about 6000 feet, in which
are found the Scotch Fir, the Spruce, the Larch, and the
Siberian Pine, along with certain sub-alpine forms of herba¬
ceous plants; next comes the alpine region, or the zone of
shrubs, extending to 7000 feet, characterized by Rhododen¬
dron hirsutum, and R. ferrugineum, which represent the
Bejarias of the Andes ; finally, we reach the subnival region,
extending to 8500 feet, and comprehending the part between
the limits of shrubs and the snow-line, where we meet with
numerous species of Ranunculus, Draba, Saxifraga, Gen-
tiana, Primula, and Poa, besides other genera belonging to
Ranunculaceae, Cruciferae, Caryophyllaceae, Leguminosae,^
Compositae, Gramineae, Lichenes, and Musci. On some of
the Alps we find flowering plants reaching to the height of
between 10,000 and 11,000 feet or more. SchlagintweT
BOTANY.
227
found, on the central and southern Alps, at from 10,650 to
11,700 feet, Androsace glacialis, A. helvetica, Cerastium
latifolium, Cherleria seloides, Chrysanthemum alpinum,
Gentiana bavarica, Ranunculus glacialis, Saxifraga bryoides,
S. oppositifolia, and Silene acaulis. The extreme limit of
Mosses in the Alps is in general little above that of Phane¬
rogamous plants. The last Lichens are to be found on the
highest summits of the Alps, attached to projecting rocks,
without any limitation of height.
On the Pyrenees the following zones are observed:—
I. The zone of Vine and Maize cultivation, and of the
Chestnut woods. 2. A zone extending from the limit of the
Vine to about 4200 feet, at which limit the cultivation of
Rye ceases ; here we meet with Buxus sempervirens, Saxi¬
fraga Geum, Erinus alpinus, Arnica montana, &c. 3. From
the limit of the cultivation of esculent vegetables at 4200
feet, to the zone of the Spruce Fir. 4. From the limit of
the Spruce Fir zone at 6000 to 7200 feet, characterized by
the presence of the Scotch Fir. 5. From 7200 to 8400
feet, is an alpine zone, characterized by the dwarf Juniper,
Draba aizoides, Saxifraga bryoides, Soldanella alpina, Juncus
trifidus, &c. 6. A zone above 8400 feet, exhibits a few al¬
pine species, as Ranunculus glacialis, Draba nivalis, Stel-
laria cerastoides, Androsace alpina, and Saxifraga groen-
landica.
There are thus in lofty mountain districts evident belts
of vegetation. At the lower part is the region of Lowland
Cultivation, where the ordinary cultivated plants of the
country thrive. In cold regions this is very limited, while
in warm regions it is extended. To this region succeeds
that of Trees. In high northern latitudes, as at 70°, it
reaches to between 700 and 800 feet; on iEtna to 6200 ;
on the Andes to 10,800, and it is marked by Escallonia
myrtilloides, Aralia avicennifolia, and Drymis Winteri; on
the mountains of Mexico to 12,000 feet, and is marked by
Pinus Montezumae ; on the south side of the Himalaya to
II, 500, and on the north side to 14,000. On the Pyrenees
its limits are marked at about 7000 feet by Pinus uncinata,
on the Alps at about 6000 feet by Pinus Picea, on the Cau¬
casian mountains at 6700 feet, and in Lapland at about
1500 feet by the Birch. Next in order comes the Shrubby
region, the limits of which in Europe are marked by Rho¬
dodendrons, which cease on the Alps of 7400 feet, and on
the Pyrenees at 8332 feet; on the Andes it is limited by
Bejarias and shrubby Composite, at a height of 13,420
feet; on the south side of the Himalaya, by species of
Juniper, Willow, and Ribes, at an elevation of 11,500 feet.
In Lapland, species of Willow and Vaccinium, with the
dwarf Birch, reach 3300 feet. The next region is that of
Grasses, which on the Andes and the Himalaya extends
to between 14,000 and 15,000 feet. Finally, we come to
the region of Cryptogamic plants, which extend to the
snow-line, Lichens being the last plants met with.
In contrasting the zones of altitude with those of latitude,
Meyen gives the following regions of alpine vegetation :—
The region of Palms and Bananas (equatorial) extending
from the sea level to 1900 feet; the region of Tree-ferns
and of Figs (tropical) 1900 to 3800 feet; the region of
Myrtles and Laurels (sub-tropical) 3800 to 5700 feet; re¬
gion of evergreen dicotyledonous trees (warm temperate)
5700 to 7600 feet; region of deciduous dicotyledonous
trees (cold temperate) 7600 to 9500 feet; region of Abie-
tineae (sub-arctic) 9500 to 11,400 feet; region of Rhodo¬
dendrons (arctic) 11,400 to 13,300 feet; region of alpine
plants (polar) 13,300 to 15,200.
VIII.—SCHOUW’S PHYTO-GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS.
In dividing the globe into Phyto-geographic regions,
Schouw takes into account the nature of the flora in regard
to species, genera, and orders, irrespective of the effects
they may produce on the physiognomy of the country. In
constituting a botanical region, he lays down the principle
that at least one-half of the species and one-fourth of the
genera should be peculiar to it, and that individual orders
should either be peculiar to it or reach their maximum in
it. He constitutes 25 Regions :—1. Region of Saxifrages
and Mosses. 2. Region of Umbelliferae and Cruciform.
3. Region of Labiatm and Caryophyllaceae. 4. Region of
Asters and Solidagos. 5. Region of Magnolias. 6. Region
of Camellias and Teas. 7. Region of Zingiberacem. 8.
Himalayan Alps. 9. Asiatic Islands. 10. Mountains of
Java. 11. Islands of the Pacific. 12. Region of Balsam
trees. 13. The Desert Region. 14. Region of Tropical
Africa. 15. Region of Cactuses and Peppers. 16. Moun¬
tains of Mexico. 17. Region of the Medicinal Barks. 18.
Region of Calceolarias and Escallonias. 19. West Indian
Region. 20. Region of Palms and Melastomas. 21. Region
of Tree Compositae. 22. Antarctic Region. 23. Region of
Mesembryanthemums and Stapelias. 24. Region of Epa-
cridacem and Eucalypti. 25. Region of New Zealand.
Region I.—The region of Saxifragaceae and Musci or
the Alpine Arctic Flora.—This embraces the north polar
lands from the limits of ice to the zone of trees, or what is
called the Arctic flora, in which Mosses, Lichens, and Ca-
rices abound ; and the upper parts of the mountains of
Europe and northern Asia from the snow-line down to the
arborescent belt, or the Alpine flora, in which Primulaceae
and Saxifragaceaa are prevalent. The mean temperature of
the arctic division is 41° to 66°, that of the Alpine districts
is 36° to 47°. In this region there is no cultivation.
Region II.—The region of Umbelliferae and Cruciferae.—
Thisextends over northern Europe and Asia from the south¬
ern limit of the last region to the Pyrenees, the Alps the
Balkan mountains, the Caucasus, and the Altai; the mean tem¬
perature being 36° to 57°. It is distinguished by the presence
of Umbelliferous and Cruciferous plants. Coniferae, Amen-
tiferae, Ranunculacae, Rosaceae, and Fungi are abundant.
Region III.—The region of Labiatae and Caryophyllaceae
or the Mediterrannean Flora.—This comprises the countries
of the Mediterranean Sea, Spain, the south of France, Italy,
Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, the whole of northern Africa
to the Sahara and the great Atlas chain, the Canaries, and
Madeira. The upper mountain regions belong to Schouw’s
first region, and the middle to his second. The mean tem¬
perature is 54° to 72°. The region is characterized by the
prevalence of plants belonging to the Labiate and Clove-
wort orders. Species of Compositae, Galiacese, and Bora-
ginaceae also abound, and there is an increase in the plants
belonging to the orders Leguminosae, Malvaceae, Solan-
aceae, Urticaceae, and Euphorbiaceae.
Region IV.—The region of Asters and Solidagos.—
This extends over the northern part of North America from
the limits of the first region to the parallel of 36° north.
Besides the number of species of Aster and Solidago (be¬
longing to Compositae), this region is marked by a great
variety of Oaks and Firs, by numerous species of Vacci¬
nium, by the smallness of the number of Cruciferae, Um¬
belliferae, Cinchonaceae, Cynarocephalae, and by the absence
of the genus Erica. The mean temperature is 54° to 72°.
The Californian and Oregon districts, to the west of North
America, constitute a region not yet fully explored. Many
showy Polemoniaceae and interesting Coniferae are found
here ; also Eschscholtzia californica.
Region V.—The region of Magnolias.—This embraces
the southern part of North America between the parallels of
30° and 36°. Here we meet with numerous tropical forms,
as Zingiberacese, Cycadaceac, A nonaceae, Sapindaceae, Melas-
tomaceae, and Cactaceae. Mean temperature 59° to 72°.
Region VI.—The region of Ternstrbmiaceae and Celas-
traceae, or the Japanese region.—This extends between the
parallels of 30° and 40° N. Lat., and embraces Japan, the
Botany.
228
Botany.
B O T
north of China, and Chinese Tartary, constituting the east¬
ern temperate parts of the Old World. The flora seems to
be intermediate between that of the Old and the rsew
World. The vegetation is more tropical than European,
for we meet with Zingiberaeeae, Musaceae, Palmae, Cyca-
dacese, Anonaceae. The mean temperature is 54 to 68 .
Region VIE—The region of Zingiberaceae, or the In¬
dian Flora.—This embraces India, the island of Ceylon^ and
the south-eastern peninsula, to the height of 4500 to 5500
feet above the level of the sea. There are here numerous
specimens belonging to the Ginger order as well as to Le-
guminosas, Cucurbitaceae, and Tiliaceae. The Coco-nut,
Mangosteen, Turmeric, Cinnamon, Cotton, Indigo, Clove,
and Pepper, are abundant. Mean temperature 65 '75 to
81 °-50. The south of China and Cochin-China may be con¬
sidered as a distinct region. It partly resembles that ot India,
but contains many peculiar plants.
Region VIII.—The Emodic region—This embraces
the Alpine region of India south ot the ridge of the Hima¬
laya, including Sirmore, Gurwal, Kemaon, Nepal, and Bho-
tan, to a height of from 4500 to 10,700 feet above the level
of the sea. Some European species are met with in these
high districts. Cedrus Decdara, Pinus excelsa, P. longi-
folia, Picea Webbiana, and other Coniferae, along with
Chamaerops Khasyana, species of Oak, Dammar, Rhodo¬
dendron, Berberis, Primula, &c., also occur. In the lower
parts of the region tropical plants grow. The mean tem¬
perature is 37° to 66°.
Region IX..—The region of the Asiatic Islands.— ihis
comprises the mountainous districts of the islands between
the south-eastern peninsula and Australia, to a height of 5500
feet above the level of the sea. Myristica moschata, Di\a-
balanops Camphora, and Dammara orientalis, grow in this
region. Much of it is still unexplored. The mean tem¬
perature is 66° to 84°.
Region X.—The region of Upper Java.—This compre¬
hends the districts of the island of Java, and probably also of
the numerous islands of the Asiatic archipelago, ha\ ing an
absolute elevation of 5500 feet above the level of the sea.
Little is known in regard to the vegetation.
Region XI.—The Polynesian region.—This comprises
allthe islands of the Pacific Ocean within the tropics. Among
the plants of this region may be mentioned Artocarpus in-
cisa, Tacca pinnatifida, Cocos nucifera, Lodoicea seychel-
larum, Jambosa malaccensis, and many species of Arum,
Dioscorea, Musa, and Ficus. Ihe genera Dissochaeta,
Orophea, Pterisanthes, Arthrophyllum, and Visenia, occur
in this region. The mean temperature is 72° to 82°.
Region XII.—Theregion of Amyridaceae.—This includes
the south-western part of the highlands of Arabia. In the
flora are many trees yielding gum and balsamic resins, such
as species of Mimosa, Acacia, Balsamodendron, and Amyris.
Coffee and the Sensitive-plant occur here.
Region XIII.—The Desert region.—This comprehends
northern Africa, to the south of the Atlas Mountains, be¬
tween Lat. 15° and 30° N., and the northern part of Arabia.
Phoenix dactylifera and Hyphaene thebaica are character¬
istic plan tsof theregion. The mean temperature is 12 to86 .
Region XIV,—The region of tropical Africa—1 his
comprises that part ot Africa which lies between lo .
Lat. and the tropic of Capricorn, or, more correctly, be-
tween the northern and southern limits of periodical rains,
with the exception of Abyssinia and the unknown countries
of the interior. On the western part of this region, Elais
guineensis the Palm-oil plant, and Adansonia digitata the
Baobab, grow. On the coast of Guinea and Congo, the
flora is intermediate between that of America and Asia, but
chiefly resembling the latter. Species ot Sorghum, Ster-
culia acuminata the Kola-nut, and the Poison-bean of Ca¬
labar, belong to this region. The mean temperature of the
region is 72° to 86°.
A N Y.
Region XV.—The region of Cactaceae and Piperaceae.— Botany.
This embraces Mexico, Guatemala, the Isthmus of Panama,
and South America as far as the river Amazon, and to an
elevation of5500 feet above the level of the sea, between Lat.
30° N. and the equator. Guiana, New Grenada, and cer¬
tain parts of Peru are included. Cactuses and Peppers
abound in this region.
Region XVI.—The region of the Mexican Highlands. -
This embraces the districts of Mexico which have an ele¬
vation of more than 5500 feet above the level of the sea.
Some important Coniferse are met with here, such as Pinus
religiosa, P. apulcensis, P. Hartwegii, P. Montezumse, and
Taxodium distichum. The mean temperature is 64 to 78 .
Region XVII.—The region of Cinchonas or medicinal
Bark-trees. This comprehends the Cordilleras of South
America, between the parallels of 5° N. Lat. and 20° S.
Lat., at an elevation of 5000 to 9600 feet. The mean tem¬
perature is 59° to 68°. In the lower part of the region
Coffee and Maize are cultivated, and in the higher regions
the European grains and fruits, along with the Potato and
the Chenopodium Quinoa. Ceroxylon Andicola is also
found in this region of the Andes.
Region XVIII.—The region of Escallonias and Calceo¬
larias.—This comprises the highest districts in South Ame¬
rica above the upper limit of Cinchonas. J he mean tem¬
perature varies from 59° to 84 . Besides Escallonias and
Calceolarias, we meet with many alpine plants.
Region XIX.—The West Indian Region—This region
comprehends the West India Islands, the flora of which may
be said to be intermediate between that of Mexico and the
northern parts of South America. Ferns and Orchids pre¬
vail. Mean temperature 59° to 78°.
Region XX.—Region of Palms and Melastomas.- This
comprises that part of South America to the east of. the
Andes which lies between the equator and the tropic of
Capricorn. Mean temperature 59 to 82°. Here we have
the luxuriant Brazilian flora. Palms, Melastomaceae, Myr-
tacese, Tree-ferns, and Crotons, form the thick underwood,
and beneath these, delicate herbaceous Ferns ; Dorstenias,
Heliconias, with a few tall Grasses, are found in the open
parts.
Region XXL—The region of arborescent Composites.
 This embraces South America on both sides of the Andes
from the tropic of Capricorn to Lat. 40, S. In it are in¬
cluded the southern part of Brazil, La Plata, and Chili.
Mean temperature 59° to 75°. In Chili there are many
genera which also are represented in Australia and at the
Cape of Good Hope. Araucaria imbricata, the Banksian or
Chili pine, is a hardy Conifer of this district, extending on
the Chilian Andes from 37° to 40° S. Lat.
Region XXII.—The Antarctic region.—This embraces
the southern part of America, the Straits of Magalhaens,
Tierra del Fuego or Fuegia,the Falkland Islands, and others
more to the south. Mean temperature 41° to 46°. Many
mountainous plants are found in this region. The vege¬
table forms of the north temperate and arctic zones prevail
Species of Saxifraga, Gentiana, Arbutus, and Primula, w ith
many other European genera, abound. In Fuegia the Ever¬
green Beech, Fagus Forsteri, which never sheds its cori¬
aceous foliage, is a very prevalent tree, also the Deciduous
Beech, Fagus antarctica, the leaves of which change colour
and fall, and Drymis Winteri. In the Falkland Islands
there are about 120 flowering plants, consisting chiefly of
those found on the mountains of Fuegia, and on the arid
coast and plains of Patagonia.
Region XXIIL—The region of Mesembryanthemums
and Stapelias.—This embraces southern Africa from the
the tropic of Capricorn to the Cape Coast. Mean tempera¬
ture 55° to 73°. Besides species of Mesembryanthemurn
and Stapelia there are a prodigious number of species ot
Erica. The latter genus attains its maximum here. W e
B O T A N Y.
229
Botany, also meet with plants belonging to the orders Iridaceas,
>■ r v—Bruniaceae, and Selaginaceae.
Region XXIV.—The region of Epacridaceae and Eu¬
calypti.—This comprehends Australia beyond the tropics
with the island of Tasmania or Van Diemen’s Land. Mean
temperature 52° to 72°. The number of known Australian
plants amounts to about 7000 or 8000. The flora of Aus¬
tralia approaches in its tropical portion to the plants of India,
and in its extra-tropical portion to those of South Africa.
The flora may be divided into a western, southern, eastern,
and Tasmanian flora. In the western districts Leguminosae
and Proteaceae predominate, forming one-fourth of the en¬
tire vegetation ; Ferns and Grasses are rare. In the south¬
ern flora, Compositae and Leguminosae abound along with
Salsolas, Myoporaceav, Halorageaceae, Caryophyllaceae, and
Cruciferae. The genus Mesembryanthemum is here seen
as a connecting link with the South African flora; Nitraria
with the Siberian, and Crantzia with the North American
flora. In the eastern flora Proteaceae and Epacridaceae are
found, with fewer Compositae than in the south, and a larger
number of Ferns and Grasses than in the western district.
In South Australia Compositae form l-8th of the whole
vegetation ; Compositae and Leguminosae form together
one-third of the whole of the Dicotyledons.
Region XXV.—The region of New Zealand.—This in¬
cludes the islands of New Zealand and those which are ad¬
jacent. Between Lat. 34° and 36° S. the mean tempera¬
ture is 61° to 63°. Here we meet with Phormium tenax
the New Zealand Flax-plant, Corypha australis the
southern Palm, abundance of Ferns, many of them arbo¬
rescent, species of Dracaena, many Myrtacese, and some pe¬
culiar Coniferae. The known flora of New Zealand amounts
to about 1900 or 2000 species, of which 730 are flowering
plants, thus making Phanerogams to Cryptogams nearly as
2 to 3. Among the orders to which the endemic species
belong may be noticed Coniferae, Scrophulariaceae, Epacri¬
daceae, Compositae, Araliaceae, Umbelliferae, Myrtaceae, and
Ranunculaceae. The flora of the Auckland group and
of Campbell’s Island may be considered as a continuation
of that of New Zealand, differing only in being more typi¬
cal of the antarctic regions.
IX.—ZONES OF MARINE VEGETATION.
The ocean, as well as the land, possesses its vegetable
forms, which are of a peculiar kind, and exist under dif¬
ferent conditions of pressure, of surrounding medium, and
of light. Some seaweeds, Harvey remarks, are cosmopo¬
litan or pelagic, as species of Ulva and Enteromorpha, which
are equally abundant in high northern and southern lati¬
tudes, as they are under the equator, and in temperate
regions. Codium tomentosum, Ceramium rubrum, C. dia-
phanum, species of Ectocarpus, and several Confervae, have
a range nearly as wide. Plocamium coccineum and Geli-
dium corneum are common to the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans ; Rhodymenia palmata, the common Dulse of Bri¬
tain, is found at the Falkland Islands and Tasmania. Fu-
cus tuberculatus extends from Ireland to the Cape of Good
Hope; Fucus vesiculosus occurs on the north-west coasts
of America, and on the shores of Europe ; while Desma-
• restia ligulata is found in the north Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, as well as at the Cape of Good Hope and Cape
Horn.
In general, however, Sea-weeds are more or less limited
in their distribution, so that different marine floras exist in
various parts of the ocean. The northern ocean, from the
pole to the 40th degree, the sea of the Antilles, the eastern
coasts of South America, those of New Holland, the Indian
Archipelago, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Chinese
and Japanese Seas, all present so many large marine regions,
each of which possesses a peculiar vegetation. The degree
of exposure to light, and the greater or less motion of the
waves, are very important in the distribution of Algae. The
intervention of great depths of the ocean has a similar in¬
fluence on sea-plants as high mountains have on land-
plants. Laminarise are confined to the colder regions of
the sea; Sargassa only vegetate where the mean tempera¬
ture is considerable. Under the influence of the Gulf-
stream, Sargassum is found along the east coast of America,
as far as Lat. 44° ; and the cold south polar current influ¬
ences the marine vegetation of the coasts of Chili and Peru,
where we meet with species of Lessonia, Macrocystis, D’Ur-
villaea, and Iridaea, which are characteristic of the antarctic
flora. Melanospermeae, according to Harvey, increase as
we approach the tropics, where the maximum of the species,
though, perhaps, not of individuals, is found; Rhodosper-
meae chiefly abound in the temperate zone ; while Chloro-
spermeae form the majority of the vegetation of the polar
seas, and are particularly abundant in the colder temperate
zone. The green colour is characteristic of those Algae
which grow either in fresh water or in the shallower parts
of the sea; the olive-coloured Algae are most abundant be¬
tween the tide-marks; while the red-coloured species occur
chiefly in the deeper and darker parts of the sea.
As regards perpendicular direction, Forbes remarks, that
one great marine zone lies between high and low water¬
marks, and varies in species according to the kind of coast,
but exhibits similar phenomena throughout the northern
hemisphere. A second zone begins at low water-mark, and
extends to a depth of 7 to 15 fathoms. This is the region
of the larger Laminarias and other Fuci. Marine vegeta¬
tion, including the lower forms, extends to about 50 fathoms
in the British seas, to 70, 80, or 100, in the Mediterranean
and theAigean Sea. Ordinary Algae, however, seem scarcely
to exist below 50 fathoms. Diatomaceae exist in the deep
abysses of the ocean, and Nullipora and Corallines increase
as other Algae diminish, until they characterize a zone of
depth where they form the whole obvious vegetation.
The distribution varies also in a latitudinal or horizontal
direction. Chorda Filum lies in beds of 15 to 20 miles in
length, and only about 600 feet in breadth, in the North
Sea and the British Channel. Sargassum bacciferum con¬
stitutes the Gulf-weed, which has been noticed by all who
have crossed the Atlantic. The Sargasso Sea occupies the
eddy or whirl caused by the revolution of the current in the
Atlantic, and occupies a space of 260,000 square miles. The
most remarkable of marine plants, both for their size and
the extent of their range, are the Macrocystis pyrifera and
the Laminaria radiata. Immense masses of the Macrocystis,
like green meadows, are found in every latitude. It ranges
from the antarctic to the arctic circle through 120 degrees
of latitude. The tribe Fucoideae abounds towards the poles,
and there the plants attain their greatest bulk, diminishing
rapidly towards the equator and ceasing some degrees from
the Line itself. Cystoseireae represent the Fucoideae in the
higher latitudes of the southern hemisphere. Laminarias
abound in the antarctic ocean and northwards to the Cape
of Good Hope. The red, green, and purple Lavers of the
British seas are found at the Falkland Islands. Lessonia,
with astern 10 feet long and 12 inches in circumference, and
its frond 2-3 feet long and about 3 inches broad, is found
in immense masses off the Patagonian regions. D’Urvil-
laea utilis is another large antarctic Seaweed, which, along
with Lessonias, is often found at the Falkland Islands,
formed by the surf into enormous vegetable cables, several
hundred feet long, and thicker than the human body.
Botany.
X.—DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS IN BRITAIN.
The climate of Britain is warmer than that of other places
in the same parallel of latitude. Its most striking feature
is the absence of extremes, either as regards cold or heat.
It is, generally speaking, mild and damp. While the winters
are mild, the heat of the three summer months, June, July,
230
Botany.
B O T A N Y.
and August, in which the growth and ripening of crops take
place, is by no means great, being very little above that due
to the latitude. The eastern coasts of Britain partake more
of the continental climate, while on the western the climate
is of an insular and equable character. The mean tempera¬
ture varies from 46° to 52° F. Some of the mountains rise
to the height of 4400 feet, and there is a fall of 1° of the
thermometer of every 240 or 250 feet of ascent. The num¬
ber of Phanerogamous species of plants amounts to about
1600, while the Cryptogamous are about 2800.
Taking a general view' of the distribution of British
Flowering Plants and Ferns (excluding the Hibernian and
Sarnian species), Watson recognises the following types:
—1. British type—species widely and generally spread
over Britain, and forming probably 2-5ths of the British
species, such as Alnus glutinosa, Betvda alba, Corylus
Avellana, Salix caprsea, Rosa canina, Lonicera Pericly-
menum, Hedera Helix, Sarothamnus scoparius, Calluna
vulgaris, Ranunculus acris, Cerastium triviale, Potentilla
Tormentilla, Trifolium repens, Stellaria media, Lotus cor-
niculatus, Beilis perennis, Senecio vulgaris, Carduus palus-
tris, Leontodon Taraxacum, Myosotis arvensis, Prunella
vulgaris, Plantago lanceolata, Polygonum aviculare, Urtica
dioica, Potamogeton natans, Lemna minor, Juncus effusus,
Carex panicea, Poa annua, Festuca ovina, Anthoxanthum
odoratum, Pteris aquilina, Polypodium vulgare, Lastrea
Filix-mas. 2. English type—species chiefly or exclusively
found in England, and decreasing in frequency north¬
wards, constituting about l-5th of the whole flora, as
Rhamnus catharticus, Ulex nanus, Tamus communis, Bry¬
onia dioica, Hottonia palustris, Chlora perfoliata, Sison
Amomum, Moenchia erecta, Linaria Elatine, Ranunculus
parviflorus, Lamium Galeobdolon, Hordeum pratense, Alo-
pecurus agrestis, Ceterach officinarum, besides very local
plants such as Cyperus longus and Cicendia filiformis. 3.
Scottish type—species chiefly prevalent in Scotland or the
north of England, forming about l-20th of the flora, as Em-
petrum nigrum, Rubus saxatilis, T rollius europaeus, Gera¬
nium sylvaticum, Trientalis europaea, Habenaria albida,
Haloscias scoticum, Mertensia maritima; also Primula fa-
rinosa, Goodyera repens, Corallorhiza innata, and Saxifraga
Hirculus, which are comparatively limited in their distribu¬
tion and partial in their localities; besides some very local
plants such as Arenaria norvegica, Primula scotica, and
Ajuga pyramidalis. 4. Highland type—species either li¬
mited to the Scottish Highlands or extending to the moun¬
tains of the north of England and Wales; a more boreal
flora than the last, the species being especially limited to the
mountains or their immediate vicinity, and forming proba¬
bly about 1-15th of the flora, as Azalea procumbens, Vero¬
nica alpina, Alopecurus alpinus, Phleum alpinum, Juncus
trifidus, Sibbaldia procumbens, Erigeron alpinus, Gentiana
nivalis; to these may be added the following, which, how¬
ever, descend also lower, Salix herbacea, Silene acaulis,
Saxifraga stellaris, Oxyria reniformis, Thalictrum alpinum,
Luzula spicata, Juncus triglumis, Rubus Chamaemorus, Epi-
lobium alsinifolium, Draba incana, Dryas octopetala, Alche-
milla alpina; likewise some very local species, as Lychnis
alpina and Oxytropis campestris. 5. Germanic type—
species chiefly seen in the east and south-east of England
(bounded by the German ocean eastward)—forming about
l-15th or l-20th of the flora, as Frankenia laevis, Anemone
Pulsatilla, Reseda lutea, Silene noctiflora, Silene conica,
Bupleurum tenuissimum, Pimpinella magna, Pulicaria vul¬
garis, Lactuca Scariola, Halimus pedunculatus, Aceras An-
thropophora, Ophrys aranifera, Spartina stricta; also very
local plants such as Veronica verna. 6. Atlantic type—
species found in the west and south-west of England and
Wales, having a tendency to the western or Atlantic parts
of the island—forming about 1-15th or l-20th of the flora,
as Sinapis monensis, Matthiola sinuata, Raphanus mariti-
mus, Sedum anglicum, Cotyledon Umbilicus, Eufragia vis- Botany,
cosa, Pinguicula lusitanica, Euphorbia Peplis and E. Port-
landica, Scirpus Savii; also more limited species, as Sib-
thorpia europaja, Erica vagans, E. ciliaris, Physospermum
cornubiense, Polycarpum tetraphyllum, Adiantum Capillus-
Veneris, Cynodon Dactylon. 7. Local or doubtful type—
species which cannot be referred to any of the preceding
types, as Potentilla rupestris, Lloydia serotina, confined to
peculiar mountains in Wales, Draba aizoides and Coton-
easter vulgaris, found on the rocky coasts of Wales very
locally, Draba muralis and Hutchinsia petraea; also Erio-
caulon septangulare, found in the Isle of Skye, and formerly
included under Watson’s Hebridean type. If Ireland and
the Channel Islands are also taken into account, Hibernian
and Sarnian types would be added.
On ascending lofty mountains in Britain, there is a marked
variation in the nature of the vegetation. On Ben-muich-
Dhui, which attains an elevation of upwards of 4000 feet,
Watson gives a full list of the species observed in succes¬
sion. On leaving the plants of the low country we find
Myrica Gale, extending on this mountain to 1400 feet, and
in succession we came to the upper limits of the following
species :—Erica cinerea, Pinus sylvestris, Carex pauciflora,
Pedicularis sylvatica at 1838 feet, Tofieldia palustris, Erica
Tetralix, at 2370 feet, Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi, Thalic¬
trum alpinum, Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea, Hieracium alpinum,
Juniperus communis var. nana, at 2660 feet, Potentilla I or-
mentilla, Calluna vulgaris, 2690 feet, Azalea procumbens,
Armeria maritima, Cochlearia groenlandica, Arabis petraea,
Rubus Chamaemorus, Epilobium alpinum, E. angustifolium,
Vaccinium uliginosum, Sibbaldia procumbens, Saxifraga
stellaris, Alchemilla alpina, Empetrum nigrum, Juncus tri¬
fidus, Gnaphalium supinum, and on the summit Silene
acaulis, Carex rigida, Luzula arcuata and L. spicata, Salix
herbacea.
Considering British plants in climatic or ascending zones,
they are divided by Watson into—
I. Agrarian Region.— limited generally by the Pteris
aquilina, and indicating the region of Corn cultivation.
In the Highlands it may be said to extend as high at
least as 1200 feet. It is subdivided into three zones:—
1. Infir-agrarian Zone—embracing all the country south¬
ward from the Dee and Humber, except the moun¬
tainous parts of Wales, and the higher hills and
moors in the provinces of the Severn and Peninsula
(including Gloucester, Worcester, Warwick, Stafford,
Hereford, Monmouth, Cornwall, Devon, and Somer¬
set). Some of the peculiar species are Clematis
Vitalba, Rubia peregrina, Cyperus longus, Erica
ciliaris, Sibthorpia europasa, and Scilla autumnalis.
2. Mid-agrarian Zone—all the low grounds, clear from
the mountains, situate between the entrance of the
Clyde and Tay on the north, and those of the Hum¬
ber and Dee on the south, also probably a narrow
coast-line of the East Highlands, extending from
Perth to Aberdeen, and possibly even to Inverness.
Also a narrow belt extending round the hills of
Wales. Rhamnus catharticus and Frangula, Tamus
communis, Bryonia dioica, Acer campestre, Ulex
nanus, Viburnum Lantana, Euonymus europseus, and
Cornus sanguinea, occur in this zone, but are not re¬
stricted to it. There is no Clematis.
3. Super-agrarian Zone—coast-line and low plains and
moors in the north and nort-west of Scotland, where
alpine plants descend to the sea shore; such as Tha¬
lictrum alpinum, Draba incana, Saxifraga oppositi-
folia, Arctostaphylos alpina, and Dryas octopetala.
Also other parts where the elevation of the ground
leads to the production of the same species, or of such
plants as Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi, Saxifraga stel¬
laris, Alchemilla alpina, Tofieldia palustris, Juncus
triglumis. Also tracts of slight elevation in the
proximity of high mountains, upon which a corre¬
sponding flora prevails. At its lower limits appear
Ilex, Corylus, Quercus, Fraxinus, Lonicera, Crataegus,
and fruticose Rubi.
B 0 T A N Y.
231
II. Arctic Region—characterized by the absence of Corn cul¬
tivation.
1. Infer-arctic Zone—this has its terminal line at the limit
of Erica Tetralix.
2. Mid-arctic Zone—space above the limit of Erica Tetra¬
lix, and within or below that of Calluna vulgaris.
In this zone most of the rare alpine plants are found,
such as Saxifraga nivalis, Gentiana nivalis, Erigeron
aljjinns, Astragalus alpinus, Veronica alpina, Alope-
curus alpinus, &c.
3. Super-arctic Zone—above the limit of Calluna, charac¬
terized by Saxifraga cernua and rivularis, and Lu-
zula arcuata.
Professor Edward Forbes has followed Watson in his
views of distribution, and has promulgated a theory in regard
to the origin of the flora of Britain. ~ He considers the ve¬
getation of Great Britain and Ireland as composed of several
floras, which are to be reckoned outposts separated by geo¬
logical changes from more extended areas. The following
five floras, according to him, make up the vegetation of
Britain and Ireland: 1. A west Pyrenean flora (Iberian or
Asturian type), confined to the mountainous districts of the
west and south-west of Ireland, characterized by botanical
peculiarities, which depend on the presence of a few prolific
species belonging to the families Saxifragaceae, Ericaceae,
Lentibulariaceae, and Cruciferae. 2. A flora in the south¬
west of England and south-east of Ireland (Armorican type),
which is intimately related to that of the Channel Isles and
the neighbouring coast of France (Brittany and Normandy).
1 his is Watson’s Atlantic type. 3. The flora of the south
east of England, where the rocks of the Cretaceous system
are chiefly developed, and in which many species occur
common to this district and the opposite coast of France.
This corresponds nearly to Watson’s Germanic type. 4.
An alpine flora (Boreal or Scandinavian type), developed
chiefly on the mountains of Scotland, and also partially on
those of Cumberland and Wales. The species found on
the latter are all, with the exception of Lloydia serotina,
inhabitants also of the Scotch Highlands. The Scotch
alpines all occur in Scandinavia, where they are associated
with numerous additional species. This flora corresponds
nearly to Watson’s Highland type. This flora is repre¬
sented in Shetland by Arenaria norvegica, and in Orkney
by Primula scotica. It is largely developed on the Scot¬
tish Alps. 5. The general flora of the British islands, iden¬
tical with that of central and western Europe, and which
is called a Germanic flora. It corresponds to Watson’s
British, English, and Scottish types. It is a flora which
overspreads many local floras throughout Europe, and gives
a general character to the vegetation.
Forbes endeavours to prove that the specific identity, to
any extent, of the plants of one area with those of another,
depends on both areas forming, or having formed, part of
the same specific centre, or on their having derived their
vegetable population by transmission, through migration,
over continuous or closely contiguous land, aided, in the
case of alpine floras, by transportation on floating masses of
ice. According to him, “ the oldest of the floras now com¬
posing the vegetation of the British isles, is that of the
mountains of the west of Ireland. Though an alpine flora,
it is southernmost in character, and is quite distinct as a
system from the floras of the Scottish and Welsh Alps.
Its very southern character, its limitation, and its extreme
isolation, are evidences of its antiquity, pointing to a period
when a great mountain barrier extended across the Atlantic
from Ireland to Spain. The distribution of the second
f ora, next in point of probable date, depended on the ex¬
tension of a barrier, the traces of which still remain, from
the west of France to the south-east of Britain, and thence
to Ireland. The distribution of the third flora depended
on the connexion of the coast of France and England to¬
wards the eastern part of the channel. Of the former
existence of this union no geologist doubts. The distribu- Botany,
tion of the fourth, or alpine flora of Scotland and Wales,
was effected during the glacial period, when the mountain
summits of Britain were low islands, or members of chains
of islands, extending to the area of Norway through a gla¬
cial sea, and clothed with an arctic vegetation, which in the
gradual upheaval ol those islands and consequent change of
climate, became limited to the summits of the new-formed
and still existing mountains. The distribution of the fifth
or Germanic flora, depended on the upheaval of the bed of
the glacial sea, and the consequent connection of Ireland
with England, and of England with Germany, by great
plains, the fragments of which still exist, and upon which
lived the great elk, and other quadrupeds now extinct.
The breaking up or submergence of the first barrier led to
the destruction of the second ; that of the second to that
of the third; but the well-marked epoch of migration of
the Germanic flora indicates the subsequent formation of
the straits of Dover, and of the Irish Sea, as now existing.”
While there are evident and distinct features in the
plants which constitute the floras of different parts of Bri¬
tain, there are many difficulties to be overcome before we
can adopt the speculative views of Forbes. The connection
between the Tertiary and the present epoch is not made
out as far as the species of plants are concerned, and we
are disposed to look upon the existing flora of the globe as
a distinct and independent one. Schouw differs from For¬
bes in his explanation of the flora of the British islands.
He does not believe in the migration and geological changes
to which Forbes alludes. He thinks that the west and
south-west coast of Britain and Ireland had at first a mild
climate, especially in winter, and that in consequence plants
were produced there common to the analogous climates of
Spain and the south of France; while the Scotch and
English mountains were distinguished throughout by a
polar climate, and produced nearly the same vegetation as
the Lapland and Scandinavian mountains.
D’Archiac says, that in a botanical point of view, it would,
perhaps, be desirable to determine whether the external cir¬
cumstances under which the five floras of Great Britain
now live, such as latitude, altitude, temperature, winds, hu¬
midity or dryness, exposure, nature of the soil, greater or
less distance from the coast, &c., are altogether insufficient
to explain their different characters. We know that plants
have very different geographical limits. Thus there are
some which we meet with over an extent of 25° in latitude,
and much more in longitude, while others occupy only zones
extremely restricted in both senses; it would, therefore, be
useful to study the five British floras in this point of view.
I he radiation of plants from a centre is by no means satis¬
factorily proved ; and it may be asked, for example, what is
the original centre from which the species common to North
America and southern Europe could have radiated ? D’Ar¬
chiac thinks that inconvenience arises from an attempt to
give an account of facts hitherto inexplicable in one science,
by drawing from another science suppositions made, as it
appears, with the sole view of these explanations, and for
which there is no sufficient authority. Proofs drawn from
geology must rest on more certain data, he thinks, than
those which have been adduced by Professor Forbes.
British marine vegetation presents two well-marked types
according to Forbes, a southern and a northern. The ge¬
nera Padina and Halyseris have their northern limit on the
south coast of England, where they are rare. The genera
Cystoseira, Sporochnus, Cutleria, and certain species of Spha-
celaria, Mesogloia, Rhodymenia, Gigartina, and Dictyota,
mark out a southern region, including the British Channel
and part of the east coast, the Bristol Channel, and the south
and west oflreland ; while the presence of Odonthalia den-
tata, Rhodomela cristata, R. lycopodioides, and Fucus Mac-
kaii, characterize a northern flora, on the coasts of Scotland,
232
Botany.
BOTANY.
the north of England and of Ireland. The proportion of
the different marine plants on the shores of Britain are as
f0]]0VVs:—Melanospermeae I-5th, Rhodospermese 3-8ths,
and Chlorospermeae l-4th of the whole.
The British marine plants, according to Forbes, are dis¬
tributed in depth or bathymetrically in a series of zones or
regions which extend from high water mark down to the
greatest explored depths. The first or littoral zone is that
tract which lies between high and low water marks, and
therefore is very variable in extent according to the amount
of rise and fall of the tides. It has been divided into sub-
regions characterized by the prevalence of certain marine
species. 1. The sub-region of Fucus canaliculatus, 2. The
sub-region of Lichina. 3. The sub-region of Fucus articu-
latus (Chylocladia articulata), F. nodosus, and Corallina of¬
ficinalis. ' 4. The sub-region of Fucus serratus. The Lit¬
toral zone is succeeded by narrow belts of such Seaweeds
as Himanthalia lorea, Conferva rupestris, Laurencia pinna-
tifida, Chondrus crispus, and C. mammillosus. The second
or Laminarian zone commences at low water-mark, and
extends to a depth of from 7 to 15 fathoms. Here w e
meet with the great Tangle Seaweeds and deep-water Fuci.
Species of Laminaria, Rhodymenia, and Delesseria, are
found in an upper sub-region of this zone. In the lower
sub-region they are rare, and are succeeded by the ccral-
like Nullipore. The zones below them are entitled the Co¬
ralline zone, extending from 15 to 50 fathoms, and the
region of the deep-sea corals from 50 to beyond 100 fathoms.
These zones do not exhibit any conspicuous vegetable forms;
they are characterized by the presence of certain animals.
At the depth of 50 fathoms in the British seas, there seems,
to be a total absence of vegetable life.
Botany.
PART IV.
PALEONTOLOGICAL BOTANY, OR THE STUDY OF FOSSIL PLANTS.
The changes which have taken place in the nature of
living beings since their first appearance on the globe till
the period when the surface of the earth having assumed
its present form, has been covered by the creation which
now occupies it, constitutes one of the most important de¬
partments in geology. It is, as Brongniart remarks, the
history of life and its metamorphoses. The researches of
geologists show clearly that the globe has undergone various
alterations since that “ beginning” when “ God created the
heavens and the earth.” At various periods of the world’s
history, new mineral beds have covered the surface of the
earth, and elevations of different portions of its crust have
taken place, while at the same time the living beings inha¬
biting it have been buried in sedimentary deposits, to be
replaced by a creation more or less different from the pre¬
ceding. Some of these epochs have been marked appa¬
rently by great changes in the physical state of our planet,
and they have been accompanied with equally great modi¬
fications in the nature of the living beings which inhabited
it. The study of the fossil remains of animals is called
Palaeozoology,"while the consideration of those of vegetables
is denominated Palaeophytology. Both are departments of
the science of Palseontology, which has been the means of
bringing geology to its present state of advancement. The
study of these extinct forms has afforded valuable indica¬
tions as to the physical state of the earth and as to its cli¬
mate at different epochs.
The vegetation of the globe, during the different stages
of its formation, has undergone very evident changes. At
the same time there seems to be no reason to doubt that
the plants may all be referred to the great classes distin¬
guished at the present day, namely, Thallogens, Acrogens,
Gymnosperms, Endogens, and Exogens. The relative
proportion of these classes, however, has been different, and
the predominance of certain forms has given a character to
the vegetation of different epochs. The farther we recede
in geological history from the present day the greater is the
difference between the fossil plants and those which now
occupy the surface. At the time when the coal-beds were
formed, the plants covering the earth belonged to genera
and species not recognised at the present day. As we
ascend higher, the similarity between the ancient and the
modern flora increases, and in the latest stratified rocks we
have in certain instances an apparent identity, at least as
regards genera. At early epochs the flora appears to have
been uniform, to have presented less diversity of forms
than at present, and to have been similar in the different
quarters of the globe. The vegetation also seems to indi¬
cate that the nature of the climate was different from that
which characterizes the countries in which these early fossil
plants are now found.
Fossil plants are by no means so easily examined as
recent species. They are seldom found in a complete
state. Fragments of stems, leaves, and fruits, are the data
by which the plant is to be determined. It is very rare to
find any traces of reproductive organs. The parts of fossil
plants are usually separated from each other, and it is very
difficult to ascertain what are the portions which should be
associated together so as to complete a specimen. The
anatomical structure of some of the organs, especially of
the stem, can sometimes be detected by thin microscopic
slices being placed under the microscope; and in the case
of Coniferous wood, the punctated woody tissue has proved
of great service as regards fossil Botany.
Brongniart says that the mode in which plants are pre¬
served in a fossil state may be referred to two principal
classes:—1. The impression or cast of the plants, accom¬
panied with the complete destruction of the vegetable
tissue, and the preservation of few of its constituent parts.
2. Petrifaction and Carbonization, which preserve more or
less completely the structure of the tissues of vegetable
organs, by changing them completely or only modifying
them. The first state is rather rare, but it is the usual
condition of fossil vegetables in the variegated sandstone and
tertiary limestones. The place of the vegetable is either
empty or replaced by a substance of a ferruginous, calcare¬
ous, or earthy nature, having no organization. The second
state or the impression with some preserved portion of
vegetable tissue, is very frequent in the case of stems foun
in the carboniferous system. This is their ordinary mode o
preservation. In such stems we must carefully distinguish
the different zones of tissue, and their external and internal
surfaces, which produce so many different appearances.
The silicified stems of trees have been observed in various
parts of the world, with their structure well preserved, so
that their Endogenous and Exogenous character can e
easily determined.
In order to study fossil plants well, there must be an
acquaintance with systematic botany, a knowledge of the
microscopical structure of all the organs of plants, such as
♦
BOTANY.
Botany
their roots, stems, barks, leaves, fronds, and fruit; of the
markings which they exhibit on their different surfaces, and
of the scars which some of them leave when they fall. It
is only thus we can expect to determine accurately the
living affinities of the fossil. Brongniart says, that before
comparing a fossil vegetable with living plants, it is neces¬
sary to reconstruct as completely as possible the portion of
the plant under examination, to determine the relations of
these portions to the other organs of the same plant, and to
complete the plant if practicable, by seeing whether, in the
fossils of the same locality, there may not be some which
belong to the same plant. The connection of the different
parts of the same plant is one of the most important pro¬
blems in I alaeophytology, and the neglect of it has perhaps
led to a needless multiplication of fossil species; portions
of the same plant having been described as separate species
01 geneia. In some instances the data have been sufficient
to enable botanists to refer a fossil plant to a genus of the
present day, so that we have fossil species of the genera
Ulmus, Alnus, Pinus, &c. Sometimes the plant is shown
to be allied to a living genus, but differing in some essen¬
tial point, or wanting something to complete the identity,
ar)d it is then marked by the addition of the term ites, as
Pinites, Thuites, Zamites, &c.
Before drawing conclusions as to the climate or physical
condition of the globe at different geological epochs, the
botanist must be well informed as to the vegetation of dif¬
ferent countries, as to the soils and localities in which cer¬
tain plants grow, whether on land or in the sea, or in lakes,
in dry or marshy ground, in valleys or on mountains, or in
estuaries, in hot, temperate, or cold regions. It is only by a
careful consideration of all these particulars that any correct
inferences can be drawn as to the condition of the globe.
The rocks of which the globe is composed are divided into
two great classes, those which contain fossil remains, and
which are called fossiliferous, and those having no such re¬
mains, and which are designated non-fossiliferous or azoic.
The igneous unstratified rocks, included under the names
of Granitic and Trappean, show no appearance of animal
or vegetable remains. Trap rocks, however, have in some
cases covered or inclosed vegetable sti’uctures, and these
are found in an altered condition. Fossil remains have not
been found in certain rocks having a stratified appearance,
and which, from the changes they have undergone, were
denominated by Hutton Metamorphic. These include
Gneiss and Mica-slate, which are looked upon as stratified
rocks, which have probably been formed at a high tempe¬
rature, and have been subsequently altered by the effects of
heat. The absence of organic remains in rocks, however,
is not always sufficient to enable us to state that these rocks
were formed before animals or vegetables existed. Forbes
has shown that, even at the present day, there are depths in
the ocean which are destitute of organic life. Hence rocks
deposited at such depths might contain no organic remains.
The stratified rocks which contain fossils have been
divided into three great groups, the Palaeozoic, the Secon¬
dary, and the Tertiary. The formations included under
these are exhibited in the following table, as condensed
from Ansted’s geology:—
1. Palaeozoic Rocks, containing the earliest fossil remains.
They include the transition, Primary fossiliferous and
Grauwacke rocks.
1. Lower Paleozoic.—These comprehend the Silurian and
Cambrian rocks.
2. Middle Palceozoic.—The Devonian system, or Old Red
Sandstone, so well developed in Scotland.
3. Upper Palaozoic.—The Carboniferous system, or the
Coal Measures, with millstone grit, carboniferous
limestone and shales ; and the Permian system, or the
magnesian limestone.
II. Secondary or Mezozoic Rocks, constituting a second
great epoch in the history of fossils.
VOL. Y.
1. Lower Secondary.—The Upper New Red Sandstone of
Britain, or the Triassic system of Germany. Here
we meet with Red Sandstone and conglomerates, sa¬
liferous red and variegated marls.
2. Middle Secondary.—The Liassic system, with its lime¬
stones and marls; the Oolitic divided into Lower
Oolite (Calcareous sand, Stonesfield slate, Bradford
clay, &c.). Middle Oolite (Oxford clay, Coral clay.
Calc grit, &c.), and Upper Oolite (Kimmeridge clay,
ortland stone); the Wealden, as illustrated in Pur-
beck beds and Hastings sand.
3. Upper Secondary.—The Cretaceous system, with its
lower and upper greensand and chalks, and the Gault.
III. Tertiary or Cainozoic Rocks, constituting the third
grand fossUiferous epoch. These are well developed in
Asia, America, and in the south of Europe, and only
partially in Britain.
1. Lower Tertiary or Eocene.—This is seen in the London
clay, the Paris basin, the Basin of Brussels, &c.
2. Middle Tertiary or Miocene.—This is shown in the Co¬
ralline and Red Crag of Britain, the Basin of the
Rhine, of the Loire, and Garonne, &c.
3. Upper Tertiary or Pliocene.—is illustrated by the
Norwich crag, the Till of the Clyde, the Brown coal
of Germany, &c.
These are succeeded by Superficial or Pleistocene Deposits,
which consist of diluvium or diluvial drift, formed of
gravel, with boulders, which indicate the violent
action of water; and alluvium or deposits of fine mud,
resembling those caused by ordinary fluviatile action.
The tertiary formations and those of the present day
appear to pass into each other.
The plants found in different strata are either terrestrial
oi aquatic, and the latter exhibit species allied to the salt
and fresh-water vegetables of the present day. Their state
of preservation depends much on their structure. Cellular
p ants have probably in a great measure been destroyed or
changed in their aspect, and hence their rarity; while those
W00dy and vascular structure have been preserved.
I he following is the number of fossil genera and species, as
compiled from Unger’s work on Palaeophytology:—
Dicotyledones. „
mu i -n Genera. Species.
Thalamifloras   24 84
Calyciflorae   56 182
Corolliflorae  23 60
Monochlamydeae Angiospermas 48 221
    Gymnospermae 56 363
Monocotyledones.
Dictyogenae  2
Petaloideae   36
Glumiferae   g
Acotyledones.
Thallogenae     31
Acrogenae   121
Doubtful   35
437
5
125
12
203
969
197
2421
These plants are arranged in the different strata as fol¬
lows :—
Lower and Middle f
Palaeozoic j
Upper Palaeozoic
Lower Secondary -j
Middle Secondary
Upper Secondary j
Tertiary
Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, and 1
Old Red Sandstone  j  ' ^
Carboniferous 683
Lower New Red Sandstone (Permian) ... 76
Magnesian Limestone (Do-) ... 21
Upper New Red Sandstone (Triassic)  38
Shell Limestone (Do.)   7
Variegated Marls (Do.)   70
Lias   !.126
Upper, Middle, and Lower Oolite  168
Wealden  gp
Upper and Lower Greensand |
Upper and Lower Chalk J  1^2
.414
Pleistocene
Eocene
Miocene  ’^gg
Pliocene  35
  31
233
Botany.
Fossil Species 2421
2 G
234
Botany.
BOTANY.
On taking a general survey of the known fossil plants,
Brongniart thinks that he can trace three periods of vege¬
tation, characterized by the predominance of certain marked
forms of plants. In the most ancient period there is a pre¬
dominance of Acrogenous Cryptogamic plants; this is suc¬
ceeded by a period in which there is a preponderance of
Gymnospermous Dicotyledons; while a third period is
marked by the predominance of Angiospermous Dicotyle¬
dons. There is thus—1. The reign of Acrogens, which
includes the plants of the Carboniferous and Permian
periods. During these periods, there seems to be a pre¬
dominance of Ferns, a great development of Lycopodiaceae,
arborescent forms of Lepidodendron and Sigillaria, Gymno-
sperms allied to Araucaria, and anomalous Gymnosperms,
as Ndggerathia. 2. The reign of Gymnosperms, compre¬
hending the lower and middle secondary periods. Here
we meet with numerous Coniferae and Cycadaceae, while
Ferns are less abundant. 3. The reign of Angiosperms,
embracing the Cretaceous and the T. ertiary periods. This
is characterized by the appearance of Angiospermous Dico¬
tyledons, a class of plants which constitute more than three-
fourths of the present vegetable productions of the globe,
and which appear to have acquired a predominance from
the commencement of the Tertiary formations. These
plants appear even at the beginning of the Chalk forma¬
tion.
I. Reign of Acrogens.—In the lower Palaeozoic strata the
plants which have been detected are few. In the Silurian,
Cambrian, and Old Red Sandstone systems, we meet with
the remains of ancient marine plants, as well as a few ter¬
restrial species. In the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland,
Miller has detected Fucoids, Ferns, a Lepidodendron, and
Lignite with a distinct Coniferous structure resembling that
of Araucaria, besides a remarkable pinnate frond. In the
Old Red Sandstone rocks at Oporto, Bunbury detected
Pecopteris Cyathea, P. muricata, and Neuropteris tenuifolia
—ferns allied to those of the Coal Measures.
The Carboniferous period is one of the most important
as regards fossil plants. The vegetable forms are nume¬
rous and uniform throughout the whole system, whether
exhibited in the Old or the New World. The important
substance called Coal owes its origin to the plants of this
epoch. It has been formed under great pressure, and
hence the appearance of the plants has been much altered.
On examining thin sections of coal under the microscope,
we can detect vegetable tissues both of a cellular and vascu¬
lar nature. In Wigan cannel coal, vegetable structure is
seen throughout the whole mass. Such is likewise the
case with other cannel, parrot, and gas coals. In common
household coal, also, evident traces of organic tissue have
been observed. In some kinds of coal punctated woody
fibre has been detected, in others dotted and scalariform
tissue, as well as cells of different kinds. Sporangia are also
occasionally found in the substance of coal, as shown by Mr
Daw in that from Fordel. The structure of coal in different
beds, and in different parts of the same bed, seems to vary ac¬
cording to the nature of the plants by which it has been
formed. Hence the different varieties of coal which are
worked. The occurrence of scalariform and dotted vessels
in coal indicates the presence of Ferns, and their allied forms,
such as Sigillaria, Stigmaria, and Lepidodendron ; while
true punctated wood (which is rarely seen except in brown
coal) implies the presence of Coniferae. The anatomical
structure of the stems of these plants will undoubtedly have
some effect on the microscopic characters of the coal produced
from them. The proportion of carbon varies in different
kinds of coal. Along with it there is always more or less
of earthy matter, which constitutes the ashes. When the
earthy substances are in such quantity that the coaly de¬
posit will not burn as fuel, then we have what is called a
shale. The coal contains plants similar to those of the
shales and sandstones above and below it. In a coal-seam Botany,
there is the Under-clay, containing roots only; then the
Coal composed of plants, whose roots are in the clay, with
others which have grown along with them, or have been
drifted; while above the coal is the Shale bearing evidences
of vigorous vegetation, and which appears like a great de¬
posit from water charged with mineral matter, into which
broken pieces of plants have fallen. There is frequently no
clear division between coal and shale.
Unger enumerates 683 plants of the coal measures, while
Brongniart notices 500. Of the last number there are 6
Thallogens, 346 Acrogens, 135 Gymnosperms, and 13
doubtful plants. This appears to be a very scanty vegeta¬
tion, as far as regards the number of species. It is only
equal to about 1 -20th of the number of species now grow¬
ing on the surface of the soil of Europe. Although, how¬
ever, the number of species was small, yet it is probable
that the individuals of a species were numerous. The pro¬
portion of Ferns was very large. There are between 200
and 300 enumerated.
Ferns are the only carboniferous fossil group which pre¬
sent an obvious and recognisable relationship to an order
of the present day. While cellular plants and those with lax
tissues often lose their characters by fossilization, Ferns are
more durable, and retain their structure. It is rare, how¬
ever, to find the stalk of the frond completely preserved
down to its base. It is also rare to find fructification pre¬
sent. In this respect, fossil Ferns resemble Tree-ferns of
the present day, the fronds of which rarely exhibit fructifi¬
cation. Only one surface of the Fern-frond is exposed to
view, and that generally the least important in a botanical
point of view. Fructification is sometimes evidently see»,
as figured by Corda in Senttenbergia. The absence ot
fructification presents a great obstacle to the determination
of fossil Ferns. The Acrogenous flora of the coal epoch
seems to favour the idea or a humid as well mild and equable
climate at the period of the coal formation—the vegetation
being that of islands in the midst of a vast ocean.
Among the Ferns found in the clays, ironstones, and
sandstones of the Carboniferous period, we may give the
characters of some by way of illustration. Fecopteris seems
to be the fossil
representative,
if not congener,
ofPteris. Pe¬
copteris hetero-
phylla (Fig.
583) has a
marked resem¬
blance toPteris
esculenta of
New Zealand.
The frond of
Pecopteris is
pinnatifid or bi-
tri-pinnatifid—
the leaflets ad¬
hering to the
rachis by the
whole ength of
their base,
sometimes con¬
fluent ; the mid¬
rib of the leaf¬
lets runs to the
point, and the
veins come off
from it nearly
perpendicularly, and the fructification when present is at
the ends of the veins. Neuropteris (Figs. 584 to 586), has
a pinnate or bipinnate frond, with pinnae somewhat cordate
Fig. 5S1. Fig. 585. Fig. 586.
Fig. 583. Pecopteris (Aletlxopteris) heterophylla.
... 584. Neuropteris Loshii.
... 585. Neuropteris gigantea.
... 586. Neuropteris acuminata or smilacitolia.
... 587 Sphenopteris affinis.
... 588. Cyclopteris dilatata.
BOTANY.
235
Botany, at the base—the midrib of the pinnae vanishing towards
the apex, and the veins coming off obliquely, and in an
arched manner. Neuropteris gigantea (Fig. 585) has a
thick bare rachis, according to Miller, and seems to resemble
much Osmunda regalis. Sphenopteris (Fig. 587) has a twice
or thrice-pinnatifid frond, the leaflets being narrowed at the
base, often wedge-shaped, and the veins generally arranged
as if they radiated from the base. Sphenopteris elegans
resembled Pteris aquilina in having a stout leafless rachis,
which divided at a height of seven or eight inches from its
club-like base into two equal parts, each of which continued
to undergo two or three successive bifurcations. A little
below the first forking two divided pinnae were sent off A
very complete specimen, with the stipe, was collected in the
coal-field near Edinburgh, by Flugh Miller, who has de¬
scribed it as above. Cyclopteris (Fig. 588) has simple or¬
bicular leaves, undivided or lobed at the margin, the veins
radiating from the base, with no midrib. Caulopteris is the
name given to the stems of Tree-ferns found in the coal
fields. They are marked externally by oblong scars similar
to those of Tree-ferns of the present day. These stems
probably belong to some of the fronds to which other names
are given, but as they have not been found attached, it is
impossible to determine the point.
Sigillaria is perhaps the most important plant in the coal
formation. It is found in all coal shales over the world.
There are upwards of 60 species. It occurs in the form ot
lofty stems, 40-50 feet high, and 5 feet broad (Figs. 589
and 590), standing erect at right angles to the planes of al-
Fig. 589. Stems of Sigillaria pacliyderma in an erect position, covered by suc¬
cessive deposits of sandstone and sbale; one is bifurcated.
... 590. Sigillaria stem with markings, and Stigmaria roots.
ternating strata of shale and sandstone. The stem of Sigil¬
laria is fluted in a longitudinal manner, and has a succession
of single and double scars, which indicate the points of in¬
sertion of the leaves. When the outer part of the stem se¬
parates like bark, it is found that the markings presented
by the inner surface differ from those seen externally. This
has sometimes given rise to the erroneous supposition that
they belong to different genera. In Sigillaria elegans there
is a woody system which is broken up into cuneiform plates,
separated by medullary rays, and there are two vascular sys¬
tems, one forming a series of bundles in the medullary axis
of the stem, and another external to the woody system. The
vessels are dotted, scalariform, and more or less referrible to
the spiral type. The external bundles which go directly to
the leaves are placed opposite to the woody wedges (not, as
in Stigmaria, opposite to the medullary rays), and such is
also the case with the inner vascular system.
It has been recently ascertained by Mr Binney of Man¬
chester, that the plant called Stigmaria (Fig. 591) is not
a separate genus, but the root, or rather the rhizome of
Sigillaria. It is one of the most common productions of
the coal measures, and consists of long rounded or com¬
pressed fragments, marked externally by shallow circular,
oblong, or lanceolate cavities in the centre of slight tu- Botany,
bercles, arranged irre¬
gularly, but sometimes
in a quincuncial man¬
ner. The cavities occa¬
sionally present a radi¬
ating appearance. The
axis of the fragments is
often hollow, and dif¬
ferent in texture from
the parts around. This
axis consists of a vas¬
cular cylinder or woody
system, divided into Fig. 591.
Wedge-shaped masses Stigmaria fieoides (S. Anabatbra of Corda),
1-iv mprlnllarv- rave rrf which is considered as tlie root or rhizome
D> meauuarj, rajs OT ofaSigillaria. The markings are the points
various breadths. In whence rootlets proceed.
these rays there is another system of smaller tubes, which
originate probably from the outer cellular axis, and not from
the central woody cylinder. From the scars and tubercles
arise long ribbon-shaped processes, which appear to have
been hollow roots compressed. Stigmaria ficoides (Fig.
591), is often found creeping in the under-clay of a coal
seam, sending out numerous roots from its tubercles, and
pushing up its aerial stem, in the form of a fluted Sigillaria.
While the rhizomes, stem, and roots have thus been deter¬
mined, we have no means of ascertaining the foliage. It
is probable that Sigillaria was an acrogenous plant allied
to Lycopodiaceae, and probably intermediate between that
order and Cycadacese. In coal from Fordel Mr Daw has
detected numerous seed-like organisms, which may be the
fructification either of a Sigillaria or of some plant allied to
Lycopodium. The same bodies have been seen by Dr
Fleming in roany specimens of Cherry, Splint, and Cannel
Coals from various quarters.
Lepidodendron (Fig. 592), is another genus of the coal
measures which differs from those of the present day. It
seems to occupy an intermediate place between Lycopodi-
acese and Coniferse. The stem is from 20 to 45 feet high,
marked outside by peculiar scaly-like scars (Fig. 592, a),
hence the name of the plant. The linear or lanceolate
leaves are arranged in the same way as those of Lycopo¬
diums or of Coniferse, and the branches fork like the former.
Fig. 592.
Fig. 593.
Fig. 592. Lepidodendron obovatum (elegans); a, bifurcating stem; 6, Lepi-
dostrobus ; c, the same cut vertically ; d, Lepidophyllum.
... 593. Calamites Lindleyi (C. Mongeotii L. and H.), a jointed reed-like stem,
with furrows on the surface. Stem a, with branches according to
some, roots according to Binney ; 6, partition of one of the joints.
There is a double vascular system in the trunk, one in the
centre, and another placed externally to the woody mass.
The latter vascular system forms a continuous zone outside
the wood; its inner edge is well defined, and its outer,
whence bundles are given off to the leaves, is sinuous. Al¬
though the scars on Lepidodendron are usually flattened, yet
in some species they occupy the faces of diamond-shaped
236
BOTANY.
Botany.
projections, elevated one-sixth of an inch or more above the
surface of the stem, and separated from each other by deep
furrows :—the surface bearing the leaf being perforated by
a tubular cavity, through which the bundle of vessels that
diverged from the vascular axis of the stem to the leaf
passed out. The fruit of Lepidodendron is seen in Lepido-
strobus (Fig. 592, b and c), which appears to consist of scales
covering sporangia, in the interior of which are spores, con¬
sisting of three or four angular sporules, which have been
seen in a separate state. It is probable that many other fossil
forms are connected with or allied to Lepidodendrons. Thus
Lepidophyllum (Fig. 592, d) is probably the leaf of some
species of the genus, while Strobilites is a form of the fruit.
Calamites (Fig. 593) is a reed-like fossil, having a sub-
cylindrical, furrowed, and jointed stem, the furrows of the
joints alternating and often converging. The stem is often
crushed and flattened, and may probably have been originally
hollow. At the joints there are toothed sheaths or tuber¬
cles, which are disposed symmetrically between the furrows.
The fructification is unknown. There appears to have been
a bark which could be separated from the woody tissue be¬
low. The plants have been seen erect by Mr Binney, and
he has determined that what were called leaves or branches
by some, are in reality roots. There are 51 species recorded.
They have been compared to Equisetaceae.
True Exogenous trees exist in the carboniferous system
both of England and Scotland. These Exogenous trees are
Gymnosperms, having woody tissue like that of Coniferae.
We see under the microscope punctated woody tissue, the
rows of disks being usually two, three, or more, and alter¬
nating. They seem to be allied in these respects to Arau¬
caria and Eutassa of the present flora. Stems of Dadoxylon
or Pinites Withami, D. medullare, and Peuce Withamihave
been found in the sandstone of Craigleith quarry, near
Edinburgh. Sternbergia is considered by Williamson as
a Dadoxylon, with a discoid pith like that seen now-a-days
in the Walnut and Jessamine.
The plants of the coal measures seem to be evidently ter¬
restrial plants, and fresh-water aquatics. Brongniart agrees
with Lyell in thinking that the layers of coal have in gene¬
ral accumulated in the situation where the plants forming
them grew. The remains of these plants covered the soil
in the same way as layers of peat, or the vegetable mould
of great forests. In a few instances, however, the plants
appear to have been transported from a distance, and drifted
into basins. Phillips is disposed to think that this was the
general mode of formation of coal basins. He is led to this
conclusion by observing the fragmentary state of the stems
and branches, the general absence of roots, and the scat¬
tered condition of all the separable organs. Those who
support the drift theory, look on the coal plants as having
been swept from the land on which they grew by watery
currents at different times, and deposited in basins and large
sea-estuaries, and sometimes in lakes. The snags in the
Mississippi, the St Lawrence, and other large rivers, are
given as instances of a similar drifting process.
The nature of the vegetation during the Permian Period,
which is associated with the Carboniferous, under the reign
of Acrogens, has not been positively determined. The
genera of Ferns here met with are also found in the Car¬
boniferous epoch ; the Gymnosperms are chiefly species of
Walchia and Noggerathia. Lepidodendron elongatum,
Calamites gigas, and Annularia floribunda, are also species
of this period.
II. Reign of Gymnosperms.—In this reign the A ero¬
genous species are less numerous, the Gymnosperms almost
equal them in number, and ordinarily surpass them in fre¬
quency. There are two periods of this reign, one in which
Coniferae predominate, while Cycadacese scarcely appear,
and another in which the latter family preponderates as re¬
gards the number of species, and the frequency and variety
of generic forms. Cycadaceae occupied a more important
place in the ancient than in the present vegetable world. '
They extend more or less from the coal formation, up to
the Tertiary. They are rare in the Gres-bigarre, or lower
strata of the Triassic system (Upper New Red Sandstone)
and in the Chalk. They attain their maximum in the Lias
and Oolite, in each of which upwards of 40 species have been
enumerated, and they disappear in the Tertiary formations.
In Brongniart’s Vosgesian period, the Gres-bigarre, or
the Red Sandstones and Conglomerates of the Friassic
system, there is a change in the flora. Sigillarias and Le¬
pidodendrons disappear, and in their place we meet with
Gymnosperms, belonging to the genera Voltzia, Haidin-
gera, Zamites, Ctenis, JEthophyllum, and Schizoneura.
Species of Neuropteris, Pecopteris, and other acrogenous
coal genera are still found, along with species of Anomop-
teris and Crematopteris—peculiar Fern-forms, which are
not found in later formations. In the saliferous red and
variegated marls of the Triassic system, the Acrogens are
changed as regards species, and frequently in the genera.
Thus we have the genera Camptopteris, Sagenopteris, and
Equisetum. Among Gymnosperms, the genera Pterophyl-
lum and Taxodites occur.
T—  T * j-l-v ^ 4-^1 rvt f n Q -H/avq QVO t n
Botany.
predominance of Cycadaceae, in the form of species of Cy-
cadites, Otozamites, Zamites, Ctenis, Pterophyllum, and
Nilsonia, and the existence among the Ferns of many genera
with reticulated venation, such as Camptopteris and fhau-
matopteris. Coniferous genera, as Brachyphyllum, Taxo¬
dites, Palissya, and Peuce, are found.
In the Oolitic epoch, the flora consists of numerous Cy¬
cadaceae and Conif erae, some of them having peculiar forms.
Its distinctive characters are, the rarity of Ferns with reti¬
culated venation, which are so numerous in the Lias, the
frequency of the Cycadaceous genera Otozamites and
Zamites, which are most analogous to those now existing ;
and the greater frequency of the Coniferous genera, Brachy¬
phyllum and Thuites.
There is an absence of true coal fields in the secondary
formations generally ; but in some of the Oolitic series, as
in the lower Oolite at Brora, in Sutherlandshire, and the
Kimmeridge clay of the upper Oolite, near M eymouth,
there are considerable deposits of carbonaceous matter. The
upper Oolite at Portland contains an interesting bed about
a foot in thickness, of a dark brown substance, containing
much earthy lignite. This is the dirt-bed, made up of black
loam, which, at some far distant period, nourished the roots
of trees, fragments of whose stems are now found fossilized
around it. These consist of an assemblage of silicified
stumps or stools of large trees, standing from 1-3 feet from
Fig. 595.
■ig. 594. Cycadoidea megaloptiylla (Mantellia mdiformis of Brongniart), a
sub-globose depressed trunk, with a concave apex, and «itb tbe re¬
mains of tbe petioles disposed in a spiral manner the markings
being transversely elliptical. It is found in tbe Oolite of tbe Island
of Portland, in a silicified state. in <wnte
... 595. Zamiostrobus ovatus (Zamia ovata of Bindley and Hutton), an ovate
cone with a truncated base and obtuse apex. The g 'i j :n
be intermediate between Encephalartos and Zamia. It is tounu
the green-sand at Faversham (Bindley and Hutton). _
the mould. Most of them are erect, some slightly inclined,
BOTANY.
237
Botany, and the roots remain attached to the earth in which
>—V—^ they grew. They appear to resemble Cycadacese. One
of these is Cycadoidea megalophylla, shown in Figure
594.
The flora of the Wealden epoch is characterized in the
north of England by the abundance of the Fern called
Lonchopteris Mantellii, and in Germany by the predomi¬
nance of the Conifer denominated Abietites Linkii, as well
as by numerous Cycadacese, such as species of Cycadites,
Zamites, Pterophyllum, Zamiostrobus (Fig. 595), Cyca¬
doidea, Clathiaria. Mantell states that he has found 40 or
50 fossil cones in the Wealden of England. The remains
are those of land vegetables. The Wealden fresh water
formation terminates the reign of Gymosperms.
III. Reign of Angiosperms. — This reign is charac¬
terized by the appearance of Angiospermous Dicotyledons,
plants which constitute more than three-fourths of the pre¬
sent vegetable productions of the globe, and which appear
to have acquired the predominance from the commencement
of the Tertiary epoch. These plants, however, appear even
at the beginning of the Cretaceous period. In this reign,
therefore, Brongniart includes the upper secondary period,
or the Cretaceous system, and all the Tertiary period. The
Cretaceous may be considered as a sort of transition period
between the reign of Gymnosperms and Angiosperms. The
Chalk flora is characterized by the Gymnospermous almost
equalling the Angiospermous Dicotyledons, and by the ex¬
istence of a considerable number of Cycadaceae, which do
not appear in the Tertiary period. The genus Credneria
is one of the characteristic forms.
The Tertiary period is characterized by the abundance of
Angiospermous Dicotyledons and of Monocotyledons, more
especially of Palms. By this it is distinguished from the
more ancient periods. Angiosperms at this period greatly
exceed Gymnosperms. Cycadaceae are completely wanting
in the European Tertiary strata, and the Coniferae belong
to genera of the temperate regions. Although the vegeta¬
tion throughout the whole of the Tertiary period presents
pretty uniform characters, still there are notable differences
in the generic and specific forms, and in the predominance
of certain orders at different epochs.
The Eocene epoch in general is characterized by the pre¬
dominance of Algae and marine Naiadaceae, such as Cauli-
nites and Zosterites; by numerous Coniferae, the greater
part resembling existing genera among the Cupressineae,
and appearing in the form of Juniperites, Thuites, Cupres-
sites, Callitrites, Frenelites, and Solenostrobus; by the ex¬
istence of a number of Extra-European forms, especially of
fruits, such as Nipadites, Leguminosites, Cucumites, and
Hightea; and by the presence of some large species of Palm
belonging to the genera Flabellaria and Palmacites. Amber
is considered to be the produce of many Coniferae of this
epoch, such as Peuce succinifera.
The most striking characters of the Miocene epoch con¬
sist in the mixture of exotic forms of warm regions with
those of temperate climates. Thus we meet with Palms, a
kind of Bamboo, and other plants of warm climates, mingled
with Amentiferous and other forms, belonging to temperate B°tany.
and cold climates.
The flora of the Pliocene epoch has a great analogy to
that of the temperate regions of Europe, North America,
and Japan. We meet with Coniferae, Amentiferae, Rosa-
ceae, Leguminosae, Rhamnaceae, Aceraceae, Aquifoliaceae,
Ericaceae, and many other orders. There is a small num¬
ber of Dicotyledons with gamopetalous corollas. In this
flora there is the predominance of Dicotyledons in number
and variety; there are few Monocotyledons and no Palms.
No species appear to be identical, at least with the plants
which now grow in Europe.
Brown coal occurs in the upper Tertiary beds, and in it
vegetable structure is easily seen under the microscope.
Goeppert, on examining the brown coal deposits of northern
Germany and the Rhine, finds that Coniferae predominate
in a remarkable degree; among 300 specimens of bituminous
wood collected in the Silesian brown coal deposits alone,
only a very few other kinds of Dicotyledonous wood occur.
The coniferous plants of these brown coal deposits belong
to Taxineae and Cupressineae chiefly; among the plants are
Pinites Protolarix and Taxites Ayckii.
We have thus seen that the vegetation of the globe has
undergone various changes at different periods of its history,
and that the farther back we go, the more are the plants dif¬
ferent from those of the present day. There can be no
doubt that there have been successive deposits of stratified
rocks, and successive creations of living beings. We see
that animals and plants have gone through their different
phases of existence, and that their remains in all stages of
growth and decay have been imbedded in rocks superim¬
posed upon each other in regular succession. It is impos¬
sible to conceive that these were results of changes produced
within the limits of a few days. Considering the depth of
stratification, and the condition and nature of the living-
beings found in the strata at various depths, we must con¬
clude (unless our senses are mocked by the phenomena pre¬
sented to our view) that vast periods have elapsed since the
Creator in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.
When we find animals and plants of forms unknown at
the present day, in all conditions as regards development,
we read a lesson in regard to the history of the earth’s former
state as conclusive as that which is derived from the Nineveh
relics (independent of Revelation) in regard to the history
of the human race. There is no want of harmony between
Scripture and geology. The Word and the Works of God
must be in unison, and the more we truly study both, the
more they will be found to be in accordance. Any appa¬
rent want of correspondence proceeds either from imperfect
interpretation of Scripture or from incomplete knowledge
of science. The changes in the globe have all preceded
man’s appearance on the scene. He is the characteristic
of the present epoch, and he knows by Revelation that the
world is to undergo a further transformation, when the ele¬
ments shall melt with fervent heat, and when all the pre¬
sent state of things shall be dissolved ere the ushering in of
a new earth, wherein righteousness is to dwell.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
Plate CX. Helleborus foetidus, Stinking Hellebore, belonging to
the Nat. Ord. Ranunculaceae, Sub-ord. Helleboreae. The leaves
are pedate, the inflorescence cymose, and the fruit follicular.
Plate CXI. Drimys Winteri, Winter’s bark plant, belonging to the
Nat. Ord. Magnoliaceaa, and Sub-ord. Winterese. The plant was
discovered by Captain Winter. Its bark is aromatic and sti¬
mulant, and its leaves are dotted.
Plate CXII. Papaver Rhceas, common Red Poppy, belonging to
the Nat. Ord. Papaveraceae. The leaves are pinnatifid, the pe¬
duncles have spreading hairs, the calyx consists of 2 caducous
sepals, inclosing 4 crumpled petals, the stamens are indefinite
and hypogynous, and the ovary is surmounted by a radiating
stigma.
1. Stamens inserted on the thalamus, below the ovary with
its sessile stigma.
2. Capsule of the Poppy opening by pores below the sessile
stigma.
Plate CXIII. Janipha Manihot and Eschscholtzia californica.
Fig. 1. Janipha Manihot, Cassava plant, belonging to the Nat.
Ord. Euphorbiacese. The leaves are digitately-partite, and the
flowers are in racemose cymes.
Fig. 2. Racemose cyme, with a pentacoccous capsule, which
B O T
separates in an elastic manner into 5 single-seeded carpels. The
cyme bears male as well as female flowers.
Fig. 3. Pistil with stigma.
Fig. 4. Stamens and fleshy disk.
Fig. 5. Seed with strophiole.
Fig. 6. Eschscholtzia californica (nat. size), belonging to the
Nat. Ord. Papaveraceae. It has multipartite leaves, a peculiar
caducous calyx like a candle-extinguisher, and a tetrapetalous
corolla, with numerous hypogynous stamens.
Fig. 7. Hollowed end of the peduncle, with the pistil. The
calyx separates in one piece from the peduncle.
Fig. 8. Section of ovary, with numerous seeds attached to 2
parietal placentas.
Fig. 9. Ceratium or Siliquaeform capsule (nat. size), opening
by 2 valves, and bearing seeds on each margin of the valves.
Fig. 10. Section of the seed, with the Dicotyledonous embryo.
Fig. 11. Embryo separated from the seed, showing the 2 cotyle¬
dons and the radicle.
Plate CXIV. Malva sylvestris, common Mallow, belonging to the
Nat. Ord. Malvaceae. The leaves have 5 lobes, the inflorescence
consists of cymose fascicles, the aestivation is contorted, petals 5
obcordate, and stamens monadelphous.
Fig. 1. Calyx with a three-leaved epicalyx or involucre.
Fig. 2. Obcordate petal, with monadelphous stamens.
Fig. 3. Tube of stamens formed by union of the filaments.
Fig. 4. Pistil with numerous carpels and styles.
Fig. 5. Stamen with reniform anther opening- round the
margin.
Fig. 6. Section of ovary composed of numerous carpels.
Plate CXV. Linum catharticum, and Linum usitatissimum, belong¬
ing to the Nat. Ord. Linaceas.
Fig. 1. Linum catharticum, Purging Flax, having opposite ob¬
long leaves, and a corymbose cyme.
Fig. 2. Linum usitatissimum, Common Flax, having alternate
lanceolate leaves and a corymbose cyme.
Plate CXVI. Anacardium occidentale, Cashew-nut plant, belong¬
ing to the Nat. Ord. Anacardiacese.
Fig. 1. Branch (somewhat reduced), bearing flowers and fruit.
The flowers are in cymes, and the peduncles are enlarged in a
pear-like form, bearing the nut (the true fruit) at their apex..
Fig. 2. Flower not expanded, showing calyx and petals, with
single fertile stamen and pistil.
Fig. 3. Flower expanded.
Fig. 4. Stamen and pistil, with the calyx. One fertile stamen
longer than the others.
Fig. 5. Stamen separated.
Fig. 6. Nut constituting the fruit.
Fig. 7. Nut opened longitudinally.
Fig. 8. Seed separated from the nut.
Fig. 9. Cotyledons opened to show the radicle a, and the
plumule.
Plate CXVII. Sarothamnus scoparius (Spartium or Cytisus of many
anthers), Common Broom, belonging to the Nat. Ord. Leguminosae
or Fabacae, Sub-ord. Papilionaceae. The angled branches bear
ternate leaves, papilionaceous flowers, and legumes.
Fig. 1. Two-lipped calyx.
Fig. 2. Broadly ovate Vexillum or standard.
Fig. 3. One of the Alae, or wings, of the corolla.
Fig. 4. Carina or Keel, which consists of 2 petals, and incloses
the essential organs of reproduction.
Fig. 5. Monadelphous stamens, i.e. united into a tube by their
filaments.
Fig. 6. Hairy ovary with the long style, thickened upwards,
and spirally curved.
Fig. 7. Legume or Pod, many-seeded and hairy at the margin.
Plate CXVIII. Carica Papaya and Andromeda hypnoides.
Fig. 1. Carica Papaya, the Papaw tree (much reduced), be¬
longing to the Nat. Ord. Papayacese. The leaves are palmately-
cleft, and the flowers are unisexual.
Fig. 2. Portion of a racemose cyme of infundibuliform male
flowers, with united petals.
Fig. 3. Gamopetalous male flower cut open, showing the ten
epicorolline stamens alternately shorter.
Fig. 4. Stamen consisting of filament and anther lobes.
Fig. 5. Female flowers with a deeply-5-parted corolla and
5 stigmas above the ovary.
Fig. 6. Andromeda hypnoides (nat. size), belonging to the
Nat. Ord. Ericaceae, with a creeping moss-like stem and pendu¬
lous, solitary, somewhat bell-shaped flowers.
Fig. 7. Flower of Andromeda, with 5-parted calyx, gamope¬
talous, campanulate corolla.
Fig. 8. Back view of stamen with its 2-horned anther.
Fig. 9. Front view of stamen with bicornute and biporose
anther.
A N Y.
Fig. 10. Pistil with its ovate acuminate style and 5-grooved Botany,
ovary. V
Fig. 11. Capsule, 5-celled, with a central 5-lobed placenta
bearing numerous ovules.
Plate CXIX. jEthusa Cynapium, Fool’s Parsley, belonging to the
Nat. Ord. Umbelliferse. The leaves arebipinnate or tripinnate,
with a sheathing pericladium, flowers in compound umbels,
with a reflexed unilateral 3-leaved involucel connected with the
umbellules.
Plate CXX. Conium maculatum, Common Hemlock, belonging to the
Nat. Ord. Umbelliferae. The stem is spotted and hollow, leaves
compound (tripinnate), with a pericladium, flowers in compound
umbels, with an involucre and an involucel, fruit a cremocarp
with waved ridges.
Plate CXXI. (Enanthe crocata, Hemlock Water-Dropwort, belong¬
ing to the Nat. Ord. Umbelliferae. Leaves compound and sheath¬
ing, roots composed of fusiform sessile knobs, stem hollow, and
flowers in compound umbels, with general and partial involucres.
Fig. 1. Flower composed of 5 petals, with indexed apicula,
5 stamens, and 2 styles with an epigynous disk.
Fig. 2. Lateral view of the cremocarp composed of 2 meri-
carps or achenes, with blunt convex ribs, surmounted by the
lanceolate teeth of the calyx, and two styles with a disk at their
base.
Fig. 3. Back view of the cremocarp, with ribs, teeth of calyx,
and styles.
Plate CXXII. Valeriana officinalis, Great Wild Valerian, belonging
to the Nat. Ord. Valerianaceae, showing the roots, which are offi¬
cinal, the hollow stem, the alternately-pinnate leaves, and flowers
in corymbose cymes.
Fig. 1. Separate flower, consisting of an adherent calyx, with
an obsolete limb, an irregular gamopetalous corolla, exserted
stamens, and 1 style.
Fig. 2. Pistil separated, with ovary, style, and stigma.
Fig. 3. Monospermal fruit, with the persistent pappose limb of
the calyx.
Plate CXXIII. Lactuca virosa, Strong-scented Wild Lettuce, be¬
longing to the Nat. Ord. Compositae, Sub-ord. Cichoraceae. The
leaves are sessile, amplexicaul at the base, and dentate. The
flowers in capitula, and the calyx pappose.
Plate CXXIV. Leontodon Taraxacum, Common Dandelion, belong¬
ing to the Nat. Ord. Compositae, Sub.-ord. Cichoraceae. The leaves
are radical and runcinate, the flowers ligulate, and arranged in
capitula. The outer phyllaries (involucral leaves) are reflexed,
and all of them become deflexed when the fruit is ripe ; the re¬
ceptacle becomes dry and convex.
Fig. 1. Capitulum with reflexed phyllaries and ligulate flowers.
Fig. 2. A single flower, with inferior achene (cypsela), stipi-
tate pappus, a ligulate corolla, 5 stamens united by their an¬
thers, and 1 style with 2 stigmas.
Fig. 3. Receptacle of the flowers, become dry and convex, with
deflexed phyllaries, so as to allow the pappose fruit to be scat¬
tered.
Fig. 4. Linear-obovate Achene, or Cypsela, consisting of an in-
dehiscent single-seeded seed-vessel, which is muricated towards
the apex, and longitudinally striated.
Plate CXXV. Cuscuta verrucosa, Warty Dodder, belonging to the
Nat. Ord. Cuscutacese, which is often considered as a sub-order of
Convolvulacese.
Fig. 1. Leafless flowering stem of Dodder (nat. size) turning
from right to left (contrary to the motion of the sun), and bear¬
ing racemose cymes.
Fig. 2. Campanulate corolla, cut open, showing 5 epicorollme
stamens, with alternating scales at their base.
Fig. 3. Persistent calyx, surrounding the pistil.
Fig. 4. Capsule opening transversely near the base, exposing
seeds and dissepiment.
Fig. 5. Dissepiment and 2 seeds, the upper part of the cap¬
sule being removed. .
Fig. 6. Bilocular capsule cut transversely, showing 2 seeds in
each loculament.
Fig. 7. Roundish compressed seed.
Fig. 8. Seed cut longitudinally, showing the albumen with
portions of the spirally-rolled-up embryo immersed in it.
Plate CXXVI. Solanum nigrum and Solanum Dulcamara, belong¬
ing to the Nat. Ord. Solanacese.
Fig. 1. Solanum nigrum, Common Nightshade. Leaves ovate
and wavy. Flowers in extra-axillary umbellate cymes.
Fig. 2. Solanum Dulcamara, Woody Nightshade or Bitter¬
sweet. Stem shrubby, leaves auricled, flowers in corymbose
cymes opposite the leaves.
^ Fio-. 3. Anther opening by 2 pores at its apex.
Fig. 4. Transverse section of baccate fruit, showing 2 locula-
ments, with seeds attached to a central placenta.
B 0 T
Botany Fig. 5. Coiled embryo with cotyledons and radicle.
Bay Plate CXXVII. Atropa Belladonna, Common Dwale, Deadly
[| Nightshade, belonging to the Nat. Ord. Atropaceae. Large rhi-
Both. zome, giving off buds and roots. Leaves ovate, in pairs of un-
. ir_ ^ J equal sizes, flowers solitary, drooping.
Pig. 1. Gamosepalous 5-partite calyx, and flower-bud.
Pig. 2. Campanulate corolla cut open, lobes unequal, 5 sta¬
mens, epicorolline, and distant above.
Pig. 3. Calyx and ovary.
Fig. 4. Transverse section of baccate fruit, with 2 loculaments
and seeds attached to a central placenta.
Plate CXXVIII. Hyoscyamus niger, Common Henbane, belonging
to the Nat. Ord. Atropaceae. Leaves amplexicaul, sinuated, flowers
nearly sessile, axillary, and unilateral.
Fig. 1. Calyx laid open, showing the pistil.
Fig. 2. Corolla laid open, showing reticulations, and stamens
attached to it.
Pig. 3. Stamen, with anther opening by a longitudinal slit.
Plate CXXIX. Digitalis purpurea, Purple Foxglove, belonging to
the Nat. Ord. Scrophulariaceae.
Pig. 1. Calyx in 5 deep segments, with the pistil.
Pig. 2. Pistil separated.
Fig. 3. Didynamous stamens, with the anther-lobes continuous
and dehiscent.
Pig. 4. Didynamous stamens, with the anther-lobes collateral
and unopened.
Pig. 5. Capsule cut transversely, showing two loculaments.
Plate CXXX. Polygonum Bistorta, Common Bistort or Snakeweed,
belonging to the Nat. Ord. Polygonaceae. Leaves subcordate-
ovate, waved, the radical ones with a winged footstalk, long
ochreate stipules, flowers in a dense cylindrical racemose cyme,
root large and tortuous.
Plate CXXXI. Myristica moschata, the nutmeg-tree, belonging to
the Nat. Ord. Myristicaceaa.
Fig. 1. Male plant (nat. size) with oblong nearly elliptical
leaves, and flowers in axillary umbellate cymes.
Fig. 2. Perianth of male plant laid open to show the stamens
with their united filaments.
Pig. 3. Anther, bilocular, and opening longitudinally.
Fig. 4. Female flower cut open, showing the single pistil, with
short style and 2-lobed stigma.
Pig. 5. Young fruit.
Pig. 6. Ripe drupaceous fruit in the act of bursting, and
showing the mace or arillode.
Pig. 7. Section of the ripe fruit, containing mace and seed.
Fig. 8. The nut consisting of a hard endocarp inclosing the seed.
Pig. 9. The oval seed.
Fig. 10. The seed cut vertically.
Pig. 11. Vertical section of endocarp and seed, showing rumi¬
nate albumen and the embryo.
Pig. 12. Embryo, showing 2 large foliaceous plicate coty¬
ledons.
Fig. 13. Embryo with radicle and cotyledons.
Plate CXXXII. Euphorbia hypericifolia, Tutsan-leaved Spurge,
belonging to the Nat. Ord. Euphorbiaceas.
Pig. 1. Plant {nat. size) with opposite oblong leaves, half
heart-shaped at the base, and flowers in corymbose cymes.
Pig. 2. Involucre with appendages, inclosing male and female
flowers.
Fig. 3. Involucre cut open, to show the insertion of the nume¬
rous achlamydeous male monandrous flowers, and the single
naked female flower, all pedicellated.
Fig. 4. Involucre deprived of its petaloid appendages, with
female flower showing forked styles.
EOT 239
Pig. 5. Involucre inclosing the ripe fruit (regma). Bothnia.
Pig. 6. Stamen and anther dehiscing. v ^ — J
Fig. 7. Fruit with one of the cocci separated from the colu¬
mella, and bursting to discharge the seed.
Pig. 8. Seed.
Pig. 9. Seed cut open longitudinally, showing fleshy albumen
and inverted embryo.
Plate CXXXIII. Artocarpus incisa, the Bread-fruit tree, belonging
to the Nat. Ord. Artocarpaceae.
Pig. 1. Branch reduced to J its natural size, with cuneate-ovate
leaves, lobed in a pinnatifid manner, male flowers in a club-
shaped deciduous catkin, female flowers in rounded clusters.
Fig. 2. Transverse section of the male amentum with nume¬
rous flowers around the margin of a cellular receptacle.
Pig. 3. Male flowers, each formed by a single perianth.
Pig. 4. Single male flower separated with a perianth in 2 seg¬
ments and a single stamen.
Pig. 5. Cluster of female flowers.
Pig. 6. Single female flower separated, with ovary, style,
and bifid stigma; the perianth is one piece with a contracted
mouth.
Pig. 7. Ovary.
Pig. 8. Ovary laid open to show the ovule.
Pig. 9. A variety of the ovary with 2 loculaments.
Pig. 10. Transverse section of a bilocular ovary.
Plate CXXXIV. Cycas circinalis, a species of false Sago-plant, be¬
longing to the Nat. Ord. Cycadaceae.
Fig. 1. Plant reduced to ^ its natural size. The stem or stipe
is round and erect, the leaves pinnately-divided and forming a
crown round the stem.
Fig. 2. Male amentum (nat. size), consisting of scales bearing
on their under side 2-valved anthers.
Fig. 3. Upper side of one of the scales; it is somewhat trian¬
gular, tapering from apex to base, and terminating at the apex by
a recurved point.
Pig. 4. Under side of a scale, bearing anthers.
Figs. 5, 6, and 7. Anther.
Fig. 8. Pollen magnified.
Plate CXXXV. Arum maculatum, Cuckow-pint, or AVake-Robin,
belonging to the Nat. Ord. Araceae.
Pig. 1. Flowering stalk, with hastate-sagittate spotted leaves,
a spathe convolute at the base, inclosing a spadix bearing male
and female flowers.
Fig. 2. Amylaceous corm, whence arise buds and roots.
Pig. 3. Berried fruit, after leaves and spadix have decayed,
crowded into an oblong spike, which is of a bright scarlet colour.
Plate CXXXVI. Plants belonging to the Nat. Ord. Fungi, the
Mushroom order.
Pig. 1. Amanita muscaria, Fly Amanita, with a red warty
pileus, and stipe surrounded by an annulus.
Pigs. 2, 3, 4. Amanita verrucosa, Warty Amanita.
Figs. 5, 6. Agaricus semiglobatus, Glutinous Agaric, with a
greenish-yellow, semiglobate pileus and an annulate stipe.
Plate CXXXVII. Secale cereale, Rye, belonging to the Nat. Ord.
Gramineae.
Pig. 1. Culm, leaf, and spike of Rye.
Fig. 2. British specimen of Rye affected with Ergot. It is
called Spurred Rye.
Pig. 3. Specimen of Ergotized Rye from East Florida.
Fig. 4. Spikelet of Rye, with subulate glumes, inclosing 2 or
3 florets, lower paleae with very long awns, upper bifid.
Pig. 5. Appearance presented by Ergot.
Pig. 6. Transverse section of Ergot, consisting of polygonal
cells with oil globules. (J. H. B—K.)
BOTANY Bay, a spacious bay on the east coast of Aus¬
tralia, New South Wales, 5 miles south of Sydney, in Lat.
34. S. Long. 157. E. It was discovered by Captain Cook
in 1770, and named from the profusion of then unknown
plants found on its shores. The bay is about 5 miles in
length and breadth, but the entrance is little more than a
mile across. See Australia.
BOTARGO (a Spanish word), a kind of sausage pre¬
pared from the roe of the mullet. It is much used on the
shores of the Mediterranean as a relish with wine.
BOTH, Jan and Andreas, Flemish painters, and pu¬
pils of Bloemart, were born at Utrecht about the year 1610.
The union of these brothers was remarkable; they were
alike inseparable in their studies, their travels, and their
painting. Jan painted the landscape part of their pictures
in the manner of Claude Lorrain, and Andrew drew the
figures and animals in the style of Bamboccio. They both
died in 1650 ; Andrew having been drowned at Venice, his
brother Jan, through grief, soon afterwards followed him to
the grave. In the museum at Paris there are two pictures
by these masters, one a View of Italy at Sunset, the other
a Defile. The gallery at Dresden also contains two land¬
scapes by these excellent artists.
BOTHNIA, a district on the north and west of the gult
of the same name, belonging partly to Sweden, and partly
to Russia. The rivers Muonio and Tornea separate Swed-
240 B O T
Bothnia ish from Russian Bothnia, the former constituting the govern-
II ments of Pitea and Umea, and the latter being included in
Bottle, Russian government of Finland.
Bothnia, Gulf of. See Baltic.
BOTH WELL, a village and parish of Scotland, county
of Lanark, on the Clyde, 9 miles S.E. of Glasgow. In the
vicinity are the remains of Bothwell Castle, and Bothwell
Bridge, where a battle was fought on 22d June 1679 be¬
tween the Covenanters and the royal forces, in which the
former were defeated with great slaughter.
Bothwell, James Hepburn, Earl of See Scotland.
BOTRYOIDAL (/SoTpvs and aSds), having the form of
a bunch of grapes.
BOTS. See Entomology, Index.
BOTTICELLI, Alessandro, an Italian painter, born
at Florence in 1437, was a pupil of Filippo Lippi. He exe¬
cuted several pictures for Pope Sixtus IV. and for the city
of Florence, for which he received large sums of money ;
but he expended all his acquisitions in thoughtless extrava¬
gance, and at last died in great distress aged seventy-eight.
He was not only a painter, but a man of letters. Baldini,
according to the general report, communicated to him the
secret of engraving, then newly discovered by Finiguerra,
their townsman. The famous edition of Dante’s Inferno,
printed at Florence by Niccolo Lorenzo della Magna in 1481,
and to which, according to some authors, Botticelli under¬
took to write notes, was intended to have been ornamented
with prints, one for each canto ; and of these prints, as many
as were finished were designed, if not engraved by Botti¬
celli. It is remarkable that the first two plates only were
printed upon the leaves of the book, and, for want of a blank
space at the head of the first canto, the plate belonging to
it is placed at the bottom of the page. Blank spaces are
left for the rest, that as many of them as were finished
might be pasted on. The first two, as usual, are printed on
the leaves ; while the others, seventeen in number, which
follow regularly, are pasted on the blank spaces ; and these,
apparently, were all that Botticelli ever executed. About
the year 1460 he is said to have engraved a set of plates,
representing the Prophets and, Sibyls. Basan tells us that
he marked these plates with a monogram composed of the
first two letters of the alphabet joined together.
BOTTLE. The first bottles were probably made of the
skins of animals. In the Iliad (iii. 247), the attendants are
represented as bearing wine for use in a bottle made of
goat’s skin, ’Ask<7 cv alyduf I he ancient Egyptians used skins
for this purpose^ and from the language employed by Hero¬
dotus (ii. 121), it appears that a bottle was formed by sew¬
ing up the skin and leaving the projection of the leg and
foot to serve as a cock ; hence it was termed TroSecov. This
aperture was closed with a plug or a string. Skin-bottles
of various forms occur on Egyptian monuments. The
Greeks and Romans also were accustomed to use bottles
made of skins ; and in the southern parts of Europe they are
still used for the transport of wine. The first clear notice
of them in Scripture occurs in Joshua (ix. 4), where it is
said that the Gibeonites took u old sacks upon then asses,
and wine-bottles old and rent and bound up. Our Sa¬
viour’s language is thus clearly explained: “ Men do not
put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break. Skins
are still most extensively used throughout Western Asia for
water.
It is an error to represent bottles as being made exclu¬
sively of skins among the ancient Hebrews (Jones, Biblical
Cyclopedia, in voc.) The Egyptians possessed vases,
bottles, &c., of hard stone, alabaster, glass, ivory, bone, por¬
celain, bronze, silver, or gold ; and also, for the use of the
people generally, of glazed pottery or common earthenware.
As early as Thothmes III., assumed to be the Pharaoh of
the Exodus, b.c. 1490, vases existed of a shape so elegant
and of workmanship so superior, as to show that the art was
B 0 T
not, even then, in its infancy. The British Museum con- Bottom
tains a fine collection of these articles. The process of II
making glass bottles is described under the head Glass. Bottomry.
Perhaps the largest manufactory of wine bottles in the world
is at Folembray in France, which is said to produce no fewer
than eight millions annually. See Glass.
BOTTOM, in mercantile language, is a familiar expres¬
sion for a ship ; as in the phrase to ship goods in foreign
bottoms.
BOTTOMRY, a maritime contract, by which a ship
(or bottom) is hypothecated in security for money bor¬
rowed for the purposes of her voyage, under the condi¬
tion, that if the ship arrive at her port of destination, the
borrower personally, as well as the ship, shall be liable for
the repayment of the loan, together with such premium
thereon as may have been agreed on ; but that if the ship
be lost, the lender shall have no claim against the borrower,
either for the sum advanced, or for the premium. In con¬
sideration of the risk thus incurred by the lender, the pre¬
mium (which is sometimes termed maritime interest) is
usually high: it may range from ten to twenty-five per cent.,
or even more, according to the nature of the risk, or the
difficulty of procuring the necessary funds. The freight
may be pledged as well as the ship, and, if necessary, the
cargo also. When money is borrowed on the security of
the cargo, it is said to be taken up at respondentia, a term
which seems to have been introduced from the circumstance
of the borrower engaging to ansiver for the repayment of
the loan on the arrival of the goods. But though the terms
are distinctive, there is no essential difference in the nature
of bottomry and respondentia contracts, and both are regu¬
lated by the same principles of maritime law. Indeed the
contract of respondentia is now seldom or never entered into
unless in conjunction with that of bottomry.
A bottomry contract may be written out in any form which suf¬
ficiently shows the conditions agreed on between the parties; but
it is usually drawn up in the form of a bond. The document must
show, either by express terms or from its general tenor, that the
risk of loss is assumed by the lender; this being the consideration
for which the high premium is conceded. The lender may transfer
the bond by indorsation, in the same manner as a bill of exchange
or bill of lading, and the right to recover its value becomes vested
in the indorsees.
According to the law of this country, a bottomry contract remains
in force so long as the ship exists in the form of a ship, whatever
amount of damage she may have sustained. Consequently, the
“ constructive total loss” which is recognized in marine insurance,
when the ship is damaged to such an extent that she is not worth
repairing, is not recognized in reference to bottomry, and will not
absolve the borrower from his obligation. But if the ship go to
pieces, the borrower is freed from all liability under the bottomry
contract; and the lender is not entitled to receive any share of the
proceeds of such of the ship’s stores or materials as may have been
saved from the wreck. Money advanced on bottomry is not liable,
in this country, for general average losses.
If the ship should deviate from the voyage for which the funds
were advanced, her subsequent loss will not discharge the obliga¬
tion of the borrower under the bottomry contract. If she should
not proceed at all on her intended voyage, the lender is not entitled
to recover the bottomry premium in addition to his advance, but
only the ordinary rate of interest for the temporary loan. As the
bottomry premium is presumed, in every case, to cover the risks in¬
curred by the lender, he is not entitled to charge the borrower with
the premium which he may pay for insurance of the sum advanced,
in addition to that stipulated in the bond.
The contract of bottomry seems to have arisen from the custom
of permitting the master of a ship, when in a foreign country, to
pledge the ship in order to raise money for repairs, or other extra¬
ordinary expenditures rendered necessary in the course of tlm v°y-
age. Circumstances often arise, in which, without the exercise o
this power on the part of the master, it would be impossible to P™"
vide means for accomplishing the voyage ; and it is better that t e
master should have authority to burden the ship, and if necessary
the freight and cargo also, in security for the money which has be¬
come requisite, than that the adventure should be defeated by in¬
ability to proceed. But the right of the master to pledge the ship
or goods must always be created by necessity : if exercised without
B O T
B O U
241
Bottony necessity the contract will be void. Accordingly the master of a
|| British ship has no power to grant a bottomry bond at a British
Bottrigari. port, or at any foreign port where he might have been able to raise
v v > funds on the personal credit of the shipowners. Neither has he any
power to pledge the ship or goods for private debts of his own ; but
only for such supplies as are indispensable for the purposes of the
voyage.
The bottomry lender must use reasonable diligence to ascertain
that a real necessity exists for the loan; but he is not bound to see
to the application of the money advanced. If the lender have ori¬
ginally advanced the funds on the personal credit of the master or
owners, or on any other security than that of bottomry, he is not
entitled at a subsequent period to convert his claim into a bottomry
obligation ; and although the master should grant him such obliga¬
tion, it would not bind the owners. In every case a bond procured
by compulsion would be void.
The power of the master to pledge the cargo depends upon there
being some reasonable prospect of benefit to it by his so doing. He
has no such power except in virtue of circumstances which may ob¬
lige him to assume the character of agent for the cargo, in the ab¬
sence of any other party authorized to act on its behalf. Under or¬
dinary circumstances he is not at liberty to pledge the cargo for re¬
pairs to the ship. If indeed the goods be of a perishable nature,
and if it be impossible to get the ship repaired in sufficient time to
obviate serious loss on them by delay, without including them under
the bottomry contract, he has power to do so ; because it may fairly
be assumed, in the case supposed, that the cargo will be benefited
by this procedure. But if there be time to communicate with the
proprietors of the cargo, it is his duty to give them notice before
resorting to this course. The general principle is, that the master
must act for the cargo, with a reasonable view to the interests of
its proprietors, under the whole circumstances of the case. When
he does this his proceedings will be sustained ; but should he mani¬
festly prejudice the interests of the cargo, by including it under
bottomry for the mere purpose of relieving the ship, or of earning
the freight, the owners of the cargo will not be bound by the bot¬
tomry contract. Any bottomry or respondentia bond may be good
in part or bad in part, according as the master may have acted
within or beyond the scope of his legitimate authority in granting it.
If two or more bottomry bonds have been granted at different
stages of the voyage, and the value of the property be insufficient to
discharge them all, the last dated bond has the priority of payment,
as having furnished the means of preserving the ship, and thereby
preventing the total loss of the security for the previous bonds.
In a recent case in the English Admiralty Court (the Cynthia, 20
L. 7, 54), it was decided that a bond granted by a British consul
over a British ship, the master of which had been murdered in a
mutiny by the crew, was valid, although the new master, appointed
by the consul, had not been required to sign it.
W hen the sum due under a bottomry bond over ship, freight, and
cargo, is not paid at the stipulated time, proceedings may be taken
by the bondholder for recovery of the freight and for the sale of the
ship ; and should the proceeds of these be insufficient to discharge
the claim, a judicial sale of the cargo may be resorted to. As a
general rule the value of the ship and freight must be exhausted be¬
fore recourse can be taken against the cargo.
The bottomry premium must be ultimately paid by the parties
for whose especial benefit the advances were obtained, as ascertained
on the final adjustment of the average expenditures at the port of
destination.
For further information on this subject, the reader is re¬
ferred to the cases of the Gratitudine, 2 Rob. A. R. 240,
272 ; the Lochiel, 3 Rob. 34 ; the Alexander, 1 Rob. 346;
to Soares v. Rahn, 3 E. F. Moore ; Dobson v. Lyall, 8
Jurist 969 ; and especially to the cases of the Lord Cochrane,
8 Jurist 714, and of Jacobsen v. Reinhardt,22 Scottish Jurist
309. See also Marshall on Insurance, book 2 ; Park on
Insurance, c. 21 ; Arnould on Insurance ; Lord Tenterden
on the Law of Merchant Ships, part 2, c. 3. (j. w—k.)
BOTTONY. A cross bottony, in Heraldry, terminates
at each end in three buds, knots, or buttons, resembling in
some measure the three-leaved grass ; whence, in Segoing’s
Trcsor Heraldique it is termed croix trefflee. It is the
badge of the order of St Maurice.
BOTTRIGARI, Ercole, a mathematician eminently
skilled in the science of music, was descended of a noble
family of Bologna, and born in that city, a.d. 1531. With
a strong predilection for the ancient music, he attempted,
as Vincentino and others had done, to introduce the ancient
scales into practice, but with no better success. Fie cor-
vol. v.
rected Gogavino’s Latin version of Ptolemy in numberless
instances, and to so good purpose, that Dr Wallis has in
general conformed to it in his translation of that author. Fie
translated into Italian Boetius de Musica, with such parts
of Plutarch and Macrobius as relate to music. He also
made annotations upon Aristoxenus, Franchinus, Spataro,
Yincentino, Zarlino, V. Galilei, and, in short, on almost every
musical treatise he could obtain, as appears by the copies
once belonging to him, which are now deposited in various
libraries in Italy. Bottrigari’s works contain greater proofs
of his learning and skill in music than of his abilities as a
writer, his style being remarkably inelegant. Nevertheless
he affected the character of a poet, and left a collection of
poems, printed in 1557, 8vo. Walther represents him as
an able mathematician, and says that he was possessed of a
very rich and valuable cabinet of curiosities which the em¬
peror F'erdinand II. had a great desire to purchase. Fie
died in 1612, and not in 1609 as stated by Mazzuchelli.
Some of his works have been printed, and others are still
in manuscript. (Tiraboschi, vii.)
BOTZEN, or Bolzano (the ancient Pons Drusi), the
capital of the circle of Etsch in Tyrol, is situated at the con¬
fluence of the Talfer and the Eisach, 32 miles N.N.E. of
Trent. The town is well built in the Italian style, and has
a fine old Gothic church, a castle, several churches and con¬
vents, and a gymnasium. Being intersected by roads from
Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, it has an extensive transit
trade, and four large annual fairs. It has also some manu¬
factures of linen, silk, and hosiery goods, leather, &c. It is
protected from sudden inundations by a strong dike of
masonry nearly 2 miles in length, and in some parts 24 feet
thick. Pop. 9000.
BOUCHE of Court, the privilege of having meat and
drink at court scot-free. This custom was anciently in use
also in the houses of noblemen. Thomas earl of Lancaster
retained Sir John de Ewre to serve him w ith ten men at
arms in time of war, allowing them bouche of court, with
livery of hay, oats, and horse-shoes. Sir Hugh Merril had
the same privilege for life, on condition of serving King
Edward II.
BOUCHES DU RHONE, a department in the S.E.
of France, separated by the Durance from the department
of Vaucluse on the north ; and by the Rhone from that of
Gard on the west: the Mediterranean bounds it on the south,
and the department of Var on the east. Area 1,267,674
acres, of which above one-half is covered witn wood and
water, or is waste. The northern and eastern parts are co¬
vered with mountains, spurs of the Esterel and Alpine sys¬
tems, the highest of which, Ste Victoire, is only 3420 feet
above the level of the sea. In the W. and S.W. are the
great alluvial plains of Crau and Camargue. The former
of these, an immense tract of land lying between the Alps
and the sea, is covered with boulders of all sizes, evi¬
dently the consequences of diluvial action. The Ca¬
margue is comprised within the delta of the Rhone, and
is continually gaining upon the sea by the fresh deposits
which that river is daily bringing down. Though por¬
tions of it are cultivated, the greater part is covered
with marshes, ponds, and canals. Some of these ponds
or lagoons are of great extent, particularly those of Val-
cares and Berre. The first of these covers nearly the
half of Camargue, and has no communication with the sea,
wdiile the latter extends between the most easterly arm of
the Rhone and Marseilles, and discharges itself into the sea
by a narrow passage called the canal de Martigues. The
only canals in the department now navigable are the canal
of Arles, miles in length, extending from the town of
that name to the Port de Bouc, and that of Craponne, con¬
necting the Durance and the Rhone. In spring the climate
is warm and dry; in summer the heat is intense, and is
rarely mitigated by rain. In winter the mistral, a cold north
2 H
Botzen
II
Bouches du
Rhone.
242 B O U
Bouflers. wind from the high country of the Cevennes, sometimes pre-
vaiis> The inhabitants cultivate with success the olive, vines,
figs, almonds, capers, melons, and mulberries ; while on the
mountains there grow a variety of aromatic plants, such as
thyme, lavender, absinthe, rosemary, and hyssop. The prin¬
cipal forest-trees are the oak and pine. A considerable
quantity of potatoes is grown, but the supply of corn is quire
insufficient to supply the demand. About one-thirteenth of
the surface is covered with vineyards, producing annually
17,610,000 gallons of wine, of which a large proportion is
exported. But the wealth of the department consists in its
horses, cattle, and sheep. Of horses, it maintains about
10,000; of horned cattle, 4000; of sheep, from 400,000 to
500,000. These are distributed among a vast number of
proprietors (25,000, according to some authorities), who, on
the approach of summer, unite their flocks and drive them
to the hilly regions in the north of the department. Another
source of wealth is the produce of silk, which amounts an¬
nually to about 730,000 lb. The principal articles of ma¬
nufacture are soap and soda; but there are also a few
oil-mills, tanneries, coral-works, sugar-refineries, and silk-
mills. There are also several marble-quarries in the depart¬
ment ; and the tunny, shad, and anchovy fisheries are valu¬
able. Though the manufactures are not very important,
the commerce of the department is extensive, as Marseilles
has now for many years been the largest and wealthiest sea¬
port in France. The public revenues amount to nearly two
millions sterling, of which the customs produce more than
a half.
The following is a table of the arrondissements, cantons,
communes, and population of the department for 1851:—
Arrondissements. Cantons. Communes. Population.
Aix  10 ... 59 ... 112,026
Arles  8 ... 31 ... 87,749
Marseilles  9 ,.. 16 ... 229,214
428,989
This department has given birth to several distinguished
men—Petronius the Latin poet, Tournefort and A dan-
son the naturalists, Puget the sculptor, Vanloo the painter,
Massillon the pulpit orator, and the historians Thiers and
Mignet.
BOUFLERS, Louis Francois, Duke de, commonly
called the Chevalier Bouflers, a peer and marshal of France,
and a general of distinguished reputation, was born Jan.
10. 1644. Having early entered the army, he was raised
in 1669 to the rank of colonel of dragoons. In the con¬
quest of Lorraine he served under Marshal de Crequy. In
Holland he served under Turenne, frequently distinguish¬
ing himself by his skill and bravery; and when that cele¬
brated captain was killed by a cannon-shot in 1675, he com¬
manded the rearguard during the retreat of the French
army. After performing various military services in Ger¬
many, in Flanders, and on the frontiers of Spain, he was
created, in 1690, general of the army of the Moselle, and
contributed materially to the victory of Fleurus. In the
following year he acted as lieutenant-general under the king
in person ; and whilst investing Mons, he was wounded in
an attack on that place. He conducted the bombardment
of Liege, although it was defended by an enemy superior
in numbers, and afterwards forced the allied generals to
abandon Luxembourg. He wTas intrusted with the com¬
mand against King William at the siege of Namur; and
for this and other important services he was raised, in 1693,
to the rank of marshal of France. In 1694 he was ap¬
pointed governor of French Flanders and of the town of
Lisle. By a skilful manoeuvre he threw himself into Namur
in 1695, and held out with unexampled obstinacy against
the army of the allies under King William, sustaining lour
assaults, and only surrendering the place after four months
of open trenches and the loss of 20,000 men to the besiegers.
B O U
In the conferences which were held with the Earl of Port- Bougain-
land, and terminated in the peace of Ryswick, he had a prin- ville.
cipal share. During the following war, when Lisle was again
threatened with a siege by the Duke of Marlborough and
Prince Eugene, Bouflers wras appointed to the command,
and made an obstinate resistance of four months. His mag¬
nanimity was not less remarkable than his military conduct;
for when a partizan represented to him that it would not be
difficult to kill Prince Eugene, he was told by the marshal
that he might expect a great reward for taking him prisoner,
but the severest punishment if anything were attempted
against his life. He was rewarded and honoured by the
king for his defence of Lisle, as if he had been victorious.
It was indeed a species of triumph. His generous enemy,
appreciating his merits, allowed him to dictate his own terms
of capitulation: “ Je signerai,” said Prince Eugene, “tout
ce que vous voudrezand he was as good as his word.
When the affairs of France were threatened with the most
urgent danger, Bouflers, though a senior officer to Villars,
made an offer to serve under that general, and was with him
at the battle of Malplaquet. Here he again displayed his
military skill by conducting the retreat, so that he lost neither
cannon nor prisoners. Lie died at Fontainbleau in 1711, leav¬
ing the character of a true patriot and a great commander.
BOUGAINVILLE, Louis Antoine de, a celebrated
circumnavigator, was born at Paris in 1729. He was re¬
ceived advocate in the parliament of Paris, but soon aban¬
doned the profession, and entered the army in the corps
of musketeers. He associated much with Clairaut and
D’Alembert, from whom he derived his knowledge of alge¬
bra and fluxions. At the age of twenty-five he published his
treatise on the Integral Calculus, as a supplement and con¬
tinuation of L’Hopital’s treatise Des infiniment petits. He
was raised to the rank of major in the Picardy regiment.
He went to London as secretary to the French embassy,
and was chosen a member of the Royal Society. In 1756
he went to Canada as captain of dragoons, and aid-de-camp
to the Marquis of Montcalm, and having distinguished
himself in the 'war against England, was rewarded with the
cross of the order of St Louis.
After the peace, when the French government conceived
the project of colonizing the Malouines or Falkland Islands,
Bougainville undertook to begin this establishment at his
owrn expense. Lie began by landing some families of French
Canadians ; and the number of settlers was increased after¬
wards to 150. But this colony having excited the jealousy
of the Spaniards, the French government agreed that it
should be given up to them, on condition of their indemni¬
fying Bougainville. Bougainville was then appointed to com¬
mand the frigate La Boudeuse and the transport L’Etoile,
on a voyage of discovery round the world. He set sail
in November 1766, taking with him Commer^on as natu¬
ralist, and Verron as astronomer. This was the first voyage
round the world performed by the French. Since the first
circumnavigation by Magellan in 1519, and that of Drake
in 1577, eleven other circumnavigations had been performed,
part of them by the Dutch and part by the English. Hav¬
ing executed his commission of delivering up the Falkland
Islands to the Spanish, Bougainville proceeded on his expedi¬
tion, and touched at Buenos Ayres at the time of the expul¬
sion ofthe Jesuits from Paraguay. Passing through the Straits
of Magellan, he anchored for a week at laheite, where the
English navigator Wallis had touched eight months before.
The numerous rocks and other dangers made him turn
off to the N.E., and prevented him from continuing a
westerly course, so as to pass through the channel which
separates New Holland from New Guinea. In his general
chart these two islands are laid down as one, although he
possessed some information of the existence of the channel.
Two years after, in 1770, Captain Cook sailed through thi•
channel. The expedition having crossed all the meridians
B 0 U
B O U
243
iBougeant of the Pacific Ocean, and now suffering from scurvy, came
II to anchor in the Gulf of Cajeli in the island of Borou, one
Bougie. 0f tj-|e Moluccas, where the governor of the Dutch settle-
—^ ment liberally supplied their wants. As it was the begin¬
ning of September, the expedition shortened their stay at
Borou, in order to take advantage of the latter part of the
easterly monsoon, which carried them to Batavia. From
thence they proceeded to the Isle of France, wdiere Commer-
<;on remained, with the view of proceeding to examine the
botany of Madagascar; as also did Verron for the purpose
of observing the transit of Venus. In 1769 the expedition ar¬
rived at St Malo, after a voyage of two years and four months,
with the loss of only seven out of upwards of 200 men.
Bougainville’s account of the voyage (Paris 1771, 4to)
is written with simplicity, and in a temper which inclined
him to view objects on the humorous side. The art of
making astronomical observations at sea was then much less
perfect than now, and, accordingly, Bougainville’s charts are
found to be erroneous, particularly in the longitudes. After
an interval of several years, he again received a naval com¬
mand and saw much active service between 1779 and 1782.
In the memorable engagement of April 12. 1782, in which
Rodney defeated the Count de Grasse, Bougainville, who
commanded the Auguste, succeeded in rallying eight ships
of his own division, and bringing them safely into St Eustace.
After the peace he returned to Paris, and solicited and ob?
tained the place of associate of the Academy. He had a
project of making a voyage of discovery towards the north
pole. As this did not meet with support from the French
government, he sent his plan to Admiral Phipps. Phipps,
however, followed a different course, but only reached the
80th degree of north latitude.
Bougainville obtained the rank of vice-admiral in 1791;
and in 1792, having escaped almost miraculously from the
massacres of Paris, he retired to his estate in Normandy.
He wras chosen a member of the Institute at its first forma¬
tion, and, in consequence, returned to Paris. He succeeded
Borda as member of the Board of Longitude. In his old
age, under the government of Napoleon, he enjoyed the
dignity of senator, and was created a count and member of
the Legion of Honour.
Retaining his good-humoured liveliness and his mental
faculties to the last, he died in 1814, aged eighty-five. He
was married, and had three sons who served in the French
army. His eloge is written by Delambre, in the Memoirs
of the Institute.
BOUGEANT, Guillaume Hyacinthe, a famous Je¬
suit, born at Quimper, Nov. 4.1690. He first taught humanity
at Caen and Nevers, and afterwards settled in Paris at the col¬
lege of Louis le Grand. He is the author of several works,
written in his native language. The principal of these are,
A Collection of Physical Observations, extracted from the
best authors, 1719 and 1721,4 vols. 12mo; A History of
the Wars and Negociations which preceded the treaty of
Westphalia, 2 vols. 12mo; A History of the treaty of West¬
phalia ; The Female Doctor, or Distaff Theology, 1730,
12mo; Philosophical amusement on theLanguageof Beasts,
Paris, 1739, 12mo; The Marvellous Voyage of Prince
Fanferedin, Paris, 1735, 12mo; Exposition of the Chris¬
tian Doctrine; and Anacreon and Sappho, a dialogue in
Greek verse. He died January 7. 1743.
BOUGIAH. See Bugiah.
BOUGIE (French bougie, a candle), a long cylindrical
surgical instrument for dilating the urethra, the rectum, or
the oesophagus, in cases of stricture. Bougies vary as to
their materials, size, and shape, and are solid or hollow, stiff
or flexible, according to their particular use. Some bougies
are of steel, silver, &c.; others are made of slips of waxed linen
rolled cylindrically, or by covering a fine cord of flax or silk
with successive coatings of linseed-oil, inspissated by boiling,
and rendered drying by litharge; after which, they are
smoothed by rolling on a slab, and then polished. The Bouguer.
best elastic bougies are made of caoutchouc dissolved in a
mixture of drying linseed-oil and turpentine ; or, still better,
of caoutchouc dissolved in sulphuric ether. Medicated
bougies also are employed in surgery.
BOUGUER, Pierre, an eminent French mathemati¬
cian, was born in 1698. His father, one of the best hydro-
graphers of his time, was regius professor of hydrography at
Croisic in Lower Brittany, and author of an excellent trea¬
tise on navigation. Young Bouguer was bred to mathema¬
tics from his infancy, and at an early age was appointed to
succeed his father as professor of hydrography. In 1727
he gained the prize given by the Academy of Sciences for
his paper “ On the best manner of forming and distributing
the Masts of Ships and two other prizes, one for his disser¬
tation “On the best method of observing the Altitude of Stars
at Seathe other for his paper “ On the best method of
observing the Variation of the Compass at Sea.” These are
published in the Prix de VAcademic des Sciences. In 1729
he published Essai d’Opbique sur la Gradation de la Lu-
miere, the object of which is to define the quantity of light
lost by passing through a given extent of the atmosphere.
Fie found the light of the sun to be 300 times more intense
than that of the moon. He was soon after made professor
of hydrography at Havre ; and succeeded Maupertius as as¬
sociate geometer of the Academy of Sciences. He was
afterwards promoted in the academy to the place of pensioned
astronomer, and went to reside in Paris.
It was resolved to send an expedition to South America for the
purpose of measuring a degree of the meridian near the equator.
From that measurement, compared with the length of a degree of
the meridian in other latitudes, the deviation from sphericity in the
figure of the earth might be known. The academy made choice of
four of its members to proceed on this voyage. These were Godin,
Bouguer, and Dp la Condamine, for the geodetical operation, and
the younger Jussieu as naturalist. They sailed from La Rochelle
in 1735, and it was ten years before Bouguer returned to France.
The account of his operations during the expedition is given by him
in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, 1744, and in a separate
work entitled La Figure de la Terre determinee par les Observations
de MM. Bouguer et De la Condamine. There is likewise an account
of this expedition published by Don George Juan and Don Antonio
de Ulloa, two scientific officers of the Spanish navy, who accom¬
panied the expedition. The length of a portion of the meridian
was measured on the ground by means of a base and a set of trian¬
gles. Then, by observing the altitude of the s of Orion which passed
near the zenith simultaneously at the two ends of the meridian line
that had been measured, that line was found to contain 3° 7' of la¬
titude. A star near the zenith was employed, that the observation
might not be affected by refraction ; s of Orion passed the meridian
in the zenith near the middle of the line measured, so that the dis¬
tance of that star south of the zenith of the northern extremity of
the line was 1° 25' 46"; and its distance north of the zenith of the
southern extremity of the line was 1° 41' 13'', the sum of these two
numbers making 3° V. The altitude was taken by zenith sectors
qf a long radius. The ground on which these operations were per¬
formed was 12,000 feet above the level of the sea, and 4200 feet
above the neighbouring city of Quito, and situate in a plain ex¬
tending from north to south, between the two ridges of the Cordil¬
lera. The northern extremity of the arc was on the equator. The
length of the degree resulting was 56,767 toises; but this was the
degree of a curve circumscribed round the earth at the height of
12,000 feet above the level of the sea ; and the length of the degree
at the level of the sea deduced from this, with some other correc¬
tions, is 56,753 toises. This length of the degree of the meridian
at the equator was compared with the degree of the meridian mea¬
sured in France, with the degree measured in Lapland, and with
the degree of longitude deduced in the south of France. From this
comparison it was concluded that the equatorial diameter of the
earth is to the polar diameter as 179 to 178, and that the equatorial
radius of the earth was about eight leagues longer than the polar.
Since the time of Bouguer,'degrees have been measured in different
climates with more accurate instruments than he possessed; but
the precise proportion of the equatorial and polar diameters of the
earth is not yet finally ascertained. Bouguer makes the excess of
the equatorial diameter above the polar to be ^ ; Sir Isaac New¬
ton made it ; Laplace, calculating from the lunar motion, ;
Melanderhielm and Svanberg, from a degree measured anew in
214
B O U
B O U
Bouhours. Lapland in 1783, compared with the degree measured in the pro¬
vince of Quito, 317. Bouguer found the seconds pendulum ^ of
a line shorter at the summit of Pichincha than at the level of the sea;
that is, the force of gravity was less by a 1200th part at that elevation,
Bouguer also made observations on the limit of perpetual snow,
a subject which has been elucidated since his time by the researches
of Humboldt, Von Buch, Wahlenberg, and others. Whilst at the
equator, he made observations to ascertain the obliquity of the
ecliptic, which he found to be 23° 28' 28". He also made some ex¬
periments on the deviation of the plumb-line from the vertical, oc¬
casioned by the attraction of a neighbouring mountain—a pheno¬
menon afterwards investigated by Dr Maskelyne on the mountain
Schihallien.
The number of Bouguer’s papers contained in the printed Me¬
moirs of the Academy of Sciences, is a sufficient proof of his great
assiduity. One of his most valuable inventions, the Heliometer, an
instrument for calculating very acute angles with extreme pre¬
cision, and applied to the determination of the diameters of stars, and
their distances from the earth, is described in the Memoirs for 1748.
See Heliometer. Some experimenters maintained that the plumb-
line had a diurnal oscillation; Bouguer showed that it remains at
rest. He employed for this purpose a telescope, attached to the
end of a chain 187 feet long, suspended within the dome of the Jn-
valides at Paris : the telescope w'as directed to a distant mark, so
that any motion in this long pendulous system might be seen by the
deviation of the wires of the telescope from the mark. The parti¬
culars of this experiment are to be found in the Mkm. de VAcademic
des Sciences, 1754. In the volume for 1739 and 1749 there are
papers of his on the astronomical refraction in the torrid zone, parti¬
cularly in cases where the star is seen at more than 909 from the
zenith, in consequence of the observer being in a high situation.
In the volume for 1747, he proposed a log of a new construction
for measuring a ship’s way. In the same collection there are papers
of his on the length of the pendulum, on the form of the prow which
suffers least resistance in passing through the water, and on a
variety of other subjects. Bouguer died in 1758, aged sixty. His
disposition was naturally mild, and the dissensions that arose be¬
tween him and his fellow traveller De la Condamine caused him
great vexation. By economy he had acquired a moderate fortune,
a part of which he bequeathed to the poor.
The following is a list of his principal works :—TraiU d’Optique
sur la Gradation de la Lumiere, 1729 and 1760. Entretiens sur la
Cause d'Inclinaison des Orbites des Planetes, 1734. TraitS de Na-
vire, &c., 1746, 4to. La Figure de la Terre determinee &c., 1749,
4to. Nouveau Traitc de Navigation, contenant la Theorie et la Pra¬
tique du Pilotage, 1753. Solution des Principaux Problemes sur la
Manoeuvre des Vaisseaux, 1757. Operations faites pour la Verifica¬
tion du Degre du Meridien entre Paris et Amiens; par Mess. Bou¬
guer, Camus, Cassini, et Pingre, 1757.
After his return from South America he was editor of the Jour¬
nal des Savans. His iloge is contained in the Memoirs of the Aca¬
demy of Sciences for 1758. (w. A. c.)
BOUHOURS, Dominique, a celebrated French critic,
born at Paris in 1628. He entered into the society of
Jesuits at the age of sixteen, and was appointed to read lec¬
tures upon polite literature in the college of Clermont at
Paris, and on rhetoric at Tours. He afterwards became
preceptor to the two sons of the Duke of Longueville. The
duke died in Bouhours’ arms ; and the “account of the pious
and Christian death” of this great personage was his first
publication. He was sent to Dunkerque to the Popish re¬
fugees from England ; and in the midst of his missionary
occupations published several books. Among these were
Entretiens d'Ariste et (TEugene, a work of a critical nature
on the French language, printed five times at Paris, twice
at Grenoble, and afterwards at Lyons, Brussels, Amster¬
dam, Leyden, &c. It embroiled him in numerous quar¬
rels, particularly with Menage, who, however, lived in friend¬
ship with the author before and after. The fame and merit
of this piece recommended Bouhours so effectually to the
great Colbert, that he intrusted him with the education of
his son the Marquis of Seignelay. He afterwards wrote
several other works in French, the chief of which are, Be¬
rn arks and Doubts upon the French Language, 1694 ;
Dialogues upon the art of Thinking Well in works of
Genius, 1687 ; The Life of St Ignatius, 1679 ; The Art
of Pleasing in Conversation ; The Life of St Francis
Xavier, 1682. It was his practice to publish alternately a
book on literature and a work on some subject of piety, Boulain-
which gave occasion to a wag, in a satirical epitaph, to re- villiers
mark of him, “ qu’il servait le monde et le ciel par semestre.” II
His Pensees ingenieuses des Anciens et des Modernes, ^ n^erj
though at once instructive and amusing, exposed him to ^
censure as well as ridicule, on account of some strange
misjudgments and omissions. He has classed Boileau with
the least esteemed of the Italian satirical versifiers; and
what is still more remarkable, he has omitted, in his Thoughts
on the Moderns, all mention of Pascal. That a disciple of
St Ignatius should wish to forget the author of the Provin¬
cial Letters is, however, not to be wondered at. Among
the numerous epigrams to which this omission gave rise is
the following by Madame Deshoulieres :
Pere Bouhours, dans vos Pens&es,
La plupart fort embarrassees,
A moi vous n’avez point pense.
Dans cette liste triomphante
Des celebres auteurs que votre livre chajite,
Je ne vois point nion nom place ;
Mais aussi dans le meme role
Vous avez oublie Pascal,
Qui pourtant ne pensait mal:
Un tel compagnon me console.
BOULAINVILLIERS, Henri de, Lord of St Saire,
an eminent French writer, descended from a very ancient
and noble family, was born at St Saire in Normandy A. D.
1658. He received his education at the college of Juilli,
where he early discovered the uncommon abilities for which
he was afterwards distinguished. His historical wultings are
numerous and important, but deformed by an extravagant
admiration of the feudal system, which he regarded as the
chef d’ceuvre of the human mind. He misses no oppor¬
tunity of regretting those “ good old times,” when the people
were enslaved by a few petty tyrants alike ignorant and
barbarous. His principal works are his Histoire de VAn-
cien Gouvernment de la France, &c., La Have, 1727, 3
tom. 8vo ; Etat de la France ; avec des Memoires sur VAn-
cien Gouvernment, &c., Lond. 1727, 3 tom. fob; Histoire
de la Pairie de France, &c., Lond, 1753 ; La Viede Ma¬
homet (a Fable of Mahomet, as Mosheim calls it); His¬
toire des Arabes, Amst. (Paris), 1731, 2 vols. 12mo. All
his works were published after his death. His philosophi¬
cal writings have now lost all their value. His professed
refutation of the system of Spinoza is in fact a weak and
imperfect exposition of that writer’s opinions. He died at
Paris in 1722.
BOULANGER, Jean, a French engraver, born at
Amiens in 1607. If not the inventor, he had at least the
merit of improving the art of stippling. His works are after
Raphael, Lionardo da Vinci, Mignard, &c. Sometimes the
naked parts of his figures are not correctly drawn nor in good
taste. His best prints, however, are deservedly held in con¬
siderable esteem.
Boulanger, Nicolas-Antoine, a man whose name and
writings have been much cited by the literary infidels of
France, was the son of a tradesman at Paris, where he was
born in 1722. He studied in the college of Beauvais, but
his progress while there was unusually slow. Having, how¬
ever, a talent for mathematics, he soon acquired so much
knowledge of that science, that he was appointed to accom¬
pany the Baron de Thiers to the army in the capacity of
engineer. He thus became concerned in various works
which brought under his observation a number of geological
facts which, he thought, evinced the great antiquity of the
earth, and a long series of revolutions which it must have
undergone, Proceeding to speculate upon the moral in¬
fluence of these disastrous phenomena, he found it necessary
to apply to the study of ancient literature, and he acquired
some knowledge of Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic, and Arabic ;
but his studies were interrupted by his death at the early
age of thirty-seven. He w as the author of EAntiquite De-
B O U
Boulan- voilee par ses Usages, a posthumous work, published by the
gerite Baron d’Holbach in 1766, and which excited considerable
II attention about the end of that century. This work, though
sur-Mer. not ^evo^ eloquence, and displaying a powerful imagina-
. > tion, exhibits at the same time deficiencies of judgment and
critical acuteness. He furnished to the Encyclopedic the
articles Deluge, Corvee, Guebres, Langue Hebrdique, and
Economic Politique. His collected works were published
at Paris in 1792, 8 vols. 8vo, and at Amsterdarp in 1794,
6 vols. 8vo. He is said to have possessed a mild and en¬
gaging disposition ; but it is difficult to reconcile this state¬
ment with the dark and impetuous spirit which animated him
as a writer. Latterly he was connected with a class of men,
illustrious indeed in point of talent, but who were the pro¬
fessed enemies of religion, and were heated with the delu¬
sive idea of effecting its destruction. Boulanger contributed
his share to this unworthy enterprise, by arguments which
he drew from his studies, and the hypotheses he had con¬
ceived. It ought to be observed, however, that several of
the irreligious writings which have been ascribed to him
are spurious.
BOULANGERITE, a sulphuret of lead and antimony,
found at Molieres, in the department of the Gard in France,
and near Nerlschink in Siberia, &c. It consists of 55*57
lead, 24*60 antimony, and 18*86 sulphur, with accidental
quantities of arsenic and iron.
BOULAY, Cesar Egasse du (in Latin Bulceus), was
born at St Ellier (Mayenne), in the beginning of the seven¬
teenth century. He became successively professor of hu¬
manity at the college of Navarre, register, rector, and his¬
toriographer of the university of Paris. He died in 1678.
Of his works the principal are, a History of the University
of Paris, in Latin, 6 vols. folio, 1665 and 1673 ; and the
Thesaurus of Roman Antiquities, 1651, folio.
BOULDER, a name given to any rounded mass of
stone worn smooth by the action of water. See Geology.
Boulder Formation, or Diluvial Formation, consists of
sand, clay, gravel, &c., mixed with water-worn stones of dif¬
ferent sizes ; and in Scotland is called Till.
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, a town of France, in the de¬
partment of the Pas de Calais, the capital of a canton and
arrondissement of the same name. It is situated on the
sea-shore at the mouth of the Liane, in 50. 44. N. Lat. 1.
36. E. Long., 166 miles from Paris by railway. It was
known to the Romans under the name of Gessoriacum, and
was afterwards called Bononia, from the name of a fort built
at the beginning of the Christian era on the opposite bank
of the Liane. A bridge was thrown across the river, and
Caligula erected on its northern bank a lighthouse which
attracted first the fishermen, and ultimately the entire popu¬
lation of Gessoriacum. During the middle ages the town
was frequently besieged. In 882 it was taken and sacked
by the Norman pirates. In later times it was assailed, but
without success, by Henry HI. of England. In 1544 it was
taken by Henry VIII. after a siege of six weeks; but five
years after it was restored to France by Edward VI. for the
sum of 40,000 livres. Boulogne consists of two parts, the
High or Old Town, and the Lower New Town. The Old
Town, situated on the top of the hill, still boasts its ancient
ramparts and arched gateways. The citadel, flanked by
high towers, and separated from the town by a fosse, has
been recently converted into a barrack. In the middle of
the old town is the Hotel de Ville, behind which is the an¬
cient beffroi or belfry. A cathedral has been in course of
erection since 1827, and in the immediate neighbourhood
are several nunneries. The New Town or basse-ville, ex¬
tends from the foot of the hill to the harbour and along the
shore, and is the chief seat of commerce. The only public
building of importance is the museum, which is said to con¬
tain one of the best provincial collections in France. At¬
tached to it is a public library of 22,000 volumes, and 3000
BOB 2L5
MSS., many of them very rare and richly illuminated. The Boulter,
present entrance to the harbour, in which the tides rise from v—
17 to 28 feet, was formed in 1829. It is flanked on both
sides with wooden piers, which in fine weather are the fa¬
vourite promenades of the inhabitants. It is calculated that
from 100,000 to 150,000 passengers annually land here.
On one side of the harbour is the basin formed by Napoleon
for the flotilla of flat-bottomed boats, which was intended
to convey his troops to the English shores at the time of
the projected invasion. On a hill at a short distance from
the town is a marble monument, erected by the grande
armee in commemoration of this event, 164 feet in height,
surmounted by a statue of the emperor, by Bosio, 16 feet
high. Boulogne possesses 1300 vessels, all engaged in the
fisheries. The fish taken, consisting chiefly of herrings,
mackerel, whiting, turbot, cod, and oysters, are transmitted
in large quantities to Paris by railway, but there is always
an abundant and cheap supply reserved for the town itself.
Government makes provision for the widows and families of
fishermen accidentally drowned. In 1848, 1158 steamers
entered the harbour of Boulogne ; and 1149 left it. Pop.
in 1821, 16,607; in 1851, 29,488, of whom nearly 7000
are English. Boulogne has two English chapels, and up¬
wards of a hundred boarding schools, many of them managed
by Englishmen. The arrondissement of the same name com¬
prises 6 cantons, 100 communes; pop. (1851) 117,615. The
house in which Le Sage died is still to be seen at No. 3 Rue
de Chateau. John Wilkes lived here for some time in volun¬
tary exile, and the poet Churchill is buried in the cemetery.
Thomas Campbell, whose house is still pointed out to the
stranger, died here in 1843.
BOULTER, Hugh, D.D., an eminent English prelate,
was born in or near London, January, 4. 1671. He was
educated at Merchant Tailors’ School, whence he removed
to Christ Church, Oxford ; and some time after was elected
a demy of Magdalen College at the same time wtih Addison
and Wilcox. In 1700 he was made chaplain to Sir Charles
Hodges, secretary of state ; and soon afterwards was pre¬
ferred to the rectory of St Olave, Southwark, and the arch¬
deaconry of Surrey. In 1719 he attended George I. to
Hanover as his chaplain. The king appointed him English
tutor to Prince Frederick; and rewarded his services by
making him dean of Christ Church and bishop of Bristol
in the same year. About four years after he was nominated
to the archbishopric of Armagh ; the alarming discontent
existing at the time in Ireland having suggested the wis¬
dom of having in the primacy a man whose judgment and
moderation would contribute to the preservation of tran¬
quillity. Boulter at first declined the office, but the urgent
command of the king finally overcame his reluctance, and
he arrived in Ireland in November 1724. He at once de¬
voted himself with zeal and energy to the promotion of the
welfare of that country ; and his noble acts of public spirit
and beneficence did much to alleviate the national distress.
In seasons of great scarcity he was more than once instru¬
mental in preventing an impending famine ; and on one of
these occasions he distributed vast quantities of corn through¬
out the kingdom, for which he received the thanks of the
House of Commons. At another time 2500 persons were
fed at the poor-house in Dublin every morning, and as
many every evening, for a considerable time, mostly at his
own expense. Every measure of public improvement re¬
ceived his hearty co-operation. He was a true friend to the
poor clergy of his diocese, and maintained several of their
children in the university. He erected four houses at Drog¬
heda for the reception of clergymen’s widows, and purchased
an estate to endow them. His charities for augmenting
small livings and buying glebes amounted to upwards of
L.30,000, besides what he devised by will for similar purposes
in England. In short, the instances of his generosity and
benevolence, his virtue, piety, and wisdom, are almost innu-
246 B O U
Boultine merable, and the history of his life is his noblest panegyric.
II This excellent prelate died at London, June 2. 1742, and
'Boulton.^ wag jnterrec| jn Westminster-abbey, where a beautiful monu-
^ v ment wras erected to his memory.
BOULTINE, a term among wrorkmen for a moulding,
the convexity of which is just one-fourth of a circle. It is
the member just below the plinth in the Tuscan and Doric
capitals.
BOULTON, Matthew, a manufacturer and practical
engineer of great celebrity, was born at Birmingham on the
14th of September 1728. He was educated at a neigh¬
bouring grammar-school, kept by Mr Anstead of Deritend,
and was called early into active life upon the death of his
father in 1745. The various processes by which the powers
of the human mind have given facility to the artist in ren¬
dering the different forms of matter obedient to his com¬
mand, afforded ample scope for the exercise of his inventive
faculties, in improving the manufactures of his native place.
His first attempt was a new mode of inlaying steel ; and he
succeeded in obtaining a considerable demand for the pro¬
ducts of his manufactory, which were principally exported
to the Continent, and not uncommonly re-imported for do¬
mestic use as of foreign manufacture.
In 1762, his fortune being already considerable, he pur¬
chased a tract of barren heath in the neighbourhood of Bir¬
mingham, with a single house on it, and there founded, at
the expense of L.9000, the manufactory which has been so
flourishing, and so well known under the name of Soho.
His workmen were at first principally employed in the imi¬
tation of or-moulu, and in copying oil paintings with great ac¬
curacy, by means of a mechanical process which was in¬
vented by a Mr Eggington who afterwards distinguished
himself by various works in stained glass. Boulton finding
the force of horses inadequate to the various purposes of his
machinery, erected in 1767 a steam-engine, upon the original
construction of Savery ; which, notwithstanding the incon¬
venience of a great loss of steam from condensation, by its
immediate contact with the water raised, has still some ad¬
vantages from the simplicity of the apparatus which it re¬
quires, and has even lately been found to succeed well upon
a small scale. But Boulton’s objects required a still more
powerful machine, and he had the discernment to perceive
that they might be very completely attained by the adop¬
tion of the various improvements lately made in the steam-
engine by James Watt of Glasgow, who had obtained a pa¬
tent for them in 1769, the privileges of which were extended
in 1775, by an act of parliament, to a term of 25 years.
Boulton induced this ingenious and scientific inventor to
remove to Birmingham. They commenced a partnership
in business, and established a manufactory of steam-engines,
in which accurate execution kept pace so well with judicious
design, that its productions continued to be equally in re¬
quest with the public after the expiration of the term of
that legal privilege which at first gave the proprietors the
exclusive right of supplying them, and which had been con¬
firmed in 1792 by a decision of the Court of King’s Bench
against some encroachments on the right of the patentee. It
was principally for the purpose of carrying on this manufac¬
tory with greater convenience, that the proprietors established
an iron-foundry of their own at Smethwick, in the neigh¬
bourhood of Soho.
In 1785 Boulton was made a fellow of the Royal Society,
about the same time with Withering, and several others of
his scientific neighbours. In 1788 he turned his attention
to the subject of coining, and erected machinery for the pur¬
pose, so extensive and complete, that the operation was
performed with equal economy and precision, and the coins
could not be imitated by any single artist for their nominal
value ; each of the stamps coining, with the attendance of a
little boy only, about eighty pieces in a minute. The pre¬
paratory operation of laminating and cutting out the metal
B 0 U
is performed in an adjoining room ; and all personal com- Bounty
munication between the workmen is rendered unnecessary II
by the mechanical conveyance of the work from one part of Bourbon-
the machinery to another. A coinage of silver was executed at
this mint for the Sierra Leone Company, and another of
copper for the East Indies, besides the pence and half-pence
at present in circulation throughout England, and a large
quantity of money of all kinds for Russia. In acknowledg¬
ment of Boulton’s services, and in return for some specimens
of his different manufactures, the Emperor Paul made him
a present of a valuable collection of medals and minerals.
In 1797 he obtained a patent for a mode of raising water
by impulse, the specification of which is published in the
ninth volume of the Repertory of Arts, p. 145. It had
been demonstrated by Daniel Bernoulli, in the beginning of
the last century, that water flowing through a pipe, and ar¬
riving at a part in which the pipe is suddenly contracted,
would have its velocity at first very greatly increased; but
no practical application of the principle appears to have been
attempted, until an apparatus was set up in 1792 by Mr
Whitehurst, for Mr Egerton of Oulton, in Cheshire, con¬
sisting of an air-vessel, communicating with a water-pipe by
a valve, which was forced open by the pressure or rather
impulse of the water, when its passage through the pipe was
suddenly stopped by turning the cock in the ordinary course
of domestic economy ; and although the pipe through which
the water was forced up was of moderate height, the air-
vessel, which was at first made of lead, was soon burst by
the “ momentous force,” as Mr Whitehurst very properly
terms it. The apparatus had excited much attention in
France, under the name of Montgolfier’s hydraulic ram ; and
Boulton added to it a number of ingenious modifications,
some of which, however, are more calculated to display the
vivid imagination of a projector, than the sound judgment
of a practical engineer, which had in general so strongly
characterized all his productions.
He died, August 17. 1809, after a long illness, in pos¬
session of considerable affluence and of universal esteem,
{Monthly Magazine, October 1809, p. 368). (t. y.)
BOUNTY, in Commerce, a premium paid by govern¬
ment for the encouragement of any branch of industry. See
Political Economy. It also denotes a premium offered
to induce men to enlist in the public service.
BOURBON, the name of one branch of the Capet
family, which has given kings to France from 1589 to our
own times. This branch succeeded the House of Valois
on the throne. It derives its origin from Robert, youngest
son of Louis IX. See France,
Bourbon, Charles, Duke of, and constable of France,
was born a.d, 1489, He was the son of Gdbert, Count of
Montpensier, and of Clara, daughter to Federigo Gonzaga,
Marquis of Mantua. As a statesman and a warrior, he
eclipsed all the princes of France of his time; and the sim¬
plicity and gentleness of his manners made him the idol
of the soldiery. By Francis I. he was made constable
of France when only twenty-six years of age, and he
gave abundant evidence that this honour was not unde¬
served. As viceroy of the Milanese he made himself uni¬
versally popular, and his warlike prowess was particularly
displayed at the great battle of Marignano, where he fought
by the side of the illustrious Bayard. Having become
embroiled, however, in a legal suit with the queen-mothei
respecting some very large estates, part of which he held in
right of his deceased wife, Suzanne de Bourbon, by an
iniquitous decision his estates were sequestrated. . i e
Duchess d’Angouleme is believed to have been instigated
to this act of revenge by his coldness in slighting her ad¬
dresses. Charles of Bourbon, in indignation, entered into
the service of Charles V., and made himself master of the
whole Milanese. He then led the emperor’s troops against
Rome ; but while in the act of placing a scaling-ladder
B 0 U
B 0 U
247
3iourbon. against the walls, he was killed by a random shot, May 6,
^—' 1527.
Bourbon (JBorbonius'), Nicolas, a Batin poet, born in
1503 at Vandeuvre, near Bar-sur-Aube, was the son of a
master blacksmith. Margaret de Valois appointed him
preceptor to her daughter, Jeanne d’Albret of Navarre,
mother of Henri IV. After residing several years at court
he retired to Cande, where he had a benefice. He died
about 1550. He wrote eight books of Kugce ; a poem on
the forge, entitled Ferraria; De Puerorum moribus, &c.
Erasmus praises his Nugce. Scaliger, however, speaks of
him with contempt.
Bourbon, ]\icolas, one of the best Latin poets France
has produced, grand-nephew to the preceding, was born in
1574. He was professor of eloquence in the Royal Col¬
lege, canon of Langres, and one of the forty of the French
Academy. At length he retired to the house of the fathers
of the Oratory, where he died in 1644. His poems were
printed at Paris in 1651, 12mo. His chef d’oeuvre is a
poem on the assassination of Henri IV., entitled Dirce in
Parricidam. Modern criticism, however, is not very fa¬
vourable to it.
lUtory. Bourbon, Isle of an island in the Indian Ocean, belong¬
ing to France, about 400 miles E. of Madagascar and 90
miles W.S.W. of Mauritius, in Lat. 21. 30. S. Long. 55. 30.
E. It was discovered in 1545 by Mascarenhas, a Portu¬
guese navigator, whose name it originally bore. It re¬
mained uninhabited till 1646, when De Prony, the French
commandant of Madagascar, formally took possession of it
in the name of his sovereign, and gave it the name of
Bourbon. It was at first employed only as a penal set¬
tlement ; but in 1654 De Hacourt, a director of the French
East India Company, established a small settlement, which,
however, never prospered, and the colonists, becoming dis¬
heartened, embarked for Madras in an English vessel
which happened to touch at the island. It was unvisited
save by pirates and buccaneers, till a remnant of the French
who had escaped the massacre of their countrymen in Ma¬
dagascar took refuge in the island, and, with the crew of a
privateer, which happened to be wrecked on the shore,
formed a colony, which in a short time began to prosper.
In 1661 it was made over by Louis XIV. to the East India
Company, who sent out small relays of workmen from time
to time. In 1710 a regular administration was organized,
and a governor despatched from France. The council by
which he was assisted comprised the principal officials of
the government, and was subject in appeal cases to the
sovereign council of Pondicherry. Two years after, the
new settlement was strong enough to take possession of the
Mauritius, which had been abandoned by the Dutch, and
in 1732 the seat of government was removed to that island.
In 1735 the governor, La Bourdonnais, fortified Bourbon
with such skill that an English fleet under Boscawen at¬
tempted in vain to take possession of it. At the outbreak
of the French Revolution the home government abolished
slavery in all their dominions, but the people of Bourbon,
much of whose wealth consisted of slaves, refused to obey
orders, and deposed their governor, though they still ac¬
knowledged the authority of the mother country. From
1790 to 1795, the principles of the Revolution continued to
gain ground ; but at the latter date a reaction took place,
and, in 1799, 7108 proprietors, who had countenanced these
principles, were banished to the Sechelles. The ship in
which they sailed was attacked by an English frigate, and
the whole ship’s company was shot or drowned. Till 1803
Bourbon, which under the republic had assumed the title
of He de la Reunion, was self-governed. In that year
Napoleon sent out a governor, and in 1806 the island once
more changed its name, and became the He Bonaparte.
In 1810, after a gallant resistance, it fell into the hands of
the English, who retained it till the general peace of 1814,
when the island resumed its old name of Bourbon. In the Bourbon,
following year, before the downfall of Napoleon, it was once
more besieged by the English, and along with the Mauri¬
tius again fell into their hands. After the general pacifi¬
cation of Europe Bourbon was restored to France, in whose
possession it now is, but the adjoining island has since been
retained by its English conquerors. In April 1848 a decree
of the National Assembly abolished slavery in all the
French dominions, and an indemnity of nearly L.5,000,000
sterling was awarded to the slaveholders of Martinique,
Guadaloupe, and Bourbon, which in this year once more
changed its name for the old one of La Reunion. It was
ordained, however, that a year should elapse between the
passing of the act and the manumission of the slaves. In
1852 the last instalment of the indemnity was paid.
Bourbon, which is nearly elliptical in form, measures 40 miles at Physical
its greatest length, 27 at its greatest breadth, and, following the aspect,
windings of the shore, 104 miles in circumference. The whole
island is, as it were, one mountain, having its highest point in the
centre, and sloping thence gradually to the sea. This great mass,
however, is split into two systems. In the northern range is the
Piton des Neiges, the highest peak in the island, about 10,000 feet
above the level of the sea. Of the southern system the highest
point is the Piton de Fournaise, an active volcano, 7000 feet
high. The northern parts of the island present every indication of
having been at one time subject to volcanic action of the most vio¬
lent kind ; but the operation of nature and the industry of man have
long since converted these once desert plains into beautiful and
fertile fields. In the south-east, however, the state of matters is
quite different. The scarcity of water, and the vicinity of the vol¬
cano, which is the most active in the world, bursting forth at least
twice every year, and sending its lava streams sometimes as far as the
sea, combine to make this portion of the island the exact antithesis
of the other. One portion of it, known as the Pays- Brul6, comprising
11,543 acres, is a desert waste, untenanted by man or beast. Be¬
tween the two mountain systems are the Plaine des Cafres and the
Plaine des Palmistes. The first of these, sloping to the south, ex¬
hibits no signs of vegetation except a few stunted shrubs, while
the latter, sloping to the north, is watered by numerous streams
and is remarkably fertile. Both are at a considerable elevation
above the sea. In the centre of the island is a lake, called the
Grand Etang, which, though it derives its waters only from the
rain, is half a mile in diameter, and in winter 30 feet deep. It
has no outlet, yet in summer the evaporation is so great that it is
sometimes nearly dried up. The rocky and mountainous nature of
the entire island precludes the existence of deep or navigable
streams. Such as it possesses are merely mountain torrents, reach¬
ing the sea by a succession of waterfalls. Their waters are sup¬
plied entirely by the rains and the melted snows of the high moun¬
tain peaks. The chief of these are the St Denis, Seche, Est, Mat,
and Remparts. Of these the Mat is the largest, and has a course
of nearly 30 miles. Cultivation is confined almost entirely to those
parts of the island that border on the sea-shore. The whole of the
interior, except the Basin de Salazie in the Gros-Morne, is uninha¬
bited. According to M. Bory, the island is divided into eleven
parishes, St Denis, containing the capital of that name, which is the
seat of government—Ste Marie, St® Susanne, St Andre, St Benoit,
St Rose, St Joseph, St Pierre de la riviere d’Abord, St Louis du
Gaul, St Leu, and St Paul—and politically into two arrondissements,
six cantons, and eleven communes. There is no good harbour in
the island, and no safe anchorage off the coast. The effect of this
disadvantage is to throw the trade into the hands of merchants
from the Mauritius.
The climate of so mountainous a country as Bourbon is very va- Climate,
rious, but on the whole healthy and pleasant, and by no means so
hot as might be anticipated from its latitude. The hot season con¬
tinues from the beginning of December to the end of March. The
mean temperature throughout the year is 78° Fahrenheit. The in¬
habitants are healthy and long-lived, and the average annual mor¬
tality is only 1 in 42. They attribute their longevity in part to
the periodical recurrence of tornadoes, which last for one or two
days, and have the effect of purifying and cooling the atmosphere.
Coffee, which was introduced from Mocha in 1717, was for a Produc-
long time the staple article of culture in Bourbon, and was reckoned tions.
little inferior to that of Arabia. Cloves were also introduced and
carefully cultivated, but never so as to compete successfully with
those of the Eastern Archipelago. Cotton was formerly produced in
large quantities, but in 1801 hurricanes and a disease which broke
out among the trees discouraged the planters, who substituted
coffee in its room. Of late years, the quantities of all these articles
have greatly diminished, partly from local causes, and partly from
248
Bourbon-
Lancy
il
Bourbon-
nais.
Govern¬
ment; &c.
B O U
B O U
the effects of competition upon the European markets. Since 1818
the cultivation of the sugar cane has almost entirely superseded
that of coffee in the eastern and most fertile part of the island. The
tobacco and cereals grown in the island do not supply the demand.
Yams potatoes, beans, and fruits, are found to thrive extremely
well -’and manioc, the food of the black population, grows in great
abundance. Cattle are imported in considerable quantities from
Madagascar, as the pasturage of Bourbon is insufficient to maintain
the requisite number. The fisheries on the coast are valuable, and
afford employment to nearly 500 persons. Coral and ambergris
are found in considerable quantities off the shore. The manu ac-
tures of Bourbon are as yet in their infancy. The principal articles
of manufacture are bricks, iron and tin goods. There are a.lso se¬
veral lime-kilns and tanneries, and one brewery. The annual value
of the articles thus manufactured is estimated at about E.50,t)UU.
In 1836 the amount and value of goods exported were—
Sugar 18,173,092 kilog 
cioves"'::::  566,6.50 56,140
Saltpetre   79,879    -i’ciq
Wood for cabinet work 112,811   ofo
Dye-woods  105,303   843
The total value of exports in this year was nearly L.670 000. The
total value of imports, which, besides cattle and cereals, included
oil, wine, timber, salt, &c., amounted to L.550,780. In 1852 the
production of sugar amounted to 25,000,000 kilog., and was m the
fair way of doubling itself within two or three years.
The chief magistrate of the island is the governor, who is sent out
from the mother country. He is assisted by a council of thirty, elected
from those French residents who pay L.8 and upwards of direct taxes.
The electors in 1837 amounted to 1145, distributed into eight elec¬
toral colleges. They have also two representatives at Paris, with
salaries of L.800 a-year each. Justice is administered by an imperial
court, which sits at St Denis, two courts of assize, two tribunals of
primary jurisdiction, one of which sits at St Paul, the other at Su
Denis and by six justices of peace. In 1837 the troops of the
line amounted to 814, the national guard to 6600. The revenue of
the island in 1837 was L.85,982, the expenditure L.117,297, leav¬
ing a deficit of L.31,315. A college has been established in St
Denis, and throughout the island there are 29 boys’ schools and
24 girls’ schools. The total number of pupils was, in 1837, 2316,
of whom 1486 were boys and 830 girls. There are two hospitals,
one at St Denis, and another at St Paul, in each of which towns
there is also an establishment for the relief of the poor ; sixteen
churches, two prisons, a chamber of commerce, a public library at
St Denis, containing about 4000 volumes, and three private printing
establishments. A bank was established in 1852. Four newspapers
are printed on the island. In 1841 the population was 106,682, of
whom 65,993 were free blacks. In 1850 it was 102,584.
Bourbon-Lancy, a small town of France, in the depart¬
ment of Soane-et-Loire, 27 miles W.N.W. of Charolles. It
has numerous mineral springs, known to the Romans as the
Aqiue Nisinei. Pop. 2848.
Bourbon-L’Archambault, a town of France, in the
department of the Allier, 19 miles W. of Moulins. It was
anciently the capital of the dukes of Bourbon, from whom
the late royal family of France, and the existing sovereigns
of Spain, Naples, and Lucca, are descended. It is now
much frequented on account of its mineral waters, which
are found to be peculiarly efficacious in nervous and rheu¬
matic diseases. In 1789 it changed its name for that of
Burges-les-Bains. It contains some remarkable specimens
of Gothic and Byzantine architecture. Pop. 3017.
Bourbon-Vendee (now Napoleon-Vendee), a town of
France, capital of the department of La Vendee, on the
river Yon, in Lat. 46.41. N. Long. 1. 26. W. It was
founded by Napoleon on the site of the ancient La Roche-
sur-Yon, and was called Napoleon-Vendee, in honour of its
founder. At the Restoration its name was changed; but on
the accession of Napoleon III. it resumed its original de¬
signation. Having neither trade nor manufactures, and
situated in the midst of a heathy waste, it is regarded as
the dullest town in France. The public buildings, erected
by command of Napoleon, were so hastily built that they
have already begun to fall into ruins. Pop. (1851) 6186.
BOURBONNAIS, an ancient province in the centre
of France, embracing the present department of the Allier,
and a portion of that of Cher. In 1527 it was forfeited to Bourbonne
the French crown. les-Babg
BOURBONNE-LES-BAINS, a town of France, in the ^
department of Haute Marne, in the arrondissement of ^ajoue
Langres, and 21 miles E.N.E. of that town. It is much ^ r _t_.
frequented on account of its hot saline springs, which are
found on the site of the old Roman baths. The heat of
these springs varies from 120° to 156° Fahrenheit. The
number of visitors is about 800 annually. Pop. 3683.
BOURCHIER, John, Lord Berners, grandson and heir
of a lord of the same name, who was descended from T homas
of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, and had been knight of
the Garter and constable of Windsor Castle. Bourchier
was created a knight of the Bath on the marriage of the
Duke of York, second son of Edward IV., and was first
known by quelling an insurrection in Cornwall and Devon¬
shire, raised by Michael Joseph, ablacksmith, in 1495, which
service recommended him to the favour of Henry ^ II. He
was a captain of the pioneers at the siege of Theroanne^
under Henry VIII., by whom he was made chancellor of
the exchequer for life, and lieutenant of Calais and the
Marches; appointed to conduct the Lady Mary, the king’s
sister, into France on her marriage with Louis XII.; and
had the extraordinary fortune of continuing in favour with
Henry VIII. for the space of eighteen years. He died at
Calais in 1532, aged 65. By King Henry’s command he
translated Froissart’s Chronicle, which was printed in 1523,
by Pynson, the scholar of Caxton. His other works were
a whimsical medley of translations from French, Spanish,
and Italian novels. These were, the History of the most
Noble Valyaunt Knyght, Arthur of Lytell Brytayne ; the
Famous Exploits of Sir Hugh of Bourdeaux; the Golden
Boke of Marcus Aurelius ; and the Castle of Loue. He
composed also a book on the duties of the inhabitants of
Calais; and a comedy entitled lie in Vineam, which was
acted at Calais after vespers.
BOURDALOUE, Louis, a celebrated preacher, and
one of the greatest orators that France has ever produced,
was born at Bourges, August 20. 1632. At the age or six¬
teen he entered the Society of Jesus, of which he was des¬
tined to become one of the greatest ornaments, and there
completed his studies. His able masters, who early dis¬
cerned his talents, successively confided to him the chairs
of humanity, of rhetoric, of philosophy, and of moral theo¬
logy ; and it was only after passing through these different
probationary employments that he arrived at the eminent
post which was designed for him, and was deemed qualified
for mounting the pulpit.
In order to form an idea of the difficulties which he had
to surmount, and of the talents which he displayed, it is only
necessary, on the one hand, to call to mind the ridiculous
manner and inflated style of the preachers of that period;
and, on the other, to figure the young Jesuit at issue with
the bad taste as well as the bad habits of the time; combat¬
ing at once the passions, the vices, the weaknesses, and the
errors of humanity, and overcoming his enemies, sometimes
with the arms of faith, and sometimes wdth those of leason.
At first he preached for some time in the province, but his
superiors afterwards called him to Paris. This took place in
1669, at the most brilliant epoch of the age of Louis XIV.,
when nothing was talked of but the victories of Turenne,
the festivities of Versailles, the masterpieces of Corneille
and Racine, the encouragement afforded to the arts, and
the general impulse given to the human mind. Bourdaloue
suddenly appeared in the midst of these fascinations, and,
far from diminishing their effects, the severity of his minis¬
try, and the gravity of his eloquence, served rathei to en¬
hance their splendour. His first sermons met with pro
digious success, and all voices were raised in loud applause
of the preacher. Madame de Sevigne, sharing the univer¬
sal enthusiasm, wrote to her daughter that “ she had never
B 0 U B 0 U 249
Bour- heard anything more beautiful, more noble, more astonish-
daloue. ing, than the sermons of Father Bourdaloue.” Louis XIV.
—v—^ also wished to hear him, and the new preacher was in con¬
sequence sent to court, where he preached the Advent in
1670, and the Lent in 1672 ; and he was afterwards called
for the Lents of 1674, 1675, 1680, and 1682, and for the
Advents of 1684, 1689, and 1693. This was a thing un¬
heard of before, the same preacher being rarely called three
times to court. Bourdaloue, however, appeared there ten
times, and was always received with the same ardour. Louis
XIV. said that “ he loved better to hear the repetitions of
Bourdaloue than the novelties of any one else.” After the
revocation of the edict of Nantes, he was sent to Languedoc
to preach to the Protestants, and confirm the newly-con¬
verted in the Catholic faith; and in this delicate mission he
managed to reconcile the interests of his ministry with the
sacred rights of humanity. He preached at Montpellier in
1686 with prodigious success, Catholics and Protestants
being all equally eager to recognise in this eloquent mis¬
sionary the apostle of truth and of virtue.
In the last years of his life Bourdaloue abandoned the
pulpit, and devoted himself to charitable assemblies, hospi¬
tals, and prisons, where his pathetic discourses and insinuat¬
ing manners never failed of their effect. He had the art of
adapting his style and his reasonings to the condition and
the understanding of those to wdiom he addressed either
counsel or consolation. Simple with the simple, erudite
with the learned, and a dialectician with sophists and dispu¬
tants, he came off with honour in all the contests in which
zeal for religion, the duties of his station, and love of man¬
kind, led him to engage. Equally relished by the great and
by the commonalty, by men of piety and by people of the
world, he exercised till his death a sort of empire over all
minds; and this ascendancy he owed as much to the gentle¬
ness of his manners as to the force of his reasonings. “ His
conduct,” says one of his contemporaries, “ is the best answer
that can be made to the Lettres Provinciates.” No con¬
sideration was ever capable of altering his frankness or cor¬
rupting his probity.
Boileau, who detested the Jesuits, loved and often visited
Bourdaloue. He may with justice be regarded as the re¬
former of the pulpit and the founder of Christian eloquence
among the French. That which distinguishes him from
other preachers is the force of his reasoning, and the soli¬
dity of his proofs. Never did Christian orator infuse into
his discourses more majesty, dignity, energy, and grandeur.
Like Corneille, he has been charged with overlabouring his
diction, and accumulating idea upon idea with a needless
superfluity of illustration—of speaking more to the under¬
standings than to the hearts of his auditors, and sometimes
enervating his eloquence with too frequent a use of divisions
and subdivisions. But even in subscribing to these criti¬
cisms, which are to a certain extent well founded, it is im¬
possible not to admire the inexhaustible fecundity of his
plans—the happy talent velut imperatoria virtus, which he
possessed, of disposing his reasonings in the order best cal¬
culated to command victory—the exact, constrictive logic
with which he excludes sophisms, contradictions, and para¬
doxes—the art with which he lays the foundations of our
duty in our interest—and, finally, the inestimable secret of
converting the details of manners and habits into so many
proofs of his subject. Parallels have often been drawn be¬
tween Bourdaloue and Massillon ; but the talents of these
great pulpit orators lay in different directions, and they may
therefore be more fitly contrasted than compared. If Mas¬
sillon is now read with a more lively interest, he owes this
advantage to the charms of his style rather than to the force
of his reasonings. Among the critics of the present day,
the preference is unhesitatingly given to the rival of Racine,
to the painter of the heart, to the author of the discourse
on the small number of the elect; but if we consult the
VOL. v.
contemporaries of Massillon himself, we shall find that they Bourdelot
assign him only the second rank. According to them, Bour- II
daloue preached to the men of a vigorous and masculine v ourg- ^
age; Massillon to those of a period remarkable for its effe- ^
minacy. Bourdaloue raised himself to the level of the great
truths of religion; Massillon conformed himself to the weak¬
ness of the men wdth whom he lived. The bishop of Cler¬
mont will always be read; but if the simple Jesuit could
raise his commanding voice from the tomb, and again roll
forth a majestic stream of divine truth, the courtly accents of
his rival would no longer be heard, and the charms of his
diction would be forgotten. The first part of his celebrated
Passion, in which he proves that the death of the Son of
God is the triumph of his power, has generally been con¬
sidered as the great masterpiece of Christian eloquence.
Bossuet has said nothing stronger or more elevated. The
second part, however, is inferior to the first, though con¬
sidered by itself, alike beautiful and convincing.
The discourses of Bourdaloue have been described by a
celebrated French critic as embodying in them a complete
course of theology. This is perhaps going a little too far;
but still their general merit is very great, and for nothing
are they more distinguished than their comprehensiveness.
The diction of this great preacher is always natural, clear,
and correct; sometimes deficient in animation, but without
vacuity or languor, and generally relieved by outbreakings
of much force and originality.
Two editions of Bourdaloue’s works were published at Paris by
Pere Bretonneau, a Jesuit; one in 16 vols. 8vo, 1707-34, and the
other, from which the editions of Rouen, Toulouse, and Amsterdam
were afterwards printed, in 18 vols. 12mo, 1709-34. The works
are distributed as follows, viz., 1. Deux Avents, prechi devant le
Roi, 1 vol.; 2. Careme, 3 vols. 8vo, or 4 vols. 12mo; 3. Mysieres, 2
vols. ; 4. Fetes des Saints, Vetures, Professiones, Oraisons Funebres, 2
vols.; 5. Dominicales, 3 vols.; 6. Exhortations et Instructions Chri-
tiennes, 2 vols.; 7. Retraite Spirituelle, 1 voL; 8 Pensees, in 2 and
in 3 vols. The Versailles edition appeared in 1812-13, in 16 vols.
8vo. It is much inferior to the former. Of recent editions, the
best are those of 1822-26, 17 vols. 8vo, of 1833-34, and of 1840, 3
tom. gr. 8vo. The Sermons Inidites de Bourdaloue, published by
the Abbe Sicard in 1810, are apocryphal. (Vie de P. Bourdaloue,
par Madame de Prigny; Esprit de Bourdaloue, par 1’Abbe de la
Porte; mid. Biographic Universelle). (j. B—E.)
BOURDELOT, Jean, a learned French critic, who
distinguished himself by annotations on Lucian, Petronius,
and fieliodorus ; a Universal History ; Commentaries on
Juvenal; a Treatise on the Etymology of French words ;
and several other works which were never published. He
died in 1638.
His nephew, the Abbe Bourdelot, changed his name from
Pierre Michon to oblige his uncle. He was a celebrated
physician in Paris; was much patronized by Christina of
Sweden ; and gained great reputation by a Treatise on the
Viper, and other works. He died in 1685.
BOURDON, Sebastien, an eminent painter, born at
Montpellier in 1616. He spent seven years in Italy, where
he formed an acquaintance with Andrea Sacchi and Claude
Lorraine, and acquired so great a reputation, that, on his
return to France, he was appointed rector of the academy
of painting in Paris, being the first who held that office.
Fie succeeded better in landscapes than in history. His
pieces are seldom finished, and those which received his last
touches are not always the finest. His chef d’auvre is the
Martyrdom of St Peter in the cathedral of Notre Dame at
Paris. His talents as an engraver also were considerable.
Bourdon was a Calvinist, and lived much respected, even
in a Catholic country, his life and manners being unexcep¬
tionable. He died in 1671.
BOURG, or Bourg-en-Bkesse, a very ancient town of
France (supposed by De Thou to be the Forum Segusia-
norum of the Romans), capital of the department of Ain, on
the Reyssouse, in Lat. 46. 12. N. Long. 5. 13. E. It be¬
longed at one time to the dukes of Savoy, but was taken
2 i
250
B O U
Eourgelat by the French in 1536, and in 1600 formally ceded to
II France by the treaty of Lyons. It was an episcopal town
Bourgoing. from 1515 to 1536. It possesses a civil court of primary
^jurisdiction, a communal college, and a public library ot
19,000 volumes. Several important grain-markets are held
in the town, which is in the midst of an agricultural dis¬
trict. There is also a considerable trade in wines, skins,
poultry, horses, and cattle. The chief manufactures are
linen, cotton, hosiery, and basket-work. In the neighbour¬
hood is the church of Notre Dame de Brou, built in 1511
by order of Margaret of Austria, aunt of Charles V., and
considered one of the finest architectural monuments of that
age. Vaugelas the grammarian, and Lalande the astronomer,
were born here. Pop. (1851) 9698.
BOURGELAT, Claude, who may be called the father
of veterinary science, was born at Lyons in 1712, and died
in 1799. He entered the law, but abandoned that profes¬
sion in disgust at having gained an unjust suit for a client.
Embracing the military profession, he served in the cavalry,
and thus had ample opportunity of studying the diseases of
animals. In 1772 he opened at Lyons a veterinary school,
which soon became celebrated over Europe. His great suc¬
cess induced the government to establish several similar in¬
stitutions ; and Bourgelat was appointed to superintend the
school established at Alfort, which became, and continues
to be, the chief seat of veterinary science in France.
Bourgelat was a member of the Academy of Sciences of
Pans and of Berlin, and corresponded with some of the
most eminent men of science of his time. His works on
veterinary subjects are numerous and valuable.
BOURGES, a town of France, capital of the department
of Cher, is situated at the confluence of the Auron and
Evre, in Lat. 47. 6. N. Long. 2. 25. E., 100 miles S. of
Paris. It is the Avaricum of Caesar, by whom it was burnt
down b.c. 52. Under Augustus it became the capital of
Aquitania, which it continued to be for nearly 500 years.
After this it was more than once destroyed, but was always
rebuilt; and under Philip Augustus it became the capital of
Berri. Bourges has been long celebrated for its cathedral,
which is reckoned one of the finest in France. It is the
see of an archbishop, and possesses a royal college, a dio¬
cesan seminary, and a public library of 25,000 volumes, with
some rare manuscripts. The principal manufactures are
cutlery, and linen and woollen goods. There are also
several breweries and tan-works. The trade is confined to
corn, wool, hemp, hides. The nurseries in the neighbour¬
hood are famous. Louis XI. was a native of Bourges, and,
in compliment to his birth-place, founded a university there,
long celebrated ; which, however, was suppressed at the
Revolution. Cujas the famous jurist was one of the pro¬
fessors. Louis likewise gave patents of nobility to the
mayor and magistrates of the town. Bourdaloue, the pulpit-
orator, was a native of Bourges, as was also Jacques Cceur,
the unfortunate minister of Charles VII. Pop. in 1851,
22,465.
BOURGET, Jeax, a learned French antiquary, born
near Falaise in 1724. He was educated at Caen, and in
1745 he became a Benedictine monk of the abbey of St
Martin de Seez. His merit and learning procured his
translation to the abbey of Bee, where he resided till 1764.
He was elected an honorarv member of the Society of An¬
tiquaries of London in 1765 ; and the same year returned
to the abbey of St Stephen at Caen, where he continued
till his death in 1775. He left behind him, in manuscript,
large and accurate accounts of some of the principal Nor¬
man abbeys. The History of the Royal Abbey of Bee,
which he presented to Dr Ducarel in 1764, is only an ab¬
stract of his larger work.
BOURGOING, Jean Fran^ois, a distinguished French
diplomatist, was born at Nevers in 1748, and died at Carls¬
bad in 1811. Most of his life was spent in the discharge
B O U
of various diplomatic offices, at the courts of Spain, Denmark, Bour-
Sweden, and Saxony. His principal work is his Tableau guignons
de VEspagne Moderne (1789, 3 vols. 8vo), which has been II
translated into English, German, and Danish. outerwek,
BOURGUIGNONS, or Burgundians. See Bur- ^
GUNDIONES.
BOURIGNON, Antoinette, a noted Flemish fana¬
tic, born at Lisle in 1616. Setting up as a reformer, she
maintained that reason and common sense ought to give
place to the illumination of divine faith. Of her pretended
visions and revelations many absurdities have been pub¬
lished. Her manners and appearance were repulsive, her
temper was morose and peevish, her cupidity excessive, and
her character asawoman questionable. Dressed likeahermit,
she travelled through France, Holland, England, and Scot¬
land, and made some thousand converts, known by the name
of Bourignonists. Her works were published in 1686 at Am¬
sterdam, in 21 vols. 8vo. One of these, entitled The Light
of the World, was published in English in 1696 ; and her
tenets were for a while popular in Scotland. Their aim
was to guide her followers to an imaginary perfection, and
to make them renounce all forms in favour of an interior
and mystic worship. Though she inherited a considerable
fortune, she never gave anything to the poor, on the pre¬
tence that they might make a bad use of her liberality.
Yet at her death, which took place at Franeker in 1680,
she left all her property to a hospital.
BOURNE, a market-town of England, in the county of
Lincoln and wapentake of Aveland, 97 miles from Lon¬
don. It has four principal streets diverging from the mar¬
ket-place, in the centre of which is the new town-hall,
erected in 1822. The church is a fine old Gothic edifice:
of its two towers only one is now standing. It has an en¬
dowed grammar-school, national school, mechanics’ library,
hospital, almshouse, and a union poor-house. Pop. (1851)
2789, principally engaged in the leathei', wool, and malt
trade. Market-day Saturday. A tesselated pavement and
some Roman coins have been found in the neighbourhood.
Cecil, Lord Burleigh, was born here in 1520, and the un¬
fortunate Dr Dodd in 1729.
BOURNONITE, a mineral consisting of sulphuret of
lead, antimony, and copper, first found in Cornwall, and
afterwards in Hanover, Mexico, and Peru.
BOURRIENNE, Fauvelet de, the early friend and
the biographer of Napoleon, was born at Sens in 1769, and
died at Caen in a lunatic asylum in 1834. He accompanied
Bonaparte to Egypt as his secretary, and continued in that
situation under the consulship; went in 1804 as ambassador
to Hamburg ; and after the fall of his old master, held office
under Louis XVIII. The revolution of 1830, and the loss
of his fortune, unhinged his reason. His Memoires, in 10
vols. 8vo, 1,829-31, contain much interesting information
regarding Napoleon. Their defects were exposed in a
work, entitled Bourrienne et ses erreurs volontaires et invo-
lontaires, Paris, 1830, 2 vols. 8vo.
BOUSSA, a large town of Central Africa, capital of a
province of the same name, in the kingdom of Borgoo. It
is situated on an island of the Niger, in Lat. 10. 14. N.
Long. 5. 20. E., and is a place of considerable strength, be¬
ing inclosed by a well-built wall. Pop. variously estimated
from 10,000 to 18,000. It was here that the enterprising
traveller Park met his untimely death.
BOUSTROPHEDON (from £oSs, and arpofq), a term
descriptive of the early Greek manner of writing, in which
the lines ran from left to right and from right to left alter¬
nately. It was so named from its resemblance to the path
of oxen in ploughing a field. In this manner Solon s laws
were written, and also the Sigeian Inscription, ap. Bockh
(i. p. 15). .
BOUTERWEK, Friedrich, a German author, chiefly
distinguished for his elaborate work on modern literature,
B 0 W
Bouts- entitled Geschichte der Neuern Poesie und Beredsamkeit,
Rim6s in 12 vols. 8vo, 1801-19. He was born at Ocken, near
il Goslar, in 1766, filled the chair of mental philosophy at
Bow' j Gottingen from 1797, and died at Gottingen in 1828. In
philosophy he at first adopted the system of Kant, but after¬
wards forsook it for that of Jacobi. His great work has
been translated into various languages. It bears the stamp
of a refined taste, and an intimate acquaintance with the
literature of Europe. The volume on the literature of
Spain is the best on that subject.
BOUTS-RIMES, in French poetry, a set of rhymes,
disposed in order, and given together with a subject, to be
filled up with verses. The invention is ascribed to one
Ducot, in the year 1649. In fixing the bouts, it was usual
to choose such as seemed to have the least connection. The
academy of Lanternists at Toulouse contributed towards
keeping in countenance the bouts-rimes, by proposing an¬
nually a set of fourteen, to be filled up on the glories of the
Grand Monarque, and by offering a medal as the prize.
The following, filled up by Commire, is a specimen of these
conceits:—
Tout est grand dans le roi, Vaspect seul de son buste
Rend nos fiers ennemis plus fraids que des glafons;
Rt Guillaume n'attend que le terns des moissons,
Pour se voir succomber sous un bras si robuste,
Qu’on ne nous vante plus les miracles d' Auguste.
Louis de bien regner lui feroit des lefons ;
Horace en vain Vigale aux dieux dans ses chansons;
Moins que man hkros il etoit sage et juste.
BO VINO (the ancient Vibinum), a fortified town of
Naples, province of Capitanata, 18 miles S.S.W. of Foggia.
It is the seat of a bishopric, of a court of primary jurisdiction,
and has a cathedral, and several churches and convents.
Pop. 5200. Here the Imperialists defeated the Spaniards
in 1734.
BOW (arcus), a weapon of offence, made of wood, or
other elastic matter, which, being strongly bent by means
of a string fastened to its two ends, throws an arrow with
great force in suddenly recovering its natural state. It is
also called the long-bow, by way of distinction from the
cross-bow or arbalest.
The bow is the most ancient and the most universal of
all weapons, and is found amongst the most barbarous and
remote tribes in every part of the world.
The use of the bow was first abolished in France under
Louis XL, and in its place were introduced the halberd,
pike, and broadsword. The long-bow was formerly greatly
used in England: most of our victories in France were ac¬
quired by it, and many laws were made to regulate and en¬
courage its use. See Archery.
The Laplanders construct their bow of two pieces of
tough wood of the same size, and flattened on each side,
the two pieces being united very firmly together by means
of a strong glue. A bow thus constructed possesses a much
greater propulsive power than another of the same dimen¬
sions formed of a single piece.
Among the ancients, the bow-string was of horse hair ;
though Homer’s bow-strings were frequently made of hide
cut into small thongs. The tip of the bow, to which the
string was fastened, was called Kopwvrj, and was frequently
made of gold. The Grecian bows were frequently beauti¬
fied with gold or silver; whence the epithet of ’Apyvporoljos
bestowed on Apollo. But the matter of which they were
ordinarily composed seems to have been wood, although
they were anciently, Scythian-like, made of horn, as appears
from the description of the bow of Pandarus in Homer.
The invention of the bow is usually ascribed to Apollo,
and it was communicated to the primitive inhabitants of
Crete, who are said to have been the first of mortals that
understood the use of bows and arrows. Accordingly, even
in later ages, the Cretan bows were famous, and preferred
BOW 251
by the Greeks to all others. The Scythians and the Par- Bow
thians were especially celebrated for their skill in archery. I!
The Scythian bow was distinguished from the bows of ^owles-
Greece and other nations by its incurvation, which was so
great as to form a half moon or semicircle ; and hence the
shepherd in Athenaeus, describing the letters in Theseus’s
name, and expressing each of them by some apposite re¬
semblance, compares the third to the Scythian bow, mean¬
ing not the more modern character 2, but the ancient C,
which is semicircular, and bears the third place in the name
of the hero, ©HCEVC, as spelt in ancient Greek.
Cross-Bow (also called arbalest or arbalet, from arba-
lista, or rather arcubalista, “ a bow with a sling”), a steel
bow set in a shaft of wood, furnished with a string and a
trigger. It is bent with a piece of iron fitted for that pur¬
pose, and serves to project bullets, darts, and other missiles.
See also Ballista.
Bow, in Ship-Building. See Ship-Building.
Bow-Net, an instrument for catching fish, chiefly lob¬
sters. It consists of two round wicker baskets, pointed at
the end, one of which is thrust into the other ; and at the
mouth there is a little rim, four or five inches broad, bent
somewhat inwards.
BOWDICH, Thomas Edward, born at Bristol in
1790, was brought up by his father to mercantile affairs,
and in 1814 obtained an appointment on the western coast
of Africa. Two years afterwards, on his return home, he
was sent out by the African Company as their agent to the
king of the Ashantees. In 1819 he published a quarto vo¬
lume giving an account of that remarkable people. He then
seems to have spent a considerable time at Paris in the study
of the natural sciences. During his stay in Europe he edited
several works on Africa, and published an excellent pam¬
phlet on the British settlements on the western coast of
Africa. In 1822 he set out for Africa once more, with a
firm resolution of devoting himself to the exploration of its
interior; but he was attacked with the country fever on the
Gambia, and died January 10th 1824. Llis widow, who
had accompanied him, edited several posthumous produc¬
tions of his pen.
BOWDITCH, Nathaniel, a self-taught American
mathematician, born in 1773, of humble parents, at Salem
in Massachusetts. He was bred to his father’s business as
a cooper, and afterwards was apprenticed to a ship-chandler.
His taste for mathematics early developed itself; and he
acquired Latin that he might study Newton’s Principia.
In 1795 he sailed as supercargo, in which capacity he made
four long voyages; and, being an excellent navigator, he
afterwards commanded a vessel, instructing his crews in
taking lunar and other observations. He edited three edi¬
tions of Hamilton Moore’s Navigation. In 1804 he became
actuary to a Boston insurance company; and in the midst of
his active and useful career published a translation of the
Mecanique Celeste of Laplace, with annotations ;—a work
which will better prove the great acquirements of this self-
taught philosopher than any laboured panegyric. He died
in 1838, at Boston.
BOWER (Saxon bur, a chamber, a hut), a place under
covert of trees, differing only from an arbour in being round
or square, with a kind of dome or ceiling at top, whereas
the arbour is properly long and arched.
Bower Anchor. See Anchor.
BOWIE-KNIFE, the name given to a large clasp-knife
used by hunters and others in America, especially in the
western States.
BOWLES, Rev. William Lisle, author of son¬
nets and other poems, was born at King’s Sutton in North¬
amptonshire in 1762. He was educated at Winchester
and at Trinity College, Oxford; and, having entered into
holy orders, he received various preferments in the church.
He is represented as having been an accomplished per-
252
B O W
BOX
son, and possessed of an agreeable and playful disposition.
By an edition which he published of the works of Pope he
became involved in a controversy with Lord Byron ; to
which circumstance he was perhaps not a little indebted for
the reputation he enjoyed. He died in 1850.
BOWLINE, a rope leading forward from the leech (side
border) of a square sail, to keep it tightly out. When a
vessel is sailing close-hauled she is then said to be sail¬
ing on a boivline or on a taut bowline. Bowline bridles
are the spans of cord by which the bowline is fastened to
the leech.
BOWLING, a game played in the open air with wooden
bowls (generally made of lignum vital) on a smooth green¬
sward or in a close bowling alley. A small ball, called a
block ox jack, is rolled to a convenient distance, and forms
the mark towards which the player aims. Each player is
provided with two bowls, and the party who counts the
greatest number of best bowls, i.e., nearest the block, wins
the game, which is usually thirteen casts or best bowls. Four
or five persons to a side is the largest number that can con¬
veniently join in the game. The bowl is constructed with a
bias to one side, so that its direction towards the mark forms
a gentle curve. When a bowl strikes the jack and removes
it from its original position, the aspect of the game is gener¬
ally altered, the relation of the bowls to the mark at the final
throw being that which decides their respective value.
Bo wling- Green, a level piece of ground kept smooth for
bowling. In Gardening it signifies a parterre in a grove,
laid with fine turf, smoothly shaven, and laid out in com¬
partments of divers figures, with dwarf trees and other deco¬
rations. Bowling-greens are of English origin, but have
been adopted by the French and Italians for ornament.
BOWSPRIT, or Boltsprit, a large spar which pro¬
jects over the stem of a ship, resting slopewise on the head
of the main stem, and having its lower end fastened to the
partners of the fore-mast, and further supported by the fore¬
stay. It carries the sprit-sail, sprit-top-sail, and jack-staff;
and its length is usually the same as that of the fore-mast.
BO WYER, an artificer whose business is to make bows ;
in which sense bowyers were distinguished from fletchers,
who made arrows.
Bowyer, William, the most learned printer of his
age, wras born at Whitefriars, London, in December 1699.
His father, whose name was also William, had been eminent
in the same profession; and his maternal grandfather, Ica-
bod Dawks, was employed in printing the celebrated Poly¬
glot Bible of Bishop Walton. He received his early edu¬
cation under Mr Ambrose Bonwicke, a nonjuring clergy¬
man at Headly, near Leatherhead, in Surrey; and in 1716
was admitted a sizar at St John’s College, Cambridge. After
leaving the university he entered into business with his fa¬
ther, who was an eminent printer. The attainments which
Bowyer brought into the printing office had long been un¬
usual in such establishments; and he was thus enabled to
issue many important woi'ks in a style that elicited universal
commendation, and placed his name in the foremost ranks
of scholarship.
One of his most valuable contributions to literature was
an excellent edition of the Greek 1 estament, published
in 1763, in 2 vols. 12mo, entitled Novum Testamentum
Gracum; ad Jidem Gracorum solum Codicum MSS.
nunc primum impressum, adstipulante Joanne Jacobo Wet-
stenio, jwxta Sectiones Jo. Alberti Bengelii divisum ; et
nova interpretatione sapius illustratum : Accessere in altero
volumine, Emendationes Conjecturales virorum doctorum
undecunque collecta. New editions of these conjectural
emendations appeared in 1772, 1782, and 1812.
In 1774 he corrected a new edition of Schrevelius’s Greek
Lexicon; to which he added a number of words, which he
himself had collected in the course of his studies. Consider¬
able manuscript additions were also made by him to the lexi¬
cons of Hederic and Buxtorf, the Latin ones of Faber and Box
Littleton, and the English dictionary of Bailey ; and he II
left behind him many other proofs of his critical skill
in the learned languages. In 1774 was published The
Origin of Printing, in two Essays. The original idea of
this valuable tract was Bowyer’s, but it was completed by
Nichols.
His death took place in November 1777, when he had
nearly completed his seventy-eighth year. For more than
half a century he was unrivalled as a learned printer, and
many of the most masterly productions of this kingdom issued
from his press. To his literary and professional abilities he
added an excellent moral character, inflexible probity, and
an uncommon alacrity in relieving the necessitous. (Ni¬
chols’ Anecdotes Literary and Biographical of William
Boivyerl)
BOX, a chest or coffer, of wood or metal, &c.
Dice-Box, a channelled cylindrical box used in gaming
for shaking and throwing the dice. It answers to the Ro¬
man fritillus.
BOX-HAUL, in Navigation, to bring a ship, when
close hauled, round upon the other tack, when she refuses
to stay and there is not room to wear.
BOXHORN, Mark Zuer, a learned Dutch critic, was
born at Bergen-op-Zoom in 1612. Before he was of age he
was appointed to the chair of eloquence at Leyden, having
already published editions of the Scriptores historic Au¬
gusta, the Poeta Satyrici Minores, and some other Latin
works. He refused the invitations of Queen Christina to
remove to Sweden; and on the death of the learned Daniel
Heinsius succeeded him as professor of jurisprudence and
history. He died in 1653, from the effects, it is said, of
immoderate indulgence in tobacco. His principal works
are Poemata, 1629, 12mo; Theatrum, seu Comitatus Hol-
landia nova descriptio, Amst. 1632, 4to; Originum Galli-
carum liber, Amst. 1654, 4to, &c.
BOXING, pugilatus by the Romans, the exercise
of fighting with the fists, either naked or with a stone or
leaden ball grasped in them. In the pugna castuum the
combatants had leathern thongs on their hands, which in
later times were loaded with lead or iron, to add greater
force to the blows. Three species of boxing may be dis¬
tinguished, namely, where both the head and hands were
naked; where the hands were armed and the head naked;
and where the ears were defended with a kind of covers,
called amphotides, and the hands also furnished with the
castus.
The ancient pugilists battled with extraordinary fury, and
frequently received such disfigurements that they could not
be recognised by their acquaintances. 1 hey were thus ren¬
dered the subject of many railleries, of which some humorous
specimens are to be found in the Greek Anthology.
Boxing was practised in the heroic ages; and hence even
gods, as well as several of the earliest heroes, are repre¬
sented as distinguished pugilists; as, for example, Apollo,
Hercules, Tydeus, &c. The invention of the art, says the
scholiast on Pindar (Nem. v. 89) was ascribed to Theseus.
Boxing the Compass, denotes the rehearsing the points
in their proper order.
Boxing also signifies the tapping of a tree, to make it
yield its juice.
BOX-WO OD, the wood of Buxus sempervirens, a native
of most parts of Europe. The tree grows well in England,
as at Boxhill, &c., but that from the Levant is most esteemed.
Turkey box is yielded by Buxus baleanca, a species which
is found in Minorca, Sardinia, and Corsica, as well as in
European and Asiatic Turkey. Ihis is the most valuable
kind, selling in the English market at from L.4, 10s. to
L.8, 15s. a ton. Box is also found on Mount Caucasus, and
a species extends even to the Himalaya mountains. It is
called shumshad by the Arabs. Boxwood is of a yellow is i
BOY
Boyaca colour, very hard, close-grained, and durable, and suscep-
II tible of a high polish. It is greatly used by the wood-en-
Boyce. graver) tile turner, carver, mathematical-instrument and
flute maker, &c. This tree was much cultivated by the
Romans, as described by Pliny; and it appears also to have
been the teashur mentioned in Scripture as one of the woods
used in adorning the temple of Solomon. The specific
gravity of Dutch boxwood is given by Muschenbroek as
13280.
BOYACA, one of the five departments into which the
republic of New Grenada is divided, comprises the four
provinces of Pamplona, Casanare, Tunja, and Socorro.
Pop. about 600,000. The capital is Tunja. The town of
Boyaca is five miles south of Tunja, and is celebrated for the
victory gained by Bolivar over the Spaniards on 7th August
1819.
BOYAR, or Boiar, a title of nobility in the Russian em¬
pire, corresponding to the English baron.
BOYAU, in Fortification, a ditch covered with a para¬
pet, which serves as a communication between two princi¬
pal trenches.
BOY-BISHOP. From a remote period, in the cathe¬
drals and greater churches of Christendom, it was the cus¬
tom on St Nicholas day (Dec. 6) to select a child, usually
one of the choir, and to invest him with the robes and other
insignia of the episcopal office; and from the time of his elec¬
tion until the feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28), the
boy-bishop continued to practise a kind of mimicry of the
ceremonies of the church, for the amusement of the people.
This custom, which was countenanced by the great eccle¬
siastics themselves, continued to exist till the year 1542,
when it was finally suppressed by royal proclamation. (See
Ellis’s edition of Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. i.)
BOYCE, Hector, a distinguished historian, was born
at Dundee about the year 1465, being descended of a
family which for several generations had possessed the
barony of Panbride or Balbride. The orthography of his
surname is extremely fluctuating: it is to be found under
the various modifications of Boece, Boeth, Boeis, Boys,
Boyse, Boyes, Boyis, Boiss, and Boyce. The first of these,
we strongly suspect, was never a name belonging to any
living man in Scotland: it was formed by the French from
the name of the latest Roman classic, and on that account
appears to have been adopted by Bellenden in his transla¬
tion of the history. The real Scottish name is a mono¬
syllable; and we adhere to the orthography of Boyce, as
being most common in our own time. He received the
first rudiments of learning at Dundee, and completed his
course of study in the university of Paris, where he took the
degree of B.D. He was appointed a professor of philoso¬
phy in the College of Montaigu; and in this seminary he
became intimately acquainted with Erasmus, who in two
epistles has testified his esteem for Boyce’s character.1 In
his academical station he had already distinguished himself
by his talents and attainments, when King’s College was
founded at Aberdeen by the munificence of William Elphin-
stone, bishop of the diocese. The papal bull for the erec¬
tion of a university had been obtained in the year 1494,
but the buildings were not sufficiently advanced, nor did
the lectures commence, till about the year 1500. It was
not without some degree of hesitation that he consented to
BOY 253
quit the lettered society of Paris, and to become principal Boyce,
of this new college; but having at length accepted the
conditions, he proceeded to Aberdeen, and experienced a
kind reception from the canons of the cathedral, several of
whom he has commemorated as men of learning. It was a
part of his duty as principal to read lectures on divinity.
The sub-principal was his friend William Hay, a native of
the same county, who had been his fellow-student at Dun¬
dee and at Paris, and who at length succeeded him as
head of the college.2 The principal’s brother, Arthur
Boyce, doctor of the canon and licentiate of the civil law,
was appointed professor of the canon law, and afterwards
became a judge of the court of session.3 The common
branches of science and literature were taught with zeal
and success; and the prosperity of the institution was
greatly promoted by the talents and by the imputation of
Boyce.
The emoluments of his office were not such as appear
very dazzling to modern eyes. “ Boethius, as president of
the university,” says Dr Johnson, “ enjoyed a revenue of
forty Scottish marks, about two pounds four shillings and
sixpence of sterling money. In the present age of trade
and taxes, it is difficult even for the imagination so to
raise the value of money, or so to diminish the demands
of life, as to suppose four and forty shillings a-year an
honourable stipend ; yet it was probably equal not only
to the needs but to the rank of Boethius. The wealth of
England was undoubtedly to that of Scotland more than
five to one, and it is known that Henry the Eighth, among
whose faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to Roger
Ascham, as a reward of his learning, a pension of ten
pounds a year.”4 But it is necessary to recollect that this
was not the only preferment which Boyce enjoyed: he
was not only principal of King’s College, but was likewise
a canon of Aberdeen, and rector of Tyrie in the same
county. Under the date of July 14. 1527, we find a
“ grant to Maister Hector” of an annual pension of fifty
pounds, to be paid by the sheriff of Aberdeen out of the
king’s casualties : and on the 26th of July 1529 was issued
a “ precept for a lettre to Mr Hector Boys, professor of
theology, of a pension of L.50 Scots yearly, until the king
promote him to a benefice of 100 marks Scots of yearly
value ; the said pension to be paid him by the customers
of Aberdeen.” In 1533 and 1534, one-half of his pension
was, however, paid by the king’s treasurer, and the other
half by the comptroller; and as no payment subsequent
to that of Whitsuntide 1534 has been traced in the trea¬
surer’s accompts, he is supposed to have obtained his bene¬
fice soon after that period.5
His earliest publication, the lives of the bishops of Aber¬
deen, appeared under the subsequent title : “ Episcoporum
Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium per Hectorem Boetium
Vitae.” hnpressa sunt luec prelo Ascensiano, ad Idus
Maias anno Salutis M.D.XXII., 4to. This little volume,
which is of great rarity, has been reprinted for the mem¬
bers of the Bannatyne Club—“ Hectoris Boetii Murthla¬
censium et Aberdonensium Episcoporum Vitae, iterum in
lucem editae.” Edinb. 1825, 4to. Of the bishops of this
diocese the seat was originally at Murthlack, in the county
of Banff', but it was afterwards transferred to Aberdeen. His
notices of the early prelates are necessarily brief and unsa-
1 Erasmi Opera, tom. i. tom. iii. col. 1784, edit. Clerici.—The first of these epistles introduces a catalogue of his own writings. Here
his learned correspondent is named Hector Bceotius, nor has Dr Jortin subjoined his more common appellation. (Life of Erasmus vol. ii.
p. 725.)
2 In Orem’s Description of King's College, Aberdeen, p. 154- 7, he is erroneously called William Gray.
3 Boyce has mentioned his brother in very favourable terms : “ Arthurus Boetius mihi germanus, in pontificio jure doctor, in civico
(ut dicunt) licentiatus, vir multas doctrinas, plus literarum indies consecuturus, quod studium ei permanet animo indefesso, nobiscum
jura pie et scite profitetur. Est in eo vis et gravitas eloquendi, a vulgari genere plurimum abhorrens. (Aberdonensium Eniscovorum Vitce
p. 63, edit. Edinb. 1825, 4to.) ’
4 Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, p. 29. Lond. 1775, 8vo.
6 Maitland’s Biographical Introduction to Bellenden, p. xxiii.
254
BOYCE.
Boyce.
tisfactory, and the most interesting portion of the book is
that which relates to his libex-al patron Bishop Elphinstone;
of whose private history and public services he has given a
circumstantial detail, which occupies nearly one-third of the
volume. Here we likewise find an account of the foun¬
dation and constitution of the college, together with some
notices of its earliest members.
His more famous work, the history of Scotland, was pub¬
lished after an interval of five years : “ Scotorum Historise
a prima gentis origine cum aliarum et rerum et gentium il-
lustratione non vulgar!: praemissa epistola nuncupatoria, ta-
bellisque amplissimis, et non pcenitenda Isagoge, quae ab
hujus tergo explicabitur diffusius. Quae omni impressa
quidem sunt lodoci Badii Ascensii typis et opera ; impensis
autem nobilis et praedocti viri Hectoris Boethii Deidonani,
a quo sunt et condita et edita.” Fol. The title and colo¬
phon have no date, but the commendatory epistle by Alex¬
ander Lyon, precentor of the cathedral of Elgin, bears the
fifteenth of March 1527. This edition contains seventeen
books. Another edition, containing the eighteenth book and
a fragment of the nineteenth, was published by Ferrerius,
who has added an appendix of thirty-five pages.1 Paris, 1574,
fol. Though published at Paris, the latter edition appears
from the colophon to have been printed at Lausanne.
The composition of Boyce’s history displays much talent;
and if the style does not always reach the standard of an¬
cient purity, it displays a certain vein of elegance which
generally renders it attractive. The author’s love of his na¬
tive country, and his anxiety to emblazon the heroic deeds
of his countrymen, are conspicuous in every part of the
work ; nor must we leave unnoticed those aspirations after
political freedom, by which he was honourably distinguished
at a period when the human mind was so generally chained
to the earth by the most slavish maxims of submission. It
may be recorded as commendation, instead of reproach,
that his principles of polity have been represented as no
better than those of Buchanan. Boyce’s imagination was,
however, stronger than his judgment: of the extent of the
historian’s credulity, his narrative exhibits many unequivocal
proofs ; and if this circumstance admits of a sufficient excuse
from the common propensity of the age in which he lived,
his work presents strong indications of another fault, for
which it is not so easy to find an apology. According to
Bishop Lloyd, he put Fordun’s tales “into the form of an
history, and pieced them out with a very good invention,
that part in which he chiefly excelled.”2 He professes to
have obtained from the monastery of Icolmkill, through the Boyce,
good offices of the-Earl of Argyle and his brother the trea-
surer, certain original historians of Scotland, and among the
rest Veremundus and Campbell, of whose writings not a
single vestige is now to be found. In his dedication to the
king, he is pleased to state that Veremundus, a Spaniard by
birth, was archdeacon of St Andrews, and that he wrote in
Latin a history of Scotland from the origin of the nation to
the reign of Malcolm the Third, to whom he inscribed his
work. According to Bishop Stillingfleet, whose opinion has
been adopted by many other writer’s, these historians never
existed except in Boyce’s fertile imagination.3 From the
charge of downright fabrication he has very recently been
vindicated by Mr Maitland; but notwithstanding the in¬
genuity of the defence, we find it extremely difficult to di¬
vest ourselves of a strong impression, that the historian’s ac¬
count of his original materials, if not destitute of truth, is at
least destitute of verisimilitude. His propensity to the mar¬
vellous4 was at an early period exposed in the following te¬
trastich of Leland, which Dempster has erroneously ascribed
to Humphrey Lhuyd :5
Hectoris historici tot quot mendacia scripsit,
Si vis ut numerem, lector amice, tibi,
Me jubeas etiam fluctus numerare marinos,
Et liquidi Stellas connumerare poli.6
Lhuyd, who attacked him in different works, spoke of his
fabrications without management or scruple ;7 nor did he
experience much better treatment from Stanihurst, an Irish
writer of considerable reputation.8 Of his merits as an his¬
torian, a very unfavourable estimate has more recently been
formed by Lord Hailes and Mr Pinkerton. But in the
opinion of Mr Wallace, a learned lawyer, his “ elegant style
and correct composition, not to add beautiful genius and
fine fancy, are conclusive proofs that his understanding could
not be inaccurate.” 9 And, as Mr Maitland has remarked,
“ in forming a final estimate of the literary character of
Boece, we must bear in mind, that when scholar-craft in
this country at least was rare, he was a scholar, and contri¬
buted, by reviving ancient learning, to dispel the gloom of
the middle ages ; and that, while the history of his country
existed only in the rude page of the chroniclers who pre¬
ceded him, or in the fading records of oral tradition, he em¬
bodied it in narrative so interesting, and language so beau¬
tiful, as to be worthy of a more refined age.” 10
Boyce’s History of Scotland was translated into the Scot¬
tish language by John Bellenden, archdeacon of Moray and
1 Joannes Ferrerius, a native of Piedmont, resided for several years in Scotland under the patronage of Robert Reid, abbot of Kinloss,
and afterwards bishop of Orkney. In the dedication of one of his works to this prelate, he mentions Hector and Arthur Boyce, to¬
gether with several other scholars of Aberdeen. “ Aberdoniis rector a Kynkell, homo studiosus et politicus, me semper complexus est
humanissime. Idem fecit Hector ille Boethius, historiarum vestrarum scriptor nunquam satis laudatus ; ut interim omittam Arthurum
Boethii fratrem germanum, utriusque juris peritissimum, Gulielmum Haye, theologum syncerum, ac JacobumVane, cum doctore medico
peritissimo Roberto Gray. Adde his Joannem Vaus, virum cum literis turn moribus ornatissimum, et de juventute Scotica bene meri-
tum.” (Auditum Visu praestare, contra vulgatum Aristotelis Placitum, academica Johannis Ferrerii Pedemontani Dissertatio. Paris,
1539, 4to.) With respect to his literary character, see Lord Hailes’s Examination of some of the Arguments for the high Antiquity of
Regiam Majestatem, p. 20. Edinb. 1769, 4to. Among various other works, he wrote a history of the abbots of Kinloss, which is printed,
though not without abbreviation, in Martene and Durand’s Veterum Scriptorum et Monumentorum Collectio, tom. vi.
2 Lloyd’s Historical Account of Church Government in Great Britain and Ireland, pref.
3 Stillingfleet’s Antiquities of the British Churches, p. 255.
4 One of the letters of Joseph Scaliger contains the subsequent passage relative to Boyce’s story of the barnacles or soland-geese;
“ Nam de conchis anatiferis fabula prorsus est. Nullae enim anates ex conchis producuntur, sed ex putredine vetustorum navigiorum,
quibus conchse adhasrent, anates quasdam nasci certum est. Etiam arbores anatiferas esse in ultima Scotia, ubi nullae prorsus arbores
sunt, hactenus mentita est scriptorum vernilitas.” (Scaligeri Epistolce, p. 729. Lugd. Bat. 1627, 8vo.) See likewise Nicolai Nancelii
Analogia Microcosmi ad Macrocosmon, col. 835. Lutetiae Paris. 1611, fol. It is just as easy to believe that birds grow upon trees as
that they are produced from rotten wood ; so that the philosophy of Scaliger seems tc have conducted him but a little way beyond the
region of absolute credulity.
5 Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, p. 98. Bononiae, 1627, 4to.
6 Lelandi de Rebus Britannicis Collectanea, vol. v. p. 126.
7 “ Ut hominem impurissimum suis depingam coloribus,” says Lhuyd, “ fucusque et praestigia quibus omnium oculos perstringere cona-
tur, aperiantur, aliquas ejus vanissimas nugas, et omnibus cordatis pro mendaciis cognitas, leviter attingamus.” (Commentarioli Britan-
‘niccz Bescriptionis Fragmentum, f. 32, a. Col. Agrip. 1572, 8vo.) In another work, De Mona Druidum Insula, Epistola, he speaks in a
similar strain : “ Ut Hectoris Boethii numera mendacia hinc facilius dignoscantur.”
8 Stanihursti de Rebus in Hibernia gestislibri quatuor, p. 18. Antverpiae, 1584, 4to.
9 Wallace’s Nature and descent of Ancient Peerages, p. 451. edit. Edinb. 1785, 8vo.
10 Biographical Introduction to Mr Maitland’s edition of Bellenden’s Translation, n. xxxv.
BOY BOY
Boyce, canon of Ross, of whom we have already presented our read-
—v—^ ers with a copious notice. While the learned archdeacon
was engaged in translating the work into prose, another in¬
dividual was engaged in the more formidable task of trans¬
lating it into verse. A copy of this metrical version, con¬
taining about 70,000 lines, is preserved in the library of the
university of Cambridge : a leaf seems to be wanting at the
beginning, and the manuscript has suffered some other
mutilations. The name of the versifier does not appear,
nor has it been ascertained from any other document; but
we learn from the prologue, that his labours, like those of
Bellenden, were intended for the benefit of the young
monarch. From the concluding lines, it is ascertained that
he began his task in April 1531, and concluded it in Sep¬
tember 153o. His verses are not distinguished by any con¬
siderable degree of energy or elegance, and the writer is
chiefly to be commended for his perseverance. The pro¬
logue, which is unfortunately mutilated, contains an account
of his motives for engaging in this laborious undertaking:
it is conducted in the form of a dialogue between the trans¬
lator and a certain lady, who is probably some allegorical
personage. 1 he following is perhaps the most curious pas¬
sage which it contains :—
Bot yit, scho said, I dreid in my intent
That to his grace it he ovir eloquent;
For quhy the termis poleist ar perfyte
Of eloquence, in rycht plesand indyte,
In Latene toung sententiouslie and schort,
Quhilk for to heir is plesand and confort.
Madame, I said, quha wes it drew that storie ?
Ane man, scho said, of sic hie laud and glorie,
In Albione sen stories wes begun,
Wes nevir nane sic amang our poetis fun.
Madame, I said, quhat is that mannis name ?
Ane Hector Boyis, said scho, of nobill fame,
Maister in art, doctor in theologie,
In all science ane profound clerk is he.
Madame, I said, now tell me or ye ga,
Quhat is the caus that ye commend it sua ?
That sail I do, quoth scho, and yow wald heir.
Our old storeis befoir thir mony yeir,
Tha war distroyit all with Inglismen
In Wallace weir, as it is eith to ken :
Syne efterwart quhen that tha wreit the storie,
Aid eldaris deidis to put into memorie,
Tha maid tha bukis, thair tractatis, and thair tabilis,
Part be ges, and part be fenzeit fabillis,
Part tha fand in aid bladis of bukis,
Part in lous quairis, Hand wer in nukis:
Tha tuke sic cuir sic thingis to considder,
Syne in ane volume pat thame altogidder,
Without ordour, fassoun, or effect;
Mikill wantit, and all the lave suspect.
Madame, said I, now gar me vnderstand
Into quhat place that he tha stories fand.
That sail I do, than said scho, with gud will.
Intill ane place callit Ecolumkill,
Ane abbai sumtyme of authoritie,
In Iona yle, within the Occident se,
Quhilk oft syis had of kingis corps the cuir;
Lang of the aid thair wes thair sepultuir:
And thair wes keipit thair storeis and bukis,
As in this libell yow sail see quhen yow luikis :
And in that place thair wes thir stories fand,
Sum in lows quairis, and uther sum weill band,
As Beid, Turgot, and Weremund alsua,
Corneill Campbell, and mony uther ma,
All tell and fynd ane fassoun and effect,1
In ornat spech, and nothing to suspect.
And for this caus 1 haif socht to ye heir;
Hartlie as now thairof, I ye requeir,
Translait this libell in our mother toung,
And preis ye nocht my purpois to impugn.
The kingis grace I knaw is nocht perfyte
In Latyn toung, and namelie in sic dyte ;
It will be tedious, that dar I tak on hand,
To reid the thing he can not vnderstand :
War it translatid in our vulgar toung,
Out throw that realme the rumor [sould be roung.]
In the year 1528, soon after the publication of his his¬
tory, Boyce took the degree of D.D. at Aberdeen ; and on
this occasion the magistrates voted him a present of a tun
of wine when the new wines should arrive, or, according
to his option, the sum ot twenty pounds to purchase a new
bonnet.2 He appears to have survived till the year 1536 ;
for on the 22d of November in that year, the king presented
John Garden to the rectory of Tyrie, vacant by the death
of “ Mr Hector Boiss.” He died at Aberdeen, and, accord¬
ing to the most probable conjecture, he had then attained or
at least approached the age of seventy. (r>. i.)
BOYD, Mark Alexander, a remarkable scholar and
soldier, son of Robert Boyd of Pinkell in Ayrshire, and
grandson of Robert Boyd, great chamberlain of Scotland,
was born 13th January 1562. He lost his father in early
life, and was educated by his uncle the learned James Boyd
of Trochrig, “ Tulchan,” archbishop of Glasgow. His tem¬
per, however, was so violent that he soon quarrelled with his
teachers, and abandoning his studies altogether, sought pre¬
ferment at the court. Among the wildest spirits of that
stormy period, the intolerable fierceness of his temper made
it convenient for him to retire from Scotland and seek his
fortune in France. He reached Paris with a small stock of
money, which he soon lost in gaming. From Paris he went
to Orleans, where he studied civil law under Robertus. The
fame of Cujas next attracted him to Bourges. From Bourges
he was driven by the plague to Lyons, and thence to Italy.
On returning to France he was engaged to instruct a young
nobleman, with whom, when the wars of the League broke
out, he joined the Catholic party, though himself a Protes¬
tant. When the campaign terminated in 1588, he went to
Toulouse and resumed his legal studies, which were speedily
interrupted by an outbreak of bigotry on the part of the in¬
habitants, who, taking him fora Protestant, seized and threw
him into prison. On his release he withdrew to Bordeaux.
I ill 1595 he led an unsettled life, sometimes studying, more
frequently engaged in war. He found time, however, in
1592 to publish at Antwerp a volume of Latin poems, which
he dedicated in a fulsome preface to James VI. He ulti¬
mately retired to his birthplace, where he died April 10.1601.
J he best of his writings are the Epistolce Heroidum, and
the Hymni, which are to be found in the I)choice Eoetarum
Scotorum, Amsterdam, 1637, tom. i. p. 142. The diction
of his poems, though copious, is far from being classical, and his
sentiments, sometimes lofty and noble, are more frequently
coarse and impure. I he finest of his poetical pieces is that
entitled The Tears of Venus on the Death of Adonis. The
MSS. of his unpublished works are preserved in the Advo¬
cates’ Library at Edinburgh.3
Boyd, Zachary, a learned and pious clergyman of the
Scottish Church, was born towards the end of the sixteenth
century, and died in 1653 or 1654. He was for many years
regent in the college of Saumur in France, but returned to
his native country in 1621, to escape the persecution of the
Protestants. In 1623 he was appointed minister of the
Barony church in Glasgow, and held the office of rector of the
university in the years 1634, 1635, and 1645. To his muni¬
ficence the university is mainly indebted for the erection of
its present buildings. Besides his library and MSS., he be¬
queathed to it the half of his fortune, a sum amounting to
L.20,000 Scots. His bust over the gateway within the
This line, which is scarcely intelligible, ought perhaps to have stood thus:—
All hail and fyne in fassoun and effect.
2 Kennedy’s Annals of Aberdeen, vol. ii. p. 367.
Hailes s Sketch of the Life of Mark Alexander Boyd, 4to. M'Crie’s Life of Melville, vol. i. p. 85.
255
256 BOY
Boyer, court commemorates his important benefactions. 1 he num-
her of his published works was considerable, and 86 of his
MSS. are said to be preserved in the library of Glasgow
College. His best known works are The Last Battel of the
Soule in Death, 1629, of which anew edition, with a bio¬
graphy by Mr Neil, was published at Glasgow in 1831 ;
Zion's Flowers, 1644. the English Academic, and Songs of
Zion. His poetical compositions are not without some
merit, though the remarkable eccentricity of some of them
has generally made them a source of amusement rather than
of edification. The common statement that he made the
printing of his metrical version of the Bible a condition of
the reception of his grant to the university, is a mistake.
BOYER, a kind of Flemish sloop.
Boyer, Abel, a well-known lexicographer and histo¬
riographer, born at Castres in France in 1664. Upon the
revocation of the edict of Nantes, he went first to Geneva,
and then to Franeker, where he finished his studies. Finally
he came to England, where he soon acquired such a profi¬
ciency in the English language, that he became an author
of considerable note, and was employed in writing several
periodical and political works. He had for many years the
principal management of a newspaper called the Post¬
bog ; and he likewise published a monthly work entitled the
Political State of Great Britain. He wrote a Life of
Queen Anne in folio ; a History of William LIT. in 3 vols.
8vo ; and Annals of the Reign of Queen Anne, in 11 vols.
8vo. But he is best known by his Dictionary and Grammar
of the French Language, which are still reckoned good in
their kind. He died at Chelsea in 1729.
Boyer, Alexis, a distinguished French surgeon, was
born on the 1st of March 1757, at Uzerches in the Limousin.
His father was in the humble station of a tailor; and the
son received the elements of a medical education in the
shop of a barber-surgeon in a provincial town. His early
talents induced his friends to procure his removal to Paris,
where he had the good fortune to attract the notice of
his two distinguished masters Louis and Desault; and his
unwearied perseverance, his anatomical skill, and finally his
dexterity as an operator, became so conspicuous, that at the
age of thirty-seven he obtained the appointment of second
surgeon to the Hotel Dieu of Paris, and was elected pro¬
fessor of operatic surgery in L’Ecole de Sante. This latter
appointment he soon exchanged for the chair of clinical
surgery ; a department in which his manual dexterity and
his admirable lectures on surgical diseases gained him the
highest reputation, and introduced him to extensive prac¬
tice. Perhaps no French surgeon of his time thought or
wrote with greater clearness and good sense than Boyer;
and while his natural modesty made him distrustful of inno¬
vation, and somewhat tenacious of established modes of
treatment, he was as judicious in his diagnosis, as cool and
skilful in manipulating, as he was cautious in forming his
judgment on individual cases.
In 1805 Napoleon nominated him imperial family sur¬
geon ; and, after the brilliant campaigns of 1806-7, made
him a member of the legion of honour, and conferred on
him the title of Baron of the Empire, with a salary of 25,000
francs (L.1042). On the fall of Napoleon, the modest
merits of Boyer secured him the favour of the succeeding
sovereigns of France, and he was consulting-surgeon to
Louis XVIII., to Charles X., and to Louis Philippe. In 1835
he succeeded Deschamps as surgeon-in-chief to the Hopi-
tal de la Charite, and was chosen a member of the Royal
Academy of Sciences of the Institute of France ; while va¬
rious scientific, national, and foreign societies enrolled him
in their lists. But honours and emoluments could not con¬
sole Boyer for the loss of a beloved wife. From the period
of her death his health began visibly to decline ; and he
terminated his mortal career on November 23. 1833, at the
age of seventy-six.
B O Y
Boyer was of a cheerful temper, unassuming and simple Boyle,
in his manners, and studied a genteel economy which en-
abled him to exhibit many traits of generosity to others. His
two great works are, Traite complet de VAnatomie, in 4
vols. 8vo, published in 1797-99 ; of which a fourth edition
appeared in 1815; and Traite des Maladies Chirurgicales, et
des operations qui leur conviennent, in 11 vols. 8vo, 1814-26.
Of this work a new edition called the 5th, with additions by
M. Ph. Boyer, in 7 vols., was published in 1844-53. (x. s. x.)
Boyer, Jean Baptiste, an eminent French physician,
born at Marseilles in 1693. He devoted a long life to the
special investigation and treatment of contagious epidemics
with a courage and success which have rarely been sur¬
passed. On the last appearance of the plague in western
Europe in 1720, he was one of the physicians sent from
Paris by the government to succour the inhabitants of his
native city, then visited by this great calamity. The fear¬
less zeal and ability which he displayed on that occasion,
procured him a pension and the title of physician in ordi¬
nary to the king. Much of his subsequent life was spent
in similar expeditions, devoted to philanthropy, wherever
pestilential epidemics prevailed: and the value of the ser¬
vices of Boyer were fully acknowledged at Paris, Treves,
Beauvais, Montague, Brest, and at several places in the
Spanish peninsula.
Fie died in 1768. His writings are not numerous : the
best known are his good Account of the Plague at Mar¬
seilles in 1720, and his Observations on the Epidemic that
prevailed, at Beauvais, published at Paris in 1750. (x. s. x.)
BOYLE, Charles, Earl of Orrery in Ireland, and Baron
of Marston, in the county of Somerset, second son of Roger
second Earl of Orrery, was born at Chelsea in 1676. He
was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and soon dis¬
tinguished himself by his learning and abilities. Like the
first Earl of Orrery, he was an author, a soldier, and a states¬
man. He translated Plutarch’s life of Lysander ; and pub¬
lished an edition of the epistles of Phalaris, which engaged
him in the famous controversy with Bentley. See Axxer-
bury. He was three times member for the town of Flun-
tingdon ; and on the death of his brother, Lionel Earl of
Orrery, in 1703, he succeeded to that title. He entered the
army, and in 1709 was raised to the rank of major-general,
and sworn one of her Majesty’s privy-council. At the battle
of the Wood he acted with distinguished bravery. He was
appointed the queen’s envoy to the states of Brabant and
Flanders ; and having discharged this trust with ability, he
was created an English peer, as Baron of Marston, in Somer¬
setshire. Fie received several additional honours in the
reign of king George I.; but having had the misfortune to
fall under the suspicion of the government he was committed
to the Tower, where he remained six months, and was then
admitted to bail. On a subsequent inquiry, it was found
impossible to criminate him, and he was discharged. He
died, after a slight illness, on the 28th of August 1731. I o
his tutor, Atterbury, he probably owed in some degree his
relish for the writings of the ancients. Medicine likewise
was one of his favourite studies. This peer also wrote a
comedy, entitled As you find it; and after him was named
the orrery, an astronomical instrument invented by Graham.
Boyle, John, Earl of Cork and Orrery, a nobleman dis¬
tinguished for his literary attainments, was the only son of
Charles Earl of Orrery, and was born January 2. 1707. He
was educated at Christ Church College, Oxford; and was
led by indifferent health, and many untoward accidents, to
cultivate in retirement his talents for literature and poetry.
Of these he has left several favourable specimens. He
translated the Letters of Pliny the Younger, with various
notes, for the use of his eldest son, published in 1/51,2 vols.
4to. He also published a Life of Swift, in several letters
addressed to his second son ; and Memoirs of Robert Carv,
Earl of Monmouth, from a manuscript presented to him by
BOY
BOY
257
Boyle, a relation. He died November 16. 1762. His letters trom
^ Italy did not appear until 1774, when they were edited, with
his life prefixed, by the Rev. J. Buncombe.
Boyle, Richard, one of the greatest statesmen of the
seventeenth century, generally styled the Great Earl of
Cork, was the youngest son of Mr Roger Boyle, and was
born at Canterbury, October 3.1566. He studied at Benet
College, Cambridge, and afterwards became a student in
the Middle 1 emple. Having lost his parents, and being
unable to support himself in the prosecution of his studies,
he became clerk to Sir Richard Manwood, chief baron of the
exchequer ; but finding this employment little likely to im¬
prove his fortune, he went to Ireland. He was then about
twenty-two years of age, graceful in person, and possessing
many accomplishments, which enabled him to render him¬
self useful to some of the principal persons employed in the
government. In 1595 he married one of the daughters and
co-heiresses of William Apsley. This lady died four years
afterwards, leaving him a landed estate of L.500 a-year.
In consequence of various services, and the great ability he
displayed, he gradually rose to the highest offices; and in
1616 he was created by King James I. Lord Boyle, Baron
of Youghall in the county of Cork. Four years later he
was created Viscount Dungarvan and Earl of Cork; and
in 1631 he was appointed lord-treasurer of Ireland, an honour
that was made hereditary in his family. He particularly
distinguished himself by the noble stand he made when the
great rebellion broke out in Ireland in the reign of Charles
I., acting with as much bravery and military skill as if he
had been trained from his infancy to the profession of arms.
Having turned the castle of Lismore, his principal seat, into
a fortress, he immediately armed and disciplined his servants
and Protestant tenants; and, with their assistance, and a
small army, raised and maintained at his own expense, which
he put under the command of his four sons, he defended
the province of Munster, and took several strong castles.
During this time he paid his forces regularly ; and when all
his money was exhausted, he converted his plate into coin.
He died on the 15th of September 1644.
Boyle, Richard, Earl of Burlington and Cork, son of
the former, was born at Youghall in October 1612. He
greatly distinguished himself by his loyalty to Charles L,
whom during his troubles he supplied both with money and
troops ; but at last he was obliged to compound for his estate.
He contributed all in his power to the Restoration ; and by
Charles II. he was created Earl of Burlington or Bridlington
in 1663. He died in January 1697-8, aged eighty-six.
Boyle, Robert, one of the greatest and best of modern
philosophers, was the seventh son and fourteenth child of
Richard Earl of Cork, and was born at Lismore castle in the
province of Munster, Ireland, January 25. 1626-7. He
acquired the first rudiments of learning in his father’s house,
being taught to speak Latin by one of the earl’s chaplains,
and French by a native of the country residing in the
house. In 1635 his father sent him to be educated at
Eton school, where Sir Henry Wotton, the earl’s friend,
was then provost. Whilst at Eton several extraordinary
accidents befel him, of which he has given us an account.
One was the fall of his chamber while he was in bed;
when he must infallibly have been suffocated by the dust as
he lay beneath the rubbish, but for his presence of mind in
covering his head with the sheet, which enabled him to
breath without difficulty. Soon afterwards, when he was
riding, his horse suddenly reared and fell backwards, when
he would certainly have been crushed but for his timely
dexterity in disengaging himself from the animal.
He remained at Eton between three and four years; and then
was placed as a private pupil with Mr Douch, rector of Stal-
bridge in Dorsetshire, a property recently purchased by the
earl. In 1638 he attended his father to London, and remained
with him at the Savoy, till the marriage of his brother Francis
VOL. v.
with Mrs Elizabeth Killigrew; and immediately afterwards,
the two brothers proceeded to the Continent, accompanied
by M. Marcomb, a Frenchman, who was tutor to Mr Boyle.
Landing at Dieppe, they passed by Rouen to Paris, and
thence to Lyons ; and then continued their journey to Ge¬
neva, where the family of their travelling companion resided.
Here young Boyle resumed his studies in the mathematics,
of which he had previously acquired some knowledge.
After residing a year at Geneva, in September 1641 he
travelled through Switzerland and the country of the Gri-
sons ; then passing by Bergamo, Brescia, and Verona, he
arrived at Venice, where he made a short stay. He spent
the winter at Florence, employing his spare hours in read¬
ing the modern history of Italy, and in studying the works
of Galileo, who died near Florence during Mr Boyle’s resi¬
dence there. He also acquired the Italian language, though
he never spoke it so fluently as French, of which he was a
perfect master.
About the end of March 1642 he went to Rome; and
after visiting several of the principal cities of Italy, he ar¬
rived at Marseilles. Here he received intelligence of the
Irish rebellion; and after experiencing considerable pecuniary
difficulties through the loss of a remittance, in consequence
of which the party were obliged to retrace their way to Ge¬
neva, he at length reached England in 1644. His father
was then dead, but he had left him the manor of Stalbridge,
as well as considerable property in Ireland ; though during
that period of public agitation he derived little benefit from
them. He procured, however, from the powers in being,
protection for his estates in the two kingdoms.
In March 1646 he retired to his manor at Stalbridge,
where he chiefly resided till May 1650. He made occa¬
sional excursions to London and to Oxford ; and in February
1647 he paid a short visit to Holland. During his retire¬
ment at Stalbridge he engaged diligently in study, devoting
his attention more particularly to natural philosophy and
chemistry. He omitted no opportunity of making the ac¬
quaintance of persons distinguished by their talents and
learning, and to such he was always a ready and generous
assistant, and maintained with them a constant correspon¬
dence. Boyle was also one of the first members of that
small society of learned men, who, in consequence of the
unsettled state of the times, held their meetings with great
privacy, first at London, and afterwards at Oxford, for the
purpose of discussing and investigating experimental philo¬
sophy, and other subjects of liberal inquiry, exclusive of re¬
ligion and politics. They styled themselves the Philosophic
College ; and after the Restoration, they were incorporated
under the name of the Royal Society.
In the summer of 1654 Boyle took up his residence at
Oxford, in order that he might pursue his studies to greater
advantage ; and here he found himself surrounded by many
learned friends, such as Wilkins, Wallis, Ward, Willis,
Wren, and others, who had resorted thither for the same
reasons as himself. It was here that he made his improve¬
ments on the air-pump, and by numerous experiments with
this instrument he was enabled to discover several qualities
of air, and to lay the foundation of a satisfactory theory of
its nature. He declared against the philosophy of Aristotle,
as being conversant more with words than with things, and
as giving the inventions of men for indubitable proofs, instead
of building upon observation and experiment. He was so
zealous for the experimental method of investigation, that
although the Cartesian philosophy was become the subject of
general attention, he could not for many years be persuaded
to read the works of Descartes, lest he should be diverted
by ingenious theories from carrying out the Baconian sys¬
tem of experimental inquires to which he had devoted him¬
self. But philosophy, and inquiries into nature, though they
engaged his attention deeply, did not occupy it entirely.
He still continued his critical and theological studies; and
2k
258
BOYLE.
B°yle. ;n these he had the assistance of several eminent scholars,
such as Pococke, Hyde, and Clarke, all distinguished orien¬
talists. He was also intimate with Dr Thomas Barlow, the
Bodleian librarian, and subsequently Bishop of Lincoln, a
man of various and extensive learning. In 1659 Boyle
came to know the distressed circumstances of Sanderson,
afterwards bishop of Lincoln, who lost all his preferments
on account of his attachment to the royal party, and he con¬
ferred upon him a pension of L.50 a-year, to encourage him
in writing his “ Cases of Conscience.”
On the Restoration, Boyle was very favourably received at
court. He was solicited by the Lord Chancellor Claren¬
don to enter into holy orders, but shrunk from the re¬
sponsibility; believing, moreover, that whatever he wrote
in the service of religion would have greater weight as
coming from a layman. He chose, therefore, to pursue
his philosophical studies in such a manner as might conduce
to the support of religion, and began to communicate to the
world the fruits of these studies. The first of these were
printed at Oxford in 1660, in 8vo, under the title of New
Experiments, Physico-mechanical, touching the Spring of
Air and its Effects; and Seraphic Love, or some Motives
and Incentives to the Love of God. Certain physiological
essays and other tracts, in 4to, appeared in 1661 ; and in
1662, the Sceptical Chemist, which was reprinted about
T679, in 8vo, with additional experiments and notes.
In 1663 the Royal Society was incorporated by letters
patent, and Boyle was appointed one of the council. He
had been principally concerned in the foundation of that
learned society, and through life he continued one of the
most useful and industrious of its members. In 1663 he
published Considerations touching the usefulness of Expe¬
rimental Natural Philosophy, 4to, and Experiments and
Considerations upon Colours; wdth Observations on a
Diamond that shines in the Dark, 8vo. This treatise,
which is full of curious and useful remarks on the hitherto
unexplained doctrine of light and colours, may be said to
have led the way to that more full and ample development
of the subject which was reserved for the genius of Newton.
In the same year appeared his Considerations on the Style
of the Holy Scriptures, 8vo, being an extract from a larger
work, entitled An Essay on Scripture, afterwards published
by his friend Sir Peter Pett. In 1664 he was elected into
the company of the royal mines, and all this year he w as
engaged in the prosecution of various good designs, which
prevented his publishing anything. The year following ap¬
peared Occasional Reflections upon several Subjects, 8vo,
addressed to Sophronia (his sister the Viscountess Rane-
lagh). In ridicule of these discourses, Dean Swift wrote
A Pious Meditation upon a Broomstick, in the style of the
Honourable Mr Boyle. “ To what a height,” said Lord
Orrery, “ must the spirit of sarcasm arise in an author, who
could prevail on himself to ridicule so good a man as Mr
Boyle ?” The same year he published an important work,
entitled New Experiments and Observations upon Cold,
1665,8vo ; and in 1666, Hydrostatical Paradoxes made out
by new Experiments, 8vo; and also the Origin of Forms
and Qualities, according to the Corpuscular Philosophy.
Besides these, both in this and the former year, he commu¬
nicated to the Royal Society several curious and excellent
short treatises, which are preserved in the Philosophical
Transactions.
In 1668 Boyle settled in London, in the house of his
sister, Lady Ranelagh, in Pall-Mall. In the following year
he published A Continuation of New Experiments, touch¬
ing the Weight and Spring of the Air; to which is added,
A Discourse of the Atmospheres of Consistent Bodies. He
also revised and made additions to several of his former
works, some of which were now translated into Latin. About
the same time he published his Tracts about the Cosmical
Qualities of Things, the Temperature of the Subterraneous
Regions, and the Bottom of the Sea; to which is prefixed,
an Introduction to the History of Particular Qualities.
1 his book occasioned much speculation, as it contained a
vast treasure of knowledge, founded upon actual experi¬
ments, or arguments justly drawn from them, instead of
that conjectural philosophy which in the beginning of the
seventeenth century had been so much in fashion. In 1671
he published Considerations on the Usefulness of Experi¬
mental and Natural Philosophy, (part second), 4to; and,
A Collection of Tracts upon several useful and important
points of Practical Philosophy, 4to; which were received
as new and valuable gifts to the learned world. An essay
concerning the Origin and Virtues of Gems, 8vo, appeared
in 1672; also, A collection of tracts upon the relation be¬
tween flame and air, and several other useful and curious
subjects; besides which he furnished, in this and the former
year, a great number of short dissertations upon a variety of
topics, addressed to the Royal Society, and inserted in their
Transactions. Essays on the Subtility and determinate Na¬
ture of Effluvia, to which were added a variety of Experi¬
ments on other Subjects, came out in 1673, 8vo. A collec¬
tion of tracts upon the Saltness of the Sea, the Moisture of
the Air, the Natural and Preternatural State of Bodies, to
which is prefixed a dialogue concerning Cold, was published
in 1674, 8vo. The Excellency of Theology, compared with
Philosophy, appeared in 1673. This discourse was written
in 1665, when the Great Plague which then raged in Lon¬
don obliged the author to wander from place to place in the
country, where he had little opportunity of consulting books.
A Collection of Tracts, containing Suspicions respecting Hid¬
den Qualities of the Air, with an appendix, touching Celestial
Magnets, Animadversions upon Hobbes’s Problem about a
Vacuum, and a Discourse of the Cause of Attraction and Suc¬
tion, was published in 1674. Some Considerations about
the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion, by a Layman,
to which is annexed a discourse about the Possibility of the
Resurrection, appeared in 1655. Amongst the papers which
he communicated to the Royal Society this year, one was
entitled An Experimental Discourse of Quicksilver growing
hot with Gold; and another relating to the same subject;
each of which contained important discoveries.
In 1676 he published Experiments and Notes about the
mechanical origin or production of Particular Qualities, in
several discourses on a great variety of subjects, and among
the rest on electricity. In 1678 he communicated to Dr
Hooke a short memorial of some observations made upon
an artificial substance that shines without any preceding
illustration ; which that philosopher published in \\\§ Lectiones
Cutleriance. His historical account of a degradation of
gold produced by an anti-elixir, is looked upon as one of the
most remarkable pieces that ever fell from his pen. The
regard which Sir Isaac Newton entertained for Boyle may
be seen in a letter which he wrote to him, towards the close
of this year, stating his sentiments of that ethereal medium
which he afterwards considered in his Optics as the cause
of gravitation. This letter is given in the Life of Boyle by
Dr Birch.
In 1680 he published the Aerial Noctiluca, or some
new phenomena, and a process of a factitious self-shining
substance, 8vo. This year the Royal Society, as a proof of
their sense of his great worth, and of the services which he
had rendered the society, elected him their president; but
being extremely sensitive in regard to oaths, he declined
the honour. He published a discourse of Things above
Reason, inquiring, whether a philosopher should admit any
such, 1681, 8vo ; New Experiments and Observations upon
the icy Noctiluca, to which jis added a chemical paradox,
grounded upon new Experiments, 1682, 8vo; and a con¬
tinuation of New Experiments, Physico-mechanical, touch¬
ing the Spring and Weight of the Air, 1682, 8vo. In 1683 he
published nothing except a short letter to Dr Beale, in rela-
BOY
Boyle, tion to the making of fresh water out of salt; but in 1684
—be published Memoirs for the natural history of Human
Blood, especially the spirit of that liquor, 8vo; and Experi¬
ments and Considerations about the Porosity of Bodies. In
1685 he published Short Memoirs for the natural experi¬
mental history of Mineral Waters, with directions as to the
several methods of trying them; an Essay on the great Effects
of even languid and unheeded motion, which was received
with great and general applause; a Treatise of the Recon-
cileableness of specific Medicines to the Corpuscular Philo¬
sophy, to which is annexed a Discourse about the Advan¬
tages of the use of Simple Medicines, 8vo ; and a theologi¬
cal tract of the high veneration Man’s intellect owes to God,
peculiarly for his wisdom and power, 8vo. In the begin¬
ning of the succeeding year came out his Free Inquiry into
the vulgarly received notion of Nature; and in 1687 he
published the martyrdom of 1 heodora and Didymia, a juve¬
nile pei formance. His Disquisition about the final causes
of natural things, in 8vo, appeared in 1688.
He novy began to find that his health and strength, not¬
withstanding every care, gradually declined. He no longer
communicated particular discourses or new discoveries to
the Royal Society, because it could not be done without
withdrawing his thoughts from occupations which he thought
of still greater importance. In order the more steadily to
attend to these, he resigned his post of governor of the cor¬
poration for propagating the gospel in New England; and
even went so far as to signify to the world, by public adver¬
tisement, that he could no longer receive visits as usual.
Among the other works which by this means he gained
time to finish, was a collection of elaborate processes in
chemistry, which, as he stated in a letter to a friend, he
left “as a kind of hermetic legacy to the studious disciples
of that art. Besides these papers, he left behind him many
relating to chemistry.
He published some other works, as Medicina Hydrosia-
tica, or, Hydrostatics applied to the Materia Medica, 1690,
8yo ; The Christian Virtuoso, to which is subjoined, A
Discourse about the Distinction that represents some Things
as above Reason, but not contrary to Reason ; and the first
chapters of a discourse entitled Greatness of mind promoted
bV Christianity. Lastly, he published in the spring of
1691, Experimenta et Observationes Physicce, treating of
several subjects relating to natural philosophy, in an experi¬
mental way, 8vo.
About the beginning of summer he began to feel such an
alteration in his health as induced him to think of settling
his affairs; and on the 30th December 1691 he departed
this life, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He was buried
in St Martin’s in the Fields, Westminster; and his funeral
sermon was preached by Dr Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salis¬
bury.
The edition of the New Testament in the Malayan tongue
was undertaken at Boyle’s expense, and sent over all the
East. He munificently rewarded the person who translated
Grotius’s book De Veritatc into Arabic; and he was at the
charge of a whole impression, which he took care to have
distributed in all the countries where that language was un¬
derstood. It was his intention to have printed an impres¬
sion of the New Testament in Turkish ; but the design
was carried out by the Levant Company. Boyle, however,
contributed largely towards it. He expended* L.TOO on an
edition of the Scriptures in Irish, and contributed liberally
to the impression of the Welsh Bible. He gave, during his
.e, L.300 to advance the design of propagating the Chris¬
tian religion in America; and as soon as he heard that the
East India Company were entertaining propositions for a
similar design in the East, he sent a donation of L.100. His
various charities amounted altogether to upwards of L.1000
a-year.
Of his merits as an inquirer into nature, Boerhaave re-
B 0 Y
259
marks, that “ Boyle, the ornament of his age and country,
succeeded to the genius and inquiries of the great Chan¬
cellor Verulam;’ to which he adds—“ To him we owe the
secrets of fire, air, water, animals, vegetables, fossils; so
that fiom his works may be deduced the whole system of
natural knowledge. Ihis may now appear extravagant;
but at the time it was considered a just tribute to his extra¬
ordinary merit and indefatigable perseverance.
In his person Robert Boyle was tall, slender, and of
a pale countenance. His constitution was extremely deli-
cate; and he was so apprehensive of the effects of cold, that he
was guided by the thermometer in fixing upon one of his
numerous cloaks to wear abroad. Though labouring for
nearly forty years of his life under every disadvantage of
bodily weakness and depression of spirits, his ardour in the
cause of science suffered no abatement, as amply testified
by the extent and importance of his various productions. He
had likewise a weakness in his eyes, which rendered him
extremely apprehensive of such distempers as might af-
ect them. As to life itself, he set that just value on it
which became a philosopher and a Christian. He was never
married, although he had at least one opportunity of making
an advantageous connection, since we find from a letter of
Dr John Wallis to him, dated Oxford, 17th July 1669
that an overture had been made to him in regard to the
Lady Mary Hastings, sister to the Earl of Huntingdon.
The follownng is a list of his posthumous works:—1. The Gene-
ra! History of the Air designed and begun ; 2. General Heads for
the Natural History of a Country, for the use of Travellers and
avigators ; 3. A paper of the Hon. Robert Boyle’s, deposited with
the secretaries of the Royal Society, being an account of his mak¬
ing the Phosphorus, September 30, 1680 ; 4. An account of a wav of
examining A\ aters as to Freshness or Saltness ; 5. A free Discourse
against customary Swearing, and a Dissuasive from Cursing, 1695
8vo; and 6. Medicinal Experiments, or a Collection of choice Re¬
medies &c., 1698, 12mo. Editions of all his works have been
printed at London, in five volumes folio, and six volumes 4to.
Boyle, Roger, Earl of Orrery, fifth son of the great
Earl of Cork, was born in April 1621. He distinguished
himself while a student at Dublin College, and afterwards
made the tour of France and Italy. On his return he was
created Lord Broghill, through the interest of the Earl of
Strafford. Shortly afterwards he married Margaret Howard
sister to the Earl of Suffolk; and passing over to Ireland
with his bride, he found the country in a state of rebellion
and assisted his father in opposing the insurgents. Upon
the execution of the king, he retired to his seat at Marston
in Somersetshire; but his spirit could ill brook this state of
inactivity, and he therefore resolved to cross the seas, and
apply to Charles II. for a commission to raise forces to re¬
store the monarchy and recover his own estate. Under the
pretence of visiting Spa for his health, he proceeded as far as
London, when he received a message from Cromwell, then
general of the parliamentary forces and a member of the
committee of state, intimating his intention to wait upon
him. Presently Cromwell himself entered the room, and
after the exchange of a few civilities, told Lord Broghill that
the committee were apprised of his design; and when his
lordship assured him that the intelligence was false, Crom¬
well produced copies of several of his confidential letters
which reduced him to the necessity of asking Cromwell’s
pardon, and requesting his advice in such a conjuncture.
Ciomw ell told him, that though he had hitherto been a
stranger to his person, he was not so to his merit and cha¬
racter ; that he had heard how gallantly his lordship had
behaved in the Irish wars; and he concluded by offerino-
him the command of a general officer, exempt from all oaths
and engagements; adding that he should not be obliged to
draw his sword against any but the Irish rebels. ^Lord
Broghill, greatly surprised at so unexpected an offer re¬
quested some time for deliberation. But Cromwell briskly
told him that he must determine instantly; that he himself
Boyle.
260 BOY
Boyle’s was about to return to the committee, who were still sitting;
Lectures. anti that if his lordship rejected their offer, they had deter-
mined to send him to the Tower. Broghill, finding that his
liberty and life were in the utmost danger, pledged his
honour that he would faithfully serve against the Irish re¬
bels ; and accordingly, by Cromwell’s instructions, he passed
over into Ireland, where by many important services he fully
justified the opinion which Cromwell had conceived of him.
Having raised a troop of horse, it was soon increased to a
regiment of 1500 men, and these he led into the field against
the rebels. He was speedily joined by Cromwell, who placed
the highest confidence in his new ally, and found him of the
greatest value to the interest of the commonwealth.
When Cromwell became Protector, Lord Broghill was
made one of his privy council, and admitted to great inti¬
macy and confidence. It is said that the latter formed a
project for engaging Cromwell to restore the old constitu¬
tion, by a match between Charles II. and the Protector’s
daughter. Cromwell, who at first seemed to think it not
unfeasible, soon perceived the difficulties which it involved,
and told Broghill that he thought his project impracticable :
“ For,” said he, “ Charles can never forgive me the death of
his father.”
On the death of Cromwell, Lord Broghill continued at¬
tached to his son Richard, till, seeing that the weak nature
of that amiable man would infallibly bring on his fall, he
deemed it imprudent still to cling to one whom he could not
save, and accordingly retired to his command in Ireland,
where affairs shortly after took a turn extremely favourable
to the design of the king’s restoration. Lord Broghill was
not a little instrumental in bringing about that event; and,
in consideration of his eminent services, Charles created him
Earl of Orrery, September 5. 1660. He was soon after
made one of the lords justices of Ireland ; and his conduct,
whilst at the head of affairs in that kingdom, was such as to
add greatly to the general esteem in which his character
was previously held.
His active and toilsome course of life at length brought
on disease and infirmity; but, notwithstanding, he went
over to England in 1665, at the king’s desire, and mediated
with success in a serious misunderstanding which existed
between the king and the Duke of York.
On his return to Ireland, Lord Orrery, by his prudent
and skilful measures, rendered abortive the scheme of a
descent upon Ireland by the Dutch and French, planned by
the Duke de Beaufort, admiral of France.
About this time a quarrel with his old friend the Duke
of Ormond, arising from mutual jealousies, became so serious
that the disputants resorted to England to defend their re¬
spective interests. This quarrel, though of a private begin¬
ning, became at last of a public nature. Lord Orrery was
impeached, but defended himself so well that the prosecu¬
tion failed. He lost, however, his public employments ; but,
retaining the king’s favour, still came frequently to court,
and was often consulted on affairs of importance. His last
voyage to England was for the purpose of obtaining medical
advice ; but his disease, which was gout, proved mortal, and
he expired on the 16th of October 1679, in the fifty-ninth
year of his age. Lord Orrery was the author of several works,
chiefly dramas and poems, now forgotten. Walpole remarks
“ that he never made a bad figure but as a poet.” As a soldier,
his valour was distinguished, his stratagems and tact were
remarkable ; as a statesman, it is sufficient to say that he pos¬
sessed the confidence of Cromwell; and his credit ever stood
high for integrity, and for generous fidelity as a friend.
Boyle’s Lectures, a course of eight sermons or lectures
preached annually, and founded by the Honourable Robert
Boyle, whose design, as expressed in a codicil annexed to
his will in 1691, was to prove the truth of the Christian
religion against infidels, without descending to any contro¬
versies among Christians, and to answer new difficulties or
BOY
scruples that might from time to time arise. For the sup- Boyle
port of this lecture, he assigned the rent of his house in II
Crooked Lane to some learned divine within the bills of Boyse>
mortality, to be elected for a time not exceeding three
years, by Archbishop Tennison and others. But the fund
proving precarious, the salary was ill paid ; and to remedy
this inconvenience, the archbishop procured a yearly stipend
of L.50 for ever, to be paid quarterly, charged on a farm in
the parish of Brill in the county of Bucks. To this ap¬
pointment we are indebted for many elaborate defences both
of natural and revealed religion.
Boyle, or Abbey Boyle, a town and parish of Ireland,
in the county of Roscommon and barony of the same name,
on the river Boyle, an affluent of the Shannon, 94 miles
W.N.W. of Dublin. It has a church, four chapels, barracks,
market-house, bridewell, union-poorhouse, dispensary, and
savings-bank. Previous to the Union it returned two mem¬
bers to the Irish parliament. It has some trade in grain,
butter, and flax. Considerable remains of the abbey, an
edifice of the latter part of the twelfth century, are still to
be seen. Pop. (1851) 3463.
BOYNE, a river of Ireland, rising in the Bog of Allen,
near Carbery in Kildare, and flowing in a N.E. direction,
passes Trim, Navan, and Drogheda, and enters the Irish
Sea about four miles below the last-mentioned town. It is
navigable for barges of 70 tons to Navan, 19 miles from
its mouth. About three miles west of Drogheda, an obelisk,
150 feet in height, marks the spot where the forces of Wil¬
liam III. gained the celebrated victory over those of James
II. on 1st July 1690, known as the “battle of the Boyne.”
BOYSE, Boys, or Bois, John, one of the translators of
the English Bible, was born at Nettlestead in Suffolk, Janu¬
ary 3. 1560. He received the rudiments of learning from
his father ; and so precocious were his talents, that it is said
he could read Hebrew at the age of five. At fourteen he
was admitted of" St John’s College, Cambridge, where he
was during ten years principal Greek lectui'er. He also
delivered a Greek lecture for some years at four in the
morning, in his own chamber, which was frequented by many
of the fellows. On the death of his father, he succeeded to
the rectory of West Stowe. At the age of thirty-six he
married the daughter of Mr Holt, whom he succeeded as
rector of Boxworth, in Cambridgeshire, in 1596. On his
quitting the university, the college gave him L.100; but
his wife being a bad economist, he soon became so much
involved in debt that he was obliged to sell his choice col¬
lection of books, consisting of every Greek author then ex¬
tant. When James I. directed a new translation to be made
of the Bible, Bois was chosen as one of the translators; and
he not only executed his own portion, which was the Apo¬
crypha, but also the part assigned to another. He was also
one of the six who had met at Stationers’ Hall to revise the
whole ; which task they performed in nine months, having
each, from the company of stationers during that time, thirty
shillings a-week. He afterwards assisted Sir Henry Savile
in publishing the works of St Chrysostom. In 1615 Dr
Lancelot Andrews, bishop of Ely, bestowed on him unasked
a prebendal stall in his cathedral. He died 14th January
1643, and left a great mass of manuscripts behind him. A
work of his on the text of the Evangelists and Acts was pub¬
lished in 1655. When a student, Boyse received from the
learned Dr Whitaker three rules for avoiding those diseases
which are often engendered by sedentary pursuits, viz., to
read standing, not to study at a window, and never to go to
bed with cold feet. By attention to these simple precepts
he is said to have preserved to the last an unwrinkled brow,
with a freshness of complexion and vigour of constitution
very rarely to be found in advanced age.
Boyse, Samuel, an English writer of considerable ability,
but scandalous character, was born in 1708, and died in
great wretchedness in 1749. His poetical compositions
Bozrah
B Pv A
were numerous, and one of them, entitled The Deity, re¬
ceived the praises of Hervey and Fielding; but none of
them have survived the test of time.
BOZRAH, a chief city of the Edomites, 80 miles N.E.
of Jerusalem, and known to the Greeks and Romans under
the name of Bostra. It was 24 miles to the south of Edrei,
one of the capitals of Bashan. Under Alexander Severus it
became the seat of a Roman colony. Till the seventeenth
century it was much frequented by caravans of pilgrims on
their way to Mecca, who found in it abundant supplies of
water. In the town itself, which is now little more than a
heap of ruins, there is still in good preservation a reservoir,
190 paces in length, 153 in breadth, and 20 feet in depth,
with walls 7 feet in thickness. Immediately beyond the walls
of the city is a strong castle, built by the Saracens, which is
still found of use to defend the few remaining inhabitants
from the incursions of Bedouin marauders.
BRA, a town of Sardinia, province of Alba, on the river
Stura, 25 miles N.E. of Cuneo. It has three parish churches,
a gymnasium, hospital, manufactures of silk and linen goods,
and a considerable trade in corn, cattle, and wine. Pop.
11,500. 1
BRABANCIONES, in historians of the middle age, a
kind of soldiery or commissioned banditti, who would fight
for any one who could pay them. Brabant was the chief
nursery of these troops—whence the name. They are fre¬
quently confounded with the Routiers, Roturiers, Rupta-
rh, Ruterarii, Corteraux, and others.
BRABANT, North and South, two provinces, the
former in Holland and the latter in Belgium, which see.
BRABEUTES (fipafiew-rp). See Agoxotheta.
BRACCIOLINI, Francesco, an Italian poet, bom at
Pistoja, of a noble family, a.d. 1566. Removing to Florence,
he was admitted into the academy there, and devoted him¬
self to literature. At Rome he entered into the service of
Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, with whom he afterwards went
to France. After the death of Clement VIII. he returned
to his own country; and when his patron Barberini was
elected pope under the name of Urban VIII., Bracciolini
repaired to Rome, and was made secretary to the pope’s
brother, Cardinal Antonio. He had also the honour con¬
ferred on him of taking a surname from the arms of the
Barberini family, which were bees; whence he wasafterwards
known by the name of Bracciolini dell’ Api. During Ur¬
bane’s pontificate the poet lived at Rome in considerable
reputation, though, at the same time, he was censured for his
sordid avarice. On the death of this pontiff he returned to
Pistoja, where he died in 1645. There is scarcely any
species of poetry, epic, dramatic, pastoral, lyric, or burlesque,
which Bracciolini did not attempt; but he is principally
noted for his mock-heroic poem entitled Lo Schema degli
Dei, which was published in 1618, four years before Tassoni’s
Secchia Rapita; yet, though the author wished to claim
the merit of priority, it should be observed that Tassoni’s
poem was completed in 1615, and freely circulated in MS.
Ihe inferiority of Bracciolini’s performance, indeed, is ac¬
knowledged, yet it obtained considerable applause. Of
his serious heroic poems, the most celebrated is La Croce
Racquistata, which by some is placed next to the works of
Ariosto and Tasso, sed magno intervallo.
Bracciolini, Poggio. This eminent scholar and con¬
tributor to the restoration of classical learning, was born at
Terra-Nuova, a small town near Arezzo, Feb. 11.1380. His
father (a notary) had once been possessed of considerable
property, but was ruined by circumstances which have not
been recorded; and Poggio, after receiving a capital edu¬
cation in the usual branches then taught at the university
of Florence (where he studied Latin under Gio. Malpaghino,
commonly called John of Ravenna), was at an early age
thrown on his own resources. The inaccuracy of the
commonly received opinion that he studied Greek under
BRA
261
the celebrated Manuel Chrysoloras, is proved by a letter Braccio-
of his, in which he states that he commenced his Greek hni.
studies at Rome in 1424, i.e., some years after the death of
Chrysoloras.
Poggio set out for Rome in 1403, and was soon received
by Pope Boniface IX. as apostolical secretary, an office of
high trust; in which his talents and integrity must have
been conspicuous, as he held the same situation under eight
successive pontiffs. In the following year, under Innocent
VII., he was able to introduce his excellent friend Leonardo
Bruni of Arezzo into the office of apostolic scribe. On the
death of Innocent, Italy was convulsed by the claims of rival
popes ; and Poggio embraced that opportunity of visiting his
native country, where he received the patronage of Niccolo
Niccoli of Florence, a munificent encourager of learned
men, and where he remained until recalled to the aposto¬
lic secretaryship on the election of John XXII. In that
capacity he accompanied the pope to the council of Con¬
stance in October 1414; and saw his master first suspended
and finally deposed by the general council of the church,
after they had brought to trial and executed—in defiance
of the safe-conduct granted him by the emperor—the cele¬
brated Bohemian reformer, John Huss. The deposition
of the pope caused the dispersion of his officers ; and though
the affairs of Poggio were not in a very prosperous condi¬
tion, he remained at Constance and its vicinity for a consi¬
derable time. He was a witness to the trials and execution
of another martyr to the cause of reformation, Jerome of
Prague; who, undeterred by the fate of Huss, presented
himself before the council, and was twice tried by that body.
Poggio has left us a vivid narrative of the genius and intre¬
pidity of the martyr in his eloquent defence and terrible
punishment. His admiration of the man has evidently con¬
verted the apostolical secretary into a powerful panegyrist
of a condemned heretic. In a letter to his friend, Leonardo
Aretino, he says :—“ His voice was sweet, clear, and sono¬
rous ; his action dignified, and well adapted to express indig¬
nation, or to excite compassion—which, however, he neither
asked nor wished for. He stood undaunted and intrepid;
not merely contemning, but, like another Cato, longing for
death. He was a man worthy to be had in everlasting
remembrance.”
Phis part of the life of Poggio is that on which his chief
claim to the gratitude of posterity rests. He now devoted
his leisure and his resources to rescuing from the destruction
with which the barbarism of Europe had well nigh consigned
them, the precious remains of classic authors; and his dili¬
gent search for ancient MSS. in the mouldering archives of
religious houses in several parts of Germany, Italy, and
h ranee, which he visited for this purpose, are creditable to
his industry and his taste. A great number of MSS. were
collected by his own hands, sometimes transcribed by him,
or were procured by his means, and deposited in the libra¬
ries of Italy, then the only part of Europe where their value
was truly estimated. To Poggio’s zeal we owe the recovery
of seven orations of Cicero, which we shall indicate in the
order in which they appear in the Barbou edition of his
works. 1. Pro Roscio Comcedo ; 2. De Lege Agraria, ad
Senatum; 3. De Lege Agr., ad Populum ; 4. De Lege Agr.,
ad Populum ; 5. Pro C. Rabirio Perduellonis Reo ; 6. In
Lucium Pisonem ; 7. Pro C. Rabirio Postumo. He also
recovered the poem of Silius Italicus on the second Punic
War; Vegetius de Re Militari ; Lactantius de Ira Dei et
Opificio Hominum ; Tertullian; Nonius Marcellus ; Ammi-
ani Marcellini Historia; Lucretius; Columella ; Julius
Frontinus de Aquceductis ; the eight books of Firmicus on
Mathematics ; Calpurnii Bucolica ; Petronius Arbiter; and
to the same indefatigable explorer we are indebted for
bringing to light the astronomical poem of Manilius, the
lyrics of Lucius Septimius, with the treatises of Caper,
Eutychius, and Probus. It was also through Poggio that
262 BRA
Braccio- Nicolas of Treves recovered twelve of the comedies of
Jini. Plautus, and a fragment of Aulus Gellius.
These discoveries appear from a letter of F. Barbaro to
have taken place before June 14. 1417; and it may easily
be conceived that these researches were a heavy drawback
upon the finances of Poggio. His difficulties were increased
by the unexpected death of his friend and patron Zarabella,
the Cardinal of Florence, which occurred in 1417. In this
dilemma he accepted an invitation to come to England from
Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester; but on arriving
in London the magnificent promises of the cardinal vanished
in air ; and Poggio experienced the mortification of neglect
among a people rude and illiterate, and utterly untinctured
with the spirit of refinement that had been kindled in Italy.
After spending four years in vain in England, in which a very
paltry piece of preferment was all he could obtain, he re¬
turned to Italy in 1421, and again became apostolical sec¬
retary to Martin V.; and, on the death of that pontiff in
1431, to his successor Eugenius IV., who was obliged to
retire to Florence, whither he was willingly followed by
Poggio; but on the election of the able and excellent
Nicolas V. in 1447, Poggio resumed his office of secretary
at Rome. The cruelties of Pope Eugenius drew down on
him the vengeance of his subjects, and he was ignominiously
driven from his capital in 1433, and narrowly escaped with
his life. His friends were arrested; and Poggio had the
misfortune to fall into the hands of a noted condottiero,
Piccinino, who compelled him to pay a large ransom for his
freedom, which the narrowness of his finances rendered it
very difficult for him to pay.
In 1436, Poggio, who had always steadily refused to en¬
ter into holy orders as a means of obtaining promotion,
married Vaggia de Bondelmonti, daughter of a wealthy and
honourable Tuscan family, with whom he lived very happily.
Soon after his marriage he gave vent to his satisfaction in an
elegant Latin dialogue, An seni sit uxor ducenda, in which he
maintains the wisdom of the step which he had taken. By
this lady he had five sons—Pietro Paulo, Giovanni Battista,
Jacopo, Giovanni Francesco, and Filippo—and a daughter,
Lucretia, who married into the family of the Bondelmonti.
On the appearance of the plague at Rome in 1450, the
court left the city, and Poggio withdrew to Florence, at
which time he wrote his Facetice; a collection of stories, in
the taste of that age, more remarkable for their humour than
their delicacy. In 1453 he was chosen chancellor of Flo¬
rence, which finally fixed his residence in his native country.
He now turned his attention to the history of Florence, and
composed his history of that republic; an elaborate and
very eloquent work, in which he imitated Livy and other
ancient historians, by explaining the secret springs of action
in the characters he delineates, by speeches which he puts
into their mouths. His statements are clear and well defined;
and he is particularly happy in his delineation of character.
It was translated into Italian by his unfortunate son Jacopo.
The works of Poggio Bracciolini have never yet been
wholly published. This is to be regretted, especially with
respect to his letters, which give interesting details of what
he saw and heard. Many of these, from which much light
might be expected on the contemporaneous state of Italy,
Germany, France, and England, exist in the Ricardi Library
at Florence, and other Continental collections, as we are in¬
formed by Tonelli, in the preface to his excellent translation
of the life of Bracciolini by the Rev. William Shepherd,
LL.D., an elegant English work, which has gone through
two editions in Britain, and has been also well translated
into French and German.
Poggio Bracciolini died at Florence on the 30th of Octo¬
ber 1459, and was buried with public honours in the church
of Sta Croce, next his accomplished friend Leonardo Are-
tino. A fine statue of him, by Donatello, exists in the
cathedral of Florence.
BRA
The following is a list of his published works:—1. Dialogue on Brace
Avarice, 1431-32; 2. An Seni Sit Uxor Ducenda, 1436; 3. Oration
on the Death of Piccolo Niccoli, 1437; 4. Dialogue on Nobility, Bracton,
1440 ; 5. Oration on the Death of Lorenzo de Medici, 1440; 6. Dia- v -
logue on the Unhappiness of Princes, 1440; 7. Oration on the
Death of Cardinal di Sta Croce, 1443; 8. Eulogy of Leonardo Are-
tino, 1444 ; 9. Eulogy of Cardinal Julian di Sn Angelo, 1444; 10.
Inaugural Address to Pope Nicolas V., 1447; 11. On the Vicissi¬
tudes of Fortune, 1447; 12. On Hypocrisy (in which he lashes the
clergy), 1447; 13. Latin Translation of Xenophon’s Cyropsedia
(which he declared a romance, not a history), 1445; 14. Latin Trans¬
lation of Diodorus Siculus, 1448 ; 15. Liber Facetiarum, 1451; 16.
Historia Deceptiva Convivialis, 1451 ; 17. De Miseria Humanve Con-
ditionis, 1452 ; 18. Translation of the Golden Ass of Apuleius (which
he shows to be derived from Lucian), 1452 ; 19. Historia Florentina,
1456-57. (T. s. T.)
BRACE, that which holds anything firm, as a bandage,
or a cross timber in building. In printing, it denotes a
crooked line connecting two or more lines. It is also used
by sportsmen for a couple or pair ; as a brace of bucks, of
hares, of grouse, &c.
Braces, in sea language, are ropes reeved through
blocks at the ends of the yard-arms, for the purpose of
squaring or traversing the yards.
BRACELET, an ornament worn on the wrist. It was
much used among the ancients, and was made of different
materials, according to the fashion of the age and the rank
of the wearer. The word is French, bracelet; which
Menage derives from braceletum, a diminutive of bracile,
all formed from the Latin brachium, an arm. This kind
of ornament was called by the Romans armilla, bra-
chiale occabus; and in the middle ages boga, bauga,
armispatha.
Bracelets have at all times been much in use among
Eastern nations ; and the women frequently wear many on
the same arm. Among the higher classes these are of
mother of pearl, fine gold, or silver ; while poorer persons
use plated steel, horn, brass, copper, beads, &c.
BRACHIOPODA, Cuvier’s fifth class of Mollusca.
See Mollusca.
BRACHMINS, or Brachmans. See Brahmins.
BRACHYGNATHUS, a genus of fossil fishes—the
only known species of which, B. Tenuiceps, occurs in the
London clay of Sheppy.
BRACHYGRAPHY (flpaxys and ypa^rj), the art of
short-hand writing. See Stenography.
BRACKET, a kind of stay against a wall to support a
shelf or the like.
Brackets, in a ship, are small crooked timbers resembling
knees, fixed in the frame of the ship’s head, to support the
gratings. They also serve to support the gallery.
Brackets, in Gunnery, the cheeks of the carriage of a
mortar. See Gunnery.
Brackets, in Printing. See Crotchets.
BRACK LEY, a market-town of Northamptonshire,
sixty-three miles from London. It is situated on a slope
on the north bank of the Ouse. The houses are mostly built
of stone, ranged in one street, extending from the bridge
up the hill. It has two churches, a handsome market-
house, an endowed free school, a hospital, and manufac¬
tures shoes and laces. Previous to the Reform Act it
returned two members to parliament. Pop. in 1851, 2147.
BRACTON, Henry, lord chief justice of England in
the reign of Henry III., was probably a native of Devon¬
shire. He was educated at Oxford, where he took the
degree of doctor of laws; and about the year 1244 was
made one of the itinerant judges. Ten years later he be¬
came chief justice, and had the Earl of Derby’s house in
London assigned him for his town residence during the
minority of that nobleman. He is said to have filled this
important office with singular reputation during twenty
years. The time of his death is not known; but it pro¬
bably occurred about the year 1273. Pie wrote De Le~
BRA
Bradford, gibus et Consuetudinibus Anglice, which is one of the most
'w^ ancient and most methodical treatises on the laws of Eng¬
land. This work is after the model of Justinian. It was
printed at London in 1569, folio; and in 1640, in 4to.
BRADFORD, a parliamentary borough and market-
town of England, in the west-riding of Yorkshire and
wapentake of Morley, on an affluent of the Aire, 219 miles
from London by rail, 30 miles W.S.W. of York, and 8 west
of Leeds. In the older parts of the town the streets are
generally narrow, but otherwise they are of sufficient width,
and well paved and lighted. The parish church of St
Peter is a structure in the perpendicular style, erected in
the reign of Henry VI. There are six other churches
and numerous places of worship of Presbyterians, Inde¬
pendents, Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Roman Catholics,
&c. The free grammar-school, founded in the reign of Edward
IV., rebuilt in 1830, has a good library, and exhibitions at
Queen’s College, Oxford. There are many national, Bri¬
tish, industrial, infant, and Sunday schools. There is a
Baptist and an Independent theological college in the vici¬
nity ; the Methodists have also a seminary for educating
the sons of their clergy. Among the public buildings are
the new infirmary, erected in 1844, the Exchange of Piece
Hall (a market for woollen goods), court-house, and jail.
There are also a mechanics’ institute, Odd Fellows’ Lite¬
rary institution, with a good library and news room, a
savings-bank, dispensary, and numerous other charities. The
first Temperance Society in England was established here.
The staple manufactures of Bradford are worsted and wool¬
len stuffs, which are in a very flourishing condition, and
give employment to a great part of its population. The
iron trade is also considerable, and in the neighbourhood is
a plentiful supply of iron and coal. By means of the Li¬
verpool and Leeds canal, with which it is connected by a
branch, it communicates with the ports on the east and
west coasts of the kingdom, and lines of railway connect it
with all parts of the country. The borough is governed
by a mayor, 14 aldermen, and 42 councillors, and returns
two members to parliament since the passing of the Reform
Act. Pop. (1851) 52,493. Market-day Thursday. The
parliamentary borough includes the townships of Bradford,
Manningham, Bowling, and Horton ; pop. (1851) 103,778.
Electors (1852) 2683. A festival is celebrated here evei*y
seventh year in honour of Bishop Blaise, said to be the in¬
ventor of wool-combing.
Bradford, Great, a market-town in the hundred of the
same name, county of Wilts, on the Avon, 100 miles from
London. It is pleasantly situated on both sides of the
river, here crossed by two bridges, the old one of nine
arches; the houses are built of stone, but the streets are
mostly narrow. 1 he town has a fine old church, three other
churches, nine chapels, a gaol, bank, savings-bank, free and
national schools, alms-house, and several charities. It has
long been celebrated for the manufacture of fine broad¬
cloths and kerseymeres. The Avon and Kennet canal fa¬
cilitates its communication with Bath, Bristol, Devizes, and
other towns. Pop. (1851) 4240.
Bradford, John, an eminent English martyr, born at
Manchester in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII.
Being a good penman and accountant, he became secretary
to Sir John Harrington, who was paymaster of the English
forces in France. Bradford at this time was gay and thought¬
less, and to support his extravagance he appropriated some
of the king’s money; but being unable to endure the re¬
flection of his guilt, he made restitution of the money, and
relinquished his employment. About 1547, he took cham¬
bers in the Inner Temple, and began to study the law; but
finding divinity more congenial to his taste, he removed
the following year to Catherine-hall, Cambridge, where he
applied to study with such assiduity, that in little more
than a year he was admitted to the degree of master of
BRA
263
arts, and soon after made fellow of Pembroke-hall. Bishop Brading
Ridley, who in 1550 was translated to the see of London, II
now sent for him to the metropolis, and appointed him his Bra<iIey'
chaplain. In 1553 he was also made chaplain to Edward
VI., and became one of the most popular preachers in the
kingdom. Such a reformer, however, was too dangerous
to be tolerated in the succeeding reign. Accordingly he
was among the earliest victims of Mary’s intolerant reign. On
a charge of sedition he was confined in the Tower, where
he continued a year and a half. During this time he
wrote several epistles, which were dispersed in various
parts of the kingdom. He was afterwards removed to
Southwark, and at last brought to trial before that court of
inquisition in which Gardiner sat as chief, where he de¬
fended his principles to the last, in defiance of their at¬
tempts to effect his conversion. They condemned him to
the flames, and he suffered accordingly in Smithfield, July
1. 1555. His writings, which consist chiefly of sermons,
meditations, tracts, letters, and prayers, have recently been
published in 12mo by the Religious Tract Society.
BRADING, a town and parish on the eastern side of
the Isle of Wight, in the county of Hants, E.S.E. of New¬
port. The town is paved and lighted, and has a capacious
but shallow harbour, which is dry at low water. It has
little trade, depending chiefly on the rural inhabitants in
its vicinity. It has a church, said to have been built in
1704, two dissenting chapels, a national school, and town-
hall. Pop. of parish in 1851, 3046.
BRADLElf, Dr James, a celebrated English astrono¬
mer, was born at Sherborne in Dorsetshire in March 1692.
He was educated at a school at North Leach, and at Balliol
College, Oxford. As soon as he was of age to receive holy
orders, the Bishop of Hereford gave him the vicarage of
Bridstow; and he obtained soon afterwards the rectory of
Llandewy-W elfrie in Pembrokeshire. Both these livings,
however, and the hopes of further advancement in the
church, he at length resigned, that he might devote himself
entirely to mathematics and astronomy.
For a while he was curate of Wanstead in Essex, of
which parish his uncle, Mr Pound, favourably known to the
learned world for his astronomical observations, was rector.
It may be imagined that the example and conversation of
Mr Pound did not render Bradley fonder of his profession
than before. He still continued, however, to fulfil its duties,
though at this time he had made such observations as laid
the foundation of those discoveries which afterwards distin¬
guished him as one of the greatest astronomers of his age.
I hese observations, made as it were by stealth, soon gained
him the notice and friendship of the Lord Chancellor Mac¬
clesfield, Newton, Halley, and other members of the Royal
Society, into which he was soon elected a member. On
the death of Dr Keil in 1721, Bradley was appointed to
succeed him as Savilian professor of astronomy; and for his
colleague he had Halley, who was professor of geometry on
the same foundation. Bradley now resigned his two livings,
quitting with joy a situation in which his duty was directly
at variance with his inclination. From this time he devoted
himself wholly to the study of his favourite science ; and in
1 727 he established his reputation by publishing a Theory
of the Aberration of the Fixed Stars, which is allowed to
be one of the most useful and ingenious discoveries of mo¬
dern astronomy. Three years afterwards he was appointed
lecturer in astronomy and physics in the university of Ox¬
ford. In the course of his observations, he discovered that
the inclination of the earth’s axis upon the plane of the
ecliptic was not always the same, but that it varied back¬
wards and forwards some seconds, and that the period of
these variations was nine years. This period seemed alto¬
gether unaccountable, as it could not be supposed to have
anything in common with the revolution of the earth, which
is performed in one year. Bradley, however, discovered
a
264 BRA
Bradninch the cause of this phenomenon in the Newtonian system of
II attraction, and published his discovery in 1737; so that in
Bradshaw. tjie Space Gf about ten years he communicated to the world
two of the finest discoveries in modern astronomy, which
will for ever form an epoch in the history of that science.
In 1742 he had the honour of succeeding Dr Halley as
astronomer-royal. That great man, now worn out with
age and infirmities, had intended to resign in favour of
Bradley ; but while occupied with this friendly project, he
died. As soon as Bradley’s appointment became known,
the university of Oxford created him doctor of divinity.
Bradley was now in his proper element, and pursued his
observations with unwearied diligence. In 1748 he availed
himself of the annual visit made by the Royal Society to
the observatory, to represent the necessity of repairing the
old instruments and purchasing new ones ; and in conse¬
quence, a grant of L.1000 was made by the king for that
purpose. This sum enabled the astronomer-royal to fur¬
nish the observatory with as complete a collection of astro¬
nomical instruments as this most skilful and diligent ob-
sever could then procure.
In 1751 Bradley received an offer of the vacant vicar¬
age of Greenwich, a very considerable living, and conve¬
niently situated for the performance of its duties ; but this
offer he declined on conscientious grounds. The king, on
hearing of the refusal, granted him a pension of L.250 a-
year, in consideration of his great abilities and knowledge in
astronomy and other branches of the mathematics, which
had proved so advantageous to the commerce and naviga¬
tion of Great Britain, as is particularly mentioned in the
grant, dated the 15th of February 1752. About the same
time he was admitted into the council of the Royal Society,
and in 1748 he was elected a member of the Royal Aca¬
demy of Berlin. In 1752 he was made a member of the
Imperial Academy at Petersburg ; and in 1757, of that in¬
stituted at Bologna.
Till within two years of his death, Bradley continued to
be indefatigable in his observations, and every honour he
reeeived became an excitement to fresh exertion ; and
when at last his strength gave way, the vigour of his intel¬
lect suffered no abatement. He died, after a painful ill¬
ness, on the 13th of July 1762. He had married in 1744
Susannah Peach, a lady of Gloucestershire, by whom he
had one daughter.
Dr Bradley possessed an amiable disposition and great
equanimity of temper. Though a good and clear speaker,
he was remarkably silent, never speaking except when he
thought he could communicate some useful knowledge.
He was not more inclined to write than to speak, and pub¬
lished very little, having had a diffident aversion to attract
public notice. Two volumes of his observations were pub¬
lished at Oxford in 1798 and 1805.
BRADNINCH, or Braihes, a decayed borough in the
hundred of Hayridge, Devonshire, 9 miles N.N.E. of Exe¬
ter. It is pleasantly situated on an eminence surrounded
by higher hills, except on the south, and consists for the
most part of neat thatched cottages. It has a fine old church,
guildhall, gaol, court-house, and national school; two paper-
mills, and a small woollen factory. Pop. (1851) 1834. It
is governed by a mayor, 12 masters, and 24 burgesses, and
before the time of Henry VII. returned two members to
parliament.
BRADS, a kind of nails made without spreading heads.
They are distinguished as joiner s’-brads, flooring-brads,
battan-brads, bill-brads, quarter-heads, &c.; and are used
for floors and other work in which it is required that the
nails be sunk entirely in the wood.
BRADSHAW, Henry, an English poet, born at Ches¬
ter about the middle of the fifteenth century. Early dis¬
playing a taste for religion and literature, he was received
while a boy into the Benedictine monastery of St Werberg
BRA
in that city; and he was afterwards sent to Gloucester (now Bradshaw^
Worcester) College, Oxford. After studying there for a time II
with the novices of his order, he returned to his convent, , Brady-
w here, in the latter part of his life, he applied himself
chiefly to the study of history. He died in 1513. His
poetry in some respects is not inferior to that of any of his
contemporaries. His works are, 1. JDe antiquitate et mag-
niflcentia Urbis Cestrice; 2. Chronicon ; 3. The Life oj
the glorious virgin St Werberg, printed at London, 1521,
4to, in verse, and now extremely rare. The life of St Wer¬
berg forms only part of this work, which contains also a
description of the kingdom of Mercia, a life of St Etheldred,
a life of St Sexburg, the foundation and history of Chester,
and the chronicles of some kings.
Bradshaw, John, president of the court which con¬
demned Charles I., was descended of an ancient Lancashire
family, but the branch to which he belonged was seated
either in Cheshire or Derbyshire. Being appointed speaker
or president of the parliament under CromwTell, a guard
was assigned him for the safety of his person, together with
apartments in Westminster, a sum of L.5000 sterling, and
considerable territorial domains. But he was not destined
long to enjoy the recompense of the judicial service he had
rendered ; for, according to the pamphlets of the time pre¬
served in the British Museum, he withdrew from parlia¬
ment, and died in obscurity in 1659. At the Restoration
his body, with those of Cromwell and Ireton, was disin¬
terred, suspended on the gallows at Tyburn, and burned.
Yet several collectors of anecdotes have circulated an idle
story that Bradshaw passed into the colonies (Barbadoes or
Jamaica) under a feigned name, and signalized himself in
various contests with the native tribes. \Gentleman’s Ma¬
gazine, vol. liv. p. 834.)
Bradshaw, William, an eminent English Puritan, born
in 1571 at Market-Bosworth, in Leicestershire. His chief
claim to notice as an author rests on a small treatise, en¬
titled English Puritanism, published in 1605, which is
valuable as a record of the main opinions of the most rigid
Puritans of his time. He died in 1618.
BRADWARDIN, Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury,
surnamed the Profound Doctor, was born at Hartfield in
Sussex towards the close of the 13th century. He was
educated at Merton College, Oxford, where he took the
degree of doctor of divinity, and acquired the reputation of
a profound scholar, a skilful mathematician, and an able
divine. He was afterwards raised to the high offices of
chancellor of the university and professor of divinity. From
being chancellor of the diocese of London, he became chap¬
lain and confessor to Edward III., whom he attended during
his wars in France, assisting that victorious prince with his
advice, animating the troops, and aiding them with his
prayers. After his return from the war he was made pre¬
bendary of Lincoln, and subsequently archbishop of Can¬
terbury. He died of the plague, at Lambeth, in the year
1349, forty days after his consecration. Chaucer, in his
Nun’s Priest’s Tale, ranks Bradwardin with St Augustine.
His great work is a treatise against the Pelagians, entitled
De causa Dei, printed at London, 1618, folio, by Sir Henry
Savile. He wrote also De Geometria speculativa, Paris,
1495, 1512, 1530; De Arithmetica practica, Paris, 1502,
1512 : De Proportionibus, Paris, 1495, Venice, 1505, folio;
De Quadratura Circuli, Paris, 1495, folio.
BRADY, Robert, a physician and historian of the seven¬
teenth century, was born in Norfolkshire, and studied at
Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of
M.D. in 1660. About 1670 he was appointed keeper of the
records in the Tower; and was afterwards made regius
professor of physic in the university of Cambridge. He
wrote a letter to Sydenham on the influence of air, which
was published at the head of that learned physician s
tolce Responsorice. His principal work is A complete His-
BRA
BRA
265
Brady
II
Braga.
torij of England from the first entrance of the Bomans unto
the end of the reign of King Richard II., with an Introduce
lion to the old English History, fyc., in three vols. fol., 1685
-1700. In his Introduction he maintains, that the repre¬
sentatives of the Commons in parliament, knights, citizens,
and burgesses, were not introduced until the forty-ninth of
Henry III.; that William of Normandy made an absolute
conquest of the nation ; and that the succession to the crown
of England is hereditary and not elective ;—principles which
were afterwards adopted by Hume as the basis of his History.
His other productions were, An Answer to Mr Petyt's Book
on Parliaments, London, 1681, 8vo; and An Historical
Treatise of Cities and Burghs, 1690, folio, both contained
in the volumes of his history. Brady sat in parliament for
the university of Cambridge in 1681 ; and again in 1685,
under James II., to whom he afterwards became physician
in ordinary. He died in August 1700.
Brady, Nicholas, D.D., whose name is familiar as the
translator, in conjunction with Tate, of a new metrical ver¬
sion of the Psalms, was born at Bandon, in the county of Cork,
in October 1659. He received his early education at West¬
minster School, and then studied at Christ Church, Oxford;
but he graduated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was in due
time made a prebend of Cork. He was a zealous promoter
of the Revolution, and suffered in consequence. When
the troubles broke out in Ireland in 1690, Brady by his in¬
fluence thrice prevented the burning of the town of Ban¬
don, after James II. had given orders for its destruction ;
and the same year he was employed by the people of Ban¬
don to lay their grievances before the English parliament.
He soon afterwards settled in London, where he obtained
various preferments. At the time of his death, in 1726, he
held the livings of Clapham and Richmond. Besides his
version of the Psalms, which was licensed in 1696, he trans¬
lated Virgil’s /Eneid, and wrote a tragedy entitled The
Rape, or the Innocent Imposture, both very indifferent per¬
formances. His prose works consist of Sermons.
BRAEMAR, a district of Scotland, in the county of
Aberdeen. See Aberdeenshire.
BRAG, a game at cards, played by any number of per¬
sons ; the dealer giving three cards to each person at one
time, and turning up the last card all round. This being
done, each player puts down three stakes, one for each card.
The first stake is won by the best card turned up in the
deal, beginning with the ace, and so on. When cards of
the same value are turned up to two or more, the eldest
hand gains; but the ace of diamonds wins, to whatever
hand it be turned up. The second stake is won by what
is called the hrag, which consists in one of the players chal¬
lenging the rest to turn up cards equal to his. A pair of
aces is the best brag, a pair of kings the next, and so on ;
and a pair of any sort wins the stake from the most valua¬
ble single card. In this consists the great diversion of the
game; for by plausible management, a pair of fives, trois,
or even deuces, in the hands of a clever player, may out-
brag a much higher pair, and even some pairs royal. The
knave of clubs is here a principal favourite, making a pair
with any other card in hand, and with any other two cards
a pair royal. The third stake is won by the person who
first makes up the cards in his hand one and thirty ; each
court card going for ten, and drawing from the pack, as
usual in this game.
BRAGA (the ancient Augusta Bracara), the capital
of the province of Entre Douro-e-Minho, in Portugal, is
situated on an elevated plain near the river Savado. It is
fortified, and defended by a citadel. The streets are irre¬
gular and ill paved, and the houses large, but of an antique
fashion. It has an archbishop, and, besides the cathedral,
numerous churches and monasteries, an archiepiscopal pa¬
lace, and several hospitals. It has many fountains, and some
Roman remains. Its chief manufactures are fire-arms, cutlery,
VOL. Y.
jewellery, and hats. Pop. 16,000. Long. 8. 16. W. Lat. 41.
43. N.
BRA GANG A, a town of Portugal, province of Tras-os-
Montes, on the Ferrenza, 26 miles N.W. of Miranda. It is
partially fortified, is the seat of a bishopric, and has a citadel,
a college, and some manufactures of silk and velvet. Pop.
5000. The reigning houses of Portugal and Bi’azil are de¬
scendants of the old Dukes of Bragan^a.
BRAHE, Tycho, an illustrious astronomer, descended
of a noble family, originally of Sweden but settled in Den¬
mark, was born on the 14th December 1546, at Knudstorp,
in the county of Schonen. He learned Latin at the age of
seven, and studied five years under private tutors. On the
death of his father his uncle sent him, in April 1559, to
study philosophy and rhetoric at Copenhagen. The great
eclipse of the sun, on the 21st of August 1560, happening at
the precise time foretold by astronomers, he began to look
upon astronomy as something divine; and having purchased
the Ephemerides of Stadius, he gained some notion of the
theory of the planets. In 1562 he was sent by his uncle to
Leipzig to study law ; but astronomy wholly engrossed his
thoughts, and he employed all his pocket-money in purchas¬
ing books on that science. Having procured a small celes¬
tial globe, he used to wait till his tutor went to bed, in order
to examine the constellations and learn their names; and
when the sky was clear, he spent whole nights in viewing
the stars. In 1565, his choleric disposition involved him in
a duel with a Danish nobleman, in which he had the mis¬
fortune to lose part of his nose; yet this defect he so skil¬
fully supplied by means of gold, silver, and wax, that it was
scarcely perceptible. It was about this time that he began
to apply to chemistry, proposing nothing less than the dis¬
covery of the philosopher’s stone. In lA7l he returned to
Denmark, and was favoured by his maternal uncle Steno
Belle with a convenient place at his castle of Herritzvad,
near Knudstorp, for making his observations, and building
a laboratory. But his marrying a peasant girl occasioned a
violent quarrel between him and his relations, and the king
was obliged to interpose in order to reconcile them. In 1574,
by royal command, he read lectures upon the theory of comets
at Copenhagen ; and the year following he began his travels
through Germany, and proceeded as far as Venice. He
then resolved to remove his family, and settle at Basle;
but Frederick II., unwilling that Denmark should lose the
honour of his residence, bestowed upon him for life the
island of Huen in the Sound, to erect an observatory and
laboratory there, and conferred on him a pension of two
thousand crowns out of the treasury, a fee in Norway, and
the canonry of Roschild, which brought him in a thousand
more. The first stone of the observatory was laid on the
8th of August 1576. James VI. of Scotland, afterwards
James I. of England, on his visit to Denmark to marry the
Princess Anne, went to see Tycho Brahe in his retirement
at Uranienburg, made him several presents, and wrote a
copy of verses in his praise. But soon after the death of
King Frederick he was deprived of his pension, fee, and
canonry. Finding himself incapable of bearing the expenses
of his observatory, he went to Copenhagen, whither he
carried some of his instruments, and continued his astro¬
nomical observations in that city, till by the order of Chris¬
tian IV., he was obliged to discontinue them. He then re¬
moved his family to Rostock, and afterwards to Holstein, in
order to solicit Henry Ranzou to introduce him to the em¬
peror ; and accordingly he was received by Rodolph II. at
Prague with the most gratifying marks of respect. That
prince gave him a magnificent house till he could procure
for him one better fitted for astronomical observations; as¬
signed him a pension of three thousand crowns; an I pro¬
mised, upon the first opportunity, a fee for him and his de¬
scendants. But he did not long enjoy his good fortune ; for,
on the 24th of October 1601, he died of a strangury, in the
2 L
Braganja
II
Brahe.
266 BRA
Brahilow fifty-fifth year of his age. He was interred in a very mag-
II nificent manner in the principal church at Prague, where a
Brahma.^ noble monument was erected to his memory.
Tycho Brahe, though an accurate observer, and possessed
of a powerful understanding, refused to admit the truth of
the Copernican system, choosing rather to frame a com¬
plicated system of his own, but which, indeed, was adopted
by few. The Tychonian system, as it is called, is essentially
that of Ptolemy, with certain modifications. This great
astronomer was extremely credulous with regard to judicial
astrology and presages. If on leaving his house, he met
an old woman or a hare upon the road in a journey, he would
immediately turn back, persuaded that it was a bad omen.
At Uranienburg, he had in his house a madman, whom he
placed at his feet at table, and fed with his own hands, su-
perstitiously regarding as prophetic whatever he uttered.
Tycho was a man of very violent temper, easily excited to
resentment, and though fond of rallying others, was highly
provoked if the same liberty were taken with himself. His
life has been written by Gassendi. His principal works are,
1. Progymnasmata Astronomica, Uranienburg, 1588 and
1589, 2 vols. 4to; 2. De Mundi JEtherei recentioribus pfue-
nomenis, 1588, 4to ; 3. Epistolarum Astronomicarum libri
duo, Frankfort, 1610,4to ; 4. Calendarium Naturals Magi-
cum, 1582 ; 5. Oratio de Disciplinis Mathematicis, Copen¬
hagen, 1610, 8vo. His observations were collected by his
disciples, and published in 1666in Histories Ccelestisyji. libris.
It was the friendship of Tycho which formed Kepler, and
directed him in the career of astronomy. The numerous
observations of Tycho, of which Kepler found himself the
depositary after the death of his master, doubtless contri¬
buted greatly to the discovery of those great laws of the
system of the world which are known as Kepler’s laws, and
which, combined with the theory of central forces discovered
by Huygens, conducted Newton to the grandest discovery
which has ever been made in the sciences, namely, that of
universal gravitation.
BRAHILOW, Brailoff or Ibraila, a town of Euro¬
pean Turkey, in the province of Wallachia, on the left bank
of the Danube, 100 miles N.E. of Bucharest, and about the
same distance from the Black Sea. As the channel ot the
river is deep between Brahilow and the sea, vessels of con¬
siderable burthen can sail up to the town. Its harbour, pro¬
tected by a small island from the ice that drifts down the
river in large quantities in winter, affords complete security
to the shipping. In 1770 the town was taken by the Rus¬
sians, and almost razed to the ground, but it has been re¬
built, and many streets and edifices added, which its increas¬
ing trade and importance rendered indispensable. Its trade,
which consists principally in the produce of the surrounding
country, such as wheat, barley, maize, hides, tallow, timber,
and tobacco, has of late years increased with surprising ra¬
pidity. The exports of grain, from 200,000 qrs. in 1838,
had increased in 1849 to more than a million qrs., of the
value of about £450,000. The quality of the grain used to
be considerably impaired by the damp ol the pits in which
it was kept, but of late years spacious warehouses have been
erected, and the quality of the grain has greatly improved.
The trade is managed chiefly by Greeks, but many English
and other merchants are now engaged in it. Pop. about
8000.
BRA
BRAHMA, the supreme god of the Indians. In Hun- Brahma
dustani, the word is a neuter noun, derived by grammarians II
from the verb brih to grow, and the suffix man, and thus rahmins,
means that which grows, or the Supreme Being regarded “ v~*“
under the aspect of development, and revealed by the crea¬
tion of worlds. The word is used, however, in a secondary
sense also, and means the Supreme Absolute Spirit, not
regarded as a creative force, but shut up in himselt, without
external manifestations of any kind.
BRAHMAPOOTRA, or Burrampooter, one of the
largest rivers in India, deriving its origin from the unex¬
plored region at the eastern termination of the Himalaya
mountains, in Lat. 28. 30. Long. 97. 20. Commencing with
a westerly course it enters the province of Assam, and shortly
after receives the tributary waters of the Dihong, a river
of greater magnitude at the point of junction than itself;
and which, rising under the name of the Sanpoo in the vi¬
cinity of the sources of the Sutlej and the Indus, winds
eastward through the territory of Thibet for a thousand
miles before its confluence with the Brahmapootra. In Long.
94. 30. the united streams divide into two great branches
which inclose an island of sixty miles in length.
Continuing its course westward it enters Bengal near to
the town of Goalpara, after which it makes a circuit round
the Garrow Mountains; and then altering its course to the
south it is joined by the Megna in Lat. 24° in the district
of Dacca. From this point the river loses its previous ap¬
pellation of the Brahmapootra and assumes that of the
Megna, the waters of which disembogue into the Bay of
Bengal through three separate branches, one of these being
the channel of the Ganges, with which the Megna commu¬
nicates at the distance of about 40 miles from the sea. This
great river, including its windings, has a course ot about 930
miles, a length which would be doubled if the continuous
streams of its remotest feeder, the Dihong, be included.
Until 1765 the Brahmapootra was unknown in Europe as a
great river, and Major Rennell, on exploring it, was sur¬
prised to find it larger than the Ganges. During a course
of 400 miles through Bengal, the Brahmapootra resembles
the Ganges in all respects, except that during the last 60
miles before its junction with that river, it forms a stream
which is regularly from four to five miles wide, and but for
its freshness might be considered an arm of the sea. The
junction of the two mighty streams of the Brahmapootra
and the Ganges produces an immense body of fresh water,
such as is only exceeded by some of the great rivers
in Africa which lie entirely within the limits of the tro¬
pical rains, or the Amazons and Orinoco in South Ame¬
rica. The bore, which is known to be occasioned by the
sudden influence of the tide into a river or narrow strait,
prevails in all the passages between the islands and sands
situated in the gulf formed by the confluence of the Brah¬
mapootra and the Ganges, in a greater degree than in other
rivers. (D-B (E* T0
BRAHMINS, Bramixs, Brahmans, or Brachmans,
called Bpax/mvai by the Greek writers, the name employed
to designate that body or order of priests who have al¬
ways been the sole guardians, preceptors, and ministers of
the Hindu religion.1 It is formed, by a slight modification,
from that of Brahma, which is itself a derivative from
Brahm, the Supreme Being, indicating the first of the
1 This order is of extreme antiquity, and they and their followers are universally acknowledged as a tribe sprung fiom £ ,aU
variety of the human species. According to Major-General Briggs, in a memoir published in 1851, their sacred books or e as P
sent them as invading India from the N.W., i. e., through Afghanistan and the Punjaub at a very early period, where se®m „
made more considerable progress in literature, philosophy, mathematics, and medicine, than their contemporaries in other regions
world. It is asserted that their Vedas date from fourteen centuries before our era; and it is alleged that their codes of crimina
civil law extend as far back as twenty-seven centuries from the present time. The progress of the Hindus southward was s ow-
long they seem not to have penetrated farther south than Lat. 22° N. ; and it was as late as in the ninth and tenth centuries o o >
that they encountered a kindred tribe, the followers of Buddah, who appear to have then possessed Southern India for a long Perl
the banks of the Kistna and Godavery. The Buddists were gradually overpowered, hut were dominant in Ceylon, and s i po
at Bombay, in the fourteenth century.—Ed.
BRAHMINS. 267
Brahmins, three divine hypostases of the Hindu mythology, the
creator of the world under Brahm, and the author of the
sacred books called Vedas.
The Brahmins constitute the first or highest of the four
tchadi or castes into which the Hindu nation continues to
be divided, as it has been from a very remote antiquity.
The origin of this singular division or classification, which
prevailed in ancient Egypt as it still does in the penin¬
sula of India, and which was based upon nearly the same
principles in both, is hid in the obscurity of ages. Each
caste has its peculiar privileges, duties, and laws, all of
which are incommunicable and unalienable. The more
honourable the caste is, the more numerous are the re¬
strictions to which its members are subjected, and the
higher the prerogatives they enjoy. The fourth caste has
the fewest observances to follow, but it has also the least
portion of respect, and is the most limited in its rights
and privileges. Every individual remains invariably in
the caste in which he is born; practises its duties as pre¬
scribed in the laws relative thereto ; and is precluded from
ever aspiring to a higher, whatever may be his genius, his
virtue, his patriotism, or his courage. The law which de¬
termines every man’s position in society is immutable;
and dreadful are the penalties which await him who ven¬
tures to dispense with even the most absurd rules laid
down in it. To this point of honour the Hindu patiently
sacrifices not only health, but life itself; degradation and
infamy await him who transgresses its dictates; yet, al¬
though the code of which this constitutes part has been
in force for a long series of ages, the people have never
(perhaps for this very reason) thought of moderating its
rigour or mitigating its oppression.
The leading castes among the Hindus are, as we have
already observed, four. These are, first, the Brahmins;
secondly, the Kshatriyas, or soldiers, including the princes
and sovereigns, and hence sometimes called the caste of
Rajahs or Rajeputras; thirdly, the Vaisyas, consisting of
agriculturists and shepherds"; and, fourthly, the Sudras
or labourers. It is with the first of these, however, namely
the Brahmins, that we are at present exclusively concern¬
ed. This is the sacred or sacerdotal caste, the members
of which have maintained an authority more exalted, com¬
prehensive, and absolute, than the priests of any other
people, excepting perhaps those of ancient Egypt before
the Persian invasion under Cambyses. According to the
received Brahminical tradition, that priesthood originally
proceeded from the mouth of Brahma, which is the seat
of wisdom, and thus, by the mere fact of their genesis,
became invested with an undoubted superiority over the
other castes, which sprung from inferior organs or mem¬
bers of the hypostatical creator; as the Kshatriyas from
his heart, the Vaisyas from his belly, and the Sudras from
his feet. Of the Brahmins there are seven subdivisions,
which derive their origin from the seven Rishis or Peni¬
tents, the most sacred personages acknowledged by the Hin¬
dus. The Rishis are of high antiquity, being mentioned
in the Vedas; and they are believed to have occasionally
exercised a salutary superintendence over the gods them¬
selves, visiting with their holy displeasure such of the divine
impersonations as had been guilty ofany irregularity. Their
residence was fixed in the remote and elevated regions of
the north; and hence the Brahmins of the north are es¬
teemed as the noblest, from their proximity to the great
fountain. The Gymnosophists, or Brahmins of antiquity,
lived much more secluded than those of modern times,
who mingle to a considerable extent in secular concerns.
But the latter have made almost no change in their rules
of abstinence, their ablutions, and multiplied ceremonies.
Their great prerogative consists in being the sole deposi¬
taries and expounders of the Vedas or sacred books, four
in number, for each of which there is a separate class or Brahmins,
branch of the Brahmins. This prerogative they guard
with the most jealous care, affirming, that if a Sudra or other
profane person were to attempt to read even the title of
these books, his head would instantly cleave asunder; and
a Brahmin bold enough to exhibit the sacred volumes to
profane eyes would incur the penalty of irretrievable ex¬
pulsion from his caste. Yet, with much judgment, they
make an exception as to the miracle in favour of Eu¬
ropeans; nor has it been found expedient to enforce the
law of caste against such Brahmins as may have indulged
them with a perusal or even with copies of the Vedas.
The great body of the Brahmins profess to pay equal
veneration to the three hypostases of the godhead, Brah¬
ma, Vishnu, and Siva. But some attach themselves ex¬
clusively to one of these impersonations; while others,
admitting the divine emanation of three, exhibit only a
preference in their homage, founded on certain fanciful
distinctions. Thus Vishnu and Siva, though nominally
co-ordinate with Brahma, have long been objects of par¬
tiality with individuals who, in virtue of such preference,
are formed into sects, distinguished by the name of the
hypostasis to which their chief homage is paid. The wor¬
shippers of Vishnu are denominatedNamadhari, from bear¬
ing in their foreheads the mark called Nama, consisting
of three perpendicular lines, crossed at the lower extre¬
mity by a horizontal one, so as to form a sort of trident;
and their dress is of a deep orange colour. The devo¬
tees of Siva are denominated Lingamhari, from wearing
the Lingam stuck in their hair, or attached to the arm in
a tube of gold or silver. The former are notorious for in¬
temperance, and on that account disliked by the people;
the latter, for the most part, observe great moderation both
in eating and drinking. The devotees of Vishnu account as
sacred the monkey, the garuda, and the cobra capella; and
any of their number who inadvertently kills one of these
animals is obliged to expiate his supposed crime by a far¬
cical sacrifice, in which it is pretended that a human vic¬
tim is immolated and brought to life again. The mum¬
mery of this mock expiation is abundantly ridiculous. A
little blood is drawn from a superficial wound in the thigh,
inflicted with a knife; the victim is then supposed to be
slain, and remains motionless until the farce of resuscita¬
tion is performed, when he of course comes to life again.
This is performed with immense ceremony, in the presence
of a great concourse of spectators, who are commonly
feasted on the fine levied from the culprit; and a similar
punishment is sometimes inflicted for other offences. The
worshippers of Vishnu and Siva, though separated by a
very thin wall of partition, are continually at variance,
each sect not only striving to exalt their own divinity, but
to revile that of their adversaries. The former consider
the wearing of the Lingam as the most heinous of all sins;
the latter, on the other hand, maintain that all who bear
the Nama will, after death, be tormented in hell with a
three-pronged fork, resembling that tridental mark. But
these sectarian notions are less prevalent among the Brah¬
mins than the other castes. Brahmins of the Vishnu faith
are only to be found in the provinces situated to the south
of the Krishna, and they are regarded with contempt by
their more tolerant brethren, who, in consequence, refuse
to admit them to their tables or to their ceremonies, and
anxiously exclude them from any public employments
which happen to be at their disposal. The sects of the
Nama and the Lingam are further split into subdivisions,
which dispute warmly on the subjects of their differences,
but are ever ready to unite when the general interests of
the order are concerned.
There are four stages in the life of a Brahmin. The
first commences at the age of from seven to nine, when
268 BRA H
Brahmins, he is invested with the triple cord, which is suspended
from the left shoulder, and forms the badge of his order.
The youth thus initiated is denominated Brahmachari. At
this stage he is occupied in learning to read and write;
in committing to memory portions of the Vedas, and the
efficacious forms of prayer called the Mantras; and in
acquiring other knowledge. It is his duty to abstain from
the use of betel, to put no ornaments in his hair, to bathe
daily, and to offer the sacrifice called Homam twice a
day; but subjects so young seldom observe the rules
strictly. A certain proficiency, indeed, is enjoined in
committing to memory the sacred books; but neither in
this nor in the acquisitions which are deemed scientific is
there much emulation. They are not slack, however, in
learning to understand the privileges belonging to their
caste, which are great and various. One of these is a
right to ask alms, which they do not in the style of men¬
dicants, but in that of confident yet not insolent claimants ;
another is, an exemption from taxes of all kinds, whether
general or local; and a third consists in an immunity from
capital, and generally from corporal punishment, however
heinous the crimes they may commit, imprisonment being
the only penaltj" to which they are liable. At this stage
also they learn the different points of bodily purity which,
as good Brahmins, it is necessary for them to observe
through life. These are so numerous as to be excessively
burdensome, and to impose on them the duty of constant
and jealous vigilance. Not only are they defiled by touch¬
ing a dead body, but even by attending a funeral. Child¬
birth and constitutional changes render females impure ;
and certain ablutions and forms of prayer are necessary
to remove the stain. An earthen vessel, if it has been
used by a profane person, or applied to certain specified
purposes, becomes so polluted that it cannot be used again,
and must be broken ; but metallic vessels may be purified
by washing. Leather and all kinds of skins, except those
of the tiger and antelope, are held to be excessively im¬
pure ; and the boots and gloves of Europeans are to them
the most disagreeable of all articles of dress. Brahmins,
in walking or sitting, must take care they do not touch a
bone, a broken pot, a rag, or a leaf from which any one
has eaten ; in drinking, they must pour the liquid from
above, without touching the vessel with their lips; and
they are forbidden to touch the greater part of animals,
particularly the dog, which is accounted the most pollut¬
ing. The water which they drink must be carefully
drawn, though never by a Sudra; and if two Brahmins
draw water together, their pitchers must not come in con¬
tact, otherwise one or both must be broken. Animal food
of all kinds is strictly prohibited ; and among the Lingam
branch of the order the prohibition is most rigidly ob¬
served, notwithstanding which this class or sect has always
been remarkable for great slovenliness in their external
habits. The Brahmins are also taught to entertain a
horror of spiritual defilement, resulting from perversity of
will, or the actual commission of sin; and although the
different modes in which it is contracted are but obscure¬
ly indicated, the rules for purification by means of ablu¬
tions, penances, and ceremonies, are very fully and dis¬
tinctly laid down.
The second stage of a Brahmin’s life is the state of
Grihastha, which takes place when he is married, and has
children ; both these circumstances being essential to its
constitution. Marriage is an important object to a Brah¬
min, inasmuch as it insures him consideration and respec¬
tability in society. Hence, when he becomes a widower,
he falls from his station, and is consequently under a
moral necessity of re-entering the married state. But the
case is quite different with widowed females, who are not
permitted to marry a second time. The Sunnyassis, how-
M I N S.
ever, probably in imitation of the ancient Rishis, lead lives Brahmins,
of celibacy ; and the acting priests, called Gurus, also live
in a state of single blessedness, although their morality
in this particular is sufficiently relaxed. When a Brah¬
min, therefore, takes his wife home and has children by
her, he enters his second state, or that of Grihastha. His
daily duties and ceremonies now become more multiplied
and imperative ; and every act of his life must be perform¬
ed according to certain rules, some of them sufficiently
repugnant to European notions of propriety. These ob¬
servances, which from their number and incessant recur¬
rence would seem burdensome and oppressive, become so
habitual from daily practice that they are not felt as gall¬
ing or irksome. On the contrary, the Brahmins perform
all of them cheerfully, and no innovation is ever proposed.
Some Hindu writers, indeed, have turned them into ridi¬
cule, and joked at the expense of a ritual which they
nevertheless continued in practice to observe. But, from
all that we can learn, the authors who have indulged in
this license were never Brahmins, but generally Sudras,
or men of the lowest caste, who had been contaminated
by association with Europeans. Vemana, Agastya, Pata-
natupulai, and Tiruvaluven, a Pariah, the principal scoffers,
answer to this description ; they are all modern, and either
Sudras or men of no caste whatever. If any ancient au¬
thors wrote in the same strain, their names and their
works have equally perished. At the same time, although
speculative scepticism be but rarely avowed, practical
transgressions are secretly indulged in, especially in large
towns, where concealment is easy and temptation strong.
Nor is this all. Many Brahmins habitually engage in
transactions and employments which appear altogether at
variance with their professions and pretensions. They are
commonly the political functionaries or agents of the na¬
tive princes, and of the Mahommedan governments, which
find it convenient to employ these hereditary ministers of
religion, from the influence they possess over the minds of
the people. Some of them, particularly in Gujerat, em¬
bark in commercial speculations, and become merchants,
bankers, or general agents. Others, again, carry messages
between distant places, or are sent as vakeels on difficult
and important missions ; the veneration in which they are
universally held securing them from molestation in the
discharge of such tasks. A third class act as coolies or
porters, in which character they alone are exempt from
the demands of the tax-gatherer. Many of them enter the
Company’s native army, and often rise to the rank of sub-
adhar. In a word, they are as much alive to selfish con¬
siderations and interests as any other tribe or caste, and
ready, on all occasions, to avail themselves to the utter¬
most of the privileges and immunities belonging to their
order. Their rapacity, in fact, is only exceeded by their
cunning; nor is there to be found in any country a set
of more artful impostors. The Hindus are all expert in
disguising the truth; but the Brahmins, in this respect,
possess an unquestioned superiority. They are supple,
insinuating, false; acute in discerning, and skilful in tak¬
ing advantage of the foibles of others; naturally vindic¬
tive and proud, yet, from habit and cunning, patient and sub¬
missive ; evincing on all occasions the most perfect self-com¬
mand, and ever ready to profit by the indiscretion, weak¬
ness, or simplicity of those with whom they may have to do.
One of their prime resources is flattery, which they lavish
with unbounded profusion on any person whom they wish to
cozen or hope to conciliate ; experience having convinced
them, that even those who pretend to repudiate their adula¬
tion nevertheless lay a portion, at least, of the grateful unc¬
tion to their souls. In matters of religious opinion they are
upon the whole tolerant; they almost never anathematize
Moslemins, Christians, and others of different creeds; nor
BRAHMINS.
Brahmins, do they seem to be at all actuated by the fierce spirit of
-v"*' proselytism and persecution. But this forbearance may
perhaps be the consequence, not of any virtue in the
Brahmins, but of the low estimation in which they hold
the objects of their own worship ; for, undoubtedly, they
sometimes treat the latter with an indifference bordering
on contempt, and in their adorations are influenced by
their secular interests rather than by the spirit of devo¬
tion, flattering those divinities whose functions they con¬
nect with their worldly affairs, and giving themselves no
concern about the others.
The distance at which they keep themselves from Eu¬
ropeans, and the unwillingness they evince to admit the
latter to their temples or their ceremonies, may seem in¬
consistent with what has just been advanced. But their
conduct in this respect arises solely from the unclean¬
ness which they attach to our habits; and were Euro¬
peans to conform a little more to their manners and prac¬
tical prejudices, there can be no doubt that the conse¬
quence would be a closer intimacy and unbounded to¬
leration. This was fully experienced by the Abbe Du¬
bois, who having carefully studied the manners of the
Hindus, and uniformly treated their habits with respect
and tenderness, was often invited by the Brahmins of
his acquaintance to enter their temples and join in their
ceremonies. Among the sacerdotal order of India it is
a prevalent sentiment that different religions are formed
for different nations, and that each serves every neces¬
sary purpose to the souls of its believers and professors.
But in their attachment to their civil institutions the
Brahmins are less liberal and conciliating, considering
every thing different from these or opposed to them as the
product of absolute barbarism. The Moors they hate for
their arrogance, and despise for their ignorance of some
branches of mathematical science known to themselves,
such as those connected with the construction and ex¬
planation of the almanack. In the European masters of
India, they admire their humanity in war, the moderation
and impartiality of their government, the general upright¬
ness of their conduct in the intercourse of life, and the
benevolent generosity of their dispositions ; but these fa¬
vourable impressions are apt to be forgotten when they
think of the grossness and hatefulness of their prevailing
habits, such as eating animal food, and admitting the de¬
tested Pariahs into their domestic service. Such things
are pre-eminently odious to Hindus, and both, we think,
might have easily been avoided. No extraordinary effort
of self-denial would have been necessary to enable Euro¬
peans to abstain from the use of beef, which is an insipid
food in India; and, with regard to the Pariahs, although
it would undoubtedly be wrong to countenance the Brah¬
mins in their barbarous treatment of the inferior castes,
and of those who are considered as of no caste, yet regu¬
lations might have been adopted by which men of high
caste would have been spared the gross insults they are
at present exposed to, and every humane purpose at the
same time attained.
The third state of a Brahmin is denominated Vanapras-
tha, or that of inhabitants of the desert. The order of
Brahminical anchorites prevailed at a former period, but
it is now scarcely to be found, and appears to be very
nearly, if not altogether, extinct. The members of it
were usually styled Rishis, or Penitents. They were
honoured by kings, and respected by the gods, who, on
account of the odour of their sanctity, seem to have con¬
sidered them as in some degree their superiors. They
practised self-denial according to certain rigid rules, and
performed peculiar sacrifices and religious observances.
Iheir pious acts and intentions were often thwarted by
giants, and even by gods, who seem to have had no relish
269
for the severe discipline of the order; but in the end theBrahmias.
Penitents always prevailed, and sometimes took the gods
roundly to task for their misdeeds. They were the depo¬
sitaries of the more sublime doctrines of theology, and
practised magical incantations.
Ihe fourth state of a Brahmin is called Sunnyassi, and
is reckoned so pre-eminently holy that, in a single gene¬
ration, it imparts a greater stock of merit than could be
accumulated during ten thousand in any other sphere of
life. As a natural consequence, when a Sunnyassi dies,
he is believed to pass at once into the region of Brahma
or Vishnu, exempt from the penalty of being re-born on
earth, or animating in succession different bodies, conform¬
ably to the metempsychosis of the Hindu mythology. In
preparation for this state, a Brahmin performs all the rites
of the Vanaprastha, and in addition renounces every
worldly connection, takes up the profession of mendicity,
and lives solely by alms. He must previously, however,
have devoted several years to the married and paternal
state, and thus discharged the debt which he owed to his
forefathers. When duly qualified and disposed for enter¬
ing the holy state of Sunnyassi, he is installed as such
with many Mantras and other ceremonies. His duties
now increase in number and severity. He must every
morning rub his whole body over with ashes, restrict him¬
self to one meal a day, give up the use of betel, avoid
looking at women, shave his beard and head every month,
and wear wooden clogs on his feet; in travelling, he must
carry his seven-knotted bamboo staff in the one hand, his
gourd in the other, and the antelope skin under his arm,
in other words, display the three badges of his order; and
he must erect a hermitage on the bank of a river or a lake.
Contemplation, and a supposed communion with the Deity,
amounting in its highest form to a participation of the di¬
vine essence, constitute the ulterior duties of this class of
devotees. Need we wonder that, being thus privileged
to indulge in all manner of extravagances, and to give full
swing to an excited imagination, their practices should be
in the highest degree preposterous, and their fantasies
equally wild and ridiculous? In fact, the tricks which
they perform are endless. The highest act of merit among
them is “ to subdue all sensation, and retain the breath with
such determined perseverance, that the soul, quitting the
body, bursts through the crown of the head, and flies to
re-unite itself with the Great Being, or Para-Brahma.”
Accordingly, one of their fantastical exercises consists in
suppressing their breath as long as possible, till they al¬
most swoon away, and bring on most profuse perspiration.
Another consists in putting themselves in the most irk¬
some and ridiculous postures, and remaining so for a con¬
siderable length of time, indeed till exhaustion or decre¬
pitude ensue. To stand on one leg till it swells and ul¬
cerates ; to stand on the head till the brain becomes dis¬
ordered, and delirium ensues; to keep one arm extended
aloft in the air till the muscles become rigid, and the
power of withdrawing it is lost for ever; such are among
the most approved practices of the Sunnyassis. But still
the most extravagant and fatal efforts of these extraordi¬
nary devotees seem to have been confined to former times.
We may add, that the Sunnyassis are not, like the Yana-
prasthas, burned when they die, but interred. This is
the case with the Lingamhari, or worshippers of Siva; but
a Sunnyassi, even although he had, during life, attached
himself to the worship of Vishnu, is interred when dead,
and the ceremony is both pompous and expensive.
From the classes of Vanaprastha and Sunnyassi have
sprung numerous sects of fanatics, such as the Djogis, who
seek to propitiate the Deity by mutilating their bodies,
or braving the force of fire and the inclemency of the sea¬
sons ; the Panduris, who carry about small figures of the
1
270 BRAHMINS.
Brahmins, most indecent description, as provocatives to devotion;
and the Vairagis, who form a kind of mixed order of
monks and nuns, consecrated to the god Krishna and his
mistress Rada, whose history they celebrate in songs, ac¬
companied with the tinkling of cymbals. It is also said
that some of the Brahmins, under the denominations of Pa-
shandia and Sarwagina, maintain libertine and atheistical
opinions ; and it is probable that the number of those who
secretly cherish such sentiments is much greater than that
of the class or sect which openly avows them. Supersti¬
tion, when sustained neither by fanaticism nor enthusiasm,
is the natural parent of that infidelity by which it is ulti¬
mately undermined.
From what has been stated in the course of this expo¬
sition, some idea may be formed of the general character
of the sacerdotal caste in India. According to the best
authorities on the subject, the number of Brahmins who
are respectable for their knowledge and their virtue is ex¬
ceedingly small; whilst the great majority of these here¬
ditary priests is completely devoted to ambition, intrigue,
and voluptuousness, and disgraced by an avarice, a mean¬
ness, and a cruelty, which inspire strangers with no senti¬
ments towards them but those of contempt and aversion.
The charity which they place so high in the scale of du¬
ties and virtues, being equally confined by the law of caste,
and the operation of that intense selfishness by which the
whole tribe is characterised, has no human beings except
Brahmins for its objects. Towards the other castes they
cherish no feeling of humanity, and cautiously abstain
from any reciprocation of kindness; they exact every
thing in virtue of their rank, functions, and pretended
sanctity, but take care to give nothing in return. Instead
of the retired and contemplative life which appears to
have been observed by the order in ancient times, and to
which they still profess to devote themselves, they are
immersed, as we have already seen, in pursuits the most
foreign to and inconsistent with the duties and character
of a priesthood ; and, accordingly, they have declined alike
in dignity, in reputation, and in knowledge. Yet their
influence as a body still remains unshaken; neither the
violence of conquest, nor the shock of revolution, nor even
the power of time itself, appears to have sensibly impaired
their dominion over the minds of the other castes. The
institutions to which they owe their ascendancy, and by
which it will in all probability be maintained for ages yet
to come, have struck their roots so deeply, and become
so intimately identified with the genius, character, habits,
sentiments, feelings, prejudices, and daily usages of the
people, as to resist the operation of all those natural, mo¬
ral, and political causes which bring about changes in
other countries, and, amidst all the evils incident to con¬
vulsions and innovations, ultimately contribute to the ge¬
neral advancement. In India, society appears to have been
arrested at a particular stage of its natural progress, and
re-constituted so as never to exceed the limit which it had
attained before its onward tendencies were paralyzed,
and the characteristic of immutability fiimly established.
Hence it may be considered as forming what the school¬
men would probably have denominated a political nunc
stans ; as standing to other communities of men in nearly
the same relation that eternity bears to time: and hence,
also, the permanency of an influence which the possessors
of it take no means to extend or improve, in the convic¬
tion that it can never be materially abridged.
The authenticity as well as the antiquity of the sa¬
cred books of the Brahmins has been alternately assert¬
ed and denied, with equal zeal and pertinacity. With¬
out entering into this question, however, it may be sa¬
tisfactory to show of what materials these writings really
consist; for if they are utterly worthless and contemp¬
tible in themselves, as indeed seems to be the case, itBrahminii
matters but little to inquire whether they be genuine
or spurious, of ancient or comparatively modern origin.
And, on this subject, we prefer citing authorities to de¬
livering any opinion of our own. “ The sacred writ¬
ings of the Brahmins,” says an able writer in the Quar¬
terly Review, “ have been long mentioned with those
phrases of solemn wonder, which would still have misled
the public, if the translations and extracts of them which
have successively appeared had not discovered their pue¬
rility and imposture. It is therefore important that the
Sanscrit books, which have been held up as so sacred and
so ancient, and which some of our learned Orientalists ob¬
viously prefer to the Jewish historian, should be given to
Europe in the languages familiar to every one; that we
may not be blinded by the erroneous admiration of cre¬
dulous and misjudging enthusiasts, but be enabled to criti¬
cise fairly, and judge impartially for ourselves.” (Vol. ii. p.
68.) Mr Mill, speaking of Sanscrit poetry generally, pro¬
nounces a judgment still stronger than that delivered by
the Reviewer. “ These fictions,” says he, “ are not only
more extravagant and unnatural, less correspondent with
the physical and moral laws of the universe, but are less in¬
genious, more monstrous, and have less of any thing that
can engage the affection, awaken sympathy, or excite ad¬
miration, reverence, or terror, than the poems of any other,
even the rudest people, with whom our knowledge of the
globe has yet brought us acquainted. They are excessively
prolix and insipid. They are often, through long passages,
trifling and childish to a degree which those acquainted
with only European poetry can hardly conceive. Of the
style in which they are composed, it is far from too much
to say, that all the vices which characterise the style of rude
nations, and particularly those of Asia, they exhibit in per¬
fection. Inflation, metaphors perpetual, and those the most
violent and strained, often the most unnatural and ridicu¬
lous, obscurity, tautology, repetition, verbosity, confusion,
incoherence, distinguish the Mahabharat and Ramayan.”
(History of British India, vol. ii. p. 46.) The following
passage, extracted from a most masterly article which ap¬
peared in the Edinburgh Review (vol. xv. p. 175), is, if
possible, still more to our present purpose. “ It may be
said,” the Reviewer observes, “ that in a country of which
the actual condition is so imperfectly known, investigation
should first be directed to the existing state of society,
which admits of being accurately ascertained, and may
lead to practical conclusions highly beneficial to the com¬
munity, before we attempt to explore the obscure paths
of remote antiquity, by the feeble lights afforded by a few
mutilated or suspicious documents. The Indian nations,
it may be contended, have no claim to any extraordinary
attention, either from the philosopher or the historian:
their boasted civilization has rather been asserted than
proved; neither their literature nor their arts indicate any
considerable progress in the pursuits which refine and
adorn mankind ; and some of their customs betray a fero¬
city scarcely to be found amongst the most savage nations.
But, even admitting that it would be desirable to trace
the remote revolutions which this people have undergone,
the little probability of attaining any deductions which
may be relied on with confidence ought to induce us to
relinquish so hopeless a task. The Puranas appear to be
extravagant romances, which, however amusing as poeti¬
cal compositions, can furnish no additions to authentic his¬
tory, whatever portion of it they may be supposed inci¬
dentally to contain. When we find gods and heroes ming¬
ling in doubtful fight; events natural and supernatural
succeeding each other indifferently; a fact probably his¬
torical, followed by another evidently allegorical; the only
rational conclusion is to consider the whole of these poems
BRAHMINS.
271
Brahmins, as works of imagination, and to appreciate their merits by
the rules applicable to similar compositions amongst other
nations. But if such be the judgment we must pass on
the Puranas, the Hindu eompositions of a later date are
not better entitled to attention, unless with respect to
poetical excellence : and it probably may be affirmed that
the Hindus cannot produce a single historical composition;
whilst the Mahommedans of the same country have am¬
ply, and even ably, illustrated all the events subsequent
to their entrance into Hindustan.”
Such are the judgments which have been pronounced
by some of the ablest writers of our time, respecting the
sacred writings of the Brahmins, and the impossibility of
deducing any sound or rational conclusions from these
fanciful and extravagant compositions. But, on the other
hand, it has been contended, with much plausibility and
some degree of justice, that an indiscriminate accumula¬
tion of facts is no object with the philosopher, and only a
subordinate one with the historian ; that in proportion to
the peculiarity and reputed antiquity of the religious and
civil institutions subsisting amongst any people, it is na¬
tural to feel curiosity as to their origin ; that the minute
peculiarities which discriminate the nations of Europe
scarcely produce any sensible modification of character,
or exhibit to our observation any beings whose manner of
thinking and acting is materially different from our own;
that, in order accurately to appreciate the efficacy of re¬
ligious dogmas and civil institutions in modifying the cha¬
racter of a people, our observation should be particular¬
ly directed to those nations which, in these respects, dif¬
fer most widely from ourselves; that to this source may
be traced much of the instruction as well as amusement
derived from a perusal of the classic compositions of anti¬
quity ; that, from the same cause, the manners of savage
tribes have attracted and deserved the attention of the
philosopher, although these are in general extremely uni¬
form, and little modified by any other circumstance than
the greater or less facility of obtaining food ; that, never¬
theless, it is not amidst a people in such a stage of society
that the influence of moral impressions can be accurately
ascertained; that a nation must have advanced some steps
in civilization, must have cultivated the arts, and been
tinged with science, before it becomes susceptible of that
indelible stamp which defies the efforts of time; and that
if, upon these grounds, the peculiarities of the Hindu in¬
stitutions, opinions, and manners, deservedly render them
the object of philosophic research, the gradations by which
such a state of society was attained must be highly inte¬
resting, and can only be discovered through the medium of
such literary monuments as are still extant among them.
Their sacred books, therefore, must ever possess a value,
independent of all that may be said of their contents, or
objected to the antiquity claimed for them. They em¬
body evidence of the existence of peculiar modes of think¬
ing, and forms of belief, as well as of the effects produced
by peculiar institutions, civil and religious; and, as such,
they can never cease to be regarded with interest, both
by the philosopher and the historian.
Of ancient Brahminical science the principal remains
are their astronomical tables and trigonometrical methods,
both of which have given occasion to frequent and learn¬
ed discussion in this and other countries of Europe. At
present, however, we can only refer the reader to the
works of Bailly, Playfair, and Delambre, in which he will
find the subject treated with equal learning, ingenuity,
and scientific precision, though in opposite views, and with
very different aims. As to the science of the modern
Brahmins, it seems, as we have already remarked, to be
confined to the construction and explanation of the alma¬
nack ; and even this scanty amount of knowledge is the
portion of but few of their number. They have indeed fal- Brahmins,
len from the proud eminence which was occupied by their
order when the sages of Greece travelled into India to
learn wisdom in that great storehouse of knowledge, and
afterwards to carry it back to their own country, in order
to plant there the first seeds of civilization. But there is
one species of learning for which they have always evinced
a singular aptitude and inclination ; we mean metaphysical
speculation, which possesses many attractions to men re¬
markable alike for the indolence of their habits and the
extreme subtilty of their genius. In this department of
research they had accordingly explored the whole cycle
of systems, distinctions, classifications, refinements, and
doubts, long before the western world had emerged from
primeval barbarism; and in India the human mind had
exhausted itself in endeavouring to detect the laws which
regulate its own operations, when the philosophers of
Greece were only beginning to enter within the precincts
of metaphysical inquiry. Nor is it by any means certain
that the latter are entitled to the credit they have receiv¬
ed on the score of originality ; that the^ did not borrow
rather then invent; and that to the Gymnosophists of India
belongs the honour of framing those systems which have
been, perhaps too hastily, attributed to their disciples. It
is even doubtful whether Aristotle himself did not derive
both the materials and the arrangement of his system of
logic from the same source. In a Mahommedan history,
quoted by Sir William Jones, it is expressly mentioned
that Callisthenes, having procured a regular treatise on
logic, somewhere in the Punjab, transmitted it to Aristotle ;
and although this does not certainly prove that the Greek
philosopher adopted as his own the system which had been
sent him by his pupil, it at least warrants a conjecture that
he might have done so; more especially as the syllogistic
method was undoubtedly known in India long before his
time, and as the fact must have been discovered by the
numerous learned and accomplished men who accompanied
Alexander’s expedition. But be this as it may, one thing
is pretty certain, that there is scarcely a hypothesis ad¬
vanced by metaphysicians in ancient or modern times,
which may not be found in some of the Brahminical writ¬
ings. In these we meet with materialism, atomism, pan¬
theism, Pyrrhonism, idealism, and every other fanciful va¬
riety of opinion which has yet been imagined or promulgat¬
ed respecting God, the world, and the human soul. The
Brahmins could boast of their Spinozas, their Berkeleys,
and their Humes, long before Alexander dreamt of passing
the Indus, and erecting a throne on the banks of the sacred
stream. That Pythagoras borrowed from them the greater
part of his mystical philosophy, his notions respecting the
properties of numbers as expressive of physical laws, his
doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and the arguments
by which he inculcated the unlawfulness of eating animal
food, seems to admit of no doubt whatever; for all these
thingsareof the very essence of Brahminism, and are to this
hour taught and enforced by the sacred order in India.
Egypt and India, as we have already observed, are the
only two countries in which the institution of castes has
obtained in its most rigid form. This identity is of itself
sufficiently remarkable; but there are other points of re¬
semblance which we think even more striking. In ancient
Egypt the cow was a principal object of religious adora¬
tion, and as such accounted peculiarly sacred; and we
need scarcely add that, in India, the same superstition has
prevailed to an equal, if not greater extent, ever since the
introduction of the Brahminical religion. The Egyptians
worshipped Apis or the sacred bull, and the figure of this
animal forms part of every hieroglyphical inscription, either
as a symbol or a phonetical character. In some of their
festivals the Brahmins exhibit the same species of idolatry,
u
272 B R A
Brahooick with rites and observances exactly similar to those an-
Mountains ciently practised in the country of the Pharaohs; and,
Brainerd juc*£in& ^ ^le ‘nscripti°ns 011 their monuments, this type
v. j of animal worship must have prevailed in India from the
earliest times. The astronomical character of the Egyp¬
tian mythology is well known to those who have studied
its details ; it seems to have been merely a reflex image of
Tsabaism, or the worship of the host of heaven, the form
of idolatry which first obtained among “ the world’s gray
fathers” in the regions of the East. But the same thing,
in the same sense, may be predicated of the Hindu my¬
thology, in its purest form, before it was overlaid with
the monstrous and fantastical inventions of a juggling
priesthood. What inference, then, ought we to deduce
from these and numerous other facts of a similar descrip¬
tion which might be mentioned? Did Egypt derive its
superstitions from India, or has India borrowed its my¬
thology from Egypt, or have both drawn from a common
source ? Which is the original and which the copy, or
are both merely copies from an original no longer extant ?
These are questions to which, in the present state of our
knowledge, it is difficult, if not impossible, to give a satis¬
factory answer; although speculation has been busy on
the subject, some contending in favour of Egypt, others
in favour of India, and others, again, seeking a common
source in that intermediate region, which formed as it were
the cradle of the human race. We have no intention
whatever to enter into these disputations, or to hazard
conjectures respecting a subject in regard to which no
safe or certain data have as yet been obtained. We may
nevertheless be permitted to observe, that the question
is chiefly one of pure chronology; that on this subject
much still remains to be done before we can arrive at any
well-founded conclusion respecting the comparative anti¬
quity of these ancient nations ; but that, in as far as we are
at present able to see our way, the balance of probability
appears to incline pretty decidedly in favour of the coun¬
try of the Pharaohs.
See Abbe Dubois, Description of the Character and Cus¬
toms of the People of India, English translation; Malte-
Brun’s Universal Geography, vol. iii. English translation;
Maurice’s Indian Antiquities ; Asiatic Researches ; Colonel
Kennedy’s Researches into the Nature and Affinity of An¬
cient and Hindu Mythology ; Religion of the Brahmins ;
Ayeen Akberry; Dow’s Hindustan, preliminary disserta¬
tion ; Institutes of Menu, translated by Sir William Jones ;
Quarterly Review, vol. i.; Edinburgh Review, vols. x. and
xv.; Klaproth’s Asia Polyglotta; Kennedy’s Origin and
Affinity of Languages. (j. b—e.)
BRAHOOICK Mountains. See Beloochistan.
BRAIDING-MACHINE, a piece of mechanism by
which staylaces, braid, and similar articles are manufactured.
BRAILS, ropes passing through pulleys to haul up the
bottoms, corners, and skirts of the sails of a ship for the con¬
venience of furling them.
BRAIN. See Anatomy; Mental Diseases; Phreno¬
logy ; Physiology ; and the Index.
BRAINERD, David, one of the most zealous and suc¬
cessful of modern Christian missionaries, was born at Had-
dam, in the state of Connecticut in 1718, and died October
9.1747, in the house of his friend President Edwards. His
heroic and self-denying labours among the American In¬
dians, wore out in the course of a few years a naturally
feeble constitution, but left behind them important fruits.
.The. narrative of his mission is contained in his journal,
published in 1746. His life, compiled chiefly from his own
diary, was written by President Edwards, and has gone
through many editions. Brainerd was a man of strong men¬
tal powers, extensive knowledge, and great sagacity ; and as
a preacher he was forcible and pathetic.
BRA
BRAINTREE, a market-town of Essex, in the hundred Brainti
of Hinckford, eleven miles N. by E. of Chelmsford. It is II
one of the polling places for North Essex, and is the seat of •Bramah
the Braintree Poor Law Union. Besides the parish church, v'—
which is a fine gothic edifice, the Independents, Baptists,
and Quakers, have places of worship in the town. The market
is held on Wednesday, and is well supplied with cattle, poul¬
try, and corn. Two annual fairs, of three days each, are
held here, commencing May 7 and October 2. The town
is governed by a select vestry of 24 parishioners ; but the
drainage and sewerage are so defective as to cause a very
high annual average of mortality. The manufactures of silk
and crape, which employ about 1000 persons, have quite
superseded that of woollen cloth, which was introduced by
the Flemings who fled to England to escape the persecu¬
tion of the Duke of Alva. Straw-plaiting has been intro¬
duced of late years. There is a free school in the town,
besides several charities, distributed over fourteen different
places. Pop. (1851) 2836.
BRAIT, among jewellers, denotes a rough diamond.
BRAKEL, Jan DE,abrave officer oftheDutch navy,born
in 1618. He greatly distinguished himself on many oc¬
casions, but chiefly by his gallant struggle in 1672 against
the combined fleets of Britain and France. He fell in an
action against the French in 1690.
BRAKENBERG, Reinier, a Dutch painter, born at
Haerlem in 1649, was a pupil of Mommers, and according
to some accounts, of Bernard Schendel. His pictures dis¬
play considerable skill and freedom in composition, but are
bad in design, and often licentious in subject.
BRAMA, the Bream, a fish of the family of Squamo-
pinnce of the acanthopterygious order. The only known
species is Ray’s Bream, a native of the Mediterranean, but
often caught on our coasts (Yarrell’s British Fishes). See
Ichthyology, and Angling.
BRAMAH, Joseph, a practical engineer and machi¬
nist, was born at Stainborough, in Yorkshire, on the 13th
of April 1749. His father rented a farm on the estate of
Lord Strafford; and, being the eldest of five children, he
was intended for the same employment. He exhibited at
a very early age an unusual talent for the mechanical
arts, and succeeded, when he was quite a boy, in making
two violoncellos, which were found to be very tolerable
instruments; as well as in cutting a single block of wood
into a violin, chiefly by means of tools which were forged
for him by a neighbouring smith, whom, at a subsequent
period of his life, he induced to assist him in London
as one of his principal workmen. Notwithstanding the
ingenuity which he had thus displayed, his destination
in life might have precluded its further cultivation, had
he not, fortunately for himself and for the public, been
incapacitated, when he was about sixteen, by an acci¬
dental lameness in his ancle, for the pursuit of agricul¬
tural labour. He was then apprenticed to a carpenter
and joiner, who seems, however, to have contributed but
little towards his improvement in mechanical knowledge.
When the term of his engagement had expired, he ob¬
tained employment for some time in the workshop of a
cabinet-maker in London, and soon after established him¬
self as a principal in that business. Another accidental
confinement left his mind at liberty for a time to occupy
itself with reflection and invention; and he employed his
involuntary leisure in the improvement of some of the
most humble, but not the least useful, of domestic con¬
veniences. He obtained a patent for his inventions, and
established a manufacture of these and other similar ar¬
ticles in Denmark Street, Soho, where he continued to
simplify and improve the arrangement of the pumps and
pipes subservient to his principal purpose. He procured
in 1783 a patent for a water-cock, intended to allow the
B E A M A H.
Bramah, fluid a more uninterrupted passage through it than was as part of an apparatus for retaining, drawing, and clari-
practicable in the ordinary construction. He afterwards fying liquors (Repertory, \o\. ix. p. 361). He prefaces
removed to Piccadilly, and established the various branches his specification with some general observations on the
of his manufactory in some extensive premises at Pimlico, right of an inventor to a property, both in the objects
In 1/84 Mr Bramah took out a patent for his improve- which he selects for his improvements, and in the means
ment m locks, which certainly appear to be of very mate- which he employs for the attainment of them; and de¬
rial importance. 1 heir peculiar character depends on the mands of the public justice an ample security for both
arrangement of a number of levers or sliders, in such a these rights, grounding this claim on his resolution to
manner as to preserve, when at rest, a uniform situation, make a clear and unreserved disclosure of all his inven-
and to be only pressed down by the key to certain un- tions. Besides the method of pumping up the liquors
equal depths, which nothing but the key can ascertain; from the various casks through flexible pipes, without the
the levers not having any stop to retain them in their re- necessity of entering the cellar, he describes a mode of
quired situation, except that which forms a part of the converting every cask into a forcing pump, excluding the
key. The construction is more particularly detailed in air, and raising the liquor to any part of the house, by a
the specification of the patent (Repertory of Arts, vol. v. load on its head, which is to be converted into a piston,
p. 217), as well as in the \n\er\tor s Dissertation on Loeks, He mentions also a filtering machine, a vent peg, a me-
8vo; and some additional modifications, allowing the key thod of making pipes, and a new form of stop-cocks,
to be varied at pleasure, are described in a patent, dated In 1801 he obtained a patent for some improvements in
in 1798. It is not easy to say why the application for an act the construction of steam-engines, particularly relating to
of parliament to prolong the privilege proved unsuccess- the boilers ; and in 1802, one for a very elaborate and ac-
ful, unless it was supposed that the inventor had been al- curate machine for producing smooth and parallel surfaces
ready sufficiently remunerated for the share of ingenuity on wood and other materials. The tools of different kinds
which his contiivance exhibited; but the report, that one employed in this machine, such as gouges, spokeshaves,
of theselocks had been readily opened, before a committee and planes, are carried with a considerable velocity bv a
of the House of Commons, by means of a common quill, rotatory motion, and come successively in contact with
was a gross misiepresentation of the fact; the quill having the wood, which is placed on a movable carriage gra¬
in reality been pieviously cut into the required shape from dually advancing. The centre or gudgeon of the axis or
the true key. The experiment, in fact, only served to show shaft, instead of a common step, is supported by a barrel
the perfection of the workmanship, so little force being re- of oil, to which it is fitted by a collar ;* and this arrange-
quired to overcome the resistance when properly applied, ment not only diminishes the friction very considerably,
For different modifications of pumps and fire-engines but allows the height of the shaft also to be very easily
Mr Bramah took out three successive patents, the two and accurately regulated by means of a small forcing
last being dated in 1790 and 1798. (Repertory, vols. ii. pump. The inventor thinks this liquid support likely to
iii.) His rotative principle consists in making the part be as permanent as it is advantageous; but it may be
which acts immediately on the water in the form of a apprehended, that the constant friction of such a collar
slider, sweeping round a cylindrical cavity, and kept in would cause it to require frequent repairs, in order to
its place by means of an eccentric groove; a construction prevent the escape of the oil so powerfully compressed,
which was very possibly suggested by his own inventive Ihe machine has been erected on a large scale in the
mind, but which had been before described, in a form arsenal at Woolwich, and is employed with perfect suc-
nearly similar, by Ramelli, Cavalleri, Amontons, Prince cess. The specification includes the description of a
Rupert, and Hr Hooke. The third patent related chiefly mode of turning spherical surfaces, either convex or con-
to the attachment of a considerable reservoir of water to cave, by the simple contrivance of a tool, movable on an
the fire-engine in a cylindrical form, and to the furnishing axis precisely perpendicular to that of the lathe; and of
of it with wheels of its own, of a proper size and strength cutting out concentric shells, by fixing, in the same man-
to allow it to be con veniently worked. ner, a curved tool, nearly of the same form as that which is
i here was somewhat more of originality in the idea of employed by the common turners for making woodenbowls.
applying practically, to the purpose of a press, the well- An improvement in the processes for making paper,
known principle of the hydrostatic paradox, by which, with the assistance of new machinery, in large sheets,
as by a fever with arms capable of infinite variation, the was secured to the inventor by a patent in 1805 (Reper-
smallest imaginable weight is made capable of holding in tory, second series, vol. viii. p. 1). The description is
equilibrium a force incomparably greater. Mr Bramah’s accompanied by that of a mode of drying the paper on
patent for the invention is dated in the year 1796 (Reper- sliding frames, hung on lines like sashes, and of keep-
tory, vol. vi. p. 289), and it has been one of the most sue- ing it in a state of compression by retainers adapted to
cessf ul of his numerous speculations. He added to it, in the hydrostatic press; but Mr Bramah had not leisure
a subsequent patent, the contrivance of a “ retainer,’ for to introduce these arrangements into actual practice, al-
ceping goods in a constant state of pressure for an un- though he had been at a considerable expense in pre-
limited time cirter their removed from the press, ^he pciring1 the cippcircitus.
appaiatus has certainly a considerable advantage in the His next invention was, however, very effectually car-
great steadiness with which the force can be applied, in ried into execution in a particular department, notwith-
the facility with which it can be regulated, and the con- standing its unpromising appearance, as generally stated
vemence with which it can be continued without altera- in the specification of the patent, which he obtained in
tion; and it has been extensively applied, both on a small 1806 (Repertory, second series, vol. x. p. 329). He pro-
and on a large scale, for copying writings, for pressing poses to facilitate the process of printing by means of a
gunpowder, for proving cables and chains, for raising roller, composed of a number of circular plates, closely
weights of various kinds, and for drawing piles, and pull- fitted together, and turning on the same axis, each bear¬
ing up trees by the roots. ing twenty-six letters, with figures, spaces, and various
A simple but a very convenient arrangement of little marks, either engraved or projecting, and capable of being
pumps and pipes has been very generally employed in shifted at pleasure, so as to express any single line by a
public-houses under the name of the beer-machine: for proper combination of the plates. This is described as a
ms Mr Bramah took out a patent in 1797, describing it substitute for common printing, copperplate engraving,
2 m
U ...
273
Bramah.
V
274 BRA
Bramah. ancl calico printing; and the ink is intended to be sup-
v-^’v~^-/plied by a trough fixed above, and in contact with the
cylinder. Now it is obvious that such a machine would
be insufferably tedious and inconvenient for every purpose
of common printing, which it would be scarcely possible
to perform by its means; but when we discover that the
inventor had probably in view the apparatus which he
constructed the next year for the Bank of England, for
numbering and dating their notes, we shall be aware that
the means were admirably adapted to the end; a single
line only being here wanted at once, in which a single fi¬
gure was to be changed at each step, and that in a regu¬
lar order. In fact, during the immense temporary circu¬
lation of one and two pound notes, the Bank has been
able, by this machinery, under the management of about
twenty clerks, to perform the labour of 120, who were
before required for the purpose.
Mr Bramah procured a patent in 1809 for a mode of
making and holding pens for writing, calculated to save the
substance of the quill, by cutting a number of pens out of it,
instead of a single one; and those who are not in the habit of
making their own pens may often find a convenience in the
portable form in which this and other similar “ pterophori”
are arranged. In 1812 he brought forward his patent for
the construction of main pipes, to be carried through the
principal streets of a metropolis, of sufficient thickness to
withstand a great force, to which the water within them
is intended to be subjected, by proper pumps, furnished
with air-vessels ; so that the water may not only be ready
for the immediate extinction of fires, without the neces¬
sity of bringing an engine to the spot, but may also fur¬
nish a convenient moving power for various mechanical
purposes, such as raising weights, by means of tubes
sliding out of each other, like those of a telescope. He
observes that he has frequently had occasion to employ a
hydrostatic pressure, in many of his operations, equivalent
to that of a column of water 20,000 feet high, which is
about four tons for every square inch. He also asserts
that he can form 500 tubes, each five feet long, capable
of sliding within each other, and of being extended, in a
few seconds, by the pressure of air forced into them, to a
length of 2500 feet; and, with a power of this kind, he
seems to have imagined that he could raise wrecks, and
regulate the descent of weights of various descriptions.
His improvements in wheel-carriages, for which he ob¬
tained a patent in 1814, consisted in fixing each wheel to
a separate movable axis, having its bearings at two dis¬
tinct points of its length, but loosely inclosed between
these points in a cylinder filled with oil; and, in some
cases, he proposes to fix the opposite wheels to the same
axis, though with a power of turning very stiffly round it,
in order to lessen the lateral motion of the shafts in very
rough roads. He also suggests the use of pneumatic
springs, formed by pistons, sliding in cylinders, as a sub¬
stitute for common springs of metal.
The purpose of Mr Bramah’s last patent was the pre¬
vention of the dry rot, by laying- on the timber meant to
be preserved from it, a thin coat of Parker’s Roman ce¬
ment, much diluted with water; but he does not appear
to have pursued this experiment, having transferred his
right in the invention to other hands.
In addition to the seventeen patents which have been
mentioned, he took out two or three others of less im¬
portance, at different times; besides a variety of contri¬
vances, which he did not think it necessary to appropiiate
to himself by a legal privilege. Mr Nicholson has men¬
tioned a double plunger for a forcing pump, as described
to him by Mr Bramah (Nich. Jour. vol. vii. p. 50), which,
in the form he has delineated, is certainly possessed of
no particular advantage, producing only with a large ap-
B R A
paratus the effect of a much smaller. Mr Bramah had Bramah
erected, in the latter years of his life, some large ma- Pres«
chines at the Thames bank for sawing stones and timber; R ®
he had begun to devise some improvements in bridges Bramant*-
and in locks for canals; and he had at one time been ac-
tually employed in the execution of some water-works
belonging to the department of the civil engineer, which
he completed with ability and with success. His great
and various exertions appear in some measure to have
exhausted the strength of his constitution; and his last
illness was immediately occasioned by a severe cold, taken
in the prosecution of his experiments on the tearing up of
trees, made in Holt Forest. He died in his sixty-sixth
year, on the 9th of December 1814.
Mr Bramah was a sincere believer in the doctrines of
the Christian religion; and, notwithstanding his diversified
avocations, he left several manuscript essays on religious
subjects. In his moral character he was cheerful, bene¬
volent, and affectionate; in his habits he was neat and
methodical; and he knew well how to temper liberality
with economy. He often kept his workmen employed
more for their sake than his own, when the stagnation of
trade deprived him of the means of disposing of the pro¬
ducts of their labour. It is surely on the characters of
such individuals that the wealth and prosperity of the
British empire most essentially depend; an inventive *
imagination controlled by a sound judgment, an incessant
activity of mind and body, a head that can direct, and a
heart that can feel, are the genuine sources of that prac¬
tical superiority which is well known to distinguish the
productions of our national industry. (Life of Mr Bra¬
mah, by Dr Brown, in the New Monthly Magazine for
April 1815.) (t. t.)
Bramah’s Press. See Hydrodvxamics.
BRAMANTE, Donato-Lazzari, a celebrated archi¬
tect, whose family was of Castel Durante, now Urbania, in
the state of Urbino, where he is generally said to have been
born, though others assert that he was a native of Monte
Asdrualdo, a villa fcur miles from Urbino. Collucce assigns
1450 as the year of his birth, but Vasari states it as 1444.
Cardinal Oliviero Caraffa brought him to Rome, and intro¬
duced him to Alexander VI., for whom he designed and
erected the Chancery, a somewhat heavy pile, yet grand
from its spacious tiers of arched galleries around a court,
sustained by granite columns. Julius IT, with whom he
became a favourite, first employed him to connect into one
vast whole the Belvedere with the older portions of the
pontifical palace, which he accomplished so as to produce
an imposing mass out of very heterogeneous materials.
When the imperious and impatient pontiff determined in
1513 to rebuild St Peter’s, he employed Bramante on the
design ; and such was Bramante’s zeal and industry, that
not only was the design completed, but the architect had
erected the four great piers and their connecting arches
before his death, which took place in the following year.
The designs of Bramante wrere lost sight of by those who
succeeded him in this vast work ; and notwithstanding the
boldness of the majestic dome of Michael Angelo, many
Italians have regretted that the designs of Bramante were
departed from, more especially in the present bald and
tasteless western fafade, which has nothing but its magni¬
tude to deserve commendation. One of Bramante’s best
designs now remaining is the fine oratory in the cloister of
San Pietro Montorio, a little circular temple with a colon¬
nade of great elegance on three circular gradini.
Bramante was not merely an architect and a painter, but
also a poet, as appears from the volume of his works pub¬
lished at Milan in 1756. He was the uncle of Raphael, whom
he instructed in architecture, and introduced to the notice
of Julius II. The painter has gratefully commemorated his
Braman
tino
y
Bran.
BRA
master by placing him in his School of Athens. Bramante
died at Rome in 1514. (T> g_T ^
BRAM ANTING, the name of several Milanese artists,
^ of whom Bartolomeo Bramantino, or more properly Suardi'
wras the most eminent. He flourished about 1450, and
distinguished himself as an architect and a painter. From
him Lazzari Bramante is said to have derived much instruc¬
tion relative to his art. He erected many churches in the
Milanese territory, among wdiich may be mentioned that of
St Satyrus. (See Lanzi.)
BRAMBANAN, a village of Java, near its eastern
extremity, in the region of Mataram, eight miles from
Saracarta. It is noted for the remains of Hindu images,
temples, and inscriptions, w,hich are spread over an extent
of ten miles. The most remarkable of those ruins are
known under the name of the T.housand Temples, which
constitute a square group of buildings, each side measuring
250 paces. One large temple stood in the centre of the
square, which was surrounded at equal distances by three
rows of smaller ones, the rows being but a few feet
distant from each other. At each of the four cardinal
points, where there appear to have been gates, were two
gigantic statues, each ot them with a mace in its hand, and
a snake twisted round its body. The inside walls of the
large temple were adorned with figures of the conch shell,
of water-vases, and of the sacred lotus, all denoting a Hindu
origin. There is no reliable evidence to show at what pe¬
riod those immense buildings were constructed. A Javanese
manuscript asserts that it was in the Javanese year 1188,
which corresponds to the year of the Christian era 1261.
BRAMHALL, John, D.D., archbishop of Armagh, was
born of an ancient family*at Pontefract in Yorkshire, a.d.
1o93. He was invited to Ireland by the lord deputy Went¬
worth, and soon afterwards obtained the archdeaconry of
Meath, the best in that kingdom. In 1634 he was made
bishop of Londonderry. He rendered great service to the
church of Ireland by procuring the passing of several acts
for abolishing fee-farms and recovering impropriations, by
which, as well as by other means, he regained to the church
in the space of four years about L.40,000 a-year. In the
Convocation he was instrumental in persuading the church
of Ireland to adopt the Thirty-nine Articles ; and he exerted
himself, though ineffectually, to get the English canons es¬
tablished in Ireland. Articles of treason were exhibited
against him in the Irish parliament; and at the treaty of
Uxbridge in 1644, the English parliament made it a preli¬
minary article, that Bishop Bramhall, with Archbishop
Laud, and others, should be excepted from the general
pardon. Upon this he went abroad ; but on the Restora¬
tion, he was appointed archbishop of Armagh, primate and
metropolitan of Ireland, and was chosen speaker of fhe
House of Lords. He died in 1663. His works w'ere pub¬
lished m 1677, in folio.
BRAMPTON, a town of England, in the county of
Cumberland, Eskdale ward, 10 miles N.E. of Carlisle erro¬
neously supposed by Camden to be the Bremetenacum of
the Romans, lies in a narrow valley at the confluence of
the Irthing and Gelt. The houses are for the most part
old and meanly built. It contains four dissenting chapels a
town-hall, built by the Earl of Carlisle in 1817, a grammar-
school, and a market-house, in which very large quantities
ot corn are annually sold. Gingham and check-making are
the only manufactures of the town. Pop. (1851) 3074.
BRAN, the outer skins or husks of ground wheat, rye
or other farinaceous grain, separated by the boulter from
the Hour. W heat bran is employed in the manufacture of
starch, and by dyers in making the “sour water’’used in
preparing the dyes. By the process of boiling in bran-
water, calico-printers remove colour from those parts of
maddered goods which are not mordanted. Some valuable
Nervations on this subject will be found in the ninth
BRA
275
number of the Bulletin de la Societe Industrielle de Mul- Branchid®
hausen. See Dyeing. ||
BRAN CHIDiE, the hereditary priests of the temple of ^randen-
Apollo, at Didyma, in Ionia. They delivered up the trea- turS-
sures of the temple to Darius or Xerxes ; and then, fearing
the vengeance of the Greeks, they fled to Bactria or Sog-
diana, upon the frontiers of Persia, where they built a city
called by their own name. The punishment of their crime,
however, fell upon their descendants, who were massacred
by the army of Alexander the Great, and their city was
destroyed.
BRAND Sunday, Dimanche des Brandons, in French
ecclesiastical writers, denotes the first Sunday in Lent,
which is thus called on account of an ancient practice in
the Lyonnois, where the peasants walked by night about
their orchards and gardens with lighted torches or fire¬
brands in their hands; visiting every tree, addressing each
one in turn, and threatening that if it did not bear well the
ensuing season it should be cut down and burnt. This
custom prevailed in many places till the middle of the se¬
venteenth century. It was evidently a relic of paganism,
akin to the ancient Lupercalia, or shepherd-festival, which
was celebrated on the 15th of February, Februarius, i. e.
the month of purification.
BRANDENBURG, one of the larger provinces into
which the kingdom of Prussia is divided, and the division
from which that powerful monarchy originally sprung. See
Prussia. It is situated WPtween Lat. 57. 0. and 53.°34. N.
and Long. 11. 25. and 16. 10. E., and is bounded on the north
by Mecklenburg and Pomerania, east by West Prussia and
Posen, south by Silesia and the kingdom of Saxony, and on
the west by the province of Saxony and Hanover. It has
an area of 15,538 square miles, and is divided into the two
governments^of Potsdam and Frankfort, having 30 circles,
138 cities, 27 market-towns, and 3073 villages. The entire
province is nearly a sandy plain, but interspersed with a few
fertile spots; and a considerable portion of it is covered
with woods. It is generally well watered by streams, most
of which empty themselves into the Elbe or the Oder.
The chief agricultural product is rye, with some wheat,
barley, oats, and buckwheat. Fruit of all kinds is abun¬
dant, as well as culinary vegetables; and considerable
quantities of hemp, flax, and hops are raised. The climate
is cold and raw in winter, and excessively hot in summer.
The manufactures are chiefly confined to Berlin and the
other cities ; but the rural inhabitants are employed in spin¬
ning or weaving, and produce much linen cloth. In 1849
it had 2,129,022 inhabitants, of wrhom 1,069,043 were
males, and 1,059,9/9 females; 968,717 lived in towns and
1,160,305 in the country; 2,076,608 Protestants, 32,514
Catholics, 19,761 Jews, 23 Mennonites, 115 belonging to
the Greek church, and 1 Mohammedan. There were
2880 primary schools with 289,869 scholars, 79 middle
schools for boys, with 17,465 scholars, 224 similar institu¬
tions for girls, with 20,795 scholars, 34 higher schools and
gymnasia with 8924 scholars, and 4 normal schools with
2/6 scholars, being in all 337,329 scholars, or nearly one-
sixth of the entire population.
Brandenburg, a town of Prussia, capital of the circle
of West Havelland, in the government of Potsdam, and
province of Brandenburg. It is situated on the river Havel,
and also on the Magdeburg and Berlin railway, 37 miles
W.S.W. of Berlin. It was founded about the seventh cen¬
tury by some Slavonian tribes, who were afterwards driven
out by Albert the Bear, and Brandenburg became the
capital of the mark of the same name. The towm is inclosed
by walls, and is divided into three parts by the river, the
old town on the right and the new town on the left bank,
while on an island between them is the “ cathedral town,”
also called from its position “ Venice.” The cathedral, an
ancient structure of the fourteenth centurv, the old church
r
276 BRA
Brandeum 0f St Katharine, erected in 1410, and the council-house,
II , deserve notice for their antiquity and works of art. There are
. ian^y-^ also a castle, gymnasium, riding academy, public library,
theatre, and several hospitals. In the market-place stands the
Rolandsaille, a column 18 feet in height, hewn out of a single
block of stone. The town has a very considerable trade, and
manufactures of woollens, linens, hosiery, and paper, with
breweries, tanneries, and boat-building. Pop. (1849) 18,309.
BRANDEUM, in ecclesiastical writers, a linen cloth or
veil put over the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul, and
left there some time that it might acquire a degree of sanc¬
tity, entitling it to be worshipped as a relic ; and as such it
was frequently sent by the pope as a present to some prince.
It was otherwise called sanctuarium, sudarium, orarium,
and velum. The use of brandea was introduced as a means
of diffusing the virtues and influences of relics, their transla¬
tion in early times being prohibited.
BRANDING, a punishment inflicted by impressing a
mark with a hot iron on the face or the hand.
BRANDON, a town in England, in the county of Suf¬
folk, hundred of Lackford, on the Little Ouse or Brandon
river, 88 miles from London by rail. In the neighbourhood
of the town are numerous flint-quarries, which during the
last war supplied the army with gun-flints. Its trade in this
article has been wholly destroyed since the introduction of
the percussion cap. Brandon anciently gave its name to
the Dukes of Suffolk, and the title of baron to the Earls of
Macclesfield. It now gives his English title to the Duke of
Hamilton, Pop. (1851) 2022.
BRANDRITH, an iron trevet or stand for supporting
a vessel over the fire.
Brandrith, or Brandrette, among builders, denotes a
fence or rail around the mouth of a well.
BRANDT, an alchemist of Hamburg, in the end of the
seventeenth century, who in his researches after the “ philo¬
sopher’s stone” is said to have accidentally discovered phos¬
phorus. (F. Hoefer, Hist, dela Chimie,He concealed
the process ; but it was discovered soon after by Kunckel,
and hence it has been called Kunckel’s phosphorus.
Brandt, Gerard, a learned divine of the Refo-med re¬
ligion, was born at Amsterdam in 1626, and was succes¬
sively minister in several places of the Netherlands. His
works were numerous and popular, especially a History of
the Reformation in the Low Countries, Amsterdam, 1671-74,
in 4 vols. 4to, which was translated into English, and pub¬
lished at London in 1719, 8vo ; The Life of Admiral de
Ruyter ; An Account of the Trial of Barneveld, Hooger-
beets, and Grotius, in 1618, Rotterdam 1619, 4to; and
Oratio Funebris Cornelii Hooftii, Satrapce Mudani,
Amsterdam 1648 ; all, except the last, in the Flemish lan¬
guage. Brandt died at Rotterdam in 1685.
Brandt, Sebastian, a man of letters of the fifteenth cen¬
tury, author of a rare treatise entitled Stultifera Navis, il¬
lustrated with curious woodcuts, printed in 1490. Several
authors have erroneously represented him as the artist of the
engravings, but they seem to be the work of Jan Bergmann.
BRANDY, a spirituous or alcoholic liquor, extracted
from wine by distillation. When pure it is perfectly co¬
lourless, but it soon acquires a yellow tinge from the cask.
The deep colour of common brandy is generally given by
the addition of burnt sugar, caramel. The wine-brandy of
France is esteemed the best in Europe. The chief brandies
for foreign trade, and those accounted best, are those of Cog¬
nac, Bordeaux, Rochelle, Charenton, the Isle of Rhe, Orleans,
the county of Blasois, Poictou, Touraine, Anjou, Nantes,
Burgundy, and Champagne. The best brandy is distilled
from wine of any kind, but is generally made from wine
that has become too acid for the market, or what is techni¬
cally called pricked wine. An inferior sort is made from
the husks of the pressed grapes ; but this contains an acrid
oil, which exists in the skin of the fruit and injures its fla-
B R A
vour. {Annales de Chimie, tom. 64.) The flavour of brandy Brant
is said to be sometimes imitated by adding to grain spirit a II
small proportion of nitrous ether. v Brasn
The import of brandy to the United Kingdom in 1853 v'"V’'
was 1,870,567 gallons. The amount of duty paid was
L.1,402,932, the rate being 15s. per gallon.
BRANK, or scolding-bridle, an instrument formerly used
in Scotland, and some parts of England, for correcting scold¬
ing women. It consisted of a head piece, which opened
and inclosed the head of the shrew, and was furnished with
a sharp iron, which entered the mouth and restrained the
tongue. Thus harnessed, the offender was led in triumph
through the streets. Dr Plott, in his History of Stafford¬
shire, has given a description and figure of this instrument.
BRANTOME, Pierre de Bourdeilles, Lord Abbot
of, a French courtier of the reign of Charles IX., and his
mother Catherine de’ Medici, was born about 1527, and died
at his chateau of Richemont in 1614. He is best known
by his posthumous Memoires, which first appeared in 1666;
but the most complete edition is that of 1740, in 15 duo¬
decimo volumes. They contain a very lively account of the
manners of that age, and an unblushing chronicle of the
profligacy of the writer, and of the courts and times in
which he lived.
BRASIDAS, son of Tellis, a celebrated Lacedaemonian
general, in the early part of the Peloponnesian war. He de¬
feated the Athenians by land and sea, took many places, and
rendered his native country formidable to all the neighbour¬
ing states. He repulsed the Athenians in their attempted
surprise of Amphipolis, but died of the wounds he received
in that battle, b.c. 422. See Attica.
In honour of him an annual festival, called Brasideia, was
celebrated at Sparta. None but natives were permitted to
attend ; and whoever absented himself was fined. Brasi¬
deia were also celebrated at Amphipolis.
BRASS, an alloy of copper and zinc. This name, how¬
ever, has not been exclusively applied to the alloy of these
metals ; for the gun-metal, which has been also called brass,
is an alloy of copper with tin. The same alloy, with more
tin, is used in machinery, and is preferred to the alloy of
copper and zinc, on account of its greater hardness.
It appears from the analysis of the brass of the ancients Different
that it was an alloy of copper and tin. A small portion ofkinds-
tin gives to copper great hardness, and renders it capable of
bearing much greater resistance. A larger portion of tin
gives increased hardness, but is less fitted to bear a strain¬
ing resistance, on account of its brittleness. Its elasticity
is very great, which fits it for bells. In this state it is called
bell-metal; and with a still greater proportion of tin it forms
an alloy employed for the mirrors of reflecting telescopes.
The alloy of copper with tin is easily distinguished from that
with zinc, from the agreeable colour of the latter, which va¬
ries with the proportions of the metals. Pinchbeck has the
least proportion of zinc. Common brass has more zinc, and the
gold-coloured alloy called prince’s metal contains a still greater
proportion of zinc. An alloy of copper with a very large pro¬
portion of zinc is used for the common white metal buttons.
The various alloys of copper with tin and zinc forming Proportion
the different kinds of brass, are to be considered as chemical of alloys,
compounds, and, of course, governed by the same laws of
definite proportions which obtain in the more conspicuous
compounds. On these principles, which cannot be doubted,
we have an unerring rule for uniting these and other metals
in the best proportions, the weights of their atoms being
previously known.
The weight of the atom of copper being 8, tin 7’35, and
zinc 4, the following tables exhibit the proportions of the
various alloys, expressed in atoms, and their proportions by
weight, the third column pointing out the colour and cha¬
racter of the resulting compound. C, Z, and T are to repre¬
sent the atoms of the metals respectively.
COMPOUNDS OF ZINC WITH COPPER.
BRASS.
277
Brass.
Proportions
by Weight.
Character and Colour of the Compounds.
0 + 5 Z
0 + 6 Z
2 C + Z
3 C + Z
2 to 5
1 to 3
4 to 1
6 to 1
The best proportions for common
brass.
The alloy called prince’s metal, of a
beautiful gold colour.
Of a paler yellow, very little malle¬
able.
Still lighter in colour, and not mal¬
leable.
Yellowish-white, and brittle.
Very brittle, nearly white.
A very malleable brass, used in watch-
work.
An alloy much harder than copper,
and inclining to its colour.
COMPOUNDS OF TIN WITH COPPER.
Atoms.
T + C
2 T + C
3 T + C
4 T + C
T + 2C
T + 3C
T + 4C
T + 5 C
T + 6C
T + 7 C
T + 8 C
T + 9C
Proportions
by Weight.
11 to 12
11 to 6
11 to 4
11 to 3
11 to 24
11 to 36
11 to 48
11 to 60
11 to 72
11 to 84
11 to 96
11 to 108
Character and Colour of the Compounds.
A very brittle and rather white alloy.
Still more brittle and more white.
Very white, used for speculums.
Coarse-grained, and too brittle for
any purpose.
A yellowish alloy, very hard and so¬
norous.
Bell-metal.
A very hard alloy, used for some culi¬
nary vessels.
Softer, but not malleable.
Still increased in softness, and of a
yellower colour.
Used for some purposes in machinery.
An alloy used for cannon.
More common for cannon and ma¬
chinery, and used for bronze sta¬
tues.
Hitherto the proportions of these alloys have depended
upon the practice of workmen, guided by numerous trials ;
but what confirms the law of definite proportions, is the ne¬
cessity of adhering to fixed proportions, ascertained by trial.
By attending to the proportions pointed out above, the most
striking and proper compounds will be produced, without
the trouble of trial. Any intermediate proportions will,
doubtless, be marked by defective colour, irregular crystalli¬
zation, or imperfect malleability.
Although the most direct way of forming these different
kinds of brass is by immediately combining the metals to¬
gether, one of them, which is most properly called brass,
was manufactured long before zinc, one of its component
parts, was known in its metallic form. The ore of the latter
metal was cemented with sheets of copper, charcoal being
present; and the zinc was united with the copper, without
becoming visible in a distinct form. The same method is
still practised for making brass.
Lss Tlie materials used in making brass are copper in small round
akin!, masses, produced by passing the melted metal through an appro¬
priate vessel into water, in which state it is called shot copper;
and calamine, an ore of zinc. This latter substance is a carbonate
of zinc, often containing some oxide of iron, which gives it a reddish
appearance. As it is chiefly found in combination with lead, the
lumps frequently contain more or less galena, which requires to be
separated by the same means as those employed for purifying lead
ore. The calamine is first reduced to powder, and the lead is then
separated by washing. When the calamine is separated, reduced
to powder, and sifted, it is heated upon the hearth of a reverbera¬
tory furnace. This expels the volatile matter, which is principally
water and carbonic acid. What remains is principally oxide of
zinc, abounding with some earthy matter, and probably much car¬
bonic acid, -which is not all expelled by the heat. The calamine
thus prepared, charcoal powder and copper are the materials to be
operated upon. The proportions in which they are mixed together
are equal weights of copper and prepared calamine, and ^th their
weight of powdered charcoal.
This mixture, intimately blended, is compressed into a crucible Brass,
of the form of fig. 3, Plate CXXXVIII. One of these crucibles
holds about 100 lb. of brass when the process is finished; but as
this consists of the pure copper and zinc, the pot, when charged,
will contain of copper 66’3 lb., of calamine 63 lb., and of charcoal
powder 13 lb. When the crucible is filled, the contents should be
covered with a mixture of clay, sand, and horse-dung, in order to
defend the metals and charcoal from the action of the air. When
this covering is strictly attended to, less charcoal powder may be
employed, and a larger dose of the other ingredients may be put in
its place ; but it is generally the most defective part of the process.
■fio- 1; Plate CXXXVIII., is a plan of the furnace. The part AB
is taken at the level EP, showing the opening into the furnace on
the ground floor at a and b ; while c and d are horizontal flues
leading to the chimney/, which may be cut off from the same by
the dampers seen in the dark part of the flue. CD, in the same
figure, is a plan on the level GH, where the pots rest upon the cast-
iron plate on the bottom x, y.
Fig. 2 is an elevation and section of the same furnace. AB
shows a front view of the pyramidal chimney, and the archway
opening into it. CD is a section of the same, through the middle
of the fire-place 11. R,P,Q, is a vaulted passage going across the
building, and open at both ends for the admission of air, which
passes through the openings in the arch into the fires. The bottom
of the furnace is not a common grate, but a thick plate of cast-
metal, perforated with holes for the air to pass through; one hole
being between each pot, as they are seen arranged in fig. 1, at I, I,
and also in the section at x, y. When the pots are put upon the
plate, the fire is not placed immediately upon them, as it would not
only injure them, but displace the covering. To prevent this, the
pots are first covered by some dried heath or common brambles,
which defend them for a time, when the fuel is thrown in. By the
time the brambles are consumed the coal will have coked upon the
pots, and thus act as a defence for the rest of the process. The fire
is kept up from twelve to twenty hours at the Cheudle brass-works
in Staffordshire, from which these drawings were taken. They
cast twice in the twenty-four hours.
After the refuse is skimmed off, the melted brass is cast into in¬
gots if sold for melting over again, and into plates if intended to
be rolled into sheets or made into wire. The plates are cast be¬
tween large blocks of Cornwall stone. The lower stone is fixed,
and the face made even and smooth, by filling up the recesses of
the rough stone with fine sand. The upper stone is similarly pre¬
pared, and is suspended over the fixed one. The height and breadth
of the place to receive the metal is limited by iron bars laid on the
lower stone. The upper stone is then let down upon the bars.
The lower stone is a little longer than the upper one, and projects
to the front. Being a little higher in that part, it forms a lip or
mouthpiece for receiving the metal. The flat sides of the cast plate
are therefore bounded by the surface of the stones, and the edges
of these by the bars above mentioned. The ingot moulds are re¬
cesses in blocks of cast iron, open on one side.
The most certain and correct method of forming brass and the
other compounds expressed in the table above given, is by imme¬
diately uniting the metals in given weights. It should, however,
be observed, that it will be found difficult to introduce zinc into
melted copper. The best way of uniting it with copper, in the
first instance, is to introduce the copper in thin slips into the
melted zinc, till the alloy requires a considerable heat to fuse it,
and then to unite this alloy with the melted copper.
Thrice-calcined brass is a preparation employed by glassmen to Rrasg jn
give many very beautiful colours to their work. The manner of rria33
preparing it is this: Having placed thin plates of brass on tiles ontra(^
the leet of the furnace, near the occhis, let it stand to be calcined
there for four days, and it will become a black powder sticking
together in lumps. Pulverize this, sift it fine, and recalcine it
during four or five days more; at the end of which time it will not
stick together, but remain a loose powder of a russet colour. This
is to be calcined a third time in the same manner; but great care
must be taken in the third calcination that it be neither overdone
nor underdone. The way to be certain when it is right, is to try
it several times in glass while melting. If it causes the glass, when
well purified, to swell, boil, and rise, it is properly calcined; if not,
it requires longer time. This, according to the different propor¬
tions in which it is used, produces a sea-green, an emerald-green,
or a turquoise colour.
Brass, by long calcination alone, and without any mixture,
affords a fine blue or green colour for glass; but there is a method
of calcining it also with powdered brimstone, so as to make it afford
a red, a yellow, or a chalcedony colour, according to the quantity
and other variations in the use of it. This method of calcination
is the following: Cut thin plates of brass into small pieces with
shears, and lay them stratum upon stratum, with alternate beds of
powdered sulphur, in a crucible; calcine this for twenty-four hours
BRA BRA
in a strong fire, then powder and sift the whole, and finally expose
the powder upon tiles for twelve days to a reverberating furnace,
at the end of which time powder it fine and keep it for use. The
glass-makers have also a method of procuring a red powder from
brass by a more simple calcination, which serves for many colours.
The method of preparing it is this: They put small and thin plates
of brass into the arches of the glass furnaces, and leave them there
till they are sufficiently calcined, which the heat in that place, not
being sufficient to melt them, does in great perfection. The cal¬
cined matter, powdered, is of a dusky red, and requires no further
preparation.
Corinthian Brass, famous in antiquity, was a mixture
of gold, silver, and copper. It is said that when Lucius
Mummius sacked and burnt the city of Corinth, b.c. 146,
this metal was formed from the immense quantities of gold,
silver, and copper, which were melted and run together by
the violence of the conflagration. But this is a fable. It
was an artificial alloy long before known in Corinth.
Brass-CoIout is prepared by braziers and colourmen to
imitate brass. There are two kinds, the red brass or
bronze, and the yellow or gilt brass. The latter is made
only of copper-filings, the smallest and brightest that can
be found; with the former it is usual to mix some red
ochre, finely pulverized; and both are used with varnish.
In order to make a fine brass that will not take any rust or
verdigris, it must be dried with a chafing-dish of coals as
soon as it is applied. The finest brass-colour is made of
powdered brass imported from Germany, diluted into a
varnish, which is prepared and used thus :—The varnish is
composed of one pound four ounces of spirits of wine, two
ounces of gum-lac, and two ounces of sandarac; these two
last drugs being pulverized separately, and afterwards put
to dissolve in spirit of wine, and care being taken to fill the
bottle but half full. The varnish being made, mix a quan¬
tity of it with the pulverized brass, and lay it on with a
small brush. Too much must not be mixed at once, as
the varnish dries very quickly. In this manner are brassed
over figures of plaster, which look almost as well as if they
were of cast brass.
Brass Leaf is made of copper, beaten into very thin
plates, and afterwards rendered yellow. The German
artists, particularly those of Nuremberg and Augsburg, are
said to possess the best method of giving to these thin
plates of copper a fine yellow colour like gold, by simply
exposing them to the fumes of zinc, without any real mix¬
ture of it with the metal. These plates are cut into little
pieces, and then beaten out fine like leaves of gold; after
which they are put into books of coarse paper and sold at
a low price for the inferior kinds of gilding. The parings
or shreds of these leaves, being well ground on a marble
plate, are reduced to a powder similar to gold, which serves
to cover, by means of gum-water or some other glutinous
fluid, the surface of various mouldings or pieces of curious
workmanship, giving them the appearance of real bronze,
and even of fine gold, at a very trifling expense, as the
colour of the powder may be easily heightened by stirring
it in a wide earthen basin over a slow fire.
BRAUER, Adrian, a Dutch painter, was born at
Haarlem in 1608, of very humble parents, who bound him
apprentice to the painter F. Hals. Brauer had an admirable
eye for colour, and much spirit in design; which his master
appears to have turned to his own profit, while his pupil
was half starved. This ungenerous treatment led Brauer
into low company and dissipated scenes, which he deline¬
ated with great spirit and vivid colouring in his pictures.
Though his pictures now bring high prices, the unfortu¬
nate artist died in an hospital, at the early age of 32.
BRAULS, Indian cloths with blue and white stripes;
otherwise called turbans, \>ecwL$e they are applied to that use.
BRAUNSBERG, the capital of a circle of the same
name in the government of Konigsberg, on the Passarge,
about three miles from its mouth in the Frische Hoff. It
is the seat of the bishop of Ermeland, and has a seminary Brauronb
for the education of Catholic clergymen, manufactures of ||
leather and cloth, and some trade in corn and timber. Brazen Sen
Small vessels can come up to the town. Pop. (1849)
8954.
BRAURONIA, in Grecian Antiquity, a festival cele¬
brated every fifth year at the Attic town of Brauron, in
honour of Artemis Brauronia (Diana). The ceremonies
were conducted by ten superintendents called UpoiroioL.
The chief solemnity was a procession of girls between five
and ten years of age, who went in crocus-coloured garments
to the temple, where they were consecrated to the goddess.
During this ceremony the hieropoioi sacrificed a goat, and
the girls imitated bears. The origin of this custom is given
by Suidas. There was another quinquennial festival of this
name held at Brauron in honour of Dionysus (Bacchus).
BRAWN, the flesh of a boar soused or pickled.
BRAY, Sir Reginald, was the second son of Sir
Richard Bray, one of the privy council of Henry VI. Sir
Reginald was instrumental in the advancement of Henry
VII. to the throne of England, and was greatly in favour
with that prince, who bestowed upon him honours and
wealth. His taste and skill in architecture are attested by
those two exquisite structures, Henry VII.’s chapel at
Westminster, and the chapel of St George at Windsor. He
principally directed the building of the former, and the
finishing and decoration of the latter, to which, moreover, he
was a liberal contributor. He died in 1503, and was in¬
terred in St George’s chapel. On opening a vault there in
1740, to admit the body of Dr Waterland, a leaden coffin
of ancient form was found, which, by other appearances,
was judged to be that of Sir Reginald. By order of the
dean it was immediately arched over.
Bray, Dr Thomas, a learned and pious divine, was born
at Marton, in Shropshire, in 1656, and educated at Oxford.
He at length obtained the vicarage of Over-Whitacre, and
the rectory of Sheldon. Here he composed his Catecheti¬
cal Lectures, which procured him such reputation, that Dr
Compton, bishop of London, was induced to select him as
his commissary to settle the affairs of the infant church of
Maryland. He now engaged in several important under¬
takings. He caused sums to be raised for purchasing small
libraries for the use of missionaries in the colonies; and to
promote this design, he published his Bibliotheca Parochi-
alis, and a discourse on Apostolical Charity. Dr Bray was
anxious to get a fund established for the propagation of
the gospel, especially among the Indians; and to his exer¬
tions The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel owes
its existence. By his industry he also procured relief for
prisoners, and formed the plan of the society for the refor¬
mation of manners, and some other charitable institutions.
He was the author of Martyrology, or Papal Usurpation,
folio; Directorium Missionarium ; and other works. This
excellent man died in 1730, aged seventy-three.
Bray, a parish of Berkshire, on the Thames, 23 miles
from London. It obtains its chief notoriety from its vicar
in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Eliza¬
beth, whose accommodating conscience suited itself to every
change of circumstances. He became twice Papist and
twice Protestant, in order that he might adhere to “ his one
principle,” which was “to live and die Vicar of Bray.”
Bray, a small seaport town, and a fashionable watering
place of Ireland, in the counties of Wicklow and Dublin, at
the mouth of the Bray, 12 miles S.S.E. of Dublin. The town
is situated on both sides of the river which separates the two
counties, is neatly built, and has a parish church, an elegant
Roman Catholic chapel, and several other places of worship,
an old castle now used as a barrack, two schools, an hospi¬
tal, dispensary, and savings-bank. The harbour is accessi¬
ble only to small vessels. Pop. (1851) 3156.
BRAZEN Sea, or Molten Sea, in Jewish Antiquity,
BRA
Brazil, one of the sacred utensils in the temple of Solomon. This
immense reservoir stood in the inner court of the temple,
and rested or appeared to rest on the backs of twelve oxen,
three of which looked towards each quarter of the world!
It was ten cubits in width, five in depth, thirty in circum¬
ference, and had a capacity of 3000 baths. The brim of
it was perfectly round, and so it continued in the two up¬
per cubits ; but in the three lower cubits it was square.
It was a handbreadth in thickness, and the brim was
wrought like the brim of a cup, with figures of lilies in
bloom. About the body of this huge vessel were two bor-
BRA 279
ders of engravings, representing the heads of oxen in demi- Brazier
relief; and out of these some suppose the water to have II
issued. This brazen or molten sea was designed for the Brazil,
priests to wash themselves in before they performed the
service of the temple. Water was supplied by a pipe out
of the well Etam. The description of this great work gives
a very favourable idea of the state of metallurgic art in the
time of Solomon.
BRAZIER, an artificer who works in brass. It also de¬
notes a chaffing-dish or pan for holding live coals; some¬
times spelt brasier.
BRAZIL.
In presenting an account of this extensive and important
country, the only American monarchy, we shall, first, give
a brief historical sketch of the progressive discovery of its
coasts and interior, of its gradual settlement, and of the
auspices under which its social institutions have developed
themselves ; secondly, a condensed view of its physical geo¬
graphy, meteorology, and natural products; and, thirdly, a
similar view of its inhabitants, their form of government,
moral and intellectual culture, and agricultural, manufac¬
turing, and commercial industry.
istory. 1. History.—Brazil was discovered in 1499, by Vincent
Yanez Pinion, a companion of Columbus. He descried the
land near Cape St Augustine, and sailed along the coast as
far as the river Amazon, whence he proceeded to the mouth
of the Orinoco. He made no settlement, but took posses¬
sion of the country in the name of the Spanish government,
and carried home, as specimens of its natural productions,
some drugs, gems, and Brazil wood. Next year the Por¬
tuguese commander Pedro Alvarez Cabral, appointed by
his monarch to follow the course of Vasco de Gama in the
east, was driven, by adverse winds, so far from his track, that
he reached the Brazilian coast, April 24. and anchored in
Porto Seguro (Eat. 16° S.) on Good Friday. On Easter-
day an altar was erected, mass celebrated in presence of the
natives, the country declared an appanage of Portugal, and
a stone cross erected in commemoration of the event. Ca¬
bral despatched a small vessel to Lisbon, to announce his
discovery, and, without forming any settlement, proceeded
to India on the 3d of May.
On the arrival of the news in Portugal, Emanuel invited
Amerigo Vespucci to enter his service, and despatched him
with three vessels to explore the country. This navigator’s
first voyage was unsiaccessful; but in a second he discovered
a safe port, the site of which is not accurately known, to
which he gave the name of All-Saints. He remained there
five months, and maintained a friendly intercourse w ith the
natives. Some of the party travelled forty leagues into the
interior. Vespucci erected a small fort, and leaving twelve
men, with guns and provisions, to garrison it, embarked for
Portugal; having loaded his two ships with Brazil wood,
monkeys, and parrots.
The poor and barbarous tribes of Brazil, and their country,
the mineral riches of which were not immediately discovered,
offered but few attractions to a government into the coffers
of which the wealth of India and Africa was flowing. Ves¬
pucci’s settlement was neglected. For nearly thirty years
the kings of Portugal paid no further attention to their
newly-acquired territory, than what consisted in combating
the attempts of the Spaniards to occupy it, and dispersing
the private adventurers from France, who sought its shores
for the purposes of commerce. The colonization of Brazil
was prosecuted, however, by subjects of the Portuguese
monarchy, who traded thither chiefly for Brazil wood. It
was convenient for these traders to have agents living among
the natives; and adventurers were found who were willing
to take up their abode with them. The government also
sought to make criminals of some use to the state, by placing
them in a situation where they could do little harm to so¬
ciety, and might help to uphold the dominion of their nation.
I he utter want of any legal check upon these earliest Euro¬
pean settlers, combined with the ferocious characters of
many of them, and the hardening influence of their feuds
with the native cannibals, were anything but favourable to
the morals of the infant empire.
The first attempt on the part of a Portuguese monarch
to introduce an organized government into his dominions,
was made by Joao III. He adopted a plan which had been
found to succeed well in Madeira and the Azores; dividing
the country into hereditary captaincies, and granting them
to such persons as were willing to undertake their settle¬
ment, with unlimited powers of jurisdiction, both civil and
criminal. Each captaincy extended along fifty leagues of
coast. The boundaries in the interior were undefined.
The first settlement made under this new system was
that of S. Vincente. Martim Affonso de Sousa, having ob¬
tained a grant, fitted out a considerable armament, and pro¬
ceeded to explore the country in person. He began to
survey the coast about Rio Janeiro, to which he gave that
name because he discovered it on the first of January 1531.
He proceeded south as far as La Plata, naming the places
he surveyed on the way from the days on which the respec¬
tive discoveries were made. He fixed upon an island, in
latitude 241° south, called by the natives Guaibe, for his
settlement. The Goagnazes, or prevailing tribe of Indians
in that neighbourhood, as soon as they discovered the in¬
tentions of the new comers to fix themselves permanently
there, collected for the purpose of expelling them. For¬
tunately, however, a shipwrecked Portuguese, who had lived
many years under the protection of the principal chief, was
successful in concluding a treaty of perpetual alliance be¬
tween his countrymen and the natives. The good under¬
standing thus happily established was long preserved. Find¬
ing the spot chosen for the new town inconvenient, the co¬
lonists removed to the adjoining island of S. Vincente, from
which the captaincy derived its name. An unsuccessful
expedition was made into the interior in search of mines.
Nevertheless the colony prospered. Cattle and the sugar¬
cane were at an early period introduced from Madeira, and
here the other captaincies supplied themselves with both.
The founder of the colony was soon removed from the
active superintendence of its progress, by being appointed
governor-general of India; but on his return to Portugal
he watched over its welfare, sending out supplies and set¬
tlers, and leaving it at his death in a flourishing condition
to his son.
Pero Lopes de Sousa received the grant of a captaincy,
and set sail from Portugal at the same time as his brother,
the founder of S. Vincente. He chose to have his fifty
leagues in two allotments. That to which he gave the
name of S. Amaro adjoined S. Vincente, the two towns
BRA
being only three leagues asunder. The other division lay
much nearer to the line between Paraiba and Pernambuco.
He experienced considerable difficulty in founding this
second colony, from the strenuous opposition of a neigh¬
bouring tribe, the Petiguares ; but at length he succeeded
in clearing his lands of them ; and not long afterwards he
perished by shipwreck. The extreme proximity of his first
settlement at S. Amaro to his brother’s at S. Vincente was
at first advantageous to both ; but the former coming after
his death into the hands of strangers, their interfering and
contested boundaries gave rise to much trouble and litigation.
Rio Janeiro was not settled till a later period; and for a
considerable time the nearest captaincy to S. Amaro, sail¬
ing along the coast northwards, was that of Espirito Santo.
It was founded by Vasco Fernandes Coutinho, who having
acquired a large fortune in India, sunk it in this scheme of
colonization. He carried with him no less than sixty fidal-
gos. They named their town by anticipation, Our Lady of
the Victory ; but it cost them some hard fighting with the
Goagnazes to justify the title. Having defeated these
savages, the colonists carried on the building with spirit,
planted canes, and established four sugar-works ; and Cou¬
tinho seeing everything prosperous, returned to Lisbon to
enlist more colonists, and to make preparations for an expe¬
dition into the interior in search of mines.
Pedro de Campo Tourinho, a nobleman and excellent
navigator, received a grant of the adjoining captaincy of
Porto Seguro. This, it will be remembered, is the spot
where Cabral first took possession of Brazil. Tourinho and
his associates fortified themselves on the place where the
capital of the presidency still stands. The Tupinoquins at
first offered some opposition ; but having made peace, they
observed it faithfully, notwithstanding that the oppression
of the Portuguese obliged them to forsake the country. In
this guilt Tourinho is not implicated. That he had influ¬
ence enough with the natives to induce many of them to
collect and settle in villages, is a proof that he dealt justly
by them. Sugar-works were established, and considerable
quantities of the produce exported to the mother country.
It was found impossible, by reason of an endemic disorder,
to rear kine in the province; but horses, asses, and goats,
succeeded.
Jorge de Figueiredo, Escrivam da Fazenda, was the
first donatory of the captaincy of Ilheos. His office pre¬
venting him from taking possession in person, he deputed
the task to Francisco Romeiro, a Castilian. The Tupino¬
quins, the most tractable of the Brazilian tribes, made peace
with the settlers, and the colony was founded without a
struggle. The son of the original proprietor sold the
captaincy to Lucas Geraldes, who expended considerable
wealth in improving it; and, in a short time, eight or nine
sugar-works were established.
The coast from the Rio S. Francisco to Bahia was granted
to Francisco Pereira Coutinho : the bay itself, with all
its creeks, was afterwards added to the grant. When Cou¬
tinho formed his establishment, where Villa Velha now
stands, he found a noble Portuguese living in the neigh¬
bourhood, who, having been shipwrecked, had, by means,
of his fire-arms, raised himself to the rank of chief among
the natives. He was surrounded by a patriarchal establish¬
ment of wives and children ; and to him most of the dis¬
tinguished families of Bahia still trace their lineage. The
regard entertained by the natives for Caramaru (signifying
man of fire) induced them to extend a hospitable welcome
to his countrymen ; and for a time every thing went on well.
Coutinho had, however, learned in India to be an oppressor,
and the Tupinambas were the fiercest and most powerful
of the native tribes. The Portuguese were obliged to
abandon their settlement; but several of them returned at
a later period, along with Caramaru, and thus a European
community was established in the district.
Z I L.
A factory had, some time before the period at which these Histoi
captaincies were established, been planted at Pernambuco. v"
A ship from Marseilles took it, and left seventy men in it
as a garrison ; but being captured on her return, and car¬
ried into Lisbon, immediate measures were taken for re¬
occupying the place. The captaincy of Pernambuco was
granted to Don Duarte Coelho Pereira as the reward of his
services in India. It extended along the coast from the
Rio S. Francisco, northward to the Rio de Juraza. Duarte
sailed with his wife and children, and many of his kinsmen,
to take possession of his new colony, and landed in the port
of Pernambuco. To the town which was there founded he
gave the name of Olinda. The Cabetes, who possessed
the soil, were fierce and pertinacious ; and, assisted by the
French, who traded to that coast, Coelho had to gain by
inches what was granted him by leagues. The Portuguese
managed, however, to beat off their enemies; and, having
entered into an alliance with the Tobayanes, followed up
their success. After this triumph the colony continued,
with the exception of a brief interval, to enjoy peace, and
to prosper during the life of its founder.
Attempts were made about this time to establish two
other captaincies, but without success. Pedro de Goes ob¬
tained a grant of the captaincy of Paraiba between those
of S. Vincente and Espirito Santo ; but his means were too
feeble to enable him to make head against the aborigines,
and the colony was broken up after a painful struggle of
seven years. Joao de Barros, the historian, obtained the
captaincy of Maranhao. For the sake of increasing his
capital, he divided his grant with Fernan Alvares de An-
drada and Aires da Cunha. They projected a scheme of
conquest and colonization upon a large scale. Nine hun¬
dred men, of whom one hundred and thirteen were horse¬
men, embarked in ten ships under the command of Aires
da Cunha. But the vessels were wrecked upon some shoals
about one hundred leagues to the south of Maranhao; and
the few survivors, after suffering immense hardships, es¬
caped to the nearest settlements, and the undertaking was
abandoned.
By these adventurers, the whole line of Brazilian coast,
from the mouth of La Plata to the mouth of the Amazons,
had become studded at intervals with Portuguese settle¬
ments, in all of which law and justice were administered,
however inadequately. It is worthy of observation, that
Brazil was the first colony founded in America upon an
agricultural principle, for until then the precious metals
were the exclusive attraction. Sufficient capital was at¬
tracted between the year 1531, in which De Sousa founded
the first captaincy, and the year 1548, to render these colo¬
nies an object of importance to the mother country. Their
organization, however, both in regard to their means of de¬
fence against external aggression and internal violence, was
extremely defective. Portugal was distant, and the inha¬
bited portions of each captaincy were too far asunder to be
able to afford reciprocal assistance. They were surrounded
by, and intermingled with, large tribes of savages. Behind
them the Spaniards, who had an establishment at Assump¬
tion, had penetrated almost to the sources of the waters of
Paraguay, and had succeeded in establishing a communica¬
tion with Peru. Orellana, on the other hand, setting out
from Peru, had crossed the mountains and sailed down the
Amazons. Nor had the French abandoned their hopes of
effecting an establishment on the coast. But the want or
internal organization in the Portuguese settlements was
even worse than the inadequacy of their defensive force*
The governor of every captaincy exercised uncontrolled
authority; the property, honour, and lives of the colonists,
were at the mercy of these feudal chieftains; and the peop e
groaned under many oppressions.
The obvious remedy for these evils was to concentrate
the executive power, to render the petty chiefs amenab e
BRA
History, to one tribunal, and to confide the management of the de-
fensive force to one hand. In order to this the powers of
the several captains were revoked, whilst their property in
their grants was reserved to them. A governor-general
was appointed, with full powers, civil and criminal. The
judicial and financial functions in each province were vested
in the Ouvidor, whose authority in the college of finance
was second only to that of the governor. In levying the
dues of the crown, he was assisted by the Juiz de Fora.
Every colonist was enrolled either in the Milicias or Or-
denanzas. The former were obliged to serve beyond the
boundaries of the province, the latter only at home. The
Milicias were commanded by Coroneis, the Ordenanzas
by Capitaes Mores. Both were immediately under the
governor. The chief cities received municipal constitutions,
as in Portugal. Thome de Sousa was the first person no¬
minated to the important post of governor-general. He
was instructed to build a strong city in Bahia and to esta¬
blish there the seat of his government. In pursuance of
his commission, he arrived at Bahia in April 1549, with a
fleet of six vessels, on board of which were three hundred
and twenty persons in the king’s pay, four hundred con¬
victs, and as many free colonists as swelled the number of
adventurers to one thousand. Care had been taken for the
spiritual wants of the provinces, by associating six Jesuits
to the expedition.
Old Caramaru, who still survived, rendered the governor
essential service, by gaining for his countrymen the good
will of the natives. The new city was established where
Bahia still stands. Within four months one hundred houses
were built, and surrounded by a mud wall. Sugar planta¬
tions were laid out in the vicinity. During the four years
of Sousa’s government, there were sent out at different times
supplies of all kinds ; female orphans of noble families, who
were given in marriage to the officers, and portioned from
the royal estates; and orphan boys to be educated by the
Jesuits. The capital rose rapidly in importance, and the
captaincies learned to regard it as a common head and centre
of wealth. The governor visited them, inspected their for¬
tifications, and regulated the administration of justice.
Meanwhile the Jesuits undertook the moral and religious
culture of the natives, and of the scarcely less savage colo¬
nists. Strong opposition was at first experienced from the
gross ignorance of the Indians, and the depravity of the
Portuguese, fostered by the licentious encouragement of
some abandoned priests who had found their way to Brazil.
Over these persons the Jesuits had no authority; and it
was not until the arrival of the first bishop of Brazil in
1552, that anything like an efficient check was imposed
upon them. Next year Sousa was succeeded by Duarte da
Costa, who brought with him a reinforcement of Jesuits,
at the head of whom was Luis de Gran, appointed, with
Nobrega the chief of the first mission, joint provincial of
Brazil.
Nobrega’s first act was one which has exercised the
most beneficial influence over the social system of Brazil,
namely, the establishment of a college on* the then unre¬
claimed plains of Piratininga. The spot selected by him
for the site of this establishment is on the ridge of the Serra
do Mar, ten leagues from the sea, and thirteen from S. Vin¬
cente. It was named S. Paulo, and has been at once the
source whence knowledge and civilization have been diffused
through Brazil, and the nucleus of a colony of its manliest
and hardiest citizens, which has sent out successive swarms
of hardy adventurers to people the interior. The mode of
education pursued by the Jesuits at S. Paulo was the same
as that observed in all their other missions. Their good in¬
tentions were in part frusti’ated by the opposition of Duarte
the governor; and it was not until 1558, when Mem de Sa
was sent out to supersede him, that their enlightened pro¬
jects were allowed free scope. This great man, compre-
vol. v.
Z I L. 281
bending better than his predecessor the system of these History,
missionaries, went hand in hand with the ecclesiastics dur- ^
ing the whole of his government.
It has been observed above that Rio Janeiro was not
colonized at the time when the rest of the coast was por¬
tioned out into captaincies. It was first occupied by French
settlers. Nicholas Durand de Villegagnon, a bold and skil¬
ful seaman, having visited Brazil, saw at once the advan¬
tages which might accrue to his country from a settlement
there. In order to secure the interest of Coligny, he gave
out that his projected colony was intended to serve as a
place of refuge for the persecuted Huguenots. Under the
patronage of that admiral, he arrived at Rio Janeiro in 1558,
with a train of numerous and respectable colonists. As
soon, however, as he thought his power secure, he threw
off the mask, and began to harass and oppress the Hugue¬
nots by every means he could devise. Many of them
were forced by his tyranny to return to France; and ten
thousand Protestants, ready to embark for the new colony,
were deterred by their representations. Villegagnon, find¬
ing his force much diminished in consequence of his
treachery, sailed for France, in quest of recruits ; and dur¬
ing his absence the Portuguese governor, by order of his
court, attacked and dispersed the settlement. For some
years the French kept up a kind of bush warfare ; but in
1567 the Portuguese succeeded in establishing a settlement
at Rio.
Mem de Sa continued to hold the reins of government in
Brazil upon terms of the best understanding with the clergy,
and to the great advantage of the colonies, for fourteen
years. On the expiration of his power, which was nearly
contemporary with that of his life, an attempt was made to
divide Brazil into two governments ; but, this having failed,
the territory was re-united in 1578, the year in which
Diego Lauren^o da Veiga was appointed governor. At
this time the colonies, although not yet independent of sup¬
plies from the mother country, were in a flourishing condi¬
tion ; but the usurpation of the crown of Portugal by
Philip II. changed the aspect of affairs. Brazil, believed
to be inferior to the Spanish possessions in mines, was con¬
sidered of importance merely as an outpost to prevent the
intrusion of foreign nations. It was consequently abandoned
to comparative neglect for the period intervening between
1578 and 1640, during which it continued an appanage of
Spain. The population increased ; and domestic enter¬
prise and foreign invasion called forth the energies of the
people; but, as far as legislation was concerned, nothing was
done.
No sooner had Brazil passed under the Spanish crown,
than English adventurers directed their hostile enterprises
against its shores. In 1586 Witherington plundered Bahia;
in 1591 Cavendish burned S. Vincente ; in 1595 Lancaster
took Olinda. These exploits, however, were transient in
their effects. In 1612 the French attempted to found a
permanent colony in the island of Marajo, where they suc¬
ceeded in maintaining themselves till 1618. This attempt
led to the erection of Maranhao and Para into a separate
Estado. But it was on the part of the Dutch that the most
skilful and pertinacious efforts were made for securing a
footing in Brazil; and they alone of all the rivals of the
Portuguese have left traces of their presence in the national
spirit and institutions of Brazil.
The very imperfect constitution of the United Provinces
was the cause why many of the executive functions were
delegated to companies of mercantile adventurers. Among
the offices properly appertaining to the government, the
maintenance and defence of the Spice Islands had been in¬
trusted to the East India Company. The success of that
body suggested the establishment of a West India Com¬
pany. Its charter secured to it a monopoly of the trade to
Amei’ica and the opposite coast of Africa, between the
2 N
282 BRA
History, tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope. The com-
V-'"''' pany was taken bound to render an account of its proceed¬
ings every sixth year.
This body despatched in 1624 a fleet against Bahia. The
town yielded almost without a struggle. The Dutch gover¬
nor fortified his new acquisition; and his proclamation offer¬
ing toleration and protection to all, collected around him a
multitude of Indians, Negroes, and Jews. The fleet soon
after sailed; a squadron being detached against Angola, with
the intention of taking possession of that colony, in order to
secure a supply of slaves. The Portuguese, in the mean¬
while, who had fled at first in the hope of eluding what
they conceived to be merely an incursion of pirates, began
to collect for the purpose of expelling the permanent in¬
truders ; and the weakening of the Dutch force by the de¬
parture of the fleet inspired them with fresh courage. The
descendants of Caramaru formed a link between the abori¬
gines and the Portuguese which existed in no other part of
Brazil. The consequence was, the hearty co-operation of
all the natives against the invaders. The Dutch were
obliged to capitulate in May 1625. The honours bestowed
upon the Indian chiefs for their assistance in this war broke
down in a great measure the barrier between the two tribes;
and there is at this day a greater admixture of their blood
among the better classes in Bahia than is to be found else¬
where in Brazil.
For some years the Dutch confined themselves to depre¬
dations upon the marine of Spain and Portugal. In 1630
they attempted again to effect a settlement; and Olinda
yielded after a feeble resistance. They were unable, how¬
ever, to extend their power beyond the limits of the town,
until the arrival of Count Maurice of Nassau in 1630.
His first step was to introduce a regular government among
his countrymen; his second, to send to the African coast
one of his officers, who took possession of a Portuguese
settlement, and thus secured a supply of slaves. Nassau
suffered repulses in several of his expeditions, and particu¬
larly in that which lie undertook against Bahia. Neverthe¬
less, in the course of four years, the limited period of his
government, he succeeded in confirming the Dutch supre¬
macy along the coast of Brazil from the mouth of the S.
Francisco to Maranhao. He expended the revenues of the
country, the booty obtained from the Portuguese, and a
great part of his private fortune, in fortifying the mouths of
rivers, building bridges to facilitate mercantile intercourse,
and beautifying and repairing towns. He strictly observed
the Dutch policy of tolerating all religions. He promoted
the amalgamation of the different races, and sought to con¬
ciliate the Portuguese by the confidence he reposed in them.
His object was to found a great empire; but this was a pro¬
ject at variance with the washes of his employers—an asso¬
ciation of merchants, who were dissatisfied because the
wealth which they expected to see flowing into their coffers
was expended in promoting the permanent interests of a
distant country. Count Maurice was recalled in 1644. His
successors possessed neither his political nor his military ta¬
lents, and had to contend with more energetic enemies.
In 1640, the revolution which placed the house of Bra-
ganza on the throne of Portugal restored Brazil to masters
more inclined to promote its interests, and assert its posses¬
sion, than the Spaniards. It was indeed high time that
some exertion should be made. The northern provinces
had fallen into the power of Holland; the southern, peopled
in a great measure by the hardy descendants of the succes¬
sive colonists, who had issued on all sides from the central
establishment of S. Paulo, had learned, from their habits of
unaided and successful enterprise, to court independence.
Adventurers had penetrated into those central mountains
where the diamond is found. They had ascended the waters
of the Paraguay to their sources. They had extended their
limits southwards till they reached the Spanish settlements
Z I L,
on La Plata. They had reduced to slavery numerous tribes History,
of the natives. They were rich in cattle, and had com-
menced the discovery of the mines. While yet nominally
subject to the crown of Spain, they had not scrupled on
more than one occasion to wage war on their own account
against the settlements of that country. When, therefore,
the inhabitants of S. Paulo saw themselves about to be
transferred, as a dependency of Portugal, from one master
to another, they conceived the idea of erecting their country
into an independent state. Their attempt, however, was
frustrated by Amador Bueno, the person whom they had
selected for their king. When the people shouted “ Long
live King Amador,” he cried out “ Long live Joao IV.,”
and took refuge in a convent. The multitude, left without
a leader, acquiesced, and this important province was secured
to the house of Braganza.
Rio and Santos, although both evinced a desire of inde¬
pendence, followed the example of the Paulistas. Bahia, as
capital of the Brazilian states, felt that its ascendency de¬
pended upon the union with Portugal. The government,
thus left in quiet possession of the rest of Brazil, had time
to concentrate its attention upon the Dutch conquests.
The crown of Portugal was, however, much too weak to
adopt energetic measures. The tyranny of the successors
of Nassau, by alienating the minds of the Portuguese and
natives, drove them to revolt, before any steps were taken
in the mother country for the re-conquest of its colonies.
Joao Fernandes Vieyra, a native of Madeira, organized the
insurrection which broke out in 1645. This insurrection
gave birth to one of those wars in which a whole nation,
destitute of pecuniary resources, military organization, and
skilful leaders, is opposed to a handful of soldiers advan¬
tageously posted and well officered. But brute force is un¬
able to contend with scientific valour, whilst the want of
numbers prevents the intruders from reaching the enemy
they always repulse. The struggle degenerates into un¬
ceasing skirmishes and massacres, conducting to no result.
Vieyra, who had the sense to see this, repaired to the court
of Portugal, and discovering the weakness and poverty of
the executive, suggested the establishment of a company
similar to that which in Holland had proved so successful.
His plan, notwithstanding the opposition of the priests, was
approved of, and in 1649 the Brazil Company of Portugal
sent out its first fleet. The additional impetus communi¬
cated by this new engine to the exertions of the Portuguese
colonists and their Indian allies, turned the scale against
the Dutch. After a most sanguinary war, Vieyra was en¬
abled in 1654 to present the keys of Olinda to the royal
commander, and to restore to his monarch the undivided
empire of Brazil; and in 1661, a treaty of peace was signed
with them, and they renounced their pretensions to a por¬
tion of Brazil. After this, except some inroads on the
frontiers, the only foreign invasion which Brazil had to suf¬
fer was from France. In 1710 a squadron commanded by
Duclerc disembarked 1000 men, and attacked Rio de Janeiro.
After having lost half of his men in a battle, Duclerc and all
his surviving companions were made prisoners. The go¬
vernor treated them cruelly. A new squadron with 6000
troops was intrusted to the famous admiral Duguay Trouin
to revenge this injury. They arrived at Rio on the 12th
September 1711. After four days of hard fighting, the
town was taken. The governor retreated to a position out
of it, and was only awaiting reinforcements from Minas to
retake it; but Duguay Trouin threatening to burn it, he was
obliged on the 10th October to sign a capitulation, and pay
to the French admiral 610,000 crusados, 500 cases of sugar,
and provisions for the return of the fleet to Europe. The
same day Albuquerque, the governor of Minas, arrived with
the expected reinforcement of 15,000 men. The condi¬
tions of the capitulation were, however, fulfilled. Duguay
Trouin departed to Bahia to obtain fresh spoils; but having
B R A Z I L.
History, lost in a storm two of his best ships, with an important part
of the money received, he renounced this plan and returned
directly to France.
After this the Portuguese governed undisturbed their
colony. The approach of foreign traders was prohibited,
while the regalities reserved by the crown drained the coun¬
try of a great proportion of its wealth. The authority of the
governors was despotic in its abuse, but limited in its correc¬
tive powei; the administration of justice was slovenly in the
extreme ; the pay of all functionaries, civil, ecclesiastic, and
military, was so parsimonious as to render peculation ine¬
vitable ; and yet, in spite of all these disadvantages, the
wealth and happiness of the people continued silently and
steadily to increase. Fhe reason was, that they were left
in a great measure to themselves, and had an ample field
within their own land for the exertion of their industry.
We have already adverted to the important part which
the inhabitants of the captaincy of S. Paulo have played in
the history of Brazil. The establishment of the Jesuit col¬
lege had attracted to its neighbourhood a number of settlers
from S. Vincente. The Indians of the district were of mild
dispositions, and frequent intermarriages took place between
them and the Europeans. A race of men sprung from this
mixture, native to the soil, hardy and enterprising, wearing
hut lightly the bonds which attached them to the mother
country. The first object of inquiry with the colonists was,
whether the land of which they had taken possession were
lich in metals. Gold was found, but not in sufficient quan¬
tities to reward the labour bestowed in search of it. The
Portuguese next devoted their energies to excursions against
the more i emote Indian tribes, with a view to obtaining
slaves. Traces of gold having been observed in the moun¬
tain ranges north of S. Paulo, successive bands of adven¬
turers attempted to penetrate the wilderness. The spirit
of enterprise was thus nourished and confirmed. From the
year 1629 the Paulistas repeatedly attacked the settlements
of the Jesuits in Paraguay, although both provinces were
nominally subject to the crown of Spain, and carried away
numbers of the natives into captivity. Other bands pene¬
trated into Minas, and, still farther northward and westward,
into Goyaz and Cuiaba, in search of gold.
At first the gold-searchers, like the slave-hunters, under¬
took temporary expeditions, with the view, doubtless, of re¬
turning laden with booty, and settling in their native homes.
By degrees, however, as the distance of the newly-dis¬
covered mines increased, and establishments for working
them became necessary, new colonies were founded. Dif¬
ferent associations of adventurers penetrated, in the years
1693, 1694, and 1695, into the district of Minas Geraes,
which had been explored by the Paulistas at least twenty
years before. In the beginning of the eighteenth century
five of its principal settlements were elevated by royal charter
to the privileges of towns. In 1720 the district was sepa¬
rated from S. Paulo, of which it had previously been esteemed
a dependency, and placed under the control of a governor-
general. In 1670 the gold-searchers penetrated into Goyaz;
but it was not till the commencement of the next century
that, encouraged by the discovery of the mines of Cuiaba,
in the province of Matto Grosso, a permanent colony was
settled there.
The first attempt to regulate by legislative enactments
the industry of the miners of Brazil was made as early as
1618 by Philip III. According to his code of regulations,
the privileges of the discoverer were that he should have
one mine of eighty Portuguese varas by forty, and a second
allotment of sixty by thirty upon the same vein. A hundred
and twenty varas were to intervene between the portions.
Any adventurer might claim a mine, but he could only have
one of the same extent as the discoverer’s first portion. No
one except the discoverer might have more than one origi¬
nal grant within the distance of a league and a half; but
283
the purchase of another person’s allotment within that dis- History
tance was allowed. Mines might be sought for and worked ^
upon private property, because they belonged to the king,
but the owner of the land had a right to indemnifica¬
tion. Mining adventurers were entitled to turn their cat¬
tle into the lands of the municipality (concelho), and even
into private property, without the owner’s permission, upon
pa.ying the value of the pasturage. No man engaged in
mining could be arrested for debt, or have a distress levied
upon such capital as he had employed in the work. Mines
might only be granted to such persons as possessed the
means of peopling and working them. A grant was for¬
feited if not taken possession of within sixty days. The
executive and judicial functions within the mining districts
were vested in a provedor and his secretary, those of the
fiscal in a treasurer. None of these officials could hold a
share in a mine, or trade in its produce, under penalty of
loss of office and confiscation of property. The provedor
or his secretary measured out the allotments; received and
inspected the samples of metal from new mines; registered
the grants, with the holder’s oath to pay his fifths regularly
and faithfully; and decided finally in all disputes to the
amount of fifty milrees, with the reservation only of the
right of appeal to the Provedor M6r da Real Fazenda to
any amount. '1 he treasurer received the royal fifths, and
superintended the weighing, registering, refining, and stamp¬
ing of all the gold. The king’s share was deposited in a
chest under three locks, the keys of which were kept by the
provedor, secretary, and treasurer. A yearly account was
returned of all the discoveries and produce.
For many years these laws were little more than a dead
letter. The Paulistas were wholly engrossed with their
expeditions in quest of slaves ; the government and the co¬
lonists of the other captaincies, with the Dutch and other
wars. Some few gipsy-like establishments were scattered
thinly throughout the gold country. By degrees the desire
of gain induced the more powerful and wealthy colonists
to solicit large grants. No attention was paid to the re¬
striction of the number that might be conferred on each
individual; and the consequence was, that men of influence
monopolized the mines, and were obliged either to sublet
them to those they had forestalled, or to leave them un¬
opened. It was found necessary in 1702 to alter the ex¬
isting laws.
The whole ordinary civil and military authority was
vested in the superintendent (Guarda Mor). The ap¬
pointment of the treasurer belonged to this officer. Both
were allowed a limited number of deputies. At first the
salaries of all these officers were levied upon the miners,
but subsequently the privilege of mining was conceded to
them in lieu of a salary. No second grant was made to
any person until he had worked the first. The allotments
were regulated by the number of slaves which the miner
employed. Besides its fifths, the crown reserved an allot¬
ment, selected after the adventurer had taken his first
grant and before he had chosen his second. If an ad¬
venturer did not begin to work his ground within forty
days, a third part of it, upon information of the lapse, was
assigned to the informer, and the other two-thirds reverted
to the crown. Cattle were allowed to be imported into the
mining districts from Bahia, but no persons were allowed
to enter except the drovers. They were required to notify
their arrival, the number of their cattle, and the prices they
obtained. Any person might carry gold-dust from the
mines to Bahia to purchase cattle, but not till he had paid
his fifths and provided himself with a certificate. These
regulations were enforced by strong penalties, in order to
prevent frauds upon the revenue. Slaves, and all other
goods except cattle, were only allowed to be introduced
fi om Ilio, and that either by the way of S. Faulo or Ta-
boate. No idle persons were allowed to remain about the
1
284 BRA
History, mines; no goldsmith was tolerated there, nor any settler
possessed of’ a slave capable of exercising this craft.
The same infatuated passion for mining speculations
which had characterized the Spanish settlers in South
America, now began to actuate the Portuguese. Adven¬
turers crowded to the scene of action from all the cap¬
taincies ; not mere “ landless resolutes” alone, but men of
substance also. Labourers and capital were drained off to
the mining districts. The sugar-mills (Engenhos) were
either abandoned or left half-cultivated, from the inability
of the proprietors to offer for slaves the ruinous prices paid
by the adventurers of the mines. Brazil, which had hi¬
therto in a great measure supplied Europe with sugar, sank
before the competition of the French and English, who had
no mines to distract their attention. Commerce of every
kind declined along with this staple commodity. 1 he court
endeavoured for a time to counteract this course of enter¬
prise, but in vain.
A new source of wealth for Brazil, had it been properly
managed, but, as matters have turned out, merely a new
source of injudicious restriction, was now about to be opened
up. Some adventurers who had prosecuted the business
of gold-washing northwards from Villa de Principe in the
captaincy of Minas, made a discovery of diamonds about
the year 1710. The value of these minerals was not
known till several years after, when an Ouvidor of the
Comarca of Serro Frio, in which they were found, who had
- seen unpolished diamonds at Goa, ascertained what they
were. In 1730 the discovery was announced for the first
time to that government, which immediately declared the
diamonds regalia. A further search showed that the dis¬
trict was equally rich in other gems. In 1741 its limits
were described with greater precision, and the liberty to
collect diamonds farmed upon a lease of four years to two
influential inhabitants, at the rate of 230,000 reis for every
negro, with permission to employ six hundred. At every
renewal of the lease a high rent was exacted, and the ten¬
ants indemnified themselves by conducting their opera¬
tions in the most wasteful manner.
While the population of Brazil, and the cultivation of its
natural products, continued thus to increase, the moral and
intellectual culture of its inhabitants was left in a great
measure to chance. There was a hierarchical establishment,
but one altogether inadequate to the extent of the territory.
There were schools, but “ few and far between.” The
colonists, thinly spread over what appeared an illimitable
region, were most of them alike beyond the reach of in¬
struction and of the arm of the law. The restrictions upon
the free exercise of industry, introduced with a view to
benefit the royal treasury, were little calculated to recon¬
cile men to legal restraints which they scarcely knew in any
other form. They grew up, therefore, with those robust
and healthy sentiments engendered by the absence of false
teachers ; but at the same time they became habituated to
a repugnance to legal ordinances, accustomed to give full
scope to all their passions, and encouraged by their sense
of ascendency over the Indians to habits of violence and
oppression.
From the first moment of their landing in Brazil, the Je¬
suits had constituted themselves the protectors of the op¬
pressed natives. But they were strenuously opposed by the
interested colonists, and by the ordinary clergy. The Je¬
suits were not however easily dismayed, and, by dint of the
most persevering exertions, they procured from government
an explicit confirmation of the freedom of the natives. The
next step of these venerable fathers was to collect their red
children, as in all their other missions, into aldeas, over
which officials of their order exercised both spiritual and
temporal authority. Their intentions were pious and noble,
but their plan was erroneous. They attempted to teach the
most recondite dogmas of the Christian faith, before either
Z I L.
the hearts or heads of their pupils were sufficiently awaken- History,
ed to comprehend them. They taught observance to the
rules of external decorum, without inculcating those more
essential principles which are independent of all form. By
depriving the Indians of the power of managing their own
affairs, they effectually stifled within them the germs of
human thought and action. The Indian of the aldeas was
little better than a puppet, and, when separated from his
tutors, he soon sunk back into hopeless and irreclaimable
barbarism.
The persecution of the Indians was yet more efficaciously
put a stop to by the sacrifice of an equally innocent and yet
more injured race. The Portuguese establishments on the
coast of Africa have ever been more extensive, and their
slave dealings better organized, than those of any other na¬
tion. By this means a large number of negroes was an¬
nually imported into Brazil, and being found more active
and serviceable as labourers than the native tribes, the
latter were in a great measure left to enjoy their savage
independence.
The Portuguese government, under the administration
of Carvalho afterwards Marquis of Pombal, attempted to
extend to Brazil the effects of that bold spirit of innovation
which directed all his actions.
Carvalho had experienced great resistance to his plans of
reform at home from the Jesuits; and his brother, when
appointed governor of Maranhao, experienced a resistance
no less strenuous on their part to some measures of his
government. This was enough to determine the proud
minister to lessen the power of the order. With his sanc¬
tion, the Jesuits and other regulars were deprived of all
temporal authority over their aldeas in the state of Ma¬
ranhao and Para. These, twenty-eight in number, were
converted by the edict of the governor into nine townlets,
eighteen towns, and one city. The towns were to be go¬
verned by juizes ordinaries, to fill which offices a preference
was given to Indians. The aldeas independent of towns
were to be governed by their respective chiefs. The lands
adjacent to the towns and hamlets were divided among the
Indians, and declared heritable property.
To these regulations of his brother, the minister super-
added some enactments intended to supply the loss of the
Jesuits as teachers. The task of religious instruction was
delegated to the bishop. Till such time as the Indians
should be sufficiently advanced in civilization to manage
their own affairs, a director was appointed to reside in each
settlement; a man of integrity and zeal, and conversant
with the native tongues. He possessed no coercive juris¬
diction, but, when he observed remissness on the part of
the native authorities in the administration of the laws,
might complain to the governor. He was expected to ex¬
plain to the Indians the advantages of industry and sobriety,
to instruct them in the simpler arts and manufactures, and
to recommend the adoption of the amenities of civilized life.
Above all, these functionaries were directed to combat the
prejudice, that there existed a natural inferiority in the In¬
dian character, and to promote, as far as in them lay, inter¬
marriages between the white and red races. As a reward
for the directors, they were to have a sixth part of all that
the Indians reared, excepting what was specially appropri¬
ated for their own consumption.
These ordinances, originally promulgated for Maranhao
and Para, were ratified in Lisbon, and extended to the
whole of Brazil. But the good which they might have done
was neutralized in a great measure by some compulsory
services still left binding upon the Indians, and by listless¬
ness on the part of the white inhabitants in carrying them
into effect. No good understanding could subsist between
an ambitious order and the minister who had so openly
braved them. Carvalho felt his new arrangements insecure
as long as a Jesuit remained in Brazil. First of all, e
BRAZIL.
285
sought to render the order suspected of being accessary to
some partial revolts among the Indian troops on the Rio
Negro. But it was the confession of one of the leaders of
the conspiracy against the life of the king of Portugal, when
put to the torture, that some Jesuits were implicated in the
undertaking, that finally delivered them into his hands. In
1760 they were expelled from Brazil, under circumstances
of considerable severity.
Pombal’s next measure attracted more attention that his
plans for the improvement of the Indians. The Brazilian
Company, founded by Yieyra, which so materially contri¬
buted to preserve its South American possessions to Por¬
tugal, had been abolished, in 1721, by Joao V. Such in¬
struments, however, were calculated to win the confidence
of a bold spirit like that of Pombal. In 1755 he established
a chartered company, with a capital of 1,200,000 crusados,
in 1200 shares, to trade exclusively with Maranhao and
Para. In 1759 a similar company was chartered for Pa-
raiba and Pernambuco. Remonstrances were made on the
part of the Board of Public Good, and the British factory
at Lisbon; but the members of the former body were
punished, and those of the latter were disregarded. En¬
couraged by success, the minister established an exclusive
company for the whale fishery, and bestowed upon it the
monopoly of furnishing Brazil with salt. This company
had its head-quarters in the island of S. Catharina. Some
time after these arrangements, an extension of the facility
of intercourse was granted, and Portuguese subjects, instead
of being restricted to the annual fleets, were allowed to
trade in single ships to Bahia and the Rio.
The arrangements of Pombal extended also to the in¬
terior of the country. The claims of the original donatories
in the respective captaincies were indefinite and oppressive
in the highest degree. Other ministers had from time to
time bought up some of these rights ; Carvalho extinguished
them at once, indemnifying the holders. With all his
power, however, he durst not interfere in behalf of such
new Christians (converted Jews) as were accused of adher¬
ing in private to their ancestral faith; but he prohibited,
under strict penalties, light and malicious denunciations.
He strengthened and enforced the regulations in the mining
districts. Observing the profuse mode in which the trea¬
sures of the diamond district were lavished, he moved the
king to take the management of it into his own hands. In
1772 an ordinance was issued, in which Pombal, as prime
minister, reserved to himself the management of this dis¬
trict, The details of business were discharged by three
directors in Lisbon, and three administrators in Brazil. At
the head of the latter was placed an intendant-general, who,
as the representative of majesty, exercised an unlimited
power within his jurisdiction. He controlled the working
of the diamond mines ; he stood at the head of the judicial
and police establishments ; and he was authorized to punish
every inhabitant convicted of having jewels in his posses¬
sion with banishment and confiscation of goods, and even
upon mere suspicion to order any individual to quit the
district.
The policy of many of Pombal’s measures is more than
questionable. His encouragement of monopolies, and his
preference of the interests of the crown to those of the state,
as evinced in the regulations of the mining and diamond
districts, do not admit of defence. But the admission of all
races to equal rights in the eye of the law—the abolition of
feudal privileges, and of certain restrictions upon commerce,
with the livelier spirit which he knew how to infuse even
into his monopolies—powerfully co-operated towards the
development of the capabilities of Brazil. The spirit of im¬
provement must have been already awake in the bosoms of
the people, otherwise even his legislative energies must have
been expended in vain. Still the merit abides with him of
having firmly organized the powers of the land, and mar¬
shalled their way. And yet when, upon the death of his History,
king and patron in 1777, court intrigue forced him from his
high station, his successor was lauded to the skies for con¬
cluding a treaty of limits, in which Pombafs chivalrous
bravery had rendered Spain glad to acquiesce, whilst he
who had done so much for his country’s institutions was re¬
viled on all hands.
During the first thirty years after the retirement of Pombal
from active life, the most important feature in the history of
Brazil was the conspiracy of Minas in 1789. In this rich dis¬
trict the population was increasing rapidly. Some young men
began to be remarked for their literary talents, chiefly as poets.
The successful issue of the recent revolution of the English
colonies in North America, filled their minds with such enthu¬
siasm, that they fancied it would be very easy to imitate them.
A cavalry officer, Silva Xavier, nicknamed Tira-dentes (tooth-
drawer), formed a project to throw off the Portuguese yoke and
to proclaim an independent republic. He associated in his
plan Colonel Freire de Andrade, commander of the military
forces of Rio de Janeiro, some wealthy merchants of that town,
and some influential persons of Minas, such as Colonels Alva-
renga and Abreu Yieyra, the fathers Oliveira, Rolim, and To¬
ledo vicar of the town of S. Jos<i, and Antonio Gonzaga, a
judge and famous lyric poet. They hoped, or made their par¬
tisans believe, that foreign assistance was at hand. They were
informed that the new viceroy, Count de Barbacena, had
brought orders from Portugal to exact at once all the sums due
to the treasury as regalities for the working of the goldmines.
The execution of such orders would have completely ruined the
whole province. The plan of the conspirators then was to take
advantage of the discontent produced by it. Awaiting this
moment, they remained inactive for months, till the plot was
in the meantime discovered. The viceroy wisely issued an
immediate proclamation announcing that the arrears of the
regalities due in Minas should not be exacted. The conspira¬
tors were all condemned to be quartered, but the queen modi¬
fied the sentence. Tira-dentes alone was hanged; the others
were banished to Africa. As a means of adding to its popu¬
larity the government decreed the immediate abolition of the
oppressive salt monopoly, as a reward for the good conduct of
the people.
By such means peace and tranquillity were preserved, and
from that time affairs went on prosperously. The mining
districts continued to be enlarged, especially in the direc¬
tion of Matto Grosso and Goyaz, where diamonds had been
discovered. Roads, although very imperfectly constructed,
were opened to facilitate the communication with those dis¬
tricts. As to the littoral provinces, the companies of Maran¬
hao, Pernambuco, and Paraiba were abolished, but the im¬
pulse they had given to the agricultural industry remained.
Cotton, the growth of which they had promoted in Maranhao,
was introduced into Pernambuco, and cultivated so successfully
as to become in a short time the main article of export.
Removed from all communication with the rest of the world,
except through the mother country, Brazil remained unaffected
by the first years of the great revolutionary war in Europe.
Indirectly, however, the fate of this isolated country was de¬
cided by the consequences of the French Revolution. Brazil
is the only instance of a colony becoming the seat of the govern¬
ment of its own mother country, and this was the work of Na¬
poleon. When he resolved upon the invasion and conquest of
Portugal, the Prince Regent, afterwards Don John VI., having
no means of resistance, decided to take refuge in Brazil. He
created a regency in Lisbon, ordered that no resistance should
be offered to the French invasion, and departed for Brazil on
the 29th November 1807, accompanied by the Queen Donna
Maria I., the royal family, all the great otficers of state, a large
part of the nobility, and numerous retainers. They arrived at
Bahia on the 21st January 1808. The royal family was re¬
ceived with enthusiasm. The regent was requested to esta¬
blish there the seat of his government, but a more secure
asylum presented itself in Rio de Janeiro, where the royal fu¬
gitives arrived on the 7th of March. Before leaving Bahia,
Don John took the first step to emancipate Brazil. By a decree
dated the 28th of January, its ports were opened to foreign com¬
merce, the merchandise being subject to a duty of 21 per cent.
The exportation also of all the products of Brazil under any
286
B R A Z I L.
History, flag was permitted, except some royal monopolies, such as dia-
monds, Brazil wood, &c.
Once established in Rio de Janeiro, the government of the re¬
gent was directed to the creation of an administrative machinery
for the dominions that remained to him ; and all the supreme
tribunals of administration, of justice, and of finance, were esta¬
blished as they existed in Portugal. Besides the ministry
which had come with the regent, the council of state and all the
other departments of the four ministers then existing, viz. :—
Reino, or home department; Fazenda, finances ; Guerra e
Estrangeiros, war and foreign affairs ; and Marinha e Ultra¬
mar, marine and colonies,—there were in the course of one year
created: 1. The Desembargo do Pa$o, a supreme court of jus¬
tice and equity, which had the power to annul and revise the
sentences of the other courts, and by whose means was exer¬
cised the royal prerogative of suspending and dispensing with
laws; 2. The Meza da consciencia e ordens, a board by means
of which the royal prerogative was exercised for the patronage of
the church and of the military orders, and also for the adminis¬
tration of their property ; 3. The Casa da Supplicaqao, a
court of appeal inferior to the Desembargo do Paqo, and su¬
perior to the provincial courts of appeal; 4. The general
board of high police; 5. The Conselho da Fazenda Erario
Regio, or court of exchequer and royal treasury ; 6. The
royal mint; 7. The bank of Brazil; 8. The royal print¬
ing office ; 9. Powder mills on a large scale; 10. The su¬
preme military court. The salaries of so large a number of
high officials, and the maintenance of the court entailed ex¬
penses which the simple colonial administration had never re¬
quired. The imposition, therefore, of new taxes, was a na¬
tural consequence. Heavy duties were successively imposed
upon tobacco, sugar, dry and salted hides, cotton, and other ex¬
ports. A tax of 10 per cent, upon house rent in the towns, and
upon the sale of real estates, and harbour dues, were also levied.
The expenses, however, continuing to increase, the govern¬
ment next had recourse to the reprehensible measure of alter¬
ing the money standard. Gold was coined in a new form, the
intrinsic value of which was not comparatively equal to the
former standard, and the Spanish dollars were recoined re¬
taining the same weight and size, and sent into circulation
with a value of 20 per cent, higher than their intrinsic and
commercial value. The whole monetary system was thrown
into the greatest confusion by the simultaneous circulation of
three different standards of currency. From this ensued a
confusion in the finances of the country, and in private trans¬
actions, as well as a fluctuation in foreign exchange, from
which Brazil suffers even at the present day. The bank, in
addition to its private mercantile functions, farmed many of the
regalia, and was in the practice of advancing large sums to the
state, sometimes in consideration of valuable deposits, some¬
times upon the assignment of taxes not yet due. Its connection
with the mint enabled it to meet every emergency, and the
hostility of some foreign merchant houses, and to maintain at
first a high degree of credit. The treasury found great facility
in raising money by compelling the bank to put into circula¬
tion enormous sums in notes, which its deposits could not gua¬
rantee. These transactions, however, gave rise to an exten¬
sive system of corruption, and the breaking of the bank some
years later was the consequence. Thus the government of
the Prince Regent commenced its career in the New World
with the most palpable and dangerous errors in the financial
system.
Notwithstanding these evils, the increased activity which a
multitude of new customers, and an increased circulating
medium, imparted to the trade of Rio, added a new stimulus to
the industry of the whole nation. Immense numbers of Eng¬
lish artisans and ship-builders, Swedish ironfounders, German
engineers, and French artists and manufacturers, sought for¬
tunes in the new land of promise, and diffused, both by example
and precept, industry and ingenuity throughout the country.
Useful measures were continually appearing ; vaccination was
introduced, various educational institutions wTere founded, and
several arrangements were adopted in favour of commerce, such
as the appointment of inspectors to prevent frauds on exported
goods, and the permission to give money in bottomry, with such
interest as the parties might agree upon. Foreigners were
permitted the free exercise of their worship ; and it is worthy
of remark, that w’hile all the tribunals which existed in Portu¬
gal were established, and a See of Rio de Janeiro erected in
imitation of the Patriarchal See of Lisbon, no Inquisition was
established.
In the beginning of 1809, in retaliation of the occupation of
Portugal, an expedition was sent from Para to the French
colony of Guiana. After some fighting, the governor and
garrison capitulated, and Guiana wras incorporated with Brazil.
Although this conquest was of short duration—for by the treaty
of Vienna in 1815, the colony was restored to France—it con¬
tributed to the improvement of agriculture in Brazil. It had
been until then the policy of Portugal to prevent its colonies
from enjoying the same productions. The cultivation of sugar,
for instance, was reserved to Brazil and prohibited in Africa ;
while the cultivation of the spices of India was prohibited in
Brazil, and even those which grew spontaneously (such as
cinnamon), were ordered to be destroyed. Now, however, many
seeds of different plants were imported not only from Guiana,
but. also from India and Africa, cultivated in the Royal Bo¬
tanical Garden, and from thence distributed amongst private
individuals.
The same principle which dictated the conquest of French
Guiana, dictated some attempts to seize the Spanish colonies of
Monte \ ideo and Buenos Ayres, Portugal being also at war
with Spain. Here, however, a conquest by force of arms was
not easy, and the chiefs of these colonies were invited to place
them under the protection of the Portuguese crown. At first
they affected loyalty and devotion to their king and to the mother
country, and refused the invitation; but a little after they threw
off the mask, and declared themselves an independent republic.
The Spanish governor, Elio, was able for some time to hold the
Banda Oriental in subjection, andreceived succours from the court
of Rio de Janeiro, but was afterwards defeated by Artigas the
chief of the independents ; and Monte Video met with the same
fate as Buenos Ayres. The inroads made on the frontiers of Rio
Grande and S. Paulo, together with the dangerous example of
anarchy and of republican principles, decided the court of Rio
de Janeiro to take possession of Monte Video. A force of five
thousand select troops, under General Lecor, was sent from
Portugal, together with a Brazilian corps under general Curado.
The irregular troops of Artigas, terrible in skirmishes and sur¬
prises, were incapable of resisting disciplined troops, and were
forced after a total defeat to take refuge on the right bank of
the Uruguay. The garrison of Monte Video evacuated, and
General Lecor took possession of the city on the 20th January
1817. The territory of Missiones was occupied afterwards.
Artigas,however,having recrossed theUruguay, continued mas¬
ter of a part of the Banda Oriental; but this province properly
formed part of the Brazilian territory from 1817. Without
possessing one sea-port, Artigas sent letters of marque to Ame¬
rican privateers, which did incalculable mischief to the Portu¬
guese commerce.
The importance which Brazil was acquiring decided the re¬
gent to give it the title of kingdom, and by a decree of the ICth
of January 1815, the Portuguese sovereignty thenceforward
took the title of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and
Algarves. Thus the old colonial government disappeared even
in name. The national pride of the Brazilians was flattered,
and for some time nothing else was heard of but addresses of
thanks and congratulations, feasts and rejoicings in every dis¬
trict. In March 1816 the Queen Donna Maria I. died, and the
Prince Regent became king, under the title of Don Joao VI.
Although Brazil had now become in fact the head of its own
mother country, the government w-as not in the hands of
Brazilians, but of the Portuguese wrho had followed the court.
This government was ignorant and profligate, and the morals
of the court were far from being pure. The amiable cha¬
racter of the king preserved his personal popularity, but the
public discontent daily increased. At the same time that the
employes were badly paid, and obliged to discount their
salaries at great loss, to obtain from speculators, favoured by
the government, the necessary money to live frugally, a royal
decree assigned 120,000 crusados per annum to be taken from
the custom-houses of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Maranhao for
forty years, commencing from 1811, to the noblemen and high
Portuguese officials who had suflered during the French war.
The selection of the employes was in general bad. Justice
was ill administered, and negligence, disorder, and corruption
reigned in all the departments. In Portugal the discontent
was still greater on account of its anomalous position, stand¬
ing as it were in the relation of a colony to a colony of its own.
BRAZIL.
History. These causes, and the fermentation of liberal principles pro-
duced by the French Revolution, originated in 1817 a con¬
spiracy in Lisbon, which was, however, discovered in time to
prevent its success. A similar result took place in the pro¬
vince of Pernambuco, where education had made some pro¬
gress, specially remarkable in the instruction afforded to the
priests. The inhabitants had certain recollections of glory,
valour, and liberty, connected with the war, which, when aban¬
doned to themselves, they had alone sustained against the
Dutch. The city of Recife had attained such commercial im¬
portance, that it began to be jealous of Rio, and to complain
of the. sacrifices it was compelled to make for the support of a
luxurious court. A regular conspiracy to establish a repub¬
lican government had in fact arrived at the point of having
ramifications in Bahia and other provinces ; but an accident
led to its bursting forth before the time, and probably was
the cause of its being so promptly smothered. In Bahia the
governor was able to avoid a similar outbreak, and even to
detach at once a sufficient force to put down the revolution of
Pernambuco, so that the republic established there scarcely
lasted ninety days. Some of the chiefs fled in time ; three,
Martins, Mendomja, and the priest Almeida were hung, and a
great number were condemned to exile and imprisonment. Don
John, fearing the progress.of the republican spirit in Brazil,
sent to Portugal for bodies of picked troops, which were
stationed in Rio and in the different capitals of the provinces
under the command of the best generals.
In Portugal the popular discontent produced the revolution
of 1820.. Representative government was proclaimed, and
the constitution was to be framed by a congress of the repre¬
sentatives of the people, the Spanish constitution of 1812 be¬
ing adopted provisionally. In Rio de Janeiro the Portuguese
troops, with which the king had surrounded himself as a de¬
fence against the liberal spirit of the Brazilians, took up arms
on the 26th February 1821 to force him to accept and swear
to the system proclaimed in Portugal. The Prince Don Pedro,
heir , to the crown, who now for the first time took partin
public affairs, actively exerted himself as a negotiator between
the king and the troops, who were joined by bodies of the
people. The king attempted a modification of the Spanish
constitution, adopting a chamber of peers, but the insurgents
would accept no compromise. He finally submitted, took the
oath,, and named a new ministry. The scenes of Rio de
Janeiro were repeated, or simultaneously enacted in Pernam¬
buco, Bahia, Maranhao, and other provinces, where the go¬
vernors ^were deposed and provisional juntas created in their
stead. The Brazilians were aware that the revolution in Por¬
tugal was made.against Brazil; and some were disposed to re¬
sist it. In Bahia the Brazilian troops did actually fight with
the Portuguese, but were defeated. Nevertheless, the idea of
a.free government filled them with enthusiasm, and the prin¬
ciples of a. representative legislature were freely adopted.
From this time such use was made of the liberty of the press,
that talents and knowledge of a high order were revealed,
which had not been supposed to exist in Brazil. The first
care everywhere was. the election of deputies to the cortes of
Lisbon, to take part in the framing of the new constitution of
the. united kingdom. Magistrates, advocates, priests, and
military men, put themselves at the head of this movement
and w ere elected, k rom this time great political importance
was given to the existing municipal councils, which being
formed by popular elections, were considered to represent the
people.. As the king could not abandon Portugal to itself, he
determined from the first to send the prince thither as regent.
Don Pedro, however, who had always exhibited active talent
and a thirst for glory, had acquired great popularity by his
conduct in the revolution, and the king was afraid to trust his
adventurous spirit in Europe. He decided, therefore, to go
himself, and leave the prince in Brazil as regent and locum-
tmens. It is now beyond doubt, that the secret instructions
he left him were to oppose as far as possible the independence
of Brazil, which he considered to be imminent ; but if it could
not be averted, to place himself at the head of the movement,
and obtain the sovereignty of Brazil, so that this most con¬
siderable portion of the united kingdom might remain in the
hands of the family of Bragan^a, rather than in the hands of
adventurers.
The Brazilian, deputies, on arriving in Lisbon, expressed
their dissatisfaction with the cortes for having commenced the
287
framing of the constitution, and taking measures in respect to
Brazil before their arrival. Brazil felt that she could not be
treated as a secondary part of the monarchy. The organiza¬
tion which the cortes were giving to the monarchy would have
the effect of reducing Brazil to its former condition of a colony.
They insulted the prince regent by a decree which ordered
him to come to Europe for his education. Sharp discussions
and angry words passed between the Brazilian and Portuguese
deputies.. The .news of these proceedings excited great dis¬
content in Brazil. The tone of the discussions with regard to
the. prince regent irritated him, and the decree ordering his
retirement to Portugal filled the Brazilians with alarm. They
saw that, without a central, authority, the country would fall
either into its former condition of a colony, divided into pro¬
vincial governments subject to Portugal, or else into a state of
anarchy. The provisional government of S. Paulo, influenced
by the two Andradas, brothers of the leading deputy in Lisbon,
commenced a. movement for independence by asking the prince
regent, to disobey the cortes and remain in Brazil. The
municipal council of Rio de Janeiro made a similar represen¬
tation, to which the prince gave a decisive assent. The Por¬
tuguese troops assumed at first a coercive attitude, but were
forced to give way before the unanimous ardour and the for¬
midable military preparations of the Brazilians. They sub¬
mitted, accordingly, to embark for Portugal. These scenes in
Rio were repeated in Pernambuco, where the Portuguese,
after various conflicts, were obliged to leave the country. In
Lahia, however, the Brazilians succumbed, and the Portuguese
troops remained masters of the city. In Maranhao and Para
also, the Portuguese, party prevailed. In Rio the agitation
or independence continued. The two brothers Andradas were
called to the ministry ; and the municipal council conferred
on the prince regent the title of Perpetual Defender of Brazil.
VVith great activity and courage he set ofl‘ to the central pro¬
vinces of Minas and S. Paulo, to suppress disaffected move¬
ments and direct the revolution. In S. Paulo, on the 7th of
^Ptember 1822, he proclaimed the independence of Brazil.
He had just received despatches and letters from Lisbon ; and
it was remarked that he destroyed one of the letters without
communicating its. contents to any one ; from which it was in¬
ferred to be that in which his father pronounced the moment
arrived for placing, himself at the head of the independents.
On his. return to Rio de Janeiro on the 12th October, he was
proclaimed Constitutional Emperor with great enthusiasm.
Bahia was. chosen by the cortes at Lisbon as a centre for
resisting the independence. Thither numerous forces were sent
to General Madeira, who had at his disposal, besides militia,
12,000 of the best disciplined troops, who had served under the
Duke of W ellington in the Peninsular wars. The city, how¬
ever, was vigorously besieged by the Brazilians by land, and
succours were sent to them from Rio and Pernambuco. The
Portuguese made, many obstinate sallies, but were always re¬
pulsed ; and finding their provisions fail they were obliged to
embark for^Portugal, July 2. 1823. Their squadron was com¬
posed of 15 ships of war and 77 transports. The Brazilian
squadron, under the command of Lord Cochrane, although
weaker, was. better prepared for action than that of the Por¬
tuguese, which was embarrassed with so many troops. Coch¬
rane attacked them, and took some ships. Taylor, another
Englishman in the Brazilian service, followed it to the coast of
Portugal, and even took some ships within sight of land. Coch¬
rane proceeded to reduce Maranhao, and sent Grenfell to Para.
Independence triumphed in both provinces. All resistance
seemed impossible to the Portuguese after their power was de¬
stroyed in Bahia. rIhe troops in Monte Video were abandoned
by General Lecor, who declared for the independence, and they
also embarked for Portugal; the Banda Oriental remaining
part of Brazil, with the title of Provincia Cisplatina. Before
the end of 1823 the authority of the emperor and the indepen¬
dence of Brazil were undisputed throughout the wdiole country.
It is worthy of mention that during the whole contest the name
of the king was always pronounced in Brazil with respect; all
the manifestoes and proclamations were directed against the
cort.es, and the king was always commiserated by his Brazilian
subjects as under coercion, and as a prisoner of the cortes.
In almost every part of Brazil, chiefly in the north, as soon
as the Portuguese yoke was thrown off, republican movements
spread. To suppress these the authorities employed the Por¬
tuguese, and, above all, the militia regiments formed of the com-
History.
288
BRAZIL.
History, mercial young men. These, as soon as they lost all hope of
assistance from Portugal, looked to the emperor for support.
The emperor, on his side, began to fear the spirit of repub -
licanism in Brazil, and to consider the Portuguese as his firmest
supporters. This disposition much influenced the course of
his government and his future destiny. The contest with the
troops and with the Portuguese party went on jointly with the
organization of the empire. At first a council was given to the
prince, composed of Procuradores of the provinces freed from
the Portuguese yoke, which assembled in Rio de Janeiro on
the 2d of June 1822. This council immediately deliberated
upon the convocation of a constituent assembly, which the
prince convoked by a decree of the 6th of June. On the 3d
May 1823, Don Pedro, crowned emperor since the 1st Decem¬
ber, opened this constitutional assembly in Rio de Janeiro.
Then commenced the discussion of a project of constitution, in
which the democratic element prevailed, though not so much as
in the constitutions adopted at the same time by Spain, Por¬
tugal, Naples, and Sardinia. In Brazil a chamber of sena¬
tors was to be created, in whose selection the monarch would
take a part; while, in the constitutions of those kingdoms, the
legislative power was vested in a single chamber. The two
Andradas, and their brother, at first a distinguished leader of
the independence in the cortes of Lisbon, and now in the con¬
stituent assembly, encountered great opposition ; while their
yoke was becoming every day more insupportable to the young
emperor, whom they imagined they could govern as a sovereign
of their own creation. On the 16th July the emperor resolved
to dismiss them, and a new ministry was formed. The An¬
dradas organized a violent opposition against this and the per¬
son of the emperor. A very tumultuous and angry debate en¬
sued in the assembly in consequence of the petition of a news¬
paper editor, who had been assaulted by some Portuguese
officers in the Brazilian service. The emperor determined to
dissolve the assembly on the 13th November 1823, and exiled
to France the three Andradas and some of their partisans, al¬
lowing to each a small pension. In the decree which dis¬
solved the assembly, Don Pedro convoked another to deliberate
upon a proposed constitution more liberal than the one the
assembly was discussing. Public opinion, meantime, was in a
state of intense fermentation. In Portugal, Spain, Naples,
and Piedmont representative government had fallen. The dis¬
solution of the Brazilian constituent assembly led to the belief
that the emperor intended also to make himself absolute. In
Rio S. Paulo and Minas the discontent was so strong and uni¬
versal that the emperor published new decrees, proclamations,
and manifestoes, explaining his motives, and protesting that he
wished to maintain the representative system. As a proof of
his sincerity he soon after offered to the nation the project of
the promised constitution, with the framing of which he had
commissioned the council of state.
The proclamation of a republic in the province of Pernam¬
buco, Ceara, and others in the north, disorders in the south,
and the loss of the province of Cisplatina, were the conse¬
quences of the coup d'etat of 13th November 1823.
The Brazilians were universally discontented: on one side
fearing absolutism if they supported the emperor, on the other
they feared anarchy if he fell. The emperor, knowing the
danger of an undefined position, caused the municipal coun¬
cils to petition him to dispense with the deliberation of a con¬
stituent assembly, and to adopt immediately as the constitution
of the empire the project framed by the council of state. Ac¬
cordingly, on the 25th of March 1824, the emperor swore to the
constitution with great solemnity and public rejoicings.
This policy of the emperor saved him and saved Brazil. The
year 1824 was a time of difficulty, but the assurance given to
the Brazilians that they would not lose the representative go¬
vernment enabled the emperor to triumph over the rebellion
of the northern provinces, and to prevent similar movements
in others. On account of the continued disorders the legisla¬
tive chambers were not convoked during this year. The next
year found Brazil in a state of tranquillity and obedience, but
still, the chambers were not convoked. The cortes of Lisbon
having fallen, the king fancied that the Brazilians would sub¬
mit to him, and sent emissaries to Rio de Janeiro to treat with
the emperor. They arrived in September 1823, but the Bra¬
zilian ministry did not permit them to land. Afterwards pre¬
parations were begun in Portugal to fit out a squadron against
Brazil; but these were finally given up, the ministers, acceding
to the wishes of the king, having always opposed the war.
Negotiations were opened in London between the Brazilian
and Portuguese plenipotentiaries; but Mr Canning, seeing that
nothing -would result from them, obtained from the king the
appointment of Sir Charles Stuart as his ambassador to treat
with Brazil on the basis of the recognition of the independence.
On the 29th of August 1825, a treaty was signed with him, by
which the king, Don John YI., assumed the title of Emperor
of Brazil, and immediately abdicated in favour of his son, ac¬
knowledging Brazil as an independent empire. Brazil was
obliged to take upon herself all the debt of Portugal contracted
in London = L.1,500,000, and pay besides L.200,000 as indem¬
nification for property of Don John YI. (including a fine li¬
brary of 80,000 volumes). A treaty of commerce was promised
by which Portugal would be considered as the most favoured
nation, her merchandise paying provisionally no higher duties
than 15 per cent, in the custom-houses. Finally, Brazil was
to pay the sums liquidated as expenses incurred by Portugal
for the transport of troops and other indemnities to private
Portuguese subjects.
The rebellion of the province Cisplatina (Banda Oriental),
favoured by Buenos Ayres, was followed by a declaration of
war by the emperor against that republic. On the pretence
of that war he commenced forming regiments of Germans en¬
gaged in Europe. He entered into a treaty of commerce with
France, and another with England, for the cessation of the
slave trade, and finally convoked the legislative chambers at
Rio de Janeiro on the 4th May 1826.
Until the middle of the year 1823, Don Pedro had acquired
in Brazil a high and well deserved popularity. He was
the creator of the empire: he had delivered Brazil from
anarchy, and had given her political liberty; but since the dis¬
solution of the constituent assembly, he had entirely lost his
popularity. He had given himself up to the influence of the
Portuguese, preferring them in all things to the natives. He
had also shown a desire to make himself absolute. The au¬
thors of the rebellion in the northern provinces, which he had
provoked, were punished with much greater rigour than similar
conspirators had been by his grandmother and his father in
the colonial times. The most popular men who had worked
for the independence, the Andradas, were banished. The wnr
with Buenos Ayres was considered, like the rebellion in the north,
as provoked by him, and threatened disastrous consequences
to the country, whose resources he should have employed in the
development of its internal prosperity and its new institutions.
The treaty with Portugal was not only indecorous but unjust.
Brazil purchased for near two millions sterling the indepen¬
dence which she had won by her arms, and wTas obliged to pay
the expenses of a -war in which she had been victorious. The
continual changes of ministry showed in the emperor either in¬
constancy or a disposition obstinately to prosecute measures
which the ministers disapproved. His licentious life alienated
the respect and consideration of his subjects; above all, when
contrasted with the high character of the empress for virtue,
charity, and condescension.
The death of his father oflered an opportunity to the em¬
peror for regaining in some measure his popularity. He was
unanimously acknowledged as king of Portugal; and repre¬
sentatives of the clergy, the nobility, and the people, came to
Rio de Janeiro to make their submission. A terrible suspicion
immediately sprung up that the independence of Brazil would
be annulled. Don Pedro, however, promptly tranquillized the
public mind, by abdicating the crown of Portugal in favour of
his daughter Donna Maria, and giving it a constitution exactly
on the model of that of Brazil, with the diflerence of an heredi¬
tary chamber of peers instead of senators. This resolution, taken
on the eve of opening the Brazilian legislative assembly, won him
a very flattering reception from the chambers and the public.
The ministry, however, did not present any measure, or
system of public utility, or any regulations to give practical
working to the representative government. The entire session
of the chambers was passed in barren and odious accusations
and recriminations. The emperor, preoccupied with the war
with Buenos Ayres, no sooner closed the session than he sailed
for the southern provinces; but, in the meantime, the empress
died, and he immediately returned. In the session of 1827, it
was seen that the respect for the emperor, and the hope of his
return to better feelings, were not entirely lost. The legislative
body, notwithstanding their dissatisfaction at the system of
B II A
story, government, allowed so large a civil list that it almost absorbed
i a tenth part of the total revenue of the empire. The violence,
^ however, of the opposition in the chamber of deputies was
always increasing. The lavish expenditure of the public
monies, and the bad state of the finances—the currency exclu¬
sively composed of copper money and of the notes of a bank in
a state of bankruptcy—the shameful manner in which the
operations against Buenos Ayres, both by sea and land, were
conducted; the evils suffered by commerce, the presence of
mercenary soldiers and the vexatious recruiting, afforded ample
subjects for public discontent and for the denunciations of the
opposition. The emperor continued the same line of policy;
he was constantly changing his ministers, but always selecting
them from an unpopular faction; and when he did call any
popular deputy to the ministry, it seemed as if it were done
for no other purpose than that of corrupting his politics.
Commercial treaties were entered into with Austria, Prussia,
Great Britain, the Hanse Towns, the United States, Denmark,
and the Netherlands, conceding in exchange of illusory reci¬
procity, favours that were considered to be injurious to the
growth of the Brazilian shipping. The first of those treaties
met with bitter censures, but the government always persisted
in the same system. The chambers established by law equal
custom-house duties for all nations, in order to render the
treaties unnecessary. During the session of 1827, the public
internal debt was consolidated and inscribed in the great book,
and a department was created for the application of the sink¬
ing fund and payment of dividends.
The year 1828 was a calamitous one for Don Pedro and for
Brazil. It commenced with a defeat of the Brazilian army by
the Argentine forces, and this entirely through the incapacity
of the commander-in-chief. In Rio de Janeiro the German
and Irish regiments mutinied, and there were three days’ fight¬
ing in the city between them and the Brazilian troops. Mis¬
understandings arose with the United States and France on
account of the merchant vessels made prizes of by the Bra¬
zilian squadron blockading Buenos Ayres; and the imperial
government being threatened with force, consented to pay for
them. Afterwards England made a similar claim in a mena¬
cing tone, with a like result. The financial embarrassments
were increasing to an alarming extent. The emperor was
compelled by the English government to make peace with
Buenos Ayres, renouncing the Banda Oriental, provided
that it did not unite itself to Buenos Ayres, but formed an in¬
dependent state with the title of the Republic of Uruguay.
At length, to fill up the sum of disasters, affairs went wrong
with Don Pedro even in Portugal. His brother, Don Miguel,
treacherously usurped the crown, availing himself of his autho¬
rity as regent, with which he had been invested. So many
misfortunes were the result of a policy the responsibility of
which the emperor incurred personally, as it was in opposition
to the feelings of the public and of the chambers. In these
the debates continued to be of a boisterous character, and the
emperor refused his sanction to some bills adopted by the
chambers for the development of the constitution.
It was under such unlucky auspices that the elections of the
new deputies took place in 1829. As was expected, the result
was the election everywhere of ultra-liberals opposed to the
emperor, who still persevered in his course. A trifling riot
in an insignificant town of Pernambuco was immediately
seized as a pretext for the suspension of the habeas corpus in
all that province, and the formation of a military commission
to try even civilians. These measures caused great discon¬
tent, and the discussions in the chamber of deputies turned
almost exclusively upon the necessity of impeaching the minis¬
ters who had decreed them. The emperor had recourse to in¬
timidation to prevent it, in which he succeeded.
In October, the second wife of Don Pedro, the Princess
Amelia of Leutenburgh arrived in Rio de Janeiro. She was
well received by the public. The arrival of an empress, beau¬
tiful, and adorned with so many brilliant accomplishments,
encouraged a hope that the emperor would never return to such
favourites as the last, from whose influence he had just libe¬
rated himself.
In 1830, the chamber elected in 1829 assembled. If in the
first the opposition against the personal policy of the emperor
had been violent, and led by men of the highest talent, in this
the opposition obtained almost a unanimity of votes. The
democratic press every day insulted the emperor in a most in-
vol. y.
Z I L. 289
decent manner, and the people everywhere exhibited their dis- History,
affection ; when he appeared in public the vivas given him were
answered with chilling indifference by the multitude, while
thunders of applause greeted the empress and the imperial
prince, a delicate way of conciliating respect for the monarchy,
with a show of reproof towards the person of the monarch.
During the session of 1830, the chambers adopted a criminal
code, framed according to the doctrines of Jeremy Bentham, in
which punishment by death for political offences was abolished,
and in the budget they included a clause which compelled the
government to disband the foreign regiments.
Like Charles X. in France, the emperor of Brazil had
rebelled against the principle that the monarch must preserve
in the ministry men only who possess a majority in the cham¬
ber of deputies. Charles X. was a victim of this obstinacy,
and Don Pedro, who might yet have profited by the lesson,
persevered, however, in the same principles. Animated by
the example of France, the republican party thought that the
moment had arrived to dethrone him. Some journals sug¬
gested the idea of reforming the constitution by turning Brazil
into independent federal provinces governed by authorities
popularly elected, and only acknowledging the emperor as a
common centre, assisted by a federal congress, as in the
United States. This idea was gaining ground in the provinces,
not only because it flattered local interests and passions, but
because whatever tended to evince disafiection to the emperor,
and limit his authority, pleased the discontented. The emperor
alarmed, set off with the empress for Minas to stir up the
former enthusiasm of that province in his favour, from recol¬
lections of the independence. There he published a procla¬
mation against the pretended reform of the constitution, which,
however, was coldly received, and only considered by his ene¬
mies as a proof of weakness.
On his return to Rio in March 1831, scenes of disorder
occurred. Some deputies, at the time in Rio, presented a very
energetic remonstrance to him, upon which he decided to form a
ministry wThich included the most forward members of the
liberal party; but men who ought to have been chosen, the
most conspicuous and moderate leaders of the majority in the
chamber, were excluded. The agitation and discontent con¬
tinued. Don Pedro, tired of struggling, and disgusted at the
opposition of his subjects, accused them of ingratitude. The
Portuguese emigrants who escaped from the tyranny of Don
Miguel, and the emissaries of the liberal clubs of Spain, had
made him believe that by presenting himself in Europe, ex¬
pelling Don Miguel, and offering a constitution to Spain, he
would be without difficulty proclaimed emperor of the whole
peninsula. Imagining himself sure of such a brilliant destiny
in Europe if he lost his Brazilian crown, he attempted to risk
a decisive attack against the liberal party, dismissed the minis¬
try, and formed another composed of men considered as favour¬
able to absolutism. The agitation in the capital increased—
the people met in a state of excitement in an immense square
in the city called the Campo S. Anna, the troops joined them,
and deputations composed of the justices of peace and of some
citizens, went respectfully to ask the emperor only to dismiss
the unpopular ministry. He replied at three o'clock in the
morning on the 7th April, dismissing the ministry without
naming another, and abdicating the crown in favour of the
heir-apparent, who was then five years and four months old.
The country was thus left without a government, and ex¬
posed to all the horrors of anarchy. Don Pedro immediately
embarked with the empress on board the English ship of the
line Warspite, leaving the new emperor Don Pedro II., and
the princesses Januaria, Francisca, and Paula. Hearing on
board great demonstrations of rejoicings in the city, he asked
some persons who came from shore if the republic were pro¬
claimed:—•“ No,” they answered, “ on the contrary, the people
are delirious with enthusiasm for the new emperor.” If pater¬
nal tenderness was flattered by this reply, self-love must have
been cruelly wounded. On the 13th April Don Pedro retired
from Brazil. The subsequent history of this unfortunate
prince belongs to the history of Portugal. See Poutugal.
Meanwhile the deputies and senators assembled to snatch
the country out of the hands of the republican party. They
first elected a provisional, and afterwards (May 3d) a perma¬
nent regency, composed of three members. The first care of
the new regent was the appointment of a ministry composed of
the most influential members of the chambers. The repub-
2 o
290 BRA
History. Ucan party, however, enraged at seeing the power escape from
'''“■v-"'**-'' their hands, excited discontent in all directions; and such
horrible scenes of disorder succeeded, that it seemed as if Brazil
were destined to the state of chronic anarchy which prevailed
among its neighbours of the Spanish race. The regency and
the ministry showed the greatest prudence and courage. To
the activity and energy, however, of Feijb, a priest, minister
of justice, the country is chiefly indebted for the preservation
of order and the union of the provinces. In the chambers the
ultra-liberals united with the absolutists, and other disap¬
pointed men formed a violent but small opposition. The
government and its supporters adhered to the reform of the
constitution, and treated to gain time, and so to modify it that
the monarchy might be saved. According to the constitution,
the existing legislature was only empowered to designate the
articles which ought to be altered, the power of decreeing a
definitive reform being reserved to their successors. These
discussions and struggles occupied the year 1831. A reaction¬
ary third party, however, began to appear in favour of the
restoration of Don Pedro, and opposed to every reform of the
constitution. This party, though strong in Rio de Janeiro, was
not so in the provinces. It impeded the progress of the
government, but perhaps tended to limit the reform of the
constitution. Of course with the death of Don Pedro I. this
party was essentially modified.
The reform was finally decreed in 1834. Instead of a re¬
gency of three members elected by the legislative chambers,
one regent only was appointed, chosen by the electors in the
same manner as the deputies. The councils of provinces, which
hitherto had simply a consulting vote in local matters, were
replaced by legislative provincial assemblies, with power in
such matters to make provincial laws, which were to be exe¬
cuted with the sanction of the president of the province.
These reforms were well received, and immediately put into
execution. They inaugurated in Brazil in reality a republican
government analogous to that of the United States, for not the
least diflerence existed between the election of the regent and
that of the president of this republic. The election for the re¬
gency fell on the ex-minister of justice Feijo, a man of small
attainments and democratic principles, whose remarkable self-
will and obstinacy brought him into great difficulties. The
provinces, although more or less agitated, had already been
reduced to obedience. Para and Rio Grande alone were in
open rebellion. The former, in which great horrors were per¬
petrated, became pacified; but in Rio Grande the warlike habits
of the people, the interest which many of the inhabitants had
in a civil war, which afforded them opportunities of enriching
themselves by plunder, the facility in receiving succours from
the other rebels of the republic of Uruguay, and the nature of
the ground, rendered the pacification of the province very dif¬
ficult. The imperial forces occupied all the cities and villages,
while the rebels ravaged the open country. The regent was
accused of conniving at the rebels, and the opposition of the
chamber of deputies became so violent, that rather than change
his policy he resigned. In September 1837 he appointed the
senator Araujo Lima minister of the home department, a man
of extensive abilities and experience, and who had been a candi¬
date at all the elections for the regency. Araujo Lima appointed
a ministry composed of men of the greatest note in the cham¬
bers, gave a great impulse to the war in Rio Grande, and strove
to give his government the character of a monarchical reaction
against the principles of democracy, which had guided the po¬
licy of Feijo. On a new election for the regency, he was
chosen by a large majority.
The experiment of a republican government in Brazil had
proved so discreditable1—the country was so wearied of cabals
and instability, that the men known hitherto for their sympathy
with democratic principles, saw that it was only by being more
monarchical than the regent himself, that they would be able to
seize the power. Under this impression they set to work.
They maintained, that as soon as the Princess Donna Januaria
completed her eighteenth year, she would be entitled to the
regency in the name of her brother. The article, however, of
the constitution which they appealed to was not clear; and the
good sense of the public perceived, that if the empire could be
governed by a princess of eighteen, it would be governed far
better by the emperor himself, who was then fourteen. A bill
was accordingly presented to the legislature, dispensing with
the age of the emperor, and declaring that he had attained his
Z I L.
majority. It was carried after a noisy discussion, and the ma- History
jority of the emperor was proclaimed in a sort of revolutionary i T- ‘
manner on the 23d of July 1840.
The emperor appointed a coalition ministry (including two
of the Andradas), which fell before a year had expired, and
was replaced by the party of the last regent, which began to
be called the Saquarema party. In 1842 a rebellion broke out
in the provinces of San Paulo and Minas, which was with dif¬
ficulty repressed. A misunderstanding between the emperor
and his ministers cast him again into the arms of the Feijo
party, which was now called the Santa Luzia party. Several
ministries taken from this party governed the empire from
1843 to 1848, and the most important service it rendered was
the pacification of Rio Grande de Sul, obtained more through
negotiation than by force of arms. In September 1848, the
emperor formed a Saquarema ministry, with the ex-regent
Araujo Lima, now Yisconde de Olinda, at its head. The minis¬
try commenced with two great difficulties. Hostilities had been
roused by the English government on account of neglect shown
by the Brazilian authorities in putting the treaty in force for
the abolition of the slave-trade. On the other hand, the gover¬
nor of Buenos Ayres, General Rosas, was endeavouring to re¬
volutionize afresh the province of Rio Grande, separate it
from the empire, and in this way break up or weaken the
Brazilian monarchy. The slave-trade had hitherto been im¬
pudently carried on, protected by some authorities, and to¬
lerated by others. The number of slaves introduced in 1849
amounted to 54,000. This excess of itself, and the symptoms
of insurrection which appeared, had already rendered unpopu¬
lar the dealers in slaves, who enriched themselves by exacting
money from the ruined planters. The appearance of the yel¬
low fever also, until now unknown in Brazil, was attributed
to the importation of slaves ; so that public opinion began at
last to declare against the traffic. The minister of justice,
Sr- Eusebio de Queiroz, profited by this feeling to pass severe
laws against slave dealing, and to secure their rigorous enforce¬
ment, so that in 1850 the importation of slaves diminished to
23,000, in 1851 to 3280, and in 1852 to 700. In 1853 there
was not a single disembarkation ; so that it may now be said
that the slave-trade is extinct in Brazil.
In the contest with General Rosas, the success of the minis¬
terial policy was no less brilliant. The Visconde de Olinda
left the ministry, through ill health, in the beginning of 1849.
He was succeeded by the Yisconde de Mont Alegre, who had
been one of the three regents appointed by the legislature in
1831: the secretaryship of foreign affairs was given to Sr- Pau¬
lino de Souza. This ministry entered into an alliance with the
governors of Monte Video, Paraguay, and the states of Entre-
Rios and Corrientes, for the purpose of maintaining the inde¬
pendence of the republics of Uruguay and Paraguay, which
Rosas intended to reunite to Buenos Ayres. The troops of
Rosas which besieged the city of Monte Video, and infested
the frontiers of Brazil, under the command of General Oribe,
were forced to capitulate. Rosas then formally declared war
against Brazil. An army composed of the troops of Entre-
Rios, Corrientes, Uruguay, and Brazil, commanded by Gene¬
ral Urquiza, and assisted by the Brazilian squadron, under the
command of Admiral Grenfell, marched on Buenos Ayres.
Rosas was able to oppose the allies with an army of 30,000
men; but the cavalry of Urquiza and the Brazilian infantry
(amounting in all to 23,000 men), completely routed them on
the field of Monte Caseros, and crushed for ever the power of
that bloody dictator. The Brazilian infantry took 50 pieces
of cannon at the point of the bayonet, and earned a still more
glorious distinction by their clemency to their prisoners.
From 1844, Brazil was free from intestine commotions and
civil war, and had resumed its activity in useful undertakings.
Public education received a strong impulse, and many new
streets, roads, canals, improvement of ports, steam navigation,
embellishment of cities, and other works of public utility were
commenced. The finances rose to a degree of prosperity
previously unknown, and commercial intercourse immensely
increased.
At length with a consolidated government, and after so
many struggles and revolutions, this country seems to be pro¬
gressing quietly to a destiny that will insure it the riches of its
soil and the advantages of its climate.
The Emperor Don Pedro II. and the Empress, a sister of
the King of Naples, are universally beloved and respected for
BRAZIL.
Physical
Geogra¬
phy.
Bound¬
aries.
their intellectual and moral endowments, and their affectionate
interest in the welfare of their subjects. Two princesses, Isa¬
bel, born in July 1846, and Leopoldina, born in 1847, are their
✓ only surviving children.
II. Physical Geography.—Brazil is bounded on the north
by New Granada, Venezuela, and the Guianas, British,
French, and Dutch ; on the east by the Atlantic; on the
south by the republics of Uruguayand the Argentine Confe¬
deration ; and on the west by Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and
Equador. It extends from about the 4° N. Lat. to 33. 40.
S. Lat., and from 35 to 70° W. Long. Its greatest length
is about 2600 British miles, its greatest breadth about
2500 ; it has a sea-board of nearly 3700 miles.
The original line of demarcation between the Portuguese
and Spanish possessions was fixed by two bulls of Pope
Alexander VI., the one of the 2d, the other of the 3d of
May 1493. The kings of Castile and Portugal afterwards
concluded the treaty of I orrizillas, which was approved by
the Pope in 1529. The reunion of the two crowns in 1580
suspended all discussions about the boundaries. They, how¬
ever, recommenced after the revolution and independence
of Portugal. The treaty of Utrecht in 1777 regulated many
points, but the treaties always referred to rivers, mountains,
and other positions passing through deserts, the names of
which were not well established. For some time past the
government of Brazil has taken great pains to establish
amicably with the neighbouring states the boundary lines
of the empire. In 1851 these were established with the
republic of Uruguay, and at present (1854) commissioners
of both countries are occupied in tracing the lines agreed
upon. Treaties have been concluded with Peru, Bolivia,
Equador, and New Granada, which have not yet been pub¬
lished. The negotiations with France and the republic of
Paraguay are still pending.
According to the existing treaties, eight boundary lines
are recognised, which we shall describe in detail.
1st Line—from the Ocean to the Uruguay.—1. The rivulet Chuchy
extending 3610 fathoms (brafas) from its mouth in the ocean, S.
Lat. 33. 45., to its chief fording place, Lat. 33. 41. 52. 2. A straight
line of 3805 fathoms, nearly an east to west course from the fording
place of the Chuchy, as far as the fording place of the channel of Sao
Miguel, opposite the fort of that name, and in the middle of it: Lat.
33. 41. 41. 3. The river of Sao Miguel, extending 4030 fathoms in a
northerly course from its fording place, as far as its entrance at the
bottom of the Gulf of Sao Miguel, the most southern point of the
Lake Merim : Lat. 33. 36. 54. 4. West margin of the Gulf of Sao
Miguel, and of the Lake Merim at the ordinary height of their
waters, from the entrance of the stream of Sao Miguel as far as the
mouth of the river Sanguarao : Lat. 32. 39. 12. 5. Straight mar¬
gin of the Jaguarao, from its mouth in the Lake Merim, as far as
its rise in the most southerly of its sources, in the mountain of
Acegua above the Cuchilla Geral, which furnishes its waters,
easterly towards the Lake Merim and the Lagoa dos Patos, and
westerly towards the Uruguay : Lat. 31. 32. 6. Straight line to
the N.W. from the source of the Jaguarao, as far as the entrance
of the rivulet of St Luiz, on the right margin of the Rio Negro,
crossing that river. 7. The stream of St Luiz, from its entrance
as far as its rise in the Cuchilla of Sant’ Anna. 8. The Cuchilla
de Sant’ Anna, which furnishes waters to the Rio Negro and Ibi-
cuhy. 9. The Cuchilla de Haedo, which furnishes waters to the
Rio Negro and Quarahim, as far as the point in which the Qua-
rahim takes its rise, called the rivulet of Invernada in the map of
the Viscount de Sao Leopoldo. 10. The stream of Invernada
throughout its whole length. 11. The Quarahim from the mouth
of the rivulet of Invernada, as far as its entrance into the Uru-
guay ; the island or islands in the Uruguay from the point of the
said entrance belonging to Brazil.
2d Line—from the Uruguay to the Parana.—12. The Uruguay
from the mouth of the Quarahim on its left hank, as far as the en¬
trance of the Pepiry on its right hank : Lat. 27. 10. 30. 13. The
Pepiry, from its mouth, as far as its principal source in the moun¬
tain, which furnishes waters respectively to the rivers Uruguay and
Igua^u: Lat 26. 10. 14. Straight line of 500 paces from the
source of the Pepiry to the source of the Santo Antonio. 15. The
river Santo Antonio, from its rise as far as its junction with the
gua^u: Lat. 25. 35. 16. The Iguaiju extending 34 miles in a
straight line, and with its windings, 23 leagues of 20 to a degree,
from the mouth of the Santo Antonio on its left hank, as far as its
(the Iguafu’s) junction with the Parana. Lat. 25. 35. 36.
3d Line—from the Parana to the Paraguay.—17. The Parana
from the mouth of the Igua^u on its left bank, as far as the en¬
trance of the Garey on its right bank, immediately below the Salto
Grande (Great Fall) of the Parana: Lat. 24. 4. 20. 18. The
Garey, from its month, as far as its rise in the mountain of Mara-
caju. 19. Maracaju mountain, which furnishes waters for the rivers
Parana and Paraguay; from the rise of the Garey, yet unex¬
plored, as far as the source of the river Apa, also unexplored.
20. The Apa, from its rise as far as its entrance into the river
Paraguay.
4«A Line—from the Paraguay to the Madeira.—21. The Para¬
guay from the mouth of the Apa on its left hank, as far as the
mouth of the discharge of Lake Bahia Negra on its right hank :
Lat. 20. 25.; this point being at an equal distance from the Brazi¬
lian fortress of Coimbra to the Paraguayan fortress of Olimpo, and
ten leagues on each side the Bahia Negra, which, as well as the
stream which discharges its waters, runs north and south. 22. The
said stream, which is six leagues in length. East bank of the said
Bahia Grande, which is fiveleagues. 23. Straight line, N.E., ten
leagues of the right bank of the Paraguay, by marshes, from the
extreme north of the Bahia Negra, as far as the zenith of the
angle which forms the southern and west sides of the mountain
(serra) of Albuquerque. This line covers the fortress of Coimbra,
which is on the southern point of a mountain above the right bank
of the Paraguay, in Lat. 19. 55. 24. West side of the moun¬
tain of Albuquerque. This mountain, covered with dense and
lofty groves, extends ten leagues on each side. The north side,
on which is the garrison of Albuquerque, stretches perpendi¬
cularly with the Paraguay when that river turns to the east, in
Lat. 19., to form the extreme southern point of the island of Paraiso;
the east side is also washed by the river when it resumes its gene¬
ral course of north to south. The south side faces the fortress of
Coimbra, from which it is distant ten leagues. The west side con¬
stitutes a portion of the boundaries of the empire. 25. The east
face of the lofty and wooded serra, which, in its extent of twenty
leagues north^ and south, covers with the west belt the isolated
lake Mandiore, which empties itself into the Paraguay, and the
connected lakes Guahiba, Uherava, and Jany, which empty them¬
selves into the same river by way only of the stream Guahiba,
passing the said serra near the lake Mandiore, and seven leagues
to the west of the Uberava. Its extreme north is called Ponta dos
Limites (Point ot the Boundaries). 26. Broken line, west course,
from the point of the boundaries as far as the right hank of the
river Paragahu, in Lat. 15. 48. This line covers the serra of
Aguapehy which separates the Argentine and Amazonian valleys,
and from whose southern zenith, Lat. 16., with scarcely an inter¬
val of a fathom rise the rivers Aguapehy and Alegre which run
parallel for the first seven leagues, and are shortly precipitated in
two great falls on the northern face of the mountain, the Agua-
Pehy to the east to join the Sauru, a tributary of the Paraguay, and
the Rio Alegre to the west to enter the Guapore. 27. The Para¬
gahu, from the latitude of 15. 48. as far as its mouth on the left bank
ot the Guapore. 28. The line which covers the territory of the
left hank ot the Guapore, from the mouth of the Paragahu as far
as the mouth of the Sao Simao Pequeno on the same left hank of the
Guapore, three leagues below the Destacamento das Pedras, which
is on the right hank : Lat. 12. 52. 35. 29. The Guapore, from the
mouth of Sao Simao Pequeno as far as its own mouth on the right
hank of the Marmore : Lat. 11. 55. On this line is the fortress
called Prince on the right bank of the Guapore, 21 leagues above
the mouth with the windings of the river, and 14 leagues in
a straight line. 30. The Marmore for the space of 44 leagues from
the mouth of the Guapore, as far as the junction of the same Mar¬
more with the Berry, which forms the Madeira: Lat. 10. 22. A
little below this confluence there is an island on the Madeira well
adapted for a fortress.
5th Line—from the Madeira to the Amazons.—31. Right line
from east to west from the above-mentioned latitude in the higher
part of the Madeira, as far as the same latitude in the river Sa-
vary. 32. The Savary, from the Lat. of 10. 22., as far as the most
western of its three mouths in the Amazons, Lat, 4. 17. 30. Op¬
posite the Savary in the Amazons are three considerable islands,
one of which is called the Ilha do Gallo. On the right hank of
the Savary we have, besides the Amazons, the hamlet of S. Paulo or
Savary.
6th Line—from the Amazons to the River Negro.—33. The Ama¬
zons, running up stream for the space of six miles ; from the river
Savary on its right bank as far as the garrison of Tabatinga on the
left bank. 34. Garrison of Tabatinga on the left bank of the Ama¬
zons on firm ground. 35. Straight line from Tabatinga to the north
as far as the mouth of the Apaporis on the left hank of the Japura,
crossing this river. 36. Line from the mouth of the Apaporis in a
291
Physical
Geogra¬
phy-
292
BRAZIL.
Physical northern direction, as far as the extreme western point of the hill of •
Geogra- Guaicia. 37. Collina do Guaicia (Hill of Guaicia), from whence flow
phy. towards the south the sources of the rivers S9arra and Xie, tributaries
v ,1 i of the river Negro, and towards the north the sources of the Memachy,
the Aquio, and the Tornon, tributaries of the Guania (the name of
the Rio Negro above the Caciquiare). 38. Line of level ground
from the eastern extremity of the hill of Guaicia as far as the
right bank of the river Negro opposite the Pedra do Cocuhy; six
leagues in extent.
7th Line—from the river Negro to the Rupununy.—39. Pedra
do Cocuhy, also called Glorieta do Cocuhy, and also Pao d’A^car,
on the left bank of the river Negro. Lat. 1. 20. N. Long, west of
Greenwich, 67. 20.; an equally distant point (eleven leagues on
each side) from the Brazilian fortress of Sao Jos6 de Marabitanas,
and of the Venezuelan hamlet of Sao Carlos, both on the margins
of the river Negro. 40. Straight line of 22 leagues in nearly
an east course, level ground from the skirt of the Pedra do Cocuhy
on the left bank of the river Negro as far as the middle of the
Maturaca, which, in the high floods of the Cababoris, is a canal
of communication between the Cababoris, tributary to the river
Negro, and the river Barria, tributary to the Pacimony, which is
tributary to the canal Caciquiare. Lat. 1. 8. N. 41. Straight line
of six leagues, level road from the middle of the canal Maturaca as
far as the mountain Cupy, which is the beginning of the great Cor-
dilleira that extends to the east. 42. The Cordilleira which fur¬
nishes waters, to the south for the rivers Negro and Branco, and
to the north for the canal Caciquiare and rivers Orinoco and Esse-
quibo, namely :—Cerro Cupy, Serra Invery, Cerros de Guahy ;
Cerros de Ucuruciro, in an eastern direction to the distance of 43
leagues of 20 to a degree ; Serra Parima, whose extreme south
is called Serra Tapirapeco, and the northern extremity Cerros
Machiaty, course N.N.'VV. for 50 leagues; Cerros Merevary, and
Cerro Arivarra, in an eastern direction ; Serra Pacaraima, which
runs for nearly forty leagues to the east, taking a south-easterly
course for 24 leagues, going back nearly south for twenty, and turn¬
ing to the east for nearly 100 leagues, terminates in the Point Anahy.
43. Point Anahy, or Uanahy, of an altitude of 1500 feet, in the zenith
of the angle formed by the river Rupununy, when it quits a northern
course to take an eastern. Lat. 3. 55. 6. N. Long, west of Green¬
wich, exactly 59. The mouth of the Rupununy on the left bank of
the Essequito is a little more to the north, and much further to the
east, being in Lat. 3. 57. 45. N. and Long. 58. 20. 30. \V.
8th Line—The Rupununy, north and south course, from the
Point Anahy as far as its source in Lat. 2. 49. N. Long, west of
Greenwich 58. 50. 45, The elevations which in the same course
of north and south furnish waters to the west for the river Branca,
and to the east for the Essequito. 46. The Cordilleira, which,
with an east course, and with the names of Serra Acarahy, and
Serra Tumucamaque, furnish waters to the south for the Amazons,
and to the north for the rivers Essequibo, Corentyn, Marony, and
Oyapoc. 47. The Oyapoc, from its source in the eastern extremity
of the Serra Tumucamaque, Lat. 2. 24. N. as far as its mouth in the
ocean, in Lat. 4. 22. 24. N.
Rivers. The principal rivers of Brazil are the Amazon, and its tribu¬
taries the Tocantins, the Xingu, the Topajoz, from the south; and
the Rio Negro and Yapura from the north. See Amazon.
Mountains. From latitude 19° to 21° south, stretch the mountains of Itaco-
lumi, 5710 English feet above the level of the sea, and of Itambi,
6900. These, and their connecting range, may be considered as
the nucleus of the mountain formation of Brazil. Towards the
north, and parallel to the coast, extends the Serra do Mar, under
the varying names of the Serra dos Esmeraldos, Serra do Frios,
&c. Towards the S.W. a similar, or rather the same chain (the
Mantiqueira), stretches, throwing out spurs on either side, till it
gradually subsides into the high plain on the eastern side of the
Parana, near its mouth. By means of the Serra dos Vertentes the
Itacolumi connects with the system known under the names of
Montes Pyrenees, Serra do Sijada, and Serra do Anambuhy, ex¬
tending in the direction of W.S.W. to the banks of the Paraguay,
a little above where it receives the waters of the Parana. That
part of the latter chain termed Montes Pyrenees extends towards
the north to the sources of the Tocantins. An important arm of
this latter, the Itiapamba, but of which little is yet known, runs
out to the N.E., and loses itself in the northern sea-board provinces
of Brazil. To the west extends the Serra Geral. To the south and
the west, in the provinces of S. Paulo and Matto Grosso, these
mountains attain an elevation considerably above the level of a
high and extensive inland plain. To the N.E., in Minas Geraes
and Goyaz, they rise from a much lower level above the sea. Ne¬
vertheless, while those mountains which have for their base the
high inland plains of Piratininga and Matto Grosso seldom attain
a higher elevation than 1900 Parisian feet above the sea, the ave¬
rage height of the Montes Pyreneos is 3900. From the Serra dos
Vertentes, in Lat. 20° south, flow the streams which combine to
Physical
Geogra¬
phy.
form the Rio Francisco; at first in the direction of north, after¬
wards curving towards the east, till it reaches the ocean in Lat. 11°
south. On the southern declivity of the same serra arise the
highest sources of the Parana. They flow at first in the direction
of due west, receiving numerous tributaries to the north from the
Montes Pyreneos, &c., to the south from the Serra do Mantiqueira.
Having reached the base of the Serra do Sijada, in Long. 53° west,
and Lat. 20° south, the Parana assumes a south-easterly direction,
and, still receiving numerous tributaries from the two mountain
ridges which bound its valley, joins the Paraguay in Lat. 27° south,
and Long. 58° west. From the south-eastern declivity of.the Man¬
tiqueira descends the Uruguay to the estuary of La Plata. From
the eastern side of the same ridge, and its northern continuation
the Serra do Mar, a number of minor streams flow into the ocean.
To the northward of the Serra dos Vertentes, the western streams
of the Serra do Mar and the eastern of the Serra do Sijada flow
into the Rio Francisco. From the southern declivity of the Serra
Geral, and from the western side of the Serra do Anambaty, flow
the confluents of the Paraguay. From the northern side of the
Serra Geral, and from the central and eastern branches of the
Montes Pyreneos, descend the four great tributaries of the Ama¬
zons, which join that inland ocean from the south, and the streams
that intersect the coast of Brazil between Para and the mouth of
the Rio Francisco.
The great constituent of all the mountain ranges of Brazil is Ge0]0CT
granite ; the maritime ridge seems exclusively composed of it. The
soil on the shore consists of clay, covered in many places with a
rich mould, resting on a bed of granite, mixed with amphibole,
felspar, quartz, and mica. In the high inland plains of Piratin¬
inga we find on the surface a red vegetable earth impregnated with
oxide of iron ; beneath this a layer of fine argil, intersected with
veins of sand ; and, thirdly, an alluvial stratum containing a great
quantity of iron, resting on mouldering granite, quartz, and mica.
A mass of solid granite supports the whole. Between Rio Janeiro
and Villa Rica the soil consists of a strong clay, and the rocks are
composed of granite. The mountains in Minas Geraes are com¬
posed of ferruginous quartz, granite, or argillaceous schistus.
Beds of limestone have been found near Sorocaba, near Sahara in
Minas Geraes, and in the gold mines near S. Rita. The immense
central plateau of Matto Grosso has never been sufficiently ex¬
plored ; but from the nature of its mineral products there is every
reason to believe that the granitic formation prevails there also.
The Itiapamba, the great chain on the northern coast, consists
chiefly of granite. The northern coast from Maranhao to Olinda is
bounded by a reef of coral, in many places resembling an artificial
mole. It is employed by the inhabitants in building their houses.
The valley of the Amazons has been so little explored, and its im¬
penetrable woods and luxuriant vegetation throw so many difficul¬
ties in the way of the geologist, that a long time must yet elapse
ere we can hope for satisfactory intelligence. As far as the obser¬
vations of Spix and Martius -extend, its geognostical relations are
sufficiently simple. All along the banks of the main stream, and
of its tributaries, as long as they continue in the plain, only two
mountain rocks are discovered—the variegated and the green sand¬
stone. Sometimes the sandstone appears in the form of a compo¬
site breccia, containing iron ; sometimes of a fine-grained crumb¬
ling red ; sometimes of a hard white stone; but the former is the
more prevalent. Beds of marl, clays of different colours, and por¬
celain clay, occur frequently. On the Tapajoz gypsum occurs in
one place. To the south this sandstone formation is bounded by
the granitic ridges of the Itiapamba, Montes Pyreneos, and Serra
Geral. On the northern ridge of the first-mentioned chain a tran¬
sition limestone is interposed between the granite and the sand¬
stone. To the north the sandstone is bounded by the gneiss and
granite of the Parime range ; to the westward, on the rivers Negro
and Yapura, a quartz rock of slaty structure is the basis on which
it rests. The western and south-western limits of the sandstone of
the Amazons are imperfectly known.
The metallic and mineral products which occur in the geological jfjnera-
formations above described are various. Iron is found in vast i0gy.
quantities in the high plains of S. Paulo and in Minas Geraes.
Entire hills are composed of brown iron ore and magnetic iron
glance. In the latter province an argillaceous ironstone fills whole
valleys, and spreads like a mantle over many of the hills. In
Goyaz and Matto Grosso whole districts are covered with forma¬
tions rich in iron ore. Gold is next, in the extent of country
through which it occurs, to iron. It is found in grains intermin¬
gled with the latter metal almost wherever it is worked, fihe
chief scene of the exertions of gold-miners has hitherto been in the
district of Minas Geraes, among the central mountains, and at the
sources of the Paraguay. It is certain, however, that the gold
country extends to S. Paulo on the south, and to the mountains
among which the Tocantines arises on the north. The soil where
the gold is found is ferruginous and deep in many places, resting
BRAZIL.
293
Physical on rocks of gneiss and granite. The gold rests on a stratum of
deogra- cascalho or gravel, incumbent on the solid rock. It occurs some-
phy. times in grains, sometimes in crystals, and occasionally in large
, m ' . J masses. Lead and zinc have been found on the banks of the Rio
Abaite, a tributary of the Rio Francisco ; chrome and manganese
in Paraopeba; platina in other rivers ; quicksilver, arsenic, bis¬
muth, and antimony, in the neighbourhood of Villa Rica; and
copper in Minas Novas. The diamond occurs in greatest abun¬
dance in a district of the Serra do Frio, sixteen leagues from north
to south, and eight from east to west, known by the designation of
the diamond district. The little that is known of the territory of
Matto Grosso, and the sources of the Tocantines, induces a strong
belief that this gem is likewise to be found there. It is found in
a stratum, of variable thickness, of rounded quartz-ore pebbles,
cemented by an earthy matter. They are found along the hanks
of rivers, and in cavities and water-courses on the mountains.
Fine crystals of euclase are found in Matto Grosso ; and no
country surpasses Brazil in the size and purity of its beryls.
Lapidaries and jewellers continue to believe that the oriental
diamonds have a finer water. Topazes occur in nearly the same
localities as the diamond. They are found among a conglomer¬
ate of friable earthy talc, quartz, and crystals of specular iron
ore ; and they are of many colours, yellow, white, blue, &c. The
chrysoberyl, amethyst, and green tourmaline, have been found in
the Serra dos Esmeraldos. Martius states that coal appears in the
mountain district, but does not specify any locality. He explicitly
asserts that none occurs in the valley of the Amazons. Vast quan¬
tities of culinary salt effloresce from the soil during the dry season
in the upper districts of the Paraguay. Saltpetre is likewise said
to be a product of the province, but upon questionable authority.
In the upper district of the Rio San Francisco immense deposits
of marl occur, strongly impregnated with this latter salt; so
strongly, indeed, that the wells and rivulets contain a perceptible
solution of it. In the neighbourhood of Arrayal are some caves
which yield annually about 2250 cwt. of saltpetre. In Piauhy
quantities of alum have been found efflorescing from the sandstone.
The only fossil remains of animated beings occurring in Brazil of
which we have any authentic account are found in these caves.
Martius and Bollinger maintained that they correspond in every
respect with the Megalonyx of Cuvier. They are scattered about
in a fine greasy earth, which covers the limestone to the depth of
eight inches. Bones, supposed to have formed part of a mammoth,
have been found in Minas Geraes ; and similar remains have been
discovered in Bahia, near the Rio Solitre, and in Pernambuco.
Bones resembling those of the megatherium, found in Paraguay,
and now in the. Cabinet of Natural History at Madrid, are said to
have been seen near the Rio de Contas. We are not aware that
any volcanic appearances have been observed in Brazil, unless the
vague stories of hills where subterranean noises are at times heard
may be supposed to indicate something of the kind.
'leteoro- A country so extensive as Brazil, and so diversified in its surface,
ogy. necessarily exhibits a considerable variety of atmospheric pheno¬
mena. The greater portion lies within the tropics, and has conse¬
quently the periodical interchange of wet and dry seasons. The
narrow valleys, exposed to great heats, and surrounded by lofty
mountains, have the vapours forced down upon them, and have a
moist atmosphere. The high plains of the interior, the extensive
level region of the northern coast, and the summits of the moun¬
tains, are comparatively dry. The wide valley of the Amazons,
with its “ boundless contiguity of shade,” and “ lakes, and ocean
streams,” is most subject to moisture. At Rio Janeiro, nearly on
the level of the sea, and in Lat. 22. 50. S., the thermometer of
Reaumur indicates, on an average, during the months of Septem¬
ber, October, and November, a mean temperature of 20. 49. The
highest observed by Spix and Martius was 23. 49., the lowest 15.
49. The rainy season lasts from October to March, and is heaviest
in February. In September the hygrometer stands on an average
at 49°, in October at 76°, in November at 85°. Owing to the proxi¬
mity of the mountains, and the cooler atmosphere at their summits,
the mists generally settle around their brows with considerable
density towards evening. At Cachoeira, in the neighbourhood of
Bahia, about the thirteenth degree of south latitude, and only six
Parisian feet above the level of the sea, the thermometer of Reaumur
gave, in February 1819, between six and seven in the morning,
17 to 19°, mid-day 25°, sunset 21° 23/. In Bahia itself the tempera¬
ture at sunset is said to vary in the rainy season (September to
March) from 173 to 18° Reaumur; in the dry months from 16° to
17 . The cloudless mid-day sun causes an extraordinary heat in
the town ; the sea breezes render the mornings and evenings cool;
but the nights are warmer. At Oeyras, the capital of Piauhy, in
about seven degrees of south latitude, and 779 feet above the level
of the sea, the thermometer of Reaumur varies in the warm months
at mid-day from 29° to 30°. Martius found it va'ry during the day
as follows morning 23° 35', mid-day 24° to 25°, evening 23° 30'.
. He does not mention in what month this was. The driest months Physical
are July, August, and September. The south wind prevails during Geogra-
these months. The climate is healthy. Throughout the course of phy.
the Amazons the mean temperature is 22° of Reaumur; the lowest
being 13°, and the highest 38°. Thunder-storms are frequent and
violent in the highest degree. We have no observations with the
hygrometer. S. Paulo, situated in Lat. 23. 33. S., is 1200 feet
above the level of the ocean; and having a westerly declination of
the surface of the ground, is consequently shielded from the sea
breezes. The average temperature is 22° to 23° of the centigrade
thermometer. The rainy season commences in November, and lasts
till April. The greatest quantity of rain falls in January. Hoar
frost is sometimes seen in the cold months. The prevalent winds
are affected by the place of the sun : when he is in the northern
signs, S.S.W. and S.E. winds prevail; when he is in the southern
they are more variable. Villa Rica is situated in Lat. 20. 27. S.,
about 3760 English feet above the level of the sea. It is over¬
shadowed by the huge mountain Itacolumi, the summit of which
is 5710 feet above the sea, and surrounded by mountains on
all sides. Here the average indications of the thermometer are,
morning 12° Reaumur, mid-day 235, evening 16°, midnight 14°.
When the thermometer stood at 16° Reaumur on the summit of Ita¬
columi, it was found to be at 22° in Villa Rica. The temperature
is agreeable enough to the sense, but the thunder-storms are fre¬
quent and violent. The wind among the mountain ranges is very
variable, but cooling, from whatever direction it happens to blow.
The cold weather in the months of June and July has frequently
been known to affect the fruits. Respecting the temperature and
other skyey influences of the high inland plateau of Matto Grosso
we are entirely in the dark. Meteors are extremely frequent in
the middle regions of the atmosphere in Brazil. Martius and Spix
describe an immense mass of meteoric iron which they examined
on their route from Bahia to Oeyras. Its estimated weight is about
17,300 Parisian pounds, it measures from 31 to 32 cubic feet, is ex¬
tremely hard, and occasionally crystallized, and breaks in some
places with a shelly impression.
Except on the loftiest mountains, and on the wide sertaos, the Vegetable
vegetation of Brazil is luxuriant beyond description. In the moun- produc-
tain passes in the neighbourhood of the sea-shore, the conjoint effects tions.
of heat and moisture produce a superfluity of vegetable life, which
man’s utmost efforts cannot restrain. Trees split for paling in the
neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro send forth shoots and branches im¬
mediately, and this whether the position of the fragments be that
in which they originally grew, or inverted. On the banks of the
Amazons the loftiest trees destroy each other by their proximity,
and are bound together by rich and multiform lianas. In the pro¬
vince of Maranhao, the roots, grasses, and other plants, extending
from the shores of pools, weave themselves in time into a kind of
vegetable bridge, along which the passenger treads, unaware that
he has left the firm earth, until the jaws of a cayman protrude
through the herbage before him. The vegetable productions of
Brazil have a strong analogy with those of Guiana. The most com¬
mon are the compositce, leguminosce, euphorbiaceoe, rubiacece, aroidece,
and ferns of the most varied forms. The vegetation of the valleys
differs from that of the campos, as it again does from that which oc¬
curs in the sertdos. Along the coast, the mangoes are the most nu¬
merous and prominent species. The most marked peculiarity of
this class of plants is, that the seeds begin to shoot before they drop
from the parent plant, and that the drooping branches strike roots
into the soil. They are never found inland except where the sur¬
face is scarcely elevated above the level of the sea. They flourish
from Rio Grande do Sul to Maranhao, converting the land into a
morass wherever they are allowed to flourish unmolested. Imme¬
diately behind them numerous families of palms raise their graceful
heads. The underwood in the neighbourhood of Rio Janeiro con¬
sists principally of crotons. Every large river of Brazil has its
own appropriate form of vegetable life, giving a peculiar character
to its banks. The vegetation of the Amazons may be divided into
three classes; 1. that which we find on the islands; 2. the vegeta¬
tion upon the banks overflowed at regular intervals by the stream;
3. that which stands high and dry. The difference between them
consists in the character of the bark and the species of the plants.
Brushwood and herbage are nowhere to be seen; everything tends
to the gigantic in size. The most various forms group awkwardly
together, crossed and intertwined with leaves. The preponderance
of trees with feathery foliage, and with glossy, fleshy leaves, lends
alternately a tender and a luxuriant character to the scene, which is
in every other respect painful from its monotony. Representatives
of the most estranged natural families grow side by side. It is only
on the islands, where the willow and some other plants are found
in numbers, that we are reminded of the monotony of our northern
vegetation. Cocoa trees and the vanilla, capsicum frutescens, and
different kinds of pepper, the cinnamon tree, and Brazilian cassia,
abound. The flora of all the tributaries of the Amazons is similar
1
294
BRAZIL.
Physical to what we have described, until the traveller ascends above the
Geogra- falls, and finds himself in another region. The sources of the Ma¬
deira alone offer a partial exception, retaining a vegetation indica¬
tive of extensive plains, lakes, and morasses. The vegetation of
the southern campos (corresponding to the North American prairies)
is widely different. On the plains of the southern provinces we
find scattered about strong tufts of grayish-green and hairy grasses,
springing from the red clay. Mingled with these are numerous
herbaceous flowers, of the most varied colours and elegant forms.
At intervals small groves of trees, seldom exceeding twenty feet in
height, so distant that the individual form of each is easily recog¬
nised, with spreading fantastic branches and pale green leaves,
break the monotony of the scene. Solitary myrtles, numerous va¬
rieties of pleasing fruits, and now and then a cactus, add to the va¬
riety. A similar vegetation, but with a richer variety of plants,
occurs in the diamond district. On the western declivity of the
Serra do Mar, and along the upper banks of the Rio San Francisco,
extends a wooded country, but of a character entirely different from
that which is found in the valleys below. The name Catingas is
applied to the forests in both of the above-mentioned districts, al¬
though their characters are entirely dissimilar. The term merely
expresses that they cast their leaves during the dry season, and push
them forth when the rains return. Malvce, euphorbiacece, mimosas,
and such like, are the prevailing types on the Rio Francisco; cac¬
tuses, palms, and ferns, abound on the Serra do Mar. In this latter
district the ipecacuan flourishes best. It is, however, in the glowing
steppes of Pernambuco that we find the cactus predominant. In the
valley of the Paraguay the most striking feature is presented by
the water plants, which in one river are sufficiently strong to impede
the navigation of a stream both deep and broad.
The forests of Brazil contain almost every species of useful and
ornamental wood. The cocoa-tree is found in great quantities in
the provinces on the sea-shore, and furnishes one of the most impor¬
tant items of internal commerce. A considerable surplus of cocoa
is annually exported. One of the most valuable sorts of timber is
furnished by the Ibiripitanga or Brazil-wood {Caesalpinia brasi-
liensis), which yields a fine red dye. The wood itself is very hard
and heavy, and takes a beautiful polish. It grew at one time in
great abundance along the coast; but being a government monopoly
(thence called pao da rainho, Queen’s wood), it was cut down in a
reckless manner, and is now by no means so abundant as it once was.
The other trees most worthy of mention are the jaracanda or rose¬
wood tree, the trumpet-tree, (Secropia peltata); the laurel; the
soap-tree; the tapia or garlic pear-tree, and the whole family of
palms. Not least important is the Siphonia elastica, or caoutchouc
tree, which during the season is tapped every day, and furnishes in
considerable quantities a gum which is poured into moulds, and
when it attains the proper consistency, forms excellent shoes, bot¬
tles, &c. &c. The Banana is one of the most useful of all the trees
that grow in Brazil, and its fruit is the chief food of the native
Indians. The fruits of Brazil are numerous and excellent. The
best of these are the pine-apple, the mango, the custard-apple, the
guava, and the various kinds of melons and nuts.
In an empire of such vast extent as Brazil, embracing as it does,
every variety of temperature and elevation, the value and importance
of the agriculture products cannot fail to be very great. So small,
however, is the number of farmers, compared with the extent of the
soil, that it is believed that not one acre in 200 is under cultivation.
In some provinces, especially those near the sea, the quantity of grain
raised is not sufficient to supply the demand, and thus large quan¬
tities of wheat are annually imported from the United States. The
reason of this is that the soil under tillage is occupied in the pro¬
duction of articles for foreign markets. The chief products of
Brazil are coffee, sugar, cotton, mandioc or cassava flour, tobacco, rice,
maize, fruits, and spices. Of these by far the most important now is
coffee, while sugar ranks next in value, and cotton after sugar. It was
not until 1810, that Brazilian coffee came to be highly valued in the
European markets. In that year, however, Dr Lecesne, a planter,
expelled by the revolution from St Domingo, settled near Rio, and
introduced the most improved methods of rearing the coffee-plant.
So successful has the result of the new system been, that whereas in
1818 the annual exports of coffee did not amount to 80,000 bags,
they now average nearly a million and a half of bags. Estimating
the value of each bag at L.3, the total value of the coffee exports is
not less than L.4,000,000. The cultivation of sugar has not increased
nearly in the same proportion with that of coffee. It is produced
in greatest quantity in the districts adjoining Bahia. The quantity
of sugar exported in 1850 was 16,200 bales, representing a value
of about L.1,700,000. Cotton is found to thrive best in the dry
table-lands of the northern provinces, especially in Maranhao and
Pernambuco. Its quality is considered excellent; but the rude and
expensive method of its culture, and the high rates of carriage in
these inland districts, operate very unfavourably for this branch of
traffic. The annual value of cotton exported is not much above
L.800,000. The quantity exported to Britain in 1851 was
19,339,104 lb. The tea plant has been recently introduced into
Brazil, where it flourishes extremely well. Though not equal in
quality to that of Chinese growth, it finds a ready market in
Europe. It has hitherto been cultivated almost exclusively in the
province of S. Paulo, but is beginning to spread rapidly through the
empire, and threatens to supersedethe cotton trade altogether. Asits
cultivation is of so very recent date, it is not yet possible to ascertain
exactly the amount and value of the annual exports. Tobacco grows
in greatest abundance in the neighbourhood of Rio, but, from its in¬
ferior quality, it cannot compete with that of the United States, and
the demand for it is annually decreasing. Rice grows in consider¬
able quantities, and, not being much used by the natives for food,
a large surplus remains for exportation. The cassava or mandioc
is extensively grown, and forms the staple food of the lower classes.
The root, which is the part of the plant used for this purpose, contains
a deadly poison. It is easily expelled, however, by the action of
fire, and the residuum is ground into a wholesome and nutritious
flower. Tapioca, which is extensively used in Europe, is a prepa¬
ration from the root of the cassava. The quantities annually ex¬
ported from Brazil alone, amount to about 1600 cwt.
The varieties of animated life in Brazil are more numerous per- Animals,
haps than in any other region in the world. Of beasts of prey,
the most formidable are the jaguar or South American tiger, the
ocelot, the tiger-cat, the puma, and the saratu, a kind of fox. Large
herds of the peccary roam in the forests, in which also is to be found
the tapir. This animal resembles the hog, but is many times
larger, and is amphibious. It is capable of remaining a long time
under water without rising to the surface to breathe. Its flesh is
like that of the ox. The varieties of the monkey tribe that abound
in the forests appear to be almost infinite. The Simia Jacchus has
never been seen elsewhere. There are several varieties of bats, of
which the Vespertilia leporinus and the V. spectrum are the largest.
Two species of sloth, the Bradypus tridactylus and didactylus, are
not uncommon. No less immense is the variety of birds, from the
ouira, an eagle far larger than our most powerful birds of prey, to
the humming-bird, no larger than a bee. The rhea, a species of
ostrich, is found in Brazil. Snakes of every kind abound in the
marshy districts, some of which, such as the rattlesnake, the jara-
raca, are remarkably venomous ; while others, such as the boas,
attain an enormous size and strength. A vast number of trouble¬
some insects infest the margins of all the great rivers. Of these the
most formidable is the puim, which is so small as to be scarcely visi¬
ble, and inflicts a most painful and even dangerous bite. The red
ant is peculiarly destructive to vegetation ; and whole districts are
sometimes laid waste by its ravages. The spider here attains an
enormous size, but is not so venomous as might be expected from
its appearance. The Brazilian birds are celebrated for the beauty
of their plumage. “ Red, blue, and green parrots,” says Malte-
Brun, “ frequent the tops of trees. The gallinaceous jacus, the hoc-
cos, and different kinds of pigeons, haunt the woods. The oriols
resort to the orange groves; and their sentinels, stationed at a dis¬
tance, announce with a screaming noise the approach of man. Chat¬
tering manakins mislead the hunter; and the metallic tones of the
uraponga resound through the forest like the strokes of a hammer
on an anvil. The toucan (ramphastos) is prized for its fea¬
thers, which are of a lemon and bright red colour, with transversal
stripes reaching to the extremities of the wings. The different
species of humming birds are more numerous in Brazil than in any
other country of America. One sort is called by the people the
Gnanthe engera or winged flower.” The gayest butterflies flutter
through the air, the blue shining Menelaus, the Adonis, the Nestor,
and the Laertes. More than ten species of wild bees have been ob¬
served in the woods ; and the greater number produce honey. The
cactus coccinellifer, and the insect peculiar to it, are found in the pro¬
vince of S. Paulo. Lizards and caymans abound. The quantity of
turtle in the Amazons and its principal tributaries is almost incre¬
dible. The waters swarm with fish, of which the only one entitled
to notice in a sketch like this is the paranha, the tyrant of the fresh
waters, which divides with the cayman the terror and hatred of the
inhabitants. Of domestic animals, the most important are the horse,
the ox, and the sheep. Vast numbers of horses, sprung from the
original European stock, roam at large over the extensive plains of
the southern provinces. They are generally found in droves of
twenty or thirty. Oxen are also allowed to wander half wild. They
are hunted down with the lasso in great numbers, and are valued
chiefly on account of their hides, horns, and tallow, which are ex¬
ported in immense quantities. The carcases are commonly aban¬
doned to birds and beasts of prey, though they are sometimes salted
and used as food. Sheep do not thrive in Brazil at all so well as
the larger kinds of cattle.
III. Statistics.—The population of Brazil has been va- Popula-
riously estimated at different times, and indeed even now Ion-
Physical
Geogra¬
phy.
BRAZIL.
295
Statistics, the facilities for investigating the matter are not great.
To the natural difficulties the people themselves add new
causes of incorrectness. Fearing the conscription, they
conceal from the authorities the number of their sons ; and
to avoid payment of taxes and the contribution of labour for
the benefit of roads and other municipal works, they like¬
wise conceal the number of their slaves; a more difficult
matter, however, as slaves are essentially a stationary po¬
pulation. The following are official data in round numbers
extracted from the reports of the presidents of the different
provinces presented to their legislative chambers:—
olonies of
■uropean
migrants.
>Htical
| nstitu-
I m.
Names of the
Provinces.
Rio Grande do Sul
Santa Catharina
Parana
San Paulo
Rio de Janeiro
Espirito Santo
Bahia
Sergipe
Alagoas
Pernambuco
Paraiba
Rio Grande do Norte
Ceara
Piauhy
Maranbao
Para
Amazonas
Matto Grosso
Goyaz
Minas Geraes
Chief towns.
Portalegre
Desterno
Coritiba
San Paulo
Rio de Janeiro
Victoria
Bahia
Sergipe
Maceio
Recife
Paraiba
Natal
Fortaleza
Oeyras
San Luiz
Belem
Villa da Barra
Cuyaba
Villa Boa
Ouro Preto
Date of
the report.
1848
1849
1853
1853
1851
1853
1848
1843
1849
1852
1853
1847
1853
1848
1848
1848
1853
1849
1849
1852
Total for the 20 provinces,
To compensate omissions and increase in some
provinces since 1847,
The most approximative total.
Number of
inhabitants.
260,000
81,000
67,000
546,000
823,000
60,000
900,000
135,000
208,000
900,000
200,000
160,000
210,000
120,000
213,000
165,000
35,000
48,000
100,000
1,300,000
6,521,000
479,000
7,000,000
The classification of the different races in some of the
provinces is entirely wanting; the following is subjoined as
an approximation, drawn up from the data existing for
several provinces:—
White population  2,000,000
Free mixed population, mulattoes, cafuses, and
other varieties 1,000,000
Civilized aborigines   800,000
Mixed slave population  600,000
African, or black slaves 2,600,000
There are 6 in Rio Grande do Sul, 6 in Santa Catha¬
rina, 4 in San Paulo, 3 in Rio de Janeiro, and 1 in Espirito
Santo, numbering altogether in 1852, 20,833 inhabitants.
I he most flourishing is that of San Leopoldo in Rio Grande,
which contains 10,576 inhabitants, and whose exports in
1852 were valued at L.120,000. The chief traffic is in
articles of leather, such as saddlery, portmanteaus, &c.
There is no means of ascertaining the average number
of emigrants from Europe who annually settled in the pro¬
vinces or quitted them, but in 1853, 9610 foreigners esta¬
blished themselves in Rio, of whom more than 8000 were
Portuguese, while 1976 left it, of whom likewise the great
proportion were Portuguese.
The number of emigrants landed at the provincial ports
may be calculated at a little less than that of those who
landed at Rio.
1 he Brazilian monarchy derives from the ancient mon¬
archy of Portugal the principle of hereditary succession to
the crown. The laws of succession are defined with great
distinctness in the constitution, and are the same as in Eng¬
land. °
In Brazil there is no privileged aristocracy, but descent
from the noble families of Portugal, length of time in the
service of the country, or large fortune, give a certain claim Statistics,
to the privileges of aristocracy readily admitted by the Bra- v,/—>
zilians. The emperor rewards services according to their
difficulty or importance with the titles of marquis, count,
baron, or knight (moqos fidalgos). In 1853 there were in
Brazil 6 marquises, 5 counts, 17 viscounts, 66 barons, and
120 knights. Titles are not hereditary, but if a son prove
himself worthy of his father, he inherits his title. There are
in the empire three orders of chivalry adopted from Portu¬
gal, those namely of Christ, Aviz, and Santiago, and two cre¬
ated since the declaration of independence, those namely of
Cruzeiro and Rose. Great numbers of crosses of the first
and last of these orders have been distributed. That of Aviz
is reserved for military services, and that of Cruzeiro for
very important and extraordinary services exclusively. The
senate represents the only element of aristocracy recognised
by the constitution.
The democratic element preponderates in the constitu¬
tion of Brazil, but its action is greatly modified by the com¬
plicated system of election.
The constitution established four powers, the moderator
(what is called in England the royal prerogative), the legisla¬
tive, the executive, and the judicial. The moderator is vested
in the emperor, whom it empowers to select senators and
ministers, to sanction laws, to convoke extraordinary assem¬
blies, prorogue parliament, dissolve the chamber of deputies,
grant amnesties and pardons, and suspend judges to be after¬
wards tried.
The legislative power is vested, for the affairs of the em-
ph'e, in the general legislative assembly with the sanction of
the emperor, and for the provincial affairs in the provincial
assemblies with the sanction of the president (governor) of
the province. The general legislative assembly consists of
two chambers, that of deputies, and that of senators. The
deputies are nominated by indirect election. Citizens, and
even manumitted slaves, born in the empire, who possess
an income of L.22, 10s., choose the electors in parochial
assemblies, and these electors nominate the deputies. The
qualification for an elector is an annual income of L.45 ;
that of a deputy an income of L.90. Minors, monks, and
servants, are incapable of voting ; naturalized foreigners, and
persons not professing the religion of the state, are inca¬
pable of being elected deputies, but they can be senators.
The deputies are elected for four years, and must hold an
annual session of four months, opening on the 3d of May.
The senators are elected for life. Every province has a
number of senators, equal to half its number of deputies ;
but they are nominated in triple lists, from which the em¬
peror selects one-third. A senator must be forty years of
age, and possess a clear annual income of L.180. The al¬
lowance of a senator is one-half more than that of a deputy.
Each house nominates its own officers. When the two
houses sit in general assembly, as at the opening and close
of the session, to hear the emperor’s speech, &c., the presi¬
dent of the senate presides, and the senators and deputies
sit promiscuously. They sit apart, and proceed by way
of bill, when they make laws, interpret and suspend them ;
they determine the public charges, and assess the contribu¬
tions, &c. The chamber of deputies has the initiative in
taxes, in recruiting, and in the choice of a new dynasty.
The senate has the exclusive privilege of taking cognizance
of offences committed by members of the imperial family,
councillors of state, senators, and deputies, during the
session ; of enforcing the responsibility of secretaries and
councillors of state ; of convoking the assembly in case the
emperor fail to do so within two months after the period
fixed by law; and also of calling it together on the death of
the emperor.
The executive power is vested in the emperor assisted by
his ministers and secretaries of state, who are responsible
for treason, corruption, abuse of power, acts contrary to the
IL
29G
BRAZIL.
Statistics, liberty, security, or property of the citizens, and waste of
public property. From this responsibility they cannot es¬
cape upon the plea of orders from the emperor. The exe¬
cutive functions are the convocation of the general ordinary
assembly ; the nomination of bishops, presidents, governors
of provinces; commanders by sea and land, and ambassadors;
the formation of alliances, and all foreign negotiations ; the
declaration of peace and war; the granting letters of na¬
turalization, &c. The ministers are six: one for each of
the departments of home, justice, war, marine, finances, and
foreign affairs. One of these is president or premier. To
these is superadded a council of state, composed of ten or¬
dinary and ten extraordinary members nominated by the
emperor, and the imperial prince, if of age, is by right a
councillor of state. This council is divided into as many
sections as there are ministerial departments.
Every town and village, with the surrounding district, has
a municipal council composed of seven or twelve members,
elected directly by the citizens who possess an annual income
of L.22, 10s. This council is charged with all that concerns
the good of the district, meets four times a-year, besides ex¬
traordinary sessions, and every meeting may last as many
days as may be found necessary for the expedition of busi¬
ness. They impose fines to a certain amount, and even
enforce their decrees by a penalty of thirty days’ imprison¬
ment. They annually draw up a municipal budget, which
is submitted to the provincial legislative assembly for ap¬
proval. If their revenue and the produce of fines be not
sufficient to defray expenses, an allowance from the provin¬
cial treasury is granted. Their decrees are called posturas,
and the penalties imposed by them are applied to the in¬
fractors by the justices of peace. Their enactments can be
annulled by the provincial legislative assembly.
Judicial Each parish has four justices of peace elected for four years,
system. hut only one is actively engaged for the year. They are nominated
by the citizens in the same manner as the municipal councils. No
one can bring a case into court without having previously at¬
tempted a conciliation with his adversary before a justice of peace.
Trial by jury is authorised for civil as well as for criminal cases.
Each province is divided into comarcas, and then into municipali¬
ties. In each comarca there is a judge called Juiz de Direito, who
presides at the sessions of the jury, in every municipality, twice or
thrice a-year. In each municipality there is a municipal judge,
who decides in civil cases, and prepares the process for the crimi¬
nal. The decisions of this judge may be amended by the Juiz de
Direito. Both must be doctors of law. The empire is divided into
four appeal districts, in each of which there is a Relaqao (court of
appeal), composed of fourteen members. There is, besides, in Rio
a supreme court of justice, composed of seventeen members, whose
duties are to permit or refuse the revision of causes, to try its own
members, or those of the court of appeal, the members of the diplo¬
matic body, and the presidents of provinces, and to decide on dis¬
puted cases between the other courts. Promotion by election is
made from municipal judge to Juiz de Direito, and from this grade
to that immediately above it. Admittance into the supreme court
can only be obtained by seniority. All judges are responsible for
abuses of power, and for corruption. They may be removed from
one district to another, but cannot lose office except by sentence.
The civil laws, originally the same with those of Portugal, have
been greatly modified by a number of new ones. A criminal code
was organized in 1830 on the principles of Jeremy Bentham, and
is considered very perfect and clear. The new form of procedure,
and the new organization of justices, is embodied in a code decreed
in 1832. Finally, a new code of commerce, nearly copied from that
of Prance, was decreed in 1850.
Finances. r^° carry on the war of the independence, and to crush a subse¬
quent revolution in the northern provinces, the government con¬
tracted two loans in 1824-5, of the nominal amount of L.3,686,200;
and on the recognition of its independence by Portugal in 1825, it
undertook the liability of a loan of L.1,500,000. The war with
Buenos Ayres, and the assistance rendered by Don Pedro to the
constitutional party of Portugal, led to two farther loans in 1829, of
the nominal amount of L.769,200. Internal difficulties in 1839
compelled the regency to contract another loan of the nominal
amount of L.411,200. The dissensions in Portugal caused a tem¬
poral suspension in the payment of the dividends on the Portu¬
guese loan, and in 1842, L.732,600 stock were delivered to the
Portuguese agents in settlement of this claim. The debt contracted Statist)!
and assumed by Brazil between 1823 and 1843, therefore, amounted v _ ,
to L.7,099,200 nominal; and throughout all its difficulties and em¬
barrassments the imperial government punctually and honourably
provided for the dividends as they became due. Their disorder, so
long as it existed, was wholly borne by the Brazilian people, on
whom, for a season, it fell with great severity.
By the renewal in 1844 of the sinking fund, the operations of
which had been suspended in 1828, the Portuguese loan of
L.1,500,000 was reduced to L.954,250; and on its expiration in
July 1852, it was paid off by a new 4J per cent, loan of that
amount, contracted for at 95. In the same way, reductions of the
other loans have been made, and now the foreign debt of Brazil
stands only at L.4,900,000, 5 per cent, stock, and L. 1,000,000, 4J
per cent.: total, L.5,900,000. Gradually, it is in process of farther
reduction, and if the operation of the sinking fund be, as is in¬
tended, persevered in, at no very distant period, the foreign debt
of Brazil will be extinguished.
The deficiencies of former years have been funded and form the
greater part of the internal debt of Brazil. The total funded debt
of the empire now stands thus:—
Foreign Debt.
Balance of 5 per cent, loan of
... 4J per cent, loan of
1824
1829
1839
1843
1852
L.3,197,800
597,500
391.200
673.200
1,035,100
Internal Debt
L.5,894,800
6,467,490
Total Debt of Brazil.
L.12,362,290
It thus appears that with a revenue of nearly L.4,000,000 a-year,
the Brazilian debt, foreign and domestic, does not much exceed
three years’ revenue. This is a proportion such as few states can
exhibit.
For a few years previously to the declaration of the emperor’s
majority, the imperial expenditure had not been very largely in
excess of the revenue. In 1836-7, the deficit was reis 476,825,000;
in 1837-8, reis 885,100,000; in 1838—9, there was even a surplus
of reis 40,591,000; in 1839-40, the deficiency was increased to
reis 1,033,946,000 ; in 1840-1, the year of the emperor’s majority,
it rose to reis 3,639,608,000. In consequence of the greater vigour
then resorted to in reducing a rebellion which had been raging
since 1835 in the province of Rio Grande do Sul, the deficit went
on augmenting until after 1844, when these efforts were crowned
with success. In 1841-2, the deficit was reis 6,212,609,000; in
1842-3 reis 5,724,843,000; in 1843-4 reis 6,620,866,000; in
1844-5 reis 9,484,520,000. Nor was it for three or four years after
the pacification, that the deficit entirely disappeared. In 1849-50,
however, there was a large surplus after payment of all expenses,
of reis 3,035,006,000 or L.341,438; in 1850-1, the surplus was
reis 3,552,404,000 or L.399,645 ; in 1851-2, reis 4,010,220,000, or
L.451,149; in 1852-3, reis 3,970,202,000 or L.446,647; in 1853-4,
reis 3,528,934,000 or L.397,005. To sum up, while in the eleven
years, 1836-1848, the deficiencies in the Brazilian finances alto¬
gether amounted to reis 40,550,675,000, in the last five years there
has been an aggregate surplus of reis 18,096,766,000, or L.2,035,885.
The revenues of Brazil have risen in that period (from 1836 to
1854), from reis 12,265,262,000, their lowest point in 1837-8, to
reis 35,646,407,000, or L.4,010,220, the highest in 1851-2, about
which sum it seems reasonable to estimate them for succeeding
years. The following table gives the revenue and expenditure for
the last five years.
Years.
1849 50
1850- 1
1851- 2
1852- 3
1853- 4
Receipts.
Reis.
26,977,836,000
31,576,930,000
35,646,407,000
35,290,691,000
34,000,000,000
Expenditure.
Reis.
23,942,830,000
27,864,404,000
31,636,187,000
31,320,489,000
30,471,066,000
Under the influence of the new tariff of customs’-duties, issued
12th August 1844, combined with growing prosperity at home,
greater liberality of treatment of its produce in foreign markets,
and with an improved collection of the customs’ revenue, a state of
chronic deficit has been changed into one of large surplus. The
government of Brazil has availed itself of financial prosperity to
establish naval and to extend and perfect judicial means for the
effectual suppression of the slave trade, has reduced the tonnage
duties on shipping by two-thirds, has lowered some oppressive in¬
ternal taxes, and abolished others, has already made some partial
modifications of her customs’ tariff, and is now engaged in prepar¬
ing a measure for a general diminution of import, and the entire
repeal of export duties.
BRAZIL.
29/
Statistics. Estimates for the fiscal year, ending the 30th June 1854:
Revenue.
Custom-houses  Reis, 22,515,800,000
Taxes upon shipping.,  246,600,000
Export duties    4,634,500,000
Post-office   146,000,000
Mint and other establishments, ... 258,300,000
Taxes upon transfer of realproperty, 1,097,900,000
Stamps    803,300,000
Tax on slave-labour   279,050,000
Miscellaneous ,....,  5,929,550,000
Total   Reis, 34,000,000,000 or L.3,825,000
Expenditure.
Home department,   Reis, 3,760,318,000
Justice..    2,278,291,188
Foreign    654,546,000
Marine       3.869,434,990
War  7^25,448,027
Financial....... 12,583,027,765
Total  Reis, 30,471,065,970 or L.3,427,995
Surplus  L.397,005
In addition to the above imperial revenues of Brazil, each of the
twenty provinces has a separate revenue, raised by the authority
of its provincial assembly, and spent on its own local objects,
amounting altogether for the twenty provinces to about one-third
of the imperial revenue.
The The Roman Catholic religion is the established religion of the
Church. empire. All other forms of worship are tolerated, but may only
be practised privately. Dissenters enjoy all political and civil
rights, with the sole exception of being elected into the chamber of
deputies. There is one archbishopric in Bahia, with suffragan
bishops in Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Maranhao, Para, San
Paulo, Minas, and Goyaz. Every bishopric is divided into a con¬
venient number of parishes, according to the population; a vicar is
attached to each parish, and assisted by other priests if necessary.
The peculiarity of the ecclesiastical organization of the Brazilian
church is, that the clergy do not receive the tithes. As a conquest
of the military and religious order of Christ, all the churches of
Brazil belonged from the beginning to that order, whose grand
master appointed the bishops, and submitted them directly to the
approbation of the Pope. The order became so powerful that the
king obtained the union of the grand mastership to the crown, and
so disposed of all the livings and other benefices of the order, and
paid from his treasury the salaries of the clergy, receiving the
tithes from the people, as a civil tax. The tithes were afterwards
abolished as oppressive. This organization is still recognised by
the Holy See, and in the capacity of grand-master of the order of
Christ, the emperor appoints all the bishops and other ecclesiastical
functionaries. There are convents of Franciscans, Carmelites, and
Benedictines. These are very rich, and generally very learned men,
who are usefully employed in teaching the sciences. They pay
double annual taxes as a compensation to the treasury for not pay¬
ing taxes upon transfers of property, as theirs is not transferable,
jiterary In every parish there is a schoolmaster for boys, and a school-
istablish- mistress for girls. As education is free, they receive no fees from
uents, and their pupils, but a salary from the provincial treasury. In every
bublic in- large town there is a Lyceum, maintained also by the provincial
traction, treasury. From the scholars of these establishments a small annual
fee is exacted. In those lyceums, the Latin, French, and English
languages, rhetoric, philosophy, geography, mathematics, natural
philosophy, and chemistry, are taught. In the less important
towns and large villages the course of instruction at the lyceums is
limited to Latin, French, and philosophy or rhetoric. In every
bishopric there is a theological seminary supported by the property
belonging to the see. The advanced sciences are taught by the
respective faculties, forming together the university, and distributed
in the following manner. The civil and common law, political
economy, and other social sciences are taught in San Paulo, and
Olinda; mathematics, and their application to engineering, in Rio
de Janeiro; medicine, surgery, zoology, mineralogy, botany, che¬
mistry, and physics, in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. All the salaries
of the professors, as well as all the expenses for the higher sciences,
are defrayed from the imperial treasury.
Besides the public establishments of education, there are many
private ones. The public library of Rio de Janeiro is a very rich
one, and contains more than 100,000 volumes; in the other im¬
portant towns there are also good libraries, museums of zoology
and mineralogy, open to the public.
rjay and The effective strength of the army and navy is every year fixed
avy. by the general legislative assembly, upon the data furnished by the
VOL. V.
ministers of the two departments. The army is organized on the Statistics,
principles established by Marshal Beresford when in the service
of Portugal. It is principally from the northern provinces that
the infantry is recruited, and from the southern that the best
cavalry is obtained.
The actual army is thus composed:—-
Men.
Staff and engineers    355
Infantry  12,785
Cavalry  2,350
Artillery  3,517
Sappers and miners  1,091
20,098
Besides the regular army there is the national guard, organized
since 1831, on the same plan as that of France ; the subaltern officers
being elected by the soldiers, the superior officers by the subalterns,
the generals, instructors, majors, adjutants, serjeants, named by the
government. These appointments are for four years. The national
guard is divided into three classes, the first of which may, in the
event of war, be called upon to serve on the same terms as soldiers
of the line. The total effective strength of the national guards is
as follows:—
Men.
Infantry  97,543
Cavalry    6,593
Artillery  2,194
Total  106,330
The navy is principally manned by civilized aborigines, organized
in bodies called imperial sailors, with a certain military discipline,
which has of late proved exceedingly beneficial. The aborigines
have a peculiar aptitude for a maritime life. Officers destined for
the Brazilian navy receive a suitable education in the naval school
of Rio, and for some years the government introduced the practice
of sending the more apt scholars to serve in the British, French,
and American navies. In this way a body of efficient naval officers
is gradually being formed.
The naval forces for the present year 1854 are fixed thus:—
1st class frigates, of which 2 are steamers  5
Corvettes, of which 7 are steamers  17
Brigs  8
Schooners and brig-schooners  19
Small steamers    6
Small vessels armed, or gun-boats    5
Transports    6
66
These 66 ships are manned by 6000 sailors, including gunners
and marines.
It is obvious, from the insufficient establishments for general 0jiaractcr
education, that the intellectual development of individuals must0f tjje jjra-
have been for a long period achieved in a great measure by unaided zjiiians
exertions. Now things are better, but in the more thinly inhabited
districts devotion to such pursuits must not be expected in men ex¬
clusively occupied in procuring subsistence and securing self-
defence. Even where the population is more dense, a lazy feeling
of animal comfort represses the exertions of the majority. It is
among the more aspiring class, who aim at the learned professions
or state employment, and who are consequently obliged to cultivate
their minds, that we must look for that attachment to intellectual
pursuits which is rarely acquired except from habit. In the theo¬
logical seminaries, established at the seat of each bishop, little
more was inculcated than a knowledge of the classics, an outworn
scholastic system of logic, and a knowledge of the routine duties of a
priest. The schools of medicine in Rio Janeiro and in Bahia, from
the attention bestowed upon practical surgery and anatomy, have
done more to awaken the mind. The number of situations under
government requiring a certain knowledge of practical mathematics
and natural history, has been made more efficient in diffusing a
knowledge of and a taste for these kindred pursuits. The number
of foreign engineers and naturalists encouraged to settle in Brazil
has rendered the natives in some measure acquainted with all that
has been of late achieved in Europe in the mathematical and ex¬
perimental sciences. Late events have forced upon the inhabitants
a number of political questions, which, coming home to every man’s
business and bosom, have excited the whole community.
In parliament and by the press the most delicate political ques¬
tions have been discussed with success, and the progress of the go¬
vernment and of legislation evinces a certain administrative fore¬
sight and prudence rarely displayed by other new states.
The Brazilians who frequent the university of Coimbra in Por¬
tugal often distinguish themselves among their fellow-students;
2 p
I
298
brazil.
Statistics, and notwithstanding the difficulties they have to contend against,
'Si—not unfrequently rise to the highest offices of the state. °
The most remarkable writers in the Portuguese language on po¬
litical economy and commercial law were Couttinho, bishop of Per¬
nambuco, and Silva Lisboa, afterwards Viscount de Cayron, a sena¬
tor of the empire, both Brazilians. Among historians the Brazilian
Rocha Pita is distinguished. Portugal is poor in dramatic litera¬
ture, but one of her most distinguished comic poets was the Bra¬
zilian Silva, who afterwards fell a victim to the inquisition oP
Lisbon. In epic poetry, on the other hand, Portuguese literature
is rich. Brazil claims the authorship of two of its most beautiful
poems of this class, the Caramuru of Durao, and the Uruguay of
Gama. The best of the minor poets is Gonzaga, whose collection of
lyrics is well known under the title of Marilia de Dirceo. Little
inferior to him is Souza Caldas, whose translation of the Psalms de¬
notes a talent of the first order. Claudio, Avarenga, Gregorio de
Mattos, Euzebio de Mattos, G usmao, in former times; and in modern,
Odorico, Mendes, Borges de Barros, Domingos Magalhaes, Mar-
quis of Paranagoa, A. de Macedo, Porto-Alegre, Barbosa, and others
are well worthy of notice as lyric poets.
Religious eloquence was formerly much cultivated in Brazil, and
Vieira is one of the most original and eloquent preachers known.
In more recent times S. Carlos and Montalverne deserve particular
notice. In the natural sciences Frei Leandro, Arruda, Camara, and
Jose Bonifacio de Andrada, are known for their works and discoveries.
In sacred music Jose Mauricio, a mulatto, left compositions of
merit that were executed in the chapel of D. John VI.
The Brazilians have a natural taste for music, and an Italian
theatre maintained with but little interruption in Rio de Janeiro
has assisted in improving and refining this taste. The old fashioned
Brazilian instrument, which was a particular kind of guitar, has
almost disappeared from the large cities, but is still frequently em¬
ployed in the provinces to accompany the modinhas (romances)
which are peculiar to Brazil, and which have a particular style.
The school of the fine arts of Rio de Janeiro has produced some
good but no remarkable painters. Of late, however, the most pro¬
mising artists have been annually sent to Italy at the public expense
to prosecute their studies in that country.
Ihere is in the Brazilian national character, with great mild¬
ness and generosity, a certain tendency to vindictiveness. Homi-
cides for the sake of vengeance alone are proportionally as nume¬
rous in Brazil as in certain countries of Europe ; while the crimes
against property are much fewer. The greatest number of homi¬
cides, however, takes place in the most backward provinces of the
centre and north.
The Roman Catholic religion predominates in Brazil, and although
there are enlightened men among the clergy, a great number of the
priests are ill educated, and the institution of celibacy keeps the
members of the principal families from entering the profession.
Such is the want of priests that the government finds itself obliged
to send to Italy for them. Among educated classes the spirit of
materialism of the French writers of the eighteenth century made
great progress, but a considerable reaction has lately taken place.
The lower classes, above all in the interior, are still deplorably
superstitious. J
The Brazilians are in general hospitable, generous, and charit¬
able, endowed with great pride and vanity, and susceptibility of
character, and are easily led away by flattery. The unlimited power
thej exercise over the African slaves, and the colonial system from
which they have but a short time been freed, the imperfect religious
education, the facility with which they can live in abundance at
small cost, while the climate enables them to dispense with many
things necessary in other countries, the enervating effects of the
hot atmosphere, all combine to indicate the qualities and vices which
we must expect in this people.
Except a few rude manufactures for family use, this branch of
national industry is in Brazil confined to mining operations, the
smelting of metals, the polishing of precious stones, the manufac¬
ture of salt, ship-building, tanning and dressing hides, and the mak¬
ing of oil. In the town of Rio, the number of gold and silver smiths
appears to a stranger astonishing. Like the other tradesmen they
Lye m a street by themselves. Though they cannot yet compete
with European artizans in the matter of taste and elegance, their
wares are far from being destitute of either. So great is the dearth
o mechanics, that when, in 1844, some French workmen arrived, the
proyincia government “ induced three of them, a carpenter, a
ca ine ma cr, and a blacksmith, to establish themselves in the
country ; and this event was deemed so important as to be officially
oticed in the President’s message to the next provincial assembly.”
1{ibour of every kind is very scarce and expensive. Ma-
. ry 0 every e»cription is thus kept in its present rude and
jrimi ive oim, an he general development of the interal resources
ot the country retarded.
The diamond washings, with the exception of a few of which but
Manufao
tures.
Diamond
mines.
little is known, are confined to the diamond district in Minas Geraes, otat;
and are still conducted on the ill-judged system of a government y B10
monopoly. The cascalhao, mentioned above, is dug up and removed ” v^“
to a convenient place for washing. As much is raised during the
rainy months as is expected to give employment to the slaves for
the other six. It is deposited in heaps of from five to fifteen tons.
A shed is erected in the form of a parallelogram twenty-five or
thirty yards long and about fifteen wide, composed of upright posts
supporting a thatched roof. A stream of water is conveyed down
the middle of the area of this shed, covered with strong planks, on
which the cascalhao is laid two or three feet thick. On one side of
the canal is a flooring of planks from four to five yards long, im¬
bedded in clay, extending the whole length of the shed, and having
a slope from the canal of three or four inches to a yard. This floor¬
ing is divided into twenty compartments or troughs, each of about
three feet in width, by means of planks set on edge. The upper end
of each trough communicates with the canal. Three overseers take
their seats at equal distances on high chairs placed on the heaps of
cascalhao, on the side of the canal opposite to the troughs. As soon
as they are seated a negro enters into each compartment, provided
with a short handled rake, with which he draws to him fifty or
eigh^y lb. of cascalhao. He then lets in water upon this, and keeps
stirring it with his rake until the earthy particles are washed off;
upon which, throwing out the largest stones, he carefully examines
the rest for diamonds. As soon as he finds one he rises and holds
it out between his finger and thumb ; an overseer receives it from
him, and deposits it in a bowl half full of water, suspended from the
centre of the structure. At the close of the day’s labour, the dia¬
monds obtained are taken from this deposit and delivered to the
principal overseer, who weighs and registers them. On an average
the mines yield 20,000 carats annually. The establishment is bur¬
dened with a load of debt incurred to foreigners for advances of
money at the time that government first took it in hand. It is cal¬
culated that the diamonds cost government 33s. 9d. per carat. The
washings give employment and support to a population of about
6000. The trade in gems which have not been deemed of sufficient
importance to be claimed as regalia, centres in Minas Novas. The
dealers in precious stones have their residences for the most part in
Chapada. The greater part are sent in a state of nature to Bahia
and Rio Janeiro; some, however, are polished, rudely enough, in
the neighbourhood.
^ The gold country extends over Minas Geraes, Goyaz, Matto r |fl
Grosso, and part of S. Paulo. In all these districts the winning of °
this metal is pursued in a manner exactly similar. It is found either mines’
in the beds of rivers, or in veins, at times twenty feet under the
surface, at times close under the roots of the grass. Like diamonds,
it is found intermingled with cascalhao. This mass, with the auri¬
ferous particles, is removed from its site to a convenient place for
washing. Where -water of a sufficiently high level can be obtained,
the ground is cut into slips twenty or thirty feet wide, two or three
broad, and one deep. Near the bottom is a trench two or three feet
deep. On these steps the cascalhao is deposited, and on each stand
six or eight negroes, keeping it in motion with shovels as the water
flows gently upon it from above, until the whole is reduced to liquid
mud and washed down. In the trench the particles of gold, from
their weight, quickly precipitate. Other negroes are busy clearing
away the stones and removing the surface mud. After five days’
washing the precipitate is carried to some convenient stream. Here
each negro is provided with a bowl of a funnel shape, about two
feet wide at the mouth, and five or six inches deep. Standing in
the stream, he takes about six lb. of the sediment into his bowl,
admits regulated portions of water, and keeps moving the sediment
until the gold deposit itself at the sides and bottom of the vessel.
He then rinses the bowl in a larger vessel of clean water, and be¬
gins again. This operation occupies about five minutes. When the
particles of gold in the sediment are very minute, troughs similar
to those employed in diamond washing, but longer and narrower,
are constructed. On their bottoms are stretched'hides, tanned with
the hair on, or pieces of rough baize. The water containing the
sediment is conveyed down these, and the gold precipitating in the
course is entangled in the rough surface. Every half hour the hides
are carried to a neighbouring tank, stretched over it, dipped, and
beaten repeatedly. The gold is found at the bottom of these reser¬
voirs mingled with esmeril, from which it is separated by the aid of
mercury. The whole business is carried on in a most cumbrous,
inartistic, and wasteful manner. The gold thus procured is brought
to the nearest mint, where the crown’s fifths are deducted, and the
rest refined and melted. The deliverer may either have his gold in
the form of an ingot, with the public stamp, or he may have a receipt
for it, which entitles him to receive the amount from any mint in
Brazil. This business gives employment to the great bulk of the
population in Minas Geraes, in Matto Grosso, and in Goyaz. The total
amount of gold obtained from the Brazilian mines, from their disco¬
very till 1803, according to the registers, amounted to L.155,000,000
Brazil
Wood.
ron-foun
[ries.
BRA
Brazil sterling. Of unregistered gold, it is estimated that the value was
nearly L.40,000,000. From 1811 to 1825, the annual average of
registered and contraband gold was 1971 lb., representing a value
of L.127,144. The Congosoco mines, as wrought by the Anglo-
Brazilian Mining Company, are very productive. In 1829, the
value of gold from these mines was L.258,876 sterling. Its profits
are not now so great as they were in that year, but are still con¬
siderable.
The iron of Brazil has hitherto been almost entirely neglected,
although no country is richer in this invaluable metal. In 1817-20
there were, as far as we have been able to learn, only the following
iron-works in the empire: 1. That of Ypanema, in the province of
S. Paulo. The immense deposit of magnetic iron ore in this neigh¬
bourhood was long worked in an unsatisfactory manner. In 1810
a company of Swedish miners and founders settled there, and erected
two small refining furnaces. In 1817 they produced yearly 4000
arrobas of iron, which was manufactured on the spot into horses’
shoes, nails, locks, and other articles. A larger establishment, with
two smelting and several refining furnaces, and bellows moved by
water, had been built at that time, but was waiting for workmen
from Germany. Nothing more has been learned of its fate. 2. To
the N.W. of Antonio Pereira, near the centre of Minas, Bschwege
erected a small iron foundry in 1816, and intrusted the management
of it to a German overseer. The daily produce was in 1818 two
arrobas. It was worked up on the spot into hatchets, knives, bill¬
hooks, horse-shoes, and nails. 3. At Gaspar Soares, in the same
province, a foundry on a large scale was erected in 1812 at the
king’s expense. It consisted of one smelting and two refining fur¬
naces. The first mentioned had never been used, and the other two
were lying idle when visited by Spix and Martius. The ore is ex¬
cellent, and a canal might be dug at comparatively little expense,
to the navigable portion of the Rio Doce. There were several fur¬
naces in the province belonging to private individuals, and a consi¬
derable quantity of iron was brought from Rio, but still the supply
was deficient.
The most important salt country in Brazil commences at the Rio
de Salitre, a tributary of the Rio de S. Francisco, about six leagues
from Joazeiro. At this place an artificial hollow extends along the
river for the space of 60,000 square feet, and a fine, soft, ochre-
coloured earth forms the bottom of the trough. The annual floods
melt the saline particles contained in this mould; and when the
river falls, a salt pool is left. The heat of the sun then evaporates
the water, and the surface is left covered with hollow quadrangular
pyramids of the salt. The soil is of a similar conformation along
the bed of the S. Francisco for an extent of nearly two degrees of
longitude, and everywhere nearly thirty leagues in breadth. Hol¬
lows, such as we have described, natural or artificial, are scattered
over the whole extent. These are the salt mines of the country.
The greater number belong to the wealthy landholders on the Rio
de S. Francisco; but many, especially on the western side, are yet
unappropriated, and may be worked by any one. At certain sea¬
sons this district is visited by immense multitudes, some coming
from very great distances. The earth is dug up to the depth of an
inch, and deposited in wooden troughs; then water is poured upon
it, which absorbs the salt. The earth is allowed to subside, upon
which the water impregnated with salt is drawn off into another
trough, and left to crystallize in the heat of the sun. The salt is
packed in four-cornered bags of cow-hide, each containing from
30 to 40 lb. A plate of salt is valued at from 20 to 40 reis; a
sack at from 300 to 400. The annual produce of the salines exceeds
35,000 sacks. Salines nearly as productive are found at the sources
of the Paraguay, in Matto Grosso; and considerable quantities of
salt are manufactured on the shores of the northern provinces. Be¬
tween the salt district and the hills saltpetre occurs in great quan¬
tities. Fifteen leagues above the Rio de Salitre, large caves are
found in the limestone-rock, filled with black earth, which some¬
times contains three-fourths of its weight in saltpetre. This is
washed out, and the water heated to a certain degree, in order that
it may deposit the culinary salt; the saltpetre is then left to crystal¬
lize. A similar process is followed at Formigas, near the source of
the S. Francisco.
BRA
299
Salt mines.
Ship-building is diligently pursued at more than one station along Brazil
the coast. The port of S. Francisco is the most southerly point at ||
which the construction of vessels is carried on to any extent. Ves- Brazing,
sels of large size, and a number of small craft for coasters, are built - - v — J
here. The demand for ship-carpenters is always brisk. To the ,
north of Bahia, on account of the reef, the ships built are generally . ^ U1
of a small tonnage. Laranjeiras, Itapicuru, and Villa do Conde, ln^‘
build vessels capable of holding from 4000 to 8000 arrobas of lad¬
ing. Pernambuco fits out a great number of small craft. The royal
docks at Bahia are small, and few ships of war are built there j but
such as are have the character of surpassing even the East Indian
vessels in durability. Merchant ships are for the most part built
at Tapagipe, about a league and a half to the north-east of the city.
The whale-fishing stations are S. Catharina, Itaparica, and Bahia. Whale-
It is only pursued in small boats near the shore. The pans in which fishery,
the blubber is boiled are small, and heated by common stoves. The
receivers are extremely apt to collect dust and dirt of all kinds.
Throughout Brazil, not above 100 fish, great and small, are taken
in the course of a year. Each yields, on an average, from fourteen
to eighteen pipas (150 gallons English each) of train oil; and the
value of this oil, together with the whalebone, may amount to L.150.
On the islands of the Solimoes (Upper Amazons), a considerable
quantity of oil is yearly collected from the eggs of the turtle, which
are dug up, broken in the boats, and left till the light oil separates
and swims on the top. It is boiled and separated from the impu¬
rities, when it assumes the colour and consistence of lard. This
product is deposited in earthen pots containing fifty or sixty pounds
each. Of these more than 8000 are yearly prepared on the Ama¬
zons. The Madeira yields 1000. The drying and salting of fish is
carried on to a considerable extent along the sea-coast, on the Ama¬
zons, and upon a large lake near the salines on the Rio de Fran¬
cisco. A coarse kind of woollen cloth for home consumption is ma¬
nufactured at S. Paulo. Hats are made at S. Joao d’el Rey. There
is an establishment for the manufacture of arms in the town of S.
Paulo; a powder-mill in the neighbourhood of Rio, and one of less
importance in Minas. A coarse cotton cloth is woven in Goyaz.
Maranhao, and Sergipe d’el Rey, used to clothe the slaves, or form
bags for packing cotton. In S. Paulo, Goyaz, and Para, tanning
is carried on to a small extent.
The commerce of Brazil, despite the disadvantages against -which Commerce,
it has had at various times to contend, has been on the whole uni¬
formly progressive. These disadvantages consisted chiefly in the
restrictions originally imposed on the young colony by the jealousy
of the mother country, which refused to admit the Brazilian pro¬
ducts, except at certain stated seasons of the year. The exporta¬
tion of native productions to the old world was limited to the
ports of Rio, Bahia, Olinda, and Paraiba. These restrictions
continued in force long after analogous measures had been ex¬
ploded in the commercial systems of other countries, and were
not repealed till the beginning of the present century. In 1810,
all the ports of Brazil were thrown open to British goods on the
payment of duty at the rate of 15 per cent.; and though this rate
has been greatly increased by the tariff of 1844, the average annual
value of manufactured goods imported into Brazil from Great Bri¬
tain alone, during the last ten years has been nearly L.2,500,000.
The official value of imports to the United Kingdom in 1852, was
L.2,053,160, and the declared value of British produce exported
L.3,46 4,394.
The rapidity with which the trade of Brazil is annually increas¬
ing may be inferred by a comparison of the shipping returns for
1846 and 1852. In the former year, there entered the various
harbours of Brazil 931 vessels of all countries, with a tonnage of
218,819 ; cleared out 1034 vessels of 321,722 tons. In 1852, there
entered and left the harbour of Rio Janeiro alone 7284 vessels (in-
cluding coasters) of 1,576,974 tons ; and as this harbour monopolizes
about one-half of traffic of the whole empire, the total number of
ships engaged in the Brazilian trade may be estimated in round
numbers at about 15,000 ships, of 3,000,000 tons.
For further information concerning the present aspect of Bra¬
zilian commerce, see Rio Janeiro, St Salvador, Pernambuco,
&c- &c. (w.w—r.)
BRAZIL Nut, the fruit of the Juvia {Bertholletia ex-
celsa), a tree that abounds on the shores of the Orinoco,
and in the northern parts of Brazil. This majestic tree
rises to the height of 120 feet or more. The nuts, which
are of a triangular shape, are inclosed in a large pericarp,
which is divided into several compartments. The kernel has
a rich flavour, and contains much oil. See Bertholletia.
Brazil Wood. See Dyeing.
BRAZING, the soldering together of edges of iron, cop¬
per, brass, &c., with an alloy composed of brass and zinc, and
sometimes with the addition of a little tin or silver. The sur¬
faces being filed perfectly bright, and cleansed, the alloy in a
nearly pulverulent form is to be wetted with borax made into
a paste with water ; after which it is suffered to dry, and is
then carefully exposed to bright ignition in a clear fire.
{lire’s Diet, of Arts and Manufactures^)
300 B E. E
Brazos de BRAZOS de Dios, one of the largest rivers in the state
Dios of Texas, North America. It rises in numerous head
t. N . streams among the mountains in the N.W. part of the state,
v Bread. pursujng a generally S.S.E. course of about 900 miles,
empties itself into the Gulf of Mexico.
BRAZZA, an island in the Adriatic, off the coast of Dal¬
matia, in the circle of, and 8 miles from, the town of Spala-
tro. Area 170 square miles. Pop. 16,000. The surface
is rugged and mountainous, but is industriously cultivated,
and its wine is accounted the best in Dalmatia. It produces
also oil, figs, almonds, and saffron, but the corn crop scarcely
supplies the wants of the inhabitants for three months. Its
kids are celebrated; as are also its milk, cheese, and honey.
BREACH, a break or rupture in a fence or embankment.
Inundations of lands are frequently owing to breaches in
dikes or sea-banks. Dagenham breach is well known : it
occurred in 1707, by a failure of the Thames wall during a
very high tide. The force with which the water burst in upon
the neighbouring level tore a channel of a hundred yards
wide, and in some places twenty feet deep, by which a mul¬
titude of trees that had been buried for ages were laid bare.
Breach, in Fortification, is a gap made in any part of
the works of a town or fortress by the cannon or mines of
the besiegers, with a view to an assault upon the place. To
render the attack more difficult, the besieged sow the breach
with crow-feet, stop it up with chevaux de frise, or retrench
it by cutting traverses within. The besiegers sometimes
protect themselves with gabions, earth-bags, and the like ;
but in our army the practice has always been for storming
parties to advance to the breach without any such protec¬
tion, and to trust for success to their own daring.
BREAD, See Baking.
Bread, Assize of, the ordinances which regulate the
weight, measure, or price of bread.
Bread, Sacramental, in the Protestant churches, is com¬
mon leavened bread, in conformity to the ancient practice.
In the Roman Catholic mass, azymous or unleavened bread
is used, particularly in the Gallican church, where there is
provided for this purpose what is called pain d chanter,
made of the purest wheaten flour pressed between two iron
plates graven like wafer-moulds, and rubbed with white wax
to prevent the paste from sticking. The Greeks observe
various ceremonies in making the eucharistic bread. In the
Abyssinian churches there is a kind of sacristy allotted for
this service. Sirmond, in his disquisition on azymous bread,
shows, that there were as many ceremonies used in the an¬
cient Latin church in the preparation of the unleavened
bread as are still retained in the Eastern churches.
Ecclesiastical writers enumerate other species of bread
allotted for purposes of religion ; as, Kalendarius, that an¬
ciently offered to the priest at the kalends ; Prehendarius,
the same with capitularis, that distributed daily to each
prebendary or canon ; Benedictns, that usually given to
catechumens before baptism, instead of the eucharist bread,
which they were incapable of partaking of. The panis bene-
dictus was called also panagium and eulogium, being a sort
of bread blessed and consecrated by the priest, by which
the catechumens were prepared for the reception of the body
of Christ. The same was used afterwards, not only by
catechumens, but by believers themselves, as a token of
their mutual communion and friendship. Its origin is dated
from the council of Nantes in the seventh century. In the
Galiican church we still find panis benedictus, pain benit,
used for that offered for benediction, and afterwards dis¬
tributed to pious persons who attend divine service in cha¬
pels. Consecrated bread is a piece of wax, paste, or even
earth, over which several ceremonies have been performed
with benedictions and other rites, to be sent in an Agnus
Dei or relic-book, and presented for veneration. The use
of Unleavened bread alone during the Jewish passover is
commanded by the Mosaic law. The usage was introduced
BEE
in memory of the hasty departure of Israel from Egypt, Bread-
when they had not leisure to bake leavened bread. Show- fruit.
bread was that offered to God every sabbath-day on the v'—
golden table in the holy of holies.
Bread-ZAiwV. Among the more valuable products of
the warmer climates is to be ranked the bread-fruit, or Ar-
tocarpus. The best varieties of this esculent are found in
the Ladrone Islands, and in many of the groups of islands
scattered throughout the Southern Pacific Ocean ; but are
not confined exclusively to these regions.
The natives of the South Sea Islands distinguish eight Different
different varieties. European observers do not seem in species,
general disposed to recognise these as essential distinctions,
although they admit other species. The genus yielding this
valuable fruit is Artocarpus; of which Sprengel admits five
distinct species, integrifolia, Champeden, Philippensis, pu-
bescens, and incisa.
The bread-fruit is a large tree, growing to the height of
forty feet or more. It has a thick stem, and luxuriant foli¬
age. The trunk is upright, the wood soft, smooth, and yel¬
lowish ; and wherever the tree is wounded, a glutinous
fluid exudes. The branches form an ample head, almost glo¬
bular ; the leaves are eighteen inches long and eleven broad,
resembling those of the oak or the fig-tree, from their deep
sinuosities. The younger leaves, like all the more tender
parts of the tree, are glutinous to the touch. The male
flowers are among the upper leaves, and the female flowers
at the ends of the twigs. The fruit is a very large berry,
according to botanists, with a reticulated surface, resembling
a cocoa-nut or melon in size and form, nine inches in length.
It is filled with a white farinaceous fibrous pulp, which be¬
comes juicy and yellow when the fruit is ripe ; and the edible
portion lies between the skin, which is green, and a core in
the centre, which is about an inch in diameter.
During a considerable portion of the year the bread-fruit Use as food,
affords the chief sustenance of the Society Islanders, and is
prepared after different fashions. It is slightly sweet, and
has been compared to a cake made of flour, egg, sugar, and
butter. In general it is cut in several pieces, and roasted
or baked in a hole made in the ground, which is paved round
with large smooth stones; it then resembles a boiled potato,
but is not quite so farinaceous. The stones are previously
heated by a fire kindled in the excavation, and the bread¬
fruit, wrapped in a banana leaf, is laid upon them, and
covered with leaves and hot stones. When thus baked it
is considered to equal or surpass any kind of bread. Some¬
times water or cocoa-nut milk is added; sometimes it is
boiled or formed into a paste. This last is accomplished by
taking the fruit before it attains maturity, and laying it in
heaps covered up with leaves, when it undergoes fermenta¬
tion, and becomes disagreeably sweet. The core being then
drawn out, the fruit or pulp is thrown into a paved excava¬
tion, and the whole covered up with leaves, whereon heavy
stones are laid: it thus undergoes a second fermentation,
and becomes sour, after which it will suffer no change for a
long time. In the island of Nukahiwa, an agreeable beve¬
rage is obtained from it; and in the West Indies it is baked
like biscuit. The fruit is in the greatest perfection about
a week before beginning to ripen, which is easily recognised
by the skin changing to a brownish cast, and by small granu¬
lations formed of the juice. In the West Indies it is soft and
yellow when ripe, and is in taste and smell like a very ripe
melon. Hogs, dogs, and poultry then feed on it readily.
There is another species of the bread-fruit tree that has
been long known in India and the eastern islands, the fruit
of which contains from forty to a hundred farinaceous seeds,
in appearance resembling chestnuts. These when roasted
or boiled are found to be very palatable. I he external
characters of the tree are scarcely to be distinguished from
those of the other, and the chief distinction lies in the fruit,
which attains nearly the size of the bread-fruit proper, and
Bread¬
fruit.
)ther uses.
[ts cultiva¬
tion.
Attempts
to trans¬
plant it to
the West
Indies.
Result
of these
attempts.
B R E
is covered with long prickles. It grows rapidly from the
seed, and attains larger dimensions than the proper bread¬
fruit tree.
Besides its value as a fruit-tree, the bark of the bread¬
fruit furnishes the material for a species of cloth ; the leaves
are substituted for towels ; and the wood is employed in the
construction of boats and houses. A kind of cement and
bird-lime is also prepared by boiling the juice exuding from
the bark in cocoa-nut oil.
The bread-fruit tree is of easy cultivation in its native
soil. It flourishes with the greatest luxuriance on rising
grounds ; and is particularly abundant in the steep decli¬
vities of the Sandwich Islands, though it is very generally
found throughout the Great Pacific Ocean. It grows in
Amboyna, the Banda Islands, Timor, and the Ladrones; but
it is more especially the object of care and cultivation in
the Marquesas, and the Friendly and Society Islands.
The great utility of the bread-fruit as an article of food has, afr
different times, led to speculations on the possibility of naturalizing
it in places where it is not of spontaneous growth. M. de Poive,
the philosophic governor of the Mauritius, succeeded in introducing
it there, and in the Isle of Bourbon, whither it was conveyed by M.
de Sonnerat, from Lufjon, in the Philippine Islands. Being found
in the greatest luxuriance under the same latitudes as the British
West India Islands, and in a elimate not dissimilar, the British go¬
vernment decided on the importance of transplanting it to these co¬
lonies. An expedition was therefore fitted out with particular care,
under the command of Captain (then Lieutenant) Bligh, who sailed
in the Bounty store-ship for the South Seas in December 1787. The
Bounty arrived in safety at Otaheite, and took on board 1015 bread¬
fruit plants, besides a great variety of different species of other
plants; and after remaining twenty-three weeks, set sail on the 4th
of April 1789. This expedition, as is well known, was rendered
totally abortive by the mutiny which ensued three weeks subse¬
quently to its departure. On his arrival in England, Bligh was
appointed to the command of two vessels specially fitted out as
before for the same purpose. They sailed in August 1791, and
anchored at Otaheite in February 1792. Here they remained
above three months, and obtained even a greater store of plants
than formerly. Bligh, in returning, made a dangerous voyage
through Endeavour Straits, and anchored at Coupang in the island
of Timor, where he substituted many other plants for those that had
died. He then sailed for the West Indies, touching at St Helena,
and reached the island of St Vincents in January 1793, where he
committed 544 plants, of which 333 were bread-fruit, to the care of
Dr Anderson, superintendent, of the Botanic Garden, and substituted
for them 467 of different species, designed for the Royal Garden at
Kew. He next landed 623 plants, of which 347 were bread-fruit,
at Port Royal in Jamaica, and replaced them with a further col¬
lection for the king, with which he arrived in England on the
2d of August 1793. Five years and eight months had thus been
occupied in accomplishing the desirable purpose of these two expe¬
ditions.
The gold medal offered in 1777 by the Society for the Encou¬
ragement of Arts and Manufactures, to any one who should bring the
bread-fruit plant from the South Sea Islands in a state of vegetation
to the West Indies, was awarded, in 1793, to Captain Bligh. That
society, with the laudable design of promoting its culture, continued
to offer further premiums for the greatest number of plants raised
in the British settlements. A silver medal was awarded to Dr
Anderson, superintendent of the Botanic Garden at St Vincents in
1798 ; and, in 1802, the gold medal to the Honourable Joseph Rob-
ley, governor of Tobago. From the course adopted by these two
cultivators, the history of the bread-fruit has received much eluci¬
dation.
Mr Robley received from Dr Anderson in June 1793, three plants
which he planted in very deep rich soil. They flourished exceed¬
ingly, produced fruit in 1795, and continued to do so until autumn
1801. Being disappointed of obtaining suckers, Mr Robley applied
to Dr Anderson, who advised him to lay bare some of the upper¬
most roots, and to wound them very deeply; and w'hen this was
done they almost immediately began to put forth shoots in abun¬
dance. Mr Robley thus obtained 120 fine plants, which were de¬
posited in baskets with rich loose soil, and placed in the shade in
the vicinity of water. Baskets were preferred to pots, because when
deposited in the place where the plants were ultimately to remain,
the baskets would speedily rot, and not repress the growth of the
roots. Encouraged by the success of these experiments, Mr Robley
prepared a point of land of loose sandy soil, bounded by a salt la¬
goon and the sea. When the tide filled, brackish water was to be
B R E 301
found everywhere at the depth of two feet and a half from the sur- Breakers
face. It had been observed in some of the South Sea Islands, that ||
bread-fruit trees grew in full vigour though brackish water bathed Break-
their roots. The land being ploughed and harrowed twice, was water,
divided into beds twenty-seven feet in breadth, and the plants were V ^
put into the earth in the middle of each. In August 1801, Mr
Robley had 153 plants in a flourishing condition ; and, in the course
of the subsequent year, 319, some of them productive. He trans¬
mitted to England specimens of the fruit preserved in vinegar, as
it will not keep above two days after being taken from the tree.
Other correspondents sent excellent specimens of cakes made from
bread-fruit flour; and communicated the fact that a dry nutritious
food, resembling tapioca in appearance and quality, might be pre¬
pared from it. The vegetation of this plant is very rapid. Ten
of those committed to the care of Dr Anderson in 1793 were about
two feet iaheight and half an inch in diameter; while in 1798, most
of the trees were above thirty feet in height, and the stem two feet
above the ground was from three feet to three and a half in cir¬
cumference. They bore fruit during the greater part of the year,
but were less productive between November and March. A single
tree would often bear clusters of five and six, so as to bend the
lower branches to the ground. According to the variety, the
fruit was of various shapes and sizes, weighing from four to ten
pounds, some smooth, others rough and tuberculated. When taken
from the tree before maturity, the juice appeared of the consistence
and colour of milk, and in taste somewhat similar. It issued for
above ten minutes in an uninterrupted stream, and thickened into
a glutinous substance. Three months were required to bring the
fruit to perfection. A species of fruit bearing considerable analogy
to those above described is found on the Nicobar Islands, and is
not less useful to the natives. The tree vegetates promiscuously
with others in the woods, but prefers a humid soil. Its trunk is
straight, thirty or thirty-five feet in height, and from ten inches to
two feet in circumference. The roots spring from it above the sur¬
face, and do not penetrate deep into the earth. The leaves are dis¬
posed like the large calyx of a flower; they are three feet long and
four inches broad, of a dark green hue and tenacious substance. A
long time elapses before the tree produces fruit, not less than about
the period, of human life. It then forms at the bottom of the leaves,
from which it proceeds as it is enlarged, and, when nearly ripe, its
colour changes from green to yellowish. This is the proper period
for gathering it, when its weight is between thirty and forty pounds.
The exterior surface is cut off, and the fruit is boiled in earthen
pots during several hours, over a slow fire ; it is then exposed to the
air, and is next formed into a mass which, in taste, is not unlike
maize. (Jt Gf D")
BREAKER'S, a name given to those billows that break
violently over rocks lying below the surface of the sea.
BREAKWATER is any obstruction of wood, stone, or
other material, as a boom or raft of wood, sunken vessels,
&c., placed before the entrance of a port or harbour, or any
projection from the land into the sea, as a pier, mole, or
jetty, so placed as to break the force of the waves, and pre¬
vent tlieir action on ships and vessels lying, at anchor within
them. Thus the piers of the ancient Piraeus and of Rhodes;
the moles of Naples, Genoa, and Castellamare; the piers
of Ramsgate, Margate, Folkstone, Howth, and the wooden
dike de Richelieu, thrown across the port of Rochelle, may
all be denominated Breakwaters. In French it is some¬
times called Battre d’Eau,; a name which appears to have
been applied to the mole at Tangier, a work commenced
in 1663, under the direction of Lord Tiviot, Sir J. Lawson,
and Sir Hugh Cholmley, and finished, or rather discon¬
tinued in 1676, after having cost this nation the sum of
L.243,897, 5s. 4|d. The term Breakwater, however, has
of late years been considered as more peculiarly appropriate
to large insulated dikes of stone, whether of regular ma¬
sonry or sunk promiscuously in rough masses, so placed as
to form an artificial island across the mouth of an open road¬
stead, and thereby, from obstructing and breaking the waves
of the sea, to convert a dangerous anchorage into a safe
and commodious harbour for the reception of ships of war
or merchantmen.
Of this description of dike for creating an artificial har¬
bour on a grand scale, fit for the reception of ships of war
of the largest class, there are remarkable examples in the
breakwater of Cherbourg, of Plymouth, Portland, &c.
302 BREAK
Break- Breakwater of Cherbourg. In M. de Cessart’s
water. Description des Travaux Hydrauliques, will be found a
very minute and laborious detail of all the preparatory
water"f 0Perations> the progress, and the expense of constructing
Cher- ° t^e breakwater of Cherbourg, up to the period of the Re-
hourg. volution. But the history of this great undertaking is
summarily stated in a report made to the National Assem¬
bly in 1791, by M. de Curt, in the name of its Committee
of Marine, concerning the marine establishment of Cher¬
bourg.
Us history. It had always been a source of considerable annoyance
to the French (and more particularly since the demolition
of the works and basin of Dunkirk, which cost them more
regret than the useless and expensive projects for that port
ever could be worth), that while the whole line of their
coast bordering on the English channel presented only
sandy shores with shallow water, or an iron-bound coast
bristled with rocks, nature had lavished on their “ eternal
rival” of the opposite coast, the incalculable advantages of
a succession of deep and commodious harbours, or of safe
and extensive roadsteads, inviting their possessors to com¬
merce and navigation, and placing in their grasp “ the
sceptre and the sovereignty of the seas.” M. Curt ob¬
serves, that “ the misfortunes of La Hogue, which all the
talents of Tourville could not prevent, taught Louis XIV.
that, in completing the defence of his frontiers by land,
he had too much neglected his frontiers on the sea; that
this great prince, however, profiting by experience, soon
discovered that England owed the superiority of her ma¬
rine to the military establishments which she possessed
in the Channel.” With a view of securing to France simi¬
lar advantages, the Marechal de Vauban was directed to
visit the coasts of Normandy, for the purpose of adopting
measures for placing in security against hostile attacks all
such bays, harbours, and inlets, as were favourable for the
disembarkation of troops; and to furnish plans of such
works as he might judge to be necessary, not only for mi¬
litary, but for naval purposes. Among other projects, he
reported that the roadstead of Cherbourg possessed the
means of attack, of defence, and of protection ; that it was
very capable of exerting an influence on maritime war,
and in their commercial relations with the northern pow¬
ers ; that it was the spot on which the head-quarters
should be established on the coast of the Channel; and, in
short, that it was a central advanced post with regard to
England. He moreover reported, that it might be made
a port for the safe retreat of a squadron crippled by
stormy weather, or beaten by an enemy, or even for the
reception of a victorious fleet with its prizes. By thus
converting the present exposed roadstead of Cherbourg
into a safe and protected anchorage for a fleet of men of
war, France, he said, would be able to watch the motions
of England, to oblige her at all times to keep a corre¬
sponding fleet in the Channel, and to menace her shores
with invasion, of which she at all times stood so much in
dread.
Opinions, however, being divided between the advan¬
tages of La Hogue and Cherbourg, Louis XVI., imme¬
diately after the conclusion of the American war, issued
his directions to M. de Castries, secretary of state for the
marine, to appoint a special commission to consider and
report which of these two roadsteads combined the most
advantages, and was in all respects preferable for con¬
structing a port and naval arsenal capable of receiving and
equipping from eighty to one hundred vessels of war of
different descriptions. The commissioners had little he¬
sitation in deciding upon Cherbourg, because, by means
of a breakwater, it would be capable not only of admitting
a fleet to ride securely at anchor when thus sheltered from
the sea, but also of affording them protection against any
WATER.
attempt of an enemy. It was added, that Cherbourg was Break-
an admirable place for watching Portsmouth; without ap- water,
pearing to have once recollected what an excellent anchor-
age Spithead was for watching Cherbourg.
Directions were accordingly given to M. de Caux, com¬
manding officer of engineers at Cherbourg, to commence,
as a preparatory measure, with the construction of a fort
on the island of Pelee, and another on Du Hornet, ac¬
cording to plans given in by Vauban in 1679. By these
works the roadstead would be flanked on the right and
left. The interval, however, being found too great to af¬
ford sufficient protection to all the ships that might require
to be anchored in the roadstead, M. de Caux presented a
plan to the minister at war for constructing an intermedi¬
ate fort in the sea, which should be casemated, and suffi¬
ciently large to contain all the buildings necessary for a
garrison. . I he surrounding walls were proposed to be
sunk in caissons of6000 feet square at the base, and fifty-
two feet in height. The top of the platform was to be
e*ghty feet above the bottom of the sea, and the area of its
surface 1000 square toises. This plan, however, was not
considered as calculated to afford sufficient shelter to a
fleet from the winds and waves, and new projects were
called for by the government.
In 1777 M. de la Bretonniere, capitaine de vaisseau, one
of the commissioners who had been named to report on
the comparative merits of the two roadsteads of Cherbourg
and La Hogue, had addressed a memorial to the minister
of marine, in which he expatiated at great length on the
numerous advantages held out by the former, and parti¬
cularly with regard to the security of the anchorage. He
proposed to construct, at the distance of a league in the
sea, a stone dike of 2000 toises in length, leaving three
open passages into the roadstead it was intending to cover,
one in the middle, and one at each extremity. This dike,
like that which was sunk before Rochelle, was proposed
to have as its nucleus a number of ships filled with ma¬
sonry, floated off and sunk in proper situations, and after¬
wards to be cased with large sunken stones to the height
of fifty feet above the bottom of the sea. The reason "as¬
signed for sinking the stone vessels was the supposition,
that an under current might cause so much motion at the
bottom of the sea as would derange the level, and work
away the loose stones; so little appears at that time to
have been known of the increasing tranquillity of the waves
of the sea in proportion to the increasing depth of water.
On this plan the commissioners observed, 1. That in or¬
der to construct a dike of 2000 toises in length, with slop¬
ing sides proportioned to its height, there would be re¬
quired so great a number of old ships as could hardly be
collected in all France in less than ten years; and if pur¬
chased from foreigners, the expense would be enormous.
2. I hat the assemblingand employing the necessary number
of seamen would be next to impossible, but, if possible,
highly impolitic, when, just at the close of a maritime war,
commerce felt a pressing want of their services ; whereas
it might be practicable, and would be advantageous, to
employ the military for some time before disbanding them.
3. I hat no comparison would hold good between the road¬
stead of Cherbourg, with an opening to the sea of 3600
toises, and a depth of forty to forty-two feet of water at the
lowest ebb, and the closing up of the entrance of the port
of Rochelle, which is only 740 toises in length, and the
depth of water only five or six toises. 4. That the upper
part of the projected dike, being exposed to the violent
action of the sea, the stability of that part could not be
depended on ; and besides, a dike covered at high spring-
tides with eighteen feet water would not fulfil the two in¬
dispensable conditions,—smooth water, and protection
against an enemy. These arguments were deemed con-
BREAK
Break, cluske, and the plan of M. de la Bretonniere was aban-
water. doned.
In 1781 M. de Cessart, inspector-general of bridges and
embankments, received directions to prepare a plan that
should cover a fleet of from 80 to 100 ships of war in the
roadstead of Cherbourg from the attack of an enemy, and
protect them against the elements. M. de Cessart was
fully aware, that to raise a barrier in front of this roadstead,
and in the middle of the sea, capable of resisting the im¬
petuosity of the waves, and repelling the enterprises of
the enemy, was no easy task. “ Nothing,” says he, “ that
I had ever performed, or that I had ever read of in an¬
cient or modern history, appeared to me to be worthy of
being placed in comparison with the grandeur of this pro¬
ject.” He suggested, as the preferable and only mode of
answering the purpose of producing smooth water in the
roadstead, that, instead of one continued dike or mole,
a number of large masses, separated from each other, of a
circular form, with an elevation greatly inclined, should
be substituted; in short, a series of truncated cones,
which, touching each other at their bases, might present
to the sea at the surface alternate obstacles and openings,
and thus interrupt and break down the waves previous to
their entering the harbour. He also considered that, as
these openings at the surface would not exceed seventy-
two feet, a sufficient barrier would be formed against the
passage of an enemy’s vessel; and that, if necessary, in
time of war it might be rendered still more secure by
placing strong chains of iron across the intervals. It was
proposed to construct these conical caissons of wood, the
number of which, to cover a front of 2000 toises, would
amount to ninety, which, at 360,000 livres for each cone,
would cause a total expense of 32,400,000 for the whole.
The number, however, was afterwards reduced to sixty-
four, and the time estimated for completing the work
thirteen j^ears. Each cone was to be 150 feet in diame¬
ter at the base, and sixty feet in diameter at the top, and
from sixty to seventy feet in height, the depth of water
at spring tides in the line in which they were intended to
be sunk varying from about fifty-six to seventy feet. They
wei'e proposed to be sunk without any bottoms in them,
by which the upward resistance of the water, acting on a
base whose surface was equal to 17,678 square feet, would
be avoided. The caissons, floated off by casks attached
to their inner and outer circumference, being towed to the
spot where they were destined to be sunk, were then to
be filled with stones to the tops, and left for a while to
settle; after which the upper part, commencing with the
line of low water, was to be built with masonry laid in
pozzolana, and encased with stones of granite.
This plan of a stone dike or breakwater being laid in
detail before the minister of marine, it was deemed pro¬
per, on a subject so entirely novel, and of such great na¬
tional importance, to consult the ablest men in France be¬
fore any steps should be taken for carrying it into execu¬
tion. The details were accordingly submitted to the four
commissioners, M. de Borda, a naval officer and member
of the Academy of Sciences; M. de Fleurieu, capitaine
de vaisseau, and director of ports and naval arsenals, af¬
terwards minister of marine ; M. Peronnet, member of the
Academy of Sciences, chief engineer of bridges and em¬
bankments ; and M. de Chezy, inspector and director of
the school of engineers. They recommended that, in the
first instance, an experimental cone should be construct¬
ed and floated off. Instead, however, of sixty feet in
height, the cone made at Havre was only thirty-six feet;
the circumference of its base 472 feet, and having a slope
of sixty degrees; the upper circumference was 339 feet.
Within the exterior cone, at the distance of five feet ten
inches from it, was an interior and concentric cone, bound
WATER. 303
together by beams of wood pointing to the common cen- Break-
tre, each being the section of the radius. The frame of water,
each cone was composed of eighty large upright beams,
twenty-four feet long and one foot square. On these
were erected eighty more, of fourteen feet in length,
making in the whole 320 of these large uprights; the
machine was then planked, hooped, and firmly fixed toge¬
ther with iron bolts.
The cone at Havre being completed, the next opera¬
tion was to tow it off to the particular spot where it was
to be sunk. Being open at the bottom, it was found ne¬
cessary to attach to the lower circumference 284 large
casks, part to the exterior and part to the interior cone;
besides fifty casks, attached by lines of equal lengths, from
the bottom of the inner circle, to float towards the centre,
and thus assist in keeping it upright and steady. It was
easy enough, by these means, to float off a vessel of this
kind. M. de Cessart observes, that the force of 7200
pounds produced by a capstan, was found sufficient to
draw it on the water to a distance equal to the length
of its own diameter, or about twenty-five toises, in two
minutes.
“ The success of the experiment made at Havre,” says
M. Curt, “ had inspired such veneration for the conical
caissons, that those persons who had been most disposed
to object to the plan were now obliged to be silent.” The
result of the experiment at once decided the government
to commence operations at Cherbourg. M. de Cessart
was appointed director of the works, with four engineers
to assist him. A permanent council, consisting of com¬
manders in chief, directors, engineers, &c. was ordered
to reside for six summer months at Cherbourg, and the
other six in Paris ; and a considerable body of troops were
marched down to the neighbourhood, to furnish a compe¬
tent number of artificers and labourers, to be employed on
this great national undertaking.
In 1783 the buildings were commenced for lodging the
principal officers of the civil and military departments,
and their respective establishments; a naval yard was
marked out and inclosed; roads of communication were
opened with the forts ; and at Becquet, about a league to the
eastward of Cherbourg, a small harbour was dug out for the
reception of about eighty vessels, which were to be employ¬
ed in transporting the stones from thence by sea.
On the 6th June 1784 the first cone was floated off
and sunk, and the second on the 7th July following, in
presence of 10,000 spectators, assembled on the shores
and quays of Cherbourg; but before the cavity of the
latter could be filled with stones, a storm, in the month of
August, which continued five days, entirely demolished
the upper part of this cone. In the course of this summer
the quantity of stones sunk within the cavities of the two
cones, outside their bases, and in the intermediate space,
amounted to 4600 cubic toises, or about 65,000 tons.
In 1785 three more cones were completed and sunk at
irregular intervals; and, at the end of that year, the quan¬
tity sunk amounted to 17,767 cubic toises, or about
250,000 tons. In 1786 five additional cones were com¬
pleted and sunk, one of them in presence of the king;
and the quantity of stones thrown within them, and de¬
posited on the dike connecting the cones, amounted, at
the end of this year, to 42,862 cubic toises, or 600,000
tons. In 1787 five more cones were sunk and filled with
stones, making, in the whole, fifteen ; and the distance
between the first and fifteenth cone was 1203 toises, and
the quantity of stones deposited within these cones and
the connecting dike, at the end of this year, amounted to
71,585 cubic toises, or more than 1,000,000 tons. The
violent gales of wind that are frequent in November and
December carried away all the upper parts of the five
304
Break-
water.
BREAKWATER.
cones which were sunk this year. In 1788 three more
were sunk, but the upper parts of the first two were car¬
ried away as the others had been ; the height of the third
was, therefore, reduced, so as to be, when sunk, on a level
with low water; but this cone was upset and soon went to
pieces.
The enormous expense, and the delay that had been
occasioned, in completing and sinking these eighteen cones,
exhausted the patience of the government, so that in the
following year, 1789, it caused the three cones, then on the
building slips, to be sold for whatever they would fetch.
The total quantity of stone that was sunk within the
cones, and on the intermediate dike, from the year 1784
to the end of December 1790, being seven years, amount¬
ed to 373,359 cubic toises, or about 5,300,000 tons.
These eighteen cones being sunk at irregular distances
from each other, some being 25 toises, and others 300
toises from centre to centre, occupied aline of 1950 toises
in length. The distance of the first cone from the island
Pelee, on the east, was 510, and of the eighteenth, to Fort
Querqueville, on the west, 1200 toises ; so that the whole
entrance or opening of the roadstead of Cherbourg was
originally 3660 toises, more than one-half of which was
now imperfectly covered by the breakwater.
The expense of this great undertaking was not, we
mspect, accurately known, and could not, probably, be
ascertained. M. de Cessart estimates the eighteen cones
■done at 6,231,407 livres, or about L.260,000; and the
iotal expense incurred between the 1st of April 1783 and
the 1st January 1791, he states as under :
Livres.
The value of the materials of the cones..2,462,369 9 6
The value of the workmanship 1,560,560 9 9
The conveyance and sinking of stones ..14,880,074 2 5
Incidental expenses for buildings, ma¬
gazines, &c    2,359,489 5 0
Contingent expenses *   395,926 13 4
Making the general total...... 21,658,420 0 0
or L.90O,OOO sterling. In this estimate the extra pay to
the troops and seamen employed would not appear to be
included; for M. de Curt, in his report to the national
assembly, states the total expense to have amounted to
32,000,000 livres, or L.1,300,000 sterling ; and that a far¬
ther sum would be required of 879,648 livres, to bring the
top of the dike to an uniform height, namely, a little above
the level of the surface at low water of ordinary tides.
The number of people employed was prodigious. To
enable M. de Cessart to complete and sink five cones
a year, he found it necessary to employ 250 carpenters,
30 blacksmiths, 200 stone-hewers, and 200 masons ; in
all 680 artificers. The number of quarrymen and others
employed in transporting 174,720 cubic toises of stone for
the 64 cones originally intended, or 13,650 yearly, was
estimated at 400 workmen, 100 horses, 30 drivers, 24
chasses-marees, each carrying seven cubic toises, or about
98 tons, with 100 seamen ; making an aggregate for this
service of 526 men, and for the whole operation from 1200
to 1500 artificers and labourers, to which were actually su-
peradded about 3000 soldiers.
A very considerable part of the expense might have
been saved by dispensing altogether with the cones, all of
which burst, as might have been expected, from the su¬
perincumbent weight of a deep column of water pressing
the stones within against their sides. The ninth cone,
which was sunk in 1786, went to pieces in 1800, after
standing fourteen years; another reached the duration of
five years ; six remained on an average about four years ;
and all the rest went in pieces within a year from the
time of their being sunk.
The failure of the cones, and the breaking out of the Break-
Revolution, put an entire stop, for some time, to all opera- water,
tions at Cherbourg. The attention, however, of the na-
tional assembly wtis speedily called to what they consi¬
dered to be an obiect of great national importance. In
179 L they directed their committee for the marine to
make out a detailed report of the operations that had al¬
ready been carried on. On this report being given in by
M. de Curt, in the name of the committee, it was read
and approved by the assembly, and funds to a certain ex¬
tent decreed, to complete the undertaking on a new plan,
proposed by M. de Cessart. The principal feature of this
plan was that of casing over the surface of the dike as it
then stood with large blocks of stone, and of carrying the
height of the breakwater along the whole of its extent, so
far above the high-water mark of spring tides as to ren¬
der it capable of receiving batteries on the summit, at the
middle, and at the two extremities.
The slope of the side next to the roadstead was found
on examination to snstain itself unaltered at an angle of
forty-five degrees, but the slope on the side next to the
sea, whose base was three for one of height, had given
way to the depth of fourteen feet below the low-water
mark ; and the materials being composed of small stones,
were washed away, and had formed themselves into a pro¬
longed slope of one foot only in height for ten feet of base,
which was therefore concluded to be the natural slope
made by the sea when acting upon a shingly shore; a
conclusion, however, too vague to be correct, as the slope
occasioned by the action of the sea must depend on the
nature of the materials against which it acts, and the
force and direction of the acting power. A sandy beach,
for instance, has invariably the most gradual slope, gravel
the next, shingles the next, and large masses of rock or
stone the most precipitous. At the present time the
stones of the breakwater, by constant friction, have worn
away the sharp angles, and it has been found that the base
on the side next to the sea is on the average fully eleven
for one of perpendicular height.
It was proposed, therefore, to cover the side with a
coating of stone twelve feet thick, to consist of blocks of
twelve, fifteen, twenty, and thirty cubic feet, or from one
to two tons each, which casing was to be carried to the
height of twelve feet above the high-water mark of the
highest spring-tides; the size of the stones to increase to¬
wards the summit, so as to be capable of resisting the
percussion of the waves, which is there the strongest. It
was calculated that this covering of twelve feet thick on
both sides would require for each toise in length seventy
cubic toises of stone, and that the whole length of the dike
would consequently require 136,500 cubic toises, which, by
deducting for the vacant spaces between the stones, would
be reduced to 113,750 cubic toises of stone, or about one
million and a half of tons. It wras further calculated, that
the expense of quarrying, the transport to the quays, the
loading, conveyance, and discharging machinery, together
with the commissioners, clerks, &c. would cost for each
cubic toise deposited on the dike the sum of fifty-five livres,
which for 113,750 cubic toises would amount to 6,256,250
livres, and, adding for contingencies 600,000 livres, the
total estimate amounted to 6,856,250 livres.
The machinery employed for thus casing the break¬
water may be seen in Plate CXXXIX., in which fig. 4
represents a section of a lighter on which it is erected.
AZX is an elevated deck or platform.
Y, three rollers of six inches diameter.
TK, two beams or sheers, moving on trunnions in
grooves at T.
S, hooks to hold the sheers at the proper angle of in¬
clination.
BREAKWATER.
Break¬
water.
L, the axle of the windlass or wheels B, round which
the rope of the pulleys passes. The wheels are 12 feet in
^ diameter.
Fig. 5, a chasse-maree laden with blocks of stone.
E, the block and its hook laying hold of an iron chain
round a stone.
F, the stone hoisted to the platform AZ (fig. 4), when
the brace is unhooked at S; the hoisting continued until
the summit K of the sheers is brought to V, when they
rest against the frame which supports the windlass; the
stone F is then lowered upon the rollers as at M, from
whence it is pushed forward by men to the inclined plane,
off which it is rolled into the “water upon the side of the
dike.
It was calculated that, by employing a certain number
of these machines, 34,090 toises might be deposited in
one year, reckoning only six working months, or 5682
toises per month, or that 487 superficial toises of the
dike might be covered in one season, and the whole com¬
pleted in four years. Very little progress, however, had
been made at the commencement of the war in 1803. At
that period the centre of the dike only had been brought
above the high-water mark, in which was placed a battery
and a small garrison of soldiers, the whole of which were
swept away by a heavy sea, occasioned by a tremendous
gale of wind in the year 1809, when all the buildings
which had been erected on this part of the breakwater,
the men, women, and children which composed the gar¬
rison, together with several workmen, were washed away;
at the same time two sloops of war in the roadstead were
driven on shore and dashed in pieces. This disaster was
such as might have been expected. The effect of sinking
large stones upon the small ones, already rounded by con¬
stant attrition, could not be otherwise; the latter acting
as so many rollers, carried out the former even beyond
the extremity of the base, to which the breakwater had
naturally been brought by the action of the sea.
At present small spots only are visible above the sur¬
face of the sea at low water of spring-tides, and nowhere
such spots exceed three feet in height; the intermediate
spaces are from three to fifteen feet below the surface;
and, taking the average, the whole dike from one end to
the other may be about four feet below the surface of low
water at the spring-tides. Near the middle, however, there
is about 100 yards where the height rises to eighteen or
twenty feet above high water, but it exhibits only a shape¬
less mass of ruins. In one spot a large heap of stones has
been accumulated, as if to try how much weight might
safely be trusted upon it, before the attempt be made to
rebuild the fort. The largest of the stones in this mass
may be about four tons, and they descend to the size of
200 or 300 pounds.
Of the remainder of the dike very few parts are visible
at low water ; and at this moment the greater part is four
feet below the surface of low water. It is sufficiently high,
however, to break the force of the wares, and to make the
port of Cherbourg a safe anchorage in some winds for
about forty sail of the line.
On the renewal of the war after the rupture of the
treaty of Amiens, Bonaparte began to bestow a greater
share of attention on the navy of France; and though for
a time the unparalleled victory of Trafalgar checked his
efforts, it did not induce him to abandon them. His plans
were vast, and at the period of his fall were in rapid pro¬
gress towards their completion. He had determined on
a fleet of 200 sail of the line, and the noble port of Ant¬
werp gave him every facility for ship-building. For the
better security in forming a junction of his two great
fleets of Brest and Antwerp, Cherbourg now became more
valuable as a convenient port of retreat in case of acci-
vol. v.
305
dent; but it had no dock-yard, nor means of giving to a
ship a large refit or repair. He might have thought too,
as we believe most of our naval officers do, that a fleet of
ships riding at anchor behind the breakwater are easily
attackable by fire-ships, as the same wind which carries a
vessel in at one entrance will carry her out at the other,
and the course would lie directly through the centre of
the fleet at anchor. Besides, it might be possible, in cer¬
tain winds, under the lee of the centre part of the break¬
water, to bombard a fleet at anchor in the roadstead with¬
in it.
He determined, therefore, to establish a large dock¬
yard at Cherbourg, not merely for repairing, but also for
the construction of the largest class of ships of war; to
dig a basin that should contain fifty or sixty sail of the
line; to construct dry-docks and slips for building and re¬
pairing ; and to make it a naval port of the first rank. In
1813 this basin was completed at an expense, as Bona¬
parte is said to have asserted when on board the Nor¬
thumberland, and which has since been confirmed, of
L.3,000,000 sterling. A wet-dock of the same magnitude
communicating with it was then begun.
The only description that we have been able to find in
print of this great work, which took ten years in carrying
into execution, is contained in a short letter from M.
Fierre-Aime Lair, secretary to the Society of Agriculture
and Commerce of Caen, who was present at the ceremony
of opening and consecrating the great basin, in presence
of the Empress Maria Louisa, on the 27th August 1813.
He describes this basin as excavated out of a rock of gra¬
nite schist, or gneiss, the density and hardness of which
increased as the workmen descended from the surface.
He compares it to an immense trough dug out of a single
stone, and capable of containing many millions of cubic
feet of water. We now know, however, that M. Lair is
mistaken; that it is not one mass of rock, but rock and
gravel mixed; that the whole of the sides are cased with
a well-constructed wall of red granite, and that a noble
quay, built of the same material, and extending between
the two forts of Galet and Hornet, separates the basin and
wet-dock from the sea.
The dimensions of the new basin he states to be about
900 feet in length by 720 in width, and the average depth
fifty-five feet from the edge of the quay; and as this edge
is five feet above the high water mark of the equinoctial
spring-tides, the depth of water in the basin is then fifty
feet, and the mass of water, after making allowance for a
slope of the solid sides inward in an angle of forty-five de¬
grees bom the height of about twenty-five feet, amounts
to about thirty millions of cubic feet; and that it is calcu¬
lated to contain about thirty sail of the line. We have
reason to think that it is considerably larger, about 1000
feet by 770 feet, and consequently contains a surface of
about eighteen acres, which, at three per acre, will con¬
tain fifty-four sail of the line, and the adjoining wet-dock,
when finished, an equal number. The dike or breakwater
seems to be abandoned, the works having long been stopped,
and the stone vessels going rapidly to decay. The French
officers say indeed that it has occasioned the roadstead to
become shallower, by the deposition of sand that has taken
place.
The entrance canal leading from the outer harbour into
the basin is at right angles to the latter, and its direction
east-north-east. Its dimensions are as under: 
Width between the two moles in the direction 0f
their axis  jgg g
Width at its opening into the basin 308 8
Length from the axis of the moles or piers to the
line of wall forming the side of the basin 274 0
- Q
306
BREAKWATEK.
Break¬
water.
The basin, having no gates, is said to have been excavat¬
ed to the depth of nine feet below the bottom of the canal;
the former having, as before mentioned, fifty feet water,
and the latter only forty-one at high spring-tides, which,
as they ebb twenty feet, would leave only twenty-one feet
in the passage or canal at low water. This inequality, we
presume, is intended to keep the ships afloat in the basin
at low water, when the depth in the canal is not sufficient
for that purpose; but after so much expense incurred in
digging the basin, one would suppose a little more might
have been expended in digging the canal to the same
depth, so as to let ships pass into and out of the basin in
all states of the tide; an advantage of the utmost import¬
ance for speedily securing the ships in the basin, when
in danger of an attack from the enemy in the roadstead,
or for speedily putting to sea and escaping the vigilance
of a blockading squadron. No reason is assigned for
leaving the basin without gates; but we suspect that M.
Lair is again mistaken, and that the passage has depth of
water sufficient for ships of the largest class to run into
the basin at all times of the tide. But even here they do
not lie in safety; for the wide entrance facing the north¬
east is covered only in that direction by the isle of Pelee,
so that the water in the basin partakes of the swell in the
road, which is sometimes so great as to make it necessary
to apply ten or twelve cables to hold ships steady in the
basin.
Another serious inconvenience likely to arise from this
particular construction of the basin is, that whatever silt
or mud is carried in by the tides must be deposited there,
and cannot possibly escape. The quantity is probably
not very great in the water of the Channel opposite to
Cherbourg, but higher up towards Ostend it is very con¬
siderable. When we took possession of that port, it was
found that, in the course of the revolutionary war, the har¬
bour, by neglect, had been filled up with six or seven feet
of mud.
Several pieces of cannon are intended to be mounted
on the two piers, to protect the entrance into the basin.
On one of them is likewise placed a light-house, and on
the other a Semaphoric telegraph. Four slips of granite,
for building large ships, were at this time constructed on
the southern side of the basin, and on each of them was
a ship of the line in progress ; LInflexible of 118 guns, Le
Centaure of eighty, Le Jupiter and Le Genereux of se¬
venty-four guns each. Two other ships of the line were
on the stocks without the dock-yard, nearly ready for
launching, Le Zelandais of eighty, the first line-of-battle
ship laid down at Cherbourg, and the Duguay-Trouin of
seventy-four guns: and in the roadstead were Le Polonais
and Le Courageux. In the centre of the same side of the
basin, with two slips on each side of it, a noble dry-dock
was cut out, or rather built, of solid granite, in which
ships of the largest class might be built or repaired. Its
dimensions were,
Feet.
Length 230
Width  74
Depth  26
Cherbourg is unquestionably one of the first naval arsenals
in Europe. The fortifications for the protection of the
anchorage in the roadstead, and the new naval arsenal, are—
1. Fort de Querqueville, mounts 46 guns; 2. Fort de la
Roche Chavaignac; 3. Fort St Anne; 4. Fort du Hornet,
mounts 52 guns; 5.Fort du Galet; 6. Fort des Flamands;
7. Fort Royal, He Pelee, mounts 90 guns. Three forts are
also in course of construction on the breakwater. The
roadstead is chiefly protected by the forts on the island of
Pelee, du Hornet, and Querqueville. Many of the forts
have circular faces towards the sea, with each two tiers
of guns and turrets above them. On the landside Cher-
Break-
water.
In.
0
0
6
bourg is entirely surrounded by detached forts, redoubts,
&c. _ ,
The principal channel from the road to the sea is at the
western end of the breakwater, which, for large ships, is not
more than half a mile in width ; and this want of space will al¬
ways make it difficult for ships of the line to workout : but, on
the other hand, a fleet may push out to the westward in south¬
erly winds, which lock up the English ports in the Channel.
The eastern channel is a very indifferent one, and, from
the position of the isle of Pelee and the main, it is likely to
become worse, from the accumulation of sand, which the
French officers say is actually the case.
Such, then, were the mighty preparations of the extraor¬
dinary man who ruled France, for the destruction of the
naval power of Great Britain, and with it of our national
glory, pride, and prosperity, which, whether elated with suc¬
cess or depressed by reverses, he never ceased to devise
schemes for humbling.
To give the greater eclat to this grand undertaking, he
sent the Empress Maria Louisa to be present at the open¬
ing of the basin. When the time arrived for the water to
be let in, and the dam broken down, her approach was an¬
nounced by flourishes of warlike music and numerous dis¬
charges of artillery. “ Cries of joy,” says M. Lair, “ were
mingled for a long time with the thunder of the batteries.
Her"Majesty took her place in the pavilion which had been
prepared for her, when the Bishop of Contances, sui rounded
by his clergy, advancing towards her, pronounced an address
suitable to the occasion. After the ceremonies and custom¬
ary prayers, he turned round towards the basin, and blessed
this work of man. It is delightful to see a nation conse¬
crating by religious rites an event so memorable, and caus¬
ing the Divinity to intervene in all its grand undertakings.
He speaks with rapture of the gratification he derived from
seeing men born on the shores of the Tiber, and on the.
banks of the Guadalquiver, working under the direction of
French engineers, at the establishment of a port in the
Channel, formidable to the English navy; and he suffers no
expression of regret to escape him at the idea of these poor
Italian and Spanish prisoners of war being compelled to
labour in chains at a work for which they were not paid,
and in which they could not take the least possible interest.
The Breakwater in Plymouth Sound is a work of a Break-
similar nature to that of Cherbourg, but constiucted on water in
sounder principles, with less machinery and fewer people. Plymouth
Compared in extent and dimensions with that of Cheibourg,
it is only in the ratio of about one to four. The gross sum.
expended upon it is L.1,528,639, and a fuither vote of
L.l 3,000 has been taken for the year 1854-55.
There is no port and harbour on the S.W. coast of Eng¬
land possessing so many advantages as Plymouth; none so
well situated for assembling and equipping a fleet to watch
the movements of the enemy in the harbour of Brest. Its
dockyard may be considered as the second in the kingdom
in point of size, convenience, and effective strength, and
to it a steam factory has recently been added at Keyham,
situated on the left bank of the Tamar, with extensive work¬
shops, smithery, docks, caissons and basins capable of a -
mitting the largest ships of the line. These two yards will
be connected by means of a tunnel. The estimated cost o
these great works at Keyham is as follows, viz. for con¬
structing the south basin and two docks, cofferdam in fiont
of the basins, and clearing the ground for buildings and
purchase of ground for magazines, &c  'J.’
Constructing the north basin ^ooo
Remainder'ofuorks 'to coinpiete the establishment, 170,000
Total L.l,225,000
To which must be added L.35,000, the estimated cost of
the tunnel.
BREAKWATER.
307
Break- Of this sum there has been already expended the sum of
water. L.900,389 up to the end of the year 1853, and a further
vote of L.60,000 was taken for the year 1854-55.
The south basin and greater part of the north basin,
with their docks and various other works are completed; and
on the 7th October 1853, H.M. ship Queen, of 116 guns,
was safely docked and undocked the following day. The
magnificent harbour of Hamoaze is nearly land-locked, and
of a capacity sufficient for mooring safely a hundred sail of
the line in excellent anchorage, and in water that carries its
depth to the very quays of the yard. On the opposite or
eastern side of the Sound, and at the distance of about three
miles from Hamoaze and the dockyard, is another sheet of
water at the mouth of the river Plym, called Catwater, not
quite so deep, nor so well sheltered, as Hamoaze, but, since
the progress made in the breakwater, forming a safe and
commodious harbour for merchant vessels of every descrip¬
tion. These two harbours open into Plymouth Sound and
Cawsand Bay, in which ships employed in the blockade of
Brest, or those refitted in Hamoaze, were accustomed to
assemble and prepare for putting to sea. But the very ex¬
posed situation of Plymouth Sound, and the heavy swell
that almost constantly rolled in, especially when the wind
blew fresh from the S.W. to the S.E., made it so inconve¬
nient and so unsafe an anchorage for ships of the line, that,
during the late war, the fleet employed in blockading Brest
had been in the practice of bearing up, when driven from
its station, for the more distant anchorage of Torbay, though
little better with regard to security, and worse in every
other respect, than Plymouth Sound. It was, for instance,
a more ineligible rendezvous for the western squadron, from
the chance of the fleet being caught there by an easterly
wind, and unable to get out, when it was the most favour¬
able wind for the enemy to put to sea; from the danger to
which the ships were liable when so caught in an anchorage
thus open and exposed; and from the inconvenience, delay,
and expense of obtaining the necessary supply of stores and
provisions from the other ports, there being none at Torbay.
In short, this open and exposed bay bore so bad a charac¬
ter among naval officers, that Lord Howe used to say it
would one day be the grave of the British fleet.
It was, besides, an object of the first importance then, as
it is now, to the efficiency of every naval arsenal, to have a
safe and commodious roadstead in its neighbourhood, like
that of Spithead to the harbour and dockyard of Ports¬
mouth. Here those ships which might have gone through
a course of repair or refitment, or those new from the
stocks, might assemble and complete their final equipment
for sea; and here, also, ships returning from sea might
safely lie at anchor till the wind and tide might serve them
to go into harbour. But in Plymouth Sound, ships coming
out of Hamoaze, or ships going into that harbour, had no
such security. By the rolling sea that set in, they were
exposed to the double danger of parting their cables, or
striking against the hard and rocky bottom, either of which
would be almost certain destruction. The introduction of
steam has, however, in a great measure lessened these de¬
lays as well as the dangers.
Its history It was most important, therefore, to render Plymouth
’ Sound, if possible by any means, and almost at any expense,
a safe roadstead for ships of war. To ascertain the practi¬
cability of this measure, Mr Rennie the civil engineer, and
Mr Whidby the master-attendant of Woolwich dockyard,
were sent down to Lord Howick, now Earl Grey, at the
suggestion, we believe, of Lord St Vincent, in the year 1806,
with directions to examine and report, whether by any and
by what means a sufficient shelter might be given to insure
a safe anchorage for a fleet of ships of the line. The report
was favourable ; and several plans were offered for shelter¬
ing this sound, so as to render it capable of containing in
safety above fifty sail of the line at their anchors. Nothing,
however, was done or attempted, notwithstanding the in¬
creased and mighty preparations of the enemy, till Mr Yorke
presided at the Board of Admiralty, when one of his first
measures was to carry into execution this grand and im¬
portant national object; the most important that perhaps
was ever undertaken for the glory and the safety of the
British navy. The delay that took place can only be ex¬
plained by the frequent changes of the Board of Admiralty,
which, we believe, have been fatal to many important mea¬
sures for the benefit and advantage of this great bulwark of
the nation.
Of the plans proposed for sheltering the Sound, one was
to throw a pier from Staddon Point to the Panther Rock, a
distance of 2650 yards; another, to construct a pier from
Andurn Point to the Panther, a distance of 2900 yards;
and a third, to carry a pier from the same Point to the
Shovel Rock, being only 900 yards.
The objection urged against throwing out piers from
either of these Points, and abutting against the shore, was
principally grounded on the certain effect they would have
of changing the current of the flux and reflux of the tide to
the opposite side of the Sound, and of increasing its strength
and velocity on that side, while it left all calm on the other;
the inevitable consequence of which would be a deposition
of mud or silt in the calm part or eddy, which, in process of
time, would shallow the water, already not too deep, to such
a degree as to unfit it for the reception of large ships of war.
Besides, of the three passages for large ships into Ply¬
mouth Sound from the sea, the two best are those on the
two sides, while the worst was that in the middle. Either
of the plans, therefore, which proposed piers to be thrown
from the mainland, must have destroyed one of the best
passages, and left the worst open, which was nearest to the an¬
chorage behind the proposed pier. The middle passage might,
in fact, be almost considered as shut up against very large
ships by the St Carlos and the Shovel Rocks; whereas, if
this middle passage should be shut up altogether, it would
rather serve to deepen, by giving an increased velocity to
the tide, which would scour out the bottom, than to shallow
the two side passages.
On these considerations, Messrs Rennie and Whidby
proposed that an insulated pier or breakwater should be
thrown across the middle of the entrance into the Sound,
having its eastern extremity about sixty fathoms to the
eastward of St Carlos Rock, and its western end about 300
fathoms west of the Shovel, the whole length being about
1700 yards, or close upon a mile. They stated with confi¬
dence, that such a breakwater might, with every chance
of success in its favour, be constructed; and that it would
give shelter to ships in the Sound, without any danger of
lessening the depth of water.
The middle part of the breakwater was proposed to be
carried in a straight line for the length of 1000 yards ; but
they recommended that the length of 350 yards at each end
should incline towards the straight part at an angle of 120°.
See the figure, Plate CXL. These inclined ends would not
only give shelter to a greater extent of the Sound, but would,
in a greater degree, prevent the rushing in of the tide from
agitating the water at the anchorage, than if the two extre¬
mities were left in the same straight line, and at right angles
with the direction of the current into the Sound.
It was also proposed, in order to cover the Sound more
effectually, that a pier should be thrown from Andurn Point
towards the principal breakwater, of about 800 yards in
length, with the same inclined point of 120° as the head of
the breakwater. This pier, however, does not appear to have
been thought necessary, and might have been in some
respects injurious to the Sound. It might, however, have
made Bouvisand Bay a good anchorage for frigates and
smaller vessels, and given them the advantage of a fine
stream of fresh water, which falls into that bay.
Break¬
water.
308
B R E A K W A T E R.
Break- was recommended, as the most practicable and best
water. mo(je 0f constructing this great work, to heap together pro-
miscuously large blocks of stone, which were to be sunk in
the line of the intended breakwater, leaving them to find
their own base, and take their own position; and it was
conceived that stones of the weight of from one and a half
to twro tons each would be sufficiently large to keep their
places, without being rolled about by the tremendous swell
which, in stormy weather, is thrown into Plymouth Sound ;
and thus avoid the inconvenience as well as loss of time and
labour which the French had experienced at Cherbourg by
throwing down small rubble stones. It was thought, that,
in those places where the water was five fathoms or thirty
feet deep, the base of the breakwater should not be less than
seventy yards broad, and the summit ten yards, at the height
of ten feet above the low water of an ordinary spring-tide ;
in other words, that the dimensions of the breakwater in
those places should be forty feet high, thirty feet across the
top, and 210 feet wide at the foundation.
The surrounding shores of Plymouth Sound and Cat-
water were next examined, with a view to determine from
what quarter materials for this great undertaking could most
conveniently be obtained, as to quality, cheapness, and
celerity of conveyance. On the west or Cornish side of the
Sound, nothing appears but hard granite; at the head of the
Sound, and in Catwater, on the Devonshire side, all is mar¬
ble and limestone. In Catwater alone, it was estimated, on
a rough calculation, that 20,000,000 of tons might be pro¬
cured in blocks fit for the work, which was about ten times
the quantity that would probably be wanted. The time
required for the completion of the work depended on a va¬
riety of circumstances. It is obvious that, if the two sides
of the Sound had furnished proper materials for the pur¬
pose, the time would have been considerably abridged, as,
in that case, when the wind was easterly vessels might de¬
posit stones on the eastern end of the breakwater, and in
westerly winds on the western extremity, and the work
would thus be proceeding with an uninterrupted progress ;
whereas, if the stones were to be brought from one point,
and that point was on the shore of Catwater, a strong south¬
erly and south-westerly wind, those most prevalent in this
country in the winter months, would generally impede and
frequently render it impossible for vessels to go off with their
cargoes.
Catwater, however, having many advantages, especially
for the convenience of loading the vessels, and the facility of
procuring blocks of any size from the quarries, was con¬
sidered, on the whole, as entitled to the preference over any
other place. Besides, the quarries here being in the neigh¬
bourhood of villages, lodgings and conveniences would be
afforded for the workmen ; and, on the whole, it was calcu¬
lated that the work might be completed from hence at a
cheaper rate, and perhaps in less time, than from situations
much nearer to it, but much more exposed to the wind and
waves-
An estimate of the expense could not be made with any
degree of accuracy, as no correct section of the bottom had
been taken. Supposing, however, the great breakwater to be
1700 yards in length, thirty feet in width at the top when
carried ten feet above low water of spring-tides, with a slope
on the southern or sea side of three feet horizontal to one
foot perpendicular, and on the Sovmd or land side of one
foot and a half horizontal to one perpendicular, it was cal¬
culated that the whole mass of stone required would be
about 2,000,000 of tons. If then a hundred sail of vessels
of fifty tons burden each were employed in carrying stone,
and each vessel carried only 100 tons a-week, the quantity
deposited in one week would amount to 10,000 tons, or
500,000 tons a-year, and at this rate the breakwater would
be completed in four years; but making allowance for time
lost in preparations, contingent delays, unfavourable weather,
and deductions in the quantity of stone for the shallow parts Break¬
over which the line of the breakwater was carried, the com- water,
pletion of the work might safely be calculated within the
period of six years.
Nor would the building of the pier from Andurn Point,
if so determined, protract the time of completion. If car¬
ried from the shelving rocks within the Point, leaving a pas¬
sage between them, the pier would require about 360,000
tons of stone, which, by employing about thirty vessels,
might be deposited in three years.
It was recommended by the gentlemen above mentioned,
that the great breakwater should be begun on the Shovel
and extended on both sides of it, as, by so doing, the effect
produced on the Sound would be observed as the work pro¬
ceeded ; and that buoys should be placed along the line, so
that the whole of the vessels employed might, if necessary,
deposit their cargoes at the same time without interrupting
each other.
The original rough estimate for completing this great
national work, made on the grounds above stated, was as
follows
Estimate of the Probable Expense of a Breakwater and
Pier for the Sheltering of Plymouth Sound and Bou-
visand Bay,
2,000,000 tons of limestone, in blocks
from 1^- to 2 tons weight each, for
the great breakwater, at 7s. 6d. per
ton    L.750,000 0 0
360,000 tons in the pier proposed to be
built from Andurn Point, at 7s   126,000 0 0
Contingencies, say at 20 per cent, on the
whole  175,200 0 0
Total for the great breakwater L.1,051,200 0 0
Estimate of the Probable Expense of a Cut-Stone Pier and
Two Lighthouses to be built on the top of the Great
Breakwater.
42,000 cubic yards of masonry, in the
out and inside walls of the pier, at
27s      
62,000 cubic yards of rubble filling be¬
tween the out and inside walls, at 6s.
Paving the top of the pier with large
blocks of stone, 8500 square yards...
Two lighthouses, with reflectors and
argand lamps 
Contingencies 20 per cent 
L.44,700 0 0
18,600 0 0
22,90 0 0
5,000 0 0
28,650 0 0
L.119,900 0 0
Breakwater, 1,528,639 0 0
Total estimate of completing the works..L.l,171,100 0 0
The estimate for the works of Plymouth Breakwater now
stands thus (1854):—-
Total estimate for the work........... L.1,524,000 0 0
Gross sum already expended....,   1,528,639 0 0
Sum voted for the years 1854-5  13,000 0 0
Further estimate for completing the work 21,000 0 0
It was not until the opinions of the best engineers, men
of science, and naval officers eminent in their profession,
had been collected, compared, and seriously considered,
that Mr Yorke determined to carry into execution this great
undertaking; one of the chief supporters of which was
Sir John Barrow, then secretary of the Admiralty. The
principal objection started against it was, that it might
cause the anchorage in the Sound to be destroyed in the
course of time by the deposition of mud and silt along the
whole eddy within it. But there does not appear to be any
BREAKWATER.
309
Break- solid ground for this objection. The water brought by the
wafer, tides from the sea is at all times perfectly clear and trans-
v-—parent, and that which proceeds from Hamoaze, and is sup¬
plied by the Tamar and the Tavy, is almost wholly free
from any alluvial matter, these rivers holding their course
through a fine granite soil. The fact is sufficiently proved
by the circumstance of no deposit being made in the re¬
cesses of Hamoaze along the dockyard wall leading into
the docks, nor in the numerous eddies that are caused by
the projecting jetties and salient angles of that wall. An¬
other objection started against the undertaking was, that
by the diminished quantity of water thrown by the tide
into Hamoaze and Catwater, the Sound would gradually
fill up, and these harbours be destroyed. But no percep¬
tible alteration has as yet taken place in the height of the
water in Hamoaze, or in the strength or set of the tides.
Commence- A rock of limestone, or rather gray marble, situated at
mentofthe Oreston, on the eastern shore of Catwater, consisting of a
work. surface of twenty-five acres, was purchased from the Duke
of Bedford for the sum of L.10,000. Quays for shipping
the stone were erected in front of it; iron railways leading
from the quarries to the quays were laid dowrn; ships were
hired by contract to carry oft’ the stone, and others built at
the dockyard. Mr Whidby was appointed to superintend
the work. The quarries were opened on the 7th August
1812; the first stone was deposited on the 12th of the same
month ; and, on the 31st March 1813, the breakwater made
its first appearance above the surface of the Sound at low
water of the spring-tide. The system of quarrying the
stone was conducted with admirable skill, and stones of the
proper size were obtained with less waste of small rubble
than might have been expected. In working these quar¬
ries an extraordinary phenomenon was discovered in the
very body of the great mass of this old marble rock. At
the depth of sixty-five feet from the summit of the rock,
and twenty-five from the margin of the sea, a cavity, or
rather a nodule of clay, was discovered, of twenty-five feet
long and twelve square, or thereabouts, in the midst of which
were found several bones of the rhinoceros, in a more per¬
fect state, and containing less animal matter in them than
any fossil bones that have yet been dug out of rock or
earth.
Machinery The vessels employed for conveying the large blocks of
employed. st0ne were of a peculiar construction, adapted to carry
with ease masses of marble weighing from three to five
tons each. These great blocks of marble were placed on
trucks at the quarries, and run down thence on iron railways
to the quays, against which the vessels lay with their sterns.
The two stern ports were made sufficiently large to receive
the trucks with the stones upon them. Each truck was
passed separately through the port-hole on an inclined plane,
and run to the fore-part of the vessel in the hold on an iron
railway. The two sides of the hold of the vessel were cal¬
culated each to contain eight of these loaded trucks, which,
at five tons on each truck, gave eighty tons of stone for one
cargo. The stones thus placed on the trucks remained till
the vessel arrived at the point in the line of the breakwater
where they were to be deposited. By means of a crane on
the deck of the vessel, the two trucks nearest to the two
stern ports were then drawn up the inclined plane, and run
upon a frame on movable hinges, called the typing-frame;
by the falling of this frame in the manner of a trap-door the
stone or stones were discharged from the trucks on the
slope of the breakwater; but the typing-frame remained, by
means of a catch, in the position in which it was left at the
moment of discharging the stones, until the empty truck
was pulled up by the crane to the after-part of the deck,
whence it was run forward to make room for the second
pair of loaded trucks in the hold. The catch being now dis¬
engaged, the typing-frame returned to its former position,
ready to receive the next pair of loaded trucks, and so on
till the whole sixteen were discharged ; and the light trucks Break-
ran upon the deck of the vessel, ready to be run out at water,
the quay, and thence to the quarries, to take in fresh loads
of stone. In this manner a cargo of eighty tons was dis¬
charged in the space of forty or fifty minutes. The vessels
were placed in the proper places for depositing the stones
by means of buoys, and the exact line of the breakwater
was preserved by observing lights or staves placed at a dis¬
tance on the shore.
The following description, referring to Plate CXXXIX.,
will convey an accurate idea of these excellent vessels for
the purpose for which they were constructed.
Fig. 1 shows the stern of the vessel in the act of depo¬
siting the stones. The runner R being hooked to the fore¬
part of the truck, raises it up, and by that means tips the
stone overboard. When the stone is in the act of being
drawn up out of the hold on the inclined plane B (fig. 3),
the runner is hooked to the fore-part of the truck, and
lashed down to the after-end over the stone, which prevents
the latter fi’om sliding off the truck in its progress up the
inclined plane. The empty trucks are for the most part
lodged on the fore-part of the deck, and some placed on
edge against the side of the vessel.
Fig. 2 shows the stern of the vessel when loaded, with
the ports up or closed.
Fig. 3 is a longitudinal or sheer-section of the vessel when
loaded, with the trucks on one side of the hold and deck,
showing the number which the vessel usually stows on each
side. The stones being frequently longer than the trucks,
the number carried in the hold must be proportioned ac¬
cordingly. In bad weather it is unsafe to send many trucks
on deck; and, in general, not more than four are sent into
the Sound in that way at one time ; the amount of the car¬
goes, therefore, vary, according to circumstances, from forty
to sixty-five tons ; the largest stone hitherto deposited be¬
ing about eight tons.
The after-part of the deck under the tiller is divided into
two parts lengthways, and made to move up and down ;
the fore-parts are secured to a beam by hinges. This mov¬
able deck, when raised as at X, allows the stones to come
out of the hold, and when down, as at Y, serves to convey
the empty truck from the port to the deck, in order to make
room for another stone.
D is a common windlass for heaving the trucks out of the
hold up the inclined plane B.
C, the hinges of the typing-frame.
Ten vessels of this construction, for carrying large masses
of stone, built in the King’s Yards, and forty-three hired by
contract, averaging about fifty tons each, were employed in
conveying stones from the quarries. The contractors’ ves¬
sels were not of the same construction as those in the im¬
mediate employ of government; they carried stones of less
weight, which were hoisted out of the hold by a chain and
windlass, and thrown overboard. A load of fifty tons was
discharged from one of these vessels in about three hours.
By all these vessels the quantity of stone deposited in 1812
was 16,045 tons; in 1813, 7l,i98 tons; in 1814, 239,480
tons; in 1815, 264,207 tons; and in 181.6, up to 12th
August, 206,033 tons, at which time the total quantity of
stone sunk amounted to 896,963 tons ; and at the conclu¬
sion of the year to upwards of 1,000,000 tons.
Of this quantity the proportions of the different sizes of
the blocks deposited were nearly as follow :
Tons.
Of one ton each stone, and under 423,904
Of one to three tons each  309,706
Of three to five tons each 150,593
Of five tons and upwards  12,760
The original contract price for quarrying the stone was
2s. 9d. per ton, and the original contract price for conveying
it to the breakwater 2s. lOd. per ton ; but the former was
i 
310 B 11 E
Break- reduced to 2s. 5d., and the latter to Is. lOd. per ton. The
water. cost 0f ton 0f' stone sunk in the breakwater, including
the building of quays, purchase of land, salaries, and every
other expense, according to the nearest calculation that can
be made, amounted to about 8s. l^d., which, upon the whole
quantity deposited, gave a total sum expended up to 12th
August 1816 equal to L.364,000. And as the work might be
considered as more than half completed, it would have been
finished considerably within the original estimate, and, if par¬
liament had thought fit to grant the money, within the time.
The greatest quantity of stone sunk in any one week
wTas 15,379 tons; and the part of the breakwater at the
date just mentioned, above the level of low-water spring-
tides, was in length 1100 yards. The length completely
finished to the height of three feet above the level of the
highest spring-tides, and thirty feet wide at top, was at
the same time 360 feet. The large stones of the upper
part of the breakwater were deposited to any nicety by
means of a vessel constructed for the purpose, having the
same sheer or slope at the bow with the side of the work,
so that by a projecting beam or mast the largest stones
could he taken out of the vessel, and placed on the oppo¬
site side, or middle, or any other part of the breakwater.
The whole establishment for carrying on the Plymouth
breakwater was as follows :
Persons.
A superintendent, with proper officers and clerks, to
keep and control the accounts  10
Warrant officers and masters of the ten stone vessels
in the immediate employ of the public  21
Seamen and boys to navigate these vessels  90
Seamen employed in the superintendents’ vessels ; the
light vessel, boats’ crews, &c  45
Masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, sail-makers, and la¬
bourers, employed at Oreston  39
In the immediate pay of government  205
Seamen employed in the contractors’ vessels  170
Quarrymen, labourers, &c. employed at Oreston by the
contractors  300
Total establishment  675
Beneficial The result of this great work has completely answered
results of the expectation of its warmest advocates. The good ef-
this great fects of it were, indeed, very sensibly felt at the end of
work. the gecond year, when about 800 yards of the central part,
where the water was shallowest, were visible at low-water
spring-tides. The swell was then so much broken down
and destroyed at the head of the Sound, that the fisher¬
men were no longer able as heretofore to judge of the
weather outside the Sound; and ships of all sizes, and
among others a French three-decker, ran in with confi¬
dence, and anchored behind the breakwater. Since that
time near two hundred sail of vessels of all descriptions,
driven in by tempestuous weather, have, at one time, found
safe shelter within this insulated mole, where a fleet of
twenty-five to thirty sail of the line may at all times find a
secure and convenient anchorage, with the additional ad¬
vantage of having a stream of excellent water from a reser¬
voir constructed above Bouvisand Bay, capable of contain¬
ing from ten to twelve thousand tons, or a quantity sufficient
to water fifty sail of the line. This water is brought down
in iron pipes to Staddon Point, opposite to the anchorage,
where a jetty has been completed, from which the water
descends through the pipes into the ships’ boats. The
whole expense of this most useful appendage to the break¬
water was calculated at about L.16,000.
During the winter of 1816-17 the gales of wind were
more frequent and tremendous than had been knowm for
many years; and, on the night of the 19th January, such
a hurricane came on as had not been remembered by the
ERE
oldest inhabitants. The tide rose six feet higher than the Bream
usual height of spring-tides. The Jasper sloop of war, and ||
the Telegraph schooner, being anchored without the cover Breast,
of the breakwater, were driven to the head of the Sound,
and both lost; but a collier deeply laden, and under its
cover, rode out the gale. No damage was sustained by
any of the shipping in Catwater; but it was the general
opinion, from former experience, that, if no breakwater
had existed, the whole of the ships there must have been
wrecked, and the storehouses and magazines on the victual¬
ling premises, and most of the buildings on the margin of
the sea, must have been entirely swept away. Till this
tremendous gale the breakwater had not sustained the
slightest damage from the heavy seas that, through the
winter, had broken against it with unusual violence, not a
single stone having moved from the place in which it was
originally deposited; but after the hurricane above-men¬
tioned, and the high tide which accompanied it, it was found
that the upper stratum of the finished part, extending about
200 yards, and thirty yards in width, had been displaced,
and the whole of the huge stones, from two to five tons in
weight each, had been carried over and deposited on the
northern slope of the breakwater. In no other part could
it be discovered that a single stone had been displaced.
Since that time a considerable portion of the sea-front has
been cased with masonry of immense masses of stone, but
smoothly and beautifully laid; and the better to protect
this, the foot of the slope has been extended seaward, in
order to protect the foot of the masonry, by throwing in a
great quantity of large and rubble stones.
The want of a harbour, or any place of safety to which pr0pr;ety.
ships can resort in bad weather, or in distress, between the 0f a break-
ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth, led to the suggestion of water in
Portland Hoads being converted into a secure harbour by Portland
means of a breakwater. It w'as estimated that the construe- Roads-
tion of such a stone dike, extending from the north-east
part of Portland Island, about two miles and a quarter in
length, covering an anchorage of about four square miles,
and completely sheltering the pier, harbour, and bathing
place of Weymouth, would require about four millions of
tons of stone, five years to complete it, and an expense of
about six hundred thousand pounds sterling. The capstone
alone, which covers the Portland stone, and which, being
unmarketable, is not only useless, but a great incumbrance,
would be sufficient to complete this great undertaking.
Such a secure anchorage in this situation, in which the
largest fleets, either naval or mercantile, might ride at
anchor in all w inds and the most stormy weather in per¬
fect security, was not unworthy the consideration ot the
public ; and, perhaps, in the present increased state of our
population, there can be no truer policy than that of carry¬
ing on great national works of public utility. Many years
have elapsed since the propriety of a breakwater in Port¬
land Hoads was first under discussion; but it is only recently
that this magnificent work has been taken in hand, toge¬
ther with other noble breakwaters or harbours of refuge,
such as those at Harwich, Dover, Holyhead, the Channel
Islands, &c.
The estimated cost of these magnificent harbours of refuge,
formed by the construction of breakwaters, is as follows,
viz:—Dover (estimate for a pier 800 feet long at Cheese-
man’s Head), L.245,000 ; Harwich, L.l 10,000; Alderney,
L.620,000; Jersey, L.700,000; Portland (harbour and
breakwater), L.588,959. (J* B w*)
BHEAM. See Brama, and Ichthyology.
BREAMING, or Brooming, the cleansing of a ship’s
bottom by applying lighted straw or the like, in order to
loosen the pitch and adhering sea-weeds, shells, &c., which
are then removed with scrapers.
BREAST, in Anatomy, the fore-part of the thorax.
Smiting the breast is an expression of penitence. In the
BEE
BEE
311
Breast- Romish church the priest beats his breast in rehearsing
hooks the general confession at the beginning of the mass.
II . BREAsr-Hooks, in Ship-Building, are thick pieces of
Brechin. incurvated into the form of knees, and used to
strengthen the fore-part of the ship, where they are placed
at different heights directly across the stem, so as to unite
it with the bows on each side.
BREAST-Plate, a piece of armour for the breast, originally
formed of hides, horn, linen, or hemp twisted into small
cords; but afterwards made of brass, iron, silver, or other
metals, which were sometimes hardened so as to be bullet¬
proof.
BREAST-Plate, in Jewish Antiquity, a part of the vest¬
ment of the high priest. It was ten inches square, and
consisted of a doubled piece of the same rich stuff of
which the ephod was made; and it was set with twelve
precious stones, on which were engraved the names of the
twelve tribes. They were divided from one another by
little golden squares or partitions, in which they were set.
The names of these stones, and those of the tribes engraven
on them, as also of their disposition on the breast-plate,
were as follows :
Sardius
Reuben.
Topaz
Simeon.
Carbuncle
Levi.
Emerald
Judah.
Sapphire
Dan.
Diamond
Naphthalt.
The breast-plate was fastened at the four corners ; above, to
each shoulder by a golden hook or ring at the end of a
wreathed chain ; and below, to the girdle of the phod, by
two strings or ribbons, which had likewise two rings and
hooks. This ornament was never to be severed from the
priestly garment; and it was called the Memorial, to remind
the high priest how dear those tribes ought to be to him,
whose names he wore on his breast. It is also called the
Breast-plate of Judgment, because it had the divine oracle
of Urim and Thummim annexed to it.
Breast-P/om^A, a kind of spade with a cross-piece
at the extremity of the handle, which the operator holds
against his breast. It is used for cutting thin slices of
turf, chiefly for the purpose of thatching.
Breast-fT/iee/. See Hydrodynamics.
BRECCIA, a rock composed of angular fragments of
various pre-existing rocks or fossils imbedded in some ma¬
trix—as marble breccia, ossiferous breccia.
BRECHIN, a parliamentary burgh and parish of Scot¬
land, in the county of Forfar, on the South Esk, 7-J miles
west of Montrose, with which, and with Forfar, Perth, and
Aberdeen, it is connected by railway. It is situated on an
abrupt declivity on the north bank of the river, which is here
crossed by two bridges. Some of the streets are well built;
and among the principal public buildings and institutions
are several churches and chapels, the town-house, academy,
mechanics’ institute, hospitals, and dispensary. Besides the
academy, there are four public and several private schools.
Brechin unites with Montrose, Arbroath, Forfar, and Bervie,
in returning one member to parliament. Electors 172. It
is governed by a provost, two bailies, a dean of guild, a
treasurer, and eight councillors. The principal manufacture
is linen. There are also two distilleries and a paper-work.
Market-day Tuesday. Pop. (1851) of parliamentary burgh
6637, of municipality, 4515.
This town is said to have been the capital of the Pictish kings;
and the hill of Caterthun (about four miles north of the town), sur¬
rounded with an immense coronal of loose stones, is supposed to
have been a fortification belonging to that people. The Ouldees
had a convent here ; and their abbot Leod was witness to the grant
made by King David to his new abbey of Dunfermline.
Brechin was erected into a bishopric by David I. about 1150.
In 1572 James VI., with consent of the Regent Morton, gave a grant
for founding an hospital in the burgh. “ Mr George Buchanan,
pensioner of Corsragwell,” is one of the witnesses to the grant,
which was ratified in 1587. The magistrates and council are pa¬
trons of this charity, from which they give a small weekly allow¬
ance to poor burgesses, no hospital apparently having ever been
erected. William de Brechin, in 1256, founded a chapel called
Maison Dieu. Parts of the walls of the chapel still remain in the
Maison Dieu Vennel, and prove that the chapel had originally been
an elegant little building. Its funds are now appropriated to salary
the rector of the academy, who hence takes the title of preceptor of
Maison Dieu. The cathedral, which is now used as the parish
church, was originally a handsome Gothic building; but its appear¬
ance has been much injured by modern “ improvements.” The
steeple attached is a noble-looking square tower, with an octagon
spire, rising to the height of 128 feet. Close to the church stands
the round tower, one of those singular structures, the real use of
which has so long baffled the research of antiquaries. These towers
are peculiar to North Britain and Ireland : in the latter they are
frequent; in the former only two at this time exist, one at Brechin
and another at Abernethy. There is no stair in the Brechin tower,
and the only access to the top is by means of ladders placed on
wooden semicircular floors, which rest on circular projections with¬
in the tower. The height from the ground to the roof is 85 feet,
the inner diameter within a few feet of the bottom is 8 feet, and the
thickness of the wall at that part about 4 feet; the circumference
is very near 50 feet; the inner diameter at top is 6 feet 7 inches,
the thickness of the wall 2 feet 10 inches, and the circumference
38 feet 8 inches. These proportions give the building a high
degree of elegance. The top is roofed with an octagonal spire 18
feet high, which makes the whole height of the building 103 feet.
During strong winds this tower has often been observed to vibrate.
A stone built into the wall of the churchyard, evidently modern¬
ized, but most probably copied from an older stone, records, in not
inelegant Latin, that during 1647 six hundred persons died of the
plague in Brechin in the course of four months.
Brechin was burnt by the Danes in 1012, and by the Marquis of
Montrose in 1645.
Within the burgh there is a house said to have been a Hospitium
of the knights templars, till recently appropriately used as an inn.
These knights seem to have had some lands in the neighbourhood,
as there is a piece of ground near Brechin bearing the title of Temple
Hill of Bothers. In the vicinity is Huntly Hill, where a battle was
fought between the Earls of Huntly and Crawford in 1452.
Brechin Castle, the seat of Lord Panmure, stands on the brink
of a perpendicular rock overhanging the South Esk, a little to the
south of the town. This castle was besieged by the English under
Edward I. in 1303, and was for twenty days gallantly defended by
Sir Thomas Maule, ancestor of the family of Panmure, who wras
slain by a stone thrown from an engine placed on the opposite ris-
ing ground, when the castle was instantly surrendered.
Gavin Douglas, Maitland the topographer, Gillies the historian of
Greece, and James Tytler, a contributor to the early editions of this
work, were natives of Brechin. See Black’s History of Brechin.
Brecon.
BRECON, or Brecknockshire, an inland county in
South Wales, is bounded on the north by Radnor; on the
east by Hereford and Monmouth; on the south by Glamor¬
gan, and on the west by Caermarthen and Cardigan shires.
Its greatest length from south to north is about 53 miles,
and its greatest breadth from east to west about 46 miles. It
possesses an area of 719 square miles, or 460,158 acres, and
is thus the fourth largest county in Wales. It is supposed
to have derived its name from Brychan, a Welsh prince,
who flourished in the fifth century.
The old red sandstone is the principal geological forma¬
tion in this county, and occupies the whole of the central
portion from east to west. Along the southern boundary
there extends a narrow belt of carboniferous limestone,
millstone grit (“ farewell rock” of the miners), and the out¬
crop of the coal beds; together forming the northern rim of
the coal measures in the great South Wales coalfield; but
no part of the county is sufficiently within the measures to
yield valuable mines. Brecon therefore does not occupy an
important position as a mining county. The narrow pro¬
jecting part of the county to the north, lying between Rad¬
nor and Cardigan, is occupied by the Upper and Lower
Silurian beds ; and there is a somewhat singular narrow pen
312
B R E
Brecon, insula of the former projecting into the red sandstone for a
distance of ten miles, in a S.W. direction, and terminating
at about five miles north of the town of Brecon. A belt of
limestone extends from the town of Hay on the east, and
passing in a S.W. direction through the town of Brecon,
terminates on the west at the Brecknockshire Van. Another
and more prominent band extends along the border of the old
red sandstone on the N.W., where it joins the Silurian
beds.
The general aspect of the county is mountainous, and the
scenery is marked by great beauty and wild grandeur. A
chain of the loftiest mountains in South Wales completely
encircles the south, composed in the east of the Black
mountains, 2545 feet in height, and the curious Sugar Loaf
rising to the height of 1760 feet. On the west of Breck¬
nockshire are the Van and Talsarn mountains 2596 feet, and
Mount Capellante 2394 feet in height; while the centre of
the crescent is occupied by the masses of the Brecknockshire
Beacons, towering with their lofty summits to a height of
2862 feet. In the north, a range of barren hills, called
Mynydd Bwlch Groes, at the most westerly end, and
Mynydd Epynt towards the east, enters the boundary of the
county at a short distance from Llandovery in Caermar-
thenshire, and extending in a N.E. direction, terminates
near the town of Builth.
Some of the valleys are distinguished by great beauty.
The vale of the Usk, stretching from east to west, and di¬
viding the county into two nearly equal portions, is hardly
surpassed as a piece of romantic woodland scenery by any
part of the British islands.
I here is a considerable number of rivers in this county.
The Wye, which is the chief, forms the boundary on the
N. and N.E. from Rhayader to Hay, a distance of up¬
wards of twenty miles; while the Towy, the Afon Claer-
wen and Elan separate the county from Cardigan and
Radnor on the N.W. and N. The Usk rises in the Caer-
marthenshire Van on the west, and flowing in a direction
nearly due east through the centre of the county, collects
the waters from the range of the Beacons in the south, and
from Mynydd Bwlch Groes and Mynydd Epynt in the north,
by means of numerous smaller streams (of which the Tarell
and the Honddu are the most important), and enters the
county of Monmouth near Abergaveny. The Taff, the
Hepste, and the Tawre, all rise on the south of the Beacon
range, and passing through Glamorganshire, flow into the
British Channel.
Of its several lakes, that of Llyn Safaddu is one of the
largest in South Wales. The more important of the others
are Llyn Fa Fawr, Pwll Bivery, and Llyn Carw.
The climate is moist, but temperate and salubrious ; and
the soil of the valleys, consisting as it does in many of them
of rich alluvial deposits, is very fertile. The cultivated crops
consist of wheat, oats, barley, rye, turnips, pease, potatoes, and
vetches ; of these the greater part is consumed within the
county. The uplands are chiefly in pasture, and are stocked
with sheep, cattle, and ponies, which, with wool, butter, and
oak-bark, form the staple of a considerable trade with the
adjoining English counties, and with the iron districts lying
to the south. The farms are generally small, but are well
cultivated in the lower parts of the county. The highland
occupiers are a very humble hard-working class of men. It
is calculated that about two-thirds only of the lands in the
county are inclosed.
There are several tramways in the county, one of which
extends from Brecon to Hay and Kington, and another from
Devynock, between Brecon and Trecastle, to join the Swan¬
sea canal at Ystradgynlais. There is also an excellent canal
rom Brecon by Crickhowel and Abergavenny to Newport,
recknockshire does not possess a railway ; but the Here-
ord, Abergavenny, and Newport line skirts the east side of
the county ; while the Vale of Neath and Taff Vale railways
B R E
pass for a considerable distance along the county boundary Brecon,
on the south. i ‘
I he principal towns are Brecon, Builth, Crickhowel, and
Hay. The county returns one member to parliament, and
has done so since 1536. The political influence is chiefly
in the hands of the Marquis of Camden, and Sir Charles
Morgan of Tredegar. Constituency in 1852, 2779. The
average gross rental of the county is estimated at 5s. 9d.
per acre. 1 he annual value of real property paying income-
tax is L.198,472.
The population of the county by the last census was
61,474, giving an average of 188 persons to a square mile,
or 7'5 acres to each person. Of the total number, 31,314
were males, and 30,160 females. The number of inhabited
houses was 12,221, uninhabited 731, and building 74,
giving an average of 17 inhabited houses to a square mile,
and 5 persons to each house. The following table gives
the census returns for the last 50 years.
Years.
1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851.
32,325 37,735 43,826 47,763 55,603 61,474
Increase of popu¬
lation per cent,
in fifty years.
90
It is calculated that about one-fburth of the whole popu
lation are in the condition of labourers, servants, &c. About
ten per cent, live by agriculture, and an equal number by
trade ; while upwards of thirteen hundred persons possess in¬
dependent means, and about four hundred follow professions.
In 184 / the total number of children of the working-classes
at day schools within the county was 3985. The total num¬
ber of schools was 96, of which 38 were church or national,
with 1873 scholars; 33 adventure or private, with 1249
scholars ; 5 British and foreign, with 443 scholars; 2 dis¬
senting, with 79 scholars; and 18 dame schools, with 341
scholars. It appears that the average annual income of each
school was only L.24, 8s. lj|d., and the average annual in¬
comes of the teachers from all sources only L.23, 15s. 2£d.
The total number of scholars attending Sunday schools was
13,654. The total number of Sunday schools was 181,
of which 40 were Church of England, with 2409 scholars;
30 Baptist, with 2132 scholars; 45 Calvinistic Methodist,
with 3742 scholars; 51 Independent, with 4080 scholars ;
10 Wesleyan, with 523 scholars; other denominations 5, with
768 scholars. In 69 of these schools instruction was given
in the Welsh language only ; in 46 in the English language
only; and in 66 in both tongues. From the foregoing sta¬
tistics it will be seen that dissenting sects are in a great ma¬
jority in this county ; and also that the Welsh language is
still much employed. It is calculated that one-half of the
population use Welsh habitually.
Brecon, or Brecknock, the capital of the county of
the same name, a market and borough town, 145 miles N.
by W. from London, picturesquely situated in a fine open
valley, at the confluence of the Honddu the Tarell and the
Usk, and nearly in the centre of the country. There are
three main streets, with several smaller ones. The houses
are for the most part constructed of stone, and are generally
well built. Brecon has a fine old church, partly of the Norman
period. There are two other churches, and two Indepen¬
dent, two Baptist, and one Calvinistic Methodist chapel.
1 he corporation consists of a mayor, recorder, four aider-
men, and twelve councillors. The borough has returned
one member to parliament since 1536. Constituency in
1832, 336. The assessed taxes yield annually L.1259, and
the annual value of real property paying income-tax is
L.24,941. There are weekly markets, and several fairs in
the course of the year. The quarter-sessions and assizes
are held here.
Brecon has a foundation called the College of Christ
Church, of which the Bishop of St David’s is ex officio dean.
This has hitherto been entirely inefficient, but there is now
ERE
Breda (1854) some prospect of reformation in the management. It
II is proposed also to transfer the college of St David’s at
Breenberg. Lampeter to this town. The ruins of the ancient castle
are unimportant: they are inclosed in the beautiful grounds
of the Castle Hotel. There are some fine Koman and other
remains in the immediate vicinity. Pop. of municipality
(1851) 5673. Inhabited houses, 1147. (j. g-w-d.)
BREDA, a town of Holland, in the province of North
Brabant, and capital of a circle of the same name, is situ¬
ated in a marshy plain on the Mark, 24 miles S.W. of Bois
le Due, and 30 N.N.E. of Antwerp. It is strongly fortified,
and defended by a citadel (rebuilt by William III. of Eng¬
land), and the surrounding district may be laid under water
when required. The town is well built, with wide and well
paved streets, is intersected by several canals, and has a fine
quay, town hall, arsenal, observatory, orphan asylum, and
several Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, one of
the latter having a spire 362 feet in height. It has also a
Latin school, military academy, and manufactures of linen
and woollen goods, hats, beer, and musical instruments.
Pop. (1850) 14,689.
Breda was taken by prince Maurice in 1590, retaken by
the Spaniards under Spinola in 1625, and finally ceded to
Holland by the treaty of Westphalia in 1648.
Breda, Jan Van, an eminent Dutch painter, was the son
of Alexander Van Breda, an artist of considerable merit,
and was born at Antwerp in 1683. He imitated the style
of Wouvermans and other great masters with such dex¬
terity, that even connoisseurs are often unable to dis¬
tinguish between his copies and the originals. He visited
England, where he was so well employed, that in a few years
he was able to retire to his native country with a competency.
He died at Antwerp in 1750.
BREDQW, Gabriel Gottfried, an eminent Prussian
professor in the university of Breslau, was born at Berlin
in 1773. He is well known in England by his Manual of
Ancient History, which was translated into English in 1827 ;
Researches on History, Geography, and Chronology ; and
his valuable Historical Tables, which come down to 1811.
This last work was translated into English by Major J.
Bell, who has continued the tables down to 1820, and pro¬
duced a very useful and popular work. Bredow died in 1814.
BREECHES, or Trowsers, a garment which extends
from the waist to the knee or to the ankle, encircling the
limbs. The Romans, during the times of the republic, had
nothing corresponding to the modern trowsers, but some¬
times bound their thighs and legs with fasciae or bands of
cloth. This article of dress appears to have been peculiar
to barbarous nations ; and hence Tacitus calls it bavbarwn
tegmen. It was, in fact, in general use among all the na¬
tions which encircled the Greek and Roman people, from
the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. We are told, in parti¬
cular, that trowsers were used by the following nations—the
Medes and Persians, the Parthians, the Phrygians, the Sacae,
the Sarmatae, the Dacians and Getae, the Teutones, the
Belgse, the Britains, and the Gauls. Braccce or trowsers
were eventually introduced into Italy, some say as early as
the time of Augustus ; but the breeches of that emperor,
mentioned by Suetonius, were apparently only swathes tied
round his thighs. Later, however, braccae became so much
in fashion, that it was judged necessary, under Honorius, to
prohibit their use, and the bracarii or breeches-makers were
expelled from the city, it being considered unworthy of a
nation that commanded the world to wear the apparel of
barbarians.
BREECHING, or Breeciirand, that part of a horse’s
harness passing over his hinder quarters and attached to the
shafts, so as to enable him to push back the vehicle to which
he is harnessed.
BREENBERG, Bartholomew, a painter, born at
Utrecht in 1620. In early life he went to Rome, where he
VOL. v.
BEE 313
was distinguished by the name of Bartolomeo, an appella- Breeze
tion bestowed upon him by the society of Flemish painters J1
called Bentvogels. He particularly excelled in landscapes, y, ^eis
which he enriched with figures and animals drawn in a very
spirited and masterly manner. His best works are views of
Albano, Frescati, and Tivoli. He generally painted on a
small scale; and his smaller pictures are most esteemed.
He died in 1660. Breenberg also etched from his own
designs a set of twenty-four views and landscapes with ruins.
BREEZE, a gentle gale. It is applied in a more re¬
stricted sense to a shifting wind that blows from sea or land
during certain hours of the day or night. It is common in
Africa and some parts of the East and West Indies. Breezes
differ from etesice or trade-winds, inasmuch as the former
are diurnal, or have their periods each day, whilst the latter
are annual, and blow at a distance from land. The sea-
breezes prevail by day, and the land breezes by night, so
that they remain as constant as the seasons of the year, or
the course of the sun, on which they seem to depend, al¬
though they come on sooner or later, stronger or weaker,
in some places than in others, and vary according to latitude
and other circumstances.
B REGENTZ, the capital of the circle of Vorarlberg, in
the Tyrol, stands on a hill at the S.E. end of the Lake of Con¬
stance. Pop. about 4000, occupied in silk and cotton manu¬
factures, and in an active transit trade.
BREHAR, Bryher, or Bryer, one of the Scilly isles,
30 miles west of Land’s End, Cornwall. It is about 1^- mile
in length, with an average breadth of half-a-mile, and a con¬
siderable portion of it is under cultivation. There are seve¬
ral barrows and Druidical remains in the island. On the east
is New Grinsey harbour. Pop. (1851) 118.
BREHONS, the hereditary provincial judges among the
ancient Irish. The nature of their laws, which continued
in force till the introduction of the English system of law in
the reign of Edward III., has not yet been satisfactorily de¬
termined. There are, it is said, in Ireland ancient MSS.,
the publication of which would throw light on this curious
and interesting subject. Till such elucidation be afforded,
of which some prospect is held out, it were useless to hazard
opinions on the character and value of the Brehon laws as
a system of jurisprudence.
BREISGAU, a fertile district of Baden, on the eastern
side of the Rhine, and now reckoned in the circles of the
Upper and Middle Rhine. It extends over 1260 square
miles, contains 17 towns and 440 villages. Pop. 150,000.
BREISLAK, Scipione, an eminent geologist, was born
at Rome in 1748. He early distinguished himself as pro¬
fessor of mathematical and mechanical philosophy in the
college of Ragusa; but after residing there for several years
he returned to his native city, where he soon became a pro¬
fessor in the Collegia Nazareno, and began to form the fine
mineralogical cabinet in that institution. His leisure was
dedicated to geological researches in the papal states, which
he prosecuted with an industry and zeal then rare in Italy,
and pointed out how his researches were applicable to local
improvements. His examination of the aluminous district
of Tolfa and adjacent hills appeared in 1786, under the title
Saggio d’ Osservazioni sulla Tolfa, Oriuolo e Latera, and
gave him such reputation, that he was invited by the king
of Naples to inspect the mines and similar works in
that kingdom, and appointed professor of mineralogy to
the Royal Artillery. The vast works for the refining of
sulphur in the volcanic district of Solfatara were erected
under his direction. Lie afterwards made many journeys
through the ancient Campania, to illustrate its geology,
and published his remarks in his Toyogrcxfia Fisica della
Campania (Florence, 1798), which contains much accu¬
rate observation, with some hypothetical speculation on the
cause of volcanic action, that will now scarcely be gene¬
rally received as satisfactory. The French translatiop
314 BEE
Breislakite 0f WOrk by General Pommereuil in 1801, is rendered
Hrem* comparatively useless by the conversion of the somewhat
v ^n'y indefinite measures and weights of Breislak into metres and
'-r v-®1- centimetres, grammes and centigrammes, while the dates
are reduced to the republican nomenclature of France, and
the reader is unable to distinguish what additions have been
made to the original.
Breislak also published an essay on the physical condi¬
tion of the seven hills of Rome, which he decides to be
the remains of a local volcano. The more recent investi¬
gations of Brocchi and Daubeny have proved that the soil
of Rome consists of alternate beds of sandy and calcareous
matter, with volcanic tuffa, which, however, does not seem to
have been produced by any volcano on that site, but by one
that evidently orfce existed in Monte Albano, 12 miles south
of Rome, or by Monte Cimini to the north of the city, the
tuffas of which are continuous with those of Rome.
The political convulsions ofltalyin 1799 brought Breislak
to Paris, where he remained until 1802; when he received
the appointment of inspector of the salpetriere and powder
manufactory near Milan ; and in that place he took up his
future abode; His valuable labours Were appreciated by the
successive governments that ruled over that part of Italy
till his death, which happened on the 18th of February 1826.
During this latter part of his career he published the fol¬
lowing works :—Del Stilnitro e dell' Arte del Salnitraio ;
Memoria sulla Fabbricazione e Rajfinazione dei' Nilri;
Instruzione pratica per le piccole Fabbricazione di Nitro,
da farsi dalle persone di Campagna. His valuable Intro-
duzione alia Geologia appeared in 1811; of Which a French
edition with additions was published in 1819. Finally, the
Austrian government, in 1822, took on itself the expense
of publishing his Descrizione Geologica della Provincia di
Milano. (t. s. t.)
BREISLAKITE, reddish-brown acicular crystals, a sili¬
cate of alumine and iron, discovered by Breislak in the crater
of Solfatara, and afterwards at Capo di Bove near Rome.
BREMEN, one of the four free cities of Germany, is
situated upon both sides of the Weser, 46 miles from the
sea and 60 miles S.W. of Hamburg. Lat. of observatory
53. 4. 36. N. Long. 8. 48. 54. E. As early as 788, Bremen
was made the seat of a bishopric by Charlemagne ; and about
60 years afterwards, Hamburg having been attacked and
taken by the Normans, the archbishop removed his seat
thence to Bremen. This city became edrly of considerable
mercantile importance, and in 1283 joined the Hanseatic
league. About the middle of the sixteenth century the
archbishop of Bremen and most of the inhabitants declared
for the Protestant religion, which occasioned the separation
of the city from the rest of the diocese. The former be¬
came independent: the latter was secularized ; and by the
peace of Westphalia, in 1648, was ceded to Sw-eden as a
duchy. In a war between Denmark and Sweden in 1712,
it was conquered by the former, and along with the duchy
of Verden sold to Hanover. After much negotiation the
purchase was confirmed by the imperial diet of 1732. It now
forms part of the Hanoverian province of Stade. In 1640,
Bremen was made an irriperial city. It was .taken by the
French in 1806; and from 1810 to 1813, was the capital of
the department of the Mouths of the Weser. In 1815 it
was restored to independence by the Congress of Vienna.
It subsequently became a member of the German confe¬
deration, and now furnishes 485 men to the federal army.
The old town is situated on the right, and the new town on
the left, bank of the river. In the former, which is the larger
and more populous portion, the streets are generally narrow
and crooked ; but the streets of the new town are more re¬
gular and the houses more elegant. The river is lined on
both sides by extensive and commodious quays, and crossed
by two bridges, the larger of which was opened in 1842.
A he old ramparts have been converted into beautiful pro-
B R E
menades. Among the public buildings are the cathedral, Brennage
built in 1160; the church of St Ansgarius, with a handsome II
spire 325 feet high; the town hall, a fine old Gothic build- Brentford,
ing, formerly the archiepiscopal palace, and which has re-
cently been restored; the exchange, with a library of25,000
volumes; museum, theatre, the observatory of Dr Gibers,
a public library of 20,000 volumes, gymnasium, navigation
school, and a deaf-mute institution. The manufactures are
considerable, particularly tobacco, snuff, and cigars. There
are also sugar refineries, breweries, distilleries, tanneries,
paper works, and manufactures of woollen, linen, and cotton
goods. Ship-building is extensively carried on. Bremen is
the principal emporium of Brunswick, Llesse, and Hanover,
and carries on an" active trade with North and South Ame¬
rica, the West Indies, Russia (particularly Archangel),
France, England, &c. Its chief imports are tobacco, sugar,
coffee, and other colonial products, iron, timber, wines, &c.;
exports, linen and woollen goods, snuff, cigars, sugar, soap,
leather, vitriol, &c. In 1827 it had only 74 merchant ves¬
sels ; it 1850 it had 236 vessels, of the aggregate burden of
92,870 tons. In 1851 the arrivals were 2518 vessels, of
171,603 tons, the departures 2934 vessels, of 181,124 tons;
the imports in that year by sea amounted to L.2,904,593, by
land, L.3,196,650; exports by sea, L.2,743,095, by land,
L.2,598,108. Vessels drawing more than seven feet cannot
come up to the town, and, accordingly, an excellent harbour
with a magnificent dock and floodgate, capable of admitting
at high water vessels of 25 feet draught, has been formed
at Bremerhaven on the Weser, 30 miles below the city, a
small territory obtained by Bremen from Hanover in 1827.
Vessels drawing from 13 to 14 feet can ascend the river as
far as Vegesack, 13 miles below Bremen.
The entire territory of Bremen has an area of 74 square
miles. Pop. in 1849, 79,047, of whom 53,478 Were inhabi¬
tants of Bremen, 3538 of Vegesack, and 3618 of Bremer¬
haven. With the exception of about 2000 Catholics, the in¬
habitants are Lutherans or Calvinists. No Jews are alloWed
to live in the city. According to the new constitution, adopted
March 5, and published April 8, 1849, the senate, which
has the executive power, is composed of 16 members, no¬
minated for life by the senators and the bourgeoisie in com¬
mon. Of these, eight, of whom five must be lawyers, are chosen
by the liberal professions, five from the commercial, and
three from the working classes. Two of the senators are no¬
minated by their colleagues as burgomasters, who preside in
succession, and hold office for four years, one retiring every
two years. The assembly of the bourgeoisie consists of 300
representatives, holding office for four years, one-half going
out every two years. In the budget of 1852, the revenue
is given at L.160,827, and the expenditure at L.158,970;
BRENNAGE, Brennagium, in the Middle Ages, a tri¬
bute or composition which tenants paid to their lord in lieu
of bran, which they were obliged to furnish for his hounds.
It is also written btenage, brenagium, and brenaige, brena-
gium, brenaticum, and brennaticum.
BRENNUS, a'famous general of the Senonian Gauls,
Who, in b.c. 390, overran Italy with a powerful army, de¬
feated the Romans at the river Allia, and sacked Rome;
After blockading the capitol for six months, Brennus was
bribed by a thousand pounds weight of gold to depart from
the city. In the popular legends it was related, that while
the gold was weighing, Camillus suddenly appeared with an
army, and slew Brennus and his followers to a man. See
Roman History.
There was another Gallic leader of this name who invaded
Macedonia and Greece about b.c. 280. After sustaining a
severe defeat near Delphi, he put an end to his own life.
BRENTFORD, a town of England, in the county of
Middlesex, eight miles west from London, in Lat. 51. 28. N.
Long. 0. 20. W. It is divided by the river Brent into Old
and New Brentford, the former in the parish of Ealing and
ERE
Brerewood hundred of Ossulston; the latter an independent parish. It
II is the seat of a poor-law union, comprising ten parishes and
Brescia, townships. Brentford, being on the great western highway to
London, has a considerable trade. In the town and neigh¬
bourhood there are several distilleries and breweries, a soap-
factory, brick and tile-works, and the West London water¬
works. There are numerous market gardens in the vicinity,
which employ many of the inhabitants. Brentford is famed
for its pig-markets, held every Tuesday. The town consists
principally of one long narrow street. It has a small parish
church, and Baptist, Independent, and Methodist chapels;
three national schools in New Brentford, and one British,
one national, and one infant school in Old Brentford. Sion
House, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, and Oster-
ley Park, that of the Earl of Jersey, are in the immediate
vicinity of the town. Pop. (1851) 8870.
BREREWOOD, Edward, a learned mathematician
and antiquary, was born at Chester in 1565, and at the free
school there he received the rudiments of his education.
In 1581 he was admitted of Brazen-nose College, Oxford;
and in 1596 was elected the first professor of astronomy
at Gresham College, London, an office which he held till
his death in 1613. His works, of which the following is a
list, were all posthumous publications.—1. l)e Ponderibus
et Preliis veterum Nummorum eorumque cum recenhonbus
Collatione, 1614, 4to; 2. Inquiries touching the Diversities
of languages and Religion through the chief parts of the
world, London, 1614, 4to; 3. Elementa Logicce in graiiam
studiosce juventutis in Academia Oxon. London, 1614,
8vo, and Oxford, 1628, 8vo; 4. Tractatus qnidam Logici
de prcedicabilibus et preedicamentis, 1628, 8vo; 5. rI wo
Treatises on the Sabbath, 1630 and 1632 ; 6. Tractatus duo,
quorum primus est de Meteor is, secundus de Oculo, 1631 ;
7. Commentarii in Ethicam Aristotelis, Oxford, 1640, 4to ;
and, 8. The Patriarchal Government of the Ancient Church,
Oxford, 1641, 4to.
BRESCIA (Bresciano), a delegation of Venetian Lom¬
bardy, bounded on the N.W. by Bergamo, on the N.E. by
the Tyrol, on the E. by the Lake of Garda, on the S.E. by
Mantua, on the S. by Cremona, and on the S.W. by Lodi.
Area 1306 sq. miles. Pop. (1850) 356,225. The northern
part, or one-third of the delegation, consists of a chain of
mountains, which belong to the Rhsetian Alps; the remainder
is part of the great plain of Lombardy. The latter division
is highly productive in corn and in mulberry trees, as well as
in flax, hemp, and oil. The wine is considered good, but is
not sufficient for the domestic consumption. The mountain
districts yield iron, lead, copper, marble, granite, and char¬
coal. The manufactures consist principally of silk, woollen,
linen, and cotton goods, iron, steel, glass, and paper wares.
Brescia (the ancient Brixid), the capital of the above
delegation, is situated on the Garza, 60 miles E.N.E. of
Milan, at the foot of a hill, on the summit of which is a fine
old castle, once so strong as to be called the Falcon of
Lombardy. The town is well built and flourishing, con¬
taining many magnificent buildings, among which are the
new cathedral of white marble, begun in 1604 and finished
only in 1825, the episcopal palace, palace of justice, many
churches richly adorned with works of art, a large theatre,
and numerous public fountains. It has also a fine museum
of antiquities, public library, college, high-school, athenaeum,
and numerous charitable institutions. In the vicinity are
extensive iron works; and the arms and cutlery made here
have long been celebrated as the best in Italy, whence the
epithet armata. It has also manufactures of silk, woollen,
and linen goods, paper, &c. with numerous oil mills and tan¬
neries. In 1822, a beautiful Roman temple of marble was
excavated here. Pop. 35,000.
Brescia is supposed to have been founded by the Etruscans. It
was afterwards a town of the Libni, then of the Cenotnani, and,
finally, a Roman free town. After the fall of the empire it was
B It E 315
several times pillaged by the Goths. From the Lombards it passed Breslau
to the Franks. It was made a free imperial city by Otho the Great, ||
and shared and suffered in the contests between the Guelfs and Brest.
Ghibellines. It then fell into the power of the Signiorsof Verona,
and in 1378 into the hands of the Milanese. It was taken in 1426
by Carmagnola; besieged by the Milanese general Picininoin 1438;
surrendered by the inhabitants to the French after the battle of
Agnano (1509); taken in 1512 by the Venetian general, Andrea
Gritti; delivered by Gaston de Foix ; besieged again in 1573, 1575,
and 1576. From that time it remained under the Venetian do¬
minion till the dissolution of the republic. It was the capital of
the department of Mella during the existence of the Cisalpine re¬
public and the Napoleonic kingdom of Italy, and fell in 1814 under
the yoke of Austria. In the revolution of 1849, the inhabitants
rcse in arms, but tvere overpowered, after a destructive siege, by
the troops of Haynau. Brescia has at various times suffered se¬
verely from pestilence and epidemics. It was the birthplace of
Tartaglia the mathematician, and the writer Mazzuchelli.
BRESLAU, a government in the Prussian province of
Silesia, between the governments of Liegnitz and Oppeln.
It is divided into 22 circles, having 56 cities, 7 market-
towns, and 2224 villages. Area 5252 square miles. Pop.
in 1849, 1,174,679, of whom 693,436 were Protestants,
464,178 Roman Catholics, and 12,059 Jews.
Breslau, the capital of the above government, as well as
of the government of Silesia, is situated on the Oder, at the
influx "of the Ohlau, and on the railway from Berlin to
Vienna, 190 miles S.E. of the former. Lat. of observatory
51. 6. 57. N. Long. 17.2. 33. E. With the exception of
Berlin, it is the most populous city of Prussia. Pop. in
1849, 110,702, of whom 68,514 were Protestants, 34,801
Roman Catholics, and 7384 Jews. It consists of the old
and new towns, with several suburbs and islands in the
Oder connected together by numerous bridges. The old
fortifications have been converted into beautiful prome¬
nades. The streets in the old town are mostly narrow, but
otherwise generally good, with numerous handsome public
buildings and magnificent squares. Among the principal
buildings are the old cathedral, founded in the twelfth cen¬
tury, the collegiate church, St Elizabeth’s church, built in
the thirteenth century, with a spire 364 feet in height,
and one of the finest organs in Silesia, several other churches
richly ornamented, the palace, now the government house,
built by Frederick the Great, the episcopal palace, town-
house, mint, exchange, university buildings, barracks, new
theatre, and market. In one of the squares is a colossal
bronze statue of Bliicher.
Breslau is celebrated for its educational and literary institutions.
The university, founded in 1702, had, in 1849, 819 students, of
whom 21 were foreigners. It has faculties of arts, law, medicine,
and Protestant and Roman Catholic theology. The library contains
upwards of 200,000 volumes. In 1849 Breslau had 40 elementary
schools, with 8512 scholars ; a higher girls’ school with 344 scholars;
2 higher burgh schools with 1099 scholars; 4 gymnasia with 2028
scholars; ancf a normal school with 202 scholars. It has also a deaf-
mute and blind institution, 4 public libraries, botanic garden, school
of arts and manufactures, and numerous literary and scientific so¬
cieties, observatory, 5 orphan asylums, 10 hospitals, and numerous
other charitable institutions. It is the seat of various provincial
courts, a council of the mines, a Roman Catholic bishopric, and a Pro¬
testant consistory. It has numerous and extensive manufactures,
among which are linen, cotton, woollen, and silk goods, soap, plate,
jewellery, earthenware, &c., with numerous breweries and distil¬
leries. It forms the principal mart for the linen and cotton pro¬
ducts of Silesia, and for wool; and has four great annual fairs of eight
days each; one of these, that for wool, is the greatest of its kind in
Germany. The produce of the mines, timber, flax, hemp, corn,
wines, are brought here in large quantities from other parts.
BREST, a strongly-fortified maritime town of France,
capital of an arrondissement in the department of Finisterre,
in Lat. 48. 22. N. Long. 4. 32. W. It is believed by some
authors that Brest is the ancient Brivates Portus ; by others
that it is Gesocribates. Nothing definite, however, is known
concerning the town till the year 1240, when it was ceded
by the Comte de Leon to the first Duke of Bretagne. In
310 B R E
Bret 1372 Jean IV., Duke of Brittany, gave up the town and
II castle to the English, on condition that they should keep it
Brethren. for during the war, and restore it when peace was
proclaimed. On the death of Edward III. of England,
Brest was made over to its original owner. When war was
once more declared between France and England, an
English garrison took possession of Brest, and repelled
every attempt to dislodge it; but in 1397, Richard II. gave
it up to the Duke of Bretagne, in consideration of a heavy
ransom. In the following century it was again captured
by the English, and once more retaken by the French.
Finally, by the marriage of Louis XII. with Anne of Bre¬
tagne, Brest became an appanage of the French crown.
The advantages of its situation as a sea-port were first re¬
cognised by Richelieu, who in 1631 constructed a harbour,
which soon became the station of the French navy. The
entrance to the roadstead, called the Goulet, is about a mile
in width ; but the Mingan rock in the middle compels ves¬
sels to pass close under the formidable batteries which com¬
mand it on either side. The roadstead itself is formed by
the promontory of Finisterre on the north, and that of Que-
lern on the south. It is in some places three miles broad, and
has an area of about 15 square leagues, so that all the fleets
of France might ride in it in safety. It is defended on
every side by batteries and forts erected under the personal
superintendence of Yauban, and is believed to be utterly
impregnable. The roadstead itself consists of numerous
bays, formed by the embouchures of streams, one of which,
the Chdteaulin, is navigated by a steamer. Of these bays,
the most interesting is that of Camaret, where the English
squadron sent out in 1694 under Berkeley was miserably de¬
feated, owing, it was said, to the treachery of some English¬
man who gave timely warning to the French king of the in¬
tended expedition. Running up from the roadstead is a deep
creek formed by the mouth of a small stream called the Penfeld,
w'hich serves as a basin to the dockyard, and separates Brest
from its suburb La Recouvrance. The creek, though deep,
is very narrow, and ships of war can only lie in it in single
file. The dockyard is very extensive, and contains a sail-
work, a slop shop, a ropery, a foundry, and seamen’s bar¬
racks. The value of the stores in the dockyard and ar¬
senal was estimated in 1839 at nearly L.6,000,000 sterling.
The victualling office is also very extensive. The Bagnes
of Brest are the largest in France, and contain about 3000
convicts. Beyond the bagnes is the Hopital de la Marine,
an institution like Greenwich Hospital, containing 26 rooms,
each with 53 beds. Brest itself is built on the top and slop¬
ing sides of a hill, in some places so steep that the ascent
from the lower to the upper town is performed by flights of
stairs. Despite its great advantages, Brest has little trade,
and no manufacture worth specifying except that of glazed
hats for seamen. There are a few fishermen engaged in the
cod, pilchard, and mackerel fishing. There is also a little
trade in grain. Pop. (1851) 36,500.
BRET, or Britt, a local name for the turbot, Rhom¬
bus vulgaris.
BRETAGNE, one of the ancient provinces of France,
bounded on the north by the English Channel and Nor-
mandy ; west and south by the Atlantic, S.E. by Poitou,
and east by Maine and Anjou. Its greatest length was
60 leagues, its greatest breadth 35 ; and its area nearly 1000
square leagues. It had a sea-board of nearly 150 leagues.
It is now represented by the five departments of Cotes-du-
Nord, Finisterre, llle-et-Vilaine, Loire Inferieure, and Mor-
bihan. It was formerly divided into Haute-Bretagne, of
which the capital was Rennes, and Basse-Bretagne, of which
the capital wras Vannes. The language of the inhabitants
is the ancient Armoric, which bears so strong an affinity to
M elsh, that the natives of the one country understand the
dialect of the other.
BRETHREN, The (or Ply mouth Brethren). Those to
B R E
whom this appellation is applied, receive it only as descrip- Brethren,
tive of their individual state as Christians—not as a name
by which they might be known collectively as a distinct re¬
ligious sect. It is not from any doctrinal peculiarity or de¬
finite ecclesiastical organization, that they have the appear¬
ance of a separate community ; but rather from the fact
that while all other Christians are identified with some pe¬
culiar section of the church of God, the persons known as
Brethren refuse to be identified with any. Their existence
is a protest against all sectarianism. They see no reason
why the church, which is really one, should not be also visi¬
bly united, having as its only bond of fellowship and barrier
of exclusion, the reception or rejection of those vital truths
by which the Christian is distinguished from the unbeliever.
The Brethren, therefore, may be represented as consisting
of all such as, practically holding all the truths necessary to
salvation, recognise each other as on that account alone true
members of the only church. In their assemblies they have
no pre-appointed person to conductor share in the proceed¬
ings ; all is open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit at the
time, so that he who believes himself so led of the Spirit
may address the meeting. When, however, gifted men are
found among the Brethren, they are in general actively en¬
gaged in preaching and expounding on their individual re¬
sponsibility to the Lord, and quite distinct from the assem¬
bly. The number of places of worship returned in the
government census as frequented by the Brethren in England
and Wales is 132. This number, however, is believed to
be below the truth.
Brethren of the Christian Schools (Freres des Ecoles
Chretiennes), a religious order founded at Rheims in 1679,
by the Abbe de la Salle, approved in 1725 by Pope Bene¬
dict XIII., and legally recognised by the French govern¬
ment in 1808. In 1840, the number of their houses in
France was upwards of 300, the number of members 1600.
Their course of education comprehends religious instruction,
reading, waiting, arithmetic, grammar, and geography. At
the date above mentioned they had 584 schools in Paris,
attended by 141,550 scholars, young and old. The cos¬
tume of the Brothers is peculiar, consisting of a coarse cas¬
sock, a hooded cloak with hanging sleeves, and a very wide
hat. The rules of the founder restrict their diet to the
simplest necessaries of life. They are also sometimes im¬
properly called Freres Ignorantins, as their teaching is con¬
fined to the poor, and one of their rules forbids them to
learn or teach Latin ; Freres de St Yon, from the name
of their principal house (in Rouen) Freres d Quatre Bras,
&c.
Brethren and Clerks of the Common Life, a religious
fraternity towards the close of the fifteenth century. They
lived under the rule of St Augustin, and were eminently
useful in promoting the cause of religion and learning.
Their society was formed in the preceding century, by Ger¬
hard de Groot, a native of Deventer ; but it did not flourish
till about the period above mentioned, when it obtained the
approbation of the council of Con stance, after which it became
very influential in Holland, Lower Germany, and the adja¬
cent provinces. It was divided into two classes ; the lettered
Brethren or clerks, and the illiterate. They lived in sepa¬
rate habitations, but maintained the closest fraternal union.
The former applied to the study of polite literature, and the
education of youth ; whilst the latter were employed in
manual labour and the mechanical arts. The Sisters engaged
in similar pursuits. They were frequently called Beghards
and Lollards, by way of reproach.
Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit, a religious sect
which sprung up towards the close of the thirteenth cen¬
tury, and gained many adherents in Italy, France, and Ger¬
many. They derived their name from the words of St
Paul, Rom. viii. 2, 14, and maintained that the true children
of God were invested with the privilege of perfect freedom
ERE
Brethren from the law. Some of their professed principles resembled
il those of the Pantheists ; they held that all things emanated
Brevet. from q0(j ; that rational souls were portions of the Deity ;
that the universe was God ; that, by the power of contem¬
plation, they were united to the Deity, and thereby acquired
a glorious and sublime liberty, both from the sinful lusts and
the common instincts of nature ; and that the person who
was thus absorbed in the abyss of the Deity, became a part
of the Godhead, and was the son of God in the same sense
and manner as Christ was, being freed from the obligation
of all laws human and divine. Many edicts were published
against this sect; but, notwithstanding the hardships which
they suffered, they continued till about the middle of the
fifteenth century. They were called by several other names,
such as Schwestriones (i. e. sisterers), Adamites, Beghards,
Turlupins, See. (Mosheim, Cent. xiii. ch. 5, &c.)
Brethren of the Holy Trinity, an order of monks founded
in France near the close of the twelfth century. They were
also called Mathurins and Brethren of the Redemption of
Captives—the redemption of Christian captives from Ma-
hommedan slavery being one of the principal objects of their
institution. (Mosheim, Ch. Hist?)
Brethren of the Observation, or Observantines, the more
strict of the two parties into which the Franciscan order
was divided at the close of the fourteenth century. The
others are called the Conventual Brethren.
Brethren, Moravian. See Bohemian Brethren.
Brethren, White {Fratres Albati sen Candidi), were the
followers of a leader about the beginning of the fifteenth
century, who arrayed himself in a white garment; and as
they also clothed themselves in white linen, they were dis¬
tinguished by this title. Their leader was a priest from the
Alps, who carried about a cross, like a standard, and whose
apparent sanctity and devotion drew together a number of
followers. This deluded enthusiast practised many acts of
mortification and penance ; endeavouring to persuade the
European nations to renew the holy war, and pretending
that he was favoured with divine visions. Boniface IX. or¬
dered him to be apprehended and burnt at the stake, upon
which his followers dispersed.
BRETON, or Cape Breton. See Cape Breton.
BREUGHEL, the name of six painters, of whom the
two following were the most remarkable.
Breughel, Peeler, a Flemish painter, was the son of a
peasant residing in the village of Breughel near Breda.
After receiving instruction in painting from Koek, whose
daughter he married, he spent some time in France and
Italy, and then went to Antwerp, where he was elected into
the academy in 1551. He finally settled at Brussels, and
died there. The subjects of his pictures are chiefly humorous
figures, like those of D. Teniers; and if he wants the deli¬
cate touch and silvery clearness of that master, he has
abundant spirit and comic power. He is said to have died
about the year 1570, at the age of 60.
Breughel, Jan, son of the preceding, was born at Brus¬
sels about the year 1565. He first applied himself to paint¬
ing flowers and fruit, in which he excelled; and he after¬
wards acquired considerable reputation by his landscapes
and sea-pieces. After residing long at Cologne he travelled
into Italy, where his landscapes, adorned with small figures,
were greatly admired. He left a large number of pictures ;
nor w'as he satisfied with embellishing his own works, but
rendered himself useful in this respect to others. Even
Rubens made use of Breughel’s hand in the landscape
part of several of his small pictures; such as his Vertum-
nus and Pomona, the satyr viewing the sleeping nymph,
and the terrestrial paradise, which by some is regarded as
the masterpiece of that great artist. Breughel died in
1642.
BREVET, in France, signifies a royal act in writing,
conferring some privilege or distinction, as brevet d'inven-
B It E 317
tion, i.e., a patent; also a license to trade, as a booksellers Bievet
or printer’s brevet. , Brewer.
Brevet is applied in the British service to a species of , *
commission which entitles an officer to a rank in the army
above that for which he receives pay. Thus a brevet ma¬
jor serves as a captain, and receives pay as such. The term
brevet is also used sometimes to express general promotion,
by which a given number of officers obtain a grade of rank
without additional pay. Brevet rank does not exist in the
navy ; and in the army it is restricted, descending no lower
than that of captain, nor ascending above that of lieutenant-
colonel. Brevet rank gives precedence in the army gene¬
rally, but not in the particular regiment to which the officer
belongs, except in the case of its being temporarily united
with some other corps. (See Grose’s Military Antiquities?)
BREVIARY (Lat. breviarium), an abridgment, a com-
pend, an epitome ; the daily office or book of divine service
in the Roman church. It is divided into seven parts or
hours, on account of the saying in Psalm cxix. 164, “ Seven
times a day do I praise thee.” These are matins, prime,
third, sixth, and none lauds, vespers, and the compline or
post communio.
The breviary of Rome is general, and may be used in
all places; but various others, appropriated to each diocese
and each order of religious persons, have been formed on the
model of this.
The institution of the breviary is not very ancient; and
there have been inserted in it the lives of the saints, full
of stories more remarkable for their strangeness than their
authenticity. This gave occasion to several reformations
by different councils, especially those of Trent and Co¬
logne ; by several popes, particularly Pius V., Clement
VIII., and Urban VIII.; and also by several cardinals and
bishops, each lopping off some extravagance, and bringing
it nearer to the simplicity of the primitive offices. Origi¬
nally, all were obliged to recite the breviary every day ;
but by degrees the obligation was restricted to the clergy
only, who are enjoined, under penalty of mortal sin and
ecclesiastical censures, to recite it at home when they can¬
not attend in public. In the fourteenth century a particu¬
lar reservation was granted in favour of bishops, who were
allowed, on extraordinary occasions, to pass three days
without rehearsing the breviary.
This office was originally called cursus, and afterwards
breviarium, denoting that the old office was abridged, or
rather, that this collection is a kind of abridgment of all the
prayers. The breviaries now in use are innumerable : the
difterence between them consists principally in the number
and order of the psalms, hymns, paternosters, ave-Marias,
creeds, magnificats, misereres, hallelujahs, &c. &c.
The Greek breviary {taxis, euehologion), consists in gene¬
ral of two parts; the one containing the office for the even¬
ing ; the other that of the morning, divided into seven hours.
The psalter is divided into twenty parts. The Armenians,
and other Eastern churches, have also their own breviaries.
BREVIATOR, an officer under the Eastern empire,
whose business it was to write and translate briefs. Those
also who dictate and draw up the pope’s briefs are styled bre-
viators, or abbreviators.
BREVIARIUM ALARICIANUM, or Breyiarium
Aniani. See Civil Law.
BREWER, Anthony, a dramatic poet, in the reign of
James I. He appears to have been in high estimation among
the wits of that time, as may be gathered from a compliment
paid to him in a poem called Steps to Parnassus, in which
he is supposed to have a magic power of calling the muses to
his assistance, and is even set on an equality with Shak-
speare himself. He wrote six plays ; in one of which, called
Linguce, or the Five Senses, Oliver Cromwell (according
to Winstanley) acted, when a youth at Cambridge, the part
of Tactus or Touch.
L
B R E
Brewer, one who professes the art of brewing,
are companies of brewers in most capital cities:
London was incorporated in 1427 by Henry VI.
There
that of
B R E
The following table shows the number of licensed brewers Brewing,
in the United Kingdom during the year 1850, and the sums
paid for the license.
Brewers of Strong Beer not
exceeding 20 barrels 
Exceeding 20, under 50
», 50, „ 100
„ 100, ,, 1000
,, 1000, and upwards,
Brewers of Table Beer 
ENGLAND.
Number. Amount of Duty.
8,579
8,364
9,234
15,806
1,517
400
L.4,503 19 6
8,782 4 0
14,543 11 0
33,192 12 0
15,200 6 6
272 9 6
SCOTLAND.
Number. Amount of Duty.
47
23
29
125
77
22
L.24 13 6
24 3 0
45 13 6
262 10 0
893 16 3
28 7 0
IRELAND.
Number.
10
2
1
20
62
2
Amount of Duty.
L.5 5 0
2 2 0
1 11 6
42 0 0
937 2 6
2 12 6
BREWING.
Brewing is the art of preparing an exhilarating or intoxi¬
cating bev erage by means of a process of fermentation ; but
at the present day the term is usually limited to the manu¬
facture of different kinds of beer, from infusions of malt or
of grains.
In all countries, savage and civilized, one kind or other
of exhilarating or intoxicating drink is prepared. In the
warmer regions of the globe the juice of various palm trees is
extracted, and, when fermented, forms the favourite beve¬
rage. Over all the warmer regions of South America, and
in Mexico, the universal drink is Pulque, the fermented
juice of the American aloe {Agave americana). Guarapo,
a favourite drink with the negro races, is the fermented
juice of the sugar-cane ; and when the sugar-cane is not in
season, these races prepare fermented drinks from honey
and from rice. In many northern countries, and even occa¬
sionally in the highlands of Scotland, the juices of the
birch, maple, or ash, are fermented and form a palatable
drink. Koumis, the intoxicating beverage of the Mongols
and the Tartars, is the fermented milk of the mare. In
countries favourable to the growth of the vine, wine is
the usual beverage. The Peruvians and many other In¬
dians prepare their favourite intoxicating drink, chicha, from
maize. The Arabians, Abyssinians, and several tribes in
Africa, prepare their fermented drink, bousa, from the flour
or bread made from teff {Poa abyssiaica); but the durrha
or millet {Sorghum vulgare),mv,\ even barley itself, are occa¬
sionally substituted for the teff to prepare the muddy sour
bousa. The universal Russian beverage kvass or quass, a
sharp, acid, muddy liquid, almost the same in taste and ap¬
pearance as “ bousa,” is made by mixing rye-bread or rye-
flour, or sometimes barley flour, with water, and fermenting
it. The well -known national German drink, the iceiss-bier,
is prepared from a fermented infusion of wheat malt with
only a sixth part of barley malt. But over almost all the
civilized world, the fermented infusion of barley malt, sea¬
soned or not with hops or other bitters, when it takes the
name of beer, is the favourite beverage.
All ancient Greek writers agree in assigning'the honour of
the discovery of beer to the Egyptians; but from the circum¬
stance of no notice being taken of beer in the books of Moses,
it has been rather rashly concluded that such a drink was un¬
known to them till after his death. This, however, is unlikelv.
The vine was alone cultivated in Egypt in those districts
which were beyond the reach of the inundations ; and the
quantity of wine raised being limited was reserved for the
rich, while the poorer classes had to content themselves
with a cheaper drink prepared from barley. Herodotus,
who wrote about 450 years b.c., is perhaps the earliest
writer who gives any particulars regarding Egypt, and he
describes beer prepared from barley as the ordinary drink
of the Egyptians in his day. Pliny, Aristotle, Strabo, and
others, who mention that this beer was known by the name
of Zythos, give full descriptions of its qualities and intoxi¬
cating properties; and Diodorus even affirms that some
kinds were so palatable as to be scarcely inferior to wine.
The researches of Sir J. G. Wilkinson relative to the an¬
cient Egyptians have thrown much light on this subject,
and render it probable that beer was used as a drink by the
ancient Egyptians nearly as early as wine itself, Xeno¬
phon, in his account of the retreat of the ten thousand
Greeks 400 years B.c„ mentions that the inhabitants of
Armenia used a fermented drink made from barley, Dio¬
dorus Siculus states, that the nation of Galatia prepared a
fermented drink from barley, styling it zythus, like the
Egyptians. Beer was distinguished among the Greeks by
a variety of names. It was called oivos KplOivos (barley wine),
from its vinous properties, and from the material employed
in its formation. In Sophocles, and probably in other Greek
writers, it is distinguished by the name of fipvroy. Diosco-
rides describes two kinds of beer, to one of which he gives
the name £v#os, and to the other Kovpp.L; but he gives no
description of either sufficient to enable us to distinguish
them from each other. Both, he informs us, were made from
barley, and similar liquors were manufactured in Spain and
Britain from wheat.
Tacitus informs us that in his time beer was the com¬
mon drink of the Germans, and from his imperfect descrip¬
tion of the process which they followed, it is not unlikely,
or rather there can be no doubt, that they were acquainted
with the method of converting barley into malt. Pliny gives
us some details respecting beer. He distinguishes it by the
name of cerevisia or cervisia, the appellation by which it is
known in modern Latin works.
This beverage does not appear to have come into general
use in Greece or Italy; but in Germany and Britain, and
some other countries, it appears to have been the common
drink of the inhabitants in the time of Tacitus, and probably
long before. It has continued in these countries ever since ;
and great quantities of beer are still manufactured in Ger¬
many, the Low Countries, and Britain. We might quote
numerous passages from the narratives of recent travellers
to show that the use of a drink prepared from barley is
nearly universal over the northern and temperate parts of
Europe and Asia. One of the latest of these travellers,
M. Hue, the French missionary, remarks that the drink of
the farmers in Tibet is “a sort of sharp drink made with
fermented barley, which, with the addition of hops, would
be very like our beer.”
The first treatise published on the subject, so far as we
know, was by Basil Valentine. This treatise, according to
Boerhaave, is both accurate and elegant. In the year 1585,
BREWING. 319
Brewing. Thaddeus Hagecius ab Hayck, a Bohemian writer, pub-
lished a treatise entitled l)e Cerevisia ejusque conficiendi
ratione, natura, viribus et facultatibus. This treatise, con¬
sisting only of fifty pages, is written with great simplicity
and perspicuity, and gives a wonderfully accurate descrip¬
tion of the process of brewing. In the earlier part of the
eighteenth century, Mr Combrune, a practical London
brewer, published a work entitled The Theory and Practice
of Brewing. Mr Combrune appears to have the merit of
having first showed the value of the thermometer in brew¬
ing. Before his day it never appears to have been used, and
it was not till towards the end of the century that brewers
could be persuaded to make use of what they deemeda scien¬
tific toy. As might be expected, Mr Combrune’s theory
of brewing appears to us, with our modern knowledge, very
unsatisfactory; and, from the same cause, his experiments on
the heats at which malts are coloured are of no value at the
present day. He did not attend to the fact, that when the
water is properly expelled from the malt before the heat is
raised, it can endure, without being coloured, a much higher
heat than if the heat be raised upon it while it is yet full of
moisture. His work, however, did much to advance the
art, and ran through several editions.
In the year 1784, Mr Richardson of Hull published his
Theoretic Hints on Brewing Malt Liquors, and also Sta¬
tistical Estimates of the Materials of Brewing, shoiving the
use of the Saccharometer. These works are reprehensible
on account of the air of mystery with which the subject is
invested, and the avowal of the author that he conceals cer¬
tain parts of the processes. Mr Richardson, however, de¬
serves praise for the invention of the saccharometer, which
he appears to have been the first to have brought publicly
before the notice of the brewer. It is, however, disputed
whether the merit of suggesting the use of the hydrometer
to ascertain the strength of the wort is due to him or to
Mr Baverstock. Mr Baverstock first endeavoured to regu¬
late the strength of his worts by the hydrometer in 1768, and
had arrived at such satisfactory results by the year 1770,
that in February of that year Mr Thrale, the celebrated
brewer at Southwark, and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson,
gave Mr Baverstock a certificate of its value in ascertaining
the strength of worts in brewing, from experiments con¬
ducted by Mr Baverstock in his (Mr T.’s) brewery. It was
not, however, till Nov. 1785, that Mr Baverstock published
his Hydrometrical Observations and Experiments in the
Breweries; so that Mr Richardson has the merit of first
bringing his altered hydrometer, which he termed saccha-
rometet, before the notice of the public.
The saccharometer is an instrument essential to every
brewer, to enable him to ascertain the strength of his wort,
and the proportion of saccharine or fermentable matter which
it contains. Mr Richardson’s saccharometer was constructed
on the principle that a barrel of water of 36 gallons wreighed
360 lb., and that if that quantity of water were converted
into wort, and again weighed, the difference would show the
weight of extractive matter which had been dissolved out of
the mah. His saccharometer, therefore, was graduated so
as to exhibit one degree for every pound weight which a
barrel of wort weighed more than a barrel of pure water.
His indications, however, were not quite correct, because he
did not advert to the fact, that if a certain number of pounds
weight of saccharine matter be dissolved in water, they will
displace a certain bulk of water, so that the barrel of water
when converted into wort, will fall short of the anticipated
weight by the weight of water displaced, and for which there
is no room in the barrel.
Various saccharometers have therefore been constructed
with the view of correcting this error, and the different ones
now in use may be classed under two heads, according to
the modes in which their scales are calculated. 1. Those
constructed on Richardson’s principle of showing the differ¬
ence in weight between a barrel of pure water, and the same brewing,
water converted into wort, but making allowance for the 'v'*—
water displaced—such are the saccharometers of Dring and
Fage, and of Long. 2. Those constructed on the principle of
indicating the specific gravity of the wort, that of pure water
being reckoned 1000—such are the saccharometers of Allan
in Scotland, and of Bate in England. There cannot be a
doubt that the latter are the more correct in principle ; and,
accordingly. Allan’s and Bate’s instruments are the legal sac¬
charometers for excise purposes in Great Britain. It is easy
in practice to reduce, in a general way, the indications of the
one saccharometer to that of the other. If we wish to re¬
duce the specific gravity, as indicated by Allan’s or Bate’s in¬
struments, to Dring’s or Long’s scale, we have only to divide
the specific gravity by 2‘77; and, on the other hand, if we
wish to convert the indications of Long’s scale into the specific
gravities of Allan, we multiply the indicated pounds by 2’77.
The first step in the application of science to brewing
having been thus made by the use of the thermometer to
regulate the temperature, and of the saccharometer to regu¬
late the strength of the wort, the next step was to have the
various processes of malting the barley, mashing or infusing it,
and fermenting the infusion, or “wort,” as it is termed, inves¬
tigated by scientific mien, in order that the scientific principles
on which the whole operations of brewing were dependent
might be discovered, and made known to the brewer for his
guidance. The able report on malting and brewing by Drs
Hope, Coventry, and Thomson, to the Board of Excise in
Scotland, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed
6th June 1806, was the first great step taken in this country
to get science to bear on the operations of the brewer. In¬
dependent researches, meanwhile, were carried on by scien¬
tific men into various points which bore on that trade, and
the researches of Gay-Lussac and Thenard, of EinhofF,
Vogel, Saussure, Proust, Brande, Ure, Payen and Persoz,
Edwards, T. Thomson and R. D. Thomson, Johnston,
Liebig, &c., have combined to explain every chemical change
which takes place in barley during its conversion into malt,
and the various changes which occur in its infusion during
the mashing, boiling, cooling, and fermenting. Scientific
research has thus been brought to bear on every process
of malting and brewing, and has thus been enabled to ex¬
plain most of the causes of failures in any part of these pro¬
cesses, and lay down rides for their regulation.
Among the host of practical writers who during the pre-
serit century have published treatises on malting and brewing,
only two seem to require special notice. Mr William Black
has the merit of having directed the attention of brewers to
the influence of electricity and electro-chemical action in
preventing the fermenting process going on regularly, and
has convincingly shown that in many cases the irregularity
in the process of fermentation, and the consequent more or
less complete destruction of the beer, was caused by elec¬
trical currents being induced from faulty isolation of the
fermenting tun, from chains of pipes of different metals
communicating with the tun acting on its contents like a
galvanic circle, from the tubes or stopcocks used being of
different metals, &c. In his treatise he gives instances where
this occurred, and was remedied by removal of the cause.
Mr Tizard, endeavouring still further to carry the sug¬
gestions of science into the practical department of brew¬
ing, has left the beaten track altogether, and has employed
his talents in inventing and in patenting many new pieces
of machinery for the purpose of carrying out his peculiar
views. So long as he keeps strictly to the results to which
scientific research has led he goes right, but the moment
he leaves these he blunders, and recommends visionary and
impracticable plans which could only end in disappoint¬
ment. His suggestion, that in every case there should be
but one mash, but that mash be continued for six hours at
a regulated temperature, is quite borne out by scientific re-
1
320 BREWING.
Brewing, searches, and cannot fail to reward the brewer who follows
it out. As to his patent machine for regulating the heat,
&c., we think in most cases it could be dispensed with.
His second valuable suggestion, of which we quite approve,
is the boiling or rather infusing at a boiling temperature
the hops by themselves, and when their strength is ex¬
hausted running the wort through them in the hop-back.
Here we think his coil of steam tubes could be adopted with
advantage. And the only other of his suggestions and
practices which seems worthy the attention of the practical
brewer, is to give up boiling the wort altogether, and run the
wort from the mash-tun through the hop-back at once to
the coolers or through refrigerators. All these practical sug¬
gestions conform strictly with the latest scientific investiga¬
tions as to the action of the different ingredients found in the
infusion of malt on one another; and if Mr Tizard did nothing
more than reduce these successfully to practice, he would
deserve the warmest thanks of the trade. We would caution
brewers, however, against adopting or following his plans re¬
lative to underground chambers for his fermenting tuns, &c.
Such would but increase the evils relative to electrical
agency, &c., indicated by Mr Black as so injurious.
Barley is the seed of various species of Hordeum, which
have been cultivated from time immemorial. Two species
of hordeum are cultivated in Britain. The first is the Hor¬
deum distichon, or barley in which the seeds are disposed
on the spike in two rows. This is the species usually cul¬
tivated in England, and in the southern parts of Scotland.
The second is the Hordeum hexastichon, variously styled
over Scotland here and big. In this species the grains are
really disposed in two rows, but as three seeds spring from
the same point, the head appears to have the seeds disposed
in six rows. It is often misnamed, “ four-rowed” barley.
Big is a much more hardy plant than barley, and ripens
more rapidly. Hence it thrives better than barley in cold
high situations. It is on this account that in the higher
districts of Scotland it is sown in preference to barley. A
third species of barley, the Hordeum gymnohexastichon,
though apparently little known in Britain, is the prevailing
kind in the north of Europe, and is said to be the hardiest
of all. There are many varieties of the two-rowed barley,
but those most in repute at present are the Chevalier and
the Annat barleys.
The late Dr Thomson of Glasgow published elaborate
tables of the weight, specific gravity, length, breadth, &c.,
of the grains of different kinds of barley. The general re¬
sult of his experiments was, that the average weight of the
Winchester bushel was 507 lb. {i.e. 52 lb. the imperial
bushel) ; and the average weight of a Winchester bushel
of big, 46‘3 lb. (i. e. 47f lb. the imperial bushel). The spe¬
cific gravity of English barley was T280; of Scotch bar¬
ley, T310; and of big, T247. The average length of the
corn of the best English barley was 0343 of an inch ; of
the best Scotch 0‘346 of an inch ; and of big 0324 of an
inch ; so that the average of all his measurements gave as
nearly as might be the exact third of an inch, which it
ought to be, according to the origin of our measures, as
commonly stated. In consequence of the improvements in
agriculture, and the introduction of new varieties of grain,
the average weight of the barleys is now considerably higher
than that ascertained by Dr Thomson. The average
weight of the best barley in the Haddington and Edinburgh
corn markets is now 54 lb. per imperial bushel; the top
barleys being up to 57 and 58 lb. The cuticle or skin of
the grain forms very nearly a sixth of the weight of the
grain both in English and Scotch barleys. In big, however,
it constitutes between a fourth and a fifth of the entire
weight of the corn.
According to Einhoff, 1000 parts of barley-flour contain
720 of starch, 100 of water, 68 of fibrous or ligneous mat¬
ters, 56 of sugar, 50 of mucilage, 36'6 of gluten, 12-3 of
vegetable albumen, and 2*5 of phosphate of lime. Pro- Brewing ,
fessor Johnston found barley-flour to contain in addition a
quantity of fatty matter which has somewhat the flavour of
spirits prepared from raw grain. His analysis gave in the
100 parts of barley-flour, starch 68, water 14, gluten, albu¬
men, &c., 14; fatty matter 2, saline matter or ash 2.
It is customary to convert barley into malt previous to
using it in the manufacture of beer ; and in order to under¬
stand the reason of this, it is necessary to explain the changes
which malting effects on the substances which enter into
the composition of barley. It may be shortly stated that
malting consists in exciting the grains of barley to germi¬
nate, stopping this germination at a certain stage, and then
drying them in a kiln so as to enable the malt to be stored
up till it is wanted.
When germination or sprouting has been excited in a
grain or corn of barley, besides other, three important
changes occur. First, there is formed at the base of the
sprout a new substance not previously existing in the grain,
to which the name diastase has been given. The exact
composition of this has not yet been accurately ascertained,
but it is generally considered to be a form of transformed
gluten. Secondly, acetic acid (vinegar), not previously
existing, is also found in the grain. And, thirdly, the in¬
soluble starch is found more or less completely changed
into soluble gum, to which the name dextrine has been
given. This change of the insoluble starch into the soluble
dextrine is mainly produced through the agency of the
diastase, aided no doubt by the acetic acid. But this is not
all. The combined action of the diastase and acetic acid
on the dextrine causes it gradually to become sweet, and
assume the form of sugar; and because its chemical pro¬
perties then resemble the sugar which naturally exists in
grapes, the name grape sugar has been given to it. This
then is the function of the diastase and acetic acid in the
process of germination, and of course in malting, to convert
the starch into sugar, and thus prepare it for undergoing
the brewer’s fermenting process, which changes it into al¬
cohol. In all these changes the diastase is the most im¬
portant agent, and experiment has shown that one part
of diastase can convert 2000 parts of starch into grape
sugar.
Now all these conversions of starch into dextrine and
grape sugar may be imitated by several simple chemical
processes. Thus, exposing starch gradually to a heat of
300°, changes it into dextrine (starch-gum, and British-
gum, as it is called by the calico-dyers, who use it largely),
and the gum thus prepared has often a sweet taste, from
some of it having passed into the form of grape sugar.
When starch and water are boiled together, the boiling
converts the starch into dextrine (it is this with which linens
are stiffened), but if the boiling be continued for some time,
the fluid will be observed to get thin and watery, and ac¬
quire a sweet taste from the dextrine assuming the form of
grape sugar. By boiling starch in dilute sulphuric acid the
same change is effected, and the solution may be obtained
pure by adding chalk or lime, which combines with and
carries down the acid. This transformation is very rapidly
effected if the agency of the acid be increased by elevation
of temperature. Thus, 1 lb. of commercial sulphuric acid
mixed with 600 lb. of water, will convert 100 lb. of starch
into grape sugar in three hours if the temperature be raised
by pressure to 250°. This process is actually extensively
followed in France with potato starch, for the purpose of
subsequently fermenting it and converting it into brandy.
Starch and dextrine have exactly the same chemical con¬
stitution, being composed of 12 atoms carbon, 10 atoms
hydrogen, and 10 atoms oxygen. Grape sugar, again, is
composed of 12 atoms carbon, 11 atoms hydrogen, and 11
atoms oxygen ; so that the difference between grape sugar
and starch is simply the addition of one atom of water.
BREWING.
Brewing.
We shall have occasion afterwards to notice the change
which grape sugar undergoes when changed by the process
of fermentation into alcohol.
It is thus apparent that the object to be accomplished by
the malting of barley, is to convert the insoluble starch into
the soluble dextrine and grape sugar. But in the process of
malting, as we shall immediately see, barley loses a con¬
siderable portion of its solid ingredients, viz., from 8 to 12 per
cent. As, however, it has been ascertained that one part
of diastase is capable of converting into grape sugar 2000
parts of starch, it might be worth the brewer’s consideration
whether it would not be advantageous, and a saving to him,
to use only a fourth or fifth part of malt, and the rest of un¬
malted grain. We should not propose to use raw grain as
is done by the distiller, for this would impart a disagreeable
flavour to the beer, but barley, which had been exposed on
the kiln to a temperature of about 300°, which would insure
the whole starch being converted into dextrine. That even
raw grain may be used advantageously in brewing, the prac¬
tice of the Edinburgh brewers at one time abundantly testi¬
fied ; for they brewed better small-beer from raw grain than
from malt, till they were stopped by the Court of Exchequer
on arbitrary grounds, with which we could not coincide.
Dr Thomson, however, showed that raw grain could not be
used for the finer ales, as it imparted a peculiar and disagree¬
able flavour to them. This disagreeable flavour, however,
we have no doubt would be quite got the better of by using
barley, kiln-dried at 300°, and prove a considerable saving
to the brewer.
A duty was first charged upon malt during the troubles of
Charles I.’s reign. But it continued moderate till the war
with France in 1803. It was then raised to the following
sums per bushel:—
English malt  L.O 4 4 or 100
Malt of Scotch barley  0 3 8^ or 84-856
Malt of Scotch big  0 3 0 or 69-472
But two shillings^ of this tax was to continue only till the
end of the war, and for six months after its conclusion. In
consequence of this very heavy tax several regulations were
imposed upon the maltster, with a view of facilitating the
levying of the duty, and to prevent him from defrauding the
revenue. The most important of these were, That the bar¬
ley should remain in the cistern in which it was steeped with
water for a period of not less than 40 hours ; and that when
the malt was spread on the floor the maltster should not be
permitted to sprinkle any water upon it, or sprinkle the
floor. This last was found to be a restriction which inter¬
fered materially with the malting, and on the repeated re¬
monstrances of the maltsters in different parts of the king¬
dom a parliamentary inquiry was instituted ; but liberty to
sprinkle the malt on the floors was not granted till 1838,
when the Act 1st Viet. cap. 49, sect. 7, declared “ Maltsters
may sprinkle any floor of grain which has been kept in the
cistern covered with water the full space of fifty hours, at
the end of six days, or 144 hours, on giving 24 hours notice
to the officer of excise.”
Since 1840 the malt duties have been as follows: For
malt from barley in any part of the United Kingdom 2s. 7d.
per bushel, and 5 per cent, additional, making in all 2s. S^d.
per bushel. For malt made from big or here in Scotland or
Ireland 2s. per bushel, and 5 per cent, additional, equal alto¬
gether to 2s. l^d., per bushel. The 5 per cent, was imposed
in 1840 on all custom and excisable articles, except spirits.
The following table shows the quantity of malt prepared
in England, Scotland, and Ireland, during the years 1847
to 1850, and the amount of duty levied thereon.
ENGLAND.
From
Barley.
From
Barley.
From
Big.
Year. No. of Bushels.
1847
1848
1849
1850
1847
1848
1849
1850
1847
1848
1849
1850
30,269,963
31,848,455
33,161,088
34,423,489
Duty Levied.
L.4,105,363 12 8
4,319,446 13 10
4,497,472 9 8
4,668,685 9 1
SCOTLAND.
3,338,285
3,647,835
3,842,762
4,295,032
312,158
379,099
354,164
344,127
L.452,755 2
494,738 0
521,174 15
582,513 10
32,776 14
39,805 11
37,292 7
36,133 10
Of
0
7
6
li
1
11
1
IRELAND.
From
Barley.
From
Big.
1847
1848
1849
1850
1847
1848
1849
1850
No. of Bushels.
Duty Levied.
1,277,359
1,529,581
1,458,211
1,550,616
110,046
140,936
118,189
131,486
L.173,241 19 10i
207,449 13 0
197,770
210,302
11,555
14,798
12,410
13,806
1 51
8 0
0 5
0 11
321
Brewing.
The quantities of malt made in Great Britain and Ire¬
land during the years ending 5th January 1853 and 1854
were respectively 5,134,061, and 5,254,968 quarters.
From the revenue returns we learn that in Great Britain
in 1850, the malt license was taken out by 8362 persons ;
besides 18 roasters of malt, and 25 dealers in roasted malt.
Malting consists of four processes, which follow each
other in regular order : steeping, couching, flooring, and
kiln-drying.
Steeping takes place in a large square cistern made of
wood or stone, which is filled with water to a certain height,
when the quantity of barley to be malted is shot into it in
successive portions, each portion being well stirred about
with rakes, for the double purpose of levelling the surface of
the malt and getting rid of the lighter grains which float.
Within the last fifteen years the improved cultivation of the
soil, and the new varieties of barleys have done away with
the necessity of skimming off the light grains. When
the whole quantity of barley is introduced the grains should
still be covered with four or five inches of water. Some
maltsters introduce the grain first into the steep cistern,
VOL. v.
and then run on the water; with the heavier barley it is of
little consequence which plan is adopted. Here the barley
is allowed to remain from 40 to 72 hours, according to the
temperature and the kind of barley—big requiring least
steeping, new barley the most. To prevent the water be¬
coming acescent or putrid, it is advantageous to renew it
once or twice during the steeping, particularly if the weather
be warm. The temperature of the water should always be
from 50° to 55° Fahr. During the steeping the barley im¬
bibes about half its weight of water, and increases about a
fifth in bulk, that is to say, 100 lb. of barley after steeping
would weigh 147 lb., and 100 bushels of barley would
then measure about 122 bushels. The water in which the
barley has been steeped acquires an odour resembling that
of damp straw, and a yellowish colour from colouring matter
dissolved out of the barley skin, which thereby acquires a
paler hue. Some carbonic acid is at the same time evolved,
which remains dissolved in the steep-water. The object of
steeping the barley in the water is to furnish moisture to the
farina of the grain, and prepare it for germination in the
same way as the moisture of the earth would, were the grain
2 s
322 BEE W I N G.
Brewing, sown in it. Cai*e must therefore be taken not to continue
the barley too long in the steep. Maltsters judge of this in
a very simple way. If a barley-corn pressed between the
finger and thumb continues entire in the husk, it is not suf¬
ficiently steeped, but if the flour can be easily squeezed out
it is ready for removal. If, however, the farina exudes in
the form of a milky juice, it has been oversteeped, and the
barley is spoiled for malting purposes.
While the barley is in the steep-cistern it is repeatedly
gauged by the excise-officer for the purpose of preventing
fraud, and of calculating the quantity of malt which will
probably be yielded by it. As 100 bushels of good barley
usually swell to 122 bushels, or very nearly in the propor¬
tion of 9 to 11, this is allowed for in the excise measure¬
ments.
The steeping being completed, the water is drawn off
from the cistern, and the barley drained, when it is trans¬
ferred to the couching-frame.
Formerly the couch-frame was allowed to be constructed
of moveable boards, but since the 2d July 1827 it is by
law inquired to be made with “ the sides and bottoms
thereof straight and at right angles to each other, having
three of such sides permanently fixed, and the other side
formed of moveable planks at least two inches in thickness,”
and must not exceed 28 inches in depth. In this couch-
frame the barley is carefully levelled, and is not allowed to
be touched for a period of 24 hours from May to August,
and 26 hours from August to May, to enable the excise-
officer to gauge it accurately. The malt duty is usually
levied on the couch-gauge, because it is there the malt usu¬
ally acquires its greatest bulk. The sole object of placing the
barley in the couch-frame is to enable the excise-officer to
gauge it; it is otherwise no essential stage of the malting
process.
At the end of 24 hours during the summer, or 26 hours
during the winter months, from the period of its removal
from the steep-cistern, the barley, which has begun to ac¬
quire increase of temperature, is removed from the couch-
frame, and spread on the floor in square heaps about 16
inches in depth. For several hours after the grain is in the
couch-frame no perceptible increase of temperature occurs,
but the moisture on the surface of the grains gradually
exhales or is absorbed, so that the grains cease to moisten
the hand. After this the heat gradually rises, and it is to
prevent the heat increasing too rapidly, and to heat the
whole grains equally, that the barley is turned out upon the
floor.
On the floor the temperature of the heap gradually rises
till it is about 10° above that of the surrounding air, which
usually happens about 96 hours after it has been thrown out
of the steep. An agreeable odour, somewhat resembling that
of apples, is now exhaled, and if‘the hand be thrust into the
heap the grains are found to have become so moist as to wet
the hand. The appearance of this stage is called “ sweat¬
ing” by the maltsters, and it is at this stage that germina¬
tion begins. Up to this period the heaps of grain had been
daily turned, in order to bring all the grains equally forward,
and also to moderate the heat.
If the barley is now examined, it will be' found that the
radicles or roots are sprouting from the tip of every grain.
At first these have the appearance of a white prominence,
which soon, however, increases in length, and divides itself
into three or more fibrils.. Unless the growth were now
checked, these rootlets would increase in length with great
rapidity ; the great aim of the maltster, therefore, is to keep
these as short as possible till the grain be sufficiently malted,
h or this purpose the heaps of grain are turned over at least
twice every day, the grains lying at the bottom and interior
of the heap being at each turning thrown to the surface.
With the same view the depth of the bed of grain is also re¬
duced at each successive turning, till at last it is reduced to
three or four inches. The number and frequency of the Brewing
turnings is regulated by the temperature of the malt, being v-fc.
more frequent the higher its temperature. In England the
malt heap is generally kept at the temperature of 62° ; and
fourteen days is the usual period required for the grain pass¬
ing through the germinating stage. In Scotland, on the
other hand, the temperature of the malt heap is kept at
about 55°, and the consequence is, that the grain takes from
16 to 20 days to pass through the same stages.
About a day after the rootlets appear, the rudiment of
the stem, or the plumula, becomes perceptible. This is
called by maltsters the “ acrospire.” It issues from the same
end of the seed as the radicles, but, instead of piercing the
husk, turns round, and proceeds within the husk to the other
end of the grain. As soon as the acrospire approaches the
other end of the grain, or its point has passed four-fifths of
the grain, its further growth must be arrested, else it would
push through the husk and appear externally as a green
leaf, when the interior of the grain would become milky,
and be quite destroyed for the purposes of the brewer. In
well-made malt then the acrospire has only advanced four-
fifths up the side of the grain under the skin, and the radi¬
cles have not been allowed to get more than one and a half
times longer than the grain ; and at this period the texture
of the grain is so loose that it crumbles to powder under the
pressure of the finger and thumb. This crumbling under
the pressure of the finger and thumb is styled “ the free.”
It is not commonly known, however, that the same condi¬
tion of grain occurs on the ninth or tenth day from its being
turned out of the steep, and this is styled the “ first free,”
and if the malting be stopped at this stage it will make tole¬
rable beer ; but if it be allowed to pass this stage, the grain
again becomes tough, and is quite unfit for brewing till the
“ second free” occurs. There can be no doubt that it is of
importance to the maltster that the law now allows him to
sprinkle water over the malt when on the floor. This is
usually done on the sixth or seventh day if the germination
should appear to be languid. This practice is getting more
and more into repute,—indeed there are seasons when it
would be difficult to make good malt unless moisture were
thus supplied to the grains. During the whole period of
germination the light should be excluded as much as pos¬
sible.
It was formerly the practice before removing the malt
from the floor to gather it once more into a considerable
heap, in order to allow its heat to increase to 75° or 80°,
under the idea of “ mellowing” the malt. Even some late
writers—practical men too—recommended this to be done.
It is a practice which is more honoured in the breach than
the observance, as it causes a useless waste, without forward¬
ing any of the subsequent processes. By thus heating the
grain, after it is ready for the kiln, the malt becomes exces¬
sively sweet, much of the dextrine is resolved into sugar, and
the dry heat to which it is afterwards exposed in the kiln re¬
acting on it, seems to convert some of it into alcohol, which
is carried off and lost. There is thereby caused a sensible
diminution in the weight of the malt, while there is no
counterbalancing advantage gained.
As previously explained, during the malting the starch is
converted into dextrine and grape sugar; and by examining
barley in its different stages of germination, it has been as¬
certained that this conversion keeps pace with the growth
of the acrospire, and advances through the grain along with
it, so that all the portions of the grain to which the acro-
spire has not yet reached, are still in their starchy state,
whilst all those parts opposite to the acrospire have their
starch converted into dextrine and grape sugar. The glu¬
tinous constituents of the grain have also disappeared, being
generally supposed to be taken up by the radicles. While
the grain is on the floor, it has been ascertained that it ab¬
sorbs oxygen, and gives out carbonic acid gas, but probably
B R E W I N G.
Brewing, to no great extent, seeing that the loss which the grain sus-
tains on the floor is trifling, probably not exceeding per
cent., and a considerable proportion of this must be attributed
to grains bruised and roots broken off during the frequent
turnings.
The last operation of malting consists in drying the malt
on the malt-kiln, by which the germination is arrested, and
the brewer is enabled to store up the malt until it is required.
The kiln is a chamber, the floor of which usually consists of
perforated iron plates of wire-cloth, and in the roof of which
is a vent to permit the escape of the heated air and vapour.
Under this chamber is a space in which a fire of charcoal or
coke is lighted ; or this part is fitted up with a proper hot-air
stove in which coals may be burned, the smoke being car¬
ried away into a chimney by means of iron tubes or flues.
Damper plates are in this latter case provided so as to regu¬
late the draught through the flues, and the admission of hot
air to the kiln. The malt is then spread regularly over the
perforated iron floor to the depth of three or four inches, and
the heated air passing through the perforated plates makes its
way through the malt, and carries off its moisture, escaping
at the vent in the roof. The heat to which the malt is ex¬
posed should be about 90°, and should not exceed 100° un¬
til its whole moisture is exhaled. It is a remarkable fact,
that if the heat be raised when the malt is still damp, even
a low temperature, such as 135° or 140°, wall cause it to as¬
sume a brown colour; whereas if the malt be freed from
moisture at a low temperature, it may be exposed even to a
heat of 170° without colouring it, and without depriving it
of its vegetative power. The late Dr Thomson demon¬
strated this fact by first thoroughly drying malt at a tempera¬
ture under 100° and then exposing it to a heat of 175°,
after which he sowed it, and found it vegetated as rapidly as
fresh barley. Till the moisture is thoroughly expelled by
the low heat, the malt requires to be repeatedly turned ; such
at least is the common practice. Mr Black, however, ob¬
jects to this, and asserts that if the current of heated air be
sufficient, no turning is requisite till the malt be dried and
the heat raised, when he turns to prevent burning. As Mr
Black speaks from some experience, we quote his words.
“ We know that the portion of the malt nearest the cover¬
ing of the kiln sometimes feels quite dry, while that on the
top is quite damp ; if, therefore, by turning, we throw this
part of the malt upon the top and the wet to the bottom, the
steam of the wet malt from below must pass through the
drier malt on the top, thus creating double work. The steam
also, by again passing through the drier malt on the top, tends
to render it tough. If the kilns be properly constructed,
turning is not only unnecessary but injurious, until the malt
be nearly ready for removal from the kiln, when several turns,
with a brisk fire, may be necessary to render the dryness of
the malt uniform.”—(P. 22.)
According to the common practice, when the moisture
has been nearly expelled, the temperature is raised to from
145° to 165°, and it should be kept at this temperature till
it has acquired the desired shade of colour, which is com¬
monly a pale yellowish-brown. If the heat be raised when
the malt is moist, its colour is rendered brown, or dark
brown, and the quantity of soluble matter is supposed to be
diminished.
In a properly regulated kiln the drying should not occupy
more than two days. But if the supply of heated air be
great, the whole process of kiln-drying may be finished in
twenty-four hours. After this the fire is withdrawn, to
allow the malt to cool, or it is removed to the floor of an ad¬
joining apartment and allowed to cool there. Often before
removing it, it is well trodden for the purpose of breaking
off the rootlets, or “ comings,” as they are called. At this
period they are very brittle and easily broken off, and they
are afterwards separated from the malt by a sieve or winnow¬
ing machine.
323
A very objectionable practice used to prevail among many B rewing,
provincial maltsters who manufactured for the London market.
When the malt was still hot they sprinkled it wuth water, for
the double purpose, as they imagined, of making it mellow,
and causing it to stand out to its measure when it arrived
at its destination. Such malt, if kept, invariably gets “ slack,”
as it is termed, or damp ; and the worts brewed from it
have a strong tendency to run to acidity. It is not profit¬
able for any brewer to employ such malt.
There are several kinds of malt met with in commerce—
pale malt, amber malt, brown malt, blown malt, and black
or porter malt. The preparation of pale malt has been
already described. That of amber malt consists in raising
the finishing heat a little higher. Brown malt is made and
prepared exactly as pale malt, excepting that before it is
perfectly dried a little water is sprinkled over it when upon
the kiln, and the drying is finished by rapidly raising a
brisk heat under the malt, which is spread thinly on the
floor and constantly stirred.
Blown malt is just a variety of brown malt, and its ma¬
nufacture used to be largely followed by maltsters in and
around London. The malt, when ready for the kiln, is laid
thinly on a kiln floor made of wire-cloth, and is immediately
dried off with blazing wood, straw, or furze, the grain being
constantly turned all the time by men with wooden shovels.
Malt thus rapidly dried has a swollen or “ blown ” appear¬
ance from the swelling of the damp farina in the grain. Its
colour is also more or less brown.
Black or porter malt, called also patent malt, is the legal
colouring matter used in porter-brewing. It is simply malt
roasted in a cylinder of perforated iron over a fire (like
coffee), till the required colour be given. Any kind of
malt may be used for this purpose, so that it is usually pre¬
pared from malt which has been injured in its preparation.
This kind of malt, being so often made of spoiled materials,
is frequently of bad quality. Good black malt should retain
its original size and shape, each grain should be separate,
not adhering in clusters to each other, and its interior
should have a uniform dark chocolate colour. The whole
of the starchy and saccharine matters being converted into
a kind of earomel, this malt does not add to the strength
of the worts, but simply supplies colour and flavour. Brown
and blown malts some supposed to be deficient in extractive
matter to the extent of from 20 to 30 per cent., but the
recent direct experiments of Professors Graham, Hoffmann,
and Redwood, prove that they yield as much extractive
matter as pale and amber malts.
One hundred pounds weight of good barley converted
into pale malt in the above described manner, after being
kiln-dried and sifted, are found on an average to weigh
only 80 lb. But as raw grain, if dried at the same tempe¬
rature, would, according to Dr Thomas Thomson’s experi¬
ments, lose 12 per cent, of moisture, the actual loss of solid
matter which the barley has sustained by malting is only 8
per cent. This loss is thus accounted for by Dr Thomson:—
Carried off by the steep water, per cent.
Dissipated on the floor and kiln, ....3
Roots, 3
Waste (bruised and lost grains), ...
8
Dr R. Dundas Thomson, who made numerous experi¬
ments on malt for the purpose of ascertaining its feeding
and fattening properties, states the loss which barley sus¬
tains in malting to be—
Water,  6'00
Saline matter,  0‘48
Organic matter,  12-52
Total,  19-00
1
324
BREWING.
Brewing. 0r a loss of solid matter one-half greater than that stated
by Dr T. Thomson.
Big sustains a considerably greater loss of weight than
barley when malted, its average loss of weight, according to
Dr Thomas Thomson, amounting to 15 per cent., that of
barley, as above explained, being 8.
The bulk or volume, however, of the malt generally ex¬
ceeds that of the barley used. Thus 100 bushels of Eng¬
lish barley yield on the average 109 bushels of malt. Big,
however, only yields on the average 100^ bushels of malt
for every 100 of raw grain. In our last edition numerous
tables were given of the actual results obtained by malting
barleys of different qualities. To these the reader is re¬
ferred who wishes further particulars on this point.
We still want a good analysis of malt. Proust, indeed,
gives the following comparative analysis of barley and malt,
but the substance he denominates hordein is evidently
starch with fibrous or other insoluble matters.
Barley.
Resin,    1....
Gum,  4....
Sugar,  5....
Gluten,      3....
Starch   32....
Hordein,..,....,.,   55....
Malt.
,. 1
.15
.15
, 1
.56
.12
100
100
Dr R. Dundas Thomson, in his interesting work, Expe¬
rimental Researches on the Food of Animals, gives the
ultimate analysis of barley and of malt, but such facts are of
little interest to the brewer.
Dr Ure’s analysis of barley was a purely practical one,
viz., to determine the quantity of solid extract contained in
malt available for the brewer’s purpose ; and as that is the
best malt for the brewer which yields the largest quantity
of extract, he recommends all malts to be tested for this
before being purchased. His procedure is simple. 100
grains by weight of malt are taken, powdered, and dried for
half-an-hour by the heat from boiling water. They are
then weighed, and the loss in weight shows the quantity of
moisture in the malt. Cold water is then poured over the
powder, and the vessel containing it is heated in the steam
bath, with occasional stirring, for half-an-hour. The husks
and insoluble matters are then drained off and washed with
boiling water; they are then thoroughly dried and weighed.
Their weight gives the insoluble matter in the malt. The
residue of the weight, therefore, is the weight of the soluble
extract available for the brewer. As the result of several
experiments on good malt, he found the average to be in
100 parts by weight-—
Moisture,      6'5
Insoluble matter, ,  26'7
Soluble extract  ...........GG’S
100-0
According to these practical experiments, if we assume
that a quarter of malt weighs 324 lb., then the total
soluble extract would amount to 213-84‘lb. avoirdupois;
but as the gum and sugar, in assuming the fluid form, com¬
bine with the elements of water, if the extract were dried
it would weigh 231 lb., and, reduced to the basis of the
barrel of 36 gallons, becomes in the language of the brewer
87 lb. per barrel of 36 gallons, which merely means that
the wort from a quarter of malt, if evaporated down to the
bulk of a barrel of 36 gallons, would weigh 87 lb. more
than a barrel of pure water. These experiments of Dr
Ure correspond very closely with the actual yield of extract
at two of the greatest London breweries. He was informed
by a gentleman connected with these breweries, that the actual
average yield was 84 lb. of saccharine extract for every quar¬
ter of malt; and if we consider that by the present modes of Brewing,
mashing the whole extract is not obtained, we shall see that the
correspondence of the results could scarcely have been closer.
I he following table shows the quantities of malt brewed
by the undermentioned London houses during each year,
from 1849 to 1853 inclusive.
Trueman, Hanbury, & Co.
Barclay, Perkins, & Co....
Meux & Co,..., 
Reid & Co 
Whitbread & Co, 
Combe & Co  
Hoare & Co 
Elliot, Watney, & Co 
Calvert & Co.   
Mann, Crossman, & Co....
Charrington, Head, & Co.
Taylor, Walker, & Co.
Goding & Co 
Courage & Co 
Wood & Co   
Tubb, Wilks, & Cowell
Amsinck & Matthews.
1849.
Qrs.
105,022
115,542
59,617
56,640
51,800
43,282
29,558
28,630
24,030
22,023
15,870
13,064
14,469
9,973
8,015
1850.
Qrs.
106,462
113,420
60,302
56,530
51,400
45,008
30,660
33,874
25,265
22,022
15,925
15,143
14,950
9,989
8,296
185f.
Qrs.
118,366
126,932
65,117
59,550
52,213
48,692
31,831
32,728
35,420
28,690
25,350
16,250
16,821
15,753
9,920
8,605
665
1852.
Qrs.
112,494
124,416
66,296
60,100
53,236
47,304
33,769
36,222
32,310
30,881
26 366
17,660
16,959
16,014
10,500
9,701
2,568
1853,
Qrs.
140,090
129,382
66,509
63,450
39,617
39,131
34,730
22,110
17,515
16,481
12,484
9,615
Besides malt, the only other solid ingredient used in
brewing is the hop. This is the female catkin of the Humu-
lus Lupulus, a plant belonging to the natural order Urticece,
and the Linnaean order Dicecia pentandria. The hop was
introduced into England from Flanders about the year
] 524, and its cultivation rapidly increased in the southern
counties. The most extensive plantations are in Kent,
Sussex, and Herefordshire, but they are also cultivated suc¬
cessfully in several other counties. The female flowers,
placed on different plants from the males, grow in ovoid
cones, and consist of scales which have at their base the
germ of the future seed. The fruit of the hop is a small
rounded seed enveloped in a scaly calix, which contains at
its base a granular yellow substance which appears to the
eye like fine dust. This secretion is the valuable part of
the hop on which its peculiar properties depend, and
amounts to about one-eighth of the weight of the hop.
When distilled with water, this substance yields 2 per cent,
of a volatile colourless oil, to which the plant owes its aroma,
52 per cent, of the powder consists of a resin soluble in al¬
cohol ; and the watery solution from which the resin has
been separated consists of a peculiar bitter principle termed
lupuline, mixed with tannin and malic acid. The lupuline
when purified, amounts to from 8 to 12 per cent., and pos¬
sesses the characteristic taste and bitterness of the hop.
The catkins of the hop ripen in September, when they
are picked from the bines, and are carefully dried on kilns.
They are then laid in heaps on the floor until they slightly
heat, immediately on which being observed they are “ bag¬
ged.” This is the most important operation for the preser¬
vation of their virtues. The hops are thrown into the bags
in successive layers, each layer being well trampled down ;
and to render access of air to the fine resinous dust of the
catkins still more difficult, it is usual to compress them still
further by means of a screw or hydraulic press. The valu¬
able yellow powder with its essential oil is thus preserved
for years. The best hops have a golden-yellow colour and
an agreeable aroma. When rubbed between the hands
they leave a yellow odoriferous powder on them without
any broken parts of the plant, and they yield to boiling al¬
cohol from nine to twelve per cent, of soluble yellow matter.
This last is the best test of their good quality, and should
always be made before purchasing them.
The hop is a very precarious crop, the produce of some
years failing to the extent of fully two-thirds, as even the
following short table will show. In 1840 the failure of the
hop crop was so great, that only 7,114,917 lb. weight paid
duty in England. The duty on hops is 2d. per pound, and
BREWING.
325
Brewing. 5 per cent, additional. The duty however does not extend
i^ ^ / to Ireland. The following table, from the latest revenue
returns, shows the number of pounds weight of hops which
paid duty in England during the years 1848 to 1853 in¬
clusive, the amount of duty levied thereon, and the number
of acres of land under crop during each of these years:—
Year.
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
Acres.
49,232
42,798
43,125
43,244
46,157
49,367
Pounds of Hops.
44,343,984
16,650,914
48,537,669
27,042,919
51,102,494
31,751,693
Amount of Duty.
L.388,007 3 8
145,693
424,702
236,623
447,144
277,824 16
9
0
10
1^
J-4
9
During the past year foreign hops have been largely used
by some brewers, even in the manufacture of the finest de¬
scriptions of ales. In consequence, however, of not possess¬
ing the rich flavour of the English hops, they have not as
yet been used alone for the finer liquors, but mixed in
various proportions, from a third to a sixth, with all the best
kinds of English hops. Were more attention paid to the
drying and packing of these hops they would be much more
largely used than at present. The prejudice, however, which
formerly existed against their use is gradually dying out;
and when a strong bitter is required, as in India ale, with
only a certain amount of flavour, it is found that the fla¬
vour may be given by one kind of hop, and the bitter by
another, without in the least deteriorating the quality of the
liquor. During the year 1852 there were only 34,622 lb.
weight of foreign hops imported into Britain ; but during the
year 1853 the imports of foreign hops had increased to
4,739,307 lb. weight.
The water used in brewing should in every case be the
purest spring water which can be had. Recent chemical
researches have established that many of the old notions
with regard to the water are fallacious. River water when
pure possesses no superiority over pure spring water;
whereas if impute, or loaded with animal and vegetable
matters in decomposition, as is the I hames water, it is a
decided loss to the brewer, as the vegetable and animal re¬
mains are decomposed during the process of brewing, and
carry with them some portion of the strength of the
wort, besides rendering the wort and the beer more liable
to go wrong. \Vaters which possess a certain amount of
hardness are even not objectionable, as the earthy salts, to
which the hardness is owing, are precipitated during the
process of brewing; in fact, some of the finest ales are
made of waters decidedly hard, but free from vegetable and
animal impurity.
Brewing properly consists of five successive processes, viz.,
1. Mashing ; 2. Boiling ; 3. Cooling ; 4. Fermenting ; 5.
Cleansing; and to these might perhaps be added Storing
and Racking.
Mashing consists in infusing the malt in water of a cer¬
tain temperature ; and the infusion when run off is termed
the “ wort.” Previous to the malt being introduced into
the mash-tun it must be bruised or coarsely ground, but it
is now generally admitted that bruising the malt in the
crushing-mill, where it is passed between two iron cylinders,
answers best for the brewer’s purpose. If the malt were
ground it would be apt to form a cohesive paste with the
hot water when it is mashed (called “setting” by the brewer),
when it would be difficult to drain. In the crushed malt,
however, the husk remains entire, and thus helps to keep
the farinaceous particles accessible to the solvent action of
the water. Crushed malt is about a fifth part greater in
bulk than whole malt, or four bushels of malt after being
crushed would measure five bushels. Some brewers recom¬
mend that the malt after it is crushed should be kept in a
cool place for a day or two, in order that, by attracting mois¬
ture from the air, it may be more easily mashed; and Dr
Ure, from experiments made for the purpose of ascertain¬
ing whether this was or was not in favour of the malt, re- ^Brewing,
commends the practice.
The mash-tun is a large wooden tub with a double bot¬
tom, the uppermost of which is moveable, and is pierced with
holes, and is fixed a few inches above the other. Into the
space between the two bottoms are fixed the ends of the
tubes and stopcocks for letting in water or drawing off the
wort. The mash-tun ought always to be at least one-third
larger than the bulk of the malt to be used.
The temperature of the water which is let into the mash-
tun is of no small importance. The researches of Payen
and Persoz have demonstrated that the action of the diastase
in the conversion of starch and dextrine into sugar is most
perfect when the temperature is not lower than 158°, and
not higher than 167°. If raised much higher, the change
of the dextrine into sugar does not take place, the starch
remaining in the state of dextrine. The water in the boiler
is therefore usually heated to about 170’ or 180°, and run
into the mash-tun generally in the proportion of a barrel
and a half of water (liquor, as the brewers term it) for each
quarter of malt. The malt, as it is slowly poured in, is
thoroughly mixed with the water by means of oars and
rakes, to prevent it forming clots, which it is apt to do if the
temperature of the water be high. In many breweries now
a machine is fixed in the mash-tun, provided with oars and
rakes which are moved by steam-power, and is found to
answer well. After the malt has been thoroughly mixed,
an additional quantity of warm water is thrown in from be¬
low, when the tun is covered over and allowed to remain
from to 3 hours. In many of the great London breweries
the practice followed is to run into the mash-tun a certain
proportion of water at the temperature of 145° in summer,
or 167° in winter, and gradually throw in the malt, and mix
it by proper agitation so that it may be properly moistened
and no lumps may remain. The quantity of water is usually
in the proportion of 1 ^ barrel to the quarter of malt. This
takes up from half an hour to three-quarters of an hour, after
which about two-thirds more water (or a barrel per quarter
of malt) is run into the mash at the temperature of 200°,
and the agitation is renewed till the whole is thoroughly
mixed. The mean temperature of the mash may be reckoned
about 145°. The tun is then covered and allowed to re¬
main at rest for an hour or an hour and a half. After this
period the infusion of malt, or “ wort” as it is called, is run
off into a large vessel called the underback.
By this plan, if the additional water at 200° be thrown
too suddenly into the mash-tun, there is danger of its de¬
stroying to some extent the chemical agency of the diastase
in the conversion of the starch and dextrine into sugar.
And it is a known fact that the higher the temperature of
the water used for mashing, the greater is the quantity of
unchanged starch in the wort.
Mr Tizard has lately endeavoured to introduce a new
plan of mashing, which seems to possess considerable ad¬
vantages over that in common use. He mashes the malt
in water at the temperature of 160°, no matter what the
temperature of the malt may be, thoroughly stirring and
mixing it; the water being in the proportion of If to 1£
barrel per quarter of malt. The tun is then covered for an
hour and a half, to allow full time for every grain to be fully
saturated. After this period, in order to raise the mash to
that temperature which the researches of Payen and Persoz
showed was best fitted for extracting the soluble matters,
and allowing the diastase its full action in the conversion of
the starch and dextrine into sugar, he heats the mash by
means of steam to the temperature of from 160° to 170°.
This he effects through the agency of what he calls his
“ mashing attemperator,” which he has patented. This
machine is merely the fixed rakes and oars made of hollow
tubing, which he sets in circular motion by means of the
steam-engine, and throws steam into them. The heat thus
326
BREWING.
Brewing, communicated to the mash, through the hollow rakes and
oars, raises the temperature from 130° or 140° to 160° or
170° in about 20 minutes, at which temperature he main¬
tains the mash for 4 or 6 hours according to the colour and
quality of the malt, and the discretion of the brewer. Mr
Tizard holds that this plan possesses several advantages
over that usually followed. It converts more effectually
the whole starch and dextrine into sugar, allowing the dia¬
stase to exert its full chemical power. It extracts a larger
proportion of saccharine matter from the malt. And by re¬
quiring a lesser quantity of water to exhaust the malt, saves
■waste in the subsequent processes by requiring no boiling.
Viewed in a purely chemical light, we should say that Mr
Tizard’s plan seems best adapted to attain the end in view ;
but extended practice can alone decide. It appears to us
that the essential part of his plan is the continuing the
mashing for six hours, and maintaining the temperature at
that height which experiment has shown will most effec¬
tually convert the whole starch into sugar.
We understand that a patent has just been taken out for
a machine which will effect a great saving of labour in
mashing, besides making a superior mash. The hot water
and the crushed malt are poured into it in a continuous
stream, and as it revolves rapidly on the principle of the barrel
churn, these are thoroughly mixed together and discharged
into the mash-tun without any loss either of heat or of time.
By the ordinary plan of mashing, when the first wort is
drawn off into the underback, a second quantity of water is
introduced into the mash-tun from below the malt, usually
at the temperature of 200°, when the whole is agitated and
stirred as before. The quantity of water is usually 3-4ths
of that first used. It is then covered over, and allowed to
stand for an hour. Many brewers now approve of making
their second mash with water not exceeding 150° in tem¬
perature, and think they have improved the quality of their
beer thereby.
While the second mash is making, the first drawn wort is
usually pumped into the boiler, and brought to the boil as
speedily as possible. When the wort from the second mash
is drawn off it is pumped at once into the boiler, and mixes
without stopping the boiling.
Usually a third mash is made with a still smaller quantity
of water, also about 200° in temperature, and, after being
covered up for half an hour is drawn off, and is either
pumped into the boiler, reserved for table beer, or kept to
form the first mash with fresh malt.
When three mashes are made, it is usually found that the
second contains just half as much extract as the first mash,
and the third mash just half as much as the second. In
fact, the first mash seems to have extracted nearly the whole
soluble matters, and the subsequent mashes merely dilute,
and allow to be carried off, the portion of the extract which
had been retained by the grains.
The Scottish-ale brewers, acting on this belief, instead of
making several mashes, usually make but one, of the strength
of about If or 2 barrels to the quarter of malt; and, in order
to procure all the extract retained by the grains, after the
taps are opened below, sprinkle hot water in a continuous
shower (“ sparge,” as they call it) over the surface of the
mash. As this water percolates through the mass of grains
and runs out at the tap below, it carries with it all the soluble
matters of the malt. It is essential for the success of this
process that the surface of the malt should never be allowed
to get dry, otherwise the wet mass of grains falls into cracks,
and the water escapes through them, without exhausting the
malt. The sparger is a very simple in- D
strument. It is a copper tube A B, one-
and-a-halfor two inches in diameter, and
of sufficient length to stretch across the
mash-tun. It is closed at its extremities;
is divided into two equal parts A E and B E, and these have
a single row of holes perforated on their reverse sides. Each
arm of the tube communicates, by means of the tubes E E,
with a copper cup C, which is fixed over the centre; and
from the centre of this cup rises a hollow tube terminating
in the handle D. When about to be used, the wooden bar
G G is fixed across the mash-tun, and the upright pin P in
its centre runs through the circular opening of the trans¬
verse tube, and up the hollow tube in the centre of the cup,
and works on a pivot at the handle. A stream of hot water
of the temperature of 180° is then allowed to pour into the
copper cup, and as it escapes by the single row of horizontal
holes on the opposite sides of each limb, these are turned
round by the resistance which the air opposes to the horizon¬
tal jets of water, and the whole surface of the mash is con¬
tinuously and regularly sprinkled.
When the malt is first mashed the infusion has a milky-
white appearance; but as the mashing goes on, and the
diastase reacts on the dextrine, a fine frothy head appears
all over the mash ; and if it be run off it is found to have
become quite transparent, to have a fine amber colour, a
peculiar smell, and a sweet, luscious taste. When the mash
is made by first wetting the malt and then running in addi¬
tional water, this change is observed to occur when the tem¬
perature is raised by the addition of the hotter water. If,
however, the heat be raised too high—as, for instance, to
190° or 200°—the wort invariably runs cloudy from the
mash-tun, and is found to contain much unchanged starch
and dextrine. The high heat has in this case destroyed the
action of the diastase.
When the mashing is performed according to the Scottish
ale-brewers’ plan, as the wort is run off the colour is observed
to diminish, the smell to become less agreeable, and the taste
less sweet. At last the colour becomes nearly opal, and the
smell sour. The whole soluble portion of the malt has not,
however, been profitably extracted, either by this method
or by the ordinary English plan of three several mashings,
as is proved by the last wort in the English method, and
the last portion of the wort by the Scottish plan, containing
undecomposed starch. We have not had an opportunity of
examining the worts prepared according to Mr Tizard’s
plan; but, from the single circumstance of his infusing his
malt for six hours, and keeping it during the last five of
these at the temperature most favourable for the diastase
converting the whole starch into sugar, we should conclude
that the whole starch was converted into sugar, and that no
portion would pass off undecomposed. Mr Tizard indeed
gives a table, the result of numerous experiments, in demon¬
stration of the superiority of his plan over those usually fol¬
lowed. By examining the mash at the end of every hour,
he found that the quantity of saccharine matter was increas¬
ing up to the end of the sixth hour. Instead, therefore, of
getting at the rate of only 84 lb. per barrel for every quarter
of malt, he got 90 lb.; which extra quantity, in a large
brewery, must be a very large saving annually. Whatever,
therefore, may be thought of his “ Mashing Attemperator,”
there seems to be no doubt that his continuing the mashing
for five or six hours is a decided improvement, and one
strictly in accordance with the latest chemical researches.
By Mr Tizard’s plan the diastase is left in contact with the
starch and dextrine so long as to convert the whole into
sugar; whereas if the diastase be drawn off with the first
mash before it has had time to effect this change, the che¬
mical powers of what is left in the mash are greatly weakened
in the second mash by the running in of water at a tempera¬
ture of 200°, which is known to destroy its chemical action.
If, then, the plan of lengthened infusion be adopted, the
Scottish method of “ sparging” is the proper mode of remov¬
ing the whole of the infusion from the grains. Mr Tizard
has invented and patented a machine to sparge the mash
and also empty the grains out of the mash tun. It appears
to us, however, to possess no advantages over the simple and
Brewing.
BREWING.
Brewing, cheap Scottish sparger, besides being too complicated and
^ too easily put out of order for any ordinary brewery.
The next part of the process is to boil the wort, and it is
when in the boiler that the wort receives the quantity of
hops which gives the beer bitterness and flavour, and renders
it capable of being kept. Brewers in different parts of the
country add their hops in different ways and at different
times. Some add the hops as soon as the wort begins to
boil; others wait for half an hour, when they throw in half
the quantity they purpose to add, and in another half hour
throw in the rest. Some brewers, after adding the hops in
masses, allow them to swim on the surface that the steam
may penetrate them and open their pores before they beat
them down into the wort; others sink them into the wort
inclosed in nets, and when they think their virtues are suf¬
ficiently extracted, draw the nets up, and allow them to drip
into the boiler. As the aroma of the hop depends on the
yellow powder, care should be taken not to lose it by break¬
ing up the masses too much before adding them to the wort.
The quantity of hops added to the wort varies according to
the strength of the beer, the length of time it is intended to
be kept, or the heat of the climate to which it is to be sent.
For the strongest kinds of ale or porter, the usual propor¬
tion is 1 lb. of hops for every bushel of malt, or 8 lb. to
the quarter of malt. Strong beer has about 4^ lb. per.
quarter, and table beer rarely more than 2 lb.; Indian ales,
and beers for exportation, again, require from 12 to 22 lb.
of hops to the quarter of malt.
We have said that the main object in boiling the wort is
to increase its strength by driving off* the superfluous water
which had been added in mashing. Brewers, however,
believe that other important ends are served, viz., that any
residuary starch should by the boiling be converted into
dextrine; that the albuminous and gelatinous particles in
solution may be coagulated and precipitated, partly by the
heat, partly by combining with the tannin of the hops, and
by this deposit tend to clarify the liquor; and that thereby
the keeping qualities of the beer are improved. We shall
immediately see whether any of these supposed purposes
are answered. The boiling is very generally continued for
three hours; but many practical brewers condemn this
lengthened boiling, as thereby the finer and more aromatic
principles of the hops are thrown off, and a nauseous bitter
extracted. They therefore limit the boiling to an hour and
a half. It seems to be an ascertained fact, that a certain
portion of the saccharine extract is lost during the boiling.
Whether this is carried off by the vapour, or whether the
boiling converts a portion of it into alcohol which flies oft*
along with the steam, has not with certainty been deter¬
mined. The amount of condensation in boiling is usually
in the proportion of 1 in 10 per hour. That is to say that
wort of the strength of 50 lb. saccharine extract per barrel
would strengthen 5 lb. per barrel by one hour’s boiling.
When the boiling is finished the boiled wort is drawn off
into a large vessel called the “hop-back,” or “jack-back,”
which is furnished with a double bottom, the uppermost of
which is of cast iron perforated with small holes, through
which the wort drains and leaves the hops.
Mr Tizard objects to boiling the wort at all, condemning
it as a useless and wasteful process ; and, with great reason,
he attributes much of the irregularities which occur during
the fermenting process to injury which the wort receives in
boiling. Chemical experiments have clearly demonstrated,
that to undergo the fermentive stage in perfection, there
should be as much gluten and albuminous matter in the
wort as possible. But the boiling, and especially the boil¬
ing with the hops, is the very surest way to destroy these mat¬
ters, seeing that the heat coagulates and precipitates them,
while the astringent matters in the hop unite with what the
heat might have spared, and throw them down as inert mat¬
ter. But boiling has another hurtful effect on the wort; it
327
quite puts an end to any further conversion of starch or dex- Brewing,
trine into sugar, by destroying the diastase, the essential v"»,/
principle which effects this conversion. By boiling, there¬
fore, all the unconverted starch or dextrine remains in the wort
and subsequent beer in the state of gum, and hence the ten¬
dency to ropiness which such beer exhibits. In support of
his practice of not boiling the wort, Mr Tizard refers to the
fermentation of cider and wine, in neither of which is the
wort boiled before being fermented, yet these liquors are as
clear as beer ever requires to be.
As it is requisite, however, to extract the bitter of the hop
by means of heat, Mr Tizard has patented an apparatus for
the purpose. As he does not boil the wort, the underback
is fitted with a false perforated bottom like that in the mash-
tun, or the old hop-back plates may be used for the same
purpose. Beneath this perforated false bottom, or these
plates, a coil or two of metal tubing is fixed, provided with
a stop-cock, and made to communicate with the steam-
boiler. The hops are spread evenly over this perforated
bottom, and four hours before setting tap, boiling water is
poured over them sufficient to cover them. The vessel is
then covered up and left for an hour. Steam is then passed
through the coil of tubes below the perforated bottom till
the temperature of the water rises to 200°, and it is main¬
tained at this heat for three hours. The wort is then con¬
veyed directly from the mash-tun to the underback, (now
the hop-back), till it stands 6 inches in depth above the per¬
forated floor. The wort is then pumped or run off into the
coolers ; and as the wort is running in from the mash-tun
above the hops, and is draining or being pumped away from
below them, all their virtues are thoroughly extracted and
incorporated with the wort. In this way none of the aroma
of the hop is lost; there is no destruction of saccharine mat¬
ter or of the principles so necessary to a successful fermen¬
tation ; and as the wort is drawn off at once, nearly at the
strength it is wanted, there is no need of prolonged evapo¬
ration to bring it down to the proper density.
Lengthened experience can alone determine in which of
these plans true economy consists. That Mr Tizard’s plan
is the most scientific, and promises to yield the best results,
can scarcely be questioned. And as the essential parts of
his plan could be carried out with scarcely any alteration on
the present machinery, it is to be hoped brewers will give
it a fair trial, and make known the result. What we con¬
sider the essentials of his plan, are the six hours’ mashing,
the sparging to remove the remains of the saccharine extract
from the grains, the separate infusion of the hops, and the
transfer of the wort direct from the mash-tun to the coolers.
We are quite aware that Mr Tizard would object to this
being called his plan, unless his expensive patented ma¬
chinery were adopted. But we have attempted to separate
the essential from the non-essential, and feel satisfied that
the above fulfils all the indications which science has pointed
out. The hops cause a considerable loss of wort, as every
60 lb. weight of hops is calculated to retain about a barrel
of wort. Brewers seem not to attend sufficiently to this
circumstance. By the use of a screw or hydraulic press,
this quantity could be recovered ; but most brewers prefer
using these hops for the brewing of weak table beer, to
which, besides imparting some bitter, they impart consider¬
able strength of saccharine matter. A preferable plan seems
to be to prepare the infusion of hops separately, as recom¬
mended by Mr Tizard, but instead of mixing the wort with
the exhausted hops, the infusion should be drained from the
hops and added to the wort in the underback. No loss of
wort would thereby be sustained, and by putting the wet
mass of hops in bags and subjecting them to pressure in a
screw or hydraulic press, every particle of soluble bitter they
could yield would be recovered.
Whether the plan of boiling or not boiling be followed,
the wort is next transferred to the coolers, that its tempera-
328 B R E W I N G.
Brewing. ture jnay brought down sufficiently low to admit of its
's—being fermented. The coolers are large flat cisterns or
troughs, not in general more than six inches deep, extend-
ino- the whole breadth of the building, and freely exposed to
the air. These coolers are generally made of wood, but
iron is very generally superseding wood, being found to pos¬
sess many advantages. Slate, zinc, and latterly tiles, par¬
ticularly Prosser’sfelspathic tiles, have been also used. When
the wort has been subjected to boiling, it generally reaches
the coolers at a temperature of from 200° to 208°, and here
it must cool down to the temperature of 54° or 60°. The
more rapidly this can be effected the better, and hence the
advantage of the coolers being in a free exposed situation,
and hence also the use of fanners (or blowers), which many
employ. When the wort is transferred at once to the mash-
tun through the underback to the coolers, as by Tizard’s
plan, the temperature of the wort is only about 150°, so that
the time occupied in cooling is greatly shortened. In sum¬
mer brewing, the worts should always be ready to let into
the coolers in the evening, to take advantage of the depres¬
sion of temperature which occurs during the night. The
coolers, if of wood, are recommended by some to be always
kept covered with pure w'ater till required, when this should
be run off, and the worts run in. In this way, it is said, not
only is the temperature of the coolers lower than it would
otherwise be, but no waste of wort occurs as the pores of the
wood are full of water ; whereas, when this is not attended
to, considerable loss of wort is experienced, not merely in
watery parts which can be spared, but in saccharine ex¬
tract. This practice, however, is condemned by many prac¬
tical brew'ers who have tried the practice. They find they
cannot have the coolers too dry when the wort is run on to
them ; dampness and wetness in the coolers tending much
to produce that peculiar kind of disagreeable bitterness called
“ foxiness.”
Many brewers condemn the use of fanners ; others again
consider them the most valuable aids. Those who object
to them, do so on the principle that the current of air caused
by the fanners keeps the wort in agitation, and prevents the
deposition of those flocks or insoluble particles which fall
from the wort as it cools. Those who use the fanners, again,
assert that the gentle agitation of the surface does good to
the wort, while it does not in the least interfere with the
deposit of the sediment, which, indeed, may deposit in the
coolers, but when the wort is run off, is almost all carried
along with it into the fermenting tun. It must be apparent
to any impartial observer, that as the sediment or flocks
which fall are afterwards carried into the fermenting vat, it
cannot be of the slightest importance to the eventual clearing
of the beer, whether the wrort on the coolers be agitated or be
left still; consequently, if it be desirable to cool down the
wort rapidly, the fanners can scarcely be dispensed with—
more especially in close foggy weather, when stagnation of
the air over the wort is a most fruitful cause of acidity.
During the process of cooling, the volume of the wort
diminishes from one-eighth to one-fifth, owing to the evapo¬
ration, the effect of which is a concentration of the beer. As
the cooling is effected almost entirely by. evaporation from
the surface, it takes place most rapidly during spring and
autumn when the air is dry, and also when a current of air
plays over the surface. In such circumstances, six or seven
hours usually suffice to cool down the wort to the fermenting
temperature, but if the air be moist, and there be no breeze,
the cooling is sometimes so slow as to occupy twelve or
fifteen hours. In such circumstances, the fanners, or blowers,
are of inestimable value, as from the great extent of surface
exposed the oxygen is absorbed, and the wort is apt to pass
into the acetous fermentation.
Many refrigerators have been invented for the purpose of
aiding the brewer to cool down his wort rapidly. In many
breweries it is customary to cool down the wort only to 100°
on the coolers, and then pass it through refrigerators in Brewing-
which it is brought in close contact with cold spring water,
thus effecting a rapid reduction of temperature. Several
patents have been taken out for different forms of these,
but it does not appear that any of them have given such
satisfaction as to lead to their general adoption; so that the
coolers are still indispensable parts of the brewer’s appa¬
ratus. It is an acknowledged fact that on the coolers a
considerable loss of saccharine extract occurs, for if the
strength of the wort be accurately gauged by the saccharo-
meter before being passed to the coolers, and after it is run
from them into the fermenting vat, it will be found that
there is a considerable loss of saccharine matter not ac¬
counted for. This loss cannot be by evaporation. It seems
to be simply loss of fluid on the surface of the coolers
themselves; nor need this be wondered at, when we con
sider that even to wet the coolers it would require several
barrels of water. The very fact of such a loss occurring
should be an additional reason for the brewer adopting
some simple refrigerator to cool down his whole wort, and
not pass it into the coolers at all.
When the wort is sufficiently cooled down, it is run off
into the fermenting vats, or “ gyle tuns” as they are termed,
where it is converted from the luscious sweet wort, into the
intoxicating beer. The gyle tuns are large square or cylin¬
drical vessels of w^ood, varying in size according to the ex¬
tent of the brewery. These vessels are never filled to the
top, because a considerable head of yeast rises during the
fermenting process, for which allowance must be made. It
is of no small importance that the gyle tun should be placed
in a chamber defended as much as may be from atmospheric
vicissitudes, and the temperature ought to be maintained as
uniformly as possible between 50° and 55°. The tempera¬
ture to which the wort is cooled down depends on the ra¬
pidity with which the fermentation is to be conducted, and
on the season of the year. The warmer the temperature of
the air, the cooler should be the wort, lest the fermentation
should rise too high. In England the wort is generally
cooled down to 60° when the temperature is cold, but to 55°
if the temperature is warm. In Scotland, again, the worts
are if possible cooled down to from 50° to 53 , and the whole
fermenting process is conducted more slowly. As a gene¬
ral rule, the cooler the worts are, when set to ferment, the
slower but more regular will be the fermentation, and the
more under our power to regulate.
When the wort is poured into the gyle tun, it is mixed
with a certain quantity of yeast in order to set it into fermen¬
tation. In the large porter breweries, this yeast is in gene¬
ral previously mixed with a certain quantity of the wort a
short while previous, and placed in a warm place to allow
fermentation to commence in it. It is then styled “ lobb.”
In the Scottish breweries the yeast is generally first mixed
in the fermenting vat itself, with about six times its mea¬
sure of wort, and then the whole wort is run from the coolers
in full flow upon it. In England one gallon of yeast is ge¬
nerally sufficient to set in full fermentation 100 gallons of
wort; but more is required in winter, and less in summer.
In Scotland, where the fermenting process is conducted
more slowly, and at a lower temperature, the proportion of
yeast is one gallon to every four barrels during winter, and
one gallon to every five barrels during spring or summer.
Yeast is the thick pasty fluid which separates from an in¬
fusion of malt when in a state of fermentation. When this
is examined by the microscope, it is found to consist of
globules of a grayish colour from the 3000th to the 4000th
of an inch in diameter. When fermentation begins, these
small corpuscular bodies move about in all directions, become
larger, and small projections are seen to appear on their sur¬
face, which enlarge, drop off, and become independent cor¬
puscles, and in their turn give birth to new ones. It is
thus that during fermentation, a quantity of yeast is pro-
BREWING. 329
Brewing, duced seven times as great as the yeast used. These glo-
bules may be drained from the fluid in which they float
when the yeast forms a mass like soft cheese ; and in this
state yeast used to be exported from Holland to France for
the use of bakers, and is still so transmitted from one part of
Germany to another, and has even been sent to India from
Britain. From the experiments of Payen and Persoz, it
appears that the essential operative constituent of yeast is a
peculiar azotized matter, closely resembling albumen, gluten,
caseine, &c., and is not sugar in a state of decomposition as
was imagined by Dr Thomson. Hence they found that
brain, white of egg, and many other nitrogenous substances,
if mixed with a solution of sugar, caused it to ferment, and
furnished a supply of yeast. These researches of Payen
and Persoz strongly point out to the brewer the advantage
of not destroying the albumen and gluten in the wort by
boiling. Boiling, as already explained, destroys the greater
portion of these principles, and throws them down in an in¬
soluble state. But if the plan were adopted of running the
wort from the mash-tun into the coolers, these valuable parts
of the wort would be preserved, and would tend to render
the process of fermentation surer and steadier.
The act of fermentation converts the sugar of the wort
into carbonic acid gas (fixed air), which flies off, and alcohol
(spirit of wine), which remains in the beer. This transfor¬
mation or decomposition, “ attenuation” as the brewers term
it, is easily understood. Alcohol consists of 4 atoms of car¬
bon, 6 of hydrogen, and 2 of oxygen, represented by C4, He,
O2. Carbonic acid consists of 1 atom carbon, and 2 of
oxygen ; and as an atom of water is at the same time de¬
composed, we have 1 atom of grape sugar and 1 atom of
water converted into 2 atoms of alcohol and 4 atoms of car¬
bonic acid. Thus—
1 Grape sugar = Ci2 On 1 form- f 2 Alcohol = Cs H12 Oi
1 Water = H 1 0 j J mg. ( 4 Carbonic acid = C* 08
— C12 Hl2 Ol2 H^2 Oj2
Six or eight hours after adding the yeast, the fermentation
•becomes active. When this process is regular, a white
creamy froth appears in the middle and round the edges of
the fermenting vat, and gradually extends over the whole
surface of the fluid. This frothy head increases more and
more, being highest in the middle, and rises two or three
feet above the surface of the fluid, gradually assuming a
brown hue. During all this time there is a copious disen¬
gagement of carbonic acid gas, produced by the conversion
of the sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. At the same
time, and keeping exact pace with this conversion,or “atten¬
uation” as the brewers style it, the temperature of the fer¬
menting fluid rises till it is 12° or 15° above that at which
it was originally set; and an agreeable aroma or vinous smell
(technically termed “ stomach”) is perceived. As this is
the most important of all the stages, and it is very necessary
the brewer should know whether all is going on regularly,
we quote Mr William Black’s excellent description of “ a
sound and regularly good fermentation.”
“ In such a fermentation five distinct changes occur, followed,
after a certain stage, by a highly pungent aroma, which rises with
the carbonic acid gas. If this aroma throughout the process be sound
and vinous to the smell, we may feel assured that the worts are
sound, and will go on regularly; if, on the contrary, a faintish,
disagreeable, suh-acid flavour arise at any time during the process,
we know that acidity or unsoundness has taken place, which should
he corrected.
“ 1. The first stage of fermentation commences with a fine white
substance, like cream, appearing all round the edges of the gyle
tun; this creamy appearance gradually extends over the surface
of the fluid in the tun. This we call creamed over, or the first
stage.
“ 2. The next should he a curly appearance, like the head of a
fine cauliflower, which should also extend all over the tun. This,
the second change, we denominate the curling or cauliflower head.
This cauliflower head should be examined very narrowly, as from its
strong and healthy appearance or otherwise we may pretty nearly
YOL. Y.
judge of the health of the gyle. As above stated, it should have the Brewing,
appearance of a fine cauliflower. If, however, it should assume the v ,r ^ — ■/
appearance of a well curled wig (we have no better phrase), having
broad flaky curls, it denotes unsoundness. The aroma now should
he very perceptible.
“ 3. The curly head should then rise to a light yeasty or rocky
head, little more than perhaps from two to three feet high, of a fine
brownish white colour if sound. If unsound, it assumes in some
parts an ugly bluish-white appearance, which often extends over
the tun. This almost invariably happens where there is any gal¬
vanic action from chains of pipes or a mixture of metals ; and can¬
not be cured or prevented but by doing away with the cause; that
is by insulating the tuns.
“ 4. After a time the light yeasty head should drop a little, per¬
haps 3 or 4 inches. This we call the fourth change. The aroma
should now be very vinous and pungent.
“ 5. The light yeasty head which had dropped should now rise
to what we call a close yeasty head, having the appearance of
yeast all over, with many little air bubbles on the top, not, however,
larger than a nut or walnut; these constantly breaking and others
supplying their place. If the fermentation has beenhealthy through¬
out, the close yeasty head will continue rising and puffing out gas
from the air-bells, until the beer is thought ready for cleansing.
. . Should all these changes, as before stated, take
place regularly, and be accompanied through the process by a sound
healthy aroma (generally termed “ stomach”), we may rest assured
that all is right, and that the beer, if afterwards properly treated
in storing, will turn out sound and good. ’
The time during which the fermentation is continued in
the gyle tun varies according as the rapid or slow process
of fermentation has been followed, also according to the
state of the weather, the temperature of the wort, and other
causes. When the quick processs of fermentation is fol¬
lowed, as is usual in England, the wort is only kept fer¬
menting in the gyle tun from 24 to 36 hours; and usually
by the time the half of the saccharine extract is decom¬
posed, and when the fermentation is still at its height, the
yeasty head is beat down and mixed with the wort, when
the whole is run off into fixed hogsheads, large barrels or
“ rounds,” in order to be further fermented and “ cleansed.”
In Scotland, again, where the slow process of fermenta¬
tion is commonly followed, the wort remains in the ferment¬
ing tun from six to twelve days, undergoing, during that
period, a slower and more manageable fermentation than ac¬
cording to the English plan; and during this period the
head of yeast is usually twice daily beat down, or mixed
with the upper portion of the wort, till the proper degree of
attenuation is attained. This is done with the view ot re¬
exciting the activity of the fermentation.
The gyle tuns, or fermenting vats, are usually fitted with
a coil of metal tubing for the purpose of regulating the heat
of the wort, which may be raised or depressed by passing
hot or cold water through them, as each may be required.
Mr Black objects to the use of fixed metal tubing in the
gyle tuns, as being liable to engender electrical currents,
which interfere with the regularity of the fermentation. He
therefore recommends a moveable regulator which can be
let down into the fermenting vat by means of ropes and
pulleys when wanted, fitted with pliable tubes attached to
the metal regulator tubes, so that the flow of hot or cold wa¬
ter through them may be discharged over the side of the
fermenting vat. ,
Mr Black has endeavoured to prove that electricity and
electro-chemical agencies have much to do with many of the
irregularities which are observed in wort during fermenta¬
tion, and he has certainly pointed out a few marked in¬
stances where such a connection seemed to be established.
Fie particularly objects to sinking fermenting vats in the
earth, and relates an instructive instance relative to one so
fixed, in which, on a day when a thunder-storm threatened,
the fermentation became stationary, and all the usual means
failed to forward the process ; but on the wort being pumped
out into casks supported on wooden rests, the fermentation
spontaneously resumed, and was finished successfully. He
therefore recommends all fermenting tuns to be supported
330
BREWING.
Brewing. on WOoden pillars or beams, so as to isolate them as com-
pletely as possible. From this it is apparent that Mr Tizard’s
plan of having fermenting vats sunk in caves and under¬
ground excavations, and surrounded with water, whatever
effect such might have in maintaining a uniformity of tem¬
perature, would be a sure means of making bad beer.
The next process in brewing is termed “ cleansing.” Pro¬
perly speaking, this process is only required in the quick
plan of fermentation : seeing that when the slow fermenta¬
tion is followed no proper “ cleansing” process is required.
It was mentioned above, that when the slow process was
followed, as it is in Scotland, the fermentation was kept going
on in the fermenting vat from six to twelve days. At the end
of this period, the required degree of attenuation being at¬
tained, the head of yeast is no longer mixed with the wort, and
a stream of cold water being passed through the refrigerators
of the fermenting tun, the fermentation ceases, the tempe-
perature declines, the turbid particles separate, and by two
or three days’ rest, the beer becomes quite transparent. It
has “ cleansed” itself, and is now ready to be run off' into
the cask or store vat. When the beer or ale is run off from
the gyle tun, all the yeast is left behind, both that which
floated on the surface, and that which remained at the bot¬
tom. This retention of the yeast is accomplished by the
crane in the bottom of the gyle tun being screwed up three-
eights of an inch above the level of the bottom. At one
time it was the custom to allow the beer to settle in the fer¬
menting tun for twenty-four or thirty-six hours, then run it
oft’ into a square of equal size with the fermenting vat, leav¬
ing behind in the vat the whole of the yeast. Here it was
allowed to rest for a couple of days, after which it was found
bright and ready for the cask. The Scottish brewers have
very generally given up this plan, allowing their beer or
ale to settle in the gyle tun itself, and run it off from it
direct into the casks in which it is to be sent out. The beer
undergoes no proper “ cleansing” in these casks, that is to
say, no further fermentation goes on in them, throwing up a
quantity of yeast, but a couple of days is generally allowed
to elapse before they are “ shived” or bunged down.
In England, again, where the rapid plan of fermentation
is adopted, “ cleansing” is an essential part of the brewing
process. As above mentioned, the wort is fermented to a
certain extent only in the gyle tun, and as that fermenta¬
tion is carried on at a higher temperature than in Scotland,
it progresses more rapidly, attaining its maximum in from
twenty-four to thirty-six hours. When it is thus at its
height, the yeasty head is beaten down and mixed with the
wort, and the whole is run off into large fixed barrels termed
“ cleansing rounds,” whence it undergoes a farther stage of
fermentation. In some breweries, before the wort is passed
from the fermenting vat into these rounds, it is mixed with
a certain quantity of wheat or bean flower, but this is a prac¬
tice not generally approved of. In these vessels the yeast
works over and escapes by a large aperture in the top of the
barrel, to which a sloping wooden tray is fixed to convey
the yeast into a trough. These rounds are usually placed
in a double line, with the yeast trough between them, and
by all communicating by means of pipes with a store vat at
a higher level, are kept constantly full, fresh wort flowing in
below in proportion as the yeast works over at the top. It
is this process to which brewers have applied the term
“ cleansing,” from the idea that the yeast working over and
being removed from the beer “ cleanses” it.
When the fermentation is ended in these rounds, the beer
is run off into immense cylindrical vats or tuns, called “ store
vats,” where an obscure sort of fermentation still goes on, in¬
creasing the strength of the beer, and keeping up a con¬
stant impregnation of carbonic acid gas, which renders the
beer lively and agreeable to the taste when run off into casks
for sale. These store vats are of immense size, usually
capable of containing three thousand barrels of beer of 36
gallons each barrel, and weighing, when full, above five Brewing
hundred tons. In these it was customary to keep immense
stocks/or eighteen months or two years until the beer
“ ripened,” that is, lost most of its sweetness and mildness,
and acquired a slightly acid taste, technically called “hard¬
ness.” Good hard beer was then the favourite drink ; but
it appears that the taste of the consumers has changed now,
and that mild beers are much more universally used. Hence
in the great porter and ale establishments, it often happens
that these liquors are consumed within six weeks of their
manufacture.
In storing beer it is of great consequence that the tem-
pei’ature of the store room or cellar should be as uniform
and as low as possible, seeing that increase of heat promotes
fermentation, and is apt to cause the alcohol to become con¬
verted into vinegar. Underground cellars, where procurable,
seem to fulfil these conditions better than others, and have
therefore been strongly recommended. In consequence of
electricity having such a marked effect on beer, particularly
when kept in casks or store vats which communicate with
or rest on the ground, it is desirable to have all these isolated
as much as possible by resting them on wooden supports, at
least eighteen inches above the surface of the ground, and
not leaning on one another.
All beers, when well brewed and sound, after a certain re¬
pose become transparent, or “ bright” as it is termed. When,
however, beer is sent out very new, as is getting the cus¬
tom, it is sometimes necessary to “ fine” it, or impart to it
that brilliant transparency which is so pleasing to the eye.
This is done by means of “ finings.” The best finings for
beer, indeed the only ones which should be used, are made
of isinglass. This should be cut into shreds, put into a cask,
and covered to the depth of 5 or 6 inches with vinegar
or acid beer. When the isinglass has swelled up and ab¬
sorbed all the vinegar or beer, it is covered to a like depth
with a fresh quantity, and the whole vigorously stirred to¬
gether. The same process of adding and stirring is repeated
until the whole becomes of the consistence of a thick pulp
or jelly. This jelly is then mixed with thin bright beer till
it is brought to the proper consistence for use, when it is
strained through a hair sieve which retains any undissolved
portions of isinglass. The specific gravity of the finings
should be about 1,025. From a pint to a quart of finings
are used to clear a barrel of beer. The finings are first
mixed up with some of the beer to be fined, then poured
into the barrel and briskly stirred about. The cask is then
bunged down for twenty-four hours, after which the beer
should be found limpid. The action of the finings is to
envelope all the floating feculencies, and carry them down
to the bottom of the fluid. Various explanations have been
attempted to account for this action, but Dr lire’s seems to
be the most satisfactory. The fluid gelatine combines with
the tannin of the hops, and thus forms a flocculent mass, which
envelopes the muddy particles of the beer, and carries them
with it to the bottom, where it forms a sediment. If a pro¬
per sediment does not fall, it may be made to appear by add¬
ing a little of the decoction of hops. If there be the slight¬
est disengagment of carbonic acid gas, the flocculent particles,
being thereby kept moving about, will not be enveloped in
the finings, and the beer will not clear. This state is called
“ stubborn” by the brewers.
The above details will enable the reader to acquire a tole¬
rably correct notion of the art of brewing, but as special
drinks require somewhat special manipulations, we shall
shortly notice these specialties under the heads Porter,
English Ale, Pale Indian Ale, Home-brewed Ale, Scottish
Ale, and Bavarian Beer.
Porter is a strong beer of a dark colour and peculiar fla¬
vour, and is said to be so named, either from its having been
the common drink of the porters, or from Harwood, the ori¬
ginal brewer of the drink, sending it round to his customers,
BREWING.
331
Brewing, by men, who when they knocked at the doors called out
“ porter,” meaning thereby not the drink, but themselves,
its porters or carriers. Porter was originally brewed to take
the place of two or three kinds of beer which used to be
mixed by the retailers in the mug as they drew them from
the taps ; and as this new drink had the taste of all three,
but was brewed at once, and run out of one tap, it saved
the publican trouble, and was denominated “ entire.” Hence,
the sign so often noticed in London, such a brewer’s
“entire.”
As provincial brewers have found it almost impossible to imi¬
tate the flavour and excellencies of the London Porter, vari¬
ous drugs have been used, or have been recommended to be
\ised, in brewing this drink. Even some recent publications
by practical men recommend burnt sugar and liquorice to
give it colour, and copperas to give it a good head. Aloes,
quassia, gentian, and even such poisonous ingredients as St
Ignatius’ bean and nux vomica, have at various times been
recommended to be substituted for hops; and it is well
known that paradise grains, notwithstanding the heavy
penalty attached to their use, are still largely used surrepti¬
tiously in many parts of England to give greater sharpness
to the porter and ale brewed there. It need scarcely be
added, however, that such ingredients are never used by the
respectable brewers, who use nothing but malt and hops,
though some aid the colour by making use of burnt sugar
or caromel.
As the dark colour of porter is that which more especially
serves to distinguish it from other beers, we may describe
the three colouring ingredients used for the purpose, pre¬
mising that in general only one is used in the same brew¬
ing. 1. Black malt, or roasted malt, when used, is added
in the proportion of from 3 to 5 bushels for every hundred
bushels of malt; and is either mashed in the mash-tun along
with the other malt, or is mashed separately, or is thrown
into the wort when it is boiling. This malt, as before men¬
tioned, yields no saccharine extract convertible into alcohol,
but simply a dark-coloured mucilage, and is solely used for
the purpose of giving colour and flavour. If this malt be
added in too large proportion, especially if used with pale
malt alone, it communicates a taste to porter which would
be mistaken for that of liquorice, and this is probably the
reason why liquorice is recommended to be used by the pro¬
vincial brewTer, and is often used by him for the purpose of
imitating the London stout. 2. The second colouring in¬
gredient is “ essentia bina.” This consists of some of the
first-drawn wort boiled down in an iron pan to the consis¬
tence of an extract, when it must be carefully and constantly
stirred, and the heat continued till it has acquired a dark
colour and peculiar flavour, in fact been converted into a
caromel. Fifteen gallons of wort so boiled down usually
suffice for from 20 to 30 barrels of wort, according to the
depth of colour which is wished to be given. 3. The third
colouring ingredient is “ caromel” or burnt sugar. The
process of preparing it is thus described. “ Thirty pounds
of raw sugar are put into an iron boiler which has a cir¬
cular bottom, and dissolved in one gallon of boiling water
over a moderate fire. It must be kept stirred, and attended
with care. After boiling a few minutes, and being stirred
with an iron scraper, it thickens, becomes dark coloured,
and acquires a bitter taste. Care must be taken that it does
not get scorched. It must be constantly stirred, and a small
quantity of water added to keep it from setting to the bot¬
tom of the boiler. As soon as it approaches to inflame, it
is ready to be removed, which is done by thinning it with
boiling water, and delivering it to the boiling wort.”
Porter is usually brewed from all the different kinds of
malt, which are mixed in such proportions as shall suit the
taste of the consumers. These proportions are different in
different breweries. When black or patent malt is used as
the sole colouring agent, Mr Tizard says that good porter
may be made from mixtures of the different kinds of malt Brewing,
in the following proportions, the last being the best:—
No. 1
2
3
Brown Malt.
25
24
0
A.ml>er Malt.! Pale Malt.
15
24
95
57
48
0
Total.
100
100
100
When the colour is given with caromel or essentia bina,
the black malt is not used, and the colouring matter is added
to the wort in the boiler.
It is unnecessary to repeat here the particulars relative to
the mashing, boiling, cooling, fermenting, and cleansing of
porter, seeing that these have been already fully detailed
when describing the English plan of brewing. It may
merely be mentioned that it is usual to cool down the wort
to about 100° on the coolers, and then run it through re¬
frigerators, or coils of pipes in contact with cold water, till
the temperature is reduced to 60 in winter, or 55 in sum¬
mer. It is then transferred to the gyle or fermenting tuns,
which are in general fitted with a coil of metal tubing to
give the power of regulating the temperature. The “lobb”
being added excites active fermentation, and in proportion
as the saccharine matter becomes converted into alcohol,
the temperature rises till it attains about 70 Fahr., beyond
which it should never be permitted to get. If it threatens
to rise beyond this, cold water should be passed through
the refrigerators of the gyle tun, or the whole should be run
off into the cleansing vats. This temperature is generally at¬
tained in from 30 to 36 hours ; and as soon as the half of the
saccharine extract has been converted into alcohol, which is
generally within the 48 hours, it is run off into the rounds or
cleansing vats. In the great London breweries these are of
such a size as to contain from 10 to 20 barrels each ; and as,
during the process of “ cleansing” from the yeast, the fer¬
mentation is still going on, the attenuation of the porter is
wrought down to 5 or 7 lb. of saccharine extract per barrel.
After this the porter is transferred to store vats, where in for¬
mer days it used to be kept for 18 or 24 months in order
to “ ripen” or get “ hard and as the brewer had thus to
keep a two years’ stock of porter on hand, the number and
size of these in the larger establishments may be conceived.
These store vats were usually made so large as to contain
three thousand barrels of beer, each barrel being of the ca¬
pacity of 36 gallons ; and such a vat when full weighs about
five hundred tons. In some of the largest breweries a few
store vats existed of the enormous capacity of ten thousand
barrels, and one monster vat was built in Whitehead’s, which
was said to be capable of containing twenty thousand barrels,
or 720,000 gallons. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the
bursting of one of these vats in Meux’s brewery should have
swept away a street, carrying the houses and all their inha¬
bitants into the river. The changed taste of the public for
mild malt liquors will soon probably make these immense
store vats matters of history, as most of the malt liquor now
used in London is reckoned old if kept in the brewery
more than six weeks.
When porter is in the store vats, a low species of fer¬
mentation still goes on sufficient to reduce still further the
proportion of saccharine extract, and furnish sufficient car¬
bonic acid gas to impart to it an agreeable briskness. When
porter is bottled the same changes go on—indeed it is ques¬
tionable whether malt liquor is ever entirely quiescent.
The common draft London porter is made from a wort
which is usually about the strength of 20 lb. of saccharine
extract per barrel; the ordinary stout from wort of 25 or 26
lb. per barrel; and the strongest bottled stout, and porter
for exportation from wort of 30 to 35 lb. per barrel. These
different qualities are often stamped with the letters X, XX,
and XXX ; but this is a mere matter of convenience to the
brewer; and porters from different breweries having the same
332 BREWING.
Brewing, stamp may be of very different strength. When porter is ex-
ported or sent to a distance, additional hops are added to it,
varying in quantity in proportion to the distance it has to go.
Export porter has usually about 4^ lb. of hops to each barrel.
Strongest bottled porter has usually 8 lb. weight of hops to
the quarter of malt; and common stout from 4^ to 6 lb. of
hops per quarter of malt.
Porter has been analyzed for the purpose of ascertaining
the proportion of alcohol contained in it. Mr Brande found
100 measures of brown stout to contain 6'80 measures of
rectified spirit of wine of the density of 825, equal to about
10’5 per cent, of proof spirit, while common London porter
yielded 4‘20 per cent, by measure of rectified spirit. Dr
Christison, in 1838, found in bottled London porter 5‘36
per cent, by weight of absolute alcohol, which is about 1 L91
per cent, by measure of proof spirit. From these experi¬
ments it appears, that London porter contains considerably
less alcohol than the sour light wines of France or Germany,
which yield from 15 to 19 per cent, of proof spirit.
Porter is an exceedingly wholesome and nutritious drink.
Indeed, as a beverage, it cannot be denied that it is prefer¬
able to wine, however much some may vaunt the advantages
which woidd result to this country from the duties on light
wines being taken off, in order that they might come into
more general use. As a beverage for the working classes,
there can be no comparison between the sound, wholesome,
and tonic beer of England, and the sour light wines drunk
on the Continent. There is not a working man in England
who would not despise and reject the acid wines used by
the common people in the grape districts, even though they
contain from 4 to 10 per cent, more proof spirit in them
than his favourite beer; and, as to the finer qualities of light
wines, they are produced in such small quantities that they
cannot even now satisfy the wants of the upper classes, and
no lowering of the duty would bring down their px-ice to the
working man’s level.
Ale appears to be the most ancient drink of this country,
and the name is usually given to strong beer of a pale colour,
as porter is to that of a dark colour. The varieties of ale
are infinite, but we purpose only to notice the peculiarity in
the manufacture of English ale, Indian ale, English home¬
brewed ale, and Scottish ale.
In all high-priced English ales of the present day, bril¬
liancy and paleness of coloui', with as little excess of sweet¬
ness as possible, are the objects to be attained by the bx’ewer.
To accomplish these ends, nothing but the finest pale malt
must be used, and to secure sound-keeping ale, it is of first
importance that the malt shall have been thoroughly dried
on the kiln. If prepared from what is technically known as
“ slack-di’ied malt,” that is malt not thoroughly dried for
fear of colouring it, or which has had water sprinkled over
it while still warm fx-om the kiln, the wort as run fi'om the
mash-tun will be found acid, and will tinge litmus paper of
a much deeper red than ordinary wort from well dried
malt, and the ale prepared from it will not keep beyond a
few months. It is necessary also to be careful in the selec¬
tion of the hops for ale. Good sound hops should alone be
used; many brewers now use a propoxtion of foreign hops
along with the English hop.
In the brewing of common ale in England, it is customary
to make three mashes, the first and second being fermented
for ale, the last being reserved for beer. The heat of the
water let on the first mash is usually 170°, that of the second
185 . The wort from these two mashes is mixed, and boiled
for two and a half or three hours with hops, in the propor¬
tion of 8 lb. of hops to every quarter of malt. When the
wort has cooled down to 60° or 65°, it is run off into the
gyle tuns, and quick fermentation is excited by adding about
one gallon of yeast for evei’y two bai'rels of wort. The fer¬
mentation in the gyle tun comes to maturity in about thirty-
six hours, when the ale is nm off into fixed bai’rels or rounds,
where it undergoes a further fermentation, and is “ cleansed” Brewing
of its yeast, a hogshead of the ale being reserved for filling
up the barrels as the yeast works over. In two days or so
this process is over, when the ale is racked into barrels and
removed into stock.
Since the public taste, relative to “ hard beers,” has
changed, several of the great London brewers have turned
their attention to the brewing of ale. They genei'ally fol¬
low much the same plan as they did for porter brewing, fol¬
lowing the quick process of fermentation, and finishing the
attenuation in the rounds where the cleansing goes on.
1 his mild ale has quite met the taste of the public, and
seems to be gradually displacing porter. Ale is not, in
general, attenuated so much as porter, or as the bitter ales
intended for exportation; the attenuation of the ale is usually
earned only to the decomposition of two-thirds of the sac¬
charine extract.
Pale, Indian, or Burton Ale, oi'iginally intended for ex¬
portation, and now so deservedly in high repute as one of
our most esteemed and wholesome beverages, requires more
particular treatment in its manufacture. This ale can only
be prepared from the best pale malt and the best hops; and
the chief peculiarities attending its manufacture are, that it
requires more than double the usual px-oportion of hops, that
the attenuation is generally carried to a much greater extent,
and that the temperature during the fermentation should
never be allowed to exceed 65° Fahr. That a considerable
amount of sweetness should exist in common ale is allowable,
and indeed, it is the presence of a lai’ge quantity of unde¬
composed saccharine extract which gives to common strong
ale its luscious mildness. It is, however, the presence of this
large quantity of undecomposed saccharine extract which
prevents common ale from being used as a diet drink by
the invalid, or being relished in a warm country; and it is the
circumstance of the Indian or pale ale having its fermentation
carried so much further, and its saccharine matter reduced
in quantity, together with its larger proportion of bittei’,
that commends it so much as a grateful and stimulant sto¬
machic to the European resident in a warm climate, and to
the invalid.
The manufacture of this beverage has been endeavoured
to be shrouded in much mystery; but we have ascertained
that pale bitter ale of first rate quality may be brewed by
following with care any of the ordinary plans of fermenta¬
tion, either the ordinary quick English system, or the slower
Scotch process. It has appeared to us, however, that the
best keeping, the highest flavoured, and the least acid ale,
was always prepared by the slower process, in which the
temperature is never raised so high as in the quick process
of fermentation. The quantity of hops found necessary for
Indian ale is from 18 to 22 lb. per quarter of malt; and the
ordinary strength of the wort, when passed into the gyle
tun, is 24 lb. per barrel, or 1066 of specific gi'avity. This
gives, with good malt, about four barrels of pale ale for
every quarter of malt.
When the slow plan of fermentation is followed in Eng¬
land, it is recommended that the pitching tempei'ature
should not exceed 56°, and the gyle tun, in every case,
must be fitted with refrigerator tubes to regulate the tem¬
perature of the wort. Some brewers consider it of essen¬
tial importance to keep down the heat of the wort during
the eai'ly stage of the fermentation, and so to x-egulate the
tempei'ature by a stream of cold water through the refrige¬
rator tubes of the fermenting tun, that at the expiration of
forty-eight hours the tempei'atui'e shall not have increased 3°
above the pitching heat, by which time the sacchai'ometer
indicates an attenuation of 7 or 8 lb. It is, of coui'se, neces¬
sary to visit the fermenting vat every fourth or fifth hour
day and night. By the time the temperature has risen to
62°, the half of the original strength of the wort should be
found to be attenuated. In this plan of fermentation the
4
temperature is allowed slowly to rise to 64°, by which time
three-fourths of the saccharine extract should be attenu¬
ated, and at this stage half of the yeasty head is recom¬
mended to be skimmed off. When 2 lb. more of the sac¬
charine extract have been decomposed, one-half of the
yeasty head is again skimmed off. The density, by this
time, should be reduced to 6 lb. per barrel, but the atten¬
uation has still to be carried on till 4 lb. of saccharine ex¬
tract remain un decomposed. If the fermentation therefore
gets languid, the yeasty head should be beaten in. When
the desired attenuation is attained, that is when the wort, or
ale rather, is reduced to about 4 lb. of extract per barrel,
or to the specific gravity of 1011 or 1012, the whole head
of yeast is carefully skimmed off, and cold water is passed
through the refrigerator tubes, so as to cool down the ale as
quickly as possible, and arrest further fermentation. As the
fluid comes to rest, by the cooling arresting further ferment¬
ation, all impurities subside, and in a few days the ale is
pure and transparent, its temperature has fallen to 50°, and
it is fit to be drawn off into the store vat. By this process
the wort is kept in a state of unnecesarily slow fermentation
for twelve or thirteen days.
Other brewers, therefore, who also follow the slow plan
of fermentation, instead of retarding the rise of heat during
the early stage of the fermentation, allow and encourage it
to rise as rapidly as possible to 62°, and maintain it steadily
at that temperature, and never allow it to exceed that heat
till the required degree of attenuation is attained. Instead
of skimming off the yeasty head, these brewers twice daily
lightly beat in the head, which hastens the attenuation, so
that in general, by the sixth or seventh, and never exceed¬
ing the eighth day, the required attenuation is attained. A
full stream of cold water is then sent through the refrigera¬
tory tubes of the fermenting vat. The yeasty head is left un¬
touched, and the ale is either allowed to rest in the ferment¬
ing tun for two or three days, by which time it becomes pure
and transparent, and its temperature falls to 50°, when it is
drawn off into casks or into the store vat; or, after a rest of
twenty-four hours, it is transferred to a vessel of similar size
with the fermenting tun, leaving behind it all the yeast, where
it is allowed to rest for a couple of days before being stored
or drawn off into casks. After being drawn off into casks
it is generally allowed to stand for a couple of days before
being shived down, and a handful of fresh hops is added to
each cask.
When the water used for brewing pale ale is hard, some
brewers assert, and act on the principle, that the pitching
heat must be higher, and that the fermentation must be con¬
ducted on the quick plan. Some of the largest Burton
brewers accordingly manufacture their pale Indian ale by
the rapid fermentation process, and boast that they “ have
brewed and shipped their ales to India in the course of a
few days? Whatever may be thought of the practice, the
reasoning is bad, seeing that it has been found that the hard
water used by the Burton and other brewers loses all its
hardness in the mash-tun, and by the time it reaches the
fermenting vat is as soft as if the softest river water had
been used.
When the rapid plan of fermentation is followed, the pitch¬
ing heat is set at 60° Fahr.; and the quantity of yeast em¬
ployed, though varying according to the season, is about
1 gallon for every 2 barrels of wort. Vigorous fermenta¬
tion is thus excited, and in from 24 to 30 hours the wort
should be found to be attenuated one-half, while, by means
of the refrigerator tubes of the fermenting vat, the heat
should not be allowed to rise higher than 7° above the
pitching heat. It is often, however, extremely difficult to
keep down the temperature within these limits even with a
full flow of cold water through the refrigerators ; and if it be
allowed to rise to 70° the ale is extremely liable to get acid
within a few months, even in this country, and is almost
sure to do so if exported to an Indian climate. As soon,
therefore, as the above attenuation is obtained, or the heat
threatens to rise higher than 7° above the pitching heat,
the whole is run off into fixed hogsheads or rounds, where
the attenuation is carried to the desired extent, and the
ale is “ cleansed.” Several brewers who manufacture largely
for the foreign market assert that no pale ale can be trusted
for exportation whose heat in the gyle tun has exceeded 65°,
and in practice they never allow it to exceed 63°. They
attribute the large losses which some houses have sustained
from ale spoiling in India to this cause; and in their own
experience they have never found one cask of ale go wrong
whose heat during fermentation was kept below 63° Fahr.
When the ale is racked off into casks a handful of hops is
added to each to insure its keeping qualities.
Pale Indian ale, if properly brewed, never requires fining,
—it clears of itself; and if not clear, it is very rarely indeed
that finings will restore to it its crystalline transparency.
The small quantity of undecomposed or unattenuated
saccharine extract left in this kind of ale is sufficient, by its
slow and gradual fermentation, to supply enough of carbonic
acid gas to induce a pleasant liveliness without inducing
the slightest turbidity; and the large quantity of bitter in
it enables it to bear the heats of India, where it constitutes
one of the most refreshing and invigorating of beverages.
The reputation which this bitter ale has acquired, and
the demand for it in India, our colonies, and in this country,
have induced many brewers over the kingdom to direct
their attention to its manufacture ; and the consequence has
been that numerous brewers now manufacture a pale bitter
ale quite equal to the best of either Bass or of Allsopp.
Many, however, who now manufacture an excellent pale-
ale for the foreign market, do not carry the attenuation so
far as above described, but arrest the fermentation when
the specific gravity of the wort or ale arrives at 1018; in
other words, they only carry the attenuation to the decom¬
position of nearly three-fourths of the saccharine extract,—
the original gravity of the worts of these ales ranging from
1066 to 1068. These pale ales are brewed by the slow
fermentation process, the fermentation lasting six or seven
days. It would appear that ale with even this consider¬
able amount of undecomposed saccharine extract bears well
the heat of a warm climate ; these brewers having never yet
lost a single cask by their ale souring or otherwise going
wrong.
From these statements it will be apparent that pale bitter
ale, as at present manufactured, is not brewed according to
one fixed plan ; but may be brought to perfection either by
the quick or the slow process of fermentation, and either by
carrying the attenuation to the decomposition of nine-tenths
of the saccharine extract, or only to the decomposition of
three-fourths.
We believe that good and sound ale may be brewed by
any of these processes; but it cannot be denied that when
the rapid fermentation is followed the tendency to acidity
must be much greater than in slowly fermented ale. This
difference may not be so strongly manifested if the ale be
used in this country, but, if sent to India or other warm
climate, such rapidly fermented ale runs a much greater
chance of becoming sour. This is entirely attributable to
the higher temperature which the rapidly fermented ale at¬
tains in the fermenting vat, and which every now and then
it is found almost impossible to check. It is very question¬
able, indeed, whether any ale, or other malt liquor, whose
heat has been raised in the fermenting vat to 70°, will bear
unchanged the heat of an Indian climate. The reason of
this is very apparent. At the temperature of 70° there is
a much stronger tendency in the liquor to undergo the ace¬
tous (vinegar) than the alcoholic fermentation. Indeed, the
surest way to induce the acetous fermentation is to raise the
temperature of the fermenting liquor above 70°, and acetic
334
B R E W I N G.
Brewing. aci({ is rapidly produced, as is well known to and is acted on
v'—by the vinegar manufacturers. Any near approach to this
temperature should therefore be carefully avoided in the
manufacture of malt liquors.
Mr Roberts has published a table of analysis of 40
specimens of pale Indian ale. He found the average specific
gravity of these, taken from cask and bottle, to be 1007'26.
If we take only the 15 samples taken from the cask, the
average specific gravity was 1008-25, or, in brewers’ lan¬
guage, nearly 3 lb. of saccharine extract per barrel. This,
then, shows the average attenuation of the Indian ale at
present in the market, but does not with any certainty show
the extent to which the attenuation of the wort was carried
by the brewer. It was before remarked that the attenua¬
tion of malt liquors goes on both in the cask and in the
bottle; so that, unless we know the date at which the ale
was brewed, and allowed for this, we might make sad mis¬
takes as to the extent to which the attenuation had been
carried by the brewer. Thus we lately examined an ale
which was attenuated by the brewer only to 1018 of specific
gravity, but after having stood six months in bottle the spe¬
cific gravity was found reduced to 1012.
Mr Roberts’ tables show also the quantity of proof-spirit
contained in these pale bitter ales. The 40 ales he exa¬
mined yielded on an average 1T59 per cent, of proof-spirit;
the highest examined yielding 13-65 per cent., and the
lowest 8-82 per cent, of proof-spirit. Pale Indian ale, there¬
fore, contains a third less of spirit than the sour vin du pays
and other light and acid Continental wines; while its free¬
dom from acidity, its gently stimulant action, and its tonic
qualities, constitute it a beverage as superior to these wines
as one drink can be to another.
Home-bretved Ale, as brewed by the middle classes in
England, is usually made in quantities of 2 barrels, i. e., 72
gallons. For this purpose a quarter of malt, or if wished to
be extra strong, 9 bushels of malt are taken, with 12 lb. of
hops. The malt being crushed or ground, is mashed with
72 gallons of water, at the temperature of 160°, and covered
up for three hours, when 40 gallons are drawn off; and into
this the 12 lb. of hops are put and left to infuse. Sixty gallons
of water at the temperature of 170° are then added to the
malt in the mash-tub and well mixed, and after standing two
hours 60 gallons are drawn off. The wort from these two
mashes is boiled along with the hops for two hours, and after
being cooled down to 65°, it is strained through a flannel
bag into the fermenting tub, where it is mixed with one-and-
a-quarter gallons of yeast, and left to work for twenty-four
or thirty-six hours. It is then run into barrels to cleanse, a
few gallons being reserved for filling up the casks as the yeast
works over. Eighteen or twenty gallons of beer are obtained
from the used malt by making a third mash with twenty-five
or thirty gallons of water, and boiling the wort thus procured
with the used hops.
Scottish Ale, but especially the Edinburgh ale, has been
long celebrated, but as an ordinary beverage, it is much more
luscious and heady than London porter, English ale, or pale
Indian ale. It is a much stronger drink than any of these,
the home-brewed English ale approaching nearest to it in
this respect; and as the attenuation of tire saccharine ex¬
tract is only carried the length of the decomposition of two-
thirds of its original strength, the large quantity of unde¬
composed saccharine extract renders it much more luscious
to the taste, and milder than the English ales. The Scot¬
tish ales are brewed of various strengths, and are known in
the market by their price per hogshead, and are hence com¬
monly mentioned as L.7 ale, L.6 ale, &c. According to
the kind of ale required the worts are prepared of various
degrees of gravity as indicated by Allan’s saccharometer.
Speaking in a general way, L.3 ale has a wort of the
specific gravity of from 1070 to 1080; L.4 ale wort from
1080 to 1095 ; L.5 ale wort from 1095 to 1110; L.6 ale
wort from 1110 to 1120; and L.7 ale wort from 1120 to
1130.
By the Scottish plan only one mash is made, using for
the stronger ales about 1| barrels of water to each quarter
of malt. I he whole water is run in at once into the mash-
tun at the temperature of 180°, and the crushed malt, as it
is poured into the water, is thoroughly mixed with it by
means of oars and rakes, and all the lumps carefully broken.
The mash-tun is then covered over and allowed to stand
for three hours. The heat of the mash-tun at the surface
is usually about 140°, but the heat in the interior of the
mash is higher, seeing the wort when run off has usually a
temperature of about 155°. At the end of this period the
sparger, formerly described, is fixed to the mash-tun, and
the taps being opened the wort is permitted to flow out, at
first slowly till it runs clear, afterwards at full tap. The
sparger is then set in motion, and sprinkles the surface of
the °mash with as much hot water, at the temperature of
180 or 185 , as flows out from the tap below. The surface
of the mash is thus kept from becoming dry, else the whole
mash would fall into cracks, and also separate from the sides
of the mash tun, and allow the water to escape without car¬
rying with it the saccharine extract.
Supposing that a L.4 ale were wished, and a small brew¬
ing were made of 8 quarters of malt, 30 barrels of wort
would be run off at the specific gravity of 1072. The wort
being pumped into the boiler, after boiling half an hour
would have 40 lb. of hops added to it, and in another half
hour other 40 lb., making in all 80 lb. of hops. For the
higher priced ales 10 lbs. of hops per quarter of malt are
occasionally used. The boiling of the wort is continued
from an hour to an hour and half longer, until the gravity
of the wort is increased to 1084, when it is passed to the
coolers, where it is still further strengthened by evaporation,
so that when pitched in the gyle tun its gravity is about
1092, and its bulk reduced to 23 or 24 barrels. The wort
being cooled down to 50° or 52°, six gallons of yeast, or
more or less according to the season, are mixed in the gyle
tun with a barrel of the wort, when the rest of the wort is
let run into the gyle tun from the coolers in full stream,
and the whole is well mixed. The process of fermentation
occupies from ten to twelve days, and the heat during the
fermentation is never allowed to rise higher than 62°, or 10°
above that at which it was pitched, and the yeasty head is
repeatedly beat down, usually twice daily, during that period.
When the brewer finds that the attenuation has been carried
so far as to reduce the specific gravity to 1031, in other
words, that two-thirds of the saccharine extract have been
converted into alcohol, the ale is left undisturbed in the
fermenting vat for 2 or 3 days, by which time it has be¬
come clear and transparent, all fermentation has ceased, and
its temperature has fallen to 50° or 52°. It is then run off
into the casks in which it is to be sent out, which are al¬
lowed to stand a couple of days before being bunged down.
Finings are scarcely ever required for these ales.
These heavy ales are being gradually displaced by the
more wholesome, lighter, and more thoroughly fermented
bitter ales of which the Indian ale is the type.
1 hese Scotch ales contain a large per-centage of alcohol.
Mr Roberts has published a table containing the analysis
of 11 samples of different Scotch ales, and found they con¬
tained on an average of the 71 ales 14*59 per cent, of proof
spirit. The higher priced ales, as those at L.6 and L.7, con¬
tained 16 and 17 per cent, of proof spirit, the highest sample
containing 18*5 per cent. The low priced ales, as those of
L.3 and L.4, contained on the average 11 and 12 percent,
of proof spirit; the lowest sample of L.2 ale contained 9"8
per cent, of spirit.
The following table shows the quantity of beer or ale ex¬
ported from Great Britain and Ireland during the years end¬
ing 5th January:—
Brewing.
BREWING.
335
1851, —182,480 barrels,
1852, -190,077 ...
1853, -244,115 ...
1854, -416,030 ...
valued at L.558,794
577,142
754,627
1,289,382
Bavarian Beer is the only other malt liquor which, from
the peculiarities attending its fermentation, requires a special
notice. The Germans, from the earliest historical periods,
have been a beer-drinking nation, and some excellent malt
liquors are made in that country. The “ weiss bier,” the
truly patriotic beverage of Prussia, is not made from barley
alone, but from 1 part barley malt and 5 parts wheat malt;
but the excessive tendency of wheat beers to sour has
caused potato starch to be substituted for the wheat, and
tartaric acid to give the admired tartness. The other beers,
however, more especially the ones now to be noticed, the
Bavarian beers, both the common pot beer (schank-bier)
and the intoxicating luscious bock-beer, are brewed from
barley malt alone.
The peculiarities attending the manufacture of these beers
attracted little notice in this country till the publication of
Liebig’s Chemistry in its application to Agriculture and
Physiology in 1840 directed attention to the subject by
contrasting the keeping qualities of the Bavarian beer with
that of the English and French beers. Dr Ure has since
then personally examined these beers and their mode of
manufacture, but did not find the vaunted qualities of the
German bier so uniform as Liebig would have us believe.
“ This perfection (says he) is, however, in my opinion, rarely
attained. In my several journeys into Germany I have met
with much spurious or ill-made Bavarian beer. The best
contains, when brought to England, a little acid.”—Diction¬
ary of Arts, fyc., vol. i. p. 156.
Liebig’s being still the best description of the chemical
changes which accompany the peculiar mode of fermenta¬
tion adopted for Bavarian beer, we give it entire from the work
above quoted, without, however, subscribing to his views,
which are fanciful in some points, and in others scarcely in
accordance with known facts.
“ English, French, and most of the Gferman beers, says Liebig,
are converted into vinegar when exposed to the action of air. But
this property is not possessed by Bavarian beer, which may be kept
in vessels only half filled without acidifying or experiencing any
change. This valuable quality is obtained for it by a peculiar
management of the fermentation of the wort. The perfection of
experimental knowledge may have led to the solution of one of the
most beautiful problems of the theory of fermentation.
“ Wort is proportionally richer in gluten than in sugar, so that
during its fermentation in the common way a great quantity of
yeast is formed as a thick scum. The carbonic acid evolved during
the process attaches itself to the particles of the yeast, by which
they become specifically lighter than the liquid in which they are
formed, and rise to the surface. Gluten, in the act of oxidation,
comes in contact with the particles of the decomposing sugar in the
interior of the liquid. The carbonic acid from the sugar and in¬
soluble ferment from the gluten are disengaged simultaneously,
and adhere together.
“ A great quantity of gluten remains dissolved in the fermented
liquid, even after the transformation of the sugar is completed, and
this gluten causes the conversion of the alcohol into acetic acid, on
account of its strong disposition to attract oxygen and to undergo
decay. Now it is plain, that with its separation, and that of all
substances capable of attracting oxygen, the beer would lose the
property of becoming acid. This end is completely attained in the
process of fermentation adopted in Bavaria.
“ The wort, after having been treated with hops in the usual
manner, is thrown into very wide flat vessels, in which a large
surface of the liquid is exposed to the air. The fermentation is
then allowed to proceed, while the temperature of the chambers in
which the vessels are placed is never allowed to rise above from
45° to 50° Fahrenheit. The fermentation lasts from three to six
weeks, and the carbonic acid evolved during its continuance is not
in large bubbles which burst upon the surface of the liquid, but in
Small bubbles like those which escape from a liquid saturated by
high pressure. The surface of the wort is scarcely covered with a
scum, and all the yeast is deposited on the bottom of the vessel in
the form of a viscous sediment.
“ In order to obtain a clear conception of the great difference be¬
tween the two kinds of fermentation, it may perhaps be sufficient to Brewing.
recall to mind the fact that the transformation of gluten or other
azotized matters is a process consisting of several stages. The first
stage is the conversion of the gluten into insoluble ferment in the
interior of the liquid, and as the transformation of the sugar goes
on at the same time, carbonic acid and yeast are simultaneously
disengaged. It is known with certainty that this formation of
yeast depends upon oxygen being appropriated by the gluten in
the act of decomposition ; but it has not been sufficiently shown
whether this oxygen is derived from the water, sugar, or from the
gluten itself; whether it combines directly with the gluten, or
merely with its hydrogen, so as to form water. For the purpose of
obtaining a definite idea of the process, we may designate the first
change as the stage of oxidation. This oxidation of the gluten,
then, and the transposition of the atoms of the sugar into alcohol
and carbonic acid are necessarily attendant on each other, so that
if the one is arrested the other must also cease.
“ Now, the yeast which rises to the surface of the liquid is not
the product of a complete decomposition, but is oxidized gluten
still capable of undergoing a new transformation by the transposi¬
tion of its constituent elements. By virtue of this condition it has
the power to excite fermentation in a solution of sugar; and if the
gluten be also present, the decomposing sugar induces its conver¬
sion into fresh yeast, so that in a certain sense the yeast appears to
reproduce itself.
“ Yeast of this kind is oxidized gluten in a state of putrefaction,
and by virtue of this state it induces a similar transformation in
the elements of the sugar.
“ The yeast formed during the fermentation of the Bavarian
beer is oxidized gluten in a state of decay. The process of decom¬
position which its constituents are suffering gives rise to a very
protracted putrefaction {fermentation) in the sugar. The intensity
of the action is diminished in so great a degree, that the gluten
which the fluid still holds in solution takes no part fn it; the sugar
in fermentation does not excite a similar state m the gluten.
“ But the contact of the already decaying and precipitated gluten
or yeast causes the eremacausis (decay) of the gluten dissolved in
the wort; oxygen gas is absorbed from the air, and all the gluten
in solution is deposited as yeast.
“ The ordinary frothy yeast may be removed from fermenting
beer by filtration without the fermentation being thereby arrested;
but precipitated yeast of Bavarian beer cannot be removed without
the whole process of its fermentation being interrupted. The beer
ceases to ferment altogether, or if the temperature be raised under¬
goes the ordinary fermentation. The precipitated yeast does not
excite ordinary fermentation, and consequently is quite unfitted for
the purpose of baking; but the common frothy yeast can cause the
kind of fermentation by which the former kind of yeast is produced.
“ When common yeast is added to wort at a temperature of be¬
tween 40° and 50° Fahrenheit, a slow tranquil fermentation takes
place, and a matter is deposited on the bottom of the vessel which
may be employed to excite new fermentation; and when the same
operation is repeated several times in succession, the ordinary fer¬
mentation changes into that process by which only precipitated yeast
is formed. The yeast now deposited has lost the property of ex¬
citing ordinary fermentation, but it produces the other process even
at a temperature of 50° Fahrenheit. In wort subjected to fermen¬
tation at a low temperature, with this kind of yeast, the condition
necessary for the transformation of the sugar is the presence of
that yeast; but for the conversion of gluten into ferment by a pro¬
cess of oxidation, something more is required.
“ When the power of gluten to attract oxygen is increased by
contact with precipitated yeast in a state of decay, the unrestrained
action of air is the only other condition necessary for its own con¬
version into the same state of decay, that is, for its oxidation. We
have already seen that the presence of free oxygen and gluten are
conditions which determine the eremacausis of alcohol, and its con¬
version into acetic acid ; but they are incapable of exerting this in¬
fluence at low temperatures. A low temperature retards the slow
combustion of alcohol, while the gluten combines spontaneously with
the oxygen of the air, just as sulphurous acid does when dissolved
in water. Alcohol undergoes no such changes at low temperatures,
but during the oxidation of the gluten in contact with it, is placed
in the same condition as the gluten itself when sulphurous acid is
added to the wine in which it is contained. The oxygen of the
air unites both with the gluten and alcohol of wine, not with sul¬
phurous acid ; but when the acid is present it combines with neither
of them, being altogether absorbed by the acid. The same thing
happens in the peculiar process of fermentation adopted in Bava”
ria. The oxygen of the air unites only with the gluten and not
with the alcohol, although it would have combined with both at
higher temperatures, so as to form acetic acid.
“Thus, then, this remarkable process of fermentation with the
precipitation of a mucous-like ferment, consists of a simultaneous
336
BREWING.
Brewing, putrefaction and decay in the same liquid. The sugar is in the
state of putrefaction, and the gluten in that of decay. In the fei-
mentation of beer after this manner, all the substances capable of
decay are separated from it by means of an unrestrained access of
air, while the temperature is kept sufficiently low to prevent the
alcohol from combining with oxygen. The removal of these sub¬
stances diminishes the tendency of the beer to become acescent, or,
in other words, to suffer a further transformation.”
Notwithstanding Liebig’s praise of the Bavarian beer,
much of it, as commonly brewed, is an inferior drink.
Even its keeping qualities have been greatly over-rated.
In the Grand Duchy of Hesse a considerable premium
was offered for the preparation of beer according to the
Bavarian method; and the premium was to be adjudged
to any one who could prove that the beer brewed by him
had lain for six months in the store vats without becoming
acid; but we are informed that hundreds of casks of beer
were lost in the endeavour to fulfil the conditions.
It would appear that, as in the case of the Indian ales,
Bavarian beer can be well brewed by a much more rapid
process of fermentation than one extending over “ three to
six weeks.’’ Dr Ure, in describing the process followed
in Bavaria, mentions that the pitching heat of the wort for
the ordinary schank-bier is from 54° to 59°, and, as might
be expected at these heats, the wort undergoes a nearly
ordinary fermentation, even though the deposit-yeast be
used, yeast rising to the surface and forming a tolerable
head ; and in five or six days the beer is ready to be
transferred to the store tun. For the best keeping beer,
however, the wort is pitched at the temperature of 41° to
43°, and the fermenting process is consequently much
slower: no head of yeast is formed, all is deposited. From
this it would appear that the low pitching heat has more to
do with the production of deposit-yeast and the non-pro¬
duction of head-yeast than any other requisite. This state¬
ment also enables us to understand how so much of the
Bavarian beer should be of bad quality, much of it being
virtually ill-brewed ordinary beer.
Excellent Bavarian beer has been brewed in Edinburgh.
Messrs James Muir and Sons, more than twenty years ago
(1832), procured from Bavaria a supply of the deposit-yeast,
and with it made several brewings of beer. It was found
that good beers could only be brewed with this yeast if the
wort was of low specific gravity. The worts were pitched at
the temperature of 45°, in the ordinary gyle tun, and were
never allowed to rise above 48°. A slight cream or scum at
first appeared on the surface ; the whole yeast was deposited
at the bottom, and the brewing was completed in 10 or 12
days. Better beer was never turned out of any brewery,
and they could not supply the demand for it. The supply
of deposit-yeast was kept up for many months, when on
using a stronger wort, and the weather not permitting the
wort to be cooled sufficiently, ordinary fermentation took
place, and the supply of deposit-yeast was destroyed. The
manufacture of this beer, interfering with their ordinary trade,
was not resumed; but their opinion is, that the process is
excellently adapted for the manufacture of all the light beers,
and as it requires no change in the ordinary apparatus, it is
worthy the attention of the table beer brewers. In Bavaria,
when the ordinary deposit-yeast cannot be procured, the
common yeast which is deposited in every fermentation—
which indeed seems to be identically the same,—is carefully
separated from the head-yeast, and used; and after one or
two brewings is found to be of sufficient purity for the finest
beers. The sole inconvenience attending the Bavarian pro¬
cess is, that it can only be carried on during the six coldest
months of the year.
A few years ago the legislature permitted the Board of
Excise to grant leave to use sugar in place of barley malt in
breweries. Dr Ure was employed by an extensive sugar
merchant to make experiments for the purpose of ascertain¬
ing whether sugar could be economically substituted for
malt. He examined 10 samples of Muscovado sugar, and
found the average yield was 12 gallons of proof spirit for
every 112 lb. of sugar; whereas an equal quantity of proof
spirit could be obtained from bushels of malt. One
pound of malt he found yielded ^ lb. of extract, capable of
making as much spirit as that weight of sugar. By contrast¬
ing the price of sugar and malt, any one can see that sugar
cannot be used economically in the brewery. Several ex¬
tensive brewers however, were induced to try the experi¬
ment on the large scale, as for instance the Messrs W hit-
bread & Co., who in 1847 used no less than 627,188
pounds weight of sugar in their brewery; but almost all
seem now convinced, not only that it is not economical, but
that it makes an inferior beer to malt.
But, though unprofitable to use sugar alone in brewing
beers, some brewers have found it highly advantageous to
use it as an auxiliary to the malt. The proportion of sugar
which it has been found profitable thus to employ varies
from a sixth to a fourth of the estimated quantity of saccha¬
rine extract of malt in the wort; and the sugar is added to
the wort either when it is boiling in the copper, or when it
is passed into the fermenting vat. In the latter case it
must be previously dissolved in water, so as to reduce it to
the state of a syrup. It has also been recommended to add
sugar in the form of a syrup to export beers, especially to
those which have become thin in body from the fermenta¬
tion having been carried too far, as is sometimes the case in
spite of all efforts to prevent it when the quick English
plan of fermentation is adopted. The addition of a small
quantity of strong syrup, highly hopped, is said to improve
such beer, not only restoring to it that fulness of body
which it had lost, but enabling it to stand exportation much
better than it would otherwise do.
Before concluding this article, we must notice a simple
mode of analysis for beers, by means of which three useful
facts may be arrived at, viz., the original gravity of the wort,
the degree of attenuation of the saccharine matter, and the
proportion of proof spirit in the beer. The instruments re¬
quired for this purpose are ; 1st, A saceharometer or hydro¬
meter. 2d, A glass sample tube large enough to hold 4
ounces of fluid, and deep enough to allow the hydrometer to
be used. 3d, A four-ounce glass bottle furnished with a
glass stopper, having a hole drilled through its centre. 4th,
A thin glass flask of twice the capacity of the measure bottle;
or a retort with its condenser.
The mode of analysis now to be described, appears to
have been first suggested in this country by Mr Stevenson
of Edinburgh, to have been further investigated by Messrs
Dobson and Phillips of the Inland Revenue Department;
and, lastly, by a commission appointed by the Board of In¬
land Revenue, consisting of Professors Graham, Hofmann,
and Redwood. The object of these investigations was to
enable the excise to estimate more correctly the original
gravity of the wort of export ales, for the sake of paying the
drawback which is allowed on beers of a certain strength.
By the act of 10th Victoria, cap. 5, a drawback is granted
of “ five shillings per barrel of 36 gallons upon beer ex¬
ported, of which the worts used before fermentation are of
not less specific gravity than 1054, and not greater than
1081 ; and a drawback of seven shillings and sixpence upon
beer exported, of which the worts used before fermentation
are of not less specific gravity than 1081.” There are two
modes of making this analysis, the first that suggested by
Mr Stevenson, the second that improved upon by the above
professor's and adopted by the excise. The first may be
styled the “ evaporation process,” the second the “ distilla¬
tion process.”
1. The Evaporation Process.—The beer to be examined
is to be poured into the sample tube, and allowed to stand
till all the carbonic acid gas has escaped. It is then brought
to the temperature of 60°, and its specific gravity is taken
Brewing,
BREWING.
337
Brewing, by means of the saccharometer and marked down. Let us
suppose we find it 1024. The four-ounce measure bottle is
then filled with the beer, and the stopper inserted; the sur¬
plus beer escapes through the drilled hole, leaving the
bottle quite full. This measured quantity of beer is then
poured into the glass flask, the bottle carefully washed out
with water, and the rinsings added to the flask. The flask
is then placed over an argand or gas burner, and boiled till
rather more than half of the beer is evaporated. The heat
drives off all the alcohol. The inspissated beer or extract
is then poured back into the measure bottle, the flask washed
out with pure water and the wrashings also added to the
bottle, and the bottle then filled up to its original measure
with pure water. The specific gravity of this mixed fluid is
then taken in the test tube, and as water has now taken the
place of spirit, its gravity is found to have increased to 1036,
or n increase of gravity of 12 degrees. These 12 degrees
are styled the “ spirit indication,” from indicating the per¬
centage of proof spirit in the beer. This then gives an
answer to one of our queries, viz., the proportion of proof
spirit in the beer.
We wish, however, to find out the original gravity of the
wort. To get at this we must refer to the excise tables of
spirit indications. By these we learn that the 12 degrees,
the “ spirit indication” of this beer, requires a wort of the
specific gravity of 54-3 to produce it. To get the original
gravity of the wort, however, we must add the ascertained
gravity of the extract, ascertained as above to be 36, which
added to the 54’3 gives 1090*3 as the original specific gra¬
vity of the wort before the beer was manufactured.
The researches of Professors Graham, Hofmann, and Red¬
wood, show that this mode under-estimates the proportion of
spirit in the beer, and, of course, the strength of the wort.
They therefore recommend, and the excise have adopted,—
2. The Distillation Process. The accurately measured Brewing,
four ounces of beer are poured into the retort, along with
the rinsings of the measure bottle ; the condenser is fitted
on, and the measure bottle used as the receiver. Rather more
than half the quantity of the beer is distilled over, by which
time the whole alcohol is expelled and is collected in the
measure bottle. Water is then added to the spirit in the
measure bottle till the bottle is exactly full, when the specific
gravity of the mixture is taken. Let us suppose we take
the same beer as in the former process. The specific gra¬
vity of the mixed spirit and water is 987*5 or 12*5 degrees
less than the specific gravity of water, which is 1000. This
number 12*5 then is the “ spirit indication of the beer.” By
a reference to the new excise table of spirit indications, we
find that 12*5 degrees of spirit indicates a wort of the gra¬
vity of 56*9. To this we must add the gravity of the ex¬
tract filled up with water, and measured as before, viz., 36,
which gives 1092*9 as the original gravity of the wort from
which the beer was fermented. By comparing these two
results, the difference in the indications will be seen ; and
none can doubt that the distillation process is the most ac¬
curate: thus,
By Distillation. By Evaporation.
Spirit indication  56*9 54*3
Extract gravity  36 36
Original gravity of wort 92*9 90*3
We subjoin the table constructed by Professors Graham,
Hofmann, and Redwood, by which in future the Inland Re¬
venue will be guided in giving back the drawback on all
export beers ; the numbers in the body of the table indi¬
cate the strength of wort corresponding to the spirit indica¬
tions marked on the margin.
Degrees of
Spirit
Indication.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
H
12
13
14
15
0*
3*0
6*6
10*7
15*1
19*5
24*1
28*8
33*7
39T
44*2
49*0
54*3
59*4
64*8
70*5
0*3
3*3
7*0
111
15*5
19*9
24*6
29*2
34*3
39*7
44*7
49*6
54*9
60*0
65*4
0*6
3*7
7*4
11*5
160
20*4
25*0
29*7
34*8
40*2
45*1
50*1
55*4
60*5
65*9
0-9
4*1
7*8
12*0
16*4
20*9
25*5
30*2
35*4
40*7
45*6
50*6
55*9
61*1
66*5
1*2
4*4
8*2
12*4
16*8
21*3
26*0
30*7
35*9
41 *2
46*0
51*2
56*4
61*6
67*1
1*5
4*8
8*6
12*9
17*3
21*8
26*4
31*2
36*5
41*7
46*5
51*7
56*9
62*2
67*6
1*8
5*1
9*0
13*3
17*7
22*2
26*9
31*7
37*0
42*2
47*0
52*2
57*4
62*7
68*2
2*1
5*5
9*4
13*8
18*2
22*7
27*4
32*2
37*5
42*7
47*5
52*7
57*9
63*3
68*7
2*4
5*9
9*8
14*2
18*6
23T
27*8
32*7
38*0
43*2
48*0
53*3
58*4
63*8
69*3
2*7
6*2
10*2
14*7
19*1
23*6
28*3
33*2
38*6
43*7
48*5
53*8
58*9
64*3
69*9
J. s—K.
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
Figs. 1 and 2, Plate CX LI., explain the arrangement
of the utensils and machinery in a porter brewery on the
largest scale; in which, however, it must be observed
that the elevation, fig. 1, is in a great degree imaginary
as to the plane upon which it is taken; but the different
vessels are arranged so as to explain their uses most
readily, and at the same time to preserve, as nearly as
possible, the relative positions which are usually assigned
to each in works of this nature.
The malt for the service of the brewery is stored in vast
granaries or malt-lofts, usually situated in the upper part
of the buildings. Of these, we have only been able to re¬
present one at A, fig. 1; the others, which are supposed
VOL. v.
to be on each side of it, cannot be seen in this view. Im¬
mediately beneath the granary A is the mill, in the upper
floor of which are two pair of rollers for bruising or crush¬
ing the grains of the malt. (An enlarged representation
of the rollers is given at figs. 3 and 4.) In the floor be¬
neath the rollers are the mill-stones b b, where the malt is
sometimes ground, instead of the simple bruising which it
receives by passing between the rollers.
The malt, when prepared, is conveyed by a trough into
a chest d, from which it can be elevated by the action of
a spiral screw e (see also figs. 5 and 6) into the large
chest or binn B, for ground malt, situated immediately
over the mashing-tun D. The malt is reserved in the binn
2 u
338
BREWING.
Brewing, till wanted, and it is then let down into the mashing-tun,
wwhere the extract is obtained by hot water supplied from
the copper G.
The water for the service of the brewery is obtained
from the well E, by a lifting pump worked by the steam-
engine; and the forcing-pipe /of this pump conveys the
water up to the large reservoir or water-back F, placed at
the top of the engine-house. From this cistern iron pipes
are laid to the copper G, and also every part of the esta¬
blishment where cold water can be wanted for cleaning
and washing the vessels. The copper G can be filled with
cold water by only turning a cock; and the water, when
boiled therein, is conveyed by the pipe g into the mash¬
ing-tun D. It is introduced beneath a false bottom, upon
which the malt lies, and, rising up through the holes in
the false bottom, it extracts the saccharine matter from
the malt; a greater or less time being allowed for the in¬
fusion, according to circumstances. The instant the wa¬
ter is drawn off from the copper, fresh water must be let
into it, in order to be boiled ready for the second mash¬
ing ; because the copper must not be left empty for a mo¬
ment, otherwise the intense heat of the fire would melt
the bottom. For the convenience of thus letting down at
once as much liquor as will fill the bottom of the copper,
a pan or second boiler is placed over the top of the copper,
as seen in fig. 3, Plate CXLII.; and the steam rising
from the copper communicates a considerable degree of
heat to the contents of the pan, without any expense of
fuel. This will be more minutely explained hereafter.
During the process of mashing, the malt is agitated in
the mash-tun, to expose every part to the action of the
water. This is done by a machine contained within the
mash-tun, and put in motion by the horizontal shaft H,
leading from the mill. The masbing-machine is shown in
fig. 1, Plate CXLII. When the mashing is finished, the
wort or extract is drained down from the malt, into a ves¬
sel I, of similar dimensions to the mash-tun, and situated
immediately beneath, from which it is called the under-
back. Here the wort does not remain longer than is ne¬
cessary to drain off the whole of it from the tun above. It
is then pumped up by the three-barrelled pump A, into the
pan at the top of the copper, by a pipe which cannot be
seen in the plate.
The wort remains in the copper pan until the water for
the succeeding mashes is discharged from the copper.
But this waiting is no loss of time, because the heat of the
copper, and the steam arising from it, makes the wort,
which had become cooler, ready for boiling. The instant
the copper is empty, the wort is let down from the pan
into the copper, and the second wort is pumped up from
the underback into the copper pan. The proper propor¬
tion of hops is thrown into the copper through the near
hole, and then the door is shut down, and screwed fast, to
keep in the steam, and cause it to rise up through pipes
into the pan ; and by bubbling up through the wort in the
pan, it communicates so much heat that it is soon ready
for boiling in its turn; for it is to be observed, that the
different worts follow each other through-all the different
vessels with the greatest regularity, so that there is no
loss of time, but every part of the apparatus is constantly
employed. When the boiling of the wort has continued
a sufficient time to coagulate the grosser part of the ex¬
tract and to evaporate part of the water, the contents of
the copper are run off through a large cock into the jack-
back K, which is a vessel of sufficient dimensions to con¬
tain it, and provided with a bottom of cast-iron plates, per¬
forated with small holes, through which the wort drains
and leaves the hops. The hot wort is drawn off from the
jack-back through the pipe h by the three-barrelled pump,
which throws it up to the coolers L, this pump being made
with different pipes and cocks of communication, to serve Brewing,
all the purposes of the brewery except that of raising the
cold water from the well. The coolers L are very shallow
vessels, built over one another in several stages; and that
part of the building in which they are contained is built
with open lattice-work on all sides, to admit the free cur¬
rent of air. W'hen the wort is sufficiently cooled to be put
to the first fermentation, it is conducted in pipes from all the
different coolers to the large fermenting vessel or gyle-tun
M, which, with another similar vessel behind it, is of suffi¬
cient capacity to contain all the beer of one day’s brewing.
When the first fermentation is concluded, the beer is
drawn off from the great fermenting vessel M into the
small fermenting casks or cleansing vessels N, of which
there are a great number in the brewery. They are placed
four together, and to each four a common spout is provid¬
ed to carry off the yeast, and conduct it into the troughs
u placed beneath. In these cleansing vessels the beer re¬
mains till the fermentation is completed, and it is then
put into the store-vats, which are casks or tuns of an im¬
mense size, where it is kept till wanted, and is then drawn
off into barrels and sent away from the brewery. The
store-vats are not represented in the plate, but are of a
conical figure, and of different dimensions, from fifteen to
forty feet diameter, and usually twenty feet in depth. The
steam-engine which puts all the machinery in motion is
explained by the figure. On the axis of the large fly¬
wheel is a bevelled cog-wheel, which turns another simi¬
lar wheel upon the end of a horizontal shaft, which ex¬
tends from the engine-house to the great horse-wheel,
which it turns by means of a cog-wheel. The horse-wheel
puts in motion all the pinions for the mill-stones bb, and
also the horizontal axis which works the three-barrelled
pump k. The rollers aa are turned by a bevelled wheel
upon the upper end of the axis of the horse-wheel, which
is continued for that purpose; and the horizontal shaft H,
for the mashing engine, is driven by a pair of bevelled
wheels. There is likewise a sack-tackle, which is not re¬
presented. It is a machine for drawing up the sacks of
malt from the court-yard to the highest part of the build¬
ing, whence the sacks are wheeled on a truck to the malt-
loft A, and the contents of the sacks are thrown in.
The horse-wheel is intended to put in horses occasion¬
ally if the steam-engine should fail; but these engines are
now brought to such perfection that it is very seldom any
accidents occur with them.
Fig. 2, Plate CXLI., is a representation of the ferment-
ing-house at the brewery of Messrs Whitbread and Com¬
pany, Chiswell Street, London, which is by far the most
complete in its arrangement of any work of the kind, and
was erected after the plan of Mr Richardson, who con¬
ducts the brewing at those works. The whole of fig. 2 is
to be considered as devoted to the same object as the large
vessel M and the casks N, fig. 1. In fig. 2, r is the pipe
which leads from the different coolers to convey the wort
to the great fermenting vessels or squares M, of which
there are two, one behind the other; ff represents a part
of the great pipe which conveys all the water from the
well E, fig. 1, up to the water cistern F. This pipe is
conducted purposely up the wall of the fermenting-house,
fig. 2, and has a cock in it, near r, to stop the passage.
Just beneath this passage a branch-pipe g proceeds and
enters a large pipe x x, which has the former pipe r within-
side of it. From the end of the pipe x, nearest to the
squares M, another branch n n proceeds, and returns to
the original pipe/ with a cock to regulate it. The object
of this arrangement is to make all, or any part of, the cold
water flow through the pipe x x, so as to surround the
wort-pipe r, which is only made of thin copper, and lower
the temperature of the wort passing through the pipe r,
BREWING.
Brewing, unti], by the thermometer, it is found to have the exact
temperature which is desirable before it is put to ferment
in the great square M. By means of the cocks at n and
P\ the quantity of cold water which shall pass in contact
with the surface of the pipe r can be regulated at pleasure,
so as to have a command of the heat of the wort when it
enters into the square.
When the first fermentation in the squares M is finish¬
ed, the beer is drawn off from them by pipes marked v,
and conducted by its branches iv to the different rows of
fermenting-tuns marked NN, which fill all the building.
Between every two rows are placed large troughs to con¬
tain the yeast which they throw off. The plate shows
that the small tuns are all placed on a lower level than
the bottom of the great vessels M, so that the beer will
flow into them, and, by standing in them all, will fill them
to the same level. When they are filled, the communica-
tion-cock is shut; but as the working off of the yeast di¬
minishes the quantity of beer in each vessel, it is neces¬
sary to fill them up again. For this purpose the two large
vats 00 are filled from the great vessels M before any
beer is drawn off into the small casks N, and this quantity
of beer is reserved at the higher level for filling up. The
two vessels 00 are in reality placed between the two
squares M, but we have been obliged to place them so
that they can be seen. Near each filling-up tun o is a
cistern t, with a pipe of communication from the tun O,
and this pipe is closed by a float-valve. The small cis-
teins t have always a communication with the pipes which
lead to the small fermenting vessels N, and therefore the
surface of the beer in all the tuns and in the cisterns will
always be at the same level; and as this level subsides by
the working off of the yeast from the tuns, the float sinks
and opens the valve, so as to admit a sufficiency of beer
from the filling-up tuns o to restore the surfaces of the
beer in all the tuns, and also in the cistern t, to the origi¬
nal level. In order to carry off the yeast which is pro¬
duced by the fermentation of the beer in the tuns 00, an
iron dish or vessel is made to float upon the surface of the
beer which they contain ; and from the centre of this dish
a pipe o descends and passes through the bottom of the
tun, being filled through a collar of leather so as to be
tight, at the same time that it is at liberty to slide down
as the surface of the beer descends in the tun. The yeast
flows over the edge of this dish, and is conveyed down
the pipe to a trough beneath.
Beneath the fermenting house are large arched vaults
P, built with stone, and lined with stucco. Into these the
339
beer is let down when sufficiently fermented, and is kept
till wanted. These vaults are used at Mr Whitbread’s
brewery instead of the great store-vats of which we have
before spoken, and are in some respects preferable, be¬
cause they preserve a great equality of temperature, being
beneath the surface of the earth.
Figs. 3,4, and 7, Plate CXLL, represent the malt-rollers,
or machine for bruising the grains of malt. A is the hopper
into which the malt is let down from the malt-loft above,
and from this the malt is let out gradually through a
sluice or sliding-shuttle a, and falls between the rollers
BD. Ihese rollers are made of iron, truly cylindrical
and their pivots are received in pieces of brass let into iron
frames, which are bolted down to the wooden frame of the
machine. A screw E is lapped through the end of each
of these iron frames; and by these screws the brasses can
be forced forwards, and the rollers made to work closer to
each other, so as to bruise the malt in a greater degree.
G is the shaft by which one of the rollers is turned, and
the other receives its motion by means of a pair of equal
cog-wheels H, which are fixed upon the ends of the pivots,
at the opposite ends of each of the rollers: c? is a small
lever, which bears upon the teeth of one of these cog- Brewing,
wheels, and is thereby lifted up every time a cog passes.
I his lever is fixed on the extremity of an axis, which
passes across the wood frame, and in the middle of it has
a lever c, (3 & 7), bearing up a trough b, which hangs under
the opening of the hopper A. By this means the trough
b is constantly jogged, and shakes down the malt regular¬
ly from the hopper A, and lets it fall between the rollers:
e is a scraper of iron plate, which is always made to bear
against the surface of the roller by a weight, to remove
the grains which adhere to the roller.
lig. 5 is the screw by which the ground or bruised malt
is raised up, or conveyed from one part of the brewery to
another. K is an inclined bar or trough, in the centre of
which the axis of the screw H is placed; and the spiral
iron plate or worm, which is fixed projecting from the
axis, and which forms the screw, is made very nearly to
fill the inside of the box. By this means, when the screw
is turned round by the wheels EF, or by any other means,
it raises up the malt from the box d, and delivers it at the
spout G. Fig. 6 represents a section of the screw.
The screw is equally applicable for conveying the malt
hoiizontally in the trough h as inclined; and similar ma¬
chines are employed in various parts of breweries for con¬
veying the malt wherever the situation of the works re¬
quire.
Fig. 1, Plate CXLII., is the mashing-machine. WW is
the tun, made of wood staves, hooped together. In the
centre of it rises a perpendicular shaft NN, which is turn
ed slowly round by means of the bevelled wheels KI at
the top. RR are two arms projecting from the axis, and
supporting the short vertical axis S at the extremities, so
that, when the central axis is turned round, it will carry
the axle 8 round the tun in a circle. The axis S is fur¬
nished with a number of arms T, which are shown in fig.
2, and have blades placed obliquely to the plane of their
motion. When the axis is turned round, these arms agi¬
tate the malt in the tun, and give it a constant tendency
to rise upwards from the bottom.
I he motion of the axis S is produced by a wheel Q on
the upper end of it, which is turned by a wheel P fasten¬
ed on the lower end of the tube O, which turns freely
round upon the central axis N. On the upper end of the
same tube O is a bevelled wheel M, receiving motion from
a wheel L, which is fixed upon the end of the horizontal
axis I, which gives motion to the whole machine. This
same axis has a pinion G upon it, which gives motion to
the wheel H, fixed upon the end of a horizontal axle,
which at the opposite end has a bevelled pinion I work¬
ing the wheel K, before mentioned. By this means the
rotation of the central axis N will be very slow compared
with the motion of the axis S, for the latter will make
seventeen or eighteen revolutions on its own axis in the
same space of time that it will be carried once round the
tun by the motion of the axis N. At the beginning of
the operation of mashing, the machine is made to move
with a slow motion; but, after having wetted all the malt
by one revolution, it is made to revolve quicker. For this
purpose the ascending shaft A, which gives motion to the
machine, has two bevelled wheels BC fixed upon a tube
X, which is fitted upon the shaft. These wheels actuate
the wheels D and E upon the end of the horizontal shaft
F; but the distance between the two wheels B and C is
such, that they cannot be engaged both at once with the
wheels D and E; but the tube X, to which they are fix¬
ed, is capable of sliding up and down on the axis A suffi¬
ciently to bring either wheel B or C into action with its
corresponding wheel E or D upon the horizontal shaft;
and as the diameters of BE and Cl) are of very different
proportions, the velocity of the motion of the machine can
340 BREWING.
Brewing, be varied at pleasure by using one or other: b and c are
two levers, which are forked at the ends, and embrace
collars at the ends of the tube X; and the levers being
united by a rod, the handle b gives the means of moving
the tube X and its wheels BC up or down to obtain the
action of the different wheels.
Figs. 3 and 4 represent a large close copper. AA is
the copper, and B the pan placed over it. The copper
has a large tube E rising up from the dome of it, to con¬
vey the steam; and from the top of this four inclined
pipes R descend, the ends being immersed beneath the
surface of the water or wort contained in the pan. By
this means the steam which rises from the copper issues
from the ends of the pipes R, and rises in bubbles through
the liquor in the pan, so as to heat it. In the centre of
the copper is a perpendicular spindle o, which, at the
lower end, has arms dd fixed projecting from it, and is
turned round by a cog-wheel b at the upper end. From
the arms dd chains are hung in loops, which drag round
upon the bottom of the copper when the axis is turned;
and this motion stirs up the hops to keep them from burn¬
ing at the bottom : fgis a. chain and roller to draw up the
spindle a when the rowser is not wanted; and ee are iron
braces proceeding from the outside of the copper, to re¬
tain the axis a firmly in the centre of the copper. D is
the waste-pipe for carrying off the steam into the chim¬
ney when it is not required to heat the liquor in the pan.
The copper represented in the .drawing is made in the
same manner as usual; but the fire is applied beneath it
in a manner very different from the common brewing-cop¬
pers. The method was devised with a view to the burn¬
ing or consuming of the smoke, and was employed in the
brewery of Messrs Meux and Company, London, about
the year 1803.
The fire-place is divided into two by a wall extended
beneath the bottom of the boiler, as shown by Z in the
plan, fig. 4, where the dotted circle A represents the bot¬
tom of the copper, and the circle X its largest part. The
section in fig. 3 shows only one of these fire-places, of
which C is the fire-grate. The raw coal is not thrown in
through the fire-door in the manner of common furnaces,
but is put into a narrow inclined box of cast-iron h, built
in the brick-work, and shaped like a hopper. The coals
contained in this hopper fill it up, and stop the entrance
of the air so as to answer the purpose of a door; and the
coals at the lowest part or mouth of the hopper are brought
into a state of ignition before they are forced forwards
into the furnace, which is done by introducing a rake or
poker at i, just beneath the lower end of the hopper h,
and forcing the coals forwards upon the grate bars C.
Immediately over the hopper h, a narrow passage is left
to admit a stream of fresh air along the top of the hopper
to pass over the surface of the fuel which is burning at
the lower end of the hopper h. By this means the smoke
rising from that portion of fuel is carried forwards over
the burning coals upon the grate C, and is thereby con¬
sumed. Beyond the grate bars c, a breast wall S is erect¬
ed, to direct the flame upwards against the bottom of the
boiler A, and thence descending under the bottom, the
flame is received into the flues, which make each a half
turn round the lower part of the copper, as shown in the
plan at tt, and then enter the chimney or perpendicular
flue W at the same point; the entrance being regulated
by a damper to make the draught more or less intense.
There is also a sliding door or damper E, which closes up
the lower part of the chimney; and by means of these two
dampers the fire under the copper can be regulated to
the greatest precision; for by opening the damper E it
admits the cold air to enter immediately into the chim¬
ney W, and thus take off the rapidity of the draught;
and at the same time, by closing the dampers from the Brewing,
flues into the chimney, the intensity of the draught
through the fire is checked, which is very necessary to
be done when the contents of the copper are drawn off.
Immediately over the fire-grate c, an arch of fire-bricks
or stone s is placed beneath the bottom of the copper, to
defend it from the intense heat. The chimney is sup¬
ported on iron columns RR. Behind the fire-grate c is a
cavity r, for the reception of the masses of scoriae which
are always formed in so large a fire. They are pushed
back off the grate into this receptacle with an iron hook
as fast as they accumulate. The bottom of this recep¬
tacle is formed of sliding iron doors, which can be opened
by drawing them out, and in this way the clinkers are dis¬
charged ; or the whole of the fire may be driven back off
the grate into this cavity, and will then fall through into
the ash-pit and be carried away therefrom, which is very
necessary to be done when the copper is to be cooled, so
that men may descend into it to clean out the sediment
which is left after boiling the wort. For a more particu¬
lar description of this method of setting boilers, see Phi¬
losophical Magazine, vol. xvii.
Fig. 6 represents one of the sluice-cocks which are used
to make the communications of the pipes with the pumps
or other parts of the brewery. BB represents the pipe in
which the cock is placed. The two parts of this pipe are
screwed to the sides of a box CC, in which a slider A
rises and falls, and intercepts at pleasure the passage of
the pipe. The slider is moved by the rod a, which passes
through a stuffing-box in the top, the box whi-ch contains
the slider, and has the rack b fastened to it. The rack is
moved by a pinion fixed upon the axis of a handle e, and
the rack and pinion is contained in a frame d, which is
supported by two pillars. The frame contains a small
roller behind the rack, which bears it up towards the pi¬
nion, and keeps its teeth up to the teeth of the pinion.
The slider A is made to fit accurately against the inter¬
nal surface of the box C, and it is made to bear against
this surface by the pressure of a spring, so as to make a
perfectly close fitting.
Fig. 5 is a small cock to be placed in the side of the
great store-vats, for the purpose of drawing off a small
quantity of beer, to taste and try its quality. A is a part
of the stave or thickness of the great store-vat; into this
the tube B of the cock is fitted, and is held tight in its
place by a nut aa screwed on withinside. At the other
end of the tube B a plug c is fitted, by grinding it into a
cone, and it is kept in by a screw. This plug has a hole
up the centre of it, and from this a hole proceeds side¬
ways and corresponds with a hole made through the side
of the tube when the cock is open; but when the plug c
is turned round, the hole will not coincide, and then the
cock will be shut. D is the handle or key of the cock,
by which its plug is turned to open or shut it; this handle
is put up the bore of the tube (the cover E being first un¬
screwed and removed), and the end of it is adapted to fit
the end of the plug of the cock. The handle has a tube
or passage bored up it to convey the beer away from the
cock when it is opened, and from this the passage f,
through the handle, leads to draw the beer into a glass
or tumbler. The hole in the side of the plug is so ar¬
ranged, that when the handle is turned into a perpendi¬
cular direction with the passage / downwards, the cock
will be open. The intention of this contrivance is, that
there shall be no considerable projection beyond the sur¬
face of the tun; because it sometimes happens that a
great hoop of the tun breaks, and, falling down, its great
weight would strike out any cock which had a projection ;
and if this happened in the night much beer might be lost
before it was discovered. The cock above described being
B R I
B R I
341
Brian fon
II
Bribery.
almost wholly withinside, and having scarcely any projec¬
tion beyond the outside surface of the tun, is secure from
this accident.
Fig. 7 is a small contrivance of a vent peg, to be screwed
into the head of a common cask when the beer is to be
drawn off from it, and it is necessary to admit some air to
allow the beer to flow. A A represents a portion of the
head of the cask into which the tube B is screwed. The
top of this tube is surrounded by a small cup, from which Bribery,
project the two small handles CC, by which the peg is
turned round to screw it into the cask. The cup round the
upper part of the tube is filled with water, and into this a
small cup D is inverted ; in consequence, the air can gain
admission into the cask when the pressure within is so far
diminished that the air will bubble up through the water,
and enter beneath the small cup D.
BRIANCON, a strongly fortified town of France, in the
department of Upper Alps, capital of an arrondissement of
the same name on the right bank of the Durance, 50 miles
E.S.E. of Grenoble. It is the highest town of France,
being nearly 4300 feet above the level of the sea, and is
surrounded by still loftier elevations crowned by forts com¬
municating with each other and with the town, and making
it all but impregnable. Pop. (1851) of town, 3433 ; of ar¬
rondissement, 30,982.
BRIAREUS, in Grecian Mythology, a giant, the son of
/Ether, Titan, or Ccelus, and Terra. This was the name he
received in heaven ; but that by which he was known on
earth was /Egeon. He was of singular service to Jupiter,
when Juno, Pallas, Neptune, and the rest of the gods, en¬
deavoured to dethrone him ; but he afterwards conspired
with the rest of his gigantic brethren to dethrone the father
of the gods. Virgil describes Briareus as having a hundred
arms and fifty heads, and breathing out fire. The fable says
that as a punishment he was thrust by Jupiter under JEtna,
and that whenever he moves the mountain belches forth
fire.
BRIBE, a reward given to pervert the judgment. The
word is French, bribe, which originally denotes a bit, frag¬
ment, or relic of meat taken off the table; so that bribe
imports as much as panis mendicatus, and still keeps up the
idea of the matter of which bribes anciently consisted.
Hence also the Spaniards use bribar and brivar for begging;
and brivia, brivoneria, and brivonismo, for beggary. In
the writers of the middle ages, a bribe given to a judge is
called quato litis, and the receiver campi particeps, or cambi
particeps ; because the spoils of the field, or the profits of
the cause, were thus shared with the giver.
BRIBERY, as a public offence, may be defined as the
administration of a bribe or reward, that it may be a motive
in the performance of functions for which the proper motive
ought to be a conscientious sense of duty. When this is
superseded by the sordid impulses created by the bribe, a
person is said to be corrupted, and thus corruption is a term
sometimes held equivalent to bribery. The offence may be
divided into two great classes, the one characteristic of des¬
potisms, where a person invested with power is induced by
payment unjustly to use it; the other, which is an unfortu¬
nate characteristic of constitutional governments, where
power is obtained by purchasing the suffrages of those who
can impart it. The former offence is in every sense the more
odious and formidable, and indeed it may be said, that until a
country has outgrown it, there is no room for the existence
of elective bribery, since the nations among which justice
is habitually sold appear to be far below the capacity of
possessing constitutional rights.
When Samuel in his old age challenges a rigid scrutiny
of his conduct, he says, “ Whose ox have I taken, or whose
ass have I taken ? or whom have I defrauded ? whom have
I oppressed ? or of whose hands have I received any bribe
to blind mine eyes therewith ?” And Amos, when de¬
nouncing the condition of the Israelites under Jeroboam,
says, “ they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn
aside the poor in the gate from their right.” It is a natural
propensity, removable only by civilization or some power¬
ful counteracting influence, to feel that every element of
power is to be employed as much as possible for the owner’s
own behoof, and that its benefits should be conferred not
on those who best deserve them, but on those who will pay
most for them. Hence, judicial cori’uption is an inveterate
vice of imperfect civilization. It is so deeply seated among
oriental races, that the attempts by controlling authority to
eradicate it have been often futile. It has been the main
impediment to the employment of natives in the British
Eastern empire, since no external appearance of respec¬
tability, or apparent systematic routine of business, can
be relied on as securities that the whole organization is not
contaminated by systematic bribery. It is difficult to get
the oriental mind to understand how it is reasonable to ex¬
pect the temptation of a bribe to be resisted. In the Rus¬
sian empire this oriental^ characteristic has had another
conflict with the demands of a higher civilization. The or¬
ganization of the government requires that the empire
should be honestly served by its official men, but their
morality is of the humblest oriental standard, and force will
not change it. In no country, perhaps, has the offence been
visited with more dire chastisement where it has been dis¬
covered, yet by the concurring testimony of all who are ac¬
quainted with Russian society, not only the official depart¬
ments, but the courts of law, are still influenced by syste¬
matic bribery. There is, perhaps, no other crime on which
the force of law, if unaided by public opinion and morals,
can have so little influence; for in other crimes, such as
violence or fraud, there is generally some person imme¬
diately injured by the act, who can give his aid in the de¬
tection of the offender; but in the perpetration of the
offence of bribery, all the immediate parties obtain what
they desire and are satisfied.
The purification of the bench from judicial bribery has
been gradual in most of the European countries. In France
it received an impulse in the sixteenth century from the
high-minded chancellor L’Hopital. In England, judicial
corruption acquired a painful, but perhaps a wholesome re¬
nown, from the fate of the illustrious Bacon. If it were ad¬
mitted, that although he received customary gifts, they
never influenced his decisions, yet a comparison of even
this modified culpability with the conduct of his predecessor
Ellesmere, whose hands were clean from all contact with
unofficial sources of emolument, led undoubtedly to the
establishment of a higher morality of the bench. In Scot¬
land for some years after the Revolution, the bench was not
without a suspicion of interested partiality ; but during the
past half century at least, there has been in all parts of the
empire a perfect reliance on its purity.
The same may be said of the higher class of ministerial
officers. There is no doubt that in the period from the Re¬
volution to the end of Queen Anne’s reign, when a speaker
of the House of Commons was expelled for bribery, and
the great Marlborough could not clear his character from
pecuniary dishonesty, there was much corruption in the
highest official quarters. The level of the offence of of¬
ficial bribery has gradually descended, until it has become
an extremely rare thing for the humbler officers connected
with the revenue to be charged with it. It has had a more
342
B R I
B R I
Bribery, lingering existence with those who, because their power
is more of a constitutional than an official character, have
been deemed less responsible to the public. During Wal¬
pole’s administration, there is no doubt that members of
parliament were paid in cash for votes; and the memorable
saying, that every man has his price, has been preserved as
a characteristic indication of his method of government. At
the present day there is a lurking suspicion that the pro¬
moters of railways and other public objects have accom¬
plished their aims by communicating pecuniary advantages
to members of the legislature.
One of the forms in which administrative corruption is
most difficult of eradication, is the appointment to office.
It is sometimes maintained that the purity which charac¬
terizes the administration of justice is here unattainable, be¬
cause in giving a judgment there is but one form in which
it can be justly given, but when an office has to be filled
many people may be equally fitted for it, and personal mo¬
tives must influence a choice. It very rarely happens, how¬
ever, that direct bribery is supposed to influence such ap¬
pointments. Perhaps those which lie most open to suspi¬
cion are the lucrative offices with easy duties at the disposal
of the East India Company.
In its other great form of electoral bribery, the offence
still flourishes, and it is at present the object of the anxious
attention of British statesmen. To be a legislator in a free
country seems so worthy an object of ambition, and the dis¬
tribution of a small portion of superfluous wealth among
needy voters seems so unselfish a method of securing the
distinction, that it is difficult to obtain for the pernicious
practice that social condemnation which is necessary to give
laws for its extinction a fair field. This offence was a cha¬
racteristic of Rome in her best days, as it has been of Eng¬
land in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The com¬
mon word ambition is derived from the ambitus, or going
about of the briber distributing money among voters. Severe
laws were directed against this practice, as well as against
the seeker of office, to attract the attention of those ready to
dispose of their votes, making himself conspicuous by being
clothed in white, or candidatus—the word whence the com¬
mon term candidate is derived.
It does not appear that bribery was conspicuous in Eng¬
land, until in the early part of the eighteenth century con¬
stituencies had thrown off the feudal dependence which
lingered among them; and, indeed, it is often said, that
bribery is essentially the defect of a free people, since it is
the sale of that which is taken from others without payment.
It is alluded to by Fielding and Smollett, and had become
conspicuous in the days of Hogarth, who represents it in
its double shape of demoralization ; one picture shows a
reckless expenditure of money among profligate expec¬
tants, whose demoralization is a systematic source of profit to
them; while another presents us with the impoverished fa¬
ther of a family urged against his conscience to relieve the
misery of his wife and children by the sale of his vote.
The exceptional classes of humble voters preserved by
the reform act in the shape of freemen, or others holding
the franchise not by qualification but by privilege, have
ever been the most amenable to bribery. It is worthy of
remark, that the scandal does not extend to Scotland, pro¬
bably because the popular element was not let in to the
Scottish constituencies until after a considerable amount of
public feeling had been concentrated against the practice,
It has been comparatively little known in France, and its
absence has been attributed, perhaps uncharitably, not so
much to the virtue of the humbler ranks as to the unwilling¬
ness of the higher classes to make the pecuniary sacrifices
readily submitted to in England for political objects. It is
certain that towards the conclusion of the reign of Louis-
Philippe, this electoral purity was contemporary with much
official corruption.
In this country there has been much elaborate legislation Briciani
for the suppression of bribery. It has ever had to contend II
with the unwillingness of the House of Commons to com- ®ric}£-
mit electoral questions to the legal tribunals, and has thus
been subject to the cumbrous forms and the influence of
party spirit inseparable from the gregarious operations of
the house. The Grenville Act, and those which followed up
its design of infusing impartiality and responsibility with the
elements of election committees, have of course had their
influence; and in 1851 an act was passed for appointing
special commissioners to inquire into accusations of bribery
on the spot (15th and 16th Viet., c. 57).
It would be useless on the present occasion to offer an
account of the laws against bribery, as the whole question
is under discussion in parliament while this notice passes
through the press. The importance of obtaining some
really effective remedy was forcibly exemplified by the state¬
ment of an eminent lawyer, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, who, in the
House of Commons, on February 10.1854, said “ He agreed
that it was quite useless to add to the penalties by which the
commission of bribery was now followed, either with respect
to the voter or the candidate. They had seen that im¬
prisonment, unlimited except by the discretion or mercy of
the judge, heavy pecuniary penalties, disfranchisement, dis¬
qualification to hold office, to vote, or to sit in parliament,
and even the punishment of transportation where perjury
had accompanied bribery, had been all inadequate to re¬
press the offence; for they had found that the bribery and
every species of corruption which prevailed at the last ge¬
neral election equalled, if they did not exceed, that which
had ever been known at any former period of our history.”
It is certain, however, that both public and parliamentary
morality have been of late setting strongly against the prac¬
tice, and it may be useful to preserve a record of so lament¬
able a statement, that it may serve as that point of highest
elevation from which it is to be hoped that the tide of poli¬
tical immorality will henceforth be found to recede, (j. h. b.)
BRICIANI, a military order instituted by St Bridget of
Sweden, who gave them the rules and constitutions of the
orders of Malta and St Augustin.
BRICK, a kind of artificial stone made of baked clay.
1. The art of making bricks appears to have been prac- yistory>
tised in the earliest ages. Burnt bricks were employed in
the construction of Babel. Now, as that structure appears
to have been raised about four hundred years after the
Flood, this method of making bricks would seem to have
existed from the very origin of society. Bricks were in com¬
mon use in Egypt while the Israelites were in subjection
to that nation; for the task assigned them was the making
of brick; and we are informed in Exodus that the Israelites
built two Egyptian cities. No particulars are given in
Scripture of the method of making bricks ; but as straw was
one of the ingredients, it is probable that their bricks were
not burnt, but merely baked by the heat of the sun. The
kiln-burnt Babylonian bricks are imperfectly baked, and
contain charred fragments of straw. The sun-dried bricks
from the ruins of that city sometimes have inscriptions in
the ancient arroiv-headed character. These bricks are of a
brown colour, contain fragments of straw, and are often
larger than the burnt bricks. Some have been seen 14
inches square, and others even of 19 inches.
The art of brick-making was carried to considerable per¬
fection by the Greeks. Pliny informs us that they made
use of bricks of three different sizes, distinguished by the
following names; didoron, or six inches long; tetradoron, or
twelve inches long; and pentadoron, or fifteen inches long
(lib. xxxv. c. 14). That the Romans excelled in the art of
making bricks we have the amplest evidence, since brick
structures raised at Rome 1700 years ago still remain as
entire as when first built. Brick-making has been carried
to great perfection by the Dutch, who have long been in the
BRIG K-M A K I N G.
343
Brick, habit of forming their floors, and even in some cases of
paving their streets with bricks. And it is remarkable how'
long their bricks will continue uninjured in such situations.
Though brick-making has long been carried on in England,
and especially in the neighbourhood of London, upon a
very great scale, and though the process upon the whole
is conducted in this country with very considerable skill,
yet it must be acknowledged that English bricks are by
no means so durable as Dutch bricks. We are disposed
to ascribe this inferiority not so much to the nature of the
materials employed in the manufacture of English bricks,
as to the mode most frequently employed in London in
building houses. Few of the London houses, compara¬
tively speaking, are freeholds. Most of them are built
upon ground let for a lease of a certain number of years,
which seldom exceeds ninety-nine years. After the ex¬
piration of this period, the house becomes the property of
the landlord who let the ground. Thus it becomes the
interest of the builder to construct the house so that it
shall last only as long as the lease. Hence the goodness
of the bricks becomes only a secondary object. Their
cheapness is the principal point. The object, therefore,
of the brickmakers is not to furnish durable bricks, but to
make them at as cheap a rate as possible. Accordingly,
the saving of manual labour, and of fuel, has been car¬
ried by the makers of London bricks to very great lengths.
We cannot but consider this mode of proceeding as very
objectionable, and as entailing a much heavier expense
upon London than would have been incurred had twice
the original price been laid out upon the bricks when they
were first used, and had the houses been constructed to
last a thousand instead of a hundred years. No doubt,
certain advantages attend these ephemeral structures.
The inhabitants are enabled, once every century, to suit
their houses to the prevailing taste of the day; and thus,
there are no antiquated houses in London. But as the
increase of the price of all the materials of building has
more than kept pace with the increase of the wealth of
individuals, it is to be questioned whether the houses
are always improved when they are pulled down and re¬
built.
Mature and 2. The best material for making brick is what in the
kinds of English language is called loam, a term usually applied
clay- to a natural mixture of sand and clay. Such a mixture
may be converted into brick without any addition what¬
ever. Marl likewise answers the purpose of common
bricks very well, indeed better than most other mixtures.
It is a natural mixture of calcareous earth and clay in vari¬
able proportions. Now, the more lime it contains, the
better does it answer for a manure; and the less lime it
contains, the more suitable it is to the brick-maker.
It would be in vain to attempt a particular detail of the
constituents of clay, because they vary too much from each
other to admit of any correct generalization. We believe,
however, that clays very frequently consist of decomposed
felspar, in which case we may conceive them as composed
of about three parts of silica in the state of a very fine
powder, and one part of alumina. This is the case with
porcelain clay. Indeed, the porcelain clay of Cornwall
appears incontrovertibly to be nothing else than decayed
felspar, or perhaps felspar which never had assumed any
other form than that of clay. The rock from which it
is taken is an agglutinated mixture of quartz and this
clay. The quartz is separated by washing. Such a rock
might probably be converted into most beautiful brick,
merely by cutting it out in the proper shape, and sub¬
jecting it to the requisite heat; or rather, by kneading
the whole into a paste with the requisite quantity of wa¬
ter, moulding it into bricks, and then drying and burning
them.
Potter’s clay is a compound of
Silica 
Alumina 
Lime 
Oxide of iron 
Water 
Loss.
Total
When the clay proceeds from the decomposition of
hornblende, as is likewise often the case, it contains about
three parts and a half of silica, one of alumina, one of
lime, and about one and a half of oxide of iron. Some¬
times the grains of sand which exist in clay consist of
fragments of felspar. In such cases the clay may be fused
by heat.
No mixture of alumina and silica, in any proportions
whatever, can be fused by the strongest heat which can
be raised in our furnaces. Hence such mixtures are best
adapted for making fire-bricks, crucibles, and glass-house
pots. Stourbridge clay is such a mixture, blackened by
coaly matter. It answers these purposes better than any
other clay in England. It is a slate clay belonging to the
coal formation, and contains interspersed coaly matter.
There is a similar bed of clay upon the banks of the Cal-
der, about ten miles east from Glasgow. Mr Buttray used
it to make the crucibles in which he fused steel, a process
requiring the most intense heat that can be raised in fur¬
naces. Its quality seems fully equal to that of Stourbridge
clay. Neither can a mixture of lime and alumina be fused,
in whatever proportions the ingredients be mixed. But a
mixture of silica, lime, and alumina, is very fusible, and
the fusion is most readily effected when we employ two
parts of silica to one of lime. The presence of oxide of
iron also renders clay fusible, but not unless its proportion
be much greater than ever is likely to occur in any clay
used for the manufacture of bricks.
For making common bricks, the most durable mixture
ought to be common clay and limestone or chalk. Per¬
haps the best proportions would be three parts of clay,
and one part of calcareous earth in powder. When such
a mixture is exposed to heat, it would experience an
incipient fusion, and would thereby be rendered much
harder and denser than common bricks. The conse¬
quence would be, that it would imbibe much less water,
and would therefore be much less liable to crack and fall
to pieces in winter, than common bricks. For when water
has insinuated itself into the pores of a common brick, and
is converted into ice, it undergoes an expansion which dis¬
locates the parts of the brick and reduces it to fragments.
This is often conspicuously the case with tiles, which,
from their exposed situation, are more liable to be soaked
with water than common bricks. Hence also covering the
surface of the brick with a coating of paint has a great
tendency to preserve it from cracking and breaking. This
practice is frequently followed in England.
It would be foreign to the object of this article to enter
into any long details respecting the chemical investiga¬
tions and the opinions entertained at different periods re¬
specting the nature of clay. At first it was supposed to
be a peculiar species of earth, but Hellot demonstrated
that it consisted at least of two constituents ; for sulphuric
acid had the property of destroying its plastic nature, and
of rendering it scarcely more adhesive than sand. The
portion that remained behind did not effervesce with acids.
It was not therefore of a calcareous nature. Mr Pott went
a step farther; he showed, in the continuation of his
Lithogeognosia, that sulphuric acid formed, with the por-
Brick.
43-5
33-2
3*5
1*0
18-0
99-2
8
. 100-0
344
B R I C K-M A K I N G.
BrkK. tion of clay which it dissolved, a salt possessing the pro-
nerties of alum. In the year 1769 Baume published his
Dissertation on Clays, which he had drawn up in conse¬
quence of a premium offered by the Academy of Sciences
at Bourdeaux, for the best solution of the following ques¬
tion . What are the principles and constituents of clay,
and the natural changes which it experiences, and what
are the methods of rendering it fertile ? The academy
did not consider Baume’s solutions as satisfactory. He
published his Memoir, in consequence, as a kind of defi¬
ance. He had been employed along with Macquer in
making numerous experiments on clay, with a view to the
improvement of the porcelain manufacture in France.
Guided by these experiments, he drew as a conclusion
that clay is a mixture of two different substances: 1. Si¬
lica in a state of purity ; 2. Silica combined with an under¬
dose of sulphuric acid. It was the second of these con¬
stituents that gave to clay its fattish and plastic natuie.
Margraaf had long before (in 1756) demonstrated that the
ingredient of clay which Baume took for a salt, and which
he’ affirmed was soluble in water, was a peculiar species of
earth, different from every other, which constitutes the
basis of alum, which dissolves in sulphuric acid, but which
does not form alum unless a portion of potash be added to
the solution. Thus, by the labours of Hellot, Pott, Baume,
and Margraaf, the nature of clay was completely developed.
It was ascertained to be a mixture of alumina and silica,
in variable proportions. It was shown, also, that it some¬
times contained sulphuric acid, and not unfrequently
potash. Hence the reason why, in some cases, it could
be converted into alum by digestion in sulphuric acid,
without the necessity of adding any potash to the solu¬
tion. Modern chemists have added considerably to these
facts. They have shown that chalk, felspar, mica, horn¬
blende, oxide of iron, coal, bitumen, &c. are not unfre¬
quently mixed with it; and that these additions alter its
qualities considerably, and render it fit or unfit for the
different purposes to which clay is usually applied.
Prepara- 3. Clay intended to be made into bricks ought to be
tion of the dug out of the earth and exposed to the air and weather
clay, and f0r a considerable time before it is employed. 1 he longer
 thig exposure is continued, so much the better will it be
fitted for making bricks. This exposure answers a variety
of purposes. If the stones, by the decomposition of which
the clay has been formed, are not entirely decomposed,
this exposure serves to complete the process, by promot¬
ing the disintegrating action of the air and rain. I he ex¬
posure serves likewise to pulverize the clay, which is es¬
sential to the making of good bricks. We have little
doubt that the same amelioration in the clay would be pro¬
duced by simply drying it in the open air, and then grind¬
ing it to powder in a mill. By such a process the quality
of the bricks would be exceedingly improved. Nor do we
conceive that such an addition would greatly enhance the
expenses of the brickmaker, at least in those districts
where the mill could be driven by water.
When the clay has been reduced to powder, the next
step is to make it into a stiff paste with water.. Too much
water should not be employed, because it is injurious to
the strength of the bricks ; and the utmost care should be
taken to mix the whole of the clay as equally as possible
with the water. If some parts of the paste-be moister
than others, it will occasion an inequality in the texture
of the bricks formed of it, will render them apt to crack,
and will greatly injure both their strength and their beau¬
ty. Hence the great importance of working the day for
a considerable length of time before moulding it into
bricks. It is in this part of the process that we believe
British brickmakers in general are most defective. As
far as we have had an opportunity of witnessing the pro-
Brick.
formation
of the
brick.
cess of kneading the clay, as conducted either in the ^ t
neighbourhood of London or Edinburgh, we have always
found a great sparing of labour. Hence we believe the
reason why so many of the English bricks appear full of
cracks, even when sold to the builder. Such bricks ought
never to be purchased, as it is perfectly obvious that they
cannot make a durable building.
The kneading of the clay is performed in some places
by men’s feet, in others by the feet of horses, and in
others by machinery. The last method is undoubtedly
the best; and we conceive likewise that it might be ren¬
dered the cheapest. It would be easy to devise machi¬
nery for kneading the clay, upon principles similar to those
employed in mashing by the London porter brewers. And,
if such a machine were driven by water, we conceive that
it would not be nearly so expensive as either men or
horses.
When the clay is sufficiently kneaded, it is moulded
into the form of a brick, by being put into a very simple
wooden mould ; and the upper part of the brick is made
smooth and even by cutting off the superfluous part with
a wooden knife. The process is very simple, and is con¬
ducted by the workmen with great rapidity. A good
brickmaker w'ould mould about 5000 bricks in a day. He
disengages the bricks from the mould by a gentle stroke
on the back of the mould ; and the wet bricks are at first
arranged in rows upon long boards. When sufficiently
dry to be handled, they are turned, and at last piled up in
loose walls, which are thatched with straw to keep off the
rain. In this position they are allowed to remain till they
have become as dry as they can become in the open air..
In many cases the clay used for brick-making is desti¬
tute of the requisite quantity of sand. If such clay were
made into bricks, it would shrink so much in their burn¬
ing, that the bricks would lose their shape, and would
probably crack in every direction. To prevent this, it is
necessary to add a certain quantity of sand. This sand
should not be very fine. It answers best when the parti¬
cles are of such a size as to be readily distinguished by
the naked eye. Even when as large as coriander seeds,
it has been found to answer better than very fine sand.
The brickmakers in the neighbourhood of London bring
their sand from the bottom of the Thames near Woolwich,
where it is raised by boats employed for that purpose, and
brought up the river for the use of the brick-makers.
4. No general directions can be given respecting the Burning
quantity of sand to be mixed with the clay, because that
depends upon the nature of the clay and upon the uses
for which the bricks are intended. The more sand is
added, the more accurately do the bricks retain their
shape, and the less apt are they to crack during the burn¬
ing, but at the same time their strength is diminished.
Chemical lutes are often composed of four parts of sand
and one part of clay. Such mixtures do not contract
much in burning, and, therefore, are not apt to crack and
drop off, which is the reason why chemists employ them.
But they have not the adhesiveness of brick after being
burned, and would not therefore answer the purposes of
the brick-maker. In stone-ware the mixture consists of
about four parts of clay and one of fine sand. It burns to
a hard cohesive substance, capable of striking fire with
steel. Such a proportion, then, in many cases would an¬
swer the purposes of the brick-maker.
The London brick-makers make another addition to the
clay, which we believe is peculiar to them. They add to
every three parts of the clay about one part of the ashes
from the fire-places of the city of London. These ashes
contain some earthy matter; but they consist in a great
measure of small coal unburnt and little altered, which has
fallen through the interstices of the grate. The conse-
BRIG K-M A K I N G.
345
Brick.
quence is, that such a mixture, when sufficiently heated,
takes fire and burns of itself, though very slowly; so that
the London bricks are burned in a great measure by
means of the fuel mixed with the clay of which they are
composed.
It is essential to dry the bricks thoroughly in the open
air before burning them; for when heat is applied to wet
clay, the water which it contains being prevented from
escaping by the adhesiveness of the mixture, is convert¬
ed into steam, and cracks and breaks the mass of clay
to pieces. Indeed, after the bricks are rendered as dry
as they can become in the open air, they ought to be ex¬
posed at first to a gentle heat, which ought to be raised
to redness very slowly, and in proportion as the moisture
of the brick is dissipated. Water adheres with such ob¬
stinacy to clay, that it is never all driven off by the heat
at which bricks are burnt. But the portion which re¬
mains is so intimately combined with the clay, as to con¬
stitute one solid mass, which has no great tendency to*
absorb an additional quantity of water.
Bricks are most commonly burnt in a kiln. This is a
very simple structure, usually about thirteen feet long,
ten and a half wide, and twelve feet high. The walls are
one foot two inches thick, and incline a little to each other
as they ascend. The bricks are placed on flat arches,
having holes left in them like lattice-work. After the
bricks are arranged on the kiln, to the number of about
20,000, they are covered with old bricks or tiles. Some
brush-wood is then kindled in the kiln, and a moderate
fire kept up till the bricks are rendered as dry as possible.
The time required for this is two or three days; and the
bricks are known to be dry when the smoke (which is at
first black) becomes transparent. The mouth of the kiln
is then filled up with pieces of brick and clay, leaving only
room to introduce a faggot at a time. This structure at
the mouth of the kiln is called a shinlog. The kiln is then
supplied with faggots of furze, heath, fern, or whatever
vegetable substance can be procured at the cheapest rate,
till the arches look white, and the fire appears at the top.
The fire is then diminished, and at length allowed to go
out, and the kiln is permitted to cool. This burning pro¬
cess usually lasts about forty-eight hours.
The method of burning bricks in the neighbourhood of
London is very different from this; and we do not know
whether it be practised anywhere else. It obviously ori¬
ginated from the difficulty of procuring a sufficient quan¬
tity of vegetable matter to burn the enormous number of
bricks consumed every year in London. If we consider
the immense extension of houses which has taken place in
London within the last fifty years, and if we consider that
this vast city, containing nearly 2,500,000 inhabitants, is
almost renewed every century, we may be able to form
some notion of the prodigious quantity of bricks which it
must consume. In the country round London there is a
particular kind of clay, well known by the name of Lon¬
don clay. This clay is almost everywhere covered with
a bed of gravel, which varies in thickness according to the
elevation of the surface. Hence the whole of the country
round London is fit for making bricks. Nothing more is
necessary than to dig through the surface of gravel, and
get to the clay.
We have already mentioned, that about a fourth part
of the London bricks consists of small coal kneaded up
along with the clay. When the bricks are sufficiently dry,
they are piled up on each other in parallelopipedons to
the intended height. Between each two rows of brick
there is strewed a quantity of cinders, amounting to about
three inches in thickness. At the distance of about nine
feet from each other, perpendicular spaces are left, about
a brick wide, which serve the purpose of flues. These
VOL. v.
are made by arching the bricks over so as to leave a space ^ Brick,
between each about a brick in width. Over the whole is
strewed a pretty thick covering of cinders. The flues are
filled likewise with cinders, or, if they cannot be had, with
coal. The fire-place is usually at the west end, and is
generally three feet high. The fire, when once kindled
in the fire-place, propagates itself very slowly through the
whole clamp, as bricks piled in this manner are called.
So very slow is the progress, that bricks in the neighbour¬
hood of London take about three months in the burning.
The heat is very intense, and, as the fuel is mixed up with
the clay itself, every part of the brick is sure to be suffi¬
ciently burnt.
We conceive that the mixture of about one fourth of
chalk with the clay of which the London bricks are made,
would greatly improve their quality. The consequence
would be an incipient fusion, which would render their
surface much more compact and solid. The only difficul¬
ty would be to proportion the quantity of chalk so as to
prevent complete fusion, which would run the bricks into
each other, and destroy them entirely. Bricks made of
materials which have undergone complete fusion would
be greatly superior to common bricks. They would per¬
fectly resist the action of the weather, and would, there¬
fore, last much longer than common bricks. In Sweden
it is customary at some of the iron founderies to cast the
scoriae into bricks, which they employ in constructing their
furnaces. Such furnaces the writer of this article has
seen; and he was assured by the gentleman who had the
charge of the works, that they answered fully better than
common bricks. It would be easy to make any quantity
of such bricks in some of the large iron founderies of
Great Britain. We are persuaded that such bricks might
be brought into use for a variety of purposes with great
advantage, and might even constitute a lucrative article
of manufacture. Bricks made from the scoriae of iron and
copper founderies would vie in beauty with marble and
porphyry, and would possess a lustre of surface to which
few marbles could reach.
Few parts of Great Britain are so well adapted for the
making of bricks, according to the London plan, as the
neighbourhood of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There the enor¬
mous heaps of small coal, which are of no use whatever,
would furnish abundance of fuel at a much cheaper rate
than even the London ashes; while the magnesian lime¬
stone that occurs in such plenty in the neighbourhood of
Sunderland would enable the brickmaker to give the clay
the requisite degree of fusibility.
The vast employment of bricks in Great-Britain, espe¬
cially in England, is shown by a parliamentary paper, which
states that in 1802 the duty was paid on 713,880,743
bricks; but in the year 1845 on 1,878,037,639, and the duty
in this last year amounted to L.576,199. This tax is now
abolished.
Fire-bricks are made in the same way as common bricks, Fire-
but the materials are different. The best clay for their com-bricks,
position is Stourbridge clay; and, instead of sand, it is usual
to mix the clay with a quantity of old fire-bricks, or crucibles,
or glass-pots, reduced previously to powder. This mixture
answers the same purposes as sand, while it does not commu¬
nicate the tendency to fusion when it comes in contact with
various fluxes that are communicated by siliceous sand.
There is a kind of bricks mentioned by Pliny as used by Swimming
the ancients, which were so light as to swim in water. “ Pi- bricks,
tanae in Asia, et in ulterioris Hispanise civitatibus Massia et
Calento, fiunt lateres, qui siccati non merguntur in aqua.”
(Plinii Natur. Histor. lib. xxxv. c. 14). Pliny does not
mention the part of the world in which the earth employed in
the manufactures of these bricks was found, though in all pro¬
bability it could not be far from the cities where the bricks
are said by him to have been made. He says that the mate¬
rial employed was a kind of pumice stone. But it was quite
346
BRIG K-M A K I N G.
Brick- unknown to the modems, till, in 1791, Fabbroni found a sub-
making. stance at Castel del Piano, net far from Santa Fiora, between
Tuscany and the Papal dominions, which formed bricks capable
of swimming in water. This is a white earthy matter, which
constitutes a bed in that place, and was known in Italy by the
name oi Latte di Luna. In more recent mineralogical books
it is distinguished by the name of farina fossilis (bergmehl).
Haiiy considers it as a variety of talc, and Brochant as a
variety of meerschaum. According to the analysis of Fab¬
broni this substance is composed of
Silica  55
Magnesia  15
Alumina  12
Lime  3
Iron  1
Water  14
100.
But by the more recent analysis of Klaproth,
Silica  79
Alumina  5
Oxide of iron  3
Water  12
Loss  1
100
This mineral, therefore, is neither a variety of talc nor of
meerschaum. One would be disposed to consider it as a hy¬
drate of silica ; for both the alumina and oxide of iron are
present in so small proportions that we can scarcely consider
them as in chemical combination.
Considering the composition of this earth, it is rather sin¬
gular that it is capable of being agglutinated by a red heat.
We suspect that the bricks of Fabbroni, which swim in water,
have but very little strength. This, if it be the case, must
greatly circumscribe their utility.
The colour of the London bricks is not red, as is the case
with common bricks and tiles, but a light brownish yellow.
This colour is more pleasing to the eye than common brick
red, and on that account the London bricks are preferred for
building hotises. The brick-makers assign a curious enough
reason for this colour. According to them, their bricks are
kept as much as possible from contact with the air during their
burning. The consequence of this is, that the iron contained
in them is not oxidized to so great a degree as in common
bricks. But this mode of reasoning is far from being exact.
If air were excluded entirety, the bricks would not be burnt at
all, because the fire would be extinguished. But if enough of
air be admitted to burn the coal mixed with the clay, which
must be the case, that air must also act upon the iron, and re¬
duce it to the state of peroxide. Indeed, there can be no
doubt that the iron in the London yellow bricks is in the state
of peroxide as well as in the red bricks, for the peroxide of
iron gives various colours to bodies, according to circumstances.
We find bodies tinged with it red, yellow, and brown, accord¬
ing to the substances with which the oxide is combined. We
ascribe the yellow colour of the London bricks to the ashes of
the coals, which, by uniting with the peroxides of iron, form
a kind of yellow ochre.
The best clay in England for making common building bricks is
found in Staffordshire, and in some parts of Derbyshire. That in
Staffordshire contains a large portion of iron, and from it are made
those durable blue bricks which have been so extensively used for
flooring purposes, and also for building msjny railway stations.
Draining and sewerage tiles are also made from this clay, which
burns with a peculiar glaze, and during the last few years, the
manufactories of blue bricks and tiles have given employment to a
very large number of people. The Derbyshire clay burns into
bricks of a peculiar redness, and from the absence of pebbles and
lime, and from the care which is bestowed upon it, particularly in
tempering and grinding, no part of the country can excel Derby
and its vicinity in the production of bricks of great beauty and
solidity. In Manchester, Liverpool, and the other manufacturing
towns of Lancashire, the clay contains a large quantity of stones,
and as cheapness rather than beauty is the desideratum in these
busy marts, the bricks made are of a rough description, except for
fronting the buildings, when extra pains are taken.
Many attempts have been made to introduce machinery in manu¬
facturing bricks, but as yet no invention has succeeded in super¬
seding hand labour. The Marquis of Tweeddale has been the most
successful so far, but his invention has not been found perfect where
the clay contains any pebbles, because he cuts at once a number of
bricks out of a layer of clay by means of copper wire descending
vertically, and where these wires come into contact with the stones,
however small, the bricks are ragged and require to be again thrown
into the feeder. If, however, the clay was entirety freed from
stones, his machine would be very simple and effective. Clay must,
however, be cast out of the ground by hand, then wheeled to the
machine to be tempered, boys have again to be employed to carry
off the bricks when moulded and set them up in stacks to dry, and
the machine has therefore the mere passing of the clay through the
moulder’s hands to compete with, and so far the competition has been
unfavourable to the use of the machine.
But pressing the bricks before they are dry has become very
general, and for this purpose several machines have been for some
years in active operation. That now generally used was introduced
into England about 20 years ago by the late Mr Bakewell, and was
the invention of an American. After the bricks are moulded they
are partially dried, and are then placed in a brass mould of the ex¬
act size of the brick required. By means of a lever, a flat cover
drops upon the top of this brass mould, and the same motion raises
an under plate, so that in proportion to the pressure exerted, is the
solidity of the brick. Nothing can exceed the excellence, square¬
ness, and solidity of bricks when this operation is faithfully per¬
formed, and the bricks thus pressed weigh from 1 to 1J lb. heavier
than the same sized bricks made by hand and not pressed.
The desideratum is to find a machine that can not only compete in
price with hand labour, but which can also deliver the bricks in a
pressed state, ready to be placed at once in the kiln. A man and
two boys can press by the hand machine about 3000 bricks a-day.
Considering the many millions of bricks annually consumed in Eng¬
land, it is to be hoped that a successful machine for making bricks
of first-rate quality will speedily be invented.
We have alluded to the excellence of the Stourbridge clay for
making fire bricks, but our description would be incomplete if we
were to omit the extraordinary beds of clay found at Hawarden in
Flintshire. At this place are manufactured in immense quantities
those fire-bricks which are not only used throughout Lancashire
and other counties for the construction of furnaces, but have formed
for many years an article of export to all parts of the world, but
particularly to the West Indies.
About 50 years ago the late Mr William Hancock established
works at Buckley Mountain, which have since been continued by his
successors and other parties, and the trade gives employment to many
hundred families. Two descriptions of clay are found near Hawarden;
one of them burns blue, similar in appearance to the bricks made in
Staffordshire; the other comes out of the kiln nearly white, and these
latter have the peculiar property of not only resisting the most in¬
tense heat without fusing, but the admission of cold air into a furnace
constructed with them does not cause them to fly or crack as is too
generally the case with the common fire-bricks. Hence they are
much used for casing the furnaces of iron-founders, soap-boilers,
and others, whose furnaces are necessarily left to cool suddenly
when the metal is withdrawn. In many respects the Welsh clay
is similar to some found in the neighbourhood of Newcastle-on-
Tyne, and we subjoin an analysis of each, that in Flintshire being
made by Dr Sheridan Muspratt, and that in Northumberland by Dr
Richardson.
Brick-
FlintsTiire White
Clay, Analyzed by
Muspratt.
Silica   50,362
Alumina  29-310
Iron  5'000
Lime  D355
Magnesia  0,379
Water  13'526
Loss    68
100-000
Flintshire
Blue Clay.
Silica    49-251
Alumina  30-548
Iron  7-984
Lime  0-153
Magnesia Mere traces.
Water  12-064
Newcastle Clay,
Analyzed by
Richardson.
51-10
31-35
4-63
1-46
1-54
10-47
100-55
Newcastle
Blue Clay.
51-11
30-40
4-91
1-76
Mere traces.
12-29
100-000
100-48
The Flintshire clay is also used for the manufacturing of flooring
tiles, and for wares of a domestic character.
B B I
Brick- It is a great mistake in speaking of technical matters to confound
Layer the idea of fire-proof with what is scientifically called infusible, the
|| former being only a relative term, implying fusibility at the cer-
Bride. tain temperature mentioned in connection with it. Substances
^ j which are perfectly capable of standing all the degrees of tempe¬
rature employed in factories, may he melted, and frequently vola¬
tilized, before the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, or between the poles of
a powerful battery. Thus pure silica, for example, has been ren¬
dered molten like glass, and drawn out into fine threads. The de¬
gree of fusibility which a substance possesses is mainly dependent
upon its chemical constituents; but it appears often to rest as much
upon the elementary composition of those ingredients; for not only
is the fusibility influenced by the proportion of acids and bases
which make up a clay or refractive substance, but also by the man¬
ner in which such acids and bases may be combined.
The property of easy fusibility is dependent either on the nature
of the bases, alkalies, earths, and metallic oxides, or in a still
greater degree upon the manner in which the silicic acid and those
bases are proportioned in the substance.
Alumina is a base, which, in combination with silicic acid, forms
one of the most refractory of substances, and imparts this property
to the clays in proportion as they are unmixed with lime, iron,
magnesia, &c.
A chemical analysis, therefore, of clays, although it cannot su¬
persede actual experiment on the large scale, may be of the greatest
service, as clays seldom come up to what is required of them, and
only acquire the requisite properties by certain additions, the
choice of which must be guided by centesimal results.
The chief cause of cracking is the contraction which materials
undergo by heating, and this must be lessened by the addition of
substances which do not shrink themselves, nor impair the refrac¬
tory nature of the materials. Pure sand, free from lime and iron,
and ground fire-clay which has been previously burned, are the
substances most generally and appropriately used, and are found to
be capable of withstanding, as crucibles, the intense white glow of
the glass furnace. The alumina and silica are nicely apportioned
in the Welsh clays, hence they include in a great measure the qua¬
lifying distinctions we have glanced at, and are therefore very good
for producing fire-bricks for manufacturing purposes, where great
heat has to be resisted. The large amount of iron present, though
an objection, will not materially interfere with the fusibility, as
there is so little lime in the clay. (t. t.) (s. h.)
BniCK-Layer, an artificer whose business is to build with
bricks, or make brick-work. The London Brick-layers’ Com¬
pany was incorporated in 1568, and consists of a master, two
wardens, twenty assistants, and seventy-eight liverymen.
BmcK-Laying. See Building.
BRICKNOGGING, brick-work employed to fill up the
interstices of timber framing.
BRICKTRIMMER, a framework of brick, overarching
ordinary fire-places, and designed to protect the woodwork
from the danger of taking fire.
BRIDAINE, Jacques, a celebrated French preacher
and home-missionary, was born in 1701 at Chuslan in the
department of Gard. Though a rigid Catholic in principle,
he gained the good-will of the Protestants of France, by the
boldness with which he advocated their cause on many oc¬
casions, and the personal kindness which he displayed to¬
wards many of their number during the persecutions to which
they were exposed under the Regent Orleans and Louis
XV. He accomplished no fewer than 250 evangelizing
journeys through various parts of France, in the course of
which he made himself universally popular. He was the
author of a collection of Cantiques Spirituels, which has
been frequently reprinted, and of five volumes of sermons,
printed at Avignon in 1825. In the neighbourhood of this
town he died in 1767.
BRIDE (Saxon, bryd), a newly-married woman. In its
true and original signification it denoted a woman espoused
or contracted to be married; and, in an analogous sense, its
use is still retained in Scotland.
Among the Athenians betrothment was indispensable to
the validity of a marriage-contract. On the wedding-day
it was the custom for the bride, closely veiled, to be con¬
ducted to her husband’s house in a chariot drawn by mules
or oxen. She was seated between her husband and one of
his most intimate friends; lighted torches were carried be-
B R I 347
fore her; and as the procession moved along she was enter- ^de¬
tained with the hymenean song, which was sung to the ac- ^ groom- ^
companiment of Lydian flutes, as described in the Iliad,
xviii. 490. When they alighted, it was usual in some places
to burn the axletree of the carriage, to signify that the bride
was to remain at her husband’s house. The threshold being
crossed, sweetmeats were showered upon the wedded pair,
as emblems of plenty and prosperity. Then came the nup¬
tial feast, to which, contrary to the usual practice, women
as well as men were invited, though the women appear to have
sat at a separate table with the bride. As marriage among
the Greeks was celebrated without any public rite, either
civil or religious, the guests assembled on such occasions
appear to have been regarded in the light of witnesses to
the fact. At the conclusion of the feast the bride was con¬
ducted by her husband to the bridal chamber ; and then the
Epithalamium or nuptial song was sung before the doors of
the apartment. (See Theoc. Idyl, xviii.) In the heroic
age, as described by Homer, women were held in greater
estimation, and enjoyed a much higher social position than
in subsequent times, when the restrictions imposed upon
their liberty appear to have been of a kind not very dissimi¬
lar to those which exist among oriental nations at the present
day. The usage of the Dorians, however, and especially at
Sparta, formed a striking contrast to that of the lonians ; for
the Dorian women continued in the possession of almost
unrestricted liberty, so much so, indeed, as to have given
occasion for serious charges against their moral character.
Among the Romans the custom of taking the bride by
apparent force from the arms of her mother or guardian,
was kept up in memory, it is said, of the rape of the Sabines
under Romulus. A similar practice appears to have existed
as a relic of antiquity at Sparta. {Herodot. vi. 65). Pre¬
paratory to the nuptials of the Romans, a meeting of friends
was sometimes held at the house of the woman, for the pur¬
pose of settling the marriage-contract and other prelimi¬
naries ; and on this occasion it was customary, at least
during the imperial period, for the future husband to place
a ring on the finger of his betrothed. On the marriage-day
the bride appeared in a white robe, adorned with a purple
fringe or with ribands, and fastened at the waist with a
girdle, which at night was unloosed by the husband. The
hair of the bride was divided on this occasion with the point
of a spear ; and she wore a veil, which, as well as her shoes,
was of a bright yellow colour. Attended by a numerous
train of friends, she was carried home in the evening to the
bridegroom’s house, accompanied by three boys, one of
whom carried a torch, and the other two led the bride, who
held a spindle and distaff. She brought three pieces of
money, called asses, in her hand to the bridegroom, whose
doors on this occasion were adorned with flowers and branches
of trees. Being there interrogated who she was, she answered
Caia, in memory of Caia Cecilia, wife of Tarquin the elder,
who was an excellent lanifica or spinstress; and before her
entrance she lined the door-posts with wool, and smeared
them with grease. Fire and water being set on the
threshold, she touched both; but, starting back from the
door, refused to enter, till at length she passed the threshold,
being careful to step over without touching it. Then the
keys were delivered to her, a nuptial supper was prepared,
and minstrels attended. She was seated on the figure of a
priapus, and in this situation the attendant boys resigned her
to the pronubce, who brought her into the nuptial chamber
and put her to bed. This office was performed by the pro-
nubrs, matrons who had been only once married, to denote
that the marriage was to be in perpetuity.
The Roman matrons held quite a different position from
that of married women among the Greeks ; the wife being
mistress of the household, and sharing the honours of her
husband. See Marriage, and Divorce.
BRIDEGROOM (Saxon, brydguma, i.e., bride’s man),
348 B R I
Bridewell a man newly married, or a man about to be married, bor
.11 the correctness of the latter definition we have the authority
v Bridge-1 of Shakspeare :—
“ As are those dulcet sounds at break of day
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom’s ear,
And summon him to marriage.”
In nothing have the usages of different nations varied
more than in regard to marriage, and the ceremonies by
which it is celebrated or solemnized. Amongst the Romans
the bridegroom was decked to receive his bride; his hair
was combed and cut in a particular form ; he had a coronet
or chaplet on his head, and was dressed in a white garment.
BRIDEWELL, a name frequently given to houses of
correction. The first establishment of this kind was a royal
B R I
palace in the parish of St Bride’s, London, which was called
Bridewell from its vicinity to a well dedicated to St Bride
or Bridget. This foundation partakes of the mixed charac¬
ter of hospital, prison, and workhouse. It was founded in
1553 by Edward VI., who gave the place where King John
had formerly kept his court, and which had been repaired
by Henry VIII., to the city of London, with seven hundred
merks of land, bedding, and other furniture. Juvenile de¬
linquents are sent to the hospital as apprentices to manufac¬
turers, who reside there; and, on their having faithfully
served their time of seven years, they become entitled to
their freedom, together with a donation of ten pounds each
to enable them to carry on their respective trades. See
also Workhouse, and Poor-Laws. ,
B B I D G E.
The mathematical theory of the stx-ucture of bridges has
been a favourite subject with mechanical philosophers. It
gives scope to some of the most refined and elegant ap¬
plications of science to practical utility; and while its
progressive improvement exhibits an example of the veiy
slow steps by which speculation has sometimes followed
execution, it enables us to look forward with perfect con¬
fidence to that more desirable state of human knowledge
in which the calculations of the mathematician shall direct
the operations of the artificer with security, instead of fol¬
lowing with servility the progress of his laboui's.
Of the origin of the art of building bridges something will
be found in other parts of this work (see the articles Arch,
Skew Bridge, and Tubular Bridge). The subject has
been much discussed during the last half century, by some ot
the most learned antiquaries and most elegant scholars ; but
additions still more important have been made to the scientific
and practical principles on which that art depends ; and the
information that may here be expected will be comprehended
under the head of physico-mathematical principles, subser¬
vient to the theory of this department of architecture ; while
the historical account of the works which appeal to be the
most deserving of notice will be found under the articles
already referred to.
This article will contain five sections, relating respec¬
tively (1) to the resistance of the materials employed, (2)
to the equilibrium of arches, and (3) to the effects of fric¬
tion, (4) an account of the discussions regarding the Lon¬
don bridges, in which will be found the views of many phi¬
losophers and practical men, and (5) the application of theory
to existing bridges.
Sect. I.— Of the Resistance of Materials.
A. In all homogeneous solid bodies, the resistances to
extension and compression must be initially equal, and pro¬
portional to the change of dimensions. . .
The equilibrium of the particles of any body remaining
at rest depends on the equality of opposite forces, varying
according to certain laws ; and that these laws are continued
without any abrupt change, when any minute alteration
takes place in the distance, is demonstrated by their con¬
tinuing little altered by any variation of dimensions, in con¬
sequence of an increase or diminution of temperature, and
might indeed be at once inferred as highly probable, from
the general principle of continuity observed in the laws
of nature. We may therefore always assume a change of
dimensions so small, that, as in all other differential calcu¬
lations, the elements of the curves, of which the ordinates
express the forces, as functions of, or as depending on, the
distances as abscisses, may be considered as not sensibly
differing from right lines crossing each other, if the curves
be drawn on the same side of the absciss, in a point corre¬
sponding to the point of rest, or to the distance affording
an equilibrium; so that the elementary finite differences of
the respective pairs of ordinates which must form, with the
portions of the two curves, rectilinear triangles, always simi¬
lar to each other, will always vary as the lengths of the ele¬
ments of the curves, or as the elements of the absciss, be¬
ginning at the point of rest; and it is obvious that these dif¬
ferences will represent the actual magnitude of the resist¬
ances exhibited by the substance to extension or compression.
It was on the same principle that Bernoulli long ago
observed, that the minute oscillations of any system of
bodies, whatever the laws of the forces governing them
might be, must ultimately be isochronous, notwithstand¬
ing any imaginable variation of their comparative extent,
the forces tending to bring them back to the quiescent
position being always proportional to the displacements;
and so far as the doctrine has been investigated by expe¬
riments, its general truth has been amply confirmed; the
slight deviations from the exact proportion which have
been discovered in some substances being far too unim¬
portant to constitute an exception, and merely tending to
show that these substances cannot have been perfectly
homogeneous, in the sense here attributed to the word.
When the compression or extension is considerable, there
may indeed be a sensible deviation, especially in fibrous or
stratified substances; but this irregularity by no means
affects the admissibility of any of the conclusions which
will be derived from this proposition.
B. The strength of a block or beam must be reduced to
one half, before its cohesive and repulsive forces can both be
called into action.
We must suppose the transverse sections of the body
to remain plane and perpendicular to the axis, whatever
the point may be to which the force is applied; a suppo¬
sition which will be correctly true if the pressure be made
by the intervention of a firm plate attached to each end,
and which is perfectly admissible in every other case.
Now, if the terminal plates remain parallel, it is obvious
that the compression or extension must be uniformly distri¬
buted throughout the substance, which must happen when
the original force is applied in the middle of the block;
the centre of pressure or resistance collected by the
plate acting like a lever, being then coincident with the
axis. But when the plates are inclined, the resistance
depending on the compression or extension will be vari¬
ous in different parts, and will always be proportional to
the distance from the neutral point where the compression
ends and the extension begins, if the depth of the sub¬
stance is sufficient to extend to this point; consequently
the forces may always be represented, like the pressure
of a fluid, at different depths, by the ordinates of a tri¬
angle ; and their result may be considered as concentrated
in the centre of gravity of the triangle, or of such of its
portions as are contained within the depth of the sub-
BRIDGE.
Bridge- stance; and when both extension and compression are
'—’-Y-'*-'' concerned, the smaller force may be considered as a ne¬
gative pressure, to be subtracted from the greater, as is
usual when any other compound forces are supposed to
act on a lever of any kind. Now when the neutral point
is situated'in one of the surfaces of the b1ock, the sum of
all the forces is represented by the area of the triangle,
as it is by that of the parallelogram when the plates re¬
main parallel; and these areas being in either case equi¬
valent to the same external force, it is obvious that the
perpendicular of the triangle must be equal to twice the
height of the parallelogram, indicating that the com¬
pression or extension of the surface in the one case is
twice as great as the equable compression or extension in
the other; and since there is always a certain degree of
compression or extension, which must be precisely suffi¬
cient to crush or tear that part of the substance which is
immediately exposed to it, and since the whole substance
must in general give way when any of its parts fail, it
follows that the strength is only half as great in the for¬
mer case as in the latter. And the centre of gravity of
every triangle being at the distance of one third of its
height from the base, the external force must be applied,
in order to produce such a compression or extension, at
the distance of one sixth of the depth from the axis; and
when its distance is greater than this, both the repulsive
and cohesive forces of the substance must be called into
action, and the strength must be still further impaired.
(Plate CXLIII. fig. 2.)
C. The compression or extension of the axis of a block or
beam is always proportional to the force, reduced to the di¬
rection of the axis, at whatever distance it may be applied.
We may suppose one of the inflexible plates attached
to the extremities of the block to be continued to the
given distance, and to act as a lever held in equilibrium by
three forces, that is, by the cohesive and repulsive resist¬
ances of the block, and the external force; and it is ob¬
vious that, as in all other levers, the external force will
always be equal to the difference of the other two forces
depending on the compression and extension, or to the
mean compression or extension of the whole, which must
also be the immediate compression or extension of the
middle, since the figure representing the forces is recti¬
linear. And the effect will be the same, whatever may
be the intermediate substances by which the force is im¬
pressed on the block, whether continued in a straight line
or otherwise. When the force is oblique, the portion per¬
pendicular to the axis will be resisted by the lateral ad¬
hesion of the different strata of the block, the compression
or extension being only determined by the portion parallel
to the axis; and when it is transverse, the length of the
axis will remain unaltered. But the line of direction of
the original force must always be continued till it meets
the transverse section at any point of the length, in order
to determine the nature of the strain at that point.
D. The distance of the neutral point from the axis of a
block or beam is to the depth, as the depth to twelve times the
distance of the force, measured in the transverse section.
Calling the depth a, and the distance of the neutral
point from the axis z, the resistances may be expressed
by the squares of £ a + z and £ « — z, which are the
sides of the similar triangles denoting the compression
and extension (Prop. B.) ; consequently, the difference of
these squares, 2 az, will represent the external force
(Prop. C.) But the distance of the centres of gravity of
the two triangles must always be ^ a > and, by the pro¬
perty of the lever, making the centre of action of the
greater resistance the fulcrum, as the external force is to
the smaller resistance, so is this distance to the distance
of the force from the centre of action of the greater re-
(aa a \ z\.
sistance; or 2 az : (^ a + z)“ —- 5 a : ^J2z 3 3/
349
Bridge.
and adding to this the distance of the centre of action from
the axis, which must be^a — £(ia + z)=^a — i
we have for the distance of the force from the axis;
12z
. .. aa
whence, calling this distance y, z =
E. The power of a given force to crush a block is in¬
creased by its removal from the axis, supposing its direction
unaltered, in the same proportion as the depth of the block is
increased by the addition of six times the distance of the point
of application of the force, measured in the transverse section.
Since the compression or extension of the axis is inva¬
riable, whatever the distance of the force may be, that of
the nearest surface must be as much greater, by the pro¬
perties of similar triangles, as the half depth, increased
by the distance of the neutral point, is greater than that
distance itself, that is, in the ratio of a + 6^ to a, since z
is to a as a to 12^ (Prop. D.), and to ^ a as a to &y;
and the strength is reduced in the same proportion as the
partial compression or extension, by the operation of a
given force, is increased. (Plate CXLIII. fig. 3.)
F. The curvature of the neutral line of a beam at any
point, produced by a given force, is proportional to the dis¬
tance of the line of direction of the force from the given point
of the axis, whatever that direction may be.
Since the distance z of the neutral point from the axis
is inversely as y, the distance of the force, and the radius
of curvature, or the distance of the intersection of the
planes of the terminal plates from the neutral point, must
be to the distance z as the whole length of the axis is to
the alteration of that length produced by the compression
or extension, it follows that the radius of curvature must
be inversely as the distance y, and inversely also as the
compression, and the curvature itself must be conjointly
as the force and as the distance of its application. If the
direction of the force be changed, and the perpendicular
falling from the given point of the axis on the line of the
force be now called y, the distance of the force from the
axis measured in the transverse section will be increased
by the obliquity exactly in the same ratio as its efficacy
is diminished, and the curvature of the neutral line will
remain unaltered; although the place of that line will be
a little varied, until at last it coincides with the axis, when
the force becomes completely transverse: and the radius
of curvature of the axis will always be to that of the neu¬
tral line as the acquired to the original length of the axis.
(Plate CXLIII. fig. 4.)
G. The radius of curvature of the neutral line is to the
distance of the neutral point as the original length of the axis
to the alteration of that length, or as a certain given quan¬
tity to the external force ; and this quantity has been termed
the modulus of elasticity.
, „ , Mz Maa , . c
Or r : z = M :/, and r — ~J ~ fyf aS 18 obvious from
the preceding demonstration ; y being the distance of the
line of the force from the given point, whatever its direc¬
tion may be.
H. The flexibility, referred to the direction of the force,
is expressed by unity, increased by twelve times the square
of the distance, divided by that of the depth.
Making the alteration of the axis unity, the correspond¬
ing change at the distance y will be to 1 as z + y to z,
or as
1 + - to 1, and will consequently be equal to
1 +
12*/*/
(Prop. D.)
350
BRIDGE.
Bridge.
When the direction of the force becomes oblique, the
actual compression of the axis is diminished, but its effect
referred to that direction remains unaltered.
I. The total compression of a narrow block, pressed in the
direction of one of its diagonals, is twice as great as if the
same force were applied in the direction of the axis.
This proposition affords a simple illustration of the ap¬
plication of the preceding one. Calling the length of any
portion of the axis x, beginning from the middle, and ne¬
glecting the obliquity, the distance of the force may be
called y — nx; and the compression in the line of the
force being everywhere as 1 + its fluxion will be
d# + d#
12nnxx
and the fluent x +
4»2.r3
which, when
y — ^ a, becomes x x, which is twice as great as if y
were always = 0. But if the breadth of the block were
considerable, so that it approached to a cube, the com¬
pression would vary according to a different law, each
section parallel to the diagonal affording an equal resist¬
ance, and the exact solution of the problem would require
_L
an infinite series for expressing the value ofjnx&x.
K. If a solid bar have its axis curved a little into a circular
form, and an external force be then applied in the direction
of the chord, while the extremities retain their angular posi¬
tion, the greatest compression or extension of the substance
will ultimately be to the mean compression or extension
which takes place in the direction of the chord, as 1 + — to
1 + Ybcui ’ a be*n9 th6 depth of the bar, and h the actual
versed sine, or the height of the arch.
We must here separate the actions of the forces re¬
taining the ends of the bar into two parts, the one simply
urging the bar in the direction of the chord, and the
other, which is of a more complicated nature, keeping
the angular direction unaltered; and we must first calcu¬
late the variation of the angular situation of the ends, in
consequence of the bending of the bar by the first por¬
tion, and then the strain required to obviate that change,
by means of a force acting in the direction of the middle
of the bar, while the ends are supposed to be fixed. If
each half of the bar were rectilinear, these two strains
would obviously be equal, and would neutralize each other
in the middle of the halves, which might be considered
as the meeting of the ends of two shorter pieces, acting
transversely or obliquely on each other, without any
strain; the curvature produced by the whole strain being
elsewhere as the distance from the line joining these
points. But since the bar is supposed to be curved, it
becomes necessary to determine the place of these neutral
points, by calculating the change of its angular position
throughout its extent.
Considering, first, the middle of the bar as fixed, and
calling the angular extent of the variable arc x, beginning
from the middle, and the radius r, the ordinate y, or the
distance of the arc from the chord, will be r cos. x — b, b
being the cosine of the whole arc ; and the fluxion of the
change of the angular situation, being as the strain and
the fluxion of the arc conjointly, will be expressed by
pr cos. xdx —pb&x, of which the fluent is pr sin. x — pbx.
In the second place, the curvature derived from the force
acting between the two halves, when the ends are con¬
sidered as fixed points, will be as r — r cos. x, and the
fluent of the change of angular situation may be called
qrx — qr sin. x ; and at the end, when x becomes equal to
c, the whole extent of the arc, these two deviations must
destroy each other, since the positions of the middle and
of the ends remain unaltered ; consequentlysin. c—pbc
Bridge.
-, and the exact
, p rc — r
— qrc — qr sin. c, whence — — —^—
q rsxn. c—be
proportion of p to ^ may be found by means of a table of
sines. But when the arc is small, sin. c being equal to
c — c* + r^-r c5 ...,rc — r sin. c is rc3, and r sin. c — be
^ c3 + 120 ^
z= (r — b) c — rc3 ; now r — 6, the versed sine of the arc,
becomes ultimately ^ rc2, and (r — b) cz=^ rc3 ; therefore
P ’• 9=i : i = i : 1 5 that is, the strain at the middle, ex¬
pressed by p, must be half as great as the strain at the
ends, expressed by q: consequently, when the force is
considered as single, the distance of the line of its direc¬
tion from the summit must ultimately be one third of the
versed sine or height.
Now if we call any portion of the chord x, we have for
the corresponding value of y, the distance from the line
of direction of this force, \/ (r2 — x?) — d ; and for the
fluxion of the compression or extension in the direction of
the chord, dx^lfl—which will be true for both por¬
tions of the bar, whether y be positive or negative; but
y2 — r2 — x? d2 — 2d yt (r2 — ic2), and the fluent be¬
comes x +— (iPx — b x?-\-d2x—2d [r2 arc sine - —
x (i2—a?2)]^. When the arc is small, calling the whole
CCOC Jl3C^
versed sine A, we may have A—— and^2=r-^ A2— —
3r
#4 12 /
+ tt, and the fluent is a;  (b
4<r! aa \y
£0
but when x becomes equal to the semichord c, A being—,
12 / c5 c5 . c5
20r2.
the expression becomes c + — ( r r^—r +
aa \ Sot2 ISr2
,4 c5 | 16 A2c , . , , ,
= c + yj—2^2 = c + -y^-^2 > which shows the compres¬
sion or extension in the line of the chord, while c ex¬
presses that which the bar would have undergone if it had
been straight, and the force had been immediately applied
to the axis; the actual change being greater in the pro-
. , , 16 AA 1
portion of 1 + r—— to 1.
15 aa
The greatest strain will obviously be at the ends, where
the distance from the line of direction of the force is the
greatest, the compression or extension of the surface be¬
ing here to that of the axis as a + 63/ to a (Prop. E.), or
4A
as 1 + — to 1; consequently the compression or exten¬
sion in tl^e line of the chord is to the greatest actual
change of the substance as 1 + to 1 + —•
loaa a
Thus if the depth a were 10 feet, and the height or
versed sine A = 20, the radius being very large, the whole
compression of the chord would be to the whole compres¬
sion of a similar substance, placed in the direction of the
chord, as 5*267 to 1 ; and the compression at the surface
of the ends would be to the compression of the axis there
as 9 to 1 ; and, disregarding the insensible obliquity, this
compression may be considered as equal throughout the
bar, so that the compression at the ends will be to the
compression of the chord as 9 to 5*267, or as 17 to 10.
BRIDGE.
351
Bridge. Supposing, for example, such a bar of iron to undergo a
change of temperature of 32° of Fahrenheit, which would
naturally cause it to expand or contract about y^y in all
its dimensions; then the length of the chord, being limit¬
ed by the abutments, must now be supposed to be altered
ToW by an external force; and, at the extremities of the
abutments, the compression and extension of the metal
will amount to about gQ00 ; a change which is equivalent
to the pressure of a column of the metal about 330Ofeet
in height, since M, the height of the modulus of elasticity,
is found, for iron and steel, to be about 10,000,000 feet;
and such would be the addition to the pressure at one ex¬
tremity of the abutment, and its diminution at the other,
amounting to about five tons for every square inch of the
section, which would certainly require some particular
precaution, to prevent the destruction of the stones form¬
ing the abutment by a force so much greater than they
are capable of withstanding without assistance. Should
such a case indeed actually occur, it is probable that the
extremities would give way a little, and that the principal
pressure would necessarily be supported nearer the middle,
so that there would be a waste of materials in a situation
where they could co-operate hut imperfectly in resisting
the thrust; an inconvenience which would not occur if the
bar were made wider and less deep, especially towards the
abutments.
Sect. II.— Of the Equilibrium of Arches.
We may now proceed to inquire into the mode of de¬
termining the situation and properties of the curve of
equilibrium, which represents, for every part of a sys¬
tem of bodies supporting each other, the general direc¬
tion of their mutual pressure; remembering always that
this curve is as much an imaginary line as the centre of
gravity is an imaginary point, the forces being no more
actually collected into such a line than the whole weight
or inertia of a body is collected in its centre of gravity.
Indeed the situation of the curve is even less definite
than that of the centre of gravity, since in many cases it
may differ a little according to the nature of the co-opera¬
tion of the forces which it is supposed to represent. In
reality, every gravitating atom entering the structure
must be supported by some forces continued in some line,
whether regular or irregular, to the fixed points or abut¬
ments, and every resisting atom partakes, in a mathema¬
tical sense, either positively or negatively in transmitting
a lateral pressure where it is required for supporting any
part of the weight; and when we attempt to represent
the result of all these collateral pressures by a simple
curve, its situation is liable to a slight variation, according
to the direction in which we suppose the co-operating
forces to be collected. If, for instance, we wished to de¬
termine the stability of a joint formed in a given direc¬
tion, it would be necessary to consider the magnitude of
the forces acting throughout the extent of the joint in a
direction perpendicular to its plane, and to collect them
into a single result; and it is obvious that the forces re¬
presented by the various elementary curves may vary very
sensibly in their proportion, when we consider their joint
operation on a vertical or on an oblique plane; although,
if the depth of the substance be inconsiderable, this differ¬
ence will be wholly imperceptible, and in practice it may
generally be neglected without inconvenience; calculat¬
ing the curve upon the supposition of a series of joints in
a vertical direction. If, however, we wish to be very mi¬
nutely accurate, we must attend to the actual direction of
the joints in the determination of the curve, and must
consider, in the case of a bridge, the whole weight of the
structure terminated by a given arch-stone, with the ma¬
terials which it supports, as determining the direction of Bridge,
the curve of equilibrium where it meets the given joint,
instead of the weight of the materials terminated by a ver¬
tical plane passing through the point of the curve in ques¬
tion, which may sometimes be very sensibly less ; this con¬
sideration being as necessary for determining the circum¬
stances under which the joints will open, as for the more
imaginary possibility of the arch-stones sliding upwards or
downwards. But we may commonly make a sufficiently
accurate compensation for this difference, by supposing
the specific gravity of the materials producing the pres¬
sure, and the curvature of the line which terminates them,
to be a little increased, while the absciss remains equal
to that of the curve of equilibrium intersecting the joints.
L. If two equal parallelepipeds be supported each at one
end, and lean against each other at the other, so as to remain
horizontal, the curve of equilibrium, representing the general
effect of the pressure transmitted through them, will be of a
parabolic form.
The pressure of the blocks where they meet will obvi¬
ously be horizontal, but at the other ends it will be oblique,
being the result of this horizontal pressure and of the
whole weight of each block. And if we imagine the
blocks to be divided into any number of parts, by sections
parallel to the ends, which is the only way in which we
can easily obtain a regular result, it is evident that the
force exerted at any of these sections by the external por¬
tions must be sufficient to support the lateral thrust and
the weight of the internal portions; and its inclination
must be such that the horizontal base of the triangle of
forces must be to the vertical perpendicular as the lateral
thrust to the weight of the internal portion; or, in other
words, the lateral thrust remaining constant, the weight
supported will be as the tangent of the inclination. But
calling the horizontal absciss x, and the vertical ordinate y,
d ?/
the tangent of the inclination will be which, in the case
of a parallelepiped, must be proportional to the distance
• wi&y
x from the contiguous ends; and x =■ ; consequent¬
ly xAx =■ mAy, and £ x2 = my, which is the equation of a
parabola. It is usual in such cases to consider the thrusts
as rectilinear throughout, and as meeting in the vertical
line passing through the centre of gravity of each block ;
but this mode of representation is evidently only a conve¬
nient compendium.
If the blocks were united together in the middle, so as
to form a single bar or lever, the forces would be some¬
what differently arranged; the upper half of the bar would
contain a series of elementary arches, abutting on a series
of similar elementary chains in the lower half, so as to take
off all lateral thrust from the supports at the ends.
With respect to the transverse strains of levers in ge¬
neral, it may be observed, that the most convenient way
of representing them is to consider the axis of the lever
as composed of a series of elementary bars, bisected, and
crossed at right angles, by as many others extending
across the lever, or rather as far as two thirds of the half
depth on each side, where the centre of resistance is situ¬
ated. The transverse force must then be transmitted un¬
altered throughout the whole system, acting in contrary
directions at the opposite ends of each of the elementary
bars constituting the axis; and it must be held in equili¬
brium, with respect to each of the centres, considered as
a fulcrum, by the general result of all the corpuscular
forces acting on the longer cross arms; that is, by the
difference of the compression or extension on the differ¬
ent sides of the arms. This difference must therefore be
352
BRIDGE.
Bridge, constant; and in all such cases the strain or curvature
must increase uniformly, and its fluxion must be constant;
but if the transverse force be variable, as when the lever
supports its own weight, or any further external pressure,
the fluxion of the curvature must be proportional to it.
Now the transverse force, thus estimated, being the sum
of the weights or other forces acting on either side of the
given point, the additional weight at the point will be re¬
presented by the fluxion of the weight, or by the second
fluxion of the strain or curvature, which is ultimately as
the fourth fluxion of the ordinate. Also the fluxion of
the strain being as the whole weight on each side, it fol¬
lows, that when the strain is a maximum, and its fluxion
vanishes, the whole weight, or the sum of the positive and
negative forces on either side, must also vanish; as Mr
Dupin has lately demonstrated in a different manner.
M. In every structure supported by abutments, the tangent
of the inclination of the curve of equilibrium to the horizon
is proportional to the weight of the parts interposed between
the given point and the middle of the structure.
The truth of this proposition depends on the equality
of the horizontal thrust throughout the structure, from
which it may be immediately inferred, as in the last pro¬
position. The materials employed for making bridges are
not uncommonly such as to create a certain degree of
lateral pressure on the outside of the arch; but as there
must be a similar and equal pressure in a contrary direc¬
tion against the abutment, its effects will be comprehended
in the determination of the point at which the curve
springs from the abutment, as well as in the direction of
the curve itself; so that the circumstance does not afford
any exception to the general truth of the law. It is, how¬
ever, seldom necessary to include the operation of such
materials in our calculations, since their lateral pressure
has little or no effect at the upper part of the arch, which
has the greatest influence on the direction of the curve ;
and it is also desirable to avoid the unnecessary employ¬
ment of these soft materials, because they tend to increase
the horizontal thrust, and to raise it to a greater height
above the foundation of the abutment.
We have therefore generally J'w&x — mt — m be¬
ing the height of uniform matter, pressing on the arch at
the horizontal distance x from the vertex, t the tangent of
the inclination of the curve of equilibrium, y its vertical
ordinate, and m a quantity proportional to the lateral pres¬
sure or horizontal thrust.
N. The radius of curvature of the curve of equilibrium is
inversely as the load on each part, and directly as the cube
of the secant of the angle of inclination to the horizon.
The general expression for the radius of curvature is r
— ; and here, since m&y = &xfw&x, da? being con-
da?d^
stant, mffy — w (da?)?; but dz being = da;VC1 + *2)> “j“j^
= — (1 + t?), and r = — (1 + ^ ; and m being con-
w v ' w
(Prop. L.) The uniformity of the load implies that the Bridge,
superior and inferior terminations of the arch, commonly
called the extrados and intrados, should be parallel; but
it is not necessary that either of them should be parabolic,
unless we wish to keep the curve exactly in the middle of
the whole structure. When the height of the load is very
great in proportion to that of the arch, the curve must al¬
ways be nearly parabolic, because the form of the extra¬
dos has but little comparative effect on the load at each
point.
A parabola will therefore express the general form of
the curve of equilibrium in the flat bands ot brick or stone,
commonly placed over windows and doors, which, not¬
withstanding their external form, may very properly be
denominated flat arches. But if we consider the direction
of the joints as perpendicular to the curve, it may easily
be shown, from the properties of the wedge, that they
must tend to a common axis, in order that the thrust may
be equal throughout; and the curve must be perpendicu¬
lar to them, and consequently circular; but the difference
from the parabola wdll be wholly inconsiderable.
Q. For a horizontal extrados, and an intrados termi¬
nated by the curve itself, which, however, is a supposition
merely theoretical, the equation of the curve is
y+ \/(yy — oa)
x — Vm hyp. log.     
a
Since in this case w =■ y (Prop. M.), we have J'ydx
— m ^ and m&y—y (da?')2 ; whence, multiplying both
da?
sides by dy, we have mdyd?y = ydylfxf ; and, taking the
fluent, l m (dy)2 = f y2 (da;)2, and mt2 = y2, which must
be corrected by making y — « when t vanishes, so that we
dy
shall have mt2 — y2—a2, and y = ^/(a2+mt2). But since
= * = dX = dy ^
da;
and a? —
(yy—aa)
Afm HL (y + \/[y2 — «2]) — Vm HL a> whence all the
points of the curve may be determined by means of a ta¬
ble of logarithms. But such a calculation is by no means
so immediately applicable to practice as has generally
been supposed; for the curve of equilibrium will always
be so distant from the intrados at the abutments, as to de¬
range the whole distribution of the forces concerned.
R. For an arch of equable absolute thickness throughout
its length, the equation is z — (y2 — m2) and
V(yy — mm)
x — m hl  
m
The weight of any portion of the half arch being repre¬
sented by its length z, we have z
fdx
dy
— m — '-
do;
; but dz = dy
+(D2)^ ^=
dz
4+S)
stant, r is inversely as the load w, and directly as the cube
of the secant y'(I + 4>-. The same result may also be _ zdz  of which the fluent is ^(*2 + m2), re-
obtamed from a geometrical consideration ot the magm- y' _j_ mm)
tude of the versed sine of the elementary arc, and the •- n0 further correction than to suppose y initially
effect of the obliquity of the pressure ; the one varying as ^ ^ m and we have ^ = 2 _ Again? since
the square of the secant, the other as the secant simply. ^
O. Consequently, if the curve be circular, the load must dz — dx we find in the same manner da? =
be everywhere as the cube of the secant. ' mmj
P. If the curve of equilibrium be parabolic, the load must   
be uniform throughout the span. V(jnm “k zz)
—, and a; = m hl (z + 4 C+ zz~\ ) — m HL m
BRIDGE.
353
Bridge.
= m hl
g + y
m
This curve will therefore in some cases
be identical with that of the preceding proposition. It is
commonly called the catenaria, since it represents the
form in which a perfectly flexible chain of equable thick¬
ness will hang by its gravity.
S. If the load on each point of an arch he expressed by
the equation w — a bx1, the equation for the curve of equi¬
librium will be my — ^ axq +
Since the whole load Jw&x is here ax % bx?, we have
= ax + ^bx? (Prop. M.), and my=.\ ax? + ^ bx*.
This expression will, in general, be found sufficiently
accurate for calculating the form of the curve of equili¬
brium in practical cases; and it may easily be made to
comprehend the increase of the load from the obliquity of
the arch-stones. The ordinate y at the abutment being
given, the value of m may be deduced from it; and since
at the vertex my is simply ^ ax?, the radius of curvature
r will here be = -.
2y a
T. If we divide the span of an arch into four equal parts,
and add to the weight of one of the middle parts one sixth of
its difference from the weight of one of the extreme parts, we
shall have a reduced weight, which will be to the lateral
thrust as the height of the arch to half the span, without sen¬
sible error.
The weight of the half arch being expressed by a# + 3
bx? when x is equal to the whole span, if we substitute x
for it will become ^ ax -^bx? for one of the middle
7
parts, leaving \ ax ^ ^ f°r ^ie extreme part, which
0
gives — bx? for the difference of the parts, and one sixth of
this added to the former quantity makes it % ax + ^-bx?:
hax+12 bx3
m
It is also obvious, that if we subtract, instead of adding,
one sixth of the difference, we have 1 ax ; and dividing
7Tb
by x, we obtain a, and thence r z=. m being previous¬
ly found by the proposition.
U. When the load is terminated by a circular or ellipti¬
cal arc, w — a + rib — n *fib(Z — x'2) and my ~ 1
X
(a + nb) a?2 — ! rib2 X ARC SINE ^1 wZ»2 \I(b2 — x2)
jr n (bP — a;2)2 -f- ^ rib12.
The whole load Jwdx is here ax -j- nbx — ± nb2 arc
X
sine ± nx VO* — x'2) ; and hence my — 1 ax2 -f-
X
l nbx2 — ^ nb2x arc sine ^ i — h n^<2 V^2 — #2)
-f ^ w (J2 — a:2)2 — ^ rib-5 (Prop. M.) And the radius
of curvature at the vertex will again be When the
VOL. v.
curve is circular, the axes of the ellipse being equal, Bridge.
n —
If the extrados and intrados are concentric, the calcu¬
lation requires us to take the difference between the re¬
sults determining the weight for each curve; but it will
commonly be equally accurate, in such a case, to consider
the depth of the load as uniform, at least when the joints
are in the direction of the radii.
X. The abutment must be higher without than within, by
a distance which is to its breadth as the horizontal distance
of the centre of gravity of the half arch from the middle of the
abutment is to the height of the middle of the keystone above
the same point.
This proposition follows immediately from the propor¬
tion of the horizontal thrust to the weight, determined by
the property of the lever; the one acting at the distance
of the height of the arch from the fulcrum, and the other
at the distance of the centre of gravity from the abutment,
so as to balance each other; and the oblique direction of
the face of the abutment being perpendicular to the thrust
compounded of these two forces. The same rule also
serves for determining the proper position of the abutment
of a beam or rafter of any kind, in order that it may stand
securely, without the assistance of friction. But for a
bridge, if we calculate the situation of the curve of equi¬
librium, we obtain the direction of the thrust at its extre¬
mity more conveniently, without immediately determining
the place of the centre of gravity.
Y. In order that an arch may stand without friction or
cohesion, a curve of equilibrium, perpendicular to all the
surfaces of the joints, must be capable of being drawn within
the substance of the blocks.
If the pressure on each joint be not exactly perpendi¬
cular to the surfacesr it cannot be resisted without fric¬
tion, and the parts must slide on each other; this, how¬
ever, is an event that can never be likely to occur in prac¬
tice. But if the curve, representing the general pressure
on any joint, be directed to a point in its plane beyond
the limits of the substance, the joint will open at its re¬
moter end, unless it be secured by the cohesion of the
cements, and the structure will either wholly fall, or con¬
tinue to stand in a new form. (Plate CXLIII. fig. 5.)
From this condition, together with the determination of
the direction of the joints already mentioned (Prop. P.),
we may easily find the best arrangement of the joints in
a flat arch: the object, in such cases, being to diminish
the lateral thrust as much as possible, it is obvious that
the common centre of the joints must be brought as near
to the arch as is compatible with the condition of the
circle remaining within its limits; and it may even happen
that the superincumbent materials would prevent the
opening of the joints even if the centre were still nearer
than this; but if, on the other hand, the arch depended
only on its own resistance, and the materials were in any
danger of being crushed, it would be necessary to keep
the circle at some little distance from its surfaces, even
at the expense of somewhat increasing the lateral pressure.
When the curve of equilibrium touches the intrados of
an arch of any kind, the compression at the surface must
be at least four times as great as if it remained in the
middle of the arch-stones (Prop. E.), and still greater
than this if the cohesion of the cements is called into ac¬
tion. In this estimate we suppose the transverse sections
of the blocks inflexible, so as to co-operate throughout the
depth in resisting the pressure on any point; but in reality
tins co-operation will be confined within much narrower
limits, and the diminution of strength will probably be
considerably greater than is here supposed, whenever the
curve approaches to the intrados of the arch.
The passage of the curve of equilibrium through the
2 Y
354 B R I
Bridge, middle of each block is all that is necessary to insure the
stability of a bridge of modern dimensions and of sound
materials. Its strength is by no means increased, like
that of a frame of carpentry, or of a beam resisting a
transverse force, by an increase of its depth in preference
to any other of its dimensions : a greater depth does, in¬
deed, give it a power of effectually resisting a greater
force of external pressure derived from the presence of
any occasional load on any part of the structure; but the
magnitude of such a load is seldom very considerable, in
proportion to the weight of the bridge.
It is of some importance, in these investigations, to en¬
deavour to trace the successive steps by which the fabric
of a bridge may commonly be expected to fail. Suppos¬
ing the materials to be too soft, or the abutments insecure,
or any part of the work to be defective, and to afford too
little resistance, the length of the curve of the arch being
diminished, or its chord extended, it will become flatter,
and consequently sink; the alteration being by far the
greatest, if other things are equal, where the depth is the
least, that is, near the crown or key-stone; so that if the
curvature was at first nearly equal throughout, the crown
will sink so much as to cause a rapid increase of curvature
on each side in its immediate neighbourhood, which will
bring the intrados up to the curve of equilibrium, or even
above it, the form of this curve being little altered by the
change of that of the arch. The middle remains firm, be¬
cause the pressure is pretty equally divided throughout
the blocks; but the parts newly bent give way to the un¬
equal force, and chip a little at their internal surface ; but
being reduced in their dimensions by the pressure, they
suffer the middle to descend still lower, and are conse¬
quently carried down with it, so as to be relieved from
the inequality of pressure depending on their curvature,
and to transfer the effect to the parts immediately beyond
them, till these in their turn crumble, and by degrees the
whole structure falls. (Plate CXLIII. fig. 6.)
Sect. III.—Of the Effect of Friction.
The friction or adhesion of the substances employed in
architecture is of the most material consequence for in¬
suring the stability of the works constructed with them,
and it is right that we should know the extent of its ope¬
ration. It is not, however, often practically necessary to
calculate its exact magnitude, because it would seldom be
prudent to rely materially on it, the accidental circum¬
stances of agitation or moisture tending very much to di¬
minish its effect. Nor is the cohesion of the cements em¬
ployed of much farther consequence than as enabling
them to form a firm connection, by means of which the
blocks may rest more completely on each other than they
could do without it; for we must always remember that
we must lose at least half of the strength, before the cohe¬
sion of the solid blocks themselves, in the direction of the
arch, can be called into action, and at least three fourths
before the joints will have any tendency to open through¬
out their extent.
Z. The joints of an arch, composed of materials subject to
friction, may he situated in any direction lying within the
limits of the angle of repose, on either side of the perpendi¬
cular to the curve of equilibrium ; the angle of repose being
equal to the inclination to the horizon at which the materials
begin to slide on each other ; and the direct friction being to
the pressure as the tangent of this angle is to the radius.
It is obvious, that any other force as well as that of
gravity will be resisted by the friction or adhesion of the
surfaces when its direction is within the limits of the angle
at which the substances begin to slide ; and it may be in¬
ferred from the experiments of Mr Coulomb and Profes-
D G E.
sor Vince, that this angle is constant, whatever the mag- Bridge,
nitude of the force may be, since the friction is ver3r near-
ly proportional to the mutual pressure of the substances.
The tendency of a body to descend along any plane being
as much less than its weight as the height of the plane is
less than its length, and the pressure on the plane being
as much less than the weight as the length is greater than
the horizontal extent, it follows, that, when the weight
begins to overcome the friction, the friction must be to
the pressure as the height of the plane to its horizontal
extent, or as the tangent of the inclination to the radius.
This property of the angle of repose affords a very easy
method of ascertaining, by a simple experiment, the fric¬
tion of the materials employed. Taking, for example, a
common brick, and placing it, with the shorter side of its
end downwards, on another which is gradually raised, we
shall find that it will fall over without beginning to slide;
and when this happens, the height must be half of the
horizontal extent, a brick being twice as long as it is
broad. In this case, therefore, the friction must be at least
half of the pressure, and the angle of repose at least 30° ;
and an equilateral wedge of brick could not be forced up
by any steady pressure of bricks acting against its sides,
in a direction parallel to its base. But the effects of agi¬
tation would make such a wedge totally insecure in any
practical case; and the determination only serves to as¬
sure us, that a very considerable latitude may be allowed
to the joints of our materials, when there is any reason for
deviating from the proper direction, provided that we be
assured of a steady pressure; and much more in brick or
stone than in wood, and more in wood than in iron, unless
the joints of the iron be secured by some cohesive connec¬
tion. It may also be inferred from these considerations,
that the direction of the joints can never determine the
direction of the curve of equilibrium crossing them, since
the friction will always enable them to transmit the thrust
in a direction varying very considerably from the perpen¬
dicular ; although, with respect to any particular joint, of
which we wish to ascertain the stability independent of
the friction, it would be desirable to collect the result of
the elements of which that curve is the representative,
with a proper regard to its direction.
Sect. IV.—Discussions regarding the London Bridges.
The parliamentary inquiry respecting the improvement of
the port of London, brought forward a variety of important
information, and suggested a multiplicity of ingenious de¬
signs, deserving here of some notice. The principal part of
that which relates to our present subject is contained in the
Second and Third Reports from the Select Committee of
the House of Commons; ordered to be printed 11th July
1799, and 28th July 1800.
These Reports contain some interesting details respect¬
ing the history of the old London Bridge, which appears to
have been begun, not, as Hume tells us, by William Rufus,
who was killed in 1100, but in 1176, under Henry II., and
to have been completed in eighty-three years. The piles
were principally of elm, and remained for six centuries with¬
out material decay ; although a part of the bridge fell, and
was rebuilt about 100 years after it was begun. About the
middle of the last century the centre pier was removed;
the piles were drawn by a very powerful screw, and a single
arch was made to occupy the place of two. In consequence
of this the fall was somewhat diminished, and it was neces¬
sary partially to obstruct the channel again, in order that
the stream should have force enough for the water-works;
but it was very difficult to secure the bottom from the ef¬
fects of the increased velocity under the arch. Several strong
beams were firmly fixed across the bed of the river, but only
BRIDGE. 355
Bridge, two of them retained their situations for any length of time;
—and the materials carried away had been deposited below
the middle arch, so as to form a shoal, which was only six*
teen inches below the surface at low water.
The committee received an immense variety of plans and
proposals for docks, wharfs, and bridges. Many of these
were published in the reports, together with engraved de¬
tails on an ample scale. They finally adopted three resolu¬
tions respecting the rebuilding of London Bridge.
1. That it was essential to the improvement and accom¬
modation of the port of London, that London Bridge should
be rebuilt upon such a construction as to permit a free pas¬
sage, at all times of the tide, for ships of such a tonnage, at
least, as the depth of the river would then admit of between
London Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge.
2. That an iron bridge, having its centre arch not less
than sixty-five feet high in the clear, above high-water mark,
would answer the intended purpose, and at the least expense.
3. That the most convenient situation for the new bridge
would be immediately above St Saviour’s Church, and upon
a line from it to the Royal Exchange.
In a subsequent Report, ordered to be printed 3d June
1801, we find a plan for a magnificent iron bridge of 600
feet span, which had been submitted to the committee by
Messrs Telford and Douglas. Mr Telford’s reputation in
his profession as an engineer deservedly attracted the at¬
tention of the committee; but many practical difficulties
having been suggested to them, they circulated a number
of queries relating to the proposal, among such persons
of science, and professional architects, as were the most
likely to have afforded them satisfactory information. But
the results of these inquiries are not a little humiliating to
the admirers of abstract reasoning and of geometrical evi¬
dence ; and it would be difficult to find a greater discord¬
ance in the most heterodox professions of faith, or in the
most capricious variations of taste, than is exhibited in
the responses of our most celebrated professors, on almost
every point submitted to their consideration. It would
be useless to dwell on the numerous errors with which
many of the answers abound; but the questions will af¬
ford us a very convenient clue for directing our attention
to such subjects of deliberation as are really likely to oc¬
cur in a multiplicity of cases; and it will perhaps be pos¬
sible to find such answers for all of them as will tend to
remove the greater number of the difficulties which have
hitherto embarrassed the subject.
QUESTIONS RESPECTING THE CONSTRUCTION OF A CAST-
IRON BRIDGE, OF A SINGLE ARCH, 600 FEET IN THE
span, and 65 feet rise. (Plate CXLIII. fig. 7.)
Question I. What parts of the bridge should be con¬
sidered as wedges, which act on each other by gravity and
pressure, and what parts as weight, acting by gravity only,
similar to the walls and other loading, usually erected upon
the arches of stone bridges ? Or does the whole act as one
frame of iron, which can only be destroyed by crushing its
parts ?
The distribution of the resistance of a bridge may be
considered as in some measure optional, since it may be
transferred from one part of the structure to another,
by wedging together most firmly those parts which we
wish to be most materially concerned in it. But there is
also a natural principle of adjustment, by which the re¬
sistance has a tendency to be thrown where it can best
be supported; for the materials being always more or less
compressible, a very small change of form, supposed to
be equal throughout the structure, will relieve those parts
most which are the most strained, and the accommo¬
dation will be still more effectual when the parts most
strained undergo the greatest change of form. Thus, if Bridge,
the flatter ribs, seen at the upper part of the proposed
structure, supported any material part of its weight, they
would undergo a considerable longitudinal compression,
and being shortened a little, would naturally descend very
rapidly upon the more curved, and consequently stronger
parts below, which would soon relieve them from the load
improperly allotted to them : the abutment would also
give way a little, and be forced out by the greater pres¬
sure at its upper part, while the lower part remained al¬
most entirely unchanged.
It is, however, highly important that the work should,
in the first instance, be so arranged as best to fulfil the
intended purposes, and especially that such parts should
have to support the weight as are able to do it with the
least expense of lateral thrust, which is the great evil to
be dreaded in a work of these gigantic dimensions, the
materials themselves being scarcely ever crushed when
the arch is of a proper form, and the failure of an iron
bridge, by the want of ultimate resistance of its parts to a
compressing force, being a thing altogether out of our
contemplation; and it is obvious that the greater the cur¬
vature of the resting parts, the smaller will be the late¬
ral thrust on the abutments.
We may therefore sufficiently answer this question, by
saying that the whole frame of the proposed bridge, so far
as it lies in or near the longitudinal direction of the arch,
may occasionally co-operate in affording a partial resist¬
ance if required; but that the principal part of the force
ought to be concentrated in the lower ribs, not far remote
from the intrados.
But it is by no means allowable to calculate upon a
curve of equilibrium exactly coinciding with the intrados;
since, if this supposition were realized, we should lose
more than three fourths of the strength of our materials,
and all the stability of the joints independent of cohesion,
so that the slightest external force might throw the curve
beyond the limits of the joint, and cause it to open. Nor
can we always consider the curve of equilibrium as paral¬
lel to the intrados: taking, for example, the case of a
bridge like Blackfriars, the curve of equilibrium, passing
near the middle of the arch-stones, is, and ought to be,
nine or ten feet above the intrados at the abutment, and
only two or three feet at the crown ; so that the ordinates
of this curve are altogether different from the ordinates
which have hitherto been considered by theoretical wri¬
ters. It may be imagined that this difference is of no
great importance in practice; but its amount is much
greater than the difference between the theoretical curves
of equilibrium, determined by calculation, and the com¬
monest circular or elliptical arches.
With respect to the alternative of comparing the bridge
with masonry or with carpentry, we may say, that the
principles on which the equilibrium of bridges is calcu¬
lated are altogether elementary, and independent of any
figurative expressions of strains and mechanical purchase,
which are employed in considering many of the arrange¬
ments of carpentry, and which may indeed, when they
are accurately analysed, be resolved into forces opposed
and combined in the same manner as the thrusts of a
bridge. It is, therefore, wholly unnecessary, when we
inquire into the strength of such a fabric, to distinguish
the thrusts of masonry from the strains of carpentry, the
laws which govern them being not only similar, but identi¬
cal, except that a strain is commonly understood as im¬
plying an exertion of cohesive force; and we have seen
that a cohesive force ought never to be called into action
in a bridge, since it implies a great and unnecessary sa¬
crifice of the strength of the materials employed. If, in¬
deed, we wanted to cross a mere ditch, without depend-
/
356
BRIDGE.
Bridge, ing on the firmness of the bank, we might easily find a
beam of wood or a bar of iron strong enough to afford a
passage over it, unsupported by any abutment, because,
in a substance of inconsiderable length, we are sure of
having more strength than we require. But to assert that
an iron bridge of 600 feet span “ is a lever exerting a
vertical pressure only on the abutments,” is to pronounce
a sentence from the lofty tribunal of refined science, which
the simplest workman must feel to be erroneous. But in
this instance the error is not so much in the comparison
with the lever, as in the inattention to the mode of fixing
it; for a lever or beam of the dimensions of the proposed
bridge, lying loosely on its abutments, would probably be
at least a hundred times weaker than if it were firmly
connected with the abutments, as a bridge is, so as to be
fixed in a determinate direction. And the true reason of
the utility of cast iron for building bridges consists not,
as has often been supposed, in its capability of being
united so as to act like a frame of carpentry, but in the
great resistance which it seems to afford to any force
tending to crush it.
Question II. Whether the strength of the arch is af¬
fected, and in what manner, by the proposed increase of its
width towards the two extremities or abutments, when consi¬
dered vertically and horizontally. And if so, what form
should the bridge gradually acquire ?
The only material advantage derived from widening the
bridge at the ends, consists in the firmness of the abut¬
ments ; and this advantage is greatly diminished by the
increase of horizontal thrust which is occasioned by the
increase of breadth, while the curve of equilibrium is causr
ed to deviate greatly from a circular or parabolic arc, in
consequence of the great inequality of the load on the
different parts; and there seems to be no great difficulty
in forming a firm connection between a narrow bridge
and a wider abutment, without this inconvenience. The
lateral strength of the fabric, in resisting any horizontal
force, would be amply sufficient, without the dilatation at
the ends. Perhaps the form was suggested to the in¬
ventor by the recollection of the partial failure of an ear¬
lier work of the same kind, wdiich has been found to de¬
viate considerably from the vertical plane in which it was
originally situated; but in this instance there seems, if
we judge from the engravings which have been published,
to have been a total deficiency of oblique braces ; and
the abutments appear to have been somewhat less firm
than could have been desired, since one of them contains
an arch and some warehouses, instead of being composed
of more solid masonry. (Plate CXLIII. fig. 9.)
Question III. In what proportions should the weight
be distributed from the centre to the abutments, to make the
arch uniformly strong ?
This question is so comprehensive, that a complete an¬
swer to it would involve the whole theory of bridges; and
it will be necessary to limit our investigations to an in¬
quiry whether the structure, represented in the plan, is
actually such as to afford a uniform strength, or whether
any alterations can be made in it compatible with the ge¬
neral outlines of the proposal, to remedy any imperfec¬
tions which may be discoverable in the arrangement of
the pressure.
There is an oversight in some of the official answers to
this question, from quarters of the very first respectability,
which requires our particular attention. The weight of
the different parts of the bridge has been supposed to
differ so materially from that which is required for pro¬
ducing an equilibrium in a circular arch of equable cur¬
vature, that it has been thought impossible to apply the
principles of the theory in any manner to an arch so con¬
stituted, at the same time that the structure is admitted
to be tolerably well calculated to stand when considered
as a frame of carpentry. The truth is, that it is by no
means absolutely necessary, nor often perfectly practi¬
cable, that the mean curve of equilibrium should agree
precisely in its form with the curves limiting the external
surfaces of the parts bearing the pressure, especially when
they are sufficiently extensive to admit of considerable
latitude within the limits of their substance. It may
happen in many cases that the curve of equilibrium is
much flatter in one part, and more convex in another,
than the circle which approaches nearest to it; and yet
the distance of the two curves may be inconsiderable, in
comparison with the thickness of the parts capable of co¬
operating in the resistance. The great problem, there¬
fore, in all such cases, is to determine the precise situa¬
tion of the curve of equilibrium in the actual state of the
bridge; and when this has been done, the directions of
the ribs in the case of an iron bridge, and of the joints of
the arch-stones in a stone bridge, may be so regulated as
to afford the greatest possible security; and if this secu¬
rity is not deemed sufficient, the whole arrangement must
be altered.
Considering the effect of the dilatation at the ends in
increasing the load, we may estimate the depth of the
materials causing the pressure at the abutments as about
three times as great as at the crown; the plan not being
sufficiently minute to afford us a more precise determina¬
tion ; and it will be quite accurate enough to take w — a
+ Ac2 (Prop. S.) for the load, w becoming = 3a when x
Bridge.
is 300 feet, whence 90,000
b — 2a, and b —
1
45,000
a; we
have then my — \ ax2 + a#4 for the value of the
ordinate. Now the obliquity to the horizon being incon¬
siderable, this ordinate will not ultimately be much less
than the whole height of the arch, and its greatest value
may be called sixty-four feet; consequently, when x =■ 300,
we have 64 m = ^ a X 90,000 + a X 90,000, and the
Ul
radius of curvature at the vertex r=- — = 937*5 feet,
a
while the radius of the intrados is 725 feet, and that of a
circle passing through both ends of the curve of equili¬
brium, as we have supposed them to be situated, 735 feet.
Hence y being a? (l + 27^00*“)’ we may cal-
culate the ordinates at different points, and compare them
with those of the circular curves.
Distance x.
50  
100 
150 
Versed sine of
the intrados.
 1*73 
 6*94 
Versed sine of
the circular arc.
 1*71 
 6*82 
Ordinate y.
....1*34
....5*38
...13*00
 15*66 15*43 
200 28*13 27*70 24*50
250 44*42 43*81 41*01
300 65*00 64*00 64*00
Hence it appears that, at the distance of 200 feet from
the middle, the curve of equilibrium will rise more than
three feet above its proper place, requiring a great pro¬
portion of the pressure to be transferred to the upper
ribs, with a considerable loss of strength, for want of a
communication approaching more nearly to the direction
of the curve. If we chose to form the lower part of the
structure of two series of frames, each about four feet
deep, with diagonal braces, we might provide amply for
such an irregularity in the distribution of the pressure ;
but it would be necessary to cast the diagonals as strong
as the blocks, in order to avoid the inequality of tension
BRIDGE.
357
Bridge.
from unequal cooling, which is often a cause of dangerous
accidents; it would, however, be much better to have the
arch somewhat elliptical in its form, if the load were of
necessity such as has been supposed.
Question IV. What pressure will each part of the bridge
receive, supposing it divided into any given number of equal
sections, the weight of the middle section being given ? And
on what parts, and with what force, will the whole act upon
the abutments f
It appears, from the preceding calculations, that the
weight of the “ middle section” alone is not sufficient for
determining the pressure in any part of the fabric; al¬
though, when the form of the curve of equilibrium has
been found, its radius of curvature at the summit must
give at once the length of a similar load equivalent to
the lateral thrust; and by combining this thrust with the
weight, or with the direction of the curve, the oblique
thrust at any part of the arch may be readily found.
Thus, since at the abutment w — a A" bx2 — 3a, and bx2
— 2a, we have y = J a a? -f oA, and the tangent
& m i - m (lx
, a .16. ax . 2 ax
or the inclination becomes = — x A- „— or — — + ^—
m dm m dm
5x_5 300
37“ 3‘937-5
— = *5333; consequently the hori¬
zontal thrust will be to the weight of the half arch as
fifteen to eight, and to that of the whole arch as fifteen
to sixteen. Now the arch is supposed to contain 6500
tons of cast iron, and together with the road will amount,
according to Professor Robison’s estimate, to 10,100 tons;
so that the lateral thrust on each abutment is 9470 tons;
and since this is equal to the weight of 937-5 feet in
length, of the thickness of the crown, the load there must
be about ten tons for each foot of the length. Hence it
appears, that although the thrust thus calculated is greater
than the weight of a portion of equal length with the ap¬
parent radius at the crown, it is less than would be in¬
ferred from the angular direction of the intrados at the
abutment; the inclination of the termination of the arch
being 24° 27', while that of the true curve of equilibrium
is 28° 4'; that is, about one tenth greater.
As a further illustration of the utility of this mode of
computation, we may take the example of an arch of
Blackfriars Bridge. The radius of curvature, as far as
four fifths of the breadth, is here fifty-six feet; and we
may suppose, without sensible error, the whole load to be
that which would be determined by the continuation of
the same curve throughout the breadth. Now, the middle
of the arch-stones at the distance of fifty feet from the
middle of the bridge, that is, immediately over the termi¬
nation of the abutment, is about twelve feet above that
termination, and at the crown about three feet above the
intrados, so that we have only thirty-one feet for the ex¬
treme value of y, while the whole height of the arch
is forty; and a being 6-58 feet, we find (Prop. Uf.my
~ 13,510 = 31m, whence m = 436, and ~ — r = 66^; we
also obtain the values of the ordinates of the curve as in
the annexed table.
Distance x. Ordinate y.
10 feet -76 
20 3-12 
25 5*13 
30 7-71 
40 
50 
Middle of the
Arch-Stones.
 -90
 3-72
 6-12
 8-75
.15-81 16-81
.31-00  31-00
Hence it appears that the greatest deviation is about
thirty feet from the middle, where it amounts to a little
more than a foot. But if we suppose this deviation divid¬
ed by a partial displacement of the curve at its extremi¬
ties, as it would probably be in reality, even if the resist¬
ance were confined to the arch-stones, it would be only
about half as great in all three places; and even this de¬
viation will reduce the strength of the stones to two thirds,
leaving them, however, still many times stronger than can
ever be necessary. The participation of the whole fabric,
in supporting a share of the oblique thrust, might make
the pressure on the arch-stones somewhat less unequal,
and the diminution of their strength less considerable ; but
it would be better that the pressure should be confined
almost entirely to the arch-stones, as tending less to in¬
crease the horizontal thrust, which is here compressed by
m — 436, implying the weight of so many square feet of
the longitudinal section of the bridge : while, if we deter¬
mined it from the curvature of the intrados, it would ap¬
pear to be only 56a = 368.
In this calculation, the oblique direction of the joints,
as affecting the load, has not been considered; but its ef¬
fect may be estimated by merely supposing the specific
gravity of the materials to be somewhat increased. Thus,
since the back of each arch-stone is about one eighth
wider than its lower end, the weight of the materials press¬
ing on it will be about one sixteenth greater than would
press on it if it were of uniform thickness; and this in¬
crease will be very nearly proportional to w, the whole
load at each part; so that it will only affect the total
magnitude of the thrust, which, instead of 436, must be
supposed to amount to about 463. If also great accuracy
were required, it would be necessary to appreciate the dif¬
ferent specific gravities of the various materials constitut¬
ing the load, since they are not altogether homogeneous;
but so minute a calculation is not necessary in order to
show the general distribution of the forces concerned, and
the sufficiency of the arrangement for answering all the
purposes intended.
Question V. What additional weight will the bridge
sustain, and what will be the effect of a given weight placed
upon any of the before-mentioned sections ?
When a weight is placed on any part of a bridge, the
curve of equilibrium must change its situation more or
less according to the magnitude of the weight; and the
tangent of its inclination must now be increased by a quan¬
tity proportional to the additional pressure to be support¬
ed, which, if the weight were placed in the middle of the
arch, would always be equal to half of it; but when the
weight is placed at any other part of the arch, if we find
the point where the whole thrust is horizontal, the vertical
pressure to be supported at each point of the curve must
obviously be equal to the weight of the materials inter¬
posed between it and this new summit of the curve. Now,
in order to find where the thrust is horizontal, we must
divide the arch into two such portions, that their differ¬
ence, acting at the end of a lever of the length of half the
span, that is, of the distance from the abutment, may be
equivalent to the given weight, acting on a lever equal to
its distance from the other abutment, to which it is near¬
est : consequently this difference must be to the weight
as the distance of the weight from the end to half the
span; and the distance of the new summit of the curve
from the middle must be such, that the weight of ma¬
terials intercepted between it and the middle shall be to
the weight as the distance of the weight from the end to
the whole span ; and the tangent of the inclination must
everywhere be increased or diminished by the tangent of
the angle at which the lateral thrust would support the
weight of this portion of the materials, except immediate¬
ly under the weight, where the two portions of the curve
Bridge.
358
BRIDGE.
Bridge, will meet in a finite angle, at least if we suppose the weight
—to be collected in a single point.
If, for example, a weight of 100 tons, equal to that of
about ten feet of the crown of the arch, be placed half¬
way between the abutment and the middle ; then the ver¬
tex of the curve, where the thrust is horizontal, will be
removed 21 feet towards the weight; but the radius being
937‘5 feet, the tangent of the additional inclination will
u 2>5 1
be
937-5 “ 375’
and each ordinate of the curve will be in¬
creased of the absciss, reckoning from the place of
Oil)
the weight to the remoter abutment; but between the
weight and the nearest abutment the additional pressure
at each point will be 10 — 2-5 7-5 feet, consequently
the tangent will be and the additions to the ordi-
, , M1 u 450 ,150 , .
nates at the abutments will be and —each equal
.150 2 , . , , .
to 11 foot, and at the summit —^ = -, which being de¬
ducted, the true addition to the height of the curve will
4
appear to be -. But the actual height will remain unal¬
tered, since the curve is still supposed to be terminated
by the abutments, and to pass through the middle of the
key-stone; and we have only to reduce all the ordinates
in the proportion of 64-8 to 64. Thus, at 200 feet from
the summit, the ordinate, instead of 24-50 + W5 = 2™S’
will be 24-72, so that the curve will be brought 21 inches
nearer to the intrados, which, in the proposed fabric, would
by no means diminish its strength ; while, on the opposite
side, immediately under the weight, the ordinate 13 —
150
= 12-6 will be reduced to 12-45, and the curve rais¬
ed between six and seven inches, which is a change by no
means to be neglected in considering the resistances re¬
quired from each part of the structure. We ought also,
if great accuracy were required, to determine the effect
of such a weight in increasing the lateral thrust, which
would affect in a slight degree the result of the calcula¬
tion ; but it would not amount, in the case proposed, to
more than one eightieth of the whole thrust.
It is obvious that the tendency of any additional weight,
placed near the middle of a bridge, is to straighten the
two branches of the curve of equilibrium, and that, if it
were supposed infinite, it would convert them into right
lines; provided, therefore, that such right lines could be
drawn without coming too near the intrados at the haunch¬
es, the bridge would be in no danger of giving way, unless
either the materials were crushed, or the abutments were
forced out. In fact, any bridge well constructed might
support a load at least equal to its own weight, with less
loss of strength than would arise from some such errors
as have not very uncommonly been committed, even in
works which have on the whole succeeded tolerably well.
Question VI. Supposing the bridge executed in the best
manner, what horizontal force will it require, when applied
to any particular part, to overturn it, or press it out of the
vertical plane ?
If the bridge be well tied together, it may be consider¬
ed as a single mass, standing on its abutments; its mean
breadth being about 80 feet, and its weight 10,100 tons;
and such a mass would require a lateral pressure at the
crown of the arch of about 7000 tons to overset it. Any
strength of attachment to the abutments would, of course, I
make it still firmer, and any want of connection between
the parts weaker; and since the actual resistance to such
a force must depend entirely on the strength of the oblique
connection between the ribs, it is not easy to define its
magnitude with accuracy: but, as Professor Robison has
justly remarked, the strength would be increased by caus¬
ing the braces to extend across the whole breadth of the
half arch. The single ribs, if wholly unconnected, might
be overset by an inconsiderable force, since they stand in
a kind of tottering equilibrium ; and something like this
appears to have happened to the bridge at Wearmouth.
Dr Hutton, indeed, mentions some “ diagonal iron bars”
in this bridge ; but these were perhaps added after its first
erection, to obviate the “ twisting,” which had become ap¬
parent, since they are neither exhibited in the large plates
of the bridge, nor mentioned in the specification of the
patent.
Question VII. Supposing the span of the arch to remain
the same, and to spring ten feet lower, what additional
strength would it give the bridge ? Or, making the strength
the same, what saving may be made in the materials ? Or
if, instead of a circular arch, as in the plates and drawings,
the bridge should be made in the form of an elliptical arch,
what would be the difference in effect, as to strength, dura¬
tion, convenience, and expenses ?
The question seems to suppose the weight of the mate¬
rials to remain unaltered, and the parts of the structure
that would be expanded to be made proportionally light¬
er; which could not be exactly true, though there might
be a compensation in some other parts. Granting, how¬
ever, the weight to be the same under both circumstan¬
ces, if the ordinate y at the end be increased in the pro¬
portion of sixty-four to about seventy-three, the curvature
at the vertex will be increased, and the lateral thrust di¬
minished in the same ratio, the 9470 tons being reduced
to 8300. The additional thrust occasioned by any foreign
weight would also be lessened, but not the vertical dis¬
placement of the curve derived from its pressure; and
since the whole fabric might safely be made somewhat
lighter, the lightness would again diminish the strain.
The very least resistance that can be attributed to a
square inch of the section of a block of cast iron is about
fifty tons, or somewhat more than 100,000 pounds. It is
said, indeed, that Mr William Reynolds found, by accurate
experiments, that 400 tons were required to crush a cube
of a quarter of an inch of the kind of cast iron called gun-
metal, which is equivalent to 6400 tons for a square inch
of the section. But this result so far exceeds any thing
that could be expected, either from experiment or from
analogy, that it would be imprudent to place much reli¬
ance on it in practice ; the strength attributed to the me¬
tal being equivalent to the pressure of a column 2,280,000
feet in height, which would compress it to about four
fifths of its length, since the height of the modulus of
elasticity (Prop.G.) is about 10,000,000 feet. The greatest
cohesive force that has ever been observed in iron or steel
does not exceed seventy tons for a square inch of the sec¬
tion, and the repulsive force of a homogeneous substance
has not been found in any other instance to be many times
greater or less than the cohesive. There cannot, how¬
ever, be any doubt that the oblique thrust, which amounts
to 10,730 tons, would be sufficiently resisted by a section
of 215 square inches, or, if we allowed a load amounting
to about one third only of the whole strength, by a sec¬
tion of 600 square inches ; and since each foot of an iron
bar an inch square weighs three pounds, and the whole
length of the arch nearly a ton, the 600 square inches
would require nearly as many tons to be employed in the
ribs affording the resistance, upon this very low estimate
BRIDGE.
Bridge, of the strength of cast iron. The doubts here expressed
respecting Mr Reynolds’s results have been fully justified
by some hasty experiments, which have been obligingly
made by the son of a distinguished architect: he found
that two parallelepipeds of cast iron, one eighth of an inch
square, and a quarter of an inch long, were crushed by a
force of little more than a ton. The experiments were
made in a vice, and required considerable reductions for
the friction. The mode of calculation may deserve to be
explained, on account of its utility on other similar occa¬
sions. Supposing the friction to be to the pressure on the
screw as 1 to m, and the pressure on the screw to the
actual pressure on the substance as n to 1, calling this
pressure x, the pressure on the screw will be nx, and the
friction ; but this resistance will take from the gross
ultimate pressure / a force, which is to the friction itself
as the velocity of the parts sliding on each other is to the
velocity of the part producing the ultimate pressure, a
proportion which we may call jo to 1; and the force remain¬
ing will be the actual pressure; that is,/ —= x, and
77t
x ~~ pnf these experiments, the gross force/
as supposed to be exerted on the iron, was four tons; the
friction —, was probably about the screw not having
been lately oiled; the distance of the screw from the
centre of motion was to the length of the whole vice as 3
to 4, whence n was f, and p was 8*44, the middle of the
screw describing 4*22 inches, while the check of the vice
moved through half an inch: consequently —~— was
J m -t pn
4~-}- l ] -25 == 3.31; an(^ t'he corrected pressure becomes
4
In several experiments made with still greater
care, and with an improved apparatus of levers, the mean
force required to crush a cube of a quarter of an inch was
not quite 4£ tons, instead of 400.
Calcareous freestone supports about a ton on a square
inch, which is equal to the weight of a column not quite
2000 feet in height: consequently an arch of such free¬
stone, of 2000 feet radius, would be crushed by its own
weight only, without any further load; and for an arch
like that of a bridge, which has other materials to support,
200 feet is the utmost radius that it has been thought
prudent to attempt; although a part of the bridge of
Neuilly stands, cracked as it is, with a curvature of 250
feet radius; and there is no doubt that a firm structure,
vrell arranged in the beginning, might safely be made
much flatter than this, if there were any necessity for it.
An elliptical arch would certainly approach nearer to
the form of the curve of equilibrium, which would remain
little altered by the change of that of the arch; and the
pressure might be more equably and advantageously trans¬
mitted through the blocks of such an arch, than in the
proposed form of the structure. The duration would pro¬
bably be proportional to the increased firmness of the fa¬
bric, and the greater flatness at the crown might allow a
wider space for the passage of the masts of large ships
on each side of the middle. There might be some addi¬
tional trouble and expense in the formation of portions of
an elliptical curve; but even this might be in a great
measure avoided by employing portions of three circles of
different radii, which would scarcely be distinguishable
from the ellipsis itself.
Those who have imagined that a circular arch must in
359
general be “ stronger than an elliptical arch of the same Bridge,
height and span,” have not adverted to the distinction
between the apparent curvature of the arch, and the si¬
tuation of the true curve of equilibrium, which depends
on the distribution of the weight of the different parts of
the bridge, and by no means on the form of the arch¬
stones only; this form being totally insufficient to deter¬
mine the true radius of curvature, which is immediately
connected with the lateral thrust, and with the strength
of the fabric.
Question VIII. Is it necessary or advisable to have a mo¬
del made of the proposed bridge, or any part of it, in cast
iron. If so, what are the objects to which the experiments
should be directed; to the equilibration only, or to the cohe¬
sion of the several parts, or to both united, as they will occur
in the intended bridge ?
Experiments on the equilibration of the arch would be
easy and conclusive; on the cohesion or connection of the
parts, extremely uncertain. The form and proportion of
the joints could scarcely be imitated with sufficient accu¬
racy ; and since the strength of some of the parts con¬
cerned would vary as the thickness simply, and that of
others as the square or cube of the thickness, it would
be more difficult to argue from the strength of the model
upon that of the bridge, than to calculate the whole from
still more elementary experiments. Some such experi¬
ments ought, however, to be made on the force required
to crush a block of the substance employed; and the form
calculated to afford the proper equilibrium might be very
precisely and elegantly determined, by means of the me¬
thod first suggested by Dr Hooke, that of substituting for
the blocks, resting on each other and on the abutments,
as many similar pieces forming a chain, and suspended at
the extremities. It would, however, be important to make
one alteration in the common mode of performing this
experiment, without which it would be of little or no va¬
lue; the parts corresponding to the blocks of the arch
should be formed of their proper thickness and length,
and connected with each other and with the abutments
by a short joint or hinge in the middle of each, allowing
room for a slight degree of angular motion only; and
every other part of the structure should be represented
in its proper form and proportion and connection, that
form being previously determined as nearly as possible by
calculation ; and then, if the curve underwent no material
alteration by the suspension, we should be sure that the
calculation was sufficiently correct; or, if otherwise, the
arrangement of the materials might be altered, until the
required curve should be obtained; and the investigation
might be facilitated by allowing the joints or hinges con¬
necting the block to slide a little along their surfaces,
within such limits as would be allowable, without too
great a reduction of the powers of resistance of the blocks.
Question IX. Of what size ought the model to be made,
and what relative proportions will experiments made on the
model bear to the bridge when executed ?
The size is of little importance, and it would be unsafe
to calculate the strength of the bridge from any general
comparison with that of the model. There is an Essay
of Euler in the New Commentaries of the Royal Academy
of Petersburg (vol. xx. p. 271), relating expressly to the
mode of judging of the strength of a bridge from a model;
but it contains only an elementary calculation, applicable
to ropes and simple levers, and by no means comprehend¬
ing all the circumstances that require to be considered in
the structure of an arch.
Question X. By what means may ships be best di¬
rected in the middle stream, or prevented from driving to
the side, and striking the arch ? and what would be the con¬
sequence of such a stroke ?
360
BRIDGE.
Bridge. For the direction of ships, Professor Robison’s suggestion
—seems the simplest and best, that they might be guided
by means of a small anchor, dragged along the bottom of
the river. The stroke of a ship might fracture the outer
ribs if they were too weak, but could scarcely affect the
whole fabric in any material degree, supposing it to be
firmly secured by oblique bars, crossing from one side of
the abutment to the other side of the middle ; and if still
greater firmness were wanted, the braces might cross still
more obliquely, and be repeated from space to space.
A ship moving with a velocity of three miles in an hour,
or about four feet in a second, would be stopped by a force
equal to her weight when she had advanced three inches
with a retarded motion; and the bridge could not very
easily withstand, at any one point, a force much greater
than such a shock of a large ship, if it were direct, with¬
out being dangerously strained. But we must consider
that a large ship could never strike the bridge with its
full force, and that the mast would be much more easily
broken than the bridge. The inertia of the parts of the
bridge, and of the heavy materials laid on it, would enable
it to resist the stroke of a small mass with great mecha¬
nical advantage. Thus the inertia of an anvil laid on a
man’s chest enables him to support a blow on the anvil,
which would be fatal without such an interposition, the
momentum communicated to the greater weight being
always less than twice the momentum of the smaller, and
this small increase of momentum being attended by a
much greater decrease of energy or impetus, which is ex¬
pressed by the product of the mass into the square of the
velocity, and which is sometimes called the ascending or
penetrating force, since the height of ascent or depth of
penetration is proportional to it when the resistance is
given. And the same mode of reasoning is applicable to
any weight falling on the bridge, or to any other cause of
vibration, which is not likely to call forth in such a fabric
any violent exertion of the strength of the parts, or of
their connections. We must also remember, in appre¬
ciating the effect of a stroke of any kind on an arched
structure, that something of strength is always lost by
too great stiffness ; the property of resisting velocity, which
has sometimes been called resilience, being generally di¬
minished by any increase of stiffness, if the strength, with
respect to pressure, remains the same.
Question XI. The weight and lateral pressure of the
bridge being given, can abutments be made in the proposed
situation for London Bridge, to resist that pressure ?
Since this question relates entirely to the local circum¬
stances of the banks of the Thames, the persons to whom
it has been referred have generally appealed to the sta¬
bility of St Saviour’s Church, in a neighbouring situation,
as a proof of the affirmative ; and it does not appear that
there have been any instances of a failure of piles well
driven, in a moderately favourable soil. Professor Robi¬
son, indeed, asserts that the firmest piling will yield in
time to a pressure continued without interruption; but a
consideration of the general nature of friction and lateral
adhesion, as well as the experience of ages in a multitude
of structures actually erected, will not allow us to adopt
the assertion as universally true. When, indeed, the earth
is extremely soft, it would be advisable to unite it into
one mass for a large extent, perhaps as far as 100 yards
in every direction, for such a bridge as that under discus¬
sion, by beams radiating from the abutments, and resting
on short piles, with cross pieces interspersed; since we
might combine, in this manner, the effect of a weight of
lO0,OOO tons, which could scarcely ever produce a lateral
adhesion of less than 20,000, even if the materials were
semifluid; for they would afford this resistance if they
were capable of standing in the form of a bank, rising only
one foot in five of horizontal extent, which anything short Bridge,
of an absolute quicksand or a bog would certainly do in
perfect security. The proper direction of the joints of
the masonry may be determined for the abutment exactly
as for the bridge, the tangent of the inclination being al¬
ways increased in proportion to the weights of the suc¬
cessive wedges added to the load; and the ultimate in¬
clination of the curve is that in which the piles ought to
be driven, being the direction of the result, composed of
the lateral thrust, together with the joint weight of the
half bridge and the abutment.
Question XII. The weight and lateral pressure of the
bridge being given, can a centre or scaffolding be erected
over the river, sufficient to carry the arch, without obstruct¬
ing the vessels which at present navigate that part ?
There seems to be no great difficulty in the construc¬
tion of such a centre. When the bridge at Wearmouth
was erected, the centre was supported by piles and stand¬
ards, which suffered ships to pass between them without
interruption ; and a similar arrangement might be made in
the present case with equal facility.
Question XIII. Whether would it be most advisable to
make the bridge of cast and wrought iron combined, or of
cast iron only ? And if of the latter, whether of the hard
ivhite metal, or of the soft gray metal, or of gun metal ?
A bridge well built ought to require no cohesive strength
of ties, as Mr Southern has justly observed in his answer
to the eighth question; and for repulsive resistance, in
the capacity of a shore, cast iron is probably much stronger
than wrought iron; and it has also the advantage of being
less liable to rust, and of expanding somewhat less by heat.
But wherever any transverse strain is unavoidable, wrought
iron possesses some advantages, and it is generally most
convenient for bolts and other fastenings. The kind of
iron called gun metal is decidedly preferred by the most
experienced judges, as combining in the greatest degree
the properties of hardness and toughness ; the white being
considered as too brittle, and the gray as too soft. Dr
Hutton, however, and Mr Jessop, prefer the gray; and
if we allow the strength of the gun metal to be at all com¬
parable to that which Mr Reynolds attributes to it, we
must also acknowledge that a much weaker substance
would be amply sufficient for every practical purpose, and
might deserve to be preferred, if it were found to possess
a greater degree of tenacity.
Question XIV. Of what dimensions ought the several
members of the iron work to be, to give the bridge sufficient
strength ?
See the answers to Questions VII. and XI.
Question XV. Can frames of cast iron be made suffi¬
ciently correct to compose an arch of the form and dimen-
sions shown in the drawings, so as to take an equal bearing
as one frame, the several parts being connected by diagonal
braces, and joined by an iron cement, or other substance ?
Professor Robison considers it as indispensable that the
frames of cast iron should be ground to fit each other;
and a very accurate adjustment of the surface would cer¬
tainly be necessary for the perfect co-operation of every
part of so hard a substance. Probably, indeed, any very
small interstices that might be left would in some mea¬
sure be filled up by degrees, in consequence of the oxi¬
dation of the metal, but scarcely soon enough to assist in
bearing the general thrust upon the first completion of the
bridge. The plan of mortising the frames together is by
no means to be advised, as rendering it very difficult to
adapt the surfaces to each other throughout any consider¬
able part of their extent. They might be connected either,
as in the bridge at Wearmouth, by bars of wrought iron
let into the slides, which might be of extremely moderate
dimensions, or, as in some still more modern fabrics, by
B II I D G E.
361
Bridge.
being wedged into the grooves of cross plates adapted to
receive them, which very effectually secure the co-opera¬
tion of the whole force of the blocks, and which have the
advantage of employing cast iron only.
Question XVI. Instead of casting the ribs in frames of
considerable length and breadth, would it be more advisable
to cast each member of the ribs in separate pieces of consider¬
able lengths, connecting them together by diagonal braces,
both horizontally and vertically ?
No joint can possibly be so strong as a single sound
piece of the same metal; and it is highly desirable that
the curve of pressure should pass through very substantia,
frames or blocks, abutting fully on each other, without any
reliance on lateral joints; but for the upper parts of the
works, single ribs, much lighter than those which form the
true arch, would be sufficiently firm.
Question XVII. Can an iron cement be made which
shall become hard and durable, or can liquid iron be poured
into the joints ?
Mr Reynolds has observed that a cement composed of
iron borings and saline substances will become extreme¬
ly hard; and it is probable that this property depends on
the solidity which is produced by the gradual oxidation
of the iron. It would certainly be injurious to the strength
of the fabric to interpose this cement between perfectly
smooth and solid surfaces, but it might be of advantage to
fill up with it any small interstices unavoidably left be¬
tween the parts. To pour melted iron into the joints
would be utterly impracticable.
Question XVIII. Would lead be better to use in the
whole or any part of the joints ?
Lead is by far too soft to be of the least use, and a sa¬
line cement would be decidedly preferable.
Question XIX. Can any improvement be made in the
plan, so as to render it more substantial and durable, and less
expensive ? And if so, what are these improvements ?
The most necessary alterations appear to be the omis¬
sion of the upper and flatter ribs; the greater strength
and solidity of the lower, made either in the form of blocks
or of frames with diagonals; a curvature more nearly ap¬
proaching to that of the curve of equilibrium ; and a greater
obliquity of the cross braces.
It would be necessary to wedge the whole structure
very firmly together before the removal of the centres ; a
precaution which is still more necessary for stone bridges,
in which a certain portion of soft mortar must inevitably
be employed, in order to enable the stones to bear fully on
each other, and which has been yery properly adopted in
the best modern works. In this manner we may avoid
the inconvenience pointed out by Professor Robison, who
has remarked, that the compressibility of the materials,
hard as they appear, would occasion a reduction of three
inches in the length of the bridge, from the effect of the
lateral thrust, and a consequent fall at the crown of fif¬
teen ; a result which will not be found materially erroneous
if the calculation be repeated from more correct elements,
derived from later experiments and comparisons. For
obviating the disadvantageous effects of such a depression,
which he seems to have supposed unavoidable, as well as
those of a change of temperature, which must in reality
occur, though to a less considerable extent, Professor Ro¬
bison suggested the expedient of a joint to the middle of
the bridge, with an intermediate portion, calculated to
receive the rounded ends of the opposite ribs, somewhat
like an interarticular cartilage; but it is impossible to de¬
vise any kind of joint without limiting the pressure, dur¬
ing the change of form, to a very small portion of the sur¬
faces, which could not bear fully on each other throughout
their extent if any such liberty of motion were allowed,
unless all friction between them were prevented; and a
VOL. v.
similar joint would be required at the abutment, where it Bridge,
would be still more objectionable, as extending to a wider 'w-y'*-'
surface.
The arrangement of the joints between the portions of
the ribs in one or more transverse lines would be a matter
of great indifference. Some have recommended to break
the joints, as is usual in masonry, in order to tie the parts
more firmly together; others to make all the joints conti¬
nuous, as a safer method, on account of the brittleness of
the materials; but if the fabric were well put together,
there would be neither any want of firm connection, nor
any danger of breaking from irregular strains, in whatever
way the joints may be disposed.
Question XX. Upon considering the whole circumstances
of the case, agreeably to the resolutions of the committee, as
stated at the conclusion of their third report, is it your opi¬
nion that an arch of 600 feet in the span, as expressed in
the drawings produced by Messrs Telford and Douglas, or
the same plan, with any improvement you may be so good as
to point out, is practicable and advisable, and capable of being
made a durable edifice ?
The answers that have been returned to this question
are almost universally in the affirmative, though deduced
from very discordant and inconsistent views of the sub¬
ject. The only reasonable doubt relates to the abutments;
and with the precautions which have been already men¬
tioned in the answer to the 11th question, there would be
no insuperable difficulty in making the abutments suffi¬
ciently firm.
Question XXI. Does the estimate communicated here¬
with, according to your judgment, greatly exceed, or fall
short of, the probable expense of executing the plan proposed ?
specifying the general grounds of your opinion.
The estimate amounts to L.262,289, and it has general¬
ly been considered as below the probable expense. The
abutments are set down at L.20,000, but they would very
possibly require five times as much to be properly exe¬
cuted; while some other parts of the work, by a more ju¬
dicious distribution of the forces concerned, might safely
be made so much lighter, as considerably to lessen the
expense of the whole fabric, without any diminution either
of its beauty or of its stability.
Sect. V.—Application of the theory to existing Bridges.
Southwark bridge, the very masterly design of Mr Rennie,
exhibits an excellent specimen of firmness of mutual abut¬
ment in the parts constituting the chief strength of the arch,
which has been shown in this essay to be so essential to the
security of the work, and which the architect had probably
been in a great measure induced to adopt from his practical
experience of the comparative merits of different arrange¬
ments. (Plate CXLIV. fig. 4, 5.)
An act of parliament for the erection of this bridge was
passed in 1811, but it was not begun till 1814, the act having
directed that no operations should be commenced until
L.300,000 out of the required L.400,000 should be raised by
subscription. The subscribers were allowed to receive ten per
cen t. annually on their shares, and the remainder of the receipts
was to accumulate until it should become sufficient to pay off
to the proprietors the double amount of their subscriptions :
after this time the bridge was to remain open without any
toll. The middle arch is 240 feet in span, the side arches 210
feet each. The abutment is of firm masonry, connected by
dowels to prevent its sliding, and resting on gratings of tim¬
ber supported by oblique piles. The piers stand on founda¬
tions nine or ten feet below the present bed of the river,
in order to provide against any alterations which may here¬
after take place in its channel from the operation of vari¬
ous causes; and they are abundantly secured by a flooring
of timber resting on a great number of piles.
2 z
BRIDGE.
Weight of half of the middle arch of Southwark Bridge.
ises. Spandrels. Total.
No. 8 Blocks.
half
t.
62
60
54
51
50
51
25
cwt
18
19
15
3
17
2
12
8 Oblique
Stays.
t. cwt.
2 11
12
13
11
13
13
12
Cross
Frames.
t.
11
10
10
9
cwt.
0
13
2
17
9 15
9 15
cwt.
1
15
2
103
108
87
95
88
48
152
Cornice and palisades      77
Roadway and pavement  650
t.
26
20
32
23
32
24
20
cwt.
4
3
16
14
14
15
7
Covering-plates,
t. cwt.
Ill 17
4
10
6
19
6
12
0
5
0
1 50
728‘2 and—= 50; consequently to?/= 72 x, the
first portion varying as x2, and the second as x*; and the
sum y being 23 = 22’49 + *51, the ordinate at — # or30‘4
Bridge.
feet is 22*49 + X ’51 = 1*41
lb 25b
manner,
have
and, in a similar
any other ordinate may be calculated, so that we
30-2
60*8
91-0
121*6
y. Middle of the Blocks.
1*41 1*40
5*65 5*67
13*02 12*89
23*00 23*00
Whole weight  1,523 0
Springing plate * 
Abutment  11,000 0
Span 240 feet; rise 24 ; depth of the blocks or plates at
the crown 6 feet, at the pier 8 feet.
It is evident from the inspection of this statement of the
weights, that their distribution is by no means capable of
being accurately expressed by any one formula; but it w’ill
be amply sufficient for the determination of the thrust to em¬
ploy the approximation founded on the supposition of a pa¬
rabolic curve (Prop. T.); and if we afterwards wished to
find the effect of any local deviation from the assumed law
of the weight, we might have recourse to the mode of calcu¬
lation exemplified in the answer to the fifth question. But,
in fact, that answer may of itself be considered as sufficient
to show that the effect of a variation of a few tons from the
load appropriate to each part would be wholly unimportant.
We must, therefore, begin by finding the weight of a por¬
tion of the arch corresponding to a quarter of the span ; and
24
the whole angle, of which the tangent is — = *2, being 11°
18£, its sine is *1961: and the angle, of which the sine is
*09805, being 5° 37tj, we have to compute the weight of
678^’ °r 27)1 tllC anSular extent’ beginning from the
middle of the arch ; and this will be 48£§ + 88/^ +
+ (87*6<r) X *7345 = 297 tons. Now the weight of the
covering-plates, cornice, palisades, roadway, and pavement,
is distributed throughout the length, without sensible in¬
equality, making 879 tons, from which the part imme¬
diately above the piers might be deducted; but it will be
safer to retain the whole weight, especially as something
must be allowed for the greater extent of the upper surface
of the wedges. We shall therefore have for the interior
quarter 297 + 439*5 = 736*5 tons, and for the exterior
1523 — 736*5 = 786*5, the difference being fifty tons ; one
sixth of which added to 736*5 gives 744*8 for the reduced
weight, which is to the lateral thrust as the rise to the half
span. But for the rise we must take twenty-three feet,
since the middle of the blocks next to the piers is a foot mere
remote from the intrados than that of the blocks at the
crown; and the true half span, measured from the same
point, will be 4 X 7^7, greater than that of the intrados,
amounting to 121*6. We have therefore 23:121*6 = /45*8:
1
3942 tons, for to, the lateral thrust; and for — ax, 736*5
/rn 1
— — = 728*2 ; whence, -x x being 60*8, a = 11*98, and
O A
r — — — 329 feet, the radius of curvature of the curve of
a
equilibrium at the vertex, while that of the middle of the
blocks is 334. In order to determine the ordinate y, we
have my = ax- + jt, 5x4; but ^ ax for the whole arch is
Hence it appears that the curve of equilibrium nowhere
deviates more than about two inches from the middle of
the blocks, which is less than one fortieth of the whole
depth.
The half weight of the smaller arches is probably about
1300 tons, and their lateral thrust 3500; and, since the
abutment weighs 11,000 tons, the foundation ought to have
3500
an obliquity of
12300
or more than one in four, if it were
intended to stand on the piles without friction ; but in reality
it rises only sixty-six inches in 624, or nearly one in nine;
so that there is an angular difference of one in seven between
the direction of the piles and that of the thrust, which is
probably a deviation of no practical importance.
It remains to be inquired how far the series of masses of
solid iron, constituting the most essential part of the arch,
is well calculated to withstand the utmost changes of tem¬
perature that can possibly occur to it in the severest seasons
(Prop. K.) For this purpose we may take the mean depth
4/i 99
a = 7 feet, h, being 23; then 1 + — = — = 14*14, and
consequently the greatest
, , 16hh 9199 10.0
1 -1 = —= 12*52
15«a 735
actual compression or extension of such a structure is to the
mean change which takes place in the direction of the chord,
as 14*14 to 12*52, or as 1*129 to 1 ; and if, in a long and
severe frost, the temperature varied from 52° to 20°, since
the general dimensions would contract about :~qqq> ^ie ex_
treme parts of the blocks near the abutments would vary
1‘129- of their length; and the modulus M being about
5000
10,000,000 feet, this change would produce a resistance
equivalent to the weight of a column of the same substance
2258 feet high ; that is, to about three tons for each square
inch, diminishing gradually towards the middle of the blocks,
and converted on the other side into an opposite resistance ;
so that this force would be added to the general pressure
below in case of contraction, and above in case of extension.
Now, the lateral thrust is derived from a pressure equivalent
to a column about 329 feet high, of materials weighing 1523
tons, while the blocks themselves weigh 357 ; that is, to a
column equal in section to the blocks, and 1400 feet high;
it will therefore amount to about two tons on each square
inch; consequently such a change of temperature as has
been supposed, will cause the extreme parts of the abutments
to bear a pressure of five tons, where, in the ordinary cir¬
cumstances, they have only to support two.
The ingenious architect proposed to diminish this con¬
tingent inconvenience, by causing the blocks to bear some¬
what more strongly on the abutments at the middle than at
the sides, so as to allow some little latitude of elevation and
depression in the nature of a joint; and, no doubt, this ex¬
pedient would prevent the great inequality of pressure which
might otherwise arise from the alternations of heat and cold.
BRIDGE.
363
Bridge. But it cannot be denied that there must be some waste of
^ ^ strength in such an arrangement, the extreme parts of the
abutments, and of the blocks near them, contributing very
little to the general resistance ; and when we consider the
very accurate adjustment of the equilibrium throughout the
whole structure, we shall be convinced that there was no
necessity for any thing like so great a depth of the solid
blocks, especially near the abutments ; and that the security
would have been amply sufficient if, with the same weight
of metal, they had been made wider in a transverse direc¬
tion, preserving only the form of the exterior ones on each
side, if it had been thought more agreeable to the eye. In car¬
pentry, where there is often a transverse strain, and where
stiffness is frequently required, we generally gain immensely
by throwing much of the substance of our beams into the
depth; but in a bridge perfectly well balanced, there is no
advantage whatever from depth of the blocks. W e only want
enough to secure us against accidental errors of construction,
and against partial loads from extraneous weights; and it is not
probable that either of these causes, in such a bridge, would
ever bring the curve of equilibrium six inches, or even three,
from its natural situation near the middle of the blocks.
We cannot conclude our inquiries into this subject with
a more striking example than by applying the principles of
the theory to the magnificent edifice, by the same judicious
and experienced architect, which now bears the triumphant
appellation of Waterloo Bridge ; a work not less pre-emi¬
nent among the bridges of all ages and countries, than the
event wfiiph it will commemorate is unrivalled in the annals
of ancient or modern history. It consists of nine elliptical
arches, each of 120 feet span, and thirty-five feet rise. The
piers are twenty feet thick, the road twenty-eight feet wide,
besides a foot pavement of seven feet on each side. The
arches and piers are built of large blocks of granite, with
short counter-arches over each pier. The haunches are
filled up, as is usual in the most modern bridges, by span¬
drels, or longitudinal walls of brick, covered with flat stones,
and extending over about half the span of the arch ; the
remainder being merely covered with earth or gravel,
which is also continued over the stones covering the span-,
drels. The hollow spaces between the walls are carefully
closed above, and provided with outlets below, in order to
secure them from becoming receptacles of water, which
would be injurious to the durability of the structure. The
mean specific gravity of the materials is such, that a cubic
yard of the granite weighs exactly two tons, of the brick
work one ton, and of the earth a ton and an eighth. Hence
the weight of the whole may be obtained from the annexed
statement. (Plate CXLY., fig. 1, 2, 3.)
Contents of the materials in half an arch of Waterloo
Bridge, from the middle of the pier to the crown, begin¬
ning from the springing of the arch.
Cubic Feet.
Half of the arch stones,...,..., 25,311
Cubic Feet. Bridge.
Half of the inverted arch  2555
Square spandrel between them  1994
Outside spandrel walls     4374
Spandrels of brick ,..,,..,,,...,4976 (= 2489)
Kirbels of the brick spandrels  1271
Flat stone covers  969
Earth 10,260 (= 5771)
Foot pavement  620
Frieses, E. and W,    1586
Cornice, E. and W ,,...,—   1120
Plinth of balustrade    510
Solid in parapet.,    416
Balusters 72, 151 cwt  102
Coping, E. and W ..,     142
From this statement, and from a consideration of the ar¬
rangement of the materials, exhibited in the plate, we may
infer that the half arch, terminated where the middle line of
the arch-stones enters the pier, is equivalent in weight to
about 34,000 cubic feet of granite ; its inner half contain¬
ing in round numbers 13,000, and its outer 21,000, whence
we have 14,333 for the reduced weight of the quarter arch
(Prop. T.) The extreme ordinate will be about twenty-one
feet; the middle of the blocks being somewhat more than
sixteen feet above the springing of the arch, and the key¬
stone being four feet six inches deep; consequently the hori-
zontal thrust will be expressed by 14,333 x — 40,952
cubic feet, weighing 3033 tons. But I a# being 11667,
and La? ^30, a = 389, and^ = r = 1^_2= 105feet;
2 a 388
while the radius of curvature of the ellipse at the crown is
60 X 60 _ jQg peet# jt ;s obvious, therefore, that the
35
curve of equilibrium will pass everywhere extremely near
to the middle of the blocks, and there can be no apprehen¬
sion of any deficiency in the equilibrium. It is true that,
as it approaches to the piers, it acquires an obliquity of a
few degrees to the joints ; but the disposition to slide would
be abundantly obviated by the friction alone, even if the
joints were not secured by other precautions.
In building the arches the stones were rammed together
with very considerable force, so that, upon the removal of
the centres, none of the arches sunk more than an inch and
a half. In short, the accuracy of the whole execution seems
to have vied with the beauty of the design, and with the
skill of the arrangement, to render the Bridge of Waterloo
a monument of which the metropolis of the British empire
will have abundant reason to be proud for a long series of
successive ages. (T- Y-)
See also the articles Skew, Iron, and Suspension
Bridges.
explanation of the plates.
Plate CXLIII. fig. 1. If AB represent the distance of any two
particles of matter, and BC, DE, FG, the repulsive forces at the dis¬
tances AB, AD, AF, respectively, and BC, DH, FI, the corre¬
sponding cohesive forces, then GI must be ultimately to EH as FB
to BD. (Sect. I. Prop. A.)
Fig. 2. The block will support twice as great a pressure applied
at A as at B. (Prop. B.)
Fig. 3. It is obvious that ABC — ADE — ABC— CFG, III being
= IIK, and IIG = HA , and the difference ABFHA is always equal
to DB x KH. (Prop. C.)
Fig. 4. It is evident that AB is to CD as AE to CE, or as 2 +
a to z. (Prop. E.) It is also obvious that as z or CE is to CD,
so is EF to FG. (Prop. F.)
Fig. 5. Supposing the arch AB to be so loaded in the neighbour¬
hood of C as to require the curve of equilibrium to assume the form
ADCEB, the joints in the neighbourhood of D will be incapable of
resisting the pressure in the direction of the curve CD, and it must
tend to turn on their internal terminations as centres, and to open
externally. (Prop. Y.)
Fig. 6. A, B,C, different steps in the fall of a weak arch. (Prop.Y.)
Fig. 7. Elevation and plan of Messrs Telford and Douglas’s pro¬
posed iron bridges over the Thames. (Sect. IV.)
Fig. 8. Elevation of Mr Burdon’s bridge at Wearmouth. (Sect. IV.)
Fig. 9. Elevation of Mr Darby’s iron bridge at Colebrook Dale.
(Sect. V.)
Fig. 10. Elevation of Mr Telford’s bridge at Buildwas.
364
13 R I
Bridge
II
Bridge-
water.
Figs. 11 and 12. Enlarged views of scrolls.
Fig. 13. Bridge of the Trinity at Florence.
Plate CXLIV. fig. 1. Elevation, of the bridge of the Louvre at
Paris.
Fig. 2. Comparative size of the arches of Blackfriars, Waterloo,
and the new London Bridge.
Fig. 3. Elevation of Vauxhall Bridge.
Fig. 4. Elevation of Southwark Bridge. (Sect. V.)
Fig. 5. Plan of Southwark Bridge. (Sect. V.)
B R I
1!!^' !l!evati0n t'le London Bridge. BrhW.
*g’ ^' Elevation of the new London Bridge. water
big. 8. I lan of the new London Bridge. n
Plate CXLV, fig. !, Eievation of Waterloo Bridge* (Sect. V.) Bridle
1 ig. 2. Plan of VV aterloo Bridge. (Sect. V.) v
Fig. 3. Section of an arch of Waterloo Bridge, showing the
foundations of the piers and the spandrel walls of brick, together
with the centre supporting it. The dotted line represents the direc¬
tion of the curve of equilibrium. (Sect. V.)
Bridge, in Gunnery, the two pieces of timber which go
between the two transoms of a gun-carriage.
The term Flying-bridge is applied to a kind of floating-
bridge constructed of pontoons, casks, or the like, for trans¬
porting an army across a river. It is sometimes anchored in
the middle of the stream, and is so contrived as to be move-
able from one side of the river to the other. See Pontoon.
Bridge, in Music, that part of a stringed instrument over
which the strings are stretched.
BRIDGEND, a market-town in Glamorganshire, Wales,
18 miles W.N.W. of Cardiff. The river Ogmore divides
it into two parts called the Old and New Castle, con¬
nected by two bridges. It has a town-hall, county-hall,
mechanics’ institute, savings-bank, dispensary, &c., and is
the seat of the county elections. The manufacture of flannels
and woollen shawls is successfully conducted here, and there
are numerous coal and iron mines in the vicinity. Market-
day Saturday. The South Wales railway has a station here.
BRIDGENORTH, a parliamentary and municipal
borough and market town of England, in the county of
Salop, on both sides of the Severn, 18 miles S.E. by E. of
Shrewsbury. The river, which is here crossed by a hand¬
some stone bridge of six arches, separates the upper from the
lower town. The former is built on the acclivities and sum¬
mit of a rock rising abruptly from the river to the height of
180 feet. On the summit is the tower of the old castle,
leaning 17 degrees from the perpendicular, two parish
churches, and a large public reservoir. It has a grammar-
school, wdth three exhibitions to Christ Church,' Oxford ;
blue-coat, national, and infant schools, mechanics’ institute,
public library, savings bank, infirmary, dispensary, jail,
theatre, and a considerable number of charities. It has manu¬
factures of carpets, worsted, nails, and tobacco-pipes, and
some trade in agricultural produce by the river. It is go¬
verned by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors,
and returns two members to parliament. Pop. (1851) of
parliamentary borough 7610; of municipal, 6172.
BRIDGEPORT, a seaport-town in the county of Fair-
field, Connecticut, United States, is situated on an arm of
Long Island Sound, 78 miles S.W. of Hartford. It has
extensive manufactures, and a considerable coasting and
fishing trade. The bar at the mouth of the harbour has 13
feet at high water. Bridgeport is connected with the Albany
and Boston railway, and steam-boats ply between it and
New York. Pop. 7538.
BRIDGE-TOWN. See Barbadoes.
BRIDGEWATER, a municipal and parliamentary
borough and seaport in the county of Somerset, 29 miles
S.S.W. of Bristol. It is pleasantly situated in a level and well
wooded country, having on the east the Mendip range, and on
the west the Quantock hills. The town, which is neat and well
built, is situated on both sides of the Parret, here crossed by
a handsome iron bridge. It has an ancient Gothic church
with a spire 174 feet in height, a town-hall, jail, market¬
place, savings-bank, infirmary, free grammar-school, other
endowed schools, and some alms-houses. The river is na¬
vigable for vessels of 700 tons up to the town. In 1849, 2838
vessels of 133,021 tons entered, and 1274 vessels of 56,959
tons cleared at the port; and at the end of that year, 127 ves¬
sels of 10,231 tons belonged to the port. The customs-duties
were L.10,500. Chief imports—grain, coals, wine, hemp,
tallow, and timber; exports—agricultural produce and bath-
bricks, which last constitute the staple trade of the town.
Market-days, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The town
is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen coun¬
cillors, and returns two members to parliament. Pop. (1851)
10,317. Admiral Blake was born here in 1599.
Bridgewater, Francis Egerton, Duke of, who has some¬
times been styled “the Father of British Inland Naviga¬
tion,” was born in the year 1736. An account of his na¬
vigable canal, which (with the exception of the Sankey canal)
was the first great undertaking of the kind executed in Great
Britain in modern times, will be found in this work under
the biographical notice of Brindley, the able engineer to
whose skill its construction was committed. The untiring
perseverance displayed by the Duke in surmounting the va¬
rious difficulties that retarded the accomplishment of his
project, together with the pecuniary restrictions he imposed
on himself in order to supply the necessary capital, afford
an instructive example of that energy and self-denial on
which the success of great undertakings so essentially de¬
pends. His Grace, though a steady supporter of Mr Pitt’s
administration, never took any prominent part in politics.
He died March 8. 1803.
Bridgewater Treatises. The Right Hon. and Rev.
Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, who died in 1829, de¬
vised by will the sum of L.8000, at the disposal of the presi¬
dent of the London Royal Society, to be paid to the author or
authors selected by the president, to write and publish 1000
copies of a treatise “ On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness
of God, as manifested in the Creation.” Mr Davies Gilbert,
who then filled the office, selected eight individuals, each to
undertake a branch of this subject, and each to receive
L.1000 as his reward, together with any benefit that might
accrue from the sale of his work, according to the will of the
testator. These treatises were published as follows:—1.
“ The Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intel¬
lectual Condition of Man ;” by the Rev. Thomas Chalmers,
D.D. 2. “ The Adaptation of External Nature to the Physi¬
cal Condition of Man;” by John Kidd, M.D. 3. “ Astro-
nomyand General Physics considered with reference toNatu-
ral Theology ;” by the Rev. William Whewell, D.D. 4.“ The
Hand, its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as evincing De¬
sign;” by Sir Charles Bell. 5. “Animal and Vegetable Phy¬
siology considered with reference to Natural Theology;”
by Peter Mark Roget. 6. “ Geology and Mineralogy con¬
sidered with reference to Natural Theology;” by the Rev.
William Buckland, D.D. 7. “ The Habits and Instincts of
Animals with reference to Natural Theology;” by the Rev.
William Kirby. 8. “ Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Func¬
tion of Digestion, considered with reference to Natural
Theology;” by William Prout, M.D. All these are works
of great though unequal merit, alike creditable to their
authors, and to the intentions of the noble testator.
BRIDLE (Saxon bridl, or bridel), the instrument by
which a horse is guided and restrained, consisting of a head-
jL
B R I
B R I
365
Bridling- stall, a bit and reins, with other appendages, according to
ton its particular form and uses.
II Pelethronius, king of the Lapithae, according to Pliny,
Bne£, was the inventor of the bridle and saddle; and Virgil ascribes
the invention to the Lapithae, whom he styles Pelethronii,
from Pelethronium, a mountain in Thessaly, where horses
were first broken.
Horses were originally managed only with a rope or a
switch, and by the sound of the voice. This was the practice
of the Numidians, Getulians, Libyans, and Massilians. The
Roman youth were also taught to ride without bridles, as an
exercise in the manege. On Trajan’s column soldiers are
represented riding on horseback at full speed without bridles.
BRIDLINGTON, or Burlington, a market-town of
England, in the east riding of York, 39 miles E.N.E. of
York, and about a mile from the coast. It consists chiefly
of one long narrow street of irregularly built houses. The
priory erected in the early part of the twelfth century, and
now used for the parish church, is a magnificent specimen
of ecclesiastical architecture, and has recently been in course
of restoration. It has also a town-hall, corn-exchange, tem¬
perance hall, mechanics’ institute, two public subscription
libraries, and grammar, national, and endowed schools. Brid¬
lington has an active trade in corn, malt, and bones for ma¬
nure ; also several breweries, and a hat manufactory. Pop.
(1851), including Bridlington Quay, 2432.
Bridlington Quay is situated on the coast about a mile
from Bridlington, and is much frequented during the bathing
season. The harbour is inclosed by two substantial stone
piers; and there is good anchorage in the bay. Besides
hot and cold baths, it possesses a chalybeate spring that is
much esteemed for its medicinal properties.
BRIDPORT, a parliamentary and municipal borough and
market-town in the county of Dorset, 13 miles W. by N. from
Dorchester, between two branches of the river Brit, a little
above their confluence. It consists of three wide and well-
paved streets, and has a town-hall, mechanics’ institute, with
reading and lecture rooms, market-house, jail, custom-house,
savings-bank, national and infant schools, alms-houses, and
several charities, with manufactures of sailcloth, cordage,
twine, fishing-nets, &c. The parish church is an ancient
cruciform edifice in the perpendicular style. The harbour,
which lies about a mile south of the town, has by extensive
improvements been rendered safe, and accessible to vessels
of 250 tons burden. In 1849, 279 vessels of 19,405 tons
entered, 149 vessels of 7795 tons cleared, and 20 vessels of
2428 tons belonged to the port. The customs-duties that
year amounted to L.2821. Bridport is governed by a mayor,
six aldermen, and eighteen councillors,and returns two mem¬
bers to parliament. Pop. (1851) 7566.
BRIEF, in Law, an abridgment of the client’s case, made
out for the instruction of counsel on a trial at law; wherein
the case of the litigant is to be briefly but fully stated.
Brief, or Brieve, in Scots Law, is generally applicable
as a preliminary step in the authentication of genealogical
facts, or those which relate to descent and inheritance. It
may be briefly defined as a writ issued from the Chancery,
directing the proper judicial officer to empanel a jury to find
a verdict in the fact.
Apostolical Briefs, letters which the pope despatches to
princes or other magistrates, relating to any public affair.
A brief is distinguished from a bull in being more concise,
written usually on paper, sealed with red wax, and impressed
with the seal of the fisherman, or St Peter in a boat. A
bull is more ample, is written on parchment, and sealed
with lead or green wax. (Ciampini, Dissertatio de Abbrev.
Munere, cap. iii.)
BRIEG, the capital of a circle of the same name in the
Prussian province of Silesia, and government of Breslau, is
situated on the left bank of the Oder, and on the Breslau
and Oppeln railway, 27 miles S.E. of the former. It is well
built, and has a castle (the residence of the old counts of
Brieg), a lunatic asylum, a gymnasium with a good library,
and several churches and hospitals. Its fortifications were de¬
stroyed by the French in 1807. Brieg carries on a con¬
siderable trade, its chief manufactures being linen, cotton,
and woollen goods, hats, &c. Important cattle-markets are
held here. Pop. (1849) of town 12,115, of circle 46,976.
BRIEL, or Brielle, a fortified seaport-town of Hol¬
land, province of South Holland, and capital of an arron-
dissement of the same name, stands on the north side of the
island of Voorne, near the mouth of the Maese, 14 miles
west of Rotterdam. Lat. 51. 54. 11. N. Long. 4. 9. 51. E.
The town is well built and strongly fortified, having many
military magazines, and a good harbour. It is remarkable
in history as having been the first place captured in the
struggle that resulted in the independence of Holland.
Admiral Van Tromp was born here. Pop. 5000, princi¬
pally engaged as fishermen and pilots.
BRIENNE LE CHATEAU, a town of France, de¬
partment of Aube, 14 miles N.W. of Bar-sur-Aube. Pop.
2000. It has a fine castle, but is chiefly celebrated as be¬
ing the place where Napoleon received the rudiments of his
military education, and where in 1814 a bloody battle was
fought between the French and the allied forces of Russia
and Prussia.
Uriel
:l!
Brigadier.
BRIEUC, St, a seaport-town of France, capital of the
department of C6tes-du-Nord, on the right bank of the
Gouet, near its mouth in the bay of St Brieuc. Lat. 48. 31.
1. N. Long 2. 45. 6. W. The cathedral is a fine Gothic
edifice of the thirteenth century. It has also a town-hall,
hospital, theatre, a handsome stone bridge of three arches
over the river, communal college, and public library. St
Brieuc is the seat of a bishopric, and of tribunals of commerce
and primary jurisdiction. Its port at the village of Ligue, at
the mouth of the river, has a fine quay, and is accessible to
vt#sels of from 300 to 400 tons. Pop. 9398.
BRIG (from brigantine, a kind of undecked vessel), a
decked vessel with two masts and a boom mainsail, being
otherwise square-rigged nearly like the mainmast and fore¬
mast of a ship. The term, however, is variously applied by
the mariners of different countries.
BRIGADE, the union of several squadrons or battalions
under the command of a colonel, who has also the rank of
brigadier-general. A brigade of artillery consists of a cer¬
tain number of cannon or field-pieces, with the necessary
munitions, stores, and gunners. The soldiers attached to
these guns are also collectively denominated a brigade, and
are under the command of a superior officer of artillery. A
brigade of cavalry consists of different regiments, making
together eight or ten squadrons, and commanded by a colo¬
nel of cavalry, who has the rank of brigadier-general in the
army. A brigade of dragoons consists of different regi¬
ments of dragoons, making together eight squadrons or more,
and commanded by a colonel of dragoons, wdio has also the
rank of brigadier-general in the army. A brigade of in¬
fantry consists of two or more regiments of foot, making
together four, five, six, eight, or more battalions, commanded
by a colonel of foot, who has the rank of brigadier-general
in the army. And, generally, according to the most modern
arrangement of troops, two or more regiments constitute a
brigade, two or more brigades a division, two or more divi¬
sions a corps d’armee, and two or more corps d’armee a
grand army.
BiiiGADE-Major, an officer appointed by the brigadier to
assist him in the management of his brigade.
BRIGADIER, a military officer, next in rank above a
colonel, and who is intrusted with the command of a brigade.
In Great Britain this rank is in abeyance during peace, but
revived in actual service in the field. Every brigadier
marches at the head of his brigade upon duty. The briga¬
dier des armees of the French service corresponds to our
366 B R 1
Brigandine brigadier-general, and, like him, has the command of a bri-
Jl gade of cavalry, dragoons, or infantry.
v Brigg3-^ BRIGANDINE, a coat of mail, a kind of ancient de-
fensive armour, consisting of thin jointed scales of plate,
pliant and easy to the body.
BRIGANTES, a powerful people of ancient Britain,
inhabiting the country between the rivers Humberand Tyne.
Eboracum (York) was their capital.
There was also a tribe of Brigantes in the S.E. of
Hibernia.
BRIGANTII, a tribe of the Yindelici, on the Lacus
Brigantinus. They were noted robbers: Hence the term
brigands.
BRIGG, or Glandfokd Brigg, a market-town, parish
of Wrawby, county of Lincoln, 156 miles from London, on
the river Ancolme, which is navigable to the Humber. It
has a grammar-school, and some trade in corn, timber, coal,
and rabbit-skins. Market-day Thursday. Pop. (1851) 3097.
BRIGGS, Henry, one of the greatest mathematicians
of the sixteenth century, was born in 1556 at Warley Wood,
near Halifax in Yorkshire. He studied at Oxford, where
in 1592 he was appointed examiner and lecturer in mathe¬
matics ; soon afterwards reader of the physical lecture
founded by Dr Linacre ; and in 1596, first professor of
geometry in Gresham College. In 1609 he contracted
with Usher, afterwards archbishop of Armagh, an intimacy
which was kept up chiefly by letters, two of which, written
by the subject of this notice, are still extant. In one of
these letters, dated in August 1610, he tells his friend he
was engaged on the subject of eclipses ; and in the other,
dated in March 1615, he acquaints him with his being
wholly employed about the noble invention of logarithms,
then lately discovered, and in the improvement of which he
had afterwards a large share. In his lectures at Gresham
College, he proposed the alteration of the scale of logarithms,
from the hyperbolic form which Napier had given them, to
that in which unity is assumed as the logarithm of the ratio
of ten to one ; and soon afterwards he wrote to the inventor
to make the same proposal to himself. In 1616 Briggs paid
a visit to Napier at Edinburgh, in order to confer with that
eminent person respecting the suggested change ; and next
year he repeated his visit for a similar purpose. During
these conferences the alteration proposed by Briggs was
agreed upon; and on the return of the latter from his second
visit in 1617, he accordingly published the first chiliad of
his logarithms. In 1619 he was appointed Savilian pro¬
fessor of geometry at Oxford, and resigned his professor¬
ship of Gresham College on the 25th of July 1620. Soon
after his settlement at Oxford he was incorporated master
of arts in that university, where he continued a laborious
and studious life, employed partly in discharging the duties
of his office, and partly in the computation of logarithms
and in other useful works. In 1622 he published a small
tract on the “ North-west Passage to the South Seas,
through the continent of Virginia and Hudson’s Bay;” and
in 1624 he printed at London his Arithmetica Logarith-
rnica, in folio, a work containing the logarithms of thirty
thousand natural numbers to fourteen places of figures be¬
sides the index. He also lived to complete a table of loga¬
rithmic sines and tangents for the hundredth part of every
degree to fourteen places of figures besides the index, with
a table of natural sines to fifteen places, and the tangents
and secants for the same to ten places ; all of which were
printed at Gouda in 1631, and published in 1633, under the
title of Trigonometria Britannica. In the construction of
these works, the author, besides immense labour and appli¬
cation, displayed great powers of genius and invention ; and
in his investigations may be detected the germs of disco¬
veries in mathematics which are generally considered as of
later invention, namely, the binomial theorem, the differen¬
tial method and construction of tables by differences, the
B R I
interpolation by differences, together with angular sections, Briggs
and several other things of scarcely inferior importance. II
Mr Briggs terminated his laborious and useful Ijfe on the Brighton,|
26th of January 1630, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.
Dr Smith gives him the character of being a man of great
probity, a contemner of riches, and contented with his own
station, preferring a studious retirement to all the splendid
circumstances of life.
His works are, 1. A Table to find the Height of the Pole, the
Magnetical Declination being given, London, 1602, 4to; 2. Tables
for the Improvement of Navigation, printed in the second edition
of Edward Wright’s treatise entitled “ Certain Errors in Naviga¬
tion detected and corrected,” London, 1610, 4to ; 3, A Description
of an Instrumental Table to find the part proportional, devised by
Mr Edward Wright, London, 1616 and 1618, l^mo; 4. Logarithm
morum Ohilias prima, London, 1617, 8vo; 5. Lucubrationes et An-
notationes in opera posthuma J. Neperi, Edinburgh, 1619, 4to; 6.
Euclidis Elementorum VI. libri priores, London, 1620, folio; 7. A
Treatise on the North-west Passage to the South Sea, London, 1622,
4to, reprinted in Purcbas’s Pilgrims, vol. iii.p. 852 ; 8. Arithmetica
Logarithmica, London, 1624, folio ; 9. Trigonometria Britannica,
Goudae, 1663, folio; 10. Two Letters to Archbishop Usher; 11.
Mathematica ab Antiquis minus cognita; and some other works, as
his Commentaries on the Geometry of Peter Ramus, and Remarks
on the Treatise of Longomontanus respecting the quadrature of the
Circle, which have not been published.
Briggs, William, an eminent physician, born at Norwich
about 1650. He studied at the university of Cambridge ;
and then went to France, where he attended the lectures of
the celebrated anatomist Vieussens at Montpellier. After
his return he published his Ophthalmographia, in 1676.
The year following he was created doctor of medicine at
Cambridge, and soon after wras made fellow of the College
of Physicians at London. In 1682 he resigned his fellow¬
ship in favour of his brother ; and the same year his Theory
of Vision was published by Hooke. The ensuing year he
sent to the Royal Society a continuation of that discourse,
which was published in their Transactions ; and the same
year he was appointed by Charles II. physician to St
Thomas’s Hospital. In 1684 he communicated to the Royal
Society two remarkable cases relating to vision, which were
likewise printed in their Transactions ; and in 1685 he pub¬
lished a Latin version of his Theory of Vision, at the desire
of his illustrious triend Isaac Newton, with a recommenda¬
tory epistle from that philosopher prefixed to it. He was
afterwards appointed physician in ordinary to King William,
and continued in great esteem for professional skill till his
death, which took place in September 1704.
BRIGHTON (formerly Brighthelmstone), a parliament¬
ary borough, seaport, and watering-place of England, county
of Sussex, on the English Channel, 50 miles south of London;
Lat. 50. 50. N. Long. 0. 8. W. It is situated between and
on the slopes of two ranges of chalk hills. It has a sea¬
front of three miles in length, with a pavement and car¬
riage road of great width, flanked by houses of a superior
class, rendering it undoubtedly the finest marine promenade
in the kingdom.
Brighton is noted for the salubrity of its climate.
In 1750 it was only a small fishing village, with but one
church. It owes its rise in the first instance to its being the
chosen residence of George IV. when Prince of Wales.
At the census of 1801 its population wras 7339; in 1841,
48,567 ; and in 1851 it was 69,673, when the number of in¬
habited houses amounted to 10.843. It has returned two
members to Parliament since 1832.
The salubrity of the climate has rendered Brighton a fa¬
vourite place for education, and there are accordingly up¬
wards of 250 schools, many of them ot a high degree of
excellence. A college similar to those of Eton and Har¬
row has been lately established.
The town has a good hospital, two dispensaries, and nu¬
merous societies and institutions for the relief of suffering
and distress, as well as for religious and educational purposes.
B R I
B R I
367
It has a literary and scientific society, an athenaeum, 1554. The success of his elder brother Matthew, in the Brilliant
chiefly designed for young men engaged in business, and Vatican, induced him to repair to Home. Paul far sur- Br.nd
a mechanics’ institution, all well supported. There are no passed his brother, and on his death he succeeded to Ins v
public buildings of much beauty, but the Royal Pavilion pension and employments. He painted landscapes with a
lately purchased by the town from the Commissioners of depth of chiar-oscuro then little practised in Italy; and in-
Woods and Forests for L.53,0Q0 deserves special notice, traduced into them figures wrell drawn and finely coloured,
from its unique and fantastic appearance. It was built by Many of his pictures are extant in Italy. One of his best
George IV,, then Prince of Wales—was commenced in compositions is the martyrdom of St Clement, in the Sala
1784,& completed in 1787, and subsequently enlarged in Clementina of the Vatican. He died at Rome in 1G2G.
1802 and 1817. It has a frontage to the east of 300 feet, (Lanzi, Stoi'. P.) _
The principal rooms are, the Chinese gallery, 162 feet long, BRILLIAN1, bright or sparkling. The word, in a
and 17 feet wide ; dining-room, 60 feet long, 42 feet wide, substantive form, is used to denote a fine diamond w hich
and 45 feet high; the saloon, 55 feet long and 30 feet has been rendered more lustrous by being cut with a flat
wide ; two drawing-rooms, each 50 feet long and 20 feet surface, and in angles below, so as to lefiact the light. See
w'ide ; and a music-room, 62 feet long, 42 wide, and 41 high. Diamond. _
Every room has been gorgeously decorated in Eastern style; BRIM, the rim or border of anything, especially of such
and the whole suite, which is used for balls, assemblies, &c., vessels as have a round shape. 1 he use of the brims of
presents an aspect at once singular and effective. vessels is to prevent liquors, when poured out, horn imining
The royal stabling, now forming part of the town pro- down the side of the vessel. . .
perty, is one of the most magnificent piles ever erected for BRINDISI (the ancient Brundusium), a fortified city
such a purpose in Europe. It has the form of an octagon and seaport of Naples, in the province of Otranto, is^situated
without, and a circle within, and is lighted by a glazed dome at the head of a bay of the Adriatic, m Lat. 40. 3/. oO. N.
with a diameter only 20 feet less than that of the dome of Long. 17. 58. 32. E. Brundusium was early a place o
St Paul’s Cathedral, London. great importance, and was the usual port of communication
The old parish church stands on the summit of a hill, and with Greece and the East. It was at first go veined by its
was formerly used as a sea beacon. It is at present (1854) own kings, but was conquered and colonized by the Romans
undergoing extensive repairs. There are 15 other churches b.c. 245. Virgil died here b.c. 19. The modern town is
and chapels of ease belonging to the Established church, encircled by extensive walls, but the inclosed space is not
and 21 dissenting chapels of various denominations. above half occupied. The streets are narrow and crooked.
The suspension chain pier, constructed by Captain Sir and the houses generally in a ruinous state. 1 he decay of
Samuel Brown, R.N., at an expense of L.30,000, is 1134 this city arose principally from the entrance to its inner
feet in length, extending into the sea 1034 feet. It w'as harbour being filled up about the fifteenth century , to
commenced in October 1822, and opened to the public in remedy which, attempts have recently been made. I he
November 1823. outer harbour is deep and capacious, aftording good anchor-
The sea-wall, which protects the whole eastern part of age. Pop. 6300.
Brighton, is 60 feet in height, and having a terrace raised BRINDLEY, James, a man celebrated for mechanical
15 feet from the beach, there is a sheltered walk resembling inventions, and particularly skilful in planning and conduct-
in temperature the undercliff of the Isle of Wight. There ing inland navigation, was born in 1716, at funstead in
is a chalybeate spring near the town, and the German Derbyshire. Through the mismanagement of his fathei, his
waters are successfully imitated at the Spa. The cavalry education was totally neglected; and at seventeen he bonne
and infantry barracks have accommodation for above 1000 himself apprentice to a mill-wright, near Macclesfield in
men- Cheshire. After completing his apprenticeship, he began the
Since 1825, above L.200,000 have been expended in im- world on his own account, and by various inventions and con-
proving and embellishing the town. trivances carried the business of the mill-wright to a degree
BRIGITTINS, or Bridgetins, a religious order founded of perfection which it had not previously attained. His fame
by St Brigitta, or Birgit (Anglice, Bridget), a Swedish vision- as an ingenious mechanic spreading widely, his genius was
ary of the fourteenth century, whom Fabricius represents as no longer confined to the business of his profession. In 1 t52
the daughter of King Birgenes, legislator of Upland. The he erected a very extraordinary water-engine at Clifton in
Brigittins are sometimes called the Order of St Saviour, from Lancashire, for the purpose of draining coal mines , anc in
their pretending that Christ himself dictated to St Brigitta 1755 he was employed to execute the larger wheels oi a^
the rules and constitutions observed by them. In the main, the new silk-mill at Congleton in Cheshire, i he potteries of
rule is the same as that of St Augustin, with certain additions. Staffordshire were also about this time indebted to him for
This order spread considerably through Sweden, Germany, several valuable additions to their mills for grinding flint-
the Netherlands, and other parts. In England we read but stones. In 1756, he undertook to erect a steam-engine
of one monastery of Brigittins, which was built by Henry upon anew plan, near Newcastle-under-Lioe ; and it is be-
V. in 1415, opposite to Richmond, and is now called Sion lieved that he would have brought this engine to a great
House. The revenues amounted to L.1495 per annum. degree of perfection, if some interested engineers had not
BRIGNOLES, the capital of an arrondissement of the opposed him. t, t xr
same name in the department of Var, France, is situated in His attention, however, was soon after called oft to another
a fertile and pleasant valley on the right bank of the Calami, object, which in its consequences has proved of liigh import-
22 miles N.N.E. of Toulon. It is neat and well built, and ance to trade and commerce ; namely, the projecting and
has a magnificent fountain, public library, normal school, executing of artificial canals. The Duke of Bridgewater,
some manufactures of silk filatures and leather, and an ac- having at Worsley, about seven miles from Manchester, a
tive trade in wines, brandy, liqueurs, and excellent prunes, large estate abounding with coal, which had hitherto lain
Pop. (1851) of town 5581, of arrondissement 68,664. useless because of the expense of land-carriage, perceived
BRIHUEGA, a town of Spain, province of Guadalajara, the necessity of constructing a canal from Worsley to Man-
situated among hills on the right bank of the river Tajuna, Chester. Brindley was consulted on the mattei ; and having
20 miles E.N.E. of Guadalajara. Pop. 4464. Here Yen- declared the scheme practicable, an act for this purpose was
dome, with a force immensely superior, defeated Stanhope, obtained in 1154 and 1 /58. But as it was afteiwaids dis-
Dec. 9. 1710. covered that the navigation would be more beneficial if car-
BRIL, Paul, a Flemish painter, born at Antwerp in ried over the river Irwell to Manchester, another act was
368
B R I
B R I
Brin-
villiers
II
Brisson.
obtained to vary the course of the canal agreeably to the
new plan, and likewise to extend a side branch to Long¬
ford Bridge in Stretford. Brindley, in the mean time, had
begun these great works, the first of the kind ever at¬
tempted in England with navigable subterraneous tunnels
and elevated aqueducts ; and, in order to preserve the level
of the water, and free it from the usual obstructions of locks,
he carried the canal over rivers and many large and deep
valleys. When it was completed as far as Barton, where the
Irwell is navigable for large vessels, he proposed to carry
it over that river by an aqueduct of thirty-nine feet above
the surface of the water ; and though this project was treated
as wild and chimerical, yet, supported by his noble patron,
he began his work in September 1760, and the first boat
sailed over it in July 1761.
The success of the Duke of Bridgew ater’s undertakings
encouraged a number of gentlemen and manufacturers in
Staffordshire to revive the idea of a canal navigation through
that country, and Brindley was therefore engaged to make
a survey from the Trent to the Mersey. This canal was
begun in 1766, conducted under Brindley’s direction as long
as he lived, and finished after his death by his brother-in-
law Mr Flemshall in May 1777. The proprietors called it
the Canal from the Trent to the Mersey ; but the engineer,
more emphatically, the Grand Trunk Navigation, on ac¬
count of the numerous branches, which, as he justly sup¬
posed, would be every way extended from it. (See the ar¬
ticle Navigation, Inland.) The scheme of this inland
navigation had employed the thoughts of the ingenious part
of the community for upwards of twenty years, and some
surveys had been made ; but Harecastle Hill, through which
the tunnel is constructed, could neither be avoided nor over¬
come by any expedient which the most able engineers could
devise. It was Brindley alone who surmounted this, and
other difficulties arising from the variety of strata and quick¬
sands, which no one but himself would have attempted to
conquer.
Brindley died at Turnhurst in Staffordshire, September
27.1772, in his fifty-sixth year. He is said to have shortened
his days by too intense application, and to have brought on a
hectic fever, which continued in his system for some years
before it finally cut him off. He never relaxed his labours,
nor indulged in the common diversions of life ; and though
once prevailed on to see a play in London, yet he declared
that he would on no account be present at another, because
it so disturbed his ideas for several days after as to render
him unfit for business. When any extraordinary difficulty
occurred to him in the execution of his works, he generally
retired to bed, and has been known to lie there one, two, or
three days, till he had surmounted it. Lie would then get
up and execute his design without drawing or model; for
his memory was so powerful as to enable him to dispense
with notes or memoranda of any kind.
BRIN VILLIERS, Marchioness of, a woman notorious
for the enormity of her crimes, in the time of Louis XIV.
An account of the practices of this arch-poisoner is given
under the head Aqua Tofana.
BRIOUDE, a town of France, in the department of
Haute Loire, capital of an arrondissement of the same name,
is situated on the left bank of the Allier, 30 miles N.W. of
Puy. The town is ill built, but has a fine old Gothic church,
a college, public library, &c. At Old Brioude, about 3 miles
S.S.E., are the remains of a bridge over the Allier, which
consisted of a single arch 88 feet high, and 206 feet in span.
This fell in 1822 ; but a new bridge of one arch, 182 feet in
span, was built in 1845. Pop. (1851) of town 4635, of arron¬
dissement 83,024.
BRISSON, Mathurin Jacques, a French zoologist and
natural philosopher, was born at Fontenay-le-Comte, 3d
April 1723. He was originally intended for the church, but
he had acquired at an early age a taste for natural history,
which was particularly encouraged by the advantage that Brisson.
he enjoyed of passing his holidays with the justly-celebi’ated
Reaumur, who had an estate near Fontenay. At the age of
twenty-four he had made great progress in his theological
studies, and had fully qualified himself for the rank of a sub¬
deacon ; but his courage failed him at the time appointed
for taking orders, and he then determined to confine himself
to the study of the physical sciences. Reaumur had the di¬
rection of the chemical laboratory of the Academy of Sciences,
and had given up the salary attached to it to several young
men in succession, whom he appointed as his assistants, and
of whom Pitot and Nollet became afterwards the most dis¬
tinguished. He now chose Brisson for the situation, which
served him, as it had done his predecessors, rather as a step
in his advancement with respect to general science, than in
enabling him to pursue any objects more immediately che¬
mical ; and he followed his passion in attaching himself al¬
most exclusively to natural history. The collection of Reau¬
mur furnished him with ample materials for his studies, and
with the principal subjects described in his works on the Ani¬
mal Kingdom. The first of these, published in 1756,
contained quadrupeds and cetaceous animals. It consists
of simple descriptions of the different species, together
with synonyms in various languages, more in the nature of a
prodromus than of a complete history. His Ornithologie
appeared in 1760, forming six volumes, and containing a
number -of well-executed plates. But upon Reaumur’s
death, the collection having been added to the royal cabinet,
Messrs Buffon and Daubenton, the directors of that cabinet,
not affording him all the accommodations that he expected,
he discontinned the work, and renounced the study of na¬
tural history in favour of natural philosophy.
M. Brisson had been chosen a member of the Academy
of Sciences in 1759 : he soon afterwards associated himself
with the Abbe Nollet in delivering lectures on experimental
physics, and obtained the reversion of his appointments of
professor in the college of Navarre, and instructor of the
royal family in natural philosophy and natural history. The
subject of electricity was at this time warmly debated be¬
tween Nollet and Franklin ; and M. Brisson had a difficult
task to perform, in discussing the merits of a mistaken friend
and an overbearing opponent; but, in fact, this department
of science was at that time too little understood to make it
disgraceful for Nollet to be in error with respect to the utility
of conductors, or for Brisson to remain neutral upon this
and other similar questions. He seems, however, by no
means to have adhered to the character of neutrality in his
anonymous Translation of Priestley’s History of Electricity,
published in 1771, and accompanied by notes, which exhi¬
bit a spirit of acrimonious criticism, not at all calculated to
enhance the merit of the work which he wished to introduce
to the notice of his countrymen. He also attempted, in an
Essay on Waterspouts, published in the Memoirs of the
academy, to explain a variety of electrical phenomena, by
means of the different currents of fluid imagined by Nollet,
but certainly with very little success.
He afterwards undertook a course of experiments on the
Specific Gravity of Alcohol and Water, mixed in different
proportions, which led him to a conjecture, at that time
somewhat singular, that water was not a homogeneous sub¬
stance. He assisted M. Trudaine and other observers in
the experiments which they made on Heat and Light with
the powerful lens of Berniere ; and, in conjunction with M.
Cadet, he endeavoured to disprove the opinion of Beccaria,
that electricity has a power of reviving the metallic oxides.
He also made experiments on the refractive powers of fluids
which might be substituted for flint-glass in the object-
glasses of telescopes; on the utility of different kinds of
steel for magnetical purposes ; and on the mode of renewal
of the shells of some species of snails.
In 1772, M. Brisson published a memoir on the Specific
B R I
Brissot. Gravities of Metals, a subject which, in all its extent, occu-
pied a great portion of his attention during twenty years of
his life. The results of his experiments on a great variety
of substances were collected into a single volume of Tables
of Specific Gravities, which was published in 1787. It was
principally for the use of the students who attended his lec¬
tures that he published his Traite de Physique and his
Dictionnaire, both of them containing elementary and po¬
pular information, rather calculated exclusively for the im¬
mediate purpose which they were intended to serve, than
for being of permanent utility in the promotion of the
sciences.. At a late period of his life he renewed his atten¬
tion to the subject of chemistry, when the discoveries of his
junior contemporaries had given greater certainty and pre¬
cision to its laws; and his last work was an Elementary
Treatise on that science, intended for the use of his pupils
in the central school. (t. y.)
BRISSOT, Pierre, a very celebrated French physician,
born at Fontenay-le-Comte, in Poitou, in 1478. After
taking his doctor’s degree at Paris, he bent his thoughts on
reforming physic, by restoring the precepts of Hippocrates
and Galen, and exploding the maxims of the Arabians; for
which purpose he publicly explained Galen’s works, instead
of those of Avicenna, Rhases, and Mesve. He afterwards
resolved to travel, to acquire a knowledge of plants; and
going to Portugal, he practised physic in the city of Evora.
His new method of bleeding in pleurisies, on the side where
the pleurisy was situated, occasioned a memorable contro¬
versy among the Portuguese physicians, and was brought
before the university of Salamanca, which at last gave
judgment, that the opinion maintained by Brissot was the
pure doctrine of Galen. The partisans of Denis, his op¬
ponent, appealed in 1529 to the emperor, to prevent the prac¬
tice, as being fraught with dangerous consequences ; but in
consequence of the death of the eldest son of Charles III.duke
of Savoy, from a pleurisy at this very time, after having been
bled on the opposite side, the prosecution dropped. Brissot
died at Lisbon in 1522. He wrote an apology for his prac¬
tice, which was published at Paris, in 8vo, in 1525, by his
friend Antonio Luceas. Renatus Moreau printed a new
edition at Paris in 1622, and annexed to it a treatise entitled
]Je Sanguinis Missions in Pleuritide, together with a life
of Brissot.
Brissot de Warville, Jean Pierre, the chief of the Bris-
sotine or pure republican party in France during the early
stages of the revolution of 1789, was born at Chartres, Jan.
14.1754. His father, who was a pastry-cook, gave his son
a liberal education, and Brissot became an author when he
had scarcely left college. The boldness of his writings
against the inequality of ranks excited the displeasure of the
government, and subjected him to a prosecution and im¬
prisonment in the Bastile.
On regaining his liberty he visited England, and endea¬
voured, though unsuccessfully, to maintain himself in Lon¬
don by his literary talents. He then returned to France ;
and having again rendered himself obnoxious to the govern¬
ment by an attack on the administration of the Archbishop
of Sens, he escaped a second imprisonment by a journey to
Holland. In the beginning of 1788 he repaired to America;
but on the approach of the revolution he returned to Paris.
He commenced his revolutionary career in 1789, by the
publication of some pamphlets, and particularly of a journal
entitled Le Patriate Frangois. He belonged to the Repre¬
sentation des Communes, which was formed in the capital
a short time previous to the memorable 14th of July. On
the storming of the Bastile, the keys were deposited with
him. He was elected president of the Jacobin Club ; and,
in consequence of his zeal and activity in the revolutionary
cause, he was appointed president of the Comite des Re-
cherches, which served as the model of all those similar
committees which were afterwards successively formed. On
YOL. V.
B R I ' 369
the flight of the royal family in 1791, Brissot, in concert Bristles
with the Chevalier de Laclos, drew up the famous petition jJrigtoj
of the Champ de Mars. At this period the republican fac- L ^ ;
tion began to assume a consistent form, and to utter their
sentiments with freedom and boldness. Brissot, who had
been one of its first and most zealous apostles, was returned
to the National Assembly, in spite of the opposition of the
court, to which he had become extremely formidable; and
from this time he displayed an implacable enmity to the
king. The Assembly attributing to him talents which he
does not appear to have possessed, appointed him a member
of the diplomatic committee, of which he became the habitual
organ ; and in this capacity he was the constant advocate of
the most violent public measures, and never ceased to de¬
mand a declaration of war against all the powers of Europe.
In order to attain this object, he denounced all the minis¬
ters whose dispositions were favourable to peace, but par¬
ticularly the foreign minister M. Delessart; and at length
succeeded in obtaining a decree of accusation against him.
His place was supplied by Dumouriez, under whose adminis¬
tration war was declared against the Emperor of Germany,
on the 20th of April 1792. From this period, however, the
political influence of Brissot began to decline. Robespierre,
with whom he had previously been intimately connected,
now declared himself his enemy, denounced him at the
Jacobin Club as a traitor and an enemy of the people,
and thenceforth persecuted him with unrelenting rancour.
Alarmed at the storm which was gathering around him, Bris¬
sot, in concert with the other leaders of his party, attempted
to effect a reconciliation with the constitutional royalists;
but this attempt having proved abortive, he reverted to his
former line of conduct, and continued to denounce to popu¬
lar vengeance all those whom he knew to be attached to
the king. As the organ of the diplomatic committee, he
obtained the declaration of war against England and Holland,
on the 1st of February 1793. The Mountain party had now
acquired a complete ascendency, and the destruction of the
Girondists was determined on. Brissot, among the rest, was
proscribed, after the revolution of the 31st of May. He
was arrested at Moulins while attempting to make his escape
into Switzerland, and after a mock trial, was beheaded at
Paris on the 31st of October 1793.
BRISTLES, the strong hairs which grpw along the spine
of the hog and wild boar. These are extensively used by
the brushmaker, saddler, shoemaker, &c. The best come
from the Ukraine.
BRISTOL, a seaport-town in the west of England,
situated in Long. 2. 35. 28-6. W. Lat. 51. 27. 6’3. N., 108
miles from London, and 12 miles N.W. of Bath. It lies
partly in the county of Somerset, partly in that of Glouces¬
ter, and was by Edward III. erected into an independent
city and a county of itself. The rivers Avon and Frome
run through it. The situation of Bristol is very delightful,
in the midst of a rich and healthy country, surrounded by
verdant hills ; and in its immediate vicinity are many hand¬
some and pleasantly situated villages, interspersed with seats
of the nobility and gentry. The site of the town is very
unequal. Some parts of it are built on steep aclivities ;
King’s Down, St Michael’s Hill, and Brandon Hill, rising
nearly 250 feet perpendicular above the bed of the river.
Bristol is nearly eight miles in circumference, and is sup¬
posed to cover about 1600 acres, containing with its suburbs
nearly 800 streets and ten market-places.
Bristol contains thirty-seven churches, besides a consider¬
able number of chapels belonging to various bodies of Dis¬
senters. The cathedral was originally a monastery dedi¬
cated to St Augustin. The gateway is to be considered
the only vestige of the original structure, and, from its
great beauty, has attracted much notice. The present
building consists of a neat choir, fitted up in the Gothic
style, with part of the nave and the two side aisles, all oi
3 A
370 B R I S
Bristol, equal height. Bristol was erected into a bishop’s see by
Vs—Henry VIII., who annexed to its jurisdiction the whole of
the county of Dorset, part of Gloucestershire, and three
churches formerly in the see of Wells. Several eminent
men have held the bishopric of Bristol, amongst whom may
be mentioned the names of Seeker, Butler, and Newton.
Bishop Warburton was once dean of this cathedral. The
church of St Mary Redclift' is built on a red sandy rock
or cliff, from which it derives its name. The majestic and
venerable appearance of this edifice, its lofty vaulted roof
of stone, everywhere carved with devices of curious work¬
manship, and the tower nearly two hundred feet in height,
and richly ornamented with a variety of carved work, fully
justify the statement which has often been made—that it is
the finest parish church in England. Over the north porch
there is a kind of muniment-room, in which were deposited
six or seven chests, in one of which Chatterton pretended
that the papers which he endeavoured to pass off as the
manuscripts of Rowley were found. Of the other churches,
the Mayor’s chapel is celebrated for the beauty of its archi¬
tecture, and the splendour of its internal decorations.
The public buildings of Bristol, taken as a whole, are in
nowise remarkable, the most important of them having been
destroyed by fire during the Bristol riots in 1831. The
exchange is a fine quadrangle, with a piazza. It was erected
in 1740-41, at the expense of the chamber of Bristol, and
cost nearly L.50,000.
The public schools and educational societies of Bristol
are both numerous and flourishing. The most important
of these institutions is the Bristol College, the object of
which is to afford a classical and scientific education on the
most moderate terms. There are two societies in Bristol
for the purpose of educating young men for the ministry;
the one in connection with the Church of England, and the
other with the Baptist denomination. The Philosophical
and Literary Institution, though only recently established,
possesses a library, a room for the exhibition of paintings, a
lecture-room with chemical apparatus, and a large museum
with a good mineralogical cabinet. By the union of the
Bristol Mechanics’ Institute with the Church of England
Book Society, and the Bristol Athenaeum, the institution now
known under that latter name was organized. It possesses
an extensive library of books on all subjects; and the share¬
holders have recently erected a handsome building at a cost
of more than L.5000. It has lecture and reading rooms,
lending and reference libraries, and several classes for the
study of languages, elocution, &c. The Bristol Library,
founded in 1772, now contains about 18,000 volumes, and
has three hundred subscribers. The Bristol Law Library
possesses 495 sets of books, including complete copies of all
the reports, and the best professional treatises. There are
T O L.
about thirty charity day-schools in Bristol, twelve of which Bristol,
are endowed, and their income amounts to nearly L.7000.
The Bristol Adult School Society is especially deserving of
notice. In the course of twenty-one years 120 schools have
been opened, 13,000 scholars admitted, and nearly 700 are
now receiving instruction, without preference to any reli¬
gious sect or party.
Bristol abounds in hospitals, alms-houses, and other cha¬
ritable institutions. The Bristol Infirmary is an excellent
institution, possessing accommodation for about 200 pa¬
tients, and is supported by subscriptions and donations.
The Bristol Dispensary, the General Hospital, and the Asy¬
lum for the Blind, are also institutions deserving of notice.
The endowed charities are estimated at L.23,000 per an¬
num. There are likewise about forty voluntary charitable
societies, which collect and distribute annually, in various
forms, amongst the poor, about L.15,000. Bristol Hot Well
has long been celebrated. The spring rises from the bot¬
tom of rocks overhanging the picturesque village of Clifton,
and is pumped up in the Hot Well House, at temp. 74°.
The water is slightly saline, and contains free carbonic acid.
Its sp. gr. = 1'00077. A pint contains 3‘5 cubic inches of
carbonic acid, L5 grain of sulphate of soda, T5 gr. sul¬
phate of lime, O'5 gr. muriate of soda, 1 gr. muriate of
magnesia, or (r grains of solid contents.
Bristol carries on a considerable foreign trade with the
British colonies in the West Indies, Australia, America, and
Newfoundland, and also with France, Spain, and Portugal.
Large quantities of foreign corn are brought into this port.
The imports consist chiefly of grain, sugar, wine, rum,
brandy, hides, colonial and Baltic timber, tallow, hemp,
dye-woods, fruits, &c. In former years the trade of the port
was much restricted by the heavy and unwise taxation im¬
posed upon ships and imported goods; but since the re¬
moval of this in 1848, it has immensely increased. In 1845
the customs receipts were L.919,149, while in 1853 they
rose to the sum of L.1,194,921, notwithstanding the great
reductions which have taken place in duties, &c.; and this
latter amount, there is little doubt, might be enormously in¬
creased but for the entire absence of dock accommodation
at the mouth of the river, owing to which steamers and
other large ships are compelled to incur the dangers of
the Irish Channel by proceeding to Liverpool. Bristol has
also a very large inland trade, especially with the western
counties, and with North and South Wales, though the
want of direct railway connection with the latter district
materially interferes with this important branch of her trade,
and is very favourable to the growth of other ports on the
western side of the Bristol Channel. The tonnage of the
port has increased so greatly of late years that it is difficult
to give any average. It may be stated as follows:—
Number and Tonnage of Ships entered inwards from Foreign parts at the port of Bristol, during the
years ended January 5—
The same account outward is as follows
B R I
B R I
371
Bristol. Besides the above, a very large coasting and Irish trade is
—carried on, amounting in the aggregate to upwards of600,000
tons per annum. The increase in the number of ships be¬
longing to this port has been very remarkable, having risen
from 299 ships, with a tonnage of 38,939 tons in 1849, to
424 ships, with a total of 70,364 tons in 1853. Among the
imports of 1853 we find 610,429 cwt. of sugar, 102,480
hides, 203,000 qrs. of corn, 56,000 cwt. of flour, nearly
90,000 loads of timber, &c.
A large amount of emigration has likewise taken place
from this place to Australia and America during the last
few years. The principal exports are manufactured goods,
refined sugar, bricks, iron, tin, cotton goods, and glass bottles.
The principal local manufactures are glass, sugar, iron,
brass, copper, lead, zinc, floor-cloth, earthenware, tobacco,
&c. The Bristol docks, which were originally formed in
pursuance of the act 43d Geo. III., c. 142, at an expense of
L.600,000, were purchased in 1847-8 by the corporation,
and are now the property of the citizens, the charges being
greatly reduced by the aid of a rate of 4d. in the pound on
fixed property.
Bristol is directly connected with the metropolis by means
of the Great Western Railway, the capital of which has risen
from L.2,500,000 to upwards of 11 millions. There is also a
railway from Bristol to Gloucester, and another from Bristol
to Exeter, thus connecting it with every part of the United
Kingdom. The city is supplied with water by a water
company, who draw their supply from springs in the Mendip
Hills. The water is considered very good, but the concern
is not yet remunerative in a financial sense. There is also
a gas-company formed by the junction of the Bristol and
Clifton Gas Companies, with a united capital of L.179,800.
There are six banking establishments in Bristol, including
a branch of the Bank of England; and there is also a sa¬
vings bank. Some of the largest vessels ever launched
have been built in Bristol; among which may be noticed
the Great Western, the first of the large ocean steamers,
upwards of 2000 tons burthen, and the Great Britain of
3500 tons.
Bristol is divided for municipal purposes into ten wards,
and its government is vested in a mayor, 16 aldermen, and
48 councillors. It returns 2 members to parliament. The
population in 1811 amounted to 76,952 ; in 1821 to 95,758 ;
in 1831 to 117,016; and in 1851 to 137,328.
Bristol is a city of great antiquity. There is indeed good
reason to believe that it was an inhabited place as early as
the time of the Roman invasion ; though scarcely any no¬
tice is taken of it until about the era of the Norman con¬
quest, when a powerful fortress was erected there by the
Earls of Gloucester, which, after it had stood about six cen¬
turies, was demolished in 1655, by order of Oliver Crom¬
well. During the contest between King Stephen and the
Empress Maude, Bristol became a mere stronghold of ban¬
ditti, who plundered the neighbouring counties, and were
guilty of great excesses and cruelties. The son of Maude,
Henry II,, was educated at Bristol, having been brought
thither when nine years of age; and when he afterwards came
to the crown, he created Robert Fitzharding, at that time
governor of Bristol, Lord of Berkeley. King John, having
become Lord of Bristol by marrying Isabel, daughter of
William Earl of Gloucester, renewed the Bristol charters,
and pointed out the limits of the city. In 1312 a violent
commotion took place in Bristol, and hostilities were carried
on between the castle and the town for a period of upwards
of two years, when the latter submitted to the royal authority.
On the 8th of August 1373, Edward III. rewarded the loyalty
of the inhabitants of Bristol to his father, by bestowing on
them a charter which conferred peculiar immunities, and
constituted the town a county of itself. As a memorial of
gratitude, the corporation of Bristol erected a cross in High
Street, 39 feet 6 inches in height, adorned with rich Gothic
ornaments, and having the statues of King John, Henry
III., and Edward III., placed in niches. When the Duke
of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV., invaded England, he
marched to Bristol, besieged the castle, took it, and ordered
Lord Scroop, Sir John Busby, and Sir Henry Greene, three
of the king’s counsellors, to be beheaded without a trial.
Henry VII. frequently visited Bristol ; and in 1550 he
granted it a new charter, and also presented his own sword
to be borne before the mayor. On the breaking out of the
civil war in the reign of Charles I., Bristol was garrisoned
for the parliament; but being a place of great importance,
from commanding the western counties, the king was de¬
sirous to obtain possession of it; and Prince Maurice, the
Marquis of Hertford, and Prince Rupert, having united
their forces, invested it on the 24th of July 1643, and after
a vigorous resistance, carried it by storm. After the defeat
of Charles at Naseby, Prince Rupert threw himself into
Bristol, and it was confidently expected that he would make
a vigorous defence; but when Sir Thomas Fairfax besieged
the city, the prince capitulated after a resistance of only
twenty-one days. At this period the city suffered severely
from the combined effects of war and pestilence. In 1749,
and again in 1792, several riots took place, which were not
quelled without much bloodshed. But the most memor¬
able event in the modern annals of Bristol, is the celebrated
riot which took place in October 1831, during the excite¬
ment created by the reform bill. When Sir Charles
Wetherell, recorder of Bristol, went to make the usual jail
delivery in that city, the populace rose in great numbers,
and having succeeded in gaining possession of the city,
burned the bishop’s palace, the mansion-house, the custom¬
house, the excise-office, the jails, bridewell, and nearly fifty
private houses and warehouses. Many lives were lost dur¬
ing these unhappy tumults, and the damage done to pro¬
perty was estimated at L.70,000. A special commission
was appointed to try the prisoners, 114 in number, charged
with being concerned in these riots. Eighty-one were
found guilty, four of whom were executed, and of the rest
some were sentenced to transportation, others to imprison¬
ment and hard labour for various periods. Subsequently to
the riot, a bill was introduced into parliament for the pur¬
pose of providing compensation for the sufferers. The pro¬
perty destroyed was valued by twelve commissioners at
L.68,208, which was borrowed from government upon a
mortgage of the poor-rates of the city.
Bristol, a seaport-town of Rhode island, capital of a
county of the same name. It has a considerable coasting
trade and extensive fisheries. The shipping belonging to
the port amounts to 13,198 tons. Pop. 4616. It is situ¬
ated on the east side of Narragansett bay, 18 miles S.S.E.
of Providence. Mount Hope, which lies about two miles
north-east of Bristol, within the township, is a hill of a coni¬
cal form, famous for having been the residence of the Indian
king, Philip, who for so long a period retarded the progress
of the young colony by his repeated and sometimes succes-
ful attacks.
Bristol, a town of the United States in Bucks county,
Pennsylvania, 11 miles S.S.E. from Newton, and twenty
N.E. from Philadelphia.
There are several other smaller towns of this name in the
United States.
Bristol Channel, a portion of the Atlantic Ocean, on
the coast of Great Britain, lying between the south coast of
Wales, and the counties of Somerset, Devon, and Corn¬
wall.
Bristol Diamonds, small and brilliant crystals of quartz,
found near Bristol; hence the name.
Bristol
372
BRITAIN, OR GREAT BRITAIN,
British The most considerable of all the European islands, is si-
and tuated between fifty and fifty-eight and a half degrees of
Rflimn nort]1 latitude. It is bounded on the north by the North
renod. on tjie east i3y t]ie German Ocean, on the south by
the English Channel, and on the west by St George’s Chan¬
nel and the Atlantic Ocean. From north to south it ex¬
tends about five hundred and eighty miles in length ; its
greatest breadth, from the North Foreland in Kent to the
Land’s-End in Cornwall, is about three hundred and seventy
miles ; and its superficial area is computed at eighty-seven
thousand five hundred square miles. The figure of this
island is irregular, somewhat resembling that of a wedge,
to which indeed it was compared by the ancients, from its
gradually narrowing towards its northern extremity; and
its whole line of coast is deeply indented by bays, creeks,
and estuaries, which, notwithstanding its boldness and rug¬
gedness in many parts, afford safe and commodious har¬
bours. From its geographical position, therefore, no less
than from its natural advantages, this island seems to have
been destined by nature to become the seat of a great and
powerful nation.
CHAP. I.
BRITISH AND ROMAN PERIOD.
Origin of the names Albion and Britain—The Gauls, Kelts, or
Celts Their migrations and incursions—Portion of Europe
occupied by them at the dawn of history—Distinctive charac¬
ters of the race Branches of the great Celtic family.—Celts
the earliest inhabitants of Britain—Followed by invaders of the
Gothic or Teutonic race—Predominance of the latter—Abori¬
ginal Celtic population of Scotland succeeded by the Gothic-
Condition of the Britons in the time of Caesar—Druidism—
Character and habits of the Britons—Commerce and War—
Roman Period Caesar’s Expeditions—Subsequent attempts of
the Romans Aulus Plautius—Ostorius Scapula—Gallant
struggle of Caractacus His defeat in South Wales—Betray¬
ed—Aulus Didius Attack on Anglesea by Suetonius Paulinus.
 Revolt of the Britons under Boadicea—Campaigns of Agri¬
cola Extent of the Roman Conquests in Britain—Introduc¬
tion of Christianity Hadrian, Severus, and Caracalla—Con¬
stitution of the Roman Provincial Government—Usurpations
of Carnusius and Allectus—Constantine—Cruelties of Paulus.
 Scots and Piets Their inroads and ravages—Departure of
the Romans from Britain—Distresses of the Natives—Arrival
of the Saxons under Hengist and Horsa—Saxon Conquest.
Various etymologies have been proposed of the words
Albion and Britain; the former being the ancient name of
the island ; the latter that which superseded it, and in time
became the appellation by which it was universally known.
Originally Albion was considered as only one of the
British islands, and it is described as such both by Aga-
themerus and Ptolemy ; but being by far the largest and
most important of the group, the particular name was in
course of time laid aside, and the general denomination
used in its stead. The etymological origin of both, how¬
ever, is involved in uncertainty. Some derive that of
Albion from the Greek AA^og or AXwog, identical with the
Latin Albus and the Sabine Alpus, signifying White, and
being obviously mere variations of the Celtic Alb or Alp,
which has the same meaning; conceiving, with Festus,
that as the mountains which separate France and Italy
were called Alpes, by reason of their snowy covering, so
this island was denominated Albion on account of the British
chalky cliffs and soil of its southern shores, which were the an^
portions that appeared to those who viewed it from the
coast of Gaul; and this conjecture derives some coun- ^
tenance from the fact that the ancient Britons them¬
selves called it Inis-wen or Eilanban, the White Island.
Others, again, have recourse to the Phoenician, in which
Alp signifies High, and contend that the name Albion
was originally bestowed upon the island by the adven¬
turous navigators of Phoenicia, who first visited its shores,
by reason of the bold and precipitous aspect of its head¬
lands and coasts, and that hence it is descriptive, not of the
colour, but of the physical conformation, of these coasts.
Of the word Britain a still greater variety of etymo¬
logies have been proposed. Nennius derives it from Bru¬
tus, whom he likewise calls Brito, the fifth in descent
from .(Eneas. Camden supposes it a compound of Brith
or Brit, a Celtic word signifying painted, and rawa, a
Greek word denoting a region; so that, according to him,
the island was called Britannia from its being the country
of painted people. Carte, founding on the circumstances
that the ancient Britons called themselves Prydhain, and
their country Inis-prydhain, or the Isle of the Prydhain,
conceives that Britanni and Britannia are only latinized
forms of the original word Prydhain in the British or
Celtic tongue. Somner, disliking Camden’s etymology,
conjectures that Britain is derived from brydio, which in
the ancient language of the island signified rage, and, ac¬
cording to him, was intended to indicate its position in the
midst of a tempestuous sea. Whittaker is equally or even
more fanciful than Somner, contending that the true ety¬
mon of the word is brith, briet, brit, bris, or brig, which he
says means striped or divided. And Bochart, whose love
of the Phoenician was such that he found it every where
and in every thing, conceives that this island and some
others near it were denominated Barat Anac by the Phoe¬
nicians, that is, the country of tin, which, contracted into
Bratanac, passed from them to the Greeks and Romans,
and ultimately emerged in the softened forms of Britanni
and Britannia. This, at least, has the merit of ingenuity
to recommend it. Of the others, that of Carte seems to
us to be the most natural and probable ; although it leaves
unexplained the word Prydhain, the analysis of which is
essential to complete the etymology. It has been assum¬
ed by some that the name was originally bestowed on the
island by foreigners; and, on this supposition, they have
endeavoured to resolve it into its elements, or at least to
offer a conjectural explanation of the circumstance which
led to its primary application. But for our own part, we
see no grounds whatever for entertaining such a notion;
and think it much more likely that foreigners varied, ac¬
cording to their respective idioms and modes ot articula¬
tion, the name in use among the natives, than that they
invented, applied, and rendered general a new one, con-
strueted on a remote and fanciful analogy, and having re¬
ference to accessory circumstances or particular localities.1
At the period when the Greek and Roman writers be¬
gan to turn their attention to the west of Europe, they
found it, from the remotest extremity of Ireland to the
banks of the Danube, peopled by a race called Gauls,
Kelts, or Celts, who, before the practice of tillage bound
them to the soil, had overspread a large portion of Spain
1 Carte, History, vol. i. pp. 4, 5, 6.
BRITAIN. 373
British >in the course of their armed migrations, and, through the
and passes of the Julian and Rhaetian Alps, had poured preda-
lioman j.ory ban(Js on the great plain of northern Italy, where they
Period. estab];siie(j themselves, and afterwards struck a heavy blow
v at the rising power of Rome, stretching their dominions
as far as the Appennines. This remarkable race, believed
with reason to be of oriental origin, extended along the
Danube till they reached the Sarmatians on the one hand,
and the Thracians and Illyrians on the other ; and from
the central position which they thus occupied, they appear
to have diverged by various natural channels to the differ¬
ent countries of Europe where their descendants are still
to be found. How they came to establish themselves ori¬
ginally in such a position is uncertain. Their early mi¬
grations, undertaken for plunder rather than conquest,
occurred anterior to the period of history; and we have but
slender grounds for probable conjecture respecting either
their extent or their antiquity. But some of the later in¬
cursions of this people into Italy and Greece are fortunate¬
ly better known to us. A numerous body of Gauls, for
example, deserting the bands of their countrymen who
ravaged Greece, established themselves in Asia Minor
under the successors of Alexander, and gave their name
to the country they occupied, which was accordingly call¬
ed Galatia. In the opinion of some, this body of invaders
consisted wholly of Celts, while others maintain that they
were of the Teutonic race; but it seems at least equally
probable that they were composed of both races. With
regard to the causes which produced these fierce and ex¬
tensive irruptions, the learned have lost themselves in
speculation, and wearied their readers with endless con¬
jectures. The motives which led to them were in all like¬
lihood different at different times, and they may therefore
be variously ascribed to the restless and adventurous spirit
of such tribes, to the ambition and rapacity of their chiefs,
to the necessity which, after a certain period, urges on an
unproductive race to seek new settlements, or to the re¬
sistless pressure of invading barbarians from behind, or
perhaps to the simultaneous operation of several of these
causes.1
The Rhine formed the northern boundary of the Gauls,
and separated them from the Germanic or Teutonic race,
which spread into Scandinavia, towards the last retreat
of the Einnish tribes in the Arctic solitudes, and extend¬
ed, on the other side, from the shores of the Atlantic to
the vast plains inhabited by the Sarmatians and Dacians.
The Garonne divided them from the Aquitanians, a peo¬
ple who, from various circumstances, as the testimony of
the ancients, and the names of rivers and mountains, ap¬
pear to have been the original inhabitants of the Spanish
peninsula ; whilst a portion of this primitive Iberian race
occupied the southern coast of Gaul from the Pyrenees to
the frontier of Italy.
The intermingling, followed by the gradual fusion and
amalgamation of the various races by which most coun¬
tries have been successively overrun, renders it exceeding¬
ly difficult, if not impossible, to discriminate the first in¬
habitants from the more civilized visitants, as well as to
distinguish between the different tribes of the latter.
Greece, from its position near the earliest seats of civili¬
zation, was open to conquest and colonization from nume¬
rous points both by sea and land; on the side of Thrace,
on that of Asia Minor, from Egypt, and from the coun¬
tries of the East. Europe, Africa, and Asia, appear at
different times to have discharged portions of their popu¬
lation into this favoured spot; and hence has arisen the
difficulty of ascertaining the number, and much more of
detecting the peculiarities, of each successive immigration. British
Italy, again, being accessible to colonists by sea from and
Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and always exposed to jl01]11111
the inroads of the tribes who inhabited or were able to make ^no(l-
themselves masters of the principal passes of the Alps, was f"'**'
occupied by a greater diversity of races than any other
country of the \Vest; and hence has arisen a confusion in
the genealogy of its tribes, which even the profound sa¬
gacity and varied learning of Niebuhr have not succeeded
in disentangling. Population appears to have originally
flowed into this country from its two extremities; but in
process of time the opposite streams met, and became so
thoroughly intermingled, that no moral or intellectual
chemistry can ever decompose them. With regard to the
colonies of the Phoenicians, they encircled the Mediter¬
ranean as far as Carthage and Cadiz, whilst no Grecian
colonists had as yet established themselves farther to the
west than Massalia, Massilia, or Marseilles. In circum¬
stances and times like these, the natural boundaries of
nations were often irregularly changed. The course of
migration was frequently diverted from its ordinary chan¬
nels, and sometimes forced back towards its original source.
Races were mingled so that their distinctive marks be¬
came no longer discoverable; and even languages were
changed, or altogether disappeared. Of this confusion the
Galatians in Asia Minor, and the Keltiberians in Spain,
afford examples. Even the Belgic inhabitants of northern
Gaul have been thought a mixed race, and it seems pretty
certain that, from whatever cause, Teutonic tribes were
generally classed amongst them. Again, although the
natural tendency of an unwritten language be to break
down first into dialects and afterwards into distinct lan¬
guages, yet languages originally different sometimes run
into each other, and coalesce in a very remarkable manner.
Of this the Hindustanee and Anglo-Norman have afford¬
ed examples at the opposite extremities of the globe, both
having been formed out of jargons used in intercourse be¬
tween the conquerors and the conquered. The victors
sometimes impose their language, with little mixture, on
the vanquished ; but in India every variety of dialect has
been deeply tinctured with Sanscrit, the original as well
as the sacred language of that country; and nothing can
be imagined more heterogeneous or dissimilar than the
roots of most of the forms of speech which actually obtain
in it.2
It may not be out of place to observe here, that the term
race, as used in civil history, has a very different accepta¬
tion from that which is given to it by naturalists. The
latter, confining their view to the physical form and or¬
ganization of man, and making no account of language, and
of those other minor varieties and peculiarities which the
civil historian is obliged to notice, admit at present only
five races of men; the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the
Ethiopian, the American, and the Malay. Colour is con¬
sidered as one of their tests or characters. The Caucasian
is accounted the primitive stock, and it deviates into two
extremes, equally remote and different from each other,
namely, the Mongolian and the Ethiopian. But although
the Mongol and the Negro differ from the European much
more deeply and radically than the Hindu and the Arab,
yet if the lesser difference be admitted to be the result of
physical causes, operating throughout a long tract of ages,
it will be difficult to prove that the greater may not at
length have been produced by similar causes acting dur¬
ing a greater period of time. Be this as it may, however,
it must be obvious that, from lengthened separation, and
the natural divergency of language, the historical divisions
Mackintosh, History of England, vol. i. Introd.
3 ^Mackintosh, ubi supra.
874 BRITAIN.
British of mankind become broken into portions or subdivisions
and not always corresponding with the political distribution of
R°man territory among nations, and that, as the same state may
Period. contajn tribes of various race, so the same race may be
subject to many distinct rulers.1
The Celtic race may be considered as subdivided into
two distinct portions, with languages which, though cer¬
tainly derived from a common stock, are not, it is be¬
lieved, reciprocally understood. One of these cognate
languages or dialects, called the Gaelic, is still spoken by
the native Irish, by the Highlanders of Scotland, and in
the Isle of Man; the other is the common speech of
Wales and Lower Bretagne, and, till a period comparative¬
ly recent, it was spoken in Cornwall; whilst, in each branch
or subdivision, the parent language seems only to differ
by provincial variations, which, accumulating in a long
series of ages, have produced a greater divergence than is
generally found to exist between affiliated dialects. The
Gaulish tribes are unable to converse with the Cimbric,
yet there is abundant evidence that the Gaelic and Cym-
raig or Welsh are branches of the same family. Indeed
it is supposed by some that the Cimbric or Cymraig fol¬
lowed, at a considerable interval, the Gaulish settlers ;
and it seems not improbable, that the tribes who spoke
this form or dialect of Celtic were, as Sir James Mackin¬
tosh observes, “ the same Cimbri who, in conjunction with
their Teutonic allies, were expelled from the Roman ter¬
ritory with a slaughter so enormous, and after atrocities
so unmatched, as to be suspected of exaggerational¬
though it should be borne in mind “ that the adversaries
of the Romans were not armies, but migratory nations,
bringing into the field women and children, and fierce
animals,” which all contributed to swell the horrors of the
butchery, and first taught the Romans to dread the arms
of the northern barbarians.2
That the aboriginal, or at least the earliest inhabitants
of these islands were a people of Celtic origin and race,
seems to be admitted on all hands, and is rendered high¬
ly probable, both from the intimations of history and the
evidence of language. The former leave little doubt that
the migrations and settlements of the Celtic tribes pre¬
ceded those of the Scythian or Gothic nations by whom
they were almost everywhere displaced; and this conclu¬
sion derives additional probability from the consideration,
that the greater part of the names of mountains, lakes,
and rivers, in both the British islands, are still descriptive
and significant in some dialect of the Celtic language.
“ The appellations of these vast and permanent parts of na¬
ture,” says Sir James Mackintosh, “ are commonly observ¬
ed to continue as unchanged as themselves.” Of all the
languages that ever existed, the Celtic is perhaps the richest
in an appropriate and expressive nomenclature for physical
objects ; and the facility with which its elementary forms
admit of combinations descriptive of the varieties obser¬
vable in external nature, must have greatly tended to im¬
press and perpetuate the appellations which it originally
supplied. Hence it is that, after the revolution of ages,
and the fluctuations of conquest, dominion, and race, to¬
gether with all the changes which time and usage insen¬
sibly operate in language, the names in question are still
distinctly traceable ; whilst the extent to which they still
obtain in both parts of Britain seems to argue the origi¬
nal ascendancy of the race frotn whose language they were
derived. Had the Gothic preceded, instead of following,
the Celtic colonists, the case would in all probability have
been exactly, or at least very nearly, the reverse of this.
As it is, however, the fact here mentioned appears to be
incompatible with any other supposition than that of Bri- British
tain being originally peopled by a Celtic race; and as the and
Gaelic dialect explains many more of the names of ex ter-
nal objects than that spoken by the other branch of the i__
race, the same principle leads us to conclude, that those
who employed that variety of the common or parent lan¬
guage were the first settlers. Beyond these probabilities
the most ancient period of our history is involved in im¬
penetrable darkness.
To the Celtic population of Britain succeeded the Go¬
thic, by whom they were, at a very early period, displa¬
ced to a considerable extent. Advancing from the north¬
ern parts of Asia and Europe, where they had enjoyed a
wild independence, the Scythians or Goths drove the Cim¬
bri or northern Celts before them, and, seizing upon that
part of Gaul which is nearest to Britain, they crossed over
into England. The period of this immigration is uncer¬
tain ; but at the time of Caesar’s invasion, the primitive or
Celtic inhabitants had been driven into the interior and
more inaccessible parts of the island, while the south¬
eastern portion was peopled with colonies of Gothic de¬
scent, who may, therefore, be regarded as the chief ances¬
tors of the English nation. The expulsion of the aborigi¬
nal population from the south-eastern coasts and lowland
districts of the whole island was complete ; so much so, in
fact, that, but for the tenacity with which the names of
natural objects adhere to them, and some other indications
of a still fainter kind, not a trace or vestige of their origi¬
nal ascendancy would have remained. The Saxon con¬
quest was of a different character. The invaders, incon¬
siderable in number, sought political supremacy rather
than a settlement by means of extermination, and used
the privileges of conquest with more moderation than their
predecessors of the same race. There no longer existed
between the conquerors and the conquered that radical
diversity of physical conformation, habits, and customs,
which, in a barbarous age, is the source of inextinguish¬
able hostility; they accordingly enslaved, but forebore
from exterminating or utterly expelling the natives; a
gradual amalgamation took place; and, from the com¬
mingled Gothic dialects of both, at length sprung the
Anglo-Saxon, which is the parent of the English language.
Some, indeed, have maintained that, at the period of Cae¬
sar’s invasion, the population of Britain still continued
Celtic. But this opinion labours under serious objections.
The Anglo-Saxon and the English language, in its elder
and simpler form, exhibit scarcely a trace of Celtic in
their composition; and they have even less of that pecu¬
liar dialect of Gothic which the Angles and Saxons must
have spoken at the period of their arrival in Britain, than
of the Belgic and Dutch dialects, which are in all proba¬
bility of Scandinavian origin. To this it may, indeed, be
objected that Druidism, which is rightly considered as a
Celtic superstition, is mentioned by Caesar in the earliest
authentic records of the island which has reached our times.
But, in the first place, Caesar never speaks of having actual¬
ly seen Druids, nor does it appear that any one of this class
of priests was discovered until the Romans had penetrat¬
ed into South Wales; and, secondly, forms of superstition
often survive the races or nations amongst which they
originated, and pass indifferently from the conquered to
the conquerors, and conversely, by the operation of causes
totally distinct from those which determine the fate of
communities of men.
The expulsion of the Celts from the eastern coast of
Britain long preceded the arrival of Caesar. This may be
inferred from the account of Tacitus, whose description
Mackintosh, /list, of England, vol. i. p. 12.
* History, ibid.
BRITAIN.
375
British of the inhabitants of the lowland parts of Scotland as a
and red-haired and large limbed race, clearly indicates their
Period Gotllic origin; whilst, in the interval between Caesar and
Agricola, no material change appears to have occurred in
the relative distribution of the various tribes by whom
Scotland was then inhabited. It would be vain to attempt
to ascertain the epoch of a revolution which seems to have
been effected long anterior to the period of history; but
if the time of its occurrence be uncertain, the fact itself
is nevertheless indisputable; and this is connected with
another, sufficiently remarkable, namely, that every trace
or vestige of the original Celtic population of the Lowlands
has been obliterated, and that there is neither monument,
record, tradition, nor circumstance of any kind which can
lead to a conjecture as to their fate. It is natural, indeed,
to suppose that in Scotland, as elsewhere, those who
escaped the fury of the invaders sought shelter in the
mountains or Highlands, where a people chiefly Celtic still
exists ; but it seems as well established as any fact of the
kind can ever be, that the occupation of the Highlands by
a Celtic population does not date much earlier than the
sixth century, and that the first settlers of this race were
a reflux of the Celts from Ireland, not a remnant of the
aboriginal inhabitants of the Lowlands. The Dalriads or
Attacotii are indeed said to have established themselves
in Argyleshire about the middle of the third century; but
they were driven back to Ireland in the fifth century, and
did not return till the following one, when they effected
a second and permanent settlement. Extravagant pre¬
tensions to antiquity have, it is true, been set up in favour
of the Celtic Scots by Boyce, Buchanan, and others, who
gravely affirm that this people reigned in Scotland a thou¬
sand years before the Christian era. But the fabulous
millennium with which these writers gratified the credu¬
lous nationality of their countrymen in an uninquiring
age has found no supporters in more modern times.
The condition of the Britons in the time of Caesar very
much resembled that of the Gauls from whom they sprung.
They were divided into a number of petty kingdoms or
states, each of which was again subdivided among subor¬
dinate chieftains, who governed their respective tribes or
clans with more than feudal authority. On great emer¬
gencies, indeed, they united under a common leader; but
this “ king of kings” had only a limited and precarious
rule; and the confederacies of the ancient Britons, like
those of the ancient Greeks, were neither numerous nor
lasting. Like the mutually repellant atoms of the Epicu¬
rean philosophy, their union was fortuitous; and as there
existed no principle of compression to retain them in the
situation into which accident or a sense of common dan¬
ger sometimes threw them, a separation speedily followed.
It was this which gave the Romans so great an advantage
in their contests with these warlike nations. Never con¬
sulting together for the benefit of the whole, it was rare
that even two or three of them united against the com¬
mon enemy. They fought, for the most part, separately,
and, as a necessary consequence, were beaten in detail.
Of the limits of the regal authority among the Britons
little is known with any degree of certainty, though much
probably depended on the personal character of the indi¬
vidual who exercised it. Hereditary right seems to have
been recognised, and extended even to female succession,
but it was not strictly observed or enforced; and instances
were not rare of the exclusion of a son by his father, whom
he had offended, from any share in his dominions. It has
been conjectured that the power of the people was consi¬
derable ; but this is merely conjecture. Among the Gauls
the few had not succeeded in excluding the many from all
participation in the conduct of their own affairs. But whe¬
ther the Britons resembled them in this respect or not, it
is difficult to say. From all that we learn, however, we are British
inclined to think that here the similarity failed. and
But whatever may have been the power of the kings or Roman
the influence of the people, there existed an order which t ^ ori°d.
exercised an authority paramount to that of either, or of both
united. This was the Druidical or sacred caste, which, in
relation to the rest of society, occupied a station and en¬
joyed privileges in Britain, analogous to those possessed
by the Brahmins of India at the period of their greatest
glory. The power of the Druids was absolute, exclusive,
and peculiar to them as a body. Their sanction was ne¬
cessary to all public transactions, which otherwise were of
no validity. They could pardon malefactors who had been
judicially condemned, or ordain victims to the sacrifice
without the intervention of any trial or judgment but their
own. From the Druids the Romans seem to have bor¬
rowed the aqu<z et ignis interdictio, which became the most
terrible sentence of their law. It was, in fact, the Druidi¬
cal excommunication slightly varied. An individual de¬
barred from attending the holy rites, and interdicted the
use of fire, received sentence of eternal banishment from
the fellowship of his kind; and this sentence, more for¬
midable than the excommunication of the Roman Catho¬
lic church in aftertimes, they could pronounce at plea¬
sure. Their ceremonies were at once mysterious and in¬
human. The mistletoe, which they accounted peculiarly
sacred, was gathered by them from the leaves of the oak
with circumstances of extraordinary solemnity, though for
what purpose or with what view is unknown. They dwelt
in the centre of concentrated woods, and their retreats
were defended from intrusion or violation by the power of
a dark and gloomy superstition. On their rude but hor¬
rid altars they sacrificed human victims; and from the
course of the blood as it flowed under the knife of the of¬
ficiating priest, they prognosticated future events. They
were the lawgivers, physicians, poets, and philosophers of
their country. They are said to have been acquainted with
letters and the art of writing, though in what particular
form is uncertain. Caesar, probably from misinformation,
says that they employed the Greek letters, which is very
improbable. They taught their disciples the doctrine of
transmigration, and inculcated on them the duty of despis¬
ing death in defence of their country. They practised
celibacy, and continued their order by kidnapping chil¬
dren, whom they trained up and initiated in their myste¬
ries. Some of their observances are described as exces¬
sively revolting; others would seem to have been of a
more innocent and even humane character. Britain was
the great sanctuary of this superstition. Originally import¬
ed from Gaul, it seems to have found a congenial soil in
this country, where it struck its roots so firmly, and insi¬
nuated itself so deeply, into the general character, that
traces of it are still discoverable in several of the popular
superstitions which the “ schoolmaster” has not yet suc¬
ceeded in effacing.
The Druidical system is not without oriental features.
“ So much subserviency of one part of a nation to another,”
says Sir James Mackintosh, “ in an age so destitute of the
means of influence and of the habits of obedience, is not
without resemblance to that system of ancient Asia, which
confined men to hereditary occupations, and consequently
vested in the sacerdotal caste a power founded in the ex¬
clusive possession of knowledge. The Egyptian and Phoe¬
nician colonists who settled in the Hellenic territory were,
by some fortunate accident unknown to history, set free
from those Asiatic restrictions which, having probably
long subsisted as usages, were at length sanctioned among
their ancestors by law and by religion as the sole security
against a relapse into unskilfulness and barbarism.” But
the Celtic colonists who originally settled in Gaul and
376
BRITAIN.
British
and
Roman
Period.
Britain were not equally fortunate. Having imported,
long before the period of record, the oriental s)Tstem, with
its &restrictive and stationary spirit, they submitted to its
yoke in their new settlements, where it withstood the ex¬
ample of a more generous polity afforded by the neigh¬
bouring republics of Hellenic origin, and only yielded at
length to the ascendancy of the benignant genius of the
Christian religion.
The prevalence of such a system is, even under the
most favourable circumstances, incompatible wdth an ad¬
vanced state of civilization; and in Britain it co-existed
with a condition of society which, anterior to the Roman
occupation, was but little elevated above absolute barba-
The south-western shores of the island had, it is
true, been early resorted to by foreigners for purposes of
traffic ; the Phoenicians'and Massilians, for example, trad¬
ed in the tin of Cornwall, and from them geographers
spoke of the Cassiterides or Tin Islands; but this traffic
was too limited in extent, and too confined in its sphere,
to have any material influence on the general character of
the people, who accordingly derived small benefit from
their occasional intercourse with foreigners. Their scan¬
ty clothing consisted of untanned skins; and the parts of
the body left exposed were bedaubed with an azure co¬
louring matter extracted from a particular herb. Tillage,
which had been introduced by the Belgic Gauls, was not
altogether unknown; but the principal articles of food
were the milk and flesh of their herds. Superstition, with
its usual blind absurdity, had forbidden them the use of
fish, which abounded on all the coasts of the island. Their
towns were merely clusters of wigwams, covered with turf,
boughs, or skins, and situated in the midst of some forest
or morass, with the avenues defended by ramparts of earth
and felled trees. In their persons they were large and
tall, excelling the Gauls alike in stature and in strength ;
but their features were heavy, their figures clumsy, and,
according to Strabo, they did not stand firm on their legs.
Large men, indeed, are seldom handsome or elegantly
formed. But although barbarians in point of art and in¬
dustry, the ancient Britons commanded respect by their
intellectual and moral qualities. According to Tacitus,
they possessed a quicker apprehension than the Gauls;
and Diodorus Siculus commends their integrity as greater
than that of the Romans. A custom abhorrent to natural
morality is indeed said to have prevailed amongst them ;
we are told that societies of ten or twelve persons possess¬
ed wives in common. But the supposition of such a cus¬
tom might be easily, though erroneously, formed, by a
Roman Stranger, from the circumstance of the barbarians
sleeping promiscuously in their hovels, as the peasantry
do to this day in some parts of Scotland; and the fact,
when rightly understood, by no means warrants the con¬
clusion which seems to have been drawn from it. On the
contrary, the chastity of the sexes, and the purity of do¬
mestic intercourse, may have been as rigidly observed and
maintained among these simple barbarians as in periods
of society when the guards of virtue are multiplied, and
modesty is sheltered by factitious sentiment and conven¬
tional ceremony.
The trade in tin of Cornwall, carried on either directly
or indirectly by the Phoenicians and Massilians, has been
already noticed. Prior to the Roman conquest, however,
the exports must have been inconsiderable ; and it is even
doubtful whether those early navigators were acquainted
with the mainland of Britain, since we hear only of the
Cassiterides, or adjacent islands, to which their mercantile
adventures appear to have been confined. But after the
Romans had firmly established themselves in their con¬
quest, copper, tin, lime, chalk, pearls, corn, cattle, hides,
horses, cheese, dogs, and slaves, began to be exported by
them, and we may conclude that the products of other
countries were imported in return or exchange for these
commodities. The only manufacture we read of was that
of baskets, in which, as we learn from various authorities,
the Britons greatly excelled. Some of the more useful
but baser metals seem not to have been found in Britain
before the time of Caesar, who informs us that even their
brass was imported ; and their skill in manufacturing such
as they had must have been very small indeed, since, as
we learn from the same authority, their ornamental trin¬
kets were supplied by strangers. But their warlike habits
had not left them ignorant of the coarser craft of the ar¬
mourer. Man has never been found, in any state or con¬
dition of his existence, altogether unprovided with weapons
of defence. Those of the Britons consisted of small tar¬
gets and swords, spears, and chariots armed with iron
scythes projecting from the extremities of the axle-tree;
and they were also provided with noisy rattles, intended
to strike terror into their enemies. Their chariots they
managed with considerable dexterity, and, on several oc¬
casions, succeeded in breaking the Roman line by means
of these vehicles ; but, on the whole, they proved unavail¬
ing against the admirable discipline of the legions, and
were no more heard of after the Romans gained a footing
in the island. It is even wonderful that they should ever,
in any instance, have been found in the least degree dan¬
gerous or formidable, except to theBritons themselves; for
as these vehicles could only act on level unbroken ground,
and as the extreme mobility of the legion gave it the choice
of its own position, whether for attack or defence, nothing
but the grossest misconduct on the part of its commander
could ever have placed it in a situation to be successfully
assaulted by such clumsy and unmanageable engines. _
Such are the principal notices supplied by historians
respecting the ancient inhabitants of this country prior to
the Roman conquest. The first events in the authentic
history of Britain are the landing of Caesar on the southern
shores, in the fifty-fifth year before the Christian era, and
his invasion of the country in the following year. The
course of his conquests in Gaul had brought him in sight
of an island hitherto known only by name, and, being pro¬
bably desirous of dazzling the people of Rome by a new
achievement, as well as of seeming to be engaged in ob¬
jects remote from internal aggrandizement, he resolved on
attempting a descent upon this unexplored region, on the
pretence that the Britons had rendered some assistance to
the Gauls in their struggle for independence. Another and
more secret motive for this expedition may have been,
that it would enable him to prolong his provincial com¬
mand, and, above all, to keep up an army devoted to its
chief, until the fulness of time should come for the execu¬
tion of his projects against liberty. On the first occasion,
when he disembarked near Deal, his landing w'as warmly
disputed by the natives ; but discipline and skill at length
prevailed over wild valour, and after a sanguinary struggle
the Britons were defeated, and forced to sue for peace.
Deputies were accordingly sent to lay their submission
before Caesar, and learn the conditions on which they were
to be forgiven for the crime of defending their native soil.
But having ascertained the number of the invaders, and
learnt that accidents arising from ignorance of the navi¬
gation had damaged the Roman fleet, they acceded to
whatever terms Caesar thought proper to dictate, and
secretly resolved to renew the attack. They were again
repulsed, however, though not without inflicting a se\ere
loss on the enemy ; and Caesar, surprised at the resistance
he had encountered, as well as anxious to secure his re¬
turn to Gaul, which the approach of winter had endangered,
readily accepted the nominal submission proffered by the
islanders. Thus ended the first descent of the Romans
British
and
Roman
Period.
BRITAIN.
British on Britain. After a brief but fierce struggle of little more
and than three weeks, Caesar embarked his whole army, and
Period1 r^turned to Gaul, glad to escape from a situation where
his means were insufficient to enable him to keep his
B< c ground, and where the slightest reverse w'ould undoubted-
65. ly have proved fatal.
In the ensuing spring the same commander again ap¬
peared on the British coast, with an armament of 800
vessels, having on board five legions and 2000 auxiliary
horse. The sight of so formidable a fleet made the Bri¬
tons despair of resisting the landing of the invaders, and
they accordingly withdrew to their forests, where they could
act with better chance of success. The Romans, there¬
fore, disembarked without opposition, penetrated into the
country, and passing the Thames above Kingston, enter¬
ed the country of the Trinobantes, whose territory includ¬
ed the site of the present metropolis of Britain. The ad¬
vance was bravely disputed, and in the course of this fo¬
rest campaign, the military qualities of the invaders were
put to a severe trial, by the incessant activity, the daring
courage, and the rapid movements of the hardy natives.
Cassivelaunus, a British chief, particularly distinguished
himself by his gallantry and enterprise, as well as by a na¬
tural talent for wrar, which was strikingly exhibited in the
bold design of cutting off Caesar from his fleet. But genius
and science asserted their usual superiority. The Britons
were at length vanquished; and the chiefs having promis¬
ed to pay tribute, and to abstain from hostility against
those of their countrymen who had abetted the Romans,
the latter withdrew, content with the barren glory of hav¬
ing gained a victory without result, and conquered a coun¬
try which they could not retain. In fact, it is not easy to
divine the real object of these expeditions. It has been
said that Cassar showed no signs of an intention to esta¬
blish himself in Britain, and probably regarded his expe¬
ditions only as a means of flattering the Romans, and of
displaying the complete reduction of Gaul. This may be
true; but it was never the character of Roman policy to
fight useless battles, or lavish unprofitably the blood of
the legions. The more probable supposition appears to
be, that Caesar considered the entire conquest and subju¬
gation of a country covered with forests, without roads,
and inhabited by a hardy, warlike race, as a hopeless task,
or at least as one which, in his particular situation, and
with the means at his disposal, it would be unwise or im¬
prudent to persevere in. One benefit, however, resulted
from his enterprise ; he first laid open the country to his¬
tory, and collected those invaluable notices of the cha-
- racter, condition, habits, manners, customs, and religion of
the people, which he has preserved in his Commentaries,
and which still afford instruction and delight to every
reader.
Britain was threatened with invasion by Augustus, who
thereby extorted presents and tribute from the insular
chiefs; Tiberius employed no menace, but exacted the
tribute; and Caligula, in one of his insane freaks, landed
at the head of a body of troops, whom he commanded to
charge the ocean, and collect cockle-shells as fit emblems
of his imaginary triumph over that boisterous enemy. The
visit of the imperial madman took place ninety years after
Caesar’s expedition, and formed a subject of derision to the
whole Roman world. But the next attempt was of a more
serious character, and productive of graver results. In
the reign of Claudius, the adventurous and hitherto un¬
profitable enterprise was resumed under two distinguish¬
ed officers, Aulus Plautius and Vespasian, who, landing
at the head of an army 50,000 strong, marched through
the territories of the Cattivelauni, and defeated Caracta-
cus and Trocodumnus, the British leaders, in three suc¬
cessive engagements. But the retreating enemy was still
VOL. v.
377
too formidable to be seriously passed; reinforcements British
were demanded by the emperor’s lieutenants; and seven an(^
years elapsed before they succeeded in reducing the coun-
try southward of the Thames. This partial conquest cost
the blood of thirty battles, in which the Romans were not A. D.
always victorious. 51.
Ostorius Scapula, who succeeded Aulus Plautius in the
provincial government of Britain, extended the province
to the banks of the Severn, and built a chain of forts to
check the incursions of the independent tribes. But Ca-
radoc or Caractacus still lived. This renowned chief had
lost his dominions; but, notwithstanding all his reverses,
the ascendancy he had acquired over the minds of his
countrymen remained unshaken, and, great in adversity,
he was still formidable. Despairing of success in the open
country, he transferred the war to the mountains of Wales,
and at the head of the Silures and other tribes, who had
arms in their hands and the love of liberty in their hearts,
he prepared to make another effort in defence of his coun¬
try. The position he selected for this final stand shows
him to have been possessed of that instinctive military
genius which anticipates science and often defeats its com¬
binations. It consisted of a rising ground or eminence,
with a rapid and scarcely fordable river, which it com¬
manded in front, and was incapable of being turned by
either flank, whilst its defensive strength was increased by
a stone rampart built along the brow of the hill. Here
he resolved to await the attack of the Romans; and ex¬
horting his followers to remember that Caesar himself had
been driven from the shores of Britain, he called upon
them to maintain by their valour the liberty which they
had inherited from their ancestors. They vowed fidelity
to the cause of their country, and promised that they
would conquer or die where they stood. The Roman
general was astonished. He saw that he had to encounter
a desperate enemy, skilfully posted, and unassailable ex¬
cept where his position was strongest; and, in viewing the
difficulties of his situation, his mind almost misgave him.
But the spirit of his soldiers was roused, and they cried
out that no position was impregnable to the brave/ Hav¬
ing forded the river with extreme difficulty, they formed
the testudo, or close column, covered overhead with their
shields, to protect them from the missile weapons of the
natives; ascended the hill in this compact order; broke
through the rampart of loose stones; and charging home
upon the Britons, overthrew them with great slaughter.
The brothers of the British prince surrendered; his wife
and daughter were made captive; and the hero himself,
who had escaped the casualties of the field, and taken
refuge among the Brigantes in Yorkshire, was afterwards
basely betrayed into the hands of the enemy by their
queen Cartismandua, his inhuman stepmother. He was
sent captive to Italy, whither the fame of his achieve¬
ments had preceded him; and the people flocked to be¬
hold the man who for nine years had defied the power of
Rome. His family supplicated for mercy ; but the mag¬
nanimous chief, sustaining in misfortune true greatness of
character, stooped not to prefer any solicitation, and, ad¬
dressing the emperor with a manly dignity, equally re¬
moved from abject submission and insolent defiance, made
so great an impression on the mind of Claudius, that his
fetters were ordered to be struck off, and both his family
and himself treated with the most distinguished regard.
Meanwhile the Silures, beaten but not subdued, renew¬
ed their attacks on the Romans, and kept up the animo¬
sity of their countrymen by their example. They cut to
pieces some cohorts employed in building forts in their
country; harassed the enemy with continual skirmishes;
and, although defeated in a general action which they af¬
terwards risked, they escaped without entire rout under
3 B
378
BRITAIN.
British
and
Roman
Period.
55.
cover of night. Weary of an obscure and destructive
warfare, barren of glory and productive of little save fa¬
tigue and anxiety, Ostorius died, and was succeeded by
Aulus Didius. The latter checked the incursions of the
Britons, who had again become formidable under a new
leader; but not till after they had defeated a Roman le¬
gion, and reaped some other advantages of a minor de¬
scription. Unfortunately for himself, hovyever, Yenusius,
the leader in question, and chief of the Huiccii of Warwick
and Worcestershire, had married the betrayer of Carac-
tacus, a woman as licentious in her personal conduct as
she had proved herself devoid of principle or patriotism.
Having scandalized her subjects by admitting Villocatus,
her armour-bearer, to a share of her bed and throne, Car-
tismandua implored the aid of the Romans against her
husband, who had collected a force to expel the usurper.
But the promised assistance proved too scanty for the
protection of the adultress, who, in the end, was driven
from her kingdom; and although this civil war operated
as a seasonable diversion, the efforts of the Romans w ere
for several years confined to the preservation of what they
had already acquired. .
But the season for action in due time arrived, bueto-
nius Paulinus, an officer of high reputation, but ambitious,
and prone to cruelty, having obtained the province of Bri¬
tain, resolved to destroy the sacred seat of Druidism in
the island of Mona or Anglesea, where the head of that
order resided, considering it as the centre of the British
nation, and the source whence emanated that spirit of
resistance which had already cost the Romans so much
blood. The project was equally bold and well conceived.
Having crossed the strait, however, he found a host drawn
up in order of battle to receive him, the declivities brist¬
ling with arms, soldiers occupying every defile, and women,
in funeral apparel, running along the ranks like furies with
burning torches in their hands, whilst Druids clustered
around, imprecating the wrath of heaven on the sacrilegious
intruders into their holy of holies. Awed by the spectacle,^
the legions for a moment stood powerless ; but ashamed of
their momentary panic, they rushed forward to the attack,
drove all before them, and, after demolishing the altars
and groves, burned the Druids in their own fires.
In the midst of this havoc, however, Suetonius received
intelligence of a general insurrection of the conquered
tribes. The immediate causes of an outbreaking so little
expected were the gross injustice done to the family of
Prasutaegus, king of the Icini, and the atrocious outrages
offered to his queen Boadicea, who, having remonstrated
against the fraudulent exheredation of her children, vyas
publicly whipped, and constrained to witness the violation
of her daughters. Wrongs so great, and insults so intoler¬
able, required not the general spoliation which followed to
kindle up the spirit of an indignant people, and to turn
their vengeance on the oppressors. The standard of the in¬
jured queen was raised, and numerous tribes rallied round
it. The infant colony of Camelodunum (Malden or Col¬
chester) was destroyed; the infantry of the ninth legion
were annihilated; and in the more flourishing colony of
Yerulamium (St Alban’s) seventy thousand persons are
said to have been put to death with all the cruelties of a
barbarous revenge. Suetonius flew to the assistance of
his countrymen, and soon succeeded in bringing the Bri¬
tons to a general action on open ground, where their su¬
periority in point of numbers was of little avail against dis¬
cipline and science. They were defeated with prodigious
slaughter, whilst the victors, by their own account, lost
only five hundred men. The disproportion was doubtless
great; but this is probably an exaggeration in both direc¬
tions. The Britcns seem to have fought gallantly, though
not successfully; and hence the historian says, that “ the
glory won on that day was equal to that of the most re¬
nowned victories of the ancient Romans,” a statement in¬
consistent with the notion that it had been either easily
or cheaply purchased. Boadicea ended her miseries by
taking poison ; and Posthumus, the commander of a legion,
fell on his sw'ord, indignant at not having a share in so
glorious a victory.1
Broken by this blow, the spirit of the Britons would have
soon been quenched had it not been kept alive by oppres¬
sion. Suetonius, with all his abilities, was injudiciously
vindictive, and frequently lost by his cruelty the advan¬
tages which he had gained by his talents. He was there¬
fore recalled by Nero; and, under his more immediate suc¬
cessors, the Britons enjoyed a short interval of repose.
But the Roman energies revived under Vespasian, who
had gathered his first laurels in Britain. The Brigantes,
commanded by Yenusius, were at length overcome; and
the Silures, after a gallant but hopeless resistance, were
in like manner subdued. In this double contest Cerealis
and Frontinus employed no less than seven years, a fact
which sufficiently indicates the persevering energy with
which these powerful tribes contended for independence.
These successes paved the way for the subjugation of
the greater part of the island under Cnaeus Julius Agricola,
who was now appointed to the government of the province.
The administration of this distinguished Roman wmuld
probably have been as little known to us as that of any
of his predecessors, if it had not been for the circumstance
of having as his son-in-law the most able and philosophi¬
cal of the ancient historians ; “ a singular instance,” as Sir
James Mackintosh obsenes, “ of the power which ge¬
nius, in ages where historical materials are scanty, may
exercise over the allotment of fame. In the character of
Agricola is exhibited an example of the union of great ca¬
pacity for w ar, with prudence, moderation, and judgment
in the administration of civil affairs. “ His well-balan¬
ced mind,” says the very eminent writer just cited, “ was
averse from all excess, but it was without those brilliant
peculiarities in which the biographer delights. The only
general maxim by which the historian attempts to exalt
his character is, that there is a conduct, even under tyran¬
nical reigns, equally distant from servility and turbulence,
by which an eminent man may serve his country with
safety and innocence. The work in question ought rather
to be regarded as the funeral panegyric than as the life of
Agricola. The age of Tacitus afforded him few opportuni¬
ties to acquire a talent for praise by frequent exercise : his
style did not easily descend to ordinary particulars; and
his affection in this case cramped his freedom.” Hence
the indistinctness of the outline presented to us by the
historian may be ascribed both to the generality of his lan¬
guage and to the limits of his information ; circumstances
often render it difficult to extract a precise meaning from
his words, and, particularly, to fix the localities of some of
the most interesting events he relates.
Agricola began his military career in Britain by subdu¬
ing the Ordovici of North Wales, and reducing Mona,
which, after the fierce vigour of Suetonius was withdrawn
in consequence of the insurrection under Boadicea, had
regained its independence and religious pre-eminence as
the grand seat of Druidism. This he effected without
the aid of ships, by causing a sufficient force to swim across
the narrowest nart of the strait with their arms and horses,
but unencumbered with baggage. In his second campaign
British
and
Roman
Period.
78.
1 Mackintosh, History, vol. i. p. 22.
BRITAIN.
379
British he carried his arms to the northward, and subdued tribes
and who had never as yet come into contact with the Romans ;
Roman shying clemency to such as submitted to the power of
\ Rome, and never, in any instance, abusing victory for pur-
'g^j'9 poses of cruelty or oppression. To secure these advan¬
ced conquests, he built a chain of forts or military stations
from sea to sea, in nearly the same line where the ram¬
part of Hadrian and the wall of Severus were afterwards
erected.
In his third campaign Agricola entered the country of
the Caledonians by the head of the Solway, and traversed
it as far as the Tay without encountering an enemy. Be¬
lieving that the invaders would retire on the approach of
winter, they abstained from committing any hostilities;
but in this expectation they were deceived, for, when win¬
ter set in, they found the Romans established in fortified
towns, well provided with all necessary stores, and secure
alike against surprise or assault. Next year the Roman
general built a line of forts between the friths of Forth
and Clyde, with the double view of excluding the conta¬
gion of revolt, and of protecting the inhabitants of the
province against the inroads of the northern barbarians.
In his fifth campaign he crossed the frith of Clyde; and,
after a variety of skirmishes with the wild natives of Can-
tyre, Lorn, Argyleshire, and Lochaber, obtained a view of
the coast of Ireland, which, from the information he col¬
lected as to the force necessary for subduing and retain¬
ing, he meditated adding to the Roman empire; but this
design was never put in execution. During his sixth
campaign he passed the friths of Forth and Tay, and led
his army, which was attended and supported in all its
movements by a fleet, along the eastern coast of Scotland.
The Caledonians hung upon his line of march, and harass¬
ed him considerably; but, awed by the presence and sight
of the fleet, which was to them a novel spectacle, they
generally kept at a respectful distance. In a night attack,
however, they threw a portion of his army into confusion ;
and, having penetrated into the camp of the ninth legion,
would have overwhelmed them entirely if Agricola had
not come with great celerity to their aid, and driven the
assailants back to their wmods and morasses. After this
action, Agidcola retired into winter quarters, and left the
Caledonians a short respite to prepare for the final strug¬
gle in defence of their rude independence.
When the Roman commander took the field in his se¬
venth campaign, he found the native host encamped in a po¬
sition the exact locality of which has been much disputed
(some fixing it at the base of the central and others at that
of the eastern portion of the Grampian chain), under a
chief whose name has been latinized into Galgacus. The
barbarians were estimated at near 30,000 men, whilst the
Roman army was little, if at all, inferior in number. But
every possible advantage was on the side of the latter; for
with what conceivable chance of success could a disorder¬
ly mass or rabble of 30,000 barbarians contend against an
equal number of highly-disciplined and veteran troops, led
on by a general of consummate ability and great expe¬
rience in the art of war? The elaborate description of
Tacitus has caused an importance to be attached to this
battle, which, in reality, does not belong to it. The issue
was never even for an instant doubtful. The Caledonians
were defeated with great slaughter, ten thousand having
fallen either in the battle or in the pursuit, whilst the loss
of the Romans scarcely exceeded three hundred men.
After the defeat of their main body, a reserve of the Ca¬
ledonians moved to take the Romans in flank ; but the at¬
tempt was defeated by Agricola in person at the head of
a strong body of legionaries, and the flight then became
universal. The inhabitants mingled with the fugitives
after setting fire to their dwellings, and the silence of de¬
solation succeeded to the noise of conflict. The pursuit British
was soon discontinued; the vanquished found refuge in j^^an
their mountain fastnesses; and as the Grampian range perj0<j_
which towered in front constituted the advanced bulwark _
of a country wholly unknown, Agricola did not attempt to 211.
penetrate into its dangerous defiles, but, marching into
the country now called Angus, took it from the Horesti,
whom he had previously subdued. Meanwhile his fleet
returned from a voyage of discovery which it had prose¬
cuted as far as the Orcades, and even Thule, supposed to
be Foula, the most northerly of the Zetland islands; and
Agricola established his winter quarters on the most level
district, which lay to the northward of the natural frontier
formed by the two friths. But in the reign of Domitian
it was difficult for the most prudent general to be long
successful with safety. Agricola was recalled; and, on
his return to Rome, all the arts by which he shunned po¬
pularity proved insufficient to lull the suspicions of a jea¬
lous tyrant, by whose directions his days seem to have
been shortened by poison.
Under Agricola the Roman dominion reached its ut¬
most extent in Britain, and the natives, as we have seen,
were driven into the rugged and inhospitable regions be¬
yond the Grampians. From this time till the close of the
third century the island is seldom noticed by the Roman
historians. We know, indeed, though chiefly by the evi¬
dence of medals, that the mountaineers broke into tbe
Roman province, and were driven back into their fastnesses
by the vigorous arm of Hadrian, who erected a second
wall, the remains of which are still traceable from the
Solway Frith to the mouth of the Tyne. Under Antoni¬
nus the same species of fortification was constructed on
the more northern frontier of the friths; while Severus,
abandoning Agricola’s rampart, which Antoninus had
caused to be repaired, erected a stone wall almost paral¬
lel with that of Hadrian already mentioned, and in a man¬
ner equally solid and durable. These frontier works, ex¬
ecuted on so large a scale, and requiring a numerous body
of troops at the different stations for their defence, suffi¬
ciently attest the persevering and formidable character of
the assaults of our rude ancestors on the Roman power in
Britain. They might be beaten, but they could not be
subdued; they might be driven back, but in a little time
they were sure to return to the attack. The progress of
the Roman arms in the reduction of Britain was singular¬
ly slow; and, notwithstanding all their defensive precau¬
tions, the tenure by which the northern part of the pro¬
vince was held seems to have been exceedingly insecure.
Gaul was conquered by one great effort, and retained in
subjection without difficulty. Britain, on the other hand,
though peopled by a race of kindred origin, was only car¬
ried as it were foot by foot, and kept under by the direct
ascendancy of military power. And this difference pro¬
duced another, which, in its results, often influenced the
destinies of the Roman world. Its insular situation, and
the large force which it was necessary to maintain for the
support of order and government, offered irresistible temp¬
tations to irregular ambition ; it became “ an island fertile
in usurpers;” and the commander who assumed the pur¬
ple had always at hand powerful means to enforce his pre¬
tensions. It was alike the object and the theatre of all
manner of intrigues and contentions ; the first, though not
the highest, prize in the lottery of ambition. Hence the
Roman cultivation was extended to it in a much less de¬
gree than to Spain and Gaul. The writers of the latter
province were respectable, those of the former the most
celebrated of the time; but Roman Britain did not pro¬
duce a single literary name. In what degree the .preva¬
lence of the Latin might have paved the way for that dis¬
appearance of the ancient language of Britain in the lar-
3K0
BRITAIN.
Bntish
and
Homan
Period.
211.
ger and more fertile portion of the island, which was com¬
pleted under the Saxons, there are no memorials extant
which warrant us to hazard a conjecture. The Roman re¬
mains seem rather to indicate the luxury of the military
stations of that people, than a desire to adorn their pro¬
vince with civil architecture; whilst, in the convenience and
magnificence of their roads, they only contemplated the
security of their power or the extension of their conquests.
The precise period of the introduction of Christianity
into Britain is uncertain. About the end of the second
century, however, we find Tertullian boasting that the
gospel had subdued tribes yet unconquered by the Ro¬
mans ; and from this circumstance, as well as from our
more accurate information respecting the diffusion of
Christianity in Gaul, it may be reasonably supposed that
its first planting in our island was considerably earlier.
Two centuries afterwards, theological controversy had be¬
come so prevalent, that Pelagius and Celestius, the one a
Welchman and the other a Scotchman, agitated all Chris¬
tendom by their heretical notions on the subjects of ori¬
ginal sin and free will. The received opinion, which
ascribes to Constantine, who began his reign at York, the
introduction of Christianity into Britain towards the mid¬
dle of the fourth century, is founded upon the palpable
error of confounding the first preaching of the gospel with
the formal recognition or establishment of Christianity,
upon the ruins of Paganism, as the religion of the empire.
Long before that time intrepid and dauntless missionaries
had carried the faith of the cross to the hearths and the
homes of our barbarous ancestors; and the policy of Con¬
stantine only kept pace with, instead of outrunning, the
natural course of events.
When Severus died at York, Caracalla, then known by
his original name of Bassianus, concluded a peace with
the Caledonians, and, along with his brother Geta, hasten¬
ed to Rome to plunge into all the debaucheries of the ca¬
pital. There now occurs in the history of Britain a chasm
of seventy years, during which the silence of the Roman wri¬
ters would lead us to infer that the island enjoyed peace. In
the reign of Diocletian, Carnusius, intrusted with the com¬
mand of a naval armament, fitted out to repress piracy on
the coasts of Britain, usurped the purple, and maintained
his assumed dignity for eight years. But while Constan-
tius, the coadjutor of the emperor, was preparing to attack
him, he was assassinated by Allectus, who, imitating the
example of his master, usurped the sovereignty, and main¬
tained it for three years. He was, however, defeated and
slain by Constantius, who put an end to the rebellion, and
dispersed the followers of the usurper. In the division of
the empire between Galerius and Constantius, Britain fell
to the share of the latter, who, in consequence, fixed his
residence in the island, and, after some contests with the
Caledonians, of which little is known, died at York, leav¬
ing his son Constantine his successor in the empire. This
prince, not unjustly surnamed the Great, assumed the
purple at York, where he staid some time to pay the last
honours to his father’s ashes, and to finish the war with
the Meaetae and Caledonians, who at this time began to
be known by the names of Piets and Scots. Called after¬
wards to a higher destiny, and recognized as the undis¬
puted master of the Roman world, he overthrew the altars
of Paganism, and established Christianity as the religion
of the empire, including that portion of it where he had
first been invested with the ensigns of the imperial dig¬
nity. About eighteen years after the accession of Con¬
stantine, Britain took part with the unsuccessful usurper
Magnentius. This entailed on it the bitter resentment of
Constantius, who sent into the island one Paulus, a Spa¬
niard, with instructions to discover and punish those who
had been concerned in the rebellion. Tyranny is not al¬
ways so fortunate as so be provided with such instruments. British
This inquisitor, surnamed Catena, from his expertness in and
connecting criminal charges, entered at once on his career, ^oman
and soon filled all the western parts with tortures, confis- t '
cations, and murders. Martinus, the British governor,
unable to restrain his cruelties, attempted his life, but un¬
happily missing the aim, was obliged to pay the forfeit of
his own. On the accession of Julian to the purple, tnat
event was signalized by an act of exemplary justice ; the
inhuman Paulus was ordered to be burned alive.
A few words may be necessary here respecting the con¬
stitution of the provincial government of Britain. This
was generally intrusted to a prefect, who exercised the
civil and military power, subject only to the control of the
questors, whose peculiar department was finance. The pre¬
fect acted as imperial lieutenant or viceroy, and appoint¬
ed the governors of the six provinces into which Roman
Britain was divided. These were, first, Britain to the
south of the Severn and the Thames; second, Britain
along the Severn, including Wales and the adjoining dis¬
tricts ; third, Flavia Csesariensis, from the two former
provinces to the German Ocean, the Humber, and the
Don ; fourth, Maxima Caesariensis to the north of the
Humber, from its mouth, as far as the mouths of the Tyne
and the Eden; fifth, Valencia, from the Tyne to the
Clyde and the Forth ; and, sixth, Vespasiana, the country
beyond the friths, a precarious and ill-defined conquest,
continually disturbed by the inroads of the barbarians.
Such were the territorial divisions of this country under the
Romans. They seem to have been adopted gradually as
conquest extended, and afterwards rounded off by natural
limits for the convenience alike of the general and of the
local government.
For about a century and a half the southern part of the
Roman province in Britain had suffered but little disturb¬
ance from the northern tribes, whose inroads were gene¬
rally checked by the frontier defences and garrisons. About
ten years, however, after the judicial campaign of Paulus,
the Scots and Piets, recovering from the chastisement in¬
flicted on them by the commanders of Julian, attacked
with greater force the legions of Valentinian and Valens,
and for three years ravaged the province with impunity.
They were at length driven back by Theodosius, governor
of Britain, and father of the celebrated emperor of that
name, who defeated them in several battles, and forcing
them beyond the rampart of Agricola, once more extended
the province to its utmost ancient limits. But the progres¬
sive decline of the empire having exposed its northern fron¬
tier to invasion at every point, the Roman troops were gra¬
dually withdrawn from this island for the more urgent pur¬
pose of protecting the seat of dominion ; and about the
middle of the fifth century Britain was abandoned to her
own resources. Gallio of Ravenna commanded the last de¬
tachment of troops that Rome ever sent to this island. This
was under Honorius. After repelling a furious inroad of
the Scots and Piets, the Roman general, assembling the
British chiefs, told them frankly, that, since the empire,
labouring under its own weight, could no longer afiord
them protection, they must henceforth take courage and
defend themselves; and, in the name of the emperor, he
formally absolved the different cities or townships of the
province from their allegiance to Rome. Lastly, having
repaired the wall of Severus, erected useful forts, and
supplied the natives with military weapons and engines,
the Romans took their final departure from Britain ex¬
actly four hundred and seventy-five years after Julius
Caesar first landed on its shores.
These bequests, however, proved unavailing. The Bri¬
tish youth who had been trained in the Roman army more
than once drove back the barbarous tribes of their own
BRITAIN.
381
British island ; but the latter increasing in numbers and audacity,
and at length “ broke through their walls, like wolves into a
Roman sheep-fold, retired with their booty, and returned every suc-
ceed*ng year.” In their distress they made a vain appeal
431 to iEtius, who for a moment propped the falling empire.
“ The barbarians,” said they in a letter entitled the Groans
of the Britons, “ drive us into the sea, and the sea drives
us back upon the swords of the barbarians.” But /Etius
had to do with Attila, and, however much he might pity
the suppliants, he could afford them no relief. Disap¬
pointed of aid in this quarter, and despairing of their abi¬
lity any longer to resist their northern invaders, the Bri¬
tish states were led to employ in their defence auxiliaries
who soon became more formidable than the enemies
against whom they had been called in to combat. These
mercenaries, who gradually rose to be conquerors, con¬
sisted chiefly of Saxons, intermingled with Angles, Jutes,
and Frisians from the Cimbric Chersonesus, or peninsula
of Jutland. The Saxons, who appear to have had their
chief seat on the Elbe, were previously known to the Bri¬
tons only by predatory descents on their coasts ; and, cer¬
tainly, it does seem rather extraordinary that they should
have thought of calling in the aid of such perilous auxili¬
aries. But, under the pressure of urgent danger or actual
calamity, men are more inclined to seek present relief than
to calculate remote consequences ; and it should be recol¬
lected that the Britons, denied all assistance by their for¬
mer masters, and wholly unable to defend themselves
against the desolating inroads of the fierce tribes of the
north, were in a situation to close with any scheme
which promised even a chance of deliverance. That the
invitation given to this marauding race was as formal as
it afterwards proved fatal to the native population, may
safely be doubted, notwithstanding the direct testimony
of the Saxon historians. They were probably at hand,
and being always ready to embark in any enterprise which
held out a prospect of booty, they in all likelihood required
but little solicitation to induce them to join the Britons
against their northern enemies. Accordingly, in the mid¬
dle of the fifth century, the Saxon ships arrived on the
British coast, where they disembarked a few hundred wild
warriors of that roving nation under their leaders Hengist
and Horsa. These fabled descendants of Oden immedi¬
ately took the field at the head of their followers, and by
their aid the Piets and Scots were completely defeated.
One evil was thus averted, but another, and, if possible,
a greater, succeeded. The Saxons, acquiring a liking for
the country they had been hired to defend, and eager to
exchange the bleak shores and sandy wastes of the north
for the rich fields and more genial climate of Britain, in¬
vited fresh bodies of their countrymen to join them, and,
in a little time, from being the auxiliaries, they became the
conquerors and masters, of the ill-fated Britons. But the
latter did not yield without a struggle. Displaying, when
it was too late, a valour which, more opportunely exerted,
would have spared them the miseries of this contest, they
resisted their new tyrants, and occasionally with success.
Horsa fell in battle; and so slow was the progress of the
Saxon arms, that Hengist, with all his boasted victories,
never penetrated beyond the county of Kent. The in¬
vaders, however, clung with desperate tenacity to the soil.
By degrees the Saxon power reduced the natives to entire
submission, or drove them to seek shelter in the moun¬
tains of Wales, Cornwall, and Cumberland. Many emi¬
grated to avoid the horrors of this conquest; and some
settling in Armorica, the peninsula between the Seine
and the Loire, laid the foundation of that singular resem¬
blance in language and manners to the insular Britons
which has ever since distinguished the inhabitants of Bre¬
tagne. For the history of England from this period until
the union of the crowns, we refer to the article England.
See also the article Scotland.
CHAP. II.
Reign of
James I.
1603.
REIGN OF JAMES I.
Accession of James to the English throne State of the nation at
this time—Origin of the patriotic party.—Grievances of the
nation—James’s arbitrary system of government Puritans 
Attempt to establish Episcopacy in Scotland Iniquity and
folly of the project—First Parliament Peace with Spain 
Proposed union with Scotland—Difference between the King
and the Parliament—New Parliament convoked Execution
of Sir Walter Raleigh—Gunpowder Plot—Policy in regard to
Ireland—Death of Henry Prince of Wales—Affairs of the
Palatinate—Spanish match proposed.—Remonstrance of the
Commons, and dispute consequent thereon—Marriage with
the Infanta resolved on—Prince Charles sets out for Madrid :
His reception there—Articles of the Marriage treaty Faith¬
lessness of the Prince—Marriage with the Infanta broken off.—
New match proposed with Henrietta of France War declared
against Spain.—Affairs on the Continent—Death and charac¬
ter of James.
The history of Britain as one kingdom commences with
the union of the crowns in the beginning of the seven¬
teenth century. In 1603 the kingdoms of Scotland and
England fell under the dominion of one sovereign, by the
accession of James VI. of Scotland to the English throne.
He derived his title to the latter from being the great-
grandson of Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII.;
and, on the failure of the male line, his hereditary right
remained incontestible. Queen Elizabeth, with her last
breath, bad recognised him for her successor; and the
parliament, conformably to her dying request, had settled
the succession on the heirs of Henry VII.; so that few sove¬
reigns ever ascended a throne with more general approba¬
tion, or greater hopes of a peaceable and happy reign. The
memory of a disputed succession was yet fresh in the
minds of the English; and as the title of James was un¬
questionable, the accession of a protestant sovereign, who
was to extinguish the hostility of Scotland, and unite two
kingdoms intended by nature to form one, was regarded as
a new and auspicious era in the history of both countries.
But the popularity of James hardly survived bis arrival
in England; the hopes which bad been so eagerly che¬
rished were soon blighted ; and the history of this mo¬
narch’s reign consists of little else than a detail of disputes
and contentions between him and his parliament. A
minute account of these transactions w'ould scarcely con¬
duce either to entertainment or instruction; but it is never¬
theless of importance to know their origin, as out of them
sprung those succeeding events which make so conspi¬
cuous a figure in the annals of Britain.
In the ages which preceded the period upon which we
are now entering, the human mind, enervated by supersti¬
tion, and degraded by ignorance, seemed to have surren¬
dered all pretensions to liberty, either religious or civil.
Unlimited and uncontrolled despotism everywhere pre¬
vailed ; and although England suffered less in this respect
than almost any other nation, the numerous examples of
arbitrary power exercised by her sovereigns show that
the country was then very far indeed from enjoying liber¬
ty in any rational sense of the term. As a proof of this,
and as an evidence how little restraint was at that time
imposed on the authority of the sovereign, it is only neces¬
sary to mention, that the proceedings of parliament were
accounted of so little consequence, that no journals were
kept of them ; nor was it till 1607, four years subsequent
to the accession of James, that parliamentary journals wrere
commenced, on the motion of Sir Edwin Sandys, a mem¬
ber of great authority in the house.
382 BRIT
Reign of The proceedings of parliament being held as of so little
James I. consequence, it is no wonder that the sessions were not
regular, and that little attention was paid to the choice
1603. or continuance of the members. In the reign of Elizabeth
and her predecessors the sessions of parliament seldom ex¬
ceeded in duration a twelfth part of the vacations. When
parliaments were prolonged beyond one session, it was
usual for the Chancellor to exert a discretionary authority
of issuing new writs to supply the place of such members
as he judged incapable of attending, either by reason of
business, sickness, or any other impediment. No prac¬
tice could be more dangerous to liberty than this; yet so
little were the rights and interests of the nation then under¬
stood, that the Commons, of their own accord, confirmed
the Chancellor’s power in this respect by the 23d of Eliza¬
beth ; nor did they proceed any further in the assertion
of their privileges, than to vote, that during the sitting of
parliament no writ should issue for the choosing or return¬
ing of any member without the warrant of the house.
But towards the end of the sixteenth and beginning of
the seventeenth century, a great though insensible revo¬
lution took place throughout all Europe. Arts and sciences
began to flourish ; commerce and navigation were greatly
extended; and learning of all kinds began to be diffused.
More enlarged views naturally gave birth to generous
sentiments ; a love of freedom, in England especially, was
implanted in the breasts of most people of birth and edu¬
cation ; and this was greatly promoted by an acquaintance
with the ancient Greek and Latin writers. The exam¬
ple of the republics of Greece and Rome, the members
of which had so often sacrificed their lives in defence of
liberty, produced a powerful impression; and a desire of
circumscribing the excessive prerogative and arbitrary
proceedings of the crown began to be secretly formed
throughout the nation.
Nor was this desire unreasonable, or without a solid
foundation. During the last years of Queen Elizabeth’s
reign, the commerce, navigation, and number of seamen
in England, had sensibly decayed. A remonstrance from
the Trinity-house in 1602 bears, that since 1588, the num¬
ber of seamen and shipping had decayed about a third.
Every species of domestic industry was fettered by mono¬
polies, and exclusive companies, w'hich are only another
species of monopoly ; almost all foreign trade, except that
to France, was in the hands of a few ; and any prospect of
future improvement in commerce was for ever sacrificed
to the temporary advantage of the sovereign. These
companies, though arbitrarily erected, had carried their
privileges so far, that almost all the commerce of Eng¬
land centred in London; the customs of that port alone
amounted to L.l 10,000 a year, whilst those of the rest of
the kingdom amounted only to L.17,000; and the whole
trade of London itself was confined to about two hundred
citizens, who, by combining together, were easily enabled
to fix whatever price they pleased both on the exports
and imports of the nation. Besides this, the subjects
were burdened by wardships and purveyances. The latter
constituted an old prerogative of the crown, by which the
officers of the household were empowered to take, without
consent of the owners, provisions for the king’s family, and
carts and horses for the removal of his baggage, upon
paying a stated price for them. The king had also a
power of sending any person, without his own consent, on
whatsoever message he pleased; and thus he could easily
compel an individual to pay any sum of money he chose,
rather than be sent out of the country on a disagreeable
mission. Money extorted from individuals by this or by
any other method was usually called, doubtless in derision,
a “ benevolence.”
These were a few of the grievances under which the
AIN.
nation at this time laboured, and which the rising spirit Reign of
of patriotism tended to redress. This disposition, how- James I.
ever, the severe government of Elizabeth had confined
within very narrow limits. But when James, a foreign
prince, less dreaded and less beloved, succeeded to the
throne, symptoms of a freer and more independent genius
immediately appeared. Happily, James neither perceived
the alteration, nor had sufficient capacity to check its ear¬
ly advances. He had established in his own mind a spe¬
culative system of absolute government, which few of his
subjects, and none but traitors and rebels, as he thought,
would make any scruple to admit. He thought himself
entitled to equal prerogatives with other European sove¬
reigns, not considering the military force by which their
despotism was sustained. The almost unlimited power
which for upwards of a century had been exercised by
the English sovereigns, he considered as the prerogative of
royal birth, and not as the result of peculiar circumstances
skilfully improved. In his person, therefore, he imagined
all legal power to be centred by a hereditary and divine
right; and so fully was he persuaded of his absolute pro¬
perty in his subjects, that in his speech to the parliament
in 1621, he told them that he “ wished them to have said
that their privileges were derived from the grace and
permission of him and his ancestors.” And when the
same parliament protested that “ the liberties, franchises,
privileges, and jurisdictions of parliament, are the ancient
and undoubted birthright and inheritance of the subjects
of England,” he was so enraged, that, sending for the
journals of the Commons, he, with his own hand, before
the council, tore out this protestation, and ordered his
reasons to be inserted in the council-book.
The consequence of such opposite dispositions actuat¬
ing the king and parliament was, that during this reign
the prerogatives of the crown were openly and violently
attacked. But the chief grounds of discontent were money
and religion. The king’s high notions of the royal prero¬
gative made him imagine that he had a right to whatever
sums he pleased to demand; whilst his profusion caused
him to dissipate in a short time the scanty supplies which
he succeeded in extorting from the parliament. With re¬
gard to religious matters, the nation was at that time great¬
ly infected with Puritanism. Though the severities ot Eli¬
zabeth had almost totally suppressed the Papists, it had
been otherwise with the Puritans. So much had they in¬
creased by the very means which had diminished the num¬
ber of Catholics, that no less than seven hundred and fifty
clergymen of that persuasion signed a petition to James on
his accession to the English throne. They hoped that the
king, having received his education in Scotland, and al¬
ways professed an attachment to the church established
there, would at least abate the rigour of the laws enacted
against the Puritans, if he did not show them particular
favour and encouragement. But in this they were griev¬
ously mistaken. He had observed in their Scottish breth¬
ren a decided turn towards republicanism, and a zealous
attachment to civil liberty. In his capacity of monarch as
well as of theologian, he had experienced the little complai¬
sance they were disposed to show him. They controlled
his commands; disputed his tenets; and to his lace, be¬
fore the whole people, censured his conduct and behaviour.
This superiority assumed by the Presbyterian clergy, the
monarchical pride of James could never digest. Although
he had been obliged, while in Scotland, to court theii fa¬
vour, he treasured up, on that account, the stronger re¬
sentment against them; and he was determined to make
them feel, in their turn, the full weight of his authority.
He therefore not only rejected the petition of the clergy¬
men above mentioned, but throughout his whole reign re¬
fused to relax in the least the severity of the laws against
BRIT
Reign of Protestant nonconformists, although often petitioned to
James I. the contrary by his parliament.
The same principles which produced in James such
1603, an aversion to the Puritans, prompted him to favour the
Episcopalians, and even the Catholics, as being greater
friends to despotism. In his youth he had been sus¬
pected of a bias towards the ancient religion; and it is
certain that when he ascended the throne of England,
he often endeavoured to procure some mitigation of the
laws against them, if not an absolute toleration. But in
this he was constantly opposed by the parliament; and
indeed the strong inclination shown by James to establish
Episcopacy throughout the whole of his dominions, tended
very much to alienate the minds of his subjects, especially
in Scotland, and to create that suspicion of his intentions
which accompanied him to the grave.
The first intercourse between King James and his English
parliament discovered at once the character of the new
monarch, and the spirit of the people over whom he had
been called to reign. Vain, pedantic, garrulous, mean,
and accessible to flattery, however gross; arbitrary in his
principles, and in his own opinion the greatest master of
king-craft that ever lived; “ the wretched Solomon of
Whitehall” found in his English ministers, Cecil, Suffolk,
and Northampton, devoted parasites and ready tools. His
address to the parliament bespoke his own opinion of
himself, and showed that he believed himself an absolute
king, whose proclamations were to have the force of laws.
But it was only with his courtiers and bishops that James
passed for that paragon of wisdom and policy which he
devoutly believed himself to be. The House of Commons
already contained many men of free, fearless, and intelli¬
gent minds; nor were the principles of independence,
which in several instances had been asserted against all
the power and energy of Elizabeth, likely to be veiled
before the mock dignity of such a regal punchinello as
James. His first parliament, accordingly, reminded him
of their privileges; resisted the arbitrary issue, by the
Chancellor, of new writs for elections; and made some
laudable attempts to check the spirit of monopoly which
paralysed the trade and manufactures of the kingdom, as
well as to relieve the landed interest from some remnants
of feudal oppression.
The accession of James was speedily followed by the
conclusion of peace with Spain. The tendency of his dis¬
position was pacific, not so much from principle, as from
the want of all energy, vigour, and force of character, if
not positive cowardice. But whilst the nation was thus
delivered from the evils of war, a deadly blow was medi¬
tated against the government in all its branches, and
against the religion of the country. This was the famous
Gunpowder Plot, which the habitual fears of the king,
sharpened by the scenes he had witnessed in his youth,
enabled him to “ nose out,” as he called it, and to read
the true meaning of the threats contained in a letter from
one of the conspirators, after it had eluded the sagacity
of his wisest counsellors. The common danger which the
king and the parliament had escaped kept them for a time
in good humour with each other ; and a supply of L.400,000
was voted by the Commons to relieve the king from the
embarrassments in which his thoughtless profusion had
involved him, and to enable him to give a suitable recep¬
tion to his brother-in-law, the king of Denmark.
But the most important subject of discussion which oc¬
cupied the attention of this first parliament was a pro¬
ject for incorporating the kingdoms whose crowns were
already united on the head of James. A motion to this
effect was made by Sir Francis Bacon, the king’s solicitor,
who supported it with all the ability, ingenuity, and elo¬
quence for which he was so greatly distinguished; maintain-
A I N. 383
ing that, for the object contemplated, there was no need of Reign of
uniformity in the laws or religion of the two countries,—
and that, with Ireland subdued, Scotland united, and the
navy duly supported, the English monarchy would be¬
come the most formidable in the world. It is to the ho¬
nour of James, and reflects credit on the sagacity which
he at intervals displayed, that he was eager in forwarding
this measure. But the Commons remained inflexible, and
the project consequently failed. In conformity, however,
with an opinion obtained from the judges, the post-nati,
that is, all Britons born since the death of Queen Eliza¬
beth, were declared to be naturalized subjects in either
kingdom.
Pecuniary difficulties, from which the king was never
free, brought him again as a suppliant for aid from this
parliament. Squandering with reckless prodigality, he
was continually in want; and, in the present instance, his
embarrassments were aggravated by the expense incurred
in maintaining his government in Ireland. The parliament
acceded to his solicitations; but, in return, demanded a
redress of grievances, and amongst these the suppression
of the High Commission Court, which had become odious
by the severities it exercised against the Puritans. James
refused the supply tendered on such conditions, and the
dispute ended by his dissolving the parliament; on which
occasion the royal pedant told them “ not to meddle with
the main points of government—that was his craft; nor
pretend to instruct a king who had been thirty years at
the trade in Scotland, besides an apprenticeship of seven
years in England.”
But James found it impossible to dispense altogether
with this “ meddling” body. His usual extravagance soon
reduced him to straits, notwithstanding the discreditable
shifts he had recourse to for raising money; and, in
1613, he was obliged to convoke another parliament, for
the sake of obtaining a supply. At this time Robert
Carre, whom he had raised through several gradations of
dignity to be Earl of Somerset, engrossed the favour of
the monarch, and merited the hatred of the nation. The
sums spent on this worthless minion, and the countenance
shown him after the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, at
once degraded the king in the eyes of the people, and drain¬
ed the scanty resources of his ill-supplied exchequer. The
consequence was, that his second parliament proved still
more refractory than the first. On their assembling, the
king proposed to them to vote a supply', and then proceed
to the consideration of such grievances as required to be
redressed. But the Commons inverted this order of pro¬
cedure, and began with the redress of grievances. The
king’s wrath wras kindled at their obstinacy. He dis¬
missed them, and imprisoned some of the members who
had particularly signalized themselves in resisting the
supply; a proceeding of fatal example, as the son and
successor of James afterwards found to his bitter expe¬
rience, and which Lord Coke justly describes as the great¬
est violence ever done to the constitution by an English
monarch.
In 1617 the king revisited Scotland, wdth the design of
establishing Episcopacy in that kingdom. He did not,
however, propose to abolish Presbytery entirely, and set
up Episcopacy in its room. He meant to content himself
with establishing the royal authority above the eccle¬
siastical, and introducing some ceremonies into the public
worship, such as kneeling at the sacrament, private com¬
munion, private baptism, confirmation of children, the ob¬
servance of Christmas, and the like. But as his design
was fully seen through from the beginning, every advance
towards Episcopacy produced the greatest discontent,
and the ceremonies in question were rejected as so many
mortal sins.
384 BRITAIN.
Reign of At this time the power of the Scotch clergy was ex-
James I. ceedingly great; and the severe spirit with which they
were actuated prompted them to exercise it in a manner
60tJ' little calculated to operate in the way of conciliation.
Every ecclesiastical court possessed the power of excom¬
munication, which was then attended with serious tem¬
poral effects, to say nothing of the spiritual consequences
which were supposed to flow from it. The person excom¬
municated was shunned by every one as profane and im¬
pious ; and his whole estate during his life-time, with all
his movables for ever, were forfeited to the crown. A
sentence of excommunication might be pronounced in a
summary manner, even by an inferior ecclesiastical court,
against a person, whether he lived within the bounds of
their jurisdiction or not; and as its effects were in every
instance the same, the power which the clergy thus exer¬
cised was truly formidable. But they were not satisfied
with this unbounded authority in ecclesiastical matters;
they assumed a censorial power over every part of the admi¬
nistration ; and, mingling politics with religion in their ser¬
mons, and even in their prayers, they inculcated principles
which were accounted alike turbulent and seditious. But
however much we may revolt at this intermixture of sa¬
cred and secular things, there was something in the spirit
and circumstances of the time which went far to justify
it. The pulpit was then the only place whence the people
could derive instruction, and their sole teachers and guides
were the clergy. No public press as yet existed. Books
were few and expensive, appearing at distant intervals, and
wholly inaccessible to the mass of the people. Journals
were wholly unknown. In such circumstances the clergy
naturally became the political as well as the religious in¬
structors of the people; the defenders of their civil rights
as well as the guardians of public morals, and of the purity
of ecclesiastical discipline.
That a monarch like James should have hated an order
of men whom he could neither intimidate by his power
nor cajole by his flatteries, is most natural. But this
forms a poor justification for the faithless and hypocritical
course he pursued; whilst his maxim of “ No bishop, no
king,” shows that his understanding was as confined as
his character was mean and grovelling. He began his
attack upon Presbytery by discontinuing the General
Assembly, and banishing those clergymen who had the
spirit to remonstrate. He procured a decree restoring
thirteen bishoprics ; and, at a packed meeting of the sub¬
servient part of the Scottish clergy, the holders of these
unenviable preferments were appointed perpetual mode¬
rators within their presbyteries. And to complete the
degradation of the people, a high commission was given
to the prelates, conferring upon them inquisitorial and
discretionary powers of citing and punishing for religious
opinions, laymen as well as clergymen. But this tyran¬
nical and iniquitous project utterly failed. James aimed
at nothing less than subverting the established religion of
the country, and he was unable to introduce a single cere¬
mony borrowed from Episcopacy, Not a rag of the sur¬
plice would the stern Presbyterians of that age consent
to tolerate. Enough, however, was done to envenom the
hatred of the people, and to treasure up vengeance against
the coming day of retribution. James, it has been truly
said, was one of those kings whom God seems to send for
the express purpose of hastening revolutions.
Nor was he in any degree more successful in the oppo¬
sition which he attempted to the puritanical innovations in
England. He had observed, in his progress through that
kingdom, that a rigid, or, as some called it, Judaical observ¬
ance of the Sabbath gained ground every day ; and that by
this means the people were debarred from such sports and
recreations as contributed to their health as well as amuse¬
ment. Imagining that it would be easy to infuse cheer- Reign ot
fulness into the spirit of devotion which then prevailed, James I.
he issued a proclamation to allow and encourage, after
divine service, all kinds of lawful games and exercises.
But this proclamation was regarded by his subjects as an
instance of the utmost profaneness and impiety. In 1620
a bill was brought in by the Commons for the more strict
observance of the Sunday, which they called the Sabbath.
One Shepherd opposed this bill, objecting to the appella¬
tion of Sabbath, as puritanical, and justifying indulgence
in sports and amusements on that day. For this he was
expelled the house on the motion of Mr Pym ; and in the
sentence pronounced against him his offence is described
as “ great, exorbitant, and unparalleled.” The men of that
day were in earnest, and seldom did things by halves.
From this sketch, imperfect as it necessarily is, a tole¬
rable idea may be formed of the situation of affairs during
the reign of James I., as well as of the character and de¬
signs of that weak, wavering, and on the whole mischievous
prince. It now becomes our duty to proceed to the more
proper business of the present article, and to give some
account of the remarkable transactions of this period.
The first thing of any consequence was a conspiracy
formed, or alleged to have been formed, in the year of the
king’s accession to the throne, to displace him, and be¬
stow the kingdom on Arabella Stuart, a near relation of
his own, and equally descended from Henry VII. Every
thing regarding this pretended conspiracy, except that
some such plot was favoured by one or two priests, remains
nearly in its original obscurity. What renders it remark¬
able, however, is the concern Sir Walter Raleigh was said
to have in it. For this he was tried, condemned without
proof, suffered thirteen years’ imprisonment in the Tower,
and was at length executed out of complaisance to the
Spaniards. The execution of this distinguished man is
one of the most unjustifiable acts of James’s reign. It is
certainly possible, as Hume has asserted, that Raleigh may
have made the pretended gold mine in Guiana a cloak for
his real design of plundering the Spanish settlements; but
if the fact admitted of as easy proof as has been alleged,
Raleigh ought to have been punished on that account,
and on no other. It has been conceded, however, that
an English jury would not have returned a verdict of
guilty against him; and if so, the sacrifice of the bravest
living commander, at the instigation of a foreign power,
was equally detestable in itself and derogatory to the dig¬
nity and independence of the country.
Allusion having been already made to the Gunpowder
treason, discovered in 1605, the origin and circumstances
of that desperate plot shall now be detailed. On the ac¬
cession of James, great expectations had been formed by
the Catholics that he would prove favourable to them ;
and it is even pretended that he had entered into a positive
engagement to grant them toleration as soon as he should
mount the throne of England. But their hopes were built
on an insecure foundation. James on all occasions ex¬
pressed his intention of executing strictly the laws enact¬
ed against them, and of persevering in the rigorous mea¬
sures of Queen Elizabeth. A scheme of revenge was first
thought of by one Catesby, a man of good parts and an¬
cient family, who communicated his design to Percy, a
descendant of the house of Northumberland. The latter
proposed to assassinate the king. But Catesby deemed
this quite inadequate to the purpose, inasmuch as the
king would be succeeded by his children, who would also
inherit his maxims of government; and even if the whole
royal family were destroyed, the parliament, nobility, anti
gentry, who were all infected with the same heresy,
would raise another Protestant prince to the throne. “ lo
serve any good purpose,” said he, “ we must destroy, at
BRITAIN.
385
Reign of one blow, the king, the royal family, the lords and com-
James I. mons, and bury all our enemies in one common ruin.
Happily they are all assembled on the first meeting of
parliament, and afford us the opportunity of glorious and
useful -vengeance. Great preparations will not be requi¬
site. A few of us may run a mine below the hall in which
they meet; and choosing the very moment when the king
harangues both the houses, consign over to destruction
the determined foes to all piety and religion.”
This comprehensive scheme being approved of, it was
resolved to communicate it to a few more. Thomas Win¬
ter was sent over to Flanders in quest of Fawkes, an offi¬
cer in the Spanish service, of approved zeal and courage.
All the conspirators were bound by the most solemn oaths,
accompanied with the sacrament; and to such a degree
had superstition hardened their minds, that not one of
them entertained the smallest compunction for the cruel
destruction they were preparing to commit. Some in¬
deed were startled at the thoughts of destroying a num¬
ber of Catholics who must necessarily be present as spec¬
tators, or attendants on the king, or as having seats in
the House of Peers; but Desmond a Jesuit, and Garnet,
superior of that order in England, removed these scruples,
by showing that the interest of religion required in this
case the sacrifice of the innocent with the guilty.
This happened in the spring and summer of 1604, about
which time the conspirators hired a house in Percy’s
name, adjoining that in which the parliament was to meet.
Towards the end of the year they began to pierce through
the wall of the house, in order to get in below that where
the parliament was to assemble. The wall being about
three yards thick, occasioned a great deal of labour; but its
density yielded to perseverance, and they at length ap¬
proached the other side, when they were startled by a
noise for which they could not well account. Upon in¬
quiry, they found that it proceeded from a vault below
the House of Lords; that a magazine of coals had been
kept there; and that the coals were then selling off, after
which the vault would be let to the highest bidder. Upon
this the vault was immediately hired by Percy, and thirty-
six barrels of gunpowder lodged in it; the whole being
covered up with faggots and billets, the doors of the cel¬
lars boldly flung open, and every body admitted as if it
contained nothing dangerous.
Considering themselves as now certain of success, the
conspirators began to arrange the remaining part of their
enterprise. The king, the queen, and Prince Henry, were
expected to be present at the opening of the parliament.
But as the duke, by reason of his tender age, would be
absent, it was resolved that Percy should seize or murder
him. The Princess Elizabeth, likewise a child, being
kept at Lord Harrington’s house in Warwickshire, some
others of the conspirators engaged to assemble their friends
on pretence of a hunting match, to seize the person of
that princess, and immediately proclaim her queen. The
day so long wished for at last approached. The dread¬
ful secret, though communicated to more than twenty
persons, had been religiously kept for near a year and a
half; and nothing could be foreseen calculated to prevent
the success of their design. Ten days before the meeting
of parliament, however, Lord Monteagle, a Catholic, son
of Lord Morley, received the following letter, which had
been delivered to his servant by an unknown hand.
“ My Lord, out of the love I bear to some of your
friends, I have a care for your preservation. Therefore I
would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some
excuse to shift off your attendance on this parliament.
For God and man have determined to punish the wicked¬
ness of this time. And think not slightly of this adver¬
tisement ; but retire yourself into the country, where you
von. v.
1605
may expect the event in safety. For though there be no Reign of
appearance of any stir; yet, I say, they shall receive a James I.
terrible blow this parliament, and yet they shall not see '
who hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned,
because it may do you good, and can do you no harm ;
for the danger is over as soon as you have burned this
letter. And I hope God will give you the grace to make
good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you.”
Though Lord Monteagle imagined this letter to be only
a ridiculous artifice to frighten him, he carried it to Lord
Salisbury, secretary of state ; and the latter laid it before
the king on his arrival in town a few days after. His ma¬
jesty looked upon it in a much more serious light than the
young nobleman to whom it had been addressed. From
the peculiar manner in which it was expressed, he con¬
cluded that some design had been formed to blow up the
Parliament House with gunpowder; and it was thought
advisable to search the vaults underneath.
The lord chamberlain, to whom this charge belonged,
purposely delayed the search till the day before the meet¬
ing of parliament. He remarked the great piles of wood
and faggots which lay in the vault under the House of
Lords ; and casting his eye upon Fawkes, who stood in a
corner and passed himself for Percy’s servant, he could
not help noticing the daring and determined courage con¬
spicuous in his face, and which so much distinguished this
man even amongst the other conspirators. As Percy lived
little in town, so large a quantity of fuel appeared some¬
what extraordinary; suspicions were thus excited ; and,
upon comparing all circumstances, it was resolved to make
a further search. About midnight, Sir Thomas Knevet,
a justice of peace, was sent with proper attendants; and
meeting Fawkes, who had just finished all his prepa¬
rations, before the door of the vault, Sir Thomas imme¬
diately seized him, and, turning over the faggots, disco¬
vered the gunpowder. The matches and every thing pro¬
per for setting fire to the train were found in the pocket
of Fawkes, who seeing now no refuge except in boldness
and despair, expressed the utmost regret that he had missed
the opportunity of firing the powder at once, and of sweet¬
ening his own death by that of his enemies. For several
days he displayed the same obstinate intrepidity; but on
being shut up in the Tower, and the rack exhibited to him,
his resolution at last failed, and he made a full discovery.
Catesby, Percy, and the other conspirators, on learning
that Fawkes was arrested, hurried to Warwickshire, where
Sir Edward Digby, imagining that his confederates had
succeeded, was already in arms to seize the Princess Eli¬
zabeth. But she had escaped into Coventry; and they
were obliged to put themselves in a posture of defence
against the country people, who were raised in all quar¬
ters and armed by the sheriffs. The conspirators, with
their attendants, never exceeded eighty in number, and
being surrounded on every side, could no longer hope
either to prevail or escape. Having therefore confessed
themselves, and received absolution, they boldly prepared
for death, and resolved to sell their lives as dear as pos¬
sible. But even this miserable consolation was denied
them. Some of their powder catching fire, exploded, and
disabled them from defending themselves. The people
then rushed in upon them. Percy and Catesby were killed
by one shot. Digby, llookwood, Winter, and others, being
made prisoners, were tried, confessed their guilt, and died,
as well as Garnet, by the hands of the common execu¬
tioner. The Lords Stourton and Mordaunt, two Catholics,
were fined by the Star Chamber, the former in L.4000,
the latter in L. 10,000, because their absence from par¬
liament had occasioned a suspicion of their acquaintance
with the conspiracy. The Earl of Northumberland was
fined in L.30,000, and detained several years a prisoner in
3 O
386
BRITAIN.
1605.
Reign of the Tower, by reason of his having admitted Percy into
James I. the number of gentlemen-pensioners without taking the
requisite oaths.
James’s attempts to civilize the barbarous inhabitants
of Ireland, and to render their subjection durable and
useful to the crown of England, were more honourable
in the design than successful in the execution. He be¬
gan by abolishing the ancient Irish customs which sup¬
plied the place of laws, and were exceedingly barbarous
and absurd. By the Brehon law, every crime, however
enormous, was punished only by fine. Murder itself was
compensated in this way. Every one had a value affixed
to him, called his eric ; and he who was able to pay this,
might kill whomsoever he pleased. As for such slight of¬
fences as oppression, extortion, or other things of that
nature, no penalty was affixed to them, nor could any re¬
dress be obtained for them. The custom of gavelkind, by
which, upon the death of any person, his land was divided
amongst all the males of the sept or family, both bastard
and legitimate, also operated as a powerful preventive to
improvement, and commenced that incessant subdivision
of the soil, the bitter consequences of which we have liv¬
ed to witness. Having abolished these customs, James
substituted English law in their stead, and taking the na¬
tives under his protection, he declared them free citizens,
and proceeded to govern them by a regular administration,
military as well as civil. But other measures of a more
doubtful character followed. As the Irish had been en¬
gaged in rebellion against Elizabeth, a renunciation of all
rights formerly granted them to separate jurisdictions was
rigorously exacted; a resignation of private estates was
even required ; and when these were restored, the pro¬
prietors received them back under such conditions as
seemed calculated to prevent all future oppression of the
common people. Meanwhile a company was established
in London for planting new colonies in the province of
Ulster, which had fallen to the crown by the attainder of
rebels. The property was divided into moderate shares,
the largest not exceeding 2000 acres; tenants were
brought over from England and Scotland ; the Irish were
removed from the hills and fastnesses, and settled in the
open country ; husbandry and the arts were taught them ;
and Ulster, from being the most wild and disorderly pro¬
vince in Ireland, became in time the best cultivated and
most civilized.
On the 6th of November this year Henry prince of Wales
died suddenly, not without strong suspicions of poison.
On opening his body, however, no symptoms of the kind ap¬
peared ; but his death diffused a universal grief through¬
out the nation, as he was reckoned a prince of extraordi¬
nary accomplishments and high promise. But the mar¬
riage of the Princess Elizabeth with Frederic, elector
palatine, which was celebrated in February 1613, served
to dissipate the grief caused by Prince Henry’s death.
This marriage, however, proved unfortunate both with
respect to the king and to his son-in-law; for the elector,
trusting to so great an alliance, engaged in enterprises be¬
yond his means; and James, unable, and perhaps also un¬
willing, to assist him in his distress, lost his last hold on
the affections of his people.
These bad consequences did not begin to appear till the
year 1619. At that time the states of Bohemia, having
taken arms' in defence of the Protestant religion, and per¬
severed in the contest notwithstanding the preparations of
the emperor to crush them, made an offer of their crown
to the elector palatine, induced doubtless by his connec¬
tion with the king of England, and his relationship to
Prince Maurice, whose authority in the United Provinces
was nearly absolute. Stimulated by ambition, the young
palatine, without consulting either James or Maurice,
1621.
whose opposition he foresaw, accepted the offer, and Reign of
marched into Bohemia in support of his new subjects. James I.
But the affairs of the new king soon came to a crisis.
Frederic, defeated in the decisive battle of Prague, fled
with his family into Holland; whilst Spinola the Spanish
general invaded the palatinate, where, meeting with little
resistance, except from one body of 2400 Englishmen
commanded by Sir Horace Yere, he quickly reduced the
whole principality. The ban of the empire was published
against the unfortunate elector in 1621; the upper pala¬
tinate was in a little time conquered by the elector of
Bavaria, to whom the execution of the decree of the diet
had been committed; Frederic was obliged to live with his
numerous family in poverty and distress, either in Hol¬
land or at Sedan ; and the new conquests of the Catholics
throughout Germany were attended with persecutions
against the Protestants.
By this intelligence the religious zeal of the English
was inflamed to the highest pitch. The sufferings of their
Protestant brethren in Germany excited universal sym¬
pathy, whilst the neutrality and inactivity of James were
loudly exclaimed against. But although the king might
have defended his pacific measures by plausible argu¬
ments, some of his motives were the most ridiculous that
can be conceived. In a spirit of pedantic self-conceit, he
fancied himself capable of disarming hostile nations by
dint of argument; and believed that the power of Austria,
though not awed by that of England, would submit to his
arbitration merely out of respect to his virtue and mode¬
ration. Wedded to his notions concerning the preroga¬
tive of kings, he also imagined, that wherever a conten¬
tion arose between any sovereign and his subjects, the
latter must necessarily be in the wrong; and for this rea¬
son he from the first denied his son-in-law the title of
king of Bohemia, and forbade him to be prayed for in the
churches under that appellation. Besides, James was on
other accounts extremely averse to a rupture with Spain.
He had entertained an opinion peculiar to himself, that
any alliance below that of a king was unworthy a prince
of Wales ; and he never would allow any princess except
a daughter of France or of Spain to be mentioned as a
match for his son. This pitiful folly gave Spain an op¬
portunity of managing the English monarch in his most
important concerns. With a view of engaging him to ob¬
serve neutrality in regard to the succession of Cleves, the
elder daughter of the king of Spain had been indirectly
offered during the life of Prince Henry. The bait, how¬
ever, did not then take ; and James, in consequence of his
alliance with the Dutch, sent 4000 men to the assistance
of the Protestants, by which means the succession was
secured to the Protestant line. In 1618, Gondomar offer¬
ed the king of Spain’s second daughter to Prince Charles;
and, to render the temptation irresistible to so necessitous
a prince as James, he gave hopes of an immense dowry with
the Infanta. On this match James built great hopes, not
only of relieving his own necessities, but of recovering
the palatinate for his son-in-law; at least the public were
taught to believe that the recovery of the palatinate was
one of the king’s chief motives for entertaining the pro¬
ject of such a marriage.
But the Commons viewed the matter in a very different
light; and this, joined to other parts of the king s conduct,
blew into a flame the contention which had long subsisted
between them. On the 14th of November 1621, the Com¬
mons framed a remonstrance, which they intended to carry
to the king, representing that the enormous growth of the
Austrian power threatened the liberties of Europe; that
the progress of the Catholic religion in England bred the
most melancholy apprehensions ; that the indulgence of
his majesty towards the professors of that religion had
BRITAIN.
Reign of encouraged their insolence and temerity; that the un-
James I. controlled conquests made by the Austrian family in Ger-
many raised mighty expectations in the English Catho-
1621' lies; and particularly that the proposed Spanish match
had led them to hope for the entire toleration, if not final
re-establishment, of their religion. They therefore entreat¬
ed his majesty to undertake the defence of the palatinate,
and maintain it by force of arms; to turn his sword against
Spain, whose armies and treasures were the chief support
of the Catholic interest in Europe; to enter into no ne-
gociation for the marriage of his son except with a Pro¬
testant princess; to cause the children of Popish recu¬
sants to be taken from their parents and committed to
the care of Protestant teachers and schoolmasters; and
to exact with the utmost severity the fines and confisca¬
tions to which the Catholics by law were liable. Protes¬
tants had not yet learnt toleration in the school of adver¬
sity. The king was then at Newmarket; but hearing of
the intended remonstrance, he wrote a letter to the Speak¬
er, sharply rebuking the House for debating on matters
far above their reach and capacity, and strictly forbid¬
ding them to meddle with any thing that regarded his
government, or deep matters of state, and especially not
to touch on his son’s marriage with the Spanish princess.
Upon this the Commons framed a new remonstrance, in
which they asserted their right of debating on all matters
of government, and claimed entire freedom of speech in
their debates. The king replied, that their remonstrance
was more like a denunciation of war than an address of
dutiful subjects; that their pretension to inquire into all
state affairs without exception, was such a plenipotence
as none of their ancestors, even during the reign of the
weakest princes, had ever pretended to ; that they could
not better show their wisdom, as well as duty, than by
keeping within their proper sphere; and that in any af¬
fair which depended on his prerogative, they had no title
to interpose with their advice, unless when he pleased to
ask it. The Commons in return framed the protestation
already mentioned, which the king tore out of their jour¬
nals, and soon after dissolved the pai’liament. Of the
leading members of the house, Sir Edward Coke and Sir
Robert Phillips were committed to the Tower, and Sel-
den, Pym, and Mallory, to other prisons; while, as a
lighter punishment, some others were sent into Ireland to
execute the king’s commands in that country. A more
judicious course was followed with Sir John Saville, who
was made comptroller of the household, a privy counsel¬
lor, and soon after a baron.
This open breach between the king and the parliament
soon rendered politics a general subject of discourse;
every man began to indulge himself in reasonings and in¬
quiries concerning matters of state ; and the parties which
arose in parliament were speedily propagated throughout
the nation. In vain did James, by reiterated proclama¬
tions, forbid discourses of this kind. These, if they had
any effect at all, served rather to inflame than allay the
curiosity of the public. In every company or society the
transactions just mentioned became the subject of argu¬
ment and debate ; some taking the side of monarchy, and
others that of liberty. And this was the real origin of the
two parties since known by the names of Whigs and Tories.
During five years James continued the dupe of the court
of Spain. Firmly resolved to contract no alliance with a
heretic, the king of Spain continued to procrastinate and
invent one excuse after another; pretending all along a
willingness to conclude the match, though no step had as
yet been taken for obtaining a dispensation from the pope.
To pave the way for bringing the matter to a close, James
issued public orders for discharging all popish recusants
who were imprisoned; and it was daily apprehended that
387
he would prohibit in future the execution of the penal Reign of
laws against them. This conduct, generous had it pro- James I.
ceeded from genuine principles of toleration, he was ob-
liged to justify on the hollow pretence that it was done in
order to procure from foreign princes a corresponding in¬
dulgence for the Protestants ; the severity of the English
laws against Catholics having, it was alleged, been urged
as a reason against showing any favour to Protestants re¬
siding in Catholic kingdoms.
Armed with these concessions, which were but ill re¬
lished at home, Digby, earl of Bristol, was sent as am¬
bassador to the court of Spain ; and one Gage was secret¬
ly dispatched as an agent to Rome. After amusing him
so long with false hopes, the court of Spain seemed at
last sincere in the projected marriage. Lord Bristol him¬
self, although he had formerly opposed the Spanish match,
now came to be of this opinion, and considered the pro¬
posed marriage as an infallible prognostic of the pala¬
tine’s restoration ; nor, indeed, was it easy to conjecture
why Philip should be ready to bestow the Infanta with a
dowry of L.600,000 sterling on a prince whose demands
he meant to refuse at the hazard of a war, unless we sup¬
pose that he reckoned on the cowardice and imbecility
of the English monarch’s character.
But whilst the king exulted in his pacific counsels, and
boasted of his superior sagacity and penetration, all his
prospects were blasted by the temerity of the worthless
favourite who governed both court and nation with almost
unlimited sway. This was Villiers, duke of Buckingham,
who had succeeded Somerset in the capricious affections
of James, and had risen from the rank of cupbearer to a
dukedom and the highest honours of the state. Though
possessed of some accomplishments as a courtier, he was
utterly devoid of the talent necessary to a minister; and
at once partook of the insolence which attends a fortune
newly acquired, and the impetuosity which belongs to
persons born ro high stations, and unacquainted with op¬
position. Amongst those who had experienced the arro¬
gance of this overgrown favourite, was the Prince of Wales
himself; and a coldness, if not enmity, had in consequence
arisen between them. Desirous of putting an end to this
misunderstanding, and at the same time envious of the
great reputation of the Earl of Bristol, Buckingham per¬
suaded the prince to undertake a journey to Madrid.
This, he said, considered as an unexpected piece of gallan¬
try, would equal all the fictions of Spanish romance ; and,
suiting the chivalrous and enterprising character of that
nation, would immediately introduce him to the princess
under the agreeable character of a devoted and adventu¬
rous suitor. Little persuasion was necessary to prevail
with Charles to undertake the journey ; and the impetuo¬
sity of the favourite having extorted a consent from James,
the prince and Buckingham (or “ Baby Charles” and
“ Steenie,” as the king ridiculously called his son and his
minion) set out as knight-errant and squire. They tra¬
velled through France in disguise, under the assumed
names of Jack and Tom Smith. At a ball in Paris, the
prince first saw the Princess Henrietta, whom he after¬
wards married. She was then in the bloom of youth and
beauty, and the novelists of the time say that the prince
fell in love with her on this occasion.
On their arrival at Madrid, every body was surprised
by a step so little usual among great princes. The Spanish
monarch made Charles a visit, expressed the utmost gra¬
titude for the confidence reposed in him, and made warm
protestations of a corresponding confidence and friendship.
He gave Charles a golden key which opened all his apart¬
ments, that the prince might, without any formality, have
access to him at all hours; and heaped upon him other
marks of distinction and favour if possible still more flat-
388
B R 1 T A 1 N.
Reign of tering. The Infanta, however, was only shown to her
.James I. lover in public ; the Spanish ideas of propriety being too
strict to allow any further intercourse till the arrival of
1623, the dispensation. Meanwhile no attempt was made by
the Spaniards to profit by the circumstance of having the
prince of Wales in their power, in order to impose any
harder conditions of treaty. Their Catholic zeal, indeed,
prompted them on one occasion to seek more concessions
in the religious articles ; but, on the opposition of Bristol,
they immediately desisted. The pope, however, hearing
of Charles’s arrival in Madrid, tacked some new clauses
to the dispensation; and it became necessary to transmit
the articles to London for the kings ratification. Ihis
treaty, which was made public, consisted of several ar¬
ticles, chiefly regarding the exercise of the Catholic reli¬
gion by the Infanta ; and of these, the only one that could
reasonably be found fault with, was that in which the king
consented that the children of the marriage should be
educated by the princess till they were ten years of age.
But besides this public treaty, there were some private
articles, which stipulated for a suspension of the penal laws
against the English Catholics in the first instance, together
with a toleration for the exercise of the Roman Catholic
religion in private houses, and, next, a repeal of these laws
by parliament. Meanwhile Gregory XV. who had granted
the dispensation, died ; and Urban V III. was chosen as
his successor. Upon this the nuncio refused to deliver
the dispensation till the pleasure of the new pope should
be known concerning it. But the crafty pontiff delayed
his confirmation, in hopes that, during the prince's resi¬
dence in Spain, some expedient might be fallen upon to
effect his conversion. The king of England, as well as his
son, became impatient; but, on the first hint, Charles ob¬
tained leave to return, and Philip graced his departure
with the same marks of civility and respect which had sig¬
nalised his arrival.
The modest, reserved, and highly dignified behaviour of
Charles, together with the confidence he had reposed in
the Spanish nation, and the romantic gallantry he had
practised in regard to their princess, endeared him to the
whole court of Madrid. But in the same proportion that
Charles was beloved and esteemed, Buckingham was de¬
spised and hated. His sallies of passion, his indecent free¬
doms with the prince, his dissolute pleasures, and his ar¬
rogant, impetuous temper, which he either could not or
would not restrain, rendered him an object of undisguised
aversion to the Spaniards. Buckingham, on the other hand,
sensible how odious he had become to the Spaniards, and
dreading the influence which that nation would naturally
acquire after the arrival of the Infanta, employed all his
influence to prevent the marriage. What arguments he
used to prevail with the prince to offer so gross an insult
to the Spanish nation, from whom he had received the
most generous treatment, or what colours he employed to
disguise the ingratitude and imprudence of such a mea¬
sure, are totally unknown. Certain it is, however, that
when the prince left Madrid, he was firmly determined,
in opposition to his most solemn promises, to break off
the treaty with Spain. Accordingly, on their arrival at
London, the prince and Buckingham assumed the entiie
direction of the negociation ; and it was not difficult to
find pretences under which to mask the breach of treaty
which had been secretly resolved on. After employing
many fruitless artifices to delay or prevent the espousals,
Bristol received positive instructions not to deliver the
proxy which had been left in his hands, nor to conclude
the marriage until security was given for the full restitu¬
tion of the palatinate. Philip understood this language;
but, determined to throw the whole blame of the rupture
on the English, he delivered into Bristol’s hand a written
promise, by which he bound himself to procure the resto- Reign of
ration of the palatinate either by persuasion or by every James I.
other possible means. When he found that this conces-
sion gave no satisfaction, he ordered the Infanta to lay
aside the title of Princess of Wales, which she had borne
after the arrival of the dispensation from Rome, and to drop
the study of the English language ; and as he foresaw
that the rash counsels which now governed the court of
England would not stop short at the breach of the mar¬
riage-treaty, he immediately ordered preparations for war
to be made throughout all his dominions.
A match for Prince Charles was soon afterwards nego-
ciated with Henrietta, daughter of Henry IV., and this
met with much better success than that with the Infanta.
But the king had not the same inducements to prosecute
this match as the former one, the portion promised being
much smaller; yet willing that his son should not be al¬
together disappointed of a bride, and the king of France
demanding only the same terms which had been offered to
the court of Spain, James thought proper to comply. In
an article of this treaty of marriage, it was stipulated that
the education of the children till the age of thirteen
should belong to the mother ; and this probably gave that
turn towards popery which afterwards proved the ruin of
the unfortunate house of Stuart.
Being now deprived of every other hope of relieving his
son-in-law, except by force of arms, James declared war
against Spain and the emperor, for the recovery of the pala¬
tinate ; and six thousand men were sent over into Hol¬
land to assist Prince Maurice in his schemes against those
powers. The people were everywhere elated at the course
which events had taken ; and so popular was the idea of a
Spanish war, and so great the joy at the rupture of the pro¬
jected Catholic alliance, that Buckingham became for the
time a favourite of the people, and was hailed even by Sir
Edward Coke as the saviour of the nation. The reinforce¬
ment sent to Prince Maurice was followed by another con¬
sisting of twelve thousand men, commanded by Count
Mansfeldt; and the court of France promised its assistance.
But the English were disappointed in all their views. The
troops embarked at Dover found, on arriving at Calais, that
no orders had arrived for their admission into that place,
much less for affording them a passage through France, as
had been promised ; and after waiting some time, they were
obliged to sail towards Zealand, where proper measures
had not as yet been taken for their disembarkation. Mean¬
while a pestilential disorder crept in amongst them; half
their number died while on board, and the other half,
weakened by sickness, wras insufficient to march into the
palatinate; and thus ended this ill-concerted and fruitless
expedition. Whether its unfortunate result had any effect
on the king’s health is uncertain; but he was soon after
seized with a tertian ague, which put an end to his life on
the 27th of March 1625, after having lived fifty-nine years,
and reigned over England twenty-two, and over Scotland
almost as long as he had lived.
James, the son of Queen Mary and of Lord Darnle),
the handsomest couple of their age, was lumpish, not to
say deformed, in his person, vulgar in his air, and un¬
gainly in his manners. He had an awkward figure, a
rolling eye, a ricketty sidelong walk, nervous tiemb mgs.
a slobbering mouth, and a boyishness of manner which
formed a ludicrous contrast with the airs of dignity and
regal state which he was constantly labouiing to assume.
These imperfections, it is true, might have been found in
the best and greatest man ; and it is seldom indeed that
nature is equally lavish in physical and mental endow¬
ments. But, in this king, the ungainhness of his outward
man was not redeemed by intellectual or moral qualities
calculated to insure admiration or regard. He possessed
BRIT
Reign of some learning, indeed, and, within a narrow circle, exhi-
Charles I. bited considerable ingenuity of speculation on subjects
connected with government and morals. But his under-
standing was deficient alike in depth and in soundness;
his principles were loose, vague, and undefined; his pre¬
judices ridiculously gross; his credulity boundless; and
his conceit only to be matched by his pedantry and imbe¬
cility. As a king he was perhaps the most extraordinary
phenomenon that history has ever presented to the won¬
der of mankind. What policy would have induced wise
tyrants to conceal, James was continually obtruding on all
who had the patience to listen to him. His despotic theo¬
ries of government, and his pretensions to arbitrary power,
were continually in his mouth; and whilst he had not a
regiment of guards to enforce his doctrines, he talked
with more confidence than Hadrian would have judged it
wise to assume when at the head of eighty legions and the
master of the Roman world. In practice, however, no
monarch ever held his prerogatives with less tenacity.
“ He neither gave way gracefully to the advancing spirit
of liberty, nor took vigorous measures to stop it, but re¬
treated before it with ludicrous haste, blustering and in¬
sulting as he retreated.” Whatever might have been the
frailties, vices, or crimes of former kings of England, they
had all possessed great force of character, and, whether
loved or hated, they had always been feared. James, on
the contrary, was only despised; and even his spoiled
minion Buckingham made no scruple to laugh outright
in the face of his “ dear dad and gossip.” Nor did the
follies and vices of the man tend in any degree to lessen
the contempt produced by the feeble and wavering policy
of the sovereign. The indecent gallantries of the court,
and the habits of gross intoxication which even the fe¬
males indulged, were viewed with loathing and disgust by
a people whose manners were beginning to be tinctured
by a more than stoical severity. But there were shades
still darker and deeper than these. “ Crimes of the most
frightful kind had been discovered; others were suspect¬
ed. The strange story of the Gowries was not forgotten.
The ignominious fondness of the king for his minions,—
the perjuries, the sorceries, the poisonings, which his chief
favourites had planned within the walls of his palace,—
the pardon which, in direct violation of his duty and of his
word, he had granted to the mysterious threat of a mur¬
derer,—made him an object of loathing to many of his
subjects.”1 In a word, nature and education seem to have
done their best to make James a finished specimen of all
that a king ought not to be.
CHAP. III.
REIGN OF CHARLES I.
Accession of Charles I—His character as contrasted with that of
his father.—First Parliament—Their niggard supply Dis¬
solved—New Parliament—Impeachment of Buckingham 
Arbitrary proceedings of the King—Disputes Dissolution 
Ship-money—Forced loan resisted—Remarkable trial War
with France.—Buckingham’s Expedition—Third Parliament.
A [ N. 3S9
—Petition of Right—Duplicity of Charles—Royal assent at. Reign of
length given to the Bill—Assassination of Buckingham—Ton- Charles I.
nage and poundage Parliament dissolved—Peace concluded
with France and Spain—Archbishop Laud—Religious Innova- 1626-
tions.—New Ministry—Strafford—Arbitrary measures of the
King—John Hampden prosecuted for the payment of ship-
money—Particulars of this memorable case—Hampden, Crom-
well, and other Puritans prevented from emigrating to North
America—Attempt to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland—
The Covenant—King tries to soothe the Covenanters Assem¬
bly at Glasgow—Episcopacy abolished—War Peace War
again declared A Parliament called and dissolved Pecuniary
distresses of the King—Royalists defeated at Newburn 
Treaty of Rippon—Meeting of Parliament Impeachment,
trial, and execution of Strafford—Injustice of this proceeding.
—Parliament rendered perpetual—Imprisonment of Laud.—
Delinquency—Charles’s visit to Scotland—His concessions and
promotions—The Incident—Rebellion and Massacre of the
Protestants in Ireland—Reasons for attaching suspicion to the
King—Proceedings of the English Parliament—Acrimonious
remonstrance of the Commons—Their violent proceedings 
Roundheads and Cavaliers—The Bishops retire from the House
of Lords—Impeachment, by the King’s order, of six members
of Parliament—He goes in person to seize them—Consequen¬
ces of this rash act—Proffered concessions unavailing—Com¬
mons demand the surrender of the executive power of the state.
—Refused by the King—War between the King and Parlia¬
ment.
Charles I. succeeded to the same favourite, the same
ministers, and the same council, which his father had pos¬
sessed, to say nothing of the same pecuniary distress ; and,
unhappily, he also inherited the same principles of govern¬
ment. But in other respects he bore ho resemblance to
his sire. “ He was neither a driveller nor a pedant, a buf¬
foon nor a coward. Even in the judgment of his enemies
he was a scholar and a gentleman, a man of exquisite taste
in the fine arts, and of strict morals in private life. His
talents for business were respectable, and his demeanour
was grave, dignified, and kingly. But he was false, im¬
perious, obstinate, narrow-minded, ignorant of the temper
of his people, and unobservant of the signs of the times.
The main principle of his government was resistance to
public opinion; and hence his concessions were delayed
till it mattered not whether he resisted or yielded, till the
nation, which had long ceased to love or to trust him, had
at last ceased also to fear him.” (Edinb. Rev. vol. liv.
p. 515.) At the same time his accession to the throne
was greeted with favour, and even hailed as auspicious
by the nation, which had been wearied and sickened by
the pedantic and presumptuous incapacity of his father.
Nothing is more easy than for princes to gain golden
opinions; nothing more difficult than to rule with wis¬
dom and moderation in those great crises when the na¬
tional mind becomes agitated by a new spirit, and when
the old frame of government must either accommodate
itself to the advancing state of society, or be dashed in
pieces by a rude collision with a new and resistless force.
Pleased with his temporary popularity, obtained partly
by the rupture with Spain, and also in want of money for
carrying on his government, Charles resolved to call to¬
gether the great council of the nation; and, accordingly^
1 Edinburgh Review, vol. liv. p. 512. “ The sovereign whom James most resembled,” says the very able writer of the article here
referred to, “ was, we think, Claudius Caesar. Both had the same feeble and vacillating temper, the same childishness, the same
coarseness, the same poltroonery. Both were men of learning; both wrote and spoke—not, indeed, well, but still in a manner in
■ well de-
which it seems almost incredible that men so foolish should have written or spoken. The follies and indecencies of James are
scribed in the words which Suetonius uses respecting Claudius‘ Multa talia, etiam privatis deformia, necdum principi, n
facundo, neque indocto, immo etiam pertinaciter liberalibus, studiis dedito.’ The description given by Suetonius, of the manner m
which the Roman prince transacted business, exactly suits the Briton. ‘ In cognoscendo ac decernendo mira varietate animi fuit,
modo circumspectus et sagax, modo inconsultus ac prseceps, nonnunquam frivolus amentique similis.’ Claudius was ruled successively
by two bad women ; James successively by two bad men. Even the description of the person of Claudius which we find in the an¬
cient memoirs might in many points serve for that of James. ‘ Ceterum et ingredientem destituebant poplites minus firmi, et re-
nnsse quid vel serio agentem multa dehonestabant, risus indecens, via turpior, spumante rictu, pneterea lingute tibubantia ?”’’
390 BRIT
.Reign of he issued writs for summoning a new parliament for the
Charles I. 7th 0f May 1625. But the arrival of the Princess Hen-
rietta, whom he had espoused by proxy, obliged him to
1625‘ delay, by repeated prorogations, their meeting till the 18th
of June, when they assembled at Westminster for the dis¬
patch of business.
The king’s discourse to the parliament was full of appa¬
rent simplicity and cordiality. He mentioned cursorily
the occasion he had for supply, but, it is said, employed
no means to influence the suffrages of the members. The
officers of the crown, who had seats in the house, were
not even allowed to specify the particular sum which he
had occasion for; he trusted entirely to the wisdom and
affection of his parliament. But the parliament, composed
chiefly of Puritans, was not in a humour to be generous,
or even just, in appreciating the king’s necessities. They
knew that all the money formerly granted had been ex¬
pended on military and naval preparations; that great an¬
ticipations were made on the revenues of the crown; that
the king was loaded with a debt contracted by his father,
who had borrowed money both from foreign princes and
from his own subjects; that the public revenues could
with difficulty maintain the dignity of the crown, even un¬
der the ordinary charges of government; that the present
war had been, in a great measure, the result of their own
importunate applications and entreaties; and that the na¬
tion was solemnly pledged to support their sovereign in
carrying it on. They could not be ignorant of the difficulty
of military enterprises directed against the whole house of
Austria; against the king of Spain, possessed of the great¬
est riches and most extensive dominions of any prince in
Europe ; against the Emperor Ferdinand, hitherto the most
fortunate monarch of the age, who had astonished Ger¬
many by the rapidity of his victories. Yet, with all this
knowledge, and to answer all these important ends, the com¬
mons thought proper to vote a supply of only L. 112,000.
The excuses which have been made for this insulting par¬
simony are, the hatred of Buckingham, and the discovery
that the war had been produced by his artifices and in¬
trigues. But the validity of this apology may reasonably
be disputed. If the war was judged impolitic or unneces¬
sary, it became the duty of the Commons to address the
king, praying him to abandon it. If it was neither the one
nor the other, they ought not to have avenged themselves
for a trifling grievance by insulting the king and degrad¬
ing the country.
The parliament was adjourned for a few weeks in sum¬
mer by reason of the plague, which had suddenly broken
out; but on their re-assembling at Oxford, the king re¬
presented, in the most explicit manner, the necessity there
was for a large supply, urging that this request was the
first he had ever made them; that he was young, and in
the commencement of his reign; and that if he now met
with kind and dutiful usage, it would endear to him the
use of parliaments, and for ever preserve an entire har¬
mony between him and his people. But the Commons
remained inexorable, refusing even the addition of two
fifteenths to the former supply. They renewed their com¬
plaints against the growth of popery; they demanded a
strict execution of the penal laws against the Catholics;
they remonstrated against some late pardons granted to
priests; and they attacked Montague, one of the king’s
chaplains, on account of a book he had lately composed,
in which it was maintained that virtuous Catholics as well
as other Christians would be saved from eternal torments.
Charles gave them a complaisant answer, but at the same
time firmly resolved to abate somewhat of the rigorous
laws against that unfortunate party, which his engage¬
ments with France absolutely required. No measure of
his whole reign, however, proved more obnoxious to his
! A I N.
intolerant subjects, or in its consequences more fatal to Reign of
himself, than this resolution. The Puritans, who had con- Charles I.
tinued to gain ground during the whole reign of James, ^7^7^
now formed the majority of the House of Commons. Pe- 26,
titions were consequently presented to the king for repla¬
cing such clergymen as had been silenced for want of con¬
formity to the ceremonies; and laws were enacted for the
strict observance of Sunday, which was sanctified with the
most rigid and melancholy gloom. The inevitable result
of all this was the dismissal of the refractory parliament,
which was dissolved on the 12th of August.
During this interval Charles had been obliged to borrow
from his subjects on privy-seals and other expedients, by
which means he was enabled, though with great difficulty,
to equip a fleet destined to act against Spain. But the
force thus painfully fitted out performed nothing worthy
of notice, and the ill success of the enterprise only served
to increase the clamours against the court.
Charles’s second parliament, which was speedily con¬
voked, adopted substantially the same views as the first,
though without pushing their parsimony to such meanness.
They voted a supply of three subsidies, amounting to
L.l 68,000 and three fifteenths; but the passing of this vote
into a law was reserved until the end of the session ; a
proceeding which was tantamount to a threat of withhold¬
ing it unless their demands were satisfied. Charles was
greatly incensed at this conduct; but he found it prudent
to submit, and to wait the event with patience. In the
mean time the Commons attacked the Duke of Bucking¬
ham, who had become generally obnoxious; and he was
also impeached by the Earl of Bristol in the Lords, on ac¬
count of his conduct in the Spanish negociation. But the
earl’s impeachment was entirely overlooked, and the Com¬
mons taxed Buckingham with offences, such as adminis¬
tering physic to the late king without consent of his phy¬
sicians, from which he found little difficulty to exculpate
himself. While under this impeachment, Buckingham
was elected chancellor of the university of Cambridge, and
the king publicly thanked the university for their wise and
proper choice. This was keenly resented by the Com¬
mons ; but when they loudly complained of the affront,
the lord-keeper commanded them, in the king’s name, not
to meddle with his minister and servant, but to finish in a
few days the bill they had begun for the subsidies, other¬
wise they must expect to sit no longer. And to strip this
imprudent menace of all disguise, Sir Dudley Carlton em¬
phatically explained it by allusion to those monarchs in
Christendom who, owing to the turbulence of their sub¬
jects, had been obliged to overthrow parliaments altoge¬
ther. Nor was this the*whole, or even the worst. Adding
injury to indignity, the king next ordered two members ot
the House of Commons, Sir John Eliot and Sir Dudley
Digges, the chief managers of the impeachment against
the duke, to be thrown into prison, alleging as the reason
of this proceeding certain seditious expressions said to
have dropped from these members. Upon inquiry, how¬
ever, it appeared that no such expressions had been utter¬
ed ; and as the Commons refused to proceed with any busi¬
ness until they received satisfaction in their privileges, the
members were accordingly released, though with a very
bad grace. Soon after, the House of Lords, moved by the
example of the Commons, claimed liberty for the Earl of
Arundel, who had been lately confined in the lower; and
after many fruitless evasions the king was obliged, though
somewhat ungraciously, to comply with their demand.
The next attack meditated by the Commons, if success¬
ful, would have proved decisive, and reduced the king to
an absolute dependence on his parliament. They were
preparing a remonstrance against the levying of tonnage
and poundage without consent of the legislature. This
BRITAIN.
Reign of impost, together with six new ones laid on merchandise
Charles I. by King James, constituted nearly one-half of the crown
revenues; and it was therefore of vital importance to the
1626. king, situated as he was, to preserve it entire, although
there can be no doubt whatever that, in its own nature, it
was an odious and oppressive tax. It was also the inten¬
tion of the Commons, if they succeeded in carrying this
point, to petition the king to remove Buckingham from his
presence and councils. But the king, alarmed at the blow
which was preparing for him, anticipated the Commons
by dissolving parliament, on the 15th of June 1626. The
House of Lords in vain interceded. The king was deter¬
mined on his course; and when the Peers prayed that the
parliament might be allowed to continue its sittings, he
replied in anger, “ Not a moment longer.” The king and
the Commons at their separation published each an appeal
to the nation.
Charles having thus made a breach with his parliament
which there were no hopes of repairing, was obliged to
have recourse to the naked exercise of his prerogative in
order to supply himself with money. A commission was
openly granted to compound with the Catholics, and dis¬
pense with the penal laws enacted against them ; an expe¬
dient by which the king filled his coffers, but gave univer¬
sal disgust to his subjects. From the nobility he desired
assistance; from the city of London he required a loan of
L.100,000. The former contributed but slowly; the lat¬
ter, sheltering themselves under many pretences and ex¬
cuses, gave at last a flat denial. To equip a fleet, an ap¬
portionment was made by order of the council amongst all
the maritime towns, each of which was required, with the
assistance of the adjacent counties, to furnish a certain
number of vessels or amount of shipping. The city of
London was rated at twenty ships. And this was the first
appearance, in the present reign, of ship-money; a taxa¬
tion which had once been imposed by Elizabeth on a great
emergency, but which, revived and carried some steps far¬
ther by Charles, produced the most violent discontents.
These summary methods of supply, however, were em¬
ployed with some moderation, until the tidings arrived of
the king of Denmark’s defeat by Tilly, the imperial gene¬
ral. Money then became more than ever necessary; and
as the ways and means hitherto employed had not answer¬
ed expectation, it was suggested in council, as the most
speedy, equal, and effective means of obtaining a supply, to
exact a general loan from the subject, rating every man ac¬
cording as be was assessed in the rolls of the last subsidy.
The precise sum required was what each would have paid
had the vote of four subsidies passed into a law; but it
was at the same time ostentatiously declared that the
sums thus exacted were not to be considered as subsidies,
but as loans.
This paltry and equivocating subterfuge imposed upon
no one. It wras plain that by the course which the court
was now pursuing, the liberty of the subject would be en¬
tirely destroyed, and parliaments in future rendered wholly
superfluous. It was to no purpose, therefore, that the
followers of the court, and their preachers in the pulpit,
enjoined submission to this loan as part of the duty of
passive obedience and non-resistance. A spirit of oppo¬
sition arose among the people ; many refused these loans ;
and some were even active in encouraging their neigh¬
bours to insist upon their common rights and privileges.
By a warrant of the council these were thrown into pri¬
son, and most of them patiently submitted to confine¬
ment, although such as applied to the king by petition
were commonly released. Five gentlemen alone, Sir
Thomas Darnel, Sir John Corbet, Sir Walter Earl, Sir
John Heweningham, and Sir Edmond Hampden, demand¬
ed release, not as a favour from the court, but as their
391
right by the law. No particular cause was assigned for Reign of
their commitment; the special command of the king and Charles I.
council was alone pleaded. But it was alleged, that, by
law, this was not sufficient reason for refusing bail or re-
leasement to the prisoners. The question was brought to
a solemn trial before the Court of King’s Bench, and the
whole kingdom was attentive to the issue of the cause.
By the debates on this subject, it appeared that personal
liberty had been secured by no less than six different sta¬
tutes, and by an article in Magna Charta itself. In times
of turbulence and sedition, indeed, the princes had in¬
fringed upon these laws; and of this several examples were
produced. The difficulty then lay to determine when such
violent measures were necessary, and of that the court pre¬
tended to be supreme and only judge. As it was found
to be legal, however, that the five gentlemen should plead
the statute, by which they might demand bail, so it was
deemed expedient by the court to remand them to prison,
without determining on the necessity of taking bail for the
present. This was a cruel evasion of justice; and, as
might be expected, satisfied neither party. The court in¬
sisted that no bail could be taken ; the country exclaimed
that the prisoners ought to be set free.
While the king was thus embroiled with his parliament
at home, and with powerful nations abroad, he rashly
engaged in a war with France, a kingdom with which he
had but lately formed an alliance ; a temerity bordering on
madness. All historians agree that the French, like the
Spanish war, was of Buckingham’s creating; and the mo¬
tives which led to it would appear incredible, if the vio¬
lence, profligacy, and folly of that man’s character were
not known. At the time when Charles married, by proxy,
Henrietta of France, Buckingham had appeared at Paris
to grace the festivity, and, by his showy superficial ac¬
complishments, had attracted the admiration of the Queen
of France herself. Having conducted Henrietta safely
to England, he was preparing, doubtless in the spirit of
ambitious gallantry, to return upon a new embassy; when
Richelieu, the minister, himself a disappointed lover of
the queen, caused a message to be sent him from France,
declining the honour of his intended visit. Buckingham’s
rage at this knew no bounds, and, in a transport of passion,
he swore that he would see the queen in spite of all the
power of France. He also determined, if possible, to em¬
broil the two kingdoms in war; and with this view he pre¬
vailed with Charles to dismiss the queen’s French domes¬
tics, and encouraged the English ships to seize on those of
France. But great as these provocations were, they failed
in their object, which was to drive the French to a declara¬
tion of war. Upon this Buckingham persuaded the king
openly to espouse the cause of the Huguenots, whose lead¬
er, the Duke de Soubise, was then in London. And the
vain, shallow, impetuous favourite himself set sail with a
hundred ships and seven thousand men to assist the Hu¬
guenots of Rochelle. Uninformed of his designs, however,
the latter shut their gates against him. Instead of attack¬
ing the rich and defenceless isle of Oleron, Buckingham
then bent his course to that of Rhe; and, after allowing
the garrison of St Martyn to be well provisioned, he re¬
solved to reduce it by famine. But his impatience soon
led him to abandon this design; and attempting to storm
the place without having made a breach in the defences,
he was repulsed with the loss of two thirds of his force,
and returned to England covered with disgrace. Desti¬
tute alike of capacity for war, of common sense and com¬
mon vigilance, his conduct, throughout the whole of this
expedition, was alternately that of an idiot and a mad¬
man. He did every thing that he ought not to have done ;
neglected every thing which it was his duty to do; at¬
tempted what was impossible or impracticable; sacrificed
392
BRITAIN.
"Reign of the lives of brave men at the shrine of his insane folly;
Charles I. brought disgrace on the national arms ; and prodigiously
3 £2; ra vat till till the difficulties and embaiia.ssm6nts with
1626. _ uroo tlion anrrniindpd. Of all the DODin-
a. v ^    -
which his master was then surrounded. Of all the popin-
jays ever hatched and feathered in a court, Buckingham
was beyond all doubt one of the most mischievous as
well as most unprincipled.
Well then might the king and his favourite tremble at
the prospect of meeting a third parliament, after having
squandered the money illegally extorted from a nation,
now on the point of insurrection, on a war begun in the
madness of profligacy, and productive only of disaster
and shame. But, in the actual state of men s minds, it
would have been hazardous to renew the experiment of
raising money by the exercise of the prerogative alone.
A third parliament was therefore summoned, and met on
the 17th of March 1628. At the beginning of the ses¬
sion Charles plainly told them, that “ if they should not do
their duties, in contributing to the necessities of the state,
he must, in discharge of his conscience, use those other
means which God had put into his hands, in order to save
that which the follies of some particular men might other¬
wise put in danger.” Foreseeing that they might expect
to be dismissed on the first disagreement with the king,
the Commons proceeded with caution, yet relaxed nothing
in vigour. The nation was now really suffering from the
late arbitrary proceedings. They, therefore, began by re¬
monstrating against arbitrary imprisonments and forced
loans ; after which, five subsidies, or L.280,000, were voted
to the king, a sum with which Charles declared himself
well satisfied. The Commons, however, resolved not to
pass this vote into a law, until they had obtained from the
king a sufficient security that their liberties should no
longer be violated as they had formerly been. With this
view they framed a law which was called a Petition of
Right, because it was only a confirmation of the ancient
constitution, in which they collected all the arbitrary ex¬
ertions of the prerogative which had taken place since the
king's accession, and in particular complained of the grie¬
vances of forced loans, benevolences, taxes without con¬
sent of parliament, arbitrary imprisonments, billeting sol¬
diers, and martial law. They made no pretensions to any
unusual power or privileges; nor did they intend to in¬
fringe on the royal prerogative in any respect. They
aimed only at securing those rights and privileges derived
from their ancestors.
But the king, on his part, began plainly to show that he
aimed at nothing less than absolute power. This most
reasonable petition he did his utmost to evade, by re¬
peated messages to the house, in which he offered his
royal word that there should be no more infringements
on the liberty of the subject. But these messages had
no effect on the Commons. They knew how brittle such
promises were without further security, and accordingly
passed the bill. In the Lords an attempt was made to
stultify the measure, by adding to a general declaration of
the rights of property and person a clause to the effect
that, in case the sovereign be, from absolute necessity,
obliged to imprison a subject, “ he shall be petitioned to
declare that, within a convenient time, he shall and will
express the cause of imprisonment, and will, upon cause
so expressed, leave the prisoner to be tried by the com¬
mon law of the land.” But in a conference the Commons
refused to annihilate their petition by such a compromise ;
the Lords then passed the bill, and nothing was wanting
but the royal assent to give it the force of a law. Charles
accordingly came to the House of Peers, sent for the
Commons, and being seated in the chair of state, instead
of giving the usual concise assent, said, “ the king willeth
that right be done according to the laws and customs of
1629.
the realm, and that the statutes be put into execution; Reign of
that his subjects may have no cause to complain of any Charles I,
wrong or oppression contrary to their just rights and li-
berties, to the preservation whereof he holds himself in
conscience as much obliged as of his own prerogative.”
This equivocal answer was highly resented. The Com¬
mons returned in very ill humour; and their indignation
would undoubtedly have fallen on the unfortunate Catho¬
lics, had not the petition against that persecuted class of
religionists already received a satisfactory answer. To
give vent to their displeasure, therefore, they fell on Dr
Mainwaring, who had preached, and, at the special com¬
mand of the king, printed, a sermon, which was found to
contain doctrines subversive of civil liberty. For these
doctrines Mainwaring was sentenced to be imprisoned
during the pleasure of the house, to be fined in L.1000,
to make submission and acknowledgment for his offence,
to be suspended for three years, and declared incapable of
holding any ecclesiastical dignity or secular office; and
his book was ordered to be called in and burnt. But the
session was no sooner ended than Mainwaring received a
pardon, and was promoted to a living of considerable value ;
and some years afterwards he was raised to the see of St
Asaph. Having dealt thus with Mainwaring, the Com¬
mons proceeded to censure Buckingham ; and the storm
of public indignation seemed ready to burst on his head,
when it was diverted by the king’s yielding to the impor¬
tunities of parliament. He went to the House of Peers,
and when he pronounced the usual form of words, “ Let
it he law as is desired," the house resounded with accla¬
mations, which were re-echoed over all the country, and
the bill for five subsidies immediately passed.
But the Commons were not yet done with the redress of
grievances. They called for the abolition of a commission
which had been recently granted to thirty-three officers of
the crown for levying money by impositions or otherwise,
“ in which form or circumstance were to be dispensed
with rather than the substance be lost or hazarded.” They
adverted to a scheme for introducing into England a thou¬
sand German horse, probably to aid in levying contribu¬
tions ; they again attacked Buckingham, against whom
they were justly implacable; and they also asserted that
the levying of tonnage and poundage without consent of
parliament was a palpable violation of the ancient liber¬
ties of the people, and an open infringement of the peti¬
tion of right so lately granted. To prevent a formal re¬
monstrance on these subjects, the king suddenly prorogued
the parliament on the 26th of June 1628.
The hand of an assassin soon rid the Commons of their
enemy Buckingham. He was murdered on the 23d ot
August this same year, by one Felton, who had formerly
served under him as a lieutenant. The king did not ap¬
pear much concerned at his death, but retained an affec¬
tion for his family throughout his whole lifetime. He de¬
sired also that Felton might be tortured, in order to ex¬
tort from him a discovery of his accomplices; but the
judges declared, that though that practice had been for¬
merly very common, it was altogether illegal.
In 1629 the usual contentions between the king and his
parliament were renewed. The great article on which
the Commons broke with their sovereign, and w Inch final¬
ly created in him a disgust at all parliaments, was their
demands with regard to tonnage and poundage. I he ques¬
tion at issue was, whether this tax could be leued with¬
out consent of parliament or not. Charles, suppoited by
multitudes of precedents, maintained that it might, and
the parliament, in consequence of theii petition of light,
asserted that it could not. But the Commons were re¬
solved to support their rights.
They began w ith summoning before them the officers ot
BRITAIN.
Reign of the custom-house, to give an account of the authority by
Charles I. which they had seized the goods of those merchants who
had refused to pay the duties of tonnage and poundage. The
1C'9, Barons of Exchequer w ere questioned with regard to their
decrees on that head. The sheriff of London was commit¬
ted to the Towner for his activity in supporting the officers
of the custom-house. The goods of Holies, a merchant,
and member of the house, being seized on account of his
refusal to pay the duties, complaints were made of this
violence, as a breach of privilege. Charles, on the other
hand, supported his officers in all these measures; and
the breach between him and the Commons became every
. day w ider. Sir John Eliot framed a remonstrance against
tonnage and poundage, which he offered to the clerk to
read; but the latter refused, and Sir John then read it
himself. When the question was called for, the Speaker,
Sir John Finch, said, that he had it in command from the
king to adjourn, and to put no question; upon which he
rose and left the chair. The whole house was in an up¬
roar ; the Speaker was pushed back, and forcibly held in
the chair by Hollis and Valentine, till a short remon¬
strance was framed, and passed by acclamation. Papists
and Arminians were nowr declared capital enemies to the
commonwealth ; those who levied tonnage and poundage
were branded with the same epithet; and even the mer¬
chants who voluntarily paid these duties were declared
betrayers of English liberty, and public enemies. The
doors being locked, the gentleman-usher of the House
of Lords, who was sent by the king, could get no admit¬
tance till this remonstrance was finished. By the king’s
order he took the mace from the table, which put an end
to their proceedings; and, on the 10th of March, the
parliament was dissolved. Some of the members w’ere
imprisoned and fined ; but this severity served only to in¬
crease the general discontent, and point out the sufferers
as proper leaders for the popular party.
Disgusted with parliaments, Charles now resolved to call
no more; but finding himself destitute of resources, he
was obliged to conclude a war which was begun without
necessity, and conducted without glory. A treaty was
signed with France on the 14th of April, and another
with Spain on the 5th of November 1630, by which
Charles bound himself to observe a neutrality with re¬
gard to the affairs of the Continent. In these treaties the
Huguenots and the palatinate were equally abandoned.
Charles, however, united with France in mediating be¬
tween Sweden and Poland, in hopes of gaining the former
to the cause of his brother-in-law. But although Gusta-
vus espoused the cause of the German Protestants, and
accepted of aid from Charles under the Marquis of Ha¬
milton, he refused, when he had overrun Germany, to re¬
store the palatinate, except on condition of its dependence
upon himself. In short, the peace was as ignominious as
the war had been disgraceful.
The king’s conduct to his subjects cannot now there¬
fore appear blameless, nor the general discontent without
foundation. As if resolved to ruin himself utterly, and
to forfeit any small degree of regard which his subjects
still retained for him, Charles now set about making in¬
novations in religion. Archbishop Laud had obtained a
prodigious ascendancy over the king, and, by a supersti¬
tious attachment to fantastical ceremonies, led him into a
conduct that proved fatal to himself and ruinous to the
kingdom. The humour of the nation at that time inclined
them to enthusiasm rather than superstition; and the an¬
cient ceremonies which had been sanctified by the per¬
mission and practice of the first reformers, were barely to¬
lerated in divine service. Yet Laud chose this time, in
every respect the most unseasonable that could have been
hit upon, for renewing the ceremonies of the fourth and
VOL. v.
393
fifth century, when the Christian church was sunk in su- Reign of
perstition, and religion had been smothered under a cum- Charles I.
brous mass of unmeaning forms; and so openly were his
projects avowed, that not only did the Puritans believe
the church of England to be fast relapsing into the an¬
cient faith, but even the court of Rome itself entertained
hopes of regaining its former authority in this island, and,
in order to quicken the zeal of Laud, twice offered him,
in private, a cardinal’s hat. He had just sense enough to
decline a tender which, if accepted, would have instantly
wrought his overthrow. But it must nevertheless be con¬
fessed, that if he hesitated openly to declare himself a Ca¬
tholic, the genius of his religion was essentially identical
with that of Rome. The same profound respect was ex¬
acted to the sacerdotal character; the same submission
to the creeds and decrees of synods and councils; the
same pomp and ceremony in worship; the same supersti¬
tious regard to days, postures, meats, and vestments. The
communion table was removed from the middle of the area
where it had hitherto stood in all churches except cathe¬
drals, and placed at the east end, railed in, and denominated
an altar, whilst the clergyman who officiated received the
appellation of priest. All kinds of ornaments, especially
pictures, were introduced ; some of them copied from the
mass-book. And the crucifix too, that perpetual consola¬
tion of all pious Catholics, and terror of all sound Pro¬
testants, was not forgotten on this occasion.
In return for the king’s indulgence towards the church,
Laud and his followers took care to magnify on every oc¬
casion the regal authority, and to treat with the utmost
disdain all puritanical pretensions to a free and independ¬
ent constitution. From this subjection, however, they took
care to exclude themselves, insisting upon a divine and
apostolical charter in preference to a legal and parliamen¬
tary one. The sacerdotal character was magnified as sa¬
cred and indefeasible ; and all right to spiritual authority,
or even to private judgment in spiritual subjects, was re¬
fused to profane laymen. Ecclesiastical courts were hold-
en by' bishops in their own name, without any notice being
taken of the king’s authority; and Charles, though ex¬
tremely jealous of every claim set up by popular assem¬
blies, seemed rather to encourage than repress the en¬
croachments of his clergy.
Meanwhile the king had changed his counsellors with¬
out changing his councils. In order to weaken the popu¬
lar party, by creating suspicion and distrust of its chiefs,
Charles, resorting to an expedient often adopted by princes,
had chosen his ministers from the ranks of the patriots, in
the hope of converting them into strenuous supporters of
the prerogative which he was content to share with them.
Nor was he mistaken in calculating the more immediate
effects of this political apostacy. Sir Thomas Wentworth,
now created Earl of Strafford, was appointed president of
the council of York, deputy of Ireland, and chief counsel¬
lor of the king. Sir Dudley Digges became master of the
rolls; Noy, attorney-general; and Littleton, solicitor-ge¬
neral. But the arch-apostate was Wentworth, a man dis¬
tinguished by great force of character, dauntless courage,
brilliant and commanding eloquence, extraordinary intel¬
lectual resources, unconquerable moral energy, and a fierce
tumultuous ambition, which led him to trample without scru¬
ple or remorse upon every principle accounted most sa¬
cred and most binding on public men. In him the popular
party lost one of its most powerful supporters, whilst des¬
potism gained a formidable instrument, ready to revenge
his own apostacy on the men he had deserted and betray¬
ed, and to employ all his powers for the purpose of crush¬
ing those liberties of which he had been the most distin¬
guished champion. This bold, bad man, remarkable alike
in every aspect of his character, became the associate and
3 D
394
BRITAIN.
1632.
Reign of colleague of Laud, who still retained the chief direction of
Charles I. ecclesiastical affairs, and who has not unaptly been de¬
scribed as a lower kind of Saint Dominic, “ differing from
the fierce and gloomy enthusiast who founded the Inqui¬
sition, as we might imagine the familiar imp of a spiteful
witch to differ from the archangel of darkness.” (Edin¬
burgh Review, vol. liv. p. 521.)
Whilst Charles ruled without parliaments he ruled by
the naked exercise of prerogative alone. He wanted
money for the support of government; and he levied it,
either by the revival of obsolete laws, or by violations of
the rights and privileges of the nation. In the Star-cham¬
ber and High Commission unheard of severities were
practised in order to support the present mode of admi¬
nistration, and suppress the rising spirit of liberty through¬
out the kingdom. Sir David Foulis was fined L.5000 for
dissuading a friend from compounding for knighthood.
Prynne, a barrister, was condemned to be pilloried in two
places, to lose his ears, to pay a fine of L.5000, and to be
imprisoned during life, for reviling stage plays, huntings,
and festivals, and animadverting on the superstitions of
Laud. Allison was ordained to pay L.1000 to the king,
to be publicly flogged, and to stand four times in the pil¬
lory, for reporting that the Archbishop of York had fallen
into disgrace by asking toleration for the Catholics. Nor
were these the only cases of the kind. Personal liberty
was annihilated. Meanwhile tonnage and poundage con¬
tinued to be levied by royal authority alone. The former
arbitrary impositions were still exacted, and even new
ones laid upon the different kinds of merchandise. The
custom-house officers received orders from the council to
enter into any house, warehouse, or cellar; to search any
trunk or chest, and to break any bulk whatsoever, in default
of the payment of customs. To exercise the militia, each
county was assessed by edict of the council, in a certain
sum for maintaining a muster-master appointed to that
service. Compositions were openly made with recusants,
and the toleration of the Catholic religion being sold, re¬
ligion became a regular part of the revenue. A commis¬
sion was also granted for compounding with such as pos¬
sessed crown-lands on defective titles ; and upon this ini¬
quitous pretence large sums were exacted from the peo¬
ple, who chose rather to submit to this fraudulent impo¬
sition, than to have the precise nature of their titles and
the state of their private affairs exposed to the world.
These arbitrary proceedings led to an occurrence which
will be ever memorable in the history of English liberty.
John Hampden had been rated at twenty shillings of ship-
money for an estate he possessed in Euckinghamshiie,
which was assessed at a ship of four hundred and fifty tons,
or four thousand five hundred pounds. The share of the tax
which fell to Hampden was very small; so small, indeed,
that the sheriff was blamed for setting so wealthy a man
at so low a rate ; but although the sum demanded was a
trifle, the principle of the demand was essentially despo-
tical. The judges, it is true, had declared that, in case
of necessity, the king might impose the tax of ship-money,
and that his majesty was the sole judge of that necessity.
But after consulting the most eminent constitutional law¬
yers of the time, Hampden, undismayed by this judicial
deliverance, refused to pay the few shillings at which he
was assessed, and determined, rather than submit to the
imposition, to incur the certain expense and eventual
danger of bringing to a solemn hearing this great contro¬
versy between the crown and the people. Ihe leading
council against the writ was the celebrated Oliver St John,
whilst the attorney-general and solicitor-general appeared
for the crown. The case was argued during twelve days
in the Exchequer Chamber, and the judges took a con¬
siderable time for deliberatioh. No one has ever'doubted
that the law was clearly in favour of Hampden, and that Reign of
the arguments of his counsel remained unanswered. The Charles I.
bench was, however, divided in opinion. Four of the
twelve judges pronounced decidedly in his favour; a fifth u '
took a middle course; and the remaining seven gave their
voices in favour of the writ. The majority against him
was, therefore, the narrowest possible; and when it is re¬
collected that the judges held their situations only during
the royal pleasure, and consequently were entirely de¬
pendent on the court, this decision may be regarded as in
reality a victory. In this light it was considered at the
time; and it certainly had the effect of awakening the pub¬
lic indignation against the arbitrary designs of the court,
and the abominable prostitution of judicial authority by
which these had been sanctioned and abetted. “ The
judgment,” says Clarendon, “ proved of more advantage
and credit to the gentleman condemned, than to the king's
service.”
The decision of the Exchequer Chamber, however, had
placed at the disposal of the crown the property of every
man in England; whilst the abominable proceedings of the
Star-chamber, which caused obnoxious individuals to be
mutilated and sent to rot in dungeons, showed that the
persons as well as the estates of all who ventured to op¬
pose the crown were entirely at its mercy. W hat that
mercy was will immediately be seen. Hampden, with
some of his friends and connections, determined to quit
England for ever, and to betake themselves across the At¬
lantic, to a settlement which a few persecuted Puritans
had formed in the wilderness of Connecticut. Lords
Saye and Brooke were the original projectors of this
scheme of emigration ; and Hampden, who had been early
consulted respecting it, now resolved to withdraw himself
beyond the reach of further persecution, having reason to
dread the vengeance of the court for the resistance he had
offered to its tyranny. He was accompanied by his kins¬
man Oliver Cromwell; and the cousins took their passage
in a vessel which lay in the Thames, bound for North
America. They were actually on board, when an order
of council appeared, by which the ship was prohibited from
sailing; and seven other ships, filled with emigrants, were
also stopped by the same authority. “ Hampden and Crom¬
well remained,” says the writer from whom we have bor¬
rowed so much, “ and with them remained the evil genius
of the house of Stuart.” (Edinburgh Review', vol. liv. p.
526.)
While the discontent produced by these arbitrary pro¬
ceedings was at its height in England, and the people
ready to break out in open rebellion, Charles thought pro¬
per to attempt setting up Episcopacy in Scotland. The
canons for establishing a new ecclesiastical jurisdiction
were promulgated in 1635, and were received without any
external appearance of opposition, yet with great inward
apprehension and discontent. But when the reading o
the liturgy was first attempted in the cathedral church or
St Giles in Edinburgh in 1637, it produced such a violent
tumult that it was not thought safe to repeat the experi¬
ment. A universal combination against the religious in¬
novations began immediately to take place ; but Char es,
as if obstinately bent on his own destruction, continued
inflexible in his purpose, though he had nothing to oppose
to the united force of the kingdom but a proclamation, in
which he pardoned all past offences, and exhorted the
people to be more obedient for the futuie, anc to su mi
peaceably to the use of the liturgy. This proclamation
accelerated the insurrection which had before been but
slowly advancing. Four Tables, as they were called, were
formed in Edinburgh; one consisting of nobility, another
of gentry, a third of ministers, and the fourth of burgesses.
The table of gentry was divided into many subordinate
BRITAIN.
395
1637.
Reign of ones, according to the different counties. In the hands of
Charles I. the Four Tables the authority of the whole kingdom was
placed. Orders were issued by them, and everywhere obey¬
ed with the utmost regularity ; and amongst the first acts
of their government was the production of the Covenant.
This famous instrument consisted of a renunciation of
popery, formerly signed by James in his youth, and filled
with many virulent invectives against that party. A bond
of union or league followed, by which the subscribers ob¬
liged themselves to resist all religious innovations, and to
defend each other against all opposition whatsoever. The
Covenant was subscribed by people of all ranks and con¬
ditions. Few disapproved of it in their hearts, and still
fewer dared openly to condemn it. The king’s ministers
and counsellors themselves were mostly of the same way
of thinking; and none but persons accounted rebels to
God, and traitors to their country, could withdraw them¬
selves from so salutary and pious a combination.
The king now began to be seriously alarmed. He sent
the Marquis of Hamilton, as commissioner, with authority
to treat with the Covenanters; he required the Covenant
to be renounced and recalled; and, as sufficient conces¬
sions on his part, he offered to suspend the canons and
liturgy till they could be received in a fair and legal way,
and so to model the High Commission that it should no
longer give offence to his subjects. In answer to this de¬
mand, however, the Covenanters declared that they would
sooner renounce their baptism than the Covenant; and
they invited the commissioner himself to sign it. Hamil¬
ton returned to London; made another fruitless journey
with new concessions to Edinburgh ; returned again to
London, and was immediately sent back with still more
satisfactory concessions. The king was now willing to
abolish entirely the canons, the liturgy, and the High
Commission Court; he even resolved to limit greatly the
power of the bishops, and seemed content if on any terms
he could retain that order in the Church of Scotland.
Further, he gave Hamilton authority to summon first an
assetnbly, and then a parliament, where every national
grievance should be redressed. But these tardy and re¬
luctant concessions only showed the weakness of the king,
and encouraged the malcontents to rise in their demands.
The offer, however, of an assembly and a parliament, in
which they expected to be entirely masters, was very will¬
ingly embraced by the Covenanters.
Perceiving the advantage which his enemies had reaped
from their Covenant, Charles resolved to have one on his
side also ; and he ordered a bond to be drawn up for that
purpose. It consisted of the same strenuous renunciation
of popery with the other ; and although the king did not
approve of this, he thought proper to adopt it, in order to
remove all the suspicions entertained against him. As the
Covenanters, in their bond of mutual defence against all
opposition, had been careful not to except the king, Charles
also formed a bond, which was annexed to this renuncia¬
tion, and expressed the subscribers’ loyalty and duty to his
majesty. But the Covenanters perceiving that this new
Covenant was only meant to weaken and divide them, re¬
ceived it with the utmost scorn and detestation; and pro¬
ceeded without delay to model the assembly from which
such great achievements were expected.
This assembly met at Glasgow in 1638. A firm deter¬
mination had been entered into of utterly abolishing Epis¬
copacy ; and, as preparatory thereto, there was laid before
the presbytery of Edinburgh, and solemnly read in all
the churches of the kingdom, an accusation against the
bishops, as guilty, all of them, of heresy, simony, bribery,
perjury, cheating, incest, adultery, fornication, common
swearing, drunkenness, gaming, breach of the sabbath, and
every other crime which had occurred to the accusers.
1639.
The bishops sent a protest, declining the authority of the Reign of
assembly; the commissioner too protested against that Charles L
court, as illegally constituted and elected, and in his ma¬
jesty’s name dissolved it. This measure was foreseen,
and little regarded. The court still continued to sit and
do business. All the acts of assembly since the acces ¬
sion of James to the crown of England were, upon very
reasonable grounds, declared null and invalid. The acts
of parliament which affected ecclesiastical affairs were on
that very account supposed to have no authority. And
thus the whole fabric which James and Charles, in a long
course of years, had been rearing with much care and
policy, fell at once to the ground. The Covenant likewise
was ordered to be signed by every one, under pain of ex-
communication.
In 1639 the Covenanters prepared in earnest for war.
The Earl of Argyll, though he long seemed to temporize,
at last embraced the Covenant, and became the chief lead¬
er of that party. The Earls of Rothes, Cassillis, Montrose,
Lothian, the Lords Lindesay, Loudoun, Yester, and Bal-
merino, also distinguished themselves. Many Scottish
officers had acquired reputation in the German wars, par¬
ticularly under Gustavus; and these were invited over
to assist their country in its present necessity. The com¬
mand was intrusted to Leslie, a soldier of experience and
ability. Forces were regularly enlisted and disciplined;
arms were commissioned and imported from foreign coun¬
tries ; a few castles which belonged to the king, being
unprovided with provisions, ammunition, and garrisons,
were soon seized; and the whole country, except a small
part under the Marquis of Huntly, who still adhered to
the king, fell into the Covenanters’ hands, and was soon
put in a tolerable state of defence.
Charles, on the other hand, was not deficient in en¬
deavours to oppose this formidable combination. By re¬
gular economy he had not only paid all the debts con¬
tracted in the French and Spanish wars, but had amassed
a sum of L.200,000, which he had reserved for any sud¬
den exigency. The queen, who had great interest with
the Catholics, both from sympathy of religion, and from
the favours and indulgences which she had been able to
procure them, now employed her credit in persuading
them that it was reasonable to give large contributions, as
a mark of their duty to the king, during this urgent ne¬
cessity ; and thus, to the great scandal of the Puritans, a
considerable supply was raised. The king’s fleet also was
formidable and well supplied. Having put five thousand
land forces on board, he intrusted the command to the
Marquis of Hamilton, who had orders to sail for the Frith
of Forth, and cause a diversion by occupying the forces of
the malcontents. An army of near twenty thousand foot
and three thousand horse was meanwhile levied, and put
under the command of the Earl of Arundel, a nobleman of
great family, but distinguished for neither military nor po¬
litical abilities. The Earl of Essex, a man of strict honour,
and extremely popular, especially among the soldiery, was
appointed lieutenant-general; and the Earl of Holland was
made general of the horse. The king himself joined the
army, and summoned all the Peers of England to attend
him. The whole had the appearance of a splendid court
rather than a military armament, and in this state the army
arrived at Berwick.
The Scottish force was equally numerous with that of
the king, but inferior in cavalry. The officers had more
experience; and the soldiers, though ill disciplined and
armed, were animated, as well by the national aversion to
England, and the dread of becoming a province of their
old rival, as by that religious enthusiasm which was the
occasion of the war. Yet so prudent were their leaders,
that they immediately sent very submissive messages to the
BRITAIN.
396
Iteign of king, and craved leave to be admitted to a treaty. Charles,
Charles I. as usual, took the worst possible course. He concluded
'a sudden pacification, in which it was stipulated, that he
163!)" should withdraw his fleet and army; that within forty-
eight hours the Scots should dismiss their forces; that
the king’s forts should be restored to him, his authority
acknowledged, and a general assembly and parliament im¬
mediately summoned, in order to compose all differences.
But this peace was not of long duration. Charles could
not prevail on himself to abandon the cause of Episcopacy,
and secretly intended to seize every favourable opportu¬
nity to recover the ground he had lost. The assembly,
on the other hand, proceeded with the utmost vigour and
determination. They voted Episcopacy to be unlawful in
the church of Scotland ; they stigmatized the canons and
liturgy as popish; and they denominated the High Commis¬
sion tyranny. The parliament, which sat after the as¬
sembly, advanced pretensions which tended to diminish
the civil power of the monarch; and they were proceed¬
ing to ratify the acts of assembly, when, by the king’s in¬
structions, Traquair, the commissioner, prorogued them.
By reason of these claims, which might have easily been
foreseen, the war recommenced the same year.
No sooner had Charles concluded the peace, however,
than he found himself obliged to disband his army from
want of money; and as the soldiers had been held toge¬
ther merely by mercenary views, it was not possible, with¬
out great trouble, expense, and loss of time, to re-assemble
them. The Covenanters, on the contrary, in dismissing
their troops, had been careful to preserve nothing but the
appearance of a pacification. The officers had orders to be
ready on the first summons ; the soldiers were warned not
to think the nation secure from an English invasion; and
the religious zeal which animated all ranks of men made
them immediately fly to their standards as soon as the
trumpet of war was sounded by their spiritual and tem¬
poral leaders.
In 1640, however, the king managed to draw an army to¬
gether ; but finding himself unable to support them, he was
obliged to call a parliament after an intermission of about
eleven years. As the sole object of the king in calling
this parliament was to obtain a supply, and the only rea¬
son they had for attending was to procure a redress of
grievances, much harmony could scarcely be expected.
The king accordingly insisted for money, and the parlia¬
ment expatiated on their grievances, till a dissolution en¬
sued ; and, as if to render this measure still more unpo¬
pular, the king permitted the Convocation to sit after the
dissolution ;—a practice of which there had been very few
examples since the reformation, and which was now deemed
exceedingly irregular. Besides granting a supply to the
king from the spiritualities, the Convocation, jealous of in¬
novations similar to those which had taken place in Scot¬
land, imposed an oath on the clergy and the graduates in
the Universities, binding them to maintain the government
of the church, by archbishops, bishops, deans, chapters, and
otherwise, as by law established. These steps were deemed
illegal, because not ratified by consent of parliament; and
the oath became a subject of general ridicule.
Disappointed of parliamentary subsidies, the king was
obliged to have recourse to other expedients. The eccle¬
siastical subsidies offered a considerable resource ; and it
seemed but just that the clergy should contribute to the
expense of a war which they had been mainly instrumental
in raising. Charles borrowed money from his ministers
and courtiers; and so urgent were his wants, that above
L.300,000 were subscribed in a few days. Attempts were
made to levy a forced loan from the citizens; but these
were repelled by the spirit of liberty, which had now be¬
come unconquerable. A loan of L.40,000 was, however,
extorted from the Spanish merchants who had bullion in Iteign of
the lower. Coat and conduct money for the soldiery was Charles I.
also levied on the counties; all the pepper was bought up
from the East India Company upon trust, and sold at a
great discount for ready money; and an infamous scheme
was proposed for coining two or three hundred thousand
pounds of base money. Such were the extremities to which
Charles was now reduced. The fresh difficulties which
were every day raised with regard to the payment of ship-
money, obliged him to exert continual acts of authority,
and augmented extremely the discontents of the people,
while his indigence and necessities continued undiminished.
These expedients, however, enabled the king, though
with great difficulty, to set in motion an army, consisting
of 19,000 foot and 2000 horse. The Earl of Northumber¬
land was appointed general; the Earl of Strafford, who had
been recalled from Ireland, lieutenant-general; and Lord
Conway general of the horse. A small fleet was thought
sufficient to serve the purposes of this expedition. The
Scottish forces, though somewhat superior, were sooner
ready than the king’s army, and marched to the borders of
England. But notwithstanding their warlike preparations,
the Covenanters still held the most submissive language
to the king; having entered England, they said, with no
other design than to obtain access to the king’s presence,
and lay their humble petition at his royal feet. At New-
burn-upon-Tyne they were opposed by a detachment of
four thousand five hundred men under Conway, who seem¬
ed resolved to dispute the passage of the river. The Scots
first entreated them civilly not to interrupt them in their
march to their gracious sovereign ; and then attacking the
detachment with great bravery, killed several, and chased
the remainder from the ground. A panic now seized the
whole English army ; the forces at Newcastle fled imme¬
diately to Durham; and not thinking themselves safe there,
they abandoned the town, and retreated into Yorkshire.
The Scots continuing to advance, dispatched messen¬
gers to the king, who had by this time arrived at York.
They took care to redouble their expressions of loyalty,
duty, and submission to his person; and they even made
apologies for their late victory. Charles was in a very
distressed condition; and, in order to prevent the further
advance of the Scots, he agreed to a treaty, and named six¬
teen English noblemen to meet with eleven Scottish com¬
missioners at Rippon. Strafford, upon whom, by reason
of Northumberland’s sickness, the command of the army
had devolved, advised Charles rather to put all to the ha¬
zard than to submit to the terms which he foresaw would
be prescribed. He urged him to push forward, to attack the
Scots, and to bring the affair to a quick decision. If he
were ever so unsuccessful, nothing worse could befal him
than what he would certainly be exposed to from his inac¬
tivity ; and, to show how easily this project might be exe¬
cuted, he ordered an assault to be made on some quar¬
ters of the Scots, and gained some advantage over them.
This energetic advice Charles had not resolution to adopt.
He resolved to summon a council of the peers; and as he
foresaw that they would advise him to call a parliament,
he told them in his first speech that he had already taken
that resolution. Meanwhile, in order to subsist both ar¬
mies (for the king was obliged to pay his enemies, in or¬
der to save the northern counties), Charles wrote to the
city, desiring a loan of L.200,000; and the peers as¬
sembled at York joined in the same request.
The parliament met in November 1640. The House
of Commons had never been observed to be so numerous;
and, in order to strike a blow at once against the court,
they began with the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford.
That nobleman, who was considered as prime minister,
both on account of the credit he possessed with his mas-
—
BRITAIN.
397
Reign of ter, and his own uncommon vigour and capacity, had in-
Charles I. curred the hatred of the three kingdoms. The Scots
looked upon him as the capital enemy of their country.
Ri40. jia(j engaged the parliament of Ireland to advance
large subsidies to be employed in a war against them; he
had levied an army of nine thousand men, with which he
had menaced their western coast; he had obliged those
who lived under his government to renounce the solemn
league and covenant; and he had governed Ireland, first as
deputy, and then as lord-lieutenant, during eight years,
with great vigilance, activity, and energy, but with very
little popularity, owing to the severities he had exercised.
In a nation so averse to the English government and re¬
ligion, these qualities were sufficient to draw upon him the
public hatred. His manners, besides, were at bottom
haughty, rigid, and severe; and no sooner did adversity
begin to seize him, than this concealed hatred blazed up
at once, and the Irish parliament used every expedient to
aggravate the charge against him. Nor was this all. The
universal discontent which prevailed throughout England
was all pointed against the Earl of Strafford; and for this
reason, that he was the minister of state whom the kingmost
favoured and trusted. His extraction was honourable, his
paternal fortune considerable ; yet envy attended his sud¬
den and great elevation, and his former associates in po¬
pular counsels, finding that he owed his advancement to
the desertion of their cause, denounced him as the arch¬
apostate of the commonwealth, whom it behoved them to
sacrifice as a victim to public justice.
From such causes nothing else could be expected than
what really happened. Articles of impeachment were
exhibited against Strafford, and this proceeding was fol¬
lowed by a bill of attainder. The king had induced Straf¬
ford to leave the army by a promise of protection, and an
assurance that not a hair of his head should be hurt; but
he soon learnt to his cost, that in neglecting the scriptural
admonition, “Put not your faith in princes,” he had rushed
into the jaws of destruction. It was not without extreme
difficulty, however, that the king could be brought to con¬
sent to the sacrifice of his favourite minister. He came
to the House of Lords, where he expressed his resolution
never to employ Strafford again in any public business;
but with regard to the treason of which that minister was
convicted, he professed himself totally dissatisfied. The
Commons, however, voted it a breach of privilege for the
king to take notice of any bill depending before the House.
Charles did not seem to perceive that his attachment to
Strafford was the chief motive for the bill; and that the
greater the proof he gave of this attachment to his minister,
the more inevitable did he render his destruction. The
House of Lords were intimidated, by popular violence,
into passing the bill of attainder against the unfortunate
earl; and the same battery was next employed to force
the king’s assent. The populace flocked about Whitehall,
and accompanied their demand of justice with loud cla¬
mours and open menaces. A thousand reports of conspi¬
racies, insurrections, and invasions, were spread abroad.
On whatever side the king cast his eyes he saw no re¬
source nor security. All his servants, consulting their
own safety rather than their master’s honour, declined in¬
terposing with their advice between him and his parlia¬
ment ; the queen, terrified at the appearance of so great
a danger, pressed Charles, with tears, to satisfy his people
in this demand, which it was hoped would finally content
them; Archbishop Juxon alone had the courage to advise
him, if he did not approve of the bill, by no means to con¬
sent to it. At last, after the most violent anxiety and doubt,
Charles granted a commission to four noblemen, in his
name, to give the royal assent to the bill; flattering him¬
self, that as neither his will was consenting to the deed,
nor his hand immediately engaged in it, he was free from
the guilt which attended this base and ungrateful act.
That Strafford, on general grounds, perhaps, merited his '
fate, may be more easily conceded than the legality or
justice of the proceedings which issued in his condemna¬
tion and death. The articles of impeachment exhibited
against him respected his conduct as president of the Coun¬
cil of the North, as deputy of Ireland, and as commander-
in-chief in England; and four months were employed by
the managers in framing the accusation, so as, if possible,
to entangle him in the meshes of treason. But he baffled,
with wonderful ability, all the arguments of his accusers,
whom he met and overthrew on every point; nor was the
evidence produced against him at all sufficient to establish
the charge of absolute treason, or to warrant the bill of
attainder which was subsequently introduced. He was
convicted of that constructive or accumulative species
of treason, which, once admitted into the criminal juris¬
prudence of any country, must, in seasons of agitation
and excitement, place the life of every man in it at the
disposal of the ruling powers. He was sentenced to death
in virtue of an ex post facto law, and fell the victim of
popular odium, if not of party vengeance. It has indeed
been said, that the proceedings against Strafford were
justified by that which alone justifies capital punishment,
or warrants the ravages committed in war, namely, by
the public danger. But, even on this ground, it was in¬
cumbent on his accusers to show, first, that there was such
a pressing and urgent danger as to justify an act of at¬
tainder ; and, secondly, that the sacrifice demanded was
the only mode in which such danger could be obviated
or removed. Neither of these points, however, was esta¬
blished, or attempted to be established. The high tribu¬
nal before which Strafford was tried, convicted, and con¬
demned, never seems to have thought of setting forth its
own fears for the public weal, whether well or ill found¬
ed, as the sole and only measure of the justice of its pro¬
cedure ; they went upon grounds totally different, and
sought to give a legal sanction to a judgment, for which
no better defence can now be devised than the plea of
necessity. And had they followed a different course, their
conduct would have been at once absurd and inconsistent;
for where there is an urgent or admitted necessity, that,
from the nature of things, supersedes all ordinary prin¬
ciples of law, all questions of evidence, all considerations
of guilt or of innocence; and where, as in this case, a for¬
mal investigation and trial have been gone into, it converts
them into an absolute and intolerable mockery. The exe¬
cution of Strafford, therefore, may be more easily palliated
than defended. As a revolutionary measure, it may have
been expedient; considered as a judicial act, it seems to
have been a flagrant violation of the most sacred principles
of law and justice.
These commissioners were empowered to give the royal
assent to a bill yet more fatal to the king, which provided
that the present parliament should not be dissolved, pro¬
rogued, or adjourned, without their own consent. By this
last bill Charles perpetuated the power which had already
become uncontrollable. The reason of this extraordinary
step was, that the Commons, from policy rather than neces¬
sity, had resorted to the expedient of paying the two armies
by borrowing money from the city; and these loans they
were to be afterwards repaid by taxes levied on the people.
But at last the citizens began to start difficulties with regard
to a further loan which was demanded. “ We make no
scruple of trusting the parliament,” said they, “ were we
certain that the parliament was to continue till our repay¬
ment. But, in the present precarious situation of affairs,
what security can be given us for our money ?” In order
to obviate this objection, the above-mentioned bill was sud-
Iteign of
Charles I.
1640.
398 BRITAIN.
Reign of denly brought in, and having passed both houses with great
Charles I. rapidity, was at last brought to the king, who, being op-
pressed with grief on account of the unhappy fate of Straf-
1640. for(^ ^ not perceiVe the effect of it until it was too late.
Soon after the impeachment of Strafford, Laud was ac¬
cused of high treason, and committed to custody; and to
avoid a similar fate Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary
Windebank fled, the one into Holland, the other into
France. The house then instituted a new species of
crime, which was termed delinquency; and persons who
had acted under the king or by his authority during the
late military operations were now called delinquents.
Many of the nobility and gentry of the nation, while ex¬
erting what they considered as the legal powers of magi¬
stracy, thus found themselves unexpectedly involved in
this new and sufficiently vague offence. The Commons,
however, reaped great advantage from their invention;—
they disarmed the crown, established the maxims of rigid
law and liberty, and spread the terror of their own autho¬
rity. All the sheriffs who had formerly exacted ship-mo¬
ney, though by the king’s express command, were now de¬
clared delinquents. The farmers and officers of the cus¬
toms who had been employed during so many years in
levying tonnage, poundage, and other imposts laid on
without the authority of parliament, were likewise deno¬
minated delinquents, and were afterwards glad to com¬
pound for a pardon by paying L.150,000. Every sentence
of the Star Chamber and High Commission Courts, which
from their very nature were arbitrary and oppressive, under¬
went a severe scrutiny; and all who had concurred in such
sentences were voted liable to the penalties of law. No
minister of the king, no member of the council, was safe.
The judges who had formerly given judgment against
Hampden for refusing to pay ship-money were accused
before the Peers, and obliged to find security for their
appearance when required. Berkeley, a judge of the
King’s Bench, was seized by order of the house, even
when sitting in his court. The sanction of the Lords and
Commons, as well as that of the king, was declared neces¬
sary for the confirmation of ecclesiastical canons.
In a word, the constitution was new-modelled, in as far
as that may be said to have been done by reforming abuses
and striking terror into all those who had profited by them,
or had in any manner of way been accessory to the arbi¬
trary proceedings of the court. And during the first pe¬
riod of the transactions of this parliament, their merits so
greatly overbalanced their defects and errors, as to entitle
them to the admiration of all lovers of liberty. Not only
were former abuses remedied, and grievances redressed;
provision was also made, by excellent laws, against a re¬
currence of the like evils. And if the means by which
they accomplished such great ends savoured often of ar¬
tifice, sometimes of violence, it is to be considered that
revolutions in government cannot always be effected by
mere force of argument and reasoning; and that, factions
being once excited, men can neither so certainly regulate
the tempers of others, nor control their own, as to guard
against all excesses.
The king having promised to pay a visit this summer
to his subjects in Scotland, in order to settle their go¬
vernment, the English parliament was very importunate
with him to lay aside that journey; but they could not
prevail with him so much as to delay it. Failing in this,
they appointed a small committee of both houses to at¬
tend him; in order, as was pretended, to see the articles
of pacification executed, but in reality to watch the mo¬
tions of the king, and to extend still further the ideas of
parliamentary authority. This committee consisted of the
Earl of Bedford, Lord Howard, Sir Philip Stapleton, Sir
William Armyne, Nathaniel Fiennes, and John Hampden.
Charles arrived in Scotland on the 14th of August 1641, Reign of
intending, it is said, to give full satisfaction if possible to Charles L
the people of that country. And some useful changes were
in reality made. The bench of bishops and the lords of ^ *
articles were abolished ; it was provided that no man should
be created a Scottish peer who possessed not ten thousand
merks, above L.500 sterling, of annual rent in the king¬
dom ; a law for triennial parliaments was likewise passed;
it was resolved that the last act of every parliament
should be to appoint the time and place for holding the
parliament next ensuing; and the king was also deprived
of the power he had formerly exercised of issuing pro¬
clamations which enjoined obedience under the penalty
of treason. But the hardest blow given to the royal au¬
thority was an article which provided that no member
of the privy council, no officer of state, none of the judges,
should be appointed without the advice and approbation
of parliament. Charles even agreed to deprive of their
seats four judges who had adhered to his interests; and
their place was supplied by others more agreeable to the
ruling party. Several of the Covenanters were also sworn
of the privy council; and all the ministers of state, coun¬
sellors, and judges, were by law to hold their offices during
life or good behaviour. While in Scotland, the king con¬
formed himself to the established church; he bestowed
pensions and preferments on Henderson, Gillespie, and
other popular preachers; and he practised every artifice
to soften, if not to gain, his greatest enemies. The Earl
of Argyll was created a Marquis, Lord Loudon an Earl,
and Leslie was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord
Leven. But though Charles thus heaped favours on his ene¬
mies with a prodigal hand, they were not satisfied, believ¬
ing that all he did proceeded from artifice and necessity;
whilst some of his friends were disgusted, and thought
themselves ill rewarded for their past services. The king
was manifestly playing a part, and he played it ill, be¬
cause he overacted his assumed character.
Argyll and Hamilton, being seized with an apprehen¬
sion, real or pretended, that the Earls of Crawford and
Cochrane meant to assassinate them, left the parliament
suddenly, and retired into the country; but, upon receiv¬
ing assurances of safety, they returned in a few days.
This event, which had no visible result in Scotland, was
commonly denominated the Incident; but it was attended
with very serious consequences in England. The English
parliament immediately took the alarm. They insinuated
that the Malignants, as they called the king’s party, had
laid a plot to murder the godly in both kingdoms; and
having applied to Essex, whom the king had left general
of the south of England, he ordered a guard to (attend
them.
In the mean time a rebellion broke out in Ireland, with
circumstances of unparalleled atrocity, bloodshed, and de¬
vastation. By the judicious conduct of James the old
Irish had been subdued, and proper means taken for se¬
curing their subjection in time coming; but their ancient
animosity still remained, and only wanted an occasion? or
rather pretext, to burst forth. And this, according to the
received account, was furnished by the circumstances of
the times and the weakness of the government.
Roger More, a gentleman descended from an ancient
Irish family, but of narrow fortune, first formed the pro¬
ject of expelling the English, and asserting the indepen¬
dence of his native country. He went secretly from
chieftain to chieftain, and roused up every latent principle
of discontent. He maintained a close correspondence
with Lord Macguire and Sir Phelim O Neale, the most
powerful of the old Irish chiefs; and, by his persuasions,
soon engaged not only them, but the most considerable
persons of the nation, in a conspiracy. It was also hoped
BRITAIN.
Reign of that the English of the Pale, as they were called, or the old
Charles L English planters, who were all Catholics, would afterwards
join the party which proposed to restore their religion to its
,641‘ ancient splendour and authority. The design was, that Sir
Phelim O’Neale and the other conspirators should begin an
insurrection on a given day throughout the provinces, and
attack all the English settlements; and that, on the very
same day, Lord Macguire and Roger More should sur¬
prise the castle of Dublin. They fixed on the beginning
of winter for the commencement of the insurrection, that
there might be more difficulty in transporting forces from
England. Succours of men and supplies of arms were ex¬
pected from France, in consequence of a promise to that
effect made them by Richelieu; and many Irish officers
who had served in the Spanish army expressed their
readiness to lend their aid as soon as they saw an insur¬
rection commenced by their Catholic brethren. The news
which every day arrived from England of the fury ex¬
pressed by the Commons against Catholics struck terror
into the Irish nation, and stimulated the conspirators to
execute their fatal purpose, by assuring them of the con¬
currence of their countrj'men.
From the propensity discovered by the Irish to revolt,
it was deemed unnecessary as well as dangerous to trust
the secret to many; and, though the day appointed drew
near, no discovery, it is said, had yet been made by govern¬
ment. The king, indeed, had received information from
his ambassadors, that something was in agitation among
the Irish in foreign parts ; but though he gave warning to
the administration in Ireland, his intelligence was entire¬
ly neglected. They were awakened from their security
only the day before the commencement of hostilities. The
castle of Dublin, by which the capital was commanded, con¬
tained arms for ten thousand men, with thirty-five pieces
of cannon and a proportional quantity of ammunition ; yet
this important place was guarded by no greater force than
fifty men, and even they did their duty negligently. Mac¬
guire and More were already in town with a numerous
band of retainers; others were expected in the course of
the night; and next morning they were to enter on what
seemed an easy enterprise, the surprisal of the castle. But
O’Connolly, an Irishman and a Protestant, discovered the
conspiracy. The justices and council immediately fled
to the castle, and reinforced the guards. The city was
alarm<_'C and the Protestants prepared for defence. More
escaped, but Macguire was taken ; and Mahon, one of the
conspirators, being likewise seized, first discovered to the
justices the project of a general insurrection.
But though O’Connolly’s discovery saved the castle from
a surprise, Mahon’s confession came too late to prevent
the intended insurrection. O’Neale and his confederates
had already taken arms in Ulster. The houses, cattle,
and goods of the English were first seized. Those who
heard of the commotions in their neighbourhood, instead
of deserting their habitations, and assembling together for
mutual protection, remained at home in hopes of defend¬
ing their property, and thus fell separately into the hands
of their enemies. A universal massacre now commenced,
accompanied with circumstances of unequalled barbarity.
No age, no sex, no condition, was spared. In the frenzy
of this bloody tragedy, every ordinary tie was broken, and
death dealt by the hand from which protection was im¬
plored and expected. All the tortures which wanton
cruelty could devise, all the lingering pains of body, all
the anguish of mind, all the agonies of despair, could not sa¬
tiate revenge excited without injury, and cruelty derived
from no cause. Enormities, indeed, were committed, which,
though attested by undoubted evidence, appear almost in¬
credible. The stately buildings or commodious habita¬
tions of the planters, as if upbraiding the sloth and igno-
399
ranee of the natives, were consumed with fire, or laid level Reign of
with the ground; whilst the miserable owners, shut up in Charles I.
their houses, and preparing for defence, perished in the
flames, together with their wives and children ; thus af¬
fording a double triumph to their insulting foes. If any¬
where a number assembled together, and resolved to op¬
pose the assassins, they were disarmed by capitulations
and promises of safety, confirmed by the most solemn
oaths ; but no sooner had they surrendered, than the re¬
bels, with perfidy equal to their cruelty, made them share
the fate of their unhappy countrymen. Others tempted
their prisoners, by the love of life, to embrue their hands
in the blood of friends, brothers, or parents; and having
thus rendered them accomplices in their own guilt, gave
them that death which they sought to shun by deserv¬
ing it*
The barbarities by which Sir Phelim O’Neale and the
Irish in Ulster signalized their rebellion may be imagined
from this faint description. More, shocked at the recital
of such enormities, flew to O’Neale’s camp; but he found
that his authority, though sufficient to excite the Irish to
a rebellion, was too feeble to restrain their inhumanity.
Soon afterwards he abandoned the cause, and retired to
Flanders. From Ulster the flames of rebellion diffused
themselves in an instant over the other three provinces of
Ireland. In all places death and slaughter were com¬
mon, though the Irish in some provinces pretended to
act with moderation and humanity. But barbarous indeed
was their humanity. Not content with expelling the Eng¬
lish from their houses, they stripped them of their very
clothes, and turned them out naked and defenceless to all
the severities of the season; and the heavens, as if con¬
spiring with the wrath of man against that unhappy people,
were armed with cold and tempest unusual to the climate,
and destroyed what the sword had spared. By some com¬
putations, the number of those who perished by all these
cruelties is estimated at a hundred and fifty thousand;
by the most moderate, forty thousand are calculated to
have lost their lives; but even this estimate is in all pro¬
bability exaggerated.
The English of the Pale, who were not probably at first
in the secret, pretended to condemn the insurrection, and
to detest the barbarity with which it was accompanied;
and by their earnest protestations they engaged the justices
to supply them with arms, which they promised to employ
in defence of government. But the interests of religion
were found to have more influence over them than a regard
to duty and the peace of their country. They chose Lord
Gormonstone as their leader; and, joining the old Irish,
rivalled them in acts of cruelty towards the English Pro¬
testants. Besides many smaller bodies dispersed over the
kingdom, the main army of the rebels amounted to twenty
thousand men, and threatened Dublin with an immediate
siege. Both the English and Irish rebels pretended autho¬
rity from the king and queen, but especially the latter, for
their insurrection; and they affirmed that the cause of
their taking arms was to vindicate the royal prerogative,
now invaded by the puritanical parliament. Sir Phelim
O’Neale having, it is said, found a royal patent in the
house of Lord Caulfield, whom he had murdered, tore off
the seal, and affixed it to a commission which he had pre¬
viously forged for himself.
The king received intelligence of this insurrection while
in Scotland, and immediately communicated the disas¬
trous tidings to the Scottish parliament; expressing a hope
that, as there had all along been an outcry against popery,
the nation would now, when that religion was appearing
in its blackest colours, support him vigorously in the sup¬
pression of it. But if he was sincere in this request, which
may not uncharitably be doubted, the Scots were not dis-
BRITAIN.
400
Ileign of posed to give so serious a pledge without due deliberation.
Charles I. Considering themselves now as secured in the enjoyment
of their rights, and conceiving hopes from the present
64distresses of Ireland, they resolved to ascertain precisely
the ground on which succours w^ere demanded, before con¬
senting to grant them. Except dispatching a small body
of forces to support the Scottish colonies "in Ulster, the
utmost length they would go, therefore, was to agree to
send commissioners to London, in order to treat with the
parliament. The king accordingly found himself obliged
to have recourse to the English parliament, and to de¬
pend on their assistance for a supply. He told them that
the insurrection was not, in his opinion, the result of any
rash enterprise, but of a preconcerted conspiracy against
the crown of England. To their care and wisdom, there¬
fore, he said, he committed the conduct and prosecution of
the war, which, in a cause so important to national and re¬
ligious interests, must of necessity be immediately begun
and vigorously pursued. These words are fair-seeming,
and it would be cruel to load the memory of an unfortu¬
nate prince with unjust reproach, or even ill-founded sus¬
picion. But the impartiality of history compels us reluc¬
tantly to admit that there are grounds for charging the
king with a guilty foreknowledge of what was designed
and perpetrated in Ireland. The suddenness of his visit
to Scotland, and the time chosen for undertaking it; his
whole conduct in that country, particularly in at once
making concessions at utter variance with the principles
of his government and the integrity of his prerogative,
which he had risked a civil war to preserve entire, and in
heaping favours on his bitterest enemies; his new-born
zeal against popery, which he had been so long covertly
labouring to introduce ; the criminal intrigues of the queen
and those about her person, of which he could scarcely
be altogether ignorant; the known deceit and duplicity
of his own character; the strange inaction of the public
functionaries in Ireland, even after they were apprized of
the danger, to say nothing of the deaf ear they had turned
to many previous hints that danger was brewing, and
some sudden explosion contemplated; the absence of all
proof of the fraud alleged to have been committed by
O’Neale in regard to the royal patent said to have been
found in the house of Lord Caulfield;—these, and many
other circumstances that might be mentioned, seem to
establish, first, that Charles had some very particular and
urgent reasons for visiting Scotland at this time; second¬
ly, that while there he acted a part which is only expli¬
cable on the supposition that he had a secret design to
cover by it; thirdly, that such an impression seems to have
been genera] at the time; and, lastly, that there are cir¬
cumstances connected with this atrocious rebellion which
have never been explained in such a manner as to vindi¬
cate the king's memory from the suspicion of at least
guilty knowledge.
The English parliament, now re-assembled, discovered
in each vote the same dispositions in which they had se¬
parated. By the difficulties and distresses of the crown,
the Commons, who alone possessed the power of supply,
had aggrandized themselves; and some were not sorry
that the Irish rebellion had succeeded, at such a critical
juncture, to the pacification in Scotland. An expression
of the king’s, by which he committed to them the care of
Ireland, was immediately laid hold of, and interpreted in
the most unlimited sense. On other occasions the Com¬
mons had been gradually encroaching on the executive
power of the crown ; but in regard to Ireland they now at
once assumed it as if it had been delivered over to them
by a regular assignment. They levied money under pre¬
tence of the Irish expedition, but reserved it for other
pm poses; they took arms from the king’s magazines, but
reserved them for more immediate use. Yet though no Beign of
forces were for a considerable time sent over to Ireland, Charles!.,
and very little money remitted during the extreme dis-
tress of that kingdom, so strong was the attachment of the
people to the Commons, that the fault was never imputed
to persons whose votes breathed nothing but destruction
and death to the Irish rebels.
In the meanwhile it was resolved to frame a general
remonstrance on the state of the kingdom; and the com¬
mittee, which at the meeting of the parliament had been
chosen for that purpose, were commanded to finish their
undertaking. The king returned from Scotland on the
25th of November 1641, and was received in London with
shouts and acclamations by the people. Sir Richard Gour-
nay, the lord-mayor, had promoted these favourable dis¬
positions, and persuaded the populace, who had so lately
insulted the king, and who so soon after made war upon
him, to show these marks of respect. But all the plea¬
sure which Charles had reaped from this reception was
soon damped by the remonstrance of the Commons, which
was presented to him, accompanied with a petition of si¬
milar import. The bad counsels which he had followed
were there complained of; his concurrence in the Irish
rebellion was plainly insinuated; the scheme laid for the
introduction of popery and superstition was inveighed
against; and, as a remedy for all these evils, the king was
desired to intrust every office and command to persons
in whom his parliament should see cause to confide. To
this bitter remonstrance Charles found it necessary to
make a civil reply. He knew that the public confidence
was at that time denied to his ministers, more especially
to such of them as had deserted the public cause; and
that whilst men detested the servile insolence of Williams,
the reckless levity of Digby, and the unblushing infamy
of Saville, their faith and hope were strong in the inflexible
virtues of Hampden, the mild integrity of Kimbolton, the
ardent patriotism of Hollis, and the cool sagacity of Pym.
From this period the proceedings of the Commons be¬
came bolder, and more determined and violent. Find¬
ing themselves likely to be opposed by the nobility, who
saw that their own degradation would speedily follow
that of the crown, they openly told the Upper House
that “ they themselves were the representatives of the
whole body of the kingdom, and that the Peers were no¬
thing but individuals, who held their seats in a particular
capacity ; and therefore, if their Lordships would not con¬
sent to acts necessary for the preservation of the people,
the Commons, together with such of the Lords as were
more sensible of the danger, must join together and re¬
present the matter to his majesty.” Every method of
alarming the country was now put in practice. Affect¬
ing continual fears of destruction to themselves and to
the whole nation, they excited the people by never-ceas¬
ing inquiries concerning conspiracies, by reports of in¬
surrections, by alleged rumours of invasion from abroad,
and by discoveries of dangerous combinations at home.
When Charles dismissed the guard which had been or¬
dered them during his absence, they comulained; and,
on his promising them a new guard under the command
of the Earl of Lindesay, they declined the offer. They
ordered halberts to be brought into the hall where they
assembled, and thus armed themselves against those con¬
spiracies with which they pretended they were hourly
threatened. During this time several reduced officers
and young gentlemen of the inns of court offered their
service to the king; and between them and the populace
there occurred frequent skirmishes, which ended not with¬
out bloodshed. By way of reproach, these gentlemen gave
the rabble the name of Roundheads, on account of their
short cropped hair; whilst the latter distinguished their
BRITAIN.
401
1641.
Reign of opponents by the name of Cavaliers ; and thus the nation
Charles I. was furnished with party names, under which the factions
might rendezvous and signalize their mutual hatred.
These tumults continued to increase about Westminster
and Whitehall. The cry against the bishops continually
resounded; and being easily distinguishable by their habit,
as well as objects of violent hatred to all the sectaries, they
were exposed to the most outrageous insults. In these cir¬
cumstances, the Archbishop of York, having been abused
by the populace, hastily called a meeting of his brethren;
and by his advice a protestation was drawn up and
addressed to the king and the House of Lords, setting
forth, that though they had an undoubted right to sit and
vote in parliament, yet in coming thither they had been
menaced and assaulted by the multitude, and could no
longer with safety attend their duty in the House; for
which reason they protested against all laws, votes, and
resolutions, as null and invalid, which should pass during
the time of their forced absence. This ill-timed protesta¬
tion was signed by twelve bishops, and communicated to
the king. As soon as it was presented to the Lords, that
house desired a conference with the Commons, whom they
informed of this unexpected protestation. An impeach¬
ment of high treason was immediately sent up against the
bishops, as endeavouring to subvert the fundamental laws,
and to invalidate the authority of the legislature; and on
the first demand they were sequestered from parliament,
and committed to custody. No man in either house ven¬
tured to speak a word in their vindication. One individual
alone remarked, that he did not believe them guilty of
high treason; he only thought they were stark mad, and
therefore desired that they might be sent to Bedlam.
This was a fatal blow to die royal interest, and it was ag¬
gravated by the imprudence of the king himself. Charles
had long suppressed his resentment, and only strove to
gratify the Commons by the greatness of his concessions;
but finding all his compliances unavailing, he now gave
orders to Herbert, the attorney-general, to enter an ac¬
cusation of high treason, in the House of Peers, against
Lord Kimbolton and five commoners, Sir Arthur Hazlerig,
Hollis, Hampden, Pym, and Strode. The articles charged
them with traitorously endeavouring to subvert the fun¬
damental laws and government of the kingdom, to deprive
the king of his regal power, and to impose on his subjects
an arbitrary and tyrannical authority; with inviting a
foreign army to invade the kingdom ; with aiming at sub¬
verting the very right and being of parliaments; and with
actually raising and countenancing tumults against the
king. Men had scarce leisure to wonder at the precipi¬
tation and imprudence of this impeachment, when they
were astonished by another measure still more rash and
unwarrantable. A serjeant at arms, in the king’s name,
demanded of the house the five members, and was sent
back without any positive answer. This was followed by
conduct still more extraordinary. Next day the king him¬
self entered the House of Commons alone, and advanced
through the hall, while all the members stood up to receive
him. The Speaker withdrew from the chair, and the king
took possession of it. Having seated himself, and looked
round for some time, he told the house that he was sorry
for the occasion that forced him thither, but that he was
come in person to seize the members whom he had ac¬
cused of high treason, seeing they would not deliver them
up to his serjeant at arms. Then addressing himself to the
Speaker, he desired to know whether any of the members
were in the house. But the Speaker, falling on his knees,
replied that he had neither eyes to see nor tongue to
speak, in that place, but as the house was pleased to di¬
rect him; and he asked pardon for not being able to give
any other answer. The king sat for some time to see if
v on. v.
the accused were present; but they had escaped a few Reign of
minutes before his entry, and taken shelter in the city. Charles I.
Disappointed, perplexed, and not knowing on whom to rely,
he next proceeded, amidst the invectives of the populace,
who continued to cry out, “ Privilege, privilege!” to the
common council of the city at Guildhall, where he justi¬
fied his proceedings respecting the fugitives, and expressed
a hope that they would not find shelter or protection in
the city. The common council answered bis complaints
by a disdainful silence; and, on bis return, one of the po¬
pulace, more courageous or insolent than the rest, cried
out, “ To your tents, O Israel!”
When the Commons assembled the next day, they
affected or felt the greatest terror, and passed a unani¬
mous vote that the king had violated their privileges, and
that they could not assemble again in the same place, till
they had obtained satisfaction, and a guard for their se¬
curity. Meanwhile the king retired to Windsor, whence
he wrote to his parliament, promising every satisfaction in
his power. But they were resolved to accept of nothing
unless he would discover his advisers in that illegal mea¬
sure ; a condition which they knew that, without render¬
ing himself for ever vile and contemptible, he could not
possibly submit to.
The Commons had already stripped the king of most of
his privileges ; the bishops were fled, the judges were in¬
timidated ; and it now only remained, after securing the
church and the law, that they should also get possession of
the sword. The power of appointing governors and gene¬
rals, and of levying armies, still continued a prerogative of
the crown. Having first magnified their terrors of popery,
which perhaps they actually dreaded, the Commons pro¬
ceeded to petition that the Tower might be put into their
hands, and that Hull, Portsmouth, and the fleet, should be
intrusted to persons of their choosing. Compliance with
these requests was calculated to subvert what remained
of the monarchy; but such was the necessity of the times,
that they were first contested, and then granted. The
Commons then desired to have a militia, raised and go¬
verned by such officers and commanders as they should
nominate. But Charles hesitated. Being at that time in
Dover attending the queen and the Princess of Orange,
who was about to leave the kingdom, he replied that he
had not now leisure to consider a matter of such great
importance; and therefore would defer an answer till his
return. The Commons, however, were well aware that
they had gone too far to recede; and hence they were
desirous of leaving him no authority whatever, conscious
that they themselves would be the first victims of its free
exercise. They alleged that the dangers and distempers
of the nation were such as could endure no longer delay;
and unless the king speedily complied with their demands,
they would be obliged, both for his safety and that of the
kingdom, to embody and direct a militia by the authority
of both houses. In their remonstrance they also desired
to be permitted to command the army for an appointed
time; a request which so exasperated him, that he ex¬
claimed with indignation, “ No, not for an hour I” This
peremptory refusal broke off all further treaty, and both
sides now resolved to have recourse to arms.
CHAP. IV.
\
REIGN OF CHARLES I. : CIVIL WAR.
Charles, with his family, retires to York—Fruitless negocia-
tions State of the belligerent parties—Inactivity of the par¬
liamentary army.—Skirmish at Worcester—Battle of Edge-
hill Association in favour of the King.—Fairfax defeated in
the north Battle of Stratton—Bristol taken by the royalists.
3 E
L
402
Reign of
Charles I.
BRITAIN.
 Siege of Gloucester Raised—Battle of Newbury—Advan¬
tages gained by Fairfax and CromwelL—Lord Fairfax defeated
at Atherton The Scots agree to assist the Parliament—So-
1042^ lemn League and Covenant—Dexterity of Vane.—King’s
Irish auxiliaries Dispersed at Lantwich—Siege of York.
 Royalists totally defeated at Marston-Moor—Demands of
the Parliament Execution of Laud—Exploits of Montrose
in Scotland Defeat of the Covenanters under Burley at Aber¬
deen Subsequent movements—Devastation of Argyll’s coun¬
try Battle of Inverlochy—Sack of Dundee—Battles of Al-
derne and Alford Parliamentary army new-modelled by Crom¬
well Royalists defeated at Naseby—Bristol taken—Retreat
of the King to Oxford—Battle of Kilsyth—Montrose defeated
at Philiphaugh Charles throws himself on the Scottish army at
Newark Negociations and proceedings in consequence—Sur¬
render of the King’s person to the English—The army usurp
the sovereignty Seizure of the King by Cromwell—Designs
of the army resisted, but ineffectually—Presbyterian members
forced to leave the House Both parties treat with the King.—
His resolution to quit the kingdom—Seized and confined in
the Isle of Wight Levellers—Danger of Cromwell from this
sect Put down The Scottish army under Hamilton defeat¬
ed State of parties Cromwell enters Edinburgh in triumph,
and settles the government of Scotland—Negociations between
the King and Parliament—Pride’s Purge—Charges against the
King. His trial His sentence—His execution—Behaviour
in his last moments—Feelings of the nation on the King’s
death.
Charles, taking the Prince of Wales and the Duke of
York along with him, retired, by slow journeys, to the city
of York, where the people were more loyal, and less in¬
fected with the prevailing spirit of the times, than else¬
where. Here he found his cause backed by a more nume¬
rous party among the people than he had expected. The
nobility and gentry from all quarters, either personally or
by messages and letters, expressed their duty towards
him; and the queen, who was then in Holland, had suc¬
ceeded in levying men and procuring ammunition by sell¬
ing the crown jewels. But before war was openly de¬
clared, the semblance of a negociation was kept up, rather
with a view to please the people, than with any hope of
reconciliation. Nay, that the king might despair of all
composition, the parliament sent him the conditions on
which they were willing to come to an agreement. Their
demands were contained in nineteen propositions or ar¬
ticles, and in effect amounted to a total abolition of mo¬
narchical authority. It was required that no man should
remain in the council who was not agreeable to parlia¬
ment ; that no deed of the king’s should be held valid un¬
less it passed the council, and was attested under their
hand; that all the officers of state should be chosen with
consent of parliament; that none of the royal family should
marry without the consent of parliament or of council;
that the laws should be executed against Catholics; that
the votes of Catholic lords should be excluded; that the
reformation of the liturgy and church government should
proceed according to the advice of parliament; that the
ordinance with regard to the militia should be acquiesced
in; that parliament should judge all delinquents; that a
general pardon should be granted, with such exceptions
as might be advised by parliament; that the forts and
castles should be disposed of by consent of parliament;
and that no peers should be created but with consent of
both houses. War on any terms was esteemed by the
king and all his counsellors preferable to a peace on such
ignominious terms. “ If I should submit to these terms,”
said he, “ I may have my hand kissed, and may retain the
title of majesty, but I should remain but the outside, the
picture, the sign of a king.” Charles accordingly resolved
to support his authority by force of arms. His towns,
he said, were taken from him; his ships, his army, and
his money. But there still remained to him a good cause,
and the hearts of his loyal subjects, which, with God’s
blessing, he doubted not would recover all the rest. There- Reign of
fore, collecting some forces, he advanced southwards, and Charles I.
erected his royal standard at Nottingham.
The struggle now about to commence seemed, in many
respects, exceedingly unequal. The king, indeed, was
supported by a splendid nobility, and a large* portion of
the more considerable gentry, who, dreading a total con¬
fusion of ranks, enlisted themselves under the banner of
their monarch, from whom they received, and to whom
they communicated, lustre. The cordial concurrence of
the bishops and church of England also increased the
number of his adherents. But it may safely be affirmed,
that the high monarchical doctrines so much inculcated by
the clergy had been eminently prejudicial to his cause;
while the bulk of the nobility and gentry who now attend¬
ed the king in his distress breathed the spirit of liberty as
well as of loyalty ; and it was only in the hopes of his sub¬
mitting to a limited and legal government that they were
willing to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in his cause.
On the other hand, the city of London, and most of the
great corporations, took part with the parliament. In the
capital, no less than four thousand men enlisted in one
day; and the demand for a loan, by the parliament, was
answered with so much alacrity, that the treasure flowed
in faster than it could be received. All the sea-ports, ex¬
cept Newcastle, were also in the hands of the parliament;
and the seamen naturally followed the party espoused by
the ports to which they belonged. Add to this, that the
example of the Dutch commonwealth, where liberty had
so happily supported industry, made the commercial part
of the nation desire to see a similar form of government
established in England; whilst many families, who had
enriched themselves by commerce, finding that, notwith¬
standing their opulence, they could not raise themselves
to a level with the ancient gentry, adhered to a power by
the success of which they hoped to acquire both rank and
consideration.
At first every advantage seemed to lie against the royal
cause. The king was totally destitute of money, while,
from the causes already mentioned, the parliament were
secure of a considerable revenue. They had begun by
seizing all the magazines of arms and ammunition, and
their fleet intercepted the greater part of the succours
sent by the queen from Holland; so that the king, in order
to arm his followers, was obliged to borrow the weapons of
the trained bands, under promise of restoring them on the
return of peace. The nature and qualities of his adherents
alone gave the king some compensation for all the advan¬
tages possessed by his adversaries. More bravery and
activity were hoped for from the generous spirit of the
nobles and gentry, than from the baser disposition of the
multitude; and as the landed gentlemen had levied and
armed their tenants at their own expense, greater force
and courage were to be expected from these rustic troops
than from the vicious and enervated population of cities.
But the parliamentary forces were ill officered or ill
directed, otherwise, with a disposable force of six thou¬
sand men, which lay within a few days’ march of the royal¬
ists, they might have easily dissipated the small number
of troops which the king had been able to collect, amount¬
ing to no more than eight hundred horse and three hun¬
dred foot. In a short time the parliamentary army march¬
ed to Northampton, where the Earl of Essex, who had join¬
ed them, found a force amounting to fifteen thousand men.
The king’s army too was soon reinforced from all quar¬
ters ; but having no force capable of coping with the
parliamentary army, he thought it prudent to retire to
Derby, and thence to Shrewsbury, in order to cover the
levies which his friends were making in those parts. At
Wellington, a day’s march from Shrewsbury, he assem-
BRITAIN.
Reign of bled his forces, amounting to near ten thousand men,
Charles I. and caused to be read at the head of every regiment his
military orders, in which he protested solemnly before his
1642‘ whole army that he would maintain the Protestant religion
according to the church of England; that he would govern
according to the known statutes and customs of the king¬
dom; and that he would observe inviolate the laws to
which he had given his consent during the present and
preceding parliaments.
While Charles lay at Shrewsbury, he received the news
of an action, the first that occurred in this unhappy con¬
test, in which his party were victorious. On the appear¬
ance of civil commotion in England, the Princes Rupert
and Maurice, sons of the elector palatine, had offered
their services to the king; and the former at that time
commanded a body of horse which had been sent to Wor¬
cester to watch the motions of Essex, who was then march¬
ing towards that city. The prince, however, had scarcely
arrived, when he saw some of the enemy’s cavalry ap¬
proaching the gates. Without a moment’s delay he at¬
tacked them as they were defiling from a lane and in the
act of forming, killed their commander, Colonel Sandys,
routed the whole party, and pursued them above a mile.
At this period military science and skill were at the
lowest possible ebb in England; so much so, indeed, that,
however much the contending parties might differ in spi¬
rit or in means, they were on a footing of perfect equality
in ignorance of the principles and conduct of war. The
hostile armies moved simultaneously, the king’s from
Shrewsbury, and the parliamentary from Worcester; but
so totally destitute were both of intelligence, that they
wandered about for ten days in absolute ignorance of each
other’s motions. At length, on the 23d of October 1642,
they met at Keinton, or Edgehill, in the county of War¬
wick. The royalists were commanded in chief by the
Earl of Lindesay, who had seen some service in the Low
Countries, and now had under him Prince Rupert, master
of the horse, Sir Jacob Astley in charge of the foot, Sir
Arthur Aston commanding the dragoons, and Sir John
Heydon the artillery. The general-in-chief of the parlia¬
mentary forces was the Earl of Essex, assisted by a num¬
ber of subordinate officers as yet unknown to fame. In
the encounter which immediately ensued, the royalists
were at first victorious. Both wings of the parliamentary
army were broken and put to flight by the onset of Prince
Rupert’s cavalry, supported by the troops under Aston
and Wilmot; and if the royalist reserve had remained
steady, the day would have been won. But thinking the
victory already decided, they broke up from their position
to join in the pursuit, and, whilst in the confusion pro¬
duced by this disorderly movement, they were attacked
by Sir William Balfour, who had anxiously watched their
motions, with the parliamentary reserve, and defeated
in their turn. Both armies then rallied, and faced each
other for some time, neither party venturing to renew the
attack; they lay all night under arms, and next day with¬
drew, Essex towards Warwick, and the king to his former
quarters. Five thousand men, it is said, were left dead
on the field in this bootless encounter. Soon afterwards,
the king took Banbury and Reading, and defeated two re¬
giments of his enemies at Brentford, taking five hundred
prisoners. Thus ended the campaign of 1642, in which,
though the king upon the whole had the advantage, yet
the parliamentary army amounted to twenty-four thousand
men, and was much superior to his. Nevertheless, his ene¬
mies had so far been humbled as to offer terms of peace.
This led to the negociations at Oxford. The terms requir¬
ed by the parliament as the condition of the king's recal,
were the disposal of the militia, the abolition of Episco¬
pacy, and the settlement of ecclesiastical controversies by
403
an assembly of divines. But considerable abatement would Reign of
probably have been made in these demands if Charles had Charles L
not been extravagant in his ; and the failure of the nego- V—
ciation is ascribed to the king’s fidelity to an unhappy
promise he had made to the queen to accede to no terms
without her intervention and consent.
While the treaty was in dependence no cessation of hos¬
tilities took place. On the 27th of April 1643 Reading
surrendered to the parliamentary forces under the Earl of
Essex, who commanded a body of eighteen thousand men.
In the north, the Earl of Northumberland united the coun¬
ties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland,
in a league for the king, and some time after engaged other
counties in the same association. The same nobleman
also took possession of York, and the Earl of Newcastle
dislodged the forces of the parliament under Fairfax at
Tadcaster; but his victory was not decisive. Other ad¬
vantages were also gained by the royalists, the most im¬
portant of which was at Stratton, where Waller, who com¬
manded the parliamentary army, was entirely defeated,
and forced to fly with only a few horse to Bristol. This
happened on the 13th of July, and was followed by the siege
of Bristol, which surrendered to Prince Rupert on the 25th
of the same month.
Although the taking of Bristol cost the royalists dear,
five hundred having fallen in the attempt to carry it by
storm, yet their general success had greatly dispirited the
opposite party; and the confusion which now prevailed at
London was so great that some proposed to the king to march
directly to the metropolis, which it was hoped might be re¬
duced by an insurrection of the citizens, by victory, or by
treaty, and thus put an end at once to the civil disorders.
But this judicious advice was rejected ; and it was resolved
first of all to reduce Gloucester, that the king might have
the whole course of the Severn under his command. By
this means it was hoped that the rich but disaffected
counties of the west, losing the protection of their friends,
might be forced to pay large contributions as an atone¬
ment for their disaffection; that a communication might
be maintained between Wales and these new conquests;
and that half the kingdom, freed from the enemy, and
united into one firm body, might be employed in re-esta¬
blishing the king’s authority throughout the remainder.
The siege accordingly commenced on the 10th of August;
but the town being defended by Massey, a resolute go¬
vernor, and well garrisoned, made a vigorous defence.
The consternation in London, however, was as great as
if the enemy had already been at their gates; and in the
midst of the general confusion a design was formed by
Waller of forcing the parliament to accept of some rea¬
sonable conditions of peace. He imparted his design to
some others; but a discovery being made of their pro¬
ceedings, he and two others were condemned to death.
Waller, however, escaped with a fine of L.10,000. In the
meanwhile Gloucester was reduced to the utmost extre¬
mity. A general assault had been repelled by the des¬
perate enthusiasm of the garrison and city; but the means
of prolonging the defence were now nearly exhausted.
As a last resource, the parliament dispatched Essex with
an army of fourteen thousand men to raise the siege. This
he effected without much difficulty; and on entering the
place he found only one barrel of gunpowder left, and the
provisions nearly exhausted.
But on his return to London he was intercepted by the
king’s army, and a desperate battle ensued at Newbury,
which lasted till night. Essex’s horse were several times
broken by the king’s, but his infantry preserved its forma¬
tion ; and the front ranks presenting a formidable array of
pikes, whilst those in the rear poured in a destructive fire
Prince Rupert and the gentry composing the royal cavaL
404 BRITAIN.
Iteign of ry were unable, notwithstanding the furious impetuosity of
Charles I. their attacks, to make any impression on its compact or-
der. Night put an end to the contest, but left the vic-
1C43, tory undecided. On the side of the king fell the brave,
accomplished, and virtuous Lord Falkland, one of the few
personages to be met with in history whose life and death
were equally honourable and glorious. Next morning
Essex proceeded on his march to London; and although
he had rather escaped a defeat than gained a victory, he
obtained the approbation of parliament. The king follow¬
ed in the same direction, and, having taken possession of
Reading, he established a garrison there, and by that means
straitened London and the quarters of the enemy.
In the north, during the summer, the Earl, now created
Marquis, of Newcastle, had raised a considerable force for
the king; and great hopes of success were entertained from
that quarter. But there appeared, in opposition to him, two
men, on whom the event of the war finally depended, and
who about this time began to be remarked for their valour
and military conduct. These were Sir Thomas Fairfax,
son to the lord of that name, and Oliver Cromwell. The
former gained a considerable advantage over the royalists
at Wakefield, and took General Goring prisoner ; the latter
obtained a victory at Gainsborough over a party command¬
ed by General Cavendish, who perished in the action.
But both these defeats were more than compensated by
the total rout of Lord Fairfax at Atherton Moor, and the
dispersion of his army, which happened on the 31st of
July. After this victory, the Marquis of Newcastle sat
down before Hull with an army of fifteen thousand men;
but, being beaten off by a sally of the garrison, he suffered
so much that he thought it proper to raise the siege. About
the same time Manchester advanced from the eastern as¬
sociated counties, and having joined Cromwell and young
Fairfax, defeated the royalists at Horne Castle, where the
conduct and gallantry of these two rising officers were
eminently conspicuous. But though fortune had thus ba¬
lanced her favours, the king’s party still remained much
superior in the north; and had it not been for the garri¬
son of Hull, which kept Yorkshire in awe, a junction of
the northern forces with the army of the south might have
enabled the king, instead of undertaking the imprudent
enterprise against Gloucester, to march directly to Lon¬
don and put an end to the war. The indecisive battle of
Newbury terminated the campaign of 1643, by both par¬
ties retiring into winter quarters.
The issue of the war being still doubtful, both the king
and parliament began to look for assistance from other na¬
tions. The former looked to Ireland, the latter to Scot¬
land. The parliament of England, at the commencement
of the civil dissensions, had invited the Scots to interpose
their mediation, which, however, the king had declined.
Early in the spring of 1643 this offer was renewed, but with
no better success than before. Commissioners were also
empowered to urge on the king to a compliance with the
presbyterian worship and discipline ; but this he absolutely
refused, as well as to call a parliament in Scotland; and
the commissioners, finding themselves unable to prevail
in any one of their demands, returned highly dissatisfied.
Disappointed in all these views, the English parliament
now sent commissioners to Edinburgh, to treat of a more
close confederacy with the Scottish nation. The person
in whom they principally confided on this occasion was Sir
Harry Vane, who, in eloquence, address, and capacity, as
well as in art and dissimulation, was not surpassed by any
one in that age, so famous for men of active talents. By his
persuasions was framed at Edinburgh the Solemn League
and Covenant, which effaced all former protestations and
vows taken in both kingdoms, and long maintained its
credit and authority. In this covenant, the subscribers,
besides mutually engaging to defend each other against Iteign of
all opponents, bound themselves to endeavour, without re- Charles I.
spect of persons, the extirpation of popery, prelacy, super-
stition, heresy, and profaneness; to maintain the rights 1C44‘
and privileges of parliaments, together with the king’s au¬
thority ; and to discover and bring to justice all incendia¬
ries and malignants. They vowed also to preserve the re¬
formed religion as established in the church of Scotland;
but, bjr the artifice of Vane, no declaration more explicit
was made with regard to England and Ireland, than that
those kingdoms should be reformed according to the wmrd of
God and the example of the purest churches. This equi¬
vocal abjuration of prelacy completely blinded the Scottish
Presbyterians, who, assuming their own to be the purest
church, never doubted that it was intended to serve as a
model for England. But, as a leader of the sect of Inde¬
pendents, Vane had other views, and artfully reserved a
loophole of retreat whenever it should be convenient to
dispense with the assistance of the Scots. Meanwhile
the Solemn League and Covenant was received in the Scot¬
tish convention, and in the assembly of the kirk, with tears
of enthusiastic joy, and transmitted to the English parlia¬
ment and assembly of divines at Westminster, where, for
different reasons, it was received with equal applause, and
ordained to be universally subscribed in both kingdoms.
By a treaty with the convention, twenty-one thousand
Scottish troops were to be retained in arms at the expense
of England, to be led by their own generals, and to re¬
ceive orders from a committee of both kingdoms.
The king likewise, in order to secure himself, had con¬
cluded a cessation of arms with the Irish rebels, and re¬
called a considerable part of his army from Ireland. Some
Irish Catholics came over with these troops, and joined
the royal army, where they continued the same cruelties
and disorders to which they had been accustomed; and
the parliament voted that no quarter should ever be given
them in any action. But Prince Rupert having made some
reprisals, this inhumanity was repressed on both sides.
The campaign of 1644 proved very unfortunate to the
royal cause. The forces brought from Ireland were land¬
ed at Mostyne in North Wales, and placed under the com¬
mand of Lord Biron. They then besieged and took the
castles of Hawarden, Beeston, Acton, and Deddington-
house. No place in Cheshire or the neighbourhood now
adhered to the parliament except Lantwich, and to it Biron
laid siege in the depth of winter. Alarmed at this progress,
Sir Thomas Fairfax assembled an army of four thousand
men in Yorkshire, and having joined Sir William Brere-
ton, approached the camp of the royalists. Biron and his
soldiers, elated with success, entertained a most profound
contempt for their enemies, and, as usual in such cases,
paid dear for their absurd vanity. Fairfax suddenly attack¬
ed their camp, while the swelling of the river by a thaw di¬
vided one part of the army from the other. Those imme¬
diately opposed to Fairfax were quickly driven from their
post, and having retired into the church of Acton, were
surrounded and taken prisoners; the other part retreated
precipitately without fighting; and thus was dissipated
or rendered useless the body of auxiliaries from Ireland.
This happened on the 25th of January. On the 11th of
April ensuing Colonel Bellasis was totally defeated at
Selby in Yorkshire by Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had re¬
turned from Cheshire with his victorious forces. Being
afterwards joined by Lord Leven with the Scottish army,
Fairfax, in conjunction with his ally, sat down befoie the
city of York, but being unable to invest the city complete-
]y? they were obliged to content themselves with incom¬
moding it by a loose blockade. Hopetoun, having assem¬
bled a body of fourteen thousand men, endeavoured to break
into Sussex, Kent, and the southern association, which seem-
BRITAIN.
405
Reign of ed well disposed to receive him; but he was defeated by
Charles I. Waller at Cherington. At Newark, however, Prince Ru-
pert totally routed the parliamentary army which besieg"
l644‘ ed that place, and thus preserved the communication open
between the king’s northern and southern quarters.
The great advantages which the parliament had gained
in the north seemed now to second their enterprises, and
finally to promise them success. Manchester having taken
Lincoln, had united his army to that of Leven and Fair¬
fax ; and York was now closely besieged by their nume¬
rous forces. That town, though vigorously defended by
the Marquis of Newcastle, was reduced to the last extre¬
mity, when Prince Rupert, having joined Sir Charles
Lucas, who commanded Newcastle’s horse, hastened to its
relief with an army of twenty thousand men.
The Scottish and parliamentary generals raised the siege,
and, drawing up on Marston-moor, prepared to give bat¬
tle to the royalists. By a dexterous movement, or rather
by masking his movements, Rupert, interposing the Ouse
between him and the enemy, threw military stores and
provisions into York, and joined his forces with those un¬
der Newcastle. The marquis then endeavoured to per¬
suade him, that, having successfully effected his purpose,
he ought to be contented with the present advantage ; re¬
main on the defensive at least till an expected reinforce¬
ment arrived; and leave the enemy, diminished by losses,
and discouraged by ill success, to dissolve by the mutual
dissensions which had begun to take place among them.
The prince, however, hurried on by his natural impetuo¬
sity, gave immediate orders for fighting. His forces oc¬
cupied Marston-moor; those of his opponents were posted
in the adjacent fields ; and both sides were nearly equal in
numbers. Fifty thousand British subjects were now drawn
up in order of battle, and ready to begin the work of mu¬
tual destruction. After an ineffectual cannonade across a
bank and ditch which separated the two armies, the sig¬
nal for close combat was given nearly at the same instant
by both sides. A moment of silent suspense followed,
each party expecting that the other would begin the at¬
tack. But evening approached, and no time was to be
lost. At the head of the left wing of the parliamentary
army Cromwell and David Leslie crowned the bank, drove
back Rupert’s right wing, dispersed his cavalry, and over¬
powered part of his centre. A different fortune awaited
the right wing of the parliamentary army, where young
Fairfax commanded. Charged with irresistible impetuo¬
sity by General Hurry, it was beaten back in disorder;
and a reserve of the Scottish infantry, which moved to its
support, was also cut up with astonishing celerity. The
royalists then pushed for the enemy’s baggage, and began
to plunder. But while they were thus occupied, Crom¬
well and Leslie wheeled round and restored the battle.
The parliamentary right wing now rallied on the left, and
the whole army having changed its front, drew up in a
position at right angles to that which it had occupied at
the commencement of the battle. The royalists did the
same, and the combat was renewed with great fury on
both sides. But fortune soon declared in favour of the
parliamentarians. The shock, though bloody, was brief,
and the victory decided by Leslie’s three Scottish regi¬
ments and Cromwell’s brigade of ironsides. The royal
army was driven off the field, and its whole artillery
taken.
Immediately after this unfortunate action the Marquis
of Newcastle left the kingdom, while Prince Rupert retir¬
ed into Lancashire. The city of York surrendered in a few
days, and Newcastle was soon afterwards taken by storm.
This was a fatal blow to the royal cause, and far from be¬
ing counterbalanced by an advantage gained at Cropredy-
bridge by the king over Waller, or even by the surrender
of Essex’s forces, which happened on the 1st of Septem- Reign of
ber. On the 27th of October another battle was fought
at Newbury, in which the royalists were worsted; but
soon after they retrieved their honour at Bennington Cas¬
tle, which finished the campaign in 164)4.
In 1645 negociations were renewed, and the commis¬
sioners, sixteen from Charles, twelve from the parliament,
and four from the Scots, assembled at Uxbridge on the
30th of January; but it was soon found impossible to come
to any agreement. The demands of the parliament were
exorbitant, and, what was worse, their commissioners al¬
leged that these were nothing but preliminaries. The
king was required to attaint, and except from a general
pardon, forty of the most considerable of his English, and
nineteen of his Scottish subjects, together with all the po¬
pish recusants who had borne arms for him. It was in¬
sisted that forty-eight more, with all the members of
either house who had sat in the parliament called by the
king at Oxford, all lawyers and divines who had embraced
the king’s party, should be rendered incapable of any office,
be forbidden the exercise of their profession, be prohibit¬
ed from coming within the verge of the court, and should
forfeit the third of their estates to the parliament. It was
required, that whoever had borne arms for the king should
forfeit the tenth of their estates, or, if that did not suf¬
fice, the sixth, for the payment of public debts. And, as
if such terms would not have sufficiently annihilated the
royal authority, it was further demanded that the court of
wards should be abolished; that all the considerable offi¬
cers of the crown, and particularly the judges, should be
appointed by parliament; and that the right of peace and
war should not be exercised without consent of parlia¬
ment. Considerable abatement was, however, made in
these rigorous demands; and as the rising power of the
Independents made it the interest of the Presbyterians to
conclude peace, if it could be done with any degree of
safety, the treaty was now limited to the three subjects of
religion, the militia, and Ireland. On the first, the king’s
enemies required the abolition of prelacy, the confirmation
of the acts of the assembly of divines at Westminster, and
the ratification of the Solemn League and Covenant, with
an injunction to all to take it, beginning with the king
himself; on the second, the management of the militia
till seven years after the peace, and an act of mutual ob¬
livion ; on the third, or Ireland, a cessation of arms, and
the surrender to parliament of the direction of the war,
and of the power of concluding peace without their con¬
sent. But, after a great deal of fruitless negociation,
Charles ultimately refused to concede any of these points,
and the treaty was in consequence broken off. The news
of Montrose’s victories in Scotland, and the hope of ten
thousand men under the Duke of Lorraine, which the
queen had stipulated for, are alleged to have been the
chief causes of the failure of the treaty. A little before the
commencement of this negociation, the parliament, to
show their determined resolution to proceed as they had
begun, brought to the block Archbishop Laud, who had
for a considerable time been a prisoner in the Tower, and
was no longer capable of giving offence, or rendering him¬
self dangerous to any one. The sacrifice of this weak,
wicked, and unfortunate man, was therefore, politically
considered, an act of bootless severity, and as such ought
to be condemned.
But while the king’s affairs were daily becoming worse
in England, they seemed to revive a little in Scotland,
through the conduct and valour of the Earl of Montrose.
On his return from his travels, Montrose had been intro¬
duced to the king; but not meeting with an agreeable re¬
ception, he went over to the Covenanters, and had been
active in forwarding all their schemes. Being commis-
406
BRITAIN.
Reign of sioned, however, by the tables to wait upon the king
Charles I. while the army lay at Berwick, he was gained over by the
civilities and caresses of that monarch, and thenceforth
1645‘ devoted himself entirely, though secretly, to his service.
Having attempted to form an association in favour of the
royal cause, Montrose was thrown into prison; and on his
release, which he managed to obtain, he found the king
ready to give ear to his counsels, which were of the boldest
and most daring kind. The whole nation of Scotland was
occupied by the Covenanters; considerable armies were
kept on foot by them, and every place was guarded by a
vigilant administration ; yet, by his own credit, and that of
a few friends who remained to the king, this bold rene¬
gade undertook to raise such commotions as should soon
oblige the malcontents to recal the forces which had so
sensibly turned the balance in favour of the English par¬
liament. The defeat at Marston-moor had left him no
hopes of any succours from England; he was therefore
obliged to stipulate with the Earl of Antrim for a sup¬
ply of men from Ireland. And having used various dis¬
guises, as well as passed through many dangers, he arriv¬
ed in Scotland, where he lay for some time concealed on
the borders of the Highlands.
Although the Irish did not exceed eleven hundred foot,
very ill armed, Montrose immediately put himself at their
head ; and, being joined by thirteen hundred Highlanders,
he attacked Lord Elcho, who lay at Tibbermore, near
Perth, with six thousand men, and utterly defeated him,
killing two thousand of the Covenanters. He next march¬
ed northwards in order to rouse the Marquis of Huntly
and the Gordons, who had before taken arms, but had
been overpowered by the Covenanters. At Aberdeen he
attacked and entirely defeated Lord Burley, who com¬
manded two thousand five hundred men. But by this
victory Montrose did not obtain the end he proposed; for
the Marquis of Huntly showed no inclination to join an
army where he was sure to be eclipsed by a powerful and
daring genius acting from its own impulses.
Montrose was now in a very dangerous situation. Ar¬
gyll, reinforced by the Earl of Lothian, was behind him
with a great army; while the militia of the northern coun¬
ties of Moray, Ross, and Caithness, to the number of five
thousand, opposed him in front, and guarded the banks of the
Spey, a deep and rapid river. In order to save his troops,
he turned aside into the hills; but, after some marches
and counter-marches, Argyll came up with him at Faivy
Castle. Here, after some skirmishes, in which he was vic¬
torious, Montrose got clear of a superior army, and, by a
quick march through almost inaccessible mountains, pla¬
ced himself absolutely beyond their reach.
But it was the misfortune of this general, that good or
ill fortune proved equally destructive to his army. After
every victory his Scottish adherents went home with the
spoil they had collected; and had his army been compos¬
ed of these only, he must soon have been altogether aban¬
doned. But the Irish under his command, having no place
to which they could retire, adhered to him in every for¬
tune. With these, therefore, and some reinforcements of
Atholemen and Macdonalds, Montrose fell suddenly upon
Argyll’s country, letting loose upon it all the horrors of war
in their most savage form. Having collected three thou¬
sand men, Argyll marched in quest of the enemy, who had
retired with their plunder, and took up a position at Inner-
lochy, supposing himself to be still at a considerable dis¬
tance from his antagonist. While this force had thus es-
blished itself in front, the Earl of Seaforth, at the head of
the garrison of Inverness and a body of five thousand new
levied troops, pressed the royalists on the other side, and
threatened them with total destruction. The situation of
Montrose was critical in the extreme; but a stroke of genius
and fortune relieved him, and brought back victory to his Reign of
standard. By a rapid and unexpected march he hasten- Charles I.
ed to Innerlochy, and presented himself in order of battle
before the Covenanters at the head of about eighteen hun¬
dred men. Argyll, seized with a panic, deserted his army,
and, at a secure distance, having pushed off from the shore
of the loch in a boat, witnessed the conflict which he had
not the courage to share. The Campbells, however, made
a stout resistance, but were at last defeated and pursued
with great slaughter. After this victory, Montrose was
joined by great numbers of Highlanders; Seaforth’s army
dispersed of itself; and the Lord Gordon, eldest son of
the Marquis of Huntly, having escaped from his uncle
Argyll, who had hitherto detained him, now joined Mon¬
trose with a considerable number of his followers, accom¬
panied by the Earl of Aboyne.
Alarmed at these victories, the council at Edinburgh
sent for Baillie, an officer of reputation, from England,
and, joining him in command with Urrey, dispatched them
with a considerable army against the royalists. Montrose,
with a detachment of eight hundred men, had attacked
Dundee, a town remarkable for its zeal in favour of the
covenant, carried it by assault, and given it up to be plun¬
dered by his soldiers, when Baillie and Urrey with their
whole force suddenly came upon him. He instantly call¬
ed off his soldiers from the plunder, put them in order,
covered his retreat by a series of skilful manoeuvres, and,
having marched sixty miles in the face of a superior ene¬
my without stopping or allowing his soldiers the least time
for sleep or refreshment, he at last secured himself in the
mountains. His antagonists now divided their forces, in
order to carry on the war against an enemy who surpris¬
ed them as much by the rapidity of his marches as by the
boldness of his enterprises. Urrey met him with four thou¬
sand men at Auldearn, near Inverness, and, trusting to his
superiority in number, Montrose having only two thousand
men, attacked him in the post which he had chosen. Mon¬
trose posted his right wing on some strong ground, and
drew the best of his forces to the other, leaving no main
body between them ; a defect which he artfully concealed
by showing a few men through the trees and bushes with
which the ground was covered. And, that Urrey might
have no leisure to discover the stratagem, he instantly led
his left wing to the charge, and made a furious onset on
the Covenanters, whom he drove from the field in complete
disorder. Baillie now advanced to revenge Urrey’s de¬
feat, and re-establish, if possible, the credit of the popu¬
lar arms. But he himself met with a similar fate at Al¬
ford. Montrose, weak in cavalry, intermixed his troops
of horse with platoons of infantry, and, having put his ene¬
my’s horse to rout, fell with united force upon their foot,
which were entirely cut in pieces, though with the loss
of the gallant Lord Gordon on the part of the royalists.
Victorious in so many battles, which his vigour had ren¬
dered as decisive as they were successful, Montrose now
prepared to march into the southern counties, in order to
put down the power of the Covenanters, and disperse the
parliament, which had been ordered to assemble at St
Johnstone or Perth.
While Montrose was thus signalizing his valour in the
north, Fairfax, or rather Oliver Cromwell under his name
and sanction, employed himself in new-modelling the par¬
liamentary army, and throwing the whole into a different
and much more effective form. And never perhaps was
there a more singular army established than that which
was now re-organized by the parliament. To the greater
number of the regiments chaplains were not appointed:
the officers assumed the spiritual dutyr which they united
with their military functions. During the intervals of ac¬
tion they occupied themselves in sermons, prayers, and
BRITAIN.
Reign of exhortations. Rapturous ecstasies supplied the place of
Charles I. study and reflection; and whilst the zealous devotees
poured out their thoughts in unpremeditated harangues,
they mistook the natural eloquence which flowed from an
excited and enthusiastic temperament, for illuminations
and illapses of the Holy Spirit. Wherever they were
quartered, they excluded the minister from his pulpit,
and, usurping his place, conveyed their sentiments to the
audience with all the authority that belonged to their power,
their valour, and their military exploits, united with zeal
and fervour. The private soldiers were infected with the
same spirit; and such an enthusiasm seized the whole
army as perhaps has scarce ever been equalled in the his¬
tory of the world. The royalists ridiculed the fanaticism
of the parliamentary armies, without being sensible how
much reason they had to dread its effects. They were at
this time equal, if not superior, in numbers to their ene¬
mies, but so licentious in their conduct, that they had
become more formidable to their friends than to their ene¬
mies. The commanders were most of them men of disso¬
lute characters; in the west especially, where Goring com¬
manded, universal spoil and havoc were committed; the
whole country was laid waste by the excesses of the
royalist army; and even the most deVoted friends of church
and state longed for success to the parliamentary forces
in these parts, as the only mode in which a stop could be
put to these frightful disorders.
The natural consequence of this enthusiasm in the par¬
liamentary army, and this licentiousness in that of the
king, was, that equal numbers of the latter were no longer
able to maintain their ground against the former. This ap¬
peared conspicuously in the decisive battle of Naseby, which
was fought between forces nearly equal. Prince Rupert, by
his furious onset, broke the wing of the enemy opposed to
him, but, as usual, pursued too far. Cromwell also bore
down the wing of the royalists opposite that which he com¬
manded ; but instead of imitating the example of the im¬
petuous prince, he sent a detachment in pursuit, and exe¬
cuting what is technically called a quart de conversion, at¬
tacked the exposed flank of the centre, where the royalist
infantry were pressing hard on Fairfax. The result of
this movement was decisive. When Rupert returned from
pursuit the battle was irretrievably lost. The king called
out to make but one charge more and the day would be
their own; but his artillery and baggage being already
taken, his infantry destroyed, and the prince’s cavalry
wholly exhausted by their exertions, it was now too late
to attempt any such effort. After an obstinate struggle,
Charles was entirely defeated, with the loss of five hundred
officers and four thousand private men prisoners, and all
his artillery and ammunition, while his infantry were total¬
ly dispersed.
After this fatal battle, the king retired first to Hereford,
then to Abergavenny, and remained some time in Wales,
in the vain hope of raising a body of infantry in these
quarters, already harassed and exhausted. His affairs now
went to ruin in all quarters. Fairfax retook Leicester on
the 17th of June; and on the 10th of July he raised the
siege of Taunton, while the royalists retired to Lamport,
an open town in the county of Somerset. Here they were
attacked by Fairfax, and driven from their position, with
the loss of three hundred killed and fourteen hundred
taken prisoners. This was followed by the loss of Bridge-
water, which Fairfax took three days after, making the
garrison, to the amount of two thousand six hundred men,
prisoners of war. He then reduced Bath and Sharburn;
and on the 11th of September Bristol was surrendered by
Rupert, though a few days before he had boasted, in a
letter to Charles, that he would defend the place for four
months. This so enraged the king, that he immediately
407
recalled all the prince’s commissions, and sent him a pass Reign of
to go beyond sea. Charles L
In the mean time the Scots, having made themselves
masters of Carlisle after an obstinate siege, marched
southwards and invested Hereford, but were obliged to
raise the siege on the king’s approach. This was the last
glimpse of success that attended his arms. Having march¬
ed to the relief of Chester, which was anew besieged by
the parliamentary forces under Colonel Jones, his rear was
attacked by Poyntz, and an engagement immediately en¬
sued. The fight was maintained with great obstinacy,
and victory seemed to incline to the royalists, when Jones
fell upon them from the other side, and defeated them with
the loss of six hundred killed and a thousand taken prisoners.
The king, with the remains of his army, fled to New-ark,
and thence escaped to Oxford, where he shut himself up
during the winter season. After the surrender of Bristol,
Fairfax and Cromwell, having divided their forces, march¬
ed, the former westwards in order to complete the con¬
quest of Devonshire and Cornwall, and the latter to attack
the king’s garrisons to the eastward of Bristol. Nothing
was able to stand before these victorious generals; every
town was obliged to submit, and every body of troops
which ventured to resist them were utterly defeated.
At last news arrived that Montrose himself, after some
more successes, had been defeated; and thus the only hope
of the royal party was destroyed. When he had descend¬
ed into the southern counties, the Covenanters, assembling
their whole force, met him with a numerous army, and gave
him battle at Kilsyth. But here he obtained a memorable
victory. Of the Covenanters above four thousand were
killed on the spot, and no remains of an army left them in
Scotland. Many noblemen, who had secretly favoured the
royal cause, now declared openly for it, when they saw a
force able to support them. The Marquis of Douglas, the
Earls of Annandale and Hartfield, the Lords Fleming, Se-
ton, Maderty, Carnegy, and many others, flocked to the
royal standard. Edinburgh opened its gates and gave li¬
berty to all the prisoners detained there by the Covenant¬
ers, and amongst the rest to Lord Ogilvy, son to the Earl of
Airly, whose family had contributed essentially to the vic¬
tory gained at Kilsyth. David Leslie was now detached
from the army in England, and marched to the relief of
his distressed party in Scotland. Allured by vain hopes
of rousing to arms the Earls of Hume, Traquaire, and Rox¬
burgh, who had promised to join him, and of obtaining
from England some supply of cavalry, in which he was still
very deficient, Montrose advanced still further to the
south. But by the negligence of his piquet, or more pro¬
bably from security engendered by success, Leslie sur¬
prised his army at Philiphaugh in the Forest, then much
diminished in numbers from the desertion of the Highland¬
ers, who, according to custom, had retired to the hills to
secure their plunder. After a sharp conflict, in which
Montrose displayed great valour, his forces were routed
by Leslie’s cavalry, and he was himself forced to fly to the
mountains.
In the situation to which the king was now reduced, he
resolved to grant the parliament their own terms, and sent
them repeated messages to this effect; but a considerable
time elapsed before they deigned to make him any reply.
At last, after reproaching him with the blood spilt during
the war, they informed him that they were preparing
some bills, to which, if he would consent, they should then
be able to judge of his pacific inclinations. In the mean
time Fairfax was advancing with a victorious army in or¬
der to lay siege to Oxford; and Charles, rather than sub¬
mit to be taken captive and led in triumph by his insolent
subjects, resolved to give himself up to the Scots, who
had never testified such implacable animosity against him,
408 BRITAIN.
Iteign of and to trust to their loyalty for the rest. After passing might have arisen in England, such a stipulation to sup- Reign of
Charles I. in disguise through many bye-ways and cross-roads, he port the king, without first exacting from him an unequi- Charles I,
arrived, in company with only two persons, Dr Hudson vocal pledge to grant all the objects for which they had
1646' and Mr Ashburnham, at the Scottish camp before Newark, taken up arms, would have been the height of folly, and
and immediately discovered himself to their general Lord a sacrifice of great national interests to a romantic senti-
Leven. ment. Accordingly, they remained faithful to their ori-
This resolution, though adopted in the midst of disaster, ginal engagements ; and although they withdrew to New-
seems to have been formed by the king in hopes of divid- castle to prevent the English intercepting their return
ing his enemies, and profiting by their dissensions, of home, they obtained the king’s order for the surrender of
which, indeed, any prince in his situation would not have Newark, guarded his person with respectful vigilance, and
hesitated to avail himself. Nor were there wanting cir- openly professed their resolution to avail themselves of
cumstances to justify a measure which, because it proved the advantage they had thus acquired, in order to obtain
unfortunate, has generally been considered as rash and ill- the desired conformity in religion, and the establishment
advised. The Presbyterian form of church government of peace on a durable basis.
had indeed been adopted in England, under the sanction Next came the negociations between the Scots and Eng-
of the divines assembled at Westminster; but the parlia- lish for the payment of arrears due to the former, and for
ment steadily refused to render the church supreme, and the surrender of the king’s person into the hands of the
to disjoin it from all connection with the state. The Inde- latter. The arrears, after many deductions, were finally
pendents, also, had combined with the Erastians in parlia- settled at L.400,000; and this adjustment has been per-
ment to procure a charitable indulgence of conscience, petually identified by historians with the agreement to
or, in other words, unlimited though tacit toleration of all deliver up the king’s person, and represented as the equi-
sects and opinions; a proceeding which the English as valent given, or the price paid, for an act of unparalleled
well as Scottish Presbyterians resisted as at once incompa- baseness. The confusion of facts, however, is as gross as
tible with the covenant, and favourable to boundless lati- the stigma attached to the Scottish nation is undeserved,
tudinarianism. Nor were there wanting other causes of The amount of the arrears was fixed in August. In No¬
deep offence to exasperate the Scots. Their pay was in vember the question as to the disposal of the royal person
arrear; their supplies were neglected; their cautionary remained still unsettled. At this time the Scottish par-
garrisons in the north were demanded back; their free liament, indignant at a vote passed by the English parlia-
quarters were refused. Ever since the battle of Naseby ment in September (a month after the settlement of the
the Presbyterian, and with it the Scottish, influence had arrears) claiming the sole disposal of the king’s person,
declined, whilst that of the Independents became every resolved to maintain the freedom of the king, and assert
day stronger and stronger. Symptoms of an approaching his right to the English throne ; but the vote was after¬
schism, if not collision, were apparent. Is it to be won- wards rescinded, on the just ground that it amounted to
dered that, in these circumstances, Charles, who had al- an abandonment of the solemn league and covenant, adopt-
ready maintained a secret correspondence with the two ed in concert with the English Presbyterians, unless their
factions of his enemies, should have now calculated on joint demands were granted by the king. They offered,
widening, by his presence with one of them, the breach however, to reinstate him on the throne, and to obtain for
that had so evidently taken place? His previous views, him a just settlement with his English subjects, provided
as expressed in a confidential letter to Lord Digby, were he would consent to take the covenant; and commission-
“ to draw either the Presbyterians or the Independents ers were appointed by the estates in Scotland to signify
to side with him,” and to render whichever of the two to his majesty these conditions, upon which alone he could
he succeeded in gaining instrumental in extirpating the expect to be received in Scotland, or assisted by the
other; “ so that,” as he says, “ I shall really be king Scottish nation. But the king remained inflexible. In
again.” Nor is there any reason to doubt that, in betaking vain did the Duke of Hamilton, one of his principal friends
himself to the Scottish camp, the real design of the king in Scotland, unite with the ministers in representing that
was to endeavour to effect the object here so distinctly this alone could save him; in vain was it urged that if he
declared. conceded the Presbyterian church to both kingdoms, the
On the authority of an intercepted letter of the king, it demands respecting the militia would be relaxed, that all
has been asserted that he threw himself on the Scottish Scotland would declare in his favour, and that, while the
army in consequence of an assurance that they would as- Presbyterians remained numerous and powerful, few in
sist him in recovering his lost prerogative, unite with the England would venture to oppose the reconstitution of
forces under Montrose, and compel the English parliament the monarchy with limited power. Nothing could move
to accept a peace. In a declaration still extant, however, him to accede to that which alone could save him. On
the Scottish leaders disclaim, in the strongest terms, any the eve of his departure, the commissioners renewed vvith
public or private agreement whatsoever with the king; great earnestness their offers to conduct him to Berwick,
and as this disclamation, which was publicly made, receiv- and to procure more equitable terms, provided he would
ed no contradiction at the time, the reasonable conclusion take the covenant; and so anxious were they to save him,
is, that it could not be disputed. It is no doubt true that that a bare promise to comply with their religious demands
an agreement had been concerted, through Montreville the would have been deemed sufficient. But all that could be
French ambassador, by which the Scots, with the know- wrung from this unhappy prince was a doubtful consent
ledge and approbation of the English Presbyterians, were to tolerate Presbytery for three years; and even in mak-
to escort the king to their camp. But the treaty was ing this concession, he justified it to his own curious con-
broken off by the refusal of the Scots to co-operate with science, by declaring before two of his bishops his unal-
Montrose, and by the king’s hesitation to sanction and con- terable resolution to restore and uphold Episcopacy. In
firm the Presbyterian form of church establishment. The the case of a sovereign cursed with such blind and obsti-
Scots seem, therefore, to have been perfectly sincere in nate infatuation, what else could be done but leave him
their declaration to the English parliament. Charles came to his fate ? .
amongst them of his own proper motion, and not in con- It has been mentioned as a circumstance reflecting
sequence of any stipulation on their part to unite with disgrace on the Scots, that the English parliament still
him against their English allies; and whatever discontents withheld their arrears, and that the surrender of the king’s
B R I T A 1 N.
409
Ueign of person was the only condition upon which payment could
Charles I. be obtained. If the case had really stood so that the re-
fUSal of the Scots to deliver up Charles would have been
1646' punished only by defrauding them of the money which
was justly due to them, and by no other consequence
whatever, then the charge of selling the king for prompt
payment might well have been alleged against them. But
it must be obvious that the loss of the arrears, upon which
so much stress has always been laid, was a mere trifle in
comparison with the misery and bloodshed which must
have ensued from drawing the sword in defence of the
king, without first securing the grand objects of the cove¬
nant. Conduct such as this, on the part of the Scottish
leaders, would have amounted to a violation of their so¬
lemn oaths, and a betrayal of the great national interests
intrusted to their guardianship. They offered all that
men, circumstanced as they were, could offer; they were
willing, at any hazard, to adhere to the king, if the king
would have been true to the country; and his refusal to
accede to the terms proposed to him shows, that, if the
Covenanters had conquered all England in his cause, they
would only have rivetted more firmly the chains of Epis¬
copacy and tyranny on themselves.1
After the flight of Charles, Oxford surrendered to Fair¬
fax, and the civil war terminated exactly four years after
the king’s standard was first erected at Nottingham. In
consequence of the transactions at Newark, and the total
failure of all attempts at an accommodation with the Pres¬
byterians, the king was delivered over to the English com¬
missioners, and conducted under a guard to Holdenby, in
Northamptonshire, where he was very rigorously confined,
and debarred from visits of his friends, as well as all com¬
munication with his family.
The civil war being thus ended, the king absolved his
followers from their allegiance, and the parliament had
now no enemy to fear but the troops which had fought for
them. But it was not long before they found themselves
in the same unfortunate predicament to which they had
reduced the king. The majority of the house were Pres¬
byterians, but the majority of the army were Independ¬
ents. Soon after the retreat of the Scots, the former
seeing every thing reduced to obedience, proposed to dis¬
band a considerable part of the army, and send the rest
over to Ireland. But this was by no means relished by
the Independents, and Cromwell took care to heighten
the disaffection. Instead of preparing to disband, there¬
fore, the soldiers resolved to petition, and bega|n by de¬
manding an indemnity, ratified by the king, for any illegal
actions they might have committed during the war. But
the Commons voted that this petition tended to introduce
mutiny, and threatened to proceed against the promoters
of it as enemies to the state and disturbers of the public ®^eiSn °f
peace. The army accordingly began to set up for them- ^a1' e^‘
selves, and a military parliament was organized, in oppo-
sition to the parliament at Westminster. The principal
officers formed a council to represent the body of Peers;
the soldiers elected two men out of each company, called
the agitators of the army, to represent the Commons; and
of this assembly Cromwell took care to be a member. The
new parliament soon found many grievances to be re¬
dressed, and specified some of the most considerable.
The Commons were obliged to yield to every request, and
the demands of the agitators rose in proportion to the con¬
cessions they extorted. The Commons accused the army of
mutiny and sedition ; but the army retorted the charge, and
alleged that the king had been deposed only to make way
for their usurpations. In the mean time Cromwell, who se¬
cretly conducted all the measures of the army, while he ex¬
claimed against their violence, resolved to seize the king’s
person. Accordingly a party of five hundred horse appeared
at Holmby Castle, under the command of one Joyce, ori¬
ginally a tailor, now a cornet; and by this man was the
king conducted to the army, who were hastening to their
rendezvous at Triplow Heath, near Cambridge. Next day
Cromwell arrived, and being received with acclamations
of joy, was immediately invested with the supreme com¬
mand. The Commons now discovered the designs of the
army; but it was too late. All resistance had become hope¬
less. Cromwell advanced with precipitation, and was in
a few days at St Alban’s. Even submission was now to
no purpose. The army still rose in their demands, in pro¬
portion as these were gratified, and at last proclaimed
their intention of modelling the whole government, as well
as settling the nation.
Cronrwell began with accusing eleven members of the
house, leaders of the Presbyterian party, as guilty of high
treason, and enemies to the army. The Commons wei'e
willing to protect them ; but the army insisting on their
dismission, they voluntarily left the house. At last the
citizens of London, finding the constitution totally over¬
turned, and a military despotism about to be established
on the ruins of the kingly tyranny which they formerly
dreaded, began to think seriously of repressing the inso¬
lence of the troops. The common council assembled the
militia of the city; the works were manned; and a mani¬
festo was published, aggravating the hostile intentions of
the army. Finding that the Commons, in compliance
with the request of the army, had voted that the city mi¬
litia should be disbanded, the multitude rose, besieged the
door of the house, and obliged them to reverse the vote
which they had so lately passed. The assembly was in con¬
sequence divided into two parties; the greater part siding
1 The comments which Mr Hume has thought it proper to make on this unfortunate transaction are sufficiently met and answered
by the statements contained in the text. The following defence of the Scots against the accusations which have been so freely pre¬
ferred in consequence of the transactions at Newark, will, however, be read with interest, as proceeding from a writer who will not be
suspected of any undue partiality to the Covenanters, namely. Sir George Mackenzie of Itosehaugh, Lord Advocate of Scotland in
the reigns of Charles II. and James VII. “ The parliament of Scotland (16G1),” says he, “ taking to their consideration how much
and how unjustly this kingdom was injured by an aspersion cast upon it for the transactions at Newcastle in anno 1647, at which
time the king was delivered to the parliament of England; which was called in some histories a selling of the king; did by an ex¬
press act condemn and reprobate all that treaty, and declare that the same was no national act, but was only carried on by some rebels
who had falsely assumed the name of a parliament. Nor wanted there many, even in that parliament, who protested against all that
procedure, and who had the courage and honesty to cause registrate that protestation. And I must here crave leave to expostulate
with our neighbours of England, for inveighing so severely against our nation for delivering their king, seeing he was only delivered
up to the then parliament, who first imprisoned and thereafter murdered him : whereas how soon even our rebels discovered their de¬
sign, they carried into England a splendid mighty army for his defence; and when his murder came to their ears, they proclaimed
his son their king, and sent commissioners to treat with him and bring him to Scotland ; and when he was arrived they did contribute
their lives and fortunes for his safety. And albeit some bigot Presbyterians did use him unkindly out of too much kindness to their
own principles, yet even these did very generously oppose Cromwell, and such as had murdered the king; as is clear by the attack
made by Major-general Montgomery at Musselburgh, and by the remonstrators at Linlithgow. They fought also two battles for him
at Dunbar and Worcester, and suffered the greatest imaginable hardships.” {Memoirs oftlie Affairs of Scotland, from the Restoration
of King Charles II. a. d. 1660. By Sir George Mackenzie of Itosehaugh. Printed at Edinburgh in 1821, and edited by Thomas
Thomson, Esq. Depute Clerk Registrar of Scotland.)
VOL. y. 3 F
410
BRITAIN.
Reign of with the citizens, but the minority, with the two speakers
Charles I. at tilejr head, being for encouraging the army. Accord-
ingly the two speakers, with sixty-two of the members,
164^' secretly retired from the house, and threw themselves on
the protection of the army, which was then at Hounslow
Heath. They were received with shouts and acclamations ;
their integrity was extolled; and the whole force of the
soldiery, to the number of twenty thousand men, now
moved forward to reinstate them in their places.
In the meanwhile the part of the house which was left
resolved to resist the encroachments of the army. They
chose new speakers, gave orders for enlisting troops, and
ordered the train-bands to man the lines ; while the whole
city boldly resolved to resist the invasion. But this reso¬
lution only held while the enemy was at a distance. When
Cromwell appeared, all was obedience and submission ;
and the gates were opened to the general, who attended
the two speakers and the rest of the members peaceably
to their habitations. The eleven impeached members hav¬
ing been accused as the cause of the tumult, were expel¬
led, and most of them retired to the Continent. The
mayor, the sheriff, and three aldermen, were sent to the
Tower; several citizens and officers of the militia were
committed to prison; the lines about the city were level¬
led with the ground ; and the command of the Tower was
given to Fairfax.
It now only remained to dispose of the king, who con¬
tinued a prisoner at Hampton Court. The Independent
army, at the head of which was Cromwell, on the one
hand, and the Presbyterians, in name of both houses, on
the other, treated with him separately in private. He had
sometimes even hopes, that in these struggles for power,
he might be chosen mediator in the dispute; and he ex¬
pected that the kingdom, at last sensible of the miseries
of anarchy, would of its own accord relapse into tranquil¬
lity. At this time he was treated with flattering marks
of distinction, and allowed to converse with his own ser¬
vants ; whilst his chaplains were permitted to attend him,
and celebrate divine service in their own way. But the
most exquisite pleasure he enjoyed was in the company of
his children, with whom he had several interviews. The
meeting on these occasions was so touching, that Crom¬
well himself, who happened once to be present, could not
help being moved, and was heard to declare that he never
before beheld such an affecting scene. But these in¬
stances of respect were not of long continuance. As soon
as the army had gained a complete victory over the House
of Commons, the king was treated not only with the great¬
est disrespect, but even kept in continual alarm for his
personal safety. The consequence was, that Charles at
last resolved to withdraw himself from the kingdom.
Accordingly, on the 11th of November 1647, the king,
attended only by Sir John Berkeley, Ashburnham, and
Leg, privately left Hampton Court; and his escape was
not discovered till nearly an hour afterwards, when those
who entered his chamber found on the table some letters
directed to the parliament, to the general, and to the offi¬
cer who had attended him. He travelled all night through
the forest, and arrived next day at Titchfield, a seat of
the Earl of Southampton, occupied by the countess dow¬
ager, a woman of honour, to whom the king knew he might
safely intrust his person. Before he arrived at this place,
he went to the sea-coast, and expressed great anxiety
that a ship, which he seemed to look for, had not arrived.
As he could not hope to remain long concealed at Titch¬
field, the question was, what measure should next be em¬
braced? In the neighbourhood lay the Isle of Wight, of
which Hammond was governor. This man was a depen¬
dent of Cromwell’s, which was an unfavourable circum¬
stance ; yet as he was nephew to Dr Hammond, the king’s
favourite chaplain, and had acquired a good reputation in Reign of
the army, it was thought proper to have recourse to him
in the present emergency, when no other rational expe-
dient could be thought of. Ashburnham and Berkeley
were accordingly dispatched to the island. They had or¬
ders not to inform Hammond of the place where the king
lay concealed, till they had first obtained from him a pro¬
mise not to deliver up his majesty, even though the par¬
liament and army should require him, but restore him to
his liberty, if he could not protect him. The promise
would have been but a slender security ; yet, even without
exacting it, Ashburnham imprudently, if not treacherous¬
ly, brought Hammond to Titchfield; and the king was
obliged to put himself into his hands, and to attend him
to Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight, where, though
he was received with great demonstrations of respect and
kindness, he was in reality a prisoner.
While the king continued in this forlorn situation, Crom¬
well found himself upon the point of losing all the fruits
of his schemes, by having his own artifices turned against
himself. Among the Independents, who in general were
hostile to all ecclesiastical systems, a set of men grew up
called Levellers, who disallowed all subordination whatso¬
ever, and declared that they would have no other chap¬
lain, king, nor general, save Jesus Christ. All this would
have gone down very well with Cromwell as long as it
was only directed against his enemies, but he did not re¬
lish it quite so well when applied to himself. Accordingly,
having intimation that the Levellers were to meet at a
certain place, he unexpectedly appeared before them at
the head of his red regiment, which had hitherto been
deemed invincible, and demanding, in the name of God,
what these meetings and murmurings meant, he expostu¬
lated with them upon the dangerous consequence of their
precipitate schemes, and desired them immediately to
depart. Instead of obeying, however, they returned an
insolent answer; upon which he ordered his guards to dis¬
perse them, caused several of them to be hanged upon the
spot, sent others to London, and thus dissipated a faction
which was no otherwise criminal than in having followed
his own example. Cromwell’s authority was greatly in¬
creased by the reduction of this sect; and it became irre-
sistable in consequence of a new and unexpected addition
to his successes.
Meanwhile the relative situations of parties had mate¬
rially changed, and the power of the Independents been
increased as that of the Presbyterians declined. The for¬
mer, too, began to disclose ulterior views and intentions
which had never hitherto been suspected by their allies
the Scots, whom they now took all occasions to mortify.
The latter also found, that in the matter of Presbytery,
no less than in the conduct of the war and the policy pur¬
sued towards the king, they had been overreached and
deceived. The discovery in question brought on an ac¬
commodation between Charles and his Scottish subjects,
who, in consideration of his majesty agreeing to confirm
the covenant in parliament, and establish the Presbyterian
church till it should be revised by the assembly of divines,,
engaged to assert and restore his authority by force of
arms. This treaty was afterwards called The Engage¬
ment ; but although discontents had multiplied betvv een
the two kingdoms, it was found no easy matter to induce
the nation to enter into the views of those by whom the
engagement had been concluded. The Scottish royalists,
under Traquair and Callender, were impatient for action;
the moderate Presbyterians, under the Duke of Hamilton,
wished to restore the king and the power of the English
Presbyterians; the wild party, headed by Argyll, and se¬
conded by the kirk, denounced the engagement as a dead¬
ly breach of the covenant, and deprecated hostilities with
BRITAIN.
Reign of England. Amidst this division of party and opinion, new
Charles I. ]evies were raised for the invasion of England, and the
chief command given to Hamilton, as David Leslie and
I648‘ the other officers could not act without the sanction of
the church.
Langdale headed a separate body of royalists who had
not taken the covenant, and both invaded the north of Eng¬
land. But though these two armies amounted to above
twenty thousand men, Cromwell, at the head of eight thou¬
sand hardy veterans, feared not to give battle to the divided
and undisciplined mass, conducted by an incapable leader.
Attacking these bodies in succession, he routed and dis¬
persed them, took Hamilton prisoner, and, following up the
blow, soon entered Scotland. Of the whole Scottish force
only a small body under Callender, who disdained to sur¬
render, made their way back to Scotland. This overthrow
was the signal for the High Presbyterian party to bestir
themselves. New levies were indeed raised by the Earl
of Lanark, Hamilton’s brother; but these proved of no
avail. The Earls of Argyll, Cassillis, and Eglintoun, at
the head of the Presbyterians of the west country and
the Highlands, marched to Edinburgh, and inviting Crom¬
well to the metropolis, conducted him thither in triumph,
suppressed the engagement, and renewed the solemn
league and covenant with England. This expedition of
the Covenanters to Edinburgh, commonly called the
Whigamores’ Inroad, gave the finishing blow to the royal
cause in Scotland at this time.
During these contentions the king, who was kept a pri¬
soner at Carisbrooke Castle, continued to negociate with
the parliament for putting an end to the unspeakable ca¬
lamities of the kingdom. And the parliament, on the
other hand, saw no method of restraining the military,
except to counterbalance it by the kingly power. Fre¬
quent proposals for an accommodation accordingly passed
between the captive king and the Commons; but the
great obstacle which had all along stood in the way still
remained unshaken. This was the king’s refusal to abo¬
lish Episcopacy, though he consented to alter the liturgy.
However, the treaty was still carried on with vigour, and
the parliament for the first time seemed in earnest to con¬
clude their negociations. But all was now too late. The
victorious army, headed by Cromwell, advanced to Wind¬
sor, and with furious remonstrances began to demand ven¬
geance on the king. The unhappy monarch had been
lately sent in custody to that place; and from thence he
was now conveyed to Hurst Castle in Hampshire, oppo¬
site to the Isle of‘Wight. The parliament in the mean¬
while began to issue ordinances for a more effectual oppo¬
sition to these military encroachments, when they were
astonished by a message from Cromwell, intimating his
intention of paying them a visit next day with his whole
army, and at the same time ordering them to raise him
L.40,000 on the city of London.
The Commons, though destitute of all hopes of prevail¬
ing, had still the courage to resist, and to attempt in the
face of the whole army to finish the treaty they had be¬
gun with the king. They had taken into consideration
the whole of his concessions; and although they had for¬
merly voted them unsatisfactory, they now renewed the
consultation with great vigour. After a violent debate,
which lasted three days, it was carried in the king’s fa¬
vour, by a majority of 129 against 83, that his concessions
were a foundation for the houses to proceed upon in
settling the affairs of the nation. This was the last at¬
tempt in his favour; for the next day Colonel Pride, at
the head of two regiments, blockaded the house, and
seizing in the passage forty-one members of the Presby¬
terian party, sent them to a low room belonging to the
house, that passed by the denomination of Hell. Above
All
a hundred and sixty members were excluded; and none Reign ot
were allowed to enter but the most furious and deter- Charles L
mined of the Independents, in all not exceeding sixty.
This atrocious invasion of parliamentary rights commonly
passed by the name of Pride’s Purge, and the remaining
members were called the Rump, The latter soon voted
that the transactions of the house a few days before were
entirely illegal, and that their general’s conduct was just
and necessary.
Nothing now remained to complete the career of the
Rump but to put the king to death. In this assembly,
composed of the most obscure citizens and officers of the
army, a committee was appointed to bring in a charge
against the king; and on their report a vote was carried,
declaring it treason in a king to levy war against his par¬
liament. It was therefore resolved that a high court of
justice should be appointed, to try his majesty for this
newly-invented treason. For form’s sake they desired the
concurrence of the few remaining Lords in the upper house;
but there was virtue enough left in that body unanimously
to reject the proposal. The Commons, however, were not
to be stopped by so small an obstacle. They voted that
the concurrence of the House of Lords was unnecessary,
and that the people were the origin of all just power.
And to add to their zeal, a woman of Herefordshire, illu¬
minated by prophetical visions, desired admittance, and
communicated a revelation which she pretended to have
received from heaven. She assured them that their mea¬
sures were consecrated from above, and ratified by the
sanction of the Holy Ghost. This intelligence gave them
great comfort, and much confirmed them in their present
resolutions. Colonel Harrison, the son of a butcher, was
commanded to conduct the king from Hurst Castle to
Windsor, and from thence to London. His subjects, who
crowded to see their fallen sovereign, were greatly affect¬
ed at the change which appeared in his face and person.
He had permitted his beard to grow, and his hair had be¬
come venerably gray, rather by the pressure of anxiety
than by the hand of time ; whilst the rest of his apparel bore
the marks of misfortune and decay. He had long been
attended by an old decrepid servant commonly called Sir
Philip Warwick, who could only deplore his master’s fate,
without being able to revenge his cause. All the exterior
symbols of sovereignty were now withdrawn, and his at¬
tendants had orders to serve him without ceremony. He
could not, however, be persuaded that his adversaries
would bring him to a formal trial; but he every moment
expected to be dispatched by private assassination.
From the 6th to the 20th of January was spent in mak¬
ing preparations for this extraordinary trial. The court
of justice consisted of a hundred and thirty-three persons
named by the Commons ; but of these about seventy only
met upon the trial. The members were chiefly composed
of officers of the army, most of them of very mean birth,
together with some of the Lower House, and a few citi¬
zens of London. Bradshaw, a lawyer, was chosen presi¬
dent; Coke was appointed solicitor for the people of Eng¬
land ; Dorislaus, Steele, and Aske, were named assistants.
The court sat in Westminster Hall. When the king was
brought forward before this court, he was conducted by
the mace-bearer to a chair placed within the bar. Though
long detained a prisoner, and now produced as a criminal,
he still maintained the dignity of a king. The charge was
then read by the solicitor, accusing him of having been
the cause of all the bloodshed which had flowed since the
commencement of the war; after which Bradshaw direct¬
ing his discourse to Charles, told him that the court ex¬
pected his answer. The king began his defence by de¬
clining the authority of the court. He represented, that
having been engaged in treaty with his two houses of
412
B R 1 T A I N.
Reign of parliament, and having finished almost every article, he
Charles I. expected a different treatment from that which he had
now received. He perceived, he said, no appearance of
I649, an upper house, which was necessary to constitute a just
tribunal. He alleged that he was himself the king and
fountain of law, and consequently could not be tried by
laws to which he had never given his assent; that having
been intrusted with the liberties of the people, he would
not now betray them by recognising a power founded in
usurpation; that he was willing, before a proper tribunal,
to enter into the particulars of his defence; but that until
then he must decline any apology for his innocence, lest
he should be considered as the betrayer of, and not as a
martyr for, the constitution. Bradshaw, in order to sup¬
port the authority of the court, insisted that they had re¬
ceived their authority from the people, the source of all
right. He pressed the king not to decline the authority
of the court which was delegated by the Commons of Eng¬
land, and interrupted, overruled, and browbeat him in his
attempts to reply. In this manner the king was three
times produced before the court, and as often persisted in
declining its jurisdiction. The fourth and last time he was
brought before this self-created tribunal, he was insulted
on his way thither by the soldiers and the mob, who cried
out, “ Justice ! justice ! Execution ! execution !” but he
continued undaunted. His judges now examined some
witnesses, by whom it was proved that the king had ap¬
peared in arms against the forces commissioned by parlia¬
ment, and then pronounced sentence against him. He
seemed very anxious at this time to be admitted to a con¬
ference with the two houses, and it was supposed that he
intended to resign the crown in favour of his son ; but the
court refused compliance, and considered his request as
an artifice to delay justice.
The behaviour of Charles throughout this trying scene
was manly, firm, and dignified. In leaving the hall, the
soldiers and rabble were again instigated to cry out Justice,
and Execution, and to revile him with the most bitter re¬
proaches ; and, amongst other insults, one miscreant pre¬
sumed to spit in his face. He patiently bore their inso¬
lence. “ Poor souls,” said he, “ they would treat their gene¬
rals in the same manner for sixpence.” Those of the popu¬
lace who still retained the feelings of humanity expressed
their sorrow in sighs and tears. A soldier more compas¬
sionate than the rest could not help imploring a blessing
on his royal head. An officer overhearing him, struck the
honest sentinel to the ground before the king, who could
not help saying that the punishment exceeded the offence.
On his return to Whitehall, Charles desired permission
of the house to see his children, and to be attended in
his private devotions by Dr Juxon, late bishop of London.
These requests were granted, and three days were also
allowed him to prepare for execution. Every night be¬
tween his sentence and execution the king slept soundly
as usual, though the noise of the workmen employed in
erecting the scaffold continually resounded in his ears.
The fatal morning having at last arrived, Charles rose
early; and calling one of his attendants, bade him employ
more than usual care in dressing him, and preparing him
for so great a solemnity. The street before Whitehall
was the place destined for his execution; for it was in¬
tended in this way to increase the severity of his punish¬
ment. He was led through the banqueting house to the
scaffold adjoining to that edifice, attended by his friend
and servant Bishop Juxon, a man of the same mild and
steady character as his master. The scaffold, covered
with black, was guarded by a regiment of soldiers under
the command of Colonel Tomlinson ; and on it were to be
seen the block, the axe, and two executioners in masks.
The people, in crowds, stood at a distance. The king sur¬
veyed all these solemn preparations with composure ; and, Common,
as he could not expect to be heard by the people at a dis- ,^’ea 1 \
tance, he addressed himself to the few persons who stood
round him. He there justified his own innocence in the
late fatal wars, observing that he had not taken arms till
after the parliament had shown him the example; and
that he had no other object in his warlike preparations,
than to preserve that authority entire which had been
transmitted to him by his ancestors. But, though inno¬
cent towards his people, he acknowledged the equity of
his execution in the eyes of his Maker, and owned that he
was justly punished for having consented to the execution
of an unjust sentence against the Earl of Strafford. He
forgave all his enemies; exhorted the people to return to
their obedience, and acknowledge his son as his successor;
and signified his attachment to the Protestant religion as
professed by the church of England. So strong was the
impression made by his dying words on those who could
hear him, that Colonel Tomlinson himself, to whose care
he had been committed, acknowledged himself a convert.
At one blow his head was severed from his body. The
other executioner then, holding up the head, exclaimed,
“ This is the head of a traitor.”
It is impossible to describe the grief, indignation, and
astonishment, which took place, not only among the spec¬
tators, who were overwhelmed with a flood of sorrow, but
throughout the whole nation, as soon as the report of this
execution was conveyed to them. Each blamed him¬
self, either with active disloyalty to the king, or a passive
compliance with his destroyers. The very pulpits which
used to resound with insolence and sedition were now be¬
dewed with tears of repentance ; and all united in their
detestation of those dark hypocrites, who, to satisfy their
own enmity, involved a whole nation in the guilt of this
catastrophe. Charles was executed on the 30th of Ja¬
nuary 1649, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and twenty-
fourth of his reign. He was of a middling stature, robust,
and well-proportioned. His countenance was pleasant,
but melancholy; and it is probable that the continual
troubles in which he was involved might have given this
expression to his features. As it had been remarked that
the king, the moment before he stretched out his neck to
the executioner, had addressed to Juxon, with a very
earnest accent, the single word “ Remember” great mys¬
teries were supposed to be concealed under that word;
and the generals vehemently insisted with the prelate that
he should inform them of the king’s meaning. Juxon told
them that the king, having frequently charged him to in¬
culcate on his son the forgiveness of his murderers, had
taken this opportunity, in the last moment of his life, when
his commands, he supposed, would be regarded as sacred
and inviolable, to reiterate that desire ; and that his mild
spirit thus terminated its earthly course by an act of be -
nevolence to his greatest enemies.
CHAP. V.
THE COMMONWEALTH.
Dissolution ot the Monarchy, and establishment of the Common.
wealth Council of State.—Negociations with Prince Charles.
—Descent of Montrose in the North.—His defeat and execu¬
tion Arrival of Charles in Scotland—His treatment there—
The Scots proclaim him King—War with England—-Battle of
Dunbar.—Subsequent operations.—The Scots march into Eng¬
land Battle of Worcester—Adventures of the King, and his
escape into France Cromwell’s policy towards Scotland.
War with the Dutch Cromwell resolves to seize on the So¬
vereign power. Parliament turned out.—Protest of Bradshaw
and the Council Barebone’s Parliament—Dissolved—Crom¬
well declared Protector—Settlement of the Government—
His vigorous administration—Jamaica conquered—Arbitrary
BRITAIN.
413
Common¬
wealth.
1649.
methods of raising money.—Another Parliament called—The
Crown offered to Cromwell—Refused—Situation to which he
was reduced by the frequent conspiracies of the Royalists and
the Levellers—His death and character—Richard Cromwell
declared Protector—His abdication—Rump Parliament rein¬
stated Dissolved by the army—Military Government—Pro¬
ceedings of Monk—Negociations—March to London—His
quarters established in Westminster—City of London pu¬
nished Secluded Members of Parliament recalled—New Par¬
liament assembled—Charles II. leaves Spain—His message to
the Parliament.—He is recalled, and lands in England—Cha¬
racter of Monk’s proceedings in the matter of the Restoration.
The dissolution of the monarchy followed, as a natural
consequence, the execution of the king. At the com¬
mencement of the struggle the demands of the two houses
were limited to the redress of existing grievances; but
now when it was over, the triumphant party refused to
be content with any thing less than the abolition of the
old, and the establishment of a new and more popular form
of government. They had sinned too deeply against royal¬
ty to trust themselves to the mercy or moderation of a
king. A republic was therefore their choice, first, because
it promised to shelter them from the vengeance of their
enemies; and, secondly, because it offered them the ad¬
ditional advantage of sharing among themselves all the
power, tlie patronage, and the emoluments of office. In
accordance with this decision, the head of the king had no
sooner fallen on the scaffold at Whitehall, than a procla¬
mation was issued, declaring it treason to give to any per¬
son the title of king without the authority of parliament;
and at the same time was published the vote of the 4th of
January (1649), by which it had been decreed that the
supreme authority in the nation resided in the represen¬
tatives of the people. The peers, though aware of their
approaching fate, met on the day fixed at their adjourn¬
ment, and proceeded to business ; but after a pause of a
few days the Commons voted that the House of Lords, as
useless and dangerous, ought to be abolished; and they
declared it high treason to acknowledge Charles Stuart,
son of the late king, as successor to the throne. A coun¬
cil of state was next appointed, consisting of forty-one
members, with powers limited in duration to twelve
months, and charged with the preservation of domestic
tranquillity, the disposal of the military and naval force,
the superintendence of internal and external trade, and
the negociation of treaties with foreign powers. A new
great seal was then made, on one side of which were en¬
graven the arms of England and Ireland, with this inscrip¬
tion, “ The great seal of Englandand on the reverse
was represented the House of Commons sitting, with this
motto,—“ On the first year of freedom, by God’s blessing
restored, 1649.” The forms of all public business were
changed, and instead of proceeding in the king’s name,
ran in that of the “ keepers of the liberties of England.”
The Court of King’s Bench was called the Court of Pub¬
lic Bench; and so cautious on this head, it is said, were
some of the republicans, that, in reciting the Lord’s pray¬
er, they would not say, “ thy kingdom,” but “ thy com¬
monwealth, come.” The king’s statue in the exchange was
thrown down ; and on the pedestal these words were in¬
scribed, Exit tyrannus, regum ultimus, “ The tyrant is
gone, the last of the kings.” The merit or demerit of thus
erecting a commonwealth on the ruins of the monarchy
belongs chiefly to Cromwell, Ireton, Bradshaw, and Mar¬
ten, who by their superior influence guided and controlled
the opinions and passions of their associates in the senate
and the army.
The Commons next proceeded to punish those who had
been most remarkable for their attachment to their late
sovereign. The Duke of Hamilton, Lord Capel, and the
Earl of Holland, were condemned and executed ; the Earl
1649.
of Norwich and Sir John Owen were also condemned, and Common-
afterwards pardoned. These executions greatly irritated
the Scots; and the insolence of the Independents, with
their victories, inflaming them still more, they determined
to acknowledge Prince Charles as their king, but at the
same time to abridge his power by limitations similar
to those which they had attempted to impose upon his fa¬
ther. But as Argyll and the more rigid Covenanters still
predominated, they made their loyalty conditional on his
own good behaviour. The first propositions were made
to Charles at Paris, where he had passed some time in
hopes of obtaining assistance; and renewed offers were
made to him at Breda, to which place he had withdrawn
on finding France indisposed to lend him any aid. But as
he had by this time commanded Montrose to attempt a
descent in his favour upon Scotland by force of arms, he,
with the characteristic duplicity of his race, protracted
the negociations until the result of this enterprise should
be known. With arms and money furnished by Sweden
and Denmark, and accompanied by about six hundred
Germans, Montrose, accordingly, arrived in Orkney from
Hamburg, and by a compulsory levy of the islanders, rais¬
ed his force to fourteen hundred men. He then passed
over to the mainland of Scotland, where the people, re¬
membering his former cruelties, fled in horror before him.
But his career was destined to be a short one. Having
advanced beyond the pass of Invercarron, his motley
band was surprised by a superior force, surrounded, bea¬
ten, and dispersed. Montrose contrived to effect his es¬
cape, but having thrown himself on the protection of
Macleod of Assynt, he was betrayed by that worthy for
a thousand bolls of meal, and being brought prisoner to
Edinburgh, he was condemned on his former attainder to
be hanged for the space of three hours on a gibbet thirty
feet in height, and his limbs w'ere ordered to be stuck up
in the principal towns of the kingdom ; his head on a spike
in Edinburgh, his arms on the gates of Perth or Stirling,
his legs on those of Glasgow and Aberdeen, and his body
to be interred by the hangman in Boroughmuir, unless the
sentence of excommunication by the kirk were previously
relaxed. Montrose’s defeat and death, however, were
productive only of a further limitation of the terms offered
to Charles; and as he no longer refused to accept these
conditions, and to take the covenant, if required to do so,
he embarked with his court in a Dutch fleet, and arrived at
the mouth of the Spey. But as the jealousy of the Scots
had been roused by the late invasion, the covenant wras
exacted from him before he was suffered to land. His
English attendants, with the exception of a few complying
persons, who accommodated themselves to the times, were
dismissed ; and he was surrounded by the fanatical clergy¬
men, who, though they approached his person in the most
respectful manner, launched out in continual invectives
on the iniquity of his father’s house, the idolatry of his mo¬
ther, and his own connection with inveterate malignants.
Charles pretended to listen to their discourses, but never¬
theless made an attempt to escape. Being overtaken, how¬
ever, and brought back, he owned the greatness of his
fault, and testified his repentance for what he had done.
Cromwell, in the mean time, having been appointed by
the parliament to command the army in Ireland, prose¬
cuted the war in that kingdom with his usual success.
He had to encounter the royalists commanded by the
Duke of Ormond, and the native Irish led on by O’Neale.
But he quickly overcame their force; and most of the
towns, intimidated by his energy, opened their gates at
his approach. He was on the point of reducing the whole
kingdom, when he was recalled by the parliament to de¬
fend his country against the Scots, who had raised a con¬
siderable army in support of the royal cause.
414
Common
wealth.
1649.
BRITAIN.
As Fairfax had conscientiously declined to draw his
sword against the Presbyterians of Scotland, Cromwell
' received^the command of the forces destined to invade
that kingdom, and, in a month from the time of the king’s
arrival, he was on the banks of the Tweed at the head of
sixteen thousandveteran troops. Argyll, then at the head of
the committee of estates, made the most vigorous prepa¬
rations for his reception ; while Leslie, who had never yet
been beaten, opposed his great experience and cool saga¬
city to the genius of Cromwell. The latter, having esta¬
blished between Edinburgh and Leith a fortified camp, as
a secure rallying point, wasted the Merse and the Lo-
thians, in order to deprive Cromwell of subsistence; and
when forced at length to retire within his entrenchments,
he remained resolutely on the defensive, in spite of every
expedient tried by his adversary to draw him out to ac¬
tion. At this time the king arrived at the Scottish head¬
quarters, but his presence having excited the jealousy of
the clergy, they ordered him to leave it, and forthwith
proceeded to purge the camp of four thousand Malignants
and Engagers, the only soldiers of credit and experience
in the army; so that being now a host of saints, they con¬
cluded, somewhat hastily, that they could not be beaten.
In the blindness of their folly, they murmured at their
prudent general; and, in the extravagance of their fana¬
ticism, they expostulated with the Lord in prayer on the
urgent necessity of his interposition, in order to uphold
the kirk, and deliver them from the sectaries. An oppor¬
tunity of striking a blow to advantage having presented
itself on a Sunday, Leslie proposed instantly to attack;
but he was prevented by these insane fanatics, who affect¬
ed great horror at the crime of Sabbath-breaking. Mean¬
while Cromwell, straitened for provisions, withdrew his
army, now reduced in numbers by sickness, to Dunbar.
Leslie followed his movement, and encamped on the
heights which command the town, taking care at the same
time to occupy the passes by which alone the enemy could
retire to Berwick. Cromwell s situation had become
now most critical. His adversary’s position was too
strong to be assaulted with any hope of success; his re¬
treat was intercepted; his provisions were nearly ex¬
hausted ; sickness was daily thinning his ranks; destruc¬
tion brooded over him. But the madness of the clergy
restored the ascendency of this extraordinary man’s for¬
tune, and snatched from Leslie the fruits of his masterly
combinations, when he was on the very eve of reaping
them in a bloodless harvest of victory. They had been
wrestling with the Lord in prayer, as they termed it, and
pretending some special revelation, they now fancied that
they had obtained the victory, and that the heretical army,
together with Agag their general, would forthwith be de¬
livered into their hands. These holy idiots, accordingly,
forced their general to descend to the plain, and to attack
the English. When Cromwell discovered through his
glass that the Scots were actually in motion, he exclaim¬
ed, “ They are coming down; the Lord hath delivered
them into our hands.” His anticipation was speedily
realised. Descending from the hills during a tempestu¬
ous night, which had extinguished their matches, the
Scots, consisting entirely of raw undisciplined levies,
were overthrown at the first onset by the veteran troops
of Cromwell, who had been carefully sheltered from the
storm; three thousand were slain, nine .huntlFed made
prisoners, and the remainder dispersed, whilst the loss of
the English scarcely exceeded forty men.
This disaster, so richly merited, showed, in a striking
point of view, the danger of disunion. In a meeting held
at Perth, the Scottish parliament accordingly resolved to
call in the aid of the Malignants and Engagers, on condi¬
tion of repentance of past errors ; but two of the western
shires still held out against this approximation of parties, Common-
and withdrew from the general levy about five thousand
men. Charles had by this time become thoroughly satis-
fied that soothing the religious prejudices of the kirk was
indispensable to give him a chance of acquiring due pre¬
ponderance in the state. On the first of January 1651,
his coronation was performed with great solemnity at
Scone. There, on his bended knees, and with his arm up¬
raised, he swore by the Eternal and Almighty God to ob¬
serve strictly the two covenants ; to establish the Presbyte¬
rian government in Scotland and in his own family ; to give
his assent to acts for establishing it in his other domi¬
nions ; to rule according to the law of God, and the vene¬
rated laws of the land ; to abolish and withstand all false
religions; and to root out heretics and enemies to the
true God, when convicted as such by the kirk. Argyll
then placed the crown upon the king’s head, an act for
which his own was afterwards the forfeit; and having
seated him on the throne, both nobility and gentry swore
allegiance, “ according to the national covenant, and the
solemn league and covenant.”
In the meanwhile Cromwell was making rapid progress
in subduing the kingdom. He had obtained possession of
Edinburgh Castle, taken Tantallon by storm, attempted
Dumbarton, though without success, and carried many
places of inferior note. A severe attack of ague for a
time retarded his operations ; but in the month of July
he marched with his army .towards Stirling. The Scots
faced him in their entrenched camp at Torwood, and re¬
solved to pursue the same cautious conduct observed by
Leslie till it had been so fatally overruled by the clergy.
After observing them for a time, Cromwell withdrew to
Glasgow, and the Scots took up a position at Kilsyth:
he retrograded to Falkirk, and his opponents returned to
their camp at Torwood. Both parties had now resumed the
respective positions which they had originally occupied;
but the aspect of affairs had materially changed. Whilst
the attention of the Scots was engaged by the enemy in
their front, a body of men had crossed the Frith in boats,
and, having fortified a hill near Inverkeithing, were imme¬
diately followed by Lambert at the head of a powerful
division. Holburn was dispatched from the camp at Tor-
wood, with orders to drive the enemy into the sea; but
being suddenly charged by Lambert at the head of a su¬
perior force, he was routed and put to flight. Cromwell
then transported his army to the left bank of the river,
and advanced on the rear of the Scots, who, in conse¬
quence, retired from the position which had thus been
completely turned. The progress of the English excited
the most fearful anticipations in the minds of the Scottish
leaders; to Charles it suggested the execution of a pro¬
ject which he had long meditated, namely, to march into
England, accompanied by such of his subjects of Scotland
as were willing to share in the toils and perils of the en¬
terprise. This scheme was opposed by Argyll and a few
other chieftains, who regarded it as utterly desperate;
but the king was inflexible; and the rest having express¬
ed their readiness to stake their lives on the issue of the
attempt, twelve thousand men began their march from
Stirling, in the direction of Carlisle, and gained three days
in advance before the movement was discoveied.
Cromwell was surprised and embarrassed: he had not
calculated on such a daring adventure, and his auny was
unprepared to follow at a moments notice. But exciting
all the energies of his powerful mind, he quickly assem¬
bled a large force, more formidable even for its quality
than its numerical strength, and set out in quest of the
fugitive invaders, who had met with none of the suppoit
upon which they had so confidently reckoned, either from
the English royalists or Presbyterians. At last the Scot-
BRITAIN. 415
Common- tish army, which had thrown itself into Worcester, was
wealth, attacked by Cromwell at the head of thirty thousand men,
and, after a desperate contest, completely defeated. The
1651' battle was fought on the 3d of September 1651, the day
on which, twelve months before, the English general had
defeated the Scots at Dunbar. In the morning, Fleet-
wood, who had advanced from Upton to Powick, received
orders to force the passage of the Team ; whilst Cromwell,
in order to preserve his communications, threw a bridge
of boats across the Severn at Bunshill, near the conflu¬
ence of the two rivers. The operations necessarily occu¬
pied a considerable time, and at one o’clock in the after¬
noon the attack was not fully developed. About this
time, while Charles with his staff was reconnoitring the
positions of the enemy from the tower of the cathedral, a
fire of musketry was heard in the direction of Powick.
He descended immediately, and riding to the scene of
action, ordered Montgomery with a brigade of horse and
foot to defend the line of the Team, and oppose the con¬
struction of the bridge. But it was now too late. After
a hard struggle Fleetwood effected a passage, at the mo¬
ment when Cromwell, having completed the bridge, mov¬
ed four regiments to his assistance. The Scots, though
attacked by superior numbers, made a gallant resistance,
disputing every field and hedge, repeatedly charging with
the pike, and struggling to protract the contest in the
hope of preventing Fleetwood from effecting a junction
with Cromwell. Meanwhile the latter having secured the
communication across the river, directed a battery to open
upon Fort Royal, a work lately raised to cover the Sid-
bury gate of the town, and, under cover of its fire, moved
his troops in two divisions to Perrywood and Redhill.
With great promptitude Charles immediately marched
the whole of his disposable infantry, the Duke of Hamil¬
ton’s troops of horse, and some volunteers, to attack one
of these divisions, while the other was still separated from
it by the Severn ; and fortune smiled on his first efforts.
The English militia recoiled from the shock, and some
guns were taken by the royalists. But Cromwell had
placed in reserve some veteran battalions, who soon re¬
stored the battle, and forced the royalists to retreat in
their turn. Still they remained unbroken ; availing them¬
selves of every advantage of ground to check the advance
of the enemy, and anxiously expecting the arrival of the
cavalry under Leslie, which had remained in the city.
Leslie, however, did not appear till it was too late. The
infantry, overpowered by superior numbers, were now fty-
ing in confusion to the gate protected by the fort. The bat¬
tle was irretrievably lost. Disorder everywhere prevailed.
| • The enemy assaulted the town on all sides, and, after an
unavailing struggle in the streets, completed the victory
by the capture of the place, and the annihilation of the
whole royalist force.
The king, who had greatly signalised his personal courage
during the battle, now entered upon a scene of adventures
the most romantic that can be imagined. After cutting
off his hair, the better to disguise his person, he worked
for some days in the habit of a peasant, making faggots in
a wood. He next attempted to retire into Wales, under
the conduct of one Pendrel, a poor farmer, who was sin¬
cerely attached to his cause ; but in this attempt he fail¬
ed, as every pass was guarded to prevent his escape. Be¬
ing obliged to return, he met one Careless, who had
escaped the carnage at Worcester; and in his company
the king was obliged to climb a spreading oak, among the
branches of which they lay concealed during the day,
while the soldiers of the enemy were heard in pursuit of
them below. After this he experienced all the varieties
of famine, fatigue, and pain, till he arrived at the house of
Colonel Lane, a zealous royalist, in Staffordshire. Here
he deliberated about the means of escaping into France ; Common-
and Bristol being supposed the most suitable port, it was wealth,
resolved that he should ride thither before this gentle-
man’s sister, on a visit to a person who lived in the neigh- '
bourhood of that city. During this journey the king every
day met with persons whose faces he knew, and at one time
passed through a whole regiment of the enemy’s army.
But on finding that, for a month to come, no ship would
sail from Bristol either for France or Spain, he was obliged
to go elsewhere for a passage. He therefore repaired to
the house of Colonel Wyndham in Dorsetshire, where he
was cordially received; and thence pursuing his journey
to the sea-side, he once more had a narrow escape at an
inn, where he tarried for the night. The day had been
appointed for a solemn fast; and a weaver, who had been
a soldier in the parliamentary army, was preaching against
the king in a little chapel fronting the house. To avoid
suspicion, Charles was himself among the audience. But
it happened that a smith, of the same principles with the
weaver, had been examining the horses belonging to the
passengers, and came to assure the preacher that he knew
by the fashion of the shoes that one of the strangers’
horses came from the north. The preacher immediately
affirmed that this horse could belong to no other than
Charles Stuart, and instantly went with a constable to
search the inn. But the king had taken timely precau¬
tions, and left the inn before the constable’s arrival. At
Shoreham, in Sussex, a vessel was at last found, in which
he embarked. He was known to so many, that if he had
not set sail at that critical moment, it would have been im¬
possible for him to escape. After forty-one days’ conceal¬
ment he arrived safely at Feschamp in Normandy. No
fewer than forty persons of both sexes had at different
times been privy to his escape, although a reward of a
thousand pounds was offered for his person.
In the mean time Cromwell returned in triumph, leaving
Ludlow to improve the victory; and his first care was to
depress the Scots, on account of their having “ with¬
stood the work of the gospel,” as he called it. An act
was passed for abolishing royalty in Scotland, and annex¬
ing that kingdom as a province to the English common¬
wealth. It was, however, permitted to send some mem¬
bers to the English parliament; judges were appointed
to distribute justice ; and the people of that country, now
freed from the tyranny of the ecclesiastics, were not much
dissatisfied with the government.
All parts of the British dominions being now reduced
to perfect subjection to the parliament, they next resolv¬
ed to chastise the Dutch, who had given some cause for
complaint. It happened that Dorislaus, one of the late
king’s judges, being sent by the parliament as their envoy
to Holland, was assassinated by one of the royal party who
had taken refuge there ; and some time after, Mr St John,
appointed their ambassador to that court, was insulted by
the friends of the Prince of Orange. These were judged
sufficient grounds for a declaration of war against Holland
by the commonwealth of England. The parliament’s chief
dependence lay in the activity and courage of Blake their
admiral, who, although he had not entered the navy till
late in life, yet surpassed all who went before him in cou¬
rage and skill. On the other side, the Dutch opposed to
him Van Tromp, justly celebrated for his bold and enter¬
prising genius. Many engagements took place between
these renowned commanders with various success; but
these fierce encounters served rather to show the excel¬
lency of the admirals than to determine their superiority.
At last the Dutch, who experienced many disadvantages
by the loss of their trade, and by the total suspension5of
their fisheries, were willing to treat of a peace. The par¬
liament, however, gave an evasive answer, and studied to
416
BRITAIN.
1052.
Common* keep their navy on foot as long as they could; rightly
wealth, judging, that while the force of the nation was exerted by
 J seaf it would diminish the formidable power of Cromwell
by land.
But this remarkable man quickly perceived their de¬
signs, and, secure in the attachment of the army, resolv¬
ed to seize the sovereign power. He persuaded the of¬
ficers to present a petition for payment of arrears and re¬
dress of grievances. His orders were obeyed. A peti¬
tion was drawn up and presented, in which the officers,
after demanding their arrears, desired the parliament to
consider how many years they had sat, and what profes¬
sions they had formerly made of their intention to new-
model the house, and establish freedom upon the broadest
basis. They alleged, that it was now full time to give
place to others; that, however meritorious their actions
might have been, yet the rest of the nation had some
right, in their turn, to manifest their patriotism in defence
of their country. The house was highly offended, and ap¬
pointed a committee to prepare an act, declaring that all
persons who presented such petitions for the future should
be deemed guilty of high treason. Against this the officers
warmly remonstrated, and the parliament as angrily re¬
plied. Cromwell, informed of the altercation, started up
in the utmost seeming fury, and turning to Major Vernon,
cried out “ that he was compelled to do a thing that
made the very hair of his head stand on end.” Then
hastening to the house at the head of three hundred
soldiers, and with marks of violent indignation on his
1053.
countenance, he entered, took his place, and attended to
the debates for some time. But when the question was
about to be put, he suddenly started up, and, after some
general remarks, began to load the parliament with the
bitterest reproaches for their tyranny, ambition, oppres¬
sion, and robbery of the public. Having finished his
harangue, he stamped with his foot on the ground, which
was the preconcerted signal for the soldiers to enter; and
the place was immediately filled with armed men. He then
turned, and again addressing himself to the members, said,
“ For shame, get you gone ; give place to honester men,
those who will more faithfully discharge their trust. \ou
are no longer a parliament; I tell you, you are no longer
a parliament; the Lord has done with you.” Sir Harry
Vane exclaiming against this conduct, “ Sir Harry, cried
Cromwell with a loud voice, “ O Sir Harry Vane; the
Lord deliver me from Sir Harry Vane.” Then taking hold
of one of the members by his cloak, he exclaimed, “ Thou
art a whoremasterto another he said, “ fhou art an
adulterer to a third, “ Thou art a drunkard ; to a fourth,
“ Thou art a glutton and afterwards selecting different
members in succession, he described them as dishonest and
corrupt livers, a shame and scandal to the profession of the
gospel. Suddenly checking himself, however, he turned to
the guard and ordered them to clear the house. At these
words Colonel Harrison took the Speaker by the hands
and led him from the chair; Algernon Sidney was next
compelled, to quit his seat; and the other members, eighty
in number, on the approach of the military, rose and mov¬
ed towards the door. Cromwell now resumed his dis¬
course. “ It is you,” he exclaimed, “ that have forced me
to do this. I have sought the Lord both day and night,
that he would rather slay me than put me on the doing
of this work.” Then pointing to the mace, “ Take away
that fool’s bauble,” cried he; after which he cleared the
hall, ordered the doors to be locked, and putting the keys
in his pocket, returned to Whitehall. In the afternoon
the members of the council of state assembled at their
usual place of meeting. As Bradshaw took the chair,
however, the lord-general entered and told them, that if
they were there as private individuals they were welcome,
but if as the council of state, they must know that the Comir.on..
parliament was dissolved, and with it also the council. v we<ffih.
“ Sir,” replied Bradshaw, with the spirit of an ancient Ro¬
man, “ we have heard what you did at the house this
morning, and before many hours all England shall know
it. But, sir, you are mistaken in thinking that the par¬
liament is dissolved. No power under hea.ven can dis¬
solve them but themselves. Therefore take you notice of
that.” After this protest they withdrew. But the de¬
cisive blow had been struck. By the parricidal hands
of its own children perished the long parliament, which,
under a variety of forms, had for more than twelve years
defended and invaded the liberties of the nation. It fell
without a struggle, unpitied and unregretted. The mem¬
bers slunk away to their homes, where, by submission, they
sought to purchase the forbearance of their new master;
while their partisans, if such they had, reserved themselves
in silence for the day of retribution, which, however, came
not until after Cromwell slept in his grave.
The whole civil and military power of the state now cen¬
tred in Cromwell, who, by this bold transaction., became, in
effect, king of Great Britain, with uncontrollable authority.
Desirous, however, to amuse the people with the form of a
commonwealth, he proposed to give his subjects a parlia¬
ment, but such a one as should be altogether obedient to
his commands. For this purpose it was decreed that the
sovereign power should be vested in a hundred and forty-
four persons, under the denomination of a parliament; and
the lord-general undertook to select them himself. Ihe
persons pitched upon were the lowest, meanest, and most
ignorant of the citizens, and the very dregs of the fanatics.
To go farther than others in the absurdities of fanaticism
was the chief qualification upon which each of the:5e valued
himself. Their very names, borrowed from scripture, and
rendered ridiculous by their misapplication, served to show
their excess of folly. One of them particularly* a cant¬
ing leather-seller, called Praise-God-Barebone, gave his
name to this odd assembly, which was called Baxebone’s
Parliament. They were principally composed of Antino-
mians, a sect which, after receiving the spirit, supposed
themselves incapable of error, and fifth-monarchy men,
who every hour expected Christ’s second coming on earth.
They began by choosing eight of their number to seek the
Lord in prayer, while the rest calmly sat down to deli¬
berate upon the suppression of the clergy, the universities.
and courts of justice ; and besides all this, it was their in¬
tention to substitute the law of Moses in the room of the
law of the land.
It was impossible such a legislature as this could stand;
even the vulgar exclaimed against it, and Cromwell him¬
self began to be ashamed of its absurdities. He had care¬
fully chosen many persons among the members who were
entirely devoted to his interests, and these he commanded
to dismiss the assembly. They accordingly met by con¬
cert earlier than the rest of their fraternity ; and observ¬
ing to each other that this parliament had sat long enough,
they hastened to Cromwell, with Rouse, their Speaker, at
their head, and into his hands resigned the authority with
which he had invested them. Cromwell accepted their
resignation with pleasure; but being told that some of
their number showed themselves refractory, he sent Co¬
lonel White to clear the house of such as ventured to re¬
main there. They had placed one Moyer in the chair by
the time the colonel arrived; and he being asked by the
colonel what they did there, replied very gravely, That
they were seeking the Lord. “ Then you may go else¬
where,” rejoined Colonel White, “ for, to my certain
knowledge, the Lord hath not been here these many
years.”
This shadow of a parliament being thus dissolved, the
BRITAIN. 417
Common- officers, by their own authority, declared Cromwell pro-
wealth. tector of the Commonw'ealth of England. The mayor and
'—aldermen were sent for to give solemnity to his appoint-
1653, ment, and he was installed into his new office at White¬
hall, in the palace of the kings of England. He was to be
addressed by the title of Highness ; and his power was
proclaimed in London, and in other parts of the kingdom.
It was now, indeed, in a great measure necessary that
some person should take the supreme command ; for affairs
had been brought into such a situation, by the furious ani¬
mosities of the contending parties, that nothing short of
absolute power could prevent a renewal of bloodshed and
confusion. The government of the kingdom was adjust¬
ed in the following manner. A council was appointed,
which was not to exceed twenty-one, nor fall below thir¬
teen persons, who were to enjoy their offices for life, or
during good behaviour; and, in case of a vacancy, the
remaining members were to name three, of whom the pro¬
tector was to choose one. The protector was appointed the
supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth, with powers
such as the king was formerly possessed of. The power
of the sword was vested in him jointly with the parliament
when sitting, or with the council at other times. He was
obliged to summon a parliament once every three years,
and to allow them to sit five months without adjournment.
The standing army was fixed at twenty thousand foot and
ten thousand horse, and funds were assigned for their sup¬
port. The protector was to enjoy his office for life, and
on his death his place was to be supplied by the council.
Of all these clauses, that in regard to the standing army
was alone sufficient for Cromwell’s purpose; for, while
possessed of that instrument, he could at any time mould
the rest of the constitution to his pleasure. He chose his
council from among his officers, who had been the com¬
panions of his dangers and victories, and to each of them
he assigned a pension of a thousand pounds a year. He
took care to have his troops, upon whose fidelity he de¬
pended for support, paid a month in advance. The maga¬
zines were also well provided, and the public treasure was
managed with frugality and attention; whilst by his acti¬
vity, vigilance, and resolution, he discovered every con¬
spiracy against his person, and every plot for an insurrec¬
tion, before they took effect.
Thus Cromwell continued to govern, though without
assuming the title of king, in as absolute a manner as the
most despotic prince in Europe. As he was feared at
home, so he made himself respected abroad. The Dutch,
humbled by repeated defeats, were obliged to sue for
peace; to consent to pay deference to the British flag;
to abandon the interests of the king; to pay L.85,000 as
an indemnification for former expenses ; and to restore
to the English East India Company a part of those domi¬
nions which they had been dispossessed of by the Dutch
during the former reign. The ministry of France thought
proper to pay court to the protector; and as he had fur¬
nished that court with a body of six thousand men to at¬
tack the Spanish dominions in the Netherlands, the French
put Dunkirk into his hands as a reward for his attach¬
ment. By means of the fleet under Blake he humbled
Spain and chastised the Algerines and Tunisians. Penn
and Venables, two other admirals, made an attempt on
the island of Hispaniola; but failing in this, they steered
to Jamaica, which was surrendered to them without a
blow. Yet so little was thought of this conquest at the
time, that, on their return, the two admirals were commit¬
ted to the Tower, by reason of the failure of the principal
object of their expedition.
It is not to be supposed that a numerous standing army
could be maintained, and so many foreign wars carried on,
without incurring extraordinary expenses. In fact, the
VOL. v.
protector’s revenues were so much exhausted, that he was Common,
obliged to have recourse to methods which he probably wealth,
would not have chosen had he not been driven to them
by necessity. One or two royalist conspiracies, though j0
detected and punished, served him as a pretext for impos¬
ing a tax upon that party, of the tenth penny on all their
possessions ; and in order to raise this oppressive impost,
ten major-generals were instituted, who divided the whole
kingdom into as many military jurisdictions. They had
power to subject whom they pleased to this tax, and to
imprison such as denied their jurisdiction. Under colour of
these powers they exercised the most arbitrary authority ;
the people had no protection against their exactions ; the
very mask of liberty was entirely thrown off; and all pro¬
perty was placed at the disposal of a military tribunal. It
was in vain that the nation cried out for a free parliament.
Cromwell assembled one in consequence of their clamours,
but as speedily dissolved it when he found it refractory to
his commands. At last, as parliaments were always held
in such estimation by the people, he resolved to give them
one, but such as should be entirely of his own choosing,
and chiefly composed of his creatures. Lest any of a dif¬
ferent description should enter the house, guards were
placed at the doors, and none admitted but such as pro¬
duced a warrant from his council.
The principal design of convening this assembly was
to offer him the crown, with the title of king, and all the
other ensigns of royalty. His creatures, therefore, took
care to insinuate the confusion which existed in legal pro¬
ceedings without the name of a king; that no man was
acquainted with the extent or limits of the authority of
the present magistrates; but that those of a king had been
well ascertained by the experience of ages. The motion
was at last formally made in the house, easily carried
through, and nothing seemed now wanting but Cromwell’s
own consent to have his name enrolled among those of
the kings of England. This consent, however, he had
not resolution enough to give. His doubts continued for
some days; and the conference carried on with the mem¬
bers who had made him the offer, as far as it is intelligible
on his part, seems to argue that he was desirous of being
compelled to accept the offer. The conference, however,
terminated in his total refusal.
But with all these proffered honours, and with all his
despotic power, the situation of Cromwell was far from
being enviable. Perhaps no situation, however mean or
contemptible, was more truly distressing than his, even at
the time when the nation was loading him with congratu¬
lations and addresses. He had at last rendered himself
hateful to every party, and he owed his safety solely to
their mutual hatred and distrust. His arts of dissimula¬
tion were exhausted; none could be any longer deceived
by them ; and even those of his own party and principles
disdained the use to which he had converted his zeal and
professions. Though the whole nation silently detested
his administration, he would not have been completely
wretched if he could have found domestic consolation.
But even his own family had embraced republican princi¬
ples with so much vehemence, that they could not with¬
out indignation behold him invested with uncontrolled
power; and even Mrs Claypole, his favourite daughter,
upbraided him, on her death-bed, with all the crimes by
which he had waded “ through slaughter to a throne.”
To aggravate all this, conspiracies were formed against
him; and it was at last openly taught, that his death was
not only desirable, but that his assassination would be me¬
ritorious. A book was published by one Colonel Titus, a
man who had formerly been attached to his cause, entitled
“ Killing no Murder.” Of all the pamphlets which ap¬
peared at that time, or which have since been published,
3 G
BRITAIN.
418
Common- this was one of the most masterly. Cromwell read it, and
wealth. is Said never to have smiled afterwards.
The protector now found, that the grandeur to which
1058. jle jia(j sacrifiCed his former tranquillity was only an inlet
to fresh inquietudes. He was haunted with perpetual ap¬
prehensions of assassination. He wore armour under his
clothes, and always kept pistols in his pockets. His as¬
pect was clouded by a settled gloom, and he regarded
every stranger with suspicion. He was always attended
by a numerous guard, and generally travelled in a hurry.
He never returned from any place by the road he went;
and never slept above three nights together in the same
chamber. At last, however, he was delivered from this
life of horror and anxiety by a tertian ague, of which he
died on the 3d of September 1658, after having held the
reins of government nine years.1
“ Till the commencement of the present century,” says
Dr Lingard, “ when that wonderful man arose who, by the
splendour of his victories and the extent of his empire,
cast all preceding adventurers into the shade, the name of
Cromwell stood without a parallel in the history of civili¬
zed Europe. Men looked with a feeling of awe on the fortu¬
nate individual who, without the aid of birth, wealth, or con¬
nections, was able to seize the government of three power¬
ful kingdoms, and to impose the yoke of servitude on the
necks of the very men who had fought in his company
to emancipate themselves from the less arbitrary sway of
their hereditary sovereigns. That he who accomplished
this was no ordinary person, all must admit; and yet, on
close investigation, we shall discover little that was su¬
blime or dazzling in his character. Cromwell was not the
meteor which surprises and astounds by the brilliancy and
rapidity of its course. Cool, cautious, calculating, he stole
on with slow and measured pace, and, while with secret
pleasure he toiled up the ascent to greatness, laboured to
persuade the spectators that he was reluctantly borne for¬
ward by an exterior and resistless force, by the march of
events, the necessities of the state, the will of the army,
and even the decree of the Almighty. He looked upon
dissimulation as the perfection of human wisdom, and
made it the key-stone of the arch on which he built his
fortunes. The aspirations of his ambition were concealed
under the pretence of attachment to the ‘ good old cause
and his secret workings to acquire the sovereignty for
himself and his family were represented as endeavours to
secure for his former brethren in arms the blessings of
civil and religious freedom, the two great objects which
originally called them into the field. Thus his whole con¬
duct was made up of artifice and deceit. He laid his
plans long beforehand; he studied the views and dispo¬
sitions of all from whose influence he had anything to hope
or to fear ; and he employed every expedient to win their
affections, and to make them the blind unconscious tools
of his policy. For this purpose he asked questions, or
threw out insinuations in their hearing; now kept them
aloof with an air of reserve and dignity; now put them
off their guard by condescension, perhaps by buffoonery ;
at one time addressed himself to their vanity or avarice,
at another exposed to them with tears (for tears he had
at will) the calamities of the nation; and then, when he
found them moulded to his purpose, instead of assenting
to the advice which he had himself suggested, feigned
reluctance, urged objections, and pleaded scruples of con¬
science. At length he yielded ; but it was not till he had Common-
acquired by his resistance the praise of moderation, and . wealth,
the right of attributing his acquiescence to their impor- V—
tunity rather than to his own ambition. 1058,
“ Exposed as he was to the continual machinations of
the royalists and levellers, both equally eager to precipi¬
tate him from the height to wdiich he had attained, Crom¬
well made it his great object to secure to himself the at¬
tachment of the army. To it he owed the acquisition,
through it alone could he insure the permanence, of his
power. Now, fortunately for his purpose, that army, com¬
posed as never was army before or since, revered in the
lord-protector what it valued mostly in itself, the cant and
practice of religious enthusiasm.” “ In minds thus dis¬
posed, it was not difficult to create a persuasion that the
final triumph of ‘their cause’ depended on the authority of
the general under whom they had conquered ; while the
full enjoyment of that religious freedom which they so
highly prized rendered them less jealous of the arbitrary
power which he occasionally assumed. In his public
speeches he perpetually reminded them, that if religion
wras not the original cause of the late civil war, ‘ yet God
soon brought it to that issue that amidst the strife of
battle, and the difficulties and dangers of war, the reward
to which they looked was freedom of conscience ; that this
freedom to its full extent they enjoyed under his govern¬
ment, though they could never obtain it till they placed the
supreme power in his hands. The merit which he thus
arrogated to himself was admitted to be his due by the
great body of the saints : it became the spell by which he
rendered them blind to his ambition and obedient to his
will; the engine by which he raised, and afterwards secur¬
ed, the fabric of his power.
“ On the subject of civil freedom the protector could
not assume so bold a tone. He acknowledged, indeed, its
importance; it was second only to religious freedom : but
if second, then, in the event of competition, it ought to
yield to the first. He contended that under his govern¬
ment every provision had been made for the preservation
of the rights of individuals, as far as was consistent with
the safety of the whole nation. He had reformed the
chancery, he had laboured to abolish the abuses of the
law, he had placed learned and upright judges on the
bench, and he had been careful in all ordinary cases that
impartial justice should be administered between the
parties. This was indeed true; but it w^as also true that
by his orders men were arrested and committed without
lawful cause ; that juries were packed; that prisoners, ac¬
quitted at their trial, were sent into confinement beyond the
jurisdiction of the courts; that taxes had been raised with¬
out the authority of parliament; that a most unconstitu¬
tional tribunal, the high court of justice, had been esta¬
blished ; and that the major-generals had been invested
with powers the most arbitrary and oppressive.
“ Some writei’s have maintained that Cromwell dissem¬
bled in religion as well as in politics; and that when he con¬
descended to act the part of the saint, he assumed for in¬
terested purposes a character which he otherwise despis¬
ed. But this supposition is contradicted by the uniform
tenor of his life. Long before he turned his attention to
the disputes between the king and the parliament, religi¬
ous enthusiasm had made a deep impression on his mind ;
it continually manifested itself during his long career both
1 The night on which Cramwell died was stormy. “ The violence of the wind increased till it blew a hurricane. Trees were torn
from their roots in the park, and houses unroofed in the city. So strange a coincidence could not fail of exciting remarks in a super¬
stitious age; and though the storm reached to the coasts of the Mediterranean, in England it was universally referred to the death
of the protector. His friends asserted that God would not remove so great a man from the world without previously warning the
nation of its approaching loss; the cavaliers more maliciously maintained that the devils, ‘ the princes of the air, were congregating
over Whitehall, that they might pounce on the protector’s soul.’” (Lingard, History of England, voL vii. p. 273. London, 1829, 4to.)
BRITAIN. 419
Common- in the senate and the field ; and it was strikingly display-
wealth. ecl in his speeches and prayers on the last evening of his
'—life. It should, however, be observed, that he made re-
1658. iigion harmonize with ambition.”1
Oliver Cromwell was succeeded in his office of protect¬
or by his son Richard, who immediately called a parlia¬
ment. To this assembly the army presented a remon¬
strance, desiring to have some person appointed for their
general in whom they could confide. But the house vot¬
ed such meetings and remonstrances unlawful; upo.n
which the officers, surrounding Richard’s house, forced
him to dissolve the parliament; and he soon afterwards
signed an abdication of the government. His younger
brother Hemy, who had been appointed to the command
in Ireland, followed Richard’s example, and resigned his
commission without striking a blow.
The officers, thus left at liberty, resolved to restore the
Rump Parliament, as it was called, consisting of that rem¬
nant of a parliament which had condemned Charles. But
no sooner were they reinstated in authority, than they be¬
gan to humble the army by cashiering some of the officers,
and appointing in their room others on whom they could
place more reliance. The officers, accordingly, resolved
to dissolve the assembly. For this purpose Lambert, one
of the general officers, drew together a chosen body of
troops, and, placing them in the streets which led to
Westminster Hall, when the Speaker, Lenthal, proceeded
in his carriage to the house, he ordered the horses to be
turned, and very civilly conducted him home. The other
members were likewise intercepted ; and the army return¬
ed to their quarters to observe a solemn fast, which gene¬
rally either preceded or attended all their remarkable pro¬
ceedings. A committee was then elected, of twenty-three
persons, of whom seven were officers. These they invest¬
ed with sovereign authority; and a military government
was established, which gave the nation a prospect of end¬
less servitude and tyranny without redress.
Upon learning that the officers had by their own autho¬
rity dissolved the parliament, General Monk, who was
then in Scotland with eight thousand veteran troops, pro¬
tested against the measure, and resolved to defend the
national privileges. As soon as he had put his army in
motion, he found himself eagerly courted by all parties ;
but so cautious was he of declaring his mind, that, till the
very last, no one knew which side he would take. As a
remarkable instance of this politic or hesitating behaviour,
when his own brother came to him with a message from
Lord Granville in the name of the king, he refused all
conversation with him upon hearing that he had told his
errand to Mr Price, the general’s own chaplain, and a man
of known probity and honour.
Informed that the officers were preparing an army to op¬
pose him, Monk amused them with negociations; and the
people, finding themselves not entirely defenceless, began
to declare for a free parliament. The Rump, being invit¬
ed by the navy and part of the army, again ventured to
resume their seats, and to thunder votes in their turn
against the officers and that party of the army by which
they had been ejected. Without taking any notice of
Lambert, they sent orders to the troops to repair imme¬
diately to the garrisons appointed for them. The soldiers
obeyed; and Lambert at last found himself deserted by
his whole army. Monk in the mean time proceeded with
his army to London. The gentry, on his march, flocked
round him with addresses, expressing their desire of a new
parliament; but that general, still continuing his inflexible
taciturnity, at last reached to St Alban’s, within a few miles
of the capital, leaving all the world in doubt as to his mo- Common-
lives and designs. Here he sent the parliament a mes- wealth,
sage, desiring them to remove such forces as remained in
London to country quarters. Some of the regiments wil¬
lingly obeyed this order; and such as did not, Monk turn¬
ed out by force; after which he took up his quarters in
Westminster. The house voted him thanks lor his ser¬
vices. He desired them to call a free parliament; and
this soon inspired the citizens with courage to refuse sub¬
mission to the present government. They resolved to pay
no taxes until the members formerly excluded by Colonel
Pride should be replaced. But for this they were punish¬
ed by Monk, at the desire of the parliament. He arrest¬
ed eleven of the most obnoxious of the common council;
broke the gates and portcullises, and, having exposed Lon¬
don to the scorn and contempt of all who hated it, he re¬
turned in triumph to his quarters at Westminster. The
next day, however, he made an apology for this conduct,
and promised for the future to co-operate with the mayor
and common-council in such schemes as they should ap¬
prove.
The Commons were now greatly alarmed. They tried
every method to detach the general from his new alliance ;
some of them even promised to invest him with the dig¬
nity of supreme magistrate, and to support his usurpation.
But Monk was too cunning or too wise to hearken to such
proposals; he resolved to restore the secluded members,
and by their means to bring about a new election. The
restoration of the expelled members was easily effected;
and their number was so much superior to that of the
Rump, that the chiefs of this last party now withdrew in
their turn. The restored members began with repealing
all the orders by which they had been expelled. They
renewed and enlarged the general’s commission ; fixed a
proper stipend for the support of the fleet and army; and,
having passed these votes, dissolved themselves, giving
orders for the immediate assembling of a new parliament.
Meanwhile Monk new-modelled his army to the pur¬
poses he had in view; and some officers, by his direction,
presented him with an address, in which they promised to
obey implicitly the orders of the ensuing parliament. He
approved of this engagement, which he ordered to be sign¬
ed by all the different regiments; and this furnished him
with a pretence for dismissing all the officers by whom it
was rejected.
In the midst of these transactions, Lambert, who had
been confined in the Tower, escaped from prison, and be¬
gan to raise forces ; and as his activity and principles were
sufficiently known, Monk took prompt measures to oppose
his proceedings. He dispatched Colonel Ingoldsby, with
his own regiment, against Lambert, before the latter had
time to assemble his dependents. With four troops of
horse Lambert had taken possession of Daventry ; but the
greater part of them having joined Ingoldsby, Lambert
also surrendered, not without exhibiting strong marks of
pusillanimity.
All this time Monk still persisted in his reserve; nor
had he intrusted his secret intentions to any person ex¬
cept one Morris, a gentleman of Devonshire. The latter
was of a sedentary and studious disposition; and with him
alone had the general deliberated on the great and dan¬
gerous enterprise of the restoration. Sir John Granville,
who had a commission from the king, applied for access to
the general; but he was desired to communicate his busi¬
ness to Morris. Granville refused, though twice urged,
to deliver his message to any but the general himself;
upon which Monk, finding he could depend on this mi-
' History of England, voL vii. p. 274-278. London, 1829, 4to.
420
BRITAIN.
1<>C0.
Common- nister’s secrecy, opened to him his whole intentions, but,
wealth, with his usual caution, refused to commit any thing to pa¬
per. In consequence of these overtures the king left the
Spanish territories, but very narrowly escaped being de¬
tained at Breda by the governor, under pretence of treat¬
ing him with proper respect and formality. From this he
retired to Holland, where he resolved to wait the course
of events. .
The new parliament being assembled, Sir Harbottle
Grimstone was chosen Speaker, a man known to be a roy¬
alist in his heart. The eyes of all were now turned to¬
wards the king; yet such were their fears, and such the dan¬
gers which attended freedom of speech, that for some days
no one ventured to make any mention of his name. At
length Monk gave directions to Annesley, president of the
council, to inform them that one Sir John Granville, a
servant of the king’s, had been sent over by his majesty,
and was now at the door with a letter to the House o
Commons. After some manoeuvring, this message was
received, Granville was called in, the letter read, and the
king’s proposals accepted of. He offered a general amnesty
to all persons whatsoever, and that without any other ex-
ceptions than should be made by parliament. He promised
to indulge scrupulous consciences with liberty in matters
of religion ; to leave to the examination of parliament the
claims of all such as possessed lands with contested titles;
to confirm all these concessions by act of parliament; to
satisfy the army under General Monk with respect to their
arrears; and to give the same rank to his officers when
they were enlisted in the king’s army.
In consequence of this agreement between the king and
the parliament, Montague, the English admiral, waited on
Charles, to inform him that the fleet expected his orders
at Scheveling. The Duke of \ork immediately went on
board, and took the command as lord high admiral. The
king embarked without delay, and landing at Dover, was
received by Monk, whom he honoured with particular
marks of attention. He entered London on the 29th of
May 1660, which was his birth-day; and was attended by
a great number of people, who testified their joy, as the
multitude commonly do on such occasions, by loud accla¬
mations.
“ That the re-establishment of royalty was a blessing
to the country,” says Dr Lingard, “ will hardly be denied.
It presented the best, perhaps the only, means of restoiing
public tranquillity, amidst the confusion and distrust, the
animosities and hatreds, the parties and interests, which
had been generated by the civil war, and by a lapid suc¬
cession of opposite and ephemeral governments. To Monk
belongs the merit of having, by his foresight and caution,
effected this desirable object without bloodshed or vio¬
lence: but to his dispraise it must also be recorded, that
he effected it without any previous stipulation on the part
of the exiled monarch. Never had so fair an opportunity
been offered of establishing a compact between the sove¬
reign and the people, of determining by mutual consent
the legal rights of the crown, and securing from future
encroachment the freedom of the people, lhat Chailes
would have consented to such conditions, we have suffi¬
cient evidence; but when the measure was proposed, the
lord-general declared himself its most determined oppo¬
nent. It may have been that his cautious mind figured
to itself danger in delay; it is more probable that he
sought to give additional value to his services in the eyes
of the new sovereign. But, whatever were the motives of
his conduct, the result was, that the king ascended the
throne unfettered with conditions, and thence inferred
that he was entitled to all the powers claimed by his fa-
ther at the commencement of the civil war. In a few ves^,'
years the consequence became manifest. It was found
that by the negligence or perfidy of Monk a door had been
left open to the recurrence of dissension between the
crown and the people ; and that very circumstance which
Charles had hailed as the consummation of his good for¬
tune, served only to prepare the way for a second revolu¬
tion, which ended in the permanent exclusion of his family
from the government of these kingdoms.”1
CHAP. VI.
REIGN OF CHARLES II.
Charles II His first measures popular—The regicides punish¬
ed Indignities offered to the remains of Cromwell, Ireton, and
Bradshaw Death of the Duke of Gloucester—Parliament dis¬
solved State of the nation—Profligacy and ingratitude of the
King Slavish disposition of Parliament—King’s extravagance.
 Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal—War with the Dutch.
 Naval engagements Action off Lowestoffe.—Battle of the
Four Days Negociations—The Dutch fleet appears in the
Medway and the Thames—Plague in London—Great Fire—
Peace with Holland Clarendon disgraced—The triple alliance.
 Arbitrary proceedings of the King.—The Cabal.—Renewal of
the war with Holland Desperate naval battle in Southwold
Bay Successes of the French king against the Dutch—Meet¬
ing of Parliament Test Act—Bold procedure of the Com¬
mons National Discontents—Popish Plot—Impeachment of
Danby Exclusion Bill brought in—Duke of York returns to
England Petitioners and Abhorrers—Whig and Tory—At¬
tempt to establish Episcopacy in Scotland—Persecution of the
Presbyterians Rising at Pentland—Insurgents defeated—
Cruelties exercised by Archbishop Sharpe—Act against Con¬
venticles Scheme of Comprehension and Indulgence—The
King takes out lawburrows against his subjects—Letters of In-
tercommuning Trial and execution of James Mitchell—In¬
famous conduct of the Privy Council—Murder of Archbishop
Sharpe Second Insurrection—Insurgents defeated at Both-
well Bridge Parliamentary proceedings—Parliament dissolv¬
ed, and a new one summoned to meet at Oxford—Case of
Fitzharris Parliament dissolved—Arbitrary proceedings of
the King.—Fitzharris condemned and executed—Spies, in¬
formers, suborners, and plotters—Bill of indictment against
Shaftesbury ignored by the Grand Jury—Affairs in Scotland.
 Cameron and Cargill declare war on the government—Skir¬
mish at Airmoss Cargill excommunicates the King and the
Ministers at Torwood.—Subsequent atrocities—Insidious and
diabolical proceeding of the Council.—Trial of the Earl of Argyll.
 London deprived of its Charters—Compositions entered into
by other Corporations—Designs against the King—The Rye-
house Plot Consequent proceedings—Death of Charles II—
His character.
Charles II. was thirty years of age at the time of his
restoration. Being naturally of an engaging countenance,
and possessed of an open, affable disposition, he became a
favourite with all classes of his subjects. They had now
experienced all the miseries of anarchy, and in proportion
to these was the satisfaction they felt on the accession of
the young monarch. His first measures were also calcu¬
lated to give general satisfaction. He seemed desirous of
obliterating the memory of past animosities, and of uniting
every party in affection for their prince and country. He
admitted into his council the most eminent men of the
nation, without regard to former distinctions. I he Fres-
byterians shared this honour equally with the ioya ists.
Calamy and Baxter, presbyterian clergymen, were even
made chaplains to the king. Admiral Montague was creat¬
ed Earl of Sandwich, and General Monk Duke of Albe¬
marle. Morris, the general’s friend, was appointed se¬
cretary of state. The choice which the king at first made
of his principal ministers and favourites, was, in like man-
1 History of England, vol. vii. pp. 342, 343.
BRITAIN.
421
iteign of ner, popular. Sir Edward Hyde, created Earl of Claren-
Charles II. don, was made prime minister and chancellor; the Marquis,
created Duke of Ormond, was named steward of the house-
1C60. hold. t}ie Eari 0f Southampton became high-treasurer; and
Sir Edward Nicholas secretary of state. These men, unit¬
ed in the strictest bonds of friendship, supported each
other’s credit, and for a time steadily pursued the interests
of the public.
The parliament having been summoned without the
king’s consent, received at first only the title of a Conven¬
tion ; and it was not until after an act had passed for that
purpose that they were acknowledged by the name of a
Parliament. Both houses acknowledged the guilt of the
former rebellion, and gratefully received in their own name,
and in that of all the subjects, his majesty’s gracious par¬
don and indemnity. The king having before promised an
indemnity to all criminals, excepting such as should be ex¬
cluded by parliament, he now issued a proclamation, de¬
claring, that such of the late king’s judges as did not sur¬
render themselves within fourteen days should receive no
pardon. Nineteen surrendered themselves; some were
taken in their flight; and others escaped beyond sea. The
Peers seemed inclined to great severity on this occasion,
but were restrained by the king, who, in terms apparently
the most earnest, pressed the act of general indemnity.
After repeated solicitations, the act of indemnity passed
both houses, with the exception of those who had an im¬
mediate hand in the king’s death. Even Cromwell, Ire-
ton, and Bradshaw, though dead, were considered as pro¬
per objects of resentment. Their bodies were dug from
their graves, dragged to the place of execution, and, after
hanging some time, buried under the gallows. Of the rest
who had sat in judgment on the late monarch’s trial, some
were dead, and others thought worthy of pardon. Ten
only out of eighty were doomed to immediate destruc¬
tion. These were enthusiasts who had all along acted
from principle, and who, in the general spirit of rage ex¬
cited against them, showed a fortitude which would have
done honour to any cause.
This was all the blood that was shed at the restoration.
The rest of the king’s judges were reprieved, and after¬
wards dispersed in several prisons. The army which had for
so many years governed the nation was now disbanded, and
prelacy, with all the ceremonies of the church of England,
was at the same time restored; yet the king pretended to
preserve the air of moderation and neutrality. In regard
to religion, Charles, in his gayer hours, was a professed
deist; but in the latter part of his life he showed an in¬
clination to the Catholic persuasion, which he had strongly
imbibed in his infancy and exile.
On the 13th of September this year died the young
Duke of Gloucester, a prince of some promise. The king
was never so deeply affected by any incident in his life.
The Princess of Orange, also, having come to England, in
order to share the joy attending the restoration of her fa¬
mily, with whom she lived in great friendship, soon after¬
wards sickened and died. The queen-mother paid a visit
to her son, and obtained his consent to the marriage of the
Princess Henrietta with the Duke of Orleans, brother to
the French king. The parliament having met on the 6th
of November, and carried on business with the greatest
unanimity and dispatch, was dissolved by the king on the
29th of December 1660.
During the reign of Charles II. the spirit of the people
seemed to take a turn quite opposite to that which it had
exhibited in the time of his father. The latter found his
subjects animated with a fierce though often ill-regulated
zeal for liberty. They knew not what it was to be free,
and therefore imagined that liberty consisted in throwing
off entirely the royal authority After a bloody and pro-
1661.
tracted struggle they carried their point; the unhappy Reign of
monarch was dethroned and put to death ; but instead of Charles II.
liberty they found themselves involved in the meshes of a
more formidable tyranny than that which they had over¬
thrown. From this, however, they were freed by the re¬
storation ; but they now ran into the contrary extreme;
and instead of an unbounded spirit of opposition, there
was nothing but an unbounded spirit of submission, through
which Charles at length found means to render himself
almost quite absolute, and to govern without requiring, or
indeed without having any occasion for, parliaments. A
similar revolution, or rather revulsion, took place in mat¬
ters connected with religion. During the former reigns a
spirit of the most gloomy enthusiasm had overspread the
whole island, and men imagined that the Deity was only
to be appeased by their denying themselves all social
pleasure, and resisting every thing which tended to make
life agreeable. The proceedings of Cromwell and his as¬
sociates, to say nothing of the conduct of others, showed
that this was not genuine religion ; but, in avoiding one
error, they ran into another equally dangerous. Every
thing religious or serious was now discountenanced; riot
and dissipation everywhere prevailed. The court set the
example. Nothing but scenes of gallantry and festivity
were to be seen; the horrors of the late war became the
subject of ridicule ; the formality of the sectaries was dis¬
played on the stage, and even laughed at from the pulpit;
in a word, the best mode in religion now was to have as
little as possible, and, in deriding the hypocrisy of the
sectaries, to transgress even the common duties of mora¬
lity. In the midst of this riot and dissipation, the old and
faithful followers of the royal family were left unrewarded.
Numbers who had fought both for the king and his father,
and had lost their whole fortunes in his service, were
suffered to pine in want and oblivion; whilst their perse¬
cutors, who had acquired fortunes during the civil war,
were permitted to enjoy them without molestation. The
wretched royalists petitioned and murmured in vain. The
monarch fled from their expostulations to scenes of mirth
and festivity: and the act of indemnity was with some
reason described as an act of forgiveness to the king’s
enemies, and of oblivion to his friends.
In 1661 the Scottish and English parliaments vied with
each other in protestations of loyalty and attachment to
the king. In England, monarchy and episcopacy were
raised to the greatest splendour. The bishops were per¬
mitted to resume their seats in the House of Peers, and
all military authority was acknowledged to be vested in
the king. He was empowered to appoint commissioners
for regulating corporations, and expelling such members
as had intruded themselves by violence, or professed prin¬
ciples dangerous to the constitution. An act of uniformity
was passed, by which it was required that every clergy¬
man should be re-ordained, if he had not before received
episcopal ordination; that he should declare his consent
to every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer,
and should take the oath of canonical obedience. In con¬
sequence of this law, above two thousand of the presby-
terian clergy resigned their cures at once. In Scotland
the right of the king was asserted in the fullest and most
positive terms to be hereditary, divine, and indefeasible.
His power was extended to the lives and possessions of
his subjects, and his original grant was held to be the
source whence all that they enjoyed was derived. They
voted him an additional revenue of L.40,000; and all the
former violences were spoken of in terms of the utmost
detestation.
But this intoxication of loj'alty soon began to wear off.
The king’s profusion and extravagance in his pleasures,
together with his indolence in administration, furnished
422 BRITAIN.
"Reign of opportunities of making very disadvantageous comparisons
Chari ies II. between him and Oliver Cromwell. And these dispositions
were increased by the ejectment of so many ministers,
1662’ and also by observing Dunkirk, which had been acquired
during Cromwell’s vigorous administration, sold to the
French for L.40,000, and that merely to supply the king’s
extravagance. From this time, August 1662, Charles found
himself perpetually opposed ; and his parliaments granted
supplies much more reluctantly than before.
A few months previously, the continual exigencies of
the king had forced him to conclude a marriage with the
Infanta of Portugal, for the sake of her portion, which was
to be L.500,000 in money, together with the fortress of
Tangier in Africa, and that of Bombay in the East Indies.
The Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and the Dukes of Ormond
and Southampton, urged many reasons against this match,
particularly the likelihood of her never having any chil¬
dren; but all their objections were fruitless, and therefore
Clarendon, like a true courtier, set himself to promote it as
far as lay in his power. But the king’s necessities being
still greater than his supplies could meet, he resolved to
sacrifice his minister, Clarendon, to the resentment of the
parliament, to whom he had become obnoxious, in order
to procure more money. In 1663 an extraordinary sup-
p!y was demanded. On the 12th of June the king sent
for the Commons to Whitehall; and having complained
of their inattention, he informed them of a conspiracy
which had been formed to seize the castle of Dublin,
hoping by this means to furnish a reason for demanding
a present supply. The artifice succeeded. Four sub¬
sidies were immediately granted, and the clergy in con¬
vocation followed the example of the Commons. On this
occasion the Earl of Bristol ventured to impeach the
Chancellor in the House of Peers ; but as he did not sup¬
port his charge, the affair was dropped for the present.
In 1664 Charles was induced to declare war against
the Dutch, with the view, probably, of getting the money
to be employed for that purpose into his own hands. In
this war the English, under the command of Sir Robert
Holmes, expelled the Dutch from Cape Coast Castle in
Africa, and likewise seized on their settlements of Cape
Verd and the Isle of Goree. Sailing thence to America,
the admiral took possession of Nova Belgia, since called
New York, and long afterwards a dependency of Britain.
On the other hand, De Ruyter, the Dutch admiral, dis¬
possessed the English of all their settlements in Guinea
except Cape Coast. He afterwards sailed to America,
where he attacked Barbadoes and Long Island, but was
at last repulsed.
At length a battle between the grand fleets of each
nation was fought near Lowestoffe on the 3d of June
1665, the one under the Duke of York, to the number of
a hundred and fourteen sail; the other commanded by
Opdam, admiral of the Dutch navy, of nearly equal force.
The English fleet was divided into three squadrons; the
red, under the command of the duke; the white, under
that of Prince Rupert; and the blue, under the Earl of
Sandwich. James hoisted his flag on board the Royal
Charles. The Dutch fleet sailed in seven divisions, com¬
prising one hundred and thirteen ships. The bravest and
noblest of the Dutch youths had repaired on board to
share the dangers of the expedition; and as the admiral
had received positive orders to fight, every heart beat high
with the hope of victory. But Opdam did not share this
confidence. In the inexperience of many of his captains,
and the insufficiency of their crews, this able seaman dis¬
covered enough to make him doubt the result of the com¬
ing battle ; and to those near him he observed, “ I know
what prudence would suggest; but I must obey my or¬
ders, and by this time to-morrow you shall see me crown¬
ed with laurel or with cypress.” Early in the morning of Reign of
the 3d the hostile fleets descried each other near Lowes- Charles IL
toffe, and seven hours were spent in attempts on each
side to gain the weather-gage. At length the English, 6‘
tacking in the same direction as the enemy, soon pushed
alongside of them, in a parallel line, upon which the signal
was made for each ship to bear down and engage her op¬
posite in the enemy’s fleet. The sea was calm and the
sky cloudless, but a slight breeze which blew from the
south-west facilitated the execution of the duke’s order.
The two nations fought with their characteristic obstinacy,
and during four hours the issue hung in suspense. On one
occasion the duke was in imminent peril. All the ships of
the red squadron except two had dropped out of the line to
refit and prepare again for action, and the weight of the
enemy’s fire was poured into the flag-ship. The Earl of
Falmouth, Lord Muskerry, and Boyle, son to the Earl
of Burlington, were killed by the same shot, and James
was bespattered with their blood. But the disabled ships
gradually resumed their stations in the line; and as the
fire of the English began to increase, that of the enemy
was observed to slacken. At length the Eendract, bear¬
ing Opdam’s flag, blew up, and the admiral with five hun¬
dred men perished in the explosion. Dismayed at the
loss of their commander, the Dutch fled in confusion.
Four of their sternmost ships running foul of each other,
were destroyed by a fire-ship, and three others shortly
afterwards experienced the same fate. Van Tromp en¬
deavoured to keep the fugitive ships together; and as the
darkness of the night retarded pursuit, the Dutch fleet in
the morning was moored in safety within the shallows.
In this battle the enemy lost four admirals, seven thou¬
sand men slain or made prisoners, and eighteen sail either
burnt or taken. The loss of the victors was small in pro¬
portion, not exceeding six hundred men.
This success excited the jealousy of the neighbouring
states, particularly France and Denmark, who immediate¬
ly resolved to protect the republic against such a formi¬
dable enemy. De Ruyter, the great Dutch admiral, on
his return from Guinea, was appointed, at the head of
seventy-six sail, to join the Duke of Beaufort, the admiral,
who it was supposed was then entering the British chan¬
nel from Toulon. The Duke of Albemarle (Monk) and
Prince Rupert now commanded the British fleet, which
did not exceed seventy-four sail. Albemarle detached
Prince Rupert with twenty ships to oppose the Duke ot
Beaufort; a piece of rashness against which Sir George
Ayscue protested in vain. The fleets thus engaged on
most unequal terms, and the memorable battle of the Four
Days ensued. The first day the Dutch admiral Evertzen
was killed by a cannon-ball, one of their ships was blown
up, and three of the English ships were taken; darkness
parted the combatants. The second day the battle was
renewed with incredible fury. Sixteen fresh ships joined
the Dutch ; and the English were so shattered that their
fighting ships were reduced to twenty-eight. They re¬
treated towards their own coast, followed by the Dutch;
and another fierce conflict commenced, but was put a
stop to by the darkness of the night. In the morning of
the third day the English continued their retreat, and the
Dutch their pursuit. Albemarle came to the desperate
resolution of blowing up his own ship rather than submit
to the enemy, when he found himself happily reinforced
by Prince Rupert with his squadron of twenty sail. By
this time, however, it was night; but the next day, being
the fourth, the fleets came again to close action, which
was continued with great fury till they were parted fty
a mist. Sir George Ayscue had the misfortune to stiike
on the Galoper Sand, where he was taken, with a ship,
the Prince Royal, of a hundred guns. Both sides claim-
BRITAIN. 423
Reign of ed the victory, but the Dutch certainly had the advan-
Charles II. tage in this engagement. A second, however, equally
w^X?w/ bloody, happened soon after, with larger fleets on both
166£>' sides, but commanded by the same admirals. In this the
Dutch were vanquished ; but few prizes were made, and
De Ruyter conducted his retreat in such a gallant and
masterly manner, that he kept the pursuers at bay, and
soon moored his fleet in safety within the Wierings.
This success brought on negociations, which were pro¬
tracted on various pretexts. The English exchequer was
completely drained, and to prepare the fleet for sea again
required an immediate supply of money. Parliament had
indeed made a grant for the public service; but, though
liberal in amount, it offered only a distant resource. In
these circumstances it was, in an evil hour, proposed to
lay up the larger ships in ordinary, and to equip two squa¬
drons of light frigates for harassing the enemy’s trade in
the Channel and the German Ocean; and although the
Duke of York stated that such a proceeding was in truth
tantamount to an abandonment of the sovereignty of the
sea, the difficulty of procuring money, and the expecta¬
tion of a speedy peace, weighed so much with the king and
council, as to obtain tbeir consent to a measure which
brought lasting disgrace on the government and the coun¬
try. It was in fact disarming, and inviting attack. Nor
did the enemies of England forego the opportunity which
was thus offered. A secret treaty was on the eve of being
concluded between that country and France; and four
out of the seven United Provinces, desirous of peace, re¬
solved to withdraw their contributions towards the ex¬
penses of the war. But the pensionary, De Witt, still
thirsted for revenge. The Dutch fleet being ready for
sea, whilst that of England was dismantled and in the
docks, he determined not to throw away the opportunity
which fortune had placed in his hands. The English ar¬
gued, and the French remonstrated, but the pensionary con¬
tinued inexorable. He left the Texel in company with De
Ruyter, and ordered the fleet, to the amount of seventy,
to join him in separate squadrons off the Nore. The
English government was not taken altogether by surprise.
The warnings of the Duke of York had awakened them
to a sense of their danger; and three months before or¬
ders had been issued to strengthen the fortifications at
Sheerness, to throw a boom across the Medway at the
stakes, to mount guns on the batteries, and to prepare a
number of fire-ships. But these orders were very ill exe¬
cuted. The commissioners of the navy were already a
million in debt; their credit was gone; to procure ready
money, either by application to the treasury, or by loan
from the bankers, was impossible; and, without imme¬
diate payment, the sailors refused to serve, the labourers
to work, and the merchants to sell. Little had therefore
been done, and that little imperfectly. Meanwhile De
Witt, in order to distract the attention of the government,
ordered one division of his fleet to sail up the Thames as
far as Gravesend, and the other to destroy the shipping
in the Medway. The works at Sheerness opposed but a
feeble resistance, and were levelled with the ground by a
few broadsides. At the first alarm, Monk hastened to
the mouth of the Medway, where he erected batteries,
moored guard-ships for the protection of the boom, and
sunk five ships before it in the narrowest part of the
channel. Pie had scarcely' completed these preparations,
when the Dutch advanced with the wind and tide in
their favour; but the obstructions in the main passage
proved insurmountable; and they were forced to drop
away with the ebb. In the night, however, they disco¬
vered another channel deep enough for large ships at high
water, and in the morning worked their way through with¬
out impediment. The foremost ships then opened their
fire on the batteries, while a heavy fire-ship running against Reign of
the boom, hung upon it, and a second following in herChaiiosLL
wake, it broke under their united pressure. The guard- 'V''-'
ships were soon in a blaze, and the Royal Charles, a first- 1665.
rate, became the prize of the assailants. Finding all his
efforts here fruitless, Monk hastened back to Upnor Castle,
and employed the night in mounting guns, collecting am¬
munition, and manning the batteries. Morning revealed
a most humiliating spectacle, the Dutch fleet advancing
triumphantly up the river. Two line-of-battle ships led
the line; then came six enormous fire-ships; which, at a
short distance, were followed by the rest of the squadron.
The men of war anchored to receive and return the fire
of the batteries on either bank; the fire-ships passed be¬
tween them, and speedily set fire to the Royal James, the
Oak, and the London, three first-rates. Indescribable
consternation reigned in the capital. It was fully ex¬
pected that the Dutch would sail up next tide to London
Bridge, destroy the whole shipping, and reduce the me¬
tropolis to a heap of ruins. At the ebb, however, their
commander, Van Ghent, made the signal to the fleet to
fall down the river, and having burnt two of his vessels
which had grounded, he rejoined the other division at the
Nore. The disgrace which had thus been inflicted on
England, so lately mistress of the seas, sunk deep in the
hearts of the people. Unable to conceive how the Dutch,
whom they had so often defeated, should ride triumphant
in their rivers, burn their ships, and fill with dismay the
capital and the country, their grief and indignation knew
no bounds ; and whilst many attributed the calamity to the
imaginary machinations of the Catholics, others believed
that the king had secretly leagued with the enemy to de¬
press the nation, that he might the more easily establish
a despotic government.
During these transactions London was desolated by one
of the most calamitous visitations ever experienced by
this or anyr other nation. In the winter of 1664, two or
three isolated cases of plague had occurred in the out¬
skirts of the metropolis, and excited general alarm ; but it
was not till about the end of May 1665, that, under the
malignant influence of excessive heat, and a close, stag¬
nant atmosphere, the evil burst forth in all its terrors.
From the centre of St Giles the infection spread with ra¬
pidity over the adjacent parishes, threatened the court at
Whitehall, and, in spite of every precaution, crept into
the city. A general panic ensued. The nobility and
gentry fled; the royal family followed; and all who had
the power or the means prepared to imitate their example.
By every outlet the tide of emigration flowed towards the
country, till it was checked by the lord mayor refusing to.
grant certificates of health, and by the opposition of the
neighbouring townships, which rose in their own defence,
and drove back the fugitives into the devoted city. The
absence of the wealthier class of citizens, and the conse¬
quent breaking up of establishments, with the cessation of
trade, served to aggravate the calamity; and although the
charity of the opulent seemed to keep pace with the pro¬
gress of the pestilence, forty thousand servants were left
without a home, and the number of artizans and labourers
thrown out of employment was still more considerable.
The mortality was at first confined to the lower classes,
carrying off a larger proportion of children than of adults,
and of females than males; but, by the end of June, its
diffusion became so rapid, its virulence so great, and its
ravages so destructive, that the civil authorities, in virtue
of the powers with which they had been invested by an
act of James L “ for the charitable relief and ordering of
persons infected with the plague,” divided the parishes
into districts, allotting to each a competent number of of¬
ficers ; and ordered a red cross, one foot in length, to be
424
BRITAIN.
Reicm of painted on the door of every infected house, with the
Charles II. words “ Lord have mercy on us” placed above it, that
-v'—'' the healthy might be warned of the existence of the dis-
166S. ease< Provision was also made for the interment of the
dead. In the day-time persons were always on the watch
to withdraw from public view the bodies of those who ex¬
pired in the street; during the night the tinkling of a bell,
accompanied with the lurid glare of torches, announced
the approach of the pest-cart making its melancholy round
to receive the victims of the previous twenty-four hours.
“ No coffins were prepared; no funeral service was read;
no mourners were permitted to follow the remains of their
relatives and friends. The cart proceeded to the nearest
cemetery, and shot its burden into the common grave, a
deep and spacious pit, capable of holding some scores of
bodies, and dug in the church-yard, or, when the church¬
yard was full, in the outskirts of the parish.
The distemper generally manifested itself by the febnle
symptoms of shivering, nausea, headach, and delirium,
but in some these affections were so mild as to be mis¬
taken for a slight and transient indisposition. The insi¬
dious approaches of the mortal foe were not discovered,
and the patient applied to his usual avocations, till sud¬
denly faintness seized him, the fatal “ tokens or plague-
spots appeared on his breast, and then his hour was come.
In most cases, however, the pain and delirium left no room
for doubt. The sufferings of the patients were dreadful, and
often threw them into paroxysms of frenzy, during which
they burst the bands that confined them to their beds,
precipitated themselves from the windows, ran naked into
the street, and plunged into the river. If the patient
survived till the third or fourth day, buboes appeared,
and when these could be made to suppurate recovery
might be anticipated; but if the efforts of nature and
the physician proved unavailing, death became inevitable.
Men of the strongest minds were lost in amazement when
they contemplated the woe and desolation wrought by the
pestilence; the timid and credulous became the dupes of
their own imaginations and the victims of their own ter¬
rors; whilst fanaticism scattered abroad its wild predic¬
tions and fierce denunciations to add to the inexpressible
horror of the scene. During the months of July and Au¬
gust, when the weather was sultry and the heat oppres¬
sive, the eastern parishes, which had at first been spared,
became the chief seat of the pestilence, and the substan¬
tial citizens suffered in common with their poorer neigh¬
bours. The regulations of the magistrates could now no
longer be enforced. The nights were insufficient for the
burial of the dead; coffins were borne along the street at
all hours of the day; and the poor burst from their in¬
fected dwellings to seek relief for their families, who were
perishing of famine as well as of the pestilence. Lon¬
don,” says Dr Lingard, in a passage worthy of Thucydides,
“ presented a wide and heart-rending scene of misery and
desolation. Rows of houses stood tenantless and open to
the winds ; others, in almost equal numbers, exhibited the
red cross flaming on the doors. The chief thoioughfares,
so lately trodden by the feet of thousands, were overgrown
with grass. The few individuals who ventured abroad
walked in the middle, and, when they met, declined on
opposite sides, to avoid the contact of each other. But
if the solitude and stillness cf the streets impressed the
mind with awe, there was s^aiething yet more appalling
in the sounds which occasionally burst upon the ear. At
one moment were heard the ravings of delirium or the
wail of woe from the infected dwelling; at another the
merry song or the loud and careless laugh from the was-
sailers at the tavern or the inmates of the brothel. Men
became so familiarised with the form, that they steeled
their feelings against the terrors, of death. They waited
each for his turn with the resignation of the Christian or ^eign
the indifference of the Stoic. Some devoted themselves v ar es
to the exercises of piety; others sought relief in the riot
of dissipation or the recklessness of despair.”
In September the heat of the atmosphere abated ; but,
contrary to expectation, the mortality increased. From
this time infection became the certain harbinger of death,
which followed often within the space of twenty-four
hours, generally in the course of three days. An experi¬
ment, grounded on the practice of former times, was now
ordered to be tried. Fires of sea-coal, in the proportion
of one to every twelve houses, were kindled in the streets,
courts, and alleys of London and Westminster, and were
kept burning three days and nights, till a heavy, conti¬
nuous rain extinguished them. By the supposed disin¬
fecting power of heat, it was hoped to dissipate the pes¬
tilential miasm, or at least to abate its virulence; and, in
fact, the next report exhibited a considerable diminution
in the number of deaths. But whilst the survivors were
congratulating themselves on the prospect of deliverance,
the destroying angel was scattering a fiercer pestilence
from his wings. In the following week, ten thousand vic¬
tims sank under the accumulated virulence of the disease,
and despair reigned in every heart. Yet even now, in this
lowest depth of human misery, deliverance was at hand.
The high winds which usually accompany the autumnal
equinox cooled and purified the air; the fever assumed a
less malignant form ; the weekly number of deaths succes¬
sively decreased ; in the beginning of December seventy-
three parishes were pronounced clear of the disease ; and in
February the court, attended by the nobility and gentry,
returned to Whitehall. Upwards ot a hundred thousand
individuals are said to have perished in London alone;
and as the pestilence extended its destructive sway over
the greater part of the kingdom, the fugitives from the
metropolis carrying the infection with them wherever
they found an asylum, the total amount of its ravages
must have been truly dreadful.
This calamity was followed by another, if possible, still
more dreadful. On the night of Sunday the 2d of Sep¬
tember 1666, a fire broke out in Pudding Lane, near Fish
Street, one of the most crowded quarters of the metro¬
polis. It originated in a bakehouse; the buildings in the
neighbourhood being constructed of wood, with pitched
roofs, quickly caught the flames; and the stoies with
which they were filled consisting of the highly combus¬
tible articles used in the equipment of shipping, nourished
the conflagration. The pipes from the new river were found
empty, and the engine which raised water from the I hames
was consumed. No decisive measures were adopted to
check the progress of the devouring element, and several
hours elapsed before the aid of the military was called
for. Meanwhile the wind, which during the day blew
from the east, augmented hourly in violence, and became
a perfect hurricane. The fire spread with astonishing ve¬
locity, leaping as it were from roof to roof, and frequently
igniting houses at a distance; “ the night was as light as
day for ten miles round;” a vast column or pillar of fire,
about a mile in diameter, ascended to the clouds; the
flames, as they rose, were bent, broken, and shivered, by the
fury of the tempest; and every blast scattered through t e
air flakes of fire, which, falling on inflammable materials,
kindled new conflagrations. The lurid red glare of the sky,
the scorching heat of the atmosphere, the roaring of the
flames,and the frequent crash of falling buildings, combined
to fill every breast with astonishment and terror. While
the storm raged, the conflagration bade defiance to every
effort of human ingenuity or power. Houses had been
blown up or demolished, and gaps thus made, in hopes ot
arresting the progress of the flames; but ignited flakes
BRITAIN. 425
Reign of were carried over the empty space, or the ruins again
Charles II. t00k fire, or the fiaines unexpectedly turned in a new di-
rection. On the evening of Wednesday the violence of
1660. ^ wjn(j began to abate; and the church of the Temple,
as well as Westminster Abbey and Whitehall, were saved
by the destruction of the neighbouring buildings. To¬
wards the evening of Thursday the weather became calm,
and hopes were entertained that this dreadful calamity
was approaching its close. But in the night new alarms
were excited. The fire burst out again in the Temple,
while it still raged with unabated fury near Cripplegate,
and a large body of flame seemed to be making rapid ad¬
vances towaids the Tower. With the aid of gunpowder,
however, large openings were made; and as the weather
continued calm, the conflagration was thus prevented from
extending its ravages, and, in consequence, gradually died
out, although months elapsed before the combustion was
altogether extinguished in the immense accumulation of
ruins. By this deplorable calamity two thirds of Lon¬
don, including the whole space from the Tower to the
Temple, were reduced to ashes. The number of houses
consumed amounted to thirteen thousand two hundred,
and that of churches, including St Paul’s, to eighty-nine,
covering three hundred and seventy-three acres within,
and sixty-three without the walls.
The history of this fire accounts sufficiently for its ori¬
gin, as well as for the destructive ravages it committed.
But at this time political and religious prejudices had
perverted the understandings by inflaming the passions of
men, and every occurrence was viewed through a false
and distorting medium. By some it was considered as
an evident visitation of Providence in punishment of sin :
but the precise nature of the sin was not agreed upon;
the moi’e rigid religionists declaring it to consist in the
immorality of the king and the courtiers, whilst the cava¬
liers were equally positive that nothing but the guilt of
the late rebellion could have entailed such a chastisement
on the nation. Others, again, attributed it to the dis¬
loyalty and revenge, either of the republicans, who sought
to destroy the seat of the monarchy, or of the Catholics,
who wished to punish the stronghold of Protestant heresy.
Of these charges, however, no vestige of proof could ever
be discovered ; and in the report of the House of Commons,
which is still extant, will be found a complete refutation
of the calumny. But the men of that time were not to be
reasoned out of what they had determined at all hazards
to believe; and accordingly, on the monument erected to
perpetuate this calamitous event, stands recorded the ca¬
lumnious falsehood, that “ the burning of this Protestant
city was begun and carried on by the treachery and malice
of the Popish faction.” Next to the guilt of him who per¬
petrates an atrocious crime, says Dr Lingard, is the guilt
of those who charge it upon the innocent. One good, how¬
ever, resulted from this great evil. The plague was fairly
burnt out, and the city rose like a phoenix from its ashes;
the streets being widened, the narrow and unwholesome
alleys totally banished, and the houses built of brick in¬
stead of wood. In so frightful a devastation, it is remark¬
able that not a single life was lost.
These complicated misfortunes did not fail to excite
many murmurs among the people. Whilst the blame of the
fire was laid on the Papists, the Dutch war was exclaimed
against as unsuccessful and unnecessary, and as an at¬
tempt to humble that nation, who were equally enemies
to Popery with themselves. Charles himself also began to
be sensible, that all the ends for which he had undertaken
this war were likely to be entirely frustrated. Instead of
being able to lay up money for his own purposes, the
supplies of parliament had hitherto been so scanty, that
he found himself considerably in debt. A treaty was
VOL. v.
therefore set on foot, and concluded at Breda on the 21st Reign of
of July 1667. By this treaty the only advantage gained Charles H-
by Britain was, the cession of the colony of New York.
It was therefore accounted disgraceful by the nation, and
the blame of it thrown upon the Earl of Clarendon, who,
besides, was charged with the sale of Dunkirk, the bad pay¬
ment of the seamen, the disgrace inflicted by the Dutch
fleet, and his own ambition. His daughter, whilst yet in
Paris, had countenanced the addresses of the Duke of York,
and, under a solemn promise of marriage, had admitted
him to the privileges of a husband. James, however,
either of his own accord, or through the persuasions of
his brother Charles, afterwards married her; and this was
imputed as a crime to Clarendon. On these grounds the
king, who had never much loved this nobleman, ordered
the seals to be taken from him and given to Sir Orlando
Bridgemen. Clarendon was again impeached ; and though
the charges were manifestly frivolous, yet so strong was
the popular torrent against him, that he thought proper
to withdraw into France. Soon after, Charles formed an
alliance with Holland and Sweden, in order to prevent
the French king from completing his conquest of the
Netherlands, the greatest part of which he had already
subdued; and he was unexpectedly stopped in his career
by this league, in which it was agreed by the contracting
powei's to constitute themselves arbiters of the differences
between France and Spain, and to check the exorbitant
pretensions of both.
The king now began to govern in a very arbitrary man¬
ner. He had long wished to extend his prerogative, and
to be able to furnish himself with whatever sums he want¬
ed for his pleasures, and he therefore sought ministers
who would make no scruple of gratifying him in both par¬
ticulars. In Clifford, Ashley (afterwards Shaftesbury),
Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale, who were dis¬
tinguished by the term Cabal, a word formed from the
initials of their names, he found a junta in all respects
suited to his wishes. These men, it is probable, were as
ready to betray their king as they speedily showed them¬
selves to betray their country; yet it seems pretty evi¬
dent that they were deceived by their master, who con¬
cealed from them the real state of his degrading connec¬
tion with France, and also the secret of what he was
pleased jocosely to denominate his religion. The first
effects of the advice given by the Cabal were a secret
alliance with France, and a rupture with Holland. The
undivided disgrace of both transactions belongs to them,
notwithstanding the king had taken a bribe from France,
which, however, he kept from the knowledge of his minis-
ters, lest they should claim their share in the wages of
infamy. Soon after this the Duke of York declared him¬
self a Catholic ; and liberty of conscience was proclaimed
to all sectaries, Dissenters as well as Catholics. A pro¬
clamation was also issued containing very rigorous clauses
in favour of impressment; and at the heels of this came
another full of menaces against those who should speak
undutifully of his majesty’s measures, nay, even against
those who heard such discourses, unless they informed
in due time against the offenders. These things gave
great and just offence to the people ; but they were espe¬
cially alarmed at the alliance with France, and afraid of
the perfidy by which the policy of that nation was cha¬
racterized.
In the meanwhile the Dutch, attacked by Louis on
land, and by the combined navies of England and France
on sea, and at the same time deserted by their ally Swe¬
den, seemed on the very verge of destruction. But the
republic of the United Provinces was not wanting to it¬
self in this crisis. War was declared with Holland on the
17th of March 1672; and by the beginning of May the
3 h
BRITAIN.
426
Reign of Dutch fleet put to sea. It consisted of seventy-five men
Charles II. 0f war> and a considerable number of fire-ships, with which
De Ruyter stationed himself between Dover and Calais,
to prevent the intended junction of the French and Eng¬
lish fleets. The Duke of York lay at the Nore with forty
sail, being all he was able to muster ; but with this force
he contrived, under cover of a fog, to pass the enemy un¬
noticed, and to reach St Helens, where he awaited the ar¬
rival of the French squadron under D’Estrees. When the
latter had joined, the combined fleet immediately sailed
in quest of the enemy. He was discovered lying off Os-
tend, but prudently declined to engage even upon equal
terms; and baffling all the manoeuvres employed to bring
him to action, at last reached Goree. The duke then re¬
turned to Southwold Bay, in order that his ships might
take in their full complement of men and provisions, in
both of which they had previously been deficient. Mean¬
while De Ruyter, learning the situation and employment
of the English, suddenly resolved to become the aggres¬
sor ; and sailing from Goree with his whole force on the
evening of the 27th May, he would probably have surpris¬
ed his enemies at anchor, had it not been for Cogolin, the
captain of a French frigate, who, ignorant of the coast, had
anchored during the night at a distance of several miles
from Southwold Bay, and having descried two of the
Dutch ships in the morning, fired off his guns in succes¬
sion as a signal of the approach of the enemy. Still the
bold and decided advance of De Ruyter had all the effect
of a surprise. James, it is true, immediately ordered every
ship to get under weigh, and take her station in the line ;
but the wind being easterly, and the tide running to lee¬
ward, not more than twenty sail could form to meet the
enemy. The duke, with part of the red squadron, en¬
countered De Ruyter and the fleet from the Maas ; the
Earl of Sandwich led the blue against Van Ghent and the
fleet from Amsterdam ; whilst D’Estrees opposed Banker
with the ships from Zealand, though, probably from respect
for conservative principles, the French commander cau¬
tiously avoided coming to close action with his opponent.
The battle raged long and fiercely. The English had to
contend with a bold, skilful, and experienced enemy, and,
owing to the inexplicable inactivity of their French allies,
no less than to the suddenness of the attack, they had to
make head against a fearful disparity of force. Their
ships, becoming intermingled with those of the enemy,
could afford each other little support, whilst they were in
imminent danger of being overwhelmed by the number of
their adversaries. Still they fought with desperate cou¬
rage, in order to protract their resistance till they could be
joined by the remainder of the fleet from the bay. About
eleven o’clock the flag-ship, the Prince, of one hundred
guns, lay a complete wreck on the water, having lost all
her rigging and above one third of her crew. Finding her
no longer manageable, the duke ordered her to be towed
out of the fire, and immediately shifted his flag to the St
Michael of ninety guns. The gallant Earl of Sandwich was
less fortunate. In his ship the Royal James, a first-rate,
he had repeatedly beat off the enemies by whom he was
surrounded ; carried by boarding a seventy gun ship which
lay athwart his hawse ; and sunk a fire-ship which was
drifting towards him. But after a contest of eight hours’
duration, the Royal James became unmanageable; a se¬
cond fire-ship now grappled her on the larboard side ; and
in a few minutes that magnificent vessel was in flames.
The duke ordered the Dartmouth and a number of boats
to hasten to her assistance, and between two and three
hundred of the crew were saved ; the rest, with their gal¬
lant commander, perished in the waves. Meanwhile the
other ships joined the fleet, and the combat became more
equal. About five the duke shifted his flag from the St
Michael, which could with difficulty be kept afloat, to the Reign oi
London, which had sustained less damage, and the battle Charles II.
continued with unabated fury. But, about seven o’clock,
De Ruyter shrunk from the conflict, and sailed to overtake l673-
the Zealand squadron. The honour of the victory belong¬
ed to the English. With all the disadvantages of a sur¬
prise, and with wind and tide against them, they encoun¬
tered a force greatly superior, and, notwithstanding the
skill of the Dutch admiral and the bravery of his men,
they maintained the combat with that cool determined
courage which, when properly directed, nothing under
heaven can overcome, and ultimately compelled the ene¬
my to retreat. The English lost one, and the Dutch three
ships of the line ; but the French suffered very little, not
having entered into the heat of the engagement. It was
even supposed by some that they had orders to observe
this conduct, and to spare their own ships, whilst the
Dutch and English weakened each other by their mutual
fury in the combat.
The combined powers were more successful against the
Dutch by land. Louis carried all before him, crossed the
Rhine, took the frontier towns of the enemy, and threat¬
ened the new republic with dissolution. Terms were pro¬
posed to them by the conquerors. Louis offered them
such as would have deprived them of all power of resist¬
ing an invasion from France by land; those of Charles
would have exposed them equally to invasion by sea. At
last the murmurs of the English at seeing this brave and
industrious people, the supporters of the Protestant cause,
totally sunk and on the brink of destruction, were too loud
not to reach the king. He was obliged to call together the
Parliament in order to take the sense of the nation re¬
specting his conduct; and he soon found how his subjects
stood affected towards him.
The parliament met on the 24th of February 1673.
They began with resisting some of the king’s extraordi¬
nary stretches of prerogative, and taking means for pro¬
moting uniformity in religious matters. A law was passed
entitled the Test Act, imposing an oath on all who should
enjoy any public benefice. Besides taking the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy, such persons were obliged to
receive the sacrament once a year in the established
church, and to abjure all belief in the doctrine of transub-
stantiation. As the Dissenters also had seconded the ef¬
forts of the Commons against the king’s declaration of in¬
dulgence to Roman Catholics, a bill was passed for their
ease and relief, which, however, met with some difficulty
in passing through the Peers. The Dutch, in the mean
time, continued to defend themselves with such valour,
that the Commons began to despair of success. They
therefore resolved that the standing army was a grievance ;
and declared that they would grant no more supplies to
carry on the Dutch war, unless it appeared that the ene¬
my were so obstinate as to refuse all reasonable condi¬
tions. To cut short these disagreeable altercations, the
king resolved to prorogue the parliament; and with that
intention he went unexpectedly to the House of Peers,
and sent the usher of the black rod to summon the House
of Commons to attend. The usher and the Speaker hap¬
pened to meet nearly at the door of the house; but the
Speaker being within, some of the members suddenly shut
the door, and cried, “ To the chair.” It was then moved,
and voted by acclamation, that the alliance with branee
was a grievance, that the evil counsellors of the king
were a grievance, and that the Earl ol Lauderdale was a
grievance; upon which the house rose in great confusion.
The king finding that he could expect no supply from the
Commons for carrying on a war so unpopular, resolved to
make a separate peace with the Dutch, on the terms which
they had proposed through the Spanish ambassador; and
BRITAIN. 427
Reign of having asked the advice of his parliament, a peace was con- kingdom. The plot having thus attained a sudden and Reign of
Charles II. eluded accordingly. bloated maturity, it was greedily adopted by the popular
The prepossession which Charles had all along shown in party as an engine against the court; and whilst the extraor-
1673. favour of France, and his manifest inclination upon all oc- dinary hallucination lasted, every species of injustice and '
casions to attach himself to that kingdom, had given great iniquity was perpetrated without compunction or remorse,
offence to his people; and other circumstances also conspir- Coleman, Ireland, Grove, Pickering, and others suffered
ed to raise a general discontent. The toleration of Catho- death for an imaginary conspiracy, on the contradictory
lies, so much wished for by the king, and the bigotry of testimony of incredible witnesses, and after trials in which
the Duke of York, the heir-apparent to the crown, who was the judges and the juries seemed to vie with each other in
zealous for the propagation of the Catholic religion, ex- abetting perjury. Nor was the reign of delusion and blood
cited an alarm, not altogether without foundation, that the short-lived, tor two years, Protestant credulity and ven-
Protestant religion was in danger. But these fears and geance were satiated, from time to time, with the inven-
discontents were carefully fomented by wicked and de- tion of new horrors and the immolation of fresh victims ;
signing men, who, to promote their own interests, scrupled nor were these legal murders stayed till the execution of
not to advance the greatest falsehoods. In 1678 an ac- the venerable Lord Viscount Stafford excited pity and re¬
count of a plot, supposed to have been formed by the Pa- morse in the public mind. Phis event seems to have con-
pists, for burning London, putting the Protestants to death, tributed to awaken the nation from its trance ; the still
and destroying the king and the Protestant religion, was small voice of reason and humanity began again to be
circulated by one Kirby, a chemist; Tong, a weak, credu- heard ; men gradually shook off both the delusion and the
lous parson ; and Titus Oates, who had likewise been a panic by which they had been hurried into such excesses ;
clergyman, and was in reality one of the most abandoned and when they recovered the use of their faculties suffi-
miscreants that ever disgraced humanity. The circum- ciently to enable them to take a deliberate survey of the
stances attending this pretended discovery were so per- late proceedings, they were horrified alike at the iniquity
fectly incredible and monstrous, that it seems amazing which had been committed, and at the character of the
how any person of common sense could give ear to them ; diabolical miscreants by whose instrumentality it had been
yet so violently were the minds of the nation at this time effected.
inflamed against the Catholics, that it not only produced In the midst of this general uproar and persecution,^
the destruction of many individuals of the Romish persua- the lord treasurer Danby was impeached in the House of
sion, but a general massacre of that unfortunate sect was Commons by Seymour the Speaker. The principal charge
apprehended. The parliament, who ought to have repress- against him was, his having written a letter to Montague,
ed these delusions, and brought back the people to calm the king’s ambassador at Paris, directing him to sell the
deliberate inquiry, showed themselves even more credu- king’s good offices at the treaty of Nimeguen, to the king
lous than the vulgar themselves. The cry of the plot was of France, for a certain sum of money ; contrary to the ge*
immediately echoed from one house to the other; the coun- neral interests of the confederates, and also to those of his
try party could not let slip so favourable an opportunity own kingdom. But although the charge was just, Danby had
of managing the passions of the people ; and the courtiers the good fortune to find the king resolved to defend him.
were afraid of being thought disloyal if they ventured to Charles assured the parliament that, as he had acted in
doubt the guilt of those who were accused of designs every thing by his orders, he held him entirely blameless;
against the king’s person. The whole nation was seized and although he would deprive him of all his employments,
by a sort of epidemic madness. Danby, the prime rhinis- yet he positively insisted on his personal safety. The
ter, himself entered into it very furiously, and persisted Lords, however, still went on to impeach him, and Danby
in his inquiries notwithstanding all the king’s advices to was sent to the Tower; but no worse consequencesfollowed.
the contrary; and Charles himself, who was the only per- These proceedings were carried on by a House of Corn-
son that ought to have been most concerned, was the only mons which had continued in existence above seventeen
one who treated it with contempt. Nothing, however, years. They were now dissolved, however, and another
could check the popular phrenzy; and for a time the king parliament was called; but this one proved as unmanage-
was obliged to give way to it. Meanwhile accident after able as the preceding. The members resolved to check
accident, occurring in a manner unparalleled in history, the growth of Popery by striking at the root of the evil;
contributed to maintain the delusion, and to give tempo- and therefore brought in a bill for the total exclusion of
rary credibility to the infernal perjuries of Oates, Bedloe, the Duke of York from the crown of England and Ireland,
and their associates in infamy. Letters were seized which which passed the Lower House by a majority of seventy-
discovered the Duke of York’s correspondence with France, nine. They next voted the king’s standing army and
in opposition to the religion and interests of his country ; guards to be illegal; and proceeding to fix limits to the
Danby’s correspondence, which involved the king in the king’s power of imprisoning delinquents, the celebrated
disgrace of similar machinations, was also detected ; and, statute of Habeas Corpus was passed, which confirms to
to crown the whole, Godfrey, the magistrate who had first the subject an absolute security against oppressive power,
given publicity to the plot, was either murdered, or, which During these troubles the Duke of York had retired to
seems at least equally probable, committed suicide. This Brussels; but an indisposition of the king induced him
last occurrence made every good Protestant imagine that to return to England, to be ready, in case of accident, to
he felt a Catholic poniard at his throat; and, whilst it assert his right to the throne. After prevailing with his
aggravated the terrors, confirmed the credulity, of the peo- brother to disgrace his natural son the Duke of Mon-
ple. The verdict of wilful murder returned by the coro- mouth, who had now become very popular, he set out for
ner’s inquest on the body of Godfrey imparted the stamp of Scotland, under pretence of quieting the apprehensions of
authority to all the reports previously in circulation. The the English nation, but in reality to strengthen his interests
ignorant believed and trembled, the artful secretly foment- in that part of the kingdom. This proceeding, however,
ed the panic with which the nation was now seized. It was served still more to inflame the country party, who were
no longer safe to deny that Godfrey had been murdered by strongly attached to the Duke of Monmouth, and resolv-
the Papists, or that the latter had conspired the destruc- ed to support him against the Duke of York. Mobs, pe-
tion of the king, the constitution, and the church of Eng- titions, and burnings of the pope in effigy, were the artifices
land, with the extermination of every Protestant in the employed to keep up the terrors of the people, and to
428
BRITAIN.
Reign of alarm the court. The parliament had shown favour to the
Charles II. various tribes of informers, and that of course served to
increase the number of these miscreants. Plots also be-
16^9" came more numerous. Conspiracy was set up against
conspiracy; and the people, uncertain what to believe or
whom to trust, were kept in a state of the most dreadful
apprehension.
But it was not by plots alone that the adverse parties
endeavoured to supplant each other. Tumultuous peti¬
tions on the one hand, and adulatory addresses on the
other, were sent up from all quarters. Wherever the
country party prevailed, petitions were sent to the king,
filled with grievances and apprehensions. Wherever the
church or court party had the ascendency, addresses were
framed, containing expressions of the highest regard for
his majesty, and the deepest abhorrence of those who en¬
deavoured to disturb the public tranquillity. Thus the
nation came to be distinguished into Petitioners and Ab-
horrers. The names of Whig and Tori/, also, were now
first used as terms of reproach. The wings were so deno¬
minated from a cant name given to the Presbyterian con-
venticlers, “ whig” being milk turned sour ; and the tories
received that honourable appellation from the Irish ban¬
ditti so called, whose usual phrase, in ordering people to
stand and deliver, was the Irish word toree, “ give me.”
Scotland. During all this time the king had tyrannized over the
1061. Scots in a very cruel manner. Being apprized of the
tendency of Presbyterian principles to a republican form
of government, Charles, like his predecessors, had endea¬
voured to introduce Episcopacy there, but in a much more
violent manner than had formerly been attempted. The
rights of patrons had for some years been abolished, and
the power of electing ministers had been vested in the
kirk-sessions and lay elders; but it was now enacted, that
all incumbents who had been admitted upon this title
should receive a presentation, and be instituted anew by
the bishop, under the penalty of deprivation. In conse¬
quence of this, three hundred and fifty parishes were at
once declared vacant. New ministers were sought for all
over the kingdom, and none was too vicious or ignorant
to be rejected. The people, as might have been expected,
were displeased to the highest degree, but gave no sign
of mutiny or sedition, notwithstanding their discontent.
This submission made their case still worse; it being ra¬
ther hastily imagined, that, as they did not complain for
a little ill usage, they would submit with equal patience
to worse.
Affairs remained tolerably tranquil, till, in 1661, a se¬
vere act was passed in England against conventicles,
which severity was imitated by the Scottish parliament,
who passed an act of the same kind. Military force was
next let loose on the people. Wherever they had forsa¬
ken their churches, the guards were quartered through¬
out the country. These legalized banditti were command¬
ed by Sir James Turner, a man of a furious temper and
dissolute life, who went about and received lists from the
clergy, of those who absented themselves from the church¬
es, or were supposed to frequent conventicles. Without
proof or legal conviction, he exacted fines, and quartered
soldiers on the supposed criminals till he received pay¬
ment. An insurrection being dreaded during the Dutch
war, new forces were levied, and intrusted to the com¬
mand of Dalziel and Drummond, two men of savage dis¬
positions, and the Scottish parliament gave full scope to
whatever enormities they chose to commit.
Representations were now made to the king, who pro¬
mised some redress. But his lenity came too late. In
1668 the people rose in arms, and having surprised Tur¬
ner in Dumfries, resolved to put him to death ; but finding
his orders much more violent than his execution of them,
they spared his life. At Lanark they renewed the cove- Reign of
nant, and published a manifesto, in which they professed Charles II.
submission to the king, and only desired the re-establish-
ment of Presbytery, and the re-instatement of their former ‘
ministers. Their force never exceeded two thousand men ;
and although the country in general bore them great fa¬
vour, men’s spirits were so subdued, that the insurgents
could expect no further increase of numbers. Dalziel
took the field to oppose them. The number of the Cove¬
nanters had now been reduced to little more than a thou¬
sand, and these were no way capable of contending with
regular forces. Plaving advanced towards Edinburgh, and
met with no support, they attempted to make their way
back to the west by the Pentland Hills. But at a spot
called Rullion Green they were attacked by the king’s
troops, and received the first charge with great firmness.
This, however, was the whole action. They immediately
fell into confusion and fled. About forty were killed on
the spot, and a hundred and thirty taken prisoners.
As long ago as the year 1661 the Presbyterians had
deputed Sharpe, then one of their number, to lay their
grievances before the king. Instead of doing so, however,
their deputy abandoned the cause altogether, became
their violent enemy, and, as a reward of his treachery,
was created Archbishop of St Andrews. After the affair
of Pentland this man was the foremost to take vengeance
on the unhappy insurgents, whose oppressed state and in¬
offensive behaviour made them objects of universal com¬
passion. Ten were hanged on one gibbet in Edinburgh,
and thirty-five before their own doors in different parts of
the country. Some of them were previously tortured, and,
after death, their mutilated limbs were stuck up in different
parts of the kingdom. All of them might have saved their
lives upon condition of renouncing the covenant; but this
they absolutely refused. The executions were proceeding
without mercy, when the king wrote a letter to the privy
council, in which he ordered that such of the prisoners as
simply promised to obey the laws for the future should be
set at liberty, and that the incorrigible should be sent to
the plantations. This letter was brought to the council
by Burnet, but was not immediately delivered by Sharpe,
whose renegade vengeance was not yet satiated. It had
been customary to put these unfortunate men to the tor¬
ture, in order if possible to make them confess that to be
false which they believed to be true. By Sharpe’s criminal
delay had been tortured Hugh Maccail, a young preacher,
who would otherwise have escaped; and so violent were
the torments inflicted on him by the iron boot, that he ex¬
pired under them. He seemed to die in an ecstacy of joy.
His last words, uttered with an accent w hich struck all the
bystanders with astonishment, were in the highest degree
impressive and sublime. “ Farewell sun, moon, and stars,
exclaimed this lofty-minded enthusiast; “ farewell world
and time ; farewell weak, frail body. Welcome eternity;
welcome angels and saints; welcome Saviour of the world ;
and welcome God, the judge of all 1”
In 1670 an act was passed against conventicles, with a
professed design of mitigating the former persecuting lawrs,
though even the mitigation was oppressive and tyrannical.
By this act, the hearer in a conventicle, that is, in a dissent¬
ing assembly where more than five persons besides the
family were present, was liable to a fine of five shillings
for the first offence, and ten shillings for the second ; while
the preacher was fined twenty pounds for the first offence,
and forty for the second. The person in whose house the
conventicle assembled was declared subject to the same
amount of fine as the preacher. In a remarkable clause
it was provided, that if a doubt should arise as to the in¬
terpretation of any part of the act, the judges should al¬
ways explain such doubt in the sense least favourable to
BRITAIN.
Reign of conventicles, inasmuch as it was the intention of parlia-
[!harles II. ment entirely to suppress them.
No religion was ever extirpated by subjecting its pro-
SCi0fi7nnd' ^essors t0 imprisonment, confiscation, and death ; and the
' ' government, which had plunged headlong into all the ex¬
cesses of persecution, soon perceived that they had pro¬
duced a very different effect from that which had been in¬
tended; that Presbytery had burst forth with fresh vi¬
gour in the midst of blood and oppression; and that the
people, by being driven desperate, had become formidable.
In this situation recourse was had to a notable expedient,
which at once betrayed the jealousy of the government,
and rendered it ridiculous. From some supposed analogy
between the case of one subject dreading bodily harm
from another, and a king jealous of his people, Sir George
Mackenzie, afterwards king’s advocate, conceived the
brilliant idea of causing his majesty to take out a general
writ of lawburrows against his whole Scottish subjects.
Accordingly, a bond of the peace was framed, by which
the subscribers became bound, under heavy penalties, nei¬
ther to frequent conventicles themselves, nor to allow
their families and tenants to be present at such unlawful
assemblies, and, in general, not in any way to infringe the
public peace. By this extraordinary proceeding, the go¬
vernment, while it betrayed its fears, prostituted the dig¬
nity of the king, and incurred the ridicule of attempting
to give additional sanction to public law by private con¬
tract.
But the violent methods used by the king having been
found ineffectual to accomplish this purpose in Scotland,
a Scheme of Comprehension was tried in 1678, by which
it was proposed to diminish greatly the authority of the
bishops, to abolish their negative voice in the ecclesiasti¬
cal courts, and to leave them little more than the right of
precedency among the presbyters. But this, too, was re¬
jected by the people, who well knew its character and ten¬
dency. The next project was that of an Indulgence, by
which the most popular of the expelled preachers, with¬
out being i*equired to accede any terms of submission to
the established religion, were settled in vacant churches;
and small salaries of about twenty pounds a year were of¬
fered to the rest till they should be otherwise established.
These tardy and suspicious boons were at first accepted
by some of the less firm and decided preachers; but the
trick,—for it was nothing more,—was soon discovered ;
and every man’s motto became Timeo Danaos et dona fe-
rentes. The replaced ministers soon repented their com¬
pliance ; the bounty was rejected as the wages of criminal
silence; conventicles multiplied; and the Covenanters, now
at open hostility with the law, met in arms at their places
of worship, though, after divine service, they dispersed
quietly.
The expedients tried by the government having thus
failed, the persecution of the Covenanters was renewed
under the administration of Lauderdale, and strenuously
abetted by Archbishop Sharpe. By an old law, but sel¬
dom put in execution, a man who was accused of any crime,
and did not appear to take his trial, might be intercom-
muned, that is, he might be publicly outlawed; and who¬
ever afterwards, either on account of business, relation¬
ship, or even charity, had the least intercourse with him,
429
was subjected to the same penalties which the law inflict- Reign of
ed on the criminal himself. A great many Letters of In- Charles^!!.,
tercommunmg1 were now issued against the Covenanters.
By this severe and absurd proceeding, crimes and punish-
ments went on multiplying in a geometrical progression ;
and, lest the cry of an oppressed people should reach the
throne, the council prohibited, under severe penalties, all
noblemen and gentlemen of landed property from leaving
the kingdom.
The course of these violent proceedings was distinguish¬
ed by an event which, in all its circumstances, is eminently
characteristic of the men who bore rule at this period.
We allude to the trial and execution of James Mitchell for
an attempt to assassinate the Archbishop of St Andrews
ten years before. One evening in July 1668, as Sharpe
was sitting in his coach at the head of Blackfriar’s Wynd,
waiting for the Bishop of Orkney, and while the latter was
in the act of stepping into it, Mitchell, then a Presbyterian
preacher, discharged a pistol at the dignified apostate;
but the Bishop of Orkney, happening at the instant to ex¬
tend his arm, intercepted the shot, and was severely
wounded in consequence. This occurred in the principal
street of the city; yet so generally was the archbishop
hated, that the assassin was allowed to walk off without
interruption ; and, having turned down a street or two, he
threw aside a partial disguise he had worn, re-appeared in
public, and remained altogether unsuspected. Six years
after this, Sharpe happening one day to notice a man who
seemed to observe him narrowly, and dreading lest ano¬
ther attempt at assassination should be made, caused him
to be arrested and examined. Two loaded pistols were
found upon his person; and, as he was now cr ncluded to
have been the author of the former attempt, Sharpe pro¬
mised, that if he would confess his guilt, he should be dis¬
missed without any punishment. Mitchell (for it was he),
was credulous enough to believe the archbishop, and was
immediately produced before the council by the faithless
primate. But this righteous conclave having no proof
against him, and hoping to implicate in his crime the
whole body of the Covenanters, solemnly renewed the pro¬
mise of pardon, upon condition that he would make a full
disclosure. Mitchell accepted the terms offered him ; but
when the council found, by this man’s confession, that
only one person, then dead, had been privy to his design,
their rage and disappointment knew no bounds. He was
immediately carried before the Court of Justiciary, and re¬
quired to adhere to his confession, with certification that
if he did not comply, he would forfeit the benefit of the
assurance which had been given him. Mitchell now saw
with whom he had to deal. On being judicially interro¬
gated, he refused to confess, and was, in consequence, put
to the torture, which he endured with singular fortitude;
obstinately persisting in his refusal to criminate himself,
till he fainted through excessive agony. As the boots (the
instrument of torture) had failed to extort a confession,
he was sent to the Bass, then used as a state prison for
the persecuted Covenanters, and remained there loaded
with irons, in the greatest misery, till the end of the year
1678, the period at which we have arrived. Infuriated at
the failure of all their coercive measures, and resolved, by
some new examples, to strike terror into the breasts of the
1 Letters of Intercommuning, which bore an analogy to the Aquce et Ignis Interdictio of the Homan law, concluded thus : “ We
command and charge all our lieges and subjects, that none presume to reset, supply, or intercommune with any of the foresaid our
rebels, nor furnish them with meat, drink, house, harbour, or victuals, nor any other thing useful or conformable to them ; nor have
any intelligence with them by word, writing, message, or otherwise, under pain of being repute and esteemed art and part with
them in the crime foresaid, and to be pursued therefore with all rigour.” (Laing, iv. 77, 78, 2d ed. ; Wodrow, i. 392, 416-418;
Burnet, ii. 156-183.)
430
B R I T A I N.
Reign of Covenanters, the council once more produced him ; and lie
Charles II. was now indicted at the instance of Sir George Macken-
v—zie, his majesty’s advocate, upon 4 act of 16 Pari, of
1679- James VI., by which the invading of privy counsellors is
made death. No proof of his guilt could be adduced ex¬
cept his former confession, which he judicially denied.
But it was proved against him by the testimony of Lau¬
derdale the commissioner, Rothes the chancellor, Mait¬
land the lord-treasurer depute, and the archbishop of St
Andrews, all of whom,—when it was alleged in behalf of
the accused, that any confession he had emitted was upon
promise of life etspe Venice,—expressly swore, that no assu¬
rance of life had been given him, although the records of
the privy council remain to this hour the incontestible monu¬
ment of their perjury ! The prisoner then produced a copy
of the act of council which contained the assurance of
his life, and moved that the original might be exhibited.
This, however, was refused, on the pretence that the fact
was already sufficiently established by the parole testimo¬
ny of privy counsellors ; and the unhappy man was accord¬
ingly condemned and executed.1
When Lauderdale, who probably felt some remorse on
account of the iniquitous means which had been used to
obtain his conviction, wished to commute Mitchell's sen¬
tence, the unrelenting primate interposed, and insisted
upon its execution, as the only way of securing his own
life against a repetition of similar attempts in future. But
he calculates ill who seeks protection by means of perjury,
injustice, and cruelty. Some acts of local oppression,
added to the hatred which was so generally entertained
for him, brought down upon the primate the very fate
which he thus sought to avoid. On the 3d of May 1679, he
was waylaid and murdered in Magus Muir, near St An¬
drews, by a troop of fanatics, who had been driven to mad¬
ness by his tyranny, and who, in perpetrating this unholy
deed, were actuated solely by their own enthusiasm or re¬
venge. But the act committed by these men was never¬
theless imputed to the party to which they ostensibly be¬
longed ; and the consequence was, that ail who attended
field conventicles were ordered to be indiscriminately
massacred. This brought matters to a crisis.
The Covenanters, finding themselves obliged to meet in
large bodies, and bring arms for their own security, drew
up a declaration against prelacy, which they published at
Rutherglen, a small burgh near Glasgow; and in the mar¬
ket-place they burned the several acts of parliament which
had established that mode of ecclesiastical government,
and had prohibited all conventicles. For this purpose
they chose the 20th of May, the anniversary of the Resto¬
ration, having previously extinguished the bonfires which
had been kindled on that occasion. Graham of Claver-
1680.
house, afterwards Viscount Dundee, an active and merci- Reign of
less agent of the council, attacked a great conventicle Charles II,
upon Loudon Hill, but was repulsed with the loss of thirty v
men. The Covenanters, finding themselves thus unwarily
engaged in rebellion, were obliged to persevere, and there¬
fore pushed on to Glasgow, which, though repulsed at first,
they afterwards made themselves masters of. Here they
dispossessed the established clergy, and issued proclama¬
tions, in which they declared that they fought against the
king’s supremacy, against popery and prelacy, and against
a popish successor to the crown.
Alarmed at this rising, Charles dispatched against the
Covenanters a small body of English cavalry under the
Duke of Monmouth, who, having joined the Scottish guards,
and some regiments of militia levied from the well-affect¬
ed counties, marched with great celerity in quest of the
insurgents. They had taken post at Bothwell Bridge, be¬
tween Hamilton and Glasgow ; a good position, to which
there was no access but by the bridge, which a small body
might have defended against the king’s army. The whole
force of the Covenanters never exceeded 8000 men, and
they had in reality no other generals than their clergymen.
Monmouth attacked the bridge, and a party of the Cove¬
nanters stoutly maintained their post as long as their am¬
munition lasted. When they sent for a fresh supply, they
received orders to quit their post and retire; and this im¬
prudent measure occasioned an immediate defeat. Mon¬
mouth passed the bridge without opposition, and, drawing
up his forces opposite to the enemy, soon put them to
the rout, which, indeed, was effected by his cannon alone.
About seven hundred were killed in the pursuit, for, pro¬
perly speaking, there was no action. Twelve hundred were
taken prisoners, and treated with humanity by Monmouth.
Such as promised to live peaceably under the present go¬
vernment were dismissed; and about three hundred who
refused this condition were shipped for Barbadoes, but un¬
fortunately perished during the voyage. Two of their
clergymen, however, were hanged. Soon afterwards an
act of indemnity was passed; but Lauderdale took care
that it should afford little protection to the unhappy Cove¬
nanters ; for, although orders were given thenceforward to
connive at all conventicles, he found means, under a variety
of pretences, to elude the execution of them.
That Charles had formed a scheme for overturning the
established religion, and substituting popery in its place,
as well as for rendering himself absolute, is now certainly
known. But in this he met with strenuous opposition
from his parliaments; and as the present one seemed to
surpass its predecessors in resisting the schemes of the
court, the king was induced to dissolve them and to call
another in 1680. By this step, however, he gained no-
1 Sir George Mackenzie, at whose instance Mitchell, as we have seen, was prosecuted and capitally convicted, asserts, in his His¬
tory, page 327, that when this unfortunate man was brought before the council, “ he fell upon his knees and confessed the whole
matter, without asking either life or promise of any favourwhich confession he also signed. This is abominable equivocation. Even
supposing that Mitchell did not “ ask either life or promise of any favour,” if the council ultroneously gave him an assurance of
pardon, was the obligation less binding on that account ? But it appears from the face of the record, which still remains to impeach
the Lord Advocate’s veracity, that Sir George Mackenzie assisted at the council when Mitchell confessed and obtained assurance of his
life ; and, as if this had not been sufficient to overturn the statements of the public prosecutor, he himself, two sentences farther on,
says that Mitchell, “ being persuaded that extrajudicial confession was not binding, resiled ; whereupon the council declared, thathe,
had forfeited any promisewas made to him!" The same learned person affirms, that the act of council was “ justly refused,”
because, “ being posterior to the confession, it could not prove that the confession was upon promise of life; and that act designed to an¬
nul the confession, and so could not be made use of for astructing it.” The act of council however states, in the^ most explicit
terms, that “ the confession was emitted upon promise of life,” which implies that the u promise” was anterior to the “ confession ;
and as to the legal sophism, that the u act designed to annid the confession, and so could not be made use of for astructing it, to the
extent of proving the “ promise of life,” it is sufficient to observe, that the act of council was legally probative of what had occurred
there, and that if it was held competent to prove the “ confession,” it must have been equally so to establish tbe “ promise on
which it was emitted. No one can doubt, therefore, that the production of the act was “ refused,” because it would have clearly in¬
structed the “ promise that was made” to Mitchell, and because four privy counsellors had, in order to effect this man s destruction,
resolved to perjure themselves by swearing, in the face of the record of their own proceedings, that no assurance of life^had been given
him. Mackenzie adds, that the pannel’s counsel, Sir George Lockhart, “ refused to speak for him, being unwilling to oj/end Lauderdale.
(History, ubi supra.)
BRITAIN.
Reign of thing; for they voted the legality of jjetitioning the king,
Charles II. and fell with extreme severity on the Abhorrers, who,
in their addresses to the crown, had expressed their disap-
1680. probation of such petitions. Great numbers of this class
were seized by their order in all parts of England, and
committed to close custody; and the liberty of the sub¬
ject, which had been so carefully guarded by their own
recent law, was violated by such arbitrary and capricious
imprisonments. But one Stowel of Exeter put a stop to
these proceedings. He refused to obey the serjeant at
arms who had been sent to apprehend him; and, stand¬
ing upon his defence, declared that he knew of no law by
which the House of Commons could pretend to commit
him. The house, finding it equally dangerous to proceed
or recede, got off by an evasion. They voted that Stowel
was indisposed; and a month was allowed him for his re¬
covery, about which, as may well be supposed, they gave
themselves no further concern.
But the chief point laboured by the present parliament
was the exclusion bill, which, though voted by a former
house, had never yet made any further progress. In the
present House of Commons it passed by a great majority,
but was thrown out by the House of Peers. All the bishops
except three voted against it; being of opinion that the
church of England was in greater danger from the preva¬
lence of Presbyterianism than from the introduction of
popery. The Commons were extremely mortified at the
rejection of their favourite bill, and in retaliation they
passed several other disagreeable acts. Amongst these
was one which set forth, that, till the exclusion bill was
passed, they could not, consistently with the trust repos¬
ed in them, grant the king any manner of supply; and that
whoever should hereafter lend, by way of advance, any
money upon the branches of the king’s revenue, should be
responsible to parliament for his conduct. Finding that
there were no hopes of extorting either money or compli¬
ance from the Commons, Charles came to a resolution of
once more dissolving the parliament; and this according¬
ly took place while they were voting that the dissenters
ought to be encouraged, and that the city of London had
been burned by the papists.
It was for some time doubtful whether the king would
ever call another parliament. But his necessities sur¬
mounted all his fears, and in 1681 he summoned a par¬
liament to meet at Oxford, that he might thus have an
opportunity of punishing the city of London, by showing
his suspicions of their loyalty. In this, however, as in all
former parliaments, the country party predominated; and
they trode exactly in the footsteps of their predecessors.
The same Speaker was chosen, and the exclusion bill
urged more fiercely than before. Ernely, one of the king’s
ministers, went so far as to propose that the duke should
be banished five hundred miles from England, and that on
the king’s decease the next heir should be appointed re¬
gent. Yet even this expedient, which left the duke only
the barren title of king, failed to obtain the approbation of
the house; nothing but a total exclusion could satisfy them.
The opposite factions had for some time indulged their
animosities by reviling and ridiculing each other in pamph¬
lets and libels; but thispractice, too common in party warfare
to deserve particular mention, was at length attended with
an incident which deserves notice. One Fitzharris, an Irish
adventurer, employed a Scotsman named Everard, who,
like himself, hung loose on society, to write a libel against
the king and the Duke of York. The Scot, wdio was actually
a spy for the opposite party, supposing this a trick to en¬
trap him, discovered the whole to Sir William Waller, a
justice of the peace; and, to convince the magistrate of
the truth of his information, secreted him and two other
persons in a place where they overheard the whole con-
431
ference between Fitzharris and himself. The libel con- Reign of
cocted betwixt them was replete with the utmost rancour Charles II.
and scurrility. Waller carried the intelligence to the
king, and obtained a warrant for committing Fitzharris, 1681.
who at the time happened to have a copy of the libel in
his pocket. Finding himself in the hands of a party from
which he could expect no mercy, Fitzharris resolved to
change his game, and to throw the odium of the libel upon
the court, who, he said, had employed him to draw it up
with the view of imputing it to the exclusionists, and thus
rendering them hateful to the people. And, in order to
enhance his services in the estimation of the country par¬
ty, he revealed to them a new popish plot, still more tre¬
mendous than any of those previously hatched, and ac¬
cused the Duke of York as a principal accomplice in the
conspiracy. The king, however, imprisoned Fitzharris in
Newgate. But the Commons immediately espoused his
cause, and voted that he should be impeached by them¬
selves, in order to screen him from the ordinary forms of
justice. The Lords rejected the impeachment; the Com¬
mons asserted their right; and a commotion was likely to
ensue, when the king, in order to break off the contest,
■went to the house and dissolved the parliament, with a
fixed resolution never to call another.
From this moment the king ruled with despotic sway.
His temper, which had generally been easy and merciful,
now became arbitrary and cruel; he entertained spies and
informers round the throne, and imprisoned all those whom
he thought most daring in their designs. In particular,
he resolved to humble the Presbyterians. They were
divested of all their employments, and their offices given
to such as were favourable to the court, and approved the
doctrine of non-resistance. The clergy began to testify
their zeal and their principles by their writings and ser¬
mons ; but although the partizans of the king were the
most numerous, those of the opposite faction were the
most enterprising. The king openly espoused the cause
of the former; and thus placing himself at the head of
a faction, he deprived the city of London, which had
long headed the popular party, of their charter. Terror
was also employed to confirm this new species of monar¬
chy. Fitzharris was brought to trial, condemned, and exe¬
cuted. The whole gang of spies, witnesses, informers, and
suborners, who had long been encouraged and supported
by the leading patriots, finding now that the king was en¬
tirely master, turned short upon their ancient employers,
and tendered evidence against those who had first put
them in motion. The king’s ministers gave encourage¬
ment to these miscreants; and in a short time the same
injustice and the same cruelties were practised under pre¬
tence of Presbyterian, as had formerly been committed
under the delusive apprehension of Catholic treasons.
But the king’s chief resentment was levelled against the
Earl of Shaftesbury; and not without reason, as he had
been very active in the late disturbances. No sums were
spared to seek for evidence, nor even to suborn witnesses,
against this intriguing and formidable man. A bill of in¬
dictment was presented to the grand jury, and witnesses
were examined, who swore to such incredible circumstances
as must have invalidated their testimony, even if they had
not been branded as perjured villains. Amongst his papers,
indeed, was found a draught of an association, which might
have been construed into treason ; but it was not in the
earl’s handwriting, nor could it be proved that he had
ever communicated this scheme to any body, or signified
his approbation of any such project. But the sheriffs had
taken care to summon a jury whose principles coincided
with those of the earl ; and in that, more than in any insuf¬
ficiency of proof, consisted his safety. The bill was ig¬
nored by the grand jury; the hall resounded with ap-
432
BRITAIN.
Reign of plause ; and the day was closed with the ringing of bells,
Charles II. the burning of bonfires, and other demonstrations of popu-
v—  ' lar joy. , „ ,
1C81- But it was in Scotland that the character of the restor¬
ed government appeared in its most hideous features. The
duke, after a temporary exile from Britain, had been sent
to that country; and there, during his administration, he
exercised a tyranny, if possible still more frightful than
that of Lauderdale. The battle of Bothwell Bridge had
tamed the spirit of the Covenanters, and many of them, by
frequenting the churches of the indulged ministers, suc¬
ceeded in screening themselves from the vengeance of the
government. But there was still left a remnant of faithful
adherents of the covenant, inconsiderable in number, and
despicable in point of influence, but men of stern charac¬
ter, exalted enthusiasm, and indomitable zeal, who fol¬
lowed their spiritual guides, Cargill and Cameron, into the
wilderness, and, amidst the glens and morasses, were fed
by them with the manna of the divine word. Hunted
like partridges on the mountains, and subjected to military
execution wherever they were caught, these men, naturally
led to inquire into the authority of those by whom their
sufferings were inflicted, came as naturally to the conclu¬
sion, that the king having broken the condition upon which
he received the crown of Scotland, by rejecting the cove¬
nant, had therefore forfeited all right to the exercise of
the regal authority. Deeply convinced of the truth of
this doctrine, Cameron, accompanied by twenty persons
of his sect, proceeded to Sanquhar, and there published
“ A Declaration and Testimonie of the true Presbyterian,
Anti-Prelatic, Anti-Erastian, and persecuted Party in
Scotland,” setting forth their grievances, disowning the
king by reason of his tyranny, proclaiming war against him
as a tyrant and usurper, and testifying against the recep¬
tion of the Duke of York, a professed Papist, in Scotland,
as repugnant to their principles, and their vows to the most
high God. This persecuted remnant, who mustered in
all twenty-six horse and forty foot, now prepared to sup¬
port their bold defiance by force of arms ; but they were
surprised, defeated, and dispersed, by three troops of dra¬
goons, at Airmoss, in the district of Kyle. Cameron fell
in the skirmish, fighting with heroic courage ; his brother,
with seven of his companions, shared his fate ; Hackston
of Rathillet, who had been a passive spectator merely of
the murder of Sharpe, and a few others, were wounded and
made prisoners. Cargill escaped from the field, and pre¬
pared to avenge the death of his friends. Having repaired
to Torwood in Stirlingshire, and assembled a number of
his disciples, henceforward known by the name of Came-
ronians, he proceeded, after a lecture and sermon, to ex¬
communicate the king, “ for his mocking of God, his per¬
jury, his uncleanness of adultery, his drunkenness, and his
dissembling with God and man the Duke of 1c ork, for
idolatry; the Duke of Monmouth, for invading God’s
people at Bothwell Bridge ; the Duke of Lauderdale, for
blasphemy, apostacy, and adultery; and the Duke of
Rothes, Sir George Mackenzie, and Dalziel of Binns, for
different offences. He concluded by declaring that “ no
power on earth, of kings, princes, magistrates, or ministers
of the gospel, could, without the repentance of the pei-
sons openly and legally appearing, reverse this excom¬
munication ;” and there can be no doubt whatever that his
affirmation was most devoutly believed.
These proceedings exasperated the council beyond all
measure, and hurried them into the commission of unpa¬
ralleled atrocities. The prisoners brought from Airmoss
were executed with every circumstance of barbarity; a
strict search was made, not only after their associates, but
also for the professors of their doctrines ; and of the latter,
many, including females, testified with the loss of their
lives the sincerity of their belief. Even those innocent of Reign of
all offence towards the government were insidiously involy- es
ed in the same fate with those who had openly defied it.
Taking advantage of the spirit which the cruelties of the
government had alone excited and inflamed, the privy
council sought to entrap fresh victims by means of ensnar¬
ing questions, thus imitating the great master they served,
in tempting men to sin, that they might have the plea¬
sure of punishing them for it. Was Archbishop Sharpe’s
death murder? Was the rising at Bothwell Bridge re¬
bellion ? Is Charles a rightful king or a tyrant ? Such
were the interrogatories put to the victims of rage and
suspicion, who being for the most part too sincere to dis¬
semble their opinions, and too fearless to be intimidated
even by the most cruel tortures, were commonly dismissed
from the iron boot to the court of justiciary, and thence,
by a rapid transition, to the scaffold.
But the mass of the people were not the only objects
of this fierce and frantic tyranny. Anon it took a higher
flight, and struck at the Earl of Argyll, a man whose only
fault appears to have consisted in his submission to the
frightful misrule under which his country had so long
groaned; a submission dictated by a love of peace, not
by an approval of its enormities. When required, as a
privy counsellor, to take a self-contradictory test, which
the Scottish parliament had prescribed, Argyll accepted
it with an explanation, that he took it in as far as it was
consistent with itself and the Protestant religion, adding,
that he would “ not debar himself from endeavouring in a
lawful way, and in his station, to make such changes in the
church and state as he might judge beneficial.” For this
explanation he was imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh,
brought to trial, and, by an infamous perversion of his
words, a charge of treason made out against him. Nairne,
a superannuated judge, carried into court at midnight to
make a majority on the relevancy of the indictment, fell
asleep during the proceedings, and was only wakened to
give his vote. A jury of Argyll s personal enemies, with
the Marquis of Montrose at their head, found him guilty
of treason, leasing-making, and leasing-telling, though not
of the perjury libelled ; and he received sentence of death,
although the execution of it was suspended during the
king’s pleasure. But Argyll did not choose to trust to
the tender mercies of his enemies. He escaped from tlm
castle in disguise, and thus saved his life ; but sentence of
attainder was passed against him. After the defeat of
the exclusionists, and the dissolution of parliament, the
duke was recalled to England ; but the consequent change
of administration was productive of little or no relief to
this oppressed country.
In 1683 the city of London was deprived of its charter,
which was only restored upon terms of abject submission,
and its giving up the nomination of its own magistrates.
This was so arbitrary a proceeding, that all the other cor¬
porations in England began to dread the same treatment,
and, in fact, were successively induced to surrender their
charters into the hands of the king. Considerable sums
were exacted for the restoration of these charters, and
all the offices of power and profit were left at the dispo¬
sal of the crown. Resistance now, however justifiable,
was no longer safe; and prudent men saw no other expe¬
dient but submitting with patience to the piesent griev-
ances.
There was a party in England, however, which still
cherished their former ideas of freedom, and lesolved to
restore liberty to their country by dethroning the mo¬
narch who acted in a manner so despotic and arbitrary.
The principal members of this confederacy were Mon¬
mouth, Shaftesbury, Russell, Essex, Howard, Algernon
Sidney, and John Hampden, grandson to the great man
BRITAIN. 433
Reign of of that name. Monmouth engaged the Earl of Maccles-
'harles II. field, Lord Brandon, Sir Gilbert Gerard, and other gentle-
men in Cheshire ; Lord Russell entered into a correspond-
l683‘ ence with Sir William Courtney, Sir Francis Knowles, and
Sir Francis Drake, who promised to raise the west; and
Shaftesbury, with one Ferguson, a restless plotter, under-
took to manage the city, upon the aid of which the confede¬
rates chiefly relied. These schemes had been laid in 1681.
But the caution of Lord Russell, who induced the Duke
of Monmouth to postpone the enterprise, saved the king¬
dom from the horrors of a civil war; whilst Shaftesbury
was so struck with a sense of his impending danger, that
he left his house, and lurking about the city, attempt¬
ed in vain to force the Londoners into open insurrec¬
tion. Enraged at the numberless cautions and delays
which clogged and defeated his projects, he at last threat¬
ened to begin with his own friends singly; but after a
long struggle between fear and exasperation, he aban¬
doned all hopes of success, and fled to Amsterdam, where
he soon afterwards died. But the loss of Shaftesbury,
though it retarded, did not put an end to the designs of
the patriots. The remaining six formed a council, cor¬
responded with Argyll and the malcontents in Scotland,
and, though they widely differed in principles from one an¬
other, resolved to prosecute the scheme of the insurrection.
Monmouth aspired to the crown; Russell and Hampden
proposed to exclude the Duke of York from the succes¬
sion, and to redress the grievances of the nation; Sidney
was for restoring the republic; and Essex shared the same
wishes and opinions. Lord Howard was an abandoned
man, who, having no fixed principles of any kind, sought
to embroil the nation, in hopes of advancing his own pri¬
vate interest during the confusion.
Besides these there was a subordinate set of conspira¬
tors, who frequently met together, and carried on pro¬
jects quite unknown to Monmouth and his council. Among
them was Colonel Rumsey, a military adventurer; Lieu¬
tenant-Colonel Walcot, a man of the same stamp; Good-
enough, under-sheriff of London, a zealous and noted
party-man; Ferguson, an independent minister; and se¬
veral attorneys, merchants, and tradesmen of London.
But Rumsey and Ferguson were the only persons who
had access to the great leaders of the conspiracy. These
men took the resolution of assassinating the king in his
way to Newmarket; and as Rumboldt, one of the party,
possessed a farm upon the road called the Rye-hoxise, the
conspiracy was thence called the Rye-house Pbt. The
scheme they had fixed on was to stop the king’s coach by
overturning a cart on the highway at this place, and to
shoot him through the hedges. But the house in which
the king lived at Newmarket having accidentally taken
fire, he was obliged to leave that place eight days sooner
than was expected, and to this circumstance he owed his
safety. Soon afterwards the conspiracy was discovered;
Russell, Sidney, and Walcot, were executed; Essex cut
his own throat; Hampden was fined forty thousand pounds;
and scarcely one escaped who had been in any manner
concerned, except the Duke of Monmouth, who was the
most culpable of all.
This was the last blood shed on account of plots or con¬
spiracies, which had abounded during the greater part
of this reign. Severe punishments, however, were in¬
flicted on many who had treated the Duke of York un¬
worthily. The infamous Titus Oates was fined a hundred
thousand pounds for calling him a popish traitor, and was
imprisoned till he paid the mulct, which he was abso¬
lutely incapable of doing. A similar sentence was passed
upon Dutton Colt; and Sir Samuel Barnadiston was fined
ten thousand pounds for having in some private letters
reflected on the government. The government of Charles
VOL. v.
was now as absolute as that of any prince in Europe; but Reign of
to please his subjects by a popular act, he judged it pro-Charles I •
per to marry the Lady Anne, his niece, to Prince George,
brother to the king of Denmark; which was the last trans¬
action of this extraordinary reign.
On the second of February 1685, about eight in the
morning, the king was seized with a fit of apoplexy, as he
came dressed out of his closet, where he had been for some
time after he rose from bed. Being immediately bled, he
was restored to his senses, and hopes were entertained of
his recovery. But on the fourth day the physicians des¬
paired of his life, and therefore sent for the queen. He
was in his perfect senses, when she arrived. She threw
herself on her knees, and asked his pardon for all her of¬
fences. He replied that she had offended in nothing, but
that he had been guilty of offences against her, and asked
her pardon. He spoke with great affection to the Duke of
York, and gave him excellent counsel for his future con¬
duct, advising him to adhere to the laws with strictness,
and invariably to support the church of England. But
the duke seemed anxious to convince his brother before
he died how little he intended to follow his advice. Hav¬
ing removed the bishops, and several of the lords who at¬
tended at the bedside of the king, he sent for Huddleston,
a Catholic priest, who, in the presence of the duke, the
Earl of Bath, and Trevannion, a captain in the guards,
gave extreme unction to the king, and administered to
him the sacrament according to the rites of the church of
Rome. All this was done in about the space of half an
hour. The doors were then thrown open; and six pre¬
lates, who had before attended the king, were sent for to
give him the sacrament. Kenn, bishop of Bath and Wells,
read the visitation of the sick, and, after the dying man
had said that he repented of his sins, the absolution. The
king assisted with seeming devotion at the service; but
his mouth being distorted with fits, and his throat con¬
tracted, he could not swallow the elements. He profes¬
sed, however, his satisfaction with the church of England,
and expired on the 6th of February, after a reign of twen¬
ty-four years, and in the fifty-fifth year of his age.
In person Charles was tall and well-proportioned, with
a swarthy complexion and features austere and forbid¬
ding. His constitution, originally sound and robust, he
had in his youth impaired by indulgence, and afterwards
laboured to restore by attention to diet and exercise. In
disposition he was kind, familiar, communicative ; delight¬
ing in social converse ; averse to parade and ceremony ;
and eager, on all occasions, to escape from the trammels
of official dignity to the ease and comfort of colloquial
familiarity. He had good talents; but these were join¬
ed to an insuperable antipathy to application, which dis¬
qualified him for business, and kept him in a state of
ignorance disgraceful to one in his station. He sought
amusement alone, and seems to have cared little for any
thing beyond the gratification of this propensity. He
looked upon the practice of dissimulation as the grand
secret in the art of reigning. Surrounded by men who
made it their object, as it was their interest, to deceive
him, his only protection, he argued, consisted in the em¬
ployment of the same weapon, and it was necessary for
him to deceive, that he might not be deceived. During
his whole reign he was the slave of women ; and his court
became a school of vice, in which all the restraints of mo¬
rality and even decency were laughed to scorn ; whilst
the distinctions he lavished on his mistresses enabled
them to put a bold front on their infamy, and, holding
out an encouragement to crime, tended.to sap in youthful
breasts those principles of modesty which are the best
guardians of female virtue. “ There may have been other
periods of our history in which immorality prevailed,”
3 i
BRITAIN.
434
Reign of says Dr Lingard; “ but none in which it was practised
James II. with more ostentation, or brought with it less disgrace.”
Of Charles’s pecuniary transactions with France it is im-
1B85- possible to think without feelings of shame, or to speak ex¬
cept in the language of reprobation. They were equally
disgraceful in themselves, and humiliating to the nation,
which had at its head a king who thus sold himself to its
natural rival and enemy. That he cherished designs sub¬
versive of the liberties of the subject, is evinced by the
whole tenor of his conduct, especially during the latter
part of his reign ; and had he been as active in his habits
as he was unprincipled in his character and despotical in his
disposition, the constitution might have been overthrown,
and a monarchy as absolute as any in Europe erected on
its ruins. With respect to what he was pleased to call
his religion, he appears to have been a deist; and although
he had embraced the Catholic worship before the restora¬
tion, yet he was not formally reconciled to the church of
Rome until the eve of his death. By this means he was
enabled to play the hypocrite, and, for five-and-twenty
years, to hold himself out as an orthodox protestant, whilst
he satisfied his conscience by secretly professing Catho¬
licism, and in reality believed no religion at all. Finally,
in all the relations of life, whether public or private, he
was equally unprincipled, profligate, false, immoral, vici¬
ous, and corrupt; whilst, from the example of his debauch¬
ed and licentious court, public morals contracted a taint,
which it required little less than a century to obliterate,
and which for a time wholly paralysed the character of
the nation.
CHAP. VII.
REIGN OF JAMES II.
Accession of James II—Slavish Addresses—Remarkable one by
the Quakers—Imprudent Measures of the King—Measure
in favour of the Catholics—Monmouth’s Conspiracy.—Defeat
and Execution of Argyll—Landing of Monmouth—Battle of
Sedgemore—Defeat, Capture, and Execution of Monmouth.—.
James endeavours to establish Popery—Parliament dissolved.
—Catholics promoted—Opposition of the English Clergy—An
ambassador sent to Rome—Declarations in favour of liberty
of conscience—The seven Bishops imprisoned—Popular com¬
motions Trial and acquittal of the Bishops—Attachment of
the army to the Protestant Cause Birth of the Prince of
Wales Treachery of Sunderland—Proceedings of the Prince
of Orange—Invited to England by the malcontents James
warned of his danger by the French king.—Rejects all offers
of assistance.—Paralysed by the news of the intended invasion.
—Perfidy of Sunderland.—Vain attempts at conciliation.—
Landing of William Prince of Orange—.Defection of James’s
army—Distressing situation of the King, who is deserted even
by his own children.—Conduct of William.—James attempts to
quit the kingdom, but is seized and detained—His distress—
Return to London—Ordered to leave the palace—Urged to
remain by some of his adherents—His refusal—Lands in
France The throne declared vacant—William raised to the
Sovereignty in conjunction with the Princess Mary his wife.
The first act of James II.’s reign was to assemble the
privy council, in which, after bestowing some praise on
the memory of his predecessor, he made professions of his
resolution to maintain the established government both in
church and state; and as he had heretofore ventured his
life in defence of the nation, he declared that he would
still go as far as any man in maintaining all its lust rights
and privileges.
This discourse was received with great applause, not
only by the council, but by the whole nation. Addresses
came from all quarters, full of duty, nay, of the most ser¬
vile adulation. From this charge, however, must be ex¬
cepted that of the Quakers, which is remarkable for its
good sense and simplicity. “ We are come,” said they* Reign of
“ to testify our sorrow for the death of our good friend James II.
Charles, and our joy for thy being made our governor.
We are told that thou art not of the persuasion of the lti85,
church of England, no more than we; wherefore we hope
that thou wilt grant us the same liberty which thou allow-
est thyself, which doing, we wish thee all manner of hap¬
piness.”
The king, however, soon showed, either that he was not
sincere in his promises, or that he entertained so lofty an
idea of his own regal power, that even his utmost sincerity
could tend but little to the security of the liberties of the
people. All the customs, and the greater part of the ex¬
cise, which had been voted to the late king for his life
only, were levied by James without any new act for that
purpose. He went openly to mass with all the ensigns of
his dignity, and even sent one Caryl as his agent to Rome
to make submissions to the pope, and to pave the way for
the re-admission of England into the bosom of the Catho¬
lic church. By the suggestions of these men all his mea¬
sures were undertaken. One day when the Spanish am¬
bassador ventured to advise his majesty against putting
too much confidence in such kind of people, “ Is it not
the custom in Spain,” said James, “ for the king to con¬
sult with his confessor ?” “ Yes,” answered the ambas¬
sador, “ and that is the reason why our affairs succeed so
very ill.”
James’s first parliament, which was composed mostly of
zealous tories, was strongly inclined to comply with the
measures of the crown, and passed a unanimous vote,
settling on James during life all the revenue enjoyed by
the late king till the time of his decease. For this favour
James assured them that he would secure them in the full
enjoyment of their laws: but with regard to religion no
answer could be extorted from him, for that he was re¬
solved at all hazards to change. In every thing except re¬
ligion, however, James merited commendation. He ap¬
plied himself to business with unremitting attention; he
managed his revenue with the strictest economy ; he re¬
trenched superfluous expenses, and showed himself zeal¬
ous for the glory of the nation ; he endeavoured to expel
from court the vice which had prevailed so much during
the former reign, and to restore decency and morality ; he
presided daily at the council, and at the boards of admi¬
ralty and treasury; he even entered into the whole detail
of the concerns of the great departments of the state.
But his bigoted attachment to the Roman Catholic reli¬
gion sullied all his good qualities, and rendered him feared
for his violence, where he was not despised for his weakness.
But whilst every thing remained in tranquillity at home,
a storm was gathering abroad. For a long time the Prince
of Orange had entertained hopes of ascending the British
throne, and had even used endeavours to exclude James.
Monmouth, who, since his last conspiracy, had been par¬
doned, but ordered to depart the kingdom, had retired to
Holland, where he was received by the Prince of Orange
with the highest marks of distinction, and became his
chief favourite. When the news of Charles’s death arriv¬
ed, indeed, the prince made a show of changing his tone,
and dismissed Monmouth, but still kept up a close corre¬
spondence with him. The duke retired to Brussels ; and,
having resolved to invade England, he was seconded by
the Earl of Argyll, who formed the scheme of exciting
an insurrection in Scotland. But the generosity of the
Prince of Orange did not correspond with the warmth of
his professions. The unfortunate duke derived from his
own plate and jewels his whole supply for the war ; whilst
the enthusiasm of a rich widow supplied Argyll with ten
thousand pounds, with which he purchased three vessels,
and loaded them with arms and ammunition.
BRITAIN.
435
1685.
Iteign of Having landed in Scotland, Argyll published his mani-
James II. festoes, put himself at the head of two thousand fivei hun¬
dred men, and strove to influence the people in his favour.
But a formidable body of the king’s forces having marched
against him, his army fell away ; and he himself, after be¬
ing wounded in attempting to escape, was taken prisoner
by a peasant, carried to Edinburgh, and, after suffering
many indignities, publicly executed.
By this time Monmouth had landed in Dorsetshire with
scarcely a hundred followers. His name, however, was so
popular, and so great was the hatred of the people to
James on account of his religion, that in four days he had
assembled a body of above two thousand men, and con¬
tinuing to make a rapid progress, in a short time found
himself at the head of six thousand men ; but he was daily
obliged to dismiss great numbers for want of arms. Alarm¬
ed at his invasion, the king recalled six regiments of Bri¬
tish troops from Holland ; and a body of regulars, to the
number of three thousand, was sent, under the command
of the Earl of Feversham, and of Lord Churchill, to check
the progress of the rebels. They took post at Sedgemore,
a village in the neighbourhood of Bridgewater, and were
joined by considerable numbers of the country militia.
Here Monmouth resolved to make a stand ; and having
drawn up his followers in the best order he could, he
drove the royal infantry from their ground, and was on
the point of gaining a complete victory, when the coward¬
ice of Gray, who commanded the horse, ruined all. This
nobleman fled at the first onset; and the insurgents being
charged in flank, gave way after a contest of three hours.
About three hundred were killed in the engagement, and
a thousand in the pursuit. Monmouth fled above twenty
miles from the field of battle, till his horse sunk under
him. He then alighted, and, exchanging clothes with a
shepherd, fled on foot, attended by a German count who
had accompanied him from Holland. Being at length
quite exhausted with hunger and fatigue, they both lay
down in a field, and covered themselves with fern. Mean¬
while the shepherd being found in Monmouth’s dress,
increased the diligence of the search; and by means of
bloodhounds he was detected in his miserable situation,
with raw peas in his pocket, on which he had subsisted
for some days. He burst into tears when seized by his
enemies, and petitioned, with abject importunity, for his
life.
He also wrote to the queen dowager; he sent a letter
to the reigning queen, as well as to the king himself; and
he begged his life, when admitted into the presence of
James, with a meanness unsuitable to his pretensions and
high rank. But all his entreaties and submissions were
of no avail. James told him that he was much affected
at his misfortunes, but that his crime was too dangerous
in its example to be left unpunished. In his last moments
Monmouth behaved with a magnanimity worthy of his
former courage. When he came to the scaffold, he con¬
ducted himself with decency and even with dignity. He
spoke little, he made no confession, nor did he accuse
any of his friends. The circumstances attending his death
excited horror among the spectators. The executioner
missed his aim, and struck him slightly on the shoulder.
Monmouth raised his head from the block, and looked
him full in the face, as if reproaching him for his mis¬
take. The man struck twice again, but feebly, and then
threw away the axe. The sheriff forced him to renew his
attempt; and the head of the duke, who seemed already
dead, was at last severed from his body.
Those concerned in the Duke of Monmouth’s conspiracy
were punished with the utmost severity. Immediately
after the battle of Sedgemore, Feversham hanged up above
twenty prisoners, and was proceeding with his executions
when the Bishop of Bath and Wells informed him that Reign of
these unhappy men were now by law entitled to a trial, James II.
and that their execution would be deemed murder. Nine-
teen were put to death in the same manner at Bridge- 1685‘
water by Colonel Kirke, a man of a thoroughly savage and
bloody disposition. This miscreant, practised in the arts
of slaughter at Tangiers, where he had served in garrison,
took pleasure in committing acts of wanton barbarity, and
ravaged the whole country without making any distinc¬
tion between friend and foe; his own regiment being de¬
signated, by way of eminence, “ Kirke’s Lambs.” The na¬
tural brutality of this man’s temper was inflamed by con¬
tinual intoxication. No fewer than eighty were executed
by his orders at Dorchester; and on the whole, at Exe¬
ter, Taunton, and Wells, two hundred and fifty are com¬
puted to have fallen by the hand of justice, as it was call¬
ed, under the auspices of Judge Jefferies, who had been
sent down to try the delinquents. This man, riot satisfied
with the sacrifice of the principals, charged the juries to
search out the aiders and abettors of the rebellion; and
those persons who, in compassion for the wretched fugitives,
had afforded them an asylum, were denounced and punish¬
ed as such. Even women did not escape, and two, Lady
Lisle and Mrs Gaunt, were sentenced to be burned alive
for similar acts of humanity. Jefferies, on his return from
his campaign in the west, was immediately created a peer,
and soon after invested with the dignity of chancellor. In
his Memoirs James complains, with apparent indignation,
of “ the strange havock made by Jefferies and Kirke in the
west,” and attributes the unpopularity which afterwards
deprived him of the crown to the violence and barbarity
of those pretended friends of his authority.
James now began to throw off the mask, and to endea¬
vour openly to establish popery and arbitrary power. He
told the House of Commons that the militia were found
by experience to be of no use; that it was necessary to
augment the standing army; and that he had employed
a great many Catholic officers, in whose favour he had
thought proper to dispense with the test required to be
taken by all who were employed by the crown. These
stretches of power naturally led the Lords and Commons
into some degree of opposition ; but they soon acquiesced
in the king’s measures, and then the parliament was dis¬
missed for their tardy compliance.
The parliament being dissolved, James’s next step was
to secure a Catholic interest in the privy council. Ac¬
cordingly four Catholic lords, Powis, Arundel, Bellasis,
and Dover, were admitted as members. Sunderland, who
saw that the only way to gain preferment was by popery,
became a convert. Rochester, the treasurer, was turned
out of his office because he refused to conform. Even in
Ireland, where the Duke of Ormond had long supported
the royal cause, this nobleman was displaced as being a
Protestant, and the Lord Tyrconnel, a furious Catholic,
was placed in his stead. In his zeal for popery, it is said
that James stooped so low as even to attempt the conver¬
sion of Colonel Kirke; but the daring soldier told him
that he was pre-engaged, for he had promised the king of
Morocco, when he was quartered at Tangiers, that if ever
he changed his religion he would turn Mahommedan. At
last the clergy of the church of England began to take
the alarm, and commenced an opposition to court mea¬
sures. The pulpits now thundered out against popery;
and it was in vain that James attempted to impose silence
on this topic. Instead of avoiding the controversy, the
Protestant preachers pursued it with greater warmth.
To effect his designs, the king determined to revive the
High Commission Court, which had formerly given the
nation so much disgust, and which had been abolished for
ever by act of parliament. An ecclesiastical commission was
436
BRITAIN.
Reign of accordingly issued, by which seven commissioners were
James II. invested with full and unlimited authority over the whole
church of England. The next step was to allow liberty
1(585. conscience to all sectaries. This was done in the be¬
lief that the truth of the Catholic religion would, upon a
fair trial, gain the victory. Besides, the same power that
granted liberty of conscience might restrain it; and the
Catholic religion alone would thus predominate. He
therefore issued a general indulgence, declaring that non¬
conformity to the established religion was no longer penal;
but in Scotland he ordered his parliament to grant a tole¬
ration only to the Catholics, without interceding in the
least for the other dissenters. In Ireland the Protestants
were totally expelled from all offices of trust and profit,
and Catholics put in their places. These measures suffi¬
ciently disgusted every part of the British empire; but to
complete the work, James publicly sent the Earl of Cas-
tlemaine as ambassador extraordinary to Rome, in order
to express his obedience to the pope, and reconcile his
kingdoms to the Catholic communion. This proceeding
was too precipitate to be relished even by the pope him¬
self ; and therefore the only return he made to this em¬
bassy was the sending a nuncio into England. Soon after
this the Jesuits were permitted to erect colleges in differ¬
ent parts of the kingdom, and to exercise the Catholic
worship in the most public manner.
In 1686 a second declaration in favour of liberty of con¬
science was published almost in the same terms with the
former, but with this particular injunction, that all divines
should read it after service in their churches. The clergy
resolved to disobey this order. Loyd, bishop of St Asaph,
Kenn of Bath and Wells, Turner of Ely, Lake of Chiches¬
ter, White of Peterborough, and Trelawney of Bristol, to¬
gether with Sancroft the primate, concerted an address in
the form of a petition to the king, which, with the warm¬
est expressions of zeal and submission, signified that they
could not read the declaration consistently with their con¬
sciences or the respect they owed the Protestant religion.
The king received their petition with marks of surprise'
and displeasure. He said he did not expect such an ad¬
dress from the church of England, particularly from some
amongst them; and persisted in his orders for their obey¬
ing his mandate. As the petition had been delivered in
private, the king summoned the bishops before the coun¬
cil, and there questioned them whether they would ac¬
knowledge it. They for some time declined giving an an¬
swer ; but being urged by the chancellor, they at last own¬
ed the petition. On their refusal to give bail, an order
was immediately issued for their commitment to the Tower,
and the crown lawyers received directions to prosecute
them for a seditious libel. The king gave orders that they
should be conveyed to the Towrer by water, as the whole
city was in commotion in their favour. But the people,
when informed of their danger, ran to the river side in
great multitudes, craving their blessing, and calling upon
Heaven to protect them; whilst the very soldiers by whom
they were guarded kneeled down before them and im¬
plored their forgiveness. The 29th of June 1686 was fixed
for the trial of the bishops. Twenty-nine peers, a great
number of gentlemen, and an immense crowd of persons,
waited upon them to Westminster Hall. The discussion
was learnedly managed by the lawyers on both sides. The
jury withdrew into a chamber, where they passed the whole
night; but next morning they returned into court, and
pronounced the bishops not guilty. Westminster Hall in¬
stantly rang with loud acclamations, which were commu¬
nicated to the whole extent of the city, and even reached
the camp at Hounslow, where the king was at dinner in
Lord Feversham’s tent. His majesty demanded the cause
of those rejoicings, and being informed that it was nothing
but the soldiers shouting for the delivery of the bishops, Reign of
“ Call you that nothing?” said he; “ but so much the James II.
worse for them.”
As the king found the clergymen everywhere averse
to his measures, he was willing next to try what he could
do with the army, thinking that if one regiment could
be brought to promise implicit obedience, their example
would soon induce others to comply. He therefore order¬
ed one of the regiments to be drawn up in his presence,
and desired that such as were against the late declara¬
tion of liberty of conscience should lay down their arms.
He was surprised to see the whole battalion ground their
arms, except two officers and a few Roman Catholic sol¬
diers. A few days before the acquittal of the bishops
the queen was delivered of a son. This, if any thing could
at that time, might have served to establish James on the
throne; but so violent was the animosity against him, that
a story was propagated that the child was supposititious ;
and the monarch’s pride scorned to take any precautions
to refute the calumny.
Though the enthusiasm of James himself was sufficiently
extravagant, the wildest of his religious projects seem to
have been suggested by his enemies in order to accomplish
his ruin. The Earl of Sunderland, whom he chiefly trusted,
was a man of abandoned principles, insatiable avarice, and
fitted by nature for stratagem, deception, and intrigue.
The love of money was his ruling passion, and he according¬
ly sold his influence to the highest bidder. To such a de¬
gree was he mercenary, that he became at once the pen¬
sioner of the Prince of Orange and of the king of France.
The former, who had long fixed his eye on the English
throne, watched James’s motions, and took every advan¬
tage of his errors. He had laid his schemes so extensively,
that nothing but the birth of a male heir to the crown of
England seemed likely to prevent him from obtaining an
almost immediate possession of the kingdom ; and he had
the address to render two thirds of the powers of Europe
interested in his success. The treaty of Augsburg, formed
to break the power of France, could not accomplish its
object without the accession of England. The house of
Austria, in both its branches, preferred their political views
to their zeal for the Roman Catholic faith, and promoted
the dethronement of James as the only means of humbling
Louis XIV. Odeschalchi, who under the name of Inno¬
cent XI. then filled the papal chair, was also gained to the
measures of the Prince of Orange by other considerations,
as well as through his fixed aversion to France.
Seeing the national discontent now raised to the high¬
est pitch, the Prince of Orange resolved to take advantage
of it. He began by giving one Dykevelt, his envoy, in¬
structions to apply in his name to every religious sect in
the kingdom. To the church party he sent assurances of
favour and regard; protesting that his education in Hol¬
land had no way prejudiced him against Episcopacy. To
the non-conformists he sent exhortations not to be deceiv¬
ed by the insidious caresses of their known enemy, but to
wait for a real and sincere protector. In consequence of
these insinuations, the prince soon received invitations
from the most considerable persons in the kingdom. Ad¬
mirals Herbert and Russell assured him in person of their
own and the national attachment. Henry Sidney, brother
to Algernon, and uncle to the Earl of Sunderland, came
over to him with assurances of a universal combination
against the king. Lord Dumblane, son to the Earl of
Danby, being master of a frigate, made several voyages to
Holland, and carried from many of the nobility tenders of
duty, and even considerable sums of money, to the Prince
of Orange. Soon after, the Bishop of London, the Earls of
Danby, Nottingham, Devonshire, Dorset, and several other
lords, gentlemen, and principal citizens, united in their
BRITAIN.
437
ileign of addresses to him, and entreated his speedy descent. The
ames II. people, though long divided between whig and tory, now
joined against their misguided sovereign as against a com-
1038. mon enemy. William therefore determined to accept their
invitation; and this the more readily, as he perceived that
the malcontents had conducted themselves with prudence
and secrecy. Having the principal servants of James in
pay, he was minutely informed of the most secret actions
and designs of that prince. His intelligence came through
Sidney from Sunderland, who betrayed the very measures
which he himself had advised. The prince had a fleet
ready to sail, and troops provided for action, before the
beginning of June 1688.
The king of France was the first who gave James warn¬
ing of his danger, and offered to assist him in repelling it.
But he declined this friendly offer, lest it should be said
that he had entered into a private treaty with that mo¬
narch to the prejudice of the Protestant religion. Being
also deceived and betrayed by Sunderland, he had the
weakness to believe, that the reports of an invasion were
invented in order to frighten him into a strict connection
with France. He gave credit to the repeated assurances
of the States, that the armament preparing in their ports
was not designed against England; nay, he even believ¬
ed the assertions of the prince himself, whose interest it
was to deceive. Sunderland descanted against the possi¬
bility of an invasion, and turned into ridicule all who be¬
lieved the report. Having, with the consent of James
taken possession of all the foreign correspondence, he sup- sociation, which was signed by great numbers ; and every
pressed every kind of intelligence that might alarm ; and day there appeared some new proof of that univeisal com-
all others whom James trusted, except Dartmouth, affect¬
ed long to place no faith in the reports of an invasion.
Louis finding his first offers rejected, next proposed to
march down his army to the frontiers of the Dutch pro¬
vinces, and thus detain their forces at home for their own
bination into which the nation had entered against the
measures of the king. This was followed by the defection
of the army. Lord Colchester, son to the Earl of Rivers,
first deserted to the prince; Lord Cornbury, son to the
Earl of Clarendon, carried off the greatest part of three
defence. But this proposal met with no better reception regiments of cavalry at once ; and several officers of dis-
than the former one. Still Louis, unwilling to abandon a tinction informed Feversham their general, that they could
friend and ally whose interest he regarded as closely con- not in honour fight against the Prince of Orange.
nected with his own, ventured to remonstrate with the after this the unhappy monarch found himself desertec y
Dutch against the preparations they were making to in- his own servants and creatures. Lord Churchill had been
vade England. But the Dutch treated his remonstrances raised from the rank of page, and had been invested with
officious impertinence, and James himself declined a high command in the army; he had been created a peer,
his mediation.
The king of England, having thus rejected the assist¬
ance of his friends, and being left to face the danger alone,
was astonished with an advice from his minister in Hol¬
land, that an invasion was not only projected, but avowed.
When he first read the letter containing this information,
he grew pale, and the letter dropt from his hand. He saw
1688.
concessions were now too late, and were regarded as the Reign of
effects of fear, not of repentance. . t a™es^ •
In the mean time, William set sail from Helvoetsluys with
a fleet of near five hundred sail, and an army of above four¬
teen thousand men. Fortune, however, seemed at first very
unfavourable to his enterprise. He was driven back by a
dreadful storm; but he soon refitted his fleet, and again
set sail for England. It was given out that this invasion
was designed for the coast of France; and many of the
English, who saw the fleet pass along their coast, little
suspected the place of its destination. It happened that
the same wind which sent the Dutch to their place of des¬
tination, detained the English fleet in the river; so that
the Dutch passed the Straits of Dover without molestation,
and, after a voyage of two days, landed at Broxholme in
Torbay, on the 5th of November 1688, the anniversary of
the gunpowder treason.
But although the invitation from the English was gene¬
ral, the prince for some time had the mortification to find
himself joined by very few. He continued for ten days in
expectation of being joined by the malcontents, and at last
was beginning to despair of success, and to deliberate about
re-embarking his forces, when he was joined by several
persons of consequence; and the whole country soon after¬
wards flocked to his standard. The first person who went
over to the prince was Major Burrington, and he was quickly
followed by the gentry of the counties of Devon and So¬
merset. Sir Edward Seymour made proposals for an as-
and owed his whole fortune to the king’s bounty; yet even
he deserted among the rest, and carried with him the Duke
of Grafton, natural son to the late king, besides Colonel
Berkeley and others.
In this universal defection, James, not knowing where to
turn, began to think of requesting assistance from France,
when it was now too late. He also wrote to Leopold, em-
himself on the brink of destruction, and knew not to whom peror of Germany; but that monarch only returned for an-
to apply for protection. In this emergency, Louis wrote swer, that what he had foreseen had happened. James had
to James in his own hand, that to divert the Dutch from some dependence on his fleet; but in reality they were
their intended invasion of England, he would lay siege to entirely disaffected. In a word, his interests were deserted
Maestricht with thirty thousand men. James communi- by all., for he had long deserted them himself. His army,
cated this intelligence to Sunderland, and the latter to the however, still amounted to twenty thousand men; and had
Prince of Orange, by whom six thousand men were thrown he led them immediately to battle, it is possible they might
into Maestricht; and the design of Louis being thus ren- then have fought in his favour. But his misfortunes had
dered impracticable, it was laid aside. deprived him of his natural firmness and resolution ; and
James had now no resource but in retreating from those seeing himself deserted by those in whom he thought he
precipitate measures which had plunged him into inextri- could place most confidence, he became suspicious of
cable distress. He paid court to the Dutch, and offered all, and was in a manner deprived even of the power of
to enter into any alliance with them for their common se- deliberation. In this extremity of distress, the Prince of
curity. He replaced, in all the counties of England, the Denmark, and Anne, James’s favourite daughter, perceiv-
deputy lieutenants and justices who had been deprived of ing the desperation of his circumstances, resolved to take
their commissions for their adherence to the test and pe- part with the Prince of Orange. Informed of this event,
nal law. He restored the charters of such corporations as
he had possessed himself of, annulled the High Commis¬
sion Court, reinstated the expelled president and fellows
of Magdalen College, and even caressed the bishops whom
he had so lately persecuted and insulted. But all these
the king was stung with the most bitter anguish. “ God
help me,” said he; “ my own children have forsaken me.”
To add to his distress as a parent, he was accused of being
accessory to the death of his own child.
On the 30th of November 1688, James dispatched three
438 BRITAIN.
Reign of noblemen to treat with the Prince of Orange. But though
James II. the latter knew very well that the king’s commissioners
—^' were in his interests, his behaviour showed plainly that he
1688. now thought the period for treating was past. For some
time he would not admit them to an audience; and when
he did, he gave no satisfactory answer. James now began to
be alarmed for his personal safety; but what most affected
him was the terror of the queen for herself and her infant
son. He therefore resolved to send them abroad. They
crossed the river in a boat, at Whitehall, on a stormy day,
and were carried to Gravesend in a coach, under the con¬
duct of the Count de Lauzun; a yacht, commanded by
Captain Gray, which lay there ready for the purpose, soon
transported them in safety to Calais.
The king was now so dispirited and distracted, that he
resolved to leave the kingdom at once, and thus plunge
every thing in confusion. He threw the great seal into the
Thames; he left none with any authority to conduct the
government in his absence; and he vainly hoped to derive
advantage to his affairs from anarchy and disorder. About
twelve at night, on the 10th of December, he disguised
himself, took a boat at Whitehall, and crossed the river.
Sir Edward Hales, with another friend, met him at Vaux-
hall with horses. He mounted; and being conducted
through by-ways by a guide, he passed in the night-time
to the Medway, which he crossed by Ailesford-bridge. At
Woolpeck he took fresh horses, sent thither before by
Shelden, one of his equerries, who was in the secret of his
flight. Having arrived at Embyferry near Feversham, he
found a custom-house hoy, hired by Sir Edward Hales, ly¬
ing ready to receive him on board. But the wind blew
fresh, and the vessel had no ballast. The master, there¬
fore, easily persuaded the king to permit him to take in
some ballast at Shilness. It being half ebb when they ran
ashore, they intended to sail as soon as the vessel should
be afloat; but when the vessel was almost afloat, she was
boarded by three fishing boats belonging to Feversham,
containing fifty men, who seized the king and his two
companions, under pretence of their being Papists who
wanted to escape from the kingdom. They turned up
Feversham water with the tide; but still the king remain¬
ed unknown. Sir Edward Hales placed privately fifty
guineas in the hands of the captain, as an earnest of more
should he permit them to escape. He promised, but so
far from keeping his word, he took what money they had,
under pretence of securing it from the seamen; and hav¬
ing possessed himself of their all, left them to their fate.
The unfortunate fugitives were at length carried in a
coach to Feversham, amidst the insults, clamours, and
shouts of the sailors. When the king was brought to the
inn, a seaman who had served under him knew him, and
melted into tears ; and James himself was so much moved
at this instance of his affection, that he wept. The other
fishermen, who had previously treated him with indignity,
when they saw his tears, fell upon their knees. The lower
class of inhabitants gathered round him; but the better
sort fled from his presence. The seamen, however, form¬
ed themselves into a guard, and declared, that “ a hair of
his head should not be touched.” In the mean time, Sir
James Oxendon, under pretence of guarding him from
the rabble, came with the militia to prevent his escape.
The king found a change in his condition when he was
taken out of the hands of the sailors. The commanders
of the militia showed him no respect; and he was even
insulted by the common soldiers. A letter which he in¬
tended to send to London for clothes, a change of linen,
and some money, were stopped by those who pretended to
protect his person.
In the mean time the Prince of Orange exercised in his
own person all the functions of royalty. He issued a de¬
claration to the disbanded army to re-assemble themselves. Reign of
He ordered the secretary at war to bring him a list of the James II.
king’s troops. He commanded the Lord Churchill to col-
lect his troop of horse guards. He sent the Duke of Graf- lfi88‘
ton to take possession in his name of Tilbury Fort. The
assembly of peers adjourned to the council-chamber at
Whitehall, and, to give the appearance of legality to their
meeting, chose the Marquis of Halifax as their president.
Whilst this assembly was sitting, on the 13th of Decem¬
ber, a poor countryman, who had been engaged by James,
brought an open letter from that unfortunate prince to
London. It had no subscription ; and it was addressed to
none. It described in one sentence only, his deplorable
condition when in the hands of a desperate rabble. This
poor messenger of a fallen sovereign waited long at the
council door, without being able to attract the notice of
any who passed; but when the Earl of Mulgrave became
apprised of his business, his lordship had the courage
to introduce him to the council. He delivered his open
letter, and told the unhappy state of the king. The as¬
sembly were much moved, and sent the Earl of Fevers¬
ham with two hundred of the guards towards Feversham.
His instructions were first to rescue James from danger,
and afterwards to attend him to the sea coast, should he
wish to retire. He chose, however, to return to London;
but the Prince of Orange sent a message to him, desiring
him to approach no nearer the capital than Rochester.
The messenger missed James by the way; and the king
sent Feversham with a letter to the Prince of Orange,
requesting his presence in London to settle the nation,
while he himself proceeded thither, and arrived on the
16th of December.
The Prince of Orange received the news of his return
with little satisfaction. His aim from the beginning was
to force him by various means to relinquish the throne.
The Dutch guards were ordered to take possession of
Whitehall, and to displace the English ; and the king was
soon after commanded by a message, which he received
in bed at midnight, to leave his palace next morning, and
to depart for Ham, a seat of the Duchess of Lauderdale’s.
But he desired permission to retire to Rochester, which
was readily granted. The harsh measures of the prince
had now taken effect, and the king meditated an escape to
France. Surrounded by the Dutch guards, he arrived at
Rochester on the 19th of December. The restraint put
upon his person, and the manner in which he had been
forced from London, raised the indignation of many, and
excited the compassion of all. The English army, both
officers and soldiers, began to murmur ; and had it not been
for the timidity and precipitation of James himself, the
nation would probably have returned to their allegiance.
He remained three nights at Rochester, in the midst of a
few faithful friends, the Earls of Arran, Dumbarton, Ailes-
bury, Litchfield, and Middleton, and, amongst other officers
of merit, Lord Viscount Dundee. They all argued against
his intended flight; and several bishops, some peers, and
many officers, entreated his stay in some part of England.
They represented that the opinions of men began to
change, and that events would daily rise in favour of his
authorit}\ Dundee added his native ardour to his advice.
“ The question, Sir,” said he, “ is, Whether you shall stay
in England or fly to France ? Whether you shall trust
the returning zeal of your native subjects, or rely on a
foreign power ? Here you ought to stand. Keep posses¬
sion of a part, and the whole will submit by degrees. Re¬
sume the spirit of a king. Summon your subjects to their
allegiance. Your army, though disbanded, is not dispers¬
ed. Give me your commission. I will gather ten thou¬
sand of your troops. I will carry your standard at their
head through England, and drive before you the Dutch
CHAP. VIII.
BRITAIN.
439
Reign of and their prince.” The king replied, that he believed
James II. it might be done, but that it would raise a civil war, and
he would not do so much mischief to a nation that would
1G88- soon Come to their senses again. Middleton urged his
stay, though in the remotest part of the kingdom. “ Your
majesty,” said he, “ may throw things into confusion by
your departure ; but it will be but the anarchy of a month.
A new government will soon be settled, and you and your
family will be ruined.”
These spirited remonstrances had no effect upon James.
He resolved to quit the kingdom; and having communi¬
cated his design to a few of his friends, he left the house
where he had lodged at midnight, accompanied by his son
the Duke of Berwick, and went in a boat to a smack which
lay waiting for him without the fort at Sheerness. In the
morning of Tuesday the 25th December, the king landed
at Ambleteuse in France, and taking post, soon joined his
consort at St Germains.
James having thus abandoned his dominions, the Prince
of Orange remained master of all. By the advice of the
House of Lords, the only member of the legislature re¬
maining, he was desired to summon a parliament by cir¬
cular letters ; but the prince, unwilling to act upon so im¬
perfect an authority, convened all the members who had
sat in the House of Commons during any parliament of
Charles II., to whom were added the mayor, aldermen, and
fifty of the common council of London; and being thus sup¬
ported by an assembly deriving its authority from himself,
he wrote circular letters to the counties and corporations of
England, directing them to return members to this parlia¬
ment or convention. When the house met, thanks were
voted to the Prince of Orange for the deliverance he had
wrought; after which they proceeded to settle the king¬
dom. A vote soon passed both houses, that King James
II. having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the
kingdom, by breaking the original contract between the
king and the people, and having by the advice of Jesuits
and other wicked persons violated the fundamental laws,
and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdi¬
cated the government; and that the throne was thereby
vacant.
The king being thus deposed, it was easy for William
to get himself appointed as his successor. Proposals were
indeed made by some for electing a regent; and others
were for investing the Princess of Orange with regal power,
and declaring the young prince supposititious. But to
these proposals William opposed the decisive argument,
that he had been called over to defend the liberties of the
British nation, and that he had happily effected his pur¬
pose ; that he had heard of several schemes proposed for
the establishing of the government; that, if they chose a
regent, he thought it incumbent upon him to inform them
that he would not be that regent; that he would not ac¬
cept of the crown under the princess his wife, though he
was convinced of her merits; that therefore, if either of
these schemes was adopted, he could give them no assist¬
ance in the settlement of the nation, but would return
home to his own country, satisfied with his aims to secure
the freedom of theirs. Upon this, after a long debate in
both houses, a new sovereign was preferred to a regent
by a very small majority. It was agreed that the Prince
and Princess of Orange should reign jointly as king and
queen of England; whilst the administration of govern¬
ment should be placed in the hands of the prince only.
The Marquis of Halifax, as Speaker of the House of Lords,
made a solemn tender of the crown to their highnesses, in
the name of the Peers and Commons of England. The
prince accepted the offer; and that very day, the 13th of
February 1689, William and Mary were proclaimed king
and queen of England.
Reign of
William
and Mary.
REIGN OF WILLIAM AND MARY.
■ * 1689-
First measures of William.—National discontents.—Scheme in fa¬
vour of the Dissenters rejected—Precarious condition of Wil¬
liam’s government.—Proceedings in Scotland.—William ac¬
knowledged as King.—Attempts of Viscount Dundee in favour
of James Battle of Killicrankie, and death of Dundee.—State
of Ireland Insurrection in favour of James—The Protestants
take arms in their own defence, and are defeated at Drumore—
Landing of James in Ireland—Subsequent operations—Gal¬
lant defence of Londonderry—Odious measures resorted to by
James Disembarkation of King William’s army—Its compo¬
sition Arrival of William—Battle of the Boyne, and defeat
of James Battle of Aughrim, and defeat of St Ruth, James’s
General Siege of Limei ick—Pacification of Ireland—Affairs
of Scotland Massacre of Glenco—Conduct of William re¬
specting this atrocious barbarity—The Dover expedition—
Violent discontents in Scotland, in consequence of the supposed
perfidy of the King Plots in favour of James—France declares
in his favour.—Battle of La Hogue, and total defeat of the
French fleet under Tourville—James offered the crown of Po¬
land, which he declined.—Offer by William to secure the suc¬
cession to the Prince of Wales, James’s son, also declined by
him Death of James Conduct of Louis on this occasion—
The Pretender acknowledged by France as king of Great Bri¬
tain and Ireland.—Death of Queen Mary.—National discon¬
tent William forced to disband his troops—Altercations be¬
tween the King and the Parliament—Confederacy against
France Death and Character of William.
William began his reign with issuing a proclamation for
continuing in office all Protestants who had been in place
on the first of the preceding December. On the 17th of
the month he formed his privy council, which consisted
chiefly of those persons who had been most active in rais¬
ing him to the throne. To gratify as many as possible of
his friends, the several boards, and even the chancery,
were put into commission. The benches of the Exchequer
and Common Pleas were filled with persons who had dis¬
tinguished themselves against the measures of the late
king. But the Earl of Nottingham, who had violently op¬
posed the elevation of William, and the Earl of Shrews¬
bury, who had adhered to his views, were made secretaries
of state. The Marquis of Halifax, and the Earl of Danby,
though rivals in policy, were admitted into the cabinet;
the first as lord privy seal, the second as president of the
council. William's Dutch friends in the mean time were
not forgotten by the king. Bentinck, his favourite, was
made a privy counsellor, groom of the stole, and privy
purse ; Auverquerque was appointed master of the horse ;
Zuylstein received the office of master of the robes; and
Schomberg was placed at the head of the ordnance.
Though these instances of gratitude were no doubt ne¬
cessary to William, the generality of the nation were dis¬
pleased. The tories were offended at being excluded from
favour, especially as they had departed from their usual
principles in order to serve him. The nation in general
were much prejudiced against foreigners, and universal
discontent ensued upon seeing them preferred. The
king, who had been bred a Calvinist, was also strongly in¬
clined to favour that sect; and finding the clergy of the
church of England but little inclined to take the oaths to
the new government, he began openly to indulge his own
prejudices in favour of dissenters. Having come to the
House of Lords to pass some bills, on the 16th March, he
made a speech, urging the necessity of admitting all Pro¬
testants indiscriminately into the public service. He in¬
formed them, that he was employed in filling up the va¬
cancies in offices of trust; he expressed his hopes that
they had become sensible of the necessity of a law to settle
the oaths to be taken by such persons as should be ad¬
mitted into place; and he doubted not, that whilst they
440 BRITAIN.
of provided against Papists, they would at the same time
leave room for the admission of all Protestants who were
^ / a^; able and willing to serve their country. But this proposi-
tion was rejected with vehemence. The adherents of the
church complained that the ruin which they feared from
the Papists in the preceding reign was now to be dreaded
from the Protestant dissenters; and they affirmed, that
if the established religion was to be destroyed, it mat¬
tered little by whose hands it might fall. A bill brought
in by the ministry for abrogating the former oaths of su¬
premacy and allegiance was rejected; and an attempt to
dispense with the sacramental test was made without suc¬
cess in another form. The court party proposed that any
man, by producing a certificate of his having received the
sacrament in any Protestant congregation, should be held
sufficiently qualified for office. But this motion was also
rejected in the House of Lords by a great majority. Wil¬
liam repeated his attempts at a comprehension; but he
was ultimately unsuccessful, and in the coronation-oath
the church party inserted a clause, that the king should
maintain the Protestant religion “ as established by law.”
For these and other reasons the government of Wil¬
liam was for some time in a very tottering condition. The
king, either through want of health or inclination, inter¬
fered but little in the affairs of the nation ; Ireland was
strangely neglected; whilst Halifax and Danby, who had
in a manner raised the king to the throne, caballed with
his enemies. They perceived that the people, with the
same levity which had induced them to desert their former
sovereign, were beginning to be discontented with their
new prince. Every thing seemed to tend to a change.
Halifax himself declared, that were James to conform
with the Protestants, he could not be kept four months
from re-ascending his throne ; and Danby averred, that,
were the late king to give satisfaction for the security of
religion, it would be difficult to oppose his restoration.
From these apparent discontents of the nation, the friends
and emissaries of James assumed more boldness in tam¬
pering with the servants of the crown and inflaming the
army. The former they alarmed with the prospect of a
sudden change; the latter they roused into indignation
by the alleged preference shown by William for his coun-
trymen the Dutch.
Though the kingdom of Scotland did not at first recog¬
nise the authority of William, yet the party of James
never attained sufficient strength to be of any effectual ser¬
vice to him in that kingdom. Thirty Scottish Peers, and
near eighty gentlemen, then in London, had waited on
the Prince of Orange in the beginning of January, and,
without any authority from the regency still subsisting in
Edinburgh, formed themselves into a kind of convention.
The Prince of Orange in a formal manner asked their ad¬
vice ; and when he withdrew, they adjourned to the coun¬
cil chamber at Whitehall. The Duke of Hamilton being
chosen president, explained the distracted state of Scot¬
land, representing, that disorders, anarchy, and confusion
prevailed, and urging the necessity of placing the power
somewhere till a convention of estates should be called to
form a lasting and solid settlement. When the heads of
an address to the Prince of Orange had been settled, and
ordered to be engrossed, the Earl of Arran unexpectedly
arose, and proposed to invite back the king. The meet¬
ing, however, adhered to the Prince of Orange, and wait¬
ed on him in a body, requesting him to take the adminis¬
tration into his own hands. He thanked them for the trust
they had reposed in him; and a convention was ordered
to meet at Edinburgh on the 14th of March, it being pro¬
vided that no exception or limitation whatever should be
made, except that the members should be Protestants.
This convention, however, was opposed by some of the
partisans of James ; and the archbishop of Glasgow, the Reign ok
Earl of Balcarras, and the Viscount Dundee, were autho- Williad
rized by an instrument signed by him, at that time in Ire-anc^ Mar
land, to call a convention of the estates at Stirling. But
this measure was disappointed, first by the wavering dis-
position of the Marquis of Atholl, and afterwards by the
procrastination and folly of the party. At last Viscount
Dundee, pretending alarm on account of a design alleged
to have been formed by the Covenanters to assassinate
him, left Edinburgh at the head of fifty horse. As he
passed under the walls of the castle, the Duke of Gordon,
who then held the command of the fortress, and favoured
the cause of James, called him to a conference. Dundee
scrambled up the precipice, and informed the duke of his
designs in favour of James, at the same time conjuring
him to hold out the castle, under a certainty of being re¬
lieved. The novelty of the sight collected a multitude of
spectators. The convention took the alarm. The president
ordered the doors to be locked, and the keys to be laid
upon the table. The drums beat to arms in the town;
and a parcel of ill-armed retainers were gathered together
in the street by the Earl of Leven. Dundee in the mean
time rode off with his party. But as soon as they found
themselves secure, the Duke of Hamilton adjourned the
convention, which relieved the adherents of James from
dreadful apprehensions for their own safety. Fifty mem¬
bers retired from Edinburgh; and that circumstance pro¬
duced unanimity in all the succeeding resolutions of the
convention. Soon after this it was determined in a com¬
mittee that James had “forefaulted” his right to the crown,
by which was meant that he had perpetually excluded
himself and his whole race from the throne, which was
thereby become vacant. This resolution being approved
by the convention, another was drawn up raising Wil¬
liam and Mary to the vacant throne; and in consequence
they were publicly proclaimed at Edinburgh on the 11th
of April 1689.
The castle of Edinburgh was still kept in the name of
James by the Duke of Gordon ; but despairing of any re¬
lief, and pressed by a siege, his Grace surrendered it on
the 13th of June, upon honourable terms. The adherents
of James, terrified at this unexpected misfortune, now
turned their eyes to the Viscount Dundee, who having
been in vain urged by the convention to return, was at
length declared a fugitive, an outlaw, and a rebel. Gene¬
ral Mackay had been sent to Scotland by William, with four
regiments of foot and one of dragoons. But Dundee, ap¬
prised of the general’s design to surprise him, retired to
the Grampian Mountains with a few horse, and thence
marched to Gordon Castle, where he was joined by the
Earl of Dunfermline with fifty gentlemen. He next passed
through the county of Moray to Inverness, which Mac¬
donald of Keppoch had invested with seven hundred men,
after having ravaged the lands of the clan of Mackintosh
in his way from his own country. Dundee promised to the
magistrates of Inverness to repay, at the king’s return,
the money extorted from them by Macdonald, and thus
induced the latter to join him with all his men. But as
he could not prevent the Highlanders from first returning
home with their spoil, he accompanied them to Lochaber,
and on the 8th of May arrived in Badenoch, whence he
wrote letters to the chiefs of the different clans, appoint¬
ing them to meet at a general rendezvous in Lochaber on
the 18th of the same month. In the mean time, passing
suddenly through Athole, he surprised the town of Perth,
and hoping to gain over two troops of Scottish dragoons who
lay at Dundee, he marched suddenly to that place ; but the
fidelity of Captain Balfour, their commander, disappoint¬
ed his views. Dundee then returned through Athole and
Rannoch to hold the diet of rendezvous at Lochaber; and
BRITAIN.
441
Re- n 0f there he was reinforced by several Highland chieftains,
William so that his little army was increased to about fifteen hun-
and Marj'. dred men. He now turned against Mackay, who had ad-
vanced to Inverness, but on the approach of Dundee re-
1689. treated to Strathbogie, leaving the whole Highlands ex¬
posed to the enemy.
But notwithstanding this partial success, Dundee found
himself surrounded with many difficulties. The officers
of the Scottish dragoons, who maintained a secret corre¬
spondence with him, sent him false intelligence, as an
excuse for their own fears, informing him that a party of
Irish, who had endeavoured to land in Scotland under the
Duke of Berwick, were driven back, and the duke himself
taken prisoner; and that Mackay had been reinforced
with a regiment of English horse, and another of foot.
Crediting this information, Dundee retreated to Badenoch ;
the natives of the low country who served in his little
army quitted him without leave; the Highlanders plun¬
dered the country wherever they went; and he himself
at last fell sick, while Mackay hovered on his rear. A slight
skirmish occurred, in which the Highlanders had the ad¬
vantage ; but they nevertheless lost their baggage during
the action. Dundee at length arrived at Ruthven ; but
Mackay, reinforced with a body of twelve hundred men,
advanced against him, and other regiments had arrived at
Perth and Dumblane, on their way to join. The High¬
landers now deserted every night by hundreds, and their
leader was forced to retire to Lochaber, where only two
hundred of his whole force remained with him; whilst,
to complete his misfortunes, he at the same time received
intelligence of the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh.
Meanwhile, letters having arrived from King James
promising immediate succours from Ireland, Dundee or¬
dered the neighbouring clans to assemble round his stand¬
ard. But still he wanted the necessary means for prose¬
cuting the war. The Highlanders were armed only with
their own proper weapons, and he had no more than forty
pounds weight of powder in his whole army. All difficul¬
ties, however, were surmounted by the activity of the
general, for whom his army entertained an enthusiastic
zeal. Having collected a force of about two thousand five
hundred men, including three hundred Irish recruits, he
resolved to give battle to Mackay, who, with a force con¬
siderably superior in numbers, was advancing against him.
The encounter took place on the 17th of July 1689, near the
head of the Pass of Killikrankie. The Highlanders took post
on the face of a hill, a little above the house of Urrard, and
to the westward of the great Pass ; whilst the king’s forces
were drawn up on a level piece of ground, in the form of
an amphitheatre, bounded on two sides by the heights,
and on the third by the river Garry. Dundee delayed
his attack until about sunset, when suddenly the High¬
landers rushed down like furies, covering themselves from
the fire of the king’s troops with their targets. “ At last,”
says an eye-witness, “ they cast away their muskets, drew
their broadswords, and advancing furiously on the king’s
troops, broke them, and obliged them to retreat; some
flying to the water, some another way.” The charge was
like a torrent, fierce, rapid, irresistible; and the rout
complete. The 21st or Scotch fusileers was on the left
of General Mackay’s front line, Hastings’ and Leslie’s,
now the 13th and 15th regiments, in the centre, and Lord
Leven’s, now the 25th, on the right; the whole consisting
of two regiments of cavalry and nine battalions of infan¬
try. After the right of the line had given way, the regi¬
ments on the centre and the left, which were covered by
the river Garry and the woody precipice below the house
of Urrard, kept their ground, and for a short time with¬
stood the shock of the Highland charge with the broad¬
sword; but at length they gave way on all sides, Hast-
vol. v.
ings’ flying through the Pass on the north side, and the Reign of
fusileers dashing across the river, followed by the High- William
landers. But Dundee having fallen early in the attack, an(l ^ ary-
the consternation occasioned by his death prevented an
immediate pursuit through the great Pass. Had they
been closely followed, and had a few men been placed at
the southern entrance, not a man of the king’s troops
would have escaped to tell the story of their defeat. As
it was, they lost nearly two thousand men, and the re¬
mainder were completely broken and dispersed. But the
victory, though gallantly achieved, was productive of no¬
thing but barren glory; and with the fall of Dundee end¬
ed all the hopes of James in Scotland. Colonel Cannon,
who succeeded him in the command, possessed neither
his popularity nor his abilities. After some insignificant
actions, in which the valour of the soldiers was more con¬
spicuous than the conduct of their leader, the Highlanders
dispersed in disgust; and the war soon afterwards ended
favourably for William, without the trouble of repulsing
his enemies.
During the troubles in England, which had terminated
in placing William on the throne, the two parties in Ire¬
land were kept in a kind of tranquillity by their mutual
fears. The Protestants were terrified at the prospect of
another massacre; and the Catholics expected every day
to be invaded by the united force of the English and
Dutch. Their terrors, however, were ill founded; for
although Tyrconnel sent several messages to the prince,
stating his readiness to deliver up the kingdom to any
force that might make a surrender decent, his offers were
always rejected. This is said to have been owing to Ha¬
lifax, who is alleged to have represented to the king, that
if Ireland yielded, no pretence would remain for keeping
an army in pay; that without an army to protect his au¬
thority, he might be as easily turned out as he had been
brought in; that the English nation could never remain
long in a state of contentment; and that they had already
begun to show symptoms of strong disaffection with the
new government.
Tyrconnel, disappointed in his views of surrendering Ire¬
land to the Prince of Orange, affected to adhere to King
James. The whole military force of the kingdom at that
time amounted only to four thousand men, and of these
six hundred were in Dublin; whilst all of them were so
much disposed to quit the service, that the lord-deputy
was obliged to issue commissions for levying new forces.
The effect of this was, that there suddenly appeared in
various parts of the kingdom a half-armed rabble, who,
having no pay from the king, subsisted by depredation,
and disregarded all discipline. The Protestants in the
north armed themselves in their own defence; and the
city of Londonderry, relying on its situation, and a slight
wall, shut its gates against the newly-raised army. Pro¬
testant parties also appeared everywhere, declaring their
resolution to unite in self-defence, to preserve the Pro¬
testant religion, to continue their dependence on England,
and to promote the meeting of a free parliament.
In these circumstances William sent General Hamilton,
an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, to treat with Tyr¬
connel ; but instead of persuading that lord to yield to
William, Hamilton advised him to adhere to James. In
the mean time James himself assured the lord-deputy
that he was ready to sail from Brest with a powerful ar¬
mament; upon which Hamilton marched against the
northern insurgents, who were routed with considerable
slaughter at Drumore, whilst Hillsborough, where they
had fixed their head-quarters, was taken without resist¬
ance. The city of Londonderry, however, resolved to
hold out to the last extremity.
On the 7th of March 1689, James embarked at Brest.
3 K
BRITAIN.
442
Reign of The whole force of his expedition consisted of fourteen
William ships of war, six frigates, and three fire-ships ; whilst
and Mary. twe]ve hundred of his native subjects in the pay of France,
and a hundred French officers, composed his army. He
’ ‘ landed at Kinsale without opposition on the I2th of the
month; and his first care was to secure, in the fort, the
money, arms, and ammunition which he had brought from
France, and to put the town in some posture of defence.
This done, he advanced to Cork, where Tyrconnel arrived
soon after, and brought intelligence of the rout at Drumore.
The king was so much pleased with his attachment and
services, that he created him a duke, and then began his
advance towards Dublin. But the condition of the rabble
who flocked to his standard was not calculated to raise
his hopes of success. Their very numbers distressed their
sovereign, and ruined the country; insomuch that James
resolved to disband the greatest part of fhem. More
than one hundred thousand were already on foot in the
different parts of the island. Of these he reserved four¬
teen regiments of horse and dragoons, and thirty-five re¬
giments of foot; the rest he ordered to their respective
homes, and armed those who were retained in the best
manner he could.
On reaching Dublin, James immediately proceeded to
business. He ordered all Protestants who had abandoned
the kingdom to return; he commanded all Papists, ex¬
cept those in his army, to lay aside their arms, and put
an end to the depredations which they had committed in
the excess of their zeal; he raised the value of the cur¬
rency by proclamation ; and he summoned a parliament to
meet on the 7th of May, in order to settle the affairs of the
kingdom. The Protestant clergy represented their griev¬
ances in an address; and the university of Dublin ap¬
peared with complaints and congratulations. He assured
the first of his absolute protection, and a full redress;
and he promised the latter not only to defend, but even
to enlarge, their privileges.
On the 8th of April he left Dublin, resolving to lead
his army against the insurgents in person ; but as they
retired before him, he resolved to lay siege to London¬
derry. The place, however, made a vigorous resistance;
but being reduced to the last extremity, it would have
been obliged to surrender had it not been relieved on the
28th of July by seven ships laden with provisions, upon
which the siege was immediately raised. In the mean
time, the distressed situation of James, and his absolute
dependence upon France, drove him to the adoption of
measures equally odious and impolitic. His soldiers had
for some time been supported by their officers, or subsist¬
ed by depredation. But the funds of the officers were at
length exhausted, and the country itself could no longer
endure the riot and injustice of the soldiers. Pressed by
these difficulties, he resolved, by the advice of his coun¬
cil, to coin copper pieces, which should be received in
lieu of silver. The inconveniences and iniquity of this
measure were obvious; but all Ireland possessed not the
means of paying the army in current coin till the middle
of June. Of the French remittances only 200,000 livres
remained ; and the king found it absolutely necessary to
reserve that sum, in order to forward his measures regard¬
ing Britain, and to procure intelligence of the motions of
his enemies. The army was satisfied even with this mock
semblance of money, and the people received the fictitious
coin in hopes of being repaid in a more favourable state
of affairs. A tax of L.20,000 a month, granted for thir¬
teen months by the parliament, furnished government
with an appearance of resources; and in the mean time
the king endeavoured to support the former revenue by
opening a trade with France to supply the want of com¬
merce with England.
To add to the distress of James, Ireland was now invad- Reign of
ed by ten thousand men under the command of the Duke William
of Schomberg. On the 12th of August 1689, they appear--Mary,
ed in ninety transports, on the coast of Donaghadee, in
the county of Down; and next day Schomberg landed
his army, horses, and train of artillery, without opposition.
On the 15th he marched to Belfast, and continued in that
place four days to refresh his troops. He then invested
Carrickfergus, and threw into it a thousand bombs, which
laid the houses in ashes. When the garrison had expend¬
ed their powder to the last barrel, they marched out with
all the honours of war; but Schomberg’s soldiers broke
the capitulation, disarmed and stripped the inhabitants,
without regard to sex or quality, and perpetrated many
disgraceful cruelties by way of retaliation on the Papists.
Schomberg was an experienced general, who had passed
a life of eighty years almost continually in the field ; yet
he found himself at a loss how to carry on the war with
Ireland. Not considering the dangers which threatened
the health of his troops by confining them too long in one
place, he kept them encamped in a low damp situation near
Dundalk, almost without fuel; the consequence of which
was, that the men were seized with fevers and fluxes, and
died in great numbers. Nor were the enemy less afflicted
with similar disorders. In both camps sickness prevailed ;
and as the rainy season was now approaching, the hostile
armies, after remaining for some time in sight of each
other, quitted their camps at the same time, and retired
into winter quarters.
The ill success of this campaign, and the miserable si¬
tuation of the Protestants in Ireland, at length induced
William to attempt their relief in person. Accordingly,
he left London on the 4th of June 1690, and arrived on
the 14th at Carrickfergus; whence he passed to Lisburn,
the head-quarters of the Duke of Schomberg. At Lough-
Britland he reviewed his army, which amounted to thirty-
six thousand men, consisting of English, Dutch, Germans,
Danes, and French ; and being supplied with every neces¬
sary, as well as in high health and spirits, they seemed cer¬
tain of victory. The Irish army abandoned Ardee at their
approach, and fell back to the south of the Boyne, where
they were joined by James, who had marched from Dublin
at the head of his French auxiliaries. The banks of the
Boyne were precipitous, and on the south side the ground
was hilly, and intersected with ditches. The river itself was
deep, and it rose to a considerable height in consequence
of the tide. These advantages induced James, contrary
to the opinion of his officers, to maintain possession of this
post. His army was inferior in numbers, in discipline,
and in every other quality, to that of his adversary; but
convinced that a retreat would dispirit his troops, and
tarnish his own reputation, he resolved to put the fate of
Ireland on the issue of a battle. William had no sooner ar¬
rived on the ground than he rode along the river in sight of
both armies, to examine the position of the hostile force,
and make proper dispositions for battle ; but being observ¬
ed by the enemy, a cannon was privately brought out and
pointed against the spot where for the moment he stood.
The shot killed several of his followers, and he himself
was slightly wounded in the shoulder. The report of his
being slain was instantly propagated throughout the Irish
camp, and even transmitted to Paris; but as soon as his
wound was dressed, William rode through the camp, and
quickly undeceived his army. The next day, being the
30th of June, the battle began at six o'clock in the morn¬
ing. William directed the river to be forded in three dif¬
ferent places, and the attack to be simultaneously com¬
menced from as many points. Schomberg, with the right
wing, consisting of ten thousand men, passed the fords up the
river, traversed a bog on the opposite side, and attacked
BRITAIN. 443
Reign of with great impetuosity the left of James, which, after a
William short resistance, gave way, and retired precipitately to
nd Mary. secure the Pass of Dunleck, which formed the only line of
retreat. The centre next crossed the river, but were gal-
lantly opposed by the French and Irish, with whom they
maintained a doubtful contest, till William, passing the
river farther down at the head of his cavalry, threatened
the enemy’s flank, and forced them to fall back on the rest
of the army of James, which was retiring in a body around
their king. The left met with little or no resistance from
the force opposed to them; and, indeed, the whole of James’s
dispositions seem to have been made for retreat rather
than for battle. Hence, with a comparatively small loss,
William succeeded in forcing his position at all points,
and in establishing his whole army on the opposite bank
of this deep and difficult river. Whilst the armies were
yet engaged, James, who had so often shown the most
heroic courage in battle, rode ingloriously off the field.
This dispirited his troops, who fell into irretrievable dis¬
order, and fled in all directions, neglecting his injunction
to defend the Pass of Dunleck, and leaving nearly two
thousand men killed and wounded on the field. The loss
sustained by William’s army was, owing to the difficult
nature of the ground, considerably greater, though much
inferior to what it would have been if James had skilfully
availed himself of the strength of his position, and head¬
ed the columns of attack as they debouched from the fords.
Among the slain was the brave Duke of Schomberg. He
was killed by a discharge from his own troops, who, not know¬
ing that he had been accidentally hurried into the midst
of the enemy, fired upon the body of men who surrounded
him. When James first deserted his troops, O’Regan, an
old Irish captain, was heard to observe, that if the English
would exchange generals, the conquered army would fight
them over again. James withdrew precipitately to Water¬
ford, where he immediately embarked for France.
But the victory at the Boyne was by no means decisive,
and the adherents of James resolved to continue their op¬
position. Sarsfield, a popular and experienced general,
put himself at the head of the army which had been rout¬
ed at the Boyne, and took measures for defending the
banks of the Shannon. But James superseded him in the
command, which he conferred on St Ruth, a proceeding
which gave great dissatisfaction to the Irish. On the
other hand, General Ginckel, who had been appointed to
command the English army in the absence of William,
who had gone over to England, advanced towards the
Shannon to meet the enemy. The only place where the
river was fordable was at Athlone, a strong walled town,
situated on both banks of the river, and in the possession
of King James’s party. The English soon made them¬
selves masters of that part which was on the one side of
the river; but the part on the opposite bank being defend¬
ed with great vigour, it was resolved in a council of war
that a forlorn hope should ford the stream in the face of
the enemy; and this desperate enterprise being perform¬
ed with great resolution, the enemy were driven from
their works, and the town surrendered at discretion. St
Ruth marched to its relief, but he came too late, and, as
he approached, his own guns were turned against him.
Upon this he instantly counter-marched, and took post at
Aughrim, ten miles distant, where he determined to wait
the English army. Ginckel, though he had only eighteen
thousand men, whilst the Irish were above twenty-five
thousand strong, did not decline the combat. A fierce
contest ensued ; but St Ruth having fallen, his troops gave
way on all sides, and retreated in disorder to Limerick,
where they determined to make a final stand, after having
lost near five thousand of their best men.
Ginckel, wishing to put an end to the war at once, suf¬
fered as many of the Irish as chose, to retire to Limerick. Reign of
In this last retreat, however, the Irish forces made a brave j
defence. The siege commenced on the 25th of August
1691 ; and six weeks were spent before the place without KJ92.
any decisive effect. The garrison was well supplied with
provisions, and provided with all means of defence. On
the other hand, the winter was approaching, and Ginckel
had orders to finish the war upon any terms. According¬
ly, he offered conditions to the Irish, which, even had they
been victors, they could scarcely have refused with pru¬
dence. He agreed that all persons in arms should be par¬
doned ; that their estates should be restored, their attain¬
ders annulled, and their outlawries reversed; that none
should be liable for debts incurred through deeds done in
the course of hostilities; that all Roman Catholics should
enjoy the same toleration in regard to their religion as in
the reign of Charles II.; that the gentry should be per¬
mitted to retain their arms; that the inferior class should
be allowed to exercise theirvarious callings and professions ;
that no oath but that of allegiance should be required of any
one ; and that if the troops, or any number of them, should
choose to enter into any foreign service, they should be
conveyed to the Continent at the expense of the king.
Sarsfield, who had obtained the title of Earl of Lucan
from James after his abdication, was permitted to retain
a dignity which the laws could not recognise. The lords
justices having arrived from Dublin on the 1st of October,
signed the articles along with Ginckel, and thus the Irish
Catholics put a period to a war which threatened their
party with absolute ruin. In consequence of this treaty,
about fourteen thousand of those who had fought for King
James passed over to France in transports provided by
government for conveying them thither; and in this man¬
ner all James’s expectations from Ireland were entirely
frustrated, and the kingdom submitted quietly to the Eng¬
lish government.
In the beginning of the year 1692 an action of unex¬
ampled barbarity disgraced the government of William in
Scotland. In the August preceding, a proclamation had
been issued, offering an indemnity to such insurgents as
should take the oaths to the king and queen on or before
the last day of December; and the chiefs of such tribes
as had been in arms for James soon after took advantage
of the proclamation. But Macdonald of Glenco was pre¬
vented by accident rather than design from tendering his
submission within the limited time. In the end of De¬
cember he went to Colonel Hill, who commanded the
garrison in Fort William, to take the oaths of allegiance to
the government; and the latter having furnished him with
a letter to Sir Colin Campbell, sheriff of the county of Ar-
gyle, directed him to repair immediately to Inverary to
make his submission in a legal manner before that magis¬
trate. But the way to Inverary lay through almost im¬
passable mountains, the season was extremely rigorous, and
the whole country was covered with a deep snow. So eager,
however, was Macdonald to take the oaths before the
limited time should expire, that, though the road lay with¬
in half a mile of his own house, he stopped not to visit his
family, and, after various obstructions, arrived at Inve¬
rary. The time had elapsed, and the sheriff hesitated to
receive his submission; but Macdonald prevailed by his
importunities, and even tears, in inducing that functionary
to administer to him the oath of allegiance, and to certify
the cause of his delay. At this time Sir John Dalrymple,
afterwards Earl of Stair, being in attendance upon William
as secretary of state for Scotland, took advantage of Mac¬
donald’s neglecting to take the oaths within the time pre¬
scribed, and procured from the king a warrant of military
execution against that chief and his whole clan. This was
done at the instigation of the Earl of Breadalbane, whose
J]
B R I T A I N.
444
Reign of lands the Glenco men had plundered, and whose treachery
William government in negociating with the Highland clans
andlMary. yfacdonaid had himself exposed. The king was accord-
le&J Persuaded that Glenco was the main obstacle to the
pacification of the Highlands; and the fact of the unfortu¬
nate chief’s submission having been concealed, the sangui¬
nary orders for proceeding to military execution against
his clan were in consequence obtained. The warrant was
both signed and countersigned by the king’s own hand;
and the secretary urged the officers who commanded in
the Highlands to execute their orders with the utmost
rigour. Campbell of Glenlyon, a captain in Argyll’s re¬
giment, and two subalterns, were ordered to repair to
Glenco on the first of February with a hundred and twen¬
ty men. Campbell, being uncle to young Macdonald’s
wife, was received by the father with all manner of friend¬
ship and hospitality. The men were lodged at free quar¬
ters in the houses of his tenants, and received the kindest
entertainment. Till the 13th of the month the troops
lived in the utmost harmony and familiarity with the peo¬
ple ; and on the very night of the massacre the officers
passed the evening at cards in Macdonald’s house. In
the night Lieutenant Lindsay, with a party of soldiers,
called in a friendly manner at his door, and was instantly
admitted. Macdonald, while in the act of rising to re¬
ceive his guest, was shot dead through the back with two
bullets. His wife had already dressed ; but she was strip¬
ped naked by the soldiers, who tore the rings off her fingers
with their teeth. The slaughter now became general,
and neither age nor infirmity was spared. Some women,
in defending their children, were killed; boys, imploring
mercy, were shot dead by officers on whose knees they
hung. In one place nine persons, as they sat enjoying
themselves at table, were butchered by the soldiers. In
Inverriggon, Campbell’s own quarters, nine men were first
bound by the soldiers, and then shot at intervals, one by
one. Nearly forty persons were massacred by the troops ;
and several who fled to the mountains perished by famine
and the inclemency of the season. Those who escaped
owed their lives to a tempestuous night. Lieutenant-
colonel Hamilton, who had received the charge of the
execution from Dalrymple, was on his march with four
hundred men, to guard all the passes from the valley of
Glenco ; but he was obliged to stop by the severity of the
weather, which proved the safety of the unfortunate clan.
Next day he entered the valley, laid the houses in ashes,
and carried away the cattle and spoil, which were divided
among the officers and soldiers.
It can scarcely be imagined that a massacre attended
with circumstances of such unparalleled treachery and
cruelty could pass without some animadversion at the time,
or escape the indignant reprobation of history afterwards.
However willing we may be to ascribe to the immediate
agents in this horrid business all that is most revolting
and hideous in the execution of the sanguinary warrant
obtained by Secretary Dalrymple at the instigation of
Breadalbane, and to transfer to them a large share of the
guilt and odium which will ever attach to it, still, after all
allowances are made, it is impossible to exculpate William
from knowingly consenting to a proceeding which nothing
but dire necessity could ever justify. That he was beset
by sanguinary ministers, and kept in ignorance of the fact
ot Macdonald’s submission, may be readily admitted; but
it will also be observed that he signed and countersigned
an order for exterminating a whole clan without institut-
ing any previous inquiry; and that afterw'ards, when the
truth became known, no punishment was inflicted on the
instigators of the massacre. Besides, the extraordinary
precaution of Secretary Dalrymple in requiring the king
to countersign the order to which he had already affixed
his sign-manual, a thing altogether unusual and unprece- Reign of
dented, might well have excited suspicion in the mind of William
William; nor, with the knowledge of this fact, coupledand Maiy
with the neglect of all inquiry in the first instance, and
the impunity of the instigators of the crime afterwards,
is it easy to believe that this otherwise excellent prince
was altogether free of guilty participation in the foul and
bloody tragedy of Glenco.
fo efface the remembrance of this massacre, and to
blink the inquiry which had been commenced, the king
now caused his commissioner to declare in the Scottish
parliament, “ I hat if the members found it would tend to
the advancement of trade that an act should be passed for
the encouragement of such as should acquire and establish
a plantation in Africa, America, or any other part of the
world where plantations might be lawfully acquired, that
his majesty was willing to declare he would grant to the
subjects of this kingdom, in favour of these plantations,
such rights and privileges as he granted in like cases to
the subjects of his other dominions.” Relying on this and
other flattering promises, the nobility and gentry of Scot¬
land advanced L.400,000 towards the establishment of a
company for carrying on an East and West India trade;
and twelve hundred veterans who had served in King
William’s wars were sent to effect a settlement on the
isthmus of Darien or Panama, which, from its situation,
was equally adapted for trading with both the Indies.
The new colony was well received by the natives, and
matters began to wear a promising aspect, when the king,
at the earnest solicitations of the English and Dutch
East India Companies, resolved to gratify the latter at the
expense of his Scottish subjects, and sent orders to the
governor of Jamaica and the English settlements in Ame¬
rica to issue proclamations, prohibiting, under the severest
penalties, all his majesty’s subjects from holding any cor¬
respondence with the Scottish colony, or assisting it in any
way with arms, ammunition, or provisions. Thus the new
settlers were abandoned to their fate, although many of
them had been covered with wounds in fighting the king’s
battles ; and thus vanished all the hopes of the Scottish na¬
tion, which had engaged in the design with incredible ala¬
crity, and with sanguine expectations that the misfortunes
of their country would, by this new channel of commerce,
be completely healed. The distresses of the people, upon
receiving authentic accounts of the fortune of their colony,
scarcely admit of any description; and the whole nation
joined in reproaching their sovereign with double dealing,
inhumanity, and base ingratitude, to a people who had
lavished their treasure and best blood in support of his
government, and in the gratification of his ambition.
But the total reduction of Ireland, and the dispersion
and extermination of the Highland chieftains who favour¬
ed his cause, did not entirely put an end to the hopes of
James. His chief expectations were founded on a con¬
spiracy among his English adherents, and in the succours
promised him by the French king. A plot was first form¬
ed in Scotland by Sir James Montgomery, a person who,
from being an adherent of William’s, now turned against
him; but as the project was ill contrived, so it was as
lightly discovered by the instigator. To this succeeded
another, which seemed to threaten more serious conse¬
quences, as it was managed by the Whig party, the most
formidable in the state, a number of whom joined them¬
selves to the Tories, and made advances to the late king.
They assembled together; and, in order to lose no time,
it was resolved to send over to France two trusty persons,
Lord Preston and Mr Ashton, to consult with the exiled
monarch. Both of them, however, were seized by order
of Lord Caermarthen, and condemned. Ashton was ex¬
ecuted without making any confession; but Lord Preston
r
BRITAIN.
445
ii
Reign of wanted equal virtue or resolution, for on an offer of par-
William don, he discovered a great number of associates, amongst
and Mary. whom were the Duke of Ormond, Lord Dartmouth, and
Lord Clarendon.
The French having at last become sensible of their bad
policy in not better supporting the cause of James, re¬
solved to attempt a descent upon England in his favour;
and, in pursuance of this scheme, James was supplied with
an army consisting of a body of French troops, some Eng¬
lish and Scottish refugees, and the Irish regiments which
had been transported into France from Limerick, and by
long discipline and severe duty had become excellent sol¬
diers. This army was assembled between Cherbourg and La
Hogue, and commanded by King James in person. More
than three hundred transports were provided for landing
the expedition on the opposite coast; and Tourville, the
French admiral, at the head of sixty-three ships of the
line, was appointed to favour the descent; his orders be¬
ing at all events to attack the enemy in case they should
oppose him. Every thing therefore promised a change of
fortune to the exiled king, and he might now entertain
hopes of recovering his crown. But these preparations on
the side of France were soon known at the English court,
and measures taken for a vigorous and effective resistance.
The secret machinations of the banished king’s adherents
were discovered to the English ministry by spies; and it
wras thus found that the Tories were more faithful than
even the Whigs, who had placed King William on the
throne. The Duke of Marlborough, Lord Godolphin, and
even the Princess Anne herself, were violently suspected
of disaffection.
Preparations, however, were made with great tranquil¬
lity and resolution, to resist the coming storm. Admiral
Russell was ordered to put to sea with all possible expedi¬
tion ; and he soon appeared with ninety-nine ships of the
line, besides frigates and fire-ships. At the head of this for¬
midable fleet he set sail for the coast of France ; and, near
La Hogue, he discovered the enemy under Tourville, who
prepared to give him battle. The engagement began be¬
tween the two flag ships with the greatest fury, and the
rest of the ships in succession followed their example.
The battle lasted ten hours ; but at length victory de¬
clared in favour of numbers, and the French fled for Con-
quet road, having lost four ships in the action. The pur¬
suit continued for the two days following. Three French
ships of the line were destroyed on the day succeeding the
principal conflict; and eighteen more, which had taken
refuge in the bay of La Hogue, were burnt by Sir George
Rooke. The ships were drawn up in the shallows, and
seemed to be secure against attack; but nothing could
resist the bravery and enterprise of the British seamen,
who, crowding in barges, under cover of such frigates as
could be brought sufficiently near, boarded the enemy’s
ships, overpowered their crews, and then set them on fire.
When James beheld his late subjects thus daringly occu¬
pied in completing the destruction of the French fleet, he
could not restrain his admiration of their gallantry; and,
whilst witnessing the wreck of all his hopes, exclaimed,
“ Ah, none but my brave English could do this.” And
thus were frustrated the preparations of France, which
from this time seemed to relinquish all claims to the em¬
pire of the ocean.
The battle of La Hogue, which took place on the 21st
of May 1692, put a final period to the hopes of James.
No further attempts were made in his favour, except some
plots to assassinate King William, which ended only in the
destruction of those who had formed them. But it was
never thoroughly proved that James countenanced these
designs; and it rather appears that he expressed abhor¬
rence of such attempts. In 1697 the Abbe de Polignac,
ambassador of France to Poland, wrote to his master that Reign of
thoughts were entertained of the late king of Britain in the William
new election which happened on the death of John Sobi-^*
eski; and that James had already been named by some of
the diet as his successor. Louis was eager to seize an op¬
portunity of ridding himself with honour of a prince whose
pre-tensions he could no longer support; and the friends of
James were also sanguine as to the project; but he him¬
self refused it. The same year, at an interview between
King William and Louis XIV. it was proposed that the
Prince of Wales, James’s son, should succeed to the throne
of England after the death of William. William with
little hesitation agreed to this request, and even engaged
to procure the repeal of the act of settlement, and the
passing of another declaring the Prince of Wales his suc¬
cessor to the throne. But this proposal was also rejected
by James. He told the king of France, that though he
could endure with patience the usurpation of his nephew,
he would never permit his own son to be guilty of the
same injustice; that should his son reign in his father’s
life-time, that circumstance would amount to a formal re¬
nunciation ; and that the Prince of Wales, by succeeding
to the Prince of Orange, would thereby yield his sole right,
which devolved to him through his father alone.
From this time James lost every hope of being restored
to the throne, and resigned himself entirely to religious
austerities. His constitution, though vigorous and athle¬
tic, had for some time begun to yield to the infirmities of
age, and to that melancholy which superstition, uniting
with misfortune, had impressed on his mind. In the be¬
ginning of September 1701, whilst he was at public pray¬
ers, according to his daily custom, he fell suddenly into a
lethargy ; and though he recovered his senses soon after,
he languished for some days, and expired on the 6th of
September. The French king paid him several visits
during his sickness, and exhibited every symptom of com¬
passion, affection, and even respect.
Embarrassed as to how he ought to proceed upon the
unexpected death of James, Louis called a council to de¬
liberate whether he should acknowledge the Prince of
Wales as king of Great Britain and Ireland. The king
himself had hesitated long in this delicate point; but the
Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, and all the princes of
the blood, declared that it would be unbecoming the dig¬
nity of the crown of France not to own that the titles of
the father had devolved immediately on the son. Louis
approved of this view, and determined in person to ac¬
quaint the dying king with his resolution. When he ar¬
rived at St Germains, James lay almost insensible from his
disorder; but rousing himself, he began to thank his most
Christian majesty for all his favours. Louis, however,
interrupted him: “ Sir,” said he, “ what I have done is
but a small matter; but what I have to say is of the ut¬
most importance.” The people then began to retire, but
Louis ordered them to remain. “ I come to acquaint
you, Sir,” he added, “ that when God shall please to call
your majesty from this wrorld, I shall take your family
under my protection, and acknowledge your son as king
of Great Britain and Ireland.”
Though the defeat of the French fleet at La Hogue
had put an end to all danger of any further attempt from
that quarter, William by no means possessed his throne
in any degree of tranquillity. The want of a common
enemy produced dissensions amongst the people, and the
king began to experience as much trouble from his par¬
liament at home as from any enemy in the field. The
uneasiness he felt on account of the refractory disposition
of his subjects was not a little heightened by the death of
his queen, who was carried off by the small-pox on the
28th of December 1694. The grief he felt for her loss
446
B R I T A I N.
Reign of was deep and sincere ; but all private concerns were soon
William merged in the greatness of his apprehensions for the ba-
and Mary. ]ance 0f power and the fluctuating interests of Europe.
William’s chief motive for accepting the crown had been
1695' to engage England more deeply in the concerns of Europe ;
and as his great object had been to humble the French,
so his politics mainly consisted in forming alliances against
France. But many of the English had no such animosity
against that country; and considering the interest of the
nation as sacrificed to foreign connections, they complained
that the continental war fell most heavily on them, though
they had the least interest in its success. These com¬
plaints were at first heard by William with indifference;
and he continued to bestow all his attention on the balance
of power and the interests of Europe. But in attending
to foreign affairs he overlooked internal polity; and, as
he formed alliances abroad, he increased the influence of
party at home. In accepting the crown, William had re¬
solved to preserve as much of the prerogative as could
decently be retained ; and he sometimes exerted a branch
of it, the power of refusing his assent to bills which had
passed both houses, with equal firmness and decision.
Hence perpetual bickerings took place between him and
his parliaments. But William at last became fatigued
with opposition, and admitted every restraint which they
chose to impose on the prerogative in England, upon con¬
dition of being properly supplied with the means neces¬
sary for humbling France.
The war with France continued during the greatest part
of this king’s reign; but at length the treaty of Ryswick,
in 1697, put an end to a contest in which England had en¬
gaged without policy, and from which she came off without
advantage. In the general pacification her interests seem¬
ed entirely neglected; and for all the treasures she had
transmitted to the Continent, and all the blood which had
been shed there, the only equivalent received was an ac¬
knowledgment of William’s title by the king of France.
The king being now freed from foreign war, set himself
to strengthen his authority at home; and as he could not
endure the thoughts of a king without an army, he con¬
ceived hopes of keeping up, in time of peace, those forces
which had been granted him during the time of danger.
The Commons, however, to his great mortification, passed
a vote that all the forces in the pay of England, exceed¬
ing seven thousand men, should be forthwith disbanded,
and that those retained should be natural-born subjects of
England. At this vote the king’s indignation was kindled
to such a degree, that he actually conceived a design of
abandoning the government. From this, however, his
ministers diverted him, and persuaded him to consent to
the passing of the bill.
These altercations continued during the remainder of
this reign. William considered the Commons as a body
of men desirous of power for themselves, and consequently
bent upon obstructing all his projects for securing the li¬
berties of Europe ; and he seemed but little attached to
any particular party in the house, all of whom he found
at times deserted or opposed him. He therefore inclined
to Whigs and Tories indiscriminately, as interest or the
immediate exigency demanded. He considered England
as a place of labour, anxiety, and altercation. If he had
any time for amusement or relaxation, he retired to Loo
in Holland, where, among a few friends, he indulged in
such festivities as he was capable of relishing. Here he
planned the succession of the diflerent princes of Europe,
and laboured to undermine the schemes and the power of
Louis, his rival in politics and fame. But however feeble
might be Williams desire of other amusements, he could
scarcely exist without being at variance with France.
Peace had hardly been concluded with that nation when
he began to think of resources for carrying on a new war, Reign of
and enlisting his English subjects in a confederacy against Queen
France. Several arts were used for inducing the people
to second his aims; and the whole nation seemed at last
to join in desiring a French war. He had been in Hol¬
land concerting with his allies operations for a new cam¬
paign ; and he had entered into a negociation with the
Prince of Hesse, who assured him that if he would be¬
siege and take Cadiz, the admiral of Castile and several
other grandees of Spain would declare for the house of
Austria. The Elector of Hanover had concurred in the
same measures; the king of the Romans, and Prince
Louis of Baden, undertook to invest Landau; and the
emperor promised to send a powerful reinforcement into
Italy. But death unexpectedly put a period to the pro¬
jects and ambition of this prince, who, with all his defects,
was, in many particulars, a truly great man.
William was naturally of a very feeble constitution;
and by this time it had become almost quite exhausted
by a series of continual disquietude and action. He had
endeavoured to repair his strength, or at least to conceal
its decay, by exercise on horseback. But on the 21st of
February 1702, whilst riding to Hampton Court from Ken¬
sington, his horse fell under him, and he was thrown with
such violence that his collar-bone was fractured. His
attendants conveyed him to the palace at Hampton Court,
where the fracture was reduced; and in the evening he
returned to Kensington in his coach. But the jolting of
the carriage disunited the fracture ; and although the bones
were again replaced by Bidloo his physician, this accident
proved ultimately fatal. For some time indeed he ap¬
peared to be in a fair way of recovery; but falling asleep
in his couch, he was seized with a shivering, which ter¬
minated in a fever and diarrhoea, that resisted all remedial
means employed to abate them. Perceiving his end ap¬
proaching, he exhibited another example of the ruling pas¬
sion strong in death. The objects of his former care lay
nearest his heart; and the fate of Europe seemed to ren¬
der him insensible to his own. The Earl of Albemarle ar¬
riving from Holland, he conferred with him in private on
the posture of affairs abroad ; and having received the sa¬
crament from Archbishop Tennison, he expired on Sunday
the 8th of March, having lived fifty-two years, and reign¬
ed thirteen. William was in his person of the middle sta¬
ture ; his body was slender and his constitution delicate.
Fie had an aquiline nose, sparkling eyes, a large forehead,
and a grave solemn aspect. He left behind him the cha¬
racter of a great politician, though he had never been po¬
pular ; and of an able general, though he had seldom been
victorious. His deportment was grave, phlegmatic, and
sullen ; nor did he ever show any fire or animation except
in the day of battle. On such occasions he was all life,
gaiety, energy, and alacrity. At the last moment, when
his mind was otherwise oppressed, he retained a just sense
of religion, and seemed impressed with anxiety for the wel¬
fare of his subjects. He lay quietly and composed, with
his eyes fixed upon heaven; and when his speech failed
him, he appeared so resigned that no man could die either
better prepared or with greater constancy and piety, than
this prince, whose memory will ever be respected by the
lovers of rational liberty.
CHAP. IX.
REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.
Accession of Anne—State of parties—War declared against
France Duke of Marlborough appointed general—His suc¬
cess in his first Campaign—Losses sustained at sea—Gallantry
and death of Admiral Benbow—Continental army increased—
BRITAIN.
447
Further successes of Marlborough—French defeated at Blen¬
heim—Gibraltar taken.—French defeated at sea Ineffectual
attempt of the Spaniards to recover Gibraltar Charles declar¬
ed king of Spain—War of the Succession—Barcelona taken 
French defeated at Itamillies—The King of France sues for
peace—Change in the councils of Queen Anne English de¬
feated at Almanza—Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovel 
Union between Scotland and England—The articles violently
opposed in Scotland—Effects of this measure Dissolution of
the Scottish Privy Council—French defeated at Oudenarde.
—Battle of Malplaquet—Last Campaign of Marlborough 
Forces Villars to quit his lines without striking a blow Cap¬
ture of Bouchain—Marlborough dismissed from all his employ¬
ments—Peace of Utrecht—Attempt to dissolve the Union 
Intrigues of the Whigs and Tories—Death of Queen Anne.
William was succeeded by the Princess Anne, who had
married George, Prince of Denmark. She ascended the
throne in the thirty-eighth year of her age, to the ge¬
neral satisfaction of all parties. William had died on the
eve of a war with France ; and the present queen, who
was generally guided by the advice of her ministry on
every important occasion, was now urged by opposite
councils, one part of the ministry being inclined for war
and another for peace. At the head of those who opposed
a war with France was the Earl of Rochester, lord lieuten¬
ant of Ireland, first cousin to the queen, and the chief of
the Tory faction ; whilst the opposite party was led by the
Earl, afterwards Duke, of Marlborough, and subsequently
so much and justly renowned for his victories over the
French. After both parties had given their opinions, that
of Marlborough preponderated. The queen resolved to
declare war; and having communicated her intentions to
the House of Commons, by whom it was approved, war
was proclaimed accordingly. In this declaration Louis was
taxed with having taken possession of a great part of the
Spanish dominions; with a design to invade the liberties
of Europe, and to obstruct the freedom of navigation and
commerce ; with having offered an unpardonable insult to
the queen and her throne, by acknowledging the title of the
pretender ; and with attempting to unite Spain to his own
dominions, by placing his grandson upon the throne of
that kingdom, and thus endeavouring to destroy the ba¬
lance of power that subsisted among the states of Europe.
This declaration of war on the part of England was second¬
ed by similar manifestoes by the Dutch and Germans.
Louis XIV., whose power had been greatly circumscrib¬
ed by William, expected, on the death of the latter, to
enter on a field open for new conquests and fame. At the
news of the English monarch’s death, therefore, he could
not suppress his satisfaction; whilst the people of Paris,
and indeed throughout the whole kingdom, testified their
joy in the most public manner. The French monarch
was filled with indignation at seeing such a combination
against him ; but his resentment fell chiefly on the Dutch,
and he declared with great emotion, that as for those gen¬
tlemen pedlars, they should one day repent their insolence
and presumption in declaring war against him, whose power
they had formerly felt and dreaded. By these threats,
however, the affairs of the allies were no way influenced.
Marlborough was appointed general of the British forces,
and by the Dutch he was chosen generalissimo of the al¬
lied army; and indeed his subsequent conduct showed
that no person could possibly have been chosen with
greater propriety. He had learned the rudiments of war
under Turenne, having served as a volunteer in his army;
and that celebrated commander had prognosticated his
future greatness.
The first attempt which Marlborough made to deviate
from the general practice of the army was to advance the
subaltern officers, whose merits had hitherto been neglect¬
ed. Regardless of seniority, wherever he found ability
Reign of
Queen
Anne.
1702
he was sure to promote it; and thus all the upper ranks
of command were filled with men rather remarkable for
their skill and talents than for their age and experience.
In his first campaign, in the beginning of July 1702, he
repaired to the camp at Nimeguen, where he found him¬
self at the head of sixty thousand men, well provided with
all necessaries, and long disciplined by the best officers of
the age. He was opposed on the part of France by the
Duke of Burgundy, a youth of very little experience in
the art of war; but the real acting general was Marshal
Boufflers, the second in command, an officer of courage and
activity. But wherever Marlborough advanced, the French
were obliged to retire before him, leaving all Spanish
Guelderland at his discretion. The Duke of Burgundy,
finding himself obliged to retreat before the allied army,
rather than expose himself longer to such a mortifying
indignity, returned to Versailles, leaving Boufflers to com¬
mand alone. The latter then retired to Brabant; and
Marlborough ended the campaign by taking the city of
Liege, in which he found an immense sum of money and
a great number of prisoners.
This good fortune seemed to console the nation for
some unsuccessful expeditions at sea. Sir John Munden
having permitted a French squadron of fourteen ships to
escape him by taking shelter in the harbour of Corunna,
was dismissed the service. An attempt was made upon
Cadiz by sea and land, Sir George Rooke commanding the
navy, and the Duke of Ormond the land forces; but this
also miscarried. At Vigo, however, the British arms were
attended with better success; and the French fleet which
had taken refuge there were burned in order to prevent
their falling into the hands of the English, whilst ten ships
of war were taken, together with eleven galleons, and
above a million of money in silver. In the West Indies,
Admiral Benbow, who had been stationed with ten ships
to distress the enemy’s trade, having received information
that Du Casse the French admiral was in those seas with a
force equal to his own, resolved to attack him ; and having
discovered the enemy’s squadron near St Martha steering
along the shore, he quickly gave the necessary orders to
his captains, and forming the line of battle, began the ac¬
tion. But the rest of the fleet having taken some causeless
disgust at his conduct, permitted the admiral to sustain,
almost alone, the whole fire of the enemy. Nevertheless,
the engagement continued till night, and he determined
to renew it next morning; but he had the mortification to
perceive that all the rest of his ships had fallen back ex¬
cept one, who joined him in urging the pursuit of the
enemy. During four days this intrepid seaman, assisted
by only one ship, pursued and fought the enemy, whilst
his dastardly officers remained at a secure distance. In
the last day’s battle, which was more furious than any of
the preceding conflicts, the admiral’s leg was shattered by
a cannon-ball, and he himself died soon after of his wounds.
Two of his associates were shot on their arrival in Eng¬
land ; one died on his passage home; and the remainder
were justly disgraced.
The next parliament, which was convened by the queen,
evinced great satisfaction at the success of the British
arms on the Continent. The House of Commons, com¬
posed chiefly of Tories, voted forty thousand seamen, and
the like number of land forces, to act in conjunction with
those of the allies. But soon afterwards the queen inform¬
ed her parliament that she was pressed by the allies to
augment her forces ; and upon this it was resolved that ten
thousand more men should be added to the continental
army; on condition, however, that the Dutch should im¬
mediately break off all commerce with France and Spain.
In the beginning of April 1703 the Duke of Marl¬
borough crossed the sea, and assembling the allied army,
Reign of
Queen
Anne.
1702.
BRITAIN.
448
Reign of opened the campaign with the siege of Bonn, the residence
Queen 0f the Elector of Cologne, which held out but a short time.
Anne. next retook Huy, the garrison of which, after a vigo-
rous defence, surrendered prisoners of war. Limburg was
then besieged, and surrendered in two days; and the cam¬
paign concluded by securing the country of Liege, the elec¬
torate of Cologne, and the Lower Rhine, against the de¬
signs of the enemy.
In the campaign of 1704, the Duke of Marlborough, hav¬
ing informed the Dutch of his intention to march to the
relief of the empire, which had been for some time op¬
pressed by the French forces, the states gave him full
powers to act as he thought proper, with assurances of as¬
sistance in all his efforts. The French king, finding Bouf-
flers no longer capable of opposing Marlborough, appoint¬
ed the Marshal de Villeroi to command in his room. But
Marlborough, having no great fears from Villeroi, immedi¬
ately marched to the assistance of the emperor. Taking
with him about thirteen thousand British troops, he ad¬
vanced by rapid marches to the banks of the Danube, de¬
feated a body of French and Bavarians stationed at Do-
nawerth to oppose him, and, passing the river, laid under
contribution the electorate of Bavaria, which had taken part
with the enemy. Villeroi, who at first had attempted to fol¬
low his motions, soon lost sight of him ; nor was the French
commander apprised of his route till informed of his suc¬
cesses. But, in the mean time, Marshal Tallard prepared
by another line to obstruct Marlborough’s retreat, with an
army of thirty thousand men ; and being soon after joined
by the forces of the Elector of Bavaria, the French army
in that part of the Continent amounted to sixty thousand
veterans, commanded by two generals then reputed the
best in France. To oppose this powerful force the Duke of
Marlborough formed a junction with a body of thirty thou¬
sand men under the celebrated Prince Eugene ; so that,
with this reinforcement, the allied army amounted to about
fifty-two thousand combatants. After various marches and
countermarches, the two armies met at Blenheim. The
French, under Tallard, were posted upon a hill near the
town of Hochstet, having their right covered by the Da¬
nube and the village of Blenheim, their left by the village of
Lutzengen, and their front by a rivulet, the sides of which
were steep and the bottom marshy; and in this strong
position they seemed to bid defiance to their adversaries.
But Marlborough and Eugene, having carefully examined
the ground, resolved to attack them, and accordingly ad¬
vanced upon the plain in front of their position. The bat¬
tle began by a cannonade on both sides, which lasted from
nine in the morning until half an hour after mid-day. At
this moment Marlborough, who had completed all his dis¬
positions, crossed the rivulet at the head of the English,
and attacked the cavalry of Tallard on the right, while that
officer was engaged in reviewing his troops on the left.
An hour elapsed, however, before Prince Eugene could
bring up his forces to attack the other wing of the enemy
commanded by the Elector of Bavaria; but, during this
time, Marlborough’s attack had been completely success¬
ful ; and when Tallard repaired to the scene of action he
found that the French cavalry had been thrice repulsed.
He then attempted to lead to the charge a large body of
troops which he had posted in the village ; but these be¬
ing furiously assailed by a strong detachment of English
troops, were scarcely able to maintain their ground, while
the French, taken in flank and in reverse, were totally
defeated. This success led to a movement which proved
completely decisive. Penetrating between the two wings
of the French army, through the space left open by the
defeat of the cavalry, the English troops effected a total
separation between them, whilst the large force impru¬
dently posted in the village of Blenheim had its commu¬
nications intercepted by another strong detachment. In Reign of
this situation Tallard flew to rally some of his squadrons; Queen
but, being short-sighted, he mistook a Hessian for a French
corps, and was made prisoner. On the left Prince Eugene
had encountered a vigorous resistance and been thrice re-
pulsed; but, having received some reinforcements from
Marlborough, he at last succeeded in dislodging the ene-
my opposed to him. The battle was now won. The French
fled in the utmost confusion, whilst the corps of thirteen
thousand men which occupied Blenheim were surrounded
and made prisoners. About twelve thousand French and
Bavarians were killed on the field or drowned in the
Danube ; whilst one hundred colours, two hundred stand¬
ards, three thousand tents, all the baggage, and the mili¬
tary chest of the French army, formed the trophies of this
glorious day. Of the allies not less than thirteen thou¬
sand were killed, wounded, or missing; but the conquer¬
ors by the victory gained a territory of a hundred leagues
in extent, and inflicted a blow on the power of France
from which it did not soon recover. Having finished the
campaign, the duke repaired to Berlin, where he procured
a reinforcement of eight thousand Prussians to serve un¬
der Prince Eugene in Italy, and then proceeded to nego-
ciate for succours at the court of Hafiover ; after which he
returned to England, and was received with every possible
demonstration of joy. The manor of Woodstock was con¬
ferred upon him ; and the lord-keeper, in the name of the
Peers, honoured him with the praises which his talents
and conduct had so well merited.
Nor were the arms of Britain less fortunate by sea than
by land. The town of Gibraltar was taken by the Prince
of Hesse and Sir George Rooke ; but so little wras the
value of the conquest at that time understood, that it was
for some time debated whether the admiral should be
thanked for making it, and at last it was considered as
unworthy of public gratitude. Soon after, the British
fleet, to the number of fifty-three ships of the line, came
up with that of France, consisting of fifty-two men of war,
commanded by the Count de Toulouse, off the coast of
Malaga. The battle began at ten in the forenoon, and
continued with great fury for six hours, when the van of
the French began to give way. The British admiral for
two days attempted to renew the engagement; but this
was cautiously declined by the French, who at last disap¬
peared totally. Both sides claimed the victory, although
the result showed that it was in favour of the British.
Meanwhile the Spaniards, alarmed at the capture of Gib¬
raltar, sent the Marquis of Villadurias with a large army
to retake it. France also dispatched a fleet of thirteen
ships of the line ; but some of them parted company in a
gale, and others were taken by the British. Nor was the
land force more successful. The siege continued for four
months, during which time the Spaniards repeatedly at¬
tempted in vain to scale the rock; and at last, losing all
hopes of taking the place, they were contented to draw off
their men and abandon the enterprise.
Whilst the British were thus victorious by land and
sea, a new scene of contention was opened on the side of
Spain. Philip V. grandson of Louis XIV. had been raised
to the throne of that kingdom, having been nominated as
successor to the crown by the late king of Spain’s will.
But in a former treaty among the powers of Europe,
Charles, son of the emperor of Germany, was appointed
heir to that crown ; and this treaty had been guaranteed
by France herself, although she now resolved to recal that
consent in favour of a descendant of the house of Bour¬
bon. Charles was still further led to urge his pretensions
to the crown of Spain by the invitation of the Catalonians,
who declared in his favour, and promised, with the assist¬
ance of the British and Portuguese, to arm in his cause.
BRITAIN.
Reign of On his way to his new dominions, he landed in England,
Queen where, on his arrival, he was received by the Dukes of
Anne. Somerset and Marlborough ; kindly greeted by the queen ;
and furnished with two hundred transports, thirty ships of
war, and nine thousand men, under the command of the
Earl of Peterborough, a man of romantic bravery and
high military genius. The first attempt of this general
was on the city of Barcelona, at that time defended by a
garrison of five thousand men. The fort of Monjuic, situ¬
ated on a hill which commanded the city, was attacked;
and the outworks being taken by storm, as well as the
powder-magazine blown up, the fort surrendered, and in a
short time afterwards the city capitulated. The conquest of
all Valencia succeeded the capture of Barcelona; Charles
became master of Aragon, Carthagena, Grenada, and
Madrid ; and the British general having entered the capi¬
tal in triumph, there proclaimed Charles king of Spain,
without opposition.
These successes, however, wrere soon eclipsed by the
victories of the Duke of Marlborough, which alone en¬
grossed public attention. In 1706 he opened the cam¬
paign with an army of eighty thousand men. The army
of Villeroi, in the vicinity of Tirlemont, was of nearly
equal strength, and he had orders to attack the allies be¬
fore the Danish and Prussian contingents could join. But,
whilst it was his intention to become the assailant, Ville¬
roi was himself attacked, in a position which prevented
his developing the whole of his force. He had the river
Mehaigne on his flank, and his centre occupied the vil¬
lage of Ramillies, while a marsh covered his left. Marl¬
borough skilfully availed himself of the disposition made
by his antagonist; and knowing that Villeroi’s left was
paralysed by reason of the marsh in front, which effectual¬
ly prevented its acting on the offensive, he directed his
principal attack upon the centre, which formed the key of
the position. The issue of the conflict was never for a
moment doubtful; the village was carried in the most
gallant style, and both wings being at once separated and
turned, a complete rout ensued. About six thousand
French were made prisoners, and upwards of eight thou¬
sand killed or wounded. The whole of Brabant became
the reward of the victors. The French troops were now
dispirited ; the city of Paris was in confusion ; and Louis,
who had long been flattered with conquest, was humbled
to such a degree as almost to excite the compassion even
of his enemies. He sued for peace, but in vain; the
allies carried all before them; and his capital began to
dread the approach of the conquerors. But what neither
his armies nor his politics could effect, was brought about
by the intrigues of a party in England. The dissensions
between the Whigs and Tories saved France, which now
seemed tottering on the very brink of ruin.
The councils of the queen had hitherto been governed
by a Whig ministry; for though the Duke of Marlborough
began his career in the interest of the opposite party,
he soon joined the Whigs, whom he found most sincere
in the design of humbling France. The people, however,
were now in fact beginning to change their sentiments, and
to imbibe the slavish spirit of Toryism. The queen’s per¬
sonal virtues, her successes, her deference for the clergy,
and their great veneration for her, all contributed to give
her great influence with the nation. Persons of every
rank were not ashamed to defend the most servile tenets,
when these tended to flatter or increase the power of the
sovereign, and to argue in favour of strict hereditary suc¬
cession, divine right, and non-resistance to the regal power.
The Tories, though joining in vigorous measures against
France, were never very ardent enemies of that country;
but they secretly hated the Dutch, and longed for an op¬
portunity of breaking with that people. With this view
yol. v.
449
they began to meditate schemes of opposition to the Duke Reign of
of Marlborough, whom they represented as an interested Queen
man, who sacrificed the real interests of the nation, in ,
protracting a ruinous war, for his own private emolument
and glory; and as the country was oppressed with a load /
of taxes, which a continuance of the war would inevitably
increase, discontent began to spread, and the Tories wanted
only a few determined leaders to assist them in removing
the present ministry.
In the meanwhile, a succession of losses began to dissi¬
pate the conquering mania which had seized the nation,
and to incline them to wish for peace. The Earl of Gal¬
way, who commanded the English army in Spain, was
completely defeated at Almanza by the Duke of Berwick ;
and in consequence of this victory all Spain, except the
province of Catalonia, returned to their duty to Philip as
their lawful sovereign. An attempt was made upon Tou¬
lon by the Duke of Savoy and Prince Eugene by land,
and an English fleet by sea; but to no purpose. The fleet
under Sir Cloudesley Shovel, having set sail for England,
was driven by a violent storm on the rocks of Scilly, where
his own ship was lost, and every person on board perished ;
while three more ships met with the same fate, and four
others were saved with the utmost difficulty. In Germany,
Marshal Villars carried all before him, and was upon the
point of restoring the Elector of Bavaria. The only hopes
of the people lay in the activity and conduct of the Duke
of Marlborough, who opened the campaign of 1707, about
the middle of May ; but even here they were disappointed.
The duke declined an engagement; and, after a variety
of marches and countermarches, both armies retired into
winter quarters about the end of October. The French
made vigorous preparations for the next campaign; and
the duke returned to England to meet with a reception
which he did not at all expect, and which he certainly did
not deserve.
The most remarkable transaction of this year, and in¬
deed of this whole reign, was the union between the two
kingdoms of Scotland and England. Though governed
by one sovereign since the time of James I. of England,
yet each nation had continued to be ruled by its respec¬
tive parliament, and often professed to pursue interests
opposite to those of its neighbour. The union had often
been unsuccessfully attempted before, and had indeed
been the cause of the bloody wars in the times of Edward I.
and Edward III. of England. In all the former proposals
on that head, both nations were supposed to remain free
and independent; each kingdom having its own parlia¬
ment, and being subject only to such taxes and other
commercial regulations as those parliaments judged expe¬
dient for the benefit of their respective states. But after
the destruction of the Darien colony in the manner al¬
ready related, King William had endeavoured to allay the
national ferment by resuming the affair of a union with
as much assiduity as his warlike occupations would allow.
The terms proposed were the same with those formerly ten¬
dered ; namely, a federal union, somewhat like that of the
states of Holland. With this view the Scots were prevail¬
ed on to send twenty commissioners to London, who, with
twenty-three on the part of England, assembled at White¬
hall in the month of October 1702. Here they were ho¬
noured with a visit from the queen, in order to enliven their
proceedings and stimulate them to the more speedy dis¬
patch of business ; but the treaty was entirely broken off at
this time by the Scottish commissioners insisting that the
rights and privileges of their countrymen trading to Africa
and the Indies should be preserved and maintained. It
was, however, resumed in the year 1706, when the com¬
missioners again assembled on the 16th of April, in the
council chamber of Whitehall. The Scottish commissioners
3 L
450 BRITAIN.
Reign of still proposed a federal union ; but the English were deter-
Queen ruined on an incorporation, which should not afterwards
be dissolved by a Scottish parliament. Nothing but this,
they said, could settle a perfect and lasting friendship be-
/ ’ twixt the two nations. The commissioners from Scotland,
however, continued to resist the article which subjected
their country to the same customs, excises, and regula¬
tions of trade as England ; but the queen being persuaded
to pay two visits in person to the commissioners, exerted
herself so vigorously, that a majority was at last gained
over; and all the rest yielded, though with reluctance,
excepting Lockhart of Carnwath, who could not by any
means be persuaded either to sign or seal the treaty.
The articles being fully prepared on the 22d of July,
were presented next day to her majesty by the lord-keeper
in the name of the English commissioners; and at the
same time a sealed copy of the instrument was deliver¬
ed by the lord chancellor of Scotland. The articles were
most graciously received; and the same day the queen
dictated an order of council, threatening with prosecution
such as should be concerned in any discourse or libel, or
in laying wagers, with regard to the union. But notwith¬
standing all this harmony the treaty w'as received with the
utmost disapprobation in Scotland. The terms had been
carefully concealed, so that nothing transpired till the whole
was at once laid before parliament. The ferment then
became general; and all ranks of people, however divid¬
ed in other respects, united against this detested treaty.
The nobility and gentry wrere exasperated at the annihi¬
lation of parliament, and the consequent loss of their in¬
fluence and credit. The body of the people cried out,
that the independence of the nation was sacrificed to
treachery and corruption; and insisted, that the obligations
laid on their members to stay so long at London, in their
attendance on the British pai'liament, would drain the
country of its money, impoverish the members themselves,
and subject them to the temptation of being corrupted.
Nor was the commercial part of the people better satis¬
fied. The dissolution of the India Company; the taxes
laid on the necessaries of life; and the vast number of
duties, customs, and restrictions, laid upon trade, were all
of them matter of complaint. Before this time Scotland
had traded freely to the Levant, the Baltic, France, Spain,
Portugal, Holland, and the Dutch plantations; and it
seemed difficult to conceive how the commerce of the
country could be advanced by laying restrictions upon
it in regard to these places, especially as the compensa¬
tion allowed, namely, the privilege of trading to the Eng¬
lish plantations in America, formed a very trifling advan¬
tage, seeing that the amount of the whole exports to these
places did not by any means equal the expense of defend¬
ing them. The most violent disputes took place in the
parliament. Lord Belhaven delivered a most pathetic
speech, in which, enumerating the miseries that would
attend this treaty, he drew tears from the audience, and
uttered many prognostications, which to this day are reck¬
oned prophetic by many of the Scottish nation. Almost
every article of the treaty was the subject of a protest; and
addresses against it were presented to parliament by the
convention of royal burghs, the commissioners of the gene¬
ral assembly, and the company trading to Africa and the
Indies, as wrell as from shires, stewartries, burghs, towns,
and parishes, without distinction of Whig, Tory, Presbyte¬
rian, or Episcopalian. Nor was the resentment of the com¬
mon people without doors less violent than that of the
members within. A coalition was formed between the
Presbyterians and Cavaliers ; and to such a height did the
resentment of the people rise, that they actually chose
officers, formed themselves into regiments, provided horses
and ammunition, burnt the articles of union, justified their
conduct by a public declaration, and resolved to take the Reign o!
route to Edinburgh and dissolve the parliament. Queen
In the mean time the privy council issued a proclama- v Anne,
tion against riots, commanding all persons to retire from
the streets whenever the drum was beat; ordering the
guards to fire on those who disobeyed this command;
and indemnifying them from all prosecution for maiming
or slaying the lieges. But even these precautions were
insufficient. The Duke of Queensberry, the chief pro¬
moter of the union, though guarded by double lines of
horse and foot, was obliged to pass through the streets
at full gallop, amidst the curses and imprecations of the
populace, who pelted his guards, and even wounded some
of the persons who attended him in the coach. In oppo¬
sition to all this fury, the friends of the measure magni¬
fied the advantages that would accrue to the kingdom
from the union ; they abated the resentment of the clergy,
by promoting the insertion in the treaty of an act by which
the Presbyterian discipline was declared to be the only
government of the church of Scotland, unalterable in all
succeeding times, and a fundamental article of the union.
Emissaries were also employed to disunite the Camero-
nians and the Cavaliers, by demonstrating the absurdity,
sinfulness, and danger, of such a proceeding. The India
Company was flattered with the prospect of an indemni¬
fication for the losses they had sustained, and individuals
by sharing an equivalent. And the last manoeuvre con¬
sisted in bringing over a party in the Scottish parlia¬
ment, nicknamed the Squadrone Volante, from their fluc¬
tuating between the ministry and the opposition, without
attaching themselves to any party till the critical moment,
which was either to cement both kingdoms by a firm
union, or involve them in the calamities of war. By this
unexpected stroke, the ministry obtained a decisive vic¬
tory, and all opposition was henceforth vain. The articles
of treaty were ratified by parliament, with some trifling
variations, on the 25th of March 1707; when the Duke of
Queensberry finally dissolved that ancient assembly, and
Scotland ceased to be a separate independent kingdom.
On the conclusion of the treaty, the queen informed both
houses of parliament that the treaty of union, with some
additions and alterations, was ratified by an act of the par¬
liament of Scotland; that she had ordered it to be laid
before them, hoping it would meet their approbation ; that
they had now an opportunity of putting the last hand to
a happy union of the two kingdoms; and that she would
look upon it as a particular happiness if this great work, so
often attempted before without success, could be brought
to perfection in her reign. Objections, however, were
started by the Tory party; but they were at that time too
weak to be heard with any attention; and all their argu¬
ments were answered with such success by the opposite
party, that the union was unalterably completed on the
first of May 1707, and the island took the name of The
United Kingdom of Great Britain.
In this treaty it must be observed, that the commission¬
ers on the part of England were not only able statesmen,
but, for the most part, well skilled in trade; which gave
them an evident advantage over those of Scotland, who
consisted of lords and gentlemen who had no commercial
knowledge. Hence they were overmatched by the for¬
mer in the great objects which are more immediately con¬
nected with national prosperity; though they were very
careful to preserve all their heritable offices, superiorities,
jurisdictions, and other privileges and trappings of the
feudal aristocracy. Had the English commissioners made
a liberal use of the advantages afforded them at this time,
it would have been in their power to have greatly enrich¬
ed themselves as well as the inhabitants of Scotland ; but
instead of this they were influenced by the narrow and
BRITAIN.
451
Anne.
170a.
Reign of short-sighted principle of commercial monopoly; and the
Queen consequences were such as might, with a small degree of
reflection, have been foreseen.
In 1708 there was a warm debate in a grand committee
of the House of Lords, occasioned by a bill passed by the
Commons for rendering the union of the two kingdoms
more entire and complete, by which it was enacted, that,
from the first of May 1708, there should be but one privy
council in the kingdom of Britain. The arguments for
the dissolution of the privy council of Scotland were, its
enormous stretches of power and acts of cruelty, and the
circumstance that it could now be of no other use in Scot¬
land except to enable the court to govern every thing at
pleasure, and procure such members of parliament as it
thought proper. The dissolution, however, was carried by
fifty against forty, after which the nation, deprived of this
last fragment of its ancient government, was thrown into
a ferment by the opponents of the union; but after an in¬
effectual attempt in favour of the pretender, animosities
began to subside.
We must now return to the Duke of Marlborough, who
had gone over to Flanders to open the campaign. Peace
had been more than once offered, and treaties entered
upon, but as often frustrated. After the battle of Ramil-
lies, the king of France had employed the Elector of Ba¬
varia to write letters in his name to the Duke of Marlbo¬
rough, containing proposals for opening a congress, and
offering to renounce either Spain and its dominions, or
the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, to Charles of Austria,
and to concede a barrier to the Dutch in the Netherlands.
But these terms were rejected ; and the two armies once
more met in nearly equal numbers at Oudenarde, on the
Scheldt, wrhere an engagement ensued, in which the French
were defeated with immense loss; and Lisle, the strong¬
est town in Flanders, with Ghent, Bruges, and all the
other towns in that country, soon after fell into the hands
of the victors. In this battle the electoral prince of Ha¬
nover, afterwards George II. of Britain, greatly distin¬
guished himself, and had the merit of conducting the first
attack. His horse was killed under him, and Colonel
Luschki was slain close by his side. The campaign ended
with fixing a barrier to the Dutch provinces, and it now
only remained to force a way into the provinces of the
enemy.
The French king, being now in a manner reduced to
despair, again sued for peace; but the demands of the
allies were so high, that he was obliged to reject them, and
prepare for another campaign, in the year 1709. The first
attempt of the allies was against the city of Tournay, gar¬
risoned by twelve thousand men, and exceedingly strong
both by nature and art. After a terrible siege of twenty-
one days, the town capitulated; and a month afterwards
the citadel, which was still stronger than the town, surren¬
dered. Next followed the bloody battle of Malplaquet,
where the allied army, consisting of a hundred and ten
thousand men, attacked the French, consisting of a hun¬
dred and twenty thousand, strongly posted, and fortified
in such a manner behind the woods of La Merte and Ta-
nieres, with triple entrenchments, that their position seem¬
ed quite impregnable. Nothing, however, could resist the
energy of Marlborough and the bravery of his troops. The
French were driven from all their positions, and totally
defeated. But the victory cost the allies very dear ; for
twenty thousand of their best troops lay dead or wounded
on the field of battle. The consequence of this victory
was the surrender of the city of Mons, which ended the
campaign.
The last campaign of the Duke of Marlborough, which
happened in the year 1711, probably excelled all his for¬
mer exploits. He was opposed by Marshal Villars, who
Anne.
1713.
had commanded the French in the battle of Malplaquet; Reign of
but he contrived his measures so, that, by marching and Queen
countermarching, he, without striking a blow, forced the
enemy to quit a strong line of entrenchments, which he
afterwards took possession of. This enterprise was follow¬
ed by the taking of Bouchain, which was the last military
achievement of this great general. By a continuation of
conduct and success almost unparalleled, he had gained
to the allies a prodigious tract of country. From the be¬
ginning of the war, which had now continued nine years,
he had perpetually advanced, and never retreated before
his enemies, nor lost an advantage he had obtained over
them. He frequently gained possession of the enemy's
posts without fighting ; and where he was obliged to attack,
no fortifications wei’e able to resist him. He had never
besieged a city which he did not take, nor fought a battle
which he did not win. Thus the allies had reduced under
their command Spanish Guelderland, Limburg, Brabant,
Flanders, and Hainault; they were masters of the Scarpe ;
the capture of Bouchain had opened for them a way into
the very heart of France ; and another campaign might
have made them masters of Paris. But on the duke’s re¬
turn from this campaign, he was accused of having taken
a bribe of six thousand pounds a year from a Jew who had
contracted to supply the army with bread; and the queen
thought proper to dismiss him from all his employments.
On the removal of this great general, the command of
the British forces was conferred on the Duke of Ormond.
The transactions which followed are by no means credit¬
able to the character of the British nation. The people at
large, blinded by a headstrong and furious clergy, wished
to revive the ceremonies of the Romish religion, and to
unite the English and Gallican churches; the general of
the army acted a most insidious part, by giving the enemy
intelligence of the designs of the allies before he had de¬
clared that he was not to act in concert with them; and
the queen herself commanded him to pursue this shameful
course, nay even acted in a similar manner herself. Prince
Eugene complained much of the inactivity of the English
general, though apparently unacquainted with his treach¬
ery ; whilst the whole army loaded him with execrations,
calling him a stupid tool, and a general of straw. All this,
however, was in vain; the duke continued to prefer the
commands of his sovereign to every other consideration,
and Ormond lost what Marlborough had gained.
The disgrace of the Duke of Marlborough had been
owing to the prevalence of the Tory party, who had now
got the Whig ministry turned out; and the consequence
was, that notwithstanding all the remonstrances and en¬
treaties of the allies, the British army in Flanders was or¬
dered not to act offensively. Hence the operations lan¬
guished, a considerable body of the allies was cut off at
Denain, and the French retook several towns. A peace,
however, was at last concluded in 1713 between France
and Britain. In this treaty it was stipulated that Philip,
now acknowledged as king of Spain, should renounce all
right to the crown of France, the union of two such pow¬
erful kingdoms being thought dangerous to the liberties
of Europe. It was agreed that the Duke de Berri, Philip’s
brother, and next after him in succession, should also re¬
nounce his right to the crown of Spain in case he became
king of France. And it was stipulated that the Duke of Sa¬
voy should possess the island of Sicily with the title of king,
together with Fenestrelles, and other places on the Conti¬
nent; and this increase of dominion was in some measure
provided out of the spoils of the French monarchy. The
Dutch had the barrier granted them which they so much
desired ; and if the crown of France was deprived of some
dominions to enrich the Duke of Savoy, the house of Aus¬
tria was also taxed to supply the wants of the Hollanders,
452 B R I T A I N,
Reign of who were put in possession of the strongest towns in Flan-
Queen ders. The fortifications of Dunkirk were demolished.
L Anne. ^ Spain gave up Gibraltar and the island of Minorca. France
resigned her pretensions to Hudson’s Bay, Nova Scotia,
and Newfoundland, but was left in possession of Cape Bre¬
ton, with the liberty of drying fish upon the shore. Among
the articles creditable to the British nation, their setting
free the French Protestants confined in the prisons and
galleys for their religion was not the least meritorious.
In behalf of the emperor, it was stipulated that he should
possess the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of Milan, and
the Spanish Netherlands; and the king of Prussia was
to have Upper Guelderland. A period was fixed for the
emperor’s acceding to these articles, as he had for some
time obstinately refused to assist at the negociation. This
famous treaty was signed at Utrecht on the last day of
March 1713.
The same year was also remarkable for an attempt of the
Scottish Peers and Commons to dissolve the union, which,
as already stated, had proved exceedingly disagreeable
and distressful to the nation. During the debates on this
subject the Earl of Peterborough endeavoured to prove
the impossibility of dissolving the treaty; but the Duke of
Argyll, who had originally promoted the union, now de¬
clared against it, and said, that unless it were dissolved
he did not long expect to have either property in Scot¬
land or liberty in England. By some other Peers it was
alleged, that the union had not produced its intended
effect; that it had been designed to promote friendship
between the two nations; that, so far from answering this
purpose, the animosities between them were never so
great as then; and that if separated again they would be
better friends than in a state of nominal union and real
dissension. This motion was however overruled; but the
discontent of the people still continued; addresses were
prepared throughout the kingdom; and matters were in
danger of coming to the worst extremities, when the at¬
tempt of the pretender in 1715 so divided the minds of
the people that no unanimous effort could ever afterwards
be made for the repeal of the union.
The history of the latter portion of this reign consists en¬
tirely of the intrigues of the Whigs and Tories against each
other, which, as they are now of no importance whatever,
it is needless to take up time in relating, further than that
the Tory influence continued to prevail. Whether the
ministry at this time wished to alter the succession from
the Hanoverian line, cannot now be clearly ascertained;
but it is certain that the Whigs firmly believed it, and the
Tories but faintly denied the charge. The suspicions of the
former became every day stronger, particularly when they
saw a total removal of the Whigs from all places of trust
and confidence throughout the kingdom, and their employ¬
ments bestowed on professed Tories, supposed to be de¬
voted to the cause of unbroken hereditary succession.
The violent dissensions between these parties, with
their cabals and tumults, made the queen’s situation very
disagreeable; her health visibly declined. On the 28th of
July 1714 she fell into a lethargic insensibility; and, not¬
withstanding all the medicines prescribed by the physi¬
cians, the distemper gained ground so fast, that next day
her life was despaired of. The members of the privy coun¬
cil were now summoned from the different parts of the
kingdom, and began to provide for the security of the con¬
stitution. A letter was sent to the Elector of Hanover,
informing him of the queen’s desperate condition, and de¬
siring him to repair to Holland, where a British squadron
would attend to convey him to England; and instructions
were at the same time dispatched to the Earl of Strafford
at the Hague, to require the states-general to be prepared
to guarantee the Protestant succession. Precautions were
also taken to secure all the sea-ports; and the command Reign of
of the fleet was bestowed upon the Earl of Berkeley, a pro- George I.
fessed Whig. These measures answered a double purpose,
as they argued the alacrity of the Whigs in the cause of
their new sovereign, and seemed to imply that the state
was in danger from the disaffection of the opposite party.
On the 30th of July the queen seemed somewhat relieved
by the medicines which had been administered; and hav¬
ing risen from her bed about eight in the morning, she
walked a little ; but she was soon afterwards seized with an
apoplectic fit; and although she recovered somewhat by
the assistance of Dr Mead, she continued all night in a
state of stupefaction, and expired the following morning,
at seven, having lived forty-nine years, and reigned up¬
wards of twelve. This princess was remarkable neither
for learning nor capacity. Like all the rest of her family,
she seemed rather fitted for the duties of private life than
those of a public station, being a pattern of conjugal fide¬
lity, a good mother, a warm friend, and an indulgent mis¬
tress ; and to her honour it should be recorded, that du¬
ring her reign none suffered for treason on the scaffold.
In her ended the line of the Stuarts, a family who nei¬
ther rewarded their friends nor punished their enemies,
and whose misconduct and misfortunes are scarcely to be
paralleled in history.
CHAP. X.
REIGN OF GEORGE I.
Accession of George I—His arrival in England—Favour shown
by him to the Whigs—National Discontents—Dissolution of
Parliament—New one assembled—Its violent proceedings 
Rebellion in Scotland—Battle of Sheriffmuir.—Proceedings of
the Jacobites in England—Expedition of the Earl of Derwent-
water—Jacobites forced to surrender at Preston Ridiculous
schemes of the Pretender—He lands in Scotland without means,
and quits it without necessity—Cruel treatment of the rebels.
—Execution of Derwentwater and Kenmuir Escape of others
by various means—Duration of Parliaments extended Bri¬
tain threatened with invasion by Charles XII. of Sweden 
Quadruple Alliance—War with Spain.—Intended invasion by
the Spaniards defeated—Irish Parliament made dependent on
that of Britain—South Sea Scheme—Origin and nature of this
delusion—The Directors punished—Expedition of Admiral
Hosier.—Death of George I.
The queen had no sooner resigned her breath than the
privy council met, and three instruments wrere produced,
by which the Elector of Hanover appointed several of his
adherents to be added as lords justices to the great offi¬
cers of the kingdom. Orders were also issued out for pro¬
claiming George, son of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Bruns¬
wick, and of Sophia, grand-daughter of James I., king of
England, Scotland, and Ireland; and the regency appoint¬
ed the Earl of Dorset to carry to him the intimation of his
accession to the crown, and to attend him in his journey
to England.
The king landed at Greenwich, and walked to his house
in the park, accompanied by a great number of the no¬
bility and other persons of distinction. George I. was
fifty-four years of age when he ascended the British
throne; and his mature age, his experience and sagacity,
his numerous alliances, and the general tranquillity of Eu¬
rope, all contributed to establish his interests, and promise
him a peaceable and happy reign. His virtues, though
not shining, were solid; and he was of a very different
disposition from the Stuart family whom he succeeded;
for, soon after his arrival in England, he was heard to say,
“ My maxim is, never to abandon my friends, to do justice
to all the world, and to fear no man.” To these qualities
of resolution and perseverance he joined great application
BRITAIN.
Reign oi’ to business; but, unfortunately for England, he studied
George I. the interests of the territory he had left more than those
s-''‘Y~w/ of the kingdom he came to govern.
1714. The new king early discovered a natural enough incli¬
nation to support those who had raised him to the throne,
or, in other words, the Whig party. Immediately after
his landing, he sent for such of the nobility as had dis¬
tinguished themselves by their zeal for his succession.
He expressed the greatest regard for the Duke of Marl¬
borough, who had just then arrived from the Continent,
whither he had been driven by the violence of the Tories ;
and he professed the same friendship for the other lead¬
ers of the Whigs, while the Tories found themselves ex¬
cluded from the royal favour. The king did not seem
sensible that the monarch of a faction rules but one half
of his subjects ; and it was his misfortune to be surround¬
ed by men who, whilst they pretended to secure the crown
for the king, used all their arts to confirm their own inte¬
rests, extend their connections, and give laws to their so¬
vereign. In consequence of these partialities, the great¬
est discontent was excited throughout the whole king¬
dom. The Tories or Jacobites raised terrible outcries;
and had the pretender been a man of judgment or ability,
a fair opportunity now offered him of striking a decisive
blow. Instead of this, he remained a calm spectator on the
Continent, and only sent over his emissaries to disperse
ineffectual manifestoes and delude the unwary. At this
time the Catholic religion was much hated in England;
but the principles of the Dissenters were little, if at all,
more agreeable to the generality. The Tories affirmed
that, under a Whig administration, heresy and impiety
were daily gaining ground ; whilst the lower orders of the
clergy joined in these complaints, and pointed out several
tracts published in favour of Arianism and Socinianism.
The ministry, however, not only refused to punish the de¬
linquent's, but silenced the clergy themselves, and forbade
their future disputations on these topics.
The parliament having been dissolved, another was now
called by a very extraordinary proclamation, in which the
king complained of the evil designs of men disaffected
to his succession, and of their misrepresentations of his
conduct and principles; expressed his hopes that his sub¬
jects would send up to parliament the fittest persons to
redress the present disorders; and entreated that they
would elect such in particular as had expressed a firm at¬
tachment to the Protestant succession. In the election
of this important parliament, uncommon vigour was ex¬
erted on both sides; but by dint of the monied interest
which prevailed in corporations, and the activity of the
ministry, a great majority of Whigs was returned both in
England and Scotland. Upon the assembling of the new
parliament the most violent measures were resolved on
against the late ministry. A committee was appointed
to inspect all the papers relative to the recent treaty, and
to select such of them as might furnish grounds of accusa¬
tion against the former ministry; and the Earl of Oxford
was impeached of high treason, and sent to the Tower.
Nor was the violence of the Commons answered with less
vehemence without doors. Tumults became every day
more frequent, and each new ebullition served only to in¬
crease the severity of the legislature, which at length
passed an act, declaring, that if any persons to the num¬
ber of twelve, unlawfully assembled, should continue to¬
gether one hour after being required to disperse by a jus¬
tice of peace or other officer, and after hearing the act
against riots read in public, they should be deemed guilty
of felony without benefit of clergy. These proceedings
excited the indignation of the people, who perceived that
the avenues of royal favour were closed against all but a
faction; and a rebellion commenced in the sister kingdom,
453
where to other grievances was added that of the union, Reign of
which all considered as an oppression. The malcontents of George 1.
that country had all along maintained a correspondence
with their friends in England, and some of the Tory party D15*
who were attached to the Protestant religion, and of mo¬
derate principles in government, began to associate with
the Jacobites, and to wish in earnest for a revolution.
Scotland first showed them the example. The Earl of
Mar, assembling three hundred of his vassals in the High¬
lands, proclaimed the pretender at Castleton, and setting
up his standard at Braemar, assumed the title of Lieuten¬
ant-general of his Majesty’s Forces. To second these at¬
tempts, two vessels arrived from France with arms, ammu¬
nition, and a number of officers, together with assurances,
that the pretender himself would shortly come over to
head his own forces. In consequence of this promise, the
earl soon found himself at the head of ten thousand men
well armed and provided; and having secured the pass of
Tay at Perth, where his head-quarters were established,
he made himself master of the province of Fife, and the
whole sea-coast on that side of the Frith of Forth. He
then marched to Dumblane, as if with the intention of
crossing the Forth at Stirling Bridge ; but there he was in¬
formed that the Duke of Argyll, who had been appointed
commander-in-chief of all the forces in North Britain, was
advancing against him from Stirling with his own clan,
assisted by some troops from Ireland. Upon this he at
first judged it proper to retreat; but being soon afterwards
joined by reinforcements under the Earl of Seaforth, and
General Gordon, an experienced officer, who had signalis¬
ed himself in the Russian service, he resolved to face the
enemy, and directed his march towards the south. The
Duke of Argyll, apprised of his intentions, and anxious to
prove his attachment to the present government, resolved
to give him battle in the neighbourhood of Dumblane,
though his forces did not amount to half the number of
the enemy. Accordingly, in the morning he drew up his
army, which did not exceed four thousand men, in order
of battle ; but he soon found himself greatly outflanked by
the insurgents. The duke, therefore, perceiving the earl
making attempts to surround him, was forced to alter his
dispositions ; but, from the scarcity of general officers, this
was not done so expeditiously as to be completed before
the insurgents began the attack. The left wing of the
duke’s army received the centre of the enemy, and sup¬
porting the first charge without shrinking, seemed for
a time victorious. The chief of Clanronald was killed;
but Glengarry, who was second in command, waving his
bonnet and crying out “ Revenge !” animated the rebel
troops to such a degree, that they followed him close to
the points of the enemy’s bayonets, and got within their
guard, when a total rout ensued of that wing of the royal
army. General Witham, their commander, fled full speed
to Stirling, and gave out that the rebels were completely
victorious. But Argyll, who commanded in person on the
right, having in the meanwhile attacked the left of the
enemy, drove them before him for two miles, notwithstand¬
ing they often faced about and attempted to rally; and
having entirely broken and driven them over the river
Allan, he returned to the field of battle. Here, however,
to his great mortification, he found the enemy victorious,
and patiently waiting the attack. But instead of renew¬
ing the engagement, both armies continued to observe each
other, neither caring to recommence the contest; and to¬
wards evening each drew off. Both sides of course claim¬
ed the victory ; but all the advantages of success belong¬
ed to Argyll. He had arrested the progress of the enemy ;
and, in their circumstances, delay was defeat. In fact, the
Earl of Mar soon found his losses and disapointments in¬
crease. The Castle of Inverness, of which he had obtain-
454
BRITAIN.
Reign of ed possession, was delivered up by Lord Lovat, who had
George I. hitherto professed to act in the interest of the pretender;
v-^v^ the Marquis of Tullibardine also forsook the earl, in order
' ‘ to defend his own part of the country ; and many of the
clans, seeing no likelihood of coming to a second engage¬
ment, returned quietly home.
Nor was the rebellion more successfully prosecuted in
England. From the time the pretender had undertaken
this wild project at Paris, in which the Duke of Ormond
and Lord Bolingbroke were engaged, Lord Stair, the Eng¬
lish ambassador there, had penetrated all his designs, and
sent faithful accounts of all his measures and of all his ad¬
herents to the ministry at home. Upon the first rumour
of an insurrection, therefore, several lords and gentlemen
of whom they had suspicions were imprisoned; and al¬
though these precautions were insufficient to stop the in¬
surrection in the western counties, where it had already
begun, all the preparations of the insurgents were weak
and ill conducted, while every measure was betrayed to
government as soon as projected, and many revolts were
repressed in the very outset.
But the insurrection in the northern counties attained
to greater maturity. In the month of October 1715, the
Earl of Derwentwater and Mr Forster took the field with
a body of horse, and, being joined by some gentlemen
from the borders of Scotland, proclaimed the pretender.
Their first attempt was to seize upon Newcastle, in which
they had many friends ; but finding the gates shut against
them, they retired to Hexham. To oppose them General
Carpenter was detached by government with a body of nine
hundred men; and an engagement was hourly expected.
The rebels had two courses, by pursuing which they might
have conducted themselves with prudence and safety. The
one was, to march directly into the western parts of Scot¬
land, and there join General Gordon, who commanded a
strong body of Highlanders; and the other was, to cross
the Tweed and boldly attack General Carpenter, whose
forces did not exceed their own. But, from the infatua¬
tion attendant on the measures of the Jacobite party, nei¬
ther of these courses was pursued. They took the route to
Jedburgh, by which they hoped to elude Carpenter, and
penetrate into England by the western border. But this
was the most effectual means of cutting themselves off from
either assistance or retreat. A party of Highlanders, who
had by this time joined, at first refused to accompany them
in so desperate an incursion, and one half of their num¬
ber in consequence returned to their own country. At
Brampton Mr Forster opened his commission of general,
which had been sent him by the Earl of Mar, and there
proclaimed the pretender. The insurgents then continu¬
ed their march to Penrith, where a body of the militia,
assembled to oppose them, fled at their approach. From
Penrith they proceeded by the way of Kendal and Lan¬
caster to Preston, of which they took possession without
any kind of resistance. But this was the last stage of
their ill-fated advance ; for General Wills, at the head of
seven thousand men, came up to attack them, and from
his activity there was no escaping. They now, therefore,
raised barricades about the town, put the place in a pos¬
ture of defence, and repulsed with success the first at¬
tacks of the enemy’s force. But next day Wills, rein¬
forced by Carpenter, invested the town on all sides. In
this deplorable situation Forster proposed to capitulate
with the general; and accordingly sent Colonel Oxburgh,
who had been taken prisoner, with a trumpter, to propose
terms. Wills, however, refused to listen to such a pro¬
position, alleging that he could not treat with rebels, and
that the only favour they had to expect was to be spared
from immediate slaughter. This was a hard condition;
but as no better could be obtained, they laid down their
1716.
arms, and were put under a strong guard. All the noble- Reign of
men and leaders vrere secured, and a few of their officers George I.
were tried for deserting from the king’s army, and shot by
older of a court-martial. The common men were impri¬
soned at Chester and Liverpool; whilst the noblemen and
considerable officers were sent to London, and led through
the streets pinioned and bound together, in order to inti¬
midate their party in the metropolis.
But, however ill the schemes of the pretender may ap¬
pear to have been conducted in Britain, they were still
more so in France. Bolingbroke had been appointed his
secretary at Paris, and Ormond his prime minister. But
these statesmen quickly found that nothing could be done
in favoui of his cause. Ihe king of France, who had ever
waimly espoused the interest of the exiled family, vras
just dead ; and the Duke of Orleans, who succeeded to
the government of the kingdom, was averse to lend the
pretender any assistance. His party, however, which was
composed of the lowest and the most ignorant exiles from
the Biitish dominions, affected the utmost confidence, and
boasted of a certainty of success. Ihe deepest secrets of
his cabinet, and all his intended measures, were bandied
about in coffee-houses by persons of the lowest ra'nk both
in fortune and abilities ; whilst subaltern officers aspired to
be generals, and even prostitutes were intrusted with the
management of his negociations. From such instruments
and such councils nothing could be augured but folly and
disaster.
1 he pretender, in fact, might easily have seen that his
affairs were desperate; yet, with his usual infatuation, he
resolved to hazard his person among his friends in Scotland,
at a time when such a measure was too late to serve any
rational purpose. Accordingly, travelling through France
in disguise, and embarking in a small vessel at Dunkirk,
he arrived, after a short voyage, on the coast of Scotland,
with only six gentlemen in his train. He passed unknown
through Aberdeen to Fetteresso, where he was met by
the Earl of Mar, with about thirty noblemen and gentle¬
men of the first quality, and solemnly proclaimed; and
his declaration, dated at Comerey, was printed and dis¬
persed. He then proceeded to Dundee, where he made
a public entry ; and in two days more he arrived at Scone,
where he intended to have the ceremony of his corona¬
tion performed. He ordered thanksgivings to be offered
for his safe arrival; he enjoined the ministers to pray for
him in their churches ; and, without the smallest share of
power, he enacted all the ceremonial of royalty, which
served to throw an air of ridicule upon his pretensions.
Plaving thus spent valuable time in useless parade, he
next abandoned the enterprise with the same levity with
which it was undertaken. He made a speech to his grand
council, in which he informed them of his want of the
money, arms, and ammunition necessary for undertaking
a campaign; and deploring the necessity he was under of
leaving them, he once more embarked on board a small
French ship that lay in the harbour of Montrose, accom¬
panied with several lords, his adherents, and in five days
arrived at Gravelines.
The rebellion being thus ended, the law was put in
force in all its rigour; and the prisons of London were
crowded with deluded persons, whom the ministry seem¬
ed resolved not to pardon. The Commons, in their ad¬
dress to the crown, declared they would prosecute, in the
most rigorous manner, the authors of the late rebellion ;
and their measures were as vindictive as their resolutions
were speedy. The Earls of Derwentwater, Nithsdale,
Carnwath, and Wintoun, the Lords Widrinton, Kenmuir,
and Nairne, were impeached; and, upon pleading guilty,
all except Lord Wintoun received sentence of death. No
entreaties could prevail on the ministry to spare these un-
BRITAIN. 455
lieign of happy men. The House of Lords even presented an ad-
George I. dress to the throne for mercy, but without effect; the king
only answered, that on this, as on all other occasions, he
1 ^^ would act in the manner which he thought most consistent
with the dignity of the crown and the safety of the people.
Orders were accordingly issued for the execution of the
Lords Derwentwater, Nithsdale, and Kenmuir, immediate¬
ly : the rest were respited. Nithsdale, however, had the
good fortune to escape in woman’s clothes, which were
brought him by his mother on the eve of the day fixed for
his execution. Derwentwater and Kenmuir were brought
at the time appointed to the scaffold on Tower Hill, where
both underwent the sentence of the law with calm intrepi¬
dity, and apparently less moved than those who witnessed
their execution.
An act of parliament was next passed for trying the
private persons in London, and not in Lancashire, where
they had been taken in arms. This was considered, by
some of the best lawyers, as an alteration of the ancient
constitution of the kingdom, according to which it used to
be held, that every prisoner should be tried in the place
where the offence charged against him had been commit¬
ted. In the beginning of April, commissioners for trying
the rebels met in the Court of Common Pleas, when true
bills were found against Forster, brigadier Mackintosh,
and twenty of their associates. Forster escaped from New¬
gate, and reached the Continent in safety ; the rest plead¬
ed not guilty to the charge. Pitts, the keeper of Newgate,
having been suspected of conniving at Forster’s escape,
was tried for his life, but acquitted. Mackintosh and se¬
veral other prisoners subsequently broke from Newgate,
having mastered the keeper and turnkey, and disarmed
the sentinel. The court then proceeded to the trial of
the remainder, and four or five were hanged, drawn, and
quartered, at Tyburn. The judges appointed to try the
rebels at Liverpool found a considerable number of them
guilty of high treason; twenty-two were executed at
Manchester and Preston ; while about a thousand ex¬
perienced the king’s mercy, and were transported to the
plantations.
The rebellion being thus extinguished, the danger of
the state was made a pretence for continuing the parlia¬
ment beyond the term fixed for its dissolution. An act
was therefore passed, repealing that which provided for
the triennial dissolution of parliaments, and the term of
their duration was extended to seven years. This attempt
in a delegated body to increase their own power by ex¬
tending it, is contrary to the first principles of justice. If
it was right to extend their duration to seven years, they
might also perpetuate their authority, and thus cut off even
the shadow of representation. The bill, however, passed
both houses, and all objections to it were considered as
disaffection. The people might murmur at this encroach¬
ment, but it was too late for redress.
Domestic concerns being thus adjusted, the king re¬
solved upon a voyage to the Continent. He foresaw a
storm gathering from Sweden. Charles XII. highly pro¬
voked at his having entered into a confederacy with the
Russians and Danes during his absence at Bender, and
purchased from the king of Denmark the towns of Bre¬
men and Verden, which constituted part of his dominions,
maintained a close correspondence with the dissatisfied
subjects of Great Britain ; and a scheme was formed for
landing a considerable body of Swedish forces, with the
king at their head, in some part of the island, where it
was expected they would be joined by all the malcon¬
tents in the kingdom. Count Gyllenburg, the Swedish
minister in London, was peculiarly active in the affair; but
having been seized, with all his papers, by order of the
king, the confederacy was for the time broken up. A bill
was, however, passed by the Commons, prohibiting all Reign of
commerce with Sweden, although the trade with that George I.
country was at the time of the utmost consequence to the
English merchants. George having passed through Hoi- 1
land to Hanover, in order to secure his German dominions,
entered into a new treaty with the Dutch and the Regent
of France, by which they agreed mutually to assist each
other in case of invasion ; and, for his further security,
the Commons granted him L.250,000. But the death of
the Swedish monarch, who was soon afterwards killed at
the siege of Fredericsthal in Norway, put an end to all
disquietude from that quarter.
Among the many treaties for which this reign was re¬
markable, one had been concluded, called the Quadruple
Alliance, in which it was agreed between the emperor,
France, Holland, and Britain, that the emperor should re¬
nounce all pretensions to the crown of Spain, and exchange
Sardinia for Sicily with the Duke of Savoy ; and that the
succession to the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Pla¬
centia, should be settled on the queen of Spain’s eldest
son, in case the present possessors should die without male
issue. This treaty, however, was by no means agreeable to
the king of Spain; and it became prejudicial to the Eng¬
lish, as it had the effect of interrupting the commerce with
that kingdom. A war soon afterwards commenced be¬
tween Spain and the emperor, who was considered as the
principal contriver of the treaty ; and a numerous body of
Spanish forces were sent into Italy to support Philip’s pre¬
tensions in that quarter. The regent of France attempt¬
ed in vain to dissuade him, and the king of Britain offered
his mediation with as little success, their interposition being
considered as partial and unjust. A Spanish war was then
resolved on, and ar squadron of twenty-two ships equipped
with all expedition. The command was given to Sir George
Byng, who had orders to sail for Naples, which was at
that time threatened by a Spanish army. He was re¬
ceived with the greatest joy by the Neapolitans, who in¬
formed him that the Spaniards, to the amount of thirty
thousand, had then actually landed in Sicily. In this exi¬
gency, and whilst no assistance could be afforded by land,
he resolved to proceed thither by sea, fully determined to
pursue the Spanish fleet, on board of which the army was
embarked. Upon coming round Cape Faro, he perceived
two small Spanish vessels, and pursuing them closely, came
upon their main fleet, which, before noon, he discovered
in line of battle, amounting in all to twenty-seven sail.
The Spaniards, however, notwithstanding their superiority
of number, attempted to sheer off; but finding it impos¬
sible to escape, they kept up a running fight, the com¬
manders behaving with great courage and activity, not¬
withstanding which they were all taken except three,
which were saved by the conduct of their vice-admiral, a
native of Ireland.
The rupture with Spain was thought favourable to the
interest of the pretender; and it was hoped that, by the
assistance of Cardinal Alberoni, a new insurrection might
be excited in England. The Duke of Ormond was the
person fixed upon to conduct this expedition ; and he ob¬
tained from the Spanish court a fleet of ten ships of war
and transports, having on board six thousand regular troops,
with arms for twelve thousand more. But fortune was
still as unfavourable as ever to the cause of legitimacy.
Having set sail, and proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre,
he encountered a violent storm, which disabled his fleet,
and frustrated the expedition. This misfortune, together
with the bad success of the Spanish arms in Sicily and
other parts of Europe, induced Philip to agree to a cessa¬
tion of arms; and at last he consented to sign the qua¬
druple alliance, by which means peace was again restored
to Europe.
456
BRITAIN.
]718.
Reign of Tranquillity being thus established, the ministry pro-
‘ ceec^e(l t0 ta^e measures for securing the dependence of
the Irish parliament upon that of England. One Maurice
Annesley having appealed to the House of Peers of Eng¬
land from a judgment of the Irish Peers, the decree of
the latter was reversed, and the British Peers ordered the
Barons of Exchequer in Ireland to put Mr Annesley in pos¬
session of the lands which he had lost by the decree of the
Lords in that kingdom. The Barons obeyed this order;
but the Irish Peers passed a vote against them, as having
attempted to diminish the just privileges of the parliament
of Ireland, and at the same time ordered the barons to be
taken into custody by the usher of the black rod. On the
other hand, the House of Lords in England resolved that
the Barons of Exchequer in Ireland had acted with cou¬
rage and fidelity; and addressed the king to signify his
approbation of their conduct by some marks of his favour ;
while, to complete their object, a bill was prepared by
which the Irish House of Lords was deprived of all right
of final jurisdiction. This bill was opposed in both houses,
but particularly in the Commons, where it was asserted by
Mr Pitt that it would only serve to increase the power of the
English Peers, who were already but too formidable. Mr
Hungerford also demonstrated that the Irish Lords had
always exercised the power of finally deciding causes ; but,
in spite of all opposition, it was carried by a great majori¬
ty, and soon afterwards received the royal assent.
This blow was severely felt by the Irish, but it was by
no means so great as that which the English about this
time received from the South Sea Scheme, which com¬
menced in the year 1721. To understand the genesis of
this delusion, it is necessary to observe, that ever since the
Revolution, owing either to the insufficiency of the supplies
granted by parliament, or to the time required for collect¬
ing those which were actually granted, the government was
obliged to borrow money from several different companies
of merchants ; and among the rest from that which traded
to the South Seas. In the year 1716 the government were
indebted to this company upwards of nine millions ster-
ling, for which interest at the rate of six per cent, was
agreed to be paid. But as this company was not the only
creditor of the government, Sir Robert Walpole formed a
design of lessening the national debt, by giving the several
associations which had advanced funds for the public ser¬
vice an alternative of either accepting a lower rate of in¬
terest, namely five per cent., or of being paid the principal.
In point of fact, the different companies chose rather to
accept of the reduced rate of interest than to be paid the
principal; and the South Sea Company in particular, hav¬
ing advanced loans to the extent of ten millions, were con¬
tented to take L.500,000 annually as interest, instead of
L.600,000, which they previously received. And in the
same manner, the governors and company of the Bank,
and other associations, consented to receive a diminished
interest for their respective loans, which of course lessen¬
ed considerably the burdens of the nation.
In this situation of things, one Blount, a scrivener, pro¬
posed to the ministry, in the name of the South Sea Com-
pany, to buy up all the debts of the different associations,
in order that the South Sea Company might become the
sole creditors ot the state. The terms he offered to go¬
vernment were extremely advantageous. The South Sea
Company was to redeem the debts of the nation out of the
hands ot the private individuals who were creditors to the
government, upon such terms as could be agreed on ; and
for the interest of the money thus redeemed and taken
into their own hands, they were to be allowed by govern¬
ment five per cent, for six years ; after which the interest
was to be reduced to four per cent, and to be at any time
redeemable by parliament. For these purposes, accord-
1726.
ingly, a bill passed both houses of parliament. But now Reign of
came the part of the scheme which was big with fraud George I.
and ruin. As the directors of the South Sea Company
could not of themselves be supposed to possess money
sufficient to buy up the debts of the nation, they were
empowered to raise it by opening a subscription to an
imaginary scheme for trading in the South Seas ; and as
immense advantages were promised from this suppositi¬
tious commerce, and still greater expected by the rapa¬
cious credulity of the people, all the creditors of govern¬
ment were invited to come in and exchange their securi¬
ties for that of the South Sea Company. The directors’
books were accordingly no sooner opened for the first sub¬
scription, than crowds came to effect the exchange of go¬
vernment for South Sea stock; and the delusion was art-
fuhy propagated and continued. In a few days subscrip¬
tions or shares sold for double the price at which they had
been pui chased j the scheme succeeded beyond even the
piojector s hopes; and the whole nation was infected with
a spirit of avaricious enterprise. The infatuation, in fact,
became epidemic, and the stock rose to a surprising de¬
gree, even to a thousand per cent, premium on the ori¬
ginal value or price of the shares. But after a few months
the people awaked from their dream of riches, and found
that all the advantages which they expected were purely
visionary, whilst thousands of families were involved in ut¬
ter ruin. Many of the directors, by whose arts the people
had been taught to expect such benefits from a traffic to the
South Seas, had indeed amassed enormous fortunes in con¬
sequence of the credulity of the public ; but it was some
consolation to the people, to find that the parliament, shar¬
ing in the general indignation, had resolved to strip these
plunderers of their ill-gotten wealth. Accordingly, orders
were first given to remove all the directors of the South
Sea Company from their seats in parliament, and the places
they held under government; and the principal delinquents
were punished by a forfeiture of all such possessions and
estates as they had acquired during the continuance of
the popular frenzy. The next care of parliament was to
afford some relief to the sufferers. Several just and proper
resolutions were in consequence adopted, and a bill was
speedily prepared for alleviating the sufferings of the people
as far as the power of the legislature in such a case could
possibly extend. Out of the profits arising from the South
Sea scheme, the sum of seven millions was restored to the
original proprietors ; several additions were also made to
their dividends out of what was possessed by the company
in their own right; and the remaining capital stock was
also divided among the former proprietors at the rate of
thirty-three per cent. Petitions from all parts of the king¬
dom were in the meanwhile presented to the house, de¬
manding justice ; and the whole nation seemed exasperat¬
ed to the highest degree. Public credit sustained a terri¬
ble shock. Some leading members of the administration
were deeply implicated in these fraudulent transactions.
A run was made upon the bank; and nothing was heard but
the ravings of disappointment and the cries of despair.
By degrees, however, the effects of this terrible calamity
wore off, and matters returned to their former condition.
A new war with Spain, however, commenced in 1726.
Admiral Hosier was sent to South America to intercept
the Spanish galleons; but the Spaniards, apprised of his
design, relanded their treasure, and thus defeated the ob¬
ject of the expedition. Meanwhile the greater part of the
British fleet sent on this service was rendered entirely un¬
fit for service. The seamen were cut off in vast numbers
by the malignity of the climate and the length of the
voyage, whilst the admiral himself died, it is said, of a bro¬
ken heart. By way of retaliation the Spaniards undertook
the siege of Gibraltar; but they soon found that this at-
BRITAIN.
457
1727.
Reiori of tempt was hopeless; and France offering her mediation, a
George II. temporary peace ensued, although both sides only watch-
' ed an opportunity for renewing hostilities with the pro¬
spect of success.
Soon after the dissolution of the parliament in the year
1727, the king, resolving to visit his electoral dominions of
Hanover, appointed a regency to govern in his absence,
and, embarking for Holland, landed at a little town called
Voet. Next day he proceeded on his journey; and in two
days more, betwixt ten and eleven at night, he arrived at
Delden, to all appearance in perfect health. He supped
there very heartily, and continued his journey early the
next morning; but betwixt eight and nine he ordered his
coach to stop; and it being perceived that one of his hands
lay motionless, Fabrice, who had formerly been servant to
the king of Sweden, and now attended King George in the
same capacity, attempted to quicken the circulation by
chafing the royal hand between his own. As this had no
effect, however, the surgeon who followed on horseback was
called, and rubbed it with spirits. But the friction was
unavailing; the king’s tongue began to swell, and he had
just strength enough to bid them hasten to Osnaburgh ;
after which he fell insensible into Fabrice’s arms. He
never recovered; but expired about eleven o’clock the
next morning, in the sixty-eighth year of his age and thir¬
teenth of his reign. Flis body was conveyed to Hanover,
and interred among his electoral ancestors.
CHAP. XI.
REIGN OF GEORGE II.
Accession of George II—Court and Country Parties—Charita¬
ble Corporation—Excise Scheme rejected.—Parliament dis¬
solved War with Spain.—Capture of Puerto Bello—An¬
son’s Expedition Unsuccessful attempt on Carthagena.—Re¬
tirement of Sir Robert Walpole.—Army sent into Flanders—
Origin of the Continental War.—Desperate situation of the
Queen of Hungary Relieved by the British forces—Battle
of Dettingen—Intended invasion of Britain by France.—Bat¬
tle of Fontenoy—Capture of Louisbourg—Landing of the Pre¬
tender in Scotland.—Battle of Gladsmuir.—Advance into Eng¬
land Consternation in London—Retreat of the Highland
army from Derby—Siege of Stirling Castle.—Battle of Fal-
kirk Advance of the Duke of Cumberland, and retreat of the
Rebels Battle of Culloden Cruelty of Cumberland.—Sub¬
sequent adventures and escape of Prince Charles Edward—
Execution of Rebels Policy of the Government in regard to
the Highlands of Scotland Allies defeated in Flanders—
Losses sustained by the French in other parts.—Peace of Aix-
la-Chapelle—Death of the Prince of Wales—Hostilities re¬
newed—Minorca invaded Execution of Admiral Byng 
Treaty with Russia—Opposition of the King of Prussia.—New
Combination of the European powers Unsuccessful expedition
against France—Accession of Mr Pitt to office.—Success of
the British arms in both hemispheres—Quebec taken and
Canada reduced—Misconduct of Cumberland in Germany.—
Capitulation of Closter Seven.—French defeated at Minden 
German war continued with various success—Death of George
On the accession of George II. who succeeded to his
father in the forty-fourth year of his age, the two great
parties into which the nation had so long been divided
again changed their names, and were now called the Court
and Country Parties. Throughout the greatest part of
this reign there seem to have been two objects of con¬
troversy, which rose up in debate every session, and tried
the strength of the opponents ; namely, the national debt,
and the number of forces to be kept in pay. The govern¬
ment, on the present king’s accession, owed more than
thirty millions of money ; and although there was a long
continuance of profound peace, yet this sum went on con¬
stantly increasing. How this could happen was much
VUE. v.
1732.
wondered at by the country party, and it was as constant- Reign of
ly the business of the court to give plausible reasons for George II.
the increase. Hence demands for new supplies were
made every session of parliament, for the purpose of se¬
curing friends upon the Continent, of guarding the king¬
dom from internal conspiracies, or of enabling the minis¬
try to act vigorously in conjunction with the powers in
alliance abroad. It was vainly alleged that these ex-
pences were incurred without foresight or necessity; and
that the increase of the national debt, by multiplying and
increasing taxes, would at last become an intolerable
burden to the poor. These arguments were offered, can¬
vassed, rejected; the court party was constantly victorious,
and every demand was granted with equal cheerfulness
and profusion.
The next thing worthy of notice in the reign of George
II. is the Charitable Corporation. A society of men had
united themselves into a company under this name, with
the professed intention of lending money at legal interest to
the poor upon small pledges, and to persons of higher rank
upon proper security. Their capital was at first limited
to thirty thousand pounds ; but they afterwards increased
it to six hundred thousand. This money was supplied by
subscription, and the care of conducting the capital was
intrusted to a proper number of directors. The company
having continued in existence for more than twenty years,
the cashier, George Robinson, member for Marlow, and
the warehouse-keeper, John Thomson, disappeared in one
day ; and five hundred thousand pounds of capital were
found to be sunk or embezzled by means which the pro¬
prietors could not discover. In a petition to the House,
therefore, they represented the manner in which they had
been defrauded, and the distress to which many of them
had in consequence been reduced; and a secret commit¬
tee having been appointed to examine into this grievance,
a most iniquitous scene of fraud was discovered, which
had been carried on by Thompson and Robinson, in con¬
cert with some of the directors, for embezzling the capi¬
tal and cheating the proprietors. Many persons of rank
and quality were concerned in this infamous confederacy;
and even some of the first characters in the nation did not
escape censure. No less than six members of parliament
were expelled for the most sordid acts of knavery ; Sir Ro¬
bert Sutton, Sir Archibald Grant, and George Robinson,
for their frauds in the management of the Charitable Cor¬
poration scheme ; Dennis Bond and Serjeant Burch, for a
fraudulent sale of the unfortunate Earl of Derwentwater’s
estate ; and John Ward of Hackney, for the crime of for¬
gery. It was at this time asserted in the House of Lords
that not one shilling of the forfeited estates had ever been
applied to the service of the public, but had become the
reward of fraud, venality, and profligacy.
This happened in the year 1731. In 1732 a scheme
was formed by Sir Robert Walpole of fixing a general ex¬
cise ; and he introduced it by enumerating the frauds prac¬
tised by the factors in London employed in selling the
American tobacco. To prevent these frauds, he proposed,
that instead of having the customs levied in the usual man¬
ner, all the tobacco to be hereafter imported should be
lodged in warehouses appointed for that purpose by the
officers of the crown; and should from thence be sold, upon
paying the duty of fourpence a pound, whenever the pro¬
prietor found a purchaser. This proposal raised a violent
ferment, both within and without doors; and at last the
fury of the people was worked up to such a pitch, that the
parliament-house was surrounded by multitudes, who in¬
timidated the ministry, and compelled them to abandon
the scheme. The miscarriage of the bill was celebrated
with public rejoicings in London and Westminster, and the
minister was burned in effigy by the populace of London.
3 m
458
BRITAIN.
Reign of On this occasion an attempt was made to repeal the sep-
George II. tennial bill, and bring back triennial parliaments, as settled
at the Revolution. But notwithstanding the warmth of
^32" the opposition, the ministry, exerting all their strength,
proved victorious, and the motion was defeated. How¬
ever, as on this occasion the country party seemed to
have gained strength, it was thought proper to dissolve
the parliament, and to summon another by the same pro¬
clamation.
But the same disputes were carried on in this as in the
former parliament. New subjects of controversy offered
every day, and both sides were eager to seize them. A
convention agreed on by the ministry with Spain became
an object of warm altercation. By this the court of Spain
had agreed to pay ninety-five thousand pounds to the Eng¬
lish, as a satisfaction for all demands, and to discharge
the whole in four months from the day of ratification ; but
this stipulation was considered as not containing an equi¬
valent for the damages which had been sustained, and
which were said to amount to three hundred and forty
thousand pounds. A violent discussion ensued, in the
course of which the minister was provoked into unusual
vehemence, and branded the opposite party with the ap¬
pellation of traitors. But he was, as usual, victorious ; and
the country party finding themselves out-numbered and
out-voted in every debate, resolved to withdraw for ever;
while Walpole, thus left without opposition, took the op¬
portunity of passing several useful laws in their absence,
in order to render his opponents odious or contemptible to
the country.
In 1739 a new war commenced with Spain. Ever since
the treaty of Utrecht, the Spaniards in America had insult¬
ed and distressed the commerce of Great Britain ; whilst
the British merchants, on the other hand, had endeavour¬
ed to carry on an illicit trade with their dominions. As a
right of cutting logwood in the Bay of Campeachy, claim¬
ed by the British, gave them frequent opportunities of in¬
troducing contraband commodities into the continent, the
Spaniards resolved to put a stop to the evil by refusing
liberty to cut logwood in that place. The guarda-costas
exercised great severities, and many British subjects were
sent to the mines of Potosi. One remonstrance followed
another to the court of Madrid; but the only answers
given were promises of inquiry, which produced no refor¬
mation. Accordingly, in 1739 war was declared with all
proper solemnity; and soon after Admiral Vernon, with only
six ships, destroyed all the fortifications of Puerto Bello,
and came away victorious, with scarcely the loss of a man.
As the war was thus successfully begun, supplies were
cheerfulty granted to prosecute it with all imaginable vig¬
our. Commodore Anson was sent with a squadron of ships
to distress the enemy in the South Seas, and to co-operate
occasionally with Admiral Vernon across the Isthmus of
Darien. This squadron was designed to act a part subor¬
dinate to a formidable armament which was to be sent
against Mexico or New Spain; but through the mismanage¬
ment of the ministry both these schemes were frustrated.
Anson was detained till too late in the season, when he
set out with five ships of the line, a frigate, two store-ships,
and about fourteen hundred men. But having entered the
South Sea at the most unfavourable period of the year, he
encountered terrible storms ; his fleet was dispersed, and
his crew deplorably afflicted with scurvy, so that with the
utmost difficulty he reached the island of Juan Fernandez.
Here, however, he was joined by one ship and a frigate of
seventeen guns, and sailing from thence along the coast of
Chili, he plundered and burnt the town of Paita. He next
traversed the Pacific, in hopes of meeting with one of the
rich galleons which traded from the Philippine Islands to
Mexico. Having refreshed his men at the island of Tinian,
1742.
he set sail for China; and returning by the same route, he Reign of
at last discovered the galleon, which he engaged and took;George II.
and with this prize, valued at upwards of three hundred '
thousand pounds, together with other captures to the va¬
lue of about as much more, he returned home, after a voy¬
age of three years. By this expedition the public sustain¬
ed the loss of a fine squadron of ships, but a few indivi¬
duals became possessed of immense fortunes.
Another expedition which was fitted out ended still
more unfortunately. The armament consisted of twenty-
nine sail of the line, and an almost equal number of fri¬
gates, furnished with all kinds of warlike stores, near fif¬
teen thousand seamen, and as many land forces. The
most sanguine hopes of success were entertained ; but the
ministry detained the fleet without any visible reason till
the season for action in America was nearly past. At last,
however, the squadron arrived before Carthagena, and soon
captured the strong forts which defended the harbour. But
though by this means they were enabled to approach near¬
er the town, they still found great difficulties before them.
From an erroneous belief that the ships could not get near
enough to batter the town, and that therefore the remain¬
ing forts must be attempted by escalade, this dangerous ex¬
periment was tried ; but the guides were slain by the ene¬
my’s fire, and the forces, mistaking their way, instead of at¬
tempting the weakest part of the fort, attacked the strong¬
est, where they were exposed to the fire of the whole town.
Their scaling ladders were also too short; and at last, after
sustaining a dreadful fire with great resolution for some
hours, they retreated, leaving six hundred men dead on
the spot. The ravages of the climate now began to prove
more dreadful than the casualties of war; and the rainy
season commenced with such violence, that it was found
impossible for the troops to continue in their encampment.
And, as if to aggravate these calamities, dissension arose
between the commanders of the sea and land forces, who
blamed each other, and at last could only be brought to
agree in one mortifying measure, namely, the re-embarka¬
tion of the troops.
The miscarriage of this enterprise produced the greatest
discontents, more especially as other causes of complaint
occurred at the same time. Sir John Norris had twice
sailed to the coast of Spain at the head of a powerful squa¬
dron, without effecting any thing of consequence. The
commerce of Britain was greatly annoyed by the Spanish
privateers, who had taken upwards of four hundred ships
since the commencement of the war; whilst the British
fleets remained quite inactive, and suffered one loss after
another, without endeavouring in the least to make proper
reprisals. These discontents burst out all at once against
Sir Robert Walpole ; a majority was formed in the House
of Commons in opposition to the ministry of which he was
the head ; he was created Earl of Orford ; and the parlia¬
ment having adjourned for a few days on purpose, he re¬
signed all his employments.
The removal of this minister gave universal satisfaction.
His antagonists entertained great hopes of seeing him
punished ; but he had laid his schemes too well to be un¬
der any apprehensions on that account; and, in fact, the
new ministry had no sooner got into office than they trode
in the footsteps of those whom they had so much exclaim¬
ed against. The nation had now become disgusted with
naval operations. The people desired a renewal of their
victories in Flanders, and the king ardently joined in the
same wish. An army of sixteen thousand men was there¬
fore shipped and sent to Flanders, to take part in the quar¬
rels that were then beginning to break out on the Conti¬
nent. Immense triumphs were expected from this under¬
taking ; but it was somehow forgotten that the army was
not now commanded by John Duke of Marlborough.
B R I T A I N. 459
Reign of In order to give some notion of the origin of these conti-
iGeorge II. nental disputes, it is necessary to go back for several years.
After the Duke of Orleans, regent of France, died, Cardi-
1^42- nal Fleury undertook to settle the confusion in which the
kingdom was then involved; and under him France repair¬
ed her losses, and enriched herself by means of commerce.
During the long interval of peace which this minister’s
counsels had procured for Europe, two powers, hitherto
disregarded, began to attract the notice and the jealousy of
the neighbouring nations. These were Russia and Prussia,
both of which had been gradually rising into power and
consequence. The other states were but little prepared to
renew the war. The empire remained under the govern¬
ment of Charles VI. who had been placed on the throne
by the treaty of Utrecht; Sweden continued to languish,
from the destructive projects of Charles XII.; Denmark
was powerful enough, but inclined to peace ; and part of
Italy still remained subject to those princes who had been
imposed upon it in consequence of foreign treaties. All
these states, however, continued to enjoy profound peace,
until the death of Augustus king of Poland; an event by
which a general flame was once more kindled in Europe.
The emperor, assisted by the arms of Russia, declared for
the elector of Saxony, the son of the deceased king; whilst
France, on the other hand, espoused the cause of Stanislaus,
who had long ago been nominated king of the Poles by
Charles of Sweden, and whose daughter the king of France
had since married. Stanislaus was gladly received at Dant-
zic, and acknowledged as king of Poland; but having been
besieged there by ten thousand Russians, the city was ta¬
ken, and he himself with difficulty made his escape. France,
however, still resolved to assist him, as the most effectual
method of distressing the house of Austria; and her views
were seconded by Spain and Sardinia, both of which hoped
to be enriched by the spoils of Austria. A French army,
therefore, overran the empire, under the conduct of the
old Marshal Villars; whilst the Duke of Montemar, the
Spanish general, was equally victorious in the kingdom of
Naples. The emperor was soon obliged to sue for peace,
which was granted ; but Stanislaus was neglected in the
treaty, it having been stipulated that he should renounce
all claim to the kingdom of Poland; while the emperor
gratified France with the duchy of Lorraine, and other
valuable territories, as an indemnification.
The emperor dying in the year 1740, the French thought
the opportunity favourable for their ambition, and, re¬
gardless of treaties, particularly that called the Pragmatic
Sanction, by which the late emperor’s dominions were set¬
tled upon his daughter, caused the Elector of Bavaria to be
crowned emperor. Thus the queen of Hungary, daughter
of Charles Vi. was at once stripped of her inheritance,
and left for a whole year without any hopes of succour;
and at the same time she lost the province of Silesia by
an irruption of the young king of Prussia, who took the op¬
portunity of her defenceless condition to renew his preten¬
sions to that province. France, Saxony, and Bavaria, at¬
tacked the rest of her dominions; and Britain was the only
ally who seemed willing to assist her; but Sardinia, Hol¬
land, and Russia, soon afterwards concurred in the same
views. It must be owned that the only reason which Bri¬
tain had for interfering in these disputes was, that the se¬
curity of the electorate depended upon nicely balancing the
different interests of the empire ; but the ministry were
nevertheless willing to gratify the king by engaging the
country in a war. His majesty informed the parliament
that he had sent a body of British forces into the Nether¬
lands, which he had augmented by sixteen thousand Hano¬
verians, to operate a diversion on the side of France, in fa¬
vour of the queen of Hungary. But when the supplies by
which this additional number of Hanoverian troops was to
receive pay from Britain for defending their own cause iteign of
came to be considered, violent parliamentary debates en- George 11.
sued ; and although the ministry carried their point by the
strength of numbers, they had but little reason to boast of 1743.
their victory.
Yet, however prejudicial these continental measures
might be to the true interests of Great Britain, they ef¬
fectually retrieved the queen of Hungary’s affairs, and soon
turned the scale of victory in her favour. The French
were driven out of Bohemia; while her general, Prince
Charles of Lorraine, at the head of a large army, invad¬
ed the dominions of Bavaria. Her rival, the nominal
empei’or, was obliged to fly before her; and, abandoned
by his allies, as well as stripped of his hereditary domi¬
nions, he retired to Frankfort, where he lived in obscurity.
Meanwhile the British and Hanoverian army advanced in
order to effect a junction with that under Prince Charles,
by which they would have outnumbered their enemies;
and to prevent this the French opposed an army of sixty
thousand men, upon the Maine, under the command of
Marshal de Noailles, who posted his troops on the eastern
side of that river. The British army was commanded by
the Earl of Stair, who, although he had learned the art of
war under Eugene and Marlborough, suffered himself to
be inclosed by the enemy on every side, near a village
called Dettingen; and in this situation the whole army,
with the king himself, who had by this time arrived in the
camp, must have been taken prisoners, had the French be¬
haved with ordinary prudence. But their impetuosity saved
the combined force from destruction. They passed a de¬
file which they ought to have contented themselves with
guarding, and, under the conduct of the Duke de Gram-
mont, their horse charged the British foot with great fury;
but they were received with unshaken firmness, and at last
obliged to repass the Maine with precipitation, and the loss
of about five thousand men. The British monarch, who
was present in the battle, displayed equal courage and con¬
duct, and in some measure atoned for an error which
might otherwise have proved fatal.
But though the British were victorious in this engage¬
ment, the French were very little disconcerted by it.
They opposed Prince Charles, and interrupted his attempts
to pass the Rhine; and in Italy they also gained some
advantages ; but their chief hopes were placed on an in¬
tended invasion of England. From the violence of par¬
liamentary disputes in England, France had been persuad¬
ed that the country was ripe for a revolution, and only
wanted the presence of the pretender to bring about a
change. An invasion was therefore projected ; the troops
destined for the expedition amounted to fifteen thousand ;
and preparations were made for embarking them at Dun¬
kirk and some of the ports nearest to England, under the
eye of the young pretender. The Duke de Roquefeuille,
with twenty ships of the line, was to see them safely
landed on the opposite shore; and the famous Count Saxe
was to command them when disembarked. But the whole
project was disconcerted by the appearance of Sir John
Norris, with a superior fleet, which obliged the French
squadron to put back ; while a severe gale of wind damaged
their transports, and thus entirely frustrated the scheme
of a sudden descent. But the national joy for Sir John
Norris’s success was soon damped by the miscarriage of
Admirals Mathews and Lestock, who, through a misun¬
derstanding, suffered a French fleet of thirty-four sail to
escape them near Toulon.
In the Netherlands the British arms were also attended
with ill success. The French had there assembled an
army of a hundred and twenty thousand men, command¬
ed by Count Saxe, natural son of the late king of Poland,
and an officer of great experience. The English were under
11
Keign of the Duke of Cumberland, whose army was much inferior
Cieorge H. jn number to that of the enemy, whilst in point of know-
ledge of war the disparity between him and the French
1743. generai was still greater. Count Saxe, therefore, carried
all before him. In the year 1743 he besieged Fribourg,
and in the beginning of the campaign of 1744 he invested
the strong city of Tournay. To save the place, if pos¬
sible, the allies resolved to hazard an engagement; and
this brought on the memorable battle of Fontenoy. The
French were posted behind the town of that name, on some
eminences which completely commanded the defile which
formed the only approach to the position. At two in the
morning the assailants quitted their camp, and about nine
the British infantry, formed in a kind of grand square,
attacked the centre of the enemy’s line, which was drawn
up in a sort of avenue to receive them. But from the
confined nature of the ground, the obstinacy of the re¬
sistance in front, and the flanking fire kept up from some
woody heights wdiich domineered over the defile, this
fine body of troops was never able to develope its attack
nor to clear the defile; yet, in spite of every effort of the
enemy, it maintained its ground till three in the afternoon,
preserving its formation unbroken, notwithstanding the
plunging fire of the French artillery, and the concentrated
musketry of their infantry, to which it was without inter¬
mission exposed; and at last it retired in perfect order,
facing round at intervals, and checking the pursuit of the
enemy. The loss of the allies amounted to twelve thou¬
sand men, and that of the French was even greater; but
the victory nevertheless gave them the superiority during
the rest of the campaign, as well as during the remainder
of the war. The capture of Tournay was the first fruit of
this dear-bought success; and though the Elector of Ba¬
varia, whom they had proclaimed emperor, was now dead,
the French were too much elated by success to relax in
their operations against the allies.
To balance the defeat at Fontenoy, however, Admirals
Rowley and Warren retrieved the honour of the British
flag, and made several rich captures at sea. The fortress
of Louisbourg, a place of great consequence to the British
commerce, surrendered to General Pepperel; and a short
time afterwards two French East India ships, and a Spa¬
nish ship from Peru laden with treasure, put into the har¬
bour, supposing it still their own, and were taken.
During this gleam of returning success, Charles Edward,
the son of the old pretender to the British crown, resolved
to make an attempt to recover what he called his right.
Being furnished with some money from France, he em¬
barked for Scotland on board of a small frigate, accom¬
panied by the Marquis of Tullibardine, Sir Thomas Sheri¬
dan, and some others; and for the conquest of the whole
British empire, he only brought with him seven officers,
and arms for two thousand men. Fortune, however, seem¬
ed nowise more favourable to this attempt than to others
similar to it. His convoy, a ship of sixty guns, was so
disabled in an engagement with an English man of war,
that it was obliged to return to Brest, whilst he continued
his course to the western parts of Scotland. On the 27th
of July 1745 he landed on the coast of Lochaber, and was
in a little time joined by the Highlanders to the number
of fifteen hundred men. The ministry at first could
scarcely be induced to credit the story of his arrival; but
when it could no longer be doubted, they sent Sir John
Cope with a small body of forces to oppose his progress.
A favourable opportunity offered for striking a blow at
Corryarrick ; but Cope, who seems to have been equally
devoid of conduct and of energy, withdrew to Inverness,
thus uncovering the road to the low country.
The young adventurer, availing himself of this blun¬
der, immediately marched to the south, and arrived at
Perth, where he performed the ceremony of proclaiming Reign of
his father king of Great Britain. He then proceeded to-George II
wards Edinburgh, and, his forces continually increasing
entered the capital without opposition ; but he was unable, 1745.
from want of cannon, to reduce the castle. Here he again
proclaimed his father; and promised to dissolve the union,
which was still considered as one of the national griev¬
ances. In the mean time Sir John Cope, having arrived
from Inverness, and been reinforced by two regiments of
dragoons, resolved to give battle to the enemy. The insur¬
gents, however, attacked him at Gladsmuir, near Preston-
pans, and in a few minutes put him and his troops to flight,
with the loss of five hundred men. This victory gave the in¬
surgents great hopes, from the impression it produced; and
had the pretender marched directly to England, the result
might perhaps have been fatal to the House of Hanover.
But he was amused by the promise of succours which in
fact never arrived, and thus induced to remain in Edin¬
burgh till the season for action was lost. He was joined,
however, by the Earl of Kilmarnock, Lord Balmerino, Lords
Cromarty, Elcho, Ogilvy, Pitsligo, and the eldest son of
Lord Lovat, who with their vassals considerably increased
his army; and Lord Lovat himself, so remarkable for his
treachery, was favourably disposed towards the pretender,
although unwilling to act openly for fear of the govern¬
ment. But whilst Charles was thus trifling away his time
at Edinburgh, the British ministry were taking most effec¬
tual methods to oppose him. Six thousand Dutch troops,
which had come over to assist the government, were dis¬
patched northward under the command of General Wade ;
but this force was then in some measure incapable of act¬
ing, being prisoners of France upon parole, and under en¬
gagements not to oppose that power for a year. Be this
as it may, however, the Duke of Cumberland arrived soon
afterwards from Flanders, and was followed by a detach¬
ment of dragoons and infantry, well disciplined and inured
to action ; whilst volunteers offered their services in every
part of the kingdom.
At last Charles resolved upon an irruption into England.
He entered that country by the western border, and took
the town of Carlisle ; after which he continued his march
southwards, having received assurances that a consider¬
able body of forces would be landed on the southern coasts
to create a diversion in his favour. He established his
head-quarters at Manchester, where he was joined by be¬
tween two and three hundred English formed into a regi¬
ment under the command of Colonel Townley ; and thence
he pursued his march to Derby, intending to go by the way
of Chester into Wales, where he hoped to be joined by a
great number of malcontents; but in this he was pre¬
vented by the factions among his followers.
Having now advanced within a hundred miles of London,
that capital was thrown into the utmost consternation;
and had he proceeded with the same expedition which he
had hitherto used, he might perhaps have made himself
master of it. But he was prevented from pursuing this or
any other rational plan by the discontents which began to
prevail in his army. The young pretender was in fact but
the nominal leader of his forces; and his generals, the
Highland chiefs, were equally averse to subordination and
ignorant of command. They now, however, became unani¬
mous in their resolution to return to their own country ; and
Charles was forced to comply. Accordingly they retreat¬
ed to Carlisle without sustaining any loss; and thence
crossing the Eden and Solway, entered Scotland. Ihey
next marched to Glasgow, which was laid under severe
contributions; and thence proceeding to Stirling, they
were joined by Lord Lewis Gordon at the head of some
forces which had been assembled in his absence. Other
clans likewise came in ; while some supplies of money re-
BRITAIN.
Heign of ceived from Spain, and some skirmishes with the royalists,
George II. in which he was victorious, caused the pretender’s affairs
to assume a much more promising aspect. Being joined by
1^46’ Lord Drummond, he invested the castle of Stirling, in the
siege of which much valuable time was consumed to no
purpose. General Hawley, who commanded a consider¬
able body of forces near Edinburgh, undertook to raise
the siege, and with this view advanced as far as Falkirk
in order to give battle to the Highland army. After some
time spent in mutual observation, an engagement ensued
on the 17th January 1746, in which the king’s troops were
entirely defeated. The Highlanders advanced to the at¬
tack with their usual impetuosity, threw in a volley or two,
and then drawing their claymores, rushed forward, sword
in hand, to close with the enemy. The onset proved irre¬
sistible ; infantry and cavalry were intermingled in one
common rout; and the whole artillery and tents of the
royal army fell into the hands of the conquerors.
But the victory of Falkirk was the last of the triumphs
of the rebel army. The Duke of Cumberland having ar¬
rived, put himself at the head of the troops at Edinburgh,
amounting to about fourteen thousand men ; and with
these he marched to Aberdeen, where he was joined by
several of the nobility attached to the house of Hanover,
the enemy in the mean time retreating before him. He
next advanced to the banks of the Spey, a deep and rapid
river, where the Highlanders might have successfully dis¬
puted his passage ; but their mutual contentions had now
risen to such a height that they could scarce agree in any
thing. At last, however, they resolved to make a stand,
and for this purpose selected Drummossie Muir, near Cul-
loden, nine miles distant from Inverness ; the only ground
in the whole country where cavalry and artillery, the two
arms which they had most reason to dread, could act with
effect against them. Their numbers amounted to about
eight thousand; and after an abortive attempt to surprise
the royal army at Nairn, they returned to their position
and drew out to receive the attack. At one in the after¬
noon of the 15th of April 1746, the cannonading com¬
menced ; and whilst the artillery of the rebels, from being
miserably served, did little or no execution, that of the royal
army, at every discharge, made frightful gaps in the High¬
land ranks. During the continuance of the cannonade,
Cumberland observing that the right of the Highlanders
was covered by a wall, ordered a body of men to advance
and pull it down. The Campbells, to whom this service
was committed, promptly obeyed the order; and the right
wing of the Highlanders being thus uncovered, they be¬
came exposed to a flanking fire as well as to that in front,
which was now kept up with the greatest vivacity. In this
trying situation a body, chiefly Atholemen, about nineteen
hundred strong, unable any longer to sustain the galling
fire which was poured in on their ranks, and conscious that
their real strength lay in close combat, advanced to the
attack sword in hand ; broke through Burrell’s and Monro’s
regiments in an instant; and pressed on, with diminished
numbers but dauntless resolution, against the second line
of the royal army, amidst a concentrated and terrible fire
from every gun that could be brought to bear upon them.
The second line steadily awaited the onset of this forlorn
hope, reserving their fire till it came quite close, when a
destructive volley was thrown in, while Wolfe’s regiment,
formejj en potence, opened at the same instant a flanking
fire. The force of the charge was thus completely broken;
a few and but a few of the assailants escaped; and the
bravest, who did not fall by the murderous fire, perished in
a desperate conflict with the English bayonets. Lochiel,
advancing at the head of a small band, who had survived the
encounter with the first line, was wounded in both ancles
by a grape-shot while in the act of charging the second
461
line ; and in this state he was carried off the field by his Reign of
two brothers, between whom he had advanced. Mac-p^Jg^Hj
donald of Keppoch was also rushing on in like manner ^
to the attack, when, receiving a wound which brought him
to the ground, he was conjured by a friend not to throw
away his life, but to retire and rejoin the main body; but
desiring his friend to provide for his own safety, Macdonald
got upon his legs, and, whilst preparing again to advance,
received another shot, by which he fell to rise no more.
Most of the chiefs who commanded the body that ad¬
vanced to the charge, and almost every man in the front
ranks, were killed. Unfortunately the Highland regiments
on the left did not advance to close combat, or support the
gallant attack which has just been described: had they
done so, the issue might have been very different. After
exchanging a volley or two with the right wing of the
duke’s army, and answering the fire of some dragoons who
hovered near, they retreated, and separating into small
parties, were cut up in detail, losing more men in propor¬
tion than the brave band who had made so gallant and vigo¬
rous an effort to retrieve the fortune of the day. In less
than thirty minutes the battle was lost, and with it a final
period was put to all the hopes of the young adventurer.
The conquerors behaved with the greatest cruelty, refus¬
ing quarter to the wounded, the unarmed, and the de¬
fenceless ; and some were slain who had only been spec¬
tators of the combat; whilst soldiers were seen to anticipate
the base employment of the executioner. The duke, im¬
mediately after the action, ordered thirty-six deserters to
be executed; the conquerors spread terror wherever they
went; and in a short time the whole country around became
one dreadful scene of plunder, slaughter, and desolation.
Immediately after the battle, the pretender fled with
a captain of Fitzjames’s cavalry; and when their horses
were fatigued, they both alighted, and separately sought
for safety. There is a striking resemblance between the
adventures of Charles II. after the battle of Worcester,
and those of the pretender after the battle of Culloden.
For several days he wandered through the country ; some¬
times he found refuge in caves and cottages, without any
attendants at all; sometimes he lay in forests with one or
two companions of his distress, continually pursued by the
troops, there being a reward of L.30,000 offered for taking
him either dead or alive. In the course of his adventures
he had occasion to trust his life to the fidelity of above fifty
individuals, not one of whom could be prevailed on, even by
so great a reward as that which was offered, to betray him
whom they looked upon as the son of their king. For six
months the unfortunate Charles continued to wander in the
mountains of Glengarry, often hemmed round by his pur¬
suers, but still rescued, by some providential accident, from
the impending danger. At length a privateer of St Ma-
loes, hired by his adherents, having arrived in Lochra-
nach, he embarked on board that vessel for France. At
this time he was reduced to a state of inexpressible
wretchedness, being clad in a short coat of black frize,
threadbare, over which was a common Highland plaid
girt round him by a belt, from which hung a pistol and
dagger. He had not been shifted for many weeks; his
eyes were hollow, his visage was wan, and his constitution
greatly impaired by famine and fatigue. Accompanied
by Sullivan and Sheridan, two Irish adherents, who had
sharedall his calamities, together with Cameron of Lochiel,
his brother, and a few other exiles, he set sail for France,
and, after having been chased by two English men of war,
arrived in safety at a place called Roseau, near Morlaix, in
Bretagne.
While the pretender was thus pursued, the scaffolds and
gibbets were preparing for his brave adherents. Seventeen
officers were hanged, drawn, and quartered, at Kenning-
B R 1 T A I N.
462
Reign of ton Common, in the neighbourhood of London ; nine were
George II. executed in the same manner at Carlisle, and eleven at
York. A few obtained pardons, and a considerable num-
i74C* ber of the common men were transported to America.
The Earls of Kilmarnock and Cromarty, and Lord Bal-
merino, were tried and found guilty of high treason. Cro¬
marty was pardoned, but Kilmarnock and Balmerino were
executed; as was also Mr lladcliffe, brother to the Earl
of Derwentwater, who received sentence upon a former
conviction. Lord Lovat was tried, and suffered some time
afterwards.
Immediately after the suppression of the rebellion, the
legislature undertook to establish regulations in Scotland,
conducive to the happiness of the people and the tran¬
quillity of the united kingdoms. The Highlanders had
till that time continued to wear the military dress of their
ancestors, and never went without arms; in consequence
of which they considered themselves as a body of people
distinct from the rest of the nation, and were ready upon
the shortest notice to second the projects of their chiefs.
Their habits were now reformed by an act of legislature,
and they were compelled to wear clothes of the common
fashion. But what contributed still more to destroy the
spirit of clanship was the abolition of the hereditary juris¬
dictions which their chieftains exercised over them. The
power of the chiefs was totally destroyed, and every sub¬
ject in that part of the kingdom was liberated from the
state of vassalage in which they had formerly lived.
Soon after the battle of Culloden the Duke of Cumber¬
land proceeded to Flanders, where he resumed the com¬
mand of the army, to which he was by no means equal.
The French carried every thing before them, and reduced
under their dominion all the strong places which had been
taken by the Duke of Marlborough, and formed a barrier
to the united provinces. They gained a considerable vic¬
tory near Rocoux, though at a great sacrifice of men, which,
however, they could easily spare, as they were much more
numerous than their adversaries; and another victory
which they obtained at Lafeldt served to depress still
further the spirit of the allied army. But the taking of
Bergen-op-Zoom, the strongest fortification of Brabant,
was the event which naturally reduced the Dutch to the
greatest alarm and distress.
These victories and successes in Flanders, however,
were counterbalanced by almost equal disappointments.
In Italy, the brother of Marshal Belleisle, attempting to
penetrate into Piedmont at the head of thirty-four thou¬
sand men, was defeated and killed. A fleet had been fitted
out for the recovery of Cape Breton, but without success ;
and two others were equipped, the one to make a descent
upon the British colonies in America, and the other to
carry on the operations in the East Indies ; but these were
attacked by Anson and Warren, and nine of their ships
taken. Soon after this, Commodore Fox, with six ships
of war, took above forty French ships richly laden from
St Domingo; and about the same time the French fleet
was defeated by Admiral Hawke, who took seven ships of
the line and several frigates.
For a long time Louis had been desirous of peace, and
this desire he even expressed to Sir John Ligonier, who had
been taken prisoner at the battle of Lafeldt. But now the
bad success of his admirals at sea, and his armies in Italy,
the frequent bankruptcies of his merchants at home, and
the election of a stadtholder in Holland, who gave spirit to
the opposition ;—all these contributed to make him weary
of the war, and to propose terms of accommodation. This
was what the allies had long wished for, but had been
ashamed to demand. A congress was therefore held at
Aix-la-Chapelle, and a treaty concluded, by which it was
provided that all prisoners on each side should be mu¬
tually given up, and all conquests restored; that the duchies Reign of
of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, should be ceded to George II.
Don Philip, heir-apparent to the Spanish crown, and after
him return to the house of Austria ; that the fortifications 1756‘
of Dunkirk towards the sea should be demolished; that
the British ship annually sent with slaves to the coast of
New Spain should have this privilege continued for four
years; that the king of Prussia should be confirmed in
the possession of Silesia; and that the queen of Hungary
should be secured in the possession of her patrimonial
dominions. But the most mortifying clause was, that the
king of Great Britain should, immediately after the rati¬
fication of this treaty, send two persons of rank to France
as hostages, until restitution should be made of Cape
Breton and all other British conquests during the war.
No mention whatever was made of the searching of British
vessels in the American seas, though this was the original
cause of the quarrel; the limits of their respective posses¬
sions in North America were not ascertained; nor did
they receive any equivalent for those forts which they had
restored to the enemy.
In the year 1751 Frederick prince of Wales died of a
pleurisy, which was not thought at first to be in any way
dangerous. He was much regretted, for his good-nature
had rendered him popular, and those who opposed the
present administration had grounded their hopes of re¬
dress upon his accession to the throne.
Some time before this, in the year 1749, a scheme had
been entered upon, from which the nation in general anti¬
cipated great advantages ; namely, encouraging those who
had been discharged from the army or navy to become
settlers in Nova Scotia, a country cold, barren, and almost
incapable of cultivation. Nevertheless, on account of this
barren spot, the English and French actually renewed the
war. The possession of this country was reckoned necessary
for the defence of the English colonies to the north, and
for preserving their superiority in the fisheries in that part
of the world. The French, however, who had been long
settled in the back parts, resolved to use every method to
dispossess the new comers, and spirited up the Indians to
begin hostilities. Another source of dispute also sprung up
in the same part of the world. The French, pretending to
have first discovered the mouth of the river Mississippi,
claimed the whole adjacent country towards New Mexico
on the east, and to the Apalachian Mountains on the west;
and, in order to assert their claims, as they found several
English who had settled beyond these mountains, they
dispossessed them of their new settlements, and built such
forts as were calculated to command the whole country
round about. Negociations and mutual accusations were
followed by hostilities; and inT756 four operations were
undertaken by the British in America at once. Colonel
Monkton had orders to drive the French from the pro¬
vince of Nova Scotia; General Johnson was sent against
Crown Point; General Shirley against Niagara, to secure
the forts on the river; and General Braddock against Fort
du Quesne. In these expeditions Monkton was success¬
ful ; Johnson was also victorious, though he failed in taking
the fort against which he was sent; Shirley was thought
to have lost the season of operation by delay; and Brad-
dock was defeated and killed.
But, in return for this failure of success, the British made
reprisals at sea; and here they were so successful that
the French navy was unable to recover itself during the
continuance of the war. The first measure of the French
was to threaten an invasion. Several bodies of their troops
were sent down to the coasts opposite Britain, and these
were instructed in the manner of embarking and reland¬
ing from flat-bottomed boats, which were made in great
numbers for the purpose. The number of men amounted
B R I T A I N.
Reign of to fifty thousand, but all discovered the utmost reluctance
George II. to the undertaking. The ministry were greatly alarmed,
an(l applied to the Dutch for six thousand men, which
^66' they were by treaty obliged to furnish in case of invasion.
But this supply was refused, the Dutch alleging that their
treaty was to send the troops in case of an actual, and not
of a threatened, invasion. The king, therefore, finding he
could not reckon upon the Dutch forces till their assistance
would be too late, desisted entirely from his demand; and
the Dutch with great cordiality returned him thanks for
withdrawing his request. Upon this ten thousand Hes¬
sians and Hanoverians were brought over; a proceeding
which occasioned great discontent. The ministry were
reviled for such disgraceful conduct, as if the nation was
unable to defend itself; whereas the people only demanded
a vigorous exertion of their own internal strength, and
then feared no force that could be led to invade them.
The threatened invasion, however, never took place.
But a French army landed in Minorca, and invested the
citadel of St Philips, which was reckoned the strongest in
Europe, but the garrison was nevertheless weak, and no¬
wise fitted to stand a vigorous siege. To raise this siege,
Admiral Byng was dispatched with a squadron of ten men
of war, with orders to relieve Minorca, or at any rate to
throw a body of troops into the garrison. But this last
he reckoned too hazardous an undertaking, nor did he
even attempt it; and soon afterwards a French fleet ap¬
peared nearly equal in force to his own, when he resolved
to act only on the defensive. The French advanced, and
a slight engagement ensued with part of the English fleet;
after which the enemy slowly withdrew, and no other
opportunity occurred of coming to a close engagement.
Upon this it was resolved in a council of war to return to
Gibraltar to refit, and agreed that the relief of Minorca
was impracticable. For such pusillanimous, if not treache¬
rous conduct, Byng was brought home under arrest, tried,
condemned to death, and shot. He suffered with the
greatest resolution, after delivering a paper filled with pro¬
testations of his innocence as to any treacherous intention.
After the conquest of Minorca, the French declared that
they would revenge all injuries which they might sustain
in their colonies on the king of Britain’s dominions in Ger¬
many. Upon this the court of London, eager to preserve
Hanover, entered into a treaty with the court of Russia,
by which it was stipulated that a body of fifty thousand
Russians should be ready to act in the British service, in
case Hanover should be invaded by the French; for which
the Czarina was to receive L.100,000 annually, to be paid
in advance. But the treaty was opposed by the king of
Prussia, who had long considered himself as guardian of
the interests of Germany, and was therefore alarmed at a
treaty which threatened to deluge the empire with an ar¬
my of barbarians. Besides, he was already apprised of an
agreement between the Austrians and Russians, by which
the latter were to enter the empire and strip him of his
late conquest of Silesia. He therefore declared that he
would not suffer any foreign forces to enter the empire,
either as auxiliaries or principals; so that the king of
Britain found himself obliged to drop his Russian connec¬
tion, and conclude a treaty with the king of Prussia. As
both monarchs wished only to prevent the invasion of Ger¬
many, they soon came to an agreement to assist each other
mutually; and from this alliance a new combination took
place among the European powers, quite opposite to the
former one. Britain opposed France in America, Asia, and
on the ocean. France attacked Hanover, which the king
of Prussia undertook to protect; whilst Britain promised
him troops and money to assist his operations. Austria
having aims on the dominions of Prussia, drew the Elector
of Saxony into the same designs; and in these views the
463
Austrians were seconded by France, Sweden, and Russia, Reign of
who had hopes of acquiring a settlement in the west of^eorfle
E^ope. , .
Thus the king of Prussia launched into the tumult of *
war, having only the king of Britain for his ally; whilst the
most powerful states of Europe were his antagonists. He
now performed a series of exploits which, taken as a whole,
are not surpassed in the annals of modern times, and of
which a particular account will be given in the article
Prussia. The British ministry, in order to create a di¬
version in his favour, planned an enterprise against the
coast of France ; but the destination of the fleet equipped
for this purpose was kept a profound secret. At last, how¬
ever, it appeared before Rochefort, where the command¬
ers, having trifled away their time in deliberating how to
proceed, took the little island of Aix, an easy and useless
conquest, and soon afterwards returned home without at¬
tempting any thing else. By this miscarriage the ministry
were so discouraged that they had thoughts of abandoning
the king of Prussia to his fate ; and the king was actually
meditating a negociation of this nature, when he was pre¬
vented by the expostulations of his distressed ally. From
motives of generosity, therefore, more than of interest, it
was resolved to continue to assist him ; and success, which
had long fled from the British arms, once more began to
return with double splendour.
It was in the East Indies where this return of good
fortune first manifested itself; but the British conquests
in the western part of the world speedily eclipsed those
in the eastern. These successes must, in part at least, be
ascribed to the vigorous administration of Mr William Pitt,
who about this time came into power. An expedition was
set on foot against Cape Breton, under General Amherst
and Admiral Boscawen; another under General Aber¬
crombie, against Crown Point and Ticonderago; and a
third under Brigadier-General Forbes, against Fort du
Quesne. The fortress of Louisbourg, which defended the
island of Cape Breton, was strong both by nature and art;
the garrison was numerous, the commander vigilant, and
every precaution had been taken to prevent a landing ; but
the activity of the British surmounted every obstacle; and
the place having been surrendered by capitulation, its for¬
tifications were demolished. The expedition against Fort
du Quesne was equally successful; but that against Crown
Point once more miscarried. General Abercrombie at¬
tacked the French in their intrenchments, but was repulsed
with great slaughter, and obliged to retire to his camp at
Lake George. But though in this respect the British arms
were unsuccessful, yet, upon the whole, the campaign of
1758 ended greatly in their favour. The taking of Fort du
Quesne served to remove from their colonies the terror of
the incursions of the Indians, whilst it interrupted the com¬
munication along a chain of forts with which the French
had environed the British settlements in America; and
the succeeding campaign promised still greater success.
In 1759 it was resolved to attack the French in several
parts of their territory at once. General Amherst, with a
body of twelve thousand men, was commanded to attack
Crown Point; General Wolfe was to undertake the siege
of Quebec; whilst General Prideaux and Sir William John¬
son were to attempt a French fort near the cataracts of
Niagara. This last expedition was the first that succeed¬
ed. The siege was begun with vigour, and promised an
easy conquest; but General Prideaux being killed in the
trenches by the bursting of a mortar, the command de¬
volved on General Johnson. A body of French troops,
sensible of the importance of the place, attempted to re¬
lieve it, but were utterly defeated and dispersed; and soon
afterwards the garrison surrendered prisoners of war. On
his arrival at the forts of Crown Point and Ticonderago, Ge-
464
BRITAIN.
Reign of
George II.
1759.
/
neral Amherst found them deserted and destroyed. There
now remained, therefore, but one decisive blow to be
struck in order to reduce the whole of North America
under the British dominion; namely, by the capture of
Quebec, the capital of Canada. This expedition was com¬
manded by Admiral Saunders and General Wolfe. The
enterprise was attended with difficulties which appeared
insurmountable; but all these were overcome by the ad¬
mirable conduct of the general, and the great bravery of
his men. He engaged and put to flight the French under
Montcalm ; but, to the great regret of the British, he was
killed in the action nearly at the same instant that his
adversary also fell. The surrender of Quebec was the
consequence of this victory, and it was soon followed by
the cession of all Canada. The next season, indeed, the
French made a vigorous effort to recover the city; but by
the resolution of Governor Murray, and the appearance of
a British fleet under the command of Lord Colvile, they
were obliged to abandon the enterprise. The whole pro¬
vince was soon after reduced by the prudence and activity
of General Amherst, who obliged the French army to ca¬
pitulate ; and it has ever since remained as a dependency
of the British empire. About the same time also the island
of Guadaloupe was reduced by a force under Commodore
More and General Hopson.
At the beginning of the war the British affairs in Ger¬
many had worn a very unfavourable aspect. The Hanove¬
rians were commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, who,
greatly outnumbered by the enemy, was obliged to retire
beyond the Weser. The passage of this river by the ene¬
my might have been disputed with success; but the French
were suffered to effect it unmolested. The Hanoverians
were then driven from one part of the country to another,
till at length they made a stand near a village called Has-
tenbach, where it was hoped the numbers of the enemy
would not avail them in a general engagement. The Ha¬
noverians, however, left the field of battle to the French,
after a feeble resistance. The latter pursued, and the duke
retired towards Stade; by which means he marched into
a country where he could neither procure provisions nor
attack the enemy with any prospect of success. And
here, being unable either to escape or advance, he was com¬
pelled to sign a capitulation, by which the whole army laid
down their arms, and were afterwards dispersed into dif¬
ferent cantonments. By this disgraceful surrender, which
was called the capitulation of Closter Seven, Hanover was
obliged to submit quietly to the French, and the latter
were thus left at full liberty to turn their arms against the
king of Prussia.
Soon after this capitulation, both sides began to complain
that the treaty had not been strictly observed. The Ha¬
noverians exclaimed against the rapacity of the French
general and the brutality of his soldiers. The French re¬
torted the charge, accusing the Hanoverians of insolence
and insurrection ; and being sensible of their own superio¬
rity, resolved to bind them strictly to their terms of agree¬
ment. The Hanoverians, however, only wished for a pre¬
tence to take arms, and for a general to head them ; and
neither was long wanting. The oppressions of the tax-
gatherers whom the French had appointed were consider¬
ed as so severe, that the army rose to vindicate the free¬
dom of their country; and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick
put himself at its head. As soon as this became known in
Britain, large supplies were granted, both for the service of
the king of Prussia, and for enabling the Hanoverian army
to act vigorously in conjunction with him. A small body
of British forces was sent over to join Prince Ferdinand
under the Duke of Marlborough ; but after some inconsi¬
derable successes at Crevelt, the Duke of Marlborough died,
and the command of the British forces devolved on Lord
George Sackville. A misunderstanding, hoAvever, arose Reign of
between him and Prince Ferdinand, the effects of which George in
appeared at the battle of Minden, that was fought shortly
after. Lord George, who commanded the British cavalry, ^0.
pretended that he could not understand the orders sent him
by the prince, and of consequence did not obey them. The
allies gained the victory, but it would have been more de¬
cisive had the British commander obeyed his orders. He
was soon after recalled, tried by a court-martial, found
guilty of disobedience, and declared incapable of serving
in any military command for the future. After this vic¬
tory it was generally imagined that one reinforcement more
of British troops would terminate the war in favour of the
allies ; and that reinforcement was accordingly sent. The
British army in Germany was augmented to upwards of
thirty thousand men, and sanguine hopes of conquest were
generally entertained. But these hopes proved to be ill
founded. The allies were defeated at Corbach, but re-
trived the honour of their arms at Exdorf. A victory at
Warbourg followed shortly after, and this was succeeded
by another at Zierenberg. But they suffered a reverse
at Compen; after which both sides retired into winter
quarters.
On the 25th of October 1760 died George II. He had
risen at his usual hour, and observed to his attendants,
that as the weather was fine, he would take a walk into
the garden of Kensington, where he then resided. But in
a few minutes after his return, being left alone, he was
heard to fall heavily on the floor; and the noise bringing
his attendants into the room, they lifted him into bed,
when he desired in a faint voice that the Princess Amelia
might be sent for; but before she could reach the apart¬
ment his majesty expired, in the seventy-seventh year of
his age and thirty-third of his reign. An attempt was
made to bleed him, but without effect; and afterwards
the surgeons, upon opening him, discovered that the right
ventricle of the heart had been ruptured, and a great quan¬
tity of blood discharged through the aperture.
CHAP. XII.
REIGN OF GEORGE III.
Accession of George III.—Success of the British arms.—Propo¬
sals of peace A war with Spain proposed by Mr Pitt.—His
resignation Created Earl of Chatham—War with Spain—
France and Spain declare war on Portugal—Invasion of that
country Spaniards defeated—Taking of Havana—Philip¬
pine Islands reduced.—Extent of the conquests of Britain.—
Peace of 1763 Discontents—Cyder tax—Resignation of Lord
Bute New ministry.—Supposed influence of Lord Bute—
Proceedings against John Wilkes—Licentiousness of the time.
—Expedients resorted to in order to increase the revenue—
Renewal of the Charter of the Bank—Taxation of America—
Act against illicit trade with the Spaniards—Stamp Act—
Violent resistance of the Americans—Conduct of Administra¬
tion Disturbances in London—Illness of the King, and Re¬
gency Bill Change of Ministry—Death of the Duke of Cum¬
berland Stamp Act repealed—Consequences—Return of
Wilkes Differences with Spain about the Falkland Islands.
—Negociations The affair terminated, and the settlement
abandoned Proceedings of the corporation of London—Speech
of Mr Beckford, the Lord Mayor—His death—Ex-officio In¬
formations.—Law of Libel.—Debates concerning the conduct of
the Judges Tumult in the House of Lords—Case of New
Shoreham and its Christian Club—Licentiousness of the I ress.
 Proceedings of the House of Commons against some printers.
 Ridiculous expedient resorted to in order to avoid a contest
with Wilkes East India Affairs.—Discouragement of the po¬
pular part)7 Meeting of Parliament—Augmentation of the
number of Seamen.—Subscription of the thirty-nine Articles.
Royal Marriage Bill—Bill for the relief of the Dissenters re¬
jected East India Affairs—Exportation of tea, and its conse¬
quences Regulation Bill—Reports of the Select and Secret
Committees.—Lord Clive accused.—-11 is acquittal. American
BRITAIN.
465
Reign of
George III*
1760.
affairs—Boston Port Bill—Repeal of the Tea-duty refused 
Administration of Justice Bill—Quebec Bill -Lord Chat¬
ham’s motion for the recal of the troops—Petitions of various
kinds, and debates thereon—Chatham’s Scheme of Conciliation
rejected—Address on the American papers Violent debates.
—New England Restraining Bill—The American fisheries 
War resolved on.
King George III. ascended the throne amidst the great¬
est successes both by sea and land. At this time, indeed,
the efforts of Britain in every quarter of the globe were
truly astonishing. The king of Prussia had received a sub¬
sidy; a large body of English forces commanded the exten¬
sive peninsula of India ; another army of twenty thousand
men confirmed the conquests in North America, while
thirty thousand were employed in Germany ; and a great
many more were dispersed in garrisons in different parts of
the world. But all this was surpassed by the naval force,
which carried every thing before it, and totally annihilated
the French maritime power. The courage and conduct of
the English admirals excelled every thing that had been
heard of before ; neither superior force, nor numbers, nor
even the terrors of the tempest, could intimidate them.
Admiral Hawke gained a complete victory over an equal
number of French ships in Quiberon Bay on the coast of
Bretagne, in the midst of a storm, during the darkness of
night, and, what a seaman fears still more, in the neigh¬
bourhood of a rocky shore.
When his majesty had met his parliament, which was
on the 18th November 1760, he confirmed the hopes of
his allies, and gave assurances of his intention to prose¬
cute the war with vigour. By this time, however, the
people were weary of conquests, especially those in Ger¬
many ; and the general current of popular opinion seemed
adverse to the German war. But for some time no change
took place in the method of carrying it on. In 1761, how¬
ever, proposals of peace were interchanged among the bel¬
ligerent powers of Europe; but the French, designing to
draw Spain into a confederacy with them, were not sincere
in their intentions ; and in this way the treaty came to no¬
thing. An enterprise was projected against Belleisle, on
the coast of France, which was conducted by Commodore
Keppel and General Hodgson, and terminated in the cap¬
ture of the island, with the loss of eighteen hundred men
killed and wounded on the part of the British ; and how¬
ever unimportant such a conquest might be, the rejoicings
on account of it were great. In Germany, however, the
campaign was unsuccessful on the part of the allies. At
first, indeed, they drove the French out of the territory of
Hesse, and laid siege to the city of Cassel; but being de¬
feated at Stangerod, they were forced to raise the siege,
retire behind the Dymel, and again abandon Hesse to the
enemy, after which they were followed and attacked by
the French; and though the latter were defeated, they
could with difficulty be prevented from making themselves
masters of Munster and Brunswick.
During all this time appearances of negociation were
kept up; but at length M. Bussy, on the part of France,
delivered to Mr Pitt a private memorial, signifying, that,
in order to establish peace on a lasting foundation, the
King of Spain might be induced to guarantee the treaty;
and to prevent the differences which then subsisted be¬
tween Britain and Spain from producing a fresh war in
Europe, it was proposed, that in this negociation the three
points which had been disputed between the crown of
England and Spain might be finally settled. These were,
first, the restitution of some captures made upon the
Spanish flag; secondly, a recognition of the privilege of
the Spanish nation to fish upon the banks of Newfound¬
land; and, thirdly, the demolition of the English settle¬
ments in the Bay of Honduras. But this memorial was
returned as wholly inadmissible. Mr Pitt declared that
VOL. V.
it would be looked upon as an affront to the dignity of his Reign of
master, and incompatible with the sincerity of the negocia- George III
tion, to make any further mention of such a circumstance,
Being now convinced of the sinister designs of Spain, this
minister also proposed immediately to declare war against
that country. But the proposal being rejected, he resigned
his employment of secretary of state ; upon which he was
created Earl of Chatham, and had a pension of L.3000
per annum settled upon him for three lives.
The new administration, however, soon found that Mr
Pitt was in the right; and war was accordingly declared
against Spain. As Portugal was the ally of Britain, the
French and Spaniards resolved to attack that kingdom,
which was then in no condition to defend itself. The Por¬
tuguese monarch was haughtily commanded to accede to
the confederacy against Britain, and threatened with the
vengeance of France and Spain in the event of refusal. It
was in vain that he promised to observe a strict neutrality,
and urged the obligations he was under to the king of Bri¬
tain. This moderate and reasonable representation only
led to more haughty and insulting demands. His Portu¬
guese maj>esty, however, continued to reject their proposals
in the most resolute manner ; and concluded his last decla¬
ration by stating, that it would affect him less to be reduced
to the last extremity, than to sacrifice the honour of his
crown, and all that Portugal held most dear, by submitting
to become an unheard-of example to all pacific powers,
which would no longer be able to enjoy the benefit of neu¬
trality, whenever a war should be kindled between other
powers with which the former were connected by defen¬
sive treaties. This declaration was issued on the 27th of
April 1762; and soon aftei-wards France and Spain jointly
declared war against Portugal.
As the design of the courts of France and Spain in mak¬
ing war with Portugal was professedly to deprive Great
Britain of the military and commercial use of the harbours
of that kingdom, their principal endeavours were directed
against the two great ports of Oporto and Lisbon. With
this view, three inroads were to be made; one to the
north; another more to the south; and the third in the
intermediate provinces, in order to sustain the other two
bodies, and preserve a communication between them. The
first body of troops was commanded by the Marquis of Sav-
ria, and entering by the north-east of Portugal, marched
towards Miranda, which he entered on the 9th of May,
through the breaches made by the accidental explosion of
a powder magazine. From Miranda the invaders marched
to Braganza, which speedily surrendered; and Moncorvo
was in like manner taken. They became masters of nearly
the whole of the extensive province of Tras os Montes; and
every thingbeingclear before them to the banksof the Doura
Oporto was given up for lost, and the admiralty prepared
transports to carry off the effects of the British merchants.
But on the Douro the career of this body was stopped by
the peasants, who, animated and guided by some British
officers, seized a difficult pass, and drove the enemy back
to Moncorvo. The second body of Spaniards entered the
province of Beira, and being joined by strong detachments,
immediately laid siege to Almeida, which surrendered on
the 25th of August. The Spaniards then pushed forward
to Gastello Branco, and marching to the southward, ap¬
proached the banks of the Tagus. During the whole of
their progress, and indeed throughout the whole campaign,
Great Britain and Portugal had nothing that deserved the
name of an army in the field; and all that could be done
was by the defence of passes, by skir m ishes, and by surprises.
The third Spanish army had assembled on the frontiers of
Estremadura, with the design of invading the province of
Alentejo; and if this body of troops had been joined to
the others, they would probably, in spite of all opposition,
3 N
il
Reign of have forced their way to Lisbon itself; whilst by acting^
George III. sepa.rately, it might have so distracted the defenders of
the country as to enable the other invading forces to pe-
l7(i2' netrate to that city. The Count of La Lippe Buckeburg,
therefore, having arrived in Portugal, resolved if possible
to prevent their entrance into that kingdom; and with
this view he dispatched Brigadier-general Burgoyne to
attack an advanced body of Spaniards which lay on the
frontier in the town of Valentia de Alcantara. On the
27th of August the town was surprised, and the general
who was to have commanded the invading force taken,
together with one colonel, two captains, and seventeen
subaltern officers, whilst one of the best regiments in the
Spanish service was also entirely destroyed, and the ene¬
my thus prevented from entering Alentejo. That part of
the Spanish army which acted in the neighbourhood of
Gastello Branco having made themselves masters of seve¬
ral important passes, the combined army of British and
Portuguese pretended to retire before them, in order to
draw them into the mountainous tracts. They attacked
the rear of the allies, but were repulsed with loss; yet
they still continued masters of the country, and nothing
remained but the passage of the Tagus to enable them to
take up their quarters in the province of Alentejo. But
this the count designed to prevent; and accordingly he
employed General Burgoyne, who having formed a design
of surprising them, committed the execution of it to Co¬
lonel Lee. In the night of the 6th of October this officer
fell upon their rear, dispersed the whole body with consi¬
derable slaughter, destroyed their magazines, and returned
with scarcely any loss. The season was now far advanced;
immense quantities of rain fell; the roads were destroyed ;
and the Spaniards having obtained possession of no ad¬
vanced post where they could maintain themselves, and
being unprovided with magazines, fell back to the fron¬
tiers of their own country.
Nor were the British arms less successful in America
and the East Indies. From the French were taken the
islands of Martinico, St Lucia, St Vincent, and Grenada;
from the Spaniards the strong fortress called Havana, in
the island of Cuba. The conquest of the latter cost a
number of brave men, more of whom were destroyed by
the climate than by the enemy. But it was at this place that
the fleets from the several parts of the Spanish West In¬
dies, called the galleons and flota, assembled before they
Anally set out on their voyage for Europe ; and the acqui¬
sition of it, therefore, united all the advantages which can
be acquired in war. Nine of the enemy’s men of war,
,with four frigates, were taken; three of their best ships
had been sunk in the harbour at the beginning of the
siege; and two more in great forwardness on the stocks
were destroyed. In money and valuable merchandises
the spoil did not fall short of three millions sterling. To
this success in the western world may be added the cap¬
ture of the Spanish register-ship called the Hermione, by
the Active and Favourite king’s ships. This happened
on the 21st of May 1762, just as the Hermione was en¬
tering one of the ports of Old Spain; and the prize wras
valued at little short of a million sterling. In the East
Indies an expedition, undertaken against the Philippine
Islands, was committed to Colonel Draper, who arrived
on this service at Madras in the latter end of June 1762.
The seventy-ninth regiment was the only regular corps that
could be spared for the expedition; but every thing was
conducted with the greatest celerity and judgment. The
British forces landed at Manilla on the 24th of Septem¬
ber ; on the 6th of October the governor was obliged to
surrender at discretion ; and soon after, the galleon bound
from Manilla to Acapulco, laden with rich merchandise
to the value of more than half a million, was taken by the
frigates Argo and Panther. By the conquest ot iviamiia Keign ol
there fell into the hands of the British fourteen consider- George II,
able islands, which, from their extent, fertility, and con-
venience for commerce, were of the greatest importance. '
By this acquisition, joined to the successes in the western
hemisphere, Britain secured every avenue of the Spanish
trade, and interrupted all communication between the dif¬
ferent parts of the vast but unconnected empire of Spain.
During this time the war in Germany had continued
with the utmost violence; but although the allies under
Prince Ferdinand had given the highest proofs of valour,
no decisive advantage had been obtained over the French.
It was, however, no longer the interest of Britain to con¬
tinue a destructive contest. There never had been a pe¬
riod so fortunate or glorious for this island. In the course
of the war she had conquered a tract of continent of im¬
mense extent. Her American territory approached to the
borders of Asia, and the frontiers of the Russian and Chi¬
nese dominions. She had conquered twenty-five islands,
all of them distinguishable for their magnitude, their
riches, or the importance of their situation; by sea and
land she had gained twelve battles, and reduced nine forti¬
fied cities, and about forty castles or forts ; she had taken or
destroyed above a hundred ships of war from her enemies,
and acquired at least ten millions in plunder. Conquests
so extensive and ruinous to the French and Spaniards na¬
turally rendered them desirous of a peace, which was at
length concluded at Paris on the 10th of February 1763.
The terms granted, and which many thought too favour¬
able, were, in substance, that the French king should re¬
linquish all claims to Nova Scotia; that he should like¬
wise give up the whole country of Canada; and that for the
future the boundary betwixt the British and French do¬
minions in America should be fixed by a line drawn along
the middle of the river Mississippi from its source to the
river Ibberville, and thence by a line along the middle of
this river, and the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain,
to the sea. The islands of St Pierre, Miquelon, Marti¬
nico, Guadaloupe, Marigalante, Desirade, St Lucia, and
Belleisle, were restored to France ; whilst Minorca, G^e’
nada, and the Grenadines, St Vincent, Dominica, and lo-
bago, were ceded to Great Britain. In Africa, the island
of Goree was restored to France ; and the river Senegal,
with all its forts and dependencies, ceded to Great Britain.
In the East Indies, all the forts and factories taken from
the French were restored. In Europe, the fortifications
of Dunkirk were to be destroyed; and all the countries,
fortresses, and posts, belonging to the Electorate of Ha¬
nover, the Duke of Brunswick, and the Count of La Lippe
Buckeburg, restored. In regard to Spain, the British for¬
tifications on the Bay of Honduras were to be demolished;
and the Spaniards were to desist from their claim of right
to fish on the Newfoundland bank. The Havana was re¬
stored, in consequence of which Florida, St Augustine,
and the Bay of Pensacola, were ceded to Britain ; the
Spaniards were to make peace with Portugal; and all other
countries not particularly mentioned were to be restored
to their respective owners at the beginning of the war.
The conclusion of the war did not by any means tend
to heal those divisions which had arisen on the resigna¬
tion of Mr Pitt; on the contrary, it furnished abundant
matter of complaint for the discontented party, whose
views at that time seem to have been the embairassment
and disturbance of an administration which they were un¬
able to subvert. When the treaty was under considera¬
tion, however, only some faint attempts weie made to op¬
pose it; but it soon appeared, that though this opposition
had proved so feeble, the spirit of the paity was far florn
bein0- exhausted, dhe actual state of affaiis indeed fa
voured the views of those who delighted in turbulence and
B R 1 T A 1 N. 467
Reign of in faction. A long and expensive war had drained the
George III. national treasure, and greatly increased the public debt;
whilst heavy taxes had already been imposed, and it was
^63‘ still as necessary to keep them up, and even to impose
new ones, as though the war had not ended. Thus the
bulk of the nation, who imagined that conquest and riches
ought to go hand in hand, were easily induced to believe
the administration arbitrary and oppressive, seeing it conti¬
nued to load them with fresh taxes after such great suc¬
cesses as had for some years past attended the British
arms. And indeed it must be owned, that the new admi¬
nistration appear not to have been sufficiently wary in this
respect. Amongst various methods of raising the supplies
for 1763, they had recourse to a duty of four shillings per
hogshead upon cyder, payable by the maker, and to be col¬
lected in the same manner as the rest of the excise duties.
The other articles of supply, as well as the duty in question,
furnished matter of declamation for the members in oppo¬
sition ; but this inflamed the popular fury to a great degree,
and made the people readily receive as truth whatever was
said by the minority in the parliamentary debates. Besides
the usual declamations, the smallness of the sum to be raised
by it was particularly urged. This, it was said, showed that
the supplying of the wants of government could not be the
sole motive for imposing such a duty; and it was further
urged, that now the houses of all orders of people, noble¬
men of the first rank not excepted, were liable to be entered
and searched at the pleasure of excisemen, a proceeding
which was denominated a badge of slavery. This was
the language held throughout all the cyder counties, by
the city of London, and by most of the incorporations
throughout the kingdom; and in short the whole nation
was thrown into a violent ferment. The friends of admi¬
nistration, indeed, urged plausible arguments in favour of
their scheme; but the utmost force of reason will go only
a very little way in quieting popular clamour; and whilst
opposition was railing against ministry within doors, every
method was taken to excite the fury of the people with¬
out. Virulent libels, the audacity of which far exceeded
any thing known in former times, now made their appear¬
ance ; and such was the general intemperance in this re¬
spect, that it would be difficult to determine which side
paid least regard to any kind of decency or decorum.
In the midst of this general ferment, the Earl of Bute un¬
expectedly resigned his office of first lord of the treasury ;
and his resignation immediately became an object of ge¬
neral speculation. By some he was highly censured for
leaving his friends at a time when a little perseverance
might have defeated all the designs of his enemies, and
established his own power on the most solid foundation.
Such conduct, it was said, must discourage the friends of
government, and at the same time give proportional en¬
couragement to its adversaries to insult it. Others con¬
tended that the earl was very little, if at all, influenced
by popular opinion. He had demonstrated his firmness
by taking a lead in the difficult but necessary affair of
concluding peace; and this being accomplished, he had
fully obtained his end, and performed the service to his
country which was required of him. The event, how¬
ever, showed that the former reasoning was nearest the
truth. The popular resentment was not in the least
abated by the resignation of his lordship, who, though
now withdrawn from the ostensible administration of af¬
fairs, was still considered as principal director of the ca¬
binet; and this opinion gained the more ground that none
of the popular leaders were called into office, nor any
apparent change made in the conduct of the new admi¬
nistration.
No reasonable objection could now be taken to those
who filled the great offices of state. Mr Grenville, who
succeeded the Earl of Bute in the treasury, was a man of Reign of
approved integrity, understanding, and experience. Lord George Hi
Holland was universally considered as a very able man in
office, and had already filled many high employments with J
a great degree of reputation. The other secretary, Lord
Egremont, though he had not been long in office, was in
every respect of an unexceptionable character. The rest
of the departments were filled in a similar manner; yet
the discontents and public clamours were not diminished.
It was now alleged that the new ministers were not chosen
on account of any superior gifts of nature or fortune, but
merely because they had the art of insinuating themselves
into favour at court; that the sole reason of their appoint¬
ment was, that they might act as the passive instruments
of the late minister, who, though he had thought proper to
retire from office, had not yet abandoned his ambitious
projects, but continued to direct every thing as if he had
still been in power; that opposition to the new ministers
was therefore opposition to him; and that it became those
who understood the true interest of their country, and had
a real regard to it, not to suffer such a scheme of clandes¬
tine administration.
Whether the party who made these assertions really
believed them or not cannot be known; but the effect
was exactly the same as if they had. The great object of
both parties was power; but their different situations re¬
quired that they should profess different political prin¬
ciples. The friends of Lord Bute, and of the succeeding
administration, were for preserving to the crown the full
exercise of the power of choosing its own servants. Their
opponents, without denying this power, contended that,
according to the spirit of the constitution, the crown should
be directed in its exercise by motives of national utility,
and not by private friendship. In appointing the officers
of state, therefore, they insisted that respect should be
paid to those who, possessing great talents, had done emi¬
nent services to the nation, who enjoyed the confidence of
the nobility, and had influence amongst the landed and
mercantile interests. The observance of this rule, they
contended, was the only proper counterpoise against the
enormous influence of the crown arising from the posses¬
sion of so much patronage; nor could the nation be recon¬
ciled to such a power by any other means than a very po¬
pular use of it. Men might indeed be appointed accord¬
ing to the strict letter of the law; but unless these were
persons in whom the majority of the nation already put
confidence, they never would be satisfied, nor think them¬
selves secure against attempts on the constitution of the
kingdom.
In the mean time the disposition to libel and invective
seemed to proceed beyond all bounds. The peace, the
Scots, and the administration supposed to be directed by
Scottish influence, afforded such subjects of abuse to the
pretended patriots, that ministry resolved at last to make
an example of one of them by way of deterring the rest
from such licentiousness. For this purpose they made
choice of the paper called the North Briton, which, in lan¬
guage somewhat superior to most other political produc¬
tions of the time, had abused the king, the ministry, and
the Scots, in an extravagant manner. One particular pa¬
per (No. xlv.) was deemed by those in power to be action¬
able ; and John Wilkes, member for Aylesbury, was sup¬
posed to be the author of it. A warrant was therefore
granted for apprehending the author, printer, and publish¬
ers, of this performance, but without mentioning Wilkes’s
name; nevertheless three messengers entered the house
of that person on the night between the 29th and 30th of
April 1763, with an intention to seize him. He objected,
however, to the legality of the warrant, because his name
was not mentioned in it, and likewise to the lateness of the
468 B R I T A I N.
Reign of hour ; and on being threatened with violence, the messen-
George III. gers thought proper to retire for the night. Next morning
he was apprehended without making any resistance, though
1^63’ some violence was necessary to get him into a hackney-
coach, which carried him before the secretaries of state
for examination. On the first intimation of Wilkes’s being
in custody, application was made for a habeas corpus ; but
as this could not be sued out till four in the afternoon, seve¬
ral of his friends desired admittance to him, which was, how¬
ever, refused on pretence of an order from the secretaries
of state. But the order, though repeatedly demanded,
could not be produced, or at least was not so ; and on this
account the gentlemen, conceiving that they were not oblig¬
ed to pay any regard to messengers acting only by a verbal
commission, entered the place where he was without fur¬
ther hesitation.
This illegal step was followed by several others in rapid
succession. Wilkes’s house was searched, and his papers
seized in his absence; and though it was certain that a
habeas corpus had now been obtained, he was nevertheless
committed to the Tower. Here not only his friends, but
several noblemen and gentlemen of the first distinction,
were denied access to him ; nor was his brother even allow¬
ed to see him. On the third of May he was brought be¬
fore the Court of Common Pleas, where he made a speech,
setting forth the great love he had for his majesty, the
bad conduct of ministry, and especially his own grievances,
alleging that he had been treated worse than a Scotch
rebel. His case having been argued by several eminent
lawyers, he was remanded to the Tower for three days;
after which he was ordered to be brought up, that the
affair might be finally settled. Next day Lord Temple re¬
ceived a letter from Secretary Egremont, informing him
that the king judged it improper that Wilkes should con¬
tinue any longer a colonel of the Buckinghamshire militia;
and soon afterwards Temple himself was removed from
the office of lord-lieutenant of that county. Meanwhile
the judges decided that the warrant of a secretary of state
was in no respect superior to that of a common justice
of peace ; that Wilkes’s commitment was illegal; that his
privilege as a member of parliament had been infringed;
that this could not be forfeited except by treason, felony,
or breach of the peace, none of which was imputed to him ;
and that a libel, even though it had been proved, had only a
tendency to disturb the peace, without amounting to any
actual breach of it. It was therefore resolved to discharge
him; and the prisoner was accordingly set at liberty.
Wilkes having thus regained his freedom, resolved to
make all the advantage he could of the errors committed by
the ministry, and to excite as general a ferment as possible.
For this purpose he wrote an impudent letter to the Earls
of Egremont and Halifax, informing them that his house
had been robbed, affirming that the “ stolen goods” were
in the possession of one or both of their lordships, and in¬
sisting upon immediate restitution. This letter was print¬
ed, and many thousand copies of it were dispersed; and
soon afterwards an answer by the two noblemen was pub¬
lished in the newspapers, stating the real cause of the
seizure of Wilkes’s papers. The North Briton now again
made its appearance, and the popular party were elated
beyond measure with their success ; whilst those who had
suffered by general warrants sought redress at law, and
commonly obtained damages far beyond their most san¬
guine expectations. During the whole summer, the minds
of the people were kept in continual agitation by political
pamphlets and libels of various kinds, whilst the affair of
general warrants engrossed the general attention.
On the meeting of parliament his majesty mentioned in
his speech the attempts which had been made to divide the
people ; and before the addresses could be moved in re¬
turn, a message was sent to the Commons, informing them Reign of
of the supposed offence of Wilkes, and of the proceed-George III!
ings against him, while the exceptionable paper was also
laid before the house. After warm debates, the North ^64.
Briton was voted a false, scandalous, and seditious libel,
tending to excite traitorous insurrections; and this was
followed by a declaration that the privilege of parliament
does not extend to the writing and publishing of seditious
libels. The paper in question was therefore condemned and
ordered to be burnt by the hangman ; but this was not done
without great opposition from the mob.
Wilkes, now determined to make the best use of the vic¬
tory he had gained, commenced a prosecution in the Court
of Common Pleas against the under secretary of state, for
seizing his papers ; and the cause being determined in his
favour, the defendant was subjected in L.1000 damages,
with full costs of suit. The prosecution with which
Wilkes had been threatened was now carried on with great
vigour; but in the mean time, having grossly affronted Mr
Martin, member for Camelford, by his abusive language
in the North Briton, he w^as challenged by that gentle¬
man, and dangerously wounded in the belly. Whilst he
lay ill of his wound, the House of Commons put off his
trial from time to time; but beginning at last to suspect
that there was some collusion betwixt him and his physi¬
cian, they ordered Dr Heberden, and Mr Hawkins, an
eminent surgeon, to attend him, and report. Wilkes, how¬
ever, did not think proper to admit these gentlemen ; and
soon afterwards took a journey to France. The Commons
being informed that he had refused to admit the physician
and surgeon sent by them, now lost all patience ; and pro¬
ceeding against him in absence, he was expelled the house.
A prosecution was also commenced against him before the
House of Lords, on account of an obscene and blasphe¬
mous attack on a spiritual peer; and failing to appear and
answer the charges against him, he was outlawed. But
the severity shown to Wilkes did not at all extinguish
the spirit of the party. A general infatuation in favour
of licentious and abusive writings seemed to have taken
place. At the very time that Wilkes was found guilty of
publishing the infamous pamphlet above mentioned, the
common council of London presented their thanks to the
city representatives for their zealous and spirited endea¬
vours to assert the rights and liberties of the subject;
and in gratitude to Lord Chief Justice Pratt for his de¬
cision in Wilkes’s affair, they presented him with the free¬
dom of the city, and desired him to sit for his picture,
which was to be placed in Guildhall.
But these clamours did not prevent administration from
paying attention to the exigencies of the nation. The
practice of franking blank letters had risen to an incre¬
dible height, and greatly prejudiced the revenue. The
hands of members of parliament were counterfeited, and
the covers publicly sold without the least scruple; and
besides, the clerks of the post office claimed a privilege of
franking, which extended even further than that of the
members of the house. An act was accordingly passed for
remedying the evil, by restricting the practice within rea¬
sonable limits. At this time it was proved that the annual
postage of letters sent free amounted to L.70,000, and that
the profits accruing to the clerks of the post office amount¬
ed to between L.800 and L.1700 each. Among the other
plans for augmenting the revenue, were those for settling
the island of St John, and for the sale of the lately ac¬
quired American islands. The former was proposed by
the Earl of Egremont, wbo presented a memorial to his
majesty on the subject. The sale of the conquered lands,
consisting of the islands of Grenada, the Grenadines, Do¬
minica, St Vincent, and Tobago, took place in March 1764.
Sixpence an acre was to be paid as a quit-rent for cleared
BRITAIN.
Reign of lands, and a penny a foot for ground-rent of tenements in
George III. towns, and sixpence an acre for fields ; but no person was
to purchase more than three hundred acres in Dominica,
or five hundred in the other islands. Amongst the most
remarkable transactions of this year was the renewal of the
charter of the bank, for which the latter paid the sum of
L.l,100,000 into the exchequer as a present to the public,
besides advancing a million of money to government upon
the security of exchequer bills.
But by far the most momentous affair which, at this
time, occupied the attention of government, was the consi¬
deration of a project for raising a revenue from the Ame¬
rican colonies. This had formerly been proposed to Sir
Robert Walpole; but that prudent minister wisely de¬
clined to enter into such a dangerous scheme; observing,
that he would leave the taxation of the colonies to those
who came after him in office. The reason given for such
a proceeding was the necessity of defraying the charge of
defending them; and this, though extremely reasonable
in itself, was effected in such a manner as raised a flame
which could only be extinguished by the total overthrow
of the authority of the parent state. Before this time,
indeed, hints had been thrown out that it was not im¬
possible for the colonists to withdraw their dependence
on Britain ; and some disputes had taken place betwixt
the different provinces, which, although quieted by terror
of the French, seemed to augur no good. But now, when
the colonies were not only secured but extended, it was
thought proper to make the experiment whether they
would be obedient or not. They already contained more
than two millions of people, and it was deemed absolutely
necessary to raise a revenue from so numerous a body.
Some thought it might be dangerous to provoke them ; but
to this it was replied by administration, that the danger
must increase by forbearance, and that, as taxation was in¬
dispensable, the sooner the experiment was tried the bet¬
ter. The fatal trial being thus determined on, an act was
accordingly passed for the prevention of smuggling, in
order that the duties laid on the American trade might
come into the hands of government. At this time there
was carried on betwixt the British and Spanish colonies an
illicit traffic, which seemed to bid defiance to all law and
regulation, and which was no less obnoxious to the Spanish
than to the British government. In some respects, how¬
ever, the suppression of this commerce was very incon¬
venient to the colonists; for as the balance of trade with
Britain was against them, they found it impossible to pro¬
cure any specie except by trading with the Spaniards, who
paid for their goods in gold and silver. This, with another
act requiring them to pay certain duties in cash, was pro¬
bably the cause of the resentment shown by the Americans
to government, and their refusal to submit to the stamp
act, which was also passed in the course of this year, hav¬
ing been carried through the Commons by a great majority.
The disposition to augment the revenue by all possible
methods seems to have served to keep alive the general
opinion as to the oppressive and arbitrary measures pur¬
sued by government. The ill humour of the British pa¬
triots still continued; and the stamp bills were received
in America with the utmost indignation. The arguments
for and against American taxation are at present of little
importance, excepting in as far as concerns the constitu¬
tional question evolved by them, and now almost univer¬
sally admitted, that taxation without representation is ty¬
ranny ; and the particulars of the opposition of the colo¬
nists will be related under another head. We may however
observe here, that the resistance of the colonists proved
very distressing to the mother country, on account of the
immense sums due by the former. To the merchants
of London alone they were indebted to the extent of
469
four millions sterling; and so ready had the latter been Reign of
to give them credit, that some of the American legisla- GeorgellL
tures passed acts against incurring such debts for the fu-
ture. A petition on the subject was also presented to the 76 *
House of Commons ; but as it denied the parliamentary
right of taxation, it was not allowed to be read. It was
then proposed, on the part of administration, that the
agents should join in a petition to the house that they
might be heard by counsel in behalf of their respective co¬
lonies against the tax ; but the agents not thinking them¬
selves empowered to prefer such a petition, the negociation
was broken off, and matters went on in America as we have
elsewhere related.
In other respects, the ministry took such steps as they
judged necessary for supporting the honour and dignity of
the nation. Some encroachments having been made by the
French and Spaniards, remonstrances were made to their
respective courts, and satisfaction obtained; and though
every trifle was sufficient to set on the popular party, they
were as yet unable to find any just cause of complaint.
Nevertheless, the disposition to tumult and insurrection
seems to have become general. The silk-weavers residing
in Spitalfields being distressed for want of employment,
arising, it was thought, from the clandestine importation of
French silks, laid their case before his majesty in the year
1764, and the sufferers were relieved by the bounty of the
public; but this seemed to render matters worse, by con¬
firming them in habits of indolence and idleness. At the
same time a bill, which was believed to be calculated to
conduce to their benefit, having been thrown out, they
began to assemble in great numbers, and several disor¬
ders were committed; nor was it without the assistance of
the soldiery, and the utmost vigilance of the magistrates,
that the riot could be suppressed. During this distm'b-
ance the ferment between the court and popular parties
continued unabated, and ministers were still reviled in
numberless publications, as mere dependents and tools of
the Earl of Bute.
An event which now occurred, however, produced a
considerable revolution at court, though it had but little
effect in calming the minds of the people. This was the
illness which seized the king in the beginning of the year;
and whilst it filled the public mind with apprehensions,
produced a bill for settling the affairs of the kingdom in
case of the crown devolving on a minor. In adjusting this
bill, ministers were said to have acted with but little re¬
spect to the Princess-dowager of Wales, in excluding her
from a share of the government; and this proceeding was
thought to have in a great measure alienated the confidence
of his majesty, with whom the ministry had hitherto been
in great favour. Nor did their subsequent conduct prove
that they were at all desirous of regaining the ground which
they had lost. For having contrived to get the Earl of
Bute’s brother turned out of a lucrative office he enjoyed
in Scotland, they offended his majesty, without recom¬
mending themselves to the popular party in England, who
manifested a perfect indifference as to all that passed in
Scotland. On this occasion Lord Chatham is said to have
been solicited to accept the office which he had formerly
filled so much to the satisfaction of the nation, and to have
declined it. A new ministry, however, was soon formed,
on the recommendation of the Duke of Cumberland. The
Duke of Grafton, and Mr Conway, brother to the Earl of
Hertford, were appointed secretaries of state ; the Marquis
of Rockingham, first lord of the treasury ; and Mr Dowde-
swell, chancellor and under treasurer of the exchequer.
The office of lord prvy seal was conferred on the Duke of
Newcastle ; and the other places were filled with men of
known integrity, and supposed to be agreeable to the
people. These changes, however, did not give general
Ji
Reign of satisfaction. The opinion that affairs were still managed
George III. by the Earl of Bute continued to prevail, and was industri-
ously kept up by the political writers of the time ; and the
1768. cjty 0p Lomiori expressed their discontent on the occasion
of addressing his majesty upon the birth of a third son.
This could not fail to offend both king and ministry; but
before the latter could show any token of resentment,
they lost their friend and patron the Duke of Cumberland
who died on the 31st of October 1765. He had been that
evening assisting at one of the councils, then frequently
held, in order to put matters in a way of being more speedily
dispatched by the privy council; and being seized with a
sudden disorder of which he had shown some symptoms
the evening before, he fell senseless in the arms of the
Earl of Albemarle, and expired almost instantaneously.
In the mean time the discontents which had inflamed
the American colonies continued also to agitate the minds
of the people of Great Britain; nor indeed was it reasonable
to expect that they could be satisfied with their present
condition, commerce being nearly annihilated, manufac¬
tures at a stand, and provisions exorbitantly high priced.
The large sums due to British merchants by the Ame¬
ricans also severely affected the trading and manufactur¬
ing part of the country ; more especially as the colonists
refused to pay unless the obnoxious law's should be re¬
pealed. The administration, therefore, were under the
necessity of either enforcing the stamp act by the sword,
or of procuring its immediate repeal in parliament. The
loss of the Duke of Cumberland was now severely felt, as
he had been accustomed to assist the ministry with his ad¬
vice, and was respected by the nation for his good sense.
But it seems doubtful if at this period human wisdom could
have prevented the consequences which ensued. The
administration endeavoured to avoid the two extremes, of
rushing instantly into a civil war, or sacrificing the dignity
of the crown or nation by irresolution and weakness; and
suspended their decision until certain intelligence should
be received from the American governors as to the state
of affairs in that country. But the opposite party animad¬
verted severely on this conduct, insisting on the most coer¬
cive methods being immediately adopted for enforcing the
laws in which they themselves had had so great a share.
Pacific measures, however, prevailed, and the stamp act
was repealed; but at the same time another was passed,
declaring the right of parliament not only to tax the colo¬
nies, but to bind them in all cases whatsoever. The re¬
peal of the stamp act occasioned universal joy throughout
Britain and America, though, as parliament insisted upon
their right of taxation, which the opposite party denied,
matters were still as far from any real accommodation as
ever; and the ill humour of the Americans was soon af¬
terwards increased by the duties laid upon glass, painters’
colours, and tea imported into their country; whilst at
home the high price of provisions, and some improper
steps taken by ministry to remedy the evil, kept up the
general outcry against them.
In this state of affairs administration were once more
disturbed by the appearance of John Wilkes, who had re¬
turned from exile, and, on the dissolution of parliament in
1768, whilst his outlawry was still unreversed, stood can¬
didate for the city of London. Failing, however, in his
design of representing the city of London, he instantly
declared himself a candidate for Middlesex. Innumerable
tumults and riots immediately took place ; and so great was
the animosity betwuxt the two parties, that a civil war seem¬
ed to be threatened. Any particular detail of these trans¬
actions would, however, be superfluous. It is sufficient to
state, that on a trial the outlawry of Wilkes was reversed,
and he was condemned for his offences to pay a fine of
L.1000 arid to be imprisoned for twelve months. Idolized
by the people, however, and powerfully supported by mer- Reign oil
chants and persons of property, he was repeatedly chosen George n
member for Middlesex, and as often rejected by the House
of Commons. Tumults frequently occurred; and the in- H70.
terposition of the military was construed by the patriots
as indicative of a design to establish ministerial authority
by the most barbarous methods.
1 hese dissensions did not pass unnoticed by the other
European powers, particularly the French and Spaniards.
Both had applied themselves with assiduity to the increase
of their marine; and many began to prognosticate an at¬
tack from one or other or both of these nations. The
Spaniards first showed an inclination to come to a rupture
with Britain. I he subject in dispute was a settlement
formed on the Falkland Islands, near the southern extre-
mity of the American continent. A scheme of this kind
had been thought of as early as the reign of Charles II.,
but it was not till after Lord Anson’s voyage that any
serious attention had been paid to it. In the printed ac¬
count of this expedition, his lordship pointed out the dan¬
ger incurred by our navigators through the treachery of
the Portuguese in Brazil, as w^ell as the importance of dis¬
covering some place more to the southward, where ships
might be supplied with necessaries for their voyage round
Cape Horn; and, with this view, he indicated the Falk¬
land Islands as an eligible rendezvous for vessels in these
high southern latitudes. His lordship also, when at the
head of the admiralty, forwarded the scheme, and some
preparations were made for putting it in execution; but
as it met with opposition at home, and gave offence to the
court of Madrid, it was laid aside till the year 1764, when
it was revived by Lord Egmont. Commodore Byron be¬
ing then sent out with proper necessaries, took possession
of these islands in the name of his majesty, and represent¬
ed them in a favourable light; but his successor, Captain
Macbride, affirmed that the soil was utterly incapable of
cultivation, and the climate intolerable. Be this as it may,
however, the islands in question had also attracted the
notice of the French ; but as that nation had been greatly
reduced by the late war, no project of the kind could yet
be put in execution at the public expense. M. Bougain¬
ville, therefore, undertook, with the assistance of his friends,
to form a settlement on the Falkland Islands at their own
risk; and the scheme was put in execution in the begin¬
ning of the year 1764, and a settlement formed on the
eastern part of the same island in which Commodore
Byron had established an English colony on the western
side. But the French adventurers soon became weary of
their new colony; and M. Bougainville, having been re¬
imbursed for his expenses, the French gave up every claim
of discovery or right of possession; while the Spaniards,
landing some troops in 1766, took possession of the fort
built by the French, and changed the name of the harbour
to Port Solidad. In 1769, Captain Hunt of the Tamar
frigate happening to be on a cruize off the Falkland Islands,
fell in with a Spanish schooner which had been at Port
Solidad, and charged the commander to depart from that
coast, which he declared to be the property of his Britan¬
nic majesty. The schooner, however, soon returned, bring¬
ing an officer from the governor of Buenos Ayres, who
gave a similar warning to Captain Hunt; and the latter,
not choosing to push matters to extremities, set sail for
England, where he arrived in June 1770. On the depar¬
ture of Captain Hunt, two frigates were left at the Falk¬
land Islands; but one of these was lost a short time aiter-
wards. On the 4th of June 1770, a Spanish frigate arriv¬
ed at the English settlement named Port Egmont, with a
number of guns and other warlike implements for carrying
on a regular siege; and in three days four other frigates
arrived laden in the same manner; so that the English
B R 1 T A I N.
471
Reign of commander, finding all resistance vain, was obliged to ca-
George III. pitulate. The English were ordered to depart within a
limited time, carrying with them what stores they could;
1770- an(l the Spanish commander declared himself answerable
for whatever they might leave on the island.
So audacious an insult to the British flag seemed to
render war inevitable, if suitable reparation should be re¬
fused. It was accordingly mentioned in the speech from
the throne in November 1770, when an immediate de¬
mand of satisfaction for the injury was promised; and it
was further intimated that the necessary preparations for
war, which had been begun, should not be discontinued.
The affairs of America were also noticed; and, where
grounds of complaint still existed, an assurance of redress
was given. But these promises, especially in regard to
the Falkland Islands, were far from giving satisfaction;
and a motion was now made in both houses for an inquiry
into the conduct of the Spaniards, as well as for the pro¬
duction of all papers and letters relative thereto. But the
demand was opposed by the ministry, upon the grounds
that the interest of the public service precluded the idea
of exposing letters or papers transmitted in confidence
while the negociation was depending, and that the king
of Spain had disavowed the conduct of his officer, and
promised satisfaction.
Some time before this, Mr Harris, the English minister
at the court of Madrid, had dispatched a letter to Lord
Weymouth, informing him that a ship had arrived from
Buenos Ayres, with an account of the intended expedi¬
tion against Port Egmont, the number of men to be em¬
ployed, and the time fixed for its departure; but Prince
Maserans, the Spanish ambassador, had declared his be¬
lief that the governor of Buenos Ayres had employed
force at Port Egmont without any orders, and expressed
a hope that, by disavowing the proceeding, he might pre¬
vent any misunderstanding betwixt the two kingdoms.
To this Lord Weymouth replied by inquiring whether
the prince had any orders to disavow the proceedings of
the governor; and, on his answering in the negative, his
lordship demanded a formal disavowal. After some time,
it was stated, on the part of Spain, that the prince was au¬
thorized to disavow any particular orders given to M. Buca-
relli, the governor of Buenos Ayres ; that the island should
be forthwith restored; and that it was expected the king
of Britain would, on his part, disavow the conduct of Cap¬
tain Hunt, whose menace had induced the governor to act
as be did. But this proposition did not prove satisfactory.
Mr Harris was ordered to quit the court of Madrid; and
the correspondence between Prince Maserans and the
court of England was discontinued. About this time Lord
Weymouth resigned his office, and was succeeded by the
Earl of Rochford; and the affair of the Falkland Islands
ceased to be spoken of.
But, on the meeting of the parliament in January 1771,
it was again brought before the house, when the declara¬
tion of the Spanish ambassador, and Rochford’s accep¬
tance, were announced. Prince Maserans then disavow¬
ed, in the name of his master, the violence used at Port
Egmont, the restitution of which was agreed to upon an
understanding that such restitution should be considered
as ample satisfaction, but not as affecting the question
concerning the prior sovereignty of the islands. Jhis pro¬
duced a new demand for copies of all papers, letters, and
declarations, relating to the Falkland Islands ; and though
it was now apparently complied with, the opposition affirm¬
ed that it was still only in part, since, besides a chasm of
nearly two months, of which there was no account what¬
ever, all copies of the claims or representations made by
the court of Spain since the first settlement of the islands
were kept back, and a suspicion was thus excited that the
concealment of these papers might proceed from some mis- Reign of
conduct during the periods in question, over which admi-^orgeiii.
nistration were willing to draw a veil. On the part of the 1770.
government it was answered, that every paper which could
be found in the several offices had been presented; that
if there had been any correspondence between the two
courts of which no notice was taken in them, it must have
been verbal; and that, at any rate, there were papers suf¬
ficient to enable the house to determine the propriety or
impropriety of their conduct throughout the whole transac¬
tion. But these excuses did not satisfy the opposition, and
a motion was made to address his majesty for information
as to whether any such interference had taken place, and
of what nature it was, or in what manner it had been con¬
ducted. The motion, however, was lost by a great majo¬
rity in both houses. Nevertheless this manner of decid¬
ing the question was far from allaying the ferment which
prevailed. The transaction was considered as disgraceful
to the British nation; nor were all the arguments which
could be used by the ministerial party sufficient to shake
the general opinion. The restitution of the island was
thought to be an inadequate recompense for the affront
that had been offered ; and the objections to it were urged
on a motion for an address of thanks on account of the
communication of the Spanish declaration, which was not
carried without considerable difficulty, and in fact produ¬
ced a protest from nineteen peers. On the part of Spain,
however, every article of the agreement was ostensibly
fulfilled; Port Egmont was restored, and the British once
more took possession of it, though it was in a short time
afterwards evacuated.
In other respects great discontent prevailed throughout
the kingdom. A fire which happened at Portsmouth in
the year 1770 excited numberless jealousies, and was by
some imputed to our enemies on the Continent, The af¬
fair of the Middlesex election was not forgotten ; and not¬
withstanding many repulses, the city of London still ven¬
tured to send up new petitions to the throne. In one
presented this year by Mr Beckford, the lord mayor, the
petitioners lamented having incurred the royal displeasure,
but renewed a request, frequently preferred before, for a
dissolution of parliament. This, however, met with a very
unfavourable answer. His majesty informed the lord
mayor, that his sentiments on the subject continued un¬
changed; and that he should ill deserve the title of father
of his people, were he to suffer himself to be prevailed on
to make such a use of his prerogative as he could not but
think inconsistent with the interest, and dangerous to the
constitution, of the kingdom. Mr Beckford, far from being
disheartened by this answer, demanded leave to address
the king; and having obtained it, made a speech of con¬
siderable length, which he concluded by telling his majesty,
that “ whoever had already dared, or should hereafter
endeavour, by false insinuations and suggestions, to alie¬
nate his majesty’s affections from his loyal subjects in ge¬
neral, and the city of London in particular, was an enemy
to his majesty’s person and family, a violator of the public
peace, and a betrayer of our happy constitution as it was
established at the glorious revolution.” This behaviour
of Mr Beckford was censured by tbe court party as inde¬
cent, unprecedented, impudent, and little short of high
treason; whilst, on the other hand, it raised him to the
highest pinnacle of popular favour. But he did not long
enjoy the applause of the people ; for he died a short time
afterwards, and his death was considered as an irreparable
loss to the whole party. Several other petitions were pre¬
sented on the subject of popular grievances; but the per¬
petual neglect wuth which they were treated at last brought
that mode of application into disuse.
A new subject of contention, however, now presented
I
V
472
BRITAIN.
1770.
Reign of itself. The navy was in a bad condition, and the sailors
George III. everyWhere avoided the service. Towards the end of
^ August sixteen ships of the line were ready to be put to
sea; but the legality of press warrants being questioned,
the manning of them became a matter of great difficulty.
The new lord mayor, Crosby, refused to back the warrants,
which proved a very vexatious matter to the ministry;
and they were further provoked by the unbounded licen¬
tiousness of the press. But, on the other hand, the mode
of proceeding against some libellers had produced many
complaints regarding the powers of the attorney-general.
He had filed informations and carried on prosecutions ex
officio, without going through the forms observed in all
other cases of the kind; and this was described as incon¬
sistent with the nature of a free government. Examples
were cited of flagrant oppression and injustice occasioned
by the exercise of this very power; the laws, it was said,
had become changeable at the pleasure of a judge; and
the liberty of the subject was taken from him whenever
he became obnoxious to his superiors. Accordingly a mo¬
tion was made in the House of Commons to bring in a bill
for explaining and amending an act of the 4th and 5th of
William and Mary, to prevent invidious informations, and
for the more easy reversal of outlawries in the Court of
King’s Bench. But this motion was rejected by a great
majority, the ministerial party urging that the power of
the attorney-general was the same as it had ever been, and
founded on the common law; that the abuse of power was
no argument against the legal exercise of it; that it was
dangerous to overthrow established customs ; and that the
actions of the attorney-general were cognizable by parlia¬
ment, which control must for ever prevent a licentious ex¬
ercise of his powers. But these arguments did not put an
end to the disputes on this head. The courts ofjustice were
at the same time held up in a very despicable light, on ac¬
count of some late decisions which had been deemed con¬
trary to law and usual practice. By these the judges had
assumed a power of determining whether a paper was a libel
or not, whilst the business of the jury was confined to the
determination of the fact regarding its publication; and
thus it was alleged that the judges had it in their power
to punish a man who had been found guilty of publishing a
paper, whether it was seditious or not. Lord Chatham, in a
speech on the Middlesex election, took occasion to mention
these abuses ; and was answered by Lord Mansfield, who
looked upon himself as particularly pointed at. The former,
however, was so little convinced by the answer, that he drew
from it an additional confirmation of his own arguments,
and moved that a day should be appointed for taking into
consideration the conduct of the judges ; in which proposal
he was ably seconded by the ex-chancellor. A committee
was accordingly moved for on the 6th December 1770, to
inquire into the matter ; but after much debate the motion
was rejected by a very large majority. The affair, however,
did not yet seem to be terminated. Lord Mansfield gave
notice next day, that on an early day he would communi¬
cate to the House of Lords a matter of the utmost import¬
ance ; but when that day arrived he produced nothing ex¬
cept a paper containing the case of Woodfall the printer, as
tried in the Court of King’s Bench, that whoever pleased
might read or take copies of it. This was looked upon as
exceedingly frivolous, and greatly disappointed the expec¬
tations of the whole house. His lordship was asked whe¬
ther he meant that the paper should be entered on the
journals of the house ; and he answered that he had no
such intention, but only that it should be left in the hands
of the clerk ; on which the affair would probably have
been altogether overlooked, had not the ex-chancellor, who
all along strongly supported the motion, accused Lord
Mansfield, from the very paper to which he appealed, of
a practice repugnant to the law of England, proposed Reign oil
to him some queries relative to the power of juries, and George H;
challenged his antagonist to a debate either at that time
or afterwards. But this method of proceeding was com- D70.
plained of as too precipitate, and an excuse was likewise
made for not assigning a day for the debate at any future
period, so that the matter soon sunk into oblivion. It was,
however, loudly talked of without doors ; and the judges,
who had already sunk in the estimation of the people,
now became much more obnoxious.
An accident which occurred soon afterwards contribu¬
ted also to lessen in the eyes of the people the character,
not only of the ministerial party, but that of both houses
of parliament taken collectively; and indeed it must be
owned that nothing could be more derogatory to the ho¬
nour of the first assembly of the nation, or to that of the
individuals composing it. On the 20th of December 1770
a motion was made by the Duke of Manchester, that an
address be presented to his majesty, praying that he
would be graciously pleased to give orders for quickening
our preparations for defence in the West Indies and in
the Mediterranean, and particularly for securing the posts
of Gibraltar and Minorca. But whilst his grace was des¬
canting on the negligence of the ministry in leaving posts
of such importance in a defenceless state, he was sudden¬
ly interrupted by Lord Gower, who insisted on having the
house immediately cleared of all except those who had a
right to sit there. His lordship was answered by the
Duke of Richmond, who complained of the interruption
given to the Duke of Manchester as a proceeding both
irregular and insidious. This produced a considerable de¬
gree of altercation ; and the cry of “ Clear the house”
resounded from all quarters. Several members attempted
to speak, but found it impossible; and, piqued at this
shameful behaviour, eighteen or nineteen peers left the
house in a body. The members of the House of Com¬
mons then present were not only commanded to depart,
but some of the lords went personally to the bar, and in¬
sisted on their leaving the house immediately. The lat¬
ter alleged in excuse, that they attended with a bill, and
were there in the discharge of their duty; but this avail¬
ed nothing ; they were peremptorily ordered to withdraw
till their message should be delivered, and at length turn¬
ed out of doors amidst the greatest tumult and uproar.
In the mean time the lords, who had just left their own
house, repaired to the lower house, where they were lis¬
tening to the debates, when the commoners who had been
turned out of the Lords arrived, full of indignation, and
loud in their complaints of the affront they had received.
This was resented by turning out indiscriminately all the
spectators; amongst whom were the eighteen peers just
mentioned, who were thus excluded from both houses.
This affair issued in a misunderstanding between the two
houses, which continued during the remainder of the ses¬
sion. Sixteen lords joined in a protest, and censured in
the warmest terms the treatment they had met with, as
well as the unprecedented behaviour of administration,
who had thus attempted to suppress the freedom of de¬
bate, and rendered the conduct of the house an object of
contempt and ridicule to the whole world.
Soon after the discussion on the subject of the Falkland
Islands, an extraordinary instance of corruption in the
borough of New Shoreham, Sussex, was laid before parlia¬
ment. The affair was brought by the returning officer, one
Roberts, declaring a candidate duly elected who had only
thirty-seven votes, whilst his opponent had eighty-seven
suffrages; and when this man was brought to trial for so
strange a proceeding, a scene of unparalleled villany was
disclosed. A great number of the freemen of the borough
had formed themselves into a society called the Christian
B R I 1
Reign of Club, which, instead of sustaining the character indicated
George III. by its denomination, was rendered instrumental in further-
ing the purposes of venality. A select committee of the
1770. members had been appointed to sell the borough to the
highest bidder. The committee-men never appeared at
elections themselves, but issued orders to the rest, direct¬
ing them as to how they were to vote; and after the elec¬
tion terminated, they shared the profits among themselves.
All this was clearly proved ; but the returning officer was
nevertheless dismissed with a reprimand from the Speaker
for having trespassed upon the forms which ought to have
been observed by such a functionary. A more severe
punishment, however, was reserved for the borough, par¬
ticularly the wretches who had assumed the name of the
Christian Club. A motion for inquiry having been carried
unanimously, a bill was brought in to incapacitate eighty-
one freemen of the borough, whose names wTere mention¬
ed, from ever voting at parliamentary elections ; and, for
the more effectual prevention of bribery and corruption,
the attorney-general was ordered to prosecute the com¬
mittee belonging to the Christian Club. After some op¬
position the bill for incapacitation at length passed, and
received the royal assent on the last day of the session.
The unbounded licentiousness of the press now attract¬
ed the notice of parliament, though the evil appeared in¬
capable of being effectually checked. At this period neither
rank nor character formed any security against calumny;
and indeed it was difficult to say which side went farthest
in the career of detraction and abuse. The ministry, how¬
ever, provoked by a long course of opposition, made loud
complaints against the freedom taken with their names; but
it was retorted by the opposition, that the abuse from one
quarter was as great as that from the other. Some mem¬
bers of the House of Commons complained that their
speeches had been misrepresented in the papers, and en¬
deavoured to put a stop to the practice of reporting them.
It was at this time considered as contrary to the stand¬
ing order of the house to print the speeches of the mem¬
bers of parliament; and a motion for calling two of the
principal printers to account was carried by a consider¬
able majority. The printers, however, did not attend
the summons of the messenger; and a final order for their
appearance was directed to be left at their houses, and de¬
clared to be sufficient notice when left there. The disobe¬
dience of the printers was undoubtedly occasioned by the
favour which they hoped to obtain with the popular party;
and indeed it was only after severe animadversion that
the ministry were able to carry the motion against them.
And this opposition was heightened by its being further
moved that they should be taken into custody by the Ser¬
jeant at arms, for contempt of the orders of the house; a
proceeding which was objected to on account of the tem¬
per and disposition of the people towards the house, and
the great impropriety of adding to their alarms by any un¬
necessary stretch of the executive power. But the majority
urged the necessity of preserving the dignity of the house,
and putting an end to those excessive freedoms which had
been taken with its members. The serjeant at arms next
complained, that not being able to find the printers at
their houses, he had been treated with indignity by their
servants; on which a royal proclamation was issued for
apprehending the two obnoxious typographers, Wheble and
Thomson, with a reward annexed. But in the mean time
six other printers, who had rendered themselves equally
obnoxious on a similar account, were ordered to attend
the house, though the motion had not been carried without
great opposition. Some of the delinquents were repri¬
manded at the bar, and one who did not attend wTas or¬
dered to be taken into custody for contempt. Wheble
being apprehended in consequence of the proclamation,
VOL. v.
AIN. 473
was carried before Alderman Wilkes, by whom he was dis- Reign of
charged; Thomson was in like manner discharged; and George IIL
the captors received certificates from the magistrates, in
order to entitle them to the promised reward. Millar, 1^L
one of the six who had refused to attend, was taken into
custody at his own house by the messenger of the House
of Commons ; but he sent for a constable, and was carried
along with the messenger before the lord mayor, and Al¬
dermen Wilkes and Oliver, at the mansion-house. The
lord mayor refused to deliver up the printer and messen¬
ger at the request of the serjeant at arms; and after some
disputes the messenger was committed to prison, as he had
been accused by Millar of assault and false imprisonment,
and the serjeant had refused to find bail; but he was im¬
mediately released upon bail being given. The lord mayor
was ordered to attend the house next day, when he pleaded
that he had acted in no way inconsistent with the duties
of his office, since by his oath he was bound to preserve the
franchises of the city ; and his conduct was further war¬
ranted by the terms of the city charters, as recognised by
act of parliament. It was then moved that he should be
allowed counsel; but this motion was overruled, upon the
ground that no counsel could be permitted to plead against
the privileges of the house. It was, however, carried that
the lord mayor’s clerk should attend with the book of
minutes; and, notwithstanding all opposition, he was oblig¬
ed to expunge from it the recognisance of Whittam the
messenger. This was followed by a resolution that there
should be no more proceedings at law in the case; upon
which a vehement altercation ensued, and several of the
minority at last left the house in the utmost rage. Though
it was now one o’clock in the morning, the ministerial party
refused to adjourn, and proceeded to the case of Mr Oli¬
ver, who, like the lord mayor, declined to express any re¬
gret for what he had done. Some proposed to censure
his conduct, others were for expulsion ; but when it was
proposed to send him to the Tower, the utmost confu¬
sion took place, some members declaring that they would
accompany him to the place of his confinement, whilst
others left the house. Meanwhile ministry used their
utmost endeavours to persuade him to make some kind of
apology or concession for what he had done; but finding
him immovable, they at last carried the motion for his im¬
prisonment, and he was committed accordingly. After the
confusion had been in some measure dispelled, the debates
concerning the lord mayor were resumed, and many ar¬
guments were urged against proceeding further in the
matter; but these being disregarded, the minority left the
house; and his lordship refusing the favour offered him of
being committed to the custody of the serjeant at arms,
was sent to the Tower. Alderman Wilkes, on being ordered
to attend, wrote a letter addressed to the Speaker, in which
he observed, that no mention had been made of his being
a member; and that if his seat in parliament, to which he
had been duly elected, wras to be granted, he would attend
and justify his conduct. Administration, however, were
too wise again to encounter this demagogue; but being at
the same time under no little embarrassment how to get
off, they at last had recourse to the miserable shift of order¬
ing him to attend on the 8th of April 1771, while they ad¬
journed the house to the 9th.
The only other transaction of moment during this ses¬
sion related to the East India Company. It was now pro¬
posed to raise two thousand men in England for the ser¬
vice of the Company, by whom the officers appointed by
the king were to be paid. But it was considered as un¬
constitutional and dangerous to keep up an armed force in
the kingdom which was not paid by government; and it
was likewise urged that it would prove an obstruction to
the recruiting service of our own army, on account of the
3 o
BRITAIN.
474
Eeign of superior advantages of enlisting in the Company’s service.
George III. The session terminated on the 8th of May. In the speech
from the throne it was observed, that the satisfaction ob-
tained from his Catholic majest)T for the injury done this
kingdom, and the proofs of the pacific disposition which
the courts of France and Spain had given, by laying aside
their armaments, enabled his majesty to reduce the forces
both by sea and land.
The many defeats which had been experienced by op¬
position during this and the preceding sessions now began
to cool their ardour in the cause of patriotism. Many of
them also had lost much of their popularity by taking part
against the printers; and as every motion had been car¬
ried in favour of administration by nearly two to one, a
general discouragement and languor ensued. The only
gainers indeed by the late contentions were the city ma¬
gistrates, and printers who had been punished by the
House of Commons. On the rising of parliament, the lord
mayor and aldermen were of course released from the
Tower, and welcomed with every mark of congratulation.
The city was illuminated ; and the mob, as usual, took ven¬
geance on the refractory by breaking their windows. A
committee was even appointed to carry on a prosecution
against the Speaker of the House of Commons; but as
this did not seem likely to afford redress, they determined
once more to have recourse to the throne. Accordingly,
on the 10th of July 1771, another petition and remonstrance
was presented, the subjects of which were the embank¬
ments on the Thames, the proceedings against the magi¬
strates, and a request for a speedy dissolution of parlia¬
ment. But this met with as unfavourable an answer as any
of the preceding appeals to the sovereign.
In the speech from the throne, when the parliament as¬
sembled in January 1772, his majesty observed, that the
performance of the king of Spain’s engagements, and the
behaviour of the other European powers, promised a con¬
tinuance of peace, and that although the necessity of keep-
ingup a respectable naval force was evident, yet no extra¬
ordinary aid for that purpose would be necessary ; and he
concluded with recommending a vigilant and active atten¬
tion to the concerns of the country, with an assurance of
the interposition of the crown to remedy abuses or supply
defects. Little discussion took place on the address in
answer to this speech ; but an ample subject of alterca¬
tion was soon furnished by a motion on the part of the go¬
vernment, the object of which was to recognise the neces¬
sity of raising twenty-five thousand seamen for the service
of the current year. A proposition of this kind, coming
immediately after the assurances of peace that had been
given from the throne, seemed very like a contradiction.
Accordingly it was argued that the peace establishment
would thus be augmented till we were overburdened by it;
that a large sum would be added to the national expenses;
and that as the same augmentation might every year be
made on similar pretences, the nation would in this way
be obliged to submit to the hardships of war in a time
of profound peace. If the assurances of peace from the
throne were well founded, the force in the East Indies
was already too great; if, on the contrary, a war was at
hand, it would be too small, notwithstanding the proposed
augmentation ; and in the same way Jamaica was likely to
suffer from this inferiority. But these remonstrances were
by no means sufficient to put a stop to the measure; and
the question in favour of the augmentation was carried
without a division.
The subject which came next to be discussed was reli¬
gion. This was originated by the tendency which had
for some time prevailed to resist the subscription of the
church standards. Meetings had been frequently held by
discontented members, in order to consider of some mode
of relief; and in the beginning of February a number of Reign oil
them, with several professors of law and physic, joined inGeorgpE
a petition to the House of Commons, expressing their
dissatisfaction with subscription to any human forms, and 77 '
praying for relief. In this petition they asserted that
they held certain rights and privileges from God alone,
without being subject to any other authority; that they
accounted it a blessing to live under a government which
maintained the sufficiency of the Scriptures to instruct in
all things necessary to salvation; and that they had a right
from nature, as well as from the principles of the reform¬
ed religion, to judge for themselves what was or was not
contained in the Scriptures. They prayed therefore to be
relieved from the burden of subscription, and to be restor¬
ed to their undoubted right of interpreting Scripture for
themselves, without being bound by any human explana¬
tion of it, or being required to acknowledge the truth of
any formulary of religious faith and doctrine whatsoever,
excepting the Holy Scripture itself. This petition was
presented by Sir William Meredith, who, along with the
other members favourable to the cause, enforced it by
many arguments drawn from the principles of toleration,
and maintained that nothing but hypocrisy and prevari¬
cation could arise from obliging men to subscribe what
they did not believe ; that the repeal of the laws for sub¬
scription would prevent the increase of dissenters, and
incline many of them to return to the church; that the
articles themselves were originally compiled in a hurry;
that they contained doctrines highly controvertible; and
that this restraint on the consciences of men constituted
one of the greatest imaginable hardships. The majority of
parliament, however, were found inimical to the petition,
though some who then opposed it wished for time to con¬
sider it more deliberately, or to refer it to a committee of
the clergy. At last, however, it was thrown out by a large
majority.
The rejection of the subscription bill was followed by
that of a bill for guarding the possessions of his majesty’s
subjects against dormant claims of the church. After this
the attention of parliament was called to one of the utmost
importance, which had been introduced by a message from
the king. This was the famous royal marriage bill, occa¬
sioned by the marriage of the Duke of Cumberland with
Mrs Horton, a widow lady, daughter of Lord Irnham, and
sister to Colonel Luttrell, and that of the Duke of Glouces¬
ter with the countess-dowager of Waldegrave. By the
message it was recommended to both houses to take it into
their consideration, whether it might not be expedient to
supply the defects of the laws then in being, and by some
new regulations more effectually to prevent tbe descend¬
ants of his late majesty,—excepting the issue of the prin¬
cesses who had married, or might hereafter marry, into
foreign families,—from marrying without the consent of his
majesty, his heirs and successors. In consequence of this
a bill was brought in, declaring all such marriages, with¬
out the consent above mentioned, to be null and void. The
descendants of his majesty, however, if above the age of
twenty-five years, might marry without the royal consent,
provided they gave intimation twelve months beforehand
to the privy council, and no opposition to the match was
made by parliament during that interval. But this bill en¬
countered the most violent and powerful opposition. The
principal arguments against it were, that the immediate
tendency of the measure was to create as many preroga¬
tives in the crown as there were matters of importance in
the state, and to extend them in a manner as exception¬
able as had ever been done in the most despotic period;
that the enacting part of the bill had an inconvenient and
impolitic latitude, in extending to all the descendants of
George II.; that the time of nonage for the royal family
BRITAIN.
Reign of appeared to be improperly extended beyond the limit of
George III. twenty-one years ; that the deferring their marriage to the
age of twenty-six might also be attended with bad conse-
quences, by driving them into a disorderly course of life;
that the power given by this bill to a prince to marry after
the age of twenty-six was totally defeated by the proviso
which declared the consent of parliament to be ultimately
necessary; that the right of conferring a discretionary
power of prohibiting all marriages, was beyond the reach
of any legislature whatsoever, being contrary to the in¬
herent rights of human nature, which, as they are not
derived from, or held under, the sanction of any civil laws,
cannot in any case be taken away by them ; that this
bill had a natural tendency to produce a disputed title to
the crown; and that it provided no security against the
improper marriages of princesses into foreign families, and
those of their issue, which might as materially affect the
interest of this nation as the marriages of princes resid¬
ing in the dominions of Great Britain. To these argu¬
ments it was answered, that the inconveniences so much
talked of were merely imaginary; that if the king should
make any improper use of his authority, parliament had it
in their power either to prevent the consequences, or to
punish the minister who advised it; that the crown was
dishonoured by improper connections; that many of the
greatest national calamities had proceeded from improper
alliances between the royal family and subjects ; and that
if experience showed that any material grievances ensued
from this act, it could as easily be repealed hereafter as
thrown out now, and on much better grounds. The result
was, that with great rapidity, and by considerable majo¬
rities, it passed through both houses.
Though the decision concerning the subscription of the
thirty-nine articles did not promise much success to any
proposed innovations in matters of religion, yet the case
of dissenting ministers was introduced soon after the
discussion of the royal marriage act; and a petition was
presented by a great body of dissenters, praying to be re¬
lieved from the hardship of subscribing to the articles of
a church to which they did not belong. This, however,
was most violently opposed, though with very little suc¬
cess, in the House of Commons, where it was carried by a
very great majority. In this branch of the legislature it
was maintained that nothing can advance the true interest
of religion so much as toleration ; and that if articles of
subscription are necessary, it must only be for men des¬
titute of principle, who, in compliance with ambition or
avarice, would as readily subscribe one set of articles as
another. In the House of Lords, however, the bill was re¬
jected by a majority of seventy. Here the doctrine of uni¬
versal toleration was vehemently scouted, and much was
said of the danger to which the Church of England would
be exposed by departing from the laws which guarded its
privileges. The dissenters, it was alleged, had great cause
to be satisfied with the favour they enjoyed by conniv¬
ance ; and the laws were only kept on record as a necessary
curb, lest, in the degeneracy of adecliningkingdom, religion
should require protection against heresy and blasphemy.
The only other business of this session was an attempt
at inquiry into the affairs of the East India Company, which
were then in a very critical situation. But the subject did
not come under consideration till next session, which com¬
menced in November 1772; the situation of the affairs of
the Company being alleged as a reason why parliament
had been called together sooner than usual. The greater
part of the present session was accordingly occupied with
the concerns of the Company.
It had been projected, as long ago as the year 1667, to
bring them under the inspection of government; but the
design did not succeed at that time, nor would it probably
475
have been entertained now, had not the affairs of the Com- Reign of
pany been embarrassed by the misconduct of their ser-GeorgellL
vants. During the preceding session a bill had been
brought in for restraining the governor and council from 77
all kinds of trade, as well as for enlarging the power of the
Company over its servants ; but the bill was thrown out on
the second reading, and indeed had probably been intro¬
duced merely to pave the way for what followed. The de¬
bates on the subject, however, produced a general belief that
the affairs of the East India Company were, owing to the
behaviour of its servants, in a very bad condition ; that at
any rate it was insufficient for the government of such ex¬
tensive possessions; and that, in consequence, there was
an evident necessity for giving up the management of it
to the Crown. A motion was accordingly made for a select
committee to inquire into the affairs of the Company ; and
although many reasons were urged against the proposition,
it was carried without a division, and the members were
chosen by ballot. But during the recess the affairs of the
Company continued to retrograde, and the treasury at home
was quite exhausted ; whilst bills to a vast amount drawn
on Bengal were nearly due, and these, together with the
Company’s debt to the Bank and other public bodies, and
the sum to be paid to government, reduced them almost
to the verge of bankruptcy. They were therefore reduced
to the necessity of asking a loan from administration ; but
their application was received with great indifference, and
the minister desired them to apply to parliament. Mean¬
while the reports of the select committee were published,
and gave the public no very favourable opinion of the be¬
haviour of the Company’s servants.
On the meeting of parliament, the minister moved for
a secret committee, to consist of thirteen persons, and the
members of which were to be chosen by ballot, in order
that no objection might apply to them which did not mili¬
tate equally against the whole house. This motion en¬
countered some opposition; but, ultimately, the commit¬
tee of secrecy was carried, as the other had been, with¬
out a division ; and the members, though chosen by ballot,
were almost all of them devoted to administration. The
select committee was likewise revived, that these bodies
might act as checks upon each other, and that between
them the nation might have the requisite information re¬
specting the whole matter.
In a short time after the appointment of the secret
committee, a report was given in, stating that the Com¬
pany were in great distress for want of money; and that
a bill ought to be brought in for restraining them from
sending out supervisors to India, a scheme which they at
this time meditated. The minister and his adherents en¬
larged greatly on the utility of this bill, which they describ¬
ed as not only highly expedient, but absolutely necessary,
in order to prevent the Company from engaging in an ex¬
pensive commission, at a time when their affairs were so
much embarrassed that they had no resource but to apply
to government for a loan. But notwithstanding all the
arguments used by administration in favour of the bill, the
Company were so far from thinking it for their advantage,
that they used every endeavour to prevent its passing
into a law. They petitioned, and some of their servants
were examined in the House of Commons, in order to show
the necessity of sending out supervisors, qualified to bring
their affairs into some degree of order, and at the same time
capable of curbing the excesses of which the Company’s
servants had too frequently been guilty. In spite of all op¬
position, however, the bill was carried by a large majority;
and in the House of Lords it met with similar success,
although the minority thought proper to enter a protest.
The select committee now gave in their second report,
containing a statement of the debt, credit, and effects of
476
B R I T A I N.
1772.
Reign of the Company in England; beginning with an account of
George III. casli in the Company’s treasury on the 1st of De¬
cember 1772, and containing a statement of all the debts
and claims against them in every part of the world. Thus
it appeared that the cash, credit, and effects of the Com¬
pany, amounted to L.6,397,299. 10s. 6d., and their debts
to L.2,032,306, which being deducted from the above
account of their effects, left a balance in favour of the
Company of L.4,364,993. I Os. 6d., without any valuation
of their fortifications and buildings abroad. The state¬
ment, however, was complained of as being unfair and
partial; but the members protested their innocence, and
administration insisted that, until proof to the contrary
was brought, the house was bound to adhere to it as just.
The business was revived after the holidays by an appli¬
cation from the Company to government for a loan of
L.1,500,000, for four years, at four per cent, interest, with
liberty of repaying the same according to the ability of
the Company, in instalments of not less than L.300,000;
and that they should not make a dividend of more than
six per cent, until the loan was reduced to L.750,000, after
which they might raise their dividend to eight per cent.;
and when the whole loan was discharged, the surplus of
the net profits arising in England, above the said dividend,
was to be appropriated to the payment of the Company’s
bonded debt, until it had been reduced to L.1,500,000, in
which case the surplus profits were to be equally divided
between the public and the Company. This request it was
judged expedient to grant, and it was accordingly resolved
that the affairs of the East India Company are in such a
state as to require the assistance of parliament; that a
loan is necessary to reinstate the Company’s affairs ; that
the supply required be granted; and that care be taken
that the Company be prevented from experiencing the like
exigencies for the future. These restrictions were judged
proper by administration for the security of the public;
but the Company replied, that they were contrary to the
proposals which had been made, and void of foundation, as
being built on the erroneous reports of the secret commit¬
tee. Some time was also demanded for consideration ; but
that being refused, the question was put and carried as
ministry desired, by a considerable majority.
The next step was to deprive the Company of their ter¬
ritorial right to the countries which they possessed in the
East Indies. This had been allowed them in the most
explicit manner, as appears by some of the papers which
passed between the French and English ministers during
the negociations that issued in the treaty of Paris; but
Lord North informed the house that it was the opinion of
several great lawyers, that such territorial possessions as
the subjects of any state shall acquire by conquest are vir¬
tually the property of that state, and not of those indivi¬
duals who acquire them. He was of opinion, however,
that it would be more beneficial for the public and the
East India Company, to let the territorial acquisitions re¬
main in the possession of the Company for a limited time ;
and at the same time it was moved, that no participation
of profits should take place betwixt the public and the
Company until after the repayment of L.1,400,000 advan¬
ced to the Company, and the reduction of the Company’s
bonded debt to L.1,500,000; that, after the payment of
the loan advanced to the Company, and the reduction of
their bonded debts to the sums specified, three fourths of
the net surplus profits of the Company at home, above
the sum of eight per cent, upon their capital stock, should
be paid into the exchequer for the use of the public, and
the remaining fourth be set apart either for reducing the
Company’s bonded debt, or forming a fund for discharging
any contingent expenses to which the Company might be
exposed.
These proceedings proved exceedingly disagreeable to Reign of
the Company, who now presented a petition complainingGem'gelll,
of the injustice of demanding any further terms on ac-
count of a loan, after that loan had been discharged. But ''
no regard was paid to this petition, and the motions were
carried in favour of administration. To make some kind
of compensation, however, it was agreed, that as the Com¬
pany had a stock of teas amounting to about seventeen
millions of pounds in their warehouses, they should be al¬
lowed to export as much of it as they thought proper free
of duty, and to employ the money thence arising in the
advancement of their own affairs.
This concession in favour of the East India Company
proved in the event the loss of the American colonies;
nor indeed could these arbitrary proceedings with so con¬
siderable a body tend to impress the mind of the nation
with ideas favourable to the views of administration. In
other respects the minister abated nothing of the disposi¬
tion he had from first to last evinced with regard to the
Company. On the 3d of May 1773 certain resolutions
were laid down by him as the foundation of a bill to esta¬
blish certain regulations for the better management of the
East India Company, as well in India as in Europe. These
were, that the court of directors should in future be elect¬
ed for four years; that no person should vote at the elec¬
tion of the directors who had not possessed his or her
stock twelve months ; that the stock qualification for the
future should be L.1000 instead of L.500; that the may¬
or’s court of Calcutta should henceforth be confined to
small mercantile causes ; that, instead of this court, a new
one should be established, consisting of a chief justice and
three puisne judges, appointed by the crown ; and that a
superiority should be given to the presidency of Bengal
over the other presidencies in India. Each of these reso¬
lutions was carried by a great majority. By the friends
of the Company, however, the bill was supposed to have
a tendency to effect a total alteration of its constitution
in England, as well as in the administration of all its
presidencies in Asia, and to subject their affairs, both at
home and abroad, to the immediate power of the crown.
By cutting off the L.500 stockholders, the proprietary
would become more manageable by the crown; nor was
there any security that the directors would be faithful to
the interests of the Company when they were no longer
responsible to them for their actions. This class of pro¬
prietors presented a petition, which gave rise to a motion,
bearing that the petitioners had not been guilty of any
delinquency in the exercise of their chartered rights ac¬
cording to the several acts of parliament made in their
behalf. But the motion was rejected, and the regulating
bill passed both houses by large majorities.
During this time the select and secret committees were
pursuing their inquiries. The affairs of the Company were
investigated from the year 1756, and a report was at
length presented by General Burgoyne, containing many
charges of cruelty and rapacity, against several persons
concerned in the management of the affairs of the Com¬
pany, particularly with regard to the deposition of Surajah
Dowlah in 1756, which was described as the cause of all
the evils which had since happened. The report dwelt
much on the treachery employed in bringing about that re¬
volution, particularly the fictitious treaty with Omichund;
and exposed the conduct of Lord Clive, who had caused
Admiral Watson’s name to be affixed to the treaty, after
the admiral himself had refused to sign it. It concluded
with moving for the restitution of all the money received
in presents or otherwise in India whilst the receivers act¬
ed in public capacities; and recommended the adoption of
resolutions, bearing in substance that all acquisitions made
under the influence of a military force, or by treaty with
BRITAIN.
477
Reign of foreign powers, belong of right to the state; that to ap-
Georgelll.propriate acquisitions obtained by such means is illegal;
ancl that great sums of money had been obtained by such
means from the sovereign princes in India. The belief
that many of the Company’s servants had acted in an in¬
famous manner, was at this time so general and so strong,
that these resolutions were carried almost unanimously.
Lord Clive defended himself by general protestations of
innocence, which, however, gained but little credit; and
when he entered into a particular refutation of the charges
against him, he did not succeed in making many converts
to his reasoning. But his friends wrere not of opinion that
the charges were of a very atrocious nature, and wished
to excuse him on the ground of policy and necessity. The
treaty with Omichund was justified on the plea of neces¬
sity. Some, indeed, observed that as Omichund had the
character of being the most accomplished villain in Asia,
the Englishman merely wished to have a trial of skill with
the Asiatic. This sarcasm, however, was a mere piece of
wit, without any solid foundation; for the crime, if there
was any in the transaction, lay in dethroning a sovereign
prince by means of traitors, and not in cheating the traitors
out of their reward. And, in fact, if treachery be once ad¬
mitted into transactions, whether civil or political, it is in
vain to pretend any subjection to the rules of justice; for
those who call in the aid of such an auxiliary are already
beyond its jurisdiction. General Burgoyne, however, mov¬
ed that Lord Clive had, in consequence of the powers with
which he was vested in India, received at various times pre¬
sents to the amount of L.234,000 sterling, to the dishonour
and detriment of the state. But this being rejected, after
a violent debate, it was moved that Lord Clive, in receiv¬
ing such a sum, had abused the power with which he was
intrusted, to the evil example of the servants of the public.
This motion, however, was also rejected, and it was ulti¬
mately voted that Lord Clive, when he received the sum
above mentioned, at the same time rendered great and
meritorious services to his country. Thus the matter was
concluded, and thus the affairs of the Company were de¬
livered into the hands of administration.
The affairs of the East India Company, which had en¬
grossed so much time and attention, now gave place to
those of America, which by this time had assumed a very
lowering aspect. The discontent occasioned by the taxes
imposed on that country has already been noticed. The
stamp act had excited among them a spirit of industry
and economy, as well as a desire of providing themselves
with manufactures of their own, which had not been fore¬
seen. At the time, as well as afterwards, this was im¬
puted to wilfulness, or to the discontent of a few, which
would afterwards subside, or be suppressed by the voice
of the majority, when things would revert to their former
channels. But the trifling tax on tea, which had not been
repealed, and the permission given to the Company to ex¬
port whatever quantity they pleased, now threw matters
into a ferment not to be quelled by any means whatever.
Of the various proceedings in America, the tumults at
Boston and elsewhere, the accidental circumstances which
added fuel to the flame, and the war which ensued and
ultimately terminated in the recognition of ikmerican in¬
dependence, an account will be given under the article
United States. It is only necessary here to give an ac¬
count of the manner in which the legislature and people
of Great Britain were affected by these events.
Ever since the conclusion of peace in 1763, the disposi¬
tion shown by government to augment the revenue had
produced in the popular party of Great Britain a spirit simi¬
lar to that manifested by the Americans, though in an in¬
ferior degree ; and hence the patriots of Britain affected to
consider the Americans as oppressed by government, and
suffering in the same cause with themselves. The wanton Reign of
destruction of the tea at Boston and other places in Ame-GeorgellL
rica, however, considerably diminished the number of
their friends, and rendered many of those who still ad¬
hered to them much less sanguine in their cause. The
matter was announced to parliament by a special message
from the throne. Lord North and the other ministers
described the conduct of the colonists, particularly in the
town of Boston, as most atrocious, and concluded that
government was now perfectly justified in resorting to any
measures they might think proper to repress the turbu¬
lent spirit which had been manifested, and inflict such
punishment as the enormity of the offence seemed to de¬
serve. The opposition did not pretend to exculpate,
though it still attempted to excuse, the conduct of the
colonists, by ascribing all the disturbances in that country
to the arbitrary and absurd measures pursued and obsti¬
nately adhered to at home. But the ministry evaded this
charge by drawing the attention of the house to the more
important consideration, whether the Americans were now
to be dependent on, or independent of, Great Britain.
The Boston port bill was then brought in, and carried,
but not without considerable opposition, both within and
without doors. Mr Bollan, agent for the council of Mas¬
sachusetts Bay, founding on an act of Queen Elizabeth,
for securing the liberty of the colonies, drew up a petition,
and caused it to be presented before the bill had actual¬
ly made its appearance: but so little regard was paid to
it, that, during the time it lay on the table, the bill was
brought in by Lord North. After the second reading,
the same gentleman presented another petition, desiring
to be heard in behalf of the town of Boston, and for the
council of Massachusetts Bay; but this was refused, be¬
cause, although Mr Bollan was agent for the colony, he
was not so for the corporation of Boston, and still less for
the council of Massachusetts Bay, as the body which
had appointed him was now no longer in existence. This
appeared very inconsistent to many of the members, and
produced a new petition from the lord mayor, in the name
of such natives and inhabitants of North America as at
that time resided in London, in which the petitioners in¬
sisted that the bill was illegal, unprecedented, unjust; and
that, after such a precedent as it went to establish, no
man or body of men in America could have a moment’s
security. But as little regard was paid to this as to the
former petitions, and the bill passed both houses without
a division. That this obnoxious bill might not be sent to
America without some mitigation, however, the minority,
who had not chosen to divide formally on the first measure
proposed by government for reducing the refractory colo¬
nists, proposed the repeal of the duty4on tea laid on in
1767 ; but this was also rejected, probably from an errone¬
ous impression that the opposition of the Americans was
that of a mere tumultuous mob, and that by showing pro¬
per spirit the ministry would at last come off victorious.
The extreme pertinacity shown by ministers, in this
instance, undoubtedly proved highly prejudicial to their
cause, both by exasperating the Americans, and by rous¬
ing the indignation of the minority in parliament, and
rendering opposition more violent and determined. This
appeared in every subsequent proceeding relative to the
colonies. Even the bill for regulating the government of
Massachusetts Bay did not pass without a protest; and
a similar result ensued on the passing of the act for the
impartial administration of justice. The opposition made
to the Quebec bill was even more violent, insomuch that,
ere it could be carried, the ministers were obliged to
lower the high and aspiring tone to which they had ac¬
customed themselves in talking of American affairs. The
minority contended, that without any necessity pleaded,
478
B R 1 T A I N.
Reign of m* even suggested, an arbitrary influence was extended
George III. by act 0f parliament to that province; they likewise ar-
gued in favour of the method of trial by jury; and they
l^5' thought that the establishment of the Roman Catholic re¬
ligion in that country gave it a preference over the Pro¬
testant, which was henceforth to be exercised only by to¬
leration.
At the conclusion of the session his majesty declared
himself satisfied with what had been done, and expressed
his hopes that good effects would result from the new re¬
gulations. The reception which they met with in Ame¬
rica will be related in the proper place; in Britain the
people seemed to await the event with indifference. The
parliament in the mean time was dissolved by proclama¬
tion, and a very short time allowed for the election of new
members ; so that if opposition at that time possessed any
strength, they were not allowed sufficient time to exert it.
The new parliament met on the 30th of November 1774,
when his majesty informed the two houses that a most
daring spirit of resistance still prevailed in America, not¬
withstanding the means which had been taken to prevent
the mischiefs thence arising; and assured them that they
might depend on his firm resolution to withstand every
attempt to weaken or impair the supreme authority of the
legislature over all the dominions of the crown. In answer
to the speech from the throne, the minority demanded a
communication of all letters, orders, and instructions, re¬
lating to American affairs; but this was overruled, and
the address being carried as a matter of form, the consi¬
deration of American affairs was delayed until after the
holidays.
In the beginning of 1775 the minority received a con¬
siderable accession of strength by the return of Lord
Chatham, who, after a long absence, again made his ap¬
pearance in parliament. He now testified in the warmest
terms his disapprobation of the measures which had been
pursued regarding America; he moved for addressing the
king to recal the troops from Boston ; he predicted, that if
ministers persisted in the course they had for some time
pursued, they would make the crown not worth the king’s
wearing; and he declared that the kingdom would be un¬
done if measures of undue coercion were employed. But
all the eloquence of this great man proved ineffectual; ad¬
ministration were determined upon reducing the Americans
to subjection, and his motion was rejected by a very large
majority. Lord North now presented the papers which had
been called for by the minority; but lest the publication of
particular names should prove detrimental to individuals,
only such parts as administration thought proper for pub¬
lic inspection were laid before the house. This was com¬
plained of, but to no purpose; and the papers, in their
mutilated state, were laid before a committee of the whole
house.
In the mean time, petitions against the adoption of co¬
ercive measures against America had been received from
most of the trading companies in the kingdom; and as
these, though highly displeasing to administration, could
not be absolutely thrown overboard, a committee was ap¬
pointed to consider them ; but this was not to take place
until American affairs were also considered. The reason
given for this method of proceeding was, that the consi¬
deration of commercial matters ought not to interfere with
those of a political kind, each of them being sufficiently
embarrassing without the other. The delay in hearing
these petitions, however, was supposed to be in effect an
absolute rejection of them; and so indeed it proved, the
committee to which they were consigned being humorous¬
ly styled the “ Committee of Oblivion.” The merchants
of London, however, being determined not to give up the
point until they had exerted themselves to the utmost,
1775.
drew up a paper, in which they denied the distinction es- Reign of
tablished by ministry, and affirmed that the connection be- George III
tween Great Britain and America was chiefly of a com¬
mercial nature, and that the manifold regulations adopted
for the mutual prosperity of the colonies and of the mo¬
ther country formed the great political chain which united
them to one another. This remonstrance was vigorously
seconded by the opposition; but the administration had
already determined on the line of conduct they were to
pursue, and therefore wished to hear as little as possible
on the subject. War was now the word; and although
no weightier reason could be given for disregarding what
the merchants had to say, this was the motive which im¬
pelled ministers to refuse them a hearing, lest these should
make it appear that the nation was unwisely precipitated
into such a measure.
But though there is no reason to doubt that adminis¬
tration were now fully determined upon a war, and there¬
fore wished to be troubled with as few objections as pos¬
sible, they were by no means deficient in arguments in
justification of their own conduct. They alleged that the
petitions so strongly pressed on the attention of the house
were principally the work of a factious party; that the
advantages resulting from the trade with America arose
from the dependent condition of the colonies, which now
aimed at shaking off entirely the supremacy which the
mother country had hitherto exercised over them without
the smallest complaint; that the advantage of the mer¬
chants themselves was consulted in maintaining that su¬
premacy; that they would be the first to feel the pernicious
consequences of its being lost; that war, though no doubt a
great evil, was sometimes necessary to prevent a greater ;
that were the government to yield in the present contest,
no advocate of America could pretend to say what would
be the last of its demands; that the Americans were not
to be reclaimed by concessions; that the honour and cha¬
racter of the nation were at stake; and that Britain had
often taken up arms for matters of less consequence, and
should not now hesitate where honour and interest both
called for the most vigorous and effective exertions.
These arguments prevailed, and the motion in favour
of the merchants’ petitions was rejected by a prodigious
majority. This point, however, had no sooner been dis¬
posed of, than a violent debate arose concerning the peti¬
tion of congress to the king, which had been referred to
parliament. It was argued by administration, that no
petition could be received from the continental congress,
which was not a legal body; that it would be admitting
their legality to receive a petition from them; and that
the general assemblies and their agents were the only
lawful representatives of the colonies, and could alone be
recognised as such. Opposition disputed these positions,
but to no pux-pose ; for, after an ineffectual struggle, the
petition was rejected by a very large majority.
In the mean time a conciliatory plan, prepared by the
Earl of Chatham, was presented on the first day oi Fe¬
bruary 1775. The declared object and intent of this bill
was to settle the troubles in America, and at the same
time to assert the supreme legislative authority and su¬
perintending power of Great Britain over her colonies.
No taxes were to be levied in America, but with the free
consent of their assemblies. The right of the crown to
station and maintain a military force established by law
in any part of its dominions was pointedly asserted; but
it was also declared, that it could not be legally employed
to enforce implicit and unlawful submission. A congress
was also to be held, in order to recognise the supreme
sovereignty of Great Britain over the colonies, and to
settle an annual revenue upon the crown, disposable by
parliament, and applicable to the exigencies of the nation
B R I
Reign of And on these conditions being complied with, the acts
George III. complained of by congress were to be suspended, with
every other measure pointed out as a grievance, and the
W5* constitution of the different governments to remain as
settled by their charters. This bill, however, was deemed
totally inadmissible, on account of the various concessions
it enacted, and particularly from its empowering the co¬
lonies to assemble in congress; a measure which was at
that time the most offensive, and supposed to be the most
injurious to the interests of Britain. Lord Chatham show¬
ed no deficiency of argument in support of his favourite
scheme; but his reasoning, though enforced with all the
powers of his eloquence, proved unsuccessful, and the pro¬
posal was ultimately rejected.
A petition was next presented to the House of Com¬
mons by the proprietors of estates in the West India
islands, representing their alarm at the association of the
Americans, and the intended stoppage of trade with the
British islands, the situation of which, it was alleged,
would be very calamitous, if the acts in question were not
immediately repealed. To the administration, however,
all petitions now appeared to be the contrivance of fac¬
tion ; but as it was deemed necessary to inform the nation
as to the ultimate views of the government respecting
America, Lord North, in a long speech, enumerated the
most remarkable circumstances relating to the dispute
with that country. He affirmed that the ferment then
prevailing in America proceeded from the unwarrantable
arts and practices used to inflame the people against the
ruling powers in Britain; that, notwithstanding all their
complaints, the public charges borne by individuals in
America were not more than as one to fifty, compared
with what was paid by individuals in England; that no¬
thing but a settled determination to quarrel with the pa¬
rent state could induce the Americans to persist in their
disobedience to the lawful injunctions laid upon them, and
which were neither injudicious nor oppressive; and that a
spirit of resistance, not discontent at oppression, animat¬
ed America. For these reasons he proposed to the house
to send a greater force to America; and to pass a tempo¬
rary act, suspending all the foreign trade of the different
colonies of New England, and particularly the Newfound¬
land fishery, until they consented to acknowledge the su¬
preme authority of the British legislature. New England
was singled out upon this occasion, as being accounted the
most guilty. The others, it was hoped, would yield with
less compulsion; but the question now was, whether this
country should at once abandon all claims on the colonies,
and instantly give up the advantages arising from our sove¬
reignty, and the commerce dependent on it, or whether it
should resort to the measures which had become indispen¬
sably necessary to insure both.
An address was now carried, which, by the showing of
opposition, amounted to a declaration of war. The conse¬
quences, therefore, were pointed out with the utmost free¬
dom, and some even denied the charge of rebellion fixed
on the province of Massachusetts Bay. The people there,
they said, had done nothing but what the constitution al¬
lowed ; they had resisted arbitrary measures; and the ex¬
amples so frequently set them at home were sufficient to
justify their conduct. The address, however, was carried
as usual by a large majority. But so important was the
subject of it deemed by the minority, that a motion was
made for recommitting it, on account of the consequences
that might probably result from the prosecution of the
measures recommended. A very long and violent debate
ensued, in the course of which the administration con¬
tended as usual for the necessity of enforcing obedience
by the sword. The Americans, they said, had become
incorrigible through forbearance; lenity was a subject of
'AIN. 479
derision among them, and was imputed to imbecility and Reign of
fear; they imagined themselves able to abolish the sove- GeorgeII .
reignty of Britain in that country, and were now resolved^
to do it. It was therefore incumbent on every native of
Britain in such a case to stand forth and vindicate the
interest and glory of his country; and it was the duty
of parliament and ministry to call forth the whole spirit
of the nation to a contest in which every thing dear to
them, both in their public and private capacities, was so
deeply concerned. The views and principles of ministers
were attacked in the most violent manner. They were
said to be reviving the old exploded doctrines of here¬
ditary right and passive obedience, and requiring the
Americans to submit unconditionally to the will of Great
Britain, for no other reason but because she was the pa¬
rent state. But if no better reason could be produced,
they could not be justly blamed for their disobedience.
The ties between Great Britain and her colonies, how¬
ever, were of a far more noble as well as more binding
nature than even origin and consanguinity. These ties
were the constitution transmitted from Britain, and the
brotherly assistance hitherto afforded them by English¬
men, and which ought to render the name dear to them.
While these ties remained unviolated, there was no room
to complain of their behaviour; but they would never
submit to despotic authority in Englishmen more than in
any others. Such unwarrantable principles rendered it no
longer a question whether the measures of administration
should be considered, but whether the ministers them¬
selves ought not to be deprived of the power which they
exercised so unconstitutionally. The question was not now
between Great Britain and America, but simply whether
we should give up our colonies or our ministers. This
kind of language excited the indignation of the ministe¬
rial party, who in return charged minority in plain terms
with the guilt of all that had happened. There had gone
forth, it was said, a factious and republican spirit, by which
every person who wrote or spoke on the American cause was
actuated, and which had not only induced the Americans
to commence a rebellion against the parent state, but had
filled the house with incendiaries. The final issue of the
dispute was, that the recommitment of the address was
lost by a majority of more than two to one. The debates
were the most violent that had ever been known in the Bri¬
tish parliament; and so important was the subject reckon¬
ed, that not only the people of this country, but even the
foreign ministers in London, watched the motions of ad¬
ministration with the utmost anxiety.
But all these victories were not sufficient to prevent
new enemies from starting up. Petitions had been pre¬
paring by the London merchants trading to America, and
by those concerned in the West India trade, in order to
be presented to the House of Lords. This task was un¬
dertaken by the Marquis of Rockingham; but he was pre¬
vented from executing it by a previous motion in favour
of the address. A long and violent debate, however, en¬
sued concerning the necessity and propriety of receiving
them ; but it was at length resolved that the petition
could not be received consistently with the interest of
the kingdom.
In the mean time matters became daily worse in New
England; and it was soon perceived, either that the friends
of government in that colony did not exert themselves, or
that they were far from being so numerous as had been
imagined. In order to render their coercive plan the more
effectual, therefore, it was judged necessary to extend it
so that every individual of the colony might become sen¬
sible of the punishment. This, it was supposed, would be
done by a bill for restraining the four provinces of New
England from commerce with Great Britain, Ireland, and
480
BRITAIN.
Reign of the British West India islands, and prohibiting them from
George III. carrying on the fishery at Newfoundland. The reasons
alleged for this proceeding -were in substance the same with
1^3‘ those for the others ; and indeed both parties had now so
much exhausted their arguments, that very little new mat¬
ter remained for either. Every step taken by ministry, and
every proposal made by them, however, produced a violent
debate ; and though they constantly gained the victory, it
was not without the mortification of hearing their princi¬
ples and conduct reprobated in the most opprobrious man¬
ner. In the present instance the bill was carried by a very
large majority; but a petition against it was quickly pre¬
sented by the London merchants concerned in the Ameri¬
can trade, setting forth the danger which would accrue to
the fisheries of Great Britain from such a prohibition. From
the evidence produced in support of this petition, it appear¬
ed that, ten years before, the American fisheries had been
in such a flourishing state, that the four provinces of New
England alone employed nearly forty-six thousand tons of
shipping and six thousand seamen; and that the produce
of the fisheries in the foreign markets had amounted, in the
year 1764, to upwards of L.320,000. Since that time, how¬
ever, they had greatly increased; and what rendered them
particularly valuable was, that all the materials used in them,
excepting only the timber for building the vessels, and
the salt for curing the fish, were purchased in Britain, and
the net proceeds of the trade were also remitted thither.
Some other considerations were likewise urged as reasons
against this bill, particularly the commercial concerns of
New England with the city of London, to which alone the
colony stood indebted in nearly a million sterling, and the
bad consequences of it to the people of Nantucket, who,
though inhabiting a barren island off the coast of New
England, about fifteen miles in length and three in breadth,
containing six thousand inhabitants, kept one hundred and
thirty vessels constantly employed in the whale fishery,
which they carried on in the north seas, to the coasts of
Africa and Brazil, and even as far as the Falkland Islands.
The case of Nantucket, in fact, was so strong that the ad¬
ministration were obliged to relax a little, and, of their
own accord, afforded this industrious people the relief
which they had such just reason to expect. The bill was
debated with great animosity in the House of Peers, and
produced a remarkable protest, in which the measures of
government were spoken of with great severity.
CHAP. XIII.
REIGN OF GEORGE III. AMERICAN WAR.
Force to be sent to America—Lord North’s conciliatory Bill—.
Ineffectual endeavours of the West India Planters—Violence
of both parties.—Resignation of Lord Effingham and others—
Conduct of London and Dublin—Distress of the Country—
Last petition of Congress rejected—Whigs and Tories—Their
mutual recriminations.—Misfortunes of the Newfoundland fleet.
 Difficulty of procuring succours—France and Holland espouse
the American cause Hessian auxiliaries—Supplies for the
garrison of Boston destroyed or taken.—Party animosities.—
Debates in Parliament.—Military operations—The cause of
America believed to be desperate—Expense of the war—Sur¬
render of Burgoyne at Saratoga—Conduct of Ministers—The
French resolve to assist America—Treaty between France and
America Charges against administration.—Invasion threaten¬
ed by the French Exploits of D’Estaign in the West Indies.
—Encounter with Admiral Byron—State of the Contest in
America and the West Indies Condition of the British Navy.
—Keppel’s engagement with the French fleet—Subsequent
dissensions, and trial of the Admiral His acquittal—Board of
Admiralty attacked.—Resignations of Admirals Keppel, Howe,
and others—Inquiry concerning the conduct of the American
war—General Burgoyne’s affair—Accession of Spain to the
confederacy against Britain Measures for the defence of the
nation—Reduction of some British settlements in Africa.— Reign of
Unsuccessful attempts on Jersey Threatened invasion of Great George III.
Britain.—Appearance of the combined fleets of France and
Spain in the Channel—Unpopularity of the American war— 1775,
Ministry become obnoxious to the people Schemes of econo¬
my rejected—Unconstitutional influence of Ministers—Mr
Burke’s plan of economy—Defeat of the Ministry on Mr Dun¬
ning’s celebrated motion, 6th April 1/80 They recover a ma¬
jority in the House—Catholic Relief Bill Disturbances con¬
nected with it in Scotland—Conduct of the mob in Edinburgh.
—The Protestant Association—Terrible riots in London—•
Lord George Gordon committed to the Tower Power of the
Ministry confirmed—Important debate on the employment of
military force in cases of disturbance—Operations of the war.
—Naval successes—Armed neutrality—Origin of the war with
Holland Battle off the Doggerbank—Efforts of Britain—
Events of the year 1/81.—Pertinacity of Ministers King’s
Speech Debates on the Address—Motions against the Ame¬
rican war New plan proposed by Lord North Debates—
Army Estimates—Elevation of Lord George Germaine to the
Peerage, and discussion consequent thereon—Protest—Motions
for an Address against the American war rejected—One at
length carried and presented to the King—Motion against the
Ministry, who intimate their intention to resign—Naval and
Military operations of 1782 Rodney’s victory on the 12th of
April Results of this glorious achievement—Spanish arma¬
ment destroyed before Gibraltar, and the siege raised—Change
of Ministry Rockingham Administration—Negociations for
Peace Sudden death of the Marquis of Rockingham—He is
succeeded by Lord Shelburne—Conduct of that Minister—
Provisional treaty with America—Peace concluded with France,
Spain, and Holland Estimate of the results of the contest—
Narrative of less important events.
The final resolution to reduce the colonies by force
being now taken, it became necessary to make proper pre¬
parations for the purpose; and in this the conduct of ad¬
ministration was little less censured than in other respects.
As the opinion that the Americans were naturally timid,
and incapable of becoming soldiers, prevailed greatly at
this time, a force of a thousand men was judged sufficient
to reduce the province of New England to obedience. The
project of ministers was vehemently opposed by the mino¬
rity. They insisted that the force was totally inadequate,
and only calculated to produce expense to no purpose.
The first impression, they very justly7 observed, ought, if
possible, to be decisive; and in order to render it so, it
was necessary to send such a fleet and army as might in¬
sure the confidence of the public, and be certainly capa¬
ble of surmounting all obstacles. Many of the friends of
administration were of the same sentiments ; and the only
reason assigned for acting otherwise was founded on a
hope that the Americans wmuld, upon more mature con¬
sideration, desist from their opposition. That they might
the more readily be induced to this submission, Lord
North’s conciliatory proposition was formed, by which it
was enacted, that when the governor, council, and assem¬
bly of any of the colonies, should propose to make a pro¬
vision for the common defence, and when such provision
should be approved of byr the king in parliament, the levy¬
ing or imposing of taxes on that colony7 should then be for¬
borne ; those duties excepted which it might be expedient
to impose for the regulation of commerce, and the net pro¬
duce of which should be carried to the account of the colony
where it had been raised. But this proposal, though high¬
ly' extolled by7 the friends of administration, was no less
reprobated by the minority7 than the others had been.
Nevertheless, after a lengthened debate, the question was
carried in favour of administration by a majority of more
than three to one.
A similar fate attended a petition to the throne
the island of Jamaica. Instead of relaxing any thing of
their severity, the ministry now included the southern co¬
lonies in the restrictions imposed on New England. Still,
however, the petitioners were indefatigable in their endea-
BRITAIN. 481
TCeign of vours to be beard. The West India merchants and plant-
;teorgeIII. ers seconded their last petition by entering into a length-
ened detail of circumstances relating to the British islands
' in that part of the world. This affair was conducted by
Mr Glover, a gentleman celebrated for his literary talents
and commercial knowledge. From his investigations it
appeared that, exclusive of the intrinsic worth of the
islands themselves, their stock in trade and other property
amounted to no less than sixty millions; that the exporta¬
tion to Britain had of late been near two hundred thousand
hogsheads and puncheons of sugar and rum, amounting
to no less than four millions in value; and that the direct
revenue arising from this source was seven hundred thou¬
sand pounds, besides that which accrued from the colla¬
teral branches depending upon it. These arguments, how¬
ever, were urged in vain. Conciliatory proposals were
made by Mr Burke and Mr Hartley, but they were reject¬
ed by great majorities, and instead of serving the cause
they were meant to promote, had the very opposite effect.
A dread was entertained of the consequences which might
ensue from the republican opinions now so prevalent in the
colonies; and all partiality towards them was looked upon
in so criminal a light, that their opponents became deaf,
on many occasions, to the voice of reason and humanity
when urged in their behalf. On the other hand, the fa¬
vourers of America, urged on by a furious zeal, if not re¬
sentment, against those whom they looked upon as the
promoters of arbitrary measures, erred equally in their
opposition to ministry. And this violence of party spirit
appeared not only among the people at large, but broke
forth with the utmost fury in parliament, where the de¬
bates often resembled the railings of Billingsgate more
than the deliberations of the representative assembly of a
great and powerful nation.
In this temper of mind the state of affairs was scarcely
ever truly represented by either party. Government con¬
tinued to enact new laws, now in vain, against the Ameri¬
cans ; whilst their antagonists opposed them in a manner
so little different from that which has been already related,
that any further account of the debates would be equally
tedious and unnecessary. Other petitions were also pre¬
sented, and treated with neglect. The union of the colo¬
nists, and their preparations for war, were described by
the ministerial party as the mere commotions of a head¬
strong mob, but represented by the opposition as an asso¬
ciation of an injured and virtuous people, who were about
to found a mighty empire in the west, whilst Britain was
doomed to sink into utter disgrace and contempt by their
secession. In the same way, the event of the skirmish at
Lexington, where the first blood flowed in the contest,
was magnified by the one party into a disgraceful defeat,
and treated by the other as a trifling affair, to which no
regard whatever ought to be paid, far less any inference
drawn as to the fate of the war. The battle of Bunker’s
Hill, and all the transactions of the year 1775, were in like
/ manner exaggerated by both parties, though in opposite
directions; and the consequence of these misrepresenta¬
tions was to fan the flame of mutual resentment.
Whilst these altercations continued to agitate the minds
of the superior classes of people in Britain, the middle and
lower ranks remained in a kind of indifference, or rather
were opposed to the proceedings of ministry. This oppo¬
sition, indeed, had no influence on the councils of the na¬
tion, but in other respects it proved exceedingly trouble¬
some. The levies were obstructed, and the recruiting ser¬
vice was never known to go on so heavily; numbers of
that description of persons who usually fill the ranks of the
army not only refusing the usual offers, but even repro¬
bating loudly the cause in which they were solicited to
engage. Several officers of high rank also showed a dis-
vol. y.
inclination to the service. Lord Effingham, who had dis- Reign of
tinguished himself by his opposition to the ministerial mea- George IIL
sures, resigned the command of his I'egiment rather than
fight against the cause which he had so warmly espoused; ' /
and his example was followed by that of several other
officers. For this step Lord Effingham received the thanks
of the cities of London and Dublin, both of which were
extremely averse to hostilities with America; and the
former, indeed, could scarcely restrain itself within any
bounds of moderation. After the skirmish at Lexington,
the city framed a remonstrance and petition, animadvert¬
ing severely on the ministry and parliament; and it was
not without the greatest difficulty that the more moderate
party procured a counter-petition, couched in less repre¬
hensible terms.
In the mean time serious inconveniences, arising from the
stoppage of trade, began to be felt in different parts of the
nation. The suspension of the sale and purchase of negro
slaves in the West Indies and in North America, and the
prohibition against exporting arms and gunpowder, had
seriously impeded the trade of Bristol and Liverpool with
Africa ; in consequence of which a great number of ships
which had formerly sailed from these ports were laid up,
and nearly three thousand sailors belonging to Liverpool
were thrown out of employment. These distresses, how¬
ever, made no impression on administration ; who having
once laid it down as a maxim, that the subjection of Ame¬
rica was the greatest political good that could happen to
Britain, were, in a conformity with their own principles,
obliged to consider every disaster that might occur during
the prosecution of this object as a temporary inconvenience,
which ought not to be put in comparison with the execu¬
tion of so great and necessary a design. But whatever
might be the view's of administration in this respect, it was
far otherwise with the generality of the nation. They felt
severely the present inconveniences; whilst the probable
subjugation of America afforded no solid reason to hope
for an equivalent or compensation. It was with the ut¬
most satisfaction, therefore, that they received the news
of Mr Penn’s arrival in 1775, with another petition from
the congress, to be presented to the king in the first in¬
stance, and then given to the public. But their expecta¬
tions were speedily disappointed. The petition was deli¬
vered to Lord Dartmouth on the first of September, and
in three days afterwards it was stated that no answrer
would be given to it. This laconic reply excited no small
surprise, more especially as the language of the petition
was respectful, and expressed a strong desire for peace
and reconciliation ; and hence it could only be considered
as a formal and deliberate, if not insulting, renunciation
of all friendly intercourse with the colonies.
The rejection of this petition served to inflame, more than
ever, the mutual resentment of the adverse parties. The
obsolete distinction of Whig and Tory was now revived,
with such animosity, that Britain itself, as well as Ame¬
rica, seemed in danger of becoming the theatre of war and
bloodshed. The Tories were accused of promoting san¬
guinary addresses, misinforming the government, and cir¬
culating false representations, in order to add fuel to the
flame already kindled, and produce civil war. They were
also upbraided with their attachment to the Stuart family;
their incessant machinations to involve the country in civil
war; the dissension at home and disgrace abroad which
had invariably attended their councils ; and their indiffe¬
rence to the honour and interest of the nation, which, from
the peace of Utrecht to the present time, they had ever
been ready to sacrifice for the advancement of their party.
On the other hand, the Tories described the Whigs as the
genuine descendants and representatives of the republican
incendiaries who, in the last century, had overturned the
3 p
Reign of constitution and desolated the kingdom ; as pretending, in-
George III. deed, to uphold the liberty of Britain, but, under this mask,
as desirous of engrossing all the authority to themselves,
and of exercising arbitrary power under a mock semblance
of freedom. The real question however was, whether the
king and parliament, when united, were to be obeyed or
resisted. The Tories insisted that they should be obeyed,
the Whigs that they ought to be resisted; and hence there
were two parties in Britain, the one of which was of opi¬
nion that the colonies, owing obedience to Great Britain
in all cases whatsoever, ought, in case of refusal, to be com¬
pelled to obey; whilst the other, though it acknowledged
as a general principle the existence of the same obliga¬
tion, deemed it inexpedient and impolitic to enforce it.
The violence of these bickerings, however, was somewhat
allayed by serious commercial misfortunes, which occurred
about this time, and added greatly to the difficulties with
which the government had to contend. During the last
session of parliament, it had been affirmed that the bill for
depriving the people of New England of the benefits of
the Newfoundland fishery would redound to the interest
of Great Britain, by throwing into her hands the profits
which were formerly divided with the colonies. But this
prediction was belied by the event. The number of ships
fitted out this year was scarcely greater than usual, and
the congress had prohibited them from being supplied with
provisions ; so that not only those on board the ships, but
even the inhabitants on the island of Newfoundland itself,
were in danger of perishing from want. Many of the ships,
therefore, were obliged to go in quest of provisions instead
of prosecuting the employment on which they had been
sent; and, on the whole, instead of any increase, the pro¬
fits of the fishery suffered this year a diminution of near
L.500,000. Nor was this all. A storm of unprecedented
violence occurred in these latitudes during the fishing sea¬
son ; the sea rose fully thirty feet above its ordinary level,
and with such rapidity, that no time was allowed for avoid¬
ing its fury : upwards of seven hundred fishing boats perish¬
ed ; and several ships foundered, with their whole crews.
Nor was the devastation confined to the sea; for the waters
broke in upon the land and occasioned prodigious loss and
destruction. By these misfortunes, the general stagnation
of commerce, and the little success which had hitherto at¬
tended the British arms, the mercantile portion of the na¬
tion was plunged in despair, and petitions were poured in
from all quarters.
But ministers had determined on their course ; and the
only question now considered was, how it might be most
effectually put in execution. For this purpose, application
was made to the petty states of Germany, which were wont
to hire out their forces, and had frequently sent auxiliaries
to Britain in former cases of exigency. But the scheme was
fraught with difficulties, owing to the distance of the scene
of contest, and the danger of mercenaries deserting a cause
in which they had no manner of concern. The princes were
also alarmed at the probability of losing for ever so many
of their subjects ; whilst the latter were not less startled
at the prospect of being transported across the ocean into
a new world, there to be exposed to all the miseries of war,
with very little hope of ever again beholding their native
country. Other resources were however devised, such as
calling in the assistance of the Hessians, and obtaining
from Holland the body of Scottish troops which had been
so long in their service. But in these views administra¬
tion were in a great measure disappointed. All the states
of Europe looked upon Britain with an invidious eye ; par¬
ticularly Holland and France, the two powers who had
most reason to hope for advantage from the quarrel. In
Holland a very strong party contended warmly for the
American interest; pamphlets were daily published at
Amsterdam in justification of the colonies, whose case was Reign of
compared to that of the Netherlands in former times ; and George Iij,
the colonists were exhorted to persevere in their claims
against the pretensions of Britain, which was represented W7G.
as insatiably covetous of wealth and power ; as domineer¬
ing and intolerable, especially since her successes in the war
of 1755; and as arrogating if not exercising an absolute
sovereignty over the seas. But although these powers thus
early expressed their hostile disposition towards Britain,
it was otherwise with the Princes of Hesse and Bruns¬
wick, by whom a considerable number of troops was fur¬
nished ; and, that as many British forces as possible might
be employed, large draughts were made from the garri¬
sons of Gibraltar and Minorca, which were supplied with
an equal number of men from the electorate of Hanover.
The garrison of Boston was liberally furnished with all
sorts of necessaries; and although the expenditure already
began to occasion considerable alarm, and to raise a sus¬
picion that even the treasures of Britain would not be able
to defray the charges of the war, yet some countervailing
advantages were derived from this profusion ; for the price
of every thing was augmented, including that of shipping;
and although the profits realized by contractors and their
numerous friends occasioned complaints, great benefit
accrued to multitudes employed in the various branches
of the public service. Misfortune, however, seemed to
attend every scheme in which Britain engaged, although
in the present case it must, in part at least, be ascribed to
mismanagement. The sailing of the transports for Bos¬
ton was delayed till the proper season was lost. They re¬
mained for a long time wind-bound ; and when at length
they were enabled to weigh anchor, they met with such
stormy weather that they were tossed about in the Chan¬
nel till most of the live stock which they had on board
perished. Nor did the misfortunes of the convoy end
here. After clearing the coast of England, their progress
was retarded by a continuance of foul weather ; they were
driven by the periodical winds from the coast of America ;
and while some made for the West Indies, others were
captured by American privateers, and only a very few
reached Boston, with their cargoes so much damaged as
to be of little or no use whatever.
With respect to the parliamentary proceedings of this
period little can be said, except that every measure of ad¬
ministration, whether right or wrong, was keenly opposed.
The employment of foreign troops, and the admitting of
them into the fortresses of Gibraltar and Minorca, were se¬
verely censured, as being contrary to the bill of rights. But
the administration contended that this bill only forbade
the introduction of a foreign military power into the king¬
dom during peace, that the times however were not peace¬
able, and that the introduction of the troops was evidently
with a view to quell a rebellion. The force designed for
the conquest of America vras then declared to be inade¬
quate to the purpose ; but it was replied, on the part of
ministry, that the design was to conciliate, not to con¬
quer ; that twenty-five thousand men were sufficient to
strike terror; and that though this should not instantly
be produced, conciliatory offers would still be held out
after every blow that was struck.
In the mean time the Americans, sensible of the dan¬
gerous situation in which they stood, exerted themselves
to the utmost to dislodge the British troops from Boston,
which they at length accomplished in March 1776. Ihey
then proceeded to put their towns in a state of defence, and
repulsed Sir Peter Parker at Charlestown; but they did not
exert themselves with equal spirit in the defence of New
York, where, besides losing the town, they sustained such a
defeat as seemed to threaten their affairs with total ruin.
This in fact was the view taken of their situation by the
BRITAIN.
Reign of generality of the people in Britain. The successful cam-
George III. paign of 1776 was looked upon as so decisive, that little
room remained for supposing the Americans capable of
1777* ever retrieving their affairs. Opposition were much em¬
barrassed, being almost reduced to the single argument
about the interference of foreign powers ; whilst the ob¬
stinacy of the Americans in refusing the offers of Lord
Howe, even at the moment of their greatest depression,
seemed a very bad omen. The ministry, however, now
became so powerful, that whatever they proposed was im¬
mediately carried. The number of seamen for 1777 was
augmented to forty-five thousand, and upwards of five
millions were voted for the expense of the navy, and for
discharging its debt. The expenses of the land service
amounted to nearly three millions, besides the extraor¬
dinaries of the former year, which exceeded one million
two hundred thousand pounds ; and though this vast pro¬
vision was the subject of great complaint and animadver¬
sion, the power of ministry silenced all opposition.
But however administration might now triumph, their
exultation was of short continuance. The misfortune of
General Burgoyne at Saratoga threw the whole nation
into a kind of despair, and reduced the ministry to the
utmost perplexity. The great difficulty now was to con¬
trive means for raising a sufficient number of forces to
carry on the war; but from this embarrassment they ex¬
tricated themselves by encouraging levies for government
service by cities and private persons; and as the design
was kept a profound secret before the Christmas recess,
they were not disturbed by the clamours of opposition.
The recess was purposely extended in order to give time
for the scheme to take effect; and before parliament met
again it was actually accomplished, so that ministers could
once more face their opponents without any fear.
Another and more weighty consideration, however, now
occurred. The European states in general had long be¬
held the grandeur of Britain with an invidious eye. The
news of the disaster at Saratoga was therefore received by
them with the same undisguised exultation as the intelli¬
gence of the defeat of Charles XII. at Pultowa was by the
powers whom he had so long overawed. Of these the
French, for obvious reasons, were the most active in sup¬
porting the insurgent Americans. Numbers of the young
nobility were eager to signalize themselves in the Ameri¬
can cause ; and among the rest the Marquis de la Fayette,
a young nobleman of high rank and fortune, occupied a
conspicuous place. Impelled by an enthusiastic ardour in
favour of the American cause, he purchased a vessel, load¬
ed her with military stores, and sailed with several of his
friends to America, where he offered his services to con¬
gress; and meeting with a most gracious reception, he was
invested with a command, in which he lost no opportu¬
nity of distinguishing himself. Besides this nobleman,
several other officers from France and Germany actually
entered the American service, and by their military talents
greatly contributed to the exertions which the colonies
were afterwards enabled to make. This assistance, how¬
ever, would have been but trifling, had not the French
court also interested itself in their behalf; and about the
time when the news of General Burgoyne’s disaster arriv¬
ed in Britain, a ti'eaty was on foot between the French
court and the United States of America. Even before
this time France had shown such a partiality towards the
Americans, as might plainly have indicated a design of
ultimately assisting them in their national capacity. The
encouragement given to the American privateers in all the
ports of France had produced strong remonstrances on the
part of Britain; and an order was at length demanded
that all these privateers with their prizes should depart
the kingdom. With this the French court found it neces-
483
sary at that time to comply, lest reprisals should be made Reign of
by capturing their whole Newfoundland fleet then engag- George III,
ed in the fishery. But so many delays were occasioned
on various pretences, that not a single vessel was dismiss¬
ed from any of their ports; and so far were the French
court from entertaining any design of this kind, that in
the month of July 1777 the whole body of merchants
throughout the kingdom were assured by government that
they might depend on protection for their trade with Ame¬
rica. Meanwhile the greatest preparations for war were
made throughout the whole kingdom of France ; and, in
fact, the most judicious politicians were of opinion that a
rupture with that power would have immediately follow¬
ed the commencement of hostilities with America. But,
whatever might have been the motives of the British mi¬
nistry, it is certain, that in defiance alike of probability,
and of the acrimonious censures of opposition, they con¬
tinued to pretend ignorance of any hostile intentions upon
the part of France, until that country of its own accord
thought proper to announce them. This was done by a
formal notification to the court of Britain in the month of
March 1778, couched in the most insolent terms. In this
declaration it was announced, not only that a treaty of
friendship and commerce had been concluded betwixt
France and America, but Britain was insulted by being
told that America was actually in possession of indepen¬
dence, as if the former had already exerted her utmost
efforts without being able to reduce them. A merit was
also made of having entered into no commercial stipula¬
tions in favour of France exclusive of Britain. Nothing,
therefore, could be more offensive than this notification ;
and though it could not decently be said, on the part of
the French monarch, that he wished for war, yet his paci¬
fic intentions were conveyed in such haughty terms, that
the whole could only be considered as a declaration of
that hostility which he pretended a desire to avoid.
Accordingly both parties now united in opinion that a
war with France was unavoidable; but they were not for
that reason any further advanced towards a reconciliation.
It must be owned, indeed, that the minority had received
great provocation. They had from the beginning repro- *
bated the American war, and prognosticated its bad suc¬
cess. In this they had been overruled, and the character
of the Americans represented in such a manner as almost
to preclude the notion of their being able to resist. They
had resisted, however, and by destroying or taking pri¬
soners a whole army, had verified the predictions which
had so often been treated with ridicule. The same party
had frequently insisted in the most earnest manner for
some kind of concession towards America; but this had
constantly been refused with an obstinacy equally un-
pai-alleled and inveterate. They now, however, saw the
very concessions offered to America after the defeat of
Burgoyne, which, if granted in time, would have prevent¬
ed all the mischief that had happened. Add to this, that
every inquiry into the measures of government had been
frustrated; that a motion on the state of the nation, which
could not be absolutely rejected, was rendered ineffectual
by delays and evasion ; and that the country was involved
in war with a nation well provided for all emergencies,
whilst we had supinely suffered them to go on without
making the least effort to put ourselves in a proper state
of defence. For these reasons opposition insisted that the
present ministry ought no longer to be intrusted with the
management of public affairs. An acknowledgment of the
independence of America was now generally supposed to
be the only rational step that could be taken, as it might
at present be done with a good grace, and we should un¬
avoidably be obliged to take it at last whether we would
or not-
484
B R I T A
I N.
Reign of Notwithstanding the vehemence of these disputes, how-
George III. ever, great courage and steadiness were manifested by
the calm and deliberate portion of the nation. The French
attempted to excite a general panic by threatening an in¬
vasion, which was evidently impracticable, until they had
first obtained the superiority at sea; yet as multitudes in
the country were apt to be terrified by the bare mention
of a French invasion, orders were issued to call out and
embody the militia, which was then composed of men in
every respect as well exercised and disciplined as any re¬
gular troops. It was complained, however, that a French
squadron of twelve ships of the line had sailed from Tou¬
lon without any obstruction, under the command of the
Count d’Estaing. The most grievous apprehensions were
entertained from the great inferiority of Lord Howe’s na¬
val force; a circumstance which might expose his fleet
to a total defeat, and the whole convoy of transports to
be taken or destroyed. But whatever might have been
the probabilities of the case, the fortune or conduct of
this commander were such, that none of the anticipated
dangers occurred. Addresses were, however, moved for
recalling the fleets and armies from America, in order to
station them in places where they might contribute most
effectually to the defence of the kingdom; but this was
opposed by administration, and even by some of the most
popular members of opposition, including Lord Chatham
and the Earl of Shelburne.
The operations of the French in America, with the vari¬
ous success of the war, will be more fully related under the
head of United States. It is sufficient here to state that
D’Estaing having equally failed in his attempt on the Bri¬
tish fleet at New York, and in assisting the allies of France
in their attempt on Rhode Island, sailed for the West In¬
dies, where he attacked the island of St Lucia; but meeting
with a repulse, he proceeded to Grenada, which he reduced,
while a body of troops dispatched by him also took the
island of St Vincent. By this time the French admiral
had been powerfully reinforced, so that his fleet consisted
of twenty-six sail of the line and twelve frigates. Whilst
he was employed at Grenada, Admiral Byron, with the
British squadron, accompanied the homeward-bound West
India fleet till it was out of danger, and then sailed with a
body of troops under General Grant for the recovery of St
Vincent; but before reaching that island, certain intelli¬
gence was received of the descent made on Grenada. By¬
ron then steered directly for that island, where, without he¬
sitation, he encountered the French fleet, notwithstanding
its great superiority. At this time the French squadron
amounted to twenty-seven sail of the line and seven fri¬
gates ; whilst that of Britain consisted only of twenty-one
line-of-battle ships and one frigate. The British admirals,
Byron and Barrington, endeavoured to bring the enemy to
a close engagement; but this was as studiously avoided by
D’Estaing; and such was the dexterity and circumspection
with which he acted, that it was only during the transient
movements occasioned by the wind and weather that some
of the British ships could close in with their antagonists.
But when these occurred, the encounter became so un¬
equal, that the British ships were terribly shattered. For
some time Captains Collingwood, Edwards, and Cornwal¬
lis, stood the fire of the whole French fleet; and Captain
Fanshaw of the Monmouth, a sixty-four gun ship, singly
threw himself in the way of the enemy’s van to stop them.
Several of the British ships forced their way to the very
mouth of St George’s harbour in Grenada; but finding it
in the hands of the French, an end was put to the action ;
nor did the latter care to renew it, although the British
ships had suffered much from the greatly superior force to
which they had been exposed.
D’Estaing having now received fresh reinforcements,
1778.
set sail for the continent of America, after convoying the Reign of
homeward-bound fleet of French merchantmen on their George Hj
return from the West India islands. He made an attempt
on the town of Savannah, but was repulsed with great loss ;
and the result was, that the fears which had been excited
by the superiority of the French in the West Indian seas
were effectually dissipated. The islands of Dominica, St
Vincent, and Grenada, were indeed lost, the first being
taken by the Marquis de Bouille, governor of Martinico,
and the last two by D’Estaing, as already stated ; but these
successes were balanced by the failure of the French com¬
mander in every other enterprise, by his disaster at the
Savannah, and by the acquisition of St Lucia, which was
taken in the year 1778 by Admiral Barrington and Gene¬
rals Prescot and Meadows. In other parts of the W’est
Indian seas also the honour of the British arms was very
effectually supported by the bravery and vigilance of the
commanders on that station. Admiral Hvde Parker, as¬
sisted by Admiral Rowley, kept the enemy in continual
alarm, and intercepted the trade of the French islands in
such a manner as greatly distressed them. Three large
frigates dispatched by Count d’Estaing after his failure in
America were taken, and a great part of a convoy seized
or destroyed in sight of M. de la Motte-Piquefls squadron
in the harbour of Fort Royal at Martinico, the admiral
himself having narrowly escaped. He had sailed out of
the harbour in order to favour the escape of the convoy
already mentioned, and, having partly effected his object,
withdrew; but he was so closely pursued, that he had scarce¬
ly time to shelter himself under the batteries on shore.
These successes, which occurred in the years 1778, 1779,
and beginning of 1780, kept the event of the war pretty
much in a state of equipoise on the western seas and con¬
tinent ; but in the meanwhile the most unhappy dissen¬
sions prevailed in every department of the British govern¬
ment in Europe, and threatened to involve the nation in
confusion and bloodshed.
Among other charges brought by the opposition against
the ministry, that of neglecting the navy was one of the
most considerable; nor indeed does it appear that the
charge was altogether groundless. Without a fleet, how¬
ever, it was now impossible to ward off the danger of an
invasion. At this time, indeed, it was in a very weak
condition; but the valour and experience of the officers
seemed in some measure to compensate every deficiency.
The chief command was conferred on Admiral Keppel,
who had served with great reputation during the last war;
whilst Admirals Sir Robert Harland and Sir Hugh Palliser,
both officers of undoubted courage and capacity, acted
under him. On arriving at Portsmouth, towards the end
of March 1778, Admiral Keppel exerted himself so effec¬
tually, that, exclusive of those ships which it was found
necessary to dispatch to the coast of North America under
Admiral Byron, a fleet of twenty sail of the line was got
in readiness by the beginning of June, and ten more in a
very forward state of preparation. At the head of this
fleet Admiral Keppel sailed from Portsmouth on the 13th
of June, in order to protect the commercial shipping ex¬
pected from all parts of the world, and at the same time
to watch the motions of the French fleet at Brest.
When the British fleet arrived off the coast of France,
two French frigates approached in order to make observa¬
tions. These proved to be the Licorne of thirty-two, and
the Belle Poule of twenty-six guns. A signal to give chase
was instantly made, and the Milford frigate having come up
with the Licorne towards the close of the day, requested
the French captain to heave to under the British admiral’s
stern. The latter refused; but a ship of the line coming up,
compelled him to obey. Next morning the Licorne seem¬
ing by her motions to be altering her course, a shot was
BRITAIN.
485
Reign of fired across her bows as a signal to keep it, upon which
;,eorge HI. she discharged a broadside and a volley of small arms into
the America of sixty-four guns which lay close to her, and
immediately struck. The behaviour of the French captain
was the more extraordinary, as Lord Longford, the cap¬
tain of the America, was at that instant engaged in ami¬
cable conversation with him ; but though such conduct
merited severe chastisement, no return was made for this
most unprovoked and wanton aggression. The Arethusa of
twenty-six guns, commanded by Captain Marshall, with the
Alert cutter, was meanwhile in pursuit of the Belle Poule,
which was also accompanied by a schooner, and the chase
was continued till both were out of sight of the Meet. On
coming up, Captain Marshall informed the French captain
of his orders to bring bim to the admiral, and requested his
compliance. The Frenchman refused to obey, upon which
the Arethusa fired a shot across the Belle Poule, which
the latter returned with a discharge of her broadside, and
the engagement thus commenced continued upwards of
two hours with the greatest fury. The Belle Poule was
superior not only in numbers, but also in weight of metal;
her guns being all twelve pounders, while those of the
Arethusa were only six. But notwithstanding this infe¬
riority, the latter maintained so desperate a fight, that the
French frigate suffered a much greater loss of men than
the British, having nearly a hundred killed and wounded,
whilst the Arethusa scarcely lost half that number. Dur¬
ing the engagement between the two frigates, Captain
Fairfax in the Alert attacked the French schooner, which
was of much the same force, and the contest continued
two hours with great bravery on both sides, when the latter
struck to the English cutter. The Arethusa received so
much damage, that she became almost unmanageable ; and
although the captain endeavoured to put her in a condi¬
tion to continue the engagement, he was unable to effect
his object. Being at the same time upon the enemy’s coast,
and close in the shore, the danger of grounding in such a
situation obliged him to act with the more caution, more
especially as by this time it was midnight. Meanwhile the
Belle Poule stood into a small bay surrounded with rocks,
where she was protected from all attacks; and as soon as
it was day-light, a number of boats came out from the
shore, and towed her into a place of safety. Notwithstand¬
ing the evident superiority of force on the side of the
French, this action was extolled by them as a proof of
singular bravery, and the account of it received with as
much triumph as if it had been a victory.
On the 18th of June, the day following the action with
the Belle Poule, another frigate fell in with the British
fleet, and was seized by the admiral’s orders, on account
of the behaviour of the Licorne. The capture of these
French frigates furnished intelligence which proved of the
utmost importance, at the same time that it was highly
alarming. It was ascertained that the fleet at Brest con¬
sisted of thirty-two sail of the line and twelve frigates; and
this proved in every respect a most fortunate discovery,
as the admiral had under his orders only twenty ships
of the line and three frigates. As the superiority of the
enemy was so decided, and as the consequences of a de¬
feat would have been fatal to this country, the admiral
thought himself bound in prudence to return to Portsmouth
for reinforcements. He reached Spithead on the 27th of
June, and remained till the arrival of the ships from the
Mediterranean and the Spanish and Portuguese trade;
while the summer fleet from the West Indies brought him
a further supply of seamen, and enabled him to put to sea
again with an addition of ten ships of the line. But still
there was a deficiency of frigates, owing to the great num¬
bers on the American station, and the necessity of manning
the ships of the line in preference to all others.
In the mean time the preparations at Brest being fully Reign of
completed, the French fleet put to sea on the 8th of July, eorge^^^'
It consisted of thirty-two sail of the line, besides a large I’j’jg,
number of frigates; and Count d’Orvilliers commanded in
chief, while the other principal officers were Counts Du-
chaffault, de Guichen, and de Grasse, M. de Rochechoart
and M. de la Motte-Piquet. A prince of the blood royal
had also been sent to serve on board of this fleet; we mean
the Duke of Chartres, son and heir to the Duke of Or¬
leans, and first prince of the blood royal of France in
the collateral line, who commanded one of the divisions
in the capacity of admiral. On the 9th day of July,
the British fleet sailed out of Portsmouth in three divi¬
sions ; the first commanded by Sir Robert Harland, the
third by Sir Hugh Palliser, and the centre by Admiral
Keppel, accompanied by Admiral Campbell, an officer of
great courage and merit. The French had been inform¬
ed that the British fleet was greatly inferior to their own,
which was true at the time when they received the in¬
formation ; and being yet unapprised of the reinforcement
it had received, Count d’Orvilliers sailed at first in quest
of it, intending to attack it while in the weak condition re¬
presented to him.
As the British admiral was equally intent on coming to
action as soon as possible, they were not long before they
met. The hostile fleets came in sight on the 23d of July;
but the appearance of the British ships soon convinced the
French admiral of his mistake, and he immediately deter¬
mined to avoid an engagement as anxiously as he had
formerly sought it; and in this he was favoured by the
approach of night. All that could be done by the British,
therefore, was to form the line of battle, in expectation that
the enemy would follow the example. During the night the
wind changed, and the French getting the weather-gage,
had the choice of coming to action or of declining it en¬
tirely in their own power, whilst the British admiral was de¬
prived of the opportunity of forcing them to engage as he
had proposed. During the space of four days matters con¬
tinued in this state; the French cautiously avoiding abattle,
and the British beating up against the wind with a resolu¬
tion to attack them. But notwithstanding all his efforts, the
British admiral had the mortification to see his endeavours
defeated by the vigilance and precaution of the enemy. The
chase lasted till the 27th of July. But between ten and
eleven in the morning of that day, an alteration of wind
and weather occasioned several movements in both fleets,
which brought them so near each other, that it was no
longer in the power of the enemy to decline an engage¬
ment. Both fleets were now on the same tack, and had
they so remained, the British fleet on coming up with the
French would have had an opportunity of engaging ship
to ship; but as this was a mode of combating quite con¬
trary to the wishes of the enemy, their admiral, as soon
as he found an action likely to ensue, put his ships on the
contrary tack, by which means a close action was avoided.
As soon as the van of the British fleet, consisting of Sir
Robert Harland’s division, came up, they directed their
fire upon it, though at too great a distance to make any
impression ; but the fire was not returned by the British
ships till they came close enough to do execution. In this
manner the hostile fleets passed close to each other on op¬
posite tacks, keeping up a very heavy and destructive fire.
The centre division of the British line having passed
the rearmost ships of the enemy, the first care of the ad¬
miral was to renew the engagement as soon as the ships
of the different fleets yet in action had got clear of each
other respectively. Sir Robert Harland, with some ships
of his division, had already tacked, and stood towards the
French; but the remaining part of the fleet had not yet
tacked, and some had dropped to leeward, and were repair-
BRITAIN.
486
Reign of jng the damages which they had received in the action.
George III. jjjs own gj^jp the Victory had suffered too much to tack
about instantly; and had he done it he would have thrown
the ships astern of him into disorder. As soon as it was
practicable, however, the Victory wore, and steered again
upon the enemy before any other ship of the centre divi¬
sion, not above three or four of which were able to follow
the example. The other ships not having recovered their
stations near enough to support each other on a renewal of
the action, in order to collect them more readily for that
purpose the admiral made the signal for the line of battle
ahead. It was now three in the afternoon; but the ships
of the British fleet had not sufficiently regained their sta¬
tions to engage. The Victory lay nearest the enemy,
with the four ships above mentioned, and seven more of
Sir Robert Harland’s division. These twelve were the
only ships in any condition for immediate service; of the
others belonging to the centre and to Sir Robert Har¬
land’s division, three were a great way astern, and five at
a considerable distance to leeward, much disabled in their
rigging. Sir Hugh Palliser, who commanded the rear di¬
vision during the time of action, in which he had behaved
with signal bravery, came of course last out of it, and, in
consequence of the admiral’s signal for forming the line
of battle ahead, was to have led the van on renewing the
fight; but his division was upon the contrary tack, and was
entirely out of the line. The French, on the other hand,
expecting to be directly re-attacked, had closed together
in tacking, and were now spreading themselves into a line
of battle. But on discovering the position of the Bri¬
tish ships which had fallen to leeward, they immediately
stood towards them in order to cut them off. This obliged
the admiral to wear, and to steer athwart the enemy’s
foremost division, in order to secure them; directing, at
the same time, Sir Robert Harland to form his division in
a line astern, in order to confront the enemy till Sir Hugh
Palliser should come up, and enable him to act more effec¬
tually. In moving to the protection of the leeward ships
the admiral was now drawing near the enemy. As Sir
Hugh Palliser still continued to windward, he made a sig¬
nal for all the ships in that quarter to come into his wake,
and Sir Hugh repeated this signal; but it was unluckily
mistaken by the ships of his division for an order to come
into his own wake, which they did accordingly; and as he
still remained in his position, they retained theirs of course.
Sir Robert Harland was now directed to take his station
ahead, and the signal was repeated for Sir Hugh Palliser’s
division to come into his wake; but this signal was not
complied with, any more than a verbal message to that pur¬
pose, and other subsequent signals for Sir Hugh’s division
coming into its station in the line, before it was too late to
recommence any operations against the enemy. In the
night, the French resolved to put it wholly out of the
power of the British fleet to attack them a second time;
and for this purpose three of their swiftest sailing vessels
were fixed in the stations occupied during the day by the
three flag ships of the respective divisions, with lights at
♦heir mast heads, to deceive the British fleet into the be¬
lief that the French fleet kept its position with an intent to
fight next morning. Protected by this stratagem, the re¬
mainder of the French fleet drew off unperceived during
the night, and retired with all speed towards Brest, which
they entered the following day. Their departure was not
discovered till break of day; but it was too late to pursue
them, as they were only discernible from the mast heads
of the largest ships in the British fleet. The admiral then
made the best of his way to Plymouth, as being the nearest
port, in order to put his fleet into a proper condition to
return in quest of the enemy.
This action, whatever might have been the merit of the
commanders, proved a source of fatal animosity. The bulk Reign of
of the nation had so long been accustomed to hear of great George III.
and glorious victories at sea, that it was supposed a kind
of impossibility for a French and British fleet to encounter *778.
without the total ruin of the former. The event of the
last engagement, therefore, became an object of severe
criticism ; and complaints were made, that, through the
bad conduct of the blue division, an opportunity had been
lost of gaining a complete victory over the French fleet.
These complaints were quickly introduced into the public
papers; and were carried on with a warmth and vehe¬
mence which threw the whole nation into a ferment. The
friends of Sir Hugh Palliser, the vice-admiral of the blue,
were no less violent in the defence of his conduct than his
opponents were in its condemnation; whilst those who
espoused the cause of the admiral manifested equal deter¬
mination in accusing him of being the real cause of the
escape of the French fleet, through his disobedience of
the signals and orders of his commander, and by remain¬
ing at a distance with his division, instead of coming to
the assistance of the rest of the fleet. An accusation of
so weighty a nature alarmed Sir Hugh Palliser, who in
consequence applied to Admiral Keppel for a justification
of his conduct, and required of him to sign and publish a
paper relative to the engagement of the 27th of July,
stating, that he did not intend by his signals on the even¬
ing of that day to renew the battle then, but only to be
in readiness for the next morning. The admiral rejected
this demand, on which Sir Hugh Palliser published, in one
of the daily papers, a variety of details concerning the en¬
gagement, reflecting severely on the conduct of the ad¬
miral, and prefacing the whole by a letter signed with his
name. An attack so public, and so detrimental to his
character, induced Admiral Keppel to declare to the ad¬
miralty, that unless Sir Hugh Palliser explained this mat¬
ter to his satisfaction, he could not, consistently with his
reputation, ever again act in conjunction with that officer.
This altercation having occurred before the meeting
of parliament, was of course noticed when it assembled.
In the House of Peers an inquiry was demanded into the
conduct of the commanders of the fleet on the 27th of
July; and in the House of Commons it was urged, that as #
Admiral Keppel had expressed a public refusal to serve
in conjunction with Sir Hugh Palliser, the cause of such
a declaration ought to be investigated. Admiral Keppel
and Sir Hugh Palliser, who were both present in the
house upon this occasion, spoke severally on the point in
question; and after a keen debate, a motion was made for
an address to the crown to bring Sir Hugh Palliser to a
trial for his behaviour in the late engagement with the
French fleet. To this motion Sir Hugh Palliser replied,
in a speech of great heat and vehemence, that he had al¬
ready demanded and obtained a court-martial on Admiral
Keppel, whom he now charged with having, through his
misconduct, caused the failure of success in that engage¬
ment. This intelligence was received with astonishment
in the house. It had been, and still continued to be, the
general desire of individuals of all parties, to heal the
breach between these officers at a time when the services
of both were so much needed; and it was therefore with
deep concern that the house learned the determination
which had been taken to bring Admiral Keppel to a
trial. The admiral, however, conducted himself on this
occasion with remarkable temper and coolness. He ac¬
quiesced without reluctance in the orders which had been
given him to prepare for a trial of his conduct; and he
expressed a hope, that, upon inquiry, it would be found to
have been neither dishonourable to his country nor dis¬
creditable to himself.
But the conduct of the board of admiralty in admitting
b n ii
Reign of the charges against Admiral Keppel, and appointing a
„eorgeIIT. trial, was strongly censured in the house, upon the ground
that it was their duty to labour with the utmost earnest-
ness, and exert their whole official influence, to stifle an
unhappy disagreement, the consequences of which might
be highly detrimental to the public service, instead of
promoting the dispute, by consenting to bring it to a ju¬
dicial and public hearing. On the other hand, it was
observed, that the admiralty could not, consistently with
the impartiality which they owed to every officer of the
navy, refuse to receive all matters of complaint relating
to subjects in their department; that they had no right
to decide on the merits of any case laid before them, but
were bound to refer it to a court composed of naval
officers, who were the only proper and competent judges
in professional matters ; that, in conformity with these
principles, they left the decision of the present alterca¬
tion to the gentlemen of the navy, whose honour and in¬
tegrity in all instances of this kind had never been called
in question, and by whose verdict every officer in that
branch of the service must wish to stand or fall. The ar¬
guments upon this subject being urged with much heat
and vehemence, generated uncommon animosity, and gave
rise to a spirit of contention which diffused itself among
all classes of society. Individuals of every rank and pro¬
fession engaged in it with as much zeal as if they had
been personally concerned in the issue; and the dissa¬
tisfaction that prevailed among the upper classes in the
navy appeared in a memorial presented to the king by
twelve of the oldest and most distinguished admirals, at
the head of whom was Lord Hawke, condemning the con¬
duct of Sir Hugh Palliser without reserve, and censuring
that of the admiralty itself, as establishing a precedent
pregnant with the most ruinous consequences to the naval
service. The majority of those who subscribed this me¬
morial were not only officers of the highest rank and im¬
portance in the navy, but unconnected with the opposition,
and attached by various motives to the court and ministry ;
so that their conduct in this instance must have been un¬
influenced by party considerations.
No business of consequence was discussed in either
house of parliament during the trial, which began upon the
7th of January 1779, and lasted till the 11th of February
ensuing. After a lengthened and minute investigation,
the court-martial acquitted Admiral Keppel, in the most
complete and honourable manner, of all the charges which
had been brought against him ; he was declared to have
acted the part of a judicious, brave, and experienced of¬
ficer ; and the accusation was censured in the severest
manner. Both houses of parliament then voted him their
thanks for the eminent services he had performed; the city
of London conferred on him every mark of honour and
respect it could bestow ; and the nation re-echoed with his
praise; whilst the resentment against his accuser was so
strong as to constrain him to retire wholly from public
life, and to resign all his employments. But notwithstand¬
ing the high degree of national favour and esteem in which
Admiral Keppel stood, he thought it prudent to withdraw
from a situation in which he found himself not acceptable
to those in power, and accordingly resigned his command.
The conduct of those who presided at the admiralty
board now became an object of severe censure; and a
number of facts were cited to prove, that for many years
past they had acted in a manner highly reprehensible.
The debates were uncommonly animated ; and a resolution
for censuring the conduct of the admiralty was lost by
a majority of only thirty-four. Administration, however,
still kept their ground; and although a second attempt
was made to show that the state of the navy Avas incom¬
mensurate with the vast sums bestowed upon it, the point
AIN. ' 487
was again lost by nearly the same majority as before. But Reign of
however victorious they might be in divisions, the con-George III
duct of the admiralty was far from giving general satis-
faction. Following the example of Admiral Keppel, Lord
Howe declared his resolution to relinquish the service
while it continued under the present system of manage¬
ment ; and his resignation was followed by that of Sir Ro¬
bert Harland, Sir John Lindsay, and several others ; nay,
so general had the dislike to the service now become, that
no fewer than twenty captains of the first distinction pro¬
posed to go in a body to resign their commissions at once ;
and they were prevented doing so only by the urgent oc¬
casion there was at that time for their services.
The same feeling which led to these resignations pro¬
duced a direct attack upon Lord Sandwich, then first
lord of the admiralty. But though in this as in other
cases the ministry were victorious, they could not prevent
an inquiry into the cause of our want of success in the
American war. This was insisted upon by Lord Howe and
General Howe, whose conduct had been so much reflected
upon, that a vindication became absolutely necessary. The
inquiry was indeed singularly disagreeable to the admi¬
nistration, and consequently evaded as long as possible.
From the evidence of Lord Cornwallis and other officers
of high rank, however, it appeared that the forces sent to
America were at no time sufficient to reduce it; that the
Americans were almost universally unfriendly to the Bri¬
tish cause; and that from the nature of the country, the
conquest of it would be attended with great difficulties. It
was also proved, that, from its great strength, the camp
of the Americans on Long Island could not have been
attacked with any probability of success, after their defeat
in 1776, owing to the want of artillery and other neces¬
saries. In every instance, therefore, the general’s conduct
was shown to have been judicious and proper. But these
facts being directly at variance with the view which the
ministry wished to countenance, counter-evidence was
produced, in order to invalidate the testimony of the re¬
spectable witnesses above mentioned, and Major-general
Robertson, and Mr Joseph Gallowa}', an American gentle¬
man, were examined. According to the evidence of Mr
Galloway especially, the conduct of General Howe had
not been unexceptionable; the greater part of the Ame¬
ricans were friendly to the cause of Britain ; the country
Avas not so full of obstructions as had been represented;
the woods and forests formed no obstruction to the march¬
ing of armies in as many columns as they pleased; and
soldiers might carry provisions for nineteen days on their
backs. Upon such extravagant assertions, proceeding un¬
doubtedly from ignorance, no stress Avhatever could be
laid; yet they fully ansAvered the purpose of ministry at
this time, namely procrastination, and preventing the dis¬
agreeable truths elicited in the course of the inquiry from
striking the minds of the public too forcibly.
The event of this inquiry, however, encouraged General
Burgoyne to insist for an examination of his conduct,
which indeed had been so unmercifully censured, that
even the ministers began to think he had suffered too
much, and that he ought to be allowed to vindicate him¬
self. He was accordingly permitted to bring witnesses in
his own behalf, and from the evidence produced, it ap¬
peared that he had acted the part both of a general and
a soldier; that the attachment of his army to him Avas so
great, that no dangers or difficulties could shake it; and
that, even when all their patience and courage were found
to be ineffectual, they were still ready to obey his com¬
mands, and die with arms in their hands. A great num¬
ber of other particulars relating to his expedition were
also cleared up; several charges against him were refut¬
ed ; and it appeared that the Americans, far from being
L.
488 BRITAIN.
iteign of the contemptible enemy they had been called, were intre-
Georgelll.pij an(j resolute antagonists.
After the resignation of Admiral Keppel, the command
' * of the Channel fleet was bestowed on Sir Charles Hardy, a
brave and experienced officer, but now advanced in years,
having retired from the service with the design of not re¬
turning to it, and being at that time governor of Greenwich
hospital. The choice of an admiral to command this fleet
was now of the greatest importance, on account of the
accession of Spain to the general confederacy which took
place during the present year. This determination was
formally intimated by the Spanish minister on ^he 17th
of June 1779, and was attended with new but ineffectual
proposals for an accommodation with America, and the
removal of the ministry. The imminent danger, however,
to which the nation was now exposed, required vigorous
exertion; and various projects for its internal defence were
laid before the parliament. The spirit and magnanimity
displayed on this occasion did the highest honour to the
national character, and fully justified the opinion enter¬
tained of its valour and resources. All parts of the king¬
dom seemed actuated by a desire to concur in every mea¬
sure necessary for its defence ; large sums were subscrib¬
ed by persons of rank and affluence ; and companies were
raised, and regiments formed, with an alacrity which quickly
banished all apprehensions for the safety of the country.
On the other hand, the French, thinking themselves
secure of victory by the accession of Spain, began to ex¬
tend their schemes of conquest; and a squadron was fitted
out under the command of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, des¬
tined to reinforce the fleet commanded by D’Estaing. But
before proceeding to its destination, this squadron made
an attack on the British settlements on the rivers Senegal
and Gambia, which were easily conquered. On this oc¬
casion the French quitted their own island of Goree, which
was soon afterwards taken possession of by Sir Edward
Hughes, when on his way to the East Indies. But these dis¬
tant conquests being insufficient to produce any serious im¬
pression, it was resolved to strike a blow nearer home, by
the conquest of Jersey and Guernsey. An attempt was ac¬
cordingly made on these islands, but with so little success
that not a single man could be disembarked on the spot
which they intended to conquer. The enterprise, however,
proved indirectly serviceable to the cause of America. A
fleet of four hundred merchantmen and transports was at
this time on the point of sailing for New York, under the
conduct of Admiral Arbuthnot; but that officer, informed
of the attack on Jersey, thought it his duty to go to the as¬
sistance of that island rather than proceed on his voyage ;
and this delay was followed by another, occasioned by
bad weather, so that the fleet, which was laden with war¬
like stores and necessaries, did not arrive till the end of
August, and several important enterprises projected by
Sir Henry Clinton were in consequence abandoned. The
French, however, determined to make a second attempt
on Jersey ; but their squadron, being attacked by another
under Sir James Wallace, was driven on shore in a small
bay on the coast of Normandy, under cover of a battery,
and pursued by the British commander, who silenced the
battery, took a thirty-four gun frigate, with two rich prizes,
and bui’ned two other frigates and several vessels besides.
Ihus disappointed in the attempt on Jersey, the court
of trance next projected an invasion of Great Britain
itself; and the preparations for the enterprise, whether
serious or not, were so formidable, as justly to excite a
considerable alarm in this country. Not only were the
best troops in the French service marched down to the
coasts of the British Channel, but transports were provid¬
ed m great numbers, and many general officers promot¬
ed ; the persons who were to command this important ex¬
pedition were also named by the government, A junction Itekm of 1 r
was formed between the French and Spanish fleets, in George
spite of the endeavours of the British to prevent, it; and I ✓
the combined fleets made their appearance in the British *779.
seas with upwards of sixty ships of the line, besides a vast
number of frigates and other armed vessels. But all this
formidable preparation ended in the capture of only a single
ship, the Ardent, of sixty-four guns. The combined fleets
had passed the British fleet under Sir Charles Hardy in
the mouth of the Channel without observing him ; and then
sailing along the coast of England, they came in sight of
Plymouth, where they captured the Ardent, as already
mentioned; after which they returned, without making the
least attempt to effect a landing. The British admiral
made good his entrance into the Channel without opposi¬
tion, on the enemy quitting it, which a strong easterly
wind obliged them to do; and he endeavoured to entice
them up the Channel in pursuit of him ; but the great
sickness and mortality on board their ships obliged them
to retire, in order, as they alleged, to recruit the health of'
their crews. Thus ended the first, and indeed the greatest
exploit performed by the combined fleets in the British
seas. An annual parade of a similar kind was afterwards
kept up, and as formally opposed on the part of the Bri¬
tish ; but no act of hostility was ever committed by either
of the Channel fleets against each other.
Though the pusillanimity manifested by the combined
fleets was such that the French themselves were ashamed
of it, the appearance of them in the Channel furnished
opposition with abundance of matter for declamation. All
ranks of men, indeed, now began to be wearied of the
American war ; and even those who had formerly been the
most zealous in recommending coercive measures were at
length convinced of their utter inutility. The calamitous
effects produced by the continuation of these measures,
indeed, had by this time rendered the greater part of the
people exceedingly averse to the war; and the almost uni¬
versal wish was, that the oppressive burden of the Ame¬
rican contest should be cast off, and the entire national
strength exerted against those whom we had been accus¬
tomed to consider as our natural enemies. Nevertheless,
the national spirit continued to be exerted with unabated
vigour. Large sums, subscribed in the several counties,
were employed in raising volunteers, and forming them
into independent companies; and associations were also
entered into in the towns, where the inhabitants bestow¬
ed a considerable portion of their time in training them¬
selves to the use of arms. The East India Company, too,
forgot their quarrels with ministry, and not only present¬
ed government with a sum sufficient for levying six thou¬
sand seamen, but at its own cost added three seventy-four
gun ships to the navy.
Administration, however, not yet weary of the plans
which they had originally adopted, seemed still inclined
to prosecute schemes of conquest. The virulence of oppo¬
sition continued unabated; and, what was worse, every part
of the kingdom seemed to imbibe the sentiments of the mi¬
nority in parliament. Amongst the charges now brought
against ministers was that of misapplying the national force.
An hundred thousand men were employed for the internal
defence of the kingdom. The army of Great Britain at this
time fell little short of three hundred thousand men ; the
navy amounted to three hundred sail, including trigates
and armed vessels ; twenty millions had been expended on
the service of the year 1779; and yet, with all this force
and treasure, the utmost boast that ministers could make
was, that the enemy had hitherto been kept at bay. Nor
were the other charges of a less grave description. Veteran
officers had been passed over to make room for persons of
inferior merit; whilst the discontents and miserable state
BRITAIN. 489
Reign of of Ireland, the loss of the West India islands, and other
eorgelll. disasters, were all put to the account of ministers; and it
•*^r**' Was alleged that the universal cry of the nation was for
l?80, their dismission. To all this ministry replied by denying
or attempting to refute every allegation, and at last, after
several stormy debates, gained their point of an address
without an amendment, by large majorities in both houses.
But the enormous expense incurred in carrying on the
war occasioned such general alarm, that it was no longer
possible to refuse complying with some scheme of econo¬
my, or at least giving it a patient hearing. The Duke of
Richmond proposed that the crown should set the example,
and moved for an address to this purpose; but the mo¬
tion was negatived. The Earl of Shelburne next brought
the subject under the consideration of parliament; and
having, in a A'ery elaborate speech, compared the ex¬
penses of former times with the present, and shown the
immense disparity, he moved that the expenditure of the
vast sums annually sunk in extraordinaries should be
brought under some control, and that to extend the pub¬
lic expenses beyond the sums granted by parliament, was
an invasion of its peculiar and exclusive rights. But al¬
though the Earl of Shelburne’s motion was rejected, and
some others of a similar tendency shared the same fate,
the minds of the people were far from being conciliated
to the views of ministers. On the contrary, an opinion
began to prevail that they exercised an unconstitutional
influence over the representatives of the nation, and that
as this influence had recently been greatly augmented,
nothing short of a change in the constitution of parliament
could remedy the evil complained of. Accordingly, on the
30th of December 1779, a petition to this effect was framed
in the city of York, where a number of the most respectable
people in the county had assembled; and sixty-one gen¬
tlemen were appointed as a committee for carrying into
effect the object contemplated by the petitioners. The
York petition was followed by others of a similar descrip¬
tion from twenty-seven of the principal counties and largest
towns in England; while severe and even opprobrious lan¬
guage was used in the county meetings respecting both the
ministry and the parliament.
The emissaries of America and the other enemies of
Great Britain are said to have been active in fomenting
these discords, which at this period rose to a height un¬
known for a century past. But the ministry continued firm,
and, previous to taking any of the petitions into considera¬
tion, insisted on going through the business of the supplies.
At length, in the beginning of February 1780, a plan
was brought forward by Mr Burke, for securing the in¬
dependence of parliament, and introducing economy into
the various departments of government. He proposed the
abolition of the offices of treasurer, comptroller, and cof¬
ferer of the household; of treasurer of the chamber, mas¬
ter of the household, the board of green cloth, and seve¬
ral other places under the steward of the household; of
the great and removing wardrobe, the jewel office, the
robes, board of works, and the civil branch of the board
of ordnance. Other reformations were also suggested;
but though the temper of the times obliged the minister
to admit the bills, and even to pretend an approbation
of the plan, he had no serious intention of acquiescing
in the scheme to its full extent, or indeed in any part,
if he could possibly help it. When the plan, therefore,
came to be considered in detail, he was provided with
objections to every part of it. But the general temper
ot the people without doors had now affected many of the
members of parliament, and caused them to desert their
old standard. An economical plan proposed in the House
of Lords by the Earl of Shelburne was rejected by a nar¬
row majority, and in the lower house matters went still
VOL. v,
worse. The first proposition in Mr Burke’s plan was to Reign of
abolish the office of secretary of state for the colonies ;GeorgeHL
and the utmost efforts of administration could preserve
this office only by a majority of seven. The board of ‘
trade, however, was abolished by a majority of nine; but
this was the only defeat sustained by ministry at present,
all the rest of the plan being rejected excepting only one
clause, by which it was enacted that the offices of lieute¬
nant and ensign in the yeomen of the guards should no
longer be sold, but given to officers in the army and navy
on half pay, and of fifteen years’ standing in their re¬
spective departments of service.
But the administration were destined to sustain a still
more mortifying defeat than that which they had met with
in the abolition of the board of trade. The 6th of April
being the day appointed for taking into consideration the
numerous petitions already mentioned, the subject of these
was introduced by Mr Dunning, in an elaborate speech,
in which he dwelt on the numerous attempts which had
been made to introduce reformation and economy into the
plans of government, and which had been defeated by
ministerial artifice, or overthrown by mere dint of num¬
bers ; and he concluded by moving the celebrated reso¬
lution, that “ the influence of the crown has increased, is
increasing, and ought to be diminished.” After a long
and stormy debate, this motion was carried; upon which
Mr Dunning further moved, that the House of Commons
was as competent to examine into and correct abuses in
the expenditure of the civil list as in any other branch of
the public revenue; and this was followed by a third reso¬
lution, moved by Mr Thomas Pitt, that it was the duty of
the house to provide an immediate and effectual redress
of the abuses complained of in the petitions. The minis¬
try now interposed with a request that nothing further
might be done at that sitting; but such was the temper
of the house, that both these motions were carried with¬
out a division.
Ministry had never experienced such a complete defeat,
nor been treated with so much asperity of language. The
news of the proceedings of the day were received by the
people at large with as much joy as if a complete victory
over a foreign enemy had been announced. Opposition,
however, though masters of the field at present, did not
imagine that they had obtained any permanent victory,
and therefore resolved to make the most of the advantages
they had gained. Accordingly, at the next meeting it
was moved by Mr Dunning, that to ascertain the inde¬
pendence of parliament, and remove all suspicion of its
being under undue influence, there should, every session,
seven days after the meeting of parliament, be laid before
the house an account of all the sums issued out of the
civil list, or any other branch of the revenue, since the
last recess, in favour of any of its members; and this
passed with little difficulty. But when he moved that the
treasurers of the chamber and household, the cofferer,
comptroller, and master of the household, with the clerks
of the green cloth, and their deputies, should be excluded
from having seats in the house, a warm debate ensued, and
the motion was carried only by a majority of two. This was
the last triumph of the popular party; their next motion,
for the exclusion of revenue officers, being thrown by a ma¬
jority of twenty-seven. A final effort was however made
by Mr Dunning, who proposed an address to the throne
against proroguing or dissolving the parliament, until mea¬
sures had been taken to prevent the improper influence
complained of in the petitions; but on a division the motion
was lost by a very considerable majority. Ministry would
gladly have screened their friends from the vengeance of
opposition, alleging the lateness of the hour, it being then
past midnight; but the Speaker perceiving Mr Fox about
3q
1
490 BRIT
Ueign of to rise, insisted that the house should remain sitting; and
George III. thus the deserters from the popular party were condemned
to hear their conduct set forth in terms such as were never
1780. perhaps applied on any other occasion to members of the
British senate.
The last victory of administration confirmed the unfa¬
vourable opinion which the people had conceived of the
majority of their representatives; and in the height of the
ill humour which the conduct of the parliament had cre¬
ated in the multitude, those discontents broke out which
were so near involving the kingdom in a species of civil
war. The hardships under which individuals of the Ho¬
man Catholic persuasion laboured in this country had
lately engaged the consideration of enlightened and libe¬
ral-minded men; whilst the inutility as well as absurdity
of persecuting people from whom no danger was to be ap¬
prehended, and who were not suspected of disaffection to
the civil constitution of this country, had induced several
persons of rank and influence to undertake to procure
them relief from the disabilities under which they la¬
boured. Meanwhile the calamities of the times had afford¬
ed the Catholics a proper occasion for manifesting their
attachment to government; and accordingly they present¬
ed a loyal and dutiful address to the king, containing the
strongest assurances of affection and fidelity to his person
and civil government. They declared that their exclusion
from many of the benefits of that constitution had not
diminished their reverence for it; that they had patiently
submitted to such restrictions and discouragements as the
legislature thought expedient, and had thankfully received
such relaxation of the rigour of the laws as the mildness
of an enlightened age and the benignity of the British go¬
vernment had gradually produced; that they submissively
waited, without presuming to suggest either time or mea¬
sure, for such other indulgence as the happy causes al¬
luded to could not fail in their own season to effect; that
their dissent from the legal establishment in matters of
religion was purely conscientious; that they held no
opinions adverse to his majesty’s government, or repug¬
nant to the duties of good citizens; that they thought it
their duty to assure his majesty of their unreserved affec¬
tion to his government, of their unalterable attachment
to the cause and welfare of the country, and their detes¬
tation of the designs and views of any foreign power against
the dignity of the crown and the safety and tranquillity
of the people; and that, though they did not presume
to point out the particular means by which they might
be allowed to testify their zeal and their wishes to serve
the country, they would be perfectly ready, on every
occasion, to give such proofs of their fidelity, and of the
purity of their intentions, as his majesty’s wisdom and the
sense of the nation should at any time deem expedient.
This address was presented to the king on the 1st of May
1778, and was signed by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls
of Surrey and Shrewsbury, the Lords Stourton, Petre,
Arundel, Dormer, Teynham, Clifford, and Linton; and
by a hundred and sixty-three commoners of rank and
fortune.
The only obstacle which stood in the way was the diffi¬
culty of overcoming the prejudices of the lower classes,
who were disposed to disapprove of and condemn any in¬
dulgence shown to those of a persuasion which they had
been taught to regard with horror and detestation. But
notwithstanding the prepossessions of the vulgar, it was
resolved by several individuals of generous and liberal
sentiments, to espouse their cause as far as it could be
done consistently with the principles of the constitution
and the general temper of the times. And the circum¬
stance of their being patronized by some of the principal
leaders of opposition was greatly in their favour; for it
A I N.
showed that those who professed to be the most strenuous Reign of
friends of freedom and the constitution did not imagine Geor&elI
that these would be endangered by treating the Roman
Catholics with more lenity than they had hitherto expe- ^80.
rienced. Accordingly, about the middle of May, Sir
George Saville made a motion for the repeal of some of
the disqualifications under which the Catholics laboured.
He grounded his motion on the necessity of vindicating the
honour and asserting the true principles of the Protestant
religion, of which the peculiar merit consisted in an abhor¬
rence of persecution. He represented the address above
quoted as a convincing proof of the loyal disposition of the
Roman Catholics, and as an unfeigned testimony of the
soundness of their political principles; and, to silence the
objections of those who might suspect the Catholics of
duplicity, a test was proposed of so binding and solemn a
nature, that no authority could annul its efficacy.
The pains and penalties of the statutes to be repealed
were laid before the house by Mr Dunning. By these
statutes it was made felony in a foreign clergyman of the
Catholic communion, and high treason in one who was a
native of this kingdom, to teach the doctrines, or perform
divine service according to the rites, of that church; the
estates of persons educated abroad in the Catholic persua¬
sion were forfeited to the next Protestant heir; a son, or
any other nearest relation, being a Protestant, was em¬
powered to take possession of his own father’s, or nearest
kinsman’s estate, during their lives; and a Roman Ca¬
tholic was disabled from acquiring any legal property by
purchase. The mildness of the British government did
not indeed countenance the enforcement of the severities
enacted by these statutes; but still the prospect of gain
subjected every man of the Roman Catholic persuasion to
the ill usage of informers; and on the evidence of such
miscreants the magistrates were bound, however unwilling,
to put these cruel laws in execution.
In consequence of such representations, the motion made
in favour of the Roman Catholics was received without
a dissentient voice; and a bill conformable thereto was
brought into and passed through both houses. The test
or oath to be taken by the Catholics was conceived in the
strongest terms. They were to swear allegiance to the
king’s person and family, and to abjure especially the pre¬
tensions to the crown assumed by the person called Charles
III. They were to declare their disbelief and detestation
of the doctrines, that it is lawful to put individuals to death
on pretence of their being heretics; that no faith is to be
kept with heretics; that princes excommunicated by the
pope and council, or by the see of Rome, or any other au¬
thority, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects or
by any others; and that the pope of Rome, or any other
foreign prelate or sovereign, is entitled to any temporal or
civil jurisdiction or pre-eminence, either directly or indi¬
rectly, in this kingdom. And they were solemnly to pro¬
fess, that they made the aforesaid declarations with the
utmost sincerity, and in the strictest and plainest mean¬
ing of the words and language of the test, without har¬
bouring a secret persuasion that any dispensation from
Rome, or any other authority, could acquit or absolve
them from the obligations contracted by this oath, or de¬
clare it null and void. t .
The favour shown to the Roman Catholics in England
encouraged those of the same persuasion in Scotland to
hope for a similar relief; and several Scottish gentlemen of
high rank and character, who had seats in the house, not
only expressed their warmest wishes for the extension of the
indulgence to their own country, but declared their inten¬
tion to bring in a bill for the purpose the ensuing session.
The design was approved of by the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland; and a petition on behalf of the
BRITAIN.
Reign of Roman Catholics in Scotland was in consequence prepared.
Georgein. gut ^gge favourable prospects were for a time obscured
by a dense cloud of religious fanaticism, looming large and
' ’ high in the political horizon. A pamphlet appeared, in
which the doctrines and professors of the Roman Catho¬
lic religion were represented, the former as damnable,
and the latter as the common foes of mankind and the
disturbers of all states; and this inflammatory production
being circulated among every class, raised up a great num¬
ber of enemies to the intended petition. The opposition
was at first chiefly conducted by persons at Edinburgh,
who assumed the title of The Committee for the Protest¬
ant Interest, and under that denomination carried on a
correspondence with all those who coincided in their opi¬
nions, being in fact a very large proportion of the common
people in Scotland. This committee, from its residence
in the capital of the kingdom, was naturally supposed to
consist of persons of weight and influence; and hence it
in a manner directed the motions of all the others. The
persons of whom it was composed, however, acted from
honest though mistaken views. They aimed only at the
preservation of the Protestant religion and the liberties of
their country, which they conceived to be endangered by
the indulgence shown to individuals of the Roman Catho¬
lic persuasion ; and, actuated by these ideas, they exerted
themselves so effectually, that the principal gentlemen of
the Catholic persuasion thought it requisite to convey to
the ministry an intimation of their desire to desist for the
present from applying for an indulgence similar to that
which had been extended to their fellow-subjects of the
same communion in England. They published also in the
newspapers the representation which they had made to the
ministry, in hopes of convincing the country that they were
sincerely disposed to remove any cause of dissatisfaction
on their own account, and to submit to any inconvenience
rather than occasion disturbance, even in the prosecution
of a lawful and praiseworthy object. But matters had now
gone too far to be conciliated by any concessions.
On the 2d day of February 1779, the populace met ac¬
cording to appointment, in order to carry into execution the
various projects which they had in contemplation. They
began by an attack upon the house inhabited by the Ro¬
man Catholic bishop, and others of his persuasion, which
they committed to the flames, together with the place of
worship adjoining to it; and having in the same manner de¬
stroyed another house, which also contained a chapel, they
proceeded to vent their resentment on several individuals
of the same persuasion by burning their effects. The next
objects of their vengeance were those who had patronised
the Roman Catholics. They beset the houses of Dr Ro¬
bertson and Mr Crosby ; but the friends of these eminent
persons, on hearing of the intentions of the rioters, came
to their assistance in such numbers, and so well prepared
to repel force by force, that the populace did not dare to
commit the violence they had premeditated. This spirit¬
ed conduct, which was followed by the adoption of the
necessary precautions against their malevolent designs,
put an end to the attempts of the mob at Edinburgh. But
the spirit of dissatisfaction on account of the intended in¬
dulgence remained in full force; and ministry being held
out as harbouring a secret determination to undermine
the Protestant religion, and to introduce popery, were in
consequence loaded with the most outrageous invectives.
Matters, however, did not stop here. The same ungo¬
vernable spirit was soon communicated to a part of the
English nation; the cry against popery became daily
louder among the inferior classes; and that inveteracy
which time appeared to have mitigated began to revive in
as powerful a degree as if the nation were actually under
the impending horrors of persecution. To this were added
491
the secret fears of others, who still imagined that it was Reign of
not inconsistent with good policy to discourage a religion, George IIL
from the professors of which so much danger had accrued
to the constitution of this country in former times, and
who, though averse to acts of violence, thought it neces¬
sary to keep alive the antipathy to the ancient faith, and
by no means to show a willingness to grant any further
indulgence than it had hitherto experienced. On these
grounds they were of opinion, that a suspension of the
laws enacted against it, although tacit and unauthorized,
wras sufficient to remove all complaints of harshness and
oppression on the part of the Roman Catholics; and they
looked upon the penal statutes as a requisite bar to con¬
fine the Catholics within the bounds of due submission to
the laws of a Protestant state.
Hence a society was formed in London, under the de¬
signation of the Protestant Association, and Lord George
Gordon, who had rendered himself conspicuous in Scotland
by his opposition to the repeal, was elected its president;
and this body now prepared to act in a decisive manner
against the resolutions of the legislature.
On the 29th of May 1780 the members of the association
held a meeting in order to settle as to the manner in which
they should present a petition to the House of Commons
against the repeal of the penal statutes ; and on this occa¬
sion a long speech was delivered by the president, who re¬
presented the Roman persuasion as gaining ground rapidly
in the country, and affirmed that the only method of stop¬
ping its progress, was to go up with a spirited remonstrance
to their representatives, and to tell them in plain and re¬
solute terms that they were determined to maintain their
religious freedom against all enemies, and at whatever
sacrifice. This harangue being received with the loudest
applause, Lord George next moved that the whole body
of the association should meet on the second day of June,
in St George’s Fields, at ten in the morning, to accompany
him to the House of Commons for the presentation of the
petition ; which was also assented to unanimously. Lord
George then infoi'med the meeting, that if he found him¬
self attended by fewer than twenty thousand persons he
would not present the petition ; he directed them to form
into four divisions, the first, second, and third consisting
of those who belonged to the city, Westminster, and South¬
wark, and the fourth of the Scottish residents in London ;
and all were requested, by way of distinction, to wear blue
cockades in their hats. Three days previous to the presen¬
tation of the petition, he gave notice of it in the ordinary
form to the house, and stated the manner in which it was
to be presented; but this was received with as much in¬
difference and unconcern as all his former intimations.
On the second day of June, according to appointment,
about fifty or sixty thousand persons assembled in St
George’s Fields; and drawing up in four divisions, as had
been arranged, proceeded to the parliament house, with
Lord George Gordon at their head. An immense roll of
parchment was carried before them, containing the names
of those who had signed the petition. On their way to the
house they behaved with propriety and decency; but im¬
mediately on their arrival disturbances commenced. The
rioters began by compelling all the members of both
houses whom they met to put blue cockades in their hats,
and call out “ No Popery;” they forced some to take an
oath that they would vote for the repeal of the popery
act, as they styled it; and they treated others with great
indignity, posting themselves in all the avenues to both
houses, the doors of which they twice endeavoured te
break open. But their rage was chiefly directed against
the members of the House of Lords, several of whom nar¬
rowly escaped being murdered.
During these disturbances Lord George Gordon moved
402
BRITAIN.
Reign of for leave to bring up the petition, which was readily grant-
George III. et[. but when he moved that it should be taken into imme-
diate consideration, his proposal was strenuously opposed
7 * by almost the whole house. Enraged at this opposition,
he came out several times to the people during the de¬
bate, acquainting them how averse the house appeared
to grant their petition, and naming particularly those who
had spoken against it. Several members of the house ex¬
postulated with him in the warmest terms on the unjusti-
liableness of his conduct; and one of his relations, Colonel
Gordon, threatened to run him through the moment any
of the rioters should force their entrance into the house.
It was some hours before the house could carry on its de¬
liberations with any regularity, which was not done till
the members were relieved by the arrival of a party of the
guards. As soon as order had been restored, the business
of the petition was resumed, when Lord George Gordon
told the house that it had been signed by nearly a hun¬
dred and twenty thousand British Protestant subjects, and
he therefore insisted that the petition should be consider¬
ed without delay. But notwithstanding the dangers with
which they were menaced, and the proof which the mover
of the petition had given that no means would be left un¬
employed to compel them to grant it, the Commons con¬
tinued immovable in their determination, and of two hun¬
dred members then present in the house, six only voted
for taking the petition into immediate consideration.
In the mean time the mob had dispersed itself into va¬
rious parts of the metropolis, where they demolished two
Roman Catholic chapels belonging to foreign ministers,
and openly vented the most terrible menaces against all
persons of that persuasion. On the 4th of June they as¬
sembled in great numbers in the eastern parts of London,
and attacked the chapels and houses of the Roman Catho¬
lics in that quarter, stripping them of their contents, which
they threw into the street, and committed to the flames.
They renewed their outrages on the following day, destroy¬
ing several Romish chapels, and demolished the house of
Sir George Saville, in resentment of his having brought
into parliament the bill in favour of the Roman Catholics.
On the 6th both houses met as usual; but finding that
no business could be done, they adjourned to the 19th.
During this and the following days the rioters were ab¬
solute masters of the metropolis and its environs. Some
of those who had been concerned in the demolition of the
chapels belonging to foreign ministers having been seized
and sent to Newgate, the mob collected before that pri¬
son, and demanded their immediate release ; and this be¬
ing refused, they proceeded to throw into the keeper’s
house firebrands and all manner of combustibles, which
communicating fire to that and other parts of the build¬
ing, the whole of the immense pile was soon in flames.
Amidst this scene of confusion, the prisoners, amounting to
about three hundred, were all released, including several
who were under sentence of death. In the same manner
they set fire to the King’s Bench and Fleet prisons, and to
a number of houses belonging to Roman Catholics. The
terror occasioned by these incendiaries was such that
most people hung out of their windows pieces of blue silk,
which was the colour assumed by the rioters, and chalked
on their doors and shutters the words “ No Popery,” by
way of signifying they were friendly to their cause.
The night of the 7th of June concluded these horrors.
Not less than thirty-six different conflagrations were count¬
ed at the same time. The Bank had been threatened,
and was twice assailed ; but being well guarded, both at¬
tempts failed. In the evening large bodies of troops arrived
from all parts, happily in time to put a stop to the progress
of the rioters, and falling upon them wherever they ap¬
peared, multitudes were killed and wounded, whilst num¬
bers perished through intoxication. It was not until the Reign J
afternoon of the 8th, however, that people began to recover George Uil
from their consternation. During the greater part of the
day, the disorders of the preceding night had created so
terrible an alarm, that the shops were almost universally
shut in every part of London. Nor were the melancholy
effects of misguided zeal confined solely to the capital. The
outrageous disposition of the populace was preparing to
enact the like horrid scenes in other parts of England, and
the mob actually rose in Hull, in Bristol, and in Bath ; but
through the timely interposition of the magistracy, these
places were saved from their fury.
On the subsiding of this violent and unexpected com¬
motion, Lord George Gordon was arrested, and commit¬
ted close prisoner to the Tower after having undergone a
long examination before the principal lords of the council.
On the 19th of June both houses met again pursuant
to adjournment; and on this occasion a speech was read
from the throne, acquainting them with the measures
which had been taken in consequence of the disturbances,
and assuring them of the readiness of the crown to con¬
cur in any measures that might contribute to the main¬
tenance of the laws and liberties of the people. The
speech was highly approved ; but the conduct of admini¬
stration was severely censured, and charged with unpar¬
donable neglect for not calling forth the civil power, and
employing the military in due time to obviate the mis¬
chiefs which had been committed. Ministry excused itself,
however, on the ground of not having sufficient strength
to answer all the demands of assistance that were made
during the riots, and the absolute impossibility of sup¬
pressing them till the arrival of troops from the country.
The various petitions which had been presented for the
repeal of the act which had occasioned the riots, were
now taken into consideration; but the house continued in
the same mind as formerly. Nevertheless it was thought
proper to yield somewhat to the prejudices of the people,
by passing a bill for preventing persons of the popish per¬
suasion from teaching or educating the children of Protest¬
ants ; but this was afterwards thrown out by the Lords.
Nothing could have happened more opportunely for
the ministry than the Protestant riots; for such were the
alarm and terror occasioned by them, that the ardour
which had been manifested in favour of popular meetings
and associations, as they were called, for opposing the
measures of government, was in a great degree suppress¬
ed. The county meetings were also represented as hav¬
ing a tendency, like the Protestant association, to bring
on insurrections and rebellions; many began to consider
all popular meetings as extremely dangerous; and among
the commercial and monied classes, some were so panic-
struck by the late riots, that all attention to the principles
of the constitution was overruled by their anxiety about
the preservation of their property. Had it not been for
these events, it is probable that the spirit of opposition
which then prevailed in the different counties would have
compelled administration to make some concessions to the
people.
In the suppression of these riots, however, the interfe¬
rence of the military without the command of the civil
magistrate became a matter of suspicion to the country;
and in the House of Lords the Duke of Richmond ex¬
pressed a desire that some of his majesty’s ministers
would rise and give their lordships assurances, that the
measures taken in order to suppress the riots, which were
defensible only upon the ground of necessity, would be
so stated, and that what had been illegally done, on the
ground of necessity, would be cured by an act of indem¬
nity. Various other observations were thrown out relative
to the king’s prerogative and to military law; upon which
BRITAIN.
Reign of Lord Mansfield observed, that neither the king’s preroga-
3eorge III. tive nor military law had any thing to do with the conduct
of government in their endeavours to quell the late out-
1780. rages. All men, of all ranks, descriptions, and denomina¬
tions, were bound, by their oath of allegiance, to inter¬
pose for the prevention of acts of high treason or felony,
wherever any attempts to perpetrate such crimes were
made in their presence, and were criminal if they refused
to do so. In the whole of these proceedings, therefore,
the military had not acted in their technical capacity as
military, but had merely exercised their duty as civil
men, which they, in common with other civil men, had
both a right and an obligation to exercise. When a body
of men were convened, without proceeding to the actual
perpetration of treasonable or felonious acts, then the pre¬
sence of the civil magistrate was necessary before the
military could interpose at all; and for this reason, that
as no acts of felony were committed, they could have no
plea in their civil character for meddling at all. But by
the statute law of the country, it became felonious in any
combination of men to persevere in that combination after
the riot act had been read by a justice of the peace ; and
this being done, they had then, and not till then, a consti¬
tutional reason for their interposition, namely, the privilege
and duty of hindering the commission of felony whenever
they had it in their power to do so.
This extraordinary doctrine was far from being agreeable
to the nation in general, and was very freely censured in
publications of all kinds. It was admitted, that if soldiers
came accidentally as individuals to any place where felonies
were committing, they might interfere, as well as others
of the king’s subjects, in the prevention of them. But
this was a different case from that of bodies of armed
troops being sent under officers commissioned by the king,
and with orders to act against riotous and disorderly per¬
sons without any authority from the civil magistrate. The
constitution of England knew no such character as a mer¬
cenary soldier, at the sole will of the executive power.
Soldiers were held to their duty by laws which affected
no other part of the community; and no soldier, as such,
could be employed in the service of the constitution with¬
out a particular act of parliament in his favour. The idea
that a military man was convertible into a soldier or a ci¬
tizen, as royalty might move its sceptre, was a novelty got
up for the present occasion. Mercenary armies were un¬
derstood to consist of men who had either detached them¬
selves or been forced from civil societies; and on these
suppositions laws were made regarding their liberties and
lives, such as no members of civil society could submit to.
Soldiers were only tolerated by annual bills, and under
repeated pretences ; and the very idea of blending them
with the common subjects of the state, and giving persons
of their description a right of judging on its most import¬
ant occurrences, would have filled our ancestors with hor¬
ror. The laws tolerated an army for certain periods, and
under certain restrictions; but there was no existing law
which admitted the interference of the military in any of
the operations of civil government. It was acknowledged
that the late atrocious riots had rendered an extraordina¬
ry exertion of power absolutely necessary; but it was at
the same time contended, that the interposition of the
army in those outrages, without any authority from the
civil magistrate, was an act of prerogative unconstitutional
and illegal, although perfectly seasonable and beneficial.
The public safety and benefit might sometimes excuse
exertions of power, which would be injurious and tyran¬
nical on ordinary occasions; but the utmost care ought to
be taken that such extraordinary exertions should not be
established as precedents, which might operate fatally to
the constitution. If a large standing army was kept up,
493
and the king was understood to be invested with a power Reign of
of ordering the troops to act discretionally whenever he . "
should judge proper, without any authority from the civil i’jqq
magistrate, the people could have no possible security for
their liberties.
We now proceed to notice the operations of the war,
which, notwithstanding the powerful confederacy against
Great Britain, were rather in her favour than otherwise.
The Spaniards had commenced their military operations
with the siege of Gibraltar, but with very little success;
and the close of the year 1779, and beginning of 1780, were
productive of considerable naval advantages to Great Bri¬
tain. On the 18th of December 1779, the fleet under the
command of Sir Hyde Parker in the West Indies captur¬
ed nine sail of French merchant ships under the convoy of
some ships of war; and two days afterwards he detached
Rear-Admiral Rowley in pursuit of three large French
ships, which were supposed to form part of M. la Motte-
Piquet’s squadron returning from Grenada. About the
same time several other vessels were taken by the same
squadron commanded by Sir Hyde Parker. On the 8th
of January 1780, Sir George Brydges Rodney, who had
been intrusted with the command of a fleet, one object of
the destination of which was the relief of Gibraltar, fell in
with twenty-two sail of Spanish ships, and in a few hours
captured the whole fleet. In little more than a week
afterwards the same fortunate admiral met with still more
signal success. On the 16th of the month he engaged,
near Cape St Vincent, a Spanish fleet, consisting of eleven
sail of the line and two frigates, under the command of Don
Juan de Langara. The Spaniards made a gallant defence ;
but four of their largest ships were taken, and carried into
Gibraltar. These were, the Phoenix of eighty guns and
seven hundred men, on board of which was the Admiral
Don Juan de Langara; the Monarca, of seventy guns and
six hundred men, Don Antonio Oyarvide commander;
the Princessa, of seventy guns and six hundred men, Don
Manuel de Leon commander; and the Diligente, ot seven¬
ty guns and six hundred men, Don Antonio Abornoz com¬
mander. Two other seventy gun ships were also taken;
but one of them was driven on shore on the breakers
and lost, and the other was likewise driven on shore, but
afterwards recovered. Four ships of the line and the two
frigates escaped; but two of the former were much da¬
maged in the action, during which one ship, the San Do¬
mingo, of seventy guns and six hundred men, was blown
up. The five men of war taken were remarkably fine ships,
and being afterwards completely refitted and manned,
were put into the English line of battle. The Spanish ad¬
miral and his officers applied to Sir George Rodney to ob¬
tain the liberty of returning to Spain upon their parole of
honour; but this he declined for some time, having received
information that a great number of British seamen,^ who
ought to have been released, were then prisoners in Spain.
However, having afterwards received assurances that these
captives would be immediately set at liberty, he released
the Spanish admiral and officers upon their parole ; and the
prisoners in general were treated with a generosity and
humanity which made a great impression upon the court
of Madrid and the Spanish nation.
When Admiral Rodney had supplied the garrison of
Gibraltar with provisions, ammunition, and money, he
proceeded on his voyage to the West Indies; having sent
home part of his fleet, with the Spanish prizes, under the
command of Rear-Admiral Digby. On the twentieth of
March an action was fought in the West Indies, between
some French and English men of war, the former under
the command of M. de la Motte-Piquet, and the latter,
forming part of Sir Peter Parker’s squadron, under that
of Commodore Cornwallis. The contest was maintained
J
494
BRITAIN.
Reign of on both sides with great spirit; but the French were at
George III. length forced to sheer off, and make the best of their way
for Cape Francois.
1^80, Soon after Admiral Rodney had arrived in the West
Indies, and assumed the command of his majesty’s ships
at the Leeward Islands, an action took place between the
fleet under his orders and that of the French under the
command of Count de Guichen. This occurred on the
17th of April. The British squadron consisted of twenty
ships of the line, besides frigates ; and the French fleet of
twenty-three ships of the line, and several frigates. The
action began a little before one, and continued till about a
quarter after four in the afternoon. Admiral Rodney was
on board the Sandwich, a ninety gun ship, which beat three
of the French ships out of their line of battle, and entirely
broke it. But the Sandwich and several other ships were
so much crippled that an immediate pursuit was impossible,
without compromising the safety of the disabled ships. The
victory was accordingly claimed by both sides, but no ship
was taken on either, and the French retired to Guada-
loupe. Admiral Rodney’s ship, the Sandwich, had suf¬
fered so much, that for twenty-four hours she was with
difficulty kept above water. Of the British upwards of
three hundred were killed and wounded in this engage¬
ment. On the 15th of May another action took place
between the same commanders. But as it did not com¬
mence till near seven in the evening, and only a few ships
were engaged, nothing decisive took place. The fleets
met again on the If th of the same month, when a third
action ensued ; but this, like the former, terminated with¬
out any material advantage to either side. On this occa¬
sion the British lost upwards of two hundred men killed
and wounded; while, according to the French accounts,
the total loss sustained by the enemy in the three actions,
amounted to nearly a thousand killed and wounded. The
preceding details show that the French at this time had a
formidable fleet in the West Indies ; and its force was aug¬
mented in June by the junction of a Spanish squadron near
the island of Dominica; so that the French and Spanish
fleets, when united, amounted to thirty-six sail of the line.
Notwithstanding their superiority, however, they did not
attack any of the British islands, nor even reconnoitre the
fleet under the command of Sir George Brydges Rodney,
which then lay at anchor in Gros Islet bay. By the vigi¬
lance and good conduct of the admiral, indeed, their efforts
were in a great measure paralysed; and so sensible were
the inhabitants of these islands of his services, that the
houses of assembly of St Christophers and Nevis pre¬
sented addresses to him, testifying their gratitude for the
security which they enjoyed in consequence of his spirited
and seasonable exertions.
In the month of June, Admiral Geary, who command¬
ed the grand fleet, took twelve valuable merchant ships
bound from Port-au-Prince to Bourdeaux and other ports
of France ; but in the month of July a very unexpected and
important capture was made by the Spaniards, which ex¬
cited considerable alarm in Great Britain. On the 8th of
August, Captain Moutray, who had under his command
the Ramillies of seventy-four guns, and two frigates, with
a fleet of merchantmen bound for the East and West
Indies under convoy, had the misfortune to fall in with
the combined fleets of France and Spain, which had sail¬
ed from Cadiz the preceding day. The Ramillies and the
two frigates escaped ; but the rest were so completely sur¬
rounded, that five East Indiamen, and fifty merchant ships
bound for the West Indies, were taken. This was one of
the most complete naval captures ever made, and proved
a heavy stroke to the commerce of Great Bidtain. The
prize, however, great as it was, scarcely compensated the
Spaniards for the capture of Fort Omoa, where upwards of
three millions of dollars were secured by the victors, and Reign of
other valuable commodities, including twenty-five quintals George IIll
of quicksilver, for extracting the precious metals from
their ores, and the loss of which consequently rendered
the mines useless.
But whilst the British were making the most vigorous
efforts, and upon the whole gaining advantages over the
powers who opposed them in the field, enemies were rais¬
ed up throughout all Europe, who, by reason of their act¬
ing indirectly, could neither be opposed nor resisted. The
power which most decidedly manifested its hostile inten¬
tions was Holland; but besides this, a most formidable
confederacy, under the title of the Armed Neutrality, was
formed, evidently with the design of crushing the power
of Great Britain. Of this powerful confederacy the em¬
press of Russia avowed herself the head; and her resolu¬
tion was intimated on the 26th of February 1780, in a
declaration addressed to the courts of London, Versailles,
and Madrid. In this paper it was alleged, that her impe¬
rial majesty’s subjects had often been molested in their
navigation, and retarded in their operations, by the ships
and privateers of the belligerent powers ; that she found
herself under the necessity of removing the vexations
which were offered to the commerce of Russia, as well as
to the liberty of commerce in general, by all the means
compatible with her dignity and the welfare of her sub¬
jects ; but that before adopting any serious measures, and
to prevent all new misunderstandings, she thought it just
and equitable to expose to the eyes of all Europe the prin¬
ciples which she had adopted as the guides of her conduct.
And these were contained in the following propositions ;
First, that neutral ships should enjoy a free navigation, even
from port to port, and on the coasts of the belligerent
powers ; secondly, that all effects belonging to the subjects
of the belligerent powers should be looked upon as free
on board such neutral ships, excepting only such goods as
were stipulated contraband; thirdly, that the principles
recognised, and the articles enumerated as contraband,
in the treaties between Great Britain and Russia in 1734
and 1766, should still be adhered to. In the former it was
provided, that “ the subjects of either party may freely
pass, repass, and trade in all countries which now are, or
hereafter shall be, at enmity with the other of the said
parties, places actually blocked up or besieged only ex¬
cepted, provided they do not carry any warlike stores or
ammunition to the enemy,” whilst, “ as for all other effects,
their ships, passengers, and goods, shall be free and un¬
molested ; but,” that “ cannons, mortars, or other warlike
utensils, in any quantity beyond what may be necessary
for the ship’s provision, and may properly appertain to and
be judged necessary for every man of the ship’s crew, or
for each passenger, shall be deemed ammunition of war ;
and if any such be found, they may seize and confiscate
the same according to law; but neither the vessels, pas¬
sengers, nor the rest of the goods, shall be detained for that
reason, or hindered from pursuing their voyage.” And in
the treaty of 1766 the same enumeration was given of the
goods stipulated as contraband, as in the treaty of 1734.
Her imperial majesty further proposed, fourthly, that in
order to determine what characterizes a port blocked up,
that denomination should not be granted, except to places
before which there were actually a number of enemy s
ships stationed near enough to render its entry danger¬
ous ; and, lastly, that these principles should serve as
rules in judicial proceedings and in sentences as to the
legality of prizes. Her imperial majesty declared, that
she was firmly resolved to maintain these principles ; that,
in order to protect the honour of her flag and the security
of the commerce and navigation of her subjects, she had
given an order to fit out a considerable naval force; that
BRITAIN.
Reign of this measure, however, would have no influence on the
George III strict and rigorous neutrality which she was resolved to
observe, as long as she should not be forced to depart from
her principles of moderation and impartiality; and that
it was only in such an extremity that her fleet would be
ordered to act, wherever honour, interest, or necessity,
should require. This declaration was also communicated
to the States-general by Prince Galitzin, envoy extra¬
ordinary of Russia, who invited them to make common
cause with the empress for the protection of commerce
and navigation ; and similar communications and invita¬
tions were made to the courts of Copenhagen, Stockholm,
and Lisbon, in order, as was alleged, that the navigation
of all the neutral trading nations might be established and
legalized, and a system adopted founded upon justice, and
calculated to serve as a sort of maritime code for future
ages.
The memorial of the empress of Russia, though pro¬
ceeding upon principles unfavourable to the views of Great
Britain, and incompatible with her maritime superiority,
received a civil answer from that court; but other powers,
as might have been expected, received it with far greater
cordiality. In the answer of France it was observed, that
what her imperial majesty claimed from the belligerent
powers was nothing more than the rules prescribed to the
French navy ; the execution of which was maintained with
an exactness known and applauded by all Europe. Strong
approbation was expressed of the principles and views of
her imperial majesty ; and it was declared, that from the
measures now adopted by Russia, solid advantages would
undoubtedly result, not only to her subjects, but also to
those of all nations. Sweden and Denmark likewise ac¬
ceded formally to the armed neutrality proposed by Russia;
and the States-general, after an interval of some months,
followed their example. It was further resolved by the
parties to this armed league, to make common cause at sea
against any of the belligerent powers who should violate,
with respect to neutral nations, the principles which had
been laid down in the memorial of Russia.
But though the British ministry could not openly en¬
gage in war with all the other powers of Europe, they de¬
termined to take signal vengeance on the Dutch, whose
base ingratitude and perfidy now became a subject of
general speculation. It has already been observed, that
ever since the commencement of hostilities with the Ame¬
ricans, the Dutch had shown a decided inclination in their
favour; and this partiality continued to be evinced to a
degree beyond what might have been expected from the
natural avidity of a mercantile people. Frequent me¬
morials and remonstrances had in consequence passed
between the two nations, and the breach gradually grew
wider and wider, until at last matters came to extremities,
by a discovery that the town of Amsterdam was about
to enter into a commercial treaty with America. This
came to light in the beginning of September 1780, by
the capture of Mr Laurens, lately president of the Ame¬
rican congress, and who had been empowered by that
495
body to conclude a treaty with Holland. Mr Laurens Reign of
himself was instantly committed prisoner to the Tower, George III.
and a spirited remonstrance was addressed to the states
of Holland, requiring a formal disavowal of the transaction. ‘ *
The states, however, answered evasively, that they would
take the matter into consideration according to the forms
and usages of the country, and that a reply would be given
as soon as the nature of their government would admit.
The British government could not possibly mistake this
pitiful equivocation; and accordingly the most vigorous
measures were instantly resolved on. On the 25th of Ja¬
nuary 1781, it was announced to the House of Commons
that his majesty had directed letters of marque and reprisal
to be issued against the States-general and their subjects.
For the causes and motives of his majesty’s conduct in this
respect, the house were referred to a public manifesto
against that republic, which had been ordered to be laid
before parliament. The charges against the republic were
briefly summed up by Lord North in his speech on the
occasion. The states, he said, had, in open violation of
treaties, not only refused to give Great Britain that as¬
sistance which those treaties entitled her to claim when
attacked by the house of Bourbon, but had also, in direct
violation of the law of nations, contributed to furnish France
with warlike stores, and had now at length thought proper
to countenance the magistracy of Amsterdam in the in¬
sult which they had offered to this country, by entering
into a treaty with the rebellious colonies of Great Britain,
as free and independent states. By the treaty of 1678, it
had been stipulated, that in case Great Britain was attacked
by the house of Bourbon, she had a right to take her choice
of either calling upon the States-general to become parties
in the war, and to attack the house of Bourbon within
two months, or of requiring an aid of six thousand troops
and twenty ships of war, which the states were to furnish
immediately after the claim was made. But though this
country had always preserved inviolate her faith with Hol¬
land, yet that republic had refused to fulfil the terms of this
treaty. The States-general had also suffered Paul Jones,
a Scotsman, and a pirate, acting without legal authority
from any acknowledged government, to bring British ships
into their ports, and to refit there.1 A rebel privateer had
in like manner been saluted at the Dutch island of St Eu-
statius, after she had been suffered to capture two Bri¬
tish ships within cannon-shot of their forts and castles.
A memoi'ial had been presented at the Hague in June
1779, on the breaking out of the war with Spain, to claim
the aid we were entitled to require by the treaty of 1678;
but of this not the least notice had been taken on the part
of the states. Two other notices had since been deliver¬
ed, each of which met with the same reception. The
British ministry had done all in their power to bring the
states to a true sense of their interest; and when the ne¬
cessity of the case compelled them to seize on the Dutch
ships carrying stores to France, they had paid the full
value of the cargoes, and returned the ships; so that nei¬
ther the private merchant, the private adventurer, nor the
1 This man, who had formerly been a servant in Lord Selkirk’s house, had landed in 1778, and plundered it of the plate, but with-
ou doing any further mischief. The action, however, proved very disagreeable to his own party; and, at the desire of Dr Franklin
™eX?te wa? afterwards restored. After this exploit he attempted to set fire to the town of Whitehaven, but without success. In
77J he made a descent on the coast of Ireland, but without committing any act of hostility: his people indeed carried off some
sneep and oxen, but their captain paid liberally for what they had taken. In the month of September 1779, he appeared in the Frith
or north with several prizes, and advanced up above the island of Inchkeith, so as to be nearly opposite to Leith. His design was
supposed to have been to burn the shipping there; but he was prevented from attempting this by a strong westerly wind; and such
bad af° taken/or tlie defence of the harbour, by erecting batteries and otherwise, that he would probably have miscarried
a/attemPfc been 111 ade b7 bim- Pn leaving the coast of Scotland he fell in with the Serapis and Scarborough, both of which he took
a rw ,te,sPe/'ate engagement, in which these vessels were reduced to almost total wrecks. These prizes were carried by Jones into
at tbai f ark°ur ’ an(l16 was this transaction to which Lord North now alluded. He was called a pirate, on account of his not behur
at that time properly furnished with a commission either from France or America; though this was dented by the opposite party? g
496
BRITAIN.
■Reign of states, had suffered any loss. France only had felt the in-
George III. convenience, by her being deprived of that assistance which
she would have received from those cargoes. The minister
1781‘ lamented the necessity of a war with Holland; but it ap¬
peared to him to be unavoidable. The difficulties with
which the nation had to struggle were certainly great;
but they were by no means insuperable. He was neither
desirous of concealing their magnitude, nor afraid to meet
them, great as they must be acknowledged; convinced,
that when the force of this country was fully exerted,
it would be found equal to the contest, and that the only
means of obtaining an honourable and a just peace, was to
show ourselves capable of carrying on the war with spirit
and vigour.
But before this resolution could have been communicat¬
ed officially to the naval commanders in the West Indies,
the Dutch were actually attacked. The island of St Eu-
statius was, on the 3d of February 1781, summoned by Ad¬
miral Rodney and General Vaughan to surrender to the
arms of Great Britain, and only one hour was given for con¬
sideration. Submission was inevitable. The island accord¬
ingly surrendered; the property found on it was confiscated,
and a sale instituted, with circumstances of rapacity which
afterwards became the subject of a discussion in parlia¬
ment, and drew upon the nation the ill will of all Europe.
The Dutch in fact seem to have acted with great impru¬
dence, and, notwithstanding their provoking conduct to¬
wards Britain, to have made no preparations for war in the
event of being attacked. But in spite of this inactivity,
they still retained much of their ancient valour, and were
in fact the most formidable naval enemies whom Britain
had to contend with.
By August 1781 they had equipped a considerable squa¬
dron, the command of which was given to Rear-admiral
Zoutman ; and on the 5th of that month this squadron fell
in with the British fleet commanded by Admiral Hyde
Parker. The force under Zoutman consisted, according
to the Dutch account, of one ship of seventy-four guns,
one of sixty-eight, one of sixty-four, three of fifty-four,
and one of forty-four, besides frigates; but the English
account states the hostile fleet to have consisted of eight
two-decked ships. No gun was fired on either side till the
fleets were within half musket-shot distance. The action
began about eight in the morning, and continued with the
utmost fury for three hours and forty minutes. Both sides
fought with equal ardour, and little advantage was gained
by either. When the action ceased, both squadrons lay
like logs on the water; but after a time the Dutch ships
of war, with their convoy, bore away for the Texel, whilst
the English were too much disabled to follow them. A
Dutch seventy-four gun ship sunk soon after the action.
On board the British fleet upwards of four hundred were
killed and wounded; and the loss of the Dutch was pro¬
bably greater. Admiral Zoutman, in his account of the
engagement, states that his men fought like lions ; and the
British admiral, in the dispatch transmitted by him to the
admiralty, observes that his majesty’s officers and men be¬
haved with great bravery, nor did the enemy show less
gallantry.
The impossibility of crushing the power of Great Bri¬
tain by any force whatever was now beginning to be evi¬
dent even to her most inveterate enemies. In Europe,
the utmost efforts of France and Spain were able to effect
nothing more than the annual parade of a mighty fleet in
the Channel; and this called forth the apparition of a
British fleet, so formidable that the enemy never durst at¬
tack it. The states of Holland had sent out their force;
and this too was opposed by one which, if insufficient to
conquer, was at least able to prevent their effecting any
thing detrimental to our possessions. In the East Indies
the united powers of the French and Indians had been con- Reign of
quered, and the Dutch settlements had suffered severely. George III
In the year 1781, however, the British naval power in VTTY7^
the West Indies seemed to sink, and some events took 78 •
place which threatened serious results. This was owing
to the great superiority of the combined fleets of France
and Spain, by which that of Britain was now so far out¬
numbered, that it could not achieve any thing of conse¬
quence. An ineffectual attempt was made by Admiral
Rodney on the island of St Vincents, and an indecisive
engagement took place on the 28th of April 1781, between
Admiral Hood and the Count de Grasse, the event of
which, however, was certainly honourable to Britain, as the
French had a superiority of six ships of the line. But the
damage done to the British ships having obliged them to
retire to Barbadoes to refit, the French availed themselves
of the opportunity to effect a descent on the island of To¬
bago ; and although the governor made a gallant resistance,
he was at last obliged to surrender. Admiral Rodney had
sent Rear-admiral Drake with six sail of the line, three
frigates, and some troops, to the assistance of the island;
but they were dispatched too late, as the island had capi¬
tulated before the intended relief could have reached it.
But the great and decisive stroke, which happened this
year, was the capture of Lord Cornwallis, with the division
of the army under his command, at Yorktown. This was
a great calamity ; and other events were sufficiently mor¬
tifying. The province of West Florida had been reduced
by the Spaniards; Minorca was besieged by them with
every prospect of success ; the island of St Eustatius had
been surprised by the French ; and in short every circum¬
stance seemed to proclaim the necessity of putting an end
to a war so calamitous and destructive. But all the dis¬
asters which had yet happened were insufficient to induce
the ministry to abandon their favourite scheme of war with
the colonies.
The parliament met on the 27th of November 1781. It
has already been stated, that in the year 1780 the minis¬
try had sustained a defeat so signal as seemed to prognos¬
ticate the ruin of their power. They had indeed afterwards
acquired a majority, and the terror produced by the riots
had contributed not a little to the re-establishment of their
influence. The remembrance of what had passed, how¬
ever, most probably induced them to dissolve parliament;
whilst the successes at Charlestown and in other parts of
America once more gave them a decided majority in both
houses. But the disasters of the year 1781 involved them
in the most serious difficulties. In the speech from the
throne, his majesty observed, that the war was still unhap¬
pily prolonged by the restless ambition which had first ex¬
cited the enemies of his crown and people to commence it.
But he should not discharge the trust committed to the
sovereign of a free people, nor make a suitable return to his
subjects for their zealous and affectionate attachment to
him, if he consented to sacrifice, either to his own desire of
peace, or to their temporary ease and relief, those essential
rights and permanent interests, upon the maintenance and^
preservation of which the future strength and security ot
Great Britain must depend. The events of war, he said,
had been very unfortunate to his arms in Virginia, having
ended in the loss of his forces in that province; but the
misfortune in that quarter called loudly for the firm con¬
currence and assistance of parliament, in order to frustrate
the designs of the enemy, which were as prejudicial to
the real interests of America as to those of Great Britain.
His majesty regretted much the additional burdens which a
continuance of the war would unavoidably bring upon his
subjects; but he still declared his perfect conviction of
the justice of his cause, and hoped that, by the concur¬
rence and support of his parliament, by the valour of his
BRITAIN.
Reign of fleets and armies, and by a vigorous, animated, and unit-
SeorgellLed exertion of the powers and resources of bis people, be
would be enabled to restore to his dominions the blessing
1781, of a safe and honourable peace.
A motion for an address of thanks, couched in the usual
style, was made in the House of Commons; and it was
urged, that a durable and advantageous peace could result
only from the firm, vigorous, and unremitting prosecution
of the war, and that the present was not the time to re¬
linquish hope, but to resolve upon exertion. The motion,
however, was vehemently opposed by Mr Fox and Mr
Burke. The latter remarked, that if there could be a
greater misfortune than had already been inflicted on this
kingdom in the present disgraceful contest, it was hear¬
ing men rise up in the great assembly of the nation to
vindicate such measures. If the ministry and the parlia¬
ment were not to be taught by experience,—if neither ca¬
lamities could make them feel, nor the voice of God make
them wise,—what had this fallen and undone country to
hope for? A battle might be lost, an enterprise might
miscarry, an island might be captured, an army might be
lost in the best of causes, and even under a system of vi¬
gour and foresight; because the battle, after all the wis¬
dom and bravery of man, was in the hands of heaven ;
and if either or all of these calamities had happened in
a good cause, and under the auspices of a vigilant admi¬
nistration, a brave people would not despair. But it was
not so in the present case. Amidst all their sufferings
and their misfortunes, they saw nothing so distressing as
the weakness or wickedness of their ministers. They seem¬
ed still determined to go on, without plan and without
foresight, in this war of calamities; for every thing that
happened in it was a calamity. He considered them all
alike, victories and defeats ; towns taken and towns eva¬
cuated ; new generals appointed, and old generals recall¬
ed ; they were all alike calamities in his eyes, for they
all spurred us on to this fatal business. Victories gave us
hopes, defeats made us desperate, and both instigated us
to go on. In the course of the debate, it was contended
on the part of administration, and particularly by Lord
North, that by the address, as originally proposed, the
house did not pledge themselves to any continuance of
the American war; but this was strongly denied by the
gentlemen in opposition. However, the point was at last
decided in favour of ministry by a large majority ; and the
address was then carried as originally proposed. In the
House of Peers, a motion for an address similar to that of
the House of Commons was made by Lord Southampton,
and seconded by Lord Walsingham ; but it was vigorously
opposed by the Earl of Shelburne and the Duke of Rich¬
mond, whilst Lord Stormont and the lord chancellor de¬
fended the course adopted by ministers; and the address
was ultimately carried by a majority of more than two to
one. A short protest against the address was, however,
entered by the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Rock¬
ingham, and Earl Fitzwilliam ; in which they declared
that they dissented, for reasons too often urged in vain
for the last seven years, against the ruinous prosecution
of the unjust war carrying on by his majesty’s ministers
against the people of North America, and too fatally con¬
firmed by repeated experience, and the disgraceful loss of
a second army, to stand in need of repetition.
Though ministers thus succeeded in carrying the ad¬
dresses in the usual form, they did not meet with equal
success in their main design of carrying on the war. After
the debate on tbe number of seamen, which was fixed at
one hundred thousand for the ensuing year, Sir James
Lowther moved as a resolution of the house, that the war
carried on with America had been ineffectual for the pur¬
poses for which it was undertaken; and that all further
VOL. v.
497
attempts to reduce that continent by force i. f arms would Reign of
be in vain, and must be injurious to this country, by weak- George III,
ening her power of resisting her ancient and confederated
enemies. This was supported by a number of arguments
interlarded with the most severe reflections on the con¬
duct of ministers. But the motion was opposed by Lord
North, who said that, if agreed to by the house, it would
put an end to the American war in every shape, and even
cripple the hands of government in other respects. It
would point out to the enemies of this country what were
to be the mode and conduct of the war; and thus inform
the enemy in what manner they might best point their
operations against this country during the next campaign.
With respect to the American war in general, his lordship
acknowledged that it had been extremely unfortunate ;
but he affirmed that the misfortunes and calamities which
had attended it, though of a most serious and fatal nature,
were matters rather to be deplored and lamented as the
events of war, in themselves perpetually uncertain, than
to be ascribed to any criminality in ministers. He added,
that though he totally disapproved of the motion, yet he
was willing to declare it to be his opinion, that it would
not be wise nor right to go on with the American war as
we had hitherto done; that is, to send armies to traverse
from south to north the provinces in their interior parts,
as had been done in a late case, and which had failed of
producing the intended and desired effect.
On the other hand, General Burgoyne observed, that
declaring a design of maintaining posts in America, of the
nature of New York, was declaring a design of offensive
war; and that such a maintenance of posts would prove
an improvident and preposterous mode of warfare. With
regard to the American war, the impracticability of it was
a sufficient justification for supporting the present motion.
But he was now convinced that the principle of the Ame¬
rican war was wrong, though he had not been of that opi¬
nion when he formerly engaged in the service in America.
He had been brought to this conviction by observing the
uniform conduct and behaviour of the people of America.
Passion, prejudice, and interest, might operate suddenly
and partially; but when we saw one principle pervading the
whole continent, and the Americans resolutely encounter¬
ing difficulty and death for a course of years, it must be
a strong vanity and presumption in our own minds which
could lead us to imagine that they were not in the right.
It was reason, and the finger of God alone, which implant¬
ed the same sentiment in three millions of people.
After some further debate, Sir James Lowther’s motion
was rejected by a majority of two hundred and twenty to
one hundred and seventy-nine. This, however, was a ma¬
jority in which the ministry had little reason to exult, as
it was sufficiently apparent, from the numbers who voted
against administration, that the uninfluenced sense of the
house was clearly and decisively against any further pro¬
secution of the American war.
Other arguments to the same purpose with those of
General Burgoyne, just mentioned, were used in the debate
on the army estimates. On the 14th of December, the
secretary at war informed the house, that the whole force
of the army, including the militia of this kingdom, requir¬
ed for the service of the year 1782, would amount to one
hundred and eighty-six thousand two hundred and twen¬
ty men, and for this force the parliament had to provide.
The sum required for these troops for pay, clothing, and
other articles, amounted to four millions two hundred and
twenty thousand pounds. This military force exceeded
that of the last year by upwards of four thousand men ; and
the expense was consequently greater by upwards of twen¬
ty-nine thousand pounds. The increase was occasioned by
the greater number of troops already sent, or then going, to
3 R
498
B R I T A I N.
Reijrn of the East Indies. But the expense of those troops was to
George III. be reimbursed by the East India Company. After some
further statements relative to the military force of the king-
i^81, dom, and its expense, had been made by the secretary at
war, Colonel Barre declared, that the estimates of the army
as then laid before the house were scandalous and evasive.
There was a much greater number of non-effective men
than was stated in the estimates; in fact, they amounted
to a fifth part of the army. The house should also recollect,
that the estimates lying on the table did not compose the
whole expense of the army ; for extraordinaries of several
millions were yet to come. Neither were the men under
the several descriptions given by the secretary at war the
whole number of military force employed. Other troops
were employed solely at the discretion of the minister, and
paid irregularly and unconstitutionally, without the consent
or knowledge of the legislature ; particularly the provincial
corps in America, amounting to nine thousand men in ac¬
tual service, the statement of which force, though it had
been called for from year to year, was never brought into
the estimates. Lord George Germaine explained, that
the reason why the provincial corps had not been included
in the estimates was, that some share of the public money
might be spared, by avoiding to vote an establishment for
these troops. They were raised and paid in a manner by
much the most economical for the nation. Sir George
Saville expressed the strongest disapprobation of any fur¬
ther prosecution of the American war, or of raising any
more troops for that purpose. General Conway also dis¬
approved entirely of a continuance of the American war
in any form. He considered an acknowledgment of the
independence of America as a severe misfortune, and a
heavy stroke against Great Britain ; but of the two evils
he would choose the least, and submit to the independence
of America rather than persist a day longer in the prose¬
cution of a ruinous war. Notwithstanding these and other
arguments, however, the question was carried in favour of
ministry by a considerable majority, and the supplies were
voted accordingly.
Besides the grand question of the continuance of the
American war, several other matters of smaller moment
were agitated during this session, particularly the affair
of St Eustatius, already mentioned, and an inquiry into
the state of the navy. But on these, as on the greater
question, the ministry prevailed, though not without a
strength of opposition which they had seldom encountered
before. A motion for censuring Lord Sandwich was lost
only by nineteen; and so general was the desire for a
change of administration, that it excited surprise how the
ministry still retained their places. Nothing could place
in a more striking point of view the detestation in which
they were held, than the extreme repugnance to the ad¬
mission of Lord George Germaine to the dignity of the
peerage. On this occasion the affair of Minden was not
only brought above board ; but, after his actual investiture,
and when he had taken his seat in the house, under the
title of Lord Viscount Sackville, a debate ensued respect¬
ing the dishonour which the peers had sustained by his
admission into their house. The Marquis of Caermar-
then moved, that it was reprehensible in any minister, and
highly derogatory to the honour of the house, to advise
the crown to exercise its indisputable right of creating a
peer, in favour of a person labouring under the heavy
censure of a court-martial; and urged, in support of his
motion, that the House of Peers being a court of honour,
it behoved them most carefully to preserve that honour
uncontaminated, and to endeavour to mark, as forcibly as
possible, the disapprobation which they felt at receiving
into their assembly, as a brother peer, a person stigma¬
tized in the orderly books of every regiment in the ser¬
vice. The Earl of Abingdon could not help conceiving, Reign of
that although there was not a right of election, there must George II
be a right of exclusion vested in the house, when the ad-
mission of any peer happened to be against the sense of 7 *
its members; that he considered the admission of Lord
George Germaine to a peerage as an insufferable indignity
to the house, and as an outrageous insult to the people;
that it was an indignity to that house, inasmuch as it con¬
nected them with one whom every soldier was forbidden
to associate withal; and that it was an insult to the peo¬
ple, as the person now raised to the peerage had done
nothing to merit honours superior to his fellow-citizens.
Lord Sackville defended himself as well as he could
against this attack. He denied that he knew by whose
advice he had been raised to the peerage; he impugned
the justice of the sentence of the court-martial; he re¬
presented himself as the victim of an acrimony and hos¬
tility without example; he adverted to the time which
had elapsed since the sentence of the court-martial was
pronounced, and to the political offices which he had since
been called to fill; and he contended that his elevation
to the dignity of the peerage was virtually a repeal of the
proceedings of the military tribunal in question. The
Duke of Richmond replied with great ability to the vari¬
ous pleas which Lord Sackville had brought forward in
his own justification. In particular, he observed, that
their lordships were not ignorant, that the noble viscount
rested a considerable part of the vindication of his be¬
haviour at the battle of Minden upon the supposed exist¬
ence of a striking variation in the orders delivered from
Prince Ferdinand to the commander of the cavalry. It
was understood that the first order was, that the cavalry
should advance; and the second, that the British cavalry
should advance. Yet even under these supposed contra¬
dictory orders, it was evident that the noble lord ought to
have advanced, and, certainly, the distance being short,
he enjoyed a sufficient space of time for obedience to his
instructions. Lord Southampton, who delivered one of
the messages, was now present in the house ; and it would
seem that he had no choice on this occasion but to acknow¬
ledge, either that he did not properly deliver such orders
to the noble viscount, or that the latter, having properly
received them, neglected to obey them. But whatever
difficulties might have arisen during the endeavours to
determine exactly how much time had actually been lost
in consequence of the non-compliance of Lord Sackville
with the orders which he received, he could with much fa¬
cility have solved what all the witnesses examined as to
this point were not able positively to determine. If, sum¬
moned as he was to appear upon the trial, his deposition
had been called for, he could have proved, because he held
all the while his watch in his hand, and seldom ceased to
look at it, that the time lost by the noble viscount delaying
to advance, under pretence of receiving such contradictory
orders as made it impossible for him to discover whether
he ought to advance with the whole cavalry, or only with
the British cavalry, was one hour and a half. It was there¬
fore extremely evident that the noble lord had had it in his
power to bring up the cavalry from the distance of a mile
and a quarter; the consequence of which would have been
that, by joining in the battle, they might have rendered the
victory more brilliant and decisive. But before the arrival
of this cavalry, the engagement was concluded. Such was
the testimony, said the duke, which, having had the honour
to serve at the battle of Minden under Prince Ferdinand of
Brunswick, he must have borne, if, being summoned, the
members of the court-martial had thought proper to have
examined him on the trial. Under such circumstances,
the noble viscount could have but little reason to complain
of the sentence of the court-martial, of the orders which
BRITAIN.
499
Reign of followed It, or of the loss of his commission. The motion
!3eorgeIIT. was powerfully supported by other arguments, both by
the Duke of Richmond himself and by other peers ; but
1^82, it was nevertheless rejected by a large majority. A pro¬
test was however entered, signed by nine peers, in which
the sentence and the public orders were particularly stated;
and in which they declared, that they looked upon the rais¬
ing to the peerage a person so circumstanced as a measure
fatal to the interests as well as to the glory of the crown,
and to the dignity of the house.
The ruinous tendency of the American war was now
so strikingly apparent, that it became necessary for those
who had a just sense of the dangerous situation of the
country, and wished well to its interests, to exert their
most vigorous efforts to put an end to so fatal a contest.
Accordingly, on the 22d of February, a motion was made
by General Conway, that an humble address should be
presented to his majesty, imploring him to take into his
consideration the many and great calamities which had
attended this unfortunate war, and to listen to the humble
prayer and advice of his faithful Commons, that the war
on the continent of North America might no longer be pur¬
sued for the impracticable purpose of reducing that coun¬
try to obedience by force. The motion was seconded by
Lord John Cavendish, but vigorously opposed by adminis¬
tration, who had still strength sufficient to carry their point,
though only by a single vote, the motion being rejected by
a hundred and ninety-four to a hundred and ninety-three.
The increasing power of the opposition now showed that
the downfal of the ministry was at hand. The decision of
the last question was considered as a victory gained by the
former, and Mr Fox instantly gave notice that the subject
would be resumed in a few days under another form. It
was accordingly revived on the 27th of February, when a
petition from the city of London was presented, solicit¬
ing the house to interpose in such a manner as to prevent
any further prosecution of the American war; after which
General Conway moved, as a resolution, that it was the
opinion of the house that the further prosecution of offen¬
sive war on the continent of North America, for the pur¬
pose of reducing the revolted colonies to obedience by
force, would be the means of weakening the efforts of this
country against her European enemies, and would tend
to increase the mutual enmity so fatal to the interests
both of Great Britain and America. It appears from the
journals, said the general, that from the days of Edward
III. down to the present reign, parliament has at all times
given advice to the crown in matters relating to war and
peace. In the reign of Richard II. it was frequently done,
and also in that of Henry IV. One remarkable instance
of this occurred in the reign of Henry VII. when that
prince consulted his parliament respecting the propriety
of supporting the Duke of Brittany against France, and
also of declaring war against the latter ; and when he told
his parliament that it was for no other purpose than to
hear their advice on these heads that he called them to¬
gether. In the reign of James I. the parliament interfer¬
ed repeatedly with their advice respecting the palatinate,
the match with Spain, and a declaration of war against
that power. In the time of Charles I. there were similar
interferences ; and in the reign of his son Charles II. the
parliament made repeated remonstrances, but particular¬
ly in 1674 and 1675, on the subject of the alliance with
France, which, they urged, ought to be renounced, and
at the same time recommended a strict union with the
United Provinces. To some of these remonstrances, in¬
deed, answers were returned not very satisfactory; and
the parliament were informed that they were exceeding
the line of their duty, and encroaching upon the preroga¬
tive of the crown. But so little did the Commons of those
days relish these answers, that they addressed the king to Reign of
know who it was who had advised his majesty to return GeorgeHI.
such answers to their loyal and constitutional remon- ^
strances. In the reign of King William, repeated instances '
were to be found in the journals, of advice given by par¬
liament relative to the Irish war and the war on the con¬
tinent. The same thing occurred frequently in the reign
of Queen Anne, who, in an address from the parliament,
was advised not to make peace with France until Spain
should be secured to Austria, and also not to consent to
peace until Dunkirk should be demolished. In short, it
was manifest from the whole history of English parlia¬
ments, that it was ever considered as constitutional for
parliament to interfere, whenever it thought proper, in all
matters so important as those of peace and war. Other
arguments were urged in support of the motion, which was
seconded by Lord Althorp ; and petitions from the mayor,
burgesses, and commonalty of the city of Bristol, and from
the merchants, tradesmen, and inhabitants of that city,
against the American war, were also read. But in order
to evade coming to any immediate determination on the
question, a proposition was made by the attorney-general,
that a truce should be entered into with America, and a
bill prepared to enable his majesty’s ministers to treat on
this ground ; and under pretence of allowing time for this
measure, he moved that the present debate be adjourned
for a fortnight. This motion, however, was negatived by
a majority of nineteen; and the original motion of Gene¬
ral Conway was then put and carried without a division.
The general immediately followed up this victory with a
motion for an address to the king, soliciting his majesty
to put a stop to any further prosecution of offensive war
against the colonies; which was agreed to, and presented
to his majesty by the whole house on the 1st of March.
On this occasion his majesty answered, that there were no
objects nearer to his heart than the happiness and prospe¬
rity of his people ; that, in pursuance of the advice of the
Commons, he should take such measures as might appear
conducive to the restoration of harmony between Great
Britain and her revolted colonies; and that his efforts
should be directed in the most effectual manner against
our European enemies, until a peace could be obtained
consistent with the interests and permanent welfare of the
kingdom. The proceedings of the House of Commons
gave general satisfaction ; but the royal answer was not
thought sufficiently explicit. Accordingly, on the 4th of
March, General Conway moved that an humble address
be presented to his majesty, to return his majesty the
thanks of that house for his gracious answer to their last
address; the house being convinced that, in the present
circumstances of this country, nothing could so essentially
promote those great objects of his majesty’s paternal care
for his people as the measures which his faithful Com¬
mons had most humbly but earnestly recommended to
his majesty ; and this motion was unanimously agreed to.
The general then moved a resolution, that, after the solemn
declaration of the opinion of the house, in their humble
address presented to his majesty, and his majesty’s assu¬
rance of his gracious intentions, the house would consider
as enemies to his majesty and the country all who should
endeavour to frustrate his majesty’s paternal care for the
happiness of his people, by advising the further prosecu¬
tion of offensive war on the continent of North America.
After some debate this motion was agreed to without a
division; and, on the 6th, after a number of papers had
been read in the House of Peers relative to the surrender
of Earl Cornwallis and the army under his command, the
Duke of Chandos moved, first, that, in the opinion of
the house, the immediate cause of the capture of the
army under Earl Cornwallis in Virginia, was the want of
al
500
BRITAIN.
1782.
Reign of a sufficient naval force to cover and protect the same;
George III. anc}, secondly, that the not covering and protecting of the
army under Earl Cornwallis in a proper manner was high¬
ly blameable in those who advised and planned the expe¬
dition. But after considerable discussion these motions
were rejected.
In spite of all these efforts, however, the ministry still
kept their ground, and with astonishing resolution com¬
bated the force of opposition, which was daily increasing.
On the 8th of March several resolutions were moved by
Lord John Cavendish ; one of which bore that the chief
cause of the national misfortunes was the want of fore¬
sight and ability in his majesty’s ministers; and another
respected the immense sum expended on the war, which
was alleged to be little less than a hundred millions. But
all inquiry was still frustrated, and these motions were
lost by a majority of ten. Meanwhile, as the unpopularity
of Lord North was further increased by the proposal of
some new taxes, particularly on soap, the carriage of
goods, and places of entertainment, opposition determined
if possible to force him to resign; and on the 15th of
March it was moved by Sir John Rous that the nation
could have no further confidence in the ministers who had
the conduct of public affairs. Lord North endeavoured
to vindicate his own administration. He affirmed that it
could not be declared with truth that the national cala¬
mities originated from the measures of the present admi¬
nistration. The repeal of the American stamp-act, and
the passing of the declaratory law, took place before his
entrance into office. As a private member of parliament
he gave his vote in favour of both, but as a minister he
was not responsible for either. When he accepted office
the times were scarcely less violent than the present. He
approached the helm when others had deserted it; and,
standing there, he had used his utmost efforts to assist his
country. That the American war was just and requisite,
and prosecuted for the purpose of supporting and main¬
taining the rights of the British legislature, was a position
for the truth of which he would ever contend, whilst he
enjoyed the power of arguing at all upon the subject. As
to peace, he not only wished most earnestly for it, but
also for the formation of such a ministry as might at once
prove acceptable to the country, and cordially co-operate
for the welfare and honour of the state. The house at
length divided upon the question, when there appeared a
majority of nine in favour of administration.
But notwithstanding this decision, it was well known
that the ministry could not stand their ground ; and, ac¬
cordingly, four days after, when a motion similar to that
by Sir John Rous was about to be made by the Earl of
Surrey, Lord North informed the house that his majesty
had come to a full determination to change his ministers;
and that, in fact, those persons who had for some time
conducted the public affairs were no longer his majesty’s
ministers. They were not now to be considered as men
holding the reins of government and transacting measures
of state, but merely as performing their official duty till
other ministers were appointed to take their places. In
consequence of the declaration of Lord North, the Earl of
Surrey agreed to waive his intended motion, and, after
some further debate, the house adjourned. And thus an
end was put to an administration which had long been ob¬
noxious to a great part of the nation, and whose removal
contributed very much to allay those ferments by which
every part of the British dominions had been agitated.
Peace now became as much the object of ministry as war
had been formerly. But before we proceed to any ac¬
count of the negociations for that desirable object, it will
be necessary to notice the military events which disposed
the other belligerent powers to an accommodation.
The ill success of Britain in America has already been Reign of
taken notice of. The disaster of Cornwallis had produced George III,
a sincere desire of peace with America; but this could
not be accomplished without making peace with France
also; and that power was still haughty and elated with
success. Minorca had now fallen into the hands of the
Spaniards; and though the capture of a few miserable
invalids, attended with such extreme difficulty as the
Spaniards had experienced, ought rather to have intimi¬
dated them than otherwise, they now projected the most
important conquests. Nothing less than the entire reduc¬
tion of the British West India islands was contemplated
by the allies; and indeed there was too much reason to
suppose that this object was within their reach. In the
beginning of the year 1782 the islands of Nevis and St
Christophers were obliged to surrender to Count de Grasse
the French admiral, and the Marquis de Bouille, who had
already signalized himself by several exploits; and Jamaica
was marked out as the next victim. But the end of all these
aspiring hopes was fast approaching. The advantages hi¬
therto gained by the French in their naval engagements
with the British fleet had proceeded entirely from their
keeping at a great distance during the time of action, and
from their good fortune and dexterity in gaining the wind.
At last the French admiral De Grasse, prompted by his
natural courage, or induced by circumstances, determin¬
ed, after an indecisive action on the 9th of April 1782, to
risk a close engagement with his formidable antagonist,
Admiral Rodney. The action was brought on by the
count shortening sail to prevent the loss of a disabled
ship, by parting with which he might have avoided the
disaster that followed. This memorable engagement took
place off the island of Dominica, three days after the for¬
mer. The British fleet consisted of thirty-seven ships of
the line, and the French of thirty-four. The engagement
commenced at seven o’clock in the morning, and continu¬
ed with unremitting fury till half past six in the evening.
It is said that no other signal was made by the admiral
but the general one for action, and that for close combat.
Sir George Rodney was on board the Formidable, a ship
of ninety guns ; and the Count de Grasse was on board the
Ville de Paris, a ship of a hundred and ten guns, which had
been presented to the French king by the city of Paris.
In the course of the action, the Formidable fired nearly
eighty broadsides; and for three hours the admiral’s ship
was involved in so thick a cloud of smoke that it was al¬
most invisible to the officers and men of the rest of the
fleet. The van division of the British fleet was command¬
ed by Sir Samuel Hood, and the rear division by Rear-ad¬
miral Drake ; and both these officers greatly distinguished
themselves in the course of the action. But the decisive
turn on this memorable day was given by a bold manoeuvre
of the Formidable, which, taking advantage of a favour¬
able shift in the wind, passed through the French line, and
threw them into irretrievable confusion. The first French
ship that struck was the Caesar, of seventy-four guns, the
captain of which fought nobly, and fell in the action. When
she struck she had scarcely a foot of canvass without a shot
hole. Unfortunately, soon after she was taken possession
of, she took fire by accident, and blew up, when about
two hundred Frenchmen perished in her, together with an
English lieutenant and ten English seamen. The Glorieux
and the Hector, both seventy-four gun ships, were also
taken by the British fleet; together with the Ardent of
sixty-four guns ; and a French seventy-four gun ship was
also sunk in the engagement. It was almost dark when the
Ville de Paris, on board of which the Count de Grasse had
fought gallantly, struck her colours. Five thousand five
hundred troops were on board the French fleet, and the
havoc among them was very great, as well as among the
BRITAIN.
501
[Reign of French seamen. The British lost in killed and wounded
ieorge III. about a thousand men. Captain Blair, who commanded
the Anson, and several other officers, were killed in the
1^82’ action; and Lord Robert Manners, who commanded the
Resolution, died of his wounds on his return home. It was
universally allowed that in this engagement the French,
notwithstanding their defeat, behaved with the greatest
valour. De Grasse himself did not surrender till four hun¬
dred of his people were killed, and only the admiral and
two others remained without a wound. The captain of the
Caesar, after his ensign-staff was shot away, and the ship
almost battered to pieces, caused his colours to be nailed
to the mast, and thus continued fighting till he was killed.
The vessel, when taken, was a mere wreck. Other French
officers behaved with equal resolution. The valour of the
British requires no encomium ; it was proved by their suc¬
cess on this glorious day.1
This victory was a very fortunate circumstance both
for the interest and the reputation of the British admiral.
Before this event the new ministry had appointed Admi¬
ral Pigot to supersede him in the command in the West
Indies ; and it was understood that they meant to set on
foot a rigid inquiry into the transactions at St Eustatius.
But the splendour of this victory put an end to all thoughts
of the kind ; he received the thanks of both houses of par¬
liament for his services; and he was created an English
peer, by the title of Baron Rodney of Rodney Stoke, in the
county of Somerset. Sir Samuel Hood was also created
Baron Hood of Catherington, in the kingdom of Ireland ;
and Rear-admiral Drake and Captain Affleck were creat¬
ed baronets of Great Britain. Some attempts were also
made, in the House of Commons, to procure a vote of cen¬
sure against the new ministry for having recalled Lord
Rodney; but the motions for this purpose were rejected
by a large majority.
Though the designs of the French against Jamaica were
now effectually frustrated, the victory was not followed by
those beneficial results which many had expected from it;
and none of the British islands which had been taken by
the French in the West Indies were afterwards recaptur¬
ed. Some of the ships which had been taken by Admiral
Rodney were also lost at sea, particularly the Ville de
Paris, Glorieux, and Hector; and a British man of war,
the Centaur, of seventy-four guns, foundered at sea on
the 24th of September 1782. The Jamaica homeward-
bound fleet was also dispersed by a hurricane off the banks
of Newfoundland, when the Ramillies of seventy-four guns
and several merchantmen foundered. About this time
the British navy sustained a very considerable loss at
home, by the Royal George, of a hundred guns, being
upset and sunk at Portsmouth. This melancholy acci¬
dent, which happened on the 29th of August, was occa¬
sioned by a partial heel given to the ship, in order to
cleanse and sweeten her. The guns on one side being
removed to the other, or at least the greater part of them,
and her lower deck ports not being lashed in, the ship
thwarted on the tide with a squall from the north-west,
filled with water, and sunk in the space of about three
minutes. Admiral Kempenfelt, a number of other of¬
ficers, and upwards of four hundred seamen and two hun¬
dred women, besides children, perished on this occasion. Reign of
The prosecution of the war was thus attended with dis- George H •
asters and difficulties to all parties. The signal defeat
above mentioned not only secured the island of Jamaica
against the attempts of the French, but prevented them
from entertaining any other project than that of distress¬
ing commerce.
In the beginning of May an expedition was undertaken
to the remote and inhospitable regions of Hudson’s Bay;
and though no force existed there capable of making any
resistance, a seventy-four gun ship and two thirty-six gun
frigates were employed in the service. All the people
in that part of the world either fled or surrendered at the
first summons. The loss of the Hudson’s Bay Company,
on this occasion, amounted to L.500,000; but the humani¬
ty of the French commander was conspicuous, in leaving
a sufficient quantity of provisions and stores of all kinds
for the use of the British who had fled at his approach.
Another expedition was undertaken by the Spaniards to
the Bahama Islands, where an equally easy conquest was
obtained. The island of Providence, defended only by
three hundred and sixty men, could make no resistance
when attacked by five thousand. An honourable capitula¬
tion was granted by the victors, who likewise treated the
garrison with kindness. Some settlements on the Mos¬
quito shore were also taken by the Spaniards; but the
Bay-men, assisted by their negroes, bravely retook some
of them; and having formed a little army of the Indians in
those parts, headed by Colonel Despard, they attacked and
carried the posts on the Black River, making prisoners of
about eight hundred Spanish troops. The greatest disas¬
ter which befel this power, however, was their failure be¬
fore Gibraltar, which happened in the month of Septem¬
ber 1782, and was accompanied with such circumstances
of horror and destruction as evinced the absurdity of per¬
sisting in the enterprise. Thus all parties felt that it was
high time to put an end to the contest. The affair of
Cornwallis had shown that it was impossible for Britain
to conquer America ; the defeat of De Grasse had render¬
ed the reduction of the British possessions in the West In¬
dies impracticable by the French ; the final repulse before
Gibraltar, and its relief afterwards by the British fleet, put
an end to that favourite enterprise, in which almost the
whole strength of Spain had been employed ; and the en¬
gagement of the Dutch with Admiral Parker showed them
that nothing could be gained by a naval war with Britain.
The events which led to the removal of Lord North and
the other ministers who had so long directed public mea¬
sures in this kingdom have been already noticed. On
this occasion it was said that his majesty expressed consi¬
derable agitation of mind at being in a manner compelled
to make an entire change in his councils; for the mem¬
bers in opposition would form no coalition with any of the
old ministry, the lord chancellor only excepted. On the
30th of March 1782, the Marquis of Rockingham was ap¬
pointed first lord of the treasury; Lord John Cavendish
chancellor of the exchequer; the Earl of Shelburne and
Mr Fox principal secretaries of state ; Lord Camden pre¬
sident of the council; the Duke of Richmond master of
the ordnance ; the Duke of Grafton lord privy seal; Ad-
1 The Count de Grasse, after his defeat, was received on board the Barfleur man of war, and afterwards landed on the island of
Jamaica, where he was treated with great respect. After continuing there some time, he was conveyed to England, and accommodated
With a suite of apartments at the royal hotel in Pall-mall. His sword, which he had delivered up, according to the usual custom, to
Admiral Rodney, was returned to him by the king. This etiquette enabled him to appear at court, where he was received by their
majesties and the royal family in a manner suitable to his rank. From the time of his arrival in London to his departure, which was
on the 12th of August 1782, he was visited by many persons of the first fashion and distinction, and was much employed in paying
visits to the great officers of state and some of the principal nobility of the kingdom, by whom he was entertained in a very sumptu¬
ous and hospitable style. He received, indeed, every mark of civility which the British nation could bestow ; and was treated with
much respect even by the common people, from the opinion that was generally entertained of his valour and merit.
502 B R I T A I N.
Reign of miral Keppel first lord of the admiralty ; General Conway
George III. commander in chief of all the forces in Great Britain ; Mr
Thomas Townshend secretary at war ; Mr Burke paymas-
1782, ter of the forces ; and Colonel Barre treasurer of the navy.
Other offices and honours were likewise conferred on dif¬
ferent members of the opposition; and some were raised
to the peerage, particularly Admiral Keppel, Sir Fletcher
Norton, and Mr Dunning.
The first business in which the new ministry engaged
was taking the necessary measures for effecting a general
peace. No time, in fact, was lost in the pursuit of this great
object; and the empress of Russia, having offered her me¬
diation, in order to restore peace between Great Britain
and Holland, Mr Secretary Fox, within two days after his
entrance in office, wrote a letter to Simolin, the Russian
minister in London, informing him that his majesty was
ready to enter into negociations for peace, on the basis of
the treaty of 1674; and that, in order to facilitate such
negociations, he was willing to give immediate orders for
a suspension of hostilities, if the States-general were dis¬
posed to agree to that measure. But the states of Holland
did not appear inclined to enter into a separate peace; nor
perhaps would it have been agreeable to the principles of
sound policy if they had consented to any propositions of
this kind. But immediately after the change of ministry,
negociations for a general peace were commenced at Paris ;
and Mr Grenville was invested with full powers to treat
with all the parties at war, and to propose the independence
of the thirteen United Provinces of North America in the
first instance, instead of making it a condition of a gene¬
ral treaty. Admiral Digby and General Carleton were also
directed to acquaint the American congress with the paci¬
fic views of the British court, and with the offer made to
acknowledge the independence of the United States.
But before this work of pacification had made any con¬
siderable progress, the new ministry sustained an irrepar¬
able loss by the death of the Marquis of Rockingham in July
1782. Even before this event, considerable apprehensions
were entertained of their want of union ; but the death of
the nobleman just mentioned occasioned an absolute dis¬
solution. The Earl of Shelburne, who succeeded him as
first lord of the treasury, proved so disagreeable to some
of his colleagues, that Mr Fox, Lord John Cavendish, Mr
Burke, Mr Frederick Montague, and two or three others,
instantly resigned. Others, however, though little attached
to the earl, continued in their places; and his lordship
found means to attach to his interest Mr William Pitt,
son to the late Earl of Chatham. Though then in an early
stage of life, that gentleman had already distinguished him¬
self greatly in parliament, and was now prevailed upon to
accept the office of chancellor. The seceding members of
the cabinet were at pains to explain to the house their mo¬
tives for taking this step, which were in general a suspicion
that matters would be managed differently from the plan
which they had proposed while in office, and particularly
that American independence would not be acknowledged.
But this was positively denied at the time, and with truth,
as appeared by the event. There appeared, indeed, a du¬
plicity in the conduct of the Earl of Shelburne not easily
to be accounted for. Even after it had been intimated by
General Carleton and Admiral Digby that the indepen¬
dence of the United Provinces would be conceded by his
majesty in the first instance, instead of piaking it a con¬
dition of a provisional treaty, his lordship said, that “ he
had formerly been, and still was, of opinion^that whenever
the independence of America was acknowledged by the
British parliament, the sun of England’s glory was set for
ever. Jhis had been the opinion of Lord Chatham and
other able statesmen; nevertheless, as the majority of the
cabinet were of a contrary way of thinking, he acquiesced
in the measure, though his ideas were different. He did not Reign*
wish to see England’s sun set for ever, but looked for a spark George I[.
to be left which might light us up a new day. He wish- ''■^V'4'
ed to God that he had been deputed to congress, that he
might plead the cause of America as well as Britain. He
was convinced that the liberties of the former were gone
as soon as the independence of the states was allowed;
and he concluded his speech with observing, that he was
not afraid of his expressions being repeated in America,
there being great numbers there who were of the same
opinion with him, and perceived ruin and independence
linked together.”
If his lordship really expected that by a flourish of rhe¬
toric he could persuade the Americans to abandon a sys¬
tem for which they had fought so desperately, he greatly
overrated his own powers, and mistook the men with whom
he had to deal. No obstruction, however, arose to the gene¬
ral pacification. As early as the 30th of November 1782,
the articles of a provisional treaty were settled between
Britain and America. By these it was stipulated, that
the people of the United States should continue to enjoy,
without molestation, the right to take fish of every kind
on the grand bank, and on all the other banks of New¬
foundland; and that they should continue to exercise the
same privilege in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and at every
other place in the sea where the inhabitants used here¬
tofore to fish. They were likewise to have the liberty to
take fish of every kind on such parts of the coast of New¬
foundland as British seamen resort to, but not to cure
or dry them on that island. They were to enjoy the pri¬
vilege of fishing on the coasts, bays, and creeks of the
other dominions of his Britannic majesty in America; and
the American fishermen were permitted to cure and dry
fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of
Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador. But it
was agreed that, after such places should be settled, this
right could not be legally put in practice without the con¬
sent of the inhabitants and proprietors of the ground. It
was arranged that creditors upon either side should meet
with no impediment in the prosecution of their claims;
that the congress should earnestly recommend it to the
legislatures of the respective states, to provide for the res¬
titution of all estates and properties which had been con¬
fiscated belonging to real British subjects, and of the es¬
tates and properties of persons resident in districts in the
possession of his majesty’s arms, and who had not borne
arms against the United States; that persons of any other
description should have free liberty to go to any part what¬
soever of any of the thirteen United States, and remain in
it for twelve months unmolested in their endeavours to
recover such of their estates, rights, and properties, as
might not have been confiscated; that the congress should
earnestly recommend to the several states a revision of all
acts or laws regarding the premises, so as to render them
perfectly consistent, not only with justice and equity, but
with that spirit of conciliation which, on the return of the
blessing of peace, should universally prevail; that no fu¬
ture confiscations should be made, nor prosecutions com¬
menced against any person, or body of men, on account of
the part which he or they had taken in the war; that those
who might be in confinement on account of such a charge
at the time of the ratification of the treaty in America
should be immediately set at liberty; that all hostilities
by sea and land should immediately cease ; that prisoners
on both sides should be set at liberty; that his Britannic
majesty should expeditiously, and without committing de¬
struction of any sort, withdraw all his armies, garrisons,
and fleets, from every port, place, and harbour, of the
United States; that the navigation of the river Mississippi,
from its source to the ocean, should remain for ever free
BRITAIN. 503
, hi Reign of and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens who had settled in the island of Minorca and in the two Reign of
iJj.eorge III. of the United States; and, finally, that if any place or Floridas, to sell their estates, recover their debts, a.n(l
territory belonging to Great Britain or to the United States transport their persons and effects, without being restrain- ^
■ 1^2‘ should be conquered by the arms of either before the ar- ed upon account of their religion, or on any other pretence
rival of the provisional articles in America, it should be whatsoever, except that of debts and prosecutions for
restored without compensation or difficulty. crimes. The liberty of cutting logwood, in a district of
In the treaty between Great Britain and France it was which the boundaries were to be ascertained, without mo-
agreed that Newfoundland should remain with England, lestation or disturbance of any kind whatsoever, was grant-
as before the war; and, to prevent disputes about boun- ed to Great Britain. The king of Spain was to restore
daries, it was arranged that the French fishery should com- the islands of Providence and the Bahamas, in the condi-
mence at Cape St John on the eastern side, and, sweep- tion in which they were when conquered by his arms,
ing round by the north, should have for its boundary Cape And all other conquests of territories and countries upon
Ray on the western side. The islands of St Pierre and either side, not included in the present articles, were also
Miquelon, which had been taken in September 1778, were to be mutually restored without difficulty or compensation,
ceded in full right to France. Great Britain was to re- But no sooner were these articles ratified and laid before
store to France the island of St Lucia, and to cede and parliament, than they excited the most vehement decla-
guarantee to her that of Tobago; and France was to sur- mations against ministry. Never had the administration
render to Great Britain the islands of Grenada and the of Lord North himself been arraigned with more asperity
Grenadines, St Vincent, Dominica, St Christophers, Nevis, of language. The ministry defended themselves with re-
and Montserrat. The river Senegal and its dependen- solution, but found it impossible to avoid the censure of
cies were to be given to France ; and the island of Goree parliament. An address without any amendment was in-
was also to be restored. Fort James and the river Gam- deed carried in the House of Lords by a considerable ma-
bia were guaranteed to his Britannic majesty; and the jority; but it was lost in the lower house. On the 21st
o-um trade was to remain in the same condition as before of February some resolutions were moved in the House of
the commencement of hostilities. The king of Great Bri- Commons by Lord George Cavendish, of which the most
tain was to restore to his most Christian majesty all the remarkable were, that the concessions made by Britain
establishments which belonged to him at the breaking were greater than its adversaries had a right to expect;
out of the war on the coast of Orixa and in Bengal; and and that the house would take the case of the American
became bound to secure to the subjects of France in that loyalists into consideration. The last motion indeed his
part of India, and on the coasts of Orixa, Coromandel, and lordship consented to waive, but the rest were carried
Malabar, a safe, free, and independent trade, either as in- against ministry.
dividuals, or under the direction of a company. Pondi- These proceedings, however, made no alteration with re¬
cherry, as well as Karical, was to be restored to France ; gard to the treaty, which had already been ratified by all the
the two districts of Valanour and Bahour, round Pondi- contending powers, the Dutch only excepted. The terms
cherry, and the four contiguous Magans round Karical, offered the latter were a renewal of the treaty of 1674;
were also to be given up; and the French were again to which, though highly advantageous, they at that time po-
enter into the possession of Mahe, and of the comptoir at sitively declined. They afterwards, however, made an offer
Surat. The allies of France and Great Britain were to be to accept the terms which they had formerly rejected; but
invited to accede to the present pacification ; and in the the compliment was then returned by a refusal on the part
event of their disinclination, no assistance on either side of Britain. When the preliminary articles had been settled
was to be given to them. Great Britain renounced all with the courts of France and Spain, a suspension of arms
claims to Dunkirk. Commissioners were to be respec- with Holland ensued; but though the definitive arrange-
tively appointed by both nations to inquire into the state ments with the other powers were finally concluded by the
of commerce, and to concert new arrangements of trade month of September, it was not till then that the prelimi-
on the footing of mutual convenience. And all conquests nary articles were settled with Holland. The terms were
on either side, in any part of the world whatsoever, not a general restitution of all places taken on both sides du-
mentioned nor alluded to in the treaty, were to be restored ring the war, excepting only the settlement of Negapat-
without difficulty, and without requiring compensation, nam in the East Indies, which was to remain in the hands
The prisoners on each side were also to be released with- of Britain, unless an equivalent should be given on the
out ransom, upon the ratification of the treaty, and on pay- part of Holland. The navigation of the eastern seas was
ing the debts which they might have contracted during to remain free and unmolested to all British shipping. The
their captivity ; and each crown was respectively to reim- remaining articles concerned only the exchange of prison-
burse the sums which had been advanced for the mainte- ers, and such other matters as are common to all treaties,
nance of their prisoners, by the country where they had Thus an end was put to the most dangerous war in which
been detained, according to attested and authentic vouch- Britain had ever engaged, and out of which, notwithstand-
ers. These preliminary articles of peace were concluded ing the powerful combination against her, she came supe-
at Versailles on the 20th of January 1783, between Mr rior to all her enemies. The politicians who had imagined
Alleyne Fitzherbert, minister plenipotentiary on the part that the prosperity of Britain depended in a great measure
of his Britannic majesty, and Charles Gravier, Comte de on her colonies were singularly mistaken. This was shown
Vergennes, the minister plenipotentiary on the part of the at the time, and has been completely confirmed by subse-
king of France. quent experience. For a number of years she had not only
At the same time preliminary articles of peace between been deprived of these colonies, but opposed by them with
Great Britain and Spain were also concluded at Versailles all their force ; yet though attacked at the same time by
between Mr Fitzherbert and the Conde d’Aranda, the three of the greatest powers in Europe, and looked upon
minister plenipotentiary of the Spanish monarch. His with an invidious eye by all the rest, the damage done to
Catholic majesty was to continue in possession of the her enemies still greatly exceeded that which she had
island of Minorca, and to retain West Florida; whilst East received. Their trade by sea was almost ruined; and on
Florida was to be ceded to him by the king of Great Bri- comparing the loss of ships on both sides, the balance in
tain. Eighteen months from the ratification of the defini- favour of Britain was twenty-eight ships of the line and
tive treaty were to be allowed to the subjects of Britain thirty-seven frigates, carrying in all near two thousand
504
BRITAIN.
Reign of guns. Notwithstanding this, however, the state of the
George III. nation appears to have been really such that a much longer
continuance of the war would have been impracticable.
1782. Having thus given as full an account as our limits admit
of the great national events till the conclusion of the peace
in 1783, we shall now advert to some others, which, though
of sufficient importance to deserve notice, could not be
previously introduced without interrupting the narrative.
On the 8th of December 1776 a fire broke out in the rope-
house of the dock-yard at Portsmouth, which totally con¬
sumed it, but without doing any very material damage.
For some time the affair passed as an accident; but in clear¬
ing away the rubbish a tin-box was found with a wooden
bottom, containing matches which had been lighted, and
underneath was a vessel filled with spirits of wine. The
fire, however, not having been properly supplied with air,
had gone out of itself before it touched the spirits of wine;
for if it had caught fire, all the stores in the storehouse,
sufficient to fit out fifty sail of the line, would have been
destroyed. In the beginning of the year 1777 a fire hap¬
pened at Bristol, which consumed six or seven warehouses;
and by the discovery of machines similar to those already
mentioned, it was evident that the fire had not been acci¬
dental. The terror of the public was now greatly increas¬
ed, and violent mutual accusations were thrown out by the
ministerial and popular parties. On this point, however,
they soon came to a right understanding, by the discovery
of the author of all this mischief.
This was one James Aitken, otherwise called John the
Painter, a native of Edinburgh. Having from his early
years been accustomed to a vagrant life, to which indeed
his profession naturally led him, he had gone through a
variety of adventures. He had enlisted as a soldier, de¬
serted, and, when pinched by want, made no scruple of
betaking himself to the highway, or of committing thefts.
Having traversed a great part of America, he had there
imbibed to such a degree the prejudices against Britain,
that he at last took the extraordinary resolution of singly
overturning the whole power of the nation; an achievement
which he was to accomplish by setting fire to the dockyards
at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and afterwards to the prin¬
cipal trading towns of the kingdom. With this view he
carefully inspected the docks and other places on which
his attempts were to be made, in order to ascertain in what
manner they were guarded, which he found in general as
negligent as he could desire : and had there not been some
deficiency in the construction of his machines, he must
have done incredible mischief; for as his attempts were al¬
ways detected by the discovery of his machines, it is evi¬
dent that he had met with abundance of opportunities. For
some time the affair at Portsmouth, as has already been
mentioned, passed for an accident. It was soon recollect¬
ed, however, that a person had been seen loitering about
the rope-house, and had even been locked up a night in it;
that he had worked as a painter, and taken frequent op¬
portunities of getting into that house, and other buildings
in the yard. These circumstances exciting a suspicion
that he was the incendiary, he was traced to different
places, and at last found in a prison, to which he had been
committed on a charge of burglary. On his examination,
however, he behaved with an assurance and apparent con¬
sciousness of innocence which almost disconcerted those
who were appointed to examine him ; but at last he was
deceived into a confession by another painter, a native of
America, who pretended to compassionate his case. Evi¬
dence was thus procured against him, but he still main¬
tained his character to the last, rejecting and invalidating
the testimony of his perfidious friend, on account of his
baseness and treachery. He received his sentence with
great fortitude, but at length confessed his guilt, and lef*
some directions for preventing the dock-yards and ma- Reign ofl
gazines from being exposed to similar danger in future. George Hi
Thus it appeared that the whole of the alarm of treason
and American incendiaries was occasioned by the politi-
cal enthusiasm of a wretched vagabond, who chose to stake
his life on the wild venture we have described.
Still, however, it appeared that the French court were
very well acquainted with many particulars relating to the
state of this kindgom, and the movements of our squadrons,
which ought by all means to have been kept secret. These
treacherous communications were first detected in the
month of June 1780. One Ratcliffe, master of a cutter, dis¬
closed that he had been hired by a fellow called Roger to
carry packets to France, for which he was to be paid L.20
each time, and to have L.100 besides at a certain period;
but apprehending that he might incur some danger by con¬
tinuing this employment, he gave information of what was
going on to one Mr Steward, a merchant at Sandwich, by
whom his last packet was carried to the secretary of state.
After being opened and sealed up again, it was returned,
and he was directed to carry it to France as formerly. Se¬
veral succeeding packets were treated in the same fashion,
though it was some time before Ratcliffe saw the principal
party concerned ; but this was at last accomplished by his
complaining to Roger that he had not been paid the L.100
according to promise. A meeting having been procured, it
was found that the person who furnished intelligence to the
enemy was one M. Henri de la Motte, a French gentle¬
man then residing in London. On searching his house,
no papers of any consequence were found ; but being ab¬
sent when the messengers first arrived, he, on his return,
threw some put of his pockets, unperceived, as he thought,
by any body. The papers, however, were taken up by
the messengers, and gave plain indications not only of a
treasonable correspondence with the enemy, but also of his
being connected with one Henry Lutterloch, a German,
who then resided at Wickham near Portsmouth. This
person being also apprehended, not only made a full dis¬
closure of the treasonable correspondence with France,
but gave abundant proofs of being himself one of the most
depraved of mankind, and lost to every feeling except¬
ing the desire of accumulating wealth. His evidence,
however, and other strong circumstances, were sufficient
to convict M. de la Motte, who was accordingly execut¬
ed, though the king remitted the more dreadful part of his
sentence. During his trial, and on every other occasion,
he behaved in such a manner as showed him to be an ac¬
complished gentleman, and not only excited the compas¬
sion, but the admiration, of every one who saw him.
During the whole course of the "war, only one other per¬
son was detected in any act of treason ; and he appears to
have been actuated merely by mercenary motives. This
was a man called David Tyrie, a native of Edinburgh.
Flaving been bred in the mercantile line, and engaged in a
number of speculations with a view to gain money, in all
of which he had discovered considerable abilities, he at last
engaged in the more dangerous one of conveying intelli¬
gence to the French, of the ships of war fitted out in Bri¬
tain, the time of their sailing, and other particulars. For
this he was apprehended in the month of February 1782.
The discovery was made by means of one Mrs Askew, who
passed for Tyrie’s wife. This person having delivered a
bundle of papers in a hurry to a school-mistress, desired
her not to show them to any one; the latter, however, not
only inspected them herself, but showed them to another,
by whom they were sent to the secretary at war. By this,
and another packet discovered by^ William James, who
had been employed to carry it to France, Tyiie was con¬
victed of treasonable correspondence with the enemy, and
executed in the month of August 1/82.
BRITAIN.
505
the Ministry The Prince’s Correspondence—Regency Bill Reign of
passed Recovery of the King—Conduct of the Irish Parha- George III.
nient respecting the Regency—The Slave Trade—Mr V\il-
berforce’s Propositions—^Jesuitical Support of Mr Pitt.—-Mr 1783.
Addington chosen Speaker of the House of Commons—New
Taxes Extension of the Excise Laws—Proposed Repeal ot
Religious Tests and Penal Statutes—Indian Affairs—Trial of
Mr Hastings Affair of Nundcomar.
Reign of On the whole, it appears that notwithstanding the ex-
ieorge III. cessive virulence of parties, which even proceeded so far
as to produce duels between some members of parliament,
1783. neither entertained any designs against what was believed
to be the true interest of the nation. The one seems to
have regarded its honour too much, and to have been in¬
clined to sacrifice even its existence to that favourite no-
tion ; the other perhaps regarded the national honour too remarked, that in the debates in the
little; nor indeed could an advantageous idea have been of Commons upon the treaties concluded under
formed of the spmt of the nation winch should have sub- She|bume.s admiLtnition, by which the American
nutted to the dismemberment of its empire without a Strug- t0 a close> the 4ms of those treaties
gle. The event, however, has shown, that the loss of the di * d of by the majority of the house; and this
colonies, so far irom being a disadvantage, has beenthevery di was e/pressed Jby cj,rryi„g an amendment
reverse. The commerce of Britain, mstea o S t tbe ministerial motion for an address of thanks to his
pendent on America, has arrived at a much greater he,ght d ^ how that the nat!on at
than ever; whilst the consequent increase ot wealth has J Jisapproyed „f the conditions of the peace. All
enabled the nation to support that enormous debt part of ^ of had ,ong been w(.ary of the war „ith the
which was contracted, first in defending, a . co]on;eS; and desirous to relinquish every claim ot sove-
tempting to conquer, the colonies. reignty over them; and this point being decided, other
objects of negociation were of too little importance to ex-
CHAP. XIV. cite any great degree of public interest. The majority
which now voted against administration consisted of men
reign of george in.—intermediate period. brought together by views little connected with tbe ac-
Nature of the opposition to Lord Shelburne’s administration— complisbment of any patriotic object, and in a manner
States of Parties Coalition between Lord North and Mr Fox. which well merits the attention ot the historian
—Coalition Ministry Taxes—Mr Pitt’s Motion for Reform
in Parliament Irish Independence Bill.—Mr Dundas’s India
Bill Mr Pitt’s Office-Reform Bill—Petition of the American
Loyalists Establishment of the Prince of Wales—New In¬
ventions Opinion of the Public respecting the Coalition—
Mr Fox’s India Bills—Report of the Secret Committee—
Sir T. Rumbold and Mr Hastings accused by Mr Dundas—
The death of the Marquis of Rockingham left in a very
disjointed state the party which had opposed the American
war. Lord Shelburne’s administration appears to have
been formed under the influence of the crown alone, to
the exclusion of Lord North and his friends, as well as
of Mr Fox and the other principal members of the former
Report of the Select Committee—Debates on Mr Fox’s Bills. 0ppOSition. Thus an attempt appears to have been made
—First Bill carried in the Commons-—Jlis Majesty’s disappro- ^ govern the kingdom without supporting thi
inuiio.—^ crovern
bation intimated Rejected in the Lords—Change of Minis- y
supporting the royal pre-
try, and of Mr Pitt to ">g«i.e by the strength of any political party. An event
Crown and the House of Commons—Resolutions of the House however, occuired ot a natm e undoubtedly not a little
against the new Ministry Mr Pitt’s Bill for regulating India dangerous to the constitution ; but being new in itseh, it
rejected Further Disputes.—The Public take part with the seems not to have been foreseen by speculative writers
Administration—New Coalition proposed—Air Pitt refuses to Up0n jlie British government.
resign, and the King also refuses to dismiss the Mmister.—Dis- q'he American war had been conducted with a profusion
solution of* Parliament.—Infections.— Xotal Defeat ot tiie C/Oali- u i]*x* 4.*.
tion!—-Consequences New Parliament—Mr Pitt’s new India of expense totally unexampled m former contests. Ihe
BUI Debates on this Measure Finance Restoration of the service of government became of itself an immense opiect
Forfeited Estates Westminster Election.—Nabob of Arcot’s 0f trade, an employment in which thousands of all kinds
Debts. Nature of these Exposition of Mr Burke—Mr Pitt s
Plan of Parliamentary Reform—Rejected in limine—Finances.
,—Duke of Richmond’s Fortifications.—Regulation of Public
Offices Irish Propositions.—Foreign Affairs—League to pro¬
tect the Germanic Constitution—Commercial Treaties—Bri¬
tain and Hanover.—Debate on the Duke ot Richmond’s Plans.
—Militia Laws Mr Pitt’s Sinking Fund—Discussion there¬
on .Fallacy of the Scheme—Wine Duties—Best size and
form of Ships of War—General State of the Empire—India.—
Air Burke’s Proceedings against Air Hastings—Mr Pitt’s In¬
dia Bill amended by Air Dundas’s act—Attempt against the
King’s Life by Alargaret Nicholson—Commercial Treaty with
France Debates thereon—Mr Pitt’s Defence of the Treaty.
of artists, manufacturers, and merchants, engaged; and
hence the patronage enjoyed by the minister for the time
was proportionally extensive. The natural consequence
was, that he and his friends, with a long train of their
friends and dependents, were enabled to accumulate great
wealth, and rise to the enjoyment of influence in all parts
of the country. The impracticability of accomplishing
the great object of the war at last led to its termination ;
and the minister who had been unsuccessful in conduct¬
ing it was dismissed, as had usually been done upon such
occasions in Britain, to make way for his antagonists, who
Consolidation of Taxes.—Corporation and Test Acts—Prince ilacj iong recommended, and who c^uld, therefore, with a
of Wales’s Debts—Accusation of Mr Hastings.—Mr Sheridan s better grace adopt, measures of paciflcation. But the dis-
S^epS-Im^lchmen” vS“Rreii«L™ T“,ii °f the minister and hi* fl'ie"ds from their official
Proceeding—Affairs of Holland—State of Parties in the Unit- situations did not at once destroy their political import¬
ed Provinces—Interference of the Neighbouring States—Prus- ance in the state. They constituted a very formidable
sians invade Holland Meeting of Parliament—Conduct of body of men in both houses of parliament; and such was
the Government in regard to Holland approved of by the Op- t^e influence which the possession of power had conferred
upon Lord North, that to the latest period of his life he was
understood to be able to carry along with him, at all times,
upwards of forty votes in the House of Commons; a power
position Naval Promotions, and Debates thereon—Act against
the Exportation of Wool—State of the Revenue—Compensa¬
tion to the American Loyalists—Slave 'Trade—Bill for Regu¬
lating the Transportation of Negroes—Indian Affairs—.Decla¬
ratory Bill.—Trial of Air Hastings—Burke’s Oration of Five
Days Mode of Procedure—Accusation of Sir Elijah Impey.
—State of European Politics—Sweden—Wars between Swe¬
den and Russia Danish Invasion of Sweden—Interposition
of the British Envov, and Recal of the Danish troops—The
King’s Illness Regency Question.—Debates and Proceed-
which was evidently too dangerous to belong to a subject of
a free state, and so indeed it proved by the event to be.
Mr Fox, and the other statesmen who had led the op¬
position to Lord North’s measures during the American
war, but who had retired from administration on the ac-
ings connected therewith.—Manoeuvring and Procrastination of cession of Lord Shelburne to the treasury after the death
VOL. v. 3 s
t
BRITAIN.
506
lleign of of the Marquis of Rockingham, appear to have at last be-
George III. come weary of an unprofitable opposition, and desirous
upon almost any terms of entering into the enjoyment of
1783. power. But their party, though possessing very great ta¬
lents, was too weak in point of numbers to be able to con¬
tend against the minister of the day, supported by the
whole patronage of the crown. On the other hand, though
Lord North and his friends formed in both houses of par¬
liament a very formidable phalanx, still they also were
too few to contend against ministerial influence, and the
party usually called the “ king’s friendswhile from the
natural course of things they might also expect that their
numbers would gradually diminish. They had risen by
attaching themselves to the service of the state ; and the
changes which mortality produces would by degrees en¬
able the existing government to supplant them by a new
race of ambitious men. In this state of matters the two
opposition parties, led by Lord North and Mr Fox, thought
fit to come to an agreement to unite their strength, and
thus, by forming a complete majority in parliament, to im¬
pose themselves upon the sovereign as his ministers. In
this way the majority was produced which opposed Lord
Shelburne’s administration, and it has since been known
under the appellation of the Coalition.
The effect produced upon the public mind by this coali¬
tion was extremely important; and it is probable that even
yet its consequences are not fully understood. In almost
any other country than Britain, and indeed at many for¬
mer periods of our history, such a combination of power¬
ful men, possessing a predominance in the legislature,
could not have failed to prove fatal to the constitution,
and destructive of the internal tranquillity of the state. If
the king gave way to such an aristocratical combination,
and received its leaders into his service, it was to be fear¬
ed that the whole patronage of the crown, together with
the authority of the royal name, and the majority which
they already possessed in the other branches of the legis¬
lature, might enable them to fortify themselves by new
institutions and laws, and render them independent both
of the king and people. No hope appeared from a disso¬
lution of parliament, as the public at large were not at
once aware of the critical situation to which the constitu¬
tion had been brought by the Coalition; and a prince of
a rash character would, in such circumstances, perhaps
have seen no other resource for the protection of his pre¬
rogative, than to attempt to govern without a parliament,
the majority of which were evidently acting, not the part
of dutiful subjects or faithful representatives of the people,
but of individuals conspiring to seize, for their own private
advantage, the emoluments and authority of office. This
judgment will not probably be regarded as too severe,
when it is considered, that at the period in question there
existed no pretext for opposition to the crown founded
upon any complaint of the nation against the abuse of its
prerogatives ; and that the individuals who now coalesced
could not have been induced to do so upon any pretence
of political principle. Lord North, the steady assertor and
supporter of the royal prerogative, and the conductor of
the American war, now joined Mr Fox, the opponent of
that war, and the eloquent champion of the privileges of the
people ; and neither of these men, nor their friends, ever
pretended that they had relinquished their former opinions.
The purpose of the present coalition was therefore noto¬
rious ; whilst the outrageous abuse with which they had
formerly treated each other served only to afford a new
example how completely ambition is capable of subduing
every resentment, and all the ordinary passions of the hu¬
man mind.
The party now called the Coalition had displayed the
auperiority of their numbers in the House of Commons in
the debates upon the treaty of peace in the middle of Reign of
February. From that period it was considered as obvious George III]
that a new administration must be formed; and hence
from that time public business remained at a stand, and 1 ‘
the nation was kept in suspense. The period was critical,
on account of the termination of the war, at which great
bodies of troops and seamen were to be discharged, and
many pecuniary arrears paid off. The different regiments
of militia were also disembodied, and sailors and soldiers
dismissed in a state of turbulence, natural to men accus¬
tomed to arms, and whose pay had not been regularly paid.
These and other circumstances, joined with the unsettled
state of the government, produced various disorderly pro¬
ceedings at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and other places. In
the mean time, a loan could not be negociated by the mi¬
nistry whilst they wanted the countenance of the House
of Commons. During the whole month of March, however,
they still lingered in their places, and a variety of negocia-
tions were carried on by the court for the purpose of at¬
tempting to form a new ministry, without an unconditional
transfer of the government of the kingdom to the Coalition.
Confident of their own strength, however, this political
combination were desirous of attaining power upon their
own terms, and continued to display their superiority in
the House of Commons, with a view to compel their own
reception at court. On the 24th of March, on the mo¬
tion of Mr T. W. Coke, seconded by Lord Surrey, an
address was agreed to, requesting his majesty to take into
consideration the distracted state of the empire after an
exhausting war, and to comply with the wishes of the
house, by forming an administration entitled to the confi¬
dence of his people. His majesty answered, that it was
his earnest desire to do every thing in his power to com¬
ply with the wishes of his faithful Commons. The delay,
however, continued ; and all descriptions of men were in¬
volved in doubt, suspense, and anxiety. On the 31st of
the same month, a new address, moved by Lord Surrey,
was agreed to, urging in very earnest terms the formation
of what was called an efficient and responsible administra¬
tion, formed upon principles of strength and stability, and
suited to the actual state of his majesty’s affairs both at
home and abroad. And at last, on the 2d of April, his ma¬
jesty, yielding to what appeared as necessity, appointed an
administration consisting of the leaders of the Coalition.
The Duke of Portland was promoted to be first lord of
the treasury; Lord North and Mr Fox were appointed
principal secretaries of state; Lord John Cavendish was
made chancellor of the exchequer; Lord Keppel was
placed at the head of the admiralty; Lord Stormont was
created president of the council; and the Earl of Carlisle
was advanced to be keeper of the privy seal. These con¬
stituted the cabinet; and the other offices of government
were filled by the supporters and friends of ministers. The
right honourable Charles Townshend was appointed trea¬
surer of the navy, Mr Burke paymaster general of the
forces, and Lord Viscount Townshend master-general of
the ordnance. The seals were put in commission, at the
head of which was Lord Loughborough. Theright honour¬
able Richard Fitzpatrick was appointed secretary at war ;
James Wallace, Esq. was made attorney-general; John Lee,
Esq. became solicitor-general; the Earl of Northington was
appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland; and, in Scotland, the
honourable Henry Erskine was made lord-advocate, in the
room of Mr Henry Dundas. But the new administration
was no sooner installed, than an opposition was formed,
which, in the House of Lords, was led by the Duke of
Richmond and Lord Thurlow ; and in the House of Com¬
mons by Mr Pitt, and Mr Jenkinson, afterwards created
successively Lord Hawkesbury and Earl of Liverpool.
The Coalition administration, on entering into office,
BRITAIN.
Reign of were under the necessity of instantly negociating a loan
Seorge III. 0f twelve millions, to supply the necessities of the state;
^ and to provide for the interest of this loan various- taxes
were proposed by Lord John Cavendish, the chancellor of
the exchequer. These were imposed on bills of exchange,
receipts, probates of wills and legacies, bonds, and law
proceedings, stage coaches, quack medicines, carriages,
letters-patent, and other articles; whilst registers of births,
marriages, and deaths, were also taxed. These taxes gave
rise to debates which produced little interest. But the
case was otherwise with regard to another subject in which
Mr Pitt took the lead.
Towards the close of the Amei’ican war, when want of
success had begun to render it unpopular, it had been re¬
peatedly urged, both in parliament and in various publica¬
tions, that the ministerial majorities in favour of the mea¬
sures pursued against the colonies would never have exist¬
ed if the people of this country had been fairly represented
in the House of Commons. By degrees this sentiment at¬
tracted attention; and to give countenance to parliamen¬
tary reform came to be regarded as a sure step towards
the attainment of popular favour. Accordingly, Mr Pitt,
then a young man, endeavoured to recommend himself to
notice, by engaging eagerly in the pursuit of this object.
He opened the subject in the House of Commons on the
7th of May, in an eloquent speech, in which, after declar¬
ing his admiration of the general fabric of the British con¬
stitution, and affirming that he wished not to alter but to
restore its true spirit, which time and changes, accident and
events, had enfeebled and diminished, he asserted that the
state of parliamentary representation was partial and in¬
adequate, and the progress of undue influence alarming and
ominous; that the true spirit of liberty had decayed, and
that the powers of control, in different branches of the
government, were greatly debilitated; that wild specula¬
tions of reform were afloat without doors; but that the mea¬
sures he was about to propose were equally moderate and
necessary. He stated his plan of reform to be,—first, that
measures ought to be taken to prevent bribery and expense
at elections; secondly, that for the future, when the ma¬
jority of voters of any borough should be convicted of
notorious corruption, the borough should be disfranchised,
and the minority of voters not so convicted should be en¬
titled to vote for the county in which the borough might
be situated; thirdly, that an addition ought to be made to
the representation, to consist of knights of the shire, and
of representatives of the metropolis. Mr Pitt was opposed
with much earnestness by Lords North and Mulgrave, and
also by Mr Powis. He was supported, however, by Mr
Fox and Mr Beaufoy, and also by Mr Thomas Pitt, who
offered, as a testimony of his sincerity, to make a volun¬
tary sacrifice of his borough of Old Sarum. Mr Henry
Dundas, who now attached himself to Mr Pitt, supported
on this occasion the motion of his friend, and asserted, that
to comply with the wishes of the people would be the hap¬
piest means of putting an end to their complaints. Mr
Pitt’s resolutions, however, were lost by a very large ma-
jority.
During the same session the new administration brought
forward a bill, admitting in express terms the exclusive
rights and absolute supremacy of the parliament and courts
of Ireland in matters of legislation and judicature, and pre¬
venting any writs of error or appeal from the courts of that
country to the courts of Great Britain. The bill passed
with little opposition, and tended to gratify the people of
Ireland, though, by increasing the line of separation be¬
tween the countries, it evidently placed them in greater
hazard of disunion.
During the present session Mr Dundas obtained leave
to bring into parliament a bill for regulating the affairs of
507
India. The chief feature of his plan consisted in sub- Reign of
jecting the presidencies of Madras and Bombay to a con- George IIL
trolling jurisdiction, to be conferred on the government of
Bengal, which he wished to vest in the person a of gover- '
nor, entitled to act when he thought fit, in opposition to
the opinion of his council. Another object of this bill was
to secure to the native proprietors their estates in perpe¬
tuity, on payment of a fixed tribute, and to extend these
provisions to the nabob of Arcot and the rajah of Tan-
jore. Mr Dundas contended that such a measure was
rendered necessary in consequence of the improper con¬
duct and tyranny of the servants of the East India Com¬
pany, and especially of their principal servant Mr Hast¬
ings, whom he proposed to recal, and to send out to In¬
dia Lord Cornwallis, as governor-general, in his stead.
The scheme, however, proved abortive; but it led to other
legislative efforts on the same subject.
Though Mr Pitt had been unsuccessful in his proposal
to reform the representation of the people in parliament,
he immediately brought forward a bill containing a pro¬
ject for an inferior species of reform, respecting the fees,
gratuities, and perquisites in the different departments of
the public offices. The object of this bill being economy,
it passed through the House of Commons, but was reject¬
ed in the House of Lords.
Towards the close of the session, a petition from the
American loyalists was, by his majesty’s command, pre¬
sented to the House of Commons by Lord John Caven¬
dish. It stated that the petitioners, some of whom were
persons of the first character, fortune, and consideration,
having adhered to Great Britain during the contest with
the colonies, had been attainted in North America as
traitors, and their effects confiscated by the legislatures
of the different states. Many of the petitioners were
widows and orphans, who had lost husbands and fathers
by their adherence to the British cause; whilst others
were military and civil officers, clergy and other profes¬
sional men, who had lost their means of subsistence in
the same manner. They prayed the House of Commons
to grant them such relief as might seem adequate to their
situation ; and, on the motion of the chancellor of the ex¬
chequer, an act was accordingly passed, appointing com¬
missioners to inquire into the circumstances of such per¬
sons as were reduced to distress by the late dissensions in
America.
On the 23d of June his majesty, by a message, request¬
ed the aid of parliament in making a separate establish¬
ment for the Prince of Wales. Sixty thousand pounds
only were demanded for this purpose; and it was stated
by Lord John Cavendish, that his majesty intended to al¬
low the prince L.50,000 a year out of the civil list, without
requiring from the public any further assistance than the
above sum of L.60,000, which would be requisite to de¬
fray the extraordinary expense attending a new establish¬
ment. This last sum was the more readily granted, because
rumours had gone abroad, which were alluded to by Mr
Pitt in the House of Commons, that an intention had ex¬
isted on the part of the administration, particularly of Mr
Fox, to give the prince a very splendid establishment at
the public expense, but that this proposal had not proved
acceptable to his majesty. Mr Fox said, that he undoubt¬
edly considered the proposed establishment as much too
low; and that if it had remained with him to have advis¬
ed an establishment, he would most assuredly have pro¬
posed a sum more adequate to the object in view. The
person, however, most proper to decide in the business
had been of an opinion very different, and it was his duty
to submit.
Parliament was soon afterwards prorogued. The nation
was now in a state of perfect tranquillity. Some anxiety,
508
BRITAIN.
Reign of however, existed in the minds of men with regard to the
George III. public welfare. The load of public debt which had been
incurred seemed excessive ; and though commerce began
to flow into new and extensive channels, the returns of
trade necessarily required some time to exhibit themselves
in the form of a flourishing revenue. In the interval, there¬
fore, between the period at which the ministerial expen¬
diture for the support of the war ceased, and that at which
the first profits of foreign trade were received, a consider¬
able shortcoming took place in the public revenue, and in¬
dividuals experienced many difficulties. These, however,
gradually passed away; and two inventions were by de¬
grees brought to perfection, which of themselves secured
a profit to the public, almost equivalent to the burdens
which it had irrcurred in consequence of the American
war. These were the machine for spinning cotton, the in¬
vention of a man, originally of low station, Richard Ark¬
wright; and the very valuable kinds of pottery contrived
by Mr Wedgewood. The first of these, by producing at
a cheap rate the most beautiful cotton fabrics, in a great
measure put an end to the use of silk, and gave to the
British manufacturers a kind of monopoly of many of the
most useful articles of clothing; whilst the other not only
drew to the nation immense sums from foreign countries,
but, from the bulky nature of the commodity, employed an
immense tonnage of shipping in its exportation.
In the mean time people had leisure to reflect upon the
nature of the coalition of political parties which had re¬
cently taken place. The tendency of that measure, and
the possible evils which might result from it, did not at
once present themselves to the minds of men, because it
was not known to the public at large that the sovereign
had felt his own independence affected by the event.
The general sentiment, however, was that of indignation
against the political parties, who had so far forgotten all
the principles which they had long and loudly professed,
as to be capable of uniting with each other for the sake
of power and emolument. It was universally said that no
honesty was to be found among political men, and that no
profession of patriotism ought henceforth to be trusted.
Thus a severe wound was inflicted upon the public morals
of the nation, by the want of consistency which its most
conspicuous characters had exhibited; and the wound was
only the deeper from the apparent strength of administra¬
tion, which included in itself the men of greatest political
influence in the kingdom, who were considered as likely
to retain long the power which they now possessed.
In this state of affairs parliament assembled on the 11th
of November. In the speech from the throne, the neces¬
sity of providing for the security of the revenue, and of at¬
tending to the situation of the East India Company, were
stated to both houses, as apologies for calling them to¬
gether after so short a recess. Some days passed in dis¬
cussions relative to different parts of the revenue, when
Mr Secretary Fox moved for leave to bring in two bills re¬
lative to the affairs of the East India Company. By the
first of these, it was proposed to take from the East India
Company the whole administration of their territorial and
commercial affairs, and to vest it in seven directors, named
in the bill, viz. Earl Fitzwilliam, the Right Honourable Fre¬
derick Montague, Lord Viscount Lewisham, the Honour¬
able George Augustus North, Sir Gilbert Elliot, Sir Henry
Fletcher, and Robert Gregory, Esq. These directors, or
commissioners, were to hold their office during four years,
and not to be removable by his majesty, without an ad¬
dress from either house of parliament; and they were to
be aided by a board composed of nine assistant directors,
who were to be removable by five of the principal direc¬
tors, and were to have full authority over all the com¬
pany’s servants and affairs, civil as well as military. The
second bill, which accompanied the first in all its stages, Reign of
was intended to regulate the administration of affairs in George III
India. It forbade the exchange, acquisition, or invasion
of any territory in India, by the general council, or any 1"8 1
presidency there. It abolished all monopolies in India,
and prohibited the acceptance of presents, making them
recoverable by any person for his sole benefit. It se¬
cured an estate of inheritance to the native landholders,
and provided against the alteration or increase of rents.
It prohibited the molestation of princes subject to the
Company, and restrained the Company’s servants from col¬
lecting or farming their revenues, or having any pecuni¬
ary transactions with them. It prescribed a mode for ad¬
justing the disputes between the nabob of Arcot and the
rajah of Tanjore, and also between them and their Bri¬
tish creditors. It disqualified the agents of the Company,
or of any protected Indian prince, from sitting in the Bri¬
tish House of Commons ; and directed all offences against
the act to be prosecuted in the courts of India or in the
Court of King’s Bench.
The East India Company’s affairs had hitherto been
governed, in terms of the charter of the Company, by a
court of proprietors, and a court of directors elected by
the proprietors. The rights of these courts, however, were
to be absolutely taken away; and their whole powers, or
the sovereignty of British India, was to be vested du¬
ring four years certain in the hands of seven individuals,
nominated by the present administration, through the me¬
dium of their parliamentary majority. It was undoubt¬
edly a bold measure, openly to assault the privileges of
such a body of men as the East India Company; but it
was still more new and singular under the British consti¬
tution, in the form in which it had existed for more than
a century, to vest a large portion of the executive power,
including the command of armies, and an immense pecu¬
niary patronage, in the hands of a few individuals, who
were to hold their places for a fixed period, independent¬
ly of the will of the crown. By taking possession in this
manner of the patronage of Hindustan, the present admi¬
nistration would have found means to render themselves
for a certain time avowedly independent of their sove¬
reign, and they would not have failed to renew their own
powers at the end of that period. It is to be observed,
however, that the administration had in some degree been
led by circumstances which previously occurred, and which
did not originate with them, to adopt some decisive mea¬
sures for reducing India under better management than
that in which it had been placed by the East India Com¬
pany ; and of these it will not be improper here to take a
short review'.
The circumstance of a great and wealthy empire having
been vanquished by a company of merchants, was a thing
so new in the history of the wmi'ld that it could not fail to
be attended with a variety of inconveniences. The Euro¬
pean nations have a near resemblance to each other in
laws, manners, arts, and religion; and the mutual jealousy
which for some centuries they had been accustomed to
entertain of each other had prevented any of them fiom
making great conquests. W hen any power, therefore, hap¬
pened to acquh'e a portion of territory, this addition was
never very great; and the laws of the neighbouiing states
being nearly alike, the conquered province scaicely expe¬
rienced any misfortune from a change of masteis. Hence
the evils attending upon great conquests had ceased to be
known among the nations of Europe ; and the conquerois
and the conquered being in all cases men of similai charac¬
ters and talents, easily mingled with each other. The nobles
of Alsace were as well received at the couit of fiance as
those belonging to the ancient dominions of the French
crown ; and the natives of the Netherlands regaided with
BRITAIN.
Reign of much indifference their transition from the dominion of
George III. Spain to that of Austria and of France. But when the Bri-
tish made conquests in Hindustan, all the evils occurred
1783. which naturally attend the loss of national independence,
and that most wretched of all states of human affairs, in
which a race of strangers enjoys permanent dominion, whilst
the natives of a country are subjected to hopeless depres¬
sion and slavery. The British invaders of India undoubted¬
ly possessed, or speedily acquired, the same rapacity with
other conquerors ; and as they were the servants of a com¬
pany of merchants whose only principle of exertion was
profit, it is probable that under them avarice and extortion
assumed more vexatious forms, because accompanied with
greater assiduity, and a more persevering temper, than
were exhibited by the former conquerors of that country,
who issued from the deserts of Tartary and Arabia. The
people of Great Britain, accustomed at home to the mild¬
est government, and to the most equitable administration
of justice that the world ever experienced, heard with hor¬
ror of the crimes, robberies, perfidies, and massacres which
their countrymen had committed, and by which the na¬
tional name and character had been rendered odious in the
East. The British government, also, being no party to these
crimes, wished to see them repressed, and very naturally
supposed that the best remedy would consist in taking
India under its own immediate management. Some pub¬
lic-spirited individuals, indeed, dreaded the accession of in¬
fluence which the crown would thus necessarily acquire;
but men of humanity were willing to encounter consider¬
able hazard, for the sake of altering the unjustifiable mode
of management which had prevailed in the East.
Early in 1781, two committees were appointed by the
House of Commons, to inquire into the mal-administration
of the East India Company’s affairs both at home and
abroad; and all parties in the house concurred in the ap¬
pointment. The first, or select committee, conducted by
some of the most distinguished members of opposition,
was directed to inquire into tbe state of the administration
of justice in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa,
and consider how the British possessions in the East In¬
dies might be governed with most advantage to this coun¬
try, and with the greatest happiness to the natives. The
second, or secret committee, under the management of
persons in the confidence of administration, was directed
to inquire into the causes of the war in the Carnatic, and
the condition of the British possessions in those parts.
On the 9th of April 1782, Mr Henry Dundas, lord-ad¬
vocate of Scotland, and chairman of the secret commit¬
tee, moved that the reports of that committee be referred
to a committee of the whole house. Upon this occasion,
Mr Dundas, in a long speech, enumerated the causes of
the calamities of the East, particularly the departure of
the Company’s presidencies from the line of policy pre¬
scribed to them, namely, to avoid military operations with
a view to conquest; the corrupt interference of their ser¬
vants in the domestic and national quarrels of the country
powers ; their breaches of faith and disregard of treaties ;
their peculation and scandalous oppression of the natives ;
and the criminal relaxation on the part of the directors in
the exercise of their controlling power over their servants,
and their ready connivance at the grossest misconduct.
Mr Dundas also brought forward a variety of other reso¬
lutions, which were adopted by the house ; and criminated
in strong terms Sir Thomas Rumbold, formerly governor
of Madras, and Mr Hastings, then governor-general of
Bengal. Among various charges, it was stated that Sir
Thomas Rumbold had remitted to Europe, between the
8th of February 1778, the day of his arrival at Madras,
and the beginning of August in the same year, the sum
of L.41,000; and during the two subsequent years a fur-
509
ther sum of L.l 19,000, amounting in all to L.160,000; Reign of
although his salary did not exceed L.13,335 per annum, George HI-
and he had no other fair means of acquiring wealth. He
was charged with having abolished the committees insti¬
tuted to superintend the payment of the revenue due by
the zemindars, or natives holding lands under the Com¬
pany ; with having compelled them to travel many hundred
miles to negociate separately with himself the terms on
which they were to hold their estates; with having suffer¬
ed his private secretary to receive a bribe of no less than
L.20,000; with having concealed other peculations of the
Company’s servants ; with having given a lease of lands to
the nabob of Arcot, in direct disobedience of the Com¬
pany’s orders; and with having violated the most solemn
treaties entered into with the nizam of the Deccan.
Charges so heavy could not be passed over, and leave was
accordingly given to bring in a bill of pains and penalties
against Sir Thomas Rumbold, and two of his associates,
Peter Perry and John Whitehill, for breaches of public
trust and high crimes and misdemeanours; and at the
same time an act was passed i*estraining those persons
from leaving the kingdom, and obliging a discovery of their
property, and preventing its alienation.
In other resolutions brought forward on the 15th of
April, Mr Dundas stated a variety of accusations against
Mr Hastings and Mr Hornsby; and a resolution was adopt¬
ed, declaring it to be the duty of the directors of the East
India Company to recal the governor-general, and Mr
Hornsby the president, from their respective offices. Ac¬
cordingly, the court of directors issued orders for this pur¬
pose ; but these were appealed from to a court of proprie¬
tors, who, on the 31st of October 1782, prohibited the
court of directors from complying with the resolution of
the House of Commons. The result was, that Mr Hast¬
ings retained his office, and Mr Dundas, in the following
session of parliament, brought forward the bill which we
have already mentioned, but which was not passed into
a law.
At the same time that Mr Dundas, as chairman of the
secret committee, brought forward the resolutions already
mentioned, the select committee presented their report;
and on the 18th of April, General Smith, their chairman,
proposed various resolutions, in some of which Mr Hast¬
ings was criminated along with Sir Elijah Impey, chief-
justice of the supreme court of Bengal. By means of
investigations carried on by this committee, the leading
members of opposition, particularly Mr Fox and Mr Burke,
qualified themselves for directing at a future period the
attention of the legislature and of the public to the state
of Indian affairs. Mr Fox made use of his knowledge to
bring forward the two remarkable bills already mention¬
ed ; and to justify so strong a measure, it was alleged that,
by the mismanagement of the courts of directors and pro¬
prietors, the affairs of the Company had been brought into
such a state of extreme embarrassment as rendered it
absolutely necessary to vest the administration in other
hands.
These abuses were arranged under three heads, as they
affected, first, the independent powers of India ; secondly,
the states in alliance with us; and, thirdly, our own ter¬
ritorial possessions. Under the first head were classed
the extravagant projects and expensive wars entered into
by the Company to extend their dominions; their viola¬
tions of treaty; the sale of their assistance in support of
the ambition, rapacity, and cruelty of others; and the
betraying in turn almost every prince, without exception,
with whom they had formed any connection in India.
The second class of abuses comprehended the corrupt and
ruinous interference of the Company in the internal go¬
vernment of the princes dependent on them ; the unjust
510 BRITAIN.
Reign of exaction of exorbitant aids and tribute; the enormous
George III. peculations of the Company’s civil servants ; and the rapa-
city of the military. The third included the management
C83. 0f countries under the immediate dominion of the
Company, with respect to which it was affirmed, that the
general system of their conduct in India was directed to a
single end, the transmission of wealth from that country
to this. With this view, monopolies had been established,
not only of every article of trade, but even of the neces¬
saries of life; the privilege of pre-emption had been se¬
cured to the Company; and a variety of no less ruinous and
arbitrary preferences followed. By this oppressive con¬
duct the merchants and bankers of India, many of whom
in extent of trade and credit were scarcely equalled by
those of the first class in Europe, fell gradually into de¬
cay; whilst the native cultivators and manufacturers were
obliged to accept of a bare sufficiency for their mainte¬
nance, measured out to them by tbe judgment of those
who alone were to profit by their labour. The case of the
zemindars, and of the cultivators under them, was, if pos¬
sible, still more deplorable. At the time we obtained
the dewannee or stewardship from the Mogul, the pro¬
vinces of Bengal and Bahar had been laid waste by a fa¬
mine, which carried off upwards of one third of the popu¬
lation. But the first thing done for their relief was to
exact from the remainder the same tribute which had
before been paid by the whole. Nor was this all. The
Company’s government in India had set up to public auc¬
tion the whole landed interest of Bengal, without the least
regard to the rights of private property, or even giving
a preference to the ancient possessors; and the zemin¬
dars, most of them persons of ancient families and respect¬
able fortunes, were under the necessity of bidding against
every desperate adventurer and schemer, or of seeing
their estates delivered up to the management of strangers.
The sufferings of the natives under our dominion in India
were further aggravated by their being almost wholly ex¬
cluded from any share in the expenditure of the Com¬
pany’s government; all the principal collections of the
revenue, all the honourable, all the lucrative situations in
the army, all the supplies and contracts of every kind,
were in the hands of the English; so that the natives,
with few exceptions, were only employed as the servants
or agents of Europeans, in subordinate stations in the
army, and in the inferior department of collection, where
it was impossible to proceed a step without their assist¬
ance. It was therefore urged, that the present govern¬
ment of India was not in its nature capable of reform.
Nothing could be expected from the court of proprietors,
because the members, as individuals, derived more profit
from supporting Indian delinquents, than they could ever
hope to receive from the fair dividends of the Company;
and the court of directors, being a representative body,
naturally partook of the imperfections of its constituents.
In these views Mr Fox was powerfully supported by
the splendid eloquence of Mr Burke. But Mr Pitt con¬
tended, that although India undoubtedly wanted reform,
the alteration to be adopted ought to be constitutional,
and not such as in its principle endangered the safety of
every chartered incorporation in the kingdom. The com¬
pany’s charter was not the result of the mad prodigality
of a Plantagenet, a Tudor, or a Stuart, but a fair purchase
deliberately made from parliament, which could not be
violated without a gross disregard to public faith. By
vesting the whole patronage of India in commissioners
nominally appointed by parliament, but actually selected
by administration, the influence of the crown would be
augmented to a degree which would enable it, like an ir¬
resistible torrent, utterly to overpower and sweep away
the remaining liberties of the country. On the other hand.
Mr Dundas did not object to the measure under consi- Reign of
deration because it increased the influence of the crown, George III,
but because it did what was much worse, by placing a
new and unexampled influence in the hands of the minis- 1
ter and his party for five years, which would be indepen¬
dent both of the crown and the parliament. The bills
were further attacked, not merely by those persons who
might be supposed to aspire to supplant ministers in their
offices, but also by several country gentlemen of independ¬
ent character and high reputation for integrity; whilst the
ordinary members of opposition impugned the motives of
their author in very pointed terms.
The principal supporters of the bills were the two se¬
cretaries of state, Mr Burke, Mr Sheridan, Mr Erskine, Mr
Lee, Mr Adam, Sir Grey Coupar, Mr Anstruther, Mr
Courteney, Mr Rigby, Lord Maitland, and Sir Henry
Fletcher ; and they were opposed by Mr William Pitt, Mr
Thomas Pitt, Mr Jenkinson, Mr Powis, Mr Dundas, Mr
Macdonald, Sir James Lowther, Mr Buncombe, Mr Mar¬
tin, the Marquis of Graham, Mr Arden, Mr William Gren¬
ville, Mr Beaufoy, Mr Wilberforce, Lord Mulgrave, and
Mr Wilkes. The first bill, however, was carried by a con¬
siderable majority; and on the 9th of December it was
presented to the House of Lords by Mr Fox, attended by
a great number of members. On the first reading, Earl
Temple, Lord Thurlow, and the Duke of Richmond, re¬
probated the measure in the most unqualified terms, but
without calling for a vote of the house; and Lord Thur¬
low, at the same time, pronounced a panegyric upon the
character and services of Mr Hastings.
Meanwhile an alarm seems to have been excited in the
mind of the sovereign. He had reluctantly given way to
the strength of the coalition, and conferred upon its lead¬
ers the first offices of the state; and he now heard it alleg¬
ed, with some plausibility, that this combination of ambi¬
tious men, not satisfied with the ordinary influence attend- ^
ing their situation, were about to fortify themselves in the
possession of power in such a way as gradually to enable
them to become independent both of him and his people.
The moment seemed therefore to have arrived when tem¬
porizing measures could no longer be pursued, and a stand
must be made for the support of the royal prerogative.
Accordingly, on the 11th of December his majesty had a
conference with Earl Temple, in which he confessed him¬
self completely convinced of the correctness of the views
entertained by opposition; and although it was now some¬
what late to oppose a measure which had been brought
forward by tbe ministers of the crown, and carried through
the House of Commons under the apparent sanction of
the royal authority, a resolution was nevertheless adopt¬
ed to endeavour to prevent its further progress by means
of the House of Lords. A card was accordingly circulat¬
ed, understood to be sent by Earl Temple, in consequence
of vrritten authority from his majesty, in which it was
stated, that his majesty allowed Earl Temple to say, that
whoever voted for the India bill was not only not his friend,
but would be considered by him as his enemy; and that
if these words were not strong enough, Earl Temple might
use whatever words he should deem stronger or more to
the purpose. The consequence of this interposition was,
that, on the 15th of December, upon a question of adjourn¬
ment in the House of Lords, the ministers were left in a
minority of eight. On the same day Mr Baker brought
forward a motion in the House of Commons, to declare,
that, to report any opinion of his majesty, upon proceed¬
ings depending in parliament, with a view to influence the
votes of the members, is a high crime and misdemeanour,
and a breach of the fundamental privileges of parliament.
This motion was seconded by Lord Maitland, and support¬
ed by references to the journals, and by the principle, that
BRITAIN.
511
1733.
’eign of advice ought only to be given to the king by his ministers,
urge III. wh0 are responsible for all the measures of government.
Mr Pitt, however, opposed it, as proceeding upon unau¬
thenticated rumours, and asserted that the precedents al¬
luded to in the journals were not applicable to the present
case. But the motion was nevertheless carried by a large
majority; and as it was feared that a dissolution would
instantly take place, the house resolved that they would
consider any person as an enemy to his country who
should advise his majesty to interrupt their discharging
the important duty of providing a remedy for the abuses
which prevailed in the East Indies, and that they would
resolve themselves into a committee on the state of the na¬
tion on the 22d December. But on the 17th Mr Fox’s In¬
dia bill was rejected in the House of Lords; and at twelve
o’clock on the night of the 18th a message was delivered
to the secretaries of state, requiring them to transmit to
his majesty the seals of their offices, by the under secre¬
taires, as a personal interview would be disagreeable to the
king. Early next morning, letters of dismission, signed
by Earl Temple, were sent to the other members of the
cabinet, and a general resignation of offices followed.
A new administration was immediately formed, in which
Mr Pitt was appointed first lord of the treasury and
chancellor of the exchequer ; the Marquis of Caermarthen
and Mr Townshend, who had been created Lord Sidney,
were made secretaries of state; Lord Thurlow became
lord high chancellor; the privy-seal was transferred to
the Duke of Rutland; Earl Gower became president of
the council; the Duke of Richmond was made master of
the ordnance, and Lord Howe first lord of the admiralty;
Mr Grenville and Lord Mulgrave were appointed joint
paymasters of the forces, and Mr Henry Dundas treasu¬
rer of the navy; the office of lord advocate of Scotland,
which this gentleman had formerly held, being transferred
from the Honourable Henry Erskine to Mr Hay Campbell.
A spectacle was nowr about to be exhibited which had
long been unknown in Britain,—that of an administration
appointed by the crown, in direct opposition to the House
of Commons. This, however, was no longer the House of
Commons which had subdued the royal prerogative, and
contended with success against our ablest and most ambi¬
tious monarchs. The late coalition had produced through¬
out the nation a general distrust of the character of those
who formed the majority of its members ; and it was soon
found that a representative body possesses little power or
influence, and may be safely disregarded, when it ceases
to be the organ of the public sentiments. It was expected
that an immediate dissolution of parliament would take
place ; but the change of the highest officers of the crown
having been hastily made, it is probable that the new mi¬
nistry dreaded entering instantly upon the business of an
election against the powerful parties coalesced in opposi¬
tion to them. The majority of the House of Commons also
dreaded a dissolution, and, on Monday the 22d of Decem¬
ber, they voted an address to the king, stating the present
inconveniencies which would attend a prorogation or dis¬
solution of parliament. His majesty returned an answer
on the 24th, acquiescing, in general terms, in the senti¬
ments contained in the address, and assuring the house
that, after a short adjournment, their meeting would not be
interrupted by any prorogation or dissolution.
When the house met on the 12th of January, Mr Fox
attempted to introduce, previous to any other business,
the discussion of certain resolutions which had been pre¬
pared by the opposition ; whilst the new ministers endea¬
voured, by means of a stratagem, to be heard first, Mr
Pitt declaring that he had a message to deliver from the
king. But after some tumult, Mr Fox being allowed to
proceed, called upon Mr Pitt to give the house an assu-
1733.
ranee that no dissolution would take place; and the latter Reign of
having declined to comply with this requisition, Mr Fox George III.
moved that the house should resolve itself into a com¬
mittee on the state of the nation, and the motion was car¬
ried by a large majority. It was then resolved, that to is¬
sue public money after a prorogation or dissolution of par¬
liament, unless an act had previously passed, appropriat¬
ing the supplies to specific services, would be a high crime
and misdemeanour ; that, in the present state of his ma¬
jesty’s dominions, it was necessary to have an administra¬
tion possessing the confidence of the house and the pub¬
lic ; that the recent appointments did not enjoy the con¬
fidence of the house ; and that the second reading of the
mutiny bill should be deferred till the 23d of February.
Warm debates ensued upon these resolutions. The Coa¬
lition was branded as a corrupt confederacy of two despe¬
rate factions to seize upon the government of the country;
and the India bill was represented as an experiment made
by the late secretary of state, with a view to raise himself
to a degree of power superior to that of the sovereign.
On the other hand, the new administration was described
as a coalition, not indeed of parties, but of the shreds and
remnants, of the dregs and outcasts, of parties ; as a body
collected for the purpose of fighting the battles of secret
and unconstitutional influence, of trampling on the power
and dignity of the House of Commons, of establishing a
government of cabal, intrigue, and favouritism, and of de¬
stroying the very principles of laudable ambition and ho¬
nourable service in the state.
On the 14th of January Mr Pitt obtained leave to bring
in a bill for the better government and management of the
affairs of the East India Company. By this bill, commis¬
sioners were appointed by his majesty, authorized to su¬
perintend and control all operations of the courts of di¬
rectors and proprietors of the East India Company, rela¬
tive to the civil and military government or revenues of
the territories and possessions of the Company. This
board of control was to have access to all papers belong¬
ing to the Company; and the court of directors was on
no pretence to send out orders to India, without the pre¬
vious approbation of the board, which was also authorized
to alter and amend the orders of the directors. Flis ma¬
jesty was authorized to name the commanders-in-chief in
India, and to remove any governor, general, or member
of the councils, of any British settlement in India; and
all nominations by the court of directors to these offices
were declared to be subject to the approbation of his ma¬
jesty ; nor w7as the court of proprietors allowed, for the
future, to revoke any proceeding of the court of directors
which had been approved of by his majesty. It was ob¬
jected to this bill, that it disfranchised the East India
Company, or violated their charter, no less than Mr Fox’s
bill had done ; and although a meeting of the court of pro¬
prietors had passed a vote in favour of the regulations con¬
tained in it, yet at the second reading, on the 22d of Ja¬
nuary, it was negatived by a small majority.
The discussion of this bill did not prevent the House of
Commons from endeavouring to shake the determination
of the court, and to intimidate the new administration. A
resolution was moved and carried, declaring in pointed
terms the disapprobation of the house, of the appoint¬
ment and continuance in office of the present ministers,
which they considered as unconstitutional. Mr Pitt was
also called upon to explain upon what principle he ventur¬
ed to remain in office after the House of Commons had
declared him unworthy of their confidence. He answer¬
ed, that though novel and extraordinary, his conduct was
by no means unconstitutional; that the immediate appoint¬
ment or removal of a minister did not rest with the house;
that he neither could or ought to remain long in such a
* I
BRITAIN.
512
Reign of situation ; but that he was bound to use his own discre-
George III. tion to prevent the consequences which might attend an
''w' instant resignation, from the country being left without
an executive government. The public at large now began
to be greatly interested in the dispute which had occur¬
red between the king and the House of Commons. The
common council of London voted an address of thanks to
his majesty for the dismission of his late ministers ; and
this address was followed by similar addresses from the
merchants and trades of the city of London, from the city
of Norwich, and other parts of the kingdom. The Coali¬
tion made some attempts in the county of Middlesex, in
Westminster, and in the county of York, to turn the tide
of addresses in their own favour; but in these instances,
if they avoided a defeat, they gained no victory.
In the meanwhile, a number of independent members
of the House of Commons attempted to heal the present
breach by proposing a new coalition of parties, and the
formation of an administration upon a still broader basis
than formerly. On the 26th of January, about seventy
members of the House of Commons met at the St Albans
tavern, and signed an address, to be presented, by a com¬
mittee of their body, to the Duke of Portland and Mr Pitt,
requesting them to communicate with each other on the
arduous state of public affairs, and expressing a hope that,
by a liberal intercourse, every impediment to a cordial co¬
operation of men of character, acting on the same public
principles, might be removed. In answer to this address,
both parties expressed themselves desirous to comply with
the wishes of so respectable a meeting ; but the Duke of
Portland declined any interview with Mr Pitt, for the pur¬
pose of union, while that gentleman continued prime minis¬
ter in defiance of the resolutions of the House of Commons ;
and, on the other hand, Mr Pitt refused to resign as a pre¬
liminary to negociation. To co-operate with the St Albans
meeting, one of its members moved and carried unani¬
mously a resolution, that the present critical state of pub¬
lic affairs required an efficient, extended, and united admi¬
nistration, entitled to the confidence of the people ; and it
was also resolved that the continuance of the present mi¬
nisters in office was an obstacle to forming an efficient, ex¬
tended, and united administration ; resolutions which were
ordered to be laid before his majesty. The meeting at the
St Albans tavern next declared that an administration
formed on the total exclusion of the members of the last
or present administration would be inadequate to the exi¬
gencies of public affairs. Mr Fox expressed his wishes
for a union, but insisted on the resignation of the chan¬
cellor of the exchequer in compliance with the resolutions
of the House of Commons, as an indispensable prelimi¬
nary. Mr Pitt, on the contrary, adhered to office, and de¬
clared that the house might address the crown for his dis¬
mission ; but till the king should think proper to remove
him from his situation, he held it to be neither illegal nor
unconstitutional to retain it, and would not recede from his
former determination. He at the same time suggested,
that there might be persons on the opposite side of the
house with whom he could not act. Lord North, under¬
standing himself to be alluded to, declared his readiness
to relinquish his pretensions to an official situation, if these
should be deemed any obstacle to a union ; and this self-
denying declaration was received with great applause. Mr
Marsham, Mr Powis, and other members of the St Albans
association, then called upon Mr Pitt to yield to the press¬
ing exigencies of his country, but in vain. These gentle¬
men, however, still continued their efforts; and, to remove
the difficulty arising from Mr Pitt’s refusal to resign, or to
save the honour of the house upon that point, they procur¬
ed the royal interference to the extent of requesting that
a negociation should be set on foot between the Duke of
Portland and Mr Pitt. A message was accordingly sent Reign of
by Mr Pitt, acquainting the duke that he was command- George IIL
ed to signify to him his majesty’s earnest desire that his
grace should have a personal conference with Mr Pitt for 1
the purpose of forming a new administration, on a wide
basis, and on fair and equal terms. The duke requested
an explanation of the message with regard to the words
equal terms ; but Mr Pitt declined any preliminary discus¬
sion. The Duke of Portland likewise proposed that he
should be permitted to understand that the message im¬
plied a virtual resignation by Mr Pitt, or that he himself
should receive his majesty’s commands personally relative
to the conference. But both of these propositions were
refused, and here terminated the efforts of the St Albans
association.
On the 18th of February the chancellor of the exche¬
quer, in his place in the House of Commons, being re¬
quired to say, previous to the consideration of the ques¬
tion of supply for the ordnance department, whether any
communication was to be expected relative to the resolu¬
tions of the house which had recently been laid before the
king, replied, that his majesty, after considering all the
circumstances of the country, had not thought fit to dis¬
miss his ministers, and that his ministers had not resign¬
ed. This produced a warm debate, in which it was ob¬
served by Mr Fox, that it was the first instance since the
revolution of a direct denial on the part of the crown to
comply with the wishes of the House of Commons ; and
he threw out a hint that it might be necessary for the
house to protect its own authority by refusing to vote the
supplies. But to allow his majesty’s ministers time to con¬
sider well their situation, he proposed to defer the report
of the ordnance estimate for two days. The refusal of
the supplies was treated by the friends of the new adminis¬
tration as a threat which the utmost madness of faction
would not seriously attempt to execute, and which could
never be justified by his majesty’s refusal to dismiss minis¬
ters who had been condemned without a trial. On a di¬
vision, however, there appeared a majority of twelve for
postponing the supplies. On the 20th of February a new
address to the throne for the removal of the ministers was
carried by a majority of twenty-one; and on the 27th his
majesty’s answer was reported by the speaker, in which it
was stated that no charge or complaint had been suggest¬
ed against the ministers, nor was any one of them speci¬
fically objected to; and that, on the other hand, numbers
of his subjects had expressed to his majesty the utmost
satisfaction with the change of his councils. This answer
was abundantly artful, as it tended to alienate the people
from the House of Commons, and, at the same time, to
perplex the Coalition, who could not accuse the prime mi¬
nister of any political crime, as he was a young man, who
had never enjoyed the chief direction of any important
affair. A second address to the throne, however, was
moved in the House of Commons on the 1st of March, and
agreed to by a majority of twelve, remonstrating against
the answer to the former address. His majesty replied in
civil terms ; but persevering in his resolution to retain his
ministers, the opposition resolved to make a last effort to
overcome the royal determination. Mr Fox declared that
he would not propose an address to the throne, because
he wished for no answer, but a humble representation, to
which it was not customary to make any reply. And this
representation consisted of a long remonstrance against the
alleged unconstitutional appointment ot an administration
in opposition to the wishes of the House of Commons ; and
concluded by stating, that the house had done its duty in
pointing out the evil, and that the blame and responsibi¬
lity must henceforth lie wholly upon those who had pre¬
sumed to advise his majesty to act in contradiction to the
BRITAIN. 513
Reign of uniform maxims which had hitherto governed his own con-
George IIL (]uct, as well as that of every other prince of his illustri-
ous house. This representation was carried by a majori-
1783. 0f on]y one vote, which the Coalition appear to have
considered as a defeat; for they finally yielded to their
destiny, and suffered the mutiny bill, which had been their
last security against a premature dissolution, to pass in the
usual terms.
Soon after the partial cessation of this struggle, parlia¬
ment was dissolved; and in the elections which ensued, the
new administration were extremely successful. Upwards
of a hundred and sixty members of the former House of
Commons lost their seats; and of these, nearly the whole
were the friends of the previous administration. Thus the
defeat of a powerful combination was completely accom¬
plished, and its leaders were rendered of little importance
in the legislature of the empire; and thus terminated the
strength of the celebrated Coalition, the fate and effects of
which ought never to be forgotten. That unfortunate mea¬
sure may be said to have ruined the political fortunes of
Mr Fox, undoubtedly one of the most accomplished states¬
men whom Britain ever produced. From that period he
was generally regarded as unfit to be intrusted with power;
his eloquence ceased to persuade, and his counsels, even
when full of wisdom, were regarded with distrust, because
his coalition with Lord North constantly rose up against
him, and suggested suspicions of his integrity, or at least
of his wisdom. This coalition also had a tendency to
diminish the attachment of the nation to the House of
Commons, and its confidence in that branch of the legisla¬
ture which, in fact, might be nothing more than a com¬
bination of factious men aiming at personal aggrandize¬
ment, and in certain circumstances rendering it necessary
for the people to arrange themselves behind the throne,
in order to obtain protection against one of the worst and
most oppressive of all governments, that of a corrupt aris¬
tocracy.
On the 18th of May the new parliament assembled;
and in the speech from the throne his majesty assured
both houses of his satisfaction in meeting them, after re¬
curring, in so important a moment, to the sense of his
people, and of his reliance on their being animated by the
same sentiments of loyalty and attachment to the consti¬
tution which had been so fully manifested throughout the
kingdom. He directed their attention to the affairs of
the East India Company, but warned them against adopt¬
ing any measures which might affect the constitution; and
concluded with expressing his inclination to maintain, in
their just balance, the rights and privileges of every branch
in the legislature.
The affairs of the East India Company were speedily
brought before parliament. On the 24th of June a bill
was introduced by the chancellor of the exchequer to al¬
low the Company to divide four per cent, on their capital
for the half year concluding at midsummer 1784. The ne¬
cessity of the case was urged in justification of this bill for
supporting the credit of the Company; and it was alleged,
that notwithstanding their present distresses, which were
admitted to be great, there existed a sufficient probability
that their affairs upon the whole might warrant such a di¬
vidend. The bill passed through both houses, and receiv¬
ed the royal assent. On the 2d of July, Mr Pitt brought
forward another bill, which had for its object to allow the
Company a respite of duties due to the exchequer, to ena¬
ble them to accept of bills beyond the amount prescribed
by former statutes, and to establish the regularity of their
future dividends. This act gave rise to various debates,
particularly in consequence of a question put by Mr Phi¬
lip Francis, how far the honour of parliament would be
pledged by it to enable the East India Company to make
VOL. v.
payment of the bills accepted by them, in case the funds Reign of
of the Company should prove deficient. But it neverthe-George III.
less passed into a law; and Mr Pitt, still further to sup-
port the East India Company, brought forward a bill to
diminish the duty upon tea, for the sake of preventing
smuggling, and in lieu thereof to substitute a commuta¬
tion tax upon windows. The amount of the revenue raised
from tea was between L.700,000 and L.800,000; and the
object of the new act was to proportion it in such a way as
to raise upon that article in future no more than L.169,000,
which it was supposed would enable the Company to sell
thirteen millions of pounds of tea, instead of five millions
and a half.
But these, which all passed and received the royal as¬
sent, were subordinate to the bill for regulating the gene¬
ral management of the affairs of the Company, which,
though framed upon the same model with that proposed by
Mr Pitt in the last parliament, yet differed from it in seve¬
ral particulars. The powers of the board of control were
enlarged; in cases of urgency and secrecy, it was autho¬
rized to transmit its own orders to India without these
being subject to the revision of the court of directors : in
the governor-general and council of Bengal was vested an
absolute power over the other presidencies in transactions
with the country powers, and in all applications of the re¬
venues and forces in time of war; the receiving of presents
was declared to be extortion and disobedience of orders;
the Company’s servants were required, on their return to
England, to lodge in the exchequer a statement upon oath
of their whole property ; and for the effectual punishment
of crimes committed in the East Indies, a new court of
justice was instituted.
Mr Francis opposed in strong terms the general princi¬
ple of this bill, as tending to create an incongruous power,
nominal on the part of the directors, real on the part of
administration ; and Mr Fox affirmed that the proposed
board of control violated the privileges of the India Com¬
pany no less than the enactment of his bills had done,
whilst it increased in a greater degree the dangerous in¬
fluence of the crown. He treated with great contempt
the new court of judicature, which he said might fairly be
called a bed of justice, as justice would sleep upon it, and
thereby embitter the calamities of India, by removing all
fear of punishment. When the bill came to be discussed
in the committee, Mr Pitt acted in a manner which af¬
terwards on many occasions distinguished his mode of
transacting the national business. Instead of coming for¬
ward, like the leader of a party, with a measure complete
in all its parts, and prepared to receive the firm support
of his adherents, he not only of himself proposed some es¬
sential alterations, but adopted those suggested by others,
whether friends or antagonists. The consequence was,
that, in the committee, it underwent important modifica¬
tions. The power of issuing orders, in the first instance,
was limited to the case of the court of directors neglect¬
ing to transmit dispatches to the board, after fourteen
days’ notice, upon any subject which the board might think
it necessary to take up. The directors were also empower¬
ed to elect a secret committee of three members, to com¬
municate with the board concerning such orders as the
board might of its own authority transmit to India. The
appointment of the commander in chief of the army was
withdrawn from his majesty, and left with the Company,
together with the negative upon nominations in general.
Mr Pitt himself also brought forward some amendments
respecting the constitution of the new tribunal. Autho¬
rity was now given to any person or persons to move the
Court of King’s Bench for an information. The court was
also authorized to issue commissions to the courts in In¬
dia, for the purpose of taking depositions; and the direc-
3 T
514 BRITAIN.
Reign of tors of the Company, and persons returning from India,
George III-were excluded from the judicature that was to be erected.
The bill, thus amended, passed the House of Commons on
the 28th of July, and the House of Lords on the 9th of
August.
Early in July the chancellor of the exchequer informed
the House of Commons that Sir Elijah Impey, chief judge
of the supreme court of justice of Bengal, had arrived in
England, in consequence of being recalled by his majesty,
pursuant to an address of the house. The acute sensibi¬
lity or powerful imagination of Mr Burke having induced
him to interest himself greatly in the sufferings of the
natives of India under the British government, he now
called on the ministry to enforce the resolutions of the
house respecting Sir Elijah Impey, by bringing him to
trial; and he repeatedly endeavoured to introduce as the
subject of deliberation the reports of the committees of
the former parliament respecting Indian affairs; but he
was either defeated, with little reply, by a motion for the
order of the day, or overpowered and silenced by the loud
and continual clamour of the house.
During the present session it was found necessary to
have recourse to a loan of six millions, to settle the re¬
maining expenses of the American war. The naval esta¬
blishment was at the same time fixed on a higher scale
than in former years of peace. The number of seamen and
marines voted was twenty-six thousand ; but the military
force was not large, as it did not exceed seventeen thou¬
sand five hundred men for guards and garrisons. Several
new taxes were imposed upon linen and cotton manufac¬
tures, hats, paper, candles, bricks, postage of letters, horses,
hackney-coaches, persons dealing in exciseable commo¬
dities, and persons engaging in the amusement of shoot¬
ing game or hunting, none of which met with almost any
opposition.
The session closed with a motion, brought forward by
Mr Dundas, for the restoration of the estates forfeited in
Scotland in the rebellion of 1745, to the descendants or
other heirs of the rebels. As this measure had for its
object the relief of individuals whose unequivocal attach¬
ment to his present majesty and his family could not be
supposed to be tainted or affected by the crimes of their
ancestors, it met with the approbation of the Commons ;
but in the House of Lords it was opposed by the Lord
Chancellor Thurlow, on the ground both of its impolicy
and its partiality ; impolicy, as rendering nugatory the set¬
tled maxim of the British constitution, that treason was a
crime of so deep a dye that nothing was adequate to its
punishment but the total eradication of the person, the
name, and the family, out of the society which he had
attempted to injure; and partiality, because the estates
forfeited in 1715, and which were forfeited upon the same
grounds and principles as those in 1745, were passed over
in silence, whilst a person who had been forfeited in 1690
was even included in the provision. The bill, however,
passed the Lords, and received the royal assent.
At this time the British nation enjoyed profound peace;
and the public attention being no longer excited by na¬
tional efforts, or by the enterprises of any political faction,
was easily directed to objects of less importance, among
which may be mentioned the discoveries in aerostation,
which had hitherto proved of more curiosity than utility.
Parliament assembled again on the 25th of January
1184. In the speech from the throne, the object parti¬
cularly recommended to the attention of both houses was
the final adjustment of the commercial intercourse be¬
tween Great Britain and Ireland. The first business
taken up related to the choice of two members of parlia¬
ment for Westminster at the late general election. Lord
Hood, Mr Fox, and Sir Cecil Wray, had offered themselves
as candidates. Lord Hood easily carried his election ; but Reign of
between the other candidates the contest was carried on George III.
with unexampled obstinacy. The engaging manners of
Mr Fox, who had for some time represented the city of H84.
Westminster in parliament, enabled him, however, not¬
withstanding the general unpopularity of the Coalition, to
engage with success in the contest. After the election
had continued upwards of six weeks, it was concluded
on the 17th May 1784, leaving a considerable majority in
favour of Mr Fox. At this time, being the very day pre¬
vious to the return of the writ for the election, the high
bailiff, at the request of Sir Cecil Wray, granted a scru¬
tiny into the votes which he had taken. This was pro¬
tested against by Mr Fox and several of the electors; and
immediately on the meeting of parliament, the conduct of
the high bailiff was vehemently attacked by opposition,
and no less vigorously defended by administration. On a
motion of Lord Mulgrave, however, it was resolved that
the high bailiff of Westminster should proceed in the
scrutiny with all practicable dispatch. In the beginning
of February the business was resumed in the House of
Commons. The scrutiny had continued eight months,
and only two parishes out of seven had been scrutinized;
so that it was admitted that probably more than two years
longer would be necessary to finish the scrutiny. On the
8th of February, however, Mr Welbore Ellis moved that
a return of the election be immediately made by the high
bailiff of Westminster; and, after a variety of debates, it
was at length carried, and Lord Hood and Mr Fox were
returned as members for Westminster.
On the 18th of February, the attention of the House of
Commons was called to the payment of the debts of the
nabob of Arcot. The statute which Mr Pitt had got
passed during the preceding summer authorized in ge¬
neral terms the court of directors to establish, in concert
with the nabob, funds for the payment of such of his debts
as should appear to be justly due. The court of directors
accordingly ordered the council at Madras to investigate
these debts; but the board of control, with some trifling
limitation, ordered the whole debts to be paid out of the
revenues of the Carnatic. Mr Dundas undertook the
defence of the board of control, and treated with ridi¬
cule a declaration made by Mr Francis, that rumours were
abroad of a collusion between the board of control and
the creditors of 1777. He justified the whole of the na¬
bob of Arcot’s debts. One set of debts incurred in 1767
consisted of money borrowed by the nabob at the rate of
from thirty to thirty-six per cent, interest, to pay off a
sum due by the nabob to the Company, which was at that
time in the utmost distress, and the interest had after¬
wards been reduced to ten per cent. The second branch
of the nabob’s debts had arisen from sums borrowed to
pay off his own cavalry, which the Company had ordered
him to reduce, but which he was unable to dismiss from
want of money to pay their arrears. He had borrowed this
money, and the Company had engaged its credit for the
loan. A third class of debts, incurred or consolidated in
1777, were acknowledged by the nabob to be valid, and
were only approved of by the board of control, subject to
his objections, or to objections by the Company or the rest
of the creditors.
Mr Burke stated a variety of objections to the nabob’s
debts. It appeared that the nabob had contracted a debt
with the Company’s servants to the amount of L.888,000
sterling, which, in the year 1767, was settled at an inte¬
rest of ten per cent. In the year 1777 a second debt of
the nabob of Arcot, amounting to L.2,400,000, was settled
at twelve per cent, interest; and to this was added another
debt, called the cavalry debt, of L.160,000, at the same
interest. The whole of these four capitals, amounting to
BRITAIN.
515
Reign of L.4,440,000, produced at their several rates annuities
George III. amounting to L.623,000 a year, more than half of which
stood chargeable on the public revenues of the Carnatic.
' These annuities, equal to the revenues of a kingdom, were
possessed by a small number of individuals of no conse¬
quence, situation, or profession. Mr Burke admitted that
the loan of 1767 was the fairest, as it could be convicted
of nothing worse than the most enormous usury. The in¬
terest at thirty-six per cent, was first paid, then twenty-
five, then twenty, and, lastly, the interest was reduced to
ten per cent.; but all along the interest had been added to
the principal, so that of L.888,000 Mr Burke doubted whe¬
ther the nabob ever saw L.100,000 in real money. With
regard to the cavalry debt, Mr Burke stated, that instead
of ready money, the English money jobbers engaged to pay
the nabob’s cavalry in bills payable in four months, for
which they were to receive immediately at least one per
cent, per month, but probably two, such being the rate ge¬
nerally paid by the nabob, and that a territorial revenue
was assigned to them for that purpose ; but it was upwards
of two years before the arrears of the cavalry were dis¬
charged ; and these jobbers being all this time in receipt
of the assigned revenue, they paid off the nabob’s troops
with his own money. As to the debt of 1777, Mr Burke
observed, that in different accounts the principal sum
rose from L.1,300,000 to L.2,400,000, and the creditors
had never appeared the same in any two lists. In the
year 1781 they were satisfied to have twenty-five per cent,
at once struck off from the capital, yet they were now to
obtain payment of the whole. It appeared, therefore, that
the nabob and his creditors were not adversaries, but col¬
lusive parties; and that when the nabob gave an acknow¬
ledgment of debt to a European, he received no money,
and only endeavoured to support his own influence by re¬
ceiving the servants of the Company into his pay. The
motion for an inquiry into the conduct of the board of
control on this occasion was however negatived on a divi¬
sion.
WTien Mr Pitt came into office, he had the singular good
fortune of being highly popular with the nation, while he
was selected to support the royal prerogative and autho¬
rity against the majority of the House of Commons, then
possessed by the Coalition. Accordingly, it became one
of the features of his conduct to attempt, if possible, to
reconcile the services expected from him by the crown
with the apparent pursuit of whatever measure happened
for the time to be an object of popular favour. The at¬
tempt to procure a reform in the representation of the
people in the House of Commons was one of these objects.
He had formerly engaged in it while acting in opposition ;
and now, after he had become the first minister of the
crown, he still undertook to stand forward as its advocate.
Every writer of history must be sensible of the defective
nature of the details which he is able to give as to the
causes which produce or regulate the most important
events, and which often lie hidden in a region far beyond
the limits of his penetration or research. In what way, or
by what means, Mr Pitt contrived to retain the confidence
of his master, whilst he at the same time stood forward as
the champion of a reform which every body knew to be
hateful at court, it is impossible to conjecture. Certain it
is, however, that after he had attained to the chief place
in the present administration, he still continued to corre¬
spond with the leading advocates of parliamentary reform,
whose meetings he had been accustomed to attend. In a
circular letter to Mr Wyvil, president of a committee of
Yorkshire gentlemen, it was stated that Mr Pitt had given
authority to declare, that he would bring forward the
subject of a parliamentary reform as early as possible in
the session; that he would support his intended proposi¬
tions to the utmost of his strength ; and that he would ex- Reign of
ert his whole power and credit, as a man and as a minis- Ceorge IIL
ter, honestly and boldly, to carry such a system as should
place the constitution on a footing of permanent security. '
And at the commencement of the session, when the sub¬
ject was alluded to, Mr Pitt took the opportunity to de¬
clare, that on this business he laboured incessantly; that
it was that which of all others was nearest his heart, but
at so early a period of the session it was impossible to
state his plan specifically; that much remained to be done,
but his ideas were not matured; that a reform in parlia¬
ment comprehended a great variety of considerations,
relating to the essentials of the constitution ; that in this
path he was determined to tread, but he knew with what
tenderness and circumspection it became him to proceed ;
and he requested the house to come to the subject unin¬
fluenced by any of those schemes and hypotheses which
had hitherto been suggested.
It was not till the 18th of April, however, that he called
the attention of the house to this important subject. He
declared himself aware of the difficulties he must expect
to encounter in proposing a plan of reform; but he enter¬
tained more sanguine hopes of success than formerly, be¬
cause there never was a moment when the minds of men
were more enlightened on this interesting topic, or more
prepared for its discussion. He was particularly anxious
to remove the objection of innovation. Anciently great
fluctuations had taken place in the franchise. The number
of members had varied, and even the representation of
the counties was not uniform. As one borough decayed
and another flourished, the first was abolished and the
second enfranchised. This arose from a maxim the ap¬
plication of which was intrusted to the crown, that the
principal places, and not the decayed boroughs, should be
called upon to exercise the right of election. He was no
advocate for a revival of this discretionary power, but the
maxim upon wdiich it was founded ought now to be car¬
ried into effect. The outline of his plan was this: To
transfer the right of choosing representatives from thirty-
six of such boroughs as had already fallen, or were fall¬
ing into decay, to the counties, and such chief towns and
cities as were still unrepresented; to provide a fund for
the purpose of giving to the owners and holders of such
boroughs disfranchised, an appreciated compensation for
their property ; and to make the receiving of this compen¬
sation a voluntary act of the proprietor, and if not received
when tendered, to place it out at compound interest, until
it became an irresistible bait to such proprietors. He also
proposed to extend the right of voting for knights of the
shire, to copyholders as well as freeholders. Besides the
thirty-six boroughs already mentioned, he proposed to
purchase the franchise of other boroughs, and to transfer
the right of returning members to unrepresented large
towns, which should petition parliament for the privilege.
Thus a hundred members would be given to the popular
interest of the kingdom, and the right of election extend¬
ed to a hundred thousand additional persons. Mr Fox dis¬
approved of purchasing from a majority of the electors of
a borough the property of the whole, and of holding out
pecuniary temptations to an Englishman to relinquish his
franchise, though he declared himself a friend to the ge¬
neral principle of a more equitable representation. Mr
Wilberforce supported Mr Pitt’s proposal, because, by put¬
ting an end to the representation of the decayed boroughs,
dangerous aristocratical coalitions would in future be pre¬
vented. But it was warmly opposed by Mr Powis, who
alleged that the people of England had not called for re¬
form, and that the business in which Mr Pitt had unfor-
. tunately engaged himself was a volunteer crusade, or a
piece of political knight-errantry. Lord North likewise
516 B R I T A 1 N.
Reign of opposed all change, alleging that the people were actually
George III. contented, happy, and in full possession of their liberties.
And, finally, leave to bring in the bill was refused by a
7 large majority; which was probably the very result Mr
Pitt not only anticipated, but also desired.
As the sole object for which the English monarchs an¬
ciently assembled their parliaments was to obtain money
from their subjects, so the adjustment of the public ex¬
penses, and levying adequate supplies, always continue to
occupy a large portion of the time of every session of par¬
liament. The prodigal expenditure which had taken place
during the war still required additional taxes. For this
purpose new demands were made. Hawkers and pedlars,
and attornies, were taxed ; and the duties on male servants
and post horses were enlarged. An impost laid upon retail
shops, however, encountered persevering opposition in par¬
liament, as well as much unpopularity in the nation. It was
represented as unfair, because it fell upon a small number
of industrious persons; and it was observed, that, unlike
other taxes, those who imposed it were in no hazard them¬
selves of paying any part of it. But of all the taxes pro¬
posed by the minister, none encountered such sarcastic
animadversion as that upon maid-servants; and Mr Pitt,
who was understood to be something of a misogynist, was
accused by Mr Sheridan of holding out a bounty to celi¬
bacy. But the subject which excited most attention was
that of the ordnance. As early as the year 1782, the
Duke of Richmond had planned an expensive system of
fortifications, for protecting the different dock-yards of
the kingdom ; the idea having originated in the alarm oc¬
casioned by the appearance of the combined fleet in the
Channel. The works had for some time been carried on,
and the sum of L.50,000 annually voted, without much
attention being given to the subject. But during this ses¬
sion it was moved that an account should be laid before
the house, of the expenses already incurred on fortifica¬
tions, at Plymouth, Portsmouth, Gosport, Chatham, Do¬
ver, and Sheerness, with a report of the probable expense
of completing the fortifications of Portsmouth and Ply¬
mouth ; and afterwards the annual grant was opposed.
Mr Pitt defended the Duke of Richmond, but agreed to
a proposal which had been made to take the opinion of a
council of officers; and this put an end to the debate.
A bill for better regulating the office of the treasurer
of the navy passed without any sort of opposition ; and an¬
other for the better examining of the public accounts met
with little opposition; but a third brought in by Mr Pitt,
for the general reform of public offices, encountered stre¬
nuous opposition. Mr Sheridan contended that it was un¬
necessary, as the treasury possessed ample power to make
the necessary reforms ; and Mr Burke contrasted, in strong
terms, the trifling economy here proposed, with the pro¬
digality of the ministers in their proceedings respecting
the revenues of the Carnatic, and the sanction given by
them to the pretended debts of the nabob of Arcot. The
bill, however, passed through both houses, and received
the royal assent.
One of the most important subjects brought under the
consideration of parliament during the session, was an at¬
tempt by Mr Pitt to establish a plan of commercial union
between Great Britain and Ireland. This plan was pro¬
posed to the Irish House of Commons on the 7th of Fe¬
bruary, by Mr Ord, and consisted of ten articles, usually
styled the Irish Propositions, which were passed with little
debate, and an address of approbation voted to his majesty.
On the 22d of the same month Mr Pitt introduced the
subject to the British House of Commons. He expatiated
on the false and oppressive policy which had long been
pursued by government in regard to Ireland, in order to
render her completely subservient to the interest and opu¬
lence of this country; and concluded by proposing to al- Reign of
low the produce of the colonies to be imported into Bri- George 11L.
tain through Ireland, and to equalize the duties on the
produce and manufactures of both countries; in return
for which concession it was stipulated, that the parliament
of Ireland should irrevocably secure some provision for
defraying the expense of protecting the commerce of the
empire in time of peace. After some debates upon the
subject, petitions from Fiverpool, Paisley, Glasgow, Man¬
chester, and other places, to the number of sixty, were
presented against the measure; and from the 16th of
March to the 12th of May the House of Commons were
almost incessantly employed in hearing counsel and exa¬
mining witnesses. Certain exceptions were now intro¬
duced to the general rule of admitting an equal commerce
between the countries; corn, meal, flour, and beer, were
excluded in favour of British agriculture; and various
regulations were made to secure an effectual equality of
duties upon every particular object of trade in both coun¬
tries. The plan thus amended produced a variety of de¬
bates, in the course of which Lord North expressed his
wish for a complete incorporative union of the two king¬
doms, in preference to a partial settlement, which might
prove the source of perpetual discord. The resolutions,
however, were warmly opposed ; and being carried by only
a small majority, administration did not think proper to
press the adoption of the scheme.
The American war had in somemeasure alienated the Bri¬
tish nation from ideas of conquest and military splendour.
Commercial pursuits were now chiefly valued, and formed
the principal object of encouragement to the government,
and of pursuit by the people; but to prosecute these with
success, it was necessary to preserve a good understand¬
ing with the neighbouring powers; and this was effected,
though with some difficulty, in consequence of certain
foreign occurrences not unworthy of attention.
Joseph II. was at this time at the head of the house of
Austria and of the Germanic body; and among the various
projects which marked his restless career, there was one
which, had it been attended with success, could scarcely
have failed to affect the future condition of the Germanic
body. He had entered secretly into a negociation with the
elector of Bavaria, then an infirm old man, for an exchange
of the electorate of Bavaria in lieu of the provinces of the
Austrian Netherlands, which were to be converted into a
kingdom for the elector. Count Romanzof, the Russian mi¬
nister to the diet of Frankfort, informed the Duke of Deux-
ponts, nephew and heir to the elector, of the substance of
this treaty; and at the same time assured him that it
would be carried into execution, whether he consented
to the exchange or not. In the month of January of this
year the duke gave notice of the intended measure to
Frederick II. king of Prussia, who regarded it as a pro¬
ject dangerous to his own independence, as well as to that
of the other German states, and endeavoured instantly to
spread an alarm through Europe. He alleged, that the pro¬
posed exchange was in the highest degree iniquitous and
unfair; that though the population on both sides was near¬
ly equal, the extent of territory on the side of Bavaria
more than doubled that of the Low Countries, while their
respective revenues were equally disproportioned ; that in
Bavaria, agriculture, commerce, and finance, were notori¬
ously neglected, whereas in the Austrian Netherlands these
resources had been extended to their utmost pitch ; that,
whilst the territory which the emperor hoped to acquire
was capable of considerable improvement, that which he
gave away might be expected to retrograde rather than
to advance ; that these circumstances, however, were of
little importance, compared with the political consequences
which must result from such a measure ; that the Nether-
BRITAIN. 517
Reign of lands being situated at a distance from the other Austrian
George III. dominions, had always proved a source of weakness, rather
than of strength, to that power ; that, although a consider-
7 able revenue was derived from these provinces, it was often
dearly bought, in consequence of the wars occasioned by
the vicinity of France; that great political efforts had
recently been made by the court of Vienna to avoid all
future grounds of quarrel with the French monarchy, and
this had been accomplished by the marriage of an Aus¬
trian princess to the king of France ; that the possession
of Bavaria, from its vicinity to the rest of the Austrian
dominions, would secure to the emperor a chain of terri¬
tory from the banks of the Rhine along a great part of the
course of the Danube, and give him such a preponderance
as would overturn all power in Germany capable of resist¬
ing the head of the empire ; and that this mighty country
might, at no remote period, be consolidated into one mass,
and Austria would then probably rank in every sense as
the first power in Europe.
Thus reasoned Frederick the Great. Succeeding events
seem to warrant a belief that such an acquisition of strength
by the house of Austria might have proved of considerable
utility to Europe; but at the time when the scheme was
proposed it excited general apprehensions. The treaty
for the exchange had been concluded under the auspices
of Russia and France, and to them accordingly the king of
Prussia addressed his remonstrances. But the emperor of
Germany and the elector of Bavaria soon found their pro¬
ject so strongly disapproved of by other powers, that they
absolutely disavowed it; whilst the court of France content¬
ed itself with replying to the remonstrance of the king of
Prussia, that the exchange had been proposed, as depend¬
ing upon the voluntary arrangement of the parties, but
that, as the Duke of Deuxponts had refused his consent,
the proposition of course became fruitless.
Frederick, in the mean time, exerted himself with great
assiduity in negociating a league with the electors of Han¬
over and Saxony, for the preservation of the Germanic con¬
stitution, and for preventing such cessions and exchanges
of territory as might afterwards prove injurious to the ba¬
lance of power in the empire. A treaty to this purpose was
therefore concluded on the 23d of July, and several German
princes acceded to it, among whom were the elector of
Mentz, the landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the dukes of Bruns¬
wick, Namur, and Saxe-Gotha, and the prince of Anhalt.
The elector of Hanover also entered readily into the trans¬
action, and from that period an intimate connection com¬
menced between the courts of London and Berlin. Some
British politicians, however, supposed that the opposition
made to the imperial project was unwise, as tending to
excite a spirit of hostility against us on the part of Aus¬
tria, which, of all the powers of the Continent, was consi¬
dered as our most natural ally; and it was probably ow¬
ing to the part taken by Britain in this transaction that
the emperor published an edict prohibiting the importa¬
tion of British manufactures into any part of the Austrian
dominions. In the course of the summer also the French
issued an edict restricting the sale of various articles of
British manufacture, particularly saddlery, hosiery, woollen
cloths, and hardware, unless upon payment of duties the
amount of which was equivalent to a prohibition. To
counteract these proceedings commercial treaties were
negociated with the courts of Petersburgh and Versailles ;
that with the latter having been undertaken in pursuance
of a provision in the definitive treaty of peace.
Parliament met on the 24th of January 1786. In the
speech from the throne some notice was taken of the con¬
tinental dispute above mentioned, which was said to have
terminated in such a way as to threaten no interruption
to the tranquillity of Europe. This excited some discus¬
sion ; but Mr Pitt declined entering into any defence of Reign of
the Germanic league, as he and his colleagues in office had George IH.
not interfered in the formation of it; observing that acci-
dent alone had placed the sovereignty of Hanover and
of this country in the same hands, and desiring to have
it understood that Great Britain was by no means bound
by any leagues entered into by the elector of Hanover.
Mr Fox, however, denied that the affairs of Hanover could
be really separated from those of Britain. Supposing that
it should hereafter appear necessary for Great Britain to
join the court of Vienna against the league of the Germa¬
nic princes, and that the elector of Hanover should appear
as one of those princes at the head of his own troops, he
put the question, Whether a British army could be direct¬
ed to act in a hostile manner against troops led by their
sovereign in his character of elector of Flanover ? When
George I. purchased Bremen and Verden from Denmark,
the minister of that day, General Stanhope, used precise¬
ly the same language, and told the House of Commons
that they had nothing to do with his majesty’s conduct
respecting his electoral dominions. But the consequence
was, that the resentment of the Swedish monarch Charles
XII. on account of this transaction, threatened Great Bri¬
tain with a most dangerous invasion ; and the very next
year General Stanhope was under the necessity of demand¬
ing additional supplies, to enable his majesty to defray the
expenses to which he was exposed in consequence of his
purchase.
The attention of parliament was again directed to the
Duke of Richmond’s plan of fortification. In consequence
of the former debate on the subject, the project had been
remitted to the consideration of a board of officers, of which
the Duke of Richmond was appointed president; and which
consisted, besides the president, of Lieutenant-generals
Earl Percy, Earl Cornwallis, Sir Guy Carleton, Sir William
Howe, Sir David Lindsay, Sir Charles Grey, Lord George
Lennox, and John Burgoyne, and six major-generals, to¬
gether with Vice-admirals Barrington and Milbank, Rear-
admirals Graves and Lord Hood, and Captains Hotham,
Macbride, Bowyer, Luttrell, Sir John Jervis, and Sir An¬
drew Snape Hammond. On the 10th of February Mr Pitt
stated to the House of Commons that the board had re¬
ported to his majesty their approbation of the plan, as per¬
fectly adequate to the defence intended, and as being at
the same time the least expensive in the construction, and
requiring a smaller force to defend the works, than any
other that could be proposed. He also presented an es¬
timate, which had been prepared by the board of engi¬
neers, of the expense necessary to construct the fortifica¬
tions. The decision of the House of Commons, however,
was delayed till the end of February, when the subject was
again brought forward by Mr Pitt, who proposed a reso¬
lution, bearing, that to provide effectually for securing the
dock-yards of Portsmouth and Plymouth by a permanent
system of fortification, was an essential object for the safe¬
ty of the state, intimately connected with the general de¬
fence of the kingdom, and necessary to enable the fieet to
act with vigour and effect whenever its services were re¬
quired. This led to a long and not very interesting de¬
bate, the result of which was, that upon a vote the house
divided equally, when the speaker gave his casting vote
in opposition to the measure. On the 17th of May, how¬
ever, the question was revived by Mr Pitt, who proposed
that the fortifications should still be carried on at Ports¬
mouth and Plymouth, though upon a more limited scale;
but the motion was opposed with much severity of lan¬
guage, and at length withdrawn.
T. he attention of paihament was for some time occupied
with a proposal for reducing the laws relative to the mili¬
tia into a general act, and providing for their being an-
518
BRITAIN.
Reign of nually called out and disciplined. Mr Pitt opposed the
George III.calling out of the militia annually; but afterwards, find-
ino- that a different opinion prevailed, he consented, on
1786, condition that, though the whole number of men were bal¬
loted for and enrolled, only two thirds should be actually
employed. The measure, however, did not pass without
opposition. . .
But the subject which occupied most attention during
the session was the proposal of a sinking fund to be applied
towards discharging the public debt. Mr Pitt had occa¬
sionally mentioned it, during the preceding session, as a
great and important national measure which he intended
to bring forward ; and early in the present session he moved
that certain papers should be laid upon the table of the
House of Commons, to enable them to form an estimate of
the annual amount of the national revenue and expendi¬
ture, from which a judgment might be formed of the ex¬
isting disposable surplus, and of the sum it would be fur¬
ther necessary to provide to raise the total to the amount
requisite to form the basis of the intended sinking fund.
On the 7th of March he proposed the appointment by bal¬
lot of a select committee of nine persons to examine these
papers, and to report the result to the house. He stated
it as his intention to take every possible step to give com¬
plete satisfaction to the nation in a matter of such general
concern; and he conceived that the solemnity of a com¬
mittee, and the formality of a report, would answer the
purpose better than a set of unconnected papers or the
affirmation of a minister. The committee as balloted con¬
sisted of the Marquis of Graham, Mr William Grenville,
Mr Edward Elliot, Mr Rose, Mr Wilberforce, Mr Beau-
foy, Mr John Call, Mr Smith, and Mr Addington. When
this committee had made its report, Mr Pitt, on the 29th
March, proposed his plan to the Commons in a committee
of the whole house. He congratulated parliament upon
the prospects of the nation in a style of animated eloquence.
He stated the revenue for the current year, as reported
by the committee, to amount to L.15,397,000. The inte¬
rest of the national debt was L.9,275,769, and the civil list
L.900,000, which, together with the whole other expen¬
diture for the army and navy, and other establishments,
amounted to L.14,478,000; consequently there remained
a surplus of the annual income, above the expenditure, of
L.900,000. One million he stated to be the sum annually
to be contributed to the sinking fund; and to make up
the sum of L.100,000 wanted to complete this amount, he
proposed small additional taxes upon spirits, timber, and
hair powder and perfumery. The sum of L. 1,000,000 thus
provided he proposed to place in the hands of commis¬
sioners appointed for that purpose, in quarterly payments
of L.250,000 each, to begin on the 5th of the following
July. It was his wish that the commissioners should con¬
sist of persons of rank and distinction, the speaker of the
House of Commons, the chancellor of the exchequer, the
master of the rolls, the governor and deputy-governor of
the bank of England, and the accomptant-general of the
high court of chancery. He alleged, that by laying out
the sinking fund regularly at compound interest, the mil¬
lion to be applied would rise to a great amount in a period
that was not very long in the life of an individual, and but
an hour in the existence of a nation. It would diminish
the debt of this country so much as to prevent the exi¬
gencies of war from ever raising it to the enormous height
which they had hitherto done. In the period of twenty-
eight years, the sum of a million, annually appropriated,
would produce an income of four millions annually. By
placing the sum in the hands of commissioners, to be ap¬
plied by them quarterly to the purchase of stock, no sum
would ever lie within the grasp of a minister great enough
- to tempt him to infringe upon this national revenue. It
could not be done by stealth, and a minister would not Reign of
have the confidence to come to the house expressly to de-George IIL
mand the repeal of so necessary a law.
Mr Fox approved in general of the institution of a sink¬
ing fund, but thought twenty-eight years too long a pe¬
riod to look forward to for the effect of the project. Be¬
fore that term had arrived, it was not improbable that
we might have another war; and a variety of circum¬
stances might occur, which would operate as a tempta¬
tion to a future chancellor of the exchequer, and a future
House of Commons, to repeal the act, annul the institu¬
tion, and divert the appropriation of its stock to the im¬
mediate services of the year. He stated two specific ob¬
jections to the plan. The first was, that the sum appro¬
priated ought not to have been made unalienable in time
of war; and the second, that, by the institution, parlia¬
ment being bound to nobody but itself, the whole plan
was liable to be annihilated by a future parliament. Mr
Fox repeated his objections at a future stage, and at
last, in consequence of the acquiescence of Mr Pitt, in¬
troduced an amendment, that whenever a new loan should
hereafter be made, the minister should not only propose
taxes sufficient to pay the interest of the loan, but also to
make good whatever it should be found expedient to take
from the sinking fund to supply the necessities of the na¬
tion ; meaning, that if, when a new loan of six millions was
proposed, there should be one million in the hands of the
commissioners, then the commissioners should take a mil¬
lion of the loan, and the bonus of that million should be re¬
ceived by them for the public, who would thus have only
five millions to borrow. In the House of Lords, the other
objection stated by Mr Fox was urged with some variation
by Earl Stanhope, who expatiated on the danger which
might occur, in future wars, of diverting the fund from its
proper destination. But the bill nevertheless passed into
a law without any alteration.
The establishment of a sinking fund appears to have
been one of Mr Pitt’s favourite schemes of finance ; and, in
fact, it was that which produced him the greatest degree
of popularity; while, from his remaining in power during
the long and expensive war which succeeded its establish¬
ment, it continued to be regularly and fully carried into
effect. When a new loan was made, the minister not only
proposed taxes sufficient to pay the annual interest of the
new debt, but also to afford a surplus or sinking fund
of one per cent, per annum, to be applied by the com¬
missioners towards the extinction of the debt. It is al¬
most superfluous to observe, that this scheme, from which
such mighty results were anticipated, both by the politi¬
cal friends and opponents of the ministry, and which was
loudly vaunted of as a monument raised to perpetuate his
fame, is now known to every tyro in political science to
have been bottomed on principles wholly fallacious ; and
the consequence has been, that some of its firmest sup¬
porters, having abjured the opinions which they originally
entertained respecting it, afterwards united with those who
had all along entertained sounder views, in putting an end
to this expensive and cumbrous delusion, which had for a
time imposed on the arithmetic as well as on the sense of
the nation. The only effect of such a fund, when well con¬
trived and steadily adhered to, seems to be, that it ena¬
bles a nation to maintain its credit in difficult circum¬
stances, and thus to carry on the accumulation of public
debt to the highest possible amount, as well as to make
trial in the completest manner of all the moral and politi¬
cal consequences of the funding system. We may add,
that the project was not of Mr Pitt’s contrivance ; it formed
only one, and that too not the most plausible, of three plans
presented to him by Dr Price.
When the estimates for the navy were voted this year,
BRITAIN.
Reign of some observations were suggested by Captain Macbride,
George III. which are worthy of being recorded, on account of their
relation to the progressive improvement of the chief de-
1786. fence of the British islands. He censured extremely the
voting of large sums of money for the repair of sixty and
sixty-four gun ships; and observed that our having so many
vessels of this sort was a principal reason of the many de¬
feats we had suffered in the last war. The French had
now not more than three or four sixty-four gun ships, and
they took care not to build any new ones upon that con¬
struction. Another thing against our navy was, that the
French seventy-four gun ships were of two thousand tons
burden, while our seventy-fours had been reduced to six¬
teen hundred tons. Captain Macbride expressed his be¬
lief, that if the number of our ships were reduced one
third, the navy of England would prove one third stronger.
He condemned the system of suffering the ships to remain
in their copper bottoms during time of peace; and con¬
tended, that if we persisted in this practice there would
be no occasion to argue whether ships of one size or ano¬
ther should be built, for we should soon have no navy in
our possession. The French had discovered the folly of
the practice, and had for some time left off the mode of
sheathing their ships. We ought therefore to do the same,
or at least to take off the copper when the ships were to
remain long in still water. The copper corroded and de¬
stroyed their bolts more than either worms or time; and
hence, the instant the ships which had been long laid up
in ordinary were sent to sea, their bottoms would drop out,
and thousands of brave seamen would perish in the ocean.
The ideas of Captain Macbride were confirmed by Sir
John Jervis, and, as far as related to the sheathing with
copper, by Captain Luttrell.
At this time the British nation, recovered from the
effects of the war, was enjoying considerable prosperity.
The administration of justice, proceeding in the ordinary
course sanctioned by the constitution, produced its usual
and natural effects of tranquillity and general satisfaction.
The sovereign, in consequence of his domestic virtues and
regular life, was personally popular. The members of
administration had obtained their offices under circum¬
stances which originally secured the good will of the na¬
tion ; and no public events had occurred to expose their
characters to any severe trial, or to produce an alteration
in the public opinion regarding them. Still, however, the
most distinguished members of the late coalition, continu¬
ing to hold seats in parliament, naturally wished to attract
the public notice, and to rescue themselves from the ne¬
glect into which they had of late fallen. For this purpose
they appear to have looked towards our Indian empire for
materials upon which to exert their talents and to demon¬
strate their public spirit; and accordingly, during the pre¬
sent session, an attempt was commenced by Mr Burke to
bring to trial and punishment Warren Hastings, late gover¬
nor-general of Bengal, for crimes alleged to have been
committed in that country.
There is something in the nature of the British consti¬
tution, or rather, perhaps, in that of every free state, which
renders conquest, or even the acquisition of foreign ter¬
ritories, in any form, not a little inconvenient. In the
case of the British American territories, a constitution
less or more resembling that of Great Britain had been
established in every colony or province; and these sepa¬
rate constitutions had produced abundance of internal
prosperity to the colonies; but the whole formed a dis¬
jointed empire, slightly bound together by a limited exe¬
cutive power, and destitute of a common legislature; and
an attempt, made by the legislature of the parent state, to
make laws for the whole of the subordinate communities,
gave rise to a war which ended in the dismemberment of
519
the empire. The remaining foreign possessions, such as Reign of
Ireland and the West India islands, might be supposed to George HI
remain in union with the metropolitan country chiefly in
consequence of their weakness, which rendered its protec¬
tion necessary to their safety, or made them incapable of
erecting themselves into separate governments in opposi¬
tion to its will. But the territories which had been ac¬
quired by the British in India were, in this respect, in a very
peculiar situation. It might perhaps have been possible,
by an incorporating union, and an extension of the privi¬
lege of representation, to combine into one firm and con¬
solidated government the whole British islands, together
with the American colonies; but with regard to the ter¬
ritory of Hindustan, any thing of this kind was altogether
impracticable. That great and fertile country, inhabited
by men of a feebler race, and of different language, cha¬
racter, and religion, is incapable of being united to the
British nation upon principles of equal political freedom.
It had been originally acquired, not by a conquest made
under the direct authority of the executive government
of Britain, but by a company of merchants, who, by unit¬
ing the military superiority of Europeans with the arts of
commercial men, contrived gradually to subjugate one of
the fairest portions of the globe, containing a population
many times greater than that of their native country. The
progress of such a power towards empire was necessarily
attended with the most cruel hardships to the natives of
the subjugated country. When the mercantile invaders
possessed abundance of European troops, they employed
them in making direct conquests of additional territory;
when these troops were exhausted by war or by the cli¬
mate, or, having enriched themselves, had returned to Eu¬
rope loaded with the spoils of the East, and left their for¬
mer employers in that quarter in a state of considerable
weakness, the servants of the Company then exerted their
ingenuity to foment divisions among the native princes; and
when they could no longer act as principals, they appeared
as seconds in every quarrel, and obtained new territories as
the reward of their insidious aid. With such views they
formed and broke alliances without scruple; and, on re¬
ceiving supplies of troops from Europe, they were never
at a loss for pretences upon which to extend their domi¬
nion. All this was the natural result of the situation of
the British East India Company with regard to the na¬
tives of Hindustan. But as the jealousy of the neighbour¬
ing states of Europe, together with their equal progress
in the art of war, had long put an end to the extension of
conquests, and produced much political moderation in the
transactions of nations, many of the people of Great Bri¬
tain learned with astonishment that their countrymen had
conducted themselves in Hindustan in a manner which in
Europe would have been regarded with abhorrence. Ef¬
forts, however, had been made to ameliorate as much as
possible the government of India, by subjecting it, in a
considerable degree, to the direct authority of the execu¬
tive government of this country, instead of suffering it to
remain totally vested in a company of merchants; and
here it appears to have been wished that the affair should
be suffered to rest, and that whatever was past should be
overlooked and forgotten.
This, however, did not suit the present views of oppo¬
sition, Mr Burke, in particular, had been led by an ar¬
dent imagination to interest himself deeply in the calami¬
ties suffered by the natives of India; and the policy of
his party at this time coincided entirely with his feelings.
Accordingly he endeavoured with much eagerness to
bring to trial and punishment the most distinguished per¬
son who had recently figured upon the great theatre of
Indian affairs. But great obstacles stood in the way of
Mr Burke’s proposed attempt to procure a parliamentary
520
BRITAIN.
Ueign of conviction of Mr Hastings. He had to overcome a long
George III. series of unpopularity, the personal indifference which
jia(j been shown to him by the House of Commons, and
1786. tbeir indisposition so much as to give him a hearing, to¬
gether with the coldness of the nation at large regarding
complaints of East India delinquency. All these, how¬
ever, he surmounted by efforts of the most obstinate per¬
severance, and of consummate eloquence, upon the fertile
subject of cruelty, oppression, and treachery, committed
under the authority of the British government in the East;
the public attention was gradually attracted to the sub¬
ject ; and at last it formed the chief subject of conversa¬
tion and of political discussion in all parts of the island.
Mr Hastings had arrived in England on the 16th of
June 1785, and on the 20th of that month Mr Burke had
given notice of his intention to move for an inquiry into
the conduct of the ex-governor-general. On the day of
the meeting of parliament, in January this year, Major
Scott, the particular friend of Mr Hastings, publicly re¬
minded Mr Burke of the menace he had thrown out, and
requested Mr Burke speedily to decide upon the course he
was to pursue. Accordingly, about the middle of February,
this gentleman having resolved to proceed against Mr
Hastings, by moving the House of Commons to impeach
him at the bar of the House of Lords, endeavoured to
prepare for substantiating the charges which were to be
brought, by proposing that the house should order produc¬
tion of various papers ; and motions to this effect were re¬
newed by him at different periods. These motions gave
rise to a variety of debates, in which Mr Dundas, who, as
president of the board of control, now acted as minister
for India affairs, together with Sir Lloyd Kenyon, master
of the rolls, chiefly opposed Mr Burke, and threw con¬
siderable difficulties in his way. Mr Pitt appeared also
to be favourable to Mr Hastings ; but, upon the whole,
he preferred assuming the character of a candid and im¬
partial judge upon the occasion, affording neither protec¬
tion to the accused nor favour to the accuser. At last, in
the month of April, Mr Burke presented to the house his
charges against Mr Hastings, twenty-one in number; and
to these an additional article was afterwards added. The
charges were of various degrees of importance ; and some
of them had sufficient weight to excite a considerable de¬
gree of public interest. Mr Hastings was accused of driv¬
ing a whole people, the Rohillas, from their territory, with¬
out any show of cause for so doing; of arbitrarily confis¬
cating the property of the native princes, and imprisoning
them and their servants for the purposes of extortion; of
entering into war with the Mahrattas without necessity,
and treacherously delivering the Mogul into their hands
on the conclusion of peace; together with a variety of other
offences of minor importance. On the 26th of April Mr
Hastings presented a petition, requesting to be furnished
with a copy of the articles of impeachment, and to be heard
in his defence against them before any witnesses should be
examined. This request was at once granted; and Mr
Hastings having appeared at the bar, stated the great ef¬
forts which he had made for the aggrandisement of the
British power in the East, and entered into a defence of his
conduct on the particular points upon which he had been
accused. He asserted that the liohillas were a tribe of
adventurers, in driving whom from a usurped territory he
had only assisted in performing an act of necessary jus¬
tice ; that the princes or princesses whose property he was
accused of having seized for the use of the conquerors, had
deserved their misfortunes by their treachery and rebel¬
lion ; that the war with the Mahrattas had not been com¬
menced by him; that the terms of the pacification were al¬
most universally considered as advantageous ; and that the
Mogul having thrown himself into their hands, was entitled
to no protection from the British government. Upon the
other points he in like manner asserted, not only the inno- <
cence, but the meritorious nature of his conduct, resting
his defence chiefly upon such arguments as conquering
princes usually employ to justify encroachments upon their
weaker neighbours.
On the 1st of June Mr Burke brought forward in the
House of Commons his first charge, which related to the
expulsion of the Rohillas from their country, to the number
of sixty thousand men, women, and children. On this
occasion Mr Burke, exerting all his eloquence, represent¬
ed the prosecution as not merely a question respecting
the character of an individual, or brought forward for the
purpose of inflicting a hardship upon him, but as a mea¬
sure necessary for the establishment of the principle of
responsibility with regard to the future governors of our
distant possessions, and therefore as a national and im¬
perial question, decisive of the good or ill government of
millions yet unborn. He described, in interesting terms,
the character of the Rohillas, the simplicity of their man¬
ners, the prosperity of their country, and their zeal for
agriculture and commerce ; and he denied that there exist¬
ed any plausible ground to justify the assistance which Mr
Hastings had given to one of their rapacious neighbours
to expel them from their territory. After a debate, how¬
ever, the house decided that this charge did not contain
sufficient matter of impeachment against Mr Hastings.
The next article of crimination against Mr Hastings was
founded upon his alleged oppressive conduct towards Cheit
Sing, the rajah of Benares. From this prince he had first
arbitrarily demanded payment of a sum of money, in ad¬
dition to the ordinary tribute, and, on the rajah delaying
payment, imposed upon him a fine of half a million ster¬
ling; then he insulted him by an ignominious arrest, and
thereafter expelled him from his dominions. This charge
was opened with great ability by Mr Fox, and opposed
by Major Scott and Mr Grenville, who inveighed against
the rajah for his alleged unwillingness to support the Bri¬
tish power in a dangerous crisis, and for the favour he
had shown the schemes of its enemies. By this time the
repeated discussion of the subject had begun to interest
the public; and pamphlets were published, in which Mr
Hastings’ character was violently attacked, and as eager¬
ly defended. His conduct as a governor-general of India,
however, appeared to the majority of the people so totally
inconsistent with those ideas of equity which regulate the
opinions of men in this country, that a violent degree of po¬
pular indignation was excited against him. Hitherto, how¬
ever, he had been supported in the House of Commons by
those who usually adhered to administration; though Mr
Pitt himself had on all occasions declared his wish to act
candidly as a judge, and to avoid treating the matter as a
question to be supported by a particular party. But up¬
on this article of charge concerning the rajah of Benares
he entered into the views of Mr Fox; and having declared
himself satisfied that Mr Hastings had in this case acted
unjustifiably, it was determined by a majority that the ac¬
cusation contained matter of impeachment against the late
governor-general of Bengal.
During this session some further provisions were enact¬
ed for the better regulation of the government of India.
On the 7th of March a motion was made by Mr Francis,
and seconded by Mr Windham, for leave to bring in a bill
to explain and amend the act, formerly brought in and
carried through by Mr Pitt, for regulating Indian affairs.
Mr Francis censured strongly three different parts of Mr
Pitt’s act; first, that which establishes a double government
of India at home, by the court of directors and the board
of control; secondly, the excessive power, by means of a
constant casting voice in the council, which was bestowed
Reign of
1786.
BRIT
Reign of upon the governor-general of Bengal; and, thirdly, the in-
George III. stitution of a special court of justice for the trial of Indian
delinquents, which deprived such persons of the privilege
1787. 0f triai by jury. On the authority of Lord Macartney, Mr
Dundas defended the powers conferred upon the governor-
general of Bengal; and declared the necessity of a new
court of judicature, from the voluminous nature of the
evidence in the cases of Sir Thomas Rumbold and Mr
Hastings, which could not be gone through by the ordinary
form of jury trial. At the same time he stated it as his
intention to bring forward a bill for amending, in certain
respects, the regulating act of 1784. Mr Francis’s motion
was accordingly rejected; and on the 16th of March Mr
Dundas brought forward his new bill for the regulation of
India, which conferred still further powers upon the go¬
vernor-general, authorizing him to act in opposition to the
sense of his council when he thought fit to take the respon¬
sibility upon himself; united the offices of commander-in-
chief and governor-general; authorized the board of con¬
trol to inquire into the fortunes of persons serving in India;
and divided the service there into different branches, de¬
claring that the servants of the Company should rise by
gradation only in those branches of service for which they
had been prepared by their former habits. After a variety
of debates in both houses, the bill was passed.
The session of parliament terminated on the 11th of July,
and during the remainder of the year the British empire
enjoyed profound tranquillity. An incident, however, oc¬
curred, which called forth demonstrations of attachment to
the person of the king from all orders of men in the king¬
dom. On alighting from his carriage on the 2d of August,
a woman approached his majesty, under the pretence of
offering a petition, and at the same time aimed a thrust at
him with a knife, which, however, did no harm. Being
instantly seized, and examined by some members of the
privy council, with the assistance of several medical gentle¬
men, this woman, whose name was Margaret Nicholson,
proved to be insane, and was ordered to be confined for
life in Bethlehem Hospital. A public thanksgiving was
ordered for his majesty’s safety, and addresses of congra¬
tulation poured in from all parts of the country.
One of the most important measures of Mr Pitt’s ad¬
ministration was carried into effect in the autumn of this
year. It consisted of a commercial treaty, which, as we
have already stated, Mr Eden was sent to negociate with
France, and which was concluded on the 26th of September.
This treaty stipulated, in general terms, that there should
be a perfect liberty of navigation and commerce between
the subjects of the two sovereigns in all their European do¬
minions, with the view of giving fair encouragement to the
produce and manufactures of both countries ; and a parti¬
cular tariff was adjusted with regard to a great number of
commodities, while all articles which it did not include
were to be reciprocally imported on the terms allowed to
the most favoured nations. Each of the monarchs reserv¬
ed the right of countervailing, by additional taxes on cer¬
tain commodities, the internal duties imposed on the ma¬
nufactures, or the import charges paid on the raw mate¬
rial ; and it was also declared, that if either of the sove¬
reigns should be at war, every thing should be deemed free
which might be found in the ships of the respective na¬
tions, with the exception of goods usually deemed contra¬
band, even though the whole or a part of the lading should
belong to the enemies of the other state.
This treaty appears to have been acceptable to a con¬
siderable majority of the nation. When parliament as¬
sembled on the 23d of January 1787, it was announced in
the speech from the throne, and formed the first subject
of deliberation. When the usual address to the throne
was moved, Mr Fox remarked that the treaty in question
VOL. v.
AIN. 521
ought to be examined with much jealousy, on account of Reign of
its introducing an innovation into the established system Gemge^ ^
of our policy ; that all the wars of Great Britain had been 1737.
wars of necessity; and that the jealousy of the power of
France has been founded upon the fullest experience of
her ambitious character. If this was a mere commercial
treaty, the framers of it had only to prove that the new
channel of trade which it opened would not obstruct, or
would be more beneficial than, the other ancient channels
which this kingdom had long been in possession of, and
which had been found to be the sources of her commercial
wealth and prosperity. But if, on the other hand, the
treaty was intended as a political measure, and if minis¬
ters had in view such a close and intimate connection
with France as would in future render it difficult for the
two countries to go to war, strong and satisfactory rea¬
sons would be required for having pursued and concluded
a measure so new in the history of this kingdom, and of
such vast magnitude and importance. Mr Pitt reprobat¬
ed the principles stated by Mr Fox, in as far as they went
to sanction the policy of a constant animosity with brance.
Such a doctrine militated in the most direct manner possi¬
ble both against humanity and common sense; for if war is
the greatest of all evils, and commerce the chief blessing
which a country can enjoy, it must be the duty of those to
whom public affairs are intrusted, to endeavour as much
as possible to render the one permanent, and to remove
the prospect and danger of the other. This was the ob¬
ject of the present treaty; and the advantages likely to
arise from it would operate upon succeeding administra¬
tions in both countries, so as to induce them to avoid a war
as long as it could be done with honour and prudence,
and would also strengthen the resources of this nation
for carrying on hostilities whenever these should become
indispensably necessary. This was the true method of
making peace a blessing. The quarrels between France
and Britain had not only continued to harass those great
nations themselves, but had frequently embroiled the
rest of Europe, and had disturbed the tranquillity of the
most remote parts of the world. In time past they had
acted as if they were intended by nature for the destruc¬
tion of each other; but he hoped the period had now ar¬
rived when they would justify the order of the universe,
and show that they were better calculated for the purposes
of friendly intercourse and mutual benevolence.
On the 12th of February the house resolved itself into
a committee for the purpose of considering the commer¬
cial treaty with France, when Mr Pitt entered into a full
explanation and defence of the measure. He considered
it in three points of view; as affecting our manufactures,
our revenues, and our political situation. With respect
to the first, he showed, that though the treaty had been
formed upon principles of strict reciprocity, yet that this
country must, from the very nature of the case, unavoid¬
ably have the advantage. With regard to the effect of the
treaty upon the revenue, he remarked, that although a
considerable reduction must undoubtedly take place of the
duties upon French wines, and even upon Portuguese wines,
should the provisions of the Methuen treaty be still kept
in force, yet this would be balanced by the increased con¬
sumption, and by putting an end to the fraudulent manu¬
facture of home-made wine, which was brought to market
as foreign wine, a practice which no regulations of excise
had hitherto been able to suppress. And with reference
to the political tendency of the treaty, he recurred to his
former observations on that subject, which it is unneces¬
sary to repeat.
On the part of the manufacturers, it had been objected
to this treaty, that the proposed intimate connection with
France would afford opportunities of enticing away our
3 u
BRITAIN.
522
Reign of workmen, and conveying the tools and raw materials of our
George III. manufactures out of the kingdom. But to this it was an-
swered, that the law in regard to these matters would re-
main as formerly, and afford to our manufactures the same
protection as at present, by restraining the interference of
foreigners in regard to the matters alluded to. It was also
objected in general, that the commodities in which France
traded, being the produce of her soil, which could not
suffer in their quantity or quality by lapse of time, where¬
as our commodities being principally manufactures, which
owe all their value to skilful and ingenious labour, the
French might by degrees become as industrious and skil¬
ful as ourselves, and thereby enter into a successful com¬
petition with us in every branch of our present trade,
whilst our soil and climate rendered it impossible for us
to equal them in the articles of their produce. To this
it was answered, that the different nature of the objects of
British and French commerce was favourable to Britain,
on account of the superior population employed in bring¬
ing our manufactures to market; and, at all events, that
the threatened change could not occur in twelve years,
which was the whole duration of the treaty. The mem¬
bers of opposition objected to the treaty chiefly upon po¬
litical considerations. Mr Fox contended that the only
situation in which Great Britain could stand, in the gene¬
ral system of Europe, with honour, dignity, or safety, was
as a counterpoise to the power of France. Mr Francis re¬
proached Mr Pitt with a desertion of the principles of his
father Lord Chatham, the most prominent feature of whose
political character was Antigallicanism. Mr Flood, Mr
Sheridan, and others, expressed the same sentiments;
whilst Mr Powis and Mr Alderman Watson opposed the
treaty, as bringing the British commerce unnecessarily
into hazard at a time when it was extremely prosperous.
On the other hand, the treaty was defended by Mr Gren¬
ville, Mr Wilberforce, and Mr Dundas, and the resolution
proposed by Mr Pitt was carried, on a division, by a large
majority. In the House of Lords the treaty was warmly
opposed by Dr Watson, bishop of Llandaff, and by Lords
Loughborough, Stormont, and Porchester; but this oppo¬
sition proved as unavailing as that in the lower house.
During the present session a plan for consolidating into
one act of parliament the whole of the duties imposed by
the statutes of customs and excise, was brought forward
by Mr Pitt, and received the universal approbation of the
House of Commons. The duties imposed upon French
merchandise, in pursuance of the late commercial treaty,
were also included in the same act, although that part of
the measure was resisted by opposition.
On the 28th of March Mr Beaufoy, at the request of
the deputies of the dissenting congregations about London,
moved for the repeal of the corporation and test acts. He
observed that the test act was originally levelled against
the Roman Catholics, and the corporation act against those
sectaries who had agitated the kingdom in the times of
Charles I. and during the usurpation, but with whose cha¬
racter the dissenters of the present age had nothing in
common ; and he contended that, as every man had an un¬
doubted right to judge for himself in matters of religion,
he ought not, on account of the exercise of that right, to
incur any punishment, or to be branded with what is un¬
doubtedly a mark of infamy, an exclusion from military
service and civil trust. He referred to the examples of
Scotland, Holland, Russia, Prussia, and the dominions of
the emperor, in none of which religious opinions were now
made the ground of civil disqualification. Lord North spoke
against the proposed repeal, chiefly on the footing of the
hazard attending innovation. He denied that a man was
subjected to any punishment because he did not choose to
receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to
the usage of the church of England. He only deprived Reign of
himself of a privilege which he might otherwise enjoy, George III.
and which the law, for the safety of the church, had limit-
ed to persons of particular opinions. Mr Pitt supported D87*
the same view of the question, upon the ground of the
danger to the established church which would result from
intrusting official situations to dissenters. Mr Fox support¬
ed the motion in favour of the dissenters; remarking, how¬
ever, upon this occasion, that, from their conduct in a late
political revolution, he could not be suspected of being
biassed by an improper partiality towards them. The mo¬
tion was lost on a division by a majority of seventy-eight.
On the 20th of April Mr Alderman Newnham brought
under the view of the House of Commons the pecuniary
situation of the Prince of Wales, whose affairs had at this
time fallen into a state of embarrassment. In 1783, when
the prince came of age, Mr Fox and his colleagues, who
were then in office, wished to grant him an annual income
of L.100,000 ; but his majesty insisted that he should only
be allowed one half of that amount. In the year 1786 the
prince, having contracted a debt of L.100,000, exclusive
of L.50,000 expended upon Carlton House, applied to his
majesty to obtain relief from this incumbrance; and on
receiving a refusal, he instantly dismissed the officers of
his court, ordered his horses to be sold and the works
at Carleton House to be stopped, and reduced his house¬
hold to the scale of that of a private gentleman. By these
savings an annual sum of L.40,000 was vested in trustees
for the payment of his debts^ But this decisive and spi¬
rited conduct was represented at court as disrespectful to
the king; and from the period in question his majesty’s dis¬
satisfaction with the prince appears to have been no longer
concealed. On the occasion of the assault made upon the
king’s person by Margaret Nicholson, no notice of the ac¬
cident was sent by the court to the Prince of Wales; and
when, on receiving the intelligence, he instantly repaired
to Windsor, he was received there by the queen, but the
king did not see him. In these circumstances the prince
permitted his situation to be brought before the House of
Commons, with a view of submitting his conduct to the
judgment of the public. Accordingly, on the day already
mentioned, Mr Newnham demanded of the chancellor of
the exchequer whether ministers intended to bring for¬
ward any proposition for the relief of the Prince of Wales ;
at the same time alleging, that it would be disgraceful
to the nation to suffer him to remain longer in his present
reduced circumstances. Mr Pitt replied, that he had re¬
ceived no commands from his majesty upon the subject,
and that without such it was not his duty to bring forward
an affair of this nature. Mr Newnham then intimated his
intention of bringing forward a motion on the subject upon
the 4th of May. But on the 24th of April Mr Pitt request¬
ed to know the precise nature of the intended motion;
stating his wish to avoid a discussion of the subject, and
adding, that if it was persisted in, he would be under the
necessity of bringing before the public some circumstances
of extreme delicacy. At the same time Mr Rolle, an ad¬
herent of the ministry, declared that the question involved
matter by which the constitution both in church and state
might be essentially affected. This menace was believed
to allude to an intimate connection supposed to subsist be¬
tween the prince and Mrs Fitzherbert, a lady of a Roman
Catholic family, with whom it was alleged that the prince
had been married both by Catholic and Protestant clergy¬
men, although such a proceeding, even if it had taken place,
could be productive of no legal effects, in consequence of
the provisions of the royal marriage-act. Mr Newnham re¬
plied, that his intended motion would be for an address to
his majesty to relieve the Prince of Wales from his present
difficulties; and when some members expressed a wish that
BRITAIN.
Reign of the affair might be privately accommodated, Mr Sheridan
George III. declared, that after the insinuations and threats which had
been made, the prince could not possibly recede with ho-
1^8^* nour. Accordingly, on the 30th of April, when the subject
was again mentioned, Mr Fox, who had been absent during
the former debate, stated, that he had authority from the
prince to say, that there was no part of his conduct which
he would not willingly submit to public investigation. The
allusions made to something full of danger to the church
and state he treated as a tale fit to be imposed only on the
lowest of the vulgar; and added, that his royal highness
was ready, in the other house, as a peer of parliament, to
give his majesty, or his ministers, any assurances or satis¬
faction on the subject which they might require. Mr Fox,
at the same time, directly assured the house that the whole
story alluded to was untrue. The result therefore was, that
an accommodation took place. The prince was allowed an
annual addition to his income of L.10,000, and a sum of
L.180,000 was granted by parliament for the payment of
his debts.
But the subject which chiefly occupied the attention of
parliament during the present session was the accusation
of Mr Hastings. After examining Mr Middleton and Sir
Elijah Impey as witnesses in the beginning of February,
Mr Sheridan, on the 7th of that month, opened the third
charge against Mr Hastings, which set forth, that without
justice, or any excuse of political necessity, he had seized
the lands, and confiscated the treasures, of the begums or
princesses of Oude, the mother and grand-daughter of the
reigning nabob, and that he had even compelled the latter
to become the instrument of this robbery. Mr Sheridan’s
speech lasted five hours and a half. The subject of the
charge was well fitted for a display of all the powers of
pathetic eloquence, owing to the rank and sex of the par¬
ties whom, on this occasion, Mr Hastings was accused of
having treated with the most barbarous rapacity, treachery,
and cruelty. Every advantage was taken of these circum¬
stances by the eloquent accuser; and Mr Sheridan’s dis¬
course was considered as a model of splendid and impres¬
sive oratory. When he sat down, the whole house, which
was filled with members, peers, and strangers, instantly
joined in a loud and long-continued tumult of applause,
expressing their approbation in the irregular mode of re¬
peatedly clapping with their hands. Mr Burke declared
it to be the most astonishing effort of eloquence, argument,
and wit united, of which there was any record or tradi¬
tion ; Mr Fox said, that all that he had ever heard or
read, when compared with it, vanished like vapour before
the sun; and Mr Pitt asserted, that it surpassed all the
eloquence of ancient or modern times, and possessed every
resource which genius or art could furnish to control and
agitate the human mind. After a short suspension of the
debate, some of Mr Hastings’ friends attempted to speak
in reply, but found it impossible to procure a hearing.
At last some members proposed, that for the sake of de¬
corum, the debate should be adjourned; and this proposal
was carried. On the following day Mr Francis resumed
the charge, which was opposed by Mr Burgess, Major
Scott, Mr Nichols, Mr Vansittart, and Mr Alderman le
Mesurier. After having heard the arguments on both
sides, Mr Pitt rose, and having stated the sense he enter¬
tained of the high importance of the procedure against
Mr Hastings, and his endeavours to give to every fact
stated in each particular charge the fullest investigation,
declared himself fully satisfied that criminality was brought
home to Mr Hastings, though not perhaps to the full ex¬
tent alleged by the accusers. The motion for accusation
was accordingly carried, upon a division, by a very large
majority.
At a future period of the session other charges were
523
brought forward, and opened by Mr Thomas Pelham, Sir Reign of
James Erskine, Mr Whndham, and Mr Francis. Mr Pitt George IIL
adopted the cause of the accusers, and on some occasions,
though in a very mild tone, Mr Dundas did the same. '
At one period Lord Hood stood forward, and, in a very
solemn manner, requested the attention of the house to the
consequences of proceeding, with too scrupulous a nicety,
to canvass the conduct of those who had filled stations
abroad of high difficulty and important trust. Certain ac¬
tions, which appeared to those at a distance in a very cri¬
minal light, were yet, he alleged, on a nearer investiga¬
tion, perfectly justifiable on the grounds of absolute and
indispensable necessity; and if the dread of an impeach¬
ment by parliament were to be hung over every com¬
mander in whose hands was placed the defence of our na¬
tional possessions, it must necessarily operate as a danger¬
ous restraint on their exertions, when it was considered
that no general nor admiral had scarcely ever been fortu¬
nate enough to conduct himself in the performance of his
duty, so as not occasionally to fall into circumstances in
which the public service compelled him to do things in
themselves neither pleasing to his feelings, nor strictly
legal, but, from the indispensable necessities of their situa¬
tion, perfectly justifiable. But Mr Pitt denied that these
sentiments had any application to the case of Mr Hastings,
since no adequate political necessity had been pointed out
which could justify his conduct. In the course of the
proceedings, also, it appeared that several members were
disposed to consider the merits of Mr Hastings as in some
measure compensating his crimes; and thus, although they
voted his conduct criminal on particular occasions, they
had an intention of voting in his favour when the general
question should come to be proposed about the propriety
of proceeding to impeachment. But Major Scott took an
opportunity to declare that Mr Hastings and his friends
wished to decline such a mode of defence; and he read
to the house as a part of his own speech, a paper signed
by Mr Hastings, in which he requested, if a general vote
of criminality should pass against him, that they would
further proceed instantly to an impeachment, and thus af¬
ford him an opportunity of defending himself judicially.
A committee was at length appointed to prepare arti¬
cles of impeachment against Mr Hastings. It consisted
of Mr Burke, Mr Fox, Mr Sheridan, Sir James Erskine,
the Right Honourable Thomas Pelham, the Right Ho¬
nourable William Wyndham, the Honourable St Andrew
St John, John Anstruther, Esq. William Adam, Esq. M.
A. Taylor, Esq. Welbore Ellis, Esq. the Right Honour¬
able Frederick Montague, Sir Grey Cooper, Sir Gil¬
bert Elliot, Dudley Long, Esq. Lord Maitland, the Ho¬
nourable George Augustus North, General Burgoyne, and
Mr Grey. An attempt was made by Mr Burke to pro¬
cure the appointment of Mr Philip Francis as a member
of this committee, but without success. On the 25th of
April Mr Burke presented the articles of impeachment,
which were read, and ordered to be printed, and consider¬
ed on the 9th of May. Upon that day Lord Hood re¬
peated his former arguments, and was supported by Mr
Smith and the notorious John Wilkes. This last person
insisted strongly on the silence of the natives of India re¬
specting the dreadful oppression said to have been prac¬
tised against them, and attributed the greater part of what
appeared criminal in the conduct of Mr Hastings to the
craving and avaricious policy of this country, whose de¬
mands had in some instances driven Mr Hastings to the
use of means not strictly justifiable. The amount of the
charges, supposing the facts to be true, was, in his opi¬
nion, this, that Mr Hastings, by oppression, by injustice,
and by corruption, had obtained for the East India Com¬
pany nine millions and a half sterling. Mr Wilkes thought
BRITAIN.
524
Reign of the acts complained of politic and just, and declared that
George III. lie could not vote for the impeachment of Mr Hastings,
while he benefited by his misdeeds. He added, that it
l‘?87‘ appeared incomprehensible to him how gentlemen who
condemned his actions suffered a day to pass without pro¬
posing retribution to the sufferers. The lord advocate of
Scotland, Mr Hay Campbell, also supported this view;
considering the necessities of the Company, and the dan¬
gerous crisis of their affairs, as grounds of justification for
the strong measures pursued by Mr Hastings, in order to
extricate them; and declaring that, as the Company had
actually reaped the benefit of them, and so far approved
of them as never to signify any intention of restitution, he
could not conceive with what propriety Mr Hastings could
be impeached. Mr Pitt acknowledged that many measures
during the administration of Mr Hastings were uncom¬
monly brilliant, and that in these his merits were unques¬
tionable ; but he trusted that no man who seriously regard¬
ed the honour of the House of Commons would think that
the justice of the country could admit of any compromise
whatever.
The question of impeachment w'as therefore carried by
a large majority ; and on the 10th of May, at the bar of
tbe House of Lords, Mr Burke, in the name of the House
of the Commons of Great Britain, impeached Warren
Hastings, Esq. late governor-general of Bengal, of high
crimes and misdemeanors; and informed the Lords that
the Commons would, with all convenient speed, exhibit
and make good articles against him. On the 21st of the
same month, upon the motion of Mr Burke, Mr Hastings
was taken into the custody of the serjeant at arms of the
house; but he was immediately admitted to bail by the
House of Lords, himself in the sum of L.20,000, and two
sureties in L.10,000 each. But as the session of parlia¬
ment w'as prorogued on the 30th of May, the trial was
necessarily postponed to another session, and by various
delays it was ultimately protracted to an extraordinary
length.
The impeachment of Mr Hastings, from the attention
which it excited, and the talents which were exerted in car¬
rying it through, undoubtedly forms an event of consider¬
able importance in British history. It ended in the acquit¬
tal of the party accused ; but the immense expense which
he incurred, and the uneasiness which he must have suf¬
fered from the odium excited against him, unquestionably
amounted to a very severe punishment. A British House
of Commons held him guilty of inhumanity, rapacity,
perfidy, and tyranny, towards a numerous and civilised
people, who had been subjected to his power; and these
sentiments were so widely diffused throughout Great Bri¬
tain, that the minister of the day, always studious of popu¬
larity, thought it necessary to join in the general current of
opinion. But to enable the reader to appreciate correctly
the merits of Mr Hastings, or the reasonableness of the
accusations which were brought against him, it is neces¬
sary to consider correctly the situation in which that gen¬
tleman stood. He was invested by the British East India
Company with absolute power over a large portion of Hin¬
dustan, in order to govern for th<? profit of the Company,
and if possible to acquire for them still more extensive
territories. To fulfil the purposes for which he was em¬
ployed, it was necessary for him to procure a large reve¬
nue for the Company, and at the same time to enable the
young men of rank, whom they sent out in their service,
to return speedily to Britain loaded with wealth; these
being the only objects on account of which the East India
Company, or the British nation, had made efforts for the
conquest of the East. But such objects evidently imply,
not that Hindustan was to be mildly and generously go¬
verned, but that it was to be plundered to the utmost
extent which it could bear without ruin. Accordingly, Reign of
in 1782, Mr Hastings, in one of his letters, complained George IIL
strongly of the cruelty of his situation, and of the expen- '**7^**'
sive establishments and offices which he was under the ne-
cessity of constituting in India, in order to gratify the ava¬
rice of his employers; declaring that he had at that time
about him two hundred and fifty persons, the younger
sons of the first families in Britain, all looking up to him
for patronage, and expecting to be put in possession of
sudden riches. But these riches, it is evident, could not
be drawn from the natives of Hindustan without much
oppression ; and when this oppression produced rebellion,
or combinations of the native princes against the British
power, it became necessary to be guilty of further op¬
pression, or more grievous extortion, to collect means by
which to overcome the resistance of an oppressed people.
It is admitted on all hands that Mr Hastings was almost
unboundedly successful in the service of his employers.
He sent home annually great numbers of men loaded with
the plunder of the East; while at the same time, by great
activity and intrepidity, he collected resources wherewith
to maintain and extend the British power, and was enabled
to support it in all quarters against the most extensive
combinations of the princes of that country. Now there
are two systems of morality according to which the cha¬
racter of such a man as Mr Hastings may be tried. The
one is founded upon the principle of obedience to his em¬
ployers, and fidelity to the trust reposed in him; and the
other upon the eternal law of humanity. According to
the first of these, that conduct is most worthy of applause
which tends in the highest degree to promote the interest
of those whom we serve; and, considered in this point of
view, the merits of Warren Hastings have seldom been
surpassed. It is true that he plundered the provinces of
the East; but it was to aggrandise and enrich his country
that he did so. He accounted their persons and fortunes
as of little consideration; but he did so because he was
the devoted servant of Britain. Accordingly, the French,
whose public enemy he had been, regarded him with ad¬
miration, and uniformly extolled his actions as more than
human. But if, in opposition to all this, we are to weigh
the conduct of Mr Hastings by those maxims of morality
which assume the immutable law of humanity as the rule
by which human actions ought to be regulated, there can
be no doubt that he must be condemned. He can only be
regarded as one of those robbers of nations, to whose crimes
historians and poets have given a too fatal celebrity. He
was guilty of plundering and oppressing a pacific race of
men, at the extremities of the earth, in whose aftairs nei¬
ther he nor his country had any right to interfere. But
the principal criminals in this case were the British East
India Company, the British legislature, and the British
nation, who sent him upon such a service. Mr Hastings
was only the guilty tool of a guilty people; and surely it
ill became the British House of Commons, which had au¬
thorized the acquisition of conquests, or, in other words,
sanctioned rapine and oppression, in the East, and whose
constituents had become rich by the plunder or the pro¬
fits of such enterprises, to accuse as a criminal the most
successful servant of the state. John W ilkes and the lord
advocate for Scotland appear, therefore, to have rested Mr
Hastings’ defence upon an unanswerable footing, when
they considered his crimes as services, which he was em¬
ployed by his country to perform for its aggrandisement,
and for the moral rectitude of which he could not be re¬
sponsible to that power from which he derived his commis¬
sion, and which scrupled not to reap the fruit of his labours.
During the year 1787, the amity subsisting between
Britain and France seemed likely to be disturbed, in con¬
sequence of the affairs of Holland. The grounds of dif-
B R I T A I N.
525
Reign of ference, indeed, were speedily adjusted; but the events
George III. out of which they arose are worthy of notice, on account
of their tendency to explain some future occurrences in
t]ie history of Europe. The state of the Dutch republic
always had been regarded as of much importance by Great
Britain. That country, being situated upon the mouths
of the navigable rivers which communicate with some of
the most important parts of the European continent, holds
as it were the keys of the different passages by which our
manufactures reach their places of ultimate sale and con¬
sumption ; and in the most important efforts for reducing
the power of France, the Dutch had acted along with the
British nation. In the history of the United Provinces,
during a couple of centuries, two parties were always found
struggling for superiority. The one was that of the house
of Orange, which had been originally raised to power in
consequence of the talents of its chiefs, united with their
rank and property, which had induced the states to intrust
to them the direction of their armies, first against the
Spanish monarchy, from which the united provinces had^
originally revolted, and afterwards against the power of
France. By their great public services, the princes of
the house of Orange had established in their own favour
a kind of hereditary claim to the offices which they held
in the republic, of stadtholder, captain-general of the
forces, and admiral; and thus there existed in their persons,
in succession, a kind of limited monarchy, by which the
Dutch republic was influenced and led, rather than for¬
mally governed. The second party in the Dutch republic
consisted of a kind of aristocracy, composed of the senates
or town-councils of different cities, which possessed the
power of nominating to the vacancies in their own order,
that is, of electing their own successors in office. This
party was usually denominated the Party of the States, or
the Republican Party. Its members were, in point of form,
the sovereigns of the country, as well as the wealthiest in¬
dividuals in it; and the chief constitutional control which
the stadtholder possessed over them, was founded on a
regulation established by William III. prince of Orange,
in 1674, by which he enjoyed a negative in the elections
of town governments, and a power, in certain cases, of in¬
troducing members into them. But it is to be observed,
that the mass of the people, who always find greater safe¬
ty under the dominion of one superior than under that of
a multitude of petty local chiefs, were decidedly attached
to the house of Orange, or to the power of the stadtholder,
in opposition to that of the town senates or republican par¬
ty; and the ancient nobles also, together with the clergy
of the established church, and the officers of the army and
navy, adhered to the same family, and thereby enabled it
on ordinary occasions to support its power against the par¬
ty of the states.
During the participation of the United Provinces in the
late war against Great Britain, a proposal had been made
to enrol bodies of volunteers in the different towns, for the
purpose of internal defence. The senates of the towns,
that is, the aristocratical, or, as they called themselves, the
republican party, encouraged the formation of these arm¬
ed bodies of burghers, over whom at their first enrolment
they had complete influence, as affording them a kind of
counterpoise against the military power, which, although
paid by them, was commanded by the stadtholder. But
these bodies of citizens, as soon as they had been trained to
the use of arms, began to be sensible of their importance.
The opinions propagated in North America during the
war were known over all Europe, and being received with
considerable avidity by the Dutch volunteers, produced
in that country a kind of third or democratic party, the ob¬
ject of which was to procure for the citizens of the towns
a share in the nomination of the magistrates. But as the
volunteer associations were originally the creatures of the Reign of
senates or aristocracy, for the purpose of counteractingGeOTgell^.
the power of the stadtholder, so they appear, in their fust
movements, to have been directed by that faction. One
of these movements took place at Utrecht. The armed
burghers, amounting to upwards of two thousand, present¬
ed a petition to the states of the province of Utrecht, re¬
questing them to abolish the regulation of 1674, by which
the stadtholder was enabled to influence the nomination
of the magistracy; and they presented an address of a si¬
milar nature to the town senate of Utrecht, and to the
prince of Orange. As might have been expected, the an¬
swer of the prince was unfavourable ; but the magistrates
of Utrecht, in compliance with the wishes of the armed
burghers, proceeded to fill up a vacancy in their own num¬
ber'without consulting the prince. This event occurred
in January 1784 ; but it appears that, in the course of the
same year, either from the intrigues of the stadtholder s
court, or a dread of betaking themselves to the assistance
of the new and dangerous democratic party, the states
of the province and town senate of Utrecht deserted
the cause of the armed burghers, whom they themselves
had instigated to action, and recalled or annulled the
steps towards innovation which they had previously taken.
Meanwhile the senate and the armed burghers continued
alternately to menace each other. But, by degrees, a spi¬
rit of political reform diffused itself from Utrecht to the
different towns in the provinces where bodies of volunteers
or armed burghers had been established. The armed
burghers of Utrecht elected a representative body to
watch over the management of public affairs, and various
other towns followed the example; but these representa¬
tive bodies soon quarrelled with the old senates; and the
prince of Orange appears to have had it in his power to se¬
lect either of the parties he might think fit as his adherents.
His ancient enemies were the aristocracy or town senates ;
but as he could not, without a total alteration of the consti¬
tution of the United Provinces, derive a regular and legal
support from the bodies of armed burghers, he resolved to
support the ancient magistracies, and to rest his power
upon its former footing of influence over these magistra¬
cies, though he knew them to be his rivals in political im¬
portance. It would seem, however, that the aristocracy of
the province of Holland, who had always been the most
decided enemies of the family of Orange, were not satis¬
fied with the disposition of the prince to support the an¬
cient constitution, and resolved to undermine or overthrow
his power, even at the hazard of a revolution, which must
be equally fatal to their own. But this aristocratical body
was not of an enterprising character, and rather waited
than attempted to direct the course of political events;
while, in consequence of the support afforded by the stadt¬
holder to the senates of Utrecht and other places, the
armed burghers throughout the whole United Provinces
became disposed to act in opposition to him. Meanwhile
the populace of the Hague retained their usual attachment
to his person and family. On the 4th of September 1785,
twelve volunteers of the corps of the town of Leyden ap¬
peared at the Hague in uniform. Offended by this appa¬
rent defiance, the populace attacked and drove them into a
neighbouring house, the windows of which they smashed ;
but a part of the garrison, without interfering with the
populace, took the volunteers into custody, and sent them
home privately by night. This riot, however, served as a
pretext to the states of Holland for superseding the prince
of Orange in the command of the garrison at the Hague,
which they intrusted to the deputies of Haerlem, a town
long noted for its zeal in opposition to the stadtholder;
and as the prince had been engaged in endless contro¬
versies with the states of Holland, in which the strength
526
BRITAIN.
1787.
Iteign of of the aristocratical party was concentrated, this affront
George III. drove him to the resolution of leaving the Hague, which
J he did on the 14th September 1785. He applied for pro¬
tection to Great Britain, whose cause he had uniformly sup¬
ported, and to the king of Prussia, who was the uncle of his
wife. The aristocratical party, on the contrary, made ap¬
plication to the court of Versailles, which it had support¬
ed by entering into the confederacy against Great Britain,
and from which it had always received encouragement;
and at the same time it endeavoured to effect a union with
the armed burghers.
In the mean time Frederick II. of Prussia died, and was
succeeded by his nephew, Frederick \yiMiarn> the brother-
in-law of the stadtholder. The French court appeared
to espouse with vigour the combined aristocratical and
democratical parties in the United Provinces; but the
new king of Prussia hesitated to engage in a dispute with
France; and there is little doubt that, had the French on
this occasion shown themselves ready to act with vigour
in support of their party in Holland, the stadtholder must
have fallen before his enemies. But the French monarchy,
under a benevolent and well-meaning though weak prince,
was at this period rapidly sinking into a state of great feeble¬
ness, owing to the extreme embarrassment of its finances.
A negociation was indeed proposed between the courts of
France and Berlin, for the purpose of adjusting, in some
friendly manner, the differences between the stadtholder
and his enemies. But the weakness of France becoming
gradually more apparent, Prussia and Great Britain were
induced to take a more decisive part in the affairs of Hol¬
land, chiefly in consequence of the suggestions of the Bri¬
tish ambassador at the Hague, Sir James Harris. The
stadtholder, who had now established himself at Nimeguen,
was a man of little activity or enterprise; but his prin¬
cess being of a different character, ventured to undertake
a journey to the Hague, unaccompanied by her husband,
probably with a view to what actually happened. On the
28th of June 1787 she was arrested by some troops of the
opposite party; and this circumstance afforded an excuse
to the king of Prussia for interfering in the internal affairs
of the United Provinces, in order to demand reparation for
the insult offered to his sister.
A Prussian army, commanded by the Duke of Bruns¬
wick, the brother-in-law of the king of Great Britain, im¬
mediately prepared to invade Holland; and to secure ad¬
ditional aid to the Prince of Orange, a treaty was conclud¬
ed between Great Britain and the landgrave of Hesse-Cas-
sel, for the assistance of twelve thousand troops. In the
mean time the United Provinces remained in a state of
great internal distraction. The defects of their political
constitution had originally occasioned the appointment of
a stadtholder; and there had yet been substituted in its
stead no simple system, which, by doing away the distinc¬
tions of states and provinces, might unite the force of the
country, for the purpose of enabling it to resist such power¬
ful aggression as that with which it was now threatened.
The promised aid from France did not arrive ; and although
troops had been levied by the states of Holland, the chief
command of them was intrusted to the rhingrave of Salm,
a man whose character appears to have inspired little con-
hdence. Meanwhile the Duke of Brunswick, at the head
of a powerful army, entered the country. The reputation
ot the 1 russian armies in Europe was at this time extreme-
y great, and the frontier towns of Holland, which were
capable of resisting regular sieges, were now taken with-
°r4.if s^'uSg}e> It is unnecessary to detail the progress
^ iA lussian troops, which was extremely rapid, since
in little more than a fortnight the republican party found
itself confined to the city of Amsterdam. This city was
besieged on the first of October; and after much negocia-
1787.
tion, and a variety of attacks, it admitted a foreign garri- Reign of
son to take possession of its gates. The influence of France George III.
was thus totally annihilated in Holland, and the authority '
of the stadtholder restored; but it was restored by the
powei of Prussia and Britain alone ; and the consequence
was, that a decided enmity to these two countries, from
that period, took possession of the minds of a great por¬
tion of the inhabitants of the Dutch territories.
When the British parliament met on the 27th of No¬
vember 1787, the most remarkable circumstance alluded
to in the king’s speech was the state of Holland. It was
there mentioned, that the disputes in the republic of the
United Provinces had become so critical as to endanger
their constitution and independence ; that his majesty had
endeavoured by good offices to maintain the lawful govern¬
ment of those countries, and judged it necessary to ex¬
plain his intention of counteracting forcible interference
on the part of France; that, accordingly, when his most
Christian majesty, in consequence of an application for as¬
sistance by the party which had usurped the government
°1 Holland, had notified his intention of granting their re¬
quest, his majesty had declared that Britain could not re¬
main an unconcerned spectator, and immediate orders had
been issued for augmenting the forces both by sea and
land; that the rapid success of the Prussian troops having
soon after enabled the provinces to re-establish their lawful
government, an amicable explanation had ensued between
him and the most Christian king; and that both parties had
engaged to disarm, and to place their naval establishments
on the same footing as at the beginning of the year. When
the address was moved, Mr Fox took an opportunity of
expressing the fullest approbation of the measures which
had been lately pursued, and took credit to himself as
one of those who had invariably been of opinion that this
country is at all times deeply interested in the situation
of affairs upon the Continent, and ought, whenever occa¬
sion required, to take an active and vigorous part in pre¬
serving the balance of power in Europe. In the House of
Lords the Bishop of Llandaff also expressed his satisfac¬
tion at seeing the republic of the United Provinces again
united in its views with Great Britain.
During the interference of Great Britain and Prussia
in the affairs of Holland, and whilst a dread was enter¬
tained that the discontented party in the provinces might
receive assistance from France, and preparations were on
that account made for fitting out a fleet, the lords of the
admiralty had promoted sixteen captains of the navy to
the rank of admirals. In this promotion a selection had
been made, by which upwards of forty senior captains were
passed over; a circumstance which gave rise to various de¬
bates in parliament. To understand the subject, it is ne¬
cessary to remark, that in 1718 an order of council direct¬
ed the lords of the admiralty, in promoting officers to the
rank of admirals in the navy, to prefer the senior captains,
providing only that they were duly qualified for the rank
to which they were to be promoted. And by a subsequent
order of 1747 the lords of the admiralty were authorized
to place such captains as should be found incapable, by
reason of age or infirmity, of serving as admirals, upon the
list of superannuated admirals, usually called the list of the
yellow admirals. In the promotion above mentioned the
board of admiralty had offered to place upon the list of
yellow or superannuated admirals most of the captains who
were passed over; but these, from their capacity for future
service, conceiving themselves entitled to the rank of act¬
ing admirals, had refused the retreat which wras offered
them ; and a general disgust prevailed among the officers in
the navy, on finding that their hopes of employment in ac¬
tive service must at all times depend on their interest with
the first lord of the admiralty. On the 20th of February
f
BRITAIN.
527
178H-
Reign of 1788 Lord Rawdon, in the House of Lords, stated their
George III. case, and proposed an address to his majesty upon the sub¬
ject. But the first lord of the admiralty, Lord Howe, jus¬
tified the exercise of a discretionary power by the board
in promoting navy captains to the rank of acting admirals,
upon the ground that a man might be fit to command a sin¬
gle ship who ought not to be intrusted with the care of a
fleet; and Lord Sandwich admitted the impropriety of in¬
terfering with the executive government in an affair of this
nature ; upon which Lord Rawdon’s proposal was rejected.
The same subject was also brought before the House of
Commons in various forms, and supported by almost all
the naval officers who had seats in the house. But Mr
Pitt defended the admiralty, by declaring that no degree
of misconduct had been stated sufficient to authorize the
interference of parliament with the exercise of its powers;
and the board was protected from censure by a small ma¬
jority.
At this time a bill was brought into parliament for sub¬
jecting to higher penalties than formerly all persons who
should export wool from the country, the object of it
being to confirm the monopoly enjoyed by our own manu¬
facturers in that article. The manufacturers asserted, that
thirteen thousand packs of British wool were annually
smuggled into France, which tended to raise the price of
the commodity against our own manufacturers. Several
country gentlemen, however, opposed the bill, as an unjust
hardship upon the profits of land in this country, which
ought to have the world open as a market for its produc¬
tions ; but the minister, who was aware of the importance
of enjoying popularity with the commercial part of the na¬
tion, gave full countenance to the bill, which accordingly
passed into a law.
In his financial exposition of the revenue, Mr Pitt made
some remarks as to the improving state of the country,
which are not unworthy of being noticed. He stated that
the receipt of the permanent taxes, in the year 1787, ex¬
clusive of the land and malt tax, had been L.13,000,000,
whereas the receipt of the taxes in the year 1783 had only
been L.l 0,184,000. Thus there was an increase of revenue
amounting to three millions, of which not more than one
million and a half accrued from new taxes. In trade, navi¬
gation, and fisheries, the progressive improvement had kept
pace with the increase of revenue. In the year 1772 the
imports were L.14,500,000, and the exports L.16,000,000;
in 1787 the imports were about L.15,800,000, and the ex¬
ports amounted to L.16,600,000. Navigation had in like
manner increased. The Newfoundland fishery in 1773 pro¬
duced 516,000 quintals; but in 1786 it produced 732,000.
In 1773 the Greenland fishery gave employment to 27,000
tons of shipping; but in 1786 the amount employed was
53,000. The southern whale fishery, a new and valuable
branch of trade, which only commenced at the beginning
of the last war, had also prospered equally. In this fishery,
in 1785, there were employed eighteen ships, producing
L.20,000, whereas in 1787 th.ere were employed thirty-
eight ships, producing L.107,000. The general result,
therefore, showed that the commerce and industry of the
country were in a prosperous condition, and extending
themselves in every direction.
On the 8th of June Mr Pitt called the attention of the
house to the compensation which was intended to be made
to the American loyalists, on account of the losses sus¬
tained by them from their adherence to this country dur¬
ing the American war. He divided the loyalists who had
made claims of compensation into four classes. In the
first class he ranked those who had resided in America
at the commencement of the war, and who had been ob¬
liged to abandon their estates and property, which were
seized and confiscated by the Americans, and he proposed
that loyalists of this class who had not lost more than Reign of
L.10,000 should receive full compensation; for losses above
that sum, and below L.35,000, ninety per cent, on the ex-
cess above L.10,000; for losses above L.35,000 and under #
L.50,000eighty-five per cent.on the excessaboveL.10,000;
and for losses above L.50,000 eighty per cent, on all above
L.10,000. The next class of claimants, consisting of those
who had lost property in America, but who had resided in
England during the war, Mr Pitt proposed to indemnify
also in full to the amount of L.10,000; but that all whose
claimsamounted to from L.10,000 to L.30,000 should suffer
a deduction of twenty per cent., and a further additional de¬
duction of twenty per cent, in progression upon every addi¬
tional L.50,000 claimed. Of the third class of claimants,
consisting of loyalists who had enjoyed places and exer¬
cised professions in America, which, by adhering to this
country, they had lost or been forced to abandon, he pro¬
posed to put upon half pay those whose incomes amounted
to no more than L.400 per annum, and to grant forty per
cent, upon any excess of income above L.400 per annum,
unless the income exceeded L.1500 per annum, in which
case thirty per cent, only was to be allowed upon the ex¬
cess of income above L.400 per annum. Lastly, it was
proposed to pay the full amount of their claims to persons
connected with West Florida, because, by the treaty of
peace, that country had been ceded by Britain to a foreign
power. Mr Pitt concluded by moving, that, in order to
satisfy these claims, L.l,228,239 should be voted to the
several American claimants, and L.l 13,952 14s. fd. to the
Florida claimants ; and the motion was unanimously agreed
to. The liberality with which the British nation acted
upon this occasion merits high approbation, as an instance
of the wisest policy, from its tendency, in future discontents
or insurrections in the subordinate parts of the empire, to
secure the attachment of persons of property to the cause
of the mother country. As the claims of the American
loyalists were stated by themselves, and not scrutinized
with extreme severity, it was generally understood that
these persons were in very few instances ultimate losers
by the part which they had taken ; a circumstance of which
the public did not disapprove.
The trade carried on by Great Britain and other Euro¬
pean nations upon the coast of Africa, for the purchase of
negro slaves to be employed in the cultivation of the West
India islands, and certain parts of the continent of Ame¬
rica, does not appear to have been at this time considered
with that general attention which a practice so abhorrent
in its nature to the mild principles of modern policy and
manners might have been expected to excite. Ihis may
probably have been owing, partly to the distance of the ob¬
ject, which tended both to conceal the sufferings, and to
lessen the sympathy of the public for the unfortunate suf¬
ferers ; and partly to the connivance of politicians, unwil¬
ling to examine too severely into the nature of the means
by which distant colonies were enabled to pour luxury and
wealth into the bosom of the mother country. The first
public attempt made to put a stop to this traffic was by
the Quakers of the southern provinces of America, who,
soon after the establishment of their independence, not
only presented a strong and pathetic address to their se¬
veral legislative assemblies on this subject, but actually
proceeded in many instances to emancipate the slaves in
their own possession. In Great Britain the same sect ap¬
pears also to have taken the lead; and, after the example
of their American brethren, they presented, in 1787, a pe¬
tition to the parliament of this kingdom. The cause soon
afterwards became extremely popular, and was taken up
with great zeal and earnestness by various descriptions of
people. A society was formed; a considerable sum of
money was subscribed for the purpose of collecting infor-
1
—
528
BRITAIN.
lieign of mation and supporting the expense of an application to
George III-parliament; a great number of pamphlets were published
upon the subject; several eminent divines recommended
1^88- the abolition from the pulpit and in printed discourses;
and, in the present session, petitions against the slave-trade
were presented from the two English universities, and from
several of the most considerable towns and corporations in
the kingdom. By a sort of general consent, Mr Wilber-
force had been intrusted with the care of bringing the
business before the House of Commons ; but he being pre¬
vented by ill health, Mr Pitt, on the 9th of May, proposed
that the house should come to a resolution to take into con¬
sideration the circumstances of the slave-trade early in the
next session. He added, that the privy-council had ap¬
pointed a committee to inquire into the matter, and that
next session the result would probably be laid before the
house to facilitate their investigations. Mr Fox and Mr
Burke expressed their regret on account of the proposed
delay ; lamenting that the privy-council, who had received
no petitions from the people, should have instituted an in¬
quiry, and that the House of Commons, whose table was
loaded with them from every part of the kingdom, should
not have instituted an inquiry at all. Sir William Dolben
called the attention of the house to the condition of the
slaves in that intermediate state of misery which they suf¬
fered in their transportation from the coast of Africa to
the West Indies, entering into a short detail of the horrors
of the middle passage, and declaring himself ready to bring
evidence to the bar to prove the fact. This called aloud
for a remedy, and that remedy ought to be applied imme¬
diately ; for if parliament delayed doing so, ten thousand
lives would be lost between the present session and the be¬
ginning of the next. This suggestion met with general
approbation; and a bill was accordingly brought in and
passed into a law for regulating the transportation of the
natives of Africa to the British colonies in the West Indies.
During this session the affairs of India still continued
to occupy the attention of the legislature and of the pub¬
lic. Under the apprehension of a rupture with France
on account of the affairs of Holland, government had re¬
solved to send out four'additional regiments to India, on
board the Company’s ships, for the protection of our pos¬
sessions in that quarter; and the proposal had been re¬
ceived with approbation by the court of directors ; but
even after the danger was past, government still adhered
to their resolution of sending out these regiments, with a
view to form a permanent establishment of kings troops in
that quarter of the world. Hence a question arose with
the court of directors of the East India Company, about the
expense of sending out, and afterwards paying, these troops.
By an act passed in the year 1781, the Company were de¬
clared liable for the expense attending such troops only as
should be sent out upon their own requisition. But admi¬
nistration now contended, that the act brought forward by
Mr Pitt in 1784, which gave to the board of control a power
of counteracting the orders of the court of directors, and
of directing the application of the Company’s revenues,
ought to be understood as authorizing that board to carry
into effect the proposed measure. The court of directors,
however, having obtained the opinion of some eminent
lawyers in their favour, refused to take the troops on board
the ships which were about to sail for India ; and for this
reason, on the 25th of February, Mr Pitt proposed, in the
House of Commons, that all difficulties should be removed
by a declaratory act, stating the intention of the legisla¬
ture, in the act of 1784, to have been conformable to the
construction put upon it by the board of control. This
mode of proceeding was strongly opposed, upon the grounds
that the claims of government upon the Company ought
to be tried in a court of law, instead of being brought be-
fore the House of Commons, where administration pos- Ileignof
sessed an undue influence ; that the measure was in itself George HI.
ill judged, as it would have been more economical to per¬
mit the Company to raise four regiments, which would have
enabled them to provide for many of their own officers,
who were living in India in very distressed situations, in
consequence of having been reduced at the peace; and
that the mode of sending out recruits to complete the
king’s regiments at that time in India might have been
adopted with more advantage to the Company, as it would
have enabled them to avoid the additional burden of all
the officers of four new regiments. But the point on
which the declaratory act was chiefly resisted referred to
its tendency to deprive the East India Company of the
management of its own affairs, and of the patronage aris¬
ing from its revenues, which, at the time when Mr Pitt’s
bill was passed, had never been understood to be the in¬
tention of the legislature or of government. Mr Pulteney,
and some other members who usually voted with Mr Pitt,
now declared that they supported his bill in 1784 only be¬
cause it appeared to preserve uninjured the rights of the
East India Company; and that the construction attempt¬
ed to be put upon it in the declaratory act rendered it
fully as obnoxious as the celebrated bill rejected by the
Lords in 1783 ; with this difference only, that what the one
had for its professed object only and without disguise, the
other was attempting to effect by fraud and dissimulation.
Other members also expressed similar sentiments, which
excited great triumph on the part of Mr Fox and his
friends, who loudly congratulated themselves upon the
complete justification which his India bill had now obtain¬
ed, by the tacit confession of his adversaries themselves.
In support of the declaratory act, Mr Pitt contended, that
the express object of the institution of the board of con¬
trol was to take the entire management of the territorial
possessions and the political government of India out of
the hands of the Company, leaving them only the direc¬
tion of their commercial concerns ; that the board of con¬
trol was in future to be responsible to the public for the
prosperity and safety of our Indian possessions, and was
therefore to be invested with the powers necessary for
the due discharge of its important duties; and that admi¬
nistration in 1784 had not held any other language with re¬
gard to its nature, or the authority which it was to possess.
On the 5th of March the bill was passed by a consider¬
able majority. In the House of Lords the Marquis of
Lansdown opposed it on nearly the same grounds as had
been urged in the Commons, but with as little success.
And upon the whole, if the augmentation of the power of
the crown was at this period a misfortune, it was a mis¬
fortune which the conquest of India appears to have ren¬
dered inevitable. The East India Company, by whom
the conquest had been made, was admitted to have shown
itself unfit to govern that great country. The manage¬
ment of it, therefore, naturally devolved upon the execu¬
tive government, unless the constitution itself was to be
endangered, by intrusting the exercise of new and unusual
powers to some branch of the legislature ; or, unless a new
kind of authority or power was to be created, like that
attempted by Mr Fox’s India bill, the result of which, as
a political experiment upon the constitution, or mode of
administering part of the affairs of the empire, was neces¬
sarily hazardous, because heretofore entirely without ex¬
ample in our history.
The attention of the nation still continued to be occu¬
pied in no small degree by the prosecution of Mr Hast¬
ings. The members of the committee which during the
preceding session had prepared the articles of impeach¬
ment, were now appointed to act as managers for the
House of Commons in conducting the trial; and on the
BRITAIN.
529
1788.
Reign of 13th of February the trial commenced with extraordinary
George III. solemnity in Westminster Hall, which had been fitted
up for the purpose. At an early hour the Commons,
preceded by the managers, issued from their own house
into the hall, Mr Burke leading the procession ; and there¬
after came the Peers in procession, preceded by the clerks
of Parliament, the masters of chancery, the serjeants at
law, and the judges. That and the following day were
consumed in reading the articles of impeachment, and in
receiving the answers of Mr Hastings. On the 15th of
February, Mr Burke began an oration, which he continued
during that and the four following days, and in which his
talents were exerted with great splendour, and his elo¬
quence listened to with admiration. After an appeal to the
justice of the court on the part of the people of India, he
entered into a detail of the history of Hindustan from the
earliest times ; sketched a luminous outline of the revolu¬
tions which had occurred in it, of the civil and religious in¬
stitutions, with the arts, customs, and manners of the vari¬
ous classes of its inhabitants ; traced the progress of British
intrusion, and minutely described the establishments effect¬
ed by our countrymen; gave an animated account of the
blessings which India might have derived from commu¬
nication with the most enlightened nation in Europe;
lamented that, instead of acting as friends or instructors
of the natives, our countrymen had marked their way by
treachery and rapine, and taught vice rather than vir¬
tue ; expatiated on their usurpations of power, and their
frequent enormities; specified the acts of Mr Hastings,
representing them as beyond all bounds arbitrary and ra¬
pacious, and endeavoured to hold him up to execration as
a monster of tyranny. The governor-general had attempt¬
ed to justify his oppressions, by asserting that the Asiatic
governments were all despotic; that he did not make the
people slaves, but found them such ; that the sovereignty
he was called to exercise was an arbitrary sovereignty;
and that he had exercised it in no other way than was
done by the other sovereigns of Asia, and the native princes
of the country. Mr Burke reprobated this geographical
morality, and these claims to absolute power; denied that
either the East India Company or the British government
had it to bestow; asserted that no such arbitrary govern¬
ment was attempted to be justified in the East, every
Mahommedan government being regulated by the laws
of the Koran, while those of the Gentoos proscribed the
idea of arbitrary will in magistrates; and contended that
the conduct of tyrants, or the corrupt practices of man¬
kind, were no principles upon which to regulate the duty
of a British governor, bound to act, and liable to be
judged by his country, upon British principles. Mr Burke
concluded by declaring, that he impeached Mr Hastings
in the name of the Commons of Great Britain, whose par¬
liamentary trust he had betrayed, and whose national
character he had dishonoured; in the name of the people
of India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he had subvert¬
ed, whose properties he had destroyed, and whose coun¬
try he had rendered desolate; and in the name of human
nature, which he had cruelly outraged in both sexes, in
every age, rank, and condition of life.
The managers of the impeachment next proposed that
they should come to a conclusion on both sides, upon each
article separately before they opened another; but^ the
counsel for Mx Hastings insisted that the House of Com¬
mons ought first to proceed to a conclusion upon the whole
charges, before any part of the defence was demand¬
ed ; and the House of Lords having deliberated on the
point, decided it in their favour. Ihe managers for the
Commons acquiesced in the decision, and entered upon
the particular charges, two of which employed the House
of Lords during the remainder of the session.
VOL. v
During the investigations occasioned by the trial of Mr Reign of
Hastings, and the discussion of India affairs, the opposi-Georgelll.
tion were led to bring forward a series of charges, im-
porting high crimes and misdemeanours, against Sir Elijah
Impey, formerly chief justice of the supreme court of
Bengal. The substance of these charges, six in number,
and which were presented to the House of Commons by
Sir Gilbert Elliot, was, that the chief justice had in a va¬
riety of instances rendered himself the agent and tool of
Mr Hastings, particularly in the decision of a considerable
number of important causes. Sir Gilbert stated that Sir
Elijah Impey had been declared criminal by parliament,
before the parties into which it was at present divided
had any existence ; and that the proceedings out of which
this accusation arose had been carried on by persons of all
connections, and countenanced by the different adminis¬
trations which had succeeded each other during the last
six years. He contended that the only means left of re¬
forming Indian abuses, was the punishment, in some great
and signal instances, of Indian delinquency ; and this pro¬
position he endeavoured to establish by comparing the
different force and efficacy of laws, arising from their penal
sanctions, when applied in our own internal administia-
tion, and in the government of distant possessions. Of the
particular charges brought against Sir Elijah Impey, that
respecting the fate of Nundcomar, a Hindu prince of
the sacred caste of the Brahmins, was the most remark¬
able. This man having had the weakness or imprudence
to lodge an information, or rather accusation, with the
East India Company, against their principal servant, Mr
Hastings, the governor-general, it was alleged, had pro¬
cured an accusation to be brought against him, in the
court where Sir Elijah Impey presided; and Nundcomar
having been tried for forgery on an English statute, was
condemned and executed. In the course of the session,
witnesses were examined against Sir Elijah Impey; and
his defence was undertaken by the chancellor of the ex¬
chequer, and the solicitor and attorney-general. On the
9th of May the first charge was rejected by a small ma¬
jority ; and on the 27th the house voted a delay of proce¬
dure during three months. This,saved the accused, and
no impeachment resulted from the inquiry.
During the interval which followed the prorogation of
parliament, the only occurrence worthy of notice arose
out of the contests of the northern nations. At this pe¬
riod the. relative condition of the European powers had
undergone a very important change. During a century
and a half the power of the monarchy of France had been
formidable to all Europe; and, at different periods, the
most extensive combinations had been found necessary to
resist its ambition. But since the termination of the Ame¬
rican war, that monarchy had evidently lost much of its
importance among the neighbouring nations. Its influence
over Holland had ever been one of its favourite objects
of pursuit; but during the preceding year it had suffered
that influence to be overturned without a struggle; and,
as far as regarded any external effort, France appeared at
this time to have fallen into a state of complete imbecility.
The powers whose ambition had now become dangerous
to the repose of Europe, were Austria and Russia. The
latter, in particular, proved extremely restless and enter¬
prising. The empress Catherine II. had contrived to en¬
gage in her views the emperor Joseph II. and had prevailed
with him to engage in a sanguinary contest on the eastern
frontiers of Europe, with a view to the partition of the pro¬
vinces of Turkey; whilst France, the ancient ally of that
power, was unable to afford it any countenance or aid.
In the mean time Catherine held in a state of depend¬
ence approaching to subjection the kingdoms of Sweden
and Denmark. After the reign of Charles XII. whose
6 x
530 BRITAIN.
Reign of extravagant military enterprises had exhausted the re-
George III. sources 0f the country, Sweden sunk into a state of politi-
cal weakness. The nobles had resumed the independence
1<88* of the feudal times; the anarchy to which that form of
government is so remarkably subject had returned; the
crown and the people were equally insignificant; and the
mutual animosities of the nobles exposed the state to the
intrigues of neighbouring nations. In their diet there
was a French party and a Russian party, but there was
not an individual among them who supported the party of
Sweden. Gustavus III., however, was now in the vigour
of his age, and a man of an enthusiastic and enterprising
character. By attaching to himself the peasantry of the
country and their deputies in the diet, he had, in 1772,
re-established absolute power ; but the nobles having gra¬
dually recovered a portion of their authority, and having
been aided by the intrigues of Russia, had now become
dangerous to the throne. This rendered the situation of the
Swedish monarch extremely uncomfortable, and, exciting
in his mind a desire of shaking off all dependence upon
Russia, he resolved to take advantage of the war, in which
she was actually engaged with the Turks, in order to make
an attack on her north-western frontier. To accomplish
this object, however, it was necessary that Sweden should
be safe on the side of Denmark. But that power had
already contracted engagements with Russia; and Gusta¬
vus having, it is said, afforded countenance and encourage¬
ment to the malcontents of Norway in 1772, this circum¬
stance has been alleged by the Danes as an excuse for
the treaty into which their government secretly entered,
and by which it was agreed that, if Russia were attacked,
Denmark would assist her with twelve thousand auxiliary
troops and six ships of the line. But whatever may have
been the conduct of the king of Sweden in 1772, he now
endeavoured in the most anxious manner to conciliate the
good will of Denmark, and at the close of the year 1787
paid an unexpected visit to the Danish court at Copen¬
hagen, where he endeavoured by every argument to pre¬
vail with the prince regent and his council to enter into
his views regarding Russia. But the court of Denmark
could not be induced to countenance his schemes, and
appears to have concealed its secret engagements with
Russia, as well as the part which it meant to take in the
event of a war between Russia and Sweden.
In the month of July the king of Sweden commenced
offensive operations on the side of Finland. But the dis¬
contents which had been fostered by Russia among the
Swedish nobles soon broke out; several officers declared
that the king had no right to make war without the con¬
sent of the states of the kingdom ; and the troops refused
to advance. Whilst the king was in this embarrassed situ¬
ation, a Danish army suddenly advanced against Sweden
under Prince Charles of Hesse-Cassel, accompanied by the
prince of Denmark as a volunteer; and to give this force
the appearance of an auxiliary army, the prince of Hesse
had been created a field-marshal in the Russian service.
The affairs of Sweden were now all but desperate. During
the king’s absence the senate of Stockholm had assumed
extraordinary powers, and summoned a meeting of the
states of the kingdom ; but Gustavus unexpectedly arriv¬
ed at Stockholm from Finland, put an end to their pro¬
ceedings, instantly sent off the whole regular troops from
the capital, and having assembled the citizens, declared
that he intrusted to their fidelity the defence of his capi¬
tal, and the protection of the queen and the royal family.
His audience were seized with a military enthusiasm ; the
citizens armed and embodied themselves, and performed
the whole duty of the garrison ; while such of the officers
as had returned from the army in Finland were insulted
as traitors, and compelled to conceal themselves. The
king next hastened to the province of Dalecarlia, inhabit- Reign of
ed by a fierce and ignorant but honest people, celebrated ^ieorge ^I
for the share which they had in the revolution by which
Gustavus Vasa rescued his country from the despotism
and cruelty of Denmark, which had massacred the citi¬
zens of Stockholm, and almost exterminated the nobility
of the kingdom ; and the loyalty of these people being
kindled to enthusiasm by this visit of the king to their
mines and forests, four thousand of them instantly came
forth as volunteers. In the mean time the Danish army,
proceeding along the sea coast, which had been left un¬
defended, took a body of Swedes prisoners, and advanced
towards Gottenburg, which being mostly built of timber,
was liable to instant destruction by bombardment. The
place had actually been summoned, when the king, by un¬
usual personal exertion, passed at the critical period un¬
noticed through the enemy’s parties, and entered the city.
His presence had the effect of restoring the confidence of
the inhabitants, who resolved to encounter every hazard
in defence of the city ; but the place was thus saved only
for a moment, and its situation, as well as that of the king
himself, was still extremely perilous. On this occasion,
however, the city, the king, and perhaps the monarchy of
Sweden, owed their safety to the interference of a British
subject, Mr Hugh Elliot, the British envoy at Copenhagen.
From the first notice of hostilities, this gentleman, dis¬
cerning the interests of his country and of Europe, passed
over into Sweden, and offered his mediation to the king,
at the same time that he threatened the Danes with an
immediate invasion by a Prussian army, supported by a
British and Dutch fleet. The Danish commander became
intimidated, and delayed his threatened hostilities ; a Prus¬
sian envoy soon arrived, and confirmed all the menaces of
Mr Elliot; and the consequence was, that after much ne-
gociation, a suspension of hostilities was concluded, and
in the month of November the Danish troops evacuated
the territory of Sweden.
At the close of autumn this year a domestic event of a
singular nature, and new in the British history, occurred.
The health of the sovereign had suffered, not from free¬
dom of indulgence and excess of luxury, but from too
severe a regimen, too laborious exercise, too rigid abste¬
miousness, and too short intervals of rest. As a remedy
for the symptoms which manifested themselves, he was ad¬
vised to resort to the medicinal waters of Cheltenham, and
accordingly repaired thither immediately after the proro¬
gation of parliament, and did not return to the metropolis
till the 18th of August. But no material benefit had re¬
sulted from this excursion. His health continued in a pre¬
carious state ; and on the 22d of October symptoms were
observed by one of the royal physicians, of that alienation
of mind which was afterwards the occasion of so many
important and interesting transactions. For some time it
was thought proper to observe the utmost secrecy respect¬
ing the nature of the king’s indisposition ; and the retreat
of the sovereign at Windsor was favourable for this pur¬
pose. For several days an opinion was entertained that
his indisposition arose from fever, and that it had attained
so alarming a height as to threaten speedy dissolution;
but the real nature of the malady could not long be sup¬
pressed. By the law and practice ot the English consti¬
tution, almost every species of public business is, in some
manner, connected with the exercise ot the royal prero¬
gative. The administration ot the general government,
in particular, was by this event virtually suspended; and
notwithstanding the critical situation ot Europe, and the
very active share which we had taken in its concerns, it
was now deemed impracticable to return any sort of an¬
swer to the dispatches of foreign courts, or even to those
of our own ambassadors. In this situation the most natu-
B R I T A I N.
Reign of ral expedient was to suffer the two houses of parliament,
George TIT which stood prorogued to the 20th of November, to assem-
hie at that time, and either to adjourn for a short interval,
17 ’ or proceed immediately to discuss the measures which it
would be proper to adopt at such a juncture. Circular
letters were accordingly addressed to the members of the
legislature on the 14th, signifying that the indisposition
of the sovereign rendered it doubtful whether there would
be a possibility of receiving his commands for the further
prorogation of parliament; that in such a case the two
houses must of necessit}' assemble; and that a numerous
attendance of the members was extremely desirable.
When parliament assembled, the lord chancellor observ¬
ed in the House of Lords, that the reason of their being thus
unusually called together without the ordinary notice, for
the dispatch of business, arose from the severity of the
king’s indisposition, which had rendered it impossible for
him to approach the royal person in order to receive his
commands. Lord Camden remarked, that the customary
practice of giving forty days’ notice previous to the meet¬
ing of parliament, was not in his opinion absolutely neces¬
sary ; that there was an express act of parliament, which
limited the notice, in case of treason or rebellion, to four¬
teen days; that he would therefore recommend an ad¬
journment for that term; and that the chancellor should,
by order of the house, address an official letter to every
individual peer. In the House of Commons Mr Pitt stated
that every authority had been consulted respecting the
present singular situation of affairs; that none pointed out
either the possibility of directing a new prorogation, or of
enabling ministers to open the session of parliament in
any regular way; that, under these circumstances, it would
be improper for the house to proceed to the discussion of
any public business; and that it was absolutely necessary
to adjourn. He therefore recommended the interval of a
fortnight, when, if the king’s illness should unhappily con¬
tinue, it would be indispensably incumbent upon them to
enter upon the immediate consideration of the state of
public affairs; and he further moved a call of the house
for the 4th of December, and that the speaker should be
directed to send circular letters, requiring the attendance
of every member on that day.
The tenor of the precedents afforded by the history of
England was regarded upon the whole as in favour of a
regency, under which the whole, or a considerable part of
the power of the state, should be confided to the next heir
to the crown, or to the adult of the royal family most nearly
related to the king; and what rendered this consideration
the more material upon the present occasion was, that the
Prince of Wales was understood to entertain an avowed
partiality for the political connection which had lately
been instrumental in obtaining for him the discharge of
his debts and an increase of his annual income, as well as
some personal resentment against the ministers now in
possession of office. Accordingly, soon after the indispo¬
sition of the king had been ascertained, the prince dis¬
patched an express to Mr Fox, who was at that time in
Italy, requesting his immediate presence to assist him in
forming an administration. The ministers were also aware
of the intentions of the Prince of Wales, and wished, if
possible, to retain possession of office. Besides, as the du¬
ration of the king’s illness was necessarily uncertain, and
he might speedily be able to resume the reins of govern¬
ment, it was obviously their interest to procrastinate as
long as possible; and they were enabled to do so in con¬
sequence of the tranquil state of the nation, which rendered
the exercise of the executive power of less immediate ne¬
cessity than in times of war or public alarm. The effect
of mere reputation in supporting any political measure
was remarkably illustrated on this occasion. Mr Pitt and
531
his colleagues in office were in possession of the public fa- Reign of
vour in a degree in which perhaps no ministers had ever GeorgeHl*
before enjoyed it for so long a period of time. To Mr Fox
and his associates still attached part of the odium which 1
the coalition and the Indian bill had originally excited.
The Prince of Wales himself was even less popular. The
sobriety of his father’s life formed a contrast to his youth¬
ful indiscretions ; and the rumour of his marriage with Mrs
Fitzherbert was still propagated, and met with credit. In
this state of affairs the king’s ministers, who had ceased to
be any thing more than ministers by courtesy, had every
advantage in their project of delaying as long as possible
the relinquishment of their official situations, by placing
the exercise of the royal authority in new hands. Mr
Pitt likewise conducted himself with great dexterity in
contriving subjects of discussion in the House of Com¬
mons ; whilst his antagonists, in contending against him for
victory upon speculative political questions, seem not to
have been aware that they were in fact fighting his battle,
by delaying the period of their own entrance into power.
Upon the re-assembling of parliament on the 4th of
December, a report of the privy council, containing an
examination of the royal physicians, was presented to the
two houses by Lord Camden and Mr Pitt; and it was
suggested, that when the delicacy of the subject and the
dignity of the person in question were considered, parlia¬
ment would probably perceive the propriety of acting upon
this report, rather than of demanding that more direct
and ample information to which, in strictness, they were
entitled. This suggestion seemed reasonable, as it could
scarcely be supposed that the ministers of the crown would
act so directly in opposition to their own interests, as
falsely to represent their master as incapacitated by men¬
tal disease for the exercise of his royal functions. Mr
Fox, Mr Burke, and others, however, would not take any
assurance upon this point, but insisted on the solemnity
of an inquiry by a committee of the two houses. This
was accordingly agreed to, and the report of the com¬
mittee was laid upon the table of the House of Commons
on the 10th, when a further proposition was moved by
Mr Pitt for the appointment of a committee to examine
precedents respecting those cases in which the personal
exercise of the royal authority had been prevented or
interrupted by infancy, sickness, infirmity, or any other
cause. Mr Fox observed, that though he had no objec¬
tion to the appointment of a committee for the purpose
proposed, yet as it was notorious that no precedent exist¬
ed which could be applied to the present case, he took the
opportunity of stating as a general principle, that the king
being at present incapable of holding the executive govern¬
ment, the Prince of Wales had as clear and express a right
to assume the reins and exercise the power of sovereignty
during the continuance of the present incapacity, as if his
father were actually dead; but he added, that though the
prince’s right was perfect and entire, the two houses of
parliament, as the organs of the nation, were alone quali¬
fied to pronounce when he ought to take possession of his
right. In reply to this observation, Mr Pitt stated, that
for any man to assert such a right in the Prince of Wales,
otherwise than as it was voluntarily conferred upon him
by the two houses of parliament, was little less than trea¬
son against the constitution; and that, except by their
election, he had no more right, in point of principle, to
assume the government, than any other subject in England.
On the following day the opinion w'hich had been stated
by Mr Fox was attacked in the House of Lords by Lord
Camden, and defended by Lord Loughborough and Lord
Stormont. Ministers had now got an abstract question as
a subject of debate, and they resolved not to lose sight of
it, especially as their side of the question was likely to be
BRITAIN.
532
Reign of most popular, from being founded on an assertion of the
George III. p0wers 0f parliament in opposition to hereditary right.
Accordingly, when the subject was next mentioned, Mr
1788. pjtt that the question which had been started re¬
specting the rights of parliament was of much greater
magnitude and importance than those which related to
the present exigency; and that it was impossible to dis¬
miss the question of right without its being fully discussed
and decided. And on the 16th of December, in a com¬
mittee upon the state of the nation, he entered at large
into the subject, and endeavoured to prove by ancient
precedents that the powers vested in a regent had always
been inferior to those of the king, and that parliament had
interfered in cases of royal infancy in appointing councils
of regency, nay even a single regent or protector; but he
at the same time admitted that it would be expedient
to intrust the government to the Prince of Wales, what¬
ever limitations it might be thought necessary to impose
on him. Mr Fox, on the contrary, contended that his
doctrine was supported by the very nature of a hereditary
monarchy. Upon Mr Pitt’s principles, said he, if a man
were questioned whether the monarchy is hereditary or
not, the answer must be, I cannot tell; ask his majesty’s
physicians. When the king of England is in health the
monarchy is hereditary, but when he is ill and incapable
of exercising the sovereign authority, it is then elective.
He ridiculed the absurdity of Mr Pitt’s assertion, that
the Prince of Wales had no more right than any subject of
the realm, while he at the same time confessed that par¬
liament was not at liberty to think of any other regent.
But Mr Pitt’s motion on the question of right was carried
by a considerable majority.
On the 22d of December Mr Pitt proposed in the House
of Commons, a resolution, the object of which was to de¬
clare it necessary, for the purpose of supplying the present
deficiency, and maintaining entire the constitutional autho¬
rity of the king, that the two houses should determine on
the means by which the royal assent might be given to
the bill which they might adopt for constituting a regency.
The object of this proposition was obvious. Administra¬
tion had resolved not to confide the regency to the Prince of
Wales except under certain restrictions ; but without the
royal assent, an act of parliament, fixing these restrictions,
could not be passed. They wished, therefore, to devise a
solemnity which, in this case, might be held as equivalent
to the royal assent; and Mr Pitt proposed, that the great
seal should be affixed by the lord chancellor to the act of
parliament, and that this should be held as equivalent to
the royal assent. Mr Fox, on the contrary, urged an im¬
mediate address to the Prince of Wales, requesting him to
take upon himself the regency; and upon the point long
debates occurred in both houses of parliament, in which
administration continued to be supported by the majority.
In the meanwhile Mr Pitt, in the name of the rest of the
cabinet, explained to the Prince of Wales, in a letter, the re¬
strictions which were meant to be inserted in the regency
bill. These were, that the care of the king’s person, and
the disposal of his household, should be committed to the
queen ; and that the power to be exercised by the prince
should not extend to the personal property of his father,
nor to the granting of any office, reversion, or pension, ex¬
cept where the law absolutely required it, as in the case
of the judges, for any other term than during the king’s
pleasure, nor to the conferring of any peerage, unless upon
such persons of the royal issue as should have attained
the age of twenty-one years. It was added, that these ideas
were founded upon the supposition that the royal malady
would only be temporary, and might be of short duration ;
that it was difficult to fix at present the precise period for
which these provisions ought to endure ; but that it would
hereafter be open to the wisdom of parliament to reconsi- Reign of
der them whenever circumstances might appear to render George IIL
it eligible. In his answer, which was dated on the second
of January 1789, the prince declared, that it was with deep *
regret he perceived, in the propositions of administration,
a project for introducing weakness, disorder, and insecu¬
rity, into every branch of public business; for dividing
the royal family from each other ; for separating the court
from the state, and depriving government of its natural and
accustomed support; for disconnecting the authority to
command service from the power of animating it by re¬
ward ; and for allotting to him all the invidious duties of the
kingly station, without the means of softening them to the
public by any one act of grace, favour, or benignity. He
stated it as a principle of the British constitution, that the
powers and prerogatives of the crown were held in trust
for the benefit of the people, and were sacred as condu¬
cing to preserve that balance of the constitution which
formed the best security for the liberty of the subject;
and he objected to making trial in his person, of an ex¬
periment to ascertain with how small a portion of kingly
power the executive government of the country could be
conducted. He stated his conviction, that no event could
be more repugnant to the feelings of his royal father on
his recovery, than to know that the government of his son
and representative had exhibited the sovereign power in
a state of degradation and diminished energy, injurious in
its practice to the prosperity of the people, and mischiev¬
ous in its precedent to the security of the monarch and
the rights of his family ; but he nevertheless declared hiru-
self resolved to undertake, under every disadvantage, the
office of regent, in order to avoid the evils which might
arise from his following a different line of conduct.
The most singular part of this project for the govern¬
ment of the kingdom appears to have been that for con¬
fiding to the queen the power of removing, nominating,
and appointing the officers of the royal household ; assist¬
ed by a permanent council, to be selected by parliament,
and to consist, in some measure, of the members of admi¬
nistration. The annual income of the royal household was
computed at L.300,000, and the number of officers of which
it consisted amounted to four hundred ; an influence which
would certainly have been sufficiently formidable to a go¬
vernment in other respects restricted and limited. The
lords of the bed-chamber had been made use of to defeat
Mr Fox’s India bill, and might, under a separate establish¬
ment, have proved embarrassing to the existing government.
It is obvious, however, that, on this occasion, administra¬
tion were encouraged in the pursuit of the plan which they
had formed for restricting the prince’s power, by the ad¬
dresses presented to them from various parts of the king¬
dom, expressive of gratitude for the assertion by the House
of Commons of their right of providing for the present de¬
ficiency.
On the 16th of January Mr Pitt proposed his regency
bill, resting it, in some measure, upon the decisive opinion
of Dr Willis, who expressed great hopes of the king’s re¬
covery; and after long debates, the limitations were sanc¬
tioned by a considerable majority. In the House of Lords
similar debates occurred, but there also administration
proved victorious. On the 31st of January Lord Camden
moved in the House of Lords, that the lord chancellor should
be directed, by authority of the two houses of parliament,
to issue a commission in the name of the sovereign, for the
purpose of immediately opening the session of parliament;
and this resolution having been carried in both houses, the
session was opened in the proposed form on the 3d of
February. Though the principles of the regency bill had
been previously discussed, yet its various clauses gave rise
to new divisions, in which administration still maintained
BRITAIN.
533
Reign of their superiority. The bill passed the House of Commons
George III. on the 12th of February, and was presented on the fol-
lowing day to the House of Lords, where it was discussed
1^90' on the 17th and 18th, and a few unimportant amendments
introduced into it.
But here the whole of these proceedings terminated.
On the 12th of February, the king having been declared
by his physicians to be in a state of progressive amend¬
ment, an adjournment of the House of Lords was there¬
fore proposed on the 19th. On the 25th his majesty was
declared by his physicians free from complaint; and on
the 10th of March the lord chancellor, by the king’s au¬
thority, addressed both houses of parliament in a speech,
after which the ordinary business of the session com¬
menced.
In the meanwhile the administration of Mr Pitt had
been less fortunate in Ireland than in this country. The
unexampled popularity which reconciled the people of
Great Britain to all his measures, and the odium and sus¬
picion which had fallen upon his opponents, had not hither¬
to been communicated to the neighbouring island. The
prospect, therefore, of his departure from office excited
little regret in that country, and its parliament made haste
to worship what they accounted the rising sun. It had
stood adjourned, previous to the royal incapacity, till the
20th January 1789 ; and the Marquis of Buckingham, then
lord-lieutenant, with consent of the privy council of Ire¬
land, ventured to defer its meeting till the 5th of February.
On the 11th of that month, two motions were offered to
the consideration of the House of Commons, the one by
Mr Grattan, the member most distinguished for his talents;
and the other by Mr Conolly, the richest of the Irish com¬
moners. By the first the royal incapacity was declared ;
and by the second it was proposed to present an address
to the Prince of Wales, requesting him to take upon him¬
self the government, with its various powers, jurisdictions,
and prerogatives. After a long debate, the propositions
of Mr Grattan and Mr Conolly were carried by a large ma¬
jority ; and on tbe following day an address to the Prince
of Wales was also voted, and sent to the House of Lords,
where it was adopted by a great majority. On the 19th
of February the address was carried to the lord-lieuten¬
ant, who, however, refused to transmit it to England; upon
which the two houses appointed six commissioners to pre¬
sent the address immediately to the prince : but these mea¬
sures had scarcely been carried through parliament when
the king’s i*ecovery rendered them ineffectual, and the con¬
sequence was, that the majority of the Irish parliament, who
were far from intending to engage in a contest with the Bri¬
tish government, found themselves in an awkward situation.
The subject of the slave-trade, which had been brought
under the consideration of parliament during the preceding
session, was resumed upon the 12th of May. In the inter¬
val, petitions against the abolition of the traffic had been
presented by persons in London, Liverpool, Bristol, and
other places interested in the trade. Meanwhile, the report
of the committee of the privy council, of which Mr Pitt
had previously given notice, was presented to the House of
Commons; and the enemies of the trade had been ex¬
tremely active in endeavouring to excite the indignation
of the public against this odious and inhuman traffic. Innu¬
merable pamphlets were distributed, either gratuitously or
at a low price, giving an account of the calamities endur¬
ed by the unhappy natives of Africa; the wars in which
petty princes were tempted to engage, with a view to sell
their prisoners to European traders, were fully explained ;
the wretched manner in which these slaves were trans¬
ported to the West India colonies, fettered and crowded
together so as to occasion the destruction of multitudes
by disease, was represented by prints, distributed along
with the popular publications upon the subject; and, last- Reign of
ly, instances were given of the cruelty of the masters in Teorge ^ ^
the West Indies, tending to render the white inhabitants ^
extremely odious. By these means the public were led^
to interest themselves in procuring, if not an abolition of
the state of slavery, at least a complete prohibition of the
importation of additional slaves from Africa; and to this
last object the attention of the legislature was now con¬
fined. The business was opened by Mr Wilberforce, who
stated the effects of the trade upon Africa; noticed the
mode of transportation, which he very fully described;
adverted to the diseases contracted on ship-board, with
the astringents and washes employed to hide the wounds
of the miserable sufferers; descanted on the wickedness
of the trade, which he felt to be so enormous and irreme¬
diable, that he could stop at nothing short of abolition ;
asserted that the number of negroes in the West Indies
might be kept up without the introduction of recruits from
Africa; and moved twelve propositions, stating the num¬
ber of slaves annually carried from Africa, imported into
the British West Indies, and entered in the custom-house
accounts; the consequences produced upon the inhabitants
of Africa; the injury sustained by the British seamen;
the fatal circumstances which attended the transportation
of the slaves ; the causes of the mortality of the negroes,
and a calculation of the relative increase of population in
Jamaica and Barbadoes ; together with a declaration that
no considerable or permanent inconvenience would result
from discontinuing further importation. Mr Pitt support¬
ed that side of the question which had received the sanc¬
tion of popular approbation; declaring himself satisfied
that no argument, compatible with any idea of justice,
could be assigned for the continuation of the slave-trade ;
and expressing a hope, that while Great Britain took the
lead of other countries in a matter of so great magnitude,
foreign nations would be inclined to share the honour, and
contented to unite with us in so excellent a work. Mr Fox
highly approved of what had fallen from Mr Pitt, and de¬
clared that he had considered the trade in human flesh as
so scandalous, that it was in the last degree infamous to
suffer it to be openly carried on by the authority of the
government of any country. Mr Burke was of opinion
that, whatever might be the present situation of Africa, it
could never be meliorated under the present system ; that
while we continued to purchase the natives, they must for
ever remain in a state of savage barbarity ; that it was im¬
possible to civilize a slave ; and that there was no country
situated like Africa into which the shadow' of improvement
had ever been introduced. On the other hand, Mr Wil¬
berforce’s propositions met with considerable opposition.
Mr Savage and Mr Newnham, on the part of the city
of London, asserted, that the measure, if carried into ef¬
fect, would render the metropolis bankrupt; Mr Dempster
thought that Mr Wilberforce’s first proposal ought to be,
to make good out of the public purse the losses which in¬
dividuals would sustain from the abolition of the trade;
Lord Penrhyn asserted, that as there were mortgages in
the West India islands to the amount of seventy millions,
sterling, Mr Wilberforce’s project would subject the coun¬
try in the repayment of that sum; Mr Henniker opposed
the abolition, on account of the alleged depravity of the
Africans, which rendered them incapable of civilization;
and Lord Maitland, Mr Marsham, Mr Hussey, Mr Rolle,
Mr Drake, and Mr Alderman Watson, each alleged some¬
thing intended to pass as a reason for entertaining similar
views. Lastly, the matter ended in the renewal of Sir
William Dolben’s act to regulate, for a limited time, the
mode of conveying slaves in British vessels from the coast
of Africa.
The annual business of the budget was not brought for-
534 BRITAIN.
Reign of ward this year till the 10th of June ; and immediately pre-
George III. vious to the discussion, the office of speaker of the House
0f Commons was vacated by the promotion of Mr Gren-
79 ' ville to be one of his majesty’s principal secretaries of
state. On this occasion Mr Henry Addington, the per¬
sonal friend of the premier, and son of Dr Stephen Ad¬
dington, physician to Mr Pitt’s family, was appointed to
succeed Mr Grenville in the chair. His opponent was Sir
Gilbert Elliot, who was proposed by the opposition; and
both Mr Fox and Mr Burke animadverted on the youth
and inexperience of his competitor; but on a division Mr
Addington was elected by a large majority.
The expense incurred by the recent armament, the
allowance to the American loyalists, and other circum¬
stances, rendered it necessary to have recourse to a loan
of one million, to defray the interest of which additional
taxes were imposed upon newspapers, advertisements,
cards, and dice, probates of wills, legacies to collateral
relations, and carriages and horses. And as one of Mr
Pitt’s methods of extending the revenue consisted in en¬
deavouring to suppress smuggling, and as he had formerly
transferred the management of the duty on wine from the
customs to the excise, he now pursued the same course in
regard to the article tobacco. The subject was opened
in the House of Commons on the 16th of June, when it was
observed that tobacco had come to be considered as the
staple of the smuggler, in the same manner as tea, wine,
and spirits, had formerly been. The quantity of tobacco
consumed in the kingdom had been found to bear a toler¬
ably near proportion to the quantity of tea; and at least
one half of this quantity was the exclusive commodity of
the smuggler. The consumption amounted to fourteen
millions of pounds; and the loss to the revenue upon the
half of this consumption exceeded three hundred thou¬
sand pounds per annum. Under these circumstances, Mr
Pitt thought it necessary to have recourse to the system
ot excise, by which the stock of the dealer was taxed, in¬
stead of the duty being collected on importation. A bill
was accordingly introduced for effecting the transference
proposed by the minister, and, after a good deal of dis¬
cussion, passed by a large majority.
Mr Fox having annually brought forward a motion for
the repeal of the shop-tax, which had proved extremely
unpopular in the capital, Mr Pitt at length consented that
it should be abolished. Mr Beaufoy again introduced a
motion for the repeal of the corporation and test acts, which
was supported by Mr Fox, opposed by Lord North and
Mr Pitt, and rejected by a narrow majority. A bill in¬
troduced into the House of Lords by Earl Stanhope, for
relieving members of the church of England from various
penalties and disabilities under which they laboured, and
for extending freedom in matters of religion to persons of
all denominations, Catholics excepted, was equally unsuc¬
cessful. The laws it intended to repeal were those which
imposed penalties upon persons who did not frequent the
established worship; prohibiting men from speaking or
writing in derogation of the doctrine of the book of com¬
mon prayer; enjoining the eating of fish on certain days;
authorizing the imprisonment of persons excommunicated;
prohibiting the exportation of women; and declaring all
persons who went to court, without having previously made
a ceitain declaration, to be in the eye of the law Popish
recusant convicts. But these absurd and obsolete enact¬
ments were stoutly defended by the episcopal bench ; and
the bill was ultimately rejected.
On the first of July the East India Company petitioned
ouse Commons for permission to add a sum of one
rmlhon to their capital; and the request was granted with
little difficulty. On the same day Mr Dundas, as presi¬
dent or the board of control, brought forward a state¬
ment of the revenues of India, which, after deducting Reign of
every article of expenditure in that country, he calculated George III.
at L.1,820,000. During the present session, the trial of ■
Mr Hastings still proceeded before the House of Lords. 179°-
I he third charge brought forward, respecting presents
received by him during his government of Bengal, was
opened by Mr Burke, who, in the course of his speech,
alluded to the trial and execution of Nundcomar, and as¬
serted that Mr Hastings had murdered that man by the
hands of Sir Elijah Impey. But as the transaction re¬
specting Nundcomar formed no specific part of the charges
which had been preferred against Mr Hastings by the
House of Commons, and as the question, in as far as Sir
Elijah was implicated, had been examined and rejected
during the preceding session, Mr Hastings presented a
petition to the house, in which he entreated them, either
to cause the additional allegations urged against him to
be brought forward, and prosecuted in specific articles, or
to afford him such other redress as they might judge suit¬
able and proper. Mr Pitt supported the petition, upon the
ground that the murder of Nundcomar formed no part of
the crime of peculation, and every rule of evidence was
against its being alleged; that it had been charged in or¬
der to discredit the character of the accused, although it
was a rule in the courts of law that no fact could be given
in evidence to discredit even a witness ; that if the mur¬
der of Nundcomar was not admissible as evidence, it could
only be urged as matter of aggravation, which it was im¬
possible to allow; and that the common sense of the
house, and of all mankind, would not permit the crime of
murder to be urged as an aggravation of the crime of pe¬
culation. Mr Fox, on the contrary, cited the case of a
captain of a ship, against whom murder was charged in
having thrown his cargo of slaves overboard, in order to
prove that he had by sinister means endeavoured to de¬
fraud the underwriters of the amount of the insurance ;
and maintained that the present case exactly correspond¬
ed to this. It was impossible to describe the corrupt trans¬
actions of Mr Hastings without alluding to the crimes
which had accompanied them, or to relate the crimes with¬
out mentioning the names of the persons by whom they
had been committed. A resolution, however, was moved
and carried, by which it was declared, that no authority
had been given by the House of Commons for making
any allegation against Mr Hastings respecting the death of
Nundcomar, and that the words of Mr Burke, complain¬
ed of in the petition, ought not to have been spoken.
The session of parliament was terminated on the 11th
of August, by a speech from the lord chancellor in the
name of the king. The summer passed away without pro¬
ducing any memorable event, and parliament assembled
again on the 1st of January 1790, when they were met by
the king in person, who, in the speech from the throne,
observed that he continued to receive assurances of a pa¬
cific nature from the different powers in Europe, and at
the same time congratulated the nation on the happiness
it enjoyed, from the increasing advantages of peace.
CHAP. XV.
REIGN OF GEORGE III. FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Origin of the French Revolution—Allusions thereto in the House
of Commons—Approved of, in the first instance, by Mr Pitt 
Hostility of Mr Burke Revolution defended by Mr Fox and
Mr Sheridan—Conduct of Mr Pitt—Motion for repeal of the
Corporation and Test Acts—Mr Flood’s motion for a Reform
in Parliament—Affair of Nootka Sound—Disturbances in the
Austrian Netherlands—New Parliament—Schism amongst the
members of Opposition—Burke and Paine on the French Re¬
volution—Desertion of the Opposition by Mr Burke Slave-
BRITAIN.
Reign of trade and Sierra Leone Company—Dispute about Oczakow—
George III. General state of Europe—Catholic Relief Bill—War in India.
 Early popularity of the French Revolution.—Riots at Bir-
1790. mingham State of Europe—Project for the partition of Poland
and France Treaty of Pilnitz—Parliamentary proceedings—
Project for the gradual abolition of the Slave-trade—Scotch
Burgh Reform War in India—Siege of Seringapatam—
Treaty of Peace with Tippoo.—Causes of the impending changes
in Europe Royal Family of France—Defects of the new
French Constitution—Society of Friends of the People—De¬
bate on Mr Grey’s notice of a motion for Reform in Parliament.
 Paine’s Rights of Man Proclamation against Seditious Pub¬
lications Its effects.—France menaced with invasion.—Rus¬
sians invade Poland Duke of Brunswick’s Manifesto—Its ef¬
fects.—The Prussians enter France—Defeated at Valmy.—
Retreat.—Battle of Jemmappes—Proceedings of the French
Government Ferment in Britain.—Political Associations.—
Friends of the People Constitutional and Corresponding So¬
cieties Meeting of Parliament—Speech from the Throne.—
Debate on the Address—Desertion from the ranks of Opposi¬
tion. Mr Fox’s motion to treat with France.—The Alien Bill.
 Correspondence between Lord Grenville and M. Chauvelin.
 The King’s message announcing War—Attempt by the
French to re-open negociations—Declaration of War.
During the preceding summer the eventful career of the
French revolution had commenced. The extreme weak¬
ness into which the government of France had fallen, ow¬
ing to the pressure of the public debts, and the embarrass¬
ment of the finances, had induced the king to call together
the states general of the kingdom, which soon assumed the
title of the national assembly. Their debates, which were
held in public, diffused a love of innovation, and a desire
to reform their ancient government, and establish a free
constitution. The court became alarmed by the violence
of their proceedings, and attempted to set bounds to their
projects ; but the populace of the capital rose in arms, and
the military refused to act against them. Meanwhile the
national assembly proceeded daily in the discussion of new
plans of change. They seized the ecclesiastical property
and tithes, resolving to limit the clergy for the future to
fixed salaries; they put an end to the monastic institu¬
tions ; they abolished the whole order of nobility, and li¬
mited the power of the crown. These, and other proceed¬
ings, which will be stated in their proper place, excited
much attention in Britain; and accordingly allusions to
them became not unfrequent in parliament during the pre¬
sent session ; indeed general questions were debated with
more animation, and excited a higher degree of interest,
than they had for many years done.
The supplies for the navy and army, which were stated
at the same amount as in the preceding session, produced
some animadversions from Mr Marsham and Mr Pulteney,
who alleged that, in the actual state of Europe, the mili¬
tary establishment of Britain might safely be reduced.
Mr Fox observed, that if ever there was a moment in
which he could be less jealous than at another of an in¬
crease of the standing army, the present was that moment.
The example of a neighbouring nation had proved that
the former imputations upon standing armies were entirely
unfounded and calumnious ; and it was now universally
known throughout all Europe, that a man by becoming a
soldier did not cease to be a citizen. He thought the
new form which the government of France was about to
assume, would render her a better neighbour than when
her affairs were controlled by the intrigues of ambitious
and interested statesmen. Mr Pitt acknowledged that the
tumultuous situation of France afforded a prospect of tran¬
quillity ; but he thought that the opportunity ought to be
seized to raise our army to such a state of respectability
as would leave no hopes of future hostility, ihe present
convulsions of France must sooner or later terminate in
the re-establishment of order ; but there was a probability,
that while the fortunate arrangements of such a situation
535
might render her more formidable, they would also con- Reign of
vert her into a less restless neighbour. As an Englishman ^eorgelll.
and as a man, he wished for the restoration of tranquillity
in France, though that event appeared to him consider¬
ably distant. Whenever it arrived, and her inhabitants
became truly free, they must be in possession of a free¬
dom resulting from order and good government, and they
would then stand forward as one of the most brilliant
powers in Europe ; nor could he regard with envious eyes
an approximation towards those sentiments which were
characteristic of every true British subject. But while Mr
Pitt, who had commenced his public career as the cham¬
pion of political reform, and still on important occasions
represented himself as preserving his attachment to po¬
pular rights, was thus applauding the first revolutionary
movements of the French, his friends considered them¬
selves as at perfect liberty to give utterance to sentiments
of a very different nature upon the subject. Viscount
Valletort, who moved the address, expressed great com¬
passion for the king of France, then almost a prisoner in his
own palace, and for the families of distinction who had
found it necessary to fly to foreign countries to avoid the
unexampled barbarities which were committed with im¬
punity at home; and Colonel Phipps declared that the
praise bestowed by Mr Fox upon the conduct of the
French military, was a poor compliment to the profession
in general, and that, if he had wanted a subject for pane¬
gyric, he ought rather to have adverted to the conduct
of the English army during the riots of 1780, when they
were not led by false feelings to put themselves at the
head of schemes leading to anarchy and cruelty.
On the 9th of February, when the vote of supply for
the army came a second time under consideration, Mr
Burke revived the subject of the French revolution. He
declared himself, in decided terms, an enemy to the mea¬
sures which had lately taken place in that country; and
conceived that it would be the greatest of all calamities
for Britain, if any set of men amongst us should represent
the late transactions in France as fit objects of imitation.
He, however, condemned the greatness of our military
establishment, by reason of the weakness of trance; and
declared, that on looking over the geography of this part
of the world, he saw a great gap, a vast blank, the space
hitherto occupied by France, which had no longer any po¬
litical existence. France had at different periods been as
dangerous to us by her example as by her hostility. In
the last age, we had been in danger of being entangled,
by her example, in the net of a relentless despotism. Our
present danger, from the example of a people whose cha¬
racter knew no medium, was that of being led, through an
admiration of successful fraud and violence, to imitate the
excesses of an irrational, unprincipled, proscribing, confis¬
cating, plundering, ferocious, bloody, and tyrannical de¬
mocracy. They had a good political constitution the day
their states general assembled in separate orders ; but this
they had destroyed. They had now no other system than
a determination to destroy all order, subvert all arrange¬
ment, and reduce every description of men to one level.
It was absurd to compare a proceeding like this to the re¬
volution in England, which neither impaired the monarchy
nor the church, and merely drove away a legal monarch,
who was attempting arbitrary power.
Mr Fox expressed great concern at differing in opinion
from Mr Burke, for whom he avowed the highest reve¬
rence and esteem. He repeated his former opinion upon
the subject of French affairs, but declared himself an
enemy of all absolute forms of government, whether mo¬
narchical, aristocratical, or democratical. Mr Sheridan
in more unqualified terms stated his disapprobation of Mr
Burke’s sentiments, expressed his surprise that any man
536
BRITAIN.
Reign of who valued the British government should feel such ab-
George III. horrence of the patriotic proceedings in France, and de-
'^T!vTw/ dared himself as ready as Mr Burke to detest the cruel-
; ’ ties which had been committed. He complimented indi¬
vidually the Marquis de Lafayette, M. Bailli, and other
French patriots, and expressed a hope that the despotism
of France would never be restored ; but observed that he
ought not on that account to be considered as approving of
a wanton persecution of the nobility, or an insult to royal¬
ty. Mr Burke answered Mr Sheridan with indignation,
and denied that he was the advocate of despotism; but
declared that Mr Sheridan had sacrificed his friendship
for the applause of clubs and associations.
It is probable that Mr Pitt had now become aware of
the difficulty of his situation with regard to the French
revolution, which at this period was generally regarded
with approbation in Britain, as an imitation of that spirit
by which our ancestors had raised their country to a state
of unexampled prosperity and happiness. Mr Pitt must
already have known that the court regarded it in a very
different light; and that, at no distant period, his ambi¬
tion and his love of popularity might become incompatible.
On the present occasion he undoubtedly saw with satis¬
faction a division likely to occur among those who had
hitherto been his competitors for popularity; and with
that dexterity in debate for which he appears to have
been remarkable, he instantly endeavoured to widen the
breach, and to attach to himself a man of so much intel¬
lectual power as Mr Burke, declaring that he agreed with
the latter in almost every thing he had urged respecting
the late commotions in France; that the sentiments Mr
Burke had professed respecting the British constitution
filled him with the sincerest satisfaction ; and that the
manner in which he had pledged himself to maintain it
for ever inviolate, entitled him to the gratitude of his fel¬
low-citizens and the admiration of posterity.
A new effort was made on the 2d of March to procure a
repeal of the corporation and test acts. The dissenters had
prevailed with Mr Fox to introduce the motion; but the
clergy of the church of England, alarmed no doubt at the
downfal of the ecclesiastical establishment in France, were
anxious to diffuse a spirit of opposition to the intended
attack. Mr Fox represented his whole argument as rest¬
ing upon this principle, that no government has a right to
animadvert upon the speculative opinions of its subjects,
till these opinions produce a conduct subversive of the
public tranquillity. It had been remarked that certain
errors in religion tended to disturb the public tranquillity;
but surely political errors must have this tendency in a
much greater degree ; yet such was the absurdity of the
test laws, that a man who favoured arbitrary power in his
sentiments, who considered the abolition of trial by jury
as no violation of liberty, and the invasion of the freedom
and law of parliament as no infraction of the constitution,
might easily pave his way to the first situations in the
state. Mr Pitt, as usual, supported the privileges of the
established church; asserting, that though opinions might
not be a warrantable ground for criminal accusation, yet
they might afford a good reason for excluding particular
individuals from the public service; and that to discover
dangerous opinions a test might be highly expedient.
Mr Burke was decidedly hostile to the measure. Mr
hox had stated the principles of toleration and persecu¬
tion, but abstract principles he always disliked. Of all
abstract principles, however, those of natural right, upon
which dissenters rested as their stronghold, were the most
idle and the most dangerous ; they superseded society,
and snapped asunder all those bonds which had for ages
constituted the happiness of mankind. He adjured the
house not to suffer the fatal incidents which had attend¬
ed the church of France, plundered and demolished in so
disgraceful a manner, to abate their zeal in favour of our(
present happy and excellent establishment. Mr Fox in
reply declared himself filled with grief and shame at the
sentiment which Mr Burke had avowed, and asserted that
all the principles he had stated had formerly received the
sanction of his friend. He thought Mr Burke at present
misled by his sensibility; his feelings had been shocked
and irritated by a mistaken idea of the transactions in
France, which were in reality nothing more than the cala¬
mities to which every country was unavoidably subject
at the period of a revolution in its government, however
beneficent and salutary. The proposed repeal was of course
rejected on a division.
A few days afterwards Mr Flood brought forward a mo¬
tion for the reform of the representation of the people in
parliament, and proposed to add a hundred members to the
House of Commons, to be elected by the resident house¬
holders in every county. Mr Windham opposed the mo¬
tion, on the ground that the country had prospered un¬
der the representation as it stood, and because innovations
had become extremely dangerous. Where, said he, is the
man who would repair his house in the hurricane season ?
Mr Fox, on the contrary, declared himself as much per¬
suaded as ever of the necessity of reform ; but he thought
the majority of the nation of a different opinion, and was
therefore of opinion that the motion ought to be with¬
drawn. Mr Pitt considered the proposal as brought for¬
ward at an improper time, and said he wished to wait for
a more seasonable opportunity, when he would certainly
again submit his ideas upon the subject to the considera¬
tion of the house. Mr Flood accordingly withdrew his
proposition.
On the 5th of May a message from the king informed
both houses of parliament of certain acts of hostility com¬
mitted by the Spaniards in the seizure of three British
vessels which had attempted to establish a foreign trade
between China and Nootka Sound, on the west coast of
North America. The Spaniards conceiving the whole of
that part of the American coast to be their property,
were the first to give information of what they had done,
and required that steps should be taken by the British
government to prevent future encroachments upon that
coast. The British navy was instantly augmented; and
as a war with Spain, unassisted by France, could not prove
very formidable, the public seemed to regard the approach
of hostilities with little concern. But the determination
evinced induced the Spaniards to come to an accommo¬
dation, and the dispute ended without an appeal to arms.
During the present session little progress was made in
the trial of Mr Hastings; and both parties accused each
other as the authors of the delay that had taken place,
while the subject began to be neglected or forgotten by
the public. On the 10th of June the king put an end to
the session by a speech from the throne, and this parlia¬
ment was dissolved.
At this period the Austrian Netherlands were in a state
of great agitation. The people of these provinces had
long been governed by a feudal constitution, which vested
important privileges in the clergy, the nobles, and certain
classes of citizens, but more especially in the clergy. Jo¬
seph II. had invaded these privileges, seized upon the
greater part of the property belonging to the monasteries,
and driven from the country all who opposed his innova¬
tions. At length, about the end of the year 1789, the
exiles having united on the frontiers, entered the coun¬
try, and being joined by others, formed a considerable
army, which rapidly overran the whole of Austrian Flan¬
ders ; while the emperor, engaged in a war with the Turks,
was prevented from sending any considerable force against
Reign of
1790.
BRITAIN.
537
1791.
Reign of them. In December, the states of Barbant having assem-
George III. bled, appointed an administration, at the head of which
was Henry Vander Noot, a popular advocate ; and in Janu¬
ary 1790 were formed the outlines of a federal constitu¬
tion, by which each of the Belgic provinces was to retain
its peculiar constitution, whilst the general defence of the
republic was to be intrusted to a congress. Meanwhile a
considerable number of foreigners entered into the service
of this new republic. But it soon appeared that the Bel¬
gic revolution would produce no lasting effects. The old
aristocratical government, uncontrolled by the authority
of a prince, was everywhere adopted ; the power of the
clergy was even increased ; the very first step of the Bel¬
gian congress was a public declaration of religious into¬
lerance ; and the liberty of the press was prohibited, and
state licensers appointed. The consequence was, that dis¬
contents speedily arose. But at this period the emperor
Joseph died, and was succeeded by Leopold, archduke of
Tuscany, who issued a proclamation, inviting the revolted
provinces to return to their allegiance, and promising to
restore their ancient political constitutions. And not trust¬
ing to peaceful measures alone, he sent an army against
the insurgents, and at the end of the year the house of
Austria had recovered its authority in the Netherlands.
The new parliament assembled on the 25th of Novem¬
ber 1790. As no uncommon efforts had taken place at
the preceding elections, nearly the same members as for¬
merly were returned to the House of Commons; and Mr
Addington was chosen speaker. On the following day the
session was opened by a speech from the throne, in which
his majesty informed parliament that the differences which
had arisen with the court of Spain were brought to an
amicable termination; that a separate peace had been con¬
cluded between Russia and Sweden; that, in conjunction
with his allies, he had employed his mediation to nego-
ciate a treaty between Russia and the Porte ; that he was
endeavouring to assist in putting an end to the dissen¬
sions in the Netherlands; but that the peace of India had
been interrupted by a war with Tippoo Sultan, son of the
late Hyder Ali. The speech concluded with recommend¬
ing to parliament a particular attention to the state of the
province of Canada. Various debates, of little importance
in a historical point of view, occurred respecting the ne-
gociations with Spain, the fur trade at Nootka Sound, and
the expensive naval armament which had been fitted out
to enforce the claims of Britain.
But in the beginning of March 1791 a bill was brought
into parliament by Mr Pitt for regulating the government
of the province of Canada in North America. This cir¬
cumstance is chiefly worthy of notice on account of an al¬
tercation to which it gave rise between Mr Burke and Mr
Fox. During the last session of the former parliament Mr
Burke had declared his disapprobation of the French re¬
volution, whilst Mr Sheridan and Mr Fox had expressed
very opposite sentiments. Mr Pitt, as we have already
seen, had dexterously laid hold of the opportunity to ex¬
cite disunion among his antagonists, and had declared him¬
self highly satisfied with Mr Burke’s attachment to the
British constitution. Mr Burke, on the other hand, had
long been engaged in a career of fruitless opposition to
the existing government; and during the king’s illness, in
the end of the year 1788, he had indicated such an inde¬
cent impatience when any expectation was expressed of
his majesty’s speedy recovery, as sufficiently demonstrated
how eager he was to obtain possession of office. It is not
improbable, therefore, that the approbation expressed by
Mr Pitt, of his fears on account of the French revolution,
suggested a decisive opposition to that great national
movement, as a mode of ingratiating himself with admi¬
nistration ; and that this idea, concurring with his former
VOL. v.
1791-
sentiments, stimulated his eager mind to devote his prin- Reign of
cipal attention to the subject. Accordingly, in November George III.
1790, he published a treatise, in which he endeavoured v
to vilify the French national assembly, and to hold out
the revolution as a subject of alarm and of detestation
to all Europe. The style of copious and popular elo¬
quence in which the book was written, together with the
sentiments which it contained, produced a great impres¬
sion ; and replies to it were published by Dr Priestley
and others; but that which proved most successful in
gaining the attention of the public, was the production
of Thomas Paine, who had formerly published in North
America a pamphlet entitled Common Sense, which prov¬
ed extremely prejudicial to the royal cause throughout the
colonies. His present work contained a statement of the
facts connected with the French revolution, together with
satirical strictures upon what he accounted imperfections
in the British constitution. He was not equal to his an¬
tagonist in copiousness of diction; but in shrewdness of
remark and concise effective energy of style he was supe¬
rior. Mr Burke’s love of literary fame was great; and
it had been highly gratified by the attention which his
book had attracted, particularly among the higher orders.
Hence, when he saw his reputation rudely assailed, his
temper became ruffled ; and he appears to have wished for
an opportunity of separating hintself from his former po¬
litical associates. Accordingly, on the 6th of May, when
the clauses of the Quebec bill were about to be discussed
in a committee of the whole house, he rose, as he said, to
speak to the general principle of the bill, and enlarged
upon the importance of the act which they were about to
perform, namely, that of appointing a legislature for a dis¬
tant people. But he thought the first consideration ought
to be the competency of the house to such an act. By what
were called the “ rights of man,” a body of principles late¬
ly imported from France, all men are by nature free, and
equal in respect to rights. If such a code were admitted,
the power of the British legislature could extend no fur¬
ther than to call together the inhabitants of Canada to
choose a constitution for themselves. But, rejecting this
code, which was never preached without mischief, he as¬
sumed the principle, that Britain had acquired the right
of legislating for Canada by conquest. The next question
was, what model was to be followed in instituting a go¬
vernment for Canada; whether that of America, of France,
or of Great Britain, which were the three great modern
examples. In discussing this point, he diverged from the
subject more immediately before the house, and took an
opportunity to pronounce a vehement invective against
the principles and enactments adopted by the French na¬
tional assembly, in attempting to form a new constitution.
He was called to order by some of his former friends, and
an altercation ensued, in the course of which he asserted
that a design had been formed by certain persons in this
country against the constitution. Mr Fox accused Mr
Burke of leaving the question before the house to seek a
difference with him, and to fortify misrepresentations of
something which he had said in a former debate concern¬
ing the French revolution; and he adhered to his former
sentiments in approving the revolution, though not the
new constitution of France. Mr Burke repeated his attack
upon the French revolution, and declared that his friend¬
ship with Mr Fox was dissolved by that accursed event.
Mr Fox, with much apparent agitation, endeavoured to
soften the asperity of Mr Burke, but without effect. He
had evidently resolved upon the part he was to act; and
this may be considered as the first occasion upon which
any member of the British legislature represented his own
conduct as seriously influenced, to the extent of deserting
his former political views and associates, in consequence
3 y
538
BRITAIN.
1791-
Reign of of an alarm originating in the example of the trench re-
George III. voiution. . „ , . x ,
During- the session, the question of the slave-trade was
ao-ain brought forward by Mr Wilberforce, and was sup¬
ported by Mr Pitt and Mr Fox; but his motion was ne¬
vertheless negatived by a considerable majority. The zeal
of the nation in favour of abolition had however become
very great; and as the evidence led before the House of
Commons had represented the trade as the source of in¬
numerable crimes and great misery, a company was esta¬
blished with the view of civilizing the natives of Africa,
and of cultivating, by the hands of freemen, West India
productions in that country; and having received a char¬
ter, they fixed on Sierra Leone as their principal settle¬
ment, and great expectations were entertained of the suc¬
cess of the project; expectations destined never to be
realized.
On the 28th of March a message from his majesty an¬
nounced that his endeavours to effect a pacification be¬
tween Russia and the Turks having proved unsuccessful, he
had judged it necessary toadd weight to his representations,
by making some further augmentation of his naval force.
The point in dispute related to Oczakow, a town situated
upon the Black Sea, at the mouth of the river Dnieper,
which had been taken from the Turks, and was consider¬
ed by Russia as a situation of great importance with re¬
ference to future operations against the Ottoman empire.
The Turks, greatly exhausted by the contest, were redu¬
ced to the necessity of purchasing tranquillity at almost
any price; but Prussia, alarmed at the growing power of
Russia, had, in conjunction with Britain and Holland, of¬
fered to mediate a peace, with a view to procure the re¬
storation of Oczakow to its former masters. Russia, how¬
ever, refused the offered mediation, and also declined to
renew any commercial treaty with Britain ; though she had
concluded one with France and another with Spain, and
even entered into a quadruple alliance with these countries
and with Austria, for the purpose of restraining the influ¬
ence of Prussia, Britain, and Holland. In moving an ad¬
dress to his majesty on this message, Mr Pitt observed,
that having entered into defensive alliances, which were
admitted to be wise and politic, we ought to adhere to
them; that Prussia was our ally, and any event calculat¬
ed to affect that power, and diminish its influence on the
Continent, would be injurious to us, as far as our mutual
interests were concerned; and that the progress of the Rus¬
sian arms against the Porte gave sufficient cause for alarm,
since, if the power of the Porte were further humbled by
its aspiring rival, Prussia would instantly feel it, and not
Prussia alone, but all Europe. Mr Fox, on the contrary,
expressed his conviction that Prussia could not be endan¬
gered by the progress of the Russian arms in Turkey, and
that an alliance with Russia appeared to him the most
natural and advantageous which we could possibly form.
The address, however, was carried by a large majority.
But the opposition, finding that they were supported by
greater numbers than usual, and that a war with Russia
was unpopular, brought the question repeatedly forward.,
and administration, perceiving the current of public opi¬
nion to run against them, abandoned their views, and re¬
fused to support Prussia in attempting to set bounds to
the ambition of Russia. # .
On considering the state of Europe at the time, admi¬
nistration were probably guided, in their jealousy of Rus¬
sia, by the maxims which had influenced the politics of
Great Britain during the best periods of its history. The
Spanish monarchy had long been in a state of debility,
which rendered it of little weight or importance on the
continent of Europe; and France had likewise suffered
her armies to decline, and, by a sort of family compact,
had fallen under the influence of Austria ; whilst the re- Reign of
volution, or rather the weakness which preceded it, had Georgelll
incapacitated her for interfering in foreign affairs. In the
mean time Austria and Russia, relinquishing all rivalship,
had entered into a close combination, and acted in sub¬
serviency to their mutual ambition. Hence, to preserve
some tolerable balance of power on the continent of Eu¬
rope against these two great military empires, it became
absolutely necessary for Great Britain and Holland to
unite with Prussia and Sweden, and to protect the Turks,
in order to prevent the further aggrandisement of these
two great and warlike powers. The British ministry, how¬
ever, finding a war with Russia likely to prove unpopular,
consented that Great Britain should descend from her
proud station of holding the balance of the Continent; and
the consequences of this desertion speedily appeared ; for
Prussia, no longer backed by Britain, was under the ne¬
cessity of joining Russia and Austria in their schemes of
aggrandisement at the expense of the weaker powers,
that she might strengthen herself by a share of the spoil,
and maintain her position in relation to these powers.
How far the British administration acted culpably in de¬
serting what they accounted their duty, in compliance
with the apparent wish of the nation, is a question which
was never discussed, because the consequences of their
conduct were soon overlooked and forgotten amidst the
great events which speedily occurred. From the love of
popularity, and the habit of resisting all the pi ejects of
administration, opposition at this time encouraged the pu¬
sillanimity of their countrymen; whilst the members of
administration, fearful of losing their places, suffered their
country to be degraded from its proper rank and influence
in Europe, and prepared the way for the partition of
Poland, the projected partition of France, the war of the
revolution by which that project was resisted, and the
immeasurable aggrandisement of the power which soon
proved so dangerous to Britain and to all Europe.
An unsuccessful effort was made during this session of
parliament by Sir Gilbert Elliot, to procure for the mem¬
bers of the church of Scotland an exemption from the test
act. But the Roman Catholics in England were more
fortunate in obtaining relief from certain penal statutes.
As the Catholic church was the great object both of poli¬
tical and religious terror in the first stages of the reforma¬
tion, the English statute book was loaded with the most
rigorous edicts against the professors of that obnoxious
faith ; and though some of these were removed in the year
1780, yet in 1791 not less than seventy pages of Burns
Ecclesiastical Law were occupied with the enumeration of
the penal statutes in force against the Roman Catholics.
Amongst these were some of the most sanguinary nature.
For example, it was high treason and death to make a
convert to the Catholic faith; and severe penalties were
enacted against papists for hearing mass by some statutes,
whilst by others they were compelled to attend the esta¬
blished worship, however contrary to their consciences.
A reform was therefore imperiously called for, and had
become the more reasonable, as, in the year 17JO, a body
of Catholic dissenters had formally protested against the
temporal power of the pope, and against his assumed
authority to release men from their civil obligations, or
to dispense with the sacredness of oaths. Mr Milford,
therefore, brought forward a bill to relieve the protesting
Catholics from the penalties and disabilities to which per¬
sons professing the Romish religion were subject by law;
and the bill passed unanimously, excepting that Mi Fox
wished to extend it, not merely to protesting, but to all Ro¬
man Catholics: upon the principle, that the state has no
right to inquire into the opinions, either political or religious,
of the people, but only to take cognizance of their actions.
BRITAIN.
Reign of The war now carrying on in India gave rise to some
George III. debates during the present session. Like all other wars
in that quarter of the globe, it had been undertaken on
our part for the purpose of aggrandisement, and on the
part of our antagonist from a jealousy of the British power.
The ostensible cause of the war, however, was, that the
Dutch had long been in possession of two forts upon the
frontier of Hyder Ali’s kingdom of Mysore; that in the year
1780 Hyder had seized and garrisoned these forts, under
the pretence that they belonged to a vassal of his; that
having speedily thereafter induced the Dutch and French
to join him against the British, the forts were given up
to the Dutch; that in 1789, Tippoo had again claimed the
forts; and that the Dutch, dreading his power, had sold
the forts to the rajah of Travancore, a vassal or ally of
the British. Tippoo, resenting this mode of evading his
claim, made war upon Travancore; but as the rajah had
effected the purchase under secret instructions from the
British government in India, he was defended by them.
Thus the war was said on our part to have been entered
into in defence of the just rights of our ally, the rajah of
Travancore; whilst on the other hand it was contended
that this was nothing more than an attempt to subdue
the sovereign of Mysore, and extend our eastern empire,
at a time when the power of France was annihilated, and
our own forces in great strength in that quarter. In the
trial of Mr Hastings little progress was made during the
present session. As parliament had been dissolved during
the dependence of the trial, a question occurred, whether
that circumstance did not put an end to the impeachment.
The friends of Mr Hastings adopted the affirmative side
of the question, and were supported by Mr Erskine and
the attorney and solicitor general, Macdonald and Scott;
whilst Mr Pitt, Mr Burke, and Mr Fox contended that a
dissolution could have no effect upon an impeachment.
After much discussion, it was carried in the House of
Commons that the impeachment was still depending,
and the same decision was adopted by the House of
Lords. The session of parliament was concluded on the
10th of June.
As the avowed object of the first leaders of the revo¬
lution in France was the establishment of a system of po¬
litical freedom, or of a representative government, with a
hereditary monarch at its head ; and as one of the con¬
sequences which they expected to follow from the esta¬
blishment of the new system was the complete abolition
of wars, which they ascribed entirely to the ambition of
kings; the progress of the revolution was regarded with
much favour by many persons in Great Britain. The re¬
form of the Gallican church, though it alarmed the Eng¬
lish clergy, was favourably regarded by the English dis¬
senters ; and the abolition of titles of honour was not dis¬
liked in a country where they are only enjoyed by a few
individuals, and are chiefly valued on account of the pri¬
vilege of hereditary legislation by which they are accom¬
panied. The English also had long been accustomed to
boast of their political freedom, and of their superiority
in this respect over their French neighbours; and hence,
when the populace of Paris rose in arms, when the military
refused to act against them, and when the state prison or
fortress of the Bastille was taken and demolished, many
persons in Great Britain regarded as an imitation of the
efforts of our ancestors the attempts made by the French
to shake off the ancient despotism, and to renovate the
order of society. The public at large indeed had not yet
given much attention to the subject; but of the specula¬
tive and enthusiastic there was a sufficient number to form
numerous convivial parties in commemoration of the 14th
of July, the day on which the Bastille had been taken.
These meetings, it is true, were on the whole regarded
539
rather unfavourably by persons attached to the monarchi- Reign of
cal part of our constitution; but no public expression ofGeorgem
disapprobation had hitherto appeared. 1791.
A festive meeting of this nature was to have been held
at Birmingham on the 14th of July 1791 ; but several
days preceding it, some unknown person had left in a pub¬
lic-house copies of an inflammatory handbill, representing
the late transactions in France as proper to be imitated
in England. The contents of this placard were very
generally circulated, and produced much conversation in
the town; upon which the magistrates offered a reward
of a hundred guineas for discovering the author, printer,
or publisher. Meanwhile the friends of the intended
meeting disclaimed in the strongest terms the sentiments
expressed in the seditious handbill; and finding their
views misrepresented, they at first resolved that the meet¬
ing should not take place ; but another determination was
afterwards adopted, and the company assembled to the
number of eighty. The party, however, had scarcely met
wdien the house was surrounded by a tumultuous rabble,
who expressed their disapprobation by hisses and groans,
and by shouting “ church and king.” Upon this the meeting
immediately dispersed. But in the evening the mob at¬
tacked and burned a Unitarian meeting-house belonging to
the congregation of Dr Priestley ; and although this distin¬
guished person had not been present at the meeting, his
house, from which he was compelled to fly with his fami¬
ly, was also attacked, and his library, his valuable philo¬
sophical apparatus, and his manuscripts and papers, were
destroyed. During the three succeeding days they destroy¬
ed some other meeting-houses, together with the dwelling-
houses of several eminent dissenters in the neighbour¬
hood; and it was not till the night of the fourth day that
some parties of light dragoons arrived. The damage done
was very great; and the magistrates were accused of at
first favouring and encouraging the mob, whose excesses
they afterwards found it impossible to restrain. Five of
the rioters were tried at Worcester, and one was convict¬
ed and executed. At Warwick twelve were tried, and
four convicted of burning and destroying houses, three of
whom were executed, and one was reprieved upon the
application of the magistrates, as it appeared that his inter¬
ference in the riot had been accidental.
At this time a foundation was laid on the Continent for
the most important political changes. The various nations
of Europe had for some centuries owed their independ¬
ence to the jealousies which they mutually entertained.
Many petty states were altogether unable to contend in
war against their powerful neighbours ; but they owed their
safety to the circumstance of their neighbours being held
in check by other great powers, who resisted all attempts
at aggrandisement. When one nation became dangerous
by its ambition, the combination of a number of other
states repressed its machinations; and thus the Spanish,
and afterwards the French monarchies, were restrained
within due bounds. But in the course of the century the
power of Russia had become formidable in Europe; and
its rulers sought rather to undermine than to overthrow
that balance of strength to which the lesser states of Eu¬
rope had owed their safety. A former Russian sovereign
had entered into a close alliance with the head of the
house of Austria; and, notwithstanding the talents of the
great Frederick, this union had nearly proved fatal to the
Prussian monarchy. Finding the advantage of such an
alliance, the house of Austria attempted at the same time
to attach itself to France, its ancient hereditary enemy,
by the marriage of the archduchess Marie Antoinette to
the dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI.; and this marriage
fully produced all its intended political effects. The
French court, relinquishing its former policy of humbling
^ ^ *
BRITAIN.
540
Reign of Austria, suffered its armies to fall into decay, and allowed
George III. jtse]f iecJ on ali occasions by this more active power;
and the revolution, which wrought so radical a change
* ' in the government of the nation and the order of society,
by subverting every existing establishment, and exciting
jealousy and discontent in every quarter, reduced the
nation, in the eyes of foreign powers, to a state of utter
debility. The king and royal family, exposed to endless
insults and humiliations, had been compelled to submit to
a new constitution, which placed the royal authority on
a very precarious footing; the principal nobility had emi¬
grated, and the king himself had attempted to follow their
example; but being seized at Varennes, he was brought
back as a fugitive, and placed at the head of a form of
government which he had neither the power nor the in¬
clination to administer.
In this state of affairs Russia and Austria, acting in con¬
junction, saw nothing to resist their ambition. They had
recently wished to seize upon and divide the richest pro¬
vinces of Turkey ; but the Austrians having met with un¬
expected resistance, desisted from the attempt. The Rus¬
sians however were more successful. The king of Prussia,
with the aid of Britain and Holland, had attempted to re¬
strain their progress; but being deserted by Britain, he
now found it necessary to keep on fair terms both with Rus¬
sia and Austria; and for this purpose, as well as to avoid
being left behind in the career of usurpation and aggran¬
disement, he was compelled to enter into all their ambiti¬
ous schemes. Poland and France were at this time two
of the weakest states in Europe. For the sake of erecting
a barrier to bis own states, the Prussian monarch had
encouraged the king and the leading nobles to form a new
political constitution for Poland, by which its government
might be strengthened ; but Russia and Austria had cast
their eyes upon this country, with a view, in imitation
of what had been done in 1772, of seizing its best pro¬
vinces ; and the king of Prussia now found it necessary to
acquiesce in the project. And the state of France at this
period held out strong temptations for the formation of a
similar project respecting it. Leopold, emperor of Ger¬
many, had a fair excuse for interfering in French affairs,
namely, to rescue the king from the state of thraldom to
which he had been reduced by his subjects : and the other
princes of Europe had become alarmed at the example set
by France, of limiting the authority of the monarch, of de¬
stroying the privileges of the nobility, and of reducing to a
level all classes of persons in the state. The united powers
of the north, therefore, now resolved to restore the French
king and his nobles, but at the same time determined to
divide among themselves and their allies some of the pn>
vinces of France. Towards the close of the summer 1791
these points were adjusted, at a conference held at Pil-
nitz in Saxony, between the emperor Leopold and the
king of Prussia. The treaty entered into was intended to
be kept secret; but the substance of it soon transpired,
and afterwards, by the hatred which it excited in the
French nation, proved the cause of important events. Its
general object is understood to have been the dismember¬
ment of Poland, and also of part of France. Poland was
to be divided among the three great military powers in
different portions. With regard to France, the emperor
was to obtain Bavaria in exchange for the French Nether¬
lands, which he was to conquer, and transfer, along with
the Austrian Netherlands, to the elector of Bavaria. The
Archduke Charles was to obtain the duchy of Lorrain;
Strasburg and Alsace were to be restored to the empire;
the king of Sardinia was to receive Dauphine, if he ac¬
ceded to the coalition; Spain, on the same condition, was
to be accommodated with the French portion of the island
of St Domingo, with Corsica, Rousillon, and Bearn; and
the Swiss cantons, if they became parties to the coalition, Reign of
were likewise to receive certain territories. This treaty George III,
was publicly disavowed; but it was nevertheless univer-
sally believed throughout Europe to have been entered 1792.
into, and was accordingly talked of under the appellation
of the “ Concert of Princes.”
Parliament assembled on the 31st of January 1792, and
a variety of uninteresting debates occurred, the principal
of which related to the armament which had been fitted
out on account of the dispute with Russia concerning the
fortress of Oczakow. During the preceding autumn, the
Duke of York, second son of the king, had married a daugh¬
ter of the king of Prussia. This prince was believed to be
a favourite son ; and as the marriage in question had been
contracted, not from political considerations, but the pri¬
vate choice of the parties, it gave general satisfaction. A
provision of L.37,000 per annum was readily made by par¬
liament for the royal pair. On the 17th of February Mr
Pitt brought forward a statement of the public revenue,
from which it appeared that nearly half a million might
be applied towards the extinction of taxes, or the payment
of the national debt; and this was accordingly done ; the
additional tax recently laid on malt, the taxes on female
servants, on carts and waggons, and on houses under seven
windows, and part of the duty on candles, being those re¬
pealed. On the 2d of April the question of the slave-trade
was again brought under the consideration of the House
of Commons by Mr Wilberforce. He disclaimed any pro¬
ject of emancipating the negroes, but contended that, by
the abolition of the importation of new slaves, the state of
those in the West Indies would be improved. The slave-
trade was defended on this occasion by Colonel Tarleton
and Mr Jenkinson ; while Mr Wilberforce was supported
by Mr Montague, Mr Whitbread, and Mr Milbank. Mr
Dundas professed himself a friend to the abolition, but en¬
tertained doubts with respect to the mode of effecting it..
Mr Addington agreed in opinion with Mr Dundas. He
thought the trade ought to exist for some years longer,
and therefore could not vote for an immediate abolition.
Mr Fox deprecated every kind of deception or delusion
practised upon the country, and reprobated in strong
terms Mr Addington’s views of the subject. Mr Dundas
moved, as an amendment to Mr Wilberforce’s motion, that
the trade should be abolished graduall}7; and although Mr
Pitt declared his disapprobation of the amendment, the
motion for a gradual abolition was carried by a consider¬
able majority. Soon afterwards Mr Dundas stated the re¬
gulations which he meant to propose for the gradual abo¬
lition of the trade. The chief of these consisted in in¬
creasing the duties upon the age of the negroes imported;
abolishing the trade as far as not necessary for the supply
of our own islands; limiting the tonnage to be employed
in it; punishing British subjects guilty of crimes in carry¬
ing it on; and providing that the importation of negroes
into the British colonies should cease on the first of Janu¬
ary 1800. Mr Wilberforce disclaimed all acquiescence
in these propositions; and Mr Fox ridiculed them, by
asking where the baptismal register wras kept on the coast
of Africa, by which the age of those who were to be ex¬
ported could be ascertained. A variety of amendments
were now proposed; and it was at length agreed that the
period of abolition should be fixed for the first of January
1796. In the upper house the advocates of abolition were
less successful; and they were not a little provoked at
finding one of the younger branches of the royal family,
the Duke of Clarence, now William IV., declaring him¬
self decidedly hostile to their wishes. It was ultimately
resolved that evidence should be heard at the bar, which
necessarily produced delay, and little or no progress was
made during the rest of the session. On the 18th of April
BRITAIN.
Reign of Mr Sheridan moved for an inquiry into certain grievances
George III. complained of by the royal burghs of Scotland, fifty out of
the sixty- six having concurred in the petition upon which
1792 Mr Sheridan grounded his motion. The motion was re¬
sisted by Mr Anstruther, Mr Dundas, and Sir J. St Clair
Erskine, upon the general ground that no serious griev¬
ance existed; and the inquiry was refused by a large ma¬
jority. Excepting some debates relative to the French re¬
volution, nothing further of any importance occurred during
the present session.
That we may not afterwards have occasion to interrupt
the detail of the transactions connected with the state of
affairs in France, we shall here notice the war in India, and
which was now brought to a fortunate termination. The
western side of the peninsula of Hindustan consists of a
level country for upwards of seventy miles inwards. Behind
this tract, and parallel to the ocean, runs a chain of lofty
mountains, presenting a front towards the west, broken
into tremendous precipices, but on the other side consist¬
ing of an extensive plain, gradually descending eastward
to the Bay of Bengal, and forming the territory of the
Mahrattas, Mysore, Madras, the Carnatic, and other states.
Now as Tippoo Sahib possessed territory on both sides of
these mountains, which are denominated Ghauts, from the
narrow paths or passes by which they are crossed, the army
of the Carnatic, under General Meadows, was directed
to attack this territory from the east; the Bombay army,
under General Abercromby, was to reduce the country
to the westward of the Ghauts; the Mahrattas, and the
nizam of the Deccan, agreed to attack Tippoo's country
on the north and north-east, where it bordered on their
own territories; and Seringapatam, his capital, was fixed
upon as the point towards which the whole of the hostile
armies were to direct and concentrate their efforts. On
the 15th of June 1790, General Meadows entered Tippoo’s
country. The grand army on this occasion amounted to
fourteen thousand effective European troops, a body of
men which no power in India could encounter in the field.
A variety of operations occurred ; but little appears to have
been effected towards the subjugation of the enemy, ex¬
cept the capture of the country to the westward of the
Ghauts, till the end of February 1791, when Lord Corn¬
wallis assumed the command in person. His first opera¬
tion was directed against Bangalore, which he reached on
the 5th of March ; and a practicable breach having been
made in the walls, the fort was stormed on the 21st, with
little loss to the British. Of the garrison not less than
a thousand were bayoneted, and a small number taken.
Being joined by above fourteen thousand of the nizam’s
troops, and seven hundred Europeans, with four thousand
five hundred and eighty troops under Colonel Oldham,
Lord Cornwallis proceeded towards Seringapatam, where
he arrived on the 13th of May, after a difficult march in
bad weather over a hilly and barren country. Tippoo lost
no time in displaying a considerable force in the field, with
the view of covering his capital; but being beaten, though
with little loss, he was forced to x*etire within the walls of
Seringapatam, which, defended by a river at this season
swelled with the rains, seemed secure against attack. In
fact, circumstances had completely defeated the object of
the combined operation which had been so ably projected.
Lord Cornwallis was in want of provisions for supporting
his army during a protracted siege ; and as General Aber¬
cromby had not been able to join him from the west, it was
judged expedient to retire to Bangalore, after destroying
the battering train. On his retreat Lord Cornwallis was
joined by the Mahrattas to the number of about thirty
thousand. General Abercromby also retired across the
Ghauts with a fatigued and dispirited army; and thus for
the preseht Tippoo escaped a siege in his capital.
541
After his retreat, Lord Cornwallis employed himself for Reign of
some time in reducing various small forts in the neigh- George HI.
bourhood of Bangalore, some of them of such natural
strength as, in any other hands but those of the feeble na¬
tives of that country, to be absolutely impregnable. Nun-
didroog, built on the summit of a mountain 1700 feet in
height, three fourths of which are altogether inaccessible,
fell after a siege which lasted from the 22d of September
to the 18th of October; the place being assaulted by a
breach at midnight, and taken, though not by surprise.
The fortress of Savendroog, eighteen miles to the west¬
ward of Bangalore, was still more strongly situated. It
stood on the summit of an insulated rock, rising about
half a mile in perpendicular height, from a table or base
of eight or ten miles in circumference, and divided at its
summit into two hills, each having its peculiar defences,
capable of being maintained independent of the lower
works ; while the whole was surrounded by a strong wall,
with cross walls and barriers in every accessible part. Yet
this stupendous fortress was taken in ten days.
In December, General Abercromby once more crossed
the Ghauts, and proceeded eastward towards Mysore;
while Lord Cornwallis, in the beginning of February 1792,
advanced from Bangalore, and arrived on the 5th within
sight of Seringapatam. Tippoo Sultan occupied a posi¬
tion under the walls, and there resolved to make a stand
in defence of his capital. On the 6th, at eight o’clock in
the evening, the attack was made on the sultan’s camp.
After a sharp engagement at different points, parties of
the British crossed the river, and established themselves
in the island on which Seringapatam stands. This move¬
ment proved decisive. Tippoo, finding himself in dan¬
ger of having his retreat intercepted, was compelled to
retire; and being pressed by the invaders on all sides,
while his palace and gardens were in their possession,
and his power reduced within the narrow limits of a for¬
tress, he found it necessary to endeavour to purchase
peace upon almost any terms. With this view he released
two prisoners, Lieutenants Chalmers and Nash, and re¬
quested the former of these gentlemen to present a letter
from him to Lord Cornwallis. The operations of the siege,
however, still continued, and, on the 19th of February,
the trenches were opened; whilst the Bombay army, un¬
der General Abercromby, invested the western side of the
capital. But a cessation of hostilities was agreed to on
the 23d of February, and a treaty of peace concluded, by
which it was stipulated, first, that Tippoo was to cede one
half of his dominions to the British and Indian powers;
secondly, that he was to pay in money three crores and
thirty lacs of rupees ; thirdly, that all prisoners were to be
restored ; and fourthly, that two of the sultan’s sons were
to become hostages for the due performance of the treaty.
On the 26th, the two princes, each mounted on an ele¬
phant, richly caparisoned, proceeded from the fort to Lord
Cornwallis’s camp, where they were received by his lord-
ship with his staff. The eldest, Abdul Kallich, was about
ten, and the youngest, Mooza-ud-deen, about eight years
of age ; and they were dressed in long white muslin gowns,
with red turbans richly adorned with pearls. Educated
from infancy with the utmost care, the spectators were
astonished to behold in these children all the reserve, po¬
liteness, and attention, of maturer years. The kindness
with which they were received by the British commander
appeared to afford them satisfaction ; some presents were
exchanged; and the scene is described by an eye-witness
as in the highest degree interesting. It was the 19th of
March before the definitive treaty was finally adjusted,
and delivered by the young princes into the hands of Lord
Cornwallis.
In the meanwhile scenes of unparalleled interest were
BRITAIN. 543
Reign of might only desire an amelioration of our institutions united sinister designs. The plan of the persons to whom he Reign of
George III. in an association with others who professed not reform only, alluded was evidently to overturn the monarchy, and con- 4
but direct hostility to the very form of our government, vert the kingdom into a republic.^ . Ihe address to the
IW2, and who threatened the extinction of monarchy and every throne was agreed to without a division. In the House oi
thing which promoted order and subordination in a state. Lords, on the 31st of May, a similar address was voted
Mr Fox declared himself satisfied concerning the neces- after some debate; and parliament was prorogued a short
sity of a reform in the representation, but that he never time afterwards.
entertained very sanguine hopes of its accomplishment. The eyes of all Europe were now turned towards trance ;
Had his honourable friend consulted him, he should have and the combination which the continental monarchs were
hesitated in recommending the part he had taken; but known to have formed against that country was expected
having taken it, he could not see why the period was im- speedily to issue in action. 1 he king of Sweden, who was
proper for the discussion. He professed a strong attach- fond of war, having now settled all disputes with Russia,
ment to the British constitution, but did not regard this offered to lead in person the armies of the combined
as the only free country in the world. After a tumul- powers, to destroy in trance those new institutions and
tuous debate, in which Mr Burke and Mr Wyndham opinions which threatened to subvert the whole ancient
opposed Mr Sheridan and Mr Erskine, the subject was system of public order in Europe. But continuing at va-
dropt. In the mean time a variety of political pamph- riance with his nobility, he was assassinated at a masque-
lets daily appeared, the most remarkable of which was a rade on the 18th of March, by an enthusiast of the name
publication by Thomas Paine, entitled The Rights of Man. of Ankerstrom, who boasted, on being seized, that he had
This being a direct and inflammatory attack upon the liberated his country from a tyrant. In the meanwhile
whole principles and practice of the British constitution, Leopold, emperor of Germany, had also died, and been
administration thought fit to issue a royal proclamation succeeded by his son Francis II. Leopold had chosen to
against the publishing and dispersing of seditious writ- temporize with France; but his successor thought it unne-
ings; enjoining the magistrates to exercise vigilance in cessary to observe any measures of caution with that coun-
attempting to discover the authors of such writings, and try. On some remonstrances being made by the Fiench
exhorting the people to guard against all attempts which government against his permitting troops to assemble on
aimed at the subversion of regular government. It is not the frontiers, he avowed the concert of princes against the
easy to perceive what precise purpose government intend- constitution of France, and stated it to be one of the con¬
ed to serve by this proclamation. The authors of the se- ditions necessary to the preservation of peace, that the
ditious publications alluded to did not conceal themselves; neighbouring powers should have no reason for the appre-
and the publications were openly sold without any attempt hensions which arose from the present weakness of the
to suppress them by prosecutions. Perhaps it was intend- internal government of France. This acknowledged in-
ed to prepare the minds of men for future measures of di- tention to interfere in the internal affairs of the French
rect hostility against France ; perhaps it was only meant nation produced a proposal on the part of the trench king
to rouse in the friends of government a spirit of opposi- to the national assembly, which was readily acceded to,
tion to the schemes of innovation which were at this time for declaring war against the king of Hungary and Bohe-
afloat. But whatever object administration might have mia; and in a short time war was in like manner declared
in view, the effect of their proclamation was to excite ge- against Prussia and Sardinia.
neral curiosity, and to serve as a public advertisement to In the meanwhile, though the combined princes had
the dangerous writings of Thomas Paine and others. In not probably as yet completely adjusted their respective
all parts of the island multitudes of persons, who had not shares of the spoils of France and Poland, yet, that the
hitherto interrupted their ordinary occupations to attend latter might be kept in a state of weakness, and that all
to the transactions of the Continent, or the speculative traces of the new principles might as far as possible be
discussions which the present state of France had excit- obliterated, the empress of Russia gave notice of her de¬
ed, were now seen crowding to the shops of booksellers termination to invade Poland with an army of a hundred
inquiring for the treatises, the names or titles of which and fifty thousand men, for the purpose of overturning the
they knew not, against which the king’s proclamation had new constitution. No provision had been made by the
issued; every printing press in the kingdom was occupied, king to resist such a force ; but an attempt was made by
and copies could scarcely be supplied in sufficient abun- Kosciusko, a Polish nobleman, who had served under Ge-
dance to satisfy the demand. Nor did the folly of govern- neral Washington in America, to defend the independence
ment stop here. On the 25th of May the master of the of the country; and some battles were, in consequence,
rolls moved an address to his majesty, in pursuance of fought. But the Russians continued to advance; and on
the proclamation, the object of which he admitted to be the 23d of July the king, despairing of the result of the
Mr Paine’s works; and having read an extract from one contest, submitted without reserve to Russia, and con-
of the pamphlets of that writer, importing that all kings sented to the restoration of the old constitution, with all
were tyrants, and their subjects slaves, he complained of its weakness and anarchy.
the circulation of such publications. Mr Grey asserted While the combined princes were thus successful in the
that the minister, apprehensive of the effects of the asso- north, a very different fate awaited their efforts against
ciation of the friends of the people, had concerted this France. The French king and his ministry caused the
measure with an insidious view of separating those who Austrian Netherlands to be invaded; and four different
had long been connected; and alleged that such sinister detachments under Lafayette and other generals were
practices were delighted in by a gentleman whose politi- directed to enter that country at different points. They
cal life was a tissue of inconsistency, and who never pro- made some progress, but their raw troops were speedily
posed a measure without intending to delude his hearers, repulsed; and when Prussia and Austria, who had under-
Mr Fox disapproved of the proclamation, because it was taken the extinction of the revolution in France, had com-
insidious and ambiguous, tending to propagate vague and pleted their preparations, the Duke of Brunswick was ap-
unnecessary alarm. Mr Pitt did not impute any improper pointed commander of the combined armies. In a long
design to the new association; but it might be taken ad- manifesto issued by the emperor and the king of Prussia,
vantage of by ill-disposed persons, who, under the shelter they thought it necessary to disclaim all views of aggran-
of a respectable body, might push forward their own disement, or interference in the internal administration of
544 BRITAIN.
Reign of France; but they declared themselves resolved to re-
George III. establish in that country public security, meaning the an-
cient order of things, and to protect the persons and pro-
J792. perty of all loyal subjects; threatened to punish as rebels
all who resisted them ; and declared their determination
to give up the city of Paris to the most terrible vengeance
if the least insult were offered to the king, the queen, or
the royal family. The Duke of Brunswick also issued a
manifesto, in his own name, dated from his head-quarters at
Coblentz, in which he declared that the two allied courts
had no intention to make conquests in France, and that
they intended merely to deliver the king from captivity,
and to restore his authority; he promised protection to
all who submitted to the king, required the national guards
to protect the public safety till further orders, and threat¬
ened to treat those who resisted him in arms as rebels to
their king; enjoined the officers and soldiers of the French
regular troops to submit to their legitimate sovereign ; de¬
clared the French magistrates responsible, on pain of losing
their heads and estates, for every disorder which they
should not have attempted to prevent; menaced with death
the inhabitants of towns and villages who should defend
themselves against his troops, but promised protection to
those who should submit; called upon the city of Paris to
yield instantly to the authority of the king; declared the
members of the national assembly, and the magistrates and
national guards of Paris, personally responsible for disobe¬
dience, and amenable to military law; threatened, on the
word of the emperor and king, if the palace of the Tuille-
ries were forced, or the least outrage offered to the king,
queen, and royal family of France, or if they were not im¬
mediately placed in safety and set at liberty, to inflict the
most exemplary punishment, by giving up the citj' of Paris
to military execution; and declared that no other laws
could be acknowledged in France, excepting those de¬
rived from the king, who was invited to repair to a fron¬
tier town, where he might provide for the restoration of
order, and the regular administration of his kingdom.
This fatal manifesto had no sooner been published than
all France was in commotion. The insolent language em¬
ployed by two foreign powers, one of which had for ages
been regarded with a sort of hereditary hostility, wounded
the pride and the patriotism of every Frenchman ; many
who were enemies of the revolution could not brook an
open attack upon the national independence; the zeal of
those who had been enthusiastic promoters of freedom
was kindled into absolute frenzy; and multitudes from all
quarters hastened to the frontiers to share the danger of
protecting the independence of their country. Unhap¬
pily for the monarch, the enemies of the nation had loudly
declared themselves as his friends; and the restoration
of absolute power was made the excuse for a hostile inva¬
sion of France. The king, therefore, and all wdio were
attached to him, became objects of public hatred. The re¬
publican party had previously been small, but every hour
now procured it a fresh accession of strength; and as it
appeared dangerous to intrust the national defence to the
hands of the king, it was resolved to get rid of his autho¬
rity altogether. He was therefore dethroned on the 10th
of August, and a republic proclaimed; and soon afterwards
the capital became the scene of a sanguinary massacre of
those persons who had been imprisoned on suspicion of
adhering to his cause.
The Duke of Brunswick was, in the mean time, advancing
into the heart of the country at the head of the combined
army. Verdun and Longwy had surrendered to his arms
in the end of August, and by this time he had reached
the neighbourhood of Chalons. But he had met with op¬
position at every step of his progress; and the people of
the country had removed all kinds of provisions from the
course of his march, while the French army under Du- Reign of
mouriez was supplied with every necessary. At length, as George III.
the trench daily acquired discipline, General Kellerman w-v-w'
was able to sustain at Valmy, with sixteen thousand men, 1792.
an attack which, though made by a superior force, and
persevered in for fourteen hours, effected nothing. Un¬
able to make any serious impression on the raw levies op¬
posed to it, the combined army also suffered by disease,
which thinned its ranks; whilst the French were rapidly
augmenting in numbers and courage ; so that the advance
to Paris, which seems to have been regarded as a sort of
holiday promenade, became an achievement beyond the
power of the invaders to execute. The king of Prussia was
personally present with the army, and enabled to judge of
the difficulties as well as dangers of his position. A war
of the people revealed itself to his astonished view; and
he perceived, that before he could accomplish the object
of the coalition, he must not only conquer an army ani¬
mated with an enthusiastic spirit of patriotism, but subdue
a whole nation, ready to rise in mass to resist the aggression
on its territory. The prospect was abundantly gloomy;
and his Prussian majesty was appalled by it. Accordingly
a retrograde movement was commenced without any at¬
tempt being made to penetrate farther into the country;
and some suspicions were at this time entertained by dis¬
cerning men, that France would not have much to dread
from the obstinate hostility of the king of Prussia. After his
retreat, the French, with wonderful activity, commenced
offensive operations. In October General Custine re¬
duced Mentz; in the same month Dumouriez invaded the
Netherlands; on the 4th of November he fought the ce¬
lebrated battle of Jemmappes, in which the Austrians were
defeated; and as the emperor Joseph II., trusting to his
alliance with France, had demolished the fortifications of
the towns in the Netherlands, excepting Luxembourg
and the citadel of Antwerp, the whole of that country, as
far as the frontiers of Holland, now fell into the hands
of the French. After the victory of Jemmappes, the go¬
vernment of the French republic, in order to conciliate
the inhabitants of the Austrian Netherlands, resolved to
open the navigation of the river Scheldt, which for some
centuries had been kept shut by the jealousy of the Dutch,
and thus to revive the trade of Antwerp, anciently one of
the first commercial cities in Europe; and at the same
time, in order if possible to counteract the combination of
princes which had been formed against them, and which
was now rapidly extending itself, the convention endea¬
voured to represent theirs as the cause of the people in
every country, in opposition to that of their princes or he¬
reditary rulers, who were denominated tyrants. Accord¬
ingly, on the 19th of November, the convention passed
a decree, declaring, that they would give assistance, by
means of their armies and otherwise, to every people who
should attempt to establish a free government for them¬
selves ; and two months afterwards, the same body, by a
majority of votes, ordered their imprisoned monarch to be
put to death upon an accusation of having betrayed the
cause of the nation.
The important transactions which were now taking place
on the Continent produced a powerful impression upon the
British nation, where the minds of men, as already remark¬
ed, had been directed to political questions by the royal pro¬
clamation against seditious publications. According as the
sentiments of individuals varied, they perused with terror
or with satisfaction the Duke of Brunswick’s manifesto.
Men of a patriotic character, however, whatever their po¬
litical opinions might be, were not dissatisfied to see a na¬
tion capable, even amidst great public confusion, of repell¬
ing an invasion by the best disciplined armies, conducted
by the most experienced commanders in Europe. But the
«
BRITAIN.
Reign of horrid massacres which took place in September, together
George III. with the treatment of the royal family, excited very dif-
ferent sentiments, and were justly regarded as instances
1792. 0f unparalleled barbarity and wanton bloodshed ; and the
general result was, that by the months of August and Sep¬
tember the whole British nation was in a most agitated
state. In all companies, questions as to the comparative
merits of monarchical and republican government, toge¬
ther with the propriety of a reform in the British House of
Commons, formed the subjects of conversation ; and per¬
sons of every rank entered into these discussions with sin¬
gular eagerness. At the commencement of the revolution,
very few had any idea that a republican government would
be found practicable in France ; and with regard to Britain,
which enjoyed a sound administration of justice and much
internal prosperity, no change whatever seemed necessary.
But, in proportion as the French proved victorious, a re¬
publican government seemed less and less impracticable ;
and, as the subject of political abuses was canvassed, new
ideas concerning the state of government in Britain began
to be entertained. The scenes of tumult and corruption
which occurred at elections, the inattention of parliament
to the petitions for the abolition of the slave-trade, the
memory of the coalition, and the reproach under which
the House of Commons since that time had fallen, indu¬
ced many to think a reform in the representation of the
people absolutely necessary. New notions were daily
broached at home, or imported from the volcanic region
of France; and one in particular, that of the boundless
perfectibility of the human mind, which is so true in theory,
but so false in fact, became extremely prevalent, and gain¬
ed singular favour. Men of science or benevolence, who
judged of others from the rectitude of their own inten¬
tions ; men of ardent imaginations, who believed every
thing practicable to their unbounded zeal; and the young
and inexperienced, who were unacquainted with the im¬
perfections of the human character ; all imagined that the
period had arrived when mankind, become rational and
just, were no longer to engage in wars of ambition,—when
good sense alone was to rule the world,—and when the
public business of society, reduced to the narrow limits of
administering justice, and constructing high roads, har¬
bours, and other works of internal improvement, might be
conducted with little trouble, and without the establish¬
ment of different ranks and orders of men, or the display
of military force for the preservation of public tranquillity.
In short, a species of delirium upon political subjects pre¬
vailed ; and mankind were led to believe that the greatest
changes in the order of society might be accomplished
with facility and safety.
Besides the society called the Friends of the People,
other associations of less distinguished persons, called the
Constitutional and Corresponding Societies, were establish¬
ed in London ; and during the autumn societies assuming
the name of Friends of the People were established in
most towns and villages throughout the country, for the
avowed purpose of bringing about a reform of parliament.
In proportion, however, as the character of the French re¬
volution began to display itself, in the sanguinary scenes
which were daily enacted, and in the extravagant projects
and sentiments which were entertained, persons of rank
and property became alarmed. In the month of Novem¬
ber an association was instituted at the Crown and Anchor
tavern in London, the avowed object of which was the pro¬
tection of liberty and property against the attempts of re¬
publicans and levellers; and similar associations for the
support of government were set on foot in other parts of
the metropolis, and throughout the country.
Parliament assembled on the 13th of December 1792.
The speech from the throne intimated that his majesty
YOL. v.
had judged it necessary to embody a part of the militia,
and to assemble parliament previous to the time fixed for(
that purpose ; and stated, as the causes of these measures,
the seditious practices which had been discovered, and the
spirit of tumult and disorder, shown in acts of riot and in¬
surrection, which required the interposition of a military
force in support of the civil magistrate. His majesty as¬
serted, that he had observed a strict neutrality in regard
to the war on the Continent, and had uniformly abstained
from any interference with respect to the internal affairs
of France ; but that it was impossible for him to see, with¬
out the most serious uneasiness, the strong and increasing
indications which had appeared there of an intention to
excite disturbances in other countries, to disregard the
rights of neutral nations, to pursue views of conquest and
aggrandisement, and to adopt towards his allies, the States-
general, measures which were neither conformable to the
law of nations, nor to the positive stipulations of existing
treaties. Under these circumstances he felt it his duty to
have recourse to the means of prevention and internal de¬
fence with which he was intrusted by law, and to take
the necessary steps for augmenting the naval and mili¬
tary force of the kingdom.
When the usual address was moved in the House of
Commons, Lord Wycombe opposed it, on the ground that
the speech from the throne had calumniated the people of
England ; that, so far from any spirit of insurrection ex¬
isting, the kingdom was on the contrary overflowing with
loyalty; that speculative political opinions had always
been agitated under the free constitution of Britain ; and
that the persons who were thought most disaffected wish¬
ed merely to reform that ‘constitution. Mr Fox declared
that the present was the most momentous crisis that he had
ever read of in the history of this country; and that on
the conduct of parliament depended, not merely the fate
of the British constitution, but that of doctrines affecting
the happiness and well-being of all human kind. He af¬
firmed, that there was not a fact stated as such in the
speech from the throne which was not false; he denied
the existence of any insurrection ; he justified the exulta¬
tion which many persons had expressed on account of
the retreat of the Duke of Brunswick; he described the
calling out of the militia as a fraud, intended to induce the
people to believe that cause of alarm existed, and there¬
by to bring them more completely under the influence of
government; he treated the opening of the Scheldt as no
just cause of war; and he recommended the removal of
acknowledged grievances, as the certain means of appeas¬
ing the discontent of the people. Mr Windham now desert¬
ed the opposition, and joined administration in contending
that there existed great danger to the constitution. He
also declared his approbation of the march of the combin¬
ed armies into France. Mr Dundas asserted, that under
the pretext of reform, the example of France had been
held out for imitation to the people of this country; and
that the object of the French was evidently the aggrandise¬
ment of their dominions. Mr Sheridan denied the exist¬
ence of any just cause of alarm, and declared that he would
vote for the impeachment of any English minister who
should enter into a war for the purpose of re-establishing
the former despotism in France, or who should dare, in such
a cause, to spend one guinea, or shed one drop of blood.
From the commencement of Mr Pitt’s administration a
considerable number of members of parliament, the rem¬
nant of the coalition, had remained in opposition to his
measures. But in consequence of the alarm which had
at this time diffused itself among persons of high rank, and
perhaps also as a plausible excuse for deserting a fruitless
and unprofitable opposition, a great number of the members
of the party hitherto hostile to administration now joined
3 z
545
Reign of
1792.
546
BRITAIN.
.Reign of in supporting those measures which they perceived to be
George TIL agreeable to the executive power. Accordingly, on a di-
v-w' vision there appeared for the address two hundred and
1792. seventy, and for the amendment only fifty. In the House
of Lords similar debates took place upon the address, and
opposition also experienced a desertion of part of its mem¬
bers. The Duke of Norfolk, the Marquis of Lansdown,
Lord Rawdon, afterwards Earl of Moira and Marquis of
Hastings, and Earl Stanhope, declared themselves averse
to war ; whilst Lord Grenville, Lord Stormont, the Mar¬
quis Townshend, and others, supported the sentiments ex¬
pressed in the king’s speech.
After the French king had been dethroned, Earl Gower
the British ambassador was recalled ; but the French am¬
bassador, M. Chauvelin, still continued to reside in Lon¬
don. On the 15th of December Mr Fox moved that a
minister should be sent to Paris to treat with the provi¬
sional executive government of France; declaring, that
by this motion he meant not to approve of the conduct of
the French government, but simply to record it as his
opinion, that it was the true policy of every nation to treat
with the existing government of every other nation with
which it had relative interests, without regarding how that
government was constituted ; and that we could have no
stronger objection to the existing government of France,
than to the governments of Algiers and Morocco, in both
of which countries we had resident consuls. This motion
gave rise to a very animated debate, in which the opposi¬
tion were accused of desiring to encourage discontent and
sedition, and were defended by Mr Taylor, Mr Grey, and
Colonel Tarleton. But Mr Fox’s motion was negatived.
On the I9th of December Lord Grenville introduced
into the House of Lords what has been called the alien
bill, authorizing government to dismiss from the kingdom
such foreigners as they might think fit, and which passed
after some opposition from the Earl of Lauderdale and the
Marquis of Lansdown. On the 28th of December Mr Se¬
cretary Dundas urged the House of Commons to adopt the
alien bill, on account of the extraordinary influx of foreign¬
ers into the country, and the dissatisfaction of persons at
home. Sir Gilbert Elliot, in supporting the bill, expressed
his regret at being under the necessity of differing from
his former political associates; and Mr Burke, as usual,
spoke with very great vehemence on the subject. I vote,
said he, for the present bill, because I consider it as the
means of saving my life, and all our lives, from the hands
of assassins. When they smile, I see blood trickling down
their face; I see their insidious purposes; I see that the
object of all their cajoling is blood. I now warn my coun¬
try to beware of those execrable philosophers, whose only
object is to destroy every thing that is good here, and
establish immorality and murder by precept and example.
While the alien bill was under consideration, another mea¬
sure allied to it in principle was introduced; namely, a
bill to prevent the circulation of assignats and other paper
money under the authority of France. During the month
of December an order of council was also issued for pre¬
venting the exportation of corn to France, and some ships
which had grain on board were compelled to unload. On
the 26th of December an act of indemnity passed upon
the subject.
Affairs were now fast hastening to an open rupture with
France. On the 17th of December M. Chauvelin trans¬
mitted a note to Lord Grenville, one of the secretaries of
state, in which, in the name of the executive council of
the French republic, he demanded to know whether his
Britannic majesty was to be considered as a neutral or
a hostile power. No wish, he said, existed on the part of
France to entertain any doubt upon the subject; and they
even desired to answer previously all those reproaches which
might be thrown out against them. With regard to the de- Reign of
cree of the French convention of the 19th November, it had George III
been misinterpreted. The French republic did not intend
to favour insurrections in neutral or friendly states ; and the ;
decree applied only to those people who, after having ac¬
quired their liberty, might request the assistance of the
French republic by a solemn and unequivocal expression
of the general will. As to the neutrality of Holland, it
would be respected while that power confined itself with¬
in the bounds of strict neutrality ; and with regard to the
opening of the Scheldt, it was a question irrevocably decid¬
ed by reason and justice. It was added, that on the fatal
supposition of a war being resolved on, whilst the inten¬
tions of France were thus peaceful and conciliatory, the
whole weight and responsibility of it would sooner or later
fall on those who had provoked it.
Lord Grenville’s answer to this note, which bears date
3lst December 1792, disclaimed considering M. Chauve¬
lin in any other public character than that of minister from
his most Christian majesty. It denied that the decree
of the 19th November was satisfactorily explained, as the
promoters of sedition in every country might still have in
view the case in which they might count beforehand on
the support of France. It affirmed that the neutrality of
Holland had already been violated; and that the unim¬
portance of the Scheldt would only render the opening of
its navigation a clearer proof of the existence of an inten¬
tion to insult the allies of England by violating their rights,
which were guarded by the faith of treaties.
An official note from the executive power of France
was transmitted through M. Chauvelin in reply to Lord
Grenville’s answer, in which another effort was made to
explain the obnoxious decree of the 19th November. In
this document all intention of effecting a conquest of the
Netherlands was disclaimed; and it was added, that if the
Belgians, from any motive whatever, consented to deprive
themselves of the navigation of the Scheldt, France would
not oppose it. In an answer to this note by Lord Gren¬
ville, these explanations were declared to be unsatisfactory.
On the 17th of January M. Chauvelin sent to Lord Gren¬
ville his credentials as ambassador from the French repub¬
lic ; but on the 20th of the same month Lord Grenville
sent him a letter refusing to receive his credentials, or to
consider him in any other character than as one of the
mass of foreigners resident in England ; and on the 24th
his lordship sent M. Chauvelin a passport for himself and
his suite, declaring that, after the fatal death of his most
Christian majesty, he could no longer be considered as
holding any public character in Britain.
In consequence of this correspondence the French con¬
vention declared war against England and Holland on the
first of February; three days previous to which Mr Se¬
cretary Dundas presented to the House of Commons a
message from the king, announcing that copies of the pa¬
pers now mentioned were laid before the house. It was
added, that his majesty thought it necessary to make a
further augmentation of his forces by sea and land ; and
that he relied upon the zeal of the House of Commons to
enable him to take the most effectual measures for main¬
taining the security of his dominions, supporting his allies,
and opposing the ambition of France, at all times danger¬
ous, and peculiarly so when connected with the propaga¬
tion of principles utterly subversive of the peace and or¬
der of civil society. And thus Britain became a party in
the most sanguinary and eventful war that ever desolated
Europe or afflicted humanity. In the month of April the
French government made another attempt to enter into
negociations, and the minister, Le Brun, transmitted to
England by a private gentleman letters to Lord Grenville,
in which he requested passports for M. Maret to repair
BRITAIN.
547
Reign of to Britain in order to negociate peace; but no public no-
George III. tice whatever was taken of the application.
1793.
CHAP. XVI.
REIGN OF GEORGE III. WAR WITH FRANCE.
Remarks on the Causes of the War.—Doubts as to its necessity.
—Mr Pitt’s absence from Parliament—Debates on the French
declaration of War.—Great failures in the Commercial world.—
Mercantile Loan.—Government Loan Traitorous Correspon¬
dence Bill.—Parliamentary Reform—Board of Agriculture in¬
stituted Relief of the Scottish Catholics—Renewal of the East
India Company’s Charter—Incidental Details—Political Trials
in Scotland.—Mr Muir and Mr Fysche Palmer convicted of
sedition British Convention—Foreign Treaties—The War.
—Defection of Dumouriez—Favourable opportunity of making
Peace lost.—Defective nature of the general plan of the War.—
Opening of Parliament in 1794—Debates on the Address—
Sources of Alarm Dread of Invasion, and of Plots and Con¬
spiracies Secret Committee appointed—Finance—Policy of
Prussia—Maritime successes of Britain—Victory of the 1st
June 1794 Continental Campaign—Conquest of Holland by
Pichegru Desertion of the Allies by Prussia—Trials for Trea¬
son Acquittal of Hardie and Horne Tooke—Trial of Watt and
Downie Pop-gun Plot—Meeting of Parliament—Changes in
the Cabinet Motion for entering into negociations with France.
 Mr Pitt’s Amendment—Duke of Bedford’s Motion for Peace.
 Mr Hastings’ Trial concluded—Debts of the Prince of V ales.
 His Marriage War with Holland—Expedition to Quibe-
ron Bay Campaign in Germany.—Riots at the Meeting of
Parliament Two Gagging Bills—Pacific Message from the
King Futile attempts at Negociation—Continental Cam¬
paign Maritime events—Lord Malmesbury’s Negociation.
 Bank Restriction—Supplies—Loyalty Loan—War with
Spain.—-Mutiny in the Fleet—Maritime operations—Dun¬
can’s Victory.—Preliminaries of Peace signed at Leoben be¬
tween the Emperor and the French Republic—Treaty of Cam-
po Formio Meeting of Parliament, and secession of the Oppo¬
sition Relative situation of France and Britain—Alarm of
Invasion Defence Act Redemption of the Land-tax—Navy
Bill Duel between Mr Pitt and Mr Tierney—Rebellion in
Ireland Negociations at Rastadt—Switzerland seized by the
French Importance of this country—French Expedition to
Egypt Battle of the Nile—Its political results—Russia joins
the confederacy against France—Minorca taken—St Domingo
abandoned Meeting of Parliament—Income Tax—Its De¬
fects Union with Ireland proposed—Fall of Tippoo Sahib—
Continental War—Suwarof’s brilliant Campaign in Italy—
Attempt to drive the French from Switzerland—Russians de¬
feated by Massena at Zurich—Invasion of Holland by the Bri¬
tish Bonaparte declared First Consul—Meeting of Parlia¬
ment King’s Speech Letter of Bonaparte to King George
HI Lord Grenville’s Answer—M. Talleyrand’s Reply—
Rejoinder of the British Minister—Debates in Parliament on
the subject of this Correspondence—Union with Ireland effect¬
ed Debates on this subject—Discussion respecting the expe¬
dition to Holland—Mr Dundas’s defence of that enterprise—
War in the East Treaty of El Arish disavowed—Events in
Egypt Campaign on the Continent—Bonaparte enters Italy
by the Great St Bernard, at the head of the Army of Reserve.
 Battle of Marengo—Operations in Germany—Battles of
Schauffhausen, Moskirch, Biberach, Augsburg, and Hochstet—-
Continental truce -Renewed—Scarcity in Britain—War with
the Northern Powers—Campaign in Germany—Battle of Ho-
henlinden Peace of Luneville—Change of Ministry and re¬
signation of Mr Pitt Ostensible cause of Mr Pitt’s retirement
from office Probable real cause—Character of his Admini¬
stration New Ministry—Royal indisposition—Imperial Par¬
liament Speech from the throne—Debates on the Address—
Motion on the State of the Nation—Conduct of the War de¬
fended by Mr Dundas Mr Pitt’s account of the Change of
Ministry Attack upon Copenhagen by Lord Nelson—Death
of the Emperor Paul Convention with Russia—Naval en¬
gagement off the coast of Spain—Attack on Boulogne.—Cam¬
paign in Egypt Death of Sir Ralph Abercromby—Cairo taken.
—Surrender of Alexandria.—Preliminaries of Peace.
In the quarrels of nations the real causes and motives of
hostility are often very different from those which are osten¬
sibly held out to the world. It was for some time customary Reign of
in Great Britain to dispute with great eagerness the ques-George III,
tion as to who were the aggressors in this war; and in such '
disputes the friends of administration laboured under con¬
siderable difficulties, in consequence of the narrow ground
upon which government had thought fit to rest the grounds
or causes of hostility. The French government had been
willing to explain away the offensive decree of the 19th
November; the question about the Scheldt they were pre¬
pared to give up ; and their ignorance of the nature of
the British constitution, and of the elements which influ¬
ence it in practice, prevented them from entertaining any
idea that they were likely to encounter hostility from this
country arising out of their revolution Hence they not
only neglected their navy, but had already in some measure
ruined it, by sending their seamen to the frontiers in the
character of soldiers. But though the French had not origi¬
nally entertained hostile designs against this country, and
though the ostensible causes of war on the part of Great
Britain were weak, if not futile, it does not therefore fol¬
low that the motives which actually influenced the con¬
duct of the British government on this occasion partook
of the same character. France had been the ancient and
dangerous enemy of England. She had suddenly fallen
into a state of anarchy and consequent debility. All Eu¬
rope was now leagued against her. Within she was divid¬
ed by faction, and without she was assailed by immense
hosts of the best disciplined soldiers in Europe, conducted
by the most skilful leaders, to whom she had nothing to
oppose but an undisciplined multitude, led on by inexpe¬
rienced chiefs. In this state of things it seemed a safe mea¬
sure to make war against her. To do so was only to reta¬
liate the conduct she had herself pursued when she effect¬
ed the dismemberment of the British empire, by assisting
our revolted colonies. And the moment seemed to have
arrived when, by dismembering France, she might be ren¬
dered for ever incapable of becoming dangerous to Bri¬
tain.
But the most powerful incitements to this war undoubt¬
edly arose from the example of political innovation, which
it was so much the interest of every government in which
there existed any mixture of hereditary authority, com¬
pletely to defeat and overwhelm. To comprehend the
full force of this motive for going to war, it is necessary
to recollect the ferment which universally prevailed in the
minds of men, and to imagine the situation and the feel¬
ings of a prince, who, though still safe, yet saw in his im¬
mediate vicinity the first of European monarchs hurled
from his throne to a prison, and from the prison to a scaf¬
fold, and his power assumed by subjects who represent¬
ed their conduct as the triumph of reason and of freedom ;
while the contagion of their sentiments, extending itself
into neighbouring kingdoms, threatened to break out into
actions not less violent than those of the revolutionists of
France. In such a state of things, and under the influ¬
ence of such sentiments, a war against France seemed to
be a war in defence of the whole arrangements of society;
and princes and nobles considered themselves as engaged
in the protection, not merely of their power and station,
but even of their personal safety.
Still, however, there were not wanting at this time some
individuals who thought the war altogether unnecessary
for the support of the British constitution and government.
The great amount of the national debt, the influence of
the crown, and the general happiness and good feeling of
the people at large, gave powerful assurances of stability
to government and safety to property. Even before the
war commenced, the crimes committed by the French re¬
volutionists had greatly diminished the popularity of their
and the associations on the side of government
cause:
BRITAIN.
548
Reign of which were forming throughout the kingdom demonstrat-
GeorgoIII-ed the superiority of its adherents in wealth and numbers.
It was therefore thought by many to be perfectly practica-
1793' ble to weather the storm without having recourse to hostili¬
ties ; and there were even some who doubted the prudence
of the war, notwithstanding the strength of the combina¬
tion formed against France, and suspected, that in a san¬
guinary and desperate contest, armies conducted by princes,
brought into power by the casualty of birth, might prove
no match for French enthusiasm in the first instance, and
far less ultimately for the superior tactics and enterprise
which must speedily be introduced by men rising to com¬
mand from the admiration produced by their talents and
success. Lastly, if Great Britain, instead of assailing,
had actively protected the independence of France, this
would have secured such an ascendency over her councils
as might have enabled us to protect Holland, and to pre¬
serve the life, perhaps even the crown, of Louis XVI.;
and, at all events, it would have placed us in a condition
speedily to terminate the contest, without any important
changes being suffered to take place in the relative strength
of the continental states of Europe.
At the close of the year 1792 Mr Pitt did not attend
parliament when it first assembled; nor did he make his
appearance in the House of Commons till the alien bill
was passing through its last stages in January, the discussion
ended, and the relative strength of parties ascertained.
The ostensible cause of his absence was, that having, on the
death of the Earl of Guildford (Lord North), obtained the
place of warden of the Cinque Ports, and thereby vacated
his seat as a member of the House of Commons, he had
gone down to Cambridge to secure his re-election. But the
length of his absence suggested to some a suspicion that
he was hesitating about engaging to support the court in its
design of going to war; and in the mean time Mr Dundas
stood forward in the House of Commons as the leading ser¬
vant of the crown in support of the proposal for engaging
in hostilities. On his return, however, Mr Pitt resumed
his station in the debates of the house, and supported the
measure with the utmost ardour. At this period Lord
Thurlow was removed from the office of lord high chan¬
cellor, and succeeded by Lord Loughborough, who had
originally owed his preferment to the support given by
him to Lord North’s administration and measures, and who,
though hitherto an adherent of opposition, had in the re¬
cent debates defended the plans of administration.
On the occasion of a message from the king announcing
the declaration of war by France, Mr Pitt stated that his
majesty had always declined taking any part in regard
to the internal government of France; that during the
summer, while France was engaged in war with Austria
and Prussia, he had in no way departed from his neutra¬
lity ; but that as the French seemed now determined to
subjugate other nations to their principles, he was under
the necessity of interfering for the protection of his allies
the Dutch, who had not indeed made any formal requisi¬
tion for assistance, but to whose government the French
had at all times been notoriously hostile. Mr Pitt also
represented the language of the men in power in France
as intolerably menacing towards the government of Bri¬
tain, and as pre-emjnently dangerous, from its tendency
to introduce anarchy. He also adverted in strong terms
to the death of the French king as a calamitous event;
an outrage to every principle of religion, justice, and hur
inanity; an act which, in this country and in the whole of
Europe, had excited but one general sentiment of indig¬
nation and abhorrence, and could not fail to produce the
same sentiments in every civilized nation. It was, he said,
in all its circumstances, so full of grief and horror, that it
must be a wish, in which all united, to tear it if possible
from their memories, to expunge it from the page of his- Reign of
tory, and to remove it for ever from the observation and George HI.
comments of mankind. All the members who remained
in opposition concurred in reprobating the conduct of the 7'
French revolutionists. Mr Fox, however, asserted, that
the general maxim of policy was, that the crimes commit¬
ted in one independent state could not be cognizable by
another; he alleged that the topics adverted to by Mr
Pitt were introduced into the debate to blind the judg¬
ment by exciting the passions; and he contended that the
opening of the Scheldt, and the decree of the 19th of No¬
vember, which were stated as the causes of the war, could
never justify such a measure. He censured our past neu¬
trality as unfair. While the French were invaded we re¬
mained quiet spectators; but on their becoming invaders in
their turn, we said Europe was in danger, and interfered
against them. He asserted that the real cause, always
disavowed by our government, but ever kept in mind, was
the internal government of France. The destruction of
that government was the avowed object of the combined
powers; but, though about to join them, we were ashamed
to own that Britain was engaging to aid the restoration
of despotism, and therefore the Scheldt and Holland were
collusively had recourse to as pretexts. In the House of
Lords, when the same subject was discussed, the Marquis
of Lansdown contended, that, by sending an able and ex¬
perienced minister to Paris, our government might have
saved the life of Louis XVI. He declared that the war
would be wanton on our part, and without provocation on
the part of France; and he highly disapproved of the insult¬
ing manner in which M. Chauvelin had been dismissed.
At the period of which we are now treating, British com¬
merce had become extremely extensive, and, owing to the
commercial treaty, British and French merchants had be¬
come closely connected in their transactions. But from the
sudden stagnation of trade which the war now produced^
added to the alarms which had been excited upon political
subjects, a sort of paralysis appeared to seize the country,
and the number of bankruptcies exceeded all that had ever
happened in the most calamitous times. A general stop¬
page of commercial credit took place, and no bank would
venture to advance money to merchants or manufacturers ;
the consequence of which was, that many of them, with
large quantities of goods in their possession, were unable
to make the smallest payment. To apply a remedy to this
alarming evil, several of the principal traders and mer¬
chants having waited upon Mr Pitt, requested the interfer¬
ence of government; and a select committee of the House
of Commons was accordingly appointed to investigate the
subject. After consulting with a variety of bankers, manu¬
facturers, and merchants, the committee, on the 29th of
April, gave in a report favourable to the solicitation of the
merchants for relief; and a bill was introduced on the 1st of
May, authorizing government to issue five millions by ex¬
chequer bills, in loans to such merchants and manufactu¬
rers as should deposit goods in security for the sum ad¬
vanced. This measure proved extremely salutary. When
it was found that the traders could obtain money from
government, the bankers and other persons immediately
evinced a willingness to advance them funds, or to give
credit to their bills; trade gradually revived; and new
channels were by degrees found out for the disposal of the
productions of British industry.
On the 27th of March, Mr Pitt, in a committee of the
House of Commons, stated, that he had borrowed for the
service of the year the sum of L.4,500,000. The terms of
the loan were, that for every L.72 advanced to the public
the lenders should be entitled to L.100 stock, bearing an
interest of three per cent., which would make a capital of
L.6,210,000, the interest of which, to be paid by the pub-
BRITAIN.
549
Reign of lie, would amount bo L.l86,000 a year. But there was
George III. another charge attending the loan; for, by the act for
appropriating a surplus million to a sinking fund, it was
1793. provided, that whenever a new loan should be made, a
fund equal to one per cent, on the whole of it must be
provided, and applied to the liquidation of the principal.
This, therefore, required an annual charge of L.62,100, and
made the whole, including interest, L.248,400 per annum.
On the I5th of March the attorney general brought for¬
ward a bill for preventing traitorous correspondence with
the king’s enemies. The object of this bill was to prohi¬
bit the sale to the French government or the French ar¬
mies, of arms, military stores, provisions, or clothes, under
the penalty of high treason. The purchase of lands in
France was also prohibited. No one was allowed to go from
Britain to France without a license, under the penalty of a
misdemeanour; and persons, though subjects of this coun¬
try, coming from France, were prohibited from entering the
kingdom without a passport, or presenting to the master of
the vessel a declaration that, in the mean time, they would
not quit the place where they had landed without the per¬
mission of a justice of peace, or finding security for their
good behaviour. Lastly, the insurance of vessels either
coming from France or going thither was prohibited. And
this bill passed through both houses, supported by great
majorities.
During the present session a very great number of pe¬
titions were presented to the House of Commons from
different parts of the country, praying for a reform in the
representation ; and on the 6th of May Mr Grey brought
forward the question, after presenting a petition which had
been framed by the association called the Friends of the
People in London. He asserted that the number of peti¬
tions now brought forward demonstrated that the House
of Commons were not the real representatives of the peo¬
ple, and he gave a detailed statement of the various defects
in the representation. The proposal of reform was chiefly
resisted on account of the hazard attending it from the ex¬
ample of France, and on account of the extent to which
its more ardent partizans out of doors wished it to be car¬
ried. Mr Pitt explained his motives for being formerly
friendly to a parliamentary reform, and also his objections
against it at the present moment. If the principle of in¬
dividual suffrage, pointed at in several of the petitions,
was to be carried to its utmost extent, it would subvert
the peerage and depose the king, and, in fine, extinguish
every hereditary distinction and privileged order, and es¬
tablish that system of equalizing anarchy announced in the
code of French legislation, and attested in the blood shed
in the massacres at Paris. Mr Fox, on the contrary, re¬
presented in strong terms the inconsistency of Mr Pitt’s
present conduct with his former professions. As to the
time of attempting a reform, he said, it had been proposed
at all periods, in war and in peace; but they had all been
represented as improper. The present was not a more
dangerous period than the year 1782, when Mr Pitt him¬
self had brought forward a similar proposal. These dan¬
gers he ascribed to the councils, generally unwise, and
often wicked, by which the country had recently been
governed. Mr Grey’s motion was rejected upon a division
by a majority of two hundred and eighty-two against forty-
one.
During the present session several popular measures
were adopted. On the recommendation of Sir John Sin¬
clair, L.3000 per annum was voted by the House of Com¬
mons for the establishment of a board of agriculture; an
institution which has been the means of collecting and
conveying to the public much useful information respect¬
ing the most valuable of all arts. On a motion by the
lord advocate of Scotland, Mr Robert Dundas, a bill was
brought into parliament in the month of April for the re- Reign of
lief of the Roman Catholics of Scotland. The persons of George^1
that proscribed sect were still incapacitated by law from
holding or transmitting landed property, and were liable
to other severe restrictions; but these were removed by
a bill which now passed without opposition. The passing
of this bill was a popular measure, although a dozen years
had scarcely elapsed since the people of Scotland had al¬
most universally, and with the utmost violence, combined
to oppose any relaxation of the penal laws affecting the
Catholics. By the assistance of Mr Dundas, the inhabi¬
tants of the north of Scotland also obtained a repeal of the
duty on coals carried coastwise, as far as respected that
part of Great Britain ; but the cities of London and West¬
minster were less fortunate in an attempt to procure a re¬
peal of the taxes paid by them on the same article.
At this period the exclusive charter of the East India
Company being within a year of its expiration, that body
presented a petition for a renewal ol it; and on the 23d
of April the subject was considered in the House of Com¬
mons. Mr Dundas observed that the proposal which he
was about to make of a renewal of the charter was undoubt¬
edly attended with difficulties. No writer upon political
economy had as yet supposed that an extensive empire
could be administered by a commercial association; and
no writer on commerce had thought that trade ought to
be shackled with exclusive privileges. In deviating from
these principles, which had been admitted and admired,
he was sensible that his opinions had popular prejudices
against them; but he was supported by successful expe¬
rience ; and when the house adverted to the peculiarities
of the subject before them, they would at once see that
he was not attempting to overturn theories, though he was
unwilling to recede from old and established practice. It
would be idle, and a proof of ignorance, to maintain that
all the advantages which Great Britain possessed from its
connection with India arose out of the present exclusive
privilege of the Company; but it would be impossible to
say what might be the political or commercial effects of a
deviation from the present system. He then stated, that
the shipping employed by the East India Company amount¬
ed to eighty-one thousand tons; that the seamen navigat¬
ing those ships were about seven thousand men, who had
constant employment; that the raw materials imported
from India for the use of home manufactures amounted
annually to about L.700,000; that the annual exports of
British produce and manufacture to India and China in
the Company’s ships amounted to upwards of a million and
a half sterling; and that great difficulties would attend
any alteration «f the present system of government in In¬
dia, especially from the effects which the innovation might
produce on the minds of the natives. He therefore propos¬
ed a variety of resolutions, the most material of which was,
that it appeared fit and proper to continue to the East In¬
dia Company their exclusive trade, within the limits now-
enjoyed by them, for a further term of twenty years, to be
computed from the 1st of March 1794, but liable to be dis¬
continued at the end of such a period, if three years’ no¬
tice should previously be given by parliament. The reso¬
lutions proposed by Mr Dundas having been carried, a
bill for renewing the East India Company’s charter was
brought in, and passed through both houses with little op¬
position. The trial of Mr Hastings still proceeded, though
very slowly. It was now totally disregarded by the public.
During this year government sought to strengthen it¬
self by erecting barracks in the vicinity of the great towns,
in order that, by residing apart from the citizens, the sol¬
diers might be removed beyond the contagion of popular
opinions. But a considerable degree of political fermenta¬
tion still prevailed in the minds of the people. In Eng-
550 BRITAIN.
Reign of land, a bookseller was prosecuted, and punished with im-
George III. prisonment, for selling the second part of Paine’s Rights
of Man ; and one or two individuals of humble rank were
committed for seditious publications. In Scotland the pub¬
lic attention was much excited by the prosecution of two
gentlemen, Mr Thomas Muir of Hunter’s Hill, a member
of the faculty of advocates; and Mr Fysche Palmer, a
member of the university of Cambridge, who officiated as
Unitarian minister at Dundee. Mr Muir had been ex¬
tremely active during the autumn of the preceding year,
when the political agitation was at its height, in promot¬
ing associations in Glasgow and its neighbourhood, for the
purpose of procuring a reform of the representation in the
House of Commons. In point of talents he was not above
mediocrity, but he possessed the faculty of unpremeditated
elocution in a surprising degree, and appeared to be ac¬
tuated by the vanity of haranguing without end, which the
daily meetings of these societies afforded him an opportu¬
nity of gratifying. In other respects he was not formi¬
dable, possessing little knowledge of the world, and still
less discernment of the human character. He injured the
cause which he meant to promote, by collecting assem¬
blages of people, first at Glasgow, and afterwards at Edin¬
burgh, and thus creating an appearance of disorder and
turbulence, which alarmed the government, and intimidat¬
ed persons who were otherwise disposed to favour the po¬
litical sentiments which he professed. Mr Palmer was a
man of eminent literary talents, and attended political so¬
cieties, but without making any remarkable efforts to dis¬
tinguish himself in these assemblages. He was tried be¬
fore the circuit court of justiciary at Perth, on the 17th
of September, some months after Mr Muir’s conviction at
Edinburgh, and found guilty of publishing a political libel,
which had been written by some other person, but which
he had corrected and ordered to be printed. Both of these
gentlemen were sentenced to transportation, Mr Muir for
fourteen, and Mr Palmer for seven years; and they were
accordingly shipped off, among common felons, for Botany
Bay. The disproportionate severity of these sentences ex¬
cited general sympathy, and produced considerable discus¬
sion. The crime of which they were convicted was that of
sedition or leasing-making, which by the law of Scotland is
punishable by fine, imprisonment, or banishment; but as it
is a rule in law, that penal statutes are to be strictly inter¬
preted, it was doubted how far the punishment of transpor¬
tation could be inflicted under a statute which points out,
in general terms, banishment as the punishment of the of¬
fence. Not intimidated by these trials, a few persons of no
public or political importance whatever met at Edinburgh
in the month of November, and thought fit to call them¬
selves a British Convention. They mimicked the proceed¬
ings of the French national convention as closely as pos¬
sible, saluting each other with the title of citizen, holding
public sittings, admitting strangers to the honours of the
sittings, and mingling the solemn with the ludicrous in a
singular style. At any other period their conduct would
have excited nothing but ridicule ; at this time it was con¬
sidered in another light, for some of the members were
brought to trial, and punished with the same severity which
had been exercised towards Messrs Muir and Palmer.
To promote the success of the war, a convention had
been concluded in the spring between our court and that
0'n^>?terSkUr^’ stTu^afing f°r the prosecution of hostilities
till the French relinquished all their conquests. A treaty
was soon afterwards entered into with the landgrave of
esse Cassel, for a subsidiary body of eight thousand men,
which, by a subsequent agreement, was extended to twelve
thousand ; and the king of Sardinia engaged, for L.200,000
per annum, to keep up an army of fifty thousand men, to be
employed in the particular defence of his dominions, and
in general service against the enemy. Compacts of alliance Reign of
were also adjusted with Spain, Naples, Prussia, Austria, and George III.
Portugal ; and besides the stipulation of vigorous hostility,
it was agreed that the conduct of other powers should D93.
be watched with extraordinary circumspection, lest they
should abuse their professed neutrality by protecting the
commerce or property of the French.
The detail of the military transactions of this eventful
contest will be given under another head. But we may
observe here, that during the present campaign the inde¬
pendence of France seemed at one time to be in consider¬
able hazard. The faction which had overturned the mo¬
narchy, assembled a convention of national representatives,
and endeavoured to establish a republican form of govern¬
ment, soon divided itself into two parties, those of the Gi¬
ronde and the Mountain. The leading party, when the re¬
public was first proclaimed, consisted chiefly of men of let¬
ters, who were led by speculative considerations to expect
a wonderful amelioration of the human character, and of
the state of society, from the changes they were producing.
They wished to avoid sanguinary measures at home, and
to restore tranquillity to their country as speedily as pos¬
sible ; but being equally deficient in energy and in know¬
ledge of the character of their countrymen, they were suc¬
cessfully opposed by a turbulent and ferocious minority,
led by Robespierre, Danton, and other men of the most
unprincipled and sanguinary temper. The moderate and
ruling party were also deceived by many of those whom
they had employed ; and at last their favourite commander,
Dumouriez, having been repulsed in the Netherlands by
the united forces of Austria, Prussia, and England, enter¬
ed into a negociation with these powers for the restoration
of monarchy in France. But the treacherous project was
rendered abortive by the fidelity of his army, which almost
to a man deserted their general, and refused to bring the
independence of their country into hazard by allowing fo¬
reign armies to interfere in the arrangement of its internal
government. The defection of Dumouriez, together with
the repulse of their armies, brought the moderate party,
which still ruled in the French convention, into great dif¬
ficulties; and it is an unfortunate circumstance that the Bri¬
tish government did not then seize the opportunity of mak¬
ing peace with them. The hazard of innovation was now
past. One of the maxims of the first French republicans
was the love of peace and hatred of war; and the unsuc¬
cessful issue of the attempt made to penetrate into other
countries must have added force to this sentiment. The
tranquillity of Europe might thus have been insured; a
mild party would have been preserved in power; Great
Britain might have obtained an influence over their coun¬
cils ; and the sanguinary scenes which afterwards occur¬
red in the interior of France, and upon the frontiers, might
have been prevented. But this opportunity was unhappily
disregarded; and from the distraction within, and the im¬
mense combination of force assailing France from without,
the complete subjugation of that country was confidently
anticipated. Meanwhile the failure of the military opera¬
tions of the Girondists encouraged the wild party to at¬
tempt the overthrow of the more moderate French republi¬
cans, by exciting an insurrection of the populace in Paris; an
attempt which unhappily proved but too successful. The
national representatives were subdued, ninety members
of the convention were imprisoned, and the minority were
enabled to convert themselves into an apparent majority.
By this event all France was thrown into confusion. The
authority of the convention, thus impaired, was utterly re¬
jected by the south of France ; and the town and harbour
of Toulon, with its fleet and stores, were surrendered by
negociation to the British admiral, Lord Hood, as trustee
for the next heir of the monarchy. In the western parts of
BRITAIN.
551
Reign of France the standard of royalty was reared, and joined by
George III. immense multitudes, who adhered to it with the most ob-
stinate bravery, and were not subdued till after a greater
7' ‘ expenditure of blood than was found necessary for the re¬
pulse of the combined armies of Europe.
On the part of Britain the general plan of the war does
not seem to have been well contrived or properly carried
into effect. A great part of the western coast of France was
in full possession of the royalists, whilst the British navy at
the same time commanded the ocean. It would therefore
have been comparatively an easy enterprise to land an army
on the French coast for the assistance of the royalists, and
to advance through an open country, destitute of fortified
towns, to the capital, and against a convention whose au¬
thority was scarcely acknowledged by a third part of the
nation. Instead of this, the combined armies were directed
against the French Netherlands, where they wasted the
summer, as well as their own strength, in the siege of a few
of the fortresses which defend that frontier; and thus the
attack upon France was made upon its strongest side, at
a distance from the centre of its power, and where the
means of protracted resistance were the greatest; whilst
leisure was afforded to the convention to establish its au¬
thority, to call out immense levies for the defence of the
country, and before the close of the year to turn the tide
of success in its favour. Toulon was retaken under the
masterly direction of Bonaparte, who then first appeared
on the revolutionary stage; and the Spaniards were beaten
in the south; whilst, on the northern frontier, the British
army was repulsed before Dunkirk, and the commander in
chief of the allies, the prince of Cobourg, before Maubeuge.
The Duke of Brunswick and General Wurmser were also
driven across the Upper Rhine near Mentz, in the last two
weeks of the year, after a succession of sanguinary con¬
flicts, in which the French, by daily bringing forward fresh
troops, at last succeeded with their raw levies in wearing
down the strength and the courage of their veteran enemies.
The British parliament assembled on the first of January
1794. In the speech from the throne his majesty called
the attention of the two houses to the issue of the war,
“ on which depended the support of our constitution, laws,
and religion, and the security of all civil societyto the
advantages which had attended our arms both by sea and
land ; and to the expectation of ultimate success, founded
on the circumstance that the efforts of the enemy, proceed¬
ing on an arbitrary system, which enabled them unjustly
to dispose of the lives and properties of the people, must
eventually introduce internal discontent and confusion.
His majesty further stated the impossibility of making
peace consistently with the permanent safety of the coun¬
try, and the tranquillity of other nations ; he noticed the
treaties and conventions into which he had entered with
foreign powers; and he mentioned the general loyalty which
prevailed amongst all ranks, notwithstanding continued ef¬
forts to mislead and seduce the people.
As usual, the topics introduced into the king’s speech
became the subject of debate, both in the House of Lords
and in the House of Commons; but they excited little
attention throughout the nation. Men of property were
generally so much alarmed by the events which had oc¬
curred in France, that they reposed implicit confidence in
the government; and as administration seemed resolved
not to despair of success, they derived great support from
the approbation of the public. A minority, indeed, exist¬
ed throughout the country, by whom the war was openly
disapproved of; but as they consisted in general of per¬
sons of little influence, they were unable seriously to em¬
barrass the measures of administration. When the king’s
speech was taken into consideration, Lord Wycombe mov¬
ed an amendment to the address, recommending pacific
179-4
measures. But Lord Mornington, on the other hand, con- Reign of
tended that the alternative of war or peace did not at George IIL
present exist. Before we could relinquish the principles
on which the war had commenced, proof was necessary
either that the opinions which we had conceived of the
views of France were erroneous, that the war had become
desperate and impracticable, or that, from some improve¬
ment in the system and principles of the French, the ne¬
cessity which had prompted us to commence the war no
longer existed. Nothing of this sort had occurred. France
entertained unlimited views of aggrandizement and am¬
bition, connected with principles subversive of all regular
government. Mr Sheridan entirely dissented from these
views, and affirmed that Britain had acted with as little
regard to the independence of neutral states as the French;
that she had endeavoured to compel Genoa, Switzerland,
and Tuscany, to join the confederacy against France, by
the most insulting menaces ; and that, as far as prudence
would permit, she had assumed the same language towards
Sweden and Denmark. If the French system of frater¬
nization with other nations who wished to overturn their
own internal government formed a just cause of war, their
dereliction of that system ought to be a reason for making
peace. He denied that the French were the original ag¬
gressors. I am astonished, said he, that the minister who
sits near the Noble Lord does not himself feel it necessary
to his own dignity to oppose this paltry argument of the
act of aggression having come from them, instead of leav¬
ing that task to us, to whom comparatively the fact is in¬
different. When he hears this called a war of necessity
and defence, I wonder he does not feel ashamed of the
meanness which it spreads over the whole of his cause,
and the contradiction which it throws among the greater
part of his arguments. Will he meet the matter fairly ?
Will he answer this one question distinctly ? If France
had abstained from any act of aggression against Great
Britain and her ally Holland, should we have remained
inactive spectators of the last campaign, idle, apart, and
listening to the fray, and left the contest to Austria and
Prussia, and whatever allies they could themselves have
obtained ? Does he then mean to say that he would have
sat still; that Great Britain would have sat still with arms
folded, and, reclining with luxurious ease on her com¬
mercial couch, have remained an unconcerned spectator
of this mighty conflict, and have left the cause of civil
order, government, morality, and religion, and its God, to
take care of itself, or to owe its preservation to the mer¬
cenary exertions of German and Hungarian barbarians;
provided only that France had not implicated Great Bri¬
tain by a special offence, and forced us into this cause of
divine and universal interest by the petty motive of a per¬
sonal provocation ? Mr Sheridan admitted that enormities
had been committed in France, which disgusted and sick¬
ened the soul. This was most true; but what relation
had these to England? And if they had, what did it
prove ? What, but the eternal and unalterable truth, that
a long-established despotism had so far degraded and de¬
based human nature, as to render its subjects, on the first
recovery of their rights, unfit for the exercise of them ?
That we and all the powers of Europe had reason to dread
the madness of the French, he agreed; but was this diffi¬
culty not to be accounted for? Wild and unsettled as they
must necessarily be from the possession of such power,
the surrounding states had goaded them into a paroxysm
of madness, fury, and desperation. We called them mon¬
sters, and hunted them as monsters. The conspiracy of
Pilnitz, and the brutal threats of the abettors of that plot,
had to answer for all the additional horrors that had since
disgraced humanity. We had covenanted for their ex¬
termination, and now complained that they turned upon
BRITAIN.
552
Reign of us with the fury which we had inspired. No reasonable
George III. hope of success existed upon which we ought to proceed.
What was the state of our allies when we entered into
1794. t]ie confederacy? The force of Austria unbroken, though
compelled to abandon Brabant, and the power of the ve¬
teran troops of Prussia absolutely untried, though the sea¬
sons and disease had induced them to retire from Cham¬
pagne. What was their state now ? Defeat had thinned
their ranks, and disgrace had broken their spirit. They
had been driven across the Rhine by French recruits, like
sheep before a lion’s whelp, and that not after the mishap of
a single great action lost, but after a succession of Woody
contests of unprecedented fury and obstinacy. Where now
was the scientific confidence with which we were taught to
regard the efforts of discipline and experience, when op¬
posed to an untrained multitude and unpractised generals ?
The jargon of professional pedantry was mute, and the plain
sense of man was left to its own course. Mr Windham com¬
bated the opinion, that the enormities committed in France
were the effects of the war. Mr Dundas defended the
management of the war, and the activity which had been
employed by government in conducting it. Our seamen in
the beginning of the year were only fifteen thousand; in the
course of the war fifty-four thousand men had been added.
At the commencement of the war we had only thirteen
ships of the line and thirty frigates fit for service; at the
present time we had eighty ships of the line and a hun¬
dred frigates in actual employment, which, with the arm¬
ed vessels now in the service of the public, made the whole
above three hundred sail. In augmenting the army, the
most effectual and economical system had been pursued;
besides the militia, thirty thousand men had been added
to the army. Mr Fox repeated that we were the aggres¬
sors in the war; contended that every state had a full
right to regulate its internal government; and asserted,
that the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick had occa¬
sioned all the excesses of the French. He denied that
the prodigal manner in which the French government
conducted their affairs, and the confusion and ruin into
which their finances were hastening, afforded any pros¬
pect of success to the allied powers. He remembered,
that during the American war there was much talk of a
vagrant congress, which was nowhere to be found, of their
miserable resources, and their wretched paper money at
three hundred per cent, discount, of which, with any few
halfpence you had in your pocket, you might purchase to
the amount of a hundred dollars. The Americans were
represented as exercising on each other the most into¬
lerable tyranny, on the royalists the most unheard-of
cruelty; and it was then said, that if such principles were
suffered to exist, if the cause of America were ultimately
successful, there was an end of all civilised government,
and England must be trodden in the dust. Yet then, said
this statesman, I recommended negociation, and lived to
see Great Britain treat with that very congress so often
vilified and abused, and the monarchy remain in sufficient
vigour. Mr Pitt recapitulated the arguments formerly
employed to prove that the aggression had certainly taken
place on the part of France. The system adopted by the
French, their usurpation of foreign territory, their hostile
intentions against Holland, and their unprecedented views
of aggrandisement and ambition, were subversive of all re¬
gular government; and unless it could be proved that we
had mistaken these principles, we were bound to continue
the war, even supposing that difficulty and disappointment
had occurred in the prosecution of it. He conceived there
was not the least probability of the continuance of the
present government of France. The efforts of the people
had been merely the result of terror, and were supported
by desperate resources, which could not possibly continue.
He admitted that a safe and advantageous peace ought to Reign of
be concluded, as soon as it could possibly be obtained; butGeorge HI*
the security and benefits of peace with France must de- Vs^,v^/
pend upon the establishment of a government essentially 1794.
different from the present. After a lengthened discussion,
the address was carried by an overwhelming majority. In
the House of Lords a similar debate took place, and simi¬
lar arguments and views were respectively urged by the
adverse parties; but ultimately the address was carried
by a majority as decisive as that in the Commons.
It is one of the characteristics of the British nation, to
be at all times easily thrown into a state of anxiety and
alarm, by any object which government for the time thinks
fit to represent as dangerous. The two greatest objects
of political terror to Englishmen have at all times been
the fear of a foreign invasion, and the dread of secret con¬
spiracies by a disaffected party. During many ages Bri¬
tain has not been successfully invaded; and, since the
time of the Spanish Armada, no such attempt has been
made by any of those governments with which Britain has
engaged in hostility; but this circumstance, which leads
reflecting persons to regard such a project as extremely
unlikely to occur, seems to produce a contrary effect upon
the people at large. The evils attending invasion having
never been felt, lay hold of their imaginations, in the
wildest and most exaggerated forms; and from the terror
thus produced, they are prevented from reflecting upon
the difficulties attending the project, which deterred Louis
XIV. from attempting it while in the height of his power,
and with the advantage of a disputed succession to the
crown. Yet such is the credulity of the British nation
upon this head, that administration can at any time throw
them into a state of the utmost consternation, by express¬
ing an apprehension of a French invasion; and from this
apprehension ministers usually derive very considerable
advantages. The voice of faction is for a time silenced by
patriotic terror, and all parties hasten to arrange themselves
under the banners of government for the defence of their
country. The dread of plots and conspiracies produces
effects somewhat similar. It is true that no conspiracy of
Englishmen was ever productive of danger to the govern¬
ment whilst it remained even tolerably popular; but this
never prevents the nation from being thrown into conster¬
nation, by intimations, on the part of government, that
some desperate conspiracy is secretly carrying on, and
ready to burst forth, to the utter destruction of the public
tranquillity.
During the war of which we are now treating, Mr Pitt’s
administration derived incredible strength from these two
sources of terror; the fear of invasion, and the dread of
conspiracies by disaffected persons. Nor did he want skill
to profit by them. At the commencement of the war it
had been believed by most persons, and perhaps by go¬
vernment, that it would be of short duration, the state of
anarchy which succeeded the overthrow of the monarchy
in France seeming to render that country an easy prey to
the powerful armies by which it was invaded; and when
any doubt of success was expressed, it was answered, that
after making trial of the war for a year, we might desist in
case we were unsuccessful. But although the original state
of affairs had been considerably altered by the successes
of the French, yet the British government still resolved to
persist in the war, which, however, was now daily becoming
less popular. On the other hand, the trench leaders were
greatly irritated by the persevering hostility of the British
ministry, and in the pride of victory menaced England
with invasion. It is evident that they had still too much
business upon their hands on the Continent to be able to
make the slightest attempt to carry their threats into exe¬
cution ; but the British administration, taking advantage
BRITAIN.
Reign of of the threat, expressed their fears that it might be suc-
GeorgellL cessfui; and proposed the arming of associations of vo-
lunteers, both cavalry and infantry, throughout the island,
for the defence of the nation against foreign invasion, and
the efforts of disaffected persons at home. They also en¬
couraged the raising of subscriptions to defray the ex¬
pense of these armed associations ; and although the mea¬
sure was disapproved by the minority in parliament, as an
unconstitutional mode of raising money, it was supported
by the majority. An act was passed authorizing the em¬
bodying and training of volunteers, and the measure was
carried to a considerable extent throughout the country.
In like manner, though the political ferment occasioned
by the French revolution had now considerably subsided,
administration, aware of the strength derived from keep¬
ing the country in a state of anxiety upon political sub¬
jects, announced to parliament, by a royal message, that
seditious practices had been carried on by certain socie¬
ties in London, with a view to overturn the constitution,
and introduce the system of anarchy which prevailed in
France; and that their papers had been seized, and were
submitted to the consideration of the house. On the same
day Thomas Hardie, a shoemaker in Piccadilly, who had
acted as secretary to the London Corresponding Society,
and Daniel Adams, the secretary to the Society for Con¬
stitutional Information, were apprehended for treasonable
practices, upon a warrant from Mr Dundas. Mr Horne
Tooke, well known for his ingenious philological writings,
as well as for the political part he had formerly acted in
the turbulent days of Wilkes, the Reverend Mr Jeremiah
Joyce, Mr Holcroft a dramatic writer, Mr Kyd a barrister,
and Mr John Thelwall, who had for some time entertain¬
ed the town in the character of political lecturer, were also
in a few days arrested and committed to the Tower on a
charge of high treason.
For the sake of giving solemnity to the inquiries made
into this conspiracy, a secret committee of the House of
Commons was chosen by ballot, the members of which
were the friends of the minister. The report of the com¬
mittee concerning the alleged conspiracy amounted to
little more than a recital of a number of advertisements
from societies, or accounts of their debates, which had
previously been inserted in the public newspapers ; but it
served as a pretext for suspending the Habeas Corpus
act, and thereby enabling ministers to prevent any politi¬
cal movement, or avowed disapprobation of their mea¬
sures, from being rashly exhibited out of parliament. In
the meanwhile the dread of invasion, added to the political
alarm which had previously diffused itself throughout the
country, and which was thus artfully maintained, confer¬
red upon ministers a degree of strength which, for a cen¬
tury and more, no British administration had possessed.
Almost all men of property were their adherents; whilst
their antagonists sunk into utter discredit, and suffered a
species of persecution in every department of society; so
that it became dangerous to a man’s prospects in the world,
and in ordinary business, to express the slightest doubt of
the propriety of any measure approved by government.
In the early part of his administration, Mr Pitt had en¬
deavoured to rest his reputation, in a considerable degree,
upon the improvement of the finances, and the hope which
he held out of paying off the national debt. He now de¬
serted all such views; and taking advantage of the un¬
controlled power he possessed at home, and the pliability
of parliament, he engaged in a career of unexampled ex¬
penditure, in corrupting successive parties in France, or
in the management of the war.
From its first rise to eminence as a European power,
Prussia considered France as its protector against the am¬
bition of Austria. During the present year, notwithstand-
vol. v.
553
ing the resistance of a party in Poland, headed by the Reign of
brave Kosciusko, that country was partitioned, and Prus-George IIL
sia obtained an ample share of its territory. But the par-
tition of France was an object from which Prussia had Hy4-
every thing to fear, as it would destroy the only power by
which Austria, the inveterate enemy of Prussia, had at all
times been kept in awe. When the Prussian monarch
found it necessary, in conjunction with his allies, to in¬
vade France in 1792, he retired upon the first appearance
of a tolerably firm opposition, and gave the republic a
respite of another winter, during which to arrange its
strength, and call into action its resources. In the year
1793 the Prussians remained extremely inactive till to¬
wards the close of the campaign, when at last, in conse¬
quence of repeated remonstrances from their allies, they
advanced against Alsace; but being there repulsed, and
the republic beginning to exhibit on all sides a firm mi¬
litary front, the king of Prussia declared that the expenses
of the war were more than his finances could sustain, and
required the other German states to supply him with
money, threatening in case of refusal to abandon the com¬
mon cause; and on their declining to comply with his
demands, he actually began to withdraw his troops. But
by this time the British ministry had engaged in the war
with a degree of eagerness which induced them to make
every sacrifice to obtain success; and therefore, to avoid
losing the assistance of Prussia, they offered a subsidy,
which was finally adjusted, upon the condition that his
Prussian majesty was to furnish sixty-two thousand troops,
or thirty thousand beyond his contingent; for which his
Britannic majesty was to pay him L.50,000 a month,
L.100,000 a month for forage, L.400,000 to put the army in
motion, and L.100,000 on their return, or in all, for the re¬
maining nine months of the year, L.1,350,000. At this
rate the expense of the whole year would amount to
L.1,800,000, of which the states general were to pay
L.400,000; and the forces thus subsidized were to be
commanded by an officer to be named by the king of
Prussia. By this treaty the king of Prussia was enabled
to keep his army upon the war establishment with little
additional expense to himself, and with the power of claim¬
ing a share of whatever conquests were made from France;
whilst, by retaining the appointment of the general of the
subsidized army, he preserved a complete command over
it, and might prevent his troops from being worn out by
active service, or restrain them from doing greater injury
to the French republic than he should judge prudent or
expedient in the circumstances.
All Europe looked forward with great anxiety to the ap¬
proaching campaign as decisive of the contest; in which its
whole powers, excepting Russia, Sweden, and Denmark,
were actively engaged. At sea, where her strength could
be most effectually exerted, Great Britain was eminently
successful. An expedition under Sir Charles Grey and
Sir John Jervis was sent to the West Indies, where Mar¬
tinique, St Lucie, and other islands, were taken. In the
Mediterranean the French were driven from the island of
Corsica, and the inhabitants acknowledged the king of
Great Britain as their sovereign. But the most signal
victory was that gained by Lord Howe over the French
fleet on the first of June near Brest. During the first
years of the revolution France had suffered much distress
from a scarcity of grain ; and such was the inveteracy
with which the present war was conducted, that the Bri¬
tish government had formed a plan of subduing that na¬
tion by famine, by preventing their obtaining supplies of
provisions from any foreign country. In their distress
the French rulers had applied for assistance to the United
States of America, which still owed a considerable debt to
France, contracted during the war by which their own re-
4 A
BRITAIN.
554
lleign of volution had been accomplished; and they now offered to
George III. accept payment of this debt in corn, a commodity abound-
jng in America. The Americans, accordingly, delivered
the grain in their own ports, and a hundred and sixty sail
of vessels laden with grain set out for France. As soon as
this became known, Lord Howe was dispatched, in order,
if possible, to intercept this valuable convoy; while the
French admiral, Villaret-Joyeuse, sailed from Brest to
hazard an engagement with the British fleet, for the sake
of preserving the convoy. The force of the hostile fleets
was nearly equal, the British having twenty-six, and the
French twenty-five sail of the line; but the French line
was broken, and, after an obstinate engagement, six of
their ships were taken, and two sunk. Before the battle,
however, the French admiral had detached a considerable
force for the protection of the convoy, which was thus en¬
abled with safety to reach its destined port. This victory
produced very great exultation in Britain ; and the fear
of invasion which had been previously excited was abated
by so decided a proof of naval superiority.
On the part of the French, however, these colonial and
naval losses were greatly overbalanced by the general re¬
sult of the campaign. The allies still concentrated their
principal force against the Netherlands, and with that
view, at the commencement of the campaign besieged and
took Landrecies; but the fortune of the war was speedily
changed. General Pichegru advanced into maritime Flan¬
ders, and in a variety of engagements defeated Count
Clairfayt, an Austrian general of great activity, who ruin¬
ed his army by incessant and sanguinary efforts to drive
back a superior enemy. An attempt made by the grand
army to cut off the retreat of Pichegru proved unsuccess¬
ful ; and the latter having in turn manoeuvred to intercept
the communication of the imperialists with their maga¬
zines at Ghent, was in like manner repulsed; but the ob¬
stinate conflict which he maintained, and the steady fire
of his troops, during a succession of conflicts, which lasted
from daybreak till sunset, convinced the allied armies
that the invasion of France had become a hopeless pro¬
ject. At last the French advanced, under General Jour-
dan, from the eastward, and at Fleurus gained a victory
which cost the Austrians nearly fifteen thousand of their
best troops. Mutual disgust, as well as discouragement,
now prevailed among the allies. The Austrians retreated,
leaving the Duke of York at the head of the British and
Hanoverian forces in considerable peril; but, with the as¬
sistance of the Earl of Moira, his royal highness made good
his retreat. This nobleman, who had distinguished him¬
self in the American war, was opposed to the present war,
which he had reprobated in his place in parliament. But
having nevertheless been sent by administration with a
feeble armament to assist the royalists on the western
coast of France, and finding himself too weak to effect
any thing of importance in that quarter, he had brought
back his troops; and was afterwards sent with them to
defend Ostend, where, learning the difficult nature of the
Duke of York’s situation, and perceiving that Ostend could
not long be protected after the rest of Flanders had been
deserted, he marched across the country, and in the face
of much danger, and under great hardships, effected a
junction with the principal British army, to which this
reinforcement afforded seasonable aid.
The French were no less successful on the Upper Rhine,
and on the frontiers of Italy and of Spain. At the end of
the campaign, an intense frost having set in, they rein¬
forced their armies, and Pichegru invaded Holland. Af¬
ter a variety of engagements the British and Hanoverians,
together with some Austrian auxiliaries, whom Britain
had subsidized, were repulsed, and found it necessary to
abandon Holland to its fate. Many Dutch families sought
refuge in Britain. When Utrecht had submitted to the Reign of
enemy, the stadtholder, knowing that Amsterdam would George III,
not be defended, left his country, and escaped in a fishing- v—
boat to England, where he and his family became imme¬
diate objects of royal liberality, and were treated with the
respect due to their rank and misfortunes. The Dutch,
who had viewed the English with a very unfriendly eye
since the revolution of 1787, appeared to be highly pleased
with this change in their affairs. They had treated our
soldiers with great illiberality, and refused to alleviate by
kindness or compassion the sufferings of the wounded, or
the distress of the fugitives, who at length effected their
retreat to Bremen, after a long and severe trial of their
patience and fortitude. The United Provinces were now
revolutionized on the French model. Liberty, equality,
and the rights of man, were proclaimed; representatives
of the people were chosen; and the regenerated state was
named the Batavian Republic. But the pretended friends
of the Hollanders, in rescuing them from what they term¬
ed a disgraceful yoke, did not suffer them to enjoy real
freedom or independence.
The result of these successes was, that the king of Prus¬
sia perceiving France restored to more than her ancient
energy, and capable of humbling his enemy and her an¬
cient rival, the house of Austria, deserted the coalition,
refused to accept of any further subsidy from Britain, and
took under his protection, as neutral states, the whole
princes of the north-west of Germany; thus becoming the
ostensible head and guardian of a large division of the
empire, which was enabled to recover its tranquillity, and
to become a calm spectator of the prolonged contest,
which the rest of the empire under Austria continued to
carry on against France. Spain was also under the neces¬
sity of imitating the example of Prussia, though upon less
favourable terms, being constrained to relinquish, as the
price of peace, her half of the island of St Domingo ; and
the Duke of Tuscany also deserted a contest in which he
had reluctantly engaged.
In the meanwhile administration pursued their system
of alarming the friends of internal tranquillity, by the
dread of conspiracies and attempts against the constitu¬
tion. The persons who in the month of May had been
imprisoned on a charge of high treason were brought to
trial in the end of October. The first was Thomas Har-
die. His indictment stated nine overt acts of high trea¬
son ; first, forming an intention of exciting rebellion and
insurrection, and conspiring to subvert the government
and depose the king; secondly, writing various books,
pamphlets, letters, and addresses, recommending dele¬
gates to a convention ; thirdly, consulting as to the means
of forming such a convention ; fourthly, agreeing to form
themselves into a society for the purposes aforesaid ; fifthly,
causing arms to be made in order to subvert the govern¬
ment and depose the king; sixthly, conspiring to levy war
within the realm; seventhly, conspiring to aid the king’s
enemies; eighthly, composing and publishing certain books,
pamphlets, letters, exhortations, and addresses, for the
purposes aforesaid; and, lastly, procuring arms for the
purpose of levying war against the king, and exciting re¬
bellion and insurrection. The written evidence consisted
chiefly of advertisements and addresses, published in the
newspapers, many of which were expressed in a very in¬
temperate style ; and of the proceedings of the societies,
which were all public. With regard to the alleged charge
about arming the people, it appears to rest upon no solid
foundation ; and the accusation and defence, therefore,
turned chiefly upon the question of treasonable intention
upon the part of the accused and his associates. Hardie
was ably defended by the Honourable Thomas Erskine
and Mr Vicary Gibbs, and the prosecution was conducted
BRITAIN.
555
Reign of by the attorney and solicitor general; but after the pro-
George III. ceedings had been protracted to the eighth day, the jury,
after some deliberation, brought in a verdict of not guilty.
7 ‘ The next trial was that of Mr Horne Tooke, who endea¬
voured to prove that he had merely followed the example
of Mr Pitt, in recommending a plan of parliamentary re¬
form. The minister was examined on the occasion, chiefly
regarding the proceedings of the popular party, before
the close of the American war, with a view to establish
this point; but he evaded most of the questions by alleg¬
ing a want of recollection. The acquittal of Mr Tooke
was followed by that of Mr Thelwall; and a despair of con¬
victing any one of the supposed traitors led to the aban¬
donment of the other indictments.
As the war was becoming unpopular, the acquittal of
these persons, which tended to discredit the alarms kept
up by the friends of administration, was felt by them as
an additional misfortune. Had the indictments been laid
for sedition only, the prosecutions would probably have
proved successful; but ministers were led to carry mat¬
ters the length of an accusation of treason, by their suc¬
cess in a similar charge at Edinburgh in the preceding
month of September, against two persons named Robert
Watt and David Downie. Watt had been a spy, employ¬
ed by government to attend political societies, and discover
the designs of the leaders ; but as he was a needy person,
and had been unable to communicate intelligence of much
importance, he had received little pay. To earn more
money, he thought fit to contrive a plot, which he com¬
municated to Downie and some others, for seizing the
castle and the public offices at Edinburgh, with a view no
doubt of afterwards holding out his associates to govern¬
ment as criminals. Neither he nor they had any means
of carrying such a plan into effect. But Watt having
procured some pikes, deposited them in a cellar in his
own house, where they were accidentally discovered; the
spy was apprehended; and the persons to whom he had
communicated his plan having come forward as witnesses
against him and Downie, they were both found guilty of
high treason. Downie, who had done little more than ap¬
pear to approve of Watt’s plan, was recommended to mercy,
and afterwards pardoned ; but Watt was executed.
Another source of encouragement to proceed with mea¬
sures of severity arose at this time out of a plot brought
to light by some informers, and by way of ridicule termed
the Pop-gun Plot. The persons implicated in this charge
were, John Peter Le Maitre, a native of Jersey, and ap¬
prentice to a watch-case-maker in Denmark Street, St
Giles ; William Higgins, apprentice to a chemist in Fleet-
market ; and a man of the name of Smith, who kept a book
stall in the neighbourhood of Lincoln’s-inn. Their accuser
was one Upton, an apprentice or journeyman to a watch¬
maker. Le Maitre, Higgins, and Smith, were apprehend¬
ed on Saturday the 27th of September, by a warrant from
the Duke of Portland, as secretary of state, and examined
on Sunday the 28th, before the privy-council, the lords
of which were summoned again to attend on Tuesday upon
the same important business. The charge, supported by
the testimony of Upton, bore in substance, that an instru¬
ment was to have been constructed by the informer Upton,
in the form of a walking stick, in which was to have been
inserted a brass tube of two feet long ; that through this
tube a poisoned dart or arrow was to have been blown by
the breath of the conspirator Le Maitre at his majesty,
either on the terrace at Windsor, or in the playhouse ; and
that the poison was to have been of so subtle a nature,
that if the point but glanced upon the king, it would pro¬
duce instantaneous death. Nothing short of the most con¬
summate ignorance of the state of human science could,
on any ordinary occasion, have procured a moment’s at¬
tention to so ridiculous a story as this ; but such is the well- Reign of
known credulity of the English nation regarding political ^eorge Uf
dangers, that administration and their friends appear to .7^
have regarded this plot as an affair of some importance. '
Parliament assembled on the 30th of December. In
the speech from the throne his majesty urged the neces¬
sity of persisting in the war, however unfortunate it had
been ; and noticed the rapid decay of the resources of the
enemy. The Dutch had, he observed, from a sense of
present difficulties, entered into a negociation for peace
with the prevailing party in France; but no established
government could derive security from such a negociation.
The most effectual means had therefore been employed
for the further augmentation of the forces, on whose va¬
lour, as well as on the public spirit of the people, he placed
the utmost reliance. This speech also mentioned the ac¬
cession of the sovereignty of Corsica to the British domi¬
nions ; a treaty of amity and commerce with America ; and
the conclusion of a treaty of marriage between the Prince
of Wales and the Princess Caroline of Brunswick.
When an address to his majesty in similar terms with
the speech was moved in common form, very animated de¬
bates took place in both houses of parliament. The war
was attacked and defended upon the usual grounds, with
this additional circumstance, that the events of the late
campaign gave considerable countenance to the assertions
of opposition, that all hope of ultimate success was irra¬
tional. Administration, however, were no less powerful
than formerly. On the last day of the preceding session
they had received into official situations some of those
supporters of the war who in former years had opposed
their measures. Earl Fitzwilliam had been appointed pre¬
sident of the council; the Duke of Portland became one
of the secretaries of state ; Earl Spencer was declared
keeper of the privy seal; and Mr Windham was appoint¬
ed secretary at war. But notwithstanding these official
changes, Mr Pitt, with the aid of his friend Mr Dundas,
and his relation Lord Grenville, was understood to retain
the efficient power of the state. Mr Dundas still retained
the management of the war with France; and, as a kind of
third secretary of state, he performed a considerable part
of the business which would otherwise have devolved upon
the Duke of Portland ; while at the same time he continu¬
ed, as president of the board of control, to superintend
the affairs of India, and to hold the office of treasurer of
the navy. Earl Fitzwilliam was soon got quit of, being
sent to Ireland as lord-lieutenant, under an agreement
that he was to have full power to promote the repeal of
the penal statutes against the Catholics, and to concede
certain privileges which had been withheld in 1793. But
ministers having altered their sentiments about some of
these points, prohibited him from proceeding; and as he
insisted upon the terms on which he had accepted his
situation, he was recalled and dismissed from office. By
joining ministers for a time, he was prevented from acting
along with opposition in reprobating the war, and thus he
was left insulated and separated from both parties.
Among the debates of the present session, one of the
most remarkable was that which occurred upon the mo¬
tion of Mr Grey in the House of Commons on the 26th of
January 1795, that the existence of the actual govern¬
ment of France ought not to be considered as precluding
a negociation for peace. After two years of war, which
had drained this country of its blood and treasures, we did
not appear to be one point nearer the object for which
it was undertaken. From certain words of the minister on
a former occasion, Mr Grey inferred that this was a war
of extermination, a mortal strife, to be carried on till one
of the parties should be destroyed. He wished, by the mo¬
tion, to put the question to issue whether this opinion was
(
BRITAIN.
556
Reign of countenanced by the House of Commons. The public at
George III. large, and even the enemy with whom we were contend-
ing, had a right to know the length to which the contest
was to be carried, and the terms upon which peace was to
be obtained. He endeavoured to show that there existed
no prospect or chance of success in overturning by force
of arms the republican government of France, and that a
war persisted in with that view must necessarily be absurd;
that the people of France were too firmly attached to their
new arrangements to be likely to give them up, however
they might change their leaders ; that a dependence upon
a decay of their finances was equally ill founded ; and that,
both in the American war and in this, the affairs of the
British nation were unfortunately intrusted to persons un¬
able to distinguish between the fallacy of imperfect calcu¬
lations and the energy of a people struggling for indepen¬
dence. Our own resources were, he doubted not, equal to
every thing to which they ought to be applied, but not equal
to the conquest of France, or to a war of aggression. The
exhausted state of the emperor’s finances was evinced by
a memorial he had recently addressed to the circles of the
Upper Rhine. Was it then from him, from the Italian
states, the kings of Sardinia, Naples, and Spain, or from
our disgraceful alliance with the empress of Russia, that
we expected assistance ? Or was it from our good German
ally, who had taken L. 1,200,000 of our money, who had
not brought into the field the sixty-two thousand men for
which he stipulated, who had denied our right to command
any of the Prussian troops, and contended that they ought
not to march against the French, but to remain to defend
Germany ? The strongest reason which a great nation could
have for war, was the defence of its honour; and this, he
contended, we had so fully vindicated, as to secure us from
future insult. The decree of the convention in November
1792 now formed no bar to a negociation, as that decla¬
ration had been repealed, and followed by a contrary de¬
claration. As additional reasons, Mr Grey noticed the
capture of Holland, and the debates in the diet at Ratis-
bon, in which all parties agreed for overtures to the ene¬
my, except the elector of Hanover and the landgrave of
Hesse. Mr Pitt, in reply, asserted that the motion was
utterly inconsistent with the sentiments formerly express¬
ed by his majesty and by parliament, and therefore pro¬
posed an amendment, importing that it was the deter¬
mination of the house to prosecute the war, as the only
means of procuring a permanent and secure peace. Mr
Pitt contended that no nation at war with another ought
to treat for peace with a government which could not give
security; that this last was the great object by which alone
the war could be terminated; that nothing but a series of
revolutions had been generated under the system and prin¬
ciples now prevalent in France; that the agriculture and
commerce of France were in the most disastrous situation,
and justice almost unknown; that the house would never
willingly consent to treat with a nation of atheists ; that in
April 1793, the French had enacted the penalty of death
against any person who should propose peace with any
country which did not acknowledge the French republic
one and indivisible ; that the admission of these principles
amounted to a confession of the usurpation and injustice
of every other government; and that treating with France
would involve an acknowledgment of those principles which
condemned the usurpation of all other governments, and
denied the very power which they were exercising. Mr
Fox accused the minister of tergiversation, and contend¬
ed, that he had in fact found it necessary to alter his con¬
duct ; and that the impolitic speech which he had put into
the mouth of his majesty, at the opening of the session,
had made a serious impression upon the public. What,
he asked, would have been the feelings of Englishmen, if
the convention had determined never to treat with them Reign of
until there was a reform in the English government ? HeGeorffe
recalled to the recollection of Mr Pitt the declaration of V'-57T*",/1
his father, that they should die in the last breach before '95‘
they granted the independence of America; yet the first
act of the political life of the son had been to sign the
very independence which his father had deprecated. Ne¬
cessity had dictated that act; and he must now, on the
same account, retract his declaration respecting France.
The motion was opposed by Mr Dundas, on the ground
that it would fetter the executive government in their
negociations for peace; and ultimately the motion was
negatived, and the amendment adopted.
On the following day the Duke of Bedford brought for¬
ward, in the House of Lords, a motion similar to that which
Mr Grey had introduced into the House of Commons;
and Lord Grenville moved an amendment precisely simi¬
lar to that which had been proposed by Mr Pitt and carried
in the House of Commons. A great deal of discussion fol¬
lowed; but ultimately a large majority voted in favour of
the amendment. The victories of the French during the
last campaign, and the despair of ultimate success in the
war, which now began to be entertained throughout the
country, encouraged opposition to renew the subject un¬
der a variety of forms, and to urge ministers to enter into
a negociation ; but on every occasion the motions made by
them were negatived by a similar superiority of numbers.
The number of seamen and marines voted during the
present session amounted to a hundred thousand, whilst a
hundred and nineteen thousand three hundred and eighty
men were voted to form the guards and garrisons. In order
to procure the requisite number of seamen, the parliament
required the merchants to give up a part of the crews of
their shipping, in proportion to the tonnage, and ordered
every parish to furnish one man for the service. A loan
of L. 18,000,000 was found necessary, together with a large
issue of exchequer bills, as the supplies voted amounted
to no less than L.29,307,000. The new taxes were made
payable on wine, spirits, tea, coffee, stamps on deeds, in¬
surance on ships and cargoes, timber, and on persons wear¬
ing hair-powder.
During the present session the trial of Mr Hastings
was at length brought to a conclusion. The subject was
discussed in a committee of the House of Lords. The
lord chancellor and the Earl of Carnarvon considered Mr
Hastings as criminal; but he was ably defended by Lord
Thurlow, who was supported by the Marquis of Lansdown,
the Bishop of Rochester, and others. When every part of
the accusation had been disallowed by the committee, the
report was reviewed by the house ; and after some debates
on the mode of proceeding, it was resolved that the ques¬
tion should be put separately on sixteen points. The
greatest number of peers who voted the defendant guilty
in any one respect did not exceed six, whilst the votes of
not guilty on some of the charges were twenty-six, in
others twenty-three, and in one nineteen. The lord chan¬
cellor then intimated the decision of the court to Mr Hast¬
ings, who received it in silence, and withdrew.
At this time the debts of the Prince of Wales amount¬
ed to L.630,000; but it had been arranged at court that
these debts should be paid, and that the prince should
marry his cousin, the daughter of the Duke of Brunswick ;
and after some discussion in the House of Commons, his
establishment was fixed at L.125,000, out of which he was
required to pay L.65,000 a year until his debts were li¬
quidated. The rents of the duchy of Cornwall, amount¬
ing to L.13,000, were also set apart for the extinction of
the debts; and further sums were voted to defray the ex¬
penses of the marriage, as well as the repairs and decora¬
tions of Carlton House.
BRITAIN. 557
Reign of Parliament was prorogued on the 27th of June by a
George III. speech from the throne, in which ministers thought it pru-
dent to hold out to the public some prospect of negocia-
tion.
The incidents of the war during the year 1795 were
less memorable than those of the preceding years. Lord
Bridport, with an inferior force, attacked a French fleet
near Port 1’Orient, and took three of their ships. Vice-
admiral Hotham pursued to the Genoese coast a fleet
which had sailed from Toulon to attempt the recovery of
Corsica, and had captured one of his detached ships ; and
having brought the enemy to a partial engagement, he took
two sail of the line ; but he afterwards lost one of his own
ships in consequence of damage sustained in the conflict.
On the western coast of France, the enemy, with thirteen
sail of the line and fourteen frigates, avoided coming to
an engagement with Vice-admiral Cornwallis, who had
only eight ships including frigates. These events occur-
red early in summer. But notwithstanding the vigilance
of the British navy, the French captured, in the month
of July, thirty sail of a valuable convoy returning from
the Mediterranean, and also made prize of part of a Ja¬
maica fleet; but, on the other hand, their own commerce
had sunk so low as to present few objects of attack to our
cruizers and privateers.
As the Dutch, though nominally the allies of the French,
had, in fact, become subject to them, letters of marque
were issued against them by Great Britain, and directions
given to seize their colonial territories, under the profess¬
ed intention, however, of restoring them when the stadt-
holder’s government should be re-established. The Cape
of Good Hope was taken, together with Irincomalee and
the other Asiatic settlements of the Dutch, excepting only
Batavia. Their territories in the West Indies were not
attacked during the present year, on account of the diffi¬
culties which the British experienced in that quarter in
keeping in subjection the islands captured from the French,
where various insurrections were incited by their ancient
masters. Jamaica was also kept in a state of great alarm
by a small tribe of independent negroes, called Maroons,
who had long existed in the mountainous parts of the island.
These people, having quarrelled with the white inhabitants,
committed many cruel ravages, and were not subdued till
Spanish hunters and blood-hounds were procured from the
island of Cuba, and employed against them, which induced
them at last to submit to deportation from the island.
The British ministry resolved, when it was too late, to
give assistance to the royalists in the western parts of
France ; and an expedition, planned by Mr Windham, and
guided by French emigrant officers, with troops, many of
whom consisted of prisoners of war, relieved from confine¬
ment on condition of bearing arms against their native
country, set sail for the French coast, and landed upon the
extremity of the narrow peninsula of Quiberon. Here they
fortified themselves; but many of the troops proving un¬
faithful, and the expedition being otherwise ill conducted,
they were speedily overpowered by the republicans, who
put to death such of their countrymen as they found in
arms fighting against them. By this feeble and ill-timed
invasion of the French territory, nearly ten thousand men
were killed or taken prisoners.
The continental campaign on the side of Germany was
of little importance during this year, but upon the whole it
proved unfavourable to the French. The convention had
shaken off the yoke of that sanguinary faction which, un¬
der Robespierre and his frantic associates, had deluged
the interior of France with blood, but had nevertheless the
merit of calling forth with astonishing energy the powers
of the country for the support of its independence. . The
present leaders possessing less activity, and affecting a
milder course of conduct, the military operations languish- Reign of
ed; and the French army remained inactive till autumn,
when it crossed the Rhine near Mentz under General Pi-
chegru, but was speedily repulsed, and an armistice con¬
cluded for the winter. The convention, however, establish¬
ed a new form of government, consisting of an executive
directory of five persons, elected by two representative
bodies, to which the powers of legislation were intrusted,
and it was expected, that if the war continued, the new
executive power would endeavour to distinguish itself by
some important operations.
The British parliament was again assembled at an early
period, namely, on the 29th of October. The state of pub¬
lic affairs wore at this period an unfavourable aspect. The
French armies had been inactive during the summer, but
they had lost nothing; for the new republic retained pos¬
session of the territory extending from the Pyrenees to
North Holland, and consequently of an immense length of
coast opposite to Great Britain. Meanwhile, a dearth of
provisions began to prevail at home. The winter, which
had set in with extreme severity at the close of the year
1794, and had enabled the French to conquer Holland with
little difficulty, was followed by an ungenial summer, dur¬
ing which the crop failed in consequence of almost inces¬
sant rains. This state of things was productive of discon¬
tent among the lower orders, and the war was blamed as
tending to aggravate the distress which they thus suffered.
Previous to the assembling of parliament some meetings
were held by the London Corresponding Society, for the
purpose of petitioning the king and parliament in favour of
peace and of parliamentary reform; and as the meetings
were held in the open fields, they were very numerously
attended, but the persons composing them dispersed with¬
out disturbance. At the opening of parliament, however,
some riots took place.
His majesty proceeded from the palace to open the ses¬
sion of parliament at the usual hour; and the crowd in St
James’s Park, which is always considerable on these oc¬
casions, was certainly much greater than usual. A fine day,
and a rumour which had been circulated that a riot was
likely to take place, contributed greatly to increase the
multitude of the spectators. As the royal carriage pass¬
ed along the park, the predominant exclamations uttered
were “ Peace, peace ! Give us bread : No Pitt; no famine ;
no war!” and a few voices were heard to exclaim, “ Down
with George,” or words to that effect. In the park and
the streets adjacent to Westminster, stones and other mis¬
siles were thrown, some of which struck the state coach,
and one of them, supposed to have been thrown from a
house in Margaret Street, perforated a window of the
carriage by a small circular aperture. From this circum¬
stance it was alleged to have been a bullet discharged by
an air-gun, or by some similar engine; but no bullet was
found; and happily it neither touched the king nor the
noblemen who attended him. As his majesty returned
from the house through the park, the gates of the horse-
guards were shut to exclude the mob; yet even this pre¬
caution was not sufficient to prevent a renewal of the
outrages, and another stone was thrown at the carriage
as it passed opposite to Spring Garden Terrace. After
the king had alighted at St James’s, the populace attack¬
ed the state-carriage, and, in its way through Pall-mall to
the Mews, it was almost entirely demolished. The speech
from the throne stated that the general situation of af¬
fairs, notwithstanding many events unfavourable to the
common cause, was materially improved; that the French
had been driven back in Italy, and checked on the side of
Germany; that their successes, and the treaties of peace
which they had entered into, were far from compensating
the evils they had suffered from the continuance of war;
BRITAIN.
558
Reign of that the unparalleled embarrassment and distress of their
George III. internal situation had produced an impression that their
on]y relief must result from peace and a settled govern-
ment; that the crisis in which they now were must pro¬
bably produce consequences important to the interests of
Europe ; and that if this crisis terminated in any thing af¬
fording a reasonable expectation of security in any treaty,
the appearance of a disposition to treat for peace on just
and suitable terms would be met, on the part of the Bri¬
tish government, with an earnest desire to give it the
speediest effect. In the speeches for and against the usual
addresses little novelty occurred, the expediency of conti¬
nuing the war having been so often discussed before.
Meanwhile administration took advantage of the attack
upon his majesty’s person to issue a proclamation, connect¬
ing the meetings of the Corresponding Society with the in¬
sults offered to his majesty, and also to bring forward two
new penal statutes. The first was introduced into the House
of Lords by Lord Grenville, and entitled an act for the
preservation of his majesty’s person and governmentagainst
treasonable and seditious practices. One clause enact¬
ed capital punishment against every one who should ex¬
press, utter, or declare, by the publication of writings, or
by any overt act, such imaginations, devices, or intentions,
as were calculated to injure the king, impair his authority
or that of the parliament, or promote an invasion of his
dominions ; another provided, that all declarations tending
to excite hatred or contempt of the king should be consi¬
dered as high misdemeanours; and a third, that a second
offence might be punished, either in the ordinary mode,
or by banishment from the realm for a term not exceed¬
ing seven years. The other bill, introduced by Mr Pitt
into the House of Commons, provided, that no meeting of
any description of persons, exceeding the number of fifty,
except such as might be called by sheriffs or other officers
or magistrates, should be holden for political purposes,
unless public notice had been previously given by seven
housekeepers; that if such a body should assemble with¬
out notice, and twelve or more individuals should continue
together, even quietly, for one hour after a legal order
for their departure, they should be punished as felons,
without benefit of clergy; and that the same rigour might
be exercised, if any person, after due notice of the meet¬
ing, should use seditious language, or propose the irregu¬
lar alteration of any thing by law established. With re¬
gard to the delivery of lectures or discourses, or the ex¬
ercise of debate on topics connected with the laws and
government of the country, a license was declared to be
necessary. Very animated discussions took place upon
these bills in both houses of parliament, and many peti¬
tions were presented against them; whilst, on the other
hand, various corporations and public bodies petitioned
for their enactment. But the result nevertheless was,
that the bills were passed by great majorities.
Still, however, administration were sensible that it would
become necessary, for the sake of preserving their popu¬
larity, to assume an appearance of willingness to put an
end to the war ; and accordingly, whilst the bills were un¬
der discussion, each house received a message from the
king, in which, alluding to the new constitution, and the
directorial government of France, he stated that such an
order of things had arisen as would induce him to meet
any desire of negociation on the part of the enemy with a
full readiness to give it the speediest effect. An address
of thanks having been moved, Mr Sheridan suggested an
amendment, tending to promote immediate negociation,
and to remove all obstacles to the attainment of peace ;
and Mr box also wished that the first advances should pro¬
ceed from our court; but Mr Pitt and Mr Dundas thought
it advisable to wait until the enemy manifested a disposi¬
tion to negociate. Similar observations were made in the Reign of
House of Peers. A species of advance towards negocia-George
tion was nevertheless made soon afterwards on the part of
Britain, though in a very oblique and indirect mode. Mr
Wickham, his majesty’s minister to the Swiss cantons,
transmitted, on the 8th of March 1796, a note to M. Bar-
thelemi, the French ambassador at Berne, stating that he
himself was not authorized to enter into any negociation,
but requesting information in writing on the part of the
French court about three points; first, whether France was
disposed to send ministers to a congress to negociate a ge¬
neral peace with his Britannic majesty and his allies ; se¬
condly, whether the French government were willing to
state the general grounds upon which they would consent
to conclude a treaty ; and, thirdly, whether the French
government would think fit to propose any other mode of
arriving at a general pacification. M. Barthelemi return¬
ed an answer on the 26th of the same month, stating that
the executive directory doubted the sincerity of these
overtures of peace, from the proposal of a general congress,
which would lead to endless negociations, and from Mr
Wickham not having received powers to negociate ; assert¬
ing the willingness of France to make peace; but declar¬
ing that the executive directory had no power to relin¬
quish any of the territories which the constitutional act had
declared to form an integral part of the French republic.
With regard to the other territories occupied by the French
armies, these might become objects of negociation. But
as the Netherlands and the island of St Domingo had
been declared by the new French constitution to form
part of the territory of the republic, the British govern¬
ment immediately published a note intimating that these
pretensions on the part of France were totally inadmis¬
sible ; and that while they were persisted in, nothing was
left but to prosecute a war equally just and necessary.
This first attempt towards negociation for peace gave rise
to various debates in the British parliament, in all of which
administration were supported by their usual majorities.
Supplies were voted during this session to the amount
of L.37,588,000, and upwards of twenty-five millions and
a half were borrowed. As no prospect existed that British
armies could be employed on the Continent, the guards
and garrisons were reduced to forty-nine thousand men;
the forces in the colonies were increased to seventy-seven
thousand ; and the sailors and marines amounted to a hun¬
dred and ten thousand. Taxes were imposed on legacies
to collateral relations, and on horses, and dogs, and hats;
the assessed taxes were increased, and also the duties on
wine, tobacco, salt, and sugar. Parliament was dissolved
on the 20th of May, and new elections immediately took
place.
An extremely active campaign was now opened by the
French upon the Continent. Their generals, Moreau and
Jourdan, penetrated into Germany; but they were ulti¬
mately repulsed by the Archduke Charles, though not till
they had reached the vicinity of Ratisbon. The retreat
of Moreau, amidst hostile armies, and through the difficul¬
ties and entanglements of the Black Forest, formed one of
the principal events of the war, and has been much laud¬
ed by some military writers, though severely criticised
by Napoleon. On the side of Italy the French obtained
greater success. Their new general in that quarter, Bo¬
naparte, turned the Alps by the Col di Tende, and gain¬
ing in rapid succession the victories at Montenotte, Mille-
simo, and Dego, compelled the king of Sardinia to desert
the allies, and to purchase peace at the expense of a con¬
siderable portion of his territory. He next descended into
the Milanese ; obliged the Italian states to surrender their
finest paintings, statues, and other curiosities,together with
large sums of money, as the price of peace; and after a
BRITAIN.
Reign of multitude of sanguinary conflicts at Lodi, Arcole, Lonato,
George III. Castiglione, Rivoli, and other places, he succeeded in sub-
duing, by famine, Mantua, the only fortress that remain-
7 ' ed to the Austrians in Italy. Few maritime events of much
importance occurred. The Dutch were deprived of their
whole intertropical possessions, with the exception of the
unhealthy but rich settlement of Batavia, in the island of
Java; and they also lost a squadron which they had sent
out to attempt the re-capture of the Cape of Good Hope,
but which was itself made prize of by the British admiral
Sir George Elphinstone, afterwards Lord Keith. On the
other hand, the British were under the necessity of aban¬
doning Corsica, in consequence of the conquests of Bona¬
parte in Italy, and the mutinous spirit of his countrymen
the Corsicans. The result of the campaign was, that the
British ministry, in order to appease the nation, found it
necessary to send Lord Malmesbury to Paris on the pre¬
tence of attempting to negociate a peace ; but it was af¬
terwards admitted by Mr Pitt that they had no wish to
conclude a treaty, and that the measure was adopted
merely in compliance with the wishes of the public. Ac¬
cordingly, as the French still refused to relinquish their
hold of the Netherlands, this was accounted a sufficient
reason for persevering in the war.
In the early part of the session of parliament, which
met on the 6th of October, there occurred few debates,
on account of the intention to attempt an immediate nego-
ciation, which had been announced in the king’s speech,
and afterwards from expectation of its issue. But at the
close of the year the French directory, in consequence
of an invitation from a disaffected party in Ireland, sent an
expedition of seventeen ships of the line and many smaller
vessels, having on board an army of eighteen thousand
men under General Hoche, to invade that country. The
violence of the weather prevented this armament from
assembling at the rendezvous in Bantry Bay, and no land¬
ing was in consequence attempted; so that the fleet re¬
turned home with the loss of two ships of the line and two
frigates, which perished in a tempest, and of one frigate
taken by the English. Shortly afterwards the French dis¬
embarked on the coa^t of Pembrokeshire twelve hundred
and fifty criminals, whom they had sent as soldiers upon
the Irish expedition, and knew not how to dispose of after
the failure of that attempt.
At this period the first instance of serious difficulty oc¬
curred in the management of the British funding system.
The large sums of money sent abroad as subsidies to fo¬
reign princes by government had diminished the quantity
of gold and silver in Great Britain, whilst administration,
through the medium of the Bank of England’s paper, had
issued immense sums for the public expenses, and in pay¬
ment of the additional interest of the national debt. The
alarm occasioned by the Irish invasion coming in addition
to these circumstances, produced a run upon the bank to
exchange its paper for specie; and as their coffers were
soon drained, they-ibund themselves under the necessity
of giving a premium for bullion, which they paid with
their paper. This made matters worse, as certain persons
secretly melted down the guineas which the bank had
caused to be coined and issued, and sold the gold to the
bank as bullion for the sake of the premium. A ruinous
traffic was thus carried on by the bank, which purchased
bullion at a high rate, while they gave out their guineas at
par. The directors, therefore, were under the necessity
of laying their case before the privy council, which, after
considering the circumstances of the case, issued an order
authorizing the bank to discontinue the payment of their
notes in cash. Considerable alarm was occasioned by this
step; and committees of both houses of parliament were
appointed to inquire into the state of the bank’s affairs.
559
But although these were reported as prosperous, yet each Iteign of
committee recommended a continuance of the restric- George III
tion; and an act was therefore passed for confirming it,
while, to render it less inconvenient, bank notes for one H97.
and two pounds were put into circulation. As the bank
of England is the medium through which the British go¬
vernment issues all payments, and as these payments were
made in the bank’s paper, which administration might
induce the directors to augment indefinitely, many per¬
sons feared and predicted that this paper would speedily
sink in value when compared with gold and silver, as the
French assignats and the American paper currency had
done when rendered inconvertible at pleasure into specie.
The stability of the British funding system, however,
speedily displayed itself. The credit of the bank’s paper
remained unshaken, because government received it in
payment of all taxes; and although depreciation soon
followed, and prices necessarily rose, yet, from confidence
in our resources, and a conviction of the immutability of
the national faith, this depreciation was confined within
narrower limits than it would have reached in other coun¬
tries not so favourably circumstanced, and the credit of the
paper continued unaffected by an operation which would
have utterly ruined it anywhere else.
During the preceding year the emperor had received a
subsidy, under the name of a loan, from the British go¬
vernment, and a new subsidy was now given him under a
similar denomination. To supply this and the rest of the
national expenses, L.27,647,000 were voted early in the ses¬
sion, and afterwards above fifteen millions additional were
thought necessary, and voted. Two loans were nego-
ciated by government; one of sixteen millions and a half,
in the usual way, from money-brokers; and another of
eighteen millions, called the Loyalty Loan, from the nobi¬
lity and gentry being requested to fill it up, which they
did with great eagerness. The troops voted consisted of
a hundred and twenty thousand seamen; sixty thousand
seven hundred and sixty-five soldiers for European service,
and above sixty-four thousand for the dependencies of
Great Britain. As the threat of invasion was now reviv¬
ed, a large supplementary body of militia was levied, to¬
gether with a considerable force consisting of cavalry.
The interest of the two loans was provided for by taxes
upon houses, stage-coaches, horses, auctions, stamps on
agreements and newspapers, ornamental plate, spirits, tea,
coffee, and other articles. Towards the close of the ses¬
sion the opposition brought forward motions to address
the king to dismiss his ministers, resume the negociation
with France, and repeal the two acts introduced in the
preceding session, by Lord Grenville and Mr Pitt, for ex¬
tending the treason laws, and imposing restrictions upon
popular meetings for political purposes. They were en¬
couraged by a variety of addresses which were present¬
ed to his majesty at this time from different parts of the
country, advising him to dismiss the present ministry; but,
as usual, their efforts proved unavailing.
The French had now acquired such an ascendency over
the Spanish monarchy, as to induce the government of
that country to declare war against Britain; and soon
afterwards the Spanish fleet, amounting to twenty-seven
sail of the line, attempted to join a French armament;
but they were attacked by Sir John Jervis on the 14th
of February, near Cape St Vincent, with only fifteen sail
of the line; and four of their ships, of from seventy-four
to a hundred and twelve guns, were made prizes by the
British fleet. This victory may be regarded as the first of
that mighty series of naval triumphs with which the name
of Nelson is indissolubly associated. The British force
consisted of two ships of a hundred guns, two of ninety-
eight, two of ninety, eight of seventy-four, and one of
560 B R I 1
Reign of sixty-four, with four frigates, a sloop, and a cutter. The
George III. Spaniards had one four-decker of a hundred and thirty-
six guns, six three-deckers of a hundred and twelve,
1797’ two eighty-fours, and eighteen seventy-fours; with ten
frigates and a brig. The disparity of force was therefore
prodigious. The British were formed in two lines in the
most compact order of sailing; and, by carrying a press
of canvass, Sir John Jervis came up with the enemy’s
fleet at half-past eleven on the 14th, before it had time to
collect and form a regular order of battle. Not a moment
was to be lost; so, departing from the regular system, the
British passed through their fleet, in a line formed with
the utmost celerity, tacked, and thereby cut off nine ships,
or one third, from the main body. The vessels thus sepa¬
rated attempted to form on the larboard tack; but only
one of them succeeded, under cover of the smoke, which
prevented her intention being discovered till she had
reached the rear; whilst the others were so warmly re¬
ceived that they put about, and did not again appear in
the action till towards its close. The admiral now made
a signal to tack in succession; but Nelson, whose sta¬
tion was in the rear of the British line, perceiving that
the Spaniards were bearing up before the wind with an
intention of forming their line, going large, and joining
their separated ships, or avoiding a close engagement,
disobeyed the signal, without a moment’s hesitation, and
ordered his ship to be wore. This at once brought him
in contact with the Santissima Trinidad of a hundred
and thirty-six guns, the San Josef of a hundred and
twelve, the Salvador del Mundo of a hundred and twelve,
the San Nicolas of eighty, the San Isidro of seventy-four,
another seventy-four, and another first-rate; but Trow¬
bridge, in the Culloden, immediately joined, and nobly
supported him; and for nearly an hour did the Culloden
and the Captain, Nelson’s ship, maintain the most terribly
unequal contest recorded in the annals of naval warfare.
At length the Blenheim, passing between them and the
enemy, gave them a respite, while she poured in her fire
upon the Spaniards. The Salvador del Mundo and San
Isidro now dropped astern, and were fired into in a mas¬
terly style by the Excellent, Captain Collingwood. The
San Isidro struck, and the Salvador also hauled down her
colours ; but Collingwood, disdaining the parade of taking
possession of beaten enemies, pushed on, with every sail
set, to save his old friend and messmate, Nelson, in the
Captain, which was at this time fired upon by three first
rates, by the San Nicolas, and by a seventy-four; whilst the
Blenheim was ahead, and the Culloden, crippled, astern.
Ranging up in the noblest style, and hauling up his main¬
sail just astern, Collingwood passed within ten feet of the
San Nicolas, and giving her a tremendous fire, passed on to
the Santissima Trinidad. The San Nicolas then luffed up,
when the San Josef fell on board her, and Nelson resumed
his station abreast of them, and close alongside. But the
Captain being now incapable of further service, either in
the line or in chase, Nelson directed the helm to be put
to starboard, and the boarders to be called up. His or¬
ders were instantly obeyed ; the San Nicolas was boarded,
and, after a short but sharp contest hand to hand, carried
in the most brilliant manner. But a fire of pistols and
musketry having been opened on the victors from the stern
gallery of the San Josef, Nelson, directing his captain to
send more men into the prize, gave orders for boarding
that ship from the San Nicolas ; and, leading the way him¬
self, exclaiming “ Victory or Westminster Abbey !” the
thing was executed in an instant, with an energy and
enthusiasm which rendered all resistance hopeless. But
the Spaniards had still eighteen or nineteen ships which
had suffered little or no injury; and as the part of the
fleet which had been separated from the main body in the
AIN.
morning was now coming up, Sir John Jervis made signal Reign of
to bring to. If the enemy had chosen at this moment to eorg6^^
avail themselves of their great superiority of force, the
situation of the British admiral would have been most
critical. His ships could not have formed without aban¬
doning those which they had captured, and running to
leeward; the Captain was lying a perfect wreck on board
her two prizes, with her fore-topmast shot away, and not
a sail, shroud, or rope left, while her wheel was smashed;
and many of the other ships were so shattered in their
masts and rigging as to be wholly unmanageable. But
the Spanish admiral, Don Josef de Cordova, having inquir¬
ed of his captains whether they judged it proper to renew
the action, and nine having answered in the negative, whilst
others gave their opinion in favour of delay, abandoned
all idea of recommencing the battle, and drew off, leaving
the British in possession of the prizes which they had so
gallantly won. For this victory the commander-in-chief
was rewarded with the title of Earl St Vincent, and Rear-
admiral Nelson had the order of the Bath given him. It
was his skilful and daring disobedience of orders which
rendered the battle decisive.
At the commencement of the summer an event occur¬
red which, had the French been prepared to attempt an
invasion of this country, might have been productive of
serious evils. This was a mutiny in the fleet. Gross im¬
positions had for some time been practised upon the sea¬
men, both as to the quantity and quality of the provisions
allowed them ; and they had made an anonymous appli¬
cation for redress to Earl Howe. But the application was
disregarded, because the strictness of discipline prevented
the open avowal or appearance of discontent, which his
lordship inconsiderately supposed had no existence ; and
the seamen, disappointed of the expected relief, resolved
to enforce the consideration of their claims. Accordingly,
when orders were given to prepare for putting to sea, the
crew of the Queen Charlotte, and other ships lying at
Spithead, refused to act; and treating with contempt the
remonstrances of the officers, they made choice of dele¬
gates, who after a formal consultation drew up petitions to
the board of admiralty and the House of Commons. Earl
Spencer, first lord of the admiralty, dreading a dangerous
mutiny, and not thinking the demands of the seamen unrea¬
sonable, promised compliance ; and the king readily offered
full pardon to all who should immediately return to their
duty. But the seamen would not be satisfied till the
parliament had confirmed the promises of the admiralty;
and as some delay thus ensued, the irritation of their
minds led to a contest with Vice-admiral Colpoys, in which
some lives were lost. An act, however, was passed for the
gratification of the seamen in point both of pay and pro¬
visions ; and subordination was restored at bpithead and
Plymouth. The concession of these claims encouraged
the seamen at the Nore to insist on a more punctual dis¬
charge of arrears, a more equal distribution of prize-money,
and a general abatement of the severity of discipline. A
council of delegates was elected, at the head of which was
a seaman named Richard Parker, who took the command
of the fleet, and prevailed upon the men to reject repeat¬
ed offers of pardon. He robbed two merchant ships of
provisions, obstructed trade by the detention of other ves¬
sels, and fired on some ships of war which refused to accede
to the mutinous combination. An act of parliament was
passed in the beginning of June, denouncing capital punish¬
ment against all who should hold intercourse with the re¬
bellious ships, or voluntarily continue on boai d; and as
the public strongly disapproved of this last mutiny, for
which no excuse could be offered, the seamen gradually re¬
turned to their duty. Parker was apprehended, and, along
with several other mutineers, punished with death ; and a
BRITAIN.
Reign of considerable number were also condemned after trial, but
George III. the greater part of them were pardoned.
During the summer the port of Cadiz was blockaded
' ' by the British fleet under Sir John Jervis, now Earl St
Vincent; and an attempt was made against the Spanish
island of Teneriffe, but without success. Meanwhile an¬
other fleet under Admiral Duncan watched the Texel;
but the blockading force having retired for a short time,
the Dutch fleet, under Admiral De Winter, put to sea.
Intelligence of this event having been brought to Admi¬
ral Duncan at Yarmouth, he instantly proceeded in quest
of the enemy; and about eleven o’clock in the forenoon
of the 11th October 1797 he got sight of the squadron
which had been left to watch their motions, and which
displayed signals of an enemy to leeward. Admiral Dun¬
can immediately made signal for a general chase, and
soon got sight of the Dutch, forming in a line on the star¬
board tack to receive him, the land between Camperdown
and Egmont being then about nine miles to the leeward.
On making this discovery, he shortened sail to connect
the squadron; and finding there was no time to be lost in
making the attack, he made signal to bear up, break the
enemy’s line, and engage each ship her opponent to lee¬
ward, without waiting to form the line of battle. The
order was promptly and gallantly obeyed; Vice-admiral
Onslow, in the Monarch, bore down on the enemy’s rear,
his division following his example; and about forty mi¬
nutes past twelve o’clock the battle commenced. Admiral
Duncan, in the Venerable, also passed through the enemy’s
line, at the head of his division, and began a close action
with the enemy’s van, which lasted two hours and a half,
when all the masts of the Dutch admiral’s ship were ob¬
served to go by the board, and she not long afterwards
struck to her opponent. The Dutch vice-admiral’s ship
being also dismasted, surrendered to Vice-admiral Ons¬
low, and nine others became the prizes of the conquerors.
The battle was obstinate and sanguinary; but its deci¬
sive results may be ascribed to the bold manoeuvre of in¬
stantly pushing between the enemy and the land, to which
they were fast approaching. Had Admiral Duncan waited
to form line of battle, in the ordinary way, there either
would have been no action at all, or if the British had
attacked, the Dutch admiral, by getting nearer to the
shore, would probably have drawn both fleets on it, which
would have been a victory to him. The force on both
sides was nearly equal, each squadron consisting of six¬
teen ships of two decks; but of the British not more
than ten ships were seriously engaged, and these captured
eleven of the enemy. Had Admiral Duncan’s fleet been
composed of the same materials as Lord St Vincent’s,
every Dutch ship would have been taken; and the same
result would have followed had all the ships followed the
example set them by the Venerable. The fact is, how¬
ever, that the British squadron was composed of very in¬
different and inadequate vessels, many of them having
been intended for Indiamen; and that it was otherwise
in many respects ill conditioned and deficient; but there
was no want of gallantry on the part of the crews, and
when the main-top-gallant mast of the Venerable was shot
561
away, a seaman of the name of Crawford nailed the flag Reign of
to the top-mast head.1 This victory excited the mostGeorgeHL
lively joy in the British nation, from its tendency to put
an end to all dread of invasion.
While their allies, or rather subjects, were suffering these
disasters by sea, the French armies triumphed on the Con¬
tinent. Bonaparte advanced from Italy against the centre
of the Austrian dominions, and, after several sanguinary
conflicts, crossed the Alps where they approach the fron¬
tiers of Hungary, and forced the emperor to conclude
preliminaries of peace at Leoben, on the 18th of April,
which were followed by a definitive treaty, signed at Cam-
po Formio, near Udine, on the 17th of October. The
emperor acquired the city of Venice; but he relinquished
the Milanese and the Netherlands, and, by secret arti¬
cles, consented that the Rhine should form the boundary of
France. Britain being now left alone in the contest into
which she had originally entered as an auxiliary to Aus¬
tria and Prussia, the government opened a negociation to¬
wards the close of the summer; and as both the French
and British nations eagerly wished for a termination of this
sanguinary contest, it is probable that administration seri¬
ously wished to conclude a treaty ; but at this time a party,
headed by the director Barras, had gained the ascendency
in France, and resolved to continue the war. A demand
was therefore made that Britain should renounce every con¬
quest as a preliminary to negociation, whilst France reserv¬
ed a right to make further demands ; and on this being re¬
fused, the British ambassador. Lord Malmesbury, was dis¬
missed from Lisle, where the negociations had been opened.
Parliament assembled on the 2d of November. In the
speech from the throne his majesty stated his concern
that his endeavours to restore peace had been rendered
ineffectual, and expressed the fullest reliance on the mag¬
nanimity and courage of the people. During this session
of parliament few or none of the members of opposition
attended. At the close of the preceding session they had
declared it to be their intention to retire from parliament;
and they justified their conduct by alleging that, in times
when every man who censured the measures of admini¬
stration was regarded as in league with the enemy, it was
equally painful and useless to incur such odium; that if
they declared their sentiments, they were proclaimed as
the enemies of the king, and if they tacitly acquiesced in
the measures of the minister, they voluntarily took upon
themselves a share of the responsibility; that they had
done their utmost to prevent the war, and had urged re¬
peatedly the necessity of bringing it to a speedy termina¬
tion, without persuading their opponents ; that events must
now take their natural course ; and that as they could not
aid by their counsel, it should not be said that they embar¬
rassed by their opposition. This retirement of opposition
was much resented, and spoken of with great bitterness, by
the friends of administration, as it suggested to the nation
the idea that government was conducted by the power of
the crown alone, unchecked by any discussion of its mea¬
sures in the two legislative assemblies.
The inability of the bank of England to pay upon de¬
mand its notes in specie, according to ancient custom and
1 The following characteristic anecdote has been related of an officer who distinguished himself by his gallantry in this action.
Captain Inglis of the Eelliqueux of sixty-four guns, owing either to long absence from the service, or to an inaptitude not very
uncommon among naval officers of the old school, had neglected to make himself master of the signal-book; and on the morning of
the day of battle, when it became necessary to act with promptitude, in obedience to the signals, he found himself more puzzled than
enlightened by it. After poring over it for some time, without being in any degree benefited by the perusal, he threw it with con¬
tempt upon the deck, exclaiming in broad Scotch, “ Damn me, up wi’ the hellem and gang into the middle o’t.” These words are
instinct with the true spirit of battle, and show that Captain Inglis bravely anticipated the remedy in such cases provided by Nelson,
who, in his celebrated memorandum on the eve of the mighty combat of Trafalgar, observes, that “ if a captain should be at a loss, he
cannot do very wrong if he lay his ship alongside of the enemy.” In strict conformity with this doctrine, the Belliqueux lost no time
in “ ganging into the middle o’t,” by attacking the enemy’s van, which she contributed to throw into confusion, although she got
rather roughly treated by them before she could be supported.
VOL. V. 4 B
BRITAIN.
562
Reign of the terms of the obligation contained in these notes, ap-
George 111. pears n0w to have created in Mr Pitt’s mind some dread
respecting the funding system, and an apprehension, that
l'98, from the immense sums annually borrowed, and the cor¬
responding quantity of paper-money necessarily issued to
pay the interest of the loans, the system might be car¬
ried so far as to discredit the paper-money issued in the
name of the bank of England. And this apprehension
was strengthened by a fact, of which everybody was daily
becoming more sensible, namely, that the money price of
all kinds of property in Great Britain had rapidly risen
during the war; and this rise of price was justly ascribed
to a gradual sinking in the value of money, or of paper,
the only money used in Britain, in consequence of its too
great abundance. Mr Pitt therefore proposed, instead of
borrowing the whole sum necessary to defray the expense
of the war, and imposing no more taxes than were requi¬
site to pay the interest of the loan, that heavier taxes
should be imposed, in order to defray a portion of the ex¬
traordinary expenditure. Accordingly an act was passed
for raising seven millions within the year; and this was to
be effected by augmenting the assessed taxes, but so as
not to compel any individual to pay more than one tenth
of his income. The leading members of opposition attend¬
ed to oppose this extraordinary measure, but without effect.
As the French were now disencumbered of all other ad¬
versaries, it was naturally expected that they would turn
their arms in a more direct manner than formerly against
the British empire. The result of the combination of the
states of Europe for the partition of France had been ex¬
tremely disastrous, and had left the new republic in pos¬
session of an extent of territory which the ablest and most
ambitious of the French monarchs had in vain aspired to
possess. The command which they had now obtained of
Holland rendered France more dangerous than formerly,
by the superior means of invasion which an additional ex¬
tent of coast and the possession of a large quantity of
shipping might afford; and had the French navy been less
weak, or the French rulers possessed of greater ability, a
dangerous crisis in the history of Great Britain might at
this period have occurred. It never was the interest of
any British administration to conceal from the public at
large the possibility of a foreign invasion; and as the
French government at this time boasted of their intention
to make such an attempt, and ordered a considerable army
to advance to the sea coast, it became the duty of mini¬
sters in Great Britain to make preparations to resist any
such effort. Accordingly they came forward in parlia¬
ment to propose measures of defence; and the danger with
which the nation considered itself as threatened obliged all
men in some measure still to adhere to an administration
which in other respects might have lost their popularity
from the ill success of their late measures. On the 8th
of February 1798 Mr Dundas introduced into the House
of Commons a bill to enable the king to incorporate in the
regular militia a portion of the supplementary militia. And
this bill being passed with little debate, the same mini¬
ster, on the 27th of March, moved for leave to bring in an¬
other, to enable his majesty to provide for the security and
defence of these realms, and to indemnify persons who
might suffer injury in their property by the operation of
such measures. The object of this bill was to provide for
every possible emergency, by giving a power to his majesty
to discover what persons were prepared to appear in arms
and to be embodied for the public defence; and also to
ascertain what number of the inhabitants of certain dis¬
tricts would be able to act as pioneers, or in other labo¬
rious situations. The other provisions were, that in the
event of its being necessary to employ persons as pioneers
to remove stock, or assist in facilitating the carriage of
military stores, proper compensation would be made; and Reign of
the bill was also intended to give a power of embodying aGe01'geHh
portion of the regular militia, and employing them in the
defence of the country. This bill was passed into a law
after some unimportant debates, the principal members of
opposition not usually attending.
As it was supposed that the war, on the part of Britain,
would occasion greater expense than when all Europe had
been engaged in it along with her, the supplies were aug¬
mented to L.35,000,000; and, with a view to draw re¬
sources from distant parts of the country, instead of rais¬
ing large loans for the public service, which were nego-
ciated in London alone, Mr Pitt brought forward a scheme
by which proprietors of land were enabled to redeem the
land-tax ; in other words, the owner of land, and, failing
him, any other person, was to be permitted to purchase this
tax, by a transfer of stock, which produced a dividend
greater than the amount of the impost. The measure be¬
came law, but produced little immediate effect.
On the 25th of May Mr Pitt brought forward a bill in
the House of Commons, with a view to increase the navy,
and to resist with greater success the threatened invasion.
On this occasion an event occurred, which indicated, that
by the long possession of power, and the support he had
received from the nation, Mr Pitt had suffered to grow
upon him a certain haughtiness of manner and impatience
of contradiction, which, in former times, would have proved
extremely inconvenient to a British minister. On the sub¬
ject of his proposed bill, he observed, that the object he
had in view was to suspend, for a limited time, the pro¬
tections which various descriptions of persons enjoyed, to
prevent them from being impressed into the service of
the navy; and he stated it as his wish that the bill should
that day pass through its different stages, with a suitable
pause at each if required, and that it should be sent to the
Lords for their concurrence. Mr Tierney remarked on the
very extraordinary manner in which Mr Pitt called upon
the house to adopt this measure. He had imagined that
the augmentation of the navy was to be provided for in
the usual way; or, if any very uncommon mode was to be
resorted to for the attainment of that object, that notice
would have been given to the house. He had heard no
arguments that proved its propriety; and even if he had,
some time ought to have been allowed to weigh the force
of such arguments, before proceeding to give three or four
votes on a measure, of which no notice of any kind had
been given. If the ministers persisted in hurrying the bill
through the house in the manner proposed, he must give
it a decided negative; and, indeed, from what he had al¬
ready seen, he must view all their measures as hostile to
the liberties of the subjects of this country. Mr Pitt re¬
plied, that if every measure adopted against the designs
of France was to be considered as hostile to the liberty of
this country, then indeed his idea of liberty differed widely
from that of the honourable gentleman. He observed that
he had given notice before of the present motion, and that
if it were not passed in a day, those whom it concerned
might elude its effects. But if the measure was necessary,
and if a notice of it would enable its effects to be eluded,
how could the honourable gentleman’s opposition be ac¬
counted for, except from a desire to obstruct the defence of
the country? Mr Tierney called Mr Pitt to order; and
the Speaker observed, that whatever had a tendency to
throw suspicion on the sentiments of a member, if con¬
veyed in language that clearly marked that intention, was
certainly irregular. Mr Pitt replied, that if the house
waited for his explanation, he feared it must wait a long
time. He knew very well that it was unparliamentary to
state the motives that actuated the opinions of gentlemen ;
but it was impossible to go into arguments in favour of a
BRITAIN.
Reign uf question, without sometimes hinting at the motives that
Georgein.induced an opposition to it. He submitted to the judg-
merit of the house the propriety of what he argued ; and
17J8- he would not depart from any thing he had advanced, by
either retracting or explaining it. The result of this
altercation was a duel on the following Sunday between
Mr Pitt and Mr Tierney. They went to Putney Heath,
attended by seconds, and, standing at the distance of
twelve paces, fired two shots each ; but Mr Pitt discharged
his second pistol in the air, upon which the seconds in¬
terfered, and thus the affair terminated.
During the summer of this year a rebellion broke out in
Ireland, the particulars of which will be stated in their
proper place. The enthusiasm which the French revolu¬
tion had kindled in so many quarters of Europe extended
itself to Ireland. There, some men of ardent imaginations,
chiefly Protestant dissenters, persuaded themselves that
they could regenerate their country, cast off the dominion
of Great Britain, heal the unhappy divisions among the in¬
habitants of Ireland, and convert it into an independent
republic. As early as the year 1793 these persons formed
themselves into a society, under the name of the United
Irishmen, and were gradually joined by a very large pro¬
portion of the population of the country. They applied
for aid from France; and it was in consequence of their
urgent invitation that the unsuccessful expedition under
General Hoche was undertaken. From that period the
country remained in a state of the greatest alarm. On
the one side rigorous laws were enacted, and every effort
was made, by severity of punishment, to repress all appear¬
ance of opposition to the existing government; whilst, on
the other, the common people busied themselves in the
fabrication and concealment of pikes, or broke into the
houses of country gentlemen, to seize whatever fire-arms
they could discover. The schemes of the disaffected party
were greatly disconcerted by the discovery and apprehen¬
sion of their principal leaders. A rebellion, however, ac¬
tually broke out; but, though attended with considerable
destruction of human lives and of property, it was of a
partial nature, and speedily suppressed. During its exist¬
ence some circumstances occurred ^yhich completely de¬
monstrated of how visionary a nature had been the schemes
of those persons who hoped to establish in Ireland an in¬
dependent government upon any basis that could afford
a tolerable hope of national prosperity. The disaffected
party among the Protestants, too weak to be able of them¬
selves either to shake off the dominion of Great Britain,
or to assume the ascendency in Ireland, were under the
necessity of calling in the aid of the Roman Catholics,
who constitute the great mass of Irish population; and
they were the more readily induced to do so, from a no¬
tion, which of late years had very generally gained ground
in Europe, that religious sentiments form no proper ground
of distinction in civil society, and from perceiving the fa¬
cility with which the Catholics of France had set at defi¬
ance the religion of their fathers, when placed in compe¬
tition with what they accounted the interests of freedom,
or the means of aggrandisement to their country. But it
speedily appeared that these new maxims of conduct could
not be adopted by the superstitious and illiterate peasantry
of Ireland. The Catholics were no sooner in arms than
their chief animosity came to be directed, not against the
dominion of Britain, nor against any form of civil govern¬
ment, but against their own countrymen of the Protestant
faith, who must thus ultimately have fallen a sacrifice to
the success of their own schemes. In short, it became
evident that Ireland could not possibly exist in tranquillity,
or with safety to the Protestant part of its inhabitants, in¬
dependent of the supremacy of Great Britain.
Upon the Continent, the world was amused with a ne-
gociation carried on at Rastadt, between the French di¬
rectory and the German empire. It was conducted with {
much slowness, and ultimately proved ineffectual. But
whilst it was in progress, the French government, having
contrived to quarrel with the Swiss cantons, invaded and
seized their country, and converted it into a new republic,
under their own influence. Austria, however, had been
so much humbled by recent losses, that she did not ven¬
ture, on this occasion, to assert the independence of Swit¬
zerland, although it must have been evident that her own
independence was ultimately connected with that object.
Switzerland consists of a vast assemblage of lofty and pre-.-
cipitous mountains, situated in such a manner as to divide
the most important countries of Europe from each other.
On one side these mountains look down upon the fertile
territory of Italy; to the north they command the very
centre of Germany; and to the west they are bounded by
France. For ages they have been inhabited by a virtuous
and fearless race of people, divided into petty communi¬
ties, who contented themselves with maintaining their
own independence; and though, as individuals, they en¬
tered into the military service of the neighbouring princes,
yet, as a people, they had long ceased to take any part in
the wars of Europe. For some centuries the independence
of Switzerland proved the chief basis of the independence
of the neighbouring nations. All parties respected and
avoided any dispute with the Swiss, in a war against whom
much might be lost, but nothing could be won. Accord-
ingly, when the French attacked the Austrians, and when
the Austrians attacked the French, the assailing party
was under the necessity of sending its armies to a great
distance from the centre of its own power. If defeated,
the march homewards was long and difficult; whilst, even
if tolerably successful, the attack never proved seriously
dangerous, in consequence of its having been made in a
remote quarter with limited means Hence, in 1796, when
the French generals Moreau and Jourdan marched through
Suabia and Franconia to invade Austria, the length of
their march afforded many opportunities of attacking them
with success ; and the invaded country had full leisure to
call forth its whole resources against them. The result was,
that when Jourdan sustained a defeat, the retreat of the
other army became almost impracticable ; and hence arose
the unbounded reputation acquired by Moreau for accom¬
plishing it with success. Had the French at that period
occupied Switzerland, the retreat of Moreau would have
been attended with little or no difficulty; because, by re¬
tiring into that rugged country, he could easily have made a
stand against a very superior force for a considerable time,
till he had received reinforcements. For the future, there¬
fore, by commencing a war of invasion against Austria, not
upon the frontiers contiguous to France, but at the eastern
extremity of the Swiss mountains, the French, if success¬
ful, might reach the gates of Vienna in a few weeks. The
independence of Switzerland, by placing these nations at
a distance from each other, had hitherto prevented such
an enterprise from being carried into effect; and the pre¬
sent removal of that barrier by the French difectory, du¬
ring a period of peace with Austria, displayed, upon their
part, a correct knowledge of the cause which had at all
times set bounds to the ambition of France, and at the
same time evinced a determined spirit of hostility against
the independence of the surrounding states.
Meanwhile the weakness of the French navy rendered
it impossible for them to engage in any serious attack
against the European part of the British empire. The
French government, however, with the double view of
attacking the rich empire which Britain had acquired in
Asia, and of removing a successful military chief, whose
ambition was already accounted dangerous, formed a de-
563
Reign of
1798.
564 B R I T A I N.
Ticicrn of sign of sending Bonaparte, with an array, to seize upon
George III. and colonize Egypt. To accomplish this scheme with the
greater safety, the threats of invading England were loudly
1798. renewed i the troops stationed on the coast were denomi¬
nated the Army of England; and Bonaparte being now
appointed their commander, visited them in person. But
suddenly departing, he embarked at Toulon with a power¬
ful army, before his intentions were suspected in Great Bri¬
tain ; Malta was surrendered to him on his passage ; and de¬
parting thence, he landed in safety in the vicinity of Alex¬
andria, and soon made himself master of all Egypt. Here,
however, his successes terminated. He was closely pur¬
sued by a British fleet under Admiral Nelson; and the
French admiral, Brueys, having remained at anchor near
the shore in the Bay of Aboukir, afforded an opportunity
for the British navy to earn one of its proudest and most
decisive triumphs.
Why Bonaparte, having effected a landing in Egypt,
should not have suffered the fleet to return, has never
been explained. He accused Admiral Brueys, after that
officer’s death, of having lingered on the coast, contrary
to orders; and the same charge is repeated in the me¬
moirs which he transmitted from the place of his exile.
But it is scarcely credible that any officer, situated as
Brueys was, would have incurred the heavy responsibility
which such disobedience incurs; and the more probable
supposition therefore seems to be, that the fleet was de¬
tained by Bonaparte’s orders. It arrived at Alexandria on
the first of July; and Brueys, not being able to enter the
port which time had ruined, moored his ships in Aboukir
Bav, in a strong and compact line of battle ; the headmost
vessel being close to the shoal on the north-west of the bay,
and the rest of the fleet forming a curve along the line of
deep water, so as not to be turned by any means in the
south-west. He had in fact made the best of his situation,
and chosen the strongest position which he could possibly
take in an open roadstead ; so much so, indeed, that the
commissary of the fleet thought they were moored in such
a manner as to bid defiance to a force double their own.
Besides, the advantage of numbers, in ships, guns, and
men, was in favour of the French. They had thirteen
ships of the line and four frigates, carrying eleven hun¬
dred and ninety-six guns, and eleven thousand two hun¬
dred and thirty men. The English had the same number
of ships of the line, and one fifty-gun ship, the Leander,
carrying only a thousand and twelve guns, and eight
thousand and eighty-six men. The French had one three-
decker of a hundred and twenty guns, and three eighty-
gun ships ; whilst the English ships were all seventy-fours.
The moment Nelson perceived the position of the enemy,
his intuitive genius suggested to him the decisive concep¬
tion, that where there was room for a French ship to swing,
there was room for an English ship to anchor; and the
plan he accordingly adopted was to keep entirely on the
exterior side of the French, and station his ships, as far as
he was able, one on the outer bow, and another on the
outer quarter of each of the enemy’s, thus doubling on
them in the way which had been projected by Lord
Howe when he intended to attack the French fleet at
their anchorage in Gourjean road.
As the British squadron advanced the enemy opened a
fire from the starboard side of their whole line into the
bows of the leading ships. It was received in silence and
with stern composure; whilst the men on board of every
ship were employed aloft in furling the sails, and below
in tending the braces, and making ready for anchoring.
Captain Foley led the way in the Goliath, outsailing the
Zealous, which for some minutes disputed the post of ho¬
nour with him ; and intending to fix himself on the in¬
ner bowr of the Guerrier, kept as near the edge of the
shoal as the depth of water would admit; but his anchor Iteign of
hung, and having opened his fire, he drifted to the second
ship, the Conquerant, before it was clear, then anchored by ^
the stern inside of her, and in ten minutes shot away her
masts. Captain Hood in the Zealous took the station
which the Goliath intended to have occupied, and in twelve
minutes totally disabled the Guerrier. The Orion, Sir
James Saumarez, next passed to windward of the Zealous,
discharging her larboard guns as long as they bore on the
Guerrier; and running inside the Goliath, sunk a frigate
which annoyed her, hauled round towards the French line,
and anchoring inside between the fifth and sixth ships
from the Guerrier, took her station on the larboard bow
of the Franklin and the larboard quarter of the People
Souverain, receiving and returning the fire of both. The
Audacious, Captain Gould, pouring in a heavy fire into
the Guerrier and the Conquerant, fixed herself on the
larboard bow of the latter, and, when that ship struck,
passed on to the Peuple Souverain. The Theseus, Cap¬
tain Millar, followed, and having brought down the Guer-
rier’s main and mizzen masts, anchored inside the Spar-
tiate, the third ship of the enemy’s line. The sun was now
nearly down ; but Nelson’s decisive manoeuvre had already
been completely executed in its most critical parts.
The Vanguard, bearing the admiral’s flag, and leading
his division, now anchored on the outside of the enemy s
line, within half-pistol-shot of the Spartiate, and veering
half a cable, instantly opened a tremendous fire, under
cover of which the Minotaur, Bellerophon, Defence, and
Majestic, passed ahead to occupy their several stations.
On this side the French were completely prepared; and
in a few minutes every man stationed at the first six
guns in the fore part of the Vanguard’s deck was either
killed or wounded. The Minotaur anchored next ahead
of the Vanguard, and took off the fire of the Aquilon, the
fourth in the enemy’s line. The Bellerophon passed ahead
and anchored by the stern on the starboard bow of the
Orient of a hundred and twenty guns, Brueys’ own ship,
and the seventh in the line, “ whose difference of force
was in proportion of more than seven to three, and whose
weight of ball from jhe lower deck alone exceeded that
from the whole broadside of the Bellerophon. The De¬
fence took her station ahead of the Minotaur, and engaged
the enemy’s sixth ship, the Franklin, by which judicious
proceeding the British line remained unbroken. The Ma¬
jestic having got entangled with the main rigging of one
of the French ships astern of the Orient, suffered severely
from the heavy fire of that three-decker; but she at length
swung clear, and engaging the Heureux, or ninth ship, on
the starboard bow, received also the fire of the lonnant,
which was the eighth in their line. The remaining four
ships of the British squadron, having been detached pre¬
vious to the discovery of the French, were at a consider¬
able distance when the action commenced, which was at
half past six ; and as night closed about seven, they had
no other light to guide them in going into action than the
fire of the contending fleets.
Trowbridge in the Culloden, the foremost of the re¬
maining ships, being two leagues astern, came on sound¬
ing as the others had done ; but as he advanced the dan^-
ness increased the difficulty ot the navigation; and sud¬
denly, after having found eleven fathoms water, and befoie
the lead could be hove again, he was fast agiound; nor
could all exertions get oft the ship in time to bear a part
in the action. This accident, however, pioved in some
degree fortunate, since the Culloden served as a beacon
to the Alexander and Swiftsure, which would otherwise
have gone upon the reef, and thus enabled them to enter
the bay and take their stations in the darkness. As the
Swiftsure was bearing down she fell in with what at first
BRITAIN.
565
Reign of seemed to be a strange sail, but proved to be the Belle-
George Ill-rophon, which, overpowered by the Orient, was now drift-
jng out of the line towards the lee side of the bay, with
^y8- her sails hanging loose, her lights knocked overboard,
nearly two hundred of her crew killed or wounded, and all
her masts and cables shot away. Suspecting how it was,
Captain Hallowed, with great judgment, abstained from
firing; and occupying with the Swiftsure the station of
the disabled ship, he opened a heavy fire on the quarter of
the Franklin and the bows of the French admiral; whilst
Captain Ball, in the Alexander, passed under the stern of
the Orient, and anchoring within side on her larboard
quarter, raked her, at the same time keeping up a severe
fire of musketry on her decks. Lastly, the Leander, find¬
ing nothing could be done to get off the Culloden, advan¬
ced with the intention of anchoring athwart hawse of
the Orient; but the Franklin being so near ahead that
there was not room for him to pass clear of the two, he
took his station athwart hawse of the latter.
This description will serve to convey an accurate idea
both of the plan of attack and of the mode in which it was
carried into execution. Though fiercely contested and
sanguinary, the issue of the battle was never for an in¬
stant doubtful. The first two ships of the French line
had been dismasted within a quarter of an hour after the
commencement of the action, and the others had suffered
so severely that victory was already certain. At half past
eight o’clock the third, fourth, and fifth, were taken pos¬
session of; and about nine a fire broke out in the Orient,
which soon mastered the ship, illuminating the contend¬
ing fleets with the light of the conflagration. About ten
o’clock the ship blew up with an explosion so tremendous
that the firing immediately ceased on both sides, and for
a time no sound was heard to break this awful pause, ex¬
cept the dash of her shattered yards, masts, and timbers
falling into the water from the great height to which they
had been projected. The firing recommenced with the
ships to the leeward of the centre; and at daybreak the
Guillaume Tell and the Genereux, the two rear ships of
the enemy, formed the only portion of their line which had
colours flying. Not having been engaged, these ships cut
their cables in the forenoon and stood out to sea, accom¬
panied by two frigates, being the only portion of the ene¬
my’s fleet which escaped. It is needless to add that the
victory was complete. Of thirteen sail of the line, nine
were taken and two burnt; and of four frigates one was
burnt and another sunk. The British loss in killed and
wounded amounted to eight hundred and ninety-five ;
while of the French three thousand one hundred and
five, including the wounded, were sent on shore by cartel,
and five thousand two hundred and twenty-five perished.
About two hours after the commencement of the action,
Nelson received a severe wound on the head from a piece
of langridge shot; and Captain Westcott of the Majestic
fell. Brueys was killed before the fire broke out which
destroyed his noble vessel. He had received three wounds,
yet would not leave his post; but a fourth cut him almost
in twain, and he died like a hero on the deck. From the
description of this battle, or rather naval conquest, it must
be obvious that its triumphant success was owing to a
skilful repetition, with necessary variations, of the man¬
oeuvre which had decided the victory at Camperdown;
and in fact Nelson, although not acquainted with Lord
Duncan, wrote to him, soon after the battle, to tell his
lordship how “ he had profited by his example. 1
From the time of the battle of Actium, by which the so¬
vereignty of the Roman empire was decided, no naval vie- Reign of
tory was ever attended with consequences so immediately ^eorgeiic
and obviously important as this. The French directory had
concealed their intended enterprise from the Ottoman
Porte, which lays claim to the sovereignty of Egypt, but
has never been able to make its claim fully effectual. The
grand signior, however, considered the present attempt
as an act of hostility against himself; and the maritime
victory above mentioned encouraged him to declare war,
in the name of all true Mahommedan believers, against
that host of infidels which had invaded the land from
which the sacred territory of Mecca is supplied with
bread. In Europe similar consequences took place. The
irresistible career of Bonaparte had compelled Austria to
submit to peace, upon terms which left France in a state
of most dangerous aggrandizement. But as this victorious
chief, with the best part of his veteran army, was new
held under blockade by the British fleet in a distant coun¬
try, the hopes of Austria began to revive, and there
seemed reason to expect, that by renewing the contest,
her ancient rank in Europe might be recovered. The
king of Naples entered into these views with great eager¬
ness, and rashly declared war against France, without
waiting for, and following, as he ought, the movements
of the greater powers. The empress of Russia was now
dead, and her son Paul had succeeded to the throne of
the Czars. The empress had never contributed more than
her good wishes towards the war which the other powers
of Europe had waged against France ; but her son, a man
of a furious and passionate character, had not the sense
to follow the same cautious policy, or to remain a quiet
spectator of the issue of a contest against the French
republic ; and, encouraged by the naval victory of the Nile,
which seemed to insure the absence of Bonaparte and his
army, he declared his willingness, as far as his finances
would permit, to join in a new combination against France.
Thus, by the victory of the Nile, Great Britain was en¬
abled to procure allies, willing to send abundance of troops
against her enemy, provided she consented to defray the
necessary expense. In the mean time, the acquisitions
and losses of Britain were nearly equally balanced in other
quarters. An armament sailed towards the island of Mi¬
norca, and a descent was effected near the creek of Ad-
daya. Here a body of Spaniards threatened to surround
the first division of the invading army ; but they were soon
repulsed, and our troops gained a position from which
they might have attacked the enemy with advantage, if
the latter had not retired in the evening. The army
seized the post of Mescadal, and a detachment took the
town of Mahon and Fort Charles. It was expected that
the principal stand would have been made at Civadella,
where new works had been added to the old fortifications;
but the approach of the English drove the Spaniards within
the walls of the town, and General Stewart summoned the
governor to surrender it without delay. Intimidated by the
movements of the troops and the appearance of the squa¬
dron, the garrison capitulated, and thus the whole island
was reduced without the loss of a single man. But towards
the end of the same year, the British troops, which during
a considerable length of time had occupied a great num¬
ber of positions upon the coast of the island of St Do¬
mingo, found it necessary to abandon the whole. The
power of the French government there had nearly been
annihilated by a negro commander, Toussaint-Louver-
ture, to whom the British surrendered Port-au-Prince and
St Marc. The losses incurred in consequence of the un-
1 Elans’ Naval Battles, pp. 234, 237- Southey’s Life of Nelson, vol. i. p- 220 et seqq. We beg here, once for all, to acknowledge
our obligations to this admirable and authentic biography for the principal materials of our condensed accounts of the battle off Cape
St Vincent, the attack on Copenhagen, and the mighty crowning achievement of Trafalgar.
BRITAIN.
566
Reign of fortunate attempt made by the British government to sub-
George III. jUgate this island were immense.
Parliament assembled on the 20th of November; and
in the speech from the throne it was observed, that the
success which had attended our arms during the course
of the present year had been productive of the happiest
consequences, and promoted the prosperity of the coun¬
try; that our naval triumphs had received fresh splen¬
dour from the memorable action in which Lord Nelson
had attacked a superior enemy, and turned an extravagant
enterprise to the confusion of its authors; that the mag¬
nanimity of the emperor of Russia and the vigour of the
Ottoman Porte had shown that these powers were im¬
pressed with a just sense of the present crisis ; that their
example would be an encouragement to other states to
adopt that line of conduct which was alone consistent
with security and honour; that our preparatious at home
had deterred the enemy from attempting to invade our
coasts ; that in Ireland the rebellion had been suppressed;
that under the pressure of protracted war, the produce of
the public revenue had been fully adequate to the increase
of our permanent expenditure; that the national credit
had been improved, and commerce flourished in a degree
formerly unknown. The debates which occurred in the
House of Commons upon this occasion were not remarkably
interesting, as the leading members of the old opposition
were usually absent. Administration was chiefly opposed
by Mr Tierney, Sir Francis Burdett, Sir John Sinclair, and
Sir William Pulteney. In the House of Lords, Earl Darn-
ley moved the usual address to the throne, which was se¬
conded by Lord Craven.
As a prospect had now opened of reviving, upon a most
extensive scale, the continental war against France, it be¬
came necessary to provide great pecuniary resources to
subsidize the armies which were to be brought forward,
especially by the Russians, the poverty of whose country
could ill afford to sustain the expense of supporting armies
in Italy or on the banks of the Rhine. The same difficulties,
or rather doubts, however, concerning the prudence of car¬
rying to its utmost length the British practice of borrowing
money to defray the extraordinary expense incurred during
each year of the war, which had led to an augmentation of
what are called the assessed taxes, still induced the mi¬
nister to attempt to raise a proportion of the extraordinary
or war expenditure within the year, not by a loan, but by
taxes to the requisite amount. With this view he brought
forward what was accounted a very bold measure, namely,
a project for imposing a general tax upon the income of
every individual throughout the nation. Mr Pitt stated
in the House of Commons his plan to be, that no one
whose income was less than sixty pounds per annum should
be obliged to contribute more than the taxes he already
paid; but that every one who had an income of or be¬
yond that amount should be additionally burdened, some
in the proportion of ten per cent, and others at a lower rate.
All who had two hundred pounds a year would be required
to sign a declaration of their willingness to pay a certain
sum, not less than a tenth part of their income, without
particularizing the modes in which it accrued ; and a scale
of easy computation would be adjusted for the rest. If
doubts of the fairness of the statement should arise, the
commissioners might summon an individual before them,
and demand upon oath a minute specification of his income ;
and if, on a continuance of suspicion, full proof of accu¬
racy should not be adduced, they might fix the amount
ot contribution. If they should require more than a tenth,
no relief would be allowed unless the books of the trades¬
men, or the ordinary accounts kept by others, should be
submitted to inspection. Having stated the outlines of his
plan, Mr Pitt mentioned the data upon which he formed
an estimate of its produce. He was of opinion that the Reign of
annual rent of all the land in England and Wales amount-George IIL
ed to twenty-five millions of pounds sterling; a sum which,
by the allowance of a fifth part for the exceptions under H99.
sixty pounds, and the modifications under two hundred
pounds a-year, would be reduced to twenty millions. Six
millions, he thought, might be assumed as the clear income
of the land to tenants, the tithes might be valued at four
millions, the produce of mines, canals, and the like, at three,
the rents of houses at five, and the profits of the liberal pro¬
fessions at two ; on all these heads it might be sufficient to
allow an eighth part for Scotland, which would be five mil¬
lions. Income drawn from possessions beyond seas might
be stated at five millions; annuities from the public funds
at twelve; and those of internal trade, mechanical skill,
and industry, at twenty-eight millions. These calculations
formed an aggregate of a hundred and two millions; and
from this source about ten millions of supply were ex¬
pected to arise. This measure was opposed, without suc¬
cess, by Mr Tierney, Sir John Sinclair, Mr Pulteney, and
others. Its chief defects were its inequality in point of
principle, and the falsehood it occasioned with a view to
evade it when carried into practice. Its inequality in point
of principle is extremely obvious; because, under the tax
upon income, a man without capital who earned two hun¬
dred pounds per annum by his industry, paid the same
tax to government with a man living in idleness and en¬
joying a revenue of the same amount upon a land estate.
In its collection this tax presented to merchants, and all
other persons whose income depends upon their own in¬
dustry, a powerful temptation to represent the amount of
the latter as extremely low. It was expected, indeed, that
the vanity of appearing wealthy and prosperous would coun¬
teract this tendency ; but it was soon found that, in a com¬
mercial community, the love of gain is not easily subdued
by any other passion ; and as a general understanding soon
prevailed among men with regard to each other’s feelings
upon this subject, nobody regarded his neighbour as un-
prosperous, merely because he had reported his own in¬
come to government at a low rate.
The fear of a French invasion had in a former age in¬
duced the English nation so far to overcome their own
prejudices as to consent to an incorporating union with
Scotland. The rebellion in Ireland, together with the
dread that by means of French aid Ireland might be dis¬
membered from the British empire, as the American co¬
lonies had been, now produced a sense of the necessity of
doing that which ought to have been done three centuries
before this date; that is, of uniting Ireland to Britain, by
incorporating into one the heretofore distinct legislatures
of the two islands. The measure was at this period very
practicable, because Ireland was in fact under the domi¬
nion of forty thousand troops, who had been collected to
crush the rebellion, and protect the island against the
French ; and because the friends of government were too
much intimidated by the confusion and the scenes of
bloodshed which had recently occurred there, to venture
to oppose vigorously a measure which promised lor the
future to preserve the tranquillity of the country invio¬
late. On the 31st of January Mr Pitt proposed the mea¬
sure in the British House of Commons. He observed,
that a permanent connection between Britain and Ireland
was essential to the true interests of both countries; and
that, unless the existing connection should be improved,
there was great risk of a separation. The settlement of the
year 1782 was so imperfect, that it substituted nothing for
that system which it demolished; and it was not consider¬
ed as final even by the ministers of the time. It left the
two realms with independent legislatures, connected only
by the identity of the executive power; a very insufficient
BRITAIN.
Reign of tie, either in time of peace or of war, and inadequate to the
George III. consolidation of strength, or the mutual participation of po-
litical and commercial benefits. The case of the regency
exhibited a striking instance of the weakness of the con¬
nection ; and if the two parliaments had differed on the sub¬
ject of the war, the danger of a disjunction would have been
seriously alarming. The entire dissociation of the king¬
dom was one of the greatest aims of our enemies ; and as
their eventual success in Ireland would expose Britain to
extreme peril, the establishment of an incorporative union,
by which their views might be effectually baffled, was a ne¬
cessary act of policy. Among the advantages which would
accrue to Ireland from an incorporation with Britain, he
mentioned the protection which she would secure to her¬
self in the hour of danger ; the most effectual means of in¬
creasing her commerce and improving her agriculture;
the command of English capital, and the infusion of Eng¬
lish manners and English industry, necessarily tending to
meliorate her condition ; whilst she would see the avenue
to honours, distinctions, and exalted situations in the ge¬
neral seat of empire, opened to all those whose abilities and
talents enabled them to indulge an honourable and laud¬
able ambition. The question was not what Ireland would
gain, but what she would preserve; not merely how she
might best improve her situation, but how she might avert
a pressing and immediate danger. In this point of view
her gain would be the preservation of all the blessings
arising from the British constitution. As the supposed
loss of national independence formed, in the minds of
many, a strong objection to the scheme, he argued that
this would be a real benefit; that the Irish would rather
gain than lose in point of political freedom and civil hap¬
piness ; and that though a nation possessing all the means
of dignity and prosperity might justly object to an asso¬
ciation with a more numerous people, Ireland, being de¬
ficient in the means of protection and civil welfare, could
not be injured or degraded by such a union with a neigh¬
bouring and kindred state as would connect both realms
by an equality of law and an identity of interest. Mr
Sheridan opposed a union, as particularly unseasonable,
amidst the irritation which at this period prevailed in
Ireland; and he deprecated the accomplishment of the
object by means of force or corruption. The measure,
however, was approved of by a very large majority; and
in the House of Lords the same subject was afterwards
discussed with a similar result. But in the Irish parlia¬
ment the proposal was resisted with such vehemence, that
administration, finding themselves supported only by a
small majority, thought fit to avoid pressing the matter
further at this time.
During the present year the British power in India was
greatly augmented, and its territory extended, by the fall
of Tippoo Sultan, the son and successor of Hyder Ali.
From the time when this prince had been compelled by
Lord Cornwallis, in 1792, to surrender one half of his
dominions, it was understood that sooner or later he would
make an attempt to recover what he had lost. It would
even seem that he had entertained hopes of aid from the
French, and that with this view he had privately sent en¬
voys to the Isle of France, to attempt to form a connection
with the present French rulers. But when intelligence
reached India of the expedition to Egypt, and the victory
of the Nile, the British governor-general demanded from
Tippoo Sultan an explanation of his views ; and after some
fruitless negociation, a British army under General Harris
invaded the territory of Mysore, which they found in a
bad state of preparation for war. After some slight en¬
counters the British army encamped before Seringapatam
on the 6th of April; but it was not till the 2d of May that
the besieging batteries began to breach the wall. On the
567
4th, during the heat of the day, the place was stormed, Reign of
and Tippoo himself perished fighting gallantly at one of George HI.
the gates of the fortress. His dominions were seized by the
British, who bestowed a portion of them upon the Mah-
rattas and the nizam their ally; whilst part was reserved
under the direct sovereignty of the East India Company,
and the remainder nominally bestowed upon a prince of
the family which had lost its power by Hyder’s usurpa¬
tion. The substantial authority over this last-mentioned
portion of Tippoo’s dominions, however, was in truth re¬
tained by the British government; and as the nizam him¬
self soon became entirely dependent upon the British
power, the whole peninsula of Hindustan, with the excep¬
tion of the Mahratta states, which evidently could not
long remain unsubdued, might now be considered as un¬
der the dominion of Great Britain.
In Europe the present campaign proved extremely event¬
ful. The French directory had been more anxious to
establish its own power at home, than careful to maintain
the armies upon the frontiers and in the conquered coun¬
tries in a proper state of force and efficiency. A French
army under General Jourdan advanced into Suabia in the
month of March, but was encountered and beaten at
Stockach by the Archduke Charles. The importance of the
possession of Switzerland instantly displayed itself. The
vanquished French army immediately crossed the Rhine
into Switzerland, and in that mountainous country contriv¬
ed to make a stand during the greater part of the summer.
The Austrians advanced as far as Zurich, of which they
obtained possession; but before they could proceed fur¬
ther, the French armies, having been reinforced towards
the end of the season, were enabled in their turn to assume
the offensive.
In Italy the French manoeuvred unskilfully at the open¬
ing of the campaign. Instead of concentrating their forces,
they attempted to retain possession of the whole of that
country, and were thus beaten in various engagements at
different points. The combined Austrian and Russian
army was commanded by the Russian general Suwarof,
who pressed upon the French with incredible activity and
energy ; carrying on a multiplicity of sieges, and bringing
his troops together with wonderful celerity, whenever his
enemy attempted to take advantage of the manner in which
his forces were scattered. Macdonald, with the Neapo¬
litan army, was defeated on the Trebbia; Moreau, who
succeeded Joubert, killed at the commencement of the
battle, was beaten at Novi; and in a number of combats
of less magnitude the Austro-Russian army proved almost
uniformly successful. The result of the whole was, that
before the campaign terminated, Suwarof had driven the
French out of Italy, with the exception of Savoy and the
Genoese territory. But this was not accomplished with¬
out a great loss of men in sieges and battles, in which the
hardy warriors of the north suffered very severely. Their
leaders depended for success more upon the intrepidity of
their troops, and the promptitude with which they rushed
into action, than upon the skilful dispositions with which
they arranged their force or harassed their enemy. Hence
it happened that, amidst all Suwarof’s victories, no instance
occurred of any column of French troops being compelled
to surrender without fighting, nor was any advantage
gained but by the efforts of superior force exerted in open
battle. Such a warfare, carried on against a single ene¬
my by a combined army, could not long be successful.
The Austrian officers complained loudly of their northern
allies as men destitute of military skill, who wasted armies
without a proportional return of conquest; whilst, on the
other hand, the Russians censured their associates as des¬
titute of proper spirit, and as protracting the war by aa
ill-timed caution.
BRITAIN.
568
Reign of The advantage derived by the French from the posses-
George III. sion of Switzerland having by this time begun to be un-
derstood, a resolution was in consequence formed to close
the campaign, not by sending Suwarof from Italy into the
south of France, but by directing him to turn his arms
northward against the Alps. The Archduke Charles had
spent the summer in pressing upon the French in that quar¬
ter, but had not been able to advance beyond Zurich ; here,
however, he left a considerable body of Austrians and Rus¬
sians, and proceeded with a division of his army towards
Manheim and Philipsburg. Suwarof advanced from Italy at
the head of eighteen thousand men to take the command of
these troops ; but his views were anticipated by the French
general Massena, who, finding the Archduke Charles and
Suwarof at the distance of more than a day’s march on
his left and right, instantly attacked the troops stationed
near Zurich. The Austrians perceiving the hazardous
nature of their situation, retreated with only a moderate
loss; but the Russians, from an ill-judged contempt of
their enemy, total ignorance of the country, and want of
skill in the art of conducting war in it, maintained their
ground till they were hemmed in on all sides. They at¬
tempted to resist the French, as they had often resisted
the Turks, by forming a hollow square of great strength ;
but neither this nor their own courage afforded any safety
against the artillery of the enemy, in the face of which an
iron front of bayonets was presented in vain. Their order
was at last broken, and their retreat converted into an
utter rout. Suwarof was at the same instant advancing
rapidly to their relief; but the victorious enemy now turn¬
ed quickly upon him, and attempted to encompass him on
all sides. By incredible exertions, however, and follow¬
ing paths which were believed to be utterly impracticable,
he effected his escape with about five thousand of his
troops, in want of every thing, and retaining only the mus¬
kets in their hands.
Thus terminated on the eastern side of France this active
and brilliant campaign. The allies remained masters of
Italy; but France was still enabled to menace that country,
as well as Germany, by retaining possession of Switzerland.
In the meanwhile the British attempted, with the aid of
Russian auxiliaries, to drive the French out of Holland.
On the 27th of August, a landing was effected under Sir
Ralph Abercromby at the mouth of the Texel; and the
Zuyder Zee was immediately entered by a British fleet
under Admiral Mitchell. Upon this the Dutch admiral,
Storey, surrendered the fleet under his command, alleging
that his men refused to fight. The ships were twelve in
number, and eight of them mounted from fifty-four to
seventy-four guns. Here, however, the effectual success of
the expedition terminated. The Duke of York afterwards
assumed the command, and forces amounting to thirty-five
thousand men were landed; but it was soon discovered
that the invasion had been ill concerted and ill directed.
To have afforded a prospect of success, the invading army
should have been landed in the vicinity of Rotterdam,
which was full of Scotsmen, and where the supporters of
the stadtholder were numerous; and then advanced rapidly
into the centre of the country, to encourage the numerous
enemies of the French to come forward in favour of the in¬
vaders. Instead of this the army was disembarked at the
extremity of a long and narrow neck of land, having the
sea on both sides, where the French and Dutch were able
to arrest their progress for a considerable time with a
mere handful of troops. The unusual wetness of the sea¬
son, which greatly injured the roads, also added to the diffi¬
culties with which the invaders had to struggle; and the
British commander was at length under the necessity of
withdrawing his troops to the point at which they had origi¬
nally disembarked. Here a convention was entered into,
by which it was stipulated on the one hand that he should Reign of
not injure the countrjq and that a number of French pri-G^rge III.
soners in England should be released ; whilst, on the other
hand, it was agreed that the Duke of York should be per- 1799-
mitted to retire unmolested.
At the end of this campaign the French government
underwent a new change. After the conquest of Egypt
Bonaparte had invaded Syria, and subdued or conciliated
most of the native tribes ; but his career of victory was
stopped at St Jean d’Acre by the Turkish governor of that
town, assisted by the British under Sir Sidney Smith. He
was forced to raise the siege of that place, after fifty-nine
days of open trenches, and delivering five unsuccessful as¬
saults; and having returned into Egypt, and destroyed a
Turkish army at Aboukir, he ventured upon a step which
is without example in the history of modern Europe. Hav¬
ing learned from an old newspaper the great reverses which
the French armies had experienced in the early part of
the campaign, and the general discontent produced by
these misfortunes, he resolved to trust to fortune and re¬
turn to France. With this view he secretly embarked,
along with a select party of friends, on board a small ves¬
sel, leaving the command of his army, which was now com¬
pletely insulated in the country, to General Kleber, an
officer of high reputation for military genius and enter¬
prise ; and after escaping a thousand perils he landed safely
at Frejus, in the south-east of France. The unexpected
arrival of an officer who had never fought in Europe with¬
out success was welcomed by the public at large as a
happy event; and in the first moment of joy little inquiry
was made as to the manner in which he had abandoned his
army, an act which in any other circumstances would have
been regarded as one of the greatest of military crimes.
Finding a party willing to second his views, Bonaparte now
took advantage of the satisfaction occasioned by his arri¬
val, together with the discontents arising from the corrup¬
tion and mismanagement of the directorial administration,
to usurp the government, cashier the directory, and to
dissolve the representative legislature.
The British parliament was assembled as early as the
24th of September, in order to provide for an augmenta¬
tion of force, which was thought necessary to give effect
to the invasion of Holland, an enterprise of the success of
which sanguine hopes were at that time entertained. The
speech from the throne, after recommending the propriety
of permitting to a considerable extent the voluntary ser¬
vice of the militia, in order to augment our forces abroad,
stated that our prospects had been improved beyond the
most sanguine expectation; that the deliverance of Italy
might now be considered as secured ; that the kingdom of
Naples had been rescued from the French yoke, and re¬
stored to the dominion of its lawful sovereign; that the
French expedition to Egypt had been productive of nothing
but calamity and disgrace, whilst its ultimate views against
our eastern possessions had been utterly confounded ; that
there was every reason to expect a successful result from
our efforts for the deliverance of the United Provinces;
and that to our ally the emperor of Russia we were in a
great measure indebted for the favourable change in the
general posture of affairs. It was further stated that, in
pursuance of the recommendation of the British parlia¬
ment, his majesty had communicated to both houses of
parliament in Ireland their sentiments respecting a union
with that kingdom.
In consequence of the recommendation from the throne,
an act was passed, authorizing his majesty to receive into
the army volunteers from the militia regiments, and some
measures of finance were adopted ; but government hav¬
ing received intelligence of the failure of the expedition
against Holland, parliament was suddenly adjourned. In
BRITAIN.
539
1799.
Reign of the meanwhile affairs on the Continent began to assume
George III. a most unpropitious aspect. The emperor of Russia,
being exasperated at the defeats sustained by his troops
towards the close of the campaign, became dissatisfied
with his allies; and there was reason to dread that his
irascible and unreasonable temper might lead him not
merely to desert but to quarrel with them. In the mean¬
while Bonaparte, under the title he had assumed of First
Consul of the French Republic, resolved to signalize his ac¬
quisition of power by an attempt to procure peace. With
this view he thought proper to address a letter, signed
by himself, to the king of Great Britain. In this docu¬
ment, after announcing his own appointment to the office
of first magistrate of the republic, he asked, “ Is the war
which for eight years has ravaged the four quarters of the
world to be eternal ? Are there no means of coming to
an understanding ? How can the most enlightened na¬
tions of Europe, powerful and strong beyond what their
safety and independence require, sacrifice to ideas of vain
grandeur, commerce, prosperity, and peace ? How is it
that they do not feel that peace is of the first importance,
as well as the highest glory ?” “ France and England,”
he added, “ by the abuse of their strength, may still for
a long time, for the misfortune of all nations, retard the
period of their being exhausted ; but, I will venture to say
it, the fate of all civilized nations is attached to the termi¬
nation of a war which involves the whole world.” This
letter was transmitted through the medium of an agent of
the French government, who resided at London for the
sake of managing the exchanges and other affairs relative
to prisoners of war.
But Lord Grenville, as secretary of state for foreign af¬
fairs, informed the agent who had transmitted Bonaparte’s
letter, that his majesty could not depart from the usual
forms of transacting business, and therefore, that the only
answer to be returned would be an official note from him¬
self. In this note his lordship stated that the king wish¬
ed for nothing more than to restore tranquillity to Europe ;
that he had only made war in defence of his people, against
an unprovoked attack; and that it would be in vain to
negociate while the same system continued to prevail in
France which had ravaged Holland, Switzerland, Germany,
and Italy. “ While such a system therefore prevails,”
continued his lordship, “ and while the blood and treasures
of a powerful nation can be lavished in its support, experi¬
ence has shown, that no defence but that of open and
steady hostility can be availing. The most solemn trea¬
ties have only prepared the way to fresh aggression; and
it is by determined resistance alone, that whatever remains
in Europe of stability for property, for personal safety, for
social order, or the exercise of religion, can be preserved.
For the security, therefore, of these essential objects, his
majesty cannot place reliance on the mere renewal of
general professions of pacific dispositions. Such profes¬
sions have been repeatedly held out by all who have suc¬
cessively directed the resources of France to the destruc¬
tion of Europe, and whom the present rulers have declar¬
ed all to have been incapable of maintaining the relations
of amity. Greatly will his majesty rejoice whenever it
shall appear, that the danger to which his own dominions
and those of his allies have been so long exposed has real¬
ly ceased; whenever he shall be satisfied that the neces¬
sity of resistance shall be at an end, and, after so many
years of crimes and miseries, better principles have pre¬
vailed, and the gigantic projects of ambition, endangering
the very existence of civil society, have at length been re¬
linquished. But the conviction of such a change can re¬
sult only from the evidence of facts.” His lordship then
went on to say, with insulting irony, that the best pledge of
the reality and permanence of such a change would be the
VOL. v.
restoration of the princes of the house of Bourbon ; that Reign of
such an event would at once remove all obstacles in the George II I.
way of negociation, confirm to France the unmolested en-
joyment of its ancient territory, and give tranquillity to
other nations ; that, however, his majesty did not limit the
possibility of solid pacification to this mode, and made no
claim to prescribe to France what should be the form of
her government; that he only looked to the security of his
own dominions, of his allies, and of Europe; that unhap¬
pily at present no such security existed, nor any sufficient
evidence of the principles by which the new government
would be directed, or even of its stability; and that in this
situation, it remained for him to pursue, in conjunction with
other powers, the exertions of a just and defensive war.
As one of the principal objects on account of which
Bonaparte had commenced this negociation was probably
to cast upon Great Britain the odium of continuing the war,
he persevered in this purpose with uncommon dexterity.
Appearing not to be disconcerted by the first rejection of
his offers, he continued the correspondence through the
medium of Talleyrand, his minister for foreign affairs, who,
in a masterly note in answer to that of Lord Grenville,
dissected the official communication of the British minis¬
ter with consummate ability, and refuted the various state¬
ments and views which it embodied. He began with recri¬
minating respecting the origin of the war, and presented
a picture very differently sketched and coloured from that
which Lord Grenville had portrayed in his letter. The
charge of aggression brought against the French nation was
haughtily repelled, and retorted on the coalesced powers,
particularly on the British government. After expatiating
on this subject, the French minister observed, that a sin¬
cere desire for peace ought to lead the parties to the dis¬
covery of the means of terminating the war, rather than to
apologies or recriminations respecting its commencement;
that no doubt could be entertained of the right of the
French nation to choose its own government; that this was
a point which could not be decently contested by the mi¬
nister of a crown which was held on no other tenure ; that
at a time when the republic presented neither the solidity
nor the force which it now possessed, negociations had
been twice solicited by the British cabinet, and carried into
effect; that the reasons for discontinuing the war were be¬
come if possible more urgent; that, on the contrary, the
calamities into which the renewal of the war must infallibly
plunge the whole of Europe, were motives which had in¬
duced the first consul to propose a suspension of arms which
might likewise influence the other belligerent powers ;—
and he concluded with pressing this object so far as to pro¬
pose the town of Dunkirk, or any other, for the meeting
of plenipotentiaries, in order to accelerate the re-establish¬
ment of peace and amity between the French republic and
Great Britain. In the answer of the British minister to
this note, the recrimination of aggression was as contemp¬
tuously repelled as it had been haughtily urged. Refer¬
ring to his former note, Lord Grenville observed, that the
obstacles which had been presented rendered hopeless for
the moment any advantages which might be expected from
a negociation ; that all the representations made with so
much confidence by the French minister, the personal dis¬
positions of those in power, the solidity and consistence of
the new government, were points which could not be ad¬
mitted as motives for opening a negociation, since these
considerations remained yet to he proved ; and that the
only evidence must be that already explained by his ma¬
jesty, namely, the result of experience and the evidence
of facts.
On the 22d of January copies of this correspondence
were presented to the British parliament, along with a mes¬
sage from his majesty, announcing that he relied on the
4 c
BRITAIN.
570
Reign of support of his parliament, and the zeal and perseverance of
George III- subjects, in carrying into effect such measures as would
best confirm the signal advantages obtained in the last cam-
1«00. paign, and conduct the contest to an honourable conclusion.
On the 28th of the same month the subject was discussed
in the House of Lords upon a motion made by Lord Gren¬
ville for an address of thanks to his majesty in consequence
of the message. Lord Grenville contended, that nothing
in the state of Europe admitted a rational hope that there
was any security but in war ; and that peace with a na¬
tion at enmity with order, religion, and morality, would
rather be an acquiescence in wrong than a suspension of
arms in ordinary warfare. He entered into a comment
upon the note of the French minister, and disputed all its
positions, observing that the love of peace, on the part of
France, had been displayed in a war of eight years with
every nation in Europe excepting Sweden and Denmark;
that her disinclination to conquest had been evinced by
the invasion of the Netherlands, of Italy, of Switzerland,
and even of Asia ; that no honourable or permanent peace
could be made with the present rulers of France ; and
that every power with which she had treated could furnish
melancholy instances of the perfidy, injustice, and cruelty
of the republic. He remarked, that General Bonaparte,
in the third year of the republic, imposed upon the French,
at the mouth of the cannon, that very constitution which
he had now destroyed at the point of the bayonet. If a
treaty was concluded and broken with Sardinia, it was con¬
cluded and broken by Bonaparte ; if peace was establish¬
ed and violated with Tuscany, it was established and vio¬
lated by Bonaparte; if armistices were ratified and an¬
nulled with Modena and the other petty states of Italy,
they were ratified and annulled by Bonaparte ; if that
ancient republic Venice was first drawn into a war, and
compelled afterwards to conclude a treaty, it was that
Bonaparte might more easily overthrow her constitution,
and annihilate the political system by which she had ex¬
isted with glory and security for ages past; if the govern¬
ment of Rome was subverted, it was subverted by Bona¬
parte ; if Genoa was reduced to the same humiliating situ¬
ation, her wealth and independence were sacrificed to Bo¬
naparte ; if Switzerland, deluded by offers of peace, was
induced to surrender her rights and liberties, she was
deprived of them by Bonaparte. He had multiplied vio¬
lations of all moral and religious ties; he had repeated
acts of perfidy ; his hypocrisies were innumerable ; and in
that country where he had affirmed that the French were
true Moslemins, he had given us a correct idea of his sin¬
cerity and his principles. If the interest of Bonaparte were
deeply concerned, he might be sincere, and there was no
doubt but it was his interest to consolidate his power;
but it ought not to be forgotten, that whenever any acts
of atrocity were to be accomplished by the French, they
had been usually effected by a suspension of arms. The
proposed negociation would relieve her from the actual
pressure of alarming difficulties, but could not relieve Eng¬
land from any. The ports of France, which were now
blockaded by our fleet and cruisers, would be thrown open
to introduce naval stores, and a variety of necessary arti¬
cles, of which the country was in want; and fleets would be
sent to bring back the troops which were now deprived of
all intercourse with the republic, and which might then
be employed in augmenting the numbers of the French
armies. To us a suspension of arms could not be produc¬
tive of any benefit whatever; our ports were not blocked
up, our commerce was not interrupted ; and it should
also be considered that there would be no security for the
maintenance of such a suspension. Was Bonaparte now
prepared to sign a general peace ? If he were not, he could
not be sincere in his offers. It was necessary for him to
keep an army of sixty thousand men to preserve tranquil- Reign of
lity in the interior of France ; every act of his government George III
was supported by force; and if he even were sincere, it
was hazarding too much to hazard all on his single life. ISM*
What reliance could be placed on the unanimity of the
French people ? Men of the blackest characters had been
appointed to situations of the greatest trust; men infa¬
mous for professed principles of anarchy had been raised
to places of confidence and power; and those who were
judges in the sanguinary tribunals of Robespierre were
now exalted to a distinguished rank in the republic. His
lordship concluded by disclaiming on the part of admini¬
stration any wish to consider the restoration of the French
monarchy as the object of the war.
The Duke of Bedford opposed the noble secretary’s mo¬
tion, and contended, that all the objections against negoci¬
ation might have been urged against the negociationswhic?-
the ministers themselves had formerly opened at Lisle.
He considered the conduct of the British government on
the present occasion as unwise, because provoking and
unconciliatory. He thought that, in a correspondence
with the present French government, all discussion about
the original commencement of the war ought to have been
avoided. Whether England or France was the first ag¬
gressor, was a question to be reserved to posterity. The
wild scheme of restoring the French monarchy was the
sine qua non, if not of peace, at least of negociation ; for
notwithstanding that the noble secretary had denied the
charge, yet whilst he pointed out the impossibility of treat¬
ing with the French government during all its stages to
the present, and insisted upon vigorous hostilities being
the only means of our security, no inference could be drawn,
but that the war must be continued till monarchy was re¬
established. If the restoration of monarchy was not the
object, what was it ? Were ministers contending that we
ought to wait for a more favourable opportunity of enter¬
ing into negociation ? Was it to be obtained by railing
at Bonaparte ? There were no terms sufficiently strong to
censure the littleness which attacked his character, in
order to ruin him in the estimation of the French nation ;
as if by so doing, we could negociate with more effect, or
gain a fairer prospect of peace. His grace contended that
no confidence was to be reposed in our present continen¬
tal allies; and as a severe scarcity at this period prevail¬
ed in the country, this circumstance was made use of as
an additional argument against persevering in the war.
The first consul, doubtless, sought to make a peace ad¬
vantageous to himself and the nation over which he pre¬
sided : like all other statesmen, his motives might not be
influenced by humanity: it was to be supposed his aim
would be to satisfy the French people, and consolidate
his own power. As to the abuse which ministers threw
upon his character, it was their constant habit to abuse
every ruling power in France. But whenever they had
been driven by the voice of the people to negociate, their
former ill language had never been any impediment. The
duke concluded with a motion for an address recommend¬
ing a negociation for peace.
Lord Borington supported the views of ministers. But
Lord Holland reprobated their conduct throughout the
contest. At one time they asserted that the ambition
of France was so insatiable, that she would listen to no
terms; they were now driven from that pretext, and urged
that a peace would be insecure. As to the ambition of
the enemy, it was a consideration of weight in the arrange¬
ment of terms, not a preliminary objection preclusive of
treaty. What proof could be given of the abandonment
of dangerous views, but a negociation in which moderation
would be displayed. Was it reasonable to suppose that
he would admit that the guilt of the aggression lay with
B R I T A
Reign of France ? This was a point which ought not to have been
George III. discussed. The object was to treat upon actual circum-
stances and the real grounds of dispute. Suppose that
1800. Bonaparte, desirous to attain peace by any means, should
sit down to consider how he could succeed ; what does the
note allow him to do? He would find that the restora¬
tion of the hereditary line of kings was the only case in
which a speedy peace would be admitted as possible; in
fact, therefore, this restoration was the sine qua non in
which immediate negociation was admissible with minis¬
ters. But surely if the ambition of the republic was so
formidable, we could not forget this ground of apprehen¬
sion when we talked of restoring the house of Bourbon.
Had we forgotten their proverbial ambition, and wras their
restoration the remed}r for evils arising from such a source?
We had now taken up the principle, so much objected to
Jacobins, of distinguishing between the people and their
government. But what wras the conduct of the French ?
Bonaparte distinctly renounced this principle in the letter
to the king, and acknowledged the title and the character
of his majesty’s government. The note of our ministers
was a manifesto to the royalists, and formed for that pur¬
pose alone. Lord Holland further stated, that the people
at large disapproved of the abrupt rejection of Bonaparte’s
overtures; he therefore gave his most decided support to
the amendment. The Earl of Carnarvon would not consider
the answer of our ministers as a refusal to treat for peace,
or a declaration of eternal war; it was a call upon the
house and the country to pause before they rashly suffered
themselves to enter into a negociation with an unsettled
government. He did not expect any extraordinary faith to
be manifested by Bonaparte, more than by any other chief
or chiefs; but although he would be best pleased with
the restoration of monarchy in France, in all times, in
monarchies as well as republics, aristocracies, and every
other species of government, good faith in treaties was
preserved and exemplified only as long as it was the inte¬
rest of the parties to maintain it. So little integrity had
history left on record, that, at the very time they were
signed, a secret intention was often indulged to violate
them at a particular period. The address, as moved by
Lord Grenville, was then carried by a great majority.
In the House of Commons Mr Dundas moved a similar
address, which gave rise to a similar debate. Mr Dundas
said, that the leading feature of the French revolution was
a disregard of all treaties, and a contempt for the rights
of other powers ; and in proof of this assertion, he consi¬
dered it as necessary merely to recite the names of Spain,
Naples, Sardinia, Tuscany, Genoa, Geneva, Modena, Aus¬
tria, Russia, England, and Egypt, with Denmark and Swe¬
den, though at all times neutral states. Britain had not
at this time any reasonable cause to suppose that a change
of principles had taken place. The Jacobinical form of
government was indeed at an end; but in substance and
essence all the qualities of the revolutionary government
were in as full force at this moment as they were in the
days of Robespierre. Mr Whitbread asserted, that, had
it not been for the interference and ambition of the other
powers of Europe, the French revolution would have as¬
sumed a very different character from that which it now
exhibited. He remarked, that other powers had treated
neutral states no less unjustly than had been done by the
French; Lord Harvey and Lord Hood had ordered the
French ministers to be dismissed from Florence; and by
threats we had compelled Genoa to dismiss her trench
inhabitants. He compared Bonaparte with Suwarof, and
the invasion of Egypt by France with that of Poland by
Austria, Russia, and Prussia, whose friendship we had
frequently courted. Mr Thomas Erskine entered at great
length into the question, whether France or Great Britain
1 N. 571
had been guilty of the original aggression in the war, and Reign of
contended that the British government had engaged in it GeorgeHI.
unnecessarily, and persisted in it without necessity. Mr
Pitt, on the other hand, affirmed that the French leaders
had themselves begun the war, on the principle that it
was necessary to consolidate the revolution. With regard
to the proposal to negociate with their present leader, it
was impossible to discuss fairly its propriety, without tak¬
ing into consideration his personal character and conduct.
Mr Pitt then expatiated on the conduct of Bonaparte at
Campo Formio, in the Milanese, Genoa, Modena, Tus¬
cany, Rome, Venice, Switzerland, and Egypt. His arts
of perfidy, he said, were commensurate with the number
of treaties; and if we traced the history of the men in
this revolution whose conduct had been marked by the
most atrocious cruelty, the name of Bonaparte would be
found allied to more of them than that of any other within
these ten eventful and disastrous years. From these facts
the house might judge what reliance might reasonably be
placed on this conqueror, and what degree of credit might
be given to his professions. It had been observed, indeed,
that whatever had been his character, he had now an in¬
terest in making and preserving peace. This was a doubtful
proposition. That it was his interest to negociate, would
be readily acknowledged, and to negociate with this coun¬
try separately, in order to dissolve the whole system of
the confederacy on the Continent; to paralyse at once the
arms of Russia, of Austria, or of any other country which
might look to us for support; and then either to break off
his separate treaty, or, if he should have concluded it, to
apply the lesson taught in his school of policy in Egypt,
and to revive at his pleasure those claims of indemnifica¬
tion which may have been reserved to some happier period.
Under all these circumstances of his personal character
and his newly acquired power, what security had he for
retaining that power but the sword? His hold upon
France was the sword, and he had no other. But was the
inference to be drawn from these considerations, that we
ought in no case to treat with Bonaparte ? No ; but we
ought to wait for the evidence of facts. At present there
was nothing from which we could presage a favourable
disposition in the French consuls. There was the great¬
est reason to rely on powerful co-operation from our allies;
the strongest indication in the interior of France of a dis¬
position to resist this new tyranny; and every ground to
believe, that if we were disappointed of complete success,
the continuance of the contest, instead of making our si¬
tuation comparatively worse, would make it comparatively
better. With regard to the negociation at Lisle in 1797,
to which allusions had been made, the Jacobin system of
prodigality and bloodshed, by which the efforts of France
had been supported, had at that period driven us to ex¬
ertions which had exhausted the ordinary means of de¬
fraying our immense expenditure, and led many who were
convinced of the necessity of the war to doubt the possi¬
bility of persisting in it. Under this impression we nego-
ciated, not from the sanguine hope that its result would
be permanent security, but from the persuasion that the
danger arising from peace in these circumstances would
be less than the continuance of war with inadequate
means. Mr Fox was decidedly of opinion that France, at
the commencement of the war, was the defending party.
The aggressions of Austria and Prussia could not be de¬
nied by any impartial person : nothing could be more de¬
cidedly hostile than their proceedings; they scrupled not
to declare to France that it was her internal concerns, not
her outward actions, which provoked them to confederate
against her; they did not pretend to fear her ambition, her
conquests, her troubling her neighbours; but they accused
her of new-modelling her own government. In all this he
Rei^n of was not seeking to justify the French, either in their in-
George III. ternal or external policy. On the contrary, he thought
their successive governments had been as execrable in va-
J8(K>* rious instances as any of the most despotic and unprinci¬
pled governments which the world had ever seen. Men
bred in the school of the house of Bourbon, once engaged
in foreign wars, would naturally endeavour to spread de¬
struction, and form plans of aggrandisement, on every side;
they could not have lived so long under their ancient mas¬
ters without imbibing the insatiable ambition and restless
spirit, the perfidy and the despotism, inherent in the race ;
they had imitated their great prototype, and through their
whole career of crimes had done no more than trace the
steps of their own Louis XIV. Are we for ever, continued
Mr Fox, to deprive ourselves of the benefits of peace, be¬
cause France has perpetrated acts of injustice? With the
knowledge of these acts, we had treated with them twice,
and ought not now to refuse to do so? Much had been
said of the short-lived nature of military despotism ; yet
such was the government erected by Augustus Caesar,
which endured six hundred years. Indeed, it was too
likely to be durable wherever it was established. Nor was
it true that it depended on the life of the first usurper.
Half of the Roman emperors were murdered, yet the
tyranny continued; and this, it was to be feared, would
be the case in France. On a division, however, the address
was carried by a very large majority.
The great measure of a legislative union with Ireland
was carried into effect during the present session of par¬
liament. Administration had found it necessary to delay
this matter in consequence of the opposition in the Irish
parliament; but during the recess they had obtained a
more ample majority; and as the British parliament had
already, on Mr Pitt’s motion, passed resolutions in favour
of the union, the project was formally introduced to the
Irish parliament on the 5th of February 1800, by a mes¬
sage from the lord-lieutenant, in which his excellency
stated that he had it in command from his majesty to lay
before the houses of legislature the resolutions of the
British parliament, and to express his majesty’s wish that
they would take the same into their most serious consi¬
deration. After a long and spirited debate, the ministry
prevailed by a majority of forty-three. The distinguished
abilities of Mr Grattan were once more displayed on this
interesting occasion. In the debate which took place on
proposing the first article of the union, he opposed the
measure with such vehemence, that the chancellor of the
exchequer accused him of associating with traitors, and of
disaffection to the government; but the reply of Mr Grat¬
tan was so pointed and severe, that the chancellor conceived
himself under the necessity of resenting it by a challenge,
and a meeting having taken place in consequence, he was
wounded in the arm. The question, however, was carried
by a considerable majority; and as the discussion proceed¬
ed, the numbers of opposition appeared to diminish. The
last struggle, as it may be deemed, occurred on the 13th of
March, when Sir John Parnell moved to petition his ma¬
jesty to call a new parliament, in order that the sense of
their constituents might be more fully ascertained ; but this
motion was also overruled. In the mean time the business
proceeded with little opposition in the House of Lords,
which, on the 24th of March, adopted the whole of the
articles of union with few alterations; and soon afterwards
both houses waited on his excellency with a joint address
to this effect. No time was now lost in submitting the
measure anew to the British parliament. On the 2d of
April, a message from his majesty was presented to both
houses of parliament, communicating the resolutions of
the Irish parliament in favour of an incorporating union
between the two kingdoms, and recommending the speedy
conclusion of a work so interesting to the security and Reign of
prosperity of the British empire. In the House of Lords George HI.
the measure was opposed by Lord Holland, on the ground '***~v^/
that a union at this time was not the spontaneous offer ,800*
of the parliament of Ireland, uninfluenced by corruption
or menace; but the articles were afterwards carried in a
committee of the house, after some debates of no great
importance. In the House of Commons Mr Pitt stated
that the principal act of the treaty, that which fixed the
share of representation Ireland was to have in the united
parliament, was founded upon a comparative statement of
the population of both kingdoms, as well as the revenue
of both. The number of members fixed for the counties
and two principal cities was sixty-eight; and that for the
most considerable cities, towns, and boroughs, was thirty-
one, who would be selected without partiality. He next
adverted to the arrangements respecting the House of
Peers, and the members to be returned; and observed,
that as the members for the Commons of Ireland were in
number nearly double those of Scotland, the same rules
would be observed with the peerage, which therefore was
to consist of thirty-two members. It was also understood,
that such peers of Ireland as might not be among the
twenty-eight temporal peers, should be allowed to sit in
the united parliament until elected. The only article
consisting of minute details related to the apportionment
of the shares of the revenue of each country respectively.
Mr Grey opposed the union on nearly the same grounds
as Lord Holland had done in the Upper House. It had
been asserted in a speech of the lord-lieutenant to the
Irish parliament, that five sevenths of the country, and all
the principal commercial towns, except Dublin, had peti¬
tioned in favour of the union. But this only meant that
nineteen counties had presented petitions, and that these
counties constitute five sevenths of the surface of Ireland.
He admitted the petitions in favour of the union; but by
what means were they obtained? The lord-lieutenant,
who, besides being the chief civil magistrate, is com¬
mander of a disciplined army of a hundred and seventy
thousand men, and able to proclaim martial law when he
pleases, procured these petitions, which were signed by
few names, and those by no means the most respectable.
But fortunately there were many petitions on the other
side, not obtained by solicitation and at illegal meetings,
but at public assemblies, of which legal notice had been
given. Twenty-seven counties had petitioned against the
measure ; the petition from the county of Down was sign¬
ed by seventeen thousand respectable, independent men;
and all others were in a similar proportion. Mr Grey then
adverted to some of the principal arguments of the union¬
ists ; and concluded by moving an address to his majesty
for a suspension of all proceedings relative to the union,
till the sentiments of the people of Ireland could be ascer¬
tained. Mr Sheridan represented the measure as an act
of tyranny towards the people of Ireland, which must be¬
come the fatal source of new discontents and future re¬
bellions. Mr Grey’s motion was, however, rejected by an
overwhelming majority.
Early in the session mention had been made by oppo¬
sition of the unfortunate invasion of Holland by the Bri¬
tish forces; but ministers declined entering upon the sub¬
ject, as the expedition had been carried on under the su¬
perintendence of Mr Secretary Dundas, and that gentle¬
man, soon after the meeting of parliament, had gone down
to Scotland in the depth of winter, without any ostensible
business; a circumstance which gave rise to suspicions
that some dissatisfaction existed at court on account of the
result of the Dutch invasion, or the manner in which the
Duke of York had been supported in it by the adminis¬
tration at home. On the 10th of February, however, the
of subject was introduced in the House of Commons by Mr
III. Sheridan, who moved for an inquiry into the causes of its
^ failure. He treated the capture of the Dutch navy as of
' little value, or rather as pernicious, on account of the ex¬
ample of mutiny which it exhibited on the part of the sea¬
men whom we had received into our service; he admitted
that the restoration of the stadtholder was a justifiable
motive for our interference, but contended that Britain
had treated the people of Holland ill, by obliging them to
enter into the present war, and avoiding to promise a re¬
storation of their colonies in case of a successful invasion ;
he asserted that the expedition itself was ill arranged, as
the army after its landing had no means of moving for¬
ward on account of the want of necessaries, and, instead of
delivering the Dutch, was under the necessity of entering
into a capitulation for its escape, and of holding out, as an
inducement to enter into this capitulation, a threat of de¬
stroying for ever the commerce of that very people whom
wre had embarked to save ; and he contended, that to vin¬
dicate the honour of the British army, it was necessary to
inquire into the cause of its misfortunes upon this occa¬
sion. Mr Dundas defended the expedition against Hol¬
land with his usual dexterity. He stated its object to be
threefold: first, to rescue the United Provinces from the
tyranny of the French; secondly, to add to the efficient
force of this country, and diminish that of the enemy, by
gaining possession of the Dutch fleet; and, lastly, by hos¬
tile operations in Holland, to oblige the French to weaken
their armies in various other quarters. Mr Dundas con¬
tended, that at the commencement of the expedition a
great probability existed of the success of all these objects ;
two of them did actually succeed, and only one failed.
With regard to the capture of the fleet, he declared him¬
self astonished that a doubt should exist about the value
of such an acquisition. That fleet had been absolutely
destined for the invasion of our dominions; along with it
we took nearly seven thousand seamen, all of whom were
liable to be employed in the French fleet, and forty thou¬
sand tons of shipping, which might have annoyed our com¬
merce. By the invasion of Holland, also, the French had
been compelled to weaken their other armies, which gave
success to Suwarof in driving them from Italy, and to the
archduke on the Upper Rhine and in Switzerland. They
had indeed succeeded in defending Holland; but, as the
price of this success, they had been severely pressed in
every other quarter. At the moment our enterprise was
undertaken, it was doubtful whether they would send their
reinforcements thither, or to other parts of the Continent.
They had poured prodigious reinforcements into Holland,
by which means we were unable to rescue it from their
yoke; but the result was, that they had lost every other
point which they had contested during the whole campaign.
With respect to the conduct of the enterprise, never was a
commencement more prosperous than that of the late ex¬
pedition. Sir Ralph Abercromby had sailed for the Helder
on the 13th of August, and everything promised the most
rapid success. On the 14th came on the most extraor¬
dinary hurricane that ever blew from the heavens; it was
found impossible to land a single soldier on any part of
the coast of Holland; and this continued till the 27th.
The consequence was, that the enemy knew where our
army must land, and their troops came in shoals to oppose
us; seven thousand men were collected; and as they were
superior in number, Sir Ralph could not land his men to
advantage. The ardour of the soldiers and the gallantry
of the commander were never excelled on any occasion.
Without any thing but their muskets and bayonets, against
cavalry and artillery, they made good their landing, and
by it they secured the Dutch fleet. It was alleged that
the troops had no means of drawing their waggons; but
they had no waggons at all, and could not possibly have Tteign of
landed them had they been there. Instantly on their land- George III,
ing they could not want them ; for all they had then to do
was to secure a landing place and a post of communica¬
tion. Sir Ralph had to consider what position he should
take till the 1st of September, when reinforcements would
arrive. The same tempest prevented the Russian troops
from arriving to reinforce the army; they did not come till
the 18th. The Duke of York offered to the Russian ge¬
neral, D’Hermann, to delay the attack, if he thought his
men were not sufficiently recovered from the fatigues of
the voyage; but the general requested that the attack
should be made, with a promptitude and alacrity which
reflected the highest honour upon him; and this ardour
led him into the field two hours sooner than the time ap¬
pointed. The army, however, was gloriously successful
until a late hour in the day. General d’Hermann and his
troops were in possession of the village of Berghen, and
crowned with victory, till his zeal led him beyond a given
point, and turned the fate of the day. When the attack
was made the French amounted to seven thousand, and
the Dutch to twelve thousand men; yet, notwithstanding
this superiority of force, our troops fought and conquered ;
but the French continually pouring in reinforcements, the
duke was advised to accede to the terms of an armistice,
which was by that time mutually wished for. The duke
yielded to this advice; and, by so doing, consulted the
dictates of reason and humanity. Mr Dundas contended
that our army returned with as much honour as they en¬
tered Holland. The Duke of York, indeed, agreed to
give up eight thousand French prisoners on condition
that his retreat should be unmolested; but he could not
be wrong in doing so, because our prisons were overload¬
ed with them ; and he did not recede from any one article
in which national dignity was concerned.
Mr Tierney supported the proposal for an inquiry. He
disputed the advantages said to result from the expedition,
and contended, that to a secret committee, or in some
other form, ministers ought to account for their conduct,
and exonerate themselves from suspicions too strong to be
removed without proof. It was unconstitutional, and an
insult on the house, to say this could not be done consist¬
ently with the preservation of secrecy. General Abercrom¬
by landed on the 22d of August with ten thousand men ;
he got possession of the Helder; he was reinforced by
General Don on the 27th. Was it not strange that fifteen
thousand men, headed by an able general, and going by in¬
vitation, should think it imprudent to advance ? Had the
Dutch been well affected, why did they not declare them¬
selves ? No French troops were then in Holland to keep
them in awe. Why did not the Duke of York sail at the
same time with General Don ? Why were all our forces
sent to one place, and forty-three thousand men cooped up
in a narrow peninsula where but few could act at a time ?
It was strange that ministers, who were so fond of making
diversions, did not think of making a diversion in some
other quarter. This was a point which only military men
could determine; and the house w'as bound to examine
officers, that the truth might be known. The capitulation,
he said, had fixed an indelible blot on the national cha¬
racter. A king’s son, commanding forty thousand men,
had capitulated to a French general who had only thirty-
five thousand. Mr Addington observed, that having ma¬
turely and dispassionately considered the nature of the
proposed inquiry, it appeared to him to rest upon two
grounds : first, the propriety of judging any measure by
its event; and, secondly, that in consequence of a failure,
there was a necessity for investigation. It ought to be re¬
collected, that the wmrst concerted plans had often pro¬
duced the most brilliant success, and the best terminated
574
B 11 I T A I N.
1800.
Reign of in disaster. No human being could command success, and
GeorgeIII.no existing government control the elements. The pro¬
posed inquiry was accordingly negatived by a very large
majority.
During the present year the war proved extremely
eventful. The army which Bonaparte had left in Egypt
under General Kleber being disgusted by the desertion of
their leader, a negociation was entered into by Kleber
with the Turkish grand vizier and Sir Sidney Smith ; the
result of which was, that the French agreed to abandon
the whole of Egypt, on condition of being permitted to re¬
turn unmolested to France. The convention was conclud¬
ed at El Arish on the 24th of January; and the imme¬
diate return of this discontented army to France might
have proved dangerous, if not fatal, to the newdy-esta-
blished power of the first consul. But here the usual for¬
tune of Bonaparte prevailed. The British government,
suspecting that some proposal of this kind might be made,
sent secret orders to Vice-admiral Lord Keith not to
consent to any arrangement which might leave so large
an army at liberty to act in Europe, or which should not
include the surrender of all the ships in the port of Alex¬
andria. The consequence was, that Lord Keith refused
to ratify the treaty of El Arish which Sir Sidney Smith
and the Turkish grand vizier had concluded, and detain¬
ed as prisoners General Dessaix and a number of troops
which had been sent from Egypt. The French general
Kleber immediately intimated to the Turks a determina¬
tion to resume hostilities. He attacked and totally rout¬
ed their army, consisting of forty thousand men, in the
neighbourhood of Grand Cairo; and multitudes perished
by slaughter and in the desert, while the French remained
complete masters of the country. When it was too late,
an order arrived from Britain to permit General Dessaix
and the troops along with him to land in France, and to
fulfil every part of Sir Sidney Smith’s treaty ; but the state
of affairs had changed ; Kleber had been assassinated by a
fanatical Arab, and his successor, Menou, refused to eva¬
cuate Egypt; so that it became necessary, at a future pe¬
riod, to send an army from Britain to drive the French out
of the country which they had proposed to evacuate with¬
out firing a shot or shedding a drop of blood.
The Austrian armies in Germany and in Italy were re¬
spectively commanded by General Kray and by General
Melas. The campaign was conducted on the part of the
French government with great ability and decision. It
had been publicly announced in all the French newspapers
that the armies were to be reinforced as powerfully as
possible; and that an army of reserve was to be formed in
a central position between Germany and Italy, from which
the armies might be supplied with fresh troops according
to the events of the war. Dijon was mentioned as the
head-quarters of this army of reserve, and it already amount¬
ed to upwards of forty thousand men. Nobody suspected
that any important plan of operations or military stratagem
was concealed under the affected notoriety of this arrange¬
ment. Accordingly the Austrians commenced the cam¬
paign by an attack upon Massena in the Genoese territory;
and after a succession of obstinate conflicts the French were
driven into Genoa, where they sustained a siege, till compel¬
led to surrender from want of provisions. Whilst Melas be¬
sieged Genoa, and even pushed forward his parties through
Nice into the ancient French territory, Bonaparte in person
suddenly repaired to Dijon and joined the army, to the as¬
sembling of which Europe had paid little attention, on ac¬
count of the appellation which it had received of an army
of reserve; and immediately advancing, he crossed the
Alps by the Great St Bernard, and descended into the
Milanese with little opposition. At the same time powerful
reinforcements joined him from Switzerland, of which the
French troops continued to hold possession. Bonaparte Reign of
thus placed himself in the rear of the Austrian general, and George III.
hazarded every thing upon the fortune of a single battle.
He was accordingly attacked on the plain of Marengo, near 1800*
Alessandria; and, as the Austrians were greatly superior
in cavalry and artillery, they proved victorious during the
greater part of the day. The French wings were turned,
the centre division was broken, and scarcely six thousand
men stood firm at any one point, when General Dessaix,
late in the action, arrived with a reinforcement of six thou¬
sand troops, though fatigued by a rapid countermarch of
several leagues. At this moment the battle seemed to be
irretrievably lost. The French had been thrown back in
the utmost disorder upon Montebello, where Lannes was
still maintaining a furious though desperate resistance ;
the whole field of battle was in possession of the Aus¬
trians ; the French troops were crowded together in a dis¬
organized mass, in which the enemy’s artillery were com¬
mitting the most frightful havoc; and only one effort
more seemed necessary on the part of the Austrians,
with their fine cavalry, in which arm they were greatly
superior, to complete the destruction of the French army.
Matters were in this state when Dessaix arrived, who, per¬
ceiving the desperate situation of affairs, instantly hurried
his division into action. Surprised at, but not unprepared
for this renewed attack, the Austrians developed a power¬
ful force to oppose it; Dessaix fell mortally wounded ; and
his division were on the point of being overwhelmed, wrhen
an event almost unexampled in war not only saved the
French army from destruction, but totally changed the for¬
tune of the day, and converted a disastrous defeat into a
complete victory. While a body of Austrian grenadiers,
six thousand strong, were advancing to the charge along
a broad causeway, and carrying all before them, they were
suddenly and furiously attacked in flank by General Kel-
lerman, at the head of six hundred horse, which he had
managed to conceal among some mulberry trees. A panic
immediately seized them, and believing themselves assail¬
ed by the mass of the French cavalry, they threw down
their arms. The whole affair passed in an instant, and even
the victors themselves were astounded at their own suc¬
cess. Bonaparte, however, lost not a moment in profiting
by this extraordinary turn of fortune. The French rallied
with their usual promptitude on Dessaix's division, which
still preserved some degree of order; resumed their for¬
mer positions ; recommenced the battle, which they had a
few minutes before given up for lost; and, animated with
the enthusiasm inspired by Kellerman’s extraordinary suc¬
cess, drove the Austrians from the field. In the French
official account of this memorable conflict, which decided
the fate of all Italy, no mention whatever is made of Kel¬
lerman’s gallant and decisive attack ; and it reflects little
credit on the memory of Bonaparte, that, though he after¬
wards heaped wealth and titles in boundless profusion on
the man who had not only saved him and his army from de¬
struction, but converted a disastrous defeat into a splendid
triumph, he should never have made any public admission
of the unparalleled achievement which changed the for¬
tune of the day. The service was probably considered as
too great to be acknowledged, because it could never be
sufficiently rewarded; and it ill comported with the cha¬
racter of Bonaparte to admit that, in genius, promptitude,
and energy, he could ever be surpassed by any of his lieu¬
tenants. 1 On the following day Melas entered into nego¬
ciation, and, as the price of an unmolested passage to the
Austrian states, he agreed to abandon all Piedmont, and
the basin of the Po, and to surrender twelve of the strong¬
est fortresses in Europe.
On the side of Germany the French under General Mo¬
reau were scarcely less successful. They passed the Rhine
BRITAIN.
Reign of in the neighbourhood of Strasburg, where they were op-
George III. p0secl by the Austrians. But this was only a feigned
attack. Speedily retreating, the main body of their army
descended from the mountains of Switzerland, and crossed
the Rhine in the rear of the Austrian army near SchaufF-
hausen. After a desperate engagement, the Austrians
were defeated with the loss of ten thousand men, of whom
four thousand were taken prisoners. As the mode of at¬
tack had been unforeseen, and was consequently unpro¬
vided for, the loss of magazines and baggage was immense.
In another and harder fought battle, at Moskirch, the
Austrians lost upwards of eight thousand men. At Bibe-
rach, Augsburg, and Hochstet, the French were equally
successful; and the result was, that the Austrians were
under the necessity of crossing the Danube, leaving the
French masters of the electorate of Bavaria, and in a con¬
dition to invest Ulm. A general suspension of hostilities
was now agreed to, by which both parties retained posses¬
sion of their actual positions ; and a negociation for peace
was entered into between the French and Austrians, which
produced an attempt to negociate on the part of Great
Britain ; but as the French also demanded a naval armis¬
tice, the negociation was dropped; and after a considerable
delay, during which the Austrian minister at Paris con¬
cluded a treaty which his court afterwards disowned, pre¬
parations were made for re-opening the campaign. But
the French ultimately consented to renew the armistice
with the Austrians, on condition of obtaining possession
of the important fortresses of Ulm, Ingoldstadt, and Phi-
lipsburg. These armistices and negociations proved of
great service to the French. The consent to a truce in
the midst of an unexampled career of victory gave an ap¬
pearance of moderation to the new consular government;
whilst the conclusion of a treaty at Paris, to which the
Austrian government afterwards refused to adhere, in¬
duced neutral nations to consider Bonaparte as anxious for
the attainment of peace. Hence the wonderful success
which attended his arms, during the early part of the cam¬
paign, was far from rousing the jealousy of the other states
of Europe. The northern nations eagerly courted his al¬
liance ; and the emperor Paul of Russia, actuated by the
natural instability of his temper, and an admiration of mi¬
litary success, not only entered into a close alliance with
Bonaparte, but seized the British vessels in his ports;
whilst the Danes, Swedes, and Prussians, formed a con¬
federacy for evading the right claimed in war by maritime
states, of preventing their enemies from being supplied with
naval stores by means of neutral vessels.
In the meanwhile Great Britain was greatly distressed
by a scarcity of provisions, and riots broke out in Lon¬
don and some provincial towns. On this account parlia¬
ment assembled on the 11th of November, and the prin¬
cipal discussion which occurred in it related to the scar¬
city which prevailed throughout the country, and involv¬
ed in great difficulties both the middle and lower classes
of society. The members of opposition asserted that
the war and the scarcity were closely connected ; whilst
Mr Pitt and his colleagues contended that a more obvi¬
ous cause might be found in the deficiency of the two pre¬
ceding crops, owing to cold and rainy seasons. A royal
proclamation was issued in the beginning of December,
exhorting all heads of families to reduce the consumption
of bread by at least one third, to abstain from the use of
flour in pastry, and to restrict the consumption of oats and
other grain by horses ; and acts of parliament were at the
same time passed prohibiting the exportation, and offering
bounties upon the importation, of grain. These measures,
however, were of a very doubtful character. By increas¬
ing the alarm of scarcity they induced wealthy persons to
buy up grain, and to withhold it from the markets ; the
575
prohibition of exportation of provisions was unnecessary, Reign of
when a better price could be obtained in Britain than else- George III.
where; and the same high prices afforded a sufficient bounty '•^w/
for importation.
At the commencement of the following year government
laid an embargo on all Russian, Danish, and Swedish ships
in British ports ; so that Great Britain was now at war with
nearly all Europe. Austria, indeed, ventured to renew hos¬
tilities ; but the French general Moreau, having defeat¬
ed the Archduke John with tremendous loss, at Hohen-
linden, drove back the Austrian army upon their capital,
advancing within seventeen leagues of Vienna; whilst at
the same time signal defeats were sustained by them both
in Italy and in Franconia. From the necessity of their af¬
fairs, therefore, the Austrians were compelled to sue for
peace, which was accordingly concluded at Luneville. The
Netherlands and the Milanese were resigned ; France ex¬
tended her boundary to the Rhine ; and Tuscany was re¬
linquished by the grand duke, who was to receive an in¬
demnification in Germany; whilst, on the other hand, the
city of Venice and a portion of its ancient territory were
given up to Austria. The German princes who suffered
by the treaty were to receive an indemnification out of
the ecclesiastical states of the empire ; thereby weakening
still further the influence of the house of Austria. By this
treaty the French became masters of Europe to the south¬
ward of the Rhine and of the Adige.
The commencement of the year 1801 was marked in
Great Britain by the termination of Mr Pitt’s administra¬
tion. When this event was announced to the public, it
created no small degree of astonishment. Since Mr Pitt
had come into office a new generation had sprung up ; and
a succession of the most extraordinary public transactions
had occurred, amidst all of which that minister, with his
kinsman Lord Grenville, and his friend Mr Dundas, had
remained firmly established in power. The authority and
influence of these men had in some measure interwoven
itself in the opinions of the people, and they were sur¬
rounded by a train of powerful adherents, dependent on
their patronage ; whilst, at the same time, Mr Pitt himself
retained such a degree of popularity as caused his dismis¬
sion or resignation to appear a very bold measure in the
present state of affairs. The ostensible cause assigned
for Mr Pitt’s dismission obtained little credit with any
one. He was represented as having promised to the Irish
Catholics an equalization of privileges with their fellow-
subjects, on condition of their acquiescing in the treaty of
union ; but it was pretended that, since his majesty had
been persuaded to oppose the measure, as contrary to his
coronation oath, the ministry, in such a state of matters,
could no longer honourably remain in office. Of the true
cause of this change little is publicly known. It does not
seem necessary, however, to search into secret history for
an explanation of a transaction which may be sufficiently
accounted for on principles which must be obvious to all.
The influence acquired by Lord North, arising from the
patronage he enjoyed during the American war, enabled
him, by combining with others, to establish a formidable
interest in the legislature. But the power possessed by him
was trifling when compared with that which Mr Pitt and
his friends possessed. The war which Mr Pitt had con¬
ducted had been expensive in a degree altogether unex¬
ampled in preceding times; whilst the circumstances under
which it commenced had united, as a party under him, al¬
most all the persons of property in the kingdom. During
his long administration, too, the crown possessed, in a more
direct manner than formerly, the increasing patronage of
India ; and hence the leading members of this administra¬
tion might be regarded as having attained a degree of
power and influence which could not easily be shaken,
B R I T A I N.
576
Reign of and which might prove extremely inconvenient, when held
George III. by any combination of subjects in a free country. In such
circumstances, it was natural for an experienced prince to
1801 * wish for a change. Mr Pitt had been originally taken into
office as the agent of the crown in the House of Commons,
to support the royal prerogative there, against a combina¬
tion of powerful and accomplished men ; he had enjoyed
great popularity, and had been considered as the man best
qualified to conduct the war of the French revolution ; and
as he knew the high rank which he held in public estima¬
tion, and treated the House of Commons with but little
deference, it is not improbable that in the cabinet he may
have presumed upon the indispensable importance of his
own services, and, accounting himself necessary to the
administration of the empire, arrogated a degree of inde¬
pendence not at all graceful nor becoming in a mere instru¬
ment of the crown. Some, however, have thought that
his retirement on this occasion is to be ascribed to a to¬
tally different cause; that as he had been mainly instru¬
mental in plunging the country into the war with France,
and as all his schemes for humbling that nation had prov¬
ed abortive, he could neither admit his error, nor adopt
the only means which now remained, in some degree to
atone for it; and that he desired to escape the mortifica¬
tion of negociating a peace with a power which he had so
often denounced, and which he wished to exclude from
the pale of political and social relations in Europe. And,
in support of this view, it may be mentioned that, on the
dismissal of this administration, a resolution appears to
have been at the same time adopted by the British court,
seriously and earnestly to endeavour to obtain peace upon
any tolerable terms.
With regard to the general merits of Mr Pitt’s admi¬
nistration, we are still probably too much involved in the
passions and prejudices which it excited to be able to
appreciate them with sufficient candour and intelligence.
He derived great advantage from the copious and stately
eloquence which he at all times displayed in the House of
Commons ; and certainly no man ever possessed so com¬
pletely the art of managing the people of England, and
retaining their attachment, at the same time that he con¬
tinued to possess the confidence of his sovereign. Al¬
though he obtained the government of the British empire
at a very youthful age, the prudence of his conduct and
the magnitude of some of his designs entitle him to a very
high rank as a statesman. His sinking fund, though not
contrived by himself, and though based on erroneous prin¬
ciples, was a great and important measure, as it contri¬
buted to sustain the national credit at a period of unex¬
ampled difficulty and embarrassment, and enabled the
country to weather a contest which might otherwise have
proved fatal to its independence. His commercial treaty
with France was also, whatever the political economists
may say to the contrary, a measure recommended by the
soundest wisdom. The most ambiguous circumstances in
Mr Pitt’s public conduct were those which related to par¬
liamentary reform, to the trial of Mr Hastings, and to the
slave-trade, in which he adopted the popular side in the
debate, although the court was known to be hostile to his
avowed sentiments, which accordingly were never success¬
ful. The most difficult question relates undoubtedly to
the war with France. Though by the forms of the Bri¬
tish constitution Mr Pitt was responsible for engaging in.
this war, and for continuing in it, yet as he was not actu¬
ally the head of the state, it is possible that the interfe¬
rence of Britain might not originate with him, and that he
had only the alternative of engaging in the war or of re¬
linquishing his power. If the war is to be considered as
advised and conducted by him, he is responsible for all its
consequences, the enormous aggrandisement of France,
the subjugation of the weaker states, and the accumulation Reign of
of that intolerable load of debt which hangs like a mill-George III,
stone round the neck of this country, and encumbers every
effort it can make to develope its natural resources. Had
Britain originally remained neutral, or rather, had she ne-
gociated in favour of the independence of France, brought
into hazard as it was by the combination of the great mili¬
tary powers, that country would have been confined with¬
in her ancient boundary ; Italy, Switzerland, and Holland
would have retained their independence ; and the strength
of Austria would have remained unbroken; or, if Britain
had withdrawn early from the contest, and avoided urging
and subsidizing the continental powers, until they were
successively vanquished, the same result might have en¬
sued. On the other hand, if the war is to be considered
as undertaken to overturn the principles of the French, it
was undoubtedly successful to a certain extent, as it com¬
pelled them to abandon these principles, and to have re¬
course to a military usurpation ; but it ought to be remem¬
bered, that to Britain as a nation the political principles
of the French were of no importance whatsoever, whilst
their permanent aggrandisement was calculated to bring
into hazard our very existence as an independent nation.
Mr Pitt and his friends called forth the resources of the
country for the support of the war to an astonishing ex¬
tent. Immense treasures were lavished in supporting our
allies in fruitless or absurd expeditions, and in schemes
which served only to augment the public burdens, and
to increase the influence of the crown by the extension of
its patronage. The acquiescence of the public in the war
was preserved by keeping the minds of men in a state of
constant alarm, from the fear of danger to the constitution,
in consequence of the alleged disaffection of a body of the
people ; and in this manner a constant spirit of persecution
was maintained throughout the country, which thus seem¬
ed to be ruled rather by a jealous faction than by a legiti¬
mate government. The concluding measure of Mr Pitt’s
administration, the union with Ireland, is entitled to much
praise. It was suggested by the course of events, and
tended to remedy a great defect in the constitution of the
British empire, the want of consolidation into one united
political body.
Of the associates of Mr Pitt, Lord Grenville, who acted
as minister in the House of Lords, was the principal in
England, and Mr Dundas in Scotland, and perhaps also
in the rest of the empire. This last gentleman possessed
the greatest share of power ever intrusted to any Scots¬
man since the union, excepting for a short time to Lord
Bute. During a considerable length of time he appears
to have conducted almost the whole public business of
that vast assemblage of nations, in all the climates of the
globe, which constitutes the British empire; and under
his patronage, and that of his friend Mr Pitt, a numerous
body of dependents rose to the possession of boundless
opulence; whilst they themselves, engrossed by the pur¬
suits of ambition, were understood to have been somewhat
careless of their private concerns.
At the time when the change of ministry took place the
king became affected with a severe illness, supposed to be
the result of anxiety and agitation of mind. In making
choice of a new prime minister, however, he avoided admit¬
ting into power the party which had opposed the war; and
selected Mr Addington, who, as we have already mention¬
ed, was originally patronized by Mr Pitt, and who, as speak¬
er of the House of Commons, had gained approbation by
his good temper, prudence, industry, and conciliating man¬
ners. This gentleman appears to have obtained from his
predecessors in office a promise of support in parliament;
and he was therefore represented throughout the country
as nothing more than a nominal minister, holding a tern-
BRITAIN.
577
3801.
Reign of porary situation, which, on the first opportunity, he was to
George III. relinquish in favour of Mr Pitt and his friends. And this
account of the state of affairs derives plausibility from the
actual support which the new minister received from these
gentlemen, and from the influence which they evidently
retained in the nomination to all inferior offices. Mr Ad¬
dington’s appointment as first lord of the treasury and
chancellor of the exchequer was followed by the nomina¬
tion of Lord Eldon to the office of lord high chancellor, of
Lord St Vincent to that of first lord of the admiralty, of
Lord Hawkesbury as secretary of state for the foreign de¬
partment, of Lord Pelham for the home department, and of
Colonel Yorke as secretary at war. Lord Eldon was suc¬
ceeded by Sir Michael Pepper Arden, then created Lord
Alvanley, as chief justice of the common pleas ; and Mr
Addington by Sir John Mitford, afterwards Lord Redes-
dale, as speaker of the House of Commons. Sir William
Grant was made master of the rolls, and Mr Law and Mr
Percival attorney and solicitor generals.
On the 2d of February the parliament of Great Britain
and Ireland was opened; but as the king’s illness imme¬
diately succeeded that event, the new administration did
not obtain formal possession of office until the month of
March, and during the interval the old ministers continu¬
ed to hold their former situations. At the opening of the
imperial parliament, as it was now called, the speech from
the throne expressed great satisfaction that the crown
would now be able to avail itself of the advice of the unit¬
ed parliament of Great Britain and Ireland; hoped that
this memorable era, distinguished by a measure calculat¬
ed to consolidate the strength of the empire, would be
equally marked by the energy and firmness which the pre¬
sent situation of the country so peculiarly required; and
stated that the court of Petersburg had treated our re¬
presentations of the outrages committed against our ships
and property, and against Englishmen, with the utmost
disrespect, and that acts of injustice and violence had ag¬
gravated the first aggressions. It mentioned that a con¬
vention had been concluded between Petersburg, Copen¬
hagen, and Stockholm, the avowed object of which was to
establish a new code of maritime law, inconsistent with
the rights and hostile to the interests of this country;
and that the earliest measures had been taken to repel
this confederacy, and to support those principles essential
to the maintenance of our naval strength. It recommended
an inquiry into the high price of provisions, and promised
a termination of the present contest whenever it could be
done consistently with security and honour.
When the usual address was moved, some discussion
occurred in both houses regarding the actual state of af¬
fairs, more particularly as connected with the combination
of the northern powers against Britain. In the House of
Commons Mr Grey deplored the prospect of a war with
all Europe. Russia had evidently been guilty of the
grossest violence and injustice towards this country, in the
confiscation of the property of our merchants, and in the
treatment of our sailors; but the emperor accused the
British government of violating a convention by which he
was to receive the island of Malta as the reward of his
co-operation against France; and the truth of this asser¬
tion ought to be investigated. Concerning the northern
confederacy, Mr Grey remarked, that the principles on
which it was founded were of no recent origin, as indeed
was very generally known. Mr Pitt, who still acted as
chancellor of the exchequer, declared, that with every one
of the three northern powers, independently of the law of
nations, we had on our side the strict letter of engage¬
ments by which they were bound to us. In the conven¬
tion signed between Great Britain and Russia, the latter
bound herself to use her efforts to prevent neutral powers
VOL. v.
from protecting the commerce of France on the seas or in Reign of
the ports of France ; and Denmark and Sweden had ex- George II I,
pressed their readiness to agree on that very point which
they were now disposed to contend. We did not indeed
know the precise terms of their new convention ; but as its
existence and general object were acknowledged, we must
necessarily act upon the supposition of their hostility.
In March Mr Grey moved for an inquiry into the state
of the nation. We were now, he said, in the ninth year of
a war with France, and threatened with a war by all the
maritime states of Europe, if not actually involved in it;
we had added L.2'70,000,000 to the capital of our national
debt, and above L.17,000,000 to our annual taxes; we
found ourselves opposed to France, which was now ex¬
tended in territory, increased in population, and support¬
ed by all the states of the north. We were opposed to
her with diminished means, exhausted strength, and strip¬
ped of every ally. It was, therefore, incumbent on the
representatives of the people to enter into a serious in¬
quiry into the means most likely to restore to us security
and happiness. The conquests we had made during the
war had not compensated our disasters or the acquisitions
made by France. Her frontier now extended to the Rhine,
to the Alps, and to the ocean ; yet all these possessions
we had consented to abandon as the price of peace which
ministers might have made with France confined within
her ancient limits, while our own country was prosperous
and happy. Our losses were thus irretrievable, and our
triumphs empty. There was almost no shore from the Tex-
el to the Adriatic which had not witnessed the defeat of
our forces and the disgrace of our arms. The unfortunate
attempt upon Dunkirk, the shameful retreat through Hol¬
land, the evacuation of Toulon, the abandonment of Cor¬
sica, and the expedition to Quiberon, were all fatal proofs
of ill-concerted schemes; but the late expedition against
Holland was more disgraceful than the rest, because it
terminated in a capitulation to an inferior force. Admi¬
nistration had acted with such imprudence that even our
very allies were now converted into enemies. The Swedes
and other neutral nations had complained that their trade
was molested, their ships detained, and justice refused
them in our courts, or so long delayed that it was useless.
These were points which undoubtedly deserved investiga¬
tion. Nor did the internal condition of the country less
require consideration. The sum of L.270,000,000, as al¬
ready mentioned, had been added to the national debt,
exclusive of imperial and other loans, and the reduction
by the sinking fund ; and yet the ex-ministers alleged that
they left the country in a flourishing condition. Yet every
Englishman, from diminished comfort, or from positive
distress, felt this declaration to be an insult. The situa¬
tion of the sister kingdom was also alarming in the ex¬
treme. Since the recal of Earl Fitzwilliam, Ireland had
been the scene of transactions shocking to humanity.
Was it now tranquil? Though rebellion had been crush¬
ed in the field, it lurked in secrecy; the mass of the popu¬
lation was disaffected; and nothing prevented the separa¬
tion of Ireland from Britain but the inability of France to
send a force to assist the rebels. Upon these grounds he
called for an inquiry into the actual state of affairs, and
demanded the support of the new administration, as a tes¬
timony of their disapprobation of the measures of their pre¬
decessors.
Mr Dundas defended, with plausible statements and ar¬
guments, the conduct of the war. The principle which
he laid down was, that war ought to be directed to the
destruction of the commerce and colonial possessions of
the enemy, including their maritime power, which must
depend upon their commerce. It was hardly possible for
England to be long at war with France without being in-
4 D
BRITAIN.
578
Reign of volved in disputes on the Continent, which might deprive
George III. us of many of the markets which we had for our goods;
and therefore it was peculiarly our interest to gain these
colonies, that they might remain open for our commodi¬
ties. In order then to judge how far the war, conducted
on this principle, had been disastrous and disgraceful, he
would state its progress and success. Hostilities com¬
menced against France in February 1793 ; and in that year
Tobago, St Pierre, Miquelon, Pondicherry, part of St Do¬
mingo, and the fleet at Toulon, were taken, besides the
possessions of the Newfoundland fishery. In the year
1794 we captured Martinique, Guadaloupe, St Lucie, the
Saints, Corsica, and Mariagalante; in 1795, Trincomalee
and the Cape of Good Hope ; in 1796, Amboyna, Berbice,
and Demerara; in 1797, Trinidad, with four ships of the
line either taken or destroyed ; in 1798, Minorca; in 1799,
Surinam; in 1800, Goree, Malta, and Curacoa. These
had been our successes. With regard to the expedition
against Holland, he defended it on the same principles as
formerly. As to the navy, he stated, that since the com¬
mencement of the present war we had taken or destroyed
eighty sail of the line belonging to the enemy, a hundred
and eighty-one frigates, two hundred and twenty-four
smaller ships of war, seven hundred and forty-three French
privateers, fifteen Dutch and seventy-six Spanish ships.
The losses we had sustained were three sail of the line,
one of which we had retaken; one fifty gun ship, which
we also retook; and of the frigates captured by the ene¬
my, the Ambuscade alone remained in their possession.
One of the great advantages to be derived from the colo¬
nial possessions of the enemy was the markets they fur¬
nished for our manufactures. In the year 1793 the ma¬
nufactures sent from this country to the West Indies
amounted to above L. 1,800,000 sterling. Before the war
our exports to the East Indies did not exceed one million,
but in the preceding year they exceeded L. 1,600,000, a
proof that we had not lost the markets of Europe. The
failure of an expedition was now considered as a deci¬
sive proof of misconduct in ministers ; but in the glorious
Seven Years’ War, which was in every body’s recollection,
there were expeditions attempted which completely failed,
though the failure was not considered as a proof of inca¬
pacity or neglect in Lord Chatham. The conquests which
we then made were Senegal, Louisburg, St Lucie, Du-
quesne, Guadaloupe, Martinique, the Havannah, Mont¬
real, Pondicherry, Grenada, Belleisle, besides destroying
the fortifications of Cherbourg; and we took or destroyed
thirty-two sail of the line and fifty-eight frigates, besides
a proportionable number of smaller vessels. We were now
in possession of every place taken in that war, excepting
Guadaloupe, the Havannah, and Belleisle; but, on the other
hand, we had gained the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon,
Demerara, Berbice, and all the Dutch possessions in the
East and West Indies, added to Minorca and Malta. We
had also destroyed the confederacy formed against us in
the East Indies, and acquired a great increase of power
and territory in that quarter of the world.
Mr Pitt, after expressing his respect for the new admi¬
nistration, observed that no point had been more disputed
than that of confidence in ministers. By some people it
was held that no person was entitled to it, till he had
given proofs of having merited it. But this never could
be carried in substance to the letter; for whoever entered
into any employment, must at first be new to it: there
could be no experience without trial; but when persons
had been tried in one situation, and had acquitted them¬
selves well in it, it was a rule to give them credit when
they entered into another, until proof of their incapacity
or misconduct appeared. He then lavished encomiums on
Mr Addington, on Lord Hawkesbury, and on Earl St Vin¬
cent, and asked the gentlemen of the opposition if they Reign of
knew any one among themselves superior to Lord Hawkes- George III.
bury, excepting one, Mr Fox, whose transcendent talents
made him an exception to almost any rule. Of the other
individuals composing the new administration, much might
be said; but he would only add, that it showed little re¬
flection or consideration to affirm that the present mini¬
sters were unentitled to a constitutional confidence; and
the house was bound by the best principles of policy to
wait to see the conduct of the servants of the crown be¬
fore they withheld it. Upon the subject of the retirement
or dismissal of the late administration, he contended that
his majesty had a right to part with his servants, and his
servants to retire, without any explanation being given to
the public. Concerning the affairs of the Irish Catholics,
and their connection with the dismissal of administration,
he stated, that a memorandum had been sent, in the name
of a noble lord at the head of the executive government
of Ireland, who thought it essential to communicate the
grounds of the change’ of administration to persons more
immediately connected with the Catholics; and it had been
at his express desire that this communication had been
made, and the motives explained to them which led to the
change, in order to prevent any misrepresentation. Eman¬
cipation of the Catholics was a term he disclaimed. He
never understood the situation of the Catholics was such
as to need what deserved to be called emancipation ; but he
thought the few benefits which they had not yet anticipat¬
ed might easily have been added to those so bountifully
conferred on them in the present reign, not as a matter of
right, but of liberality and political expediency. Had such
a measure preceded the union, indeed, it would have been
rash and destructive ; and even now, if any attempt was
made to push it so as to endanger the public tranquillity, or
to pervert the affections of any of his majesty’s subjects, the
ex-ministers would be forward and firm in resisting it. But
he hoped the day would come when such a measure might
be revived, and carried in the only way in which he wished
to see it carried, conformably to the general tranquillity of
the empire. To him it had appeared of such importance,
that, being unable to bring it forward as a measure of go¬
vernment, he did not conceive it possible for him, with ho¬
nour, to remain in the same situation ; and he wished it to
be understood, that whenever the same obstacles did not
exist, he would do every thing in his power to promote its
success. He denied, however, that any of those who had
retired from office had so pledged themselves to the Ca¬
tholics as to be under the necessity of resigning their
offices because they could not perform their promise •
and he also denied that ever the Catholics supposed they
had received such a pledge. An expostulation was natu¬
ral, but a pledge had never been given. He concluded that
the British government had justice on its side, or rather
was supported by the law of nations, in the claims which
it now maintained to search neutral vessels for military
stores on their way to the enemy, and to declare parti¬
cular French or other ports under blockade, to the effect
of thereafter having a right to arrest neutral vessels at¬
tempting to enter them.
Mr Fox observed, that it was undoubtedly a doctrine
recognised by the law of nations, that free bottoms did
not make free goods ; but he doubted much the propriety
of discussing it at this critical juncture. He thought our
claims upon this subject were extended too far when
they were made to reach to naval stores, as these had not
been at former periods considered as contraband. He then
adverted to the successes of the war, which had been
enumerated by Mr Dundas. On the navy he bestowed
merited praise, and also on the late first lord of the ad¬
miralty, assigning his merit as the reason for the constant
BRITAIN.
579
1801.
Tleign of and brilliant triumphs of the navy; whilst our military
George III. expeditions, though our troops were as brave as our sea¬
men, had generally failed. In naval tactics almost every
thing depended on the talents of the officers; whereas, in
military movements, much depended on the original de¬
sign. The boasted capture of islands was not the object
of the war: our object had been to protect Europe against
France ; and how had we succeeded ? Which of the two
nations had been most aggrandised in the course of it?
A country paying double its land-rent was in a state de¬
manding inquiry. The war secretary had talked much
about the diversion of war, and shown us its nature on his
principles. He had sent the Duke of York and an army
of thirty thousand men to the only neck of land perhaps
in the world where a fifth part of their own numbers was
equal to cope with them. Of the armistice of Hohenlin-
den, and the negociation which followed it, Mr Fox spoke
with indignation, reprobating the conduct of the minister,
which had so fatally proved that eloquence was distinct
from wisdom. Time had now evinced that all the great ob¬
jects of the war were defeated, and that our allies had de¬
serted us ; and when no prospect of success remained, we
might resort to negociation. The same men who had re¬
jected the proposals of Bonaparte with insolence, must
approach with respect, suing for favour, to avoid partici¬
pating in the disgrace. With regard to the Irish Catho¬
lics, no man ought to be deprived of his rights because
he worshipped God according to the dictates of his own
conscience; and it was a reflection upon parliament to
say, as Mr Pitt had said, that he could not there propose
a measure which he approved. He declared his belief
that no such difficulty existed, but that the late minister
might wish to retire for a season, till overtures of peace
were made, which he could not make, without mortification,
to the man whom he had insulted. He spoke of the change
of administration as a fortunate occurrence. Some indeed
might suspect, from the panegyric of Mr Pitt, that the
new ministers were the less gaudy puppets, directed by
those who had quitted their stations ; and if they adopted
the system of their predecessors, with the additional blame
of being hostile to the Catholic claims, acting in this point
from their own motives, they would be unworthy of con¬
fidence.
The new chancellor of the exchequer, Mr Addington,
observed, that the degree of confidence which the House
of Commons ought to extend to the present ministers, it
was not for him to conjecture; they only asked for that
portion of it which should be constitutionally reposed in
persons duly appointed by his majesty, unless it was pre¬
cluded by antecedent character and conduct. He then
commented on all the leading points in dispute with the
northern powers; and after stating the grounds of the
principle asserted by this country, and referring to the
exception made by existing treaties, gave it as his opinion
that the right for which we contended was vital and fun¬
damental, and could neither be abandoned nor compro¬
mised. Lastly, he felt it incumbent on him to declare
that it was the determination of his majesty’s servants to
take such steps as appeared to them best calculated for
the restoration of peace; that no form of government in
France would obstruct negociation ; and that if there was
a corresponding disposition on the part of the enemy, the
grand object would be accomplished. The motion for in¬
quiry was then rejected by a majority of more than two
to one.
Notwithstanding the change of ministry, Mr Pitt brought
forward the business of the supplies in the House of Com¬
mons. Their amount was L.35,587,462; of which sum
L.15,800,000 was for the navy, L.15,902,000 for the
army, and L.1,938,000 for the ordnance. The income tax
was now stated as only amounting to about L.6,000,000. Reign of
As some deficiencies of former estimates required to be Geor&e in-
provided for, Mr Pitt stated, that the whole charge of
the two countries, for the service of the year, would
amount to L.42,197,000, which would be divided between
the two countries thus : Great Britain for its fifteen seven¬
teenths of the joint expense, and those charges which be¬
longed separately to her, would have to defray, in round
numbers, L.37,870,000; and the charges falling upon Ire¬
land would be L.4,324,000. The sum of L.25,000,000
was raised by way of loan, and new taxes were imposed
upon paper, tea, houses, lead, the post-office, and various
other articles. The income tax was also further mort¬
gaged, so that the debt for which it was pledged amount¬
ed to L.76,000,000.
In the meanwhile, to prevent the active co-operation of
Denmark with Russia, and if possible to break up the
northern confederacy, an armament was fitted out in the
British ports, consisting of eighteen sail of the line, and as
many frigates, sloops, bombs, fire-ships, and smaller ves¬
sels, as made the whole amount to about fifty-three sail.
This fleet, under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker,
with Vice-admiral Lord Nelson as his second, sailed from
Yarmouth on the 12th of March 1801, and soon afterwards
reached its first rendezvous at the entrance of the Catte-
gat. The Danish navy at this time consisted of twenty-
three ships of the line, with about thirty-one frigates and
smaller vessels, exclusive of guard ships. The Swedes
had eighteen ships of the line, fourteen frigates and sloops,
seventy-four galleys and smaller vessels, besides gun-boats,
all in a state of respectable equipment. The Russians had
eighty-two sail of the line and forty frigates, and of these
thirty-one sail of the line and a proportional number of
frigates were in commission in the Baltic, being divided
between Petersburg, Archangel, Cronstadt, and Revel;
but their fleet was ill built, ill manned, ill officered, and
ill-equipped ; and, of the number in commission in the Bal¬
tic, probably not more than twenty sail of the line could
have been put into a condition to act against an enemy.
At this time the Swedes had eleven sail of the line at
Carlscrona, ready for sea, and in tolerable fighting trim;
the Danish fleet at Copenhagen consisted of ten sail of
the line ready for sea, exclusive of about an equal number
in an unserviceable state ; and, assuming the available
Russian force as above stated at twenty sail of the line,
it thus appears that the entire effective strength of the
fleets of the northern confederates amounted to forty-one
sail of the line, besides frigates and smaller vessels. But
as not more than twenty-five or twenty-six of these could
by any means have been assembled at a given point,
and as even the best of them were decidedly inferior to
our ships in condition, equipment, discipline, and skill,
eighteen, or even fifteen British sail of the line were more
than a match for them. This explanation is necessary to
show that the British government were not guilty of any
rashness in sending to the Baltic a force apparently so
small in comparison of that to which it was opposed;
though they certainly deserve the strongest reprobation
for allowing any petty consideration to prevent them from
appointing Nelson to the command.
It was at first hoped that Denmark, notwithstanding
her hostile demonstrations, would prefer negociation to
war; but this expectation having been disappointed, and
the Danish government, instead of conciliation, having
assumed a tone of open defiance, preparations were made
for forcing the passage of the Sound, though in these much
valuable time was lost through the irresolution of the ad¬
miral, Sir Hyde Parker. At length, however, the British
fleet weighed anchor at six o’clock in the morning of the
30th March, and with a fine breeze at north-north-west
Reign of entered the Sound in a line a-head, the van division com-
George III. manded by Lord Nelson in the Elephant, the centre divi-
sion by the commander-in-chief, and the rear division by
1801 • Rear-admiral Graves. At seven the batteries at Elsineur,
which had been represented as tremendous, commenced
firing at the Monarch, which was the leading ship, and the
other ships as they passed in succession; but the distance
was so great that not a shot took effect, nor did any of the
British ships fire in return except the van division, which
only discharged a few broadsides. As the strait at Elsi¬
neur, however, is less than three miles across, a mid-chan¬
nel passage would undoubtedly have exposed the ships to
a fire from Cronenburg Castle, adjoining Elsineur, on the
one side, and from the Swedish town of Helsinburg on the
other; but the British having observed that the batteries
of the latter mounted only eight guns of a small calibre,
inclined to the Swedish shore, where not even a show of
opposition was made, and passing within less than a mile
of it, avoided a fire which, as proceeding from nearly a
hundred pieces of cannon, could scarcely have failed to
do much injury to the ships. About noon the fleet an¬
chored at some distance above the island of Huen, which
is about fifteen miles from Copenhagen; and the com¬
mander-in-chief, Vice-admiral Lord Nelson, and Rear-ad¬
miral Graves, accompanied by Captain Domett and the
commanding officers of the artillery and troops (namely,
the forty-ninth regiment, two companies of the rifle corps,
and a detachment of artillery which had been embarked
on board a division of the fleet in the Downs), proceeded
in a lugger to reconnoitre the enemy’s defences. These
were soon ascertained to be of the most formidable de¬
scription. It was apparent that the Danes could not be
attacked without great difficulty and risk; and when a
council of war was called in the afternoon, much as usual
was urged to show the propriety of foregoing, or at least
delaying, the attack. Councils of war never fight. But
happily the opinion of Nelson prevailed, and he offered his
services for the attack, requiring ten sail of the line and
all the small craft. Sir Hyde Parker willingly accepted
the tender, gave him two more line-of-battle ships than he
asked, and wisely left every thing to his own judgment.
The force at Copenhagen was not the only obstacle to
be contended with. The approach to it was by a channel
extremely intricate and little known; and, to increase the
difficulty of navigating it, the Danes had removed or mis¬
placed the buoys. But Nelson himself saw the soundings
made, and buoys laid in the outer channel, between the
island of Saltholm and the Middle Ground, boating it upon
this exhausting service until it was completed. An attack
from the eastward was first meditated; but a second ex¬
amination of the Danish position, on the 31st, and a fa*-
vourable change of the wind, determined the vice-admiral
to attack from the south. Accordingly, on the morning
of the first of April, the British fleet removed to an an¬
chorage within two leagues of the town, off the north¬
western extremity of the Middle Ground; a shoal extend¬
ing along the whole sea front of the city of Copenhagen,
and leaving an intervening channel of deep water called
Konigstiefe, or King’s Channel, about three quarters of a
mile wide. In the course of the forenoon Nelson, accom¬
panied by Captain Riou of the Amazon, reconnoitred for
the last time the position which he was about to attack;
and soon after his return at one o’clock the signal to weigh
appeared at the Elephant’s mast-head. It was received
with a shout throughout the whole squadron, and prompt¬
ly obeyed. They weighed with a light and favourable
wind; the small craft pointed out the course distinctly;
Riou led the way in the Amazon; and coasting along the
edge of the right hand shoal or Middle Ground until they
reached and partly rounded its southern extremity, the
squadron anchored off Draco Point just as the darkness Reign of
closed, the headmost of the enemy’s line not being more George 111
than two miles distant. Captain Hardy now proceeded
in a small boat, under cover of the night, to examine the
channel between the anchorage and the Danish line, and
actually approached near enough to sound round the first
ship of the latter, using a pole lest the noise of throwing
the lead should occasion a discovery. Having completed
his task, he returned about eleven o’clock, and reported to
the admiral the depth of the water, and the practicability
of the channel up to the Danish line. This was gratifying
news to Nelson, though it added to his impatience, and
prevented him from sleeping during the remainder of the
night, the whole of which was spent in preparing instruc¬
tions and receiving reports.
The force now about to be attacked was of the most for¬
midable description. It consisted of eighteen vessels, all
two-decked ships, but some of them old and dismantled, with
frigates, praams, and radeaux, mounting altogether about
six hundred and fifty guns, and moored in a line of about
a mile in extent, flanked at the north end, or that nearest
the town, by two artificial islands called the Trekroner or
Crown Batteries, one of thirty twenty-four pounders, and
the other of thirty-eight thirty-six pounders, with furnaces
for heating shot, and commanded by two-decked block-
ships. The entrance into the harbour and docks, which are
situated in the heart of the city, was protected by a chain
drawn across it, and also by some batteries on the north¬
ern shore, particularly the Trekrdner already described;
and, in addition to this, two seventy-four gun ships, Danne-
marck and Trekroner, a forty-gun frigate, two eighteen
gun brigs, and several armed zebecs, provided with furnaces
for heating shot, were moored in advantageous positions off
the mouth of the harbour. Along the shore of Amak island,
a little to the southward of the floating line of defence,
were gun and mortar batteries; and as the Danes were ani¬
mated by an enthusiastic spirit of patriotism, and eager
by every possible means to repel the assailants, there was
no wane of men, skilful and brave, to work the guns, either
afloat or on shore.
The day of the second of April broke, as Nelson had
hoped it would, with a favourable, south-easterly wind;
and the signal for all the captains to come on board the
flag-ship was hoisted as soon as it could be seen. As
circumstances prevented the admiral’s plan of attack being
strictly followed, it may suffice to state that all the line-
of-battle ships were to anchor by the stern abreast of the
different vessels composing the enemy’s line, an operation
for which they were already prepared by having cables
out of their stern-ports. The Amazon, Blanche, Alcmene,
Arrow, and Dart, with two fire-ships, all under the direc¬
tion of Captain Riou, were to co-operate in the attack on
the ships stationed at the mouth of the harbour, and to
act otherwise as circumstances might require. The bomb-
vessels were to station themselves outside the British line,
and to throw their shells over it; while the Jamaica, with
the brigs and gun-vessels, was to take a position for rak¬
ing the southern extremity of the Danish line; and a si¬
milar station was assigned to the Desiree. It was also
intended that the forty-ninth regiment, under Colonel
Stewart, and five hundred seamen under Captain Free-
mantle of the Ganges, should storm the principal of the
Trekrdner batteries, the instant that its fire should be
silenced by the cannonade from the ships. Between eight
and nine o’clock the pilots, most of whom had been mates
in Baltic traders, were ordered on board the Elephant.
But as they hesitated about the bearing of the east and
of the shoal, and the exact line of deep water, it became
evident that their knowledge was not to be trusted. Nelson
was extremely perplexed. The signal for action had been
BRITAIN. 581
lleign of made ; the wind was fair ; not a moment was to be lost.
George III They were urged to be steady, to be resolute, and to de-
cide; but they wanted the only ground for steadiness and
1801. resolution in such a case; and Nelson had now reason to re¬
gret that he had not trusted to Captain Hardy’s single re¬
port. At length Mr Alexander Briarly, the master of the
Bellona, undertook to lead the fleet; and his proposal being
acceded to, the captains returned to their ships, and at half¬
past nine the signal was made for the ships to weigh in
succession, and advance to the attack.
The Edgar led the way; but the Agamemnon, which was
next in order, having anchored rather outside than off the
great shoal, could not weather it, and was obliged to bring
up again in six fathoms water, where the current was so
strong that, although she afterwards re-weighed, and con¬
tinued for a long time to warp with the stream and kedge
anchors, she was compelled again to bring up nearly in
the spot from which she had last weighed. When the
misfortune of the Agamemnon was discovered, the admiral
made signal for the Polyphemus, which followed the Edgar;
and the Isis steered after the Polyphemus. The Bellona,
notwithstanding a fair wind and ample room, kept too close
on the starboard shoal, and grounded abreast of the outer
ship of the enemy. The Russell following the Bellona,
also grounded ; and although both were within range of
shot, their absence from their intended stations was severe¬
ly felt. Three ships of the squadron were now aground and
comparatively useless; so that Nelson was compelled to
begin the attack with one ship of the line less than he had
calculated upon as absolutely necessary. In compliance
with the wish of the pilots, each ship had been ordered to
pass her leader on the starboard side, from a supposition
that the water shoaled on the larboard ; but, as Captain
Hardy had proved, the water deepened all the way to the
enemy’s line. The Elephant, flag-ship, came next; but
Lord Nelson, as soon as he perceived the state of the Bel¬
lona and Russell, ordered his helm to be put a starboard,
and passed within those ships; and all the ships astern
followed his example. By this act of promptitude on the
part of the admiral, the greater part of the fleet were sav¬
ed from going on shore. At the moment when Lord
Nelson’s squadron weighed, Admiral Parker’s eight ships
did the same, and took up a position somewhat nearer the
mouth of the harbour, so as to menace the northern wing
of the defence ; but a nearer approach was impracticable
in time to render any active service in the engagement.
The cannonade commenced at five minutes after ten,
and for nearly an hour the principal ships engaged were
the Polyphemus, Isis, Edgar, Ardent, and Monarch. By
half-past eleven, however, the Glatton, Elephant, Ganges,
and Defiance, got to their respective stations, as did also
several frigates and smaller vessels, and the action now
became general. The Desiree proved of great service in
raking the Provesteen, and drawing part of her fire from
the Polyphemus and Isis; but owing to the strength of
the current, the Jamaica, with the gun-vessels, could not
get near enough to be of any service in the action; and
the bomb-vessels were not able to execute much. The
absence of the Agamemnon, Bellona, and Russell, discon¬
certed the plan of the attack, and caused several of the
British ships to sustain a heavier share of the enemy’s
fire than had been allotted to them, or they were well able
to bear; and among the sufferers on this account was the
Amazon frigate, which, along with four others under Cap¬
tain Riou, had boldly taken a position right against the
Trekroner batteries. The cannonade had continued three
hours, and few if any of the Danish block-ships, praams,
or radeaux, had ceased firing, nor had the contest as yet
taken a decisive turn to either side. Meanwhile the com-
mander-in-chief, near enough to the scene of conflict to
know the unfavourable accidents which had deprived Nel- Reign of
son of one fourth of his force, and yet too distant to know George HI.
the real state of the contending parties, suffered the most
dreadful anxiety: and from the reports made to him that
signals of distress were flying at the mast-heads of two
British line-of-battle ships, and the signal of inability on
board a third; from observing the zig-zag course and slow
progress of the Defence, Ramillies, and Veteran, which he
had dispatched as a reinforcement; and from the distance
of the London, which bore his flag, preventing his judging
of the relative condition of the contending parties; Sir
Hyde Parker was induced to throw out the signal for dis¬
continuing the action. When this was reported to Nel¬
son, he continued to walk the deck without appearing to
take any notice of it. At the next turn the signal lieu¬
tenant met him, and having stated that the commander-
in-chief had thrown out number thirty-nine, asked if he
should repeat it. “ No,” replied Nelson, “ acknowledge
it;” and presently he called after the officer to know if the
signal for close action was still flying. Being answered
in the affirmative, he said, “ Mind you keep it so;” and,
after pacing the deck for some time, moving the stump of
his lost arm in a manner which always indicated great
emotion, he accosted one of the officers thus: “ Do you
know,” said he, “ what is shown on board the commander-
in-chief? Number thirty-nine.” The officer asked what
that meant. “ Why, to leave off action.” Then, shrugg¬
ing up his shoulders, he exclaimed, “ Leave olfaction! No,
damn me if I do. You know, Foley,” turning to the cap¬
tain, “ I have but one eye; I have a right to be blind some¬
times and then putting the glass to his blind eye, in
sportive bitterness, he exclaimed, “ I really do not see
the signal;” adding, after a momentary pause, “ Damn the
signal! Keep mine for closer battle flying. That’s the
way I answer such signals. Nail mine to the mast 1” The
three frigates and two sloops nearest to the London,
however, obeyed the signal, and hauled off from the Tre-
krdner batteries; when “ the gallant, good Riou” was
killed by a raking shot, which cut him in two, just as the
Amazon presented her stern to one of the latter.
About half past one the fire of the Danes began to
slacken, and at a little before two it had ceased along
nearly the whole of their line. Some of the praams and
light vessels had also gone adrift; but few if any of the
vessels whose flags had been struck would suffer them¬
selves to be taken possession of, and fired on the boats as
they approached ; whilst the batteries on the isle of Amak
aided them in this irregular warfare. Nelson was justly
irritated at this conduct on the part of the Danes ; and at
one time had thoughts of sending in the fire-ships to burn
the vessels which had surrendered. But, as a preliminary
measure, he retired into the stern gallery, and wrote to the
crown prince of Denmark that celebrated letter, which will
ever be memorable in the history of England: “ Vice-ad¬
miral Lord Nelson is commanded to spare Denmark when
she no longer resists. The line of defence which covered
her shores has struck to the British flag; but if the firing
is continued on the part of Denmark, be must set on fire
all the prizes that he has taken, without having the power
of saving the men who have so nobly defended them. The
brave Danes are the brothers, and should never be the
enemies, of the English.” This letter was carried on
shore with a flag of truce by Sir Frederick Thesiger, who
found the crown prince at a sally-port. Meanwhile a
destructive cannonade was still kept up by the Defiance,
Monarch, and Ganges, while the near approach of the
Defence and Ramillies silenced the fire of the Indosfore-
then, Holstein, and the ships next to them in the Danish
line. But the great Trekroner still continued its fire. This
formidable work, having had nothing but frigates and sloops
582 BRITAIN.
Reign of opposed to it, and that only for a time, was comparatively
George III. uninjuref]; and as it had just been manned with nearly
fifteen hundred men, it was considered as too strong to be
1801" successfully stormed. It was now judged advisable to
withdraw the fleet out of the intricate channel while the
wind was fair; and preparations were making for this pur¬
pose, when the Danish adjutant-general Lindholm came,
bearing a flag of truce ; upon which the Trekrbner discon¬
tinued its fire, and the action, after having lasted five
hours, during four of which it had been hotly contested,
was brought to a close.
The message from the crown prince being to inquire the
purport of Lord Nelson’s note, the latter replied in writ¬
ing, that humanity was the object; that he consented to
stay hostilities in order that the wounded Danes might be
taken on shore; that he would take his prisoners out of
the vessels, and burn or carry off his prizes, as he should
think fit; and that he would consider this as the greatest
victory he had ever gained, if it should lead to a recon¬
ciliation between the two countries. Sir Frederick The¬
siger was dispatched a second time with the reply; and
the Danish adjutant-general was referred to the com¬
mander-in-chief for a final adjustment of terms. Lind¬
holm, accordingly, proceeded to the London, about four
miles off; and Nelson, availing himself of the opportunity
thus afforded, made signal to the leading British ships, all
of which were much crippled in their rigging and sails, to
weigh in succession. The Monarch led the way, and touch¬
ed the edge of the shoal; but the Ganges taking her amid¬
ships, drove her clear. The Glatton, drawing less water,
passed free ; but the Defiance and Elephant grounded
about a mile from the Trekrbner, and there remained fix¬
ed for many hours, in spite of the exertions of their crews.
At the opposite end of the line, also, the Desiree, having
gone to assist the Bellona, became fast on the same shoal.
Soon after the Elephant grounded, Lord Nelson quitted
her and followed Lindholm to the London. The boats of
Sir Hyde Parker’s division were actively employed during
the whole night of the 2d in bringing out the prizes, and
in getting afloat the ships which were aground; and, by
the morning of the 3d, the latter, except the Desiree, were
got off. The negociations continued during the five fol¬
lowing days; and, in the interval, all the prizes, except the
Holstein, a sixty gun ship, which was sent home, were set
fire to and destroyed. Six line-of-battle ships and eight
praams had been taken. Of the former, the Zealand, a
much finer ship than the Holstein, was included amongst
those consigned to the flames, for what reason we have not
been able to ascertain. On the 9th an armistice for four¬
teen weeks was, after much discussion, agreed to; and
Denmark engaged to suspend all proceedings under the
treaty of armed neutrality which she had entered into with
Sweden and Russia.
This was a murderous action. Our loss in killed and
wounded fell little short of twelve hundred; whilst that
of the Danes, including prisoners, amounted to about six
thousand. Many of the British ships had suffered severe¬
ly, from the steady hull-firing of the enemy; whilst, as
to the Danish ships or floating hulks, the greater part of
them were literally knocked to pieces ; and had the pilots
permitted the British ships to take a closer position, where
the heavy carronades of the Glatton and Ardent would
have produced their full effect, the destruction would have
been still more complete, and certainly more rapid. For
the battle of Copenhagen Nelson received the title of Vis¬
count; a paltry reward for services equally splendid in
themselves, and important to the maritime interests of Reign of
England. George III.
On the 12th the British fleet sailed from Copenhagen
roads by the difficult channel of the Grounds, between the 1801.
islands of Amak and Saltholm, and steered for the north¬
ern extremity of the island of Bornholm, in order to inter¬
cept a Swedish squadron, reported at nine sail of the line.
The Swedish admiral, however, whose force consisted of
only six sail of the line, sought refuge behind the forts of
Carlscrona; and here a negociation was opened, which, on
the 22d, ended in an agreement by his Swedish majesty
to treat for the accommodation of all existing differences.
On the 5th of May Sir Hyde Parker was recalled, and
Nelson invested with the command, which ought never to
have been for one moment intrusted to another. On the
8th he informed the Swedish admiral, by a flag of truce,
that although Sir Hyde Parker had consented not to in¬
terrupt Swedish navigation, he, Lord Nelson, would act
against the Swedish fleet if he found it at sea; and he
left Captain Murray with six sail of the line, the Glatton,
and a frigate, to cruise off Carlscrona. On the 14th his
lordship anchored off Revel roads, prepared, if necessary,
to let Russia feel “ the Nelson touch,” under which Den¬
mark and Sweden had quailed; but events had already
occurred in that country which changed the aspect of af¬
fairs, and brought on an accommodation without any fur¬
ther hostilities.1
On the 23d of March the emperor Paul, who had per¬
formed so versatile and extraordinary a part on the political
stage, from the period when he ascended the Russian throne,
expired suddenly. His capricious tyranny, which was at
last about to be directed against the members of his own
family, proved fatal to him, and he fell the victim of one
of those conspiracies to which despots are peculiarly expos¬
ed. His son and successor, Alexander, immediately dis¬
claimed all hostility against Great Britain, and made re¬
paration for the damage which our merchants had suffer¬
ed from the embargo laid upon their ships. A convention
was adjusted with Russia in the month of June, which put
an end to the dispute with the northern states, as Sweden
and Denmark could not of themselves hope to resist the
power of Great Britain; and by the third article of the
agreement it was stipulated, that effects embarked in neu¬
tral vessels should be free, with the exception of contra¬
band stores of war, and the property of an enemy; that
the latter designation should not include merchandise of
the produce, growth, or manufacture of the countries at
war, acquired by the subjects of the neutral state, and
transported on their account; that the commodities pro¬
hibited should be such only as were declared contraband
by the treaty of commerce concluded between Great Bri¬
tain and Russia in 1797 ; that a port should be considered
as under blockade when the ships of a belligerent power
should be so stationed as to render it evidently dangerous
to enter; that neutral vessels should not be stopped, ex¬
cept upon strong grounds ; that the proceeding should
be uniform, prompt, and legal; and that the right of
searching mercantile ships sailing under convoy of a ship
of war should only be exercised by the ships of the go¬
vernment, not by those of private adventurers. By this
arrangement the chief points in dispute were settled in
favour of this country.
The war between France and Great Britain was now
reduced to merely maritime operations, and these were of
no great magnitude. One of the most important occurred
upon the coast of Spain, between Sir James Saumarez
1 James’s Naval History of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 518, et seqq. London, 1822; Southey’s Life of Nelson,
London, 1813.
:, vol. u. p. 100, et seqq.
BRITAIN.
583
1801.
Reign of and a squadron of French and Spanish ships of war. On
George III. the morning of the 6th of July, the British admiral stood
through the Straits of Gibraltar, with the intention of at¬
tacking three French line-of-battle ships and a frigate,
which were lying at anchor oft' Algesiras. On opening Ca-
brita Point he found that the ships lay at a considerable
distance from the batteries on shore, and having the ad¬
vantage of a leading wind, he conceived that he had every
prospect of success. He had previously directed Captain
Hood in the Venerable to lead the squadron; but the
wind failing, this officer found it impossible to occupy the
station assigned to him. Captain Stirling in the Pompee,
however, having anchored opposite the inner ships of the
enemy, commenced the action ; while, in the ardour to en¬
gage, the Hannibal unfortunately ran aground. Every ef¬
fort was now made by the admiral to cover this ship from
the enemy’s fire; but as she was only three cables length
from one of the batteries on shore, he was obliged to re¬
tire, and to leave her in their hands. The loss on board
the English squadron was considerable. The admiral had
scarcely reached harbour when he was apprised that the
French line-of-battle ships, disabled in the action of the
6th, were on the 8th reinforced by a squadron of five
Spanish ships of the line under the command of Don Juan
de Mozen, and a French ship of seventy-four guns; and
that they were all under sail on the morning of the 12th
of July, together with their prize the Hannibal. He had
almost despaired of having a sufficient force in readiness
to oppose such numbers; but by great exertion he was
able to warp out of the Mole with all the ships under his
command, the Pompee excepted, which had not time to
get in her masts. The object of the British admiral being
to intercept this powerful force on its way to Cadiz, he
observed, late in the evening, that the enemy’s ships had
cleared Cabrita Point, and at eight he bore up after them.
About eleven the Superb came up with the hostile squa¬
dron, and opened her fire at not more than three cables’
length. At this critical period a mistake of the enemy
decided the fate of the action. In the darkness and con¬
fusion, the Spanish ships fired upon each other; the Real
Carlos took fire and blew up; whilst the Hermenegildo,
mistaking her for an enemy, ran on board of her, and
shared her melancholy fate; and the San Antonio, of se¬
venty-four guns and seven hundred and thirty men, being
thus left unsupported, struck to the Superb. The remain¬
ing ships of the enemy now crowded all sail and stood out
of the straits; and at daybreak there appeared in sight
only one French ship, which was standing towards the
shoals of Cavil. But at this juncture the wind failing her,
the Venerable was able to bring her to action, and had
nearly silenced her when the loss of the mainmast ob¬
liged the captain of the Venerable to desist; and this ship,
which was one of eighty-four guns, escaped along with
the rest.
As the French had now resumed their usual menacing
project of invasion, and appeared to be collecting a force
in the harbour of Boulogne, an attempt was made by Lord
Nelson to obstruct their preparations; and he succeeded
in doing some damage, which appears to have encouraged
him to make a more serious effort. Boats intended for
boarding the French vessels were sent off in the night in
four divisions, under the conduct of the Captains Somer¬
ville, Parker, Cotgrave, and Jones; and launches furnish¬
ed wdth howitzers were detached under Captain Conn to
join in the enterprise. Parker’s division first approached the
enemy, and commenced a furious attack, making strenuous
efforts, with the most undaunted courage, and sanguine
hopes of success. But an unforeseen obstacle baffled all
their exertions. This was a very strong netting traced up
to the lower yards of the French vessels, which were also
fastened by chains to the ground and to each other; and Reign of
so effectual was the resistance of the enemy thus protected,
that the crew of Captain Parker’s boat were repulsed in
their attempts to board a large brig, by a furious discharge
of cannon and musketry, which killed a number of the as¬
sailants, while many more were wounded and maimed. The
captain received a shot which carried off his leg and part
of his thigh, and his boat would have been seized by the
enemy, had not a cutter seasonably towred her off. In the
mean time Somerville silenced the fire of a brig near the
pier head; but so far from being able to bring her off, he
found difficulty in securing the retreat of his own boats.
Cotgrave, after a spirited attack, was deprived of the ser¬
vices of many of his men by a fire from the flotilla and
the shore. And Jones felt so strongly the obstruction of
the tide, that not being able to approach before the break
of day, when the other captains were returning, he re¬
tired without making any hostile attempt. Captain Par¬
ker died of his wounds after the return of the fleet to the
Downs. The number of British seamen killed and wound¬
ed on this occasion amounted to nearly two hundred.
Owing to the refusal of the former administration to ra¬
tify the capitulation of El Arish, negociated between Ge¬
neral Kleber and Sir Sidney Smith, the French still retained
possession of Egypt. To remedy this unpardonable blunder
a considerable force had been dispatched from Great Bri¬
tain, under the conduct of an experienced and gallant offi¬
cer, Sir Ralph Abercromby. The British forces under Lord
Keith and General Abercromby, after unexpected delays
on the coast of Asia Minor, arrived off Alexandria on the
1st of March; and the following day the fleet made sail
for the bay of Aboukir, where it anchored. The sea con¬
tinued to run high until the 8th, and no disembarkation
could be effected; but on that day the first division made
good their landing at ten o’clock in the morning, in the face
of a body of French, who, evidently aware of their inten¬
tion, were posted in force, with considerable advantage, on
some sand hills opposite the landing place. The front of
the disembarkation was narrow, and a hill which command¬
ed the whole appeared almost inaccessible; yet the British
troops ascended it under a fire of grape and musketry with
the utmost intrepidity, and forced the French to retire,
leaving behind them seven pieces of artillery, and a num¬
ber of horses. The disembarkation was continued during
that and the following day; while the troops which landed
on the 8th advanced three miles the same day. On the 12th
the whole army moved forward, and came in sight of the
French, who were formed advantageously on a ridge, with
their left resting on the canal of Alexandria and their right
towards the sea. As it was determined to commence the
attack on the 13th, the British force marched in two lines
by the left, with an intention of turning the right flank of
the enemy. But the attack was in some measure antici¬
pated by the French, who descended from the heights on
which they were formed, and assailed the leading brigades
of both lines. The British troops were therefore compel¬
led to change their front, which, though one of the most
difficult operations in wrar, was executed with the greatest
precision ; and the rest of the army immediately followed
their example. After a severe conflict, victory declared in
favour of the English, though not without considerable loss.
The French commander-in-chief, Abdallah Menou, ap¬
pears to have acted upon this occasion with but little judg¬
ment. Instead of bringing down nearly his whole force
to the coast, which would have enabled him greatly to
outnumber, and consequently, in all probability, to defeat
the invaders, who were less acquainted with the country
than his own officers, he thought fit to hazard an engage¬
ment on the 21st of March with only half his force. The
battle commenced before day light in the morning, by a
584 BRITAIN.
Reign of false attack on the left of the English under Major-gene-
George III. ral Craddock, in which the French were repulsed. But the
most vigorous efforts of the enemy were directed against
1801' the right of the English army, which they endeavoured
by every possible means to turn. The attack on this
point was begun with great impetuosity by the French in¬
fantry, sustained by a strong body of cavalry, who charged
in column. The contest was unusually obstinate. The
French were twice repulsed, and their cavalry were re¬
peatedly intermixed with the English infantry. While
this was passing on the right, the French attempted to
penetrate the centre of the British army with a column of
infantry, who were also repulsed and obliged to retreat.
A corps of light troops, however, advanced, supported by
infantry and cavalry, to keep in check the left of the
English, which was the weakest of the line; but all their
efforts were fruitless, and the British remained masters of
the field. The loss on our side was great, amounting in
killed, wounded, and missing, to upwards of fifteen hun¬
dred. The loss of the French was calculated in the
English accounts at three thousand. One of the French
generals, Roiz, was killed, and Generals Lanusse and Bo-
det died of their wounds. A French regiment which had
been styled Invincible was destroyed in this battle, and its
colours fell into the hands of a serjeant of the 42d regiment,
called Sinclair, having, it is said, been picked up on the field
by a Maltese, named Anthony Lutz. The victory of the
21st decided the fate of Egypt. In this battle, however,
the British army suffered a great calamity in the loss of its
general. This officer was at once beloved and esteemed
by the soldiers whom he commanded; he preserved the
strictest military discipline, while at the same time he
secured the attachment of his troops by his obvious anxi¬
ety for their welfare. Early in the revolutionary war
he had been employed on the Continent. He command¬
ed the advanced guard in the action on the heights of
Cateau, and he conducted the march of the guards from
Deventer to Oldensaal in the retreat of the British troops
in 1794. In the following years, till 1797, he command¬
ed in chief in most of the successful enterprises of the
British in the West Indies; and on his return to Eu¬
rope he was invested with the rank of lieutenant-gene¬
ral, and appointed to the command of the forces in Ire¬
land. In this station he made great efforts at once to
protect the people and restore discipline to the army,
both of which the violence of faction had induced the ru¬
lers of that country to neglect. Though a man of simple
manners, yet he possessed great independence of charac¬
ter, and did not hesitate to express, in public orders, the
indignation which he felt on observing the disorder and
consequent misery which had been introduced into Ire¬
land, by encouraging the licentious insolence of the troops
towards persons accounted disaffected to the government;
freely informing the army in that country that they were
become formidable to every one but the enemy. In the
expedition to Holland he displayed military talents which
excited the admiration not only of his own army, but of
the generals who were opposed to him.
After the death of Sir Ralph Abercromby, the com¬
mand devolved upon General Hutchinson, who lost no
time in proceeding towards Alexandria, where the princi¬
pal force of the enemy was now concentered. In the
mean time the town and castle of Rosetta were taken by
a division of the British army under Colonel Spencer,
aided by a body of Turks. The French garrison, amount¬
ing to eight hundred men, made but a feeble resistance,
and retired to the right bank of the Nile, leaving a few
men killed and prisoners. While such was the state of
affairs in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, Admiral Blan¬
ket, with a considerable force from the East Indies, ef¬
fected a landing at Suez. The admiral had been sepa- Reign of
rated from the rest of his squadron in the dangerous and George III
difficult passage of the Red Sea; but before the end of
April he was joined by a large reinforcement under the
command of General Baird, who had with him Colonels
Wellesley and Murray, and other officers of distinction.
As the capture of Grand Cairo, next to that of Alex¬
andria, was a great object with the allies, a force was de¬
tached early in May for its reduction. On the 9th Gene¬
ral Hutchinson, with four thousand British and an equal
numberof Turks, attacked the French near Rhamanieh;and
the latter being driven in, retreated in the night towards
Cairo, leaving a small garrison at Rhamanieh, which on
the following day surrendered to the British. The loss
of the English on this occasion did not exceed thirty men.
About the same time a body of French and Copts, who
had moved forward from Cairo to attack the Turks, were
defeated by the grand vizier, who was essentially assisted
by Colonel Murray and other British officers. The French
are said to have lost fifty men, and the Turks about thirty
in this action. The whole number of French engaged
amounted to nearly five thousand, and the Turkish army
to about nine thousand.
From various causes, it was the middle of June before
the British army under General Hutchinson reached the
vicinity of Cairo, where he found the works very much
extended, though the garrison did not exceed five thou¬
sand in number. The capitan pasha at the same time
invested Gizeh, a suburb of Cairo, on the left bank of
the Nile, and the grand vizier took a position within can¬
non-shot of the city. Thus invested on every side, the
garrison, on the 22d, sent a flag of truce to the English
general, offering to treat for the evacuation of Cairo upon
certain conditions. After a negociation of several days,
the surrender was finally agreed upon in a convention of
twenty-one articles ; the substance of which was, that the
French army at Cairo and its dependencies were to be con¬
veyed in the ships of the allied powers, and at their ex¬
pense, together with their baggage, arms, ammunition, and
other effects, to the nearest French ports in the Mediter¬
ranean ; and of this convention General Menou was to
be at liberty to avail himself. The port of Alexandria
was all that now remained in possession of the French;
it was attacked by sea and land, and at length surrender¬
ed by capitulation on the 2d of September.
By the time when intelligence of this event reached
England, the views of men had been turned to a new
state of things. Administration had seriously entered into
negociations for peace, which were conducted by Lord
Hawkesbury on the part of Great Britain, and M. Otto,
who resided in London as agent for the French prisoners
of war, and who was now intrusted on the part of the
French with this important business. The whole was
managed with such secrecy, that not even persons who
held official situations, except those immediately concern¬
ed, were acquainted with the state of the negociation;
and the lord mayor of London was the first person out of
the cabinet to whom the result was communicated. Thus
no unfair advantage could be taken ; and this treaty stands
almost singular on our records, since, at a period when
the practice of gambling in the public funds was, from the
wide extension of public credit, more predominant than at
any previous crisis, not a single instance occurred of any
sinister practice. By the preliminary articles, which were
signed at London on the 1st of October, by M. Otto on
the part of the French republic, and Lord Hawkesbury
on the part of his Britannic majesty, Great Britain agreed
to the restoration of all her conquests, the island of Iri-
nidad and the Dutch possessions of Ceylon excepted.
The Cape of Good Hope was to remain a free port to all
BRITAIN. 585
Keign of the contracting parties, who were to enjoy the same ad-
George III. vantages; the island of Malta was to be evacuated by
the British troops, and restored to the order of St John
1801. 0f Jerusalem; Egypt was to be restored to the Ottoman
Porte; the territory of Portugal was to be maintained in
its integrity; the French troops were to evacuate the
territories of Rome and of Naples; the republic of the
Seven Islands was recognised by France; the fishery at
Newfoundland was re-established on its former footing;
and, finally, plenipotentiaries were to be named, and to
repair to Amiens, in order to proceed with the arrange¬
ment of a definitive treaty of peace, in concert with the
allies of the contracting parties. During the war, ne-
gociations for peace had so repeatedly proved unsuccess¬
ful, that a general incredulity prevailed with regard to
the possibility of such an event; and accordingly all mer¬
chants conducted their speculations upon the supposi¬
tion that there existed no probability of an immediate
termination to the war. The state of the present nego-
ciation had been so carefully concealed, that, when the
official intelligence of its issue was transmitted through¬
out the country, it excited everywhere the utmost asto¬
nishment, but nevertheless produced, almost instantane¬
ously, the most unbounded expressions of joy among all
orders of persons. The zealous adherents of the late ad¬
ministration, indeed, were upon the whole rather dissatis¬
fied ; but their voice was overwhelmed in the general ac¬
clamations which took place, and far surpassed the ex¬
pressions of joy which had occurred at the termination of
any former war ; and, as an abundant harvest was at the
same time reaped, the prospect of plenty added greatly to
the public joy.
CHAP. XVII.
REIGN OF GEORGE III. FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO
THE RENEWAL OF THE WAR IN 1803.
Meeting of Parliament—Speech from the Throne—The Peace
impugned by Mr Windham—Debates on this subject—Defini¬
tive Treaty Suspicious conduct of Bonaparte—Debates on
the Definitive Treaty General Conduct of Administration—
Effects of the Change of Ministry—Consequences of the Peace.
—Conduct of the French Government—French Expedition to
St Domingo Abominable cruelty and oppression practised by
the invading force Conduct of the French in Europe—Des¬
potism of Bonaparte The First Consul and the English News¬
papers Meeting of Parliament—Execution of Despard and
his Associates Difficulties experienced in executing the Treaty
of Amiens Bonaparte’s Conversation with Lord Whitworth 
Transference of Louisiana—Extraordinary Scene between the
First Consul and the British Ambassador—Ultimatum of the
British Court—War renewed—Declaration in justification of
the renewal of the War—Situation of the Ministry—State of
Parties Menace of Invasion—Preparations for encountering
the threatened attack—Patriotism of all classes—The army,
the militia, the army of reserve, and the volunteers.
Parliament assembled on the 29th of October. By this
time the new administration, from the mildness of their
conduct, and their successful negociations for peace, had
obtained a powerful hold on the affections of the public.
When they first came into office they appeared to have
obtained a promise of support from their predecessors;
but this kind of gratuitous support could scarcely be ex¬
pected to be very consistent or uniform. Mr Pitt him¬
self continued to give countenance to the minister; but
some of his friends avowed their dissatisfaction on ac¬
count of the treaty with France. The speech from the
throne announced the conclusion of the negociations com¬
menced during the last session of parliament; and ex¬
pressed much satisfaction that the differences with the
VOL. v.
northern powers had been adjusted. It stated that the Reign of
preliminaries of peace had been ratified between us and fTeorge II1-
the French republic; that whilst this arrangement mani-
fested the justice and moderation of our views, it would
also be found conducive to the interests of the country
and the honour of the British character; and that as the
provision for defraying the expenses of maintaining an
adequate peace establishment could not be made without
large additional supplies, all possible attention would be
paid to such economical arrangements as were consistent
with the security of his majesty’s dominions. The speech
concluded with applauding the operations of the last cam¬
paign, and particularly the glorious issue of the expedi¬
tion to Egypt, which, however, has deserved and obtained
a more fitting commemoration.
In the House of Lords the motion for the usual address
passed unanimously. In the House of Commons, both
Mr Fox and Mr Pitt declared that they joined in the ge¬
neral joy which the peace had produced, and gave it their
approbation. On the other hand, Mr Windham differed
as to there being any just cause for general joy and exul¬
tation ; and he disapproved of the preliminaries of peace
signed with France, as well as of the address, in as far as
it implied an approbation of them. It behoved him to
give his reasons for dissenting on so material a point. To
stand as a solitary mourner in the midst of public rejoic¬
ings, to wear a countenance clouded with sadness whilst
all others were lighted up with pleasure, certainly appear¬
ed ungracious. But were the circumstances of this peace
such as justified our exultation upon former occasions?
To him they appeared in a quite contrary view ; and when
he was desired to illuminate, he first endeavoured to learn
whether it was to light him to a feast or a sepulchre. It
was his firm persuasion, that in signing this peace his
friends had put their signatures to the death-warrant of
the country. He knew the inconsistency of human af¬
fairs, nor was he profane enough to set bounds to the dis¬
pensations of providence; but neither could he foresee
what changes might be wrought in the disposition of the
people of England by intrigues from without or convul¬
sions from within; and upon no rational view could he
see his way out of the evils it would entail upon this coun¬
try. The only thing necessary to enable France to divide
with us the empire of the seas was a participation of our
commerce, and this she would effectually secure by the
present peace ; whilst, by the surrender of our conquests,
we had thrown out of our hands the only means to pre¬
vent it, the extension of our colonial system. The mo¬
tives which induced ministers to conclude these prelimi¬
naries, he knew not; some of them he had heard, but was
not convinced, as they appeared wholly insufficient. If
they were forced to accept this peace through inability,
their conduct was the more excusable; and we had to
thank them, not for what they had acquired, but saved
to their country. If they could prove that, by ceding fo¬
reign colonies, they had preserved objects nearer and
dearer to us, as Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Ireland, and
the soil of England, from ravage and desolation, they were
entitled to gratitude instead of censure, and had esta¬
blished, not a ground of apology, but a claim to thanks.
But such a plea he did not recognise; and how far they
were actuated by necessity, would be a matter for future
discussion.
Mr Addington described the observations of Mr Wind¬
ham as premature, since the articles of the treaty were
not before the house ; and, without referring to the terms
of the peace, he affirmed, that all we had given up would
have afforded us no sort of security against the dangers
apprehended by Mr Windham, and that the best counter¬
poise to the power of France consisted in the preservation
4 E
—
586 B R I T AIN.
Reign of of our constitution, in our industry and skill, and in the West Indies we had Martinico, Trinidad, and other islands ; Reign of
George III. right direction of our resources. Mr Sheridan, notwith- upon the continent of South America we had an absolute George III.
standing the unanimity with which the address was con- empire, in extent almost equal to that power to which we y'~w'
sented to, believed, that if men sincerely delivered their restored it. Such were the colonial possessions acquired 1801.
opinions, theie never was a period of less real unanimity, by the war ^ and if Europe could not have been restored
The peace had been spoken of as glorious and honourable, to her pristine state, these ought to have been retained as
It was a peace of which every Englishman might be glad, a counterpoise to the power of France. He denied the
but no one proud ; and it involved a degradation of national fairness of comparing the present treaty with that pro¬
dignity such as the war might lead us to expect, though posed at Lisle. We now gave up Surinam, Malta, and
perhaps it was as good as any minister could make in the Minorca. At no time during the contest was the spirit
circumstances in which we were placed. of the country so depressed as at the negociation of Lisle.
His majesty having by message communicated the pre- A variety of causes combined to produce that despon-
liminary treaty with the French republic, an address of dency; the stoppage of the bank, the defection of our al-
thanks was moved on the 3d of November, when Earl Spen- lies, and, above all, the mutiny in the fleet. The measure,
cer expressed his regret at differing in sentiment from the therefore, was defensible on the score of necessity; but
ministers, with some of whom it was his pride to have coin- this was not the case at present; yet we had given to the
cided in principles, and co-operated in conduct. The great French the only thing they wanted, the means of creating
object of Britain, in former wars with France, had been the a navy, and of rivalling us in our commerce, while we had
preservation of the balance of power. This was the point obtained nothing in return. The Earl of Moira was of
which had been considered, from king William’s confede- opinion, that though the terms of the treaty were inade-
racy against Louis XIV. to the present time ; and to in- quate, they were unavoidable. Lord Nelson observed re-
sure the maintenance of such an equilibrium, it was not specting Malta, that when he was sent down the Mediter-
only necessary that Britain should not be left by the ranean, this island was in the hands of the French; and
peace in a worse political situation than in the beginning on his return from Aboukir, it was his first object to
of the war, hut that her strength, possessions, or acquisi- blockade it, because he deemed it an invaluable service
tions, should continue in proportion as high as those of to rescue it out of their possession. In any other view it
hrance. In the present war, the acquisitions of France was of no consequence, being at too great a distance from
had been infinitely bej’ond all former conception ; she had, Toulon to watch the French fleet from that port; and in
by her arts or her arms, subdued the Netherlands, Hoi- time of peace it would have required a garrison of seven
land, the left bankot the Rhine, and a great part of Italy; thousand men, and in war as many more, without being
her power, compared with that of Great Britain, exceeded of any real utility to us. The address was carried by a
what she had been allowed to retain at any former treaty great majority.
of pacification ; nor could we be secure, when such im- When the same subject was discussed in the House of
mense acquisitions had been left to France, without any Commons, Lord Hawkesbury ascribed the origin of the
thing like an equivalent left to this country. He there- war to the interference of France in the affairs of other
fore condemned the conditions of the peace now conclud- nations; but the state of that country was now consider¬
ed, as of very great inequality, whether with reference to ably amended, and it was impossible to look at the present
the relative state of France and the Continent, or to that condition of France without being convinced that we had
of France and England. , Lord Pelham thought that the at least effected this change. He then expatiated on
terms of peace were the best which, could be procured, the advantages we had gained, and the good faith we
even in favour of our allies. Portugal was safe, the Ro- had maintained with our allies, releasing them from ex¬
man and Neapolitan territories had been released from the press stipulations when they were exposed to danger
hrench yoke ; the French were expelled from Egypt, by by continuing faithful to their engagements. With re-
which our Ottoman ally had been saved; and with regard spect to Minorca, he did not consider that island as an
to Malta, its retention would have been more injurious acquisition worth retaining. Of Malta he spoke with
than beneficial to England, as a powerful garrison would less confidence, as, from its impregnable state, it was
have been requisite for its protection. In the East and certainly of political consequence in the Mediterranean;
West Indies we had been triumphant by sea and land; but it was no source of trade and opulence; and, con-
and our possessions had received important additions hy nected with the prosperity of the Levant, its consequence
the conquests we had made. As to the security of the was considerably diminished. In a word, considering
peace, we had every security which could be expected; and the results of the war, if the term glory were not taken
besides, it was the policy and interest of France to pre- into account, we had at least made an honourable peace;
serve it. Lord Grenville thought that, as Britain was in we had been engaged in a tremendous contest, and had
a prosperous state, we ought to have obtained more ho- come out of it, considering the circumstances, with ad-
nourable terms of peace, because we were in a condition vantage. Earl Temple considered those who had signed
to demand them. It was far from his intention to under- the peace as having signed the ruin of their country,
value the acquisitions of France; on the contrary, he Amongst the ill consequences likely to result from it,
thought them much more important than was generally he lamented the encouragement given to republican prin-
esteemed. She had made the Rhine the boundary of the ciples; and as to the various ostensible objects of the
empire, and extended her territories beyond the ambition war, not one of them had been accomplished. Mr Pitt
of her monarchs, having her frontiers protected by de- said that it was undoubtedly the duty of government, in
pendent republics and tributary kings. On our side we negociations, to obtain the best possible terms; but it
had triumphs no less brilliant and striking. We had mul- was difficult to know how far insisting on some lesser
tiplied our colonies, and our navy sailed the seas invincible ; points might endanger the whole treaty; and he declared
we had rescued Egypt, captured Malta, possessed ourselves that he would rather close with an enemy on any terms
of Minorca, and shut up the Mediterranean from the ships not inconsistent with the honour of his country, than
of trance and Spain; the Cape of Good Hope, the key of continue a war for any particular possession. He did
the East, was ours ; in the East Indies we had every thing not pretend to state that this peace fully answered all
except Batavia, which we might also have possessed had his wishes; but the government had obtained the best
we thought it worth the cost of an expedition; in the conditions they could, and the terms for which we con-
BRITAIN.
Reign of tended would not have justified ministers in protracting
ti-eorge III. the war. Mr Fox declared himself satisfied with the
terms of the treaty, and asserted, that no perseverance in
le0;->- the war would have enabled us to make peace upon bet¬
ter conditions. There were persons who lamented the
peace as glorious for France; but if it were so, and not
inglorious to England, it gave him no concern. The opi¬
nions of men depended in a great degree upon their con¬
ceptions of the causes of the war; if one of its objects was
the restoration of the accursed despotism of France, to
him it was another recommendation of the peace, that it
had been obtained without the accomplishment of such an
object. In the terms and tone of the present treaty he
perfectly coincided. He approved the terms, and thought
the noble secretary had wisely tempered firmness of con¬
duct with moderation of tone; but further than this he
could not go. He would by no means agree respecting
the time in which the treaty was made: it came many
years too late. He would put it to the house, whether, at
the time the opposition was most railed against for advis¬
ing pacific measures, we could not have made peace on
terms equally advantageous with the present. Would
not France, on the breaking out of the war, have acceded
to any? Would she not then have relinquished Holland,
and perhaps abandoned her designs on the Netherlands ?
But, since that eventful period, could we not have nego-
ciated better after the surrender of Valenciennes; and
again, at Lisle, when we only failed from the extravagant
pretensions of administration? In January 1800, the first
consul made a direct overture, and we returned an an¬
swer, that the most effectual mode of facilitating peace
would be to restore the Bourbons. Did we hint then at
the possession of Ceylon or Trinidad ? Would not Bona¬
parte have added these ? Yes, and the Cape into the
bargain. We then might have had Egypt by the conven¬
tion of El Arish. The gallant Abercromby, indeed, would
not have fallen covered with laurels in the lap of victory,
nor would our brave army have acquired immortal ho¬
nour ; but we should have gained Egypt without the loss
of blood or treasure. The first consul might not per¬
haps have relinquished the Netherlands, nor the left bank
of the Rhine; but in Italy he had only the Genoese ter¬
ritory, and we had nothing then to resist to the south¬
eastward of the Alps, and our allies were victorious on the
frontiers of France. At that time the instability of the
government operated with us; but neither its stability
nor its instability were of any real consequence. None of
the convulsions and changes of the French revolution pro¬
duced any material difference in her relation with foreign
powers. She had at the beginning made peace with Prus¬
sia, and sedulously preserved it during the stormy times
succeeding its ratification. We were told by the minis¬
ters to pause, and we did pause from January 1800 to Oc¬
tober 1801, and added seventy-three millions to our na¬
tional debt since we returned that impertinent answer to
the overtures of Bonaparte ; and this pause cost five times
as much as all the Duke of Marlborough’s campaigns.
To negociate the definitive treaty of peace, the Marquis
Cornwallis went to Paris towards the close of the year,
and thence proceeded to Amiens, where the negociations
went on very slowly, and were not concluded till the 27th
of March 1802. The chief difficulty occurred with regard
to Malta. But it was at last agreed that it should be re¬
stored to the knights of the order of St John of Jerusalem,
under the protection and sovereignty of the king of Naples ;
that it should be under the guarantee of France, England,
Russia, Spain, Austria, and Prussia ; and that if the order
should not have sufficient troops to defend the island, the
guaranteeing powers should each contribute an equal por¬
tion of troops, the officers to be appointed by the grand
587
master. It was settled that Malta should be a neutral Reign of
port, that one half of the garrison should be Maltese, and ^ieorSe HE
that there should be no French nor English body of knights,
or tongue as it is called. The king of Naples, however,
was to be invited to garrison the island with two thousand
men for one year from the restitution of the knights;
which was to take place in three months after the ex¬
change of the ratifications of the treaty. In other re¬
spects the definitive treaty differed little from the preli¬
minaries formerly agreed to.
During the dependence of the negociation, the first con¬
sul, Bonaparte, had taken some steps which indicated little
moderation, and showed that it would be difficult to re¬
main upon terms of amity with him, while the desire of
extensive dominion which at present governed his councils
seemed of too restless a character to allow much hope of
tranquillity to the world. Without waiting till a definitive
treaty of peace had been concluded, he sent a large army
to St Domingo, which obliged Britain to dispatch a power¬
ful fleet to the West Indies in order to watch its motions.
On the Continent his measures were not less arbitrary. A
considerable portion of Lombardy, with Milan as its capi¬
tal, which had been erected into what was called the Ita¬
lian or Cisalpine republic, and contained some millions of
people, was now united to France, by the form of nominat¬
ing Bonaparte to the office of president over it; a measure
which at any other period would have involved all Europe
in war : but at present no state ventured to interpose, and
the British ministers finding no power in Europe disposed
to resist this step towards the permanent aggrandisement
of France, and being themselves anxious to restore peace,
did not interrupt the negociations on this account.
On Thursday the 29th of April Lord Pelham, by his ma¬
jesty’s command, laid before the House of Lords a copy
of the definitive treaty of peace between his Britannic
majesty and the French republic, and his Catholic majes¬
ty and the Batavian republic, signed at Amiens on the
27th of March. Several debates occurred in that house
upon the subject; and at length, on the 15th of May,
Lord Grenville moved the order of the day for the house
to take into consideration the definitive treaty. He re¬
marked, that it might be asked of what use was discus¬
sion, now that peace was concluded ? Was it to abrogate,
could it correct the treaty ? To this question he answered,
that this unfortunate treaty had been ratified by his ma¬
jesty, and was therefore irrevocable; to its terms, how¬
ever injurious, we were bound to accede. By evasion we
should but add disgrace to disaster, and with the loss of
national honour fill up the measure of national calamity.
He wished not to impede the execution of the treaty, but
to demonstrate to that house its dangerous tendency ; to
ascertain the situation in which it left the country ; to
point out the perils which impended, and the safety which
yet remained. His objections to the preliminary treaty
he had already stated ; but to the definitive treaty there
were objections yet more formidable. The two bases of
negociation, the status ante helium, which signified the ac¬
tual situation of the parties previous to hostilities, and the
uti possidetis, which referred to their position during the
pacification, had both been applied in the most prejudi¬
cial manner to this country. With regard to herself, Eng¬
land had adopted the status ante helium; with regard to
her rival, the uti possidetis. England had ceded her own
conquests, and confirmed to France her new acquisitions.
France possessed dominion on the Continent; we had, to
oppose that dominion, the colonies of France and Spain.
It would have been just that France should purchase our
colonial by her continental sacrifices. He contrasted the
definitive treaty with that of 1763. It had been an inva¬
riable principle with Lord Chatham to make the prelimi-
BRITAIN.
588
Reign of nary as much as possible the definitive treaty. Our ne-
George III. gociators had treated with France during a naval armistice.
immediately subsequent to the preliminary treaty, France
1802, had sent an armament to the West Indies, and obliged Eng¬
land to destine for the West Indies also a naval force more
than double any squadrons which had been sent during the
war. The necessity of keeping in the West Indies thirty-
five sail of the line was the first fruit of the peace. It was
obvious that the definitive treaty contained concessions
more important than the preliminary articles; and it was
palpably the object of the French government to exclude
the commerce of this country from the continent of Europe.
With respect to the situation in which Portugal and the
Prince of Orange were left by the treaty, it had been said
that it was a pity, and that the articles were read with re¬
gret. The proposed indemnity to the Prince of Orange
was evidently at the option of France; for the Cape of
Good Hope, no effort had been made to insure its inde¬
pendence ; and Malta, whose independence had been ex¬
pressly stipulated, with the provision that it should be gua¬
ranteed by one of the powers of Europe competent to its
protection, was finally placed under the guarantee of six
powers, who never could be brought to agree on the sub¬
ject of it. Its restoration to the order was nominal and
futile. The order of Malta was virtually extinct; it would
be subject to the nomination, the influence, and the domi¬
nion of France. He then proceeded to take a retrospec¬
tive view of the situation of this country at the commence¬
ment of the negociation. With a colonial territory of an
immense extent, we had, in the very conquests achieved
by our arms, the means of perpetuating our victories.
From the West Indies, the produce of which amounted to
two millions annually, a considerable revenue had arisen,
which was now lost. By our naval superiority we had
controlled the movements of the French fleet; they were
now at liberty to steer for the West Indies, and we were
under the necessity of sending fleets to watch them. We
were in possession of resources adequate to the prosecu¬
tion of the war, and held in our hands the means of ex¬
torting a just and reasonable peace. Instead of improv¬
ing these advantages, we had resigned to France the pre¬
ponderance of power on the Continent, established her
sway in Italy, and annexed to her important possessions
in India. Even our right of sovereignty in India was no
longer recognised. It had been suggested that this right
was guaranteed by the silence of the definitive treaty; a
mode of argument which appeared equally strange and sin¬
gular. He affirmed that the sovereignty of the Cape was
necessary to the safety of our territories in India, and in¬
stanced the war with Tippoo Sultan, when a corvette had
been sent to the Cape, from which fresh troops were im¬
mediately dispatched, who landed, marched, and co-ope¬
rated at the siege of Seringapatam. By ceding the Cape
to Holland, we had ceded it to France. In the West In¬
dies we had restored to France Martinique and Tobago,
and facilitated the recovery of St Domingo. France was
also mistress of Louisiana, and in reality of Florida, which
could not, from its vicinity to Louisiana, remain subject to
Spain; and she possessed the key of Mexico, which she
might enter at any period. If we turned to the Mediter¬
ranean, it would be impossible to send a single ship there
without the permission of France. We were stripped
of Majorca, Minorca, and even of the island of Elba; we
were excluded from Leghorn, and deprived of the means
of maintaining a fleet in that sea; the king of Sardinia
could no longer open to us his ports. The victory obtain¬
ed by Lord Nelson at Aboukir was to be attributed to the
assistance rendered by the king of Naples; and in return
for these services, the British government had stipulated
that the French republic should evacuate his dominions,
without stipulating that they should not return to them. Reign of
In short, whatever the valour of the British navy had won, George III.
the incapacity of the British ministry had lost.
The Duke of Norfolk expressed his hope, that, now the '
sword was restored to its scabbard, it would not again be
unsheathed for the acquisition of a station in the Medi¬
terranean. Lord Auckland, in reply to Lord Grenville,
stated, that it was an error to hold that all treaties between
nations were annulled by war, and that, to be reinforced,
they must be specially renewed on the return of peace.
It was true, that treaties, in the nature of compacts and
concessions, the enjoyment of which has been interrupted
by the war, were thereby rendered null; but compacts
which were not impeded by the course and effect of hos¬
tilities, such as the rights of a fishery on the coasts of
either of the belligerent powers, the stipulated right of cut¬
ting logwood in a particular district, were not affected by
war. There were also circumstances which might autho¬
rize the dissolution of treaties, without any rupture between
the two parties. It had therefore been observed by Vattel
and other writers, that treaties cease whenever an essential
alteration in either of the contracting parties takes place.
Applying this doctrine to Savoy, Switzerland, and other
countries, the temporary victims of the French revolution,
he admitted that the definitive treaty contained not a
single provision, direct or indirect, for the renewal of
treaties which had subsisted previous to the war; but it
was not true that, by the nonM'enewal of our treaties with
Holland, the vessels of that republic would be exonerated
from the ancient practice of striking their flag to British
ships of war in the British seas; for that practice had ex¬
isted independently of the treaty of 1782, or even of the
treaty of Breda in 1767, which were only recognitions of
a previously admitted claim. The -same remark was appli¬
cable to the sixth article of the treaty of 1764, by which
the states-general promised not to obstruct the navigation
of British subjects in the Eastexm seas. That article was
no new grant, but an acknowledgment of a right, and a
notification to merchants that they would not be disturbed
in the exercise of that right. With respect to France, the
commercial treaty of 1786 had expired, but not till it had
reached the natural era of decay; nor would he feel solici¬
tude for its resuscitation, unless our negociator at Amiens
should prove that the French manufacturers were able, in
1802, to resume the competition to which they were un¬
equal, in 1786, under the existing tariff. With regard to
our sovereignty in India, it had been confirmed and extend¬
ed by various treaties, recognised by all the powers of
Europe and India who had accepted privileges from us,
and finally established by undisturbed possession. On the
contrary, Lord Carnarvon represented the treaty as preg¬
nant with danger to the county. It had been hoped, that
some articles relative to our allies, and involving our own
national honour, would be altered; but the definitive treaty,
instead of realizing, had annihilated these hopes; conces¬
sion was heaped on concession, and disgrace on disgrace.
By omitting to renew former treaties, ministers had un¬
adjusted all former adjusted disputes, and, without the cus¬
tomary acknowledgment of our rights, had left us to the
honour and justice of France. Lord Ellenborough express¬
ed much surprise that the non-renewal of treaties should
have been urged as a serious objection to the definitive
treaty. To what purpose was this solemn nonsense to be
revived ? Were not these treaties replete with articles
wholly inapplicable to the present political state of Europe?
For himself, he could as well think of the revival of the
condition of mankind, in some remote period, as of the
ancient treaties, which had become inapplicable and ob¬
solete. Our sovereignty in India rested on the rights of
conquest in legitimate war, upon the repeated recognition
BRITAIN.
589
Reign of of all the powers of Europe, and on the best of all rights,
George III. possession.
The same subject, after being repeatedly alluded to, was
1802. fjna]ly discussed in the House of Commons on the 13th of
May. Mr Windham attacked the treaty in several of its
prominent parts. With regard to Malta, he contended,
that it must ultimately fall into the hands of the French.
The little order of Malta, which contained in itself the
great characteristic and distinctive qualities which the
French revolution had subverted, was now destroyed. The
German knights had already refused to serve in a body so
degraded and debased ; the Neapolitan soldiers would form
no security for the independence of the island; the state
of Malta was a virtual surrender, and our position in the
Mediterranean untenable. The Cape of Good Hope was
ceded, in full sovereignty, to the Dutch, who were thus
at liberty to resign it to France. Our Indian empire was
our sheet anchor; and whatever was necessary for its pre¬
servation was of the last importance. The disadvantages
upon our side he then contrasted with the advantages in
favour of France. By the restitution of Cochin China to
the Dutch, they had acquired the means of annoying our
possessions in the East Indies. In defining the boundaries
of France and Portuguese Guiana, ministers had enabled
France to obtain her great object, the navigation of the
river Amazons; and the Portuguese settlements were left
exposed to the foe. He deplored the cession of Louisiana
to France, which, considering the almost indefinite extent
of Guiana, was a surrender of the two greatest rivers in the
world; the Mississippi in the north, the river of Amazons
in the south of America. In aggravation of this thought¬
less prodigality, ministers had abandoned the whole con¬
tinent of Europe to France. We already knew the French
too well to doubt that they would scruple what means
they used to accomplish their ends. Had they not frau¬
dulently obtained the restitution of Porto Ferrajo to the
king of Etruria, in order to secure it to themselves ? Re¬
gardless of stipulations and treaties, they had seized on
the island of Elba; and, to bestow a compensation on the
king of Etruria, had extorted Piombino from Naples. The
French were a new race of Romans ; and in ten years
they had even acquired more than the Romans were able
to achieve in fifty-three. On the map of Europe two na¬
tions only stood erect; and of these, the one from distance
more than from strength. Austria was indeed still rich in
resources, but destitute of foreign aid. There was no single
power which could enter the lists with France. In the
first conflict it would be crushed by her tremendous mace.
He repeated, that we had given away two continents, and
that the object of France obviously was the attainment of
universal empire. He admitted that the peace must be
observed, now that it had been entered into ; but conclud¬
ed with a motion for an address, expressive of disappro¬
bation of it.
Lord Hawkesbury observed, that from some observations
of Mr Windham’s, it would seem that whenever any con¬
tinental power, however unconnected with us, became in¬
volved with France, it was our duty to volunteer our inter¬
ference and assistance. That we were deeply interested in
the destiny of the Continent, he was willing to admit; but
he conceived our interference with its commotions to be op¬
tional, neither instigated by necessity nor extorted by ho¬
nour. At the end of nine years of war, we had found our¬
selves deserted by our allies; and with the first intimation
which his majesty’s ministers received of the new constitu¬
tion of the Italian republic, they had heard of its acceptance
by the courts of Vienna, Berlin, and Petersburg. Under
these circumstances, he submitted, whether it was incum¬
bent on us to continue the war on account of the Italian
republic. The cession of Louisiana by Spain to France
was another ground of complaint. That province had Reign of
originally been a French colony, when the Mississippi wasGeorgeHI.
the boundary between it and Great Britain; and it had
been ceded by France to Spain, in a private convention,
between the preliminaries and the definitive treaty of
1763 ; a proof that conventions of this nature, if not right,
were at least not new. The value of Louisiana was at pre¬
sent only nominal; as a naval station it was allowed to be
insignificant; and its vicinity to America was calculated
to diminish, rather than augment, the attachment of that
country to France. Concerning the non-renewal of cer¬
tain treaties and conventions, he observed, that the prin¬
ciple on which treaties had usually been renewed appear¬
ed not to be understood. The treaty of Westphalia form¬
ed a distinct era in the history of Europe; and in order to
ascertain the relative situations of the different powers, it
had been customary to renew that treaty, together with
any particular conventions subsequent to it. But it was
to be considered, that formerly all preceding treaties had
been renewed by the other powers of Europe, whereas in
the present war no European power had done so; and
consequently, if we had renewed former treaties, we only
should be bound whilst other nations were free. By re¬
newing former treaties, we should have been forced to
sanction all the recent encroachments of France ; and by
sanctioning the treaty of Luneville we should have been
accessory to the dismemberment of the Germanic empire.
His lordship represented the definitive treaty as coincid¬
ing with the preliminary treaty which had previously re¬
ceived the sanction of the house. In regard to the per¬
manence of the peace, he was willing to admit, and to de¬
plore, that, in the present state of the world, any peace
must be insecure ; but the precarious tenure on which this
blessing was to be held formed no reason for rejecting it.
He concluded with moving an address to his majesty, to
testify the satisfaction of the house on the conclusion of
the definitive treaty. Mr Dundas also opposed Mr Wind¬
ham. In his judgment, however, the Cape and Ceylon
formed our two great bulwarks, and he never would have
consented to the surrender of the former. The cession of
Malta was also to him a subject of equal regret; and to the
relinquishment of either of those places he should have re¬
fused his assent had he continued in administration. But
he would not support the address moved by Mr Windham,
because it contained an invective against the peace. Sir
William Young contended, that when a standing army was
deemed essential to the preservation of peace, it was pro¬
per that the people should be informed of the state of af¬
fairs which justified such a measure. Lord Castlereagh
remarked, that our grand object, from the commencement
to the close of the war, had been the establishment of ge¬
neral security ; and that the gradual extinction of jacobin
principles, and the gradual restoration of order and tran¬
quillity, had been given as sureties for the peace. With
regard to the territorial acquisitions of France, they might
eventually become of infinite importance; but they were
not pregnant with immediate mischief, and could only
be the sources of distant danger. Mr Addington de¬
sired not that the treaty should be praised; he had never
regarded it with sentiments of exultation, nor lavished on
it panegyric ; he was content that the honour of the coun¬
try was unsullied by the measure which had been adopt¬
ed. He acknowledged that the territorial acquisitions of
France could not be viewed without regret; but there
were events which we could not control, and dispensa¬
tions in which we must acquiesce; and he should rejoice
to see the resources of this country economized by peace.
Mr Sheridan treated the subject with some gaiety. He
said he supported the peace, because he was convinced
that ministers could obtain no better; their predecessors
590
BRITAIN.
Reign of had left them to choose between an expensive, bloody,
George III. fruitless war, and a hollow, perilous peace. He attacked
the new oppositionists, who had been supporters of the
former administration, and demanded, for what did we go
to war ? Why, to prevent French aggrandisement: Have
we done that ? No. Then we are to rescue Holland : Is
that accomplished ? No. Brabant is the sine qua non: Is
it gained ? No. Then come security and indemnity: Are
they obtained ? No. The late minister told us, that the
example of a jacobin government in Europe, founded on
the ruins of a holy altar, and the tomb of a martyred mo¬
narch, was a spectacle so dreadful and infectious to Chris¬
tendom, that we could never be safe while it existed, and
could do nothing short of our last effort for its destruction.
For these fine words, which had at last given way to se¬
curity and indemnity, we had laid out near two hundred
thousand lives, and nearly three hundred millions of money
—and had gained Ceylon and Trinidad. But one grand
consolation remained. Bonaparte was to be the extirpator
of jacobinism ; the champion of jacobinism was to become
a parricide ; the child of sin was to destroy his mother ; he
had begged pardon of God and man, piously restored bi¬
shops with the salaries of curates, and penitently extorted
of them a solemn oath to turn spies and informers in his
favour. It had been said, that France must have colonies to
be afraid of war; that that is the way to make Bonaparte
love peace. He has had, to be sure, a rough military edu¬
cation ; but if you put him behind the counter a little, he
will mend exceedingly. When he was reading the treaty
he thought all the names of foreign places, Pondicherry,
Chandernagore, Cochin, Martinico, all cessions. No such
thing; they are so many traps or holes to catch this silly
fellow in, and make a merchant of him. At this moment,
nobody in Britain knew who was minister, as the present
ministers continued to identify themselves with the for¬
mer. Of the late minister, he said that none more ad¬
mired his splendid talents than he did. If ever man was
formed to give lustre to his country, he was that man.
He had no low, little, mean, petty vices ; he had too much
good sense, taste, and talents, to set his mind upon ri¬
bands, stars, and titles; he was not of a nature to be the
tool and creature of any court. But great as were his ta¬
lents, he had misapplied them in the politics of this coun¬
try ; he had augmented our national debt, and diminished
our population. He had done more to abridge our privi¬
leges, and to strengthen the crown at the expense of the
constitution, than any minister he could mention. He
concluded by moving, as an amendment to Lord Hawkes-
bury’s address, that it was the opinion of that house, that
the omission of various opportunities of negociating peace
with advantage to this country, more especially the rejec¬
tion of the overtures made by the first consul of France
in January 1800, appeared to have led to that state of af¬
fairs which rendered peace so necessary as to justify the
painful sacrifices which his majesty had been advised to
make for the attainment thereof. But the address propos¬
ed by Lord Hawkesbury was carried by a very great ma¬
jority.
During this session of parliament the most important
operation of finance consisted of the repeal of the tax up¬
on income, which gave great satisfaction. Indeed, in their
whole conduct administration conducted themselves with
a degree of moderation and prudence which greatly con¬
ciliated towards them the minds of the public. On all
occasions they defended the former ministry against the
attacks of the old opposition; and, in return, they were
supported by a very considerable number of the members
of that administration, including Mr Pitt. At the same
time they did not appear unwilling to enter into political
connections with the members of the old opposition. Par-
1802.
hament was prorogued on the 28th of June, and dissolved Reign of
on the following day. The elections which immediately George III.
succeeded exhibited the singular spectacle of an admini-
stration which avoided interfering in the choice of the
members of parliament. The members and friends, how¬
ever, of the old administration, together with their oppo¬
nents, were abundantly active.
The effect of the change of ministry had by this time
been very sensibly felt over the whole of the island. During
the preceding ten years the minds of men had, in a greater
or less degree, been kept in a state of constant alarm from
the fear of plots and conspiracies against the government,
and from the apprehension that a most dangerous disaf¬
fected party was at all times ready to burst forth into ac¬
tion, and that the British constitution was only preserved
in consequence of the suspension of the habeas corpus
act and other legislative restraints, aided by the extreme
vigilance of administration, and of their friends, in repress¬
ing disaffected persons. Hence society existed under a
sort of general apprehension and distrust; and persons
originally unfriendly to the war suffered in all depart¬
ments of business, and in every quarter of the country, no
inconsiderable degree of political persecution. All this
had now passed away. The new ministers suffered the
penal and restraining laws quietly to expire, and the con¬
stitution to depend for support upon its own strength and
the ancient provisions of the law; they gave themselves
no trouble about the general sentiments of the people with
regard to speculative subjects, and seemed desirous to con¬
ciliate the good will of all orders of the state. The con¬
sequence was, that the fears and anxieties which for¬
merly existed about the safety of the constitution passed
away like a dream; a universal attachment to the insti¬
tutions of the country sprung up; and political animosi¬
ties, being no longer fed by alarms artfully excited by
the government, were, as if by a sort of enchantment, ap¬
peased and forgotten.
With regard to the effects of peace upon the British
and French nations, these promised at first to prove fa¬
vourable to the general interests of humanity. The French
had successfully defended their own independence, and in
their turn assailed those by whom it had been menaced,
with such a persevering energy as secured to them a por¬
tion of respect from the British nation; whilst, on the
other hand, the maritime triumphs of Britain had been so
splendid, and the valour of her troops in Egypt so distin¬
guished, as to secure to this country a high degree of con¬
sideration in the eyes of the French. The people of the
two countries accordingly seemed eager to unite in habits
of the most amicable intercourse ; considerable numbers of
Frenchmen came over to Britain; and multitudes of per¬
sons of all ranks hastened from Britain to visit a country
which had of late years excited, in so remarkable a degree,
the attention of all the nations of Europe, and had been
the scene of such extraordinary transactions. On this re¬
ciprocal tendency of the two nations to abandon their ani¬
mosities, a system of commercial intercourse might have
been reared of a nature much more simple and perfect
than that which had been created by Mr Pitt’s treaty;
and there is no reason to believe that any disposition ex¬
isted, on the part of the British government, to stand aloof
from France, or to avoid, for any political reason, the ex¬
tension of our commerce with that country. Such an in¬
tercourse would have proved favourable to France in every
possible way. It would have enabled her people to de¬
rive considerable assistance from the capital of British
merchants, which would have been rapidly and liberally
advanced towards promoting the culture of their most
valuable productions; and even in a political point of view
France must have been aggrandised by such a connection.
BRITAIN.
Reign of What she wanted was a navy to defend her colonies, and
George III. to enable her to cope with Britain in the event of a future
v—war; and this advantage she could only obtain by means
of commerce, more especially with Britain.
But it soon appeared that a man may be qualified to
lead armies successfully to battle, to overrun provinces,
and to attain the envied title of a conqueror, who at the
same time possesses but a moderate portion of magnani¬
mity, self-command, or knowledge of the maxims of sound
policy and the best interests of nations. The French go¬
vernment, instead of seizing the opportunity thus afforded
of encouraging the people to become commercial and ac¬
quire wealth, and seeking to form a maritime power by
opening their ports, and holding out to Britain a commer¬
cial treaty arranged on liberal principles, shut their har¬
bours more closely than during the most violent period of
the war. Vainly fancying that in this way they would
enable their own manufacturers to rival those of Britain,
they in fact only excluded their wines from the British
market; and by thus losing a sure and ready mode of at¬
tracting riches to their country, they prevented the acqui¬
sition of capital by enterprising individuals, and ruined
the very industry which they intended to encourage and
promote. They idly thought that they were in this way
limiting the trade of Britain, which, having all the rest of
the world open to its efforts, could not be injured; and, in
truth, by their narrow views and illiberal policy they only
injured themselves. By similar miscalculation, or from a
restless spirit of ambition, the French government sought
aggrandisement by those efforts of violence which are only
tolerable in the midst of war, but which in peace justly ex¬
cite the jealousy and indignation of mankind.
One of the first enterprises of Bonaparte, in consequence
of the peace, was an attempt to reduce under his power the
island of St Domingo. During the revolution that great
and fertile island had suffered the most severe calamities,
which had terminated in the emancipation of the negroes;
and the latter had formed themselves into a sort of regu¬
lar government, at the head of which was one of their
own race, Toussaint-Louverture, a man of humanity, and
possessed of considerable talents. Reports were circu¬
lated in Europe that he wished to render St Domingo
independent of France ; but of this there is no proof, and
it is probable that his chief offence consisted in the gene¬
ral estimation and personal consequence to which he had
attained, and that the despotic spirit of Bonaparte could
brook no appearance of independence or rivalry in any
part of the French territory. Nor was it unnatural that,
under a military government, force should have been em¬
ployed in preference to any method of conciliation. At
the end of the year 1801 an army of twenty-five thousand
men was sent to St Domingo; and as single ships and
small squadrons continued to sail during the winter, load¬
ed with troops, it is believed that nearly forty thousand
men were employed in what might be called the first divi¬
sion of the expedition. The accounts of their proceed¬
ings are very defective; but, from all that has transpired,
the conduct of the French appears to have been extreme¬
ly disgraceful. The negro chiefs having refused uncon¬
ditional submission, they were attacked, and defeated in
several battles; and disunion, as usual, following disaster,
Toussaint was at last induced to enter into negociation.
The terms of the treaty were concealed; but, as he was
still at the head of a respectable force, it is believed that
not only the possession of his personal freedom, but the
undisturbed enjoyment of his property, was secured to
him, and that his followers were promised a full indemnity.
This occurred in the beginning of May 1801. The French
general, Le Clerc, brother-in-law of the first consul, no
sooner found the negro chief in his power, and the tran-
591
quillity of the colony apparently re-established, than he Reign of
committed one of the basest acts of treachery that ever George III.
disgraced a government. The abdicated general was ac-
cused of a conspiracy, though it was evident that from
the period of his submission to that of his seizure he had
not had time to meditate, much less to organize, such a
measure ; and on the 12th of May Toussaint and his whole
family were put on board a frigate, and shipped off for
France, where he soon died of a broken heart in a prison.
The negroes perceived that they were deceived and betray¬
ed ; and as an attempt was made to reduce them again into
a state of slavery, after they had enjoyed freedom for seve¬
ral years, no doubt could remain as to the real object for
which the expedition had been fitted out. The chiefs who
had been prevailed on to desert Toussaint, and whose de¬
sertion had led to his surrender, now justly fearing that
they were destined to share the miserable fate of their de¬
luded associate, betook themselves to flight;—the whole
island revolted ;—pestilence came in aid of these avengers
of tyranny and falsehood ;—and the miserable instrument
of the first consul’s cruelty fell himself the victim of the
climate. After a series of horrors and atrocities, even
darker and deeper than those which blacken the memory
of Robespierre, Marat, St Just, and Carrier, and which will
for ever remain a disgrace to the French character, the
republic had to regret the loss of sixty thousand of her
best troops, in a vain attempt to subdue a colony which
might, with temper and humanity, have been conciliated
and retained.
In Europe the conduct of the French government was
scarcely less arbitrary. The whole fortresses of Pied¬
mont were dismantled, and that country was ultimately
annexed to France; and the duchy of Parma and Pla¬
centia was treated in the same way. Meanwhile the Swiss,
whose form of government had been altered in imitation
of that of France, wished to restore the ancient constitu¬
tions of the cantons, under which their ancestors had
prospered during so many ages. But their present lea¬
ders, who had risen to power under the protection of
France, solicited the interference of Bonaparte in their
favour; and he accordingly sent a numerous army against
Switzerland, and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of
the British court, placed the sovereignty in the hands of
his own dependents or adherents. After all their struggles
for freedom, the French nation also submitted to a con¬
firmed military despotism. When Bonaparte assumed the
appellation of first consul, it was under the declaration
that the office, in terms of the constitution then promul¬
gated, was to endure for only ten years. But this consti¬
tution was now altered, and the assent of the people being
demanded to a new one, by which Bonaparte was to re¬
main consul for life, and even to possess the power of no¬
minating his successor, suffrages in favour of this mea¬
sure were obtained to the number of between three and
four millions. The event was celebrated with the great¬
est magnificence in Paris ; and addresses of congratulation
were presented from the different courts of the continent
of Europe, and even from the emperor of Germany.
These transactions could scarcely fail to be noticed in
Britain, and to become the subject of animadversion in the
public newspapers. In fact the unprincipled ambition of
Bonaparte, and the degraded character and state of the
French nation, formed topics of frequent discussion in the
public journals, and were criticised with unexampled se¬
verity. Even the personal character of the first consul
was not spared ; and it cannot be denied that he was often
libelled in the grossest manner. Bonaparte appears to
have early become sensitive and irritated on this head.
The English, owing to their political freedom, had long
boasted of their superiority as a people over their en-
i 
BRITAIN.
Iteign of of peace, had been productive only of continual and in-
George III. creasing jealousy and mistrust; and that this mistrust was
now avowed in such a manner as must bring the point
to an issue. He now enumerated the several provocations
which he pretended to have received from England. He
placed in the first line our not evacuating Malta and
Alexandria, as we were bound to do by treaty. In this
he said that no consideration on earth would make him
acquiesce, and of the two, he had rather see us in posses¬
sion of the Fauxbourg St Antoine, than Malta. He then
adverted to the abuse thrown out against him in the Eng¬
lish public prints ; but this, he said, he did not so much
regard, as that which appeared in French papers published
in London. This he considered as much more mischie¬
vous, since it meant to excite this country against him and
his government. He complained of the protection given
to Georges, and others of his description, who, instead of
being sent to Canada, as had been repeatedly promised,
were permitted to remain in England, handsomely pen¬
sioned, and were constantly committing all sorts of crimes
on the coasts of France, as well as in the interior. In con¬
firmation of this, he told me that two men had within
these few days been apprehended in Normandy, and were
now on their way to Paris, who were hired assassins, and
employed by the Bishop of Arras, by Georges, and by
Duthiel, as would be fully proved in a court of justice,
and made known to the world. He acknowledged that
the irritation he felt against England increased daily, be¬
cause every wind (I make use as much as I can of his own
ideas and expressions) which blew from England brought
nothing but enmity and hatred against him. He now
went back to Egypt, and told me, that if he had felt the
smallest inclination to take possession of it by force, he
might have done it a month ago, by sending twenty-five
thousand men to Aboukir, who would have possessed
themselves of the whole country, in defiance of the four
thousand British in Alexandria. That instead of that gar¬
rison being a means of protecting Egypt, it was only fur¬
nishing him with a pretence for invading it. This he would
not do, whatever might be bis desire to have it as a co¬
lony ; because he did not think it worth the risk of a war,
in which he perhaps might be considered as the aggressor,
and by which he should lose more than he could gain,
since, sooner or later, Egypt would belong to France,
either by the falling to pieces of the Turkish empire, or
by some arrangement with the Porte. As a proof of his
desire to maintain peace, he wished to know what he had
to gain by going to war with England. A descent was the
only means of offence he had, and that he was determined
to attempt by putting himself at the head of the expedi¬
tion. But how could it be supposed, that after having
gained the height on which he stood, he would risk his
life and reputation in such a hazardous attempt, unless
forced to it by necessity, when the chances were that he
and the greatest part of his expedition would go to the
bottom of the sea. He talked much on this subject, but
never affected to diminish the danger. He acknowledged
that there were a hundred chances to one against him ;
but still he was determined to attempt it, if war should be
the consequence of the present discussion ; and such was
the disposition of the troops, that army after army would
be found for the enterprise. He then expatiated much on
the natural force of the two countries. France with an
army of four hundred and eighty thousand men (for to
this amount it is, he said, to be immediately completed),
all ready for the most desperate enterprises ; and England
with a fleet that made her mistress of the seas, and which
he did not think he should be able to equal in less than
ten years. Two such countries, by a proper understand¬
ing, might govern the world, but by their strifes might
vol v*.
593
overturn it. He said, that if he had not felt the enmity Reign of
of the British government on every occasion since the George III.
treaty of Amiens, there would have been nothing that he
would not have done to prove his desire to conciliate ;
participation in indemnities as well as in influence on the
Continent, treaties of commerce, in short, any thing that
could have given satisfaction, and have testified his friend¬
ship. Nothing had, however, been able to conquer the
hatred of the British government, and, therefore, it was
now come to the point, whether we should have peace or
war. To preserve peace, the treaty of Amiens must be
fulfilled ; the abuse in the public prints, if not totally sup¬
pressed, at least kept within bounds, and confined to the
English papers; and the protection so openly given to his
bitterest enemies (alluding to Georges, and persons of that
description) must be withdrawn. If war, it was neces¬
sary only to say so, and to refuse to fulfil the treaty.”
The result of this conversation, and of some circum¬
stances in the conduct of the French, was, that on the 8th
of March, the following message was addressed by the
king to the House of Commons. “ His majesty thinks it
necessary to acquaint the House of Commons, that as very
considerable military preparations are carrying on in the
ports of France and Holland, he has judged it expedient
to adopt additional measures of precaution for the securi¬
ty of his dominions. Though the preparations to which
his majesty refers are avowedly directed to colonial ser¬
vice, yet as discussions of great importance are now sub¬
sisting between his majesty and the French government,
the result of which must at present be uncertain, his ma¬
jesty is induced to make this communication to his faith¬
ful Commons, in the full persuasion, that while they par¬
take of his majesty’s earnest and unvarying solicitude for
the continuance of peace, he may rely with perfect con¬
fidence on their public spirit and liberality, to enable his
majesty to adopt such measures as circumstances may ap¬
pear to require, for supporting the honour of his crown,
and the essential interests of his people.” On the motion
of Mr Addington, the house voted an address, agreeing
unanimously to support the crown in the measures propos¬
ed. It speedily appeared that the preparations which had
been alluded to in the king’s message were extremely trifl¬
ing indeed. Bonaparte had obliged the Spaniards to cede
to him the sovereignty of Louisiana; and an armament, with
about four thousand troops, was now preparing to leave
the ports of Flolland to take possession of the territory
thus acquired. The government of the United States op¬
posed this measure ; and the state of Kentucky sent notice
to the president that ten thousand volunteers had enroll¬
ed themselves, and were resolved, with or without the aid
of the union, to resist the settlement of the French in their
neighbourhood. Meanwhile Bonaparte, who probably had
no serious intention of effecting such a settlement, sold
for a sum of money to the United States of North Ame¬
rica the territory of Louisiana; a country inhabited by
many independent tribes of savages, and to which, upon
the principles of natural justice, neither he, nor the Spa¬
niards, nor the Americans, had any right. But the inhabit¬
ants of Europe, and even the Transatlantic race of Euro-
ropeans, had now for some ages been accustomed to re¬
gard all foreign countries as unoccupied property, which
they might seize and transfer to each other, without re¬
gard to the natural inhabitants, whom they considered
as beings of a subordinate race and character. Accord¬
ingly this transference of Louisiana excited no surprise in
Europe.
Meanwhile, as the king’s message to the House of Com¬
mons, already mentioned, evinced a determination on the
part of the British government to prefer a new war rather
than suffer Bonaparte to carry further his ambitious pro-
4 F
594
BRITAIN.
Reign of jects, the mind of that extraordinary person seems to have
(ieorge III.been wrought up to an extraordinary degree of irritation.
In his palace he affected to use all the forms of the ancient
1803. French court. At the drawing-room, where he was wait¬
ed upon by the whole ambassadors of Europe, and by a
numerous assemblage of persons of high rank from all
countries, he could scarcely observe the ordinary forms of
civility to the British ambassador; and Lord Whitworth,
in a dispatch dated the 14th of March, which was after¬
wards communicated to parliament, gave the following ac¬
count of the behaviour of the first consul on one occasion
at the court of the Thuilleries :—
“ He accosted me evidently under very considerable
agitation. He began by asking me if I had any news
from England ? I told him I had received a letter from
Lord Hawkesbury two days ago. He immediately said,
‘ And so you are determined to go to war.’ ‘ No,’ I replied;
‘ we are too sensible of the advantages of peace. We have
had war for fifteen years already.’ As he seemed to wait
for an answer, I observed only, ‘ We have had too much of
it.’ ‘ But you wish to carry it on for fifteen years longer,
and you force me to it.’ I told him that it was very far
from his majesty’s intentions. He then proceeded to Count
Marcof and the Chevalier Azara, who were standing to¬
gether at a little distance from me, and said to them, ‘ The
English wish for war, but if they are the first to draw the
sword, I shall be the last to sheath it. They have no re¬
gard to treaties, henceforth they should cover them with
black crape.’ In a few minutes he came back to me, and
resumed the conversation by something personally civil to
me. He began again, ‘ Why these armaments ? Against
what are these measures of precaution ? I have not a
single ship of the line in the ports of France; but if you
wish to arm, I will arm also. If you wish to fight, I will
fight also. You may perhaps destroy, but you will never
intimidate France.’ ‘ We wish neither the one nor the
other. It is our desire to live in good understanding
with her.’ ‘ You must regard treaties then. Confusion to
those who have no regard to treaties: (‘ malheur a ceux
qui ne respectent pas les traites !’) they will be respon¬
sible for it to all Europe.’ He was too much agitated to
make it advisable for me to prolong the conversation. I
therefore made no answer; and he retired to his apart¬
ment repeating the last phrase. It is to be remarked,
that all this passed loud enough to be heard by two hun¬
dred people who were present; and I am persuaded that
there was not a single person who did not feel the impro¬
priety of his conduct, and the total want of dignity as well
as of decency on the occasion.” The negociations in the
mean time proceeded; and Bonaparte still insisted upon
the literal fulfilment of the treaty of Amiens. He appears
to have flattered himself that the British ministry would
not venture to renew the war on account of Malta. Their
pacific dispositions were wrell known; they had suffered
him to make great encroachments upon the Continent
without engaging in hostilities; they were understood to
consist of men who were not the leaders of any party, but
had only held a subordinate rank as supporters of Mr Pitt’s
administration ; and they had been loudly accused in Bri¬
tain by the ex-ministers, and by many of the old opposi¬
tion, of want of talents and want of spirit, on account of the
apparent tameness with which they had recently acted.
It seems likely, therefore, that Bonaparte presumed that
they would ultimately give way to his demands. But the
good temper and forbearance of administration had the
effect of rousing the spirit of the British nation, and of
inducing, in a large proportion of the people, a wish to en¬
gage in a war against a man whom they now detested as
an odious usurper. Thus encouraged, administration rose
in their demands; and on the 12th of May Lord Whit¬
worth presented the ultimatum of the British government, Reign of
which was in substance that the French government should George III,
engage to make no opposition to the cession of the island
of Lampedosa to his majesty by the king of the Two Si-
cilies; that, in consequence of the present state of the
island of Lampedosa, his majesty should remain in posses¬
sion of the island of Malta until such arrangements should
be made by him as might enable him to occupy Lampe¬
dosa as a naval station, after which period the island should
be given up to the inhabitants, and acknowledged as an
independent state; that the territories of the Batavian
republic should be evacuated by the French forces with¬
in one month after the conclusion of a convention found¬
ed on the principles of this project; that the king of
Etruria and the Italian and Ligurian republics should be
acknowledged by his majesty; that Switzerland should be
evacuated by the French forces ; that a suitable territorial
provision should be assigned to the king of Sardinia in
Italy; and, in a secret article, that his majesty should not
be required by the French government to evacuate the
island of Malta until after the expiration of ten years. The
proposed stipulations relative to the king of Etruria, the
Italian and Ligurian republics, and the king of Sardinia,
were merely inserted as make-weights; and accordingly,
in an additional article, it was provided that they might
be omitted, but that, if inserted at all, they must be in¬
serted together.
This ultimatum having been rejected, war was announ¬
ced on the 16th of May, by a message from the king to
the two houses of parliament; and on the 21st of May a
declaration, justifying this measure, appeared in the Lon¬
don Gazette. As the statements contained in this docu¬
ment exhibit a detail of the public acts alleged to have
occasioned the renewal of the war, it may be proper to in¬
sert a few of its leading paragraphs.
“ As soon as the treaty of Amiens was concluded, his
majesty’s courts were open to the people of France for
every purpose of legal redress. All sequestrations were
taken off their property; all prohibitions on their trade,
which had been imposed during the war, were removed;
and they were placed on the same footing, with regard to
commerce and intercourse, as the inhabitants of any other
state in amity with his majesty with which there existed
no treaty of commerce.
“ To a system of conduct thus open, liberal, and friend¬
ly, the proceedings of the French government afforded
the most striking contrast. The prohibitions which had
been placed on the commerce of his majesty’s subjects
during the war have been enforced with increased strict¬
ness and severity. Violence has been offered in several
instances to their vessels and their property; and in no
case has justice been afforded to those who may have
been aggrieved in consequence of such acts; nor has any
satisfactory answer been given to the repeated represen¬
tations made by his majesty’s ministers or ambassadors at
Paris. Under such circumstances, when his majesty’s
subjects were not suffered to enjoy the common advan¬
tages of peace within the territories of the French repub¬
lic and the countries dependent upon it, the French go¬
vernment had recourse to the extraordinary measure of
sending over to this country a number of persons for the
professed purpose of residing in the most considerable sea¬
port towns of Great Britain and Ireland in the character
of commercial agents or consuls. These persons could
have no pretensions to be acknowledged in that character,
as the right of being so acknowledged, as well as the pri¬
vileges attached to such a situation, could only be deriv¬
ed from a commercial treaty, and as no treaty of that de¬
scription was in existence between his majesty and the
French republic.
Reign of “ There was consequently too much reason to suppose
George III. that the real object of their mission was by no means of
a commercial nature; and this suspicion was confirmed,
not only by the circumstance that some of them were
military men, but by the actual discovery, that several of
them were furnished with instructions to obtain the sound¬
ings of the harbours, and to procure military surveys of
the places where it was intended they should reside. His
majesty felt it to be his duty to prevent their departure
to their respective places of destination, and represented
to the French government the necessity of withdrawing
them; and it cannot be denied, that the circumstances
under which they were sent, and the instructions which
were given to them, ought to be considered as decisive
indications of the dispositions and intentions of the go¬
vernment by whom they were employed.
“ If the French government had really appeared to be
actuated by a due attention to such a system, if their
dispositions had proved to be essentially pacific, allowance
would have been made for the situation in which a new
government must be placed, after so dreadful and exten¬
sive a convulsion as had been produced by the French
revolution. But his majesty has unfortunately had too
much reason to observe and to lament, that the system of
violence, aggression, and aggrandisement, which charac¬
terised the proceedings of the different governments of
France during the war, has been continued with as little
disguise since its termination. They have continued to
keep a French army in Holland, against the will and in
defiance of the remonstrances of the Batavian govern¬
ment, and in repugnance to the letter of their solemn
treaties. They have, in a period of peace, invaded the
territory and violated the independence of the Swiss na¬
tion, in defiance of the treaty of Luneville, which had
stipulated the independence of their territory, and the
right of the inhabitants to choose their own form of go¬
vernment. They have annexed to the dominions of France,
Piedmont, Parma, and Placentia, and the island of Elba,
without allotting any provision to the king of Sardinia,
whom they have despoiled of the most valuable part of
his territory, though they were bound by a solemn en¬
gagement to the emperor of Russia to attend to his inte¬
rests, and to provide for his establishment. It may indeed
with truth be asserted, that the period which has elapsed
since the conclusion of the definitive treaty has been
marked with one continued series of aggression, violence,
and insult, on the part of the French government.”
With regard to Malta, the declaration proceeded to
state, “ that when the French government demanded its
evacuation, several articles of the treaty of Amiens re¬
specting it remained unexecuted. The tenth article had
stipulated that the independence of the island should be
placed under the guarantee and protection of Great Bri¬
tain, France, Austria, Russia, Spain, and Prussia. The
emperor of Germany had acceded to the guarantee, but
only on condition of a like accession on the part of the
other powers specified in the article. The emperor of
Russia had refused his accession, except on the condition
that the Maltese langue should be abrogated; and the
King of Prussia had given no answer whatever to the ap¬
plication which had been made to him to accede to the
arrangement. That the fundamental principle upon which
depended the execution of the other parts of the article
had been defeated by the changes which had taken place in
the constitution of the order since the conclusion of the
treaty of peace. It was to the order of St John of Jeru¬
salem that his majesty was by the first stipulation of the
tenth article bound to restore the island of Malta. The
order is defined to consist of those langues which were in
existence at the time of the conclusion of the treaty.
The three French langues having been abolished, and a
Maltese langue added to the institution, the order con-(
sisted therefore at that time of the following langues, viz.
Arragon, Castile, Germany, Bavaria, and Russia. Since
the conclusion of the definitive treaty, the langues of Ar¬
ragon and Castile have been separated from the order by
Spain, and part of the Italian langue had been abolished
by the annexation of Piedmont and Parma to France.
There is strong reason to believe that it has been in con¬
templation to sequestrate the property of the Bavarian
langue, and the intention has been avowed of keeping the
Russian langue within the dominions of the emperor.”
The French were also accused of having instigated or
effected the whole of these changes, and of thus having
rendered it impossible to fulfil that part of the treaty ; and
it was further remarked, that from a report published by
an accredited agent of the French government, Colonel
Sebastiani, it appeared that France entertained views hos¬
tile to the Turkish empire, the integrity of which had
been expressly stipulated, and that this rendered the re¬
tention of Malta more necessary. The behaviour of the
first consul to Lord Whitworth at his audience was also
noticed, together with some other offensive occurrences;
and it was observed that “ his majesty might add to this
list of indignities, the requisition which the French go¬
vernment have repeatedly urged, that the laws and con¬
stitution of this country should be changed, relative to
the liberty of the press. His majesty might likewise add
the calls which the French government have on several
occasions made to violate the laws of hospitality, with re¬
spect to persons who had found an asylum within his do¬
minions, and against whose conduct no charge whatever
has at any time been substantiated. It is impossible to
reflect on these different proceedings, and the course
which the French government have thought proper to
adopt respecting them, without the thorough conviction
that they are not the effect of accident, but that they
form a part of a system which has been adopted for the
purpose of degrading, vilifying, and insulting his majesty
and his government.”
Administration were now placed in a very singular si¬
tuation. Mr Fox, who opposed the war, proposed that
an attempt should be made to prevail with the emperor
of Russia to mediate a peace, upon the supposition that,
if his mediation was rejected by France, we might be able
to secure an alliance with him; and to this proposal ad¬
ministration acceded; but although Mr Fox opposed the
war, almost the whole of the other members of the old
opposition, including Mr Sheridan and Mr Tierney, strong¬
ly approved of it, while Mr Pitt and the rest of the ex¬
ministry joined in the opinion. As Bonaparte had threat¬
ened to attempt an invasion, the parties out of power laid
hold of this circumstance to excite alarm, and industriously
represented the actual ministers as men of moderate ca¬
pacity, unfit to be intrusted with the defence of the empire
in a perilous crisis. Mr Pitt and his colleagues, in their
speeches in parliament, represented the nation as in danger
of being instantly invaded by an innumerable host of expe¬
rienced troops, who could not be expected to delay more
than a few days the attempt to land upon our shores; the
members of the old opposition held precisely the same lan¬
guage ; and the views of both probably were in some degree
to terrify the country to call for their services, as men of
greater energy than the present rulers. The militia, both
ordinary and extraordinary, were called out; a new body
of troops was ordered to be raised by ballot, under tbe
appellation of an army of reserve ; and corps of volunteers
were formed throughout the whole island. An act of
parliament was also passed for calling out, in case of ac¬
tual invasion, the whole male population of the kingdom,
Reign of
1 u03.
596
B R I T A I N.
1803.
Iteign of in classes according to their age or their situation in life;
George I IT. and to meet the expense of these different armaments, and
of the augmentation of the navy, the income tax was re¬
stored with certain modifications.
The administration thus found their adversaries, unlike
any former opposition, striving with emulation to do their
work for them, and to strengthen government by new ar¬
maments of every kind. The consequence was, that dur¬
ing the ensuing autumn, ministers seemed to become per¬
plexed by the multiplicity of business in their hands, and
to entertain doubts about the propriety of some of the
measures in which they had embarked. The plan of rais¬
ing such numerous bodies of troops by ballot, while sub¬
stitution was at the same time permitted to those upon
whom the ballot fell, became a most unequal mode of rais¬
ing an army for the defence of the state, as it fell upon
persons not according to their means, but according to
their age. But it was attended with one good effect, that
as the bodies of volunteers raised by permission of govern¬
ment enjoyed an exemption from certain ballots, this ope¬
rated, along with the spirit of the country, as a sufficient
premium to induce great multitudes of persons to enrol
themselves for the purpose of acquiring the military exer¬
cise. Ministers at times hesitated to receive the numerous
bodies of volunteers who offered themselves ; but as they
afterwards departed from this reluctance, nearly four hun¬
dred thousand men were trained to the use of arms, ex¬
clusive of the regular army, the militia, and the army of
reserve.
In the meanwhile the ports of France were closely
blockaded, and the foreign possessions of the French
seized; while the only step of retaliation in their power
to exert consisted in seizing the electorate of Hanover,
which they plundered unmercifully. Bonaparte offered
to give up Hanover as the price of Malta; but his offer
was refused.
The most inconvenient circumstance to Great Britain,
arising out of those political transactions, consisted in the
great embarrassment occasioned to persons engaged in
commerce, which proved the cause of numerous bank¬
ruptcies. Towards the close of the former war trade had
found out for itself regular channels; and, in particular,
the port of Hamburg had become the great store-house
of British merchandise, from which, as a neutral state, it
was distributed amongst the countries engaged in the war.
The conclusion of a treaty of peace produced the daily
expectation of a renewal of the intercourse with France,
and therefore put a stop to the circuitous trade by Ham¬
burg. But as no place was substituted instead of the
latter, a suspension of operations in some manufactures
occurred; and when these difficulties were coming to a
close, the renewal of the war produced a new uncertainty
as to the channels in which the European trade would here¬
after flow. The difficulty was increased in consequence
of the invasion of Hanover by the French, and their ex¬
cluding the British from the navigation of the Elbe, while
the latter in their turn blockaded the river with ships of
war, and thus excluded all the world.
Parliament assembled on the 22d of November. In the
speech from the throne his majesty said,—“ Since I last
met you in parliament, it has been my chief object to carry
into effect those measures which your wisdom had adopt¬
ed for the defence of the united kingdom, and for the vi¬
gorous prosecution of the war. In these preparations I
have been seconded by the voluntary exertions of all ranks
of my people, in a manner that has, if possible, strengthened
their claims to my confidence and affection. They have
proved that the menaces of the enemy have only served
to rouse their native and hereditary spirit; and that all
other considerations are lost in a general disposition to
make those efforts and sacrifices which the honour and Iteign of
the safety of the kingdom demand at this important and George III.
critical conjuncture. Though my attention has principal-
ly been directed to the great object of internal security,
no opportunity has been lost of making an impression on
the foreign possessions of the enemy The islands of St
Lucie, Tobago, St Pierre, and Miquelon, and the settle¬
ments of Demerara and Essequibo, have surrendered to
the British arms. In the conduct of the operations by
which these valuable acquisitions have been made, the
utmost promptitude and zeal have been displayed by the
officers employed in those services, and by my forces act¬
ing under their command by sea and land. In Ireland,
the leaders and several inferior agents in the late traitor¬
ous conspiracy have been brought to justice, and the pub¬
lic tranquillity has experienced no further interruption. I
indulge the hope that such of my deluded subjects as have
swerved from their allegiance are now convinced of their
error; and that having compared the advantages they
derived from the protection of a free constitution, with the
condition of those countries which are under the dominion
of the French government, they will cordially and zeal¬
ously concur in resisting any attempt that may be made
against the security and independence of my united king¬
dom.”
The usual address to the throne was unanimously car¬
ried, though Mr Fox complained that nothing had been
said respecting the state of our negociations with Russia.
The debates in parliament during the present session were
by no means interesting. In the course of the winter, the
French government continued to repeat with much confi¬
dence their threats of invasion, and the people of Great
Britain remained in daily expectation that a landing would
be attempted. But nothing of any importance took place.
Bonaparte travelled repeatedly from Paris to the sea-coast,
and back again to Paris. It was announced that a body
of guides had been formed to conduct the invading army
after it had landed in England ; and the generals and ad¬
mirals by whom the expedition was to be conducted were
said to have gone to their respective posts. Nothing how¬
ever occurred, excepting the sailing from one French port
to another, under the cover of land-batteries, of small par¬
ties of flat-bottomed boats, which, at times, evaded the
vigilance of the British cruisers, though they were fre¬
quently captured, driven ashoi'e, or sunk.
CHAP. XVIII.
«
REIGN OE GEORGE III. RESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES. 
WAR WITH FRANCE AND HER ALLIES.
Parliamentary Proceedings—Change of Ministry, and return of
Mr Pitt to power—Military Events—Occupation of Hanover.
—Boulogne Armament—Internal Defence.—Volunteer Sys¬
tem—Naval Operations—Colonial Conquests—Spain declares
War against Britain Battle of Trafalgar, and Death of Lord
Nelson—Continental Affairs in 1805—Surrender of General
Mack and his Army at Ulm—Austrians and Russians defeated
at Austerlitz—Parliamentary Proceedings.—Session of 1805.—
Charges against Lord Melville—Illness and Death of Mr Pitt,
23d January 1806 New Ministry, called “ All the Talents.”
—Act for a Limited Term of Military Service—Budget—
Trial and Acquittal of Lord Melville—New Parliament—
Lord Henry Petty’s Plan of Finance—Abolition ol the Slave-
Trade Catholic Relief Bill—Fall of the Grenville or Fox
Administration.—Observations on the Ministry of 1806—The
Ministry of 1807, or Perceval Administration—Events of the
War Naval Actions in 1806—Negociations at Paris.—Failure
of these Prussia.—War between that Power and Prance—
Battle of Jena, and subsequent Military Operations in Poland—
Battles of Eylau and Friedland—Treaty of Tilsit, 1st J uly 1807-
 Expedition to Copenhagen—Buenos Ayres—Whitelock’s Di.
BRITAIN.
lleign of
Jeorge III.
1804-
sastrous Expedition—Battle of Maida—Threatened Attack on
Constantinople—Sicily—Sweden—Portugal and Spain Bat¬
tle of Vimiero.—Convention of Cintra—Sir John Moore’s Cam¬
paign—His Advance and Retreat—Battle of Corunna Ses¬
sion of 1808—Local Militia—Orders in Council Session of
100.9.—Charges against the Duke of York Changes in the
Cabinet-—Campaign of 1809—Battle of Talavera .Attack on
the French Fleet in Basque Roads—-Movements of Austria.
—Expedition to the Scheldt—Session of 1810 Walcheren
Expedition—Committal of Sir Francis Burdett to the Tower.
—Scottish Clergy and Judicature Acts—Campaign of 1810 in
Portugal and Spain—Battle of Busaco.—Subsequent Opera¬
tions—.Advance of Massena Lines of Torres Vedras Re¬
treat of the French under Massena Battle of Barrosa.
The parliamentary proceedings in the summer session
of 1803 were remarkable, as indicating the existence of
three or four distinct parties, amidst an almost general
concurrence in support of the war. These parties were,
first, that of the ministry and their usual followers; se¬
condly, that of the Grenvilles and Mr Windham, who had
all along blamed the peace of Amiens, and predicted that
it would prove a mere truce ; thirdly, that of Mr Pitt and
Lord Melville, who, after approving that peace, had, on
the continued aggressions of Bonaparte, become ardent
supporters of war; and, fourthly, that of Mr Fox, with a
part of the old opposition, who were of opinion that the
war might have been avoided. But the last were so far
from being numerous, that a motion, made on the 23d of
May, to express the concurrence of parliament in the war,
was opposed by a minority of only ten in the Peers and
sixty-seven in the Commons. A subsequent measure, in
the same spirit, namely, an act for arming a large part of
the population, was carried in July by a great majority;
and similar ardour was evinced in submitting anew to war
taxes, particularly to a five per cent, income-tax. After
the adoption of several other measures of a like descrip¬
tion, and a most interesting session of nine months, par¬
liament was prorogued on 12th August.
The next session opened on the 22d of November, and
discovered the same alacrity for the prosecution of the
war, mixed, however, with a growing opposition to minis¬
ters. Mr Pitt had, from the beginning of the war, fore-
borne to commend them, and, since the failure of a nego-
ciation to bring him into office, had assumed a language
occasionally hostile. He continued to support their pro¬
positions for the public defence, and frequently improved
them in their progress through parliament; but he dis¬
claimed all personal connection with ministers, and at last
treated them as incapable of originating any measure of
vigour or utility. This disposition could scarcely fail to be
turned to account by those busy intermediaries, who find
means to combine the efforts even of opposite parties for
the purpose of getting into power. On the 15th of March
Mr Pitt, aware of the side on which the public was most
alive to alarm, brought forward a motion for an inquiry
into the management of the navy. On this occasion,
severe as was his language in regard to Lord St Vincent,
then at the head of the admiralty, he received the sup¬
port of the opposition, and had on his side a hundred and
thirty votes against two hundred and one. From this
time forward the strength of ministers was visibly shaken.
On the 23d of April Mr Fox brought forward an eagerly-
expected motion on the defence of the country, in which
Mr Pitt joined, with great animosity against the ministers.
On a division, government had a majority of fifty-two,
which, in a second debate, on the 25th of April, was re¬
duced to thirty-seven. Soon after this, ministers resign¬
ed, and Mr Pitt, called to the royal presence, was desired
to form an administration, exclusive, however, of Mr Fox.
This peremptory order, and Mr Pitt’s too ready acquies¬
cence in it, proved the source of the greatest difficulties.
The Grenvilles had recently so connected themselves with
Mr Fox and his friends, that a separation would have been
altogether dishonourable ; and their united strength, join¬
ed to the occasional support of Mr Addington’s adherents,
was the cause, during the remainder of the session, of very
strong divisions against the new ministers, particularly in
the Commons. Their chief measure, entitled the Addi¬
tional Force Bill, was carried by only two hundred and
sixty-five to two hundred and twenty-three. The session
soon afterwards closed, but not without passing a corn bill,
evidently intended to dispose the landed interest to submit
to the new taxes, and prohibiting the importation of fo¬
reign wheat whenever our own should be at or below
sixty-three shillings the quarter.
On the continent of Europe, the only great operation
was the invasion, or rather occupation, of Hanover, to
which allusion has already been made. War having been
declared by us on the 18th May, the French troops ad¬
vanced from Holland, and entered the electoral capital by
the 5th of June. To attempt resistance would have been
folly; but in a season when soldiers were so much wanted
in England, and so great an expense was incurred in train¬
ing them, it was matter of regret that the Hanoverian
troops, in number about fifteen thousand, should not have
been marched down to the coast, and embarked in a body,
instead of being disbanded and obliged to pledge them¬
selves not to serve against France until exchanged.
On the side of France the aspect of war was displayed
in a great encampment at Boulogne, and in the dispatch,
from all the ports along the coast, of flotillas of boats to
join the armament preparing in that central rendezvous.
These petty convoys had instructions to tempt our crui¬
sers to attack them, and to draw them, at fit occasions,
under the fire of land-batteries ; and they were sometimes
successful in doing so. The main object of Bonaparte
was to excite alarm; a course which, however politic to¬
ward some countries, was certainly ill judged in regard to
one where the executive power, in its inability to coerce,
often seeks support in the apprehensions of the public.
The general impression of dread facilitated the measures
of defence, and led to the volunteer system, which was
carried to an unparalleled extent. Never did a country
exhibit so many of the middle and higher classes under
arms as England and Scotland in 1803; and never did in¬
dividuals in these stations make more personal sacrifices
for the object of national defence. The result was effec¬
tual to as great a degree as the situation of the individuals
permitted. The volunteers made as near an approach to
regularity of discipline as was practicable in the case of
men full of ardour, and submitting for a season to the re¬
straint of military service, but necessarily devoid of expe¬
rience in the field. The error lay in carrying volunteer¬
ing too far; for the system ought never to have been al¬
lowed to extend to a length that absorbed no inconsider¬
able part of the time and money of men whose lives were
too valuable to be indiscriminately exposed, and whose
proper aid to the public cause was the tribute of their in¬
dustry. The volunteer system was of real use only in as
far as it promoted cordiality in the common cause, and,
by assuring the maintenance of tranquillity at home, en¬
abled government to dispose of the regulars in the field.
The plan of collecting flotillas of boats, from east to
west, in the central depot of Boulogne, was continued by
Bonaparte, during two years, from the middle of 1803 to
that of 1805. A great parade was made of the number
of troops ready to embark, and of the determination to
encounter all hazards; but there was no efficient support
by ships of war, until the spring of 1805, when the sailing
of squadrons for the West Indies took place, first from
Rochefort, and afterwards from Cadiz. These, it was cal-
597
Reign of
1804.
BRITAIN.
598
Reign of culated, might excite alarm for our colonies, and induce
George III. government to send thither a portion of the men of war
''—'v-"-'' hitherto reserved for home defence; after which the ha-
l804* zardous attempt of a descent might have entered seri¬
ously into the calculations of the French ruler. That it
did so at this time was positively affirmed by him in con¬
versations held with English gentlemen in the island of
Elba, and afterwards in that of St Helena ; but these con¬
versations were marked by sundry misrepresentations ; for
he attributed the non-execution of the attempt entirely to
the threatened coalition on the Continent, and would not
acknowledge that it was impracticable ;—a matter of nau¬
tical calculation, when our government kept our channel
fleet at home, instead of sending it, as he had anticipated,
to the West Indies.
Such was the aspect of the war during two years, in
which our naval superiority led to an easy conquest of
several of the Dutch and French West India colonies.
St Lucie surrendered on the 22d of June 1803 ; Tobago,
on the 1st of July ; Demerara and Berbice, on the 23d of
September; and Cape Town, the last spot in the French
half of St Domingo, occupied by French troops, capitulated
to the Blacks on the 30th of November. Next year was
taken the small island of Goree, on the coast of Africa,
and soon after the important Dutch colony of Surinam.
On the other hand, we were not successful in our attempts
on the French flotillas on their own shores. One of these
was directed against a convoy on the coast between Flush¬
ing and Ostend ; another, on a larger scale, and very differ¬
ent plan, was pointed at the Boulogne armament, which it
was proposed to blow up by catamarans; an attempt no less
unsuited to open and generous warfare than the torpedoes
of the Americans. Fortune was more favourable to us in
encounters with the enemy in the open ocean, where, in
the early part of 1804, a striking proof of the effects of
intrepidity was given in the case of a fleet of merchant¬
men from China, which beat off, or at least deterred from
action, a French squadron under Admiral Linois, consist¬
ing of a ship of eighty guns and three frigates.
The war hitherto had been with France and Holland
only; but a new power was now to be added to the list of
our antagonists. Spain had been allowed by Bonaparte
to avoid participating in the contest, on condition of pay¬
ing a large annual contribution; a condition so contrary
to real neutrality, that for some time past our government
had kept a vigilant eye on the expected arrival of her
treasure ships from America. A small squadron of four
frigates, sent out to intercept these valuable supplies, met,
on the 5th of October 1804, a Spanish squadron of a similar
number proceeding towards Cadiz ; and the Spanish com¬
modore refusing to surrender, an engagement ensued, at¬
tended with the capture of three of the Spanish frigates,
and the explosion of the fourth, accompanied with the
loss of many lives. This decisive act, approved at home
by the advocates of vigorous measures, was productive of
the worst impressions in regard to our national honour both
in Spain and her colonies, and led soon afterwards to a
declaration of war by that power.
Bonaparte was now provided with additional means of
threatening our distant possessions. A squadron of five
sail of the line escaping from Rochefort, landed a body of
nearly four thousand men on the island of Dominica, and
burned the chief town; the island of St Kitt’s escaped
with paying a contribution and the loss of some merchant¬
men. But this was only a prelude to the arrival of a
much more formidable fleet, which, to the number of
eighteen sail of the line, French and Spanish, reached the
West Indies in the end of May, and spread alarm through¬
out the islands ; an alarm not dispelled till the arrival of a
force inferior by nearly one third, but commanded by Lord
Nelson. The hostile fleet soon after set out on its home- Reign of
ward voyage. Intelligence to that effect was opportunely George III.
received by Lord Barham, then at the head of the admi-
ralty; and a fleet, detached to cruise on their supposed
track, had the good fortune to fall in with them on 22d
July. An action took place; two sail of the line, Spanish
ships, were captured; night terminated the conflict; and
though it might have been renewed on the succeeding
days, an unfortunate indecision on the part of our admiral,
Sir Robert Calder, allowed the enemy to escape. They
soon afterwards repaired to Ferrol, whence they sailed
with augmented force, and reached Cadiz.
To watch them there, or to engage them on their coming
out, was now an object of the highest moment; and it was
to Lord Nelson that this important trust was committed.
Joining our fleet off Cadiz on the 20th September, he
avoided keeping in sight, and even dispensed with the
aid of six sail of the line, which he sent to a distance along
the coast; judging that the enemy, when apprized of their
absence, would be induced to come out. Accordingly, the
combined fleet left Cadiz on the 19th of October, to the
number of thirty-three sail of the line, eighteen French and
fifteen Spanish, commanded by Admiral Villeneuve, and
early on the 21st came in sight of the British fleet, consist¬
ing of twenty-seven sail of the line, off Cape Trafalgar,
about half way between Cadiz and Gibraltar. The enemy,
convinced that their former defeats at sea had been owing
to the want of concentration and mutual support, now
formed a double line, every alternate ship being about a
cable’s length to windward of her second ahead and astern,
so that any of our ships, attempting to penetrate, would
be exposed to the fire of two or of three antagonists.
Nelson, while yet distant, perceived their arrangement, and
understood its object. It was new, but he was satisfied
that no concentration in the open sea could prevent our
vessels from coming to close action with their opponents,
in which case the result could not long be doubtful. He
consequently made no alteration in his previous plan,
which was to make the order of sailing the order of battle,
the fleet being in two lines, with an advanced squadron
of eight of the fastest sailing two-deckers; but directed
the fleet to advance to the attack in two divisions, one of
which, under Admiral Collingwood, intersected that part
of the enemy’s line which gave it nearly an equal num¬
ber of ships to encounter; whilst Nelson, with the other
division, acted on a similar plan. Such was the only ge¬
neral manoeuvre in this great action. By our superior sea¬
manship, and our ships keeping near each other, we had in
some cases a local superiority; but the general character
of the fight was a conflict of ship to ship; and its deci¬
sion in our favour was owing to that skill in working the
guns, to that dexterity in an occasional change of position,
and that confidence of success which characterizes a naval
force in a high state of discipline. Our loss, amounting
to sixteen hundred men, was in part caused by the riflemen
in the enemy’s rigging; an ungenerous mode of warfare,
which may deprive an opposing force of officers, but can
have little effect on the general issue of a conflict. Ihe
fighting began at noon, became general in less than half
an hour, and lasted from two to three hours ; in the case
of a few ships it continued longer, but all firing was over
by half-past four o’clock. The victory was complete, but
purchased by the death of Nelson, who was mortally
wounded by a musket ball fired from the mizen-top of the
Redoutable, by one of the enemy s riflemen, and expired
just as the action closed. Nineteen sail of the line struck ;
but unfortunately gales of wind, after the action, wrecked
part of our prizes, and necessitated the destruction of
others. Four sail, however, were preserved ; and four more,
which had escaped, under Rear-admiral Dumanoir, were
520
Reign of met on their northward course, on the 2d of November,
George III. an(J captured off Cape Ortegal, by a squadron under Sir
Richard Strachan.
1805. gut Up0n t]le continent of Europe the course of public
events was very different. The year had been ushered in
by a letter of Bonaparte to our sovereign, containing pa¬
cific expressions couched in general terms. An answer
was given, not by the king, but, according to diplomatic
usage, by our minister for foreign affairs, to the French
minister in the same station, expressing a similar wish for
peace, but adding, that it was incumbent on us to consult
our allies, particularly the emperor of Russia. The French
ridiculed the assertion of our being on confidential terms
with that court; but Russia had in fact begun to listen to
the proposal of forming a coalition against France on an
extensive scale. The basis of this compact was a treaty
signed at St Petersburg in April. Russia, Austria, Swe¬
den, Naples, all acceded to it, and hopes were entertained
of the co-operation of Prussia. Bonaparte, apprized of
this, affected to be absorbed in arrangements for imme¬
diately invading England, but secretly prepared to march
his troops from Boulogne to the Rhine. After throwing
on the Austrians the odium of aggression, by allowing
them to attack Bavaria before he acted, he proceeded to
execute a plan singularly adapted to the overweening con¬
fidence of his opponent, General Mack, who by this time
had traversed Bavaria and advanced to Ulm. By execut¬
ing forced marches, and violating part of the neutral ter¬
ritory of Prussia, Bonaparte reached first the flank, and
soon afterwards the rear, of the enemy, who clung with
blind pertinacity to the position of Ulm. The result to the
Austrians was a series of checks in the field, and event¬
ually the surrender, by capitulation, of more than thirty
thousand men. The road to Vienna was thus opened to
Bonaparte. He marched thither, crossed the Danube,
proceeded northward, and at Austerlitz, on the 2d of De¬
cember, displayed his military combinations in all their
lustre, gaining over the Austrians and Russians, with forces
not superior, a victory which, compelled Austria to imme¬
diate peace; and thus by one blow broke up the coalition.
Before the opening of the session of 1805, an over¬
ture, suggested, it is said, by the sovereign personally, was
made to Mr Addington ; and, after some discussion, it was
accepted, Mr Addington receiving the presidency of the
council for himself, and corresponding situations for his
friends. With this support ministers met parliament; and
in one of the first great questions the approval of the vrar
with Spain obtained the concurrence of three hundred and
thirteen votes against a hundred and six. In subsequent
divisions, the majorities, though less decisive, were consi¬
derable, until the 6th of April, when Mr Whitbread brought
forward a most interesting discussion on the tenth report
of the commissioners of naval inquiry, which implicated
Lord Melville. This question, debated in a full house,
produced a division of two hundred and sixteen against two
hundred and sixteen, when, after a most anxious pause,
the resolutions moved by Mr Whitbread were carried by
the casting vote of the speaker. This led immediately to
the resignation by Lord Melville of his office of first lord of
the admiralty, and was followed by the erasure of his name
from the list of privy counsellors. Some time after, his
lordship was, at his own desire, heard before the House
of Commons ; and whilst he acknowledged that temporary
irregularities in the appropriation of the public money had
taken place when he was treasurer of the navy, he dis¬
claimed, on his honour, the alleged participation in the
profits of Mr Trotter, who had acted as his paymaster.
But the expectations of the public were raised, and a pro¬
secution, in some shape or other, was indispensable. A
motion for an impeachment before the Lords, made by Mr
599
Whitbread, was lost by two hundred and seventy-two to Reign of
a hundred and ninety-five ; but the Addington party join- George III
ing opposition in a motion for a criminal prosecution, the
latter was carried by two hundred and thirty-eight against
two hundred and twenty-nine. Lord Melville and his
friends, dreading this more than an impeachment, found
means, by a sudden division of the house, to rescind the
vote to that effect, and to decide on an impeachment be¬
fore the Lords. And parliament was prorogued after giving
ministers a vote of credit to the extent of three millions, to
be applied, if necessary, in subsidies to continental powers.
The proceedings against Lord Melville made a deep
impression on Mr Pitt, and deprived him of his only effi¬
cient coadjutor, at a time when, from the magnitude of his
public cares, he was more than ever in want of support.
The consequent fatigue and anxiety made severe inroads
on a constitution naturally not strong. His indisposition
became apparent in the early part of winter, and, on the
meeting of parliament, it was understood to have reached
a dangerous height. His death took place on the 23d Ja¬
nuary 1806. A motion, brought forward a few days after,
to grant a public funeral, and to erect a monument to the
late excellent minister, excited much discussion. Mr Fox
paid a high tribute to the financial merits of his great
rival, which, in fact, were extremely questionable ; but he
could not join in ascribing the epithet of “ excellent” to
measures which he had so often opposed. Mr Windham
also opposed the vote; and the Grenvilles chose to be ab¬
sent. Still the motion was carried by two hundred and
fifty-eight against a hundred and sixty-nine. To a subse¬
quent proposition for a grant of L.40,000 for the payment
of Mr Pitt’s debts, no opposition was made.
The public attention was now fixed on the approaching
change of ministry. The king, in concurrence, it is said,
with the death-bed recommendation of Mr Pitt, sent for
Lord Grenville, desired him to form a ministry, and made
no opposition to the admission of Mr Fox into the cabinet;
but he is said to have expressed a desire that the Duke
of York should retain the office of commander-in-chief.
The new administration was formed on a broad basis,
comprising the friends of Lord Grenville, those of Mr
Fox, and those of Lord Sidmouth. But hardly had they
entered upon office when circumstances occurred which
placed in a striking light the different conduct of men
when in and out of power. Lord Grenville thought fit to
hold the incompatible offices of first lord and auditor of
the treasury, and the chief justice was admitted to a seat
in the cabinet, whilst Mr Fox consented to come forward
as the vindicator of both.
The defence of the country against the great military
power of France being still the most anxious considera¬
tion, the first measure of a comprehensive nature was
brought forward by Mr Windham, whose station in the
new ministry was the war department. It proposed the
repeal of Mr Pitt’s additional force bill, and a plan for im¬
proving the regular army, by substituting a limited for an
unlimited term of service, and by granting a small increase
of pay after the expiration of the prescribed term. These
propositions, brought forward in the end of April and be¬
ginning of May, were warmly opposed : they passed, how¬
ever, by a great majority in both houses, and would, doubt¬
less, have conduced materially to the improvement of our
army had they received a fair trial; but the succeeding
ministries sought, during the whole war, to procure enlist¬
ments for life. In France, since 1817, the rule is, to be
scrupulous about the character of recruits, to give little or
no bounty, but to limit the period of service, and to increase
the pay after the expiration of the specified term. The
same principle, differently modified, prevails both in Prussia
and in Austria.
BRITAIN.
600
BRITAIN.
Reign of Of the budget, the most remarkable feature was an in-
George lit* crease of the property-tax from six and a halt to ten pei
cent., the odium of which ministers sought to lessen by
1806. ti-,e appointment of a board of auditors to examine the
long-standing arrears in public accounts. In regard to
trade, the principles of this ministry, though little under¬
stood, and even disliked by the great majority of merchants,
were entitled to much attention. They attempted to in¬
troduce into our practical policy some of the doctrines of
Dr Smith, doctrines which Mr Pitt had studied in his
early years, but to which circumstances had not allowed
him to give an extensive application. The letter of our
navigation laws forbade all intercourse between our colo¬
nies and other countries ; but our West India colonies were,
in time of war, so dependent on the United States for pro¬
visions, that it had been customary with the island gover¬
nors to take on themselves the responsibility of infringing
these acts, and to obtain regularly a bill of indemnity
from parliament. Mr Fox now brought in a bill termed
the American Intercourse Act, the purport of which was,
to authorize the governors of our colonies to do, during
the remainder of the war, that which they had hitherto
done from year to year, and to dispense with any applica¬
tion for indemnity. This bill, moderate and politic as it in
fact was, met with keen opposition in parliament, and with
still keener out of doors from the shipping and commer¬
cial interests. It passed into a law; but it was denounced
as a glaring infraction of our navigation code, and contri¬
buted, more than any other measure, to shake the popula¬
rity of ministers.
The trial of Lord Melville before the House of Peers be¬
gan on the 29th of April 1806. The charges against him,
little understood by the public at large, related to an in¬
fraction of his official duty, not as a member of the cabi¬
net, but in his early and inferior station of treasurer of the
navy. These charges may be comprised under the fol¬
lowing heads: That he had allowed Mr Trotter, his pay¬
master, to take the temporary use and profit of sums of
money lodged in the bank for the naval expenditure ; that
he had himself participated in such profits; and, finally,
that he had applied certain sums of the public money to his
private use. All participation in the speculations or pro¬
fit of his paymaster his lordship positively denied, but he
acknowledged a temporary appropriation of the sum of
L.10,000 in a way which private honour and public duty
forbade him to reveal. The trial closed on the 12th of
June. The articles of impeachment had been extended to
the number of ten, and on all of them there was a majo¬
rity of peers for his acquittal; but whilst in regard to the
charge of conniving at stock speculations by rI rotter, or
converting the public money to his private use, the ma¬
jorities were triumphant, the case was otherwise in regard
to his lordship’s permitting an unauthorized appropriation
of the public money by Trotter, and receiving from him
temporary loans, the records of which were afterwards
destroyed.
Though the present parliament had completed only four
sessions, ministers determined on a dissolution, doubtless
from a wish to have the benefit of the government influ¬
ence in the new elections. They knew their weakness at
court, and flattered themselves that a decided ascendency
in parliament would enable them to press, with greater
confidence, measures for which they could not boast the
cordial concurrence of their royal master. For the time
of the new election they chose the moment of national
excitement caused by the recal of our ambassador from
the French capital. The first debate in the new House of
Commons related to the abortive negociation for peace;
and although the publication of the official papers excited
some surprise, and showed that Bonaparte had at one
time carried his offers of concession considerably farther Reign of
than the public had supposed, there prevailed so general George
a distrust towards him, that Mr Whitbread stood almost
alone in the opinion that the negociation ought to have
been continued. After some renewed discussions on Mr
Windham’s military measures, Lord Henry Petty, then
chancellor of the exchequer, brought forward a plan of
finance, which, assuming the expense of the current year
as equal to that of subsequent years of war, professed to
provide, without new taxes, for a contest of fourteen years
or more. This plan contained an anticipated calculation
of the loans necessary for several years to come, and sup¬
posed that a sum equal to ten per cent, on each loan
should be appropriated from the war taxes, of which five
per cent, should serve to pay the interest of the loan, and
the other five per cent, form a sinking fund, which, by the
operation of compound interest, would redeem the capital
in fourteen years ; leaving the whole ten per cent, again
applicable to the same purpose should the war continue.
That this plan possessed, no more than those of Pitt or
Vansittart, the merit of increasing the productive power
of our revenue, has been already shown by Dr Hamilton
in his well-known Treatise on the National Debt. Its me¬
rit, had it been tried, would have been found to consist,
as that of such plans generally does, in a support, perhaps
a temporary increase, of public credit. It may even be
questioned whether the same ministry, had they continued
in office, would have restricted themselves to a limited
expenditure in 1808, when the Spanish struggle called
forth such a burst of national enthusiasm. There cannot,
however, be a doubt that they would have avoided the
orders in council, which, by depriving us of the unseen
but powerful aid of neutral traffic, gave the first great blow
to our bank paper, and consequently to our public funds.
The bill for the abolition of the slave-trade was now
brought forward with all the weight of government sup¬
port, and carried by triumphant majorities; in the Lords
by a hundred to thirty-six, in the Commons by two hun¬
dred and eighty-three to sixteen. This prompt termina¬
tion of a struggle of twenty years showed how easily the
measure might have been carried had not Mr Pitt declin¬
ed to give it ministerial support; a course suggested to
him probably by a dread of offending the West India
planters, but founded in a great measure on misapprehen¬
sion, since the most respectable part of that body, the pro¬
prietors of long-settled estates, were far from being adverse
to the abolition, calculated as it was to prevent that super¬
abundance of produce which to them is the most serious
of evils. This proved the last important bill of the Gren¬
ville ministry, whose removal from office took place very
unexpectedly, in consequence of a difference with the so¬
vereign about the Irish Catholics.
The bill which produced this sudden change was intro¬
duced by Lord Howick on the 5th of March, and entitled,
“ A bill to enable his majesty to avail himself of the services
of all his liege subjects in his naval and military forces in
the manner therein mentionedthat is, by their taking
an oath contained in the bill, after which they should be
left to the free exercise of their religion. Here, as in the
case of the American intercourse with the West Indies,
the intention was less to introduce a new practice, than to
permit by law what was already permitted by connivance.
The draught of the bill had been previously submitted to
the king, and returned by him without objection ; but the
royal attention was more closely drawn to it on its introduc¬
tion into parliament, and on a vehement opposition from
]VXi’ Perceval, who described it as part of a system of dan¬
gerous innovation, and as a precuisoi of the abolition of
all religious tests. The king now intimated his disappro¬
bation of the bill to ministers, who endeavoured to modify
BRITAIN.
601
1S0G.
Kei^n of it, but still without succeeding in rendering it acceptable
George III. to their sovereign. They then felt the necessity of with-
' •' drawing the bill, but inserted in the cabinet minutes a
declaration, reserving to themselves two points : the liber¬
ty of delivering their opinion in parliament in favour of
the proposed measure, and of bringing it forward at a
future period. This minute was unfortunately couched
in terms too positive, if not disrespectful to the king, who,
always tenacious on the Catholic question, and never per¬
sonally cordial with Lords Grenville and Howick, insisted
that they should pledge themselves in writing never to
press him again on the subject. Ministers declining to
comply, the king consulted with Lord Eldon about form¬
ing a new ministry, and, receiving a ready assurance of
the practicability of such a measure, refused to listen to a
modified acquiescence with his late order, offered rather
tardily by Lord Grenville. Ministers gave up the seals of
office on 25th March; and next day the change and the
causes which led to it were fully discussed in parliament.
A short adjournment now took place, after which there
occurred some remarkable trials of strength between the
two parties. An independent member, Mr Brand, with
reference to the conditions on which the ministry had
come into office, made a motion, that it was contrary to
the duty of members of the cabinet to restrain themselves
by a pledge from advising the king on any subject. This
motion produced a very long debate, but was lost by two
hundred and fifty-eight against two hundred and twenty-
six ; while a corresponding motion in the Lords was lost
by a hundred and seventy-one to ninety. A subsequent
proposition, to express the regi’et of the house, at the.re¬
moval from office of so firm and stable an admimstiation,
was lost by two hundred and forty-four against a hun¬
dred and ninety-eight; and it became apparent, that in
parliament, as at court, the fall of the Grenville ministry
was decided.
It remains to make a few observations on their conduct
when in office; and here an impartial inquirer will not be
long in discovering that both their merits and demerits
have been greatly exaggerated. Their war measures prov¬
ed unimportant, particularly in the point which, in the
then ardent state of the public mind, superseded all otheis
 the annoyance of France ; and the result was, an uncon¬
sciousness in the greater part of the people of what was
really valuable in their views and conduct. Yet Mr box
brought to the department of foreign affairs an intimate
knowledge of continental politics, and an exemption from
national prejudices, far, however, from being accompanied,
as the vulgar supposed, by an indifference to our national
interests. Lord Grenville, if naturally less conciliating,
and less fitted for grand views, possessed a practical know¬
ledge of business, and had become aware in retirement of
the various errors which had arisen from a too early intro¬
duction into office. They had a liberal feeling towards Ire¬
land and the United States ; and though by no means luke¬
warm in their resistance to Bonaparte, they all held the im¬
practicability of making any impression on his power by
force of arms, until the occurrence of some combination
of circumstances which should justify a grand and united
effort. In what manner they would have acted had they
been in power when the general insurrection in Spain burst
forth, the public have no means ot judging.; so different is
the language, and even the feeling, of politicians w hen in and
out of office. Several of their measuies, such as the intio-
duction of the lord chief justice to a seat in the cabinet,
and the assent to the appointment of such a commander
as Whitelocke, were singularly ill-judged. To place Loid
Grey, and after him Mr T. Grenville, at the head of the
admiralty, was to declare to the public that professional
knowledge was unnecessary in that high station, as if its
VOL. v.
effects had not been most beneficially displayed in the ad-
ministration, short as it was, of Lord Barham, bmally,
their intemperate declaration in the cabinet minute of the 18()6>
12th of March evinced a strange miscalculation of their
strength, when put in opposition to the personal will of the
sovereign and the existing prejudices of the public. . e
result was, that their fall caused no regret to the majority
of the nation, and that the errors of their successors excit¬
ed no wish for their recal.
Of the new ministry, the efficient members were, Mr
Perceval, chancellor of the exchequer; Mr Canning, mini¬
ster for foreign affairs; Lord Castlereagh for the war, and
Lord Liverpool for the home department. One of their
first measures was a prorogation of the parliament, follow¬
ed by a dissolution, which gave them, in the elections, the
advantage so lately enjoyed by their predecessors, with
the further advantage of an alarm, strangely excited in the
public mind, on the ground of popery. I he new parlia¬
ment met on the 22d of June, and, after passing the bills
requisite for the army, navy, and other current business,
was prorogued on the 14th of August.
The alternation of fortune by sea and land was so great,
that 1806 had hardly commenced when fresh successes
were obtained over the French navy. A division, of the
Brest squadron, after landing troops in the Spanish pait
of St Domingo, was overtaken by a superior force, and
three sail of the line captured and two burned. Admiral
Linois, returning from India, was captured in the Maren-
of eighty guns; and, at a subsequent date, of a squa¬
dron of frigates detached from Rochefort for the West
Indies, four fell into our hands. _ ,
It was under these circumstances that a negociation for
peace was for some months carried on at Paris. It began
in consequence of an overture from lalleyrand, eagerly
embraced by Mr Fox ; and Lord Yarmouth, who happen¬
ed to be under detention in France, was made the first
medium of communication and conference. In its more
advanced stage, the negociation was intrusted to Lord
Lauderdale ; and at one period, namely, in September, the
conciliatory tone of the French inspired a hope of peace ;
a hope soon disappointed, when it was found that the
offers of Bonaparte were followed by the demand of Sicily,
and that, whilst professing an ardent wish for peace, he
was extending his usurpations in Germany, and secretly
preparing to subvert the power of Prussia.
The humiliation of Austria left Bonaparte at liberty to
direct his manoeuvres, both diplomatic and military, against
her northern rival. Affecting great indignation at the
friendly disposition shown by Prussia, in the preceding^
autumn, towards the coalition, he demanded the cession of
a portion of her territory in the south-west, and, in return,
transferred to her Hanover, in the hope of kindling the
flame of discord between her and England. Ihe Prus¬
sians accordingly entered Hanover ; the local government
making no resistance, and our cabinet taking no retaliatory
measure, except the detention of vessels beaiing the Prus¬
sian flag; a measure adopted, not in the spirit of hostility, but
to satisfy popular clamour in England. I he discussions be¬
tween France and Prussia continued during the summer of
1806, and, from the blind confidence of one party, and the
artifice of the other, assumed at last a serious aspect. War
was declared ; the battle of Jena deprived Prussia of her
army, her capital, and her fortresses ; and hei com t was fu¬
gitive in the north of Poland, ere there had been time to
send, or even to concert the sending of succours from Eng¬
land. The Grenville ministry, less eager than their prede¬
cessors to embark in continental war, confined themselves
to sending a general officer, Lord Hutchinson, to the Rus¬
sian head-quarters, and to the grant of a limited subsidy.
For some time the difficulties of the country, and the firm
4 G
BRITAIN.
602
Reign of resistance of the Russians, particularly at Eylau, encou-
George III. raged the hope of arresting the progress of Bonaparte ; but
this hope was disappointed by the battle of Friedland, and
1806, still more by the approximation of the court of Russia to
that of France.
The treaty of Tilsit excited alarm, less from its speci¬
fic provisions, than from the probable consequences of the
co-operation of the contracting powers. Among these,
some persons reckoned, or pretended to reckon, the equip¬
ping against us of the Danish navy, a force of sixteen sail
of the line, not manned or ready for sea, but capable of
being fitted out without a great sacrifice. The ministry
of 1807 founded their claim to public favour on a system
of vigour,—on a course altogether opposite to the cautious
calculations of their predecessors. No sooner were they
apprized of the treaty of Tilsit, than, without waiting for
its effect on the Danish government, they determined on
the as yet unexampled measure of taking forcible posses¬
sion of a neutral fleet. A powerful armament of twenty
thousand troops and twenty-seven sail of the line, prepar¬
ed ostensibly against Flushing and Antwerp, was directed
to proceed to the Sound, there to await the result of a ne-
gociation opened at Copenhagen. This negociation was
intrusted to a special envoy, who represented the danger
to Denmark from France and Russia, and demanded the
delivery of the Danish fleet to England, under a solemn
stipulation of its being restored on the termination of our
war with France. The Danes, justly offended at this pro¬
posal, and aware that their agreeing to it would expose
them to the loss of the continental part of their territory,
refused: our envoy returned on board our fleet: our army
was landed, and Copenhagen invested by sea and land,
while a part of our fleet cut off all communication between
the continent and the island on which it stands. After a
fortnight passed in preparations, a heavy fire was opened
on the city, and continued during two days with very great
effect. A capitulation now took place ; the citadel, dock¬
yards, and batteries were put into our hands, and no time
was lost in fitting out the Danish men of war for sea. All
stores, timber, and other articles of naval equipment, be¬
longing to government, were taken out of the arsenals,
embarked, and conveyed to England.
The expedition to Copenhagen excited much discussion
and difference of opinion in England, particularly when it
was avowed that ministers had no evidence of an intention
in Russia to coerce Denmark, and still less of a disposition in
Denmark to give way to such coercion. The only tenable
ground was, to acknowledge at once that the Danes had
given no provocation whatever; that their conduct had
been strictly neutral; but that they would evidently have
been unable to defend themselves had Russia and France
united against them. Still it was extremely questionable,
whether we, to ward off a contingent annoyance, should
have committed a present aggression. The success of our
attempt, considering our naval superiority, the insulated
position of Copenhagen, and its unprepared state, admit¬
ted of little or no doubt. But this was not all. There
remained further and more important considerations; the
odium that would be thus excited against us in the Danish
nation, and that closer approximation of Russia to France,
which could hardly fail to follow so open an affront to a
power professing to take a lead in the political arrange¬
ments of the Baltic.
Ihe Cape of Good Hope surrendered in January 1806
to an armament sent from England. After this, Sir Home
Popham, who commanded the naval part of the expedition,
ventured to make, without the sanction or even knowledge
of government, an attempt on Buenos Ayres. Our troops,
although under two thousand in number, effected a landing,
and occupied the town. Intelligence to this effect having
reached England, the popular notion that Buenos Ayres Reign of
would prove a great market for our manufactures, induced George HI,
government to take measures for completing the new con-
quest. And though the inhabitants soon rose and drove iy°7.
out the feeble detachment under Sir Home Popham, an
armament, which arrived in January 1807, under the com¬
mand of Sir Samuel Auchmuty, attacked the strongly
fortified town of Monte Video, and carried it by assault,
which was conducted with great skill and gallantry. But
a very different fate awaited our next enterprise,—an at¬
tack on Buenos Ayres, planned by General Whitelocke, an
officer wholly unfit for this or any other kind of service.
Our troops, eight thousand in number, were, under every
disadvantage, successful in some parts; but failing in
others, the result was a negociation, and a convention that
we should withdraw altogether from the country, on the
condition of our prisoners being restored.
But in another part of the world, and against an ene¬
my in general far more formidable, our arms had been
attended with success. Naples had been engaged in the
coalition of 1805, with a view to assail the French on the
side of Lombardy ; but an Anglo-Russian army, landed for
that purpose, had been prevented from marching north¬
ward by the disastrous intelligence from Germany. They
were subsequently re-embarked, the British withdrawing
to Sicily, and Palermo becoming once moi'e the refuge of
the Neapolitan court. That court, eager to excite insur¬
rection against the French in Calabria, prevailed on Ge¬
neral Sir John Stuart, in the beginning of July 1806, to
lead thither a detachment of our troops. They landed,
and soon after received intelligence, that at Maida, distant
only ten miles from our encampment, was a French corps,
already equal to our own, and hourly expecting consider¬
able reinforcements. Our troops marched to attack them
on the morning of 4th July, and at nine o’clock drew near
to their position, which had a river in front. But General
Regnier, who commanded the French, having received his
reinforcements the preceding evening, and seeing that our
small army was unprovided with cavalry, caused his men
to march out of their camp, and advance to charge us on
the plain. Our force, including a regiment landed that
morning, was nearly six thousand ; that of the enemy above
seven thousand. The French, who knew our troops only
by report, marched towards them with great confidence,
not expecting them to stand the charge. Our line, how¬
ever formed, faced the enemy, and advanced ; the forward
movement of the opposing lines lessening the intervening
distance in a double ratio. On a nearer approach the
enemy opened their field-pieces, but, contrary to the usual
practice of the French artillery, with little effect. Not so
the British ; for when our artillery opened, every shot
told, and carried off a file of the enemy’s line. The lines
were now fast closing, being within three hundred yards
distance, and a fire having commenced between the sharp¬
shooters on the right. At this moment the enemy seem¬
ed to hesitate, halted, and fired a volley. The British line
also halted, returned the salute, and having thrown in a
second volley, advanced at full charge. The enemy, ap¬
parently resolved to stand the shock, kept perfectly steady,
till, intimidated by the advance, equally rapid and firm, of
an enemy whom they had been taught to despise, their
hearts failed, and they faced about and fled, but not in
confusion. When they approached within a short dis¬
tance of their second line, they halted, fronted, and open¬
ed a fire of musketry on our line, which did not follow up
the charge to any distance, but halted to allow the men to
draw breath, and to close up any breaks in their forma¬
tion. They were soon ready, however, to advance again ;
and the order to charge having once more been given, our
brave troops rushed forward to the onset, the enemy, as
BRITAIN. 603
Reign of before, making a show of determination to remain firm.
George III. But their courage again failed them ; they would not stand
the shock; and giving way in greater confusion than be-
1807- fore5 their first line was thrown upon the second, and both
became intermingled in great disorder. Seeing himself
thus completely foiled in his attack on the front, and
being driven back more than a mile, Regnier now made an
attempt to turn the left flank; but this was defeated by
the British second line, which, refusing its left, opened
an admirably directed and destructive fire, which quick¬
ly drove back the enemy with great loss. Their efforts
were equally unsuccessful against the right of our line,
which also charged in the most gallant and decisive man¬
ner, and the field of battle remained entirely in our pos¬
session.1 The French loss in killed and wounded wras
upwards of two thousand; ours only between three hun¬
dred and four hundred. This brilliant exploit produced
the evacuation of part of Calabria by the French, but had
no other result; our small force returning soon afterwards
to Sicily.
Our next operation in the Mediterranean was an unsuc¬
cessful menace of the Turkish capital. That court refus¬
ing to enter into our plans of hostility to France, our am¬
bassador withdrew, and re-entered the Straits of the Dar¬
danelles with a squadron of seven sail of the line, exclu¬
sive of frigates and bombs. They suffered considerably in
passing the narrow part of the straits, between the ancient
Sestos and Abydos, now called the castles of Romania and
Natolia. Anchoring at a distance of eight miles from Con¬
stantinople, our admiral, Sir J. Duckworth, threatened to
burn the seraglio and the city, but in vain. The Turks
continued adverse to our demands, and employed the in¬
terval, wasted b}' the British commander in useless ne-
gociations, in strengthening the formidable batteries of
the Dardanelles. It soon became indispensable therefore
to withdraw, and to repass the straits; but this was not
accomplished without a considerable loss in killed and
wounded, the cannon at the castles being of great size,
and discharging granite balls, one of which, weighing
eight hundred pounds, cut in two the mainmast of the
Windsor man of war. A descent made soon after in Egypt
was equally unfortunate. A detachment of troops landing
at Alexandria, occupied that town, but suffered a severe
loss at Rosetta, and eventually withdrew, on the Turks con¬
senting to give up the prisoners they had taken. Peace
was soon after concluded with the Turks, and our opera¬
tions in the Levant were confined to the capture of the
Ionian Islands from the French. Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca,
and Cerigo, were taken by a small expedition in 1809, and
Santa Maura the succeeding year.
On the side of Sicily, our commanders, though pressed
by the court of Palermo, refused to make descents on Ca¬
labria, which could lead to nothing but partial insurrec¬
tions, followed, on the return of a superior force, by the
death of the most zealous of our partisans. We took, how¬
ever, in June 1809, the small islands of Ischia and Procida,
near the coast of Naples ; and, in the autumn of 1810, re¬
pelled an attempt of Murat to invade Sicily. A bod}' of
nearly four thousand Italians, who had landed on this oc¬
casion, were driven back with loss ; a failure which, join¬
ed to our decided naval superiority, put an end to all at¬
tempts of the kind.
The hostility of Russia consequent on her connection
with France produced a menaced invasion of Sweden, now
our only ally in the north. To aid in repelling it, Sir John
Moore was sent to Gottenburg with a body of ten thou¬
sand men. This force did not land; but the general, re- Reign of
pairing to Stockholm, entered into communications with Deorgelll.
the king, and had the mortification of finding that prince
wholly incapable of rational conduct, and bent on projects
which would necessarily involve the sacrifice of the British
troops. On this he lost no time in returning to Gotten¬
burg, and soon afterwards brought back the armament to
England, to be employed on a more promising service.
The influence possessed by Bonaparte over Spain had
long inspired him with the hope of overawing Portugal,
and of obliging that country to dissolve her alliance with
England. To this hope the humiliation of Germany, and
his new alliance with Russia, gave double strength ; and,
in the latter part of 1807, the most peremptory demands
were made on the court of Lisbon. To part of these, im¬
plying the exclusion of British merchantmen from the har¬
bours of Portugal, compliance was promised ; but the de¬
mand of confiscating English property, and detaining the
English resident in Portugal, was met by a decided refu¬
sal. A French army now marched towards Lisbon, and
threatened openly to overthrow the house of Braganza;
but the latter, after some momentary indications of inde¬
cision, took the determination of abandoning their Euro¬
pean dominions, and proceeding to Brazil. This spirited,
and by many unexpected measure, was carried into effect
in the end of November, and Lisbon was forthwith occu¬
pied by French troops. A few months afterwards occurred
the transactions at Bayonne, and the general declaration of
hostility by the Spaniards to Bonaparte. Our cabinet now
determined to postpone all other projects to that of a vigo¬
rous effort in Spain and Portugal. With that view, an ar¬
mament of ten thousand men, collected at Cork, and said
to be intended for Spanish America, sailed in July for the
Peninsula, and offered its co-operation to the Spaniards in
Galicia. They, however, thought it best that we should
confine our aid to Spain to arms and money, directing our
military force against the French army in Portugal. Ac¬
cordingly, our troops, after passing an interval at Oporto,
were landed to the southward, in Mondego Bay, where,
after receiving the co-opei’ation of another division of
British, and of a few Portuguese, they proceeded on their
southward march towards Lisbon. The first actions took
place with French detachments at the small town of Obidos,
and at Rori^a. Neither was of much importance : the
French, inferior in number, retreated ; but their command¬
er at Lisbon was Junot, an officer trained in the school of
revolutionary enterprise, and disposed, like most of his
brethren at that time, to make light of British land forces.
He determined forthwith on assuming offensive operations,
advanced from Lisbon, and reaching the British army on
the 21st of August 1808, attacked it in its position at the
small town of Vimiero. The force on either side was
about fourteen thousand men. The French marched to
the onset in columns, with their wonted confidence; but
they had to encounter an enemy equally firm with Ger¬
mans or Russians, and far superior in discipline, equip¬
ment, and activity, The principal column of the enemy,
headed by General Laborde, and preceded by a multitude
of light troops, mounted the face of the hill forming the
crest of the British position, with great fury and loud cries,
and, forcing in our skirmishers upon the lines, crowned the
summit; but, shattered by a terrible fire of the artillery,
breathless from their exertions, and riddled by a discharge
of musketry from the fifteenth regiment at half-pistol shot
distance, they were vigorously charged in front and flank,
and overthrown.2 Equal success attended our efforts in
1 Stewart’s Sketches and Military Service of the Highland Regiments, voL ii. p. 265 et seqq. 2d edition.
4 Napier’s History of the Peninsular War, vol. i p. 213.
604
B BIT A I N.
1808.
Reign of other parts of the line, and the loss of'the enemy was three
George III. thousand men and thirteen pieces of cannon. The object
now ought to have been to follow up our success, before tbe
French had time to recover themselves, and fortify the al¬
most impenetrable mountains on the road to Lisbon. In
vain did Sir Arthur Wellesley urge this, first on Sir Harry
Burrard, who had now taken the command, and next day
on Sir Hew Dalrymple, who arrived and replaced himt Re¬
inforcements were daily expected; and, till their arrival,
neither of these officers could be persuaded to incur ha¬
zards for the attainment of an advantage which, from their
unacquaintance with localities, they were not competent
to appreciate. A precious interval was thus Idst.' 'fhe
French occupied the passes, opened their negooiation in a
tone of confidence, and obtained, by the tfeaty called the
Convention of Cintra, a free return to France on board of
British shipping. The ministry, though disappointed, de¬
termined to defend this convention ; judging it indispen¬
sable, partly from the communications of Sir Hew Dalrym¬
ple, more from its bearing the unqualified signature of Sir
Arthur Wellesley, who was, even then, their confidential
military adviser. The public, however, called for inquiry ;
ministers felt the necessity of acceding; the three gene¬
rals were ordered home from Portugal; and, after a long
investigation, and divided opinions, the chief error was
found to consist in stopping General Ferguson in the
career of victory, when about to cut off the enemy’s re¬
treat to Lisbon, and in the loss of the twenty-four hours
which followed the battle of Vimiero.
The public disappointment at the convention of Cintra
was soon counterbalanced by gratifying intelligence from
the Baltic. Bonaparte, whose plan was to subjugate all
Europe, by making one nation instrumental in overawing
another, had sent the Spanish regiments in his service
into Denmark; but he could not prevent their receiving
intelligence of the rising spirit of their countrymen, and
the vicinity of a British fleet happily facilitated their eva¬
sion. Ten thousand Spaniards were thus brought off, and
carried, with their arms, stores, and artillery, to join the
standard of their country.
Meantime the command of our troops in Portugal was
vested in Sir John Moore, and arrangements were made for
moving them forward into Spain. But from the badness
of the roads, it was necessary to advance in two divisions,
one marching due east, and another north-east; while a
further force, which had arrived from England at Corun¬
na, was instructed to hold a south-east course. The lateral
divisions received, in their progress, orders to adapt the
direction of their march to existing circumstances; but
the result was, that both converged towards the central
division, conducted by Sir John Moore in person.
In their march our officers had an ample opportunity of
witnessing the fallacious and exaggerated impressions en¬
tertained in England with regard to the supposed enthusi¬
asm of the Spaniards. They saw a country wretchedly cul¬
tivated and thinly peopled ; a nation hostilely disposed, in¬
deed, to the French, but unaccustomed to exertion, and in¬
capable of combination. Instead of recruits, supplies of pro¬
visions, or offers of voluntary service, all was inactivity and
stagnation ; and, amidst the general poverty, our commis¬
sariat had great difficulty in obtaining provisions. Another
great source of perplexity was the want of information.
The natives, whether in the civil or military service, were
too ignorant and credulous to be capable of detecting ex¬
aggeration, or of distinguishing truth from falsehood ; and
our officers were obliged to judge for themselves under the
most contradictory rumours.
Sir John Moore reached Salamanca on the 13th of Novem¬
ber, aware that the Spaniards had been defeated at Burgos,
and soon after apprised that a French corps was advancing
1808.
to Valladolid, within sixty miles of his front. In this situ- Reign of
ation he received from Madrid the most urgent solicitations George^II L
to advance thither with his army, either in whole or in part.
He knew the ardour of his country for the cause of Spain,
and directed his. movements in the view of complying, as
far as should be at all advisable, with the representations
pressed on him; but day after day the intelligence be¬
came more discouraging. At last, the fall of Madrid, as¬
certained by an intercepted letter of General Berthier, re-
piftved every doubt, and left him no other plan but that of
uniting his three divisions, and determining on a retreat;
but, as his army was now augmented to twenty-five thou¬
sand men, he determined, if possible, to strike a blow
against the detached French army under Soult, stationed
at some distance to the north-east. With this view, our
troops advanced on the 11th of December towards the
small town of Sahagun, and a partial action, which took
place between the opposite vanguards, was to our advan¬
tage ; but intelligence arriving that Bonaparte was direct¬
ing, by the passes of the Guadarama, a superior force on
a point in rear of the British, it became indispensable to
make a prompt and uninterrupted retreat. Bonaparte,
pressing forward with his vanguard, reached our rear at
Benavente, saw, for the first time, British soldiers, and wit¬
nessed a cavalry action, in which several squadrons of his
guard were very roughly handled, and their commanding
officer, Lefebre. Desnouettes, made prisoner. Meanwhile,
Soult, marching by a different road, hoped to cross our line
of retreat at Astorga ; and the Spaniards having abandoned
the position which covered the access to that town, it re¬
quired both prompt and skilful exertion to enable our army
to occupy it before the enemy. Here, pressed as we were,
it became necessary to destroy a great part of our camp
equipage. Our army was ahead of the enemy, but had be¬
fore it a long and difficult march over the mountains of Ga¬
licia. The weather was severe, provisions scanty, the inha¬
bitants cold and unfriendly ; while privations and disap¬
pointment relaxed the discipline of our soldiers, who call¬
ed loudly to be led to action, as the close of their distress.
Retreat, however, was unavoidable ; and, in this state of
suffering and insubordination, the army performed a march
of more than two hundred miles; the general keeping in
the rear to check the French, who followed with their
usual audacity. At Lugo, about sixty miles from Corunna,
circumstances seemed to justify our awaiting the enemy,
and fighting a general battle. Our soldiers repaired with
alacrity to their ranks, but Soult did not accept the chal¬
lenge, and the retreat was continued. It closed on the
12th January 1809, having been attended with the loss of
many men, from disorder, and the sacrifice of many horses,
from want of forage, but without losing a standard, or sus¬
taining a single check in action. On the 13th, 14th, and
15 th, the sick and artillery were embarked on board our men
of war; while the troops remained on shore, to await the
enemy, and to cover the reproach of retreat by some shin¬
ing exploit. This led to the battle of Corunna. On that
day our position was good on the left, but very much other¬
wise on the right; thither, accordingly, the French pointed
■their strongest column, and thither also Sir John Mooie
repaired in person. He directed the necessary movements,
first to obstruct, and afterwards to charge, the advancing
enemy. These orders were gallantly executed, and the
attack of the French repelled; but our lamented general
received a wound, which soon after proved moital, fiom a
cannon ball, that struck him on the shoulder, and knocked
him off his horse. Subsequent attacks, first on our centre,
and next on our left, w'ere equally foiled; and, in the
evening, we occupied an advanced position along our whole
line. Enough having now been done for the honour of
our arms, the embarkation was continued on the I7th, and
BRITAIN. 60d
Keign of completed on the 18th, after which the whole set sail for
George III. England.1 ~
The session of 1808 was opened on 31st January by a
1809' speech of uncommon length, which enlarged on the Copen¬
hagen expedition; our relations with Russia, Austria, and
Sweden ; the departure of the royal family of Portugal-to
Brazil; and our orders in council respecting neutrals.
The chief debates of the session related to these subjects.
The Copenhagen expedition was much canvassed, raS' un¬
provoked by Denmark, and incompatible with the honour
of England. Still that measure received the support of a
great majority, Mr Ponsonby’s motion for the production
of papers relating to it being negatived by two hundred
and fifty to a hundred and eight, and a similar motion
in the House of Lords by a hundred and five to forty-
eight. Even a motion for preserving the Danish fleet, to
be restored, after the war, to Denmark, was negatived in
both houses.
The volunteer system had, since 1804, been greatly re¬
laxed, and the country evidently stood in need of a more
constant and efficient force. The Grenville ministry, ad¬
verse to the volunteer system, had determined to let it
fall into disuse, and to replace it by a levy of two hundred
thousand men, to be trained to act, not in battalions, but
separately, and as irregulars, on the principle that local
knowledge was the chief recommendation, and a continu¬
ance of previous habits the proper exercise, of such a force.
The new ministry, however, pursued a different course,
and passed an act for a local militia; a body which, with the
exception of the officers, was composed of the lower orders^
pledged to regular training during one month in the year,
and subjected to all the strictness of military discipline.
Such of the volunteers as chose were to remain embodied;
the total of the local militia was about two hundred thou¬
sand, and the mode of levy was by a ballot of all persons,
not specially exempted, between the age of eighteen and
thirty-one.
The orders in council were frequently discussed dur¬
ing this session, but they were as yet imperfectly under¬
stood either in their immediate operation or in their con¬
sequences. Unfortunately for the advocates of modera¬
tion, Bonaparte now lost all regard to justice, and com¬
mitted the most lawless of all his acts, the seizure of the
Spanish crown. Indignation at this atrocity, and a firm
determination to support the Spanish cause, were mani¬
fested by men of all parties, among whom were remark¬
able, as habitual members of opposition, the Duke of Nor¬
folk and Mr Sheridan ; the latter making, on this occasion,
one of the most brilliant speeches of his latter years.
The session of 1809 was opened on 13th January by a
speech declaring a decided determination to adhere to the
cause of the Spaniards, notwithstanding the failure of the
campaign, and the-retreat of our army under Sir John Reign of
Moore. The intelligence that arrived soon after the deathGeorgeiil.
of that commander drew from the house a unanimous
eulogy of his character, and regret for his fall. There
still prevailed, both in parliament and the public, a strong
attachment to the Spanish cause ; and, in the various mo¬
tions made by the opposition to censure ministers for mis¬
managing our armaments, or ill planning our operations,
the minority seldom exceeded a third of the members
present.
But the attention of parliament and the public was
withdrawn even from this interesting question, and ab¬
sorbed by the charges against the Duke of York, brought
forward by Colonel Wardle, on evidence given or procur¬
ed by Mrs Mary Anne Clarke, a forsaken mistress of the
duke. Ministers, unaware of the extent of the proofs,
brought the inquiry before the house instead of referring
it to a committee, and a succession of singular disclosures
were thus made to parliament and the public. 01 these
the most remarkable were produced by the friends of the
duke persisting in examinations begun under an impres¬
sion of his entire innocence. It is hardly possible to de¬
scribe how much this subject engaged the public attention
during the months of February and March. Of the influ¬
ence of Mrs Clarke in obtaining military commissions from
the duke, and of her disposing of them for money, there
could be no doubt. The question was, whether the duke
was apprised of this traffic; and though he might not be
aware of its extent, there seems hardly room to doubt that,
in certain cases, he suspected its existence. The debate
on the collective evidence was uncommonly long, being
adjourned from night to night, and exhibited a great differ¬
ence of opinion on the part of the speakers. Several re¬
solutions, varying in their degree of reprehension, were
proposed; and though those finally adopted condemned
only the immorality of the connection formed by the duke,
without asserting his knowledge of the pecuniary abuses,
the result was his resignation of the office of commander-
in-chief.
The success of this investigation prompted an inquiry
into other abuses, particularly the sale of East India ap¬
pointments, and disclosed a negociation of Lord Castle-
reagh to barter a nomination to a Bengal writership, for
the return of a member to parliament. The house de¬
clined to proceed to any resolution against his lordship,
or to entertain a motion relative to the interference of the
executive government in elections. A bill for parliamen¬
tary reform, brought in by Mr Curwen, was not directly
opposed, but so materially altered in its progress as to be
nugatory when it passed into a law. The further business
of the session consisted in the annual votes for the public
service, and in motions by Sir Samuel Romilly, on a sub-
1 The following masterly defence of the necessity as well as the conduct of this celebrated retreat, is extracted from Napier’s His¬
tory of the Peninsular War, vol. i. p. 525. _ .
“ Lord Bacon observes, that ‘ honourable retreats are no ways inferior to brave charges, as having less of fortune, more of discip¬
line, and as much of valour.’ That is an honourable retreat in which the retiring general loses no trophies in fight, sustains every
charge without being broken, and finally, after a severe action, re-embarks his army in the face of a superior enemy without being se¬
riously molested. It would be honourable to effect this before a foe only formidable from numbers, but it is infinitely more creditable,
when the commander, while struggling with bad weather and worse fortune, has to oppose veterans with inexperienced troops, and
to contend against an antagonist of eminent ability, who scarcely suffers a single advantage to escape him during his long and vigor¬
ous pursuit. All this Sir John Moore did, and finished his work by a death as firm and glorious as any that antiquity can boast of.
“ Put to Lord Bacon’s test, in what shall the retreat to Corunna be found deficient ? something in discipline, pexhaps, but that fault
does not attach to the general. Those commanders who have been celebrated for making fine retreats were in most instances well
acquainted with their armies ; and Hannibal, speaking of the elder Scipio, derided him, although a brave and skilful man, for that,
being unknown to his own soldiers, he should presume to oppose himself to a general who could call to each man under his command
by name ; thus inculcating, that unless troops be trained in the peculiar method of a commander, the latter can scarcely achieve any
thing great. Now Sir John Moore had a young army suddenly placed under his guidance, and it was scarcely united, when the su¬
perior numbers of the enemy forced it to a retrograde movement under very harassing circumstances; he had not time, therefore,
to establish a system of discipline; and it is in the leading events, not the minor details, that the just criterion of his merits is to be
sought for.”
606 B n
Iteign of ject which has been but lately followed up with effect, the
George III 'amen(jment of our criminal law, by lessening the severity,
but insuring the application, of punishments.
1809. ^jie fa;iurej jn autumn, of the expedition to the Scheldt,
and the resignation of the Duke of Portland when on the
verge of the grave, led to the disclosure of a remarkable
secret in cabinet history—the attempts made, during
several months, by Mr Canning, to obtain from the Duke
of Portland the removal of Lord Castlereagh from the war
department, on the ground of incompetency to the station.
On making this mortifying discovery, the complaint of
Lord Castlereagh was, not that his brother minister should
think with slight of his abilities, but that, during all the
time that he laboured against him, he should have main¬
tained towards him the outward manner of a friend. This
led to a duel, followed, not by serious personal injury, but
by the resignation of both ; causing, in the ministry, a
blank which, to all appearance, could be filled only by bring¬
ing in the leaders of opposition. An overture to this ef¬
fect, whether sincere or ostensible, was made by Mr Per¬
ceval. Lord Grenville, on receiving it, came to London ;
Lord Grey, more indifferent about office, answered it from
his seat in Northumberland ; but both declared a deter¬
mination to decline taking part in the administration so
long as the existing system should be persisted in. Mar¬
quis Wellesley, who had gone as ambassador to the Spa¬
nish junta, now returned, and was invested with the secre¬
taryship for foreign affairs. Mr Perceval was appointed
premier; and the new ministry, feeble as they were in
talent, received the support of a decided majority in par¬
liament ; so general was the hatred of Bonaparte, and the
conviction that our safety lay in a vigorous prosecution of
the war.
Our failure in the campaign of 1808-9 was far from dis¬
couraging our government from new efforts. Austria was
preparing to attack the allies of Bonaparte in Germany;
and the Spaniards, though repeatedly beaten in close ac¬
tion, continued a destructive warfare in the shape of in¬
sulated insurrections. Sir Arthur Wellesley was accord¬
ingly sent with a fresh army to Lisbon, and General Beres-
ford with a commission to discipline the Portuguese forces.
They found the French threatening Lisbon in two direc¬
tions; from the east, with a powerful force under Victor;
from the north, with a less numerous body under Soult.
Sir Arthur Wellesley advanced against the latter, drew
near his rear guard on the banks of the Douro, drove it
over that river, and crossing immediately after, forced
Soult to a precipitate retreat from Oporto. Returning to
the southward, our commander obliged the force under
Victor to draw back; and having, some time after, effect¬
ed a junction with a Spanish army, took the bold deter¬
mination of moving forward in the direction of Madrid by
the valley of the Tagus. The French now sent reinforce¬
ments to the army of Victor, and the opposing forces met
at Talavera de la Reyna, a town to the north of the Tagus,
near the small river Alberche. The British force was nine¬
teen thousand, and that of the Spaniards above thirty thou¬
sand; the French army amounted to upwards of forty-seven
thousand men. Lord Wellington was too distrustful of the
discipline of his allies to venture an attack on the French,
but he saw no imprudence in trying, as at Vimiero, the
chance of a defensive action. Stationing the Spaniards on
strong ground on the right, he occupied with the British a
less strong but yet favourable position on the left. Against
the army thus posted the French advanced in the afternoon
of 27th July, driving in our advanced post, and attacking
an eminence on our left. This eminence, the key of the
position, would have been assailed from the beginning by
Bonaparte, with a formidable column; but the rifle corps and
a single battalion sent against it by Victor were speedily
A I N.
driven back by our troops. A second attack, made in the Reign of
evening by three regiments of infantry, was at first success- George T11.
ful, but it was soon repelled by a fresh division of Bri-
tish troops. The main body of the French, surprised at
this failure, waited impatiently for morning to renew the
attack; they advanced, marched through a destructive
fire to the top of the rising ground, approached our can¬
non, and were on the point of seizing them, when our line
rushed forward with the bayonet, and drove them back
with great loss. Their commanders now determined to
suspend all attacks on the right of the position, and to
bring a mass of force against the front and flank of the
British left. A general attack took place at four in the
afternoon, and the troops directed against the height now
consisted of three divisions of infantry, or about eighteen
thousand men. Crossing the ravine in their front, the
first division scaled the height amidst volleys of grape-
shot; but its general fell, a number of officers shared his
fate, and retreat became unavoidable. No attempt was
now made to carry the eminence in front; attacks were
made on its left and right, but all were ineffectual. The
left, indeed, was the weak part of the British position ; but
an event, unfortunate in its immediate results, served to
check their audacity in this quarter, and to prevent the
renewal of any serious attempt against this part of our
line. Sir Arthur Wellesley having observed a French di¬
vision (Villatte’s), preceded by grenadiers, and supported
by two regiments of light cavalry, advancing up the valley
against the left, while another (Ruffin’s) was directing its
march towards a mountain which flanked the left trans¬
versely, in order to turn it, directed Anson’s brigade of
cavalry, consisting of the twenty-third light dragoons and
the first German hussars, to charge the head of these co¬
lumns. The order was instantly obeyed; the brigade
moved off at a canter, and increasing its speed as it ad¬
vanced, rode headlong against the enemy; but in a few
moments it came upon the brink of a cleft which was not
perceptible at a distance. The French threw themselves
into squares, and opened their fire. Colonel Arentschild,
commanding the German hussars, promptly reined up,
exclaiming, “ I will not kill my young mens; ’ and it
would have been well if the twenty-third had followed
the example of the experienced veteran. But English
impetuosity was not to be restrained. The twenty-third
rode wildly down into the hollow; men and horses fell
over each other in dreadful confusion; yet the survivors,
still untamed, mounted the opposite banks by twos and
threes; and Major Ponsonby rallying all who came up,
they passed through the midst of Villatte’s columns, reck¬
less of the musketry from each side, and fell with inex¬
pressible violence upon a brigade of French chasseurs in
the rear. The combat was fierce but short. Attacked by
Victor’s Polish lancers and the Westphalian light horse,
exposed on both sides to the fire of the squares of in¬
fantry, and engaged with the chasseurs in front, they
were at length broken ; and those who were not killed or
taken escaped behind a Spanish division, leaving behind
about half the number which went into action. But, how¬
ever unfortunate in its circumstances, the desperate fury
of this charge appalled the French, and effectually checked
their advance on a point where the chances of success
were otherwise much in their favour. 'Ibis battle, which
was one of hard, honest fighting, reflected little credit on
the generalship of either party. ! he loss on both sides was
unusually severe; that sustained by the Biitish, in the
two days’ fighting, amounting to upwards of six thousand
in killed and wounded, and that of the French to about
seven thousand four hundred.
Notwithstanding this dear-bought success, it became
necessary for the allied army to retire ; the French divi-
B R I T A I N. 607
Reign of sions in the north-west of Spain having united and begun
George III. to inarch in a direction which would soon have brought
them on our rear. Our army crossed the Tagus at Arzo-
1809' bispo, and held a south-west course till it reached Bada-
jos, where it remained during the rest of the year, in a po¬
sition which covered that fortress, and showed the Spa¬
niards that we had not abandoned their cause, however
dissatisfied with their co-operation, and convinced of the
impracticability of combining offensive operations with such
allies.
While by land the fortune of war was thus chequer¬
ed, at sea the French experienced nothing but disasters.
Eight ships of the line in Brest, eluding our blockade,
sailed southward to Basque Roads, near Rochefort, where
they were joined by four sail of the line from that port.
Our fleet blockaded them in their new stations; and pre¬
paration having been made to attempt their destruction
by fire-ships, Lord Cochrane sailed in with these dreadful
engines on the evening of the 11th of April 1809. Our
seamen broke the boom in front of the French line, dis¬
regarded the fire from the forts, and, after bringing the
fire-ships as near to the enemy as possible, set fire to the
fusees and withdrew in their boats. The French, sur¬
prised and alarmed, cut their cables and run on shore.
Four sail of the line that had accompanied Lord Cochrane
attacked them, and though the main body of our fleet was
prevented by the wind and tide from coming up, the re¬
sult of our attack, and of the effect of the fire-ships, was
the loss of four sail of the line, and one frigate burned or
destroyed. At a later period of the year a French con¬
voy of three sail of the line and eleven transports, proceed¬
ing from Toulon to Barcelona, was attacked and destroy¬
ed by a division from Lord Collingwood’s fleet.
Doubtful as was the aspect of the great contest in Spain,
it employed a large portion of Bonaparte’s military esta¬
blishment, and revived the hope of independence in Ger¬
many. Prussia was too recently humbled, and too closely
connected with Russia, at that time the ally of France, to
take up arms ; but Austria was unrestrained, and thought
the season favourable for a renewal of the contest. Her
troops took the field in April, and invaded Bavaria under
the Archduke Charles, but were worsted at Eckmuhl, after
a series of the most splendid military combinations, and
Vienna was a second time entered by Bonaparte. His
impatience to attack the Austrian army on the north side
of the Danube led to his failure in the sanguinary battle
of Aspern, and necessitated the advance of almost all his
regular troops into the heart of Germany, at a distance of
several hundred miles from the coast. But the battle of
Wagram at length decided the fate of the campaign, and
placed Austria again at the feet of France.
Of the naval stations exposed in consequence of the
withdrawal of the troops, by far the most important was
Antwerp, situated on a part of the Scheldt of as great
depth and as accessible to ships of the line as the Thames
at Woolwich. From Antwerp to the mouth of the Scheldt
is a distance of about fifty miles. The first fortified town,
on coming in from the sea, is Flushing, the batteries of
which, though formidable, are not capable of preventing
the passage of ships of war through a strait of three miles
in width. Our armament, consisting of nearly forty sail
of the line and thirty-eight thousand military, was the
most powerful that had ever left our shores. It crossed
the narrow sea with a fair wind; and, in the morning of
the 30th of July, the inhabitants of the tranquil coast of
Zealand were astonished by an unparalleled display of men
of war and transports. Our troops landed and forthwith
occupied Walcheren and the islands to the north. No
resistance was offered except at Flushing; but our com¬
mander, the Earl of Chatham, showed himself wholly in¬
capable of discriminating the causes of success or failure Reign of
when he stopped to besiege that place. It ought only to George III.
have been watched, whilst the main body of the troops
should have landed in Dutch Flanders, on the south of 191°"
the Scheldt, and marched straight to Antwerp, which,
even with artillery, might have been reached in a few
days. The French, never doubting the adoption of this
plan, and conscious of their weakness, had moved their
men of war up the river, beyond the town, previous to set¬
ting them on fire. But a delay of a fortnight took place
before Flushing, and time was thus given to the enemy to
strengthen the forts on the river, and to collect whatever
force the country afforded. Still, as an attack by water
was not indispensable to success, there yet remained a
chance ; ten days more, however, were lost; the relinquish¬
ment of the main object of the expedition became thus un¬
avoidable ; and the only further measure was to leave a
body of fifteen thousand men in the island of Walcheren.
There, accordingly, they remained during several months,
suffering greatly from an unhealthy atmosphere, and doing
nothing except destroying, on their departure, the dock¬
yards of Flushing. Never was a gallant force more grossly
misdirected; the choice of our general was as unaccount¬
able as the choice of Mack in 1805 ; and the historian, were
he to reason from the inferior numbers of the enemy, might
pronounce this expedition as inglorious to our arms as the
battles of Poitiers and Agincourt were to our enemies of a
former age.
The session of 1810 opened on the 28th of January, and
the leading subject of debate was our unfortunate expedi¬
tion to Walcheren and the Scheldt. A motion leading to
inquiry was carried after a close division, namely, a hundred
and ninety-five to a hundred and eighty-six; and the in¬
vestigation was conducted chiefly at the bar of the House
of Commons, a secret committee being appointed for the
inspection of confidential papers. The Earl of Chatham,
and other officers concerned in planning or conducting the
expedition, were examined. The inquiry lasted several
weeks, and disclosed, clearly enough, the imbecility of
our commander; but the speeches of the opposition were
pointed, not against the management of the expedition,
but against its expediency as an enterprise ; not against
the general, but the cabinet. In this they were not second¬
ed by the majority of the house. On the policy or im¬
policy of the expedition being put to the vote, the former
was supported by two hundred and seventy-two in oppo¬
sition to two hundred and thirty two ; and even the less
tenable ground of keeping our soldiers in an unhealthy
island for three months after relinquishing all idea of an
attempt on Antwerp, was vindicated by two hundred and
fifty-three votes against two hundred and thirty-two ; a
decision too remarkable to be forgotten, and which has
since stamped this with the name of the Walcheren Par¬
liament. The only ministerial change consequent on the
inquiry was the removal of Lord Chatham from his seat
in the cabinet, and from the master-generalship of the
ordnance ; but this was in consequence of privately de¬
livering a statement to the king, professing to vindicate
himself at the expense of Sir Richard Strachan and the
navy. The resolution adopted on this occasion was, “ that
the house saw with regret that any such communication
as the narrative of Lord Chatham should have been made
to his majesty, without any knowledge of the other mini¬
sters ; that such conduct is highly reprehensible, and de¬
serves the censure of the house.”
The exclusion of strangers from the gallery of the
house during the Walcheren inquiry gave rise to a dis¬
cussion which, though at first unimportant, soon engaged
much of the public attention. A Mr John Gale Jones,
well known among the demagogues of the age, and at that
608
BRITAIN.
lleicm of time president of a debat.ng c ub, animadverted on the
George III. Rouse of Commons in a handbill, m a style which induced
the house to order his commitment to Newgate. A few
1810. weeks after, Sir Francis Burdett brought in a motion tor
his liberation, on the broad ground that the house had no
rio-ht to inflict the punishment of imprisonment in such a
case. Baffled in this way by a great majority. Sir Francis
wrote and printed a letter to his constituents, denying this
power, and applying contemptuous epithets to the houses.
This imprudent step provoked a debate, which ended in a
resolution by the House of Commons to commit Sir Fran¬
cis to the Tower. The speaker issued his warrant, and
the serjeant at arms carried it to the house of Sir Francis,
but withdrew on a refusal of Sir Francis to obey. Next
day the serjeant repeated his demand, accompanied by
messengers; but the populace bad by this time assembled
in crowds near the baronet’s bouse, and prevented his re¬
moval until an early hour on the 9th, when the civil officers
burst into his house, put Sir Francis into a carriage, and
conveyed him to the Tower in the midst of several regi¬
ments of horse. Sir Francis brought actions against the
speaker and other officers; but they fell to the ground by
non-suits, and he continued in confinement during the re¬
mainder of the session. .
Among the further acts of this session were two which
regarded Scotland; one for the increase of the smaller
church livings, of which none in this part of the kingdom
are now under L.150; the other relative to judicial pro¬
ceedings, and reducing the heavy expenses caused by the
compulsory extract of office papers. The court of ses¬
sion had been previously divided into chambers by an act
passed in 1808; and the trial by jury in civil causes was
introduced into Scotland by an act ol 1815.
We turn with impatience from the banks of the Scheldt to
a scene more honourable to our arms. Our troops under
Sir Arthur Wellesley, now Lord Wellington, had passed
the winter in the interior of Portugal, moving northward
as spring advanced, but delaying active operations. Of¬
fensive war was unsuited to our situation, and the French
awaited reinforcements from the north. Bonaparte s de¬
termination now was to make Massena penetrate into Por¬
tugal, and to expel those auxiliaries who were the main¬
spring of the obstinate resistance experienced bj him in
Spain. The first enterprise of the French army was the
siege of the frontier fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo, which
surrendered on the 10th of July. Lhe next object of at¬
tack was the Portuguese fortress of Almeida, which was
invested in the end of July, and taken unfortunately too
soon, in consequence of the explosion of the magazine.
Soon after, the French army, now a formidable body, ad¬
vanced into Portugal, Lord Wellington retiring before
them, but determined to embrace the first opportunity of
fighting on favourable ground. This occurred when oc¬
cupying the highest ridge of the mountain of Busaco, di¬
rectly in face of the enemy. The French, always impe¬
tuous, and not yet aware of the firmness of oui men,
marched up the mountain; one division reached the top
of the ridge, where they were immediately attacked by a
corps of British and Portuguese, and driven from the
ground. In other parts the same result took place befoie
the French reached the top. The loss on our side was a
thousand men, that of the enemy between two and three
thousand. Massena desisted from further attacks; but
turning the flank of our position by a mountain, Lord Wel¬
lington, instead of heading the enemy’s columns as they
debouched from the defile, retreated in the direction of
Lisbon, till he reached the ground which he had previ¬
ously determined to occupy at Torres Vedras, in order to
cover that capital.
The track of country to the north of Lisbon is not
above twelve miles in breadth, having the sea on 0
west and the Tagus on the east; the ground is extremely
mountainous, and accessible only by passes, which were
occupied by our troops and by batteries. Massena felt al.
the strength of this position, and the repulse at Busaco
made him beware of a second encounter on disadvanta¬
geous ground. It was now for the first time that the im¬
petuous bands of Bonaparte stopped short in their career ;
the armies remained opposite to each other above four
months, during which time the French were greatly strait¬
ened for provisions and forage, being obliged to get convoys
of biscuit under escort from France, whilst the command
of the sea secured abundance to the British. Still Mas¬
sena persisted in keeping his position, hoping to combine
his operations with the army of Soult, then advancing from
the south-east of Spain ; an army which was but too for¬
tunate, having attacked and taken by surprise a Spanish
camp on the banks of the Guadiana. A numbei of boats
had been constructed by Massena to cross the Tagus and
co-operate with Soult; but in the beginning of March in¬
telligence arrived that a convoy of biscuit long^ expect¬
ed from France had been intercepted by the Guerillas.
There was now an end to all offensive projects, and there
remained only the alternative of retreat. It began on the
5th of March; the British followed; and the movements
of either army, during a very long march, afforded an ad¬
mirable exemplification of the rules of war. Our advance
was so rapid that the French were frequently obliged to
move hastily from one position to another; but they kept
their best troops in the rear, collected in solid bodies, and
affording no opening to our vanguard. The retreat lasted
a month, and closed near the fortress of Almeida, on the
frontier of Spain. The French, however, were soon again
in a condition to act, and advanced to relieve Almeida, of
which we had now begun the siege. The chief fighting
took place on the 3d and 5th of May, near a village call-
ed Fuentes de Honor, which was repeatedly taken and re¬
taken ; but all their efforts were ultimately ineffectual, and
Almeida was left to its fate. The chief part of the garri¬
son, however, found means to escape by a nocturnal march.
Meanwhile the south or rather the south-west of
was the scene of very active operations. A body of Spa¬
niards and British, marching northward from Gibraltar, ap¬
proached the south-western extremity of the line occupied
by the French troops engaged in the blockade of Cadiz.
General Graham commanded the British, and on 5th March,
at noon, was drawing near to the close of a long marc ,
when he received intelligence of the advance of a Irene i
force. Knowing the height of Barrosa, which he had just
left, to be the key of the position, he immediately coun¬
termarched his corps, and had proceeded but a short way
when he found himself unexpectedly near to the enemy,
whose left division was seen ascending the hill of Barro¬
sa, while their right stood on the plain within cannon-siiot.
To retreat was wholly unadvisable ; an immediate attack
was therefore determined on by General Graham, thoug
unsupported by the Spaniards, and inferioi to t ie enemy.
A battery opened against the right division of t le rent
caused them considerable loss, but they continuec o
vance until a charge with the bayonet drove them ac W1
great slaughter. With the other division on the ascent of
the hill there took place a similar conflict with a simi ar is¬
sue ; both sides fought with courage, and both sustained a
heavy loss; that of the British was above twelve hundred,
and that of the enemy nearly double. 1 he action lasted an
hour and a half; our success was owing partly to the effect
of our guns, but more to the firmness of the troops, who
showed themselves determined rather to fall than yield.
About the same time, but at a distance of two hundred
miles to the north of Cadiz, the important fortress of Ba-
BRITAIN.
609
1811.
Regency, dajos fell into the hands of the French. This painful in-
1 J tePicrence reached Lord Wellington when following up the
retreat of Massena; and no time was lost in detaching a
body of troops to the south of Portugal, to enable Marshal
Beresford to advance and form the siege of Badajos. This
called from the south the army of Soult, twenty-three thou¬
sand strong. On their approach Marshal Beresford raised
the siege of Badajos, and prepared to meet the enemy with
a force numerically superior, but of which only seven thou¬
sand consisted of British troops. Soult quitted Seville on
the 10th May 1811, but Beresford remained in a state of
uncertainty till the 12th, when he commenced raising the
siege. On the 13th he held a conference with the Spa¬
nish at Yalverde, where it was agreed to receive battle at
the village of Albuera. The 14th was spent in a variety
of movements ; and in the morning of the 15th the British
occupied the left of the position of Albuera, a ridge about
four miles long, having the Aroya Val de Sevilla in rear,
and the Albuera river in front. This position was now
occupied by thirty thousand infantry, above two thousand
cavalry, and thirty-eight pieces of artillery, eighteen of
which were nine-pounders; but a brigade of the fourth
division being still absent, the British infantry, “ the pith
and strength of the battle,” did not amount to seven thou¬
sand. The French had fifty guns and above four thou¬
sand veteran cavalry, but only nineteen thousand chosen
infantry ; yet being of one nation, obedient to one discip¬
line, and animated by one spirit, the excellence of their
composition amply compensated for the inferiority of num¬
bers. Soult examined Beresford’s position on the evening
of the 15th, and having learnt that the fourth division
was left before Badajos, and that the corps of Spaniards
under Blake would not arrive before the 17th, he resolved
to attack the next morning. We shall now adorn our
pages with the incomparable description of this conflict,
given by the great historian of the peninsular war.
“ The hill in the centre, commanding the Valverde road,
was undoubtedly the key of the position if an attack was
made parallel to the front; but the heights on the right
presented a sort of table-land, trending backwards towards
the Valverde road, and looking into the rear of the line
of battle. Hence it was evident that, if a mass of troops
could be placed there, they must be beaten, or the right
wing of the allied army would be rolled up on the centre
and pushed into the narrow ravine of the Aroya: the
Valverde road could then be seized, the retreat cut, and
the powerful cavalry of the French would complete the
victory. Now the right of the allies and the left of the
French approximated to each other, being only divided
by a wooded hill, about cannon-shot distance from either,
but separated from the allies by the Albuera, and from
the French by a rivulet called the Feria. This height,
neglected by Beresford, was ably made use of by Soult.
During the night he placed behind it the artillery under
General Ruty, the fifth corps under Girard, and the
heavy dragoons under Latour Maubourg; thus concentrat¬
ing fifteen thousand men and forty guns within ten mi¬
nutes’ march of Beresford’s right wing, and yet that ge¬
neral could neither see a man nor draw a sound conclu¬
sion as to the real plan of attack.
“ The light cavalry, the division of the first corps under
General Werle, Godinot’s brigade, and ten guns, still re¬
mained at the French marshal s disposal. Ihese he formed
in the woods extending along the banks of the Feria to¬
wards its confluence w’ith the Albuera; and Godinot was
ordered to attack tbe village and bridge, and to bear
strongly against the centre of the position, with a view
to attract Beresford’s attention, to separate his wings, and
to double up his right at the moment when the principal
attack should be developed.
VOL. v.
1811.
“ During the night Blake and Cole arrived with above Kegncy.
sixteen thousand men; but so defective was the occupa- '
tion of the ground, that Soult had no change to make in
his plans from this circumstance, and, a little before nine
o’clock in the morning, Godinot’s division issued from the
woods in one heavy column of attack, preceded by ten
guns. He was flanked by the light cavalry, and followed
by Werle’s division of reserve, and, making straight to¬
wards the bridge, commenced a sharp cannonade, attempt¬
ing to force the passage; at the same time Bridie, with
twm regiments of hussars, drew further down the river to
observe Colonel Otway’s horse.
“ The allies’ guns on the rising ground above tbe village
answered the fire of the French, and ploughed through
their columns, which were crowding without judgment
towards the bridge, although the stream was passable
above and below. But Beresford, observing that Werle’s
division did not follow closely, was soon convinced that
the principal effort would be on the right, and therefore
sent Blake orders to form a part of the first and all the
second line of the Spanish army on the broad part of the
hills, at right angles to their actual front. Then drawing
the Portuguese infantry of the left wing to the centre, he
sent one brigade down to support Alten, and directed
General Hamilton to hold the remainder in columns of
battalions, ready to move to any part of the field. Ihe
thirteenth dragoons were posted near the edge of the
river, above the bridge; and, meanwhile, the second divi¬
sion marched to support Blake. The horse artillery, the
heavy dragoons, and the fourth division, also took ground
to the right, and were posted ; the cavalry and guns on a
small plain behind the Aroya, and the fourth division in
an oblique line about half musket shot behind them. This
done, Beresford galloped to Blake, for that general had
refused to change his front, and, with great heat, told
Colonel Hardinge, the bearer of the order, that the real
attack was at the village and bridge. Beresford had sent
again to entreat that he would obey, but this message was
as fruitless as the former; and, when the marshal arrived,
nothing had been done. The enemy’s columns were, how¬
ever, now beginning to appear on the right, and Blake,
yielding to this evidence, proceeded to make the evolu¬
tion, yet with such pedantic slowness, that Beresford, im¬
patient of his folly, took the direction in person.
“ Great was the confusion and the delay thus occasion¬
ed, and ere the troops could be put in order the French
were amongst them. For scarcely had Godinot engaged
Alten’s brigade, when Werle, leaving only a battalion of
grenadiers and some squadrons to watch the thirteenth
dragoons and to connect the attacks, countermarched with
the remainder of his division, and rapidly gained the rear
of the fifth corps as it was mounting the hills on the right
of the allies. At the same time the mass of light cavalry
suddenly quitted Godinot’s column, and crossing the river
Albuera above the bridge, ascended the left bank at a
gallop, and, sweeping round the rear of the fifth corps,
joined Latour Maubourg, who was already in face of Lum-
ley’s squadrons. Thus half an hour had sufficed to render
Beresford’s position nearly desperate. Two thirds of the
French were in a compact order of battle on a line per¬
pendicular to his right, and his army, disordered and com¬
posed of different nations, was still in the difficult act of
changing its front. It was in vain that he endeavoured
to form the Spanish line sufficiently in advance to give
room for the second division to support it; the French
guns opened, their infantry threw out a heavy musketry,
and their cavalry, outflanking the front and charging here
and there, put the Spaniards in disorder at all points; in
a short time the latter gave way, and Soult, thinking the
whole army was yielding, pushed forward his columns,
4 H
610
Regency.
BRITAIN.
1811.
while his reserves also mounted the hill, and General Ruty
placed all the batteries in position.
“ At this critical moment General William Stewart ar¬
rived at the foot of the height with Colonel Colborne’s
brigade, which formed the head of the second division.
The colonel, seeing the confusion above, desired to form
in order of battle previous to mounting the ascent; but
Stewart, whose boiling courage overlaid his judgment, led
up without any delay in column of companies, and at¬
tempted to open out his line in succession as the batta¬
lions arrived at the summit. Being under a destructive
fire, the foremost charged to gain room; but a heavy rain
prevented any object from being distinctly seen, and four
regiments of hussars and lancers, which had passed the
right flank in the obscurity, came galloping in upon the
rear of the line at the instant of its development, and slew
or took two thirds of the brigade. One battalion only (the
thirty-first) being still in column, escaped the storm and
maintained its ground; while the French horsemen, rid¬
ing violently over every thing else, penetrated to all parts.
In the tumult a lancer fell upon Beresford, but the mar¬
shal, a man of great strength, putting his spear aside, cast
him from his saddle ; and a shift of wind blowing aside the
mist and smoke, the mischief was perceived from the plains
by General Lumley, who sent four squadrons out upon the
lancers and cut many of them off.
“ During this first unhappy effort of the second division,
so great was the confusion, that the Spanish line continu¬
ed to fire without cessation, although the British were be¬
fore them ; whereupon Beresford, finding his exhortations
to advance fruitless, seized an ensign and bore him and
his colours by main force to the front ; yet the troops
would not follow, and the man went back again on being
released. In this crisis the weather, which had ruined
Colborne’s brigade, also prevented Soult from seeing the
whole extent of the field of battle, and he still kept his
heavy columns together. His cavalry, indeed, began to
hem in that of the allies ; but the fire of the horse artillery
enabled Lumley, covered as he was by the bed of the
Aroya, and supported by the fourth division, to check them
on the plain, while Colborne still maintained the heights
with the thirty-first regiment; the British artillery, under
Major Dickson, was likewise coming fast into action, and
William Stewart, who had escaped the charge of the lan¬
cers, was again mounting the hill with General Houghton’s
brigade, which he brought on with the same vehemence,
but, instructed by his previous misfortune, in a juster order
of battle. The weather now cleared, and a dreadful fire,
poured into the thickest of the French columns, convinced
Soult that the day was yet to be won.
“ Houghton’s regiments soon got footing on the summit,
Dickson placed the artillery in line, the remaining brigade
of the second division came up on the left, and two Spanish
corps at last moved forward. The enemy’s infantry then
recoiled, yet soon recovering, renewed the fight with great¬
er violence than before; the cannon on both sides dis¬
charged showers of grape at half range, and the peals of
musketry were incessant and often within pistol shot; but
the close formation of the French embarrassed their bat¬
tle, and the British line would not yield them one inch of
ground nor a moment of time to open their ranks. Their
fighting was, however, fierce and dangerous. Stewart was
twice hurt, Colonel Duckworth of the forty-eighth was
slain, and the gallant Houghton, who had received many
wounds without shrinking, fell and died in the act of cheer¬
ing his men. Still the struggle continued with unabated
fury. Colonel Inglis, twenty-two other officers, and more
than four hundred men out of five hundred and seventy
that had mounted the hill, fell in the fifty-seventh alone,
and the other regiments were scarcely better off; not one
1811.
third were standing in any. Ammunition failed, and, as Regency,
the English fire slackened, the enemy established a column s-
in advance upon the right flank ; the play of Dickson's
artillery checked them a moment, but again the Polish
lancers charging, captured six guns. And in this despe¬
rate crisis,Beresford, who had already withdrawn the thir¬
teenth dragoons from the banks of the river, and brought
Hamilton’s Portuguese into a situation to cover a retro¬
grade movement, wavered ! destruction stared him in the
face, his personal resources were exhausted, and the un¬
happy thought of a retreat rose in his agitated mind. Yet
no order to that effect was given, and it was urged by
some about him that the day might still be redeemed with
the fourth division. While he hesitated, Colonel Har-
dinge boldly ordered General Cole to advance; and then
riding to Colonel Abercrombie, who commanded the re¬
maining brigade of the second division, directed him also
to push forward into the fight. The die being thus cast,
Beresford acquiesced, and this terrible battle was con¬
tinued.
“ The fourth division had only two brigades in the field ;
the one Portuguese under General Harvey; the other,
commanded by Sir W. Myers, and composed of the seventh
and twenty-third British regiments, was called the fuzi-
leer brigade. General Cole directed the Portuguese to
move between Lumley’s dragoons and the hill, where they
were immediately charged by some of the French horse¬
men, but beat them off with great loss: meanwhile he led
the fuzileers in person up the height.
“ At this time six guns were in the enemy’s possession,
the whole of Werle’s reserves were coming forward to
reinforce the front column of the French, and the rem¬
nant of Houghton’s brigade could no longer maintain its
ground; the field was heaped with carcasses, the lancers
were riding furiously about the captured artillery on the
upper part of the hill, and on the lower slopes a Spanish
and an English regiment in mutual error were exchanging
volleys ; behind all, General Hamilton’s Portuguese, in
withdrawing from the heights above the bridge, appeared
to be in retreat. The conduct of a few brave men soon
changed this state of affairs. Colonel Robert Arbuthnot,
pushing between the double fire of the mistaken troops,
arrested that mischief; while Cole, with the fuzileers,
flanked by a battalion of the Lusitanian legion under Co¬
lonel Hawkshawe, mounted the hill, dispersed the lancers,
recovered the captured guns, and appeared on the right
of Houghton’s brigade exactly as Abercrombie passed it
on the left.
“ Such a gallant line, issuing from the midst of the smoke,
and rapidly separating itself from the confused and bro¬
ken multitude, startled the enemy’s heavy masses, which
were increasing and pressing onwards as to an assured
victory; they wavered, hesitated, and then vomiting forth
a storm of fire, hastily endeavoured to enlarge their front,
while a fearful discharge of grape from all their artillery
whistled through the British ranks. Myers was killed ;
Cole, and the three colonels, Ellis, Blakeney, and Hawk¬
shawe, fell wounded ; and the fuzileer battalions, struck by
the iron tempest, reeled and staggered like sinking ships.
Suddenly and sternly recovering, they closed on their ter¬
rible enemies; and then was seen with what a strength
and majesty the British soldier fights. In vain did Soult,
hy voice and gesture, animate his Frenchmen ; in vain
did the hardiest veterans, extricating themselves from the
crowded columns, sacrifice their lives to gain time for the
mass to open out on such a fair field ; in vain did the mass
itself bear up, and fiercely striving, fire indiscriminately
upon friends and foes, while the horsemen hovering on
the flank threatened to charge the advancing line. Nothing
could stop that astonishing infantry. No sudden hurst of
BRITAIN.
611
Regency, undisciplined valour, no nervous enthusiasm, weakened the
stability of their order; their flashing eyes were bent on
1811. the dark columns in their front; their measured tread
shook the ground; their dreadful volleys swept away the
head of every formation; their deafening shouts over¬
powered the dissonant cries that broke from all parts of
the tumultuous crowd, as foot by foot and with a horrid
carnage it was driven by the incessant vigour of the at¬
tack to the farthest edge of the hill. In vain did the
French reserves, joining with the struggling multitude,
endeavour to sustain the fight; their efforts only increas¬
ed the irremediable confusion, and the mighty mass giv¬
ing way like a loosened cliff, went headlong down the as¬
cent. The rain flowed after in streams discoloured with
blood, and fifteen hundred unwounded men, the remnant
of six thousand unconquerable British soldiers, stood tri¬
umphant on the fatal hill 1”
Lord Wellington reached the army some time after the
battle of Albuera, and determined to renew the siege of Ba-
dajos. Breaches were made in the walls, and two attempts
at assault were hazarded (6th and 9th June), but in vain ;
the advance of the French army from the north, in con¬
cert with that of the south, necessitated the raising of the
siege. Here ended the active operations of the year. Our
army remained some time encamped in the central part of
Portugal, after which Lord Wellington marched northward
and threatened Ciudad Rodrigo, but retreated before a su¬
perior force collected by the French.
CHAP. XIX.
THE REGENCY..—WAR WITH FRANCE.
The Regency Campaign of 1812—Battle of Salamanca—Conse¬
quences of this victory—Session of 1812—Overtures to the
Opposition Orders in Council—Session of 1812-1813—
Princess of Wales East India Charter—Campaign of 1813—
Operations in the east of Spain—Failure of the attempt on
Tarragona Operations in the West—Battle of Yittoria—
Siege of San Sebastian—Battles of the Pyrenees—Invasion of
France Battles of the Nive, Nivelle, Orthes, and Toulouse—
Session of 1813-1814 General Pacification and Settlement of
Europe Origin of our differences with the United States of
America Suspension of Neutral Trade—War declared 18th
June 1812 Naval Operations—Operations in Canada—Ame¬
rican Campaign of 1813—Affair at Sackett’s Harbour—Cam¬
paign of 1814 Operations on the Lakes—Operations in the
central parts of the United States—Attack on New Orleans—
Peace Ruinous effects of the war—Session of 1814-1815.—
Corn Laws Return of Bonaparte from Elba—Effects of this
extraordinary attempt—Military Operations—Campaign in
the Netherlands Battle of Quatre Bras—Battle of Ligny—
Battle of Waterloo, and Overthrow of Napoleon—Advance of
the Allies, and Second Treaty of Paris—Reflections on the
War Session of 1816—Loss of the Property-Tax Bill 
Battle of Algiers.—Session of 1817—Suspension of Habeas
Corpus.
The session of 1810-11 opened in November 1810, more
early than was intended, in consequence of the mental in¬
disposition of the king. Repeated adjournments, however,
took place in the vain hope of a recovery, and it was not
till the 20th of December that resolutions for a regency
were moved in both houses. They formed the chief sub¬
ject of discussion during the ensuing month. Their prin¬
cipal characteristics consisted in the restrictions imposed
on the prince for the succeeding year, during which he
was not permitted to confer the rank of peer, to grant an
office in reversion, or even a place or pension, except dur¬
ing the king’s pleasure; whilst the management of the
royal household was vested in the queen. Resolutions so
obnoxious to the prince called forth a strong opposition;
and a motion that the royal power should be conferred on
him without restriction was supported by two hundred Regency,
against two hundred and twenty-four. But the divisions
in favour of ministers became stronger after the question 1812.
of the regency was settled, and great part of the session
passed without any contest between government and the
opposition, the latter considering the present arrangement
as temporary; an opinion in which they were confirmed
by the language of the regent, who entered on his func¬
tions by declaring, that he continued ministers in office
solely from a feeling of filial respect. Among the succes¬
sive topics of discussion were the county meetings of the
Catholics in Ireland, and the steps taken by government
to repress them ; an act to authorize government to send
English militia into Ireland, and Irish militia into England;
and finally, the re-appointment of the Duke of York to his
office of commander-in-chief; a step which excited some
surprise, but received the decided support of parliament,
a motion made to censure it being negatived by two hun¬
dred and forty-nine to forty-seven. But the most anxious
topics of parliamentary and public attention were the dis¬
tress of trade and the state of our paper currency. To¬
wards the relief of the former, an issue of exchequer bills
was authorized under certain limitations; and to support
the credit of the latter, a law was passed which, when join¬
ed to former enactments, had nearly the effect of making
bank-notes a legal tender.
The campaign of 1812 commenced very early, Lord Wel¬
lington investing Ciudad Rodrigo on the 8th of January.
The siege was pressed with activity, and a breach being
made, the town was carried by storm on the 19th of Janu¬
ary, though with a great loss, particularly in officers, among
whom was General Mackinnon. So prompt had been our
operations, that the French army approaching to the relief
of the place would not at first believe the news of its cap¬
ture. Soon afterwards Lord Wellington turned his forces
to the south, and invested Badajos, already the scene of
such obstinate contests. Here, also, the operations were
pressed with great rapidity, that they might be brought to
an issue before the arrival of the French army from Cadiz.
On the night of the 6th April, Badajos was attacked on
several points by escalade ; but we were repulsed in every
direction except at the castle, which was fortunately car¬
ried ; and as it commanded all the works, the consequence
was the surrender of the town next day, after a siege which,
short as it had been, cost us very nearly five thousand men.
Secure on the south, Lord Wellington now marched to¬
wards the north, and detached Sir Rowland Hill to make
a sudden attack on the French station at Almaraz, where
the bridge over the Tagus served as the chief military com¬
munication between the northern and southern army. The
expedition was successful, the entrenchments being storm¬
ed and destroyed. Lord Wellington now marched against
the French army in the north, commanded by Marmont,
and reached Salamanca on the 16th of June. The forts in
that town being taken after some sharp fighting, the French
retreated to the Douro; but being soon reinforced, resum¬
ed the offensive, and obliged our army to retreat in its turn.
These movements continued several weeks, Lord Welling¬
ton being obliged to yield ground to his opponent, but ready
to attack him on the commission of any material fault.
Such an opportunity at last occurred on 22d July, near Sa¬
lamanca, when the French, rendered confident by our con¬
tinued retreat, extended their left, and presented an open¬
ing, which was instantly seized by their vigilant adversary.
Columns were sent forward against the enemy’s left and
centre; the former succeeded completely, the latter met with
much opposition. Great gallantry was shown, and heavy
loss sustained on both sides. At last the French centre
and right were both driven from the field. The darkness
prevented our making prisoners, but a body of cavalry join-
612
BRITAIN.
lle-ency. ine in the night, the hostile rear-guard was attacked next
morning, and obliged to surrender. Our loss was about
1812. tiiree thousand British and two thousand Portuguese ; that
of the enemy in killed and wounded was at least equal,
and we took between six and seven thousand prisoners.
The British force in the field was twenty-two thousand.
The consequences of the victory of Salamanca were the
pursuit of the French army ; the occupation of Madrid on
the Pith of August by the allies; the abandonment by the
French of the works constructed at vast expense against
Cadiz; the evacuation of Andalusia, Grenada, and all the
south of Spain. But as this loss of territory was not attended
by a loss of troops, it became incumbent on Lord Welling¬
ton to prepare against a vigorous attack from forces that
were rapidly concentrating. He made repeated attempts
to take the castle of Burgos, and the military stores col¬
lected there; but this fort, defended by a strong garrison
and a vigilant commander, General Dubreton, baffled all
our efforts, and proved the cause of a considerable sacrifice
of lives. Meantime the approach of Soult from the south,
and of the army that had fought at Salamanca from the east,
obliged Lord Wellington to adopt the alternative of retreat.
He began his march on the 20th of October, and proceed¬
ed westward, in a line nearly parallel to the Douro, taking
above three weeks to recross the country to the scene of
his victory at Salamanca. There, united with General
Hill, and at the head of fifty thousand men, he remained
on ground lately so propitious, hoping that an opportunity
might offer to attack the enemy, though now increased,
by the junction of their two armies, to the number of
seventy thousand. But Soult’s positions were found too
strong for attack, and the interval afforded him by Lord
Wellington was diligently employed in pushing forward
detachments to cut off our communications with Portugal.
Retreat now became indispensable ; and here, amidst hasty
marches, and a scarcity of five days, there occurred scenes
of insubordination which recalled all the disorders of our
march to Corunna, and drew from Lord Wellington a most
severe censure in general orders. Fortunately, similar pri¬
vations on the side of the French prevented them from
making many prisoners, and, on 20th November, on the
frontier of Portugal, was closed this eventful campaign.
The session opened on the 7th of January, and the early
discussions related to arrangements for the royal household,
and to a motion by Mr Brougham to exclude the droits of
admiralty from the civil list. In this he was unsuccessful;
and a similar fate attended a motion by Lord Morpeth, for
an inquiry into the state of Ireland, with a view to admitting
Catholics to the enjoyment of political rights. The next
measures of general interest were two acts againsty/w/ie-
breaking; a practice which the Nottingham workmen,
pressed by the loss of the American market, and the con¬
sequent fall of wages, had carried to an alarming length.
The public attention was soon after engaged by ministe¬
rial changes. Marquis Wellesley finding himself unable
to lead the cabinet, or to prevail on his colleagues to ex¬
tend the scale of our operations in Spain, resigned in Feb¬
ruary the secretaryship of foreign affairs, and was suc¬
ceeded by Lord Castlereagh. The restrictions on the
power of the regent now drawing to a close, consistency
required an overture for the admission into office of the
leaders of the opposition, intimate as they had been in for¬
mer years with his royal highness. This prompted the
well-known letter of the 13th February from the prince to
the Duke of York, professing a wish to unite with the pre¬
sent ministers “ some of those persons with whom the early
habits of his public life had been formed.” The answer
of Lords Grey and Grenville explained their reasons for
declining a union with an administration differing so much
from them in the most important points of national policy,
namely, the claims of the Irish Catholics, the orders in coun- Itegencr
cil, and the over-issue of bank paper. With this explana-
tion the correspondence closed, and the ministry proceed- a
ed unchanged until the assassination of Mr Perceval, when
Lord Liverpool succeeded to the first station, and was di¬
rected by the prince to make an overture to Marquis Wel¬
lesley and Mr Canning. This led to nothing; and a mo¬
tion made in the House of Commons to address the regent,
praying him to appoint an efficient administration, was car¬
ried by a hundred and seventy-four against a hundred and
seventy. This most unexpected vote necessitated a se¬
cond overture to the opposition, the management of which
was committed, first to the Marquis of Wellesley, and
afterwards to Lord Moira. It now seemed highly proba¬
ble that the opposition would come in; yet the negociation
entirely failed, in consequence partly of existing animosi¬
ties, partly of the stiffness of Lord Grey, partly, perhaps,
of a secret reluctance in the court to admit the opposition.
Lords Liverpool and Castlereagh remained in office with
all the benefit of a declared readiness on their part, and of
an apparent unreasonableness in the demands of opposition.
The most urgent question now before parliament was
the continuation or repeal of the orders in council. The
distress of the manufacturers had become general, and
had led, among the lower orders, to commotion and riot;
among the higher, to petitions to parliament complaining
of our pertinacious adherence to these orders as the cause
of the loss of the great market of the United States. An
inquiry was instituted on the motion of Mr Brougham.
It was conducted by him with astonishing knowledge and
talent during several weeks, and every step in its progress
gave the evidence a more serious aspect. Still there was
a prevailing disposition to cling to those measures, when
the accession of Lord Liverpool to the leading station in
the cabinet produced their repeal, though unfortunately
too late to prevent the American war.
Though parliament had sat during five years only, the
victory of Salamanca and our other successes in Spain af¬
forded ministry a favourable opportunity for appealing to
the people. A dissolution was proclaimed on the 29th of
September; and on the 30th of November the new parlia¬
ment was opened by the regent in person, who spoke for the
first time from the throne. Our partial reverses in the close
of the campaign in Spain, and the murmurs of Marquis
Wellesley and Mr Canning at the inadequacy of our finan¬
cial contributions to the peninsular contest, were silenced
by the cheering intelligence from Russia, from which Bo¬
naparte was now retreating with tremendous loss. In the
progress of the session the attention of the house and of the
public was strongly excited by an appeal from the Princess
of Wales to parliament, demanding an investigation of her
conduct. This led to a motion for a copy of the report
delivered by the noblemen charged with the inquiry of
1806; and this motion being negatived, the result was the
publication in the newspapers of a succession of papers re¬
lating the whole transaction. These papers, however in¬
dicative of want of discretion on the part of her royal
highness, produced, on the whole, an impression in her
favour, as unjustly attacked in her honour. Ihe most in¬
teresting debates of the session related to the Catholic
question, and the renewal, with important changes, of the
charter of the East India Company. Ihe new chaiter,
granted for twenty years from 18IL reserved to the Com¬
pany the exclusive trade to China, but laid open to the
public, with slight qualifications, the trade to all other
parts of the East. Among the minor proceedings of the
session were an act for lessening the endless delays of
chancery, by appointing a vice-chancellor, and an act,
which, if it did not enforce clerical residence, held out a
strong inducement to it, by obliging incumbents to increase
BRITAIN.
613
Regency.
mu.
the stipends of their curates. After granting ministers a
liberal vote of credit, parliament was prorogued on the 22d
of July, amidst a general hope of favourable intelligence
from the Continent; Spain being nearly delivered from the
invaders, and the Germans having risen with ardour to as¬
sert their independence.
The campaign of 1813 opened in the east of Spain, by
an attack on the allied army under Sir John Murray, sta¬
tioned not far from Alicant. The ground it occupied was
strong, but the length of the position, two miles and a
half, made Suchet, who commanded the French, conceive
the hope of penetrating it at one point or another. In this,
however, he was foiled with a loss of from two to three
thousand men ; this being the only check of importance re¬
ceived by that commander in all his campaigns in Spain.
Soon after this success, our army was engaged in the
bold plan of proceeding by sea to Catalonia, and besieging
Tarragona. The wind proved favourable; the main body
was landed near Tarragona; and a detachment succeeded,
by great exertion, in taking Fort St Philip on the moun¬
tain called the Col de Balaguer, which blocked the nearest
road for the arrival of the French from the south. Suchet,
however, lost no time in marching northwards; and our
general, Sir John Murray, considered his force, which was
chiefly Spanish, as unable to withstand the French. He
therefore embarked and returned to Alicant, a measure
which incurred censure, but appears fully justified by cir¬
cumstances, and still more by the conduct of his successors
in the command.
Suchet, though successful on this occasion, soon found
himself unable to retain his extensive line of occupation.
The battle of Vittoria brought a new enemy on his rear,
and obliged him to withdraw, first from Valencia, and sub¬
sequently as far as Barcelona. Our army now advanced
by land, and resumed the siege of Tarragona, with the
power of retreating, not, as before, by sea, but on the coun¬
try behind; an alternative to which a second advance by
Suchet soon compelled our new commander, Lord William
Bentinck. The French, however, unable to occupy an
extended position, blew up the works of Tarragona and
retired. Our army advanced anew, but was again checked
and obliged to draw back, exhibiting a striking proof of
the impracticability of opposing an active enemy with a
mixed force, of which the Spaniards formed a large pro¬
portion.
We now turn to the western part of the peninsula, the
field of the commander-in-chief, and of the far larger portion
of our force. Lord Wellington, averse to open the campaign
till every part of his troops was ready to co-operate with ef¬
ficiency, did not move from quarters till after the middle
of May. He knew that he would have much ground to
traverse, retreat being evidently the policy of the French,
weakened as they were by the recall of twenty-five thou¬
sand veterans, who had been feebly replaced by a body of
conscripts. Lord Wellington was now, for the first time,
at the head of a superior force, which he wielded with
consummate skill. The strength of the enemy lay in the
line of the Douro, which they expected to defend with ad¬
vantage, so far at least as to make us purchase dearly its
acquisition; but all this was prevented by Lord Welling¬
ton making his left division cross the river on the Portu¬
guese territory, and advance along its northern bank; whilst
he and Sir Rowland Hill, at the head of separate corps,
marched, after several feints, in a diagonal direction, so as
to support this movement, and effect a junction in an ad¬
vanced position. The French, threatened with being taken
in the rear, evacuated one town after another, and, even
at Burgos, declined to fight on ground where late recol¬
lections would have been so animating; they continued
to retreat, increasing from time to time their numbers by
1813.
the garrisons of the evacuated towns, until at last they took Regency,
a position at Vittoria, a town in Biscay, near the north-east '
frontier of Spain.
The position of the French extended from north to south,
and was of great length. Their left rested on heights;
part of their centre also occupied heights, and their right
was near the town of Vittoria. The Zadorra, a stream of
considerable size, but crossed by several bridges, ran near¬
ly parallel to their front. Both armies were numerous, par¬
ticularly that of the allies. It was the first time that near¬
ly forty thousand British had fought together in Spain.
Lord Wellington acted on the offensive throughout, and
began active operations by taking possession of the heights
near the extreme left of the enemy. This was easily ef¬
fected ; but their importance being soon perceived by the
French, a strong effort was made to recover them ; and an
obstinate contest took place, but the British on the heights
repelled every assault. Under cover of these heights our
right wing advanced and took a village (Sabijana) in front
of the enemy’s centre. It was in vain that the French at¬
tempted to retake this village. The centre of the allies
crossed the river near it, and the centre of the French
withdrew from their position, retreating to the town of Vit¬
toria. At first this I’etreat was effected in good order; but
an alarming account soon reached the French from their
right. That part of their position had been defended by
the river and two t&tes-de-pont; but the troops of our left
wing had taken, first the heights commanding these forts,
and soon after the forts themselves, baffling every effort of
the enemy to retake them. The great road leading to the
north was thus in possession of the allies; hence general
alarm and confusion spread throughout the French army.
Their reserve was hastily withdrawn from its position, and
pressed, with the whole army, along the only remaining
road to the eastward ; abandoning all their artillery, their
ammunition, and their baggage. The loss of the battle was
imputed bv the French to Jourdan, whom Bonaparte, in
a luckless "hour, had allowed his brother to substitute for
Soult, and who here, as at Talavera, was too late in dis¬
covering the importance of commanding positions. Ihe
loss in men was not particularly severe; that of the allies
in killed and wounded was under four thousand, and that
of the French probably not much greater. The tempta¬
tion afforded by the plunder of the baggage prevented our
troops from making many prisoners; but the spirit of the
enemy was shaken, and the loss of their artillery and stores
obliged them to retreat across the Pyrenees.
The next operation of consequence consisted in the siege
of San Sebastian, a frontier fortress of great importance,
which the French made the most vigorous efforts to relieve.
Their army, provided anew with ammunition and cannon,
advanced under the command of Marshal Soult, and, after
some sharp actions, drove back the British corps posted
in the passes of the Pyrenees. Our troops retreated to
the vicinity of Pamplona, where, on the 27th, and still
more on the 28th, they sustained a succession of impe¬
tuous attacks from the enemy. On the 29th Lord 'Wel¬
lington resumed the offensive, drove the trench from
their position, strong as it was, and obliged them to retrace
their steps through the Pyrenees. Our loss in these actions
was about six thousand men in killed and wounded; that
of the enemy was still greater, exclusive of about four thou¬
sand prisoners.
At San Sebastian we had been repulsed in an assault on
the 25th of July; the siege was continued, and a final as¬
sault, on the 31st of August, led to the capture of the place,
though with the loss of two thousand five hundred men.
The further operations were, the entrance of our army on
the French territory on 7th October, the capitulation of
Pamplona on the 26th, and a general attack on the position
614
BRITAIN.
Regency, of the French near St Jean de Luz on 10th November, after
—which they retreated across the Nivelle. But this moun-
1813* tainous country afforded a number of positions, and our
next task was to drive the enemy from behind the Niye, a
large river flowing northward from the Pyrenees. This
was partly accomplished on the 9th of December ; but on
several succeeding days the French, commanded by Soult,
made impetuous attacks on the allied army, all anticipat¬
ed by Lord Wellington, and all repulsed with heavy loss.
Still the rains of the season, and the size of the mountain
streams, retarded our operations. In January 1814 our
army made some further progress, and, on the 25th of
February, attacked the French in a position near Orthes,
behind the Gave de Pau, another large river flowing from
the Pyrenees. This attack was successful; and the retreat
of the French was followed by the desertion of a number
of their new levies. Soult’s army now drew back, not in a
northerly, but easterly direction, to join detachments from
the army of Suchet in Catalonia. At larbes, on the 20th
of March, the fighting was of short duration; but a sangui¬
nary battle took place at Toulouse on the 10th of April; a
battle attended with a loss to the allies of nearly five thou¬
sand men, which, as well as a great sacrifice of lives on the
part of the French, might have been prevented had earlier
intelligence arrived of the overthrow of Bonaparte, and the
change of government at Paris.
The causes of this great change will be fully explained
under another head. They are but partly to be found in
the operations above described; for although the Spanish
war had proved extremely injurious both to the finances
and military establishment of Bonaparte, his power was so
great, that nothing could have shaken it but a vast and
sudden catastrophe. From the moment that he lost his
armies in Russia, there existed substantial grounds for
hope ; and after the accession of Austria to the coalition,
there was little reason to doubt his overthrow. The re¬
sources of France continued indeed unreservedly at his
disposal; and the dread of a counter-revolution gave him
the support of the majority of a nation long disgusted with
his domineering spirit and never-ending wars. But the
preponderance of military means was irresistible; in vain
did he struggle against it in Saxony in 1813, and in Cham¬
pagne in 1814. His partial successes served only to ex¬
cite a temporary illusion; and the occupation of Paris by
the allies proved, like its possession by successive parties
in the revolution, decisive of the fate of France.
The cheering expectations with which parliament sepa¬
rated were happily realized in the course of the autumn;
and parliament re-assembled on the 4th of November with
the knowledge that the victory at Leipsic had secured the
independence of Germany, and enabled our allies to shake
the throne of the usurper. There was but one opinion,
that at such a juncture every exertion, whether financial
or military, should be made to complete the deliverance
of the Continent. All the propositions of ministers were
adopted ; and on the 17th of November parliament adjourn¬
ed to the 1st of March, evidently in the hope that before
that period the advance of the allied arms into France
would lead to a general pacification. This result, justified
by sound calculation, was delayed by the precipitancy of
the Prussians, and the consequent checks received by them
and their allies ; so that parliament, when it met on the 1st
of March, adjourned to the 21st; and, on their assembling
at that date, Lord Castlereagh being still absent on the
Continent, the business transacted during several weeks
was of inferior interest. Next came the discussions on the
corn trade, the budget of the yeai-, and an additional mea¬
sure for the preservation of tranquillity in Ireland. A ge¬
neral pacification had by this time taken place ; and the ar¬
rangements of ministers afforded little opening for animad-
1814.
version, except as to the compulsory transfer of Norway ^ vegcney.
from Denmark to Sweden. That question was warmly de- r^m~'
bated in both houses; and a motion relative to it, made in
the House of Lords by Earl Grey in a speech of uncom¬
mon eloquence, received the support of eighty-one votes
against a hundred and fifteen. The further proceedings of
the session were an address, praying the regent to inte¬
rest himself with foreign powers for a prompt and general
abolition of the slave-trade ; a vote of L.400,000, in addi¬
tion to the L.l00,000 of the preceding year, to the Duke
of Wellington; and grants, but on a far smaller scale, to
Generals Graham, Hill, and Beresford, who were now
raised to the peerage. On the Princess of Wales a settle¬
ment of L.35,000 was definitively made.
We have now arrived at the period when, after a con¬
test which, as far as regards England and France, may be
termed a war of twenty years, Europe was restored to a
condition which promised long-continued peace. The
principal provisions of the treaty of Paris in 1814, and
the congress of Vienna in 1815, were as follow:—
France was circumscribed within her former territory,
with the addition of part of Savoy, which, however, was
relinquished in 1815 to the king of Sardinia.
Austria recovered Lombardy, and added to it Venice
with its adjacent territory, possessing thus a population of
twenty-nine millions, being very nearly equal to that of
France, and considerably greater than that which she
possessed in 1792.
Germany was declared a great federal body, as before
the French revolution, with the distinction that a number
of petty districts and principalities were incorporated into
the larger, such as Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Hesse-Cassel, and
Hesse-Darmstadt; and with the further distinction, that
there is now no imperial head, but an understood division
of influence between the two great powers, Austria being
the protectrix of the south, and Prussia of the north. These
are progressive advances towards consolidation; and to
them may be added the formation of a diet, still devoid
of unity and slow in deliberation, but not altogether so
tardy or disunited as its predecessors at Ilatisbon.
Russia has during the present age suffered no reduction
of her territory, but has proceeded in a regular course of
acquisition. Her power, though less colossal than is vul¬
garly supposed, has received a substantial addition by the
acquisition of Finland and of the greater part of Poland.
Two thirds of what once was Prussian Poland, and a part
of Galicia, were formed in 1815 into a kingdom, which,
however, has recently been overthrown.
Prussia, on the other hand, has exhibited a striking
example of the mutability of political greatness. Raised
by the talents of Frederick II. to a rank above her real
strength, but making after his death successive additions
to her territory by the dread of her arms, and by diplo¬
matic combinations, she saw the whole fabric overturned
by Bonaparte in one fatal campaign. From 1807 to 1813
her dominions continued circumscribed, and her popula¬
tion hardly exceeded six millions. But the arrangements
of 1814 restored to her a third of Russian Poland, and a
valuable tract of country on the Lower Rhine; and her
population is now above ten millions.
Of her colonial conquests from France, England retain¬
ed Tobago, St Lucie, and the Isle of France. The peace^
confirmed also our possession of Malta and the Cape. Of
the other Dutch settlements, Surinam and Java were re¬
stored ; but Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo, contain-
in<>- a number of British settlers, weie retained, the mer¬
chants of Holland, however, enjoying certain privileges of
trade with these colonies. On the continent of Europe we
effected a long-desired, though (as the event has shown)
insecure measure, the union of the seven Dutch and ten
BRITAIN.
Regency. Belgic provinces into one kingdom. The latter, in their
s-* detached state, presented too tempting an object for France,
1814. and would have proved the cause of repeated wars, in
which England, from her interest in the independence of
Holland, and her dread of invasion, could hardly fail to
participate.
The losses of Denmark rank among the most painful
consequences of the wars of the French revolution. To
strip that pacific and inoffensive kingdom, first of its navy,
and next of a kindred country, governed by the same so¬
vereign during four hundred years, were acts that called
forth the regret and condemnation of every unprejudiced
observer. The transfer of Norway was opposed by the
inhabitants; and we add with regret, that our navy was
ordered to take part against them by blockading their
ports. At last the affair was terminated by a convention
pronouncing the union of Sweden and Norway under the
same sovereign, but reserving to the latter her separate
constitution. Pomerania was transferred from Sweden to
Prussia, and Denmark received a small territory to the
south of Holstein.
Sweden had enjoyed during many years the advantage
of neutrality, and, like Denmark, increased gradually her
shipping and trade. Deviating from this in 1805, and
becoming a party to the coalition against France, she was
saved from hostilities by the rapid overthrow of Austria ;
and Pomerania was not attacked until 1807, when Gusta-
vus IV. chose to refuse peace at the time when he had
not the support of a single continental ally. This and
other acts of madness led to his deposition in 1809; and
the year after, Europe saw with surprise the nomination of
Bernadotte as the efficient head of the Swedish govern¬
ment. This choice, attributed at first to the interference
of Bonaparte, was due, it seems, to the personal exertions
of Bernadotte himself. The acquisition of Norway, and
the introduction into Sweden of various improvements by
an active-minded foreigner, are advantages of magnitude,
and calculated to form some counterpoise to the loss of
Finland and the increased danger from Russia.
Spain and Portugal preserved their territory unaltered ;
both had received rude shocks from the invader, but in
both the reign of superstition and indolence seemed so
firmly fixed as to bid defiance to political change, whe¬
ther introduced by mild or by harsh means. The events
of 1820, however, have shown, that in Spain there exists
that sense of the abusive nature of their institutions, and
that desire of reform, which in France produced the revo¬
lution ; while in Portugal, notwithstanding her degraded
condition, results ultimately favourable may be expected
from the natural course of events.
Switzerland, without being made a province of France,
had been obliged to furnish a military contingent in the
wars of Bonaparte. The arrangements of 1814 maintain¬
ed her as a federal state, but with nineteen cantons instead
of thirteen ; an increase derived, not from extended ter¬
ritory, but from the independent form acquired by certain
districts, such as the Pays de Vaud, incorporated former¬
ly with the original cantons.
The king of Sardinia was restored to Piedmont, and his
other continental possessions, with the addition of the ter¬
ritory of Genoa.
The country of all Europe most likely to profit by the
occupancy of the French was Italy. The substitution of
an efficient government for the feeble administrations of
Naples and Rome, the diminution of superstition, the in¬
crease of industry, the extirpation of robbery on the high
ways, and the new modelling of the military establishment,
were all objects of the highest importance. To these was
added a hope of blending all the states of the peninsula
into a common union; a union most ardently desired by
615
the Italian nation, and calculated, above all things, to pre- Regency,
serve their country from war and the intrusion of foreigners.
The selfish policy of Bonaparte, whose object was merely
to extract from every country the utmost possible supply
of revenue and recruits, prevented the adoption of this
grand measure, until the re-assumed sway of foreigners,
in particular of the Austrians, removed it to an indefinite
distance, and reinstated the territorial divisions of Italy
on the footing of 1792, with the exception of the repub¬
lics of Venice and Genoa.
The royal family of Naples remained in Sicily during
1814; but Murat was not recognised by the Bourbons, and
dreaded, with reason, that the allies would deem their task
incomplete if they did not restore the crown of Naples to
the ancient family. He armed in self-defence, and no
sooner did he hear of Bonaparte’s entrance into Lyons,
than he advanced against Lombardy, and called upon all
the Italians to unite in the assertion of their national inde¬
pendence. But his troops were unable to cope with the
Austrians ; after some partial successes they were obliged
to retreat; and finding, in some sharp actions on their own
territory, the continued superiority of their opponents, the
eventual result was, the dispersion of the Neapolitan army,
and the surrender of their capital on the 22d of May. The
royal family now returned from Palermo to Naples, and re¬
sumed their sovereignty. Murat then escaped to Toulon ;
but, after the second return of the Bourbons, he proceeded
to Corsica, and conceived the wild project of landing in the
Neapolitan territory at the head of a feeble detachment,
in the hope of being joined, like Bonaparte on returning
from Elba, by thousands of his ancient followers. He dis¬
embarked in Calabria, but was forthwith attacked by the
inhabitants, taken, and shot by order of the royal family,
who were thus left in undisturbed possession of the crown.
Turkey was no party to the treaty of 1814, but remain¬
ed on the footing on which the treaty with Russia in 1812
had placed her. Stationary in an age of change, and in¬
flexible in her adherence to traditionary usages, she saw
the French revolution pass without sustaining any injury
from it; or rather she was indebted to it for a relaxation
in the shocks to which the European part of her empire
is exposed from Austria and Russia. The peace of 1790
had been preserved uninterrupted by Austria; that of
1791 was infringed by Russia by only one war, viz. from
1807 to 1812. The temporary occupation of Egypt by
the French, and the more permanent establishment of
England in the Ionian Islands, have had no effect on the
interior of the Turkish empire.
We must now proceed to record military operations
conducted in a very different quarter, and involving con¬
siderations very distinct from those which animated the
contest on the continent of Europe. The United States
of America continued on friendly terms with us during
several years after the beginning of the war of 1803. There
existed discussions, and of rather a serious nature, between
the two countries, particularly in regard to the practice of
our naval officers of impressing American seamen on sus¬
picion, or pretended suspicion, of their being British sub¬
jects; but these contests were happily confined to diplo¬
matists. Meantime the navigation of the Americans was
in a course of rapid extension; for their neutral flag en¬
abled them to act as carriers to the continental bellige¬
rents, and, in particular, to convey to Europe the produce
of the French and Spanish West Indies. The depression
of our West India trade in 1805, though the unavoidable
result of too great a growth of produce for a system of
monopoly, was attributed to the successful rivalship of the
Americans in the continental markets. Mr Pitt was assail¬
ed by our ship-owners, and prevailed on to take measures
which obliged the Americans to forbear the direct passage
616
BRITAIN.
1KU.
Regency, across the Atlantic, and to give such cargoes a neutral
character by carrying them in the first instance to then
own ports. The Grenville ministry maintained what Mr
Pitt had done, and went no farther; but they were suc¬
ceeded by men actuated by different views. A parliamen¬
tary committee, appointed in June 1807 to inquire into
the distress of our West India colonies, received evidence
calculated to strengthen an impression already very gene¬
ral, that a total stop ought to be put to the conveyance of
French or Spanish colonial produce in neutral bottoms.
No sooner did the successful termination of the Copen¬
hagen expedition give popularity to the system of vigoui
than we issued the orders in council of November 1807,
the object of which, however disguised, was to put a stop
to neutral traffic, except when carried on by license from
our government; thus assuming the power of restiicting or
extending that traffic as we should find beneficial to our
interest, or rather, as we should imagine to be beneficial,
since, in questions of commerce, the real is frequently far
different from the anticipated result.
In this explanation of these ill-understood oideis, we
exclude from the motives of roinisteis all paiticipation in
that jealousy of America which actuated so many of our
countrymen. We consider them as acting from conviction,
as seeking in this measure only a source of benefit to our
commerce, and of annoyance to our enemies in Europe ;
yet, even with these qualifications, the orders in council
have contributed more than any other measure in the pre¬
sent age to the distress which afterwards afflicted our coun¬
try. Their first practical result was a suspension of the
navigation of the Americans by a general embargo im¬
posed by their own government; and this preliminary mea¬
sure was in a few months succeeded by a non-intercourse
act, which continued in operation above a year, during
which our exports to America were greatly reduced, and
our manufacturers distressed to a degree that ought to
have served as a warning of the consequences of a further
contest with our best customers. In 1809, in consequence
of a temporary arrangement, the intercourse was resumed,
and exports from England to America took place to a great
amount. But the offensive part of our system was soon
afterwards revived; the Americans were prevented fiom
trading with France, Italy, or Holland, and the only con¬
ciliatory answer given by our government, was a piomise
to recall our orders in council whenever the Americans
should obtain from Bonaparte the repeal of his Berlin and
Milan decrees. This repeal was in some measure obtain¬
ed in 1810, but nothing could wean our ministry from their
predilection for what they accounted a grand political mea¬
sure ; and those who inspect the official communications of
the two governments, will see with surprise the expedients
devised, and the promises held out, to gain time and to
delude the Americans, while, in fact, there neyei was an
intention of recalling the obnoxious decrees. I he Ameii-
cans offered explicitly1 to recall all hostile edicts “ if vve
revoked our orders;” but this not being complied with,
their ports were definitively shut against us, and oui manu¬
facturers reduced to great distress; a distress pourtrayed
in colours unfortunately too impressive in the parliamen¬
tary papers on the orders in council, printed in the eaily
part of 1812. But no change could be effected in our mea¬
sures till the accession of Lord Liverpool to the first mi¬
nisterial station, when a repeal took place, but unhappily
too late, the Americans having declared war before this
intelligence could reach them. From this time forward
the impartial narrator finds it his duty to transfer the
charge of aggression from England to America. We had
1814.
now a minister aware of the evil tendency of our orders m Regency
council, and prepared to make reasonable concessions to
the Americans ; whilst they, heated by the contest, and
attributing the change to the dread of losing Canada, re¬
fused our offers of accommodation.
The naval conflicts in the first year of the war were of
a nature greatly to surprise the public, accustomed as it
was to our almost uninterrupted triumphs at sea. The
Guerriere frigate was captured on 19th August 1812, by
the Constitution American frigate; and the Macedonian
on the 25th of October by another American frigate call¬
ed the United States. If these losses could in any degree
be attributed to the fault of our officers, no such charge
could be brought in the case of Captain Lambert of the
Java, a brave and intelligent commander, who, after a
dreadful conflict, was obliged, on the 29th of December,
to strike to the Constitution. In this, as in the preceding
actions, the real cause of failure lay in the disproportion
of strength; the Guerriere having only two hundred and
sixty-three men, her antagonist four hundred and seventy-
six; the Macedonian only three hundred, the United States
four hundred and seventy-eight. Even the Java, though
a large frigate, had only three hundred and sixty-seven
men, her opponent four hundred and eighty. The inequa¬
lity in weight of metal was still greater, each of these Ame¬
rican frigates having been originally intended for a ship of
the line. No sooner did the two nations meet on an equal
footing, in the case of the Chesapeake and Shannon, June
1st 1813, than the superiority was found to rest with us.
The operations by land were offensive on the part of
the Americans, and directed to the conquest of Canada,
of which the frontier adjoins their northern states, extend¬
ing in a long line from south-west to north-east. The
boundary consists in a great measure of water, being form¬
ed partly by the immense lakes Erie and Ontario, partly
by the course of the St Lawrence. On the south-west
part of this frontier a body of two thousand three hundred
Americans, regulars and militia, advanced in July 1812
from the small fort of Detroit. Their operations, at first
successful, were soon checked by a British detachment;
retreat became unavoidable, and our troops assuming the
offensive in their turn, the result was the sin render, on the
16th of August, of the whole body of Americans and of
the fort of Detroit. Not discouraged by this failure, ano¬
ther detachment of Americans assembled near Niagara;
but, after a sharp action on the 13th of October, weie
obliged, like their countrymen, to surrender. A further
attempt, on the part of the Americans, to foice the Nia¬
gara frontier on the 28th November was likewise unsuc¬
cessful ; whilst, in a different quarter, at a distance of neai-
ly three hundred miles to the north-east, the advance of
their main body to Champlain proved ineffectual, the pie-
parations on our side necessitating their retreat. Lastly,
a detachment advancing, in January 1813, in the hope of
retaking Fort Detroit, were themselves attacked by a Bri¬
tish division, and obliged to surrender. , c •
These repeated failures were the result, not ot a deficient
activity or courage, but of impatience and insubordination,
the restraint of discipline being ill suited to a nation that
acknowledges no master. But, in the next campaign, the
Americans took the field with augmented forces and an
improved plan of action. A strong division crossing Lake
Ontario, landed on the 27th April at York, the chief town
of Upper Canada, and took it, with its stoies and pait of
the garrison. A check was indeed given to them in a very
different quarter, on the Miami, a rivei falling mto Lake
Erie ; but next month a strong body of Americans pene-
1 Letter from Mr Monro to Mr Foster, 26th July 1811.
BRITAIN. 617
egency, trated the Niagara frontier ; and an attempt made by the ing up the Patuxent, destroying a flotilla in that river, and Regency.
^,--0 British on Sackett’s harbour, a port in Lake Ontario, fail- landing a military force under Major-General Ross, which
1814. ed through the misconduct of the general. Still the pro- attacked the American division posted to defend Wash-
gress of the American main body into Canada from the ington, drove them from their ground, and entered the
Niagara was obstructed, and checks experienced by them capital in the evening. Here private property was re¬
in a way that clearly demonstrated the inexperience of spected ; but of the public buildings there were destroyed
their troops. They forbore, therefore, to advance by land, not only the arsenal, the dock-yard, and the war office, but
and directed their efforts to a naval superiority. On Lake the houses of the senate and representative body, the resi-
Erie, the more remote of the two from our Canada settle- dence of the president, and the bridge across the Potow-
ments, this superiority was acquired in September, after mac. Our troops, being few in number, retreated soon
the capture of our petty squadron under Captain Barclay ; after ; and embarking anew, proceeded against Baltimore,
and the consequence was our abandoning the more dis- where they landed, drove the defending force of the Ame-
tant posts in Upper Canada. On Lake Ontario the naval ricans from their position, and approached the town. But
contest was long maintained; and an attempt made, in the entrance to the harbour being closed by a barrier of
November, by a strong division of Americans, to descend sunk vessels, co-operation on the part of the navy wasim-
the St Lawrence in small craft, and to threaten Montreal, practicable, and our troops were re-embarked without any
was rendered abortive by the activity of our troops. The loss of consequence, except that of their commander Ge-
campaign was then closed by our opponents without mak- neral Ross. A better result had been obtained in an ex-
ing any serious impression on Canada, though their force pedition against Alexandria, a trading town on the Potow-
exceeded twenty thousand men. On our part, the cam- mac, whence a quantity of stores and shipping was brought
paign terminated by taking Fort Niagara by surprise, and away. Success also attended an expedition in a very dif-
repulsing, near the small town of Buffalo, a corps of two ferent quarter, namely, in the river Penobscot, at the north-
thousand men brought forward to check our advance. The ern extremity of the United States, adjoining the British
town was burned in retaliation for a similar excess com- province of New Brunswick. Far different was the result
mitted by the Americans. of an expedition on a larger scale, directed against New
The inclemency of an American winter suspended hos- Orleans. Our troops disembarked from the Mississippi,
tile operations for some months. The first exploit of con- repelled an assault by the Americans, moved forward, and
sequence in next campaign took place on Lake Ontario, came within six miles of the town, where they found the
and consisted in an attack by a British division and squa- enemy posted behind a canal, with a breast-work in front,
dron on Fort Osw'ego, which, with its stores, fell into our and their right flanked by the Mississippi. After a fort-
hands. In the beginning of July an American division, night passed in mutual preparations, a night attack was
five thousand strong, crossed the Niagara, already so often at last determined on ; but, unexpected difficulties re¬
traversed, and obliged the opposing force to retreat. But tarding it till day-light, the fire of the Americans from
the opportune arrival from Bourdeaux of some regiments behind their breast-work was pointed with unerring aim,
which had served in France soon enabled our troops to make and proved extremely destructive. In the short space of
a stand ; and on the 25th of July there took place an action twenty minutes, our three principal officers, and nearly two
more obstinate, and better sustained on the part of the Ame- thousand privates, were killed or wounded ; and though,
ricans, than any that had yet occurred in the war. They on the opposite side of the river, our attack had been suc-
were finally repulsed, but the loss was heavy on both sides, cessful, it was determined to relinquish the expedition, and
Some time after, a sally made by the garrison of Fort re-embark the troops. This distressing failure was poor-
Erie against a detachment of British entrenched in the ly compensated by the capture of Fort Mobile, the last
vicinity, though at first successful, was eventually repulsed, land operation of the war. At sea, our final exploit was
But a very different result attended an offensive enter- the capture of the American frigate President, of fifty-
prise, on a large scale, attempted by us on the side of four guns and four hundred and ninety men.
Lake Champlain. For this purpose our commander, Sir The peace was signed at Ghent, on the 24th of Decem-
G. Prevost, assembled all his disposable force, amounting, ber 1814, and its terms afforded a curious exemplification
with the reinforcements from Europe, to nearly fifteen of the futility of warlike struggles. The territorial pos-
thousand men, crossed the American frontier, and march- sessions of both countries were, with a very trifling ex-
ed southward to attack Plattsburgh, a fortified town on ception, left on the same footing as before the war; and
Lake Champlain. The attack on the land side was com- not the slightest notice was taken of the questions which
bined with that of a flotilla, consisting of a frigate and had most strongly excited the spirit of hostility on both
several smaller vessels, which, coming within sight on the sides,—neither of the impressment of seamen, a point so
11th of September, engaged an American flotilla of near- important to the Americans, nor of the limitation of the
ly equal force. Unfortunately our commanding officer rights of neutral traffic, a topic so often urged among us.
was killed, and our flotilla captured ; a check which, The United States, in no respect a manufacturing coun-
though in itself of no great moment, induced our general try, purchased from us merchandise to an extent annual-
to make a sudden retreat. This retreat, in the face of so ly increasing, and which, in 1807, had reached the amount
inferior an enemy, was altogether inexplicable, and ex- of L.12,000,000 sterling. Every addition to their capital,
cited general surprise and disappointment. With it closed every year that they passed in peace and prosperity, in-
the operations on the side of Canada, each party having creased their value to us in a commercial sense; while every
entirely relinquished the idea of offensive war. blow given to their productive funds necessarily operated
As long as there remained a hope of treating with the in diminution of their purchases and payments. But, far
Americans, our government had avoided offensive opera- from acting on these impressions, the ministry of 1807
tions, and kept the command of our fleet in that station eagerly seized the opening given them by the violence of
in the hands of Sir John Borlase Warren, an officer who Bonaparte to assail the trade of America, and issued, in
joined diplomatic to nautical habits. At last, however, it November, those orders which “ prohibited all direct in-
became necessary to replace him by one whose spirit of tercourse from a neutral port to France, or her tributary
enterprise was more conformable to the impatient ardour states, unless the neutral vessels intended for such voyages
of our navy. Admiral Cochrane arrived, and lost no time touched first at a port in the British dominions, and paid a
in concerting an attempt on the American capital, by sail- duty ” This singular measure was vindicated, not as legal
yol. v. 4 i
618 BRITAIN.
Regency, in itself, but as a trespass on neutral rights justified by the
previous trespasses of the French government. It would,
lal4- it was argued, distress that part of the Continent subject
to Bonaparte, and excite discontent against his govern¬
ment ; but the real motive was to cramp and control the
trade of neutrals. That the Americans would not submit
to such humiliating conditions, our government was well
aware; but it knew also that they had neither army nor
navy, and would not, at least for several years, resort to
the alternative of war. So far our calculation was correct;
but the question of national advantage we entirely mis¬
conceived. For what was the practical operation of these
restrictive edicts ? The trade of the Americans with the
Continent was suspended, and the remittances formerly
made to us from the sale of their goods—remittances not
overrated at four or five millions a year—were made no
more. Our bank paper fell, more from that than from any
other cause, into a discredit which occasioned a loss of
twenty, thirty, and eventually nearly forty per cent, on all
subsidies and other government expenditure on the Con¬
tinent. The mercantile insolvencies in America which
followed the orders in council recoiled, in a great degree,
on England, whose exporting merchants were the chief
creditors of the bankrupts. Next came the burdens and
the havoc of war ; and of every million of American capital
thus diverted from productive industry, the half at least
was lost to the British manufacturer. But this was not all;
the suspended intercourse, and the subsequent appeal to
arms, induced the Americans to attempt to manufacture
for themselves. This for several years excluded our
goods ; and when, upon the return of peace, British mer¬
chandise was poured into the United States, at prices so
low as to defy competition, the consequence, particularly
in the year 1819, was a scene of general insolvency in the
States, which once more recoiled with the most distressing
effects on the British creditor. All this was the result of
a policy bad in every point of view, and which neither
had nor could have any decisive influence on the grand
contest in Europe.
We now return from this necessary digression to the
ordinary course of our narrative. Parliament assembled
on the 18th November, and, after the transaction of some
business, relative chiefly to keeping the English militia
embodied, and preserving the peace of Ireland, adjourned
on the 2d December. They met again on the 9th Febru¬
ary, and were soon after called on to discuss a most im¬
portant department of home policy, namely, the corn laws.
The prospect of the return of peace, and of large imports
of corn from the Continent, had early excited the atten¬
tion of the landed interest; and a committee, appointed in
the spring of 1813, had made a report to parliament re¬
commending the prohibition of foreign corn, except when
wheat at home should be at or above the very high price
of a hundred and five shillings the quarter. No proceed¬
ings on the subject took place that session, and next year
the sense of the public was so unequivocally declared
against this extravagant propositipn, that a great reduc¬
tion was indispensable; and, on bringing forward the re¬
solutions connected with the subject, it was proposed to
allow the importation of foreign wheat whenever our own
should be at or above eighty-seven shillings. Still this
limit appeared too high; the debates were warm; the pe¬
titions against the bill numerous; and, ministers suspend¬
ing their support, the main part of the question was in
consequence adjourned to next year. In the summer and
autumn corn underwent a great fall, and the farmers ex¬
perienced much distress ; the consequence of which, and
of the evidence given before the parliamentary commit¬
tees, was, that government determined to support a corn
bill on a reduced scale, foreign wheat being rendered in¬
admissible when our own should be at or below eighty slid- Regency,
lings. Resolutions to that effect were moved on the 17th 'w'-y-w'
February, and a bill founded on them was soon afterwards 1815-
brought in. It still experienced opposition, particularly
from Mr Baring and others, who argued that the limitation
price ought not to be permanent, but subject to a gradua¬
ted abatement during a series of years, till at last the corn
trade should arrive at that unrestrained state so essential
to commerce at large. But notwithstanding these argu¬
ments, and a tumultuous opposition without doors, the bill
was carried by large majorities in both houses of parlia¬
ment.
But from discussions of internal policy, the attention of
parliament was suddenly directed to a more urgent topic;
we mean the return of Bonaparte from Elba, and a notice of
an immediate augmentation of our forces. An address to
the regent, in support of this augmentation, was carried by
great majorities; and a subsequent motion by Mr Whit¬
bread, to prevent our interference for the reinstatement
of the Bourbons, was lost by two hundred and seventy-
three against seventy-two. Finally, the addresses in ap¬
probation of the treaties with the continental powers were
supported by Lord Grenville, Mr Grattan, and other op¬
positionists ; the numbers in the Lords being a hundred
and fifty-six against forty-four ; and in the Commons, three
hundred and thirty-one against ninety-two. The further
proceedings were an approval of the treaty of peace with
America, and of the very questionable transfer of Genoa
to the king of Sardinia. The session was concluded by a
repeal of the law for fixing the price of bread in London
by assize.
The ratification of the peace with America had not been
received from the other shore of the Atlantic, when Bo¬
naparte returned from Elba and raised in Europe a fresh
alarm of war. He ventured to land with a force barely
sufficient to secure his personal safety in a march, and to
supply emissaries for mixing with the opposite ranks. Ihe
French soldiers are fond of glory, and their attachment
revived at the sight of their leader. They first refused to
oppose, and soon after pressed forward to join him; and
he proceeded in a rapid and unresisted march to the capi¬
tal. Ought England to participate in the coalition formed
to expel this intruder, and to reinstate the Bourbons? On
this question there existed, either in parliament or the
public, very little difference of opinion ; so great was the
enmity inspired by Bonaparte, and such the dread of in¬
cessant war under his sway. Our ministry soon took their
determination; our continental allies were unanimous in
the cause; and not a day was lost in preparing for the in¬
vasion of France. The Netherlands, it was evident, would
be the first scene of operations. Thither the Prussians
pressed with all the ardour inspired by recent wrongs and
a present desire of vengeance ; thither were conveyed
from England troops, ammunition, and stores, with all the
dispatch afforded by the undisputed command of the sea.
By the end of May or beginning of June the Prussian and
British force in the Netherlands was superior to any that
could be mustered by Bonaparte. It was not till the se¬
cond week of June that his disposable force, to the num¬
ber of a hundred and fifteen thousand men, was collected
in front of the allied line. This was effected with great
secrecy and dispatch. He joined the camp on the 14th,
and caused his troops to march early on the 15th, driving in
successively the Prussian outposts at Charleroi and tleu-
rus. From the point whence he marched to Ligny, the
Prussian head-quarters, the distance was thirty miles; to
Brussels, the head-quarters of Lord Wellington, was near¬
ly twice as far; and all Bonaparte’s hope rested on fight¬
ing his opponents separate and unsupported. Intelligence
of the first movements of the French reached Lord Wei-
BRITAIN.
619
Regency, lington in the afternoon of the 15th, and made him forth-
with prepare for the march, which, however, he delayed
until the arrival of a second courier from the Prussians,
and of advices from his own outposts, which should show
whether there was any serious attack on other points. In
the evening accounts arrived which left no doubt that the
mass of the French army was directed against the Prus¬
sians ; and orders to march were in consequence issued
in all directions, so as to reach even remote stations be¬
tween three and four in the morning. Our troops be¬
gan their march from almost every point at day-light, all
moving on to Quatre Bras, a spot where four roads meet,
and distant seven miles from Ligny. After marching be¬
tween six and seven hours, several of the divisions stopped
to take rest and refreshment; but they were hurried from
their unfinished meal by dragoons dispatched to accelerate
their advance, for Lord Wellington had by the way re¬
ceived intelligence of the rapid approach of the French.
Proceeding promptly with his escort, he had time to reach
the head-quarters of the Prussians, and to learn from their
impatient commander, that, without knowing the num¬
bers of the French, or their plan of attack, he was deter¬
mined to accept battle on that day, and upon the ground
which he then occupied. Lord Wellington had no con¬
trolling power. All he could do was to lessen the pressure
on his allies, by pushing, as much as possible, such part
of the French as might be opposed to the British. This
interview took place between one and two o’clock; and
his lordship, returning forthwith to Quatre Bras, found the
French tirailleurs already in possession of the w^ood which
skirted and commanded the road. Immediate orders were
given to drive them out, a task which devolved on the
highlanders arriving from Brussels, and the guards from
Enghein, each after a march of twenty-five miles. They
succeeded in expelling the French; but the want of ar¬
tillery and cavalry, neither of which came up till late at
night, prevented them from pushing forward with effect.
Fresh bodies of the French were now seen advancing ; and,
on the other hand, regiments of British successively reach¬
ed the ground. The conflict spread, and was maintained
with great gallantry on both sides, but with hardly any other
plan than that of fighting straight forward. At first the
French possessed considerable advantages, and their caval¬
ry, charging rapidly through the fields of rye, a grain which
grows in Flanders to a great height, came unexpectedly
on some of our battalions, which suffered severely in conse¬
quence, but fairly repelled their antagonists. As our re¬
inforcements came up, the superiority was progressively
acquired by us. The French were driven back, and Ney,
who commanded, sent to order up a body of twenty thou¬
sand men, which had arrived within three miles of Quatre
Bras ; but the answer was, that they had countermarched to
Ligny by order of Bonaparte. They were soon afterwards
ordered back, but were unable to join Ney until nine at
night, when the fighting had ceased, and the field of action
remained in possession of the British. The force engaged
on either side did not exceed twenty-five thousand men.
Our loss amounted to about five thousand ; whilst that of
the French appears to have been considerably greater.
Both sides fully expected a new battle the next morning.
The British, by the arrival of all their divisions, now formed
a large army. The French, still strangers to the firmness
of our troops, attributed their failure to accidental causes,
and declared that their cavalry had been repulsed, parce
quils riavaient pas franchement aborde Vennemi.
Meanwhile there had been fought at Ligny a battle on
a larger scale, and with greater preparation. On the slope
of a rising ground, which, however, was much exposed, a
Prussian army, of no less than eighty thousand men, await¬
ed the attack of Bonaparte. The fighting began between
two and three o’clock, by the French gaining possession Regency,
of the village of St Amand, on the Prussian right. To re-
occupy this village Blucher made repeated efforts ; and it 18 5
was during one of the most furious of these that Bona¬
parte is understood to have ordered round the corps, the
absence of which was so bitterly regretted by Ney. The
battle now raged fiercely along the whole line. The masses
of Prussian infantry drawn up on the slope were much thin¬
ned by the French artillery ; but in the village of Ligny,
which was repeatedly taken and retaken, the slaughter
was peculiarly great. Such was the course of the engage¬
ment till the evening at half-past eight o’clock, when the
French reserve, marching forward in columns, obliged the
Prussians to leave the long-contested field. Their loss on
this dreadful day was little short of twenty thousand; that
of the French exceeded ten thousand.
Next day Bonaparte adopted the plan of detaching under
Grouchy a body of thirty-four thousand men to follow the
retiringPrussians, whilst, with themassof his force, seventy-
one thousand in number, he turned against the British, in
the hope of fighting a battle at the head of superior num¬
bers. Lord Wellington knew not the retreat of his allies
till morning, when a similar measure on his part became
indispensable ; but as his army was in the best state, and
as the Prussians had just received a reinforcement, retreat
was necessary only until reaching a position favourable for
fighting, and for awaiting the co-operation of his allies.
Waterloo, he well knew, presented these advantages: his
march thither met with no annoyance from the French ;
and the only fighting which took place on the I7th was at
Genappe, in a cavalry action begun by our rear-guard. Bo¬
naparte following with his van-guard, reached the ground
opposite to our position, and in the evening ordered a par¬
tial cannonade to ascertain if we occupied the latter with
an intention to remain. Concluding in the affirmative, he
began arrangements for a battle ; and next morning he
continued under a similar impression, although in his army
there was a general belief that we would not venture to
await their onset. At ten o’clock he perceived by his
glass, in march at a great distance, a corps which he im¬
mediately concluded to be Prussians. This necessitated
his posting a body of above eight thousand men on his
right to receive them ; a disposition which deprived him
of his numerical superiority, and caused the battle of Wa¬
terloo to be fought between equal or nearly equal forces. It
began soon after mid-day by an attack on the post of Hou-
goumont, a chateau or country-seat in front of our right,
surrounded by an orchard. The possession of this point
would have favoured the approach of the French to our
right wing; but though they drove us from the orchard,
all their efforts proved ineffectual against our troops, a de¬
tachment of guards, stationed in the building and within
the court wall. This attack, though very obstinate and san¬
guinary, was in the eye of either commander only a prelude
to the great onset in the centre, which commenced towards
two o’clock, being planned by Bonaparte, and conducted
by Ney, whose station during the action was in the high
road leading straight to our centre. Our army made little
show, the battalions being formed in squares, and partly
concealed from view by the sinuosities of ground ; whilst
between each square there were openings sufficient to en¬
able the battalions to deploy into line, as well as to afford
our cavalry space to advance and charge. The squares
were further placed en echiquier, like a chess-board, so that
the enemy’s cavalry, in venturing through an opening, ex¬
posed itself to a fire in front from the opposite square, and
to a double flank fire from the squares which it had passed.
Yet this firm array did not appal the French cuirassiers,
who, confiding in past successes and in the protection of
their armour, repeatedly tried the deadly experiment of
620 B R I T
Regency, attach. Never was the impetuosity of the French more
conspicuous, and never was it more effectually opposed,
1815. whether we consider the firmness of our troops, the judg¬
ment of our general, or the efficiency of our artillery. The
only ground gained by the French was the central point of
La Haye Sainte and the space immediately in front of our
]jne>—the whole being attended, said Ney, by a carnage
the most dreadful he had ever seen. Meanwhile Bona¬
parte watched anxiously the moment when a partial breach
or disorder in our line should afford him a favourable op¬
portunity of attacking with his reserve. Ney repeatedly
intimated an expectation of great success, but could re¬
port no positive advantage, even after the double charge
made by the imperial horse guards at five in the after¬
noon. It became, however, indispensable to act, and Bona¬
parte could hardly doubt that the long-continued conflict
must by this time have greatly weakened our line. Ac¬
cordingly, between six and seven o clock, the imperial
foot guards, to the number of nearly thirteen thousand,
were drawn from behind the ridge which had hitherto
covered them from our fire; directed to advance along the
high road leading to our centre ; and harangued by Bona¬
parte, whom they answered with reiterated cries of Vive
lEtnpereur. We are now come to the decisive part of
the battle, that part in which, till now, whether at Ma¬
rengo, at Austerlitz, or at Ligny, success had uniformly
attended the charge of a fresh and numerous corps. By
what means did it fail at Waterloo ? The answer is, that
our line, though thinned, was nowhere disordered; that
our battalions, though reduced, were firm in their position.
Besides, the duke, apprised of the approach of his allies,
moved round an additional force from his left to his
centre, and directed our battalions to deploy from their
squares into a line four deep. Its formidable aspect, and
the knowdedge of the approach of the Prussians, prevented
Ney from attempting the last resource, namely, a bayonet
charge by the guards. Their ranks, however, were ra¬
pidly thinned, for the fire from the British line was much
more extensive and destructive than that of the columns
of the enemy. It was now that the duke perceived the
approach of the Prussian main body, and ordered a ge¬
neral forward movement; the French retired, at first
slowly and in good order; but seeing that behind them
all was falling into confusion, the artillerymen and wag¬
gon train cutting the traces of their horses, and pressing
to gain the high road to which the Prussians were fast ad¬
vancing, the retreat soon became a rout. Our troops ad¬
vanced over the field of battle, crossed the hollow beyond
it, and towards nine at night reached the ridge occupied
by the French staff during the day. Their task was now
fdlfilled, and the Prussians were left to pursue the flying
enemy. The loss on our side amounted to thirteen thou¬
sand men ; that of the French opposed to us, exclusive of
the loss caused by the Prussians, was about twenty thousand.
This great battle displayed no manoeuvring; the plan
was formed, and the whole was a succession of impetuous
attacks and obstinate repulses; but the talents of either
commander were not the less conspicuously displayed; the
one in making no fruitless application of his force, the
other in never permitting the ardour of his troops to lead
them from their ground or to deviate from a defensive
plan. Bonaparte committed two errors; first, throwing
away his superb cavalry so early in the action; and, se¬
condly, as a consequence of this, ordering the advance of
his guards, who, though they might penetrate our line
at a particular point, had no chance of gaining a victory
when unsupported by cavalry, and were besides likely to
be soon wanted as a rear-guard to their own army. In the
battle Lord Wellington appears to have committed no er¬
ror. On the preceding days his fault lay in supposing Blu-
A I N.
cher likely to act with discretion, and in remaining per- Regency,
sonally at Brussels instead of keeping near to his impa-
tient coadjutor. Had the latter avoided fighting on the ' ' •
16th, and retreated only twelve or fifteen miles, the allied
forces would have been completely in co-operation; and
their numbers, a hundred and sixty thousand, would have
deprived Bonaparte of every chance of success.
From Waterloo to Paris, the advance of the allies was
an almost uninterrupted march; marked on our part by
the capture, by escalade, of two towns, Cambray and Pe-
ronne, and on that of the Prussians by an unremitting
pursuit of the enemy. On one occasion (the 2d of July,
near Versailles), a corps of French cavalry re-asserted
their claim to fame, and taught the Prussians the hazard
of a precipitate advance ; but the success was partial, the
evacuation of Paris unavoidable, and resistance hopeless,
now that almost all Europe was pouring her armies into
the French territory. Hence the second treaty of Paris,
concluded after many vain appeals to the generosity of the
allies, and which burdened France with contributions to
the amount of nearly thirty millions sterling, exclusive of
the support of an allied army on her frontier. This army,
amounting at first to a hundred and fifty thousand men,
was reduced in 1817 to a hundred and twenty thousand,
and withdrawn in the end of 1818, when all bore the as¬
pect of continued tranquillity on the Continent.
The time is scarcely yet arrived for viewing, with the
calm impartiality of history, our war against Bonaparte;
but the more reflecting part of our countrymen can hard¬
ly fail to i-egret our participation in the war of 1793.
Those who know the inoffensive state of the French nation
at that time, their general wish for peace, and the reduced
condition of their army, can have no doubt that the efforts
which subsequently poured forth such a host of combat¬
ants owed their existence solely to the threats of the allied
powers. Without these the jacobins would not have tri¬
umphed, nor would a military adventurer, like Bonaparte,
have had the means of acquiring an ascendency. Louis
XVI. might have been brought to the scaffold, and republi¬
can visions might have prevailed for a season ; but the eyes
of the people would have been opened to the blessings of a
constitutional monarchy much earlier than when threaten¬
ed with invasion, and obliged, in self-defence, to throw un¬
due power into the hands of their new rulers. The first great
error, that of the coalition of 1792, was the act of Aus¬
tria and Prussia ; but of the continuance of the continental
war after 1795 we were almost the sole cause. Belgium
and Holland had, it is true, fallen into the hands of France,
and to recover them was an object of the highest interest;
but in attempting this, our ministers made no adequate al¬
lowance for the jealousies, the prejudices, we may add the
incapacity, of the governments whose aid was indispensable
to success. In 1803 circumstances had become extremely
embarrassing. France was confirmed in the possession ot
the Netherlands and Italy, and at the disposal of an ambi¬
tious ruler, who studied in peace only the means of fur¬
ther encroachment. What course was our government to
follow ? Were they to continue in peace, and to trust for
our eventual safety to the progressive extension of our re¬
sources and the improvement ot our army; or were they
to resort to immediate war, and present, by our declared
hostility, a rallying point to other powers ? An experien¬
ced government would have preferred the former ; the mi¬
nistry of 1803 adopted the latter, not from views of am¬
bition, but from yielding to that popular impulse, which it
would not, however, have been impracticable to guide and
control. As to the course of the war, it was, during the
first two years, a contest without decided success on either
side. In its third year, an ill-conducted coalition gave to
France that superiority which was to be expected in the
BRITAIN.
621
Regency, case of a great military power directed by a single head.
Such, in a further degree, was the result of the continental
l816- operations of 1806 and 1807. In 1808 Spain occasioned an
unexpected change in the calculations ot politicians, and
showed, in an encouraging light, the power of popular re¬
sistance ; still its effects, aided even by our military means,
produced little decisive of the grand objects of the war.
We were proceeding with great zeal and gallantry, but
without any definite hope or object, when a catastrophe,
as little expected by ourselves as by the French, entirely
changed the aspect of affairs, and made it incumbent on
us to omit no exertion, financial or military, to redeem the
independence of Europe. T-he success was complete ; but
it was not till the close of the struggle that we became
aware of the amount of the sacrifices which had been in¬
curred in its prosecution.
Parliament met on the 1st of February, and, after some
business of minor importance, proceeded, in March, to dis¬
cuss the interesting question of our military peace esta¬
blishment. The navy had been reduced with sufficient
promptitude ; but there seemed, on the part of government,
a disposition to keep the army on a scale neither required
by the general tranquillity of Europe, nor justified by our
financial means, which exhibited several symptoms of de¬
cline. Yet a motion for so moderate a reduction as ten
thousand from the proposed number of land forces was
negatived by two hundred and two to a hundred and thir¬
ty t and, in long debates which ensued relative to the army
estimates, ministers carried every point, and were likely to
keep up the whole upon an expensive scale; when, on the
18th of March, after a long and animated discussion, the
question of continuing the property-tax, modified to five
per cent., was decided against them by a majority of thirty-
seven ; there being two hundred and thirty-eight against
two hundred and one. This signal and unexpected defeat
necessitated a relinquishment of the war malt-duty, and a
general reduction of expenditure, which we should have
in vain expected from the reason or reflection of our rulers.
Another measure of importance was the regulation, af¬
ter a long investigation, of the civil list, on a footing which
was adopted as a standard in the beginning of the present
reign. This was followed by acts for the consolidation of
the English and Irish exchequers, and for the exemption of
the bank from cash payments during two years ; and, final¬
ly, by an act for striking off a new silver coinage. Among
the minor proceedings of the session may be mentioned a
grant of L.60,000 a year to the Princess Charlotte and her
husband, with a provision, unfortunately too soon required,
of L.50,000 to the latter in the event of her demise.
This year was distinguished by an important naval ope¬
ration, namely, the attack upon Algiers. A project had
been submitted to the sovereigns assembled at V icnna in
1814, and at Paris in 1815, for the expulsion of the Turk¬
ish militia from the Barbary states; but the representa¬
tives of the cabinet of London opposed this proposition, on
the pretext that the existence of these states had been
guaranteed by treaties; and as the scheme for expelling
the Turks had been coupled with an absurd proposal to
replace the janissaries with the conventual and military
order of the knights of Malta, the success of the English
opposition excited no regret.1 * * * It was generally agreed,
however, that an end ought to be put to Christian slavery.
This was a necessary consequence of the principle which
had been adopted and promulgated relative to negro sla-
very; and England, which had procured the recognition
of the one, undertook the honourable task of effecting the
other. But the measures at first resorted to were by no
means adequate to the accomplishment of the end in view,
and of course failed. An attempt was made to mediate
between the regency of Algiers and the kingdoms of Sar¬
dinia and Naples; and Lord Exmouth, with a fleet of twenty-
six ships, of which six were of the line, was employed to
superintend this negociation. His Lordship accordingly
appeared before Algiers in the month of April 1816; the
dey yielded; and peace was re-established between these
powers “ en favorisent 1’avarice du gouvernement Alge-
rien.” But all of a sudden the English government as¬
sumed a higher tone, and transmitted orders to Lord Ex¬
mouth to demand of the dey, first, the immediate libera¬
tion of all Christian slaves; secondly, restitution of the
sums which had been paid by the courts of Naples and
Sardinia for the ransom of such of their subjects as had
been dragged into slavery; thirdly', the renunciation for
ever of the practice of reducing to slavery the subjects of
the Christian powers of Europe; fourthly, an obligation
to treat the subjects of Hanover on the same footing and
in the same manner as those of Great Britain.
The situation of Lord Exmouth was disagreeable and
embarrassing; inasmuch as he was called upon to present,
in the month of May, conditions altogether different from
those which had been tendered and accepted in the month
of April immediately preceding. But the die was now
cast. Omar Pasha indignantly rejected the new proposi¬
tions which the admiral was commanded to submit to
him ; and having assembled a general divan, obtained the
concurrence of the tchiorbagis, the odobachys, and the
yoldaches, who rent the air with their ferocious cries, de¬
claring that they would rather perish than submit to pro¬
positions so humiliating. Pressed by the admiral, how¬
ever, to give a distinct and categorical answer, the dey
had recourse to finesse. He was a subject, he said, of^
the Ottoman Porte. The question at issue was one of
the highest importance, and could not be resolved in a
definitive manner by him and the militia of Algiers. It
was therefore indispensable that he should take the or¬
ders of the grand seignior respecting it. Lord Exmouth
was not deceived by this specimen of Algerine diplomacy.
He knew that the pasha was a man of resolution as well
as of address ; that he was certain of the support of his fu¬
rious and fanatical subjects; and that his sole object was
to gain time in order to prepare for the conflict which,
he foresaw, was impending. However, he affected to be
for the present satisfied with the dey’s answer, and with¬
drew to Gibraltar, ostensibly to wait for the decision of the
Porte, but in reality for definitive orders from his own go¬
vernment. The latter had already decided on its course.
A powerful squadron was accordingly fitted out at
Portsmouth, and dispatched to Gibraltar to reinforce the
admiral, who, after its arrival, had under his orders five
sail of the line, two of them three-deckers, five frigates of
the largest and second class, five sloops of war, four bomb
vessels, five gun-boats, furnished each with a sixty-eight-
pound carronade, and a dock-yard sloop converted into a
fire-ship or explosion vessel; in all twenty-five ships and
vessels of war. At Gibraltar six Dutch frigates, under
the orders of Vice-admiral Van Capellen, requested to
1 Sneak in tr of this scheme, Colonel Juchereau de Saint Denys remarks, “ C’etait mettre le fanatisme Catholique a la place du fana-
tisme Mahometan-Sc’dtait substituer a une classe oisive et improductive, une classe egalement ennemie du travail et egalement dd-
oourvue d’hid us trie. C’etait d’ailleurs un acte du pure demence et cruaute que de vouloir fame gouverner une population entiere-
ment Mus ulmane par des moines militaires qui n’avaient ete crees que pour combattre perpetuellement et a entrance tous les enne-
misdunomStien, et particulierement les disciples de Mahomet. Cependant ce projet absurde avait pu trouver des echos parmi
les diplomates du congres de Vienne.” Pp- 118, H9*
622 BRITAIN.
■Regency, join the British fleet in the approaching attack, and pro-
bably had stations assigned them, although it does not ap-
181G. pear {n t]ie very precise and masterly order of battle given
out by Lord Exmouth. The fleet arrived before Algiers
on the 27th of August 1816. The wind was favourable,
and a light breeze enabled the ships to take the positions
which had been assigned to them. Lord Exmouth then
transmitted his ultimatum to the dey. It embodied in
substance the propositions presented in May, and required
an immediate answer. None whatever was returned. The
decision of the question was left to the arbitrement of
battle. The fleet instantly weighed, and, led by the flag
ship, Queen Charlotte, of a hundred and twenty guns,
came to anchor within pistol shot, or rather less, of the
batteries on the Mole, and those situated towards the
western part of the town. The Queen Charlotte anchor¬
ed across the entrance of the port, so as to take in flank
and reverse such of the batteries as were furthest ad¬
vanced, and she was supported by the Superb and Im¬
pregnable, which were directed to anchor as close to her
as possible, to be made fast to each other, and hove toge¬
ther in order to concentrate their fire. The Albion had
orders to supply the place of either of the two last men¬
tioned ships that might be thrown out; and, in case of
both getting their places, to present her broadside against
a flanking battery of three guns, and enfilade the northern
part of the works by throwing part of her fire upon the
upper tier of the light-house battery. The Dutch appear
to have taken their station on the left, in order to produce
a diversion by commanding the exterior batteries and forts
of the eastern part of the place. All these movements
were executed with that admirable order and precision
which distinguish the operations of the British navy, and
also without opposition. The dey, it is said, wished to
avoid the reproach of being the first to commence hostili¬
ties ; and it has been thought that this capital fault contri¬
buted to decide the fate of the action. But this is a mis¬
take. Had the Algerines opened their fire on the ships
as they approached, the casualties might have been more
numerous, but the result would have been the same.
When the British line of attack had been completely
established, two shots were fired on the flag ship from
the grand battery of the Mole. The instant he saw the
flash of the guns, Lord Exmouth gave the word “ Fire
away my lads,” and the cannonade immediately became
general. The battle commenced at three o’clock in the
afternoon, and continued without any intermission until
nine in the evening, when a land breeze springing up, the
ships weighed anchor, and gained an offing, to prepare, if
necessary, for a renewal of the attack. While the combat
was at the hottest, a detachment of English seamen and
marines entered the harbour amidst a murderous fire of
grape and musketry, and succeeded in setting fire to and
destroying the whole of the Algerine fleet; an event
which made a terrible impression on the population of
Algiers, and in fact completed its demoralization. They
then found what a formidable and daring enemy they had
had the hardihood to contend withal; and horror soon
gave way to despair. The dey durst not risk a renewal
of the combat; but next day (the 28th of August) gave
his unqualified assent to the propositions which, twenty
hours before, he had scorned even to entertain. The
terms which Lord Exmouth had the glory to dictate
were, first, the total abolition of Christian slavery in fu¬
ture ; secondly, the immediate liberation of all slaves with¬
in the territories and dependencies of Algiers, of what¬
ever nation they might be; thirdly, the restitution into
the hands of the English admiral of the various sums
which had been paid since the commencement of the
year by Christian powers for the ransom of their subjects
dragged into slavery; fourthly, an indemnification to the Regency
English consul for the losses he had sustained, and an
apology by the dey in the presence of his ministers and
officers for the indignities which the consul had suffered
in being arrested and detained in prison during the battle.
I his was followed by the conclusion of a treaty of peace
with the Netherlands, by which all arrears were discharged,
and that country ceased to figure among the tributaries
of Algiers. Such were the results of this memorable
battle, which, to use the words of Sir Charles Ekins
(JYaval JBattles, p. 304), “ bore the character of a crusade
in behalf of Europe, rather than on the part of Great Bri¬
tain alone, which excited a prodigious sensation through¬
out all Christendom, and which was believed to have put
a final stop to Barbary piracies and depredations.”
A general want of work and reduction of wages conti¬
nued during the year, subjecting the lower orders to great
distress, and exposing them to the arts of designing de¬
magogues. Large assemblages, particularly in Spafields,
took place previous to the meeting of parliament; and
on the day of its opening (the 28th of January) the regent
was insulted on his way to the House of Lords. A secret
committee of each house was soon afterwards appointed
to examine papers in the possession of government, said to
bear evidence of serious projects of insurrection; and each
made a speedy report, declaring the existence of very dan¬
gerous societies. There was in these reports a strain of
confident allegation, unaccompanied by specific proof or
temperate reasoning, which brought to recollection the
declamatory state papers of the French revolution, and
gave the reports the appearance of documents framed to
disseminate alarms, and justify extreme measures. They
engaged, however, the serious attention of the house, and
the result was a bill for the suspension of the habeas cor¬
pus act during the current session of parliament; a mea¬
sure carried in the Lords by a hundred and fifty to thirty-
five., and in the Commons by two hundred and sixty-five to
h hundred and three. Towards the close of the session
a second report from the secret committees produced an
act for continuing the suspension of the habeas corpus to
the 1st of March 1818.
The continued want of work, and the distress of the lower
orders, led to an act for authorizing the issue of exche¬
quer bills to persons finding employment for the poor.
The same causes inducing the public to call loudly for re¬
trenchment, the opposition, on the 25th of February, took
the sense of the House of Commons on a motion to reduce
the number of the lords of the admiralty, and mustered
a hundred and fifty-two votes against two hundred and
eight. As an offering on the part of government to the
prevailing demand for retrenchment, an act was passed for
abolishing the two sinecure offices of justice in Eyre.
Mr Abbot, who had filled the office of speaker of the
house since 1802, finding himself incapable, from conti¬
nued indisposition, of performing its arduous duties, sent
in his resignation, and was succeeded by the Right Ho¬
nourable Charles Manners Sutton. Mr Abbot was forth¬
with raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Colches¬
ter; and, on the 6th of June, a vote passed the Commons
for settling on him a life annuity of L.4000.
Parliament was opened on the 27th of January under
circumstances which indicated that the want of work and
the distress of trade, though still considerable, were less se¬
rious than in the preceding year. A secret committee,
appointed anew by each house, reported to that effect;
and on their recommendation was brought in a bill to
indemnify persons, chiefly magistrates, who had acted in
apprehending and detaining individuals suspected of trea¬
sonable practices. This bill was not carried without con¬
siderable opposition.
BRITAIN.
623
Regency. The death of the Princess Charlotte having caused a
blank in the succession to the crown, the marriage of the
rovai dukes became a subject of consideration; but the
provision for any increase of expenditure was exposed to
difficulty, as well from the distress of the public, as from the
near approach of the time when the members were to meet
their constituents. A motion made by ministers to grant
L. 10,000 additional to the Duke of Clarence was not suc¬
cessful, an amendment for reducing it to L.6000 having
been carried by a hundred and ninty-three to a hundred
and eighty-four. Votes, equally restricted, were passed
in the case of the Dukes of Kent and Cambridge ; and an
attempt to obtain a similar grant to the Duke of Cumber¬
land, who had been several years married, was negatived
by a hundred and forty-three to a hundred and forty-six ;
but a provision of L.6000 a year was made for the duchess
in case she should survive him.
Among the transactions of this year was a grant of
L.400,000 to Spain, as a compensation for losses attend¬
ant on an early abolition of the slave-trade by that power.
Certain acts were also passed for the humane treatment
of negroes in our sugar colonies. The bank exemption
act being about to expire, Mr Vansittart brought in a bill
for continuing it another year, on the ground that the loans
now contracting in England for France and Prussia car¬
ried capital out of the country, and prevented the bank,
for a time at least, from diminishing its paper circulation.
Mr Brougham having, early in the session, bfbught in a
bill for investigating the abuses of public charities, it was
referred to a committee, and, after some discussion in the
Commons, passed to the Lords. There it encountered
opposition from Lords Eldon and Redesdale, and was
returned to the Commons with material alterations; the
commissioners charged with the inquiry being limited in
their powers, and restricted to charities connected with
education. The act, however, passed in this state, and
the labours of the commissioners, like those of the com¬
mittee on the education of the poor, have been productive
of much public advantage. The session was closed on 10th
June by a speech from the regent, containing a notice,
not only of the prorogation, but of the dissolution of par¬
liament ; a measure which for many years had been an¬
nounced by proclamation.
The new parliament met on the 14th of January 1819,
and on the 21st proceeded to business. The demise of the
queen having taken place during the recess (on the 17th
November), one of the first measures was to vest the cus¬
tody of the king’s person in the Duke of York, who, very
imprudently, under the circumstances of the country, de¬
manded and received from parliament an annual allowance
of L.10,000 for discharging an act of filial duty. This
formed a striking contrast to the conduct of the Marquis
of Camden, who, possessed of the lucrative sinecure of
teller of the exchequer, relinquished L.9000 a year of it
to the public ; a sacrifice noticed in honourable terms in a
vote passed in parliament on the occasion.
Such was the addition made to opposition, by an election
under circumstances of general distress, that several mea¬
sures were carried in this session against ministers ; in par¬
ticular, a motion on the 2d of March, by Sir James Mac¬
kintosh, for a revision of the criminal code, where the
numbers were a hundred and forty-seven against a hun¬
dred and twenty-eight, and a motion for a committee on
the state of the Scottish burghs, carried by a hundred and
forty-nine to a hundred and forty-four. In the division on
the grant of L.10,000 to the Duke of York, the opposition
mustered a hundred and eighty-six votes against two
hundred and eighty-one. But the impression excited by
these successes was greatly enfeebled by a motion, which
arrayed on one side all the strength of government and
that of the neutral party. We allude to Mr Tierney’s Regency,
motion for an “ inquiry into the state of the nation,” which
was negatived by three hundred and fifty-seven to a hun- 1819<
dred and seventy-eight; a division evincing that, though
disposed to co-operate with opposition occasionally and
for specific objects, the neutral party had no wish for a
change of ministry. Encouraged by this success, Mr Van¬
sittart came forward with the bold proposition of new
taxes, to the extent of L.3,000,000, on the ground of a
sum of that amount being absolutely necessary to give
efficiency to the sinking fund. Of this sum the chief part
was expected from an increase of the duties on malt, spi¬
rits, and tobacco; but part also was to be derived from a
tax on foreign wool (6d. per lb.) ; a most singular impost
in a country where the exportation of manufactured wool
forms a main branch of the national industry. Ministers
were conscious of its injurious tendency, but were ob¬
liged to bring it forward as an equivalent to the landed
interest, for the fresh burden exacted from them in the
malt-duty.
The further debates of the session related to the Catho¬
lic question and the resumption of cash payments. In the
contest pending at this time between Spain and her Ame¬
rican colonies, ministers took part with the mother coun¬
try, so far at least as to discourage by act of parliament
the enlistment of our officers and soldiers on the side of
the insurgents. In the preceding session L.1,000,000 had
been voted for building additional churches and chapels
for the established religion in England; and this year
L.100,000 was appropriated for a similar purpose to the
established church of Scotland. The last act of the ses¬
sion was a grant made in July, of the limited sum of
L.50,000, to be shared by government among persons set¬
tling on particular conditions at the Cape of Good Hope.
This was the first pecuniary aid given by government to¬
wards emigration, which is accounted by some the only
remedy for our overstock of labourers and manufacturers.
The revival of commercial activity in 1818 proved un¬
fortunately of short duration. Distress returned towards
the end of that year, and assumed an aggravated aspect
in the course of 1819. This produced popular assem¬
blages, and led, on 16th August, to an unfortunate scene
at Manchester, in which the interference of the yeomanry
cavalry to disperse a very numerous meeting of the people
was productive of loss of life to a number of persons, and
of bodily injury to a great many. The irritation excited
among the lower orders by this proceeding, and by the con¬
tinued pressure of poverty, led to the dissemination of a
spirit of discontent and insurrection which necessitated
the assembling of parliament on the 23d November. Ihe
speech of the regent, as well as the discussions of both
houses, were directed to this painful subject; and the
alarm excited among the aristocracy, joined to other con¬
siderations, having finally detached the Grenville party
from the opposition, the latter now mustered in less for¬
midable array. On the division for an amendment upon
the address to the regent, the numbers were a hundred
and fifty against three hundred and eighty.
Several bills were afterwards introduced by ministers
for the prevention of disturbances. These consisted in im¬
posing a tax on the petty publications circulated among the
lower orders ; impeding the circulation of libels ; authoriz¬
ing the seizure of arms ; and forbidding military training or
seditious meetings. These bills produced long and animat¬
ed debates ; but the most considerable division on the side
of opposition, namely, that for limiting the act against se¬
ditious measures to three years instead of five, consisted of
only a hundred and fifty votes against three hundred and
twenty-eight. A motion of a more comprehensive nature
for a committee on the state of the country was negatived
BRITAIN.
624
Regency, in the Lords by a hundred and seventy-eight to forty-
seven ; in the Commons by three hundred and ninety-five
1820. t0 a hundred and fifty.
After transacting this and other business of an urgent
nature, parliament adjourned ; but was soon after brought
together by an event which, however conformable to the
course of nature, was not at that time expected, namely,
the death of George III. The day after the demise, agree¬
ably to established usage, both houses met, and took the
oath of allegiance to the new sovereign. On the 2d Feb¬
ruary they adjourned till the 17th, the day after the inter¬
ment of his majesty. On that day both houses voted an
address of condolence to the present king, after which
they proceeded to transact such business as was pressing,
and might, according to law, have continued to sit during
six months; but ministers judged fit to resort to a disso¬
lution. Another election now took place under circum¬
stances of general distress. The new parliament met on
the 21st April, and was opened on the 27th by George
IV., in a speech declaring his anxiety for strict economy,
but regretting that the state of the country was such as
to admit of no reduction of the military force.
The peace of Amiens at first gave hopes of the improve¬
ment of Ireland by the introduction of British industry and
capital; but these hopes were soon clouded by the renew¬
ed contest of 1803. In that contest the public in England
and Scotland joined with almost unexampled zeal; but
Ireland was less cordial, although it would be altogether
erroneous to connect with an}' political party, whether
Catholic or Protestant, the miserable insurrection of the
23d of July 1803. A plot to seize Dublin, almost as ex¬
travagant as that of the Cato Street conspiracy in Lon¬
don, was framed by a few infatuated individuals; and in
the tumult, which burst forth with great violence but with
feeble means, Lord Kilwarden, the chief justice, unhap¬
pily lost his life. A party of military soon dispersed the
rabble ; and of their leaders, most of whom were afterwards
apprehended and executed, the only one entitled to no¬
tice was Robert Emmett, a young man whose education
and talents ought to have placed him above such despe¬
rate attempts. The alarm thus excited engaged some
time after the attention of parliament, and led to the en¬
actment of two bills, one for a renewed suspension of the
habeas corpus act in Ireland, the other for trying rebels
by martial law.
The encouragement so generally given to the volunteer
system in England and Scotland was not extended to Ire¬
land, from a dread of embodying indiscriminately a people
of whom so great a proportion were disaffected. The yeo¬
manry, however, or select volunteers of Ireland, were very
numerous, being about eighty thousand; and they had
been highly instrumental in putting down the unfortunate
insurrection of 1798. In addition to these, Ireland requir¬
ed a body of our regulars and militia amounting to nearly
fifty thousand men as a defence against invasion, a gua¬
rantee of public tranquillity, and a check on illicit distilla¬
tion and smuggling. The return yielded by Ireland in the
shape of revenue was small, but her supply of recruits to
our army and navy was very considerable.
The suspension of the habeas corpus act continued in
1805, a year remarkable as the first in which the Catholic
question was submitted to parliament. It was brought
forward in the Commons by Mr Fox, in the Peers by Lord
Grenville ; and curiosity w'as strongly excited in regard
to Mr Pitt, who had lately accepted office without carrying
his professed object, the grant of political privileges to
the Catholics. The minister, however, extricated himself
with address ; declaring that if his vote could give the Ca¬
tholics what they desired, they should not long want it, but
that at present the prevailing sentiment was against their
claims; and this, in fact, was sufficiently shown by the Regency,
division which ensued, and exhibited three hundred and
thirty-six votes against them, with only a hundred and
twenty-four in their favour. Next year the appointment
to office of Lord Grenville and Mr Fox raised high the
hopes of the Catholics ; but the known repugnance of the
sovereign to their claims induced these ministers to dis¬
suade a direct discussion of the question in parliament,
under an assurance that they would do whatever should
be otherwise practicable for obtaining the removal of dis¬
abilities. Hence the bill of February 1807, which caused
the dismissal of the Grenville ministry, and excited such
a ferment in England against the Catholics, as to render
it wholly unadvisable to bring forward the question for se¬
veral years.
In 1809 the Catholic committee in Dublin held public
meetings, but confined themselves to preparing a new pe¬
tition to parliament. Next year they went much farther,
and sought to assume an imposing attitude, proposing that
ten persons should be deputed by each county to Dublin,
and there form an assembly, charged not only with the
duty of preparing petitions to parliament, but of taking
measures for the redress of the general grievances of the
Catholic body. The secretary for Ireland, Mr Wellesley
Pole, alarmed at this design, addressed circular letters to
the sheriffs of counties, requiring them to prevent the elec¬
tion of the proposed delegates, and even to arrest all per¬
sons taking part in such elections. But this order appear¬
ed too peremptory to the opposition, and a debate took
place, in which Mr Wellesley Pole explained, that, so long
as the Catholics confined their proceedings to petitioning,
they had received no interruption ; but that the delegates
proposed to go much farther, and that a body, under the
name of a Committee of Grievances, had assembled week¬
ly in Dublin with all the forms of parliament. The house
supported the measure adopted by Mr Wellesley Pole,
and disapproved of the proceedings of the Catholics. Still
the latter deemed this session not unfavourable to the dis¬
cussion of their political claims, on account of the laurels
lately won by our armies in Spain and Portugal, which
counted many Catholics in their ranks. The question was
brought forward by Mr Grattan, but lost by a large ma¬
jority in both houses.
The same fate attended its discussion next spring.
Another year elapsed; and in the session of 1813 it was
brought forward with more combination and better pros¬
pects. Mr Grattan, supported by a part of the Cabinet,
obtained the assent of the house to several preliminary
resolutions; first, that the Catholic disabilities ought to
be removed; secondly, that the Catholic clergy should
bind themselves by oath to hold no correspondence with
Rome except on ecclesiastical business; and, thirdly, that
two commissioners should be appointed for examining into
the loyalty of persons recommended as deans or bishops
among the Catholics. The time occupied in these dis¬
cussions was considerable, and gave occasion to the Ca¬
tholic clergy in Ireland to testify their dissent from seve¬
ral of the provisions, particularly from that which restrict¬
ed their correspondence with Rome. The knowledge of
this dissatisfaction made a deep impression on parliament,
and gave a turn to the question which induced the sup¬
porters of the bill to withdraw it for that session.
The ensuing year unfortunately gave further evidence
of the want of temper and union among the Catholics.
The court of Rome recommended their acquiescence with
the propositions of Mr Grattan; but meetings of the Ca¬
tholic board at Dublin disclaimed indignantly all foreign
interference; and the clergy passed resolutions against the
appointment of any Catholic bishop by the British govern¬
ment. The intemperate proceedings of the Catholic board
BRITAIN.
625
Regency, now led government to dissolve that body, and declare its
meetings contrary to law.
1820. These dissensions prevented the question from being
submitted to parliament in 1814. Next year it was brought
forward by Sir Henry Parnell, not by Mr Grattan, who
declared that an unconditional grant of the demands of the
Catholics was not to be expected, and that, without culti¬
vating a spirit of conciliation, they never would succeed.
The motion was lost by a great majority. In 1816 it was
again brought before parliament, but in two distinct peti¬
tions, of which the more temperate, introduced by Mr
Grattan, received the support of a hundred and forty-one
against a hundred and seventy-two.
In the year 1817 the question was proposed by Mr
Grattan, with the same views as in 1813, and supported
by two hundred and twenty-one votes against two hundred
and forty-five. The disappointment caused by this failure
was soothed not only by the large minority, but by a very
substantial concession, obtained soon after, on the proposi¬
tion of ministers, namely, an act to enable Catholic officers
in the army and navy to attain rank nearly on the plan
proposed by the Grenville ministry in 1807. In 1818 the
Catholic question was not agitated; but in 1819 the tone
of that body having become more, conciliating, Mr Grat¬
tan’s motion for taking it into consideration was supported
by two hundred and forty-one votes against two hundred
and forty-three. Further details of the progress of this
great measure towards a successful conclusion will be given
in the course of the narrative.1
There is another subject which deserves a particular
notice in this place, more especially as it is connected with
an event of deep and lasting interest. We allude to re¬
form in the representation of the people. For several
years anterior to 1816, the question had been but little
agitated, and seemed to be abandoned to occasional de-
claimers and mere pot-house politicians. But the geneial
distress which prevailed during that and the. following
years, with the discontent consequent on the privations to
which the wmrking classes were exposed, redirected their
attention to a subject which they had too long lost sight
of; and as it seemed obvious that the pressure of taxation,
added to the evils occasioned by a transition from a state
of war to a state of peace, formed the principal obstacle to
the development of our resources, and the expansion of Regency,
the productive powers of industry, an opinion began to
gain ground among the people, that the evils under which
they suffered would never be materially mitigated, much
less effectually cured, until a reform had been effected in
our system of representation. One of the first symptoms
or manifestations of the revival of an interest in this ques¬
tion was afforded by the Spafields meeting, which took
place on the 2d December 1816 ; and although the tumult
and violence in which that assemblage issued produced
considerable alarm, and brought no little discredit on the
cause, yet the defeat of government in the state prosecu¬
tions which followed, the continued pressure of distress,
and, above all, the invincible truth that the people were in¬
adequately represented, and that they experienced many
of the evils of the worst government under one held forth
as the best, served to overcome every disadvantage, and
to keep alive the interest which had previously been ex¬
cited. The Spafields riots were soon forgotten; and al¬
though no overt manifestations of any consequence took
place during the two following years, still the conviction
of the necessity of parliamentary reform, continued to gain
ground, and the cause began to find advocates in quarters
where it had previously been regarded with indift.eience,
if not with aversion. Reformers, though agreed in prin¬
ciple, were indeed much divided in regaid to detail, or
rather as to the extent to which the principle ought to be
carried; and extreme doctrines began to be openly and
boldly promulgated by many persons, who about the year
1819 received the appellation of radical reformers, and
were at this time regarded with affected contempt, but
with real terror, by the partizans of the existing system.
But neither this diversity of views, nor the dread which
many persons entertained or pretended of radical theories,
retarded the progress of the cause, or prevented it from
daily gaining new converts. On the 12th of July 1819
Birmingham ventured on the bold experiment of electing
a legislatorial attorney to represent that great town in the
House of Commons; and on the 16th of August follow¬
ing took place that memorable meeting at Manchester,
already mentioned as accompanied with such disastrous
results. .
Such were the final acts of 1819, and of the reign of
1 The following table exhibits, in a synoptical form, the times and results of the parliamentary discussion of the Catholic Ques¬
tion from 1805 to 1819 inclusive.
1805  
1806  
1807-8-9 
1810 
1811 
1812, April 21..
July 1....
1813, Feb' 25...
March 9.
Mav 11..
  13..
  24..
1814.
1815.
1816.
1817.
1818.
1819.
House of Lords.
Motion for taking into consideration the Petition of the Irish Roman Catholics
Not brought forward, in consequence of Mr Fox’s advice.
Not brought forward.
Motion for a Committee of the whole House 
The same   
The same  
For taking it into consideration next year  
For a Committee of the whole House     
For leave to bring in a Bill for removing disqualifications, &c 
For a Select Committee * 
A Motion against the Bill negatived  
A Motion (by the Speaker) for omitting the words in the bill, 1 o sit and
vote in either House of Parliament” 
(Nut debated in the Lords this year.)
Not brought forward.
For a Committee of the whole House 
For consideration next year 
For a Committee of the whole House 
Not brought forward.
For a Committee of the whole House  
49
68
62
102
125
60
69
90
106
178
154
121
174
126
86
73
142
147
26
4
52
41
124
109
83
215
235
264
186
187
245
251
147
141
221
241
336
213
146
300
106
224
119
235
203
247
228
172
245
243
5?
212
104
63
85
129
40
67
48
42
4 K
V cm., r.
626
B R I T A I N.
Iteien of George III. The public conduct of this monarch, and the
George IV. tendency of the political principles by which it was govern-
—V"*-'' ed? the reader will judge of for himself, from the narra-
lyA'- tive of the events of his reign ; as to his private and do¬
mestic character, it is admitted on all hands to have been
highly respectable. He was distinguished for probity and
a sense of religious obligation ; in his habits and manners
he displayed equal moderation and simplicity; his dispo¬
sition, though unyielding, was benevolent; and both as a
husband and a parent he was highly estimable. His in¬
tellectual faculties, originally of no high order, were per¬
manently clouded by the constitutional malady which ex¬
hibited itself at an early period of his life ; he adhered
with invincible obstinacy to the maxims of government
instilled into his mind by his early instructors; and he
cherished an attachment to the church of which he was
the head, that amounted to a species of bigotry, if not
to fanaticism. Yet he loved and patronised the fine arts,
particularly music and painting; he collected a noble lib¬
rary ; he had a taste for agriculture and some of the me¬
chanic arts : and he was at once plain and unpretending
in his manners ; all which circumstances go very far in
the case of a king. Hunting and the penal laws against
the Catholics formed the things which, next to his own
family, he was most attached to ; and his scruples of con¬
science long stood in the way of national justice.
CHAP. XX.
REIGN OF GEORGE IV.
Accession of George IV.—Assembling of Parliament—Message
from the King—Debates—Parliament dissolved—Cato Street
Conspiracy Thistlewood and his Accomplices seized, convict¬
ed, and executed Disc n tent.—Fomented by Government
Spies.—Severe Measures The Queen—Aversion of the King.
—She Lands at Dover—Message from the King respecting
the Conduct of the Queen—Bill of Pains and Penalties intro¬
duced Proceedings thereupon—Bill of Pains and Penalties
thrown out Scene in the House of Commons—Character of
the Proceedings against the Queen—State of the Country.—
General Distress Parliamentary Proceedings—Grampound
Disfranchisement Bill—Droits of the Admiralty—Brougham’s
Education Scheme—Excitement connected with the Queen’s
Case Parliamentary Session of 1821—Proceedings—Circular
Dispatch to our Missions Abroad—Earl Grey’s Motion-
Other Proeeedings connected with it.—Motion relative to the
Declaration issued by the Congress of Laybach—Internal Af¬
fairs Mr Plunkett’s Motion"for a Committee on the Catholic
Question carried Resolutions adopted—Bills brought in—
Consolidated into one Passed by the Commons—Thrown out
in the Lords Parliamentary Reform—Mr Lambton’s Scheme.
 Defeated by a manoeuvre—Resolutions proposed by Lord
John Russell Other Projects—Grampound disfranchised—
Mr Hume’s efforts in favour of Retrenchment—Attempts to
humanize the Criminal Code defeated—Constitutional Asso¬
ciation Distress of the Agricultural and Manufacturing Po¬
pulation Consequent Proceedings in Parliament—Corona¬
tion Death of Queen Caroline—State of Affairs at the com¬
mencement of 1822 Session cf Parliament—Ireland—Insur¬
rection Act, and Suspension of Habeas Corpus—Other Mea¬
sures of Severity Insurrectionary Spirit unsubdued—Unpo¬
pularity of the Lord-Lieu ten ant—Reform—Lord John Rus¬
sell’s Motion Mr Brougham’s proposed Resolution respecting
the Influence of the Crown..—Burgh Reform—Mr Canning’s
Bill for the Admission of Catholic Peers passed by the Com¬
mons but thrown out in the Lords—Finance—Retrenchment.
—Reduction of the Navy Five per Cents—Scheme concerning
the Naval and Military Pensions carried, but rendered abortive.
—Measures for the Relief of the existing Distress—Commercial
Affairs—Repeal of the Navigation Laws.—Death of Lord Lon¬
donderry—Changes in the Administration—New Government.
—Reform—Continental Relations Congress of Verona—Af¬
fairs of Spain—French Invasion and Overthrow of the Consti¬
tution—Appointment of Commercial Agents to the New South
American States..—Financial Operations.—Reduction of Taxes. Reign of
—Sir James Mackintosh’s Resolutions—Acts for the Amend- George IV
ment of the Criminal Law Ireland Catholic Claims—Colo-
nial Affairs—Resolutions in regard to the Treatment of Slaves.— 1820.
Government Circular—Character of Mr Canning’s Policy—
Independence of the South American States recognised—Mea¬
sures for unfettering Commercial Intercourse—Combination
Laws repealed—Other Measures of a similar kind.—Recipro¬
city System—Legal Reform—Finanical Arrangements—Ire¬
land The Catholic Association—The Catholic Rent—Con¬
duct of the West India Planters—Proceedings in Canada and
at the Cape of Good Hope—Domestic Affairs—Meeting of
Parliament Catholic Association—Bill for suppressing it.-—
Debates on this subject—Association reconstituted—Bill for
the Relief of the Catholics introduced—Two subordinate Bills.
 Declaration of the Duke of York—The Bill passed by the
Commons, but thrown out in the Lords.—State of Ireland—
Report of the Committee of the Lords—Other Proceedings—
Bill for the Protection of Masters and Workmen against Com¬
binations Modification of the Colonial System carried by Mr
Huskisson Details—Reduction of Taxation—Consequences
of Excessive Speculation of 1825—General Panic and Distress.
 Affairs off 826 Meeting of Parliament—State of the Coun¬
try Measures for alleviating the general Distress—Small
Note Circulation.—Opposition of Scotland to the Destruction
of its Small Note Currency—Successful.—Branch Banks esta¬
blished Advances on Deposits of Goods and other Securities.
 Discussions as to the Cause of the late Panic—Emigration
Committee.—Petitions from the Silk Manufacturers and Ship¬
owners Mr Huskisson’s triumphant Reply—System of Free
Trade Budget Discussion thereon—Termination of the
Burmese War Origin and Progress of this Contest—Dissolu¬
tion of Parliament—General Election—Effects produced in
Ireland by the Catholic Association—Deficient Crop—Scar¬
city Order in Council for relieving the Distress—Meeting
of Parliament Lord Liverpool struck with Apoplexy—Mr
Canning’s Interviews with the King—He receives the Royal
Commands to reconstruct a Cabinet—Consequent Negociations.
 Combination against Mr Canning—Cabinet formed—Mr
Canning joined by the Whigs—His Ministry irresistible—
Mr Canning’s Death His Character as an Orator and States¬
man Succeeded by Lord Goderich—Dissolution of his Go¬
vernment Parliamentary Session of 1826-27—Corn Laws—
Resolutions New Bill passed by the Commons—Abandoned
in consequence of the Duke of Wellington’s Amendment in the
Lords A temporary Bill passed—Other Questions—Inter¬
ference in behalf of Portugal—Catholic Emancipation—Lost
by a Majority of four Duke of Wellington’s Administration.
—Dismission of Mr Huskisson—Foreign Policy of Britain—
State of our Relations with other Powers—Portugal—Greece.
 Turkey Treaty of London—Consequent Interference in
the Contest between the Ottoman Porte and the Greeks—Battle
of Navarino—Results of this Action—Expressions applied to
it by the New Cabinet Finance Committee—Government
Annuities Error in regard to them—Settlement of the Corn
Laws by Compromise—State of the Common Law Courts—
Efforts of Mr Brougham—Repeal of the Corporation and Test
Acts Sir F. Burdett’s Motion on the Catholic Claims carried
by a Majority of six Motion in the Lords to concur in the
Resolution of the Commons negatived—Proceedings of the Ca¬
tholics Mr Fitzgerald defeated in Clare—Mr O’Connell re¬
turned for Clare Re-assembling of the Catholic Association
in its original form—Proceedings—Pledges to be proposed to
Candidates Party Feuds among the Peasantry hushed—
Clubs General Organization—Mr Dawson’s Speech at Der¬
ry Protestant Ascendency—Measures—Orange Lodges—
Brunswick Clubs Divisions in the Cabinet on the Catholic
Question Opposition of the King.—Duke of Wellington s
Letter to Dr Curtis Recall of the Marquis of Anglesey—
Meeting of Parliament.—Catholic Question recommended in the
Speech from the Throne Catholic Association denounced—
Bill introduced for putting it down—Association dissolves it¬
self. Bill passed.—Committee on the Civil Disabilities affect¬
ing Catholics—Mr Peel’s Speech in proposing it—Nature of
the Measure proposed for the relief of the Catholics. Charac¬
ter of the Debates—Large Majority in the Committee—Dis¬
cussion in the Lords—Relative Division in 1828 and 1829—
Royal Assent given to the Relief Bill—Disfranchisement of the
Irish Forty-shilling Freeholders—Injustice of this Measure—
Parliament prorogued—State of the Country—Character of
the Administration Parliamentary Reform—Assembling of
Parliament in 1831) Sir James Graham’s Resolution-
-Va-
BRITAIN.
627
Reign of rious Motions and Proceedings.—Cry for Reform daily in-
George IV. creasing—Death and Character of George the Fourth.
George III. closed his career on the 29th of January
1820. He had been so long withdrawn from the eyes of
the world, that the event could scarcely be called the ter¬
mination of a reign. The prince who succeeded him on
the throne had virtually discharged all the offices of king
for nearly eight years. The same line of policy continued
to be persevered in, as nearly as events permitted; the
same ministers continued to manage the affairs of state ;
the prosperity of the country received no sudden shock nor
increase ; and public opinion went on to form itself, with¬
out experiencing any sudden impulse. The customary
bell, which announced by its monotonous clang that a king
had been gathered to his fathers ; the sorrow, real or af¬
fected, of personal friends ; a slight alteration in the tenor
of writs ; and some unimportant changes in the arrange¬
ments of office, were the only indications that a new reign
had commenced.
The ministers, as a matter of form, resigned their places
the day after the death of the old king, but were all of
them immediately reinstated. It is the law and custom of
the country, that if no parliament be in existence at the
death of the king, the last immediately revives, and con¬
tinues to sit for six months, unless dissolved at an earlier
period by the new monarch. If a parliament, however, be
in existence but not sitting at the time, it assembles with
the least possible delay. The House of Commons met, on
the present occasion, about noon of the 31st of January,
and the Lords a little later in the same day. At this
meeting no business was transacted beyond the simple
ceremony of taking the oaths of allegiance. Some addi¬
tional members were sworn next day, when the house ad¬
journed till the 17th of February. This was done in con¬
formity with the uniform practice of parliament on the
demise of a king to suspend its operations until after the
funeral.
On the day appointed both houses again met; and by
this time ministers had fully resolved upon the course they
were to pursue. Messages from the king were presented
by Lord Liverpool to the Peers, and by Lord Castlereagh
to the Commons. The tenor of both was the same. The
king felt persuaded that the House of Lords, and his faith¬
ful Commons, sympathized with the late loss which he and
the nation had sustained. He reminded them that the
melancholy event imposed upon him the necessity of sum¬
moning a new parliament within a limited period ; intimat¬
ed his opinion, that in the present state of public sentiment
it was expedient to take this step without delay; and re¬
commended to the Commons to adopt, and to the Lords
to concur in, such measures as might be found necessary
to provide for the public exigencies during the interval
which must elapse between the dissolution of the old and
the opening of a new parliament.
The reasons assigned by ministers for thus precipitat¬
ing the assembling of a new parliament w'ere in themselves
quite satisfactory. The quantity of business before the
legislative bodies was so great, that it could not possibly
be completed within the prescribed period. The assizes
would take place during its continuance, and render the
absence of many members necessary ; while the cares and
bustle of an approaching election would distract the at¬
tention of all. Notwithstanding the weight of these argu¬
ments, the opposition discovered, or affected to discover,
another reason for the resolution which had been taken of
dissolving parliament immediately. Ihe unpardonable as¬
sault upon the people at Manchester during the preceding
year, and the subsequent policy of ministers, had deeply
exasperated a large body of the lower orders; and the
violence of their language had added to the ministerial Reign of
party, already numerous among the wealthier portion of George ^IV.
the community, all the timid and wavering adherents of
opposition. That party saw, therefore, in the attempt to
precipitate a general election, the desire of ministry to
obtain a parliament returned at a moment when the influ¬
ence of fear had materially swelled their majority, and se¬
cured, by the prospect of a long career, against that popu¬
lar influence which uniformly exercises greater control
over the members in proportion as an appeal to their
constituents approaches.
In the desultory opposition, however, which was offered
to the course recommended in the king’s message, Mr
Brougham was the only speaker who ventured to take this
ground. The rest of his party, both in the Lords and the
Commons, discussed the question as one of form and pri¬
vilege. Lords Lansdown, Grosvenor, and Carnarvon, in
the upper house, and Mr Tierney in the lower, while
they admitted the dissolution of parliament to be regu¬
lar and constitutional, objected to the recommendation to
provide for it, as savouring of dictation, and infringing the
liberty of the legislature. The ministerial party, however,
strengthened as it had been by its accession of numbers,
was too strong to be resisted. Bills were introduced, con¬
tinuing the mutiny act and the marine mutiny act until the
24th of June. Certain sums of money were voted towards
defraying the expenses of the army and the extraordinary
civil charges. And in addition to these, two hundred
thousand pounds were granted “ towards satisfying such
annuities, pensions, or other payments, as would have
been payable out of the consolidated fund of Great Bri¬
tain, or out of the civil list, in case the demise of his late
majesty had not taken place before the 5th of April 1820.”
This grant is in no other way remarkable than as having
afforded the first opportunity of introducing a discussion
which was destined to engross almost the whole atten¬
tion of parliament during that year. The opposition, un¬
derstanding that in this sum of two hundred thousand the
queen’s allowance was included, made a stand to have an
express provision made for her. The resolutions were,
however, agreed to without any alteration in their form.
When carried to the House of Lords, they experienced
some further opposition from Lord Lauderdale, on the
plea that the power which had been assumed by the
House of Commons, of appropriating the supplies and au¬
thorizing the payment of pensions otherwise than by the
constitutional method of passing the appropriation bill, was
an infringement on their lordships’ privileges. This diffi¬
culty was met by Lord Liverpool, who moved an amend¬
ment, “ that this house, from the state of public business,
acquiesce in the resolutions of the Commons, although no
act may be passed to give them effect.” These necessary
arrangements having been completed, parliament was dis¬
solved in the usual form on the 29th of February, and a
new one summoned to meet on the 23d of April.
In the mean time government was beginning to learn
by experience the effects of attempting to repress by ar¬
bitrary enactments the public expression of popular feel¬
ing, in the growth of those dark and sanguinary plots
which are ever the consequence of violent attempts to
stifle complaint. Arthur Thistle wood, a man of respec¬
table connections, and originally of some property, but
who, b}r his own profligate habits, had been reduced to a
state of abject poverty, entered into a conspiracy, with a
few others of like desperate fortunes, to overturn the
government. Thistlewood’s plan was to seize the oppor¬
tunity of the late king’s funeral, when it was expected
that all the military would be engaged at Windsor, to make
themselves masters of London, and plunder the shops.
Having, by the license they held out, attracted a sufficient
Ji
623
BRITAIN.
Iteign of force of the needy and discontented to rally round them,
GeorgeIV.be proposed to establish a provisional government, ai
  v—/ send to*the sea-ports, to prevent all gentlemen from leaving
1820. England without passports. The more sanguinary brutality
of his uneducated companions in part overruled him. It
was resolved to assassinate the ministers, when assembled
at a cabinet dinner at Lord Harrowby’s. While one party
effected the massacre, others were to seize the two pieces
of cannon in Gray?s-inn Lane, and the six pieces in the
artillery ground. Emissaries at Hyde Park were to in¬
tercept any messenger dispatched to Windsor. A body
of conspirators were to cross the Thames and take the
telegraph, to prevent any communication with Woolwich.
The Mansion House was fixed upon as the seat of the
provisional government. A few disbanded soldiers had
been induced to join in the plot; a motley assortment of
arms had been provided; and proclamations were wutten
out in the name of the provisional government, for the
purpose of being stuck up on the walls. _
The conspirators were as deficient in caution as then
plot was in any reasonable likelihood of success. They
were surprised in the garret or hay-loft in Cato Street
where their meetings were held, on the evening ot the
23d of February, the same on which the massacre of the
ministers was to have been perpetrated. After a despe¬
rate resistance, in which one police-officer was killed, and
several severely wounded, the greater part of the band
were apprehended. Thistlewood and some otheis were
not secured till next day. A few of the more cowardly
turned king’s evidence, and the guilt of the conspiratois
was clearly established. Five of them, Thistlewood the
originator of the plot, Brunt his lieutenant, Ings, who was
to have been secretary to the provisional government,
Tidd, and Davidson, a man of colour, were ordered for
execution, and suffered the penalty annexed to treason
on the 29th of April.
The most diligent inquiries of government could not
discover any ramifications of the plot. Every thing that
has since transpired strengthens the belief that these des¬
peradoes stood alone. Thistlewood had, a short time be¬
fore his arrestment, made a tour through the manufactut-
ing districts of England and Scotland. I here can be
no doubt that he had endeavoured to engage the radical
party in some undertaking equally violent with that for
which he suffered, but more extensive. About the close
of 1819, or early in 1820, a messenger was dispatched to
Thistlewood from Leeds, to assure him that he need look
for no assistance from the country in his attempt. Ihe
opinion of his want of success in the attempt to stir up the
working classes to co-operate with him, is further coirobo-
rated by the coarse manner in which he affirmed to one
of his associates, that “ no one who was worth ten pounds
was worth any thing for the good of this country.
Still, although even the discontented portion of the com¬
munity turned with disgust from projects of assassination,
there was much in the disposition of the lower orders to
afford grounds for apprehension to the ministers under
whose auspices Castlereagh’s acts had been introduced
and passed into a law. Throughout the manufacturing
districts the working classes were associated in unions.
The writer of this sketch remembers in the autumn of the
preceding year to have accidentally overheard a discus¬
sion held by a pretty numerous body of weavers in the
neighbourhood of Glasgow. The prevailing sentiment
seemed to be, that the interests ot the rich were diame¬
trically opposed to those of the poor; and the conviction
was pretty generally expressed, that a time was near at
hand when the relative positions of the parties would be
inverted. In this state of affairs spies were liberally dis¬
persed through the disaffected districts ; and these men,
whether with or without the encouragement of ministers, Reign of
endeavoured to break the force of public discontent by ^eorge^.
encouraging partial explosions. In the course of the
month of March, inconsiderable bodies of the people rose
in arms in Lanarkshire and Yorkshire. These demonstra¬
tions, by alarming the holders of property, attached them
more firmly to government. The punishment of the in¬
surgents cast a damp over the spirits of the disaffected ;
and, to strengthen the impression, the most severe mea¬
sure authorized by the late law's was likewise awarded to
every man who expressed in strong language his disappro¬
bation of the policy of ministers.
The events to which we have hitherto adverted served
either to indicate the strength of the ministry or to in¬
crease it. The elections to the new parliament left them
much in the same position in which they were at the dis¬
solution of the old. But a discussion was impending over
them, which threatened to task their powers to the utmost.
The dispute between the Prince and Princess of Wales
was a matter of very secondary importance compared with
that between the king and queen of England. Ihe hatred
which George IV. entertained for his consort was invincible.
He had relinquished his early principles and most inti¬
mate friends, rather than struggle with a party which he
found firmly established in power; he had conformed to
the system of policy they had adopted, without suggesting
one modification ; he was contented that the course of
national exertions should be controlled and guided by other
minds ; but his passive disposition left him the moment
the question was urged of conceding even the external
resemblance of respect to the queen. Her name was
omitted in the liturgy; the utmost anxiety was displayed
to avoid, if possible, making any parliamentary provision
for her as queen ; the common civility of announcing to
her the death of her father-in-law, who was moreover her
blood relation, was not observed ; and she was given to un¬
derstand, that if she attempted to return to England, she
would be instantly visited with a bill of pains and penal¬
ties. But her majesty stood upon her rights ; and after se¬
veral ineffectual negociations on the part of those friends
of the royal disputants, who feared the consequences ot a
public agitation of the question at issue between them,
she landed at Dover in the month of June. Her journey
to London was a triumphant progress ; and her reception
there by the populace most enthusiastic.
On the 6th of June, the Earl of Liverpool in the Peers,
and Lord Castlereagh in the Commons, presented a mes¬
sage from the king, recommending to the immediate at¬
tention of these bodies “ certain papers respecting the
conduct of her majesty since her departure from the coun¬
try.” The Lords, after slight discussion, referred the com¬
munication to a secret committee. The same course was
adopted by the Commons, but after a more violent debate.
Her majesty’s friends had in that house touched upon the
subject even before the dissolution of the old parliament.
Lord Archibald Hamilton had complained of the uncon¬
stitutional dictation to the church of Scotland on the point
of praying for the queen. The resolutions by which a tem¬
porary supply was voted to the king had not been allowed
to pass without the question being asked, in what manner
the interests of the queen were to be secured. Now t e
storm burst in its full strength on the heads of min ste s.
Not a few members declared, that without examining wit¬
nesses, they were convinced of her majesty s innocence y
the line of conduct which the government had pursued.
The guilt or innocence of Queen Caroline is a question
of very subordinate importance in an outline like the pre¬
sent. It deserves attention merely because of the influence
it exerted upon the public mind, and its effects upon the
subsequent course of events. Now that the excitement of
BRITAIN.
629
1820.
lleign of the contest has subsided, few, we believe, would assert her
George IV. innocence ; but if ever suspicious conduct was susceptible
of an apology, it was in her case. Viewed as a private in¬
dividual, the king had no right to complain of her behaviour.
The allegation that the honour of the country was at stake,
was a transparent disguise, through which his obstinate
indulgence of a private pique, at the hazard of national
tranquillity, was clearly discernible ; whilst the ministers,
who endeavoured to gratify the royal antipathy, sunk in the
estimation of the country. And that this was the feel¬
ing of the wealthy, as it was of the poorer classes, is evi¬
dent from the narrow majorities which an administration
so strong on every other question commanded in behalf
of their bill against the queen. _
A brief sketch of the proceedings in the House of Lords
will suffice to show the character of the prosecution. On
the 5th of July Lord Liverpool presented a bill of pains
and penalties against the queen. Her petition to be heard
by counsel was presented the same evening, and refused.
On the 6th her majesty again petitioned the house, re¬
questing, that if their Lordships were resolved to refuse
her a hearing at that stage, and likewise to refuse a list
of the witnesses to be adduced against her, they would at
least allow her counsel to state at their bar the nature of
her claims. This request was in so far complied with, that
Messrs Brougham and Denman were heard relative to the
mode and manner of the proceedings to be had upon the
bill, and the time when these proceedings should take
place. Their arguments were ineffectual. A list of wit¬
nesses was refused. The bill was ordered to be read a
second time, and evidence to be led during its second
reading. The proceedings commenced on the 17th of
August, and were continued, with scarcely any intermis¬
sion, till the 4th of November. On that day the Lords
resolved that the bill should be read a second time, by a
majority of twenty-eight, in a house of two hundred and
eighteen. The divorce clause was warmly attacked in the
committee, but finally retained by a majority of sixty-
seven in a house of a hundred and ninety-one. When
their Lordships came to divide upon the question of the
third reading, it was still carried in the affiimative, a hun¬
dred and eight voting for, and ninety-nine against it. Lord
Liverpool immediately announced, that, looking to the
narrow majority and the temper of the country, he had
come to the determination not to proceed further with the
measure. He accordingly moved that the bill do pass that
day six months. , , , , ,
During the trial repeated attempts had been made by
the House of Commons to put a stop to the proceedings.
Ministers, unable to parry the reiterated and vehement at¬
tacks directed against them, had recourse to repeated ad¬
journments. No sooner had the bill been thrown out than
the House of Lords adjourned to the 23d of November, to
which day the House of Commons at that time also stood
adjourned. There was a call of the house for that day,
and Mr Brougham having communicated to the speaker
that a message would be sent down from the queen, sug¬
gested at the same time his taking the chair at one o’clock,
in order that there might be an opportunity of receiving the
message before the meeting of the Lords. At one o’clock
about a hundred members, chiefly of the opposition party,
were present, but the speaker did not appear. He was un-
derstood to be closeted with Lord Castlereagh. At length
he entered the house, and exactly at two the reading of
prayers concluded. Mr Denman immediately rose and an¬
nounced that he held in his hand amessage which tlie queen
had commanded him to present to the house. Lefoie le
could proceed the deputy usher of the black rod entered.
His appearance was the signal for uproar. “ Mr Den¬
man !” “ Withdraw !” were vociferated from fifty throats.
The usher summoned the house to attend the lords com- Reign of
missioners in the House of Peers. Amid the sunounding eoige
clamour he was inaudible; nevertheless the speaker rose,
and, accompanied by Lord Castlereagh and the chancellor
of the exchequer, followed, amid cries of “ Shame ! both
from the opposition and ministerial members. The speaker
on his return declared the house adjourned to the 23d of
January.
Respecting the rank injustice of the proceedings against
the queen there cannot now be two opinions. She was
attacked by an anomalous procedure, which was neither
trial nor bill of divorce, fhe pains and penalties inflicted
by the bill were such as could not have been extended to
any other English subject. The law of England guarded
every other woman in the kingdom against such a mea¬
sure. Again, by adopting the mode of procedure by bill, her
prosecutors escaped the necessity of furnishing her with a
list of witnesses, and thus crippled her defence. Lastly,
by allowing the measure to drop after the third reading
had been carried, the ministers clearly established that the
personal degradation of the queen was all they sought for,
and that the vindication of the national honour was a mere
pretext. In what other instance was that iron administra¬
tion known to pause out of respect to public opinion ? The
effect of the proceedings upon the power of the ministry
was twofold. It distracted the attention of the country
for a time, and men ceased to brood so incessantly over
their distress ; but, on the other hand, it swelled the ranks
of opposition, and embittered its tone of feeling.
Amid these stormy discussions, in which the remotest
districts keenly participated, the more vital interests of
the country were comparatively neglected. Still the uni¬
versal stagnation of business, and the consequent suffering
of all classes, did not admit of their being entirely neglect¬
ed. A petition from the merchants of London, presented
by Mr Baring, elicited an animated and instructive dis¬
cussion of the causes and remedies of mercantile distress,
but without leading to any result. The subject was re¬
sumed on the 11th, when a petition was presented from
Birmingham, but with as little effect. On the 16th Lord
Stanhope called the attention of the Lords to the distress
of the working classes, and moved for a committee “ to
inquire into the best means of giving employment to the
poor, especially in the manufacturing districts.” Lord Li¬
verpool exposed in the most lucid manner the visionary
nature of the schemes suggested by Lord Stanhope, and
the motion was negatived without a division. The Mar¬
quis of Lansdown’s motion on the 26th, for a committee
to inquire into the means of extending the foreign com¬
merce of the country, which was agreed to, drew from
Lord Liverpool an exposition of his views of commercial
policy. He insisted upon the necessity of adopting a com¬
prehensive system, and adhering to it; remaiked that the
fewer laws there were, the better; disapproved of the views
adopted by those who represented the interests of the
farmer and the manufacturer as adverse; and, after pro¬
pounding many excellent principles, and protesting against
their practical application, came to the conclusion that there
was no harm in inquiry, but great danger in action. On
the motion of Mr Baring, a similar committee was appoint¬
ed by the Commons on the 5th of June. The first report
of Lord Lansdown’s committee was presented on the 3d
of July. It was confined to an inquiry into the state of
the timber trade, and an investigation of the means of its
improvement. A motion made by Lord Milton the same
evening in the House of Commons, for repealing the duty
on the importation of foreign wool, was negatived without
a division.
The distress was not confined to the manufacturers ; for
the table of the House of Commons groaned beneath a
I
630
BRITAIN.
Reign of load of agricultural petitions. Mr Holme Sumner moved,
George IV. on the 30th of May, that they be referred to a select com-
mittee to examine and report on them. The interests of
1820, the country gentlemen were at stake, and, notwithstand¬
ing the earnest opposition of ministers, a majority of twen¬
ty-nine determined in favour of a committee. Mr Baring
moved an adjournment of the house, in order that the
committee might be appointed at a time when there was
a full attendance. Mr Robinson (president of the board
of trade) proposed next evening, with a view to neutralize
the effect of Mr Sumner’s motion, that the labours of the
committee should be restricted to devising means for the
prevention of frauds in striking the averages under the
corn laws of 1815. This motion was carried by a majority
of a hundred and twenty-three. When Mr H. Sumner
presented the report of the committee on the 8th of July,
he complained of the narrow limits within which the in¬
quiries of the committee had been restricted, and express¬
ed his conviction, that unless much more was done for the
agricultural interest, the difficulties under which it labour¬
ed must ultimately prove overwhelming. Mr Western
added, that the committee had recommended a new mode
of taking the averages, but that it was one which would
rather facilitate than retard the opening of the ports.
The only other important discussions in parliament dur¬
ing this agitated year regarded parliamentary and finan¬
cial reform, and the education of the poor. To the first-
mentioned head belongs the fate of a bill passed by the
Commons for suspending the issue of writs to four boroughs
convicted of corrupt practices, and which was allowed to
fall to the ground in the Lords, not having reached a se¬
cond reading at the time when parliament was dissolved.
Lord John Russell’s bill for the disfranchisement of Gram-
pound was read the first and second time on the 9th and
17th of May. Lord Castlereagh and Mr Canning attack¬
ed with much inveteracy the clause which proposed to
transfer the franchise to the town of Leeds, on the ground
that this would be “ to admit all that had been urged on
the question of parliamentary reform.” On the 25th of
May Lord Archibald Hamilton called the attention of the
house to the absurd and unjust system by which, in Scot¬
land, the right of voting had been detached from the pos¬
session of the soil. He intimated an intention of submit¬
ting a measure to restore the franchise to the real land-
owners, continuing their votes to all such as now possessed
them. Under the head of finance we may class the attack
made by Mr Brougham on the droits of admiralty. In
an eloquent speech he demonstrated that the property
claimed in that fund by the crown was unwarranted by the
constitution; dangerous to the liberties of the subject, since
parliament had no control over it; an inducement to the
piratical commencement of hostilities, without a declara¬
tion of war ; and burdensome in the highest degree. Mr
Canning spoke at great length, but adduced only one ar¬
gument. “ The system of the civil list was more adapted
to a monarchical constitution than that of the American
government could be; and he would not be induced by
any pecuniary temptation to the sovereign, to strip off
trappings which were neither costly to the people nor
dangerous to the constitution.” Sir James Mackintosh
and other eminent members of the opposition argued on Mr
Brougham’s side of the question at great length; but the
only other speaker of the ministerial party was the chan¬
cellor of the exchequer, who contented himself with point¬
ing out some discrepancies of opinion among his antago¬
nists. Mr Brougham’s motion was lost by a majority of a
hundred and eighteen.
We have now arrived at the last topic which we indi¬
cated as having in the course of the year 1820 occupied
the attention of the House of Commons. On the 28th
of June Mr Brougham moved for leave to bring in a bill Reign of^
for the better education of the poor in England and Wales. George^LV.
He stated that there were, in the endowed and unen-
dowed schools of England, means of educating six hun¬
dred and fifty-five thousand children; and that taking the
whole children of the kingdom as one ninth or one tenth
of the population, this provision would suffice for no more
than one fourteenth or one fifteenth of their number. But
from this six hundred and fifty-five thousand were to
be deducted thirty-three thousand who were at dames’
schools, where they learnt next to nothing; a deduction
which would reduce the number educated to one sixteenth.
Previous to the establishment of schools under the Bell
and Lancaster system, it was only one twentieth. There
were three thousand five hundred parishes in England
without schools. The proportion educated varied in the
different counties from one forty-sixth to one eighth. It
was found that crime kept pace with the want of educa¬
tion. Mr Brougham’s bill embraced four objects;—the
foundation of schools; the appointment and removal of
masters ; the admission of scholars ; and the improvement
of the old education endowments. According to the ratio
of schools in the county of Devon, the total outfit would be
eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds; according to that
of Cumberland, only four hundred thousand pounds. The
annual expense might average a hundred thousand pounds.
The motion having been agreed to, Mr Brougham brought
in his bill on the 8th of July.
During the closing months of the year the queen con¬
tinued the great object of attention, and the press labour¬
ed incessantly to keep up the excitement. The Whigs
and reformers, encouraged by the popular feeling which
was thus excited against ministers, again put themselves
in motion. Meetings were held in different parts of the
country, at which strong resolutions were adopted respect¬
ing the necessity of a reform in parliament. In this tem¬
per of the country the legislative session of 1821 com¬
menced on the 23d of January.
The opening speech from the throne was eminently
vague and unsatisfactory. The only allusion to the revo¬
lutions in Spain, Portugal, and Naples, consisted of an as¬
surance that the country continued at peace with foreign
powers, and an expressed determination, should the events
in Italy lead to hostilities, to preserve this country from
participation in them. The truth was, that Lord Castle¬
reagh had committed himself with the allied sovereigns
more than the spirit of the country could tolerate; and the
only course left open for ministers was, to profess a strict
neutrality, even between opposing principles. About the
opening of the session a circular dispatch to his majesty s^
ministers at different courts, disavowing, on the part of
Great Britain, any participation in the plans of the allies,
dated the 19th of January 1821, was communicated to
both houses. This document was by no means satisfac¬
tory to the opposition. Lord Grey moved, on the 19th of
February, for the production of all the communications be¬
tween the British government and that of Naples relative
to the late occurrences in that kingdom. Ihe noble earl
maintained that “ England, by assuming the tone of neu¬
trality at the moment she did, gave her tacit approbation
to the conductof Austria.” The ministers asserted the right
of an independent nation to regulate its own government,
but admitted the case of Naples to be an exception. The
Earl of Liverpool affirmed, that the document already sub¬
mitted to the house afforded sufficient evidence of the good
faith of government towards Naples; and the motion was
ultimately negatived without a division. Loid Giey s mo¬
tion was followed up by one on the part of Lord Lansdown
on the 2d of March. His lordship proposed to thank the
king for laying before the house copies of the dispatch to
BRITAIN.
631
Iteign of his majesty’s ministers at foreign courts; to express the sa-
George IV. tisfaction felt by the house at his majesty’s refusing to par-
ticipate in the designs of the allied sovereigns; and to in-
1821‘ timate its earnest hope that his majesty would exert his
influence with the allied powers to prevent or repair the
consequences of measures which might eventually disturb
the tranquillity of Europe, and which threatened the inde ¬
pendence of sovereigns and the security of nations. Lord
Liverpool condemned the principles of the allies; but
maintained that England had no right to prescribe a rule
of conduct to Austria, and that it was unwise to remon¬
strate when we were not prepared to enforce our sugges¬
tions by arms. The result of the debate was a majority of
forty-seven in favour of ministers. A like series of hostile
attacks were made almost simultaneously upon ministers
in the House of Commons. The motion of Sir James Mac¬
kintosh for the papers called for by Lord Grey was made
and negatived on the 21st of February. The only novelty
in the ministerial defence was Lord Castlereagh’s asser¬
tion, that the declaration emitted by the allied sovereigns
assembled at Troppau did not contain their final deter¬
mination. The event has not borne his lordship out in
this assertion. The motion was negatived by a consider¬
able majority. The pretext laid hold of for resuming the
discussion in the Commons differed from that of Lord
Lansdown. Sir Robert Wilson moved, on the 20th of
March, for the production of a letter from the English am¬
bassador Sir William A’Court to the Neapolitan minister for
foreign affairs, in which it was declared that England in¬
tended to remain neutral, unless interference “ should be
rendered indispensable by any personal insults or danger
to which the royal family may be exposed.” Sir Robert
maintained that the right claimed to interfere if the royal
family of Naples were exposed to personal insult or dan¬
ger, was incompatible with the rights of independent na¬
tions. Ministers contended that the interpretation of Sir
William A’Court’s letter was strained and unjust. The
motion was subsequently withdrawn. Here the matter rest¬
ed till after the breaking up of the congress of Laybach.
The final declaration of its members, that “ useful or ne¬
cessary changes in legislation, and in the administration
of states, ought only to emanate from the free will, the
intelligent and well-weighed conviction of those whom
God hath rendered responsible for power,”—and that they
regarded “ as legally null, and as disavowed by the prin¬
ciples which constitute the public right of Europe, all pre¬
tended reforms operated by revolt and open hostility,”—
was regarded by the whole English nation as directly con¬
demnatory of its constitution, and subversive of the inde¬
pendence of all nations. Mr Hutchinson attacked minis¬
ters on the 20th of June for their tame acquiescence in
the monstrous doctrines promulgated by the despots of the
Continent, and proposed an address to the throne, calling
upon the king to assume an attitude of more determined
opposition to the introduction of new principles into the
laws of nations, which, if acted upon, “ would not only
prevent the establishment of all rational liberty, but tend
to render perpetual despotisms of the worst kind.” The
motion was negatived by a large majority, on the ground
that the circular of the 19th of January sufficiently ex¬
pressed the views entertained on these points by the Eng¬
lish nation. A yet stronger indication of the feeling of
the country on this point was given to ministers next day,
when one of their most influential and strenuous support¬
ers, Mr Stuart Wortley, in moving for copies of the declara¬
tion issued by the courts of Russia, Prussia, and Austria,
and of the circular dispatch published at Laybach on the
12th of May 1821, called upon the house to express strong¬
ly and markedly its disapprobation of the principles ad¬
vanced in these documents. Lord Londonderry (Lord
Castlereagh had by this time succeeded, on the death of Reign of
his father, to the paternal title) opposed to this motion
his never-failing answer, that it was unnecessary. “ The
declaration of the 19th of January had announced to the
world our dissent from the principles acted upon at Trop¬
pau and Laybach, and no good could result from engag¬
ing in a war of state papers.” Mr Wortley’s motion was
accordingly negatived. The only other discussions re¬
specting the foreign policy of Britain which occurred du¬
ring the year 1821 were, an address from both houses of
parliament to the throne on the state of the slave-trade,
agreed to without the sanction of ministers, but likewise
without any active opposition on their part; and Mr Hume’s
motion for inquiry into the conduct of Sir Thomas Mait¬
land, the lord high commissioner of the Ionian Islands,
which was negatived.
The speech glanced at the internal affairs of the nation
in a manner quite as unsatisfactory as that in which it
treated foreign relations.' Several branches of manufactures
and commerce were said to have improved, and the amount
of revenue to have increased, avowedly from new taxes.
The speech concluded with an expression of confidence
in the popular attachment to the king’s person and go¬
vernment, and an exhortation to preserve respect for es¬
tablished institutions. The opposition, still much inferior
in numbers to the ministerial adherents, but strong in its
reliance upon the popular feeling, and encouraged by the
wavering allegiance of the country gentlemen, whose suf¬
ferings had led them to doubt the infallibility of the party
to which they had hitherto adhered, made no hostile de¬
monstrations upon the moving of the address, which, as
usual, was a mere echo of the speech. It scarcely allow¬
ed, however, a day to elapse before it commenced a series
of attacks upon the whole system of ministerial policy.
The session of 1821 was one of unintermitting hostilities
directed against ministers in every department, the admi¬
nistration preserving in almost every instance the attitude
of defence.
The first question started by the members of opposi¬
tion was one of constitutional reform. With considerable
tact they selected one, upon the merits of which the mi¬
nisterial phalanx, nay the cabinet itself, was known to be
divided in opinion, namely, that of Catholic emancipation.
By this arrangement they secured a prospect of disturbing,
in some measure, the harmony of their adversaries, and at
the same time exposed themselves to less unanimous hos¬
tility in the opening of their campaign. Mr Plunkett moved,
on the 28th of February, that the state of the laws affect¬
ing Roman Catholics be taken into consideration by a com¬
mittee of the whole house. Mr Peel stood forward as
the champion of the party opposed to concession, and the
members of that party mustered in strength; but the mo¬
tion was carried by a majority of six. On the 2d of March
the house accordingly resolved itself into a committee for
the purpose of taking into consideration the Catholic
claims. Mr Plunkett was prepared to prosecute his ad¬
vantage, and submitted six resolutions for the adoption of
the house. Their purport was, that such parts of the
oaths required to be taken by persons qualifying for the
enjoyment of offices, franchises, and civil rights, as mere¬
ly disclaimed a belief in the speculative religious opinions
of the Roman Catholics, ought to be repealed; that the
word “ spiritual,” which occurred in the oaths of supre¬
macy, should be declared to import merely “ that the
kings of this realm should govern all estates and degrees
committed to their charge by God, whether they be ec¬
clesiastical or temporal, and restrain, with the civil sword,
the stubborn and evil doer;” that the act of repeal and
explanation should be accompanied with such exceptions
and regulations as might be found necessary for preserv-
832
BRITAIN
Reign of ing the Protestant succession to the crown, and maintain-
GeorgelV.Jng inviolate the Protestant episcopal church of Ireland
'—and the church of Scotland. The resolutions were agreed
1821. t0 pro forma, and leave given to bring in a bill founded
on them. Mr Peel declared his determination to oppose
the measure in all its stages. Mr Plunkett digested his
scheme into two bills, the one containing the civil, the
other the spiritual arrangements, which it was proposed
to pass into a law. They were read a first time, without
discussion, on the 7th of March. An attempt was made
on the part of the opponents to concession, aided by some
discontented members of the Catholic church, to repie-
sent the measure as odious to the class of the community
whose enfranchisement it contemplated, but without suc¬
cess. Various amendments, calculated to defeat the ob¬
ject in view, were proposed by Messrs Bankes, Peel, and
Goulburn, but successfully combated. Sir John New¬
port, when moving the commitment of the bills on the
26th of March, gave notice of his intention to move their
consolidation; and on the 28th his motion was submitted
and agreed to. The consolidated bill, notwithstanding
the strenuous opposition which it encountered from the
high church party within the house, and latterly from the
Catholic clergy without, passed the Commons on the 2d
of April by a° majority of nineteen. It was accordingly
carried to the House of Lords and read a first time with¬
out any debate, but ultimately thrown out on the 16th of
April, upon the motion that it be read a second time, by
a majority of thirty-nine.
The support given by the house to this effort for the
relief of the Catholics, and the loud cry of the country for
parliamentary reform, encouraged opposition to moot that
question, upon which every rational hope of amelioration
in church and state depended. Mr Lambton was first in
the field. He submitted a plan of reform to the consi¬
deration of the House, the very evening that the Catholic
relief bill was rejected by the Lords. The principal fea¬
tures of the measure which he contemplated were, the li¬
mitation of the duration of parliament to three years ; the
extension of the elective franchise to all persons possess¬
ing property, however small in value, which contributed
to taxation ; and the abolition of rotten boroughs. I he at¬
tendance was thin and the debate languid, although^ad-
]ourned on the first evening. It was resumed on the 17th,
but abruptly terminated by a manoeuvre of the ministe¬
rial party. Mr Lambton and his friends were rather late
of appearing, and their antagonists taking advantage of
their absence, instead of prosecuting the discussion, called
for the vote, and thus defeated the wish of the reformers to
go into committee. Such a stratagem was more worthy of a
knot of mischievous school-boys than of men deliberating
upon the interests of the empire; yet the skilful employ¬
ment of the result by the ministerial press succeeded for a
considerable time in alienating the public confidence from
Mr Lambton, and neutralising his utility in parliament. The
opposition were disappointed by tbis result, but not de¬
feated. Lord John Russell re-introduced the subject on the
9th of May, in a more indefinite shape; several members
having declared, on the occasion of Mr Lambton s motion,
that they were ready to entertain the general question of
reform, although they objected to the specific measure
proposed. Lord John proposed for the adoption of the
house four resolutions, declaratory of the corrupt state of
the elective system ; the necessity of extending the elec¬
tive franchise to wealthy and populous places hitherto un¬
represented ; the propriety of appointing a select committee
to consider the best measure of effecting this innovation ;
and the expediency of referring to the same committee
the consideration of the best mode of proceeding against
such boroughs as should in future be convicted of bribery
1821.
and corruption. The first resolution was lost by a majori- Reign of
ty of thirty-one, in a house consisting of two hundred and ’gorge ^ ■
seventy-nine members: the others were negatived with¬
out a division. The last attempt made during the session
for the attainment of a general reform, was Mr H. G. Ben-
net's motion for leave to bring in a bill for the better se¬
curing of the independence of parliament. His plan was
to continue to the great officers of government their seats
in the house, but to exclude clerks and underlings. Of
fifty-one persons holding seats in the house at the plea¬
sure of government he proposed to exclude twenty-nine.^
This motion was negatived like the rest. On the 10th of
May, Lord Archibald Hamilton made an attempt to in¬
duce the house to pledge itself that it would next session
take into consideration the state of representation in the
counties of Scotland, but without success. The only in¬
stance in which the cause of reform was at all successful
during the lapse of this session, wras the passing of the bill
for the disfranchisement of Grampound. Even this slender
victory was incomplete in itself. The bill, as agreed to
by the Commons, transferred the franchise which Gram-
pound was declared to have forfeited to Leeds, vesting the
electoral qualification in all the inhabitants renting houses
at L.20 yearly. Lord Liverpool moved in the House of
Lords, that, instead of giving two representatives to Leeds,
the whole county of York should in future be allowed the
privilege of returning four. The amendment was agreed
to ; and the House of Commons decided that the measure,
even in its mutilated state, was not to be rejected.
While these two great constitutional questions were
thus keenly contested, Mr Hume kept up a continual fire
upon the ministerial system of finance. He opened his
battery with the first introduction of the estimates. When
the army estimates were introduced, he directed the at¬
tention of the house to the enormous augmentation of the
numbers of the army on the peace establishment which
had taken place since 1792, and the corresponding in¬
crease of expenditure; and proposed that the resolution
recommended by the finance committee of 181/ of ap-
proximating the military establishment as near as possible
to that of 1792, should be adopted. The motion was ne¬
gatived. Nothing daunted by defeat, Mr Hume returned
to the attack on the production of the navy estimates. His
motion was similar to that which he had brought forward
in regard to the army; and, resting upon the same princi¬
ples, it was not pressed to a division. A motion by the
same gentleman, on the production of the ordnance esti¬
mates, in which he urged, in addition to a statement si¬
milar to those made on the former occasions, a transgres¬
sion by this department of the orders of the house, was
equally unfortunate. In his resolutions respecting a pos¬
sible saving in the collection of the land and assessed
taxes, he was more successful. The ministers did not
dare to meet him, as they had the year before, with a di¬
rect negative; but suggested a reference to a committee,
in which Mr Hume acquiesced. The chancellor of the ex¬
chequer brought forward the budget on the jst of June.
The amount of supply he estimated at L.20,Ui»,^uu;
of ways and means at L.20,031,569. He sought to make
it appear that a reduction of ten millions had been effect¬
ed on the national expenditure since 1820. Mr Hume
was again at his post, and recapitulated, with new illustra¬
tions and calculations, the arguments he had already
adduced in opposition to each particular estimate. He
concluded by moving an address to the king, requesting
that his majesty would be pleased to direct a minute in¬
vestigation into the expense of the management and col¬
lection of the revenue; a careful revision and adjustment
of all salaries and allowances; and the exercise of a vigi¬
lant superintendence over the expenditure of the country,
BRITAIN.
633
lleign of especially in everything connected with the military esta-
George IV. biishment. The ministry, in order to avoid the disagreeable
necessity of adopting a suggestion from Mr Hume, moved
*821, an amendment, differing from the original motion in no¬
thing but its more courtly tone, and its vagueness of ex¬
pression. A resolution similar to Mr Hume’s was sub¬
mitted to the Peers by Lord Darnley on the 2d of July,
and evaded in the same manner. During the time that
this extended plan of financial reform continued to be
pressed upon a reluctant ministry, the country gentlemen
were busy striving to shift as large a proportion of the
national burdens off their own shoulders as possible. Mr
Western attempted to introduce a bill for repealing the
additional duties imposed on malt in 1819; and Mr Cur-
wen succeeded in obtaining a repeal of the tax imposed
on horses employed in agriculture.
All attempts to shake the attachment of the majorities
in both houses to the ministry, or give such a voice to the
nation as might deprive its supporters of their seats, having
failed, the ameliorations in our legal institutions so warmly
desired by all friends of humanity and justice made but slow
progress. Their bigoted adversaries still maintained an
ascendency in the cabinet. Sir James Mackintosh brought
forward three bills ;—for abrogating capital punishment in
certain cases of forgery, and in cases of stealing in dwell¬
ing-houses, and on navigable rivers. The first, after having
been thrice read in the Commons, was thrown out, in con¬
sequence of a manoeuvre of Lord Londonderry on the ques¬
tion that it do pass. The second and third were carried
through the lower house, but thrown out in the Lords.
Another attempt to humanize the criminal code was made
by Mr Martin of Galway, who introduced a bill for allow¬
ing the benefit of counsel to persons accused of felony; but
on the second reading it was negatived without a division.
Mr Kennedy directed the attention of the house to the faulty
mode of constituting juries in Scotland ; but the hostility
of government and the Scottish law officers to any im¬
provement was so marked, that he forbore to press his mea¬
sure for remedying the defect. Sir John Newport submit¬
ted a series of resolutions to the House of Commons, com¬
plaining of the dilatory proceedings of the commission ap¬
pointed in 1815 to inquire into the state of the English
courts of justice. The resolutions were negatived, the
ministers taking upon themselves the defence of their no¬
minees. Although the party in power thus strenuously
opposed in parliament every modification of the laws, their
adherents out of doors hesitated not to appoint officers not
recognised by the constitution, to watch over the strenu¬
ous enforcement of the law of libel. An association was
formed in London on the 12th of December 1820 for the
purpose of suppressing seditious publications ; and bills of
indictment were preferred by the law agent of this body
against several booksellers. Mr Brougham took an oppor¬
tunity of directing the attention of the house to its pro¬
ceedings ; insisting strongly on the dangerous character
of men associated to prosecute individuals selected at the
discretion of political prejudice. He contended, likewise,
that such a union had a tendency to destroy the imparti¬
ality of juries. The subject was again brought before the
house by Mr S. Whitbread. No conclusion was come to ;
but the society, after being thus held up to public reproba¬
tion, languished and died.
The attention of the house was this year again directed
to the continued distress both of the agricultural and manu¬
facturing population. The committee appointed in 1820
to investigate the mode of striking the corn averages, re¬
ported immediately upon the sitting of parliament. In
consequence of the recommendation contained in the re¬
port, a bill was introduced on the 26th of February, by
which considerable changes were effected in the then ex-
vol. v.
isting system. Their general object was clearly to calcu- lleign of
late the averages so as to diminish them in apparent George^,
amount; in other words, to raise the importation price. ”
Not contented with this arrangement, the country gentle¬
men made another and successful attempt on the 7th of
March, to obtain the appointment of a committee to take
into consideration the petitions relative to the distress of
the agricultural interest. The committee reported, on the
18th of June, that the agricultural suffering was mainly
owing to the change in the currency; that it would de¬
crease as contracts, and prices, and wages of labour, as¬
similated themselves to the new value of money ; and that
considerable progress had already been made towards this
desirable consummation. All interference on the part of
the legislature was deprecated. Mr Curwen suggested
the imposition of a duty on the transfer of stock, and Mr
Baring adverted to the expediency of allowing the bank to
pay either in gold or silver; but neither of these gentle¬
men pressed the adoption of any measure. With a view
to alleviate the depressed state of commerce and manu¬
factures, committees were appointed by both houses to in¬
quire into the regulations affecting our foreign trade, and
how far benefit might accrue from modifying them. Ihe
Lords’ committee reported on the llth of April, confining
its attention to the advantages likely to be derived from
an extension of the Asiatic trade. All the suggestions of
the report were consequently in a great measure at the
mercy of the East India Company. The report submit¬
ted to the Commons by their committee related to the
intercourse with the Baltic, and was followed up by a
resolution declaring the expediency of diminishing the
preferences given to the colonial timber trade over that
from the north of Europe, allowing that of Russia and
Prussia superior advantages over the timber of Norway.
This paltry advance in liberality was with difficulty carried
into a law. A more important step, suggested by the com¬
mittee, was the leave granted by the house to introduce
bills for the amendment of the navigation laws; a measure
which was allowed to stand over till next session.
While these important debates were agitating the le¬
gislature and the country, the monarch was engrossed
with the gorgeous pageantry of his coronation, and pleasure
excursions to Ireland and to Hanover. All three entailed
a great expense upon the country, and not one of them
was rendered conducive to any useful purpose. Devolv¬
ing upon other shoulders the cares of state, George IV.
would have led a life of unalloyed ease, but for that thorn
in his side, the queen. Her safety once assured, and an
allowance settled upon her by parliament, she naturally
ceased to have any interest for the public, which had
been led to espouse her cause from a conviction of the
injustice with which she had been treated, not from any
personal attachment, which her character was but ill qua¬
lified to inspire. She made one last desperate effort to
regain her notoriety, which was rapidly subsiding at the
time of the coronation ; but failing in her attempt, she was
seized with such chagrin that she soon afterwards died.
Her death in some measure re-awakened the national sym¬
pathy ; and an attempt on the part of the ministers to in¬
terfere with an expression of respect to her remains in¬
creased the unpopularity of the sovereign.
The aspect of affairs at the commencement of 1822
was stormy in the extreme. The distresses of the agri¬
culturists continued unmitigated ; and meetings of farmers
and landholders, clamorous for assistance, were held in
every county. One called for corn laws, another for the
abolition of tithes, and another for a reduction of the na¬
tional debt. Each thought his own remedy sufficient, and
refused to listen to the suggestions of others. In Ireland
matters were still worse. The distress there was even more
4 l
.i
634
BRITAIN.
1822.
Reign of overwhelming than in England, owing to a redundant po-
GeorgelV. pulation, and the absence of any variety of employments.
■ — — 1 'yjie pressure of tithes, ever odious to the Irish peasant,
as a tax levied for the support of a heretical church, and
of an unjustly apportioned local taxation, bore down the
population, and embittered their spirit. Men’s minds
were, moreover, even in times of prosperity, alienated by
bitter theological feuds. The increasing strictness of the
precautions taken by government against smuggling had
driven many lawless men into the mountainous district
in the northern baronies of the county of Cork, and in
Kerry ; and there, accordingly, the most extensive and
seemingly organised devastations were perpetrated. Ihe
flame, it'is true, broke out at intervals over the whole of
Ireland, but in that district was its head-quarters.
Under these inauspicious circumstances parliament as¬
sembled on the 5th of February. In the House of Com¬
mons, the ministerial party, which had never quite re¬
covered the secession of Mr Canning from office at the
time of the queen’s trial, was strengthened by the appoint¬
ment of Mr Peel to be home secretary. In both houses its
numbers had been increased by an amalgamation with the
Grenville party, some of whom accepted of office.
The theme most emphatically dwelt upon in the speech
from the throne, and first submitted to the attention of
parliament by ministers, was the state of Ireland. Lord
Castlereagh and his coadjutors had only one remedy for
the disturbances of that country—coercion. Two bills
were immediately introduced into the Commons, and with
the most indecent haste hurried both through that house
and the Peers, receiving the royal assent on the 11th of te-
bruary. The first contained a re-enactment of the insur¬
rection act, empowering any two justices to cause an ex¬
traordinary session of the peace to be held, and the jus¬
tices, when assembled in such session, to the number of
seven in a county and three in a city, to signify to the
lord-lieutenant their opinion that the county was in a
state of disturbance, assigning at the same time their rea¬
sons, and praying him to proclaim it. The proclamation
which the lord-lieutenant was empowered to issue warned
the inhabitants of the disturbed district after a certain
day to remain within their houses between sunset and
sunrise. After that day any justice of peace, or any per¬
son authorized by his warrant, might enter into any house
in the proclaimed district between one hour after sunset
and sunrise, and give orders for the apprehension of such of
the inhabitants as were found absent. These, along with
all persons found out of their abodes between the same
hours, all persons having in their possession offensive arms,
all persons not travellers or inmates found assembled after
nine at night and before six in the morning, in any house
where malt and spirituous liquors were sold, and a mul¬
titude of others, were to be tried without a jury, by a
court of special sessions, to be held within seven days
from the date of the proclamation, and prolonged by ad¬
journments as long as the district continued proclaimed.
Dispersing seditious papers was declared punishable by
twelve months’ imprisonment, and all other offences speci¬
fied in the act, by transportation for seven years. This
strong measure was enforced by the second bill, which
suspended the habeas corpus act. rIhe operation of both
acts was limited to the first of August following. The
opposition arrayed against these enactments was vehe¬
ment, but not numerous. The more timid W higs palliated
their acquiescence by their confidence in the character
of Lord Wellesley, who was then lord-lieutenant. 'I wo
other measures were shortly after introduced, and carried
through parliament by the 11th of March. The first was
an act to indemnify all persons who, since the first of No¬
vember preceding, had, with a view to the preservation of
peace, but without legal authority, seized arms or gun- Reign of
powder; the second imposed severe restrictions on the George IV.
importation of arms and ammunition into Ireland, on the
manufacturing of these articles in the country, and also 1822.
on the removal of them from one place to another. The
bills passed through both houses without observation.
The additional powers conferred by these acts were vi¬
gorously exercised by the Irish government. Every dis¬
trict in which an act of violence occurred was immediate¬
ly proclaimed. The whole country was patrolled by large
bodies of military and police. Special sessions were held
for the purpose of putting the laws into immediate execu¬
tion. At Cork alone there was a calendar of three hun¬
dred and sixty-six offenders, of whom thirty-five received
sentence of death. The regular assizes soon followed, at
which similar scenes were repeated. The most worthless
testimony was lightly credited by terrified jurors. But all
this vigilance, although it succeeded in rendering resistance
to the constituted authorities less daring and systematic,
failed to give peace to Ireland. The country continued
in a state of feverish insecurity, and violence extended
its sphere of action. As the spring advanced, however,
and the nights shortened, outrages diminished in number;
and a famine which ensued, accompanied in many places
by a virulent typhus fever, the result of bad and insuffi¬
cient diet, effectually tamed the spirit of insubordination.
The humanity of England was awakened, and great exer¬
tions were made to relieve the sufferers, but not until their
misery had almost exceeded what human nature, if un¬
tried, could be conceived capable of enduring.
On the 8th of July a bill was introduced by Mr Goul-
burn, prolonging the duration of the insurrection act, and
the suspension of the habeas corpus, till the 1st of August
1823. A feeble opposition was offered to it. Only seven¬
teen voted against the principle of the measure in the
Commons, whilst in the House of Lords it was suffered to
pass almost without remark. A more permanent measure
of coercion was introduced at the same time. By the con¬
stabulary act, the lord-lieutenant was empowered to ap¬
point, by warrant under his own hand, a chief constable
for every barony, or division of a barony; and to require
by his proclamation the county magistrates to appoint
constables and sub-constables at the rate of sixteen to a
barony. If the magistrates did not obey the proclamation
within fourteen days, the lord-lieutenant was to appoint
the constables himself. The chief constable was to have
a house provided for him, and a salary not exceeding
L.100 per annum; the salaries of the others were not to
exceed L.35 a year. The lord-lieutenant was likewise
authorized to nominate superintendents or inspectors of
the chief constables and constables, with salaries ol L.500
a year. By a clause of this act, his lordship was autho¬
rized, upon application from seven or more justices, to ap¬
point a resident magistrate for any district, possessing all
the powers of a justice of the peace, bound not to leave
his district except in the prosecution of his official duty,
and obliged to make monthly returns of the state of the
country within his jurisdiction. Ihis official was to en¬
joy an annual salary not exceeding L.500, and a house
and furniture not exceeding L.200. A keen opposition
was offered to this enactment. It was alleged that it en¬
tailed an enormous expense on the country; that it was
unconstitutional, and would prove ineffective. Ihese ar¬
guments received additional weight from the quarter
whence they came. Mr Charles Grant, a strenuous par-
tizan of ministers, and who had governed Ireland for three
years with great prudence and popularity, was the person
who urged them with most energy. Ihe utmost conces¬
sion, however, that could be wrung from ministers was the
omission of some of the most obnoxious details.
BRITAIN. 635
Iteign of Notwithstanding all these rigorous enactments, the in-
George IV. gurrectionary spirit began to show itself again as the win-
ter came on. It was, however, kept within narrow limits,
and the clamour of Orange partizanship effectually drown¬
ed its noise. A revision of the magistracy had been be¬
gun, and almost completed during Mr Grant’s secretary¬
ship. The task was one of infinite labour, and its com¬
pletion required both time and caution. The new list was
completed by the end of 1820, and the commissions issu¬
ed. The change proved great. In seven counties alone
no fewer than two hundred noblemen and gentlemen had
writs of supersedeas directed to them. The whole fury of
these parties was directed against Lord Wellesley. On
the 4th of November his lordship yet further offended
the zealots of the Protestant ascendency, by his preven¬
tion of the annual insult offered to their Catholic country¬
men. The press teemed with libels against his person
and government; and when he appeared in the theatre
on the 14th of December, he was received with every ex¬
pression of dislike, and some manifestations of violence.
Amid the anxious discussions on these local disturbances
and their remedies, which engrossed the legislature, the im¬
portant question of a general reform of the representative
system continued to be forced upon its attention. Peti¬
tions on that subject were presented from most of the
large towns and important counties of the empire. On
the 29th of April, accordingly, Lord John Russell moved
in the Commons, “ that the present state of the represen¬
tation of the people in parliament required the most se¬
rious consideration of the house.” His lordship did not
propose any specific plan, but indicated one or two which
might be worthy the attention of the house. Mr Can¬
ning took upon himself the burden of opposing the motion,
and, referring to his approaching departure for India, con¬
cluded in these words a tissue of splendid declamation.
“ That the noble lord will carry his motion this evening,
I have no fear ; but with the talents he has shown him¬
self to possess, and with, I sincerely hope, a long and
brilliant career of parliamentary distinction before him,
he will no doubt renew his efforts hereafter. Although I
presume not to expect that he will give any weight to ob¬
servations or warnings of mine, yet on this, probably the
last opportunity which I shall have of raising my voice on
the question of parliamentary reform, while I conjure the
house to pause before it consents to adopt the proposition
of the noble lord, I cannot help conjuring the noble lord
himself to pause before he again presses it upon the coun¬
try. If, however, he shall persevere, and if his perseve¬
rance shall be successful, and if the results of that success
shall be such as I cannot help apprehending, his be the
triumph to have precipitated these results, be mine the
consolation, that to the utmost and latest of my power I
have opposed them.” Mr Canning seems to have had a
prophetic consciousness of the approaching dissolution of
that system to which he had yoked himself; a conscious¬
ness justified by the division. Only a hundred and sixty-
four voted for Lord John’s motion, and two hundred and
sixty-nine against it; but the ranks of the minority were
swelled by the heirs of the noblest families in Britain,
whose talents and energy promised an immense accession
of force on every future occasion. This attack was fol¬
lowed up on the 24th of June by another, in the form of
a resolution, proposed by Mr Brougham, “ that the in¬
fluence of the crown is unnecessary to the maintenance
of its due prerogatives, destructive of the independence of
parliament, and inconsistent with the good government of
the state.” The mover intimated, on the conclusion of his
speech, that he considered his resolution, if adopted by
the house, as nothing less than a pledge to parliamentary
reform. A languid debate ensued, which terminated in a
negative being put upon the motion by a larg^e majority. Iteign of
The party attached to parliamentary reform in Scotland George IV.
received this year an accession in consequence of the con-
temptuous indifference with which Lord Archibald Hamil¬
ton’s measure for removing the abuses which had crept into
the administration of royal burghs was refused a hearing.
The only attempt made this year in favour of the Ca¬
tholics was Mr Canning’s bill for the admission of Catho¬
lic peers to the right of sitting and voting in the House of
Lords. The idea of this measure had originated with Mr
Canning, and was not unsuited to the character of his
mind. The bill passed the Commons, but was of course re¬
jected by the Lords.
The most serious opposition against which ministers
were this year called to contend, was in the matter of fi¬
nance. Mr Hume renewed his detailed attacks upon
every item of the estimates and budget, and, although he
failed in effecting any immediate change, kept alive the
public attention, and rendered government more cautious
and attentive. In other efforts Mr Hume and his coad¬
jutors were yet more successful. Ministers announced,
as the whole amount of their projected alleviation of na¬
tional burdens, the repeal of the malt tax, which produced
nearly a million and a half per annum. With a view to
force them to do what they refused to undertake spon¬
taneously, Mr Calcraft on the 28th of February brought
forward a motion for the progressive repeal of the salt
tax, by taking off one third of the duty in each of the
three succeeding years. The motion was lost by a ma¬
jority of only four in favour of ministers. Next day they
received a still more effectual lesson. In a discussion of
the expenses of the admiralty office, Sir M. W. Ridley
moved a reduction of two thousand pounds in the vote,
the amount of the salaries enjoyed by the two junior lords
of the admiralty. These two useless offices were conse¬
quently abolished by the votes both of Lords and Com¬
mons, although ministers continued to defend them vehe¬
mently to the last. A similar defeat was sustained by
government on the 2d of May, when, in despite of every
exertion, an address to the king was carried, praying him
to abolish the office of one of the postmasters-general.
In its other attempts to enforce retrenchment the opposi¬
tion was unsuccessful; yet so well had its partial success
worked upon the apprehension of ministers, that the
amount of taxes repealed during the course of the session,
notwithstanding their original declaration, may be esti¬
mated thus:—
Annual malt duty   £1,500,000
Salt tax    1,300,000
Leather tax  300,000
Tonnage duty...    150,000
Irish window and hearth taxes  250,000
£3,500,000
But the severest wound received by the financial reputa¬
tion of ministers was inflicted by the hands of the chan¬
cellor of the exchequer. Mr Vansittart undertook two
great financial operations; the one with a view to diminish
permanently the charge of the public debt, the other to
diminish part of the annual expense of government. The
first was the reduction of the navy five per cents, to four
per cent. Some objections were stated to the manner in
which this object was proposed to be attained; but the
advantage was too apparent, and Mr Vansittart’s plan ob¬
tained the assent of parliament. His other scheme, how¬
ever, proved a singular failure. The amount of naval and
military pensions was about five millions annually. The
chancellor of the exchequer proposed to provide for this
branch of public expenditure by granting to certain con¬
tractors a fixed annuity for forty-five years; in return for
636
BRITAIN.
Reign of which they were to pay into the public treasury such a
George IV. sum in each of the forty-five years as should upon caleu-
v—-v-'w' ]at;on be sufficient to pay the pensions that should then
1823. be in existence. The scheme was, in other woids, to
contract now for annual loans to be advanced to govern¬
ment in each of the next fifteen years, and to be repaid
by a gradually increasing annuity, to commence at the
end of fifteen years, and continue for thirty years from
that time. This new mode of loan was improvident and
grossly unjust, as tending to throw the whole load of the
burden on posterity. It was attacked by Mr Ricardo and
Mr Brougham with the most biting sarcasm, but never¬
theless most pertinaciously forced, with the whole strength
of the ministerial phalanx, through both houses. A fate
awaited it, however, compared with which Mr Brougham’s
withering sneer was gross flattery: not one capitalist could
be found to engage in the contract. The prudence of the
monied men saved the minister from the effects of his
own imbecility. He again submitted his scheme to the
House of Commons in a form so modified, that the only
objection to which it was liable was its intricacy and con¬
fusion. This, however, was as much the fault of the school
to which he belonged, as of the individual financier.
The continued distress of the agricultural interest oc¬
cupied the attention of parliament to a yet greater extent
than in the preceding year. At the commencement of
the session Mr Brougham submitted a resolution to the
House of Commons, declaratory of the necessity of afford¬
ing relief to the agriculturists by the removal of taxes. The
motion was negatived, upon the declaration of Lord Lon¬
donderry that ministers had a plan of their own to propose.
This plan his lordship developed on the 15th of hebruary,
when moving for the production of some financial docu¬
ments. The remedies which it contemplated were the
repeal of the malt-tax, already noticed, and a loan to the
agricultural interest by means of exchequer bills. In order
to clear the way for an exposition of this measure, the mar¬
quis moved, on the 18th of February, for the renewal of
the agricultural committee. This body laid its report be¬
fore the house on the 1st of April, and the same day three
different schemes were submitted for the relief and pro¬
tection of farmers and landlords. Lord Londonderry pro¬
posed a loan of a million to the agriculturists by means of
exchequer bills, under certain circumstances; the open¬
ing of the ports to the importation of foreign grain when¬
ever the average price of British corn exceeded a speci¬
fied sum ; and the subjection of the foreign grain thus ad¬
mitted to certain duties. Mr Ricardo proposed no loan,
but the opening of the ports, when British corn reached a
specified price, to foreign grain, subjected to certain du¬
ties, and a bounty or drawback on the exportation of corn
to foreign countries. Mr Huskisson’s resolutions con¬
tained a narrative of the state of the British agriculturist,
from which the proper method of coming to his assistance
was logically deduced. His plan was a gradual repeal
of the prohibitory corn laws, and the establishment of a
permanently free trade in foreign grain, subject to the im¬
position of moderate duties. Lord Londonderry subse¬
quently withdrew his proposal to extend a loan to the
agriculturists. Mr Ricardo withdrew his resolutions, two
of them, having reference to the scale of duties upon im¬
ported grain, and the drawback upon such as should be
exported, having been adopted by Mr Huskisson. Ihe
final discussion in the Commons took place on the 7 th
of May. Sir Thomas Lethbridge proposed a series of
protecting duties, including almost every species of agri¬
cultural produce, down to apples and pears, which re¬
ceived a very feeble support from a small minority. The
conjoined resolutions of Mr Huskisson and Mr Ricardo
were likewise negatived. Lord Londonderry’s resolu¬
tions were agreed to; and a bill founded upon them pass- Reign ot
ed into a law, against which Lords Lauderdale and Ers- ^
kine entered a protest. . 1823. *
The commercial interest likewise attracted a consider¬
able portion of the attention of the legislature, although,
as there was on this point less difference of opinion, the
debates were less noisy. The mania for speculating in
foreign funds, which had begun to show itself so early as
1817, reached its height, and experienced its first check,
this year. The Colombian bonds received the first shock.
The depression of Spanish stock followed. A series of
panics convulsed every money market in Europe. The
price of all foreign stocks fell rapidly, and thousands were
ruined or impoverished by the change. Nevertheless it
appeared, by returns from the manufacturing districts, pro¬
cured by the secretary for the home department, and laid
upon the table of the House of Commons, that the rate of
profits, although low, was sufficient to induce persons to
enter into trade ; and that in most places the operatives
were fully employed. The plans announced by Mr Wal¬
lace in the preceding session of parliament, for benefiting
the commerce of the country, were this year carried into
effect by means of five acts. The first repealed all the
acts affecting navigation and commerce passed by British
parliaments previous to the enactment of the navigation
laws under Charles II. The second repealed the third
clause of the navigation law, which enacted, that no
goods of the growth, product, or manufacture of Asia,
Africa, or America, shall be imported into England, but
in such ships as do truly belong to English people, and
are navigated by a master and three parts English mari¬
ners ; the fourth, which enacts that no goods or commodi¬
ties of foreign growth, production, or manufacture, which
shall be brought into England otherwise than in ships
built and navigated as above, shall be shipped from any
other place but the place of their growth, production, or
manufacture, or from those parts where they can only be
or usually have been brought; the eighth, which relates
to the importation of goods from Turkey and from Russia;
the twelfth and fourteenth, which relate to the importa¬
tion of goods from the Levant, from Spain, and Portugal,
and their dependencies ; and all acts from the time of
Charles II. downwards, which stood in the way of the pro¬
visions contained in the third act. Phis statute establish¬
ed the principle of the old navigation laws, but with im¬
portant modifications. Foreign ships were allowed to
bring enumerated goods from any port in Europe, provid¬
ed the ship belonged to the port in question. The ships
of Holland, so long the objects of a pitiful jealousy, were
allowed the same privileges with those of the rest of
Europe. Goods of any country or place in South America
or the West Indies, belonging to, or which had belonged
to Spain, might be imported direct from the place of
growth, in ships of the country. No importation was per¬
mitted from any port where British ships were not admit¬
ted. The fourth act regulated the trade between the
British possessions in America and the West Indies, and
other places in America and the West Indies; and the fifth
between the same colonies and the rest of the woild. Ihe
object of the two last-mentioned laws was to benefit the
West India planter. An attempt was also made by go¬
vernment to induce the East India Company to peimit
ships measuring less than three hundred and fifty tons to
participate in the private trade to India. But the Com¬
pany stood upon its charter, and refused to comply unless
the full rights of British registry were extended to India
built ships, and East India sugars for home consumption
admitted on equal terms with those from the West India
colonies. Mr Hume drew the attention of the Commons
on several occasions to the exorbitant consular fees, which
BRITAIN.
637
1823.
Reign of operated as a heavy tax upon merchandise; and govern-
George lament at last declared that the board ot tiade was framing
a ]aw to alleviate this evil.
The death of Lord Londonderry, which happened short¬
ly after the prorogation of parliament, whilst the king was
absent in Scotland, was eventually the cause of an essen¬
tial change in the system pursued by the British govern¬
ment. Lord Liverpool entertained very liberal opinions
in matters of commercial and international policy. His
1823.
Spain on their part, but if possible t0 ?v«id war’ DukeTfGeorge IV-
days after Mr Canning’s acceptance of office, the Duke of Greo g
Wellington left London for Vienna. The topie of de i-
beration at the congress appointed to be held in that city
was the existing state of affairs between Russia and the
Porte. That question having been disposed the mem¬
bers of the congress, with the exception of the British
minister, were to have adjourned to Verona, there t° S1t
in judgment on the Italian peninsula. It was the wish ot
in matters of commercial and international policy, ms mjuugn.cn. F ,• h minister from
sentiments were in general shared by such members of tTZdl tfoWiSS tith
the Grenville party and of Mr Cannings friends as were Verona should maik ^ g ^ ^ rrl_ nf
in office. Mr Peel was a minister of comprehensive mind,
extensive acquirements, and a disposition that could adapt
itself to associates of any principles. The liberal incli¬
nations of these men were completely neutralized by the
decided ultra-toryism of Eldon, Londonderry, and \\ elling-
ton, with their retainers Bathurst, Westmoreland, Mary¬
borough, Sidmouth, and Vansittart. Of this clique, Lon¬
donderry, by his plausible manners, ready flow of language,
and relentless pertinacity of purpose, was the animating
spirit. After his death it offered to its more enlightened
associates no resistance beyond that of mere vis inertia.
In opposition to its wishes, and in opposition to the king s
personal dislike, Lord Liverpool installed Mr Canning
into the office left vacant by the death of the Marquis of
Londonderry. The new foreign secretary was further
strengthened in the commencement of 1823, by the resig¬
nation of Mr Vansittart, to whose financial reputation the
last session of parliament had given the finishing stroke,
upon receiving a peerage and the sinecure chancellorship
of the duchy of Lancaster. He was succeeded as chan¬
cellor of the exchequer by Mr Frederick Robinson. Mr
Huskisson was at the same time appointed president ot
the board of trade; his seat in the cabinet he did not re¬
ceive till a later period. A government of shifts and ex¬
pedients had failed, and one of a different description was
now to be tried. .
The line of policy observed by government during the
continuance of Mr Canning, Mr Robinson and Mr Hus¬
kisson in office, was such as to conciliate the confidence
of a large body of the people. It was indeed a material
improvement upon that persisted in by Lord Londonderry
and Mr Vansittart; and the nation, long unaccustomed to
such a parade of liberality on the part of ministers, con-
ceived an exaggerated idea of its excellence, lo this
circumstance, and to the more determined and better or¬
ganized efforts of the Catholics of Ireland, which for some
years shared, with questions of commercial arrangements
and foreign policy, almost the exclusive attention of the
public, we are to attribute the fact that, subsequent to the
year 1823, the very name of parliamentary reform seemed
the independence of the Italian states. The Duke of
Wellino-ton, however, being detained by indisposition, did
not reach Vienna until a few days before the proposed
adjournment, and the urgency of affairs rendered it advis¬
able that he should follow the sovereigns to Verona. He
had learned from a conversation with M. de Villele at
Paris, that it was the intention of the French ministers to
call upon the congress to come to some decision on the
relative positions of France and Spain. By Mr Canning s
instructions the Duke of Wellington opposed most vigo¬
rously any interference on the part ol the allied sove¬
reigns with the internal arrangements of Spain. I his
unexpected opposition checked them in their arbitrary
projects; and the result was, that they abstained from a
combined demonstration, resolving to assist France, in
case of any aggression upon the part of Spain, ot any
outrage on the person of the king, or of any attempt to
change the dynasty of that kingdom. With this resolu¬
tion the congress separated, and Mr Canning s negocia-
tions for preserving the peace of Europe and the principle
of national independence were adjourned to laiis.
The British envoys in that capital were amused by
different pretences, from the termination of the congress
in November 1822 till the 7th of April 1823, when the
Duke d’Angouleme crossed the Bidassoa. According as
timid or rash counsels prevailed, the hrench ministers ex¬
pressed pacific or warlike intentions; but whatever their
expressions might be, French gold and French intrigue
were incessantly employed in stirring up factions in fepam.
The reasons for declaring war, ultimately published by
France, however frivolous, rested the justification of the
matter upon a national quarrel alone, and thus precluded
the interference of Britain. The popular feeling in Eng¬
land ran very high in favour of Spain; but the indiffer¬
ence manifested by the body of that nation towards the
constitutional cause reconciled the country to the pacific
policy of ministers.
The most embarrassing circumstance which attended
these negociations was the necessity of a serious remon¬
strance with the Spanish ministry respecting certain ag-
of the session of parliament in this year, the table of the
House of Commons was loaded with petitions for reform.
On the 24th of April Lord John Russell moved that the
state of parliamentary representation required the most
serious consideration of the house. The motion, however,
was negatived. Lord Archibald Hamilton submitted a
series of resolutions to the house on the 2d of June, de¬
scriptive of the state of county representation in Scotland,
and containing a pledge of early redress. But these were
negatived by a narrow majority. Nevertheless we hear
no more in parliament for several years of reform, except
in some futile attempts to obtain an amendment in the
representation of Edinburgh. _ . r
The topic on which the discussions in parliament for
the most part turned during the session of 1823 were the
relations of continental Europe. Mr Canning s system
was to record a protest against the docti ines o t ic a ic
sovereigns, and to endeavour to prevent any attack upon
of the disputes between Spain and her colonies. The
constitutional government was as averse to the lecogni-
tion of colonial independence as the old despotism. Bri¬
tain had, however, acquired, during the Peninsular war, a
right of commerce with the Spanish South Ameiican pos¬
sessions, and this she was not inclined to relinquish ; while
British vessels had been captured by cruizers carrying
Spanish colours, under the pretext that they had infiinged
a nominal blockade of the provinces in a state of insurrec¬
tion. After various ineffectual representations, the Bri-
tish ministry assumed the right of redressing themselves,
and sent notification of the fact to the Spanish court. It
was a matter of great delicacy to press for the recogni¬
tion of rights which that government could not fail to
grant with reluctance, at a moment when England was
the onlv barrier to which it could look against the en¬
croachments of the holy alliance. The Spanish ministry,
however, frankly admitted the justice of the procedure on
il
BRITAIN.
638
Reign of the part of England, and the intercourse between that
GeorgelV. country and Spanish America was allowed to remain upon
the footing that had been established for years without
la23‘ any complaints on the part of the mother country. The
success of the French army rendered it expedient to adopt
yet more decided steps. In the month of July a number
of respectable merchants connected with South America
applied to the foreign office, requesting the appointment
of commercial agents to protect British interests in that
quarter of the world. Their prayer was granted, and con¬
suls and consuls-general appointed to the principal sta¬
tions in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres.
The system adopted or intended to be adhered to by
government in these questions of foreign policy was expli¬
citly declared in the speech from the throne. The only
complaint urged against the declaration was its coldness.
Mr Canning was not at that time in parliament. Lord
Liverpool’s explanation of the views of ministry, and Mr
Brougham’s indignant denunciations of the despotic pro¬
jects of the continental sovereigns, rendered his absence
less felt. The Spanish question was not immediately
urged by opposition, it being understood that negociations
were still in progress. The diplomatic papers relative to
these transactions were submitted to both houses on the
14th of April; Lord Liverpool and Mr Canning seizing
the opportunity of addressing to their respective houses
explanatory statements of their conduct. The opposition
leaders intimated their opinion that the explanation given
by ministers was by no means satisfactory; but more mi¬
nute discussion was reserved for a future occasion, when
members should have had time to examine the corre¬
spondence. Before that discussion occurred, Lord Al-
thorpe moved for leave to bring in a bill for the repeal of
the act prohibiting British subjects from engaging in fo¬
reign military service, or fitting out in his majesty’s do¬
minions, without the royal license, vessels for warlike pur¬
poses. It was argued in opposition, that, under existing
circumstances, such an alteration of the law would operate
exclusively in favour of Spain ; and by means of this argu¬
ment a majority of the house was influenced to negative
the motion. The main question of the correctness of the
ministerial measures was resumed both by the Lords and
Commons a few evenings later. In both houses an address
to the king was moved, expressive of regret that his ma¬
jesty’s ministers had not adopted a more dignified tone,
and supported with more energy the cause of Spain. The
universal sentiment was so apparently in favour of minis¬
ters, that the opposition endeavoured to avoid coming to
a division in the House of Commons. The ministerial
members, however, succeeded in forcing the house to di¬
vide, by which means they gave to the lately re-constructed
ministry the sanction of an overwhelming majority.
The financial operations of the government increased
the popularity which its avowed secession from the inte¬
rests of the holy alliance had gained for it. The increase
of the revenue enabled the new chancellor of the exche¬
quer to commence his career with a spontaneous alle¬
viation of national burdens. In addition to this circum¬
stance, Mr Robinson’s lucid statement of accounts, and
explanation of the measures contemplated by government,
contrasted most favourably with the complicated and im¬
becile attempts of his predecessor. Mr Robinson’s cal¬
culations showed a surplus of seven millions, five of which
he proposed to appropriate to the reduction of the debt,
and two to the remission of taxes. The latter object was
accomplished by the introduction of the necessary bills.
In order to secure the former, Mr Robinson laid before
parliament a bill, the purport of which was to apply an
annual sum of five millions as a sinking fund, and at the
same time materially to simplify the superfluous machi¬
nery with which former sinking funds had been encum- Reign of
bered. Mr Maberly proposed to substitute for a sinking George IV.
fund, which he disapproved of as illusory, an extinction
of four millions of three per cent, stock in the course of
seven years, by the redemption of the land tax. It was
objected that this project, as involving a necessary diminu¬
tion of revenue, was totally nugatory; and it was accord-
ingly rejected. Mr Hume fought hard for further reduc¬
tions of the national burdens; but such was the popularity
of ministers, that he met with less support than he had
experienced on former occasions. His motion of censure
against the ministry for appointing a lieutenant-general
of the ordnance after that office had been declared unne¬
cessary by the report of commissioners, was pressed to a
division by Mr Canning, and negatived by a great majority.
The ministers no doubt deemed it politic to meet such a
proposition by a full display of their power.
Intent upon winning golden opinions from all sorts of
men, ministers exerted themselves to secure the rejection
of Sir James Mackintosh’s resolutions for the improvement
of the criminal code, only to introduce bills of their own
tending professedly to the same end. The resolutions in¬
troduced by Sir James were nine in number, and their
purport was to declare the expediency of abrogating the
punishment of death in the cases of most flagrant hard¬
ship ; of substituting in these cases transportation for life
or a term of years, or imprisonment with or without hard
labour at the discretion of the judge ; of making provision
that sentence of death should not be pronounced in cases
where there was no expectation of its being carried into
effect; and of doing away with the forfeiture of goods and
chattels in cases of suicide, and putting an end to the in¬
dignities offered to the remains of the dead in cases of
suicide and high treason. The acts introduced in the
course of the same session under the auspices of govern¬
ment, and passed, contained provisions to the same effect,
with certain concessions to popular prejudice in the treat¬
ment of the remains of suicides. In the department of
civil law some amendments were introduced into the law
regulating the relations of agent and principal; a commis¬
sion was appointed to inquire into the forms of process in
the courts of Scotland, and into the course of appeals from
the court of session; a resolution was adopted by the
House of Lords to devote five days of the week instead
of three to hearing appeals; and some modifications of
the law for preventing clandestine marriages were wrested
from its reluctant propounders. Every attempt to obtain
an amendment of the court of chancery proved unavail¬
ing. The strong repugnance of Lord Eldon, and the un¬
willingness of the ministry to admit the existence of abuse
in one of their own offices, proved insuperable obstruc¬
tions.
The conduct of ministers towards Ireland was far from
being marked by the same eagerness to conciliate popular
affection. The violent conduct of the Orangemen neces¬
sarily embittered the spirits of the opposite faction, and
acts of violence occurred even more frequently than be¬
fore. Under these circumstances Lord Wellesley found
himself called upon to apply for a continuation of the in¬
surrection act, which was conceded by parliament. This
anxious moment was selected by Mr Canning to hang
coldly back for the first time when the question of the
Catholic claims was stirred. He expressed himself averse
to their discussion at that time. Mr Plunkett, however,
insisted upon bringing them before the house on the 17th
of April. On that day Sir Francis Burdett and several
other friends to Catholic concession declared that the an¬
nual discussion of the question was a mere farce, from which
the honest advocates of emancipation ought henceforth to
withdraw. Mr Brougham indulged in a strain of indig-
BRITAIN.
639
Reign of nant invective that stung Mr Canning beyond the power
George IV. of maintaining a parliamentary appearance of equanimity,
''—’-v''"-'' or disguising the feelings which it excited. Mr Plunkett
1823. insisting upon bringing forward his motion, Sir Francis
and many other opposition members rose and left the
house. The debate was soon adjourned, and not renewed
during the course of the session. In the House of Lords
the Duke of Devonshire endeavoured to excite attention
to the condition of Ireland, but in vain. In the House of
Commons Mr Brougham called for investigation into the
gross inequality of the Irish law wherever Catholic and
Protestant were opposed, and to the yet more oppressive
mode of its administration ; but the house refused to en¬
tertain the question. Mr Hume exposed the more pro¬
minent delects of the church establishment, but could
scarcely obtain a hearing from an audience unwilling to
be convinced. Ireland perceived that reason was no match
for injustice armed with power; and a conviction began to
prevail that the use of other means had become necessary.
In the course of a few years, this sentiment animating an
immense organized body, impelled by the unwearied acti¬
vity of an agitator of high talents, wrung from a reluc¬
tant government the boon which had so long been humbly
prayed for, but in vain.
The affairs of the colonies and other dependencies ex¬
cited this year more than the usual share of attention.
An act was passed, establishing courts, and making other
regulations for the administration of justice in New South
Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. A bill for remedying
abuses in the administration of justice in Newfoundland
was announced by ministers as in preparation. A stre¬
nuous effort was made on the part of the East India mer¬
chants to obtain an equalization of the duties imposed on
the sugars imported from Hindustan, and those which were
the growth of the West Indian colonies; but it was de¬
feated by the exertions of the planters. But the measure
most important, both in regard to the test it afforded of the
progress of liberal opinions, to the consequences it has al¬
ready produced, and the still greater results it must ulti¬
mately lead to, was the ministerial circular of the 24th of
May, relating to the treatment of slaves in the British colo¬
nies. This document followed up the resolutions adopted
by the House of Commons on the 15th of the same month
at Mr Canning’s suggestion. The resolutions declared
the anxiety of the house that immediate measures should
be adopted for securing such a gradual improvement of
the slave’s character as might render safe his ultimate
admission to participation inlhe civil rights and privileges
of other classes of his majesty’s subjects. The circular
commanded the abolition of the punishment of flogging in
the case of females, and forbade the carrying of whips on
the field in the crown colonies. Enactments to the same
effect were recommended for the adoption of the legisla¬
tive bodies of the chartered colonies. The burst of indig¬
nation in the sugar colonies was violent and unanimous.
Jamaica spoke of asserting its independence. In Barba-
does, the chapel of a missionary suspected of having trans¬
mitted unfavourable accounts of the treatment which the
slaves experienced at the hands of the planteis was de¬
molished, and the clergyman himself obliged to abscond.
In Demerara the promulgation of the order in council was
deferred, and all knowledge of it attempted to be with¬
held from the negroes. Some vague surmises having
spread among them, the mysterious silence, of theii mas¬
ters excited the most unreasonable expectations, and hope
deferred precipitated them into insurrection. The planters
in their blind fury accused the missionaries of exciting a
revolt which had been caused solely by their own illegal
and unwise proceedings. A court-martial convicted Mr
Smith, one of the Independent clergymen, in the face of the
clearest exculpatory evidence. They did not dare to in- Reign of
flict their unjust sentence, but the unhappy martyr diedLeorgeiv.
in prison before the news arrived that the king had rescind- ^
ed his condemnation.
The policy of government, liberal in the highest degree
when compared with what the nation had been accustom¬
ed to, blinded men to its defects. The brilliant and some¬
what gaudy eloquence of Canning strengthened the chai m.
His speech delivered at Plymouth in October completed
his achievement. The splendid diction and imagery with
which he adorned his development of the system adopted
by himself and his colleagues carried away all who heard
and all who read that magnificent oration. A palpable
object to be attained, one of the most winning appearance,
seemed to be placed within their view, nay within theii
reach. They soothed themselves with the idea that the
honour to be gained would be shared by themselves. I hey
forgot that nothing beyond fair words had been afforded
to the falling constitutional governments of the Continent;
that the reduction of national burdens so ostentatiously
paraded had left them much as they were ; that the sister
island remained convulsed by faction, and robbed of her
rights. All these they forgot and forgave for the sake of a
few fair promises. Castlereagh had endeavoured for years
to tame the spirit of the country by whips and dungeons,
but in vain. Canning sung its stern resolves to peace in
the course of twelve months. At the expense of some slight
concessions to popular opinion, the governing party had re¬
newed its lease of power for an indefinite term.
During the year 1824 ministers continued, by persever¬
ance in their new sprung liberality, to grow in the good
graces of the nation. The opposition found it extremely
difficult to muster a respectable minority. Attempts to
attach to government the stigma of having played a double
game with the Spanish constitutionalists, and given under¬
hand encouragement to the French, were successfully re¬
pelled. Calls for an acknowledgment of the independence
of the South American states were answered by the de¬
clarations of Lord Liverpool and Mr Canning, that to all
useful intents they had been declared independent. They
were allowed the privileges of free states under the new
navigation act, and consuls had been appointed at their
most important maritime towns. A formal acknowledg¬
ment of independence could be made only.by the power
which claimed dominion over another. Ministers there¬
fore contended that one thing only remained to be done,
namely, the opening a diplomatic intercourse with these
countries; but the power of deciding at what period this
step ought to be taken, they maintained, was unquestion¬
ably the prerogative of the crown. Parliament declared
itself satisfied with these reasons; and a further declara¬
tion by Mr Canning, that government had refused a se¬
cond and urgent application to become a party to a new
congress, made the walls of the House of Commons ring
again with applause.
Notwithstanding the caution with which ministers avoid¬
ed any express pledge to recognise the independence of
the rising states in the new world, active preparations
were making for paving the way to such a step. So early
as the end of August 1823 the diplomatic agent of the
United States in England had been sounded as to whe¬
ther “ the moment had not arrived when the govern¬
ments of Great Britain and the United States might come,
to some understanding with each other on the subject of
the Spanish American colonies ; and whether, if they could
arrive at such understanding, it would not be expedient
for themselves, and beneficial for the world, that the prin¬
ciples of it should be clearly settled and plainly avow¬
ed.” The American envoy did not feel himself autho¬
rized to enter, on the part of his government, into any ex-
640 BRIT
Reign of press understanding on the subject. Mr Canning next
George IV. turned to the French ambassador, with whom he opened
a conference in October of the same year. The reply of
this diplomatist was evasive and unsatisfactory, and seems
to have fixed the British ministers in the resolution to
wait no longer for the co-operation of any other power.
In fulfilment of the promise made to the South American
traders, consuls were dispatched to all the principal sea¬
ports within the Spanish provinces on that continent and
Mexico. Commissioners were at the same time dispatch¬
ed to Colombia and Mexico, with directions to report on
the political state of these countries. The measures of the
British government were precipitated by the urgency of
opposition, by the reluctance manifested on the part of
France to withdraw her troops from Spain, and by the
intelligence which arrived early in 1824 of the prepara¬
tory steps taken by the president and congress of the
United States towards recognising the independence of
South America. Towards the end of July Mr Parish was
dispatched to Buenos Ayres, intrusted with powers to
negociate a commercial treaty with that state, in the con¬
tingency of the government continuing to afford a reason¬
able prospect of being able to maintain its authority. On
the 14th of December it was determined to recognise
forthwith the independence of Colombia and Mexico ; and
by the first day of the year 1825 instructions and full
powers had left the coasts of England, and the ambassa¬
dors of the allied courts received intimation that measures
for recognising the independence of the three most power¬
ful of the new states of Spanish America had been taken,
past recall, by the British government.
Great Britain might in the year 1824 be regarded as eman¬
cipated from the false position in which, as a free and com¬
mercial nation, she had long found herself entangled. The
good work was carried on by the adoption of several import¬
ant measures both in and out of parliament. The first was
the removal of certain stoppages and impediments to a free
internal circulation. An act passed in the former session
for repealing some, and providing for the progressive dis¬
continuance of other duties to which the manufacturers
of Great Britain and Ireland respectively were subject, on
their importation from either country into the other, had
been found so beneficial, that all the duties left in exist¬
ence were repealed. Next in importance was the measure
introduced by Mr Huskisson for placing the home silk
manufacture on a more natural basis, by lowering the duty
on raw silk, repealing the bounty on the exportation of silk
goods, and substituting a duty of thirty per cent, on the
importation of foreign silk manufactures. The interests
of the operatives received also a share of legislative atten¬
tion. The old laws against combinations of workmen for the
purpose of regulating the price of labour and the hours
and manner of working, were abolished by an act which
denounced severe punishments against those who should
attempt to influence or overawe by violence or intimida¬
tion. The laws against the emigration of artizans were
likewise repealed. An act was passed of the greatest con¬
sequence to commercial dealings, establishing a uniformity
of weights and measures, to commence from the 1st of
May 1825. A bill for the repeal of the usury laws, a
measure even more vitally important than any we have
now enumerated, was thrown out by a manoeuvre; its op¬
ponents having moved that it be read that day six months,
at a late hour, when many of the supporters, expecting
no further division, had left the house. While the legis¬
lature was thus employed, the executive was busy giving
a wider extension to the system of reciprocity in com¬
merce. Commercial treaties with Portugal and the Unit¬
ed States of America, including this reciprocity arrange¬
ment (not however extending to the colonies), had exist-
AIN.
ed since 1810 in the case of the former nation, and 1815 Reign of
in that of the latter. A similar convention was concluded George IV.
with Prussia in the April of the year the occurrences of
which we are now narrating. The next arrangement was “
with Sweden. It was at first effected without treaty, and
matters remained in this unauthenticated condition till
1826. A convention for reciprocal equality, to endure for
ten years, was concluded with Denmark in June. In May
the kingdom of Hanover, and in October the duchy of
Oldenburg, were admitted to the footing of reciprocity
by an order in council. France and the Netherlands ad¬
hering to their impositions upon British vessels, were sub¬
jected to retaliation.
Government continued to advance with a hesitating
and timorous step along the path of legal reform, into
which it had reluctantly been forced. The reversal of at¬
tainders of several noble Scottish families may be viewed
as falling under this head, but was a measure of little ge¬
neral importance. The different bankrupt laws were con¬
solidated into one act, which, however, never received ef¬
fect, a new enactment having been found necessary before
the time arrived at which it was to have come in force.
An attempt to procure for persons accused of felony the
benefit of counsel was again defeated by the address of the
lawyers and the prejudices of the country gentlemen. The
utmost attempts of the friends of law reform could this
year procure nothing more than the appointment of com¬
missioners to inquire into the proceedings of the court of
chancery. The commission consisted of the chancellor,
master of the rolls, and vice-chancellor, together with some
masters in chancery, barristers, and members of parlia¬
ment. This, however, was at least something gained.
The financial arrangements of ministers encountered
little opposition. The revenue of the preceding year had
exceeded the expenditure by L.6,718,985. From this it
was necessary to deduct L.5,000,000, the sum set aside for
the gradual diminution of the national debt. The surplus
immediately available was L.1,718,985. Ministers antici¬
pated an additional surplus of L.1,052,076 during the cur¬
rent year. This excess of income over expenditure was
accounted for partly by retrenchment and partly by savings
in management. Various items of charge which inter¬
cepted a part of the revenue in its progress to the exche¬
quer were reduced. A saving of one half per cent, on the
interest of the debt was effected. The bounties on the
whale and other fisheries were allowed to expire. Under
these favourable circumstances, and with a prospect of
their continuance, ministers felt themselves authorized to
commence a system of alterations in the commercial and
fiscal regulations of the country. They proposed to begin
by putting rum, in regard to the duty with which it was
chargeable, on a level with spirits produced by British dis¬
tillation. The duty on coals and wool was diminished.
The alteration on the laws regulating the silk trade, which
has already been adverted to, was the last measure pro¬
posed for immediate adoption. The total reduction thus
effected upon the national burdens was:—
Rum L.150,000
Coals  100,000
Wool  350,000
Silk  462,000
L.1,062,000
The relief was kept within the limits of the fund which
afforded the means of granting it.
Ireland continued to experience but a small share of
this conciliatory policy. Although disturbances had in a
great measure ceased, the insurrection act was again re¬
newed. The claims of the Catholics continued to be urged
with increasing feebleness, and operated with additional
BRITAIN. 641
Reisrn of inveteracy. Committees were demanded both in the inquire into the loss occasioned by the late revolt, and to Reign of
George IV. Lords and Commons for investigating into the state of report on the best mode ot obtaining compensation rom ^eorge^.
Ireland. Ministers, however, evaded the inquiry by li- England. An attempt was likewise made to repea tie ^
miting it to the nature and extent of the disturbances registry act, and much violent and foolish language was
that had prevailed in the districts of Ireland subject to uttered. All the other colonies were tranquil, except
the operation of the insurrection act. At a subsequent pe- Lower Canada and the Cape of Good Hope. In the foimer
riod of the session, Mr Hume moved “ that it is expedient province, constitutional questions of an essential and grave
to inquire whether the present church establishment of Ire- nature were urged. I he House of Assembly on t e one
land be not more than commensurate to the services to be hand, and the governor, supported by the legislative coun-
nerformed, both as regards the number of persons employ- cil, on the other, were at issue respecting the claim of the
ed, and the incomes they receive.” In a house of two hun- former to the right of disposing of the who e revenue,
dred and thirty-two, only seventy-nine members supported The governor and council would not admit the claim to
the motion. This repulse, however, operated as an in- its full extent; the Assembly refused the supplies; a dis-
centive rather than as a discouragement. The Catholic solution ensued, and the different blanches of the legisla-
Association now began to assume a bolder tone, to extend tive body parted in very bad humour with each other. The
its local connections, and to adopt the most decided measures, disquiets of the Cape were caused by the petty tyranny of
Its members held regular sessions in Dublin, constituted the governor Lord Charles Somerset. Sixty of the most
themselves the medium of communication between Ireland respectable individuals of Cape I own were desirous ofes-
and parliament, ordered a census of the population to be tablishing a literary society, a museum, and a, lilnaiy. A
taken, and appointed collectors in every district for the fundamental article of the constitution of this body, was
receipt of the “ Catholic Rent.” Mr O’Connell may be the exclusion from their discussions of controversial theo-
re^arded as the effective founder and organizer of this logy, the question of slavery, and all purely professional
body. The violent and theatrical character of many of subjects ; but the governor condemned the scheme as ille-
its proceedings cannot be denied; but it had the effect gal, and induced the chief justice and some other members
of givino- concentration, and a rational aim, to the angry to withdraw their names. The reasons which he assigned
efforts of the oppressed Irish. It at once added a fresh for calling the society illegal were, hist, because they
energy to their demands for redress of grievances, and had presumed to form themselves into a society “ without
withdrew from them the temptation to illegal and atroci- any previous reference to his excellency,” which he de-
ous acts of vengeance. Beneath its influence, and the re- signated as a complete disregard of the existing authon-
straining force of the new constabulary, outrage subsided ties at the Cape; secondly, because it was improper to
to such a degree, that shortly after the close of the ses- permit the establishment of an association which might
sion the operation of the insurrection act was suspended have a tendency to produce “ political discussion. Ano-
in several of the disturbed districts. The clamours of ther instance of the governor’s proceedings was his conduct
Protestant and Catholic zealots were loud and bitter, but towards Mr Greig, the editor of a newspaper, who had pub-
they abstained from personal violence. Increased tran- lished an article which Lord Charles conceived to be dis-
quillity, the loosening of the restrictions upon commercial respectful to his administration. The offender was order-
exertions, and a limited but certain increase of the means ed to quit the colony within a month. He abandoned Ins
of education, shone through the troubles of Ireland like employment, and advertised his effects for sale; but by
the first dull beams of a tempestuous day-break. this time the governor had changed his mind, and Mr
The West India colonies still continued in an unsettled Greig received intimation that he was at liberty to remain
state. A numerous military establishment maintained in the colony.
quiet in Demerara. Such, however, was the malignant England was this year involved in two wars by her fo-
spirit of the planters, that a missionary who had been reign possessions. The Burmese war will fall to be noticed
heard to speak favourably of Mr Smith was obliged to when we come to narrate the events of 1826, when it was
quit the colony. In Trinidad the regulations of the order terminated. The petty skirmishes with the barbarians
in council were submitted to under protest. In Barba- of Ashantee were the cause of much private grief, and
does a bill for admitting the evidence of slaves in certain materially enhanced the expenses attendant upon the
cases miscarried, and Mr Canning’s plans were contemp- maintenance of an unhealthy and useless establishment ;
tuously neglected. In Dominica the governor recom- but were too trifling to affect the majestic interests of Bri-
mended to the legislature the incorporation of the whole tain. The shock which had been communicated both to
of the slave-laws into one act, comprising the substance the agricultural and manufacturing interests, by the tran-
of the order in council, and repealing such statutes as were sition from a state of commerce in which, although ex-
at variance with its spirit. The House of Assembly re- posed to hostile depredation, they were encountered by
fused, and expressly declined, to contribute any pecuniary no competition, to the rivalry of every nation, and increas-
aid towards the instruction of the slaves. In Jamaica the ed in vehemence by the measures taken to restore the
temper of the planters had been ruffled by a partial in- currency to a sound state, had begun to pass away. Ihe
surrection of the slaves; which, however, had been sup- prospect of a government acting upon a rational system
pressed without loss either of lives or property. A fresh cheered men’s spirits; and under such auspices national
alarm was given during the month of June. On both oc- industry, although still trammelled and burdened by an
casions a number of negroes were executed. The revolt unnecessarily complicated, wasteful, and extravagant exe-
was supposed to have originated in some vague expecta- cutive system, was beginning to regain a healthy tone,
tions on the part of the slaves of aid from England. The There was a regular demand for labour, and wages were
House of Assembly, which met in November, was inform- rising. Manufactures of every kind were prospering. Ihe
ed that the o-eneral government had appointed a bishop abundance of capital led to many new devices for its em-
for the island, and appropriated a fund for the support of ployment. The lately opened trade to South America
the Episcopal clergy. One important office confided to was prosecuted, with all the sanguine hope of ignorance,
the bishop was the superintendence of the religious in- to an absurd extent. Joint-stock companies were formed
struction of the slaves ; and the return required for this be- for working the mines and conducting its pearl fisheries,
nefit was the adoption of the order in council. The angry The rage for such associations spread through every de¬
planters, instead of complying/ appointed a committee to partment of domestic industry. Ihe wildest anticipations
642
BRITAIN.
1825.
Reign of of profit were indulged. The nation, drunken with the
fieorge IV. sudden increase of its mercantile transactions, was pre¬
paring for itself a sudden and tremendous reflux of its
spring-tide of prosperity.
Parliament met in 1825 on the 3d of February. The
question most urgently pressed upon its consideration was
the necessity of suppressing the Catholic Association.
The coldness of lukewarm friends, and the open enmity
of avowed enemies, had rallied the whole of the Catholics
and a great number of the Protestants of Ireland around
this body. A contempt for the rights of citizens had
called it into existence and invested it with power; and
now the oppressors were the first to discover the might
with which they had invested it, but without feeling in¬
clined to betake themselves to the only effectual method
of destroying it, namely, removing the grievances which
gave it birth.
The expressions in the king’s speech applicable to the
Catholic Association were these:—“ It is to be regret¬
ted that associations should exist in Ireland, which have
adopted proceedings irreconcilable with the spirit of the
constitution, and calculated, by exciting alarm, and by ex¬
asperating animosities, to endanger the peace of society,
and retard the course of national improvement. His ma¬
jesty relies upon your wisdom to consider without delay
the means of applying a remedy to this evil.” The ad¬
dress in answer to the speech from the throne was agreed
to without a division. Several of the opposition members,
however, protested against the line of policy indicated in
the passage which we have quoted. In the Lords, the
Marquis of Lansdown cautioned ministers not to be hasty
in repressing open complaint, and not to beguile them¬
selves with the idea of curing a malady merely by remov¬
ing a few of the outward symptoms. Mr Brougham, in
the Commons, maintained that the delay of redress had
driven the Irish to seek it at their own hands. He ex¬
posed the insincerity that lurked under the plural “ asso¬
ciations.” It was a juggling attempt to assume the ap¬
pearance of dealing equal justice to the Orangemen and
the members of the Association.
Ministers were not slack in following up their denuncia¬
tion. On the second day of the session Mr Goulburn gave
notice that he would, on the 10th of February, move for
leave to bring in a bill to amend certain acts relating to
unlawful societies in Ireland. The acts referred to were
two in number. The oldest, enacted by the Irish parlia¬
ment in 1793, prohibited all assemblies for the appoint¬
ment of deputies, or which assumed in any manner the
right of representing the people of that country. The
other, passed in 1823, with the view of conciliating party
feuds, was directed against Orange societies and Orange
processions. Neither touched the Catholic Association.
Mr Goulburn, when propounding his measure, dwelt at
great length on the members of the Association. Accord¬
ing to him, it was composed mainly of priests, men of dis¬
appointed ambition, and the familiar friends of Tone and
Emmett. The Roman Catholic gentry who belonged to
it were acting, he averred, under intimidation. The ob¬
jects of the institution he described as being the levying
of an unauthorized tax by the agency of the priests; insti¬
tuting prosecutions against individuals accused of perpe¬
trating outrages, or acting as incendiaries; and assuming
the right to call upon the illegal societies to disband. With
regard to the last charge, Mr Goulburn expatiated at con¬
siderable length on one part in the Association’s “ Ad¬
dress to the People of Ireland,” in which they adjured
them to refrain from secret and illegal societies, “ by the
hate you bear the Orangemen, who are your natural ene¬
mies.” The members who, in the course of the debate,
supported Mr Goulburn’s motion, adhered most pertina¬
ciously to his line of argument. Mr Canning alone at- Reign of^
tempted to awe the house by insinuating that its vote GeorSe 1'-
against the motion would be tantamount to a declaration
that it had satisfied itself “ that his majesty had been de- 'l0'
ceived by false information; and that the description ap¬
plied in his majesty’s speech to the associations in Ireland
was altogether incorrect.” On the part of the opposition, Sir
Henry Parnell showed that Mr Goulburn had misrepresent¬
ed the mode of collecting the Catholic rent, and the share
taken by the priests in the operation; and Mr Tierney
affirmed that he had exaggerated its amount. Mr Den¬
man contended that the analogy which had been attempted
to be established between the case of the constitutional
association and that before the house, did not hold. The
former sullied the fountain of justice, because men who ac¬
cused a man because he entertained certain opinions, might
sit upon his trial as jurors. The latter was at the most
but on a footing with associations for the prosecution of
thieves and swindlers. The members only bound them¬
selves to contribute to the prosecution of men guilty of of¬
fences which were allowed by the whole world to be such.
Each might bring to the consideration of the individual
case a mind free from prejudice. Mr Plunkett, although
in favour of the motion, admitted that it was quite legal
to associate for the purposes professed by the Association.
Mr Goulburn’s motion was, however, agreed to, after a de¬
bate which lasted four nights. The Catholic Association
made application to be heard at the bar of the Commons ;
and being denied that privilege, they repeated the re¬
quest to the Lords with the same want of success. The
bill passed both houses, and received the royal assent on
the 9th of March. But the Association, strong in the na¬
tional affection, was not so easily discomfited. It sub¬
mitted without a struggle; but no sooner wras the session
closed than an aggregate meeting of the Catholics re-es¬
tablished it with a constitution wliich did not come under
the law. Like Milton’s spirits, it re-united, seemingly in¬
capable of “ mortal wound” in its “ liquid texture.”
The friends of the Catholics laid hold of the occasion,
when the pretended advocates of emancipation were pro¬
testing the more violently their continued attachment to
the cause that they were busy binding those who peti¬
tioned for it, and when some of its opponents were shaken
in their firmness by the determination of the people, to
renew the question. Sir Francis Burdett, after some pre¬
liminary discussion in committee, introduced a bill for the
relief of the Catholics on the 23d of March. Two subor¬
dinate bills were introduced at the same time for the pur¬
pose of conciliating the most determined enemies of con¬
cession. By the one the qualification of a voter was raised
to a freehold of L.10 per annum, while the object of the
other was to make a provision for the Catholic clergy.
The friends of the principal measure were by no means
agreed as to the auxiliaries; but their variance was ren¬
dered of less consequence by the fate of the bill. While
it was yet before the committee of the House of Com¬
mons, the Duke of York rose in his place in the Upper
House, and in a long and confused speech declared his
resolution to oppose every concession “ up to the latest
moment of his existence, whatever might be his situation
in life, so help him God.” This uncalled for and illiberal
declaration of the heir-apparent exasperated the Catholics
and grieved their friends. The bill passed the Commons
notwithstanding; but was, as every one anticipated, tin own
out in the Lords.
While parliament was thus refusing their just rights to
the Catholics in one breath, and in the next forbidding,
under heavy penalties, every attempt to vindicate them,
the committee appointed by tlm Loids during the pre¬
vious session to collect information respecting the state
BRITAIN.
643
Reign of of Ireland, were proceeding with the investigation. The
George IV. evidence led established the existence of the most extensive
and pervading misery. The peasantry were described as
1 * being constantly on the verge of starvation, the victims
of disease produced by the state of their squalid habita¬
tions. They were servilely dependent on their landlords,
and harassed incessantly by the unprincipled extortions of
the tithe-agents. The law which was devised to protect
them had been perverted into an engine of oppression.
The report of the committee was presented at too late a
period of the session to admit of its being made the basis
of any enactment. Various attempts were, however, made
in the House of Commons to procure redress of specific
grievances. Sir John Newport, founding upon the report
of the commissioners on education, moved an address to
the king, praying his majesty to give orders for instituting
prosecutions against different individuals connected with
the charter-schools of Ireland, who had been accused of
gross acts of cruelty; which was agreed to unanimously.
Mr Hume renewed his attack upon the established church
in Ireland, but with a diminished number of supporters.
And after wasting the best part of five months in vehement
declamation, and passing a number of unimportant laws,
parliament abandoned Ireland to the rage of party spirit,
with scarcely any thing to preserve that country from
anarchy but the vigilance and influence of the Catholic As¬
sociation.
Meanwhile discussions leading to a more satisfactory
result had been agitated in parliament. On the 29th of
March Mr Huskisson called the attention of the House
of Commons to the effects of Mr Hume’s bill of the pre¬
vious session, repealing both the common and statute law
against combinations among workmen. It was to be ex¬
pected that men new to liberty should in some measure
abuse it. Every unaccustomed pleasure is apt to be in¬
dulged in to excess. Accordingly it was found, that in
several parts of the country, and more particularly in the
west of Scotland and the sea-ports, the operatives had
immediately availed themselves of the privilege of com¬
bination to an extent that endangered the just rights of
their employers, and threatened to place themselves at the
mercy of the more artful and unprincipled of their own
body. The treasurer of the navy concluded his exposi¬
tion of the state of combinations by moving for a commit¬
tee to report their opinion how far it might be necessary
to repeal or amend the act 5th George IV. cap. 95. The
motion was agreed to; and in consequence of the report
of the committee, a bill was introduced having for its ob¬
ject to afford protection to masters, and to such workmen
as declined entering into associations. A summary juris¬
diction was established, with power to convict for offences
against the act on the oath of one credible witness, and
to inflict an arbitrary punishment to the extent of six
months imprisonment with hard labour. Some protection
to the capitalist was undoubtedly necessary; but it must
at the same time be admitted, that the vague manner in
which the act was worded left open a wide field for op¬
pression ; and that the removal of the constitutional pro¬
tection of a jury was an infringement upon the rights of
the subject. The other measures introduced by Mr Hus¬
kisson were less exceptionable. The first was an import¬
ant modification of the colonial system. The commerce
of the colonies was thrown open to a certain extent to all
friendly powers. They were entitled to trade thither
with goods of their own produce in their own ships. The
bonding system was likewise introduced into the colo¬
nies, and five warehousing ports appointed; Kingstown
in Jamaica, Bridgetown in Barbadoes, St John’s in New Reign of
Brunswick ; Halifax, and Quebec. The large fees leviedGeorgeiy.
in the colonial ports were abolished. Two further altera-
tions of a local nature were contemplated. The sugar of
the Mauritius was admitted at the same rate as that of
the West Indies; and the corn of Canada was admitted
into Great Britain on payment of a moderate duty. This
last provision, however, was limited in its operation to the
space of two years. This measure was accompanied by
a second, which had for its object the promotion of com¬
merce by the diminution of duties imposed for protection,
and not for revenue. A third was added, tending to re¬
lieve the navigation of the country. Quarantine duties
were abolished. All fees on commerce with the colo¬
nies were done away. The duty imposed upon the trans¬
fer of ships was removed. And, lastly, the system of con¬
sular establishments was reformed by the substitution of
fixed salaries, payable out of the public purse, for the bur¬
densome and unequal fees which had previously been le¬
vied. These measures, although viewed with apprehen¬
sion by some members of the legislature, were approved
of without a dissenting voice. The surrender of its char¬
ter by the Levant Company at the same time conferred an
additional benefit on the mercantile interest. The repeal
of the usury laws was again attempted, but without suc¬
cess. A further reduction of taxation was effected by
the chancellor of the exchequer, but hot to any great
extent.
The excessive speculation occasioned by the increasing
commercial prosperity of the country led, in the autumn
of 1825, to such a reverse as might have been anticipated.
Lord Liverpool and Mr Huskisson had raised their warn¬
ing voices against the excess of speculation. Mr Tooke
and Mr M‘Culloch distinctly foretold the convulsion which
was about to happen. The process of the change was
this:—“ The depressed state of trade in 1821 and 1822
had led to a diminished production and importation of
goods, and to an advance of prices in 1823; and the very
high prices of 1824 and 1825 were the result, first, of this
diminished production and importation; secondly, of an
improvement in the state of agricultural produce; thirdly,
of the acknowledgment of the independence of the South
American republics, which opened new markets to Bri¬
tish commerce ; and, lastly, of the loans which were raised
for these republics, and transmitted in manufactured
goods.”1 The consequences of a want of due foresight
under these circumstances were, production on the part of
the manufacturer beyond what could find vent, and impor¬
tation on the part of the merchant beyond what could find
a market. The delusion was kept up longer than it other¬
wise would have been, through the facilities afforded by
large issues of paper. The first symptom of something
being wrong was the turning of the exchange against
England. The bank immediately, in conformity with its
established policy, diminished its issues and discounts.
Merchants were now pressed for funds to supply the place
of those which had been vested in a mode unavailable for
immediate demand. The bankers, induced by the low
rate of interest, had discounted bills at unusually long
dates, and laid out their funds upon securities which could
not be quickly realized. Several important commercial
failures took place, and the country became alarmed. A
run upon the banks ensued, and several of them gave way.
On the 12th of December it was announced that a London
house, upon which no less than forty-seven country banks
drew, had stopped payment. Next day the stoppage of
another equally important house was announced. Mr
1 On Paper-Money, Banking, and Over-Trading, by Sir Henry Parnell.
644
BRITAIN.
Reign of Baring thus described the scene which ensued:—“ A pa-
Georgeiv. nic seized the public. Men would not part with their
money on any terms, nor for any security, and the conse-
1826‘ quence was general distress. Persons of undoubted wealth
and real capital were seen walking about the streets of
London, not knowing whether they should be able to
meet their engagements for next day.” On the Wednes¬
day the bank began to increase its discounts ; it purchased
exchequer bills, and discounted on stock. Before the end
of the week it had issued in gold and notes not less than
eight millions. In the mean time meetings were held
in London, and in most of the trading towns, in which
resolutions were adopted for the support of commercial
credit. The public mind gradually became re-assured,
but in the interval banks had broken down in every dis¬
trict of England. Between October 1825 and February
1826 fifty-nine commissions of bankruptcy were issued
against English country banks; and at such a time the
number of private compositions are estimated to be to the
number of commissions in the proportion of four to one.
In a mercantile nation such a suspension of the circulation
paralyses every effort. The ship-owners suffered from
their inability to procure freights; while the artizans were
thrown out of employment, and exposed to famine. In
Scotland the momentary distress was equally great, but
the more solid system of banking materially alleviated the
after-pressure. Mistrust and apprehension darkened the
close of 1825, and threw their shade over the prospects of
the opening year.
Parliament was opened on the 2d of February 1826 by
commission. Almost the only topic touched upon in the
speech was the distress which pervaded the nation. “ The
embarrassment,” it said, “ did not arise from any political
events either at home or abroad. It was not produced by
any unexpected demand upon the public resources, nor
by the apprehension of any interruption to the general
tranquillity. Some of the causes to which this evil must
be attributed lie without the direct reach of parliament¬
ary interposition, nor can security against the recurrence
of them be found, unless in the experience of the suffer¬
ings which they have occasioned. But to a certain por¬
tion of this evil, correctives, at least, if not effectual reme¬
dies, may be applied, and his majesty relies upon your
wisdom to devise such measures as may tend to protect
both private and public interests against the like sudden
and violent fluctuations, by placing on a more firm foun¬
dation the currency and circulating credit of the country.
The answer proposed by the ministerial party to be re¬
turned to this recommendation was agreed to in both
houses without opposition; but many members embraced
the opportunity of stating their opinions of the state of
the country, and the measures that ought to be adopted.
Lord King attacked the corn laws, and proposed that the
Lords should pledge themselves to their revisal during the
session. Mr Brougham thought the causes of the distress
more complicated than those adverted to in the speech,
and dwelt upon its universality as a sufficient proof that
its origin was not to be sought in the adoption of more li¬
beral commercial principles. Mr Hume maintained that
the true cause of the distress was the heavy pressure of
taxation, and the wasteful expenditure of government.
The members connected with the country bankers de¬
fended the characters of these gentlemen; and Mr Ba¬
ring and others eulogised the conduct of the Bank of Eng¬
land. Ministers announced that the palliatives they meant
to apply were, first, to prohibit the circulation, after a
certain period, of notes under two pounds, whether issued
by the Bank of England or any private banker; secondly,
to increase the stability of private banks, by enabling them
to augment their capital, and with that view to repeal
the clause in the charter of the Bank of England which Reign of
made it unlawful for any private banking establishment to jeorge ^ *
consist of more than six partners. 1826.
The first of these projects carried into execution was
that which contemplated the destruction of the small
notes. Government entertained apprehensions that du¬
ring the interval which must necessarily elapse between
the announcement of their plan and its receiving the
sanction of law, an infinite number of small notes might
be stamped, and immediately gave orders to put an end
to the stamping of such notes. The step was animadvert¬
ed on in both houses as a most dangerous assumption of
power, but defended as necessary to insure the success
of the measures in contemplation. On the 10th of Fe¬
bruary the chancellor of the exchequer, in a committee
of the whole house, fully developed that part of the plan
which related to the small-note circulation. He proposed
that no new notes under the value of five pounds should
be stamped; and that all promissory notes payable to the
bearer on demand, issued by license, and under the value of
five pounds, and stamped previous to the 5th of February
1826, should be allowed to circulate until the 5th of Fe¬
bruary 1829, and no longer. Ministers at a later period
consented to allow the Bank of England the power to is¬
sue one and two pound notes, stamped at any time prior
to the 10th of October, but not to continue them in cir¬
culation after the lapse of three years, the limited date of
the existence of such a circulation. This measure met
with vehement opposition in the Commons, but from a
very small minority. In the Lords it was less pertina¬
ciously opposed. Ministers had from the beginning li¬
mited the immediate operation of their bill to England,
but declared that they could not see on what principle
different systems of currency should prevail on the oppo¬
site sides of the Tweed. Scotland took the alarm ; a small-
note currency wTas there identified with every step in the
march of national improvement. The tables ot both houses
of parliament were instantly loaded with petitions from
that country against any restrictions on its paper cur¬
rency. It was necessary to p&y attention to representa¬
tions in which men of all political parties and every rank
in life concurred. Select committees were appointed to
investigate the matter; and the result of their inquiries
was, that the small-note currency of Scotland remained
untouched. Ireland was also left in possession ol her
small notes.
In order to give effect to the other measure contemplat¬
ed by ministers, it was necessary to interfere to a certain
extent with the chartered privileges of the Bank of Eng¬
land, and the consent of that body was therefore requisite
even to its introduction. A communication was accord¬
ingly made by the first lord of the treasury and the chan¬
cellor of the exchequer, to the governor of the bank, on
the 13th of January, containing a detailed and luminous
exposition of the views of ministry, and expressing their
hopes “ that the bank will make no difficulty in giving up
their exclusive privileges, in respect to the number of part¬
ners engaged in banking, as to any district fifty mile® Kom
the metropolis.” The directors, in their answer of the ~0th,
declined the task of recommending to the proprietors the
abandonment of their exclusive privileges. Seve™ papers
were interchanged, and finally, a general court, held on t le
3d of February, consented to waive their privilege, except
within a district of fifty miles round the city of London.
In the course of this correspondence the propriety of the
bank establishing branches was suggested by goveinment.
The measure founded upon this arrangement was first in¬
troduced into the House of Lords; but no discussion took
place upon it, until on the 17th of March Lord Liverpool
moved the second reading. The debate even then wan-
BRITAIN.
645
lleign of dered entirely from the subject, and lost itself in vague dis-
SecrgelV quisitions on the history and fluctuations of the currency.
In the committee Lord Liverpool moved the addition of
182(j‘ a clause authorizing the Bank of England to establish
branch banks throughout the country. The adoption of
this clause rendered another proviso necessary, declaring
the notes issued by the branch banks payable at the place
where they were issued. The bill experienced a warmer
opposition in the House of Commons, but was ultimately,
with some slight alterations, agreed to.
Public confidence was not however yet quite restored,
and ministers were pressed to take some step for the alle¬
viation of the immediate pressure. After some hesitation,^
an arrangement was made with the bank, in virtue of
which it agreed to make advances to private individuals
upon the deposit of goods, merchandise, and other securi¬
ties. The whole sum advanced was not to exceed three
millions. The adoption of this measure rendered it neces¬
sary, for the security of the bank, to introduce a new bill
regarding the law of principal and agent. I his act en¬
abled all persons in the possession of goods, possessed
likewise of documents conferring the property of them,
although such persons should be merely factors or agents,
to pledge with the bank as effectually as if they had been
the actual owners. Its operation was confined to deposits
made with the bank. Commissioners were immediately
appointed by the bank in the principal provincial towns.
They were almost uniformly merchants resident in the
district. The applications for advances were much fewer
than had been anticipated: either men were unwilling to
disclose their necessities to local competitors, or the know¬
ledge that a fund was provided restored confidence.
During these transactions the cause of the late panic
continued to be keenly canvassed both in parliament and
beyond its walls. Emigration was suggested as a source
of relief for the labouring classes, and a committee appoint¬
ed to collect information on the subject. The corn laws
were most vehemently exclaimed against, and even forced
upon the notice of parliament. Ministers acknowledged
the necessity that existed for thoroughly revising them,
but deprecated the introduction of so extensive a topic
during a session which, as the last of that parliament, must
necessarily prove a brief one. The general question was
evaded ; yet before the end of the session, it was found
necessary to introduce two bills to modify the strict ope¬
ration of these laws. The first allowed wheat in bond to
come into the market on payment of a duty of ten shillings
per quarter, and other kinds of grain at inferior rates. 1 he
second gave ministers a discretionary power of admitting
foreign grain during the recess to the limited quantity of
five hundred thousand quarters. These very slight conces¬
sions to sound economical principles were wrung with the
utmost difficulty from the landed interest. But, on the
other hand, a portion of the manufacturing and mercantile
community showed themselves as unreasonable and selfish as
the land-owners. The silk trade, a branch which had not
been long enough exposed to our rigorous climate to be
able to bear its severity, was as usual the first to complain.
Petitions flowed in upon parliament from every district
where this manufacture had struck root. An attempt was
made to have them referred to a select committee, as a pre¬
liminary step towards checking the advance which had been
made by government in liberal commeicial policy 5 but with¬
out success. The ship-owners, a body who are sufficient¬
ly alive to their own interests, and active in pursuing them,
were the next to make their voice heard. Mr Huskisson
met their allegations by a prompt appeal to facts, moving for
“ returns of ships built in the British dominions between
1814 and 1825 both inclusive, distinguishing the number
in each year, and the amount of their tonnage. ’
The advantages likely to result from the gradual emanci- Reign of
pation of the country from ill-judged trammels upon its in- George IV
dustry were too apparent to allow, in any enlightened mind,
of the thought of a retrograde movement.
In the discussions of this session to which we have
hitherto alluded, the ministers had found themselves
uniformly in triumphant majorities, swelled indeed more
frequently by their habitual opponents than by some of
their avowed supporters. The restriction of the small-note
currency was a step of very questionable expediency, but
one, however, which admitted of a plausible defence. The
curtailment of the bank privileges could only be disapprov¬
ed of by a member of that powerful incorporation, which
had so long controlled at its pleasure all the money trans¬
actions and contracts of the kingdom. But the relaxation
of the corn laws, and the removal of commercial restric¬
tions, were measures based alike upon justice and expedi¬
ency, and consequently sanctioned by all the rules of sound
policy. Every honest and enlightened man lent a willing
support to the projectors of such a system of policy. The
state of the finances, however, opposed a serious obstacle to
any change of system. Huskisson and Robinson entertained
clear business notions, and were willing to adopt a better
system. Canning saw that their views were popular, and he
coveted the glory of enforcing them. But they and their
friends knew perfectly that their places in the cabinet were
held by the sufferance of that party which, in virtue of its as¬
cendency in the House of Commons, had the reins of power
in their hands. They were kept in office to transact business,
whilst the real holders of power reaped the profits. They
might make what parade of liberal sentiments they pleased in
order to conciliate the nation, as long as they did not trench
upon the emoluments of their patrons. The distribution of
offices ostensibly provided for discharging the executive
functions of the government, was ill assorted and ineffec¬
tive, but the structure, though in itself frail, was sustained
by a power capable of supporting a still weaker fabric.
The chancellor of the exchequer, on opening the budget
on the 13th of March, took a large review of the whole fi¬
nancial system of the country from the conclusion of peace.
It will be sufficient if we confine ourselves at present to what
related more immediately to the period during which he
himself had held office. Considerable retrenchment had
been effected between 1815 and 1819. During the last-
mentioned year an increase of taxation had been made to
the amount of three millions. In 1820 there had been no
change, and little in 1821. In 1822 Mr Vansittart was re¬
luctantly forced to remit rather more than three millions of
taxes. Matters were thus placed upon the same footing as
in 1819. Mr Robinson claimed to have remitted during
his administration L.8,073,000. The annual charge on
the whole debt on the 5th of January 1823 he stated
at L.29,286,000; and on the 5th of January 1826 at
L.27,946,000; being a reduction of L.1,339,000 in three
years. But he omitted to remind the house that during
each of these three years he had been professedly setting
apart an annual sum of five millions as a sinking fund. In
his estimate of the amount of the debt he omitted the bar¬
gain commenced by Mr Vansittart, and completed by him¬
self, for the payment of military and naval pensions,—an
annuity of L.2,800,000, which had forty-one and a half years
to run, paid by government to trustees who had undertaken
to discharge that burden. Mr Robinson was likewise re¬
minded by Mr Hume that the decrease on taxation was
more apparent than real. The taxes in 1818 had produced
a sum of L.52,000,000; and in 1825 their amount was
L.52,540,000. In 1818 the taxes were payable in paper
not convertible into gold, on an average of three years,
at a lower rate than L.5 per ounce. In 1825 they were
payable in gold, or in paper money convertible into gold,
646 B R I T A I N.
lieign of at the rate of seventy-seven shillings and tenpence half- Bundoolah having received some reinforcements, took Reign of
GeorgelV. penny per ounce. In reality there had been an increase up a strong position with twenty-five thousand men, George IV,
  A--' of taxation instead of a reduction. The chancellor of the “ with a judgment,” says Sir Archibald Campbell, “ which
1820 exchequer evaded Mr Hume’s statements and arguments, would do credit to the best instructed engineers of the 1826‘
under the pretext that they were too complicated to be most civilized and warlike nations.” On the 15th a body
discussed at once. There was nothing in the argument he of thirteen hundred of General Campbell’s infantry storm-
advanced, that the amount of revenue being derived chiefiy ed the works, and the enemy fled, leaving their camp
from the excise and customs, indicated increased con- standing, with all their baggage and a large proportion
sumption. If the officials of government were adequately of their arms and ammunition. Whilst these operations
remunerated in the depreciated currency, they were extra- were carrying on, demonstrations had been made by the
vagantly paid after its value had been raised. Undue bur- Burmese on the Chittagong frontier. Their arms were at
dens were imposed upon the country ; but these were never first attended by success, and they continued to hover
adverted to. The majorities were the only answer relied around Ramao till the end of July. Colonel Innes having '
upon by ministers; and they were applied with great sue- taken the command of the Sylhet frontier, they gradual-
cess to meet motions for reduction of the naval, military, ly fell back; and the end of October saw Cachar com-
and diplomatic expenditure. pletely evacuated, and the enemy in full retreat for Mun-
The discussions which arose during this session on the nipoor. About the middle of February 1825 Sir Archi-
state of Ireland were as vain and fruitless as might be ex- bald Campbell moved from Rangoon upon Prome. The
pected from a legislature indifferent to or ignorant of the inhabitants of the country through which he passed saw
merits of either question. with pleasure the expulsion of the Burmese. Having
In the speech by which the session was prorogued, allu- reached Sorrawah, fifty miles in advance of Rangoon, the
sion was made to the termination of hostilities with the commander-in-chief halted in the hope of hearing of the
Burmese empire. The origin, progress, and termination fall of Donabew, which was to be attacked by the column
of this war were briefly these :—For many years the Bur- advancing under General Cotton by the Irawuddy. But the
mese officers had been in the practice of committing acts attack was foiled. On the 11th of March General Camp-
of encroachment and aggression on the East India Com- bell commenced a retrograde movement on Donabew, be-
pany’s territories. Towards the close of the year 1823 fore which he arrived on the 25th, and established a com-
they had crossed the frontiers, and entrenched themselves munication with the water column on the 27th. The bat-
within the limits belonging to the British. During Janu- teries were opened on the 1st of April; and Maha Bundoo-
ary and February 1824 they were driven from several of lah having been accidentally killed, the Burmese garrison
their stockades; but on the 21st of February they sue- abandoned the fort. Sir Archibald immediately resumed
ceeded in repulsing a British force, which inspired them his march upon Prome, which he entered on the 25th of
with fresh audacity. The governor-general, by the ad- April without firing a shot. By the 1st of February the
vice of his council, issued a declaration of war on the 5th Burmese were expelled from Assam. A series of brilliant
of March. A considerable naval and military armament, operations on the 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th of March
drawn partly from Madras and partly from Calcutta, was gave General Morrison possession of Arracan. In Cachar
assembled at Port Cornwallis in the beginning of May, un- General Shuldham was advancing upon Munnipoor, which
der the command of Sir Archibald Campbell and Commo- lies two hundred miles north-west of Ammerapoora, the
dore Grant. It attacked Rangoon, the principal sea-port capital of the Burmese empire. The main body of the
of Ava, on the 10th of May, and took it after a feeble army was arrested at Prome by the rainy season, and felt
resistance, without the loss of a single man, capturing on somewhat straitened for provisions, the country through
the occasion a considerable quantity of artillery and ammu- which their route lay having been entirely depopulated,
nition. A detachment sent against the island of dieduba, The mortality among the troops was also considerable,
on the Arracan coast, and another against Negrais Isle, at The Burmese had twenty thousand men at Mecadore, fifty
the mouth of the Nerbudda, were equally successful. On miles from Prome, and the same number at Patana-go.
the 10th of June General Campbell moved upon the ene- An equally numerous body was interposed between the
my’s camp at Kemmendine, which he attacked in concert British force in Arracan and the troops under the com-
with the flotilla. The position was evacuated by the Bur- mander-in-chief. In September negociations for the re-
mese troops, after sustaining a cannonade of a few hours, storation of peace were set on foot. A cessation of hosti-
The British maintained their advantage in several engage- lities was agreed to on the 17th, to continue till the 17th of
ments, and the enemy withdrew to a greater distance; October. Commissioners from the king of Ava met the
but the inundations, and the necessity of collecting a large British general at Neounben-ziek on the 2d of October,
supply of provisions, induced General Campbell to con- They endeavoured to elude his demands for territorial
tinue his head-quarters at Rangoon up to the end of the cessions and indemnification ; but finding him immovable,
year. Expeditions were, however, detached against the requested a prolongation of the armistice, that they might
most important maritime stations ; and by the end of Oc- consult their court. It was accordingly extended till the
tober the whole of the Burmese coast from Rangoon to 2d of November. Preparations were in the meanwhile
the eastward was subjected to the British arms. On the made to prosecute the war with activity in case the armis-
1st of December Maha Bundoolah, who had been lately tice did not lead to a definite treaty. On receiving the
appointed to the command of the Burmese army, appear- proposed terms of peace, his majesty of the golden foot
ed in front of General Campbell’s position with from burst into a violent passion, and gave orders to renew of-
fifty to sixty thousand men. He was allowed to extend fensive operations. Before the termination of the armis-
his line round the British flanks, and to the rear, and tice it was haughtily announced to the British leader—
even to entrench himself in that position. On the 5th “ If you wish for peace you may go away; but if you
General Campbell attacked and entirely routed his left wish either money or territory, no friendship can exist
wing. Bundoolah reinforced his centre and right with the between us. This is Burman custom. The whole army
scattered remnant during the night, and presented himself of Ava, nearly sixty thousand strong, advanced against
next day in front, having pushed his entrenchments close Prome, occupied by six thousand British and native troops,
up to the British lines. General Campbell attacked them The left division of fifteen thousand, commanded by Ma-
at noon, and drove them from all their entrenchments, ha Nemiow, approached close to Prome, keeping the east-
BRITAIN.
lleign of ern bank of the river. By the end of November the cen-
Seorge IV. between twenty-five and thirty thousand strong, un-
**^7^ ^el ^ee W°nghee> showed itself on the heights of
‘ Napadee, on the same side of the river, five miles above
Prome. The right, consisting of fifteen thousand men
under Sudda Woon, were posted on the opposite side
of the river. All these bodies were, according to the mi¬
litary system of the Burmese, strongly entrenched. Sir
Archibald Campbell, after expecting an attack for some
days in vain, marched on the 1st of December to dislodge
the corps of Maha Nemiow ; and in this he succeeded after
a desperate resistance. The leader fell, and the dispersion
of his followers was so complete that they did not even at¬
tempt to form a junction with their centre. Sir Archibald,
after allowing his troops only two hours repose, returned
to Zeouke, having marched twenty-nine miles and fought a
battle in the course of a day. Next day the British stormed
the heights of Napadee under a heavy cannonade, entire¬
ly dispersed the centre, and captured the whole of its ar¬
tillery, ammunition, and military stores. The position of
the right wing was attacked on the 5th; the Burmese
wrere driven from their defences, which were set on fire;
and a considerable amount of military stores was captured.
The road to the capital was now open, and Sir Archibald,
after allowing his men one day’s repose, advanced upon it
in two columns. The Burmese once more indicated a de¬
sire to make peace ; but as their shuffling and equivocation
rendered it impossible to repose confidence in their pro¬
fessions, the commander-in-chief continued to advance;
nor was it till the army had arrived within four days’
march of the capital that the king agreed to accept of the
terms which were offered to him. He renounced all claims
to Assam, Cachar, and Jyntia, and recognised Gumbheer
Singh as rajah of Munnipoor. He ceded to the Company
the four great divisions of Arracan, and the provinces
Yeh, Tavoy, Mergui, and Tenasserim. And to indemnify
the British government he agreed to pay the sum of one
crore of rupees. Twenty-five lacs of rupees were to be
paid before the British retired upon Rangoon; the same
sum before they evacuated the king’s dominions; and the
remaining half by equal annual instalments within two years
from the date of the treaty. The handful of troops which
had achieved this triumph commenced its return on the 5th
of March. The India Company obtained by this conquest
the removal of a troublesome neighbour, an increase of
territory, and a consequent increased perplexity in its af¬
fairs. Britain gained nothing but an augmentation of its
military and naval establishments.
Parliament was prorogued on the 31st of May 1826, and
dissolved on the 2d of June; and writs were ordered to be is¬
sued for anew election, returnable on the 25 th of July. The
elections afforded a test of the success which had attended
the new system of ministers. They showed how far the
confidence of the people had been won by the concessions
made to the spirit of the age and the popular eloquence
of Mr Canning. In Scotland, as was to be expected from
its miserable system of mock representation, there was a
dull silent adherence to the old routine, from which no¬
thing could be gathered. In Ireland the Catholic Asso¬
ciation prosecuted with success its sacred task of forcing
from an unwilling government the nation’s rights. The
bond of union, in defiance of the law, was kept up among
its members; “ the rent” continued to be levied ; and the
priests had been won to lend it their confidence. In every
district of Ireland the new allies struggled with unwearied
assiduity to turn the angry energies of the peasantry into
a legal channel, and to teach them to direct their efforts to
the attainment of some real good. The elections offered
them an opportunity of strengthening the phalanx of their
friends in parliament, and of testifying the national senti-
G47
ment. The forty-shilling freeholders, a body of men who Iteign of
had been encouraged by unprincipled political gamblers George I\.
to increase and multiply beyond what the land seemed
able to support, and more neglected by their suzerains than
the beasts of the field, except when the time arrived that
they were to be driven to the poll, were converted into an
engine to overthrow the power of their creators. The te¬
nantry were besieged by the exhortations of clerical and lay
emancipators to remember that they had rights as well as
their landlords, and that they owed duties to themselves
as well as to others. The great landholders now found
the automata upon whom they had hitherto relied assert¬
ing wills of their own. The most splendid victory of the
Catholics was gained in Waterford, where a member of
the Beresford family was compelled to withdraw from the
contest. The Catholic Association might point with pride
to the change it had worked in the character of the Irish
peasant; for, amidst all the heat of contested elections,
bloodshed and lawless violence were on the decline, even
while the hungry artizans of England were driven by
want to violate the lawr. In England the ministers were
almost everywhere triumphant. Mr Brougham experien¬
ced a more marked defeat in Westmoreland than on any
former occasion. Lord Howick and Mr Beaumont, the
Whig candidates for Northumberland, both failed. Mr
Huskisson was again returned for Liverpool. The metro¬
polis alone adhered to its old principles. The usual topics
were advanced by the candidates for popular favour.
Only one is worthy of being recorded. In proportion as
the Catholic cause advanced in Ireland it seemed to grow
weaker in England. The same ignorance, prejudice, and
sectarian spirit of which the Catholics stood accused was
appealed to by their adversaries, and the almost absolute
watchword “ no popery” was revived.
The bustle of the elections was succeeded by grave ap¬
prehensions of famine. Wheat had proved an average
crop through England; but a long drought threatened a
dearth in every other sort of grain. Barley w as deficient •
there was every appearance of a scarcity of pulse; oats,
in many districts the most important article of food to
the lower classes, and the potato crop, the sole stay of
Ireland, threatened to fail altogether. The farmers, too,
were suffering; for the violent and continued heats had
dried up the richest meadow-land in England, till it be¬
came necessary to feed cattle with dry fodder, as if it were
the depth of winter. A seasonable change of weather
averted a great portion of the impending calamity; but in
the month of September prospects were most alarming,
and the rise in the price of grain pressed with unwonted
severity upon the working classes, who were still suffering
from the effects of the late panic. The price of oats in
reality exceeded the importation price ; but the crafty de¬
vices of the landlords’ committee respecting the taking of
averages precluded the opening of the ports before the
15th of November, although in the interim a famine might
have depopulated the country. Ministers generously re¬
solved to risk a violation of the law rather than incur the
deeper moral responsibility of allowing the people to perish
by famine. On the first of September they issued an order
in council, authorizing the immediate importation of oats,
oatmeal, &c. upon the persons importing becoming hound
to pay a conditional duty. The necessity of obtaining an
act of indemnity for this step occasioned the assembling
of parliament at an earlier season than usual.
The first session of the eighth parliament of the united
kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland commenced on the
14th of November 1826, and terminated on the 2d of
July 1827. It adjourned twice ; from the 13th of Decern
her to the 8th of February, and from the 12th of April
to the 1st of May. It w ill be necessary, in order to pre-
648
BRITAIN.
Reign of serve the current of our narrative free from perplexity, to
George IV. detail briefly the changes in administration, and the in-
v—trigUes by which they were effected, before narrating the
1827- legislative proceedings of this session.
Lord Liverpool was struck with apoplexy on the morn-
in<r of the 17th of February 1827. As it was possible that
he3might recover sufficiently to resume his share in public
business, a feeling of delicacy kept both the king and mi¬
nisters from taking any immediate steps to re-organize the
government. The disunion between the two incompati¬
ble parties which composed the cabinet continued to in¬
crease after the removal of their connecting link; and a
sense of this, aided by the urgency of opposition, forbade
longer delay. The first practical discussions respecting
a new arrangement took place between the king and Mr
Canning, at the royal lodge, on the 28th of March. His
majesty’s first idea was, to retain the services ot Mr Can¬
ning and his friends, and to place at the head of administra¬
tion a peer holding Lord Liverpool’s opinions on the Ca¬
tholic question. Mr Canning explicitly stated, that if those
whose sentiments were favourable to the Catholics were
to be excluded, solely on account of these sentiments, from
the highest offices of state, he could “ not consent to be
the individual in whose person such a principle should be
established.” He therefore felt himself bound honestly to
state, that “ the substantive power of first minister he must
have, and, what was more, must be known to have, or he
must beg leave to retire from a situation which he could
“ no longer fill with satisfaction to himself or with benefit
to the king’s service.” Mr Canning felt, in short, that in
any administration of which he should form a pait, who¬
ever might be the ostensible, he must be the leal piime
minister, and he was naturally and justly indignant at the
demand that he should yield up his laurels to grace the
brow of titled imbecility.
With the exception of an interview, during which no¬
thin o- of moment occurred, Mr Canning had no more com¬
munication with the king till the 10th of April, when he
received the royal commands to prepare, “with as little
delay as possible, a plan for the reconstruction of the ad¬
ministration.” There were, however, frequent conferences
in the interim between Mr Canning, the Uuke of \\ elling-
ton, and Mr Peel. The last-mentioned gentleman frankly
declared that he had made up his mind to resign if an
individual favourable to the Catholics were placed at the
head of government. The duke urged strongly the ne¬
cessity of having a prime minister opposed to concession.
Mr Peel’s professions “ of respect and regard” for Mr
Canning were unbounded; so much so that Mr Canning
expressed himself as feeling “ it quite impossible to do
sufficient justice to his frankness and straightforwardness,
and to feelings for which he owned he had not before
given Mr Peel credit.” The subsequent conduct of that
minister has proved that Mr Canning s first impressions,
were correct. The haughty character of the Duke ot
Wellington prevented him from wearing the mask to
so much purpose. The language ot the Duke of New¬
castle, and other adherents of the Duke of Wellington,
not disapproved of if not sanctioned by his Grace, had na¬
turally irritated Mr Canning. By the intervention of mu¬
tual friends several interviews took place between the
duke and Mr Canning, but without producing any effect
beyond a re-establishment of the outward show of cordi¬
ality, and a conviction in the mind of Mr Canning that the
duke coveted the post of prime minister for himself, dhe
justice of this conclusion is established by the eagerness
with which that eminent soldier on two subsequent occa¬
sions grasped at the office, and by Mr Peel’s waiting upon
Mr Canning at the king’s command, on the 9th of April,
to suggest the appointment of the duke as premier, an
arrangement which Mr Peel conceived likely to solve all Reign of
difficulties. ,
Mr Canning left the king late in the afternoon of the
10th of April; and as parliament was to adjourn for the
Easter recess on the 12th, there was not a moment to be
lost. He found Lord Grenville, Mr Huskisson, and Mr
Planta at the foreign office. Lord Grenville was request¬
ed to bear to his brother-in-laws Lord Harrowby, a verbal
announcement of Mr Canning’s having been ordered to
construct an administration; Mr Huskisson was charged
with a similar mission to Lord Melville and Mr Wynn;
and Mr Planta to Mr Robinson. The same communica¬
tion was made by Mr Canning in writing to the Duke of
Wellington, Lord Bathurst, Lord Westmoreland, and Lord
Bexley. The lord chancellor and Mr Peel were waited
upon by Mr Canning in person. The projected cabinet,
it was intimated, was to “ adhere to the principles on
which Lord Liverpool’s government had so long acted.
Lord Eldon “ had long felt anxious to resign ; but wished
to procrastinate the time, not for his owm sake, but on ac¬
count of the business of his court. In about four months
he would wind up its affairs and retire.” Finding, how’-
ever, his colleagues determined to secede from Mr Can¬
ning, his lordship at last vacated the woolsack, which he had
for so many years occupied. The Duke ot Wellington in¬
quired who was the individual intended to be put at the
head of the government. To Mr Canning s reply that the
king “ usually intrusted the formation of an administra¬
tion to the individual whom it was his majesty’s gracious
intention to put at the head of it, his Grace rejoined
by requesting Mr Canning to desire his majesty “ to ex¬
cuse him from belonging to his councils.” Lord West¬
moreland hesitated to pledge himself, and ultimately de¬
clined office on the ground that “ the chief office was in
the hands of a person of different principles, fi om Loid
Liverpool’s.” Mr Canning replied to this insinuation;
but only received a brief and haughty note, intimating
that Lord Westmoreland “ declined to enter into a lite¬
rary conflict upon principles.” Lord Bexley first accept¬
ed office, and afterwards drew back. Lord Bathurst wish¬
ed to see Mr Canning, but sent in his demission before
an interview took place. The reason afterwards assigned
was the resignation of so many of his colleagues. Mr
Peel adhered to his first determination. Lastly, Lord
Melville made up his mind to resign, because, as he ex¬
pressed himself in the House of Lords, he doubted the
“ stability” of Mr Canning’s administration.
It was impossible for Mr Canning not to see that these
answers were the result of combination. I he king took
the same view of the transaction; and, already moved by
the dictatorial tone of the Dukes of Wellington and New¬
castle, was roused, by this pertinacious opposition to the
minister of his choice, to long unwonted decision. He
immediately confirmed Mr Canning’s appointment by giv¬
ing him his hand to kiss. The new premier lost not a
moment in gathering the friends who had stood true to
him,—Lord Harrowby, Mr Robinson, Mr Wynn, andJMr
Fluskisson,—and preparing to fill up vacancies. Lord Mel¬
ville was the last to resign, and his office was the tirst nilecl
up. Before twenty-four hours had elapsed, his royal high¬
ness the Duke of Clarence, the heir-presumptive to the
throne, was placed at the head of the admn a ty. ore s
Anglesey and Lyndhurst accepted the offices vacated by
the Duke of Wellington and Lord Eldon; the Duke ot
Portland, Lord Dudley, and Mr Sturges Bourne, joined the
administration. A negociation was opened with the Whigs
through the medium of Lord Lansdown. Some difficul¬
ties occurred to prevent the immediate accession of the
party to the number of Mr Canning’s avowed supporters.
In general, however, they cordially co-operated with him;
BRITAIN.
649
lleign of and it was settled, that at the close of the session Lords
tieorge IV. Lansdown and Carlisle, and Mr Tierney, should have seats
in the cabinet.
1 The ministry seemed irresistible. Supported by trium¬
phant majorities in both houses—opposed by the virulent
but powerless hatred of a talentless faction of discontent¬
ed place-hunters—suspected only by Lord Grey in the
House of Lords, and Mr Hume and his small band of sturdy
reformers in the Commons—it swayed the legislature to
its will. The great body of the nation saw, in the junction
of the Whigs with Mr Canning’s friends, a further guaran¬
tee of administrative reform. The question of parliamen¬
tary reform had been postponed by universal consent, and
the concession of it by the Whigs was less noticed than
perhaps it ought to have been. Ireland, relieved from a
portion of her fears by the death of the Duke of York, was
waiting in breathless expectation of the change which the
new arrangements were to work in her favour. The cal¬
culations of all were, however, rendered nugatory by the
death of Mr Canning on the 8th of August 1827.
George Canning was a great orator, and specious organ
of a party, rather than a great statesman. It has been said
of him that he had no fixed political principles, no certain
rules of public conduct. In his youth he defended despotic
opinions, and the policy of restriction ; towards the close of
his career he patronized popular rights, and advocated a
liberal commercial system ; and the weapons which he em¬
ployed, splendid declamation and ready wit, were equally
available on either side. It would be in vain to seek in his
numerous orations for any clear and distinct delineation of
a system, or any accurate definitions of great principles;
they are mostly brilliant superstructures, reared upon the
ordinary basis of party assumptions. His favourite maxim,
“ to hold the balance between contending principles,” is
perhaps the severest censure that could have been pro¬
nounced against him ; inasmuch as it involves an explicit
admission that his system was adapted to the exigencies
of his position, without reference to any higher or purer
standard. Even his eloquence partook of this incidental
and ephemeral character. Some of its finest passages are
rather dexterous abstractions and ornate common-places,
than those burning expressions of sentiment which strike
home conviction, and excite new ideas in the mind. His
chief power consisted in an open, generous disposition, which
hankered after the love and admiration of all that he came
in contact with ; in a degree of vehemence, which compen¬
sated for his deficiency in reasoning and sentiment; and in
a fine feeling of rhetorical beauty, which, from its subdued
tone, kept him within the range of the comprehension of
those he was addressing. In a popular government Canning
would have sunk before men of business talent and ready
elocution ; in a despotic government his warm temperament
would have incapacitated him for competition with cool and
calculating courtiers. Even in the House of Commons,
his ardent disposition, alike incapable of enduring opposi¬
tion or of bearing triumph with moderation, if it sometimes
enabled him to chastise petulance, occasionally promptecl
him to indulge in a strain of declamation which in his
cooler moments his own generous and candid nature would
have led him to condemn. But, on the whole, in a go¬
vernment such as that of England, where a despotic oligar¬
chy sought to amuse the nation with the show of free dis¬
cussion, he was an invaluable auxiliary in a cause, with
which he never could have had any real or cordial sym¬
pathy. When it was too late, he awakened to a sense of his
true dignity and character. The cold-hearted taction for
whom he had exerted his youthful vigour turned the whole
energy of their concentrated malice upon him the moment he
asserted the natural supremacy of his genius. But although
their insolence preyed upon his spirits, and their implacable
von. v.
opposition undermined his strength, and hurried him to a Reign of
premature grave, a halo of glory brightened round the close ^eorge
of his career, and he died an object of admiration to many, \Q2’j.
and of wonder to all.
The cabinet he had collected did not long survive him.
His personality was the only cement that kept it together.
Had he survived, time might have given it consistency ; but
both he and his immediate friends must have purchased it
at the price of large concession to popular demands. He
had thrown himself into the arms of the Whigs, and both
parties must have thrown themselves, as the latter have
since done, into the arms of the people, to enable them to
make a stand against the aristocracy. His cabinet at the
moment of his death consisted of three incompatible par¬
ties ;—some adherents of the old far nienle system; Mr
Huskisson and others, who wished to govern in accordance
with popular principles, but without conceding any direct
influence to the people; and the Whigs, whose professions
had ever been a desire to afford the people a more direct
voice in public councils. At the head of this discordant
mass was placed Lord Goderich, an intelligent and well-
meaning man, but totally destitute of promptitude and de¬
cision. Mr Herries, whose personal attachments bound
him to the Duke of Wellington and Mr Peel, was placed
in an important office. This ill-assorted shadow of a govern¬
ment was huddled up after the prorogation in 1827, and did
not survive to meet the session of 1828. Lord Goderich
resigned on the 8th of January. Some violent recrimina¬
tion ensued between the parties, worthy only of ephemeral
notice. One or other, or both parties, might have behaved,
in fact did behave unhandsomely; but the real cause of
the dissolution of Lord Goderich’s government lay deeper,
viz. in the very nature of its constitution.
Before proceeding to the history of his successors in
office, and the fortunes of the nation under their sway, it
will be necessary to revert to the proceedings of the ses¬
sion 1826-27; a session interrupted by two long recesses,
and frittered away by vehement personal disputes.
The subject of the corn laws was almost the only one
that met with serious and continued attention. The king’s
speech was studiously silent upon the general question,
but this very silence was made a pretext for introducing
it. Lord King in the House of Lords moved an amend¬
ment to the address, condemning the corn laws. Mr Wes¬
tern in the Commons moved an amendment to the address,
calling for investigation into the state of the agricultural in¬
terest, and pointing at additional restrictions in its favour.
Ministers objected to the discussion, on the ground that
parliament had been summoned to meet before Christmas,
not for purposes of general legislation, but to pass an act of
indemnity in favour of ministers, in consequence of their
having opened the ports before the averages indicated that
the price of grain warranted such a step. Lord Liver¬
pool and Mr Canning assured parliament that ministers
were prepared to propose a general measure regarding
the corn laws, and that they would produce it immediate¬
ly after the holidays. In consequeuce of these represen¬
tations, the only step taken before the close of 1826 was
the passing of the indemnity act. Mr Whitmore took oc¬
casion to remark that the measure was a new proof of the
absurdity of a law which they had been obliged to break
thrice in the course of three years. It was intended to
introduce the subject of the proposed alterations to the
notice of both houses on the same evening, namely, the
17th of February.
The illness of Lord Liverpool prevented the proposi¬
tions being submitted to a committee of the upper house,
and Mr Canning’s indisposition caused a postponement of
the committee of the lower till the 1st of March. On that
day the foreign secretary proposed a series of resolutions
4 N
!
650 BRITAIN.
Reign of respecting the future regulation of the corn trade, to be
George IV. adopted by the committee as the foundation of a bill. The
object of the proposed measure he stated to be to afford
as much protection to the land-owner as was necessary,
at the expense of as little pressure upon the commercial
interest as was possible. The mode in which this was to
be accomplished was by imposing a scale of regulated
duties upon foreign grain, rising and falling inversely with
the fall and rise of prices. The medium price of wheat
assumed was sixty shillings, and the corresponding duty
was one pound per quarter. For every shilling wheat rose
above the medium price there was to be a reduction of
two shillings of duty until the price reached seventy shil¬
lings, at or above which it was liable to a duty of one
shilling per quarter. For every shilling wheat fell below
the medium price, there was imposed an additional two
shillings of duty. The duty upon other kinds of grain
was in proportion, and varied upon the same principle. A
duty equal in amount to the duty payable on five bushels
of wheat was imposed upon every barrel of wheat-meal
and flour, being a hundred and ninety-six pounds. A
duty equal in amount to the duty payable on a quarter of
oats was imposed upon every quantity of two hundred and
fifty-two pounds of oatmeal. The averages regulating the
amount of duty were to be taken weekly. Mr Canning
having submitted his measure to the house, postponed
its consideration for a week, in order that every appear¬
ance of precipitation should be avoided. The debate, when
resumed, turned chiefly upon the question of too much or
too little. It was waged, however, with all that pertina¬
city and violence which characterize the disputes of men
who differ little from each other in opinion. Some con¬
cessions were made by ministers, but they were all in fa¬
vour of the land-owners. Mr Hume took no part in the
discussion in committee, but when the report was brought
up he entered his protest against the measure. He man¬
fully argued for a free trade in corn as in every thing else.
He maintained, that if there was truth in the allegation
of the land-owners, that they bore a heavier burden of taxa¬
tion than the rest of the community, the proper way to af¬
ford them relief was by a countervailing duty, or the repeal
of taxes. The country needed foreign grain ; it could not
one year with another grow enough for its own support.
When the ports were sometimes open and sometimes shut,
no foreign nation could rationally venture on the specula¬
tion of raising grain for the English market; the demand
was too uncertain. Mr Flume suggested the imposition
of a duty of fifteen shillings on foreign wheat, to decrease
annually one shilling until it was reduced to ten shillings,
which was to remain the permanent duty. Only fifteen
members voted for this amendment. The House of Com¬
mons having approved of Mr Canning’s resolutions, a bill
enacting them into a law was introduced, which reached
its third reading on the 12th of April, was passed, and
sent to the Lords.
A strong opposition to the provisions of the bill had
been mustering and threatening before it made its appear¬
ance in the upper house. Various unimportant amend¬
ments were made in committee ; but one brought forward
by the Duke of Wellington sealed the fate of the bill.
His Grace moved, that “ no foreign corn in bond should
be taken out of bond until the average price of corn should
have reached sixty-six shillings.” This amendment, which
completely altered the nature of the bill, was carried by
considerable majorities, both in committee and when the
report was brought up. Ministry in consequence aban¬
doned the mutilated measure. A temporary bill was in¬
troduced by Mr Canning, lest a year should be allowed
to elapse without any legal provision on the subject;
and this passed through both houses without any serious
opposition. The Duke of Wellington asserted that his Reign of
amendment met with the concurrence of his majesty’s George IV.
ministers, and produced a letter from Mr Huskisson in
corroboration of his assertion. One expression in the let-
ter was certainly liable to misapprehension, and might
have contained the original hint of the duke’s amendment;
but Mr Huskisson expressly said, even of his own sug¬
gestion, that it would hazard the safety of the measure,
and therefore he could not approve of it. The duke, also,
when charged with having sought to defeat a measure to
which he had given his assent during Lord Liverpool’s
life, replied that he had only approved of the general prin¬
ciple of it. But his measure was subversive of the prin¬
ciple of the bill. No wonder then that Mr Canning saw
in the duke’s amendment, and the hearty support it found,
a personal attack. His only mistake lay in calling him
an instrument in the hands of others. His previous in¬
triguing, and his subsequent political career, show him
to have been an instrument possessed of a perfect con¬
sciousness of the purposes to which he was applied. Mr
Canning w'as thus far in the right. He was the object of
the most intense animosity to the high Tories. They hated
with all a woman’s hatred one of the democracy who
aspired to an equality wdth them, who they felt surpassed
them in intellectual power, and who they were conscious
knew that he surpassed them.
The other questions brought before the session of par¬
liament which witnessed the termination of Mr Canning’s
career, were discussed wdth a considerable degree of list¬
lessness and impatience. Mr Canning’s vindication of the
prompt interference of Britain, when Spain threatened
to disturb by violence the internal arrangements of Por¬
tugal, was splendid and convincing. The establishment
of a constitutional form of government in Portugal had
given rise to much faction and intrigue; and there had
been numerous desertions from the army. The disaffect¬
ed had been w’ell received, and allowed to organize them¬
selves behind the Spanish frontier, and had even dared to
violate the Portuguese territory. A large force of Spa¬
nish troops was mustering upon the frontier. Under these
circumstances the regency, after losing some time in fruit¬
less negociations at Madrid, claimed the aid of England,
which was frankly and promptly granted. Five thousand
British troops were immediately embarked, the first division
of which arrived in the Tagus on the 25th of December
1826. The course of events rendered it unnecessary for
them to encounter the rebels in the field. Home affairs
were discussed with the same want of keenness. On the
5th of March the House of Commons refused to enter¬
tain the question of Catholic emancipation, by a majority
of four. Notices of one motion on the subject, and an¬
other for the repeal of the test act, were withdrawn im¬
mediately after the instalment of Mr Canning in the pre¬
miership, lest there should be brought about a premature
collision between him and his new allies. Mr Hume’s mo¬
tion for the repeal of Lord Castlereagh’s act against cheap
publications w'as lost in consequence of the absence of the
Whigs, and the opposition of Sir James Scarlett and others.
Such was the aspect of affairs when the government of the
nation was placed in the hands of the Duke of W ellington
and his friends.
Lord Goderich had no sooner resigned than the king
sent for the Duke of Wellington, and commissioned him
to form an administration with himself at its head. His
Grace immediately entered into communication with Mr
Peel and others of Lord Liverpool’s ministry who had
seceded on the elevation of Mr Canning. The new go¬
vernment was speedily constructed. Ihe Whigs were dis¬
missed, the friends of Mr Canning remamed in office, and
the leading members of I^ord Liverpool’s cabinet return-
BRITAIN.
Reign of ed. The public were not satisfied at seeing the pertina-
■eorge IV. city with which Mr Huskisson and his friends clung to
office. The duke indeed seemed to have retained them
solely for the purpose of disgracing them in the eyes of
the country; for, after forcing upon the House of Com¬
mons measures which obliged them, out of a regard to
common decency, to declare they supported with reluc¬
tance, and merely for the sake of preserving unity in the
cabinet, he took the opportunity afforded him by Mr Hus¬
kisson, when he voted for transferring the franchise of
Penryn, convicted of corruption, to Birmingham or Man¬
chester, to get quit of him, and with him of his retainers.
Their places were immediately filled by creatures of the
duke. The only other change made by the premier was
his superseding the Duke of Clarence in the admiralty.
The Duke of Wellington found the country at peace,
and looked up to as the head of constitutional Europe.
The state of peace seemed to run little risk of being in¬
terrupted. The British troops dispatched to Portugal
were still stationed there, but almost one of the first steps
taken by the new minister was to withdraw them. The
relation in which England stood to the Ottoman Porte was
more delicate. From the commencement of the Greek
struggle for independence till the year 1827 Britain had
observed a strict neutrality between the Turks and their
former vassals. The prolongation of the contest between
the infuriated nations, however, promoted the growth of
piracy to such a degree that the countries principally in¬
terested in the commerce of the Levant felt themselves
bound to put an end if possible to the state of things in
which it originated. These resolves were confirmed by
their feelings of humanity, revolted by the Turkish cruel¬
ties. On the 6th of July a treaty was signed at London
by the ministers of Britain, France, and Russia, declara¬
tory of the necessity of putting an end to this sanguinary
contest. The intervention of France and Britain was jus¬
tified on the ground that their mediation had been re¬
quested by the Greeks. The object of the treaty was de¬
clared to be the effecting of a reconciliation between the
Porte and its Grecian subjects. An armistice was to be
insisted on from both parties as an indispensable prelimi¬
nary to the opening of any negociation. Before the Porte
could be brought to declare its sentiments with regard to
this interference, Ibrahim Pacha, with the Egyptian fleet
of ninety-two sail, arrived in the Morea. The British
squadron under Admiral Codrington was cruizing off Na-
varino when this armament approached. The Porte not
having yet refused to accede to the armistice, the English
admiral gave the Egyptian his choice of returning to
Alexandria or entering Navarino, to which in that case he
must confine himself. The latter branch of the alterna¬
tive was accepted. Ibrahim took advantage of the absence
of the British and French squadrons to put to sea on the
30th of September, but returned to Navarino on the ap¬
proach of Admiral Codrington. Chafed by these obstruc¬
tions, he attacked the Greeks by land, and ravaged the
surrounding districts with fire and sword. It was imme¬
diately resolved by the British, Russian, and French ad¬
mirals, to enter the harbour, in the hope that their impos¬
ing attitude would induce Ibrahim to desist from his savage
devastation. This movement produced an attack from
several of the Turkish ships; and after a vain attempt at
explanation the action became general. The Egyptian
fleet was completely dismantled. It was feared that the
sullen silence with which the intelligence of this disaster
was received at Constantinople might eventually break out
into war. If it happened that there was little reason to
dread a transition from the peace which Europe was en¬
joying, owing to the accession of a military premier, the
confidence in the liberal policy of England was consider-
651
ably shaken. No decided steps of the minister justified Reign of
the suspicions of his own country and Europe; but the George IV
lenient eye with which the proceedings of Don Miguel
were regarded, and the disparaging terms applied to the
action at Navarino in the king’s speech, were laid hold of
as unfavourable symptoms.
The first step taken by the new ministry after the meet¬
ing of parliament was to appoint a finance committee.
The nomination of its chairman was the ostensible reason
of that schism in the late cabinet which had caused its
dissolution. On the 15lh of February Mr Peel proposed
“ That a select committee be appointed to inquire into
the state of the public income and expenditure of the
united kingdom, and to consider and report to the house
what further regulations and checks it may be proper in
their opinion to adopt, for establishing an effectual control
upon all charges incurred in the receipt, custody, and ap¬
plication of public money; and what further measures can
be adopted for reducing any part of the public expendi¬
ture without detriment to the public service.” The sub¬
ject of inquiry to which the mover adverted as most worthy
of the attention of the committee, and most likely to be
productive of benefit, was the simplification of the public
accounts. Fie alluded to the superior manner in which
those of France and the United States were kept. This
admission of the propriety of taking a lesson on such a
subject from these countries, when viewed in connec¬
tion with Mr Canning’s declamatory opposition to Mr
Brougham’s motion respecting the droits of admiralty in
1820, was a most remarkable sign of the times. A mi¬
nister who had opposed that very Mr (’aiming on the
ground that he conceded too much to the innovating spi¬
rit of the age, was ready to advance before him in the
path of innovation. Mr Peel’s motion encountered no
stronger opposition than arose from a proposal made
by Mr Hume, that as one committee was inadequate to
overtake the immense number of topics embraced by
the proposed investigation, several should be appointed.
Mr Brougham, with a view to reconcile the two plans, sug¬
gested tlie division of the committee into sub-commit¬
tees, *each taking a specific subject of inquiry. Minis¬
ters persisted in adhering to their original plan. Two
measures of financial reform were submitted by the com¬
mittee to the House of Commons during the session.
The first related to the system on which government an¬
nuities were granted. Mr Perceval’s bill for regulating
the granting of annuities of 1808 was calculated upon Dr
Price’s tables. As early as 1819 Mr Finlayson demon¬
strated to Mr Vansittart that, in consequence of the er¬
rors of these tables, the country was losing L.8000 per
month on the annuities granted by government. The
demonstration, however, did not carry conviction to the
mind of the chancellor of the exchequer ; and even his
successor Mr Robinson paid no attention to the repre¬
sentation. The finance committee soon convinced itself
that the annuities occasioned loss. Nothing could be done
to alter those which had been already sold; but, on the
recommendation of the committee, a bill was passed to sus¬
pend the operation of the act under which they had been
granted, until a more correct system should be settled.
The other measure recommended by the committee was
the abolition of the office of lieutenant-general of the ord¬
nance ; but such a concession was not to be expected
from the Duke of Wellington.
The next undertaking of the ministry wras the settle¬
ment of the corn laws. The bill introduced with their
sanction adopted the principle of that proposed by their
predecessors, but increased the duties imposed. Mr
Charles Grant, to whom was intrusted the task of bring¬
ing forward the measure, described the enactment as the
652
BRITAIN.
1828.
Reign of fruit of a compromise, and confessed that he thought it
George IV. imperfect. Some other members of the government ex-
v—''—' pressed a similar opinion. The bill was finally carried by
large majorities.
While ministers were thus carrying into effect the mea¬
sures originated by men with whom they had refused to
co-operate, Mr Brougham was astonishing the nation with
the display of a degree of legislative industry, of a mind
at once indefatigable and comprehensive, that threw into
the shade even his own exertions in the cause of educa¬
tion. On the 7th of February he directed the attention
of the house to the state of the common law courts, and
of the common law itself. He omitted equity in every
branch, because he considered it as in some sort already
taken up by parliament. For the same reason he passed
over the criminal law. The inquiries pressed upon the
house by Sir Samuel Romilly and Sir James Mackintosh
had, it was true, been followed up timidly and on a narrow
scale by Mr Peel; still the exertions of that minister were
a pledge that something was to be done. The commercial
law, as of modern growth, was comparatively pure. In re¬
gard to the law of real property, much had been done and
more was hoped for. But to the conflicting jurisdictions, the
inadequate and cumbrous forms of the common law courts,
and the incongruities of the anomalous mass of consue¬
tudinary and statutory law to which their judgments were
conformed, the hand of reform had never yet been stretch¬
ed out. Mr Brougham entered at great length into the
constitution of the English courts, and the state of the
law administered in them. For seven hours did his lucid
arrangement and impressive earnestness fetter the atten¬
tion of an assembly little qualified by habits or education
to take pleasure in dry legal discussions. He pointed out
the danger of paltry piece-meal reform, and concluded by
moving an address to the throne, praying the appointment
of “ a commission for inquiring into the defects occasioned
by time and otherwise in the laws of this realm, and into
the measures necessary for removing the same. All de¬
bate on this motion was suspended until the 29th of Feb¬
ruary, when Mr Brougham substituted a modified resolu¬
tion, which, with the assent of government, was unanimous¬
ly carried. It prayed his majesty to take such measures
as might “ seem most expedient for the purpose of caus¬
ing due inquiry to be made into the origin, progress, and
termination of actions in the superior courts of common
law in this country, and matters connected therewith;
and into the state of the law regarding the transfer of
real property.” The field of inquiry was materially nar¬
rowed, and the prospect of efficient reform correspondingly
diminished.
It has already been remarked, that the old aristocrats
who rebelled against the presumption of a commoner as¬
piring to the chief honours of the adminisiiation, had felt
themselves obliged, on their return to office, to pay homage
to public feeling, and adopt the very line of policy which
they had blamed in others. A more striking proof that
they were merely allowed to hold the reins of government
by sufferance was this year afforded in the success of the
dissenters in asserting their rights. Lord John Russell
moved on the 26th of February that the house should re¬
solve itself into a committee for the purpose of taking into
consideration the regulations of the corporation and test
acts. A keen debate ensued, which terminated in a division,
when two hundred and thirty-seven voted for the com¬
mittee and a hundred and ninety-three against its appoint¬
ment. This was the first successful blow aimed at the
supremacy of the church of England since the revolution.
The committee, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties
of ministers for delay, agreed to a resolution approving of
the instant repeal of the obnoxious acts. It was evident,
from the temper of the house, that concession was the only Reign of
course left open for government. A bill founded upon George^,,
the resolution was introduced and read a second time
without opposition. When the motion for going into com¬
mittee was made, Mr Peel rose and declared, that after
the decision to which the house had come, he was prepar¬
ed to dismiss at once from his mind every idea of adhering
to the existing law. All that he asked for was, the sub¬
stitution of a declaration that the predominancy of the
established church should be secured for the sacramental
test. His request being complied with, the ministers
withdrew their opposition to the bill, which was speedily
passed, notwithstanding the tears of the Earl of Eldon.
But a more important concession to public opinion yet
remained to be made by the ministers; they had, in fact,
to purchase the continuance of their power at the price of
a complete abandonment of all their previous professions,
and the simultaneous adoption of a line of policy which they
could not defend upon any principle except that of an over¬
ruling necessity.
On the 8th of May Sir Francis Burdett moved for a
committee of the whole house to take into consideration
the claims of the Catholics, with a view to a final and con¬
ciliatory adjustment. The debate on this motion, which
was continued for three evenings, ended in a majority of
six in favour of the house going into committee. The
resolution subsequently adopted was, that the time had
arrived when a final settlement of the Catholic claims was
expedient. A conference with the Lords was i-equested,
for the purpose of ascertaining whether the sentiments of
that house had undergone the same change with those of the
Commons. The managers for the Lords having received
the resolution, it was ordered to be taken into considera¬
tion by their house on the 9th of June. The discussion was
entirely destitute of interest beyond what resulted from
its being the first occasion on which the Duke of Welling¬
ton had expressed his opinion of the question at length.
He grounded his opposition to concession entirely on ex¬
pediency. The discussion would lead, he thought, to no
practical result, and would tend only to disturb the public
mind. He was desirous that the agitation of the country
might be allowed to subside; and in the end it might be
possible to do something, for he was most desirous of see¬
ing the subject brought to an amicable conclusion. The
motion of the Murquis of Lansdown, that the house should
concur in the resolution which had been adopted by the
Commons, was lost by a majority of forty-four.
Whilst the claims of the Catholics stood in the legisla¬
tive assemblies ii like the swan s down at full of tide, which
neither way inclines,” the power which was to establish
justice was carrying all before it in Ireland. The Catho¬
lics had paused to see what measures would be adopted by
Mr Canning ; but the elevation of the Duke of Wellington
set them again in motion. The first opportunity of shoe¬
ing their determined spirit of opposition to him was afiord-
ed by the election for the county of Clare. Mr Vesey Fitz¬
gerald, one of the members representing that county, had
vacated his seat by accepting the office of president ot the
board of trade when Mr Charles Grant resigned. He ad
uniformly given his vote and influence in favour oi eman¬
cipation; but he had identified himself with the Duke of
Wellington, and was esteemed no longer worthy ot con¬
fidence. Besides, a new mode of annoying government had
suggested itself to the fertile invention of the Association.
The laws might prevent a Catholic from taking his seat in
parliament, by ordering that an oath should be tendered
to him when he appeared to claim his right of sitting ; but
they did not forbid his being returned to serve. _ Taking
advantage of this omission would afford the administration
a test of the absolute sway which the Association exer-
BRITAIN.
653
1828.
Reign of cised over the tenantry of Ireland. Accordingly Mr
eorge IV. O’Connell was proposed as a candidate for the honour of
representing Clare in parliament, in opposition to Mr Fitz¬
gerald. Emissaries of the Association were dispatched to
every barony and parish of the county. The priests, with
one exception, exhorted their flocks to vote for the advo¬
cate of their rights. A fund was prepared to pay up the
arrears of all tenants distrained on account of the votes
they might give, upon their finding security for repay¬
ment within a reasonable time. The day of election came.
Mr Fitzgerald threatened the voters wfith the displeasure
of their landlords. “ Is it,” he asked, “ the payment of
an arrear of rent by any body of men that will compensate
to the unfortunate peasant for being deprived of his na¬
tural protector ? Is it the payment of a few pounds that
can compensate to the unfortunate peasant for the total
alienation of his landlord? \fyhen the poor man is sick,
and his family famishing with hunger, where will those
men be, who, to gratify a public, perhaps a private, pique,
burst the bonds which for years have bound together the
landlord and tenant by what was considered an indissolu¬
ble tie ? Alas ! they will be far distant; and the unfor¬
tunate tenant will have nobody to look to for relief and
comfort, except that landlord whom he is now called upon
to desert.” Mr O’Connell, on the other hand, dwelt upon
the utter hopelessness of good legislation for Ireland so
long as the people were not represented. He expatiated
upon the impossibility of men achieving their rights who
shrunk back from asserting them in person, and were willing
to receive them from the bounty of a patron. He reminded
his hearers of the unjust and unequal taxation under which
they were labouring. He warned government that “ the
young blood of Ireland was in a ferment.” The result of
the election proved that the Catholics of Ireland had de¬
termined to rely upon their own efforts alone. The tenant¬
ry had awakened to a sense of their degraded situation;
a race of paupers tolerated in the land because once in
seven years they were of use, and allowed to perish of
hunger and cold except when it became necessary to win
their voices at an election. They were determined to
assert their right to equal laws and legislative attention
to their interests. This spirit was mainly owing to the
efforts of the Association ; and to the credit of the gentle¬
men composing that body, a spirit of forbearance from vio¬
lence had likewise been fostered in the peasantry. Not¬
withstanding the violence of party feeling, the Clare elec¬
tion was attended with less outrage than the average of
English county elections; and Mr O’Connell, notwith¬
standing a protest taken by some of the freeholders, was
declared duly elected.
In the month of July the law which had been directed
against the Catholic Association expired, and that body
immediately re-assembled in its original form, to improve
the victory it had gained in Clare. They issued an enu¬
meration of four pledges to be required of every person
who should at any time come forward as candidate for a
seat in parliament. By the first he was to bind, himself to
oppose the Duke of Wellington’s ministry in every thing
until emancipation was conceded; by the second, to sup¬
port religious and civil liberty ; by the third, to procure the
repeal of the sub-letting act; and by the fourth, to sup¬
port reform in parliament. It was declared that every can¬
didate refusing to take these pledges should be opposed
by the men, influence, and funds of the Catholic Associa¬
tion. The next step was to organize local clubs. These
bodies speedily spread throughout the three southern pro¬
vinces, and embraced in their number many of the higher
as wefl as of the lower orders. As far as possible, a club
was instituted iq^every parish, consisting of the principal
gentry, clergy, churchwardens, and such respectable far¬
mers as could read. The club was to meet monthly. It Reign ot
was to keep a register of all electors within its bounds; to ’
have every man in readiness for future elections; and to jg28
promote good order, perfect subordination to the laws, po¬
litical knowledge, and liberal feeling, as much as possible.
Every club was to report once in three months to the se¬
cretary of the Association, and to receive a weekly paper
for a weekly contribution of three pence. Aggregate
meetings of these clubs were held during the autumn in
the provinces of Leinster and Munstex*, and countenanced
by many of the aristocracy. The party feuds which raged
among the peasantx-y, and occasioned unintermitting scenes
of riot and bloodshed, were hushed at the bidding of the
Association. The superfluous flow of Irish animal spirits
was turned from the path of crime, and concentrated for
the achievement of a great national conquest. Well might
Mr Shiel say—“ What has government to dread from our
resentment in peace? An answer is supplied by what we
behold. Does not a tremendous organization extend over
the whole island ? Have not all the natural bonds by
which men are tied together been broken and burst asun¬
der? Are not all the relations of society which exist
elsewhere gone ? Has not property lost its influence—
has not rank been stripped of the respect which should
belong to it—and has not an internal government grown
up, which, gradually superseding the legitimate authori¬
ties, has armed itself with a complete domination? Is it
nothing that the whole body of the clergy are alienated
from the state, and that the Catholic gentry, and peasant¬
ry, and priesthood, are all combined in one vast confede¬
racy ? So much for Catholic indignation while we are at
peace; and when England shall be involved in war 1
pause ; it is not necessai'y that I should discuss that branch
of the division, or point to the cloud which, chai'ged with
thunder, is hanging over our heads.”
The first symptom of intimidation on the part of the
supporters of Protestant ascendency, was Mr Dawson’s
speech at a public dinner in Londonderry on the 12th of
August. This gentleman was a minister of the crown,
brother-in-law of Mr Peel, the leader of the Anti-Catholic
party in the House of Commons, and himself distinguish¬
ed for more than ordinary vehemence in opposing Catho¬
lic claims. He now declared that his sentiments were
changed; that there was but one alternative, either to crush
the Association, or to settle the question ; that the for¬
mer was impossible, the latter inevitable.
The bigots of the Protestant ascendency were on their
part no less active. No sooner had the act against illegal
societies expired, than the Orange lodges were revived,
and the grand Orange lodge in E)ublin again opened. New
associations wex-e formed in various parts of the country,
but particularly in Dublin and Ulster, under the name of
Brunswick clubs. A Protestant rent was collected in emu¬
lation of the Catholic rent. The mass of the Irish popu¬
lation seemed arrayed into two mighty and adverse ar¬
mies. Men’s minds grew heated, and the war-cry of re¬
ligious intolerance rose fiercer and fiercei’. The Protes¬
tant friends of emancipation began to hold back from the
Association. The mania of Brunswick clubs spread to
England, and the spirit first showed itself in Kent, at a
great meeting on Pennenden Heath. The Catholics in
England were few ; the question of emancipation was there
regarded with comparative indifference ; and there was a
possibility of the prejudices of the lower orders being in¬
flamed, and th£ Catholic claims made a ground of blind
enmity between the sister islands.
The silence and inactivity of ministers while this storm
was gathering merited the taunt of. Mr Shiel. “ Mean¬
while the government stands by, and the minister folds
his arms as if he were a mere indifferent observer, and
654
BRITAIN.
Reigr of the terrific contest only afforded him a spectacle foi t ic
George IV. arnusement of his official leisure. He sits as it two gla-
diators were crossing their swords for his recreation. 1 he
ll>28. cabinet seems to be little better than a box in an amphi¬
theatre, from whence his majesty’s ministers may survey
the business of blood.’ 1 he truth was, that the membei s of
the cabinet were irresolute, and divided among themselves,
and that the king was unmanageable. His pride was hurt
at the opposition to his sovereign will, displayed in the
proceedings of the Association ; and his worn-out and irri¬
table constitution was stung to frenzy by the interruption
of his pleasures. The Duke of W ellington, in a communi¬
cation to the Marquis of Anglesey, dated the 28th of Sep¬
tember, told the lord-lieutenant that the Catholic question
wTas “ a subject of which the king never hears or speaks
without being disturbed.” On the 11th of November the
duke wrote to the same nobleman:—“ I cannot express
to you adequately the extent of the difficulties which these
and other occurrences in Ireland create, in all discus¬
sions with his majesty. He feels that in Ireland the pub¬
lic peace is violated every day with impunity, by those
whose duty it is to preserve it, and that a formidable con¬
spiracy exists, and that the supposed principal conspira¬
tors—those whose language and conduct point them out
as the avowed principal agitators of the country—are ad¬
mitted to the presence of his majesty’s representative in
Ireland, and equally well received with the king’s most
loyal subjects.” Again, on the 19th of November:—“ I
might have at an earlier period expressed the pain I felt
at the attendance of gentlemen of your household, and
even of your family, at the Homan Catholic Association.
I could not but feel that such attendance must expose
your government to misconstruction ; but I was silent,
because it is painful to notice such things. But I have al¬
ways felt, that if these impressions on the king’s mind
‘ should remain, and I must say that recent transactions
have given fresh cause for them, I could not avoid to men¬
tion them to you in a private communication, and to let
you know the embarrassment you occasion.”
The silence and inaction of the duke, circumstanced as
he was, were unavoidable. They tended, however, to pre¬
cipitate the final issue. Dr Curtis, the Catholic piimate
of Ireland, had long cultivated an intimacy with the Duke
of Wellington, which had its origin in some important ser¬
vices rendered to the army in Spain, the doctor having
held a high office in the university of Salamanca. He
availed himself of the footing on which he stood with the
premier to address to him a letter on the state of the
country, and the importance of settling the Catholic ques¬
tion. The duke’s reply was in these words:—“ I assure
you that you do me but justice in believing that I am sin¬
cerely anxious to witness the settlement of the Roman
Catholic question, which, by benefiting the state, would
confer a benefit upon every individual belonging to it.
But I confess that I see no prospect of such a settlement.
Party has been mixed up with the consideration of the
question to such a degree, and such violence pervades
every discussion of it, that it is impossible to expect to
prevail upon men to consider it dispassionately. If we
could bury it in oblivion for a short time, and employ that
time diligently in the consideration of its difficulties on all^
sides (for they are very great), I should not despair of
seeing a satisfactory remedy.” A copy of the duke s let¬
ter was forwarded to Mr O’Connell, and received by him
and the Association as a declaration that the minister was
no longer unfavourable to the Catholic claims. A copy of
the letter was likewise transmitted to the Marquis of An¬
glesey. In his reply to Dr Curtis the marquis pointed
out that the duke could only be considered as wavering
in his previous opinions ; advised the adoption of such lan¬
guage as might further conciliate him ; and earnestly dis- -Reign oi’
suaded from every appeal to brute force. The most re-
markable passage in the letter was the following:—“ I
differ from the opinion of the duke, that an attempt should
be made to bury in oblivion the question for a short time.
First, because the thing is utterly impossible; and next,
if the thing were possible, I fear that advantage might be
taken of the pause, by representing it as a panic achieved
by the late violent re-action, and by proclaiming, that if
the government at once and peremptorily decided against
concession, the Catholics would cease to agitate, and then
all the miseries of the last years of Ireland will have to be
re-acted. What I do recommend is, that the measure
should not for a moment be lost sight of—that anxiety
should continue to be manifested—that all constitutional
(in contradistinction to merely legal) means should be
resorted to to forward the cause ; but that, at the same
time, the most patient forbearance—the most submissive
obedience to the laws—should be inculcated ; that no per¬
sonal and offensive language should be held towards those
who oppose the claims.” This letter was produced at a
meeting of the Association, and received with the warm¬
est encomiums. The next wind that blew from England
brought the mandate recalling the Marquis of Anglesey,
and appointing the Duke of Northumberland to succeed
him. The rage of the Catholics was unbounded, as their
hopes had been premature. The storm howled more loud¬
ly than ever.
Wellington’s resolution was at last fixed. It may be
that pride had some share in prompting his resolves. It
was known, or believed, that in his own person he had no
great objections to concede what was claimed by the Ca¬
tholics; and he was not a man to defer to the prejudices
of others, however high in station, although he might to
his own. The danger was too imminent to allow him to
hesitate longer. Having secured the assent of his col¬
leagues, and wrung his slow leave from the king, he pre¬
pared to force upon parliament a measure which it had
often with seeming loathing rejected. 'Ihe session of
1829 was opened on the 5th of February by a speech from
the throne, which contained the following unwonted ex¬
pressions:—“ His majesty recommends that you should
take into your deliberate consideration the whole condi¬
tion of Ireland; and that you should review the laws which
impose civil disabilities on his majesty s Roman Catholic
subjects. You will consider whether the removal of these
disabilities can be effected consistently with the full and
permanent security of our establishments in church and
state, with the maintenance of the reformed religion esta¬
blished by law, and of the rights and privileges of the
bishops and of the clergy of this realm, and of the churches
committed to their charge. These are institutions which
must ever be held sacred in this Protestant kingdom, and
which it is the duty and determination of his majesty to
preserve inviolate. His majesty most earnestly recom¬
mends to you to enter upon the consideration of a subject
of such paramount importance, deeply interesting to the
best feelings of his people, and involving the tranquillity
and concord of the united kingdom, with the temper
and the moderation which will best insure the successful
issue of your deliberations.” The Anti-Catholics were not
taken by surprise, for it had been whispered about, a few
days before the meeting of parliament, that ministers ^in¬
tended to recommend concessions to the Catholics. But
they were not yet sufficiently masters of the course in¬
tended to be pursued by the duke to organize an effective
opposition, and their first burst of discontent is unworthy
of being recorded.
The first measure of the ministry was one of punish¬
ment to the sturdy beggars whose importunity had ex-
BRITAIN.
Reign of torted their charity. The Catholic Association was de-
leorge IV. nounced in the king’s speech as dangerous to the public,
and inconsistent with the constitution. This flourish of
1829. trumpets was followed up by a bill, which Mr Peel intro¬
duced on the 10th of February, to terminate the exist¬
ence of the Association. He proposed to give to the lord-
lieutenant, and to him alone, the power of suppressing any
association or meeting which he might think dangerous
to the peace, or inconsistent with the due administration
of law ; together with the power of interdicting the meet¬
ing of any assembly of a similar character, of which pre¬
vious notice had been given. In case it should be neces¬
sary to enforce the provisions of the law, the lord-lieute¬
nant was authorized to select two magistrates, for the pur¬
pose of suppressing the meeting, and requiring the people
to disperse. Finally, every meeting and association which
fell under the provisions of the act were prohibited from
receiving and placing at their disposal any monies, by
the name of rent, or any other name. The operation
of the act was limited to the end of the then next session
of parliament. This bill met with no opposition. The
friends of the Catholics regarded it as a part of the sys¬
tem of emancipation—as a concession to the wounded
feelings of men in power. Their adversaries were pleased
even with this dying blow at the Association. Several
members who voted felt themselves called upon to apo¬
logise for supporting the bill; whilst others taunted them
for not having introduced such a measure before. It re¬
ceived the royal assent on the 5th of March ; but the As¬
sociation had already declared itself dissolved. The last
blow struck for the gratification of oftended vanity was
lost in the empty air.
On the same day that the bill aimed at the Catholic
Association received the royal assent, Mr Peel moved in
the House of Commons that the house should resolve it¬
self into a committee on the laws which imposed disabili¬
ties on the Catholics. A call of the house had been
moved for that day, and the consequence was an unusu¬
ally crowded attendance. The speech with which the
home secretary prefaced his recommendation of the mi¬
nisterial measure had two remarkable features. In the
first place, every fact that he stated as influencing the de¬
cision to wdiich he had come, must have been known for
years, or he must have been unfit for his office. In the
second place, while confessing that the object of the mea¬
sure was to mediate between contending interests, he
conceived it necessary for the honour of government to
affect a stern disregard of all. His reasons for yielding to
the Catholic claims were,—That the evils of divided
councils were palpably so great, that something must be
done to form a government with one common opinion on
the subject; that a united government must either grant
further political rights to the Catholics, or deprive them
of those they already possessed; and that the latter alter¬
native was impossible. Having made up their minds to
bring back the Catholics within the pale of the constitu¬
tion, ministers wisely brushed off all the incumbrances
with which the concession had from time to time been
surrounded, with the view of assuring alarmists. The
great object of the measure was to abolish civil dis¬
tinctions, and establish equality of civil rights. The
Catholic, when promoted to office, was only called upon
to swear allegiance in the usual terms; to disclaim the
deposing power of the pope; and to abjure any intention
of employing his privileges to weaken the Protestant re¬
ligion or government. The only offices from which Ca¬
tholics were excluded were that of lord-lieutenant of Ire¬
land, that of lord high chancellor, and appointments in
any of the universities, colleges, or ecclesiastical schools.
No official insignia were to be borne to a Catholic place of
655
worship ; no Catholic prelate was to assume the name and Reign of
title of any dignitary of the church of England; and the George IV.
names and numbers of the individuals composing monastic
societies were to be registered. Making allowance for the
necessity of gilding the pill in order that it might be swallow¬
ed, the measure was as liberal as could be desired. It was,
however, beyond the power of the narrow-minded faction
into whose hands fortune, in one of her freaks, had placed
the office of effecting this great act of justice, to have kept
it pure from every indication of their own want of mag¬
nanimity. The provision that the oath recited in the act,
and no other, should be taken by a Catholic, was express¬
ly limited to the case of “ any person professing the Ca¬
tholic religion who shall, after the commencement of this
act, be returned as a member of the House of Commons.”
This specification was evidently levelled against Mr O’Con¬
nell, who had been returned for Clare before “ the com¬
mencement of this act;” and was worthy of the temper
that punished the Catholic Association at the very moment
it confessed that that body had demanded no more than
justice. Ministers had been terrified into an honest ac¬
tion, and were determined to show their resentment by
performing it with as bad a grace as possible.
The burden of defending the measure fell upon the re¬
cently-converted ministerialists; the old and tried friends
of emancipation contenting themselves with throwing in
an occasional word of encouragement to their new allies.
The line of argument adopted by all was much the same
as that made use of by Mr Peel. The opposition was
characterized rather by a dogged and sullen pertinacity,
than by debating talent. The speakers had followed the
lord of the ascendant; and the only things which enliven¬
ed the dulness of the minority were some very bitter sneers
at the deserters. The main argument relied upon was, that
a majority of the nation were opposed to concession. Mi¬
nisters were repeatedly challenged to appeal to the sense
of the country by a dissolution of parliament. But they
who urged such reasons knew very well, that, as parlia¬
ment was then constituted, a new election would not have
expressed the sense of the nation. They knew, that even
though England and Scotland had been bigoted enough to
wish to rivet the fetters of the Catholics, Ireland had still a
right to appeal from their decision. Ireland was all but una¬
nimous on the question ;—Ireland was the principal party
interested;—Ireland had assented to the union, under the
conviction that emancipation was to be conceded;—Ire¬
land had a right, if it was withheld, to demand the repeal
of an alliance into which she had entered on the faith and
understanding that the removal of the Catholic disabilities
and an equality of civil rights would be amongst its earliest
fruits. Parliament was certainly not the fairest tribunal;
but, in the circumstances of the case, it was perhaps the
best that could be had recourse to.
The majority in the committee, three hundred and
forty-eight for the motion, and a hundred and sixty
against it, decided the fate of the measure in the Com¬
mons. No important variation in the relative numbers
occurred during the remaining discussions, neither was
any new argument adduced. The speakers came forward
for the purpose of recording their own opinions, not with
the hope of influencing those of others. The bill was
carried up to the Lords, and read a first time on the 31st
of March,
In this house the demands of the Catholics had hither¬
to met with the most determined and uniform resistance.
Its members were men of high feelings, of personal honour,
and independent circumstances. They were contemplated
by the panegyrists of the constitution as the representa¬
tives of what was permanent in the English frame of go¬
vernment, and as the check upon the over-hasty resolves of
656
BRITAIN.
Ueign of a popular assembly. Yet they evinced as much haste and
George IV. dexterity in following the veering inclinations of the mi-
nister as their humbler colleagues in the task of legislation.
1829. On the 11th of June 1828 a majority of forty-four refused
even to entertain the question of the Catholic claims. On
the 10th of April 1829 a majority of a hundred and four
passed a bill granting every thing that the Catholics asked
for. The debates were equally lengthy and unsatisfactory
with those in the lower house. The bill received the royal
assent on the 13th of April.
The bill which admitted Catholics to both houses of
parliament, and to almost every office of political power,
trust, and emolument, was accompanied throughout its pro¬
gress by another bill for disfranchising the whole body of
forty-shilling freeholders in Ireland. This measure, as de¬
scribed by Mr Peel, restricted the possession of the elec¬
tive franchise to the possessors of a real ten-pound free¬
hold. This restriction did not extend to corporate towns ;
for had the franchise been raised within their jurisdictions
to ten pound, the corporations could have overpowered
the public voice by their right to make freemen. The
bill fixed a day for the opening, in every county in Ire¬
land, of a bona fide register of ten-pound freeholds. An
act of more flagrant injustice was never perpetrated. The
landlords finding that the serfs, whom they had bred
for electioneering purposes, had emancipated themselves,
threw them carelessly away. The wealthier Catholics had
served their own purposes, and abandoned those who had
fought their battles. The Irish forty-shillings freeholder
had as good a title to his elective franchise as the proud¬
est nobleman to his barony. He might be all that his
calumniators represented him, but the fault lay in the sys¬
tem under which he was born, and in the ambitious land¬
holders who had made it an engine to serve their own
selfish purposes. He was punished for having rescued
himself from the degradation of being a mere unthinking
tool. Lords Duncannon and Palmerston, and Mr Hus-
kisson, deserve to be had in remembrance for having
raised their voices against this filching of men s rights.
Only seventeen members voted against the bill in the
Commons, and scarcely a murmur was heard from Ireland
when it passed into a law. And thus a question which
had vexed the nation for half a century was set at rest.
No other question of importance succeeded in arrest¬
ing the attention of parliament during this agitated year.
Even the budget was hurried over w ithout its due allow¬
ance of wrangling. On the 24th of June parliament was
prorogued, in order that the nation and the government
might have time to reflect upon their novel situation.
The ceding of the Catholic claims was the last import¬
ant act of the reign of George IV. The ministers gain¬
ed by this desertion of their professed principles what
every body of men adopting a similar line of conduct may
reasonably expect, the enmity of their former friends, and
a cold distrustful toleration at the hands of their former
opponents. The country was partially disquieted during
the autumn and winter of 1829. The labourers were suf¬
fering in many places from want of employment, and dis¬
tress to a considerable extent was insinuating itself among
the agricultural classes. England’s productive powers
continued unabated, and the prevalence of want showed
that there was something wrong in her internal anange-
tnents, interfering with the natural tendency of wealth to
diffuse itself. In Ireland public tranquillity was far fiom
being re-established, nor was such a consummation rea¬
sonably to be hoped for from the redress of one grievance
alone in a country which had been governed for centuries
by men ignorant of its wants and feelings. The boon of
emancipation had been attended, as we have seen, by an
act of injustice and a gratuitous insult. The former was
scarcely remembered in the hour of triumph, but it afford- Reign of
ed a topic for declamation when the hour of agitation ^eorge ^
should arrive ; and the latter sent back to Ireland, as the
avowed and embittered enemy of government, the man
who had more power than any other over popular feeling.
O’Connell’s progress through Ireland was a continued
triumph. His re-election for Clare was not contested.
And wdierever he went he held out ministers to the po¬
pular odium, recounting all their misdeeds, real or imagi¬
nary, and appealing in turns to every passion that could
be supposed to animate the peasant. The Orangemen, on
the other hand, galled by the loss of their ascendency,
continued to vociferate empty menaces, which had at least
the effect of producing irritation. The waves of popular
hatred and prejudice continued to dash after the storm that
raised them had blown over.
Amidst all this trouble, a conviction began to gain ground
that ministers were unequal to the task of carrying on the
government. It was apparent, indeed, that they had chalk¬
ed out for themselves no system by w hich to regulate their
conduct. They undertook nothing of their own accord,
and they adopted almost every suggestion which was made to
them by others. Nor was this strange. With the exception
of some inferior officials, men trained in the dischai ge of i ou-
tine duties, but who could only execute a task prescribed to
them, there was not amongst them one man who had a
knowledge of public business. The leaders were of that un¬
yielding aristocratical party which had revolted at the idea
of following the leadership of a man like Mr Canning. They
believed that the honours of the state belonged to them in
virtue of their birth, and they managed to secure these by
influence and intrigue ; but they could not use the power
which they had succeeded in acquiring. Mastersof their own
wishes alone, they stared idly around, asking what they were
to do next. The dilemma in which they had involved them¬
selves soon became visible to every eye, and its effect was to
revive dormant feelings. At the commencement of the
reign of George IV. parliamentary reform was loudly call¬
ed for by two bodies of men; by the Whigs, with whom
the belief of its necessity partook largely of the character
of a theoretical tenet; and by the radicals, who, without
correct or extensive views, felt that something was wrong,
and stumbled upon the remedy. The conciliatory policy
of the cabinet after the accession of Mr Canning delud¬
ed the nation with the hope that an efficient and enlight¬
ened government might be obtained even under the old
system ; and the cry of reform was stilled for a time. But
the intrigues by which it was sought to keep Mr Canning
out of the premiership, and the success with which they
were employed after his death, revived the conviction
that an enlightened ministry, acting for the national good,
must remain weak, unless, by parliamentary reform, the
body of the people obtained a more direct control over
the executive. This spirit, to which subsequent events
soon imparted a more determined character, was rapidly-
spreading when parliament re-assembled in February ISTU.
The ministers were conscious that they did not com¬
mand a majority of the house. The old Tones stood in
an attitude of avowed hostility. The Whigs lent a patro¬
nising but uncertain support. The Duke of Welling on,
however, flattered himself that the incompatible principles
of these two parties would keep them from coalescing
against him. He dreamed of receiving alternate assist¬
ance from both, and, by playing off their mutual jealousy,
of avoiding the necessity of throwing himself into the arms
of either. Thus situated, his conduct was marked with
the same tinge of feebleness as during the preceding ses¬
sion When any measure to which he was averse was
energetically pressed upon him, he evaded the appearance
of a defeat by introducing one slightly varied inform, but
BRITAIN.
Ueign of of the same tendency. On the 12th of February, Sir
lieonre IV. James Graham moved a resolution to the effect—“ That
whereas subsequently to the act of the 37th George III.,
1830. ky which a suspension of cash payments was effected,
large augmentations had taken place in the salaries and
pay of persons in civil and military employments, on
account of the diminished value of money; and v/hereas
the alleged reason for such augmentations had ceased to
operate, in consequence of the passing of 59th George
III., which restored a metallic standard of value; it wras
expedient, in order to relieve the country from its exces¬
sive load of taxation, to revise our present system of ex¬
penditure, for the purpose of making every possible reduc¬
tion that could be effected, without violation of good faith
or public justice.” This motion was opposed by ministers;
but, in the temper of the house, it was judged expedient
merely to substitute a motion to the following effect:—
“ That whereas his majesty has been graciously pleased,
&c. to assure the house that he would cause an inquiry to
be made into all the departments of the civil government,
with a view of reducing the number of persons employed,
and the amount of the salaries paid; resolved, that an
humble address be presented to his majesty, that his ma¬
jesty might be graciously pleased to lay before the house
an account of the progress which had been made in such
inquiry : also, that it was the opinion of the house that, in
every establishment of the state, every saving ought to be
made consistently with the due performance of the public
service, and without the violation of existing engagements.”
Ministers did not insist upon taking the lead; they only
asked leave to walk foremost. So that they rode on the
crest of the billow, they cared not in what direction it was
impelled.
A variety of subjects forced on the attention of parlia¬
ment, confirmed the fact that men’s minds were full of
doubts and questionings. Lord Stanhope moved for an
inquiry into the state of the nation. Mr P. Thomson
moved for a committee to revise the whole system of tax¬
ation. The question of the East India charter was un¬
avoidably brought forward. Parliamentary reform was sug¬
gested in the most various forms, and from the most unex¬
pected quarters. The Marquis of Blandford, once a vio¬
lent Tory, proposed, on the 18th of February, the appoint¬
ment of a committee by ballot, to take a review of all the
boroughs and cities in the kingdom, and to report to the
home secretary such as had fallen into decay or forfeited
their right to representation. That minister was immediate¬
ly to relieve these places from the burden of sending mem¬
bers to parliament in future, and to fill up the vacancies by
towns hitherto unrepresented. The elective franchise was
to be enjoyed by all persons paying scot and lot. The plan
of the marquis contemplated the revival of the custom of
paying wages to members in parliament. Lord John Russell
moved, on the 23d of the same month, for leave to bring
in a bill to enable Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham,
to return members to the House of Commons. Mr O’Con¬
nell brought his plan of reform before parliament on the
28th of May. He moved for leave to bring in a bill to
establish triennial parliaments and vote by ballot, and
extend the franchise to every man who paid a tax or was
liable to serve in the militia. The same day Lord John
Russell submitted two resolutions to the house, first,
“ That it was expedient the number of representatives in
the house should* be increased;” and secondly, “ That it
was expedient to give members to the large manufacturing
towns, and additional members to counties of great wealth
and population.” All these schemes were negatived by
large majorities, and their discordant nature showed that
the reformers,—for the old parties of Whigs and lories
had now well nigh merged into reformers and anti-re-
vol. Y.
657
formers,—had not come to a right understanding with each Reign of
other. But taken in connection with the voice of the pub- George IV.
lie out of doors, they showed that the cry for reform, si-
lenced for a while, was again rising with increased urgen¬
cy, and that an extensive change in the constitution of the
House of Commons could not much longer be evaded.
At this ominous crisis George IV. breathed his last. He
had long been in an infirm state, but no immediate danger
was anticipated till the commencement of April. On the
15th of that month the first bulletin was issued. He con¬
tinued to grow weaker, and latterly the slightest exertion
became intensely painful. A message was sent to both
houses of parliament on the 24th of May, stating that his
majesty found it painful to sign with his own hand docu¬
ments which required his sign-manual, and requesting par¬
liament to provide for the temporary discharge of that
function of the crown. A bill was immediately passed, al¬
lowing the sign manual to be adhibited by a stamp. The
disease continued to run its course, and upon the 26th of
June his majesty expired.
George IV. had no public virtues. He is said to have pos¬
sessed a taste for the arts and for letters; and the instances
which have been given of his attachment to the latter indi¬
cate a pretty correct estimate of the merits of some lighter
works. In the rich and voluptuous decoration of apartments
he excelled. In painting, his taste does not seem to have
gone beyond a feeling of elegant execution, and a recogni¬
tion of strongly-expressed character. Neither science, lite¬
rature, nor art, found in him a very active patron ; and he
took but little interest in the affairs of government. He was
at one time in habits of intimacy with the Whigs; but find¬
ing their opponents firmly seated in power, he allowed them
to remain. The character of his minister, and the course
of policy adopted by him, were comparatively indifferent,
provided the royal repose was left undisturbed. His habits
were retired, and he shrunk from every species of annoyance.
This was perhaps rather the result of exhausted energy and
constitutional decay, than of self-indulgence, or haughtiness
of character. Yet, upon public occasions, he was fond of
display and parade. He could enjoy the pageantry of mo¬
narchy, though he shrunk from its more laborious duties.
The spectacle of a gorgeous coronation had greater attrac¬
tions for him than even the solid possession of kingly power.
On some points, however, where his own private feelings or
opinions were concerned, he w^as firm, even to obstinacy.
Hence he risked the peace of the empire to get rid of an ob¬
noxious queen ; and he resisted all concession to the Catho¬
lics, until the urgency of danger compelled him to yield. But
there was something engaging in his appearance, which made
him popular whenever he showxed himselfamongst his people;
his manners were confessedly those of an accomplished gen¬
tleman ; and though fastidiously jealous of his royal dignity,
his habits were social and agreeable.
Yet his reign was not uneventful. It commenced at
the close of the extensive wars which had desolated Eu¬
rope. The nation, no longer engrossed with its own ex¬
ploits in foreign lands, but deranged as to its internal
economy by a long-continued struggle, was forced to turn
its eyes inwards. The consequences of this reflex study
developed themselves slowly. First the government shook
itself free from the alliance of despots ; and next endea¬
voured to check the gambling spirit of trade, by giving
a healthy and substantial character to the currency. A
more frank and liberal intercourse with other nations was
encouraged. Retrenchment of state expenditure, and an
equable apportionment of national burdens, were loudly
demanded, and in outward show at least attempted. The
old inadequate customs of the law began gradually to re¬
cede before a more rational system. The unalienable
right of a nation to regulate its internal concerns without
4 o
658
BRITAIN.
mo.
Reign of foreign interference was recognised. It was not to be ex-
William pected that such important changes could be effected
IV- without exciting individual discontent, and causing indivi¬
dual suffering. The consequent discussions led men to
inquire into the distribution of power and privilege. The
rights of citizens were warmly asserted. The equal politi¬
cal rights of all religious denominations were conquered.
The adherents of rational principles of government felt
their strength, and prosecuted their assaults upon anti¬
quated prejudice and abuses with more vivacity. rlhis
period of preparation was terminated by the death of
George IV. The seeds of future activity were germinat¬
ing in silence. The unsettled state of men’s minds was
as a chaos, upon which the news of the expulsion of the
Bourbons from France descended like an animating spiiit.
The huge mass heaved at once with the throes of new life.
The first fruits have been the achievement of parliament¬
ary reform.
CHAP. XXL
REIGN OF WILLIAM IV.
Accession of William IV—Popularity of the new King.—No
change made in the Ministry—Dissolution of Parliament.—The
Revolution of July in France—Effect produced by it in Bri¬
tain. Parliamentary Reform—Result of the^ Elections unfa¬
vourable to the Ministry—Disturbed state of the Country.—
Ireland Anti-Union Associations—Distress and outrages in
the English Agricultural Counties—Demand for Reform.
Political Unions and Reform Associations—Meeting of Parlia¬
ment Speech from the Throne.—Debates on the Address.
Duke of Wellington’s Declaration against Reform—The King
and Queen induced to decline dining at Guildhall on the Loid
Mayor’s Day Sir Henry Parnell’s motion on the Civil List.—
Ministers defeated Their Resignation—Earl Grey authori¬
zed to form a New Administration, on the basis of making Re¬
form a Cabinet Question—Parliament adjourned till February
1331 Decline of the outrages in the agricultural districts—
Punishment of the Rioters—Meeting of Parliament—Minis¬
terial plan of Reform.—Its reception by the country—Debate
on Lord John Russell’s Motion—Leave granted to bring in
Bills to amend the Representation of Scotland, England, and
Ireland Bills introduced.—Debate on the Second Reading
of the English Bill—Second Reading carried by a majority
of one General Gascoygne’s Motion carried by a majority
of eight Dissolution of Parliament—Scene on this occa¬
sion Result of the Elections—Bill re-introduced and car-
ried. through the House of Commons.—Debate on the Second
Reading in the Lords Bill thrown out by a majority of forty-
one Indignation of the country.—Proceedings of the Com¬
mons Parliament prorogued—Riots at Derby, Nottingham,
and Bristol Re-assembling of Parliament on Gth December
1831 English Bill again introduced—Debates—Passed on
22d March 1832 Carried to the House of Lords—Read a
second time by a majority of nine—Adjournment of the House
during the Easter Recess—Great Public Meetings in all parts
of the country Secret intrigues.—Meeting^ of the House-
Lord Lyndhurst’s amendment carried—Resignation of Mini¬
sters Lord Ebrington’s Motion—State of the Country.—
Duke of Wellington undertakes to form a Cabinet on the prin-
ciple of carrying the Reform Bills.—His utter failure. Loid
Grey recalled Subsequent discussions on the Bills—Secession
of the Opposition.—Irish Affairs.—Death of William IV.
William IV. ascended the throne of Great Britain on
the 26th of June 1830. The change of the monarch did
not occasion any immediate change in the state of public
affairs. The Duke of Clarence had accepted office under
Mr Canning, and had been rather unceremoniously depriv¬
ed of it by the Duke of Wellington; hence some people
augured that he would be unfavourable to his ministry.
In the political world he was scarcely known. An old
grudge existed against him from the time of the queen s
trial. The Tories, who more than half feared his revolt,
spread caricatured accounts of the proceedings at Bushy
House during his brother’s illness. The plainness of the
new king’s manners, however, soon rendered him highly jyam
popular. He mingled with the people, and his familiar ad- \ j
dress and unostentatious appearance contrasted so strong- iggq.
ly with those of the late king, that he completely won the
affections of that part of the community which, as it is the
first to deify a monarch, is also the first to cast him off
again. No change, however, took place in the ministry.
William IV. declared himself friendly to their policy, and
determined to retain them.
They were, however, incapable of being much longer
sustained in office, even by the royal support. The party
which they had irritated by carrying the Catholic bill was
strong in the Commons, and stronger in the Lords. The
Whigs had lost confidence in the Duke of Wellington and
his coadjutors, whose system of policy was temporising,
calculated to keep themselves in power, but not to forward
the business of the country. It was evident that every
measure having in view the better organization of the
state must be wrung from them, like Catholic emanci¬
pation, by demonstrations of power. War was in con¬
sequence declared against the cabinet, and prosecuted
vehemently by the Ultra-Tories, but by the Whigs with
more caution. The first question that gave rise to se¬
rious discussion was, whether the parliament, after vot¬
ing such supplies as were immediately necessary, should
be at once dissolved, or whether provision ought first to
be made for a regency in the event of the king s demise
before the re-assembling of that body. Ministers obtain¬
ed a small majority after a violent debate. A few mat¬
ters of business which could not be postponed were after¬
wards hurried through the house with little opposition,
and on the 23d of July parliament was prorogued by the
king in person; and being next day dissolved by procla¬
mation, writs were issued for the election of a new one,
returnable on the 14th of September.
A few davs afterwards the news of the revolution, by
which the elder branch of the Bourbons was finally expel¬
led from France, reached England. The intelligence, as
already mentioned, had a powerful effect. I he delusion
which the conciliatory policy of Canning had occasioned,
and the belief that an enlightened and energetic govern¬
ment was attainable under the old rotten system of paiha-
mentary election, had received a severe shock from the cir¬
cumstances of his death. The liberal measures into whic i
the Duke of Wellington had reluctantly been forced, had
for a short time delayed the disabusing of the nation. But
late events had shown that nothing was to be expected
from him and the men of mere routine who formed his
ministry. The longing for parliamentary reform returned
with redoubled efficacy. Men were not prepared with
any definite scheme, nor were they agreed as to the prin¬
ciples upon which they vindicated the justice of innovation.
The news of the three days in Paris ripened men’s views,
and showed that wishes were useless whilst unproductive
of action. The French received the homage of universal
sympathy. This circumstance was turned to use by some
active friends of liberty. Meetings were called in every
important town to congratulate the freemen of I ranee;
and thus reformers were brought together, and taught
how numerous a body they were. ,. ~
All these circumstances operated unfavourably for mi-
nisters at the elections. Wherever the election was po¬
pular, the reformers supported a candidate of then own
principles; and of the close burghs, with the exception of
those commanded by government, a deeded majority were
in the hands of the Duke’s adversaries. The suspicions
under which his administration lay, of coqueting with
Prince Polignac, materially augmented its unpopularity.
Not one candidate appeared on the hustings to claim the
Reign of suffrages of the electors as a supporter of ministers. The
William general result of the election diminished by fifty the
IV- votes upon which the government could depend.
At the same time the disturbed state of the country,
i830‘ by showing the incapacity of government, went far to
swell the ranks of its enemies. Ireland had not been
pacified, because the concession of its claims had been
accompanied by personal insult and perseverance in a hos¬
tile attitude. Emancipation had never been demanded
by any reasonable man as a measure that could do good
further than by allaying religious feuds, and bringing the
nation to a temper in which an honest government might
with rational hopes of success look for support in pursu¬
ing measures of reform. But, on every question that re¬
garded Ireland, government evinced a hostile spirit, the
growth either of ignorance or bigotry. The cry for the
repeal of the union was again raised, and a society esta¬
blished, bearing the title of “ The Friends of Ireland of
all religious denominations.” This body announced its de¬
termination to agitate till every one of its objects should
be conceded. The most essential of these were, a repeal
of the sub-letting act, a radical reform in the representa¬
tion, and a repeal of the union. Mr O’Connell was at the
time absent in England; and there being no other man of
his party equally fertile in resources and undaunted in per¬
tinacity, the lord-lieutenant easily suppressed the new as¬
sociation under the act passed along with that which ad¬
mitted the Catholics to a participation in the privileges of
the constitution. But no sooner did the dissolution restore
O’Connell to Ireland than he engaged in re-organizing his
adherents into an “ Anti-Union Association.” This society
was likewise prohibited by proclamation of the lord-lieute¬
nant, but was succeeded by the “ Association of Irish volun¬
teers for the repeal of the Union.” Many who had hither¬
to acted with Mr O’Connell, felt the necessity of a legis¬
lative union with England, and took alarm at these pro¬
ceedings. A numerous meeting, convened by the Duke
of Leinster, declared their adherence to the union. After
this step the lord-lieutenant’s proclamation directed against
the volunteers was obeyed, nor was the repeal of the union
proposed at any of the elections as a test to candidates.
Even England began to rival Ireland in misery and dis¬
turbances. While parliament continued to sit, its table
was covered with petitions, describing in the strongest
terms the distress suffered by the lower classes engaged
in agriculture. It was predicted that unless a change
for the better took place it would be impossible to restrain
them from outrage. The harvest was scarcely concluded
when this prophecy was fulfilled. The disturbances be¬
gan in the county of Kent. Threatening letters were
dispersed throughout the county, machinery destroyed,
money extorted, and barns and stack-yards set on fire.
The commotions were the wild aimless efforts of men suf¬
fering almost beyond nature and without hope. Viewing
the matter in this light, the first rioters apprehended were
treated with a degree of lenity which encouraged fresh out¬
rages. During October, November, and December, the
riots increased in frequency and boldness, and spread from
Kent into Hants, Wilts, Bucks, Sussex, and Surrey. The
frame of civil society seemed breaking up, and a wild de¬
luge of human passion, untamed by moral feeling, uncheck¬
ed by law, threatened to overwhelm all.
With a nation apparently resolving into anarchy, and a
government helpless and stubborn, there was no hope. Like
sailors in a shipwreck, men began to search for something
to cling to in the impending convulsion. The demand for
reform was raised more clamorously than ever. Political
unions and reform associations, having for their object the
propagation of definite political principles, and a demon¬
stration of the physical strength of the reformers, were
everywhere established. The most important of these Beiffn of
bodies were the Birmingham union, the model of all the William
others ; the great northern union, extending over the coun- ,
ties of Northumberland and Durham ; and the Renfrew- ^3^
shire political union. But others of less note were to be
found in almost every town and village in the kingdom.
Such was the threatening aspect of the country when
parliament opened on the 2d of November. The speech
from the throne contained no indications of the means by
which ministers proposed to meet the threatening emer¬
gency. It was simply announced in regard to France,
that “ the elder branch of the Bourbons no longer reign¬
ed,” and that “ the Duke of Orleans had been called to
the throne by the title of King of the French.” The
events in Belgium were branded with the title of “ revolt.”
The disturbances among the peasantry were attributed to
“ efforts industriously made to excite discontent and dis¬
affection.” A determination was expressed to exert every
means which the constitution had placed at the king’s dis¬
posal for the repression of outrage. No distant allusion
was made to that reform which the nation demanded as
with one voice. The ministerial declaration showed that
the Duke of Wellington, in proud ignorance, was deter¬
mined to cling to a system whose props one after another
had for years been dropping down.
Any doubt that remained upon this subject was re¬
moved by the debate which took place in the House of
Lords when the address to the throne was moved. Earl
Grey, adverting to the opprobrious designation applied in
the king’s speech to the Belgian revolution, observed,—
“ We ought to learn wisdom from what was passing be¬
fore our eyes. He felt persuaded, that unless reform were
granted, we must make up our minds to witness the de¬
struction of the constitution. He had been a reformer all
his life, and at no period had he been inclined to go farther
than he would be prepared to go now, if the opportunity
were offered.” The Duke of Wellington’s reply to this por¬
tion of this speech is only memorable by the declaration
made in it, which occasioned his subsequent downfal.
“ The noble earl has alluded to something in the shape of
a parliamentary reform, but he has acknowledged that he
is not prepared with any measure of reform ; and I have
as little scruple to say, that his majesty’s government is
as totally unprepared as the noble lord. Nay, on my own
part, I will go farther and say, that I have never read or
heard of any measure up to the present moment, which
could in any degree satisfy my mind that the state of re¬
presentation could be improved or rendered more satis¬
factory to the country at large. * * * I am fully convinced
that the country possesses at the present moment a legis¬
lature which answers all the good purposes of legislation;
and this to a greater degree than any legislature ever has
answered in any country whatever. * * * Under these
circumstances I am not only not prepared to bring forward
any measure of this nature, but I will at once declare,
that, as far as I am concerned, as long as I hold any sta¬
tion in the government of the country, I shall always feel
it my duty to resist such measures when proposed by
others.”
The tone assumed by the opposition in both houses
after this haughty declaration convinced ministers of their
rashness in venturing to meet such a parliament in an of¬
ficial capacity. Their embarrassment was increased in
consequence of an injudicious manoeuvre, intended to ter¬
rify the more timid of their opponents, by impressing
them with an exaggerated notion of popular violence. The
king and queen were to dine at Guildhall on the Lord
Mayor’s day; but, under the pretext that there was a con¬
spiracy on the part of some abandoned characters to attack
the Duke of Wellington, their majesties were induced to
660
BRITAIN.
IV.
1831.
Reign of retract their assent. This attempt, by stimulating the
William loyalty of the nation, and adroitly confounding the king
with his advisers, to give greater firmness to a wavering
government, failed signally. The ministers became ridi¬
culous. The invectives of the opposition in parliament
became more pointed and inveterate; and on the 15th of
November Sir Henry Parnell moved “ that a select com¬
mittee be appointed to take into consideration the esti¬
mates and accounts presented by command of his majesty
respecting the civil list.” After a short debate ministers
were left in a minority of twenty-nine in an unusually full
house. Mr Hobhouse asked Sir Robert Peel whether it
was the intention of ministers to retain their places after
such an expression of the sentiments of the house, but
received no answer. Next day the Duke of Wellington
in the Peers, and Sir Robert Peel in the Commons, an¬
nounced, that in consequence of the vote of the preceding
evening, they had tendered, and his majesty had accept¬
ed, their resignations.
The king immediately authorized Earl Grey to form
an administration upon the basis of making parliamentary
reform a cabinet question. His lordship had refused his
support to the Canning administration on the ground that
its premier was opposed to reform. His son-in-law Lord
Durham, Lord Althorp, the Marquis of Lansdown, and
Lord John Russell, were tried adherents of the Whig party,
and friendly to reform. These, with Lord Holland, may
be regarded as the nucleus of the reform administration.
Its ranks were filled up by Mr Canning’s friends, who had
gathered from the signs of the times the impossibility of
longer withstanding those innovations which timidity of
character or the prejudices of education had led them to
oppose. The treatment which their leader had experien¬
ced at the hands of the high aristocratic party rendered
them less averse to any measure that promised to sap its
power. The Duke of Richmond was the only leading
member of the old Tory party who accepted office under
Earl Grey. Others of that party had joined, after the
concession of the Catholic claims, in calling for reform;
but their object was merely to raise a clamour against a
political adversary, and they ceased the moment they saw
there was danger of their request being granted. Mr
Brougham was appointed lord high chancellor.
There was necessarily a suspension of business in par¬
liament till the ministers who had vacated their seats by
accepting office should be re-elected. By the time that
they were all restored to their places, it was too late to
think of maturing and developing their system of policy
before the Christmas holidays. Accordingly, Earl Grey
contented himself with declaring, that it was the intention
of the cabinet to introduce a plan for the reform of the
Commons House of Parliament. The regency bill was
passed in conformity with the recommendation in the
speech from the throne. And on the 23d of December
1830 both houses adjourned to the 3d of February; mini¬
sters having declared that a long interval was necessary
to enable them to concoct that plan of reform to which
they had pledged themselves on accepting office.
The interval of parliamentary exertion was an uneasy
one for the country. The riots and outrages in the ag¬
ricultural districts had begun to decline; but the duty
of punishing the convicted transgressors of the law re¬
mained to be fulfilled. During the latter half of Decem¬
ber and the beginning of January, upwards of eight hun¬
dred rioters were tried before special commissions. Of
those against whom sentence of death was recorded, only
four were executed; the rest were ultimately sentenced
to various terms of transportation and imprisonment. Com¬
parative tranquillity was restored; but the mischief that
kab been done was not amended, nor was a healthy confi¬
dence between the lower classes and their employers re- Rjd?11 °f
stored. Wimam
Neither had the change of administration been entirely
successful in restoring public confidence in the constituted
authorities. The stern unbending adherence of Earl Grey
and his immediate friends to the cause of reform was in
their favour ; but the country was determined to trust no
man, and meetings were held in every county and town
to petition for such an alteration of the elective system
as might have a tendency to secure good government.
Parliament met, as appointed, on the 3d of February
1831. Ministers announced that their plan of parliament¬
ary reform should be brought forward by Lord John Rus¬
sell on the 1st of March. The interim was occupied by
discussions on the arrangement of the civil list prepared
by ministers, on the budget, and on a plan for reforming
abuses in the court of chancery, proposed by the lord
chancellor. On that evening accordingly his lordship
explained the nature and extent of the ministerial plan.
The general outline bore a marked resemblance to that of
the measure brought forward on a former occasion by Mr
Lambton, and thrown out by a manoeuvre on the part of
Mr Canning. The chief grievances complained of by the
people, it was remarked by Lord John, were the nomina¬
tion of members by individuals, and elections by close
corporations, the limited extent of the elective franchise,
and the expense of elections. W ith a view to do away
with the two first-mentioned evils, in as far as regarded
England, ministers proposed to introduce a bill proceed¬
ing upon the three principles of disfranchisement, enfran¬
chisement, and extension of the right of suffrage. In
order to reduce expense, they intended to recommend an
alteration in the system of registering voters and of taking
the votes at elections. The extent of disfranchisement
deemed necessary to extirpate close and nomination bo¬
roughs went to deprive such places as had a population of
fewer than two thousand inhabitants of their right to send
any members to parliament, and to restrict such as had a
population of only four thousand to one member each. \\ ey-
mouth, which had previously returned four members, was
to lose two of them. By this measure sixty burghs would be
totally disfranchised, and forty-seven partially, exclusive
of Weymouth. The number of members thus withdrawn
would amount to 168. ^Ministers did not propose to fill
up the former number of the House. Seven large towns,
which had previously been wholly unrepresented, were
to receive two members each. Twenty other towns,
smaller in size, and of less importance, were to receive
one member each. The metropolis was to be subdivided
into four additional districts, which were to return among
them eight members. An addition of two members was
to be given to each of the twenty-seven largest coun¬
ties, and each riding of the county of York was to re¬
turn two additional members, and the Isle of Might
one. The distribution of the elective franchise through
the country having been thus arranged, the next point
to be settled was the persons to whom the right of vot¬
ing should extend. The object of ministers was noi to
communicate the franchise to every subject, but at the
same time to extend it so far that every man « ho perse¬
vered in habits of honest industry might fairlv calculate
upon being able to attain it. Non-resident voters, as pro¬
ductive of much expense and bribery, were deprh ed ot
their privilege. Everv householder rated at ten pounds
per annum, whether the house he inhabited were his
own or rented, received the right ot \oting. In counties,
the possession of copyhold property rated to the amount
of ten pounds per annum, or a lease tor twent\-one vears
of the yearly value of fifty pounds, likewise entitled to a
vote. The last object contemplated by the ministerial
IV.
BRITAIN.
661
Reign of plan of reform was the diminution of election expenses.
William With a view to prevent the disgraceful tricks frequently
practised on the hustings, the most fertile source of ex-
pense, a list of all qualified persons in every parish was
ordered to be prepared by the parish officers and church
wardens. This list was to be placed on the church door,
and at a certain period of the year the returning officer
in towns, and a person appointed by the judge of assize
in counties, was to hold a court for the purpose of hearing
and deciding upon the claims of persons w hose votes had
been held objectionable. The list, as finally adjusted,
was to be published, so that every person might obtain a
copy, and was to serve as the election roll for the ensuing
year. The duration of the poll was limited to two days
in towns, and three in counties. The counties were to
be divided into polling districts, so arranged that no voter
should have to go more than fifteen miles in order to ex¬
ercise his franchise. This ample measure of reform for
England it was proposed to follow up by similar measures
applicable to Scotland and Ireland. With regard to the
former country, it was to receive five additional members.
Twenty-two counties were to return one member each.
The remaining twelve were to be conjoined into pairs,
returning one each. Edinburgh and Glasgow were each to
return two members; while Aberdeen, Paisley, Dundee,
Greenock, and Leith, were each to return one member.
The remaining thirteen districts of royal burghs were to
return each one member, as before, but the elective fran¬
chise was transferred from the delegates of the town coun¬
cils to the inhabitants possessed of a certain qualification.
The qualification required in burghs was the occupancy
of a dwelling-house of ten pounds per annum; in coun¬
ties, the ownership of land or houses worth ten pounds a
year, or holding as a tenant at the annual value of fifty
pounds on lease for nineteen years or upwards. The
reform of the Irish system was much less extensive, be¬
cause, as was alleged, the representation of that country
had been entirely re-modelled little more than thirty years
before, at the time of the union. It was proposed that
occupancy to the amount of ten pounds per annum should
give the right of voting for burghs, and that Belfast, Water¬
ford, and Limerick should each return an additional mem¬
ber. It was calculated that by this great measure 500,000
persons would be added to the national constituency, all
having a stake in the country, and so dispersed over its ex¬
tent as to place them beyond the influence of any faction.
This bold measure produced an electrical effect upon par¬
liament. The sincere reformers hailed its searching charac¬
ter as indicative of the honesty of its authors, and fruitful
of good to the nation. The timid wavering reformers stood
aghast, and so did all the champions of old abuses. Mr
Hume, a fair representative of the radical party, said the
plan of ministers had so far exceeded his expectations, that
he felt himself bound to admit that they had completely
redeemed the pledge which they had given. Mr Macaulay,
speaking the sentiments of the young and highly educat¬
ed liberals, thought it “ a great, noble, and comprehensive
plan.” Lord Ebrington, the model of a sturdy, sagacious,
independent country gentleman, “ hailed the measure,
as it gave due weight to every interest, and was calcu¬
lated to stem the torrent of corruption.” Sir R. Inglis, as
the organ of the high-church party, declared that the
“ plan of the noble lord meant revolution, not reforma¬
tion.” Sir Charles Wetherell, as representative of the
legal formalists, denounced the measure as “ a corpora¬
tion robbery.” The debate on Lord John Russell s mo¬
tion for leave to bring in a bill to amend the repre¬
sentation of the people of England, was kept up with ex¬
treme keenness for seven successive meetings, but ter¬
minated on the 9th of March without a division. Leave
IV.
1831.
w'as on the same evening given, after a short discussion, Reign of
to bring in bills to amend the representation of the people " lUiam
in Scotland and Ireland. The English bill was introduced ^
by Lord John Russell on the 14th of March, and read a
first time; the same step was taken with the Scotch bill
by the Lord Advocate on the 15th, and with the Irish
bill by Mr Stanley on the 24th. The discussion on the
second reading of the English bill was characterized by
a yet more fierce and inveterate spirit of hostility to all
reform, than that which took place when the measure was
first propounded. After a debate which lasted for two
evenings, the motion that the bill be read a second time
was carried by a majority of one. The opposition, there¬
fore, went into committee with a fair prospect of being
able to mutilate, and finally defeat the bill. Their first
demonstration was a declaration, moved by General Gas¬
coyne, “ that it is the opinion of the house that the total
number of members returned to parliament for England
and Wales ought not to be diminished.” The General’s
motion was carried by a majority of eight; a result which
intimated to ministers that they had not such a hold upon
the house as afforded them the most distant chance of
carrying the measure by which they stood pledged to
stand or fall. In order to appreciate the propriety of the
line of conduct adopted by them on this occasion, it will
be necessary to look to the effect which the promulgation of
the ministerial plan had produced upon the national mind.
The boldness of the measure, so much beyond what
had been expected, had greatly conciliated the radical party,
of which the unions might be considered as the repre¬
sentatives. Even the vital questions of the shortened
duration of parliaments, and a secret mode of taking the
votes, were postponed by one consent, lest any difference
of opinion should endanger the success of so efficient a
measure. The popular sense accepted the bills as satis¬
factory, and the nation crowded to their defence. Riot and
destruction ceased; for every man was intent upon the
prospect held out of good government and better days.
The tables of both houses were loaded with petitions in
favour of the bill. The more apparent it became that the
Commons would not pass it, the more intense became the
affection manifested by the people for its provisions. It was
evident that they regarded it as the standard to which
they were to look as a rallying point amid the whirls and
eddies of the headlong fight in which they were engaged.
With the people in such a mood, and the king remaining
true to his promises, the ministers were quite safe in
throwing themselves upon the sense of the electors by a
dissolution of parliament.
But the intimation that such a step was in contemplation
was received with anger and alarm by the opponents of re¬
form. They were not prepared for so determined a mea¬
sure ; and notwithstanding their declarations that the bill
was contrary to the national wish, they knew that the
people were against them. The exhibition of petty anger
which took place in both houses, but particularly in the
Lords, on the day of dissolution, baffles all description. An
eye-witness speaks thus : “ A hope had remained that the
project of stopping the king’s speech, and interposing an
address, might succeed. That hope rested entirely upon
the speech being read by the chancellor or by his majesty
in person. Suddenly the thunder of the guns was heard to
roar, breaking the silence of the anxious crowds without,
and drowning even the noise that filled the walls of par¬
liament. In the fulness of his royal state, and attended
by all his magnificent court, the monarch approached the
House of Lords. Preceded by the great officers of state
and of the household, he moved through the vast halls,
which were filled with troops in iron mail, as the outside
courts were with horse, while the guns boomed, and mar-
662
BRITAIN.
IV.
1831.
Keign of tial music filled the air. Having stopped in the robing
William chamber in order to put on his crown, he entered the
"r house and ascended the throne, while his officers and mi¬
nisters crowded around him. As soon as he was seated,
he ordered the usher of the black rod to summon the
Commons; and his majesty, after passing some bills, ad¬
dressed them. By those who were present the effect will
not soon be forgotten, of the first words he pronounced, or
the firmness with which they were uttered, when he said,
that £ he had come to meet his parliament in order to pro¬
rogue it with a view to its dissolution !’ He then with an
audible voice commanded the lord chancellor to prorogue,
which being done, the houses dispersed, and the royal
procession returned amidst the hearty and enthusiastic
shouts of thousands of the people.”1
In the state of the national mind, the result of the elec¬
tions could not be doubted. “ The bill, the whole bill, and
nothing but the bill,” became the general cry of the reform¬
ing electors; and to this the candidates were called to
pledge themselves at every open election. The Duke
of Newcastle, who had formerly returned two members
for Newark, and two for the county of Notts at large,
found his interest reduced to tour rotten borough seats,
where no man could interfere with him. The Duke of Beau¬
fort’s brother, and his eldest son, both justly popular no¬
blemen, were flung out, solely because they were opposed
to reform. The Duke of Rutland’s nominees were reject¬
ed in his own county. In Northumberland the minister’s
son, who had not ventured to enter the field at the preced¬
ing election, was returned, notwithstanding the indolence
of his friends. In short, out of eighty-two county mem¬
bers, England returned seventy-six pledged to support the
bill; the members for the cities and great towns were for
it to a man. Ireland returned a great majority, and even
Scotland a majority of friends to reform.
The success of the ministerial measure in a House of
Commons so constituted was beyond a doubt. Its enemies,
however, exerted every device to delay and baffle the Eng¬
lish reform bill. By trifling motions pushed repeatedly to
division, the opposition succeeded in retaining the Eng¬
lish bill in the House of Commons from the 15th of June
till the 22d of September, when it was finally agreed to
by a majority of one hundred and nine.
The eyes of the people followed it with anxiety to the
House of Lords. It struck at the roots of an influence
which that body possessed over the house which ought to
have been the representative of the people; and this in¬
fluence, it was known, a majority of their number were
resolved to preserve. When submitted to them, the bill
was brought before a tribunal of prejudiced and inte¬
rested judges. Its fate, if left to the House of Lords as
then constituted, was sealed before the debate had be¬
gun. The nation knew this, and loudly and urgently was
the necessity of a new creation of peers pressed upon mi¬
nisters, but in vain. Earl Grey had determined to give
his noble colleagues an opportunity of dealing justly by
the nation.
The debate on the second reading commenced on the
3d of October, and continued during that and four suc¬
ceeding evenings. The arguments brought forward against
the bill were various and contradictory. After this long
and fatiguing debate, the Peers of England, by a majority
of forty-one, decided, in opposition to a majority nearly
triple that amount of the House of Commons, and to the
almost unanimous voice of the nation, that a system of
cunningly veiled oppression and corruption should be per¬
petuated.
The indignation of the country was great, although Reign of
happily prevented from breaking but into open violence Wilham
by the firmness of ministers and the House of Commons. v^_
The chancellor of the exchequer declared in the House ^2
of Commons on the 10th of October, the earliest day
on which that house assembled after the rejection of the
bill by the Lords, “ that unless he entertained a hope
that a measure of reform equally efficient with that which
had been rejected would be carried hereafter, he would
not remain in office a single hour longer.” Lord Ebring-
ton brought forward the same evening a motion for a vote
of confidence in ministers, which was carried by a majo¬
rity of a hundred and thirty-one in a house of five hundred
and twenty-seven; and the house by this means pledged
to support ministers and the reform bill. On the 20th,
parliament was prorogued by the king in person.
Owing to the firmness of the king, his ministers, and
the House of Commons, the decision of the Lords was re¬
ceived by the people with deep-felt disgust; but, except
in two or three isolated cases, without any alarming bursts
of violence. At Derby the rabble broke open the town
jail, and demolished the property of some anti-reformers,
and were only prevented from the perpetration of further
violence by the interference of the military. The castle
at Nottingham, the property of the Duke of Newcastle,
was burned by a band of rioters. Some rioting, but not
of a very serious character, took place in Somersetshire and
Devonshire. And at Bristol, the arrival of Sir Charles
Wetherell, a strenuous anti-reformer, to discharge his
judicial duties, excited a popular ferment, which, being
met on the part of the magistrates at first with preci¬
pitate violence, and afterwards by cowardly supineness,
hurried the populace on to works of extensive destruc¬
tion. In every other part of the kingdom, however, large
meetings were held, and perfect obedience to the law en¬
forced. ^
Parliament re-assembled on the 6th of December 18ol.
In the speech from the throne, a speedy and satisfac¬
tory settlement of the question of reform was urgently
recommended. The ministry adhered to their original
purpose of remodelling the representation by three sepa¬
rate bills applicable to the varying social relations of the
three incorporated nations. I hat which had for its object
the reform of the English representation was introdu¬
ced on the 12th of December. It was confessedly supe¬
rior to the former in precision of expression; and some
of the subordinate arrangements had been modified with
a view to avoid the captious quibbling of the preceding
session. The opposition modestly claimed all the im¬
provements as their own, and yet attacked the measure
as inveterately as ever. The ministerial members adopt¬
ed the prudent resolution of leaving all the speaking to
their opponents; but, nevertheless, the pertinacious volu¬
bility of these orators was so far successful in retarding
the bill, that it did not pass through the House of Com¬
mons before the 22d of March.
It was carried up to the Lords with even more gloomy
anticipations than on the former occasion. No new peers
had been created. Lords Harrowby and Wharnchffe, who
had seemed at one time inclined to come to terms, re¬
sumed a hostile attitude. Between the first and second
reading of the bill, however, these noblemen and their
followers determined to make a concession to pub ic feel¬
ing, and allow the bill to go into committee. In conse¬
quence of their wavering, the second reading of the bill
was carried by a majority of nine, and the bill ordered
to be committed the first day on which the house should
1 Edinburgh Review, No. cvi. p. 484.
BRITAIN.
663
Reign of sit after the Easter recess. The house, immediately after
William coming to this resolution, adjourned for the holidays.
IV- During the interval, the whole country was kept in a fer-
tnent by meetings assembled for the purpose of expres-
1833. sing their satisfaction that the bill had passed the second
reading, and earnestly adjuring the Lords to give it the sanc¬
tion of a law. These assemblages were more frequent,
and attended by greater multitudes, than had ever previ¬
ously been witnessed ; and at all of them it was unequivo¬
cally declared that nothing would satisfy the nation short
of the full measure introduced by Earl Grey.
While the people were thus openly busy, their enemies
were privately at work with equal assiduity, and not with¬
out some success. Earl Grey, unsuspicious of the mine
about to be sprung under his feet, moved, on the 7 th of May,
in a committeeof the whole house, the adoption of the clause
disfranchising all burghs having a population beneath two
thousand. Lord Lyndhurst moved, as an amendment, the
postponement of the first and second clauses until the
question of enfranchisement should have been taken into
consideration. The object of this manoeuvre was to leave
the opposition an opportunity of conciliating the unrepre¬
sented great towns before it proceeded to mutilate the
bill. A suspicion to this effect was raised by the care
which some noble lords took to vindicate the fairness of
their intentions before any body had called them in ques¬
tion ; and suspicion was rendered certainty when Lord El-
lenborough favoured the house with an outline of the plan
of reform which he and his friends had in contemplation.
Ministers were left in a minority of thirty-five. They
immediately postponed the discussion, and next day re¬
commended to the king, in prosecution of a former under¬
standing. a creation of peers sufficient to insure the pass¬
ing of the bill. His majesty refused, and ministers im¬
mediately resigned.
Lord Althorp no sooner announced the ministerial re¬
signation in the House of Commons, than Lord Ebi'ing-
ton gave notice of a motion to address the king on the
state of affairs next evening. The address which, in pur¬
suance of this notice, his lordship moved, expressed the
most entire confidence in the late ministry, warned the
king of the unabated ardour of the nation in favour of re¬
form, and prayed that no men might be called to his ma¬
jesty’s councils who were not prepared to carry into effect
the reform bill, unimpaired in all its essential provisions.
The debate which ensued was eminently characterized by
boldness and determination on the part of the reformers.
The address was agreed to by a majority of eighty, in a
house of four hundred and ninety-six. The House of Com¬
mons was supported by the nation. Wherever the news
arrived of the resignation of Earl Grey, and it was circu¬
lated with unexampled rapidity, the inhabitants rose in
mass, and feeling confidence of their representatives, peti¬
tioned them to stop the supplies; while it was announced
in many places, that in the event of the House of Commons
refusing to do its duty, no more taxes would be paid until
the reform bill passed into a law. Not one act of rioting
was perpetrated from one end of the kingdom to the other,
but the orderly conduct of the assembled multitudes only
made their anger the more terrible.
The Duke of Wellington undertook to form an adminis¬
tration which should take office upon condition of carrying
through a large measui’e of reform. At the first hint of this
project, the national indignation blazed up more fiercely ;
the timid class of politicians shrunk from the side of their
leader ; and the duke having abandoned the task as hope¬
less, the king was obliged to recal Lord Grey.
On the evening of Friday the 18th May, Lord Althorp
announced to the House of Commons that ministers had
again accepted office, after receiving assurance that every
power would be placed in their hands which should be found
necessary to secure the passing of the reform bill unmuti¬
lated. The discussions of the measure in the House of
Lords, subsequent to this communication, were mere mat¬
ters of form. Few of the amendments proposed were evei ^
pushed to a division. Even the most obnoxious clause of
all, that which gave members to the metropolitan districts,
was carried by a majority of fifty-five, in a house of a hun¬
dred and twenty-seven. A creation of peers was not re¬
sorted to for the purpose of carrying the bill. In order to
render that supposed evil unnecessary, a sufficient number
of noble lords absented themselves from the house to leave
ministers in a majority on the thirdreading. The few who re¬
mained, however, expressedin their speeches the concentrated
resentment of all the absentees. The royal assent was given
to the English bill by commission on the 7th of June 1832.
The bills for Scotland and Ireland had been merely read
a first time, and then allowed to lie over until the key-stone
of the arch, the English bill, had been secured. As soon
as that object was attained, the discussions upon the other
two were resumed. Those regarding the Scotch bill were
little more than a mere matter of form, no serious opposition
being offered. It received the royal assent by commission
on the 17th of July. Greater difficulty threatened to arise
on the question of the Irish bill, for a strong body of the
Irish members were dissatisfied with the provisions for the
extension of the franchise, regarding them as insufficient.
But timely concession on the part of ministers conciliated
the malcontents ; the bill passed the House of Commons
on Friday the 20th of July ; no essential alterations were
made by the House of Lords ; and the new constitution of
the imperial parliament was thus, after an arduous struggle,
completely established. (j* R E0
Reign of
William
IV.
1833.
On the meeting of the first reformed parliament in Janu¬
ary 1833, a trial of strength between the parties in the house,
and a test of the efficiency of the bill, was eagerly expected
by the public. An opportunity seemed to be afforded by
the election of a new speaker for the House of Commons,
Mr Manners Sutton having expressed his purpose to resign;
and on this occasion Mr Hume and his party, who were
anxious that the reformed parliament should have an ad¬
herent of reform for its speaker, proposed Mr Littleton as
his successor. Happily, however, the contest was avoided
by the re-election of Mr Sutton, ministers being apprehen¬
sive of a too sudden influx of ardent inexperienced mem¬
bers into the house; and the motion of Mr Hume, although
supported by Mr O’Connell, having only 31 votes in its fa¬
vour against 241, showed that the spirit of reform was for
the present satisfied with what it had already secured. The
chief struggle, however, succeeded in the settlement of
Irish affairs, this subject having been earnestly recommended
to parliament in the opening speech of His Majesty. In
reference to these, he had expressed his confidence that
they would entrust him with such additional powers as might
be found necessary for controlling and punishing the dis¬
turbers of the public peace in Ireland, and for preserving
and strengthening the legislative union between the two
countries, which, he added, “ I am determined to maintain
by all the measures in my power, as indissolubly connected
with the peace, security, and welfare of my people.” A
fierce attack followed from Mr O’Connell, who characterized
the speech as a “ bloody, brutal, unconstitutional address,”
and ended by moving, that the house should resolve itself
into a committee for its consideration. A keen debate en¬
sued, which was carried through four adjournments, when
Mr O’Connell’s proposal was rejected by 428 against 40, of
which minority, 35 were Irish members. The coercion bill
for the suppression of disturbances in Ireland was then in¬
troduced by Earl Grey into the House of Lords, and carried
through without opposition. But no such tranquil reception
awaited it in the lower house, where a stormy debate of six
days ensued before the first reading of the bill was carried
by 466 votes against 89, this majority having been obtained
664
BRITAIN.
1833.
Reign of }jy the conservative party supporting the ministers. Un-
William dismayed by such a union, the Irish members and their
IV‘ adherents continued to oppose the bill at every step of de-
~ })ates until it was passed with some alterations through a third
reading by a majority of 345 to 86. 1 he prospect, however,
of coercive pacification was so discouraging that Mr Stanley
resigned his office of secretary for Ireland, and was suc¬
ceeded by Sir John Cam Hobhouse.
As a palliation to the severity of the coercive bill, it was
resolved to gratify the bulk of the Irish community at the
expense of the Established Protestant Church. Accordingly,
it was proposed that its revenues, amounting to L.800,000per
annum, should be taxed from 5 to 15 per cent., with the excep¬
tion of livings under L.200, and the first fruits abolished; that
ten bishoprics should be annulled, and the revenues of the
primate and the bishop of Derry diminished ; and that out of
the fund accruing from these and such reductions, estimated at
L.300,000, the levying of church cess was to be discontinued,
poor livings augmented, and the religious education of the
people more widely and effectually promoted. This bill,
which alarmed the Protestant, without satisfying the Romish
party, encountered much opposition out of doors, although
it passed through its third reading in the Commons on the
6th of July by a large majority. In the House of Lords it
only passed after much debate and with several modifications.
Another measure for the pacification of Ireland originated
in the collection of tithes, a process that was everywhere
the source of resistance, riot, and bloodshed. It was now
proposed that a sum not exceeding L.1,000,000 should be
issued in exchequer bills for the purpose of advancing “ un¬
der certain conditions the arrears of tithes due for 1831 and
1832, subject to a deduction of 25 per cent.; and the value
of the tithes for 1833, subject to a deduction of 15 per cent.,
to such persons as may be entitled to such arrears or such
tithes, and as may be desirous of receiving such advances ;
and that the amount advanced shall be included in the tithe
composition, so as to be repaid in the course of five years,
being payable by half-yearly instalments. J his resolution
was likewise carried, although it was alleged that such a
pretended loan would ultimately be converted into a gift,
and that England besides paying her own tithes would be
obliged to pay those of Ireland also.
Another important parliamentary measure of this year
successfully closed the long struggle for negro emancipation.
On this occasion an act was passed, that on the 1st of
August 1834 slavery should wholly cease throughout all
the^British colonies, while the immense sum of twenty mil¬
lions sterling was voted to the West India planters as a
compensation for their loss through the abolition of com¬
pulsory labour. Never, indeed, had the cause of humanity
received a sacrifice so great, so national, and so disinterested.
To avoid the danger of the reaction that might result from such
a sudden change, itwas also provided that every emancipated
negro, instead of being thrown loose upon society, should be¬
come an apprentice to his late master for a term not exceed¬
ing six years, and work for him forty-five hours in the week.
^On the following year the attention of parliament was
chiefly occupied, as before, with the affairs of Ireland. The
late concessions to that country had been received by
O’Connell and his party merely as the first instalments of a
debt, and Catholic emancipation itself as a prelude to the
repeal of the union ; and thus there was no end to their de¬
mands, or limits to their discontent. I his was now shown
upon the question of Irish tithes, connected with the renewal
of the coercion bill, in which the difficulties became so com¬
plicated, that Earl Grey resigned, and was succeeded in
office by Lord Melbourne. The new premier then brought
forward his plan for the adjustment of the tithe question,
which he stated to be the ultimatum, beyond which nothing
was to be granted or expected. It was, that the tithes were
to be collected by the crown and paid by the landlord, and
thus the odium, as well as riots, occasioned by the former Reign of
mode of levying them, would be avoided. But as the re- ^ ^am
venues of the clergy, in consequence of this change, were v
to undergo a diminution of 22^ per cent., to defray the ex- "
penses of collecting them, the bill was rejected at the second !835
reading, and the clergy of the Irish Established Church con¬
signed to their former poverty and uncertainty. This hasty
escape from one difficulty, only plunged the ministry into
another. On seeing the Irish Church thus left to its fate,
the English Dissenters who had supported the reform bill
through all its stages, imagined that their season for remon¬
strance and redress had fully arrived; and a shower of peti¬
tions followed, demanding exemption from the payment of
church rates, and, in some cases, for the entire abolition of
all connection between church and state, or at least, for the
general adoption of the voluntary system, by which every
person should not only choose his own church, but support
his own minister. These petitions, however, only provoked
a storm of counter-petitions, in which parliament was en¬
treated with equal urgency to preserve the rights of the
Established Church inviolate. But the chief grievance of
which the Dissenters complained, was their virtual exclu¬
sion from literary degrees at the universities of Cambridge
and Oxford, by the demand of conformity to the Church of
England, and subscription to its articles; and they therefore
prayed that these halls of learning should be thrown open to
all, and their honours made accessible to every competitor.
This petition was signed by sixty-three resident members
of the senate of Cambridge, and introduced to both houses;
but although its demand was limited to the abolition of uni¬
versity tests, it was regarded as a prelude to the overthrow
of church establishment itself, and as such, was rejected in
the Lords by a majority of 187 against 85 votes, and in the
Commons of 321 against 174.
The only other important measure of this season was the
bill for altering and amending the poor laws, upon which
a commission of inquiry had been instituted soon after the
accession of the new ministry to office. The bill was in¬
troduced by Lord Althorp on the 17th of April, and its
chief proposal was, that instead of magistrates being in¬
vested with power to relieve the poor in their own dwellings,
or on the roadside, the right in bestowing relief should be
intrusted to the entire management ol a board of commis¬
sioners named and appointed by ministers. Long and keen
discussions followed, and several alterations and amendments
were made upon the bill, until the Act 4th and 5th of \Y il-
liam IV. was passed in the month of August.
The whig ministry that had satisfied neither the Irish
agitators nor English radicals, and had generally become
unpopular, was now superseded by a new administration, in
which Sir Robert Peel succeeded Lord Melbourne as pre¬
mier. The events that followed this change were neither
numerous nor important. At the first meeting of the new
parliament, which was convoked for assembling on the 19th
of February 1835, Mr Abercromby was chosen speaker of the
House of Commons, instead of Sir Charles Manners Sutton,
and parliament was opened by the king in person on the 24th.
The principal question at issue when the business com¬
menced, was the vexatious one of Irish tithes, and an mqun y
into the nature, extent, and tendency of orange lodges. Rut
a still more momentous subject of discussion was embodied
in a motion of Lord John Russell, “ That the house should
resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, to con¬
sider respecting the temporalities of the Church of Ireland.
Another motion of his lordship consequent upon this was,
“ That any surplus which may remain, after fully providing
for the spiritual instruction of the members of the Established
Church in Ireland, ought to be applied to the general instruc¬
tion of all classes of Christians.” A third motion of his Lord-
ship on the 7th of April, after several adjourned debates upon
the subject was, “ That it is the opinion of the house, that
BRITAIN.
665
Victoria.
1837.
Reign of no measure on the subject of tithes in Ireland can lead to
Queen a satisfactory and final adjustment, which does not embody
the principle contained in the foregoing resolution.” This
motion was carried by a majority of 285 against 258. Sir
Robert Peel on finding the current thus strongly set against
him, resigned his brief two months’ tenure of office, and an
administration succeeded, having Lord Melbourne at its
head, as first lord of the treasury. This change, however,
was followed by no important consequences, for the bill
which the new ministers introduced for the regulation of the
Irish Church, after passing through the House of Commons,
was rejected by the Lords.
In the ensuing year several important measures were
proposed and carried successfully through both houses. The
first was a cabinet plan for the commutation of tithes in
England, by which provision was made for the extinction
within two years of the right of exacting them in kind, by
the payment of a money rate, according to the value of corn
ascertained by a seven years’ average. Another was the
general registration of births, marriages, and deaths. A third
concerned the marriage laws, by which Dissenters were al¬
lowed to celebrate the rite of marriage in their own places
of worship, or wherever they thought fit, instead of sub¬
mitting to the usages of the Church of England. It was
also intended during this session to bring in four bills, having
for their object certain reforms in the English Church; but
on account of the hostility of the radical party, and the late¬
ness of the season, only one was passed, under the name of
the Established Church bill, by which certain bishoprics
were united, two newr ones erected, and a reduction effected
upon their revenues to the amount of L.28,500 per annum.
Such were the principal occurrences of this reign after the
passing of the Reform bill, an event that constitutes its chief
point of interest. It was now closed by the demise of William
IV., who died at Windsor Castle on the 20th of June 1837,
in the seventy-second year of his age, and when he had he
all but completed the seventh year of his reign.
CHAPTER XXII.
Succession of Victoria to the Throne.—Revolts in Lower and Upper
Canada.—Measures for their suppression.—Earl of Durham’s un¬
successful government of the Canadas. Discontents in Jamaica.
 The Bed-Chamber controversy.—Chartist insurrection.—Mar¬
riage of the Queen with Prince Albert.—Afghan war.—Unfor¬
tunate retreat of the British from Cabul.—Successful termination
of the wrar in Afghanistan.—War in Syria and bombardment of
Acre.—War in China, and submission of the Chinese.—War in
ginde.—Disruption of the Church of Scotland.—War with the
Sikhs, and its successful results.—Abolition of the Corn Laws.—
Compromise in the Sugar Duties.—The Potato Blight.—Reme¬
dies for the Famine in Ireland.—Death of O’Connell.—Relief
given to the West Indian Colonies.—Irish Rebellion.—Encum¬
bered Estates bill.—War with the Sikhs.—Movements of the Pro¬
tectionist party in behalf of Agriculture.—Right of Self-govern¬
ment granted to our Colonies.—Papal Aggression.—Ecclesiasti¬
cal Titles’ bill.—Death of the Duke of Wellington.
On the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne of
Great Britain, every thing gave promise of a prosperous and
happy reign. The country was tranquil; and people of all
classes, mindful of the prosperity in arts and arms, that had
crowned the eras of Anne and Elizabeth, were ready to
welcome once more the rule of a female sovereign. The
little kingdom of Hanover also, which for more than a cen¬
tury had been a source of vexation to Britain, was at last
severed from the empire, in consequence of the Salic law
which prevents the succession of a female to the Hanoverian
crown. The moderation of the young queen’s first step in
government justified the hopes of her people, for instead of
yielding to the temptations of innovation and change, she
retained the officers of state in their places, and honoured
them with her confidence. In consequence of this disin¬
terested commencement, the elections of members for the
VOL. v.
new parliament went onward as tranquilly as if no change
in the occupation of the throne had been experienced. victoria.
But while harmony thus prevailed throughout the United v. ^  v
Kingdom, the case was very different in our colonial pro- ]83^
vince of Lower Canada, where the French part of the popu
lation had long been in a state of insubordination ; and as,
out of forty members who composed the Legislative Coun¬
cil, eighteen were French Canadians, there was fuel enough
to inflame the general discontent. The grievances chiefly
complained of, as exhibited in a memorial sent to the Bri¬
tish parliament in 1828, and signed by 87,000 inhabitants of
Lower Canada, were—arbitrary conduct on the part of the
governors—the appointment of none but creatures of the
executive government to the legislative council—the illegal
appropriation of public money—violent prorogations and
dissolutions of the provincial parliament—connivance of the
government at the insolvency of Sir John Caldwell the re¬
ceiver-general—and certain acts of the imperial parliament
relative to Canadian trade and tenures. Since the publica¬
tion of that report, the attention of parliament had been re¬
peatedly occupied with its details, and in most cases a strong
disposition had been evinced to meet them with concession.
These concessions, however, liberal though they were, did
not satisfy the colonists, who only became the more extor¬
tionate in their demands, so that at last they announced their
purpose to withold any rate of supply, until the alterations
in the constitution which they demanded were fully satisfied.
Thus matters went on until 1837, when the discontent broke
out into open revolt, headed by Mr Papineau, their chief
agitator, who, however, fled at the commencement of action,
and left his followers to shift for themselves. This they did
by a gallant resistance in several encounters with the royalist
forces, until they were finally defeated and dispersed by Sir
John Colbourne, the British commander-in-chief. This ex¬
ample of rebellion in Lower Canada was not lost upon the
Upper province, whose malcontents had been tampered
with by emissaries from the United States ; and towards the
close of the year, an association calling itself the Provincial
Convention, issued a manifesto inviting their follow-colonists
to arms, in language as wild as that of the fifth-monarchy
saints of the days of Cromwell. It invited them to buckle
on their armour, and establish a government and perpetual
peace “ founded upon the eternal heaven-born principles of
the Lord Jesus Christ,” and no longer to be “hood-winked
by Baal’s ministers, and tampered with by wolves in sheep’s
clothing, who take the wages of sin, and do the works of ini¬
quity.” For this outburst, Sir Francis Head, the governor
of Upper Canada, was utterly unprepared; strangely enough,
even when the insurrection was expected, and on the eve of
explosion, he had cleared the province of all the regular troops,
and left nothing for its defence but six thousand stand of
arms under the peaceful custody of the mayor of Toronto.
He was suddenly roused from his security, and even from
his bed, at ten o’clock at night, by the advance of the insur¬
gents, estimated at three thousand strong, but in reality not
more than five hundred, who entered Toronto under the
command of Mr M‘Kenzie, editor of a republican newspaper,
M. Van Egmont, an ex-officer of Napoleon, Mr Gibson,
a land-surveyer, and Mr Lount, a blacksmith. Roused into
decisive action by this sudden emergency, the governor ex¬
temporized a militia force that was soon sufficient to keep
this motley rebellion at bay, until the arrival of reinforce¬
ments of loyal volunteers to the amount of ten or twelve thou¬
sand, obliged the insurgents to betake themselves to flight.
These increasing difficulties in the government of Canada,
that seemed only to have awaited the commencement of a
female reign to break out into actual rebellion, perplexed the
ministry at home. In spite of all their conciliatory mea¬
sures, the colonial discontent had swelled into open insur-
rection, and although this had been promptly suppressed, a
second attempt might soon follow more perfectly matured
4 p
U
(566 BRITAIN.
Eeign of than the first, and more formidable in its consequences.
Queen There were many also at home, and of these, some were in
Victoria. pariiamont, who asserted that Canada was now ripe for self-
government, and should therefore be released from its de-
1838. pendence on the mother country; and that the example of
the United States should warn us of the danger of a refusal.
These consideration occupied the attention of parliament in
1838; and after several debates, the Canada bill of Lord
John Russell was moved, and passed through both houses.
Although sufficiently stringent in its character, it was
reckoned not more so than the crisis required; and, notwith¬
standing a fierce resistance from the Canadian sympathizers, it
was carried, after undergoing several amendments, by large
majorities. The principal provisions of this bill were in sub¬
stance the following:—“ The constitution of Lower Ca¬
nada was suspended till November 1840. Her Majesty in
council was empowered to constitute a special council, and
to appoint or authorize the governor to appoint such and so
many special councillors as she might think proper. It was
declared that, until November 1840, it should be lawful for
the governor, with the consent and advice of the majority of
the said councillors convened for the purpose, to make such
laws or ordinances for the peace, welfare, and good govern¬
ment of Lower Canada, as the legislature of that province,
at the time of passing the act, was empowered to make ; and
that all laws or ordinances so made, subject to the provisions
thereafter containedfor disallowance thereof by Her Majesty,
should have the like force and effect as laws passed before
the passing of the act by the legislative bodies. The go¬
vernor was to have the initiative of all measures proposed to
the council, five of whom were required for a quorum.” The
governor, under whom this new experiment of colonial go¬
vernment over nearly a million and a half of discontented
subjects was to be attempted, was also nominated ; this was
the Earl of Durham, son-in-law of Earl Grey, whom Lord
John Russell characterized as possessed of large political
experience, combined with such liberality of sentiment as
would best secure the confidence of the Canadians. Lord
Durham accepted the charge with reluctance, and proceeded
to his seat of government; but there his rule was both brief
and unhappy. Trying at once to punish and conciliate, he
only exposed himself to the hostility of the Canadians, and
the reproaches of the home government; and, at last dis¬
gusted with his charge, he suddenly resigned it after six
months of occupation, and returned to England, loudly com¬
plaining that the ministry at home had not supported him
as they ought to have done. His arrival under such cir¬
cumstances was so unprecedented and ungracious, that on
landing, the usual salute of guns to him as a representa¬
tive of royalty was withheld, and he was even threatened
with impeachment. Indeed, almost simultaneously with his
landing, tidings arrived from Lower Canada that the rebels
were again in arms, and in greater force than ever. The
debates that followed upon Canadian affairs bore so hard
upon the earl, that to justify himself to the country at large,
he published his report upon the condition of the colony,
which he had originally drawn up for the enlightenment of
the ministry. In the Queen’s speech at the opening of par¬
liament for 1839, the rebellion of Lower Canada, and the
intrigues of the inhabitants of the United States to promote
a similar spirit in the Upper province, had been pressed
upon the attention of both houses; and in the debates that
followed, the Duke of Wellington urgently insisted upon the
disturbed state of our North American possessions, as well as
the precarious tenure by which we held them. He declared
that it was nothing less than a great national war, which
could only be successfully terminated by an extensive scale
of action ; and he expressed his regret that not only Ame¬
rican citizens should have entered these territories with
American arms and cannon, but also that their government
should have no powrer to prevent such interference.
The affairs of Canada, which occupied the attention of Reign of
parliament during this year, were alternated with petitions Queen
for the abrogation of the corn-laws, and premature attempts ^ ictoria.^
to make this great question the subject of parliamentary
discussion—with the condition of Afghanistan, into which 1838>
an Anglo-Indian army had been marched—with proposals
for further parliamentary reform—and the appointment of
a committee of inquiry into the state of Ireland, occasioned
by the assassination of the Earl of Norbury. But of still
more urgent consequence was the condition of Jamaica,
where the planters were so discontented with the changes
introduced into their government, consequent on the aboli¬
tion of negro slavery, as to cause apprehension of serious
commotions. In consequence of this, a bill was intro¬
duced into parliament, proposing to suspend the existing
constitution of the colony for five years—a daring remedy,
which was met by the most decided opposition on the part of
Sir Robert Peel. The bill, which was a ministerial one,
was gained by only a majority of five, 289 being against it,
and 294 in its favour ; and in consequence of this signifi¬
cant indication, the Melbourne cabinet, whose popularity
had been gradually decreasing, sent in their resignation.
On the Duke of Wellington being invited by Her Majesty
to assist in forming a new cabinet, he recommended Sir
Robert Peel as the fittest person to be at the head of affairs;
and Sir Robert having agreed to accept the premiership,
proceeded to fill up the cabinet appointments. But here
his first movement was an utter shipwreck, for it w as a pro¬
posal that certain ladies of the bed-chamber, connected by
close relationship with his political opponents, should be
either dismissed, or persuaded to resign their offices. To a
cool calculating politician this requirement may have ap¬
peared just and necessary in a female court, where ladies
must naturally possess more than the usual influence of
their sex ; but by the public in general it was indignantly
complained of as a most unchivalrous proceeding, which no
argument of statesmanship could justify, while the queen at
once rejected the proposal as being both contrary to usage,
and revolting to her feelings. Such a long period, indeed, had
elapsed since the days of Queen Anne, that politicians had
to learn anew the application of established court usages to
the emergencies of a female sovereignty. Finding this
difficulty at the outset unsurmountable, Sir Robert rejected
the offered premiership, and the Melbourne cabinet was re¬
stored to office. At the same time, Mr Abercromby, owing
to ill health, resigned his office as speaker of the House of
Commons; and Mr Shaw Lefevre,member for North Hants,
the ministerial candidate, was elected in his stead by a ma¬
jority of 317 against 299.
After this temporary bed-chamber interruption had sub¬
sided, parliament proceeded in its ordinary routine. And
foremost among the measures presented for consideration,
was a ministerial plan for a general and national system of
education, proposed by Lord John Russell, in which a
board, composed of a president, assisted by councillors not
exceeding five in number, should preside over the distribu¬
tion of the ministerial grants, and the management of the
system in general, which was to consist of religious and
moral as well as intellectual training. But here the high
church party took the alarm at the latitude which it allowed
to the different religious denominations, while the Dissenters
themselves opposed it as too exclusively devoted to the in¬
terests of the Established Church. It was not in this fashion,
or thus early, that the momentous question of the present
day was to be settled. Another subject urgently brought
before the attention of parliament by a message from the
queen, was the administration of government in Canada, in
which it was proposed that the upper and lower provinces
should be united into one—& measure that was successfully
accomplished in the following year. The obstacles to a
complete suppression of the slave-trade still continued also
BRITAIN.
Reign of to be the ground of parliamentary complaint and remon-
Victoria strance’ arising from the conduct of Portugal, which, al-
, 1C Ori% though it had received an indemnity from the British go-
_ vernment of L.800,000, on condition of suppressing negro
slavery within its colonies, still continued to tolerate the
evil, so that slave-ships pursued their wonted trade under
Portuguese and Brazilian flags. At home also the Char¬
tists, who had risen into such portentous strength as seriously
to alarm the government, by transmitting a monster peti¬
tion in behalf of their five points, signed by 1,200,000 of the
working-classes, became so riotous on its rejection, especially
at Birmingham, that the police force of that city had to be
largely increased, and 5000 soldiers added to the military
establishment. Even these precautions were insufficient,
for towards the close of the year their discontent broke out
into action. This was in Monmouthshire, where four or
five thousand rioters, armed with various weapons, and
headed by John Frost, a magistrate, attacked the town of
Newport; but happily they were dispersed, after a few
volleys of musketry by a handful of soldiers and policemen.
One of the most important proceedings of this year was
the plan of a uniform penny postage, devised by Mr Row¬
land Hill, and proposed to parliament by Mr Spring Rice,
which was passed after a long and keen opposition. Al¬
though the vaticinations of its consequences were of the
most alarming character, the plan soon justified the hopes
of its supporters, by the benefits it conferred upon every
class of the community.
In the parliament of 1840, which was opened by Her
Majesty in person on the 16th of January, her approaching
marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, was
announced in the opening of the queen’s speech ; and on
this occasion, the annual sum of L.30,000 was voted out of
the consolidated fund as a provision for her royal consort.
Passing over the events of less importance by which this
year was distinguished, we would now confine our attention
to those melancholy disasters which awaited our arms in
the East. For a long period, the chief dread of the security
of our empire in India had arisen from the growing ambi¬
tion of Russia, and its machinations with Persia and Afghan¬
istan, of which last country Runjeet Sing, commonly called
the Lion of Lahore, who was suspected of leanings towards
the designs of Russia, had obtained dominion over the
greater part by intrigue and conquest. In the course of
these successful aggressions, Dost Mohammed, sovereign
of Cabul, finding himself in danger of being dispossessed
by the Lion of Lahore, had recourse to the British for
protection; but as our Indian government was at peace
with his enemy, the application was refused, whereupon he
sought assistance not only from the Tartars, but also from
Pei sia and Russia. In this way a door was opened for
Muscovite intrigue and aggression. Instigated, as was al¬
leged, by pecuniary aid from Russia, the Shah of Persia
marched in July 1831, at the head of 40,000 men, from
Teheran to Herat, to which he laid siege; upon which it
was determined by our Indian government that the youno-
sovereign of Persia should be driven out of Cabul, and
Shah Sujah, one of the deposed Afghan kings, but now a
British pensionary, placed upon the throne. In this way,
it was hoped, a grateful ally would be secured, and a frontier-
barrier erected against Persian and Russian encroachments.
Accordingly, in the middle of June 1838, a British army
was landed at Karrack in the Persian Gulf, of which it took
possession; and the Shah finding his own dominions thus
invaded, broke up the siege of Herat, in which he had made
little progress, and hastily retreated homewards. A city
that was the key to our Indian possessions against Persia
and Russia was thus fully recovered; but unsatisfied with
this result, our Anglo-Indian government resolved to com¬
plete the work by the subjugation of Afghanistan itself.
Accordingly war was declared by Lord Auckland, governor-
general of India, while the conduct of it was committed to
Sir Henry Fane, the commander-in-chief of all India, who
unwillingly undertook the charge, from a melancholy fore¬
knowledge of the difficulties with which it was certain to be
attended.
These difficulties were not long in commencing. The
first was the refusal of Runjeet Sing to allow the British
troops to cross his territories at the Punjaub, notwithstand¬
ing his previous agreement by treaty to that effect. Then
came the treachery of the Ameers of Scinde, who had en¬
gaged to furnish provisions and the means of transport to
our armies; but who, when the crisis arrived, not only
broke their engagement, but turned against us, and attacked
our troops in the mountain passes. Finally, the health of
Sir Henry Fane, which had been affected at the commence¬
ment, so completely failed, that he was obliged to resign the
command, which was conferred upon Sir John Keane”; and
this change occasioned others, that led to jealousy and mis¬
understanding among the officers, and produced some of
the worst errors of the war. In spite of these and other
obstacles, the Anglo-Indian army advanced, and was every¬
where successful ; Ghuzna was taken by storm, Cabul
entered in triumph, and Shah Sujah seated upon the mus-
nud. All danger being now thought at an end, Sir John
Keane returned to England, where he was raised to the
peerage by the title of Baron Keane of Ghuzna and Cap-
poquin, and Lord Auckland was rewarded with the rank of
Earl. But while the whole nation triumphed in this con¬
quest of Afghanistan, by which the British dominion was
completed over India, the sagacity of the Duke of Wel¬
lington was not deceived. Understanding too well the na¬
ture of Eastern affairs, he expressed his apprehensions of a
coming reaction, and that these conquests in Afghanistan
were but the commencement of fresh difficulties.
These forebodings were but too well verified. On the
withdrawal of our army, 8000 of the troops, British and
Sepoy, were left at Cabul, independently of Shah Sujah’s
contingent, which was commanded by British officers. In
the spring of 1840, as soon as the melting of the ice and
snow had opened the mountain passes, hostilities were re¬
sumed by the Afghan tribes, aided by the Ameers of Scinde;
and although our army was increased by reinforcements to
16,000, it seemed to be blockaded in a hostile country, rather
than a force in successful military occupation, while already
an expense equal to three millions per annum was the price
of such an undesirable tenure. In November 1841, Sir A.
Burnes, the British resident at Cabul, and two officers, one
of whom was his brother, were attacked and murdered in
their own house by the insurgent Afghans, whose formid¬
able bands had surrounded the city and shut out all com¬
munication between the British army and the government;
the British encampment itself was attacked; and our troops
demoralized by the confusion of counsels that prevailed
among their officers, fled from the commissariat fort, leav¬
ing their provisions, clothing, and stores in the hands of the
enemy. A dangerous retreat or negotiation was now the
only alternative, and unhappily the latter was adopted. For
this purpose, Sir William Macnaughton, the British com¬
mander, went out from the cantonment to an interview with
Akbar Khan and the other insurgent chiefs, and the latter
agreed to allow the British army to retire without molesta¬
tion, and furnish them with provisions and the means of
transport. But instead of fulfilling their bargain, these
faithless barbarians murdered all the sick and wounded that
fell into then hands, and withheld the promised provisions;
and when the British troops were exhausted with huno-er’
sickness, and severity of the weather, they rose in their de¬
mands, and insisted on a new treaty. A fresh interview
followed, and Sir William Macnaughton was basely mur¬
dered in the midst of the conference. Utterly dispirited by
this atrocious deed, the army abandoned all thought of re-
667
Reign of
Queen
Victoria.
1840.
668
BRITAIN.
Reign of sistance, and entered into such a composition to secure their
Queen further retreat as was new in the annals of British warfare,
Victoria. ancj abounding in the history of its Indian conquests, by
agreeing to abandon all their guns except six, and all their
1842. treasures to the enemy ; to give bills for the payment of five
lacs of rupees; and to leave the married officers, with their
wives and children as hostages until these terms were ful¬
filled. It was a miserable treaty for the conquerors of India
to make—a treaty in which the voe victis was sure to be re¬
turned upon them in double and treble measure. The re¬
treat purchased under such humiliating circumstances was
as disastrous, proportioned to the number of the sufferers,
as any which history has recorded. It was in the depth of
winter, and 26,000 human beings, comprising soldiers, camp
followers, women and children, are calculated to have pe¬
rished by the severity of the weather, by privations of every
kind, and by the swords of the perfidious enemy, who hung
upon their march and cut down every straggler who was
unable to keep up with his companions. In short, of the
whole military force who were thought sufficient for the
conquest and possession of any eastern kingdom, only a few
sepoys and camp followers succeeded in escaping to Jellala-
bad, still held out by General Sale, who had cleared the
pass of Khoord Cabul at the commencement of the insur¬
rection, and who gallantly retained possession of the fortress
notwithstanding the desponding orders of his superior, El-
phinstone, to evacuate it.
A reverse so remarkable in the history of British conquest
in India produced a correspondent depression, and it was
resolved to obtain the liberation of the captive women and
children by treaty and ransom. But this abject step, which
would have destroyed our prestige in India, and commenced
a train of disasters under which our eastern government
would have been shaken if not finally overthrown, was hap¬
pily abandoned, and a war of retrieval commenced. For
this, Jellalabad afforded a centre and rallying point, as it
was still gallantly held out by General Sale, who disturbed
the leaguer of Akbar Khan by several successful sallies, and
at length defeated him on the 7th of April (1842), in an
open engagement, with only a part of the garrison. In the
meantime, General Pollock, who had been pressing forward
to the relief of the fortress, reached it nine days afterwards,
when its provisions were all but exhausted, and the siege
was instantly raised. The British army then advanced upon
Cabul in the middle of August, and met with little or no
resistance, the successful Afghan chiefs being now engaged
in war with each other, and that too in the very neighbour¬
hood of the city which it was their common interest to de¬
fend. At the same time, General Nott, who had gained
two victories over the Afghans, and recaptured Ghuznee,
advanced to effect a junction with Pollock. The chiefs who
had hitherto sided with Akbar Khan, now turned against
him; and a treaty in which pecuniary recompense was largely
promised them by the British government was eagerly ac¬
cepted. The consequence was, that after a liberal ransom,
the officers, with their wives and children, who had been
abandoned to the enemy as hostages, and who had been
often menaced with the most infamous treatment, arrived
in safety at headquarters, and were received by their friends
as those who had escaped from a den of cut-throats, or
even risen from the dead. Thus was humanity satisfied,
and the British arms, for a time so woefully degraded, re¬
stored to their former lustre. The reaction also produced
by the victories of Nott and Pollock in favour of our east¬
ern ascendency was not confined to the turbulent chief-
tainry of Afghanistan : Burmah, Nepaul, and other inde¬
pendent states of Hindustan that had been on the eve of
breaking out against our Indian government, and trying
once more the chance of arms for its suppression, were now
eager to renew the terms of former amity, and make fresh
professions of peace.
Victoria.
1842.
This Afghan war was not the only eastern question that Reign of
occupied the attention of our home government; the main- Queen
tenance of the integrity of the Turkish empire, in which
Britain has so deep an interest, was also at issue, in conse- '
quence of the ambition of Mehemet Ali, the most formida¬
ble of Ottoman viceroys. Soon after his accession, Abdul
Medjid, the young Grand Seignor, had offered to his dan¬
gerous vassal a full pardon for the past, and the hereditary
sovereignty of Egypt; but the Pacha, not contented with
this, demanded possession of Syria also, by which Turkey
would have been dismembered, and its very existence placed
at his mercy. Upon this unreasonable demand which Me¬
hemet had full means to enforce, the allied powers, Eng¬
land, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, interposed; and as the
Sultan had no naval power for the recovery of Syria, his
navy having deserted to the viceroy, the allied powers, who
found that something more than remonstrance was neces¬
sary, entered into an agreement to that effect at London
on the 15th of September 1840. Accordingly, a British
fleet, aided by an Austrian naval and land force, reduced
the city of Beyrout, defeated Ibrahim Pacha, and so effec¬
tually aided the Syrian mountaineers, who were disgusted
with the oppressive rule of the Egyptian army, that the
latter was compelled to retreat upon Acre. The city of
Sidon was then captured ; and on the 3d of November the
British fleet advanced to the attack of St Jean d’Acre,
that city which Napoleon regarded as the key of the east.
But those ramparts which had resisted him so long and suc¬
cessfully, were in less than four hours battered to pieces by
the British cannon ; and our naval force, which only lost 12
men killed and 42 wounded in the attack, inflicted upon the
enemy a loss of more than two thousand in killed, wounded,
and prisoners. This signal victory destroyed the preten¬
sions of Mehemet Ali, who yielded to the terms imposed
upon him by the allies through Admiral Sir Charles Napier,
the conqueror of Acre. These were, that he should give
up the Turkish fleet to the Sultan, abandon for ever his
claims upon Syria, and hold Egypt as an hereditary depen¬
dency of the Ottoman Porte. In this way the dismember¬
ment of Turkey was delayed. As for Napier, the Nelson
of the war, his capture of Acre was declared by the Duke
of Wellington to be one of the most brilliant of modern
achievements, and he was honoured by a vote of thanks
from both houses of parliament.
It was not merely in the Afghanistan war that our com¬
mercial interests in the East had for some time been in
danger : in China also a war had been commenced against
the British, originating in the alterations that had been
made in the East India Company’s charter, by which their
exclusive monopoly in the China trade was abolished. The
Chinese, who were immoderately addicted to the use of
opium, had hitherto been supplied, though in limited degree,
with that pernicious drug from India through the Company;
but no sooner was the trade thrown open, than opium was
poured into the Chinese market without stint, until its
effects were soon felt as one of the worst of national evils.
Alarmed at this, the Chinese government adopted a remedy
in its own despotic fashion, by suspending all trade with the
British, seizing and destroying the opium and other British
property, and firing upon our ships in their passage up the
river to Canton. These aggressions were so frequent, and
the treaties that followed them were so ineffectual, that in
1840 war was proclaimed, and Canton blockaded by a British
fleet. The result of the encounters that followed was such
as might have been expected : the Chinese soon found that
mere barbarism, courage,'and numbers, were no match for
European military science, discipline, and experience; and
that when they had recourse to temporizing and treachery,
these were only followed by fresh disasters. Thus matters
went on in 1840 and the two following years, until the
Chinese government was humbled into submission, and a
B B I T A I N.
669
I{eign of treaty was signed on the 20th of August 1842, in which
Queen they made full reparation. The principal concessions were,
Victoria. an indemnity of twenty-one millions of dollars for the de-
struction of the property of the British merchants, the cession
1842. to them of the island of Hong Kong in perpetuity, and the
opening of the ports of Canton, Amoy, Foo-choo-Foo,
Nang-po, and Shang-hai to their commerce, and that of other
nations, with the right of establishing consuls at them, and
the correspondence of the officers of both governments to
be conducted on terms of perfect equality. In this way,
and for the first time, the wedge was effectually introduced
by which China, hitherto impenetrably closed against im¬
provement, has been opened to the advance of European
civilization, and the prospect of a new and better era.
The course of eastern warfare was once more shifted from
China to India. The Ameers of Scinde, encouraged by the
disasters of our army among the Afghan mountains in the
retreat from Cabul, incensed at the loss of their transit
duties on merchandise passing up and down the Indus, and
apprehensive of losing their hunting-grounds upon the
banks of the river by the continued encroachments of
British dominion, took up arms for a general resistance.
It was now full time to suppress these Ameers, as they
were the rulers of a restless warlike people whom they were
unable to control, and to whose cry for war and plunder
they were compelled to yield. In addition to a former
treaty of peace, which only a part of them had subscribed,
a new one had been agreed to on the 14th of February
1843 ; but they broke it only the day after, by an attack
upon the residence of the British commissioners. Against
these dangerous enemies the brave old general, Sir Charles
Napier, was sent; and on the 17th of February, two days
after the violation of the treaty, he attacked them within
twenty miles of Hydrabad, upon which city he was ad¬
vancing. The Ameers, who had mustered a numerous
army, gallantly contested the ground, and for some time
made victory doubtful; but at length they were routed by
the greatly inferior British force, who on this occasion ri¬
valled the brightest achievements of the soldiers of Lake
and Clive. Three days after the victory, the conquerors
entered and took possession of Hydrabad ; in consequence
of which Scinde was reduced to a British province with
Napier for its governor, slavery was abolished, and the In¬
dus opened to the trade of every nation.
During the same year, and towards its close, a war was
commenced with the Mahrattas, who had rebelled against
their young Maharajah, whom we were bound by treaties
to support, and committed other excesses that made chas¬
tisement inevitable, An army was sent against them under
the command of Sir Hugh Gough, and a battle fought at
Maharajpoor on the 29th of December 1843, in which the
Mahrattas were defeated, though not without severe loss to
the British, whose number almost equalled that of the
enemy. Upon the same day a victory w'as obtained over a
Mahratta force at Punniar by a division of the British army
under the command of Major-General Grey. In conse¬
quence of this twofold defeat the Mahrattas submitted, and
their country was garrisoned by military occupation. Dur¬
ing tins course of a four years’ ws>.r, extending over Syria,
India, and China, events at home were of such minor im¬
portance that we can scarcely afford them a passing glance.
The principal affairs with which parliament was occupied,
independent of these important movements in the East, were
an alarming diminution in the revenue, and the question for
the repeal of the corn-laws, which in consequence of the
fall of the revenue was forced into final discussion. Against
these restrictions on the importation of grain parliament
had been petitioned in 1839; in 1841 the subject was
resumed, with almost as much urgency as that which had
carried the Reform bill; and, in the following year, the po¬
pular agitation for the repeal of the corn-laws was so over¬
whelming, that a new cabinet under Sir Robert Peel, after Reign of
carrying the property and income tax, found that it could Queep
do nothing less than abate, if it did not wholly abolish, v oria^
these obnoxious restrictions. This accordingly was done
by Sir Robert in March 1842, when his modification of l843-
the sliding scale, instead of an entire free trade in corn,
was introduced and carried by a majority of 306 against
104.
The year 1843 was memorable for an event in the history
of the Church of Scotland. This was the voluntary separa¬
tion of above four hundred ministers from the Established
Church ; a movement popularly known as the “ Disrup¬
tion,” and which gave rise to that large and influential
body calling itself the Free Church.
Previous to this occurrence the law of patronage, always
obnoxions to the popular feeling of Scotland, had become
such a ground of contention and fruitful source of dissent,
that a majority of the General Assembly in 1834 embodied
their views and resolutions upon the subject in the Veto
Act, by which no minister was to be imposed upon a con¬
gregation where a majority, consisting of heads of families
and communicants, subscribed against his admission. But
patronage was too valuable a privilege both in the eyes of
patron and presentee to be relinquished without a struggle ;
and in several cases where parishes exercised their right of
veto against the entrance of a new minister, their decision
was carried by appeal to the Court of Session, and there
reversed as illegal. The ecclesiastical and civil courts were
thus brought into hostile contact, and the claims of the
church to independence and self-government in spiritual
matters, as well as what constituted their spiritual charac¬
ter and the range they occupied, were the trying questions
at issue. In this difficulty the only remedy for the General
Assembly was to appeal to the House of Lords : but at this
highest tribunal, the decisions of the Court of Session were
confirmed, and the rights of patronage fully recognised. It
was evident that the party in the church by whom the Veto
Act had been framed, could no longer carry out their anti¬
patronage principles, nor their views of spiritual indepen¬
dence with which it was connected ; and as they had all
along announced these as questions of conscience which they
could neither abandon nor compromise, they had declared
their purpose to forsake their livings rather than submit to
that authority which the state claimed in church rule, by
the final decision of the House of Lords. And this re¬
solution they fully carried out at the meeting of the General
Assembly in May 1843, by tendering their protest, subscribed
by more than 400 ministers ; after which they departed in
procession to a large hall that had been prepared for the
event, and there constituted themselves into what has since
been called the Free Church of Scotland.
The affabo of India once more became the subjects of
public attention. Lord Ellenborough, the governor-general,
was recalled in April 1844, and Sir Henry Flardinge ap¬
pointed in his room. The latter, on his arrival in India,
found the Sikhs in a state of wild disorder in consequence
of the death of the energetic Runjeet Sing, the Lion of La¬
hore, and ready to invade the British territories, which they
soon afterwards did by crossing the Sutledge; upon which
a military force that had been in readiness for the occasion
was marched against them with great celerity. An encounter
took place at Moodkee on the 18th of December 1845,
and although the Sikhs were in great force and advantage¬
ously posted, as well as defended by a numerous artillery, in
the use of which they had been trained by European officers,
while the British, consisting of only four regiments of foot,
and one of light dragoons, were exhausted with a long march,
and provided with only a few six-pounders, the latter were
victorious, although with a heavy loss in killed and wounded.
Undismayed by this defeat, which fell only upon their ad¬
vanced troops, the main army of the Sikhs on the opposite
670
B K I T A I N.
Victoria.
1845.
lieign of side of the river, crossed the Sutledge, with an overwhelming
^iicen array of horse, foot, and cannon, and entrenched themselves
at Ferozeshah. There a terrible engagement took place be¬
tween them and the British, who were now not only rein¬
forced with fresh troops, but aided by the presence of Sir
Henry Hardinge, the governor-general, who on this trying
occasion set aside his superiority of rank, and took the com¬
mand of the left wing under Sir Hugh Gough. This great
battle, to which that of Moodkee had been but a prelude,
commenced on the 21st of December, and lasted two days;
while the British, who were defective in cavalry [and artillery,
vyith which the enemy were abundantly provided, were ob¬
liged to depend upon the steadiness of their infantry, and
charges of the bayonet. On this occasion the Sikhs were
at last driven out of their camp after a gallant resistance, in
which the British sustained a loss of more than two thousand
in killed and wounded. After this double engagement, the
Sikhs, still undismayed, entrenched themselves at Sobraon ;
but there they were attacked by Sir Hugh Gough on the
10th of hebruary 1845, and in spite of their discipline under
Italian and European officers, their numerous andwrell-served
artillery, and great superiority of numbers, they were totally
defeated, and driven across the Sutledge, while the British
army entered the Punjaub. Lahore, the capital, surrender¬
ed at their approach; the authority of the young Maharajah,
Goolab Sing, was restored; and all opposition terminated.
Since that period, the affairs of India have been more tran¬
quil, and our authority over its many provinces more con¬
firmed than before.
While these eastern events were in progress, a great
agricultural conflict had been carrying on at home, in which
interests were at stake to the full as important as the exten¬
sion of our commerce by foreign and colonial conquests.
I his was for the repeal of the corn-laws, which, having
lasted their day, were now to be dismissed as mere worn-
out relics of departed feudalism. The agitation to that effect,
chiefly conducted by Mr Cobden, had acquired a formid¬
able consistency and strength by the organization of an
anti-corn-law league, well furnished with influential names
and pecuniary contributions ; and at the close of 1845 the
demand for a free trade wTas so loud over England and Scot¬
land, that Sir Robert Peel and his cabinet, w'ho were divided
upon the question, gave in their resignation. A new min¬
istry, however, could not be formed, and Sir Robert was
persuaded to resume office only ten days after. But more
urgent still than the fiercest popular clamour, was the failure
of the potato crop, and the famine that followed, so that even
the agricultural interest was obliged to acknowledge the ne¬
cessity of a repeal. It was hunger that at last ate through
these stone walls of protection, and prepared the openings
for a free trade in corn ; and it was Sir Robert Peel himself
who brought into parliament a bill to that effect, which was
passed through the Plouse of Commons on the 16th of May
1845, and through that of the Lords on the 21st of June.
W ith this daring experiment, not upon individual interests,
but the national existence itself, the popular desire wras
satisfied, and the present famine forgot in the hopes of
future abundance.
After the repeal of the corn-laws and establishment of
fiee trade, by which Sir Robert Peel had sacrificed the
piinciples of his past political life to the demand of stern ne¬
cessity, and declaring his conviction that for this he would
leave a name that would be execrated by every monopolist,
ti re^Sned °ffice and was succeeded by Lord John Russell.
ic hist consideration of the new ministry was the sugar-
duties, almost as obnoxious as the corn-laws themselves,
and the repeal of which was almost as loudly demanded. As
tins could not at present be granted, a compromise was
offered, by which a gradual diminution, extending over five
years, was to meet the difficulty ; but this measure was
equally opposed by those who advocated the cause of our
West India planters, now deprived of cheap compulsory la¬
bour, and by those who were anxious for the entire abolition
of negro slavery in those colonies where the evil still existed.
Ihrough the midst of this twofold opposition, the govern¬
ment pioposal was carried by large majorities. During the
present session of parliament also, a plan that had been pro-
posed by the Peel administration was happily carried into
effect, by which mercantile confidence, especially among the
lower classes, was materially benefited. This was the esta¬
blishment of local tribunals in every district of England for
the i ecovery of small debts, over which about sixty local
judges were appointed to go in periodical circuit, and hold
couits in all the principal towns twice in every month.
Such were the labours of this critical session of parliament,
which was congratulated by the royal address “ for the pre¬
sent relaxation and ultimate repeal of protective duties on
corn and sugar.”
The year 1847 was signalized by political difficulties that
would have tried the wisdom as well as tested the stability
of any political administration. The commercial prosperity
of 1845, so flattering at its commencement, had encountered
a sudden shock chiefly through the disease in the potato
crop, by which there was a deficiency in the available wealth
of the country to the amount of several millions. But fear¬
fully this calamity had fallen upon Ireland, where the potato
constitutes the principal article of food, and for the loss of
which an immediate remedy was urgently demanded. A
whole nation was at the starving point. The opening of
the session was, therefore, earlier than usual, the parliament
meeting on the 19th of January, and the subject of Irish
destitution was the chief subject of discussion. The tem¬
porary expedients proposed and adopted on this occasion
were parliamentary labour upon the farms and public works,
the reclaiming of waste lands, and the eleemosynary relief
of gratuitous rations and soup-kitchens. The more perma¬
nent remedies introduced to the consideration of parliament,
were the sale of encumbered estates, the conversion of long
leaseholds into copyholds, and the construction of rail-
ways ; for which changes it was stated that grants from go¬
vernment to the amount of sixteen millions would be neces-
But costly though the price was, these remedies were
sary
subsequently adopted, and put in practice. Other measures
connected with Ireland that occupied the attention of par¬
liament during the same session, had reference to the sup¬
pression of crime which had increased to a fearful amount,
especially in the form of open murder, assassination, and
conspiracies against the rights of property ; and to suppress
these evils, a bill was introduced and passed through parlia¬
ment investing the Lord Lieutenant with almost dictatorial
power, which was to continue in full force until the 31st of
December 1849. It was wonderful how easily this mea¬
sure passed through the ordeal of the Irish members, few
opposing it except those of the O’Connell family. But for
this silence there was sufficient cause, as their great leader,
whose voice would have been loudest on such an occasion
when his country was to be colonized by the Saxons, had
ended his political career. Daniel O’Connell, the great
tribune of Ireland, who had won as popular demagogue a
more than kingly ascendency, died at Genoa, on his way
to Rome, on the 15th of May 1847. But formidable as
he was, he was but the John Wilkes of his day, rather than
the Arteveldt or the Gracchus. Having served the temporary
purposes to which he devoted himself and won the short¬
lived renown for which he laboured, he is already all but
forgot, not only in England which he so bitterly traduced,
but even in Ireland where he was worshipped with almost
religious veneration.
The troubles of our West India colonies, occasioned by
the abolition of the slave-trade, were not yet ended, and
parliament was occupied in 1848 with petitions from the
planters and their adherents in Britain, praying for the re-
Reign of
Queen
Victoria.
1847.
BRITAIN.
671
Reign of
Queen
Victoria.
1849.
peal of restraints imposed upon emigration, for the removal
of burdens on the supply of African labour, for an altera¬
tion of the navigation laws, and for an assimilation of the
duties on colonial rum to those paid by the British distillers.
These, with the exception of the petition about the naviga¬
tion laws, were embodied in a bill presented to parliament
by Lord George Bentinck, and the result was, that a loan
of L. 170,000 was granted for promoting the emigration of
free labourers into the colonies of British Guiana and Trini¬
dad, while a more extensive plan of relief was afterwards
proposed by Lord John Russell, as necessary to save the
West Indies from insolvency and ruin. This chiefly con¬
sisted of an additional loan of L.500,000, a reduction of
the duty on colonial sugar, and a reduction of the differen¬
tial duty on colonial rum ; by which concessions a consider¬
able step was made in appeasing the West India planters,
and extricating them from their difficulties. A still more
serious question was occasioned by the state of the public
finances, a deficiency being anticipated for the next year,
mainly occasioned by the expenses of the Caffre war, and
estimated at L.3,200,00Q ; and the remedy proposed was an
augmentation of the income-tax from three to five per cent.,
to be continued for three years. This suggestion of aggra¬
vating an already obnoxious tax excited a general alarm,
and called forth petitions from every quarter; and in the
parliamentary discussions that followed, in which the idea of
an increase was quickly abandoned, the questions at issue
were, whether this income-tax as it originally stood could
not be imposed in a more just proportion than by a uniform
per-centage on incomes; or whether it could not be alto¬
gether repealed ? These were alarming inquiries which it
was found necessary to silence, and therefore to save the
tax itself, a loan of two millions not drawn from the consoli¬
dated fund, but raised by an issue of Exchequer bills, or by
a creation of stock, was proposed to meet the coming de¬
ficiency.
While the nation was thus suffering from deficient har¬
vests, mercantile depression, and a defective revenue, the
magnanimity with which these evils were endured, and the
energy with which they were surmounted, bore full evidence
to the deep-rooted strength and stability of the British con¬
stitution. This was the more remarkable as contrasted with
the rest of Europe, where almost every throne at this period
was tottering, and royalty itself all but annihilated. An at¬
tempt, indeed, was made on the part of Chartism to avail it¬
self of the universal commotion, but all that it could effect
was a few monster meetings that evaporated in speeches,
or paltry riots that were easily suppressed by the police.
In Ireland also an attempt at open rebellion upon a grand
scale ended still more contemptibly in a trifling skirmish
in a cabbage garden, and the capture of Mr Smith O’Brien,
the redoubted leader of the movement. Still agrarian riots,
violence, and assassination, continued in that unhappy coun¬
try as before, and with more formidable results than open
rebellion, so that Irish affairs occasioned much parliamen¬
tary solicitude during the following year. To meet those
difficulties arising from the destitution which the potato
blight had occasioned, and which still continued to increase
in severity, various temporary measures were adopted, that
sufficed for a few weeks or months to hold the evil at bay,
and give the sufferers a chance of recovery. But the most
permanent benefit that could be imparted to such a country
was the Encumbered Estates bill, proposed during the pre¬
vious year, and now carried through both houses, by which
land hitherto useless was thrown into the market, and
made available to those who had wealth to purchase and
spirit to cultivate it. In this way English and Scottish
merchants became Irish proprietors ; Saxon capital, perse¬
verance, and skill, were brought to a rich but hitherto un¬
productive soil; and all gave promise that in a few gene¬
rations more the marked superiority by which Ulster
stands alone will be fully shared by all the provinces of Ire¬
land.
An affair of scarcely less, if not of equal importance, which
occurred during this year, was the repeal of the navigation
laws, which also had been brought under the notice of par¬
liament in 1848, but remanded for future settlement. The
strictly exclusive character of these laws, which secured for
Britain the monopoly of the colonial trade, the long-voyage
trade, and the carrying or indirect European trade, had not
only been a grievance to our colonies, especially to Canada,
but was incompatible with those principles of free trade
which were now a part of the constitution. Such, however,
was the dread of foreign competition, and so great was the
commercial interest at stake, represented by 4,000,000 tons
of shipping, navigated by 230,000 seamen, that it was not
wonderful if the boldest statesmen paused, or were hostile
to the proposed abolition. But the navigation laws could
not retain their hold consistently with our opened ports,
and their final extinction was but a question of time which
the present year decided. The bill, notwithstanding the
strenuous opposition it encountered, was passed through
both houses, and the 1st of January 1850 was the date at
which it was to enter into full operation.
During the settlement of these important measures, and
while peace still continued at home, a short but sharp war
had broken out in India, where our dangerous enemies the
Sikhs, notwithstanding their former defeats and subjection,
had again risen against our Indian government, and com¬
menced their insurrection with the murder of two British
officers. The gallant resistance which they made in the
field cast an ominous shadow over the security of our rule
in India, until the public anxiety was tranquillized by the
capture of Mooltan, a stronghold of the Sikhs, and their final
defeat at Goojerat. As it was thought dangerous to enter
into further treaty with such enemies, or continue to re¬
cognise them as an independent power, their country, the
Punjaub, was annexed to our Anglo-Indian empire.
I lie triumph obtained by the free trade party in the
abolition of the navigation laws was not lost upon the pro¬
tectionists ; and thinking that their opportunity had fully ar¬
rived, they followed up the movement of their opponents
by similar appeals and arguments in behalf of the agricul¬
tural interest. For this purpose, a motion was made by
Mr Disraeli, now the leader of the protection party, to
throw a portion of the rates charged upon agricultural pro¬
duce into the general taxation of the country. In favour
of this demand it was stated, that as more than one-third
of the whole revenue of the excise was levied upon home
produce, it was unable to compete with the untaxed produce
of foreign countries ; and coming more closely to the argu¬
ment of figures it was shown, that from a rental of sixty-
seven millions, twelve were extracted by county rates,
highway rates, church rates, poor rates, and the land tax.
But though the complaints of the agricultural classes, owing
to the depression which free trade had introduced among
them, were both loud and formidable, the motion of Mr
Disraeli was negatived by a majority of 280 to 189. In
the following year, a more favourable opportunity still
seemed to have arrived, as the excess of the national in¬
come over the expenditure was somewhat more than two
millions; and accordingly the proposal was again brought
forward in 1850, but only again to be negatived, on this
occasion, however, by a diminished majority of 21, 252
being in favour of the protectionist bill, and 273 against it.
A still greater parliamentary unanimity happily prevailed
in favour of the claims of the colonies to a constitutional
government—a benefit which, if not freely conceded, it was
thought they would soon be strong enough to take without
the formality of asking In this way the privilege of self-
government was claimed for the North American colonies,
the South African colonies, the Australian colonies. Van
Reign of
Qiieera
Victoria.
1850.
B R I
B R O
Diemen’s Land, and New Zealand. These demands were
separately discussed ; and after many amendments, such
concessions were made as were judged best fitted for the
progress and necessities of each community. As for the
Canadas, at present the most important of them all, little
further remained to be done, as already they had been very
closely approximated to the constitutional practice of Great
Britain. The Australian colonies were so fortunate as to
occupy the chief share of attention, and this, by a happy
coincidence; for even already these golden regions were on
the eve of revealing their exhaustless treasures, and provid¬
ing the resources of that immense increase in population and
prosperity which has no parallel in the history of colonization.
Two months after the close of the session of 1850, and
while the nation was in profound peace, a startling event
occurred, by which it was roused as effectually as if a foreign
invasion had landed upon our shores. A papal brief arrived
from Rome establishing an episcopal hierarchy of its
own in England, the whole land being divided for that
purpose into one archiepiscopal and twelve episcopal sees,
over which Dr Wiseman was to have the superintend¬
ence, with the rank of cardinal, and title of archbishop.
So arrogant an assumption, couched in the most autho¬
ritative style that had been used by the pontiffs of the
middle ages, struck the country with breathless astonish¬
ment, which was succeeded by the most intense indigna¬
tion, more especially when Wiseman, in his new office of
primate, issued a lofty pastoral, dated “ from out the Flamin-
ian Gate at Rome,” and addressed to “ the faithful of Eng¬
land,” as the only rightful occupants of the soil, as well as
true professors of Christianity. Every class of Protestants
were thus degraded, and every rank menaced with subjec¬
tion ; and, accordingly, petitions poured from every quarter,
demanding that the laws against such aggressions which so
long had remained undisturbed should be revived, and put
into full exercise. The very effrontery of the step seemed
at first to have paralyzed our statesmen ; but this assump¬
tion of their authority, as well as the universal outcry for
redress, quickly roused them into double activity. Accord¬
ingly, at the opening of parliament in 1851, Lord John
Russell proposed on the 7th of February his Ecclesiastical
Titles bill for preventing “ the assumption of any title, not
only from any diocese now existing, but from any territory
or place in any part of the United Kingdom, and to restrain
parties from obtaining by virtue of such titles any control
over trust property.” The bill was reintroduced into par¬
liament on the 7th of March, a resignation and resumption
of office by the whig ministry having occurred during the
interval. For a long period few parliamentary debates had
been protracted to such length, or conducted with such ar¬
Broach.
dour; not only a great religious principle, but the national Brixen
liberty was at issue. In the course of discussion it was ob¬
jected, that the terms of the bill were not sufficiently expli¬
cit, and therefore might be eluded, to prevent which, Sir
Frederic Thesiger suggested three amendments ; but these
were so unpalatable to the Catholic membei's and their sup¬
porters, that as soon as he rose, about seventy of their
number walked out of the Llouse of Commons amidst peals
of derisive laughter, and left the field open to their anta¬
gonists. The amendments which produced such an effect
were, that the bill should apply to all papal rescripts, and not
merely to the one which established the hierarchy; that the
power to prosecute for a breach of it should be granted to
any individual with the sanction of the crown officers; and
that the introduction of papal bulls into the kingdom should
be a penal offence. The bill thus amended passed through
both houses, and received the royal sanction : in what man¬
ner it will be executed, and with what success, will be matter
for future history. While this vital discussion was pending
in parliament, the tranquillity that prevailed out of doors
was truly wonderful; there were none of those No-Popery
riots which formerly had been so prompt to start up with
far less occasion ; and after the popular indignation had sub¬
sided, the multitudes quietly looked on and listened. Much
of this might, no doubt, be attributed to the superior refine¬
ment of the period, and, perhaps, not a little to the decrease
of religious zeal. But the chief cause is to be found in the
attraction of the Crystal Palace, which was rising like an
exhalation before the eyes of the wandering millions, and in
the preparations that were making for its opening. Nothing
less than such a gorgeous novelty could at such a crisis have
arrested the popular attention, and left the walls of the par¬
liament unbesieged.
In the following year, important though public events
were, there was one incident that abated the keenness of
political interest, and threw a gloom over the public mind,
from which it has not as yet well recovered. This w as the
death of the Duke of Wellington, who, worn out with the
toils of a long and most eventful life, expired at Walmer
Castle on the 14th of September 1852, in the eighty-fourth
year of his age. For such a man, all present eulogium is
superfluous ; he is one of those few characters who belong
to all time, and whom it takes centuries fully to estimate.
The greatest of modern warriors, he died in the midst—or
perhaps upon the very close—of a long European peace,
which his victories had chiefly tended to procure: an
ardent disinterested patriot, as well as wise politician, his
day was closed amidst the promise of national prosperity.
Such a death most fitly terminates a great epoch in the his¬
tory of this country. (t. t—N.)
BRITISH GUM is made by heating starch in an oven
to between 600° and 700°, when its cells (as seen under the
microscope) become obliterated, and it acquires a brown
colour, together with the properties of gum. It is used
largely in calico-printing to thicken the colours.
British Museum. See Museum.
Britain, New. See Australasia.
BRITANNICUS, son of the emperor Claudius by Mes-
salina, was born a.d. 42. He was excluded from the em¬
pire after his father had married Agrippina, whose son
Nero ascended the throne, and caused Britannicus to be
poisoned, a.d. 55. See Roman History.
BRITTANY. See Bretagne.
BRIVES-L A-GAILLIARDE, the capital of the arron-
dissement of Brives, department of Correze, France, is situ¬
ated in a rich plain on the left side of the Correze, 14
miles S.W. of Tulle. It has manufactures of cotton, wool¬
len, and silk goods, and an extensive trade in truffles. Pop.
(1851) of arrondissement, 116,640; of town, 8413.
BRIXEN, a city in the Tyrol and circle of Pusterthal,
at the confluence of the rivers Eisack and Rientz. It is the
seat of a bishop, and has a fine cathedral, a theological semi¬
nary, and a gymnasium. Pop. 3500.
BRIXHAM, a town in the parish of the same name, in
the county of Devon, 200 miles from London, on. the
south side of Torbay. It has an ancient church, a national,
endowed, and other schools, and a very extensive fishing
and coasting trade. Market-days, T. hursday and Satur¬
day. It is celebrated as the spot where King William
landed in 1688. Brixham has become a place of resort for
sea-bathing. The inhabitants of the parish amounted in
1821 to 4503, in 1831 to 5015, and in 1841 to 5684. Pop.
(1851) 5627.
‘BROACH, a town of Hindustan, in the province of
B R 0
BBC
673
Broach Guzerat, presidency of Bombay, situate on an elevated
II mound, supposed to be artificial, on the northern bank of
Broccm. tjie Nerbiidda, about 30 miles above its mouth. The river
is here a noble sheet of water, two miles wide at ebb-tide,
but shallow for the most part even at flood-tide, though there
is then a deep but intricate channel admitting vessels of con-
, siderable burden. As, however, the Nerbudda is at some
seasons unnavigable between Broach and the sea, except for
vessels not exceeding 50 tons, the place does not appear
destined to become an extensive port for large vessels. The
town is surrounded by a wall, and contains between 3000
and 4000 houses, with a population, irrespective of the
suburbs, of 13,000 inhabitants. Like the generality of east¬
ern towns, its streets are narrow, and the houses lofty. It
has a considerable trade, and annually exports large quan¬
tities of raw cotton to Bombay. Broach is thought, with
some appearance of probability, to have been the Barygaza
of Ptolemy and Arrian. Upon the conquest of Guzerat by
the Mussulmans, and the formation of the state of that name,
Broach formed part of the new kingdom. On its overthrow
by Akbar in 1572, it was annexed to the Mogul empire, and
governed by a nawaub. The Mahrattas became its masters
in 1685, from which period it was held in subordination to the
Peishwa until 1772, when it was captured by a force under
General Wedderburn (brother to Lord Loughborough),
who was killed in the assault. In 1783 it was ceded by the
British to Scindia in acknowledgment of certain services. It
was stormed in 1803 by a detachment commanded by Colo¬
nel Woodington, and finally ceded to the East India Com¬
pany by Scindia under the treaty of Serji Anjengaum. Dis¬
tant north from Bombay 190 miles. Lat. 21.42. Long. 73.2.
The British district, of which this town is the capital, is
situate between Lat. 21. 22.—22. 11., and Long. 72. 30.—
73. 10., and is bounded on the west by the Gulf of Cambay.
It contains an area of 1319 square miles, with 429 villao-es,
and a population, according to a late census, of 290,984
inhabitants.
Broach, or Brooch, Brocha (from the French broche),
an awl or bodkin. A spit is sometimes called a broach;
and hence the term to broach a barrel.
The ornament known as the Highland broach, brooch, or
brotche, is used, like the Jibula of the Romans, to fasten the
plaid. It is usually made of silver, of a round figure, with a
tongue crossing its diameter. There are preserved in several
families ancient brooches of very elegant workmanship, and
richly ornamented. One of the most beautiful is the well-
known Hunterston brooch. Some of these brooches are
inscribed with names, to which particular virtues used to be
attributed; others have receptacles for relics, and are sup¬
posed to have been regarded as amulets. (See Pennant’s
Tour in Scotland, i. 90, iii. 14.)
BROAD Piece, a name given to certain gold coins
larger than a guinea; particularly the Carolus and Jacobus.
Broadside, a discharge of all the guns on one side of a
ship at the same time.
BROADSTAIRS, a small seaport-town of England,
county of Kent, and parish of St Peter, on the east coast of
the Isle of Thanet, two miles from Ramsgate. It is much
frequented as a watering-place, and has many good lodging-
houses, two public libraries, warm baths, &c. Its port is
subordinate to that of Dover. Pop. (1851) of parish, 2975.
BROCADE (Spanish, brocado), a stuff'of gold, silver, or
silk, raised and enriched with flowers, foliages, and other or¬
naments. Formerly the word signified only a stuff woven
all of gold, both in the warp and in the woof, or all of silver,
or of both mixed ; at present all stuff's which are raised and
enriched with flowers or other figures are called brocades.
BROCCHI, Giovanni Battista, a celebrated Italian
mineralogist and geologist, was born at Bassano iD February
1772. He studed in the university of Pisa, where his at¬
tention was especially turned to mineralogy and botany.
voe. v.
In 1802 he was appointed professor of botany in the Brock
new Lyceum of Brescia; but he more particularly de- H
voted himself to mineralogy and geology, in the numerous (roc es >^'
excursions he made into the adjacent districts. The fruits ^
of these labours appeared in different publications, particu¬
larly in his Treatise on the Iron Mines in the department
of Mella, and his Essay on the Physical Constitution of
the Metalliferous Mountains of the Valley of Trompia,
which appeared in 1807. His valuable researches procured
him, in the following year, the office of inspector of mines
in the recently established kingdom of Italy; which en¬
abled him to extend his investigations over a great part
of Central and Southern Italy, as well as its northern dis¬
tricts. In 1811 he produced a valuable memoir On the
Mineralogy of the Valley of Fassa and the Tyrol; but his
most important work is the great Geologia Fossile Sub-
apennina, con Osservazioni Geologiche sulle Apennini, e sul
suola Adjacente, which was published at Milan, in 2 volumes
4to, in 1814. In this work we have most accurate de¬
tails of the structure of the Apennine range, and an account
of the fossils of their strata; subjects further illustrated by
his valuable geognostic map and his Catologo raggionato
di una Raccolta di Rocche, disposto con ordine Geografico,
por servire d’lllustrazione della Carta Geognostica dell’
Italia. This last work also appeared at Milan in 1817.
His work Bello Stato Fisico del Suolo di Roma, with its
accompanying map, is admirable for accuracy and judgment.
In it he has corrected the erroneous views of Breislak, who
conceived that the Eternal City occupies the site of a volcano,
to which he ascribed the tuffa and other volcanic materials
that cover the seven hills. Brocchi, on the other hand, has
satisfactorily shown that they are derived either from Mont
Albano, an extinct volcano 12 miles from Rome, or from
Monte Cimini, still further to the north of the city. Indeed
he has showm, that the streams or beds of tuffa may be
traced almost uninterruptedly from that mountain to Rome.
Several minor papers by him, on other mineralogical sub¬
jects, appeared in the Biblioteca Italiana from 1816 to
1823.
In that year Brocchi sailed for Egypt, and engaged with
his usual ardour in exploring the geology of that country
and its mineral resources, in which he obtained every facility
from Mehemet Ali. In 1825 that politic ruler appointed
Brocchi one of a commission to examine and organize his
conquest of Sennaar ; but the naturalist, unfortunately for
science, fell a victim to the climate, at Khartum, in Sep¬
tember 1826. (t. s. t.)
BROCCOLI, a kind of cabbage. See Horticulture.
BROCK, a badger; or a hart of the third year.
BROCKEN, or Brocksberg, a mountain of Prussia, the
highest point of the Hartz mountains, is in Lat. 51. 51. N.
Long. 10. 39. E. It is 3740 feet in height, and is remark¬
able for the singular optical phenomenon called the “ Spec¬
tre of the Brocken.”
BROCKLESBY, Richard, a physician of considerable
reputation, was born in Somersetshire, August 11th, 1722.
He was educated at Ballytore, in Ireland, studied medicine
at Edinburgh, and finally graduated at Leyden in 1745. In
1751 he was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of
Physicians at London, of which he afterwards became a fel¬
low. In 1758 he was appointed physician to the army ; in
which capacity he served in Germany during the greater part
of the seven years’ war, and in the course of it was chosen
physician to the hospitals for British forces. The result of
his observations during this period were published in 1764,
under the title of Economical and Medical Observations,
from 1738 to 1763, tending to the improvement of Medical
Hospitals, one vol. 8vo. He had already, however, given
to the public many proofs of the activity of his mind and the
variety of his attainments, by papers which appeared in the
Iransactions of the Royal Society. His Dissertation on
4Q
674 B R O
Brodeau the Music of the Ancients appeared in 1749, and his Oratio
II Harveiana in 1760. Shortly after this he was appointed by
v ro ora'j the Duke of Richmond, physician-general to the royal regi-
ment of artillery and corps of engineers—an appointment
that gave him constant access to the laboratory of Wool¬
wich ; and it was by his advice that a professorship of che¬
mistry was added to the establishment of the college.
In his latter years he withdrew altogether into the re¬
tirement of private life. The circle of his friends compre¬
hended some of the most distinguished literary men of the
age. His intimacy with Burke had commenced at school,
and soon ripened into the warmest friendship. He was also
warmly attached to Dr Johnson, and attended him in his
last illness with assiduity and kindness. He had conferred
many kindnesses upon the great moralist during his lifetime,
of which the following may be taken as a sample. Under¬
standing that Dr Johnson wished to visit the Continent for
the recovery of his health, he offered him an annuity of
L.100 during the remainder of his life; and when this offer
was declined, pressed him to reside in his house, as more
suited to his health than the one in which he then lived.
The same generous disposition was manifested in his con¬
duct to Burke, to whom he transmitted L.1000, as a legacy
he had intended to leave him by will. Dr Brocklesby ex¬
pired suddenly. He left his entire fortune, with the ex¬
ception of a few legacies, between his two nephews Dr
Thomas Young and Mr Beeby. (p. m. r.)
BRODEAU, or Brod^eus, John, a celebrated French
critic, was born at Tours in 1500. He studied civil law
under Alciati, but afterwards devoted himself wholly to
languages and the belles lettres. He travelled into Italy,
where he became acquainted with Sadolet, Bembo, and
other eminent men; and applied himself to the study of
mathematics, philosophy, and the sacred languages, in which
he made no small proficiency. On returning to his own
country, he continued to prosecute his studies with inde¬
fatigable zeal, till his death in 1563. His chief works are
Commentaries on the Anthologia, Basel, 1549; several
books of miscellanies; Notes on Martial, Euripides, &c.,
Basel, 1558.
BRODERA, or Baroda, a large and wealthy town of
Hindustan, in the province of Guzerat, and the capital of
the Mahratta prince, known by the family appellation of the
Guicowar. It is intersected by two spacious streets, which
divide it into four equal parts, and cross at the market¬
place. The houses, built of wood, are generally lofty, with
sloping, tiled roofs. Among the principal buildings are the
British residency, and the palace of the Guicowar; but these
edifices, though of large dimensions, are not of imposing ap¬
pearance. Outside the town is the British cantonment,
consisting of a number of small brick houses, with trellis
work and wooden verandahs, and containing a small church
built in the Gothic style of architecture, and capable of ac¬
commodating 400 persons. Luxuriant groves surround the
town; and within these numerous mosques and Mussulman
tombs have been erected, giving an impression of solemnity
to the scene; and interspersed are some magnificent wells,
with architectural decorations, having grand flights of steps
descending to the water through rows of stone pillars. The
fortifications of the town are of no great strength. They
consist of slight walls with towers at irregular distances,
and several double gates. The population is estimated at
140,000. The founder of the family of the Guicowar was
one of the chiefs of the great Mahratta confederacy, who
acknowledged the rajah of Sattara, the descendant of Sevajee,
as their head. His name was Pelajee Guicowar; and in the
year 1/21 he had been promoted to be second in command
of the Mahratta armies. Shortly after, he built the fort of
Soneghur on the banks of the Taptee, and from this strong¬
hold he made predatory excursions, which resulted in the
extension of his authority over the province of Guzerat.
B ft O
Pelajee was murdered in 1732, by the Rajpoot, rajah of Brodick
Joudpore, and succeeded by his son Damajee, who being Bay
taken prisoner by the Peishwa, regained his liberty by the 1
sacrifice of one-half of his possessions, and under the ac- BrC)keri
knowledgment that he held the remainder in fief to the
Peishwa. Damajee dying in 1768, the succession was dis¬
puted between his two sons, and ultimately decided in
favour of Syajee the younger, to the exclusion of Govind
Rao the elder, who, however, ascended the throne in 1792,
upon the death of Syajee. In 1800 the government de¬
volved upon Annund Rao; and with this prince the British
government concluded a treaty, and thereby secured his
independence of the Peishwa. Annund Rao was succeeded
in 1819 by Syajee Guicowar, the present ruler, whose re¬
venues are computed at about L.668,700 per annum. The
military establishment of this prince, in addition to his re¬
gular troops, amounting to 6000 cavalry and infantry, com¬
prises also the subsidiary force furnished by the British go¬
vernment, which consists of five regiments of infantry, two
regiments of cavalry, and a company of artillery. He also
maintains a contingent force of 3000 cavalry, with a corps
of irregular horse, commanded by British officers. His do¬
minions, over which the government of India exercise po¬
litical superintendence, are described in the article Guze¬
rat. The Guicowar has it in contemplation to connect
Baroda by railway with Tunkaria, on the coast of the Gulf
of Cambay, the intervening distance being about 40 miles.
Baroda is distant from Bombay, north 231 miles ; from Cal¬
cutta, west 980. Lat. 22. 16. Long. 73. 14. (e.t—n.)
BRODICK Bay. See Arran.
BRODY, a large town of Austrian Galicia, circle of
Zloczow, 58 miles E.N.E. of Lemberg. It is ill built and
dirty, and the houses are mostly of wood; but it carries on
an extensive transit trade with Russia, Poland, and Turkey,
and has considerable manufactures. It is the seat of a mer¬
cantile tribunal, and has a castle, one Catholic and two
Greek churches, three synagogues, grammar and commer¬
cial schools, theatre, hospital, &c. In 1779 Brody became a
free commercial town. Pop. 25,000, of whom about five-
sixths are Jews.
BROGUE (Gaelic brog), a kind of shoe used in the Scot¬
tish Highlands, and by the Irish.
BROKE, Sir Robert, an eminent lawyer, son of Thomas
Broke, Esq. of Claverly in Shropshire, was educated at Ox¬
ford, whence he removed to the Middle Temple. In 1542
he was chosen summer reader, and in 1550 double reader.
In 1552 he was made serjeant-at-law; in the year following,
lord chief-justice of the common pleas; and about the same
time received the honour of knighthood. He wTas also re¬
corder of London and speaker of the House of Commons.
He died in 1558, and was buried at Claverly. Wood gives
him the character of a great lawyer and an upright judge.
BROKER. Some derive this word from the French
broier, “ to grind;” others from brocarder, “ to cavil, or hig¬
gle ;” and others again from a trader broken, and that from
the Saxon broc, “misfortune.”
A broker is an agent or intermediate person appointed
for transacting special business on account of another, but
differing somewhat from an ordinary factor in functions and
responsibility. Of this class there are various descriptions,
exercising employment without the smallest analogy, though
all are brought under the general name of brokers; and of
these the principal are, exchange-brokers, whose province
is to ascertain the rates and relation of exchange between
countries ; stock-brokers, who negotiate transactions in the
public-funds; insurance-brokers, who effect insurances on
lives or property ; and pawn-brokers, who advance money on
goods, on the condition of being allowed to sell the goods,
if the sum advanced is not repaid with interest, within a
limited time. See Agent, Insurance, and Sale.
Separating pawn-brokers, and those dealers in old wares
V
B R 0
Bromberg who are called brokers, as both distinct from the class
II to whom the term in its broader acceptation applies, the
v _0m^ , broker is an agent for both parties, the buyer and the
seller; and for the general principles of jurisprudence ap¬
plicable to his position, reference may be made to the
word Agent. It is a marked peculiarity, however, of the
broker as an agent, that his quality of agency is not only
palpable in the face of the transaction, but he is agent
for both parties, and therefore those subtle niceties of law
which arise out of the agent acting as principal, cannot
apply to this class of agencies. The function of the broker
is indeed a very simple one, and easily separates itself from
the usual intricacies of the law of sale and of agency. It is
his proper function to find buyers and sellers, and to bring
them together that they may transact with each other.
Hence the rise of such a class in any department of business,
is an indication of its great increase. In small towns, and
in narrow and peculiar departments of business, the buyers
and the sellers know each other, and need not be at the ex¬
pense of employing a third party. But where both bodies
are numerous, and the individual members of each find
enough to occupy their attention in the production of their
commodity, or its purchase and distribution, there is economy
in the establishment of a distinct class who bring the buyer
and the seller together. The late enlargement of the rail-
way system has created a peculiar and extensive system of
brokerage transactions. They are affected by the statutory
regulations applicable to railway companies; and all kinds of
joint-stock brokerage are more or less affected by the late
legislation as to joint-stock companies in England and Ire¬
land (see 7th and 8th Viet., c. 110). The brokers for the
purchase and sale of goods within the city of London are a
body with peculiar privileges, and acting under special li¬
censing regulations, some of which date back to the re Em
of Henry VIII. (j. H. b—n.)
BROMBERG, one of the governments of the Prussian
province of Posen, is bounded N. by West Prussia, E. by
Poland, S. by the government of Posen, and W. by the pro¬
vince of Brandenburg. Area 4547 square miles. It com¬
prehends 9 circles, 54 towns, and 1302 villages, with (in
1849) 454,675 inhabitants, of whom 251,432 are Catholics,
and the remainder Protestants of various sects, with 24,428
Jews. The soil is generally a light sand. The face of the
country is level, and a great portion of it is covered with
woods. The agricultural productions are insignificant, being
scarcely sufficient for the subsistence of the inhabitants.
Bromberg, the capital of the above government, and also
of a circle of the same name, stands on the river Brahe, 70
miles north of Posen. It has manufactures of linen and
woollen stuffs, leather, tobacco, sugar, chicory, Prussian blue,
&c., and an active transit trade. The canal of Bromberg
connects the Brahe with the Netz, and thus establishes corm
munication between the Vistula, the Oder, and the Elbe.
Pop. (1849), including the military, 12,852.
BROME, Alexander, an English poet, was born in
1620, and died in 1666. He was an attorney in the lord
mayor’s court, and was the author of the greater number
of the songs and epigrams that were published in favour of
the royalists, and against the Rump, as well in Cromwell’s
time as during the Rebellion. These, together with his
epistles and epigrams translated from different authors, were
all printed in one volume octavo after the Restoration. He
published a translation of Horace, by himself and others;
and was the author of a comedy entitled The Cwining
Lovers. He also edited two volumes of Richard Brome’s
plays.
Brome, Richard, a dramatic wnlter in the reign of
Charles I. and a contemporary of Dekker, Ford, Shirley, and
others. He was originally a servant of Ben Jonson ; but he
soon acquired a high literary reputation, and was addressed
in some lines by his quondam master on account of his
B R 0 675
comedy entitled The Northern Lass. Brome’s genius lay Bromelia
entirely in comedy. His plots are original, and far from .. II
being ill conducted; and his characters, which for the most J^rundstci1-
part are strongly marked, were the offspring of his own ex-
perience, and close attention to the foibles of the human
heart. He has left fifteen comedies.
BROMELIA, the Pine-Apple. See Horticulture.
BROMINE, a remarkable fluid discovered in 1826 by
Balard. See Chemistry.
BROMLEY, a market-town in the hundred of Bromley
and Beckenham, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, and county of
Kent, ten miles S.E. of London. It consists chiefly of one
long street with some good houses, and has an old market-
house, savings-bank, literary institution, and a college for the
residence and support of 40 widows of clergymen. The
church is a fine Gothic edifice, containing some handsome
monuments; and in the vicinity is a palace belonging to
the bishops of Rochester. Pop. of parish (1851) 4127?
BROMSGROVE, a market-town of England, in the
county of Worcester and hundred of Halfshire, near the
Birmingham and Gloucester railway, 13 miles S. by W.
of the former town. The church is a fine old building,
with a tower and spire 189 feet in height. The free
grammar school, founded by Edward VL, has 7 scholar¬
ships and 6 fellowships in Worcester College, Oxford. It
formerly returned two members to parliament. Its princi¬
pal manufactures are nails, buttons, needles, and coarse
linen stuffs. Market-day, Tuesday. Pop. (1851) 4426.
BROMYARD, a market-town and parish in the county
of Hereford, on the river Frome, 125 miles from London.
It is situated in a fine orchard district, but is old and ill
built, many of the houses being of wood. It has a colle¬
giate church, a free grammar and a national school, alms¬
houses, &c. Market-day, Tuesday. Pop. (1851) 1394.
BRONCHITIS, an inflammation of the bronchi or tubes
by which the lungs are supplied with air. It may be acute
or chronic.
BRONDSTED, Peter Oluf, an able and judicious
archaeologist, was the son of a Danish clergyman, and was
born at Horsens in Jutland on 17th Nov. 1781. He re¬
ceived his academical education at the university of Copen¬
hagen ; and in 1802 he visited Paris in company with his
friend M. Koes. After remaining there two years, he ac¬
companied the same gentleman to Italy. Both were zeal¬
ously attached to the study of antiquities ; and congeniality
of tastes and pursuits induced them both in 1810 to join
Baron Stackelberg, Von Haller, andLinckh of Stutgard, in
an expedition to Greece, where they examined with attention
the interesting remains of ancient art, and engaged with
ardour in excavations among the ruins, which were carried
on extensively, especially by Brondsted and Stackelberg,
with very interesting results. The discoveries which Brond¬
sted made have been since given to the world in several
works, which show learning and sagacity seldom applied to
the elucidation of antiquity with happier results. After
three years of active researches in Greece, Brondsted
returned to Copenhagen, where, as a reward for his la¬
bours, he was appointed professor of Greek in the univer¬
sity. He now began to arrange and prepare for publication
the vast materials he had collected during his travels ; but
finding that Copenhagen did not afford him the desired
facilities, he exchanged his professorship for the office of
Danish envoy at the papal court in 1818, and took up his
abode at Rome. He also, in 1820 and 1821, went to Sicily
and the Ionian Isles to collect additional materials for his
great work; and when the artistic illustrations were com¬
pleted, he obtained leave to visit Paris to superintend the
publication. In 1826, he came over to London, chiefly with
a view to study the Elgin marbles and other antique reliques
in the British Museum, and became acquainted with the
principal archaeologists of England.
676
B R O
BBC
Brongniart His great work appeared at Paris, in parts, in two edi-
II tions, with a French text, one in quarto and the other in folio,
v Bronze- ; besides a quarto one with German text. The first appeared
in 1826, the second in ] 830. Eight parts were promised,
but only two had appeared at his death. The title of this
admirable work, which contains many recently discovered
and till then unpublished Grecian remains, with charts and
numerous vignettes, is Voyages dans Grece, accompagnes
des recherches archeologiques, et suivis d’un aperru sur
toutes les entreprises scientifiqnes, qui ont eu lieu en Grece
depuis Pausanias jusqii d nos jours.
Fie returned to Copenhagen in 1832; when he imme¬
diately received the appointment of director of the royal
museum of antiquities, and the professorship of archaeology
and philology. His merits were ten years afterwards further
rewarded with the honourable office of Rector of the Uni¬
versity ; but an unlucky fall from his horse caused the death
of this eminent man on the 26th of June 1842.
Besides the great work above noticed, Brondsted wTote
numerous dissertations on archaeological subjects, which he
illustrated with great learning. Among these we may notice
two published by the Dilettanti Society of London, viz., A
description of thirty-two painted Greek Vases, found near
Vulsci, 1832 ; and on the Bronzes of Siris, 1836. (t. s. t.)
BRONGNIART, Alexandre, a distinguished French
mineralogist, was the son of the eminent architect who de¬
signed the Bourse and other public buildings of Paris, and
was born in that city in 1770. At an early age he joined
the army of the Pyrenees; but having committed some
slight political offence, he was thrown into prison, and de¬
tained there for some time. On his release he was appointed
professor of natural history in the College des Quatre Na¬
tions, and soon after succeeded Haiiy as professor in the
school of mines. In 1800 he was made director of the
Sevres porcelain factory, in which he revived the almost
forgotten art of painting on glass. He did not confine
himself entirely to mineralogy, for it is to him that we owe
the division of reptiles into the four orders of Saurians, Ba-
trachians, Chelonians, and Ophidians. In 1816 he was elected
into the Academy ; and in the following year he visited the
Alps of Switzerland and Italy, and afterwards Sweden and
Norway. The result of his researches he published from time
to time in the Journal des Mines and Dictionnaire des
Sciences Naturelles. He died at Paris, October 7. 1847.
His principal works are Traite Elementaire de Mineralogie
appliquee aux Arts; and the Tableau des terrains qui
composent Vecorce du globe, ou Essai sur la structure de
la partie connue de la terre. Brongniart was also the co¬
adjutor of Cuvier in the admirable Essai sur la Geogra¬
phic Mineralogique des Environs de Paris.
BRONTE, a city in the intendency of Catania, in Sicily.
It stands in a healthy situation on the river Giaretta, near
a celebrated water-fall. It has considerable manufactures
of linen and woollen cloths, and some paper-mills. Good
wine is produced in the neighbourhood. Bronte gave the
title of duke to the late Lord Nelson. Pop. 9500.
BRONTEION, in Grecian Antiquity, a machine used
in the theatre to imitate thunder. It consisted of large
brazen vessels containing stones, and was placed beneath
the stage.
BRONTOLOGY (fipovrr] and Aoyos), a discourse upon
thunder, or an explanation of its causes, phenomena, &c.
BRONZE.—A combination of metals which has received
the name of bronze was employed by the ancients in the
fabrication of different utensils, and in casting busts, statues,
and other objects. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans,
used this compound metal in the greater part of the deco¬
rations of those magnificent temples and palaces whose ruins
only have remained to later eras. But amidst the general
wreck there are still some fragments preserved, which in¬
dicate the perfection which had been attained in the employ¬
ment of bronze. The wealth of some ancient cities was esti¬
mated by the number of their brazen statues ; and Delphos,
Athens, and Rhodes, are reported to have each possessed
three thousand. Some distinguished Romans adorned the
public edifices of their city in this manner; and so strong a
propensity was excited for multiplying works of this kind,
that an observation became current, that in Rome the people
of brass were not less numerous than the Roman people. It
has been remarked, that the works which we now execute in
iron or steel were little known to the ancients; that their
arms and armour were usually of brass, or the compound now
alluded to; and that a set of surgeon’s instruments consist¬
ing entirely of bronze was discovered at Pompeii.
The ancient bronzes are alloys of copper and tin. Those
examined by Klaproth, Davy, and others, whether from
Egypt, Greece, or Italy, contain from 11 to 13 per cent,
of tin. Nearly the same proportions are used in modern
bronze in casting statues. Steell of Edinburgh, in his
fine statue of Wellington, used 90 of copper and 10 of tin ;
proportions used also by Chantrey and Westmacott. The
best gun-metal consists of 96 of copper and 11 of tin.
Bronze is extremely hard and sonorous, more brittle than
brass, and more fusible than copper; from which, and its
not being liable to tarnish, it is peculiarly adapted for casts
of statues. Various nations have compounded the metals
employed in different proportions. The Egyptians are said
to have taken two-thirds of brass and one-third of copper.
According to Pliny, the bronze of the Grecians was formed
in the same way, with the addition of one-tenth part of lead
and a twentieth of silver ; which proportions wrere adopted
by the Romans. In modern times bronze is generally com¬
posed of two-thirds of copper and one-third of brass; and
sometimes small quantities of lead and zinc have been added.
These latter render the cast more compact and brilliant;
and the combination of different substances occasions the
readier fusibility of the whole than when separate. The
ancient bronzes, however, present a difference in appearance
and composition from those executed by the moderns ; and
the fact is ascertained in respect to the metallic proportions,
on analysis by skilful chemists. An illustration of this fact
is sometimes given in the four celebrated horses of bronze,
supposed to be the work of Lysippus, a Greek artist; which
were brought from Venice, by command of Bonaparte, to
the Tuilleries at Paris, and, on the fall of that extraordi¬
nary man, restored to their original position.
Bronze-casting.—The casting of bronze statues is a nice
and difficult art, requiring long experience and the judicious
management of a great apparatus. An exact model must
be made of the subject to be cast, and nicely coated over
with wax not less than an inch thick, on which the artist
works the impression meant to be taken. A mould is then
formed, consisting of several hollow pieces of wood or other
resisting substance, filled with a mixture of clay and sand,
which is applied to the model, in order that its outline may
be received. The mould being united together, is perforated
by a number of channels, and the melted metal being dis¬
charged from a furnace by means of these into the interior,
thus produces the cast. When cold, the external covering
is taken off, and the subjects appear as if covered with spines,
which are the channels filled with metal: these are removed
by saws, files, and chisels ; and any imperfections on the sur¬
face being corrected, the whole is completed. But this in
detail is a tedious, laborious, and expensive process ; and the
difficulty of producing beautiful works in bronze conspires to
give them a high value in the estimation of the lovers of the
arts. Seldom does the natural colour of the composition re¬
main unaltered, but with the lapse of time it tends to black,
or particular shades of green ; though some artists render it
black artificially, or give it a green colour from the first. It
is the delicacy of the workmanship, however, that consti¬
tutes the value of bronzes, not tbe colour, because it is the
Bronze¬
casting.
B E O N
fironzing. former alone which constitutes the difficulty, and calls for the
skill of the artist. Colossal figures are sometimes obtained in
bronze; but more usually, when of very large dimensions,
they are formed by the *nion 0f several pieces, and are hol¬
low within ; as is also the case with some of those of smaller
size.
Bronzing.—The substances on which bronzing is em¬
ployed are either metals, wood, ivory, clay, or plaster; but
more general preference is given to wood or plaster. The
colours are of various shades and intensity ; their composi¬
tion and application being in a great measure arbitrary, ac¬
cording to the will of the artist. This art is nothing but a
species of painting, far from the most delicate kind; and,
when applied to plaster figures, may be done either with or
without cement, the latter rendering it more durable. One
principal ingredient in bronzing is gold powder, for the pre¬
paration of which the following receipt is given. A quan¬
tity of leaf-gold is ground with virgin honey on a stone,
until the texture of the leaf be completely broken, and
the parts divided to the most minute degree. The mix¬
ture of gold and honey is then removed from the stone and
put into a basin of water, whereby the honey is melted, and
the gold freed from it; and the basin is allowed to stand at
rest until the gold subsides. When it has done so, the water
is poured off, and fresh quantities are added, until the honey
be entirely washed away ; after which the gold is put in
paper, and dried for use. This is the true gold powder ;
besides which, there is another, called German gold, in com¬
mon use ; and also a third, called aurum mosaicum, or mu-
sivum greatly employed in bronzing, and which is thus pre¬
pared. A pound of tin, seven ounces of flour of sulphur,
half a pound of purified quicksilver, and the same quantity
of sal ammoniac, are taken as the necessary ingredients. The
tin being melted in a crucible, the quicksilver is added to it;
and, when this mixture is cold, it is reduced to powder, and
ground with the sal ammoniac and sulphur, until the whole
be thoroughly mixed. They are then to be heated in a
matrass, and the sublimation of the other ingredients will
leave the tin converted into the aurum mosaicum, which is
found at the bottom of the glass like a mass of bright flaky
gold powder. The substance sublimed is chiefly vermilion,
and is carefully collected. Should any black or discoloured
particles appear, they must be removed. The sal ammoniac
used must be very clean, and the mercury pure. These
colours are commonly employed in bronzing; but when a
shade more of a red, resembling copper, is required, it can
easily be obtained by grinding a very small quantity of red
lead along with them. Copper powder may be procured by
dissolving filings or slips of that metal with nitrous acid in
a receiver. When the acid is saturated the slips are to be
removed; or, if filings be employed, the solution is to be
poured off from what remains undissolved. Small iron bars
are then put in, which will precipitate the copper from the
saturated acid, in a powder of the peculiar appearance and
colour of copper; and the liquid being poured from the
powder, this is to be washed clean off the crystals by re¬
peated levigations. In addition to these compounds^ we
may name gold size, which is of particular use in bronzing
and several other branches of the arts. This is prepared
from a pound of linseed oil, with four ounces of gum animi.
The latter is gradually supplied in powder to the oil, while
boiling; and it is necessary that it should be stirred with
every successive dose, until the whole be dissolved and in¬
corporated with the oil. The mixture is still allowed to con¬
tinue boiling, until a small quantity, when taken out, appears
of a thicker consistence than tar; and the whole is then
strained through a coarse cloth, and put aside. When used,
it must be ground with as much vermilion as will render it
opaque, and, at the same time, diluted with such a quantity
of oil of turpentine as will bring it to a proper consistence
for working freely with the brush.
ZING. 677
In regard to the operation of bronzing itself, if a cement Bronzing,
is to be used, the powders now described may be mixed
with strong gum water or isinglass, and laid on the subject
with a brush or pencil; in doing which, some artists recom¬
mend beginning at the bottom and proceeding upwards. By
a different process, gold size, prepared with a clue propor¬
tion of turpentine, may be taken, and the subject covered
with it. This is allowed to dry very nearly, but while still
preserving a certain clamminess, a piece of soft leather
wrapped round the finger is dipped in the powder, and rubbed
over the work; or, what is judged preferable, it may be
spread with a soft camel-hair pencil. The whole, now co¬
vered, must be left to dry, and the loose powder then cleared
away by a hair pencil also. Here the principal nicety con¬
sists in ascertaining the proper period of dryness for applying
the powder, as much of the effect depends on it. But this
method of bronzing is esteemed better, because the gold
size binds the powders to the ground, without any hazard of
their scaling or rubbing off, which sometimes happens when
gum or isinglass is employed. The precise tint of bronzing
is regulated by taste; and, indeed, a very perceptible dif¬
ference appears both in ancient and modern statues, result¬
ing either from age or the metallic proportions.
Bronzing on wood may be effected by a particular pro¬
cess, somewhat varying from the general rules. Prussian
blue, patent yellow, raw umber, lamp-black, and pipe-clay,
are ground separately with water, on a stone, and as much
of them as will make a good colour put into a small vessel
three-fourths full of size, not quite so strong as what is called
clean size in gilding. This mixture is found to succeed best
on using about half as much more pipe-clay as of the rest;
but this depends on taste and fancy in preferring a peculiar
tint. The wood, which has been previously cleaned, smoothed,
and coated with a mixture of clean size and lamp-black, re¬
ceives a new coating with the preceding ingredients, twice
successively, the first being allowed to dry : afterwards the
bronze-powder is to be laid on with a pencil, and the whole
burnished or cleaned anew, observing to repair the parts
which may be injured by this operation. Next, the work
must be coated over with a thin lather of Castile soap, which
Mull take off the glare of the burnishing, and afterwards care¬
fully rubbed with a woollen cloth. The unseemly appear¬
ance of the cavities is removed by slightly wetting them with
a camel-hair pencil dipped in the lather, and then sprinkling
them with a little dust of verditer. The superfluous powder
may be rubbed off when dry.
In bronzing iron, the subject should be heated to a
greater degree than the hand can bear, and German gold,
mixed with a small quantity of spirit of wine varnish, spread
over it with a pencil. Should the iron be already polished,
it is necessary to heat it well and moisten it with a linen
rag wet in vinegar, on purpose to obscure the polish, that
the bronze powder may be sufficiently incorporated with the
surface. There are other methods of accomplishing the
same object, as by employing some coloured mordant, when
the iron is not to be exposed to heat, and spreading the
bronze over the mordant, when half dry, with a pencil.
The bronzing of gun-barrels may be effected in various
ways, as for example the following:—-Moisten the surface
with dilute muriatic or nitric acid, in order that it may ac¬
quire a brown rust; or apply for this purpose the butter or
chloride of antimony. This is to be mixed with olive oil,
and rubbed on the barrel, which should be slightly heated!
Then expose the piece to the air, and rub it with aquafortis
to hasten the operation. The barrel is next to be well
cleaned and washed with water, dried, and finally polished,
either with a steel burnisher, or rubbed with wax, or var¬
nished with a very weak solution of shell-lac in spirit of
wine, (lire’s Diet, of Arts, &c.)
I here is a method of silvering casts of plaster of Paris,
and other substances, which is also called bronzing, and
678 B K O
Bronzino conducted after the manner above described for plaster
II bronzing ; but it is not in general repute.
'Brookes.^ Conjectures have been entertained, that artists originally
resorted to bronzing solely for the purpose of correcting the
glare of colours ; but this is exceedingly improbable ; and
it is certainly unnecessary to seek farther than the induce¬
ment of easily imitating metallic figures, so greatly esteemed
by persons of taste.
BRONZINO, Angiolo, a Florentine painter, born in
1502. This artist was, like his friend Vasari, a follower of the
school of Buonarotti. His historical fresco pictures in the
Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, and some of his altar-pieces,
are graceful and spirited; but some of the latter are in a
feeble style. His portraits are in many Italian collections,
and are praiseworthy for truth and expression ; but the
flesh tints are often too leaden, or too raw, from the want
of that gradation of middle tints that give harmony to a
picture. He died about 1571.
BROOKBANK, Joseph, an English divine, born at
Halifax in Yorkshire, in 1612. After graduating at Oxford,
he removed to London, where he established a school, for
the use of which he published an abbreviation of Lilly’s
Grammar. Though he distinguished himself during the
time of the Commonwealth by his loyalty, he was not for¬
tunate enough to be rewarded with any church preferment
at the Restoration. His works have little interest for mo¬
dern readers, and are now wholly forgotten.
BROOKE, Frances, a clever novelist and dramatic
writer, whose maiden name wras Moore, was born in the
earlier part of the eighteenth century. Of her novels,
some of which enjoyed considerable popularity in their day,
we may specify The History of Lady Julia Mandeville,
Emily Montague, and The Excursion. Her dramatic pieces
and translations from the French are now wholly forgotten.
She died in January 1789, two days after her husband.
Brooke, Henry, an amiable and accomplished writer,
born at Rantavan in Ireland, 1706. After studying at
Trinity College, Dublin, at an early age he entered the
Temple, and soon became the intimate friend of Pope
and Swift. Encouraged by Lords Lyttleton and Chatham,
he published a tragedy entitled Gustavus Vasa, which had
a rapid sale, and amply recompensed the author. Mr Brooke
was also the author of the Fool of Quality, Juliet Gren¬
ville, Universal Beauty, and other poems. The death of this
estimable and benevolent man took place at Dublin, Oct.
10, 1785.
BROOKES, Bartholomaus Heinrich, a learned and
amiable German poet and lawyer, was born at Lubeck in
1680. On leaving college he settled at Hamburg, where
he practised as a lawyer with such distinguished success,
that he was made a senator, and afterwards an aulic counsel¬
lor, with the title of Count Palatine. After a useful and
laborious life he died in 1747. His most ambitious work is
his Earthly Contentment in God, a collection of moral
poems still highly esteemed in Germany. His translations
from foreign poets are very numerous. Among these may
be specified his version of Pope’s Essay on Man, and his
translations from Marini and other Italian poets.
Brookes, Joshua, a celebrated English anatomist, was
born in 1761. At a very early age he devoted himself
to medical science, and attended the lectures of the most
eminent surgeons in London and Paris. As soon as he
had completed his studies, he began to teach anatomy and
physiology, and continued to do so during forty years of his
life, training no fewer than 5000 students, many of whom
afterwards became famous in different parts of the world.
His museum, which contained specimens not only of human
and comparative anatomy, but also of natural history in all
its branches, was arranged on a system combined from the
various methods of Cuvier, Blumenbach, Linnaeus, and
Other naturalists, and cost its proprietor about L.30,000.
B R O
Many of his treatises are printed in the Transactions of Brooklyn
the various scientific societies of which he was a member. II
He died suddenly at London, Jan. 10, 1833. Broome.
BROOKLYN, a city, capital of King’s County, in the
State of New York, North America, stands at the western
end of Long Island, immediately opposite New York, from
which it is separated by the East river, an arm of the sea
about three-quarters of a mile in breadth. The ground on
which the city is built exhibits considerable inequalities of
surface, which gives it a very picturesque appearance. It
is regularly laid out, the streets generally straight, from
60 to 100 feet wide, and crossing each other at right angles.
It has numerous handsome and elegant public buildings,
among which are the city-hall, a fine marble structure of re¬
cent erection; the jail, lyceum, city library, naval hospital, &c.
It has 63 churches, of which 11 are Episcopal, 7 Roman
Catholic, 6 Baptist, 6 Reformed German, 5 Congrega¬
tional, 7 Presbyterian, 11 Methodist Episcopal, &c. It con¬
tains 13 school districts, under the superintendence of the
Board of Education. Each of these has a valuable library
firee to the inhabitants of the district, as are likewise the pub¬
lic schools to the children. Academies and high schools are
also numerous. The Greenwood cemetery is one of the most
picturesque and beautiful places of the kind, and covers an
area of nearly 300 acres. It has some fine avenues and orna¬
mental ponds, and contains numerous monuments. The trade
of Brooklyn is very considerable ; but being included in the
district of New York, no separate returns are made. The
dock covers 42J acres, has a pier 3000 feet in length, and is
accessible to vessels of the largest size. The United States
navy yard on Wallabout bay covers 40 acres; and an im¬
mense dry dock, the greatest wrork of the kind in the United
States, has lately been completed there. Its proximity to
New York enables many of the merchants of that city to
reside here. Brooklyn obtained its charter as a city in
1834, and is divided into 11 wards, governed by a mayor
and common council. Pop. (1820) 7175 ; (1830) 15,396;
(1840) 36,233 ; (1850) 96,838.
BROOM. See Botany.
BnooM-Flower gives the denomination to an order of
knights instituted by St Louis of France on his marriage.
The motto was Exaltat humiles, and the collar was made
up of broom flowers and husks, enamelled and intermixed
with fleurs de lis of gold, set in open lozenges, enamelled
white, chained together; to which was suspended a cross
florence of gold. This answers to what the French called
Ordre de la Geneste, from the name of a species of broom.
BROOME, William, the coadjutor of Pope in trans¬
lating the Odyssey, was born in Cheshire, of humble parents.
He was educated upon the foundation at Eton, and was
captain of the school a whole year, without any vacancy oc¬
curring by which he might have obtained a scholarship at
King’s College. Being by this delay superannuated, he was
sent to St John’s College by the contributions of his friends,
and obtained a small exhibition there. His fondness for
metrical composition was then such that his companions
familiarly called him Poet. He appeared early in the world
as a translator of the Iliad into prose, in conjunction with
Ozell and Oldisworth. How their several parts were distri¬
buted is not known. This is the translation of which Ozell
boasted as superior, in Toland’s opinion, to that of Pope.
He was introduced to Pope, who was then visiting Sir John
Cotton at Madingley, near Cambridge, and gained so much
of his esteem that he was employed to make extracts from
Eustathius for the notes to the translation of the Iliad ; and
in the volumes of poetry published by Lintot, commonly
called Pope's Miscellanies, many of his early pieces were
inserted.
When the success of the Iliad gave encouragement to a
version of the Odyssey, Pope, weary of the toil, called
Fenton and Broome to his assistance; and taking only
B R 0
Brooming half the work upon himself, divided the other half be¬
ll tween his partners, giving four books to Fenton and eight
Brosses. to Broome. To the lot of Broome fell the second, sixth,
eighth, eleventh, twelfth, sixteenth, eighteenth, and twenty-
third, together with the burden of writing all the notes.
The price at which Pope purchased this assistance was
L.300 paid to Fenton and L.500 to Broome, with as many
copies as he wanted for his friends, which amounted to
L.100 more. The payment made to Fenton is known only
by hearsay; Broome’s is very distinctly told by Pope in
the notes to the Dunciad. It is evident that, according to
Pope’s own estimate, Broome was unfairly treated. If four
books could merit L.300, eight, and all the notes, equivalent at
least to four more, had certainly a right to more than L.600.
Broome probably considered himself as injured ; for he al¬
ways spoke of Pope as too much a lover of money, and
Pope pursued him with avowed hostility. He not only
named Broome disrespectfully in the Dunciad, but quoted
him more than once in the Bathos, as a proficient in the art
of sinking. It has been said that they were afterwards re¬
conciled ; but their peace was probably without friendship.
Broome afterwards published a Miscellany of Poems. He
never rose to very high dignity in the church : he became
rector of Sturston in Suffolk, where he married a wealthy
widow ; and afterwards, when the king visited Cambridge,
in 1728, he was made doctor of laws. Towards the close of
his life he amused himself with translating some of the Odes
of Anacreon, which he published in the Gentleman's Maga¬
zine under the name oi Chester. He died at Bath in 1745.
BROOMING of a ship. See Breaming.
BROSE, a Scotch dish made by pouring boiling water
on oatmeal, with the addition of salt, and sometimes butter
or milk. It is also prepared in various other ways.
BROSE LEY, a market-town on the Severn, in the
county of Salop, 146 miles from London. It is a place of
considerable trade in iron, having near it productive mines
of that mineral, as well as of coal. Market-day Wednesday.
Pop. of parish (1851) 4739.
BROSSARD, Sebastien de, an eminent French musi¬
cian, born a.d. 1660. In early life he had been preben¬
dary and chapel-master of the cathedral church of Stras-
burg: he afterwards became grand chaplain and maitre de
chapelle in the cathedral of Meaux. He wrote a work en¬
titled Prodromus Musicalis, 2 vols. folio ; and was also the
author of Dictionnaire de Musique, first printed at Amster¬
dam, in folio, 1703. At the end of this useful book there
is a catalogue of authors ancient and modern, to the number
of nine hundred, who have written on music. It is also in¬
terspersed with many curious observations on the history of
music. His own compositions were chiefly sacred music.
He died August 10, 1730.
BROSSES, Charles de, first president of the parlia¬
ment of Burgundy, was born at Dijon in 1709. He studied
law with a view to the magistracy, but the bent of his mind
was towards literature and the sciences. He travelled
through Italy in 1739, in company with his friend M. de
Sainte-Palaye ; and on his return to France published his
Lettres sur VEtat Actuel de la Ville Souterraine d'Hercu¬
laneum, Dijon, 1750, 8vo, which was the first work upon
that interesting subject. A collection of letters, written
during his Italian tour, entitled Lettres Historiques et Cri¬
tiques, in three vols. 8vo, was published at Paris after his
death. In 1760 he published a dissertation Sur le Culte
des Dieux Fetiches, 12mo, which was afterwards inserted
in the Encyclopedic Methodique. At the solicitation of his
friend Buffbn, De Brosses undertook his Histoire des Navi¬
gations aux Terres Australes, which was published in 1756,
in two vols. 4to, with maps. It was in this work that De
Brosses first laid down the geographical divisions of Aus¬
tralasia and Polynesia, which were afterwards adopted
by Pinkerton and succeeding geographers. In 1765 ap-
B 11 O 679
peared his Traite de la Formation Mecanique des Lan- Brother.
gues ; a work distinguished by much research, and contain-
ing many ingenious hypotheses; but, at the same time,
marked by that love of theory which is so apt to imbue the
cultivators of etymological science.
De Brosses had been occupied, during a great part of his
life, on a translation of Sallust, and in attempting to supply
the lost chapters in that celebrated historian. At length,
in 1777, he published L’Histoire du Septieme Siecle de la
Republique Romaine, 3 vols. 4to; to which is prefixed a
learned life of Sallust, reprinted at the commencement of
the translation of that historian by De Lamalle.
These literary occupations did not prevent De Brosses
from discharging with ability his official duties, nor from
carrying on a constant and extensive correspondence with
the most distinguished literary characters of his time. In
1758 he succeeded the Marquis de Caumont in the Aca-
demie de Belles Lettres; but was never admitted a member
of the French Academy, in consequence, it is said, of the
opposition of Voltaire.
Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote several
memoirs and dissertations in the collections of the Academy
of Inscriptions, and in those of the Academy of Dijon. He
also contributed various articles to the Diclionnaire Ency-
clopedique, on the subjects of grammar, etymology, music,
&c.; and he left behind him several MSS. which were un¬
fortunately lost during the revolution. He died in 1777.
{Biographic Universellei)
BROTHER (in Greek dSeA^os, in CaSm frater), a term
of relation between two male children, sprung from the
same father, or mother, or both. Scaliger and Vossius de-
xivefrater from (fiparrip, for ^partop, which properly signifies
a person who draws water in the same well. The word, it
is said, came originally from the city Argos, where there
were only a few c/jpeara or wells distributed in certain quar¬
ters of the city, to which those of the same neighbourhood
alone repaired.
By the civil law, brothers and sisters stand in the second
degree of consanguinity ; by the canon law, in the first de¬
gree. By the Mosaic law the brother of a man who died
without issue was enjoined to marry the widow of the de¬
ceased. Deuter. xxv. 5. The ancients frequently applied
the term brother indifferently to almost all who stood related
in the collateral line, as uncles and nephews, cousins german,
and the like. This we learn not only from a great many pas¬
sages in the Old Testament, but also from profane authors.
Cicero, in his Philippics, calls Antonia both wife and sister of
Mark Antony, because she was daughter of his brother C.
Antonius. And as to cousins, Tullus Hostilius, in Dionysius
Halicarnasseus, calls the Horatii and Curiatii brothers, be¬
cause they were sisters’ children. The language of the Jews
included in the name of brethren not only the strict relation
of fraternity, but also the larger one of consanguinity. “We
be brethren,” said Abraham to Lot,(Gen. xiii. 8,) whereas
Lot was only his nephew. So Jacob told Rachel that he
was her father’s brother (Gen. xxix. 12), whereas he was
only his nephew. It is customary for kings to give to each
other the title of brother. Nor is the custom modern. Me¬
nander mentions a letter of Chosroes king of Persia to the
emperor Justinian, beginning thus: “Chosroes, king of
kings, to the emperor Justinian my brother.” In the civil
law, brothers,in the plural, sometimes comprehends
sisters ; as Lucius et Titia, fratres ; tres fratres, Titius,
Mcevius, et Seia.
i4wter-BROTHER8, are males nursed at the same breast;
more strictly used of those suckled at the same time with
the nurse’s own child. The French call them freres du lait,
or brothers by milk.
Brother was also used by writers of the middle ages for
a comes, or governor of a province. It is sometimes used
to denote a person of the same profession; and is also a
680
B R O
B R O
Brothers
of the
Rosy Cross
Broughton.
customary term by which priests of the same persuasion
address one another. Preachers, too, address their hearers
as my brethren. This appellation is borrowed from the pri¬
mitive Christians, who all called each other brothers. Bro¬
ther is likewise an appellation more peculiarly given to cer¬
tain orders of religious. In the military orders the knights
are also called brothers: and in the order of Malta there was
a particular class who are called serving brothers (fratres cli-
entes), consisting of such as cannot give proof of their nobility.
Brothers of the Rosy Cross. See Rosicrucians.
BROTIER, Gabriel, was born at Tannay in 1723,
and was brought up a Jesuit. On the suppression of the
order he devoted himself entirely to literature. He is best
known by his edition of Tacitus, which appeared at Paris in
1771, 4 vols. 4to. He also edited Pliny, in 6 vols. 12mo,
1779; and Phaedrus, in 1783. His revised edition of Amyot’s
translation of Plutarch appeared in 22 vols. 1783. This
eminent scholar died at Paris, in February 1789.
BROUGH, a market-town in the east ward of the county
of Westmoreland, 271 miles from London. It occupies the
site of the Verterac of the Romans, and consists of a long
street, divided by a brook which runs into the Eden. The
church is a spacious ancient building, with a pulpit formed
out of one entire stone. The ruins of the castle, which
stands upon a lofty eminence, constitute its most interesting
feature. Market-day Thursday. Pop. (1851) 773.
BROUGHTON, Hugh, a learned scholar and divine,
was born at Oldbury in Shropshire, in 1549. After receiv¬
ing the rudiments of his education at a provincial school, he
went to Cambridge, where in due time he was chosen a fel¬
low of Christ’s College, and took orders in the church.
During his career at the university, he laid the foundation
of the Hebrew scholarship, for which he was afterwards so
distinguished. From Cambridge he went to London, where
his eloquence gained him many and powerful friends. In
1588 he published his first wrork, “ a little book of great
pains,” entitled the Consent of Scriptures. This work was
strongly opposed at both the great universities, and the
author was obliged to defend it, which he did in a series
of lectures. In 1589 he went to Germany, where he
frequently engaged in discussions, both with papists and
with the learned Jews whom he met at Frankfort and else¬
where. In 1591 he returned to England, and published an
“ Explication of the article of Christ’s descent into Hell,”
which like his last treatise elicited a violent opposition. In
1592 he once more went abroad, and cultivated the acquaint¬
ance of the principal scholars of the different countries
through which he passed. Such was the esteem in which
he was held even by his papist opponents, that he was offered
a cardinal’s hat if he would renounce the protestant faith ;
which, however, he declined to do. On the accession of
James he returned to England; but not being engaged to
co-operate in the new translation of the Bible then begun,
he retired to Middleburgh in Holland, where he preached
to the English congregation. In 1611 he returned to Eng¬
land, where he died in the following year. Some of his
works were collected and published in a large folio volume
in 1662, but many of his theological MSS. remain still
unedited in the British Museum.
Broughton, Thomas, a learned divine, and one of the
original writers in the Biographia Britannica, was born at
London, July 5. 1704. At an early age he was sent to
Eton, where he soon distinguished himself by his acuteness
and studious disposition. Being superannuated on this
foundation, he removed about 1722 to the university of
Cambridge ; and, for the sake of a scholarship, entered
himself of Caius College. Here two of the principal objects
of his attention were the acquisition of the modern lan¬
guages, and the study of mathematics, under the famous
Professor Sanderson. In May 1727, Broughton, after gra¬
duating as B.A., wras admitted to deacon’s orders, and in
the succeeding year was ordained pr’est, and took the de- Brouk-
gree of M.A. He then removed from the university to the husius
curacy of Offley in Hertfordshire. In 1739 he was insti- II
tuted to the rectory of Stepington, or Stibington, in the ^ roussa.
county of Huntingdon. He was soon after chosen reader
to the Temple, by which means he became known to
Bishop Sherlock, then Master, who conceived so high an
opinion of Broughton’s merit, that in 1744 he presented
him to the valuable vicarage of Bedminster, near Bristol,
together with the chapels of St Mary Redcliff, St Thomas,
and Abbot’s Leigh annexed. He was afterwards collated
by the same patron to the prebend of Bedminster and Red-
cliff, in the cathedral of Salisbury. Upon receiving this
preferment he removed from London to Bristol, where he
married the daughter of Thomas Harris, clerk of that city, by
whom he had seven children. He died December 21, 1774.
For many years of his life, Broughton was engaged in a
variety of publications, of which a list is given in the Bio¬
graphia Britannica, 2d edition. He was a great admirer
of ancient music, and furnished Handel with words for
many of his compositions. He was distinguished by an ac¬
tive zeal for the Christian cause; and in private life was de¬
voted to the interests and happiness of his family, and pos¬
sessed a mild, cheerful, and liberal temper. In 1778 a post¬
humous volume of sermons, on select subjects, was pub¬
lished by his son, the Rev. Thomas Broughton, M.A.
BROUKHUSIUS, or Broekhuizen, Jan, a distin¬
guished scholar, born in 1649 at Amsterdam, where his
father was a clerk in the Admiralty. His father dying when
he was very young, he was taken from literary pursuits,
in which he had made extraordinary progress, and placed
with an apothecary at Amsterdam, with whom he lived
several years. But not liking the pestle and mortar, he
went into the army, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant-
captain ; and in 1674 he wras sent with his regiment to
America, in the fleet under Admiral de Ruyter, but re¬
turned to Holland the same year. In 1678 he was sent to
the garrison at Utrecht, where he contracted a friendship
with the celebrated Grsevius ; and here he had the misfor¬
tune to be so deeply implicated in a duel, that, according to
the laws of Holland, his life was forfeited; but Graevius
wrote immediately to Nicholas Heinsius, who obtained his
pardon from the stadtholder. Not long afterwards he be¬
came a captain of one of the companies then at Amster¬
dam ; and was thus enabled to pursue his studies at his
leisure. His company being disbanded in 1697, he received
a pension, upon which he retired to a country-house near
Amsterdam. Fie died in 1707, aged fifty-eight.
As a classical scholar, he is distinguished by his editions
of Propertius and Tibullus, the former published in 1702,
the latter in 1708. His Carmina were published at
Utrecht, 1684, in 12mo ; and more splendidly by Van
Hoogstraatten, Amsterdam, 1711, 4to. His Dutch poems
were also published at Amsterdam, 1712, 8vo, by the same
person, with a life prefixed. Broukhusius also edited the
Latin works of Sannazarius and Palearius.
BROUNCKER, William, lord viscount of Castle-
Lyons, in Ireland, and the first president of the Royal So¬
ciety, was the son of Sir William Brouncker, and was born
about 1620. Fie was distinguished by his knowledge of
mathematics, and enjoyed various posts of honour and pro¬
fit after the Restoration ; for he was at the same time chan¬
cellor to the queen, keeper of the great seal, a commissioner
of the navy, and master of St Catherine’s Hospital, near the
Tower of London. Amongst other works he wrote Expe¬
riments on the recoiling of Guns ; An algebraical paper
upon the squaring of the Hyperbola ; and several letters to
Dr Usher, archbishop of Armagh. He died in 1684.
BROUSSA, or Brusa, a city of Turkish Anatolia, capi¬
tal of the Sanjak of Khodavendkiar, is situated in a fertile
plain at the northern foot of Mount Olympus, 57 miles S.S.E.
B R 0
Broussais of Constantinople. Pop. estimated at 60,000. The houses
II are built of wood, and the numerous minarets give the town
Broussonet- a very magnificent appearance from a distance, but the streets
^ are narrow and dark. It is abundantly supplied with water,
and has many beautiful fountains. It has a castle, numerous
mosques, bazaars, khans, colleges, and several churches and
synagogues. Its hot and cold mineral springs have been
long celebrated. They vary in temperature up to 184°
fabr. Broussa is one of the first commercial cities of
Turkey, and has also extensive manufactures of satins,
silks, cottons, carpets, tapestry, &c. The celebrated Arab
chief Abd-el-Kader, is now living there (1854) in retire¬
ment.
BROUSSAIS, Francois Joseph Victor, a celebrated
French physician, was born at St Malo in 1772. From his
father, who was also a physician, he received his first instruc¬
tions in medicine ; but at an early age he entered the ser¬
vice of the republic, first as a private soldier and non-com¬
missioned officer, and afterwards as a surgeon in the navy.
At the end of that period he went to Paris, where in 1803
he graduated as M.D. In 1805 he again joined the army
in a professional capacity, and served in Germany, Holland,
Italy, and Spain. In 1814 he returned to Paris, and was
appointed assistant-professor to the Military Hospital of the
Val-de-Grace, where he first promulgated his peculiar doc¬
trines. His lectures were attended by great numbers of
students, who received with the utmost enthusiasm the new
theories which he propounded. In 1816 he published his
Examen des Doctrines Medicales, which drew down upon
its author the hatred of the whole medical faculty of Paris.
By degrees these doctrines triumphed ; and gradually crept
into the writings and practice of the best physicians, and
even into the medical school itself, long before their pro¬
pounder held office in that institution. In 1831 he was
appointed professor of general pathology in the academy of
medicine, and taught with great applause till his death in
1838. Of his works, which are very numerous, the most
important, besides the Examen above mentioned, are the
Histoires de Phlegmasies Chroniques, Paris, 1808, 2 vols.
8vo ; Trade de la Physiologic appliquee a la Pathologie ;
Paris, 1824 ; Commentaires des Propositions de Pathologie
consignees dans VExamen, Paris, 1829, 2 vols. 8vo ; Le
Cholera-morbus epidemique, Paris, 1832, 8vo, &c., &c.
BROUSSONET, Pierre Marie Auguste, a distin¬
guished French naturalist, was the son of a schoolmaster,
and was born at Montpellier in 1761. He was educated at
Montpellier for the medical profession ; and such was the
estimation of his abilities in the university, that when only
eighteen years of age he was appointed to fill a professor’s
chair. So great, indeed, was his reputation, that a few years
afterwards he was admitted a member of the Academy of
Sciences by a unanimous vote, a circumstance till that time
without example in the annals of that learned body. Bo¬
tany seems to have been the science to which he was at first
chiefly devoted ; and he laboured with much zeal to esta¬
blish the system of Linnaeus in France. With this view,
as well as for his own improvement, he went to Paris, and
visited the various museums and collections. He next came
to England, and was admitted in 1782 an honorary member
of the Royal Society. It was at this period that he pub¬
lished at London his work on fishes, describing the most
rare species, under the title of Ichthyologia, sen Piscium
Descriptiones et leones. On his return to Paris he was ap¬
pointed perpetual secretary to the Society of Agriculture, an
office which the intendant Berthier de Sauvigny resigned in
his favour.
In 1789 he was nominated a member of the Electoral Col¬
lege of Paris, an office which required him to serve as magis¬
trate whenever his colleagues were in need of assistance in
the exercise of their functions ; and on the first of these oc¬
casions, as he was proceeding to the Hotel de Ville, he had
VOL. v.
B R O 681
the misfortune to see his friend and protector Berthier bar- Brown,
barously murdered by the populace. His own life was fre-
quently in peril during the tumults that ensued, and when
he had the charge of superintending the supply of provisions
for the capital. In 1791 he had a seat in the legislative as¬
sembly ; but, disgusted with politics, he quitted Paris the
year following, and repaired to his native city. Persecution
followed him in his retreat, and he was glad after many dan¬
gers to effect his escape to Madrid, where he was liberally
assisted by the literati of that city. The malignity of the
French emigrants, however, who could not pardon his having
held any office under the revolutionary government, still
pursued him, and drove him from Spain, and afterwards
from Lisbon, where he had sought an asylum. At last he
went out as physician to an embassy which the United States
sent to the emperor of Morocco ; and on this occasion his
friend Sir Joseph Banks, informed of his distresses, remitted
him L.1000. After residing for some time at Morocco, he
obtained from the French directory permission to return to
France; and was appointed by them consul at Teneriffe,
where he resided for two years. On his return in 1797 he
was chosen member of the institute, and was reinstated in
his botanical professorship at Montpellier, with the direction
of the botanical garden. He was afterwards elected a mem¬
ber of the legislative body, but died of apoplexy on the 27th
July 1807. France is indebted to him for the introduction
of the Merino sheep and Angola goats.
Besides the work on fishes, already noticed, the following are his
principal productions: Variae Positiones circa Respirationem, Mont¬
pellier, 1788 : Essai sur I’Histoire Naturelle de quelques especes de
Moines, decrite a la maniere de Linee, 8vo, 1784, which is a trans¬
lation of a Latin satire on the monks, the original of which appeared
in Germany in 1783 : Annee rurale, on Calendrier a I’usage des
Cultivateurs, 2 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1787-8 : Notes pour servir a
I Histoire de 1’Ecole de Medecine de Montpellier pendant Pan VI.
8vo, Montpellier, 1795. He was also a conductor, conjointly with
Parmentier, Duhois, and Lefebure, of La Peuille du Cultivateur,
in 8 vols. 4to, published in 1788 and the following years.
BROWN, John, D.D., an English divine, and ingenious
writer, born at Rothbury in Northumberland in November
1715. He was the son of John Brown, a descendant of the
Browns of Colstown, near Haddington ; and who at the
time of his son’s birth was curate to Dr Tomlinson, rector
of Rothbury. He was educated at St John’s, Cambridge ;
and after taking the degree of bachelor of arts with great
reputation, being senior wrangler, he returned to his father’s
house at Wigton ; received deacon's and priest’s orders from
Sir George Fleming, bishop of Carlisle ; and in 1739 went
to Cambridge to take his degree of master of arts. In
1745 he distinguished himself as a volunteer in the king’s
service, and behaved with great intrepidity at the siege of
Carlisle.
The attachment displayed by Brown to the royal cause
and to the whig party, procured him the friendship of Dr
Osbaldeston, afterwards bishop of Carlisle. This gentle¬
man continued to be his friend through life ; a remarkable
fact, since the peculiarities of Brown’s temper involved him
in quarrels with almost all his acquaintances. When ad¬
vanced to the see of Carlisle, Dr Osbaldeston appointed
Brown one of his chaplains.
It was probably during his residence at Carlisle that Mr
Brown wrote his poem entitled Honour, inscribed to Lord'
Viscount Lonsdale. His next poetical production was his
Essay on Satire, addressed to Dr Warburton, to whom it was
so acceptable, that he took Brown into his friendship. He
also introduced him to Ralph Allen, Esq. of Prior Park,
near Bath, who behaved to him with great generosity, ar d
to whom in 1751 Brown dedicated his Essay on the charac¬
teristics ot Lord Shaftesbury. In 1754 he was promoted by
the Eail of Hardwicke to the living of Great Horksley in
Essex ; and in the following year took the degree of doctor
of divinity at Cambridge. In this year also he published his
4 R
,
682
B R O
B R O
Crown, tragedy of Barbarossa; which, under the management of
Garrick, was acted with considerable applause, though when
published it was sharply censured. This tragedy was
followed by a second, entitled Athelstane, which was
represented at Drury-Lane theatre. This was also well
received by the public, but did not become so popular as
Barbarossa.
In 1757 appeared his well-known Estimate of the Man¬
ners and Principles of the Times, which was shortly followed
by a second volume, containing additional remarks on the
ruling manners and principles, and on their public effects.
This was treated with uncommon severity by the perio¬
dical critics ; and such was the multitude of his antagonists,
that he retired for a while into the country. In his re¬
treat he wrote an explanatory defence of the work above
mentioned.
In 1760 he published an Additional Dialogue of the
Dead, between Pericles and Aristides; being a sequel to
Lord Lyttleton’s dialogue between Pericles and Cosmo.
One design of this additional dialogue was to vindicate the
measures of Mr Pitt, against whose administration Lord
Lyttleton had been supposed to have thrown out some hints.
His next work, in 1763, was the Cure of Saul, a sacred ode;
which was followed by A Dissertation on the Rise, Union,
and Power, the Progressions, Separations, and Corruptions
of Poetry and Music. This is one of the most pleasing of
his performances, and abounds with a variety of critical dis¬
cussions. In reply to various strictures on this piece, he
wrote Remarks on some Observations on Dr Brown’s Dis¬
sertation on Poetry and Music. In 1764 he published, in
octavo, The History of the Rise and Progress of Poetry
through its several Species ; which is no more than the sub¬
stance of the dissertation above mentioned. The same
year he published a volume of sermons, dedicated to his pa¬
tron Dr Osbaldeston, bishop of London ; but most of these
had been separately published. In the beginning of 1765
he published Thoughts on Civil Liberty, Licentiousness, and
Faction ; and in conclusion prescribed a code of education,
upon which Dr Priestley made remarks at the end of his
Essay on the Course of a liberal Education for civil and ac¬
tive Life. The same year he published a sermon On the
Female Character and Education, preached before the guar¬
dians of the asylum for deserted female orphans. His last
work, published in 1766, was a Letter to the Rev. Dr Lowth,
occasioned by his late “Letter to the Right Reverend Author
of the Divine Legation of Moses,” in which Dr Brown is
pointed at as one of the extravagant adulators of Bishop
Warburton. Besides these works, Dr Brown published a
poem on Liberty, and two or three anonymous pamphlets.
Dr Brown, who had an hereditary tendency to insanity, and
from early life had been subject at times to fits of excessive
melancholy, put a period to his life on the 23d of September
1766.
Brown, John, D.D., author of the Self-interpreting
Bible, was born at Kerpoo in Perthshire in 1722. He was,
for a great part of his life, minister of the United Secession
church in Haddington. Though he had not enjoyed the
advantages of a regular education, he speedily made him¬
self master of the classical tongues, and gained a great re¬
putation for learning, piety, and eloquence. David Hume,
hearing him preach on one occasion, exclaimed, “ That
man preaches as if his Master were at his elbow.” He died
in 1787. The best of his works, which are very numerous,
is his Self-interpreting Bible, a work that is still very popu¬
lar in Scotland.
Brown, John, the founder of the Brunonian Theory of
Physic, was born in 1735 at Lintlaws or at Preston, Ber¬
wickshire. W hile very young he was apprenticed to a
weaver ; but having a strong aversion for the drudgery of
such a mechanical employment, he was placed at the gram¬
mar-school of Dunse, where he soon distinguished himself.
His parents, who belonged to the religious body called Se-
ceders, were flattered with their son’s rapid and successful
progress in the Latin language, and through the benevolent
assistance of his teacher (Mr Cruickshank), young Brown
was destined to the ministerial office. But an accident, it is
said, made him at once renounce this plan and the sect.
Having, while at the grammar-school, been prevailed on to
attend a meeting of synod held in the Established church
at Dunse, young Brown was called upon to appear before
the session of his congregation, and required either to sub¬
mit to ecclesiastical censure or to suffer expulsion. He
spared them all trouble by renouncing their communion, and
joining the Established church.
Brown then became a private tutor in a gentleman’s
family in the country ; and at the same time acted as an as¬
sistant in the grammar-school of Dunse, where he remained
till about his twentieth year. He then went to Edinburgh,
and after passing through the preliminary classes, entered
himself as a student of divinity in the university. He sup¬
ported himself for some time by private teaching, and then
resumed his former labours as assistant in the grammar-
school of Dunse for a year; but returning to Edinburgh
about 1759, he finally renounced the study of theology, and
commenced that of physic.
During his medical studies, he supported himself by
giving private instructions in Latin to students of medicine,
preparatory to the examinations, which formerly were con¬
ducted in that language; as well as by translating their
theses into Latin. Thus occupied, he soon attracted the
notice of Dr Cullen. This eminent man not only employed
Brown as a tutor in his own family, but was assiduous in
recommending him to others; and he likewise gave him
permission to deliver to pi’ivate pupils illustrations of his
own public lectures. Brown now married, and received
students to board in his house; but either through reckless¬
ness or misconduct, his affairs were soon involved in total
bankruptcy. Irritated by this misfortune, and still more,
perhaps, by the disappointment he experienced in regard to
a medical chair in the university, from which he imagined
he was excluded by the interference of Dr Cullen, he quar¬
relled with his friend and patron, and became from that
moment a keen opponent of his doctrines.
It was in 1780 that Brown’s Elementa Medicince appeared.
It is a compendium of his opinions, which he continued for
several years to illustrate by public lectures. The excite¬
ment produced by the appearance of this work, both in this
country and on the Continent, seems now almost incredi¬
ble; but although it has passed through numerous editions,
and its doctrine is detailed in all systematic works on me¬
dicine, the Brunonian theory is now maintained by few. Mr
Brown now proposed to become a medical practitioner; but
as he had quarrelled with all the professors at Edinburgh, he
took the degree of M.D. at St Andrews.
The terms, however, on which he lived with his medical
brethren, and his intemperate habits, precluded him from
all rational hopes of success, and he therefore removed to
London in 1786; but after he had delivered one course of
lectures he was cut off by apoplexy in October 1788.
Brown, Robert, a schismatic divine, the founder of the
Brownists, a numerous sect of dissenters in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. He was the son of Mr Anthony Brown
of Tolthorp in Rutlandshire, whose father obtained, by a
charter of Henry VIII., the singular privilege of wearing
his cap in the king’s presence. Robert was educated at
Cambridge, in Corpus Christi, or, according to Collier, at
Bennet College, and was afterwards a schoolmaster in
Southwark. About the year 1580 he began to promul¬
gate his principles of dissent from the Established church ;
and the following year he preached at Norwich, where he
soon attracted a numerous congregation. His violent abuse
of the Church of England, and his pretensions to divine in-
Brown.
Erown.
B R, 0
sphation, gainGd for him many followers among the igno-
J rant and unwary. His sect daily increasing, Dr Freake
bishop of Norwich, with other ecclesiastical commissioners,
called him before them. Being insolent to the court, he
was committed to the custody of the sheriff’s officer, but
was released at the intercession of his relative the lord trea-
smer Burghley. Brown now left the kingdom, and with
permission of the States, settled at Middleburg in Zealand,
where he formed a church after his own plan, and preached
without molestation. In 1585 he returned to England;
and at last fixed his residence at Northampton, where, for
his indiscreet attempts to gain proselytes, he was cited by
the Bishop of Peterborough, and, refusing to appear, was
finally excommunicated for contempt. The solemnity of
this censure, we are told, immediately effected his reforma¬
tion. He moved for absolution, which he obtained, and
from that time became a dutiful member of the Church of
England. Ihis happened about the year 1590; and, in a
short time afterwards, Brown wTas preferred to a rectory in
Northamptonshire, where he kept a curate to his duty, and
where he might probably have died in peace; but having
some dispute with the constable of his parish, he proceeded
to blows, and was afterwards so insolent to the justice, that
he was committed to Northampton jail, where he died in
1630, aged eighty. Brown boasted on his death-bed that
he had been confined in thirty-two different prisons. He
wiote^ a Treatise of Reformation without tarrying for
any ;” and tw'o other pieces; making together a thin quarto,
published at Middleburg, 1582. See Brownists.
Brown, Thomas, of facetious memory, as he is styled by
Addison, was the son of a farmer at Shiffnal in Shropshire,
and was entered of Christ-church College, Oxford, whence
lie soon was obliged to abscond on account of the irregu¬
larities of his life. He afterwards went to London, where
he had recourse to the usual refuge of half-starved wits,
scribbling for bread. He published a great variety of poems,5
letters, dialogues, &c., full of humour and erudition, but
coarse and indelicate. Though a good-natured man, he had
one pernicious quality, which was—rather to lose his friend
than his joke.
I owax-ds the end of his life, as we are informed by Jacob
Brown was invited by the Earl of Dorset to a Christmas
dinner along with Dryden and several other wits; on which
occasion, to his agreeable surprise, he found a L.50 bank¬
note under his plate, and Dryden at the same time received
one of L.100. Brown died in 1704, and was interred in the
cloister of Westminster Abbey. His works were published
in 1 707, in 4 vols. 12mo.
Brown, Thomas, an eminent metaphysician, was born
at Kirkmabreck, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, on the
9th of January 1778, and was the youngest son of the Rev.
Samuel Brown, minister of the parish of Kirkmabreck, and
of Mary Smith, daughter of John Smith, Esq. of WEton.
His father survived his birth only a short time, and he re¬
ceived the first rudiments of his education from his mother.
In the first lesson he learned all the letters of the alphabet,"
and every succeeding step was equally remarkable. From
his seventh till his fourteenth year he was placed, under the
protection of a maternal uncle, at different schools in the
neighbourhood of London, at all of which he distinguished
himself, and made great progress in classical literature.
Lpon the death of his uncle in 1792, he returned to his
mother’s house in Edinburgh, and entered as a student in
the university.
His attention was first directed to metaphysical subjects
by the elegant and benevolent biographer of Burns, Dr
Currie of Liverpool, to whom he was introduced in the
summer of 1793. About that time the first volume of Mr
otewart’s Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind
was published. Dr Currie put a copy of the work into his
hands, and was struck not more with the warmth of admi-
B R 0
ration which the young philosopher expressed, than with the
acuteness he displayed in many of his remarks. The next
winter he attended Mr Stewart’s class; and at the close of
one of the lectures of that celebrated philosopher, he went
up, though personally unknown, and modestly submitted
some difficulties which had occurred to him respecting one
of Mr Stewart’s theories. Mr Stewart listened to him pa¬
tiently, and, with a candour which did him infinite honour,
informed him that he had just received a communication
from the distinguished M. Prevost of Geneva, containing a
similar objection. This proved the commencement of a
friendship which Dr Brown continued to eniov till the time
of his death.
It has already been mentioned in one of the preliminary
dissertations to this work (p. 411, vol. i.), that at the age of
nineteen he took a part with others (some of whom became
the most memorable men of their time), in the foundation
of a private society in Edinburgh under the name of the
Academy of Physics. This society is interesting in the his¬
tory of letters, as having given rise to the publication of the
Edinburgh Review. Some articles in the early numbers of
that work were written by Dr Brown, and bear the marks
of his genius.
In 1/98 he published Observations on the Zoonomia of
Dr Darwin. When it is considered that the greater part
of this work was written in his eighteenth year, it may per¬
haps be regarded as the most remarkable of his produc¬
tions ; and it may be doubted if, in the history- of philoso¬
phy, there is to be found any work exhibiting an equal pre¬
maturity of talents and attainments. Those who take an
interest in tracing the progress of intellect will find in it the
germ of all his subsequent views in regard to mind, and of
those principles of philosophizing by which he was guided
in his future inquiries.
In 1803, after attending the usual course pursued by me¬
dical students, he took his degree of doctor of medicine.
In the same year he brought out the first edition of his
poems, in two volumes. The greater number of the pieces
contained in them were written while he was at college.
They are of a very miscellaneous description, and are cer¬
tainly inferior to many of his subsequent compositions; at
the same time they all exhibit marks of an original mind,
and of a singularly refined taste.
His next publication was an examination of the princi¬
ples of Mr Hume respecting causation. Though this tract
was occasioned by a local controversy, it is entirely of an
abstract nature, and all reference to the circumstances that
led to the publication is studiously avoided. Its great merits
have been universally acknowledged. It was alluded to
in the most flattering manner in the Edinburgh Review,
in a very able article by Mr Horner; Mr Stewart also gave
a valuable testimony as to its excellence; and Sir James
Mackintosh has pronounced it the finest model in mental
philosophy since Berkeley and Hume. A second edition,
considerably enlarged, was published in 1806; and in 1818
it appeared in a third edition, with so many additions and
alterations, as to constitute it almost a new work, under
the title of An Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and
Effect.
From the time when Dr Brown had taken his degree, he
continued for several years to practise as a physician in
Edinburgh. In 1806 he w-as associated in partnership with
the late Dr Gregory; and there was every prospect of his
attaining in due time the highest eminence in his profes¬
sion. But success as a physician w^as not sufficient to sa¬
tisfy his ambition. The discharge of his professional duties
was marked by that assiduous tenderness of attention which
might have been expected from a disposition so truly ami¬
able , but still philosophy was his passion, from which he
felt it as a misfortune that his duty should so much estrange
him.
683
Brown.
684 B R O
Brown. The period, however, at last arrived when he was to be
^ elevated to a situation suited to his tastes and habits, and
where his public duties corresponded with his inclinations.
Mr Stewart, in consequence of the gradual decline of his
health, being frequently prevented from attending to the
duties of his class, found it necessary to have recourse to the
assistance of some of his friends during his temporary ab¬
sence. He therefore applied to Dr Brown, who undertook
the arduous task of supplying his place with lectures of his
own composition. He first appeared in the moral philoso¬
phy class in the w inter of 1808-9. At this time, however,
there was no great call for his exertions, as Mr Stewart was
soon able to resume his professional duties. In the follow¬
ing winter he again presented himself as Mr Stewart’s sub¬
stitute, and by a succession of eloquent lectures during se¬
veral weeks, he so decidedly established his character, that
when Mr Stewart signified a desire to have Dr Brown united
with him in the professorship, but little opposition was made,
and in 1810 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy
in conjunction with Mr Stewart.
Immediately after his appointment he retired to the
country, where he remained till within a few weeks of the
meeting of the college ; judging that, with a constitution
not naturally strong, nothing was so important for his ap¬
proaching labours as a confirmed state of health and spirits.
For many years he had devoted his attention to the science
of mind, and was intimately acquainted with the subject;
and, from the experience of the two preceding winters, he
had acquired sufficient confidence in his own powers to be
assured that he could prepare his lectures upon the spur of
the occasion. Accordingly, when the college opened, ex¬
cept the lectures that were written during Mr Stewart’s
absence, he had no other preparation in writing. His exer¬
tions during the whole of the winter were very great, and
completely successful. The expectations that had been
excited among his friends were more than realized, and he
secured the highest place in the respect and affections of
his students.
For some years after his appointment to the moral phi¬
losophy chair, Dr Brown had little leisure for engaging in any
literary undertaking. Even the long summer vacation he
found to be no more than sufficient for restoring his energies
for the exertions of the succeeding season. By degrees,
however, he became familiarized with the duties of his situ¬
ation, and was enabled to indulge occasionally in other pui’-
suits. In the summer of 1814 he brought to a conclu¬
sion his Paradise of Coquettes which he published anony¬
mously, and which met with a favourable reception. In
succeeding seasons he published various other poetical
works.
Any notice of the life of Dr Brown would be incomplete
if it did not contain a reference to his mother, whom he
loved with a tenderness and reverence of affection that
formed a distinguishing feature of his character. This ex¬
cellent woman died in 1817. Her character is faithfully
delineated in the beautiful lines addressed to her memory,
prefixed to one of his poetical productions.
In the autumn of 1819, at a favourite retreat in the
neighbourhood of Dunkeld, he commenced his text-book,
a work which he long intended to prepare for the benefit
of his students. At that time he was in excellent health;
but towards the end of December of the same year he be¬
came indisposed, and after the recess he was in such a state
of weakness as to be unable for some time to resume his
official duties. M hen he again met his class, his lecture un¬
fortunately happened to be one which he was never able to
deliver without being much moved, and from the manner
in which he recited the very affecting lines from Beattie’s
Hermit, it was conceived by many that the emotion he dis¬
played arose from a foreboding of his own approaching dis¬
solution.
B R O
’Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more,— Brown.
I mourn, hut, ye woodlands, I mourn not for you, ^ —
For morn is approaching your charms to restore,
Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew ;
Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn,
Kind Nature the embryo blossom shall save;
But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn,
0 when will it dawn on the night of the grave ?
This was the last lecture he ever delivered.
From this period his health rapidly declined. Having
upon a former occasion derived great benefit from a sea
voyage, he proceeded, by the advice of his medical atten¬
dants, to London, accompanied by his two sisters, with the
intention of removing, as soon as the season allowed, to a
milder climate. But all means of remedy were now too
late, and nothing could permanently retard the progress of
his disease. Day after day he became weaker.
During the whole period of his illness he was never heard
to utter a complaint. Gentle as he ever was, sickness and
pain made him still more so. His only anxiety seemed to
be the distress which his sufferings occasioned to those
around him. A few days after his arrival in London he
went to Brompton, where he died on the 2d of April 1820.
His remains were put into a leaden coffin, and laid, accord¬
ing to his own request, in the churchyard of his native
parish, beside those of his father and mother.
Dr Brown was in height rather above the middle size.
The expression of his countenance was that of calm reflec¬
tion. His likeness is well preserved in a picture by Wat¬
son in 1806. Among the more prominent features of Dr
Brown’s character may be enumerated the most perfect
gentleness, and kindness, and delicacy of mind, united with
great independence of spirit, a truly British love of liberty,
and a most ardent desire for the diffusion of knowledge,
and virtue, and happiness among mankind. All his habits
were simple, temperate, studious, and domestic; and he was
remarkable for nothing more than his love of home, and the
happiness he shed around him there.
As a philosopher he was possessed in an eminent degree
of that comprehensive energy which, according to his own
description, “ sees, through a long train of thought, a distant
conclusion, and separating at every stage the essential from
the accessory circumstances, and gathering and combining
analogies as it proceeds, arrives at length at a system of
harmonious truth.” The predominating quality of his intel¬
lectual character was unquestionably the power of analysis,
in which he had few equals. In all his prose Dr Brown has
shown great powers of eloquence. His poetry has never
been popular, though it contains many passages of exqui¬
site beauty. As a writer, simplicity is the quality in which
he is most deficient, and subtilty that in which he most
excels.
His character as a philosopher will chiefly rest upon his
lectures, which were published after his death. It would
be foreign to the object of the present sketch to give an ac¬
count of the principles of his philosophy, or to enter upon
a discussion of any of the questions that have been agitated
upon the subject. We shall merely observe that the esti¬
mation in which his lectures are held by the public appears
from the number of editions which, under all the disadvan¬
tages of a posthumous publication, have been called for;
and his virtues as a man are almost universally allowed to
have been in beautiful accordance with his talents as a
philosopher.
An account of the life and writings of Dr Brown was
published in 1825, in 8vo, by the Rev. Dr Welsh.
Brown, Ulysses Maximilian, a celebrated general in the
imperial armies, son of Ulysses, Baron Brown and Camus,
colonel of cuirassiers in the emperor’s service, was descended
of an ancient Irish family, and was born at Basle in 1705.
After studying at Limerick in Ireland, he was sent for into
Hungary by his uncle, Count George Brown, who was a
B R O
B R 0
635
Brown.
colonel of infantry. He was present at the battle of Bel¬
grade in 1717 ; and he afterwards continued his studies in
the Clementine College at Rome till 1721, when he went to
Prague to study the civil law. At the end of 1723 he be¬
came captain in his uncle’s regiment, and in 1725 lieutenant-
colonel. In 1730 he served in Corsica, and contributed
greatly to the taking of Callansara. In 1732 the emperor
made him chamberlain. He was raised to the rank of co¬
lonel in 1734, and distinguished himself greatly in Italy,
especially at the battles of Parma and Guastalla, and in burn¬
ing in the presence of the French army the bridge which the
Marshal de Noailles had thrown over the Adige. He was
made general in 1736 ; and in the following year, by an ex¬
cellent manoeuvre, he secured the retreat of the army, after
the unhappy battle of Banjaluca, and saved the baggage.
In 1739 the emperor Charles VI. made him field-marshal-
lieutenant, and counsellor in the aulic council of war. After
the death of that prince, when the king of Prussia entered
Silesia, Count Brown with a small body of troops disputed
his progress inch by inch. He signalized himself on seve¬
ral occasions ; and in 1743 the queen of Hungary made him
a privy-counsellor at her coronation in Bohemia. Having
passed into Bavaria, where he commanded the vanguard of
the Austrian army, he seized Deckendorf, with a great quan¬
tity of baggage; and obliged the French to abandon the
banks of the Danube, which the Austrians passed in secu¬
rity. In the same year, 1743, he was sent by the queen of
Hungary to Worms, as plenipotentiary to the king of Britain,
and did his utmost to bring about the treaty of alliance be¬
tween the courts of Vienna, London, and Turin. In 1744
he followed Prince Lobkowitz into Italy; took Veletri on
the 4th of August, in spite of the superior numbers of the
enemy; entered their camp, overthrew several regiments,
and took many prisoners. The following year he was re¬
called into Bavaria, where he took the town of Wilshosen
by assault. The same year he was made general of artillery ;
and in January 1746 he marched for Italy at the head of
18,000 men, drove the Spaniards out of the Milanese; and
having joined the forces under Prince de Lichtenstein, he
commanded the left wing of the Austrian army at the battle
of Placentia, June 15, 1746, and defeated the right wing of
the enemy’s forces commanded by Marshal de Maillebois.
As commander-in-chief of the army against the Genoese,
he seized the pass of Bocchetta, though defended by above
four thousand men, and took Genoa. Count Brown at
length joined the king of Sardinia’s troops, and, in conjuc-
tion with them, took Mont-Alban and the county of Nice.
On the 30th of November he passed the Var in spite of the
French troops, entered Provence, and had taken the isles of
St Margaret and St Honorat, when the revolution which
happened in Genoa, and the advance of Marshal Belleisle
obliged him to execute that masterly retreat which has eli¬
cited so much admiration. He employed the remainder of
1747 in defending the states of the house of Austria in Italy ;
and after the peace in 1748 he was sent to Nice, to regu¬
late there, in conjunction with the Duke of Belleisle and the
Marquis de la Minas, the differences that had arisen with
respect to the execution of some of the articles of the de¬
finitive treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
The empress queen, to reward his services, made him go¬
vernor of Transylvania, where he was generally esteemed
for his probity and disinterestedness. In 1752 he obtained
the government of Prague, with the chief command of the
troops in that kingdom ; in 1753 the king of Poland, elector
of Saxony, honoured him with the collar of the order of the
White Eagle; and the next year he was declared field-
marshal.
When the king of Prussia, in 1756 entered Saxony, and
attacked Bohemia, Count Brown encountered and repulsed
him at the battle of Lowositz, October 1, with only 27,000
men, while the Prussians numbered at least 40,000. Seven
days after this battle he undertook the famous march into Brown.
Saxony, to deliver the Saxon troops shut up between Pirna
and Konigstein. He at length obliged the Prussians to re¬
tire from Bohemia, for which service he was made a knight
of the Golden Fleece. Soon afterwards Count Brown
hastily assembled an army in Bohemia to oppose the king of
Prussia ; and on the 6th of May was fought the famous bat¬
tle of Prague, in which, while employed in giving his orders
for maintaining the advantages he had gained, he received a
deadly wound. To be disabled at such a crisis was doubly
unfortunate, as he had broken the Prussians, and the Count
Schwerin, one of their greatest generals, was slain. Count
Brown was carried to Prague, where he died of his wounds
June 26, 1757, aged fifty-two.
Brown, William, an English poet, descended of a good
family, and born at Tavistock in Devonshire, in 1590. Hav¬
ing passed through the grammar-school of his native place,
he was sent to Exeter College, Oxford, and became tutor
to Robert Dormer, afterwards Earl of Caernarvon. On
leaving college, he was taken into the family of William Earl
of Pembroke ; and he improved his fortune so much that he
purchased an estate. His poetical works which procured
him a very great reputation, are entitled Britannia's Pas¬
torals ; The Shepherd's Pipe; An Elegy on the death of
Prince Henry, eldest son of James I. The date of his
death is uncertain. (Wood’s Athen. Oxon.)
Brown, William Laurence, born at Utrecht, January 7,
1755, was the son of the Rev. William Brown, minister ot
the English church in that city. The father, having been
appointed professor of ecclesiastical history at St Andrews,
returned to Scotland in 1757 ; and his son was in due time
sent to the grammar-school of that city. At the early age
of twelve he became a student in the university, and obtained
a greater number of prizes than fell to the share of any other
competitor. After completing the preliminary curriculum,
he became a student of divinity ; and in 1774 he removed
to the university of Utrecht, where he combined with the
study of theology that of the civil law ; and from this study
he frequently declared that he had derived essential benefit.
In 1777, on the death of his uncle, Dr Robert Brown,
who had succeeded as minister of the English church at
Utrecht, the magistrates of that city offered the vacant
charge to his young relation, an invitation which he finally
accepted. He was licensed and ordained by the presbytery
of St Andrews, and admitted minister of the English church
at Utrecht in March 1778. His congregation, though re¬
spectable, was far from being numerous, seldom exceeding
forty persons ; yet his preparation for the pulpit was not less
assiduous than at Aberdeen, where he had to address a
larger audience. He increased his income by receiving pu¬
pils into his house ; and he gradually extended his acquaint¬
ance among individuals distinguished by their talents and
learning, as well as by their station and influence ; while
he enlarged his sphere of observation by various excursions
in France, Germany, and Switzerland.
The curators of the Stolpian Legacy at Leyden hav¬
ing in 1783 proposed “ The Origin of Evil,” as the subject ot
their annual prize, Mr Brown obtained the second honour,
namely, that of publication at the expense of the trust. His
dissertation was accordingly printed, under the title of His-
putatio de Fabrica Mundi, in quo Mala insunt, Natures
Dei perfectissimce haud repugnante. In 1784 the univer¬
sity of St Andrews created him D.D. On three different
occasions he obtained the medals awarded by the Teylerian
Society at Haarlem for the best compositions on certain
prescribed subjects. These were, a dissertation On the Im¬
mortality of the Soul, which was never printed ; An Essay
on the Folly of Scepticism, &c., Lond. 1788, 8vo ; An
Essay on the natural Equality of Men, Edinb. 1793, 8vo.
The latter work was the most successful of all his publications.
Before this period he had been appointed to a professor-
•S
686 B R O
Browne, ship in the university of Utrecht. He had for some time
been placed in a position of some difficulty, in consequence
of the civil commotions, and his attachment to the Orange
party. But when the armed interposition of the Prussians
occasioned a sudden change in the government of Holland,
and the friends of Dr Brown had regained their ascendency,
the states and the magistrates of Utrecht jointly instituted a
professorship of moral philosophy and ecclesiastical history,
and appointed him to this new office.
On entering upon his duties, he pronounced an inaugural
oration, which was published under the title of Oratio de
Religionis et Philosophies Societate et Concordia maxime
salutari. Traj. ad Rhen. 1788, 4to. Two years after¬
wards he was nominated rector of the university ; and on
resigning his temporary dignity, he pronounced an Oratio
de Imaginations, in Vitce Institutions, rsgunda. Traj. ad
Rhen. 1790, 4to. During this interval he had been offered
the Greek professorship at St Andrews ; but this honour
lie was induced to decline. To his other offices was now
added the professorship of the law of nature ; a branch of
study intimately connected with ethics, and which, indeed,
was at one period regularly discussed by the professors of
moral philosophy in the Scottish universities, particularly by
Dr Hutcheson, and his predecessor Mr Carmichael, as an
essential part of their course.
The war which followed the French revolution finally
drove Dr Brown from the place of his nativity. In the
course of a very severe winter, he embarked in January
1795, with his wife, five children, and some other relations,
in an open boat, and landed in England after a stormy pas¬
sage. In London he experienced such a reception as was
due to his literary talents and moral worth : and in 1795
the magistrates of Aberdeen appointed him to the chair of
divinity on the retirement of Dr Campbell, and soon after¬
wards he was made principal of Marischal College.
Dr Brown soon became a very conspicuous member of
the church, and some of his appearances in the General As¬
sembly produced a powerful effect. His speech on the case
of Dr Arnot was printed under the title of “ Substance of a
Speech delivered in the General Assembly of the Church
of Scotland, on Wednesday the 28th of May 1800, on the
Question respecting the Settlement, at Kingsbarns, of the
Rev. Dr Robert Arnot, Professor of Divinity in St Mary’s
College, St Andrews.” Edinb. 1800, 8vo.
His essay “ On the Existence of a Supreme Creator” ob¬
tained Burnet’s first prize, amounting to L.1250. The se¬
cond prize, amounting to L.400, was awarded to Dr Sumner,
afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Brown’s work was
published at Aberdeen, 1816,2 vols. 8vo. His last consider¬
able work was “ A comparative View of Christianity, and of
the other Forms of Religion which have existed, and still
exist, in the World, particularly with regard to their Moral
Tendency.” Edinb. 1826, 2 vols. 8vo.
In the year 1800 Dr Brown had been appointed chaplain
in ordinary to the king, and in 1804 dean of the chapel
royal, and of the most ancient and most noble order of the
Thistle. He was last of all appointed to read the Gordon
lecture in Marischal College, and he delivered his inaugural
discourse in November 1825. This was published in 1826,
8vo. His other publications were, a poem entitled “ An
Essay on Sensibility Sermons, Edinb. 1803, 8vo ; “ Phile¬
mon, a Poem,” Edinb. 1809, 2 vols. 8vo ; several detached
sermons, and various tracts. He died on the 11th of May
1830, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
BROWNE, Edward, eldest son of Sir Thomas Browne,
was physician to Charles II. and president of the Royal Col¬
lege of Physicians of London. He was born in 1644; and
studied at Cambridge, and afterwards at Merton College,
Oxford. He published a brief account of his travels in
Hungary, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, Austria,
Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Friuli; and likewise an ac-
B R 0
count of several journeys through a great part of Germany. Browne.
He also contributed some translations to an edition of Plu-
tarch’s Lives. He was acquainted with Hebrew, was a good
Greek scholar, and no man of his age wrote better Latin.
High Dutch, Italian, French, and other modern languages,
were as familiar to him as his mother tongue. Charles II.
said of him, “ that he was as learned as any of the college,
and as well bred as any at court.” He died in 1708.
Browne, Isaac Haivkins, an ingenious English poet,
born in 1705 at Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, of which
place his father was minister. He received his grammatical
instruction first at Lichfield, and then at Westminster;
whence, at sixteen years of age, he was removed to Trinity
College, Cambridge, of which his father had been fellow'.
After taking his master’s degree, he removed to Lincoln’s
Inn, where he applied closely to the study of the law. Not
long after the commencement of his professional studies,
he wrote a poem on Design and Beauty, which he addressed
to his friend Highmore the painter. Here also he wrote
his most popular poem, entitled The Pipe of Tobacco, in
which he has given imitations of Cibber, Ambrose Philips,
Thomson, Young, Pope, and Swift, who were then all living.
In 1744 he married the daughter of Dr Trimnell, arch¬
deacon of Leicester. He was elected in 1744 and again in
1748 to serve in parliament for the borough of Wenlockin
Shropshire, near which place he possessed a considerable
estate, left to him by his maternal grandfather. In 1754
he published his poem De Animi Immortalitate, in which,
besides a judicious choice of matter and arrangement, he is
thought to have shown himself a happy imitator of Lucre¬
tius and Virgil. The universal popularity of this poem pro¬
duced several English translations of it; the best of which
is given by Soame Jenyns, in his Miscellanies. The author
intended to have added a third book, but of this he had left
only a fragment. This amiable and gifted writer died, after
a lingering illness, in 1760. In 1768 his son published an
elegant edition of his father’s poems, in large octavo.
Browne, James, LL.D., a learned and indefatigable
man of letters, and for many years sub-editor of the seventh
edition of the Encyclopcedia Dritannica, was born at Coupar-
Angus in 1793. He was educated at Edinburgh, and after¬
wards removed to St Andrews, where he studied for the
church. He wrote “ The History of Edinburgh” for Ew-
bank’s Picturesque Views of that city, 2 vols. 1823-25 ; in
1826, became a member of the faculty of advocates, and
obtained the degree of LL.D. from King’s College, Aber¬
deen ; and in this same year he published a “ Critical Ex¬
amination of Macculloch’s work on the Highlands and
Islands of Scotland.” In 1827 he published at Paris his
Aperpu sur les Hieroglyphes d’Egypte ; and in the follow¬
ing year there appeared his “ Vindication of the Scottish Bar
from the attacks of Mr Brougham.” He was now appointed
editor of the Caledonian Mercury ; and two years later he
became sub-editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, to which
he contributed a large number of valuable articles. He also
published in 1838 a “ History of the Highlands and High¬
land Clans,” 4 vols. 8vo, of which various editions have since
appeared. His mental activity was remarkable, and fre¬
quently urged him to exertions beyond his strength. His
unremitting labours at last brought on a stroke of apoplexy,
which terminated his existence in 1841.
Browne, Sir Thomas, an eminent physician and cele¬
brated writer, descended of an ancient family in Cheshire,
was born at London, October 19, 1605. After studying
at Winchester School, and at Pembroke College, Oxford,
he travelled through Franee and Italy; and returning through
Holland, he took his degree of M.D. at Leyden. He began
to practise at Shipden-hall near Halifax; but removed in
1636 to Norwich, where he was extensively employed in
his profession. In the following year he was incorporated
as a doctor of medicine at Oxford; and in 1641 he mar-
B R 0
Browne. ried a lady of a good family in Norfolk. His famous work,
' entitled Religio Medici, first appeared in 1642. It was
translated into Latin, and immediately procured for the au¬
thor a European reputation. It was afterwards translated
into almost every language in Europe. This singular work
has been censured by some as inclining to infidelity, and
even to atheism ; while others, with better judgment, have
applauded its religious tendency, as well as the ability and
learning of the author. His well-known Treatise on Vul¬
gar Errors, entitled Pseudodoxia Epidemica, was first pub¬
lished in 1646, and was received with equal applause. He also
wrote a work called Hydriotaphia, or a Discourse of Sepul¬
chral Urns found in Norfolk, which appeared in 1658.
Browne’s reputation as a physician, also, was very high. In
1664 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Col¬
lege of Physicians ; and in 1671 he was knighted at Norwich
by Charles II. He died at Norwich, on the anniversary of
his birthday, in 1682, and left a considerable number of MSS.,
which were published under the title of “ The Posthumous
Works of the learned Sir Thomas Browne, Knt., M.D.”
Browne’s style has been characterized as vigorous but
rugged, learned but pedantic. “ It is not on the praises of
others,” Dr Johnson remarks, “ but on his own writings,
that he is to depend for the esteem of posterity, of which
he will not easily be deprived while learning shall have any
reverence among men; for there is no science in which he
does not discover some skill, and scarce any kind of know¬
ledge, sacred or profane, abstruse or elegant, which he does
not appear to have cultivated with success. His exuberance
of knowledge and plenitude of ideas sometimes obstruct the
tendency of his reasoning and the clearness of his decisions;
on whatever subject he employed his mind, there started
up immediately so many images before him, that he lost one
by grasping another. His memory supplied him with so
many illustrations, parallel or dependent notions, that he
was always starting into collateral considerations; but the
spirit and vigour of his pursuit always gives delight; and the
reader follows him without reluctance through his mazes,
in themselves flowery and pleasing, and ending at the point
originally in view.”
Browne’s entire works were published at London in 1836,
by Simon Wilkins, in 4 vols. 8vo.
Browne, Sir William, an eminent but very eccentric
physician and multifarious writer, born in Norfolk in 1692.
He settled originally at Lynn in Norfolk, where he pub¬
lished a translation of Dr Gregory’s Catoptricce et iHoptricce
Sphcericce Elementa; to which he added some papers on the
Foci of Specula, &c. Having acquired a competence by his
profession, he removed to Queen’s Square, London, where
he resided till his death. A great number of lively essays,
both in prose and verse, the production of his pen, were
printed and circulated among his friends. The active part
taken by Sir William in the contest with the licentiates,
1768, occasioned his being introduced by Foote in his Devil
upon Two Sticks. Upon Foote’s exact representation of
him, with his identical wig and coat, tall figure, and glass
stiffly applied to his eye, Brown sent him a card compli¬
menting him on having so happily represented him ; but as
he had forgotten his muff, he sent him his own. This good-
natured man used to frequent the annual ball at the ladies’
boarding-school, Queen Square, being fond of the company
of sprightly young people. A dignitary of the church, find¬
ing, on one of these occasions, this upright figure stationed
there, told him he believed he was Hermippus redivivus,
who lived anhelitu puellarum. He survived his wife ten
years, and died in 1774, at the age of eighty-two. By his
will, which was written in Greek, Latin, and English, he
made a provision for awarding three gold medals as yearly
prizes to three undergraduates of Cambridge, for the best
Greek and Latin poems, in imitation of Sappho, Horace,
and Martial. re > >
B K O 687
Browne, William George, an eminent traveller, born at Browne
Great-Tower-Hill, London, July 25, 1768, was the son of II
a wine-merchant, descended from a good family in Cumber- Jirownic-
land. His constitution being weak, he was educated pri-
vately under Dr Whalley, the editor of Ben Jonson’s works.
At seventeen he was sent to Oriel College, Oxford; and
he there went through an extensive course of classical read¬
ing. Having been left a moderate competence by his father,
on leaving the university he applied himself entirely to lite¬
rary pursuits. He embarked deeply in political questions,
embracing with ardour the popular cause. He republished
some political tracts, among which was part of Buchanan’s
De Jure Regni apud Scotos, and formed the plan of reprint¬
ing a regular series of such writings. But the fame of
Bruce’s travels, and of the first discoveries made by the
African Association, determined him to become an explorer
of Central Africa.
Accordingly, he left England at the close of 1791, and
arrived at Alexandi-ia in January 1792. He spent a few
months in visiting Siwah, the supposed site of the temple
of Jupiter Ammon; and employed the remainder of the
year in examining the whole of Egypt. In the spring of
1793 he visited Suez and Sinai, and in May set out for
Darfur. This was his most important journey, in which he
acquired a great variety of original information. He en¬
dured much hardship, and was unable to effect his purpose
of returning by Abyssinia. He did not reach Egypt till
1796; after which he spent a year in Syria, and did not ar¬
rive in London till September 1798. In 1800 he published
his travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792
to 1798, in one volume 4to. The work was highly esteemed,
and is classed by Major llennell among the first perform¬
ances of the kind; but, from the abruptness and dryness of
the style, it never became very popular. In 1800 Mr
Brown again left England, and spent three years in visiting
Greece, some parts of Asia Minor, and Sicily. He had
made some progress in preparing for the press an account
of this journey, but gave up his intention, for some reason
unknown, and spent some years in retirement, employed in
oriental studies. Tired, however, of this inactivity, in 1812
he set out on a more extensive journey, proposing to pene¬
trate to Samarcand, and survey the most interesting regions
of Central Asia. He spent the winter in Smyrna; and in
the spring of 1813 proceeded through Asia Minor and Ar¬
menia, made a short stay at Erzerum, and arrived on the
first of June at Tabriz, where he met Sir Gore Ouseley.
About the end of the summer of 1813 he left Tabriz for
Tehran, intending to proceed thence into Tartary ; but un¬
happily he never reached that destination. Near the banks
of the Kizil-Ozan his party were attacked by banditti, and,
according to the report of the survivors, Mr Browne was
plundered and murdered. Suspicion attached to his com¬
panions, and even to the Persian government, but nothing
occurred to confirm these surmises. Some bones, believed
to be his, were afterwards found and interred near the grave
of Thevenot, the celebrated French traveller.
Mr Browne was of a spare frame, rather above the middle
size, of a grave and pensive cast of countenance, with an
extraordinary predilection for the manners and character of
the orientals : like them he was in general society silent and
reserved; yet he possessed a friendly and generous disposi¬
tion, and was distinguished by a strict regard to veracity.
His volume of travels in Africa has already been men¬
tioned. Walpole, in the second volume of his "Memoirs re¬
lating to European and Asiatic Turkey (4to, 1820), has pub¬
lished, from papers left by him, the account of his journey
in 1802 through Asia Minor to Antioch and Cyprus; also
Remarks written at Constantinople. No account is pre¬
served of his last journey, except what is contained in a
letter to Mr Smithson Tennant.
BROWNIE, the name of a serviceable kind of sprite.
688
B R O
B R O
Brownists. who, according to a superstitious notion formerly prevalent
in the Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland (as well as among
the country people in England, where he had the name of
Robin Goodfellow), was wont to clean the houses, help to
churn, thresh the corn, and belabour all who pretended to
make a jest of him. He was represented as stout and bloom¬
ing, had fine long flowing hair, and went about with a wand
in his hand. He was the very counterpart of Milton’s Lub¬
ber Fiend.
BROWNISTS, a religious sect, which sprung out of that
of the Puritans towards the close of the sixteenth century.
Their leader, Robert Brown, who wrote divers books in
their behalf, was a man of good parts and some learning.
Brown, after suffering a series of persecutions from the
bishops, left the kingdom, carrying with him his congrega¬
tion, and settled at Middleburg in Zealand, where they ob¬
tained leave of the states to worship God in their own way,
and form a church according to their own model. This hand¬
ful of men, just delivered from the severities of the bishops,
soon began to differ among themselves, and crumble into so
many parties, that Brown their pastor grew weary of his
office ; and, returning to England in 1589, he renounced his
principles of separation, was preferred to the rectory of a
church in Northamptonshire, and died, after leading a very
idle and dissolute life, in 1630. See Brown, Robert.
The revolt of Brown was attended with the dissolution
of the church at Middleburg; but the seeds of Brownism
which he had sown in England were so far from being de¬
stroyed, that Sir Walter Raleigh, in a speech in 1592, com¬
puted the number of Brownists at no less than twenty thou¬
sand. The occasion of their separation was not any fault they
found with the faith, but only with the discipline and form
of government of the other churches in England. They
charged corrpption equally on the Episcopal form and on
that of the Presbyterians, by consistories, classes, and synods;
nor would they join with any other reformed church, be¬
cause they were not assured of the sanctity and regenera¬
tion of the members who composed it, on account of the
toleration of sinners, with whom they maintained it an im¬
piety to communicate. They condemned the solemn cele¬
bration of marriages in the church ; maintaining that matri¬
mony being a political contract, the confirmation of it ought
to come from the civil magistrate. They would not ad¬
minister baptism to the children of such as were not members
of the church, or of such as did not take sufficient care of their
children already baptized. They rejected all forms of prayer,
and held that the Lord’s prayer was not to be recited as a
prayer, being only given for a rule or model whereon all our
prayers are to be formed. The form of church government
which they established was democratical. When a church was
to be gathered, such as desired to be members of it made a
confession and signed a covenant, by which they obliged them¬
selves to walk together in the order of the gospel. The whole
power of admitting and excluding members, with the decision
of all controversies, was lodged in the brotherhood. The church
officers were chosen from among themselves, for preaching
the word and taking care of the poor, and were separated
to their several offices by fasting, prayer, and imposition of
hands of some of the brethren. But they did not erect the
priesthood into a distinct order. As the vote of the brother¬
hood made a man a minister, and gave him authority to
preach the word and administer the sacraments among them,
so the same power could discharge him from his office, and
reduce him to the condition of a mere layman again. And
as they maintained that the bounds of a church were defined
by the number of those who could meet together in one
place, and join in one communion, so the power of these
officers was confined within the same limits. The minister
or pastor of one church could not administer the Lord’s
supper to another, nor baptize the children of any but those
of his own society. Any lay brother was allowed the liberty
of prophesying, or of giving a word of exhortation to the Brownrigg
people ; and it was usual for some of them, after sermon, to II
ask questions, and reason upon the doctrines which had been ^ 1 uc^- ^
preached. In a word, every church on the Brownists’ mo- ^
del is a body corporate, having full power to do everything
which the good of the society requires, without being ac¬
countable to any presbytery, synod, assembly, convocation,
or other jurisdiction whatever. Most of their discipline has
been adopted by the Independents, a party which after¬
wards arose from among the Brownists. The laws against
the Brownists were executed with great severity ; their books
were prohibited by Queen Elizabeth, they were themselves
often imprisoned, and many of them were hanged. The
ecclesiastical commission and the star-chamber, in fine, dis¬
tressed them to such a degree that they resolved to quit their
country. Accordingly, many families retired and settled at
Amsterdam, where they formed a church, and chose Mr
Johnson for their pastor, and after him Mr Ainsworth, au¬
thor of the learned commentary on the Pentateuch. - Their
church flourished during nearly a hundred years.
BROWNRIGG, William, a celebrated physician, born
in Cumberland, March 24, 1711. He studied medicine at
London, and afterwards at Leyden, where he graduated as
M.D. in 1737. This university was then in its highest
splendour; Albinus taught anatomy, Euler mathematics,
and the chair of medicine and chemistry was occupied by
the accomplished Boerhaave. After a long and happy resi¬
dence at Leyden, he returned to his native country, married,
and settled in Whitehaven. He published his inaugural
dissertation DePraxi medicd ineundd, 4to, Lugd. Bat. 1737;
and a treatise on the Art of making Common Salt, printed
at London in 1748, in 8vo, which procured for him the ad¬
dition of F.R.S.; also An Enquiry concerning the Mineral
Elastic Spirit contained in the Water of Spa in Germany,
which obtained the Copley gold medal; and, lastly, a trea¬
tise On the Means of Preventing the Communication of
Pestilential Contagion, 1771. A few years before his death
he retired to his seat at Ormethwaite, near Keswick, where
he died, Jan. 6, 1800, at the age of eighty-eight.
BRUAR, Falls of. See Blair-Atholl.
BRUCE, James, F.R.S. This enterprising and en¬
lightened traveller was a descendant, by the female side, of
the royal house of Bruce, and was born at the family seat,
Kinnaird House, Stirlingshire, on the 14th Dec. 1730.
He received the elements of his education at Harrow,
where he made considerable progress in his classical studies.
Returning to Scotland, he applied to the study of law;
but having no relish for this pursuit, he determined to
push his fortune in the East Indies, and for that purpose
went to London. While in the metropolis, soliciting per¬
mission from the directors of the East India Company to
go out and settle under their auspices as a free trader, he
was introduced to a Miss Allan, whom he married in the
beginning of the following year. He now abandoned his
East India speculations, and devoted himself to commerce
as a wine-merchant. His wife having fallen into a bad state
of health, Bruce, in hopes that the genial climate of the
south of France would benefit her, proceeded thither. But
she died on the journey, within a year after her marriage.
Bruce returned to his business in London, but the bond
which had connected him with it was now broken; and
giving up the principal management of the concern to his
partner, he applied himself to studies calculated to dispel
the grief which had settled on his mind. For two years he
laboured at the Spanish and Portuguese languages, which
he learned to pronounce with great accuracy. He also as¬
siduously practised several styles of drawing. His business
having afforded him an opportunity of visiting the Conti¬
nent, he proceeded thither, and travelled first through Por¬
tugal and afterwards through Spain. In the latter country,
the traces of oriental manners still visible, the desolate pa-
BRUCE.
Bruce, laces of the caliphs, and the tales of chivalry interwoven
 ' with the Moorish wars, awakened in his mind that spirit of
romantic enterprise which afterwards led him to the foun¬
tains ot the Nile. At Madrid he proposed to explore the
collections of Arabic manuscripts which were buried in the
monastery of St Lawrence, and in the library of the Escu-
i ial. Disappointed in this expectation by the jealousy of
the Spaniards, he proceeded to trance, and afterwards to
Holland; but on receiving the news of his father’s death,
he returned to England.
By the demise of his father he succeeded to an inheri¬
tance which, though respectable, was inadequate to the
wants of his growing ambition. From the period of his re¬
turn in 1/58 to the year 1761, he intently employed him-
selt in the acquisition of the eastern languages. A circum¬
stance had occurred which introduced him to Mr Pitt.
While at Ferrol in Galicia, there was a rumour of a war be¬
tween Great Britain and Spain. It immediately occurred
to the fertile mind of Bruce that a descent upon Spain at
this point could scarcely fail of being successful. He boldly
resolved to submit his project to Mr Pitt, through his friend
Mr Wood, under-secretary of state, to whom he fully ex¬
plained the circumstances on which he had formed his opi¬
nion. Mr Bruce was sent for, and, after a conversation upon
the subject, at Mr Pitts suggestion he drew up a memoran¬
dum of his project. He was then informed by Mr Wood
that Mr Pitt intended to employ him upon a particular ser¬
vice; that he might, however, go down and settle his affairs
in his own country, but by all means to be ready when called
upon. No time was lost on his part; but just after he re¬
ceived orders to return to London, that minister resigned.
Notwithstanding this disappointment, which he very
sensibly felt, his hopes promised to be yet realized. The
memorandum which he drew up for Mr Pitt had been laid
before the king, and strongly recommended by Lord Hali¬
fax. The Earl of Egremont and Mr Greville had several
meetings with Mr Bruce upon the subject; but the death
of Egremont put an end to his expectations for the pre¬
sent. Lord Halifax, however, had appreciated Bruce’s
character. He proposed to him a journey to the coast of
Barbary, which had as yet been but partially explored by
Dr Shaw. The discovery of the source of the Nile also
formed a subject of conversation ; and it is unnecessary to
state that the enterprising mind of Bruce eagerly caucht
up the idea. J 8
At this very time the consulship of Algiers became
vacant, and Mr Bruce was pressed by Lord Halifax to ac¬
cept it, as it presented a very favourable opportunity for
making the proposed expedition.
This event determined him. After providing a laro-e ap¬
paratus of instruments, he set out for Italy through France.
On his arrival at Rome he was ordered to proceed to Naples'
there to await His Majesty’s commands. From Naples he
again returned to Rome, and from thence proceeded to
Leghorn, where he at last embarked for Algiers, and ar¬
rived there on the 15th of March 1762.
After a year spent at Algiers, constant conversation
with the natives while abroad, and with my manuscripts
within doors, had qualified me to appear in any part of the
Continent without the help of an interpreter. Ludolf had
assured his readers that the knowledge of any oriental lan¬
guage would soon enable them to acquire the Ethiopic;
and I needed only the same number of books to have made
my knowledge of that language go hand in hand with my
attainments in the Arabic. My immediate project of set¬
ting out on my journey to the inland parts of Africa had
made me double my diligence ; night and day there was no
relaxation from these studies, although the acquiring any
single language had never been with me either an object of
time or difficulty.”
At Algiers Mr Bruce was detained longer than he
VOL. v.
pected, in consequence of a dispute w ith the dey concern¬
ing Mediterranean passes. This being adjusted, he pro¬
ceeded to Mahon, and from Mahon to Carthage. He next
visited Tunis and Tripoli, and travelled over the interior
parts of these states. At Bengazi, a small town on the
Mediterranean, he suffered shipwreck, lost all his baggage,
and with extreme difficulty saved his life. He afterwards
sailed to the isles of Rhodes and Cyprus; and proceeding
to Asia Minor, travelled through a considerable part of Syria
and Palestine, visiting Hassia, Latakia, Aleppo, and Tripoli,
near which last city he was again in imminent danger ot
perishing in a river. The ruins of Palmyra and Baalbec
were next carefully surveyed and sketched by him. His
drawings of these places were deposited in the royal library
at Kew: “ the most magnificent present in that line,” to
use his own words, “ ever made by a subject to his sove¬
reign.” Bruce published no particular account of these
various journeys ; but Dr Murray, in the second edition,
introduced from Bruce’s MSS. some account of his travels
in Tunis.
In these various travels some years were passed; and
Bruce now prepared for the grand expedition, the accom¬
plishment of which had ever been nearest his heart,—the
discovery of the supposed sources of the Nile. In the pro¬
secution of that dangerous object he left Sidon on the 15th
ot June 1768, and arrived at Alexandria on the 20th of that
month. He proceeded from thence to Cairo, where he re¬
mained till the 12th of December following, when he em¬
barked on the Nile, and sailed up the river as far as Syene,
visiting in the course of the voyage the ruins of Thebes.
Leaving Kenne on the Nile on the 16th February 1769,
he crossed the desert of the Thebaid to Cosseir on the Red
Sea, and arrived at Jidda on the 3d of May. In Arabia
Felix he remained (not without making several excursions)
till the 3d of September, when he sailed from Loheia, and
arrived on the 19th at Masuah, where he was detained near
two months by the treachery and avarice of the nayib of
that place. It was not till the 15th of November that he
was allowed to quit Arkeeko, near Masuah ; and he arrived
on the 15th of February 1770 at Gondar, the capital of
Abyssinia, where he ingratiated himself with the most con¬
siderable persons of both sexes belonging to the court.
Several months were employed in attendance on the king,
and in an unsuccessful expedition round the lake of Dem-
bea. Towards the end of October he set out for the
sources of the Bahr el Azrek, which he supposed to be
the principal branch of the Nile, though it is now generally
agreed that this rank ought to be assigned to the Bahr el
Abiad. At this long-desired spot he arrived on the 14th
of November ; and his feelings on the accomplishment of
his wishes cannot be better expressed than in his own
words:
“ It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of
my mind at that moment, standing in that spot which had
baffled the genius, industry, and inquiry of ancients and
moderns for the course of near three thousand years. Kings
had attempted this discovery at the head of armies ; and
each expedition was distinguished from the last only by the
difference of the numbers which had perished, and agreed
alone in the disappointment which had uniformly and with¬
out exception followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour
had been held out for a series of ages to every individual
of those myriads whom princes commanded, without havino-
produced one man capable of gratifying the curiosity of his
sovereign, or wiping off this stain upon the enterprise and
abilities of mankind, or adding this desideratum for the en¬
couragement of geography. Though a mere private Briton,
I triumphed here in my own mind over kings and their
armies; and every comparison was leading nearer and
nearer to the presumption, when the place itself where I
stood, the object of my vain-glory, suggested what de*
4 s
689
Bruce.
ex-
BRUCE.
690
Bruce, pressed my short-lived triumphs. I was but a few minutes
arrived at the source of the Nile, through numberless dan¬
gers and sufferings, the least of which would have over¬
whelmed me, but for the continual goodness and protection
of Providence ; I was, however, but then half through my
journey, and all those dangers which I had already passed
awaited me again on my return. I found a despondency
gaining ground fast upon me, and blasting the crown of
laurels I had too rashly woven for myself.
“ I was, at that very moment, in possession of what had
for many years been the principal object of my ambition
and wishes; indifference, which, from the usual infirmity
of human nature, follows, at least for a time, complete en¬
joyment, had taken place of it. The march and the foun¬
tains, upon comparison with the rise of many of our rivers,
became now a trifling object in my sight. I remembered
that magnificent scene in my own native country, where
the Tweed, Clyde, and Annan rise in one hill; three rivers,
I now thought, not inferior to the Nile in beauty, prefer¬
able to it in the cultivation of those countries through
which they flow; superior, vastly superior, to it in the vir¬
tues and qualities of the inhabitants, and in the beauty of
the flocks, crowding its pastures in peace, without fear of
violence from man or beast. I had seen the rise of the
Rhine and Rhone, and the more magnificent sources of
the Saone ; I began, in my sorrow, to treat the inquiry
about the source of the Nile as a violent effort of a distem¬
pered fancy. Grief and despondency now rolling upon me
like a torrent, relaxed, not refreshed, by unquiet and im¬
perfect sleep, I started from my bed in the utmost agony.
I went to the door of my tent. Every thing was still; the
Nile, at whose head I stood, was not capable either to
promote or to interrupt my slumbers ; but the coolness
and serenity of the night braced my nerves, and chased
away those phantoms that while in bed had oppressed and
tormented me.”
The object of his wishes being now gratified, Bruce
bent his steps towards his native land. He arrived at Gon-
dar on the 19th November 1770, but found that it was by
no means an easy task to obtain permission to quit Abys¬
sinia. A civil war in the mean time breaking out, several
engagements took place between the king’s forces and the
troops of the rebels, particularly three actions at a place
called Serbraxos, on the 19th, 20th, and 23d of May 1771.
In each of these Mr Bruce acted a considerable part; and
for his valiant conduct in the second, received, as a reward
from the king, a chain of gold. At Gondar, after these en¬
gagements, he again preferred the most earnest entreaties to
be allowed to return home ; and it was only when his health
at last gave way, that the king consented to his departure,
but on condition of his engaging to return in the event of
his recovery, with as many of his kindred as he could per¬
suade to accompany him.
After a residence of nearly two years in that wretched
country, Bruce left Gondar on the 16th of December 1771,
taking the dangerous way of the desert of Nubia, in¬
stead of the more easy road of Masuah, by which he entered
Abyssinia. He was induced to take this route, from his
former experience of the cruel and savage temper of the
nayib of Masuah. Arriving at Teawa on the 21st March
1772, he had the misfortune to And the sheikh Fidele at
Atbara the counterpart of the nayib of Masuah. By his
intrepidity and prudence, however, he obtained permission
to depart next day, and he arrived at Sennaar on the 29th
of the same month.
Mr Bruce was detained upwards of four months at that
miserable and inhospitable place. This delay was occa¬
sioned by the villany of those who had undertaken to supply
him with money; but at last, by disposing of nearly the
whole of his gold chain, the well-earned trophy of Ser¬
braxos, he wras enabled to proceed on his journey.
He left Sennaar on the 5th of September, and arrived on Br
the 3d of October at Chendi, which he quitted on the 20th,
and travelled through the desert of Gooz, reaching the vil¬
lage of that name on the 26th of October. On the 9th of
November he left Gooz, and entered upon the most dread¬
ful and dangerous part of his journey. All his camels
having perished, he was under the necessity of abandon¬
ing his baggage in the desert, and with the greatest diffi¬
culty reached Assouan upon the Nile on the 29th of No¬
vember. After some days’ rest, having procured fresh
camels, he returned into the desert, and recovered his bag¬
gage, among which was a quadrant of three feet radius,
supplied by Louis XV. from the military academy at Mar¬
seilles.
On the 10th of January 1773, after more than four years’
absence, he arrived at Cairo, where, by his manly and
generous behaviour, he so won the heart of Mahomet Bey,
that he obtained a firman permitting the commanders of
English vessels belonging to Bombay and Bengal to bring
their ships and merchandise to Suez, a place far preferable
in all respects to Jidda, to which they were formerly con¬
fined. Such Avas the conclusion of his laborious and me¬
morable journey through the desert.
At Cairo Mr Bruce’s earthly career had nearly been con¬
cluded by a disorder in his leg, occasioned by a worm in
the flesh. This accident kept him five weeks in extreme
agony, and long continued to affect his health. On his re¬
turn to Europe he was received with all the admiration due
to his enterprising character. After passing a considerable
time in France, particularly at Montbard, with his friend
the Comte de Buffbn, he at last revisited his native country
after an absence of more than twelve years.
The publication of his travels was delayed by several cir¬
cumstances, among which may be mentioned the death of
his second wife, his own impaired health, and a series of
law-suits which resulted from his long absence from his na¬
tive country. His long expected work accordingly did not
appear till 1790, seventeen years after his return to Europe.
It consisted of five large quarto volumes, embellished with
plates and charts. It is unnecessary to enter into any ci’i-
ticism or analysis of this celebrated work. The very sin¬
gular and extraordinary picture which it gives of Abyssi¬
nian manners startled the belief of some. He stated one
fact in particular which shipwrecked his reputation ; and the
world of literature, from Johnson down to the author of Mun¬
chausen, ridiculed the statement as unworthy of credit. It
vras, that the Abyssinians were in the practice of eating raw
slices cut out of a living cow. This, though believed in
France and other Continental countries, was treated in Eng¬
land as a fable. The shafts of ridicule, envy, and malice,
were levelled at his devoted head ; and all that he received
at the hands of his contemporaries was obloquy and con¬
tempt. Posterity, however, has done him justice. Every
succeeding traveller who has visited the country bears tes¬
timony to his veracity; and his most startling statements
have since been fully verified. See Abyssinia. There
are indeed a few errors in dates and other circumstances,
but they are of trifling importance, and in no degree de¬
tract from the general authenticity of his narrative,
i The first impression was quickly disposed of, and a second
edition was preparing for the press, when death removed
the author from this transitory stage. The cause of his
death was an accident. While attending some visitors down
stairs, his foot slipped, and he fell headlong. He remained
in a state of insensibility for eight or nine hours, when he
expired on the 27th of April 1794, in the sixty-fifth year
of his age. He married, for his second wife, Mary, eldest
daughter of Thomas Dundas of Fingask, who predeceased
her husband by ten years. By this marriage Mr Bruce had
two sons and one daughter.
The second edition of his travels was published in 1805,
B E U
Bruce, in seven vols. 8vo, with a quarto volume of plates, edited by
Dr Alexander Murray, who obtained access to all his papers,
and illustrated the work with a learning and research which
established his fame as an oriental scholar. A third edition
appeared in 1813.
There never, perhaps, existed a man better qualified than
Bruce for the hazardous enterprise he undertook. His
height exceeded six feet, and his size as well as his physical
strength was proportionally great. He excelled in all per¬
sonal accomplishments, being a practised and indefatigable
swimmer, trained to exercise and fatigue of every kind,
while his long residence among the Arabs had given him a
more than ordinary facility in managing the horse. In the
use of fire-arms he was almost unerring in his aim, and his
dexterity in handling the spear and lance on horseback was
very great. He was master of many languages, understood
Greek perfectly, and was so well skilled in oriental litera¬
ture that he revised the New Testament in Ethiopic, Sa¬
maritan, Hebrew, and Syriac, making many useful notes
and remarks on difficult passages. He had applied from
early youth to mathematics, drawing, and astronomy, and
had acquired some knowledge of physic and surgery. His
memory was astonishingly retentive, and his judgment sound
and vigorous. He was dexterous in negotiation, a master
of public business, animated with the warmest zeal for the
glory of his king and country, a physician in the camp or
city, a soldier and horseman in the field ; whilst, at the same
time, his breast was a stranger to fear, though he took every
precaution to avoid danger. Such, at least, is his own re¬
presentation of his character ; and though an impartial judge
would probably make some abatement for the natural bias
of a man drawing his own portrait, yet it cannot be denied
that in personal accomplishments Bruce equalled any of his
contemporaries; that he was distinguished for vigour of un¬
derstanding, as well as great literary attainments ; and that
in active and persevering intrepidity he has never been ex¬
celled.
Bruce, Michael, the son of a weaver in a hamlet three
miles south of Kinross, was born in 1746. He was destined
by his family for the office of pastor in a dissenting chapel,
for which purpose his parents sent him to Edinburgh in
1762. His health was never robust; and about 1765, his
biographer, Dr Anderson, mentions that he began to exhi¬
bit that grave melancholy which tinges the beautiful produc¬
tions of the muse of this amiable young man. In the autumn
of 1766 consumption had evidently begun to mark him for
its victim. He lingered through the winter, and perished
in the succeeding spring, at the early age of twenty years.
His poems were collected and published after his death by
Logan, a kindred poetic spirit, for the benefit of Bruce’s
family. They were immediately brought into notice by the
elegant and feeling criticism on them by Lord Craig, in the
36th number of The Mirror. Many of them breathe a fine
spirit of love for the simple beauties of nature, and a deep
pathos; as for example the fine elegiac stanzas on his own
approaching dissolution, beginning,
Now spring returns, but not to me returns
The vernal joys my better years have known;
the poem entitled Lochleven; and the lines To the Cuckoo.
Bruce, Robert, king of Scotland, was born in the year
1274, and was grandson of that Robert Bruce, lord of
Annandale, who was competitor for the crown with John
Baliol. In his earlier life he was attached to the inter¬
est of Edward I. of England; yet his conduct was cau¬
tiously neutral, and he was therefore narrowly watched by
that politic monarch. In the year 1299 he was associated
with John Comyn, as one of the regents of Scotland; but,
from the powerful rivalship that existed between them, the
coalition did not last long. We find him shortly after¬
wards in favour with Edward. At this time he entered into
a secret league with Comyn and the bishop of St Andrews
B It U 691
to establish his claim to the throne. Comyn, however, re- Bruce
vealed it to Edward; and Bruce having his suspicion ex- II
cited, fled to Scotland, collected his friends and followers, ^rucker-y
and proceeded to Scone, where he was solemnly crowned
on the 27th of March 1306. He proceeded to expel the
English from the kingdom ; but was surprised at Methven,
near Perth, and completely routed. For two years after
this his life may be considered as a romance. He and his
band suffered the greatest hardships in sustaining life, and
in making bead against the numerous foes who on all sides
surrounded them. From 1308 to the establishment of his
kingdom by the battle which he gained at Bannockburn
on 24th June 1314, over the English commanded by Ed¬
ward II. in person, he and his generals were continually
engaged in warfare, making incursions into England, and
reducing the strongholds in Scotland which were still gar¬
risoned for the English interest. The consolidation of his
kingdom was not allowed to be made in peace; for from
the period of that celebrated battle he was constantly en¬
gaged in war with England, and with such success, that
Edward and his nobles were reduced to the necessity of
accepting terms of peace on the condition of renouncing all
their pretended superiority over Scotland, of recognising it
as a free and independent kingdom, and acknowledging
Bruce to be its king. He died at Cardross, on the 7th June
1329, at the age of fifty-five, and was buried at Dunferm¬
line. On his death-bed he expressed a wish that his heart
might be conveyed to the Holy Land, whither he had often
meditated a pilgrimage to atone for the murder of the Red
Comyn. The good Lord James of Douglas undertook to
fulfil the dying prayer of his king, but landing in Spain
to help the Christians against the Moors, he was slain in
battle. The heart of Bruce was brought back to Scotland
by the survivors, and buried before the high altar of Melrose
Abbey. See Scotland.
BRUCHSAL, a town in the grand duchy of Baden, cir¬
cle of the middle Rhine, on the Salzbach, 14 miles from
Carlsruhe. It was formerly the seat of the bishop of Spires,
whose magnificent palace is still extant; and it has a town-
house, gymnasium, hospital, barracks, and a considerable
trade in wine. Pop. 7800.
B RUCK, a circle in the Austrian province of Steyermark,
extending over 3696 square miles. It is situated in a moun¬
tainous district, with valleys between the ranges, of mode¬
rate fertility. Pop. (1851) 187,543. The chief place, of the
same name, at the junction of the river Mur with the Miirz,
contains about 2000 inhabitants, and has a considerable
transit trade.
BRUCKENAU, a town and fashionable watering-place
of Bavaria, in the circle of Lower Franconia, on the Sinn,
16 miles N.W. of Kissingen. Pop. 1800. The baths are
situated in the pleasant valley of the Sinn, two miles from the
town, and are annually frequented by the king of Bavaria.
BRUCKER, James, theologian, historian, philologer,
and biographer, was born at Augsburg on the 22d of Janu¬
ary 1696. His father, who was a respectable burgher, des¬
tined him for the church ; and his own inclinations accord¬
ing with his father’s wishes, he was sent, at the usual age,
to pursue his studies in the university of Jena. Here he
took the degree of master of arts in 1718 ; and in the fol¬
lowing year he published his Tentamen Introductionis in
Historiam doctrince de Ideis, in 4to; a work which he
afterwards amplified and completed, and republished under
the title of Historia Philosophica doctrvice de Ideis, at
Augsburg in 1723. He returned to his native city in 1720;
but here his merit having attracted envy rather than recom¬
pense, he was induced to accept of the office of parish mini¬
ster of Kaufbevern in 1723. In the same year he published
a memoir I)e Vita et Scriptis Cl. Etingeri, Augs. 8vo. His
reputation having been at length established by these learned
works, in 1731 he was elected a member of the Academy
B R U C K E R.
692
Brucker. of Sciences at Berlin ; and soon afterwards he was invited to
Augsburg to fill the honourable situation of pastor and senior
minister of the church of St Ulric. He published in the
• same year three dissertations relating to the history of philo¬
sophy, under the title of Otium Vindelicum, sive Meletema-
tum Historico-philosophicorum triga, Augsburg, 1731, 8vo.
Besides several smaller dissertations on biography and lite¬
rary history, printed at different times, and which he after¬
wards collected in his Miscellanea, he published at Ulm, in
1737, Neue Zusatze verschiedener Vermehrungen, &c., zu
den kurtzen Fragen aus der Philosophischen Historie, 7
vols. 12mo. This work, being a history of philosophy in
question and answer, contains many details, especially in the
department of literary history, which he has chosen to omit
in his greater work on the same subject. He was forced by
the booksellers, in opposition to his own opinion, to adopt
the erotematic method, which at that time had been ren¬
dered popular by the writings of Hubner and Rambach.
In 1741, at Leipzig, appeared the first volume of his great
work, Historia Critica Philosophice, a rmmdi incunabulis
ad nostram usque eetatem deducta. Four other ponderous
quartos, completing the first edition of this elaborate his¬
tory, followed in 1744. Such was the success of this publi¬
cation, that the first impression, consisting of four thousand
copies, was exhausted in twenty-three years, when a new
and more perfect edition, the consummation of the labours
of half a century devoted to the history of philosophy, was in
1767 given to the world in six volumes quarto. The sixth
volume, consisting entirely of supplement and corrections,
is applicable to the first as well as to the second edition.
Of the merits of this work we shall speak in the sequel.
His attention, however, was not wholly occupied by this
stupendous undertaking. The following books would of
themselves have been sufficient to exhaust the industry of
any ordinary author :—Pinacotheca Scriptorum nostra cetate
Uteris illustrium, &c., Augsburg, 1741-55, folio, in five de-
cads. Ehren Tempel der Deutschen Gelehrsamkeit in wel-
chem die Bildnisse gelehrter Manner unter den Deutschen
aus dern XV XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert aufgestel-
let, und Hire Geschichte, &c. entworfen sind, Augsburg,
1747-49, 4to, five decads. Institutiones Histories Philo-
sophicce, Leipzig, 1747, 8vo, a second edition, ibid. 1756;
and a third has been published since Brucker’s death, with
a continuation by Professor Born of Leipzig, in 1790. Mis¬
cellanea HistoricePhilosophiccBLiterarice Criticceolim spar-
sim edita nunc uno fasce collecta, Augsburg, 1748, 8vo.
Erste Anfangsgrunde der Philosophischen Geschichte, als
ein Auszug seiner grossern Werke, ziveyte Ausgabe, Ulm,
1751, 8vo. He likewise superintended and corrected an edi¬
tion of Luther’s translation of the Old and New Testament,
with a Commentary extracted from the writings of the Eng¬
lish theologians, Leipzig, 1758-70, folio, six parts. His
death ensued before the completion of this work, which has
since been accomplished by Teller. He died at Augsburg
in 1770 ; and he may be added to the catalogue of Huetius,
to prove that literary labour is not incompatible with sound
health and longevity. (See Saxii Onomasticon ; Bio¬
graphic Universelle ; Gesner’s Isagoge.)
It is only by his writings on the history of philosophy that
Brucker is now known in the literature of Europe. In this
study his great work forms an important era, and even at
the present day it is the most extensive and elaborate upon
the subject. It is, however, a work of which the defects
are great, and its errors have been important in their conse¬
quences, in proportion to the authority it has acquired. We
shall, therefore, hazard a few general observations on the
defects which chiefly detract from the perfection and utility
of the Critical History of Philosophy.
If Brucker had carried into this study a penetration equal
to his diligence, and had his general comprehension of the
scope and nature of the subject corresponded with the ela¬
borate minuteness of his details, he would have left us a Brucker.
work which might have had some pretensions to be con-
sidered as a rational history of human opinion. Lie lived,
however, at a period when these different qualities were only
beginning to be conjoined, and when as yet the history of
philosophy had been written merely as a chronicle of the
passing theories of individuals and sects. To give to the
science of history a regular and connected form, and to ar¬
range the narrative of successive events, and still more of
successive opinions, according to the relation they bear to
principles of established influence, was an attempt of which
few in that age had any conception, and of which Brucker
certainly had none. In civil history it was then believed
that the historian had fulfilled all the duties of his office it
he strung together the events which were known or believed
to have occurred, in good language, and garnished them oc¬
casionally by a few general reflections on the absolute mo¬
tives of human action. A very different notion is now held
of the functions of the historian. He who at present at¬
tempts to write the history of any country, must reflect, be¬
fore he begins, what were the chief occurrences in that his¬
tory, and what were the revolutions which the manners and
constitution of that particular nation have undergone. He
must bear with him, from the commencement to the con¬
clusion of his labours, a constant impression that every oc¬
currence should be more or less considered, not only as it
took place, and as it bore an influence on contemporary af¬
fairs, but as it may have remotely contributed to the events,
and the opinions, and the character of succeeding times.
But if this be true in regard to the histories of particular
nations, it is evident that, by how much the traces of opi¬
nions are more light and evanescent than those of events,—
by how much the speculations of philosophers whose writ¬
ings have either perished or come down to us mutilated and
obscure, are more difficult to be appreciated in their causes,
and connections, and consequences, than the actions of war¬
riors and statesmen,—by so much the more is it necessary
in philosophical than in civil history to combine reasoning
with erudition, and to substitute the researches of the philo¬
sopher for the details of the chronicler. History and philo¬
sophy are two different things ; and he who would write the
history of philosophy must excel in both. Bacon had long
ago required this union, and had pointed out the manner
in which the historian of literature should endeavour to es¬
tablish those principles of connection which constitute the
soul and charm of such a history; how, by detecting the
union of effects and causes, he might be enabled to deter¬
mine the circumstances favourable or adverse to the sciences;
and how, in short, by a species of enchantment, he might
evoke the literary genius of each different age. The ful¬
filment of this plan was, however, far beyond the capacity
of Brucker, and was an undertaking of which he had even
no conception. Better qualified by nature and education for
amassing than arranging materials, he devoted his principal
attention to a confused compilation of facts, leaving toothers
their application, the discovery of their mutual connections,
and the formation of the scattered fragments into a whole.
The merit of his great work consists entirely in the am¬
ple collection of materials. The reader who would extract
any rational view of the progress of opinion must peruse it
with a perpetual commentary of his own thoughts. He will
find no assistance from his author in forming any general
views, or in tracing the mutual dependencies of the differ¬
ent parts of the subject. Brucker has discovered the foun¬
tains of history, but he has made us drink of them without
purifying the draught. Even in this respect his merit has
been greatly overrated. Vast as is the body of materials
which he has collected, we are always missing those very
things which we might reasonably have expected would have
been the first objects of a rational inquirer, and we are con¬
tinually disappointed of the information we are most anxious
B R U
Brucker. to acquire. The idle and slavish attention which he has
bestowed on previous compilers, has frequently diverted him
from the study of the original authors themselves. Quoting
the passages of the ancients from others, or trusting per¬
haps to the reference of an index, he has frequently over¬
looked those very testimonies which could have given us
the most authentic knowledge of the opinions or characters
of ages and individuals. He has often presented the autho¬
rities he has adduced, mutilated or misapplied; and this
either from not having sufficiently studied these passages in
their general connection with the system they illustrate, or
from having been unable to withdraw them from the obscu¬
rity in which they were involved. He has shown no criti¬
cal sagacity in distinguishing the spurious from the authentic,
or in balancing the comparative weight of his authorities.
He has frequently transcribed where he ought to have ex¬
plained the words of the original authors ; and, without tak¬
ing into account the different value of the same term in dif¬
ferent nations and ages, he has left us to apply a doubtful
or erroneous meaning to words which might have been
easily rendered by other expressions, and to suppose a dis¬
tinction in the sense where there only existed a difference
in the language. The glaring errors, even, which occa¬
sionally occur in his expositions of the Grecian philosophy,
while they are inconsistent with any critical knowledge of
the tongue, would make us suspect that he was in the habit
of relying on the treacherous aid of translations. In short,
if we knew nothing more of the ancient philosophers than
what we acquire from Brucker, we should be often obliged
to attribute to them opinions so obscure, or so absurd, that
we must either believe ourselves wrong in the interpretation,
or be unable to comprehend the cause of all the admiration
and reverence they have received.
He has discovered little skill in his analysis of the differ¬
ent systems of philosophy ; and the confusion of what is es¬
sential and principal with what is accidental and subordi¬
nate clearly evinces that these abridgments were thrown to¬
gether while acquiring, in detail, a knowledge expressly for
the purpose, instead of being the consummation of a long
and familiar meditation on the subjects in all their modifica”
tions and dependencies. He has dwelt with the most irk¬
some minuteness on every unimportant and doubtful circum¬
stance in the lives of the philosophers ; but he has too often
overlooked the particular and general causes that produced
an influence on the destinies of their philosophy. The apho¬
ristic method which he has adopted prevents him from fol¬
lowing a consecutive argument throughout its various wind¬
ings. The most convincing reasoning in his hands loses
much of its demonstration and beauty ; and every ingenious
paradox comes forth from his alembic a mere caput mor-
tuum,—a residue from which every finer principle has been
expelled. Where the genius of the philosopher is discovered
more in the exposition and defence than in the original se¬
lection and intrinsic stability of his tenets, Brucker has not
found the art of doing justice both to the philosopher and
his opinions, or of conveying to the reader any conception
of the general value of the original. This last defect, it
must, however, be acknowledged, is more or less insepar¬
able from every abstract of opinions, where it is always ne¬
cessary to separate in some degree what is essential to the
subject from what is peculiar to the man. He has relieved
the sterility of his analysis by none of the elegancies of
which the subject was susceptible. Without any pretension
to purity, his diction is defective even in precision ; and his
sentences, at all times void of harmony and grace, are abrupt,
and often intricate in their structure.
The person, therefore, who would attempt to write a his¬
tory of philosophy without the imperfections of that of
Brucker, must draw from obscurity many important facts
hitherto omitted; he must arrange and combine these in a
more nersnicuous order; and, above all, he must review the
B R U 693
opinions he shall thus relate and methodize with a more ac- Brucker
curate criticism. He ought not to write of Peripatetics like II
a disciple of Aristotle, of Platonists like a pupil of Proclus, bruges-
nor of the doctrines of the Porch like a follower of Zeno.
Still less must he compare the tenets of one sect by the
principles of another; or endeavour to estimate doctrines,
dubious in themselves, by reference to a standard equally
arbitrary and contingent. He must place himself, to use the
language of Lucretius, upon the highest pinnacle of the
temple of science, from which he may look calmly back,
and compare and study the doctrines of all these departed
sages, without being himself involved in the partialities of
particular sects or opinions,—
Despicere unde queat alios, passimque videre
Errare, atqueviam palanteis quaerere veri.
He must honour the genius of all alike, and believe that aL
are deserving of commendation, although all are more or
less subject to error. He ought, in short, to be a philoso¬
pher superior even to the prejudices of philosophy.
If we take a survey of what has been attempted since the
death of Brucker in accomplishing a more perfect history of
philosophy, we shall find that more has been done in illus¬
trating the philosophical tenets of particular sects, or the
progress of particular portions of science, than in giving a
comprehensive view of the general history of thought. In
France, in Italy, and in our own country, those who have
laboured in this department, far from being able to correct
the errors of Brucker, have, in general, through defect of
erudition, been wholly indebted to his industry for their
materials, and have been content to rely on his accuracy
with more than Pythagorean faith. If we except some in¬
genious speculations, which are more of the nature of phi¬
losophical essays on the history of philosophy, and which
endeavour rather to illustrate the general spirit than to detail
the particular opinions of the philosophers, there is nothing
valuable on this subject to be found in the literature of these
countries. Among the learned of his own country Brucker
has never enjoyed a very distinguished reputation ; and the
Germans, while they were the most capable of discovering
his defects, have had the honour of most sedulously and
successfully endeavouring to supply them. We are in¬
debted to them especially for many valuable treatises on the
history of particular portions of philosophy, in which we find
at length a profound reasoning united to an extensive and
original erudition. The works of Meiners, Fulleborn, Tied-
mann, and perhaps Buhle, deserve especially to be distin¬
guished. An undertaking, however, which, from the extent
of its plan, as well as the ability of its execution, claims par¬
ticular notice, is the 1Iistovy of Philosophy, by Professor
Tenneman of Jena. This work, as far as it is completed,
affords us the most accurate, the most minute, and the most
rational view we yet possess of the different systems of
philosophy, in their intrinsic and relative bearings. The
author has not only given us a minute analysis of each sys¬
tem, the result of a profound and familiar study of the ori¬
ginal philosopher, but he has also displayed to us his philo¬
sophy, divested of its peculiarities, and compared with others
by a general and impartial review. The main defect of this
work, at least in reference to readers not German, is, that
like Buhle and the other disciples of Kant, he has taken the
critical philosophy as the vantage-ground from which to
make his survey of all former systems. Thus the continual
reference to the peculiar doctrines of the school of Kant
and the adoption of its language, render it frequently im¬
possible for those who have not studied the dark works of
this modern Heraclitus to understand the strictures of Ten¬
neman on the systems even of Aristotle or Plato. (\v. h—n )
BRUGFS (in Flemish Brugge), a city of Belgium, capi¬
tal of West Flanders, is situated in the midst of a fertile
plain, intersected by the canals of Ghent, Ostend, and
Sluys, in Lat. 51. 12. N. and Long. 3. 13. E. It is distant
694
B R U
B R U
Bruges, about 7 miles from the sea, 12 miles east of Ostend, 24
N.W. of Ghent, and 60 miles in the same direction from
Brussels. The history of Bruges dates from a very remote
period. In the seventh century of the Christian era it had
emerged into importance; and its corporation of weavers,
which in the best days of Bruges numbered 50,000 men,
were already highly renowned in the time of Charlemagne.
In the ninth century Bruges became subject to the counts
of Flanders, who resided there, and made this city one of
the most populous and wealthy in Europe by the great advan¬
tages and immunities which they offered to merchants and
manufacturers. The privileges which the inhabitants some¬
times received and sometimes exacted from their rulers, they
guarded with the most jealous care, and not unfrequently rose
in arms for their defence. Though Bruges, and Ghent, and
other Flemish towns, owned a common lord, their interests
were never identified, and they seldom let an opportunity
pass of doing each other as much injury as possible. The
ruinous consequences which this selfish policy entailed upon
some of these cities, are admirably unfolded in Henry
Taylor’s Drama of Philip van Artevelde. From the ninth
to the middle of the fourteenth century, Bruges was sub¬
ject to the counts of Flanders. At that latter date it passed
by marriage under the dominion of the dukes of Burgundy,
under whom it attained the culminating point of its pros¬
perity. The magnificence of the Flemish court during the
entire period of its prosperity was such that no European
monarch could equal or approach it. When the wife of
Philippe-le-Bel of France visited Bruges at the beginning
of the fourteenth century, so greatly was she impressed with
the display of wealth and splendour, that she exclaimed,
“ There are hundreds here who have more the air of queens
than myself.” To such an extent was this extravagance
ultimately carried, that Charles V. was obliged in the six¬
teenth century to repress it by severe sumptuary laws. In
1430, Philippe-le-Bon, Duke of Burgundy, instituted at
Bruges the chivalric order of the Golden Fleece, a compli¬
ment to the town, no small portion of whose prosperity arose
from its woollen trade. In the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, Bruges was the chief emporium of the cities of
the Hanseatic league. Merchants from every quarter of the
world found here a ready market for their goods. The rich
argosies of Venice and Genoa came laden with the valuable
produce of the East; ships of every nation took in and dis¬
charged their cargoes at the quays; the warehouses were
filled with bales of wool from England, and silk from Persia.
Not the least famous of the manufactures was that of tapes¬
try, in which the people of Bruges acquired great skill a
century before the looms of Beauvais or the Gobelins were
set xqi. The prosperity of Bruges was undiminished till it
passed under the dominion of the house of Hapsburg. For
a violation of some of their prerogatives, the inhabitants im¬
prisoned the Archduke Maximilian. A terrible vengeance
was inflicted upon the town for this outrage. Its trade was
transferred to Antwerp, and its ruin was ultimately completed
by the religious persecutions of the bloody Duke of Alva
at the end of the sixteenth century. Such of the inhabi¬
tants as escaped with their lives fled to England and intro¬
duced into that country many of the arts and manufactures
which they and their forefathers had cultivated for many
generations with such success. The contrast between the
Bruges of the fifteenth century and the Bruges of our own
day is as striking as it is painful. The present condition
of the town is such, as amply to justify the description of
Wordsworth:
“ In Bruges town is many a street
Whence busy life hath fled,
Where, without hurry, noiseless feet
The grass-grown pavement tread.”
The great circumference of the city, its numerous squares and
streets, and the number and magnificence of its public buildings, all
attest its former importance ; while its scanty population, the ab¬
sence of commercial life and enterprise, and the general air of de¬
solation in which everything is enveloped, bear witness to its pre¬
sent insignificance. Its trade has of late years, however, begun to
revive, and its great advantages in canal and railway communica¬
tion, its spacious docks and excellent quays, and the great fertility
of the surrounding country, may once more, perhaps, restore it to its
high place among cities. Of the public buildings of Bruges the
most remarkable are the Church of Notre Dame, containing a
sculpture of the Virgin and Child, said to be by Michael Angelo,
effigies in copper of Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy, who
are buried in the church; the cathedral of St Sauveur, built of
brick, but internally the handsomest church in Bruges, with some
fine pictures by Hemling and Peter Porbus; the hospital of St John,
a charitable institution, where sick persons are attended by the
sceurs de la charite; and the Hotel de Ville, a small but handsome
edifice, in the niches of which were statues of the old counts of
Flanders, destroyed by the French revolutionists in 1792. The
belfry-tower in the great square is the most beautiful structure of
the kind in Europe, and its chimes are the best in Belgium, where
indeed all the chimes are good. It is still used as a convenient
place from which the alarm can be communicated to all parts of
the city in the case of fire, which is done during the day by a flag and
at night by a lantern. In this same square is a house in which
Charles II. resided during his exile from England. There is a
convent of Beguins, and another of English Augustin nuns. The
town is likewise well provided with the means of education. There
is a medical school, to which is attached a museum of natural his¬
tory and a botanical garden. For the higher departments of school
training there is an excellent athenasum, annually subsidized by
government. The Academy of Painting is in a very flourishing
condition, and offers many advantages to the student, as instruction
is given gratis in drawing and architecture. The charitable insti¬
tutions of Bruges are both numerous and well organized. They
are all the more necessary, as the number of persons in the city
requiring support amounts to more than 5000. In the poor-house
alone there is accommodation for nearly 600 individuals, and it is
almost always completely filled. The most important manufacture
in Bruges is that of lace, in which nearly one-seventh of the popu¬
lation is engaged. It is now, however, beginning to decline. The
other manufactures consist of linens, woollen and cotton goods,
soap, leather, and tobacco. There are also some small breweries
and distilleries, and some dyeing and bleaching establishments. All
these are, however, comparatively unimportant. The exports from
Bruges comprise the products of the rich agricultural district that
surrounds the town ; the imports include metals, dyewoods, wines,
cotton, and wool. Despite the number of canals, the inhabitants
of Bruges are very ill supplied with water for domestic purposes;
every house is accordingly provided with a tank or butt to receive
the rain that falls. The water collected in the public tanks is dis¬
tributed through the city in pipes. Of the canals the largest is that
to Ostend, wide and deep enough to allow vessels of 500 tons to
pass up from the sea. The ramifications of these canals intersect
the city in all directions, and are crossed by upwards of fifty
bridges, whence the Flemish name of the town is derived. Pop.
in 1838, 44,374; in 1846, 49,308 ; in 1851, 50,698.
BRUIN, or Bruyn, John de, professor of natural philo¬
sophy and mathematics at Utrecht, was born at Gorcum in
1620. His skill in the dissection of animals was remarkable,
and he was a skilful experimenter. He also made obser¬
vations in astronomy. He published dissertations De vi
altrice ; De corporum gravitate et levitate ; De cognitione
Dei naturali; De lucis causa et origine, See. In a dis-
pute with Isaac Vossius, he wrote a letter, printed at Am¬
sterdam in 1693, in which he criticises Vossius’s book De
Natura et Proprietate Lucis, and strenuously maintains the
hypothesis of Descartes. He died in 1675, after he had
been professor twenty-three years; and his funeral oration
was pronounced by M. Grsevis.
BRULLIOT, Franz, an engraver, and the author of a
laborious work entitled Dictionnaire des Monogrammes,
fjh iffires, et Lettres Initiates des Graveurs, was born at
Dusseldorf in 1780. On being appointed assistant-keeper
of the royal collection of prints at Munich, he devoted him¬
self to this valuable work, which appeared at Munich in 1817
in one 4to volume. He died of cholera in 1836.
BRUMOY, Pierre, a learned Jesuit, born at Rouen in
1668, was early distinguished by his talents for the belles-
lettres. He was a man of estimable character, and beloved
Bruin
II
Brumoy
B R U
B R U
695
Brim for his integrity and goodness of heart. He wrote many
tl works; but his fame rests at present on his Thedtre des
Erum;\ Grecs, which is a prose translation of the Greek dramatists,
with an analysis of their merits, and dissertations on the
Greek stage. He died at Paris in 1742.
BRUN, Charles le. See Lebrun.
Brun, or Brunn, Malte-Conrad, a celebrated mo¬
dern geographer, was born at Thisted in Jutland, August
12, 1775. He was originally destined for the church, but
his inclination led him strongly to literature and politics.
When the French Revolution broke out, he advocated the
principles of it so boldly, that he attracted the attention of
the Danish government, and was obliged to retire to the
island of Huen, which had once been the x'esidence of Tycho
Brahe. After an exile of two years he was allowed to re¬
turn to Copenhagen, where he again signalized himself by
the violence of his hostility against the government. Deem¬
ing it unsafe to await the vengeance of the authorities, he
fled to Hamburg, where he learned that his works had been
condemned and himself formally expelled the kingdom.
From Hamburg he went to Paris, where he hoped that
his political views would gain the favour of the first con¬
sul. Disappointed in this expectation, he devoted himself
entirely to the study of geography and history. Along with
Mentelle, the most popular French geographer of the day,
he published the Geographic Maihematique, Physique, et
Politique, in 16 vols. 8vo, 1803-5. Of this work, on which
his fame partly rests, he contributed one-third. In 1806
he became joint editor of the Journal des Dehats, for
which he wrote many valuable papers, afterwards collected
and republished by Nachet. In 1810 he published the
first volume of his Precis de la Geographie Universelle, the
last and most valuable volume of which did not appear till
1825. The intensity of his application had, meanwhile, ex¬
ercised a most injurious influence on his health, which at
last rapidly gave way. He died of apoplexy, December 14,
1826. Besides the works already mentioned, he wrote many
others, poetical, scientific, and political.
BRUNCK, Richard Francois Philippe, an eminent
French scholar, was born at Strasburg, 20th December 1729.
He was educated at the Jesuits’ college at Paris, but hav¬
ing early entered the public service, he soon forgot his Latin
and Greek. At the age of thirty he returned to his na¬
tive town and resumed his studies, paying especial atten¬
tion to Greek. The nature of the office which he held put
considerable sums of money at his disposal, which he ex¬
pended in publishing editions of the Greek classics. The
first work which he edited was the Anthologia Grceca, in
which his innovations on the established mode startled
European scholars. For wherever it seemed to him that
an obscure or difficult passage might be made intelligible
and easy by a change of text, he did not scruple to make the
necessary alterations, whether the new reading were sup¬
ported by manuscript authority or not. With the assistance
of Schweighaeuser, then an unknown youth, he next brought
out editions of the Greek dramatists, characterized by the
same peculiarities as the Anthologia, and ultimately the
Gnomici Poetce Grceci. In 1781 he published an edition of
Virgil, for which he was pensioned by the French king. At
the outbreak of the French Revolution, in which he took an
active part, he lost his pension and was reduced to such ex¬
tremities that he was obliged to sell a portion of his library.
In 1802 his pension was restored to him, but too late to pre¬
vent the sale of the remainder of his books. He had brought
out an edition of Plautus in 1788, and was in the act of re¬
publishing it when he died, June 12, 1803.
BRUNDUSIUM, or Brundisium. See Brindisi.
BRUNEL, Sir Marc Isambart, was born in 1769, at
Haqueville, in Normandy. His family had for several cen¬
turies held a respectable station in the province, living as
farmers and small landowners on the estate on which he was
born, and numbering among its members Nicholas Poussin, Brunei,
of whom France is so justly proud. He was educated at
the seminary at Rouen, with the intention of his entering
holy orders; but his predilection for the physical sciences
was so strong, and his genius for mathematics and mechanics so
decided, that, on the advice of the Superior of the establish¬
ment, he was removed, to follow a more congenial career.
Llis father then destined him for the naval service, which he
entered on the appointment of the Mareschal de Castries,
the minister of marine, and made several voyages to the
West Indies. In this position, although only in his fifteenth
year, his mechanical talents developed themselves actively
on many occasions, and he surprised his captain by the pro¬
duction of a sextant of his manufacture, with which he took
his observations. On his return to France, in 1792, he
found the Revolution at its height, and, like all who enter¬
tained royalist principles, was compelled to seek safety in
emigration, which, with considerable difficulty, he accom¬
plished, and found refuge in the United States of America,
where, driven by necessity to the exercise of his talents as
a means of support, he followed the bent of his inclination
and became a civil engineer and architect. His first en¬
gagement was on the survey of a tract of land near Lake
Erie; he then became engaged in cutting canals, and was
employed to erect an arsenal and cannon foundry at New
York, where he applied several new and ingenious machines.
His highly ornamental design for the House of Assembly at
Washington was rejected, as being inconsistent with the
simplicity of a republic : he was, however, engaged to de¬
sign and superintend the construction of Bowery Theatre,
New York, since destroyed by fire; the roof of which was
peculiar and original.
The idea of substituting machinery for manual labour in
the making of ships’ blocks had long occupied his mind ; and,
in 1799, having matured his plans, finding the United States
unable to afford full occupation for his inventive genius, he
determined on visiting England. Earl St Vincent was at
that time at the head of the Admiralty, and after the usual
delays and difficulties, which were ultimately overcome,
chiefly through the powerful influence of his steady friend
and patron Earl Spencer, and aided by the recommendation
of Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham, who at once per¬
ceived and appreciated the merit of the machines and the
talent of the inventor, the system was adopted, and even¬
tually the beautiful and effective machinery was erected,
which has continued to the present time, without alteration,
to produce nearly all the blocks used in the royal navy. The
construction of these machines was intrusted to the late Mr
Henry Maudslay, whom with true discrimination he selected
for the purpose, and by whom he was ably assisted. The
beautiful simplicity of these machines, their perfect adaptation
to their various purposes, and, notwithstanding the recent ad¬
vances in mechanics, their continuing for nearly half a cen¬
tury in active work, without any improvements having ever
been suggested, must rank them as among the most com¬
plete and ingenious pieces of mechanism ever invented.
A description of these well-known machines would be su¬
perfluous here; but it should be remarked, that in them are
combined all the motions and functions since so universally
applied to machines for working metals, the introduction of
which into engine and machine factories has induced the
substitution of machinery for manual labour, and has tended
so essentially to secure for English machinery the deservedly
high reputation which it has acquired.
The block machinery was completed in 1806, and it was
estimated that the economy produced by it in the first year
was about L.24,000, two-thirds of which sum were awarded
to the ingenious inventor, who was soon after engaged by
the government to erect extensive saw-mills, on improved
principles, at Chatham and Woolwich; when he suggested
modifications of the systems of stacking and seasoning tim-
*
Jt
696
B R U
B R U
Brunei, ber, which, it is understood, are, after this lapse of years, to
be carried into effect. Some time previously, he invented
the ingenious little machine for winding cotton-thread into
balls, which, simple as it may at first sight appear, has ex¬
ercised great influence in the extension of the cotton trade.
He found time also to invent an instrument for combin¬
ing the use of several pens, for producing simultaneously a
number of copies of a manuscript; a simple and portable
copying machine ; a contrivance for making the small boxes
used by druggists, which had been previously imported in
large quantities from Holland: a nail-making machine also
occupied his attention; and he discovered the system of
giving the efflorescent appearance to tinfoil, by which it was
fitted for ornamental purposes.
Among other more important improvements, must be
mentioned that of cutting veneers by circular saws of large
diameter; and to that is mainly due the present extensive
application of veneers of wood to ornamental furniture.
A short time before the termination of the war, he de¬
vised the system of making shoes by machinery ; and, under
the countenance of the Duke of York, the shoes so manu¬
factured, in consequence of their strength, cheapness, and
durability, were introduced for the use of the army; but at
the peace in 1815, manual labour becoming cheaper, and
the demand for military equipments having ceased, the ma¬
chines were laid aside.
Steam navigation also attracted his attention, and he be¬
came deeply interested in establishing the Ramsgate steam
vessels, which were among the first that plied effectively on
the river Thames ; and on board of them it is believed that
the double engines were first used. About this period, after
much labour and perseverance, he induced the Admiralty
to permit the application of steam for towing vessels to sea,
the practicability of which he had strenuously urged. The
experiments were tried chiefly at his own expense, a small sum
in aid having been promised, but it was eventually with¬
drawn before the completion of the trials ; the Admiralty
considering the attempt “ too chimerical to be seriously en¬
tertained.”
He introduced various improvements in the steam-engine,
and for nearly ten years persevered in the attempt to use
liquefied gases as the source of motive power, in which he
was ably assisted by his son. The necessary experiments
were most laborious, and needed all the persevering energy
and resources of a mind determined not to be foiled: in
spite, however, of his efforts, after a great sacrifice of time
and money the plan was abandoned.
He furnished designs, also, for some suspension bridges,
which, being for peculiar localities, exposed to the violence
of hurricanes in the Isle of Bourbon, exhibited, as usual,
some original features.
Ihe whole power of his mind, however, was soon to be
concentrated on one great object,—the construction of the
tunnel for traversing from shore to shore beneath the bed
of the river Thames. It is said that the original idea oc-
cui red to him, as applied to the Neva at St Petersburg, in
order to avoid the inconvenience arising from the floating
ice ; a plan which he offered to the emperor Alexander, on
the occasion of his visit to this country in 1814.
Undismayed by the previous signal failures in the at¬
tempt to tunnel beneath the Thames, Brunei, confident in
his own powers, persevered in his efforts, and in 1824, under
t le auspices of F. M. the Duke of Wellington, who always
enteitained a favourable view of the practicability of the
scheme, a company was formed for its execution ; and after
numerous accidents, and suspensions of the works, accounts
of which were frequently laid by Sir Isambart before the
Institution of Civil Engineers, and are recorded in the
Minutes of Proceedings,1 this great and novel undertaking Brunei
was successfully accomplished, and opened to the public in leschi
the year 1843. ||
In the prosecution of this work he received great assis- , ^runn-
tance from his son, Mr I. K. Brunei, V. P., and in a scien-
tihc point of view, the construction of the tunnel will be re¬
garded as displaying, at the same time, the highest profes¬
sional ability, an amount of energy and skill rarely exceeded,
and a fertility of invention and resources, under what were
deemed insurmountable difficulties, which will secure to the
memory of Sir Isambart Brunei a high position among the
engineers of this country.
He received the order of the Legion d’Honneur in 1829,
and the honour of knighthood in 1841. He was a corre¬
sponding member of the French Institute, and a fellow of the
Royal Society, and joined the Institution of Civil Engineers
as a member in the year 1823, constantly attending all the
meetings, giving accounts of the progress of his works,
bringing forward subjects, taking part in the discussions,
serving on the council for some years, and aiding in the ad¬
vancement of the society by every means in his power.
He was unaffected and simple in his habits, and possessed
indomitable courage, perseverance and industry ; whilst his
general benevolence of disposition constantly prompted
him to the kindest acts, as it did to the forgiveness of in¬
jury or slight offered to him. His labours had so seriously
impaired his health, that for some years after the comple¬
tion of the tunnel he was unable to mix in active life, and
he expired on the 12th of December 1849, in his 81st year,
after a long illness, as much regretted as he had been loved
and respected by all who knew him.
BRUNELLESCHI, Filippo, the restorer of ancient
architecture in Italy, was the son of a notary of Florence,
where he was born in 1377. He early adopted architec¬
ture as a profession, and went to Rome with Donatello to
pursue his studies. The splendid edifices with which he
adorned his native town gained him much fame throughout
Italy; and the pope for the time being, Eugene IV., sent
for him to the court to draw up designs and assist him
with his advice on professional matters. He was the origi¬
nal architect of the Pitti Palace, and of the still more mag¬
nificent palaces of the Strozzi and Riccardi on the opposite
bank of the Arno. He died in 1444.
BRUNI, Leonardo, author of the History of Florence,
was an eminent scholar of the fifteenth century. He was
born at Arezzo in 1369, and is generally known as L. Are-
tino. He was secretary to the papal chancery under Inno¬
cent VII. and John XXII. His history of Florence comes
down to 1404. Bruni died at Florence in 1447, and was
buried at the expense of the state in Sta. Croce, where his
laurelled statue is still to be seen.
BRUNN, a circle in the Austrian province of Moravia,
extending over 4437 square miles, and having in 1851 an
estimated population of 874,528. The northern part of the
circle is a portion of the Moravian mountain range, which
abounds in mineral wealth. Between the mountains the land
is highly productive in corn and cattle. It is the chief manu¬
facturing district of the imperial dominions, and produces
good woollen, linen, and cotton goods of all descriptions.
Brunn, the capital of the above circle, as well as of the
province of Moravia, stands between and on the declivities
of two hills at the confluence of the Schwarza and the
Zwittawa, 69 miles north of Vienna, and 115 miles W.S.W.
of Prague, with both of which it is connected by railway.
Lat. 49. 11. 28. N. Long. 16. 36. 35. E. It is surrounded
by walls and trenches, and possesses numerous fine build¬
ings ; but the streets are narrow and crooked, though well
paved. The citadel of Spielberg, standing on the hill of the
UTlnfv'r'iraLTpp-’ffl’.SIo0'15-' ^ 32 J *• <>**> »• *»• «• ““ 46 > *• <1839> P- 44 > ™>- 4 (1840)
• B R U
Bruno same name west of the town, has been used, since its fortifi-
II , cations were destroyed by the French, as a state prison, and
Brunswick. ]-,ere gi]vi0 Pellico was confined for eight years. Among
the public buildings are the cathedral, the fine Gothic
church of St James, built in 1215, with a tower 276
feet high, the barracks, city-hall, theatre, bishop’s palace,
governor’s house, park, and public gardens. Brunn is the
seat ot the chief legal and military courts of the province,
of a bishop, and a Protestant consistory ; and has a philoso¬
phical institution, theological seminary, gymnasium, several
academies, schools, and learned societies, museum, botanic
garden, agricultural society, infirmary, orphan and lunatic
asylums, deaf-mute institution, &c. Its manufactures of
woollen goods are the most extensive in the Austrian do¬
minions. It has also considerable manufactures of silk and
cotton goods, leather, tobacco, &c., and is the centre of a
large ti'ade. Pop. 42,000, exclusive of the military, who
may amount to 3000.
BRUNO, the founder of the Carthusian order of monks
was born at Cologne about the year 1030. He was edu¬
cated at Cologne, and afterwards at Rheims, where he be¬
came so distinguished by his learning and piety, that he was
appointed to superintend the studies in all the chief schools
of the diocese. Among his pupils, many afterwards became
distinguished, and in the number was Pope Urban II. In
1084, after some disputes with Manasses, the archbishop of
Rheims, he retired into the desert of Chartreuse, where,
with six companions, he built an oratory, with cells at a
little distance from each other. After a residence of six
years in this spot, he went to Rome, where his old pupil
Urban II., pressed him to accept the archbishopric of Reg¬
gio. He declined this honour, and withdrew into the soli¬
tudes of Calabria, where he remained with his disciples till
his death in 1101. He wrote treatises on the Psalms and
some of the Epistles of St Paul, but none of these works
have descended to our times.
Bruno, Giordano, was born at Nola, in the kingdom
of Naples. About the year 1582 he began to call in ques¬
tion some of the tenets of the Romish church, which occa¬
sioned his retiring to Geneva ; but after residing there for
two years, his open aversion for Calvinism occasioned his
expulsion from that city. Having staid some time at
Lyons, Toulouse, and Paris, he came to London, and con¬
tinued two years in the house of M. Castelnau, the French
ambassador. He was well received by Queen Elizabeth and
the court, numbering among his friends Sir Philip Sydney
and Sir Fulk Greville. With these and some others Bruno
had frequent meetings ; but as they treated of subjects of a
very delicate nature, which could not suit the taste or capa¬
city of everybody, none but select persons were admitted.
Bruno’s Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante was printed in
8vo, 1584, and dedicated to Sir Philip Sydney. From
England he went to Wittemberg, and thence to Prague,
where he printed several tracts, in which he openly avowed
atheistical principles. After visiting some other towns in
Germany, he made a tour to Venice, where he was appre¬
hended by order of the inquisition, sent to Rome, tried, and
condemned; and having refused to retract, he was burnt
at the stake, Feb. 1600.
BRUNSWICK, Duchy op (German Braunschweig),
a state of Northern Germany, consisting of three larger
and several smaller portions of territory, lying principally
between Lat. 51. 38. and 52. 28. N., and Long. 9. 20. and
11. 30. E. The principal part containing the cities of
Brunswick, Wolfenbiittel, Helmstedt, &c., is situated be¬
tween Hanover and Prussia, to the S.E. of the former. Its
surface is diversified with hills and plains, with occasional
patches of forest. That part containing Holzminden, Gan-
dersheim, &c., extends eastward from the Weser to Goslar,
and is intersected by branches of the Hartz mountains.
I hat containing Blankenburg, &c., lies to the S.E. of the
YOU v.
B R U 697
two former, between Prussia, Anhalt, and Hanover, and is Brunswick,
traversed by the Hartz mountain range. Of the smaller
portions, some are in Hanover and others in Prussia.
Brunswick has an area of 1524 English square miles, and
is divided into 6 circles, comprehending 12 cities, 16 mar¬
ket-towns, and 440 villages. The population, according to
government returns, was in 1834, 253,232, and in 1846,
269,228; and according to the Almanack de Gotha, was
in December 1852, 270,825. Of these about 265,000 are
Protestants, the rest being chiefly Roman Catholics and
Jews.
Extent in
Circles. square
miles.
Brunswick  224
Wolfenbuttel ... 230
Helmstedt   305
Holzminden  316
Gandersheim.... 276
Blankenburg.... 173
1524 253,232 269,228 270,825
Brunswick has also mediatized possessions in Prussian
Silesia, viz., the principality of Oels, with the lordship of
Medzibor, the territory of Plomnitz in the government
of Breslau, and the lordship of Gutentag in the govern¬
ment of Oppeln. The climate resembles that of the neigh¬
bouring territories of Hanover, and in the higher parts is
rigorous. A portion of the Hartz chain is common to it
with Hanover, and hence called the Communion Hartz.
The highest point of the Hartz mountains in Brunswick is
the Wormberg, 3230 feet in height. The principal rivers by
which it is watered are the Ocker, Weser, Aller, and Leine.
The lower parts are generally fertile and well cultivated;
but the higher are mostly covered with extensive forests of
fir, oak, and beech. The following is the proportion per
cent, of the various kinds of surface in the duchy, viz.,
arable, 32'66 ; garden, 1*88 ; meadow, 4*52 ; pasture, 22*82;
water, 0*25; wood, 31*82 ; towns, villages, and roads, 6*05.
Agricultural and pastoral pursuits constitute the principal
employment of the inhabitants. In 1848 the duchy, with
the exception of the towns of Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel,
contained 24,676 horses, 68,641 cattle, 365,291 sheep,
47,737 swine, 17,975 goats, and 72,978 geese. The prin¬
cipal products of the country are grain, flax, hops, tobacco,
and fruits. Mining is extensively carried on in the Hartz
mountains, the products of which are very valuable, con¬
sisting of copper, lead, iron, gold, silver, sulphur, coal, salt,
and alum. The manufactures, which are very inconsider¬
able, consist chiefly of linen and woollen goods, leather,
beer, paper, and tobacco. An active trade, however, is car¬
ried on by means of the railways connecting it with Hanover,
Magdeburg, and Neustadt.
The government is an hereditary monarchy, with a
legislative chamber consisting of 48 members, of whom 10
are chosen from the nobility, 12 from the towns, 10 from
the rural districts, and 16 from the general population.
They hold office for six years, one-half going out trienni-
ally. The educational institutions are an ecclesiastical
seminary, a higher humanity and a mercantile institution,
an anatomical and surgical college, 5 gymnasia, a normal
seminary, 21 burgher and about 400 village schools.
Brunswick occupies the thirteenth place in the German
confederation, has two votes in the plenum assembly, and
contributes 2096 men to the federal army. The revenue
and expenditure for the triennial financial period 1852-54,
were each fixed at 4,052,500 thalers ; and the public debt
on 1st September 1845, was 6,444,349 thalers. The effec¬
tive force consists of 2702 men in time of peace, and 5359
during war.
In the earlier part of the middle ages, Brunswick, with
Hanover, formed part of the ancient Saxony. The more
4 T
Population.
ISSI 18461 1852.
61,232 68,888 69,702
50,423 52,768 52,662
41,155 42,931 44,312
41,290 40,232 39,400
39,277 42,772 42,257
19,855 21,637 22,492
698
B K U
Brunswick immediate ancestor of the house of BxLrnsU'jck was Henry
the Lion, who in the twelfth century held the united duchies
of Bavaria and Saxony; but having refused to aid the Em¬
peror Frederic Barbarossa in his wars with the pope, he
was by decree of the diet in 1180, deprived of both duchies,
and only left the possession of his allodial domains of Bruns¬
wick and Liineburg. These possessions were, on the death
of Ernest the Confessor in 1546, divided between his two
sons; the elder, or rather his son Augustus, receiving Bruns¬
wick-Wolfenbiittel, or Brunswick, and the younger Bruns-
wick-Liineburg, or Hanover. The ducal residence, which
had hitherto been at Wolfenbiittel, was in 1754 removed
to Brunswick by Duke Charles. His successor, Duke
Charles William Ferdinand, married Augusta, daughter of
George III. of England. He commanded the Prussian
troops at the battle of Auerstadt in 1806, where he was
severely wounded and soon after died. His possessions
were immediately seized by the conqueror, and formed part
of the kingdom of Westphalia till 1813. After the battle
of Leipzig, the duchy was restored to its rightful possessor,
Frederic-William, youngest son of the preceding duke.
This prince fell at the head of his troops at Quatre Bras, and
was succeeded by Charles Frederic, the elder of his two
sons, who, being at that time a minor, was placed under the
tutelage of George 1^ . of England, then prince regent.
The duke entered on the exercise of his authority in Octo¬
ber 1823; but in consequence of a revolution in 1830, was
obliged to abdicate in favour of his brother William, the
present duke. Treaties of mutual inheritance exist between
the houses of Hanover and Brunswick, and should the pre¬
sent duke and his brother—both of whom are still unmar¬
ried—die without issue, the duchy will pass to the house
of Hanover. See Germany and Hanover.
Brunswick, the capital of the above duchy, is situated
on the Ocker, 35 miles E.S.E. of Hanover, and 47 W.N.W.
of Magdeburg, with both of which, as well as with Neu-
stadt, it is connected by railways. Lab 52. 16. N. Long.
10. 32. E. It is said to have been founded about 868 by
Bruno, from whom it was called Bruno Vicus. It was
afterwards enlarged and adorned by Henry the Lion, and
soon became one of the most important cities of Northern
Germany. In the thirteenth century it ranked among the
first cities of the Hanseatic league. After this, however, it
declined in consequence of the many divisions of territory
among the branches of the reigning house, the jealousy of
the neighbouring states, the thirty years’ war, and more re¬
cently from the French occupation. The two celebrated
fairs held annually in February and August, and which
formerly attracted many thousands of strangers, only bring
together a few hundreds. It is still, however, a place of
considerable importance. The city is of an antiquated ap¬
pearance, but has several fine new streets, and the old for¬
tifications have been converted into agreeable promenades.
Among the fine edifices are the new palace, a handsome
Greek structure occupying the site of the former ducal re¬
sidence, which was burned in 1830; the cathedral of St
Blaize, built by Henry the Lion, the town-house, St An¬
dreas church, with a spire 318 feet high, St Catherine’s
church, the museum, opera-house, mint, &c.; with several
fountains and monuments, one of which, in memory of the
late duke who was slain at Quatre Bras, is 60 feet high. It
has several educational and charitable institutions, and a
considerable trade. In December 1852 it had, exclusive
of the military, 37,694 persons, 7508 families, and 3194
inhabited houses. Including the military in the garrison,
it has a population of about 40,000.
Brunswick, a post-town of Maine, in Cumberland county,
United States, on the Androscoggin river. Long. 69. 55.
W. Lat. 43. 53. N. It is the seat of Bowdoin College and
a medical school, and has a considerable trade in timber.
Pop. 49/6.
B R U •
There is also a small seaport of this name, capital of the
county of Glynn, state of Georgia, on the river Turtle, 168
miles S.E. of Mill Edgeville. Its harbour is spacious and
safe, and accessible to vessels drawing not more than 13 feet
at low tide.
BRUNTISLAND. See Burntisland.
BRUSH, a well-known implement used for various pur¬
poses, such as clearing away dust, smoothing or polishing
sui faces, See. Ordinary brushes are made of small bundles
of bristles or hairs, secured at one end by a ligature ; and
this knotted end is set with glue or cement into a wooden
stock, which is shaped and pierced with holes for the pur¬
pose. A patent was obtained in 1830 for several improve¬
ments in the construction of brushes. Of these the chief
feature consists in pressing the knotted ends of the bundles
into wedge-shaped grooves in the stock; after which they
may be further secured by being covered with a ferule of
metal or a wooden pallet. Small brushes are generally
made by doubling the hair or bristle, and bringing it through
the holes in the stock, by means of a thread or wire which
is engaged in the fold, and serves to secure it; after which
the bristles are cut even.
Brushes vary greatly in their size, form, and materials of
construction, according to the several uses to which they
are applied. Silversmiths and other artificers use a wire¬
brush for scrubbing silver, copper, or brass, previous to
gilding. In some countries the bamboo or other fibrous
plant is converted into a kind of brush, for painting and si¬
milar purposes, by fretting the extremity by beating, and
then binding it firmly above the part so treated.
Brush, among sportsmen, the tail of a fox.
Brush-Wheels, wheels which act on each other by means
of bristles or brushes fixed on their circumference; or simply
by the friction of their plane surfaces, in which case the
surfaces in contact are usually covered with hempen or
leathern belts, and are kept closely pressed together by a
spring. Brush-wheels are used only in very light machinery.
BRUSSELS (French, Flemish, Ger¬
man, Briissel,) capital of Belgium and of the province of
Brabant, is situated on the small river Senne, about 50 miles
from the sea, in Lat. 50. 51. N. Long. 4. 20. E. It lies in
the midst of a beautiful and fertile country, and is pic¬
turesquely built on the top and sides of a hill, which slope
down to the Senne. The general contour of Brussels is
triangular, and is well defined by the boulevards, which oc¬
cupy the site of the old fortifications, and completely en¬
circle the town. The history of Brussels, though it does
not date from so remote a period as that of other Flemish
cities, can still be clearly traced back to the seventh cen¬
tury. At that time St Gery, bishop of Cambray, built a
chapel on one of the small islands in the river, and by his elo¬
quence and piety soon attracted a large congregation. The
site being well adapted for building, a hamlet soon sprung
up, which speedily became a town, which in the eleventh
century was walled in and fortified. Though in commercial
importance it did not at this time equal Ghent or Bruges,
its traffic in cloth was very considerable, and its workers in
iron and steel were not surpassed by any in Europe. In
the fourteenth century the various trades were incorporated
into guilds, who regulated the taxes and other financial
matters of the city, aud drew up a code of municipal laws,
in which the principle of trial by jury was admitted. These
arrangements had scarcely been completed, when a dread¬
ful fire visited the city and nearly burnt it to the ground.
At the end of this century a general persecution of the Jews
in Europe took place. In Brussels, many of them were put
to death, and the value of the confiscated property amounted
to upwards of half a million sterling. At the beginning of
the fifteenth century, Brussels was again visited by a de¬
structive fire, from the effects of which it speedily recovered
by the patriotic exertions of its rulers, and soon became more
Brunt-
island
II
Brussels.
B R U S
Brussels, distinguished than ever as a seat of learning, art, and science.
' In 1489, and again in 1587, it was visited by the plague,
which, on the former of these occasions, carried off many
thousands of the inhabitants. Its horrors were further en¬
hanced by the ensuing famine, which lasted for four conse¬
cutive years. Brussels was highly favoured by Charles V.,
who often resided there, and who finally abdicated his royal
and imperial throne there in 1555. In 1567, the infamous
Duke of Alva, acting under the orders of Philip II., at¬
tempted to establish the inquisition in Brussels, and op¬
pressed the inhabitants otherwise so cruelly, that a rebellion
ensued in the low countries, which resulted in the indepen¬
dence of the United Province, after much of the best blood
of the land had been shed in the struggle. Amongst others
who fell in the cause of freedom were the Counts Egmont
and Horn. In 1598, Brussels passed into the dominion of
the Austrians, and soon began once more to prosper. At
the end of the seventeenth century, the French under
Marshal Villeroy besieged Brussels, but were obliged to
retire after doing much damage to the town ; and in 1706
the city opened its gates to Marlborough. In 1746 it was
again besieged by the French under Marshal Saxe, and after
a siege of three weeks was obliged to surrender. In 1792
it fell into the hands of General Dumouriez, who being soon
after defeated at Louvain, evacuated Brussels for a while,
but again entered it in 1794. From that year till 1814, it re¬
mained in the possession of the French, as capital of the de¬
partment of the Dyle. On the fall of Napoleon, Belgium
and Holland were united into one kingdom under William
of Nassau, and Brussels was the seat of government alter¬
nately with the Hague. In 1830, however, after a san¬
guinary conflict of three days, the Belgians declared their
independence ; and erecting their state into a separate king¬
dom, offered the crown to Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg, whose
long and peaceful reign has greatly contributed to develop
the resources of the country.
Brussels may be considered to consist of two parts, each
presenting characteristics peculiar to itself. The upper
part of the city is dry and healthy, and contains a very
large number of handsome buildings, both public and pri¬
vate. The lower part is the more ancient and interesting
of the two, but is damp, and in summer unhealthy, from
the exhalations of the river, and the numerous canals which
receive the sewerage of the town. In the former are situ¬
ated nearly all the public offices, the royal palace, the cham¬
ber of deputies, the residence of the foreign representatives,
and the principal hotels. In the latter are the Hotel de
Ville, and some of the best remains of the old Gothic archi¬
tecture, while nearly all the trade and commerce of the town
are carried on there. The facilities for commerce are, indeed,
very considerable. Though the Senne is not navigable it¬
self, it supplies water to some of the numerous canals that
intersect the lower portion of the city. By these canals
Brussels communicates with the great Belgic cities, Mechlin,
Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp, on the north, and with Char¬
leroi on the south. It further enjoys the advantage of rail¬
way communication with France and Germany, and the
chief towns of the Belgic dominions.
The total number of streets in Brussels is about 250, con¬
taining in all nearly 15,000 houses. These are, for the most
part, well paved, well lighted, and abundantly supplied with
excellent water. There are ten wells in the town, besides in¬
numerable fountains and pumps. Some of the fountains are
handsomely ornamented with sculptures in stone and bronze.
Of these the best are Les Fontaines des Fleuves in the Hotel
de Ville; La Fontaine de Minerve in one of the great squares,
and the Mannekin-pis behind the Hotel de Ville. The safety
of this last fountain is watched over with the most jealous
care by the municipality of Brussels. Though gas is abun¬
dant and cheap at Brussels, some of the more inaccessible
streets are still lighted up with oil-lamps. Some of the
S E L S. , 699
streets are macadamized, but the majority of them are cause- Brussels,
wayed, while the trottoirs are either flagged or paved with
flint-stones. In the new town some of the streets are re¬
markably handsome ; and as there is a considerable number
of shops and cafes after the manner of Paris, they form the
chief promenades of the inhabitants. In the old town they
are for the most part dull and sombre. There are fourteen
squares in Brussels, many of which are used as market places.
Of these the largest are the Place du Grand Sablon, the
Place Royale, and the Grand Place before the Hotel de
Ville. In this latter square the Counts Egmont and Horn
were beheaded in 1568, by orders of the Duke of Alva, who
surveyed their execution from the windows of the Brood-
Huys (bread-house), a remarkable specimen of Gothic archi¬
tecture still extant. In the Place de la Monnaie are the
mint, the exchange, and the great theatre. In the Place des
Martyrs, the heroes who fell in the Revolution of 1830 are
interred. In the upper town is the pare, a fashionable pro¬
menade in summer. It covers an area of about 14 acres,
and is beautifully laid out with walks, adorned at moderate
distances with groups of sculpture; and as the trees with
which it is planted shade it from the sun, the grass is always
fresh and green. In the lower town is the Allee Verte, an
equally fashionable promenade, parallel with the Mechlin
canal, with a triple row of linden trees on either side. Of
the public buildings of Brussels, the most remarkable are
the cathedral church of St Michel et Ste Gudule, and the
Hotel de Ville. The cathedral was built in 1010, and in it
was held the first chapter of the order of the Golden Fleece
in 1535. It contains a remarkable pulpit, and some splendid
specimens of stained glass. In one of the chapels are de¬
posited the Miraculous Wafers, which at the beginning of
the fifteenth century are said to have been stolen from the
altar by the Jews, at that time a numerous and wealthy class
in Brussels. Not content with the sacrilege itself, they are
said to have perpetrated it on a Good Friday. The stolen
wafers were carried to the Jewish synagogue, and there sub¬
jected to every possible insult, till at length one Jew, more
impious than his fellows, put his knife into the holy bread.
Thereupon it is said that jets of blood spouted forth from
the wound, and the perpetrators of the sacrilege were at the
same time struck down insensible. One of their number,
shocked at the incident, informed against the rest, and fur¬
nished the government with an admirable excuse for plun¬
dering and oppressing the wealthy and hated Israelites. To
commemorate the detection and punishment of this sacrilege,
an annual solemn procession is held at Brussels, on which
occasion the identical wafers in question are exposed to the
gaze of the superstitious multitudes. From the towers of
the cathedral a fine view of the surrounding country may
be obtained. The Hotel de Ville was built in 1400. It is
profusely ornamented, and its tower, which does not rise
from the centre of the front, but from a point much nearer
the left corner of the edifice, is 360 feet in height, and com¬
mands an extensive view of the surrounding country.
The other public buildings of Brussels are for the most part hand¬
some but quite uninteresting edifices. The principal hospitals of
the town are those of St Peter and St John, which are both admira¬
bly managed, and contain together about 1000 beds. The patients
are waited upon by the sisters of charity. As in all the large
Belgic towns, there is a convent of Beguins, which formerly num¬
bered 1000 nuns; there are also two other nunneries. As the
English residents in Brussels are very numerous, there are several
Protestant churches. The mass of the native population are bigoted
Catholics, but the king is a Lutheran, and attends divine service in
his private chapel. The Jews have a synagogue at Brussels, and
hold their grand consistory there. The number of charities in Brus¬
sels is very great; of these the most important are the Foundling
Hospital, in which there are about 2000 inmates ; the Orphan Asy¬
lum, in which there are nearly 200; and the Societe Philantropique,
whose object is to prevent mendicity. There are besides numerous
alms-houses, which annually give relief to about 35,000 persons.
Some of these establishments are supported entirely by subscrip-
700 B K U
Brute. tion ; others of them are subsidized by government. Great atten-
v ^ tion is paid to the education of poor children, of whom about 6000
are annually taught at an expense of about L.1500. The total
number of scholars in the difterent schools of Brussels is about
10 000. There are also a Lancasterian school, and many public and
private academies. The number of students at the Free University
of Brussels now amounts to nearly 400. Of students at the Royal
Athenaeum the number is 500. There is also a well conducted ve¬
terinary and agricultural school, attended by about 250 students.
Some of the societies of Brussels are very celebrated. The Royal
Society was founded in 1769. The geographical establishment of
Vandermaelen, instituted in 1830, is in a flourishing condition. The
botanical garden is one of the best in Europe. The Palais des Beaux
Arts contains an admirable museum of natural history, and an exten¬
sive and valuable collection of books and manuscripts. The number
of books is 180,000, of which 2000 belong to the fifteenth century.
The number of MSS. is 19,668, many of which are beautifully illu¬
minated. The annual increase of the library is estimated at 3000
volumes. The public is admitted to read in the library from 10
a m. to 3 p.m. daily, except on Sundays and holidays and during
the vacation. The number who annually avail themselves of this
privilege is 3000. Eminent literary men and others are sometimes
allowed to take books home, but the number to whom this privilege
is conceded never exceeds 100 annually. There are about 50 print¬
ing presses in constant operation in Brussels, a large number of
which are engaged in the republication of standard works that ap¬
pear in France. Various attempts have been made by the French
government of late to put down this practice so injurious to the in¬
terests of French authors, but no definite arrangement has hitherto
been concluded.
The principal manufactures of Brussels are those of lace and
tulle, carpets, linen and cotton fabrics, jewellery, and articles of
vertu. The most remarkable of these is that of lace. The finer
sorts of flax used in the manufacture cost from L.12 to L.16 ster¬
ling per lb. An English yard of this lace costs L.8. The persons
who spin the thread work in rooms almost completely darkened,
and are thus compelled to concentrate their attention; and the thread
spun in this way is said to be finer and more delicate than any that
has hitherto been produced by other means. Excellent carriages
are made in Brussels two-thirds cheaper than those of England, but
inferior to them in quality.
In 1837, the population of Brussels was 104,265; in 1846,
123,874; in 1849, 138,189; and in 1850, 142,289.
BRUTE, a general name for all animals except mankind.
Among brutes the monkey kind bear the nearest resem¬
blance to man, both in the external shape and internal struc¬
ture, but more in the former than in the latter. In the
monkey kind the highest and the nearest approach to the
likeness of man is the orang-outang, or Homo Sylvestris.
(See Mammalia.) The structure and economy of brutes
make the object of what is called Comparative Anatomy.
(See Anatomy, Comparative.)
Philosophers have been much puzzled about the essential
characteristics of brutes, by which they may be distinguished
from man. Some define a brute to be an animal not risi¬
ble, or a living creature incapable of laughter; others call
them mute animals. The Peripatetics allowed them a sensi¬
tive power, but denied them a rational one. The Platonists
allowed them reason and understanding, though in a degree
less pure and refined than that of men. Lactantius allows
to brutes everything which men possess, except a sense of
I'eligion ; and even this has been ascribed to them by some
sceptics. Descartes maintained that brutes are mere ani¬
mate machines, absolutely destitute not only of reason, but
of all thought and perception, and that all their actions are
only consequences of the exquisite mechanism of their
bodies. This system, however, is much older than Descartes:
it was borrowed by him from Gomez Pereira, a Spanish phy¬
sician, who employed thirty years in composing a treatise
which he entitled Antoniana Margarita, from the Christian
names of his father and mother. It was published in 1554;
but as his opinion had not the honour of gaining partizans,
nor even of being refuted, it died with him. Even Pereira
seems not to have been the inventor of this notion, some¬
thing like it having been held by several of the ancients, as
we find from Plutarch and St Augustin. Others, who re¬
jected the Cartesian hypothesis, have maintained that brutes
B R U
are endowed with a soul essentially inferior to that of men; Brute,
and to this soul some have allowed immortality, others not.
And, lastly, in a treatise published by Bougeant, a French
Jesuit, entitled Amusement Philosophique sur le Lang age
des Betes, he affirms that they are animated by evil spirits
or devils.
The opinion of Descartes was probably invented, or at
least adopted, by him, to refute two great objections: one
against the immortality of the souls of brutes, if they were
allowed to have any; the other against the goodness of God,
in suffering creatures who had never sinned to be subjected
to so many miseries. The arguments in favour of it may
be stated as follow: 1. It is certain that a number of hu¬
man actions are merely mechanical, because they are done
imperceptibly to the agent, and without any direction from
the will, which are to be ascribed to the impression of ob¬
jects and the primordial disposition of the machine, wherein
the influence of the soul has no share; of which number
are all habits of the body acquired from the reiteration of
certain actions. In all such circumstances human beings
are no better than automata. 2. There are some natu¬
ral movements so involuntary that we cannot restrain them;
for example, that admirable mechanism ever on the watch
to preserve an equilibrium when we stoop, bend, or incline,
our bodies in any way, and when we walk upon a narrow
plank. 3. The natural liking for, and antipathy against,
certain objects, which in children precede the power of
knowing and discriminating them, and which sometimes in
grown persons triumph over all the efforts of reason, are all
phenomena to be accounted for from the wonderful me¬
chanism of the body, and are so many cogent proofs of that
irresistible influence which objects have on the human frame.
4. Every one knows how much our passions depend on the
degree of motion into which the blood is put, and the reci¬
procal impressions caused by the animal spirits between the
heart and brain, which are so closely connected by their
nerves; and if such effects may be produced by such simple
mechanical means as the mere increase of motion in the
blood, without any direction of the will, we are not to wonder
at the actions of brutes being the effects only of a refined
mechanism, without thought or perception. 5. A further
proof will arise from a consideration of the many wonderful
effects which even the ingenuity of men has contrived to
bring about by mechanical means. Now it is not to be
questioned but that the mechanism of the body of the
meanest animal infinitely surpasses that of any machine;
and what can be the consequence of this, but that the ac¬
tions of that animal must be proportionably more surprising
than those of the finest automaton. (See Androides and
Automaton.)
The above is a short abstract of all the arguments that
are brought in favour of the Cartesian system; but they are
evidently very far from being conclusive. They are de¬
ficient, in the first place, because, though we allow them in
the utmost extent the Cartesians themselves can desire, they
prove only the possibility of brutes being inanimate, and
that the power of God actually could produce such and such
actions from inanimate machines; but that he has actually
done so, they have not the least tendency to prove. In the
second place, the Cartesian argument is insufficient, because
it has no limits, and knows not where to stop. By the same
method of arguing every man might prove his neighbour to
be an inanimate machine; for though every individual be con¬
scious of his own thoughts, he is not of those of his neigh¬
bours; and it no more exceeds the power of God to cause an
inanimate machine to perform the actions of a man than those
of a beast. Neither are the two objections which the hypo¬
thesis is calculated to answer to be at all admitted as arguments
in its favour. They are, 1. That if we allow brutes to have souls,
they must be immaterial, and consequently immortal; and, 2.
It seems a contradiction to the goodness of God to think
BRUTE.
701
Brute, that he should subject innocent creatures to such a mul-
titude of evils as we see the brute creation endure in this
world. The first of these is productive of no bad conse¬
quences to us, though it should be granted; and if it is
supposed that the brute creatures are really immortal, the
second objection vanishes, because, in the enjoyment of
endless felicity, all temporary afflictions, how severe soever,
must be swallowed up as though they had never been.
As to a positive proof on the other side, namely, that brutes
are really endowed with sensation and consciousness,
there is undoubtedly the same evidence for the sensibility
of brutes that there is for that of mankind. We see brutes
avoid pain as much as we do; and we likewise see them
seek for pleasure, and express their happiness in the en¬
joyment of certain things by signs not at all equivocal.
Therefore, though we grant the possibility of all this being
the effect of mere mechanism, yet, as we are conscious
that in ourselves similar effects are produced by a sen¬
tient principle, we have all the reason in the world to con¬
clude that in brutes they are likewise derived from a prin¬
ciple of sensation, especially seeing we know of no kind
of mechanism in any other part of nature which produces
any thing like the effects just mentioned; and until we
see that a mechanism of this kind does take place in some
part of nature, we have no reason to suppose it in any.
As to those actions of the human body in which it seems
to move spontaneously, like an automaton, without the
direction of the mind or will, it is almost superfluous to
observe, that they were not performed in this manner ori¬
ginally, but required very great exertions of the will and
intellectual faculty before the body could be brought to
perform them easily; so that from these nothing can be
inferred. Add to this, that divine revelation sets forth to
us in many places the brute creation as objects of mercy,
which could not be done without the highest absurdity, if
they were not really capable of feeling pleasure and pain
as well as we.
The most rational opposers of the Cartesian scheme
maintain that brutes are endowed with a principle of sen¬
sation as well as we, though of an inferior nature to ours.
Great disputes, however, have arisen on this subject, some
maintaining that the soul of brutes is merely sensitive,
and that they are altogether destitute of reflection and
understanding; others, that they not only reason, but
make a better use of it than men do. That the brutes
are endowed only with sensation, and totally destitute of
all power of reflection, or even reasoning, is what can by
no means be maintained on good grounds ; neither can it
be asserted that they act entirely from instinct or a blind
propensity to certain things without knowing why or
wherefore. In numberless instances, needless to be men¬
tioned here, but which will readily occur to every reader,
it is evident that education will get the better of many of
the natural instincts of brutes, which could never be the
case were they absolutely incapable of reasoning. On the
other hand, it is equally certain that they are by no means
capable of education in the same degree that men are,
neither are the rational exertions of beasts at all to be
compared even with those of the meanest savages. One
remarkable instance of this is in the use of the element of
fire. The most savage nations have known how to make
this element subservient to their purposes; or if some
have been found who have been entirely ignorant of its
existence, they have quickly learned its uses on seeing it
employed by others; but though many of the brute crea¬
tures are delighted with warmth, and have opportunities
every day of seeing how fire is supplied with fuel, and
thereby preserved, it never was known that one of them
attempted to preserve a fire by this means. This shows a
strange defect of rationality, unaccountable upon any other
supposition than that the soul or sentient principle of brutes
is somehow or other inferior in its nature to that of man ;
but still it is a sentient principle, capable of perceptions as
quick as our own, and in many instances much more so.
Father Bougeant supports his opinion of the spirits of
brute creatures being devils in the following manner:—
Having proved at large that beasts naturally have under¬
standing, he says, “ Reason naturally inclines us to be¬
lieve that beasts have a spiritual soul; and the only thing
that opposes this sentiment is the consequences that might
be inferred from it. If brutes have a soul, that soul must
be either matter or spirit; it must be one of the two, and
yet you dare affirm neither. You dare not say it is mat¬
ter, because you must then necessarily suppose matter
to be capable of thinking; nor will you say that it is spi¬
rit, this opinion bringing with it consequences contrary to
the principles of religion; and this, among others, that
man would differ from heasts only by the degrees of plus
and minus, which would demolish the very foundation of
all religion. Therefore, if I can elude all these conse¬
quences ; if I can assign to beasts a spiritual soul without
striking at the doctrines of religion, it is evident that my
system, being moreover the most agreeable to reason, is
the onty warrantable hypothesis. Now I shall, and can
do it, with the greatest ease imaginable. I even have
means, by the same method, to explain many very obscure
passages in the holy Scripture, and to resolve some very
great difficulties which are not well confuted. This we
shall unfold in a more particular manner.
“ Religion teaches us that the devils, from the very
moment they had sinned, were reprobate, and that they
were doomed to burn for ever in hell; but the church has
not yet determined whether they do actually endure the
torments to which they are condemned. It may then be
thought that they do not yet suffer them, and that the exe¬
cution of the verdict brought against them is reserved for
the day of the final judgment. Now, what I pretend to infer
from hence is, that, till doomsday comes, God, in order
not to suffer so many legions of reprobate spirits to be of
no use, has distributed them through the several spaces
of the world, to serve the designs of his providence, and
make his omnipotence to appear. Some continuing in
their natural state, busy themselves in tempting men, in
seducing and tormenting them, either immediately, as
Job’s devil, and those that lay hold of human bodies, or
by the ministry of sorcerers or phantoms. These wicked
spirits are those whom the Scripture calls the powers of
darkness, or the powers of the air. God, with the others,
makes millions of beasts of all kinds, which serve for the
uses of men, which fill the universe, and cause the wis¬
dom and omnipotence of the Creator to be admired. By
that means I can easily conceive, on the one hand, how
the devils can tempt us; and, on the other, how beasts
can think, know, have sentiments, and a spiritual soul,
without any way striking at the doctrines of religion. I
am no longer surprised to see them have forecast, me¬
mory, and judgment. I should rather have occasion to
wonder at their having no more, since their soul very
likely is more perfect than ours. But I discover the rea¬
son of this ; it is because, in beasts as well as in ourselves,
the operations of the mind are dependent on the material
organs of the machine to which it is united; and those
organs being grosser and less perfect than in us, it fol¬
lows that the knowledge, the thoughts, and the other spi¬
ritual operations of the beasts, must of course be less per¬
fect than ours; and if these proud spirits know their own
dismal state, what a humiliation must it be to them thus
to see themselves reduced to the condition of beasts I
But whether they know it or not, so shameful a degrada¬
tion is still, with regard to them, the primary effect of the
Brute.
B R U T E.
702
Brute, divine vengeance I just mentioned; it is an anticipated
  hell.”
Having mentioned the prejudices against this hypothe¬
sis, such particularly as the pleasure which people of
sense and religion take in beasts and birds, especially all
sorts of domestic animals, he proceeds, “ Do we love
beasts for their own sakes ? No. As they are altogether
strangers to human society, they can have no other ap¬
pointment but that of being useful and amusing. And
what care we whether it be a devil or any other creature
that amuses us ? The thought of it, far from shocking,
pleases me mightily. I with gratitude admire the good¬
ness of the Creator, who gave me so many little devils to
serve and amuse me. If I am told that these poor devils
are doomed to suffer eternal tortures, I admire God’s de¬
crees, but I have no manner of share in that dreadful sen¬
tence ; I leave the execution of it to the sovereign judge;
and, notwithstanding this, I live with my little devils as I
do with a multitude of people, of whom religion informs
me that a great number shall be damned. But the cure
of a prejudice is not to be effected in a moment; it is
done by time and reflection : give me leave, then, lightly
to touch upon this difficulty, in order to observe a very
important thing to you.
“ Persuaded as we are that beasts have intelligence,
have we not all of us a thousand times pitied them for the
excessive evils which the majority of them are exposed
to, and in reality suffer ? How unhappy is the condition
of horses! we are apt to say upon seeing a horse whom
an unmerciful carman is murdering with blows. How mi¬
serable is the dog whom they are breaking for hunting !
How dismal is the fate of beasts living in woods ! they
are perpetually exposed to the injuries of the weather;
always seized with apprehensions of becoming the prey of
hunters, or of some wilder animal; for ever obliged, after
long fatigue, to look out for some poor insipid food; often
suffering cruel hunger; and subject, moreover, to illness
and death! If men are subject to a multitude of mise¬
ries that overwhelm them, religion acquaints us with the
reason of it, viz. the being born sinners. But what
crimes can beasts have committed by birth to be subject
to evils so very cruel ? What are we, then, to think of
die horrible excesses of miseries undergone by beasts?
miseries, indeed, far greater than those endured by men.
This is, in any other system, an incomprehensible mys¬
tery ; whereas nothing is more easy to be conceived from
the system I propose. The rebellious spirits deserve a
punishment still more rigorous, and happy it is for them
that their punishment is deferred. In a word, God’s good¬
ness is vindicated, man himself is justified; for what right
can we have, without necessity, and often in the way of
mere diversion, to take away the lives of millions of beasts,
if God had not authorized us so to do ? And beasts being as
sensible as ourselves of pain and death, how could a just
and merciful God have given man that privilege, if they were
not so many guilty victims of the divine vengeance?
“ But hear still something more convincing, and of
greater consequence. Beasts by nature are extremely vi¬
cious. We know well that they never sin, because they
are not free; but this is the only condition wanting to
make them sinners. The voracious birds and beasts of
prey are cruel. Many insects of one and the same spe¬
cies devour one another. Cats are perfidious and un¬
grateful, monkeys are mischievous, and dogs envious. All
beasts in general are jealous and revengeful to excess,
not to mention many other vices we observe in them;
and at the same time that they are by nature so very vi¬
cious, they have, say we, neither the liberty nor any helps
to resist the bias that hurries them into so many bad ac¬
tions. They aie, according to the schools, necessitated
to do evil, to disconcert the general order, to commit Brute,
whatever is most contrary to the notion we have of natu-
ral justice and to the principles of virtue. What mon¬
sters are these in a world originally created for order and
justice to reign in? This is, in good part, what formerly
persuaded the Manicheans that there were of necessity
two orders of things, one good and the other bad ; and
that the beasts were not the work of the good principle:
a monstrous error! But how then shall we believe that
beasts came out of the hands of their Creator with quali¬
ties so very strange ! If man is so very wicked and cor¬
rupt, it is because he has himself through sin perverted
the happy nature that God had given him at his creation.
Of two things then we must say one ; either that God has
taken delight in making beasts so vicious as they are, and
of giving us in them models of what is most shameful in
the world; or that they have, like man, original sin, which
has perverted their primitive nature.
“ The first of these propositions finds very difficult ac¬
cess to the mind, and is an express contradiction to the
holy Scriptures, which say, that whatever came out of
God’s hands at the time of the creation of the world was
good, yea very good. What good can there be in a
monkey’s being so very mischievous, a dog so full of envy,
a cat so malicious ? But then many authors have pre¬
tended that beasts, before man’s fall, were different from
what they are now; and that it was in order to punish
man that they became so wicked. But this opinion is a
mere supposition, of which there is not the least footstep
in holy Scripture. It is a pitiful subterfuge to elude a
real difficulty. This at most might be said of the beasts,
with whom man has a sort of correspondence ; but not at
all of the birds, fishes, and insects, which have no manner
of relation to him. We must then have recourse to the
second proposition, that the nature of beasts has, like that
of man, been corrupted by some original sin: another hy¬
pothesis, void of foundation, and equally inconsistent with
reason and religion, in all the systems which have been hi¬
therto espoused concerning the souls of beasts. What party
are we to take ? Why, admit of my system, and all is ex¬
plained. The souls of beasts are refractory spirits, which
have made themselves guilty towards God. The sin in
beasts is no original sin ; it is a personal crime, which has
corrupted and perverted their nature in its whole sub¬
stance ; hence all the vices and corruption we observe in
them, though they can be no longer criminal, because
God, by irrevocably reprobating them, has at the same
time divested them of their liberty.”
These quotations contain the strength of Father Bou-
geant’s hypothesis, which also has had its followers; but
the reply to it is very obvious. Beasts, though remai'kably
mischievous, are not completely so; they are in many in¬
stances capable of gratitude and love, which devils cannot
possibly be. The very same passions which are implanted
in the brutes exist in the human nature ; and if we choose
to argue from the existence of those passions, and the as¬
cendency they at some times have over mankind, we may
say with as great justice that the souls of men are devils,
as that the souls of brutes are devils. All that can reason¬
ably be inferred from the greater prevalency of the malig¬
nant passions among the brutes than among men, is, that
the former have less rationality than men; and accord¬
ingly it is found that among savages, who exercise their
reason less than other men, every species of barbarity is
practised without being deemed a crime.
On the present subject there is a very ingenious trea¬
tise in German, published by Professor Bergman, under
the title of “ Researches designed to show what the brute
animals certainly are not, and also what they probably
are.” That they are not machines, he proves with more
BRUTE.
Brute, detail than seemed necessary for refuting a hypothesis
—which would equally tend to make us all machines. It is
certain that the half-reasoning elephant cannot be deem¬
ed a machine by us, from any other consideration than
that he goes upon four feet, while we go upon two; and
he might as well take us for mere machines, because we
go upon two feet, while he goes upon four.
But if animals are not mere machines, what are they?
Manifestly sensitive beings, with an immaterial principle;
and thinking or reasoning beings to a certain degree. In
certain classes of animals this appears evident to our au¬
thor, who seems to have observed with great sagacity and
attention their various operations and proceedings, their
ways and means, &c. He thinks it impossible to deduce
this variety of action, in any animals, if we except those
of the lowest classes in the gradation of intelligence, from
a general and uniform instinct. For they accommodate
their operations to times and circumstances. They com¬
bine ; they choose the favourable moment; they avail
themselves of the occasion, and seem to receive instruc¬
tion by experience. Many of their operations announce
reflection : the bird repairs a shattered nest, instead of con¬
structing instinctively a new one; the hen who has been
robbed of her eggs changes her place in order to lay the
remainder with more security; the cat discovers both
care and artifice in concealing her kittens. Again, it is
evident that on many occasions animals know their faults
and mistakes, and correct them; they sometimes contrive
the most ingenious methods of obtaining their ends, and
when one method fails have recourse to another; and
they have, without doubt, a kind of language for the mu¬
tual communication of their ideas. How is all this to be
accounted for, says our author, unless we suppose them
endowed with the powers of perceiving, thinking, remem¬
bering, comparing, and judging ? They have these powers,
indeed, in a degree inferior to that in which they are pos¬
sessed by the human species, and form classes below them
in the graduated scale of intelligent beings. But still it
seems to our author unreasonable to exclude them from
the place which the principles of sound philosophy, and
facts ascertained by constant observation, assign to them
in the great and diversified sphere of life, sensation, and
intelligence. He does not, however, consider them a3
beings whose actions are directed to moral ends, nor con¬
sequently as accountable and proper subjects for reward
or punishment in a future world.
That brute animals possess reflection and sentiment,
and are susceptible of the kindly as well as the irascible
passions, independently of sexual attachment and natural
affection, is evident from the numerous instances of affec¬
tion and gratitude daily observable in different animals,
particularly the dog. Of these and other sentiments, such
as pride, and even a sense of glory, the elephant exhibits
proofs equally surprising and indubitable.
As to the natural affection of brutes, says an ingenious
writer, “ the more I reflect on it the more I am astonish¬
ed at its effects. Nor is the violence of this affection more
wonderful than the shortness of its duration. Thus every
hen is in her turn the virago of the yard, in proportion to
the helplessness of her brood; and will fly in the face of
a dog or a sow, in defence of those .chickens which in a
few weeks she will drive before her with relentless cruelty.
This affection sublimes the passions, quickens the inven¬
tion, and sharpens the sagacity of the brute creation. Thus
a hen, just become a mother, is no longer that placid bird
she used to be ; but, with feathers standing on end, wings
hovering, and clocking note, she runs about like one pos¬
sessed. Dams will throw themselves in the way of the
greatest danger, in order to avert it from their progeny.
I hus a partridge will tumble along before a sportsman, in
703
order to draw away the dogs from her helpless covey. In Brute,
the time of nidification the most feeble birds will assault
the most rapacious. All the hirundines of a village are
up in arms at the sight of a hawk, whom they will perse¬
cute till he leaves that district. A very exact observer
has often remarked, that a pair of ravens nestling in the
rock of Gibraltar would suffer no vulture or eagle to rest
near their station, but would drive them from the hill with
amazing fury; even the blue thrush, at the season of
breeding, would dart out from the clefts of the rocks to
chase away the kestrel or the sparrow-hawk. If you stand
near the nest of a bird that has young, she will not be in¬
duced to betray them by an inadvertent fondness, but will
wait about at a distance with meat in her mouth for an hour
together. The fly-catcher builds every year in the vines
that grow on the walls of my house. A pair of these little
birds had one year inadvertently placed their nest on a
naked bough, perhaps in a shady time, not being aware of
the inconvenience that followed ; but a hot sunny season
coming on before the brood was half fledged, the reflec¬
tion of the wall became insupportable, and must inevitably
have destroyed the tender young, had not affection sug¬
gested an expedient, and prompted the parent-birds to
hover over the nest all the hotter hours, while with wings
expanded and mouths gaping for breath they screened off
the heat from their suffering offspring. A further instance
I once saw of notable sagacity in a willow-wren, which had
built in a bank in my fields. This bird a friend and my¬
self had observed as she sat in her nest; but were parti¬
cularly careful not to disturb her, though we saw she eyed
us with some degree of jealousy. Some days after, as we
passed that way, we were desirous of remarking how this
brood went on ; but no nest could be found, till I happen¬
ed to take up a large bundle of long green moss, as it were
carelessly thrown over the nest in order to dodge the eye
of any impertinent intruder.” (White’s Natural History
of Selborne.)
A wonderful spirit of sociality in the brute creation, in¬
dependent of sexual attachment, has been frequently re¬
marked ; nor does this propensity seem to be confined to
animals of the same species. Even great disparity of kind
and size does not always prevent social advances and mu¬
tual fellowship. Of this the following remarkable instance is
given in the work above quoted : “ A very intelligent and
observant person has assured me, that in the former part of
his life, keeping but one horse, he happened also on a time to
have but one solitary hen. These two incongruous animals
spent much of their time together in a lonely orchard, where
they saw no creature but each other. By degrees an appa¬
rent regard began to take place between these two seques¬
tered individuals. The fowl would approach the quadruped
with notes of complacency, rubbing herself gently against
his legs ; while the horse would look down with satisfaction,
and move with the greatest caution and circumspection, lest
he should trample on his diminutive companion.”
To such an instance of attachment between incongruous
animals, may be added the following instance recounted by
Mr White, in the work already quoted. “ My friend had a
little helpless leveret brought to him, which the servants fed
with milk in a spoon ; and about the same time his cat kit¬
tened, and the young were despatched and buried. The
hare was soon lost, and supposed to be gone the w^ay of most
foundlings, or to be killed by some dog or cat. However,
in about a fortnight, as the master was sitting in his garden
in the dusk of the evening, he observed his cat, with tail
erect, trotting towards him, and calling with little short in¬
ward notes of complacency, such as they use towards their
kittens, and something gambling after, which proved to be
the leveret, which the cat had supported with her milk, and
continued to support with great affection. Thus was a gra-
704 B R U
Brute, minivorous animal nurtured by a carnivorous and predaceous
one. „ ,
“ This incident is no bad solution of that strange circum¬
stance which grave historians as well as the poets assert, of
exposed children being sometimes nurtured by female wild
beasts that probably had lost their young ; for it is not one
whit more marvellous that Romulus and Remus, in their in¬
fant state, should be nursed by a she-wolf, than that a poor
little suckling leveret should be fostered and cherished by a
bloody grimalkin.”
But besides the different qualities enumerated, besides re¬
flection and sagacity often in an astonishing degree, and be¬
sides the sentiments and actions prompted by social or na¬
tural attachments, certain brutes seem on many occasions
inspired with a superior faculty, a kind of presentiment or
second sight as it were, with regard to events and designs
altogether unforeseen by the rational beings whom they con¬
cern. Of the faculty alluded to, various instances will pro¬
bably consist with the knowledge or the recollection of most
readers: we shall therefore only recite the following, on ac¬
count of its unquestionable authenticity. At the seat of the
Earl of Lichfield, three miles from Blenheim, in the dining¬
room there is a portrait of Sir Henry Lee, by Johnston,
with that of a mastiff-dog which saved his life. It seems a
servant had formed the design of assassinating his master
and robbing the house ; but the night he had fixed on, the
dog, which had never been much noticed by Sir Henry, for
the first time followed him up stairs, got under his bed, and
could not be got from thence by either master or man: in
the dead of night the same servant entered the room to exe¬
cute his horrid design, but was instantly seized by the dog,
and being secured, confessed his intentions. Upon what
hypothesis can we account for a degree of foresight and
penetration such as this ? Or will it be suggested as a solu¬
tion of the difficulty that a dog may possibly become cap¬
able in some measure of understanding human discourse,
and of reasoning and acting accordingly ; and that, in the
present instance, the villain had either uttered his design in
soliloquy, or imparted it to an accomplice, in the hearing of
the animal ?
It has been much disputed whether the brutes have any
language by which they can express their minds to each
other; or whether all the noise they make consists only of
cries inarticulate, and unintelligible even to themselves.
We are, however, too little acquainted with the intellectual
faculties of these creatures to be able to determine tins
point. Certain it is, that their passions, when excited, are
generally productive of some peculiar cry ; but whether
this be designed as an expression of the passion to others,
or only a mechanical motion of the muscles of the larynx
occasioned by the passion, is what we have no means of
knowing. We may, indeed, from analogy, conclude with
great reason that some of the cries of beasts are really ex¬
pressions of their sentiments ; but whether one beast is cap¬
able of forming a design, and communicating that design by
any kind of language to others, is what we submit to the judg¬
ment of the reader, after giving the following instance, which,
with others, is brought as a proof of it by Father Bougeant.
“ A sparrow finding a nest that a martin had just built
standing very conveniently for him, possessed himself of it.
The martin, seeing the usurper in her house, called for help
to expel him. A thousand martins came full speed, and
attacked the sparrow ; but the latter being covered on every
side, and presenting only his large beak at the entrance of
the nest, was invulnerable, and made the boldest of them
who durst approach him repent of their temerity. After a
quarter of an hour’s combat, all the martins disappeared.
The sparrow thought he had got the better, and the spec¬
tators judged that the martins had abandoned their under¬
taking. Not in the least. They immediately returned to
the charge; and each of them having procured a little of
B R U
that tempered earth with which they make their nests, they Bruttii
all at once fell upon the sparrow, and inclosed him in the Bru||.-re
nest to perish there, though they could not drive him thence. v ™
Can it be imagined that the martins could have been able
to hatch and concert this design all of them together with¬
out speaking to each other, or without some medium of
communication equivalent to language ? ” We refer those
curious in this subject, to a work in two volumes, published
at Amsterdam, entitled Histoire critique de VAme des Betes
contenant les sentimens des Philosophes Anciens et ceux des
Modernes sur cette matiere, par M. Guer, Avocat; and to
Lord Brougham’s Illustrations of Paley, vol. i.
BRUTON, a market-town of England, in the hundred
of the same name, county of Somerset. It is pleasantly
situated in the valley of the Brue, 10 miles S.S.W. of
Frome, and has a town-hall, hexagonal market-cross, gram¬
mar-school with four exhibitions at either of the universities,
and some manufactures of silk, woollens, and hosiery. Mar¬
ket-day Saturday. Pop. of parish (1851) 2109.
BRUTTII, in Ancient Geography, the most southern
portion of the Italian peninsula, stretching towards Sicily;
bounded by the sea on every side except on the north, where
it is bounded by Lucania. It was inhabited by the Bruttii, for
whose country the ancient Romans had no peculiar name, call¬
ing both the people and the country indiscriminately Bruttii.
BRUTUS, or Brute, according to the fabulous exploded
history of this country by Geoffroy of Monmouth, was the
first king of Britain. He was born in Italy, and is said to
have been the son of Sylvius, who was the son of Ascanius
the son of .Eneas. Having accidentally killed his father, he
fled into Greece, where he took prisoner king Padrosus, who
kept the Trojans in slavery ; but he released him on the con¬
dition of his providing ships for the Trojans to quit the land.
Being advised by the oracle to sail west beyond Gaul, after
some adventures he landed at J otness in Devonshire. Al¬
bion was then inhabited by a remnant of giants, whom Bru¬
tus destroyed. He called the island after his own name,
Britain ; and built a city called New Troy, since London.
He reigned there twenty-four years, and at his death par¬
celled the island among his three sons, giving to Locrine
the middle, called Loegria; to Camber, W ales; and to
Albanach, Scotland.
Brutus, Lucius Junius, the avenger of the rape of Lu-
cretia, and founder of the Roman republic, flourished five
hundred years before Christ. See Roman History.
Brutus, Marcus, the passionate lover of his country, and
chief conspirator against Caesar. He slew himself on losing
the battle of Philippi, b.c. 42. See Roman History.
BIIUX, a city in the circle of Saatz, and Austrian king¬
dom of Bohemia, is situated on the river Bila. It con¬
tains a philosophical institution, eight churches, two monas¬
teries, gymnasium, barracks ; and has 3500 inhabitants, en¬
gaged in the coal-mines, and in the preparation of salts from
the Seidlitz waters in the vicinity.
BRUYiCRE, Jean de la, the author of the celebrated
work entitled Caracteres de Theophraste, traduits du Grec,
avec les mceurs de ce siecle, which first appeared at Paris
in 1687, 12mo. He was born near Dourdan in Normandy,
in 1639, or, according to some, in 1644. Few particulars
of his life have been preserved. After filling the office of
treasurer of France at Caen he removed to Paris, and was
appointed teacher of history, under Bossuet, to the Duke de
Burgogne, grandson to the great Conde. La Bruy ere, with
a pensfon of 1000 crowns, passed the remainder of his life
in the service of his pupil, in the capacity of homme de
lettres. He was admitted a member of the French Aca¬
demy in 1693 ; and he died suddenly of apoplexy at Ver¬
sailles, May 10, 1696. „ . ££
“ The Characters of Bruyere,” says Voltaire, may justly
be ranked among the extraordinary productions of the age.
Antiquity furnishes no examples of such a work. A style
B R Y
B R Y
705
Bruyn rapid, concise, and nervous ; expression animated and pic-
! II turesque ; a use of language altogether new, without offend-
I ^ Bryant. aga;nst its established rules, struck the public at first;
I and the allusions which are crowded in almost every page
completed its success. When La Bruyere showed his work
in manuscript to Malezieux, he was told that the book would
have many readers, and its author many enemies. It some¬
what sunk in the opinion of men, when that whole genera¬
tion whose follies it attacked were passed away; yet as it
contains many things applicable to all times and places, it
is more than probable that it will never be forgotten.”
This admirable work is highly commended by Locke, and
has always been a favourite book with readers of taste and
discernment. Bruyere left also an unfinished work, pub¬
lished in 1699 under the title of Dialogues posthumesdu Sieur
deLa Bruyere sur le Quietisme, &c., 12mo,but now forgotten.
Of the numerous editions of the Characters, the best is
that published in 1827, 2 vols. 8vo, with a life of the author
by M. Sicard, notes, &c.
BRUYN, Cornelius, a Dutch traveller and clever artist,
author of Travels in the East, was born at the Hague in
1652. His Voyage au Levant was published at Paris in
1714; and his Voyages en Muscovie, Perse, et Les Indes
Orientes appeared at Amsterdam in 1718. Both are illus¬
trated with upwards of 500 engravings after his own draw¬
ings. These works, as well as his Observations on the En¬
gravings published by former travellers on Persepolis, are
curious and instructive, and the fidelity of his descriptions are
confirmed by later travellers. He died at Utrecht in 1719.
BRYAN, or Bryant, Sir Francis, an English poet,
warrior, and statesman, was born of a respectable family, and
educated at Oxford. In 1522 he attended in a military ca¬
pacity the Earl of Surrey in his expedition to the coast of
Brittany, and commanded the troops in the attack of the
town of Morlaix, which he took and burnt. For this service
he was knighted on the spot by the earl. In 1529 he was
sent ambassador to France, and the following year to Rome,
on account of the king’s divorce. He was gentleman of the
privy chamber to Henry VIII., and to Edward VI., in the
beginning of whose reign he marched with the protector
against the Scots ; and after the battle of Musselburgh, in
which he commanded the light horse, he was made banneret.
In 1549 he was appointed chief governor of Ireland; and
there he married the Countess of Ormond. He died in
1550, and was buried at Waterford. He wrote Songs and
Sonnets, some of which were printed with those of Surrey
and Wyatt, Lond. 1565 ; and Letters (MSS.) written from
Rome concerning the king’s divorce.
Bryant, Jacob, a profound scholar, mythologist, and sa¬
cred historian, born at Plymouth in 1715. His father had
a place in the customs, and was afterwards stationed in Kent,
where his son was first sent to a provincial school, from
which he was removed to Eton. Here he appears to have
remained till 1736, the date of his election to King’s Col¬
lege, Cambridge; where he took his degrees of bachelor and
master of arts in 1740 and 1744. He returned to Eton in
the capacity of private tutor to the Duke of Marlborough,
then Marquis of Blandford; and the good taste which his
pupil showed through life, in the protection of the fine arts,
and in the pursuit of science, sufficiently demonstrated the
beneficial influence of his instructor’s example. In 1756 he
went to the Continent as private secretary to the Duke of
Marlborough, then master-general of the ordnance and com¬
mander-in-chief of the forces in Germany; and he was re¬
warded after his return, for his various services to the fa-
mdy, by a lucrative appointment in the ordnance, which
allowed him ample leisure to indulge his literary taste in a
variety of refined investigations, and to exercise his zeal for
the cause of religion in a multitude of works, calculated for
the illustration of the Scriptures, and the demonstration of
their authenticity and divine authority.
YOL. v.
His first publication was entitled Observations and
Inquiries relating to various parts of Ancient History, con- '
taining Dissertations on the wind Euroclydon, and on the
island Melite, together with an account of Egypt in its
most early state, and of the Shepherd Kings, 1767. In
this work he attempts to prove that the Melite on which
St Paul was wrecked was not Malta, but one of the Illyrian
islands in the Adriatic, now called Melede; and he endea¬
vours to illustrate several points in the early history of the
oriental, and especially of the Aramitic nations.
But his most elaborate performance was his New System
or Analysis of Ancient Mythology, wherein an attempt is
made to divest tradition of fable, and to reduce truth to its ori¬
ginal purity, 3 vols.4to, 1774-76. In this attempt the au¬
thor has equally displayed his deep and extensive learning
and his inventive fancy ; but it must be confessed that, on a
minute examination, the work exhibits much more of a
poetical imagination than of a sound judgment; and that,
in endeavouring to substitute etymological for historical evi¬
dence, he has been completely unsuccessful. Nothing can
afford a more satisfactory kind of proof than etymology taken
on a large scale, and considered as a mode of tracing the
relations of nations to each other, by the affinities of their
languages ; since the accumulation of a multitude of proba¬
bilities, each weak when taken separately, becomes at last
equivalent to absolute certainty. But nothing, on the other
hand, can be more fallacious, or more liable to controversy,
than single etymological inferences, in particular cases, when
one of these slight resemblances is magnified into a striking
likeness, and even an identity, which is then made the foun¬
dation of a magnificent superstructure in mythology or in
history. Mr Richardson has shown, in the preface to his
Dictionary, how much Mr Bryant was mistaken in some of
his reasoning respecting the signification and derivation of
particular words; and even if he had been more correct in
these instances, the conclusions which he has deduced from
his etymologies would by no means have been perfectly le¬
gitimate. Jablonsky seems to have exhibited one of the
strongest examples of this dangerous abuse of learning ; in
which he has been followed not only by Bryant, but by
several other modern writers equally visionary, who have
commonly been very imperfectly acquainted with the lan¬
guages on which their conjectures depended, and have been
still more deficient in that sort of common sense and cor¬
rect feeling, confirmed by experience, which constitutes the
most essential part of the qualifications of a critic, and the
want of which can never be compensated by the most un¬
wearied labour of a mere mechanical commentator.
Some remarks which had been made on particular pas¬
sages of Mr Bryant’s work led him to publish A Vindica¬
tion of the Apamean Medal; of the inscription NOE ; and
of another coin, in the Archceologia, vol. iv. art. 21, 22,
23. He deviated somewhat more widely from the usual ob¬
jects of his research, and apparently without any decided
advantage over his adversary, in An Address to Dr Priest¬
ley, on the doctrine of philosophical necessity, 8vo, 1780.
He also published in the same year Vindicice Flavians,
or a vindication of the testimony given by Josephus con¬
cerning our Saviour, 8vo.
Unfortunately for the credit of his critical discrimina¬
tion in matters of old English literature, Mr Bryant was
the author of Observations on the Poems of Thomas Row-
ley, in which the authenticity of these poems is ascertained,
2 vols. 12mo, 1781. If there could be any excuse for the
commission of forgeries like that of Chatterton, it would be
found in their serving as a valuable test of the degree of
confidence which it is justifiable to place in the decrees of
the most powerful critics respecting other questions of a
more ambiguous nature.
Mr Bryant contributed to the publication of the Duke
of Marlborough's Collection of Gems, the Latin explana-
4 U
Bryant.
II
706 BUY
Bryaxis. tions contained in the first volume, fol. 1783. He inserted
^ in the Archceologia, vii. 387, some Collections on the Zin-
garo or Gipsey Language, which has since been sufficiently
proved to be one of the many derivatives of the old Sanscrit.
Some time afterwards he published an anonymous Treatise
on the Authenticity of the Scriptures, and the truth of the
Christian Religion, 1792. This was succeeded by his Ob¬
servations upon the Plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians,
8vo, 1794.
His opinions respecting the existence of the city of
Troy, and the veracity of Homer as a historian, raised up
against him a host of powerful adversaries; and in a ques¬
tion of this nature, upon which the decisions of mankind
are so manifestly influenced by their sensibility to poetical
beauty, and their early habits and attachments, a much
more cautious attempt to innovate might easily have been
unsuccessful. Whatever learning and talents may have
been exhibited in this controversy, it will hardly be believed
by an impartial judge, reasoning on the general probabili¬
ties of the case, that Homer intended the actions of his
heroes, any more than their genealogies, to be historically
correct; but, at the same time, it will readily be admitted
that he was much more likely to take for the scene of his
poem a town that had really existed, and for its subject, a
traditional report of a war which had actually been carried
on, than to have invented a fabulous city and an imaginary
warfare, without any historical foundation whatever. Mr
Bryant published on this subject Observations on a Treatise
entitled Description of the Plain of Troy, by Mr de Che¬
valier, 4to, 1795: A Dissertation concerning the War of
Troy, and the expedition of the Greeks, as described by
Homer; showing that no such expedition was ever under¬
taken, and that no such city in Phrygia existed ; 4to, 1796 :
Observations on the Vindication of Homer, written by J. B. S.
Morritt, Esq., 4to, 1799.
He had, in the meantime, not discontinued his theo¬
logical studies, and had published an Essay on The Senti¬
ments of Philo Judeeus concerning the Word of God, 8vo,
1797. His last work was a volume of Dissertations on va¬
rious Subjects in the Old Testament, which had been nearly
completed thirty years before. The subjects which had
particularly attracted his attention were the histories of
Balaam, Samson, and Jonah; and besides Philo Judseus
and Josephus? he had endeavoured to illustrate some con¬
troverted passages of Justin Martyr, as well as many other
departments of religious and historical discussion.
The habits of Mr Bryant’s maturer life were in general
completely sedentary ; although, in his youth, he had taken
his full share in the cultivation of the manly exercises com¬
mon to Etonians, and had once the good fortune to save, by
his proficiency in swimming, the life of Dr Barnard, after¬
wards provost of Eton. His conversation was elegant and
animated, his manners mild but firm ; he exerted himself to
please others, and was himself easily pleased. He was much
courted in society, and his residence at Cypenham, near
Windsor, was not unfrequently visited by persons of the
highest possible rank. He never married. He died in his
eighty-ninth year, the 14th November 1804, from the im¬
mediate consequence of an accidental blow. He left his
library to King’s College, having, however, previously made
some valuable presents out of it to the king and to the Duke
of Marlborough. He also bequeathed L.2000to the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel, and L.1000 for the use
of the superannuated collegers of Eton school. {Gentle¬
man's Magazine^ Ixxiv. p. 1080, 1165; Nichols’s Literary
Anecdotes, iv. 667, 8vo, Bond. 1812 ; Aikin’s Biographical
Dictionary, x.) (t.y.)
BRYAXIS, a celebrated Athenian statuary. His era is
uncertain; but as he executed a statue of Seleucus king
of Syria, and contributed, along with Timotheus and other
artists, to adorn the Mausoleum, it may be placed in the
B U B
latter half of the fourth century b. c. His skill may be in- Bryennius
ferred from the fact, that several of his statues were at differ- II
ent times attributed to Phidias. Bubastis.
BRYENNIUS, Manuel, a Greek writer on music, who
is supposed to have flourished under the emperor Androni-
cus I., who reigned from 1282 till 1328. He Avrote three
books of harmonics, the first of which is a kind of commen¬
tary on Euclid, while the second and third are illustrative of
the theory of Ptolemy. Meibomius had given the public
expectations of a translation of this work, but not living to
complete his task, Dr Wallis published it in 1680; and it
now forms part of the third volume of his works, published
at Oxford in 3 vols. fol., 1699. In the Royal Library at
Paris there are several fine MSS. of Bryennius’s work;
which, however, throws no light on the mysterious subject
of the structure of ancient Greek melody.
BRYONIA Dioica, bryony—a native plant which was
formerly used as a drastic purgative, but is now disused be¬
cause of its violent effects. The root yields bryonine, an
acrid vegetable alkaloid which is very poisonous.
BRYOPHYLLUM, agenus of succulent plants, which
have the property of budding from the margin of their leaves.
The only known species is B. calycinum, a native of the
Moluccas.
BRZESC, a fortified town of Russia, on the right bank
of the Bug, in the government of Grodno, 110 miles south
of the city of that name. It has a citadel, an old castle, a
famous Jewish synagogue, high school, and an active transit
trade. In 1794 this was the scene of a battle between the
Russians and Poles. Pop. 8000.
BRZEZANY, the capital of a circle of the same name
in Austrian Galicia, situated on the Zlotar Lissa, 50 miles
S. by E. of Lemberg. It has a castle, gymnasium, and some
manufactures oflinen. Pop. 7500.
BUA, an island in the Adriatic Sea, belonging to the
province of Spalatro, in the Austrian kingdom of Dalmatia.
It is situated on the coast, opposite to Trau, with which it is
connected by a bridge ; is rich in wine, oil, and fruit; and
contains about 4000 inhabitants. There is in it a remark¬
able well of asphaltum.
BUAT-NANCAY, Louis-Gabriel, Count du, a diplo¬
matist and historian, was born of an old family in Nor¬
mandy, March 2, 1732. At an early age he entered into
the order of Malta; and became acquainted with the Che¬
valier de Folard, author of the Commentaries on Polybius,
who received him into his house and superintended his
education. Buat, through Folard’s influence, was succes¬
sively minister for France at Ratisbon and Dresden ; but
becoming disgusted with this career, he retired from public
life in 1776. He died at Nan^ay, in Berry, Sept. 18, 1787.
Buat was a man of some talents and considerable literary
attainments, but his want of knowledge of the world seems
to have in a great measure disqualified him for public em¬
ployment. He wrote with great facility; but his style is
very unequal. He was the author of several works on poli¬
tics and history, of which the best are his Tableau du
Gouvernement actuel de VEmpire d’Allemagne, translated
from the German of Schmauss, with notes historical and criti¬
cal, Paris, 1755,12mo. Les Origines, ou TAncien Gouverne¬
ment de la France, de VItalic, et de VAllemagne, Hague,
1757, 4 vols. 12mo. Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de
VEurope, Paris, 1772,12 vols. 12mo. Besides other works,
he contributed various articles to the journals of his time, on
history, literature, and political economy; in particular, some
excellent observations on the character of Xenophon, in¬
serted in vol. iv. of the Varietes Litteraires. (See Bio¬
graphic Vniversellci)
BUBASTIS, in the Egyptian mythology, one of the
names of Isis or the moon. The Egyptians bestowed dif¬
ferent names on the sun, either to characterize its effects
or its relations with respect to the earth; and they followed
BUG
Bubona the same method respecting the moon. Chseremon, a sacred
II writer of Egypt, leaves no doubt on this subject. “ Every
Bucaneer. thing which is published of Osiris and Isis, all the sacerdotal
fables, allude only to the phases of the moon and the course
of the sun.” Bubastis was one of the principal attributes of
Isis. Theology first personified her, and then raised her to
the rank of divinity, in whose honour a city of that name
was built, as described by Herodotus (ii. 137, 138), and
where the people, to the number of 700,000, collected an¬
nually from all parts of Egypt to celebrate her festival
The symbol of this deity was a cat, which the priests fed
with sacred food ; and when it died, its body was embalmed
and carried in pomp to the tomb prepared for its reception.
The ancients have explained this worship variously. The
Greeks maintained that when Typhon declared war against
the gods, Apollo transformed himself into a vulture, Mer¬
cury into an ibis, and Bubastis into a cat, and that the ve¬
neration of the people for the latter animal took its rise
from that fable; but they ascribed their own ideas to the
Egyptians, who thought very differently. However that
may be, the cat was greatly honoured in Egypt; and on one
occasion when a Roman soldier imprudently killed one, he
was immediately put to death by the populace. In the lan¬
guage of the priests, Bubastis was deemed the daughter of
Isis, and even represented her in certain circumstances. It
is for this reason that the Greeks, who honoured the moon
by the name of Artemis (Diana), bestowed it also on this
Egyptian divinity. The Egyptians attributed to Bubastis
the virtue of assisting pregnant women; while the Greeks
and Latins, disciples of the Egyptians, ascribed the same
power to Artemis (Diana). Among the numerous Egyp-'
tian antiquities in the British Museum there are several
statues of Bubastis, whose hieroglyphic name is now known
to be Pasht.
BUBONA, among the Romans, the name of the god¬
dess who presided over cows and oxen. Small statues of
this divinity were generally placed in the niches of byres
and stables; or a likeness of the goddess was painted over
the manger.
BUB ULCUS, the name of a family of the Junian gens.
The only member of this family who particularly distin¬
guished himself was C. Junius Bubulcus Brutus, who held
all the highest offices of state in the republican times of an¬
cient Rome, was three times consul, and in b. c. 302 was
appointed dictator. He rendered important service to the
state in its war with the Samnites, whom he defeated with
the loss of 20,000 men near Bovianum. For this victory
he was honoured with a triumph.
BUC, Sir George, a learned English antiquary, de¬
scended of an ancient family in Lincolnshire, and born to¬
wards the close of the 16th century. In the reign of James
I. he was made one of the gentlemen of his Majesty’s privy
chamber, and knighted; and was also constituted master of
the revels. His greatest claim to distinction is his History
of the Reign of Richard HI.; in which (as if in anticipa¬
tion of Horace Walpole) he endeavours to wipe off the
bloody stains which have tarnished the character of that
prince, and represents his person and actions in a much less
odious light than any other historian has done. He also
wrote a Treatise of the Art of Revels ; and a work entitled
the Third Universitie of England. He died in 1623.
BUCANEER (from the French boucaner), in its pri¬
mary sense, denotes one who dries and smokes flesh or fish
after the manner of the Indians. The name was particularly
given to the first French settlers in the island of St Do¬
mingo or Hayti, whose principal employment consisted in
hunting bulls or wild boars, in order to sell their hides
and flesh. The name has also been applied to those
famous piratical adventurers, chiefly English and French,
who joined together to commit depredations on the Spa-
BUC 707
niards of America. Of both these we shall give an ac- Bucaneer.
COUnt.
I. The Bucaneers of St Domingo.—The Spaniards had
not long been in possession of the West Indies and of
the continent of America, when other nations, especially
the English and French, began to seek establishments
there. But though the Spaniards were unable to people
such extensive countries themselves, they were resolved
that no others should do it for them, and therefore waged
a cruel war on all those of any other nation who attempted
to settle in any of the Antilles or Caribbee Islands. The
French, however, were at last lucky enough to acquire
some footing in the island of St Christophers; but by the
time they began to subside into a regular form of govern¬
ment, the Spaniards found means to dislodge them. Upon
this the wretched fugitives, considering at how great a
distance they were from their mother country, and how
near to the island of Hispaniola or St Domingo, the north¬
ern parts of which were then uninhabited, and full of
swine and black cattle, immediately resolved to take pos¬
session of that country, in conjunction with several other
adventurers of their own and the English nation; espe¬
cially as the Dutch, who now began to appear in these
seas, promised to supply them plentifully with all kinds of
necessaries they might require, in exchange for the hides
and tallow they should procure by hunting.
Ihese new settlers obtained the name otbucaneers, from
their custom of bucanning their beef and pork in order to
keep it for sale or for their own consumption. But some of
them soon grew tired of this new way of life, and took to
planting ; whilst many more chose to turn pirates, trusting
to find among those who remained on shore a quick sale
for all the plunder they could make at sea. This new body
of adventurers were called freebooters, from their making
free prey or booty of whatever came in their way.
The colony now began to thrive at a great rate, by the
cheap and easy manner in which the freebooters acquired
the greatest riches, and the profusion with which they
distributed them amongst their old companions, the buca¬
neers and planters, for the merest trifles. This brought
numbers of settlers from France in quality of indentured
servants, though they toiled rather like slaves than servants
during the three years for which they generally bound
themselves. One of these men presuming to represent to
his master, who always fixed upon a Sunday for sending
him with skins to the port, that God had forbidden such a
practice when he had declared that “ six days shalt thou
labour, and on the seventh day shalt thou rest,” the bru¬
tish bucaneer replied, “ And I say to thee, six days shalt
thou kill bulls, and strip them of their skins, and on the
seventh day shalt thou carry their hides to the sea shores
and this command was followed by blows. Thus the
colony consisted of four classes; bucaneers, freebooters,
planters, and indentured servants who generally remain¬
ed with the bucaneers or planters. And these four orders
composed what they now began to call the body of adven¬
turers, who lived together in perfect harmony, under a kind
of democracy; every freeman having a despotic authority
oyer his own family, and every captain being sovereign in
his ship, though liable to be discarded at the discretion of
the crew.
The planters had settled chiefly in the little island of
Tortuga, on the northern coast of Hispaniola; but soon
afterwards some of them having gone to the great island
to hunt with the bucaneers, the rest were surprised by the
Spaniardsand all, even those who had surrendered at
discretion in hopes of mercy, were put to the sword or
hanged. The next care of the Spaniards was to rid the
gieat island of the bucaneers ; and for this purpose they
assemoled a body of five hundred lance-men, who, by
A
708
BUCANEER.
Bucaneer. their seldom going fewer than fifty in a company, obtained
from their enemies the name of the Fifties. But before
detailing the particulars of this attack we shall endeavour
to give some account of the manners and customs of the
people whom it was proposed to extirpate.
The bucaneers lived in little huts built on some spots
of cleared ground, just large enough to dry their skins on,
and contain their bucanning houses. These spots they
called boucans, and the huts they dwelt in ajoupas, a word
which they borrowed from the Spaniards, and the Spa¬
niards from the natives. Though these ajoupas lay open
on all sides, they were very agreeable to the hardy inha¬
bitants in a climate where a free circulation of air is so de¬
sirable. As the bucaneers had neither wives nor chil¬
dren, they associated by pairs, and mutually rendered
each other all the services a master could reasonably ex¬
pect from a servant, living together in so perfect a com¬
munity, that the survivor always succeeded his deceased
partner. This kind of union or fellowship they called
semateloter (insailoring), and each other matelot (sailor),
whence is derived the custom of giving, at least in some
parts of the French Antilles, the name matelotage (sailor-
age) to any kind of society formed by private persons for
their mutual advantage. They behaved to each other
with the greatest justice and openness of heart; it was
considered as a crime to keep any thing under lock and
key; but, on the other hand, the least pilfering was un¬
pardonable, and punished with expulsion from the com¬
munity. And, indeed, there could be no great temptation
to steal, seeing it was reckoned a point of honour never
to refuse a neighbour what he wanted; and where there
was so little property, it was impossible there should be
many disputes. If any such happened, the common friends
of the parties at variance interposed, and soon put an end
to the difference.
As to laws, the bucaneers acknowledged none but an
odd jumble of conventions made between themselves,
which, however, they regarded as the sovereign rule. They
silenced all objections by coolly answering, that it was not
the custom of the coast; and grounded their right of act-
any brim, except a little flap in the front; and shoes of Bucaneer.
hogskin, all of a piece. Their guns were four feet and a
half in the barrel, and of a calibre sufficient to admit balls
of an ounce. Every man had his contract servants, more
or fewer according to his abilities ; besides a pack of twen¬
ty or thirty dogs, among which there was always a couple
of beagles. Their chief employment at first was ox-hunt¬
ing ; and if at any time they chased a wild hog, it was
rather for pastime, or to make provision for a feast, than
for any other advantage. But in process of time some of
them betook themselves entirely to the hunting of hogs,
whose flesh they bucanned in the following manner : first,
they cut the flesh into long pieces, an inch and a half
thick, and sprinkled them with salt, which they rubbed off
after twenty-four hours; then they dried these pieces in
stoves, over a fire made of the skin and bones of the beast,
till they grew as hard as a board, and assumed a deep
brown colour. Pork prepared in this manner might be
kept in casks a twelvemonth and longer; and when steep¬
ed a little while in lukewarm water, it became plump and
rosy, yielding, either broiled, boiled, or otherwise dressed,
a grateful smell, sufficient to tempt the most languid ap¬
petite and please the most delicate palate.
In hunting, they set out at day-break, preceded by the
beagles, and followed by their servants with the rest of
the dogs ; and as they made it a point never to baulk their
beagles, they were often led by them over the most fright¬
ful precipices, and through places which any other mor¬
tal would have deemed absolutely impassable. As soon as
the beagles had roused the game, the rest of the dogs
struck up and surrounded the beast, stopping it, and keep¬
ing a constant barking till the bucaneer could get near
enough to shoot it, in doing which he commonly aimed at
the pit of the breast; and when the beast fell he hamstrung
it, to prevent its rising again. But it has sometimes hap¬
pened that the creature, not wounded enough to tumble
to the ground, has run furiously at his pursuer, and rip¬
ped him open. In general, however, the bucaneer seldom
missed his aim; and when he did, he was nimble enough
to get up the tree behind which he usually had the pre-
inginthis manner on their baptism under the tropic, which caution to place himself ; whilst some of them have been
freed them, in their opinion, from all obligations antece- seen to overtake the beast in chase, and hamstring it with-
dent to that marine ceremony. The governor of Tortuga,
when that island was again settled, though appointed by
the French court, had very little authority over them ; and
they contented themselves with rendering him from time
to time some slight homage. They had in a manner entire¬
ly shaken off the yoke of religion, and thought they did a
great deal in not wholly forgetting the God of their fathers.
We are surprised to meet with nations among whom it is
a difficult matter to discover any trace of a religious wor¬
ship ; and yet it is certain, that had the bucaneers of St
Domingo been perpetuated on the same footing on which
they subsisted at the time we are speaking of, the third or
fourth generation of them would have possessed as little
religion as the Caffres and Hottentots of Africa, or the Can¬
nibals of the South Sea Islands.
They even laid aside their surnames, and assumed nick¬
names or martial names, most of which afterwards con¬
tinued in their families. Many, however, on their marry¬
ing, which seldom happened till they turned planters, took
care to have their real surnames inserted in the French
contract; and this practice gave occasion to a proverb,
which long remained current in the French Antilles, that
a man is not to be known till he takes a wife.
Their dress consisted of a filthy greasy shirt, dyed with
the blood of the animals they killed; a pair of trousers
still more nasty; a thong of leather by way of belt, to
which they hung a case containing some Dutch knives,
and a kind of short sabre called manchette ; a hat without
out any further ceremony.
As soon as the prey was half skinned, the master cut out
a large bone, and sucked the marrow for breakfast; leav¬
ing the rest to his servants, one of whom always remained
behind to finish the skinning, and bring the skin, with a
choice piece of meat for the huntsman’s dinner. They
then continued the chase till they had killed as many
beasts as there were heads in the company. The master
was the last to return to the boucan, loaded like the rest
with a skin and a piece of meat. Here the bucaneers
found their tables ready ; for every one had his separate
table, which was the first thing, any way fit for the pur¬
pose, that came in their way, a stone, the trunk of a tree,
and the like. No table-cloth, no napkin, no bread or wine,
graced their board ; not even potatoes, or bananas, unless
they found them ready to their hand. When this did not
happen, the fat and lean of the game, taken alternately,
served to supply the place. A little pimento, and the juice
of an orange, formed their only sauce ; contentment, peace
of mind, a good appetite, and abundance of mirth, made
every thing agreeable. Thus they lived and spent their
time, till they had completed the number of hides for
which they had agreed with the merchants ; which done,
they carried them to Tortuga, or some port of the great
island.
As the bucaneers used much exercise, and fed only on
flesh, they generally enjoyed a good state of health. Ihey
were indeed subject to fevers; but these were either such
Bucaneer.
BUCANEER.
709
as lasted only a day, and left no sensible impression the day
following, or slight slow fevers, which did not hinder them
from action, and were of course so little regarded, that it
was usual with the patient, when asked how he did, to an¬
swer, “ Very well; nothing ails me but the fever.” It was
impossible, however, that they should not suffer consider¬
ably by such fatigues, under a climate to the heat of which
few of them had been early enough inured. Hence the most
considerate among them, after they had got money enough
for that purpose, turned planters ;—the rest soon spent
the fruits of their labour in taverns and tippling-houses;
and many had so habituated themselves to this kind of
life, as to become incapable of any other. Nay, there
have been instances of young men, who having early em¬
barked through necessity in this painful and dangerous
profession, persisted in it afterwards, merely through a
principle of libertinism, rather than return to France and
take possession of the most plentiful fortunes.
Such were the bucaneers of St Domingo, and such was
their situation when the Spaniards undertook to extirpate
them. And at first the assailants met with great success;
for as the bucaneers hunted separately, every one attended
by his servants, they were easily surprised. Hence the
Spaniards killed numbers, and took many more, whom
they condemned to a most cruel slavery. But whenever
the bucaneers had time to put themselves into a state of
defence, they fought like lions, to avoid falling into the
hands of a nation from whom they were sure to receive
no quarter; and by this means they often escaped; nay,
there are many instances of single men fighting their way
through numbers. These dangers, however, and the suc¬
cess of the Spaniards in discovering their boucans, where
they used to surprise and cut the throats of the bucaneers
and their servants in their sleep, engaged them to cohabit
in greater numbers, and even to act offensively, in hopes
that by so doing they might at last induce the Spaniards
to let them live in peace. But the fury with which they
behaved whenever they met any Spaniards served only to
make their enemies more intent on their destruction ; and
assistance coming to both parties, the whole island was
turned into a slaughter-house, and so much blood spilt on
both sides, that many places, on account of the carnage
of which they had been the scenes, were described as the
hill of the massacre, the plain of the massacre, the valley
of the massacre, and so forth.
At length the Spaniards grew tired of this mode of pro¬
ceeding, and had recourse to their old method of surprise,
which, against enemies of more courage than vigilance, was
likely to succeed better. This placed the bucaneers un¬
der a necessity of never hunting except in large parties,
and fixing their boucans in the little islands on the coast,
where they retired every evening; an expedient which
succeeded very well, and the boucans, by being more fix¬
ed, soon acquired the air and consistency of little towns.
When the bucaneers had once established themselves, as
here related, each boucan sent out scouts every morning to
the highest part of the island, in order to reconnoitre the
coast, and see if any Spanish parties were abroad. If no
enemy appeared, they appointed a place and hour of ren¬
dezvous in the evening, and were never absent if not killed
or made prisoners. When, therefore, any one of the com¬
pany was missing, it was not lawful for the rest to hunt
again till they had got intelligence of him if taken, or
avenged his death if killed. Things continued in this si¬
tuation for a long time, till the Spaniards made a general
hunt over the whole island, and, by destroying the game,
forced the bucaneers to betake themselves to another
course of life. Some of them turned planters, and thus
increased the French settlements on the coast, or formed
others; whilst the rest, not relishing so confined and re¬
gular a life, entered among the freebooters, who there-Bucaneer>
by became a very powerful body. France, which had
hitherto disclaimed for her subjects these ruffians, whose
successes were only temporary, acknowledged them, how¬
ever, as soon as they formed themselves into settlements,
and took proper measures for their government and de¬
fence.
II. Bucaneers, the Pirates.—Before the English had ef¬
fected any settlement in Jamaica, and the French in St
Domingo, some pirates of both nations, who were after¬
wards so much distinguished by the name of Bucaneers,
had driven the Spaniards out of the small island of Tor¬
tuga ; and, fortifying themselves there, had with an amaz¬
ing intrepidity made excursions against the common ene¬
my. They formed themselves into small companies con¬
sisting of fifty, a hundred, or a hundred and fifty men each.
A boat, of greater or smaller size, was their only arma¬
ment. Here they were exposed night and day to all the
inclemencies of the weather, having scarce room enough
to lie down. A love of absolute independence render¬
ed them averse from those mutual restraints which the
members of society impose upon themselves for the com¬
mon good; and as the authority they had conferred on
their captain was confined to his giving orders in battle,
they lived in the greatest confusion. Like the savages,
having no apprehension of want, nor any care to preserve
the necessaries of life, they were constantly exposed to
the severest extremities of hunger and thirst; but de¬
riving from their very distresses a courage superior to
every danger, the sight of a ship transported them to
a degree bordering on frenzy. They never deliberated
on the attack, but it was their custom to board the ship
as soon as possible. The smallness of their vessels, and
the skill they showed in the management of them, screen¬
ed them from the fire of the larger class of ships ; and they
presented only the fore part of their little vessels filled with
fusileers, who fired at the port-holes with so much exact¬
ness that it entirely confounded the most experienced
gunners. As soon as they threw out the grappling, the
largest vessels seldom escaped them.
In cases of extreme necessity they attacked the people
of every nation, but fell upon the Spaniards at all times.
They thought that the cruelties which the latter had ex¬
ercised on the inhabitants of the new world justified the
implacable aversion they had sworn against them. But
this was heightened by the mortification they felt in see¬
ing themselves debarred from the privileges of hunting
and fishing, which they considered as natural rights. Their
principles of justice and religion in no degree interfered
with their predatory habits ; for whenever they embarked
on any expedition, they used to pray to heaven for the suc¬
cess of it; and they never came back from plundering,
without returning thanks to God for their victory.
The ships which sailed from Europe to America seldom
tempted their avidity, since the merchandise which these
contained could not have been easily sold, nor indeed
very profitable to those barbarians. They always wait¬
ed for them on their return, when they were certain they
were laden with gold, silver, jewels, and all the valuable pro¬
ductions of the new world. If they met with a single ship
they never failed to attack her. As to the fleets, they fol¬
lowed them till they sailed out of the Gulf of Bahama; and
as soon as any one of the vessels was separated by acci¬
dent from the rest, it was taken. The Spaniards, who
trembled at the approach of the bucaneers, whom they
called devils, immediately surrendered. Quarter was grant¬
ed if the cargo proved to be a rich one ; if not, all the
prisoners were thrown into the sea.
The bucaneers, when they had got a considerable booty,
at first held their rendezvous at the island of Tortuga, in
B U C A N E E R,
710
Bucaneer. order to divide the spoil; but afterwards the French went
to St Domingo, and the English to Jamaica. Each per¬
son, holding up his hand, solemnly protested that he had
secreted nothing of what he had taken. If any one among
them was convicted of perjury, a case which seldom hap¬
pened, he was left, as soon as an opportunity offered, upon
some desert island, as a traitor unworthy to live in society.
Such of their number as had been maimed in any of their
expeditions were first provided for. If they had lost a
hand, an arm, a leg, or a foot, they received twenty-six
pounds ; whilst an eye, a finger, or a toe, lost in fight, was
valued only at half this sum. The wounded were allowed
half a crown per day for two months, to enable them to
have their wounds taken care of; and if they had not money
enough to answer these several demands, the whole com¬
pany were obliged to engage in some fresh expedition, and
to continue it till they had acquired a sufficient stock to
enable them to satisfy these honourable contracts. The
remainder of the booty was then divided into as many
shares as there were bucaneers. The commander could
only lay claim to a single share; but they complimented
him with two or three, in proportion as he had acquitted
himself to their satisfaction. Favour never had any influ¬
ence in the division of the booty, for every share was de¬
termined by lot. The most rigid justice was extended even
to the dead. His share was given to the man who was
known to be his companion when alive, and therefore
accounted his heir. If the person who had been killed
had no intimate, his portion was sent to his relations when
they were known ; and if there were no friends or relations,
it was distributed in charity to the poor, and to the churches,
which consented to offer up prayers for the person in whose
name these benefactions were given.
When these duties had been complied with, they then
indulged themselves in all kinds of profusion. Unbound¬
ed licentiousness in gaming, wine, women, and every kind
of debauchery, was carried So the utmost pitch of excess,
and was stopt only by the want which such profusion
brought on. Those who had been enriched with several
millions were in an instant totally ruined, and rendered
destitute of clothes and provisions. They returned to sea ;
and the new supplies which they acquired were soon la¬
vished in the same manner as before.
The Spanish colonies, flattering themselves with the
hope of seeing an end to their miseries, and reduced al¬
most to despair at finding themselves a perpetual prey
to these ruffians, grew weary of navigation. They gave
up all the power, conveniencies, and fortune, which their
connections procured them, and formed themselves into so
many distinct and separate associations. They were sen¬
sible of the great inconvenience arising from such a con¬
duct, and avowed it; but the dread of falling into the
hands of rapacious and savage men had greater influence
over them than the dictates of honour, interest, and po¬
licy. This gave rise to that spirit of inactivity which con¬
tinues to the present time, notwithstanding the agitating
events of which that quarter of the world has since been
the theatre.
The despondency thus produced served only to increase
the boldness of the bucaneers. As yet they had only ap¬
peared in the Spanish settlements in order to carry off
provisions when in want of them. But they no sooner
found their captures begin to diminish, than they deter¬
mined to recover by land what they had lost at sea. The
richest and most populous countries of the continent were
plundered and laid waste. The culture of lands was as
much neglected as navigation; and the Spaniards dared no
more appear in their public roads, than sail in the latitudes
which belonged to them.
Among the bucaneers who signalized themselves in this
new species of freebooting, Montbar, a gentleman of Lan- Bucaneer.
guedoc, particularly distinguished himself. Having by <-v-w
chance, in his infancy, met with a circumstantial account
of the cruelties practised in the conquest of the New World,
he conceived an aversion, which he carried to a degree of
frenzy, against that nation which had committed such enor¬
mities. The enthusiasm which this spirit of humanity
worked him up to merged in a ferocity still more cruel
than that of the religious fanaticism to which so many
victims had been sacrificed. The manes of these unhap¬
py sufferers seemed to rouse him, and call for vengeance.
He had heard some account of the bucaneers, who were
said to be the most inveterate enemies to the Spanish
name; and he therefore embarked, with some others, on
board a ship in order to join them.
In the passage they met with a Spanish vessel, at¬
tacked, and, as was usual in those times, immediately
boarded it. Montbar, with a sabre in his hand, fell upon
the enemy, broke through them, and, hurrying twice from
one end of the ship to the other, levelled every thing that
opposed him. When he had compelled the enemy to sur¬
render, leaving to his companions the happiness of dividing
so rich a booty, he contented himself with the savage plea¬
sure of contemplating the dead bodies of the Spaniards,
against whom he had sworn a constant and deadly hatred.
Fresh opportunities soon occurred which enabled him
to exercise this spirit of revenge without extinguishing it.
The ship which conveyed him arrived on the coast of St
Domingo, where the bucaneers on land immediately applied
to barter provisions for brandy. As the articles they offered
were of little value, they alleged in excuse that their ene¬
mies had overrun the country, laid waste their settlements,
and carried off all their property. “ Why,” replied Mont¬
bar, “ do you tamely suffer such insults ?” “ Neither do
we,” answered they; “ the Spaniards have experienced
what kind of men we are, and have therefore taken ad¬
vantage of the time when we were engaged in hunting;
but we are going to join some of our companions who have
been still worse treated than we, and then we shall have
warm work.” “ If you approve of it,” answered Montbar,
“ I will head you, not as your commander, but as the fore¬
most to expose myself to danger.” The bucaneers perceiv¬
ing from his appearance that he was the very man they
wanted, cheerfully accepted his offer; and the same day
they overtook the enemy, when Montbar attacked them
with an impetuosity that astonished the bravest, and scarce
one Spaniard escaped the effects of his fury. The remain¬
ing part of his life was equally distinguished as this day.
The Spaniards suffered so much from him, both by sea and
land, that he acquired the name of the Exterminator.
His savage disposition, as well as that of the other bu¬
caneers who attended him, having obliged the Spaniards
to confine themselves within their settlements, the free¬
booters resolved to attack them there. This new method
of carrying on the war required superior forces ; and their
associations in consequence became more numerous. I he
first considerable one was that formed by L’Olonois, who
derived his name from the sands of Olones, the place of
his birth. From the abject state of a bondsman, he had
gradually raised himself to the command of two canoes,
with twenty-two men ; and with these he was so successful
as to take a Spanish frigate on the coast of Cuba. He
then repaired to Port-au-Prince, in which were four ships,
fitted out purposely to sail in pursuit of him; but he took
them, and threw all the crews into the sea except one
man, whom he saved in order to send him with a letter to
the governor of the Havannah, acquainting him with what
he had done, and assuring him that he would treat in the
same manner all the Spaniards who. should fall into his
hands, not excepting the governor himself if he were for-
B 17 C A N E E R.
711
Bucaneer. tunate enough to take him. After this expedition he ran
w-Y'w' his canoes and prize ships aground, and sailed with his
frigate only to the island of Tortuga.
At Tortuga he met with Michael de Basco, who had
distinguished himself by taking, even under the cannon
of Porto Bello, a Spanish ship, estimated at L.218,500,
and by other actions equally brave and daring. These
two gave out that they were going to embark together on
an expedition equally glorious and profitable; and in con¬
sequence they soon collected together four hundred and
forty men. This body of men, the most numerous which
the bucaneers had yet been able to muster, sailed to the
Bay of Venezuela, which runs up into the country for the
space of about fifty leagues. The fort which was built at
the entrance for its defence was taken ; the cannon were
spiked ; and the whole garrison, consisting of two hundred
and fifty men, were put to death. They then re-embarked
and came to Maracaybo, built on the western coast of the
lake of the same name, at the distance of ten leagues from
its mouth. This city, which had become flourishing and
rich by its trade in skins, tobacco, and cocoa, was desert¬
ed ; and the inhabitants had retired with their effects to the
other side of the bay. If the bucaneers had not lost a
fortnight in riot and debauchery, they would have found
at Gibraltar, near the extremity of the lake, every thing
which the inhabitants had secreted, to secure it from being
plundered. On the contrary they met with fortifications
lately erected, which they had the bootless satisfaction of
making themselves masters of at the expense of a great
deal of blood; for the inhabitants had already removed to
a distance the most valuable part of their property. Ex¬
asperated at this disappointment, they set fire to Gibraltar;
and Maracaybo would have shared the same fate had it
not been ransomed. Besides the sum which they receiv¬
ed for its ransom, they also carried off all the crosses,
pictures, and bells of the churches; intending, as they
said, to build a chapel in the island of Tortuga, and to
consecrate this part of their spoils to sacred purposes.
Such was the religion of these barbarous people, who could
make no other offering to heaven than that which arose
from their robberies and plunder.
But while they were idly dissipating the spoils which
they had made on the coast of Venezuela, Morgan, the
most renowned of the English bucaneers, sailed from Ja¬
maica to attack Porto Bello. His plan of operations was so
well contrived that he surprised and took the city without
opposition. The conquest of Panama was an object of
much greater importance. To secure this Morgan thought
it necessary to sail in the latitudes of Costa-Rica, in order
to procure some guides in the island of St Catharines, where
the Spaniards confined their malefactors. This place was
so strongly fortified that it might to have held out for ten
years against a considerable army. But notwithstanding
this, the governor, on the first appearance of the pirates,
sent privately to concert measures how he might surrender
himself without incurring the imputation of cowardice; and
the result of this consultation was, that Morgan in the
night-time was to attack a fort at some distance, while the
governor was to sally out of the citadel to defend a post of
so much consequence, and that the assailants should then
attack him in the rear, and take him prisoner, which would
occasion an immediate surrender of the place. It was
agreed that a smart firing should be kept up on both sides,
without doing mischief to either. This farce was admirably
carried on. The Spaniards, without being exposed to any
danger, appeared to have done their duty ; and the buca¬
neers, after having totally demolished the fortifications,
and put on board their vessels a prodigious quantity of
warlike ammunition., which they found at St Catharines,
steered their course towards the river Chagre, the only
channel whereby they could arrive at the place which was Bucaneer.
the object of their wishes.
At the entrance of this considerable river a fort had
been built upon a steep rock, which the waves of the sea
constantly beat against. This bulwark, naturally difficult
of access, was defended by an officer whose extraordinary
abilities were equal to his courage, and by a garrison which
was in all respects worthy of such a commander. Here the
bucaneers, for the first time, met with a resistance which
could only be equalled by their perseverance; and it was
a doubtful point whether they should succeed or be obliged
to raise the siege, when a lucky accident happened which
proved favourable to their glory and their fortune. The
commander was killed, and the fort accidentally took fire;
upon which the besiegers, taking advantage of this double
calamity, made themselves masters of the place.
Morgan left his vessels at anchor, with a sufficient num¬
ber of men to guard them, and sailed up the river in his
sloops for thirty-three miles, till he came to Cruces, where
it ceases to be navigable; and he then proceeded by land
to Panama, which was only five leagues distant. Upon a
large and extensive plain which stretched out before the
city, he metwith a considerable body of troops, whom he put
to flight with the greatest ease, and entered the city, which
was now abandoned. Here were found prodigious treasures
concealed in the wells and caves; some valuable commo¬
dities were also taken in the boats which were left aground
at low water; and in the neighbouring forests were like¬
wise found several rich deposits. Having burnt the city,
they set sail with a great number of prisoners, who were
ransomed a few days afterwards, and arrived at the mouth
of the Chagre with a prodigious booty.
In 1603 an expedition of the greatest consequence was
formed by Van Horn, a native of Ostend, but who had
served all his life among the French. His own intrepidi¬
ty prevented his tolerating the least signs of cowardice
amongst those who associated with him. In the heat of
an engagement he went about his ship, observed his men
in succession, and immediately killed those who shrunk
at the sudden report of a pistol, gun, or cannon. This
extraordinary discipline rendered him the terror of the
coward and the idol of the brave. In other respects he
readily shared with the men of spirit and bravery the im¬
mense riches which were acquired in the course of his
marauding expeditions. When he went upon such expe¬
ditions, he generally sailed in his frigate, which was his
own property. But his designs requiring greater numbers
to carry them into execution, he called to his assistance
Grammont, Godfrey, and Jonque, three Frenchmen distin¬
guished by their exploits, and Lawrence de Graff", a Dutch¬
man, who had signalized himself still more than they.
Twelve hundred bucaneers joined themselves to these
commanders, and sailed in six vessels for Vera Cruz.
The darkness of the night favoured their landing, which
was effected about three leagues from the place, where they
arrived without being discovered. The governor, the fort,
the barracks, and the posts of the greatest consequence,
every thing, in short, which could occasion any resistance,
were taken by the break of day. All the citizens, men,
women, and children, were shut up in the churches, whi¬
ther they had fled for shelter. At the door of each church
were placed barrels of gunpowder to blow up the building;
and a bucaneer, with a lighted match, was to set fire to it
upon the least appearance of an insurrection.
While the city was kept in this state of terror, it was
easily pillaged; and after the bucaneers had carried off what¬
ever was most valuable, they made a proposal to the citizens
who were kept prisoners in the churches to ransom their
lives and liberties by a contribution of L.437,500. This
unfortunate people, who had neither eaten nor drunken for
712
BUCANEER.
Bucaneer. three days, cheerfully accepted the terms which were offer-
ed them. Half of the money was paid the same day, and
the other part was expected from the interior of the
country, when there appeared on an eminence a consider¬
able body of troops advancing, and near the port a fleet
of seventeen ships from Europe. At the sight of this
armament, the bucaneers, without any marks of surprise,
retired quietly, with fifteen hundred slaves they had seized,
as a trifling indemnification for the rest of the money they
expected, the settling of which they referred to a more fa¬
vourable opportunity. Their retreat was equally daring.
They boldly sailed through the midst of the Spanish fleet,
which let them pass without firing a single gun, and, in
fact, seemed afraid of being attacked and beaten. The
Spaniards would not probably have escaped so easily, if
the vessels of the pirates had not been laden with silver,
or if the Spanish fleet had been freighted with any other
effects but such merchandise as was little valued by these
daring freebooters.
A year had scarcely elapsed since their return from
Mexico, when, on a sudden, they were all seized with a
passion for going to plunder Peru. It is probable that the
hopes of finding greater treasures upon a sea little fre¬
quented, than on one long exposed to piracies of this kind,
was the cause of this expedition; but it is somewhat re¬
markable, that both the English and French, and the as¬
sociations of these two nations, had projected this plan at
the same time, without any communication, intercourse, or
design of acting in concert with each other. About four
thousand men were employed in this expedition. Some of
them proceeded by Terra Firma, others by the Straits ot
Magelhaens, to the place which formed the object of their
wishes; and if the intrepidity of these barbarians had been
directed, under the influence of a skilful commander, to a
single end, it is certain that they would have deprived the
Spaniards of this important colony. But their natural cha¬
racter presented an invincible obstacle to so rare a union;
for they always formed themselves into several distinct
bodies, sometimes even so few in number as ten or twelve,
who acted together, or separated, as whim or caprice
dictated. Grognier, Lecuyer, Picard, and Le Sage, were
the most distinguished officers among the French; David
Samms, Peter Wilner, and Towley, among the English.
Such of these adventurers as had got into the South
Sea by the Straits of Darien seized upon the first vessel
which they found upon the coast; and their associates, who
had sailed in their own vessels, were not much better pro¬
vided. Weak, however, as they were, they several times
beat the squadrons which were fitted out against them. But
these victories were prejudicial to them, by interrupting
their navigation ; and when there were no more ships to
be taken, they were continually obliged to make descents
upon the coasts to get provisions, or to go by land in order
to plunder those cities where the booty had been secured.
They successively attacked Seppa, Puebla-Nuevo, Leon,
Realejo, Puebla-Viejo, Chiriquita, Lesparso, Granada, Vil-
lia, Nicoy, Tecoanteca, Mucmeluna, Chiloteca, New Se¬
govia, and Guayaquil, the most considerable ot all these
places.
Many of these places were taken by surprise, and most
of them deserted by their inhabitants, who fled at the sight
of the enemy. As soon as the bucaneers took a town, it
was directly set on fire, unless a sum proportioned to its
value was paid to save it. The prisoners taken in battle
were massacred without mercy if they were not ransomed
by the governor or some of the inhabitants; while gold,
pearls, or precious stones, were the only things accepted
of for the payment of their ransom. Silver being too com¬
mon, and too weighty for its current value, would have
been troublesome to them. The chances of fortune, which
seldom leave guilt unpunished, or adversity without a com- Bucaneer.
pensation for its suffering, atoned for the crimes committed
in the conquest of the New World ; and the Indians were
amply avenged on the Spaniards.
While such piracies were being committed on the South¬
ern Ocean, the Northern was threatened with the same by
Grammont. He was a native of Paris, by birth a gentle¬
man, and had distinguished himself in a military capacity
in Europe ; but his passion for wine, gaming, and women,
had obliged him to join the pirates. Nevertheless he
was affable, polite, generous, and eloquent; endued with
a sound judgment, and a person of approved valour; qua¬
lities which soon made him be considered as the chief of
the French bucaneers. As soon as it was known that he
had taken up arms, he was immediately joined by a num¬
ber of brave men. The governor of St Domingo, who
had at length prevailed upon his master to approve of the
project, equally wise and just, of fixing the pirates in
some place, and inducing them to become cultivators, was
desirous of preventing the concerted expedition, and for¬
bade it in the king’s name. But Grammont, who had a
greater share of sense than his associates, was not on that
account inclined to comply, and sternly replied, “ How can
Louis disapprove of a design he is unacquainted with, and
which has been planned only a few days ago ?” This an¬
swer highly pleased all the bucaneers, who directly em¬
barked in 1685 to attack Campeachy.
They landed without opposition. But at some distance
from the coast they were attacked by eight hundred Spa¬
niards, who were beaten and pursued to the town, which
both parties entered pell-mell together. The cannon they
found there were immediately levelled against the citadel;
but as these had very little effect, they were contriving
some stratagem to enable them to become masters of the
place, when intelligence was brought that it had been aban¬
doned. There remained in it only a gunner, an English¬
man, and an officer of signal courage, who chose rather
to expose himself to the greatest extremities than basely
to fly from the place with the rest. The commander of
the bucaneers received him with marks of distinction, ge¬
nerously released him, gave him up all his effects, and,
besides, complimented him with some valuable presents ;
such influence have courage and fidelity even on the minds
of those who systematically violate all the rights of society.
The conquerors of Campeachy spent two months in
searching the environs of the city to the extent of twelve
or fifteen leagues, and in carrying off every thing which
the inhabitants in their flight thought they had preserved.
When all the treasure they had collected from every quar¬
ter was deposited in the ships, a proposal was made to the
governor of the province, who still kept the field with nine
hundred men, to ransom his capital city. His refusal de¬
termined them to burn it, and demolish the citadel. The
French, on the festival of St Louis, were celebrating the
anniversary of their king; and in the transports of their pa¬
triotism, intoxication, and national love of their prince, they
burnt to the value of a million of logwood; a part, and a
very considerable one too, of the spoil which they had
made. After this singular and extravagant instance of
folly, of which Frenchmen only would boast, they returned
to St Domingo.
In 1697 twelve hundred bucaneers were induced to
join a squadron of seven ships which sailed from Europe
under the command of one Pointis, to attack the famous
city of Carthagena. This was the most difficult enterprise
which could be attempted in the New World, dhe situa¬
tion of the port, the strength of the place, and the badness
of the climate, were so many obstacles which would have
seemed insurmountable to any but such men as the buca¬
neers. But every obstacle yielded to their valour and
BUG
Buccari good fortune; the city was taken, and booty gained to the
II amount of L.l,750,000. Their rapacious commander, how-
^larii'1* ever> deprived them of the advantages resulting from their
r success. He scrupled not, as soon as they set sail, to offer
v I..5250 for the share of those who had been the chief in¬
struments in procuring him so considerable a spoil.
The bucaneers, exasperated at this treatment, resolved
immediately to board the vessel called the Sceptre, where
Pointis himself was, and were with great difficulty prevented
from assassinating him. They then set sail for Carthagena,
where they amply repaid themselves for the losses they had
sustained through the avarice of their late commander.
At length, after amassing all they could, these adventurers
set sail, when unfortunately they met with a fleet of Dutch
and English ships, then in alliance with Spain. Several of
the pirates were either taken or sunk, with the cargoes they
had on board; and the rest escaped to St Domingo.
Such was the last memorable event in the history of the
bucaneers. The separation of the English and French,
when the war on account of the Prince of Orange divided
the two nations ; the success of the means employed to pro¬
mote the cultivation of land among their colonies, by the
assistance of these enterprising men ; the prudence evinced
in selecting the most distinguished among them, and in¬
trusting them with civil and military employments ; and the
protection afforded to the Spanish settlements, which till
then had been a general object of plunder; all these cir¬
cumstances, and various others, besides the impossibility of
supplying the place of these remarkable men, who were con¬
tinually dropping off’, concurred to put an end to a society
as extraordinary as any that ever existed. Without any re¬
gular system, without laws, without subordination, and even
without any fixed revenue, they became the astonishment
of the age in which they lived, as they will be also of pos¬
terity.
BUCCARI, a free royal city in the Austrian province of
Trieste, 5 miles E.S.E. of Fiume. It has considerable traffic
in wine, wood, and charcoal, and a tunny fishery. Pop.
about 2000. Long. 14. 32. E., Lat. 45. 18. N.
BUCCELLARII, an order of soldiery under the Greek
emperors, appointed to guard and distribute the ammuni¬
tion bread; though authors are somewhat divided as to
their office and quality.
BUCCINA,an ancient kind of trumpet, originally formed
of a spiral shell. It is very difficult to distinguish it from
the cornu or horn, unless it was somewhat smaller, and not
quite so curved; yet it certainly was of a different species,
since we never read of the cornu in use with the watch,
but only the buccina. In Scripture, a similar instrument,
used both in war and in the temple, was called rams-horn,
kiren jobel, and sepheroth hagijobelim. It was used among
the Jews to proclaim their feast-days, new moons, jubilees,
sabbatical years, and the like. At Lacedaemon, notice was
given by the buccina when it was supper time ; and at Rome
it was used to proclaim the watches of the day and night;
also at funerals, and at the commencement and at the con¬
clusion of a festive entertainment. The sound of the buc¬
cina was called buccinus, or bucinus ; and the musician who
played on it buccinator. (See Blanchini, De Mus. Instrum.
Veter um^)
BUCCINO, a city in the province Principato-Citeriore
of the kingdom of Naples. It stands on the river Botta, at
its junction with the Negro, over which is an antique Ro¬
man bridge. Pop. 5320.
BUCENTAUR (jSors and /ceWa/upos), the state galley of
the Venetian doge, which was gilded from the prow to the
stern, adorned with pillars, and covered overhead with an
awning of purple silk. In this galley it was the custom annu¬
ally on ascension-day for the doge, accompanied by the am¬
bassadors and senators, to sail over a portion of the Adriatic,
and dropping a ring into the sea, to espouse it in the name
vol. y.
BUG 713
of the republic, using the words Desponsamus te, mare, in Buccina
signum veri perpetuique dominii. ||
BUCEPHALA, or Bucepiialos, a town built by Alex- Buch-
ander the Great on the western side of the Hydaspis, in
memory of his horse Bucephalus, which was buried here.
BUCER, the assumed name of Martin Kuhorn, an emi¬
nent German reformer, born in 1491, at Schelestadt, a town
of Alsace, near Strasburg. He took the religious habit of St
Dominic at seven years of age ; but after perusing the writ¬
ings of Luther, and holding some personal conferences with
that reformer, he adopted most of his sentiments. In 1548,
he was sent for to Augsburg to sign the agreement, called
the interim, between the Papists and Protestants. His warm
opposition to this project exposed him to many difficulties
and hardships ; which induced him to accept the invitation
of Archbishop Cranmer to fix his residence in England. On
his arrival, in 1549, he was appointed to teach theology in the
university of Cambridge. King Edward VI. had the greatest
regard for Bucer. Having heard that he had suffered much
from the cold, from want of a German stove, he sent him a
hundred crowns to purchase one. Bucer died of a complica¬
tion of disorders in 1551, and was buried at Cambridge with
great funeral pomp. Five years afterwards, in Mary’s reign,
his body was dug up and burnt, and his tomb demolished;
but it was subsequently re-constructed by order of Queen
Elizabeth.
BUCH, Leopold Von, an eminent German geologist
and geographer, was born at Stolpe in Uckermark, April
25, 1774. In 1790 he studied at the mining school of
Freiberg under the celebrated Werner. One of his fellow
students at this school was the illustrious Alexander Von
Humboldt. At the age of twenty-three he published his At¬
tempt at a MineralogicalDescription of Landeck, and another
Attempt at a Geognostic Description of Silesia. He was at
this time a zealous upholder of the Neptunian theory of his
illustrious master. In 1797 he met his old school-fellow
Von Humboldt at Salzbourg, and with him explored the geo¬
logical formations of Styria and the adjoining Alps. In the
spring of the following year, Von Buch extended his excur¬
sions into Italy, where his faith in the Neptunian theory
was for the first time shaken. In his previous works he had
advocated the aqueous origin of basaltic and other forma¬
tions ; he was now not less clearly convinced that these owed
their existence to volcanic action. In 1799 he paid his
first visit to Vesuvius, which he did not again see till 1805,
when he was accompanied by Humboldt and Gay-Lussac.
They had the good fortune to witness a remarkable eruption,
which supplied Buch with data for refuting many erroneous
ideas then entertained regarding the activity of volcanoes.
Three years before, he had explored the south of France,
and directed special attention to the extinct volcanoes of
Auvergne. The aspect of the Puy de Dome, with its cone
of trachyte and its strata of basaltic lava, induced him to
abandon as untenable the doctrines of his master on the
formation of these rocks. The scientific results of his in¬
vestigations he embodied in his Geognostical Observations
during Travels through Germany and Italy, Berlin, 1802-9,
2 vols. 8vo. From the south of Europe Von Buch now re¬
paired to the north, and spent two years among the Scandi¬
navian islands, making many important observations on the
geography of plants, on climatology, and on geology. Lie
also established the fact that the whole of Sweden is slowly
but continuously rising above the level of the sea from Fre-
derickshall to Abo. The details of these discoveries are given
in his Travels through Norway and Lapland. Berlin, 1810.
In 1815, he visited the Canary Islands in company with
Christian Smith, the Norwegian botanist. His observations
here convinced him that these and the other islands of the
ocean owed their existence to volcanic action of the most
intense kind, and that the groups of islands in the South Sea
are the remains of a pre-existing continent. The physical
4 x
714 BUG
Buchan description of the Canary islands was published at Berlin in
II 1825. After leaving the Canaries, Von Buch proceeded to
Buchanan. vjsjt tjie Hebrides and the coast of Scotland and Ireland.
His geological excursions even into countries already re¬
peatedly visited were continued without interruption till his
78th year. Eight months before his death, he visited the
mountains of Auvergne ; and on returning home he read a
paper on the Jurassic Formation before the Academy of
Berlin. The manner of Von Buch’s life was singularly fa¬
vourable to scientific pursuits. He inherited from his father
a fortune more than sufficient for all his wants. He was
never married, and was completely unembarrassed by family
ties. His excursions he always undertook on foot, with a
staff in his hand, and the large pockets of his over-coat
filled with papers and geological instruments. Under this
guise, the passer-by would not easily have recognised the
man whom Humboldt has pronounced the greatest geologist
of our era. He died at Berlin on the 4th of March 1853.
In addition to the works already mentioned, Von Buch
published others, of which we may specify the magnificent
Geological Map of Germany, in 42 sheets. Berlin, 1832.
B U CH AN, a district of Scotland. See Aberdeenshire.
BUCHANAN, George, one of the most illustrious
characters of the sixteenth century, was born about the
beginning of February in the year 1506. His father was
Thomas, the second son of Thomas Buchanan of Drum-
mikill; his mother Agnes Heriot, of the family of Tra-
broun. The house from which he descended he has him¬
self characterized as more remarkable for its antiquity
than for its opulence. Thomas Buchanan the younger
obtained from his father a grant of the farm of Mid-
Leowen, or, as it is more commonly called, the Moss, si¬
tuated in the parish of Killearn and county of Stirling.
He died of the stone at a premature age; and, about the
same period, the poet’s grandfather found himself in a
state of insolvency. The family, which had never been
opulent, was thus reduced to extreme poverty: but his
mother struggled hard with the misery of her condition;
and all her children, five sons and three daughters, arrived
at the age of maturity. In the year 1531, a lease of two
farms near Cardross was granted by Robert Erskine, com-
mendator of Dryburgh and Inchmahome, to her and three
of her sons, Patrick, Alexander, and George. One of
her daughters appears to have married a person of the
name of Morison; for Alexander Morison, the son of
Buchanan’s sister, published an edition of his uncle’s pa¬
raphrase of the Psalms. Her third son, whose extraordi¬
nary attainments have rendered the family illustrious, is
reported by oral tradition to have been indebted for the
rudiments of learning to Killearn school, which long conti¬
nued to maintain a considerable reputation. Mid-Leowen,
which stands on the banks of the Blane, is situated at the
distance of about two miles from the village; and it may
be conjectured that the future poet and statesman daily
walked to school, and carried along with him his homely
repast. Dr Mackenzie, whose authority is extremely slen¬
der, asserts that he was partly educated at the school of
Dunbarton. Plis very promising talents recommended
him to the favour and protection of his maternal uncle,
James Heriot, who, apparently in the year 1520, sent him
to prosecute his studies in the university of Paris. It was
here that he began to cultivate his poetical talents; part¬
ly impelled, as he informs us, by the natural temperament
of his mind, partly by the necessity of performing the usual
exercises prescribed to younger students. Some of the
French writers most capable of estimating his attainments,
have not neglected to record his obligations to their coun¬
try : Vavasseur has remarked that, although a Scottishman
by birth, he might well pass for a French poet, since all
that he knew of polite literature, and particularly of poetry,
BUG
he had acquired in France. Buchanan did not profess to Buchanan,
be one of those bright geniuses who can master a new
language every six weeks; he incidentally states that his
knowledge of Latin was the result of much youthftil la¬
bour. The Greek tongue, in which he likewise attained
to proficiency, he acquired without the aid of a pre¬
ceptor. The current speech of his native district at that
period may be supposed to have been Gaelic. Of this
language it is at least certain that he possessed some
knowledge; and an anecdote has been related which at
once confirms this supposition, and illustrates his peculiar
vein of humour. When in France, having met with a wo¬
man who was said to be possessed with the devil, and
who professed to speak all languages, he accosted her in
Gaelic: as neither she nor her familiar returned any an¬
swer, he took a protest that the devil was ignorant of that
tongue.
Within the space of two years after his arrival in Paris,
his uncle died, and left him exposed to want in a foreign
country: his misery was increased by a violent distemper,
which had perhaps been occasioned by poverty and mor¬
tification ; and in this state of hopeless languor he re¬
turned to Scotland at the critical age of sixteen. Having
devoted the best part of a year to the recovery of his
health, he next assumed the character of a soldier, and
served along with the auxiliaries whom the duke of Al¬
bany had conducted from France. The Scottish forces,
commanded by the regent in person, marched towards
the borders of England, and, about the end of October
1523, laid siege to the castle of Werk. The auxiliaries
carried the exterior wall by assault, but could not long
occupy the station which they had gained. The large
area between the two ramparts, intended as a receptacle,
during the time of war, for the cattle and stores of the
neighbouring peasantry, was at this crisis replenished with
materials of a combustible nature ; and when the garrison
found themselves repulsed by the French soldiers, they
set fire to the straw, and speedily expelled their enemies
by the flames and smoke. During the two following days,
the assailants persisted in battering the inner wall: when
they had effected a sufficient breach, the French soldiers
again rushed to the attack, and surmounted the ruins;
but they were so fiercely assaulted by missile weapons from
the inner tower, which was yet entire, that after having
sustained some loss, they were compelled to retreat, and
repassed the Tweed. The duke, finding his native troops
disaffected, and the army on the English frontier too for¬
midable from its numbers, removed his camp on the 11th
of November; and as he marched towards Lauder after
midnight, his army wras terribly annoyed by a sudden
storm of snow.
Buchanan, who belonged to a fierce and warlike nation,
seems to have caught some portion of the military ardour.
It was his youthful curiosity respecting the profession of
arms which had thus prompted him to mingle in danger;
and he was persuaded that there is a very close affinity
between the studies of literature and of war. In his his¬
tory of Scotland, written at an advanced age, he often de¬
scribes feats of chivalry with great animation. But his
experience in the course of this inglorious campaign did
not render him more enamoured of a military life: the
hardships which he had undergone reduced him to his
former state of languor; and during the rest of the win¬
ter he was confined to bed. In the beginning of the en¬
suing spring, when he had completed the eighteenth year
of his age, he was sent to the university of St Andrews,
where he and his brother Patrick were at the same time
matriculated in what was then called the Pedagogy, and
afterwards St Mary’s College. On the 3d of October
1525 George Buchanan took the degree of A. B.; and it
B U C H
uchanan. appears from the faculty register that he was then a
-'"Y'w' pauper or exhibitioner. In this college logic was then,
taught by John Mair, a celebrated doctor of the Sorbonne.
Buchanan informs us that it was to hear his prelections
that he had been sent to St Andrews, and that he after¬
wards followed Mair to France. It has been very confi¬
dently stated, that he was now a dependent on the bounty
of this venerable commentator on Peter of Lombardy;
and if the fact could be established by any competent
evidence, the character of Buchanan must be subjected
to severe reprehension ; for he mentions his supposed be¬
nefactor in terms which convey no suggestion of grati¬
tude. Of this generous patronage, however, there is not
even the faintest shadow of evidence; and such a tale
manifestly originated from the misinterpretation of a very
unequivocal passage in Buchanan’s account of his own life.
Upon his return to France, he became a student in the
Scottish College of Paris. On the 10th of October 1527,
he was incorporated as A. B., and he took the degree of
A. M. next March. During the year 1529, he was a can¬
didate for the office of procurator of the German nation;
but his purblind countryman Robert Wauchope, who was
afterwards titular archbishop of Armagh, and who sat in
the council of Trent, was then elected for the ninth time.
Buchanan was thus repulsed on the fifth of May, but on
the third of June 1530 he was more successful. Before
this period, the tenets of Luther had begun to be widely
disseminated, and Buchanan was now added to the num¬
ber of his converts. Having for the space of two years
continued to struggle with the iniquity of fortune, he was
appointed a regent or professor in the College of St Barbe,
where he taught grammar for about three years. His emi¬
nent qualifications for such an employment will not be
questioned, but his services do not seem to have procured
him any splendid remuneration: in an elegy, apparently
composed about this period of his life, he exhibits a dis¬
mal picture of the miseries to which the Parisian professors
of humanity were then exposed. His appointment seems
to have taken place in the year 1529. Gilbert Kennedy,
earl of Cassillis, who was residing near this college, hav¬
ing become acquainted with Buchanan, admired his lite¬
rary talents, and was delighted with his conversation : he
was therefore solicitous to retain so accomplished a pre¬
ceptor ; and their closer connexion probably commenced
in the year 1532. The first work that Buchanan com¬
mitted to the press was a translation of the famous Thomas
Linacre's rudiments of Latin grammar ; which he inscrib¬
ed to Lord Cassillis, “ a youth of the most promising ta¬
lents, and of an excellent disposition.” This Latin ver¬
sion was printed at Paris in 1533.
After he had resided with his pupil for five years, they
both returned to Scotland. At this period the earl had
reached the age of majority; and Buchanan might only
embrace a favourable opportunity of revisiting his relations
and friends. Their connexion however was not imme¬
diately dissolved. While he was residing at the earl’s
seat in Ayrshire, he composed a little poem which ren¬
dered him extremely obnoxious to the ecclesiastics. In this
poem, which bears the title of Somnium, and is a happy
imitation of Dunbar, he expresses his own abhorrence of
a monastic life, and stigmatizes the impudence and hy-
procrisy of the Franciscan friars. It was his original in¬
tention to resume his former occupations in France, but
James the Fifth retained him in the capacity of preceptor
to one of his natural sons. This son was not, as has gene¬
rally been supposed, the celebrated James Stewart, who
afterwards became regent of the kingdom, but another
who bore the same baptismal name. His mother was
Elizabeth Shaw, of the family of Sauchie ; and he died in
the year 1548. It was perhaps in the year 1537 that
A N A N. 7i5
Buchanan entered upon his new charge ; for in the course Buchanan,
of that year the king made an arrangement with respect
to his four sons. The abbacies of Melrose and Kelso were
secured in the name of Buchanan’s pupil, who was the
eldest. The preferment of a profane scoffer at priests must
have augmented the spleen of the clergy; and the Fran¬
ciscan friars, still smarting from his Somnium, found means
of representing him to the king as a man of depraved mo¬
rals and of dubious faith. But James had formerly begun
to discover their real character; and the part which he
supposed them to have acted in a late conspiracy against
his own life, had not contributed to diminish his antipathy.
Instead of consigning the poet to disgrace or punishment,
the king, who was aware that private resentment would
improve the edge of his satire, enjoined him in the pre¬
sence of many courtiers to renew his well-directed attack
on the same pious fathers. He accordingly applied him¬
self to the composition of the poem afterwards published
under the title of Franciscanus ; and, to satisfy the king’s
impatience, soon presented him with a specimen. This
production, as it now appears in its finished state, may be
pronounced one of the most pungent satires which any
language can exhibit. No class of men was ever more
completely exposed to ridicule and infamy; nor is it as¬
tonishing that the popish clergy afterwards regarded the
author with implacable hatred.
But the church being infallible, he speedily recognized
the danger of accosting its retainers by their proper names.
At the beginning of the year 1539, many individuals sus¬
pected of Lutheranism were involved in the horrors of
persecution. Towards the close of February, five were
committed to the flames, nine made ‘a formal recantation
of their supposed errors, and many were driven into exile.
Buchanan had been comprehended in this general arrest;
and after he was committed to custody, Cardinal Beaton
endeavoured to accelerate his doom by tendering to the
king a sum of money as the price of his blood. Of this
circumstance Buchanan was apprized by some of his friends
at court; and his knowledge of the king’s rapacity must
have augmented all the terrors of his situation. Stimulat¬
ed by the thoughts of increasing danger, he made his
escape through the window of the apartment in which he
was confined ; but he had soon to encounter new disasters.
\\ hen he reached the frontier of the two kingdoms, he was
molested by the freebooters, who at that time were its
sole inhabitants ; and his life was again exposed to jeopardy
from the contagion of a pestilential disease, which then
raged in the north of England. On his arrival in London,
he experienced the friendship of Sir John Rainsford, an
English knight, who is mentioned as the only person that
protected him against the fury of the papists. He met
with no particular inducement to continue his residence
in England, which was then governed by an atrocious
tyrant. The civilization of France, as well as the parti¬
cular intimacies which he had formed in that country, led
him to adopt the resolution of returning to Paris : but, on
his arrival, he found that Cardinal Beaton was residing
there in the capacity of an ambassador; and his friend
Andrew Govea, a native of Portugal, having invited him
to Bordeaux, he did not hesitate to embrace such an op¬
portunity of removing himself beyond the reach of the
cardinal’s deadly hatred. Of the College of Guienne,
lately founded in that city, Govea had been nominated
principal; and Buchanan, evidently on his recommenda¬
tion, was now appointed one of the professors. Here he
must have fixed his residence before the dose of the year ;
for to Charles the Fifth, who made his solemn entry into
Bordeaux on the first of December 1539, he presented a
poem in the name of the college.
The task assigned him at Bordeaux was that of teach-
716
BUCHANAN.
Buchanan.
ing the Latin language. For an occupation of this kind
he seems to have entertained no particular affection; but
although sufficiently laborious, it never impaired the na¬
tive elevation of his mind. His poetical studies he now
prosecuted with great ardour; during the three years of
his residence at Bordeaux, he completed four tragedies,
together with various other poems. The earliest of his
dramatic compositions bears the title of Baptistes. He had
applied himself to the study of the Greek language with¬
out the aid of a preceptor, and as a useful exercise had
executed a translation of the Medea of Euripides. This
version he now delivered to the academical stage, and
afterwards suffered it to be printed. Those two tragedies
were performed with a degree of applause which almost
exceeded his hopes. He afterwards completed his Jeph-
thes, and translated Alcestis, another drama of his favourite
poet. These last productions, as he originally intended
them for publication, were elaborated with superior dili¬
gence. The tragedy of Jephthes is conformable to the
models of the Grecian theatre, and is not destitute of in¬
terest. The subject is highly dramatic; it is a subject
which his great exemplar Euripides might have been in¬
clined to select. The situation of a father who had un¬
warily subjected himself to the dreadful necessity of sa¬
crificing a beloved and only child, the repugnant and ex¬
cruciating sensations of the mother, the daughter’s min¬
gled sentiments of heroism and timidity, are delineated
with considerable felicity of dramatic conception. The
tender or pathetic was not however the peculiar province
of Buchanan, whose talents were bold, masculine, and
commanding. The Baptistes, although inferior to the
other tragedy in dramatic interest, is more strongly im¬
pregnated with the author’s characteristic sentiments. Its
great theme is civil and religious liberty; and against ty¬
ranny and priestcraft the poet frequently expresses him¬
self with astonishing boldness. Some of his allusions bear
a very easy application to the late conduct of Cardinal
Beaton. In the tragedies of the ancient Greek poets,
what is termed the prologue is always an essential part of
the drama; but the prologue of the Baptistes resembles
those of Terence. Buchanan seems to have adopted this
model, because it afforded him a better opportunity of
preparing his auditors for the bold sentiments which they
were about to hear.
During the term of his residence in the College of
Guienne, the satirist of the Scottish clergy did not find
himself totally secure from danger. The cardinal, in a
letter addressed to the archbishop of Bordeaux, request¬
ed him to secure the person of the heretical poet; but as
his letter had been entrusted to the care of some indivi¬
dual much interested in the welfare of Buchanan, he was
suffered to remain without molestation. Still however
he found himself annoyed by the threats of the cardinal
and the grey friars; but the death of King James, and
the appearance of a dreadful plague in Guienne, alleviat¬
ed his former apprehensions. Having resided three years
at Bordeaux, he returned to Paris. In 1544 he was offi¬
ciating as a regent in the college of Cardinal le Moine;
and he apparently retained the same station till 1547.
About this period he was miserably tormented with the
gout. The ardour of his fancy was however undiminish¬
ed : in an interesting elegy, composed in 1544, and ad¬
dressed to his late colleagues Tastaeus and Tevius, he
exhibits a dismal picture of his own situation, and grate¬
fully commemorates the assiduous attentions of his pre¬
sent colleagues Turnebus and Gelida. It is remarked by
a French historian, that three of the most learned men in
the world then taught humanity in the same college. The
first class was taught by Turnebus, the second by Bu¬
chanan, and the third by Muretus.
The king of Portugal had recently founded the univer- Buchanan,
sity of Coimbra; and as his own dominions could not af-
ford a sufficient supply of able professors, he invited An¬
drew Govea to preside over the new institution, and to
conduct from France a considerable number of proficients
in philosophy and ancient literature. Govea accordingly
returned to his native country in the year 1547, accom¬
panied by Buchanan and other associates. The affairs of
Europe presented an alarming aspect; and Portugal seem¬
ed to be almost the only corner free from tumults. To
the proposals of Govea he had not only lent a willing ear,
but was so much satisfied with the character of his asso¬
ciates, that he also persuaded his brother Patrick to join
this famous colony. To several of its members he had
formerly been attached by the strictest ties of friendship;
these were Gruchius, Garentaeus, Tevius, and Yinetus,
who have all distinguished themselves by the publication
of learned works. The other scholars of whom it consist¬
ed were Arnoldus Fabricius, John Costa, and Anthony
Mendez, who are not known as authors: the first was a
native of Bazats, the other two were Portugueze. All
these professors except P. Buchanan and Fabricius had
taught in the College of Guienne. To this catalogue
Dempster has added other two Scottish names, those of
John Rutherford and William Ramsay. Govea died in
the year 1548; and after Buchanan and his associates
were deprived of his protection, the Portugueze began to
persecute them with unrelenting bigotry. Three of their
number were thrown into the dungeons of the inquisition,
and after having been subjected to a tedious imprison¬
ment, were at length arraigned at this direful tribunal.
According to the usual practice, they were not confront¬
ed with their accusers, of whose very names they were
ignorant. As they could not be convicted of any crime,
they were overwhelmed with reproaches, and again com¬
mitted to custody.
Buchanan had attracted an unusual degree of indigna¬
tion. He was accused of having written an impious poem
against the Franciscans, yet with the nature of that poem
the inquisitors were totally unacquainted. He was also
charged with the heinous crime of eating flesh in Lent,
and yet with respect to that very article, not a single in¬
dividual in Portugal deemed it necessary to practise ab¬
stinence. Some of his strictures relative to monks were
registered against him, but they were such as monks only
could regard as criminal. He was moreover accused of
having alleged, in a conversation with some young Portu¬
gueze, that with respect to the. eucharist, St Augustin
appeared to him to be strongly inclined towards the opi¬
nion condemned by the church of Rome. Two witnesses,
whom he afterwards discovered to be Ferrerius and Tal-
pin, made a formal deposition of their having been assur¬
ed by several respectable informants that Buchanan was
disaffected to the Romish faith. After the inquisitors
had harassed him for the space of nearly two years and a
half, they confined him to a monastery, for the purpose
of receiving edifying lessons from the monks; whom, with
due discrimination, he represents as men by no means
destitute of humanity, but totally unacquainted with reli¬
gion. In their custody he continued several months ; and
it was about this period that he began his version c*f the
Psalms, afterwards brought to so happy a conclusion.
That this translation was a penance imposed upon him by
his illiterate guardians, is only to be considered as an idle
tale: it is much more probable that a large proportion of
the good monks were incapable of reading the Psalms in
their native language. When he was at length restored
to liberty, he solicited the king’s permission to return to
France: he was however requested to protract his resi¬
dence in Portugal, and was presented with a small sum of
BUCHANAN.
717
Buchanan, money till he should be promoted to some station worthy
of his talents; but his ambition of Portugueze preferment
was not perhaps very violent, for he still remembered with
regi’et the learned and interesting society of Paris. In a
beautiful poem, entitled Desiderium Lutetice, and appa¬
rently composed before his retreat from Portugal, he pa¬
thetically bewails his absence from that metropolis, which
he represents under the allegory of a pastoral mistress.
Having embarked in a Candian vessel, which he found in
the port of Lisbon, he was safely conveyed to England.
Here however he did not long remain, though he might
have procured some creditable situation, which he himself
has not particularized. He returned to France about
the beginning of the year 1553. Soon after his arrival in
Paris, he was appointed a regent in the College of Bon-
court; and in the year 1555 he was called from that charge
by the celebrated Comte de Brissac, who engaged him as
the domestic tutor of his son Timoleon de Cosse.
During the five years of his connexion with this illus¬
trious family, he alternately resided in Italy and France.
In the mean time several of his poetical works were pub¬
lished at Paris. In 1556 appeared the earliest specimen
of his poetical paraphrase of the Psalms; and his version
of the Alcestis of Euripides was printed in the course of
the subsequent year. This tragedy he dedicated to Mar¬
garet, the daughter of Francis the First, a munificent prin¬
cess, whose favour he seems to have enjoyed. His engage¬
ment with the family of Brissac terminated in the year
1560, when the civil war had already commenced. It
was perhaps the alarming aspect of affairs in France that
induced Buchanan to hasten his return to his own coun¬
try. The precise period of his return has not been ascer¬
tained ; but it is certain that he was at the Scottish court
in January 1562, and that in the month of April he was
officiating as classical tutor to the queen, who was then in
the twentieth year of her age. Every afternoon she read
with Buchanan a portion of Livy. This author is not
commonly recommended to very young scholars; and
indeed the study of the Latin language is known to have
occupied a considerable share of her previous attention.
The era at which Buchanan finally returned to his na¬
tive country was highly important. After a violent strug¬
gle against the ancient superstition, the principles of the
reformed faith received the sanction of parliament in the
year 1560. For the doctrines of the reformation he had
long cherished a secret affection; and he now professed
himself a member of the protestant church of Scotland.
The earl of Murray, as commendator of the priory of St
Andrews, possessed the right of nomin-ating the principal
of St Leonard’s College ; and a vacancy occurring in the
year 1566, he conferred the office upon Buchanan. The
tenure of his appointment seems to have imposed upon
him the task of reading occasional lectures on divinity.
On his return to Scotland, he determined to publish, in
a correct manner, the poetical works which he had com¬
posed at many different periods of his variegated life. Of
his admirable version of the Psalms, the date of the first
complete edition is uncertain, for it has been omitted in
the book itself; but a second edition appeared in the year
1566. When he consigned his Psalms to the printer, he
was probably engaged in superintending the classical stu¬
dies of Queen Mary; and to that accomplished and hope¬
ful princess he gratefully inscribed a work destined for
immortality. His dedication has received, and indeed is
entitled to the highest commendation for its terseness,
compression, and delicacy. Buchanan had recommended
himself to the queen by other poetical tributes: one of
his most beautiful productions is the Epithalamium which
he composed on her first nuptials ; and several of his mis¬
cellaneous poems relate to the same princess. Nor was
she insensible of his powerful claims upon the protection Buchamn.
of his country. In the year 1564 she had rewarded his li- '
terary merit by conferring upon him the temporalities of
Crossragwell Abbey, which amounted in annual valuation
to the sum of L.500 in Scottish currency. The abbacy
had become vacant by the death of Quintin Kennedy.
But while he thus enjoyed the favour of the queen, he did
not neglect his powerful friend the earl of Murray. To
that nobleman he inscribed his Franciscanus during the
same year. The date of the earliest edition is uncertain ;
but the dedication was written at St Andrews on the 5th
of June 1564, when he was perhaps residing in the earl’s
house. He at the same time prepared for the press his
miscellany entitled Fratres Fraterrimi, a collection of sa¬
tires, almost exclusively directed against the impurities of
the popish church. The absurdity of its doctrines, and
the immoral lives of its priests, afforded him an ample
field for the exercise of his formidable talents ; and he has
alternately employed the weapons of sarcastic irony and
vehement indignation. His admirable wit and address
must have contributed to promote the cause which Luther
had so ardently espoused; and Buchanan ought also to
be classed with the most illustrious of the reformers. In
the year 1567 he published another collection, consisting
of Elegies, Silvce, Hendecasyllabi. To this miscellany was
prefixed an epistle to his friend Peter Daniel, a learned
man, who is still remembered for his edition of Virgil,
with the commentary of Servius. His Miscellanea were
not printed till after the death of the author. Of his
short and miscellaneous pieces the subjects are sometimes
indeed of a trivial nature; but even those lighter efforts
serve to evince the wonderful versatility of his mind.
His epigrams, which consist of three books, are not the
least remarkable of his compositions; the terseness of the
diction, the ingenuity and pungency of the thoughts, have
deservedly placed them in a very high class.
Of the general assembly convened at Edinburgh on the
25th of December 1563, Buchanan had sat as a member,
and had been appointed one of the commissioners for re¬
vising the Book of Discipline. He sat in the June assem¬
blies of 1564 and the three following years, and likewise
in that of December 1567. He was a member of various
committees, and evidently had no small influence in the
affairs of the church. Of the assembly which met at
Edinburgh on the 25th of June 1567, he had the honour
of being chosen moderator.
The nation was now in a state of anarchy, and the
change of affairs drew Buchanan into the vortex of poli¬
tics. The recent conduct of Queen Mary, whom he once
regarded in so favourable a light, had offered such flagrant
insults to virtue and decorum, that his attachment was at
length converted into the strongest antipathy. The simple
and uncontroverted history of her proceedings, from the
period of her pretended reconciliation with Darnley to
that of her marriage with Bothwell, exhibits such strong
moral evidence of her criminality as it seems impossible
for an unprejudiced mind to resist. “ There are indeed,”
as Mr Hume has remarked, “ three events in our history,
which may be regarded as touchstones of party-men.
An English Whig, who asserts the reality of the popish
plot, an Irish Catholic, who denies the massacre of 1641,
and a Scotch Jacobite, who maintains the innocence of
Queen Mary, must be considered as men beyond the
reach of argument or reason, and must be left to their
prejudices.” Buchanan accompanied the regent Murray
when he visited England for the purpose of appearing be¬
fore Elizabeth’s commissioners. On the 4th of October
1568, the conference was opened at York; but in the
course of the ensuing month it was transferred to West¬
minster. This singular transaction was managed with
w *<r
13
BUCK
A N A N.
uchanan
• great address on both sides: nor was Buchanan the least
powerful of Murray’s coadjutors ; he composed in Latin a
detection of Queen Mary’s actions, which was produced
to the commissioners at Westminster, and was afterwards
circulated with great industry by the English court. His
engaging in a task of this kind, as well as his mode of
executing it, has frequently been urged as a proof of his
moral depravity; and, to augment his delinquency, the be¬
nefits conferred upon him by the unfortunate queen have
been multiplied with considerable ingenuity. It is cer¬
tain that she granted him the temporalities of Crossrag-
well Abbey; and beyond this single point the evidence
cannot be extended. Nor was this reward bestowed upon
a man who had performed no correspondent services. He
had officiated as her classical tutor, and had composed
various poems for the entertainment of the Scottish court;
but the dedication of his Psalms might almost be consi¬
dered as equivalent to any reward which she conferred.
If Buchanan celebrated her in his poetical capacity, and
before she ceased to be an object of praise, it certainly
was not incumbent upon him to-approve the atrocious ac¬
tions which she afterwards performed. The duty which
he ow^ed to his country was a prior consideration, and
with that duty his further adherence to the infatuated
princess was utterly incompatible.
The earl of Murray and his associates returned to Scot¬
land in the beginning of the ensuing year. Buchanan’s
Detection, which was not published till 1571, seems to
have been entrusted to Dr Wilson, who is supposed by
Mr Laing to have added the “ Actio contra Mariam Sco-
torum lieginam,” and the Latin translation of Mary’s
first three letters to the earl of Bothwell. The good re¬
gent did not long survive those transactions: on the 23d
of January 1570 he was shot in the street of Linlithgow
by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, whom his clemency had
formerly rescued from an ignominious death. The assas¬
sin had been confirmed in his enterprise by the approba¬
tion of his powerful kinsmen. The indignation of Buchanan
was naturally roused against the house of Hamilton; and
he had sufficient cause to suspect that their dangerous
schemes were not yet completed. Under such impressions
as these, he composed “ Ane Admonitioun direct to the
trew Lordis, Mantenaris of the Kingis Graces Authori-
tie;” in which he earnestly adjured them to protect the
young king, and the children of the late regent, from the
perils which seemed to await them. It was apparently
in the course of the same year, 1570, that he wrote ano¬
ther Scottish tract, entitled Chamceleon. In this satirical
production he very successfully exposes the wavering po¬
litics of the famous secretary Maitland. Soon after the
assassination of his illustrious friend, Buchanan was re¬
moved to a situation of no small importance; he was ap¬
pointed one of the preceptors of the young king. For
this preferment he appears to have been indebted to the
privy council, and others of the nobility and gentry, who
assembled in consequence of that disastrous event, for
the purpose of providing for the public security.
During his infancy, the prince had been committed to
the charge of the earl of Mar, a nobleman of the most
unblemished integrity. In 1570, when Buchanan entered
upon his office, James was only four years of age. The
chief superintendence of his education was left to the
earl s brother, Alexander Erskine. The preceptors asso¬
ciated with Buchanan, were Peter Young, and the two
abbots of Cambuskenneth and Dryburgh, both related to
the noble family of Mar. Young, who was respectable for
his capacity and learning, was of a disposition naturally
mild ; and his attention to his future interest rendered him
cautious of offending a pupil wrho was soon to be the dis¬
penser of public favours. But the lofty and independent
spirit of Buchanan was not to be controlled by the mere Buchanan,
suggestions of cold caution: the honourable task which
the voice of his country had assigned to his old age, he
discharged with simple integrity, and, so far as he himself
was concerned, he was little solicitous what impression
the strictness of his discipline might leave on the mind of
his royal pupil. James, who was of a timid nature, long
remembered the commanding aspect which his illustrious
preceptor had assumed. He was accustomed to say of
some individual high in office, “ that he ever trembled at
his approach, it minded him so of his pedagogue.” The
young monarch’s proficiency in letters was such as reflect¬
ed no discredit on his early instructors. Buchanan made
him a scholar, and nature had destined him for a pedant.
Nor was this the only preferment which he now obtain¬
ed. His first civil appointment, which he seems to have
retained but a short time, was that of director of the
chancery. The keeper of the privy seal, John, afterwards
Lord Maitland of Thirlstane, having been deprived of his
office on account of his adherence to the queen, it was
conferred upon Buchanan in the year 1570. The earl
of Lennox was at that time regent. His situation as lord
privy seal was undoubtedly honourable, and probably lu¬
crative. It entitled him to a seat in parliament. This
office he retained for several years; for under the date of
November 1579, he is enumerated among the ordinary
officers of state entitled to a seat in the council. His
talents and his station evidently gave him no small share
of influence, and he was associated in various commissions
of importance.
Notwithstanding the precarious state of his health, and
the number of his avocations, he found leisure to compose
a most profound and masterly compendium of political
philosophy. It is entitled De Jure Regni apud Scotos,
and was first printed at Edinburgh in the year 1579. Al¬
though it professedly relates to the rights of the crown of
Scotland, it comprehends a subtile and eloquent delinea¬
tion of the general principles of government. The work
is exhibited in the form of a dialogue between the author
and Thomas the son of Sir Richard Maitland. Buchanan’s
dialogue excited a degree of attention which will not ap¬
pear surprising, when we consider the high reputation of
the author, and the boldness of the precepts which he in¬
culcates. In the course of a few years, his tenets were
formally attacked by his learned countrymen Blackwood,
Winzet, and Barclay, all of whom were zealous Catholics.
Some of Barclay’s arguments were long afterwards refuted
by Locke. Buchanan was also attacked, though in an
indirect manner, by Sir Thomas Craig, and by Sir John
Wemyss. Craig was a lawyer of much learning and abi¬
lity, and his treatise on the feudal law still continues to
be held in great estimation. Sir George Mackenzie, the
servile tool of a most profligate court, undertook to de¬
fend against Buchanan the same maxims of polity; and it
must be acknowledged that “ the right divine of kings to
govern wrong,” was a very suitable doctrine for the minis¬
ters of Charles and James. In the course of the seven¬
teenth century, his leading principles were also oppugned
by Sir Lewis Stewart, a lawyer, and by Sir James Turner,
a soldier. The former wrote in Latin, the latter in Eng¬
lish, but neither of their productions has been printed;
and the republic of letters has sustained no detriment by
their long suppression. He was incidentally assailed by
many foreign authors, who seem in general to have been
bewildered by the current doctrine of the divine and in¬
defeasible right of kings, and the passive obedience of sub¬
jects. This was indeed the doctrine of Catholics and Pro¬
testants, of civilians and divines. Grotius, though born
under a free republic, and certainly a man of a great and
liberal mind, did not entirely escape the contamination of
BUCHANAN.
719
Buchanan, those slavish maxims which were so prevalent during the
age in which he lived: the right of resisting any superior
power which happens to be established, he has discussed
in a manner that could hardly offend the completest despot
in Europe. There is perhaps too much justice in the re¬
mark of Rousseau, that it is his most common method
of reasoning, to establish the right by the fact. It is
one general fault of those writers, to found their theories
on passages of scripture which are not didactic or exege-
tical, but merely historical. This obsolete perversion they
seem to have derived from the authority of those early
theologians who are commonly styled the fathers of the
church; and who, if not always very safe guides in mora¬
lity and in biblical criticism, are certainly exceptionable
guides in political science. The degrading doctrine of
passive obedience was inculcated by Salmasius, Bochart,
Usher, and indeed by several very able men who approach¬
ed much nearer to our own times: it was even inculcated
by the famous Dr Berkeley, in some metaphysical dis¬
courses preached before the university of Dublin in the
year 1712. It is however a doctrine which no Briton,
capable of reflection, and possessed of ordinary sincerity,
will now hesitate a single moment in rejecting with the
utmost indignation.
But the full measure of Buchanan’s ignominy has not
yet been related. In the year 1584 the parliament con¬
demned his dialogue and history as unfit to remain for
records of truth to posterity; and, under a penalty of two
hundred pounds, commanded every person who possessed
copies to surrender them within forty days, in order that
they might be purged of “ the offensive and extraordinary
matters” which they contained. In 1664, the privy council
of Scotland issued a proclamation, prohibiting all subjects,
of whatever degree, quality, or rank, from transcribing or
circulating any copies of a manuscript translation of the
dialogue. And in 1683, the loyal and orthodox university
of Oxford doomed to the flames the political works of
Buchanan, Milton, Languet, and other heretics. This
university, says Cunningham, debauched the minds of the
youth with its slavish doctrines, and pronounced a severe
judgment against Buchanan for vindicating the rights of
the kingdom. The Scottish legislature, the English uni¬
versity, and the popish tribunal of the inquisition, seem to
have viewed this unfortunate speculator with equal ab¬
horrence. And what are the terrible doctrines that once
excited so violent an alarm ? Buchanan maintains that
all power is derived from the people ; that it is more safe
to entrust our liberties to the definite protection of the
laws, than to the precarious discretion of the king; that
the king is bound by those conditions under which the
supreme power was originally committed to his hands;
that it is lawful to resist, and even to punish tyrants.
When he speaks of the people as opposed to the king, he
evidently includes every individual of the nation except
one. And is a race of intelligent beings to be assimilated
to a tract of land, or a litter of pigs; to be considered, ab¬
solutely and unconditionally, as the lawful patrimony of a
family which either merit, accident, or crime, may ori¬
ginally have elevated to the summit of power ? In this
country and this age it certainly is not necessary to re¬
mark, that man can neither inherit nor possess a right of
property in his fellow-creatures. What is termed loyalty,
may, according to the circumstances of the case, be either
a virtue or a vice. Loyalty to Antoninus and loyalty to
Nero must assuredly have flowed from different sources.
If the Roman people had endeavoured to compass the
death of Nero, would this have been foul and unnatural
rebellion ? The doctrine of punishing tyrants in their
persons, either by a private arm, or by the public forms of
law, is indeed of a delicate and dangerous nature; and it
may be considered as amply sufficient, to ascertain the Buchanan,
previous right of forcible resistance. It will always be '
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a competent
tribunal and impartial judges. But if mankind are at
length roused to the redress of enormous wrongs, the
prince who has either committed or sanctioned an habi¬
tual violation of the best rights of the people, will seldom
fail to meet with an adequate reward; and in spite of all
the slavish theories of his priests and lawyers, mankind
will not long be reasoned out of the strongest feelings of
their nature. Divine right and passive obedience were
never more strenuously inculcated, than in the reign of
Charles the First.
In the seventy-fourth year of his age, Buchanan com¬
posed a brief sketch of his own life. The last production
which he lived to complete was his history of Scotland,
Rerum Scoticarum Historia. In the year 1582, it issued
from the press of Alexander Arbuthnot, printer to the
king. It bears the royal privilege, and is dedicated to the
young monarch. Between the original formation of his
plan, and the publication of the history itself, nearly twen¬
ty years must have elapsed; but it is to be supposed that
he long revolved the subject in his mind, and had pro¬
ceeded to amass the greater part of his materials, before
he applied himself to its composition; and during that in¬
terval, his attention had been distracted by various pur¬
suits, political as well as literary.
Buchanan has divided his history into twenty books.
The first three ought rather to have been exhibited in
the form of an introductory dissertation, for the historical
narrative properly commences with the fourth book. His
preliminary enquiries are directed to the geographical
situation, the nature of the soil and climate, the ancient
names and manners, and the primitive inhabitants, of the
British islands. The third book consists of a series of
quotations from the Greek and Latin authors. The whole
of this introductory part displays his usual erudition and
sagacity; and, in the opinion of Archbishop Usher, no
writer had investigated the antiquities of his country with
superior diligence. In these disquisitions he evinces his
knowledge of the Celtic as well as of the classical lan¬
guages. In the earlier part of his narrative, he has re¬
posed too much confidence on his predecessor Boyce.
He appeals to several other Scottish historians; and he
unquestionably had access to historical documents which
are no longer extant. He has occasionally availed him¬
self of the collateral aid of the English and French writers.
Of the earlier reigns his sketch is brief and rapid; nor
has he attempted to establish any chronological notation
till he descends to the beginning of the fifth century. It
must indeed be acknowledged that he has repeated the
fabulous line of our ancient kings; but that continued till
a much later period to be regarded as an article of na¬
tional faith. Like most of the classical historians, he is
too remiss in marking the chronology of the different facts
which he relates. From the reign of the great King Ro¬
bert, his narrative becomes much more copious and in¬
teresting ; but the history of his own times, which were
pregnant with remarkable events, occupies far the largest
proportion of his twenty books. In some of the transac¬
tions which he records, his own affections and passions
were deeply concerned, and might not unreasonably be ex¬
pected to impart some tincture to his style. His indigna¬
tion against the ill-fated queen he shared with a very large
proportion of his fellow-subjects ; and many of her actions
were such as could not fail of exciting the antipathy of
every well-regulated mind. The composition of his his¬
tory betrays no symptoms of the author’s old age and in¬
firmities ; his style is not merely distinguished by its cor¬
rectness and elegance, it breathes all the fervent anima-
720
BUCHANAN.
Buchanan, tion of youthful genius. The noble ideas which so fre-
quently rise in his mind, he always expresses in language
of correspondent dignity. His narrative is extremely
perspicuous, variegated, and interesting; it is seldom de¬
ficient, and never redundant. His moral and political re¬
flections are profound and masterly. He is ready upon
all occasions to vindicate the unalienable rights of man¬
kind ; and he uniformly delivers his sentiments with a
noble freedom and energy. It is with the utmost pro¬
priety that the learned Conring has commended him as a
man of exquisite judgment. Thuanus remarks that al¬
though much of his time had been spent in scholastic oc¬
cupations, yet his history might be supposed the produc¬
tion of a man whose whole life had been exercised in the
political transactions of the state; the felicity of his ge¬
nius, and the greatness of his mind, having enabled him
so completely to remove every impediment incident to an
obscure and humble lot. And, in the opinion of Bishop
Burnet, “ his stile is so natural and nervous, and his re¬
flections on things are so solid, that he is justly reckoned
the greatest and best of our modern authors.”
The publication of this great work he did not long sur¬
vive. His usual vein of pleasantry did not entirely desert
him on his death-bed. When visited by John Davidson,
a distinguished clergyman, he devoutly expressed his re¬
liance on the atoning blood of Christ; but he could not
refrain from introducing some facetious reflections on the
absurdities of the mass. He expired soon after five o’clock
in the morning of Friday the 28th of September 1582, at
the age of seventy-six years and nearly eight months.
His remains were interred in the cemetery of the Grey-
friars : Calderwood informs us that the funeral took place
on Saturday, and was attended by “ a great company of
the faithful.”
Buchanan had experienced many of the vicissitudes of
human life, and had been tried by prosperity as well as
adversity. His moral and intellectual character procured
him the same high respect from the most enlightened of
his contemporaries. His stern integrity, his love of his
country and of mankind, cannot fail of endearing his me¬
mory to those who possess congenial qualities; and such
errors as he actually committed, will not perhaps be deemed
unpardonable by those who recollect the condition of hu¬
manity. He was subject to the nice and irritable feelings
which frequently attend exalted genius, enthusiastic in
his attachment, and violent in his resentment, equally sin¬
cere in his love and in his hatred. His friends, among
whom he numbered some of the most distinguished cha¬
racters of the age, regarded him with a warmth of affec¬
tion which intellectual eminence cannot alone secure.
His conversation was alternately facetious and instructive :
his wit and humour are still proverbial among his coun¬
trymen. Such of his contemporaries as could best judge
of his conduct and character, evidently regarded him as
a man of sincere piety.
Nor was the genius of Buchanan less variegated than
his life. In his numerous writings he discovers a vigorous
and mature combination of talents, which have seldom
been found united in equal perfection. To an imagina¬
tion excursive and brilliant, he unites an undeviating rec¬
titude of judgment. His learning was at once elegant,
various, and profound: Turnebus, who was associated
with him in the same college, and whose opinion is en¬
titled to the greatest deference, has characterized him as
a man of consummate erudition. Most of the ancient
writers had limited their aspiring hopes to one depart¬
ment of literature; and even to excel in one, demands the
happy perseverance of cultivated genius. Plato despaired
of securing a reputation by his poetry; the poetical at¬
tempts of Cicero, though less contemptible perhaps than
they are commonly represented, would not have been suf- Buchanan,
ficient to transmit an illustrious name to future ages. -n-'w'
Buchanan has not only attained to excellence in each
species of composition, but in each species has displayed
a variety of excellence: in philosophical dialogue and
historical narrative, in lyric and didactic poetry, in elegy,
epigram, and satire, he has scarcely been surpassed either
in ancient or modern times. A few Roman poets of the
purest age have excelled him in their several provinces;
but none of them has evinced the same capability of uni¬
versal attainment. Horace and Livy wrote in the lan¬
guage which they had learned from their mothers; but
its acquisition was to Buchanan the result of much youth¬
ful labour. Yet he writes with the purity, the elegance,
and freedom of an ancient Roman. Unfettered by the
classical restraints which shrivel the powers of an ordi¬
nary mind, he expatiates with all the characteristic energy
of strong and original sentiment; he produces new com¬
binations of fancy, and invests them with language equally
polished and appropriate. His diction uniformly displays
a happy vein of elegant and masculine simplicity, and is
distinguished by that propriety and perspicuity which
can only be attained by a man perfectly master of his
own ideas, and of the language in which he writes. The
variety of his poetical measures is immense, and to each
species he imparts its peculiar grace and harmony. The
style of his prose exhibits correspondent beauties, nor is
it chequered by phraseology unsuitable in that mode of
composition. His diction, whether in prose or verse, is
not a tissue of centos; he imitates the ancients as the
ancients imitated each other. No Latin poet of modern
times has united the same originality and elegance; no
historian has so completely imbibed the spirit of antiquity,
without being betrayed into servile and pedantic imita¬
tion. But his works may legitimately claim a higher or¬
der of merit; they have added no inconsiderable influx
to the general stream of human knowledge. The wit, the
pungency, the vehemence, of his ecclesiastical satires,
must have tended to foment the genial flame of reforma¬
tion ; and his political speculations are evidently those of
a man who had nobly soared beyond the narrow limits of
his age.
Of the works of Buchanan there are two collective edi¬
tions, the earlier of which was published by Ruddiman.
Edinb. 1715,2tom.fol. The editor’s masterly acquaintance
with philology, and with the history of his native coun¬
try, had eminently qualified him for such an undertaking.
The accuracy of the text, and the utility of his illustra¬
tions, are equally conspicuous. He has prefixed a copious
and satisfactory preface, and, among other appendages,
has added a curious and critical dissertation De Metris
Buchananceis. His annotations on Buchanan’s history are
particularly elaborate and valuable; but it is to be la¬
mented that his narrow politics should so frequently have
diverted him from the more useful tracts of enquiry.
Where political prejudices intervene, he is too eager to
contradict his author; and he often attempts, by very
slender and incompetent proofs, to extenuate the authen¬
ticity of his narrative. In illustrating the moral and lite¬
rary character of Buchanan, he spent many years of his
life. With great zeal and success, he afterwards vindi¬
cated his paraphrase of the Psalms against the objections
of Benson; but his political prejudices seem to have in¬
creased with the number of his years. His controversies
with Love and Man were conducted with sufficient perti¬
nacity ; though it must be acknowledged that the advan¬
tage of learning, and even of candour, generally inclines
to Ruddiman’s side. Another edition of Buchanan s works
was published by Burman, a most indefatigable and useful
labourer in the department of philology, and a man of
BUG
Bucharest much more taste and talent than some of our readers may
li perhaps be inclined to suppose. Lugd. Bat. 1725, 2 tom.
burff" 4t0- He has rePrinted his predecessor’s notes, dissertation,
and other appendages, and has himself interspersed some
critical annotations.1 (d. j.)
BUCHAREST, Bukhorest or Bukorest, the capital
of Wallachia, and residence of the waiwode of that pro¬
vince, is situated on the Dumbovicza, a tributary of the
Danube, in Lat. 44. 26. N. Long. 26. 8. E., at the distance
of about 300 miles from Constantinople. Like the majo¬
rity of Turkish towns, Bucharest, when seen at a distance,
presents a very picturesque appearance, from the number
of its gilded cupolas and minarets. On a closer inspection,
however, the charm is dissolved. The houses are for the
most part little better than huts; the streets, where paved
at all, are paved with wood, and are thence called pond
(bridges); sewerage is a thing unknown ; and the filth ac¬
cumulating in vast quantities from year to year generates
fevers and the plague. The public buildings, when closely
examined, are mean and poor; the palace of the hospodar
is a low wooden edifice in the centre of the great square, in
which also the metropolitan church is situated. The only
buildings that make any pretensions to elegance and comfort
are the inns, some of which are magnificent. These, like all
the houses in Bucharest, are situated in the midst of large
gardens. It is computed that there are in the city 95 churches
and upwards of 20 monasteries. It also contains a poor-
house, and several hospitals, one of which, reserved for sol¬
diers, is admirably conducted by German physicians. There
is likewise a wooden theatre, where French and Italian
operas are sometimes performed. The number of schools is
about 70 in all, attended by nearly 1800 pupils: the college,
connected with which is a museum containing a public li¬
brary, annually musters about 500 students. Instruction is
communicated at this establishment in the French tongue,
though modern Greek and Italian are the languages spoken
by the Frank population. The number of carriages in
Bucharest is very great, and was estimated by Clarke the
traveller in his day at about 4000. The manners of the
inhabitants are extremely profligate ; gambling, and many
other worse forms of vice, are universally practised. As
Bucharest is situated in the. midst of an extremely fertile
district, it has a considerable export trade. Corn, wool,
hides, tallow, and honey are transmitted in large quantities
to Odessa and Constantinople, while vast herds of swine
and cattle are driven into Germany, and sold there. A
considerable number of German jewellers have established
themselves in Bucharest. The annual tribute which the
city pays to its Turkish masters is about L.26,000. Pop.
about 65,000.
BUCHOLZ, Christoph Friedrich, a distinguished
German chemist, born at Eisleben in 1770. In his nine¬
teenth year he was appointed to superintend a manufactory
at Ochsenfurt in Franconia; from which town at the end
of two years he removed to Mulhausen, where he conducted
the experiments by which he first became known. In
1808 he graduated as a physician at Rinteln, and in the
following year at the university of Erfurt. In 1813 his
health gave way from the long imprisonment which he suf¬
fered, consequent upon the siege of that town. He then
removed to Aix-la-Chapelle, where his eyesight became
affected; and when he retired finally to his birth-place, he
was nearly blind. He died in 1818. His works are very
multifarious, and, besides numerous separate treatises, com¬
prise translations from the English, and contributions to
the principal scientific journals of his native country.
BUCK, the male of the fallow deer, the goat, rabbit, &c.
BUCKEBURG, a city, the capital of the dominions of
the prince of Schaumburg-Lippe. It is pleasantly situated
BUG /21
on the side of a hill, at the foot of which runs the river Aue, Buckie
about six miles from Minden. It has a castle surrounded II
by a park, a gymnasium, orphan asylum, and 4000 inhabi- Bucking-
tants. Long. 9. 3. E. Lat. 52. 15. 47. N. hamshire.
BUCKIE, a fishing village of Scotland in the county of
Banff, 5 miles N.N.W. of Cullen, famous for its haddocks.
Pop. (1851) 2789.
BUCKINGHAM, the chief town of Buckinghamshire,
a parliamentary and municipal borough and market-town in
the hundred of the same name, 58 miles from London,
is situated on the left bank of the river Ouse, which sur¬
rounds it on every side but the north, and is crossed by two
bridges. The town consists principally of one long street,
straggling irregularly over a considerable extent of surface,
f he houses, which are chiefly brick, are neat and clean,
though somewhat humble in character. The only public
buildings of importance are the town-hall, which is built of
brick, and the church, which is built of freestone, and has
a handsome spire 150 feet high. The town is one of great
antiquity, and enjoyed various privileges under different
English sovereigns. It was the headquarters of Charles I.
for a few days during his wars with the parliament. In
1 < 25 a third of the town was burnt to the ground. Besides
the church already alluded to, there are two places of wor¬
ship for Independents, and one for Baptists in the town. An
endowed free school for boys, who were clad in green coats,
by the will of the founder, Gabriel Newton, is now incor¬
porated with the national school, which is intended to ac¬
commodate 300 pupils. The grammar-school of the town
was founded by Edward VI. There are no manufactures
of any consequence. An attempt was unsuccessfully made
to introduce straw-plaiting; but lace-making with bobbins
still occupies a small part of the female population. There
are some corn and paper mills in the neighbourhood, and
a few lime quarries. The borough of Buckingham returns
two members to parliament, and is governed by a mayor,
four aldermen, and twelve councillors. The revenue of
the corporation is between L.700 and L.800 annually.
The living, which is in the gift of the Duke of Bucking¬
ham, is a vicarage of L.230 value in the diocese of Oxford.
Pop. (in 1851) of parliamentary borough 8069; of munici¬
pal borough 4020.
Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of. See Villiers.
Buckingham, John Sheffield, Duke of. See Shef¬
field.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, or Bucks, an inland county
of England, lying between 51. 25. and 52. 10. N. Lat. and
0. 28. and 1.12. W. Long., is bounded on the N. and N.W.
by Northamptonshire, west by Oxfordshire, south by Berk¬
shire, and east by Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Mid¬
dlesex. It is the thirty-third in size of the English coun¬
ties, measuring 53 miles at its greatest length and 27 at its
greatest breadth, and containing, according to the last ord¬
nance survey, 472,320 acres, or 738 square miles. The
aspect of the country is agreeably diversified by the distri¬
bution of forests, rivers, hills, pasture, and arable land. In
the southern portion of the county the forests, consisting
chiefly of beeches (from the Saxon name of which, huccen,
the county is said to derive its name), were at one time very
extensive, but these have of late years been greatly thinned :
woods of considerable extent are still to be found in the
northern parts. The principal rivers of Buckinghamshire
are the Thames, which separates it from Berkshire and
Surrey, and receives as tributaries the Colne and the
Thame; and the Ouse, with its tributary the Ousel, which
belongs to the north of the county. The only hills in Bucks
worth mentioning are the Chilterns, which cross it in a
north-westerly direction, and rise at two or three points to
the height of about 900 feet. Of the roads which pass
1 See the second edition of Dr Irving’s Memoirs of the Life and Writings of George Buchanan. Edinb 1817 8vo
VOL. V.
722 BUG
Bucking- through the county the most important are, that which
hamshire. connects London with Chester and Holyhead, by which
v"—the mails were forwarded to Ireland before the introduction
of railways; the great western road connecting the metro¬
polis with Bath and Bristol; and the roads to Oxford and
Birmingham. The only canal of any importance is the
Grand Junction, from which branches proceed to several of
the larger towns. The North-Western railway passes
through the east of the county, and a branch line from it
terminates at Aylesbury. Another branch intersects the
north-western district, and after passing Winslow, divides
into two branches, one of which terminates at Banbury and
the other at Oxford. The Great Western railway passes
through the south. A branch to Windsor quits the trunk
line at Slough.
The agricultural capacities of Bucks vary considerably in
different parts of its extent. The Vale of Aylesbury, lying
between hills on either side, is one of the most fertile and
valuable districts in England, and is divided in nearly equal
proportions between pasture and tillage. Towards the north
of the county, however, the soil greatly degenerates, and
sometimes does little more than pay the expenses incurred
in its cultivation. These natural defects are enhanced by
the extremely backward condition of agriculture in many of
the more remote districts. In the north and west of the
county, the rent of land ranged in 1850 from ten shillings
an acre for the lowest quality of undrained lands under tillage,
to fifty shillings for prime old grazing lands. In the southern
and eastern districts, which lie chiefly upon clay, the rent
varied from fifteen to thirty shillings an acre. The farms
are not generally large. The largest do not exceed 500
acres, while there are many of not more than 20 or 30 acres.
The average size is about 180 or 200 acres. Leases are
sometimes though not generally given, and never for more
than 14 years. The quantities of cattle reared and fed in
Bucks are very considerable. The number of milk cows is
estimated at upwards of20,000, yielding on an average about
4,000,000 lb. of butter, which is rapidly despatched to
London by rail, where it finds a ready market. Various
breeds of oxen are found serviceable, partly for ploughing
the soil and partly to be fattened for the London market.
Hogs are extensively reared on many farms, and are found
to be a source of considerable profit to the farmer. In
many parts of the county, especially at Aylesbury, great
numbers of ducks are fattened and sold in the early London
markets.
Bucks was originally divided into eighteen hundreds: it
is now divided into eight. These are Newport, Bucking¬
ham, Ashendon, Cottlesloe, Aylesbury, Burnham, Stoke,
and Desborough, the last three forming what is well known
as “ The Chiltern Hundreds.” That of Aylesbury, still
retains its ancient designation of the “ three hundreds of
Aylesbury.” The number of parishes in the entire county
is computed at 202. The market-towns are Amersham,
Aylesbury (in all respects the most important town in the
county, though Buckingham is the capital), Beaconsfield,
Buckingham, Chesham, Great Marlowe, High Wycombe,
Ivinghoe, Newport-Pagnell, Olney, Prince’s Risborough,
S ony Stratford, Wendover, and Winslow. There are many
other interesting, though not very important places in
Buckinghamshire, of which we may mention Chalfont-
Saint Giles—the residence for a time of the poet Milton,
and where he completed the Paradise Lost, and began the
Paradise Regained ; Hampden, the manor-house of which
was for many generations the abode of the family of that
name, and in the churchyard of which the patriot (who
fell at Chalgrave in 1643) is buried; Medmenham, in the
old abbey of which a celebrated club of “Franciscans,” of
which John Wilkes, Bubb Doddington, and other political
notorieties of last century were members, held their convi¬
vial meetings; Pitstone, in the abbey of which Queen
BUG
Elizabeth used frequently to reside in her younger days; Buckler.
Stoke Pogeis, celebrated by Grey in his Elegy and Long
Story; Slough, for many years the residence of Sir Wil¬
liam Herschel, and the place where his great telescope was
constructed ; not far from Slough Salthill, where the Eton-
Montem, recently abolished, used to be held ; Olney,
familiar to all the readers of Cowper, near which is Weston
Underwood, for some years the residence of that poet; and
Butler’s Court or Gregories, the seat of Edmund Burke.
The principal seats in Buckinghamshire, are Stowe, once
the residence of the dukes of Buckingham, and celebrated
for its grounds, and its collections of pictures and statues,
which were sold a few years ago ; Bulstrode, once a seat
of the dukes of Portland, now the property of the Duke of
Somerset; Wootton House, belonging to the Marquis of
Chandos; Hampden House to the Earl of Buckingham¬
shire ; Penn House to Earl Howe ; Eythorpe to the Earl
of Chesterfield; Ashridge to Lord Ellesmere; Dropmore
to Lady Grenville ; Ashton Clinton to Lord Lake; Mor¬
ton House to Lord Godolphin; Dilton Park to Lord
Montague ; Lillies to Lord Nugent. Bucks is in the
Norfolk circuit. The quarter-sessions are always held at
Aylesbury: the assizes used to be held alternately at that
town and Buckingham, but are now held only at Aylesbury.
Before the passing of the Reform bill, Bucks returned in all
fourteen members to the House of Commons. It now re¬
turns eleven, three of whom represent the county and eight
the parliamentary boroughs. The result of the county
elections is always announced at Aylesbury. Bucks is go¬
verned by a lord-lieutenant and custos, 60 deputy-lieuten¬
ants, a high sheriff, and about 200 magistrates. It lies in
the ecclesiastical province of Canterbury, in the diocese of
Oxford, and arch-deaconry of Buckingham, which com¬
prises the deaneries of Bucks, Burnham, Muresley, New¬
port, Waddesden, Wendover, and Wycombe, in all about
180 benefices. The total number of places of worship in
Bucks is 499, of which 266 belong to the Church of Eng¬
land ; 56 to the Independents; 72 to the Baptists; 8 to
the Society of Friends ; 120 to the Wesleyan Methodists ;
12 to isolated congregations; 4 to the Roman Catholics;
and 1 to khe Latter-Day Saints. The entire population of
the county in 1851 was 163,554, of whom 80,990were males,
and 82,564 females. The parliamentary boroughs return¬
ing each two members to parliament are Aylesbury, pop.
26,794 ; Buckingham, pop. 8069; Chipping Wycombe,
pop. 7179 ; Great Marlow, pop. 6523. The towns of more
than 2000 inhabitants, not corporate towns, nor included
in any parliamentary borough, are Amersham, pop. 2093;
Chesham, pop. 2496; Newport-Pagnell, pop. 3312. The
manufactures of Buckinghamshire are neither very exten¬
sive nor very important. The principal are those of lace
and straw-plait. The number of persons chiefly engaged
in agriculture is about 14 percent.; in trade and manutac-
tures about 12 per cent. The number of inhabited houses
in the county is 33,160; uninhabited, 1206; building, 98.
BUCKLER, a piece of defensive armour, worn on the
left arm, and composed of wickers woven together, or
wood of the lightest sort, covered with hides, and fortified
with plates of brass or other metal. Its figure was round,
oval, or almost square. Bucklers were sometimes curiously
adorned with figures of birds and beasts, and of the gods,
the celestial bodies, and other natural objects ; a custom
which was derived from the heroic times, and from them
communicated to the Grecians, Romans, and barbarians.
The scutum, or Roman buckler, was composed of wood or
wdcker-work, and covered with a bull’s hide. In the middle
was an iron boss, or a spike, which was sometimes used to
press violently upon the enemy. The Greek clipeus was
smaller than the scutum, and quite circular. This species
of shield belonged properly to other nations, though for
some little time it was used by the Romans. Scuta were
BUD
BUD 723
Bucklers of two kinds, the ovata and the imbricata ; the former of a
II plain oval figure ; the latter oblong, and shaped like half a
Buda. cylinder. Polybius (vi. 21) makes the scuta 4 feet by 2^,
while Plutarch calls them TroSupa?, reaching down to the
feet; and it is probable that they covered almost the whole
body, since in Livy soldiers on guard are mentioned as some¬
times sleeping with their heads on their shields, while the
other extremity of the shield rested on the ground.
Bucklers, Votive, those consecrated to the gods, and
hung up in their temples, in commemoration of some hero,
or as a thanksgiving for a victory over an enemy, whose
bucklers, taken in war, were offered as trophies.
BUCKRAM, a sort of coarse linen or cotton cloth
stiffened with glue or paste, and used chiefly in the making
of women’s garments, to keep them in the form intended.
BUCKWHEAT. See Agriculture.
BUCOLIC, {/3ovk6Xo<s a herdsman, (SovkoXikos pastoral),
in ancient poetry, a kind of poem relating to shepherds and
rural affairs. According to the generally received opinion,
it was of Sicilian origin. “Bucolics,” says Vossius, “have
some conformity with comedy. Like it, they are pictures
and imitations of ordinary life; with this difference, however,
that comedy represents the manners of the inhabitants of
cities, and bucolics the occupations of country people.”
“ Sometimes,” he continues, “this last kind of poem is in the
form of a monologue, and sometimes in that of a dialogue.
Sometimes there is action in it, sometimes only narration,
and sometimes it is composed both of action and narration.”
The hexameter verse is the most proper for bucolics in the
Greek and Latin tongues. Moschus, Bion, Theocritus, and
Virgil, are the most renowned of the ancient bucolic poets.
BUCOVAR, a small circle in the Austrian kingdom of
Hungary, surrounding the city of the same name, and ex¬
tending over two hundred and sixty-six square miles or
170,240 acres. The city stands at the junction of the Buka
with the Danube. It contains one Catholic and two Greek
churches, seven hundred houses, and 6300 inhabitants,
chiefly employed in the cultivation of vines, the rearing of
silk-worms, and the spinning of silk. Long. 18. 55. 20. E.
Lat. 45. 21.9. N.
BUDA, or Ofen, a free city, the capital of the Austrian
kingdom of Hungary, on the right bank of the Danube, op¬
posite Pesth, with which it is connected by a bridge of boats,
and by a beautiful iron suspension bridge, 1227 feet long
and 39 feet wide, opened in 1849. It is the residence of
the palatines, and the seat of the boards of the several de¬
partments of government and of ecclesiastical affairs. The
public buildings worthy of notice are the castle (in which
the crown and regalia of Hungary were kept till the last revo¬
lution, after which they were removed to Vienna) the town-
house, cathedral, observatory, the orphan asylum, and a num¬
ber of churches. There are also a gymnasium and several
libraries. Pop. 32,000, principally employed in the manufac¬
ture of leather, cutlery, silk and woollen goods, and in the
cultivation of the vineyards in the vicinity, which yield an
excellent red wine. Long. 19. 3. 12. E. Lat. 47. 29. 14. N.
The town has been long celebrated for its mineral baths,
supplied from the hot sulphureous springs in the neighbour¬
hood. These baths were highly appreciated in the time of
the Romans and also by the Turks. Of those constructed
by the IRomans only a few fragments now remain ; but of
the Turkish, three remain to this day in so perfect a state as
still to be used. The temperature of the water is about 118
Fahr. Buda was in the possession of the Romans till to¬
wards the end of the 4th century. About 900, Arpad the
Magyar chief, made it his capital, and subsequent monarchs
greatly enlarged and improved it. In 1526 it was taken by
Solyman the Magnificent, but retaken by Ferdinand I. king
of Bohemia, in the following year. It was again captured by
Solyman in 1529, and held by the Turks till 1686, when it
was recovered by the Austrians under the Prince of Lorraine
after a desperate resistance. In 1849, it was taken by the
Hungarian army, but soon after abandoned.
BUD7EUS, or Bude, Guillaume, descended of an an¬
cient and illustrious family, was born at Paris in 1467. At an
early age he was sent to the schools of Paris, which, how¬
ever, were at that time so ill-managed, that Budmus took a
dislike to them, and spent his whole time in idleness, till his
parents sent him to the university of Orleans to study law.
There he passed three years without adding to his know¬
ledge ; so that his parents, on recalling him to Paris, found
his ignorance as great as before, and his aversion for study,
and love of gaming and pleasure, much greater. Being heir
to a large fortune, he was left to follow his own inclinations.
He was passionately fond of hunting, and devoted himself
to his horses, dogs, and hawks. But when the fire of youth
began to cool, he was seized with an irresistible passion for
study, and having disposed of his hunting equipage, aban¬
doned business of every description, and applied wholly
to literature. Without any assistance, he made a rapid
progress, particularly in the Latin and Greek languages.
The work which gained him greatest reputation was his
treatise De Asse, the first edition of which was published at
Paris in 1514, in folio. To the advantages of erudition and
high birth he united piety, modesty, gentleness, and good¬
breeding. He was greatly esteemed by the French king,
Francis I., who often sent for him, and, at his persuasion,
and that of Du Bellay, founded the royal college of France,
for teaching the languages and sciences. He was sent by
the king to Rome in the character of ambassador to Leo X.,
and in 1552 was made master of requests. The same year
he was chosen provost of the merchants. He died at Paris
in 1540. His works, extending to four volumes in folio,
were printed at Basle in 1557.
BUDDdSUS, John Francis, a celebrated Lutheran
divine, and one of the most learned men Germany has pro¬
duced, was born in 1667, at Anclam, a town of Pomerania,
where his father was minister. He studied with great dis¬
tinction at Greifswalde and at Wittenberg; and having
attained to eminence in languages, theology, and history,
was appointed Greek and Latin professor at Colberg;
afterwards professor of ethical science and politics in the
university of Halle; and at length, in 1705, professor of
divinity at Jena, where, after having acquired a very great
reputation, he died in 1729.
His principal works are,—A large historical German Dictionary,
Leipzig, 1709, folio ; Historia Ecclesiastica Veteris Tcstamenti, Halle,
1709, 4 vols. 4to; Elementa Philosophice Practicce, instrumentalis et
theoreticce, 3 vols. 8vo, which has passed through a great number of
editions; Selecta Juris Naturae et Gentium, Halle, 1704, 8vo; Miscel¬
lanea Sacra, Jena, 1727, 3 vols. 4to; Isagoge Historico-Theologica
ad Theologiam Universam, singulasque ejus partes, 2 vols. 4to, a work
much valued by the Lutherans; and a Treatise on Atheism and
Superstition.
BUDDHA, or Buddhu, one of the two appearances of
Vishnu, assumed for the purpose of deluding the enemies
of the gods, and effecting their destruction by leading them
to profess heretical opinions, and thus to reject the Hindu
religion. In the Bhagawat, a work held in high esteem by
the great majority of the Hindus, it is expressly declared,
“ that, at the commencement of the Kali Yug, Vishnu be¬
came incarnate in Kikata, under the name of Buddha, the
son of Jina, for the purpose of deluding the enemies of the
gods;” that “ the Undiscernible Being, having assumed a
mortal form, preached heretical doctrines in the three cities
founded by Maya, for the purpose of destroying, by delud¬
ing, the enemies of the gods, stedfast in the religion pre¬
scribed by the Vedas;” that praise is due to “the pure
Buddha, the deluder of the Daityas and Danawas;” and
that, “ by his words, as Buddha, Vishnu deludes the here¬
tics.” The same legend is related in a more detailed man¬
ner in the Kashi Khand of the Skanda Purana, and also in
the Ganesha Upa-Purana, in which the appearance of
Budseus
II
Buddha.
BUDDHA.
724
Buddha. Buddha is described as a manifestation rather than an incar-
nation of Vishnu; and an account is given of the circum¬
stances under which it is alleged to have been made. Ac¬
cording to the Puranas, Divodasa, a king of the solar race,
finding Kashi unoccupied, took possession of the place, and
there established the religion of Vishnu on so firm a foun¬
dation, and rendered his people so virtuous and happy, that
the gods having become alarmed lest they should lose their
supremacy, which they maintained by the use of very dif¬
ferent means, applied to Vishnu and Shiva to relieve them
from their anxieties on this head. The two incarnations of
the Supreme Being, however, declared at first that it would
be unjust to deprive so virtuous a prince of his kingdom;
but Divodasa, having obtained as a boon from Brahma that
none of the deities should remain in his kingdom, or exer¬
cise any power over it, Shiva at length waxed wroth at being
so long banished from his favourite residence, and con¬
sented to fulfil the malignant wishes of the deities. But
how was this to be accomplished ? As long as Divodasa and
his subjects remained stedfast in their religion, they were
secure from injury ; it therefore became necessary to lead
them into error as a pretext for destroying them; and with
this view Devi, the twelve suns, and Ganesha, were em¬
ployed, but without success. At last, when these minor
tempters had failed, Vishnu appeared, as Buddha, and ef¬
fected their apostasy.
From the tenor of this legend may be divined, a priori,
the doctrines which it was necessary for Buddha to propa¬
gate, in order to induce Divodasa and his subjects to apos¬
tatize from the religion of the Vedas. These in fact w ere,
—that no credit whatever is due to the Vedas or Shastras ;
that it is vain to worship the images of gods ; that sacrifices
are cruel and sinful; that there is no such thing as transmi¬
gration of souls ; that at death the five elements in the body
dissolve never to reunite ; that pleasure is the grand object
of life, and that all acts of abstinence, piety, and charity, are
unprofitable; that the body is man’s real god, and should
alone be worshipped; that pleasant food, fine clothes, and
handsome women, form the grand felicity of man ; that this
world is without beginning, and consequently owes its ex¬
istence neither to creator nor cause ; and that Brahma,
Vishnu, Shiva, Budra, and all the other gods, are mere
creatures of fancy and fear, and never had a being, except
in the imaginations of their worshippers. In short, the an¬
cient Brahminical Buddha, whether a manifestation of Vishnu
according to the Shaivas, or an incarnation according to the
Vaishnavas, was the propagator of a system of universal
scepticism, embracing not only a disbelief of all religion, but
also a disregard for all virtue, and indeed for everything ex¬
cept mere sensual gratification. He was a false teacher and
impostor, who came to deceive and to mislead, in order to de¬
stroy ; not a kind and merciful being, adorned with the at¬
tributes of wisdom and benevolence, and worthy to receive
all praise and worship, as some have erroneously supposed.
Moreover, his appearance was for a temporary and local
purpose, namely, to render Divodasa the voluntary cause of
his own downfal, and thus to gratify the malice of the deities
who had conceived an aversion to that virtuous potentate.
But the sceptical doctrines which he disseminated in the
course of his delusive manifestation became afterwards
blended and intermixed with a variety of others of a totally
different description ; so that, although Buddhism has ever
continued more or less distinct from the faith of which ori¬
ginally it formed the negation, it is exceedingly difficult to
trace its progress, and by no means easy to ascertain its pre¬
cise character at any given period of time. The rejection
of the Vedas, and of the religion founded upon them, seems,
however, to be common to all forms of Buddhism ; and al¬
though the Brahmins nevertheless recognise Buddha as an
object of worship or reverence, it is only as a manifestation
of Vishnu, one of the emanations of Brahm, or the Supreme
Being, and not as a false teacher and an impostor, whose ob- Buddha,
ject was to deceive and delude, that he is acknowledged by
the sacred caste of the Hindus. By not perceiving or not
attending to this distinction, all the writers on the subject
whose works we have consulted have entangled themselves
in the mazes of inextricable perplexity and contradiction,
and thickened the darkness which they laboured to dispel.
M. Guigniaut, indeed, has attempted to cut the knot which
he could not unloose. “ Bouddha ne jouit d’aucun culte
dans 1’Inde,” says he ; “ ses temples, ses idoles y sent ren-
verses ou abandonnes; une tenebreuse horreur, une igno¬
rance feinte ou reelle, une haine non moins violente qu’irre- .
flechie, regnent chez les Brahmanes, sur tout ce qui con-
cerne sa doctrine.” But in another part of his work {Re¬
ligions de VAntiquite, vol. i. p. 294), the same author ad¬
mits that Buddha has not ceased to be revered by the Hindu
nation; an admission w holly irreconcilable with the state¬
ment contained in the passage just quoted. This confusion
of ideas, however, proceeds from incorrect notions as to the
character of Buddha ; for as long as he is considered merely
as a manifestation of Vishnu, he is held to be an object of
reverence, not as Buddha, but as the divinity who chose to
appear in that form. The Hindus have never acknowledged
him in any other character; and consequently all that has
been written concerning him with reference to the religion
of India, is wholly irrelevant, and foreign to the subject.
According to the fable, Buddha, when he had effected
the apostasy of Divodasa, was prevailed upon by the Brah¬
mins and holy men to terminate the propagation of hereti¬
cal doctrines, upon which he disappeared in a deep well at
Gaya, leaving neither writings nor disciples behind him;
and it is further believed, upon the credit of tradition, that
no Buddhists were known in India, until their sect was esta¬
blished by Gautama or Godama, with whom Buddha is fre¬
quently confounded. Now, in this mythic account, which
is supported by a legend in the Shiva Purana, we have the
true genius of Buddhism displayed. Its character through¬
out is essentially negative. When reduced to its elements
or first principles, it consists merely of the rejection of the
Vedas and of the religion founded upon them. It is not the
Hindu faith; but under this denomination of Buddhism
there may be, and in point of fact there has been, included
the most various, not to say incongruous, tenets and supersti¬
tions which it is possible to imagine ; and although its ne¬
gative character is everywhere the same, its positive charac¬
ter differs in different countries. Hence the Buddhism of
China, allied to the institutions, laws, and maxims of Foand
Confucius, is in many respects as different from the Bud¬
dhism of the Burman empire as the latter is from the system
of religion founded on the Vedas and the Shastras. But,
nevertheless, it has some positive general characteristics.
The principles of this sect, as established by Gautama, its
founder, about five hundred years before Christ, are un¬
known ; but those now ascribed to him, and professed as
his alleged revelations, may be very briefly stated. The doc¬
trine and law of Gautama consists chiefly in observing five
commandments, and abstaining from ten sins. The five
commandments contain prohibitions against killing any ani- t
mal whatsoever, from the meanest insect up to man ; against
the commission of theft; against the violation of another
man’s wife or concubine; against falsehood; and against
the use of wine, or any intoxicating liquor or drug, as opium ;
and an exemption from poverty, misfortune, and calamity is
promised to those who keep these commandments during all
successive transmigrations. The ten sins consist in the
killing of animals, theft, adultery, falsehood, discord, contu¬
melious language, idle and superfluous talk, covetousness,
envy or malice, and the following of false gods : and he who
abstains from all these sins is said to obtain Sila, while every
one who observes Sila, in all successive transmigrations, be¬
comes at last worthy of beholding a god, and of hearing his
Budgell.
BUD
Bade-Light great voice, and is exempted from the four known miseries,
namely, weight, old age, disease, and death. There are also
certain positive good works which ought to be practised, such
as Dana, which consists in giving alms, and Bavana, which
consists in repeating solemnly the three words Aneizza,
Docha, and Anatta ; the first indicating liability to vicissi¬
tude, the second exposure to misfortune, and the third
the impossibility of obtaining exemption from these evils.
From this statement it appears that the two scales of com¬
mandments and prohibitions are singularly ill adjusted to
each other; inasmuch as the duties enjoined are only half
•the number of the sins forbidden, and as the negative and
the positive in morals are blended in both.
The worshippers of Buddha contend with the disciples of
Brahma for the honour of a high antiquity; and this preten¬
sion has been countenanced by some European writers of
high reputation. Sir William Jones, for instance, fixes the
first appearance of Buddhism about a thousand years before
Christ; but his argument rests upon very weak grounds, and,
if the Puranas are admitted to be of any authority, it is
wholly untenable; for whatever antiquity may be ascribed
to Buddha, considered as a manifestation of Vishnu for the
purpose of local and temporary delusion, there are clearly
no grounds, mythological, traditional, or historical, for placing
the origin of this sect higher than the period of Gautama,
or about five hundred years before Christ, as already men¬
tioned. What we know with certainty is, that Buddhism,
so called doubtless from its peculiar character, once predo¬
minated throughout a great part of India; that the doctrines
and system of belief adopted by its votaries were in direct
opposition to the religion founded on the Vedas ; that a
deadly hatred arose between the followers of Brahma and
the Buddhists, which ended in the expulsion of the latter;
that, nevertheless, the Brahmins continued to reverence
Buddha as the manifestation of Vishnu, however much they
might have detested the sect which called itself by his name;
that Buddhism appears to have diffused itself over all the
countries from Bengal to China inclusive; that in its charac¬
ter and genius it is extremely flexible and accommodating;
and that, in the different countries which it overspread, it
appears to have become amalgamated with indigenous local
superstitions of almost every description. (See Kennedy’s
Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and
Hindu Mythology^ p. 248, et seq.; Transactions of the
Bombay Literary Society, part hi. p. 532; Guigniaut, Reli¬
gions de VAntiquite, tom. i. p. 300; Heeren, Ideen iiber die
Politik, &c. vol. viii. p. 127, 4th edit.; Asiatic Researches,
vol. viii. p. 474; Hardy, Eastern Monachism; Hardy,
Manual of Buddhism.) (j. B—E.)
BUDE-Light, an ingenious contrivance for increasing
the brillancy of any sort of lamp or gas-flame, by introducing
a current of pure air, so as to carry off the product of com¬
bustion. It is the invention of Mr G. Gurney; and is named
from his Cornish residence, where it was first tried.
BUDGELL, Eustace, an ingenious writer, was the son
of Gilbert Budgell, D.D., and was born at St Thomas, near
Exeter, in 1685. He was educated at Christ Church, Ox¬
ford, from which he removed to the Inner Temple, London;
but instead of studying the law, he devoted his whole atten¬
tion to polite literature. He contracted a friendship with
Addison, who was first cousin to his mother, and who, on
being appointed secretary to Lord Wharton, lord-lieutenant
of Ireland, took Budgell with him as one of the clerks of his
office. Budgell, who was then about twenty years of age,
and had read the classics and the works of the best English,
French, and Italian authors, now united with Sir Richard
Steele and Addison in writing the Tatler. He soon after¬
wards contributed to the Spectator, where all his papers
are marked with an X. To the Guardian, also, he contri¬
buted those papers which are marked with an asterisk. He
was subsequently made under-secretary to Addison, chief
BUD
725
Budweis.
secretary to the lords justices of Ireland, deputy clerk of the Budget
council, and soon afterwards was chosen a member of the
Irish parliament. In 1717, when Addison became princi¬
pal secretary of state in England, he procured for Budgell
the place of accountant and comptroller-general of the re¬
venue in Ireland. But the next year, the Duke of Bolton
being appointed lord-lieutenant, Budged wrote a lampoon
against Mr Webster, his secretary, in which his Grace him¬
self was not spared. This indiscretion became the primary
cause of his ruin; for the Duke of Bolton, in support of his
secretary, got Budgell removed from his post of accountant-
general ; upon which he returned to England, and, contrary
to the advice of Addison, published his case in a pamphlet.
In the year 1720 he lost L.20,000 by the South Sea scheme,
and afterwards spent L.5000 more in unsuccessful attempts
to get into parliament. This completed his ruin. He at
length employed himself in writing pamphlets against the
ministry, and published many papers in the Craftsman. In
1733 he began a weekly periodical called the Bee, which he
continued for above a hundred numbers, and which is printed
in eight volumes 8vo. During the progress of this work
occurred the death of Dr Tindal, by whose will Budgell re¬
ceived a legacy of L.2000; and the world being surprised
at such a gift from a man entirely unrelated to him, to the
exclusion of the next heir, a nephew, and the continuator of
Rapin’s history of England, immediately imputed it to his
having made the will himself. Hence the satirist:
Let Budgell charge low Grub-street on my quill,
And write whate’er he please except my will.
It was thought that he had some hand in publishing Dr
Tindal’s Christianity as old as the Creation ; for he often
talked of an additional volume on the subject, but never
published it. After the cessation of the Bee, he became so
involved in lawsuits that he was reduced to very distressing
straits. He was called to the bar, and attended for some
time in the courts of law ; but being unable to make any
progress, and finding his prospects utterly ruined, he de¬
termined to put an end to his life. Accordingly, in 1736,
he took a boat at Somerset-stairs, after filling his pockets
with stones; ordered the waterman to shoot the bridge ;
and while the boat was passing under it he threw himself
into the river. On his bureau was found a slip of paper
with these words:
What Cato did, and Addison approved,
Cannot he wrong.
Besides the above works, he wrote a Translation of the Cha¬
racters of Theophrastus. He never married, but left one
natural daughter, who afterwards assumed his name, and
became an actress at Drury-lane.
BUDGET, a bag or little sack. This word is used to
designate the statement respecting the financial position of
the British nation, which the chancellor of the exchequer
lays before the House of Commons at the commencement
of each session of parliament.
BUDNiEANS, in Ecclesiastical History, so called from
their leader, Simon Budnaeus, or Budny. They not only
denied all kind of religious worship to Jesus Christ, but as¬
serted that he was not conceived by virtue of any divine
power. Budnseus was deposed from his ministerial office
in 1584, and with his adherents publicly excommunicated;
but afterwards renouncing this opinion, he was restored to
the communion of the Socinian sect. Crellius ascribes the
origin of the above opinion to Adam Neuser.
BUD UN, a Ceylonese deity, supposed to have arrived at
supremacy after successive transmigrations from the lowest
state of an insect through the various species of animals.
There have been three successive deities of this name.
BUDWEIS, the capital of a circle of the same name in
the Austrian kingdom of Bohemia, is situated on the river
Moldau, 75 miles south of Prague. It is an ancient town,
well built, and partially fortified. The council house is a
*
726 B U E
Buenaire handsome building, having in the centre of its large square a
II fine fountain. It has a cathedral, and several other churches,
Buenos- a gymnasjurn, philosophical academy, a high and other
v Ayre^‘ , schools, and manufactures of woollen cloth, muslin, damask,
saltpetre, and musical instruments. It is connected by rail¬
way with Linz and Gmiinden. Pop. 8000.
BUENAIRE, one of the Dutch West India Islands,
lying 30 miles east of Cura^oa. It is 50 miles in circum¬
ference, is mountainous in its appearance, and has about
2000 inhabitants. It produces only a few cattle, some
goats, large quantities of poultry, and of late years a consider¬
able quantity of salt. On the S.W. side there is a good
harbour. Long. 68. 15. W. Lat. 12. 12. N.
BUENOS-AYRES, the largest and most important pro¬
vince of the Argentine Confederation, is bounded on the
north by the Parana, which separates it from the province of
Entre Rios; and by the provinces of Santa Fe, San Luis,
and Mendoza; on the east by the Atlantic ; on the south by
the Rio Negro, which separates it from Patagonia; and on
the west by the country of the Indians, which extends west¬
wards to the Andes. The area of the province is estimated
by Sir Woodbine Parish at about 200,000 square miles, be¬
ing little less than that of France. Its seaboard along the
Rio de la Plata and the ocean is upwards of 600 miles in
length. Since 1825 no census of the population has been
taken. At that date it was found to amount to 183,000.
Parish estimates the present population at 320,000, of which
number 120,000 belong to the city of Buenos-Ayres. By
M‘Cann, another authority, the entire population of the pro¬
vince is computed at 200,000. This small increase over the
results of the census of 1825 is attributed by him to the civil
wars, to the prohibition of the slave-trade, and other causes.
The general aspect of the country, as viewed from the
sea, is eminently uninteresting. From the mouth of the
Plata to the Bahia Blanca the sea-line presents an unbroken
series of sand-dunes, varied here and there with low ridges
of rock. From this latter point to the Patagonian frontier
the aspect of the coast is less monotonous, though equally
destitute of life or interest. Though Buenos-Ayres is the
only province of the Argentine Confederation that borders
upon the sea, and though all the exports and imports of the
country pass through it, it possesses only two harbours, one
of which (that of the city Buenos-Ayres) is extremely bad ;
the other (that of Belgrano, near the southern extremity of
the province), though possessing great natural advantages,
is by no means adequately appreciated. It might be turned
to good account as a starting point for vessels engaged in
trade with the South American states that border upon the
Pacific, but the difficult and sometimes dangerous naviga¬
tion of the adjoining seas counterbalances in the meantime
the other advantages which it ofters. The interior of the
country, except where it is intersected by the low mountain
ranges of the Ventana and Vaulcan in its southern portions,
and the spurs of the Andes in the west, is one vast plain, ot
which by far the larger part is laid out in estancias, or cattle
farms, though the soil is in itself well adapted for producing
all the European cerealia. Agricultural pursuits, however,
are by no means in favour with the natives, who cannot
bring themselves to engage in any pursuit that cannot be
prosecuted on horseback. “ Every man, woman, and child
in the country rides,” says Parish. “ One might fancy one’s
self in the land of centaurs, amidst a population half-men
half-horses. Even beggars ride on horseback.” Some of
the cattle-farms are of immense extent: one in particular
is mentioned by travellers as comprising more than 300
square miles of land, and yielding an enormous revenue to
the proprietor. Some of the largest of them belong to British
settlers, and are worked by British servants. The cattle
were formerly hunted down and killed merely for the sake
of their hides and tongues, while the carcases were aban¬
doned to beasts and birds of prey. They are now slaughtered
B U E
in abattoirs, where every part of the animal is made avail- Buenos
able. The beef is salted for exportation ; the tallow is ^ Ayres,
boiled down, and now forms an important item in the farmer’s
revenue; and the trade in hides is steadily increasing. Beef
and an infusion of the native tea are the staple food of the
natives. By the care of a few British colonists, sheep have
of late years been extensively reared, and their wool is an¬
nually increasing in value. Till recently they were reputed
so valueless that their carcases were used as fuel for kilns,
&c. A decree of government ordained that no live sheep
should be employed for this purpose. The number of
cattle in the province is estimated at 12,000,000; of sheep,
about the half of that number. The total value of exports
from Buenos-Ayres in 1849 was L.2,537,821; in 1850,
L.1,983,513; and in 1851, L.2,126,705. In this latter
year, the value of the jerked beef exported was L.172,749;
of hides, L.1,300,570; of tallow, L.217,690; of wool,
L.190,060. The other exports consisted chiefly of hair,
horns, bones, skins, and feathers. The value of imports
into Buenos-Ayres may be stated approximately for the
year 1851, at L.2,110,000; of which Great Britain con¬
tributes L.900,000; France, L.500,000; northern Europe,
L.170,000 ; Gibraltar, Spain, and the Mediterranean,
L.120,000; United States, L.200,000; Brazil and other
countries, L.220,000. Of the cereals grown in Buenos-
Ayres, the most important is maize, which is indigenous to
the country. Wheat thrives well in the southern parts ot
the province, but the inhabitants rarely grow more than
enough to supply their own necessities. In the event of a
surplus, it is commonly exported to Brazil. Flax and liemp
are cultivated with success. The vine, fig, orange, and
olive, have been introduced from the old world, and are
found to suit the climate admirably ; but the most valuable
of European fruits is the peach. A considerable fruit trade
is carried on in coasting vessels, by merchants for the most
part Italian or French. The geographical position of
Buenos-Ayres is such as to enable it completely to control
the foreign commercial relations of the entire confederation
of which it forms a part. The exclusive policy which it has
always pursued on this point has often involved it in serious
quarrels, not only with many of the South American states
and the other provinces of the Argentine Confederation,
but with England and France. (See Buenos-Ayres, City
of, and La Plata.) Since the expulsion of General Rosas,
the navigation of the Parana and Uruguay has been thrown
open, and other measures have been taken to place both the
province and city of Buenos-Ayres on a level with the other
provinces of the confederation. Buenos-Ayres has published
a protest against any such measure, and the dispute is still
unsettled. The only other towns in the province of any
importance, besides the capital, are San Nicolas, which is
situated on the Parana, about 200 miles N.W. of Buenos-
Ayres, and contains a population of about 10,000; San
Pedro, also on the Parana, about 150 miles from the capital
in the same direction, with a population of 1000; Chasca-
mas, on the shores of a cognominal lake, once a place of
considerable importance, but seriously injured by the long
continuance of the civil wars ; and Belgrano, which from
its position bids fair to become the rival of the capital itself.
Buenos Ayres, the capital of the Argentine Confedera¬
tion and of the province of Buenos-Ayres, is situated on
the right bank of the estuary of the La Plata, in Lat. 34. 39.
S. Long. 58. 18. W. The river is at this point so wide,
that it is quite impossible with the naked eye to distinguish
the opposite bank; and at the same time so shallow, that
ships drawing 15 or 16 feet of water must anchoi seven or
eight miles from the city. Small craft generally anchor in
what are called the inner roads, abreast of the city. As
the depth of water is never sufficient to admit of their com¬
ing to shore, passengers and goods are landed by means of
large-wheeled carts, which are either drawn or pushed by
BUEN OS-AY RES.
727
Buenos the requisite number of horses. The town of Buenos-Ayres
Ayres. is situated in a vast plain extending westwards to the Andes.
The level uniformity of its outline is only broken by the
spires of the various churches. The stranger, on landing, is
struck with the regularity of the streets, which are quite
straight, and intersect each other at distances of 150 yards
forming squares like those of a chess-board, with the cleanly
appearance of the houses, and the general air of indepen¬
dence that distinguishes the inhabitants. The only public
buildings that have any pretensions to architectural beauty
are the churches, which were built for the most part by the
Jesuits. The houses have never more than two stories,
and commonly only one, the rooms of which open into each
other, and till lately wrere chiefly supplied with furniture of
a very inferior description from the United States. A chim¬
ney was a thing unknown, as the old Spanish brazero alone
was employed in heating the damp and white-washed rooms.
A great change has, however, taken place in these respects
within the last few years. The furniture is now supplied
from Europe, the walls are papered, grates and chimneys
have come into fashion, and English coal is burned at a
lower price than it brings in the London market. These
comforts are all the more valuable, as the climate of Buenos-
Ayres is one of the most humid and changeable in the
world. As the system of police is still somewhat of the
rudest, the inhabitants are obliged to guard themselves and
their property by means of the iron railings with which they
protect the windows of the houses. Even this, however, is
not always found to be an efficient safeguard against the
dexterity of thieves. Though the city is built within 50
yards of the largest river in the world, the supplies of fresh
water are both scanty and expensive. There are no public
reservoirs or fountains, and the wells of the city yield only
a brackish and disagreeable water. By the wealthier classes
tanks are constructed, in which a sufficiency of rain-water
for domestic purposes is collected from the roof of the house.
The common people are obliged to purchase water from the
water-carriers. As it is derived from the river, it is com¬
monly muddy, and must stand for twenty-four hours till
the sediment sinks to the bottom. It is then found to be
excellent. The streets of the city are now tolerably paved
with granite. Many of them, however, are still unpaved;
and these in wet weather can hardly be traversed by a
mounted horseman, and are utterly impassable by a person
on foot. Floriculture is a favourite pursuit; and many
English and Scotch gardeners have nurseries in the neigh¬
bourhood of the town.
Of the public buildings may be noticed the fortress,
which is situated on the beach, and, besides guarding the
town, serves as a residence for the president of the confe¬
deration ; the cathedral, which is surmounted by a hand¬
some dome, and has a large portico with twelve Corinthian
pillars ; the cabildo or town-house, in which justice is admi¬
nistered and the business of the municipality conducted; the
churches of La Merced, San Francisco, and San Domingo ;
and the custom-house. The Plaza de la Victoria, round
which some of these edifices are grouped, is the handsomest
square in Buenos-Ayres. In the centre of it is a handsome
monument, erected as a memorial of the war of indepen¬
dence. When the number of British residents in the town
began rapidly to increase, application was made to General
Bosas for a site for a church. This was immediately granted,
and the minister for the time being set an example of liber¬
ality and toleration to his countrymen by laying the founda¬
tion-stone of the edifice, which cost in all about L.4000, half
of which was defrayed by the British government. The
Scottish residents, who muster about 1000, have recently
built a small Presbyterian chapel; and the Roman Catholic
portion of the English subjects are allowed the use of one
of the national churches, in which a priest performs the
service. In 1842 the Methodists erected a meeting-house,
which is used by all denominations of the British Dissenters. Bucnos-
The Protestant Germans, who are pretty numerous, have -Ayres,
a church in connexion with the Established Church of Prus-
sia. To each of these places of worship schools are attached
for children of both sexes. The facilities for education are
very considerable, and of these the inhabitants avail them¬
selves extensively. Besides the denominational schools al¬
ready alluded to, there is a university, attended by about
500 students, and possessing a valuable though not very ex¬
tensive library. The sons of the wealthier families of the
city are very frequently sent to Europe to complete their
education at some of the great schools and colleges in France
and England. The Buenos-Ayreans inherit from their an¬
cestors much of that passion for music which characterizes
the Spaniard, and are said to excel in this accomplishment.
Poetry also is much cultivated among them ; and a collec¬
tion of lyrical ballads, under the title of Lira Argentina,
is said to be well worth the notice of all lovers of Spanish
verse. Besides its university, Buenos-Ayres contains many
other literary and scientific institutions. Of these, the most
important are the academy of medicine, the academy of
jurisprudence, a special academy of mathematics and the
physical sciences, a normal school, and a society for the pro¬
motion of agriculture. The charitable societies, though not
very numerous, are rather important. Spanish is the lan¬
guage spoken by the Buenos-A yrean descendants of the old
Spanish settlers, as well as by the native Indians, who con¬
stitute the bulk of the lower classes.
Buenos-Ayres was founded in 1535 by a Spanish expe¬
dition under Don Jorge de Mendoza, who landing at this
place after many hardships, bestowed upon it the name it
now bears in commemoration of the fine weather which
prevailed at that time. At first he endeavoured to conci¬
liate the native Indians, but hostilities soon broke out, and,
despite their utmost efforts, the Spaniards were obliged to
abandon the new settlement; and after almost incredible
difficulties succeeded in reaching Assumption in Paraguay,
with their numbers reduced by three-fourths. In 1580
another expedition under Don Juan de Garay took posses¬
sion of the site of the old fort and established themselves
there, founding cities and establishing settlements in every
direction with such success, that in 1620 a new government
was erected, under the name of the government of the Rio
de la Plata. Buenos-Ayres became the capital, and the
seat of a new bishopric created at this time by Pope Paul
V., at the request of Philip III. of Spain. After the lapse
of a century, Buenos-Ayres began to rise into such impor¬
tance as to excite the jealousy and alarm of the home go¬
vernment. The insane restrictions imposed upon her foreign
and internal commerce led only to continual heart-burnings
with the parent country, and Buenos-Ayres soon became a
rendezvous for the smugglers of such nations as were
strong enough to set Spain at defiance. After numerous
modifications of its government, and of its relations to the
parent state, the provinces of the Rio de la Plata were m
1776 erected into a vice-royalty, of which Buenos-Ayres
continued to be the capital. Two years later the old com¬
mercial restrictions were abolished and a new commercial
code promulgated, so liberal as to be called the “Free-
Trade Regulations.” According to the old system the
Buenos-Ayreans were only allowed to export merchandise
to the Portuguese settlements in Brazil, and the quantity
was limited to 2000 fanegas of wheat, 500 quintals of jerked
beef, and 500 of tallow. All intercourse with other coun¬
tries was strictly prohibited. By the new system, nine ports
in Spain and twenty-four in the colonies were declared
puertos habilitados, or ports of entry. The effects of the
new policy were immediately visible. Of hides, for instance,
the staple commodity of the country, the exports to Spain
before 1778 only amounted to 150,000 annually ; after that
year they rose to from 700,000 to 800,000. In 1805, and
C
728- B U E
Buenos- again in 1807, the British invaded Buenos-Ayres; and
Ayres, though the natives applied for assistance to the home autho-
rities, they were told that they must defend themselves as
they best might, as Spain could send them no help. They
accordingly rose in arms, and twice expelled the invaders.
In the following year they were threatened with invasion by
the prince regent of Portugal. The resolution which they
displayed on the occasion prevented that prince from insist¬
ing upon his claims. In 1810 the circumstances of the
country involved the establishment of a provisional junta ;
a policy which was construed by the Spanish cortes into an
act of rebellion. A civil war ensued ; and Ferdinand, on his
restoration after the expulsion of the French from Spain,
instead of trying to conciliate the malcontents by timely
concessions, obstinately refused to accede to their lawful de¬
mands. Tire result of this was that, on the 9th of July
1816, deputies from the provinces of the Rio de la Plata
assembled in congress at Tucuman, solemnly declared their
separation from Spain, and their determination to constitute
a free and independent state. Buenos-Ayres continued to
be the capital of the new republic, which was governed by
authorities constituted in that city. The exclusive policy
of the capital soon bred discontent in the provinces, the go¬
vernors of which began to cry out for a federation in oppo¬
sition to the central government of Buenos-Ayres. By
their influence the new constitution, which conferred on a
chief magistrate residing in the capital very extensive civil
and military powers over the whole republic, was repudiated,
and a civil war was the consequence. Various assemblies
were held, and attempts were made to establish the consti¬
tution on a sufficiently wide basis to reconcile the interests
of all parties—but always without success ; and from 1827
till the expulsion of Rosas in 1852, no meetings of the con¬
stituent assembly took place. After 1827, the Confedera¬
tion was obliged to delegate to the executive government
of Buenos-Ayres the undivided charge of the national busi¬
ness, such as the management of the public debt, the main¬
tenance of relations with foreign powers, the defence of the
country in the event of war, &c. While these internal dis¬
sensions were going on, war was declared between the
young confederation and the empire of Brazil, and Buenos-
Ayres was blockaded for a year and a half by a Brazilian
fleet. In 1828, however, the siege was raised by the in¬
tervention of the English. This foreign war thus ended, the
civil war broke out once more, and was only temporarily
checked by the accession of General Rosas to power in
1835. Aiming at territorial aggrandizement, Rosas soon
became involved in war with the neighbouring states of
Paraguay and Uruguay. England, France, and Brazil inter¬
fered, with the intention of effecting an amicable arrange¬
ment between the belligerents. Rosas rejected their me¬
diation ; and the united fleets of England and France took
possession of the Buenos-Ayrean fleet which was engaged
in the siege of Monte Video, and opened the navigation of
the Parana to the merchantmen of all nations. In the sub¬
sequent operations Rosas sustained severe losses, yet obsti¬
nately refused to yield. In 1848 the English fleet returned
home, and was followed by the French in the following
year. Brazil was now left to carry on the war alone, but
she found ready allies in some of the provinces of the
Argentine Confederation, which had long regarded with
hatred and aversion the supremacy arrogated by Buenos-
Ayres. With the assistance of these and the adjoining
states of Uruguay and Paraguay, a large army was raised,
which, under the command of General Urquiza, defeated
Rosas at the battle of Monte Caseros, February 2, 1851.
Rosas after his downfal fled to England. Urquiza was ap¬
pointed provisional director of the confederation; but the
Buenos-Ayreans protested against his policy, which threat-
. ened to undermine the prerogatives they had been long
struggling to secure. Civil war again broke out; and
B U F
in 1853 Buenos-Ayres was besieged by the forces of the Buffal-
other states of the confederation. On the 20th of June the macco
siege was raised, and a temporary accommodation effected. I!
BUFFALMACCO, the designation of a wit and painter
who lived at Florence about the end of the thirteenth cen-
tury. His real name was Buonamico di Cristofano, but his
witticisms are recorded under the other name in the Deca¬
meron of Boccaccio and the Novelle of Sacchetti. His best
pictures have perished, but specimens of his works remain
in the Campo Santo of Pisa and at Arezzo. In those his
style is mean, and without the grace of Giotto ; but there
is vigour in some of his conceptions, as in the Crucifixion.
Lanzi says he was alive in 1351, though Vasari says he
died in poverty in 1340.
BUFFALO, Bubalus. See Mammalia.
Buffalo, a city and port of entry, capital of the
county of Erie, in the state of New York, United States,
North America, is situated on Buffalo Creek, which forms
its harbour at the west extremity of Lake Erie, where it
contracts to form the Niagara river. It was founded in
1801, but for some time made so little progress, that when
burned by the British in 1814 it did not contain more than
200 houses. Its prosperity dates from the formation of the
Erie canal, which establishes a navigable communication
between the lake and the Hudson river. Since that period
its growth has been so rapid, that in point of population it
ranks as the fourth city in the state, and the twelfth in the
union ; and as a commercial city is surpassed by only three
or four. The city is built on a gradual ascent, extending
for two miles from the water to an extended plain, and from
the higher parts affording fine views of the surrounding
scenery. It has three public squares, and the streets are
broad and regular, consisting of numerous elegant buildings
and extensive warehouses. The public buildings are a court¬
house, jail, two markets, the city offices, churches, banks,
theatre, &c. Among the benevolent institutions are the
orphan asylum, city hospital, hospital of the Sisters of
Charity, female orphan asylum, and Association for the Re¬
lief of the Poor. There are numerous public schools open
to all children, and many academies and private schools.
The university of Buffalo was chartered in 1846, and has a
medical school. The young men’s association has a library
of about 7000 volumes, a museum, and a reading-room
amply supplied with periodicals and newspapers. 1 he Ger-
mang young men’s association is a similar institution, with a
library of 2000 volumes. Buffalo has about 40 churches,
10 banks, 1 savings-bank, and, including agencies, upwards
of 40 insurance companies.
The harbour is spacious and safe, and has for a mile from
its entrance a depth of 13 or 14 feet of water. To obviate
the bar at its mouth, a pier 1500 feet in length with a light¬
house at its extremity has been constructed, so that vessels
drawing eight feet enter without difficulty. Farther im¬
provements have been proposed. In 1852, 929 vessels of
135,866 tons burden entered, and 1066 vessels of 147,505
tons cleared out in the foreign trade ; and 3738 vessels of
1,403,672 tons entered, and 3708 vessels of 1,405,203 tons
cleared out in the coasting trade. The shipping belonging
to the district at the end of that year was 59 steamers of
30,126 tons, and 134 sailing vessels of 26,397 tons. The
Grand Erie canal was commenced in 1817 and completed
in 1825. It is 363 miles long and 40 feet wide.
The city is divided into five wards, and is governed by a
mayor and common council. Shipbuilding is extensively
carried on. Extensive lines of railway connect Buffalo with
the eastern and western states and Canada. Pop. (1810)
1508; (1820)2095; <1830) 8653; (1840) 18,213; (1850)
42,260. Its present population (1854) is estimated at
70,000.
BUFFET (French buffet), was anciently a little apart¬
ment for holding china, glass-ware, &c., erected on one side
.
B U F
Buffier of a room, from which it was separated by slender wooden
II columns. It is now very generally superseded by the side-
Buffon. board, Jn the houses of persons of distinction in France,
the buffet was a detached room, decorated with pictures
relative to the subject, with fountains, cisterns, vases, &c.
BUFFIER, Claude, a distinguished writer, born in
Poland in 1661, of a French family settled at Rouen, in
which city he received his earlier education. He became
a Jesuit in 1679, and died at Paris in 1737. There are
many works by this author, showing deep penetration and
accurate judgment. The principal of these is entitled Un
Cours des Sciences, or a Course of Sciences, upon princi¬
ples new and simple, in order to form the language, the
understanding, and the heart. Paris 1732, in folio. He was
the author of several other works, particularly Pratique de
la Memoire artificielle, Paris, 1715, 4 vols. 12mo ; An In¬
troduction to the History of the Sovereign Houses of
Europe ; An Abridgment of Spanish History ; An Account
of the Origin of the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples; and
various treatises on religion and piety. In his Cours des
Sciences Buffier has anticipated, though he failed to deve¬
lop and pursue to its consequences, that peculiar system
of mental philosophy which resolves all the ultimate princi¬
ples of belief into the perceptions or suggestions of what is
called common sense ; and indeed it seems pretty certain
that Dr Reid has been indebted to the learned Jesuit for
valuable hints on nearly all the purely speculative points
treated of in his Intellectual Philosophy.
BUFFON, George Louis le Clerc, Comte de, a
celebrated naturalist, was born at Montbard in Burgundy,
on the 7th of September 1707. His father, Benjamin le
Clerc, was a counsellor of the parliament of Dijon; and the
son was destined to the same office, if science had not
drawn him away from the law. He studied at Dijon ; and
his eager activity, his acuteness, penetration, and robust
constitution, fitted him to pursue business and pleasure with
equal ardour. His early passion was for astronomy; and
the young Le Clerc was seldom without Euclid in his
pocket. At the age of twenty he travelled in Italy in com¬
pany with the young Duke of Kingston and his tutor ; but
he overlooked the choicest remains of art, and amidst the
ruins of an elegant and luxurious people he first felt the
charms of natural history, of which he afterwards proved
the zealous and successful expounder. On his return to
France he fought, on some accidental quarrel, with an Eng¬
lishman, whom he wounded, and in consequence was obliged
to retire to Paris, where he translated Newton’s Fluxions
from the Latin, and Hales’s Statics from the English into
the French language. He went to England at the age of
twenty-five, and remained there about three months. This
concluded his travels. Having at the age of twenty-one
succeeded to the estate of his mother, which was valued at
about 300,000 livres, or L.12,000 sterling, he was enabled
to pursue the career of letters without any of the difficulties
that often beset literary men. Perhaps this was the period of
his retirement to Montbard, where he spent much of his time,
and where his leisure was little interrupted ; for whilst he
resided in the capital, his office of intendant of the king’s gar¬
den and cabinet engrossed much of his attention. He spent
fourteen hours every day in study; yet when we examine the
extent of his knowledge and the number of his works, we
wonder at his having accomplished so much even in that
time. At five in the morning he retired to a pavilion in his
vast gardens, and he was then inaccessible. 1 his was, as
Prince Henry of Prussia called it, the cradle of natural his¬
tory ; but she was indifferently accommodated. The walls
were naked; and an old writing-table, with pen, ink, andpaper,
and an elbow-chair of black leather, were the only furniture
of his study. His manuscripts were in a cabinet in another
building, and he went occasionally from one to the other.
The eras of Buffon’s works are pretty well known. When
VOL. v.
BUG 729
each was finished it was put aside, in order that he might Buffoon
forget it, and afterwards return to it with the severity of a II
disinterested critic. He was anxious to render it perspi- ^ ugares.^
cuous ; and if those to whom he read his works hesitated a v^
moment, he changed the passage. The works of others he
often read like Magliabechi, confining himself to the titles,
the contents, and the most interesting parts ; but he per¬
used M. Neckar’s Compte Rendu, and the Adminstration
of the Finances, from beginning to end, and spoke of them
with no little enthusiasm. His favourite authors were Fene-
lon, Montesquieu, and Richardson.
M. de Buffon’s conversation was unadorned, rarely ani¬
mated, but sometimes very cheerful. He was exact in his
dress, particularly in arranging his hair. He liked to sit
long at table ; at which time his conversation was unem¬
barrassed, and his guests had frequently occasion to notice
some happy turn of phrase, or some deep reflection. His
self complaisance was very considerable. He loved praise,
and even praised himself; yet it was with such frankness,
and with so little contempt of others, that it was seldom dis¬
agreeable. Indeed, when we consider the extent of his re¬
putation, the credit of his works, and the attention with
which they were always received, we can scarcely be sur¬
prised that he was apt to appear conscious of his own value.
It may here be proper to observe, that although the works
of this philosopher afford grounds for the charge of infide¬
lity brought against him, yet it would appear that he was
able to give to the Sorbonne a satisfactory explanation of
the offensive passages. At the same time, however, the
interests of religion and morality require that the licentious¬
ness of his conduct, and his enmity to the Christian faith,
should not be passed over in silence. The longevity of
Buffon’s family was somewhat remarkable. His father lived
to the age of ninety-three ; his grandfather to that of eighty-
seven ; and the subject of the present memoir exceeded
eighty. In his latter years he suffered severely from the
stone, but would never submit to the operation of litho¬
tomy. He died at Paris on the 16th of April 1788. He
left one son, who erected in the gardens of Montbard a low co¬
lumn with an inscription to his memory. This son, who was
a colonel of cavalry, fell a victim to the tyranny of Robes¬
pierre, only fifteen days before the downfal of that monster.
The editions of the several works of Buffon are numerous.
An edition of the whole has been published in 35 vols. 4to;
and another in 62 vols. 12mo.
BUFFOON, a droll, or mimic. Menage, after Salma-
sius, derives the word from buffo, a name given to those
who appeared on the Roman stage with their cheeks blown
up; that receiving blows thereon they might make the
greater noise, and excite the laughter of the people.
Others, as Rhodiginus, make the origin of buffoonery more
venerable, deriving it from the feast called buphonia, insti¬
tuted in Attica by Erechtheus.
Buffoons were variously denominated scurrce, gelasiani,
mimologi, ministelli, and joculatores, and their exhibitions
were chiefly at the tables of the great. Gallienus never sat
down to meals without a second table of buffoons by him.
Tillemont also renders pantomimes by buffoons ; in which
sense, he observes, the shows of the buffoons were taken
away by Domitian, restored by Nerva, and finally abolished
by Trajan.
BUG. See Entomology, and Vermin.
BUG ARES {Bulgarii), anciently signified a kind of
heretics, otherwise called Paterini, Cathari, and Albi-
genses. The word is formed from the French Bougres,
and that from Bougria or Bulgaria, the country where they
chiefly appeared. Among other errors, they held that men
ought to believe no scripture but the New Testament; that
baptism was not necessary to infants ; that priests who were
married could not be saved ; and that an oath was unlawful.
They were strenuously refuted by Friar Robert, a Domini-
4 z
730 BUI
Bugia car]j who had formerly professed this heresy. They are thus
II mentioned by Matthew Paris, who lived in the reign of
Building. Henry 1IL. Circa dies autem illos invaluit hceretica pra-
viias eorum qui vulgariter dicuntur Paterini et Bugares,
de quorum erroribus malo tacere quam loqui.
BUGIA or Bougiah, a fortified seaport town of Algeria,
in the regency of, and 112 miles east of, the town of Al¬
giers. It has a very picturesque appearance, being built in
the form of an amphitheatre on a bay of the Mediterranean,
and encircled by a lofty chain of mountains. Its principal
exports are wax, oil, and dried fruits. The European popu¬
lation in 1850 was 847. It was taken possession of by the
French in 1833.
BUGLE-Horn, a small brass instrument used in the
hunting-field, and in cavalry regiments. The compass of
the bugle is now extended by finger-keys. See Appendix
to Music.
BUHL, ornamental wood-work inlaid with mother-of-
pearl, brass, &c. The name is derived from the inventor.
BUILDER, in the general sense of the term, an under¬
taker of works'of building. With reference to the opera¬
tions of civil architecture particularly, the builder stands
between the proprietor and architect on the one hand, and
the artizan, merchant, and manufacturer on the other: he
engages to the first to carry a certain proposed work into
execution, as he may be directed by the second, and saves
to both of them the trouble and responsibility of procuring
materials and employing workmen.
The builder’s emolument arises from an improved price,
or charges bearing an advance on the prime cost, to remu¬
nerate him for the use of his capital in materials, workshops,
plant, and labour, and his own personal application and risk.
A builder has the power also of deriving an advantage from
the division of labour, by employing artizans in those opera¬
tions only which habit enables them to execute with the
greatest facility.
The builder contracts to do certain specified w^orks for
a certain total sum of money, the amount of which he de-
B U I
termines by a previous estimate ; or to do prescribed opera- Building,
tions, at so much for a certain fixed quantity of every sort
involved, per yard, per rod, per foot, and so on, the amount
to be ascertained, when they are completed, by measure¬
ment ; or he executes works according to instructions or
specifications, leaving the charges to be determined accord¬
ing to the usual and accustomed rates, on the quantities as¬
certained by admeasurement. In the two former cases he
is said to work by contract, and in the last by measure and
value. For jobbing, in repairs and alterations, a day ac¬
count is kept; that is, a record of the time workmen are
employed, and of the materials used, in performing certain
operations. This is made out with an advance of so much
per cent, on the prime cost, or wages of the workmen and
selling prices of the unwrought materials, for the builder’s
profit or remuneration, as before stated.
A builder should be theoretically acquainted with the
principles of construction, and practically conversant with
the details of all the mechanic arts used in building; as
well to be enabled to carry on his business with advantage
to his own interest, as to the proper execution of the works
he may undertake. He should be qualified to ascertain
with the utmost minuteness, from the drawings of a design,
and the specification of the manner in which, and matter of
which, it is to be carried into execution, the quantity of la¬
bour, and materials of every kind and description, and the
exact value of them all. In this is involved the necessity
of being well acquainted with the market prices of raw and
manufactured articles to a very great extent, and a matured
judgment of the quantity of labour required, or how much
time a workman will take to produce a certain result. These
things, however, which involve the making of estimates on
which to make contracts, in the practice of this country
are generally referred to a surveyor or measurer, because
of the general ignorance and incompetence of builders,
or because of the greater aptitude of the latter, in con¬
sequence of their attention being solely occupied by such
things.
BUILDING.
The art of building comprises the practice of civil ar¬
chitecture, or the mechanical operations necessary to carry
the designs of the architect into effect. It is not unfre-
quently called practical architecture; but the adoption of
this term would have tended only to confuse, by rendering
it difficult to make the distinction generally understood
between architecture as a fine or liberal art, and architec¬
ture as a mechanical art. The execution of works of ar¬
chitecture necessarily includes building; but building is
frequently employed when the result is not architectural: a
man may be a competent builder without being an archi¬
tect ; but no one can be an accomplished architect unless
he be competent to specify and direct all the operations of
building. A scientific knowledge of the principles of ma¬
sonry, carpentry, joinery, &c., and of the qualities, strength,
and resistance of materials, though of the utmost impor¬
tance to an architect, must be attended by a minute acquaint¬
ance with a great variety of less ambitious details. Such
are those which relate to the arrangement of a plan for the
greatest possible degree of convenience on the smallest
space, and at the least expense; its transference to the
ground ; the preparation and formation of foundations ; the
arrangement and construction of drains, sewers, and vent-
shafts ; the varieties of willing with stone, and of laying
bricks in brick-work; the merit of the various modes of
bonding and tying walls, both lengthwise and across; the
arrangement of gutters on roofs, to get sufficient fall,
and to conduct the water to the least inconvenient places
for fixing trunks to lead it down ; the arrangement and for¬
mation of flues; the protection of walls from damp, of
timber from moisture and stagnant air, and of metals gene¬
rally from exciting causes ; the cost of materials and labour,
and the quantity of each required to produce certain results.
Together with these, an architect ought to be practically
acquainted with all the modes of operation in all the trades
or arts employed in building. Everything must be clearly
understood, or it will be impossible properly to specify
beforehand, in detail, everything and every operation to
be done and performed; and minutely to estimate, before¬
hand also, the absolute cost involved in the execution of a
proposed structure. The power to do the latter neces¬
sarily involves that of measuring work, and ascertaining
quantities after it is done. These things may certainly be
referred to the surveyor or measurer, but they are not the
less incumbent on the architect, who cannot be said to be
thoroughly master of building, or the practice of his pro¬
fession, unless he be skilled in these operations.
The architect having furnished the specification and
working drawings of his design, the first step in the pro¬
cess is to prepare the foundation. (See article Stone-Ma¬
sonry, sect. 60.) Much in this particular, it is evident,
must depend on localities. It is not of so much importance
that the ground be hard, or even rocky, as that it be com¬
pact, and of similar consistence throughout; that it be so
constituted as to resist entirely and throughout, or yield
equally to the superincumbent weight.
BUILDING.
731
Building. But in the ordinary processes of building, the artificial
•—preparation of foundations hardly need be considered.
Common prudence would refer it to professional manage¬
ment, when such is found necessary; and a Avork of this
kind cannot contain sufficient information and instruction to
qualify a man to act professionally on any subject, and
more particularly on those subjects which demand initiatory
practice and experience. We therefore proceed to the or¬
dinary routine of practice.
The artificers whose trades come within the immediate
range of the builder’s business are the following: Digger
or excavator, bricklayer, mason, slater, sawyer, carpenter,
joiner, plasterer, modeller, carver and gilder, plumber,
smith, glazier, painter and decorator.
Digger or Excavator.—The digger works with a pick¬
axe and a spade or shovel. With the pick-axe he breaks
down the soil if it be hard or very stiff, and throws it out
with the shovel; but compacted sand and alluvial soil is
spitted and thrown out with the spade alone, without pre¬
vious breaking down. When rock occurs in a foundation,
the assistance of the quarryman is requisite to cut through
or blast it, as the occasion may require. The digger should
be required to produce a perfect level in every direction,
and especially in trenches for walls; nor may this be done
by placing again loose matter, but the level must be pro¬
duced on the solid or undisturbed bed.
Digger’s work is valued by the cubic yard, and is gene¬
rally made to include, besides excavating, the removal of
the soil and rubbish. The price per yard is therefore ne¬
cessarily contingent on the stiffness of the soil, the depth
to which the excavations may reach below the surface, and
the distance the stuff is to be removed; so that it is im¬
possible to determine what the cost may be, without refe¬
rence to each and all of these particulars, most of which
must be different in every different place ; and all are again
affected by the local cost of labour or wages. A good ex¬
cavator will dig and throw out, of common soil, into a bas¬
ket or wheelbarrow, eight or ten yards per diem ; but of
stiff clay or firm gravel, not more than six yards.
Bricklayer.— The manufacture of brick being made the subject
of a separate article, we need only refer to that for information on
the subject; and in the same manner the components and merits of
mortars and cements will be found in sections 20 et seqq. of the article
under the head Stone-Masonry. A few observations on the com¬
position of mortar for bricklaying will nevertheless he necessary here.
Particular attention must he paid to cleansing the sand to he
used for mortar of every particle of clay or mud that may adhere to
or he mixed up with it. Sea sand is objectionable for two reasons ;
it cannot be perfectly freed from a saline taint, and the particles
are moreover generally rounded by attrition, caused by the action
of the sea, which makes it less efficient for mortar than if they re¬
tained their natural angular forms. Lime should not be slaked
until the moment it is to be mixed up with the sand in mortar, but
the sooner that is done after it is burnt the better. The proportion
of lime to sand is generally taken at as much as one-fourth of the
whole mass; but if both the materials be of good quality, that is,
if the lime slake freelv, and become a fine pungent impalpable
powder, perfectly clear from argillaceous or any other foreign
matter, and the sand clean and sharp, and of variously sized par¬
ticles, one-fifth of lime to sand is quite enough : more is injurious.
The ingredients should be well mixed together, and with water,
and as little Avater used as will suffice to make the compound con¬
sistent and paste-like. Rain, or any other soft water, should be
used for the purpose of making mortar, and not spring or hard
water, though any other may be preferred to what is brackish even
in the slightest degree. A quick-setting cement, such as that which
is most commonly used in building in this country, and known as
Parker’s or Roman cement, can only be mixed or gauged as it is
required for use. A bricklayer will keep a labourer fully em¬
ployed in gauging cement for him alone. It is mixed with sand in
the same manner that lime is in common mortar, in the proportion
of about two or three of sand to one of cement, according to the
quality of the latter; and the labourer, as he gauges on one board,
supplies the mixture to the bricklayer fit for use on another board,
a spadeful at a time : it must then be applied within half a minute,
or it sets and is spoiled.
The average size of bricks in this country is a fraction under
nine inches long, four and a half wide, and two and a half inches Building,
thick; and in consequence of this uniformity of size, a wall of this
material is described as of so many bricks in thickness, or of the
number of inches which result from multiplying nine inches by
any number of bricks; a nine-inch or one-brick wall; a fourteen-
inch wall, or one brick and a half (13J inches would be more cor¬
rect, in fact, for although a joint of mortar must occur in this
thickness, yet the fraction under the given size of the brick is
enough to form it); eighteen-inch or two bricks, and so on.
.The great art in bricklaying is to preserve and maintain a bond,
to have every course perfectly horizontal, both longitudinally and
transversely, and perfectly plumb; which last, however, may not
mean upright, though that is the general acceptation of the term,
for the plumb-rule may be made to suit any required inclination,
as inward against a bank, for instance, or in a tapering tower;
and also to make the vertical joints recur perpendicularly over each
other : this is vulgarly and technically called keeping the perpends.
By bond in brick-work is intended that arrangement which shall
make the bricks of every course cover the joints of those in the
course below it, and so tend to make the whole mass or combina¬
tion of bricks act as much together, or dependency one upon an¬
other, as possible. The object of this will be understood by refer¬
ence to the diagram, fig. 1. Here it is evident, from the arrange- Plate
meut of the bricks, that any weight placed on a would (supposing, CXLVTI.
as we are obliged to suppose, that every brick feels equally, through¬
out its whole length, a stress laid on any part of it) be carried down
and borne alike in every course from 6 to c; in the same manner
the brick d is upborne by every brick in the line e /, and so through¬
out the structure. But this forms a longitudinal bond only, which
cannot extend its influence beyond the width of the brick ; and a
wall of one brick and a half or two bricks thick, huilt in this man¬
ner, would, in effect, consist of three or four half-brick-thick walls,
acting independently of each other, as shown in the plan at i, in
the diagram, under fig. 1. If the bricks were turned so as to show
their short sides or ends in front, instead of their long ones, cer¬
tainly a compact wall of a whole brick in thickness would be pro¬
duced ; but the longitudinal bond would be shortened one-half, as
at y c and a wall of any greater thickness, in the same manner, must
be composed of so many independent one-brick walls, as at& in the
plan before referred to. To obviate this, to produce a transverse,
and yet preserve a true longitudinal bond, the bricks are laid in
alternate courses of headers and stretchers, or of ends and sides, as
shown in fig. 2, thus combining the advantages of the two modes of
arrangement a b c and g c h fig. 1, in a b c fig. 2. Each brick in
fig. 2 showing its long side in front, or being a stretcher, will have
another lying parallel to it, and on the same level, on the other
side, to receive the other ends of the bricks showing as headers in
front, which in their turn bind, by covering the joint between
them, as shown in the end of such a wall at d. Thus a well-bonded
nine-inch or one-brick wall is produced. The end elevations of the
same wall at e and / show how the process cf bonding is pursued in
walls of one and a half and two bricks thick, the stretcher being
abutted in the same course by a header; thus, in a fourteen-inch
wall inverting the appearance on the opposite sides, as seen at e,
and producing the same appearance in an eighteen-inch wall, as at
/. In the diagram under fig. 2, at g, is the plan of a fourteen-inch
wall, showing the headers on one side, and the stretchers on the
other, and at h is the plan of the course immediately above it, in
which the headers and stretchers are inverted ; at k and i are shown,
in the same manner, the plans of two courses of an eighteen-inch
wall. This is called English bond. Thicker walls are constructed
in the same manner by the extension of the same principle.
But a brick being exactly half its length in breadth, it is impos¬
sible, commencing from a vertical end or quoin, to make a bond
with whole bricks, as the joints must of necessity fall one over the
other. This difficulty is obviated by cutting a brick longitudinally
into two equal parts, which are called half headers. One of these
is placed next to a whole header, inward from the angle, and forms
with it a three-quarter length between the stretchers above and be¬
low, thus making a regular overlap, which may then be preserved
throughout: half headers so applied are technically termed closers.
(See the joints in the heading courses next the upright angle of the
wall fig. 2, and the first joints inwards from the square ends by
the headers in the plans at p an A.) A three-quarter stretcher is
obviously as available for this purpose as a half header, but the
latter is preferred, because, by the use of it, uniformity of appear¬
ance is preserved, and whole bricks are retained on the returns. In
walls of almost all thicknesses above nine inches, to preserve the
transverse, and yet not destroy the longitudinal bond, it is fre¬
quently necessary to use half bricks; but it becomes a question
whether more is not lost in the general firmness and consistence of
the wall by that necessity, than is gained in the uniformity of the
bond. It may certainly be taken as a general rule, that a brick
should never be cut if it can be worked in whole, for a new joint
732
BUILDING.
Building.
is thereby created in a construction, the difficulty of which consists
in obviating the debility arising from the constant recurrence of
joints. Great attention should he paid to this, especially in the
quoins of buildings, in which half bricks most readily occur; and
there it is not only of consequence to have the greatest degree of
consistence, but the quarter bricks used as closers are already ad¬
mitted, and the weakness consequent on their admission would
only be increased by the use of other hats, or fragments of bricks.
Another mode of bonding brick-work, which may be supposed to
have arisen from the appearance of the ends of a wall according to
the former mode of arrangement (see e and/, fig. 2), instead of
placing the bricks in alternate courses of headers and stretchers,
places headers and stretchers alternately in the same course, fig. 3.
The plans below this at c and d are of two courses of a fourteen-
inch wall, with their bond, showing in what manner the joints are
broken in the wall horizontally as well as vertically on its face.
This is called Flemish bond. Closers are necessary to both varie¬
ties of bond, in the same manner, and for the same purpose ; half
bricks also will occur in both, but what has been said with reference
to the use of them in the former applies even with more force to
the latter, for they are more frequent in Flemish than in English,
and its transverse tie is thereby rendered less strong. Their ocr
currence is a disadvantage which every care should be taken to
obviate. The arrangement of the joints, however, in Flemish bond,
presenting a neater appearance than that of English bond, it is
generally preferred for external walls when their outer faces are
not to be covered with stucco, or plaster composition of any kind ;
hut English bond should have the preference when the greatest de¬
gree of strength and compactness is considered of the highest im^
portance, because it affords, as we have already noticed, a better
transverse tie than the other. It is a curious fact, that what is in
England called Flemish bond in brick-work is unknown in Flanr
ders, and, so far as the observation of the present writer has ex¬
tended, is practised in the British Isles alone. In Flanders, Hol¬
land, and Rhenish Germany, which are all brick-laying countries, no
kind of bond is found but whatis known in England as English bond.
It has been attempted to improve the bond in thick walls by lay¬
ing raking courses in the core between external stretching courses,
and reversing the rake when the course recurs. This obviates what¬
ever necessity may exist of using half bricks in the heading courses,
hut it leaves triangular interstices to he filled up with bats, as the
diagram fig. 4 shows. This represents the plan of a thirty-six inch
or three-brick wall with raking courses at a, between external
ranges of stretchers, and lying on a complete course of headers, and
at & a wall of the same thickness herring-honed ; courses of headers
would bed and cover this also, and, in the second course above, the
raking or herring->boning would be repeated, hut the direction of
the bricks inverted. It will be seen that the latter demands, in
addition to the triangular filling-in bats at the outer ends of the
diagonally placed bricks, half bricks to fill up the central line of
interstices, rendering herring-boning more objectionable in that
particular, though it has some advantages over simply raking, or
thorough diagonal courses, in some other points. Neither mode
should, however, he recurred to for walls of a less thickness, than
three bricks, and that indeed is almost too thin to admit of any
great advantage from it.
Skilful and ingenious workmen are well aware of the necessity
of attending to the bond, and are ready both to suggest and to re¬
ceive and practise an improvement; but generally the workmen
themselves are both ignorant of its importance and careless in pre-r
serving it, even according to the common modes. Their work should
therefore be strictly supervised as they proceed with it; for many
of the failures which are constantly occurring may he referred to
their ignorance or carelessness in this particular.
Not second in importance to bonding in brick^work is, that it
be perfectly plumb, or vertical, and that every course be perfectly
horizontal, or level, both longitudinally and transversely. The
lowest course in the footings of a brick wall should be laid with the
strictest attention to this latter particular; for the bricks being of
equal thickness throughout, the slightest irregularity or incorrecG
ness in that will be carried into the superimposing courses, and can
only he rectified by using a greater or less quantity of mortar in
one part or another, so that the wall will of course yield pnequally
to the superincumbent weight, as the work goes on, and perpetuate
the infirmity. To save the trouble of keeping the plumb-rule and
level constantly in his hands, and yet to insure correct work, the
bricklayer, on clearing the footings of a wall, builds up six or eight
courses at the external angles (see fig. 5), which he carefully plumbs
and levels across, and from one to the other. These form a gauge
for the intervening parts of the courses, a line being tightly strained
from one end to the other, resting on the upper and outer angles of
the gauge bricks of the next course to be laid, as at a and b, fig. 5,
and with this he makes his work range. If, however, the length
be great, the line will of course sag; and it must therefore be care¬
fully set and propped at sufficient intervals. Having carried up Building,
three or four courses to a level, with the guidance of the line, the i |T v - J
work should be proved with the level and plumb^rule, and parti¬
cularly with the latter at the quoins and reveals, as well as on the
face: a smart tap with the end of the handle of the trowel will
generally suffice to make a brick yield what little it may be out,
while the work is so green, and not injure it. Good workmen, how¬
ever, take a pride in showing how correctly their work will plumb
without tapping. To work whiph is circular on the plan, both the
level and the plumb-rule must be used, together with a gauge-mould
or a ranging trammel, to every course, as it must be evident that
the line cannot be applied to such in the manner just described.
To every wall of more than one brick thick, two men should be
employed at the same time, one outside and the other in: one man
cannot do justice from one side, even to a fourteen-inch wall. In¬
ferior workmen and apprentices are generally employed as inside
men, though the work there is of quite as great importance as ex¬
teriorly, except for neatness, and for that only if the brickwork is
to show on the outside.
In the operation of bricklaying, the workman holds the trowel
in his right hand, and with the left he takes up the bricks from the
scaffold, and lays them in their places. Spooning or shovelling up
mortar from the board with the trowel, he throws it on the course
last laid, and with the point strews it over the surface to form a
bed for that which he is about to set; whatever bulges or projects
over the outer edge of the work below is struck off, and being caught
on the flat face of the trowel, is put against the side or end of the
last brick laid in the new course, Then taking up a brick, he presses
it down in its place until its upper and outer angle comes exactly
to the line ; and if this be not readily effected by the hand, a slight
drawing blow with the obtuse point of the edge of the trowel does
it, or a tap with the end of the handle both draws it and settles it
down farther than the hand can press it, The small quantity of
mortar that is pressed out in front, by this operation, being struck
off, the joints are neatly drawn by compressing the mortar with the
point of the trowel, and thus producing a fine smooth surface,—
that is, if the work is to be seen; for if it is to be plastered, the
rough face is left that the plastering may the more readily attach
itself, and the joint is not drawn at all, but the workman proceeds
in the same manner with the next brick in advance along the course,
oy to fill in behind the one he has laid in front to meet the work of
his mate on the other side of the same wall. This is the common
mode of laying bricks. They should not however be merely laid ;
every brick should he rubbed and pressed down in such a manner
as to force the slimy matter of the mortar into the pores of the
bricks, and so produce absolute adhesion. Moreover, to make brick¬
work as good and perfect as it may be, every brick should be made
damp, or even wet, before it is laid, otherwise it immediately ab¬
sorbs the moisture of the mortar, and, its surface being covered with
dry dust, and its poyes full of air, no adhesion can take place ; but
if the brick be damp, and the mortar moist, the dust is enveloped
in the cementitious matter of the mortar, which also enters the
pores of the brick, so that when the water evaporates, their attach¬
ment is complete, the retention and access of air being thus alto¬
gether precluded. To wet the bricks before they were carried on
to the scaffold would, by making them heavier, add materially to
the labour of carrying ; in dry weather they would, moreover, be¬
come dry again before they could be used; and for the bricklayer
to wet every brick himself would be an unnecessary waste of his
time : hoys might therefore be advantageously employed to dip the
bricks on the scaffold, and supply them in a damp state to the brick¬
layer’s hand. A watering pot with a fine rose to it should also he
used to moisten the upper surface of the last laid course of bricks,
preparatory to strewing the mortar over it, In bricklaying with
quick-setting cements these things are of even more importance ;
indeed, unless the bricks are quite wet to be set with cement, it will
not attach itself to them at all.
As mortar is a more yielding material, used in brick-work merely
for the purpose of making the detached portions of the staple ad¬
here, by filling up their interstices and producing exhaustion, and
the object being to produce as unyielding and consistent a mass as
possible, as much of it should be used as is sufficient to produce the
desired result, and no more. No two bricks should be allowed to
touch, because of their inaptitude to adhere to each other; and no
space between them should he left unoccupied by mortar which may
produce adhesion. When the bricks are a fraction under two-and-
a-half inches thick, no four courses of bricks and mortar, or brick¬
work, should exceed eleven inches in height; and if they are fully
that thickness, four courses should not reach eleven and a half
inches. The result of thick beds of mortar between the bricks is, that
the mortar is pressed out after the joint is drawn, on the outside, in
front; and being made convex instead of slightly concave, the joints
catch every drop of rain that may trickle down the face of the wall,
and are thus saturated; the moisture freezes, and in thawing hursts
BUILDING.
[Building.
the mortar, which crumbles away, and creates the necessity which
is constantly recurripg, of pointing the joints to preserve the wall.
The diagram shows the section of a nine-inch wall,
with the joints on the side at as drawn, and on the
side b as bulged, in consequence of the quantity of
mortar in them yielding to the weight above. This,
too, is in addition to the inconvenient settling,
which is the consequence of using too much mortar
in the beds.
In practice, bricklayers lay the mortar on the
course last finished, and spread it over the surface
with the trowel, without considering, or caring for
it, that they have put no mortar between the bricks of that course,
except in the external edges of the outside joints ; that the mortar
is not, or ought not to be, so thin as to fall into the joints by its
own weight; and that unless they press it down, half the height
of the space between the bricks remains in every case unoccupied,
and the wall is consequently hollow, incompact, and necessarily im¬
perfect, To obviate this, it is common to have thick walls grouted
in every course ; that is, mortar made liquid, and called grout, is
poured on and spread over the surface of the work, that it may
run in and fill up the joints completely. This, at the best, is but
doing with grout what should be done with mortar ; and the differ¬
ence between the two consisting merely in the difference in the
quantity of water they contain, mortar must be considered the best;
for the tendency of grout is, by hydrostatic pressure, to burst the
wall in which it is employed; and, moreover, it must, by taking a
much longer time to dry and shrink than the mortar of the beds and
external joints, make and keep the whole mass unstable, and tend
to injure rather than benefit it. Pilling or flushing up every course
with mortar is therefore far preferable, and may be done with very
little additional exertion on the part of the workman.
It is a very common thing for two sorts of mortar to be used in
the same wall, a finer and whiter for the outside, and a coarser for
the inside work ; the former made of cleaner and finer sand, and a
greater quantity of lime, than the latter, with the intention of expos*
ing a betterdooking and more durable material to the view and the
weather. The sand, we have already shown, ought to be as clean as
it can be made for mortar to be used in bricklaying ; therefore there
should be no possibility of making a difference in that particular; and
the addition of a greater quantity of lime than is necessary to make
good mortar makes it less durable, and occasions a sacrifice in an im¬
portant quality for the sake of an unimportant advantage. Moreover
the mortar which contains the greater quantity of lime will yield or
settle more than that which has the greater proportion of sand.
All the walls of a building that are to sustain the same floors and
the same roof should be carried on simultaneously; under no cir¬
cumstances should more be done in one part than can be reached
from the same scaffold, until all the walls are brought up to the
same height, and the ends of the part first built should be racked
back, as at a b, fig. 2, and not carried up vertically with merely the
toothing necessary for the bond, as at a b, fig. 3.
Brick-work should never he curried on in frosty weather, nor
even when it is likely that frost will occur before the waffs can be
covered in or become so dry as not. to be affected by frost. Cover¬
ing an unfinished waff with a thick layer of straw, when frost may
supervene, is a very useful precaution; on the straw, weather board¬
ing should be laid, to prevent access of moisture from rain or snow.
Merely wet weather may be guarded against by following the direc¬
tions given above as to flushing every course of the work well up
with mortar, so that no interstices be left into which water may in¬
sinuate itself, and by covering the waffs with boards to act as a
coping when the men are not actually at work on them ; the joints
in the face of a waff that is not to be plastered in any way should
be protected in this manner with great care,
In ordinary practice the bricklayer’s scaffolds are carried up
with the waffs, and are made to rest on them. Having built up
the waffs as high as he can reach from the ground, he plants a row
of poles, which vary in height from thirty to forty and even fifty
feet, parallel to and at a distance of about four feet six inches from
the walls, and from ten to twelve feet apart. To these, which ?.ve
called standards, are attached by means of cords other poles culled
ledgers, horizontally and on the inside, with their upper surface on
a level with the highest course of the wall yet laid; and ou the led¬
gers and wall short transverse poles called putlogs or putlocks are
laid as joists to carry the floor of scaffold boards. These putlocks are
placed from four to six fjet apart, according to the length and
strength of the scaffold hoards; and the mids which rest on the
walls are carefully laid on the middle of a stretcher, so as to occupy
the place of a header brick, which is inserted when the scaffolds are
struck after the work is finished. On the floor of the scaffold thus
formed the bricklayer stands, and the materials are brought to him
by labourers, in bods, from the ground below, or they are hoisted
up in baskets and buckets by means of a pulley wheel and faff. The
mortar is placed on ledged boards of about three feet square, placed
at convenient distances along the scaffold; and the bricks are strewn
on the scaffold between the mortar boards, leaving a clear way against
the waff for the bricklayers to move along unobstructedly. The work¬
man then recommences the operation of bricklaying, beginning at
the extreme left of his course, and advancing to the right until he
reaches the angle or quoin in that direction, or the place where his
feffow-workman on the same side may have begun. Thus he goes
on with course after course until the waff is as high as he can con¬
veniently reach from that scaffold, when another ledger is tied to
the poles, another row of putlocks laid, and the boards are removed
up to the new level. The ledger and most of the putlocks, how¬
ever, remain to give steadiness to the temporary structure, and so
on to the full height of the waff, piecing out the poles by additional
lengths as may be required. If a scaffold be very much exposed,
and run to a great height, it must be braced. This is done by tying
poles diagonally across on the outside to the standards and ledgers,
and it may be further secured by tying the ends of some of the put¬
locks to the ledgers ; but an outside scaffold should never be attached
in any way to the building about which it stands. A scaffold should
never be loaded heavily, as well on account of the work as of the
scaffold itself; for the putlocks resting, as they do, on single bricks,
in a green waff, they exert an injurious influence on it, which every
additional pound weight on the scaffold must necessarily increase.
A constant and steady supply of bricks and mortar on the part of
the labourers, without overloading the scaffold at any one time,
should be strictly required.
Arches in brick-work are plain, rough, cut, or gauged. Plain
arches are built of uncut bricks, and the bricks being parallelopi-
pedons, an arch built of them must be made out with mortar; that
is, the difference between the outer and inner periphery of the arch
requiring the parts of which
an arch is made up to be
wedge-formed, as at«, which
the brick is not, the differ¬
ence must be made in mor¬
tar, as at 6, so that the inner or lower angles of bricks used for this pur¬
pose should all but touch, and the mortar should be more consistent
than that used in ordinary walling; nor should the centre on which
an arch of this kind is set or built be struck or removed until the
work is thoroughly hard, or rather all such arches should be set in
cement which will harden immediately. In consequence of this in
herent defect in uncut-brick arches, in extensive continuous works,
such as sewers, tunnels, vaults, &c., it is advisable to make them in
thin independent rings of half-brick or one brick thick, as the case
may be ; that is, a nine-inch arch shouldbe in two half-brick arches,
as at a, fig. 6, and an eighteen-inch arch in two one-bricks, as at b,
each arch in the latter case being bonded, in itself as in a common
nine-inch waff with headers and stretchers. It is evident that, by
this mode of structure, a greater quantity of the solid material comes
into the back or outer ring or arch than into the lower one; and if
they had been bonded together into one arch, as at c, all that dif¬
ference must have been made up with mortar. Moreover, whatever
pressure comes on the outer ring is carried by it directly to the
inner or lower, from whose joints, however, the mortar cannot escape
or be pressed out, the inner angles of the bricks, by meeting, pre¬
venting it below, and the bricks themselves of the upper arch, which
conveys the pressure, are themselves opposed to the back of the same
joints, so that its power of resistance is made equal to that of the
bricks themselves, except at the ends; which, in such works as we
have supposed, are remote, and may be protected by the use of ce¬
ment in their joints, whilst mortar is used in the rest.
Rough arches are those in which the bricks are roughly cut with
an axe to a wedge form, and are used over openings, such as doors
and windows, when the work is to be plastered on the outside, or
in plain back fronts, outhouses, garden-walls, &c., when, however,
they are neatly pointed with what is called a tuck or tucked joint.
Semicircular and elliptical arches are generally made plain, or with¬
out cutting the bricks; but arches composed of a smaller segment
of a circle (vulgarly and technically called scheme arches), if not
gauged, are cut or axed. Very flat arches are technically distin¬
guished from the quicker segment, or scheme, by the term camber,
from the French word camlrer, to round like an arch. It is arches
of this kind which are generally employed over windows and doors
in external work, and they too are either cut or gauged.
Gauged arches are composed of bricks which are cut and rubbed
to gauges and moulds, so as to form perfectly fitting parts, as in
masonry. Gauging is equally applicable to arches and to walling,
as it means no more than the bringing every brick exactly to a
certain form, by cutting and rubbing, or grinding it to a certain
gauge or measure, so that it will exactly fit into its place, as in the
finer works of masonry. Gauged brick-work is set in a putty in¬
stead of common mortar, but it is seldom used except for arches in
the fronts of houses, &c., which are to be neatly finished. These
Buil
&
734
BUILDING.
Building, are for the most part straight, and are generally from eleven to
v , j twelve inches in depth, or the height of four courses of brick¬
work. Their value as arches will be best understood by reference
to the diagram, fig. 7, by which it appears that all the material be¬
tween the soffit of the straight arch or head of the opening b c, and
the dotted line 6/c, is useless, the intrados or soffit of the really
efficient part of the arch being at that dotted line itself. This is
the arc of an angle of 60° ; its chord, the width of the opening, being
the base of an equilateral triangle constructed on it, and the joints
are the radii of a circle whose centre is at a. b d and c e, the con¬
tinuations of the sides of the triangle or radii a b and a c, are techni¬
cally termed the skew-back of the arch. Sometimes the arc is made
under a more acute angle, in which case the skew-back is less, that
is, the external angles c b d, and bee, are less obtuse; a smaller
unavailable portion of the arch is thus left between the arc and its
chord, but that portion is less securely retained under the flatter
segment, because the joints or radii diverge less, or are more nearly
parallel. These gauged arches being, as they for the most part are,
but a half brick in thickness, and not being tied by a bond to any¬
thing behind them—for indeed almost the whole, if not the whole,
of their height, is occupied behind by the reveal and the wooden
lintel—require to be executed with great care and nicety. It is a
common fault with workmen to rub the bricks thinner behind than
before, to insure a very fine joint in front. This tends to make the
work bow outwards; it should rather be inverted, if it be done at
all, though the best work is that in which the bricks are gauged to
exactly the same thickness throughout. Fig. 8 is a transverse section
of fig. 7, and the gauged arch, lintel, &c., in it showing the total
disconnection of the gauged arch with any surrounding brick-work
to which it might be bonded. The absurdity of constructing arches
circular on the plan, especially in a thin unbonded shell of bricks,
is so clear as hardly to require notice.
Gauged facing to a wall is exceedingly objectionable, unless the
bricks used for the gauged work be originally a little larger than
those which are to be worked in behind, whose size should be their
gauge, otherwise no bond can be kept between the bulk of the wall
and its face ; and the same mortar or putty should be used through¬
out, of equal consistence, and with joints of equal thickness, or the
work cannot be sound and compact.
Everything relating to the construction of niches, groins, domes,
&c., may be referred to the articles Arch, Bridge, and Stone-
Masonry ; the difference between stone and brick, as far as the
principle is concerned, being only in the comparative magnitude of
the parts 3 for to make perfect arches, &c., it is clear that the bricks
must be cut to the same forms that are required in stone.
It is generally held that nothing but its own components should
be admitted into a brick wall, except what is absolutely neces¬
sary for its connection with the other parts of a building, such
as wall-plates and wood-bricks (and that these should be avoided
as much as possible), templates, lintels, &c. Wall-plates are ap¬
plied to receive the ends of the joists, and distribute the weight of
the floor to which they belong equably along the walls. If the
joists tailed singly on the naked bricks, their thin edges would
crush those immediately under them, and the rest of the brick-work
would escape immediate pressure altogether. Wall-plates may be
avoided by the use of framed floors, which are carried by a few
large beams, under whose ends stout pieces of timber two or three
feet in length are placed. These are intended, like a wall-plate,
to distribute the weight over a considerable part of the wall, and
prevent the necessity of placing the beam on the naked friable
bricks, and are called templates. Lintels are used over square¬
headed windows and doors, instead of arches in brick-work. They are
useful to preserve the square form and receive the joiner’s fittings,
but they should always have discharging arches over them, and
should not tail into the wall at either end more than a few inches,
that the discharging arch be not wider than is absolutely necessary.
Fig. 9 indicates the elevation of the inside of part of an external
wall with a window in it, and shows the lintel over the opening
with a discharging arch over it, and wood bricks under its ends, on
the jambs of the opening. Discharging arches should be turned
over the ends of beams, and templates also, as in fig. 10. They
may generally be quadrants of a circle, or even flatter, and should
be turned in two or more half bricks over doors and windows, and
other wide openings, but over the ends of beams they need not be
in more than one half brick.
Wood bricks are used to prevent the necessity of driving wedges
into the joints of brick-work to nail the joiner’s work to. They are
pieces of timber generally cut to the size and shape of a brick, and
worked in as bricks in the inner face of a wall, where it is known
the joiners have occasion for something of the kind. This is prin¬
cipally in the jambs of the windows and doors for their fittings,
and along the walls, at proper heights, for the skirtings or wains-
cotting, as the case may be.
The use of bond timber in brick walls is objectionable, because
of its liability to shrink and swell, to decay, and to be consumed by Building.
fire, in any of which cases the structure to which it belongs is either v , /
injured, endangered, or absolutely destroyed 3 and in England the
use of timber in walls has, since the extension of the manufacture
of iron in these countries, been in a great degree superseded by that
metal in the form known as hoop iron. Thin and narrow strips of
this metal are laid in the bed joints of mortar, at intervals more or
less frequent according to the nature and character of the work, with
the best effect in respect of compactness and consequent strength.
It will be generally found that a brick wall built with mortar
and laced with ashlar has settled inward to a greater or less extent,
as the work has been more or less carefully performed. Indeed in
the nature of things it cannot be otherwise, unless the brick back¬
ing be worked in some cement which sets and hardens at once 3 for
the outer face is composed of a layer of unyielding material, with
few and very thin joints, which perhaps do not occupy a fiftieth
part of its height, while the back is built up of an infinity of small
parts, with fully one eighth its height of joints, which are composed
of material that must both yield to pressure and shrink in drying.
Some part of the ill effect attendant on this is obviated by the bond-
stones, which tail in or run through the wall, and tend to keep the
discordant materials together; but still much of it remains : and
besides this, the internal or cross walls, 'which have no stone in them,
will either settle down and shrink away from the external walls,
or drag them inward, as they happen to be well or ill bonded or
tied. For these reasons, brick-work built in this manner with
masonry should be executed with exceedingly v\rell-tempered mortar,
made with no more lime than is absolutely necessary to cement the
particles of sand together, and the sand again to the bricks, worked
as stiff as it can be, and laid in as thin courses as may be to answer
the purpose required of it. Above all, work of this kind must not
be hurried, but allowed time to dry and shrink as it goes on.
Discharging arches over vacuities having been disposed of inci¬
dentally, we have now only to speak of them under openings, in
which situation their use is to distribute the superincumbent weight
equally over the substructure, or along the foundation as the case
may be. For this purpose the arch is inverted, as shown in the
diagram, fig. 14, and by means of it the weight brought down by Plato
the piers is carried along the footings, which are thus equally borne CXLVIII.
upon throughout their whole length. Arches of two half bricks
are indicated here, that being sufficient for ordinary purposes, and
to develop the principle 3 in large and heavy works, arches of three
half bricks, and even greater, mayr be judged necessary. Any arc
between a quadrant and a semicircle may be used with advantage;
but an arc of less than 45° cannot be recommended for the inverted
discharging arch under piers. If it should so happen that an old
well or cess-pool, that cannot without great inconvenience and ex¬
pense be filled up with sound walling, or in some other efficient
manner, the ground being sound on either side of it, a second dis¬
charging arch may be formed under the pier and over the unsound
part, resting its legs on, or springing from, the inverted arch under
the opening, and on the sound ground, as indicated by the dotted
arch in the last-quoted diagram, fig. 14. For the most part, how¬
ever, the bonding of the work may be trusted to carry the weight
down to the ground under all but very wide openings very low down
in the work. Arches require abutments whether they are erect or
inverted, and this is often forgotten when inverted arches are used.
Not the least important part of the bricklayer’s art is the forma¬
tion of chimney and other flues. Great tact is required in gather¬
ing over properly above the fire-place, so as to conduct the smoke
into the smaller flue, which itself requires to be built with great
care and precision, that it be not of various capacity in different
parts, in one place contracted to a narrow straight, and in another
more widely expanded, and so on. With the present imperfect
means of cleaning chimney flues, it is absolutely necessary that they
be of a certain magnitude, which should be carefully maintained
throughout; but it would be better that they were made oval, or
with the angles taken off at least, than parallelograms in plan, as
the practice is. Chimney flues are plastered or pargetted with a
mortar in which a certain proportion of cow-dung is mixed, which
prevents it from cracking and peeling off with the heat to which it is
exposed. Experiment has proved that a tapering and nearly cylin¬
drical flue of much smaller bore than is now required is the best for
carrying away smoke. But the bore should be regulated by the
size of the fire-place, or rather by the quantity of smoke to which
it is required to give vent.
Sewers and drains which are not cylindrical should be built with
concave bottoms, although the sides be parallel and the covering
horizontal. The concave channel keeps the stream more together,
and enables it the better to carry its impurities along with it:
whereas a flat-bottomed drain offers a large surface for the particles
of soil to attach themselves to, and the stream of water, being more
scattered, is less efficient in force. All drains in houses and in other
places where it may be necessary to open them at any time, should
BUILDING.
735
Iding. t,e of the form of which a, fig. 11, is a section, with a flat covering
, of stone paving, or large, strong, paving tiles, set and jointed with
cement. Gun-barrel drains, as at &, are the best in exposed situa¬
tions, because they are the strongest; hut as there is no mode of
cleaning but by breaking them up, if they are too long to be raked
they should not be employed except with a considerable fall, and a
frequent or constant stream of water through them, as from a pump
trough, rain-water trunks, &c. They are constructed on a barrelled
centre, which the bricklayer drags on as he advances with his work,
finishing as he goes. Large sewers, which are accessible from the
ends by men to clear or remove any accidental obstructions, are
best circular or elliptical; the latter of the two is generally pre¬
ferred, because, in proportion to its capacity, its height is greater.
No drain should have an inclination or fall of less than one-quarter
of an inch to a foot; and where the stream is infrequent and dull,
as much more would be a great advantage. In building drains it is
of great importance that proper traps should be constructed to pre¬
vent the return of foul air and the passage of vermin. At every sink
there should be a bell-trap, and a well-trap within that, or near the
hither end of the drain. Suppose a drain of the form of that shown at
a, fig. 11, nine inches wide and nine inches deep, leading from a kit¬
chen or scullery to the common drain of the house, in which it meets
that which comes from the water-closet and other places. The bell-
trap in the sink itself will prevent the return of smell when it is
constantly in use, but it is liable to be broken and otherwise in¬
jured by the ignorance and impatience of servants and others, or it
may become dry by evaporation in some situations ; it is therefore
necessary to have a trap not so liable to contingencies. Let a well
be made eighteen inches or two feet in diameter, square or round,
and two feet six inches or three feet deep, across and below the level
of the drain, as shown in the plan, fig. 12, and longitudinal section
of the same, fig. 13; it must be built around with brick, in cement,
and be plastered on the inside with the same material, which will
make it capable of retaining fluids. Uprightly across this well,
and in the transverse direction of the drain, must be placed a sound
piece of paving stone, so long that its ends may be inserted in the
sides of the well, as shown in fig. 12, and so wide that its upper edge
shall touch the covering of the drain, and that its lower may reach
six or nine inches down into the well below the bottom of the drain.
Mortar or cement must prevent the passage of air between the
upper edge of this trap-stone and the cover of the well and drain,
and the trap is complete. The water coming from the sink flows
along the drain from a to 6 (fig. 13), where it falls into the well,
and filling it up to that level, it flows on again from c in the direc¬
tion of d, to the cess-pool or common sewer, from which, however,
no smell can return ; for the trap-stone e, the lower half of which
is thus immersed in water, completely bars the passage. It is evi¬
dent, however, that if the well should leak, the water in it may fall
below the lower edge of the stone, and the efficiency of the trap be
destroyed ; but if it be made perfect in the first instance, there can
be no danger of any inconvenience that a bucket of water thrown
in at the sink will not cure. It is from the drying up of the water
in these well-traps (vulgarly called stink traps) that uninhabited
houses are so frequently offensive. It must be clear, moreover, that
these traps form an effectual bar to vermin, and they may there¬
fore be advantageously placed at the entrance of water-closet drains,
to prevent rats from getting at the soil-pipes, which they will gnaw
and destroy if they can get access to them. Internal drains, or those
which go through a house, should always pass under the doorways
if possible, in external walls at least. If, however, circumstances
should render it absolutely necessary to take a drain through a wall,
an arched ring or bull’s eye should be made for it to pass by.
Cess-pools should be made cylindrical, and be bricked round,
but whether they are made to retain fluids or not, can seldom be a
matter of consequence, as they are generally put in secluded
places, where, if the object be not to get rid of the waste, there is
seldom, at least, any desire to retain it. In towns and cities where
the common sewering is as complete as it ought to be, and water-
closets are used instead of privies, cess-pools are unnecessary, as the
soil becomes so much diluted by the water that goes down with it,
that it flows readily enough through the private drains to the com¬
mon sewer, and so on with the rest, to the common receptacle.
■Sometimes, indeed, it may be found necessary to clean out the well-
traps, but this cannot often occur.
Pipes being hollow cylinders of well-made and well-burnt pot¬
tery form the most efficient house-drains. Such pipes may be put
together end to end, with great accuracy and sufficient strength,
with the aid of collars of the slightest sheet-iron looped together as
hoops. The common and bad practice is to form such pipes with
sockets, so as to fit spigot and faucet fashion ; but the addition to
the substance of the pipe to form the socket almost insures a defect
in the pipe in or about the socket, whilst the kind of connection
which the socket establishes renders it impossible to take out any
one length of pipe, and thereby to open a drain in the event of an
obstruction occurring without disturbing many lengths, and makes Building,
perfect re-instatement impossible, without taking up and relaying
the drain from one or other of its ends. All this is precluded by
the use of a collar, but the collar used must not be of the brittle
pottery itself, in using pipes for drains, it should be borne in
mind that a little larger than large enough, is better than the
reverse of this. No pipes should be laid down for a house-drain of
less bore than six inches, nor should pottery be used for drains re¬
quiring a greater bore than twelve inches; the material is too weak
to allow of more. Nor should pottery drain-pipes be laid under
any carriage road, for the same reason, that the material is not
strong enough to stand more than a dead pressure.
Brick and tile paving is performed by the bricklayer. Brick¬
paving is either flat or on edge, in sand or in mortar or cement.
Brick flat-paving in sand, that is, with the bricks laid on their
broadest surfaces, and bedded in and on dry sand, is very slight and
fragile, and brick flat-paving set and bedded in mortar is very little
better; for if the soil on which the paving is laid be light and
sandy, the bricks are easily displaced by being pressed unequally;
and if it be clayey it will probably be moist, and the thin porous
brick absorbing the moisture, will generally become saturated, and
present a damp, unwholesome floor. Paving with bricks on their
edges, however, forms a much better floor, and is preferable to a
stone paving, if the latter be laid on the ground without the inter¬
vention of footings. Brick-on-edge paving in sand is generally
used in beer cellars, pantries, dairies, stables, &c., as its numerous
open joints allow wasted or discharged fluids readily to escape ; and
it is both cool and dry under ordinary circumstances. In mortar
or cement, bricks on their edges form a sound, dry floor ; the small¬
ness of the surface exposed by each brick in this manner leaves
them of course less susceptible of partial pressures, and the depth
from the soil to the surface is such that damp rarely shows through.
The paving brick differs from the common brick only in thickness,
its dimension in that direction being rather less than two inches,
instead of two inches and a half, and in being rather harder and
more compact. Dutch clinkers are paving bricks, smaller and
much harder than the English; they are six inches long, three
inches wide, and one inch and a half thick, and are always set on
edge and herring-boned ; that is, instead of being placed in parallel
lines, they are set at right angles to each
other thus,—with nevertheless a perfectly
even face. Paving tiles are made nine
inches and a half and eleven inches and a
half square, though they are called ten-
inch and twelve-inch or foot tiles respec¬
tively, the former being one inch, and the latter one inch and a half
thick; they are set in courses, as stone paving would be, the alter¬
nating courses breaking joint.
Tiling being much less in vogue than formerly, in consequence
of the better appreciation of the superior qualities of slate for cover¬
ing roofs, and the moderate cost at which slates are now furnished
to the builder, it no longer maintains its separate artificer, but is
performed, when it is required, by the bricklayer. It consists, for
the most part, of two sorts—plain tiling and pan tiling. Plain tiles
are simple parallelograms, generally about ten inches and a half in
length, six inches wide, and five-eighths of an inch thick ; and each
tile has a hole pierced through it near one end, to receive the wooden
pin by which it is hooked on to the lath. The tiles are laid in mor¬
tar on the laths, which in this country are of oak or fir, with an
overlap of six, seven, or eight inches. The greatest overlap or
smallest gauge makes the securest work, though it does not present
so good an appearance externally as a longer gauge does; and it
requires, moreover, a greater number of tiles and laths, thereby
adding materially both to the weight and the cost. The great over¬
lap and the mortar are both necessai’y, nevertheless, to prevent the
rain and snow from driving in between and under the tiles. Plain
tiling requires the pitch of the roof to be at an angle of at least 50°,
and is one of the heaviest coverings that can be used, though it is
at the same time one of the warmest. The tiles, however, readily
and rapidly absorb moisture, which they communicate to the laths
and rafters under them, to the serious injury of both the latter ;
and the mortar in which they are set requires to be frequently
pointed, the constant atmospheric changes to which it is exposed
occasioning it to crumble and fall away in no long time.
Pan tiles are parallelograms of irregular surface, straight in the
direction of their length, which is thirteen inches and a half, but
twisted to this form in the transverse section. Measur¬
ing the whole surface across, a tile is nine inches wide, but in a
right line from point to point not more than seven, and its thick¬
ness is half an inch ; a small tongue or^ip is bent down at one end
from its flatter convexity, on the under side, to hook it on to the
lath by, instead of a wooden pin through it, as in a plain tile. Pan
tiles are set dry or in mortar, on laths. They are not laid side by
side, but overlapping laterally thus; consequently all the overlap
736 B U I L
Building, they have longitudinally is three or four inches only, or enough to
i ■ - v —i * prevent rain and snow from driving up under the upper, over the
end of the lower tile; and thence pan tiling is but little more than
half the weight of plain tiling. It is
nevertheless a much less warm covering for
houses, and is more liable to be injured
by violent gales or gusts of wind than the
latter is ; but again, it presents a far more
pleasing appearance to the eye. Pan tiling
will not bear a much flatter pitch than
the other, but it is greatly improved by
being pointed on the inside with lime and
hair. Sometimes indeed the whole of the work is, as we have said,
set in mortar; but this mode has disadvantages to which pointing
internally is not liable, and its superiority in other respects is
questionable. To both pan and plain tiling there is a large con¬
cave tile used to cover the hips and ridges of a roof. These are not
generally made to overlap each other in any situation, but are set
in mortar, and fastened with nails and hooks fitted for the purpose,
and driven into the wood-work of the roof.
When the top of a brick wall is not protected by a roof, it must
be covered or coped in some manner, or it will soon be destroyed
by the weather. Sometimes this is done by means of a course of
bricks set across it on their edges in cement, and called a barge
course, but it is a very imperfect covering, for water will trickle
down the face of the wall on both sides, as the coping brick can be
no longer than the thinnest wall is in thickness. Two double
courses of plain tiles may be put side by side under the barge
course, making a projection over either face of about one inch and
a half: thus,—
Section. Elevation.
Barge course.
Tile creasing.
This is much better than the barge course alone: but still the
covering receives no inclination outwards to throw the water otf;
the upper surfaces are all horizontal. The same objection exists to
foot-paving tiles, which are also used as a coping; but none of these
methods is available for any wall above nine inches in thickness.
Stone coping, therefore, which may be made of sutficient width, and
be both weathered and throated, is much to be preferred.
One of the greatest faults in the modern practice of building,
both architecturally as a matter of taste, and practically as a matter
of prudence, is, that these copings, and cornices which serve as
such, do not project sufficiently to protect the face of the wall on
which they may be placed, from the weather. A bold, massive,
and well-projected cornice on a wall serves as a roof or pent-house
to it, and, besides imparting great beauty to the plainest structure,
protects the wall from the premature decay of its upper part espe¬
cially, and of the joints generally, if it be unplastered brick-work,
which thereby calls for the frequent repetition of pointing. Effec¬
tive and pleasing cornices and blocking courses may be formed with
uncut bricks alone 5 and these, set in cement, would, with judicious
management, add materially both to the appearance and durability
of brick-work, without the foreign aid of either the plasterer or the
mason.
From the injury which accrues to the joints of brick-work
through bad management in its execution, and imperfect protection
when executed, arises the necessity so frequent at the present day
of pointing.
Sometimes frost will have supervened before the surfaces of the
joints in a wall are dry; consequently the mortar bursts and peels
away, and the whole then requires to be pointed. Preparatory to
this operation the scaffold, if it has been struck, must be re-erected,
the mortar raked out of the joints to a depth of about three-eighths
of an inch, or deeper if the injury have reached further;—this can
be done by a labourer;—a bricklayer then goes over the whole
with a hard hair brush and water to cleanse and moisten the joints;
and then, with mortar prepared for the purpose, he carefully fills
them all up, and neatly draws them with his trowel. This mortar
must be of the best quality; it is generally compounded with a
certain proportion of forge ashes, which gives it a blue tinge, and
greatly aids its power of resisting the action of the weather. Ce¬
ment is sometimes used instead of this blue mortar. If the wall
to be pointed be a front or other important one, in which peculiar
neatness is required, every joint is marked with a narrow parallel
ridge of a fine white puttj^f in the composition of which bone lime
forms a principal ingredient. The former is called flat-joint, and
the latter tuck-pointing. If it be an old wall that requires point¬
ing, a scaffold must be erected before it; and where the putlocks
DING.
cannot be rested on window-sills and the like, half bricks are gene¬
rally drawn from the -wall to make rests for them, and restored
again when the work is done. The former process is then gone
through with a common wall; but if it require tuck-pointing, the
whole surface is well washed, and then coloured, to look like new,
before the pointing is done. The gauged arches over the windows
and doors are always coloured, and the joints drawn with peculiar
neatness. If in the original building of the wall the perpends have
not been preserved, that is, if the vertical joints have not been
made to fall perpendicularly in the alternatelyrecurring courses, the
workman in pointing stops up the old joints, which are irregular,
with putty of a brick colour, and forms false new ones in the proper
places.
The tools and implements mostly employed by the bricklayer are
the trowel, the plumb-rule, the level, the square, the bevel, line-
pins and lines, the raker, and the hammer, together with a hod and
spade for his labourer. Besides these there are sundry others used
in cutting and gauging bricks and some which are peculiar to
tiling and paving; but the most material operations can be per¬
formed with those enumerated here. A pug-mill and screens for mix¬
ing and tempering mortar are also auxiliaries of great importance.
Brick-work is valued by the rod. A rod of brick-work is a
quantity whose superficies is 272J feet (taken in practice at the
round number 272 without the fraction), and thickness one brick
and a half. Reckoning the one brick and a half at thirteen inches
and a half,—its average extent,—the cubic foot is to the reduced
superficial foot as eight to nine, so that a cubic rod of brick-work
consists of 306 feet, the result of 272 multiplied by nine and divided
by eight. The reduced superficial rod, however, is that commonly
used in practice; and the process of measuring, to ascertain the
quantities and bring them to a standard, is as follows ;—
The exact superficies of so much of a wall as may be of the same
thickness is taken, and the number of bricks it is in thickness
placed marginally; all the different portions or parts being of the
same thickness are taken in like manner, and then deductions, as of
window openings and doorways, are taken as such, in superficies,
with their respective thicknesses placed marginally also. The di¬
mensions, on being squared, are abstracted in half bricks, the de¬
ductions made of like thicknesses from like thicknesses, and the
whole reduced by multiplying each quantity by the number of half
bricks in the thickness of the parts of the wall which the margin
expresses, and dividing the product by three (the number of half
bricks in one brick and a half, the standard), the reduced quantity
which results, divided again by 272, the number of feet in a rod,
gives the quantity of rods and feet in the wall; as, for example,—
The front wall of a house is thirty-five feet in length on the ground
floor. (Fig. 14.) It has a basement story twelve feet high from
the top of the footings to the level of the ground floor, and two and
a half bricks thick, which is a half brick more than the wall above.
The footings are three spreading courses high, each course a half
brick thicker than the one above it. In the basement wall there
are a door and two windows, the former seven feet by three feet
six inches between the reveals, and the latter five feet by three feet
nine inches between the reveals also. The measurement of thus
much will show how all the rest must be done.
The footings consisting of three equally spreading courses, the
extent of the middle one both in length and breadth will be an
average of them all, so that they may be taken in one height. To
the length of the ground floor, thirty-five feet, must be added twice
three sets-off of one-fourth of a brick at each end of the basement,
and of the two first courses of footings for the length of the second
of them ; this is equal to three half bricks, or thirteen and a half
inches, which, added to thirty-five feet, makes thirty-six feet one and
a half inch the dimension of length for the footings, by nine inches,
their height; their average thickness, to be placed in the margin, is
three and a half bricks, the highest course being three bricks, the
second three and a half, and the third or lowest four bricks. That
is the first quantity. The next is of the wall above. The length (one-
half brick, for the two sets-off, added to thirty-five feet, gives) thirty-
five feet four and a half inches, by the height twelve feet, two and a
half bricks thick. The deductions are seven feet by three feet six
inches in one brick for the door, between the reveals, and seven feet
four and a half inches by four feet three inches in one and a half
brick behind the reveals, the rest of the thickness of the wall, an
addition of one-half brick being made to the height, and of two
half bricks to the width, because of the reveals. The windows are
taken in exactly the same manner, with the same additions ; but as
the two are of the same size, their number is marked against the one
dimension. The dimensions are now to be squared, and the squar¬
ing is done by duodecimals, or cross-multiplication. 36 feet 1J
inches x ‘9 inches = 27 feet 1 inch ; 35 feet 4J inches x 12 feet is
= 424 feet 6 inches, and so on with the rest. An abstract is then
made of these quantities in two columns, the first is marked “ one-
half brick,” and the second “ deductions in that thickness.” In the
Building.
BUILDING.
Building, first coluinn is placed the first quantity, multiplied by seven, the
number of half bricks in three and a half, which stands marginally
to it; 24 feet 6 inches x 7 = 189
feet 7 inches. The second dimen¬
sion follows in the same column,
multiplied by five, the number
of half bricks in its thickness ;
the next quantity is a deduction,
that is placed in the second co¬
lumn, multiplied by two, the
thickness of the part deducted
being one brick, and the rest in
the same manner. The abstract
being completed, the columns are
added, and the amount of the
second deducted from that of the
first, and the difference divided
by three, which brings it to the
reduced standard. Dividing now
by 272, the number of rods and
feet in the given wall appears
to be 2 rods, 185 feet, 8 inches.
The quantities are more gene¬
rally abstracted in one-brick and
one and a half brick columns,
with deductions in other parallel
columns, to which thicknesses
they are all readily brought. The
single column in one-half brick
is, however, assumed here as the
more simple and the more easily
explained.
It must be remembered, that
in taking the return or end wralls,
the thickness of that which has been already taken in front is to be
deducted from their length, or the angle-pier or quoin will be
taken twice. Work which is circular on the plan may be taken se¬
parately, and charged at a higher price altogether, or it may he
measured as plain, and an extra taken at so much the superficial
foot. Chimney breasts are taken as additional quantities, with the
thicknesses they project, and the opening for the fire-place is de¬
ducted ; but the flues are measured as solid, the extra labour and
mortar in forming and pargetting them being fully equal in value
to the bricks saved.
A rod of brick-work will consume about 4500 bricks, though
the number will be a few more or less than this, as the bricks hap¬
pen to be below or above the average size, and as the joints are
made thicker or thinner. The quantity of mortar, it is evident,
will be affected by the latter consideration also; but in London it
is generally reckoned at from ninety to a hundred striked bushels,
or from four to four and a half cart loads, each containing about
one cubic yard, to the rod. The labour on a rod of brick-work
may be taken on an average at the wages of a bricklayer, and his
assistant or labourer, for four days ; this, however, does not include
making and turning the mortar, nor scaffolding, which latter must
be separately considered. Many things will, however, affect the
time in which the work may be performed, both of the bricklayer
and his labourer; the former can do one-fourth as much more, at
the least, in walls which are to be plastered, as in those in which
he has to keep the perpends and draw the joints, &c., and more in
thick walls than in thin ones; and the capability of the latter will
depend, inversely, on the rate at which the former can proceed, on
the distance he may have to carry the bricks and mortar to the foot
of the ladder, and mainly on the height he has to carry the materials
up the ladder. In great heights, however, the materials should
always be hoisted.
Gauged arches are taken at so much per foot superficial, in ad¬
dition to being measured in as brick-work. Both the vertical and
horizontal surfaces are measured to obtain the superficies of the
arch, or rather of the work upon it. Rough arches are also taken as an
extra superficial quantity; but plain arches in vaults, &c. and dis¬
charging arches, are not considered extras, though an allowance is
made for cutting to moulds, for inverted discharging arches, at per
foot run.
If a wall he faced with bricks of a more costly sort than that of
which the bulk is composed, or w’orked in a peculiar manner, it is
calculated by the foot superficial, also in addition to its measure¬
ment as brick-work. It should be a matter of previous agreement
whether or not there shall be an extra charge for plumbing quoins
and reveals. Under ordinary circumstances no allowance is made
for it; but oblique vertical angles,‘both internal and external, which
require to have bricks neatly cut to form them, are taken at so
much per foot running measure. External oblique angles are tech¬
nically termed squint-quoins, and internal, birds-mouth. Oblique
VOL. V.
3$ 27 1 Lootings.
424 6
1 7 0
1 3 6
liTl*
37 6
48 4*
Basement wall
from the top of
footings to the
level of ground
floor.
Deduct for door
between the re¬
veal s.
Do. behind the
reveals.
Do. for the win¬
dows between
the reveals.
Do. behind the
reveals.
Abstract of the above Quantities.
£ brick Deductions
189 7
2122 6
2312 1
363 1
3)1940 0
in J brick.
49 0
94 0
75 0
145 li
363 1J
272)649 8(2 rods 105 feet 8 inches.
544
angles within a building are taken as run of cut splay. Cuttings
to rakes or inclined straight lines are taken by the running foot
also, but with reference to the thickness of the wall. Cuttings to
ramps or concave lines are measured and valued in the same man¬
ner. Sailing or projecting courses, preparations for plaster cor¬
nices and brick cornices themselves, are all taken at so much per foot
run, accordingto the labour and materials involved in working them,
over and above the regular charge for the brick-work by the rod.
Everything, indeed, which adds to the labour of executing brick¬
work, and consumes more than the ordinary quantity of materials,
is taken in addition, either by the foot superficial, or by the foot
running, or in numbers, as the setting of chimney-pots, bedding and
pointing door and sash-frames, &c. Bond-timbers, lintels, and wall-
plates, are generally measured in with the brick-work, on account
of the trouble of bedding them, and the delay generally occasioned
to the bricklayer in setting them. If they are not included with
the brick-work, bedding them is an extra charge, at so much per
foot run; and then filling in between the ends of the joists and
beams generally requires to be taken also.
Brick-nogging is measured by the superficial yard, including the
quarterings and interstices, and making no deductions but for open¬
ings. Drains and sewers are measured by the foot run, according
to their form and capacity. The quantity of materials consumed,
and labour required in constructing them, may be readily obtained
by calculating the one, and observing the quantity a man with a la¬
bourer can execute under the circumstances, whatever they may be,
within a given time. Digging out the ground, filling in over, and the
removing of the spoil, necessarily cause an addition to the charge for
the drain, which must vary according to circumstances.
Paving is measured by the superficial yard of nine feet; tiling
by the square of one hundred feet;—eaves courses, ridges, and hips,
being extra charges, by the foot run. Pointing, whether to old or
new work, is measured by the superficial foot; and the scaffolding
for it, when scaffolding is required, is either included in the price
per foot for pointing, or a charge is made for the use of it, together
with the cost of carting, and the men’s time in setting up and re¬
moving it.
Mason.—We must refer to the separate articles under the
head Masonry for information on that subject. It will,
however, be necessary to give a few particulars here on
masons’ work, as it has to do with other artificers’ works
in the process of building, and especially with reference to
various species of walling, or modes of constructing walls of
stone.
From the regular and determined form of bricks, modes or
systems for setting or arranging them maybe formed, and any
workman, by habit and an exertion of memory merely, may
become competent to build a brick wall as well as it can be
built; but it is not so with stone used in common masonry
walling. The workman in this material has for the most
part to deal with masses of all forms and of all sizes, and a con¬
tinual exercise of the judgment is required from him beyond
the tact or skill which may be acquired by practice. For
this reason workmen are generally less to be trusted to
themselves, or to their own discretion, in stone than even in
bricklaying or walling. The best or highest sort of stone
walling is the easiest to set; it is that in which the stones
are all tooled and gauged in regular parallelogramic figures,
to range in courses and suit the thickness of the wall to which
they are to belong ; and the most difficult to execute pro¬
perly is that in which amorphous stones are used,—the ma¬
son being allowed merely to dress them roughly with his
hammer or axe, and fit them in as he best can to form the
most compact mass: this is called rubble walling.
From the brittle nature of stone, great tact is required in
setting, to prop or bear up the longer pieces in every part, or
they will break across, and thus occasion more injury than
could accrue if their whole mass had been made up of small
pieces. Very long lengths, therefore, should be avoided,
even in regular tooled courses, with which the bearing is or
should be perfectly even, and a settling down of the work
itself is hardly to be feared. There is a certain medium
which may be preserved; and although the object is ob¬
viously, in stone as in brick walls, to form a compact mass,
as unbroken into parts as possible, a mason will act judiciously
in breaking a very long stone into two or more shorter ones,
5 A
Si "^7
738
BUILDING.
Building, and working them in that state, though he thus makes two
''-■■v**1''' or more additional joints, well knowing that he has the power
of counteracting to a certain extent the ill effect of joints
made by himself, but that those made by accident are irre¬
mediable.
The observations made in the section of this article on
bricklaying, on the use of mortar, will apply here also. Of
whatever quality the stone may be of which a wall is to be
built, it should consist as much of stone and as little of mor¬
tar as possible. If it be inferior in durability and power of
resisting the action of the atmosphere, &c. to the mortar,
besides the certain fact that the mortar will yield until it has
set hard, and so far act injuriously, no ulterior good is gained ;
and if the stone be the more durable material, the more of
it that enters into the wall the better. Indeed, in rough
walling, if the stones be pressed together until the more pro¬
minent angles on their faces come into actual contact, the
interstices being occupied by mortal", it will be better than
if a thick yielding mass were allowed to remain between
them. Absolute contact, however, should not be permitted,
any more than in brick-work, lest the shrinking of the mor¬
tar in drying leave the stones to such unequal bearing as the
prominent parts alone would afford. Stone being generally
of a less absorbent nature than brick, it is not a matter of
so much importance that it be wetted before setting; never¬
theless, adhesion on the part of the mortar is more certain
and more complete if the stones be worked in at least a
damp state. What bond is, and the necessity for it, have
also been shown in the preceding section ; and bond is of not
less importance in stone walling than in bricklaying. We
have also hinted above at the greater difficulty of under¬
standing, forming, and preserving it in the former, and can
now only add a few observations in addition that can be of
any use, and these with reference to rubble walling particu¬
larly. Instead of carefully making the joints recur one
over the other in alternate courses, as with bricks and gauged
stones, the joints should as carefully be made to lock, so as
to give the strength of two or three courses or layers betw een
a joint in one course, and one that may occur vertically over
it in another. In bonding through a wall, or transversely,
it is much better that many stones should reach two-thirds
across, alternately from the opposite sides, than that there
should be a few thorough stones, or stones extending the
whole thickness of the wall. Indeed, one of the many faults
of stone-masons is that of making a wall consist of two scales
or thin sides, with thorough stones now and then laid across
to bind them together, the core being made up of mortar
and small rubble merely. This is a mode of structure that
should be carefully guarded against. There is no better
test of a workman’s tact and judgment in rubble walling than
the building of a dry wall, or wall without mortar, affords ;
—walls are frequently built with mortar that without it w7ould
have fallen down under their own weight in a height of six
feet, in consequence of their defective construction;—thus
rendering it evident that they are only held together by the
tenacity of the mortar, which is very seldom an equivalent
for a proper bond of stone. Masons are very apt to set thin
broad stones on their narrow edges to show a good face, by
which the wall is injured in two ways; it tends to the for¬
mation of a mere case on the surface of a wall, and it for the
most part exposes the bed of the stone to the atmosphere,
as a stone is more likely to be broad in the direction of its
bed than across it.
Rubble walling is either coursed or uncoursed. In the
latter sort, fig. 15, the work is carried on w ith stones of any
sizes, as they may occur, and without reference to their
heights, somewhat in the manner of the Cyclopsean walling
of antiquity ; the interstices of the larger being filled up with
smaller stones. F or this work the mason uses no tool but
the trowel to lay on the mortar, the scabling hammer to
break oft the most repulsive irregularities from the stones,
and the plumb-rule to keep his work perpendicular. The Building,
line and level are equally unnecessary, as the work is inde-
pendent of considerations wffiich are affected by them. An
attentive and intelligent workman will, however, make a
sound wall with this species of construction, by fitting the
stones well together and packing them with as little mortar
as possible, yet filling every crevice with it, and carefully
bonding through to secure compactness, transversely at the
least.
In coursed rubble walling, fig. 16, the line and level are
used, the work is laid in courses, each course being care¬
fully brought up to the same level in itself, though no at¬
tention is paid to uniformity in the heights of the different
courses. For this species of walling the stones are gene¬
rally roughly dressed by the workman in the gross before
he begins building. He is careful to get parallel beds to
them, and he brings the best face of each stone to a toler¬
ably even surface at right angles to the beds ; the ends, too,
receive some little attention, and for this purpose he uses
an axe in addition to his scabling hammer. The quoins in
coursed rubble walling are generally built with peculiar neat¬
ness and precision, and they are set to serve as gauge courses
for the rest. This, when well executed, makes a sound and
excellent wall. It presents, however, rather a rough and
homely appearance, and in finer works must be covered with
stucco or cement, or faced with ashlar.
Ashlar is an external rind of gauged stones in equal
courses, having tooled or closely-fitting joints to give a wall
a neat and uniform appearance ; it is axed, tooled, or rubbed,
as may be thought most in character with the structure, or
that part of it to which it is to belong. Ashlar stones, or
ashlars as they are commonly called, are made of various
sizes on the surface, as the character of the edifice may re¬
quire or convenience demand, and vary in thickness from
five to eight or nine inches. Some of the ashlar stones must,
it is clear, be used transversely as bond stones, or the facing,
having nothing to connect it with the wall behind, would
soon totter and fall. Bond stones are generally put in al¬
ternate courses, with the backing to the jambs of openings,
such as windows, and oftener, if these do not recur within a
length of five or six feet; the bond stones themselves, too,
should not fall in the same vertical chain, except when they
are in the jambs of openings, but break in their alternate
courses. Ashlar is commonly set in a fine mortar or in
putty. It is generally recommended that ashlars should not
be made regular parallelopipedons, but run back irregularly
to tooth in with the backing, the vertical joints being left
open from about an inch within the face of the wall, and the
upper surface or bed of the stones made narrower than,
though perfectly parallel to, the lower. These things may
exert a slightly beneficial influence under some circum¬
stances ; but the mode of construction involved is so radi¬
cally bad, that unless the backing is set in a quick-setting
cement, or be so well packed as to be proof against its gene¬
ral tendency to settle away from the ashlar facing, no means
of the kind can materially improve it. A well-compacted
wall of coursed rubble, the courses being frequently made
up of whole stones and faced with ashlar, may be made toler¬
ably sound and trustworthy. Brick backing, with ashlar
facing, cannot be considered as good, though it has the ad¬
vantage of not requiring battening and lathing for inside
plastering, as the stone-backed wall does. Uncoursed rub¬
ble with ashlar has all the disadvantages of both the pre¬
ceding, with nothing to recommend it before either of them.
There are, besides, many sorts of walling or modes of
structure arising from the nature of the materials furnished
in various localities. That of most frequent occurrence,
perhaps, is a manner in which either broken or rounded
flints are used. These depend almost entirely on the mor¬
tar with which they are compacted, and on a coursed chain,
which is commonly introduced at short intervals of larger
B U I L
E(Hiding, stones or of bricks, to act as a bond; the quoins, too, in
this species of structure are generally constructed of dressed
stones or of brick.
Whatever objections lie against bond timber in brick-work
apply with equal force at least to the use of it in stone walls.
Hoop-iron bondis not only available in all kinds of stone wall¬
ing, including the highly-wrought close-jointed kind, but it is
invaluable, as it may be used both longitudinally and trans¬
versely as it may in brick-work ; whilst it compels the build¬
ing mason to bring his work up to a true and fair bed as
often as the bond is to be laid in it.
Discharging arches, it must be evident, are as necessary
in and to stone walls as to walls of brick, and they may be
treated much in the same manner.
Rubble walls are scaffolded with single, and ashlar-fronted
or other gauged stone walls with double-fronted scaffolding,
the former tailing one end of the putlocks in on the wall,
and the"'other having an inner row of standard poles and
ledgers parallel to the outer, making the scaffold entirely in¬
dependent of the wall. In some places, however, it is the
custom to dispense altogether with an external scaffold in
building stone walls, particularly with gauged stones. With
light and plain work this may be done without much incon¬
venience or retardation ; but if the work be heavy or delicate,
considerable delay and incorrectness result. Sometimes the
finer work, such as that to mouldings, flutes, and foliate or
other enrichments, is merely boasted or roughed out before
the stones are set, and finished afterwards. This can be
done well only from a secure floor or scaffold, on which the
workman may move freely.
When walls are not entirely of masonry, in the ordinary
course of economic building, stone is frequently used for
copings, cornices, string and blocking courses, sills, landings,
pavings, curbs, steps, stairs, hearth-stones and slabs, and
chimney-pieces ; to these may be added quoins and archi¬
tectural decorations, or dressings for windows, doors, &c.,
though both the former and latter are not unfrequently exe¬
cuted in plaster composition, or cements. Copings (see
Glossary to the article Architecture) to cover walls, para¬
pets, &c., are worked with a plain horizontal bed, two verti¬
cal faces, and an inclined or weathered back or upper sur¬
face ; either forming an acute angle with the outer and wider,
and an obtuse angle with the inner and narrower face, to
throw the water off, as shown at a, fig. 19; or to both sides
from the middle, as at 6 ; the latter is technically termed
saddle-back coping. In both cases they are made to pro¬
ject over the wall or parapet on both sides; and in the pro¬
jected part of the bed under the edge or edges towards
which the inclination is given, a channel or groove, called a
throat, is cut, to intercept the water in its inclination to run
inwards to the wall. On gables or other inclined planes the
coping is neither weathered nor throated, as the water is
necessarily impelled along its course to the lower end, and
not over the sides. To protect the separate stones of a cop¬
ing course from the danger of being displaced by high winds
or other accidental cause, and to form a chain through its
whole length, the stones are linked together by cramps of
copper or iron let into their backs and run with lead. These
metals, however, especially the iron, for the most part act
very injuriously, from their exceeding susceptibility of at¬
mospheric changes, and their greater or less tendency to
oxidation ; indeed, the stone invariably suffers more than
the work benefits from the metal cramps. Tenons, dowels,
joggles or dovetails of stone, or of hard wood or cast iron,
applied so as to be protected from the weather, would be far
better, and would answer every desirable purpose suffi¬
ciently. Cornices (vide ut sup.) are but ramified copings, and
are or may be subjected to the same general laws. Care
must be taken, however, in arranging them, that their centre
of gravity be not brought too far forward, in the anxiety to
project them sufficiently, lest they act injuriously on the
DING. 739
wall by pressing unequally, and their own seat be also en- Building,
dangered. String courses {dde ut sup.) economically, in
contradistinction to architecturally, are meant to protect a
set-off in a wall, by projecting over its lower face in the
manner of a coping (see fig. 17, at c) ; the beds are worked
parallel, and the outer face vertical or at right angles to
them, but so much of the upper surface is weathered or
sloped off as protrudes from the upper part of the wall to
carry the water off; and, for the reason above stated with
regard to copings, the lower bed just within the outer face
is throated. A stone string course, cramped or dovetailed
in the bed, forms an excellent chain round a brick-wall; but
the part of it in the wall should be of the exact thickness of
one, two, or more courses of brick-work. A blocking course
(vide ut sup) is either a very thick string projecting over or
flush with the face of the lower part of the wall to cover a set¬
off, or it is a range of stone over a crowning cornice to bring
the centre of gravity more in on the wall than it otherwise
would be ; in the former case it is treated exactly as a string,
excepting that, if it be flush below, there is no occasion for
a throat; and in the latter it has a horizontal bed, parallel
vertical sides, and a weathered back or upper surface. Sills
(vide ut sup) are weathered and throated like the parts of a
string course (see fig. 17, at a and b) ; they are laid across
window openings as a base to the sash-frame ; distinct sills
in the same line may, indeed, be considered as an intercepted
string course. In the ordinary practice of building, win¬
dow sills are seldom set in brick walls until they are ab¬
solutely required to set the sash-frames on ; or they are set
but not bedded, except at the ends. The object of this
is to prevent any settlement that may occur in the piers
from breaking the sills across on the unyielding part of the
wall under the windows. A necessity for this, however, can
only arise from bad construction ; for with a good bond in
the brick-work, all would settle together, and the sills might
be completely bedded across at once. Landings are plat¬
forms of stone, either over an area before a door, at the
head of a flight of stairs, or as the floor of a balcony. They
are made four, five, six, or eight inches in thickness, ac¬
cording to their extent and bearing; if not of one piece of
stone, they are of nicely jointed pieces joggled and plugged
together, and are worked on the face and edges just as their
situation may demand. Stone pavings are of various kinds,
and are prepared, shaped, and laid in various ways. Stone
paving that is not exposed to the sun and air, if next the
ground, should be laid on footings of brick or stone, or it
will be constantly damp if the soil be close and clayey; but
in yards, open areas, &c., it may be laid on the ground,
bedded in sand, and jointed with mortar or cement. Stone-
paved floors are either on brick arches, or on a timber floor
prepared for the purpose; the latter is a very bad mode of
supporting paving, as the impression derived from the pre¬
sence of the stone is, that the floor is incombustible; but
if it be bedded on combustible material, the danger to
human life in the event of fire is greater than if the stone
paving did not exist at all. It is worked, cut, and set more
or less expensively, according to circumstances, A curb is
a range or course of thicker and stronger stone to bound a
pavement, and is either flush with the paving, showing as a
step on its outer edge, or raised above it to receive a balus¬
trade, and shows on the outer side as a blocking course ;
in the latter situation it is generally joggled and plugged in
the joints. The term step or steps alone is generally un¬
derstood to mean external steps, whether arranged in long
or short flights, or the single step in a doorway into which
the door-frame is tenoned. A step should have a plain hori¬
zontal bed, and a very slightly weathered tread or upper
surface ; the front or riser worked plain and vertical, or with
a moulded nosing, and the back sunk with a joggle or
bird’s-mouth joint to receive the step or landing above or
behind it. Stairs are but a flight or combination of steps
740 BUILDING.
Building, used internally; the principles upon which they are con-
structed will be found under the heads Stone-Masonky
and Joinery. Hearths are the stone-flooring of fire-places;
and a slab is that part of the floor of a room which lies im¬
mediately before the fire-place and along the extent of its
front. This slab is supported by a flat brick arch called a
brick trimmer, which is turned from the chimney-breast
under the hearth on one side, to the trimmer joist on the
other. (See a section of all these at fig. 18.) Chimney-
pieces consist simply of mantle and jambs; that is, the
vertical sides, and the architrave or transverse covering with
its shelf or cornice. The parts of a chimney-piece are ge¬
nerally put together with an adhesive plaster or cement,
and affixed to the wall or chimney-breast behind with
cramps, holdfasts, and plugs. The material of which
chimney-pieces are composed varies from the coarsest stone
to the finest marble; and the labour on them varies to a
still greater extent. Quoin-stones are gauged and wrought
blocks with parallel beds and vertical faces, placed on the
angles of buildings with the intention of adding to their
beauty and strength ; they are used either with brick or
stone walls, and are generally made to project before the
face of that to which they are attached, mostly with a wea¬
thered angular joint, or with a rectangularly grooved or
moulded one. The quoins are coursed with the rest of the
wall if it be of stone, and are made to occupy the exact
space of a limited number of courses of brick in a brick
wall. (See fig. 17.)
Masonry to receive architectural decorations is generally
worked into the walls as they are carried up; but as they
are seldom homogeneous either in matter or construction,
the result is mostly the converse of what it purports to be,
for the work is more frequently weakened than strengthened
by the decorative masonry. Stones of which columns are to
be composed, whether each column is to be of one stone or
more, are generally roughly boasted out before they are
set, and are finished afterwards to traversing moulds and
templets with a plumb-rule, whose sides are cut to the di¬
minution, whatever it may be. Flutes are cut at the same
time and in the same manner. The beds of the joints in
columns should be worked with the greatest precision, that
they may fit firmly and closely together; they must not,
however, be worked hollow to make a close joint externally,
or the arrises will chip off. It is considered a good plan to
put a piece of thin milled lead between the beds, cut cir¬
cular, and extending to within a short distance of the sur¬
face, and that the rest be filled with a fine adhesive putty,
made as nearly of the colour of the stone as possible. 1 his
makes a solid bed, and protects the arrises effectually; but
it will not do so well for slight columns, because it narrows
the bed so materially. A joggle or dowel of hard wood or
cast iron let into the core might be a sufficient counterac¬
tion, and it would certainly add to the stability of a poly-
lithic shaft. The other parts of a columnar composition
may be sufficiently cramped and joggled together with wood
and metals, according to the situation, though it may be
again remarked, that neither wood nor metal should be used,
unless it can be protected from access even of the atmo¬
sphere.
Stone walling is generally measured by the perch of
twenty-one feet superficial, at a standard ot eighteen inches
in thickness, or a cubic quantity of thirty-one feet six inches.
Sometimes it is taken by the rod of 272 feet, like brick¬
work, but at the eighteen-inch standard instead of the four¬
teen-inch, or a brick and a half, as in the latter species of
walling. The perch, however, as first stated, is the stan¬
dard of this country. The quantities may be ascertained
in the same manner that they are in measuring brick-work,
the number of inches the wall is in thickness being substi¬
tuted in the margin for the number of brick lengths. In
abstracting, the superficial quantities may be taken out in
columns under the different thicknesses; the amount of Building,
each column being multiplied by the thickness in inches,
and divided by eighteen, gives the reduced quantity ; but
if the work be taken in cubic quantities, it is evident that
three dimensions of every part multiplied together brings
the whole at once to cubic feet, and no further process is
necessary, unless it be required to bring the total quantity
into reduced perches, which may be done by dividing it by
thirty-one and a half.
The custom being different in different places with re¬
gard to the double measurement of quoins or angle piers,
and as to whether openings, such as windows and doors,
shall or shall not be deducted, because of the greater care
and trouble required in setting and plumbing quoins and
reveals, these particulars should be made matter of previous
agreement. Perhaps the best way is to take the quantities
exactly, and allow a running measurement extra on the
parts requiring more than the usual quantity of labour, or,
the nature of the work being of course obvious beforehand,
the price per perch, per rod, or per foot cube, on the exact
quantity, may be made to include the proposed extras. In
the same manner, chisel-dressing (that is, facing the stones
neatly and truly with the chisel), whether plain or sunk,
may or may not be charged extra, according to agreement,
or, in the absence of a previous agreement, to the custom
of the place. To ascertain the value of stone walling, the
cost of everything that enters into some fixed quantity on
the spot must be calculated, for almost everything con¬
nected with it varies in almost every place. The original
price of the stone at the quarry; the expense of carrying it
from thence to the place where it is to be worked up; its
texture or comparative hardness, which will materially affect
the quantity of walling a mason may execute in a certain
time ; the cost on the spot, of lime and sand, and the height
to which stones must be carried or hoisted from the ground ;
must all be ascertained and considered, as well as the wages
of masons and labourers, and the sort of walling proposed
to be executed.
Stone used in string and blocking courses, sills, copings,
cornices, steps, quoins, columns, entablatures, &c. is mea¬
sured by the foot cube, and the work on it is taken as plain,
sunk, or moulded, by the foot superficial. The dimensions
lor the cubic quantities are taken on the unreduced block,
or rather on the greatest breadth and thickness which the
finished works exhibits ; for instance, the string course,
which appears in section at c, fig. 17, would be taken as of
the thickness throughout which it holds in the wall; and
in the same manner, the thickness of the sill at b would be
taken under the wooden sill of the sash frame, which must
have been the original thickness of the whole scantling.
Stone sawed into thin slabs for paving, chimney-pieces, &c.,
is taken by the superficial foot, at a certain thickness, the
value being ascertained from the cubic quantity and the cost
of sawing on the surface, whilst some articles, being of a
fixed breadth and thickness fitting them to peculiar purposes,
are taken by the running foot; but both these latter modes
suppose labour included.
Plain work is the even surface produced on stone by the
chisel, without the necessity of taking away more than the
mere inequalities, and is equivalent to what the joiner calls
trying-up, that is, making the surfaces perfectly straight
both longitudinally and transversely, and so that it shall be
quite out of winding, which indeed is a term to express the
result of trying up. Sunk work arises from the necessity of
chiseling or hacking away below the level surface of the
plain work, such sa the weathering ot copings, string courses,
cornices, &c.; and mouldings cut in stone produce what is
called moulded work. Sunk and moulded work are either
straight or circular ; circular plain work is certainly spoken
of, but incorrectly, for every flexure in stone must be pro¬
duced by sinking. The joints and beds, that is, the upper
BUILDING.
741
Building, and lower horizontal sides, and the vertical ends of stones,
are taken as plain work, as well as their faces and edges, if
they have been wrought with the chisel to produce the sur¬
face ; or their superficies are taken as sawing or half plain
work, if the surfaces are as the saw left them. An extra
charge is made on plain work for rubbing to produce a
smooth unchannelled surface ; and again, a higher charge is
made for plain work if it be equally channelled or furrowed
in vertical lines over the surface ; this latter operation is
technically termed tooling. Whenever any two surfaces
meet in an oblique angle, one of them may be taken as sunk
work, and it will generally be that which is not parallel to
its opposite side. It is valued at about two-sevenths more
than plain work; and circular sunk work, that is, circular
in the direction of its length, at about one-sixth more than
straight sunk. Moulded work is measured by girding the
moulding or mouldings with a cord or tape, carrying it into
all the quirks, and round all the arrises; the dimension
thus given is multiplied by the length for the superficial
quantity. This is valued at about one-fifth more than sunk
work, and circular-moulded at about one-half more than
straight. Narrow jointings, groovings, throatings, jogglings,
&c. are taken by the foot run. Mortises, holes, notches,
cramps, dovetails, &c. are numbered and charged at so much
a piece, according to the labour and cost involved in making
them. The common pavings, landings, copings, sills, and
steps generally used in London for ordinary purposes, are
of a laminated stone from Yorkshire, and they are for
the most part worked to size and shape in the quarry,
so that there can be very little labour on them beyond the
mere fitting and setting, making mortises, fitting coal-plates,
traps, &c., when such are required, unless they be rubbed,
which occasions, of course, an extra charge. York pavings
and landings are taken by the superficial foot, at such a
thickness; and copings, sills, steps, &c. by the foot run, ac¬
cording to their size.
Plasterer, <Sre.—No art in the economy of building con¬
tributes more to produce internal neatness and elegance,
and no one is less absolutely important, so far as the use
and stability of a structure are concerned, than that of the
plasterer. Its very general application, too, is of compa¬
ratively late date ; for wainscotted walls, and boarded or
boarded and canvassed ceilings, or naked joists alone, are
frequently found in houses of even less than a century old,
both in these countries and on the Continent.
The plasterer, as the term imports, works in plastic, ad¬
hesive compositions, which are laid on walls, both internally
and externally, to stop crevices, reduce inequalities, and pro¬
duce an even, delicate surface, capable of receiving any de¬
coration that may be applied to it, either in colour or other¬
wise. These compositions are as various as the modes of
applying them, the rudest being a compost of loam, a marly
clay, and lime ; this is used only for the commonest pur¬
poses, and being laid on in one coat, is washed over with a
thin mixture of lime and water, which process is termed
white-washing; the highest work of the plasterer is the
making an imitation of marbles and other costly stones, of
the purest calcined gypsum, mixed with a solution of gum
and isinglass, and colouring matter to produce the required
imitation. For the more common operations of plastering,
however, comparatively few tools and few materials are re¬
quired. The plasterer is attended by a labourer, who sup¬
plies his boards with mortar, and by a boy on the scaffold
with him to feed his hawk ; he is necessarily furnished with
a lathing hammer, a laying-on trowel, a hawk, floats, brushes,
jointing trowels and rules, moulds and straight edges, to¬
gether with a screen, spade, rake, and hod, for his labourer,
and a feeding-spade or server for his hawk-boy. The lath¬
ing hammer is chequered on the face with indented lines,
to make it less liable to slip over the head of the nail; the
upper or back part of the hammer is made like a hatchet,
but very narrow, and on its inner side or edge there is Building.
sometimes a square nick or grove, by means of which the
workman is enabled to draw a nail that has gone awry. The
laying-on trowel is a thin plate of hardened iron or steel,
ten inches long and two and a half inches wide, rounded at
one end and square at the other end or heel; it is very
slightly convex on the face ; and to the back, about the
middle of it, the spindle or handle is rivetted in at right
angles, which, returning in the direction of the heel parallel
to the tool, fits into a rounded wooden handle, by which
the workman grasps it. The plasterer is obliged to keep
this implement particularly clean and dry when he is not
actually using it, lest it rust in the slightest degree, as it is
clear that the brown oxide of iron woidd sadly discolour his
finer work on touching it again with the trowel. The hawk
is a piece of wood about ten inches square, to receive a
small portion of mortar on, for the convenience of carrying
it readily up to the wall or ceiling, to be there delivered
and spread by the trowel. The hawk is traversed across
the back by a dove-tailed piece, into which the wooden
handle is fixed at right angles, and by this the workman
holds it in his left hand. A hand-float is a piece of board
shaped something like a plastering trowel, with a ledge handle
t© it, and is used to rub over the finished work, to produce
a hard, smooth, and even face. A quirk-float is of wood
also, and is angularly shaped to work in angles; and a derby
is a long two-handed float, which is that principally used in
forming the floated coat of lime and hair. The plasterer’s
brush is broad and thin, with a stout or slight row of coarse
or fine hair, as it may be required for rough or fine work.
Jointing trowels are thin plates of polished steel, of triangular
shape, the point being a very acute angle ; the handle is
adapted to the heel or base of the tool. They are of three
or four different sizes, and are princij^lly used in making
good cornices, and joining them at their internal and ex¬
ternal angles, which is called mitring. Jointing rules are
auxiliary to the jointing trowel. Moulds are pieces^f hard
wood cut to the contour of cornices or separate mouldings,
to assist the workmen in forming them readily. For work
of any importance the moulds are cut in copper plates, which
are inserted in the wooden stock, and narrow pieces of wood
are fixed to the moulds transversely, to guide and steady
them along the screeds. A straight edge is a board of con¬
siderable length, shot perfectly straight on one edge, to
bring the plastering on a wall or ceiling to a perfectly even
surface, by traversing it in every direction. A screen is a
large parallelogramie wooden frame, on which metal wires
are fixed at regulated distances from each other, to act as a
sieve. This is propped up in nearly a vertical direction by
a counter-frame hinged to it like a common step ladder, and
the coarser materials which enter into the composition of
plastering mortar are thrown against its outer face, to sepa¬
rate the particles which are too large for the purpose from
the finer. The sand and lime, too, are mixed much more
efficiently and completely by screening them together than
in any other manner. The spade and hod are like those of
the bricklayer’s labourer. The rake is used to separate the
hair used in the mortar, and distribute it throughout the
mass. The hawk boy’s server is about the size and shape
of a common garden hoe, but the handle is in the direction
of the instrument. With this the boy rebeats the mortar on
the board, to destroy any set it may have taken, and de¬
livers it in small pats or portions on to the plasterer’s hawk.
The plasterer’s materials are laths and lath nails, lime,
sand, hair and plaster, of which are formed coarse stuff or
lime and hair, fine stuff, gauge stuff, &c.; and besides these, a
variety of stuccoes and cements, together with various ingre¬
dients to form colouring washes, &c. are more or less in request.
Laths are narrow strips of some straight-grained wood
(in this country they are generally of fir, though oak laths
are sometimes used), in lengths of three and four feet, or to
BUILDING.
742
Building, suit the distances at which the joists of a floor or the
vf ^ quarterings of a partition are set, and in thickness from
one-eighth to three-eighths of an inch ; those of the greater
thickness are called lath and a half. Lath nails are either
wrought or cut; cut nails are in common use in this coun¬
try with fir laths. Coarse stuff is composed of ox or horse
hair from the hide, in addition to the lime and sand mor¬
tar of the bricklayer and mason; this is intended to act
as a sort of mesh to net or tie it together, and form a
coarse but plastic felt. The hair should be as long as it
can be procured, and free from grease and filth of every
kind. Road drift is unfit to be used for mortar, unless it
be completely cleansed from all animal and vegetable matter,
and of all mud and clay. Nothing but clean sharp sand
should be used with the lime and hair in the composition of
this, any more than of brick mortar. Fine stuff is a mortar
made of fine white lime, exceedingly well slaked with water,
or rather macerated in water to make the slaking complete;
for some purposes a small quantity of hair is mixed up with
this material. Fine stuff very carefully prepared of the
finest powdered lime macerated so completely as to be held
in solution by the water, thus forming a mere paste, which
is then allowed to evaporate until it is of a sufficient con¬
sistence for working, is called putty. Gauge stuff is com¬
posed of about three-fourths of putty and one-fourth of cal¬
cined gypsum or plaster of Paris ; this may be mixed only
in small quantities at a time, as the plaster or gauge renders
it liable to set very rapidly. Bastard stucco is made of two-
thirds fine stuff, without hair, and one-third of very fine
and perfectly clean sand (the cleanliness or purity of sand
may be determined by the facility with which it may, when
in a moist state, be struck oft' from the hand without leaving
a soil); and common stucco is composed of about three-
fourths of clean sharp sand and one-fourth of the best lime,
well incorporated. This must be protected from the air
from the time it is made up until it is required to be laid on
the walls. The cement best known and most commonly used
in this country is called Parker’s, or Parker’s Roman cement.
This material, when of good quality, with fine clean sharp
sand, in the proportion of about three of the former to one
of cement, and well executed, forms a very good external
coating for walls.
A composition known as Portland cement, because the
mortar formed by it when mixed with sand, presents, or is
supposed to present, the appearance of stone from the Port-
land quarries, has grown of late years into repute in Lon¬
don more particularly, and it is in one particular at least
preferable for an outside stucco, that the colour to which it
dries is sufficiently agreeable to the eye without any colour¬
ing wash, whereas Parker’s cement is too often of a dark
dirty tint, requiring painting or colouring to render it toler¬
able. Portland cement is also much esteemed as being
proof against water when used as a mortar in setting brick¬
work, and in the composition of concrete for foundations.
The various coatings of plastering are thus designated;
On laths, plastering in one coat simply is said to be laid,
and in two coats, laid and set. In three-coat plastering on
laths, however, the first is called the pricking up, the second
is said to be floated, and the third set. On brick or stone
walls, without the intervention of laths, plastering in one
plain coat is termed rendering; with two coats, a wall is
said to be rendered and set; and in three, rendered, floated,
and set. Before the plasterer begins to lath a ceiling, he
proves the under face of the joists, to which he has to work,
by the application of a long straight edge, and makes out
any slight inequalities in them, when the work is not to be
of a very superior description, by nailing on laths or slips to
bring them as nearly even as he can. When the inequali¬
ties are great, or if the work is to be of fine quality, he recurs
to the carpenter, who takes off inordinate projections with
his adze, and nails on properly dressed slips where the joists
do not come down low enough, and thus brings the whole Building,
to a perfect level. This operation is called firring, that is,
putting on pieces of fir, though it is vulgarly termed and
frequently spelt furring. If it be a framed floor of ceiling
joists the plasterer has to work to, it is tolerably sure to be
straight; but the carpenter must have firred down on the
beams or binders to the level of the ceiling joists, unless the
ceiling joists have been nailed to the beams or binders, when
nothing of this kind need be necessary. If a ceiling is to
be divided into compartments or panels, the projecting or
depending portions must be bracketed or cradled down to
receive the laths. It is an important point to be attended
to in plastering on laths, and in ceilings particularly, that
the laths should be attached to as small a surface of timber
as possible, because the plastering is not supported or up¬
borne by its adhesion or attachment to the wood, but by the
keying of the mortar itself, which passes through between
the laths, and bends round over them. If then the laths are
in constantly recurring contact with thick joists and beams,
the keying is as constantly intercepted, .and the plastering
in all such places depends entirely on the portions between
them which are properly keyed. Under a single floor,
therefore, in which the joists are necessarily thick, a nar¬
row fillet should be nailed along the middle under the whole
length of them all, to receive the laths and keep them at a
sufficient distance from the timber to allow the plastering
to key under it; and thus too the surface might be made
more perfectly even, by blocking out the fillets, and con¬
trariwise, as it is in single floors that inequalities mostly
occur. This being all arranged, the plasterer commences
lathing. The laths should be previously sorted, reserving
the crooked and knotty, if there be such, for inferior works,
and selecting the best for the work of most importance, so
that the workman shall find none to his hand that is not fit
to be brought in. Taking a lath that will reach across three
or four openings, he strikes a nail into it on one of the in¬
termediate joists, at about three-eighths of an inch from the
one before it, and then secures the ends of that and the one
that it meets of the last row with one nail, leaving the other
end of the lath he has just set to be secured in the same
manner with that which shall meet it of the next bay in
continuation. It is of importance also that he pay attention
to the bonding of his work, either by using longer and
shorter laths in bays or squares, and in breaking the head¬
ings, or with laths of the same length, the first and last
courses or bays only having the bond formed by half laths.
In lathing on quartering partitions and battened walls, the
bonding is not a matter of much importance; nor is the
thickness of the timbers behind the latter of so much con¬
sequence as in a ceiling, because the toothing which the
thickness of the lath itself affords to the plastering is enough
to support it vertically ; but, nevertheless, the more complete
the keying, even in works of this kind, the better, as the tooth¬
ing above will not protect it from any exciting cause to fall
forwards, or away from the laths. The thinner or weaker sort
of lath too is generally considered sufficiently strong for par¬
titions, whilst the stronger is used for ceilings. Thin weak
laths, if used in a ceiling, are sure to produce inequalities, by
sagging with or yielding to the weight attached to them. A
chance one or two weak ones in a ceiling of otherwise strong
laths may be the ruin of the best piece of work. Care should
be taken therefore not to allow a thin lath, or one of un¬
equal thickness, to go on to a scaffold with thicker and more
equable ones, lest the workman should, through careless¬
ness or otherwise, put it up with the rest. W hen the lath¬
ing is completed, the work is either laid or pricked up, ac¬
cording as it is to be finished with one, two, or three coats.
Laying is a tolerably thick coat of coarse stuff or lime and
hair brought to a tolerably even surface with the trowel
only; for this the mortar must be well tempered, and of
moderate consistence,—thin or moist enough to pass rea-
B U I L
Building, dily through between the laths, and bend with its own
v—weight over them, and at the same time stiff enough to
leave no danger that it will fail apart, a contingency, how¬
ever, that in practice frequently occurs in consequence of
badly composed or badly tempered mortar, unduly close
lathing, or sufficient force not having been used with pro¬
perly consistent mortar to force it through and form keys.
If the work is to be of two coats, that is, laid and set, when
the laying is sufficiently dry, it is roughly swept with a
birch broom to roughen its surface, and then the set, a
thin coat of fine stuff, is put on. This is done with the
common trowel alone, or only assisted by a wetted hog’s
bristle brush, which the workman uses with his left hand
to strike over the surface of the set, while he presses and
smooths it with the trowel in his right. If the laid work
should have become very dry, it must be slightly moistened
before the set is put on, or the latter, in shrinking, will
crack and fall away. This is generally done by sprinkling
or throwing the water over the surface from the brush.
For floated or three-coat work, the first, or pricking up, is
roughly laid on the laths, the principal object being to make
the keying complete, and form a layer of mortar on the
laths to which the next coat may attach itself. It must, of
course, be kept of tolerably equal thickness throughout, and
should stand about one-quarter or three-eighths of an inch
on the surface of the laths. When it is finished, and while
the mortar is still quite moist, the plasterer scratches or
scores it all over with the end of a lath in parallel lines
from three to four inches apart. The scorings should be
made as deep as possible without laying bare the laths ; and
the rougher their edges are the better, as the object is to
produce a surface which the next coat will readily attach
itself to. When the pricked up coat is so dry as not to
yield to pressure in the slightest degree, preparations may
be made for the floating. Ledges or margins of lime and
hair, about six or eight inches in width, and extending
across the whole breadth of a ceiling or height of a wall or
partition, must be made in the angles or at the borders,
and at distances of about four feet apart throughout the
whole extent; these must be made perfectly straight with
one another, and be proved in every way by the application
of straight edges: technically these ledges are termed
screeds. The screeds are gauges for the rest of the work;
for when they are ready, and the mortar in them is a little
set, the interspaces are filled up flush with them; and a
derby float or long straight edge being made to traverse the
screeds, all the stuff that projects beyond the line is struck
off, and thus the whole is brought to a straight and per¬
fectly even surface. To perfect the work, the screeds on
ceilings should be levelled, and on walls and partitions
plumbed. When the floating is sufficiently set and nearly
dry, it is brushed with a birch broom as before described,
and the third coat or set is put on. This for a fine ceiling
that is to be whitened or coloured must be of putty; but
if it is to be papered, ordinary fine stuff, with a little hair
in it, will be better. Walls and partitions that are to be
papered are also of this latter, or of rough stucco ; but for
paint the set must be of bastard stucco trowelled. This coat
must be worked of exactly the same thickness throughout,
to preserve to the external surface the advantage that has
been obtained by floating. For all but this last mentioned,
the set on floated work, the trowel and brush are considered
sufficient to produce fine and even work; but trowelled
stucco must moreover be hand-floated. In this operation
the stucco is set with the trowel in the usual manner, and
brought to an even surface with that 'tool to the extent of
two or three yards. The workman then takes the hand-
float in his right hand, and rubs it smartly over the surface,
pressing gently to condense the material as much as possi¬
ble. As he works the float he sprinkles the surface with
water from the brush in his left hand, and eventually pro-
D I N G. 743
duces a texture as fine and smooth almost as that of po- Building,
lished marble. But lathing and plastering on laths as prac-
tised in England, is at best a very flimsy affair, and greatly
requires improvement. Stronger laths than the laths com¬
monly employed, put on further apart, and with headed
wrought nails, and the plastering laid on upon both sides in
upright work, or both above and below the ceilings at the same
time, two men working against one another will produce
w'ork in some degree worthy of the name. But the practice
of the French in this respect—a recent practice truly—is well
worthy the consideration, and to a great extent the imitation,
of English plasterers. The process of plastering on the naked
brick or stone wall differs but little, except in name, from
that we have described as the mode on lath. The single
coat, or equivalent for laying, on lath, is rendering, and it
need differ only in the quantity of hair, which may be less
than is necessary for laying, and in the consistence of the
mortar, which may be made more plastic, to work easier,
and because in a moister state it will attach itself more
firmly to the wall: the wall, however, must itself be wet¬
ted before the rendering is applied. The set is the same,
and is put on in the same manner as to two-coat work on
lath. For three coat, or floated work, the first or rough
rendering should be made to fill up completely whatever
crevices there may be in the work behind it, and be incor¬
porated with it as much as possible. As its name imports,
its surface may, indeed should, be rough; but it is not
scratched or lined as the similar coat on lath is: for this,
too, the wall must be previously wetted, that the mortar
may the better attach itself to it. For the floating, screeds
must be formed as before described, and the consecutive
process is exactly the same as on lath, both for the floated
and for the set coat. In almost every case in which plaster¬
ing is to be floated, the workman finds a guide for the feet
of his wall screeds in the narrow grounds which the joiner
has previously fixed for his skirtings ; from these he plumbs
upwards, and makes his work perfectly flush with them.
Mouldings and cornices, as large combinations of mould¬
ings and flat surfaces in the angles of rooms, immediately
under their ceilings, are called, are formed with running
moulds, and are generally executed before the setting coat
is put on the walls and ceiling. If the cornice do not pro¬
ject more than about an inch and a half, or two inches,
from the ordinary work, a backing of lime and hair will be
sufficient; and if any one part only happen to be more than
ordinarily protuberant, a row of nails from six to twelve
inches apart stuck into the wall or ceiling in the line of that
part will give it sufficient support. But if the general mass
of the cornice be more than that amounts to, and extend
more than six or eight inches along the ceiling, it must be
bracketed out, and the bracketing lathed and pricked up,
as for ordinary work. This pricking up, or other prepara¬
tion, must of course be perfectly set before the cornice is
run ; and there should be one-fourth of an inch at least of
clear space between the preparation and the mould in the
nearest part. A wooden screed or parallel straight edge is
tacked with brads on to the wall, and another on the ceil¬
ing, if the cornice be large and heavy, as guides or gauges
for the mould, whose rests are chased to fit them ; and then
one man laying on gauge stuff in an almost fluid state with
an angular trowel, another works the mould backwards and
forwards over it, which strikes off what is superfluous, and
gives the converse of its form to the rest. The mould is
never taken down from the work at right angles to the line
of it, but is drawn off at the end, so that none of the parts
of the moulding or cornice is injured or torn by it, which
must otherwise frequently be the case, from the peculiar
forms at times given to the details. If a cornice be too
large and heavy to be executed at once, it may be done in
the same manner at two or more times, in so many parts;
and if any part or parts of a moulding or cornice is to be
744
BUILDING.
Building, enriched, the space for it is left vacant by the mould, and
the enrichment is afterwards supplied. As a cornice can¬
not be completed up to the angles by the mould, it is
worked by hand in those situations to a joint. The joinings
are termed mitres, and in forming them the plasterer uses
the jointing tools we have already described. Models for
enrichments are made by the modeller, according to the
design or drawing submitted to him, and from them the
plasterer makes wax moulds, or, as in ordinary practice, the
modeller supplies the moulds in which the ornament is cast
in plaster of Paris. If the ornament be in recurring lengths
or parts, as is usually the case, only one length or part is
modelled, and casts of as many as are required are taken
from the mould; some single ornaments, again, which are
very large, require to be moulded and cast in parts, which
are put together by means of cement. When the cast
ornaments are sufficiently dry the pieces are scraped and
trimmed, the joints made clean and even, and they are set
in the cornice with plaster of Paris, with white lead, or with a
composition called iron cement, as the case may require.
If the castings have something in the cornice to rest upon,
the first will do ; but if there is nothing to retain or attach
them but the cement, one of the two latter must be used.
Flowers and other ornaments in ceilings which are too large
and heavy to Jbe trusted to adhesive matter alone, must be
screwed on to wooden cradling behind and above them.
In plastering a wall with common stucco (and its use is
mostly for outside work), the first thing to be done is to
remove the dust from it by brushing, and then wetting it
very completely with water ; if the wall to be stuccoed be
an old one, or one of which the joints have been drawn, the
mortar of the joints must be chipped or even raked out,
and the bricks picked, to expose a new and porous surface
to the plastering before brushing and wetting. The wall
is then covered with stucco in a fluid state, applied with a
broad and strong hog’s-bristle brush, like common white¬
washing. When this is nearly dry the stucco must be laid
on as in common rendering, unless the work is to be floated,
when the process is nearly similar to that in floated plas¬
tering. Screeds must be formed at the highest and lowest
extremities of the wall, or of that part of the wall which is
in the same vertical line, and is not intercepted by string
courses, and be returned at the angles, putting the whole
surface into a sort of frame. These must be made perfectly
straight and plumb, so as to be quite out of winding, by the
careful application of the plumb-rule and straight edge.
Inner vertical screens must then follow at three or four feet
apart across the whole surface, and be made to range exactly
with the outer ones, and then the interstices must be filled
in as before. As the work is made good it must be well
rubbed with the hand float, as in the execution of trowelled
stucco internally, to compress the material, and produce a
hard, even, and glossy surface. Preparations for cornices
and other projections from the straight surface of the work
must have been previously made in or on the brick or stone¬
work, by the protrusion of bricks, tiles, or whatever maybe
best suited to form a core, and the mouldings and cornices
are run with moulds, in the manner described for the same
things internally, only that in work of this kind no plastic
material but the stucco itself is used ; that is, there is no
preparation of any softer material than the stucco itself put
under it. In running cornices in this material, workmen
are very apt to mix a little plaster of Paris with the stucco
to make it set under the mould, and thus give sharpness
and fulness to the mouldings ; but this should not be per¬
mitted ; for the plaster is not qualified to stand the weather
as the stucco is, and, if mixed with it, will produce prema¬
ture decay. When the stucco is perfectly dry, it may be
painted in oil colours, or be coloured in distemper; and in
either case it is generally ruled over the surface with a lead
point, to give it the appearance of gauged stone-work.
Rendering in Roman cement is executed almost exactly Building,
in the same manner as stucco rendering is, only that it is
laid on the saturated wall directly, without the preliminary
operation of roughing in, or washing the surface with a solu¬
tion ot the material. The same process, too, is followed in
floating this cement, and with the same exceptions; and as,
in addition to its superior hardness and capacity for dura¬
tion, it is a quick-setting cement, it is far preferable to any
of the common stuccoes for running cornices, mouldings,
&c. Roman cement, or as it is vulgarly called by most
persons concerned in the operations of building, compo, a
contraction ot composition, may, like stucco, be painted in
oil or coloured ; but instead of a size colour, which is used
for almost every other purpose in plastering, the colour for
this composition is mixed with diluted sulphuric acid. This
too may be lined and tinted to imitate stone and stone¬
work of any description.
It may not be amiss here to refer to some of the causes of
the premature decay which takes place in stuccoes and ce¬
ments when used externally as a coating to walls. The pri¬
mary cause is the presence of muddy earth and decayed ani¬
mal and vegetable matter in the sand used with the lime and
cement. To this may be added frequent impurities in the
limes and cements themselves, particularly of argillaceous
matter in the former, and sometimes to the too great pro¬
portions of lime or cement to sand. These things might,
however, remain quiescent for a long time, if the work
were well protected from access of moisture, which is the
grand exciting cause. The paint, or distemper wash, on
the surface, is generally sufficient to prevent the rain which
may beat against a vertical face from penetrating, especially
it the work have been well hand-floated and trowelled, to
make it close and compact; but the evil arises from expo¬
sure above, and from the numberless horizontal unfloated
surfaces which are constantly presented. These receive
and collect the water, and convey in streams over the ver¬
tical surfaces what is not immediately absorbed; and the
work thus becoming saturated, frost seizes and bursts it, or
warmth calls the vegetative powers of the impurities in it
into action, and the whole is covered with a green sward.
Let the sand of which a plaster composition is to be formed,
whether with lime or cement, be washed until it no longer
discolours clean water, and be well compounded with ce¬
mentitious matter free from the impurities with which it is
so frequently charged ; let the work be well hand-floated and
trowelled, particularly on the backs or upper horizontal sur¬
faces of projections, and protected above by projecting eaves
or otherwise ; and the work, with common care and attention
to paint or distemper at intervals, will last as long as anything
of the kind can be expected, or is found, to last anywhere.
A cheap and useful covering for external walls which
are protected by projecting eaves, ‘in plain buildings, is
rough cast. This is executed in the following manner.
The surface is first roughed in, or rendered with lime and
hair; and when that is set dry, another coat of the same
material is superadded, laid as evenly as it can be without
floating, and as soon as a piece of two or three Yards in
extent is executed, the workman lays on it an almost fluid
mixture of fine clean gravel and strong lime, which have
been well mixed together. This is immediately washed
with any ochreous colour that may be desired, and the
whole dries into one compact mass.
In renovating and repairing plastering, the whole surface
is first well washed to remove the dirt which may have at¬
tached itself, and as much of the earthy matter of the pre¬
vious coat of whitening or colouring as will come away;
any injuries the work may have received, such as cracks
and fractures, are then repaired; and when the new stuff
is quite dry, the joinings are scraped to produce an even
surface, and the whole is again whitened or coloured once
or twice, or oftener, as may be required, to make it bear
BUILDING.
^Building, out well. Stuccoed walls which have been painted must
be well rubbed with pumice stone, to take off the old paint
as much as possible before they are newly painted.
Plastering is measured in feet and inches, and valued by
the yard superficial of nine square feet. It is taken under
separate heads according to the nature and description of
the work, such as rendered; rendered and set; rendered,
floated, and set; and with lath, for the lathing and plastering
are valued together ; lathed and laid ; lathed, laid, and set;
and lathed, plastered, floated, and set. Whitening and co¬
louring are taken under separate heads, and the quantities
of them are reduced to yards also. Work done in narrow
slips, such as to the jambs and soffits of doorways and other
openings, is measured by the foot superficial, and so are the
backs of niches, niche-heads, &c. Arrises, or external
angles and quirks, are taken extra by the running foot, and
beads and other very small mouldings are measured in the
same manner. Larger mouldings, however, and cornices,
whether plain or enriched, are taken by the foot superficial,
and the quantity is ascertained by multiplying the length,
minus once the projection, by the girth, of the moulding or
cornice, which is best determined by measuring its mould
with a tape or cord. Enrichments are either numbered or
taken at so much the running foot, making the modeller’s
an extra charge, if the design was original and required
special modelling and moulding; and mitres are taken at
so much a piece beyond a limited number. This number,
in an ordinary room, is generally the four which necessarily
occur in its four angles, making those which are usually
occasioned by the projection of the chimney-breast extra ;
but it is not an uncommon practice to bring them within
the limit, and count only all that may occur above eight, for
no difference is made between internal and external angles.
Circular work, whether it be convex or concave, of every
kind, may be charged about one-fourth higher than straight.
Stuccoes and other compositions are also valued by the
yard, and according to the description of the work, with al¬
most similar exceptions to those mentioned with regard to
common plastering. Used externally, however, all the
arrises or external angles, throatings, grooves, chamfers, &c.,
are taken as extra by the running foot at such a width.
In the practice of measuring plasterer’s work, it is cus¬
tomary to take the whole surface at first, and then what¬
ever deductions there may be. Thus the side of a room
is measured over all, from the upper edge of the skirting
grounds up to the cornice. The windows and doors are
deducted by taking to the outside of their framed grounds
for the width, and from the skirting grounds up to the
top of those of the door or window for the height. If there
be more than one of each, or either of them, to deduct, of
course the same dimension will serve for all, multiplied by
as many times as each deduction occurs. A ceiling also is
generally taken over the whole surface, from cornice to
cornice, a chimney-breast or other projection being made
a deduction. It is a moot point whether the plasterer should
not be allowed that part of the ceiling and wall which is
covered by the cornice, as he has actually finished the
whole except setting. When the cornice is bracketed,
however, he may fairly claim up to the brackets.
Scaffolding is not generally made an extra charge with
new work; but with old work it is, if scaffolding be neces¬
sary ; for, under ordinary circumstances, the plasterer is en¬
abled to wash, stop, and whiten the ceilings and walls of
rooms from trestles, with boards laid across them. In lofty
saloons and halls, churches, &c. scaffolding is indispensable,
and must then be charged. A scaffold is necessary, too, to
a front that is to be plastered in any way ; but it may be
afterwards washed, repaired, and coloured, from a ladder,
without the intervention of a scaffold.
Slater.—The principle on which slates are laid is that
which is employed in plain tiling. To a roof with project-
VOL. V.
ing eaves, a wide board is placed over the rafters’ feet; but
when the eaves tail into gutters, the gutter-board is made
wide enough to receive the eaves-course. For light slating
it is necessary to board a roof all over. This is done by the
carpenter, and is called sound-boarding ; but for strong
heavy slates, fillets or battens are better ; and these are laid
by the slater himself, to suit the length of his slates. Three
inches wide and one inch thick is a sufficient size for them,
if the rafters be not more than twelve inches apart. Against
gable or party-walls, a feather-edged board called a tilting
fillet is laid to turn the water from the wall.
Before he begins to work on a roof, the slater shapes and
trims the slates on the ground. With a large knife or chop¬
per called a saixe, sax, or zax, he strikes off the unevenness
on one side of a slate, making it as nearly straight as he can;
he then runs a gauge along it, marking the greatest width
the slate will bear, and, cutting to that line, makes it per¬
fectly [wallel. He next, with a square, brings the thickest
and best end to right angles with the sides, generally by
chopping, but sometimes by sawing ; and then marking up¬
ward from the squared foot or tail, makes two nail holes,
where, by calculating the gauge the slate in hand will bear,
he knows the batten must come. All the slates being thus
gauged to width, dressed, and sorted in lengths, they are
then taken up to the roof in rotation, beginning with the
longest and largest for the lowest courses. The first
course the slater lays is little more than half the length
of that which is intended to cover it, and is necessary to
break the joints at the eaves. This is called the doubling
eaves-course; and the covering eaves-course is brought
to the same foot line, completely to cover it. Then to as¬
certain the gauge : From the length of the slate deduct the
bond, which should never be less than two inches, and need
not be more than three and a half inches, and the half of
what remains will be the gauge. Thus, if the bond be fixed
at three inches, and the slate is two feet three inches in
length, the gauge will be one foot. This gauge or margin
is set up from the foot of the eaves-course at each end, and
a line strained to mark it along the whole length, and so on,
to the ridge or top, where another half-course is required to
complete the work, and that is in its turn secured by a co¬
vering of sheet lead. To a hipped roof care is taken to com¬
plete every course up to the angle, by cutting slates to fit
its inclination ; and these are also covered by an overlap of
sheet lead. In nailing a slate, it must not be strained or
bent in the slightest degree, or it will certainly fly in some
sudden atmospheric change, to which it is of course con¬
stantly liable, even if it escape fracture, from being trodden
on by the workmen themselves or by others. Copper, being
less liable to oxidize from exposure to common causes than
any other metal that will answer the purpose, is generally
used for slate nails. Zinc is also used for the purpose ; and
iron tinned and painted nails are sometimes substituted by
dishonesty on the part of the workman or builder, or bad
economy on that of the proprietor.
A very light and neat covering is produced, by laying
wide slates side by side, and covering their joints with nar¬
row slips bedded in putty, the overlap at the ends being
no more than the bond is with the usual mode. It is known
as patent slating, and was introduced by the late Mr Wyatt,
though he never obtained a patent for it. Indeed it is in
principle the mode which was adopted in ancient Greece in
covering the roofs of temples. Neither boards nor fillets
are used, the slates bearing from rafter to rafter, and to the
rafters the slates are screwed. The covering slips are also
screwed, as well as bedded in putty. Slating of this kind
may be laid at no greater elevation than ten degrees;
whereas, for slating in the ordinary way, the angle should
never be much less than twenty-five degrees, though large
slates with a three and a half inch bond, carefully laid and
pointed, may perhaps be trusted at a rise of twenty degrees.
&
building.
746
Building. This mode of applying slate is not without the disadvantage
attending the fixing of any substance that freely takes up and
readily parts with heat. In expanding and contracting, the
joints are too often destroyed and leaks are the common
consequence.
The mode above described of ascertaining the gauge or
margin by the bond, is equally applicable to every sort of
roof-covering that is made up of small inflexible parallelo-
gramic slabs or tablets; and it should be borne in mind that
the greater the angle is at which the rafters rise, or, in tech¬
nical language, the higher the pitch of the roof, the less the
bond may be, and vice versa. With slabs or tablets that vary
in length, too, as slates generally do in this country as they
are brought to market, it is the bond which it is of impor¬
tance to observe ; but if they are of an invariable length, as
tiles are, it is sufficient that the gauge or margin be attended to.
The best slate this country produces is from the quarries
of Bangor in Caernarvonshire, and of Kendal in Westmore¬
land. Good slate is also procured in the neighbourhood of
Tavistock in Devonshire, and in some parts of Scotland. The
scantlings of slate are cut in the quarries to set sizes, and
these are split into tablets, thicker or thinner according to
the size of the slab and the capacity of the slate ; for the in¬
ferior qualities are neither so compact in material, nor so
clearly laminated or schistose, as the superior, and will not
therefore rend so freely. The sizes of slates best known in
the British market are distinguished by the names of ladies,
countesses, duchesses, and queens. Ladies measure fifteen
inches by eight, countesses twenty inches by ten, duchesses
twenty-four inches by twelve, and queens thirty-six inches
by twenty-four ; and they are esteemed in proportion to their
magnitude. Besides these, there is a slate which equals the
queen in extent of surface, but is of very much greater
thickness ; this is called Welsh rag. A smaller slate, again,
which is less indeed than the lady, and is cut from the re¬
fuse of large scantlings, is called a double. In size it does
not often exceed twelve inches by six. Westmoreland
slates are thick and heavy like the Welsh rag, but do not
generally run so large.
The best slate is of a bluish-gray colour, and breaks be¬
fore the zax like well-burnt pottery, and will ring in the same
manner on being struck. Whitish or light gray-coloured
slate is for the most part stony : dark blue or blackish slate,
on the other hand, cuts very freely ; but it absorbs moisture,
and decays rapidly.
Slater’s work is measured by the square of a hundred su¬
perficial feet. In a parallelogramic piece of slating, as in a
gabled roof with projecting eaves, the length along the eaves
by the breadth or height from that to the ridge, with the ad¬
dition to the latter dimension of the gauge or margin for
doubling the eaves, will give the quantity of one side. Pro¬
jections for chimney-shafts or breasts, skylights, &c., must be
deducted ; but an addition must be made of the run round
them by six inches, for cutting and waste. In a hipped roof
the length from point to point of the eaves on one of the
long sides of a quadrilateral roof, by the breadth or height,
with the addition as before, will give that side and half ol
each of the ends. The other side will, of course, in the
same manner, include the other halves of the ends. The
length of the hips taken as a superficial dimension in feet, or
by twelve inches, is added for cutting and waste, and valleys
are taken and added in the same manner when they occur.
Carpenter.—For the scientific principles of carpentry we
must refer the reader to the article under that head, and to the
articles Roof, SxRENGTHof Materials, and Timber. Here
we have merely to speak of the practical details of carpenter’s
woi’k in the operations of building,—of carpentering, indeed,
or the practice of carpentry, considering it as a mechanical art.
The carpenter works in wood, which he receives from the
sawyer in beams, scantlings and planks, or boards, which he
cuts and combines into bond-timbers, wall-plates, floors, and
roofs. He is distinguished from the joiner by his operations Building,
being directed to the mere carcass of a building,—to things
which have reference to structure only, Almost everything
the carpenter does in and to an edifice is absolutely neces¬
sary to its stability and efficiency, whereas the joiner does
not begin his operations until the carcass is complete ; and
every article of joiners’ work might at any time be removed
from a building without undermining it or affecting its most
important qualities. Certainly, in the practice of building,
a few things do occur which it is difficult to determine to
whose immediate province they belong; but the distinction
is nevertheless sufficiently broad for general purposes. The
carpenter, with the bricklayer or mason, and some of the minor
artificers, constructs the frame or hull; and the joiner, with
the plasterer and others, decorates and rigs the vessel: on
the former the actual existence of the ship depends, and on
the latter depends her fitness for use.
The carpenter frames or combines separate pieces of tim¬
ber by scarfing, notching, cogging, tenoning, pinning, and
wedging ; and the tools he uses are the rule, the axe, the
adze, the saw, the mallet, hammers, chisels, gouges, augers,
hook-pins, a square, a bevel, a pair of compasses, and a
gauge, together with the level and plumb-rule ; besides
these, planes, gimlets, pincers, a sledge hammer, a maul or
beetle, wedges, and a crow-bar, may be considered useful
auxiliaries, though they are not absolutely necessary to the
performance of works of carpentry.
To scarf is to cut away equally from the ends, but on the
opposite sides, of two pieces of timber, for the purpose of
tying or connecting them lengthwise. This is done to wall-
plates and bond-timber, and especially to beams when they
are required of greater length than can be procured without
joining. (See Carpentry.) The usual mode of scarfing
bond and wall-plates is by cutting about three-fifths through
each piece on the upper face of the one and the under face
of the other, about six or eight inches from the end, trans¬
versely, making what is technically termed a calf or kerf,
and longitudinally from the end, from two-fifths down on
the same side, so that the pieces lap together with a sort of
half dovetail. The heavy supervening weight of the wall
and joists renders it impossible that they should be drawn
apart without tearing the fibres asunder or lifting the weight.
(See fig. 20.) Nevertheless these joints are generally spiked, Plate
and it is always required that they be made to fall in or un- CXLIX.
der a pier. Notching is either square or dovetailed; it is
used in connecting the ends of wall-plates and bond-timber
at the angles, in letting joists down on beams or binders,
purlines on principal rafters, &c. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, fig.
21, show varieties of notches applied as we have described.
No. 1 is a simple square notch or halving of the ends of bond-
timbers or wall-plates at a right angle ; No. 2, a dovetailed
notch. No. 3, the notch most commonly used; it is simi¬
lar to No. 1, but that the ends are allowed to run on so that
the one piece grasps the other, and each forms a cog to the
other. No. 4 is an oblique-angled, dovetailed notch; and
No. 5 shows how joists are notched or let down on beams
and binders, and purlines on principal rafters. A notch is
cut into the under edge of the joist or purline an inch or an
inch and a half in depth, and considerably shorter than the
beam, binder, or rafter is in thickness. Notches are also
cut down on the upper angles of the bearing pieces as long
as the rider is thick, as deep as the notch before described
of fhe latter is, and so far in as to leave a thickness on its
ow n edge equal to the length of the notch in the riding joist
or purline. In the diagram one joist is indicated in its place
let down in the notch, and another indicates the notch in
its own edge, and leaves exposed the notches in the binder.
Cogging, or corking, as it is vulgarly termed, is the last-
mentioned species of notch extended on one side, and leav¬
ing a narrow tooth or cog alone in the bearing-piece flush
with its upper face, No. 1, fig. 22. It is used principally in
B U I L
Building, tailing joists and beams on wall and tem-plates, and the
cog is here made narrower, because the end of the joist or
rider coming immediately beyond the plate, that part which
forms the shoulder of the notch would be liable, on being
strained, to be chipped off or torn away, if it were not kept
as long as possible; and it is not of so much importance to
guard against weakening a wall-plate which is supported
along its whole length, as a beam, binder, or principal rafter,
which rests on distant points alone. No. 2 of the same dia¬
gram shows another mode of tailing on joists and beams by
a dovetail notch, which, to distinguish it from the flat notches,
Nos. 2 and 4, fig. 2], is called corking, or cogging also,
though the operation certainly is not cogging. This is a
good mode if the timber be so well seasoned as not to be
likely to shrink more ; but it would be improved by allowing
the rider to take a bearing in a notch like that to No. 1 be¬
fore the dovetail commenced, as at No. 3, for in the ordi¬
nary mode it is weakened in a point of great importance.
Tenoning implies mortising also, as a matter ot course.
They are the names of the two operations necessary to one
result,—that of producing a connection between two pieces
by inserting part of the end of one into a hole of similar size
cut in the side or face of the other. A tenon is formed by
cutting in on each side or edge of a piece of timber, near
its end, transversely, to a certain depth, or rather, leaving a
certain part of the breadth or depth uncut, and then cutting
in longitudinally from the ends as far from each edge as the
transverse cuts have been made in depth, thus removing two
square prisms and leaving a third undivided. This is the
tenon. An excavation in the side of a piece of timber, of
a certain depth, in the dh*ection of its thickness, parallel to
its edges, and bounded lengthwise by lines at right angles
to them, is a mortise. Tenons and mortises are made of
exactly corresponding size, and are most frequently at equal
distances from one or the other side or edge of the two pieces
to be conjoined; and for the most part, too, every angle
formed in the process of tenoning, both internal and exter¬
nal, is a right angle. Tenons are called joggles in some
situations, when they are not intended to be borne upon ;
and their use is merely to keep the piece of timber to which
they belong steadily in its place, without being liable to slight
accidents from lateral pressure or violence. In combining
timbers by means of mortises and tenons, to produce as great
a degree of strength as possible, it must be obvious that the
object to be kept in view is to maintain the end or tenon of
the one as large and efficient as it may be, and weaken the
other as little as possible in forming the mortise. For the
efficiency of the mortised piece in a horizontal bearing, it is
clear that as much of its thickness should be below the mor¬
tise as possible, as at a, fig. 23 ; for if it be put low, as at i,
the superincumbent weight on the tenon would more readily
split or rend it in the direction of the grain, as indicated ;
but the case is inverted with the tenoned pieces. With the
mortise at a the tenon could only have the efficacy of so
much of the piece to which it belongs as there is of it above
its under surface, which is a very small part of its depth ;
whereas with the tenon at b it would command the power
of the greatest part of the depth. To guard as much as pos¬
sible against the danger of too great a mortise and too small
a tenon on one side and the other, and to obviate the diffi¬
culty arising from the efficiency of one or the other of the
two pieces being affected by putting the tenon too high or
too low, a compound, called a tusk tenon, is used for al¬
most all horizontal bearings of any importance, especially to
joists and binders, to trimmers, beams, girders, brestsum-
mers, &c. The body of the tenon in this is a little above
the middle of the end, and it runs out two, three, or four
inches, or more, as the case may require. Below it the tusk
protrudes, and above it the shoulder is cut down at an ob¬
tuse angle with the horizontal line, giving the strength of
the whole depth of the timber above the under tusk to the
DING. 747
tenon, and giving it a bearing in a shallow mortise, whilst a Building,
greater depth of the mortised piece than the tusk rests on
receives the body of the tenon, and so protects its compara¬
tively narrow margin from undue pressure. The diagram
No. 1, fig. 24, shows the tusk tenon, with the section of a
beam into which it is mortised ; and No. 2 indicates per-
spectively the appearance of the mortise in front. See also
Carpentry.
Pinning is the insertion of nearly cylindrical pieces of
wood or iron through a tenon, to detain it in the mortise, or
prevent it from being drawn out by any ordinary force. For
this purpose the pin is inserted either in the body, or be¬
yond the thickness, of the mortised piece, as indicated at a,
fig. 24, or at a, fig. 25. Wedging (see bb. No. 2, fig. 25)
is the insertion of triangular prisms, whose converging sides
are under an extremely acute angle, into or by the end of a
tenon, to make it fill the mortise so completely, or bind it
so tightly, that it cannot be easily withdrawn. The wedg¬
ing of tenons also assists in restoring to the mortised piece
of timber much of the strength it had lost by the excision
of so much of its mass, which indeed the tenon itself does
if it fit closely in every direction; but the assistance of the
wedge i-enders the restoration more perfect than the tenon
could be made to do of itself, by compressing the fibres of
both, longitudinally to those of the one, and transversely to
those of the other, thus removing the tendency of the mor¬
tised piece to yield in any degree in the weakened part,
though it cannot make up the loss in its tenacity occasioned
by the scission of its fibres.
In scarfing, cogging, and notching, the shoulders are al¬
ways cut in with the saw; but the cheek is for the most
part struck out with the mallet and chisel, or adze, as may
be most convenient. Tenons should be made entirely with
the saw : mortises are generally bored at the ends with an
auger whose diameter equals their thickness ; the interven¬
ing part is taken out with a wide chisel, cutting in the di¬
rection of the fibre ; and the ends are squared down with a
chisel whose breadth just equals the thickness of the mor¬
tise. Wood pins must be rent to insure the equal tenacity
of their whole mass. Wedges are cut with the saw, but
straight-grained stuff is always preferred for them.
Bond-timbers and wall-plates should be carefully notched
together at every angle and return, and scarfed at every
longitudinal joint. The scarf shown at fig. 20 is sufficient
for the purpose ; and the notch at No. 3, fig. 21, may be
preferred where notching is required ; neither pinning nor
nailing, however, can be of great use to either the notch or
the scarf. Bond-timbers are passed along and through all
openings, and are not cut out until such openings are to be
permanently occupied, that is, windows with their sash-
frames, &c., because they assist in preventing irregular set¬
tlements, by helping to carry the weight of a heavy part
along the substruction generally, instead of allowing it to
press unduly upon the part immediately under it.
Whatever notches and cogs for beams and joists are re¬
quired in wall and tem-plates, should be made before they
are set on or in a wall; for, as they are always bedded in
mortar, anything that may break the set must be avoided.
It is the duty of the carpenter to supply the bricklayer or
mason with wood bricks in sufficient quantity, and to direct
him Avhere they should be placed to receive the joiner’s fit¬
tings, or the battening, which the carpenter himself may have
to put up for the plasterer.
The framed quartering partitions which may be required
should be set up in every story before the beams and joists
of the floors are laid, that their horizontal timbers may be
notched on to the wall-plates, and that the joists or binders
may be notched on to them if occasion require it; but they
should be fixed rather below than above the level of the
wall-plates, because they are not liable to settle down so
much as the walls, though even that will depend in a great
748
BUILDING.
Plate CL.
Building, degree on the nature of the walling, and its liability to
The carpenter makes and fixes or sets centres of all kinds,
whether for single arches, or niches. 1 he striking out of
the centres, in the first instance, is necessarily contingent
on the arches to be turned on them, for the forms of which
the carpenter must look to the bricklayer or mason, whose
instructions for describing arches will be found under the
head Stone-Masonry. Large centres are framed in dis¬
tinct ribs, and are connected by horizontal ties ; whilst
small ones are made of mere boards cut to the required
sweep, nailed together, and connected by battens notched
into or nailed on their edges. Precision and stability are
nevertheless equally and absolutely necessary, as it is im¬
possible for an arch to be turned or set correctly on an in¬
correct or unstable centre.
The timbers or frame-work of floors is called naked floor¬
ing, and it is distinguished as single, double, and framed.
Of these the first, under ordinary circumstances, is the
strongest. Single flooring (See No. 1 and 2, fig. 29) con¬
sists of one row or tier of joists alone, bearing from one
wall or partition to another, without any intermediate sup¬
port, receiving the flooring boards on the upper surface or
edges of the joists, and the ceiling, if there be one, on the
lower. Joists in single floors should never be less than two
inches in thickness, because of their liability to be split by
the brads or nails of the boards if they are thinner; and
they should never be much more, because of the keying of
the ceiling, which is injuriously affected by great thickness
of the joists. Twelve inches from joist to joist is the dis¬
tance generally allowed; that dimension, however, from
centre to centre of the joists would be better. Strength to
almost any extent may be given by adding to the depth of
the joists, and diminishing the distance between them; and
they may be made firm, and be prevented from buckling or
twisting, by putting struts between them. These struts are
short pieces of batten, which should not be less
than an inch, and need not be more than an inch
and a half thick, and three or four inches wide,
placed diagonally between the joists, to which
they are nailed, in a double series, or crossing, as indicated
by the full and dotted lines in the diagram, fig. 26; and they
should be made to range in a right line, that none of their
effect may be lost; and these ranges or rows should be re¬
peated at intervals not exceeding five or six feet. The
struts should be cut at the ends with exactly the same in¬
clination or bevel, to fit closely. Great care should be
taken, too, not to split the struts in nailing ; but the trouble
of boring with a gimlet is saved by making a slight nick or
incision with a wide-set saw for each nail, of which there
should not be less than two at each end; and the nails used
should be clasp-nails. If the struts were
notched into the joists, it would add very
materially to their efficiency, but perhaps not
in proportion to the additional labour it would
involve. This strutting should be done to
single flooring under any circumstances, as it adds mate¬
rially to its firmness, and indeed to its strength, by making
the joists transmit any stress or pressure from one to ano¬
ther. The efficiency of single flooring is materially affected
by the necessity which constantly occurs in practice of
trimming round fire-places and flues, and across vacuities.
Trimming is a mode of supporting the end of a joist by
tenoning it into a piece of timber crossing it, and called a
trimmer, instead of running it on or into the wall which
supports the ends of the other joists generally. A trimmer
requires for the most part to be carried or supported at one
or both of its ends by some of the joists, which are called
trimming joists, and are necessarily made stouter than if
they had to bear no more than their own share of the stress.
Commonly it is found enough to make the trimmers and
trimming joists from half an inch to an inch thicker than Buildin
common joists. In trimming, tusk tenons should be used;
and the long tongue or main body of the tenon should run
not less than two inches through, and be draw-pinned, and
wedged, moreover, if it do not completely fill the mortise
in the direction of the length of the latter. The principal
objection, however, to single flooring is, that sound readily
passes through, the attachment of the boards above and of
the ceiling below being to the same joints throughout.
Another objection, and one already referred to, is the ne¬
cessity of making the joists so thin, not to injure the ceil¬
ings, that they with difficulty receive the flooring brads in
their upper edges without splitting. A partial remedy for
both these disadvantages is found in a mode sometimes
adopted of making every third or fourth joist an inch or an
inch and a half deeper than the intervening joists; and to
these, ceiling joists are notched and nailed, or nailed alone,
as shown in the diagram, fig. 26. This, by diminishing the
number of points of contact between the upper and lower
surface, for the ceiling joists must be carefully kept from
touching the shallower joists of the floor, is less apt to con¬
vey sound from one story to another, and allows conve¬
niently thin joists to be used for the ceiling without affect¬
ing those of the floor.
Double flooring (see sections No. 1 and 2, fig. 27, and
plan No. 3, fig. 29) consists of three distinct series of joists,
which are called binding, bridging, and ceiling joists. The
binders in this are the real support of the floor; they run
from wall to wall, and carry the bridging joists above and
the ceiling joists below them. Binders need not be less
and should not be much more than six feet apart, that is,
if the bridging or flooring joists are not inordinately weak.
The bridging joists form the upper tier, and are notched
down on the binders with the notch shown at No. 5, fig. 21.
The ceiling joists range under the binders, and are notched
and nailed as shown at No. 1, fig. 27; but the notch must
be taken entirely out of the ceiling joists, for the lower face
or edge of the binder may not be wounded by any means
or on any account, and moreover no good would be gained
in any other respect by doing so. When it is an object to
save height in the depth or thickness of this species of floor,
the ceiling joists may be tenoned into the binders, instead
of being nailed on to them; in this case the latter must be
chase-mortised on one side, for the convenience of receiv¬
ing the former when they are themselves set and fixed. A
chase is a long wedge-formed groove of the breadth or
thickness of the mortise, of which it is indeed an elonga¬
tion, so that the tenon at one
end of a ceiling joist being in¬
serted in the regular mortise in
the binder prepared for it, that
cftase moT'tise
at the other end is driven along the chase up to its place in
the mortise in the next binder. When ceiling joists are
thus chase-mortised, their lower or under faces are allowed
to come a little below the under face of the binders, and
the space across is firred down by slips not wider than the
ceiling joists are thick. No. 2, fig. 27, shows a transverse
compartment, or bay, of a floor in this manner ; but it is
not so good a one as the preceding; for, besides weakening
the binders, by cutting so many mortises and chases in
them, it is almost impossible to give the ceiling floor the de¬
gree of firmness and consistency it possesses in the other
way, besides requiring the firring down on the binders.
The same space would he better gained by cutting the
bridging joists so much lower down ; as they may, with the
sort of notch indicated above, be let down fully half their
depth without great injury to either bridging joists or
binder, for they can always be made to fit tightly or firmly,
and very little more labour is involved in notching deeply
than slightly.
Flooring is said to be framed when girders are used to-
BUILDING. 749
Building, getlier with binding, bridging, and ceiling joists. (See sec-
' tions No. 1 and 2, fig. 28, and plan No. 4, fig. 29.) Girders
are large beams, in one or more pieces, according to the
length required, and the size and strength of which timber
can be procured. They are intended for longer bearings
than mere binders may be trusted at, and may be strength¬
ened to almost any extent by trussing ; but to be efficient,
the height of the truss must always be greater than the
depth of the beam itself, and the strength is increased by
extending that height as the space or bearing increases. A
truss is indeed a wooden arch, whose lateral thrust will of
course be greater the smaller the angle subtended by it, and
vice versa. It has been a commonly received opinion, that
a truss within the depth of a girder adds materially to its
strength ; but experiments have proved that very little ad¬
vantage is gained by such a one when executed in the best
manner, and that, badly executed, the beam or girder is
weaker with the truss than without it. Binders are made
dependent on the girders by means of double tusk tenons,
and on and to them the bridging and ceiling joists are at¬
tached in the manner before described. No. ], fig. 28,
shows the transverse section of a compartment or bay of a
framed floor ; No. 2 the same longitudinally of the girder,
and of the bridging and ceiling joists, and transversely of
the binders. No. 1, fig, 29, is the plan of a single floor of
joists tailing in on wall-plates with two chains of struts, and
trimmed to a fire-place. No. 2 is a floor similar to No. 1,
with ceiling joists nailed to deeper flooring joists at inter¬
vals, as shown in fig. 26, No. 3 is the plan of a double
floor; and No. 4 is that of a framed floor of joists, bays of
which are shown in section at figs. 27 and 28. It is to be
observed, however, with reference to the diagram No. 1,
fig. 28, that binders ought not to be framed into the girders
opposite to one another, as they are here shown to be as
a matter of convenience, since the girder is unduly weakened
by being mortised on both sides at the same place. Cast-
iron shoes render mortising the one forming a tenon upon
the other almost unnecessary ; and in like manner cast-iron
shoes laid into a wall upon stone tem-plates give a good
and safe bearing to the girders; but it is not everywhere
that cast-iron shoes are attainable, and mortises and tenons
may be made anywhere.
Partitions of timber are called quartering partitions, and
they are generally framed. Common quartering partitions
w’hich rest on a wall or floor, and have nothing to carry, con¬
sist merely of a sill, a head, and common uprights to re¬
ceive the lath for plastering: these last may be simply jog¬
gled or tenoned into the head and sill, in the manner shown
at c, fig. 23, and stiffened by struts or stretching pieces put
between them and nailed. When, however, a quartering
partition is over a vacuity, or rests only on certain points, and
has, moreover, to sustain a weight, a floor perchance, it is
framed and trussed with king or queen posts and trussing
pieces as to the tie beam of a roof; and the filling in of
common uprights or quarters for the laths is generally per¬
formed by joggling them at one end into either head or sill,
and nailing them securely to the trussing pieces. In the
diagram No. 1, fig. 30, it is supposed that an opening or
doorway is to be made in the partition, so that the timbers
of the truss are placed around it with queen-posts, and a
small internal truss is put over the door-head to prevent it
from sagging, and to carry the long part of the partition,
which we supposed required to bear a floor, so that the par¬
tition acts also, in fact, the part of a trussed girder in the
most available form. No. 2 presents another method of
framing a similar partition.
Shoring or propping up walls or floors, or it may be a
whole building, is done by the carpenter. In appearance it
is a simple operation, and under ordinary circumstances it
really is so; but nevertheless it often demands the exercise
of considerable skill and tact to determine and to counteract
the tendency the part or thing to be supported has in one Building,
direction or another.
Pugging floors, firring down joists, and bracketing and
cradling for plastering, and some other things, are opera¬
tions performed indifferently by the carpenter or the joiner,
as less or greater precision is required in the performance.
The labour of carpenter’s work is valued by the square of
one hundred superficial feet whenever it will admit of being
so measured, and the timber is as generally valued by the
cubic foot. It is customary for the carpenter’s work to be
measured at the same time with the walls and roof covering,
or when the carcass of a building is completed, and before
the joiner and plasterer commence their operations ; for then
the work is still exposed, and may be fully and correctly
ascertained, whereas much must be taken on trust if the
measurement be deferred until the works are completely
finished.
Bond timber, wood bricks, and wall and tem-plates, are
taken under the same head, and are reduced to cubic feet
of timber at so much per foot, including the labour of every
kind on it. The naked flooring is taken on the surface from
wall to wall, with a description of the nature of it, whether
it be single, double, or framed—if trimmed to chimneys,
party walls, stairs, or anything else—if notched or cogged
to wall-plates and partition heads—the number and size of
the large timbers, ceiling joists as notched and nailed to
wall-plates, and as framed or notched and nailed to binders
or common joists; and everything indeed that affects the
quantity of labour required in forming it. The superficial
feet are reduced to squares for the labour and nails involved
and used in forming and fixing or setting the floors. The
timbers of which the flooring is composed are then taken in
detail and in cubic quantities, and are said to be without la¬
bour, or with no labour. Roofing is measured in the same
manner, by the superficial square, for labour and nails, taken
on the common rafters from ridge to heel; the length of a
rafter by the length of the roof for one side of a common
span, and repeated or doubled for the other, noting also a
description of the roof, whether it be lean-to or shed roofing,
if on purlines and with struts ; common span-roofing ; curb
roofing; span roofing with purlines and collar beams, strutted
or otherwise, from walls or partitions ; span roofing with
framed principals, tie-beams, king-posts or queen-posts,
straining beam, straining sill, struts, purlines, pole-plates, and
so on or as the case may be, and this too for labour and
nails. All the timbers are then taken, measuring every one
to the extent of any tenon or tenons at its ends, in cubic
quantities also, and as without labour. Bolts, bars, straps,
stirrups, &c. are taken separately, and their dimensions noted
from which to ascertain their weight. Gutter-boards and
bearers are measured and valued by the foot superficial, ac¬
cording to thickness of the former. Rough boarding for
lead on flats, and sound boarding for slates or lead, are taken
superficially, and reduced into squares. Centring to vaults
is measured on the periphery of the arch, or round back of
the centre, for the breadth, by the length, and is valued by
the square; to apertures in the thickness of walls, by the
foot, and to camber-arches, by number, so much a piece.
Quartering partitions are measured by the square for labour
and nails, and the material is taken by the cubic foot.
Battening to walls is also measured by the square, but the
stuff is generally included with the labour, as in boarding.
Cradling and bracketing is valued by the foot superficial,
and with reference to the quantity of stuff required or worked
up. Any planing that may have been necessary, and it will
happen at times on beams, joists, &c. when it is not intended
to have a ceiling under the floor, is charged by the foot on
the surface, and any beading or other moulding by the foot
running.
It sometimes happens that a superficial quantity for labour
and nails on framed timber cannot be obtained ; in that case
750 BUILDING.
Building, the timber is measured by the cubic foot as framed, or with
the labour of framing included with its own cost, &c. In
this case, however, it is necessary to make a distinction be¬
tween one quantity and another, as the labour employed
upon an equal quantity of stuff in framing some parts of a
roof is much greater than is required in most floors. Many
things, such as strong door and window frames, that are to
be worked into the walls, story-posts, brestsummers, &c.
are always taken as framed timber, with any addition that
may occur of wrought, rebated, beaded, &c., as the case
may be.
The price or value to be attached to the varieties of car¬
penter’s work depends almost as much on the degree of
hardness of the timber employed, as on its cost. What the
timber itself should be charged at may be thus determined.
To its price in the gross at the timber merchant’s must be
added the cost of carriage to the spot where it is to be em¬
ployed, which will be so much the load of fifty cubic feet, or
so much per foot; then to the cost of each cubic foot of
timber add the price of four superficial feet of sawing, which
will form a fair average for the variously sized scantlings,
and one-eighth of the increased amount to it as an allowance
for waste in cutting up and working. This gives the actual
cost, to the builder, of the timber as it is worked up ; and if
it is to be charged as with no labour, his profit and remune¬
ration for his own labour of superintending, &c., alone re¬
main to be included. If, however, labour of any kind is to
be charged with the stuff, it should be added first, and the
builder’s profit, &c., taken on both, or on the increased
amount for the price per foot. The cost of labour depends
so much upon such a variety of circumstances, that it is im¬
possible to aid the inquirer materially in apportioning prices
for the various operations. In this, as in other things, it is
well, when the parties are not otherwise qualified to deter¬
mine a scale of charges, to observe the time a man or a cer¬
tain number of men are employed in executing so much
work of a certain description, and compare the quantity by
measurement with the time employed in executing it, or
rather with the wages of the workmen for the time. In
fixing a price for labour in carpenter’s work, the size of the
timbers, and the heights they have to be hoisted, together
with such scaffolding and machinery for hoisting as may be
found necessary, if the timbers be heavy, and the height and
expense great, must be considered. As the timber used in
shoring is not consumed, a charge is made for use and waste
to the amount of one-third of its value if it be much cut up,
and one-fourth if but little, in addition to the labour of set¬
ting up and taking down, whatever that may be.
Joiner.'—The principles of joinery also will be found in an
article under that head in another part of this work ; here we
have merely to do with the modes of operation, and the tools
employed by the workman, together with the manner of esti¬
mating or ascertaining the value of his work.
The distinction between the operations of the carpenter and
the joiner is shown at the beginning of the preceding section
on the trade of the former. A man may be a good carpenter
without being a joiner at all; but he cannot be a joiner with¬
out being competent, at least, to all the operations required
in carpentry. It is, indeed, very truly remarked in the article
Joinery, “that the rough labour of the carpenter renders him
in some degree unfit to produce that accurate and neat work¬
manship which is expected from a modern joiner but it is
no less true that the habit of neatness and the great precision
of the joiner, make him a much slower and less profitable
workman than the practised carpenter, in works of carpentry.
Ihe joiner operates on battens, boards, and planks, with
saws, planes, chisels, gouges, hatchet, adze, gimblets, and other
boring instruments, which are aided and directed by chalked
lines, gauges, squares, hammers, mallets, and a great many
other less important tools : and his operations are principally
sawing and planing in all their extensive varieties, setting
out, mortising, dovetailing, &c. A great range of other opera¬
tions, none of which can be called unimportant, such as paring,
gluing up, wedging, pinning, fixing, fitting, and hanging, and Building,
many things besides which depend on nailing, &c., such as i ^
laying floors, boarding ceilings, wainscotting walls, bracket-
ing, cradling, fiering, and the like. In addition to the wood
on which the joiner works, he requires also glue, nails, brads,
screws, and hinges, and accessorily he applies bolts, locks,
bars, and other fastenings, together with pulleys, lines,
weights, white-lead, hold-fasts, wall-hooks, &c. &c.
Battens are narrow boards running from half an inch to an
inch and a half or two inches thick, and from three to six or
seven inches wide. A piece of stuff of too small a scantling
to be a batten is called a fillet. The term board is applied to
sawed stuff when its width exceeds that of a batten, and its
thickness does not exceed two inches or two inches and a
half. The term plank is applied to large pieces of stuff
whose width is great in proportion to their thickness, and
whose thickness nevertheless does not exceed three or four
inches. In London these terms are used in much more
restricted senses than they are here described to mean, be¬
cause of the fixed and regular sizes and forms in which stuff
for the joiner’s use is for the most part brought to market
there. A batten, to a London joiner, is a fine flooring board
from an inch to an inch and a half in thickness, and just seven
inches wide. A board is a piece cut from the thickness of a
deal whose width is exactly nine inches; and everything,
almost above that width, and not large enough to be called a
scantling of timber, is a plank.
The joiners’ work for a house is for the most part prepared
at the shop, where every convenience may be supposed to exist
for doing everything in the best and readiest manner ; so that
little remains to be done when the carcass is ready, but fit, fix,
and hang, that is, after the floors are laid. The sashes and
frames, the shutters, back flaps, backs, backs and elbows,
soffits, grounds, doors, &c., are all framed and put together,
that is, wedged up and cleaned off, at the shop ; the flooring
boards are prepared, that is, faced, shot, and gauged with a
fillister rebate ; and all the architraves, pilasters, jamb linings,
skirtings, mouldings, &c., are all got out, that is, tried up, re¬
bated, and moulded, at the shop.
When the carcass of a building is ready for the joiner, the
first thing to be done is to cut the bond timber out of the open¬
ings, set the sash frames, and fill them with old sashes or with
oiled paper on frames, to exclude the weather, but admit light.
The flooring joists are then proved with straight-edges, and
any inequalities in them are removed with the adze; the floor¬
ing boards are next cut down to their places, and they are
turned with their faces downwards until the ceilings are done ;
but first the pugging floors, if any are intended, are formed,
and the pugged clay is put in on them. Floors are in ordinary
cases either straight joint or folding, and are edge or face
nailed. Folding floors are those in which three, four, or five
boards are laid at a time, with their heading joints all on the
same joist, and of course in the same straight line. In laying
them, one board being firmly nailed to the joists at the ex¬
tremity of the floor, another is laid parallel to it at the dis¬
tance of the width of three or four others, or rather within
their width, and these are then forced down and nailed, the
forcing having brought all the joints up close. This is a bad
mode, however, and should never been used. Straight joint
flooring is when every board is laid separately, or one at a
time, the heading joint or joints being broken or covered re¬
gularly in every case. Straight joint flooring may be with
square joints, when it is entirely face nailed, or it may be
dowelled or tongued, when it is side or edge nailed only.
Dowelling is the driving pins of wood or iron half their length,
into the edge of the last laid board, the outer edge of which
has been skew-nailed, their other ends running into holes pre¬
pared for them in the inner edge of the next board, in the way
the head of a cask is held together, and then its outer edge is
skew-nailed in the same manner, and so on. Tongueing is
effected by grooving both edges of every board, and fitting
thin slips and tongues into them, as described in the article
Joinery. The boards are forced together by pressure applied
to the outer edge. The nail used in face-nailing floors is called
a flooring brad ; it has no head, but a mere tongue projecting
on one side of the top of the nail, which is put in the direction
of the grain, that it may admit of being punched in below the
surface level, otherwise the superficial inequalities could not
be reduced when the floor was completed, because of the pro-
BUILDING.
Building, jecting heads of the nails. For side or edge nailing, however,
v clasp-nails, nails whose heads extend across on two of the oppo¬
site sides, are used.
Another early operation the joiner has to attend to, is the
fixing of the framed door and window and the narrow skirting
Plate CXI. grounds (see fig. 35) to which the plasterers may float their
work. The skirting grounds are generally dovetailed at the
angles, and are well blocked out, so that they may not vibrate
on being struck, or yield to pressure when the plasterer’s
straight-edge passes roughly over their surface ; they must
also be set with the utmost truth and precision. When the
floors are cut down and the grounds fixed, the joiner’s opera¬
tions in a building should be suspended until the plasterers
have finished, or nearly so, and then the floors may be laid.
By deferring this operation until that period, the workmen of
the two different trades' are prevented from interrupting each
other, and indeed injuring each other's work ; and joiners
always find employment in the shop preparing, as before in¬
timated.
The preparation flooring boards receive, is planing on the
face, shooting on the edges, and gauging to a thickness ; the
common fillister, or stop rebate plane, being used to work
down to the gauge mark, from the back of every board, and
about half an inch in on each edge. When a board is to be
laid, it is turned on its face in the place it is to occupy, and
the workman with his adze cuts away from the back over every
joist down to the gauge rebate, so that on being turned over it
falls exactly into its place, and takes the same level with all
its fellows, which have been brought to the same gauge ; then
follows the process of laying as before described, and the result
must, if the work be done well, be a perfectly even and level
surface. The slight inequalities of surface which may occur
are reduced with a smoothing-plane, the brads being previ¬
ously punched below the surface if the floor be face-nailed.
See the article Joinery, sections 35 and 36.
In getting out skirtings, if the work be of a superior de¬
scription, the boards should be tried up as if for framing in
every particular except bringing to a width, which need not
be done. The face edges, however, must be worked with great
precision, and moulded or rebated as the case may require.
Rebating or tongueing will be necessary when the skirting
consists of more than one piece, that the different pieces may
be made to fit neatly and firmly together; and all but the
lowest piece must of necessity be brought to a width, as well
as tried up in other particulars. A skirting in a single width
is called by that term ; but when it is made up of more than
one part it is designated a base : the lowest board is then
called the skirting board, and the upper the base moulding or
mouldings. (Figs. 31 and 35.) The reason why the skirting
board is not brought to a width is, that the labour would be
lost according to the ordinary mode of fixing it. The board
is applied to its place with its lower edge touching the floor ;
but as the most perfectly wrought floors are found to have
some slight unevenness of surface so close to the wall, a
straight edge would not fit closely down to it in every part.
The board is therefore propped up at one end or the other
until the upper or faced edge is perfectly parallel with the
average line of the floor, or rather to be perfectly level. A
pair of strong compasses, such as those used by the carpenter,
is taken, and opened to the greatest distance the lower edge of
the skirting board is from the floor throughout its length ; the
outer edge, near the point of one leg of the compasses, is then
drawn along the floor, whilst the point of the other, being kept
vertically above it, is pressed against the face of the board, on
which it marks a line exactly parallel to the surface of the
floor, indicating, of course, every, even the slightest irregula¬
rity there may be in it. If the floor be not a very uneven
one, the excluded part may be ripped off with the hand or the
panel saw, which may generally be made to follow the traced
or inscribed line exactly; if, however, the line be a very irre¬
gular one, having quick turns in it, the hatchet must be used.
This operation is called scribing, and the result of it is evi¬
dently to make the skirting fit down on the floor with the
utmost precision. Care must be taken, in performing the
operation, that the upper edges of the skirtings be not only
level, but that all which are in immediate connection be scribed
to the same height, that their upper edges may exactly corre¬
spond. Sometimes skirtings are let into a groove in the floor,
as indicated in the diagram, fig. 35, and thus a slight degree
751
of shrinking is made of less importance, and scribing rendered Building,
unnecessary. Before skirtings are fixed, vertical blocks are ^
put at short intervals, extending from the floor to the narrow
grounds, and made exactly flush with and true to the latter,
and are firmly nailed. These form a sound backing, to which
the skirtings may be bradded or nailed ; and so prevent them
from warping or bending in any manner. If, however, the
skirting be not very wide, and be sufficiently stout to stand
without a backing, a fillet only is nailed along the floor
as a stop for its lower edge ; but this is rendered unneces¬
sary if the skirting be tongued into the floor, as the tongue
will answer every purpose of a stop. The ends of skirt¬
ings should be tongued into each other when it is necessary
to piece them in length; and on returns or angles the end
of one should be tongued into the returned face of the other
in the square parts,and mitred in the oblique-angled or moulded
parts.
When a chair-rail or surbase is required, grounds similar to
those for the base are fixed to range like them with the face of
the plastering ; the surbase itself must be wide enough to
cover the grounds and the joints formed by them and the
plastering, completely ; it is in effect a cornice to the stereo-
bate and the space intervening it and the base is generally
understood to be wainscotted, though it is more frequently
plastered.
In framing or framed work, the outer vertical bars which
are mortised are called styles; and the transverse, those on
whose ends the tenons are formed, are called rails. (Fig. 32.)
In doors, particularly, the open spaces or squares formed in¬
ternally by the rails and styles are divided in the width by
bars parallel to the styles. These are tenoned into the rails,
and are called mountings, or, vulgarly, muntins. The frame
being formed by trying up, setting up, mortising, and tenon¬
ing, the inner or face edges of the styles, and of the highest
and lowest rails, and both edges of the muntins and of the in¬
ner rails, are grooved with the plough to receive the edges and
ends of the filling-in parts, or panels of the frame-work. Panels
are either flat, raised, or flush. (Fig. 33.) Flat panels are no
thicker than the grooves into which they are fitted, and conse¬
quently their faces are as much below the surface of the framing
as the groove is in from each side of the styles and rails. Raised
panels are thicker than the groove in the framing, but are not so
thick as to reach the surface; nor is the panel thickened through
its whole extent. It fits exactly into the groove, and thick¬
ens gradually for an inch or two, and then sets off at a right
angle with the surface, increasing suddenly three or four six¬
teenths of an inch. A panel may be raised on one side only,
or on both sides. Flush panels are rebated down from one
face to the distance the plough groove is in from the surface of
the framing ; and the back of a panel thus rebated on one side
is worked down to be even with the other edge of the groove,
leaving a tongue to fit it exactly ; for if it be required to
make panels flush on both sides, it is generally effected by
filling in on the back or flattened side with an extraneous
piece. Framing is not, however, often finished in the man¬
ner above described, especially with raised and flush panels ;
mouldings are generally introduced, and are either struck or
worked in the solid substance of the framing, or in separate
pieces or slips, and laid in with brads. If a moulding be struck
or laid in on one side only, and the other is left plain, the fram¬
ing is described as moulded and square, a flat panel being in
that case understood; if the panel be raised the framing will
be described as moulded with a raised panel on one side, and
square or flush on the other. It may be moulded with a flat
panel, or moulded with a raised panel, on both sides; and the
moulding may, as before intimated, be either struck in the so¬
lid, or laid in any of the preceding cases. Mouldings which
are laid in round the panels of framing are neatly mitred at
the angles, and bradded, to appear as much as possible as if
they were struck in the solid. In nailing or bradding the
mouldings, the brads should be driven into the frame-work, and
not into the panels. With a flush panel, however, the
moulding is always either a bead, or a series of beads called
reeds ; and is, in the case of a single bead, which is most com¬
mon, always struck on the solid frame, and the work is called
bead-flush ; but reeds are generally struck on the panel
in the direction of the grain, and laid in on the panel across
it, or along the ends ; this is termed reed-flush. Flush
panels in inferior works have a single bead struck on their
752 B U I L
Building, sides in the direction of the grain alone, the ends abutting
plainly, as in the first diagram of a flush panel, and this is
termed bead-butt, the fact that the panels are flush being in¬
ferred. The plainest quality of framing, in which it is square
on both sides, is used in the fittings of inferior bed-rooms,
inner closets, and the plainer domestic offices, but always in¬
ternally ; framing moulded on one or both sides, in rooms and
places of a greater degree of importance, and in places where
the work may be more generally seen ; in some cases a flat
panel may be enriched by a small moulding laid on its surface,
leaving a margin between it and the larger moulding at its ex¬
tremities ; this may be done in drawing-rooms and apartments
of that class, especially if they be in an upper story; and
raised panels should be confined to the framed fittings of
dining-rooms and other apartments on a ground or principal
story. Framing with flush panels is almost restricted to ex¬
ternal doors, &c., one side of a door being bead-flush, and the
other flat and moulded, perhaps, or the face may be moulded
with a raised panel, and the back-bead flush ; and this for
principal entrances. Bead-butt framing is found in external
doors to offices, &c. Doors are made four-panelled for the
most part when the panels are flat and the framing square,
six-panelled when the latter is moulded, and six, eight, or even
ten panelled when the framing is of the superior descriptions.
Doors which are hung in two equal widths to occupy the door¬
way, and are hung to the opposite side posts or jambs of the
frame, are said to be double-margined ; that is, the styles or
margins are repeated necessarily in the middle where they
meet. Doorways are fitted with jamb linings, and architraves
or pilasters. Jamb linings may be framed to correspond with
the door on the outer faces; and when they exceed nine or
ten inches in width they should always be so, or they may be
solid. Narrow and plain jamb linings to inferior rooms are
rebated on one side only, and the rebate forms the frame into
which the door is fitted. To superior work they are rebated
on both sides, as if it were intended to put a door on each side.
The jambs are fixed to the inner edges of the grounds ; and if
they are wide, and not framed, backings are put across to
stiffen them ; and these backings are dovetailed into the edges
of the grounds. Architraves and pilasters are variously sunk
and moulded, according to the fancy of the designer. They
are fixed to the grounds with their internal edges exactly fit¬
ting to the rebates in the jambs, and they form the enriched
margin or moulding of the frame in which the door is set.
Architraves are mitred at the upper angle, but pilasters have
generally a console or an enriched block or cap resting on
them, to which they fit with a square joint ; both the one and
the other either run down and are scribed to the floor, or rest
on squared blocks or bases, which may be the height of the
skirting board, or of the whole base.
The parts of the outside frame of a sash are distinguished by
the terms applied to the similar parts of common framing.
The upright sides are styles, and the transverse or horizontal
ones, which are tenoned into the ends of the styles, are rails ;
but the inner frame-work or divisions for the panes are called
merely upright and cross bars ; the upright being the mortised,
and the cross bars the tenoned, nevertheless, as with the outer
frame work. (Fig. 31.) Sashes are got out like common
framing; the parts are tried up, set out, mortised and tenoned,
exactly in the same manner, allowance being made in the
length of the rails and all tenoned pieces, in the setting out,
as in common framing also, for the portions of the mortised
styles and upright bars, which are worked away in forming
the moulding and rebate. The meeting rails of sashes which
are in pairs, to be hung with lines, are made thicker than the
other parts by the thickness of the parting bead, and they are
bevelled or splayed off, the one from above and the other from
below, that they may meet and fit closely. When the frame¬
work is completed, although it cannot be put together because
of what has just been referred to, the rebate is formed by the
sash fillister on the further part of the face edge, and the
moulding struck on its hither angle. These things being done,
the moulded edges are either mitred or scribed at the shoulders
and haunches, and the sash may be put together. If sash bars
are mitred at the joints, they require dowels in the cross bars
to act as tenons ; but if they can be scribed, dowelling is not
necessary. Sashes are either hung upon hinges or hung with
lines, pulleys, and weights. Fixed sashes are put into frames,
of which every part may be solid but the stop, which must be
DING.
put in behind the sash to detain it. Sashes hung with hinges Building
require solid rebated frames ; but there can be no stops to them v .
except their own moveable fastenings, and the outer stop,
which of course the rebate furnishes. Sashes hung with lines
require cased frames to receive the pulleys and weights. The
sill of the frame is made, as in the former cases, solid, is sunk
and weathered, and is generally made of a more durable ma¬
terial than the rest of the frame ; the sides in the direction of
the thickness of the frame are of one and a quarter or one and
a half inch board, very truly tried up, and grooved to receive
a parting bead ; for it must be obvious that sashes hung with
lines to run Vertically up and down within the height of the
frame must be themselves in two heights, and must pass each
other in two separate and distinct channels. The ends of these
boards are fixed into the upper face of the solid sill below,
and into a similar board parallel to the sill which forms a head
above ; and they are called pulley pieces, or styles, because
they receive the pulleys, which are let into them near their
upper ends. Linings from four to six inches in width, and
from three-fourths of an inch to an inch in thickness, are nailed
on to the edges of the pulley pieces, and to the sill and head
above and below, inside and outside in the direction of the
breadth of the sash frame, and are returned along the head in
the direction of its length. The outside linings are made to
extend within the pulley pieces about half an inch, to form a
stop for the upper and outer sash ; and the inside linings are
made exactly flush with their inner faces. The casing is com¬
pleted by fixing thin linings on to the outer edges of the out¬
side and inside linings, parallel to the pulley pieces, to prevent
any thing from impeding the weights. Thin slips called part¬
ing beads are fitted tightly into the grooves previously noticed
in the pulley pieces, but they are not fixed, as the upper sash
can be put in or taken out only by the temporary removal of
the parting bead. An inner or stop bead is mitred round on
the inside to complete the groove or channel for the lower
sash; the stop bead covers the edge of the inside linings on
the sides and head, and is fixed by means of screws, which may
be removed without violence when it is required to put in or
take out the sashes. A hole covered with a moveable piece,
large enough to allow the lead or iron weight to pass in and
out, is made in each of the pulley pieces, so that the sashes
may be hung after the frames are set, and to repair any acci¬
dent that may occur to the hangings in after-use. (Fig. 34.)
It may be here remarked, that sash-frames require greater
truth and precision from the workman than anything else in
the joiners’ work of a building ; and unless the stuff employed
be quite sound and perfectly seasoned, all the workman’s care
in operating will be thrown away. The fittings of a window
which has boxed shutters consist of back linings, grounds, back,
elbows and soffit, together with shutters and back flaps, and
architraves or pilasters round on the inside to form a moulded
frame. (Figs. 31 and 34.) Back linings are generally framed
with flush panels ; they fit in between the inside lining of the
sash frame and the framed ground, to both of which they are
attached, and form the back of the boxing into which the
shutters fall back. They are tongued into the inside lining by
their inner edge, and on their outer edge the ground is nailed,
and they are set at right angles to the sash-frame, or obtusely
outwards, as the shutters may be splayed or not. The back is
the continuation of the window fittings from the sash-sill to
the floor on the inside ; the elbows are its returns on either
side under the shutters, and the soffit is the piece of framing
which extends from one side of the window to the other, across
the head, or from back lining to back lining. These are all
framed to correspond with the shutters on the face ; but, as
they are fixed, their backs are left unwrought. Window
shutters are framed in correspondence with the door and other
framed work of the room to which they belong, in front, and
generally with a flush panel behind : the back flaps are in one
or two separate breadths to each shutter, according to the
width of the window and the depth of the recess; they are
made lighter than the shutters themselves; and they should,
when shut to, present faces exactly corresponding with those
of the shutters, both internally and externally. The shutters
are hung to the sash-frame with butt hinges, and the back flaps
are hung to their outer styles with a hinge called a back-flap,
from its use. The shutters and their back flaps are hung in
one, two, or more heights, as may be found convenient. The
moulded margin round the boxings of a window on the inner
BUILDING. 753
Building, face are made to harmonize generally with the similar parts of
v  ^ the doors of the room or place to which it belongs. The fixing
"" v an(i hanging of window fittings or dressings are hardly less
important, for the accuracy required, than the making and
fixing of the sash-frame itself; the slightest infirmity or inac¬
curacy in any part will be likely to derange some essential
operation. Sashes, it may be remarked, are never fitted until
the frames are immoveably fixed, so that if there be any inac¬
curacy in the latter, the sashes are cut away or pieced out to
make them fit; but, as they are intended to traverse, the
fitting in that case can only apply to one particular position,
and in every one but that there must be something wrong.
Any incorrectness in the sash-frame, again, must throw the
shutters and their back flaps out; indeed the sash-frame,
though apparently a secondary part of the arrangement, is
that which affects all the rest beyond anything else. When
sashes have been fitted, a plough groove, wide and deep enough
to receive the sash-line, is made in the outer edges of the styles,
for about two-thirds of their length, at their upper ends. They
are then primed and glazed, and when the putty is sufficiently
set the joiner hangs them. He is furnished with sash-line,
\acks, and iron or lead weights, which are generally made cy¬
lindrical, with a ring at one end, to which the line may be at¬
tached. A sash is weighed, and two weights are selected
which together amount to within a few ounces of a counter¬
poise. The line is then passed through the pulley, which was
previously fixed in the pulley style ; the end is knotted to a
weight which is passed in at the hole left for the purpose, and
at a sufficient distance, which a common degree of intelligence
will readily determine ; the line is cut off and the end tacked
into the groove in the style of the sash.
Glue is used principally in putting framed work together,
but not at all in fixing ; and even for the former purpose it is
much less used by good workmen than by bungling hands.
When the stuff is well seasoned, and the trying up, setting
out, mortising, and tenoning, are well and accurately executed,
there is no necessity for glue on the tenons and shoulders ; the
wedges alone need be glued, to attach them to tfte sides of the
tenons, that their effect may not depend on mere compression.
Joiners are generally furnished with a cramp, with which to
force the joints of framing into close contact; it is either of
wood acting by means of wedges, or of iron with a screw. This,
too, is unnecessary with good work, every joint of which may
be brought perfectly close without great violence of any kind.
The cramp will sometimes give bad work the semblance of good,
but it cannot make it really so. If any cracking and starting
be heard in the joiner’s work of a new building, it generally
indicates one of two things; either the cramp has been re¬
quired in putting the framing together, or, having been put
together, it has been forced out of winding in fixing, and the
constrained fibres are seeking to regain their natural position.
A good workman does not require a cramp, nor will his work,
if he has been supplied with seasoned stuff, ever require to
be strained ; and consequently the cracking and starting of
joiner’s work indicates unfit stuff or bad work, or perhaps both.
It is true that glued joints will sometimes fly ; but when they
do, there need be no hesitation in determining the presence of
both bad work, and stuff in an improper state.
Floors are measured and valued by the square of a hundred
superficial feet; but anything beyond the mere flooring, such
as the mitred borders generally put as a margin to the stone
slab of a fire-place, is taken extra by the foot superficial, or
running, as the additional work may be above or below three
inches in width. The first important thing to note in mea¬
suring a floor is the thickness of the boards, by which to de¬
termine the cost of the principal material. A floor of boards
unplaned on the face, and shot on the edges, laid folding, is
the roughest that can be supposed ; with the boards wrought
or planed on the face, and laid in the same manner, will be
the next in advance ; and straight-joint flooring, in all its va¬
rieties, is the most troublesome, and consequently the most
expensive in common and general use. \V hether the boards
be wide or narrow is a consideration to be noted, an equal sur¬
face being of course more rapidly covered with wide than with
narrow boards ; whether they be gauged, and if brought to a
thickness throughout, or only rebate gauged, and cut down, on
the joints with the adze; in what manner.the heading joints
are formed and secured ; how the longitudinal joints are exe¬
cuted, whether square, ploughed and tongued, or dowelled;
VOL. V.
and whether the boards are face or edge nailed. Solid frames, Building,
as for outside doors, &c., are measured and valued by the cubic '
foot, labour being calculated upon the stuff according to the
nature and extent of what may have been applied to it.
With trifling and unimportant exceptions, everything else
in joiners’ work that exceeds three inches in width is taken by
the superficial foot; and the dimensions are taken on the
finished and fixed work, so that allowances must be made for
whatever waste may have been of necessity made. The stuff
wmrked up by the joiner is always supposed to have been in
planks and boards a certain number of quarters of an inch in
thickness, so that whatever the finished work may stand, it is
taken as of the thickness which in quarters of an inch it is
next below; thus, if the styles of a door stand at even less
than an inch and seven-eighths, it is taken as a two-inch door ;
for a piece of framing is always considered to be of the thick¬
ness of its outer frame-work, the description determining the
substance of the panels. Framed grounds are measured round
on the outside for the length; their width is not that of the
frame, but of the styles and head as they actually are; and
their thickness that of the stuff before it was planed at all.
Narrow grounds are taken by the foot running, their width
being noted in the description of them. Jamb linings are mea¬
sured to the full length they may be of by their width, the
thickness being noted, together with a description of the work
on them,—if they are single or double rebated, if framed, and
in what manner, &c.
The dimensions of a door are generally taken within the
rebates in which it is to hang, with its thickness and descrip¬
tion noted,—as of four, six, or eight panels, moulded on one
or both sides, with flat or raised panels, &c. ; if it be double-
margined, that is stated, and the amount of the lap or rebate
in their meeting styles is added to the width, to increase the
superficies by so much. The hinges with which a door is
hung, and the lock or other fastenings which may be on it, are
taken, with a description of their sizes and qualities, imme¬
diately after the door itself. If sashes are in a solid frame
they are taken alone, but sashes in cased frames are measured
in and wdth the frames. To the clear height between the sill
and the head, three inches are added for the thickness of the
sill, and four inches for the depth of the case at the head, for
the height; and to the width between the pulley-styles is added
eight, nine, or ten inches, as the case may be, for the breadth
of the casing on each side, for the width; these give the super¬
ficies of the sashes and frame. The sashes and frame are de¬
scribed, with the thickness of the former, which determines
that of the latter; the sill is described as sunk or merely
weathered; the pulley-styles as of such a thickness; the pul¬
leys, line, and stuff employed in the different parts of the
frame, as of such and such qualities and sorts; and whether the
sashes be single or double hung, with what fastenings, &c.
The boxings for the shutters are taken in a superficial quan¬
tity, as square or splayed, if circular on plan, whether with a
flat or quick sweep, or if circular-headed, and straight on plan.
The back linings, the backs, elbows, and soffits, the shutters
and the back flaps, are all measured by the superficial foot,
according to their thicknesses and descriptions, the hinges and
fastenings of the shutters and back flaps being numbered and
noted independently of them. The capping to backs is taken
by the running foot; and elbow cappings are numbered.
Moulded architraves are taken superficially, the length by their
girt, or by the run at such a girt. Skirtings are measured su¬
perficially at such a thickness, as scribed or tongued, as square
or moulded, or rebated for base moulding, as the case may be.
Base and surbase, and indeed all other moulding which girds
at four inches and above, should be taken superficially; and
mouldings which are of less girt may be taken by the run if
they be taken independently of the other work, or that to
which they belong, at all. A moulding projecting from the
face of the work to which it belongs may be assumed as inde¬
pendent of it; whereas a receding one, if it be small, will
merely add the character of moulded to the work, and if large
will qualify all in immediate connection with it to be taken as
a superficial quantity of moulding. All circular work, or work
which diverges from a straight line, is noted and charged pro¬
portionally to the additional labour and waste of stuff involved;
the shorter the radius of the arc, or quicker the sweep, the
higher must be the proportioned charge. Things which have
been bent to their fleeted form are less costly hi proportion than
5 c
754 BUILDING.
Building, tliosc wliicli must have been worked m tlie solid or glued up in
thicknesses.
Stairs are measured by tbe superficial foot, the length of one
step being taken by the breadth of a step and riser, increased
by once the thickness of the former for a quantity, and this
multiplied by the number of steps there may be of the same
kind; that is, when the steps are flyers ; for in winding steps
the treads and risers are taken in separate dimensions, for
greater accuracy. The thicknesses of the steps and risers are
noted, as well as the mode in which they are worked; they
have either rounded or moulded nosings, are housed into the
string, or have returned nosings, the riser being mitred to the
string or to cut brackets on the ends of the steps. Curtail ends
to steps are numbered. The frame-work or bearers on which
the stairs rest is included with the stairs themselves. String-
boards are taken according to their thickness and the quantity
of work on them; the grooves or housings in them are num¬
bered. The capping on a close string is taken by the run ; but
when the nosings of the steps are returned, the strings are said
to be cut; and if there are any cut and mitred blocks, they
are numbered. Stair skirting is taken as raking and scribed,
and as straight, circular, ramped, or wreathed, by the foot su¬
perficial; wooden balusters are taken by the run, and the
mortises or dovetails in which they are set are numbered;
newels are taken by the run for the stutf and the fixing, and
the turnings on them are numbered. Hand-rails are said to be
merely rounded, or moulded; they are measured by the run¬
ning foot; and a distinction is kept up between the straight,
the circular, the ramps, the wreaths, and the scroll; nuts and
screws in their joints are numbered.
All sorts of framing, whether it be fixed or hung—all linings
above three inches in width—'all sorts of lodged work, such as
plain doors and shutters, partitions in lofts and stables, bracket¬
ing, cradling, &c.—must be measured superficially. All nar¬
row linings, very narrow skirtings, statf beads, fillets, water
trunks and spouts, legs, rails, and runners to dressers, groov¬
ings, flutings, reedings, cappings, &c., and any work on super¬
ficial quantities that does not pervade the whole, but is in itself
peculiar, should be taken lineally, or by the running foot.
Insulated parts, such as short, interrupted grooves, blocks,
pateras, brackets, trusses, cantilevers, holes, mortises for arti¬
cles taken lineally, mitres to cornices, heads and feet to flutes
and reeds, &c., are numbered and charged at so much a piece.
Ironmongery goods employed by the joiner are numbered under
their different heads, and charged as fixed; that is, to the price
of a lock is added a charge for the labour employed in fitting
and fixing it, and whatever accessories it may have required
which are not included in its own cost, such as screws, &c., to
a rim or dead lock. To the price of hinges, however, only the
cost of screws should be added, as the fixing of them is usually
included in hanging the work to which they are attached.
The cost at which joiners’ work can be executed can only be
determined by calculation and observation. The cost of the
materials employed may be readily determined by dissecting a
piece of work and reckoning its contents; but the labour de¬
pends on so many contingencies, that very accurate observa¬
tion indeed is necessary to determine the quantity that may
have been required to produce a certain result. In carpenters’
work, the material forms the principal part of the charge; but
in joiners’ work the materials are for the most part of far less
importance than the labour which has been expended on them.
The stuff' employed in a sash must be costly indeed to amount
to as much as the labour of making the sash; whereas, in most
doors, under ordinary circumstances, the materials may cost as
much as the labour.
Sawyer.—The labour of the sawyer is applied to the division
of large pieces of timber or logs into forms and sizes to suit the
purposes of the carpenter and joiner. His working place is
called a saw-pit, and his almost only important tool a pit-saw.
A cross-cut saw, axes, dogs, files, compasses, lines, lamp-black,
black-lead, chalk, and a rule, are all accessories which may be
considered necessary to him.
Unlike most other artificers, the sawyer can do absolutely
nothing alone : sawyers are therefore always in pairs ; one of
the two stands on the work, and the other in the pit under it.
The log or baulk of timber being carefully and firmly fixed on
the pit, and lined for the cuts which are to be made in it, the
top-man standing on it, and the pit-man below or off1 from its
end, a cut is commenced, the former holding the saw with his
two hands by the handle above, and the other in the same man- Building,
ner by the box handle below. The attention of the top-man
is directed to keeping the saw in the direction of and out of
winding with the line to be cut upon, and that of the pit-man
to cut down in a truly vertical line. The saw being correctly
entered, very little more is required than steadiness of hand
and eye in keeping it correctly on throughout the whole length.
It is the custom to project so much of the log over the first
transverse bearer as can be done without rendering it liable to
vibrate or be insecure ; and when all the cuts proposed are ad¬
vanced up to that bearer, the end is slightly raised to allow the
bearer to be passed out beyond the termination of the advanced
cuts. The advantage of, or rather the necessity for, the mo veable
handle at the lower end of the saw is now evident, the top-man
removing the saw readily from cut to cut from above, his mate
having merely to strike the wedge in the box one way or the
other, to fix or loosen it.
It is absolutely necessary that the top-man should stand in
such a manner on the log or piece operated on, that a line down
the centre of his body should fall exactly upon the line of the
cut he is to work on, and be as exactly perpendicular to it
and to the plane of the horizon. He must, therefore, when the
cut is near the outer edge, be provided with a board or plank,
one end of which may rest on something firm at a short distance
from the log, and the other on or against it, to put the outer
foot on, and so keep himself in such a position that he may al¬
ways, and without constraint, see his saw out of winding, and
so that a spectator standing on the fore-end of the pit may see
the saw an imaginary line passing down the centre of the work¬
man’s body, and the line of the cut in exactly the same vertical
plane. The labour of the top-sawyer should consist solely in
lifting the saw up by the handle as high as his arms can carry
it, and that of the pit-man in drawing it down with a slight
pressure or tendency onward, sufficient to make it bite into the
timber as much as his strength will enable him to make it cut
away. The only assistance the pit-man should give in lifting
the saw, is in holding it back that the teeth may not drag against
the cut in thd ascent; and all the top-man should do in cutting
downward is to keep the teeth steadily and firmly in contact
with the part to be eroded. Good workmen may work with a
narrower or closer set to their saw than bad ones can, though
the wider or more open set saw is more liable to make bad
work. It works more slowly and consumes more stuff than the
close set; but it is not so likely to hang in the cut with unneces¬
sary pushing up of the pit-man and jerking down of the other,
as if it were set more closely. A good top-man, nevertheless,
is of much more importance, though he be badly mated, than the
converse. Indeed the best possible pit-man could not work satis¬
factorily with a bad top-man, and therefore the latter is always
considered the superior workman, and on him devolves the care
of sharpening and setting the saw, &c. In the operations of
the carpenter and joiner much depends on the manner in which
the sawyers have performed their part. The best work on the
part of the carpenter cannot retrieve the radical defects in his
materials from bad sawing; and although the joiner need not
allow his work to suffer,bad sawing causeshim great loss of stuff
and immense additional and otherwise unnecessary labour.
Planks or boards, and scantlings, on coming from the saw-pit,
should be as straight and true in every particular, except mere
smoothness of surface, as if they had been tried upon the
joiner’s bench; and good workmen actually produce them so.
Saw-mills, too, by the truth and beauty with which they ope¬
rate, show the sawyer what may be effected ; for though he can
hardly hope to equal their effect, he may seek to approach it.
Sawyers’ work is valued at so much the hundred superficial
feet; the sawing on a board or squared scantling being once its
length, by a side and an edge, or half the amount of its four
sides. In squared timber, however, it is generally valued at
so much per load of fifty cubic feet, four cuts to the load, any
cuts exceeding that number being paid for at so much per
hundred feet; in this case the length of the cut by its depth
gives the superficial quantity of sawing in it. Pieces again of
determined and equal length and breadth, such as the deals and
planks commonly used for joiners’ work in this country, ad¬
mitting of a regulated scale, the sawing that may be required
in them is valued at so much the dozen cuts.
Modeller.—The modeller copies, in a solid material, the
drawings of designs which may have been prepared for enrich¬
ments, in whatever material they are to be cast, whether in
Building.
B U I L
plaster, in metals, or in compostition of any lind, for tlie
plasterer, smith, or decorator. The model is made in a finely
tempered and plastic clay, or in wax ; and the modeller works
with his fingers, assisted by a few ivory or bone tools for finish¬
ing otf neatly and sharply, and for working in parts which he
cannot reach with his fingers. He is generally the best work¬
man who can do most towards producing the required forms
with his fingers unassisted by artificial tools, as a greater de¬
gree of ease and freedom almost always results from the use
of the hands alone. The model being completed, it is moulded,
that is, moulds are made fitting it exactly in every part, and
fitting exactly to each other at the edges, and in these, casts
are made to any extent that may be required.
The modeller having some pretensions to be considered an
artist rather than a mere artificer, is for the most part paid
according to his merits as such, rather than for so much time,
according to the ordinary mode of determining the value of
artificers’ works.
Carver and Gilder.—The carver is strictly an independent
artist, whose business it is to cut ornaments and enrichments
in solid and durable material, such as wood and stone, so that,
like the modeller, he must be paid according to the taste and
power he may exhibit in his works, rather than as a common
artificer. Carving has, however, been in a great measure su¬
perseded by modelling and casting, so that the carver is hardly
known in economic building except in connection with the
gilder. Gilding may indeed be applied to castings as well as
to carvings ; but the former being, almost as a matter of course,
less sharp and spirited in their flexures and details, as well as
less firm in substance than the latter, castings can less bear to
be further subdued by the application of foreign matters to
their surfaces than carvings may.
Gilding is the application of gold leaf to surfaces, which re¬
quire, however, to be previously prepared for its reception.
The work is first primed with a solution of boiled linseed oil
and carbonate of lead, and then covered with a fine glutinous
composition called gold size, on which, when it is nearly dry,
the gold leaf is laid in narrow slips with a fine brush, and
pressed down with a piece of cotton wool held in the fingers.
As the slips must be made to overlap each other slightly, to in¬
sure the complete covering of the whole surface, the loose edges
will remain unattached ; these are readily struck off with a large
sable or camel-hair brush, fitted for the purpose; and the joints,
if the work be dexterously executed, will be invisible. This
is called oil gilding, and it is by far the best fitted for the en¬
richment of surfaces in architecture, because it is durable, and
is easily cleaned, and does not destroy or derange the forms un¬
der it so much as burnished gilding does. This latter requires
the work to be covered with various laminas of gluten, plaster,
and bole, which last is mixed with gold size, to procure the ad¬
hesion of the leaf. The most durable mode of gilding metals
in common use is by amalgamation.
The surfaces generally operated on by the gilder are so di¬
verse, that the real value of his work can be determined satis¬
factorily only by taking his time and the materials employed
and consumed in executing a piece of work.
Plumber.'—Lead, as the name imports, is the material in and
with which the plumber operates. The previous preparation,
casting and milling of lead into sheets, pipes, &c., and the com¬
position and uses of solder, will be found described under the
head Plumbery.
The principal operations of the plumber are directed to the
covering of roofs and flats, laying gutters, covering hips, ridges,
and valleys, fixing water trunks, making cisterns and reser¬
voirs, and laying on the requisite pipes and cocks to them, fix¬
ing water-closet apparatus, setting up pumps, and applying
indeed all the hydraulic machinery required in economic build¬
ing. His tools are knives, chisels, and gouges for cutting and
trimming, rasps or files and planes for fitting and jointing, a
dressing and flatting tool for the purposes its name expresses,
iron hammers and wooden mallets for driving and fixing, ladles
in which to melt solder, grozing irons to assist in soldering, a
hand-grate or stove which may be conveniently moved from
place to place, for melting solder and heating the grozing irons,
a stock and bits for boring holes, and a rule, compasses, lines
and chalk for setting out and marking, together with weighing
apparatus, as the quantities of most of the materials used by
the plumber must be either proved or determined by weight.
A plumber is always attended by a labourer, who does the more
DING. 755
laborious work of carrying the materials from place to place) Building,
helps to move them when they are under operation, melts the
solder and heats the grozing irons, attends to hold the one or
the other, as neither may be set down or put out of hand when
in use, and assists in some of the minor and coarser operations.
In boarding roofs, flats, and gutters for lead, clasp-nails or
flooring brads should be used; and the first care of the plum¬
ber should be to punch them all in from an eighth to a quarter
of an inch below the surface, and stop the holes carefully and
completely with putty, or a chemical process will ensue on the
slightest access of moisture if the iron heads of the nails come
in contact with the lead, and the latter will, in the course of no
long period, be completely perforated over every one of them.
Neither should lead in surfaces of any extent be soldered, or in
any manner fastened at the edges, without being turned up so
as to make sufficient allowance for the expansion and contrac¬
tion which it is constantly undergoing during the various
changes in the temperature of the atmosphere. It may be taken,
indeed, as a general rule, that solder should be dispensed with
as much as possible. Like glue to the joiner, it is indispensable
in many cases ; but like glue also, it is in common practice made
to covermanydefects,andmuchbadwork,that oughtnot to exist.
Sheet lead, whether cast or milled, is supplied of various
weight or thickness ; and it is always described as of such a
weight in pounds to the superficial foot. This varies from four
to ten or twelve, so that the weight to the foot being ascertained,
the whole weight of any quantity of the same thickness may be
determined by admeasurement. There are very few purposes,
indeed, in building, in which lead of less than six pounds to
the foot should be used, and very few in which the weight need
to exceed ten. For roofs, flats, and gutters, under ordinary
circumstances, eight pounds lead is a very fair and sufficient
average ; for hips and ridges, lead of six pounds to the foot is
thick enough; and for flashings five-pound lead need not be
objected to. Cast lead has been preferred for the former pur¬
poses, because its surface is harder, but milled lead is of more
even thickness throughout, it bends without cracking, which is
not always the case with cast lead, and it makes neater work.
Sheets of cast lead run from sixteen to eighteen feet long and
six feet wide ; milled sheets are made of about the same width,
and six or eight feet longer than cast sheets. Neither the one
nor the other may be safely used on flats, or in gutters exposed
to the wide range of temperature of our climate, in pieces of
more than half the length and half the breadth of a sheet; that
is to say, from eight to twelve feet long, and three feet wide,
are the limits within which sheet lead will expand and contract
without puckering and cracking, and to allow it to move freely
it is laid with rolls and drips in such a manner that any extent of
surface may be covered with the effect of continuity, though the
pieces of lead forming the covering be of such small sizes as above
stated. But all fixing, whether by soldering, or otherwise, is
to be carefully avoided. A roll is a piece of wood made about
two inches thick and two and a half inches wide, rounded on
one edge, and fixed with that edge uppermost, so as to come
four inches within half the width of a sheet, that the edges may
be turned up and folded round and over it, being lapped by,
or lapping the similar edge of the adjoining sheet (fig. 37).
Lead sufficiently stout, dressed neatly and closely down to the
boards under it, and over the rolls at its edges, will require no
fastening of any kind, unless it be so light as to be moveable
by the wind. Bolls occur for the most part in roofs and flats,
and drips principally in gutters. The drip is formed in the
first instance by the carpenter in laying the gutter boards am
cording to an arrangement with the plumber. It is a differ¬
ence made in the height of the gutter of two or three inches,
where one sheet terminates in length, and meets another in
continuation. The end of the lower is turned up against the
drip, and that of the upper is dressed down over it, so as effec¬
tually to prevent the water from driving up under it. Gutters
should have a current of at least an eighth of an inch to the foot,
and in flats it should be rather more ; ends and sides which
are against a wall should turn up against it from five to seven
inches, according to circumstances; and the turning up under
the slates, tiles, or other roof covering, to a gutter, should be
to the level of that against the wall at the least. The turn¬
ing up against the wall should be covered by a flashing. This
is a piece of lead let into one of the joints of the wall above
the edge of the gutter lead, and dressed neatly down over, to
prevent water from getting in behind it, (Fig. 36.) Lead on
756 BUILDING.
Building, ridges and hips not being in sufficient masses to be secured by
its own weight, must be held down by nails.
In making cisterns and reservoirs, unless they be cast, the sheets
of lead must of necessity be joined by soldering ; but the water
they are intended to contain protects the lead from the fre¬
quent and sudden changes to which in other and more exposed
situations it is exposed.
Water trunks and pipes are made of a certain number of
pounds weight to the yard in length, to every variety of bore
or calibre that can be required. Water trunks or pipes are
fitted with large case heads above, to receive the water from
the gutter spouts, and with shoes to deliver the water below ;
they are fixed or attached to the walls of buildings with flanges
of lead, which are secured by means of spike nails. Service
and waste pipes to cisterns, &c., are generally supported and
attached by means of iron holdfasts.
Plumbers’ work is for the most part estimated by the hun¬
dredweight of a hundred and twelve pounds, though there are
of course many things which must be taken in detail, by the
pound weight, by number, and even by size. It has been already
shown in what manner the quantity of lead consumed may be
determined, whether it be in sheets or in pipes ; the weight
per superficial foot of the one, and per lineal foot or yard of
the other, being known, and it is always ascertainable, the di¬
mensions of the various parts or portions of the work readily
give the total amount in hundredweights or tons. The waste
of lead in working is very trifling, as cuttings all go to the melt¬
ing pot again with little or no loss but that of refounding or
casting ; and even old lead is taken by the lead merchant in
exchange for new, at a very trifling allowance for tare and the
cost of reworking. Water-closet apparatus, pumps, cocks,
bosses, ferules, washers, valves, balls, grates, traps, funnels,
&c., can all readily be counted and noted according to their
sizes and peculiarities ; and so may the various requisite joints
in pipes, and attachments of cocks, &c., to the pipes, which must
also be taken in addition to the articles themselves. The prices
of all these goods, from the sheets of lead and the pipes, to the
smallest articles used by the plumber, may be ascertained from
the wholesale merchants and manufacturers ; an addition of
thirty per cent, to these prime costs will, under ordinary cir¬
cumstances, afford the builder or tradesman an ample profit,
and payment with sufficient profit on them also, for labour,
solder, and nails, excepting cost of carriage, and any other
contingent expense, which must be added to the gross. The
materials may, however, be taken with a recognised profit added
to the prime costs and the actual labour expended ; and solder
and nails worked up may be reckoned from observation, or ac -
count kept of the workman’s time, &c.
These things are mentioned more particularly, because a
nefarious custom has obtained in this country, and is still al¬
lowed to a very great extent, by which the plumber is per¬
mitted to take not only an extortionate profit on his goods,
but actually to charge twice for labour and the accessories.
There is nothing more common than to find in a plumber’s
account a charge for lead (meaning sheet-lead) and labour, at
so much per hundredweight,—charges for pipe of a certain
bore or diameter at so much per foot,—for so many joints in
pipe of such a size,—that is, for the labour and solder con¬
sumed and expended in making them,—and so on through all
sorts of things, the account winding up at length, or being in¬
terspersed from time to time, with so many pounds or hundred¬
weights of solder, and so many days’ work of plumber and la¬
bourer ! The now prevalent custom of artificers’ work being
done by general builders by tender and contract, has consider¬
ably lessened the injury to the public from this abuse, and
proved it to be really so by the moderate profits the same men
will content themselves with if they make a tender, who would
persist in charging at the old rate if they were instructed to do
the work without being bound by a contract. Such too is the
effect of custom on the courts of justice in England, that the
abuse referred to has been protected by them, and probably
would be so still, because itwas thecustom and had been allowed!
Smith and Founder.’—The goods supplied by the smith are
charged by the pound according to the quantity of labour on
. them, and the founder has generally an average charge for
iron castings at so much per hundredweight or per ton. The
working up or fitting and fixing of smiths’-work devolves for
the most part on the carpenter in whose favour it is taken,
generally, however, in combination with some of his own pecu¬
liar works ; but founders’ work commonly requires to be fitted Building,
and fixed by the smith. ^ v '
Glazier.—The business of the glazier may be confined to
the mere fitting and setting of glass ; even the cutting of the
plates up into squares being generally an independent art, re¬
quiring a degree of tact and judgment not necessarily possessed
by the building artificer. (See the articles Glass, Manufac¬
ture of, and Glass-Cutting.) The glazier is supplied with a
diamond cutting tool, laths, or straight-edges of various
lengths, a square, a glazing-knife, a hacking-knife, hammer,
duster, sash-tool, and rule ; and his materials are simply glass,
putty, and priming or paint.
The glass is supplied by the glass-cutter in squares or plates,
of the sizes and qualities required for the particular work to
be executed. The putty is made by the glazier himself or by
a labourer, of fine clean powdered chalk or whitening, and
linseed oil, well mixed and combined, and kneaded to the con¬
sistence of dough. No more putty should be made at once
than is likely to be worked up in the course of a day, as, the
oil drying out, it becomes hard and partially set, and is there¬
fore less available for its purposes. Priming is a thin solu¬
tion of white, with a little red, lead in linseed oil. When the
sashes come to the glazier from the joiner, they have been
fitted into their places, and only require to be glazed before
they may be permanently set or hung. Supposing that no
preliminary process is required, such as stopping (the result
of bad joiners’ work) and knotting (and knotty stuff should
not be admitted in sashes), the sashes require to be primed.
The priming is laid on every part of the sash except the outer
edges of the styles and of the bottom and top rails, with the
sash tool or painting brush, that is, if the sashes are intended
to be painted ; for if not, the rebates only must be primed.
The object of this is to prepare the material of which the sash
is composed for the reception of the putty, which would not
otherwise attach itself so firmly as it does after this preparation.
The priming being sufficiently dry, the workman cuts the
panes of glass down into their places, making every one fall
readily into the rebates without binding in any part; indeed
the glass should fit so nicely as not to touch the wood with its
edges any where, and yet hardly allow a fine point to pass be¬
tween it and the sash-bar or rebate, the object being to encase
it completely in putty, and yet that the putty should not be in
greater quantity than is absolutely necessary. The glass be¬
ing fitted or cut down, the workman takes the glazing-knife
in his right hand, and a lump of putty in the palm of his left,
the sash being laid on its face, that is, with the rebates up¬
ward, before him ; with the knife he lays a complete bedding
of putty on the returning narrow stops of the rebates, all
round to every pane. This being done, the panes of glass are
put in on it as they have been fitted, and every one is care¬
fully rubbed down with the fingers, forcing the putty out be¬
low and around the edges of the glass, until they are nearly
brought into contact with the wood or other material of the
sash. The rebates are then filled in with putty behind, the
mass forming exactly a right-angled triangle, its base being
the extent of the stop of the rebate, and its perpendicular the
depth from the glass to the outer edge of the rebate ; the third
side or hypothenuse is neatly smoothed off, and the sash being
then turned on its edge and held uprightly by the left hand,
the protruded putty of the bedding is struck off with the knife,
and the section of it neatly drawn. The sashes are now de¬
posited on their faces, to allow the putty to set, and then they
may be hung and painted. To very large squares, and to
plate-glass, small nails called sprigs are used to retain the glass
securely while the putty is still soft and yielding.
Lead-work, as it is termed, is the glazing of frames rather
than of sashes with small squares or quarries of glass, which
are held together by reticulations of lead ; and these are
secured to stout metal bars, which are fixed to the window
frames. The leaden reticulating bars are grooved on their
edges to receive the quarries, and are tied by means of leaden
ribands or wires to the saddle bars, which, in their turn, are
affixed to the stouter bars before mentioned, if the bay or
frame be so large as to require both.
Glazing is valued by the superficial foot, the squares or
panes being measured between the rebates in which they are
set. The value of plate-glass is very much effected by the
sizes of the panes, every additional inch in extent of surface
adding materially to the cost of production of the whole piece
BUILDING.
757
Building or plate ; it must therefore he carefully noted according to its
|| magnitude. Common window glass is divided into best,
Builth. seconds, and thirds, and is charged higher as the panes in-
^ crease in size, because for large panes the table cuts to waste
more than in cutting small ones. In ordinary practice, panes
containing two superficial feet and under are classed together ;
then from two feet to two feet six inches, and so on ; and ac¬
cording to the quality of the article. Flatting, bending,
grinding, staining, &c., are all subjects of separate and inde¬
pendent charge.
Lead lights are taken by the superficies generally of a hun¬
dred feet, lead and glass being included in the same charge,
which, however, depends on the size of the quarries. Stay
and saddle bars are taken separately, according to their num¬
ber and magnitude.
Painter.—The processes of economical painting will be
found described in an article under the head Painting. The
real object of painting is to protect wood, metals, and stuccoes
from being readily acted upon by the atmosphere, by covering
their surfaces with a material which is capable of resisting it.
A continued succession of moisture and dryness, and of heat
and frost, soon effects the decomposition of woods, causes oxi¬
dation in most of the metals used for economical purposes, and
destroys the generality of stuccoes if their surfaces be exposed
nakedly to it. A solution of ceruse or white lead in linseed
oil spread over them prevents these injuries in a great mea¬
sure, and for a considerable period of time; and as the appli¬
cation of such an unction can be repeated without much trouble
or expense as often as occasion may require, it may be said to
furnish a protection against the cited contingencies. In addi¬
tion to the utility of painting, it is also available as an orna¬
ment, by bringing disagreeably or diversely coloured surfaces to
a pleasing and uniform tint, or by diversifying a disagreeable
monotony of tint, to suit the taste and fancy ; and this is done
in a great measure by the addition of various pigments to the
solution before mentioned.
The painter works with hog’s-bristle brushes of various sizes,
which, with the exception of pots to hold his colours, a grind¬
ing-stone and grinder or muller for grinding or triturating
them,'a pallet and a pallet knife, are almost his only implements.
His materials are comparatively few also ; but for some pur¬
poses these require a great variety of ingredients, the prepa¬
ration and combination of which, however, devolves princi¬
pally on the manufacturer or colourman, and not on the painter
himself.
The first thing the workman has to attend to in painting
wood-work, is to prepare its surface for the reception of paint,
by counteracting the etfect of anything that may tend to pre¬
vent it from becoming identified with the material. Thus, in
painting pine-woods of any kind, the resin contained in the
knots which appear on the surface must be neutralized, or a
blemish will appear in the finished work over every resinous
part. Inequalities or unevennesses of surface, too, must be
reduced with sand-paper or pumice-stone, or made up with
putty. The necessary process for killing knots, just referred
to, will generally leave a film, which must be rubbed down ;
and the heads of nails and brads having been punched in, will
present indentations, which should be stopped. In painting
or laying on the colour, the brush must be constantly at right
angles to the face of the work, only the ends of the hairs, in
fact, touching it, for in this manner the paint is at the same
time forced into the pores of the wood and distributed equally
over the surface ; for if the brush be held obliquely to the
work, it will leave the paint in thick masses wherever it is first
applied after being dipped for a fresh supply into the pot, and
the surface will be daubed but not painted. Painting, when
properlv executed, will not present a shining, smooth, and
glossy appearance, as if it formed a film or skin, but will show
a fine and regular grain, as if the surface were natural, or had
received a mere stain without destroying the original texture.
Imitative grainings, however, and the varnishes which are
intended to protect them, and make them bear out, necessarily
produce a new and artificial texture ; and for this reason they
are all to a greater or less extent disagreeable, how well soever
the imitations may be effected.
As it must be presumed that all the wood submitted to the
operations of the painter, which has passed through the hands
of the joiner, was already well seasoned and properly dry, it
is only necessary to say generally, that work should be free
from moisture of any and every kind before paint is applied
to it, or it will at the least prove useless, and probably inju¬
rious rather than beneficial. This remark applies alike to
wood and to plastered work, both internal and external; that
is, whether they be subjected to the more violent changes of
the weather or not. Dampness or moisture in woods, and
stopped in or covered up with paint, will, under ordinary cir¬
cumstances, tend to their destruction ; and in stuccoes it will
spoil the paint, and most probably injure the plastering itself
too.
Painters’ work, on extended surfaces, is valued by the yard
superficial, according to the number of coats, or the number of
times the paint has been applied to the surface, and to the
manner in which, and matter with which, it is finished. On
skirtings, surbases, narrow cornices, reveals, single mouldings,
sills, string courses, &c., it is measured by the foot run ;
sash-frames and the squares or panes of sashes, are numbered,
the latter by the dozen ; and so are other things which do not
readily admit of being measured. Rich cornices, expensive
imitations, &c., are taken by the foot superficial; and prepa¬
rations before the work can be commenced are most fairly
charged for by the time they occupy and the materials they
consume. The work is taken, as one, two, three, four, or more
times in oil, common colour; or so many times finished of a
certain colour that is more expensive than what is called
common 5 or as so many times, and flatted of such a colour,
the flatting being an extra coat; or as painted so many times,
and grained and varnished. Common colours are those which
are produced by the addition of lamp-black, red-lead, or any of
the common ochres to white-lead and oil; blues, greens, rich
reds, pinks, and yellows, &c., being more costly, are taken as
such. Unflatted white is a common colour ; flatted, it classes
with the rich colours. If the same surface be painted of two
different tints, it is said to be in party colours, and an allow¬
ance is made in the price for the additional trouble of finishing
in that manner. Carved mouldings and other enrichments
having to be picked in with a pencil or small brush, that the
quirks, &c., be not choked up, must be taken extra, by the run
or by number ; and if the picking in be in party colours, the
labour is necessarily greater than if the work be plain. _
What is termed decorating, is divided between the painter
and the paper-hanger. Decorations must necessarily depend
upon the taste and skill required or employed in producing
them; and the remuneration must also of course be contin¬
gent. Decorative papers are paid for by the piece or yard,
a piece being made in this country twelve yards long and
twenty inches wide, and the hanging is charged at so much
the piece. Borders are charged by the yard for the mate¬
rial, and by the dozen for hanging. Sizing and otherwise
preparing the walls are considered beyond the charges for
hanging. (Wt H G-)
Building
II
Bukhara.
BUILTH, or Bualt, a market-town of South Wales,
county of Brecknock, 12 miles S.W. of New Radnor, plea¬
santly situated on the Wye, here crossed by an excellent
bridge of six arches. It consists of two narrow, ill-formed
streets, running nearly parallel to each other, and forming
irregular terraces on the side of an acclivity rising from the
river. On account, however, of its fine situation, and the
salubrity of its air, it is much frequented. At the east end
of the town are some remains of a castle, said to have been
erected in the eleventh century by Bernard Newmarch,
lord of Builth. About a mile and a half N.W. of the town
are three mineral springs—a saline, a sulphurous, and a chaly¬
beate. Market-day Monday. Pop. (1851) 1158.
BUKHARA, Bokhara, or Bukharia, a country and
khanat of Asia, in Tookistanor Independent Tartary, lying
between Lat. 34° and 41° N. and Long. 63° and 70° E. It is
bounded on the north by Khokan, west by the khanat of Khiva,
east by Koondooz, and on the south its boundary first follows
the course of the Oxus, and afterwards proceeds along the
sands on the left bank of that river. Its area is estimated at
758
Bukhara.’
BUKHARA.
235,000 square miles; but, like the other states of Central
Asia, the limits and extent of Bukhara cannot well be de¬
termined,—since they expand or contract according to the
strength or weakness of its rulers. The cultivated parts of
the country, however, are small in proportion to its extent:
they lie chiefly along the banks of the rivers, and are sepa¬
rated by sandy plains unfit for culture, and only offering an
asylum to the wandering tribes, who, to escape starvation,
are continually obliged to shift their encampments. Buk¬
hara may be generally described as a level country, with few
elevations except on its eastern and southern frontiers. The
mountains in the eastern part of the country are spurs of
the Hindu-Koh, and are supposed by Burnes to attain
the height of at least 18,000 feet. Those on the southern
frontier seem to belong to the Paropamisan range. The
principal rivers of Bukhara are the Amu or Oxus, the Zer-
affshan, and the Kurshee. The Amu takes its rise, accord¬
ing to Lieut. Wood (an account of whose expedition to its
source will be found in the Royal Geographical Society’s
Journal for 1840), from a crescent-shaped lake in Lat. 37.
30. N. and Long. 73. 50. E. This lake is 14 miles in
length, with an average breadth of one mile, and is 15,600
feet above the level of the sea. The Amu flows from S.E.
to N.W., and varies in width from 300 to upwards of 800
yards. The second river of the khanat is the Zer-affshan,
which, though inferior to the Amu in the volume of its
waters, is superior to it in the populousness and cultivation
of its banks. It rises in the high lands east of Samarcand,
and, passing north of that city and of Bukhara, forms a lake
in the province of Karakool. This lake is about 25 miles
in length, and surrounded on all sides by sand-hills. The
Kurshee rises in the same high lands as the Zer-afFshan,
and passes through Shuhr-Subz and Kurshee, below which
it is lost in the desert.
North of the Oxus, and from the base of the mountains
of Bukhara, there is a succession of low, rounded ridges of
limestone, oolite, and gravel, thinly overgrown with verdure,
alternating with vast and hardened plains of argillaceous
clay. There are no gold mines in Bukhara, but that metal
is found among the sands of the Oxus in greater abundance,
perhaps, than in any of the other rivers which flow from
the Hindu-Koh. Sal-ammoniac is found among the hills
near Juzzak, and salt is very plentiful. In the mountains
to the east, near Sarvadi, are copious mines of fine coal and
copper ore. The climate of Bukhara, at least in the culti¬
vated parts, is salubrious and pleasant. In summer the
thermometer seldom rises above 90°, and the nights are al¬
ways cool. The frosts commence about the end of Novem¬
ber, and continue till towards the end of April. The Amu is
generally frozen over for some weeks in winter so as to be
passable for caravans. In the desert the heat in summer
exceeds 100° Fahr. Thunder-storms and earthquakes are
not unfrequent, especially in the spring; and there are some¬
times violent tornadoes, generally blowing from the N.W.
The population of Bukhara is composed of Tadjiks, Arabs,
Uzbeks, Turkomans, Persians, Jews, &c. The population
may be estimated at 2,000,000. Meyendorff estimates It at
2,478,000; Khanikoff at fi'om 2,000,000 to 2,500,000;
Burnes at less than 1,000,000; and Wolff at 1,200,000.
The Tadjiks are the aborigines of the country, and are said
to have come from the west, and settled on the banks of the
Zer-affshan at a time when the country was uninhabited,
and a jungle of reeds covered the place where the town of
Bukhara now stands. Except in the town of Bukhara,
where they constitute the majority of the population, there
are few Tadjiks now in the khanat. They are mostly en¬
gaged in commerce, are peaceful or even cowardly in their
disposition, and characterized by avarice, faithlessness, and
deceit. They are usually tall, with handsome and regular
features, fair complexion, and black eyes and hair. The
number of Arabs, though inconsiderable, exceeds that of the
Tadjiks. They were the first intruders upon the aborigines, Bukhara,
having conquered the country about the beginning of the
eighth century, and compelled the inhabitants to adopt the
Mohammedan faith. They inhabit the northern part of the
khanat, and like their ancestors still continue to lead a wan¬
dering life, their chief occupation being the tending of their
flocks. Their moral qualities seem to be of a higher cha¬
racter than those of the Tadjiks. The Uzbeks, the last
people that conquered this country, are the most numerous,
and are at present the dominant race in the khanat. They
are divided into a number of tribes, of which the principal
is that of Manghit. To it the reigning dynasty belongs.
Some of the Uzbeks are nomadic in their habits, others are
engaged in agriculture, or live in towns. They are more
bold and straightforward in their manners than the Tadjiks,
but, like them, avaricious and deceitful. There are a con¬
siderable number of Persians in Bukhara, most of whom
have been brought captive from their native country. They
are readily distinguished by the regularity of their features,
and their bushy black hair. Although outwardly conform¬
ing to the faith and manners of the country, they cordially
hate the Bukharians, and are ready to hail with joy any poli¬
tical revolution which might shake the power of the Uzbeks.
The Jews, though long established in the country, form but
a very inconsiderable part of its inhabitants. They are chiefly
to be found in Bukhara, Samarcand, and some of the larger
towns, where they have separate quarters assigned to them.
Their privileges are very restricted. The Turkoman part
of the population is wholly nomadic, and is chiefly to be
found in the region south of the Oxus. The orchards in
the neighbourhood of the larger towns are numerous, and
highly cultivated. They produce grapes, figs, peaches, pome¬
granates, apricots, prunes, apples, pears, quinces, cherries,
and almonds. The cultivation of cotton, tobacco, and lu¬
cerne, is extensively carried on, as is also that of the mul¬
berry, beet, cabbage, carrots, radishes, onions, cucumbers,
pease, beans, lentils, melons, and pumpkins. The soil
being of a saline nature, requires to be cultivated with some
care, so that it is found to be much more profitably laid out
in gardens than in fields; indeed, the returns from the for¬
mer exceed by seven-fold the returns from the same quan¬
tity of the latter. Wheat, rice, barley, millet, and jowaree
(Holcus saccharatus), are the principal kinds of grain grown
here. This last is one of the most useful productions of the
khanat, and as it is cheap and nutritious, it forms the chief
subsistence of the poor.
The horses of Bukhara are numerous, but are more re¬
markable for strength and bottom than for symmetry or
beauty. Asses are also very plentiful, and are large and
sturdy. They are not only used for riding by the less
wealthy, but also as beasts of burden. The camels, by
means of which the entire traffic of Bukhara is carried
on, are reared chiefly by the wandering tribes, particu¬
larly the Turkomans. They have a sleek coat as fine
as that of a horse, and shed their hair in summer, from
which a fine waterproof cloth of close and rather heavy
texture is manufactured. The goats are about the com¬
mon size, of a dark colour, and yield a shawl wool in¬
ferior only to that of Cashmere. The bulls and cows are
miserably small, and in a very wretched condition. 1 he
rearing of sheep is much attended to, particularly by the
Arabs. There is a peculiar breed, producing a jet-black
curly fleece in much repute, and which is said to thrive only
in the district of Karapul. The wild animals are fewr.
Tigers of a diminutive species are found in the valley of
the Oxus; wild hogs, herds of deer, antelope, and the wild
ass, roam on the plains ; and foxes, wolves, jackals, ounces,
and occasionally tigers, are found in some parts. The scor¬
pion is common, but its sting is seldom very virulent. All
kinds of game are scarce. The most valuable insect is the
silkworm, which is reared in all parts of the khanat where
BUKHARA. 759
Bukhara, there is water; every stream or rivulet being lined with
the mulberry.
Bukhara owes its importance to its central position. Lying
on the route between Europe and the richest part of Asia, it
is the seat of a considerable trade. The government has es¬
tablished custom-houses, built caravanserais, and constructed
cisterns along such caravan roads as are insufficiently sup¬
plied with water, but otherwise does nothing to encourage
traffic ; and the roads are, generally speaking, in a wretched
condition. There are no privileges in favour of the mer¬
chants of one nation to the prejudice of those of another,
except that Mussulmans pay only 2^ per cent., while all others
pay 5 per cent, on the goods they import. Bukhara carries on
an extensive trade with Russia by means of caravans, which
travel by the following routes, viz., by the route of Khiva
to the shores of and across the Caspian from and to Astra-
kan ; by the route to and from Orenburg by land in 60 days,
through Orghenje in Khiva; to and from Troidska in To¬
bolsk, by the route east of the sea of Aral in 49 days; and
to and from Petropavslok in 90 days. From 5000 to 6000
camels are annually employed in this trade. Bukhara exports
to Russia, besides cotton, which is the principal item, dried
fruits, rice, raw and dyed silks, indigo, silk sashes, turquoises,
shawls, and furs. It imports muslins, calicoes, chintzes,
some silk stuffs, broad-cloth, brocades, hides, iron and other
metals. The trade with Khiva employs only from 1000 to
1500 camels, and consists chiefly in exporting to Bukhara
Russian goods, of which there is always an available surplus
in the markets of Khiva. Three, and occasionally four
caravans arrive annually from Meshid, in Persia, bringing
cotton and silk stuffs, calicoes, chintzes, muslins, carpets,
shawls, and turquoises ; and receiving in return lamb-skins,
cotton, rice, &c. From Herat and Cashmere it imports a
considerable quantity of shawls; and Indian produce and
English manufactures from Cabul. A brisk traffic is also
carried on with Khohand, Tashkand, Kashgar, and Yar¬
kand. The greater part of the goods brought into Bukhara
are not consumed there, but are immediately exported to
other countries. The central points of commerce are Buk¬
hara, Samarcand, and Kurshee ; and trade is principally con¬
ducted at the marts and fairs that are held in various parts
of the country. Almost the only manufactures carried on
in Bukhara are those of cotton goods, silks, leather, hard¬
ware, and jewellery. There is but one manufactory of cast-
iron articles.
Bukhara has for ages been reckoned the centre of Mus¬
sulman erudition ; and if we look at the number of its schools
and the state of education among its people, we cannot but
admit, that in that respect it ranks first among the states of
Central Asia. About one-fourth of the population is said
to be able to read and write. The primary schools are nu¬
merous in the capital, as well as in the other cities, and even
villages. In Bukhara there is one in almost every street.
They are founded either by private donations, or by the
joint contributions of the inhabitants of the street by order of
the emir. The course in these schools extends over about
seven years. Those wishing to continue their studies then
enter the medressehs or seminaries, in which they pursue a
higher course of studies under one or two professors who
have acquired the right to give lectures. Each establish¬
ment has a fixed number of students, according to the ex¬
tent of the building. Fifteen, or even twenty years, are
reckoned insufficient to go through a complete course in
these institutions. They are principally exercised in subtle
disputations upon theological subjects, which only tend to
strengthen fanaticism and religious bigotry. Burnes says,
“ The students are entirely occupied with theology, which
has superseded all other points; they are quite ignorant
even of the historical annals of their country. A more per¬
fect set of drones were never assembled together; and they
are a body of men regardless of their religion in most re¬
spects beyond the performance of its prayers; but they have Bukhara,
great pretensions and greater show.” Each student pur-
chases the right to inhabit the medresseh from him whose
place he takes, and receives a fixed annual allowance
during his attendance. The number of medressehs is esti¬
mated by Khanikoff at not more than from 180 to 200, the
elementary schools at ten times that number, and the num¬
ber attending these institutions at between 150,000 and
160,000, or about one-sixteenth of the entire population.
The people are very superstitious, believing in witchcraft,
omens, spirits, the evil eye, &c.
The government is a hereditary despotism, the khan hav¬
ing the power of life and death over his subjects. The civil
administration is in the hands of the clergy, and is founded
on the Koran and the commentaries upon it. “ When we
place the vices’’ of Bukhara in juxtaposition with its laws
and justice, we have still much to condemn ; but the people
are happy, the country is flourishing, trade prospers, and
property is protected.” “ There is no place in the whole
of Asia where such universal protection is extended to all
classes.” So says Burnes; but it is impossible to peruse
the accounts of other travellers without arriving at an op¬
posite conclusion. Burnes himself narrates that the present
khan paved his way to power by the murder of four of his
own brothers. He afterwards murdered his vizier Koosh-
beghi, with most of his relatives, though it was chiefly through
their means that he had secured the throne. He also put to
death the two English travellers Stoddart and Conolly, and
evidently intended that Dr Wolff should share the like fate.
These and numerous other cruelties show him to be a tyrant
and a despot of the worst kind ; and Meyendorff says that
the principles of government are hypocrisy and extortion.
The troops of the khan are estimated at about 40,000 men,
but of these not more than one-third are completely armed.
The languages in use are the Persian and Turkoman ; the
latter is spoken by the Uzbeks, and the wandering tribes
south of the Oxus.
Bukhara was known to the ancients under the name of
Sogdiana ; and was too far removed to the east ever to be
brought under the wide-spreading dominion of Rome. But
it has shared deeply in all the various and bloody revolutions
of Asia. It is mentioned by the earliest historical writers
of Persia; and, about the year 856, Yacoob-bin-Leis is
said to have been invested with the government of that pro¬
vince by the caliph. About twenty years later, it was con¬
quered by Ismael, the first sovereign of the Sassanean dy¬
nasty, whose successors held it until the renowned Malek
Shah, third of the Seljuk dynasty of Persia, passed the
Oxus about the end of the eleventh century, and subdued
the whole country watered by that river and the Jaxartes.
In the year of the Hejira 594, a.d. 1216, Bukhara was
again subdued by the celebrated Mahomed Shah Khaur-
esme, who enjoyed his conquest but a short time ere it was
wrested from him by the irresistible power of Ghenghis
Khan in a.d. 1220. The country was wasted by the fury of
this savage conqueror; but recovered some share of its former
prosperity under Octai Khan, his son, whose disposition was
humane and benevolent. His posterity retained the dominion
of this country until about the year 1400, when Tamerlane
with his mighty host bore down everything before him, and
spread far and wide the terror of his arms. His descend-
ants ruled in the country until about the year 1500, when
it was overrun by the Usbeck Tartars, in whose possession
it still remains.
Bukhara, or Bokhara, the capital of the khanat of the
same name, is situated at the distance of 6 or 7 miles from the
left bank of the Zer-affshan in Eat. 39.48. N. Long. 64.26. E.
It is 8 miles in circumference, of a triangular shape, and sur¬
rounded by a wall of earth about 20 feet high, which is
pierced by 11 gates. It lies embosomed among gardens
and trees, and few great buildings are to be seen from the
760 B U L
Bukkur exterior; but when the traveller passes its gates he winds
il his way among lofty and arched bazaars, and sees each trade
Bulgaria. in its geparate quarter of the city. Everywhere he meets
with ponderous and massy buildings, colleges, mosques, and
lofty minarets. About twenty caravanserais give accommo¬
dation to the merchants of different nations, and about 100
ponds and fountains, constructed of squared stone, furnish its
numerous population with water. 1 he city is intersected
with canals shaded by mulberry trees, which serve to bring
water from the river, but in summer are sometimes dry for
months. The streets are so narrow that a laden camel fills
up even the largest, and in the smaller ones two persons
have difficulty in passing each other ; they are extiemely
dirty and always crowded with camels, horses, and asses.
With the exception of its public buildings, most ot its houses
are small and of only one story ; yet there are many build¬
ings of a superior class in the city, ft he common houses
are built of sun-dried bricks on a framework of wood, and
are all flat-roofed. The greatest of the public buildings is
a mosque, which occupies a square of 300 feet, and is sur¬
mounted by a dome rising to one-third of that height.
tached to this mosque is a lofty minaret built of bricks, dis¬
tributed in most ingenious patterns. The handsomest build¬
ing of Buckhara is a college of the king Abdalla. There
are 360 streets and lanes in the city, most of them unpaved,
and all in a very wretched condition, ft here are likewise
360 mosques. The number of medressehs or colleges in
Bukhara is estimated by Khanikoft at 103, but by Burnes
at 366. The baths are numerous. The population is es¬
timated by Meyendorff at about 70,000, and this estimate
corresponds with those of Moorcroftand Khanikoff. Burnes,
however, estimates it at 150,000, and Wolff at 180,000.
About 4000 of the population are Jews.
BUKKUR, an island and fort of Scinde in the Indus,
between the towns of Roree on the eastern, and Sukkur on
the western bank. The island is a rock of limestone of an
oval shape, 800 yards long, 300 wide, 1875 in circuit, and
about 25 feet high. It is almost entirely covered by the
fortress, the walls of which are double, and from 30 to 35
feet high. In the beginning of 1839 the British army crossed
here on a bridge of boats. Lat. 27. 41. N. Long. 68.
52. E.
BUL (Sept. BadA), the name applied, in 1 Kings vi. 38,
to the Hebrew month Marcheshvdn, which was the eighth
of the ecclesiastical, and the second of the civil year ot the
Jews, and began with the new moon of our November.
BULAK. See Cairo.
BUL AM, or Bulama. See Bissagos.
BULARCHUS, a Lydian painter, the first who intro¬
duced, among the Greeks at least, different colours in the
same picture. He flourished about b.c. <40. See Plixv.
BULB, that protuberant part of a plant which usually
lies below the ground, emitting roots from its base, and pro¬
ducing a stem or leaf from its apex. It consists of imbri¬
cated scales, or of concentric layers, as in the onion, hyacinth,
lily, &c. A tuber, properly speaking, differs from a bulb in
being solid, as the potato.
BULGARIA, a province of European Turkey, extend¬
ing from the mouth of the Danube, along that river till it
meets the Timok above Wftddin, on the borders of Servia.
ft'he Danube forms the whole of its northern, and the pa¬
rallel chain of the Balkan its southern boundary. It is about
350 miles long, by from 60 to 100 broad. It has an area
of about 33,000 square miles, and an estimated population ot
about 3,000,000.
This province was the Mcesia Inferior of the Romans,
and derives its present name from the Bulgarii or Bulgares,
one of the northern hordes who abandoned their dreary
plains to seek a more propitious climate in the south. They
left the Volga in the sixth century, and crossing the Danube
near its mouth, established themselves in the inviting
BUL
country which lies between that river and the mountains, Bulk
extending westward from the shore of the Euxine. Here II
they defied all the efforts of the Greeks of the lower empire v 11
to dispossess them ; and their various and sanguinary con- ' “
flicts form a considerable portion of the history of that pe¬
riod. They carried on many contests with the emperors of
the East; but in the eleventh century they were at length
confined within certain limits, and the country was reduced
to the state of a province. On the decline of the Greek
empire, however, it was finally brought under the Turkish
yoke by Bajazet, when the Turks had established them¬
selves in the neighbouring province of Rumelia, the ancient
Thrace.
The country, except in the neighbourhood of the Danube
and the Euxine, is mountainous ; but the sides of the smaller
hills afford excellent pasture, and the soil is exceedingly rich
and fertile. It is irrigated by a number of rivers and streams,
tributaries of the Danube. The climate is mild, and the
productions are various and abundant, consisting of corn,
hemp, flax, tobacco, &c. The vine is very extensively cul¬
tivated. The people have entirely laid aside the warlike
character which distinguished their ancestors. The avoca¬
tions of the greater number of them are pastoral, and their
character corresponds with this mode ot life.
The Bulgarians fabricate to a great extent several articles
which are famous in Turkey ; one is a coarse woollen cloth,
and another rifle gun-barrels. But the employment most
congenial to their rural habits is the preparation of the otto
or attar of roses, much of which comes to England. Rose
trees are very plentiful, and gardens are laid out for the pur¬
pose of cultivating them. Cattle, tallow, timber, hides,
wine, and the other productions of the country, constitute
their principal exports. The language of the people is a
dialect of the Sclavonian, and bears a resemblance to the
Russian. Only a few elementary books have been printed
in this language, and it has never been reduced to gramma¬
tical rules. The books introduced are in Greek, but that
language has made no progress amongst the people, who
are consequently very illiterate. Their religion is Chris¬
tianity, which they embraced on their arrival in the dis¬
trict. They belong to the Greek Church, subject to the
Greek patriarch of Constantinople, who appoints their bishops-.
There is generally attached to every two or three villages a
priest, who performs the duties of his vocation in each alter¬
nately ; but, unless in a very few places, they are destitute
of churches, schools, and books. The principal towns, such
as Sophia, Shumla, Ternevo, &c., will be described as they
occur alphabetically.
The Bulgarians have extended themselves beyond the
limits which they originally occupied. They have crossed
the chain of mountains, and now occupy almost exclusively
a considerable portion of Rumelia.
BULK of a Ship, the whole space in the hold for the
stowage of goods.
BuLK-Heads are partitions made athwart the ship with
boards, by which one part is divided from the other ; as the
great cabin, gun-room, bread-room, &c.
BULL. See Mammalia, and Agriculture.
Bull (Italian holla, Latin build), among ecclesiastics, a
letter written on parchment, sealed with lead, and issued by
order of the pope, from the Roman rota or chancery. It
is a kind of apostolical rescript or edict, and is chiefly in use
in matters of justice or grace. If the former be the inten-
tion^of the bull, the lead is hung by a hempen cord ; if the
latter, by a silken thread. It is this pendent Rad or seal
which is, properly speaking, the bull, and which is impressed
on the one side with the heads of St Peter and St Paul, and
on the other with the name ot the pope and the year of his
pontificate. The bull is written in an old round Gothic
character, and is divided into five parts, the narrative of the
fact, the conception, the clause, the date, and the salutation,
«
I
B U L
B U L
761
Bull.
in which the pope styles himself episcopus, servus servorum,
or the servant of servants. This instrument has about it a
cross, with some text of Scripture, or religious motto. Bulls
are granted for the consecration of bishops, the promotion
to benefices, the celebration of jubilees, &c., &c.
Bull in Ccena Domini, a particular bull read in the pope’s
presence every year, on the day of the Lord’s Supper, or
Maundy Thursday, and containing excommunications and
anathemas against heretics, and all who disturb or oppose
the jurisdiction of the holy see. After the reading of the
bull, the pope throws a burning torch in the public place, to
denote the thunder of this anathema.
Golden Bull, a statute or enactment published a.d. 1356,
by the Emperor Charles IV., and hence called Caroline, re¬
puted to be the magna charta or the fundamental law of the
German empire. It is called golden because it has a golden
seal, in the form of a pope’s bull, tied with yellow and red
cords of silk; while on one side the emperor is represented
sitting on his throne, and on the other the capitol of Rome.
Till the publication of the golden bull, the form and cere¬
mony of the election of an emperor were unsettled, and the
number of the electors was not fixed. This solemn edict re¬
gulated the functions, rights, privileges, and precedence of
the electors. The original, which is in Latin, on vellum, is
preserved at Frankfort. This ordonnance, containing thirty
articles or chapters, was approved by all the princes of the
empire.
Silver Bulls were not usual, though instances of them
occur.
Leaden Bulls were sent by the emperors of Constanti¬
nople to patriarchs and princes ; and they were also used
by the grandees of the imperial court, as well as by the
kings of France, Sicily, and other countries ; and by bishops,
patriarchs, and popes. It is to be observed that the leaden
bulls of these last had, on one side, the name of the pope or
bishop inscribed. According to Polydore Virgil, Pope
Stephen III. was the first who used leaden bulls, about the
year 772 ; but instances of them are to be met with as early
as the times of Silvester, Leo I., and Gregory the Great.
The latter popes, besides their own names, strike the figures
of St Peter and St Paul on their bulls, a practice first intro¬
duced by Pope Paschal II. But why, in these bulls, the
figure of St Paul is on the right, and that of St Peter on
the left side, is a question which has occasioned many con¬
jectures and disputes.
Waxen Bulls are said to have been first brought into
England by the Normans. They were of two sorts, red
and green, and were frequently used by the Greek empe-
rors, who thus sealed letters to their relations.
Bull, George, bishop of St David’s, was born at Wells
in 1634, and educated at Exeter College, Oxford. The
first benefice he enjoyed was that of St George’s near Bris¬
tol, from which he rose successively to be rector of Sud-
dington in Gloucestershire, prebendary of Gloucester, arch¬
deacon of Llandaff, and in 1705 bishop of St David’s. He
died Feb. 17, 1710. During the time of the Commonwealth
he adhered steadily, though with great prudence, to the
forms of the Church of England ; and in the reign of James
II. preached very strenuously against the errors of Popery.
His principal works are, A Defence of the Nicene Faith ;
Apostolical Harmony ; Primitive Apostolical Tradition;
besides which he wrote many others. His collected works
were published in 1703 by the learned Dr Grabe, in 1 vol.
folio.
Bull, John, a distinguished English composer and or¬
ganist, was born in Somersetshire about 1563. In 1591 he
was appointed organist in the Queen’s chapel; in 1592 re¬
ceived his degree of Doctor of Music at Cambridge Uni¬
versity; and in 1596 was made music-professor to Gresham
College, London. As he was unable to lecture in Latin,
according to the foundation-rules of that college, the execu-
vol. v.
tors of Sir Thomas Gresham made a dispensation in his fa- Bull
vour by permitting him to lecture in English. He gave his II
first lecture on 6th October 1597. He afterwards visited v. J1 e^n*
France and Germany, and was everywhere received with "*r v~~'
the respect due to his talents. The absurd story told by
Anthony Wood of Dr Bull’s feat in composition at St Omer,
is simply impossible. Honourable employments were of¬
fered to him by various continental princes ; but he declined
them, and returned to England, where he was appointed
organist to James I. in 1607, and in the same year resigned
his Gresham professorship. In 1613, he again went to the
continent on account of his health ; and, in the Nether¬
lands, entered into the service of the archduke. Accord¬
ing to some writers, he died in 1623 at Hamburg; accord¬
ing to others, at Lubeck. Little of his music has been
published, and the opinions of critics differ much as to its
merits. (g. p. g.)
Bull-fight, a favourite amusement among the Spaniards
and Portuguese, consisting in a kind of combat between an
armed man or torreador and a wild bull, either on foot or on
horseback. This sport the Spaniards received from the Moors,
among whom it was celebrated with great pomp. Some think
that the Moors might have received the custom from the
Romans, and the latter from the Greeks. Dr Plot is of opi¬
nion that the TavpoKaOaij/lwv rjpepaL among the Thessalians,
who first instituted this game, and of whom Julius Caesar
learned and brought it to Rome, were the origin both of the
Spanish and Portuguese bull-fighting, and of the English
bull-running. See Spain.
Bull-Head. See Ichthyology, Index.
BULLA, a kind of ornament worn about the neck, much
in use among the ancient Romans. Whittaker, in his His¬
tory of Manchester (vol. i. p. 79), is of opinion that bullae
were originally formed of leather among all ranks of people ;
and it is certain that they continued so to the last among
the commonalty. He also imagines that at first the bulla
was intended as an amulet rather than an ornament. Pliny
refers the origin of the bulla to the elder Tarquin, who gave
one along with the praetexta to his son, because at the age
of fourteen he had killed an enemy; and in imitation of
him it was afterwards assumed by other patricians. Some,
however, affirm that the bulla wras given by that king to the
sons of all the patricians who had borne civil offices; whilst
others allege that Romulus first introduced the bulla, and
gave it to Tullus Hostilius, the first child born after the
rape of the Sabines. The form of the bulla was generally
circular. As the wealth of the state and the riches of in¬
dividuals increased, the young patrician distinguished him¬
self by a bulla of gold, whilst the common people wore the
amulet of their ancestors. The bulla was laid aside at the
same time as the praetexta, and consecrated to the Lares.
Bullae were not only hung round the necks of young
men, but also on the foreheads of horses, and were some¬
times allowed even to statues; whence the phrase statuce
hullatce.
Bulla was also the denomination given to divers other
metallic ornaments made after the same form. Such were
the decorations used by the ancients on their doors and
girdles. The bullae of doors were large-headed nails or
studs, carefully brightened or polished. The doors of
temples were sometimes adorned with golden bullae. By
such door-studs were indicated which days were fasti and
which nefasti.
BULLEYN, William, a learned physician and bota¬
nist, born in the Isle of Ely about a.d. 1500, and educated
at Cambridge. He travelled through various parts of
England, Scotland, and Germany, chiefly with a view to
improve his knowledge of plants; and on his return, in
1550, he was made rector of Blaxhall in Suffolk ; but he
afterwards removed to Durham, where he practised physic
with considerable success. Here he contracted a great in-
762 BUM
Bullfinch timacy with Sir ’1 liomas Hilton, governor of 1 inmouth
II Fort/ In 1560 he went to London, and soon after his
Bumpkin. arrival was accused by the brother of Sir Thomas of hav-
}ng murdered his friend and patron, who had died of a
malignant fever while under Bulleyn’s care. He was ar¬
raigned before the Duke of Norfolk, but honourably ac¬
quitted. This Hilton afterwards hired some villains to
assassinate him ; but failing in the attempt, he ai rested him
on an action for debt, and sent him to prison. During his
confinement Dr Bulleyn composed several of those works
which established his reputation as a medical writer. He
died in 1576. Dr Bulleyn was well acquainted with the
works of the ancient Greek, Roman, and Arabian physi¬
cians. He wrote, The Government of Health, 1558—59,
8vo, republished in 1595 ; A regimen against the Pleurisy,
8vo, Lond. 1562 ; Bulwark of Defence against all Sickness,
Soreness, and Wounds, London, 1562, 1579, folio; A Dia¬
logue both pleasant and pitiefull, wherein is a goodlie regi¬
men against the fever pestilence, Lond. 1564, 8vo, 1569,
8vo.
BULLFINCH. See Ornithology.
BULL-FROG. See Reptilia.
BULLIALDUS (the Latinized form of Boulliau, or
Bouillaud), Ismael, an eminent astronomer, born at
Loudun in France in 1605. He travelled in his youth for
the sake of improvement; and afterwards published several
works, among which are the following, viz.:—
1. De Natura Lucis, 1638, 8vo ; 2. Philolaus, 1639, 4to; 3. As-
tronomia Philolaica, opus novum, in quo motus planetarum per
novam et veram hypothesin demonstrantur, Loudun, 1645, folio;
4. Astronomiae Philolaicae Fundamenta clarius explicata et asserta
adversus Zethi Wardi impugnationem, 1657, 4to; 5. De Lineis
Spiralibus Demonstrationes, 1657, 4to; 6. Ad Astronomos Monita
duo, 1667; 7. Ptolemsei Tractatus de Judicandi Facultate, 1667,
4to; 8. Opus Novum ad Arithmeticam Infinitorum, 1682, folio.
Afterwards he became a presbyter at Paris, and died there
in 1694.
BULLINGER, Heinrich, born at Bremgarten in Swit¬
zerland in 1504, was an eminent Zuinglian minister, a great
supporter of the Reformation, and employed in many eccle¬
siastical negotiations. His printed works are very nume¬
rous, and many of them were translated into English.
They form ten vols. folio. Bullinger died at Zurich in
1575.
BULLION, uncoined gold or silver in the mass. The
precious metals are so called either when smelted and not
perfectly refined, or when refined and melted down in bars
or ingots, or in any form uncoined, as in plate.
BULTI or Bultistan (called also Little Thibet), a
small state of Central Asia, north of Kashmir, lying between
Lat. 34. 40. and 35. 30. N. and Long. 74. 40. and 76. 20.
E., having an area of about 12,000 square miles, and an
estimated population of 75,000. It is bounded on the north
by Chinese Tartary, east by Ladakh or Middle Thibet,
south by Deotsuh and other elevated desert tracts, and on
the west by Astor and other small independent states. It
consists chiefly of a valley having an average elevation of
6000 or 7000 feet above the sea, and through which flows
the Indus in a north-westerly direction. It is surrounded
by bare, rugged, and nearly inaccessible mountains, rising to
the height of 6000 or 8000 feet. In winter the cold in
the higher parts is intense. The soil is not fertile, but is
carefully cultivated, and produces wheat, barley, millet,
buckwheat, turnips, fruits, and some rice. The capital is
Iskardoh. (See Thornton’s Gazetteer?)
BUMM, a town of Persia, in the province of Kirman,
and 115 miles E.S.E. from the town of that name. It was
formerly of great importance and magnificence, and is still
a place of considerable strength, having a citadel, and being
surrounded by a high and thick mud wall and a deep
broad ditch.
BUMPKIN, a piece of timber projecting from each bow
BUN
of a ship to extend the clue of the fore-sail to windward; Bundel-
and also from each quarter, for the main brace-blocks. cund.
BUNDELCUND, or the country of the Bundelas,
an extensive province of Hindustan, bounded on the W.
and N.W. by the dominions of Scindia; on the N.E. by
the Jumna, dividing it from the Doab ; on the E. by Rewa
or Baghelcund; and on the S. by the Saugor and Ner-
budda territories. It lies between Lat. 23. 52. and 26. 26.
Long. 77. 53. and 81. 39., and contains an area of
18,089 square miles. The plains of Bundelcund are inter¬
sected by three mountain ranges, named respectively the
Bindachal, Punna, and Bandair chains, the highest having
an elevation in no place exceeding 2000 feet above the
level of the sea. Beyond these ranges the country is further
diversified by isolated hills of a remarkable character, rising
abruptly from a common level, and presenting from their
steep and nearly inaccessible scarps eligible sites for castles
and strongholds, whence the mountaineers of Bundelcund
have frequently set at defiance the most powerful of the
native states of India.
The general slope of the country is towards the N.E.,
as indicated by the course of the rivers which traverse
or bound the territory, and finally discharge themselves into
the Jumna. The Sindh, rising near Sironj in Malwa, marks
the frontier line of Bundelcund on the side of Gwalior.
Parallel to this river, but more to the eastward, is the course
of the Betwa. Still further to the east flows the Cane, fol¬
lowed in succession by the Baighin, Paisuni, and Ions.
The province is further intersected by the tributaries of
these rivers, but notwithstanding the large number of these
streams, the depression of their channels, and height of their
banks render them for the most part unsuitable for the
purposes of irrigation,—recourse for which is constantly had
to jheels and tanks. These artificial lakes are usually
formed by throwing an embankment across the lower ex¬
tremities of valleys, and thus arresting and accumulating
the waters flowing through them. Some of these tanks
are of great capacity; as, for instance, the Burwa Sagur,
which is two miles and a half in diameter.
The mineral resources of this tract appear to be consi¬
derable. The most valuable of all fossils, diamonds, have
been found, particularly near the town of Punna. The
mines producing them are situated in a range of hills
called by the natives Bund-Ahill, extending above twenty
miles in length by between two and three in breadth, an<(
are said to be partitioned into twenty-one divisions. Of
these, the mines of Maharajepoor, Rajepoor, Kimmerah,
and Guddaseah, contain the finest diamonds ; and one dug
from the last has been reputed the largest in the world. It
was kept in the fort of Callinger, among other treasures of
Rajah Himmut Bahadur. Several different rajahs are pro¬
prietors of the mines, each having the charge of his own,
without any interest in the produce of the rest. In the
reign of the emperor Acbar, the mines of Punna produced
to the amount of L.100,000 annually, and were then a
considerable source of revenue ; but for many years they
have not been nearly so profitable.
As already intimated, the country at a distance from the
mountains is agreeably diversified with clusters of eminences
or small hills, separate from each other, exhibiting a pic¬
turesque appearance ; and the inhabitants invariably build
their villages at the bottom of a hill. I he arboreous vege¬
tation consists rather of jungle or copse than forest, within
which game abounds, and is preserved by the native chiefs.
There are also within these coverts several varieties of
wild animals, among which may be enumerated the tiger,
leopard, hyena, wolf, wild boar, nilgaw {Antelope picta),
and jackal.
The population is of various lineage. The Bundelas—
the race who are always found in the capacity of chiefs,
and who disdain to cultivate the soil—are represented
B U N D E ]
Bundel- as by no means conspicuous for lofty sentiments of honour
cund. or morality. Among the Rajpoot Buntlelas, rare examples
—of self-devotion are not indeed wanting, as instanced at Ad-
jyghur upon its evacuation by the garrison, when besieged
by the British. The removal of the family of the refractory
zemindar who had occasioned hostilities having been di¬
rected, his father-in-law was desired to prepare the females
of the family for it. Instead of doing so, however, he mur¬
dered the whole with their children, eight in number, and
then put an end to his own life; and what was more extra¬
ordinary, the massacre to all appearance had been perpetrated
with the consent of the victims ; since those who watched
without heard no noise to indicate that the sufferers had
made resistance. Still, however, the Bundelas are stated
to be infamous for treachery and cheating, and an Indian
proverb avers, that “ one native of Bundelcund com¬
mits as much fraud as a hundred Dhundees” (weighers of
grain and notorious rogues). About Dhuttea and Jhansi
they are a stout and handsome race of men, exhibiting an
appearance of opulence and contentment. They commonly
go armed with a bow and spear, both of which are of excel¬
lent quality; and they know very wTell how to use them.
They testify no apprehension in engaging veteran troops.
Owing to the intestine commotions which long pervaded
this district, every man carried arms; and many, availing
themselves of superior force, attacked and plundered tra¬
vellers, or levied contributions from them on pretence of
guarding the passes which they had necessarily to traverse
among the hills. Besides the Rajpoots, there are the Brah-
minical Bundelas. The prevailing religion is Brahminism.
One of its revolting observances, the practice of Suttee, for¬
merly so prevalent, has at length been absolutely prohibited
by the paramount power throughout the native states of
Bundelcund.
Bundelcund is partly British and partly native territory.
The British portion consists of the districts of Banda, Hum-
merpoor and Calpee, Jaloun, Jeitpore, Churgaon, and the
ceded Pergunnahs of Duboi and Gurota, and comprises an
area of 7181 square miles. The remainder, containing an
area of 10,918 square miles, is distributed among thirty-three
petty native states, the chief of which are Adjyghur, Bija-
wur, Churkaree, Chutterpoor, Dutteeah, Jhansi, Oorcha or
Terree, Punnah, and Sumpthur. With these principa¬
lities the British government has entered into engage¬
ments, in which its supremacy is recognised by all. Some
are tributary, others are exempt from pecuniary payment.
The total population of the country, British and native, is
returned at 2,260,714.
Chandra Varma, chief of the Chundel Rajpoots, appears
to have established the earliest paramount power in Bun¬
delcund towards the close of the ninth century. Under
this dynasty the country attained its greatest splendour in
the early part of the eleventh century, where its rajah,
whose dominions extended from the Jumna to the Ner-
budda, marched at the head of 36,000 horse and 45,000
foot, with 640 elephants, to oppose the invasion of Mahmood
of Ghizni. In the year 1183, Parmal Deo, the twentieth
ruler in succession from Chandra Varma, was overthrown
by Pirthi Rajah, the ruler of Ajmere and Delhi; after which
the country remained in ruinous anarchy until the close of
the fourteenth century, when the Bundelas, a spurious off¬
set of the Garwha tribe of Rajpoots, established themselves
on the right bank of the Jumna. Early in the sixteenth
century it is said that a Bundela, living in Benares, removed
to a fort in the district of Oorcha, then governed by a rajah,
whose confidence he speedily obtained. 1 his Bundela had
a daughter of exquisite beauty, of whom the rajah became
enamoured, and demanded her in marriage. But her father,
considering the proposal as a grievous insult from one whom
certain circumstances now unknown prompted him to regard
as his inferior in rank, he, in concert with his daughter, plotted
a diabolical revenge. Acquiescence was given on the part
L, C U N D. 763
of both; and the rajah was invited by his bride to the house Bundel-
of the Bundela, where the ceremony was to be performed. ^ ^UD ,
Here a magnificent entertainment was prepared, of which
he partook plentifully along with his attendants; but it was
soon succeeded by excruciating tortures ; poison had been
treacherously administered ; and when the victims became
incapable of defence, they were barbarously massacred.
The Bundela then placed himself on the musnud of the
rajah, which he enjoyed peaceably until his death. His
great grandson, Birsing Deo, succeeded in further aggran¬
dising the Bundela state, but he is represented to have
been a notorious plunderer; and his character is further
stained by the assassination of the celebrated Abul-Fazl,
prime minister of Akbar, which is said to have been com¬
mitted in compliance with the wishes of Jehangeer, the
emperor’s son, who was jealous of the Abul-Fazfs influ*
ence over his father. Jajhar Singh, the successor of Birsing
Deo, having revolted against the court of Delhi, was driven
into exile, and his country became incorporated with the
empire. This arrangement, however, was merely tempo¬
rary, and the struggles of the Bundelas for independence
resulted in the withdrawal of the royal forces, and the ad¬
mission of several petty states among the feudatories of
the empire, on condition of military service. Descending
to a later period, we find that this territory was invaded
during the government of the rajah Chattersaul, about the
middle of last century, by the chief of Furruckabad ; and
the rajah, to aid him in repelling the enemy, applied for
support to the peishwa Sewai Bajerow. Success having
attended them, he adopted Sewai Bajerow as his son, and
partitioned Bundelcund between him and his own sons,
allotting him a third of his dominions, the land revenue of
which was estimated at about L.1,300,000 sterling; but under
an express stipulation that his posterity should be protected
by the peishwa in independent possession of the remainder.
The rest of.his male issue, said to exceed fifty, were in a
state of dependence on their two brothers. In time this
division opened the way to dissensions, a civil war ensued,
and the consequent weakness of the chiefs afforded an op¬
portunity for other invasions. Ali Bahauder, an illegitimate
grandson of Bajerow, held a command in the army of Scin-
dia, the noted Mahratta chief; and in the same army was
the rajah Himmut Bahauder, who not only commanded a
great body of cavalry, but was the spiritual head and mili¬
tary leader of a numerous sect of devotees, called Gosseins.
In 1792 these two chiefs attempted the subjugation of Bun¬
delcund. Their purpose, however, was but partially ef¬
fected. An arrangement had been made with the peishwa,
whereby he was acknowledged lord paramount of all the
conquests effected in Bundelcund by Ali Bahauder, who
engaged to obey him as his sovereign, and to pay him tri¬
bute. But the latter contrived to evade both conditions ;
and, after being occupied fourteen years in endeavouring
to subjugate the country, died in 1802, during the blockade
of Callinger, which, during ten years, he had fruitlessly en¬
deavoured to capture. Ali was succeeded by his eldest son,
Shumshere Bahauder, then absent at Poonah; and Himmut
Bahauder, who, to retain his own influence, had for years
been exciting disaffection among the different chiefs, now
appointed a relation of Shumshere, the young rajah, regent
of Bundelcund until his return. Almost immediately after
the death of Ali Bahauder, the state of affairs assumed a
totally different aspect by the flight of the peishwa from his
capital to Bassein, and the treaty there concluded between
that prince and the British government, by which the Bundel¬
cund districts of Banda and Hummerpoor were transferred
to the latter. Of the two chiefs who, while ostensibly yielding
obedience to the peishwa, substantially held the ceded dis¬
tricts, Himmut Bahauder promoted the views of the British,
while Shumshere made common cause with the Mahrattas
against them. In September 1803, Colonel Powell crossed
the river Jumna for the purpose of entering Bundelcund,
764 BUN
Bunder and was joined by Himmut, with a body of thirteen or
Abbas fourteen thousand men. The united forces, arriving on the
_ banks of the river Cane, which passes the fort of Callinger
C QD ing*‘; and falls into the Jumna near the town of Oorcha, found
the army of Shumshere on the opposite side. It was nu¬
merous, occupied a great extent, and was strongly posted;
but after a short cannonade on both sides it precipitately
retreated. Since this period military operations have occa¬
sionally been deemed indispensable to the firm establish¬
ment of the British power in Budelcund. In 1809 the
fortress of Adjyghur was besieged by a British force. Three
years later, the chief of the celebrated hill fort of Callinger
having set the British authorities at defiance, it became
necessary to invest the stronghold. This fort is built on a
lofty rock, of great extent, and was formerly deemed by the
natives to be’irnpregnable. The walls are said to be six or
seven miles in circuit; 170 pieces of cannon have been
mounted on them; and a garrison of 5000 men was neces¬
sary for their defence. Nevertheless, its natural strength
has enabled a smaller number to sustain long sieges; and
the earlier invaders of Bundelcund have been compelled to
retire, after unsuccessful blockades protracted during seve¬
ral years. The British force in attempting to take it by
* storm, was repulsed with great slaughter; but the garrison
probably dreading a repetition of the assault, surrendered
the place a few days afterwards. In 1817, by the treaty of
Poonah, the British government acquired from the peishwa
all his rights, interests, and pretensions, feudal, territorial,
or pecuniary, in Bundelcund. In carrying out the provi¬
sions of the treaty, an assurance was given by the British
government that the rights of those interested in the trans¬
fer should be scrupulously respected; and the host of petty
native principalities, by which the province is interlaced, is
the best proof of the sincerity and good faith in which it
was given.
BUNDER ABBAS. See Gombroon.
BUNEL, Pierre, one of the most elegant writers of
his time, was born at Toulouse in 1499, and died at Turin
in 1546. He left behind him some Latin e\i\$,x\es, Epistolce
Ciceroniano Stylo Scriptce, remarkable for the elegance and
purity with which they are written. “ Bunel,” says Bayle,
“ was an honest man, the very person whom Diogenes
wanted. His letters are written with the greatest purity,
and contain curious facts.” They were first published by
‘ Charles Stevens in 1551, and afterwards by Henry Stevens
in 1581, a scarce edition. Another, but less correct edition,
appeared at Toulouse in 1687, by J. Graverol.
BUNGALOW, the name given in India to a house
or villa of a single floor. Ddk-Bungaloivs are thatched
houses constructed at the public expense, and placed at in¬
tervals, in many parts of India, for the accommodation of
travellers.
BUNGAY, a market-town in the county of Suffolk, 109
miles from London. It is a well-built town, comprising two
parishes with their churches, and the ruins of an ancient
monastery and of a castle. A considerable trade is carried
on in corn, malt, flour, coal, lime, &c. by means of the river
Waveney, which almost surrounds the town and common
in the form of a horse-shoe, and which is navigable to the
sea at Yarmouth. It has an octagonal market-house and
cross, assembly rooms, savings-bank, baths, dispensary,
alms-houses, and grammar-school with 4 scholarships at
Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Market-day Thursday.
Pop. (1851) 3841.
BUNKER HILL, a small elevation 110 feet high in
the town of Charlestown, one mile north of Boston, in Mas¬
sachusetts. One of the most celebrated battles in the war
of American Independence was fought here on the 17th
of June 1775. The British remained masters of the field
after a long and bloody contest.
BUNTING. See Ornithology, Index.
BUN
Bunting, or Buntine, a thin woollen stuff used for the Bunting
flags and signals of ships. II
BUNTINGFORD, a small market-town, with only a Banyan.^
few hundred inhabitants, in the hundred of Edwinstree, v'—V-—^
county of Hertford, 31 miles north of London. It has a
grammar-school with 4 exhibitions of L.12 each at Christ’s
College, Cambridge.
BUNli AN, John, the most popular religious writer in
the English language, was born at Elstow, about a mile from
Bedford, in the year 1628. He may be said to have been
born a tinker. The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste,
which was held in no high estimation. They were gener¬
ally vagrants and pilferers, and were often confounded with
the gipsies, whom in truth they nearly resembled. Bun-
yan’s father was more respectable than most of the tribe.
He had a fixed residence, and was able to send his son to
a village school where reading and writing wefe taught.
The years of John’s boyhood were those during which the
puritan spirit was in the highest vigour all over England; and
nowhere had that spirit more influence than in Bedford¬
shire. It is not wonderful, therefore, that a lad to whom
nature had given a powerful imagination and sensibility
which amounted to a disease, should have been early haunt¬
ed by religious terrors. Before he was ten, his sports were
interrupted by fits of remorse and despair; and his sleep
was disturbed by dreams of fiends trying to fly away with
him. As he grew older, his mental conflicts became still
more violent. The strong language in which he described
them has strangely misled all his biographers except Mr
Southey. It has long been an ordinary practice with pious
writers to cite Bunyan as an instance of the supernatural
power of divine grace to rescue the human soul from the
lowest depths of wickedness. He is called in one book the
most notorious of profligates ; in another, the brand plucked
from the burning. He is designated in Mr Ivimey’s His¬
tory of the Baptists as the depraved Bunyan, the wicked
tinker of Elstow. Mr Ryland, a man once of great note
among the Dissenters, breaks out into the following rhap¬
sody :—“ No man of common sense and common integrity
can deny that Bunyan was a practical atheist, a worthless
contemptible infidel, a vile rebel to God and goodness, a
common profligate, a soul-despising, a soul-murdering, a
soul-damning, thoughtless wretch as could exist on the face
of the earth. Now be astonished, O heavens, to eternity!
and wonder, O earth and hell! while time endures. Be¬
hold this very man become a miracle of mercy, a mirror of
wisdom, goodness, holiness, truth, and love.” But whoever
takes the trouble to examine the evidence will find that the
good men who wrote this had been deceived by a phraseo¬
logy which, as they had been hearing it and using it all
their lives, they ought to have understood better. There
cannot be a greater mistake than to infer from the strong
expressions in which a devout man bemoans his exceeding
sinfulness, that he has led a worse life than his neighbours.
Many excellent persons, whose moral character from boy¬
hood to old age has been free from any stain discernible to
their fellow creatures, have, in their autobiographies and
diaries, applied to themselves, and doubtless with sincerity,
epithets as severe as could be applied to Titus Oates or
Mrs Brownrigg. It is quite certain that Bunyan was, at
eighteen, what, in any but the most austerely puritanical
circles, would have been considered as a young man of sin¬
gular gravity and innocence. Indeed, it may be remarked
that he, like many other penitents who, in general terms,
acknowledge themselves to have been the worst of mankind,
fired up, and stood vigorously on his defence, whenever any
particular charge was brought against him by others. He
declares, it is true, that he had let loose the reins on the
neck of his lusts, that he had delighted in all transgressions
against the divine law, and that he had been the ringleader
of the youth of Elstow in all manner of vice. But when
B U N Y A N. 765
Banyan, those who wished him ill accused him of licentious amours, lay under some special malediction; and he was tormented Banyan,^
. . he called on God and the angels to attest his purity. No by a succession of fantasies which seemed likely to drive him
woman, he said, in heaven, earth, or hell, could charge him to suicide or to Bedlam.
with having ever made any improper advances to her. Not ' At one time he took it into his head that all persons o
only had he been strictly faithful to his wife; but he had, Israelite blood would be saved, and tried to make out that
even before his marriage, been perfectly spotless. It does' he partook of that blood; but his hopes were speedily de-
not appear from his own confessions, or from the railings of stroyed by his father, who seems to have had no ambition to
his enemies, that he ever was drunk in his life. One bad ha- be regarded as a Jew.
bit he contracted, that of using profane language ; but he At another time Bunyan was disturbed by a strange di-
tells us that a single reproof cured him.so effectually that lemma: “ If I have not faith, I am lost; if I have faith, I
he never offended again. The worst that can be laid to the can work miracles.” He was tempted to cry to the puddles
charge of this poor youth, whom it has been the fashion to between Elstow and Bedford, “ Be ye dry,” and to stake his
represent as the most desperate of reprobates, as a village eternal hopes on the event.
Rochester, is that he had a great liking for some diversions, Then he took up a notion that the day of grace for Bed-
quite harmless in themselves, but condemned by the rigid pre- ford and the neighbouring villages was passed ; that all who
cisians among whom he lived, and for whose opinion he had were to be saved in that part of England were already con-
a great respect. The four chief sins of which he was guilty verted; and that he had begun to pray and strive some
were dancing, ringing the bells of the parish church, playing months too late. ’
at tincat, and reading the History of Sir Bevis of Southamp- I hen he was harassed by doubts whether the lurks were
ton/ A Rector of the school of Laud would have held such not in the right, and the Christians in the wrong. Then
a young man up to the whole parish as a model. But he was troubled by a maniacal impulse which prompted him
Bunvan’s notions of good and evil had been learned in a to pray to the trees, to a broomstick, to the parish bull. As
very"different school; and he was made miserable by the yet, however, he was only entering the Valley of the Sha-
conflict between his tastes and his scruples. dow of Death. Soon the darkness grew thicker. Hideous
When he was about seventeen, the ordinary course of his forms floated before him. Sounds of cursing and wailing
life was interrupted by an event which gave a lasting colour were in his ears. His way ran through stench and fire, close
to his thoughts. He enlisted in the parliamentary army, to the mouth of the bottomless pit. He began to be haunted
and served during the decisive campaign of 1645. All that by a strange curiosity about the unpardonable sin, and by a
we know of his military career is that, at the siege of Leices- morbid longing to commit it. But the most frightful of all
ter, one of his comrades, who had taken his post, was killed the forms which his disease took was a propensity to utter
by a shot from the town. Bunyan ever after considered blasphemy, and especially to renounce his share in the be-
himself as having been saved from death by the special in- nefits of the redemption. Night and day, in bed, at table,
terference of Providence. It may be observed, that his ima- at work, evil spirits, as he imagined, were repeating close to
gination was strongly impressed by the glimpse which he his ear the words, “ Sell him, sell him. He struck at the
had caught of the pomp of war. To the last he loved to hobgoblins; he pushed them from him ; but still they were
draw his illustrations of sacred things from camps and for- ever at his side. He cried out in answer to them, hour after
tresses, from guns, drums, trumpets, flags of truce, and regi- hour, “ Never, never ; not for thousands of worlds ; not for
ments arrayed, each under its own banner. His Greatheart, thousands.” At length, worn out by this long agony, he
his Captain Boanerges, and his Captain Credence, are evi- suffered the fatal words to escape him, “ Let him go, if he
dentlv portraits, of which the originals were among those will.” Then his misery became more fearful than ever. He
martial saints who fought and expounded in Fairfax’s army, had done what could not be forgiven. He had forfeited Ins
In a few months Bunyan returned home, and married, part of the great sacrifice. Like Esau, he had sold Ins birth-
His wife had some pious relations, and brought him as her right; and there was no longer any place for repentance,
only portion some pious books. And now his mind, excit- “ None,” he afterwards wrote, “ knows the terrors of those
able by nature, very imperfectly disciplined by education, and days but myself. He has desciibed his suffeiings with
exposed, without any protection, to the infectious virulence singular energy, simplicity, and pathos. He envied the
of the enthusiasm which wras then epidemic in England, brutes ; he envied the very stones in the street, and the tiles
began to be fearfully disordered. In outward things he on the houses. Ihe sun seemed to withhold its light and
soon became a strict Pharisee. He was constant in at- warmth from him. His body, though cast in a sturdy mould,
tendance at prayers and sermons. His favourite amusements and though still in the highest vigour of youth, trembled
were, one after another, relinquished, though not without whole days together with the fear of death and judgment,
many painful struggles. In the middle of a game at tipcat He fancied that this trembling was the sign set on the worst
he paused, and stood staring wildly upwards with his stick reprobates, the sign which God had put on Cain. Ihe un¬
in his hand. He had heard a voice asking him whether he happy man’s emotion destroyed his power of digestion. He
would leave his sins and go to heaven, or keep his sins and had such pains that he expected to burst asunder like Judas,
go to hell; and he had seen an awful countenance frowning whom he regarded as his prototype.
on him from the sky. The odious vice of bell-ringing he Neither the books which Bunyan read, nor the advisers
renounced; but he still for a time ventured to go to the whom he consulted, were likely to do much good in a case
church tower and look on while others pulled the ropes, like his. His small library had received a most unseasonable
But soon the thought struck him that, if he persisted in such addition, the account of the lamentable end of Francis
wickedness, the steeple would fall on his head ; and he fled Spira. One ancient man of high repute for piety, whom the
in terror from the accursed place. To give up dancing on the sufferer consulted, gave an opinion which might well have
villao-e green was still harder; and some months elapsed be- produced fatal consequences. “ I am afraid, ’ said Bunyan,
fore he had the fortitude to part with this darling sin. When “ that I have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost.”
this last sacrifice had been made, he was, even when tried “ Indeed,” said the old fanatic, “ I am afraid that you have.”
by the maxims of that austere time, faultless. All Elstow At length the clouds broke; the light became clearer
talked of him as an eminently pious youth. But his own and clearer ; and the enthusiast, who had imagined that he
mind was more unquiet than ever. Having nothing more was branded with the mark of the first murderer, and des-
to do in the way of visible reformation, yet finding in religion lined to the end of the arch traitor, enjoyed peace and a
no pleasures to supply the place of the juvenile amusements cheerful confidence in the mercy of God. Years elapsed,
which he had relinquished, he began to apprehend that he however, before his nerves, which had been so perilously
u
766 BUN
Bunyan. overstrained, recovered their tone. When he had joined a
v—Baptist society at Bedford, and was for the first time admitted
to partake of the Eucharist, it was with difficulty that he
could refrain from imprecating destruction on his brethren
while the cup was passing from hand to hand. After he had
been some time a member of the congregation, he began to
preach; and his sermons produced a powerful effect. He
was indeed illiterate ; but he spoke to illiterate men. The
severe training through which he had passed had given him
such an experimental knowledge of all the modes of religious
melancholy as he could never have gathered from books;
and his vigorous genius, animated by a fervent spirit of de¬
votion, enabled him not only to exercise a great influence
over the vulgar, but even to extort the half contemptuous
admiration of scholars. Yet it was long before he ceased to
be tormented by an impulse which urged him to utter words
of horrible impiety in the pulpit.
Counter-irritants are of as great use in moral as in physi¬
cal diseases. It should seem that Bunyan was finally re¬
lieved from the internal sufferings which had embittered his
life by sharp persecution from without. He had been five
years a preacher, when the Restoration put it in the power
of the Cavalier gentlemen and clergymen all over the country
to oppress the Dissenters ; and, of all the Dissenters whose
history is known to us, he was perhaps the most hardly
treated. In November 1660, he was flung into Bedford
gaol; and there he remained, with some intervals of partial
and precarious liberty, during twelve years. His persecutors
tried to extort from him a promise that he would abstain
from preaching; but he was convinced that he was divinely
set apart and commissioned to be a teacher of righteous¬
ness, and he was fully determined to obey God rather
than man. He was brought before several tribunals,
laughed at, caressed, reviled, menaced, but in vain. He was
facetiously told that he was quite right in thinking that he
ought not to hide his gift; but that his real gift was skill in
repairing old kettles. He was compared to Alexander the
coppersmith. He was told that, if he would give up preach¬
ing, he should be instantly liberated. He was warned that,
if he persisted in disobeying the law, he would be liable to
banishment, and that, if he were found in England after a
certain time, his neck would be stretched. His answer was,
“ If you let me out to-day, I will preach again to-morrow.”
Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon, compared
with which the worst prison now to be found in the island
is a palace. His fortitude is the more extraordinary, because
his domestic feelings were unusually strong. Indeed, he
was considered by his stern brethren as somewhat too fond
and indulgent a parent. He had several small children, and
among them a daughter who was blind, and whom he loved
with peculiar tenderness. He could not, he said, bear even
to let the wind blow on her; and now she must suffer cold
and hunger; she must beg; she must be beaten ; “yet,” he
added, “I must, I must do it.” While he lay in prison he
could do nothing in the v/ay of his old trade for the support
of his family. He determined, therefore to take up a new
trade. He learned to make long tagged thread laces ; and
many thousands of these articles were furnished by him to
the hawkers. While his hands were thus busied, he had
other employment for his mind and his lips. He gave reli¬
gious instruction to his fellow-captives, and formed from
among them a little flock, of which he was himself the pas¬
tor. He studied indefatigably the few books which he pos¬
sessed. His two chief companions were the Bible and Fox’s
Book of Martyrs. His knowledge of the Bible was such
that he might have been called a living concordance; and
on the margin of his copy of the Book of Martyrs are still
legible the ill spelt lines of doggrel in which he expressed
his reverence for the brave sufferers, and his implacable en¬
mity to the mystical Babylon.
At length he began to write, and, though it was some
Y A N.
time before he discovered where his strength lay, his writ- Bunyan.
ings were not unsuccessful. They were coarse, indeed, 's—■v/-—
but they showed a keen mother wit, a great command of
the homely mother tongue, an intimate knowledge of the
English Bible, and a vast and dearly bought spiritual ex¬
perience. They therefore, when the corrector of the press
had improved the syntax and the spelling, were well re¬
ceived by the humbler class of Dissenters.
Much of Bunyan’s time was spent in controversy. He
wrote sharply against the Quakers, whom he seems always
to have held in utter abhorrence. It is, however, a remark¬
able fact that he adopted one of their peculiar fashions: his
practice was to write, not November or December, but
eleventh month and twelfth month.
He wrote against the liturgy of the Church of England.
No two things, according to him, had less affinity than the
form of prayer and the spirit of pr&yer. Those, he said
with much point, who have most of the spirit of prayer are
all to be found in gaol; and those who have most zeal for
the form of prayer are all to be found at the alehouse. The
doctrinal articles, on the other hand, he warmly praised, and
defended against some Arminian clergymen who had signed
them. The most acrimonious of all his works is his an¬
swer to Edward Fowler, afterwards bishop of Gloucester,
an excellent man, but not free from the taint of Pela-
gianism.
Bunyan had also a dispute with some of the chiefs of
the sect to which he belonged. He doubtless held with
perfect sincerity the distinguishing tenet of that sect,
but he did not consider that tenet as one of high import¬
ance, and willingly joined in communion with pious Presby¬
terians and Independents. The sterner Baptists, therefore,
loudly pronounced him a false brother. A controversy arose
which long survived the original combatants. In our own
time the cause which Bunyan had defended with rude logic
and rhetoric against Kiffin and Danvers was pleaded by
Robert Hall with an ingenuity and eloquence such as no
polemical writer has ever surpassed.
During the years which immediately followed the Resto¬
ration, Bunyan’s confinement seems to have been strict.
But as the passions of 1660 cooled, as the hatred with
which the Puritans had been regarded while their reign
was recent gave place to pity, he was less and less harshly
treated. The distress of his family, and his own patience,
courage, and piety, softened the hearts of his persecutors.
Like his own Christian in the cage, he found protectors even
among the crowd of Vanity Fair. The Bishop of the dio¬
cese, Dr Barlow, is said to have interceded for him. At
length the prisoner was suffered to pass most of his time
beyond the walls of the gaol, on condition, as it should
seem, that he remained within the town of Bedford.
He owed his complete liberation to one of the worst
acts of one of the worst governments that England has
ever seen. In 1671 the Cabal was in power. Charles
II. had concluded the treaty by which he bound himself to
set up the Roman Catholic religion in England. The first
step which he took towards that end was to annul, by an
unconstitutional exercise of his prerogative, all the penal
statutes against the Roman Catholics ; and, in order to dis¬
guise his real design, he annulled at the same time the penal
statutes against Protestant nonconformists. Bunyan was
consequently set at large. In the first warmth of his grati¬
tude he published a tract in which he compared Charles to
that humane and generous Persian king who, though not
himself blessed with the light of the true religion, favoured
the chosen people, and permitted them, after years of cap¬
tivity, to rebuild their beloved temple. To candid men,
who consider how much Bunyan had suffered, and how
little he could guess the secret designs of the court, the un¬
suspicious thankfulness with which he accepted the precious
boon of freedom will not appear to require any apology.
B U N Y A N. 767
Bunyan. Before he!eft his prison he had begun the book which has then the demand became immense. In the four following Banyan. ^
. ^ ) made his name immortal. The history of that book is re- years the book was reprinted six times. 1 he eighth edi- “r v'*J
markable. The author was, as he tells us, writing a trea- tion, which contains the last improvements made by the
tise in which he had occasion to speak of the stages of the author, was published in 1682, the ninth in 1684, the tenth
Christian progress. He compared that progress, as many in 1685. The help ot the engraver had early been called
others had compared it, to a pilgrimage. Soon his quick in ; and tens ot thousands of children looked with tenoi
wit discovered innumerable points of similarity which had and delight on execrable copperplates, which represented
escaped his predecessors. Images came crowding on his Christian thrusting his sword into Apollyon, oi writhing in
mind faster than he could put them into words, quagmires the grasp of Giant Despair. In Scotland, and in some ot the
and pits, steep hills, dark and horrible glens, soft vales, colonies, the Pilgrim was even more popular than in his native
sunny pastures, a gloomy castle of which the courtyard was country. Bunyan has told us, with very pardonable vanity,
strewn with the skulls and bones of murdered prisoners, a that in New England his dream was the daily subject ot
town all bustle and splendour, like London on the Lord the conversation of thousands, and was thought worthy to
Mayor’s Day, and the narrow path, straight as a rule could appear in the most superb binding. He had numerous
make it running on up hill and down hill, through city and admirers in Holland, and among the Huguenots ot France,
through wilderness, to the Black River and the Shining Gate. With the pleasures, however, he experienced some of the
He had found out, as most people would have said, by acci- pains of eminence. Knavish booksellers put forth volumes
dent as he would doubtless have said, by the guidance of of trash under his name, and envious scribblers maintained
Providence, where his powers lay. He had no suspicion, it to be impossible that the poor ignorant tinker should
indeed that he was producing a masterpiece. He could really be the author of the book which was called his.
not guess what place his allegory would occupy in English He took the best way to confound both those who coun¬
literature ; for of English literature he knew nothing. Those terfeited him and those who slandered him. He continued
w ho suppose him to have studied the Fairy Queen might to work the Gold-field which he had discovered, and to draw
easily be confuted, if this were the proper place for a de- from it new treasures, not indeed with quite such ease and
tailed examination of the passages in which the two allego- in quite such abundance as when the precious soil was still
ries have been thought to resemble each other. The only virgin, but yet with success which left all competition far
work of fiction, in all probability, with which he could com- behind. In 1684 appeared the second part ot the Pilgrim s
pare his Pilgrim, was his old favourite, the legend of Sir Progress. It was soon followed by the Holy War, which,
Bevis of Southampton. He would have thought it a sin to if the Pilgrim's Progress did not exist, would be the best
borrow any time from the serious business of his life, from allegory that ever was written.
his expositions, his controversies, and his lace tags, for the Bunyan’s place in society was now very different fiom
purpose of amusing himself with what he considered merely what it had been. There had been a time when many
as a trifle. It was only, he assures us, at spare moments that Dissenting ministers, who could talk Latin and read Greek,
he returned to the House Beautiful, the Delectable Moun- had affected to treat him with scorn. But his fame and
tains, and the Enchanted Ground. He' had no assist- influence now far exceeded theirs. He had so great an
ance! Nobody but himself saw a line till the whole was authority among the Baptists that he was popularly called
complete. He then consulted his pious friends. Some Bishop Bunyan. His episcopal visitations were annual,
were pleased. Others were much scandalized. It was a vain From Bedford he rode every year to London, and preached
story, a mere romance, about giants, and lions, and goblins, there to large and attentive congregations, from London
and warriors, sometimes fighting with monsters, and some- he went his circuit through the country, animating the zeal
times regaled by fair ladies in stately palaces. The loose of his brethren, collecting and distributing alms, and mak-
atheistical wits at Will’s might write such stuff to divert the ing up quarrels. The magistrates seem in general to have
painted Jezebels of the court: but did it become a minister given him little trouble. But there is reason to believe
of the gospel to copy the evil fashions of the world ? There that, in the year 168o, he was in some danger of again oc-
had been a time when the cant of such fools would have made cupying his old quarters in Bedford gaol. In that year the
Bunyan miserable. But that time was passed; and his rash and wicked enterprise of Monmouth gave the govern-
mind was now in a firm and healthy state. He saw that, ment a pretext for prosecuting the nonconformists , and
in employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness at- scarcely one eminent divine of the Presbyterian, Independ-
tractive, he was only following the example which every ent, or Baptist persuasion remained unmolested. Baxter
Christian ought to propose to himself; and he determined was in prison: Howe was driven into exile: Henry was ar-
to print. rested. Two eminent Baptists, with whom Bunyan had
The Pilgrim's Progress stole silently into the world, been engaged in controversy, were in great peril and
Not a single copy of the first edition is known to be in distress. Danvers was in danger of being hanged; and
existence. The year of publication has not been ascer- Kiffin’s grandsons were actually hanged. I he tradition is
tained. It is probable that, during some months, the little that, during those evil days, Bunyan was forced to disguise
volume circulated only among poor and obscure sectaries, himself as a waggoner, and that he preached to his congre-
But soon the irresistible charm of a book which gratified gation at Bedford in a smock-frock, with a cart-whip in his
the imagination of the reader with all the action and scenery hand. But soon a great change took place. James the
of a fairy tale, which exercised his ingenuity by setting him Second was at open war with the church, and found it
to discover a multitude of curious analogies, which inte- necessary to court the Dissenters. Some of the creatures of
rested his feelings for human beings, frail like himself, and the government tried to secure the aid of Bunyan. Ihey
struggling with temptations from within and from without, probably knew that he had written in praise of the indul-
which every moment drew a smile from him by some stroke gence of 1672, and therefore hoped that he might be
of quaint yet simple pleasantry, and nevertheless left on his equally pleased with the indulgence of 1687. But fifteen
mind a sentiment of reverence for God and of sympathy for years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world
man, be^an to produce its effect. In puritanical circles, had made him wiser. Nor were the cases exactly parallel,
from which plays and novels were strictly excluded, that Charles was a professed Protestant • James was a professed
effect was such as no work of genius, though it were supe- Papist, hire object of Charles s indulgence was disguised.
rior to the Iliad, to Don Quixote, or to Othello, can ever the object of James’s indulgence was patent. Bunyan was
produce on a mind accustomed to indulge in literary luxury, not deceived. He exhorted his hearers to prepare them-
In 1678 came forth a second edition with additions ; and selves by fasting and prayer for the danger which menaced
768 BUN
Bunyan. their civil and religious liberties, and refused even to speak
to the courtier who came down to remodel the corporation
of Bedford, and who, as was supposed, had it in charge to
offer some municipal dignity to the Bishop of the Baptists.
Bunyan did not live to see the Revolution. In the sum¬
mer of 1688 he undertook to plead the cause of a son with
an angry father, and at length prevailed on the old man not
to disinherit the young one. This good work cost the
benevolent intercessor his life. He had to ride through
heavy rain. He came drenched to his lodgings on Snow
Hill, was seized with a violent fever, and died in a few
days. He was buried in Bunhill Fields; and the spot
where he lies is still regarded by the nonconformists with a
feeling which seems scarcely in harmony with the stern
spirit of their theology. Many puritans to whom the re¬
spect paid by Roman Catholics to the reliques and tombs
of saints seemed childish or sinful, are said to have begged
with their dying breath that their coffins might be placed as
near as possible to the coffin of the author of the Pilgrim’s
Progress.
The fame of Bunyan during his life, and during the
century which followed his death, was indeed great, but was
almost entirely confined to religious families of the middle
and lower classes. Very seldom was he during that time
mentioned with respect by any writer of great literary emi¬
nence. Young coupled his prose with the poetry of the
wretched D’Urfey. In the Spiritual Quixote, the adven¬
tures of Christian are ranked with those of Jack the Giant-
Killer and John Hickathrift. Cowper ventured to praise
the great allegorist, but did not venture to name him. It
is a significant circumstance that, till a recent period, all
the numerous editions of the Pilgrim’s Progress were evi¬
dently meant for the cottage and the servant’s hall. The
paper, the printing, the plates, were all of the meanest de¬
scription. In general, when the educated minority and the
common people differ about the merit of a book, the opinion
of the educated minority finally prevails. The Pilgrim’s
Progress is perhaps the only book about wrhich, after the
lapse of a hundred years, the educated minority has come
over to the opinion of the common people.
The attempts which have been made to improve and to
imitate this book are not to be numbered. It has been
done into verse: it has been done into modern English.
The Pilgrimage of Tender Conscience, the Pilgrimage of
Good Intent, the Pilgrimage of Seek Truth, the Pilgrimage
of Theophilus, the Infant Pilgrim, the Hindoo Pilgrim, are
among the many feeble copies of the great original. But
the peculiar glory of Bunyan is that those who most hated
his doctrines have tried to borrow the help of his genius.
A Catholic version of his parable may be seen with the
head of the Virgin in the title page. On the other hand,
those Antinomians for whom his Calvinism is not strong
enough, may study the pilgrimage of Hephzibah, in which
nothing will be found which can be consumed into an ad¬
mission of free agency and universal redemption. But the
most extraordinary of all the acts of Vandalism by which
a fine work of art was ever defaced was committed so late as
the year 1853. It was determined to transform the Pilgrim’s
Progress into a Tractarian book. The task was not easy :
for it was necessary to make the two sacraments the most
prominent objects in the allegory; and of all Christian
theologians, avowed Quakers excepted, Bunyan was the
one in whose system the sacraments held the least prominent
place. However, the Wicket Gate became a type of bap¬
tism, and the House Beautiful of the Eucharist. The effect
of this change is such as assuredly the ingenious person
who made it never contemplated. For, as not a single
pilgrim passes through the Wicket Gate in infancy, and as
Faithful hurries past the House Beautiful without stopping,
the lesson which the fable in its altered shape teaches, is that
none but adults ought to be baptized, and that the Eucha-
B U N
rist may safely be neglected. Nobody would have discovered Bunzlau
from the original Pilgrim’s Progress that the author was not II
a Paedobaptist. To turn his book into a book against Paedo- Buphonia,
baptism was an achievement reserved for an Anglo-Catholic
divine. Such blunders must necessarily be committed by
every man who mutilates parts of a great work, without tak¬
ing a comprehensive view of the whole. (t. b. m.)
BUNZLAU, the capital of a circle of the same name in
the government of Liegnitz in Prussian Silesia. It is situated
on the Bober, 24 miles W.N.W. of Liegnitz, and in 1849
had 6668 inhabitants. It has a hospital, orphan asylum,
several churches and schools, and manufactures of linens,
woollens, hosiery, earthenware, &c. In the market-place
is a monument to the Russian general Kutusoff, who died
there in 1813.
Bunzlau, Jung, or New Bunzlau, the capital of the
circle of Bunzlau in Bohemia, stands on the left bank of the
Iser, a tributary of the Elbe, 32 miles N.E. of Prague. It
has considerable manufactures of cotton and woollen goods,
leather, &c., and about 5100 inhabitants.
BUOY, a close empty cask, or a block of wood or cork,
fastened by a rope to an anchor, and floating on the water,
to show where the anchor is situated. Buoys are of various
kinds: as can-buoys, in the form of a cone ; nun-buoys,
which swell in the middle, and taper to a point at each end ;
cable-buoys, empty casks, employed to buoy up the cable
in rocky anchorage. Buoys are also used to indicate the
position of rocks and shoals, or to mark a channel.
The life-buoy, of which there are various kinds, is used
to throw overboard to preserve a person from drowning.
The kind now commonly used in the navy consists of two
hollow copper vessels connected together, between which
there is fixed a hollow pole, with a port-fire fixed to its top.
This apparatus, which is properly ballasted, is suspended
so as to be ready for use at a moment’s notice ; and it is so
contrived that by the act of letting it off the port-fire is
ignited ; thus enabling the person in the water to discern
the buoy in the darkest night.
BUPALUS, a celebrated sculptor of the island of Chios,
was the son, grandson, and great grandson of sculptors.
Bupalus, and his brother Athenis, who was likewise a
sculptor, flourished about B.c. 500, being contemporary
with the poet Hippdnax, whom they caricatured. (Pliny.)
Augustus adorned many of the temples at Rome with their
works, which were executed in the white marble of Paros.
Bupalus is mentioned by Pausanias as a good architect as
well as sculptor.
BUPHONIA, or Diipoleia, or Dipolia, a festival of
great antiquity, celebrated annually on the acropolis of
Athens, on the 14th of the month Scirophorion (June); on
which occasion an ox was sacrificed in honour of Zeus
(Jupiter). The origin of the Buphonia is related as follows :
—In the reign of Erechtheus, at the celebration of the
Dionysia, or according to the Scholiast on Aristophanes at
the Diipolia, an ox ate the corn or cakes which had been
prepared for the sacrifice ; at which one Thaulon, or Bau-
lon (or according to others the (Sovcfaovo';, one of the priests
thus designated), was so incensed that he killed the animal,
and immediately took to flight. The Athenians, dreading
the resentment of the gods, and feigning themselves igno¬
rant of the guilty person, brought the bloody axe before the
judges, by whom it was solemnly arraigned, tried, found guilty,
and condemned. In memory of this event a festival was
instituted under the name of Buphonia, in which it was
customary for the priest to fly, and judgment to be given
respecting the slaughter of the ox. (Porphyrius, Be Ab¬
stinent. ii.)
It may be observed, that this legend carries us back to
that early period of Grecian history when it had not yet
become customary to offer up living victims on the altars of
the gods.
BUR
Burbot BURBOT. See Ichthyology, Index.
II BURCKHARDT, John Ludwig, celebrated for his
Burck- extensive journeys in the East, was descended from an
bar at. anc}ent family in Switzerland, who had been long esta-
blished at Kirchgarten, near Lausanne. His father, John
Rudolph, had been tried by a French military commission
on a charge of having delivered up the tete du pont at
Hunningen to the Austrians, and, though acquitted, re¬
ceived such treatment from the French republican authori¬
ties as made a lasting impression on his mind, and induced
him to remove his family from the territories where their
power predominated, and to establish them at Basle. He
then entered into a Swiss corps in the service of England.
John Ludwig, the eighth son, was born at Lausanne in
1784. Having acquired the usual classical instruction at
Neufchatel, he was placed at the university of Leipzig;
and, after a residence there of two years, he concluded his
studies at Gottingen. During his residence at the latter
seat of learning, his talents, application, and good conduct,
had gained him the esteem and respect of the professors,
but especially of the celebrated Blumenbach. When he
resolved on proceeding to England, Blumenbach gave him
a letter of introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, who, with the
other members of the African Association to whom he was
introduced, accepted his offer of travelling to explore the
interior of Africa. After the plan of his journey had been
settled, he diligently prepared himself for it by application
to those studies which were most appropriate. He passed
his time partly in London and partly at Cambridge in ac¬
quiring a knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, mineralogy,
medicine, and surgery. He suffered his beard to grow, ac¬
customed himself to the dress and manners of the East,
inured himself to all kinds of hardships and privations, and
diligently learned to read, write, and speak the Arabic
language ; in all which pursuits he was much assisted by
Browne, who during his travels in Africa had acquired a
perfect knowledge of the languages and customs of Mahom-
medan nations.
After these preparations, having received his instructions
from the society, he left England, and in April 1809 reached
Malta; whence he proceeded, in the following October, to
Aleppo. Being determined to acquire the Arabic language
in perfection, he appeared there as a Mussulman under the
name of Sheihk Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah ; and, during more
than two years passed in that part of Asia, he had so per¬
fected himself in the language as not to be distinguished
from the natives, and acquired such accurate knowledge of
the contents of the Koran, and of the commentaries upon
its religion and laws, that after a critical examination, the
most learned Mussulman entertained no doubt of his being
really what he professed to be, a learned doctor of their
law.
During his residence in Syria he visited Palmyra, Da¬
mascus, Lebanon, and the other parts of that interesting
country, and thence repaired to Cairo in Egypt, with the
intention of joining a caravan, and travelling to Fezzan, in
the north of Africa. In 1812, whilst waiting for the de¬
parture of the caravan, he undertook a journey to the Nile,
as far up as Mahass ; and then, in the character of a poor
Syrian merchant, he made a journey through the Nubian
desert which Bruce had traversed, passing by Berber and
Shendy to Suakim, on the Red Sea ; whence he performed
the pilgrimage to Mecca by way of Jidda. In this journey
he endured privations and sufferings of the severest kind.
He returned thence to Cairo in a state of great exhaustion ;
but in the spring of 1816, he travelled to Mount Sinai,
whence he returned to Cairo in June, and there made pre¬
parations for his intended journey to Fezzan, and to explore
the sources of the Niger. Several hindrances prevented
his prosecuting this intention, till at length, in April 1817,
when the long-expected caravan prepared to depart, he was
YOL. y.
BUB 769
seized with an illness which ended his life. He had from Burden
time to time carefully transmitted his journals and remarks, II
and a very copious series of letters ; so that nothing which ^ U1 e^t'>
appeared to him to be interesting in the various journeys
he made has been lost.
The communications from Burckhardt were laid, from
time to time, before the public with appropriate maps ;
and much light has been thrown by them on the geography
of the countries he visited, and on the manners, laws, reli¬
gion, and commerce of their inhabitants. His Journey
along the Banks of the Nile from Assouan to Mahass, on
the Frontier of Dongola, was published in 1819, in 4to ;
and the volume also contained a description of a Journey
from Upper Egypt through the Deserts of Nubia to Jidda
in Arabia. To this is added an Appendix, with an Itinerary
from the Frontiers of Bornou and by Bahr el Ghazal and
Darfour to Shendy ; and notices of the country of Soudan,
west of Darfour, with vocabularies of the several languages.
In 1822 a volume was published containing a Tour from
Damascus in the countries of Libanus and Anti-Libanus ;
a Journal of an Excursion into the Haouran in 1810; a
Journey from Aleppo to Damascus in 1812 ; a Journey
from Damascus into the Haouran in 1811 ; a Journey from
Damascus through the Mountains of Arabia Petrsea in
1812 ; and a Journal of a Tour in the Peninsula of Mount
Sinai in 1816. In 1829 was published a posthumous
volume of Travels in Arabia, in 4to (2 vols. 8vo); and in
1830 another volume, in 4to, entitled Manners and Customs
of the Egyptians. (w. J.)
BURDEN, or Burdon (French bourdon, a drone), in
Music, the drone, or bass, and the pipe or string which
plays it; hence applied to that part of a song which is re¬
peated at the end of every stanza. A chord which is
divided so as to perform the intervals of music, when open
and undivided, is also called the burden.
Burden, or Burthen (Saxon byrden, or byrthen), a fixed
quantity of any commodity for transit.
Burden of a Ship, its contents, or the number of tons it
will carry. See Tonnage.
BURDER, George, one of the founders of the London
Missionary Society, was born in 1752. He was for twenty
years minister of the West Orchard Chapel at Coventry.
At the end of this period he removed to London, where for
twenty-nine years he officiated at the Fetter Lane Chapel.
For many years he performed gratuitously the duties of
secretary to the London Missionary Society, and edited
with much success the Evangelical Magazine. He is
chiefly remembered now as the author of the Village Ser¬
mons, which appeared at intervals from 1799 to 1812, and
were at last completed in six volumes. He edited many
works, and among them the Pilgrim’s Progress; Collin’s
Weaver’s Pocket-Book, or Weaving Spiritualized; and
Henry’s Bible with Improvements. He died at London in
1832 in the eightieth year of his age.
BURDETT, Sir Francis, Baronet, was born January
25, 1770. The rudiments of his education he received at
Westminster School, whence he removed in due time to
Oxford. He did not wait to graduate at that university,
but in 1790 set out on a Continental tour, in the course
of which he became strongly imbued with the revolution¬
ary principles then dominant in France and other countries.
On his retui'n to England in 1793 he married the youngest
daughter of Mr Coutts, a wealthy banker, with whom he
received a large fortune. Through the influence of the
Duke of Newcastle he was chosen M.P. for Boroughbridge,
on which occasion he had as colleague Mr Scott, afterwards
Lord Eldon. At the outset of his political career he was
a zealous supporter of ultra-liberal measures. In 1802, after
a protracted contest, he was elected M.P. for Middlesex, in
opposition to the former member Mr Mainwaring. The
election however was declared void, and in the subsequent
5 E
770
BUR
Burdwan canvass he was defeated. In 1806 he again stood for Mid-
U dlesex and was again defeated, but when he stood for West-
Burgage. minster in the same year he was elected by a large majo-
'•y—^ rity. The obstinate violence with which he opposed the
existing government hurried him into indiscretions, which
ended in his committal to the Tower. The mob, with whom
his popularity was unbounded, endeavoured to rescue him,
and some lives were lost in the unsuccessful attempt. At
the prorogation of parliament he was released, and lost no
time in prosecuting the Speaker and the Sergeant-at-arms.
His action however failed. On the occasion of the Man¬
chester riots in 1809 he wrote a letter to his constituents,
for which he was tried for libel, found guilty, and condemned
to three months’ imprisonment, and to pay a fine of L.1000.
In 1837, he ceased to represent Westminster, and when he
was returned for North Wiltshire he joined the conserva¬
tive party, which he supported during the remainder of his
political career. He died on the 23d of January 1844.
BURDWAN, a province of Hindustan, presidency of
Bengal. It is bounded on the north by the British dis¬
trict of Beerbhoom; on the N.E. and E. by that of Nud-
dea ; on the south by Hooghly and Midnapore; and on the
west by Bancoorah. It lies between Lat. 22. 52.—23. 40.
Long. 87. 21.—88. 23., is 70 miles in length from N.E. to
S.W., and 60 in breadth in the direction of the opposite
angles, and contains an area of 2224 square miles. This
district is perhaps the best cultivated and most productive
of any similar extent of territory in India ; while it appears
like a garden in a wilderness, being surrounded by the jun¬
gles of Midnapoor in Orissa, of Pachete, and of Beerbhoom.
Its products are grain, cotton, silk, sugar, and indigo, which
it yields in great abundance, and of excellent quality. One
of the most important objects of manufacture is the refining
of sugar. The population has been estimated at 1,854,152.
Several rivers traverse the province or form its boundaries,
among which are the Hooghly, the Hadjee, the Bhagruttee
and the Damooda. It is also intersected by the great trunk
line of railroad from Calcutta to Rajmahal on the Ganges ;
and also by a branch from the main line extending from the
town of Burdwan to the collieries at Raneegunge. The
tract comprised within the province was acquired by the
East India Company, under treaty with Meer Cossim in
1760, and confirmed by Shah Alum, emperor of Delhi in
1765. Burdwan, the principal place of the district, contain¬
ing a population of upwards of 50,000 inhabitants, is situate
in Lat. 23. 12. Long. 87. 56.
BURFORD, a market-town and parish of the hundred
of Bampton, in the county of Oxford, on the river Wind-
rush, 76 miles from London. It is celebrated as the place
where an ecclesiastical synod was held in 685, to deter¬
mine the time for celebrating Easter; for a battle be¬
tween Cuthred, king of the West Saxons, and Ethelbald,
king of the Mercians ; and for a victory by Fairfax in 1649
over the army of Charles I. The church is a large and
handsome fabric, with a lofty spire. The houses are, with few
exceptions, irregular and ill built. There is very little trade.
Market-day Saturday. Population of parish in 1852, 1819.
BURG, a walled town of Prussian Saxony, the capital
of the circle of Jerichow L, in the government of Magde¬
burg. It stands on the river Ihle, on the railway from Ber¬
lin to Magdeburg, 14 miles N.E. of the latter. It has
long been noted for its woollen manufactures, which still
afford employment to a great part of its population. It has
also several dye-works, and tobacco and snuff manufactories.
Pop. (1849) 14,673.
BURGAGE is a form of tenure, both in England and
Scotland, applicable to the property connected with the old
municipal corporations and their privileges. The term is
of less practical importance in the English than in the Scot¬
tish system, where it still holds an important place in the
practice of conveyancing, real property being there gene-
B U R
rally divided into feudal-holding and burgage-holding. It is
usual to speak of the English burgage-tenure as a relic of ^
Saxon freedom resisting the shock of the Norman conquest
and its feudalism, but it is perhaps more correct to consider
it a local feature of that general exemption from feudality
enjoyed by the municipia as a relic of their ancient Roman
constitution. The reason for the system preserving its speci¬
fically distinct form in Scottish conveyancing, is because bur¬
gage-holding was an exception to the system of subinfeuda¬
tion which remained prevalent in Scotland when it was sup¬
pressed in England. While other vassals might hold of a
graduated hierarchy of overlords up to the crown, the bur¬
gess always held directly of the sovereign. It is curious
that while in England the burgage-tenure was deemed a
species of soccage to distinguish it from the military hold¬
ings, in Scotland it was strictly a military holding, by the
service of watching and warding for the defence of the
burgh. In England the franchises enjoyed by burgesses,
freemen, and other consuetudinary constituencies in burghs,
were dependent on the character of the burgage-tenure.
(See Municipal Corporations.) (j. h. b.)
BURGER, Gottfried Augustus, a celebrated German
poet, born January 1, 1748, at Wolmerswende, a village in
the principality of Halberstadt, where his father was Lu¬
theran minister. In his childhood he discovered little in¬
clination to study: the Bible and the Canticles alone had
any attraction for him ; and his first attempts in versification
were imitations of the Psalms. It is to this first direction
of his studies that we are to attribute the biblical phrases,
and the allusions to Christianity, which we find even in his
amatory poetry. He was fond of solitude, and indulged in
all the romantic sentiments which deserts and the gloom of
forests inspire. From the school of Aschersleben, where
his maternal grandfather resided, and which he quitted in
consequence of receiving a severe chastisement for compos¬
ing an epigram, he was sent to the institution at Halle. But
at neither of these places did he make much progress, hav¬
ing a taste only for the lessons in prosody and versification.
In 1764 Burger, who was intended for the clerical office,
began to attend the course of lectures given by the profes¬
sors of the university. Klotz, a learned classical scholar,
admitted him into the select number of the young men whose
talents he took a pleasure in cultivating ; but this society ap¬
pears not to have produced the same favourable effect on
the moral character of Burger as on his genius. His con¬
duct prejudiced his grandfather Bauer against him; and it was
with difficulty that he obtained from him some further as¬
sistance, with permission, in the year 1768, to repair to
Gottingen to prosecute the study of the law. This change
did not make him more regular in his studies; his morals
became corrupted ; and his grandfather withdrew his pro¬
tection. Burger contracted debts ; and his situation would
have become altogether desperate had not some friends in¬
terfered to assist him. An association, memorable in the
annals of German literature, and into which Burger was now
admitted, had just been formed at Gottingen : it reckoned
among its members Boje, Biester, Sprengel, Holty, Muller,
Voss, the two Counts Stolberg, C. F. Cramer, and Leise-
witz. All of these were persons versed in Greek and
Roman literature, and, at the same time, they all idolized
Shakspeare. Burger, in a great measure, owed his style
to the enthusiasm which he showed, in common with his
literary friends, for our great dramatist. Ihe Reliques of
Ancient English Poetry, published about this time by Dr
Percy, gave an additional impulse to the direction which
his mind had taken, and suggested to him some of his most
admired productions. Of all his friends, Boje was the one
who exercised the greatest influence over him in the choice
and treatment of his subjects; and it is to his severe ob¬
servations that the poetical stanza of Burger owes a great
part of that elegance and roundness which characterize it. To
Burger.
i
BUR
Biirger. the same friend he was indebted also for some improvement
/ in his circumstances. On the recommendation of Boje he
was appointed to the collectorship of Alvengleichen, in the
principality of Calenberg. The following winter, some
fragments of a ghost story, which he heard a peasant girl
singing by moonlight, caught his imagination, and suggested
his celebrated ballad of Leonora. This remarkable pro¬
duction at once established his reputation as a poet. About
this time he married a Hanoverian lady, named Leonhart;
but this union proved only a source of bitterness, as an un¬
happy attachment to her younger sister soon after sprung up
in his heart. The loss of a sum of money, of which his grand¬
father had made him a present, was the first commencement
of his embarrassments ; the taking of a large farm, which he
did not know how to manage, increased them. The dismissal
from his place, in 1784, in consequence of suspicions (pro¬
bably ill-founded) raised against the fidelity of his accounts,
gave the finishing stroke to his misfortunes. He had a little
before lost his wife, whose death was hastened by the culpable
passion which Biirger cherished in his heart. Left with two
children, and reduced to the inconsiderable emoluments of
The Almanack of the Muses, which he had edited since
1779, he removed to Gottingen, with a view to giving pri¬
vate lessons there, and in the hope of obtaining a professor’s
chair in the department of belles-lettres. Five years later
the title was conferred on him, but without a salary; and
this was the only public recompense obtained during his
whole life by a man who was one of the favourite authors of
his nation, and who, while yet young, had achieved the
highest reputation. Scarcely were the ashes of his wife
cold when he espoused her sister, whose name his poems
have made but too famous. She died soon after in childbed
in the beginning of 1786. From that moment his own life
only lingered on; and the fire of his genius seemed extin¬
guished with the passion which had so long nourished it.
He had scarcely strength enough, in the intervals of his de¬
jection, to finish his Song of Songs, a sort of dithyrambic or
nuptial hymn, intended to celebrate his second marriage,
and which is a strange mixture of frantic passion, religious
devotion, and the most bombastic expression. It was the
last production of Burger. Having studied the philosophy
of Kant, he had an idea of deriving some advantage from it
at Gottingen, where it had not yet been taught. He under¬
took to explain it in a course of lectures, which were at¬
tended by a great number of students. The satisfaction
which the university expressed to him for two cantatas which
he composed in 1787, on the occasion of the fifty years’
jubilee of this illustrious institution, and his appointment to
the situation of professor extraordinary, reanimated his spi¬
rits. Fortune appearing to smile on him once more, he
formed the design of marrying again. During one of the
moments when he was most occupied with this idea, he re¬
ceived a letter from Stuttgard, in which a young woman,
whose style indicated a cultivated mind, and her sentiments
an elevated and feeling heart, after describing to him with
enthusiasm the impression which his poetry had made upon
her, offered him her hand and heart. The information
which he received respecting the character, the fortune, and
personal accomplishments of his correspondent having ex¬
cited his curiosity, he took a journey to Stuttgard, and
brought back with him a wife who embittered and dis¬
honoured the rest of his days. In less than three years he
saw himself under the necessity of obtaining a divorce from
her ; and the ruin of his health aggravated the absolute dis¬
order of his finances. Confined to a small chamber, the fa¬
vourite poet of Germany wasted the remainder of his strength
in translations for foreign booksellers ; but sickness and grief
soon deprived him even of this resource, and he must have died
in a state of the most abject poverty, if the government of
Hanover had not relieved his necessities. He died on the
8th of June 1794.
BUR 771
Burger is only remarkable as a lyric poet; for after hav- Burger?di-
ing tried all the different species of this class of composi- cius.
tions, he has succeeded eminently only in the song and the v'—
ballad. We shall perhaps characterize his genius sufficiently
by saying that his imagination is more fresh than rich,—
that he has more sensibility than elevation, more naivete
and good nature than delicacy or taste. His style is strik¬
ing from its clearness and its energy, and an elegance
which is rather the result of labour than of natural grace ;
he possesses, in short, all the qualities which please the mul¬
titude. Allowing the title of poet only to those whose writ¬
ings were calculated to become popular, he early habituated
himself to reject whatever appeared to him not sufficiently
intelligible and interesting to all classes of readers. He is
always clear and forcible; and if at certain times there ap¬
pears a want of selection and care in the details, yet the
sentiments are uniformly noble, and the moral purpose of
the majority of his pieces is irreproachable. Some breathe
the loftiest piety and the purest love of virtue. Wie-
land said of him {German Mercury, 1778), that in com¬
posing his poem entitled Mannerkeuschheit (on Chastity),
Burger had deserved better of the present and future gene¬
rations than if he had written the finest treatise of morality.
This little piece has been inserted in most of the collections
of hymns for the use of the Lutheran church.
Three editions of Biirger’s works have been published at Gottin¬
gen. The first two appeared in 1778 and 1789, in 3 vols. 8vo; and
the third, after his death, was published by his friend Oh. Rein-
hard, in 4 vols. 1796. We must confine ourselves to a short notice
of those for which their merit or singularity has procured the
greatest degree of celebrity. 1. A translation, or rather an imi¬
tation, of the Vigil of Venus {Pervigilium Veneris). 2. Leonora,
a romance ; which belongs to the class which Burger himself called
the epic lyric. Leonora was translated into Danish in 1788, six
times into English, by Stanley, Pye, Spencer, Taylor, &c., and from
English into French by De la Madelaine in 1811. The translation
by Mr Spencer is accompanied with engravings after designs by
Lady Diana Beauclerc. Two German composers have set it to mu¬
sic. 3. The Minister's Daughter of Tauhenhain is the story of the
seduction and tragical end of a young girl. 4. The Inhuman Hunts¬
man. 5. The Song of the Brave; in which the heroism of a pea¬
sant, who saves a family from the fury of the waves, is related with
admirable feeling. 6. The Song of Songs, conceived at the foot of the
altar. This is a hymn or ode in praise of his second wife. 7. A
Travestie of the Fable of Jupiter and Europa. 8. A translation in
iambic verse, of some books of the Iliad. 9. An excellent Transla¬
tion of Shakspeare's Macbeth. 10. Pieces of Poetry and of Rhetorical
Prose. He had begun to write critical observations on his own
works ; but he has only left some fragments of this work. 11. He
was editor of the Gottingen Almanack of the Muses, from 1779 to
1794. Vetterlein, Pblitz, and Engel, have published a selection of
the poetry of Burger, with notes; and celebrated composers, such
as Schulz and Reichhardt, have set a great number of his songs to
music. Burger’s third wife, whose name German biography has
thought worthy to be associated with her husband’s, on account of
her taste for literature and particularly poetry, is author of several
pieces in verse inserted in the collection. The one having for its
title The Raillery of a Mother, is sufficient to prove her poetical
talent. (w. H—T.)
BURGERSDICIUS, or Burgersdyk, Francis, a
celebrated Dutch logician, was born at Lier near Delft, in
1590. He studied at the University of Leyden, and after
completing his academical career with great distinction there,
travelled through Germany and France. On arriving at
Saumur in the latter country he began to study theology,
and was so successful, that while still a very young man he
was appointed professor of philosophy in that town. This
office he held for five years, at the end of which period he
returned to Leyden, where he accepted the chair of logic
and moral philosophy, and afterwards that of natural philo¬
sophy. His system of logic was at one time universally re¬
ceived, and even yet has not fallen wholly into disuse. His
treatise entitled Idea Philosophice Moralis issued from the
Elzevir press in 1644. Burgersdyk died at Leyden in 1629,
in the thirty-ninth year of his age.
772 BUR
Burgess BURGESS, a term generally applied to a person hold-
11 ing some of the privileges conferred by the old municipal
Burggrave. corporations. It came into peculiar use in England as the
s—' term for the parliamentary representation of a burgh. See
Municipal Corporations.
Burgess, Daniel, a learned and witty dissenting divine
of the seventeenth century, born at Staines in Middlesex, of
which parish his father was minister. He was educated at
Westminster school, and in 1660 was sent to Magdalen
Hall, Oxford, but not being able conscientiously to sub¬
scribe the necessary formula?, he quitted that university with¬
out taking his degree. In 1667, after taking orders, he was
appointed by Lord Orrery to the head-mastership of a school
recently established by that nobleman at Charleville in
Munster, and soon after became private chaplain to lady
Mervin, near Dublin. On his return from Ireland, he
openly avowed his Presbyterian principles, and frequently
preached in contempt of the severe laws against noncon¬
formity. For these offences he was imprisoned, but soon re¬
gaining his liberty, he went to London, where he speedily
collected a large congregation, as much by the somewhat fa¬
natical fervour of his piety as by the ludicrous illustrations
which he frequently employed in his sermons. Besides
preaching, he gave instructions to private pupils, of whom
the most distinguished was Henry St John, afterwards Lord
Bolingbroke. He died in 1712.
Burgess, Right Rev. Thomas, bishop of Salisbury, was
born at Odiham, in Hampshire, in 1756. He was educated
at Winchester, and in 1775 he removed to Oxford, where
he gained a scholarship at Corpus Christi College. Before
graduating, he edited a reprint of Burton’s Pentalogia. In
1781 he brought out an edition of Dawe’s Miscellanea Cri-
tica, with numerous annotations, a work so favourably re¬
ceived on the continent that it was reprinted verbatim at
Leipzig in 1800. In 1783 he became a fellow of his col¬
lege, and two years later undertook a journey to Holland,
where he prosecuted his researches for some time. On his
return he was appointed chaplain to Shute Barrington, bishop
of Salisbury, through whose influence he obtained a pre-
bendal stall in the cathedral of that town. In 1789 he
published his Considerations on the Abolition of Slavery,
in which he advocated the principle of gradual emancipa¬
tion. From Salisbury he removed to Durham, where he
effected much good among the poorer classes, by publishing
and distributing suitable religious works. In 1803, he was
promoted by his old schoolfellow Addington, then prime
minister, to the vacant see of St David’s, which he held for
twenty years, and where he gave evidence of his philan¬
thropic disposition by establishing the Society for the pro¬
motion of Christian Knowledge, and founding the college
of Lampeter, which he liberally endowed. In 1820 he was
appointed first president of the Royal Society of Literature
recently founded ; and three years later was promoted to the
see of Salisbury, over which he presided for twelve years,
prosecuting his benevolent designs with unwearied industry.
Not the least important among the many services which he
rendered to the church, was the establishment of a Church
Union Society for the assistance of infirm and distressed
clergymen, to which he bequeathed L.3000. In the midst of
his useful and laborious career, he was cut off by an attack of
dropsy, February 19,1837. A list of his works, which are very
numerous, will be found in his biography by J. S. Harford.
In addition to those already referred to, may be mentioned
his u Essay on the Study of Antiquities;" “ The first Princi¬
ples of Christian Knowledge “ Reflections on the Contro¬
versial Writings of Dr Priestley “ Emendationes in Sui-
dam et Hesychium et alios Lexicographos Grcecos “ The
Rible, and nothing but the Bible, the Religion of the Church
of England^'
BURGGRAVE {burg town, and graf or grave count),
the hereditary governor of a castle or fortified town, chiefly
BUR
in Germany. The burggraves were originally the same as Burghbote
castellans or comites castellani; but their dignity was con- II
siderably advanced under Rodolph of Hapsburg, when they
began to rank with princes.
BURGHBOTE, in Old Laws, signifies contribution to¬
wards the building or repairing of castles or walls, for the
defence of a borough or city. By a law of King Athelstan,
the castles and walls of towns were to be repaired, and.
burghbote levied every year. No person was exempt from
this service, and even the king could not exempt a man
from burghbote; yet in after-times exemptions appear to
have been frequently granted, insomuch that the word burgh¬
bote came to denote, not the service, but the exemption
from it.
BURGHBRECH (Swr^Aand break), a fine imposed on
a burgh for a breach of the peace.
BURGHMOTE, the court of a borough. By the laws
of King Edgar, the burghmote was held thrice a-year ; by
those of Henry I. twelve times.
BURGKMAIR, Hans or John, a very celebrated en¬
graver on wood, and believed to have been a pupil of A.
Diirer, was born at Augsburg in 1472. Some of his works
are dated as early as 1510. Professor Christ ascribes to
him about 700 woodcuts, most of them distinguished by that
spirit and freedom that we admire in the works of his sup¬
posed master. His principal work is the series of 135, prints,
representing the triumphs of the Emperor Maximilian I.
They are of large size, executed in chiar-oscuro, from two
blocks, and convey a high idea of his powers. Several
other of his pieces are mentioned by Strutt. Burgkmair was
also an excellent painter in fresco and in distemper, speci¬
mens of which are in the galleries of Munich and Vienna,
carefully and solidly finished in the style of the old Ger¬
man school. He died about 1559.
BURGLARY, or Nocturnal House-Breaking {burgi
latrocinium), which by the ancient English law was called
hamesuchen (a word also used in the law of Scotland, but
in a somewhat different sense), has always been looked upon
as a very heinous offence. The definition of a burglar, as
given by Sir Edward Coke, is, “ he that by night breaketh
and entereth in a mansion-house with intent to commit a
felony.” The offence and its punishment are under the
provisions of the 7th Will. IV., and 1st Viet., c. 86, which re¬
quire the night to be reckoned from nine in the evening
until six in the morning, and applies the punishment of
death where the offence is accompanied by personal vio¬
lence, long transportation (now liable to be commuted to
penal servitude), or imprisonment, being the punishments
for the more mitigated form of the offence.
BURGOMASTER, Burghermaster, Burgermester,
or Burgmeister, the chief magistrate of the great towns in
Flanders, Holland, and Germany.
Burgomaster. See Ornithology, Index.
BURGONET (French bourguignotte), an ancient kind
of helmet, with a small visor, and without a gorget. It was
first used by the Burgundians, hence its name.
BURGOS, an ancient province of Spain in the kingdom
of Old Castile, comprehending the modern provinces of Bur¬
gos, Logrono, and Santander, and covering an area of 7644
square miles. The modern province is bounded north by the
province of Santander; east by Alava, Navarre, and Soria;
west by Palencia and Valladolid ; south by Segovia. I he
territory of Burgos is elevated and mountainous, being in¬
tersected by several sierras ; the slopes of which, however,
are well stocked with game, and afford pasture for large
herds of black cattle, horses, mules, sheep, and goats. It
abounds in spacious and well-watered valleys, in which
wheat, barley, oats, maize, rye, flax, and hemp, are grown
for home consumption. The cultivation of the vine is little
attended to ; but the facilities for rearing bees give rise to a
considerable traffic in honey and wax. The climate of
BUR
Burgos. Burgos is cold, damp, and variable, and the province from its
—elevation is exposed to severe storms from the N. and N.E.
Pop. (1849) 234,022.
Burgos, the capital of the above province, stands on the
slope of a hill the base of which is skirted by the river Arlan-
zon, in Lat. 42. 21. N. Long. 3. 43. W. It is a considerable
town, consisting of about 1400 houses, originally girt into
the form of a segment of a circle by a wall, some portions of
which still remain. On the opposite bank of the river, and
connected with the more ancient part of the town by three
stone bridges, are the suburbs (Barrio de la Vega), tastefully
laid out in pleasure-grounds ; whilst lower down in the midst
of the stream is an island furnished with seats and walks as
a public promenade. The streets and squares are exceed¬
ingly irregular, although spacious and well built. The prin¬
cipal square is the Plaza Mayor, or Plaza de la Constitucion,
in the centre of which is a bronze statue of Charles II. I he
most important public building is the cathedral, begun in 1221,
but not completed till 1567. It is built in an irregular florid
Gothic style, and contains eight chapels, the most famous
of which is the Capilladel Condestable, containing the tombs
of several of the Velasco family, the hereditary constables of
Castile. Besides the cathedral there is the Hotel de Ville,
the Palace of Velasco, the church of St Paul, and a beauti¬
ful Doric arch erected in honour of Fernando Gonzalez.
There is a fine approach to the city through the massive gate
of Santa Maria, surmounted by a statue of the Virgin and
Child, with figures of Fernando Gonzalez, Charles I.,the Cid,
and Diego Porcelos, in the niches. The hospitals of Burgos
are seven in number, and well supported ; they are the Hos¬
pital San Juan (founded in 1479), the Hospital de la Concep¬
tion, San Julian, San Quirce, Del Rey, Militar, and the Hospi-
cio y Casa de Epositos. The educational wants of the dis¬
trict are supplied by four primary schools, which are libe¬
rally endowed from the municipal funds, and afford gra¬
tuitous instruction to upwards of 200 pupils. There is also
a normal school and a Seminario Conciliar, in which the
higher branches are taught. But the most important edu¬
cational establishment is the Instituto Superior Burgalez,
which has a staff of 21 professors, and annually enrols about
250 students. The professors give prelections on lan¬
guage, science, and the fine arts. Burgos is the see of an
archbishop, who has for his suffragans the bishops of Pam-
plona, Palencia, Santander, and Tudela. It has several
monasteries, amongst which may be mentioned the Monas-
terio de Fredesval, San Agustin, &c. About two miles dis¬
tant from the town stands the Carthusian Convent, de Mira-
flores, built as a royal burying-place ^ whilst a little below
the promenade of the Isla stands the Real Monasterio de
las Huelgas, founded by Alonzo VIII., the abbess of which
was invested with almost royal prerogatives, and held un¬
limited sway over more than 50 villages. Burgos is the
official residence of a military staff, and is well provided with
barracks and storehouses. The jurisdiction of its courts
extends over the whole audienza, including Alava, Gui-
puscoa, Logrono, Santander, Soria, and Vizcaya.
Besides furnishing a mart for the agricultural produce of
the neighbouring districts, it carries on a considerable ex¬
port trade in linen and woollen stuffs, made in imitation of
English goods. The principal articles of manufacture are
hats, stockings, and leather goods. Recently a paper-mill
has been started, which gives employment to 120 operatives
of both sexes. Pop. (1845) 14,790.
The history of Burgos cannot be carried back beyond
the end of the ninth century. There is no trace of its exist¬
ence during the occupation of Spain by the Romans. We
find the nucleus of it existing in 884, when Diego Por¬
celos, at the command of Alfonso the Great, built a castle
on the right bank of the Arlanzon to check the progress of
the Moors. From that time forward we find it steadily in¬
creasing in importance, reaching the height of its prosperity
BUR 773
in the fifteenth century, when alternately with Toledo it was Burgun-
occupied as a royal residence, but rapidly declining when the diones
court was finally removed to Madrid. Being on one of the guria|
principal military roads of the kingdom, it suffered severely \ ^ j
in the Peninsular War. It was unsuccessfully besieged by
Wellington in 1812, but was surrendered to him in the
opening of the campaign of the following year.
BURGUNDIONES, Bourgoundiones, Burgundii, a
powerful race of Vandals or Goths, whose original territory
lay between the Oder and the Vistula. Some of the ancient
writers, however, state that they were descendants of the
Roman garrisons who had been left in Germany by Drusus
and Tiberius. They were driven out of their territory by
the Gepidse, and gradually proceeded westward till they
settled in Gaul, where they organized the powerful princi¬
pality of Burgundy.
BURGUNDTUS, or Bourgoigne, Nicholas, an emi¬
nent jurist, born in 1586 at Enghien in Hainault. In 1627
he was appointed professor of civil law at Ingoldstadt, and
honoured with the dignity of Count Palatine. He studied
with great care the manners and customs of the feudal times ;
and on this subject he is still consulted as one of the best
authorities. A collective edition of his works appeared at
Brussels in 1674. The best of these, the Historia Belgica
ab anno 1558 ad annum 1567, is a detailed history of the
Low countries for the nine years preceding the arrival of the
Duke of Alva.
BURGUNDY, called also Burgundy Proper, or Lower
Burgundy, formerly a province in the east of France, lying
on the west of Franche-Comte, and on the south of Cham¬
pagne. It now forms the departments of Cote d’Or, and Saone
et Loire, with part of those of Aube, Yonne, and Upper
Marne, under which several heads Burgundy will be found
described.
BURHAMPOOR, a town of Hindustan, in the province
of Bengal, situated on the east bank of the Bhagirathi or
Cossimbazar river, five miles south from Moorshedabad. It
is one of the military stations of the British government; and
the cantonments, consisting of a grand square inclosing a
fine parade-ground, command the notice of the traveller.
Formerly the place proved unhealthy to the European con¬
stitution, and the extent of mortality which prevailed was
painfully brought to view by the crowded state of the Euro¬
pean burial-ground. At present, however, owing to the in¬
troduction of sanitary measures, the cantonment is repre¬
sented to be inferior to none in Bengal for its salubrity.
An air of grandeur and importance is communicated to the
place by a" number of stately buildings scattered over the
neighbourhood. A government college is about to be esta¬
blished in the town. Lat. 24. 5. Long. 88. 17.
BURHILL, or Burghill, Robert, a learned historian
and divine, born at Dymock in Gloucestershire in 1572. At
the age of fifteen he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
of which he afterwards became a fellow. Shortly after tak¬
ing orders, he received the living of Northwold in Norfolk,,
where he ultimately died in 1641, just before the outbreak
of the civil war. His learning and judgment were deemed
worthy of especial notice by the author of the Athence Ox-
oniensis; and were highly appreciated by Sir Walter Raleigh,
who derived much assistance from Burhill, when engaged
upon his History of the World, during his confinement in
the Tower.
BURIAL, the interment of a deceased person. In al¬
most all countries the rites of sepulture have been looked
upon as a debt so sacred, that those who neglected to dis¬
charge them were thought infamous. Hence the Romans
called them just a, and the Greeks vo/juga, Sikcuol, oaia, words
implying the inviolable obligation which nature has laid
upon the living to perform the obsequies of the dead. The
Romans in the most ancient times appear to have buried
their dead ; but the practice of burning the body was early
774 BUR
Buriats adopted, and both burning and burying continued to be
II practised more or less until the introduction of Cluistianity.
Buridan. jt jg not surprising that the ancient Greeks and Romans were
extremeiy solicitous about the interment of their deceased
friends, since they believed that their souls could not he
admitted into the Elysian fields till their obsequies had been
performed ; and that if they did not obtain the rites of
burial they were excluded from the happy mansions for
the term of a hundred years. For this reason it was con¬
sidered as a duty incumbent upon all travellers who hap¬
pened to meet with a dead body in their way, to cast dust
or mould upon it three times ; and of these, one portion at
least was cast upon the head. (Horace, Ode 28, Book I.)
The ancients likewise considered it as a great misfortune
if they were not laid in the sepulchres of their fathers ; for
which reason the ashes of those who died in foreign coun¬
tries were usually brought home and interred with those of
their ancestors. But notwithstanding the great care in the
burial of the dead, there were some persons whom they
thought unworthy of the last office, and to whom therefore
they refused it; namely, public or private enemies ; such
as betrayed or conspired against their country ; tyrants,
who were always looked upon as enemies to their country;
villains guilty of sacrilege ; such as died in debt, whose
bodies belonged to their creditors ; and offenders who had
suffered capital punishment.
Of those who were allowed the rites of burial, some were
distinguished by particular circumstances attending their
interment. Thus persons killed by lightning were buried
on the spot where they fell, which was ever after considered
sacred. (See Bidental.) Those who wasted their patri¬
mony forfeited the right of being buried in the sepulchres
of their fathers ; and those who were guilty of self-murder
were privately consigned to the earth without the accus¬
tomed solemnities.
Among the Jews the privilege of burial was denied only
to self-murderers, who were thrown out to rot upon the
ground. In the Christian church, though good men always
desired the privilege of interment, yet they were not, like
the heathens, so concerned for their bodies as to think it
any detriment to them if either the barbarity of an enemy
or some other accident deprived them of this privilege. The
primitive Christian church denied the more solemn rites of
burial only to the unbaptized, to self-murderers, and to ex¬
communicated persons who continued obstinate and im¬
penitent in contempt of the censures of the church. See
Burying-Place ; Funeral Rites.
BURIATS, Buraty, or Bratsky, a tribe of Tartars,
now brought under the jurisdiction of Russia, and widely
dispersed throughout Siberia, in the government of Irkutsk,
wherein their numbers are computed from the capitation
tax at about 300,000, Their features are of a genuine
Tartar cast, resembling those of the Kalmucks, though they
are not quite so flat, the nose being somewhat higher, and
the countenance more open. They themselves trace their
origin to the Kalmucks, and not to the Moguls, They are
pastoral in their habits, and depend for their subsistence
chiefly on their flocks, but some of their number devote
themselves to agriculture. The principal occupations of
the men are riding and hunting; and they are dexterous
archers as well as skilful horsemen. They have likewise
made considerable progress in the working of iron, and in
tanning. Many women of the tribe are occupied in this
latter branch of industry, and display much ingenuity and
taste in the art. They are esteemed honest and sincere,
and both sexes are extremely courteous. They are very
ignorant, and debased by the grossest paganism. The re¬
sidence of this tribe is chiefly around the shores of the lake
Baikal, and the rivers Angora and Lena.
BURIDAN, Jean, a native of Bethune, in Artois, and
one of the most celebrated philosophers of the fourteenth
B U R
century, flourished between 1338 and 1358. He taught Burigny
in the university of Paris with great reputation, and wrote II
on logic, ethics, and Aristotle’s metaphysics. Aventinus Burke,
relates that he was a disciple of Ockam ; and that, being '
expelled Paris by the intrigues of the realists, who were at
that time more influential than the nominalists, he went into
Germany, where he founded the university of Vienna ; but
that writer is clearly in error in attributing to Buridan the
founding of this institution. Buridan was the author of the
well-known illustration of the doctrine of free-will by the
proverb of the ass between two bundles of hay—a sophism
that long perplexed the schools.
BURIGNY, Jean Levesque de, a learned French
writer, was born at Rheims in 1691. In 1713 he went to
Paris, and with two elder brothers pursued a systematic
course of study extending over almost every department of
human knowledge. The result of these labours was em¬
bodied in an Encyclopaedia in twelve folio volumes, to which
Jean contributed about one-half. In 1756 he was elected
into the French academy, and in 1785 was rewarded with
a pension by the king. His largest work, The Lives of the
Popes, is not much esteemed now as an authority ; but his
biographies of Erasmus, Grotius, and Bossuet, are interest¬
ing and valuable. He died at Paris in 1785, aged ninety-
four.
BURIN (French burin), a graver; an instrument of
tempered steel, for engraving on copper. It is of a pris¬
matic form, and the end is ground off obliquely so as to
produce a sharp point. The expressions soft-burin, bril¬
liant-burin, are used to characterize the manner of the
artist.
BURKE, Edmund, an illustrious writer, orator, and
statesman, was born in Dublin on the 1st of January 1730.
His father was an attorney, first in Limerick, and after¬
wards in Dublin. Young Burke received the rudiments
of his education at Castletown Roche. He was afterwards
put under the tuition of Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker of
some celebrity at Ballitore, in the county of Kildare. Com¬
mitted to the care of a master so well qualified for the busi¬
ness of instruction, he applied to his studies with commend¬
able assiduity, and in this seminary laid the foundation
of his knowledge of the ancient languages, and probably
also imbibed that love of liberty which so often pointed
his oratory, inflamed his passions, animated his sentiments,
and in his best days secured him an almost unequalled re¬
putation.
Here several years of his life were spent; and the attach¬
ment of the master and the gratitude of the pupil reflect
equal honour on both. The former lived to see his scholar
attain a considerable degree of reputation ; and the latter,
on his part, was accustomed to spend a portion of his annual
visit to Ireland at Ballitore. He also kept up an epistolary
correspondence with him, which lasted till the death of his
tutor.
From this provincial seminary Edmund was sent to the
university of Dublin. But here he does not appear to
have distinguished himself much either by application or
talents: his character as a student was merely negative.
He received a degree, however, before he departed, and
during this period he commenced author, by writing some
political essays.
Mr Burke now addicted himself to other pursuits, parti¬
cularly logic and metaphysics, and is said to have planned
a refutation of the systems of Berkeley and Hume. But
whilst thus employed in treasuring up the means of attain¬
ing a species of celebrity which far different avocations
prevented his afterwards aspiring to, he was not inatten¬
tive to the grand object of obtaining a suitable settlement
in life. His family was not opulent, and as he already panted
after independence, he repaired to the metropolis, and en¬
rolled his name as a student of the Inner Temple.
BURKE.
775
Burke. It appears from his speeches, his writings, and his con-
versation, that he studied the outlines of our municipal
jurisprudence with attention ; but it may be doubted whe¬
ther he ever entered deeply into the study of law. The
versatility of his talents and his avocations were, indeed,
but little calculated for that dull and plodding perseve¬
rance which can alone lead to an intimate knowledge of our
laws; and even if he had been gifted with the necessary
application, both time and opportunity were wanting; for
it is well known that at this period of his life the res an-
gusta domi did not permit the student to dedicate his at¬
tention solely to this, or indeed to any other single pur¬
suit. The exhausted state of his finances called frequently
for a speedy supply; and, instead of perusing the pages
of Bracton, Fleta, Littleton, and Coke, he was obliged to
write essays, letters, and paragraphs, for the periodical
publications of the day. But if these pursuits diverted
his attention from graver studies, they acquired him a fa¬
cility of composition, and a command of style and of lan¬
guage, which proved eminently serviceable to him in the
course of his future life. About this period he became a
candidate for a vacant chair in the university of Glasgow,
but he was unsuccessful.
His health, however, became at length impaired, and a
nervous fever ensued. This circumstance induced him to
call in the aid of Dr Nugent, a countryman of his own,
and a man of amiable manners, though not of extensive
practice. This gentleman, who was himself an author,
readily discovered the source of Mr Burke’s malady, and,
by removing him from books and business to his own house,
soon effected a cure; an event which is said to have been
hastened, if not entirely completed, by a physician of
another kind, the accomplished daughter of Dr Nugent,
whose delicate attentions to the invalid appear to have
made a deep impression on his heart. In fact this lady
afterwards became Mrs Burke; and the circumstance was
particularly fortunate for him, as her disposition was mild
and gentle, and she continued throughout a long series of
years, and many vicissitudes of fortune, to soothe and tran¬
quillize passions always violent, and often tumultuous.
After some time ostensibly spent in the study of law,
Mr Burke seems to have determined once more to endea¬
vour to distinguish himself as an author; and accordingly
he took advantage of the death of a celebrated nobleman
to compose a work after the manner of that distinguished
writer, so that, by exaggerating his principles, he might
be enabled to bring them into contempt; but this effort
proved unsuccessful, and the treatise in question was for
a long time consigned to oblivion, nor would it have ever
been heard of, had it not been resuscitated by his future
fame. But the success of another performance made
ample amends for this disappointment. His Essay on the
Sublime and Beautiful attracted a great degree of notice,
and acquired him considerable celebrity as a man of let¬
ters. In addition to the profits of the publication, he is
said to have received a present of a hundred pounds from
his father; but his circumstances must have been greatly
embarrassed about this time, as he was obliged to sell his
books,—a measure which nothing but the extremity of
distress could have forced a man of letters to resort to.
This work having an immediate relation to taste, ex¬
cited a desire in Sir Joshua Reynolds, even then at the
head of his profession, to become acquainted with Mr
Burke ; and a friendship ensued which continued uninter¬
rupted during the life of the painter, and was unequivo¬
cally testified by a handsome bequest in his will. Dr
Johnson also sought and obtained his friendship; and he
now became the constant frequenter of two clubs, com¬
posed of some of the most celebrated men of that day.
One of these met at the Turk’s Head Tavern in Gerrard
Street, and consisted of Dr Johnson, Mr (afterwards Sir
Joshua) Reynolds, Dr Goldsmith, Mr Topham Beauclerc,
Dr Nugent, Sir John Hawkins, Mr Bennet Langton, Mr
Chamier, Mr Garrick, and Mr Burke. The other assem¬
bled at the St James’s Coffee-house, and, besides many of
the above, included Mr Cumberland, Dr Douglas, bishop
of Salisbury, Dr Bernard, dean of Derry, Mr Richard
Burke, Mr William Burke, Mr Hickey, and others. Dr
Goldsmith, who was Mr Burke’s contemporary at Dublin
College, was member of both, and wrote the epitaphs of
those who composed the latter.
A literary work on a new plan, first suggested in 1750,
and by some attributed to the Dodsleys, but by others to
Mr Burke, became for some time a considerable source
of emolument to him. This was called the Annual Re¬
gister, a publication which soon obtained considerable ce¬
lebrity, and of which he had for several years the super¬
intendence.
But Mr Burke was at length called off from his literary
pursuits by avocations of a far different kind. A gentleman
who afterwards obtained the name of Singlespeech Ha¬
milton, having been appointed secretary to the lord-lieu¬
tenant of Ireland, invited his friend Mr Burke to accom¬
pany him thither, an offer which he readily accepted;
and although he acted in no public station, and performed
no public service, while he remained in that country, he
was rewarded with a pension of three hundred pounds per
annum, which the conduct of Mr Hamilton soon afterwards
compelled him to throw up.
On his return to England he amused himself, as usual,
with literary composition; and a series of essays written
by him in a newspaper, which at the time enjoyed great
celebrity, attracted the notice of the Marquis of Rocking¬
ham ; in consequence of which Mr Fitzherbert, father of
Lord St Helen’s, introduced him to that nobleman. From
this moment he became a public man, and dedicated his
studies, his eloquence, and his pen, almost exclusively to
politics. Meanwhile Lord Rockingham, having proved
more compliant than the Earl of Chatham, came into
power ; and when seated on the treasury bench, he select¬
ed Mr Burke as his private secretary,—an office of no
power, and very little emolument, but one which naturally
leads to both. As it was now necessary that he should
have a seat in parliament, although it can scarcely be
supposed that he was legally qualified in point of proper¬
ty, he applied to Lord Verney, patron of Wendover, and
was returned for that borough, which was then dependent
on his lordship, being principally occupied by his tenants.
Having thus obtained a seat in 1765, he prepared to
qualify himself for his new situation. He had all the ne¬
cessary talents, and was only deficient in knowledge of
the forms of business, and in facility of expressing his
sentiments before a public audience. The first of these
he mastered by sedulous attention ; and as to the second,
if we are to credit those who were intimately acquainted
with him at this period of his life, he overcame all diffi¬
culties by a previous initiation elsewhere. In short, he
had acquired celebrity at the Robinhood before he at¬
tempted to speak in the British senate, and vanquished an
eloquent baker ere he began to cope with the greatest ora¬
tors this nation has ever produced.
Holding a confidential place under the Rockingham ad¬
ministration, he of course supported all its measures. A
former ministry, anxious to increase its influence by means
of increased imposts, had conceived the idea of taxing
America through the medium of a parliament in which
she was not represented, and attempted to carry this into
effect by means of the famous stamp act; but the Ameri¬
cans, alarmed at what they conceived to be a flagrant vio¬
lation of every principle of the English constitution, made
Burke.
776
Burke.
BURKE.
such a spirited resistance to the measure, that it was aban- that he should be put to no expense whatever, he im- Burke,
doned and the Rockingham party readily consented to mediately set out for the west of England, and found that
the repeal. Under the pretext, however, of vindicating no less than three candidates had started before him. The
the honour of the crown, they unfortunately proposed and first was Lord Clare, afterwards Lord Nugent, one of the
carried the declaratory act, by means of which, although former representatives, whose unpopularity was such that
the original scheme was abandoned, the principle on which he soon discovered the necessity of resigning all his pre-
it had been built was asserted anew, and a foundation laid tensions; and of the two others, Mr Cruger and Mr Brick-
for all the miseries which afterwards ensued. But if the dale, who remained in the field, the former, like Mr Burke
Rockingham administration deserved no great credit on himself, was averse to a rupture with America,
this occasion, it is entitled to considerable praise on ac- The new candidate did not appear on the hustings un¬
count of other parts of its conduct; for it repealed the til the afternoon of the sixth day’s poll, on which occasion
cider act, procured a declaration of the House of Com- he addressed the electors in a very able speech, admirably
mons condemning the seizure of papers, and carried a re- calculated for the occasion ; expressing a modest diffidence
solution against general warrants. On retiring from office, of his own abilities, and a high opinion of the important
however, 'they did not carry much popularity along with trust they were assembled to confer; boldly declaring him-
them • Lord Chatham and his friends, who in some mea- self hostile to a contest with America; and asserting that
sure monopolized the public favour, were intrusted with England had been rendered flourishing by liberty and com-
the management of affairs for a short time; and it is ex- merce, the first of which was dear to his heart, whilst the
tremely probable that they would have sunk into neglect latter had been a favourite^ object of his studies, both in
had not America been driven into open resistance. its principles and details. This harangue was well receiv-
It now fell to the lot of Lord North to enforce the ed by the electors; the contest proved propitious to his
scheme which the Grenville party had projected, which wishes; and when the sheriffs had notified, at the close
the Rockingham administration had by an unaccountable of the poll, that he was elected, he delivered the most bril-
blunder at once recognised and annihilated, and which liant address on the occasion that had ever been heard
they afterwards manfully and at length successfully op- within the walls of the city.
posed. This forms the most brilliant epoch of Mr Burke’s Mr Burke returned from his new constituents to parha-
life. He was hostile to the expulsion of Mr Wilkes, an ment with increased vigour, reputation, and zeal. The
act which the House of Commons afterwards rescinded Earl of Chatham, notwithstanding his reputation for wis-
from its records. On the application of the dissenters dom, having failed in an attempt to adjust the troubles
for relief, he espoused their cause, and expressed his re- of the colonies by means of a conciliatory bill introduced
sentment in very animated terms against that misguided by him into the House of Peers for that purpose, the ob-
policy which permitted all those not within the pale of the stinacy of the ministry now became apparent to every one.
establishment to enjoy liberty less by right than by conni- But this circumstance, which would have appalled an in-
vance. But perhaps the noblest part of his conduct con- ferior man, did not, however, discourage the member for
sisted in his steady and uniform opposition to the Ameri- Bristol from making a similar attempt in another place;
can war, and his marked hostility to the abettors of the and accordingly, on the 22d March 1775, he brought for-
struggle. His speech against the Boston Port Bill was ward his celebrated thirteen propositions, which were in-
one of the most brilliant specimens of oratory that had ever tended to close the fatal breach, and heal all the differ-
been displayed in the British senate; and on the 19th of ences between the mother country and her colonies. His
April 1774, on a motion for the repeal of the tea duty, he plan, on this occasion, embraced not only immediate con-
discovered such talents, that an old and respectable mem- ciliation, by a repeal of the late coercive acts, but also the
ber exclaimed, “ Good God, what a man is this ! How creation of an independent judicature, and the regulation
could he acquire such transcendent powers ?” And when, of the courts of admiralty. The whole, however, was
in reply to another who had said that the Americans were quashed by a large majority on the side of the minister
our children, and it was horrible to revolt against their pa- who moved the previous question.
rent, the orator uttered the following passage, the whole Mr Burke had hitherto chiefly distinguished himself m
house was electrified : “ They are our children, it is true; opposition to the measures of others ; but in 1780 he him-
but when children ask for bread, we are not to give them self stood forth as the original author of a scheme which
a stone. When those children of ours wish to assimilate soon engaged the attention of the public, and actually ap-
with their parent, and to respect the beauteous counte- peared big with the most important results. When he
nance of British liberty, are we to turn to them the shame- found ministers obstinately persisting in a disastrous war,
ful parts of our constitution ? Are we to give them our and perceived that the people began to bend beneath the
weakness for their strength; our opprobrium for their weight of the taxes for its support, it struck him as at
glory; and the slough of slavery, which we are not able once advantageous and politically expedient to attempt to
to work off', to serve them for their freedom?” diminish the public burdens and the number of adherents
The city of Bristol, the merchants of which had become of the court. Accordingly, on the 11th of February, he
rich by the commerce with America, were likely to suffer brought in a bill for the regulation of his majesty’s civil
by its interdiction. This consideration alone rendered establishments, and of certain public offices ; for the. hmi-
many of them hostile to the proceedings of the ministry; tation of pensions, and the suppression of sundry useless,
but nobler and more exalted motives actuated the bosoms expensive, and inconvenient places; and for applying the
of some, particularly the quakers, dissenters, and other monies saved thereby to the public service. This scheme
sectaries, who were moved by zeal against oppression, and was manifestly founded on the late reforms which had
a love of liberty imprinted on their minds by a constitu- taken place in France ; for, by an edict of the king, regis-
tion which until then had remained inviolate. Gratified tered in the parliament of Paris, it appeared that he had
by the exertions of Mr Burke in behalf of civil and reli- suppressed no less than four hundred places in his house-
gious freedom, they put him in nomination for the city, hold by one regulation. The orator judiciously adverted to
and sent into Yorkshire to request his immediate personal this event, and endeavoured to make use of it as an incite-
attendance. After consulting with his patron concerning ment to a similar attempt here, calling in national rival-
an offer so flattering and unexpected, accompanied at ship by way of an inducement to consent to this sacrifice
the same time with assurances most punctually fulfilled, on the part of the crown. lo this bill the minority did
BURK E.
Burke, not at first give much opposition; and indeed the mover
of it contrived to soften those features which appeared
harsh to them. But notwithstanding this, it did not prove
successful during Lord North’s administration; and when
it was at length carried, it was much modified and altered.
Parliament was dissolved in 1780, but Mr Burke was
not re-elected for Bristol. This is said to have made a
deep impression on the mind of the orator; but it must
have been obliterated by the important events which
speedily ensued; for the minister now tottered on the
treasury bench, being abandoned by many of his staunch¬
est supporters, and but little confident in his own schemes,
all of which had proved eminently unsuccessful. Mean¬
while the opposition having increased to a considerable
degree, unceasingly assailed him, until at length, on the
28th March 1782, Lord North assured the House of Com¬
mons that his administration was at an end.
The day had now arrived when the ministry and oppo¬
sition were to change places, and Mr Burke, whose ser¬
vices had been so conspicuous, was made a privy counsel¬
lor, and invested with the lucrative appointment of pay¬
master-general of the forces. He was thus at length ena¬
bled to enforce his plan of political economy, tendered
before in vain; and the board of trade, the board of works,
the offices of third secretary of state, treasurer of the
chamber, cofferer of the household, the lords of police in
Scotland, the master of the harriers, the master of the
stag-hounds, the six clerks of the board of green cloth,
and the paymaster of the pensions, were abolished. But
when the reins of government were confided to the hands
of the Marquis of Lansdown, then Earl Shelburne, this
event gave such offence to those who wished to place the
Duke of Portland at the head of affairs, that Mr Fox, Lord
John Cavendish, and Mr Burke, immediately resigned.
In the mean time the critical state of the English East
India Company had long agitated the public mind, and
become occasionally a subject of discussion in parliament.
The seizure, imprisonment, and confinement of Lord Pigot,
by a faction in the council of Madras—the conduct of Mr
Blastings in respect to several of the native powers—and
the grand question of sovereignty, relative to the territo¬
rial possessions of the Company in Asia—had all at differ¬
ent times excited the attention of the nation. Accord¬
ingly, when Mr Fox and his friends came into power, he
brought in a bill to remedy the various abuses in the go¬
vernment of British India. Of this bill Mr Burke is well
known to have been in a great measure the author; and
when it was introduced into parliament, he defended its
principles and provisions with all the zeal of a parent.
Notwithstanding much opposition both within and with¬
out, this celebrated bill was carried triumphantly through
the House of Commons ; but in the House of Peers it ex¬
perienced a far different fate, and with it fell the power
and consequence of its authors, framers, and supporters.
In the course of the next year, 28th February 1785, he
made a splendid speech relative to the nabob of Arcot’s
debts; and depicted one of his creditors, who had taken
an active share in the late elections, “ as a criminal who
long since ought to have fattened the region kites with
his offal; the old betrayer, insulter, oppressor, and scourge
of a country (Tanjore), which had for years been an ob¬
ject of an unremitted, but unhappily an unequal struggle,
between the bounties of Providence to renovate, and the
wickedness of mankind to destroy.” But there appeared
to Mr Burke to be a still greater delinquent; and accord¬
ingly he resolved to sacrifice, if possible, the powerful
offender himself at the shrine of national vengeance. This
was Mr Hastings; and, soon after his arrival in England,
the orator gave notice of his intentions. On the 17th of
February 1785 he opened the accusation by a most elo-
VOL. y.
777
quent speech, in which he depicted the alleged crimes of Burke,
the ex-governor-general in the most glowing and animated
colours. This trial, however, turned out in the event very
different from what had been expected; whilst the length
of it failed not to involve both Mr Burke himself and his
party in reproach.
During the debate on the commercial treaty with France,
23d January 1787, Mr Burke, then member for Malton, ex¬
hibited an undiminished versatility of talents, and pointed
his ridicule with no common success at Mr Pitt, who, ac¬
cording to him, contemplated the subject with a narrow¬
ness peculiar to limited minds:—“ He seems to consider
it,” said he, “ as an affair of two little counting-houses,
and not of two great nations. He seems to consider it as
a contention between the sign of the jleur-de-lis and the
sign of the old red lion, for which should obtain the best
custom.”
The next public event of importance in which we find
Mr Burke engaged, occurred in consequence of his ma¬
jesty’s indisposition. On this occasion he took an active
part in the debates of the House of Commons, and is sup¬
posed to have penned a letter for one, and a speech for
another branch of the royal family. When Mr Pitt moved
his declaratory resolutions relative to the provisional ex¬
ercise of the royal authority, Mr Burke attacked him with
much asperity of language, and was particularly severe
on the manner in which the royal assent was to be given
to all future acts of parliament. The men who held most
of the high places under the government were treated as
jobbers, old hacks of the court, and the supporters and be¬
trayers of all parties; and he declared that it was a mock
crown, a tinsel robe, and a sceptre from the theatre, lacker¬
ed over and unreal, which were about to be conferred on
the prince of Wales.
The opposition, diminished indeed by a few occasional
desertions, had hitherto acted as a great public body, sup¬
posed to be united in general principles for the common
welfare and prosperity of the state; but the French revo¬
lution thinned their ranks, dispelled their consequence,
and, by sowing jealousy between the chiefs, spread con¬
sternation and dismay among their followers. It was on
the 2d of March 1790, jvhen Mr Fox moved for leave to
bring in a bill to repeal the corporation and test acts, that
this disunion became evident; and soon afterwards Mr
Burke declared that his honourable friend and he were
separated in their politics for ever.
The ministry now seemed anxious to provide for their
new associate; and he, on his part, certainly appeared de¬
serving of some remuneration at their hands, for he had
abandoned all his old friends, and not a few of his old
principles. In addition to this, his Reflections on the Re¬
volution in France had afforded some degree of counte¬
nance, and even popularity, to the measures of administra¬
tion ; and, not content with his own exertions, he had
enlisted his son on the same side, and even sent him to
Coblentz. The royal munificence at length gratified his
warmest wishes; for by a warrant, dated 24th September
1795, he received a pension, made to commence from the
5th January 1793, of L.l 200 for his own life and that of his
wife, on the civil list; whilst two other pensions of L.2500
a year for three lives, payable out of the four and a half per
cent, fund, dated 24th October 1795, wrere made to com¬
mence from the 24th July 1793. Honours as well as wealth
now seemed to await him, for he was about to be ennobled,
wdien the untimely death of an only child put an end to his
dreams of ambition, and contributed not a little to hasten
his own, which occurred at his house at Beaconsfield on
the 9th of July 1797.
Thus died, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, Edmund
Burke, one of the greatest orators, statesmen, and authors
5 F
*,
778
Eurkitt
II
Burmah.
BUR
of his age; a man whose name will lopg continue to be
celebrated ; and one who, had he fallen during the meridian
of his fame and character, would have scarcely been con¬
sidered as second to any man, either of ancient or modern
times.
BURKITT, William, a celebrated commentator on
the New Testament, was born at Hitcham in Suffolk, July
25, 1650, and educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He
was ordained by Bishop Reynolds; and his first clerical
employment was at Milden in Suffolk, where he continued
twenty-one years, first as curate, and afterwards as rector.
In 1692 he was presented to the vicarage of Dedham in
Essex, and there he resided to the time of his death, which
happened in October 1703. Besides a Commentary on the
New Testament, he wrote a volume entitled The Poor
Man’s Help and the Rich Man’s Guide.
BURLEIGH. See Cecil.
BURLESQUE, a species of composition, which, though
a great engine of ridicule, is not confined to the ridiculous
alone ; for it is distinguishable into burlesque that excites
laughter merely, and burlesque that excites derision or
ridicule. A grave subject, in which there is no impropriety,
may be brought down by a certain colouring so as to be
ridiculous, as in Virgil Travesties the author laughing at
every turn in order to make his readers also laugh. The
Lutrin is a burlesque poem of the other sort, laying hold of
a low and trifling incident in order to expose the luxury,
indolence, and contentious spirit of a set of monks. Boileau,
the author, turns the subject into ridicule by dressing it in
the heroic style, and affecting to consider it as of the ut¬
most dignity and importance. Though broad ridicule is
the poet’s aim, he always carries a grave face, and never
once betrays a smile. It is the opposition between the sub¬
ject and the manner of handling that produces the ridicule;
and therefore, in a composition of this kind, no image pro¬
fessedly ludicrous ought to be admitted, because such images
destroy the contrast.
Though the burlesque that aims at ridicule produces its
effects by elevating the style far above the subject, yet the
BUR
poet ought to confine himself to such images as are lively Burlington
and readily apprehended. A strained elevation, soaring
above the ordinary reach of fancy, makes not a pleasant im- ^ \
pression. The mind is soon disgusted by being kept long *
on the stretch. Machinery may be employed in a burlesque
poem, such as the Lutrin, Dispensary, or Hudihras, with
more success and propriety than in any other species of
poetry; for burlesque poems, though they assume the air
of history, give entertainment chiefly by their pleasant and
ludicrous pictures. It is not the aim of such compositions
to raise sympathy, for which reason a strict imitation of
nature is not necessary; and hence the more extravagant
the machinery in a ludicrous poem the more entertainment
it affords.
BURLINGTON. See Bridlington.
Burlington, a city and port, capital of the county of
Chittenden, in the state of Vermont, North America, is
pleasantly situated on the east side of Lake Champlain, 31
miles W.N.W. of Montpelier. The town is regularly laid
out, and contains many elegant houses, generally surrounded
by gardens. The scenery in the vicinity is magnificent.
Besides the Vermont University (a well-endowed institution,
with a medical school and a library of 13,000 vols.), it has
a court-house, county buildings, banks, &c. The harbour
is protected on the west by a breakwater. In 1849-50, there
were 342 vessels of 82,856 tons cleared, and 404 vessels
of 99,435 tons entered, in the foreign trade. Burlington
is connected by railways with Canada and the western
states. Pop. 7505.
Burlington, a city and port of entry, capital of the
county of the same name in the state of New Jersey, on
the east side of the Delaware, 16 miles N.E. of Philadel¬
phia. It has a city-hall, lyceum, library, and many elegant
houses. Pop. 5398. Registered shipping (1850) 7578 tons.
Burlington, the capital of the Des Moines county, in
the state of Iowa, North America, stands on the west bank
of the Mississippi, 62 miles S.S.E. of Iowa city. It was laid
out in 1833, and in 1850 had a population of 5129. It is
the largest city in the state, and has a considerable trade.
BURMAH
A COUNTRY situated in the S.E. of Asia, in the region
beyond the river Brahmapootra. It is possessed by the
Burmese, the limits of whose dominions have been greatly
contracted by British conquests. On the west, where it is
conterminous with the British territories in India, Burmah is
bounded by the province of Arracan, surrendered to the
British by the treaty concluded with the Burmese in 1826,
and by the petty states of Tipperah, Munnepore, and Assam,
from which countries it is separated by lofty ridges of moun¬
tains ; on the south by the newly acquired British province
of Pegu ; on the north by Assam and Thibet; and on the
east by China. Its limits extend from Lat. 19. 25. to 28.
15.; and from Long. 93. 2. to 100. 40.; comprising a terri¬
tory measuring 540 miles in length from north to south, and
420 in breadth, with an area of 96,000 square miles.
Aspect of 'nlat p0rtion of Asia in which Burmah is situated slopes
the coun- from t]lc central mountains towards the south; and as it
approaches the Indian Ocean, it subsides into an extensive
champaign country, which is overflowed in the rainy season
by the swelling of the rivers. The Burmese territory is
watered by three great streams, namely, the Irrawaddy,
the Saluem, and the Kyen-dwen, a tributary of the Irra¬
waddy. These rivers have their sources in the north¬
ern chain of mountains in the interior, some of which are
covered with perpetual snow; and they run in a southerly
course to the Indian Ocean. The Irrawaddy and the Sa¬
luem are large rivers, which overflow the flat country on
their banks during the season of the rains. Burmah,
having been despoiled of Pegu, contains neither maritime
districts nor alluvial plains, but is altogether an upland
territory, bounded at its southern extremity by a frontier
line at the distance of about 200 miles from the mouths of
the Irrawaddy. From this point the country begins to rise,
and thence for about 300 miles farther it may be consi¬
dered hilly and elevated: beyond this it is wild and moun¬
tainous. To the W. and N.W. it is divided from Arracan,
Munnepore, and Assam, by mountainous ridges often of
great elevation.
Though inferior in point of fertility to the low-lying tracts Natural
of which Burmah has been stripped, the upland country is far produc-
from being unproductive. The chief crops are rice, maize, U0113-
millet, wheat, various pulses, palms, the sugar-cane, tobacco,
cotton, and indigo. The sugar-cane appears to have been long
known to the Burmese ; but though the climate and soil are
extremely favourable, it is not generally cultivated, and the
art of manufacturing sugar is scarcely known. A cheap and
coarse sugar is obtained from the juice of the Palmyra palm,
which abounds in the tract south ot the capital, where nume¬
rous groves of this tree are to be seen. 1 he cocoa and areca
palms are not common. The tea plant is cultivated in the
hills by some of the mountain tribes at the distance of about
five days’ journey, and by others in still greater perfection
at the distance of about ten days’ journey, from Ava. The
leaves are elliptical, oblong, and serrated, and there is little
B U R M A H. 779
Burmah. doubt of its being the genuine tea plant of China. It is
singular, however, that the natives never infuse it as they do
the Chinese tea, but eat the leaf prepared with oil and garlic.
Cotton is grown in every part of the kingdom and its de¬
pendencies, but chiefly in the dry lands and climate of the
upper provinces. Indigo is an indigenous product, and is
universally cultivated, but in a very rude manner. It is
still more rudely manufactured, and is wholly unfit for ex¬
portation.
In the cultivation of fruits the Burmese are careless and
unskilful. The most common fruits are the mango, the
orange, the pine, the custard apple, the jack, the papaya fig,
and the plantain. Most of these fruits grow spontaneously
in the congenial soil and climate of the country. In horti¬
culture and gardening the ignorance of the Burmese is re¬
markable. Though green vegetables and fruits form a
great portion of their diet, they are at no pains to cultivate
them, but are content with gathering those which grow
spontaneously in the forests and marshes, such as the young
shoots of the bamboo, wild asparagus, the succulent stems
of a variety of aquatic plants, and other shrubs which would
not be deemed fit for food in any other country. They are
strangers to all the ordinary garden vegetables, such as
peas, carrots, cabbages, turnips, mustard, cresses, radishes,
&c. Even melons, cucumbers, and the egg-plant, so gene¬
rally cultivated in India, are here little attended to. The
yam and the sweet potato are grown, but not extensively;
and the common potato is unknown. Onions are pro¬
duced ; and capsicum, which, after salt, is the most ordinary
condiment used by the Burmese, is cultivated everywhere.
The forests of Burmah abound in the finest trees. Among
these the teak holds a conspicuous place. The finest teak
forest is that of Sarawaddy, but many others exist in the
provinces, and Ava the capital is supplied from a place dis¬
tant fifteen days’ journey. Almost every description of
timber known in India is produced in the Burmese forests.1
Varnish is another useful forest product, which is employed
by the Shans and the Burmese in their manufacture of lac¬
quer ware. Stick-lack of an excellent quality is obtained in
the woods.
Minerals. Burmah is rich in minerals, and produces gold, silver, cop¬
per, tin, lead, antimony, amber, coal, petroleum, nitre, natron,
salt, limestone, and marble, noble serpentine, sapphire, and
other precious stones. Gold, carried down from the higher
grounds by the mountain streams, is found in the sands of
different rivers; and is also found towards Lao on the eastern
frontier. Silver mines, too, are wrought towards the Chi¬
nese frontier, at a place called Bor-twang, about twelve
days’ journey from B’hamo, which is 250 miles north by
east from Ava. The mountainous districts of Lao contain
almost all the other metals; but such is the rude state of
the people, that they are ignorant of their value; and it
is doubtful whether the copper, tin, and lead, which are
seen in the market of Ava are produced in the Burmese
territories, or are imported from China. Iron is found
abundantly in the eastern country of Lao, and it is wrought,
though with little advantage. Owing to ignorance and the
want of proper machinery, about 30 or 40 per cent, of the
metal is lost in the process of forging. The mountains near
the capital contain lime in great abundance and of re¬
markable whiteness ; and statuary marble, equal to the best
Italian specimens, is found about 40 miles from Ava, on
the eastern bank of the Irrawaddy. Mines of amber are
wrought, and their produce must be abundant, judging
from the price of this article, which at Ava does not exceed
four shillings per pound. Nitre, natron, and salt are found
in the neighbourhood of the capital, and in the upper pro¬
vinces. Coal has also been discovered, and there is little
doubt that it is extensively diffused. It has not, however,
been extracted from the earth by the ignorant and lazy in- Burmah.
habitants, who are content to use in its stead wood, which
is scarce and dear. Petroleum, which is used by all ranks
among the Burmese for burning in lamps, and also for
smearing wood as a preservative against insects, is found
near the village of Be-nan-gyaong, on the banks of the
Irrawaddy. Here are about eight or ten pits or wells, the
general depth of which is from 210 to 240 feet; some of
them are deeper, and one is sunk to the depth of 300 feet.
The shaft is of a square form, about three feet in diameter,
and is formed by sinking a wooden frame. The liquid ap¬
pears to boil up from the bottom like an abundant spring,
and is extracted in buckets, and sent to all quarters of the
country. In those parts where its price is raised by a long
land-carriage until it comes into competition with Sesamum
oil, the latter is preferred.
The precious stones which are produced in the Burmese
territories are chiefly of the sapphire species and the spinelle
ruby. They are found at two places, about five days’ jour¬
ney in a S.E. direction from the capital, in the beds of ri¬
vulets or small brooks, from which they are separated by
washing. The varieties of the sapphire found there are,
the blue or oriental sapphire, the red or oriental ruby, the
purple or oriental amethyst, the yellow or oriental topaz,
besides different varieties of chrysoberyl and spinelle. The
crown, as in all despotic countries, lays claim to the pro¬
duce of these rivers; and all the stones that exceed the
value of L.10 are accordingly sent to the treasury. No
stranger is ever permitted to approach the spots where these
precious stones are found. Noble serpentine is exported
in considerable quantities to China, where it is used for rings
and amulets.
The country of the Burmese, abounding in forests, affords Animals,
extensive shelter to the wild animals. The elephant, and
the rhinoceros with a single horn, are found in all the deep
forests of the country. The tiger and the leopard are nu¬
merous, as are also the wild hog, and several species of
deer, such as the Indian roe and the axis. It is i-emark-
able that no species of antelope is seen. It is said there are
neither wolves, jackals, foxes, nor hyenas, in any of the tro¬
pical countries east of Bengal.
Of birds, the wild cock is common, and is seen in coveys
in all the forests of the country. There are also peacocks,
varieties of pheasants, partridges, and quails.
The domestic animals of the Burmese are the ox, the
buffalo, and the horse. Oxen are used for draught in the
upper country, and buffaloes in the southern parts of Bur¬
mah. They are of a good description, and, ranging in
the luxuriant pastures of the plains, they commonly ap¬
pear in high order. The care of these animals is the
only point to which much attention is paid in the rural
economy of the Burmese. The buffalo is confined to agri¬
cultural labour, and the ox alone is used as a beast of bur¬
den or of draught. The Burman horses are rarely more
than thirteen hands high; the full-sized horse being un¬
known in the tropical countries of Asia east of Bengal.
Horses are never used but for riding, and only in the
upper mountainous districts. Elephants are kept for the
pleasure of the king, some of them of fine quality, and of a
white colour. The dog, as in most other parts of the East,
is neglected, and is seen prowling about the streets a prey
to famine and disease. Cats ai’e numerous ; and about the
capital a few goats and sheep, of a puny race, are kept more
for curiosity than for use. A few asses are also seen, which
are brought from China. The camel is not known even in
the upper country, where it would be found extremely
useful.
From their resemblance in features and form, the Bur-Population,
mese appear to be of the same race as the inhabitants of
Syraes’s Embassy to Ava,
B U R M A H.
780
Burmah. the countries that lie between Hindustan and China. They
may be generally described as of a stout, short, active, but
well-proportioned form; of a brown but never of an in¬
tensely dark complexion, with black, coarse, lank, and
abundant hair, and a little more beard than is possessed by
the Siamese. The population of the country has been va¬
riously estimated and grossly exaggerated by the ignorance
of Europeans, who have raised it to 17,000,000,19,000,000,
and even 33,000,000. There is no enumeration of the in¬
habitants in any part. Mr Craufurd, on the best data that
he could procure, rated the inhabitants at 22 to the square
mile, which, under the now contracted limits of the empire,
would give a total population of 2,112,000.
Political The Burmans appear to be inferior to the Hindus, and
and judicial still more to the Chinese, in arts, manufactures, and in-
institu- dustry, and in all the institutions of civil life. Their go-
tions. vernment is a pure despotism, the king dispensing torture,
imprisonment, or death, according to his sovereign discre¬
tion. One of his customary titles is lord of the life and
property of all his subjects ; and they frequently find to
their cost that this is no vain title. The chief object of
government seems to be the personal honour and aggran¬
dizement of the monarch ; and the only restraint on the
exercise of his prerogative is the fear of an insurrection.
He is assisted in his administration by a public and a privy
council. All questions, before they are submitted to the
public advisers of his majesty, are debated in the privy
council, which consists of four, to which are attached depu¬
ties, secretaries, and other officers, who carry messages,
report from time to time the proceedings of the council to
the king, and are in reality privileged spies. The pay¬
master-general is an officer of high importance ; the other
officers of distinction are the king’s armour-bearer and the
master of the elephants, who however have no share in the
administration of public affairs. The king may order any
of those great officers to be punished at his pleasure ; and
Mr Craufurd mentions, that during his residence at Ava,
the favourite minister, on a complaint from some of the
women of the court, was, by an order from the king, seized
by the public executioner, and laid at the side of the road
for two hours under the burning sun, with a weight upon
his breast; and after undergoing this disgraceful punish¬
ment, continued to discharge his high functions as be¬
fore. The country at large is ruled by provincial gover¬
nors ; and is divided into provinces, townships, districts,
villages, and hamlets. The civil, military, judicial, and fis¬
cal administration of the province is vested in the gover¬
nor, who exercises the power of life and death, though in
all civil cases an appeal lies from his sentence to the chief
council at the capital. In all the townships and villages
there are judges with a subordinate jurisdiction. Each of
the three towns composing the capital has a governor, and
these governors are assisted by a sort of head constables,
known to all strangers “ as the busy, corrupt, and mischiev¬
ous agents of the local authorities.” But from a mere dry
detail of the provincial administration and judicial institutions
of the Burmese, their extreme inefficiency can scarcely be
known. No Burmese officer ever receives a fixed salary.
The higher class is paid by an assignment either of land or
of the labour and industry of a given portion of the inhabi¬
tants, and the inferior magistrates by fees, perquisites, and
other emoluments; and hence the most shameful extortion
and bribery prevails amongst all the functionaries of the
Burmese government, from the highest to the lowest. Jus¬
tice is openly exposed for sale; and the exercise of the judi¬
cial functions is found to be so lucrative, that the two exe¬
cutive councils have by their encroachments deprived the
regular judge of the greater part of his employment. So
notoriously corrupt are all the judges among the Burmese,
that a lawsuit is considered by all prudent men as a serious
calamity.
The criminal code of the Burmese is barbarous and severe, Burmah.
and the punishments inflicted are shocking to humanity. >
Gang robbery, desertion from the king’s service, robbing of
temples, and sedition or treason, are considered the most
heinous crimes, and are cruelly punished, the criminal be¬
ing in some cases embowelled, or thrown to wild beasts.
In these cases they generally meet death with oriental
indifference; and it is related of one woman who was
adjudged to the latter punishment, that she deliberately
crept into the cage of the tiger, and making an obeisance
to the animal, was immediately killed by a single blow
of his fore-paw, and dragged into the inner recesses of his
den. For minor offences, fines, whipping, and imprison¬
ment are the punishments adjudged. In important cases
torture is applied both to principals and witnesses; and
the jailors often torture their prisoners in order to extort
money from them. The English and Americans who,
during the war of 1824, were thrown into prison, were fre¬
quently tortured, and were compelled to pay fines to the
jailor in order to procure milder treatment. The trial by
ordeal is sometimes resorted to, as well as other supersti¬
tious modes of procedure, which denote the lowest state of
barbarism. But the administration of justice among the
Burmese, however vexatious and expensive, is far from effi¬
cient ; and the police is as bad as can possibly be conceived.
Hence the country is overrun with pirates and robbers, and
a general laxity, negligence and corruption, pervade every
branch of the internal administration.
Among the Burmese, society is distinguished into seven
classes, which have each peculiar privileges. These are the
royal family, the public officers, the priesthood, the rich
men, the cultivators and labourers, slaves and outcasts.
There are no hereditary honours under the Burmese go¬
vernment, as all the public functionaries may be dismissed
from their offices, and deprived of their rank at the caprice
of the sovereign. Any subject, with the exception of a
slave or outcast, may, however, aspire to the first offices in
the state, to which, in reality, persons of very mean origin
do frequently attain. The Burmese are extremely punc¬
tilious and strict in maintaining the various orders and dis¬
tinctions of society. The great officers of government hold
the first rank after the king and the princes of the blood,
and are distinguished by a chain or badge, which is the
order of nobility, and of which there are different de¬
grees, distinguished by the number of strings or small chains
which compose the ornament. Three of open chain work
mark the lowest rank ; three of neatly-twisted wire the next;
there are then six, nine, twelve, and finally twenty-four,
which the king alone is entitled to wear. But every article
possessed by a Burman for use or ornament—his ear-rings,
cap of ceremony, horse-furniture, the material of his drink¬
ing-cup, if it be of gold or any other metal, the colour and
quality of his umbrella (an article in general use, and one of
the principal insignia of rank), whether it be of brown var¬
nished paper, red, green, gilded, or plain white, the royal
colour, all indicate the rank of the person ; and if any of the
lower orders usurp the insignia of a higher class, he may be
slain with impunity by the first person who meets him ; and
so exclusive is the aristocratical spirit of the higher orders,
that such a usurpation would be sure of punishment.
When a merchant acquires property he is registered by
a royal edict under the name of Thuthe, or “ rich man,”
which gives him a title to the protection of the court, while
it exposes him also to regular extortion. The priesthood
form a separate order, who are interdicted from all other
employment, and are supported by voluntary contributions.
They are distinguished by the yellow colours in their dress,
which it would be reckoned sacrilege in any other person to
wear ; and a formal complaint was made, during the con¬
ferences with the British previous to peace, because some
of their camp followers were seen dressed in yellow clothes.
B U R M A H.
Burmah. There is also an order of nuns or priestesses, who make a
v ' vow of chastity, but may at any time quit their order. The
free labouring population consist of proprietors or common
labourers; and they are all considered the slaves of the
king, who may at all times call for their services as soldiers,
artizans, or common labourers. Hence a Burman, being
the property of the king, can never quit the country with¬
out his especial permission, which is only granted for a
limited time, and never to women on any pretence. The
British and others who had children by Burmese women
during a residence in the country experienced the greatest
difficulty, even with the aid of heavy douceurs, in taking
them along with them. There are two classes of slaves;
namely, those who have mortgaged their services for a debt,
and who are used as slaves until the debt is paid ; and pri¬
soners of war, who are always reduced to slavery. The
class of outcasts consists of the slaves of the pagodas, the
burners of the dead, the jailers and executioners, who are
generally condemned criminals, lepers, and other incurables,
who are held in great abhorrence, and treated with singular
caprice and cruelty. They are condemned to dwell alone,
and in a state of disgrace ; and any man who is infected
with leprosy, however high his rank, is forced, by continual
bribes to the officers of justice, to purchase an exemption
from the penalties which attach to him. Prostitutes are
also considered as outcasts, but not women of loose cha¬
racter, chastity not being in any repute among the Burmans.
The women in Ava are not shut up as in many other parts
of the East, and excluded from the sight of men: on the
contrary, they are suffered to appear openly in society as in
Europe. In many other respects, however, they are ex¬
posed to the most degrading treatment. They are sold for
a time to strangers ; and the practice is not considered
shameful, nor the female in any respect dishonoured. They
are seldom unfaithful to their new master; and many of
them have proved essentially useful to strangers in the Bur¬
mese dominions, being generally of industrious and domestic
habits, and not addicted to vice.
Finance The taxes from which the public revenue arises are in
and taxes, general rude and ill-contrived expedients for extortion, and
are vexatious to the people at the same time that they are
little productive to the state. One of the most common is
the impost levied upon the proprietors of the soil by families
according to a loose estimate of their supposed means, and
rather resembles a property than a land tax. Nearly all
the cultivated land of the kingdom is assigned to favourites
of the court or to public functionaries in lieu of stipends or
salaries, or is appropriated to the expenses of public esta¬
blishments, such as war-boats, elephants, &c.; and this as¬
signment conveys a right to tax the inhabitants according to
the discretion of the assignee. The court favourites who
receive these grants generally appoint agents to manage
their estates; they pay a certain tax or quit-rent to the
crown, and their agents extort from the cultivators as much
more as they can by every mode of oppression, often by
torture. Besides this stated tax, extraordinary contributions
are levied by the council of the state directly from the
lords and nobles to whom the lands are assigned, who in
their turn levy it from the cultivators, and generally make
it a pretence for plunder and extortion. Taxes are also laid
on fruit-trees, on the teak forests, on the petroleum springs,
on mines of gold and precious stones, on the fishery of ponds,
lakes, rivers, and salt-water creeks, on the manufacture of
salt, on the eggs of the green turtle, and on esculent swal¬
lows’ nests. There are no transit duties, nor any duties at
fairs or markets ; and as the consumption of wines, spirits,
opium, and other intoxicating drugs, is forbidden by law,
they cannot of course be subject to any tax.
Manufac- In the useful arts the Burmese have not made any great
tures and advances. The whole process of the cotton manufacture is
commerce. performe(j by women, who use a very rude species of loom,
781.
and are much inferior in dexterity to the Indian artisans. Burmah.
No fine linen is ever made at home ; and the home manu-
facturer, even in the interior of the country, cannot with¬
stand the competition of British cotton goods. Silk cloths
are manufactured at different places; the finest at Ava or
Amarapura, from raw Chinese silk. The common coarse
unglazed earthenware, which is manufactured in Ava, is of
an excellent quality ; and a better description of pottery is
also made. They are entirely ignorant of the art of making
porcelain, which is imported from China. Iron ore, as al¬
ready mentioned, is smelted ; but the Burmans cannot manu¬
facture steel, which is brought from Bengal. Coarse articles
of cutlery, including swords, spears, knives, also muskets and
matchlocks, scissors, and carpenters’ tools, are manufactured
at Ava. Gold and silver ornaments are produced in every
considerable place in the country, but in a decidedly rude
and clumsy manner. About 40 miles from Ava, on the
eastern bank of the Irrawaddy, is an entire hill of pure white
marble. Here are sculptured marble images of Gautama
or Buddha. The marble is of the finest quality; but the
workmanship is rude, and displays neither taste nor fancy.
Since Burmah was deprived of its harbours and maritime
districts, its commerce has been extremely limited. The
trade of the country centres chiefly in Ava, the capital. The
imports are rice, pickled and dried fish, and foreign com¬
modities imported from Bengal, the Asiatic Archipelago,
and Europe. Petroleum, which, as already mentioned, is
a great article of internal consumption: saltpetre, lime,
paper, lacquer ware, cotton and silk fabrics, iron, cutlery,
some brass ware, terra japonica, sugar, and tamarinds, are
given in exchange. One of the most important branches
of the trade of Ava is that carried on with the Chinese pro¬
vince of Yunan. The principal marts of this trade are Mide,
six miles to the N.E. of Ava; and B’hamo, the chief place
of a province of the same name, bordering on China. It is
carried on at annual fairs. The Chinese caravan, setting
out fi’om the western province of Yunan at the close of the
periodical rains, generally reaches Burmah in the beginning
of December, after a journey of six weeks over difficult and
mountainous roads, on which only horses, mules, and asses
can travel. No part of the journey is by water ; from which
it would appear that the upper streams of the Irrawaddy,
near to the Chinese frontier, are not navigable. The prin¬
cipal fair is, however, held at B’hamo, comparatively few
traders arriving at Ava. The articles imported from China
are wrought copper; orpiment or yellow arsenic from the
mines in Yunan, of a very fine quality, which finds its way
into western Asia, and into Europe through Calcutta; quick¬
silver, vermilion, iron pans, brass wire, tin, lead, alum, silver,
gold and gold-leaf; earthenware, paints, carpets, rhubarb,
tea, honey, raw silk, velvets and other wrought silks ; spirits,
musk, verdigris, dry fruits, paper, fans, umbrellas, shoes,
and wearing apparel. The metals are chiefly produced in
the province of Yunan, which, though poor, is rich in mi¬
nerals. The tea, which is coarse and black, is supposed to
be from the same province. The articles sent to China con¬
sist of raw cotton, by far the most considerable article of ex¬
port ; feathers, chiefly of the blue jay, for ornamenting the
dresses of ceremony of the Chinese mandarins; esculent
swallows’ nests, ivory, rhinoceros’ and deers’ horns; sap¬
phires, used for buttons to the caps of the Chinese officers
of rank, and noble serpentine, with a small quantity of Bri¬
tish woollens.
The progress and civilization of a country may be gene¬
rally very accurately measured by the state of its currency ;
and that used by the Burmese is of the rudest description.
For the smaller payments lead is employed; and for the
larger payments gold or silver, but principally the latter.
These are not coined into pieces of' any known weight and
fineness; and in every payment of any consequence the
metal must be weighed and generally assayed, for which
782
B U 11 M A H.
Burmah.
Religion.
History.
a premium is paid to the bankers or money-changers of 2£
per cent., besides 1 per cent, which they say is lost in the
operation. These bankers are said by Symes to be workers
in silver; and every merchant has one with whom he lodges
his cash, and who receives on this account a commission of
1 per cent. The want of a more convenient currency must
tend greatly to embarrass the operations of trade. The high
rate of interest for money—which is 25 per cent., and 60
per cent, when no security is given—is another proof of the
low state of commerce among the Burmese.
The Burmese, as may be supposed, are entirely ignorant
of literature and science. Their astronomy and astrology
they have borrowed from the Hindus. They are ignorant
of navigation ; and in their voyages to Calcutta, during the
fine season, they creep along the coast, never losing sight of
it. Morality is at a low ebb among them, and their rulers
have no conception of either the excellence or utility of good
faith. “ They would,” says the llev. Mr Judson, the Ameri¬
can missionary, “ consider it nothing less than folly to keep
a treaty if they could gain anything by breaking it.” The
fidelity observed by the British government in fulfilling the
stipulations of the late treaty stupified the Burmans. They
knew not what to make of it, but some of them have now
begun to admire it. “ I heard many make use of expressions
like the following: ‘ These Kulas (English), though they
drink spirits and slay cattle, and are ambitious and rapacious,
have a regard for truth and their word, which is quite extra¬
ordinary ; whereas in us Burmese there is no truth.’ The
first circumstance in the conduct of the British which struck
them with surprise was the return of Dr Sandford on his
parole; and next, Sir A. Campbell’s returning six lacs of
rupees ofibred him after the money was in his power.”
The Burmese are not votaries of Brahma, but sectaries
of Buddha, who is universally considered by the Hindus as
the ninth Avatar, or descent of the Deity in his capacity of
preserver ; and the rites, doctrines, and priesthood are nearly
the same as in other countries where Buddhism prevails.
Neither Christianity nor Mahommedanism has made any
progress. Foreigners enjoy religious toleration, but the
Burmese rulers view any attempt to convert the natives to
the Christian or any other foreign faith as an interference
with their allegiance, and they discourage all such schemes.
An American mission wras settled in the country under the
conduct of Mr Judson before mentioned, who brought to
the execution of this perilous service zeal and sound discre¬
tion ; but it entirely failed of success, not from any bigotry
on the part of the natives, but from the opposition of men
in power. On the war breaking out with the British, the
missionaries were imprisoned, and narrowly escaped with
their lives. They are now prosecuting their missionary
labours in the British province of Martaban.
The ancient history of Ava is very imperfectly known ;
the more early records relating chiefly to dynasties of which
little more is given than their names. We learn from the
Portuguese navigators that about the middle of the six¬
teenth century four powerful states ruled over those coun¬
tries which lie between the S.E. province of British India,
Yunan in China, and the Eastern Sea, namely, Arracan,
Ava, Pegu, and Siam. By the help of the Portuguese the
Burmans subdued the Peguans, and maintained their supre¬
macy over them throughout the seventeenth and during the
first forty years of the eighteenth century, when the Pe¬
guans revolted, and a war ensued, in the course of which, by
the aid of arms procured from Europeans, they gained se¬
veral victories over the Burmans, and having taken their
capital Ava, and made the king prisoner, they reduced the
whole country to submission. Alompra, who had been left
by the conqueror in charge of Monchaboo, an inconsider¬
able village, planned the deliverance of his country. He
attacked the usurpers at first with small detachments ; but
when his forces increased, he suddenly advanced, and took
possession of the capital in the autumn of 1753. In 1754 Burraah.
the Peguans, anxious to recover their lost conquests, sent an -.r—-'
armament of war-boats against Ava; but after an obstinate
and bloody battle they were totally defeated by Alompra.
In the districts of Prome, Donabew, Loonzay, &c. the Bur¬
mans revolted, and succeeded either in expelling or putting
to the sword all the Pegu garrisons in their towns. In 1754
Prome was besieged by the king of Pegu, who was again
defeated by Alompra in a severe battle, and the war was
transferred from the upper provinces to the mouths of the
navigable rivers, and the numerous creeks and canals which
intersect the lower country. In 1755 Alompra defeated in
a general battle Apporaza the king of Pegu’s brother, after
which the Peguans were driven from Bassein and the ad¬
jacent country, and were forced to withdraw to the fortress
of Syriam, distant twelve miles from Rangoon. Here they
enjoyed a brief repose, Alompra being called away to quell
an insurrection of his own subjects, and to repel an invasion
of the Siamese; but returning victorious, he laid siege to the
fortress of Syriam and took it by surprise, when the garrison
were mostly put to the sword, the Europeans being made
prisoners. In these wars the French sided with the Pe¬
guans, the English with the Burmans. Dupleix, the gover¬
nor of Pondicherry, had sent two ships to the aid of the for¬
mer ; but the master of the first was decoyed up the river
by Alompra, when his vessel was taken, and he, along with
his whole crew, was massacred. The other escaped by being
accidentally delayed, and carried accounts of this disaster to
Pondicherry. Alompra was now master of all the navigable
rivers; and the Peguans, being entirely shut out from
foreign aid, were finally subdued. In 1757 the conqueror
laid siege to the city of Pegu, which finally capitulated, on
condition that the king should govern the country, but that
he should do homage for his kingdom, and should also sur¬
render his daughter to the victorious monarch. Alompra,
with Asiatic perfidy, never contemplated the fulfilment of
the earlier of these conditions; and having succeeded in ob¬
taining possession of the town, through the imbecility of the
king, abandoned it to the fury of his soldiers. In the fol¬
lowing year the Peguans endeavoured to throw off the yoke,
but they were overthrown in a decisive engagement near
Rangoon ; and Alompra arriving soon after, quelled the re¬
bellion. He afterwards reduced the town and district of
Tavoy, and finally undertook the conquest of the Siamese.
His army advanced to Mergui and Tennasserim, both which
towns were taken ; and he wras besieging the capital of Siam
when he was taken ill. He immediately ordered his army
to retreat, in hopes of reaching his capital alive ; but he ex¬
pired on the way, in 1760, in the fiftieth year of his age, after
he had reigned eight years. He was succeeded by his oldest
son Namdojee Praw, whose reign was disturbed by the re¬
bellion of his brother Shembuan, and afterwards by one of
his father’s generals. By his vigour he succeeded in quell¬
ing these revolts; and he afterwards turned his arms against
the refractory Peguans, whom he reduced to subjection. He
died in little more than three years, leaving one son in his
infancy. On his decease the throne was seized by his bro¬
ther Shembuan. He was intent, like his predecessors, on
the conquest of the adjacent states ; and he accordingly
made war in 1765 on the Munnipore Cassayers, and also on
the Siamese, with partial success. In the following year he
renewed the war with the latter, defeated the Siamese, and,
after a long blockade, obtained possession of their capital.
But while the Burmans were extending their conquests in
this quarter, they were invaded by a Chinese army of 50,000
men from the province of Yunan. This army was hemmed
in by the skill of the Burmans ; and being reduced by the
want of provisions, it was afterwards attacked and totally de¬
stroyed, with the exception of 2500 men, who were sent in
fetters to work in the Burmese capital at their several trades.
In the meantime the Siamese revolted from the Burmese
B U It M A H. ' 783
Burmah. yoke; and while the Burman army was marching against
v-—^ them, the Peguan soldiers who had been incorporated in it
rose against their companions, and commencing an indiscri¬
minate massacre, pursued the Burman army to the gates of
Rangoon, which they besieged, but were unable to capture.
In 1774 Shembuan was engaged in reducing the marauding
tribes. He took the district and fort of Martaban from
the revolted Peguans; and in the following year he sailed
clown the Irrawaddy with an army of 50,000 men, and, ar¬
riving at Rangoon, put to death the aged monarch of Pegu
along with many of his nobles, who had shared with him
in the offence of rebellion. He died in 1776, after a reign
of twelve years, during which he had extended the Burmese
dominions on every side, having reduced to a state of vassal-
age the petty states in the neighbourhood, and the uncivilized
tribes in the western hills, as well as those in the mountain¬
ous tracts to the east of the Irrawaddy, tie was succeeded
by his son, a youth of eighteen, who proved himself a blood¬
thirsty despot, and was put to death by his uncle Mindra-
gee Praw in 1782, who ascended the vacant throne, and in
1783 sent a fleet of boats against Arracan, which was con¬
quered, and the rajah and his family were made prisoners.
Cheduba, Ramnee, and the Broken Isles soon afterwards
surrendered.
The Siamese who had revolted in 1771 were never after¬
wards subdued by the Burmans. They retained their do¬
minion over the sea-coast as far as Mergui; and in the year
1785 they attacked the island of Junkseylon with a fleet of
boats and an army. But they were ultimately driven back
with loss ; and a second attempt by the Burman monarch,
who in 1786 invaded Siam with an army of 30,000 men,
was attended with no better success. In 1793 peace was
concluded between these two powers, the Siamese yielding
to the Burmans the entire possession of the coast of Tennas-
serim on the Indian Ocean, and the two important seaports
of Mergui and Tavoy.
In 1795 the Burmese were involved in a dispute with the
British in India, in consequence of their troops to the amount
of 5000 men entering the district of Chittagong in pursuit
of three robbers who had fled from justice across the fron¬
tier. Explanations being made, and terms of accommoda¬
tion offered by General Erskine, the commanding officer,
the Burmese commander retired from the British territories,
when the fugitives were restored, and all differences for the
time amicably arranged.
But it was evident that the gradual extension of the
British and Burmese territories would in time bring the two
powers into close contact along a more extended line of
frontier, and in all probability lead to a war between them.
It happened, accordingly, that the Burmese, carrying their
arms into Assam and Munnepore, penetrated to the British
border near Sylhet, on the N.E. frontier of Bengal, beyond
which were the possessions of the chiefs of Cachar, under
the protection of the British government. The Burmese
leaders, arrested in this manner in their career of conquest,
and flushed with past success, were impatient to measure
their strength with their new neighbours. It appears from
the evidence of Europeans who resided in Ava, that they
were entirely unacquainted with the discipline and great mi¬
litary resources of the Europeans. They imagined that, like
the other nations in the East, they would fall before their
superior tactics and valour; and their cupidity was inflamed
by the prospect of marching to Calcutta and of plundering
the country. With such dispositions, it was not to be sup¬
posed that causes of quarrel would long be wanting. Petty
acts of aggression were first committed. At length their
chiefs, throwing off the mask, ventured on the open viola¬
tion of the British territories. They attacked a party of
sepoys within the frontier, seized and carried off British
subjects, and at all points their troops, moving in large Burmah.
bodies, assumed the most menacing positions. In the south
encroachments were made upon the British frontier of Chit¬
tagong. The island of Shaparee, at the mouth of the Naaf
river, had been occupied by a small guard of British troops.
These were attacked on the 23d September 1823, during
the night, by the Burmese, and driven from their post with
the loss of several lives; and to the repeated demands of
the British for redress no answer was returned. Other out¬
rages ensued; and at length, in February 1824, war was
declared by the British government.
Hostilities having commenced, the British rulers in India,
with their usual boldness and energy, resolved to carry the
war into the enemy’s country; and with this view an arma¬
ment was fitted out under the orders of Commodore Grant
and Sir Archibald Campbell, which entered the Irrawaddy
river, and anchored off Rangoon on the 10th May 1824.
After a feeble resistance this great seaport of the Burmese
surrendered, and the troops were landed. The place was
entirely deserted by its inhabitants, the provisions were car¬
ried off or destroyed, and the invading force took possession
of a complete solitude. On the 28th May, Sir A. Campbell
ordered an attack to be made on some of the nearest posts
of the enemy, which were all carried after a feeble defence.
Another attack was made on the 10th June on the stoccades
at the village of Kemmendine. Some of these, being too
strong to be attacked by escalade, were battered by artil¬
lery ; and the shot and shells struck such terror into the
Burmese that they fled from their works in the utmost pre¬
cipitation. It soon, however, became apparent, that the ex¬
pedition had been undertaken with very imperfect know¬
ledge of the country, and without adequate provision for
securing supplies. The devastation of the country, which
was part of the defensive system of the Burmese, was car¬
ried into execution with unrelenting rigour, and the invaders
were soon reduced to great difficulties. The health of the
men rapidly declined, and their ranks were fearfully thinned
by disease. Enraged by the defeats hitherto sustained, the
monarch of Ava sent large reinforcements to his dispirited
and beaten army; and early in July an attack was com¬
menced on the British line, but proved unsuccessful. On
the 8th, the British general directed an assault to be made
on the enemy’s entrenched positions, in which the arma¬
ment on the river co-operated with the land force. The
enemy were beaten as formerly at all points; and their
strongest stoccaded works, battered to pieces by a powerful
artillery, were in general abandoned by their defenders.
Towards the end of August an attack was made on the British
position by the prince of Sarawaddy, which was quickly re¬
pelled. But with this exception, the enemy having learned
by fatal experience the necessity of caution, had allowed the
British to remain unmolested in their quarters during the
months of July and August. This interval of leisure was
employed by Sir A. Campbell in subduing the maritime
provinces of the Burmese to the east, namely, Tavoy, Mer¬
gui, and the whole coast of Tennasserim, which quickly
submitted to the British arms. This was an important con¬
quest, as the country proved to be salubrious, and afforded
convalescent stations to the sick, who were now so numerous
in the British army, owing to severe duty, and to the inces¬
sant rains and privations of every kind to which they were
exposed, that scarcely 3000 soldiers fit for duty could be
mustered in the lines. The climate of Mergui proved to
be so healthy that the sick who had been languishing for
months at Rangoon rapidly recovered.1 An expedition was
about this time sent against the old Portuguese fort and
factory of Syriam, at the mouth of the Pegu river, which
was taken; and in October the province of Martaban was
reduced under the authority of the British.
1 Narrative of the Burmete War, by Major Snodgrass.
784 BUR
Burmah. 'x he rainy season terminated about the end of October;
and the court of Ava, alarmed by the discomfiture of its
numerous armies, resolved on recalling the veteran legions
which were employed in Arracan, under their renowned
leader Maha Bandoola, in vain attempts to penetrate the
British frontier. Relinquishing his plans of offensive war,
Bandoola, with his army, hastened by forced marches to the
defence of his country ; and by the end of November an
army of 60,000 men had surrounded the British position at
Rangoon and Kemmendine, for the defence of which Sir
Archibald Campbell had only 5000 efficient troops. On
the 1st December the enemy in great force made repeated
attacks on the post of Kemmendine, nowise daunted by the
heavy broadsides which were poured from the shipping in the
river. These attacks were invariably repulsed by the steadi¬
ness of the troops—the last, which was made after dusk,
with great loss; and the fire rafts which had been set afloat
for the destruction of the shipping, were towed by the sailors
to the shore, where they occasioned no injury. Several en¬
counters took place with the enemy on the succeeding days;
and on the 7th the army of Bandoola was completely routed
in a general attack by Sir A. Campbell. The fugitives re¬
tired to a strong position on the river, which they again en¬
trenched ; and here they were attacked by the British on
the loth, who, surmounting every obstacle, carried the
stoccaded ramparts at the point of the bayonet, and drove
the enemy in complete confusion from the field. After
this defeat the remnant of the Burmese army retreated to
Donabew.
Sir Archibald Campbell, thus victorious in every en¬
counter, now resolved to advance on Prome, about. 100
miles higher up the Irrawaddy river. Having provided the
means of transport, and having succeeded in acquiring the
confidence of the inhabitants, many of whom had returned
to their homes, and were found extremely useful to the army,
he moved with his force on the 13th February in two divi¬
sions, one proceeding by land, and the other, under General
Cotton, destined for the reduction of Donabew, being em¬
barked on the flotilla. Sir Archibald Campbell, taking the
command of the land force, continued his advance till the
11th March, when intelligence reached him of the failure
of the attack upon Donabew. He instantly commenced a
retrograde march ; on the 27th he effected a junction with
General Cotton’s force, and on the 2d April carried the en¬
trenchments at Donabew with little resistance, the enemy
being panic struck by the death of the general-in-chief,
Maha Bandoola, who was killed by the explosion of a bomb.
Sir A. Campbell, resuming his march to Prome, entered
that place on the 25th, the Burmese flying at his approach,
after setting fire to the town. Here he remained during
the rainy season to refresh his troops, exhausted by privations
and severe service. On the 17th September an armistice
was concluded between the contending armies for one
month. In the course of the summer General Morrison had
conquered the province of Arracan ; in the north the Bur¬
mese were expelled from Assam; and the British had made
some progress in Cachar, though their advance was finally
impeded by the thick forests and jungle with which the
country was covered.
The armistice between the Burmese and Sir A. Camp¬
bell having expired on the 17th October, the army of Ava,
amounting to 60,000 men, advanced in three divisions
against the British position at Prome, which was defended
by 3000 Europeans and 2000 native troops. But the sci¬
ence, courage, superior equipment, and high discipline of
the British still triumphed over the undisciplined hordes of
the Burmese army, who being hastily brought together,
and inexperienced in war, were unable to withstand the
close encountei of their veteran adversaries. After several
actions, in which the Burmese were the assailants and were
partially successful, Sir A. Campbell, on the 1st December,
M A H.
attacked the different divisions of their army, which were Burmah.
imprudently separated from each other, and which, notwith- ^
standing the entrenchments by which they were protected,
were, in the course of four days, successively driven from
all their positions and dispersed in every direction. The
Burmese retired on Meaday and afterwards on Mellone,
along the course of the Irrawaddy, where they occupied,
with 10,000 or 12,000 men, a series of strongly fortified
heights and a formidable stoccade. On the 26th they sent
a flag of truce to the British camp; and a negotiation hav¬
ing commenced, peace was proposed to them on the fol¬
lowing conditions : 1^, The cession of Arracan, together
with the provinces of Mergui, Tavoy, and Yea; 2d, The
renunciation by the Burmese sovereign of all claims upon
Assam, and its contiguous petty states; 3rf, The company
to be paid a crore of rupees as an indemnification for the
expenses of the war; Ath, Residents from each court to be
allowed, with an escort of fifty men. It was also stipulated
that British ships should no longer be obliged to unship
their rudders and land their guns as formerly in the Bur¬
mese ports. This treaty was agreed to and signed, but the
ratification of the king was still wanting; and it was soon
apparent that the Burmese had no intention to send it, but
were preparing to renew the contest. On the 19th January,
accordingly, Sir A. Campbell attacked the enemy’s position
at Mellone and carried it, the Burmese troops abandoning
their defences in complete disorder. Another offer of peace
was here made, which was found to be insincere ; and the
fugitive army resolved to make at Pagahm-Mew a final
stand in defence of the capital. They were attacked and
overthrown on the 9th February 1826; and the invading
force being now within four days’ march of Ava, Dr Price,
an American missionary, who with other Europeans had
been thrown into prison when the war commenced, was
sent to the British camp with the treaty ratified, the pri¬
soners of war released, and an instalment of 25 lacs of rupees.
The war was thus brought to a successful termination, and
the British army evacuated the country.
For some years the relations of peace continued undis¬
turbed. Probably the feeling of amity on the part of the
Burmese government was not very strong; but so long as
the prince by whom the treaty was concluded continued to
hold the reins of power, no attempt was made to depart from
its main stipulations. That monarch, however, was obliged
in 1837 to yield the throne to a usurper who appeared in
the person of his brother. This latter personage, at an early
period, manifested that hatred of British connection which
was almost universal at the Burmese court, and which pro¬
bably had been shared by the deposed ruler, though he had
the prudence to conceal it. For several years it had be¬
come apparent, that the period was approaching when war
between the British and the Burmese governments would
again become inevitable. The British Resident finding
his presence at Ava agreeable neither to the king nor to
himself, removed in the first instance, under instructions
from his government, to Rangoon. Ultimately it became
necessary to forego even the pretence of maintaining re¬
lations of friendship, and the British functionary was pro¬
perly withdrawn altogether from a country where his con¬
tinuance would have been but a mockery. The state of
sullen dislike which followed was after a while succeeded
by more active evidences of hostility. Acts of violence
were committed on British ships and on British seamen, who
had proceeded to Burmese ports in the exercise of their law¬
ful calling, and in a friendly spirit; their only purpose being
the prosecution of their trade. As the tame submission of
the British government to such treatment would have been
utterly incompatible with either the national interest or the
national honour, remonstrance was made, backed in the only
way by which remonstrance could, under such circumstances,
be rendered effectual, by a small naval force. The officers
L
BUR
Burman. on whom devolved the duty of representing the wrongs
of their fellow-countrymen, and demanding redress, pro¬
ceeded to Rangoon, the governor of which place had been
a chief actor in the outrages complained of; but so far were
they from meeting with any signs of regret, that they were
treated with indignity and contempt, and compelled to re¬
tire without accomplishing anything beyond blockading the
ports. A series of negotiations followed ; negotiations con¬
ducted on one side in a spirit of sincerity, on the other with
no feelings but those of rancour and duplicity. Nothing
was demanded of the Burmese beyond a very moderate
compensation for the injuries inflicted on the masters of two
British vessels, an apology for the insults offered by the
governor of Rangoon to the representatives of the British
government, and the re-establishment of at least the appear¬
ance of friendly relations, by the reception of a British agent
by the Burmese government. Exit notwithstanding the
severe lessons formerly received, the obduracy of that go¬
vernment led to the refusal alike of remuneration for past
BUB
785
wrongs, though the sum required was of very trifling amount,
of any expression of regret for the display of gratuitous in¬
solence, and of any indication of a desire to maintain friend¬
ship for the future. Another Burmese war was the result;
and as in the former, though success was varying, the Bri¬
tish finally triumphed. The chief towns in the lower part
of the Burmese kingdom fell to them in succession. The
city of Pegu, the capital of that portion which, after having
been captured, had again passed into the hands of the ene-
my, was recaptured and retained, and the whole province
of Pegu was, by proclamation of the governor-general, de¬
clared to be annexed to the British dominions. No treaty
was obtained or insisted upon—the British government
being content with the tacit acquiescence of the king of
Burmah without such documents; but its intention was de¬
clared, that any active demonstration of hostility by him
would be followed by retribution. And thus in 1853 closed
the war torced on the British government in the previous
year. (d. b—n.) (e. t.)
Burman.
BURMAN, Caspar, the son of the famous theologian
of Utrecht, Francis Burman, was born in that city about the
beginning of the eighteenth century. Of his works, none
of which are of much importance, the best known are his Ha-
drianus VI., published at Utrecht in 1727, and his Trajectum
Eruditum, a biographical history of the eminent scholars
and philosophers of his native town. He died in 1755.
Burman, Francis, a learned biblical critic of the seven¬
teenth century, was born at Leyden in 1632. At the age
of twenty-three he became pastor of the Dutch congrega¬
tion of Hanau in Germany, but in 1661 returned to Ley¬
den as sub-rector of the College of Orders. From Leyden
he removed to Utrecht, where he taught theology with
much acceptance till his death in 1679. His works, which
are very numerous, consist chiefly of commentaries on some
of the Old Testament, and are written in Dutch, Latin,
and German.
Burman, Francis, a celebrated theologian and sacred
poet of Holland, was born at Utrecht in 1671. He studied
in his native city under Grsevius, and afterwards removed
to Leyden, where he made great attainments in mathema¬
tics and philosophy. In 1698 he became pastor of Coodom
in Friesland, and four years later accompanied the Dutch
embassy sent to London to congratulate Queen Anne on
her accession to the English throne. On his return to Hol¬
land he accepted an invitation to become pastor of Enck-
huysen—where he remained for two years. At the end of
that period he removed to Amsterdam and resided there
for ten years, teaching and preaching with much success.
In 1714 he was elected to a theological chair at Utrecht,
where he died after a short illness in 1719. Of his nume¬
rous works, we may specify his Burmannorum pielas, in
which he vindicates the memory of his father from the charge
of Spinozism alleged against him by Philip Limbourg of
Amsterdam; and his Theologus, Utrecht, 1715.J
Burman, John, a distinguished Dutch physician, son of
the preceding, born at Amsterdam in 1706. He studied
the physical sciences at Leyden with such success, that in
1738 he was appointed professor of botany at Amsterdam
in room of the celebrated Ruysch. His merits as a botanist
were such, that Linnaeus, who was under many obligations
to him, called a genus of plants after his name, Burmannia.
His dissertation de Chylopoiesi was published at Leyden in
1728, and his Thesaurus Zeylanicus at Amsterdam in 1737.
At this latter city he died in 1780.
Burman, Peter, a philologer and critic of high repu¬
tation, was born at Utrecht on the 26th June 1668. His
father, Francis Burman, professor of divinity in that univer¬
sity, was the son of a German clergyman, whom the destruc-
vol. y.
tive war of the Palatinate had driven from Frankenthal; his
mother was Mary the daughter of Abraham Heydan, profes¬
sor of divinity in the university of Leyden. Thus he was
doubly connected with men of letters, and various members
of the same family distinguished themselves by their writ¬
ings. While he was yet in the eleventh year of his age, he
had the misfortune to lose his pious and learned father; but
this loss, great as it certainly was, appears to have been in
a very considerable degree supplied by the assiduity, pru¬
dence, and piety of his mother. He was educated in the
public school of Utrecht, where his progress must have been
very rapid, for at the age of thirteen he became a student
in the university. For several years he attended the lec¬
tures of Graevius, a professor of great learning and eminence,
who ably blended Greek with Latin erudition, and to whose
private friendship, joined to his public instructions, Burman
seems to have been in a great measure indebted for that
strong predilection which he continued to evince for philo¬
logical studies. Here, among other departments of literature,
he assiduously cultivated Latin composition, and he gradually
attained to no mean proficiency both as an orator and a poet.
Burman’s original destination was for the legal profes¬
sion ; and after having devoted some years to literature,
he next applied himself to the study of the law. The uni¬
versity of Utrecht was then highly distinguished as a
school of jurisprudence, and among other great names, it
could boast of Noodt, one of the ablest civilians of modern
times. He attended the lectures of this professor, and
likewise those of Van Muyden and Van de Poll, who both
taught the municipal as well as the civil law; nor did he
neglect the lectures of H. Cocceii on the feudal law, and on
the treatise of Grotius De Jure Belli ac Pads. A further
proof of his assiduity he exhibited in a dissertation De
Vicesima Hcereditatum, which he publicly defended with
great applause.
It is a common practice for the more liberal and inqui¬
sitive students of Holland and Germany to pass from one
university to another, and the practice has an obvious ten¬
dency to improve the youthful mind, by removing local
prejudices, and by introducing a new current of refined
thought. Burman accordingly spent a year at Leyden,
where he studied philosophy under Voider, but in the
mean time did not neglect his favourite pursuits of classical
erudition. He attended the lectures of the younger Gro-
novius on some of the Greek writers, together with those
of Ryckius on Tacitus. Of this Latin historian, the latter
professor was about that period engaged in preparing a
new edition, with a separate volume of animadversions.
Returning to the university of Utrecht, he continued to
5 G
786 BUR M A N.
liurman. cultivate the friendship of Graevius, and to profit by his bibliotheca auctiores; curante Petro Burmanno.” Ultra- Burman.
instructions and advice. In the month of March 1688 he jecti, 1697, 4to. About the same period he prepared an
took the degree of doctor of laws, having previously writ- edition of Phaedrus. Amst. 1698, 8vo. This edition was
ten and defended a learned dissertation De Transactioni- twice reprinted; and after an interval of nearly thirty
bus. “ The attainment of this honour,” as Dr Johnson years, he published the same poet with a new commen-
has remarked, “ was far from having upon Burman that tary. He next produced “ Q. Horatius Flaccus. Acce-
effect which has been too often observed to be produced dunt J. Rutgersii Lectiones Venusinae.” Traj. Batav.
in others, who, having in their own opinion no higher object 1699, 12mo. Burman has prefixed a dedication and pre*
of ambition, have elapsed into idleness and security, and face, but the only notes which occur are those of Janus
spent the rest of their lives in a lazy enjoyment of their Rutgersius, who died in the year 1625, after having esta-
academical dignities. Burman aspired to further improve- blished no mean reputation as a scholar by the publica-
ments, and, not satisfied with the opportunities of lite- tion of his Varice Lectiones. These editions were follow-
rary conversation which Utrecht afforded, travelled into ed by a learned dissertation, entitled “ Zfvg Kara/£ar»js,
Switzerland and Germany, where he gained an increase sive Jupiter Fulgerator in Cyrrhestarum Nummis.” Traj.
both of fame and learning.” Bat. 1700, 4to. Resuming the illustration of the Latin
But having made choice of a profession, it had now be- poets, he now prepared an edition of Valerius Flaccus.
come necessary to enter upon a new course; and on his Ultraj. 1701, 12mo. This edition includes the notes of
return to his native city, he applied his talents and learn- N. Heinsius, who had himself published the text in 1680;
ing to the practice of the law. We are informed that he but after a long interval, Burman edited the same poet with
pleaded various causes with much force and eloquence; more ample illustrations, which were partly derived from
nor will this account appear improbable to those who are various other critics. Leidae, 1724, 4to. He was chosen
acquainted with the vigour and decision displayed in his rector of the university in 1703, and again in 1711.
ordinary strain of composition. On the first of Decern- Graevius, one of the chief ornaments of the university of
ber 1691 he was appointed receiver of the tithes which Utrecht, died in the year 1703, and his grateful pupil ho-
were originally paid to the bishop of Utrecht: this was noured his memory by a funeral oration, which is ably and
an office of considerable credit, and was usually bestowed affectionately written, and contains an interesting sketch of
upon persons of some distinction. While engaged in these his life and character. His great and valuable collection
occupations, he married Eve Clotterboke, the daughter of of writers on Roman antiquities is well known among
a burgomaster of Briel, much commended for her beauty scholars. He engaged in a more extensive undertaking,
and accomplishments. She became the mother of ten a collection of writers on the history and antiquities of
children, eight of whom died at an early age, and only Italy; and after his decease, the charge of inspecting its
two sons survived their father. This learned advocate progress devolved upon Burman, who contributed nine
might have risen to great eminence in his profession; but different prefaces. “ Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Histo-
as the love of letters was his predominant passion, he riarum Italise.” Lugd. Bat. 1704-25, 45 tom. fol. The
gladly availed himself of an opportunity of leaving the book is described in the title as “ tomis x. vel volumini-
bar and returning to the university. A recommendation bus xlv. distinctuseach volume consisting of several
from his friend Grsevius to the magistrates of Utrecht parts, which amount to the size of volumes. Burman
procured him the professorship of eloquence and history, likewise wrote the preface to an edition, undertaken by
to which was afterwards added the professorship of the Graevius, of Gruter’s “ Inscriptiones Antiquae totius Orbis
Greek language, and that of politics. His first appoint- Romani.” Amst. 1707, 2 tom. fol.
ment was that of an extraordinary professor, or of a pro- His next literary enterprise was an edition of a prose
fessor extra ordinem. He took possession of his chair on writer, Petronius Arbiter. Traj. ad Rhen. 1709, 4to. The
the 10th of December 1696; and on that occasion pro- learned editor was attacked in an anonymous publication,
nounced an oration De Eloquentia et Poetice. His aca- consisting of a few pages, and bearing the title of “ Bur-
demical labours, which were thus so various, must likewise manniana, sive Calumniarum Petri Burmanni in Collegas
have been very formidable; but being a man of an excel- et Populares Specimen.” Amst. 1710, 12mo. These ca-
lent capacity, and of unwearied application, he ably per- lumnies are collected from his annotations on Petronius.
formed whatever he had undertaken, and gradually ac- His most elaborate edition was very unfavourably noticed
quired a high and merited reputation. His lectures at- by Le Clerc,1 who by the freedom of his strictures in va-
tracted a numerous auditory, and his multifarious publi- rious publications, more particularly in his different Bibli-
cations rendered his name familiarly known wherever an- otheques, had excited the resentment of many eminent
cient learning was successfully cultivated. The most se- members of the republic of letters. Of grammarians and
rious labours of his life were devoted to the illustration of verbal critics he spoke with habitual contempt, and thus
the Roman classics, and in this department he had but increased the offence that was merely personal. Some of
few rivals. his philological mistakes had been exposed by Perizonius,
Soon after his appointment to the professorship, he but he was attacked by Burman in a more ferocious man-
published a collection of letters from learned men, and ner. His literary delinquencies were fiercely discussed
chiefly relating to topics of learning: “ Marquardi Gudii in the preface to Petronius ; and his contemptuous review
et doctorum Virorum ad eum Epistolae; quibus accedunt ot the edition was followed by a volume entitled “ Le
ex bibliotheca Gudiana clarissimorum et doctissimorum Gazettier Menteur, ou Mr. Le Clerc convaincu de Men-
Virorum, qui superiore et nostro saeculo floruerunt, et songe et de Calomnie, par Pierre Burman. Utrecht,
Claudii Sarravii, Senatoris Parisiensis, Epistolae ex eadem 1710, 12mo. Whatever may have been the extent ot the
1 Bibliothfeque Choisie, tom. xix. p. 351—Le Clerc commences his review in the following terms: “ Je ne mets pas ici cette edi¬
tion, pour en rendre compte au public. II n’y a rien qui merite son attention.” The rest of the article is written m the same strain
of disparagement, nor has the author confined himself to his adversary’s literary character. The subsequent passage reters to his
morals : “ Je ne parlerai pas de I’imprudence qu’il y a a parler ainsi, pendant un proces, oil une fille 1’accuse de 1 avoir debauchee.
P. 365. The learned professor has adverted to this charge, but, as it appears to us, not in such clear and direct terms o: disavowal
as might naturally have been expected from a man conscious of his innocence. (Burman, Gazettier fifentcur, p. 24.) Le Clerc ascribes
to him a satire against himself, published the year 1703, in the form of a Latin dialogue between Spudieus and Corallus; and the
manner in which Burman speaks of it seems to justify his suspicions.
B U R M A N.
Burman. provocation, and it was by no means inconsiderable, the
spirit of this work is not to be commended. Burman’s
edition was long afterwards attacked in a separate volume,
written by some anonymous author, whose animosity was
not equalled by his learning.1 “ Chrestomathia Petronio-
Buimanniana; sive Cornu-copiae Observationum eruditis-
simaium et ante plane inauditarum, quas vir illuminatissi-
inus, lerum omnium, et multarum praeterea aliarum, peri-
tissimus, Petrus Burmannus congessit in Petronium Arbi-
trum, scriptorum sanctissimum. Accessit Specimen La-
timtatis novae, Romanis incognitas, e Notis Petri Burman-
ni ad Petronium. Florentiae, 1734i, 8vo. Although the
work thus bears the imprint of Florence, the typography
is apparently Dutch. Another edition of Petronius ap¬
peared^ after the death of the indefatigable editor. Lugd.
Bat. 1743, 4to. Le Clerc had published his unfortunate
edition of Menander and Philemon in the year 1709 ; and
in the course of the ensuing spring Dr Bentley, under an
assumed name, transmitted his Emendationes to Burman,
who lost no time in communicating to the public such a
morsel of criticism. Traj. ad Rhen. 1710, 8vo. Under
his own name, he prefixed a preface of thirty-four pages,
in which he assailed Le Clerc with extreme virulence,
and enumerated many errors which the author had left
unnoticed. Ivot satisfied with relieving his spleen in this
manner, he added a poetical address to the Manes of the
injured poets, in which he endeavoured to condense the es¬
sence of his vituperation. Of the spirit of this effusion the
reader may be enabled to judge from a brief specimen
Scilicet haec nostris servata informia seclis
Prodigia, et nullis monstra pianda sacris.
Burman soon afterwards published a compendium en¬
titled “ Antiquitatum Romanarum brevis Descriptio.”
Ultraj. 1711, 8vo. His early study of jurisprudence was
not without its advantages in those departments of litera-
tuie to which he devoted himself with such persevering
energy. His knowledge of the civil law he found of fre¬
quent use in illustrating the Latin classics; and he pub¬
lished an elaborate and valuable work which bears a refe¬
rence to law as well as history, “ De Vectigalibus Populi
Romani Dissertatio.” Ultraj. 1714, 8vo. Of this disser¬
tation the original sketch had appeared in 1694; and he
lived to publish an edition greatly improved, and com¬
bined with his Jupiter Fulgerator. Leidae, 1734, 4to.
“ In 1714,” says Dr Johnson, « he formed a resolution
of visiting Paris, not only for the sake of conferring in per¬
son, upon questions of literature, with the learned men of
that place, and of gratifying his curiosity with a more fami¬
liar knowledge of those writers whose works he admired,
but with a view more important, of visiting the libraries,
and making those enquiries which might be of advantage to
his darling study. The vacation of the university allowed
him to stay at Paris but six weeks, which he employed with
so much dexterity and industry, that he had searched the
principal libraries, collated a great number of manuscripts
and printed copies, and brought back a great treasure of
curious observations. In this visit to Paris he contracted
an acquaintance, among other learned men, with the cele¬
brated Father Montfaucon, with whom he conversed, at
their first interview, with no other character than that of a
traveller; but their discourse turning upon ancient learn¬
ing, the stranger soon gave such proofs of his attainments,
that Montfaucon declared him a very uncommon traveller,
and confessed his curiosity to know his name ; which he no
sooner heard, than he rose from his seat, and, embracing
him with the utmost ardour, expressed his satisfaction at
having seen the man whose productions of various kinds
787
he had so often praised; and, as a real proof of his re- Burman.
gard, offered not only to procure him an immediate ad- v—
mission to all the libraries of Paris, but to those in remot¬
er provinces, which are not generally open to strangers,
and undertook to ease the expenses of his journey by pro¬
curing him entertainment in all the monasteries of his
order. Ihis favour Burman was hindered from accept¬
ing by the necessity of returning to Utrecht, at the usual
time of beginning a new course of lectures, to which there
was always so great a concourse of students, as much in-
ci eased the dignity and fame of the university in which he
taught.”
When his talents and learning had thus procured him
a high and well-earned reputation, the death of Perizo-
mus left a vacancy in the professorship of history, the
Greek language, and eloquence, in the university of Ley¬
den ; and Burman had the honour of being nominated the
successor of a man who had occupied a very conspicuous
place among the scholars of the age. He was distinguish¬
ed by the acuteness of his intellect, and the solidity of his
judgment: he was equally skilled in Greek and Roman
liteiature, and with his critical skill he united a masterly
knowledge of the most abstruse departments of ancient his¬
tory. Burman, who was no unworthy successor, took pos¬
session of his chair on the 2d of July 1715, and then pro¬
nounced an inaugural oration, “ De publici Humanioris
Discipline Professoris proprio Officio et Munere.” He was
afterwards appointed professor of the history of the Unit¬
ed Provinces, and likewise of poetry; and to all these
functions was finally added the office of keeper of the
university library. He was twice chosen rector of the
university, namely, in 1719 and in 1731.
In the midst of these academical toils, which would have
been more than sufficient for a person of ordinary appli¬
cation, he still found leisure for the preparation of elabo¬
rate editions of Latin classics, and, among the rest, for an
edition of Velleius Paterculus. Lugd. Bat. 1719, 8vo. It
was reprinted after the death of the editor. Lugd. Bat.
1744, 8vo. From this ancient historian he made a tran¬
sition to an ancient rhetorician, and completed an edition
of the works of Quintilian. Lugd. Bat. 1720, 3 tom. 4to.
The last volume is occupied with the declamations ascrib¬
ed to that writer, and with those of Calpurnius Flaccus.
A pompous edition of Quintilian was afterwards produced
by Capperonnier (Paris, 1725, fol.); and as Burman thought
himself treated with less than due respect, he took an
ample revenge in a work entitled «Petri Burmanni Epis-
tola ad Claudium Capperonnerium, Theologum Licentia-
tum, Diaconum Ambianensem, et Graecae Linguae Pro-
fessorem, de nova ejus M. Fabii Quinctiliani de Institu-
tione Oratoria Editione.” Leidae, 1726, 4to. Among
other branches of learning, the Parisian professor has be¬
trayed his ignorance of the Roman law, and on this ac¬
count is severely chastised by his unrelenting adversary.
But in the mean time Burman had superintended an edi¬
tion of Justin, which is without a commentary, but con¬
tains an excellent preface. Lugd. Bat. 1722, 12mo.
His editorial labours were next bestowed upon a mo¬
dern author, whose fame is nearly classical. An elaborate
edition of Buchanan had been published by Ruddiman in
the year 1715. Ihe value of his annotations was very
generally acknowledged, but the narrow and pitiful pre¬
judices of a Jacobite frequently entangled his judgment;
and every subject which bore to politics any reference,
however remote, was viewed through a dim medium. Tim
political tendency of his preface and notes was so far from
bemg agreeable to the admirers of Buchanan, that a Whig
(fttaiSs ip,e’dura repehenaerc volui'’gravisstae ^ ^ ™
788 BUR
Burman. association was speedily formed at Edinburgh for the ex-
press purpose of vindicating their favourite author in a new
edition of his works. Their efforts however proved abor¬
tive, and the task of editorship devolved into more able
hands. Arrested by the frequent and wide variation be¬
tween the author and his jure divino editor, Burman had
nearly been induced to relinquish his undertaking, and to
advise his printer Langerak to procure assistance from
Scotland, where the authenticity of the facts could best be
ascertained. Of the new edition projected at Edinburgh
he was likewise apprized; though it does not appear, as
some writers pretend, that the associated critics made him
a voluntary offer of private assistance. The printer how¬
ever urging him to proceed without waiting for this vin¬
dicatory edition, he at length republished the works of
Buchanan, together with Ruddiman’s preface, notes, disser¬
tation, and other appendages.1 The annotations which
he himself subjoined are almost entirely philological. His
other engagements did not permit him to undertake the
task of correcting the press ; and accordingly his edition
is somewhat less accurate than that of his predecessor.
The general value of Ruddiman’s labours he acknowledges
in terms of due respect; but he occasionally rejects his
particular opinions in a manner which that learned man was
disposed to regard as contemptuous; and some of his ex¬
pressions relative to British literature, and to the native
country of Buchanan, were such as could not easily be
forgotten. Two years afterwards, when Ruddiman edited
the Latin poems of Dr Pitcairne, he eagerly embraced an
opportunity of asserting the honour of his native country;
and the same topics were yet fresh in his recollection
when he resumed his long labours at the venerable age of
eighty-one.
Of the epistolary correspondence of literary men, Bur¬
man was a curious and diligent collector. At a much earlier
period of his life he had published the epistle of Gudius
and other scholars ; and he now prepared a more ample
and voluminous work, which appeared under the title ot
“ Sylloge Epistolarum a Viris illustribus scriptarum.”
Leidae, 1727, 5 tom. 4to. This collection, which forms a
great repository of literary anecdote and critical disquisi¬
tion, is occasionally illustrated with the notes of the edi¬
tor. In the course of the same year, he completed the
printing of a work which holds a very distinguished place
among his learned labours, namely, his edition of the works
of Ovid. Amst. 1727, 4 tom. 4to. Like several of his
other editions of the classics, it contains not merely his
own notes, but likewise those of various commentators.
Ovid was evidently one of his favourite authors, and he
has bestowed much care and attention in the adjustment
of the text, as well as in its illustration. With regard to
the text, his chief guide is Nicolaus Heinsius, a most able
critic in Latin poetry. Burman had formerly published
a small edition without a commentary. His next edition,
cum noth variorum, was that of the “ Poetse Latini Mi-
nores.” Leidae, 1731, 2 tom. 4to. This curious collection
was succeeded by an edition, equally elaborate, of the
works of Suetonius. Amst. 1736, 2 tom. 4to. After an¬
other short interval followed “ M. Annsei Lucani Pharsa-
lia, cum commentario Petri Burmanni.” Leidae,1740, 4to.
In the preface to this publication, he speaks of Bentley with
some degree of asperity. They were both men of great
eminence in classical literature; and although they were
both of the same irascible temper, the friendly relations
between them had been of long duration. Some suspicions
and jealousies had however intervened, in consequence of
M A N.
their having each projected an edition of Lucan at a much Burman.
earlier period ; and the breach had been rendered irre-
parable, by Burman’s decisive measure of subjoining Dr
Hare’s Epistola Critica to his fourth edition of Phaedrus.2
But the labours of this indefatigable scholar were now
drawing to a close. Plis health had originally been vigor¬
ous, and those who have the slightest acquaintance with
his history must be aware that he was capable of endur¬
ing great and continued toil. His temperate mode of
living, and his attention to bodily exercise, long contribut¬
ed to preserve a healthful constitution ; but a scorbutic
disease, incidental to that climate, having supervened, he
found himself unable to take his usual walks, or other re¬
creation, and was at last afflicted with many painful symp¬
toms of a decayed frame and shattered nerves. While he
languished in a state of hopeless decay, he had the ho¬
nour of receiving a letter from Bignon, keeper of the royal
library at Paris, accompanying a copy of the printed cata¬
logue, transmitted to him by his majesty’s command. This
mark of royal favour might possibly cast a faint gleam of
earthly comfort on his bed of sickness; but he now re¬
quired consolation from a higher source, and with a due
mixture of fervour and humility he appears to have ap¬
proached the fountain of living waters. His religious
opinions had either been misunderstood or misrepresent¬
ed ; and he felt a commendable solicitude to remove this
erroneous impression, by the most unequivocal declaration
of his hopes in the mercy of God through the mediation
of Jesus Christ. In this devout frame of mind he closed
a long and active life, on the 31st day of March 1741, in
the seventy-third year of his age.
At the period of his death, he had made great progress in
a new edition of Virgil, and it was afterwards completed by
his learned nephew, who bore the same name with himself.
Amst. 1746, 4 tom. 4to. To the younger Burman we are
likewise indebted for the collective edition of his poems,
which appeared under the following title : “ Petri Bur¬
manni Poematum libri quatuor, nunc primum in lucem
editi, curante Petro Burmanno Juniore.” Amst. 1746, 4to.
His orations were collected by another editor, Nicolaus
Bondt: “ Petri Burmanni Orationes, antea sparsim editae,
et ineditis auctae. Accedit Carminum Appendix.” Hagae
Comitis, 1759, 4to. Of the Latin language Burman pos¬
sessed a masterly knowledge, and in verse as well as prose
he writes with vivacity and energy; but he is less scru¬
pulous in his diction than some more recent members of
the same university, especially Ruhnkenius and Wytten-
bach. He is entitled to the praise of a skilful versifier;
and his elegiac poems are sufficient to evince that he had
not studied Ovid in vain. His orations, which are eigh¬
teen in number, had been delivered on various occasions
of academical solemnity, and several of them contain a
large infusion of verse. The collection is closed by a
funeral oration, written by his colleague, H. Oosterdyk
Schacht, from which we have borrowed most of our notices
respecting his personal history ; but our account of his
writings is necessarily derived from other sources. In this
enumeration of his posthumous works, it remains to be
mentioned that his annotations on Claudian were printed
in his nephew’s edition of that poet.
The character of Burman is ably and impartially deli¬
neated by Dr Johnson. “ He was a man of moderate sta¬
ture, of great strength and activity, which he preserved
by temperate diet, without medical exactness, and by al¬
lotting proportions of his time to relaxation and amuse¬
ment, not suffering his studies to exhaust his strength, but
1 Georgii Buchanani Opera omnia. Lugd. Bat. 1725, 2 tom. 4to. _ .
1 Phaedri, August! Liberti, Fabularum ADsopiarum libri quinque, cum novo commentario Petri Burmanni. Ueidae, 1727, 4to.
BUR
Barman, relieving them by frequent intermissions ; a practice con-
sistent with the most exemplary diligence, and which he
that omits will find at last that time may be lost, like mo¬
ney, by unseasonable avarice. In his hours of relaxation
he was gay, and sometimes gave way so far to his temper,
naturally satirical, that he drew upon himself the ill-will
of those who had been unfortunately the subjects of his
mirth ; but enemies so provoked he thought it beneath
him to regal’d or to pacify; for he was fiery, but not ma¬
licious, disdained dissimulation, and in his gay or serious
hours preserved a settled detestation of falsehood.1 So
that he was an open and undisguised friend or enemy, en¬
tirely unacquainted with the artifices of flatterers, but so
judicious in the choice of his friends, and so constant in
his affections to them, that those with whom he had con¬
tracted familiarity in his youth had for the greatest part
his confidence in his old age.
“ His abilities, which would probably have enabled him
to have excelled in any kind of learning, were chiefly em¬
ployed, as his station required, on polite literature, in which
he arrived at very uncommon knowledge, which however
appears rather from judicious compilations, than original
productions. His style is lively and masculine, but not
without harshness and constraint, nor perhaps always
polished to that purity which some writers have attained.
He was at least instrumental to the instruction of man¬
kind, by the publication of many valuable performances,
which lay neglected by the greatest part of the learned
world; and, if reputation be estimated by usefulness, he
may claim a higher degree in the ranks of learning than
some others of happier elocution or more vigorous imagi¬
nation.”2
Such was the personal and literary character of Bur-
man, as it presented itself to the sagacious observation of
this distinguished writer. His name however is less fa¬
vourably known to the readers of English poetry, where it
is repeatedly used to denote whatever is dull and pedan¬
tic. Pope, who was not himself a very profound scholar,
endeavoured to restore a sort of equilibrium by disparag¬
ing the attainments of those who were most conspicuous
for their erudition. Bentley is supposed to have excited
his spleen by bestowing a too scanty measure of praise on
his translation of Homer ; nor did the poet neglect any op¬
portunity of directing the edge of his satire against “ that
awful Aristarch,” and those who successfully cultivated
similar studies. The following verses occur in the Dun-
ciad, b. iv. v. 235.
How parts relate to parts, or they to whole,
The body’s harmony, the beaming soul,
Are things which Raster, Barman, Wasse, shall see
When man’s whole frame is obvious to a flea.
If to his other qualifications Pope had added one half of
the critical learning possessed by Bentley, Kuster, Bur-
man, or Wasse, he would have found himself in a better
condition for writing notes on Homer. Mallet, who was
anxious to recommend himself to the favour of so great a
poet, aimed his shafts in the same direction. His poem
Of Verbal Criticism contains the subsequent passage:
Such the choice anecdotes, profound and vain,
That store a Bentley’s and a Burman’s brain:
Hence Plato quoted, or the Stagyrite,
To prove that flame ascends, and snow is white;
Hence much hard study, without sense or breeding,
And all the grave impertinence of reading.
Dr Armstrong, a contemporary poet, has indulged in a
M A N. 789
similar vein of sarcasm; nor do we feel much inclination Burman.
to commend these lines in his Art of Preserving Health,
b. iv. v. 52.
The strong-built pedant, who both night and day
Feeds on the coarsest fare the schools bestow,
And crudely fattens at gross Burman’s stall,
O’erwhelm’d with phlegm lies in a dropsy drown’d.
The injustice and absurdity of such censures as these
it would here be idle to expose. If we admit the value
of the ancient classics, we must also admit the expediency
of their being rendered intelligible; and how this could
have been effected without the intervention of critics and
philologers, it would not perhaps be so easy to discover.
Bentley, Burman, and many other verbal critics who might
be enumerated, were possessed of uncommon talents, as
well as erudition ; and the ingredients which enter into
the formation of an able commentator on the classics, are
more rare and more numerous than some individuals may
be apt to imagine.
Of the two surviving sons of Burman, the elder, named
Francis, made choice of a military life, and obtained pro¬
motion in the army. His brother Caspar, who betook
himself to the profession of the law, was elevated to the
bench, and was elected a deputy to the states general.
He was likewise a man of letters, and published several
works, which illustrate the civil and literary history of his
native country. “ Analecta Historica de Hadriano VI.
Pontifice Maximo.” Traj. ad Rhen. 1727, 4to. “ Trajec-
tum eruditum, Virorum Doctrina inlustrium, qui in Urbe
Trajectina, et Regione Trajectensi nati sunt, sive ibi ha-
bitarunt, Vitas, Fata, et Scripta exhibens.” Traj. ad Rhen.
1738, 4to. He is also the author of a work in the Dutch
language, published in 1750-1 under the title of Utrechte
Jaarboeken, and extending to three volumes. He died on
the 22d of August 1755.
His grandfather Francis Burman, who has already been
mentioned as professor of divinity at Utrecht, published
various works on theology.3 He was born at Leyden in
1632, and died at Utrecht in 1679. His son Francis was
born at Utrecht in 1671, became professor of divinity in
that university in 1715, and died in 1718. He was the
author of different works, written in the Latin and Dutch
languages. His son John Burman, M. D. was born in
1707, was appointed professor of botany at Amsterdam,
and died in 1780. He evinced much zeal in his own branch
of science, and published several works on botany. Nico¬
las Laurens Burman, M. D. his son, and his successor in
the botanical chair, was born in 1734, and died in 1793,
after having produced some works in his own department.
Francis Burman, the brother of John, was the third indi¬
vidual of the same name and family who held the profes¬
sorship of divinity at Utrecht.4
But a more conspicuous member of the same remarkable
family, was his other brother Peter Burman. On the 13th
of October 1714 he was born at Amsterdam, where his
father was then a minister. When only four years of age
he lost his father, and the care of his education devolved
upon his uncle, who communicated to him his own ardent
love of classical learning. His academical studies he com¬
pleted at Utrecht, where in 1734 he took the degree of
doctor of laws, having previously written and defended a
dissertation De Jure Annulorum aureorum, which has
been thought worthy of being reprinted in the collection
of Oelrichs.5 In 1736 he was nominated professor of elo-
1 Of his own habits of life, Barman has favoured us with some account in his Gazetiier Mcnteur, p. 164.
2 Johnson’s Works, vol. iv. p. 489. 1
2 Casp. Burmanni Trajecturn eruditum, p. 50. ♦ Biographic Universelle
* Thesaurus Dissertationum juridicarum in Academiis Belgicis habitarum, vol. ii. tom. i. p. 199. ’
tom. vi. p. 333.
790 B U R
Burmn. quence and history in the university of Franeker, in the
room of Wesseling, who had been removed to Utrecht.
The chair of poetry was in 174<1 added to his other ap¬
pointments ; but in the course of the following year he
accepted of an invitation to the Athenaeum of Amsterdam,
where he became professor of history, eloquence, the Greek
language, and poetry, keeper of the public library, and vi¬
sitor of the Latin schools. In his literary character he
bore a considerable resemblance to his more celebrated
uncle, and was evidently a man of extensive learning.1 He
published several detached orations, and other tracts, and
an ample collection of his Latin poems, “ Petri Burman-
ni Secundi Poematum libri quatuor.” Lugd. Bat. 1774,
4to. “ Carminum Appendix.” Lugd. Bat. 1779, 4to. He
edited several of the classics on a plan similar to that com¬
monly adopted by his uncle. We have already mention¬
ed the edition of Virgil, completed by his learned labour,
and must now continue the enumeration of his classical
publications. “ Anthologia veterum Latinorum Epigram-
matum et Poematum, sive Catalecta Poetarum Latinorum.”
Amst. 1759-73, 2 tom. 4to. “ Aristophanis Comcedim un-
decim Graece et Latine.” Lugd. Bat. 1760, 2 tom. 4to.
“ Claudii Claudiani Opera.” Amst. 1760, 4to. “ Cice-
ronis (vel incerti auctoris) Rhetoricorum ad Herennium
libri quatuor, et de Inventione libri duo.” Lugd. Bat.
1761, 8vo. “ Propertii Elegiarum libri IV.” Traj. ad
Rhen. 1780, 4to. This last work, which he did not him¬
self bring to a conclusion, was conducted through the press
by Van Santen, an elegant and correct scholar, who, under
the name of Santenius, is well known to those who are
acquainted with the literary history of that age. At an
earlier period, Burman had published a modern poet in
the same elaborate and splendid manner. “ Petri Loti-
chii Secundi Opera omnia.” Amst. 1754, 2 tom. 4to. He
likewise undertook the task of editing the works of some
modern critics. “ Henrici Valesii Emendationum libri V.
et de Critica libri duo,” &c. Amst. 1740, 4to. “ Nicolai
Heinsii Adversariorum libri IV.” &c. Harlingse, 1742,
4to. Of his personal history, a few particulars remain to
be told. He was thrice married. About a year before
his death, he resigned his professorship, and having re¬
ceived a liberal pension from the curators of the Athe-
nseum, he retired to his villa at Santhorst, in the hope of
long enjoying literary repose; but having been struck with
apoplexy, he expired on the 24th of June 1778. He ap¬
pears to have been a person of a disposition sufficiently
irritable: he was from time to time involved in various
strifes and contentions; and his quarrels with a Dutch
and a German professor, Saxius and Klotz, gave occasion
to many invectives in the Latin, Dutch, and German lan¬
guages.2 According to the testimony of his adversaries,
he was not remarkable for his sobriety. To this alleged
failing Klotz alludes in the following ludicrous verses, writ¬
ten in the character of the schoolmaster of Santhorst.
O coelum! noster dominus,
Petrus Burmannus Secundus,
Est mortuus, ut unus mus.
Quid nos incipiamus ?
Cum quo nos nunc bibamus,
Ni Petrum nostrum dominum, ni Petrum habeamus ?
Habebat multos cyathos,
Habebat scyphos vitreos,
Et calicos argenteos.
BUR
Sic est, sic omnia sunt vana. Burnet.
Sic vita aufugit humana, • , - —.,
Discessit noster dominus, disrumpitur ut rana.
Ille bibebat fortiter,
Et tonans terribiliter,
Exhauriebat bis et ter
Unam magnam lagenam,
Quam dicebat Hippocrenam,
Nunc dedit noster dominus, nunc dedit morti poenam.3
Although it certainly is not safe to take any person’s cha¬
racter from his enemies, yeteven by hisenemiesavery sober
man will not often be accused of intemperance, (d. i.)
BURNET, Thomas, a distinguished writer, was born
at Croft in Yorkshire about the year 1635, but is supposed
to have been descended of a Scottish family. His early
education he received at the free-school of Northallerton,
in the same county, under Thomas Smelt, who used to
propose him as an example to the rest of his scholars. On
the 26th of June 1651, he was admitted a pensioner of
Clare Hall at Cambridge, under the tuition of Tillotson,
who continued to remember him with kindness ; but in the
year 1654, he removed to Christ’s College, on the election
of Dr Cudworth to the mastership, and there he obtained
a fellowship in the year 1657. In 1661 he became senior
proctor of the university. He was successively domestic
tutor to Charles duke of Bolton, and to James earl of
Ossory, afterwards duke of Ormonde, grandson to the
first duke; and by the interest of the latter nobleman
he was chosen master of the Charter-house in 1685.
Among the electors, some of the bishops opposed him on
account of his wearing a lay-habit; but the duke was satis¬
fied that he possessed the more essential qualifications of
a life and conversation suitable to his clerical character.
After this appointment, he took the degree of D. D. In
his capacity of master, he made a noble stand against the
admission of a papist named Andrew Popham, as a pen¬
sioner of the house: on the 26th of December 1686, the
king addressed to the governors a letter dispensing with
the statutes; but the opposition of the master being vigor¬
ously supported by other governors, James deemed it pru¬
dent to desist from this illegal attempt.
Dr Burnet had already published his Telluris Theoria
sacra. Lond. 1681, 4to. This work attracted an unusual
share of the public attention, and he was afterwards en¬
couraged to exhibit it in an English dress. His Sacred
Theory of the Earth was printed in folio, the first part in
1684, and the conclusion in 1689. Addison commended
the author in a Latin ode. His fanciful theory was how¬
ever attacked by Dr Keill, Mr Whiston, and Mr Warren,
to all of whom he returned an answer. He had now ac¬
quired a high reputation as a man of talents; and after the
revolution, he was introduced at court by Archbishop Til¬
lotson, whom he succeeded as clerk of the closet to King
William.4 He seemed already to be on the direct road to
much higher preferment, when he suddenly marred his
own prospects by the publication of a learned and inge¬
nious work, entitled Archceologice Philosophicce : sive I)oc-
trina antiqua de Rerum Originibus. Lond. 1692, 4to.
The mode in which he discussed the history of the fall of
man, excited a great clamour against him; and the king
was obliged to remove him from his office at court. Of
this book an English translation was executed by Mr
Foxton. Lond. 1729, 8vo. Dr Burnet next published
1 “ Habebat enim cum ipse maximam doctrinse copiam, turn vero litteratam supellectilem ex libris virorum doctorum ineditia
tantam quantam privatorum quidem bominum baud scio an nemo unquam babuerit.” (YVyttenbachii Opuscula. tom. i. p. 136. Lugd.
Bat. 1821, 2 tom. 8vo.) V ^ ^ ^ »
* Harlesius de Yitis Philologorum, vol. i. p. 114.
* Eunus Petri Burmanni Secundi, edidit Christianus Adolphus Klotzius, p. 61. Altenburgi, 1762, 8vo.
* Birch’s Life of Tillotson, p. 278. Lond. 1752, 8vo.
B B R
BUR 791
Burnet.
“ Remarks upon an Essay concerning Human Understand¬
ing, in a Letter address’d to the Author.” Lond. 1697,
4to. “ Second Remarks, &c. being a Vindication of the first
Remarks against the Answer of Mr Locke, at the end of
his Reply to the Lord Bishop of Worcester.” Lond. 1697,
4to. “ Third Remarks,” &c. Lond. 1699, 4to. These
remarks were answered by Catherine Trotter, afterwards
Mrs Cockburn, in her “ Defence of Mr Locke’s Essay,”
written when she was twenty-three years of age, and
printed at London in 1702. He died at the Charter-
house on the 27th of September 1715, at a very advanced
age. Two of his works were published several years after
his death. De Fide et Officiis Christianorum Liber post-
humus. Lond. 1722, 4to. De Statu Mortuorum et Re-
surgentium Tractatus. Lond. 1723, 4to. Of the first of
these works, there are several other editions, one of which
was published by Dr Teller of Berlin. Halm Magdeburg.
1786, 8vo. The second has likewise been more than once
reprinted; and two English translations were published
by Matthias Earbery and John Dennis. The author was
evidently a man of genius and learning; but his fancy
being sometimes more vigorous than his judgment, he is
not on all occasions a very safe guide. In this work he
maintains the doctrine of the middle state, the Millennium,
and the limited duration of future punishment. Muratori,
an Italian writer of great eminence, published copious ani¬
madversions upon it, under the subsequent title: “ De
Paradise Regnique Caelestis Gloria, non expectata Corpo-
rum Resurrectione, Justis a Deo conlata; adversus Thomm
Burneti Britanni Librum de Statu Mortuorum.” Veronae,
1738, 4to. The name of Burnet appears in the following
publication, but his only contribution consists of a few
pages translated from his treatise on the faith and duties
of Christians: “ The Judgment of Dr Thomas Burnet,
late Master of the Charter-House, concerning the Doctrine
of the Trinity : and the Judgment of Dr Samuel Clarke,
late Rector of St James’s, concerning 1. the Satisfaction,
2. the Merits, 3. the Mediation and Intercession of Christ,
4. the ordinary Influence and Assistance of the Holy
Spirit, 5. the two Sacraments. With a preface concern¬
ing Mr Lock, Sir Isaac Newton, and Mr Wollaston.”
Lond. 1732, 8vo. (d. i.)
Burnet, Gilbert, bishop of Salisbury, was born at Edin¬
burgh in 1643, but was descended of an ancient family
in the county of Aberdeen. His father being bred to
the law, was, at the restoration of King Charles II., ap¬
pointed one of the lords of session, by the title of Lord
Crimond, as a reward for his constant attachment to the
royal party during the civil wars. Gilbert, the youngest
son of his father, was instructed by him in the Latin
tongue; and at ten years of age he was sent to Marischal
College, Aberdeen, where he was admitted A. M. before
he was fourteen years of age. His own inclination led him
to the study of the civil and feudal law; and he used
to say that it was from this study he had received more
just notions concerning the foundations of civil society and
government, than those which some divines maintain. He
afterwards changed his views, and, to the great satisfaction
of his father, began to apply to divinity. He received
ordination before the age of eighteen; and Sir Alexander
Burnet, his cousin-german, offered him a benefice, but he
refused to accept of it.
In 1663, about two years after the death of his father,
he came into England; and after six months stay at Ox¬
ford and Cambridge, returned to Scotland; which he soon
left again to make a tour of some months, in 1664, in Hol¬
land and France. At Amsterdam, by the help of a Jewish
rabbi, he perfected himself in the Hebrew language ; and
likewise became acquainted with the leading men of the
different persuasions tolerated in that country, Calvinists,
Arminians, Lutherans, Anabaptists, Brownists, Papists,
and Unitarians; among each of which sects he used fre¬
quently to declare he met with men of such unfeigned
piety and virtue, that he became fixed in a strong prin¬
ciple of universal charity, and an invincible abhorrence of
all severities on account of religious dissensions.
Upon his return from his travels, he was admitted mi¬
nister of Saltoun; in which station he served five years in
the most exemplary manner. He drew up a memorial, in
which he took notice of the principal errors in the conduct
of the Scottish bishops, which he observed not to be con¬
formable to the primitive institution; and sent a copy of
it to several of them. This exposed him to their resent¬
ments; but to show he was not actuated by a spirit of
ambition, he led a retired course of life for two years,
which so endangered his health that he was obliged to
abate his excessive application to study. In the year 1668
he was appointed professor of divinity in the university of
Glasgow; and, according to the usual practice, he read his
lectures in the Latin language. It was apparently at this
period that he laid the chief foundation of that theological
learning for which he became so distinguished. In 1669 he
published his “ Modest and free Conference between a
Conformist and Nonconformist.” He became acquainted
with the Duchess of Hamilton, who communicated to him
all the papers belonging to her father and her uncle; upon
which he drew up the “ Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamil¬
ton,” afterwards printed at London, in folio, in the year
1677. The Duke of Lauderdale, hearing he was engaged
in this work, invited him to London, and introduced him
to King Charles II. He returned to Scotland, and married
Lady Margaret Kennedy, daughter of the Earl of Cassil-
lis, a lady of great knowledge, and highly esteemed by the
Presbyterians, to whose sentiments she was strongly in¬
clined.1 As there was some disparity in their ages, that
it might be sufficiently evident that this match was wholly
owing to inclination, and not to avarice or ambition, the
day before their marriage he delivered to the lady a deed,
by which he renounced all pretensions to her fortune,
which was very considerable, and must otherwise have
fallen into his hands, she herself having no intention to
secure it. His “ Vindication of the Authority, Constitu¬
tion, and Laws of the Church and State of Scotland,” was
printed at Glasgow, in octavo, in the year 1673. This
was considered as so material a service to the government,
that he was again offered a bishopric, with a promise of the
next vacant archbishopric ; but he did not accept of it, be¬
cause he could not approve of the measures of the court,
the great view of which he perceived to be the advance¬
ment of popery. The publication itself was one of those
which the author could not afterwards recollect with much
satisfaction.
His intimacy with the Dukes of Hamilton and Lauder¬
dale procured him frequent messages from the king and
the Duke of York, who had conversations with him in
private. But Lauderdale, who was the most unprincipled
man of the age, conceiving a resentment against him on
account of the freedom with which he spoke to him, re¬
presented at last to the king that Dr Burnet was engaged in
an opposition to his measures; and on his return to London
he perceived that these suggestions had entirely deprived
him of the king’s favour, though the Duke of York treat¬
ed him with greater civility than ever, and dissuaded him
from going to Scotland. He accordingly resigned his pro-
Burnet.
1 Some degree of attention has lately been directed to this lady in consequence of the publication of a collection of Letters from
Lady Margaret Burnet to John Duke of Lauderdale. Edinb. 1828, 4to.
792
BUR
Burnet, fessorship at Glasgow, and settled in London. About this
w-y-w' time the living of Cripplegate being vacant, the dean and
chapter of St Paul’s (in whose gift it was), hearing of his
circumstances, and the hardships which he had undergone,
made him an offer of the benefice; but, as he had been
informed of their first intention of conferring it on Dr
Fowler, he generously declined it. In 1675, at the recom¬
mendation of Lord Hollis, whom he had known in France
as ambassador at that court, he was by Sir Harbottle Grim-
stone, master of the rolls, appointed preacher at the Rolls
chapel, notwithstanding the opposition of the court; and
he was soon afterwards chosen lecturer at St Clement’s, and
became one of the most popular preachers in town. The
first volume of his History of the Reformation of the Church
of England was published in folio in 1681, the second in
1683, and the third in 1715. For this great work he re¬
ceived the thanks of both houses of parliament. Of the
first two volumes he published an abridgment in the year
1683.
Dr Bux-net about this time happened to be sent for to
a woman in sickness, who had been engaged in an amour
with the Earl of Rochester. The manner in which he
treated her during her illness gave that profligate noble¬
man a great curiosity for being acquainted with him ; and
during a whole winter, he spent one evening of the week
with Dr Burnet, who discussed with him all those topics
upon which sceptics and men of loose morals attack the
Christian religion. The happy effects of these confer-
♦ ences occasioned the publication of his account of the life
and death of that nobleman. In 1682, when the adminis¬
tration was changed in favour of the Duke of York, being
much resorted to by persons of all ranks and parties, in
order to avoid returning visits, he built a laboratox-y, and
for above a year pursued a course of chemical experi¬
ments. Not long after he refused a living of three hun¬
dred pounds a year offered him by the Earl of Essex, on
the terms of his not residing there, but in London. When
the enquiry concerning the popish plot was on foot, he
was frequently sent for and consulted by King Charles
with relation to the state of the nation. His majesty of¬
fered him the bishopric of Chichester, then vacant, if he
would engage in his interests; but he refused to accept it
on these terms. He preached at the Rolls till 1684, when
he was dismissed by order of the court.
About this period he published various works, among
which we must not overlook the following seven. “ Some
Passages of the Life and Death of John Lari of Roches¬
ter.”1 Lond. 1680, 8vo. “ The Life and Death of Sir
Matthew Hale, Kt. sometime Lord Chief Justice of his
Majesties Court of Kings Bench.” Lond. 1682, 8vo.
“ The History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of
Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands.” Lond. 1682,
8vo. “ The Life of William Bedell, D. D. Bishop of Kil-
more in Ireland.” Lond. 1685, 8vo. “ Reflexions on Mr
Varillas’s History of the Revolutions that have happened
in Europe in matters of Religion, and more particularly
on his ninth book, that relates to England.” Amst. 1686,
12mo. “ A Defence of the Reflections on the ninth book
of the first volum of Mr Varillas’s History of Heresies;
being a Reply to his Answer.” Amst. 1687, 12mo. “ A
Continuation of Reflections on Mr Varillas’s History of
Heresies, particulaxdy on that which x'elates to English Af-
faii's in his third and fourth tomes.” Amst. 1687, 12mo.
He bore a very conspicuous part in the controversy which
at that time was so ably maintained against the papists; and
BUR
a complete catalogue of his woi’ks would occupy no small Burnet,
space. The following translations deserve to be men-
tioned in this very brief and inadequate notice. “ Uto¬
pia, written in Latin by Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of
England: translated into English.” Lond. 1685, 8vo.
“ A Relation of the Death of the primitive Persecutors,
written originally in Latin by L. C. F. Lactantius: Eng¬
lished by Gilbert Burnet, D. D. to which he hath made a
large preface concerning persecution.” Amst. 1687,12mo.
On King James’s accession to the throne, having ob¬
tained leave to quit the kingdom, he first went to Paris,
and lived in great retirement, till, contracting an acquaint¬
ance with Brigadier Stouppe, a Protestant gentleman in
the French service, he made a tour with him into Italy.
He met with an agreeable reception at Rome. Pope In¬
nocent XL hearing of his arrival, sent the captain of the
Swiss guards to acquaint him he would give him a pri¬
vate audience in bed, to avoid the ceremony of kissing
his holiness’s slipper; but Dr Burnet excused himself as
well as he could. Here, with more zeal than prudence,
he engaged in some religious disputes ; and, on receiving
an intimation from Prince Borghese, he found it necessary
to withdraw from this stronghold of priestci'aft, and pur¬
sued his travels through Switzerland and Germany. He
afterwards came to Utrecht, with an intention to settle in
some of the seven provinces. There he received an invi¬
tation from the prince and princess of Orange (to whom
their party in England had recommended him) to come
to the Hague, and of this invitation he accepted. He was
soon acquainted with the secret of their councils, and
advised the preparation of a fleet in Holland sufficient
to support their designs and encourage their friends.
This, and the account of his travels,2 in which he endea¬
voured to blend popery and tyranny together, and repre¬
sent them as inseparable, with some papers reflecting
on the proceedings of England, that came out in single^
sheets, and were dispersed in several parts of England, of
most of which Dr Burnet owned himself the author, alarm¬
ed King James, and were the occasion of his writing twice
against him to the princess of Oi’ange, and insisting, by
his ambassador, on his being forbidden the court; which,
after much importunity, was done, though he contirxued
to be trusted and employed as before, the Dutch minis¬
ter daily consulting him. To put an end to these fre¬
quent conferences with the ministers, a prosecution for
high treason was commenced against him both in Eng¬
land and Scotland; but receiving the intelligence before
it reached the states, he avoided the storm, by petition¬
ing for, and obtaining without any difficulty, a bill of na¬
turalization, in order to his intended marriage with Mary
Scott, a Dutch lady of considerable fortune, who, with
the advantage of birth, united those of a fine person and
understanding.
After his marriage with this lady, being legally under
the protection of Holland, when Dr Burnet found King
James plainly subverting the constitution, he omitted no
method to support and promote the design which the
prince of Orange had formed of delivering Great Britain ;
and, having accompanied him in quality of chaplain, he was
in the year 1689 advanced to the see of Salisbury. He de¬
clared for moderate measures with regard to the clergy
who scrupled to take the oaths, and many were displeased
with him for declaring for the toleration of nonconfox mists.
As my lord of Salisbui’y, says the Earl of Shaftesbury,
“ has done more than any man living for the good and
1 “ Which,” says Dr Johnson, “ the critick ought to read for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its
piety.” {Lives of English Poets, vol. i. p. 303.) x , r TX *
J Some Letters, containing an Account of what seemed most remarkable in Switzerland, Italy, &c. written by ta. laurnet, i). D,
to T. H. It. B. Rotterdam, 1686, 8vo.
BUR
BUR
793
Burnet.
honour of the church of England and the reform’d reli¬
gion, so he now suffers more than any man from the
tongues and slander of those ungrateful church-men ; who
may well call themselves by that single term of distinc¬
tion, having no claim to that of Christianity or Protestant,
since they have thrown off all the temper of the former, and
all concern or interest with the latter.” The same noble
writer has elsewhere mentioned him in the following terms
of commendation : “ The bishop of Salisbury’s Exposition
of the Articles is, no doubt, highly worthy of your study.
None can better explain the sense of the church, than one
who is the greatest pillar of it since the first founders ; one
who best explain’d and asserted the reformation its self;
was chiefly instrumental in saving it from popery before
and at the Revolution; and is now the truest example of
laborious, primitive, pious, and learned episcopacy.”1
His pastoral letter concerning the oaths of allegiance
and supremacy to King William and Queen Mary, 1689,
happening to touch upon the right of conquest, gave such
offence to both houses of parliament, that it was ordered
to be burnt by the hands of the common executioner. He
soon afterwards published a very valuable work, entitled
A Discourse of the Pastoral Cure. Lond. 1692, 4to. In
1698 he lost his wife by the small-pox; and as he was al¬
most immediately after appointed preceptor to the Duke
of Gloucester, of whose education he took great care, this
employment, and the tender age of his children, induced
him the same year to supply her loss by a marriage with
Mrs Berkeley, a widow, who was eldest daughter of Sir
Richard Blake. In 1699 he published his Exposition of
the thirty-nine Articles; which occasioned a representation
against him in the lower house of convocation in the year
1701, but he was vindicated in the upper house. His
speech in the House of Lords in 1704 against the bill to
prevent occasional conformity, was severely attacked. He
formed a scheme for augmenting the small livings; which
he pressed forward with such success, that it ended in an
act of parliament passed in the second year of Queen Anne,
for the augmentation of the livings of the poor clergy. He
died in 1715, and was interred in the church of St James,
Clerkenwell, where a monument was erected to his me¬
mory.
Bishop Burnet’s History of his own Time, consisting of
two large volumes in folio, was not published till several
years after the author’s death; the first volume appeared
in 1724, and the second in 1734. An account of his life
was added by his youngest son Sir Thomas Burnet, one
of the judges of the court of common pleas. The history
itself was not printed without mutilations; but after an
interval of nearly a century, an edition, containing all the
passages which had formerly been suppressed, was publish¬
ed under the superintendence of the learned Dr Routh.
Oxford, 1823, 6 vols. 8vo. This is a work of great and
intrinsic value: it exhibits many curious and interesting
delineations of character, and many striking views of the
causes and progress of events. The first volume, which
relates to the reigns of Charles II. and his brother James,
we consider as the more interesting of the two. His ma¬
terials are not always very carefully digested, and his style
is sometimes supposed to be too familiar; but these de¬
fects are abundantly compensated by the copiousness of
his information, the benevolence of his sentiments, and
the earnestness of his manner. The Conclusion displays
superior dignity of composition, and cannot be perused
without the most favourable impression of the author’s
intellectual attainments and moral worth. He uniformly
evinces his attachment to the cause of freedom, nor is this
the least conspicuous part of his character: the church of Burnet
England, in its collective capacity, has always been hos- II
tile to civil as well as religious liberty; and its annals ex- Bu™ey-
hibit very few names which tend to remove the general
stigma. Those of Burnet and Hoadley ought never to be
forgotten.
Burnet, James, Lord Monboddo, a senator of the col¬
lege of justice, was born about the year 1714. He was
the son of Mr Burnet of Monboddo in Kincardineshire.
After passing through the usual course of school educa¬
tion, he prosecuted his studies at the universities of Aber¬
deen, Edinburgh, and Leyden, with distinguished repu¬
tation. He was admitted an advocate in 1737; and on the
12th of February 1767, he was raised to the bench by the
title of Lord Monboddo.
A journey to London became a favourite amusement of
his periods of vacation from the business of the court;
and for a time he made this journey once a year. A car¬
riage, a vehicle that was not in common use among the
ancients, he considered as an engine of effeminacy and
sloth, which it was disgraceful for a man to make use of
in travelling. To be dragged at the tail of a horse, in¬
stead of mounting upon his back, seemed, in his eyes, to
be a truly ludicrous degradation of the genuine dignity
of human nature : in all his journeys, therefore, between
Edinburgh and London, he was wont to ride on horse¬
back, with a single servant attending him. He continued
this practice, without finding it too fatiguing for his
strength, till he was upwards of eighty years of age.
Lord Monboddo is well known to the world as a man
of letters. His first publication was The Origin and Pro¬
gress of Language, in two vols. 8vo, 1773, which were fol¬
lowed by four more volumes, the last being published not
long before his death. In this work, intended chiefly to
vindicate the honour of Grecian literature, he ascribes
the origin of alphabetical writing to the Egyptians; and
strenuously maintains that the orang-utan is a variety of
the human species, and that his want of speech is merely
accidental. He also endeavours to establish the reality
of the existence of mermaids, and other fictitious animals.
He was induced to undertake another work for the pur¬
pose of defending the cause of Grecian philosophy, and
published, in five vols. 4to, a work entitled Ancient Meta¬
physics, which, like the other, is remarkable for a surpris¬
ing mixture of erudition and genius, with the most absurd
whim and conceit.
As a judge his decisions were sound, upright, and learn¬
ed, marked with acute discrimination, and free from those
paradoxes and partialities which appear in his writings.
He attended his judicial duty with indefatigable diligence
till within a few days of his death, which happened at his
house in Edinburgh on the 26th of May 1799, at the ad¬
vanced age of eighty-five.
BURNEY, Charles, Doctor of Music, was born in the
ancient city of Shrewsbury, the capital of Shropshire, on
the 7th of April 1726. He received his earlier education
at the excellent free school of that city, and was afterwards
sent to the public school at Chester. His first music-
master was Mr Baker, organist of Chester Cathedral,
and a pupil of Dr John Blow. Returning to Shrewsbury
when about fifteen years old, he continued his musical
studies for three years under his half-brother, Mr James
Burney, organist of St Mary’s Church ; and was then sent
to London as a pupil of the celebrated Dr Arne, with whom
he remained three years. In 1749 he was appointed
organist of a church in the city, with a salary of L.30 a-
year; and was also engaged as conductor of a concert esta-
vol. v
1 Shaftesbury’s Letters, p. 28, 37.
5 H
794 BURNEY.
Burney, blished at the King’s Arms, Cornhill. In that year and the
next, he composed the music of three dramas for Drury
Lane theatre—Alfred, Robin Hood, and Queen Mctb. His
health now became so seriously affected, that his physicians
advised him to retire into the country ; and he therefore
went to Lynn, in Norfolk, where he was elected organist,
with an annual salary of L.100, and where he resided for
the next nine years. During that time he began to enter¬
tain the idea of writing a general history of music. In 1760
he returned to London in good health, and with a young
family; the eldest of whom, a girl of eight years of age,
surprised the public by her attainments as a harpsichord-
player. In 1766 he produced, at Drury Lane, a free Eng¬
lish version and adaptation of J. J. Rousseaus operetta
Le Devin du Village, under the title of The Cunning
Man, which was favourably received. The university of
Oxford conferred upon him, on 23d June 1769, the degrees
of bachelor and doctor of music, on which occasion he
presided at the performance of his exercise for these de¬
grees. His exercise consisted of an anthem, with an over¬
ture, solos, recitatives, and choruses, accompanied by in¬
struments, besides a vocal anthem in eight parts,1 which
was not performed for the reason mentioned by Burney.2
His friend, C. P. E. Bach, requested a copy of this exer¬
cise, and had it performed in St Catharine’s Church at
Hamburg, under his own direction, in 1773. It was re¬
peatedly performed at Oxford, “ after it had fulfilled its ori¬
ginal destination,” as Burney tells us (vol. iii. p. 329) ; and
he apologises as follows for saying so much about it. “ It
is hoped that the reader will pardon this egotism, which has
been extorted from me by occasional and sinister assertions,
‘ that I neither liked nor had studied church music.’” {Ibid)
In 1769 he published An Essag toivards a History of
Comets.
Amidst his various professional avocations, Burney never
lost sight of his favourite object—his History of Music—
and therefore resolved to travel abroad for the purpose of
collecting materials that could not be found in Great Bri¬
tain. Accordingly he left London in June 1770, furnished
with numerous letters of introduction, and proceeded to
Paris, and thence to Geneva, Turin, &c. The results of
his observations he published in The present state of Music
in France and Italy, 1 vol. Bvo, London, 1771. Dr John¬
son thought so well of this work, that, alluding to his own
Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland,” he said, “ I
had that clever dog Burney’s Musical Tour in my eye.”
In 1771 Burney published a translation of Tartini’s Letter
to Signora Lombardini on Violin-playing. In July 1772
Burney again visited the Continent, to collect further ma¬
terials ; and, after his return to London, published his tour
under the title of The present state of Music in Germany,
the Netherlands, and United Provinces, 2 vols. Bvo, Lon¬
don, 1773. In the latter year, he was chosen a Fellow of
the Royal Society of London. In 17 <6 appeared the first
volume (in 4to) of his long-projected History of Music ; in
1782 the second volume ; and in 1789 the third and fourth.
His Tour in Germany, &c., and the first volume of his His¬
tory, were sharply criticised by J. N. Forkel,3 4 music-director at
Gottingen, in the third volume of his Musikalisch-Kritische Burney
Bibliothek, Gotha, 1779. The Spanish ex-Jesuit, Requeno,
in his Italian work Saggj sul Ristabilimento delV Arte
Armonica de’ Greci e Romani Cantori, Parma, 1798, 2
vols. 8vo, attacks Burney’s account of the ancient Greek
music, and calls him lo scompigliato Burneyf Burney’s
first tour was translated into German by Ebeling, and
printed at Hamburg in 1772 ; and his second Tour, trans¬
lated into German by Bode, was published at Hamburg in
1773. A Dutch translation of his second Tour, with Notes,
by J. W. Lustig, organist at Groningen, was published there
in 1786. The Dissertation on the music of the ancients,
in the first volume of Burney’s History, was translated into
German by J. J. Eschenburg, and printed at Leipzig, 1781.
In the same year that Burney published the first volume of
his History of Music, appeared Sir John Hawkins’ General
History of the Science and Practice of Music, in 5 vols.
4to; but, although Hawkins’ work had certain merits, the
superior elegance and animation of Burney’s style secured
the favour of the public ; and Hawkins’ volumes have
always been rather consulted by musical antiquaries, than
read for instruction and amusement by professional musi¬
cians or amateurs. The Indices appended to Burney’s
History are so incomplete as to give great trouble in con¬
sulting his volumes. This is a serious defect in so large a
work. From the two first volumes of Padre Martini’s
very learned Storia-della Musica, Bologna, 1757-1770,
Burney derived much aid.5 At the end of the fourth
volume of his History of Music, Burney says: “ I have at
length arrived at the end of a work that has been thirty
years in meditation, and more than twenty in writing and
printing” (page 684). One cannot but admire Burney’s
persevering industry, and sacrifices of time, money, and per¬
sonal comfort, in collecting and preparing materials for his
History ; and few will be disposed to condemn, too severely,
errors and oversights in a work of such extent and difficulty.
Dr T. Busby’s History of Music (2 vols. 8vo, 1819), is a
mere abridgment of Burney and Hawkins, written in a
bombastic style. In 1779 he wrote, for the Royal Society,6
an account of the infant Crotch,7 whose remarkable musical
talent excited so much attention at that time. In 1783,
through the treasury influence of his friend Edmund Burke,8
he was appointed organist to the chapel of Chelsea Hospi¬
tal, and removing thither with his family, resided there for
the remainder of his days. In 1784 Burney published,
with an Italian title-page, the music annually performed in
the Pope’s chapel at Rome during Passion week ; a work
which A. Choron republished at Paris in 1818. In 1785
he published, for the benefit of the Musical Fund, an ac¬
count of the first commemoration of Handel in Westmin¬
ster Abbey in the preceding year, with an excellent life o*
Handel, 1 vol. 4to. J. J. Eschenburg published a German
translation of this at Berlin in 1785. In 1796 he published
Memoirs and Letters of Metastasio, 3 vols. 8vo. 1 owards
the close of his life, Burney contributed to the Rev. Dr
Rees’s Cyclopaedia all the musical articles not belonging to
Natural Philosophy and Mathematics. For these articles
he received L.1000 ; which seems a remarkable remunera-
1 In the third volume of his GWmZ o/ilfws*c, pp. 251-3, Burney gives a copy of this anthem. ,
2 Dr William Hays, then music professor at Oxford, told Burney that “ this movement alone would have well entitled him to a doc¬
tor’s degree.” Ih. p. 329. _ .
3 Forkel published two volumes of a general history of music, Allgemeine Geschiehte der Musik, Leipzig, 1788-1801, in 4to. ills second
volume comes down to the time of the Italian professor, F. Gafori, who died in 1522. These volumes are very accurate and learned, but
heavily written. Forkel died in 1818, aged 69.
4 Ibid. Prefazione, p. 24. . j. j? iu
5 The third volume of Martini’s-SWia was published in 1781, concluding the history of ancient Greek music. The rest ot that work
remains in MSS. in the library of the Liceo at Bologna ; and will probably never be published, as the writer of this article was told in
1819 by the librarian, Signor Barbieri j the cost of printing being greater than the sale would cover. Signor Barbieri confirmed Burney s
estimate of the number of books in Padre Martini’s library (nowin the Liceo), i. e. 17,000.
6 Phil. Trans, abridged, vol. xiv., 1779. 7 Afterwards Oxford professor of music.
8 See vol. ii. p. 293 of Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arhlay ; 7 vols. 8vo, H. Colburn, London, 1842-46.
Burney.
BUR
BUB
795
tion, considering that most of his materials were merely
transcribed from his own History of Music. He was made
a member of the Institute of France, and nominated a cor¬
respondent in the class of the Fine Arts, in the year 1810.1
He died at Chelsea College on the 12th of April 1814,2
and was interred in the burying-ground of the college on
the 20th of the same month. His funeral was attended by
many persons of rank and talent. Burney had a wide circle
of acquaintance among the distinguished artists and literary
men of his day.3 At one time he thought of writing a
life of his friend Dr Samuel Johnson ; but retired before
the crowd of biographers who rushed into that field. His
character in private as well as public life, appears to have
been very amiable and exemplary. Signor Serafino Lan-
zoni of Florence—a school-fellow and intimate friend of
Cherubini, and who had long resided in London as a pro¬
fessional musician—told the writer of this article in 1818,
that he had frequently met with Dr Burney at musical
parties, and spoke highly of him as a man of pleasing and
o-entlemanly manners; but said that he was too fond of
taking a part in singing, upon every occasion, for which he
was not fitted by either ear or voice ; adding, Stuonava da
far crepare i sassi! But, like hundreds more, Burney may
have been a very good player on the organ and harpsichord,
without having a fine ear, or being able to sing in tune.
Dr Burney’s sons and daughters were all persons of talent.
His eldest son, James, was a distinguished officer in the
royal navy, and died a rear-admiral in 1821. He published
several works of merit. Dr Burney’s second son, the Rev.
Charles Burney, D.D., was an eminent Greek scholar; and
his second daughter, afterwards Madame D’Arblay, was a
very successful novelist in her early life. Her Diary and
Letters, already referred to, contain many minute and in¬
teresting particulars of her father’s public and private life,
and of his friends and contemporaries.
Besides the operatic music above mentioned, Burney’s known
compositions consist of, 1. Six Sonatas for the harpsichord; 2. Two
Sonatas for the harp or piano, with accompaniments for violin and
violoncello ; 3. Sonatas for two violins and a bass: two sets; 4. Six
Lessons for the harpsichord ; 5. Six duets for two German flutes ; 6.
Three concertos for the harpsichord; 7. Six concert pieces with an in¬
troduction and fugue for the organ; 8. Six Concertos for the violin,
&c., in eight parts ; 9. Two Sonatas for pianoforte, violin, and violon¬
cello ; 10. A Cantata, <Scc.; 11. Anthems, <kc.; 12. XII. Canzonetti a
due voci in Canone, poesia delV Abate Metastasio. (G. F. G.)
Burney, Charles, son of the historian of music, and an
eminent classical scholar, was born at Lynn in Norfolk in
1757. At the age of eleven he was sent to the Charter-
house in London, whence he removed to Caius college,
Cambridge. He quitted this university without taking his
degree ; but in 1791 he received the diploma of LL.D. from
Aberdeen, and in 1808 that of D.D. from Cambridge. In
1783 he married the daughter of Dr Rose the translator of
Sallust, and continued for some time to assist his father-in-
law in the management of his academy. He contributed at
this time many articles to the Monthly Review, and after¬
wards edited for two or three years the London Magazine.
Some of his contributions to the first of these periodicals
gained him much credit not only among English but Con¬
tinental scholars. His reputation was now so thoroughly
established, that in the course of a short time he realized a
handsome fortune, much of which , he expended in the for¬
mation of his splendid library. The manuscripts and rare
books which he collected were considered so valuable that
at his death, which happened in 1817, they were purchased
by the nation and deposited in the British Museum.
Burney, Frances, a popular novelist of the last century,
was the eldest daughter of the historian of music, and was
born at Lynn in Norfolk in 1752. In the ninth year of Burning,
her age she accompanied her father to London, where,
from the advantages of her position, she enjoyed excellent
opportunities of observing the manners and characters ot
all classes of society. As soon as she could use the pen,
which however was not very early, she began to write little
stories for her own amusement and that ot her sisters, but
her stepmother (for Dr Burney’s second marriage took
place when Frances was in her sixteenth year) remon¬
strating against so dangerous a recreation, she abandoned
it for a time. But the literary impulse was too strong to
be permanently suppressed, and, in 1778, when Miss Bur¬
ney was in her twenty-sixth year, Evelina appeared. No
novel since the days of Smollett had produced so great an
effect on the public mind, or gained for its author so wide
and rapid a popularity. Four years after appeared Cecilia,
which amply sustained Miss Burney's reputation, and in¬
stantly took rank as an English classic. In 1785 she be¬
came one of the keepers of the robes to Queen Charlotte
the consort of George III., a situation which she held for
five years, and which gave her ample opportunities of ob¬
serving and studying the manners ot the court, and witness¬
ing many of the historical incidents of the period. These
she has recorded in her “ Diary.” In 1793 she mar¬
ried M. D’Arblay, an exiled officer of a French cavalry.
Three years later she published her third novel, Camilla,
for which it is said that she received no less a sum than
3000 guineas. It is generally agreed that this work, though
equal to its predecessors in humour and portraiture of cha¬
racter, is inferior to them in grace and purity of style. In
1803 she went over to Paris to join her husband, and did
not again see her native country for ten years. In 1813
she returned in time to witness the demise of her father,
who died in that year at the age of eighty-seven. In the
following year she published her last novel, the Wanderer,
a work which speedily and justly fell into oblivion. In
1832 she published her memoirs of her father, and in 1840
she died, in the eighty-eighth year of her age.
BURNING, the action of fire on some pabulum or fuel.
Burning of the Dead, a custom much practised by the
ancient Greeks and Romans, and still retained by several
nations in the East Indies. The antiquity of this custom
reaches as high as the Theban war, where we are told
of the great solemnity accompanying this ceremony at the
pyre of Menaeacus and Archemorus, who were contempo¬
rary with Jair, the eighth judge of Israel. Homer abounds
with funeral obsequies of this nature. In the interior re¬
gions of Asia the practice was of very ancient date, and
its continuance long ; for we are told that in the reign
of Julian the king of Chionia burnt his son’s body, and
deposited the ashes in a silver urn. Coeval almost with
the first instances of this kind in the East was the prac¬
tice in the western parts of the world. The Heruli, the
Gets, and the Thracians, had all along observed it; and
its antiquity was as great among the Celts, Sarmatis, and
other neighbouring nations. This custom seems to have
arisen out of friendship to the deceased, whose ashes were
preserved, as we preserve a lock of hair, a ring, or a seal,
which had been the property of a departed friend.
Kings were burnt in cloth made of the asbestos stone,
that their ashes might be preserved pure from any mixture
with the fuel and other matters thrown on the funeral pile.
The same method is still observed with the princes of Tar¬
tary. Among the Greeks, the body was placed on the top
of a pile, on which were thrown divers animals, and even
slaves and captives, besides unguents and perfumes. In
the funeral of Patroclus we find a number of sheep and
See Diary, supra cit., vol. vi., pages 338-342.
2 See London Annual Register for 1814, p. 133 of Chronicle.
3 See Diary, supra cit., passim.
796
Burning.
BUR
oxen thrown in, then four horses, followed by two dogs, and
lastly by twelve Trojan prisoners. The like is mentioned
bv Virgil in the funerals of his Trojans; where, besides
oxen, swine, and all manner of cattle, we find eight youths
condemned to the flames. The first thing was the fat of
the beasts, wherewith the body was covered, that it might
consume the faster; it being reckoned a great felicity to be
quickly reduced to ashes. For the like reason, where num¬
bers were to be burnt at the same time, care was taken to
mix with them some of humid constitutions, and therefore
more easily to be inflamed. Thus we are told by Plutarch
and Macrobius, that for every ten men it was customary to
put in one woman. Soldiers usually had their arms burnt
with them. The garments worn by the living were also
thrown on the pile, with other ornaments and presents ; a
piece of extravagance which the Athenians carried to so
great a height, that some of their lawgivers were forced to
restrain them, by severe penalties, from defrauding the
living by their liberality to the dead. In some cases burn¬
ing was expressly forbidden among the Romans, and even
looked upon as the highest impiety. Thus, infants who
died before teething were entombed unburnt in the ground,
in a particular place set apart for this purpose. The same
practice obtained in regard to persons struck dead with
lightning. (See Bidental.) Some say that burning was
also denied to suicides. The manner of burning among
BUR
the Romans was not unlike that of the Greeks. The Burning,
corpse, being brought out without the city, was carried v—
directly to the place appointed for burning it; which, if it
joined the sepulchre, was called bustum, if separate from it,
ustrina, and there laid on the rogus or pyra, a pile of wood
prepared for burning it, and built in the shape of an altar,
but differing in height according to the quality of the de¬
ceased. The wood commonly used was that of such trees
as contain most pitch or resin ; and whatever kind was used,
they split it, for the more easy catching fire; while round
the pile were set cypress trees. The body, stretched on a
couch or litter, was placed on the pile; and then the next
of kin performed the ceremony of lighting the pile; which
was done with a torch, the person turning his face away, as
if it were performed with reluctance. During the ceremony,
decursions and games were celebrated; after which came
the ossilegium, or gathering of the bones and ashes ; also
washing, anointing, and depositing them in urns. Though
the Romans borrowed the custom of cremation from the
Greeks, it was not generally practised at Rome till towards
the end of the republic. Sylla was the first of the noble
family of the Gens Cornelia that was laid on the funeral
pile; and this, it is said, was done to secure his corpse
against indignities from his numerous enemies. The prac¬
tice of burning the dead had fallen into disuse about the
end of the fourth century.
END OF VOLUME FIFTH.
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