L ESSAYS HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, GEOGRAPHY, ENGINEERING, &c. CONTRIBUTED TO THE 'QUARTERLY REVIEW,' r.Y THE LATE EARL OF ELLESMERE. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1858. : The right of Trantlation it referred. LONDON: FEINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, 8TAMFOUD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS. CONTENTS. ESSAY I. MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN 1 1. Japan, voorgesteld in Schetsen over de Zeden en Gebruiken van dat Bijk ; byzonder over de Ingezetenen der Stad Nagasaky. Door G. F. Meijlan, Opperhoofd aldaar. Amsterdam. 1830. 2. Bijdrage tot de Kennis van het Japansche Bijk. Door J. F. van Overmeer Fischer, Ambteenaar van Neerlandsch Indie. Amster- dam. 1833. ESSAY II. RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN 30 Herinneringen uit Japan. Van Hendrik Doeflf, ond Opperhoofd der Nederlanders in Japan, op het Eiland Decima. Haarlem, 1835. Quarto. (Recollections of Japan. By Hendrik Doeff, formerly President of the Dutch Factory at Decima.) ESSAY III. LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN 55 1. Albrecht$ von Wattenstein des Herzogs von Friedland und Meck- lenburgh, ungedruckte, eigenhandige, vertrauliche Briefe und amtliche Schreiben aus den Jahren 1627, bis 1634, an Arnheim, Aldringer, Gallas t Piccdomini, und andere Fursten und Feld- herrn seiner Zeit : fait einer Charakteristik des Lebens und der Feldzuge WaUensteins : herausgegeben von Friedrich Forster. Berlin, 1828. (Letters and Biography of Albert von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland and Mecklenburgh. Comprising autograph and confidential letters, and official correspondence hitherto unpublished, from 1627 to 1634, addressed to Arnheim, Aldringer, Oallas, Piccolo- mini, and other contemporary Princes and Commanders. Edited by F. Forster. 2 vols. 8vo.) 2. Wallenstein als regierender Herzog und Landeslierr, von Friedrich Forster. Art. I. Raumer's Historisches Taschenbuch. 1837. Leipzig. ( Wallenstein, as Reigning Sovereign and Landed Proprietor. By Friedrich Forster. Published in Raumer's Historical Pocket- book for 1837. 12mo.) 3. The Life of Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland. By Lieutenant- Colonel Mitchell. 8vo. London, 1837. iv CONTENTS. I'MiK ESSAY IV. ART AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND . ,. . . . 101 1. Works of Art and Artists in England. By Gr. F. Waagen, Director of the Royal Gallery at Berlin. London. 3 vols. 12mo. 1838. 2. Painting and the Fine Arts ; being the Articles under those heads contributed to the Seventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britan- nica* By B. R. Haydon and William Hazlitt, Esqrs. Edin. 12mo. 1838. 3. Report from the Select Committee on Arts, and their Connexion with Mamtfactures. 1836. 4. Histoire de f 'Art Moderne en Allemagne. Par le Comte A. Raczynski. Paris, 1836. ESSAY V. LIFE OF BLUCHER 137 Marsclutll Vorwarts ; oder Leben, Thaten, und Character des Fursten Blucher von Wahlstadt. Von Dr. Raushnick. (Marshal For- wards ; or, Life, Actions, and Character of Prince Blucher von Wahlstadt.} Leipzig, 1836. ESSAY VI. HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 182 Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America, effected by the Officers of the Hudson's Bay Company during the Years 1836-39. By Thomas Simpson, Esq. 8vo. London, 1843. ESSAY VII. AQUEDUCTS AND CANALS 201 1. Nismes et ses Environs a vingt Lieues a la ronde. Par E. B. D. Frossard, Pasteur. Nismes, 1834. 2 vols. 8vo. 2. Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct. By F. B. Tower of the Engineer Department. New York, 1843. 3. Histoire du Canal du Midi. Par le Gene'ral Andreossi. Paris 1804. 4. Memoir of James Brindley. By Samuel Hughes, C.E. Pub- lished in Weale's ' Quarterly Papers on Engineering.' Part I. London, 1843. 5. A Description of the Canals and Railroads of the United States. By H. S. Tanner. New York, 1840. CONTENTS. ESSAY VIII. PAINTING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 252 1. A Treatise on Painting, written by Cennino Cennini in the Tear 1437, with an Introduction and Notes by Signer Tambroni. Translated by Mrs. Merrifield. London. 1844. 2. Lectures on Painting and Design. By B. R. Haydon, Historical Painter. London. 8vo. 1844. ESSAY IX. MABMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON 273 1. Esprit des Institutions Militaires. Par le Marechal Marmont, Due de Raguse. Paris, 1845. 2. History of the War in France and Belgium in 1815. By Captain W. Siborne. 2 vols. 8vo. (with Plans). Lbndon, 1844. 3. The Fall of Napoleon : an Historical Memoir. By Lieut.-Colonel Mitchell. 3 vols. post Bvo. London, 1845. ESSAY X. VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC KEGIONS 324 1. A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Ant- arctic Regions during the Tears 1839-43. By Captain Sir James Clark Ross, R.N. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1847. 2. Notes on the Botany of the Antarctic Voyage conducted by Captain Sir J. C. Ross. By Sir W. J. Hooker. London, 1843. ESSAY XL BORNEO AND CELEBES 348 1. Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, down to the Occupation of Labuan, from the Journals of James Brooke, Esq., Rajah of Sarawak and Governor of Labuan ; together with a Narrative of the Operations of H. M. S. Iris. By Captain Rodney Mundy, R.N. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1848. 2. Sarawak, its Inhabitants and Productions : being Notes during a Residence in that Country with H. H. the Rajah Brooke. By Hugh Low, Colonial Secretary at Labuan. 8vo. London, 1848. ESSAY XII. THE SKERRYVORE LIGHTHOUSE 371 1. Account of the Skerryvore Lighthouse, with Notes on the Illu- mination of Lighthouses. By Alan Stevenson, Engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board. Edinburgh and London. 4to. 1848. vi CONTENTS. PAGE 2. An Account of the Sell Sock Lighthouse. By Robert Stevenson, Civil Engineer. Edinburgh. 4to. 1824. 3. Narrative of the Building and Description of the Construction of - the Eddystone Lighthouse with stone. By John Smeaton, Civil Engineer, F.K.S. Second Edition. Folio. 1813. ESSAY XIII. BUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS 394 1. Aus meinem Leben, u. s. w. Passages of my Life, ~by Frederick Charles Ferdinand, Baron of Muffling, otherwise by name Weiss. Berlin, 1851. 2. Memorien, u. s. w. Memoirs of the Prussian General of Infantry, Louis Baron of Wolzogen. From his MSB. Leipzig, 1851. 3. Erinnerungen, u. s. w. Recollections of the War Times of 1806- 1813. By Frederick von Miiller. Brunswick, 1851. 4. Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813. By Colonel the Hon. George Cathcart. London, 1850. ESSAY XIV. DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON 433 Tagebuch des Generals Patrick Gordon, wahrend seiner Kriegsdienste, u. s. w. Diary of General Patrick Gordon, during his Military Services with the Swedes and Poles from 1655 to 1661, and his Residence in Russia from 1661 to 1699. For the first time published in full by the Prince M. A. Obolenski and M. C. Posselt, Doctor in Philosophy. Vols. 1 and 2. University Press, Moscow : 1849-1851. ESSAY XV. TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS 455 Mathias Alexander Castren, Travels in the North: containing a Journey in Lapland in 1838 ; Journey in Russian Karelia in 1839 , Journey in Lapland, Northern Rmsia, and Siberia, in 1841-44. Translated into German (from the Swedish), by Henrik Helms. Leipzig : Avenarius and Mendelsohn. 1853. I.-MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, NOVEMBER, 1834. (') IT is hardly necessary to remind our readers that, from the year 1657, when the Portuguese were expelled from Japan, of all the nations of Europe, the Dutch alone have been allowed access to the groupe of islands which constitute that empire. That this exclusive privilege has been ever confined within narrow limits we knew from KaBmpfer and all the older authorities. From the works now under consideration we learn that these limits have been progressively and recently narrowed, and that the trade which they still permit has so far declined under the dis- couragement and increasing jealousy of the natives, as to have become rather matter of curiosity and habit than of commercial profit to the Hollander. Unconnected as our own country is, and must expect long to remain, by any bond of intercourse or communion with this extensive empire and singular people, we yet think that the majority of our readers will share with us the satisfaction and interest with which we receive any information, however scanty and imperfect, on this subject, from those who are alone enabled to afford it. We say advisedly that we are likely to remain excluded from all means of investigation of our own.* * It ia worthy of remark that to English skill and courage the Dutch owe their first access to Japan. The Erasmus, the first Dutch ship which ever reached that coast in 1599, was piloted by William Adams. For his most curious and interesting adventures in that country, where his skill in mathematics and ship- building procured him a long but honourable detention, see Harris's Collection of Voyages, vol. i. p. 856. He deserves a high place in the list of the heroes of naval discovery and enterprise, and equally so among the diplomatists of commerce and civilization. " () 1. Japan, voorgesteld in Scheisen over de Zeden en Gebruiken van dat Rijk; byzonder over de Ingezetenen der Stud Nagasaky. Door G. F. Meijlan, Opperhoofd aldaar. Amsterdam. 1830. 2. Bijdrage tot de Kennis van Jiet Japansche Rijk. Door J. F. van Overmeer Fischer, Ambteenaar van Neerlandsch Indie. Amsterdam. 1833. 2 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. In one instance, indeed, in the present century, our flag has waved in the harbour of Nagasaki, as we shall hereafter state, and with what result. We are aware also that Sir Stamford Baffles, that great promoter of Oriental enterprise, had his yearnings in that direction, and that the instructions for the late expedition to the Chinese seas embraced the contingency of an attempt at intercourse with Japan. We think it, however, much more likely that the sole remaining link between Europe and Japan, the Dutch connexion, should be severed by violence or obliterated by disuse, than that either force or persuasion should devise a new one between this country or any of its dependencies and that empire ; that New Holland, Borneo, or Central Africa, have a fairer chance of being diplomatized or dragooned into hospitality or submission towards us, within any period to which the speculation of mortal man can reasonably extend. The Dutch themselves, indeed, are confined to a solitary factory, and Decima, as a residence, presents means for the study of the three islands little superior to those which the Isle of Sheppey would afford to a foreigner in this country, even though he were favoured with a biennial visit from the governor of Sheerness, and allowed about as often to make an excursion to Canterbury in a sedan-chair, closely watched and attended by a body of the new police. The once annual visit of the deputies from the Dutch factory has been reduced to a quadrennial one and it is at best a mere retreading of the route pursued by Kaempfer, under circumstances and ceremonies precisely similar. Still the Dutch are the only Europeans permitted to inhabit that com- mercial prison and to perform that unvaried journey ; and whe- ther a residence in Decima, and a pilgrimage to Jeddo, elicit new facts, or produce little more than a confirmation of those on record, we feel, in either case, thankful to any of them who, like Messrs. Meylan and Fischer, will communicate their observations to the world. The two works in question are, indeed, locked up in a language which finds few students and fewer translators in this country or even on the Continent : but these are not times when we can expect Dutchmen to show complaisance to foreign nations by abandoning their own language, and we are there- fore additionally pleased to see them cultivating their national literature. Mr. Meylan, the first author on our list, has resided for many ESSAY I. ADVANTAGES OF ITS POSITION. 3 years in the Dutch factory, where we believe he at this moment holds the situation of Opperhoofd or President. The unpretend- ing title of ' Sketches of Japan ' would become a work more desultory and less instructive than the one before us. Into a thin octavo a great deal of information has been compressed ; and the writer's observations are so concise and judicious, as to prove that the art of book-making is one which has been brought to little perfection at Decima. The volume of Mr. Fischer is a quarto, which, by its excellence of type and paper, and the singular beauty of its illustrations being fac-similes of drawings by native Japanese artists is of rank to figure on the shelves of an English collector, albeit as ignorant of Dutch as many collectors are of the languages in which the volumes they arrange on their shelves are composed. Mr. Fischer has resided nine years at Decima, and in the year 1822 attended the pre- sident of the factory as secretary, on his journey to the metro- polis. That he was zealous in his endeavours to profit by his opportunities for amassing information is proved by the volume before us, as well as by a splendid collection of Japanese curiosities which he succeeded in conveying to Amsterdam, and which, having lately been purchased by the King of Holland, is, we believe, like other similar possessions of that most muni- ficent and judicious royal collector, open to the public at the Hague. If the difficulty of learning anything about Japan excite our curiosity, what we do learn of it is no less calculated to raise our wonder, and in some respects even our envy. Situated apart from either continent, between the old world and the new, it enjoys an immunity from almost the possibility of foreign aggres- sion. It is true that tradition, and what to the European eye seems a strong resemblance, point to the main land of China as the primitive source of its language, religion, and customs, and that the introduction of these must imply conquest, if not discovery and original occupation. But these are events lost in the night of antiquity ; and it appears that from the commence- ment of its annals, whenever an attempt *at invasion has been made, the natural difficulties of access have been a sufficient protection ; the current, the shoal, and the typhoon have spared the Japanese Drakes and Effinghams all occasion for exhibiting t!i< ir valour against the Tartar armadas of times within the B 2 4 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. record of history.* A country for whose natural features Mr. Fischer finds his nearest European comparison in the Maggiores, Comos, and Luganos of northern Italy cultivated like a garden to the summit of its hills ; a climate under which the principal productions of the tropics grow side by side with those of southern Europe ; a territory indented by seas, and intersected by lakes and rivers, swarming with every animal production of the water ; a soil on which the radish attains the Brobdignag weight of sixty pounds, and the blossom of the plum expands to the size of an English cabbage-rose ; and all this tenanted by thirty-four millions of people, living under a despotism, and that despotism not the will of an individual, but the fiat of rigid but stedfast, severe but immutable law, which, for at least two centuries past, has kept the community as free from civil dis- sension as from foreign invasion : such is the picture presented to us by the most recent visitors to the shores of these fortunate islands. Do they not deserve the name, and ought even we, in the pride of our hearts, to spurn the fanciful parallel which some writers have drawn between Japan and Great Britain? The comparison can, indeed, be pursued little further than respects the magnitude of insular sovereignty, the difficulties in the way of invasion from without, and a threefold geographical demarca- tion, extant, indeed, more distinctly in the case of the three islands of Nipon, Sicoco, and Kisnu, than in that of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Where, however, in the well-ordered empire of Japan Proper can \ve find the counterpart of Ireland ? Where is the Japanese Connaught ? Which of her sixty-eight peaceful provinces represents Tipperary ? When has a Buddhist been insulted by a follower of Sinto ? What voice has been raised to repeal the union between Nankaydoo and Saykadoo, or to pronounce that Tookaydoo shall no longer contain the centre of government for both ? It would be idle, however, to suppose that, upon closer ob- servation, darker features in the condition of these islands should not present themselves ; nor is it to be imagined that the state of prosperous stagnation which all accounts concur in describing * This was the case in 1281, when the Japanese rejected the yoke of the Tartar conqueror of China, Che Tsou. He fitted out an expedition of 100,000 men from Corea, but his fleet was dashed on the island of Firando, and not a tenth part of bia ships escaped destruction. ESSAY I. THE JESUITS. 5 as the result of their social institutions, can be purchased except by a large sacrifice of mental freedom, and almost every prospect of further advancement. The summary which is to be gathered from these volumes of the history of Japan contains little that is not to be found in Kaempfer. There are points connected with that history on which the archives of the Dutch factory might be supposed to have preserved information of some interest ; but they are subjects on which, even in that case, Dutch writers may be excused (if any suppressio veri be excusable) for avoiding to dwell we mean the expulsion of the Portuguese, and the bloody extermination of Christianity. Few portions of the religious history of the world would be more interesting than a faithful record of these events. In the annals of Christianity, few examples have occurred of a triumph so rapid, followed by destruction so complete. Whether the force of circumstances compelled the Jesuits, who were agents of that great conversion, to associate themselves with a party in the civil feuds which then distracted Japan, or whether they did so voluntarily and in pursuance of the alleged practice of that order of which their first apostle Xavier was a joint-founder with Loyola may be doubtful ; certain it is that in an evil hour they took their part in the dispute, and perished. Japanese tradition attributes to them, as a cause and justification of their fall, then* rapacity and sensuality. This we doubt : those vices are usually the attend- ants of long and undisputed possession, rather than of the cir- cumstances in which these missionaries of a religion struggling into life were placed. It is likely that the hostility of their Dutch rivals may have magnified individual instances of such errors, and that the zeal of triumphant persecution may have perpetuated the imputation. It is also clear that the conduct of the Dutch, in conveying the fatal intelligence of the alleged designs of the Jesuits, was influenced rather by commercial jealousy than by any indignation at the errors of their doctrine or the vices of those who preached it. Mr. Fischer admits that the Dutch were compelled to join in ,the persecution against the stubborn remnant of the Christian host, who, after the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1637, took refuge in the province of Sina- bara. The siege, however, being converted into a blockade, the vessel furnished by the Dutch was, as they allege, allowed to return. The Christians preferred death to surrender, and 40,000 6 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. men are said to have perished on both sides before the exter- mination was effected. The magnitude of the holocaust affords some measure of the depth and tenacity with which Christianity had struck its roots into a soil where it would now appear that little less than miracle can ever replant it. From some of the Dutch accounts we gather that the Hol- landers, in the ardour of their rivalry with the Portuguese, nearly overreached themselves ; for the latter, when they found that Christianity was placed under ban, informed the- govern- ment, to its great surprise, that the Dutch themselves were Christians* How the Protestant Hollanders escaped being thus forcibly absorbed into the bosom of the Romish Church and sharing the honours of martyrdom, does not exactly appear, but we suspect that some of the tales, however often contradicted, of compulsory insults to the cross, had their origin in real events of this period. It is certain that the Dutch have ever since been confined to the area of the fanlike Decima, and that an imperial order is still read to them, on the great occasions of meeting between the governor of Nagasaki and the president of the fac- tory, enjoining them to refrain from all communication with the Portuguese a trifling circumstance, which proves satisfactorily to our minds the happy ignorance of the Japanese as to the modern politics of Europe ; or, perhaps, a still wiser resolution, to affect an utter ignorance about them. In 1673, when an English ship was sent to attempt a revival of intercourse with Japan, the first question asked was whether it was long since the English king had married a daughter of the king of Portugal. This alliance was made the pretext of the total refusal of the Japanese to permit any revival of English intercourse. It appears that the religious opinions of Japan may be classed under two great divisions, the Sinto and Boedso, the former being the sect which has been established from time immemorial in the country, the latter being understood to include the nume- rous modes of religious belief which have been imported from other countries. Mr. Meylan divides it into the Brahminical doctrine of Xaca, and the Chinese as established by Confucius. We cannot follow Mr. Meylan through his curious sketch of the * See Valentyn, 'Description of the Old and New East Indies/ vol. iv., article ' Japan.' ESSAY I. RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE. 7 various sects into which the followers of the Boedso are again subdivided, but we quote some of his remarks on the fact of the total and entire absence of religious dissension in a country containing some dozen Established Churches, of which the one of the highest acknowledged antiquity bears but a small nume- rical proportion to the others, if we can judge, by the ecclesi- astical statistics of Nagasaki, of those of the empire at large. Out of sixty-one temples in that city and its environs, only seven belong to the Sinto persuasion. " Never," says Mr. Hey Ian, " do we hear of any religious dispute among the Japanese, much less discover that they bear each other any mutual hate on religious grounds. They esteem it, on the con- trary, an act of courtesy to visit from time to time each other's gods and do them reverence. \Vhile the Koeboe sends an embassy to the Sinto temple at Tsie, to offer prayers in his name to the invisible God, he assigns, at the same time, a sum for the erection of temples to Confucius ; and the spiritual emperor allows strange gods im- ported from Siam or China to be placed, for the convenience of those who may feel a call to worship them, in the same temples with the Japanese. If it be asked whence this tolerance originates, and by what it is maintained : I reply from this, that worshippers of all persuasions in Japan acknowledge and obey one superior, namely, the Dayrie or Spiritual Emperor. As the representative and lineal descendant of God on earth, he is himself an object of worship, and, as such, he protects equally all whose object it is to venerate the Deity, the mode of their so doing being indifferent to him. Let it not be thought that I prize this tolerance too high, nor let the cruel persecutions of the Christians in Japan be objected to me : I ask whether this toleration was not one of the causes which so far facilitated the introduction of Christianity there; but that which with me is conclusive is, that, could the preachers of the gospel in Japan have been tolerant as the Japanese ; had they not abided in the fast conviction that the belief in Christ was the only true road to salvation ; and had they not in that conviction mocked and despised the gods of the country ; could it have been possible that the bishops chosen from the first missionaries should have receded from insisting on their right 1 of total independence, and could they have consented to place themselves under the protection of God's representative on earth, which the Japanese acknowledge in their Dayrie ; lastly, could they have forborne to meddle in affairs of politics and government, then would no persecution of Chris- tianity, in all human probability, have taken place, and perhaps, at 8 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. this moment, the more perfect doctrine of Jesus would have tri- umphed over that of Confucius." p. 79. Whatever may be the merits of the plan thus, somewhat late indeed, suggested by our philosophical Opperhoofd, we own our surprise that the Jesuits did not hit upon it, except, perhaps, as far as abstinence from politics is concerned. Before we quit this subject we must advert to a statement which we do not remember to have seen elsewhere than in the Sketches of Mr. Meylan. He relates that a faith usually classed among those of Brahminical origin, and which had once been nearly universal in Japan, has, from its near resemblance in its doctrines to the form of Christianity introduced by the Portu- guese, been involved in one and the same ruin. Its doctrines appear to have comprised the existence, death, and resurrection of a Saviour born of a virgin, with almost every other essential of Christianity, including the belief in the Trinity. If this be a true statement and correct description, and if we then add to it the tradition that this form of religion was introduced under the reign of the Chinese emperor Mimti, who ascended the throne in about the fiftieth year of the Christian era, can we avoid admit- ting the conclusion that some early apostle reached the eastern extremity of Asia, if not the islands themselves of Japan ? The allusion in the foregoing passage to the person of the Dayrie, otherwise called the Mikaddo, the spiritual emperor of Japan, brings us to the consideration of its government ; and it must be admitted that institutions which, for more than two centuries, have afforded some thirty-six millions of men the blessings of profound peace, accompanied by security of property and a considerable share of the other elements of worldly pro- sperity, are not an unworthy subject of contemplation. For imitation we cannot, indeed, propose them to European readers. Whatever may be our opinion of the existing state of things under the Eeform Bill and the present administration, we cannot look forward to the establishment of Lord Durham as Koeboe at St. James's, or the installation of Dr. Maltby as Dayrie of Can- terbury, enjoying the spiritual supremacy of the Protestant, Roman Catholic, Unitarian, and Jewish Churches, to be held by him and Ins heirs for ever. It is well known, however, that a form of government bearing a near resemblance to the result of such a proceeding as the above, is established in Japan on a ESSAY I. DISTRUST AND ESP10NNAGE. footing which seems to set at defiance all speculation as to its probable continuance. The system, indeed, is not, we are told, based on long prescription, and its apparent stability is to be ascribed solely to the success of its working and the wisdom with which its foundations were laid. From the close of the sixteenth century, when the Japanese maire du palais Tayko Sama sepa- rated the empire into its two lay and spiritual divisions, civil war has ceased, the pageant of government has been played on with- out interruption by the two principal actors and their subordi- nates, and the operations of the real executive have been con- tinued with all the regularity and precision of machinery. The founder of these institutions must surely have been no ordinary legislator. The sceptre which he wielded has indeed become a bauble in the hands of his descendants, for the koeboe, or lay emperor, equally with his spiritual counterpart, wears out his life in one long dream of ideal sovereignty ; and so profound and subtle is the spell of habit, custom, and etiquette which wraps them in that charmed sleep, that it is impossible to anticipate the period of its dissolution, or the process by which it can be broken. Mr. Fischer, indeed, hazards the conjecture, that by a quarrel between the koeboe and the dayrie, and by such an event alone, can any innovation or revolution ever take place in the existing political institutions of Japan. His conjecture, however, does not extend to the nature of the contingency which could ever bring about the collision. If apprehension, indeed, imply the existence of danger, and if caution indicate that apprehension, the frailty of those institutions might well be inferred ; for sus- picion and distrust prevail through every link of the social chain, and the precautions against foreign aggression, so apparent in their treatment of the only nations with whom intercourse is permitted, the Dutch and Chinese, are fully equalled by those adopted against innovation or disturbance within. A system of espionnage extends itself throughout the empire, which embraces not only every public functionary, including the emperor him- self, but every component part of society, down to the divisions of five families, into which somewhat after the fashion intro- duced into England by our own great Saxon legislator the population is everywhere divided. The Dayrie resides a per- petual prisoner in his palace in the city of Miako, except on the 10 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. rare occasion of a visit to the temple of Tsiwoinjo. Mr. Fischer doubts the tales in circulation of his being precluded from setting his foot to the earth, or allowing the sun to shine upon him ; but that so old a sojourner and so close an observer should only doubt on such a subject, and not be able at once to contradict these stories, seems to us confirmation strong that such, or still closer, restrictions prevail. He is allowed, we are glad to learn, the solace shall we call it ? of a wife and twelve concubines, and such diversion as music, poetry, and study can afford. His pipe is smoked but once, and the dishes from which he has eaten are broken, like the teacup which Dr. Johnson threw into the fire ; but Mr. Fischer adds, that these articles are economically provided of the simplest manufacture, and it is reported that no great substantial expense is permitted for the support of this shadow of sovereignty. When he dies, the event is sedulously concealed till his successor is fully installed in office, and the cry is raised of " Live the Dayrie !" without even the preliminary half of the old French formula, " the Dayrie is dead." The court is formed of a long hierarchy of spiritual officials. Among these are the kwanbakf, who represents the dayrie's person and executes his functions. From this office the koeboe is excluded. To the third spiritual office in rank, or sadayzin, he the tem- poral sovereign is sometimes admitted, as was the case with the reigning koeboe in 1822, on the occasion of his having completed fifty years of sovereignty. It ranks him with the gods, and no layman, from the time of Tayko Sanaa, had been before so honoured. This lay emperor is, like the dayrie, shut up in the palace of Jeddo, in itself a city equal in size to Amsterdam. On the supposition that the affairs of his subjects are beneath his notice and dignity, he is surrounded by a circle of guards and cere- monies, which effectually prevent him from employing his royal leisure in any such ignominious pursuit. All other places of residence must appear mean and unworthy in comparison with the royal palace, and he is therefore never allowed to leave it. The real executive is in the hands of seven councillors or ministers of the first class, six of the second, and two other mi- nisters of the nature of inquisitors, whose peculiar province it is to guard against the slightest revival of the Christian religion in the empire. This council is presided over by a prime mi- ESSAY I. THE EXECUTIVE. 11 nister, and, in case of irreconcileable difference of opinion among its members, the question is submitted to the arbitration not of the emperor, but of his three nearest relations, including always the heir apparent. With this council communicate the governors of the sixty-eight provinces into which Tayko Sama divided the empire, or rather the two secretaries of the said governors, to whom the real administration is confided. The nominal governments are hereditary, and are usually so burthen- some and expensive to the occupant, that he takes the opportunity of committing his office to his son, the moment the latter arrives at years of discretion. It is necessary, therefore, in practice, to commit the real power to more experienced hands. The two secretaries take alternate turns of annual residence at the seat of their government and at the palace of Jeddo, their wives and families constantly remaining as hostages in the latter. While in their provinces, they are surrounded by the strictest precau- tions of etiquette and ceremony, are compelled to abstain from all intercourse with the other sex, and their hours of rising, eating, sleeping, going out, &c., are prescribed by rigid and in- variable rule. Besides these provincial governments or counties with their lord-lieutenants and secretaries, the empire contains a certain number of royal cities under separate governors subject to similar regulations. The spies of the government are selected from every class of society, and it is said that Fouch6 or Savary might have studied with advantage in this vast seminary of secret intelligence. Mr. Meylan, who professes to confine his reports principally to the city of Nagasaki, and to facts which have come under his personal observation, devotes one of his most interesting sketches to the local administration of that place, which is one of the above-mentioned imperial cities. Here we find the system of espionnage pervading the minuter divisions of society, to an extent, perhaps, never paralleled in any other country of the globe. " Not only," says Mr. Meylan, " is the head of every family answerable for his children, his servants, and the stranger within his gates, but, the city being divided into collections of five families, every member of such division is responsible for the conduct of the others, and in consequence, that which, according to European ideas, would be the height of indiscretion, becomes here the duty of every man, for every extraordinary occurrence which falls out in 12 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. an household is reported by four curious witnesses to the members of the civil administration. House arrest is usually the penalty of the irregularities thus reported, and a severe one. The doors and windows of the offender's house are closed, generally for a hundred days, his employments are suspended, salary, if any, stopped, and the friend and the barber alike forbidden entrance. Every house- hold is held bound to produce a man capable of bearing arms ; a division of five constitutes a company ; twenty-five such companies are arrayed under an officer, and constitute a brigade of six or seven thousand men ; and thus the force of the city, apart from the regular military, or police, can be presently mustered. Guard-houses are established in every street, in which a guard is on duty every night, and, on occasions of festivity or other cause of popular concourse, by day ; each street has a rail or barrier at its issues, and can conse- quently be cut off from communication with the rest of the city at a moment's notice." On the effects of this highly artificial system as to the pre- vention of crime, Mr. Meylan does not profess to decide, but he states that property and person are singularly secure, and that corporal punishment is rare. The latter circumstance, however, he is inclined to attribute to three causes ; viz. to the severity of the law, its strict execution where guilt is proved, and the reluctance there being no public prosecutor of individuals to come forward as complainants in cases of a graver description. The national character of the Japanese, as represented by our authors, is such as we might anticipate of a people largely en- dowed with the good things of this world, and utterly secluded from the remainder of the globe. Pride, sensuality, and igno- rance are its marking features, and this people and the Chinese reverse our western adage ofomne ignotumpro magnifico, or substi- tute for the latter the word ignobili : for the profound ignorance of the rest of the world which involves these two great branches of the Tartar family appears to produce nothing but a complaisant assurance of their own superiority, and the most unmitigated contempt for the nations whose existence is darkly known to them. Over the Chinese, indeed, the Japanese possess one great advantage, in the access, which their learned men obtain and cultivate, to one language at least of modern Europe, the Dutch, which we suspect is better understood at Jeddo than in Paris ; but in every other respect their communications with that nation ESSAY I. DUTCH RESIDENTS. 13 can only tend to exalt their national arrogance, by the contem- plation of the humble and abject posture which the Dutch are satisfied to assume in their dealings with them. It is probable, also, that the information their curiosity may occasionally extract from such a source as to other nations, tends to mislead rather than instruct. This national attribute of pride is also based on the universal belief that they are directly descended from the gods. With respect to their sensuality, it appears such as might be expected from a country which affords every means of indul- gence, and where religion presents no check, nor custom any impediment of disguise. Nagasaki affords, we are told, for a population of 70,000 souls, sixty temples, and seven hundred tea-houses or public brothels : but were we to apply the same relative statistical test to the Christian capitals of Holland and England we say nothing of the more decorous but extensive profligacy of Paris would the result be more favourable ? In Japan, at least, custom admits, after a season, the female inmates of these haunts into the bosom of society, and they become, it is said, exemplary wives and mothers. From this source, also, the inhabitants of the European factory obtain a certain class of female servants, who are said to attach themselves with strict fidelity to their masters for the time being. Our readers are probably aware that the life of the Dutch resident is otherwise one of professed celibacy, no female being allowed to arrive on board of the annual vessel. Neither are any of the Japanese, who may be hired as male servants, allowed to remain in the factory between sunset and sunrise. " How then," asks Mr. Meylan, with innocent naivett, " could the Dutch resident otherwise manage to procure any domestic comfort in the long nights of winter, his tea- water, for instance, were it not for these inmates ?" The argument is, we admit, unanswerable as to mere menial offices, but, as to the more tender services which are hinted at, we suspect that the wives left behind in Holland or Batavia would not concur in its cogency nor do we suppose that Mr. Meylan would extend to those ladies a similar indulgence, even though they could affect a similar excuse. The great feature of the social polity of Japan is the here- ditary nature of all employments, avocations, and situations in life, and the consequent absence of most of those incentives of ambition which form the life-blood of European society. The 14 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. population is divided into eight classes : 1. The reigning princes or governors. 2. The nobility. 3. The priests. 4. The mili- tary. 5. The civil officers, in which class Mr. Meylan includes the polite circles, &c. 6. The traders. 7. The handicraftsmen. 8. The labourers. Among all these there is but one profession which, like the Farias of India, appears to remain under ban or stigma, viz. that of the tanners. All intercourse with these is shunned and forbidden, and the executioners are chosen exclu- sively from their ranks. The three first lay classes claim the honourable but somewhat cumbrous privilege of wearing two sabres ; the fifth, which includes surgeons, physicians, and gene- rally those who practise what we call a liberal profession, are obliged to content themselves with one sample of that favourite weapon. Their soldiers for the two last centuries have fortu- nately had little occasion to try its edge, but they, in common with the great mass of the classes who wear it, are said to be tremendously expert in its use. The manufacture of "the article is also brought to a degree of excellence which Damascus itself in its best days could hardly surpass, and which Birmingham may despair to equal. This may be judged of from specimens in the museum of the Hague. If the Turk boast of being able to cut off the head df a camel with his two-handed engine, it is said that the Japanese professors can divide a fellow-creature through the middle at a blow. A favourite weapon is preserved as an heirloom for ages, and a good one on sale frequently reaches the price of a thousand florins, or little short of a hun- dred pounds. This weapon is regarded with a kind of super- stitious reverence. It is the constant companion of every indi- vidual of the classes entitled to wear it, even from his fifth year, when the Japanese youth is solemnly invested with it. When laid aside at meals or on other domestic occasions, it is always deposited close to the person of the owner, and he is careful neither to stumble against nor step over it. Fencing, the ma- nege, and archery, are a part of the education of the upper classes, and in the latter they excel. With respect to " other appliances of war," they are said to have acquired little know- ledge or use of artillery previous to the general pacification of the empire, and Little advance can have been since made in the art of the gunner, the engineer, or the tactician. Their forti- fied defences are hence far superior to any means of attack ESSAY I. FREQUENCY OF SUICIDE. 15 which, in the event of renewed civil war, could be brought against them. The specimens of their arms which the Dutch have found means to export have been so obtained in evasion of a strict prohibitory law. The museum at the Hague contains a very fine suit of mail, with a vizor or mask of steel, the exact resemblance of the face of a Punchinello, and adorned with mus- tachios of bristles. We have seen another such in a museum at St. Petersburg. The barrels of their fire-arms are of equal excel- lence and beauty, but they are all matchlocks ; their powder is very indifferent. From our author's accounts we should rank the Japanese among the " Souls made of fire and children of the sun, AVith whom revenge is virtue." Forgiveness of an injury Mr. Meylan asserts to be unknown, or only known to be stigmatized as a weakness or a sin. Of their courage it would be hard to speak, the article not having been tested on a large scale for two centuries. Mr. Meylan states that in the armies of the infant Dutch East Indian Company were many Japanese soldiers, who did excellent service, and he be- lieves them to be far braver than the other nations of the East. Suicide is frequent ; and the duellist of Europe, however despe- rate, is far excelled, in our judgment, by the Japanese, who, in the presence of applauding, and frequently imitating relations and friends, rips up his own abdomen to escape dishonour. This was the conduct and fate of the governor of Nagasaki in 1808, when an English frigate found an entrance into that harbour, detained as prisoners the Dutch who boarded her, and demanded in that ignorant and wanton violation of the religious law of the country which we regret to say so often marks the conduct of British adventurers fresh beef as their ransom. The beef was supplied, but the governor, as soon as the Dutch under his protection were relanded, anticipated disgrace and ruin by the suicidal process above mentioned, and, as we have heard, others of his house swelled the sacrifice/ We cannot too seriously inculcate upon our countrymen the folly and injustice of which they are too often guilty in endeavouring to subject the nations they happen to visit to their own very peculiar habits and practice. Mr. Meylan concludes that, in the case referred to, the governor 16 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. deemed himself too weak to attack the vessel. It is certain that he was taken by surprise, for access to the harbour for a ship without a pilot is considered next to impossible, and the Dutch annual vessel is always towed in by native boats. We have heard, however, that the English captain, warned of his danger by the Dutch whom he had thus unjustifiably detained, only escaped in time, for that within a few hours fourteen thousand armed men were mustered on the coast, and that more than a hundred junks had been collected for the purpose of being sunk in the only channel by which the frigate could regain the open sea. Among the better features of the Japanese character, that of filial piety appears to be conspicuous. The domestic virtues of the women are also highly extolled. In virtue of one of those laws established by the stronger party, while the man is allowed concubines ad libitum, adultery in the female is punished with death ; but it is not for chastity alone, thus terribly enforced, that the Japanese wives are praised by Mr. Fischer, but also for their patience and ability as managers in households, which the pride of the husbands, rejecting all means of livelihood but the employment to which they have succeeded by birth, fre- quently reduces to extreme difficulty. For the rest, the station of the female in Japan is that which is allotted to her in Europe. She presides at the feast and adorns the social meeting. The samsie or guitar is even more invariably a part of female educa- tion than the piano in England ; its touch is the signal for laying aside ceremony and constraint and tea, sakki,* and good fel- lowship become the order of the evening. If we assume the perfection of the arts of tillage and manu- facture as a test of civilization, Japan may at least compete with any oriental nation. Mr. Meylan places it higher than any. He extols their field cultivation, but they appear to neglect their great opportunities for horticulture, as far as the kitchen and the dessert are concerned. As florists they are conspicuous, and the beauty of the productions of the soil in this department is known to every possessor of a greenhouse and proprietor of a camelia. The singular art of producing miniature samples of the larger * A spirit distilled from rice, the principal or only intoxicating beverage of Japan. ESSAY I. FOOD EXPORT OF GOLD AND SILVER. 17 products of vegetation, unknown, we believe, in Europe, is prac- tised by them to an extraordinary degree.* Mr. Meylan speaks as an eye-witness of a box offered for sale to the Dutch governor, tliree inches long by one wide, in which were flourishing a fir- tree, a bamboo, and a plum-tree, the latter in blossom. The price demanded was twelve hundred florins. Sharing with the Indian the religious prejudice against the slaughter of the cattle tribes, and indeed against the use of butcher's meat in general, pasturage and all its products they totally neglect; but the buffalo is used for tasks of burthen, and, when it dies a natural death, its horns and hide are applied to the purposes usual among other nations. This perhaps is the source of the degradation in which the tanners are held. They have an aversion to fat or grease, which strongly distinguishes their cookery from that of the Chinese, and we may add the Tartar family in Europe. Poultry are much cultivated ; pheasants and various sorts of game afford the squires ef Japan ample occupation in their pursuit. The staple of their animal food, however, is afforded by their seas and rivers ; and every product of both, says Mr. Meylan, from the whale to the cockle, is turned to account, down even to the whale- bone itself, which is scraped and powdered into a ragout. This dish, as well as the raw dolphin, eaten with soy, sakki, and mus- tard, although Mr. Fischer speaks favourably of it, we can spare without envy to the Japanese and the gentlemen of the factory. The stork, a bird which somehow has contrived to ingratiate itself with a large portion of the human race, for its domestic habits and services and general social character, is respected here as in Holland and Calcutta. " In a memorandum," says Mr. Meylan, " laid before the Dutch governor-general at Batavia, in 1744, is contained a calculation, from which it appears that in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the trade with Japan was an open one, the export of gold and silver was ten millions of Dutch florins per annum " (about 840,000?.). This export was first contracted, and in 1680 finally forbidden. The same calculation goes on to say, that in the course of sixty years the export of gold and silver must have amounted to the enormous value of from three to six hundred * For the mode of effecting this as practised in China, the reader may consult an interesting work lately published ' Wanderings in New South Wales,' &c., by G. Bennett, vol. ii. chap. 5. C 18 MANNERS AND USAGES OP JAPAN. ESSAY I. millions (from twenty-five to fifty millions sterling). If we con- sider that, in addition to this gold and silver, Japan produces a large quantity of copper, of which the Dutch have in some years carried off from thirty to forty thousand pekuls ;* and if we add to this a large quantity of steel and iron ; but above all, that all these metals are everywhere esteemed for their high degree of purity ; we must conclude that the Japanese are not altogether unskilled in the arts of the miner, the smelter, and the refiner. They appear, however, to be open to the imputation of working their mines in a careless and extravagant manner, and are believed to have now reduced them to a state of great exhaustion. This circumstance is said to have been made use of by a pre- tended friend to the Dutch, in the councils of the koeboe, to bring about the limitation of their trade in 1790. " The cause of our friendship with the Hollanders," said he, " is trade, and the trade is supported by copper. If the one be exhausted, the other must fail. Is it not wise, then, to perpetuate our friend- ship by allowing only so much copper to be issued as our mines may be able for ever to afford ? The mines are not like the hair of men, which being cut off groweth again, but, on the con- trary, resemble his bones, which, if taken away, cannot be replaced." These arguments produced a restriction from two annual ships to one, which, however, in 1820, was mitigated, and the number of vessels and amount of copper again increased. In addition to the national manufactures, for many of which Japan has been long so famous with us, and one of which bears the name of the empire that furnishes it, the Japanese now imitate many of the finer works of European skill : telescopes, thermometers, and clocks, are manufactured at Nagasaki. One of the latter, by the description of Mr. Meylan, manufactured there as a present for the emperor, in 1827, must have rivalled those complicated productions of German chronometrical art, which usually tell us everything but the hour. It was five feet in length and three high ; it exhibited a varied landscape and a golden sun ; on the striking of the hour a bird clapped its wings, a mouse issued from a cave and climbed the mountain, a tortoise crept forward to point the hour on the dial. Alas ! that the bird should, with oriental inattention to perspective and proportion, * The pekul is about 133 Ibs. ESSAY I. THE ARTS. 19 have been bigger than the tree on which it sat ! Alas ! that the mouse should have climbed in an instant the representative of a mountain many thousand feet high ! Of the art of design as practised among them Mr. Fischer observes : " This art appears to have developed itself, to a certain degree, in very early times. Many screens and decorated walls in their temples bear the marks of remote antiquity, although it is hardly possible to ascribe any of them, as do the Japanese, to the eleventh century. " I have never heard of a good portrait-painter in Japan, and am of opinion that a reluctance exists among their artists to devote themselves to this branch of their profession, founded on supersti- tious feelings. In all such works their attention is principally directed to accuracy in the details of costume and general air; the face is never a likeness." Their Tartar brethren of St. Petersburg, whose criticism on the noble portrait of Alexander, by Lawrence, was first directed to the great painter's delineation of his Imperial Majesty's epaulettes, crosses, and ribbons, displayed similar feelings with respect to the fine arts. The illustrations of Mr. Fischer's book, all copied from the productions of artists at Nagasaki, would alone be sufficient to prove that their painters are enabled to give their works much of that exquisite beauty of finish which delights the Dibdins in our illuminated missals, the offspring of monkish leisure. Of their lacquered ware, which bears with us the name of the country that produces it, we need only say that the specimens which reach Europe are rarely such as would be considered of anything but very inferior quality in Japan. The royal collec- tion at the Hague bears witness equally to the dexterity of their artisans in many various departments. We remember observing that the common chests which had been used to pack the articles for conveyance to Europe, and made of camphor-wood, were equal in the finish of their execution to the finer cabinet- work of the Gillows and Morells of London. Theatrical entertainments are much followed, and they are far superior to those of the Chinese in respect to scenery and decorations. Their plays admit a Shakspearian mixture of the tragic and comic in the same piece, and an equally licen- c 2 20 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. tious as the old French school would say violation of the unities. " Their leaders of the orchestra," says Mr. Fischer, " if they deserve the name, are usually blind. They belong to a certain union or fraternity of blind persons, who bear the name of Fekis." The founder of this society, tradition says, was a Prince Sen- mimar, who wept away his sight for the loss of a mistress. There is, however, another equally romantic version. Their theatres are much frequented, but the player's profession lies under that disrepute to which the irregularities of conduct incident to his mode of life have more or less condemned it in most countries, and from which the talents and virtues of many of its members have been insufficient among us fully to rescue it. The Japanese ladies take an advantage of the opportunities for display afforded by a side-box, which we suggest to the milliners of London and their fair customers, as worthy of introduction during the Opera season. " The ladies," says Mr. Fischer, " who frequent the theatre, make a point of changing their dresses two or three times during the repre- sentation, in order to display the richness of their wardrobe ; and are always attended by servants who carry the necessary articles of dress for the purpose." Printed programmes of the piece under representation are always in circulation, and we doubt not that a Japanese playgoer, de- scending from his norimon at the box-entrance, for they have three tiers, is saluted with an invitation to buy a book of the play, which Mr. Mathews, if he could once hear it, would imitate with his usual ludicrous fidelity. They are altogether a gay and social people, and their some- what cumbrous modes of politeness and their addiction to compliment appear but to promote good fellowship. Witness this description of Mr. Fischer : " In the great world the young ladies find delight at their social meetings in every description of fine work, the fabrication of pretty boxes, artificial flowers, birds and other animals, pocket-books, purses, plaiting thread for the head-dress, all for the favourite use of giving as presents. Such employments are in use to wile away the long winter evenings. In the spring, on the other hand, they parti- cipate with eagerness in all kinds of out-door and rural amusements. ESSAY I. AMUSEMENTS. 21 Of these the choicest are afforded by the pleasure-boats, which, adorned with the utmost cost and beauty, cover their lakes and rivers. In the enjoyment of society and music they glide in these vessels from noon till late in the night, realizing the rapturous strain of the author of Lalla Eookh : " Oh best of delights, as it everywhere is, To be near the loved one : what a rapture is his, Who by moonlight and music thus idly may glide O'er the lake of Cashmeer with that one by his side !" Mr. Moore will be pleased to find that his music has charms even for the Batavian exiles of Decima. " This," continues his admirer, " is an enjoyment which can only be shared under the advantages of such a climate and scenery : viz. the climate of Nice and the scenery of Lugano. Their lakes and rivers are after sunset one blaze of illumination, as it were, with the brightly coloured paper lanterns displayed in their vessels. They play meanwhile that game with the fingers which has been per- petuated from classic times in Italy. A floating figure is also placed in a vase of water ; as the water is stirred by the motion of the boat, the figure moves. The guests sing to the guitar the strain ' Anatoya, modamada,' ' He floats, he is not still,' till at last the puppet rests opposite some one of the party whom it sentences to drain the sakki- bowl, as the pleasing forfeit of the game. All this stands out in cheerful contrast to the dull debaucheries of the men, and the childish diversions of the women, among other oriental nations. The female sex, at least, have greatly the advantage over the scandal of the Turkish bath ; and the man has equally with the Turk the resource of his pipe, in the intervals of those better enjoyments which the admission of the female sex into society afford him, and which are prohibited to the Mussulman." Foreign commerce being forbidden, their vessels are limited by law to such a construction as suits a coasting voyage, and necessitates them to run for one of their numerous harbours on the appearance of bad weather. The largest are described by Mr. Fischer as about one hundred Dutch feet in length, from twenty-five or thirty beam, and drawing six feet of water. Mr. Gutzlaf reports that he saw three Japanese barks lying in the harbour of Loo Choo, whose crews were anxious for communica- tion with the strangers, which was only prevented by the man- darins of the island. It is probable that these islands and the 22 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. coasts of the inhospitable Yesso are the usual limit of their navi- gation. Although, however, that navigation be by law confined to their own coasts, or a few islands not far distant, voyages of discovery have occasionally taken place by express command of the emperor. It appears from Valentyn's work (vol. v. part 2, p. 20), that, in the year 1686, a junk, having sailed on such a voyage to the eastward, returned, after long absence, to Nagasaki. Its navigator would appear to have entertained a notion that he had reached the coast of New Holland, for hearing that, among the servants of the Dutch factory, there were some who had been born there, he sought for and interrogated them as to the manners and appearance of the natives. The parties could but imperfectly understand each other, but it was gathered from the Japanese captain's narration, that, after sailing for many days eastward, and finding the sea still open, he had determined to put about. A storm, however, drove him farther on his original course, till he reached a land which his description led the Dutch to conclude to have been the coast of America, between the 40th and 50th degrees of north latitude. This is the last enterprise of the kind on record. We should like to see the Memoirs of some Japanese Basil Hall, who should have dis- covered the mouths of the Seine and Thames, and given some account of the barbarians who inhabit those distant regions. Corea, a country far less known to us at present than Japan, was once under the acknowledged dominion of the latter. That dominion, having fallen into abeyance during the Japanese civil wars, was reclaimed towards the end of the sixteenth century, but appears now reduced to some slight relations of commercial intercourse and feudal tribute. Tsusima, an island situated midway between the two countries, has a Japanese garrison ; and it is there that the ambassadors of Corea are received, on the occasion of the accession of a new sovereign to the throne of Japan. Mr. Fischer had opportunities of seeing at Nagasaki some of the Corean barks which are occasionally driven on the southern coast of Japan. He describes the appearance of their crews, and the construction of their vessels, as indicative of a very low state of civilization. The state of this country and that of Yesso is well calculated to confirm the Japanese in the notion of their superiority over other nations. The latter island was partially subdued in the year 1443, and was then nominally ESSAY I. LITERATURE. 23 divided into provinces, but the interior has probably never been penetrated. It is tenanted by a hunting population, and, ex- tending northwards into Kamschatkadale latitudes, is wrapt iu Cimmerian barbarism. It appears to form a link of occasional communication with the Kurile islands under the dominion of Iiussia. It was to the principal commercial establishment on tliis island, Matzmai, that the Russian captain, Golovnin, was conveyed a prisoner in 1811. He was not liberated till full and formal satisfaction was obtained under the seal of the governor of Irkutzk, disavowing the proceedings of the Russian lieutenant, Chowstoff, who had committed some acts of plunder and incen- diarism on the Japanese coast of Segalien. The Dutch assert that, to the strangers in general whom stress of weather or obvious accident drives upon their coast, the Japanese show every hospitality consistent with a strict surveillance during their necessary stay and the facilitation of their departure. Mr. Gutzlaf is certainly right in stating, that, though the good will of China might open a wide field of eastern commerce to Great Britain hi Loo Choo, Corea, and Cochin China, their consent would be no passport to Japan. Such an approximation could in fact only increase the jealousy of the latter, and would perhaps occasion the final exclusion of the Dutch. The works of our authors being inaccessible to the generality of English readers, we regret the more that we can give but a brief notice of their remarks on the literature and scientific progress of the Japanese. Mr. Fischer has himself done much for future knowledge in the particular of their language, in recovering the traces of a work, the produce of long labour during the period when the war with England had cut off the Dutch residents from intercourse with Europe. We allude to the Dictionary of Mr. Doeff, prepared with the permission of the Japanese government, and the assistance of ten native inter- preters. This circumstance is the more remarkable, as the study of the Japanese language is generally forbidden to foreigners. A perfect copy was lost on the voyage to Europe ; another exists much prized and honoured in the imperial library at Jeddo. }I r. Fischer, however, in 1822, discovered at Decima the original notes, and in 1829 had finished the work of restoration. We shall be glad to hear of its safe arrival in Europe. Astronomy, or at least the inspection of the heavenly bodies 24 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. and their movements, is, as usual with nations residing under a clear atmosphere, much pursued. Whether they have profited by their intercourse with Dutch literature, so far as to adopt a correct system of the science, Mr. Fischer does not state, but they are familiar with our chronometers, telescopes, and other instruments of observation, and measure their mountains with the barometer. In medicine their proficiency is small, and their prejudices forbid the study of anatomy. We have, however, condescended to borrow from them the use of the moxa, and, as we believe, the practice of acu-puncturation. Education, such as it is, is extended in public schools to all classes, and in no country in the world, perhaps, is the art of writing so universally diffused. It is strange that a nation which possesses over the Chinese the inestimable advantage of an alphabet, should waste time in the study of the language of those neighbours, considering it as the learned one. They are great collectors of articles of rarity, both natural and artificial, and their dilettanti rival our own in their pursuits of coins and pictures. The governor of the province of Tamba possesses a fine collection of European coins, and, in Jeddo, Mr. Fischer saw a collection of old European engravings, which had been preserved one hundred and fifty years in the family of the proprietor. Their museums contain many specimens of factitious monsters, mermen, serpents with the feet of birds attached, &c. One of the said monsters, made up of a salmon and a monkey, was not long since exhibited as a " merman " in Piccadilly. Their taste in jewellery extends only to the metals, and their precious stones are rarely polished, or applied to the purpose of ornament or exchange. There are at present, as Mr. Fischer informs us, but eight of his countrymen living who have personally visited the capital of this vast empire. We have already observed that the strict adherence of the Japanese government to precedent and usage, with respect to the quadrennial embassy from the Dutch factory to Jeddo, makes each visit a mere repetition of the former ; and the circle of ceremony and precaution, which ever surrounds the travellers, allows to the most acute little means of adding to the observations of his predecessors. Some extracts, however, from Mr. Fischer's Narrative of his Fifty Days' Journey may not be unwelcome to our readers. We must premise that the embassy took place in the year 1822, and consisted of the Dutch president ESSAY I. JOURNEY TO THE CAPITAL. 25 of the factory, M. J. Cock Blomhoof, our author, who accompa- nied it as secretary, and Dr. Tullingh, physician to the factory. They started on the 6th of February, attended, as usual, by an opper banjoost, or superior Japanese officer, with three subor- dinates, three interpreters of different ranks, and a train of baggage-bearers, amounting to about one hundred men, and twenty horses ; the latter being principally loaded with the bed- ding of the persons of rank, who themselves travelled in the easy and convenient litters of the country, called norimons. Addi- tional baggage and provisions, not wanted for immediate use, were sent forward some days before, by sea, as far as Osacca on the principal island. The embassy was constantly preceded by two Japanese cooks one to prepare the dinner at some conve- nient point of the day's progress, the other the supper at the resting-place for the night. "On the 8th," says Mr. Fischer, "at Sinogi, we visited the hut of an old man, who from his youth had taken delight in beholding the passage of the Dutch. He was nearly ninety, and had seen our countrymen pass by upwards of forty times, and seemed to think himself fortunate in having lived to witness the transit of another They reached, on the 12th, Kehura, a seaport town on the channel which separates the great island of Nipon from that on which Nagasaki is situated, and distant about 180 miles from the latter city. They crossed, on the 13th, to Simineseky, the westernmost point of Nipon ; from which, after waiting till the 22nd for a favourable wind, they pursued their voyage along the coast eastward, for 117 miles, to the city of Moero, where they landed. After passing through many great and populous towns, among others Osacca, where however the press of the curious and the enforcement of etiquette prevented them from leaving their litters to make their observations on foot, as they wished, they reached, on the 7th of March, Foegimie, the last stage preceding Miako, the residence of the spiritual emperor. "From Foegimie," says Mr. Fischer, "to Miako, a distance of two leagues, we passed through a continuous street of shops and manufactories. The magazines of earthenware, of grain, of game, and poultry, the tea-houses, sakki breweries, &c., are not to be num- bered ; and the animation caused by the crowd of passengers made this part of our journey most interesting. In Miako we were better 26 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. lodged than in Osacca, and received an equally interminable number of visits. Miako, sometimes called Kioto, is the seat of the Dayrie, and is computed to contain 600,000 inhabitants. The temples are beautiful, as well as the aspect of the river, which flows through the city and the fertile environs. The women of this place are accounted the handsomest of the empire ; and the arts and sciences are held in the first estimation. It is the place of rendezvous for strangers from all parts of the empire, who flock to it for the purpose of pilgrimage to the temple of Tsie, or to make their provision of the manufactures of the place. It is accounted the Paradise of Japan, and specially famed for its salubrity." The travellers appear to have been treated with respect by all whom they encountered on the road, and generally at their halting-places, with the cordial and good-humoured hospitality which attends a welcome guest. The access of numerous visiters seems to have been nowhere impeded by any jealousy on the part of the government. In some places their entertainment was of a particularly affectionate description. " On the 20th," says Mr. Fischer, " our journey lay through a very hilly district, and the ways were steep and difficult. The tra- veller is more agreeably surprised to find, in this fatiguing part of his course, resting-places, from which damsels, as amiable as they are comely, run forth to offer him spring-water, tea, and other refreshments, and to compel him to a few moments of repose in their abodes. We halted on the mountain in one of these tea-houses, where the privileges common to other travellers fell to our lot ; and could not but concede to our Japanese friends, that the reputation of the fair sex for beauty in this district was fully borne out. Eeason enough, here as usually, to grace our fair entertainers with the souvenir of a ring, a hairpin, or other trifle. It is from this place that we obtain the first view of the renowned Fozie mountain, which raises its snow-clad summit above its fellows, and hides it in the clouds." This mountain is elsewhere described as between 11,000 and 12,000 French feet in altitude, and as a volcano which has been for not more than a century quiescent. It is held in great affection by the Japanese, and constantly figures in the works of their artists and the pages of their poets and romance-writers : a distinction well merited by the beauty of its scenery and the fer- tility of its environs. ESSAY I. VISIT TO THE CAPITAL. 27 The embassy, which had left Nagasaki on the 6th of February, on the 27th of March reached Sinagawa, the Kensington or Kentish-town of the Japanese capital ; which reminds the author, by the animation of its streets, and the multitude and splendour of its shops, of London, " Long before we reached Sinagawa we advanced, through the press of a crowded population, along broad streets, which may all be considered as belonging to Jeddo ; and our progress to our resting-place occupied about two hours, at a steady and rapid pace. Nagasakkya, the place appointed for our lodging, is situated close to the imperial palace, which forms the centre of the city. The diameter of the latter may be reckoned at from five to six leagues in extent." Once arrived here, the travellers found themselves much in the situation of state-prisoners permitted, indeed, to receive official visits, but allowed to issue from their residence only on the occasion of their audience of the emperor, and surrounded in their abode by spies in various shapes and disguises. Among these visiters were some who understood Dutch viz. the imperial under-mterpreter, several physicians, and the imperial astrologer, who rejoiced in the apposite name of Globius. These eagerly availed themselves of the opportunity afforded them for obtaining scraps of European information, and the strangers doubtless equally laboured to increase their knowledge of Japan. This intercourse with the natives, although under constant supervision and regulation on the part of the government, was so far unrestrained, that the lodging of the embassy was usually crowded with guests till a late hour of the night ; and though the letter of the Japanese law forbade the female sex to enter its precincts, that ingenuity of curiosity which in England has pene- trated behind the throne in the House of Peers, and insinuated itself into the ventilator of the Commons, triumphed equally at Jeddo. It sometimes happened that a single male visitor came attended by six ladies a circumstance which Mr. Fischer states by no means tended to protract the consumption of certain stores of liqueurs and confectionery which such occasions brought into play. Presents were interchanged according to the rank of the parties. A Dutch word or two written on the fan, as a substitute for an album, satisfied many of small pretensions. The secretaries of the government of Sadsuma brought an 28 MANNERS AND USAGES OF JAPAN. ESSAY I. offering of twelve beautiful birds, fifteen rare plants, two lapdogs, two rabbits, with silks and other articles, conveyed in cages and cases which in value and beauty far exceeded their contents. On the 6th of April the great purpose of the mission was accomplished in the formal audience to which the head of the embassy alone is admitted of the emperor. The president is, however, attended to the threshold of sovereignty by his two European companions. After entering the palace, and waiting for an hour in a saloon, where they were exposed to the only cir- cumstances savouring of impertinence or insult of which Mr. Fischer has, in his entire narrative, to complain, they entered the hall of audience, which he thus describes : "It is very large, but simple, and without pomp of decoration. They pointed out to us, facing the entrance, an elevated spot des- tined for the appearance of the emperor ; on its left hand, the places for the princes of the blood, and the imperial councillors, according to their rank. Although every part of the palace, seen by us, is remarkable for elaborate and beautiful construction, as well as for a general air of grandeur in comparison with other buildings, this part of it is too particularly set apart for public occasions to allow of much display of pomp and luxury. The proportions of the doors and shutters are colossal, and the Japan work, gilding, and carving, rich, yet simple. When we returned to the antechamber a heavy storm arose, which fortunately lasted but for a moment, as otherwise the audience would probably have been postponed, seeing that his imperial majesty has a great dread of thunder. At eleven o'clock the president was summoned to his audience, from which he returned in about half an hour. The whole ceremony consisted in bis making bis compliment in tbe Japanese fashion from the spot appointed, and remaining, for a few seconds, with his head bowed to the matted floor, till the words ' Capitan Hollanda ' were cried aloud. A deep silence reigned, only interrupted by a gentle murmur, with which the Japanese express profound reverence. Tbe governor of Naga- saki, and tbe chief interpreter, were the only persons who accom- panied the president, and gave bim the signal of permission to depart, which is effected, like bis entrance, in an inclined posture, so that the party is aware indeed of the presence of a number of persons, but, without violating the rules of Japanese politeness, cannot look about bim, or indulge his curiosity as to surrounding objects which, might deserve it." On the whole, though occasionally oppressed with visits, and ESSAY I. SUMMARY OF CHARACTER. 29 once exposed to a scientific examination from a whole faculty of royal astrologers (as was the physician of the embassy to a five hours' interrogatory from sixteen of his brother professors), Mr. Fischer speaks in the highest terms of the kindness and hos- pitality with which he was treated during his stay at Jeddo. Some of his friends put his risible faculties to the test by the compliment of appearing at his quarters in Dutch apparel, of ancient and various date and fashion. We wish we could afford more of our pages to this remote and remarkable people ; but for the present we must stop. We leave them to the complacent enjoyment of the conviction that they are the first of nations, and the eldest descendants of the Deity. We leave them satisfied of their absolute and universal excellence, wanting no change " least of all, such change as we could give them," and tenacious of the maxim, "that the commands of their emperor are like the sweat of man's body, which, once exuded, returns not again to its source ;" and we only further subjoin the well-balanced summary of their character with which Mr. Meylan closes his interesting volume : " Cunning, polite, suspicious, reserved, sensual, impatient, haughty, superstitious, revengeful, cruel in cold blood, on the one side ; on the other, just and honest, patriotic, exemplary in the relations of parent and child, firm friends, and 'probably not deficient in courage." 30 RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. ESSAY II. II.-RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. FKOM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, JULY, 1836.( a ) ALTHOUGH two works upon the Japanese Empire nave been recently brought under the notice of our readers, we think our- selves warranted in drawing for their use some further informa- tion on the same subject from that source which alone can supply it, the contemporary literature of our Dutch neighbours. Re- viewing Mr. Fischer's narrative, we made some allusion to his account of the Japanese and Dutch Lexicon of the writer now before us : " It was," says Fischer, " Mr. Doeff's chief employment in the solitary Decima, during the war in Europe, and the occupation of the Dutch colonies by the English. For several years, thus sepa- rated from the rest of the world, without the sight of a sail or the receipt of a despatch from Europe, he devoted to this undertaking his long experience, his talents, and his diligence. A combination of circumstances could alone make such a task feasible : the friend- ship of the natives, a knowledge of their manners and usages, and an advanced instruction in the language, all were necessary, and all were his. Above all, however, patience and assiduity were requisite, as must appear, when we consider that this work, follow- ing the Dutch and French dictionary of Halma, is illustrated by examples wherever a word of double meaning occurs, and comprises an amount of 2500 pages. The original exists in Japan ; but the copy privately written out by Mr. Doeff was lost on his return to Europe, by the foundering of the ship in which he had sailed. An accident led me to discover the traces of this work in 1823, and procured me opportunity for making a copy, which., in 1829, I ( a ) Herinneringen uit Japan. Van Hendrik Doeff, ond Opperhoofd der Neder- landers in Japan, op het Eiland Decima, Haarlem, 1835. Quarto. (Becollections of Japan. By Hendrik Doeff, formerly President of the Dutch Factory at Decima.) ESSAY II. LOSS OF MB. DOEFFS LEXICON. 31 brought to a close but which is less complete than the original. It is now in the library of the Koyal Institution at Amsterdam." Returning to Europe after nineteen years of arduous service in a distant region, during which he appears to have laboured in the cause of his country's political interests, as well as that of literature, under circumstances of painful difficulty, Mr. Doeff saw the results of his studies, and the curiosities collected during his exile, go down in the Admiral Evertsen, from which vessel he had scarcely time to save himself and a wife, who survived the catastrophe only four days, and carried a promised offspring to the grave. Such have been the labours and the lot of the author of the volume now before us, in which, under the title of ' Reminiscences of Japan,' he has endeavoured to repair, in some degree, the loss of submerged diaries, journals, and other mate- rials for works of greater magnitude. We have to regret, not merely as Englishmen, but as labourers in the wide vineyard of Literature, that so great a proportion of it is devoted to the subject of certain collisions with our own countrymen. It is some consolation for the scantiness of his positive additions to our knowledge of Japan, that his opus magnum has been saved to Europe by Mr. Fischer's exertions ; for we can hardly hope that the Imperial Library of Jeddo will, in our time, become accessible to foreigners, or that its rules of admission will appear in the Report of the British Museum Committee. Could we even look forward to the time which our wise men anticipate, when the beds of existing oceans shall have effected an amicable exchange with present continents, and when fossil seventy-fours shall engage the attention of future Coles and Murchisons, we could hardly hope that even a semi-Dutch manuscript dictionary, whatever might be its propensity to descend to ocean's quietest depths, would remain legible to our posterity, and we echo Mr. 1 i>cher's wish for an early edition of the treasure he claims to have saved. ' Mr. DoefTs remarks on the constitution and practice of the Japanese government would lead us to attribute to the Sjogfoen (or reigning Emperor) more influence and more of personal in- terference in the affairs of administration than was conceded to him in the works which we formerly reviewed. He also supplies an important defect in those two works, by giving us some information as to the mode by which the members of the great 32 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. council of state are elevated to their seat in that assembly. It may be difficult to ascertain to what extent the measures and decisions of that assembly originate with, or are controlled by, the sovereign; but as in that body are concentrated all the executive powers of government, as every imperial order goes forth under their countersignature, it is important to know that they are selected by the sovereign from a particular race of the nobility, viz. the descendants of the principal supporters of the usurper Jjegos or Daifoesama, on whom the title of Gonge was conferred after his death, and from the date of whose prosperous usurpation the peace of the empire has been uninterrupted. The descendants of those who opposed the establishment of his power are, on the contrary, excluded from the council. The hereditary principle which pervades the institutions of Japan is strongly apparent in this mode of organizing the moving power of the executive machinery. Investigation, how- ever, usually modifies general conclusions. Mr. O'Connell has elicited the fact that the Crown of England is elective ; we learn from Mr. Doeff that in Japan a parent may select a suc- cessor to office from his children, or, being childless, may adopt and invest with his own family name the scion of another house, the child of such adoption being prohibited thenceforth from addressing his real parents by that title on any public occasion. The present sovereign has aiforded a curious illustration of this practice. His predecessor had the misfortune to lose his only son, in consequence of a fall from a wild Persian horse, an unlucky gift from the gentlemen of the factory. The prince now nourishing was adopted by the bereaved Sjogfoen during his own father's lifetime. On an occasion subsequent to his accession he addressed his parent in public by the accustomed, but forbidden title. The president of the council, Matsoe Dairi Isoe no Cami, instantly remonstrated, and in so doing was himself guilty of a violation of the rule which forbids any one to gainsay or rebuke his superior in rank. He immediately quitted the council, placed himself in arrest in his own house, and besought his associates in writing to lay the case before the emperor. The latter, by acknowledging his error, followed without hesitation the example of submission to usage thus set him by his minister, and soon released the president from his voluntary confinement. ESSAY II. ESPIONNAGE. 33 However the powers of government may, in practice, be apportioned, from the emperor down to the humblest func- tionary, all are subject to that rigid code of usage and precedent which attained its final establishment under the Gonge. Two officers are resident at the Court of Jeddo, whose functions would be better expressed perhaps by the title of grand inqui- sitors than that of directors of police, which Mr. Doeff applies to them. They are charged to watch over and report the minutest infraction of the sacred code, even on the part of the emperor himself. Their agents are spread through the empire, and especially at the courts of the sixty-eight provincial sove- reigns, who are under constant suspicion of an aspiration to independence, only attainable by revolution. The mode of operation is curious. The spy, usually of an inferior class, is despatched to his post, to remain there till he receives a signal of recall, which consists in a report of some extraordinary occurrence set in circulation by his appointed successor. Whe- ther these posts are coveted in Japan on the principle which in our service procures candidates for forlorn hopes and judges and governors for Sierra Leone, we do not learn, but certain assassi- nation awaits the detected spy. From the province of Satsoema, in particular, it is said that none have been known to return. The invariable impunity of these murders exhibits a singular feature of weakness in the central government and independence in the provincial, but the despotism of usage overrules both. A further and formidable check on this independence of the governors is, however, to be found in their own compulsory residence at Jeddo each alternate year, and the perpetual con- finement of their wives and children, natural and legitimate, in that city. Governors suspected of undue accumulation of wealth are mulcted by an ingenious process. The Dayrie (or Spiritual Emperor) is employed to bestow on such a title of honour, accompanied by fees of installation, which speedily reduce the means of the receirer of the Japanese Garter or Guelph to proper limits. The slightest demur would, as Mr. Doeff states, be immediately overruled by the' assistance of the neighbouring princes, whose mutual jealousies he considers as, after all, the main security for that general submission which for two centuries has secured the peace of so vast an empire. Mr. Doeff spends a good many pages on the defence of his D 34 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. countrymen from the old imputation, so wittily adverted to by Swift in his Laputa, of submitting to trample on the emblem of the Christian faith. The falsity of the accusation has, we believe, long been acknowledged.* We think our author less successful in relieving his countrymen from all participation in the struggle which ended in the extirpation of the last remnant of the votaries of Christianity in Japan. That the contest, indeed, was not a purely religious one he shows ; but it is equally clear that the Christian remnant was engaged on the side of the revolters in the bay of Simabarra, and that the Dutch Captain Koekebakker did, in obedience, doubtless, to a very significant request from the reigning powers, fire from his vessel some four hundred and twenty-five shots on the stronghold of the revolters. To these the Zumalacarreguy of the period replied by an arrow, with a letter attached, containing the not unnatural interrogatory, whether native soldiers were not to be found to subdue him, and whether his countrymen were not ashamed to call in the assistance of strangers. Koekebakker was allowed hereupon to retire, and exempt himself from any share in the final and bloody catastrophe. It appears, however, that the ceremony of trampling on the cross is still exacted from the Chinese who visit Japan, the Jesuits having diffused originally among the traders of that nation a large assortment of crucifixes, rosaries, &c., and with their usual zeal and ingenuity endeavoured to introduce their missionaries in Chinese vessels. Even in the Dutch ships careful search is made for all such emblems of Christianity, and books on religious subjects, which are taken possession of by the authorities, and only restored on the departure of the vessel. The important exception, however, is made of bibles and psalm-books. Mr. Doeff describes the journey to the capital, which he has performed more than once, in his capacity of president, the only individual who is admitted for the one minute's audience to the presence of the emperor. The appointment of a Japanese treasurer or purse-bearer, for the expenses of the journey, * Sir Stamford Raffles represents the Dutch as themselves the authors of this unfounded allegation. See his despatch to Lord Minto, included in Lady Raffles's very interesting Memoir. The three works we have noticed repel it with indig- nation. ESSAY II. FIRE AT JEDDO. 35 rendered necessary by the extortion of the purveyors of horses, proves that the family features of the tribe of postmasters are similar over the world, wherever unmodified by compe- tition, and that human nature is the same on the road from Nagasaki to Jeddo as on that between Calais and Paris. The following passage will afford some notion of Japanese commer- cial opulence, and the extent of the loss to which it is sometimes subject by fire. Speaking of his residence at Jeddo, our author says: " There is here an extensive dealer in silks, by name It^igoja, who has large establishments besides in all the other great cities of the empire. Any customer who conveys his purchase to another of these cities, Nagasaki, for example, and there tires of his acqui- sition, may give it back and receive the price in full. The wealth of this man must be enormous, as the following will show : During my residence at Jeddo there occurred a vast fire, which consumed everything within a space three leagues in length and a mile and a half in breadth; among the rest our lodging. Itsigoja lost his entire shop, and a warehouse containing more than one hundred thousand bales of silk thread, which loss was unmitigated, for the Japanese know nothing of insurance. He nevertheless sent to our assistance forty of his servants, who stood us in great stead ; and on the second day he was already actively engaged in rebuilding his premises, paying every carpenter six florins per diem." Mr. Doeff proceeds thus to describe this conflagration : " On April 22, 1806, at about ten in the morning, we heard that a fire had broken out about two leagues from our lodging. We paid little attention to the intelligence, the inhabitants of Jeddo being so practised in the extinction of fires ; in fine weather there is gene- rally a fire every night, and, as this happens seldomer in rainy weather, the citizens generally wish one another joy of a wet evening. In this instance, however, the fire made rapid approaches, and towards three in the afternoon the flame, excited by a strong breeze, broke out in four places in our neighbourhood. We had, since one o'clock, employed ourselves in packing up our effects, so that we were able to take immediate flight, for the danger was pressing. On issuing into the street, we saw everything in flames ; there was great danger in endeavouring to escape before the wind, and in the same direction with the fire. We therefore took a slanting direction through a street already burning, and thus suc- ceeded, by following the flame, in gaining an open field called Hara. D 2 36 EECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. It was studded over with the standards of princes whose palaces had been destroyed, and whose wives and children had fled thither for refuge. We followed their example, and marked out a spot with our Dutch flags which we had used on our journey. We had now a full view of the fire, and never have I seen anything so terrific. The terrors of this ocean of flame were enhanced by the heart- rending cries of the fugitive women and children." This fire, after raging for twelve hours, was extinguished by rain. Fifty-seven palaces of princes were destroyed, and 1200 persons (among whom was a daughter of the Prince of Awa) either burnt or drowned. The young lady met this fate by the giving way of the Nipon Bas, a famous bridge in Jeddo, under the weight of the flying multitude. Thin walls of clay, timbers, and partitions of deal, matted floors, and roofs of shingle, suf- ficiently account for catastrophes which must far exceed in fre- quency and violence even those of New York or Constantinople. We cannot help thinking that a fire-engine would be the most appropriate present the Dutch could make to the government which sets store by their gifts.* It would certainly deserve a better reception than the wild Persian horse which broke the neck of an heir to the throne, or the elephant which was once brought to Nagasaki, but, not being transportable in a litter to Jeddo, was wisely declined by the Japanese. The relief which such an incident afforded to the monotony of a residence at Jeddo, and this emancipation from their state of imprisonment, however brief, must have repaid the Dutch for some fright and danger, more especially as their new temporary residence afforded them a more extended prospect than that from the usual abode of the mission. They seem to have received much attention and kindness from the authorities. The Governor of Jeddo, however, took alarm at the opportu- nities for observation, though not extending to intercourse, which their position afforded them. From an outbuilding attached to their residence they could see and be seen by the multitude wtxjcn. equally cmious with themselves, was speedily attracted to the spot, and the governor sent orders through an interpreter to prohibit any further exhibition of their persons. * On looking into Abel's account of Lord Amherst's Embassy to China, we find that two of these machines were among the presents offered by the British govern- ment to the Chinese sovereign on that occasion. ESSAY n. KNOWLEDGE OF ASTRONOMY. 37 Here Mr. Doeflfs knowledge of the Japanese code stood him in good stead. The governor had outstepped his province. The Dutch party were in all respects under the orders, not of the Governor of Jeddo, but of him of Nagasaki, who attends the mission to the capital, and during its entire progress, residence, and return, has the exclusive control of its motions. The laws of Japanese etiquette are as impartial as they are strict. DoefFs appeal to usage was as effectual as if preferred by a native. The prohibition was instantly pronounced invalid, and their friend of Nagasaki, pleased with their assertion of his right and dignity, not only continued to them the enjoyment of their inte- resting prospect, but caused an eminence which impeded it to be levelled for their convenience. Our author's description of his audience of the emperor con- tains no new particulars. The days which intervened between his reception at court and the departure of the mission were made fatiguing by the visits of the curious, and the inquiries of the savans of Jeddo, especially the physicians and astronomers, who during this limited interval of three or four days have access to the strangers. The burthen of the former naturally fell on the physician of the embassy, and, as the questions had been carefully prepared in anticipation, his task was not a light one. Mr. Doeff's situation, however, was more embarrassing, for, albeit no astronomer, he had the choice of confessing his ignorance, or of inventing answers to the questions of men able to calculate eclipses, and who possess and use a translation of Lalande's Astronomy. That eminent man, when from his ob- servatory in the ancient Hotel de Cluny at Paris he "out- watched the Bear," little thought that his labours would enable his brother sages of Japan to perplex an unfortunate Dutchman. The knowledge of this extension of celebrity would not have been ungrateful to the man who pronounced himself a " toile eirde pour les injures et une Sponge pour la louange." These visits generally lasted from two till nightfall, and were relieved by an active circulation of liqueurs and comfits. Mr. Doeff speaks with much affection and regard df the chief astronomer, Taka- haso Sampei, whose friendship he had subsequent occasion to cultivate, and on whom he bestowed at his earnest request the name of G-lobiw, as mentioned in our review of Mr. Fischer's work. This person was held in such estimation by the govern- 38 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN- ESSAY II. ment for other qualifications besides those of science, that he was sent as commissioner to Matzmai in the affair of Grolownin. The first physician of the emperor received in like manner from our author the name of Johannes Botanicus, under which appel- lation he held for some time a correspondence with the learned Mynheer Eeinwardt, then resident at Batavia. This man's grandfather had held an intercourse of the same nature with Thunberg. It is not unpleasing to trace these links, however slender, in the intercourse of human intellect, which connects nations so distant, and communicates some of the advantages of European cultivation to those who repel with contempt from their coasts the material products of our industry and the dan- gerous benefits of our commerce. Mr. Doeif positively contra- dicts the assertion of Golownin, that a Dutchman of the name of Laxman had been encouraged or permitted to establish himself at Jeddo. In his three visits to the capital Mr. Doeff never heard mention of such a name or occurrence, and the whole tenor of Japanese policy, in our judgment, sufficiently proves the negative in the case of an alleged infraction of law and usage so gross and palpable. On his return from Jeddo, in 1806, Mr. Doeff, suffering under a cholic, underwent the operation of acupuncturation described by Keempfer and others as commonly practised in Japan. The pain was trifling ; but a slight and temporary alleviation of the malady, how far attributable to imagination it might be perhaps hard to decide, was the only result. The remaining portion of Mr. Doeff's volume is almost exclu- sively a narrative of events which took place at Nagasaki during his residence as president of the factory. Those who peruse it will be little surprised at the strong tone of hostility to England which pervades its pages. There is one passage in particular, of the conduct of our countrymen, of which we, on every ground, lament the tragical consequences, and specially on that ground which we suspect has supplied a topic of consolation to Mr. Doeff, to wit, that those results have tended to place at further distance than ever the prospect of opening an intercourse be- tween our Indian dependencies and Japan. We believe that, from the period of 1814, when Sir Stamford Baffles made an attempt of this nature on which Mr. Doeff throws some curious lights, no actual experiment has been revived in that quarter. ESSAY II. ATTEMPTS AT INTERCOURSE. 39 know, however, that with that able and excellent man, whose spirit of enterprise and talent for execution we should be the last to depreciate, the project was. a favourite one ; his authority is high ; and the report on the coasting voyage of the Amherst printed for the House of Commons in 1833 leads us to suppose that his plan has again been contemplated. We think it a hopeless and dangerous one ; and as the ground of this conclusion is borrowed from works which in their present shape and language are little likely to engage attention in England, we have no scruple in briefly laying the principal facts before our readers. The views of Sir Stamford Raffles, and those who have shared them, with regard to Japan, have been founded on circumstances not unworthy, we admit, of due consideration. Our accounts of that nation have been gathered exclusively from the Dutch, whose interest it might be supposed would lead them to magnify every difficulty and to interpose every obstacle in the way of a nation long their enemy and ever their rival in the eastern seas. Various circumstances, and especially the recent voyage of the Amherst, have satisfied certain persons that something in the way of smuggling, bullying, and bribing may be effected on the coasts of an empire which in many respects bears great affinity to that of Japan. The failure of the Russian attempt under Resanoff might be accounted for by the sanguine on the supposition that the neighbourhood of the Kurile Islands and Kamschatka, in this instance, had induced a peculiar jealousy on the part of the Japanese. We are satisfied, however, that these considerations are overruled by others which, however founded on partial tes- timony, are borne out by all the probabilities of the case, and by every actual occurrence which has come to our knowledge. That tlio English should rank next at least to the Portuguese, and equally with the Russians, among the least favoured nations in the Japanese code of restriction, or rather exclusion, is but too probable. The rumour of our vast Eastern power, and Dutch descriptions of the mode in which we had extended and exercised it, would justify superabundant caution. The Dutch, during the war in which their subjection to France involved them with this country, were compelled to prosecute their usual intercourse in American hired vessels. It might at first appear that an incident which accustomed the Japanese to the sound of the 40 EECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. English language, and some acquaintance with English customs, would be favourable to intercourse with the mother country. The Dutch, however, would have risked the continuance of their privileges by the expedient, if they had not succeeded in making the Japanese comprehend the distinction between the English proper, and the English (as they are called in China) of the. second ^hop-stick. Once impressed with the distinction between King Jefferson and King George, they made no difficulty in admitting American vessels and crews under the Dutch flag and the usual regulations. An American, however, attempting to trade on his own account in 1807 was instantly repulsed. The failure of the Kussian enterprise in 1804 is well known. In 1808 occurred, in the harbour of Nagasaki, that act on the part of an English frigate to which we adverted in our former article, and of which we must now state our conviction that, if the project of opening a British intercourse with Japan had ever been feasible, this incident alone would have blasted it, perhaps for centuries to come. We also greatly fear, with reference to the future, that, should any English crew fall into the hands of the Japanese, they would find themselves, as Englishmen, ex- empted from the benefit of that code of mercy and hospitality in which these sturdy rebutters of intrusion embrace the visiters whom shipwreck or starvation drives upon their coast, and which has not yet we believe been violated, even where that plea of necessity was doubtful. Mr. Doeff, bringing under the notice of his readers, perhaps under his own, only those circumstances of the case which national prejudice and commercial hostility would select, endeavours to stamp with the impression of deliberate criminality an act, on the part of a British officer, which we con- sider as a casual accident of naval service, creditable to that officer's zeal and courage, and involving no real impeachment of his humanity or discretion, though it led to consequences which humanity must deplore, and which calm discretion, as- sisted by an acquaintance with Japanese usages, might perhaps have obviated. It was in the October of 1808 that an European vessel under Dutch colours appeared off the coast. The usual Dutch trader was expected ; and when the governor of Nagasaki requested Mr. Doeff, then president, to send as usual two of his subordinates with the banjoosts (the accustomed Japanese officers) on board, ESSAY H. SEIZURE OF DUTCH TRADERS. 41 he complied without suspicion. The Dutchmen preceding the Japanese were met by a boat from the vessel. A petty officer of the latter desired them in their own language to come into their boat, and, the Dutchmen requesting time to wait for the Japanese officer who was following, the strangers boarded them with drawn cutlasses, and forced them on board an English frigate, the Phaeton. The Japanese rowed back, and communi- cated the strange occurrence which he had witnessed to the authorities. Mr. Doeff thus describes the effect of the intel- ligence : " In the town everything was in frightful embarrassment and confusion. The governor especially was in a state of indescribable wrath, which fell in the first instance on the two upper banjoosts because they had returned without our countrymen, and without having learnt, on their own knowledge, to what nation the ship belonged. Before I could ask him a question, he said to me with fury in his countenance ' Be quiet, Mr. President ; I shall take care that your people are restored.' The interpreters also assured me of his determination in this particular, even at the cost of breaking through some law or usage. I saw everything was pre- paring for defence, and even for attack, if necessary. The governor now learnt to his consternation that at the imperial guard-house (situated between the Papenberg island and Nagasaki, and at which one thousand men are by regulation stationed) only sixty or seventy were forthcoming, and the commanders absent. The governor shud- dered at the intelligence, for he foresaw his inevitable lot the knife. Towards twelve came a letter written on board by my assistant, Schimel, whose writing I recognised, with these words only ' A ship is arrived from Bengal. The captain's name is Pellew ; he asks for water and provisions.' " The president was consulted as to compliance with this request, which he declined to sanction. " It was midnight," he pursues, " before I heard again from the governor. His first secretary then visited me, and informed me that he had orders to rescue the Hollanders. On my questioning him as to the mode, he replied, 'Your countrymen have been seized by treachery; I shall therefore go alone, obtain -admission on board by every de- monstration of friendship ; seek an interview with the captain, and, on his refusal to deliver his prisoners, stab him first, and then myself.' " The president naturally dissuaded him from an enterprise hopeless in itself, and dangerous to those he proposed to 42 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY IT. liberate. The governor, adopting the same view, was obliged to interfere to prevent the attempt. The plan now adopted was to detain the ship till all the vessels and forces of the neighbouring princes should be collected for attack, and the night passed away in military preparation which, as Mr. Doeff says, bore some marks of a want of practice of two centuries' duration. In the afternoon of the following day, Gozeman, one of the detenus, was landed. His report was that he had been treated with gross insult, and threatened with death if it should turn out that he had violated truth in denying the presence of Dutch vessels in the harbour. The English captain, however, having verified his statement by personal inspection in his own boat, ultimately sent him on shore with the following epistle : " I have ordered my own boat to set Gozeman on shore, to pro- cure me water and provisions ; if he does not return with such before evening, I will sail in to-morrow early and burn the Japanese and Chinese vessels in the harbour." Doeff states that a threat was added, that, unless Gozeman should return on board in the evening, with the provisions, the other Dutch prisoner, Sohimel, should be hanged without mercy. We have very strong doubts as to the accuracy of these state- ments, but none at all that the Japanese were made to believe that such threats had been uttered. The governor was unwilling to allow of Gozeman's return to the vessel ; but was persuaded by the president, who considered that measure the only means of securing the safety of both. He did return on board with the provisions, and shortly afterwards the Japanese authorities were enraptured by the appearance of both the detenus, which to some of themselves, alas not to all ! was a release from the choice between honourable suicide and the lasting infamy of public execution. The Dutchmen admitted that, after the arrival of the provisions, they had been treated with every civility by the English captain. It was now the object of the governor to execute, if possible, to the letter, that passage of his commission which enjoins him to detain, till the pleasure of the Provincial Government be known, any vessel which commits any act of violence or illegality on the coast. The president was again consulted : ESSAY II. RESULTS OF CAPTAIN PELLEWS OUTEAGE. 43 " I considered," he said, " the Japanese as not strong enough to detain by force a frigate well armed and prepared, and told them so plainly ; but I advised them to detain the vessel by other means, long enough to permit a number of vessels laden with stones to be , sunk in the narrowest part of the passage, between the Papenberg and the Caballes. In the course of the next day these might be got ready, and the scheme might be executed in the night following. The Japanese harbour-master, present at the discussion, demon- strated the feasibility of the scheme, and received orders to make all the preparations. I warned the governor that the east wind, which had blown for some hours, was fair for the Englishman's escape ; but it was expected that he would wait for a further supply of fresh water, which had been promised him. " About daylight arrived the Prince of Omura, at the head of his troops, and proposed to the governor to endeavour, with three hun- dred boats, each manned with three rowers, and filled with straw and reeds, to burn the frigate. The men were to escape by swim- ming. He offered to lead the enterprise in person. During this consultation the frigate weighed, and sailed out of the harbour with a fresh breeze." Thus far we have pursued the Dutchman's narrative ; and did it end here, some of our readers, and specially those who, like ourselves, take pleasure in the mirthful pages of Marryatt, Cha- mier, and Glasscock, might think that little harm was done. A frightened Dutcliman, and an outwitted governor in petticoats, might be considered as excellent dramatis personae for a marine farce ; and we might smile at the credulity of the men who really believed that an English officer would execute on their persons a threat, for the performance of which he would himself have been liable to capital punishment at home. The conse- quences, however, were such as undoubtedly the captain of the Phaeton could not have anticipated, and such as he, or any Bri- tish officer, would deplore. Within half an hour of the Phaeton's departure the governor had redeemed himself from impending disgrace, and his family from an inheritance of infamy, by the terrible expedient which Japanese custom dictates on such occa- sions. The officers of the neglected post, to the number we believe of six or seven, followed his example, and at once stabbed themselves in the abdomen. These men were under the orders, not of the governor of Nagasaki, but of the governor of the pro- vince of Fizen, then resident at Jeddo ; and that high functionary 44 i RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. expiated the delinquency of his subordinates by an imprisonment of one hundred days. Before we dismiss this subject it may be well to advert to the circumstances under which the British flag appeared in these unfrequented seas. That we were at war with Holland, then a ' dependency of France, it is hardly necessary to mention. Cap- tain Pellew of the Phaeton (the second Lord Exmouth) was ordered by Admiral Drury, commander of our fleets in the Eastern seas, to cruise off the Japanese islands, for the purpose of intercepting the Dutch traders to Nagasaki. Whether a nation which, like Japan, refuses all intercourse with the rest of the world may claim all those privileges of neu- trality for its harbours, which other civilized nations have sanc- tioned for their mutual convenience, is a point of international law which we are not aware has been formally mooted or de- cided. We have reason at least to believe that Captain Pellew's instructions contained no direction on this head, nor any infor- mation as to the peculiar usages of the people with whom his mission might bring him into contact. With reference to the Dutch, that mission was of course couched in the usual formula take, burn, or destroy. After cruising in vain for a month in those tempestuous seas, the captain, thinking that the Dutch traders had probably reached the harbour, determined to look for them there. The skill and boldness with which this was accomplished is evident from the Dutch accounts, which also throw light on its hazard and difficulty. We are enabled, on good authority, to state our belief that the Dutch have misrepresented the conduct of the English captain, in those passages which impute to him hostile demeanour or ex- pressions with regard to the Japanese, with whom no actual col- lision or intercourse took place. On the same authority we can further state that' the captain, failing to discover the enemy he looked for, desired the Dutch factors who boarded him, and whom he claimed the right to consider as prisoners of war, to represent his vessel to the Japanese as an English Indiaman. The consequences of a more accurate designation must therefore rest, lamentable as they were, with those who communicated it to the native authorities. Our readers, however, may make what allowance they please for Dutch misrepresentation or exaggeration of the occurrence ESSAY U. INTERCOURSE WITH THE DUTCH INTERRUPTED. 45 in its details, and we suspect our author's narrative is not free from either ; the facts stated of its consequences have never been denied or doubted, and are alluded to as notorious in the passage of Sir Stamford Baffles' Memoirs which contains a brief and im- perfect account of his own subsequent proceedings in the same quarter to which we shall have occasion presently to advert. The prelude was certainly inauspicious. If Messrs. Meylan and Fischer had told us that the Japanese were the most forgiving and forgetful nation of their acquaintance, we, who know how seldom those qualities belong to nations professing a religion which enjoins them, might doubt the veracity of these authors. They do tell us that vindictiveness is a striking feature of their cha- racter ; and that the forgiveness of an injury is considered as a specimen of disgraceful pusillanimity. From this period up to 1810, in the spring of which year Mr. Doeff made one of his journeys to the capital, as president of the factory, the intercourse between Batavia and Nagasaki was punctual. It was now destined to a total interruption of more than three years, the consequence of maritime war, and our occu- pation of the Dutch East Indian possessions : " No one," says Mr. Doeff, " but a resident of this period at the factory can form a conception of our state of mind. Separated from all intercourse, close prisoners in a spot which ships scarcely ever pass, much less touch at, knowing nothing, guessing nothing of events in the remainder of the globe ; uncertain whether for the next ten or twenty years, or to the end of our lives, a ship of our country would ever greet our sight ; living under the constant inspection of a suspicious nation which, treating us it is true with kindness, and allowing us to want for nothing which they could supply, could yet never consider us as countrymen : this was a sad lot, and sadder prospect." In 1811 the capture and detention of Golownin occurred, and the Japanese authorities paid Mr. Doeff the compliment of call- ing for his opinion on the circumstances of that transaction. He seems to have done his best to recommend merciful counsels, and to smooth the way for the release of the Russian. " Our hope," he continues, " was now fixed on the year 1812, but, alas ! it passed away without relief, and without intelligence either from Europe or Batavia ! All our provision from Java was by this time consumed ; butter we had not seen since 1807 (for the ship, the 46 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. Goede Frouw, had brought us none in 1809). To the honour of the Japanese, I must acknowledge that they did everything in their power to supply our particular deficiencies The police agent, or inspector, Sige Dennozen, among others, gave himself much trouble to distil gin for us, for which purpose I supplied him with a still- kettle and a tin worm which I chanced to possess. He had tolerable success, but could not remove the resinous flavour of the juniper ; the corn spirit, however, which he also managed to distil, was pro- duced in perfection. As we had been deprived of wine since 1807, with the exception of a small quantity brought by the Goede Frouw, he likewise endeavoured to press it for us from the wild grape of the country, but with less success. He obtained, indeed, a red and fermented liquid, but it was not wine. I, for my own part, endea- voured to make beer. With the help of the domestic dictionaries of Chanel and Buys, I got so far as to produce a whitish liquor, with something of the flavour of the white beer (mol) of Haerlem, but which would not keep above four days ; seeing that I could not make it work sufficiently, nor had I any hope of imparting to it its due bitter, so as to remain longer drinkable." We sympathise with this unaffected narrative of a Hollander's distresses, his hopes and his resources, and we are cheered by the picture of Japanese good nature, while we lament over the pitchy flavour of the Schiedam of Nagasaki and the perishable excellence of Doeff 's Entire ; but further privations and embar- rassments equally national remain : " Our greatest deficiency was in the articles of shoes and winter clothing ; we procured Japanese slippers of straw, and covered the instep with undressed leather, and thus draggled along the street. Long breeches made we with an old carpet which I had by me. Thus we provided for our wants as. well as we could contrive. There was no distinction among us. Every one who had saved any- thing threw it into the common stock, and we thus lived under a literal community of goods." With the spring of 1813 began the fourth year of their sepa- ration from the world, and great was their delight in July to witness the approach of two vessels bearing the Dutch flag, and hoisting a private signal agreed upon in 1809. A letter was brought on shore, announcing the arrival of Mr. W. Waarde- naar, formerly president of the factory, as commissary, and Mr. Cassa appointed to replace Mr. Doeff as president, with three assistants or clerks on board the second vessel. No suspicion ESSAY II. PROCEEDINGS OF SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES. 47 crossed the mind of our author: he had himself exceeded by many years the usual period of service ; the reinforcement of clerks was greatly required. Mr. Waardenaar was an old ac- quaintance, friend, and protector. An officer and clerk of the factory were sent on board ; the former returned, saying that he had recognised Waardenaar and the captain, Voorman, but that appearances were strange on board the vessel, and Waardenaar had informed him that he could only deliver the papers with which he was charged to Mr. Doeff in person. It was remarked by the Japanese that all the officers on board spoke English, and they thence considered the vessels as hired Americans. To remove all suspicion, Mr. Doeff went on board. He was re- ci-ived with evident embarrassment by Waardenaar, who handed him a letter, which Doeff declined to open till he should return to his residence, whither he was accompanied by Waardenaar and his clerk. The letter, there being opened, presented to the eyes of the astonished president an announcement of the mission of the two vessels, and the appointment of Waardenaar as Com- missary in Japan, with supreme command over the factory, signed " Baffles, Lieutenant-Go vernor of Java and its depen- dencies." In reply to the question, "Who is Baffles?" Mr. Doeff was informed that Java was in possession of the English, Holland incorporated with France ; and that Waardenaar, together with an Englishman, Mr. Ainslie, were appointed by the British Government as Commissioners in Japan. DoeflTs reply was prompt ; he refused all compliance with the orders set forth in the letter, as coming from the government of a colony in possession of the enemy. Waardenaar tried every expedient to shake this resolution ; he appealed to the capitulation of Java, of which, however, he could produce no copy, and which, as Mr. Doeff says, would at all events have been unavailing to convince him that Japan was to be considered a dependency of Java. This bold stroke of Sir Stamford Baffles may be considered by many as a favourable specimen of that spirit of enterprise which distinguished his proceedings to' the last; but, making every allowance for the partiality of the account of the transaction now before us, we cannot but think that his zeal in this instance overstepped his discretion. Success could only be gained by entire acquiescence and collusion on the part of Mr. Doeff, and 48 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. the lives of the two ships' companies were placed in the hands of that functionary, who by a word could have given them over as Englishmen and enemies to the vengeance of a recently insulted nation. This course he appears at first to have contem- plated ; for after coolly acquainting his former friend with the circumstances of the situation in which he had placed himself, and his own determination to resist the appointment of any nominee of England to the chair of the factory, he called in the five chief native interpreters, and, acquainting them with the facts, demanded their instant communication of them to the authorities. They at once foresaw the terrific consequences of such an announcement, and, whether from mere humanity, or apprehending that the circumstance of the ships having entered the harbour, though by deceptive means, yet unopposed, might include themselves or some of their countrymen in the cata- strophe, they paused for consideration. Waardenaar was known and respected in Japan ; the ships bore the Dutch flag ; no suspicion that the English had a Dutch agent in their service had yet reached the authorities. All these circumstances they pointed out to the president, and prevailed on him to keep the secret and retain his independent government, formally consent- ing to take upon themselves the entire responsibility in case of discovery. The further details of the arrangement, and of Mr. DoefFs measures for turning the transaction to the commercial profit of his country, may best be found in the following extracts from a document, of which Mr. Doeff inserts a copy in his work. They will also show how completely the perilous nature of their posi- tion was admitted by the parties. The act in question purports to be an agreement between H. Doeff, president, on the one side, and W. Waardenaar and D. Ainslie, chief surgeon in Batavia, on the other. The first undersigned, having communicated to the second and third his refusal to obey the instruction of the Lieutenant-Governor of Java, dated June 4, 1813 (for reasons specified), represents in consequence the dangerous circumstances in which the ships, Charlotte and Mary, with their crews, are placed, in the event of his making known to the Japanese (however indirectly) to what nation those ships belong; inas- much as the said ships would be forthwith burned, and all on board massacred, the which he (Doeff) could in no wise do any- ESSAY II. SUCCESS OF MR. DOEFF. 49 thing to prevent, seeing the hate which the Japanese have con- ceived towards the English nation, especially since the affair of the Phaeton, &c. Then follow the conditions agreed upon, the principal being, that, in order to prevent all suspicion on the part of the Japanese, the entire cargoes of the two ships shall be delivered to Doeff, who shall treat them according to the usual practice, and account for them to Waardenaar and Ainslie ; that the two latter shall undertake, on account of their government, the debt and obligations, &c., contracted by the factory from 1809 to this year inclusive, to be paid out of the produce of the lading, &c. The ships were permitted on these conditions to discharge their goods and receive their return in copper under the usual regulations. The secrecy of the interpreters was sufficiently secured by a regard to their own safety ; and Mr. DoefFs retention of his functions, and the departure of the English agents from their dangerous errand, were accounted for on various ingenious pretexts to the satisfaction of the Japanese. We cannot but concede to Mr. Doeff his claim to total success in this struggle, and we must reluctantly, not merely on his statement, but on all the probabilities of the case, deny to Sir Stamford Raffles all claim and pretension to the having in this transaction smoothed the way for future intercourse. Preten- sions to that effect are, in his memoirs and despatches to Lord 31 into, founded on the admitted collusion of the five interpreters ; and it is also suggested that, though the ships passed in the first instance for American, the fact that they were English was ascertained by the Japanese during their stay in harbour ; more- over that presents of English manufacture had been compla- cently received at court. Mr. DoefFs reply to these allegations viz. that the parties were too well aware of their danger to neglect any conceivable precaution against discovery ; that, of the Japanese, the interpreters alone were in the secret ; and that the presents mentioned as received at Jecldo were forwarded in the name of the Dutch government appears to us conclu- sive. The presents, he tells us, were represented as an acknow- ledgment for the kindness with which the Dutch had been treated during the interruption of intercourse. Two of them, a clock and an elephant, were refused, the former because orna- mented with classical images, the elephant for the reason already mentioned. Query, Did those who sent it know the E 50 EECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. relative positions of Nagasaki and Jeddo ? Dr. Ainslie was in some danger of discovery. It was thought strange that Mr. Waardenaar should be attended by an American surgeon. Mr. Doeff reminded the Japanese of the Swedish Thunberg, and asserted that his countrymen looked rather to the skill than the birthplace of their medical attendants. At the court of Jeddo was established, at this period, in great splendour and favour, the son of that governor of Nagasaki who, in 1808, had com- mitted suicide in consequence of an English visit. At Nagasaki itself the garrison consisted of the troops of the Prince of Fizen, who had suffered one hundred days' arrest for his imputed negli- gence in the same affair ; and doubtless the friends and relations of the other victims of the transaction were extant there, eager for vengeance, and with no conceivable motive for mercy. In Sir Stamford Kaffles's own Memoirs, indeed, we find that not only the prince, but many of the principal Japanese, had sworn to kill every Englishman that fell in their way. We cannot but think that Mr. Doeff might have revenged the insult he suffered in 1808 by at once obeying the order of Sir Stamford Raffles, and leaving his appointed successor and the English surgeon Ainslie to explain as they might to the Japanese the authority under which they were appointed. The destruction of the factory, the execution of its officers, and the final cessation of all intercourse with Europe, would probably have been the consequence, which the prudent course adopted by Mr. Doeff appears to have averted. Having stated the principal circumstances, and the result of Sir Stamford Raffles's expedition of 1813, we content ourselves with a mere brief allusion to the renewal of his attempt in the following year, when the Dutch agent 'Cassa was sent in the Charlotte to supersede Mr. Doeff. This attempt appears to have been conducted with more skill and circumspection than the former, and Mr. Cassa succeeded at one moment in bringing over two out of the five Japanese interpreters to his interest. Doeff, however, kept the vantage ground on which the affair of the Phaeton had placed him, and still refused to acknowledge the capitulation of Java as affecting the situation of the factory. With the help of his majority in the body of interpreters he overruled the minority, and attained the imperial sanction to his own continuance in office and the reshipment of his appointed ESSAY II. MR. BLOMHOFF PRESIDENT. 51 successor. His difficulties were certainly greater in this instance than in the former, but his pertinacity equally triumphed. We regret to add that he attributes to Sir Stamford Raffles the in- fraction of some conditions which he had stipulated to his own pecuniary advantage on the former occasion. That he is mis- taken in attributing to that excellent man any such unworthy mode of punishing him for adherence to his country's interests we firmly believe ; but if from oversight or any other cause he has really suffered by the non-performance of such conditions, we are satisfied that even at this distant period the justice of the English Government would afford him redress. He opposed and foiled us, but he might by a word have procured the destruction of our vessels and the massacre of our countrymen. The president bought his advantage dear. From the de- parture of the Charlotte another dreary interval of cessation of all intercourse ensued till the year 1817, when two vessels arrived, bearing the welcome intelligence of the restoration of Java to the Dutch, and having on board the author's friend Jan Cock Blomhoff, appointed to succeed him as president, and at the same time to convey to him the full approbation of his pro- ceedings, and the order of the Lion of the Netherlands. Scarcely less welcome, after a nine years' abstinence, was a supply of butter, and of wine, in which they drank to the restoration of the House of Orange. Mr. Blomhoff was destined to illustrate the tenacity with which the Japanese adhere to their regulations. His arrival, and the news of the cessation of hostilities, were hailed witli great delight by the Japanese, but all his influence and ex- ertions were vain to procure from the court of Jeddo, in favour of his wife and child, a relaxation of the rule which excludes foreign females from Decima, not indeed as such, but as coming under the larger category of all persons not expressly necessary for the purposes of the trade. " No one may land except for spe- cial reason in Japan" is the maxim of that empire, to which the Dutch are, equally with other foreigners, compelled to submit On the 6th of December, 1817, Mr. Doeff handed over to his successor the guardianship of those interests which he had de- fended with so much pertinacity and success. The appendix to his narrative is a melancholy one. He embarked for Europe in 1819, in the ship of war the Admiral Evertsen. She proved not E 2 52 KECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY II. sea-worthy, and from the 30th of March to the 8th of April was only kept afloat by unremitting exertion at the pumps. The Mauritius, the nearest inhabited land, was nine hundred miles distant, two companions had outsailed them, and the fate of Troubridge awaited them in the same seas. They were saved by an American brig when within sight of the uninhabited island of Diego Garcia; but as three hundred and ninety persons were to be transferred to this small vessel, none were allowed to take with them their effects, and a few shirts and some papers of small bulk were all that our author could save of his collections accumulated with cost and diligence during his long residence at Decima. The fate of his most valuable manu- script has been already mentioned. Half the party were left on the island ; the other portion, including our author and his wife, sailed for the Mauritius on board the friendly and humane American. His lady died early on the passage. It is impossible to dismiss this curious subject without advert- ing to the statements set forth in Sir Stamford Raffles' ' Memoirs,' and in his own despatch to Lord Minto, not only as a justification of his measures, but as involving a claim to partial success and an encouragement to future proceedings. We find in his ' Memoirs' the following passage : " The character of the Japanese it was evident had been subject to the misrepresentation which the jealousy of the Dutch had indus- triously spread over the whole of their eastern possessions. They appeared to the commissioners to be a race remarkable for frankness of manner and disposition, for intelligence, inquiry, and freedom from prejudice. They are in an advanced state of civilization, in a climate where European manufactures are almost a necessary comfort, and where long use has accustomed them to many of its luxuries." We know not how far the Batavian colonists may have mis- represented the Japanese to the English governor, but certainly their three countrymen whose works we have brought under notice most entirely acquiesce in the description thus given by men whose authority in itself was worth little, as they had neither a knowledge of the language nor opportunity for observation. With regard, however, to the assertion that European manufac- tures are almost a necessary comfort to a nation which Sir Stamford Baffles rates at twenty-four, Mr. Fischer at thirty-six ESSAY H. TRADE WITH RUSSIA REFUSED. 53 millions, we must say that the Japanese have satisfied themselves with a very small allowance of such objects of necessity, and have taken very singular methods to increase the supply. The fact is, that their disposition to luxury and expense in dress, which doubtless would recommend foreign commerce if once established, is constantly checked by severe and arbitrary sumptuary laws. " The trade," says Sir Stamford in his despatch, " was just as extensive as it suited the personal interest of the Resident to make it." We have seen that the trade was limited and rigidly defined by successive orders from Jeddo. Sir Stamford points out the advantages to be derived by both parties from British intercourse, and to us especially, as a resource in the event of any interruption in the trade with China. With respect to the article of tea, the accounts both of Mr. Fischer and Mr. Doeff would lead us to doubt whether the produce of Japan would answer as a substitute for that of China. Mr. Doeff describes the decoction in common use as villanous. Mr. Fischer con- siders the Japanese tea as a useful sudorific, but so inferior in flavour to the Chinese as to make its success in an European market very doubtful. Nothing, indeed, can be clearer than that an interchange of commodities with Japan would be profit- able to both nations. The Japanese answer to Russian pro- posals of a similar nature proves, however, that such advantages can be appreciated by a nation which rejects them : " With regard to the trade in commodities of many kinds of which each may be in want, possible advantage appears, yet we have maturely considered, and found that, if all onr useful commo- dities were exchanged, we might possibly find a deficiency in such of our own production, and thus it would appear as though we knew not how to govern our country. Moreover, if trade be increased, there would be more occasion for people of the lower orders to trans- gress the usages of our country, and thereto we therefore cannot agree. This is the imperial decision, and therefore must the navi- gation to Japan be no more attempted. Signed at Nagasaki NANGO BOLUGNA (with a great red seal attached)." We have said and quoted thus much in deference to an au- thority so justly respected as that of Sir Stamford Raffles; enough, we trust, to show that we do not lightly or irreverently venture to criticise the speculations of such a man. His repu- tation is one which can suffer no sensible diminution by an im- peachment of his reasonings on a particular subject, treated by 54 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. ESSAY IT. him with that ardour in his country's service which belonged to his character. He seems to us to have failed to perceive that the very qualities of superiority, for which he gives just credit to Japan, opposed an impenetrable obstacle to his views ; that meanness, ignorance, corruption, and cowardice may justify by the result the aggression they invite, but that courage and intel- ligence are not rashly to be insulted or tampered with ; and that a spirit of independence may be proof against the trivial impulses of curiosity and the more degrading motives of gain. Neglecting these considerations, he argued that, because the Japanese, by a fortunate accident, had forborne to close an intercourse with a nation which submitted to purchase its continuance by abject submission and humiliation, they would break through the most sacred laws and usages of their empire, sanctified by antiquity, and rigidly enforced by a strong executive, to admit one by which they had been threatened and insulted, and which was only known to them by partial and malignant statements of its power and ambition, illustrated by a calamitous example. We are as anxious as Sir Stamford Raffles could be for the ubiquity of our flag and the expansion of our commerce. For ourselves, indeed, being neither governors, merchants, nor missionaries, we have no higher motive than that which actuated the Fatima of the nursery tale in sighing for a peep into the blue chamber of the eastern sea. That motive of curiosity is a strong one. But the key of British enterprise which has unlocked the treasure- chambers of the world has no power when applied to the steel- clenched postern of Japan. It has been shivered in the attempt, and there is blood on the fragments. We should be sorry to learn that the directors of Eastern enterprise, undeterred by former failures, or inspired by a few paltry successes on the maritime frontier of China and its corrupted dependencies, were about to renew experiments on Japan. Nothing, we are satisfied, can be more unwise than to argue from Chinese or Corean premises to Japanese conclusions ; nothing more wanton and unprofitable than to risk, by any attempt to force an intercourse, the disruption of the last link which yet connects that singular country with the European family. Some great and sweeping revolution must disorganize her government, and obliterate her institutions, before we can approach her coasts in any other guise than that of invaders of an unoffending, we wish we could add unoffended, nation. III.-LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, JANUARY, 1838.( m ) FEW of those who love to loiter in the picture-gallery of history, " amid the painted forms of other times," but have felt their march arrested and their attention charmed by two great figures in the compartment of the seventeenth century, Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein. There is in the former a simple sublimity a diffused and holy lustre which sets criticism at defiance, and the glory of the saint is distinguishable around the casque of the Protestant warrior. There is a gloom in the grandeur of the other, a shadow of pride, and passion, and evil destiny, which pains while it fascinates ; yet, turning from both or either, we may wander with quickened step and unobservant eye "through rows of warriors and through ranks of kings," an host of crowned and helmeted and peruked nonentities, before we look on the like of either again. Of the works now enumerated, those from the German press had engaged our attention before that of Colonel Mitchell had been announced for publication ; and as we could hardly hope () 1. Albrechts von Wattenstein det Herzogs von Friedland und Mecklenburgh, unge- druckte, eigenhandige, vertrauliche Briefs und amtliche Schreiben aus den Jahren 1627, bis 1034, an Arnheim, Aldringer, Gallas, Piccolomini, und andere Fursten und /' I'lherrn seiner Zeit : mil einer Charakteristik des Lebens und der Feldzilge Wallen- steins: herausgegeben von Friedrich F&rster. Berlin, 1828. (Letters and Biography of AUtert von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland and Meck- lenlmrgh. Comprising autograph and confidential letters, and official correspondence hitherto unpublished, from 1627 to 1634, addressed to Arnheim, Aldringer, Gallas, Piccolomini, and other contemporary Princes and Commanders. Edited by F. Forster. 2 vols. 8vo.) 2. WaUenstein als regierender Herzog und Landesherr, von Friedrich Fdrster. Art. I. Raumer's Historisches Taschenbuch. 1837. Leipzig. ( Wallenstein, as Reigning Sovereign and Landed Proprietor. By Friedrich Forster. Published in Raumer's Historical Pocketbook for 1837. 12mo.) 3. The Life of Wallenstein, Duke of FrieMand. By Lieutenant-Colonel Mitchell. 8vo. London. 1837. 56 LIFE AND LETTEES OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. that the former would be communicated to the English public in the shape of translation, we were subsequently the more satisfied to find that they had furnished materials for one who, as a soldier and a linguist, was well qualified for the task of Wallen- stein's biography. From the hitherto unedited documents communicated in his own volumes of 1828, collated with others before extant, Mr. Forster has undertaken to relieve the memory of Wallenstein from the heavy imputations by which the court of Vienna endea- voured to justify his assassination, and which the historian and the dramatist have joined in accumulating upon his name. The act of accusation, supported by advocates so numerous and so various, has been for two centuries unanswered before the tri- bunal of Europe. We cannot, however, think that the labours of either the civilian or the soldier, in their vocation of awarding tardy justice to a great and injured man, have been bestowed in vain. It seldom happens that the minuter researches of posterity tend otherwise than to detract from the lustre of popular repu- tations ; still seldomer that we can lift a corner of the veil from the personal and private dealings of the authors of mighty achieve- ments without displaying the littleness of the instruments used by Providence for great purposes. Wise and humble men will draw moral and religious conclusions from the exposure which they must lament ; but it is not to folly alone that the martyrdom of fame is dear, and profligacy loves to see the warrior and the sage degraded to its own level of sensuality or corruption. It is something gained to the cause of virtue and the strength of good example, to find some spots of verdure between the Dans and Beershebas of modern historical geography, to find civil and military greatness united in a character 'which gains by every investigation into its qualities ; and such, after the perusal of the works before us, we pronounce the character of the Fried- lander, whose epitaph has been hitherto written either by his assassins, or by men who should have paused before they followed implicitly in the track of his interested accusers. The satellites of a court which paid the price of his blood, on whom the task devolved of justifying his murder, were not likely to be candid in its execution; and proofs of their distortion and misrepre- sentation of facts abound in Mr. Forster's volumes. Still that Caesar was ambitious, the Antony who now recites his funeral ESSAY in. IMPUTATIONS ON HIS MEMORY. 57 oration cannot deny : that he was altogether a placid subject for the exercise of court intrigues, the arts of the civilian and the Jesuit, the Spanish diplomatist, and Italian mercenary, who worried their noble prey to his end, his admirers can hardly assert. It is not wonderful that at this distance of time the question should remain unsolved as to how far ambition lured or injury goaded their victim into any positive though tardy be- trayal of his trust or into any of those schemes of undue per- sonal advancement which have been so lavishly imputed to him. On the most specious of these accusations we have little hesi- tation in passing the verdict of not proven, while we leave others to the infamy of their own palpable falsehood. It may be well to remark that, though Schiller, throughout his brilliant but unequal narrative, seems to admit, with little question, the series of charges against Wallenstein, the conclud- ing passage of his fourth book is strangely inconsistent with all that precedes it. Mr. Forster quotes, in his Preface, p. xv., from Schiller, the expressions " perjured traitor and death-worthy criminal,"* which we have no doubt he somewhere uses, though we have failed to hit on the passage which contains them. After a detail of crimination which would go far to justify such expres- sions, it is strange to find him summing up in these words : " It must, after all, in justice be admitted that the pens which, have handed down the history of this extraordinary man are not those of truth ; that the treason of Wallenstein and his project for attaining the crown of Bohemia rest, not on acts strictly proved, but merely on probable conjectures. No document has yet been disco- vered which has displayed the secret springs of his conduct so as to merit the confidence of history ; and among his actions, publicly known and accredited, there is none which in the main might not have proceeded from a guiltless source. Many of his most vilified proceedings prove nothing more than his earnest disposition towards a peace. Most of the others are cleared up and excused by a justi- fiable mistrust of the emperor, and a pardonable anxiety for the maintenance of his own importance. It is true that his conduct towards the Elector of Bavaria exhibits an unworthy spirit of revenge and an unappeasable temper ; but no one of his actions jus- tifies us in considering him as convicted of treason. If necessity and despair finally drove him to deserve the sentence passed upon Meineidigen Yerrather und todeswiirdigcn Verbrecher. 58 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. him when yet innocent, this cannot suffice for the justification of that sentence : in this case Wallenstein fell not because he was a rebel, but he rebelled because he fell. It was his misfortune in life to have made an enemy of a victorious party, in death, that this enemy survived to write his history." Schiller's History of the Thirty Years' War. Conclusion of Fourth Book. The mass of the original correspondence in Mr. Forster's volumes emanates from the archives of Boitzenburgh, now in the possession of the Counts of Arnheim, lineal descendants of Hans George von Arnheim, a man whose talents both for war and diplomacy made him conspicuous even at a period so fertile in great reputations as that of the Thirty Years' War. We find him, at the commencement of 1627, serving as second in command under Wallenstein, and we trace, through a correspondence con- tinued with little interruption to the summer of 1629, proofs of the unlimited confidence which his chief reposed in him. Arn- heim's transference of his services at this period to the Saxon wrought a total change in his relations to W T allenstein, and their correspondence is only occasionally renewed in the shape of negotiation between rival commanders. This change appears, however, in no respect to have diminished the mutual esteem which had grown out of their former intimacy, and their inter- course was among the grounds of accusation subsequently pre- ferred against Wallenstein, and, as we think, among the most unjust of them. In addition to the principal mass of corre- spondence, hitherto unpublished, these volumes contain much information, extracted from the archives of Vienna and other sources, which, with the comments of the editor, bear upon many principal events of the time ; among others, the discrepant statements respecting the death of Gustavus, and the proceed- ings against Wallenstein's surviving associates. The editor's own portion of the work consists in a biographical and historical account of his hero, which, after attending him from his birth to the period when the correspondence commences, forms a com- mentary on the latter, and is closed by a biography of Arnheim. Colonel Mitchell has profited by a subsequent work of Mr. Forster's, a Life of Wallenstein, which we have failed to obtain ; in which we learn, however, he has corrected divers errors which have obtained popularity respecting the earlier career of Wal- lenstein, and which had found a place in the volumes of 1828. ESSAY III. HIS RAPID ELEVATION. 59 The smaller treatise, published in Raumer's Annual, is cu- riously illustrative of the man and the manners of the time, and perhaps more entertaining than the graver materials for historical disquisition contained in the larger work. After having devoted our attention to these German publica- tions, we were pleased to find that our conclusions on the main points at issue were in accordance with those of Colonel Mitchell. That author has endeavoured to compress into one volume a general view of the war, together with the biography which forms the attractive title to his work. His qualifications for his task are considerable. To a profession which makes his subject a congenial one he unites, we believe, an intimate acquaintance with the language, the people, and the topography of the great theatre of the achievements he records. With these appliances he has produced a book, in our judgment, of sterling merit, bearing evidence of the cultivation of that valuable and often neglected material, a soldier's leisure, and which can scarcely be perused without communicating to its reader the author's enthu- siasm on behalf of his hero. The Colonel has resisted with de- termination all temptation to prolixity or diffuseness of extract, and has shown skill and good taste in the condensation of his materials. It would be difficult to find in modern history, previous to the French Revolution, a parallel to the rapid elevation of " Albert "\Vt-nzel Eusebius von Waldstein, born at the castle of Hermanie in 1583." It is true that he started with the advantages of noble birth and the education of a gentleman, which the heroes of revolutionized France were able to dispense with in their pro- gress to fieldmarshalships and thrones. In virtue, however, of the Bohemian law of inheritance, Albert's father had sliared the family possessions with thirteen brothers, and in his own case the estate was further frittered down through two brothers and three sisters. Like the Soults and Murats, however, he was tlirown upon times when wealth as well as fame was the reward of mili- tary exploit to those at least who chose the stronger side in the great religious struggle which, commencing in Bohemia at the period of his adolescence, rapidly drew the rest of Germany into its bloody vortex. AYe have said that Mr. Forster's most recent researches have disproved some of the popular anecdotes of Wallenstein's early 60 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. life. Among these are the stories of his turbulence at the Alt- dorf College one of which has been popularized by the dramatic pen of Schiller and the Jesuits' version of his conversion to Romanism. These being dismissed from the record, we must be content to remain in ignorance of any early peculiarities or indi- cations of his future character, and to ascribe his departure from the faith of his Protestant parents to causes more probable than a fall from a window, which may but too easily be found in the worldly advantages likely to be derived from his adoption of a dominant religion. We know, however, that the talents destined to play so conspicuous a part in war and politics were previously matured by travel and study. He was attended in his pere- grinations through France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands, by Paulus Virdingus, a correspondent of Kepler, who probably first directed his attention to those astrological studies which, like the wizard namesake of Sir Walter Scott, he pursued " in Padua far beyond the sea," under Argoli, a professor of reputation in that pretended science. It would perhaps be difficult to find among the great men of that day an exception to its votaries even among those who rejected not only the evidence of revealed but of natural religion. Wallenstein's first military service was performed under Eo- dolph, King of Hungary, against the Turks, in 1606. On the peace which took place in that year he returned to Bohemia, to enter on his small inheritance, and shortly to increase it by a marriage of prudence with an elderly and widowed heiress, Lucretia Nikessin von Landeck, who at her death in 1614 left him rich possessions in Moravia, and a considerable personalty. The cultivation of these resources appears for some years to have distracted his attention from the opportunities for military advancement which the troubles of the time and the fraternal feuds between the Emperor Matthias and Eodolph might have afforded him. It is not till the year 1617 that we find him again in arms, at the head of two hundred cavalry, raised by himself, for the service of the Archduke Ferdinand of Styria against the Venetians. The campaign was insignificant, but the siege of Gradisca afforded the young leader some opportunities of dis- tinction under the eye of Ferdinand, the future Emperor, and thus laid the foundation of his relations to that Sovereign. His appointment to a military command in Olmutz, and his second ESSAY III. HIS VAST POSSESSIONS. 61 marriage to the daughter of a favourite of Ferdinand, the Count Harrach, soon followed. The religious contest in Bohemia now assumed a character which could no longer have permitted one less interested than Wallenstein in the fortunes of that country to remain a mere observer of its progress. If we may judge of Wallenstein by the whole tenor of the correspondence before us and of his conduct, no Romanist of his age was less fitted than himself to become a persecutor. No passage, indeed, of his life or writings indicates fanaticism, or even strong personal opinion on any doctrinal question, while many argue enlarged and liberal views as to matters of conscience ; but it would have required the zeal of a Zisca to have emancipated him from the influence of ambition and obligation which at this period bound him to the service of the Emperor and Popery ; his lot was cast with the oppressor and the bigot, and his sword thrown into the balance against his countrymen struggling for religious freedom. It is not true, indeed, that he assisted at the battle of the White Mountain, which, in 1620, sealed the fate of Protestantism and liberty in Bohemia; but he did good service on the Danube against the Hungarian allies of the revolted Bohemians ; and in 1622 received from the Emperor Ferdinand the brilliant guerdon of the Dukedom of Friedland. Not less substantial, indeed, than brilliant was his reward, for the favour of the Emperor, the assistance of his father-in-law, and the means accumulated by his first marriage, enabled him to purchase, at half then" value, a share of the confiscated Protestant estates, such as made his wealth more than adequate to his title, and enabled him to appear, in 1625, in the Emperor's service, and in the battle-field of Northern Germany, at the head of 60,000 men, raised by the influence of his name, and equipped and main- tained by advances from his own purse ! The items of these purchases are specified in Mr. Forster's minor work. The Duke's landed possessions in 1623 are esti- mated by him at some twenty millions of florins in value, or about two millions sterling. The ducal territory of Friedland alone contained nine towns and fifty-seven villages and castles. To this were afterwards added the principalities of Sagan and Grossglogau, and, for a time at least, Mecklenburgh. The affairs of all these extensive possessions were administered with the utmost vigilance and accuracy of account, and the care with 62 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. which he cultivated his resources was equal to the profuse liberality with which he applied them to elevating the fabric of his own greatness. The campaign of 1626, opening with the destruction of Mans- field's army at Dessau, was further distinguished by the expul- sion of that persevering but luckless adventurer from Germany, who, followed into Hungary by Wallenstein and deserted by Bethlem Gabor, ended his singular career in a Dalmatian village. During Wallenstein's absence in his pursuit, the Protestant con- federates rallied in Silesia under Bernard of Saxe Weimar, and it was not till June of the following year that Wallenstein, whose winter-quarters had been established on the Danube, mustered his forces at Prague with the immediate object of recovering Silesia. It is in January of this year, 1627, that the cor- respondence with Arnheim, now published, commences. The first letter of the series, dated Prague, January 17, confers a vacant regiment on that officer, and its postscript contains a pressing summons to join Wallenstein in the province about to be invaded, the reduction of which was in some six weeks com- pleted by these commanders. In August Wallenstein crossed its frontier for the execution of his designs upon Mecklenburgh. These extended beyond its simple reduction to civil or religious submission, inasmuch as its sovereignty had been promised him in reward of his own services, and in retribution for the conduct of its reigning princes. In the promotion of this project we find Arnheim Wallenstein's principal instrument. It was the interest of Wallenstein to preserve from military ravage and exaction the territory he intended to appropriate, and his letters and orders, written with that view, show with Avhat firmness he held the reins of discipline, in the guida'nce of a force raised by means which must have been unpropitious to its establishment. The dates of the letters in many instances evince the extraordinary activity of their author. In some cases the amount of eight are addressed in the same day to Arnheim alone. One out of three so addressed of the 15th November, after noticing certain irre- gularities, proceeds : " The officers and soldiers convicted of such practices are to be punished in life or limb, without any respect to rank or condition ; the officers who allow such are to be suspended from their charge, placed in arrest, and reported to ourself, for we are determined to ESSAY III. DESIGNS UPON DENMARK. 63 proceed with the utmost rigour against them, that they may serve for a mirror to others, seeing that, if the insolencies practised by the soldier, under connivance of the officer, be overlooked, the countiy must be thereby ruined, and the army be destroyed for want of subsistence.'' This is as like the logic of a Wellington, and as little like the rhetoric of the leader of an heterogeneous force hastily collected under the prestige of a popular name, as possible. It strikes us, .however, that there is something fidgety and undignified in the rapid repetition of orders on the same subject, addressed to one so able and so trusted as Arnheim. We should be surprised to find in Colonel Gurwood's volumes any such specimens of itera- tion addressed to Hill or Murray. In a letter of December 13, 1627, endorsed " cito citissimb," Wallenstein adverts to a project which we believe has not come under the observation of historians, viz. one for placing the Em- peror on the throne of Denmark. Wallenstein's restless spirit appears to have been excited to this scheme by nothing better than vague rumours of a disposition on the part of the Danes to revolt against and expel their reigning dynasty. He directs Arnheim to intimate that, if the Emperor gains that sovereignty by force, he will establish his own laws ; but if he be elected by the popular voice, on the expected vacancy, religious liberty shall be secured to his Danish subjects. (Forster, vol. i. p. 167.) This letter, dated from Brandeis, in Bohemia, is the result of immediate communication with the Emperor, who about this period celebrated at Prague the coronation of his wife as Queen of Bohemia. Wallenstein adds that Arnheim may expect bril- liant recompense in the event of success, for that he had the day before spoken with the Emperor on the subject, and that Arnheim is high in the Emperor's opinion. We learn nothing of any proceedings of Arnheim in consequence, but, from a post- script to a letter of January 3, 1628, we gather that the crown which Wallenstein still proposes to place on the head of his imperial master had by some been intended for his own. " I beg you (he writes) to see how we may practise to procure the election of our Emperor by the Danes. Parties at the court, indeed, would fain have done myself this grace, and his Majesty himself; but I have made it my compliments, for I could not have maintained myself there, but will meanwhile betake myself to the other [Meck- lenburgh, doubtless], fur that is safer." 64 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. In one out of nine letters, dated from Leutschin, January 6tli, four of which are autographs to Arnheim, he alludes indistinctly to the same subject. " Seeing that no answer comes from Sweden on the subject of our liga, I wish you to write your opinion upon it. I would for my own part willingly see a junction with them, for we might the better make ourselves masters of the remaining Danish islands, and then might I with the greater speed and security take in hand the scheme suggested by the court." Ibid. p. 269. A project which rested on the co-operation of Sweden, for such a purpose as the one in question, must have been visionary. It could at no period have entered into the policy of such heads as those of Oxenstiern and Gustavus to join in removing the barrier which the sea opposed to Austrian ambition. The anxiety which Wallenstein entertained to establish himself in command of the Baltic is constantly evinced in these letters. It was fortunate for Europe that he failed in endeavours, the suc- cess of which would have made of Stralsund the Ostend, instead of the Leyden, of the north, and might have subjected Denmark and Northern Germany to the fate of Bohemia and Hungary. In the commencement of 1628 we find Wallenstein in his Bohemian winter-quarters, but directing in the minutest detail the affairs of his army, scattered over the provinces of Holstein, Pomerania, and Mecklenburgh ; the possession of which last was about this period formally ratified to him by the Emperor as the reward of his services. There was good reason at this time to expect that the successes of Wallenstein and Tilly might be crowned by a peace advan- tageous to Austria. The King of Denmark, driven from Jut- land and Holstein to his insular fastnesses, and alarmed lest Wallenstein should employ for their conquest the maritime resources of the Hanse Towns, evinced an earnest desire for the termination of hostilities. Wallenstein has been accused of fore- going tliis opportunity. His personal wishes and policy are dis- played in the following letter of January 23rd : " I inform you that the council in Denmark is exerting itself to procure a peace, which might also be satisfactory to the Elector of Saxony. Nor would the Emperor be adverse, if anything reasonable could be expected from the enemy. The Emperor and the Ministers are eager to turn their arms hereafter against the Turk I will ESSAY III. HIS STRICT DISCIPLINE. :"' assuredly help with hand and foot towards a peace, but Mecklen- burgh I must keep and abide by, for otherwise no peace do I choose to have." Rid. p. 250. This language, which is in accordance with numerous passages in other letters, proves that Wallenstein's investiture with the outlying and exposed province of Mecklenburgh was as great a political mistake, on the part both of giver and receiver, as it was an outrage on justice and national law. It vitiated the position of Wullenstein, and interposed motives of self-protection and interest, where every consideration of his honour and permanent advantage called for independence of action. All his letters, however, show that a peace, involving the essential condition of security on this point, was his object at this moment, and that all his further am- bition was directed to that legitimate field of military action, the Turkish frontier. The following letter is indicative of Wallenstein's attention to matters of discipline, and is worthy of notice, as it relates to an individual who was afterwards his bitter and in all senses mortal enemy : " Prague, Jan. 22, 1628. " Piccolomini has sent and informed me that the town where he is quartered has offered 14,000 dollars to him to relieve them by quartering in the villages. He adds that they are mutinous and rebellious against him. Now I have given him a rebuke for not having recourse to you who hold the command, for where I am I cannot know whether it is advisable to quarter on the villages or not. I now learn that he has imposed a ransom on the same town, on the score of a cornet whom they have slain, of 30,000 dollars. Now I am resolved not to ratify this, and I therefore beg you to take information on the matter, and report your opinion to me, for, if Pic- colomini be wrong, then he can in nowise justify this extortion, and I am determined that he shall be punished." Ibid. p. 280. If we consider Piccolomini's rank and reputation, we shall be satisfied that the writer of this letter was no respecter of persons in matters of discipline. It may be matter of conjecture how far this particular incident may have led to Piccolomini's subsequent conduct towards his general. Piccolomini was one of the numerous Italian adventurers who carried their talents to the market of the Tliirty Years' War ; and the one who reaped the greatest advantage from the speculation. At this period, indeed, he had not long quitted his native country, 66 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. and the services of Spain and Tuscany, for that of the Emperor ; but his family connexions were of the first rank, and Wallen- stein seems to have placed a confidence in his talents and courage which was fully justified in the battle of Lutzen. He was after- wards a prime agent in the assassination of Wallenstein ; and after serving conspicuously through the war, down to its close at the peace of Westphalia, was then rewarded by the title of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. The following extract from another letter is characteristic of the haughty spirit which continually exposed Wallenstein to the intrigues of the courtiers, whose enmity it raised and perhaps justified. The Emperor had confided to Count Schwarzenbergh the conduct of a negotiation with the Hanse Towns for a com- mercial and maritime league with Spain against England, France, Holland, and Sweden. Wallenstein had at first favoured this project, with the view of gaining for his purposes against Denmark the use of the maritime resources of those towns. As soon, however, as he ascertained that the Dane was really desirous of peace, and so alarmed as to offer to relinquish all opposition to his own establishment in Mecklenburgh, on condition that the projected league should be abandoned, Wallenstein coolly in- sisted with the Emperor on Schwarzenbergh's immediate recall. He writes to Arnheim from Hogitz, May 2, 1628 : " I send you in confidence an extract from despatches of the court, on the negotiation commenced by Schwarzenbergh with the Hanse Towns. Now he is a man, by reason of his violence, not to be endured. I therefore give you to understand for your information that I have caused the Emperor to be told that, if they do not choose to recall him, I will not join the army so long as he remains where he is. I am of opinion that he will shortly be recalled." Ibid. p. 333. Wallenstein's earlier notices of his future antagonist Gustavus are usually couched in terms of contempt, which frequently indi- cate in those who use them anything but real indifference to their object. The following, besides affording an amusing illustration of Wallenstein's devotion to his favourite science, exhibits, per- haps, some indication of a presentiment of the course of that luminary which was destined to surpass the splendours of his own star: EMSAY III. SIEGE OF STRALSUND. 67 " Gitskin, May 21, 1628. " I thank you for having sent me the notice of the King of Sweden's birthday. Now I have further need to know the place of his birth, for it is necessary on account of the elevatio pdi. I pray you to forward this as soon as may be. I should further be glad that you would cause the scheme to be erected (thema erigiren) by the Doctor Herlicius, not that so much stress is to be laid on this, but it is my wish that various hands should be employed in this part. He need not give any conclusions, but only the figuration." Hid. p. 338. If Wallenstein's calculations, political or astrological, had not taught him by this time to respect the power and dread the designs of Gustavus, the transactions of the siege of Stralsund in this year were destined to enlighten him. Wallenstein's correspondence with Arnheim in these volumes amounts almost to a diary of the events of that noble passage in the history of modern Europe. Its details are beyond our limits, and we can do no more than refer the reader to Mr. Forster's pages. The defence of Stralsund must ever be con- spicuous among the instances in which valour has borrowed aid from science in rebuking the pride of military superiority, and in damming those torrents of conquest which have occasionally threatened to submerge the liberties of nations. Holland extin- guished the torch of the Inquisition in the flooded ditches of Alk- maer and Leyden. The mud wall of Acre, in our time, opposed the first check to the progress of Napoleon. If Europe acknow- ledges with gratitude the services of Gustavus, and traces to his exploits the foundation of that great adjustment of her conflicting interests and balanced powers, the peace of Westphalia, she owes much also to those burghers who held in their stubborn grasp the keys of that pass by which Gustavus entered on the theatre of his brief but immortal career. Wallenstein's boast, that he would gain Stralsund though it were fastened by chains to heaven, is well known. A failure, such as that which in this instance rebuked his blasphemous vaunt, is usually more galling than defeat in the field at the hands of a competent antagonist. Wallenstein's correspondence of this period gives indications of some mysterious project of vengeance on the Swede for his ill-timed interference. In letters 246, 247, 248, the following passages occur : F 2 68 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. " To-day the Scotchman has been with me. He hopes that his purpose will be brought to bear. As he should shortly be in Sweden, he must start soon, before the winter sets in." In the next (Gripswalde, Sept. 6, 1628), speaking of a com- munication from Stralsund, he proceeds : " With the Swede I will enter into no negotiation, for his pro- ceedings are all framed for deceit. I beg you, therefore, to send hither that person shortly, for it is time he should start before the winter arrives. Whenever you can secure him, I pray you only to send him to me, that I may set forth to him what you will have agreed upon with him. He tells me further that many officers in the Swedish service are eager to quit it. See who they are, and tell me your opinion. I will accommodate things to it as you shall In the next letter (Fransburg, Sept. 15, 1628) he says: " The merchant has been with me, to whom I have paid over directly the 5000 dollars, and promised that if the work come to an issue I will add 15,000 dollars to the 15,000 already promised, and thus he will have to receive 30,000 in the case of success." As in the very next letter, of the 25th, he complains that lie hardly knows how to raise the sum of 1000 dollars, we cannot but ascribe a suspicious degree of importance to the mysterious service on which be proposes to lavish thirty times that amount. From one passage in the second letter cited we should imagine that his scheme was confined to the exciting mutiny and desertion in the Swedish army, and was not directed, as some have sus- peeted, at the life of Gustavus. We might have little scruple in attributing such a design to the Emporor, or such agents as Piccolominj, but Wallenstein's character forbids us to entertain the suspicion. In Mr. Forster's second volume, which opens with the year 1629, we find Wallenstein holding his court at Gustrow, the capital of his newly-acquired Mecklenburgh. Two letters from Kepler, of February 10 and 24, betoken the occupations of his leisure. They are curious, as showing the lamentable waste of time which he who, with Napier of Merchiston, his contempo- rary and correspondent, prepared the route of Newton and La Place, condescended, like the illustrious inventor of the loga- rithms, to lavish on problems worthy of Moore and Partridge. It ESSAY III. SENDS TROOPS AGAINST GUSTAVUS. 69 may be questioned whether Kepler shared, or merely indulged, the delusions of the sovereigns and others who degraded his genius to the elevation of figures and the casting of horoscopes. That he had substantial reasons for his condescension appears from a passage in this correspondence, which shows that Wallen- stein's influence at Vienna was exerted with effect in procuring him the settlement of a demand on the Austrian exchequer for 15,000 florins. The usurper of Mecklenburgh was exposed to the enmity of two dangerous neighbours, Denmark and Sweden. The peace of Lubeck, of which he dictated the conditions, signed on the 12th of May, 1629, secured him for the present against the former. His policy was therefore directed to the finding occupation be- yond the German frontier for Sweden, all accommodation with that power being checked in limine by the determination of Gus- tavus to retain Stralsund. For tliis purpose Wallenstein deter- mined to despatch a strong contingent under Arnheim to the assistance of the Polish King against Gustavus. Arnheim, lately elevated to the rank of an Austrian Field-Marshal (which, as Colonel Mitchell remarks, has little analogy to a Field-Mar- shalship of the present day, being far inferior, and more like a Major-Generalship), .shared the reluctance of his troops to ex- change the field of Germany, ever a favourite with the soldier, for the Sclavonic barbarism of Polish quarters. The King of Poland was suspected of aversion to his intended auxiliaries ; but Wallenstein's energetic will spurned at such obstacles, and overcame for a while the mutual repulsion of all these conflict- ing particles. The King of Poland was treated as a refractory patient. Wallenstein writes, April 14, 1629 : " I understand that the Pole is making a truce with Sweden : it were well that you moved forward all the sooner into Prussia. I beg you to lose no time." Forster, vol. ii. p. 37. Tliis injunction is repeated and enforced in a letter of the next day. These measures, however, only delayed^ the termination of tin -so distant hostilities. The corps of Arnheim, after performing some good service, met with the treatment which proffered aid usually receives. Indiscipline followed neglect and maltreatment. Arnheim abandoned his command in July, on the score of ill health ; and Sigismund, pressed by a victorious opponent, accepted 70 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. conditions of peace which enabled Gustavus to turn his undivided attention to Germany. In Germany itself the storm, had meanwhile been gathering which was to shake Wallenstein in his new elevation. The system of profusion in reward and punishment, by which he had main- tained discipline in the face of an enemy, failed him during the cessation of hostilities. On the march and in quarters the ex- cesses of his troops had become scandalous, and afforded ground for the intrigues of an host of enemies. The Protestant party were to a man hostile to the great advocate of the Edict of Resti- tution promulgated by the Emperor. Eichelieu threw the weight of French policy at this juncture into the scale against Wallen- stein ; and his arch-enemy in Germany, the Elector of Bavaria, was unceasing in his hostility. It was under such threatening circumstances that the Diet of Ratisbon, in June 1630, brought to a focus all these intrigues for the removal of Wallenstein from his alleged dictatorship. He soon became aware that the few statesmen, such as Count Harrach, the Bishop of Vienna, and others, who supported him at the Court, were no match for the host of his adversaries. The Bohemian Chancellor, Slawata, writes to warn him of a report that Tilly had received orders for his arrest, and even his assassination. He replies, July 20 (ibid. p. 67), after thanking him for his good intentions : " I must, however, wonder that you can occupy yourself with such childish things. My master the Emperor is a just and grateful master, who rewards faithful service in a different fashion from that which you describe. Tilly is also a cavalier, who understands how to lead the boute-feux in couples, but not to assassinate." Though Wallenstein received with this contemptuous dignity such intimations as these, he did not venture to play the danger- ous game of personally confronting his enemies at the Diet. It appears that Ferdinand, in all his actions a coward, adopted with the utmost fear and hesitation the measure of removing Wallen- stein from his command ; and it is probable that his craven fear would have induced his consent to a measure for the assassina- tion of one whose presence would have so embarrassed his councils. The great man's cousin, Maximilian von Wallenstein, remaining at Ratisbon, kept him acquainted with the transac- tions of the Diet. It was at Memmingen, in Bavaria, that Wal- lenstein, thus prepared for the event, received the Count of III. HIS PURSUITS IN RETIREMENT. 71 \\Vrdenberg and the Baron of Questenberg, charged by the Emperor to announce it with all possible delicacy and precaution. The injunction was superfluous. Whether deceiving himself, or, as is more probable, for the purpose of imposing on their cre- dulity, Wallenstein coolly showed them a sheet of astrological calculations, from which he professed to have derived a fore- knowledge of the purport of their mission, received its intimation without a murmur or remonstrance, and dismissed the one envoy with a present of a splendid tent of Neapolitan manufacture, and the other with two coaches and six. Schiller's description of Wallenstein's stately retirement at Prague is well known to the German reader, and his details of its magnificence are not overcharged. That eloquent writer omits, however, in his description of Wallenstein's courtly mag- nificence, to trace the direction of his active mind to other peace- ful pursuits than those of mere ostentation. Mr. Forster has supplied this omission, and some extracts from his work towards the close of this article will show what these pursuits were, and make it credible that they might have supplied the place, even to Wallenstein's ardent and indefatigable spirit, of the mad schemes of undue advancement and projects of frantic treason which have been imputed to him. We do not find, indeed, that, like the vast majority of petty German sovereigns, he entertained any passion for the chase, or sacrificed to it the welfare of his subjects. We find no mention of forest laws in his correspondence with his agents. Debauchery of any kind had apparently no charms for him. His wife enjoys on the record that distinction which Pericles, as Thucydides tells us, pronounced " an excellent thing in woman," for little is said of her, but that little argues that they lived in the strictest affection ; and his enemies have favoured us with no scandalous chronicle of amours or intrigues. It will be seen that the pursuits of his privacy were planting, architecture, agriculture, the encouragement of trade, of manufacture, of edu- cation, religion, the happiness of his people in this world and the next. The satellites of Ferdinand might well be unable to credit that such occupations could be a substitute for the excitement of the field and the pursuits of vulgar ambition. In other respects we are glad to find that Colonel Mitchell concurs with us in tliinkiug that Schiller at this period of his history is to be read with caution and distrust. 72 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. " In this ostentatious retirement," says Schiller, " Wallenstein awaited quietly, but not inactively, the hour of glory and the day destined to vengeance. Seni, an Italian astrologer, had read in the stars that the brilliant career of Friedland was not yet ended ; and it was easy to foresee, without the aid of astrology, that an adversary like Gustavus Adolphus would soon render the services of a general like Wallenstein indispensable. Not one of all his lofty projects had been abandoned ; the ingratitude of the Emperor had, on the contrary, released him from a galling and oppressive curb. The dazzling brilliancy of his retirement announced the full altitude of his ambitious projects ; and, liberal as a monarch, he seemed to look upon his coveted possessions as already within his grasp, and fully at his disposal." Thirty Years' War, b. ii. p. 994. Colonel Mitchell says : " In none of Wallenstein's letters, in no document which histo- rians have yet produced, is there the slightest indication to show that he entertained the sentiments of hatred towards the Emperor, or ever formed those projects of vengeance, which have been so uni- versally, and, being without proof, so unjustly, ascribed to him. Even Schiller, instead of taking, as a great man should have done, the part of a great man who had been condemned without being convicted, joined the unworthy cry against Wallenstein. The his- torian of the Thirty Years' War, not satisfied with representing him as a ' mad, extravagant, and bloodthirsty tyrant,' describes him also as brooding, in his retirement, over dark and dangerous plans of treason, the existence of which have never yet been established by the slightest shadow of evidence ; while we shall see the suspected traitor giving Ferdinand the best advice that could possibly have been followed. " Wallenstein was proud, haughty, and ambitious ; he had been injured and treated with ingratitude, and it is unfortunately too congenial to ordinary human nature to suppose that hatred and plans of revenge would spring up in such a heart in return for such treatment. There are so few men capable of rising above the feelings of resentment occasioned by wounds inflicted on their self- love, so few really able to burst asunder the chains by which the meaner passions of our nature drag us down to earth, that we hasten to condemn as guilty all those who come within the range of sus- picion. We are slow to believe that there are minds capable of rising altogether above injuries, though we cannot deny the exist- ence of such noble pride. If, in the present case, for instance, we reason only from what we know, and put merely a liberal, not even a partial, construction on what appears obscure, we shall be forced ESSAY III. HIS SUFFERINGS FROM GOUT. 73 to confess that the man of whom we are speaking, the accused, con- demned, and butchered Wallenstein, whose name and memory have, for two centuries, been loaded with reproach and obloquy, possessed such a mind, and that he was above harbouring even auger in return for the ingratitude with which he had been treated. He got no credit indeed fcr such disinterestedness ; and from the moment of his dismissal designs hostile to the Emperor and to the house of Austria were universally ascribed to him." Mitchell, p. 144. The Colonel might have added to this passage, in which we entirely concur, a curious instance of Schiller's inaccuracy in a more trifling matter. In the days of Marlborough and of peri- wigs, controversies never to be solved might have arisen as to the colour of an hero's hair. Wallenstein's was unquestionably black, yet Schiller describes it as red. He was in one personal respect less fortunate than our own hero, whose constitution and habits have carried him unscathed through all the vicissitudes of climate and exertion from India to Westminster, and who now, in pursuit not of Frenchmen, but foxes, " scours the plain Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain." Wallenstein had been long a sufferer under gout. Marshal Saxe reviewed, from the same cause, the lines of Fontenaye in his chariot. When Wallenstein rallied his reeling brigades at Lutzen, he had with difficulty exchanged his coach for the saddle. Like Coligny he was suffering from the same disease when his murderers supplied its only effectual cure. He was, nevertheless, temperate in his habits. That he had substituted beer for wine, and was curious in the choice of that beverage, we learn from a familiar passage in the Arnheim correspondence, in which he employs that officer as his purveyor. Though we gladly agree in Colonel Mitchell's estimate of Wallenstein's elevation above the mean passion and resentment attributed to him, we can hardly conclude him insensible to some feeling of moody triumph, as he watched the growing difficulties of the'^jmpire, and heard of each successive advance of its Lutheran invader. A letter of Pappenheim, addressed to him from the lines before Magdeburgh, indicates that Wallen- stein took care to keep himself well informed of the operations of his successor in command, Tilly. The following passages from a letter of the same correspondent, written shortly after 74 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. the defeat suffered by Tilly at Breitenfeld, are interesting, as showing Pappeiiheim's views with regard to Wallenstein's po- sition. (Sept. 29, 1631. Forster, ii. p. 108.) "From my last your Excellency will have learned the unhappy defeat we have suffered, and in truth we have little of good to relate since your Excellency's retirement. God alter it. He has on this occasion wonderfully and unnaturally protected me ; for I was the last in the field whether of soldiers or officers I hope I have both in the field and afterwards done what a good soldier could, and I shall, God willing, while a vein can stir in me, exhibit no other behaviour towards the Emperor. The burthen is hard, it is time, for me, in this confusion, to bear alone, for his Excellency (Tilly) is ill, Schomberg and Erwitt lost, and I have no one but Furstenbergh to rely on for aid. For an effectual remedy to all this, I see no other but that your Excellency, for the service of God and religion, for the aid of the Emperor and our country at large, should under- take this war." We must here remark on the modesty of Pappenheim's allu- sion to his own share in this memorable conflict, in which, merely stating that he was last in the field, he omits all mention of the fact, supplied in Tilly's official despatch, that he had stretched upon it with his single sword fourteen of the enemy. This signal defeat laid bare Bohemia to the Saxon allies of Gustavus, now commanded by Arnheim. The fertile corner of that province, the high-water mark from which the tide of Napoleon's fortunes ebbed in 1814, was speedily invaded and occupied. Maradas, the commandant of Prague, destitute of resources for the defence of that capital, after vain applications to Vienna, betook himself for advice and orders to Wallenstein. Wallenstein coolly replied that he had neither orders to give, nor authority to exercise, and, breaking up his own princely establishment, departed for his possessions in Moravia, whither his wife had preceded him. In a few days, as if to illustrate the versatility of the military profession in this age of Dalgettys, the dragoons of Arnheim were mounting a guard of honour before the deserted palace of his late commander and correspondent. Mr. Forster here devotes a chapter to the subject of that sys- tematic falsification of Wallenstein's history, which he alleges to have commenced on the part of his accusers from about this period. Their main charges connected with this time are com- ESSAY III. CHARGES AGAINST HIM. 75 prised in the Annales Ferdinandicae of Wallenstein's cotempo- rary, the privy-councillor Khevenhiiller ; and his account rests almost exclusively on the evidence furnished by a Bohemian adventurer, Scheschina Raschin. It is upon his testimony that Khevenhuller accuses Wallenstein of a long-continued and traitorous correspondence with Gustavus. The discussion of the question far exceeds our limits ; but we think it clear that no well-constituted court of historical justice would give an atom's weight to the testimony of the miserable pamphleteer in question. It would appear, however, that on no other or better authority a writer so able as Schmidt * follows blindly in the track of the cotemporary accusers, and repeats the calumny which charges Wallenstein with undertaking, on certain specified conditions, to besiege the Emperor in Vienna. Schmidt, when he wrote, was director of the archives in that city, but has failed to produce from them an item of matter confirmatory of the charge which he has thus repeated. While therefore he misleads the cursory reader to their implicit belief, he assuredly affords the critic and investigator much ground for the utter incredulity which Mr. Forster entertains as to Wallenstein's treason so far as this period is concerned. Schiller, Becker, and the Con- versations Lexicon, are equally blamed by Mr. Forster, for popularizing, on the same defective grounds, the tale of Wallen- stein's early, systematic, and continuous treason. That Wallen- stein should have been a subject of constant and unremitting suspicion during his retirement at Prague was an inevitable consequence of the position in which his own ambition and his enemies had placed him. A letter of Tilly's affords a specimen of the imputations to which he was exposed. (February 21, 1631, ibid. p. 149.) This letter was written to accompany some French newspapers, containing allegations of Wallenstein's cor- respondence with Sweden, and the tone of friendly and sincere good-will in which it is written does honour to the terrible hero who drove three kings out of the field, and between whom and Wallenstein no great mutual esteem existed. His answer to Tilly is civil : his comment to Questenberg less so : " I am not," he says, " in the least offended with the Emperor. Heaven preserve me from such projects ever entering my brain ! I Schmidt's ' History of Germany,' vol. T. chap. 6. 76 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. conjecture that this springs from another quarter, and it has been put into the hands of Tilly. For piensa il ladron que todos son de su condition" Tliis quotation of a Spanish proverb probably marks the quar- ter to which Wallenstein attributed the origin of these calumnies. It was that to which the first suggestion of his assassination has been with much probability traced. Mr. Forster and Colonel Mitchell may be thought by some to give somewhat too implicit credence to Wallenstein 's disclaimer of offence. It is difficult to speculate upon the degree of dis- crimination with which he may have apportioned his indignation between the Emperor who yielded, and the courtiers who origin- ated, the measure of his removal. His correspondence at least supplies no proof that he belied at any moment the dignified, however haughty, demeanour with which he in the first instance submitted to the exercise of the imperial prerogative. The Emperor on his part maintained with him a correspondence on the most intimate and honourable footing, and committed to him the conduct of a delicate negotiation, having for its object the separation of Denmark from the interests of Sweden. It is remarked by Forster that Wallenstein's accusers have avoided all allusion to this negotiation which omission he attributes very plausibly to the circumstance that it proves, inconveniently for their purpose, that Wallenstein addressed himself with zeal and fidelity to a task inimical to Swedish interests at the very moment when, according to his enemies, he was tampering with Gustavus. This suppressio veri, on the part of those who had access to all documentary evidence, is certainly in his favour. Again Khevenhuller asserts that Wallenstein refused at this period to visit Vienna, because the title of Duke had been refused him. So far is this from the fact, that we find the emperor's letters all superscribed to the Duke of Friedland, &c. The same title was recognised by England and Sweden. We are aware that these marks of imperial favour may be as probably attributed to the hypocrisy of fear and mistrust as to any other source more honourable to both parties. No one has, at least, ventured to extract any ground of impeachment from the Danish negotiation. This has been attempted in the case of Wallenstein's communications with Arnheim, which, after some interruption, were now renewed ESSAY III. CHARGES AGAINST HIM. 77 under novel circumstances. Their former correspondence had ceased without a rupture, but with some coldness, for Wallenstein complains that Arnheim had neglected to communicate to him the transference of his services to Saxony. In the early part of 1631 Arnheim had procured Wallenstein's good offices for the settlement of a large pecuniary claim on the Austrian exchequer. In a letter of Questenberg to Wallenstein of the 8th of October (No. cccxxix. p. 168) is this expression : " His Majesty has commanded me to contrive an overture for this purpose [viz. to detach Saxony from Sweden], and to write to your Excellency, should you still be in correspondence with Arnheim, to learn whether you could not, as from yourself, make an opening." It is plain from this that the Arnheim negotiation, which has been dragged into the file of charges against Wallenstein, was begun at least at the direct command of the Emperor ; and that his previous correspondence with Arnheim was anything but a secret. The onus lies on his accusers of proving that, in the conduct of a transaction so begun, he swerved from its legitimate object. All the documentary evidence, which cannot amount to an absolute negative, tends to show that every subsequent step was taken by him with the full knowledge and approbation of the Emperor. The style of the correspondence between the former fellow-soldiers, by a natural transition, becomes that of two high contracting parties ; and we see no ground to suspect, much less a right to conclude, that under the secrecy of a per- sonal conference, which took place equally with the Emperor's knowledge, their communications assumed in any respect the character which was subsequently imputed to them. The hour of humiliation to Wallenstein's enemies and sup- planters had now arrived, the hour of danger and of need, when those who had cashiered the pilot were reduced to implore him with lowly suit and undignified imprecations to resume the helm which no hand but his could master and direct The magic of his name to raise, the energies of his will to control, his talent and experience to guide, a force capable of stemming the advancing Swede, were indispensable to the existence of the empire, and Wallenstein was in a position to dictate the terms of the contract which was to secure them. The cup was sweet. He sipped it for awhile at leisure, then drank to the dregs, and those were poison. He began by spurning the proposal of a 78 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. divided command, though a king of Hungary was to share it. Command in any shape he long, indeed, rejected, and confined his undertaking to the mere levy of a force which, at the end of three months, he insisted on delivering to another. We may, perhaps, suspect his sincerity in assuming that the armed hordes who, from all Germany, and even from Poland and Lithuania, nocked around his banner, would ever serve under that of another. It is unquestionable, however, that he pushed his nolo episcopari to an extremity which would have deprived him of the shadow of a pretext for complaint, had the Emperor, in his difficulties, adopted the expedient of placing the king of Hungary in command. We know also that his constitution was shattered by that disease which those who have suffered by it can easily imagine to have been the sufficient cause of Charles V.'s abdica- tion. Colonel Mitchell's views of this subject are contained in the following passage : " Wallenstein had fulfilled his promise : the army was formed ; but the three months for which he had taken the command had expired, and he now declared his intention to retire from the scene, notwithstanding the pressing requests of the Emperor and of the imperial council. All historians, and Schiller among the rest, assert that this was a mere piece of acting, devised for the purpose of obtaining absolute and dictatorial power over this newly- raised force, which he was well aware could only be wielded and kept together by the power which had called it into existence. " Nowhere is there any proof to bear out these statements. Wal- lenstein pleaded ill health and want of money as reasons for wishing to retire into private life. We know that he suffered severely from the gout. His signature, which before was a large, bold flourish, begins to dwindle down to a meagre scrawl ; and the hand, which historians describe as grasping at a crown, was scarcely, at the time of the pretended conspiracy, able to hold a pen. That he was in want of money may also be conjectured : the troops had been raised principally at his own expense, and at the expense of the officers who had levied corps and regiments, for it does not appear that the Emperor contributed anything towards the armament ; and, of course, the Spanish subsidy never arrived." Mitchell, p. 214. The intervention of a man of influence with Wallenstein, Eggenberg, was long exerted in vain. The Bishop of Vienna, whose mission has been suppressed by Khevenhiiller, at first obtained nothing more than a promise that he would exercise the ESSAY III. HIS CONTRACT WITH THE EMPEROR. 79 command till he could speak with Eggenberg, who was detained on his road by the same disease which Wallenstein was enabled to plead in his own excuse. At length, on the 15th of April, Eggenberg brought back the contract which has entailed on Wallenstein from so many quarters the reproach of rapacious and overweening ambition. Its terms were these : Wallenstein 's appointment as General- issimo, not only in the service of the Emperor, but in that of the House of Austria, including the King of Spain ; the second was a matter of punctilio, that this commission was to be drawn in optima forma. The Emperor was neither to command nor remain with the army, but, in the event of the recovery of Bohemia, to reside at Prague with a guard of 12,000 men, under Maradas, at his orders. It is strange, as Mr. Forster remarks, that from this very stipulation Wallenstein's accusers should have argued that he had designs on the crown of Bohe- mia. A stipulation for the Emperor's retirement to Vienna would have been here germane to the matter. A landed estate to be secured to Wallenstein in Austria as an ordinary recom- pense ; upon the occupation of any hostile territory, its feudal superiority to be secured to him in the Holy Roman Empire as an extraordinary recompense ; the power of confiscation within the empire, in absolutissimd forma, and not to be interfered with by the Emperor, his council, or the chamber at Spire; full power in all such matters of confiscation, as also of pardon, so that neither pardon nor safe-conduct from the Emperor should have effect without the Duke's approval, except as to life, seeing that the Emperor would be too indulgent, and due means thereby be wanting of rewarding the troops; in case of any negociations for peace, the Duke's claims on Mecklenburgh to be secured in the treaty ; all means and expenses to be provided for the war ; all the Emperor's hereditary dominions to be open to the Duke, whether for advance or retreat. Mr. Forster conjectures that these conditions savoured of a policy such as Thucydides attributes to Nicias in his demands for the Syracusan expedition, and that they were framed for the purpose of their rejection on the part of the Emperor. This writer further justifies them on the ground that Wallenstein was not merely a general dealing with his sovereign, but a sovereign and inde- pendent prince dealing with another, superior, indeed, in rank, 80 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. but in other respects at his mercy. Such a tone of princely independence had been before assumed by William of Nassau in his dealings with the tyrant of Spain ; but Wallenstein's pre- tensions to assume it were, we think, more questionable than those of a Prince of Orange. Be this as it may, Wallenstein was at least justified in taking good security against the Spanish confessors and other intriguers of the court. In point of policy, he may be blamed for an extravagance in his conditions dan- gerous to the interests they were intended to secure. In respect of plain dealing, none can impeach him. That extravagance nothing but success could justify. It placed his existence on the fall of that iron die which had won him hitherto the prize of many a game. The present stake was as noble an one as war could offer, and he set, without further hesitation, fame, fortune, and life on the hazard. The despatches of Wallenstein, written during this campaign with Gustavus, might bear comparison with those of the Duke of Wellington for simplicity and the absence of exaggeration. At no period, indeed, of the correspondence do the natural topics of comparison between the writings of the two commanders, penned on the field and despatched on the spur of the moment, more forcibly suggest themselves. His words and actions alike indicate that he was duly sensible of the qualities of the great antagonist in whose presence he now for the first time found himself. He sought no rash encounter in the field. So far from flinging himself against the vast fabric of field-defences which Gustavus had raised around his position near Nurem- burgh, he called to his own aid the art of the engineer and no recollections of former successes could divert him from his defensive plan of operations, or lure him 'from his own entrench- ments, which, with skill and judgment equal to that of his adversary, he had thrown up at Altenburgh. Masses of hewn rock still mark on the height of Burgstall the spot which formed the key of his position, and from the attack of which Gustavus was fain to retire with heavy loss after eleven hours' fighting. When difficulties of subsistence, foreseen by Wallenstein, finally compelled the Swede to retire from Nuremburgh, Wallenstein thus comments on his retreat in a letter to the Emperor, of Sep- tember 18 (vol. ii. p. 245). After indicating his own plan of operation and pursuit, he proceeds : ESSAY III. HIS SUCCESS AGAINST GUSTAVUS. 81 " He has made a fine retreat, and proves certainly, by this and all his other actions, that he (more's the pity) understands his business." Such language well expresses " The stern joy which warriors feel In foemen worthy of their steel." Whatever may have been, the criticisms ofWallenstein's enemies at the court, it is impossible for posterity to refuse to his opera- tions up to this period the highest credit of well-earned success. Acting in conjunction with an insincere ally, the Elector of Bavaria, and in command of raw levies, he had repulsed an enemy who had twice defeated in pitched battle his predecessor in command, Tilly, and whose march on German soil had been a succession of victories. Yet these very operations have been subjected to obloquy by Khevenhiiller and his followers, who piously attribute the bloody repulse of Gustavus at Altenburgh to the interposition of Heaven, and, omitting all mention of Wallenstein in that affair, charge him with neglecting other opportunities for the destruction of his antagonist. Two letters of this period, addressed by Wallenstein to the Austrian field-marshal Gallas, will be interesting to military readers, as illustrating his operations previous to the battle of Lutzen. The following extract exhibits his views as to the maintenance of discipline : " Coburg, Oct. 13. " I pray you to hold sharp justice, and see that the least thing be no more taken from the peasant, for we must have our winter quarter there [in Saxony], and live upon it. " P.S. Take measures that the peasants be brought to return to their homes." (Vol. ii. p. 267). The following is addressed to Pappenheim on the eve of the battle. The original, in the archives of Vienna, is steeped in the blood of that officer, having been on his person when the shot struck him which deprived Wallenstein of his trustiest friend, and the military galaxy of the age of one of its brightest luminaries. This officer, born in 1599, was thus cut off in the prime of liis life. He was the Murat of his day for the boldness and brilliancy of liis exploits at the head of his mailed cavalry, but is said to have surpassed his commander, Tilly, in cruelty at Q 82 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. the storm of Magdeburgh. He expired exulting at the report, which reached him in his last moments, of the fall of Gus- tavus. Pappenheim had been detached for the occupation of Halle at a moment when Wallenstein did not expect the attack of Gustavus. Tin's letter, breathing, hot haste, speaks better than volumes of description the exigency of the hour, and the value of Pappenheim's presence where blows were to be ex- changed : "Lutzen, Nov. 15, 1632. " The enemy marches hither wards. You must let all stand and lie, and make your way (incaminire) hither with all your people and guns, so as to be with us by to-morrow early. " P.S. He is already at the pass where the bad road was yesterday." Mr. Forster, in his account of the battle, investigates the widely-conflicting statements as to the relative numbers of the parties engaged. He rates the united force of Sweden and Saxony at 27,000, of which 11,000 were cavalry : other accounts reduce it to 22,000. The estimates of the Austrian force are more conflicting. Diodati, who served under Wallenstein in the battle, gives him only 12,000 men previous to the arrival of Pappenheim, whose detachment has been estimated at the same number. The accounts which give Wallenstein 40,000 and even 50,000 men are doubtless greatly exaggerated. Gallas, who figures in some of these narratives as commanding a strong division, was unquestionably absent. Mr. Forster gives us a fac-simile of a sketch of the Austrian order of battle, curious as being drawn and coloured by Wallenstein's own hand, but con- veying little certainty as to the actual position of his brigades, as it is probably a preliminary rough draft of his ideas, subject to contingencies. Some names of commanders occur twice, and it is uncertain whether this indicates changes in the plan or divisions of regiments. Wallenstein, as we have before ob- served, was suffering from gout. He exchanged, however, for a time his litter for the saddle, his stirrups being wadded with silk to protect his feet, from which portions of flesh had been actually removed by the knife of the surgeon. There are some features of this great action which seem to us analogous to those of one of the most remarkable feats of arms of our own times, the battle of Salamanca. It may seem pre- ESSAY III. LUTZEN AND SALAMANCA. 83 sumptuous in us to institute a comparison which has not been suggested by Colonel Mitchell, but we are pretty confident that this biographer, had he thought it worth wliile, might have made out a strong case of similarity, and that military readers will admit the comparison. The previous objects of the Swede and the Englishman were not indeed precisely similar. Gus- tavus was intent on joining the Saxon, Wellington on retiring into Portugal. Marmont, on the other hand, was pressing his opponent ; Wallenstein, as it appears, had made up his mind to retire into winter-quarters without an action. It was, however, equally the policy of Gustavus and Wellington to refrain from a general onset, unless on some such contingency as that which in the case of both gave them that decided advantage which fortune may present to all, but which great men alone know how to seize. Wallenstein's detachment of Pappenheim, as affording such occasion, may be compared with that extension of Marmont to his left which enabled Wellington to turn on his former pursuers, and, in the emphatic phrase which we have heard attributed to him, to beat 40,000 French in forty minutes.* The circumstances, however, of Salamanca were more striking, and the result more complete, than those of Lutzen. The operations of the Swede, rapid as they were, were spread over a larger surface of space and time. He read his letters and marched. Wellington saw, shut his telescope, and charged. An intervening night and day made Wallenstein aware of his danger, and enabled him to bring up Pappenheim's detachment to the conflict. Thomieres was slain, and his division rolled up, before Marmont was well aware of his error. Both were certainly instances of that rapid coup cTceil which appears to be the distinguishing feature and the test of the highest order of military talent. It is true that such exploits require a high degree of perfection in the machine which is to execute them ; but such perfection is in most cases the creation * " Marmont ought to have given me a pont d'or, and he would have made a handsome operation of it ; but instead of that, after manoeuvring all the morning in the usual French style, nobody knew with what object, he at last pressed upon my right in such a manner, at the same time without engaging, that he would have either carried our Arapiles, or he would have confined us entirely to our position. This was not to be endured, and we fell upon him, turning his left flank, and I never saw an army receive such a beating." Letter of the Earl of Wellington to Sir T. Graham, Floret de Avila, 25th July, 1812. Gunoood, vol. ix. p. 310 ^second edition). G 2 84 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. of the master-spirit who uses it, and this was especially true in both the instances in question. The loss of Gustavus, however great, was not that of the battle. His young and ardent successor in command, Bernard of Saxe Weimar, spurned the suggestion of retreat. His an- nouncement of the fatal event to the troops resembled that which the Highland leader in 1715 addressed to the Macdonalds on the fall of their chief " To-day is the day for revenge, to- morrow for mourning;" and well was the call answered by those yellow brigades which Diodati describes as annihilated in their ranks by the fire of Piccolomini. Pappenheim's fall, on the contrary, was fatal ; the cavalry which he had flung so fiercely on the Swedish right turned and fled. The behaviour of Wal- lenstein's army in general bespoke the haste with which it had been collected, and justified the wisdom which had prevented him from courting a trial of strength in the field. Its resistance was partial ; that of some brigades was desperate the conduct of others was afterwards expiated on the scaffolds of Prague. The corps of Piccolomini was among the former. He had five horses shot under him, and was himself six times wounded before he left the field. It is a painful part of an historian's duty to award the meed of military renown to a base and rapa- cious assassin, but it cannot be refused to Piccolomini. Among those whom devotion to Wallenstein brought into the fire on this occasion was a churchman, the abbot of Fulda. We find him, in a letter dated Neumarkt, October 25th, thus proffering his services : " My wish is zealously and obediently to live after your High- ness's wishes and commands, humbly praying your Highness, trusting me in this, to incur on behalf of my poor person no incon- venience or difficulty. I ask nothing more than to be accommodated as the meanest of your soldiers or servants." He was accommodated with more than he desired, a soldier's grave. This eager prelate, having given his benediction to the troops, instead of considering his vocation exhausted, indulged in a caracole on the field, and, like Gustavus, fell in the fog into a body of the enemy's cavalry, who despatched him without compunction. This and many other incidents of the battle are mentioned in the report of Diodati, drawn up by the Emperor's command, and extant in the archives of Vienna. This narra- ESSAY III. HIS SEVERITY. 85 tivo, inserted in 3Ir. Forster's publication, and of which Colonel Mitchell has made excellent use, fully justifies the eulogy be- stowed upon it by both authors, not only as an account of the action itself, but as a strategic detail of the operations which led to it. Among other particulars, it shows that the death of Gus- tavus was reported to Wallenstein soon after its occurrence, and that a trumpeter of Hoik's corps produced one of the spurs of tin- fallen monarch. It would seem, however, that doubt did, as has been generally stated, exist in Wallenstein's mind for some days as to the truth of the report. He writes in the postscript of a Mter of the 25th, nine days after the battle, that the death of the King is certain. Wallenstein's well-known propensity to profusion in reward, and severity in punishment, were both displayed after this action. Officers of all ranks who had distinguished themselves received sums varying from 12,000 to 100 crowns, and regi- ments in like manner received pecuniary gratifications. Fear- ful, on the other hand, was the example made of those who had shrunk from their duty. Eleven officers and four privates were beheaded, seven hanged, and the names of forty officers, sen- tenced par contumace, affixed to the gallows at Prague. This tremendous chastisement was not the result of momentary indig- nation at defeat. The proceedings did not take place till the 21st January, 1633, and the execution followed on the 4th Feb- ruary. Wallenstein probably judged rightly, that the moral effect on the army at large would be increased by the character of deliberate and dispassionate justice with which delay invested the transaction. His severity is hardly reconcilable with the designs attributed to him. An indulgent policy would surely have been more consistent with the intention of transferring to his own person the allegiance which the soldier owed the sove- reign, and of setting his own popularity against the influence of the Emperor in the desperate game of treason which he is accused of having at this period contemplated. Be this as it may, fear and hatred were doubtless widely generated among those whose defection was necessary to the accomplishment of \\\< alleged pur[K)ses. For a detail of the events of the following year, the last of \\allfiistc iu's career, down to its tragical termination, we can but refer the reader to Mr. Forster's third volume. Its perusal has 86 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. scarcely led us, through the complicated labyrinth of negotiations and intrigues to which it adverts, to any more positive conclusion than to that verdict of Not Proven which we are inclined to pass on nine-tenths of the charges adduced against Wallenstein. To effect more than this with respect to many allegations which relate to conversations, and even to whispers, is hardly within the power of mortal advocacy. Mr. Forster's defence of his client is minute and elaborate. He endeavours with much ability to show that the questionable negotiations of Wallenstein with Saxony, Sweden, and France, were all intended to deceive and overreach the enemies of Austria, and to procure a peace advantageous to that power, though on terms of liberality to the Protestants. He considers Wallenstein's opposition to the views of the Emperor, for the separation and mutilation of the force under his com- mand, as justified by sound and unanswerable military argu- ments; and that his own attempted and forestalled defection sprung from the impulse of self-preservation alone. With these views he also acquits him of all blame in the matter of the famous declaration of his officers at Pilsen. He considers him as sentenced without evidence, and executed without proof of guilt. In favour of these views it undoubtedly appears that, while Bichelieu panegyrizes him as a fallen and honourable foe, Oxenstiern and Bernhard congratulated themselves on the ex- tinction of an enemy they feared, and a negotiator on whose treason to an hostile cause they to the last had not relied. There is much naweti in the observations of Kichelieu on his fall: "Whether, however, the Emperor may have been a bad master, or Wallenstein an unfaithful servant, it is, always a proof of the misery of this life, in which, if it be difficult for a master to find a servant he can entirely trust, it is still more so for a good servant totally to trust his master, inasmuch as a thousand enviers of his glory are about him, and as many enemies whom he has made such for that master's service and that to please the latter every one disguises under the name of justice the actions of his cruelty or unjust jealousy." This language comes naturally enough from the minister who had been marked for assassination by the royal slave he served. (See Memoirs of Hichelieu, lib. xxv.) It must be remembered that the fear of capital punishment ESSAY III. COMBINATION OF PILSEN. 87 long hung over many of Wallenstein's principal adherents ; that to one of them, the Count Shafgotsh, in consonance with the savage practice of the time, the torture was unsparingly applied, and that it failed to produce not only any proof, but any admis- sion, of guilt. Colonel Mitchell thus gives his verdict on these questions : " It is now evident that Wallenstein fell a victim to some dark plot, the thread of which has not yet been discovered, though its machinations are amply attested by the letters of the Italian faction, and by those of the elector of Bavaria. Maximilian, Piccolomini, Diodati, Grana, Gallasso, and others, worked skilfully on the jealous fears of the Emperor, and hurried him into measures, of which he so far repented as to declare, some years afterwards, that \Yallenstein was less guilty than his enemies had represented. " The combination of Pilsen was, no doubt, reprehensible, and would now be criminal ; but it was less so at a period when the just principles of subordination were almost unknown ; and the Court of Vienna, so far from looking upon the transaction as a serious offence, thought it advisable to give a false account of the proceeding, when they brought it forward as a treasonable charge. It is said, in the imperial statement, that the paper signed by the officers had been fraudulently substituted for the one which contained the resolutions actually agreed upon, and that the clause contained in the first suppressed paper, by which the officers bound themselves to remain faithful to the Emperor, had been purposely omitted in the second paper, to which the signatures were obtained. These imperial assertions bear falsehood on their very face : no man would think himself bound by a signature out of which he had been defrauded ; nor did any of the officers tried allege in their defence that so moan a deception had been practised upon them. " But allowing that precedent and the opinion of the times pal- liated, in some degree, this military combination, it must still be a question whether Wallenstein really intended to resign the command of the army when he called the officers together : whether the most ambitious of men was willing to descend from dictatorial power to the retirement of private life, at the very moment when France was tendering crowns, armies, and millions for his acceptance. History is bound to acquit the Duke of Friedland of treason ; for all the power and influence of the court of Vienna failed to make out a case against him. From beyond the grave the mighty spirit of the man still overawed his enemies, and confounded their counsels : it was in vain that bribes and tortures were employed to prove him guilty ; these criminal efforts only recoiled upon their authors, and laid bare 88 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. to the world the full infamy of their conduct. But the guilt of one party cannot establish the innocence of another ; and strongly as this presumptive evidence tells in Wallenstein's favour, the suspi- cions caused by his eccentric conduct still remain. What were the plans engendered in that lofty and aspiring mind, what the hopes cherished in that ambitious and not ignoble heart, are questions never likely to be answered ! Oxenstiern declared, even in the last years of his life, that he never could comprehend the object Wallen- stein really had in view : and as the ablest and best-informed man of the time failed to unravel the secret, it will be in vain that we attempt to fathom a mystery over which the gloom of two centuries has now been gathered. "If we too often see the best and most generous qualities of our nature crushed beneath the chilling influence of adversity, so we expect, on the other hand, to find them called forth and cherished by the genial sunshine of power and prosperity. We naturally feel disposed to combine the idea of high qualities with high station ; and the want of noble and generous feeling, which in the humbler ranks of life is but an absence of virtue, augments to criminality in proportion as we ascend in the scale of society ; and we can only fancy such deficiency to exist upon a throne, when the crowned occupant is composed of the meanest materials of which human nature is ever put together. Ferdinand II. was such an occupant of a throne. In the hour of danger, and when pressed by the victo- rious arms of the Swedes, he conferred almost dictatorial power on the man from whose aid he alone expected safety. But no sooner was the first peril over, than the imagination of the terrified sovereign magnified into treason and rebellion the exercise of the power which he had before delegated. In his base and unkingly fear to acquit him even of envy and avarice he condemned without a trial or hearing ; and not only handed over the man who had twice saved the monarchy to the halberts of hired assassins, but rendered himself an active party to the crime by the treachery of his conduct. In order to deceive his intended victim, and to render the blow more certain, he remained in constant and confidential cor- respondence with Wallenstein for twenty days after the betrayed general had been outlawed as a rebel. True it is, that he afterwards caused 3000 masses to be said for the soul of the slain : and courtiers and confessors may, by such means, have silenced the feeble voice of the royal conscience. But the voice of history will not be so silenced ; and the name of Ferdinand II. will be handed down to latest posterity, as the name of a sovereign in whose callous heart not even imperial sway could raise one spark of noble fire ; who, while crawling in the dust before images and reliques, remained ESSAY III. HIS ASSASSINS. 89 deaf to the duties of Christianity ; and repaid the greatest services ever rendered to a prince, by one of the foulest deeds of treason and of murder recorded in the dark annals of human crime." Life of WaJUenstein, p. 342. If we descend from the court of Vienna to the agents of its bloody mandate, we shall be at no loss to collect the motives for that subservient zeal which converted soldiers into assassins. Those motives are sufficiently apparent in the speed with which the vultures gathered round the carcase. From Gallas and Piccolomini, down to Leslie and Butler, one spirit of active and clamorous rapacity inspired them all, and liberally were their claims acknowledged. The hand of an archbishop hung the gold chain, the gift of the Emperor, round the neck of the prin- cipal butcher, Butler ; and chamberlainships, regiments, and con- fiscated estates, were showered on his fellow-assassins. Gallas obtained for his share the lordships of Friedland and Kechen- berg. It appears that Piccolomini, who had distinguished him- self by execrable insults towards the corpse of his former com- mander, was for a time dissatisfied with his share of the spoil ; but we fear that this prime scoundrel too was finally appeased by a donation of territory. We know not whether we have succeeded in communicating to our readers some of the interest which the perusal of these records has excited in our minds. We think we have said enough to convince them that Mr. Forster's contribution to the materials for the history of the Thirty Years' War is of considerable value. \\\< minor work, published in Raumer's Annual for the year 1834, is scarcely of less interest to us, and will certainly be more amusing to many. In military greatness Wallenstein had rivals of his own day, and has been perhaps surpassed by champions of elder and later times. The successes which led to his " pride of place " were in great part achieved in a bad cause, and against overmatched foes. Those singular features of character, which in their combination bring out his portrait in such strong relief on the canvas of history, are perhaps more palpably to be traced in the records of his private life and domestic relations than in tin- annals of his campaigns. His unwearied diligence in the administration of his vast possessions; his elevation above the superstition and the intolerant bigotry of his age, of the court he served, and the Jesuits' school in which he had been trained ; 90 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. his fostering care for the physical and moral welfare, the worldly prosperity, and the education of his subjects, would have made him one of the greatest men of his time if he had never fought a battle, and could have won by any other channel than that of military exploit the means of displaying these qualities and pro- pensities. The proofs of his possession of them are copiously furnished by this unpretending tract of Mr. Forster's. As an illustration of a remarkable character, of a singular government, and the curious position of a subject elevated to sovereign power, it is at least derived from the best of sources the correspondence, the legal documents, and the account-books of the party it describes. Could Schiller have enjoyed the opportunity, and condescended to use it, of consulting such docu- ments, many pages of his brilliant work might have presented an aspect not less brilliant, but more true. Not even Schiller's descriptive felicity, however, could well have afforded so lively an idea of the peculiarities of the Friedlander's genius and tem- perament, as some of Mr. Forster's extracts from his own hurried and confidential communications to the agents of his power. The realms of nature and of art have supplied to philosophers instances, often cited, of the various application of the same instrument to a wide range of objects. The variety of the topics embraced in Wallenstein's letters, and the strange activity of the grasp which seizes them, might almost justify us in comparing his mind to the trunk of the elephant, to which the invention of Watt has been likened in Lord Jeffrey's eloquent eloge of our great mechanician. The rapid repetition of his orders, the foreign words, and especially the favourite Furia, which he presses into his service, evince the fierce impatience with which he darted to his ends in civil affairs as in battle. We remember hearing with astonishment, long ago, from a member of the legal profession in Ireland, that he received the heads of the Dublin Police Bill from the then Irish Secretary, Sir A. Wellesley, drawn up by him when tossing off the mouth of the Mondego, with Junot waiting for him on the shore. The volumes of Grurwood have now revealed a thousand traits not less wonderful of that illus- trious mind's easy versatility ; but even Wellington could hardly surpass, in that respect, the Friedlander, who from the head- quarters of 60,000 men could dictate the medical treatment of his poultry-yard. ESSAY III. WALLENSTEIN AND WELLINGTON. 91 \Vc have cited the honoured name of our own great Duke perhaps irreverently in connexion with such a topic ; but there are other matters in which the comparison might be perhaps to some extent pursued. Of relative military renown we here say nothing, being disqualified by national feeling and something more for entertaining for a moment any such comparison. If Colonel Mitchell's estimate, however, of his hero's military qualities be a sound one, Wallenstein holds a rank of which few could take precedence. The correspondence of both has been brought to light nearly at the same time. That of Wallenstein will find few readers but the antiquary and biographer. Pub- lished two centuries after the death of the writer, it leaves, after all, the most interesting of the historical questions which affect his character unsolved, and throws perhaps little new light even on the military history of the time. The Duke of Wellington has been more fortunate ; he has lived to read, digest, and enjoy the best record of his own achievements, one which we prophesy, less on our own, perhaps, partial authority, than on that of the wisest and most eminent of his fervent political opponents, will live when we with its author are dust a source of wonder, and praise, and admiration to late, very late generations. There are, however, points of similarity between these publications, of other- wise unequal interest and pretensions, which naturally arise out of the resemblance between the relative positions of the two men. Either compilation is perhaps equally calculated to disabuse the popular mind of the impression that a general in command of an army is a gentleman in a helmet or cocked hat, as the case may be, mounted on a horse with two legs in the air, or standing in the neighbourhood of a 29-pounder, and directing certain move- ments of bodies of men, after the fashion of a review in Hyde Park. Both present a pretty faithful picture of the cares of providing food, raiment, and lodging for the said men and their horses, and roads whereon to drag the said piece of ordnance and its fellows. The volumes of Colonel Gurwood present perhaps as many instances as compilation ever showed of the kindness, the caution, the delicacy towards subordinates, which are rare in all despotisms, but rarer perhaps in none than in that shape of despotism which must in the nature of things always form the character of military command, however responsible for the exercise of its functions to a popular government, and tempered 92 LIFE- AND LETTEES OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. by regulation. Nor are instances of this kindness to inferiors of all classes wanting in the correspondence, official and private, of Wallenstein. That his impatient spirit could have endured for an instant the infliction of Spanish or Portuguese co-operation we do not believe ; but, taking into consideration the intoxicating circumstances of his rapid elevation to wealth and power, and contrasting him with his own contemporaries, we find on the record traces of a gentleness of disposition, of kindness, and humanity, which have long been neglected by historians, and which seem to soften down the lurid light in which his character has often been portrayed. It has been said that in Ireland some of the best-managed estates belong to permanent absentees. Wallenstein's visits to his numerous and scattered possessions were necessarily few and far between ; but we question whether any resident proprietor of his day did so much for the welfare of his feudatories and dependents. He entered on the management of his Bohemian estates at a period when a civil war of religion had wreaked its worst upon the soil. He began by checking religious persecution ; he built churches, he endowed schools, he fostered manufactures and agriculture ; and labours such as these were never for a mo- ment interrupted by the duties which the command of 60,000 men in the field entailed upon him. Imperious by nature, and despotic by vocation, he was the framer of a liberal constitution, and the organizer of a system of three estates for the government of his little realm. This constitution is directed to be reduced to writing in a letter to his chancellor, dated from Znaim, in March, 1632. It was forwarded to him in his quarters after the opening of the campaign of that year. The following extracts from Mr. Forster's work will show the zeal and liberality with which he encouraged religious and edu- cational institutions, and the sagacity with which he penetrated the character, and controlled the conduct, of the instruments he was compelled to employ. He had established some of the Au- gustines at Leippa for purposes of public instruction. The bre- thren, abusing his munificence, claimed an alleged promise of exemption from certain contributions, which they accordingly withheld. The collector appealed to Wallenstein, who writes in answer : " 1st erlogen. It is a lie. I have promised them nothing, nor ESSAY III. HIS RELIGIOUS ENDOWMENTS. 93 remitted them anything ; see that they pay, or stop the funds given for their buildings ; for the more they get, the more they grasp." In another letter, adverting to the same parties, he says (Au- gust 19, 1627) : " That the monks at Leipp have within this year applied the 2000 florins, surprises me ; I do not doubt that it will turn out they have applied them but to w s and bad company, as is their wont." There follow some minute and business-like directions for the future control of the parties in this matter. With the Carthu- sians, whom he had also in two localities richly established, he was not more fortunate. Their endowment rested on the interest of money ; they demanded a landed foundation, which Wallen- stein repeatedly in his letters refuses. In Gitschin he founded two convents for Dominicans and Capuchins, and a Jesuits' College. Nothing escapes his attention. He writes to his prin- cipal agent, Taxis, from Segan, June 14, 1628 : " I have received the plan for the palace at Gitschin. Now it strikes me that, when I was last in the Carthusian house, the prior's master-mason told me that the cells for the monks were not to be more than 2^ ells in height. It occurs to me that this would be too low." He repeats his injunctions on this subject, which seems to have much excited him, and desires, in a letter of August following, that the building may be prosecuted with furia. September 13th, he acknowledges receiving two plans for the improvement of the cells, says he is satisfied, and has other tilings to think of but returns, nevertheless, to the subject, and gives some minute directions for bas-reliefs and paintings in the said cells (p. 36). The Jesuits were objects of Wallenstein's special bounty, gave him more trouble in return than any of his other proteges, and were watched by him with a vigilant eye, and re- strained with a strong hand when they strayed beyond the voca- tion he had assigned them, and attempted to convert Protestants, instead of instructing Catholics : " Could I (he writes to Taxis in June, 1626) be quit of the foun- dation I made for them for 100,000 florins, I would willingly make the bargain." Over the schools for the young nobility, which he placed under their care, he maintained a strict and constant inspection, and 94 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. his great object appears to have been to prevent the system of instruction from degenerating into a confined and monkish form, but to organize it on a general and comprehensive scale adapted to the purposes of the higher classes. He writes from Egra, August, 1625 : " I am resolved to place eight or more of the gentry under the Jesuits at Gitschin. See that they ride out with the riding-master ouce a-week, that they accustom themselves to sit an horse, that they apply diligently to arithmetic, and to some nmsical instrument. The organist may teach them on his organ, or you may buy them an harpsichord (clavicordium)." His care was not confined to the moral advancement of his young nobility; it condescended to personal externals. He writes, in 1628, from the camp before Stralsund, giving directions for the dress of the students at Gitschin ; and adds : " See that the Doctor be provided with everything which is pre- scribed in the foundation for the treatment of the sick, and that what goes out of the apothecaries' store be paid for. And inasmuch as they are wont, from mere want of cleanliness, to come by the itch, see that they be cleaner than before, and him that has the malady let the Doctor treat with baths, and other necessary remedies." Wallenstein was much irritated with the ungrateful attempts of the Jesuits to gain over to their own body pupils whom he had destined for other purposes. He writes from the camp at Krempe, 1628, to Taxis : " I learn that the Jesuits have talked over Franz von Harrack to join their order ; but his father gave him to me to make him, not a Jesuit, but a soldier. It pains me to the heart that they should make me such return of gratitude as this for so many benefits received, and should thus circumvent this unlucky youth." He adds the most pressing directions for the immediate removal of the young student and three of his companions : " Lose not a minute, for I trust this to you. Whatever my wife may reply, pay it no attention, for she understands nothing of this matter, and it stands on your own responsibility. Keep it quiet, and bring it to bear without the loss of a single hour, for this is my final resolution." From Glustrow, May, 1629, he writes to Taxis : " Constantine [one of the superintendents of the College] has cut ESSAY III. HIS POLICY AS TO RELIGIOUS MATTERS. 95 the hair of the youths so short that those who have come here looked like Jews. Give careful attention to all this yourself, and, if they will not follow my orders, advise me thereof; as, namely, that the* pupils keep themselves clean, attend school early, acquire the Latin tongue, learn in the afternoon to write German and Italian, as also arithmetic, dancing, and the lute." In spite of these causes of dissatisfaction, he did not cease to favour the Jesuits; and he took measures, which he perhaps fortunately did not live to complete, for their establishment in Mecklenburgh. June, 1629, he writes to an agent in Bohemia, from Mecklen- burgh : " You will see from the appendix what is the petition of the woman Easchimin. Now I have understood, as far as I have learnt as yet from my visits to Bohemia, that it was settled that widows should not be so strictly proceeded against. You will, therefore, see that she be allowed to remain on her property, till the Lord may give her better notions, and she be won to the true faith." This injunction is a fair illustration of Wallenstein's general policy in the matter of religion a policy so diametrically op- posed to that of the Court, that its observance certainly did honour to his independence of character, as well as to his heart and understanding. Nor can it be ascribed to mere religious indifference. While he avoided all violent measures, he omitted no opportunity of endeavouring to restore what he considered as the better form of Christianity by milder proceedings. He writes to an agent at Sagan, in 1627 : " As the time now serves, you may begin to move again for the conversion of the people to the Catholic faith." While he declined to win favour at the Court by following the example of religious persecution, he took every measure to create an influence with the Pope. Like other sovereign princes, he maintained a paid agent at the Vatican. Artists from Italy were employed by him in the decoration of churches and chapels, as well as that of his own residences. After the battle at Dessau, he orders Taxis to write to Aldringen to have a copper-plate engraving made of the action, that a painting may be made from it for the chapel. Of his own habits with respect to religious observances there seems to be no record. Four chaplains were on the list of his attendants. 96 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. Mr. Forster observes, that out of 150 letters and orders, ad- dressed between the years 1623 and 1632 by Wallenstein to the managers of his Bohemian property, most of them written from the camp, and autographs, there are scarcely more than two which do not advert to some topic connected with the improve- ment of the soil, or the advancement and welfare of its tenants, in some respect or other. The same activity which we have seen displayed in his military correspondence, amounting, in the case of Arnheim, to eight letters in a single day, distinguishes his communications with his land-bailiffs ; and with the same furia he repeats in successive letters his orders for the planting of mulberry-trees, the establishment of breweries, mill-forges, pow- der-mills, and saltpetre-works. The latter items are connected with one of his principal objects, which was to give his subjects a preference, in the great market of the war which he conducted, for the fabric and supply of its articles of consumption. In his batteries at Stralsund, the bullet, the powder, and the gun, were thus furnished from his dominions, and the bread consumed in his camp had been baked in Bohemian ovens. "You must see (he writes from Egra, August, 1625) that fabrics of all descriptions may be introduced into Gitschin, with respect to silk and woollen. In the interval, before the mulberry-trees attain their proper growth, you may import raw silk (seda cruda) from Italy. Hides must also be worked at Gitschin : in short, all arts must be introduced there, by which, the town can be peopled." (Sept. 25, 1625, p. 55.) He writes to Taxis " I hear with pleasure that the Jew wishes to traffic at Gitschin. Let him, by all means." (P. 56.) Matters such as these have somewhat, as is very usual, escaped the notice of the historian and the commentator. The magni- ficence of his palaces and attendance has found more favour in their sight. Temperate in his diet and simple in his dress, in all those items of luxury and expenditure which less concerned his own person, and the enjoyment of which the rich man must share with others, his habits were indeed princely. His own garments of sober brown or ash-colour distinguished him from the brilliant throng of nobles and gentlemen who were proud to do him service as chamberlains, &c. The arts of the painter, the architect, and the gardener found in him a Medicean patron. III. HIS COURT AND EXPENDITURE. 97 If Wallenstein's correspondence were not forthcoming, it \\( mid be difficult to credit the nature and extent of the minutiae of domestic economy to which his observation descended. His letters on the subject of his breeding studs contain hints worthy the attention of the veterinary college. Cattle, swine, sheep, all are subjected to his directions for their management ; and one of his letters makes special provision for the food and exercise of sick capons. Beer is a favourite topic, and his refinement upon it shows how little his intercourse with the world at large, and his acquaintance with foreign countries, had un-Germanized him. In 1630, however, he orders provision to be made at Gitschin of wine of the vintage of that year, being one of great promise, and also of that luxurious appendage to the table, still usual in Austrian Germany, and rare elsewhere, the wermuth must, or wormwood. For a description of his sumptuous buildings and gardens at Prague and Gitschin, we refer the reader to Mr. Forster's pages. These works of taste and magnificence were prosecuted without remission during his absence on military service, and the artificers were guided and stimulated by the unceasing exhortations of his pen. During his short tenure of Mecklenburgh, he was making every preparation to erect at Gustrow a residence which would have vied with the other two we have mentioned but here the Swede interposed. In the management of the expenditure of a court and house- hold, the magnificence of wliich has been celebrated by every biographer and historian of the time, a splendid profusion was combined with the most searching supervision and the strictest system of record and account. The smallest items of expendi- ture, with their causes, are noted ; as, for example, the drinkgeld to the gardeners who sent for the use of the duchess " to her garde- robe some fine sweet blue violets," and to the vineyard-keeper who at the vine-cutting in spring was ordered (for some medi- cinal purpose, we presume) to collect in bottles the juice of the white grapes, as also the ashes of the dried and burnt red ones, for the duchess. Expenses for attendance on christenings and marriages of his poorer dependents are numerous : e. g. to Sa- muel Smitschka, forester, at his child's christening, 100 florins : to a cup for a present at the marriage of the under-cook, 150 florins. His donations on greater occasions kept pace and pro- portion with his domestic liberality. When Isolani brought him H 98 LIFE AND LETTEES OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. into the camp before Nuremburgh two Swedish standards, he gave him a repast, 4000 dollars, and a charger. Learning in the morning that Isolani had lost the whole sum at play in the course of the night, he sent him by a page 2000 ducats more. Isolani wished to thank him : he turned the conversation from the subject to that of the reported approach of a Swedish convoy. Isolani took sudden leave, and returned in a few days with the Swedish waggons and 400 prisoners. Even Wallenstein's possessions could not suffice to furnish so perennial and continuous a flow of pecuniary supply as his habits required ; and it must be remembered, that, in addition to that private profusion, the army was frequently supported by advances from his purse. His military and private correspondence equally show that he was frequently in difficulties. These roused his imperious nature to expressions which must have counteracted the natural effects of his liberality and munificence. In January, 1632, he writes to Kunesch, the successor to Taxis, who had been dismissed for malversation " You have sent me the amount of 18,000 florins, but you should know that for the ensuing month I must have 36,000 florins. See that the overlookers on my estates collect this, with notice of the remaining contributions, of which some thousands are still out- standing, as also the newly-imposed land-tax, and send me the money to Znaim, unless you prefer that I should have the heads of the overlookers first, and then your own, cut off; as I see that you look through your fingers at them, and make a jest of my orders." p. 113. This threat, which hardly admits of a literal construction, is frequently repeated. His whole deportment for the last two years of his life is that of a man made irritable by difficulty and annoyance, and both in the army and at home he appears to have sacrificed his personal popularity precisely at the moment when its influence was essential to his existence. This harshness probably assisted the court of Vienna in stifling the voice of sorrow, of affection, or gratitude, the accents of which, had they been elicited by Wallenstein's death, might have resounded, un- gratefully to the Emperor, through Europe. That voice was silent ; and no hand " of all his bounty fed " took up the pen to vindicate his memory. We cannot, however, but believe that, if the terror of his bloody doom had not operated to produce this III. NOTICE OF COLONEL MITCHELL. , the wailing would have been general among those who were transferred to the care of his rapacious murderers. We hear nothing of manufactures encouraged by Gallas, or schools eetabiiflhed by Piccolomiui. \Ve have lingered on these minuter particulars because we con- >id-r them as throwing a new light on one of the most remarkable characters in modern history. If the course of his troubled dre it cannot be argued. His low appreciation of Buonaparte's military talent appears to us unsound and paradoxical. That the Colonel will not abate a jot of his expressions in deference to us we are satisfied, and equally so that he is prepared to receive as a compliment the stronger vituperation which they will call * The lives of Bernhard of Saxe Weimar, or Torstensohn, would be fit subjects for bis pen. H 2 100 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WALLENSTEIN. ESSAY III. down from French commentators. We think, however, his pro- position indefensible and the sentence unjust. The time is per- haps hardly yet arrived when Napoleon's military reputation can be weighed in an impartial balance, and when a just estimate can be drawn of his performances as compared with the resources at his disposal at the various periods of his career. Great as those were, we still believe it will be found that something beyond accident placed them at his disposal, and that there was greatness in the application. The subject, however, is a wide one ; and having discharged our critical functions by touching the Colonel on the two points on which he probably considers himself as least assailable, but on which others will surely assail him, we conclude with thanks for his labours and our best wishes for their success. IV. -ART AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, JUNE, 1838.* THE title of Mr. Waagen's book is perhaps calculated to excite more curiosity than will be gratified by its contents. As far as contemporary art and its professors are concerned, the author is not only gentle in criticism but sparing in remark. Whatever be the merit of modern productions, his experienced eye found metal more attractive in the ancient vein which it was his pecu- liar purpose to explore; and in this he has delved with a German assiduity, which probably left him little leisure to expa- tiate in the regions of Somerset House. Candidates for praise he sends supperless to bed ; and others, who might expect and desire to find in his volumes a free dispensation of wholesome but unpalatable truths from a foreign and impartial hand, will be no less disappointed. His visit to the exhibition of 1836 is comprised, as far as painting is concerned, in four pages : and if to these we add a few observations on the deceased masters of the English school, and some scattered remarks on contempora- ries, we shall have exhausted nearly all that concerns us in a national point of view, and shall look in vain for any compre- hensive estimate of the state of art in this country, as compared with its progress and condition on the Continent. With the modern French school we believe, indeed, Mr. Waagen was little acquainted at the period of his visit to England, for Paris * 1. Works of Art and Artists in England. By Q. F. Waagen, Director of the Royal Gallery at Berlin. London. 3 vols. 12mo. 1838. 2. Painting and the Fine Arts ; being the Articles under those heads contributed to the Seventh Edition of the Encyclopedia Sritannica. By B. R. Haydon and William Hazlitt, Esqrs. Edin. 12mo. 1838. 3. Report from the Select Committee on Arts, and their Connexion with Manu- factures. 1836. 4. Histoire de TArt Moderne en AUemagne. Par le Comte A. Raczynski. Paris, 1836. 102 AET AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. ESSAY IV. had not lain on his route ; but the rising school of Dusseldorf, and those of his native Berlin and of Munich, might have afforded him fertile and instructive topics of comparison. We suspect that Mr. Waagen's reserve on such themes may, in part, be attributable to the cordiality (which he acknow- ledges) of his reception, at the hands both of lovers and -pro- fessors of art, in this country. The severer functions of criticism are also, perhaps, in some respects, more painful in the matter of the fine arts of painting and sculpture, as practised by the living, than in the departments of science or literature. The painter or sculptor has, generally speaking, from the nature of his pursuit, a more obvious claim on forbearance than the man of letters. The publication of a volume is seldom evidence in itself of the choice of a profession, or that devotion to a particular career, which hazards on success the means of subsistence, as well as the attainment of reputation. The race of writers in these days is not, as in those of Johnson, a class apart, fed by the pro- ceeds of dedications to noblemen, or looking for a dinner to the pot-luck of Mr. Lintot's back room. Such authors, doubtless, still there are ; but a large proportion of the volumes which now issue from the press are written by men who have resources, private and professional, to fall back upon who have something else, and frequently, as there is every reason from the result to con- jecture, something better, to do. The garrets of Grub-street, such as Hogarth painted, have now, we believe, few inspired tenants. The shaded lamp sheds its light on many a MS. ; the morocco chair lends its aid to meditation; and well-filled book-shelves supply those means of reference and extract which the " sub-dio " book-stall once afforded to starving industry and genius out-at- elbows. On the other hand, the atdlier of many a pallid student in this country, and still more perhaps on the Continent, could tell, as we believe, a tale which, if disclosed at the moment, would freeze the ink on the pen of a Zoilus. It is therefore painful to endeavour to aid the less discerning to the discovery of imperfections which may damp their disposition to purchase, or to wield in matters of taste the rod which we apply without compunction where immorality calls for censure, or false reason- ing for refutation. We have been led to these passing observations by the perusal of a recent volume, entitled ' Notice of the Life and Works of ESSAY IV. CHARACTER OF WAAGEN'S BOOK. 103 Leopold Robert,' a French artist not one of those, indeed, who Struggled and failed, but who, in the plenitude of success (we know not how far justified by his works), lately committed suicide. The brief record of his life, however, drawn up by a surviving brother, presents a touching picture of the early difficulties of a professional career. Hopeless love led to its early termination ; but we learn in how many a dark hour of un- rewarded toil the demon which ultimately prevailed over a strong sense of religion had suggested the sad resource to which the victim at last resorted. Whether considerations of this descrip- tion, or mere economy of time, may have induced Mr. Waagen to adopt the French motto, " Glissez, mortels, n'appuyez pas," in his passage over a somewhat delicate surface, he has skated so lightly as to leave few or no cracks in any modern reputation. The observations on contemporary English art in these volumes will therefore be found entirely subordinate to their staple, which amounts to a sort of catalogue raisonne of the principal works of ancient art which the powerful agencies of wealth and insular security have attracted to this favoured country, scattering them through many collections, instead of concentrating them, like the proceeds of French conquest, in one great and accessible reposi- tory. Viewed as such, Mr. Waagen's work, like other catalogues, is one rather of reference than continuous perusal : as such, how- ever, we consider it as in some respects bearing out the authority with which he came among us as guardian of the Berlin collec- tion. This distinction with us has its value, not because it emanates from a king or a minister, or that Mr. Waagen wears, as we calculate he does, a riband at his button -hole. We do not consider Mr. Wilkins the first arcliitect of his day because Lord Duncannon selected him for the construction of the National Gallery ; nor is our appreciation of Lord Palmerston's official qualifications at all affected by the circumstance of his having advised his own investiture with the order of the Bath ; but the King of Prussia is a sovereign who has proved his taste and judg- ment by a wise appropriation of limited resources to objects of art in many departments ; and the results of his exercise of power in this and other matters give us a rational faith in tin selection of his agents. To us, also, Mr. Waagen's intimate com- munion with Mr. Solly is an indication in his favour; for we believe few men to be more deeply imbued with taste and learning in the 104 ART AND AETISTS IN ENGLAND. ESSAY IV. highest departments of ancient art than that very successful col- lector, who greeted Mr. Waagen, on his first arrival, with a good dinner and a genuine Raphael over the sideboard. Was ever professor, emerging from his first trip in a Hamburgh steamboat, domiciliated under more favourable auspices? Lectured at by Faraday in the course of the same evening received by Baron Bulow next morning galleries and collections opened to him in prospect by the influence of the Duke of Cambridge the sights and sounds of London in May brought before him into sudden contrast with the garrison dulness of Berlin ; " sure this was bliss, if happiness there be," which nothing but the first arrival of a lover of art in the Piazza del Popolo could well be supposed to surpass in intensity. We should be sorry to ascribe any invidious limit to the number of the individuals qualified to pass a respectable opinion on the merits of a picture in the essentials of composition, colour, and design ; but we suspect that the number of those whose authority is worth having on the question whether a picture be a "genuine work of a great Italian master, is very limited, for the reason that its solution frequently requires that the technical knowledge of the painter and the picture-cleaner should be added to all other requisites of a critic. That these qualifications may still be insufficient, the ' Christ in the Garden ' of the National Gallery affords one proof among many. M. Vidocq has, we believe, given to the French government strong confirmation of the value of the trite maxim, " Set a thief to catch a thief ;" and we doubt whether any one, who has not himself dabbled in varnish, and is not initiated into the mysteries of the pallette, can fully detect either the deviations of the copyist, or those tricks of the restorer's trade which hardly an original work of excellence and long-standing has escaped. Criticism in this department is, like hanging, a mystery ; and we are not disposed to deny to Mr. Waagen some of that proficiency which can only be acquired by patient study and opportunities for frequent and varied observation. We have fol- lowed his course (hand passibus cequis) in various directions ; and, though aware of our own inadequacy to vouch for his merits, we are disposed, in many instances, to place reliance on his accuracy and judgment. In as many others, perhaps, we should feel equally disinclined to adopt his decisions. In one that of the Orleans Eaphael in the Bridgewater Gallery we should be in- ESSAY IV. PROCESS OF ACQUISITION. 105 clined to enter a caveat against Mr. Waagen's doubts, till we see, as in the case of the so-called Correggio lately mentioned, among the numerous repetitions of the subject, one with superior claims. Out of the three pictures in that collection which, in the Orleans Gallery, bore the name of Raphael, Mr. Waagen leaves one undisputed, which, as times and Raphaels go, we consider a handsome allowance. Without presuming to censure the sound- ness of his judgment in the matter of the two innocents whom he has slaughtered while smiling in his face, it still seems to us to depend too much on the assumption that Raphael was guilty of no human sin in his cabinet pictures, and that the preserva- tion of one is too fresh. There is no question that the skill of Raphael's imitators has left a difficult responsibility on the pur- veyors of pictures to national or private collections. We are given to understand that a nourishing manufactory of Raphaels exists at this day in Florence, which finds a perennial market we hope not among our countrymen. Mr. Waagen prefaces his observations on the numerous collec- tions to which he had access by an historical summary of the process of acquisition on the part of sovereigns and private indi- viduals in this country, which, commenced by the royal patron of Holbein, was prosecuted on a more extended scale by Charles I. He notices with just commendation not only the munificence, but the refined and exalted taste, which distinguished that sovereign, and enriched his residences with so many works of Raphael, Correggio, and Titian. The troubles of the Continent, which have restored to us some of these works, dispersed by our bar- barous Commonwealth, in company with many others, have nevertheless but partially repaired the havoc of that dispersion ; particularly if we consider the large proportion which Charles I.'s galleries contained of the three above-mentioned giants of old time, and that some of them which Charles II. had again col- lected perished in the fire of Whitehall, in 1697. Of the period which intervened between our revolution' and that of France, Mr. Waagen says : " "When the taste for collecting pictures revived after the com- mencement of the eighteenth century, it was not encouraged either by the succeeding kings, or by the parliament, but solely by private amateurs, who at the same time introduced the custom of placing their collections for the most part at their country -seats. . . . These 106 ART AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. ESSAY IV. collections, which were formed by the end of the eighteenth century, are however of a veiy different character from those of the time of Charles I. They betray a far less pure and elevated taste, and in many parts show a less profound knowledge of art. We indeed often find the names of Raphael, Correggio, Andrea del Sarto, but very seldom their works. The Venetian school is better, so that there are often fine pictures by Titian, Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, and the Bassanos. Still more frequent are the pictures of the Car- racci and their school, of Domenichino, Guido, Guercino, Albano ; but there are among them but few works of the first rank. Unhap- pily the pictures of the period of the decline of art in Italy are particularly numerous ; for instance, by B. Castiglione, P. F. Mola, Filippo Lauri, Carlo Cignani, Andrea Sacchi, Pietro da Cortona, Carlo Maratti, Luca Giordano. In this period we observe a parti- cular predilection for the works of certain masters. Among these are, of the Italian school, Carlo Dolce, Sasso Ferrato, Salvator Eosa, Claude Lorraine, and Gaspar Poussin ; and the pictures by the two latter are frequently the brightest gems of these galleries. Of the French school Nicholas Poussin and Bourguignon are esteemed beyond all others. Of the Flemish school, Eubens and Vandyck, and, though not in an equal degree, Rembrandt. Of all these favourite masters we see the most admirable works. Here and there are found fine sea-pieces by William Van de Velde, chosen landscapes by J. Euysdael and Hobbema, and pretty pictures by Teniers. On the other hand, we seldom meet with a genuine Hol- bein, still more rarely a Jan Van Eyck, or other masters of the old Flemish and German schools. As the only collection that is an honourable exception, and has been formed in the elevated taste of Charles I., I must here mention that of Lord Cowper, at his country- seat, Panshanger, in Hertfordshire. This collection, which was formed towards the close of this century, contains chiefly pictures by Eaphael, Andrea del Sarto, and Fra Bartolomeo." vol. i. pp. 38-40. This summary of the leading features of our provincial collec- tions appeals to us accurate on the whole. We apprehend that our author hardly intends to adduce 0. Lorraine aud G. Poussin as names connected with the decline of Italian art ; we should also hesitate in including A. Sacchi and P. da Cortona as such with the Carlo Maratti and Giardanos. The fresco of the Bar- berini palace, and a portrait in the Borghese, by the former, and the dream of St. Bruno, by the latter, in the Vatican, might almost we think plead their exemption. Nor do we conceive that the works of A. Sacchi are of very frequent occurrence ESSAY IV. RUSSIAN ARTISTS. 107 either in this country or in his own ; for if Lanzi be not mistaken, he was a slow and fastidious painter. We doubt whether Bour- guignon has ever been esteemed beyond his value in this country, and we hardly remember any work of his of much pretension, such for instance as his great battle-piece in the Dresden gallery. To Mr. Waagen's praise of the Panshanger collection we sub- scribe. It was, we believe, principally formed by the father of the late earl, but such a legacy never found a worthier inheritor than the last-mentioned nobleman. If a taste for the fine arts ever, like gout, skips a generation, such was not the case with him. The exertions of private collectors, during the period under consideration, were perhaps nearly counterbalanced by the loss of the Houghton collection, transferred to a country where pictures are as yet little appreciated. The acquisition has hardly we be- lieve as yet led to any attempt at imitation among a people cele- brated for an imitative disposition, still less to any more generous emulative effort. These pictures will probably continue as they are, mere appendages to royal state apartments, unless they should become by an ukase capable of military rank like the fourteen elephants recorded by Rulhieres, who, having been presented to the Czar by the Schah of Persia, were gazetted, in compliment to that potentate, as major-generals. We remember, however, to have been struck with a picture of the destruction of Pompeii, by a Russian artist, which, having we believe been refused at the Louvre, had taken refuge in the Milan exhibition. It had the merit of originality, being unlike any previous per- formance, either of nature or art, which ever came under our notice. As a work of imagination it offered perhaps some ana- logy to the magnificent creations of Mr. Martin, but with more knowledge of anatomical design. Orloffski, a deceased Russian artist, is known in Europe by a few coarse lithographs of national subjects. He was, we believe, no painter, but we have seen chalk and crayon studies by him at Petersburg, showing a genius which with due cultivation might have made him a sort of Genghis Khan among artists. Our own countryman, Dawe, was the Vandyck on whom the favours of the court of Alexander and Nicholas and its followers were showered. His studio was adorned when we saw it with five hundred kitcats of Russian generals ; the accuracy of his ribbons and crosses was never ex- 108 ART AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. ESSAY IV. ceeded in painting. Sir Joshua's Hercules, meanwhile, was se- cluded in a vault at the Hermitage, which we endeavoured in vain to discover and penetrate. Mr. Waagen proceeds to notice the great influx of works of art into this country which took place in consequence of the French Revolution, and the apprehension of French conquest and plunder. This portion of history, as regards paintings, is familiar to all who take an interest here in such matters, and we forbear to dwell upon it. After noticing the various collections of draw- ings, miniatures, and niellos, which occupy a less ostentatious po- sition, and attract the notice rather of the learned few than the public, Mr. Waagen proceeds " Compared with this great extension of taste for works of design in all the various branches, that for works of sculpture appears in England, since the revolution, only in individual instances. The taste for modern sculpture is the most prevalent, and the works of Canova, Thorwaldsen, and the English sculptors are, therefore, very numerous in England. On the other hand, hardly more than a single English private person is known to have acquired works of ancient sculpture of veiy great importance." p. 63. This is undoubtedly true, and many reasons may be assigned for the fact. The first is nearly identical with that which the French magistrate assigned out of many for not receiving Henry IV. with a royal salute Ifabord nous n'avons nipoudre ni canons. Specimens of ancient sculpture are not to be obtained, at least by the ordinary means of acquisition. The few objects of this class, which are not in royal or princely collections, are still guarded with much jealousy both by governments and private proprietors. One such work indeed has recently found its way from Eome to Munich, the Barberini Faun ; but, though a king was the purchaser, he was obliged to smuggle his purchase over the wall of the Eternal City under the cloud of night. Few private individuals would incur the risk of smuggling on so cum- brous a scale. There is also much in our climate and habits unpropitious to sculpture. A statue gallery is more appropriately warmed by an Italian sun than a register stove ; with us it seldom fails to convey to our sensations some of the attributes of the monumental caves of death in Congreve's Mourning Bride. A few great proprietors, such as the Duke of Devonshire, may succeed in the judicious disposal of such objects, and in placing ESSAY IV. THE ELGIN MARBLES. 109 them beyond the reach of the thousand ills which marble is heir to in our atmosphere ; but Chatsworth and Holkham are rather hothouse productions than natural growths of our soil, and the same habits of comfort and convenience which have restrained the encouragement of historical painting on a large scale, are, in our judgment, almost equally adverse to any wide diffusion of a taste for sculpture. Mr. Waagen, however, proceeds to specify his exception, and it is an important one : " But then this has been done on so grand a scale that this one may be counted for many ; nay, his acquisitions may be very well laid in the balance against all those splendid treasures of pictures which we have just reviewed. This one man is Lord Elgin, and these acquisitions consist in nothing less than in the principal works which have come down to us from the brightest era of Greek sculp- ture, and are known to every person of education in Europe by the name of the Elgin Marbles." pp. 63, 64. We quote this as an impartial tribute to the individual who saved these works, not only for his country but the world, from the kilns and pestles of Turkish plaster-makers. The satire of Byron falls pointless when aimed at such service. The following are among the observations which Mr. Waagen appends to his description of the marbles : " The many reflections which I had before made in the study of the plaster casts of these works appeared now perfectly clear, when I had the originals before me. The peculiar excellence which dis- tinguishes the works of the Parthenon from almost all other sculp- ture of antiquity arises chiefly, in my opinion, from the just balance which they hold in all respects between the earlier and later pro- ductions of art. Sculpture was in Egypt, as well as in Greece, a daughter of architecture. In Egypt the mother never released her from the strictest subordination, the greatest dependence ; in Greece, on the other hand, Sculpture, after a similar very long education, which was very favourable to her growth, was at length past her nonage. Yet, notwithstanding her acquired independence and liberty, she was never entirely alienated from the mother, even to the latest period of antiquity, but in the earliest time she still clung to her with the greatest filial attachment. To this period the sculptures of the Parthenon belong. The general arrangement is still entirely determined by the architecture, and even the several groups correspond, as masses, with architectonic symmetry ; bnt in the execution of them there is the greatest freedom, in manifold 110 ART AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. ESSAY IV. diversities and contrasts of the attitudes, which are so easy, uncon- strained, and natural, that we might believe that the architecture had been adopted as a frame to the sculptures, and not, on the con- trary, the sculptures suited to the architecture. Nor was it only in the local arrangement, but also in the conception of the subject, that architecture had an influence. For in all circumstances, even in those which occasion the most lively expression of passion and of action, as, for instance, in the combats of the Greeks and Cen- taurs in the Metopes, these requisites are most delicately combined with a certain calm dignity and solemnity. It is in this prevalence of the element of architecture, as the predominating law in general, with the greatest freedom and animation in the single parts, that the peculiar sublimity of these monuments consists. But they derive their highest charm, like the poems of Homer, from their simplicity. As the authors of them, by the enthusiastic endeavour to treat their subjects with the greatest possible perspicuity and beauty, had attained the most profound study of nature, and an absolute command of all the means of representing their ideas, and had thereby thrown aside everything conventional in earlier art, it never occurred to them to use these advantages, except for those objects. Nothing was more remote from their minds than, as in subsequent times, to display and make a show of them for their own sake. Hence all the characters of the bodies are so perfectly adapted to the siibjects ; hence in all the motions such simple, natural grace. Equally rare is the refined manner in which the imitation of nature, of which the noblest models have everywhere been selected, is combined with the conditions necessary to produce the due eifect in art. The execution is so detailed, that even the veins and folds of the skin are represented, by which the impression of truth to nature is produced in a very high degree. Yet all is so subordinate to the main forms, that the effect is imposing, and represses every thought of their being portraits. Thus these works are in a happy mean between the two individual forms of earlier times (for instance the statues of Egina) and the mostly too general ones of later ages. The healthy energy and life which these forms breathe have besides a particular foundation in the decided contrast of the management of the more solid and the softer parts. Where bones or sinews are seen under the skin, they are indicated with the greatest sharpness and precision ; where, on the contrary, the larger muscles appear, they are kept indeed stiff and flat, but at the same time their softness and elasticity are represented in the most sur- prising manner."- pp. 83-86. The British Institution, at the period of Mr. Waagen's visit, was fortunately open for one of those admirable and well-con- ESSAY IV. THE NATIONAL GALLERY. Ill ci-ived exhibitions of the works of old masters with which it has of late years delighted the public. By a curious mistake he re- ] >n -sents Chantrey's bust of the late president, the late Duke of Sutherland, as an admirable likeness of the present. We men- tion this as the only instance of positive inaccuracy we have de- <1 in the record of his labours. The description of the national collection is, as might be ex- pected, elaborate. Mr. Waagen saw it under all the disadvan- tages of its recent locality and condition in Pall Mall. We should be curious for his verdict on its present appearance. We are disposed to think that in what has been done in the delicate task of reparation, the urgency of which is admitted by Mr. Waagen, 31 r. Seguier has not exceeded the limits of prudence. In respect of position, a closet lighted from the ceiling is certainly preferable to one lighted by an ordinary window, and this advantage has accrued from the united exertions of Mr. Wilkins and the government. The following bears upon a question of some importance, mooted before the committee of the House of Commons : " I was surprised, here, where there are so many genuine and fine works of Claude, to see a copy from the celebrated Mill, in the Doria Palace, given out as an original." The entire concurrence of Mr. Solly and the more qualified acquiescence of Mr. Woodburn in his verdict, when examined before the committee of the House of Commons, are certainly formidable counterpoises to the opinion of Mr. Seguier. With respect to the principal works in the National Gallery, Mr. Waagen's remarks are perhaps interesting on the question of the deductions to be made from their present value, on the score of injury from time and maltreatment on their merits, apart 1'roiii such considerations, most opinions are made up, and we j" -ruse with more interest his observations on the English school, which are elicited by the few specimens of it which have found their way into the National Gallery : " The moral humorous department," says Mr. Waagen, " is the only one in which the English have enlarged the domain of painting in general ; for, with the exception of a few pictures by Jan Steen, I know nothing similar of an earlier period. In all other branches they are more or less excelled by the other schools. Portrait- 112 ART AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. ESSAY IV. painting is the branch which they have cultivated with the most success, and the best portraits of Sir Joshua Beynolds take a high rank, even when compared with the performances of other schools. Next to this are the painters of what the French call pieces de genre, scenes of every-day life, and still life, and especially their animal- painters. Their landscapes are far lower in the scale, in such a comparison. But they are weakest of all in historical painting, where inventive and creative fancy is most called for. Having thus viewed the intellectual region of the art, let us briefly consider their progress in the scientific parts. Their drawing is on the whole indifferent ; the forms often suffer from incorrectness, and still more by want of precision ; on the other hand, most English painters have great brilliancy, fulness, and depth of colour, which make much show, and charm the eye, often, it is true, at the expense of fidelity to nature and of delicately-balanced harmony. For the mode of execution, it is a misfortune for the English school that it at once began where other schools nearly leave off. From the most scrupulous execution of the details, which seeks to bring every object as near as possible to the reality, even for close inspection, the older schools but very gradually acquired the conviction that the same effect might be produced, at a moderate distance, with fewer strokes of the pencil, and thus attained a broader handling. But the English school began at once with a very great freedom and breadth of handling, where, in the works of Hogarth and Eeynolds indeed, every touch is seen in nature, and expresses something posi- tive ; but, in most of the later painters, degenerated into a flimsiness and negligence, so that but a very superficial and general image is given of every object, and many pictures have the glaring effect of scene-painting, while others are lost in misty indistinctness. As no good technical rules had been handed down to them by tradition, the English painters endeavoured to establish some for themselves, but with such ill success, that many pictures have very much changed ; many are so faded that they have quite the appearance of corpses, others have turned black ; the colour has broad cracks in it, nay, in some cases, it has become fluid, and then, from the excessively thick impasto, has run down in single drops." pp. 231, 232. Sir Joshua Eeynolds is so inadequately represented in this collection, except by Lord Heathfield's portrait, that Mr. Waagen's criticisms may be omitted. His condemnation of West is as severe as might be expected from one conversant with Italian art, and we certainly prefer his judgment to that delivered before the committee by Sir M. A. Shee, which pro- nounces West the greatest master since the time of the Car- K.\Y IV. WEST WILKIE. 113 is, a period which, as Mr. Haydon observes, includes Rubens, Yaudyck, and Rembrandt! We do not add Guercino, as Mr. Haydon does, because the president, we conceive, meant to include him with the Carraccis ; but we might add fairly Poussin, Murillo, and Velasquez. We have always entertained a respect for West, as one who, urged to the choice of a profession by strong natural propensity, pursued the object of his youthful affection with energy and perseverance. If the studies for his works had alone been preserved to us, we might have recognised in them the indication of talents which, in our judgment, were never exemplified in his finished pictures. The latter unfor- tunately remain to attest how little study, rules, and labour can effect, where an eye for colour, and grace, at least, of design, are wanting. Of all we have seen, we know but one we could have wished to see placed in the National Gallery, the 'Death of General Wolfe,' in which the subject seems to have fired the artist, and a felicitous arrangement, and truth and force of expression, make us forget or forgive the solution of brickdust in which his pencil was steeped. In justice to him we quote a passage which qualifies Mr. Waagen's severe strictures on his ' Last Supper ' and ' Christ Healing the Sick.' " ' Orestes and Pylades brought before Iphigenia,' an early work of this artist, has not only something noble and simple in the com- position and the forms, but is likewise painted in a tolerably clear, warm, harmonious tone." " I am happy," says Mr. Waagen, " at being able to conclude my observations on the pictures of the English school in this gallery as worthily as I commenced them with Hogarth, for Wilkie is in his department not only the first painter of our times, but, together with Hogarth, the most spirited and original master of the whole English school. In the most essential particulars, AVilkie has the same style of art as Hogarth. With him he has great variety, refinement, and acuteness in the observation of what is characteristic in nature ; and in many of his pictures the subject is strikingly dramatic. Yet in many respects he is different from him ; he does not, like Hogarth, exhibit to us moral dramas in whole series of pictures, but contents himself with representing, more in the manner of a novel, one single striking scene. His turn of mind is besides very different. If I might compare Hogarth with Swift, in his biting satire, with which he contemplates mankind only on the dark side, and takes special delight in representing them in a state of the most profound cor- I Hi AllT AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. ESSAY IV. ruption, of the most frightful misery, I find in Wilkie a close affinity with his celebrated countryman, Sir Walter Scott. Both have in common that genuine, refined delineation of character which extends to the minutest particulars. In the soul of both there is more love than contempt of man ; both afford us the most soothing views of the quiet, genial happiness which is sometimes found in the narrow circle of domestic life, and understand how, with masterly skill, by the mixture of delicate traits of good-natured humour, to heighten the charm of such scenes ; and if, as poets should be able to do both in language and colours, they show us man in his manifold weak- nesses, errors, afflictions, and distresses, yet their humour is of such a kind that it never revolts our feelings. Wilkie is especially to be commended, that in such scenes as the Distress for Eent he never falls into caricature, as has often happened to Hogarth, but with all the energy of expression remains within the bounds of truth. It is affirmed that the deeply impressive and touching character of this picture caused an extraordinary sensation in England when it fhxt appeared. Here we first learn duly to prize another feature of his pictures, namely, their genuine national character. They are in all their parts the most spirited, animated, and faithful representations of the peculiarities and modes of life of the English. In many other respects Wilkie reminds me of the great Dutch painters of common life of the seventeenth century, and likewise in the choice of many subjects, for instance, the Blind Man's Buff; but particularly by the careful and complete making out of the details, in which he is one of the rare exceptions among his countrymen. If he does not go so far in this respect as Douw and Franz Mieris, he is nearly on an equality with the more carefully executed paintings of Teniers and Jan Steen. His touch, too, often approaches the former in spirit and freedom, especially in his earlier pictures. One of them, the Blind Fiddler, is in the gallery. You know this admirable compo- sition from the masterly engraving by Burnet. The effect of the colouring is by no means brilliant, yet the tone of the flesh is warm and clear. The colours, which, as in Hogarth, are very much broken, have a very harmonious effect, the light and shade being very soft, and carried through with great skill. From the predomi- nance of dead colours, the whole has much the appearance of dis- temper. As well in the above respects as in the naivete and close observation of nature, and the good-natured humour of the subject, this picture is a real masterpiece, which deserves the more admi- ration since we find, by the date affixed, that it was painted in 1806, when Wilkie was not more than twenty-one years of age." pp. 239-41. The annals of art certainly present few instances of an earlier IV. W1LKIE. 115 attainment of eminence, and this in many of the qualities of finished execution which are usually the last results of practice and study. We own that, in contemplating the later productions of this distinguished artist, we revert with a sigh to such works as the Blind Fiddler and the Highland Still to all we may say which preceded his journey to the Continent. We know not wluit " cantrip sleight" was cast upon him at Rome or Madrid, but, as to us it seems, he went there one of Nature's most accomplished votaries, and returned, comparatively speaking for genius still shines in his least successful works an eclectic imitator of painters, especially perhaps of Rembrandt, one of the greatest of his tribe, but as dangerous a model as artist can select. With such guidance, some of his pictures, the Cotter's Saturday Night, for instance, of last year's exhibition, is little better than a study in one colour, and that colour after all as little like the rich brown of Rembrandt, as General Wolfe's smallclothes in W'-st's picture are like the crimson vestments of a Titian cardinal. That Sir D. Wilkie was ever attracted to portrait-painting by the lucrative considerations which divert so much talent into that channel, we do not for a moment suspect. That caprice should have led him to batten on that field, we hold to be a national misfortune. Of all the portraits we have seen by him, we know but of three which we can contemplate with patience those of Lord Tankerville and the late Lord Kelly, and the striking like- ness of two sheathed swords in the small picture of the Duke of York. We speak thus freely of what we consider a misapplica- tinn of powers of the first order, because we can do so without fear of prejudice either to the fortunes or character of one whose reputation is established on great achievements. Aware, as we are, that Sir D. Wilkie has suffered much from ill health, and that the quantity of his works has probably been much restrained by that circumstance, we should have been utterly silent if we believed that the change which we lament hi their quality were attributable to that or any cause beyond the artist's control. We see no signs of decay of power, but every indication of an experimental but deliberate change of system. The part we endeavour to support is rather that of Moliere's old woman than of the Archbishop of Grenada's secretary. If we venture thus to speak of Sir D. Wilkie, what can we say of him who some thirty-five years since painted the sea-piece i 2 116 ART AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. ESSAY IV. which hang as a companion to one of Van de Velde's best works in last year's exhibition of old masters at the British Institution ? Is it possible that the painter of this picture, of the Italian land- scape in Lord Yarborough's possession, which Wilson never ex- ceeded, and of other works which might be cited, can be the perpetrator of those strange patches of chrome, ultramarine, and whiting, which Mr. Turner is wont to exhibit in these days? That these extravagancies have their admirers (purchasers we believe they have few), especially among professional men, we are well aware, and believe that none but artists can fully appre- ciate the difficulties which this Paganini of the pallette deals with and overcomes, but after a fashion which makes us devoutly say, with Dr. Johnson, we wish the triumph were impossible. We are also much inclined to believe that as much labour, mental at least, is lavished on such works as on his earlier and most admirable performances ; that the exertion of painting the ebullition of cotton, which Mr. Turner was pleased to call an avalanche last year, was as great as would be required for the representation of something in rerum natura ; that the orange-coloured boat in a picture lately in the British Gallery, or the strange phantom of a three-decker in his Battle of Trafalgar, cost him as much trouble as the fishing-vessels in the Bridgewater Gallery. We doubt whether Sir D. Wilkie's apparently least-finished pictures do not involve as much labour and contrivance as those which made him the rival of Ostade, in every quality but that of warmth, and far superior in moral and intellectual respects to either Ostade or Jan Steen, and we can but lament over a perversion of powers, in themselves unim- paired, which every succeeding exhibition forbids us to believe is accidental or attributable to any rational cause or motive. When such are the examples set to younger men by their most dis- tinguished elders, it is the less surprising that the mass of our artists should afford such constant instances of the struggle for effect, the search for new and eccentric paths to success, the scorn of labour and finish, which never yet led to excellence, and which annually disfigure the walls of our exhibition-rooms. There are, doubtless, names to be excepted from any such sweeping condem- nation. Stanfield, Calcott, and Landseer will occur as such to every one. We tremble to enter on the invidious task of speci- fying further exceptions. Fielding in describing his Sophia ESSAY IV. BRITISH ARTISTS. 117 desires his reader to attribute to her the attractions ol the lady of that reader's own affections; we wish each of ours to consider his own favourite artist as one of those whom our limits forbid us to enumerate. For the honour of America, however, we must have the elegant and thoughtful Leslie and, for the honour of Scotland, we must name Sir Walter Scott's friend and favourite, William Allan. His Circassian Captives and his pictures of National History fully justify the poet's predilection. The grandeur and originality of Mr. Martin's conceptions, the Oriental magnificence of his architectural designs, and the magi- cal execution of his distances, plead forgiveness for that unfortu- nate deficiency in anatomical design which appears whenever his figures exceed the fraction of an inch in their dimensions. We \\isli he could design one man as well as he does a million. Genius and profuse fertility none can deny to Maclise. We could cut fifty cabinet pictures, many " practical, persevering, out-door man. He loved mines and under- ground works ; had like to have been killed at Donnington Wood, when he was down in the work, by holding his candle too near the roof. The foul air went off with a loud explosion, and blew the gearing at the pit eye into atoms. He was saved by a collier throwing him flat down and lying on him in the drift, but had his stock burnt partly off his neck, and the crown of his head scorched. The collier was badly burned, but Mr. Gilbert provided for him and his family." We may mention that the elder brother Thomas was the author of those parochial unions which bear his name, and which, having been unquestionable improvements on the old system of poor-law, have been much used as engines of resistance to the introduction of the new. It is certain that in J. Gilbert's energy, perseverance, and firmness the duke found a spirit kindred to his own. It has been said that, when the moment arrived for admitting the water into the Barton aqueduct, Brindley 's nerve was unequal to the interest of the crisis, that he ran away and hid himself in Stretford, while Gilbert remained cool and collected to superintend the operation which was to confirm or to confute the clamour with which the project had been assailed. On some important points of engi- neering connected with this aqueduct he successfully maintained his opinions against those of Brindley. One anecdote connected with Gilbert illustrates the extent of the pecuniary difficulties which the duke experienced in the progress of his undertaking, by the nature of the expedients to which he was compelled to resort. It is well known that at one period the duke's credit was so low that his bill for 500?. could scarcely be cashed in Liver- pool. Under such difficulties Gilbert was employed to ride round the neighbouring districts of Cheshire, and borrow from farmers 236 AQUEDUCTS AND CANALS. ESSAY VII. such small sums as could be collected from such a source. On one of these occasions he was joined by a horseman, and after some conversation the meeting ended with an exchange of their respective horses. On alighting afterwards at a lonely inn, which he had not before frequented, Gilbert was surprised to be greeted with evident and mysterious marks of recognition by the land- lord, and still more so when the latter expressed a hope that his journey had been successful, and that his saddle-bags were well filled. He was unable to account for the apparent acquaintance of a total stranger with the business and object of his expedition. The mystery was solved by the discovery that he had exchanged horses with a highwayman who had infested the paved lanes of Cheshire till his horse had become so well known that its owner had found it convenient to take the first opportunity of procuring one less notorious. It would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast than the origin and progress of the Bridgewater Canal presented to that of the Canal du Midi. No turgid proclamation heralded the former, " written" as Andreossi avers of that of Louis XIV. " in that elevated style, and bearing the impress of that firm and noble character, which marks alike the projects and the pro- ductions of the age of Louis XIV." There was no Colbert to find the funds, no Eiquet to receive the magnificent entailed reward of the profits, no Corneille to furnish the flattery. To these and such as these, armed with all the paraphernalia of maps and sections and calculations, Louis gave audience in his sumptuous chamber at Versailles. Round the humble hearth of the black and white timbered manor-house of Worsley, or of the still humbler village inn, three hard-headed men, of simple manners and attire, discussed a project unnoticed by governments, and deemed hopeless by the few besides themselves who gave any attention to the matter. To fill the place of a sovereign, the uncontrolled master of vast revenues, there was an English nobleman, proprietor of extensive but somewhat encumbered estates ; and if to conceive and direct the work there was a greater original genius than Riquet or Andreossi, that genius could barely read and write, and was hired in the first place at two and sixpence a day. Such at least is the statement of one who had enjoyed opportunities of information, Francis Egerton, the last Earl of Bridgewater, who died at Paris in the odour of ESSAY VII. BRINDLEY. 237 eccentricity. He adds that Brindley offered to engage himself exclusively to the duke for a guinea a week, but a slight increase on the former sum. If this be true, it confirms the French proverb that the vrai is not always the vraisemblable. It is clear that at the time when Brindley entered the duke's service his fame as a mechanician was considerable. He had already introduced inventions of his own for the drainage of mines, the improvement of silk-machinery, and the grinding of flints for the potteries of Staffordshire, and in 1756 he had begun to apply his vigorous intellect to the steam-engine. It is said, however, that in all or most of these matters he had been thwarted and re- stricted by the jealousy of rivals and the stupidity of employers. It is probable enough that disgust with his late patrons, sympathy with the new, the nature of the task before him, and conscious- ness of power to accomplish it, may have combined to make him court the duke's service on the lowest terms. For his own interest the speculation, perhaps, was not a bad one; for it appears that very speedily after the commencement of the Bridge water Canal, Brindley was employed by Earl Gower and Lord Anson to survey a line for a projected canal between the Trent and the Mersey. There can be little doubt, as Earl Gower was the duke's brother-in-law, that the selection of Brindley was at the duke's recommendation. As the materials for Brindley 's life in the * Biographia Britan- nica' were furnished by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henshall, it could hardly be expected that at this distance of time his present biographer, Mr. Hughes, could add much to the little there recorded of his personal peculiarities. The following remarks on his professional character appear to us in the main well founded. After giving a summary, of the great works on which Brindley was engaged, which comprises some dozen of the principal lines of navigation in the kingdom, Mr. Hughes proceeds : " In taking a hasty retrospect of Brindley's engineering career, it is important to observe that all the works he projected, planned, and executed, are comprised within a period of twelve years, and by far the greater part of them within the last seven years of his life. It is amazing to reflect that the man who had to struggle, without precedent or experience to guide him, with all the difficulties which attended the early history of canals, should himself have effected 238 AQUEDUCTS AND CANALS. ESSAY VII. and originated so much. There can be no doubt that he possessed an intellect of the highest order, that his views were most compre- hensive, and his inventive faculties extremely fertile. Brindley was wholly without education, and it has even been asserted that he was unable to read and write, the utmost extent of his capacity in the latter accomplishment extending no further than that of signing his name. This, however, has been disputed, on the authority of his brother-in-l.aw, who stated that he could both read and write, though he was a poor scribe. However this may be, it is certain that he was quite ignorant in the vulgar sense of the word Educa- tion, and perfectly unacquainted with the literature of his own or any other country. It may be a bold assertion, and yet I believe it to be one with strong presumptions in its favour, that Brindley 's want of education was alike fortunate for himself, for the world, and for posterity. There was no lack of scholars in his day more than in our own ; nay, the literary coxcomb had then a more flourishing soil in which to vegetate. But where were the Brindleys among those scholars ? Where were the men capable of the same original and comprehensive views, the same bold unprecedented experiments upon matter and the forces of nature, which the illiterate Derbyshire ploughboy dared to entertain and undertake ? If we range the annals of the whole world, and include within our survey even those examples of sacred history where divinely- appointed ministers were raised to work out great designs, we shall find no instance more remarkable, nor one which more completely violates the ordinary expectations and probabilities of mankind, than this, in which the uneducated millwright of a country village became the instrument of improving beyond the bounds of sober belief the condition of a great nation, and of increasing to an incredible amount her wealth and resources. But, it may be asked, why would Brindley have been less fit or less likely to accomplish all he did, if at the same time he had been educated ? The answer is, that a mind like Brind- ley's would have lost much of its force, originality, and boldness, if it had been tied down by the rules of science, his attention diverted by the elegancies of literature, or his energy diluted by imbibing too much from the opinions of others. Alone he stood, alone he struggled, and alone he was proof against all the assaults of men who branded him as a madman, an enthusiast, and a person not to be trusted." p. 42. This passage, and more in the same style, shows the estimation in which Brindley's talents are still held by men conversant with all recent improvements, and competent by their own profes- sional studies to judge of his achievements. Mr. Hughes's ESSAY VII. BRINDLEY. 239 comparison of him \\ith Closes and Joshua we consider ill-judged and not in point ; inasmuch as civil engineering had nothing to do with the passage either of the Red Sea or the Jordan. That Brindley at a certain period of his life could write, rests upon better testimony even than the report of his relation, as speci- mens of his writing were furnished not long since from the office at Worsley, for the use of Mr. Baines, author of that excellent work ' The History of Lancashire.' Of a singular scheme attributed to Brindley, that of a bridge over the Irish Channel between Portpatrick and Donaghadee, Mr. Hughes remarks " We know nothing, except that it was said to have been a very favourite scheme of Brindley 's, and was to have been effected by a floating road and canal, which he was confident he could execute in such a manner as to stand the most violent attacks of the waves." We know of no better authority than a newspaper paragraph for attributing anything so foolish as this idea to Brindley. If he ever entertained it, two things are certain that his head was turned by success and adulation, and that he had never been in the Irish Channel in a gale of wind. The latter is likely enough ; we are slow to believe the former of a man so eminently practical and so simple-minded. Of Brindley apart from his works little then can be said, be- cause little is now known. With regard to the personal habits and character of his great employer, it may be neither superfluous nor inappropriate to mention that, if he declined to fill, in the House of Lords or elsewhere, the place assigned to him by birth and wealth, as a resident landlord and employer he left behind him a deep impression not only of power and authority, but of the kindly virtues, which in his case, as in many others, lurked under a somewhat rough exterior. If he preferred the conversa- tion of a few friends and confidants of his schemes to the gossip of London circles, his intercourse with the poor man and the labourer was frequent and familiar, and his knowledge of their persons and characters extensive. His surviving contemporaries among this class mention his name with invariable affection and reverence. Something like his phantom presence still seems to pervade his Lancashire neighbourhood, before which those on whom his heritage has fallen shrink into comparative insignifi- cance. The Duke's horses still draw the Duke's boats. The Duke's coals still issue from the Duke's levels; and when a 240 AQUEDUCTS AND CANALS. ESSAY VII. question of price is under discussion What will the Duke say or do ? is as constant an element of the proposition, as if he were forthcoming in the body to answer the question. He had certainly no taste for the decorations which lighten and adorn existences less engrossed by serious pursuits. The house he built commanded a wide view of the works he constructed and the country he helped to fertilize, but it was as destitute during his life of garden and shrubbery, as of pineries, conservatories, and ornamental pigsties. Rising one morning after his arrival from London at this place, he found that some flowers had been planted in his absence, which he demolished with his cane and ordered to be rooted up. The labourer who received the order, and who in Lancashire phrase was flytten for this transgression of the Duke's tastes, adds that he was fond enough however of some Turkey oaks which had been brought down from a London nursery-garden, and took much interest in their proper disposal. His nature had certainly more of the oak than the flower in its composition, though not, in Johnson's phrase, the nodosity without the strength. While resident in London his social intercourse was limited within the circle of a few intimate friends, and for many years he avoided the trouble of a main part of an establishment suited to his station, by an arrangement with one of these, who for a stipulated sum undertook to provide a daily dinner for his Grace and a certain number of guests. This engagement lasted till a late period of the Duke's life, when the death of the friend ended the contract. These were days when men sat late, even if they did not drink hard. We believe the Duke's habits were no exception to the former practice ; but if we may judge from a Worsley cellar-book, which includes some years of his residences there, his home consumption of wine was very moderate. He is said to have smoked more than he talked, and was addicted to rushing out of the room every five minutes to look at the barometer. We have conjectured that the Duke's early association with Wood might possibly have generated the taste for old pictures which ultimately displayed itself in the formation of the Bridge- water collection : an accident, however, laid the foundation of that collection. Dining one day with his nephew Lord Gower, afterwards Duke of Sutherland, the Duke saw and admired a picture which the latter had picked up a bargain for some 10?. ESSAY VII. EXPERIMENT WITH A STEAM-TUG. 241 at a broker's in the morning. " You must take me," he said, "to that d d fellow to-morrow." Whether this impetuosity produced any immediate result we are not informed, but plenty of d d fellows were doubtless not wanting to cater for the taste thus suddenly developed : such advisers as Lord Farnborough and his nephew lent him the aid of their judgment. His pur- chases from Italy and Holland were judicious and important, and finally, the distractions of France pouring the treasures of the Orleans Gallery into this country, he became a principal in the fortunate speculation of its purchase. A conversation recorded with Lord Kenyon, father to the present lord, illustrates his sagacity in matters connected with his main pursuit. At a period when he was beginning to reap the profits of his perse- verance and sacrifices, Lord Kenyon congratulated him on the result. " Yes," he replied, " we shall do well enough if we can keep clear of those d d tramroads." Nothing was more remarkable in the operations of the duke and his great engineer than the rigid economy with which they were conducted. It is well known that the ingenuity of Brind- ley, as his novel task rose before him, was constantly displaying itself in devices for the avoidance or the better distribution of labour. It was perhaps fortunate that the duke possessed no taste for those luxuries of architectural embellishment with which the wealth of modern railroad companies enables them, without imprudence, to gratify the public eye. The indulgence of such a taste might have risked the success of his undertaking, and the fame of a ruined speculator might have been his lot. He shrunk, however, from no expense and no experiment which, to use a phrase of liis own, had utility " at the heels of it ;" nor was his one of those ordinary minds which are contented with a single success, and incapable of pushing a victory. About the end of the last century, at a moment when other men would have been contented with results obtained, before Bell or Fulton had shown the availability of the steam paddle-wheel for navigation, he made an attempt to substitute the steam-tug for horse towage on his canal. The following notice from one of his surviving servants substantiates this interesting fact : " I well remember the steam-tug experiment on the canal. It was between 1796 and 1799. Captain Shanks, R.N., from Deptford, was at Worsley many weeks preparing it, by the duke's own orders and R 242 AQUEDUCTS AND CANALS. ESSAT VII. under his own eye. It was set going, and tried with coal-boats ; but it went slowly, and the paddles made sad work with the bottom of the canal, and also threw the water on the bank. The Worsley folks called it Buonaparte." It may be presumed that the failure was complete, for no second trial appears to have been made. Eight coal-boats were, however, dragged to Manchester, of twenty-five tons each, at a little more than a mile an hour. We find in Mr. Priestley's volume that a similar experiment was made on the Sankey Canal in 1797, when a loaded barge was worked up and down by a steam-engine for twenty miles ; but, singular as it may appear, says Mr. Priestley, to tliis time vessels have continued on this canal to be towed by manual labour. The application of steam- power to haulage on canals, has, by the invention of the sub- merged screw propeller, been rendered a mere question of com- parative expense, as all detriment, either to banks or bottom, from the propelling machinery, is obviated. In the case, however, of heavy goods, we apprehend that no material increase in the rate of speed can be obtained, as the mere displacement, independent of the cause of motion, generates, at a slight increase of velocity, a wave sufficient to destroy any banks not fenced with masonry. Mr. Houston's beautiful discovery has indeed shown, that if the speed can be increased to a considerable extent, the evil ceases at least with boats of a particular con- struction ; and the fast passage-boats, long used on the Glasgow and Lancaster canals, and lately adopted on the Bridgewater, have proved the merit of his invention. The labour to the horses is somewhat painful to witness, though the stages are short. In other respects we scarcely know any aquatic pheno- menon more agreeable to the eye than the appearance of one of these vessels at her full speed. In grace of form and smoothness of motion they rival the swan-like gondola itself of Venice. Descriptions, more or less detailed, of the duke's works are to be found in many publications. It may be sufficient here to state that the line of open navigation constructed under his acts, beginning in Manchester, and branching in one direction to Runcorn, in another to Leigh, amounts in distance to some thirty-eight miles, all on one level, and admitting the large boats which navigate the estuary of the Mersey. Of this the six miles from Worsley to Leigh were constructed after Brindley's decease. ESSAY VII. SUBTERRANEAN CANALS. \Ye use the expression open, because to this \\c h transcriber's name, P. A. W., bespeak a foreigner's hand, as do many blunders, according to Tambroni, his negligence or igno- rance ; but the editor, with the assistance of literary friends, has 256 PAINTING IN THE FOUETEENTH CENTURY. ESSAY VIII. laboured to repair these defects, and there is no reason to believe that any portion of the original has been suppressed or omitted. Before we proceed to any notice of the contents we must briefly extract from the editor's preface what little appears to be known of the author. As a painter he seems to have left behind him to the present day but one specimen, a fresco of the Virgin and Saints, mentioned with commendation by Vasari, and which, having been, by order of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold, transferred to canvas, is still extant in the Florentine Gallery. Cennino finished his treatise, as he states at its close, on the 31st of July, 1437 ; and in his exordium he writes : " I, Cennino, son of Andrea Cennini, born in the Colle di Val- delsa, was instructed in these arts by Agnolo, son of Taddeo of Florence, my master, who learned the art from Taddeo, his father, the godson of Giotto, whose disciple he had been for twenty-four years." p. 2. As Agnolo Gaddi died in 1387, if we suppose Cennino to have been in his service at that time, his apprenticeship, which, he says, occupied twelve years, must have commenced in 1375 at the latest. The usual age for such commencement varied from twelve to eighteen. The latest date we can therefore assign for his birth is 1363 ; but, as it is a mere assumption that he con- tinued with Agnolo till the death of that master, he may have been born as far back as 1350. In any case it is clear that the knowledge which he has embalmed for the use of posterity was conveyed to him in direct and continuous transmission from Giotto. We know nothing further of the .fortunes of Cennino but the melancholy fact, already mentioned, that his treatise was composed and finished in a debtors' prison, when, at the lowest computation, its author was in the seventy-fifth year of a life of ill-rewarded toil. From this sad retreat, in a strain of cheerful piety, which argues no discreditable origin to his mis- fortunes, he proceeds to invocate the persons of the Trinity that most delightful advocate of all sinners the Virgin Mary St. Luke the Evangelist, the first Christian painter his own advocate St. Eustachius and generally all saints, both male and female, of Paradise not for his liberation from prison, but for their blessing on his endeavours to instruct posterity in the pro- cesses of the art he loved. ESSAY VIII. FRESCO-PAINTING. :.'." 7 With the exception of mosaic, encaustic, and painting on glass, there is hardly a process of the limner's art with respect to wliich the curious in such matters will not find some account of the practice of the fourteenth century, with directions simple and minute, though, as might be expected, occasionally rendered obscure by uncertainty as to the precise value and import of Italian terms of so old a date. Signer Tambroni, we may ob- serve, is of opinion that the practice of painting in encaustic had been discontinued previous to the time of Giotto. Cennini only mentions wax in two places, neither of which has any refer- ence to painting. Nor does he mention essential oils. For reasons to which we have adverted, it is probable that the portion of the work which will attract most general attention is the third, which treats of fresco, designated by the author as the most agreeable of all kinds of painting. With regard to the preparation of the wall for fresco, including the mixing of the plaster and the mode of its application, Cennini's instructions appear to accord generally with the methods laid down by other authorities, of which the curious will find a detail in the Report of the Fine Arts Commission. He makes no distinction in lan- guage between the first rough coat, by other writers commonly called the arricciato, and the intcmaco, or final layer, which received the colour, applying the latter term to both. With respect to the whole process of the design, we apprehend that any difference existing between the method of Giotto and that of later masters was to the advantage of the latter. From Cennini's text we might almost infer that the design was sketched out on the arricciato without the assistance of a car- toon ; but, from other accounts, and especially from a passage in Vasari's Life of Simon Memmi, quoted in the translator's notes, we have no doubt that a finished original design was prepared on paper, but of small dimensions, and copied off on the dry arricciato by the usual device of proportional squares. This copy was traced in the first instance with charcoal, and aft- r- wards elaborated with a fine brush, in water-colour. Over this the intonaco was laid piecemeal, and in quantities calculated as sufficient for the day's work ; for though Cennini admits that in the damp weather of spring the plaster may be kept wet for the next day, he deprecates the attempt, and says that which is finished in one day is the firmest, best, and most beautiful s 258 PAINTING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ESSAY VIII. work. We are a little puzzled to judge from Cennini's text how the traces of the design were preserved through the intonaco sufficiently to guide the painter's hand. We infer that at this period the practice was not introduced of preparing a working drawing, traced from a full-sized cartoon, and indenting through it the design on the surface of the moistened plaster. In this respect, if our inferences be just, the later practice was a decided improvement on that of Cennini's time and school. The large cartoon was noble practice towards subsequent ope- rations, and the result was often in itself a work of the highest value witness the cartoons by Agostino Carracci in the National Gallery (prepared for the ceiling of the Farnese palace) and even those of Hampton Court, which, though prepared for the looms of Flanders, would have been equally applicable to the walls of the Vatic m. We may here also mention, in preference to many other instances better known, the designs of Beccafumi for the pavement of the Sienna cathedral, a work which in our estimation has hardly its parallel for grace, tenderness, and sublimity. Many travellers are too idle, too careless, or too economical, to procure the removal of the boards which, except on certain feast-days, preserve this work from the hobnailed shoes of rustic devotees ; and there is a popular travellers' error that a large sum is required for this purpose ; two dollars is, or lately was, the fee, and the sight is cheap at the money. The discovery of the cartoons is, we believe, a recent one, and they were once purchasable at a low price. They are now beyond the reach of collectors, in their proper place, the Sienna academy, where we commend them to ,the attention of all travellers. We suspect that among the careless of this class economical he never was we must reckon the late Mr. Beckford, who, in a cursory notice, calls the designs of Beccafumi gro- tesque. He might as well have applied that epithet to the Madonna della Seggiola, or Titian's Venus of the Tribune. We suspect that he never saw them, or had their operculum removed, and that when he wrote the passage he was thinking of the older works in pari materid, and in the same cathedral, of Duccio, whose Jewish warriors in their Italian costume are both stiff and grotesque enough. Forsyth, in his terse manner, does Beccafumi better, but fleeting and imperfect justice. Accidents of travel brought us, not long since, by a brief transit from Seville to A Y V 1 1 1 . FRESCO-PAINTING. Si. -una, and Beccafumi's Moses striking the Rock came under our notice, when Murillo's masterpiece on the same subject was fresh in recollection. We preferred the mastic outlines and grey and white marbles of the Italian to all the magic of the Spaniard's colour, with his fidelity to Spanish nature. ^ ith respect to the colours used in fresco, Cennini's directions can hardly fail to excite much interest among our eager stu- dents ; and we venture to direct their notice to the following passage of the 37th chapter : "Some painters wash over the whole face with the flesh-colour first ; on that they put the verdaccio [a greenish colour, one part of black and two of ochre p. 53], and retouch the lights; and the work is finished. This plan is adopted by those only who know little of the art : but do you pursue the method of colouring which I shall point out to you, because it was adopted by Giotto, the great master, who had Taddeo Gaddi, his godson, for his dis- ciple for twenty -four years : his disciple was Agnolo, his son. I was Agnolo's disciple for twelve years, and he showed me this method, with which Agnolo coloured more agreeably and brilliantly than did Taddeo his father." p. 42. We suggest a careful comparison of the instructions which fol- low this passage, with various portions of the Report of the Royal Commission, which detail the practice of the present day at Munich and elsewhere. The main point in which the process recommended by Cennini differs from that which he condemns is in the avoidance of superposition of one tint upon another ; the main difficulty would appear to be to blend separate tints into one another without positive commixture, which he strongly deprecates, especially with the flesh-tints. Cennini pursues the subject of painting walls, both in fresco and secco, with much minuteness, distinguishing the materials common to both methods, or appropriate to either, and stating their applicability to the various different objects required from painters of his day and country old men's beards, angels' draperies, &c. The following passage (chap. 87) argues the limited and unscientific degree of acquaintance with perspective possessed by the masters of this early period : " Let the cornice which you make at the top of the honse incline downwards towards the obscure [t. e . as it recedes from the eye], and let the middle cornice of the building facing you be quite even ; let s 'J 260 PAINTING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ESSAY VIII. the cornice at the base of the building ascend in a direction quite contrary to that of the cornice at the top of the building." The example of the Chinese, as well as of individual begin- ners in design, proves that rules even apparently so obvious as these are not superfluous, but their vagueness indicates that Cermini knew of no method empirical or scientific for fixing with exactitude the points of sight and distance, and the degree of inclination of the lines converging to them. Chap. 88 recommends for landscape, in its character of a subordinate and accessory, a practice which was employed as an aid to composition by our Gainsborough : " How to draw a mountain naturally. If you would have a good model for mountains, so that they should appear natural, procure some large and broken pieces of rock, and draw from these, giving them lights and shades as you see them on the stones before you." If we pass from fresco and distemper to oil, we shall, as might be expected, find that subject treated with less detail than others, but still in a manner which shows that it was no novelty to the author, and which enables Signor Tambroni to repudiate with severity the theory of Vasari as to the date of the intro- duction of oil-painting into Italy. We apprehend that the notion attributed to Vasari, for there is some doubt whether he really held it, that Van Eyck, alias John of Bruges, was the discoverer of oil as a vehicle for colour, hardly requires refutation, as, however once popular, it has ceased to be entertained by those who have investigated the subject. It seems, however, still more certain that his account of the introduction of that process into Italy at so late a period as 1470 is disproved by the very existence of Cennini's work, finished in 1437, and which contains such a sentence as the following (chap. 89) : " Before we proceed further I will teach you to paint in oil, on walls, or in pictures (which is much practised by the Germans), and also on iron or stone." Here it is to be remarked that he speaks of it as a process familiar to another nation, in which he probably includes the Flemings. According, however, to the story of Vasari, Van Eyck's discovery, which he dates at 1410, was kept by him as a ESSAY VIII. OIL-'PAIXTIXG. 261 valuable secret from his countrymen and all others till he sold it to an Italian, Antonello da Messina, who is known to have been born some nearly forty years later, and ten years after the date of Cennini's treatise, viz. in 1449 or 1447. The gross chronolo- gical impossibilities of this statement which would bring Van Eyck to the age of 104 at the period of his alleged transaction with Antonello would suffice to show that some vital error was involved in it, even without the assistance of Cennini's treatise. Without entering further into the discussion, we may say that two results appear to us, as to Mrs. Merrifield, to come pretty clearly out of a consideration of the whole question : one, that Van Eyck did not invent the use of oil as a vehicle; the other, that he did discover some signal improvement in its application, which, being at some period of the fifteenth century introduced into Italy, led to the advance of that branch of art, and which, we fear, is now lost, without having been replaced by any nostrum as effective. We ground this latter opinion upon mere observation of facts. We write under serious apprehension that, for the works of many painters of the present century, Time will not perform that office of improvement described in Dryden's exquisite lines, and which he seems not yet to have wearied in performing for such works as the Van Eyck and Bellini's Doge in our National Gallery. Of these it might, indeed, have been said with more prophetic justice than of Kneller " For Time shall with his ready pencil stand, Retouch your figures with his ripening hand, Mellow your colours, and embrown each tint, Add every grace which Time alone can grant ; To future ages shall your fame convey, And give more beauties than he takes away." Many instances have come under our notice in which the lapse of some twenty years has reduced pictures, of price and merit when they left the easel, to a condition which would make it difficult to account for the satisfaction they once afforded to our eye. We know that the anticipation, or something more, of premature decay is entertained on the other side the Channel with respect to some contemporary works of the liighest excel- lence. Is it want of skill, or care, or labour in manipulation, 2G2 PAINTING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ESSAY VIII. which makes lights turn to chalk, and shadows to black ? Men have been careless and sketchy in Italy of old, and the result has been painful as any now to be witnessed, but not, as seems to us, the same in kind. We believe that a secret has been lost, and that it is well worth inquiry whether we are to look for its reco- very to the pigment or the vehicle, or both. As far as the pig- ment is concerned, Cennini's list of twenty-four, twelve only of which he approves and recommends, probably contains none of importance which are not known and appreciated at present. Were we to make an exception it would probably be in favour of amatito, a colour prepared by pounding a crystal, which Mrs. Merrifield thinks was native cinnabar. " It makes," says Cennini, " such a colour as cardinals wear, and is proper for fresco, but not for any other use." His directions, however, for the preparation of each show the care with which that preparation was con- ducted. Speaking of cinnabar, he says, " If you were to grind it for twenty years it would be but the better and more perfect ;" and with regard to many of the others he enforces a similar precept. We are inclined to believe that any essential difference between ancient and modern practice consists in the vehicle rather than the colour. The Translator remarks in her preface, p. xiii. : "The propriety of using different vehicles on the same picture has lately been much discussed, and the general opinion appears to be unfavourable to it. Under these circumstances the practical directions of Cennino will be read with much interest. In chapter 35 he informs us that some colours must be used with one vehicle, some with another, &c. (p. xxi.) It may be proper to observe that Cennino does not mention the practice of mixing liquid varnish with colours, except in that remarkable chapter (161) in which he speaks of the custom of paiiiting the living face with oil colours, or colours mixed with varnisu, in order to make the complexion brilliant; and to suggest to the artists who paint with the composition called megelp (mastic varnish and boiled oil), whether that can be a good vehicle which had been tried and rejected by the painters who flourished previous to and during the age of Van Eyck. The addition of the litharge on which the modern drying oil is boiled is known to have a deleterious effect on colours, by causing them to change. It is somewhat curious that the painters of the nineteenth century should have revived and practised as a new invention what those of the fourteenth century tried and rejected; and more extraordinary still, ESSAY VIII. APPRENTICESHIP TO THE ART. 2G3 that, unwarned by experience, they should continue to use it, in spite of the awful gashes and cracks that disfigure the pictures painted with this vehicle." Mr. Haydon is of opinion (see page 274 of his Lectures) that the old masters had no advantage over ourselves in their mate- rial, and that, if Titian were to enter an atelier in Newman- Street, he would be able to paint the Diana and Actaeon with the colours and vehicles he would find to nis hand. We think this may be true, and we hope it is so, but the question is whether the picture so painted would stand the test of three centuries. If Cennini were writing now, we believe he would call on all his saints to save him from megelp. " Know," says Cennini (chap. 109), " that you cannot learn to paint in less time than that which I shall name to you. In the first place, you must study drawing for at least one year ; then you must remain with a master at the workshop for the space of six years at least, that you may learn all the parts and members of the art, to grind colours, to boil down glues, to grind plaster (gesso), to acquire the practice of laying grounds on pictures (i/igessare le ancone), to work in relief (rdevare), and to scrape (or smooth) the surface (radire}, and to gild ; afterwards to practise colouring, to adorn with mordants, paint cloths of gold, and paint on walls, for six more years : drawing without intermission on holidays and workdays." A formidable catalogue of mechanical processes for six years, which the modern discovery of the division of labour has spared to the student. We believe, however, that the intimate acquaint- ance with the materials and instruments of his art, which he purchased at so large a sacrifice in the fourteenth century, con- tributed much to the durability of his work, to the lasting brilliancy of those colours which, after the lapse of four centu- ries, still speak the first intention of the master. It is probable, indeed, that there was a good deal of pedantry in the teachers, and of slavish submission in the pupils of these times ; that the secrets of art were doled out with a reluctant hand by those who saw future rivals in their apprentices, and that some were boarded to the last. Still, if genius occasionally had to endure trammels which must have cramped, perhaps impaired, its ener- gies, it secured for itself the benefit of accumulated experience and uninterrupted tradition ; and though we should not wish to 264 PAINTING IN THE FOUETEENTH CENTURY. ESSAY VIII. condemn our youthful Jacobs to fourteen years' service under Labans of the Academy, we could wish to see something like the relation of the Giottos and Agnolos to their pupils more pre- valent than it has yet been in England more of the emeriti willing to teach and more of the young willing to wait and learn. Cennini, at the moment when he is doing his best to enable the student to dispense with tuition, thus proceeds : " There are many who say that you may learn the art without the assistance of a master ; do not believe them ; let this book be your example, studying it day and night. And if you do not study under some master you will never be fit for anything, nor will you be able to show your face among the masters." Cennini is very minute in his instructions for the use of gold in all its various applications, and of tin ; but deprecates the use of silver, except as a cheap substitute for gold for beginners in miniature. The following directions are characteristic of the man, and of the feelings in which Italian art had its origin (chap. 96): "It is usual to adorn walls with gilded tin, because it is less expensive than gold. Nevertheless I give you this advice, that you endeavour always to use fine gold and good colours, particularly in painting representations of our Lady. And if you say that a poor person cannot afford the expense, I answer that, if you work well, and give sufficient time to your works, and paint with good colours, you will acquire so much fame that from a poor person you will become a rich one ; and your name will stand so high for using good colours that, if some masters receive a ducat for painting one figure, you will certainly be offered two, and your wishes will be fulfilled according to the old proverb, Good work, good pay. And, even should you not be well paid, God and our Lady will reward your soul and body for it." Cennini's body was rewarded by the caption of a sheriff's officer, or his Florentine equivalent ; but who shall say what consolation the old prisoner's soul, while yet in the body, derived from such devotional feelings as shine forth from this and similar passages scattered through his volume ? Saintly faces may have smiled upon him through the stanchions of his dungeon, and gracious images have irradiated its inner gloom, such as shine not for solvent and successful men. ESSAY VIII. ARTIFICIAL LAPIS LAZZULI. 265 Of equal rank. with gold in Cennini's estimation, and probably, in point of expense, even a greater tax on the resources of the struggling artist, was ultramarine, for the preparation of which he gives copious directions. The precious mineral of which this pigment is composed, lapis lazzuli, has lately been the subject of one of the most signal triumphs of modern chemistry, which is thus spoken of by Liebig : " Of all the achievements of inorganic chemistry, the artificial formation of lapis lazzuli was the most brilliant and the most con- clusive The analysis of lapis lazzuli represented it to be com- posed of silica, alumina, and soda, three colourless bodies, with sulphur, and a trace of iron. Nothing could be discovered in it of the nature of a pigment, nothing to which its blue colour could be referred, the cause of which was searched for in vain. It might therefore have been supposed that the analyst was here altogether at fault, and that, at any rate, its artificial production was impossible. Nevertheless this has been accomplished, and simply by combining, in the proper proportions, as determined by analysis, silica, alumina, soda, iron, and sulphur. Thousands of pounds' weight are now manufactured from these ingredients, and this artificial ultramarine is as beautiful as the natural, while for the price of a single ounce of the latter we may obtain many pounds of the former. With the production of artificial lapis lazzuli the formation of mineral bodies by synthesis ceased to be a scientific problem to the chemist ; he has no longer sufficient interest to pursue the subject." Letters on Chemistry. 1844. Vol. i. p. 9. So far the great German. "With all deference, however, for his authority as a philosopher, we doubt whether the painter will yet accept his manufacture as a perfect equivalent to the article used by the old painters, at least for the more delicate works of the pencil. For such expanses of colour as the roof of that church of Assisi, for which royal piety and munificence supplied the lapis lazzuli, it would probably fulfil every condition required of brilliancy and durability, at the comparatively trifling expense described in the above passage. We find in the translator's notes, on the authority of Dr. Ure, that an ultramarine of very superior quality, discovered in 1828 by a French chemist, M. Guimet, has been sold at about two guineas the English pound. We think we can recollect purchasing some fabricated from the natural lapis lazzuli some years before this discovery at about 266 PAINTING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ESSAY VIII. four guineas the ounce. If M. Guimet's secret has been truly detected by a brother chemist, his compound approaches to a synthesis of the elements of Liebig's analysis, but is not a com- plete one. He has four of the elements, but the iron is not mentioned. For those who can afford the experiment, and prefer stare super antiquas vias, and to resort to the native mate- rial, it may be worth while to study Cennini's process. It differs from the present in not subjecting the stone to the action of fire, in the use of lixivia, and other particulars. Successive extracts, decreasing in quality, were produced, the first two of which Cennini values at eight ducats the ounce. The result has stood the test of centuries, and the methods which produced it must be worth investigation. Mrs. Merrifield remarks that there is no brown pigment on Cennini's list, whereas modern painters are in possession of fif- teen. He recommends burnt and pulverized bones for the priming of panels, and we learn, incidentally, from his directions, that it was the practice of the diners of his day to throw the bones under the table. In chap. 7 he says, " You must now know what bones are proper. For this purpose take the bones of the ribs and wings of fowls or capons, and the older they are the better. When you find them under the table put them into the fire ; and when you see they are become whiter than ashes, take them out and grind them well on a porphyry slab, and keep the powder for use." There is a tradition in Murillo's birthplace that he was in the habit of manufacturing one of his rich browns- by a similar process from the beef-bones of his daily olla, and, as we have heard, this tradition has been turned to account by an artist well known at present in Seville as a successful copyist of Murillo.* Adverting to the great Spaniard, we may add, on the authority which fur- nished us with this anecdote, that the purple which so often charms the eye in his works, and is one, perhaps, of their most characteristic features, was imitated from the stained fingers of * We are inclined to believe that some of Cennini's blacks would on examination prove to be browns. Pure black should never be admitted on wall or canvas, for the simple reason that it hardly exists in any department of nature which can come within the sphere of imitation. In vegetable nature we have heard it stated that it is only to be found in the flower of the kidney-bean. De Candolle or Mr. Paxton might perhaps bring other instances. v VIII. HAYDON ON PAINTING AND DESIGN. 2G7 the mulberry gatherers of the neighbourhood of Seville. It would be more to our purpose to be able to tell how the imitation was effected, but, though tradition is silent on this point, the slightest traces of the operations of such an eye as Murillo's are worth recording. " We derive," says Signer Tarabroni, p. xliii., " no small advan- tage from chap. 157 and the three following, where he speaks of painting in miniature, and of laying gold on paper and in books. For we despaired of discovering the method of gilding in that beau- tiful and brilliant manner practised by the ancients, with which they illuminated their manuscripts ; and we are under great obli- gations to Cennino, who has rescued the secret of the art from oblivion." Before we bestow our concluding remarks on this amusing ancient, we must step aside for a little to the new work of an English veteran of the pencil and the pen, Mr. Haydon's Lec- tures on Painting and Design. The various performances of the painter of Solomon and Lazarus with the former of the above- mentioned instruments, it does not come within the scope of this article to criticise. Of his literary contribution to art our esti- mate is favourable ; we must avow a very general concurrence in views and opinions which come recommended by the vigorous language and manly style of one who could not so express what he did not believe, feel, and understand. On many important particulars affecting the education of the hand and eye Mr. Haydon's sentiments have been much before the public. He is known for an enthusiastic but profound and discriminating wor- shipper of Phidias and Raphael, and also as one who, in his admiration of the past, has faith and hope in the prospects of England. Though, for this reason, many of his views as detailed here will not be new to his readers, the form of Lectures into which he has thrown them is one which will bring them under notice in convenient compass and agreeable succession. The practical mode in which he treats and illustrates with a strong hand a favourite portion of his subject, the anatomical, will make his treatise, in the case of the young student, a valuable appen- dage to Albinus or Lizars. Mr. Haydon thinks the Greeks dissected. While contemplat- ing the Theseus, or passing the hand over the palpable excel- 268 PAINTING IN THE POUETEENTH CENTUEY. ESSAY VIII. lence of those heroic shoulders, which tell even to the touch how Phidias lavished the treasures of his skill on objects destined in their position for concealment from other eyes than those of the gods he strove to represent, we should find it difficult to contra- dict Mr. Haydon's theory. We think, however, the fact he cites, that Hippocrates dissected apes, rather a stumbling-block than an assistance to it. "Will you believe," says Mr. H., "that a man of genius stopped short at an ape ?" Perhaps not ; but if prejudice, custom, or religion had not made the interval between the ape and the human subject a wide one, the medical man of genius would hardly have troubled the ape at all ; and if either Hippocrates or Phidias went further, they probably did so in secret, and never admitted human dissection to its proper place as part of a system of instruction. The question, however, is one of mere curiosity. It is clear that in times when, thanks to Mr. Warburton, the obstacles are removed, it would be madness for us to neglect a corrective which, if Phidias did not possess it, gives us a chance the more of diminishing the distance between that master and ourselves. Having spoken (p. 176) with due and discriminating praise of Eeynolds, Fuseli, and Opie, Mr. Haydon continues, " All these had one irremediable defect ; they had never dissected man or animal they trusted to their capaci- ties and practice ; and all these have left nothing behind them but vague generalities." These are Mr. Haydon's English instances, negative, but sound, in support of his views. Let us stray to Italy, and substi- tute for Mr. Haydon's respectable trio M. Angelo, Eaphael, and Lionardo. Of these M. Angelo dissected ab initio ; Raphael, whose apprenticeship in art was devoted to draped Madonnas, did not. What was the consequence ? As years and self-know- ledge increased he felt his disadvantage, and studied anatomy, too late to redeem, in his own opinion, an inferiority he felt and acknowledged to the last, but not too late to make the Cartoons what they are, and what they would not otherwise have been. Lionardo did more than borrow from anatomical science. He was one who turned what he touched to gold, whose skirmishes were the pitched battles of other men. He repaid his obliga- tions to anatomy by the elaborate illustrations of the human frame which Vasari records him to have executed for his anato- mical teacher, M. Antonio della Torre. These designs, we may ESSAY VIII. HAYDON ON PAINTING AND DESIGN. 269 mention, were executed in the material of which Cennini speaks, the matita rossa, or amatito. " What Cato did, and Addison approved, Cannot be wrong." A dictum full of falacies when used by a swindler as a justifi- cation for suicide, but susceptible of a sounder application in this and many other instances. \\V have given our feeble and unprofessional aid in corrobora- tion of Mr. Haydon's exhortations, because we think with him that severe anatomical study, whether essential or not to the Greeks, is the true corrective for the prevalent vices of English art. We have little fear of opposite extremes, of pedantic dis- plays of muscles, and attitudes forced and invented for that dis- play. Faults of this kind are more likely to be generated by imitating imitations, by the practice of servile copies, which Mr. Haydon justly deprecates, than by going to the real sources of that power which, like all things acquired by much labour, will sometimes tempt its possessor as it tempted M. Angelo to its too ostentatious display. There are few sections of Mr. Haydon's work from which we might not extract some sound and effective passage. From some we might select subjects of friendly controversy ; but having fallen on nothing which appears to us deadly heresy or dangerous error, we prefer to commend the volume to all who take an interest in its subject, with the assurance that it will repay their study of it. To return to old Cennini we cannot dismiss the subject of oil-painting without pausing for a moment on a very curious branch of that process which existed in his time, but of which we never before met with any mention. The practice of paint- ing the living countenance in that material (chap. 161) is cha- ritably headed " How, having painted a human face, to wash off and clean away the colours." We are not aware whether the inventors of Lynch law in the United States have furnished any receipt for removing tar and feathers. The humanity of Cennini is as worthy of imitation as his piety. He proceeds : " Sometimes in the course of your practice you will be obliged to paint flesh both of men and women "- 270 PAINTING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ESSAY \ 7 III. If the author had stopped here, we might have almost concluded that the patient of the fourteenth century resembled the histrio- nic enthusiast of Mr. Dickens's novel, who entered so warmly into the part of Othello as to black himself all over ; but Cennini adds, " especially faces of men and women. You may temper your colours with yolk of egg ; or, if you desire to make them more brilliant, with oil, or with liquid varnish, which is the most powerful of temperas." Then follow the directions for cleaning : "Do this," he says, "many times, till the colour be removed from the face. We will say no more on this subject." We wish he had said more, for it is very amusing. He goes on, however, to speak out on the subject of cosmetics : " It sometimes happens that young ladies, especially those of Flo- rence, endeavour to heighten their beauty by the application of medicated waters and colours to their skin. But as women who fear God do not use these things, and as I do not wish to make myself obnoxious to them, or to incur the displeasure of God and our Lady, I shall say no more on this subject. But I advise you, if you desire to preserve your complexion for a long period, to wash yourself with water from fountains, rivers, or wells ; and I warn you, that if you use cosmetics your face will soon become withered, your teeth black, and you will become old before the natural course of time, and be the ugliest object possible. This is quite sufficient to say on the subject." Chap. 162. We think so ; but from this strong language applied to the decoctions of white lead and other mixtures used by the Jezebels of his day, and from the absence of any similar caution against the use of oil and liquid varnish, we infer that no such conse- quences were to be dreaded from the latter mode of preparing the face for exhibition. It becomes a question, therefore, whether the revival of the practice might not be attended with advan- tage, both by opening a new field of employment to an over- stocked profession, and by improving the aspect of polished society. A mere likeness now once painted and paid for ceases to be a source of income to the artist, and becomes in every respect the property of the employer. We know at least no ESSAY VIII. MOULDS FROM LIVING SUBJECTS. 271 instance in which Mr. Grant or Mr. Pickersgill has been called in from year to year to follow on his own canvas the changes of advancing age, to insert the white hairs as they spring, or the wrinkles as they trace their furrows. Should the practice of painting the face itself be fairly revived, this order of tilings will be reversed the face will in some sense change masters, and, requiring from time to time a fresh coat of paint, will invest the family painter with a sort of beneficial interest in its features. We know of many* countenances which could hardly fail to be improved even in the hands of the younger members of the profession ; but imagination can hardly at present suggest the effects which will be produced should Mr. Turner apply himself to this new line of art : this, however, is not the point. We are looking to the interests of art and its professors, and not to merely saving journeys to Cheltenham for gentlemen lately returned from our Indian possessions, or to the renovation of faded Polkaists at the close of a London season. It is for high art we plead when we ask whether the Fine Arts Commission might not with advantage institute a premium for the best painted member of parliament, or other conspicuous and historical contemporary, to be exhibited at St. James's on her Majesty's next birthday. The last nine chapters expound various methods of taking casts from the living human body and from inanimate substances, but not from the deceased human body. The practice of taking moulds from the living seems to have been one in familiar use at this period, and to have been employed for likenesses as well as for obtaining painters' models ; for, in taking a cast of a lord, a pope, a king, or an emperor, we are cautioned to stir rose-water into the plaster. For other persons he says it is sufficient to use water from fountains, rivers, or wells only. Chapter 68 shows that the artist was sometimes his own subject. The self-devotion of a Curtius must have been required for the proceeding it describes. " Take a quantity either of paste or wax, well stirred and clean, of the consistence of ointment, and very soft ; spread it on a large table, a dinner table for instance. Set it on the ground, spread the paste on it to the height of half a braccio. Throw yourself upon it in any attitude you please, either forward or backward or on one 272 PAINTING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. ESSAY VIII. side. And if this paste take the impression well, you must extricate yourself from it dexterously, so as not to disturb it." We doubt if either Sir Martin Shee or Mr. Haydon would second Cennini's proposal as to the use of a dinner-table, and we humbly confess that, wanting confidence in our own dexterity, we had rather throw somebody else than ourselves into half a braccio of wax or paste for any purpose in any attitude. We cannot better conclude this article than by the expression of our cordial participation in the prayer with which the vener- able Cennini concludes his treatise, that Heaven, and the favour- ite saints he particularises, " may give us grace and strength to sustain and bear in peace the cares and labours of this world, and that those who study this book may find grace to study it and well to retain it, so that by the sweat of their brows they may live peaceably and maintain their families in this world with grace, and finally, in that which is to come, live with glory for ever and ever. Amen." ESSAY IX. MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. 273 IX. MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, JUNE, 1845.(*) " THE work which I publish is the last contribution I can offer, at the close of my life, to the profit of a science which I have cultivated always with ardour, and a profession I have pursued with passion." Marmont, Preface, p. vi. These are the words of one whose name occupies a place in the military history of the age sufficiently conspicuous to entitle the work they announce to high consideration. Of the Marshal's professional career we have heard nothing which can diminish the respect due to the twenty campaigns which he proudly refers to as the groundwork of his present lucubrations. In a national point of view we have no recollections to disturb the satisfaction with which we can " Smile to see reflection's genial ray Gild the calm close of valour's various day." If in the eyes of some of his countrymen three days of unmerited misfortune are to be balanced against years of unquestioned devotion, we can only wish to recognise in that stormy sunset the light of a soldier's fidelity to the standard to which he had pledged the saeramentum militare. It is therefore in no hostile or wrangling spirit, and, as we trust we shall show, on no idle grounds, that in the course of observations which the authority of his name and the literary merits of his work invite from us, () 1. Esprit des Institutions Militaires. Par le Mardchal Marmont, Due de Raguse. Paris. 1845. 2. History of the War in France and Belgium in 1815. By Captain W. Siborne. 2 vols. 8vo. (with Plans). London. 1844. 3. The Fall of Napoleon : an Historical Memoir. By Lieut.-Colonel Mitchell . 3 vols. post 8vo. London. 1845. T 274 MAEMONT, SIBOENE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX." and which will be consistent with the respect due to that autho- rity in matters of opinion, we shall give an unceremonious con- tradiction to one misstatement of fact which disfigures the volume. The work opens with a brief essay on the subject of military literature, in which the Marshal disposes of the ancients as pro- found, indeed, but utterly inapplicable to the purposes of modern instruction, and of the moderns as, with few exceptions, superfi- cial and deficient. It would appear that in France at least military Boyles and Temples are still to be found, who are fond enough of classical antiquity to indulge in the reveries of Folard and other military antiquarians of the reign of Louis XIV. We must ourselves plead guilty to a boyish affection for the illustrated edition of Folard, with its pictured legions and elephants, and Cannae's crescent, and the paraphernalia of Punic war. We admit, however, that these are ruminations for boys or professors, and that men of action will hardly now go farther back than to Frederick the Great, or at most to Turenne, Marlborough, and Eugene for practical purposes. The classical antiquarian is more likely to obtain from the present some light which he may reflect upon the past, as Gibbon brought the experience of a militia drill to bear upon the formation of the legion. Marshal Marmont specifies but few exceptions to his general condemnation of the modern writers on the art of war. The Memoires de Montholon, dictated by Napoleon, Gouvion St. Cyr, Segur's Russian Campaign, and the Strategy of the Arch- duke Charles, compose his list. Of the Royal Austrian's treatise he speaks, as do all the qualified judges we have ever met with, as a work " qu'on ne saurait trop etudier." Of the Marquis de Segur he says : " I have read on the ground the three well-known narratives of Segur, de Chambray, and Bouturlin ; in my opinion it is the first alone which gives an exact account of the manner in which things must have passed." A high tribute from a soldier to the merits of a civilian's work. No mention whatever is made of Jomini pronounced by Mr. Alison to be the first military writer of the age that produced the Archduke Charles. The Marshal, we suppose, has, like our- v IX. STRATEGY AND TACTICS. selves, the misfortune to differ from Mr. Alison. Cleared of the pompous charlatanerie of Jomini, and of the profound but useless disquisitions of the school which would take us back with the Baron of Bradwardine to the prcelium equeatre of Titus Livius, and the army regulations ofVegetius, the soldier's library is thus reduced to a narrow compass. We incline to the opinion that the present volume will be considered an addition of some value. It is a condensed summary of the experience of twenty cam- paigns, free from verbiage and the parade of science, which may be perused in an hour, but is suggestive of much meditation, and in some instances throws the light of a competent opinion on points of character interesting to the biographer and the historian. An example of this is to be found in the author's remarks upon Moreau and Napoleon. After ascribing to the latter the very highest pre-eminence as a strategist, he says " Moreau, on the contrary, whose talents have been so much extolled, knew nothing of strategy. His skill displayed itself in tactics. Personally very brave, he handled well, in the presence of the enemy, troops occupying a ground within the limits of his vision ; but he delivered his principal battles with a portion only of his force." p. 15. Marshal Marmont cites Hohenlinden as a case in point. No better illustration is to be found of the military character and resources of the two men than may be derived from a studious comparison of the simultaneous operations of the two French armies of the Rhine and Italy in 1800. In the chapter on Tactics, p. 20, the Marshal proceeds : " This kind of merit was incomplete with Napoleon, which is accounted for by the circumstances of his early career. Simple officer of artillery, up to the moment when he arrived at the com- mand of armies, he never commanded either regiment, brigade, division, or corps d'armee. He had not been able to acquire that facility of moving troops in a given space, which is developed by daily habit and the perpetual variety of combinations. The wars of Italy afforded him scarcely any application of this nature, their habitual actions reducing themselves in general to affairs of posts, the attack and defence of defiles, and to operations in the mountains. Later, when he had attained to supreme power, the force of the armies he conducted requiring their organization in corps d'armee, rendered less necessary the habit of manoeuvring. A general at the T 2 276 MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. head of 80,000, 100,000, or 150,000 men, gives merely the impulsion. The generals who manoeuvre and fight are those who command 30,000 men, and their subordinates. They should be familiar with tactics. If I have enjoyed some reputation in this particular, I owe it to my long residence in the camp of Zeist, where for more than a year I was constantly occupied in instructing excellent troops and myself." We have no doubt of the accuracy of this distinctive criticism. It leads us to reflect on our good fortune, in the fact that the gradations of our service and the campaign of Holland gave our own great captain the means of laying deep the foundation of his knowledge in the practice of inferior but responsible command. To such practice as that of the Colonelcy of the 33rd in Holland we may attribute the fact that the same head which planned the advance on Vittoria could preserve its self-possession in the parallel march of the two armies which preceded Salamanca, that three days' agony of tactical skill to which his antagonist now justly refers as the most remarkable instance of its display, and which we know the victor in that trial of fence considers as unique, at least since the time of Frederick. The chapter on marches and countermarches brings us to the ground on which, with respect to no matter of opinion, but one of fact, we are compelled to do battle with the Marshal. Speak- ing of marches in the presence of an enemy, he says : " The army of Portugal, in 1812, under my command, made such a march with success. The French and English armies were encamped on the two sides of the Duero : the first was inferior to the latter by 6000 infantry and 4000 horse. Despite this disproportion of force I had found fit to resume the offensive The passage of the Duei'o was therefore resolved upon and executed." The Marshal then describes an operation on Tordesillas, in which the English retired before his attack, and escaped destruc- tion by one of those miracles which alone ever saved from it an army opposed to the French. In this instance the inter- posing cause was the superiority of the British in cavalry, and we may add that the French were roughly handled. He proceeds : " The two armies found themselves on the evening of this pursuit in face of each other, and separated by the Guarena, a marshy ESSAY IX. MARCHES AND COUNTERMARCHES. 277 stream. July 20th, the French army, all formed in order of battle, rompue par pelotons, made a flank manoeuvre by its left to remount the stream ; arrived at a ford reconnoitred beforehand and rapidly improved, it transferred its head to the left bank, seized, at its com- mencement, a table-land which extends itself indefinitely in a direc- tion which menaced the retreat of the enemy, and debouched upon it under the protection of a powerful battery which covered its movements. The Duke of Wellington at first thought himself able to oppose this offensive march, but it was executed so briskly and with so much ensemble, that he soon gave up the idea of attacking us. He then put in motion the English army, marching it along a table- land parallel to the one we occupied. The two armies continued their march, separated by a narrow valley, always ready to accept battle ; several hundred cannon-shots were exchanged, according to the circumstances more or less favourable arising from the sinuosities of the table-land, for each of the generals wished to accept battle and not to give it. They arrived thus, after a march of five leagues, at the respective positions which they wished to occupy, the French on the heights of Aldea Rubia, the English on those of St. Chris- toval. This remarkable march is, it remains to say, the only fact of the kind which to my knowledge has occurred in our time." p. 153. \Yith the exception of the one passage marked in italics we have nothing to say against the general tenor of this description. We could carry it a little further ; but as it conveys by obvious and necessary implication an equal share of the credit to those who equally deserved it, we say nothing now of the ensuing day's continuance of this trial of skill and its result. The Marshal's statement of the relative numbers of the two armies we cannot so pass over. The intention of it is sufficiently obvious. It is put forward as the solution of a fact ever inexpli- cable to the understandings of the Marshal's countrymen, but in tliis instance incontrovertible in itself, the defeat of a French army. The loss of eagles, guns, and prisoners, the rapid conver- sion of an orderly and menacing pursuit to more than retreat, to hurried and tumultuous flight, the loss of a capital, and the published strictures of Buonaparte, have left no room for cavil as to the fact. Toulouse may be claimed as a victory ; French biographers may insert in the Life of Mass^na such sentences as " battit le gtntral Anglais Wellington a BUAOCO :" but no French arch of triumph will have the name of Salamanca inscribed on it. 278 MAEMONT, SIBOENE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. We object to the explanation now attempted on several grounds. In the first place it is not fair with respect to the manner in which it is brought forward in the second it is not true. We cannot expect in modern times that either common consent or the chances of recruiting should bring two armies to that precise condition of equality which, by the assistance of the blacksmith of Perth, was realized in the strife of the clans described by Sir Walter. No action in Mr. James's six volumes of Naval History presents a mathematical equipouderance of pounds of metal, size of scantling, or number of men. Blades of grass, armies, and frigates are never exact counterparts of each other. It has, however, hitherto been considered that, if any action of the later wars of Europe by sea or land presented more than another the unusual feature of an approximation to numerical equality, it was the battle of Salamanca. As far as our knowledge extends? this fact is now controverted for the first time since the occur- rence. We find in the Marshal's own narrative of 1812, which is neither more nor less than a laboured apology addressed to a rigid taskmaster a narrative into which every conceivable ground of excuse has been introduced no mention whatever of any disparity but that which existed in the one article of cavalry. We could point out more than one instance of the suppressio veri in this same document of 1812 as to the attack of Bock's German horse, for instance, in mentioning which the Marshal totally suppresses the fact that the two squares of infantry on which they fell were broken and cut to pieces by those intrepid swordsmen. But can we believe that the writer of this elaborate and not very scrupulous apology, dated nine days after the battle, could have failed to ascertain, or would have forborne to allege, the grand arithmetical fact which, he now, after a lapse of thirty-three years, discloses ? It is not, in our opinion, fair to endeavour, in any matter of history, to disturb its accepted version of important facts by sudden, tardy, and incidental assertion unsupported by other evidence than the authority of the asserter. The reputation of individuals or of nations won in fair fight is their property, and once acquired should be sacred, unless they can be deprived of it by legal process, which implies due notice to the defendant, and something like evidence, for which the ipse dixit of the party above all others interested in the cause will hardly be accepted. ESSAT IX. BATTLE OF SALAMANCA. 279 On the second head of our indictment we should, till the Marshal brings forward something in the shape of evidence, be perfectly justified in resting on the general acceptance of our own view of the facts, but we have no objection to substantiate it by document. The process in this instance is very simple, but we take the opportunity of cautioning military authors on the other side of the water that the Peninsula in general is dangerous ground. With their theories and lucubrations in matters of opinion we have nothing to do ; but with regard to questions of fact and detail they will do wisely to remember that the French armies in that country possessed nothing beyond the line of their camp fires, that their communications were constantly inter- rupted, their messengers waylaid, and their despatches of all descriptions, including military returns, deciphered, read, and digested at the British head-quarters. Litera seripta manet, and some of these documents preserved in the British archives are now before us, and will be at the service of truth and fair-dealing whenever required. For our present purpose we require no assistance from recondite sources. The Marshal ascribes to the British a superiority of force to the amount of 10,000 men, 6000 infantry and 4000 cavalry. The French return of the strength of Marshal Marmont's army for the loth June gives a rough total of 54,500 men under arms ; but it is added that when the necessary deductions are made for artillery, engineers, non- combatants, and losses in the course of the five weeks intervening between that period and the 22nd July, the result will be about 42,000 sabres and bayonets for the battle. This return has been published, without being questioned, by the French translator of Colonel Napier's work. We have before us the morning state of the Anglo-Portuguese army under the Duke's command on July 12th. It gives a total of 44,500 sabres and bayonets a superiority therefore of just 2500 men, instead of the 10,000 now claimed by the Marshal. Of this excess more than three- fourths were Spanish, whose commander, Carlos d'Espana, per- formed the memorable feat of abandoning the castle of Alba de Tornies, and of concealing the fact from the Duke, thereby saving the French army from a destruction which, in all human probability, would have thrown the rout of Yittoria into the shade. We know of no other service performed on the occasion by Don Carlos and liis division. We admit, then, a general 280 MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. superiority to the above amount. It has never been disputed that we were superior in cavalry ; we probably had 2000 more horse in the field, instead of the 4000 claimed by the Marshal, and we used them well. The French, on the other hand, had 74 guns opposed to 60 of ours six of which were Spanish under circumstances which brought that arm into as formidable and continued employment as in any affair of the Peninsular war. These relative numbers are, we trust, sufficient to show that there were no such unequal weights in the balance as could account for the event, and thus confirm the insinuation intended by the Marshal's paragraph. As the question is one of numbers, we forbear to notice the moral points of comparison between an army of one brave and military nation, speaking one language, and moving under its master's eye, as he justly boasts, like a regiment, and the heterogeneous compound of four nations wielded by his rival. 10,000 men, where such numbers as 40,000 are concerned, might probably have been sufficient to neutralize the obvious advantages on the French side ; 2500, principally Spanish, were quite inadequate to do so. In the absence of all documentary evidence in support of the Marshal's assertion, we at first almost entertained the conjecture that he had forgotten that his force had been increased since the commencement of active operations by the arrival of General Bonet's corps from the Asturias ; but as that junction took place so long before as the 8th June, and as General Bonet's corps was distinguished by its services at Salamanca, it is hardly possible that the Marshal can have been misled by hasty reference to, some older return. We have not provoked the controversy, and here we must leave it certainly with unimpaired admiration for the valour and tenacity with which in this bloody field the French army endea- voured to retrieve its fortunes. On the subject of the equipment of cavalry the Marshal gives his adhesion to an opinion which, we think, has gained ground of late years, but which has not yet been submitted to the test of warlike experience, that the lance should be the weapon of heavy, but by no means of light cavalry. " All things equal," he savs, p. 48, " it is certain that a hussar or a chasseur will beat v * f a lancer." If by " toutes choses dgales " it be meant that the parties opposed shall have had nothing but the usual regimental instruction in the use of their respective weapons, we have no ESSAY IX. FORTIFICATIONS. 281 doubt that the Marshal is right ; but we also believe that the lance is by far the superior weapon in the hands of a horseman bred and trained to its use. We believe that by a recent regu- lation the lance is now the weapon of the heavy cavalry in the Russian service. Among other speculative views of the Marshal, we may cite as deserving attention his notions as to the eventual application of the Congreve rocket, which he thinks is destined to effect in the field and in infantry contests an alteration as extensive as that which in naval warfare and coast defence may be expected from hollow shot and the Paixhans gun. The first campaign in which Austria may be engaged is likely to exhibit an extensive application of the rocket. The Marshal's chapter on fortifications is perhaps more inte- resting to continental readers than ourselves, for, as far as England is concerned, the subject is limited, or nearly so, to the protection of our principal arsenals. We see no chance of a detached fort on Primrose Hill. The Marshal treats it princi- pally with reference to those great works which in France and Austria have been constructed, not for the mere defence of insulated points, but for the purpose of influencing the decision of contingent campaigns and the fate of conflicting empires. In France we know that this mode of defence has been applied, certainly with a brave disregard of economy, to the -capital itself. It is less notorious that in Austria the same great object the protection of the capital has been provided for by the more distant intrenched camp of Lintz, which receives the unqualified approbation of the Marshal (p. 88) as a good and grand military conception. If, as he supposes, this work will effectually prevent the march of a French invading army on Vienna, and thus serve both as a protection from the storm and a conductor to divert it from that capital, it deserves his praise, for a rigid system of fortification is always a nuisance to the town it embraces. We may observe that the Marshal's approbation of the great works for the defence of Paris is confined to the detached forts, and that he condemns the enceinte continue as an useless super- fluity. In a chapter headed " General Considerations on Wars, offen- sive and defensive," the Marshal bestows a due meed of admira- tion on the operations of the Archduke Charles in 1796, as 282 MAKMONT, S1BORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. " the first example of operations systematically combined on a vast scale. All the great principles of war are deduced in that prince's work on the subject, while at the same time their application is found in the facts which are related." p. 130. The Italian campaigns of Buonaparte in 1796 and 1797 are however the Marshal's favourites : " Never," he says, " was war so admirable so profound. It was art reduced to practice in a fashion the most sublime." p. 131. His admiration follows Buonaparte to the close of 1809. From that period he considers that the spell of success was broken, because the magician violated the conditions of its efficacy. He excepts only Lutzen and Bautzen, and the un- equal but energetic struggle of 1814. We fully believe, with respect to the great cause of his fall, the Russian expedition, that, from Smolensko at least, that campaign was the greatest military mistake on record. Up to that period of his operations he had a military chance of success, but even this chance was confined to the bare possibility of inducing the Russians to accept battle at the outset, either in. the field or in the intrenched camp of Drissa that miserable imitation of Torres Vedras, which so nearly made the example of the Duke of Wellington fatal to his northern admirers. Better counsels, however, pre- vailed. Barclay declined to play the part of Mack. After Smolensko success became impossible, and the advance on Moscow was a measure which no calculation could justify. Nothing but what we short-sighted mortals call chance could have prevented the failure which ensued ; and that failure was not due to chance, either in the shape of Moscow's conflagration or any premature severity of winter, but was the natural and clearly calculable consequence of the misapplication of vast means, and the misdirection of irresponsible power. We doubt, however, whether the genius of the man or the moral influence of his name was ever more conspicuous than in the passage of the Beresina. With these views on the Russian campaign, wo nevertheless hesitate before we quite concur in the Marshal's comparative estimate of Napoleon's earlier and later military career. Does he not somewhat overlook the fact that the earlier successes of Italy were in the nature of a surprise, in which the old equilibrium of numerical force was suddenly ESSAY IX. RECONNAISSANCES. 283 upset by the application of a new and unprecedented system ? Is it not fair to Napoleon to remember that in later years he was in fact fighting his own pupils, upon whom, by many a bloody lesson, he had inculcated his own method, and whom, like Captain Bobadil, he had taught to play nearly or altogether as well as himself? Upon the subject of reconnaissances the Marshal says but little, and merely illustrates, by a failure of his own at El Bodon, the expediency, in the case of les grandes reconnaissances, of pro- viding for circumstances under which the process of feeling a sensitive enemy may be converted into a general action. He might have added that, throughout the period of Buonaparte's career, the French armies were notoriously negligent with respect to this particular service. It has been supposed by the Germans, who are more punctilious in these matters, that this defect sprung from a certain contempt for the pedantry of minutiae, of which the example was set at head-quarters, and which was exaggerated by its imitators in separate and inferior commands. In the German campaign of 1813 some excuse was to be found in Napoleon's deficiency in cavalry. So far back, however, as Marengo, we find the French commanders neglect- ing to ascertain the all-important fact that the Austrians had means of passing the Bormida, and debouching on the famous plain afterwards so fiercely contested. It may seem scarcely credible, but it is known and confessed, that after the success of Ligny no rational precaution was adopted to ascertain Blucher's line of retreat, wliich might have been certified by a squadron of light horse, but, if otherwise, was worth ascertaining at any expense of detachment. In this particular we doubt if so great a game was ever played in so slovenly a fashion. On the reputation of Generals the Marshal thus delivers himself : " I shall arrange Generals in four categories. In the first I place the Generals who have gained all the battles they ever fought, but their number is so small that I can scarcely find names for the list In modern times I can discover none but Gustavns Adolphus, Turenne, Conde, Luxembnrgh, and Napoleon down to 1812." p. 222. This is rather an odd list four Frenchmen and one Swede 284 MAEMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. of which we have to remark that two of the Frenchmen had an unfortunate habit of beating one another : " Le sort de Turenne et de Conde fut d'etre toujours vainqueurs quand ils combattirent ensemble a la t6te des Fran^ais, et d'etre battus quand ils commandirent les Espagnols." Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. We have no wish to enter into any controversy on the subject, but we cannot help asking whether any one of the worthies above-mentioned, at an advanced period of their military career, could have written such a passage as that which we find in a letter of a certain English General : " I feel very unwilling to draw the attention of the Secretary of State again to the loss of the guns in the Puerto de Maya. I was very sorry to have lost them, as they are the only guns ever lost by troops acting under my command" Lesaca, Sept. 13, 1813. We beg leave to remark that the guns which this letter desig- nates were not taken by the enemy, but only abandoned in a bad road, flung down a precipice, and recovered ; and that the writer, after having had the good fortune to capture and keep about three thousand pieces of artillery, principally French, closed his military career without ever having left a single piece of cannon in an enemy's possession. Guns are great facts, and their loss or gain, in modern times, is usually strongly indica- tive of defeat or victory. If the Duke of Wellington should turn out to have been the writer of the above letter, the fact it records would go some way to corroborate the opinion which we find put forward by one who, though a civilian, was no ordinary judge of the value of historical evidence, and no contemptible discriminator of any class of merit. Niebuhr, in one of his ' Lectures on Roman History,' says : "The greatest Generals of the 18th century committed enormous blunders. Frederick the Great and Napoleon made great mistakes, and the Duke of Wellington is, I believe, the only General in whose conduct I cannot find any important mistake." Lectures on the History of Rome, by B. G. Niebuhr, edited by Leonhard Schmitz, vol. ii. p. 6. Without, however, suspicion of contemporary partialities, we may suggest that, as we learn from M. Thiers, when Napoleon fitted ESSAY IX. REPUTATION OF GENERALS. up the Salle de Diane at the Tuileries for his own reception with the busts of the great men he aspired to rival, one Englishman's image was among the favoured few ; and it is just possible that the Emperor remembered a passage in Voltaire's Life of Charles XII., which designates " le fameux Jean Due de Marlborough " as " cet homme qui n'a jamais assiege de ville qu'il n'ait prise, ni donne de bataille qu'il n'ait gagnee." It is true that when we have established Marlborough's claim we shall have taken little by our motion, for France would instantly act on the hint to be found elsewhere in Voltaire, and claim him for a Frenchman, on the score that his military apprenticeship was passed under Turenne. We have no doubt, indeed, that, should the time ever arrive when any sort of merit shall be conceded by French writers to the Duke of Wellington, a similar claim will be preferred on the ground of his education at Angiers. Meanwhile the name of Niebuhr is sufficient to show that where patriotic prejudices do not intervene, and for such we must make allowance, the verdict of wise and acute men can even already make amends for the silence of interested antagonists. We have indeed no wish to give undue weight in these matters to unprofessional authority, but general results and comparative criticism we do consider fair ground for the historian who can tread it with caution and a due sense of his own deficiencies. Of all the men in modern times worthy of that name, it is probable that Gibbon was the only one who could, at any period of his life, have told off a company, or marched it round a barrack-yard ; yet we suspect that many a grizzled moustache is by this time pleasurably and profitably engaged in M. Thiers' narrative of Moreau's cautious career on the Danube, and Napoleon's dazzling exploits on the Bormida. A great follower of Niebuhr (Dr. Arnold) has, in his ' Lectures on Modern History,' some remarks on the privileges of unprofes- sional writers in this matter, and their limits, which we tliink it worth while to quote : " The writer of history," he says, " must speak of wars, of legis- lation, of religious disputes, of political economy, yet he cannot be at once soldier, seaman, &c. Clearly then there is a distinction to be drawn somewhere : there must be a point up to which an unpro- fessional judgment of a professional subject may be not only com- petent but of high authority, although beyond that point it cannot 286 MARMONT, SI BORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. venture without presumption and folly. The distinction seems to lie originally in the difference between the power of doing a thing and that of perceiving whether it be well done or not It would appear that what we understand least in the profession of another is the detail of the practice. Applying this to the art of war, we shall see, J think, that the part which unprofessional men can least under- stand is what is technically called tactics. Let a man be as versed as he will in military history, he must well know that in these essential points of the last resort he is helpless ; and the commonest serjeant, or the commonest soldier, knows infinitely more of the matter than he does. But in proportion as we recede from these details to more general points first to what is technically called strategy, that is to say the directing of the movements of an army with a view to the accomplishment of the object of a campaign, and next to the whole conduct of the war, as political or moral questions may affect it in that proportion general knowledge and powers of mind come into play ; and an unprofessional person may, without blame, speak and write on military subjects, and may judge of them sufficiently." So far Dr. Arnold, whose authority we are unwilling on this subject to dispute. His readers will, however, do well to re- member that in this passage the Doctor is pleading his own cause, for it is well known that military transactions had for him the attraction which they often exercise on studious men. He might have added that the cases must after all be very few in which the strategical lucubrations of lawyers or divines can deserve or meet with from the initiated more than the indulgence which amateur actors receive from a polite audience. It is pro- bably not often that unprofessional men are so unconscious of their own deficiencies as seriously to infringe on the limits traced out by this judicious guide. The late Rev. Sydney Smith, indeed, once informed us that he had been occupied with the perusal of a technical military work ; and we found on inquiry that the attraction consisted not certainly in the subject or its treatment, but in the circumstance that it was written by a brother clergy- man. If our memory be faithful would it were more so for the convivial dicta of our departed friend the title of the work was ' Dealtry on tlie Pike Exercise.' It was composed, we believe, at that period of expected invasion when curates were corporals, and Oxford tutors exercised in Christ Church meadow, and was described to us as bristling with such terms as ' to the left, push/ ESSAY IX. CAPTAIN SIBORNE'S WORK. 287 &c. Such works are rare; but details of all kinds are dan- gerous ; and when the unprofessional historian crowds his pages with attempts at vivid description of scenes in the like of which he never mingled, the result is very usually bulk without value and minuteness without accuracy. The sphere of action and scope of judgment which is claimed by such men as Arnold and Xiebuhr, we nevertheless cheerfully concede to another writer with whom we are reluctantly compelled to renew a controversy commenced in a former number of this Journal. We are far from complaining of Mr. Alison for the unrestrained and frank expression of his opinions in matters of war and strategy. We do not object to him as a strategist. On this point we only reserve to ourselves the liberty of proving that he is a very bad one, and that he has totally misunderstood the subject which he has treated. We do complain of him as a historian. As such we have before objected to him the careless, rash, and credulous acceptance of statements which he ought to have suspected, and which we knew to be untrue : we now accuse him of inexcusable perseverance in error and other minor delinquencies, which, pace tanti viri, we shall by-and-by venture to specify. But before we do so, the work of Captain Siborne demands a portion of our space. This officer's acquirements in a scientific branch of his profession, of which he has given evidence in his models of the ground of Waterloo, entitle his views of that con- flict to much liigher consideration than those of Mr. Alison. With great respect, however, for his zeal and honesty in the search for truth, and admitting that professional knowledge has saved him from the presumptuous blunders which disfigure Mr. Alison's chapters on Waterloo, still we must say that, viewed as a history, and not as a collection of anecdotes, his work is defective in one important particular. It seems to us, as far as the British operations are concerned, drawn from every source except from the commander-in-chief and the few officers attached at the time to head-quarters who really knew or could know anything of value about the great features of the business. This imperfection is in our opinion very observable in one or two passages, which we shall shortly have occasion to quote. We have, however, in the first instance to thank Captain Siborne for some passages in a note to his fifth chapter, page 1C4, 288 MARMONT, SIBOENE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. suggestive of a point of one of the main questions at issue between Mr. Alison and ourselves, which in our former remarks on that learned magistrate's Waterloo lucubrations we omitted to notice. If anything could add to the credit which the Duke deserves for those arrangements for the collection and movement of the force under his own command, which were calculated to meet every contingency and overcome every difficulty of his defensive position, it would be that, in a matter entirely beyond his control, these essential and unavoidable difficulties should have been aggravated by one of those accidents to which all military operations, but especially those of allied armies, are exposed. At five o'clock in the morning of the 15th it was apparent to the Prussians that the attack upon the advanced corps of General Ziethen was a serious one, a bond fide move- ment of Napoleon by Charleroi. This certainty was the one thing needful in the eyes of the Duke of Wellington ; with it his course was clear, and without it he was, as we have seen, determined not to move a regiment from its cantonments. We cannot explain how it happened, but we are certain that it was by no fault of the British commander-in-chief, that no Prussian report of the transaction reached Brussels till five in the after- noon. The distance being about forty miles, there can be no question that the intelligence on which he acted might and ought to have reached him by ten A.M. As it was, the Prince of Orange, as we have stated in our former article, was the first to bring the news, soon after three o'clock P.M., having ridden in from the advanced posts at Binche to dine with the Duke. The latter was well aware, by accounts receiveql from the direction of Mons, that the enemy was in motion, and for that reason had taken care to remain during the day at his head-quarters, or within a few yards of them, having declined a proposal to accom- pany His Eoyal Highness the Duke of Cumberland on a visit to the Duchess of Richmond, without, however, spreading prema- ture alarm by assigning the true reason. Orders for the move- ment of the troops were issued on the receipt of these first accounts from the Prince of Orange, and further orders were issued at about five, after an interview with the Prussian General Muffling, who was stationed at Brussels, and had at length received his reports from General Ziethen. It is clear that if a circum- stance over which the Duke had no control had not thus IX. BELGIAN CAMPAIGN. operated to his disadvantage, and directly in favour of his adversary the orders which were issued at 5 P.M. might have been given out at 10 in the morning. We shall not follow the example of Mr. Alison and others, by indulging in worthless speculations as to what might then have occurred. It is suffi- cient to know that in spite of adverse accidents the Duke's arrangements for the collection of his troops were such as to enable him to inflict the next day a bloody defeat upon the force in his front The accident in itself was a purely Prussian one ; for the intelligence to be received was to come, not from Sir H. Hardinge and Blucher's head-quarters to the Duke, but from General Ziethen, at the advanced posts of the Prussian lines, to General Muffling; and the Duke is to be blamed for it precisely as much as he is for the more famous failure of the despatch to General Bulow von Dennewitz, which led to the absence of the 4th Prussian corps from the field of Ligny. After all it is desirable to see whether, after this failure of communi- cation, there was cause for blame on account of delay in col- lecting the troops, or indeed at all, considering that the French army was not itself collected that is to say, its columns closed up and in a state to commence an operation till late in the day of the 16th, as is stated by Captain Siborne, writing from information from the French staff; and that even Marshal Ney had not joined the army and had not his horses and equipages, and had been under the necessity of purchasing horses from Marshal the Due de Treviso, who was sick. We find in chap. vii. vol. i. p. 247, a passage which indicates the defect we have noticed as pervading the volumes of Captain Siborne. It represents the Duke on the morning of the 17th as sharing the ignorance which probably prevailed in his army as to the condition, prospects, and intentions of his allies consequent on the affair of Ligny, and as obtaining after all very imperfect information on material points. " The Duke had received no intelligence of Blucher, and probably judging from the advanced position of the (French) vedette in ques- tion, that, whatever might have been the result of the battle of Ligny, the Prussians could not have made any forward movement likely to endanger Ney's right, he came to the conclusion that it was quite possible that on the other hand Napoleon might have crossed the Namur road and cut off his communication with Blucher. His D 290 MARMONT, SIBOKNE, AND ALISON. FSSAY IX Grace therefore desired Vivian to send a strong patrole along the Namur road to gain intelligence respecting the Prussian army. A troop of the 10th Hussars, under Captain Grey, was accordingly despatched on this duty, accompanied by Lieut.-Colonel Sir Alex- ander Gordon, one of the Duke's aides-de-camp. As the patrole advanced along the road, the vedette before mentioned began to circle, evidently to give notice of the approach of an enemy. This induced the patrole to move forward with great caution, so as to guard against the possibility of being cut off. Nevertheless, it advanced four or five miles along the road, and Sir A. Gordon brought back word that the Prussians had retreated towards Wavre ; that the French occupied the ground on which the battle had been fought ; but that they had neither crossed nor even possessed them- selves of the high road, along which the patrole had proceeded almost into the immediate vicinity of their advanced posts." It is a mistake to suppose, as Captain Siborne does, that on the morning of the 17th (or even on the night of the 16th) the Duke was uninformed of what had occurred on the Prussian field of battle. He had at the Prussian head-quarters a staff- officer, the present Governor-General of India, then Colonel Sir Henry Hardinge, who sent him repeated reports during the battle. He had written one after he was himself severely wounded, which was brought to the Duke by his brother, Cap- tain Hardinge of the Artillery, with a verbal message given after nightfall. Till nightfall, moreover, the Duke could see ; and, need it be added, did see with his own eyes from Quatre Bras what passed on the Prussian field of battle. With his glass he saw the charge and failure of "the Prussian cavalry, Blucher's disaster, and the retreat of the Prussian army from the field of battle. Captain Wood of the 10th Hussars, then at the outposts, pushed a patrole towards the Prussian field of battle at daylight, and ascertained and immediately reported to the Duke that the Prussians were no longer in possession of it. The Duke then sent, as Captain Siborne narrates, with another squadron of the 10th under Captain Grey, Sir A. Gordon, who had been with his Grace on the Prussian field of battle the preceding day, and therefore knew the ground, in order to com- municate with the rear-guard of the Prussian army, and to ascertain their position and designs. Sir A. Gordon found the field of battle deserted, except by a few French vedettes : these were driven in, and Gordon with his squadrons crossed the field ESSAY IX. BELGIAN CAMPAIGN. 'Jill of battle unmolested, and communicated verbally with General Ziethen, commanding the Prussian rear-guard, at Sombref, on the road to Namur, where the Prussian left had rested in the battle of the preceding day. Having accomplished this service, the Duke's aide-de-camp returned as he had gone, unmolested, to Quatre Bras. If Sir A. Gordon had lived, probably Captain Siborne might have learned the real account of the transaction from him, and would then have known that the putrole moved the whole way to Sombref, and brought back, not a vague report that the Prussians had retreated towards Wavre, but the most positive accounts of their movements and intentions. As soon as Gordon returned with his patrole, the Duke gave orders for the army to occupy the position in front of Waterloo, of which he had a perfect knowledge, having seen it frequently, and of which no knowledge could have been had by any other officer in the army. The road to and through the village of Genappes having been cleared of all hospital and store carriages* and of every impediment, the infantry and artillery were put in motion in broad daylight in different columns, to cross the different bridges over the Dyle. These movements were as regular as on a parade. The outposts, particularly those of the riflemen, were kept standing, and movements were made by the British cavalry so as to attract the enemy's attention, and conceal the retrogade movement of the infantry. The cavalry remained on the ground, and the commander-in-chief with them, till between three and four of the afternoon. In this position he saw more than Captain Siborne appears to be aware of. He saw all that was done on and near the lately- contested ground of Ligny, the detachment of Grouchy 's corps towards Wavre, fol- lowing the retreat of Blucher, and the march of the main man of the French army along the great road from Sombref. No movement was made in his front, and he did not order the retreat of his cavalry till the advanced patroles of the enemy had touched the vedettes on the high road on his left. The retreat of our cavalry was undoubtedly facilitated by a storm, which made it difficult for either party to manoeuvre off the main roads. With the single exception, however, of the affair at Genappes with the French lancers, it was conducted \\it!i ;i> much security as that of the infantry, and the army found it- li' r li 292 MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. in the evening collected from, every quarter on that famous and well-chosen ground, with every feature of which the Duke was familiar. The Duke was on the field at daybreak, in spite of weather, after having written some letters to the King of France and others. He visited the posts in Hougomont, and gave orders for the defensive works for musketry, which were formed in the garden. He rode thence to La Haye Sainte, and on to the extreme left of his position. It is a curious circumstance, not mentioned by the historians, that, having throughout the night, from the 17th to the 18th, communicated by patroles, through Ohain, with the Prussian corps d'armee on its march from Wavre, he saw the Prussian cavalry collected in a mass on the high ground on the Waterloo side of the defile of St. Lambert at an early hour of the day, at least an hour before the commence- ment of the battle the very cavalry that is represented to have been seen from the French head-quarters in a letter written by Marshal Soult to Marechal Grouchy, dated at half-past one, which letter is printed by Grouchy in a pamphlet published in the United States, and given in a note to page 400 of Captain Siborne's first volume. The course of our observations, which have insensibly almost degenerated into narrative, has brought us to a critical period of the drama. If we look back through the preceding acts we shall see that no passage of the Duke's campaigns is more pregnant with evidence of the omnipresent, indefatigable, personal activity, and imperturbable coolness which distinguished him, than the period which has come under our notice. We have seen that on the morning of the 16th, while Ney was preparing his attack and closing up his columns, which, when he took their command, extended for some twelve miles to his rear, the Duke found time for an interview with the Prussian General at Ligny. He returned to Quatre Bras in time for the opening of that conflict. He reconnoitred in person the wood of Bossu, and was indeed the first to discover that the attack was about to be made by a very large body of troops. A straggling fire had been going on since morning, but the officers whom he found on the spot still doubted whether a serious attack was impending. The Duke's quick eye, however, detected an officer of high rank reviewing a strong body, and his ear caught the sound, familiar to it as the precursor of such scenes, " L'Empereur recompensera celui qui ESSAY IX. BELGIAN CAMPAIGN. 293 s'avancera." He instantly recommended the Prince of Orange to withdraw his advanced parties, and the few Belgian guns, which were in an advanced and exposed position. The attack instantly ensued, not to cease till nightfall. According to his uniform practice, and certainly with not less than his usual care, the Duke posted all the troops himself, and no movement was made but by his order. He was on the field till after dark, as long as any contest lasted. When at the close of that weary day others were sinking to rest on the ground they had so bravely maintained, and while the chain of British outposts was being formed for the night, far in advance of the ground ori- ginally occupied, one of the cavalry regiments, which were then arriving in rapid succession, reached the spot where the Duke was sitting. It was commanded by an intimate friend of the Duke by qne of the gentlest, the bravest, and most accom- plished soldiers who ever sat in an English saddle, the late General Sir Frederick Ponsonby. He found the Duke reading some English newspapers which had just reached him, joking over their contents, and making merry with the lucubrations of London politicians and speculators on events. The condition meanwhile of the said politicians at home, including the cabinet, was past a joke. It was one which the profundity of their ignorance alone made endurable. If hos- tilities were now in progress in Belgium and a British army in the field, steamers would be plying between Ostend and London or Dover, frequent and punctual as those wlu'ch crowd the river from London-bridge to Greenwich in Whitsun week. A fresh lie and a new exaggeration would reach the Stock Exchange at intervals of a quarter of an hour. With such means of commu- nication, Blucher's losses on the 16th would have been operating on the funds within a few hours of their report at Brussels, and the Prussian retreat from Ligny would have more than counter- balanced, in public opinion, the maintenance of our position at Quatre Bras. To a late hour of the 20th of June, however, the smuggler had been the only organ of intelligence to the English cabinet, and nothing but vague accounts that the French army was in motion had been conveyed by these lug-sailed messengers. It was thus that the first authentic intelligence, though it con- tained the bane of a serious disaster to the Prussian arms, was qualified not merely by the antidote of the Duke's success at 291 MARMONT, S1BORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. Quatre Bras, but by the following additional facts ; that the Duke was at the head of his own army collected in a position of his own choice, in high confidence and spirits, in military com- munication with Blucher, and on the point of engaging with Napoleon. The bearer of this stirring intelligence, which the nerves of Lord Castlereagh were better strung to receive than those of Lord Liverpool, was the Right Honourable Maurice Fitzgerald, the Knight of Kerry. Like many other civilians he had been attracted by the interest of the scene and hour to Brussels about a fortnight previous to the commencement of hos- tilities. As an old and valued friend of his illustrious country- man, he had been a constant guest at head-quarters; among other adventures of some interest, had visited the ground of Quatre Bras on the 17th, and had remained there till the com- mencement of the retreat of the cavalry, when he had returned to Brussels. Having been favoured by him with a memorandum of his recollections, we can now present, in words better than our own, the circumstances under which he became entrusted \vith such a communication, and the effect it produced on those who received it. Not being able, with reference to our limits, to insert the memorandum in extenso, we must premise that our friend had been induced by circumstances to leave Brussels at a very early hour on the 18th with the intention not of returning to England, but of endeavouring to reach the head-quarters of General Sir C. Colville, whose division was on the right of the British army. Ghent was his first object, but being advised that the direct route was encumbered, he proceeded thither by Antwerp. The Knight was accompanied by the late Marquis of Ormonde : and he says " We arrived at Antwerp about five in the morning, and, after refreshing ourselves and looking at the cathedral for about an hour, we proceeded to Ghent as fast as we could, and arrived there about two o'clock. We dined with the commanding officer of the 29th regiment, who had been an old acquaintance of Lord Ormonde. AVe engaged a carriage and arranged to proceed after midnight for the division of the army under General Colville. I was just entering the hotel between six and seven, in order to go to bed, when Sir P. Malcolm dro\ 7 e up from Brussels. I told him our plan, when he earnestly entreated me to wait till he had returned from the King of France, then at Ghent, to whom he was going to convey a message ESSAY IX. THE KNIGHT OF KERRY'S NARRATIVE. 295 from the Duke of Wellington. I waited accordingly ; on his return he pressed me in the most earnest manner to proceed to London and communicate to the Government what had occurred. He argued the necessity of such a course, from the Duke of Wellington having declared to him that morning that he would not write a line until he had fought a battle, and from the false and mischievous rumours which had circulated and gone to England, and the total ignorance of the English Government as to what had taken place. He said that he was desirous of writing to the First Lord of the Admiralty, but that etiquette precluded his entering into any details on military subjects when the General had not written : that if I consented I would greatly relieve the Government and do essential public ser- vice, as, independent of the Prussian case, of which I knew more than any other individual could communicate to the Government, there were subjects of a most confidential nature which he would entrust to me to be told to Lord Castlei'eagh, our Foreign Minister ; that he would put me into a sloop of war at Ostend and send me across at once. I, however, rather reluctantly assented. He then told me he had left the Duke at half-past ten that morning with the army in position on ground which he had already examined, deter- mined to give battle, and confident of success, and that he was in military communication with Marshal Blucher. " We accordingly changed our route, and proceeded at once to Ostend, where the Admiral wrote a few lines, merely saying that Buonaparte had defeated the Prussians with great loss, that the Duke was in position as described before, that he had prevailed on the Knight of Kerry to convey that despatch, who also could furnish all particulars which were as yet known, for the information of the Government. We had rather a slow passage. After we were under weigh a gendarme, with some mail bags in a boat, overtook the vessel, and said reports had just arrived that the Duke of Wellington was driving the French at all points. We proceeded at once, after landing at Deal, to town, and arrived at the Admiralty at half-past four (Tuesday, June 20th). Lord Melville had gone to the House of Lords, whither I followed him ; and, on presenting the despatch, he immediately summoned the Cabinet Ministers from both Houses to meet in the Chancellor's room, which they did instantly. " I was requested to communicate the particulars referred to in Admiral Malcolm's letter ; I said (in order to avoid anything unne- cessary) I wished to know how far the Cabinet was already informed of what had occurred ; Lord Liverpool said that they knew nothing. I asked if they had not heard of the battle with the Prussians. He said 'No.' I then asked, had they not heard that Napoleon had moved his army ? He said that reports by smugglers to that effect 298 MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. had come across, but that nothing was certain. I then gave a detail of all the circumstances that had come to my knowledge, and endea- voured to impress on them the utmost confidence in the success of the Duke of Wellington in any battle that should take place. I stated the nature of the driving in of the Prussians on the 15th, as explained to me by the Commandant at Mons. I was enabled to describe very particularly the glorious battle at Quatre Bras, as given to me by a gallant officer of the Eifle Brigade, who was near the Duke during its continuance, and who was wounded there ; he gave me a very clear account of the action, and affirmed that he had never seen his Grace expose himself so much personally, or so thoroughly direct every part of the operations, in any of the Peninsular fights with which he was familiar. I explained, on Sir Colin Campbell's authority, the Duke's thorough knowledge of the ground which he had occupied on the morning of Sunday (the 18th). " Ministers expressed their great relief and gratification at the intelligence I had furnished, as the town had been inundated with the most alarming and dangerous rumours, and that, from the length of time since they had received any positive communication from the Duke of Wellington, considerable anxiety undoubtedly existed, but that I had effectually removed it. On the following morning early I called on Lord Castlereagh before he went to his office. I asked him whether he thought I had impressed upon the Cabinet the perfect confidence which T myself felt as to the Duke's success. He said I had, but that he wished for a good deal of conversation with me. I then explained to him those particulars which Admiral Malcolm had desired me confidentially to convey, particularly as to what concerned the position and personal safety of the French king, and other points, which it is unnecessary to recapitulate. We had a most interesting discussion on the whole state of the two countries as relating to the war. It was certainly gratifying to me to have relieved the anxiety of Ministers, and, through them, of the public, but Sir P. Malcolm lost me the march to Paris." To return to Captain Siborne. He criticises the conduct of the Emperor ^Napoleon for not following up with sufficient activity, on the 16th, the movement which he had made with so much success on the 15th ; but a little reflection upon the information which he has obtained on the movements of tlie French army must have convinced him that the troops which had been on their extreme left in French Flanders, and which formed the rear of the column of which the head >vas engaged . IX. THE PRUSSIANS AT WATERLOO. 297 on the Sambre on the 15th, could not be closed up till a late hour on the 16th. It is easy to speculate on possible conse- quences of supposed circumstances. Those who indulge in such speculations would do well to consider that rapidity is purchased I'y exhaustion. Of the numerous critics of the Belgian campaign, some have been disposed to consider that the Prussians on the 18th were slow in bringing their columns to bear effectively on the French riirht We have reason to believe that the individual who would have had most cause for complaint on this score would be the la-t to entertain this charge. We feel very certain that if the Duke could have exchanged commands with Blucher or Bulow on that day, he would have been very cautious how he brought into action by driblets even that portion of the Prussian troops which had not actually shared the discomfiture of Ligny. Captain Siborne judiciously avoids casting any reflection on the Prussians, though at pages 144 and 150 of volume ii. he states the fact that General Ziethen refused to detach any portion of his troops for the purpose of strengthening, by their partial aid, the British line of battle at a moment certainly of great pressure. We doubt not that Ziethen's orders on this head were strict. We believe them to have been dictated by a wise caution, and we look upon the conduct of the Prussians and their commander on the 18th with no feeling but that of admiration for the energy with which they had rallied after discomfiture, and the boldness with which they left General Thielman to make the best he could of it against Grouchy's superior force at Wavre. Before the retreat on the morning of the 17th speculation was busy among our officers on the outposts at Quatre Bras as to the pro- bable results of the affair of the previous day to the Prussian force. A party of them was joined by Captain, now Colonel, Wood, who had just returned from the patrole service mentioned above. Will they stop before they reach the Rhine? was a question started by one. Captain Wood, who had seen much service with the Prussians, having been on the staff of Sir C. Stewart (now Lord Londonderry) in 1813 and 1814, replied, "If Blucher or Bulow be alive, you may depend upon it they will stop at no great distance." The young officer was right, as Napoleon found to his cost. We know that, whatever incom- petent critics may say, the highest testimony to the co-operation 298 MARMONT, S1BOUNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. of the Prussians in every particular, that of the Duke, has been ever since unvaried and uncompromising ; nor has he ever stopped or stooped to consider whether by doing justice to the fame of his allies he might give a handle to his enemies to detract from his own. We do not on this occasion choose to enter upon any formal criticism of Napoleon as a general. We must, however, say that, if English writers were as much disposed to detract from his reputation as they are to cavil at the conduct of the Duke and Blucher, some documents under his own hand would afford them matter for animadversion. Take, for instance, Napoleon's two letters to Marshal Ney, written early on the 16th from Char- leroi. They are addressed to a man who had just been placed at the head of some forty thousand men so much a Vimproviste that he did not even know the names of his officers, or what the Germans call the dislocation of his troops, much less the nature of the country, or the amount of the force in his front ; and who was so unprovided with staff-officers that he was obliged to select them at the moment from regiments of the line ; yet this man, in the first of these letters, received at about eleven o'clock of the 16th, is directed to be at Brussels by seven o'clock the next morning ; and in the second it is assumed as matter of high probability that the English had already retired from Brussels and Nivelles. Let it not be forgotten that Napoleon's means of learning or guessing at the Duke's dispositions were far greater than any which the Duke possessed of learning what passed within the French lines. W T e will venture, without blaming Napoleon in our ignorance of his grounds for belief, to say that, if at any one period of the Duke's career he had given orders so impracticable to execute, or displayed ignorance so complete, as is indicated in these two letters to Ney, his Dis- patches would have been reprinted by the Radical press, and quoted in the House of Commons as evidence of his incapacity for command. With Mr. Alison, indeed, for an adviser, he might have rendered a coup de main on Brussels an easy exploit. As it was, and in the absence of such a good genius, his reply might have been that of Marmion to King James's proposal of a visit to Tamworth : - " Much honour'd were my humble home, If in its halls King James should come ; IX. WELLINGTON'S ARMY AT WATERLOO. 299 But Nottingham has archers good, And Yorkshire men are stern of mood. And many a banner shall be torn, And many a knight to ground be borne, And many a sheaf of shafts be spent Ere Scotland's king shall cross the Trent." Marmion's reply, by the way, reminds us of one of General Alava's to an aide-de-camp of Junot who, under a flag of truce \\<- believe, was dining at the Duke's table in Portugal at a period when Lisbon was in our possession. The Frenchman took occasion to observe that the Duchesse d'Abrantes, then at Ciudad Rodrigo, comptait faire ses couchei at Lisbon in the autumn. " Prevenez la" said General Alava, " qu'elle premie bien garde de ces trente mille diables e seen an English gentleman in the ordinary attire of that respectable but unmilitary character : this was Lord Apsley, the present Earl Bathurst, who had assisted at the battle as an amateur from its commencement, and who followed its fortunes to the last. Before the first shot was fired his Lordship had fallen in at the right of our line with Lord Hill, who in his own quiet and comfortable manner addressed him, "Well, my Lord, I think your Lordship will see a great battle to-day." " Indeed ! " " Yes, indeed, my Lord ; and I think the French will get such a thrashing as they have seldom had." A fair specimen of the spirit in which our old campaigners met the prestige of Napo- leon's presence. It was the simple confession of faith and con- viction founded on experience ; for who ever heard boast or bravado from the lips of the Shropshire farmer ? Lord Apsley, having ultimately ridden to the extreme of the English pursuit, was, we believe, on returning to head-quarters, the first to com- municate to the Duke that the whole of the French artillery was in our possession. The illustrative plates which accompany Captain Siborne's volumes are agreeable specimens of the anaglyptographic pro- cess ; but we miss their assistance at one or two important periods of the transaction. An engraving of which Genappes should be the centre, is much wanted to illustrate the retreat of the 17th ; and it would be well to mark distinctly the bridges and fords of the Dyle which were used in tliat operation. It might be more difficult to bring within compass the ground over which Blucher brought the three corps of his army to our assist- ance on the 18th, and their various routes might require more than one engraving for the purpose ; but these additions, if attainable, would add much to the value of the work. In matters of criminal legislation we are no advocates of the principle that the main object of punishment is the reformation of the offender. In the case of Mr. Alison, whom we have now to consider as coming before us, in French legal phraseology, en recidive, it is a satisfaction to us to reflect that, for special reasons, we never dreamt of such a result as that Throughout his ten volumes there runs a serene satisfaction with his own dicta on military matters an entire reliance on the dignity of an office held by self-appointment and a more than Thucy- 304 MAEMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. didean conviction of the value of a x-no/txa er ae collected from such sources as ' Fouche's Memoirs,' which forbade the slightest apprehension of disturbing his complacency, or extracting from him any tardy confession of fallibility in matters of opinion. In this respect we have suffered no disappointment. Where de- monstrable errors of fact were concerned we might, however, have expected that Mr. Alison would have pursued, in a revised edition, a course different in some particulars from that which he has adopted. Several were open to him with regard to the observations on his narrative of the Belgian campaign, contained in the 140th number of this Journal. Intrenched in the dignity of his high functions, he might have refused to read, or ne- glected to notice, the remarks of an anonymous, and, as he seems to believe, a youthful censor. He might have adopted our corrections where he found them valid, with a due acknow- ledgment of his obligations to the quarter from which they pro- ceeded. Lastly, where he still found room for doubt, he might have applied ordinary industry and accuracy to the verification of the points in question, and thus have avoided a perseverance in certain errors one of them, at least, not unimportant which still deface the record. We regret, for Mr. Alison's own sake, that he has followed none of these modes. In most instances he has silently adopted our corrections ; in the remainder he has persevered in his errors for want of information, which he might have had from ourselves for the asking, or, by common diligence, might have procured elsewhere. We are unwilling to trouble our readers with a detailed comparison of the several passages in the two editions in esta- blishment of our assertion that Mr. Alison has borrowed our corrections without acknowledgment. We can easily anticipate the apology, that the incidents so treated are minutiae ; and, as such, of no great importance. Such an apology would be quite conclusive if Mr. Alison's pretensions to accuracy and minuteness of detail, as a narrator of battles, were less ostentatiously put forward. If he had dealt with his subject-matter more in the style of Thucydides, and less in that of Captain Siborne, in the manner of that which he assumes to be, a contributor to general history, rather than of a contributor to the 'United Service Gazette,' he would probably have avoided liability to correction, and certainly would have escaped our censure. When Titian ESSAY IX. MR. ALISON'S MISSTATEMENTS. painted flowers in his foreground he took the trouble to design them with Linnean accuracy. The author who cites Captain this and Major that for the res gestce of individual regiments, ought to have known that, in the cavalry affair of the 17th, the 7th British hussars were engaged not with cuirassiers, but with lancers. The distinction may appear trifling, but the novelty and peculiarity of the circumstances make it of interest to a large class of readers, for whose special edification Mr. Alison has laboured. That we no longer hear of the Duke flinging himself occasionally into a square, is an amendment of small consequence on our credit side of the account ; but it is of some importance to find Lord Hill restored to his functions as commander of the second corps in the action, and no longer detached, by the learned Sheriff's special order, to Hal, in charge of a body of 7000 men. We are happy also to find that Mr. Alison has seen reason to qualify his eulogies of the Prussian position at Ligny, and to appreciate the distinction between its strategical and tactical merits. For these, and one or two other rectifications of small moment, having received no thanks from Mr. Alison, we respectfully claim those of his innu- merable readers. We now proceed to a case in which Mr. Alison, after due warning, has acknowledged, indeed, our notice of his error, but only to repeat it and insist upon it As it is one wliich involves gross injustice to a Prussian officer of great merit, we make no apology for dwelling upon it. In Mr. Alison's former edition he describes Marshal Grouchy as probably matched in force by the Prussians under Thielman, when he combated at Wavre. We took the liberty of telling him in our remarks, that he was mistaken to the amount of some 15,000 men ; for that, in fact, Thielman had but 16,000 to oppose to Grouchy 's 32,000. In Mr. Alison's revised edition he repeats his statement, with the appendage of the following note : "This has been denied as to the over-matching; and it has been said, the third Prussian corps, instead of rising, as Mr. Alison says, to 33,000, did not exceed 16,000 (Quart. Rev. Ixx. 469, 470). In answer to this, it is only necessary to give the official return of the Prussian corps under Thielman, as given by Plotho : Third corps d'armee, Thielman, 33,000 men, 96 guns. Thielman, it is true, was engaged at Ligny, but so was Grouchy, and the loss there could imt x 306 MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. have materially altered their relative proportions. Plotho, iv. 55, Appendix." What has been said we now say again ; and the only excuse we can suggest for Mr. Alison's perseverance in so gross a mis- statement is, that having been helped by us to the existence of Plotho's work, he has by some sad accident stumbled on a defective copy thereof. Whatever was the original force of the third corps, it would have been worth while for Mr. Alison, before he contradicted his guardian angel, the ' Quarterly,' in this matter, to have inquired whether Thielman, when in position at Wavre, retained that corps in its integrity. We prefer to state the circumstances, with their explanation, in Captain Siborne's language. Speaking of Thielman's position at Wavre on the 18th, he says (vol. ii. p. 278) : " Thielman intended that the 9th brigade should be posted in rear of this general position of his troops, so that its services might be made available according as circumstances might require; but, through some misunderstanding in the transmission of the order, General von Borcke was induced, after having moved along the Brussels road until near La Bavette, thence to turn off to his left, and continue his march, according to his original instructions, in the direction of Fremont, Bourgeois, and St. Lambert, towards Couture ; being under the impression that the whole corps had already commenced this march in pursuance of the general plan, and that his brigade was destined to cover the movement. The departure of this brigade was not immediately discovered, and thus by this misunderstanding Thielman's force suffered an unexpected reduction of six battalions and the foot battery No. 18, and consisted therefore of only 15,200 men, with which number he had now to contend against Marshal Grouchy's force, amounting altogether to 32,000 men." When we recollect that, under such circumstances of dispro- portion as these, Thielman maintained his position through the 18th, repelling thirteen different assaults on the town of Wavre, and that he did not retire until ten o'clock on the fol- lowing morning, effecting his retreat with order and deliberation, and consoled by the knowledge of the result at Waterloo, we shall not fear contradiction when we reassert that no passage of the campaign did greater honour to the general and troops con- cerned than this defence of Wavre. If Mr. Alison's statement ESSAY IX. MR. ALISON'S MISSTATEMENTS. 307 of numbers were correct, few on the other hand would have been less creditable, because the position was strong and the Prussian was at last forced to retire. That statement, therefore, being, as it is, absolutely unfounded, involves a palpable injustice to a meritorious officer. In a note to page 932 Mr. Alison writes : " It has been said (Quart. Eev. Ixx. 466) that the Prussian loss at Waterloo is to be found in Plotho, and that the statement in the text on this point is erroneous ; but this is a mistake. Plotho gives no separate account of the loss on the 18th, but the whole loss of each corps from the 15th of June to the 3rd of July, and it amounts to," &c. It is no mistake. We have the tables before us as we write. Our copy of Plotho is dated Berlin, 1818. We are quite ready to lend it to Mr. Alison if he desires it, for his 4th or 40th edition. Facing pages 116 and 117 of the Appendix to the 4th volume, he will find tabular statements of the loss of the three Prussian corps, the first, second, and fourth, not only for the whole campaign, but distinguishing that incurred in their several actions, among them "the loss on the 18th." These tables are very minute, as they specify not only non-commissioned officers and privates, but the vpielleute or musicians of the regiments, and horses. The only list wanting is that of the third corps, which, as even Mr. Alison probably knows, was not engaged at Waterloo. We may as well add that, though Mr. Alison's courtesy forbids him to substitute the word falsehood for mistake in this instance, we can hardly accept his indulgence. Our assertion, past or present, that the returns exist in Plotho's Appendix, might be a falsehood it could hardly be a mistake. In such dry matters of fact, at least, a reviewer asserting the existence of a document which he had not seen, and which should turn out not to exist, would deserve harder language than that of Mr. Alison. It would have been easy for Mr. Alison to have done full historical justice to the Duke of Brunswick by the simple state- ment that he fell gallantly fighting at the head of his troops. Mr. Alison's passion for particulars has, however, again led him astray in saying that " he nobly fell wlyile heading a charge of his death's-head hussars in the latter part of the day." If there x L' 308 MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. is truth in Captain Siborne the facts are these : " The Duke had personally superintended a change of position, not a charge, of his hussars. He had then headed a charge of his lancers which failed, and was accompanying a movement in retreat of the guard battalion of his infantry, and endeavouring to rally it when hard pressed, when the fatal shot struck him from his horse." (Siborne, vol. i. p. 116.) The "death's-head" hussars sounds better. Having dismissed these matters, of small account perhaps, but some of them of importance to us, for our own vin- dication from something worse than inaccuracy, we arrive at a topic which compels us to inflict on our readers a collation of certain passages as they stand in the second and third editions of his work. In the second (that formerly handled by us) Mr. Alison's language is this : " Wellington and Blucher, at this critical period, were relying almost entirely upon secret intelligence, which was to be forwarded to them by Fouche. This extraordinary delay in collecting the troops, when the enemy was close at hand, cannot be altogether vindicated, and it was well-nigh attended with fatal consequences ; but the secret cause which led to it is explained in Fouche's Memoirs. That unpa- ralleled intriguer," &c. He then goes on to cite that authentic and veracious compilation in the manner we have before noticed. In the third and revised edition of Mr. Alison's " History " we read : " Wellington and Blucher, at this critical period, were either without correct information as to the enemy's real designs, or relying upon secret intelligence, which was to be forwarded to them from Paris, as to his movements. This delay in collecting the troops, &c., would furnish ground for a serious imputation on the Duke's mili- tary conduct, were it not that it is now apparent he had been misled by false information, perfidiously furnished, or as perfidiously with- held, by his correspondents at Paris, who, unknown to him, had been gained by Fouche'" A juxtaposition of these two passages will show that Mr. Alison has retired before our attack from one position, as quietly as possible, in order to take up another. The manner in which this manoeuvre is executed is further illustrated by a note to p. 881. After requoting the story of the female spy, from the pro- duction impudently called Fouche's Memoirs, Mr. Alison then proceeds : IX. MR. ALISON'S MISSTATEMEXTS. 309 " Extraordinary as this story is, it derives confirmation from the following statement of Sir Walter Scott, who had access to the best sources of information, which he obtained at Paris a few weeks after the battle. ' I have understood,' says he, ' on good authority, that a person, bearing for Lord Wellington's information a detailed and authentic account of Buonaparte's plan for the campaign, was actually despatched from Paris in time to have reached Brussels before the commencement of hostilities. This communication was entrusted to a female, who was furnished with a pass from Fouche himself, and who travelled with all despatch in order to accomplish her mission ; but, being stopped for two days on the frontiers of France, did not arrive till after the battle of the 16th. This fact, for such I believe it to be, seems to countenance the opinion that Fouche maintained a correspondence with the allies, and may lead, on the other hand, to the suspicion that, though he despatched the intelligence in question, he contrived so to manage that its arrival should be too late for the purpose which it was calculated to serve. At all events, the appearance of the French on the Sambre was at Brussels an unexpected piece of intelligence.' (Paufs Letters?) It is remarkable that Scott's sagacity had in this instance divined the very solution of the question which Fouch afterwards stated in his Memoirs as a fact. On the other hand, Wellington says : ' Avant mon arrivee & Paris au mois de Juillet, je n'avais jamais vu Fouch, ni eu avec lui communication quelconque, ni avec aucun de ceux qui sont lies avec lui.' (Letter to Dumouriez, Gurwood, vol. xii. p. 649.) If this statement was inconsistent with the former, the Duke's high character for truth and accuracy would have rendered it deci- sive of the point ; but in reality it is not so. It only proves that the English general had had no communication with Fouche^ or those whom he knew to be his agents." Mr. Alison then goes on to show, from various passages of the Duke's letters, that he was in communication at various periods with persons at Paris, and cites one letter to a NT. Henoul, in which a lady is mentioned. It will appear from all the above that Mr. Alison has, in one of his tacit corrections, borrowed without acknowledgment from the Quarterly, withdrawn from his assertion that the Duke was knowingly in correspondence with FoucbA He now shapes his imputation in another form. He asserts that Ihe Duke was not only in communication with certain puppets of Fouch4's at Paris, but that he actually governed his own military schemes, the posi- tion and movements of his army, and rested the fate of Europe 310 MARMONT, SIBOENE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. on "the expectation or possession of intelligence from such quar- ters. If, as Burke said, a man cannot live down these contempt- ible calumnies, he must put up with them. If the Duke's life and exploits cannot acquit him of such miserable simplicity in the eyes of Englishmen, we can give him little assistance. Because the Duke says, on the 13th of June, " I have accounts from Paris of the 10th, on which day Buonaparte was still there," it is seriously argued that he was very likely to believe that par- ties who supplied intelligence of a circumstance so recondite as the presence of Buonaparte at the Tuileries, could and would also supply the programme of Buonaparte's intended campaign. Mr. Alison, however, still resting the weight of his structure on Fouch^'s Memoirs, props up the rubbish of such a foundation by the authority of ' PauPs Letters to his Kinsfolk.' What does the extract from such a work as ' Paul's Letters ' prove ? It proves that, when occupied in the agreeable pastime of picking up anecdotes for a volume of slight structure and momentary interest, Sir W. Scott gave a rash credence to one then current at Paris, which was afterwards elaborated by the literary forger of Fouche's name. It is on such authorities as these that the author of a work of twenty years fastens on the Duke of Wel- lington a charge of credulous imbecility. Whatever be the pro- babilities of the case, we have one sufficient answer, which we can give on authority it is totally and absolutely false. We repeat, and are enabled and bound to say that we repeat on authority,' that riot one single passage of the Duke's conduct at this period was in the remotest degree influenced by such causes as those invented at Paris, and adopted by Mr. Alison. But the Duke had communications with Paris. To be sure he had. Common sense would indicate, if the despatches did not, that the Duke used what means the iron frontier in his front per- mitted to obtain all obtainable intelligence from Paris. He would have been wanting in his duty if he had neglected such precau- tion. Such facts as the Emperor's continued presence in Paris, the strength of mustering corps, their reputed destination, these, and a thousand such particulars, he doubtless endeavoured to get at, when he could, through channels more rapid, if not more to be relied on, than the 'Moniteur.' It could strike nobody as improbable that in some of these transactions an agent of the softer sex might have been employed ; though we happen to I IX. INCIDENT BEFORE ROLICA. 311 know for certain that none such played a part of iinportarice enough to secure her services a place in the recollection of any ^lishman at head-quarters. Even for obtaining such informa- tiou as this, the Duke was placed in a position which must have contrasted singularly with the advantages he had in these respects enjoyed in the Peninsula. It were but common fairness to scan for a moment the points of difference, and to observe how completely the relative positions of the two antagonists were reversed. The grounds of comparison are, however, pretty obvious, and an illustration may serve the purpose better than a disquisition. On the night which preceded Sir Arthur Wellesley's first pas- sage of arms in Portugal, the affair of Rolica, he was roused from his sleep in his tent by an urgent request for admittance on the part of a stranger. The request was granted, and a monk was introduced. " I am come," he said, " to give you intelligence that General Thomiere, who commands the French < ( >rps in your front, intends to retire before daylight ; and if you \\ i>h to catch him you must be quick." Such news, if true, jus- tified the intrusion ; and it occurred to Sir Arthur, who had not then attained the degree of drivelling which the Duke of Wel- lington had reached in 1815, to inquire, "How do you know the fact you acquaint me with ?" The monk replied, " When Junot's army first entered Portugal, he was quartered in our convent, that of Alcobatja, and one of his staff shared my cell. The same officer is again my lodger; we are on intimate terms. This evening he was busily engaged in writing. I stole behind him and placed my hands over his eyes, as boys do in play, while he struggled to get loose, and held them there till I had read the contents of the paper he was writing. It was an order to General Thomiere to move his column at such an hour and in such a direction. I have stolen from the convent, and made my way to your quarters, to tell you my discovery." We have sometimes thought that this incident would have made a good subject for Wilkie. For our purpose, it is not an inapt illustration of the facilities for information at the command of a general moving in a country where the peasantry and priesthood are heart and soul with the cause he serves. Such at least are not at the disposal of a commander compelled by circumstances to remain rooted for a period in the face of a hostile nation, fenced by a triple line 312 MAEMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. of" fortresses, and their place is ill supplied by padded petticoats and the gossip of a metropolis. The plan of Buonaparte's cam- paign ? Can anything be more childish than to suppose that the Duke could have relied, for this is the question, on French traitors for such a document ? When a fleet is about to sail on a secret expedition a thousand circumstances are open to the inquiries of active agents. The very nature of the stores em- barked, the name of some officer ordered to join, will often indi- cate its destination. The consequence generally is, that by the time the sealed orders are opened in a specified latitude, the enemy has enjoyed for weeks a full knowledge of the object of the expedition. We well remember, in the summer of 1840, hearing that certain intrenching tools were to be embarked for the Mediterranean, and that a certain officer, famous for his application of such materials at St. Sebastian and elsewhere, was to be picked up at Gibraltar. We wanted no paid spy or treacherous clerk to tety us that Acre, or possibly Alexandria, would feel the effect of these preparations. With respect to the general plan and scheme of the Duke's operations, as far as they depended on himself, they were open enough to discovery, if missed by conjecture. They were necessarily subjects of com- munication and concert with a dozen friendly powers mustering their forces on different points from Ostend to the confines of Switzerland. It so happened that the plan of Buonaparte's cam- paign, which could consist in nothing else but a choice of roads, was one which it was unnecessary for him to communicate to a single human being till he gave his orders from head-quarters for its prompt execution. We have, however, to apologize to our readers for delaying them so long on such a subject, for endea- vouring to show the probability of a negative, which, probable or not, we assert without reserve, and with the confidence of positive knowledge. Since the above was written we have found reason to believe that we can trace to its source the absurd figment of the Fouche correspondence. In our former article we avowed our belief, founded on a passage in the Dispatches, that a female had at some period or other been employed as a messenger. We have now learned that some ten days or more before the commence- ment of hostilities the Knight of Kerry, on his way to Brussels, fell in with an acquaintance of his own country who had just left BMA* IX. STOKY OF THE FOUCHE CORRESPONDENCE. 313 Paris, and obtained from him some information as to the amount of Napoleon's force, especially in cavalry, which, on arriving at Brussels, he reported to the Duke. We may remark that the information in this instance was precisely of the description which may be obtained by clever agents, mercenary or other. It stated that at this period Napoleon had collected about 90,000 infantry, and that he had dismounted some 12,000 gendarmes in order to mount his regular cavalry. There was more difficulty perhaps in conveying than in collecting such intelligence as this. Nothing short of Mesmerism could have obtained a plan of Napoleon's campaign. The Duke avowed that the information of the Knight of Kerry's acquaintance tallied with some he had lately received. The Knight states that he understood at the time that the Duke alluded to some intelligence which had been conveyed over the frontier by a female. Having less to remem- ber, he has thus preserved the record of a fact which had been forgotten by those who were more busily occupied at the time. We have little doubt that this is the trifling incident which has been magnified into a circumstance decisive of the Duke's move- ments, the petticoat which amused Paul, and obfuscated the solemn judgment of Mr. Alison. It requires some knowledge of human nature to believe that a respectable man, in possession of his senses, can, on a review of the facts, continue to entertain the notion that surprise is a term applicable to the position and conduct of the Duke. Let us suppose the case of a country-house in Tipperary, a period of Rockite disturbance, and a family which has received intelligence that an attack is to be made upon it The windows are barri- caded as well as circumstances will admit, but the premises are extensive, and the hall door, the kitchen, and the pantry remain weak and assailable. The trampling of footsteps is heard in the shrubbery. There would be advisers enough and confusion enough in consequence, if the head of the family were a man who invited advice, but he is an old soldier whom few would venture to approach with suggestions. His nerves are abso- lutely impassive to the fact that the assault is conducted by Rock in person, but he knows that Rock has the initiative and the choice of at least three eligible points of attack. He makes such disposition of his force as leaves no point unwatched ; he keeps it well in hand, and refuses to move a man till the sledge-hammer 314 MARMONT, SIBOIINE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. is heard at the point selected. The attack is repulsed all the objects of the defence are accomplished, not a silver spoon is missing most of the assailants are killed, the gang dispersed, and its leader, who had escaped down the avenue, is ultimately captured, and transported for life tranquillity is restored to the Barony the master of the house is knighted for his gallant defence, and made a chief inspector of police by the Govern- ment, but is deprived of his office when the Whigs come into power. Thirty years afterwards an attorney of the county town, who has lived in the main street all his life, and has never handled a blunderbuss, writes an account of the transaction, col- lected from some surviving under-servants, to show, first that the master was surprised, and next that his force ought from the first to have been concentrated in the pantry, because it was there that the main assault was ultimately made. His informers have also succeeded in bamboozling him with an absurd tale of an old woman who had been hired to deceive the master by making him believe that the attack was postponed. It is not matter of theory and speculation, but of absolute demonstration, that whatever were the merits or demerits of the Duke's proceedings, they were not an accident of the moment, the offspring of haste and surprise, but strictly in accordance with and part of a preconceived system of action, adopted, in concert with his allies, on deep study and full knowledge of every circumstance of his position. Mr. Alison has formed and persists in the opinion that he could have managed the whole tiling a great deal better. We do not believe that' any officer exists in her Majesty's service who will not rate that opinion at its proper value. It is not for such readers that, in spite of virtuous reso- lutions, we have been tempted to notice it further than will be thought justifiable by those whose duty it has often been in the field to check and restrain an unnecessary waste of powder and shot. Such men will perhaps have less patience with an article which they must think superfluous, than with the History which provokes it. By others, however, and especially by those who are willing to believe any nonsense which can tend to lower the hard-won reputation of the Duke and elevate that of Napoleon, this English Historian's theories and visions will be caught up and quoted just as the testimony of a reluctant, and only so far an important witness is made the most of by an Old Bailey ESSAY IX. WELLINGTON'S POSITION AT WATERLOO. 315 counsel. If Mr. Alison were a foreigner, or, being our country- man, were anything less respectable than he is if we had less f.iitli in his good intentions, and more distaste for his politics if \\c could have traced his detraction to any source more disre- putable than a desire laudable in itself, but morbid in its ss, for the credit of impartiality, we should not have taken the trouble to point out his errors and rebuke his stolid per- severance in their support. The duty of vindicating our own accuracy in particulars in wliich it has been directly impugned has led us to this renewed notice of Mr. Alison's statements of fact. On matters of opinion and inference we shall be more brief. We are sensible that our conclusions on strategics are worth, as ours, no more than 31 r. Alison's, and such arguments as we can venture on such a sub- ject have been set forth in a former article at some length. We shall, therefore, now content ourselves with one more quotation from Mr. Alison. It seems to us to embody the pervading fallacy wliich he has so rashly adopted and pertinaciously maintained. " It results from these considerations that in the outset of the Waterloo campaign, Napoleon, by the secrecy and rapidity of his movements, gained the advantage of Wellington and Blucher." p. 939. We have but one objection to the language of this passage : the word gained obviously implies that the advantage specified was one not ready made to ^Napoleon's hands, and one of which human precaution on the part of his adversaries could have deprived him. It must not be forgotten, though we shall look in vain through Mr. Alison's and other superficial narratives for any distinct notice of the fact, that paramount political consi- derations had condemned the Duke to a position which, in a military point of view, no one but an idiot would have chosen, and no one but a master of his art could have maintained. The history of the wars of the French Revolution perhaps pre- sents no instance in which so many circumstances, beyond the control of the one party, combined in favour of the other, to compensate for the single though important deficiency in nu- merical force. No man perhaps ever lived whose nervous system was less likely to be affected by the mere prestige of Napoleon's name than the Duke's; but we have reason to believe that in one attribute the Duke considered him pre- 316 MARMOXT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. eminent over every one who could by possibility come under any comparison that of promptitude and dexterity in taking advantage of a false move. We may be permitted to doubt whether this quality was ever, in any single instance, more brilliantly exemplified by Napoleon than by Wellington at Salamanca ; but at all events we know that it was considered by the English commander to be the leading characteristic of his opponent of 1815. The man to whom the Duke attributed this particular pre-eminence had collected an army of veterans on the frontier of the department of the North, one bristling with fortresses in which he might cover and protect, and through which he might in safety and secrecy move, hundreds of thou- sands of troops ; while the allies, whether to correct or improve a position erroneously taken up, must have moved along the front of this formidable position, no part of which could have been attacked by them. Up to a given moment at least the moment when the allied powers on the Rhine should be ready to move off in concert, and keep the step Napoleon had the indis- putable advantage of the first move. Secrecy, rapidity, and choice of direction on vulnerable points, were equally at his command with priority of movement. To rush at the centre, or to throw himself on the communications of a force which leant not on the country in its rear, but on Namur on the one hand, and Ostend on the other, were modes of action equally practi- cable. We are inclined to think that if by any magic the Duke could suddenly, with his own knowledge of his own difficulties, have been transformed into the adviser of Napoleon, he would have suggested an attack by the line of Hal on his own right. It is very certain that he considered such an operation as one which, from its advantages, might well have attracted his opponent's choice. We know this from the caution with which, even at Waterloo, he provided against such a contingency. With a view to tliis danger, also, every possible exertion had been made to put into a condition of defence Mons, Ath, Tournay, Ypres, Ostend, Nieuport, and Ghent. The state in which the Duke found these places had been such as to make it impossible, in the time allowed him, to complete their defences. Still such pro- gress had been made as to justify him in endeavouring to compass the great object of the preservation of the Belgian capital by occupying a position in advance of it, which without the support ESSAY IX. MR. ALISON'S CRITICISM. 317 of those places he would, as we have reason to believe, not have ventured to take up. The Duke and Blucher certainly agreed to occupy thio outpost of the armies of coalized Europe on a system of their own one which they thought best calculated to meet the impending storm in each and every of its possible directions. In the moment of impending conflict the Duke certainly did not depart from it. The first breathless courier who might perhaps have brought intelligence of a false attack did not shake his calm and settled purpose. It is Mr. Alison's decision that a different system altogether should have been adopted that the Duke and Blucher might have neutralised all the advantages on the side of Napoleon by a concentration of their forces at a certain point or points, which 31 r. Alison, if consulted, would doubtless have cheerfully under- taken to select at the time. It was the opinion of the two inex- perienced men charged with the responsibility of the transaction, that by doing this, while the precise point of attack was yet un- certain, defeat and disaster would have been hazarded. Mr. Alison was not at hand ; and they were obliged to do as well as they could without him. It may well be, and we believe it, that no other man living could have retained the imperturbable coolness which the Duke exhibited during the 15th at Brussels, and still less could have put off to the last the moment of general alarm by going to a ball after having given his orders. Nothing was more likely at the moment to generate the idea of a surprise than the circum- stance of this ball, from which so many dancers adjourned to that supper of Hamlet, not where men eat, but where they are eaten. The delusion, however, fades before the facts of the General Orders to be found in Colonel Gur wood's volume, and is not now worth further notice for purposes of refutation. The details of the case, however, are but partially known, and they are worth recording. The late Duke of Richmond, an attached and inti- mate friend of the Commander-in-chief, was at Brussels. He was himself a general officer ; had one son, the present Duke of Richmond, on the staff of the Prince of Orange, one on that of the Duke, and another in the Blues, and was at the battle of Waterloo, but not in any military capacity.* The brother of * The Duke of Richmond waa seen riding about the field, sometimes in situa- tions of imminent danger, in plain clothes, with his groom behind him, exactly M 318 MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. the Duchess, the late (and last) Duke of Gordon, was colonel of the 92nd or Gordon Highlanders, which, with the 42nd and 79th Highland regiments, formed part of the reserve corps stationed at Brussels. The Duchess had issued invitations for a ball for the 15th. Among other preparations for the evening she had engaged the attendance of some of the non-commissioned officers and privates of her brother's regiment and the 42nd, wishing to show her continental guests the real Highland dances in per- fection. When the news of the French advance reached head- quarters, it became matter of discussion whether or not the ball should be allowed to proceed. The deliberate judgment of the Duke decided that it should. There Were reasons good for this decision. It is sufficient on this head to say that the state of public feeling in the Netherlands generally, and in Brussels in particular was more than questionable. It was a thing desir- able in itself to postpone to the last the inevitable moment of alarm to shorten so far as possible that critical interval which must occur between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first motion, between the public announcement of actual hostilities and then- decision in the field. Every necessary order had been issued ; and such was that state of preparation and arrangement which wise men have since questioned and criticised, that this operation had been the work of minutes, and before the festal lamps were lighted the fiery cross was on its way through the cantonments. The general officers then in Brussels had their instructions to attend and to drop off singly and without 6clat, and join their divisions on the march. The Duke himself remained later, occupied the place of honour at the supper, and returned thanks for the toast to himself and the allied army, which was proposed by General Alava. At about eleven a dispatch arrived from the Prince of Orange, shortly after reading wliich the Duke retired, saluting the company graciously. On that countenance, cheerful and disengaged as usual, none could read the workings of the calm but busy mind beneath. The state of things, however, most awful to those who could least distinctly be informed of it, had partially transpired, and the fete had assumed that complexion which has been perpetuated on the if taking an airing in Hyde Park. His Grace's appearance at one remarkable moment is picturesquely enough described by Captain Siborne. ESSAY IX. GENERAL ALAVA. 319 canvas of Byron. The bugle had sounded before the orchestra had ceased. Before the evening of the following day some of the Duchess's kilted corps de ballet were stretched in the rye of Quatre Bras, never to dance again. Rough transitions these moralists may sigh poets may sing but they are the Rem- brandt lights and shadows of the existence of the soldier, whose philosophy must always be that of Wolfe's favourite song " Why, soldiers, why, Should we be melancholy then, Whose trade it is to die ? " In this instance they were results of a cool self-possession and control, for a parallel instance of which biography may be searched in vain. And yet tliis ball was a symptom and remains evidence of surprise. We remember some years ago finding ourselves in company with General Alava and a very distinguished naval officer who had borne high command in the Tagus at the period of the occu- pation of the lines of Torres Vedras. The latter had been a guest at a ball which was given by Lord Wellington at Mafra in November, 1810, and he described the surprise with which the gentlemen of the navy witnessed a numerous attendance of officers some twenty miles from those advanced posts in front of which lay Masseua and the French army. General Alava's Spanish impatience broke out at this want of faith, more suo that is in a manner much more amusing to his friends than complimentary to the excellent sailor whose ignorance of the habits of land service under the Duke had provoked his indig- nation. General Alava is gone, and has left beliind him nothing simile aut seeundum for qualities of social intercourse. We could have wished to have put him upon the subject of some passages in Mr. Alison's History. The "work of twenty years" would have been consigned without ceremony to the quatro den mil demonios, who figured on such occasions in the many-languaged prose of our inimitable friend. Less eloquently, but in the same spirit of just indignation, will one volume of it be always spok.-u of by the men, while one of them is left to speak, who stand on tiptoe when the 18th of June recurs. Since the preceding pages were penned, and nt a mmm-nt when thev had become too numerous to admit of any serious 320 ' MARMONT, SIBORNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX. addition, Colonel Mitchell's new book, ' The Fall of Napoleon,' has reached us. Although an extended notice of it is, under such circumstances, impossible, an old and not unfriendly re- viewer's acquaintance with the author of the Life of Wallenstein has forcibly attracted our attention to that section of his third volume which bears the title of Waterloo. After stating that on all points of controversy discussed in this and our former article we have been happy to find ourselves in entire accordance with Colonel Mitchell, any praise of ours may be received with sus- picion ; but if our limits permitted, we could show cause for our general and decided approbation of this portion of the Colonel's labours. It is more to our present purpose, while we demonstrate the identity of sentiment of which we claim the advantage as against Mr. Alison, to complain that the Colonel's services to the cause of truth have in one point been less effectually rendered than we had a right to expect. At vol. iii. p. 157, we find the following passage : " After what has been said in the present book, it should, perhaps, be needless to take any notice of the idle tale contained in the so- called Memoirs of Fouche. Nor should we do so, had not foreign writers, enemies of the glory of England, and General Grollman among the rest, endeavoured to give general circulation to this poor fable." This passage, followed by observations much in the spirit of our own on the "poor fable," is not quite fair to General Grollman, Professor Arndt, and other continental writers who, without being necessarily enemies of the glory of England, have given rash credence to the nonsense which we have now for a second time exposed. In justice to them, but far more in justice to the English reading public, which is more likely to read Alison than Grollman, the Colonel should have added that an English writer of large volumes and vast pretensions had not only shared the delusion in the first instance, but had persisted in it with culpable obstinacy after due notice of his error. The Colonel's preface is dated from Edinburgh. We think it possible that personal acquaintance, followed, as we have no doubt it would be, by personal regard, may have induced this veniam corvis, this leniency to the Caledonian crow, which is quite inconsistent with his censure of the Prussian dove. ESSAY IX. COLONEL MITCHELL'S WORK. 321 Colonel Mitchell was the more bound to notice Mr. Alison's delinquency, because he more than once quotes the History as a work of grave authority. The equally unfounded, but less malignant and mischievous invention, by which the desertion of the French General Bour- mont has been magnified into an event of importance, meets with brief and proper notice from the ColoneL Blucher's contemptuous rejection of all intercourse with Bourmont is matter of history. The Duke of Wellington has no recol- lection of having heard the name or rank of the personage from whom, as French writers would make us believe, he obtained the plan of Napoleon's campaign. He did hear that some French officer had deserted, but no intercourse of any kind ensued. We purposely avoid entering into any detailed discussion of certain leading theories which Colonel Mitchell omits no opportunity of bringing forward, and of incidentally supporting by inferences from facts in his narrative. In support, however, of one of these theories, the inadequacy of infantry as now armed to resist a home charge of cavalry, the Colonel, speaking of Waterloo, mentions a curious negative fact, vol. iii. p. 119 : "Fifteen thousand cavalry were defeated in the course of this long day's battle, mostly by the fire of infantry, yet was not there a single French horseman soldier or officer who perished on a Bri- tish bayonet ; not one from first to last." The Colonel's inference, that cavalry attacks so feebly conducted do not prove the power of resistance which he denies to infantry, is logical enough. It ought, however, to be mentioned in any discussion of the question, and for the credit of the British cavalry, that their attacks have not always been so feebly con- ducted. They have charged home, and the records of the Peninsular war show with various success. At Waterloo, the attack of the 10th Hussars on a square of the French Guard, in which Major Howard fell, is certainly not a conclusive instance. The failure was that of a handful of men, hastily collected, and exhausted by previous attacks. If it had succeeded, there would have been much excuse for infantry so surrounded as were the French by confusion and defeat The conditions of the Colon. Ts theorem are evidently an open plain, a formed square, men on Y 322 MARMONT, SIBOKNE, AND ALISON. ESSAY IX.' both sides and horses too in good working condition. In the Peninsula the charge of Bock's German horse is fair evidence on the Colonel's side. An affair in the Peninsula, of July 11, 1810, in which the 14th Light Dragoons lost their Colonel killed, and some thirty men killed and wounded, shows, on the other hand, that cavalry may charge home and yet be repulsed. The particulars will be found in General Craufurd's letter, published in vol. iv. p. 164, of Colonel Gurwood's enlarged edition. The Appendix, p. 808, contains Marshal Massena's report of the transaction. He says, " 12 ba'ionnettes attestent qu'elles ont ete enfonces dans le poitrail des chevaux." "With all respect for Colonel Mitchell, we venture still to doubt whether the cavalry exists which can break into an English square of infantry under the conditions assumed ; and we do not think the probability much increased by the substitution of detonators for the old flint- lock which sufficed at Waterloo. Colonel Mitchell's work will be thought by the world ex- tremely, even wildly, unjust to Napoleon as a military leader : but many of its censures, even on the Imperial movements in their grandest and most successful scenes, are so well put that we may hereafter discuss them in a deliberate manner. Meanwhile the general ability and energy of the Colonel's style, with the high and patriotic spirit of his sentiments, authorize us in recommending to all who relish real manly description and discussion an attentive perusal of ' The Fall of Napoleon.' We beg to suggest to Colonel Mitchell that he will do well in any future edition either to correct the press himself, or employ a French scholar for the purpose. Such havoc with the ortho- graphy of continental names we never witnessed. In one of his little woodcut maps, out of thirteen names, five are killed or wounded by the remorseless compositor; and the text is equally disfigured. One more word at parting with Mr. Alison. In the preface to the last edition of his work, p. Ixi., we find the following passage : " "What the historian does to others, he willingly accords to him- self; and certainly he feels no sort of impropriety in a youth of twenty making his first essay in letters by the criticism of the work of twenty years." ESSAY IX. DUTIES OF REVIEWERS. 323 If no indiscreet vanity mislead us, these mysterious words contain a dark allusion to ourselves, and convey Mr. Alison's impression that we, his reviewers, have not attained our legal majority. We of " the gentle craft " claim upon this point the indulgence usually conceded to Mr. Alison's favourites, the gentle sex. Whatever be the amount of youth and inexperience which we have brought to the task of criticising a production so awfully designated as " the work of twenty years," we venture to remind its author that our observations have hitherto been strictly confined to a special portion of that work, and princi- pally to inaccuracies, misstatements of facts, and errors of judg- ment, which an Eton boy of the lower school would, with twenty minutes' study of the documents in our possession, have been able to detect and expose. Even for handling the work in extenso, however, a reviewer of twenty years might in some respects be better qualified than one of older standing. We have a conscience in these matters ; before we review a book we usually read it, and with greater attention than may be neces- sary merely to certify its general character to discern for instance the prevalent evidences of shallowness, verbosity, and self-satisfaction. Youth has its faults, but it is the season for hard work of all kinds, and heavy reading among others. Adult and reviewing man shrinks from twenty average octavos com- pressed, not by the author, but by the binder, into ten. We have already intimated that we have read enough to convince us that in all our own leading doctrines moral, political, and religious we have an ally in Mr. Alison. The importance and interest of his subject cannot be rated too high. By and by, therefore, we may perhaps screw up our courage. If it be true that the present Lord Rector of Marischal College has announced a prize for the best essay on 'Alison's History of Europe,' we may possibly be reserving ourselves for that struggle. Meanwhile, and in return for Mr. Alison's liberal concession, we can only promise that, whenever our majority takes place, the learned Sheriff of Lanarkshire shall have received due notice, and an invitation to the festivities with which the public will expect that an event so remarkable should be celebrated. Everything will be on a scale of the greatest magnificence, and an author will be roasted whole on the occasion. Y 2 324 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. X.-VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, JUNE, 1847. ( a ) THIRTY years have elapsed since one of our colleagues first addressed himself to the task of directing the public mind to the subject of Arctic exploration.* He has lived to see many of his expectations justified, and we hope he may yet see others of them realised. During the interval, those so long honoured with the fruits of his Jiorce subsecivce have never been inattentive to the progress of that system of discovery which owes so much to the suggestions and official encouragement of that veteran. Few greater pleasures, indeed, are ours than when, from our literary signal-post we can make the number of one of those gallant vessels, returning " rough with many a scar " of bloodless con- flict with the floe and iceberg, and with its log one continuous record of danger and difficulty vanquished by courage and intel- ligence, and of triumphs unpurchased by other human suffering than the voluntary endurance of the wise and brave in pursuit of noble ends. Well pleased have we lingered so long within the confines of that Arctic circle which has been penetrated by so many expeditions, and with interest which accumulates by the hour do we watch for the return of those two vessels which are, perhaps, even now working their southward course through Behring's Straits into the Pacific. Should the happiness be yet allowed us of witnessing that return, we are of opinion that the * Quarterly Review, vol. xviii. p. 199. (") 1. A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions during the Years 1839-43. By Captain Sir James Clark Ross, R.N. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1847. 2. Notes on, the Botany of the Antarctic Voyage conducted by Captain Sir J. C. Ross. By Sir W. J. Hooker. London, 1843. ESSAY X. RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 325 Erebus and Terror should be moored henceforth on either side of the Victory, floating monuments of what the Nelsons of dis- covery can dare and do at the call of their country in the service of the world. Meanwhile these two portentous names, whatever be the fate of the vessels which own them, are associated with services as brilliant and discoveries as striking, at the extremity of the globe antipodean to the region of their present employ- ment, as any which have yet invited the notice of our columns. That such notice has not been sooner invited we can only ascribe to the fact, that between the task of collecting scientific mate- rials and that of arranging them for publication of overcoming danger and difficulty, and reciting their Odyssea to the public there is all the difference to men of action and enterprise that lies between catching a hare and cooking it. We know no other reason why three years should have been suffered to elapse between Sir James Boss's safe return and the present publication, or why no authorised details of the expedition should have been made known, other than were sparingly afforded in Sir W. Hooker's botanical work of 1843. The purely scientific results have doubtless meanwhile been privately accessible to those who could turn them to account. They have, we may be sure, occu- pied the attention of Gauss, and Humboldt, and Sabine.* They may have supplied new elements for those wondrous calculations which enable the former from his study at Berlin to prick off on the map, to a near approximation at least, the place of the mag- netic pole ; they have probably suggested paragraphs for a new volume or a new edition of the ' Cosmos.' To guide the investi- gations, to correct the conclusions of such minds as these, is a privilege of which a British sailor may be proud. The more popular results of this expedition, such as are appre- ciable by the mass of the reading public, lie in a narrow compass. The record is not diversified by any encounter with any southern counterpart to those secluded tribes of the human family who burrow in the farthest regions of the North, habitable as these regions are, and civilised in comparison with the volcanic deserts of the South. No northern explorer has, we believe, yet passed the limits of vegetable life. Even on Melville Island the lichen and the alga yet retain their place in the scheme of Nature. But * See on this subject, Quart. Rev. vol. Ixvi., art. 'Terrestrial Magnetism.' I 326 VOYAGE TO THE ANTAECTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. on the ice-clad peaks of the land discovered by Sir James Boss not the minutest trace of a cryptogamous plant is discernible, and the ocean, which freezes to their base, is equally barren of aquatic vegetation. Some features, however, of the Antarctic region have a character of far greater sublimity than attaches to any scenery yet observed in the North. A continent of vast and, as yet, unmeasured extent, the northern extremity of which is situated in the 71st degree of south latitude, sheathed in eternal ice from where its sea-line gives harbour to the seal and the penguin, to where its summits, attaining three or four times the height of Hecla, like Hecla give vent to subterranean fires ; extending at nearly a right angle to this continent a precipice of ice, varying from 100 to 150 feet in height, and presenting for some 500 miles an impervious barrier to the bow- sprits of " Those sons of Albion who, with venturous sails, On distant oceans caught antarctic gales :" these are in themselves objects which, however briefly described or roughly sketched, must take at once the highest rank among the natural wonders of the world. Before we proceed to cite the passages in which these and other memorabilia of Sir James's expedition are described, we think it advisable to give, as far as we are able, a measure of this officer's performance by a sketch of those of his predecessors. With respect to the Arctic circle, this task has aiforded Sir John Barrow the materials of a valuable volume, to which, perhaps, some additions might be obtained from the recent researches of the Society of Danish Antiquaries into the records of early Scan- dinavian navigation. A few lines may suffice to convey all we know of Antarctic discovery anterior to the period of Wilkes, D'Urville, and Koss. Many obvious causes have contributed to direct the attention of governments and independent navigators rather to the North Pole than the South. The dream of an available passage to Cathay has been, like many other visions, pregnant with practical results. In England, after these visions of mercantile advantage had lost their influence, the official directors of maritime enterprise have still been stimulated by the desire to resolve the geographical problem of the North-west passage, and also to map out the configuration of the continent ESSAY X EARLY ANTARCTIC VOYAGES. 327 of North America, and of the great adjacent masses of land thus to finish off, as it were, a work which has been in progress since the days of Baffin and Hudson rather than to break up new ground and seek for the conjectured Terra Australis. With the exception of the expedition of Captain Cook, of which the exploration of the higher southern latitudes formed but an epi- sode, the Antarctic department has, down to a recent period, been principally left to the casual efforts of the whale and seal hunter. The earliest exploit of importance in its annals of which any record has come under our notice is the discovery of the islands which now rather unfairly bear the name of the South Shetland, situated about the 62nd degree of south latitude. They should in justice bear the name of the honest Dutchman Dirck Gerritz, who, in his vessel of some 150 tons, was driven to them by storms in 1599 from the western entrance of the Straits of Magellan. It is true that, nearly a century earlier, the French navigator De Gonneville had acquired the reputation of having discovered a Terra Australis far to the south of Africa. Doubts* however, have always hung over the precise position of the country visited, if not discovered, by De Gonneville. It was reported extensive and well inhabited, and he brought away with him a son of its sovereign, an article of export which could hardly be obtained from the neighbourhood of the Antarctic circle. This prince was adopted by the Frenchman who had imported or kidnapped him, married, and had descendants in France, one of whom, a grandson, became a canon of Lisieux and an ambassador. It is to this person we owe an account of the voyage of De Gonneville. He was, however, unable to bring any evidence of the position of the land in question, which, having long been traced ad libitum on the maps of the Southern Ocean, remains still uncertain, though the probabilities of the case appear to be in favour of Madagascar. It was mainly in pursuit of this land, of which distance and uncertainty had mag- nified the extent and resources, that the Breton Kerguelen in 1772 embarked on the expedition which led to the discovery, three years afterwards acknowledged and confirmed by Cook, of Kerguelen Island. Of Captain Cook's expedition, thumbed as its record has been, and, we hope, continues to be, by schoolboy hands, it is unnecessary to speak in detail. Down to 1840 we believe that no navigator of any country 328 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. but his own had penetrated beyond the point marked as Cook's farthest on the maps, or, with the exception of the Kussian Bel- linghausen, made any material addition to his discoveries in those latitudes. Indeed of our own countrymen one only had fulfilled the former of these conditions. This was Captain Weddell, who, in the year 1822, in a small vessel fitted for the whale and seal fishery rather than for discovery, first disproved the existence of a continental range which had been supposed to extend itself immediately to the south of the islands discovered by Gerritz and rediscovered by Smith, and then, pursuing his fortunes between the 30th and 40th degrees of longitude, ran down to the highest southern latitude yet attained by man, 74 15'. A passage in Weddell's narrative, in which he takes occasion to lament that he was ill provided with instruments of scientific observation, may have given a pretext for the doubts which some foreign authorities have entertained as to the reality of this exploit. He told the world, however, that he had spent 2401. on the purchase of three chronometers, all of which per- formed well ; and tljte whole tone of his narrative and of his observations on the subject of polar navigation, seemed to us to bespeak the man of instruction and research as well as enterprise. Taking into account all the circumstances of his expedition, we venture to pronounce that his performance comes nearer to those of the giants of old time, the Baffins, the Davises, and the Hud sons, than any voyage of the present age accomplished without the assistance of governments. We endeavoured at the time to set him in a proper light before his countrymen : * if it be true, as we fear it is, that a man of such achievement died in neglected poverty, let others bear the blame. A Russian expedition was fitted out from Croiistadt in 1819, consisting of two ships, the Vostock and the Mirui, under the command of Captains Bellinghausen and Lazarew. An account of this expedition, in two volumes, with an atlas, was published at St. Petersburgh; but, as far as we know, it still remains locked up in the Russian language. In January, 1821, they reached the latitude of 70 30', which, in the ' Russian Ency- clopaedia,' is stated to be the highest hitherto attained but the statement is incorrect, for it falls short of Cook's farthest. An * See Quarterly Review, vol. xxxiii. p. 280. ESSAY X. DISCOVEKIES OF CAPTAIN BISCOE. . 329 island was discovered in latitude 68 57' and longitude 90 46' W., and called the island of Peter I. Floating ice prevented the vessels from approaching this land nearer than fourteen miles, but its insular character appears to have been ascertained, and the height of its summits was calculated at 4200 feet. Then- next discovery appears on the maps as Alexander's Island, in latitude 68 43', longitude 73 10' W. It would appear, how- ever, that Bellinghausen was unable to trace the prolongation of this land to the south, and it has been considered as not impro- bable that it is continuous with the land afterwards discovered by Captain Biscoe, and designated as Graham's Land. Belling- hausen himself took care to call it Alexander's Land, not Alex- ander's Island. Be this as it may, to the Kussian undoubtedly belonged the honour, previous to 1840, of having discovered the southernmost known land. In 1830 and 1831 the brig Tula, of 148 tons, commanded by Captain Biscoe, prosecuted the task of discovery under special instructions from its enterprising owner, the great promoter of the southern whale-fishery, Mr. C. Enderby. Biscoe did not, like Weddell, succeed in passing beyond the degree of south latitude which had formed the limit of Cook's progress, but, to use the words of the Journal of the Geographical Society, vol. iii. p. 122, he " made two distinct discoveries, at a great distance the one from the other, and each in the highest southern lati- tudes which, with a few exceptions, had yet been attained, or in which land had yet been discovered." These were, first, that of Enderby's Land, in lat. 65 57', and long. 47 20' east ; and next, that of a range of islands, and of land of unknown extent, situated between the 67th and 63rd degrees of south latitude, and between the 63rd and 71st degrees of west longitude. The principal range of these islands bears the name of Biscoe. We find the distinguished name of Mr. Enderby again asso- ciated with Antarctic discovery in the case of Balleny's voyage, 1839. This voyage demands our more particular notice, because its track was followed by Sir James Ross for special reasons in his two first cruises; because some questions have arisen be- tween the American and English expeditions, in which the pre- cise position of the islands discovered by Balleny is concerned ; and lastly, because there is every reason to suppose that land which D'Urville, in ignorance of Balleny's voyage, claims to 330 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. have discovered, had been in fact seen by Balleny. We have, indeed, little doubt that should subsequent researches prove that the south pole is the centre of a vast continent, the outworks of which in some longitudes are to be found in the neighbourhood of the 70th degree of south latitude, but indented by at least one bay to the height of the 79th, the first and second claimants to its discovery will be the gallant agents of Mr. Enderby, Captains Biscoe and Balleny. The schooner Eliza Scott, of 154 tons, commanded by Mr. John Balleny, and the dandy-rigged cutter Sabrina, of 54 tons, Mr. H. Freeman, master, sailed from the southern end of New Zealand, January 7, 1839, fitted for sealing purposes, but with Mr. Enderby 's usual liberal instructions to lose no opportunity of pushing as far as possible to the south. They crossed the track of Bellinghausen on the 24th, and con- tinued without material impediment a southward course over the very spot where the Russian navigator in lat. 63 had been compelled by ice to alter his course to the eastward in 1820. On the 1st of February they had reached the parallel of 69 in long. 172 east, 220 miles to the southward of the extreme point which Bellinghausen had been able to attain in this meridian. This evidence of the shifting character of the ice in this direc- tion was the circumstance which induced Sir James Eoss to select this quarter for his first attempts. Here the packed ice compelled them to work to the north-west ; and on attaining the 66th degree, in long. 163 east, they discovered a group of islands, which turned out to be five in number. A landing was with much risk effected by Mr. Freeman on one of these, the summit of which, estimated to rise to the height of 12,000 feet, emitted smoke, as if to corroborate the evidence of volcanic origin furnished by the fragments of scoriae and basalt mixed with crystals of olivine collected from the beachless base of its perpendicular cliffs. In their further progress the vessels must have passed within a short distance of Cape Clairee, a projection of the land to which M. D'Urville in the following year gave the name of Adelie, in right of his supposed discovery. On the 2nd of March, in lat. 69 58', long. 121 8', land was again disco- vered, which now figures on the map by the name of Sabrina. We cannot omit to mention that on this voyage a phenomenon was observed, which strikingly illustratecl that transporting power of ice to which so extensive an influence has been attri- ESSAY X. VOYAGES OF SIR JAMES EOSS. 331 ' buted by some eminent geologists. At a distance of 1400 miles from the nearest known land, though possibly within 300, or even 100, miles from land which may hereafter be discovered, an iceberg was seen with a block of rock, some twelve feet in height, attached to it at nearly a hundred feet from the sea-line. We cannot here pursue the train of reflection and theory which the appearance of this luggage- van of the ocean is calculated to suggest. Mr. Darwin on this, and other similar evidence, ob- serves that " if one iceberg in a thousand, or ten thousand, trans- ports its fragment, the bottom of the Antarctic sea, and the shores of its islands, must already be scattered with masses of foreign rock, the counterpart of the erratic boulders of the northern hemisphere." It must be gratifying to the writer in the Journal of the Geographical Society, vol. ix. p. 517, to whom we are indebted for what we know of Balleny's voyage, to find that his anticipations of its proving useful to the success of Sir James Ross's greater expedition have been so fully borne out. The services of Ross and his gallant companions covered a space of three years, exclusive of the passages to and from the Cape of Good Hope. During this period three distinct voyages were accomplished. Their first departure from Simon's Bay took place on the 6th of April, 1840, and pursuing a course to the northward of, and nearly parallel to, the 50th degree of south latitude, they reached Van Diemen's Land on the 16th of August, after having passed two months and a half of the winter season at Kerguelen's Island. On the 12th of November, 1840, they left Hobart Town, and, after some stay at the Auckland Islands, finally sailed in a direct course towards those entirely unexamined regions which were the main points of their ambi- tion. They returned to Hobart Town late in the autumn of that latitude, April 7, 1841. During this cruise was accomplished the discovery of the vast extent of mountainous continent which now bears the gracious name of Victoria; the active volcano, Mount Erebus, and the extinct one, Mount Terror ; and the icy barrier, probably an outwork of continued land, which, running east and west for some hundred miles in the 78th degree of south latitude, prevents all approach to the pole on either side of the 180th degree of longitude. Between July and November the vessels visited Sydney and New Zealand, remaining three months at the latter. 332 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. The second voyage commenced on the 15th of November, 1841, and was pursued towards the region explored in the former trip, and with nearly the same success. From the 18th of December to the 2nd of February, the ships were employed inflforcing their way through pack-ice from the 62iid to the 68th degree of south latitude ; and when, on the 23rd of February, they at length reached the icy barrier, in long. 162 west, the season was too far advanced to admit of further attempts to find an opening. Having approached within a mile and a half of the barrier, in lat. 78 10' south, some six miles farther to the southward than the limit of their former voyage, they com- menced their reluctant retreat, and, not having seen land for 138 days, gained a winter anchorage in Berkeley Sound, off the Falkland Islands, on the 6th of April, 1842. The spring season of this year, between September and December, was occupied by a cruise to Cape Horn, and back to Berkeley Sound. The third polar voyage was commenced on the 17th of De- cember, 1842, in a direction nearly opposite to that of the two former years, and towards the region explored by Weddell. The difficulties and dangers encountered in this last attempt appear to have exceeded those of the two former voyages, and the lat. 71 30', long. 15 west, formed the limit of their south- ward cruise. The ships gained the Cape of Good Hope on the 4th of April, 1843, within two days of three years after they had first quitted those parts. We do not profess in the above summary to have enumerated all the commanders who, between the period of Cook's expedi- tion and the year 1840, had attained high southern latitudes in various directions, or even made discoveries of land. We believe, however, that from it our readers may derive a correct general notion of the condition and progress of Antarctic discovery down to the period when the French and American expeditions, under D'Urville and Wilkes, gained, nearly simultaneously, some ten months' start of Ross in these seas. The result of these expedi- tions, so far as concerns our present subject, may best be given in the following passages from Sir James Ross's work : " The most interesting news that awaited us on our arrival at Van Diemen's Land [August, 1840] related to the discoveries made, during the last summer, in the southern regions by the French expe- dition, consisting of the Astrolabe and Zelee, under the command of ESSAY X. FRENCH AND AMERICAN EXPEDITIONS. 333 Captain Dumont D'Urville, and by the United States expedition, under Lieutenant Charles VVilkes, in the frigate Vincennes. " The accounts published, by the authority of Captain D'Urville, in the local papers, stated, that the French ships sailed from Hobart Town on the 1st of January, 1840, and discovered land on the evening of the 19th; and on the 21st some of the officers landed upon a small islet lying some distance from the mainland, and pro- cured some specimens of its granitic rock. D'Urville traced the land in a continuous line one hundred and fifty miles, between the longitudes of 136 and 142 east, in about the latitude of the Antarctic circle. It was entirely covered with snow, and there was not the least appearance of vegetation : its general height was esti- mated at about one thousand three hundred feet. M. D'Urville named it Terre Adelie. Proceeding to the westward, they disco- vered and sailed about sixty miles along a solid wall of ice, one hundred and fifty feet high, which he, believing to be a covering or crust of a more solid base, named Cote Clairee. It must have been extremely painful to the enterprising spirit of D'Urville to be obliged to relinquish a more extended exploration of this new-discovered land ; but the weakly condition of his crews imperatively demanded of him to discontinue their laborious exertions, and return to a milder climate to restore the health of his enfeebled people, upon finding that the western part of the Cote Clairee turned away sud- denly to the southward. He accordingly bore away on the 1st of February, and reached Hobart Town on the 17th of the same month, after an absence of only seven weeks. Although the western point of Cote Clairee had been seen by Balleny in the preceding summer, it was mistaken by him for an enormous iceberg, and the land he at first imagined he saw behind it he afterwards thought might only be clouds. These circumstances are mentioned in the log-book of the Eliza Scott, but are not inserted'here with the least intention of dis- puting the unquestionable right of the French to the honour of this very important discovery. " The result of the American expedition was, in compliance with the instructions of the government, kept profoundly secret on their return to Sydney, and nothing appeared in the local papers respecting their extensive operations but uncertain conjectures and contradic- tory statements. I felt, therefore, the more indebted to the kind and generous consideration of Lieutenant "\Vilkes, the distinguished commander of the expedition, for a long letter on various subjects, which his experience had suggested as likely to prove serviceable to me, under the impression that I should still attempt to penetrate to the southward on some of the meridians he had visited ; a tracing of his original chart accompanied his letter, showing the great extent 334 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. of his discoveries, and pointing out to me those parts of the coast which he thought we should find most easily accessible. These documents would indeed have proved of infinite value to me had 1 felt myself compelled to follow the strict letter of my instructions ; and I do not the less appreciate the motives which prompted the communication of those papers because they did not eventually prove so useful to me as the American commander had hoped and expected : and I avail myself of this opportunity of publicly ex- pressing the deep sense of thankfulness I feel to him for his friendly and highly honourable conduct. " The arduous and persevering exertions of this expedition, con- tinued throughout a period of more than six weeks, under circum- stances of great peril and hardship, cannot fail to reflect the highest credit on those engaged in the enterprise, and excite the admiration of all who are in the smallest degree acquainted with the laborious and difficult nature of an icy navigation : but I am grieved to be obliged to add, that at the present time they do not seem to have received either the approbation or reward their spirited exertions merit. The narrative of their comprehensive labours is now in the hands of the public ; I need, therefore, make no further remark here on the subject. " That the commanders of each of these great national under- takings should have selected the very place for penetrating to the southward, for the exploration of which they were well aware at the time that the expedition under my command was expressly pre- paring, and thereby forestalling our purposes, did certainly greatly surprise me. I should have expected their national pride would have caused them rather to have chosen any other path in the wide field before them, than one thus pointed out, if no higher consider- ation had power to prevent such an interference. They had, how- ever, the unquestionable right to select any point they thought proper at which to direct their efforts, without considering the embarrassing situation in which their conduct might have placed me. Fortunately, in my instructions, much had been left to my judgment under unforeseen circumstances ; and, impressed with the feeling that England had ever led the way of discovery in the southern as well as in the northern regions, I considered it would have been inconsistent with the pre-eminence she has ever maintained if we were to follow in the footsteps of the expedition of any other nation. I therefore resolved at once to avoid all interference with their dis- coveries, and selected a much more easterly meridian (170 E.), on which to endeavour to penetrate to the southward, and, if possible, reach the magnetic pole. " My chief reason for choosing this particular meridian, in prefer- ESSAY X. CAPTAINS D'URVILLE AND WILKES. 335 ence to any other, was its being that upon which Balleny had, in the summer of 1839, attained to the latitude of 69, and there found an open sea ; and not, as has been asserted, that I was deterred from any apprehension of an equally unsuccessful issue to any attempt we might make where the Americans and French had so signally failed to get beyond even the 67 of latitude. For I was well aware how ill-adapted their ships were for a service of that nature, from not being fortified to withstand the shocks and pressure they must have been necessarily exposed to had they ventured to penetrate any extensive body of ice. They would have equally failed had they tried it upon the meridian I had now chosen, for it will be seen we met with a broad belt of ice, upwards of two hundred miles across, which it would have been immediate destruction to them to have encountered ; but which, in our fortified vessels, we could confi- dently run into, and push our way through into the open sea beyond. Without such means it would be utterly impossible for any one, under such circumstances, however bold or persevering, to attain a high southern latitude." vol. i. pp. 113-118. Any detailed notice of the published voyages of the two able and distinguished navigators with whom the pursuit of a common object brought Captain Ross into a generous and peaceful rivalry, is beside our present purpose. We must pay, however, our tri- bute of admiration to the skill of French artists and the liberality of French Government patronage, as illustrated in the splendid atlas of D'Urville. Nor can we omit to lament the dreadful and untimely death, by the catastrophe on the Versailles railroad, of the man whose genius and enterprise furnished the materials for such a work. To Captain Wilkes we must also acknowledge our obligations for many agreeable hours of pleasant reading, which have left upon us a strong impression of the professional merits of the author and his gallant associates. We are, more- over, bound to say, on the evidence which he does not scruple to furnish, that we consider the merits of his exploits much en- hanced by the circumstance that the naval departments of his country appear to have acted with negligence, at the least, towards the brave men whom it sent on the service in question. Between the officers and men of the United States and Eng- land, respectively, we are as incompetent as we should be reluc- tant to draw any comparison which should strike a balance in favour of either. We rest satisfied with the general conviction that there is no service, warlike or scientific, which they will not 336 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC KEGIONS. ESSAY X. be found qualified and zealous to discharge to the extreme limit of human ability. We cannot, however, but entertain, on the evidence of Captain Wilkes' own pages, a complacent conviction that, however rivalled by our Anglo-Saxon relations in blue water, we as yet manage matters better in the dockyard. If, with respect to an isolated occurrence in this instance, a contro- versy has arisen in which the evidence appears to us conclusive in favour of Sir J. Ross, we are the less inclined to leave un- noticed the fact that the American ships appear to have been not only insufficiently strengthened for this Polar navigation which in their case, as in that of Captain Cook, formed but an episode of their instructions but ill-found for an extensive voyage of discovery in any direction. It was on the llth of January, 1841, and in that 71st degree of south latitude which formed the limit of Cook's southward course, that the first distinct vision was obtained by Ross's ex- pedition of the vast volcanic continent "which bars access to the southern magnetic pole, and probably to the pole of the earth. Appearances of land there had been some days earlier, suffi- ciently plausible to have deterred less experienced navigators, and perhaps to have left spurious traces on maps which might have waited long for correction. On this day, however, Mount Sabine rose conspicuous in the view, attaining, as was afterwards ascertained, the height of nearly 10,000 feet, at a distance of some thirty miles from the coast. A long range of mountains of scarcely less elevation was perceived towards the north-west. The magnetic observations taken here placed the magnetic pole in lat. 76, long. 145 20' E., therefore in the direction true south-west from the position of the ships, and distant some 500 miles. The land, however, Sir James says "interposed an insuperable obstacle to our direct approach to it; and we had to choose whether we should trace the coast to the north-west, with the hope of turning the western extreme of the land, and thence proceed to the south, or follow the southerly coast- line, and thence take a more westerly course. The latter was pre- ferred, as being more likely to extend our researches into higher latitudes, and as affording a better chance of afterwards attaining one of the principal objects of our voyage ; and although we could not but feel disappointed in our expectation of shortly reaching the magnetic pole, yet these mountains, being in our way, restored to ESSAY X. DISCOVERY OF LAND. 337 England the honour of the discovery of the southernmost known land, which had been nobly won by the intrepid Bellinghausen, and for more than twenty years retained by Eussia." p. 187. The mainland, fenced by a projecting barrier of ice, on which a tremendous surf was breaking, defied all attempts at access, but at much risk a hasty landing was effected on one of a group of islands situated in lat. 71 5 6', and long. 171 7' E. The usual ceremonies of taking possession were solemnized under a heavy assault from the aboriginal inhabitants, the penguins, who dis- puted with their beaks the title of Queen Victoria. Not a trace of vegetation was perceived ; but that of our Australasian colonies may one day profit by the accumulated guano of ages, which annoyed the stoutest of the invaders by its stench. Whales were swarming in all directions, unconscious that the spell of that long security which they had enjoyed in this remote region was probably broken; thirty were counted at one time. We can hardly, however, share Sir James's anticipations as to the future success of our whale-fishers in this quarter. For the present, at least, we believe that in such distant regions the whale-fishing can only be pursued with profit in conjunction with the chase of the seal. The precipitous cliffs of the circumpolar continents, or islands, would appear in no instance to afford that line of beach which is essential for the capture of the seal ; and we cannot believe that underwriters would insure on moderate terms against the chances of packed ice, beyond a certain latitude. From this date the ships struggled on to the southward, generally against adverse winds, to the 73rd degree, discovering and naming, after various official and scientific individuals, new mountains and islands. In a moment of calm the dredge was let down in 270 fathoms ; and the result was a variety of living plunder, the Captain's remarks whereupon must be quoted : " It was interesting among these creatures to recognise several that I had been in the habit of taking in equally high northern lati- tudes ; and, although contrary to the general belief of naturalists, I have no doubt that from however great a depth we may be enabled to bring up the mud and stones of the bed of the ocean, we shall find them teeming with animal life ; the extreme pressure at the greatest depth does not appear to affect these creatures. Hitherto we have not been able to determine this point beyond a thousand z VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. fathoms ; but from that depth several shellfish have been brought up with the mud. p. 202. On the 22nd of January the reckoning of the ships gave the latitude 74 20' south, and a double allowance of grog was issued to celebrate the first attainment of a higher latitude than that accomplished by Weddell. After struggling through the heavy packed ice which fringed the coast for 50 miles, they gained clear water on the 20th ; Mount Melbourne, a peak some 12,000 feet high, being visible at a distance of perhaps eighty miles. A landing was with much difficulty effected on an island twelve miles long, honoured with the name of Franklin ; and this pro- ceeding led Koss to the conclusion that the vegetable kingdom has no representative whatever in those latitudes. Animal vitality, however, triumphs here over all obstacles, both on land and in the ocean ; and the petrel, the gull, and the seal swarm about precipices of igneous rock, which leave no ledge on which the footboard of a captain's gig can be planted. In the night of January 27, the ship stood in clear weather towards some land which at first seemed an island, but which turned out to be the peak of a volcano 12,600 feet in height, in full activity, upon the continent. This magnificent and impressive object was named Mount Erebus ; and an extinct, or at least inactive neighbour, of about 11,000 feet in elevation, was called Mount Terror. We find what follows in the Notes to the ' Botany of the Antarctic Expedition,' drawn up by Sir W. Hooker, from the journal of his son, the accomplished naturalist to the expedition : " It was on the following day, Jan. 28, in lat 76 57', long. 169 25', that was first descried that active volcano which could not fail to form a spectacle the most stupendous and imposing that can be imagined ; whether considered in regard to its position, 77 S. lat., or in reference to the fact that no human eye had gazed on it before, or to its elevation of 12,600 feet above the level of the sea. What increased the wonder is, that it is but one of a stupendous chain of mountains a portion of a new continent, of vast but unde- fined extent the whole mass, from its highest point to the ocean's edge, covered with everlasting snow and ice ; the sun at that season never setting, but day and night exhibiting the same spectacle of the extremes of nature's heat and cold. In mentioning such a phe- nomenon I may be allowed to make the following extract from my son's letter : ' The water and the sky were both as blue, or rather ESSAY X. PARRY MOUNTAINS. 339 more intensely blue, than I have ever seen them in the tropics, and all the coast one mass of dazzlingly beautiful peaks of snow, which, when the sun approached the horizon, reflected the most brilliant tints of golden yellow and scarlet ; and then to see the dark cloud of smoke, tinged with flame, rising from the volcano in a perfectly unbroken column, one side jet-black, the other giving back the colours of the sun, sometimes turning off at a right angle by some current of wind, and stretching many miles to leeward. This was a sight so surpassing everything that can be imagined, and so heightened by the consciousness that we had penetrated into regions far beyond what was ever deemed practicable, that it really caused a feeling of awe to steal over us at the consideration of our own com- parative insignificance and helplessness, and, at the same time, an indescribable feeling of the greatness of the Creator in the works of his hand.' " Another great natural feature of these regions was met with on the following day, and is thus described by Captain Ross : " As we approached the land under all studding-sails, we per- ceived a low white line extending from its extreme eastern point as far as the eye could discern to the eastward. It presented an extra- ordinary appearance, gradually increasing in height as we got nearer to it, and proving at length to be a perpendicular cliff of ice, between 150 and 200 feet above the level of the sea, peifectly flat and level at the top, and without any fissures or promontories on its even sea- ward face. What was beyond it we could not imagine ; for, being much higher than our mast's head, we could not see anything except the summit of a lofty range of mountains, extending to the south- ward as far as the 79th degree of latitude. These mountains, being the southernmost land hitherto discovered, I felt great satisfaction in naming after Captain Sir William Edward Parry, R.N., in grateful remembrance of the honour he conferred upon me by calling the northernmost known land on the globe by my name Whether ' Parry Mountains ' again take an easterly trending, and form the base to which this extraordinary mass of ice is attached, must be left to future navigators to determine. If there be land to the south- ward, it must be very remote, or of much less elevation than any other part of the coast we have seen, or it would have appeared above the barrier. Meeting with such an obstruction was a great disappointment to us all, for we had already, in expectation, passed far beyond the 80th degree, and had even appointed a rendezvous there in case of the ships separating. It was, however, an obstruc- tion of such a character as to leave no doubt upon my mind as to Z 2 340 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. our future proceedings, for we might with equal chance of success try to sail through Dover cliffs as penetrate such a mass." p. 217. In the course of this and the following voyage this barrier was traced through some thirty degrees of longitude, or for nearly 450 miles ; the vessels taking every opportunity which winds, currents, and icebergs permitted of standing in towards it. But no symptom of indentation, save one, presented itself in the compact and even precipice. In long. 187 east, the appearance of a bay invited investigation, and the barrier was approached 011 February 9, to the distance of a quarter of a mile. Gigantic icicles pendent from the cliffs proved that the operation of thaw- ing was not absolutely unknown to the locality. Still the ther- mometer, at a season of the year equivalent to an English August, ranged at noon no higher than 14, and in this sheltered recess young ice was forming so rapidly, that the ships had the narrowest possible escape from being frozen up. On the 14th of February the main pack of ice was reported in every direction, except to windward, and the ships were hauled to the wind to make their retreat amid blinding snow, and with frozen decks and rigging from a chain of icebergs, probably aground, one of which was nearly four miles long. The wind afterwards changed to the eastward, and the ships sailed before it with the intention of making another attempt to reach the magnetic pole, and of seeking a winter harbour in its vicinity. But hopes, which none but such navigators as Koss could now have had the fortitude to entertain, were frustrated. The only position observed which would have answered the latter purpose was found to be fenced by an outwork of 15 miles of solid ice, and on February 17 the two commanders reluctantly concurred in the impossibility of making a nearer approach to the magnetic pole, from which at this moment they were distant 160 miles : " Had it been possible to have found a place of security upon any part of this coast where we might have entered, in sight of the bril- liant burning mountain, and at so short a distance from the magnetic pole, both of these interesting spots might have been reached by travelling parties in the following spring ; but all our efforts to effect that object proved quite unsuccessful. Although our hopes of com- plete attainment were not realized, yet it was some satisfaction to know we had approached the pole some hundreds of miles nearer ESSAY X. ERROR OF CAPTAIN WILKES. 341 than any of OUT predecessors ; and, from the multitude of observa- tions that were made in so many different directions from it, its position may be determined with nearly as much accuracy as if we had actually reached the spot itself. It was nevertheless painful to behold, at a distance, easily accessible under other circumstances, the range of mountains in which the pole is placed, and few can understand the deep feelings of regret with which I felt myself com- pelled to abandon the, perhaps, too ambitious hope I had so long cherished of being permitted to plant the flag of my country in both the magnetic poles of our globe." p. 246. In the course of his northward progress, Sir J. Ross takes occasion to notice a circumstance which must make the task of a navigator of these seas far more unenviable than that of the Arctic explorer ; this is, the more constant prevalence of a swell so heavy as to make the calm, in the vicinity of land or iceberg, more dangerous even than the gale, preventing the use of boats to tow the ship from danger, and frustrating the effects of such feeble airs as would give her steerage-way in the smooth water of the Arctic seas. The dangers of gale and calm were alike over- come by the admirable management and unflinching perseverance of officers and men. On March 2, for instance, while the Ter- ror's bows and rigging were encrusted with ice, some of the hands were slung over the latter for two hours, drenched at every plunge of the ship, while repairing the shackle of the bob- stay, broken by rough contact with the pack-ice. At this date they fell in with some of the islands discovered by Balleny, and had the satisfaction of verifying the accuracy of his observa- tions. On the 16th they sailed over the precise spot which, on the chart furnished by the kindness of Captain Wilkes, had been marked as mountainous land. It is unfortunate that the liberality with which that officer communicated to his British competitors the information which he conceived might be useful for their guidance, should have led to a result which has occasioned him some annoyance. For the details of the con- troversy which has arisen, we must refer our readers to Sir James Ross's volumes. We cannot doubt that Captain Wilkes was mistaken, and that his mistake originated in a too ready accept- ance of a supposed observation of land by one of his subordinates, an accident to wliich the deception of fog and the interruptions of ice must often expose even experienced and scrupulous 312 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. navigators. On the 6th of April the ships were moored in safety in the Derwent, Van Diemen's Land, bringing back in health and safety every individual who had embarked in them there in November of the former year. The second cruise of the expedition was directed towards the eastern extremity of that icy barrier which had repelled the attempt of the preceding year. The barrier was again reached, and the extreme southern limit of the former voyage was passed ; but the track now followed led to no such discoveries of land as had immortalised that voyage, arid a detention of fifty-six days in packed ice from the 60th to the 67th degree of south latitude lost them the best part of the season for the prosecution of their intended survey, or for penetrating or turning, perchance, the flank of the icy barrier. Their detention in the pack-ice was not merely one of those trials of patience of which Arctic voyages of discovery present so many examples, but of the strength of timber and iron, of rope and canvas, and still more of every resource of human courage, skill, and nautical experience. The narrow pools in which the vessels floated were no mill-ponds protected by the surrounding ice from the fury of the Antarctic tempests. These narrow spaces combined the mountain-swell of the open ocean with all the horrors of a lee shore and an intricate navigation. Lifted by ice one moment, and thrown on their beam-ends the next by sudden squalls exposed Jn one instance for twenty-eight hours to a combination of influences, which at any instant of those weary hours would have crushed to frag- ments any ship of ordinary construction the gallant vessels still held their own. The hawsers snapped by which at the com- mencement of the gale they endeavoured to moor themselves to the nearest floe. The rudders were torn from the stern-posts the masts quivered to every collision with the grinding masses of ice the storm-sails, by backing and filling which they could alone avoid or mitigate such collision, strained to the gale the vessels were tossed in dangerous proximity to each other ; but Providence helped those who helped themselves, and the gale had scarcely abated when the spare rudders had been fixed and due examination had shown that the skilful construction of the vessels and the compact stowage of their holds had enabled them to ride through every danger without any vital injury. At length, on -the 1st of February, in latitude 67 29' S. and ESSAY X. SECOND CRUIZE. 343 loi.gitude 159 W., they emerged from their stormy prison into a comparatively clear sea. Under ordinary circumstances the appearance of stars to men, who for five weeks had scarcely seen the bowsprit from the quarter-deck through fog and blinding snow, would have been welcome enough, but this apparition told them that the season for navigating those seas was fast drawing to a close. On the 16th of February, in latitude 75, though cheered by the prospect of a clear sea, they could not but remember that two days anterior to this date in the former year the young ice had enforced a retreat. The present temperature, indeed, indicated a milder season than the last, but on the 21st, with the thermometer at 19 and a clear sea, the waves froze as they fell on the decks and rigging, and while the people of the Terror were cutting it away from her bows, a small fish was found in the mass, which must have been dashed against the ship and instantly frozen fast. Being laid aside for preservation, it was unfortunately pounced upon by an unscientific cat. On the 23rd the great barrier was seen from the mast-head. It was approached within a mile and a half, but young ice pre- vented a nearer approach, and every indentation was frozen up. In latitude 78 9', six miles in advance of the former year, with strong indications of land, but without that certainty required by such an observer as Sir James Ross, he was again compelled by the advanced state of the season to close his operations which, but for their unlooked-for detention, and the time spent in forcing their way through more than a thousand miles of pack-ice, might have led to far greater results. It was now determined to shape the most direct course the pack would admit for the Falkland Islands, at which Sir James proposed to refit previous to a third trial of his fortunes on that meridian of 35 W. longitude, on which Captain Weddell had reached the 75th degree of latitude. It was found impossible to effect a short passage through any opening in the body of the ice, but the flank of the pack was successfully turned, and, in latitude 64, on the 7th of March, the first specimen of the vegetable kingdom was hailed in the ap- pearance of small pieces of sea-weed. An awful moment of danger yet remained to try the skill and courage of both ships' companies. It is due to them to quote entire the vivid descrip- tion of their commander : 341 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. " During the next three days we made rapid progress to the east- ward, experiencing strong southerly winds and severe weather, but we met only four or five bergs during a run of several hundred miles, and began to think we had got to the northward of their latitude. On the afternoon of the 12th, however, several were seen during thick weather, and whilst we were running, under all the sail we could carry, to a strong north-westerly breeze. In the evening the wind increased so much, and the snow- showers became so incessant, that we were obliged to proceed under more moderate sail. Numerous small pieces of ice were also met with, warning us of the presence of bergs, concealed by the thickly falling snow. Before midnight I directed the topsails to be close-reefed, and every arrangement made for roun ding-to until daylight, deeming it too hazardous to run any longer. Our people had hardly completed these operations when a large berg was seen ahead, and quite close to us ; the ship was immediately hauled to the wind on the port tack, with the expectation of being able to weather it ; but just at this moment the Terror was observed running down upon us, under her topsails and foresail, and as it was impossible for her to clear both the berg and the Erebus, collision was inevitable. We instantly hove all aback to diminish the violence of the shock ; but the concussion when she struck us was such as to throw almost every one off his feet : our bowsprit, fore-topmast, and other smaller spars, were carried away ; and the ships, hanging together, entangled by their rigging, and dashing against each other with fearful violence, were falling down upon the weather-face of the lofty berg under our lee, against which the waves were breaking and foaming to near the summit of its perpendicular cliffs. Some- times she rose high above us, almost exposing her keel to view, and again descended as we in our turn rose to the top of the wave, threatening to bury her beneath us, whilst the crashing of the breaking upperworks and boats increased the horror of the scene. Providentially they gradually forged past each other and separated before we drifted down amongst the foaming breakers and we had the gratification of seeing her clear the end of the berg and of feeling that she was safe. But she left us completely disabled ; the wreck of the spars so encumbered the lower yards, that we were unable to make sail, so as to get headway on the ship ; nor had we room to wear round, being by this time so close to the berg that the waves, when they struck against it, threw back their sprays into the ship. The only way left to us to extricate ourselves from this awful and appalling situation was by resorting to the hazardous expedient of a stern-board, which nothing could justify during such a gale and with so high a sea running, but to avert the danger which every , X. DANGER OF THE SHIPS. 345 moment threatened us of being dashed to pieces. The heavy rolling of the vessel, and the probability of the masts giving way each time the lower yard-arms struck against the cliffs, which were towering high above our mast-heads, rendered it a service of extreme danger to loose the mainsail ; but no sooner was the order given than the daring spirit of the British seaman manifested itself. The men ran up the rigging with as much alacrity as on any ordinary occasion ; and although more than once driven off the yard, they, after a short time, succeeded in loosing the sail. Amidst the roar of the wind and sea, it was difficult both to hear and to execute the orders that were given, so that it was three-quarters of an hour before we could get the yards braced bye, and the maintack hauled on board sharp aback an expedient that, perhaps, had never before been resorted to by seamen in such weather ; but it had the desired effect. The ship gathered stern-way ; plunging her stern into the sea, washing away the gig and quarter-boats, and with her lower yard-arms scraping the rugged face of the berg, we in a few minutes reached its western termination. The ' under tow,' as it is called, or the reaction of the water from its vertical cliffs, alone preventing us being driven to atoms against it. No sooner had we cleared it, than another was seen directly astern of us, against which we were running ; and the difficulty now was to get the ship's head turned round and pointed fairly through between the two bergs, the breadth of the intervening space not exceeding three times her own breadth ; this, however, we happily accomplished ; and in a few mimites after getting before the wind, she dashed through the narrow channel, between two perpendicular walls of ice, and the foaming breakers which stretched across it, and the next moment we were in smooth water under its lee. " The Terror's light was immediately seen and answered : she had rounded-to, waiting for us, and the painful state of suspense her people must have endured as to our fate could not have been much less than our own ; for the necessity of constant and energetic action to meet the momentarily varying circumstances of our situation left us no time to reflect on our imminent danger. " We hove-to on the port tack, under the lee of the berg, which now afforded us invaluable protection from the fury of the storm, which was still raging above and around us ; and commenced clearing away the wreck of the broken spars, saving as much of the rigging as possible ; whilst a party were engaged preparing others to replace them. " As soon as day broke we had the gratification of learning that the Terror had only lost two or three small spars, and had not suffered any serious damage ; the signal of ' all's well,' which we 346 VOYAGE TO THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. ESSAY X. hoisted before there was light enough for them to see it, and kept flying until it was answered, served to relieve their minds as speedily as possible of any remaining anxiety on our account. " A cluster of bergs was seen to windward, extending as far as the eye could discern, and so closely connected, that, except the small opening by which we had escaped, they appeared to form an un- broken continuous line ; it seems, therefore, not at all improbable that the collision with the Terror was the means of our preservation, by forcing us backwards to the only practicable channel, instead of permitting us, as we were endeavouring, to run to the eastward, and become entangled in a labyrinth of heavy bergs, from which escape might have been impracticable." vol. ii. pp. 217-221. The harbour of Port Sims was reached on the 7th of April ; and the interval from this date to the close of the year was occu- pied in the refitting of the ships, in the prosecution of scientific occupations, and in a voyage to and from Cape Horn. We shall not at present offer any detailed remarks on the last and least successful of the three voyages. The lottery, in which Weddell had drawn the prize of a mild season and an open sea, presented to Ross nothing but the blank of pack-ice, contrary gales, and, in one quarter, a barrier much resembling that of the 78th degree, though of inferior altitude. Before these obstacles, and the near approach of the Antarctic winter, the ships were finally put about in the 71st degree, on the 7th March. They came safely to anchor at the Cape of Good Hope on the 4th of April, 1843. One sailor, washed overboard near Kejguelen Island, and a quartermaster, James Angelly, who fell from the mainyard on their return from the second cruise, make up the whole list of fatal casualties for the three years of toil and danger. The sick list is equally compendious a single officer and sailor invalided, and since recovered. These statistics are the best commentary on the management, as well as the outfit, of the expedition. One important branch of the commission intrusted to it has been admirably carried out by its botanist, Mr. S. D. Hooker, a worthy son of the learned Director of the Kew Gardens. It must be remembered that the operations of the expedition, though they were extended beyond the regions of vegetable life, were not confined to such barren latitudes. The ships were in no instance frozen up, and the long intervals of nautical inaction ESSAY X. IMPORTANCE OF THESE DISCOVERIES. 347 were fertile in employment for Mr. Hooker, in such localities as the Falkland Islands and New Zealand. We believe that a moderate government grant was never more scrupulously and ably applied than the 500?. allotted for his publication of the ' Flora Antarctica ' a book which must find its place in every botanist's library, and which contains much matter interesting to other classes of readers. The extracts which we have given may save us the trouble of commenting on Sir James Boss's work, as respects literary exe- cution. They will speak better than we could for the plain, modest, and manly taste of the author which seems entirely worthy of his high professional character and signal services. We must beg a parting word with those who persevere in asking the old utilitarian question, What good is to result from these discoveries ? W 7 hat interest shall we receive for the expense of outfit, pay, and allowances ? We are not about to make a flourish about national reputation, the advance of science, or other topics of small interest to such questioners. Let them study the pamphlet of Mr. C. Enderby in connexion \vith the description of the Auckland Islands given in the sixth chapter of Sir James Boss's first volume. They will learn that this little group is singularly adapted, by position and other natural features, to assist the revival of a most important, though at present, to all appear- ance, moribund department of British industry, the Southern Whale-fishery. We care not whether the term be used in that extensive sense which it has derived from the circumstance that the vessels destined for it take a southern departure from Eng- land, or whether it be used with more limited reference to the southern circumpolar regions. In the former sense, it may be said to embrace the whole extent of ocean minus the Greenland seas. If the time should arrive, perhaps some symptoms of its approach are discernible, when Englishmen can find capital, leisure, and intellect, for any object and any enterprise other than that of connecting points in space by intervening bars of iron, we believe that few speculations will be found more sound, more profitable, and more congenial to our national habits than that suggested by the present grantee of the Auckland Islands, which were discovered under his auspices the industrious, the Liberal, and the eminently sagacious and practical Mr. Enderby. 348 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XT. XL-BORNEO AND CELEBES. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1848. ('). THE Poet of Madoc has expressed in language more elevated than we could summon, but not more faithful than our humblest prose, the feelings with which we a few months ago witnessed the departure from Spithead of H. M. S. Meander : Now go your way, ye gallant company ; God and good angels guard ye as ye go ! Blow fairly, winds of heaven ; ye ocean waves, Swell not in anger to that fated fleet ! For not of conquest greedy, nor of gold, Seek tJiey the distant world. Blow fairly, winds; Waft, waves of ocean, well your blessed load I Most of our readers will be aware that this vessel conveys back from a brief sojourn in England, to the scene of those exploits which have been noticed in a recent number of this Journal, the Eajah of Sarawak and Governor of Labu-an, and that she is com- manded by his gallant associate Captain Keppell, whose work we then reviewed. A worthy successor of Captain Keppell has taken up the wondrous tale of Bornean adventure. We would fain hope that our appreciation of the unexhausted interest of the subject will be shared by our readers not excepting those who have honoured with their attention our previous endeavours to bring it under public notice. What it has lost in novelty ( a ) 1. Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, down to the Occupation of Labuan, from the Journals of James Brooke, Esq., Rajah of Sarawak and Governor of Labuan ; together with a Narrative of the Operations of H. M. 8. Iris. By Captain Rodney Mundy, R.N. Two volumes, 8vo. London, 1848. 2. Sarawak, its Inhabitants and Productions : being Notes during a Residence in that Country with H. H. the Rajah Brooke. By Hugh Low, Colonial Secretary at Labuan. 8vo. London, 1848. ESSAY XI. MR. BROOKE'S JOURNAL. 349 it has gained in importance. Those who have watched through Captain Keppell's pages the establishment of the strange do- minion of the solitary English adventurer, will recognise with satisfaction in Captain Mundy's continuation of the narrative of occurrences down to a later period, the evidence of its healthful progress, and the confirmation of those impressions of the cha- racter of Mr. Brooke (now Sir James Brooke, K.C.B.), and the value of his achievements, which we and all derived from the work of Captain Mundy's predecessor in naval command and authorship. The personal narrative of Captain Mundy occupies only a latter portion of his two volumes; the whole of the first and four chapters of the second consist of the English Eajah's Journal. We believe that it has required strong persuasion to induce him to give to the public those memoranda of his actions and his thoughts which were intended for no eye but his own. It often happens that authors have little reason to thank the friends by whose mild compulsion they have been induced to forego their original intentions ; and we have but to look through the columns of any critical journal to see how often such persuasion has been alleged as an apology for acts of desperate publication which no such plea could justify. The absence of art and deliberation is in itself no recommendation, and the record of insignificant ad- venture or superficial observation can derive no claim on our respect even from the valuable qualities of truth and simplicity which belong, or ought to belong, to a diary. Where, however, the field of observation is new and remote, where the diarist has to record not only strange sights but strong actions, we then re- cognise an obligation to those who bring to light the unadorned log of his career, and are glad that the distinction between the writer and the maker of history is for the moment obliterated. The earlier part of the Journal in question is occupied by a voyage in the Royalist schooner to Celebes, justly designated by Sir Stamford Raffles as " that whimsically-shaped island." Since the date of Sir Stamford's address to the Batavian Society, 1813, we believe that little has been added to our knowledge of the extensive seaboard presented by its fantastic indentations, and still less to that of its interior. The account given in that address of the curious and somewhat Polish elective monarchy, with a Venetian council, prevalent among the numerous inde- BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XT. pendent states into which the island is divided, is confirmed by Sir J. Brooke : " The state of Boni;" he writes (vol. i. p. 39), " now the most powerful in Celebes, is of recent origin, and presents the curious spectacle of an aristocratic elective monarchy. The king is chosen by the ara pitu, or rajah pitu, or seven men or rajahs ; the ara pitu, besides being the elective body, hold the great offices of state, and thus, during the life-time of a king of their own choice, continue the responsible rulers of the country ; the tomarilalan is prime minister and treasurer, and, though not a member of the elective body, is the sole medium of communication with the king. Upon the death of one of the ara pitu, his successor is appointed by the remaining six ; so that, in fact, the aristocratic body not only elects a king, but is likewise self-elective." It appears that the king so elected has only a deciding voice where the council is not unanimous : "We perceive," says Brooke, "the rudiments of improvement a glimmering of better things in this constitution of Boni ; but we must not for an instant suppose that it works any benefit to the community generally ; an irresponsible and self-elective aristocracy rules with as despotic and corrupt a sway as any monarch ; and, from my information, I am led to conclude that life and wealth are as insecure as in any other Malayan state, and the people as greatly oppressed." It might have been difficult to make the authorities of coun- tries more frequented by strangers comprehend and credit the motives and objects of the appearance of an English gentleman in their harbours. War, commerce, or piracy could probably alone suggest themselves to the Malay mind, and none of these were professed or practised by the visitor. His real object, the gratification of a legitimate and enlightened curiosity, was hence at first somewhat impeded by the very natural jealousy of govern- ment officials ; but this obstacle once removed by a judicious system of speaking the truth, Mr. Brooke's reception seems generally, as he crept along the coast, to have done credit to the goodnature and hospitality of the natives. We cannot but sus- pect that, if his views had permitted him to choose Celebes as the scene of his longer residence, his singular power of fasci- nation would have been exercised at Boni or Bajow with the success which has elsewhere attended it. When he left the ESSAY XI. A MALAY SOVEREIGN. ' 351 country a civil war was impending ; a few hours sufficed to afford him a clear insight into the bearings of the wrangle and a de- cided opinion as to the best mode of settling the difficulties of Bugis politics. A faith in the English character and a taste for English protection seem to have somehow been generated in these regions, so seldom visited by the British flag. The ara pitu, for which the qualification is hereditary, can hardly be open to one of foreign extraction. Possibly the same positive bar to the pretensions of a foreigner may not exist in the case of the tomarilalan ; and if not, the candidature of Mr. Brooke would have been as reasonable and, to say the least, as hopeful as that of Lord Brougham for the department of the Var. Fate, however, and the good fortune of Borneo, decreed it otherwise. The following description of one of Mr. Brooke's princely entertainers shows that Royal Malay nature is as susceptible of the passion for the chase as that of Bourbon sovereigns or Eng- lish squires : " The late ara-matouh visited us after breakfast : an elderly good- looking savage, whose propensity for^wild life and the pleasures of the chase is so strong that he cannot bring himself to bear the restraint of an occasional residence at Tesora for the discharge of his kingly functions. He resides entirely in this wild country, holding little communication with the other chiefs, and, with his followers, devotes himself solely to the chase and opium-smoking. His habits are eccentric, and he despises all the luxuries and conveniences of life : his fare is homely, and derived from his favourite pursuit : home he has none, a temporary shed or an adjacent hut serving him as occasion requires. The manners of this old man, like those of fox-hunting squires of our own country, have a degree of frankness and bluntness, mixed with an expression of sovereign contempt for all other men and all other pursuits save those attached to the sports of the field. On the inherent obtuseness of his own nature he seems to have engrafted some portion of the sagacity of the dog and the generosity of the horse; and as his affection is centred in these animals, they are the objects of admiration and imitation. A mistress, young and beautiful, follows the fortunes of this old sport- ing chief, and perhaps the link which binds him to her is her participation in his pursuits ; she hunts with him, lives with him, and even smokes opium with him. It grieved me to see so pretty a creature lost to better things, for the expression of her face bespoke so much sweetness and good temper that I am sure she was intended for a happier, a better, fate." Mundy, vol. i. p. 127. 352 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. The practice of these Eastern Nimrods appears to resemble that of German princes and nobles so far as it consists in en- closing large districts of forest to prevent the escape of the game. Instead, however, of driving the deer within range of a pavilion erected for the purpose, the Bugis chief adopts the method, more congenial to our notions, of pursuing them on horseback with a spear and noose. It is on these occasions that a practice prevails which has exposed the Bugis race of Celebes to the imputation of cannibalism. The heart and some other portions of the slaughtered animal are eaten raw with chilies and their own blood. It has been imagined that this, the lor dara, or feast of blood, is occasionally practised on the field of battle with human victims a supposition which Mr. Brooke rejects as quite unfounded. He partook of the lor dara without difficulty or disgust. It must, however, be admitted that the practice savours of a barbarous origin, particularly as the climate affords no such natural reason for its observance as in those countries of Northern Asia in which Mr. Erman observes that severe cold tends to favour the adoption of raw animal food. There is no doubt that among the Battas of Sumatra the practice still exists of eating their near relations when dead, and of devouring criminals alive and piece- meal. The lor dara may probably be but a mitigated form of worse practices which prevailed among the aborigines of the country previous to that unknown period when the civilization of the Indian continent was partially communicated to the island. The etiquette of the court of Boni is inconvenient ; for it exacts a servile imitation of every action of the j sovereign, or pataman- kowe. If he fall from his horse, all about him must do so like- wise ; and if he bathe, all within sight must rush into the water without undressing. This potentate was attended by a body- guard, uniformly attired, of between three and four thousand men. A six months' cruise, rendered anxious by the reefs and shoals of an unknown coast, exhausted the provisions, and with them the patience, of the Royalist's crew, if not that of their commander. She arrived at Singapore in May, 1840, and she conveyed Mr. Brooke for a second time to Sarawak. He found his friend the Rajah Muda Hassim closely pressed by rebel subjects and hostile tribes, and disposed to court the assistance and accept the counsels of his adventurous guest. It is unnecessary here to recur to the ESSAY XI. MR. BROOKE AT SARAWAK. 353 events which confirmed the influence so happily acquired over the mind and affections of the weak and amiable Muda Hassim and his brother Budruddeen. Captain Keppell has chronicled the campaign, which was brought to a successful issue by a charge of Mr. Brooke's army of twelve Englishmen and one Illanun auxi- liary. The power acquired by this service afforded Mr. Brooke free access to the contiguous districts, and their wild but hospit- able inhabitants. The friendly intercourse which ensued, and the observations collected of the resources of the country and its capabilities for improvement under a better system of administra- tion, confirmed him in his project of becoming a settler, though he still hesitated as to accepting the sovereignty, which Muda Hassim had now become anxious to transfer to his abler hands. In February, 1841, he obtained the documents which gave him the privileges of a commercial resident, and again betook himself to Singapore, there to make preparations for his intended commercial operations, and digest his plans for a solid and sweeping reform of the system of exaction, fraud, and oppression pursued by the Malay aristocracy with respect to the Dyk aborigines. The necessary cargo was soon collected, a second vessel purchased, and in April he landed for a third time at Sarawak, to meet with a reception which would have damped the enterprise of an ordi- nary trader, or the enthusiasm of an JSxeter Hall philanthropist. The house which had been promised against his reappearance was not begun ; the antimony ore, which was to form the profitable re- turn for the goods he imported, was not forthcoming ; the Rajah was confined by shammed sickness to his harem ; and Mr. Brooke, with three English companions, found himself engaged in an ap- parently hopeless struggle with the obstinate indolence of the Kajah and the intrigues of his Malay advisers, who could not but foresee in our countryman's .success the downfall of the abuses on which they lived. Gradually, though slowly, the prestige of his personal influence over Muda Hassim prevailed ; his house was built ; some antimony, inadequate as a return, but sufficient for a shipment to Singapore, was obtained ; a piratical expedition up the river was arrested by his remonstrances ; and time was well employed in gaining information as to the unknown interior. Meanwhile a well-timed visit of a Company's steamer and the return of his own vessels had their effect. We must give in the words of Mr. Brooke's Journal the conclusion of this struggle 2 A 354 BOKNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. between the principle of good, and that of evil represented in the person of one Makota : " Now, then, was my time for pushing matters to extremity against my subtle enemy, the arch-intriguer Makota. I had pre- viously made several strong remonstrances, and urged for an answer to a letter I had addressed to Muda Hassim, in which I had recapi- tulated in detail the whole particulars of our agreement, concluding by a positive de^nand either to allow me to retrace my steps by repayment of the sums which he had induced me to expend, or to confer upon me the grant of the government of the country according to his repeated promises ; and I ended by stating that, if he would not do either the one or the other, I must find means to right myself. Thus did I, for the first time since my arrival in the land, present anything in the shape of menace before the Eajah, my former remonstrances only going so far as to threaten to take away my own person and vessels from the river. My ultimatum had gone forth, and I prepared for active measures ; but the conduct of Makota himself soon broiight affairs to a crisis : he was determined at all hazards to drive me from the country, and to involve Muda Hassim in such pecuniary difficulties as effectually to prevent his payment of my debt. He dared not openly attack me, so he endeavoured to tamper with my servants, and by threats and repeated acts of op- pression actually prevented all persons who usually visited me either on board or on shore from coming near me. Finally, some villain had been induced to attempt to poison my interpreter by putting arsenic in his rice: The agents of Makota were pointed out as the guilty parties. I laid my depositions before the Eajah, and de- manded an investigation. My demand, as usual, was met by vague promises of future inquiry, and Makota seemed to triumph in the success of his villany ; but the moment for action had now arrived. Eepairing on board the yacht, I mustered my people, explained my intentions, and, having loaded the vessel's guns with grape and canister, and brought her broadside to bear, I proceeded on shore with a detachment fully armed, and, taking up a position at the entrance of the Eajah's palace, demanded and obtained an immediate audience." Mundy, vol. i. p. 260. This demonstration had its immediate effect. The Chinese remained neutral, the Siniawan Dyaks pronounced in Mr. Brooke's favour, the Makota party shrank into a band of twenty paid followers, and on the 24th of September, 1841, Muda Hassim signed and delivered the document by which Mr. Brooke was declared Rajah and Governor of Sarawak. The Journal continues : ESSAY XI.. MR. BROOKE'S INFLUENCE. 355 " Dec. 31. From the date of my accession to the government I have remained quietly at Sarawak. What I have already been enabled to do in the work of improving the condition of the Dyaks is consolatory. I have obtained the release of the wives and children of the Siniawans, more than a hundred in number ; I have arrested a party in the interior while plundering sago from an inoffensive tribe ; I have succeeded in opening a regular court of justice, at which I preside." After speaking of the dangers and difficulties of his new pro- fession, he proceeds : " I feel within me the firm unchangeable conviction of doing right, which nothing can shake. The oppressed, the wretched, the en- slaved have found in me their only protector. They now hope and trust ; and they shall not be disappointed while I have life to uphold them. God has so far used me as an humble instrument of his hidden providence ; and, whatever be my fate, I know the example will not be thrown away. He can open a path for me through all difficulties, raise me up friends who will share with me in the task I trust it may be so ; but if God wills otherwise if the time be not yet arrived if it be the Almighty's will that the flickering taper shall be extinguished ere it be replaced by a steady beacon, I submit, in the firm and humble assurance, that His ways are better than my ways, and that the term of my life is better in His hands than my own." We have quoted these passages, although they advert to occur- rences more fully detailed in Captain Keppell's work, because, extracted as they are from a journal intended for no eye but that of the writer, we recognise in them the spirit which has won for him the deliberate approbation and sympathy of the civilized world, and the hero-worship of the grateful savage. The Scrip- ture tells us that peradventure for a good man one might be found to die : we have heard, on good authority, that many a Dyak may be found ready to make that sacrifice for Brooke. To learn with what ability, personal daring, and untiring perse- verance, the principles with which he embarked on his arduous task were reduced to practice, the Journals themselves must be consulted. We pass to an epoch to which former narratives have not extended : when in April the news reached Sarawak of that explosion of treachery at the capital of Borneo which involved Muda Hassim, his brother, and eleven other principal 2 A 2 356 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. friends of Mr. Brooke and of British interests in one sudden and common destruction, and threatened the existence of the fabric of civilization and humanity he had toiled so long to raise " Oh, how great," he writes, " is my grief and rage ! My friends, my most unhappy friends, all perished for their faithful adherence to us. Every man of ability, even of thotight, in Borneo is dead. But the British Government will surely act ; and if not, then let me remember I am still at war with this traitor and murderer. One more determined struggle, one convulsive effort, and, if it fail, Borneo and all I have so long, so earnestly laboured for, must be abandoned, and " vol. ii. p. 93. Here closes the Journal. The determination it evinces was not the bravado of unreasoning indignation. A few pages earlier will be found a calm and detailed recapitulation of the means of defence of the parties against whom this declaration of war to the knife was issued. Most assuredly, if Mr. Brooke had been left to his own resources, the issue would have been tried. The circumstances, however, were such as to justify and demand the interposition of the naval power of England, and that inter- position was prompt and effective. It is no reflection on the general character of Her Majesty's naval service to say that Mr. Brooke has been fortunate in those 9 whom the chances of that service have designated as his asso- ciates and coadjutors. If it contain in its ranks men content with the strict but the unenthusiastic performance of their duty, ready enough to seek promotion or prize-money at the cannon's mouth, but incapable of appreciating high objects and noble characters, such were not the men, from the Admiral (Sir Thomas Cochrane) downwards, with whom the Eajah of Sarawak has been associated. Of Captain Keppell we have not now to speak : he was at this period in England, but had left his gallant spirit behind him in those who succeeded him on the Indian station. When Captain Mundy of the Iris was ordered in 1845 to leave the dull cruising-ground on the coast of China for the Straits station, i. e. the more immediate vicinity of Borneo, the summons found him not unprepared. Amid a file of newspapers which had reached him some two years earlier on the African coast, a paragraph, headed "Borneo and Mr. Brooke," had attracted his attention, and he had watched the XI. CAPTAIN MUNDY. 357 subsequent operations of Captain Keppell with an interest sti- mulated by a closer vicinity to the scene of actions in which he longed to participate : " It was therefore with peculiar pleasure," he writes, vol. ii. p. 99, " that I found, on our arrival at Hong Kong, the Iris had been nominated for this duty. Every one on board was delighted at the idea of changing the eternal struggle against the adverse monsoons for the more exciting chance of a struggle with the Borneo pirates. The Iris left Hong Kong early in October, 1845, and anchored in Singapore roads on the 9th of November. Here I found a letter from Captain Keppell, announcing the arrival of the Dido in England. To this I particularly allude, as my friend, divining the possibility of my succeeding him on this station, especially called my attention to the position of Mr. Brooke at Sarawak, and urged me to visit the coast of Borneo at the earliest opportunity, and to give him that assistance which his then precarious situation might demand. Early in January I received my first communication direct from Mr. Brooke, which announced that, though the country was enjoying peace, the people happy, and the town rapidly increasing in population, the piratical tribes of Sarelus and Sakarran were again in movement, and would probably in the spring make another attempt to destroy the rising commerce of Sarawak; he therefore suggested the propriety of my visiting the coast towards the end of March, by which time the intentions of the pirates would be more fully known." The interval was employed by Captain Mundy in a visit to Sumatra, where he learned from a native Mahometan rajah that the neighbouring Batta tribes unquestionably continue the practice of eating their fathers and mothers when old, and the chief minister added that he had frequently seen them eat human beings alive facts which we commend to the attention of those philosophers, if any such still exist, who maintain the superior purity of morals of man in his savage state, or the natural excellence of human nature in general when uncor- rupted by civilization. On the 14th of March, while standing in to Singapore to take in provisions for his intended visit to Sarawak, Mundy had to undergo a severe, though temporary, disappointment in the shape of an order from Sir T. Cochrane to accompany the flag-ship to India. From Madras, being despatched with treasure to Calcutta, he there received the alarming news of the massacre at Bruni. Rightly conjecturing 358 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. the impression which this intelligence would make on the Ad- miral, he lost no time in endeavouring to rejoin the Agincourt. His officers were suddenly recalled from the attractions of a ball at Barrackpore, and in a few hours the Iris was working out of the Hooghley against a gale so fresh that a Company's steamer was unable to go before them to show the soundings. At Pinang he fell in with the Admiral, and on the 24th of June the squadron consisting of the Agincourt, 74, flag-ship, the Iris, the Spiteful steamer, the Hazard, and the Phlegethon, Company's steamer, which had previously been despatched to Brooke's assistance anchored off the Sarawak river. On the following day Mundy's wishes, so long cherished, were gratified by an invitation from the Admiral to accompany him on a visit to the man whose singular career and perilous position had excited so warm an interest in the minds of all concerned. The spectacle which presented itself, and the reflections which it suggested to Captain Mundy as he walked up the avenue of jasmin in flower which led to Mr. Brooke's residence, are thus described : " The town itself, by the lowest computation, now contained 12,000 inhabitants, including about 150 Chinese, while, before the supreme authority had been vested in Mr. Brooke, it was limited to a few mud huts with about 1500 persons, most of them being either the relatives or armed retainers of the native princes. What a change had been wrought in a few snort years ! The order had been issued by the English Rajah that the persons and property of eveiy race should henceforth be equally' protected, and that the wretched Dyak, hitherto the victim of the more enlightened Malay, should no longer be forced to yield for a nominal price the fruits of his daily toil. Further to insure the practical working of this important measure, Mr. Brooke had visited the interior, and passed many weeks among the wildest hordes, establishing confidence in every quarter, explaining the necessity of union among the various tribes themselves, without which it would be impossible for him to carry out the great object he had in view. Already had this earnest appeal been attended with success in several districts ; ancient family feuds had been quelled, animosities suppressed, and the first germs of a rational freedom instilled into their minds." Vol. ii. p. 109. The time allowed by the eager Admiral for enjoyment of social intercourse and natural beauties in the garden of their 1 XI. MALAY MASSACRE. 359 Alcinous was short. On the very next morning the Phlegethon was steaming down the river with the welcome addition of Mr. Brooke to its gallant company; and though the official taciturnity of the Admiral remained unbroken, the reports brought by refugees from Bruni were pregnant with hints sufficient for those who understood the Admiral's character. They spoke of formidable defences and levies at that capital of plans for the assassination of Mr. Brooke ; and no one enter- tained a doubt as to the course which would be adopted to baffle these benevolent intentions and exact due retribution for the bloody past. The details of the operations which followed will fill a credit- able chapter in that continuation of Mr. James's Naval History which we trust either has been or will be undertaken by some competent writer. Our function confines us to a briefer notice. The Phlegethon had received on board at Sarawak one Jaffer, a confidential servant of the murdered brother of Muda Hassim, Budruddeen, who had witnessed, and with difficulty escaped from, the massacre. The facts of the tragedy were carefully collected during the voyage to Bruni from the examination of this man. It appeared that the scheme of destruction had been deeply laid and vigorously executed The victims were com- pletely taken by surprise, surrounded in their dwellings by night, and overpowered by numbers. Budruddeen, after confiding to Jaffer a ring and an affecting message to Mr. Brooke, destroyed himself, his sister, and female attendant, by exploding a cask of gunpowder in the women's apartment Muda Hassim per- formed a similar act of desperation, after a gallant but hopeless struggle, in a boat to which he had retired with his surviving brothers and sons, but, not being killed by the explosion, finished himself with a pistol. Altogether, thirteen persons of the royal family perished. These horrors, which, with greater caution on the pail of the instigators, might have been alleged as acts of internal Malay administration, in which no foreign power could rightfully concern itself, were followed up by proceedings which left no fab* ground for cavil at English interference. The Sultan openly proclaimed that he had killed Muda Hassim and the others because they were friends of the English. When the Hazard arrived, a vessel was sent down the river with Muda Hassim's flag flying to allure Commander Egerton on shore with 360 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. a view to his assassination. A man was also engaged to take an order to Makota for the murder of Mr. Brooke and the over- throw of his government. The Sultan of Borneo had, through- out these transactions, been a mere tool in the hands of the piratical faction. Nature, which had gifted him with a super- fluity of thumbs, had denied him an average allowance of brains, and what he possessed had been deteriorated by opium and debauchery. From such a man, if left to the promptings of his own imbecility and cowardice, penitential and abject submission to the first actual display of British force might have been expected. The circumstance, however, of his notorious imbe- cility made it unsafe to speculate on his cowardice, for it placed him a passive agent in the hands of men who had not hesitated to provoke, and were now prepared to defy, the power of England. The leader of this party, and probably the prime mover in the massacre 4 was one Hajji Saman, who appears to have shown both judgment and resolution in his arrangements for defence, though in supposing that the difficulties of the narrow channel might be turned to such account as to baffle all attempts of a British naval force to approach the capital, he was wofully deceived. It is clear, indeed, from Captain Mundy's narrative, that if our attack of his advanced position had been conducted solely by the instrumentality of oar and sail, unassisted by steam-power, its success could only have been purchased by a considerable loss of life during the slow advance of boats under the fire of powerful artillery. All tjie calculations of the defence, however, were baffled by the rapid and direct advance of the two steamers attached to the squadron. After the entrance of the river had been effected, and before hostilities commenced, the Agincourt was boarded from a prahu by two individuals assuming by their dress and attendance the rank and character of pangerans or nobles. They were bearers of a letter containing some questionable compliments and mendacious references to past transactions. They were further instructed to deliver a verbal message to the Admiral, that the Sultan would be delighted to see him at the capital, but could not allow him to come up with more than two small boats. It is hardly conceivable that their employers could have expected success from so transparent a repetition of the attempt to entrap Commander Egerton. Mr. Brooke's quick eye and local know- ESSAY XI. CESSION OP LABUAN. 361 ledge detected the pretended pangerans for impostors of low condition. The very act of sending such men on such a mission was, according to their own etiquette, a flagrant insult. They were very properly detained, and their vessel disarmed and secured. For the naval and military operations which, after a struggle of a few hours, ended in the occupation of the capital, deserted by its court and population, we must refer our readers to the narrative of Captain Mundy. His account of the subsequent exertions in pursuit of the royal fugitive will more especially repay the perusal. The chase of the Arimaspian by the Griffin, as described in Milton's immortal verse, was emulated by the seamen and marines under Captain Mundy's immediate com- mand in their advance to the Sultan's reported place of refuge, Damuan. The pursuit was close, stores and trophies were cap- tured, the stronghold was burned ; but in respect of speed, the Arimaspian in this case maintained the advantage of some hours' start, and escaped. The moral effect, however, on his Majesty's nerves was such as to lead to ultimate results perhaps more bene- ficial than could have been attained by his death in action or by our possession of his person, for it eventually produced his formal ratification of the cession to England of the island of Labuan. Appearances in such cases become essentials. When this act was completed the sovereign was restored to his throne and capital, and surrounded by his courtiers. No actual British force was present but the boats of the Wolf and Iris. It is hardly neces- sary to inquire" how far a very reluctant signature was accele- rated by the circumstance that the palace was upon the river, and commanded by the guns of the boats circumstances which may certainly have assisted his Majesty's recollection of his recent defeat and flight.* This important act took place in December, 1846, by which time the Admiral had received his full instructions from the British Government to effect its accomplishment. Meanwhile our force had not been idle, on the coast and in the rivers to the north of Bruni, in the pursuit of the great object of clearing * The scene at the moment of the signature is the subject of a very clever sketch by Mr. Frank Marryat, in a volume concerning Bornean and other astern adventures, which shows that this young officer inherits much of the talent of hia late lamented father, the eminent novelist. 362 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. from pirates the main highway between Singapore and China. Two notorious Illanun nests, Tampassuk and Pandassan, were destroyed by the crews of the Iris, Daedalus, and Kingdove. Messrs. Quin and Ray of the Royalist had shown much skill as well as daring in the destruction of two pirate prahus in Malladu Bay, wh,ere Sheriff Osman, a distinguished freebooter, had been signally chastised by Captain Talbot of the Vestal in 1845. The great enemy of England, Hajji Saman himself, was run to ground in a position which he had strongly occupied in the Mambakut river. This chief contrived to escape, but, falling afterwards into the hands of the Sultan of Bruni, was placed at our disposal. The judicious humanity of Admiral Cochrane permitted him to live unmolested. On this last occasion Captain Mundy and Rajah Brooke, whose propensity for risking his person would have made him. an excellent pirate if he had been born an Illanun, had a narrow escape, the coxswain of the crowded boat in which they sat being hit by a musket-ball. In this action also several men were struck by the poisoned arrows of the native sumpitan or blowpipe. At 20 yards the barbed fish-bone of this weapon would penetrate unprotected flesh some inches, and might be fatal ; beyond that distance the force is small ; the extreme range is 90 yards. In all the cases which here occurred, prompt suction prevented any bad effects from the poison. In estimating the moral effect of these operations, we must take into account that they not only frightened and scattered the piratical tribes, but rallied and encouraged a strong native party opposed to them. The expedition met with effective and voluntary co- operation from large bodies of natives attracted to the scene of action by the name of Mr. Brooke. At Mambakut this auxiliary force amounted to 90 prahus containing 500 men and 30 swivel- guns. Among these impromptu and unexpected assistants Brooke ventured with perfect confidence, and found them zealous and obedient. For reward they seem to have been contented with the saint-like patience, as Captain Mundy terms it,, with which " the White Rajah," after the victory was gained, listened to . their tales of their own exploits. In more civilised circles resig- nation to the infliction of a long story may often find its compen- sation on this side the grave, to which, as Mr. Sydney Smith supposed, that infliction had a tendency to hurry the sufferer. It has seldom been practised with a higher or more beneficial ESSAY XI. EXECUTION OF PIRATES. 363 object than by the White Rajah in conciliating the affections of his savage auxiliaries. To the above general but incomplete summary of the principal operations in which Captain Mundy was personally concerned, we must append some notice of an encounter after his departure between the Nemesis steamer and a fleet of eleven prahus. Of the latter, one was captured and four destroyed. Six contrived to make sail for their home in the Sulu islands, but of these, as was afterwards ascertained, three foundered on the passage. As an action this was highly creditable to Captains C. Grey and Wallace and their followers, for the pirates fought dexterously and bravely, not one man being taken alive. The affair was also useful in its consequences, as illustrative of the value of the influence we had established 'over the councils of the Sultan at Bruni. Under the administration of the anti-English party the pirate crews which escaped to the jungle from their shattered vessels would have found an assured. refuge in that capital : in this case they were hunted down, captured, and executed, to the number of forty. Their Chinese and Malay prisoners, on the other hand, were not only released and relieved, but were offered the privilege of executing their captors with their own hands a favour of which, to their credit, they declined to avail themselves. The pirates well deserved their fate ; less, indeed, for labouring in the vocation to which they were born and edu- cated, than for the atrocious cruelty with which they had prac- tised it. They had been a year at sea, made the circuit of Borneo, and at one moment contemplated an attack upon Sarawak, from which the reported vicinity of some English men- of-war had deterred them. In one instance they had burnt a Chinese prisoner alive. They had nearly finished their long and successful cruise, and were shaping their course homeward with much spoil and upwards of 1 00 prisoners, when fortune played them the trick of bringing them within sight of the little iron steamer so well known in China by the name, on this occasion specially appropriate, of the Nemesis.* \V<- have no inclination to 'exaggerate the beneficial conse-. quences of these various exhibitions of civilized power. On the * Captain Hall's Narrative of the earlier services of the Nemesis (2 vols. 8vo.) is full of interest, and will, we are sure, be valued hereafter as affording most curious materials for the history of steam-navigation. 304 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. contrary, we would rather warn our readers against rash con- clusions as to the early extinction of piracy, by reminding them that the seas to which our floating police has hitherto extended its beat are only the occasional cruising-ground of the Illanun. We have already done much to abrogate the impunity with which he has till lately prosecuted his ravages on the west coast of Borneo. Much probably remains to be done for the extirpa- tion of the nuisance even in this quarter ; rivers are to be ascended, wild tribes to be civilised, admonished, or chastised. The root of the evil is as yet beyond our reach, and it is not improbable that repression in one quarter may increase its viru- lence to the eastward, where the gun-boats of the Spanish sta- tions already hold their own with difficulty against the marauders, who, from their main strongholds in the Sulu islands, infest the sea to the extremity of New Guinea. By far the fullest account of those parties is to be found in the eighth chapter of Captain Sir E. Belcher's Narrative of the Voyage of the Samarang, a work wlu'ch we have only refrained from naming at the head of this article because we see that it well deserves a separate notice : " The following particulars " (he writes, vol. i. p. 263) " relative to the history of the pirates infesting these seas, and known under the name of Illanun, or Lanoon, or Ballignini pirates, have been drawn up from information obtained from officers commanding the Spanish gun-boats, and particularly from conversations with my friend Captain Villavicentio, commandant of the arsenal of Cavite, who received his promotion about the year 1838 for gallantry dis- played during his employment in the suppression of piracy amongst the Southern Philippines. The Illanuns are a distinct race, inhabit- ing the great bay of Illanun, on the southern part of Mindanao, having for its capital the city of that name, where the Sultan resides, and where, even in the pirate's nest, European and other traders meet with hospitable reception and protection ! The shores of this immense bay, the eastern arm of which forms a peninsula with a very narrow neck, is closely wooded with mangroves, running out in most instances into six or nine feet water, and affording sudden shelter or concealment to vessels drawing about six feet water. These trees, springing from roots which firmly support their main trunks at a height of about seven or eight feet above the flow of high water, cover the swampy ground which intervenes between them and a spacious lagoon. It is this lagoon which is the strong- ESSAY XL LANOON PIRATES. 365 hold of the Lanoon pirates, and gives to them the appellation of Los Illanos de la Laguna. . . . Throughout the vast range of the bay connected with this lagoon the lllanuns have constructed numerous substantial escapes, being ways of timber, which permit of their hauling their vessels into the lagoon upon any sudden emer- gency ; and so amazingly expert are they in this manoeuvre, that, when in hot chase my informants have pressed them close and considered their escape impossible, they have seen them dash suddenly into one of these escapes, and before their feluccas or launches could reach the entry the prahus had been hauled out of sight, and the Spaniards, on presenting themselves at the opening, were saluted by a discharge of round and grape from heavy brass guns placed in battery, and so far within this dangerous jungle that attack was impossible. It is a well-known fact also that the whole line of the bay is rigidly watched by vigias, or small look-out houses, built on lofty trees, and immediately on the alarm being given, ropes are led to the point of entry, and the home population in readiness to aid in hauling them through the mangroves. The method of constructing these escapes is very simple : strong mangrove-trees are driven at opposite angles obliquely into the mud, and their upper ends securely lashed to the growing mangroves, forming a V- shaped bed, at an angle of 120 degrees. These trees, being stripped of their bark, are kept very smooth, and, when wet, spontaneously exude a kind of mucilage, which renders them very slippery. The outer entrance of this angular bed is carried into deep water, and at so gradual an inclination that the original impetus given by the oars forces the vessels at once high and dry ; and by the ropes then attached they are instantly drawn by their allies into the interior, at a rate probably equal to that at which they were impelled by oars." We can hardly be surprised should we be unable, on further information, to disprove the assertion of the American navigator \\ilkes, that the British traders and authorities have hitherto been rather inclined to conciliate this formidable power by winking at its proceedings, than to undertake the task of its forcible suppression. Captain Wilkes gives a long list of other similar establishments on these islands, which present so many natural facilities for the fatal purposes to which they are thus applied. The forests of their interior, unlike those of Borneo, bear a formidable reputation as the abode of beasts of prey and the largest class of reptiles. D'Urville, who touched at a Dutch settlement, mentions that the forest-tracks from one station to 366 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XL another were only traversed in large parties for the sake of mutual protection from the tiger and the boa. "The limit of their cruises" (says Sir E. Belcher, p. 267) "is not confined to the Sooloo or Mindoro Archipelago ; they have been traced entirely round the islands of New Guinea on the east, throughout the Straits, and continuous to Java on its southern side, along the coast of Sumatra, and as far up the Bay of Bengal as Rangoon, throughout the Malay peninsula and islands adjacent, and along the entire range of the Philippines. Their attacks are not confined to small vessels, for we have instances, as late as 1843, of their molesting the Dutch cruisers off Java. Along the entire coast of the Philippines they attack villages, and carry off boys and girls for slaves ; and in some instances do not hesitate in kidnapping a padre, for whom they demand heavy ransom, as upon a late affair they obtained upwards of 1000 dollars. In the Bay of Manilla, within the Corregidor, where there is a gun-boat establishment, they fought a very severe action with this force, commanded by a Lieu- tenant Eliot, an Englishman in the service of Spain. The result was the crippling of the Spanish force so severely that only the commander himself, though wounded, remained to serve his gun, and he was not displeased to see the enemy draw off; had they attempted to close with him, he had no further means of resistance." Of the ultimate triumph of that great agent of civilization, steam, over these tribes we have no doubt ; but, from the above curious descriptions and accounts, we do not believe that we have spare naval force 011 the Indian station, sufficient even for an attempt upon strongholds so inaccessible, and manned by garrisons so resolute and desperate. The last duty on which Captain Mundy was employed was a pleasing one that of taking solemn possession of the ceded island of Labuan in the name of Her Majesty. An important feature in this ceremony, of which a spirited description is given, was the presence of the prime minister and representative of the Sultan, Mumim. An act of the British Government involving an extension in any direction of our colonial empire is justly liable to jealous investigation. We are convinced that no such act will better stand scrutiny than the occupation of this little island : certainly none bears less the stamp of precipitancy or lust of useless dominion. If we could suppose the Isle of Wight to be uninhabited Southampton the capital of a semi-barbarous ESSAY XI. THE ISLAND OF LABUAN. 307 throne exercising a precarious dominion over the area of two or three counties and the rest of Great Britain occupied by pirates on the coast and savages in the interior, we could imagine no occurrence more favourable to the best interests of humanity than the establishment in Cowes roads of the delegates of some great, distant naval power, with no interest but the promotion of peaceful commerce and the development of civilization. The advantage would greatly be enhanced if the island afforded a secure station midway between two main seats of a commerce already established and flourishing. In all these respects there are striking analogies between the Isle of Wight, under the cir- cumstances supposed, and Labuan. Fronting the mouth of the Bruni river, at some 15 miles distance, it commands the access to the Malay Southampton, and that of numerous other rivers, some of which have hitherto given refuge to " water-thieves," but which also afford safe and ready means of approach to fertile countries, inhabited by people who have long groaned under the evils of piracy, and are anxious to cultivate intercourse with us as friends and liberators. Midway between Singapore and Hong Kong, it forms a centre from which protection against violence and relief to shipwreck will radiate in all directions.- Last, but not least, to advantages of position as a naval station, which may hereafter entitle it to rank with Aden, it adds the mineral wealth of a Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The coal which crops up to its surface is of a quality which will neither choke the fire-bars nor damage the plates of our marine steam-furnaces ; while in power of generating steam it bears comparison with the best production of our own mines, at least after the latter has undergone the friction of an Indian voyage. The following sen- tences are from a report furnished by Capt. Wallace, in com- mand of the redoubted Nemesis, dated Sarawak, June 10, 1847 : "The Nemesis anchored within 120 yards of the shore in 3j fathoms low water spring tides, at the N.E. end of Labuan, and received 40 tons of coal, bringing it from the mouth of the pit and shipping it with our own crew without difficulty. The coal appears to belong to the kind called Cannell. In using we found it kindle easily ; in burning it runs into cakes, emitting much heat and flame, and leaving a small quantity of light white ash, and no clinkers are found in the bars. The fires after being well made did not require 368 BOKNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. raking or poking, and were only cleared out once every four hours, usually done every two hours with English, and more often with Indian coal. The quantity burnt is 14 or 15 tons in twenty-nine hours, or at the same rate as English coal received on board at Singapore. Steam is easily kept up. I have no hesitation in stating that the coal received at Labuan is equal to any English coal I have seen on board steamers in India, and decidedly better than any coal worked in India for steam purposes." This is practical evidence as to quality. When we call to mind that the mineral, however near the surface, as yet has only been obtained by rude methods and native labour, and remember further the difference between the feeble and indolent Malay, or even the more submissive and industrious Chinese, and the trained labourers of Lancashire, Scotland, or Northumbria, we might well be prepared for disappointment, in the first instance at least, as to the economical part of the question. In spite, however, of all these difficulties and disadvantages, a con- tract has been taken by a English party, Mr. Miles, to excavate and stack 900 tons for 925?., which includes the expense of sheds and other incidentals. The contract price at Singapore for 900 tons, exclusive of cost of depot, would be 1567?., showing a difference in favour of Labuan of 642?. or about 14s. a ton. If such are the results of our mining in its infancy, we cannot con- sider as unreasonable Captain Mundy's expectations of a consi- derable eventual reduction of price. The actual discovery of this seam of coal, full ten feet in thickness, appears to be due to Captain Heath of the Wolf man-of-war, and its direction was traced for a mile and a half with much assiduity by that officer and Lieutenant Forbes. That ministers have been fortunate and wise in their selection of a Governor for this promising settlement in Sir James Brooke, few will be found to doubt. We have reason to hope that, in framing the necessary regulations for his conduct, Earl Grey has turned to good account those records of the Colonial Office which detail the successes and the failures of former experiments in pari materid. If the great purposes of trie acquisition be answered to any extent consistent with our own expectations, even should Labuan not become at once a second Singapore, an estimated annual charge of some 6000?. will not be much to set against the increase and security which will accrue to commerce. I XI. MR. LOW'S WORK. 369 There seems, however, no reason to doubt that the island itself will develope internal sources of revenue which, after a time, will more than meet the charges of its civil establishment and of a garrison of some 200 men to be borrowed for the present from India. Meanwhile there is tabula rasa for Sir James, and his experienced coadjutor Mr. Bonham, to proceed upon. The good sense of Sir T. Cochrane prevented from the first any rash intru- sion of adventurous settlers calculated to embarrass the local Government by the claims of premature establishments and dis- putable possessions. In our poor judgment all departments of the public service have done their duty; and no precaution which prudence and experience could suggest has been neglected to secure the advantages which nature and man have, in this fortunate instance, placed at our legitimate disposal. We cannot venture on extracts from Mr. Low's work. We must, however, thank him for an acceptable supplement to that of Captain Mundy but more especially for having given the fullest and best description we have yet met with of the natural productions, vegetable and mineral, of Borneo, and of the popu- lation of that island. Knowledge on the latter subject has hitherto been nearly confined to the Dutch, for, whether from policy or indifference, they have not favoured the world with the results of their observations. Much information will be found in Mr. Low's pages as to the distinguishing features of character and customs of the various tribes of the Dyak race. His descrip- tions must leave on the mind of every reader a predilection for the Hill Dyak of the interior, as contrasted with the Coast or Sea Dyak, whose morals have suffered from contact with Malay tyranny and corruption, and the example of the Illanun. To that Providence " which shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may," we consign the future. From all sinister specula- tions we refrain; but even should Sir James Brooke's fabric sink with the builder, we believe that, even in that case, such fame as such men consider a reward will attach to his memory, that in many a Dyak village the rude songs and oral traditions of a grateful people will preserve the name of the Manco Capac who came from a distant land to rescue their fathers from oppression and ignorance. We cannot conclude without remarking that, soon after the foregoing pages were written, we had in the London newspapers 2 B 370 BORNEO AND CELEBES. ESSAY XI. a brief notice of an evidently important and highly successful operation of the Spaniards against the Illamm pirates. We infer from the account a strong probability that the very nest described in our extract from Sir E. Belcher's Narrative has been stormed and destroyed. It is understood that the Spaniards landed a thousand men for the operation. We congratulate that nation on this sudden and creditable exhibition of vitality in the ex- tremities of her system. ESSAY XII. THE SKEEEYVOEE LIGHTHOUSE. 371 XII.-THE SKERRYVORE LIGHTHOUSE FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, MARCH, 1849.(*) THERE is pleasure in the pursuit, and pride in the discovery, of any fragment of the literature of Greece or Rome. There is joy in the Vatican over the discovery of a Palimpsest. Such feelings are legitimate, and we should be sorry to disclaim them for ourselves, ashamed to depreciate them as entertained by more devoted slaves of the lamp. We confess, however, that our own sympathies with such are tempered by the conviction that, so far at least as works of fancy and imagination, of poetry and eloquence, are concerned, the best productions of the best authors are already in our possession. In these departments we might hail additions with a sober joy, but we have no intense craving for any large accession to the creditable stock which has survived the sentence of Omar, and escaped the baths and wash- houses of Alexandria. It may be, for is it not written in Nie- buhr that Virgil made a mistake when he attempted hexameters, that his true vocation was lyrics, and that he should have studied to emulate Pindar rather than Homer ; we are, however, content with such mistakes as the ^Eneid and the Georgics. If, indeed, we were privileged to select for resuscitation from the list of works no longer extant, but of which the authors and subjects are known, any one production, we suspect that our choice would rest upon the narrative of the construction of the Parthenon by its ( ) 1. Account of Oie Skerryvore Lighthouse, with Notes on tlte Illumination of Lighthouses. By Alan Stevenson, Engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board. Edinburgh and London. 4to. 1848. 2. An Account of the Sell Bock Lighthouse. By Robert Stevenson, Civil Engineer. Edinburgh. 4to. 1824. 3. Narrative of the Building and Description of the Construction of the Eddyetone Lighthouse with stone. By John Smeaton, Civil Engineer, F.R.S. Second Edition. Folio. 1813. 2 B 2 372 THE SKEREYVOEE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. architect Ictinus. Much of interest would assuredly attach to the record of a process every step of which was evidently founded on deep thought, and directed by high intention, till that result was attained which neither decay nor mutilation has deprived of its matchless grace, and which common consent has pronounced to be the nearest approach to perfection accomplished by human artificer. Apart from the charm which attaches to classical associations and to remote antiquity, something of kindred interest belongs to the narratives now before us. It is indeed among the noblest functions of genius to devise forms of beauty and sublimity for the structures destined for the performance of man's homage to his Maker. Within those limits which, fortunately for the puri- fication of that homage, were exceeded by Leo, it has been a wise devotion of wealth which has enabled that genius to embody its bright visions in enduring and costly materials. Next, however, to the great testimonials which men like Ictinus and Buonarotti have reared to the consciousness of our spiritual nature and immortal destinies, we can imagine no triumph of constructive skill more signal, no labours more catholic in their purpose, and more deserving in their success of human gratitude and applause, than those recorded in the trilogy of works enume- rated in our title the labours of Smeaton and the two Steven- sons, father and son, men of whom Father Ocean, could he exchange for articulate language the avaj/nS/xov ysXaffpta of his summer calm, or the sterner accents of his equinoctial mood, might say " Great I must call them, for they conquer' d me." There is a passage in Byron, often selected for quotation, in which, towards the close of his greatest poem, he brings the power and immensity of the sea into contrast with the weakness and littleness of man. The charm of verse has, in our opinion, seldom been more abused than in this splenetic paean to the brute strength of winds and waves, leaving, as it does, unnoticed the great fact of their habitual submission to the moral and in- tellectual powers of man. To make the pervading sentiment of these famous stanzas as sound as their cadence is sonorous, shipwreck should be the rule, and safe passage the exception. Among the greatest assertors of that qualified supremacy which ESSAY XII. DIFFICULTIES OF LIGHTHOUSE ARCHITECTS. 373 Providence has delegated to the human race over the destruc- tive agencies of the billow and the storm, the architects of such buildings as the Eddystone and the Bell Rock Lighthouses are pre-eminent ; and the story of their construction is well worthy of the minute detail and costly illustration with which it has been recorded. We cannot be surprised at the cordial satisfaction with which the narrators have evidently discharged a task of justice, not to themselves alone, but to many brave and skilful coadjutors and subordinates. It must be remembered that in all these cases the presiding genius had to struggle not only with difficulties which would have foiled the skill, but with toils and dangers which would have cowed the spirit and exhausted the endurance of ordinary mortals. Bloody battles have been won, and cam- paigns conducted to a successful issue, with less of personal exposure to physical danger on the part of the Commander-in- chief, than for considerable portions of successive years was hourly encountered by each of these civilians. They could not and did not sit apart from the field of action, and send their staff with orders into the fire. They were the first to spring on the lonely rock, and the last to leave it. They had to test the solidity of their own contrivances in their own persons, to take up their quarters in the temporary barrack, and to infuse by example their own high courage into the breasts of humble workmen unaccustomed to the special terrors of the scene. It will be found that if these edifices were not, like the Pyramids of the Pharaohs or the canals of Mehemet Ali, completed at a cost of human life, that immunity was obtained, under Provi- dence, by the constant presence, the cool and judicious direc- tions, and the prompt resources of the architect. Like Desde- mona, we listen to the tale, and admire the narrator for the perils he has passed, as well as for the benefits he has conferred. What these benefits are, those best can tell who have neared their country's coast in a season of starless nights and wintry gales who have had experience of the navigator's struggle between hope deferred and the fear of unknown danger and sudden wreck. These know the joy and confidence infused into every bosom by the first gleam of that light which, either by its steady lustre, its colour, or its periodical occupation, identifies the promontory or the reef. In that moment, when the yards 374 THE SKEEEYVOEE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. are braced, and the good ship put upon her course, which she can thenceforward pursue with confidence towards the Sound, the Forth, the Mersey, or the Clyde, the merits of the Smeatons and the Stevensons will best be felt, their eulogy may best be spoken. Our especial business being with the last in date of the three constructions above enumerated, we have cited the two former chiefly for the sake of occasional reference and comparison. In position, the tract of foul ground infamous under the name of the Skerryvore Beef offers in many particulars a pretty exact coun- terpart to the famous Inchcape or Bell Bock. Placed in the same parallel of latitude, it presented the same obstacles in kind and degree to the navigation of the west coast of Scotland as the Bell and Carr Bocks opposed to that of the east. While the access to the Forth and the security of the northern coasting trade were mainly affected by the one, the great issue to the Atlantic from the Irish Channel and the Clyde was endangered by the other. It would require deep study of a wilderness of Blue Books to pronounce what annual amount of tonnage was affected in either case, so as to strike the exact balance of anxiety and inconvenience. The statistics of actual loss, previous to the erection of the works in question, would perhaps be even more difficult to collect with precision. The list of ascertained wrecks is a long one in either case, but the fishers of Tyree took little note of the comminuted fragments which reached their coast, and many a good ship has left no traces for recognition after a few minutes' collision with the gneiss of Skerryvore. Situated considerably farther from the mainland than the Bell Bock, it is less entirely submerged, some of its summits rising above the level of high water, but the extent of foul ground is much greater, and hidden dangers even in fine weather beset the intervening passage between its eastern extremity and Tyree, from which island it is distant some 11 miles. In rough weather the sea which rises there is described as one in which no ship could live. This terrible relic of a volcanic sera had long attracted the attention of the Northern Commissioners, under whose direction the Bell Bock and other Lighthouses had been constructed, and so long ago as 1 814 an Act was obtained for alight on Skerryvore, in which year Mr. Bobert Stevenson landed on the rock, in company with several members of the Commission, and ESSAY XII. MB. ALAN STEVENSON'S SURVEY. 375 Sir W. Scott, who has noted the visit in his diary. The difficulty of the undertaking appears however to have deterred the Com- missioners from any active proceeding till the autumn of 1834, when Mr. Alan Stevenson received directions to commence a preliminary survey, which he was only able to complete in 1835. That difficulty was not confined to the position and character of the reef itself. The distance from land, strictly speaking, was some three miles less than in the case of the Bell Rock, but the barren and over-peopled island of Tyree afforded neither the resources of the eastern mainland, nor a harbour like Arbroath. It was necessary to construct, at the nearest favourable station in Tyree, a pier and harbour, and the buildings for workmen and stores of all descriptions all materials for which, except the one article of stone, and after a little stone too, were to be trans- ported from distant quarters. The gneiss quarries of the island did, in the first instance, supply a stock of stone fit both for rubble and masonry ; and the liberality of the proprietor, the late Duke of Argyll, who took from the first the interest which became him in the proceedings, gave every facility to the archi- tect This supply, however, soon failed. The younger Stevenson's narrative bears, as might be expected, continually recurring testimony to the advantage he enjoyed in the instruction afforded by the example of his father's operations, who in many respects was under similar obligations to Smeaton. In neither case, however, was the imitation servile, nor did either fail to adopt such changes in design and contrivance as were indicated by the variations, slight in the main, between the local peculiarities of the respective sites. These changes are ably detailed and justified by Mr. A. Stevenson in a pre- liminary chapter. The earliest, and about the most anxious, of the many ques- tions which present themselves to the engineer intrusted with such a work are those of height and mass. In Smeaton's time, when the best light in use was that of common candles, eleva- tion beyond a certain height could do no good. The application of the mirror or the lens to oil enables us now to illuminate the visible horizon of any tower which, in Mr. A. Stevenson's words, " human art can hope to construct." The question of mass is affected by other considerations, and principally by the greater or less facility of communication with the shore 376 THE SKERRYVORE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. which must govern the question of space for stowage of supplies. The extent of the Skerryvore reef, some three miles to seaward of the spot available for the base of the edifice, indicated the expediency of a greater elevation than had been attained in the case of the Bell Rock, which is little more than 100 yards in its extent. It was determined that the light should be elevated about 150 feet above high water, so as to command a visible horizon of 18 miles' radius ; and it appeared that for interior accommodation a void space of about 13,000 cubic feet would be required. These elements settled, the question of general proportions came next. This was partly dependent on the preference to be given to one or the other of the two principles, by applying which the solidity of a compacted and unelastic mass can be obtained the principle of vertical pressure, in which the power of gravity supplies the strength required or that of artificial tenacity, involving the more elaborate and costly contrivances of dovetailing, joggling, &c. It appears clear that, in the con- struction of buildings in which resistance to a recurrent action of disturbing forces is a main object, the principle of vertical pressure is to be preferred. The power of a given weight to resist a given force is calculable and constant the strength which results from the artificial connexion of component parts is less enduring, and cannot even at first be so accurately estimated. These considerations had influenced the Commissioners in their rejection of a plan for an iron pillar, and they governed Mr. A. Stevenson in the design which he was called upon to execute for an edifice of masonry, and justified him for some departure from that of either Smeaton or his father. "There can be little doubt," he says, " that the more nearly we approach the perpendicular, the more fully do the stones at the base receive the pressure of the superincumbent mass as a means of retain- ing them in their places, and the more perfectly does this pressure act as a bond of union among the parts of the tower. This consi- deration naturally weighed with me in making a more near approach to the conic frustum, which, next to the perpendicular wall, must, other circumstances being equal, press the mass below with a greater weight, and in a more advantageous manner, than a curved outline, in which the stones at the base are necessarily further removed from the line of vertical pressure of the mass at top. This ESSAY XII. PRINCIPLES OF ITS CONSTRUCTION. 377 vertical pressure operates in preventing any stone feeing withdrawn from the wall in a manner which, to my mind, is much more satisfactory than an excessive refinement in dovetailing and joggling, which I consider as chiefly useful in the early stages of the progress of a work when it is exposed to storms, and before the superstructure is raised to such an height as to prevent seas from breaking right over it." p. 64. Of the three works the principle of vertical pressure has been most consulted in the case of Skerry vore, and least in that of the Bell Hock. In the Eddystone, indeed, as well as in the Bell Rock, Mr. A. Stevenson is of opinion that the thickness of the walls towards the top has been reduced to the lowest limit com- patible with safety. Proportions were therefore adopted for the tower at Skerryvore which, involving a less projection of the base as compared with the summit, afforded a nearer approxi- mation to the form of greatest solidity, the conic frustum. It does not, however, follow that the curve resulting from the pro- portion taken at Skerryvore could have been advantageously substituted at the Bell Rock for the curve there adopted. The latter is covered to the height of fifteen feet at spring tides. For two winters the lower part of the tower was exposed not merely to wind and spray, but to the direct action of the sea, without the advantage of any superincumbent weight. During this period the architect had to rely on the compactness, not on the weight of his structure, and it became necessary to give the portion thus periodically submerged the sloping form least likely to disturb the passage of the waves. On the interesting question of the best shape for such build- ings, Mr. A. Stevenson thus sums up a singularly clear expla- nation of his views : " In a word, the sum of our knowledge appears to be contained in this proposition that, as the stability of a sea-tower depends, coeteris paribus, on the lowness of its centre of gravity, the general notion of its form is that of a cone, but that, as the forces to which its several horizontal sections are opposed decrease towards its top in a rapid ratio, the solid should be generated by the revolution of some curve- line convex to the axis of the tower, and gradually approaching to parallelism with it." p. 56. This is nothing more nor less than the conclusion which Smeaton reduced to practice in the case of the Eddystone, and, for aught 378 THE SKERKYVORE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. we are aware, for the first time.* The process of reasoning, however, by which Alan Stevenson arrived at his results is far different from that by which Smeaton describes himself to have been influenced. He thinks that Smeaton's famous analogy of the oak, which has been often quoted and extolled for its felicity, is unsound, and was only employed by him for the purpose of satisfying readers incapable of understanding the profounder process by which he had really arrived at truth : " There is no analogy," says the modern architect, " between the case of the tree and that of the lighthouse the tree being assaulted at the top, the lighthouse at the base ; and although Smeaton goes on to suppose the branches to be cut off, and water to wash round the base of the oak, it is to be feared that the analogy is not thereby strengthened; as the materials composing the tree and the tower are so different, that it is impossible to imagine that the same opposing forces can be resisted by similar properties in both. . . It is very singular that throughout his reasonings on this subject he does not appear to have regarded those properties of the tree which he has most fitly characterized as its elasticity and the coherence of its parts." Ibid. A choice remained to be made between at least four different curves, which would each comply with the conditions specified in Mr. Stevenson's conclusion the logarithmic, the parabola, the conchoid, and the hyperbola. The logarithmic, though not unfavourable to the condition of vertical pressure, was dismissed as clumsy ; the parabola displeased the , eye from its too rapid change near the base ; the similarity between the conchoid and the hyperbola left little to choose between them, but the latter obtained the preference. The shaft of the Skerryvore pillar, accordingly, is a solid generated by the revolution of a rectan- gular hyperbola about its asymptote as a vertical axis. Its exact height is 120*25 feet ; its diameter at the base 42 feet, and at the top 16 feet (p. 61). The first 26 feet from the base are solid, and this portion weighs near 2000 tons. The walls, as they spring from the solid, are nine feet thick, and gradually * The only great work we know of, antecedent to Smeaton's Eddystone, and resembling it in situation and exposure, is the Tour de Cordouan, in which the conical principle is not adopted. Mr. Rudyard's tower on the Eddystone was a rectilinear frustum of a cone a form suitable to his principal material, which was wood. ESSAY XII. PRINCIPLES OF ITS CONSTRUCTION. 379 diminish to two. Mr. A. Stevenson considered himself safe in dispensing generally with the system of dovetailing, which had been adopted throughout the building in the two preceding instances. By an improved construction of the floors of the chambers he also supplied the place of the metal chains which Smeaton had used to restrain any disposition to outward thrust in the circle of masonry, and the copper rings by which the cornice of the Bell Rock building is strengthened. The above are some of the principal features of the differences suggested by study and experience between the three works. We must refer our readers to p. 63 for a diagram which makes them sensible to the eye. The following table, however, may be sufficient: Height of Tower above first entire Course. Contents. Diameter. Distance of Centre of Gravity from Base. Height of Centre of Gravity. Base. Top. EJdystone 68 13,343 26 15 15-92 4-27 Bell Rock . . 100 28,530 42 15 23-59 4-29 Skerry rore . 138-5 58,580 42 16 34-95 3-96 The last column shows the ratio which the height of the centre of gravity above the base bears to the height of the tower. Those who have perused the ' Diary ' of Mr. R. Stevenson's voyages to and fro, and long residences in anchored vessels at the Bell Rock, will anticipate that much of the difficulty with which the father had to contend was obviated in the case of the son by the application of steam-power to navigation. The first year's operations at Skerry vore were, however, not assisted by this new auxiliary. A steamer was advertised for, but the river and har- bour craft offered for sale were quite unfit to encounter the seas -of Tyree, and it was found necessary to build a vessel for such rough service, of 150 tons, with two engines of 30-horse power each. Mr. Stevenson found, as he conceives, compensation for the delay in the accurate knowledge of the reef and surrounding waters which constant trips in the Pharos sailing-vessel of 36 tons procured for him. One peculiarity of the Skcrryvore, in which it differs from the Bell Rock, was found from first to last to occasion much incon- 380 THE SKERRYVORE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. venience. The sandstone of the Bell Eock is worn into rugged inequalities. The action of the sea on the igneous formation of Skerry vore has given it the appearance and the smoothness of a mass of dark-coloured glass, which made the foreman of the masons compare the operation of landing on it to that of climb- ing up the neck of a bottle. When we consider how often, by how many persons, and under what circumstances of swell and motion this operation was repeated, we must look upon this feature of the spot as an obstacle of no slight amount. The 7th of August, 1838, is noted as the first day of entire work on the rock. It consisted in preparations for the tempo- rary barrack, which in this case, as in that of the Bell Eock, was considered a necessary preliminary, and was in most respects a copy of its predecessor. Little more than the pyramidal pedestal of beams for this building could be accomplished before the 1 1th of September the last day of work for that season and this commencement was swept away in the night of the 12th of November : a calamity which mortified those whom it could not daunt nor discourage, and which only led to various improved devices for reconstruction. The quarriers meanwhile had been busy in Tyree, but the experience obtained during this winter, 1838 and 1839, of the gneiss-rock of that island led Mr. Steven- son to resort for further supply to the granite-quarries of Mull. In specific gravity the gneiss has a trifling advantage, but it is less fissile and far more uncertain in quality. Of the quantity hitherto obtained in Tyree not more than one-tenth was found fit to be dressed as blocks for the tower. The next important operation was that of excavating the foundation. This occupied the whole of the working season of 1839, from the 6th of May to the 3rd of September. The gneiss held out stoutly against iron and gunpowder, and Mr. Stevenson calculates the labour at four times that which granite would have required. In the case of the Eddystone, Smeaton was compelled to follow the shape of the rock, and to adapt his lower courses of masonry to a sort of staircase of successive terraces carefully shaped for the adjustment. The formation of Skerryvore enabled Mr. Stevenson to avoid this delicate and expensive process, and to mark out a foundation-pit of 42 feet diameter, the largest he could obtain at one level throughout. This basin, however, required for its excavation the labour of 20 ESSAY XII. RESIDENCE ON THE ROCK. 381 men for 217 days, the firing of 296 shots, and the removal into deep water of 2000 tons of material. The blasting, from the absence of all cover, and the impossibility of retiring to a dis- tance farther in any case than 30 feet, and often reduced to 12, demanded all possible carefulness. The only precautions avail- able were a skilful apportionment of the charge and the covering the mines with mats and coarse netting made of old rope. Every charge was fired by or with the assistance of the architect in person, and no mischief occurred. The operations of 1840 included the reconstruction of the barrack, in which, though rather more pervious to wind and spray than what Mr. Robins in his boldest mood would have ventured to designate a " desir- able marine villa," the architect and his party were content to take up their quarters on the 14th of May. " Here," says the gallant chief, " during the first month we suffered much from the flooding of our apartments with water, &c. On one occasion also we were fourteen days without communication with the shore or the steamer, and during the greater part of that time we saw nothing but white fields of foam as far as the eye could reach, and heard nothing but the whistling of the wind and the thunder of the waves, which was at times so loud as to make it almost impossible to hear any one speak. Such a scene, with the ruins of the former barrack not twenty yards from us, was calculated to inspire the most desponding anticipa- tions ; and I well remember the undefined sense of dread that flashed on my mind, on being awakened one night by a heavy sea which struck the barrack, and made my cot swing inwards from the wall, and was immediately followed by a cry of terror from the men in the apartment above me, most of whom, startled by the sound and the tremor, sprang from their berths to the floor, impressed with the idea that the whole fabric had been washed into the sea." p. 153. This spell of bad weather, though in summer, well nigh out- lasted their provisions; and when at length they were able to make the signal that a landing would be practicable, scarcely twenty-four hours' stock remained on the rock. As yet nothing of weight but iron and timber had been landed. The first trial of the landing of heavy stones from the lighters, on the 20th of June, was a nervous one. It succeeded, but diffi- culty and hazard in this operation were of constant recurrence ; 382 THE SKERRYVORE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. and as the loss of one dressed stone would frequently have delayed the whole progress of the building, the anxiety was incessant. Eight hundred tons of dressed stone were, however, deposited on the rock this season without damage. On the 7th of July the ceremony of laying the foundation stone was performed by the Duke of Argyll, attended by a party of rela- tions, including the Duchess and Lady Emma Campbell, and many friends. The summer of 1840 was a stormy one, and it required some habit to contemplate calmly, even from the height of thirty feet, the approach of the Atlantic wave. The exhibition of its power was more formidable during that period of ground swell which follows a protracted gale than amidst the violence of the actual storm. Cool and careful observation led Mr. Stevenson to con- clude that the height of an unbroken wave in these seas does not exceed fifteen feet from the hollow to the crest; but this was magnified to thirty or forty in the estimation of less scientific watchers some of whom could scarcely familiarize themselves even by repeated experiences of safety to the illusive appearance of imminent destruction. The greatest trial of such a residence was doubtless the occasional inaction resulting from the violence of the weather, which sometimes made it impossible to land a sufficient supply of materials on the rock, and at other times made it impossible to use them. At such intervals the architect's anxiety was great for the safety of the stones deposited on the rock, but which they had as yet been unable to move beyond the reach of the surf. The loss or fracture of any one of these would have occasioned much delay. The discomfort of wet clothes, and scanty accommodation for drying them, after exposure to sleet and spray, was severe. And yet the grandeur and variety of the surrounding scene, combined with the deep interest of the work in hand, were sufficient not only to compensate for the tedium of occasional inaction, but, in the words of the narrator, " to reconcile him to, nay, to make him actually enjoy, an unin- terrupted residence^ on one occasion of not less than five weeks on that desert rock." In addition to the magnificent phenomena of inorganic nature, an object of interest was afforded by the gambols of the seal, which is said by report of the neighbouring islanders to attain a remarkable size in the neighbourhood of the reef. There is ESSAY XII. SEALS. 383 something to our apprehension very human in the seal. The voice, the expression of the eye, its known affection for musical sounds, and its docility, and even attachment to individuals, when caught young, give it claims to better treatment than it usually receives from man. The greatest living authority in matters of zoology has conjectured that the strange animal seen from the Da3dalus frigate was a seal of the largest (sea-lion) species ; that it had probably been drifted into warm latitudes on an iceberg which had melted away, and swimming, poor brute, for life, had neared the strange object, the ship, with some faint original hope of shelter and rest for the sole of its flipper. If Captain M'Quhae could admit a theory wliich attributes to him and to his officers so large an amount of ocular deception, we are sure he would share our regret at his inability to accommodate so interesting a stranger. The seals of Skerryvore made no such demand on Mr. Stevenson's hospitality. They enjoyed the surf which menaced him with destruction, and revelled in the luxuries of a capital fishing station " They moved in tracks of shining white ; And when they rear'd, the elfish light FeU off in hoary flakes." Perhaps, like the Ancient Mariner, he " blessed them unaware ;" but thus he writes of them : " Among the many wonders of the 'great deep' which we wit- nessed at the Skerryvore, not the least is the agility and power dis- played by the unshapely seal. I have often seen half a dozen of these animals around the rock, playing on the surface or riding on the crests of the curling waves, come so close as to permit us to see their eyes and head, and lead us to expect that they would be thrown high and dry at the foot of the tower ; when suddenly they per- formed a somersault within a few feet of the rock, and, diving into the flaky and wreathing foam, disappeared, and as suddenly re- appeared a hundred yards off, uttering a strange low cry, as we supposed of satisfaction at having caught a fish. At such times the surf often drove among the crevices of the rock a bleeding cod, from whose back a seal had taken a single moderate bite, leaving the rest to some less fastidious fisher." p. 157. In July, 1841, as the masonry rose to a height which made the stationary crane difficult and even unsafe to work, that beau- 384 THE SKERRYVORE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. tiful machine, invented for the Bell Rock, and which rises with the building it helps to raise, the balance crane, was brought into requisition with all the efficiency and success described in the narrative of the elder Stevenson. With such aid the mass of masonry built up during this working season amounted to 30,300 cubic feet more than double that of the Eddy stone, and somewhat more than that of the Bell Rock tower. Such was the accuracy observed in the previous dressing of the stones in the workyards on shore and in their collocation by the builders, that the gauged diameter of each course did not vary from the calculated and intended dimension one-sixteenth of an inch, while the height exceeded that specified by only half an inch. Mr. A. Stevenson only does justice to his father in stating that much of the comparative rapidity of his own work was due to the steam attendance at his command. No death from accident or injury occurred during the entire progress of the work but the loss of Mr. Heddle, commander of the steamer, who died of consumption in the course of the winter, was probably due to exertion and exposure in that service. On the 21st of July the last stones for the tower were landed under a salute from the steamer. On the 10th of August the lantern was landed. It was, however, impossible to do more this season than to raise and fix it, and cover it with a temporary protection from the weather and the dirt of sea-fowl for the winter. The summer of 1843 was occupied in repointing the joints of the building a tedious operation conducted from suspended scaffolds and in fitting the interior. It was not till the 1st of February, 1844, that the light was first exhibited to mariners. For reasons most ably and minutely detailed in a concluding chapter, the apparatus adopted was identical in its general arrangements with that in the main dioptric, but combining some of the advantages of the catoptric system of illumination which had been applied some years before to the Tour de Cordouan. The light is revolving, appearing in its brightest state once in every minute. Elevated 150 feet above the sea, it is well seen as far as the curvature of the earth permits, and even at more than twice the distance at which the curvature would interfere were the eye of the observer on a level with the sea ; for it is seen as a strong light from the high land of the Isle of Barra, thirty-eight miles distant. XII. TOUR DE CORDOUAN. 385 In a chapter which Mr. Stevenson devotes to the general his- tory of lighthouses, he has collected the few and meagre notices which remain to us of those constructed by the nations of antiquity. We can hardly doubt that some must have existed of which no record has been preserved. The torch in Hero's tower, and the telegraphic fire-signals so magnificently described in the ' Agamemnon ' of -ZEschylus, could hardly have failed in times anterior to the Pharos of Ptolemy to have suggested the use of continuous lights for the guidance of the mariner. In later periods, when the coasts of France and Britain were more frequented by the predatory Northman than by the peaceful merchant, and when the harvest of shipwreck was considered more profitable than the gains of commercial intercourse, it pro- bably often appeared to the inhabitants of the seaboard more their interest to increase than to diminish its dangers. It is related of one of the Breton Counts St. Leon that, when a jewel was offered to him for purchase, he led the dealer to a window of his castle, and, showing him a rock in the tideway, assured him that black stone was more valuable than all the jewels in his casket. The only modern work of consequence anterior to the Eddystone, cited by Mr. Stevenson, is the Tour de Cordouan, situated in the mouth of the Garonne some two leagues from Bordeaux, which in respect of altitude and architectural gran- deur and embellishment, remains, as Mr. Stevenson says, the noblest edifice of the kind in the world. Whether that embel- lishment be as well suited to the subject-matter as the severer grandeur of the curvilinear towers of Smeaton and the Steven- sons, may be questioned. Commenced by Louis de Foix, A.D. 1584, in the reign of Henry H., and finished in 1610, under Henry IV., it exhibits that national taste for magnificence in construction which attained its meridian under Louis XIV. The tower does not receive the shock of the waves, being pro- tected at the base by a wall of circumvallation, which contains also casemated apartments for the attendants. Hence a con- struction in successive stages, and angular in the interior, conse- quently less adapted for solidity, but more susceptible of deco- ration than the conical, has for two centuries stood uninjured. In this, as in our own lighthouses, the inventions of science have been gradually substituted for the rude original chauffoir, or brazier of coal or wood, such as, within memory, was in use in 2 c 386 THE SKERRYYORE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. the Isle of May. In the latter case it is supposed to have led to the destruction of two frigates, which mistook for it some kilns on the coast, and ran ashore on the same night near Dunbar. The Tour de Cordouan has, in our times, been made illustrious by the first application of the dioptric contrivances of Fresnel, which Alan Stevenson has borrowed, not without ample acknow- ledgment, nor without some improvements, for the service of his own country. Mr. Stevenson, while treading in the footsteps of Smeaton and his father as historians of their great works, has largely availed himself of the progress which has taken place in the art of engraving. It is amusing in Smeaton's folio to observe the costume of days when the rough business of life was transacted under wigs and in shorts and shoebuckles ; but the lapse of time is no less apparent in the delicacy and beauty of the modern illustrations. On no part of his work has Mr. Stevenson been more lavish of this useful and instructive adjunct to a pregnant text than in the treatise which he devotes to the curious subject of the illumination of lighthouses. No such assistance, indeed, can bring a disquisition so profound and such an array of mathematical science within the grasp of the unlearned. It needs, however, but an uninstructed glance at these pages to show that when the engineer rests from his architectural labours he has further difficulties to encounter and problems to solve, which require an extraordinary combination of theoretical science and practical skill. The Promethean task remains to which the construction of the corporeal frame is but subsidiary. It may at first appear a simple matter to accumulate within a limited space instruments and materials of luminous combustion, and to trust to the unassisted laws of radiation for the diffusion of the light produced. The result, however, of this process would be to direct an immense proportion of the rays in sheer waste towards the zenith or the centre of the earth. It becomes the business of the engineer no longer an architect, but an optician to control the rays and to direct their divergence on the system best suited to the local conditions of the edifice, to adapt the range of visibility to the circumstances of the navi- gation, and to give a specific character to the flame which shall enable the mariner, without hesitation or mistake, to distinguish it from others. It is laid down by Mr. A. Stevenson that no XII. MARINE ILLUMINATION. 387 two lights similar enough to be confounded should be placed on the same line of coast nearer than one hundred miles to each other. The various inventions which have been, with a view to these various objects, substituted for the candles of Smeaton and the brazier of the Isle of May, are of recent date. Many of them were, as is usual, preceded by those vague suggestions which often put in a claim for original invention, but scarcely diminish the honour of successful accomplishment. Among the names of those who have contributed most effectually to the present efficiency of the system of marine illumination, Argand, Borda, and Fresnel are conspicuous. The hollow cylindrical wick of the first was a sudden and immense advance in the art of economical and effective illumination. The second applied the parabolic mirror to the light of Cordouan an invention which has multiplied the effect of the unassisted flame in the case of a fixed light by 350, in that of a revolving light by 450. For the merits of that great master of the more complicated system of the refracting lens, termed the dioptric, Fresnel, we must refer our readers to Mr. Stevenson's pages and their elaborate en- graved illustrations. It may, however, for the benefit of that portion of our readers whose comprehension of optical con- trivances cannot be assisted by the use of Greek terminology, be permitted to us to state here in few words some of the leading and distinctive features of these two systems of illumination. In the catoptric, a certain number of Argand lamps are disposed on a framework, each in front of a metallic reflector, which latter is always moidded to a parabolic curve. Both in this and the dioptric system the first great division adopted for the important purpose of distinction and iudentification is into fixed and revolving lights. The catoptric system, by the aid of various contrivances, has been made susceptible in practice of nine con- spicuous and unmistakeable varieties ; for which differences of colour, periodical gradations of splendour, and absolute tem- porary occultation are the means employed. The relative arrangement of the lamps with their reflectors to each other differs according as the light is fixed or revolving. In the fixed light the lamps and reflectors are disposed on a circular frame with the axes of the latter inclined to each other at such an angle as shall enable them to illuminate as completely as pi>.- sible every quarter of the horizon. The revolving light i.s pro- 2 c 2 388 THE SKERRYVOKE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XII. duced by the revolution on a central shaft of a frame with three or four sides, on each of which the reflectors are disposed with their axes parallel. One variety, indeed, the flashing light, is produced by a somewhat different arrangement, involving an inclination of the axis of each reflector to the perpendicular. In the dioptric system a powerful burner is placed in the centre of a frame, usually octagonal, fitted with a refracting lens to each of the sides. Contrivances of great ingenuity and complexity have been superadded by Messrs. Fresnel and Stevenson both for reflection and refraction of much of the light, which, without their aid, would be wasted in an upward or downward direction, entitling the whole apparatus, combining, as it then does, the qualities of the two systems, to the designation of Catadioptric. We are sorry to confess that, in spite of the removal of those vexatious excise regulations which so long paralyzed the glass manufacture of England, we are still dependent on France for the glass used in the construction of our dioptric lights. Mr. Stevenson has entered fully into the subject of the comparative merits of the two systems. For lights of the first order in range and import- ance, specified by him as those which are first made on over- sea voyages and which embrace within their action a large portion of the horizon it seems clear that the dioptric system is to be preferred. In respect of intensity, equable diffusion of light in the direction required, and economy of oil, it has deci- dedly the advantage in the latter particular in the proportion of three and a half to one. The consequence, however, of extinction from accident is, as Mr. Stevenson terms it, infinitely great in the case of the one central burner of the dioptric system as compared with that of the numerous lamps of the catoptric. There are also cases, such as those of fixed lights in narrow seas, where it is only needful to illuminate a limited segment of the horizon, in which he prefers the reflected light. He condemns the employment of coloured media on the score of absorption, and considers it only admissible in the case of a line of coast crowded with lighthouses in which the other and better processes of revolution and temporary occultation have been exhausted. In such the red glass may be used, but blue and green, from their greater absorption, are not entitled to promotion from the shop of the apothecary. ESSAY XII. MARINE ILLUMINATION. 389 The critical position and permanent requirements of the light- house make it improbable that the oil-lamp will soon be sup- planted on the sea-girt tower either by gas or by any of those still more recondite devices which are almost daily engendered by the advancing chemical science of the age. Gas, indeed, has sometimes been applied to marine lights on the mainland. For the dioptric light, where there is one large central flame, it pos- sesses, at least, two decided advantages the form of the lumi- nous cone is less variable, and the inconvenience of mechanism in the lamp is avoided. These advantages are, however, more than compensated in all positions to which access is difficult and precarious, by the difficulties of the manufacture of the gas and transport and storing of fuel ; perhaps in all cases by the risk, however reduced by modern inventions, of explosion. For the catoptric revolving light it is obviously unsuited. To the Drummond and Voltaic lights there are other objec- tions than those which adhere to any process involving delicacy of adjustment and manipulation. A full exposition of those objections would require some of that mathematical disquisition and graphic illustration which Mr. Stevenson has lavished in his pages for the use of the learned. It is sufficient here to explain that, to fulfil the purpose of a marine light, whether fixed or revolving, some degrees of divergence are essential that to produce this divergence, and to control and direct it either by the mirror or the lens, a body of flame, as distinguished from a luminous point, is equally necessary. Such operators as the Fresnels and Stevensons leave nothing to chance to any chance, at least, but that of fog or violent accident. That effect, whether of slowly increasing and waning splendour, or of fixed radiance, which at the distance of twenty miles cheers the spirit and directs the judgment of the mariner, is previously calculated and rigorously governed by so small a quantity as the measured dia- meter of the cylindrical wick placed in front of the mirror, or behind the lens. If this diameter, as in the case of the Drum- mond and Voltaic processes, be reduced to a luminous point, of however concentrated and increased intensity, practical utility is annihilated. An experiment was made by Mr. Gurney in 1835 for adding power to the flame of oil without reducing its dimen- sions by a combination with oxygen, but the plan was rejected by the Trinity House. 390 THE SKERRYVORE LIGHTHOUSE. ESSAY XTT. Such, however, is the intensity of the light produced by some of these processes, that we cannot despair of their ultimate ap- plication to purposes and situations which afford a safer field for ingenuity, where accident is of less consequence, and economy may be fairly consulted. Our children, perhaps we ourselves, who remember the old lamps and older watchmen of London, may live to read gas-shares at a discount, and to see the noc- turnal duty of the policeman simplified by the radiance of arti- ficial suns which shall fill whole regions of streets and alleys with light from one central source. Apart from such extended speculations, we consider it not un- likely that the experiments pursued and the processes adopted for marine illumination may suggest minor improvements which, though of less importance, may conduce to public and private convenience. The House of Lords, club-rooms, and other large enclosed spaces, have been assisted by Mr. Faraday and others by various methods to get rid of unhealthy gases and superfluous caloric. The great saloon of Lansdowne House has, if we mis- take not, long been partially lighted on festive occasions from without ; and Lord Brougham, we hear, has lately availed him- self of a similar resource in the old hall of his seat in Westmore- land, without at all disturbing on the contrary, aiding and en- hancing its impressive character. We are not aware that any attempt has yet been made towards the effective illumination of a large room without any interior combustion. We understand, however, that Mr. Barry has such an attempt in contemplation for the picture-gallery at Bridgewater House, and this by the aid of the parabolic reflector of the Cordouan and the Bell Hock. Guttering candles and broiling lamps are behind the age we live in, and we have every reason to wish Mr. Barry success. We cannot attempt the delicate task of a biography of living worthies. The peculiar line in which the two Messrs. Steven- son have attained eminence sufficiently distinguishes them from that family of English engineers who have made illustrious a name so nearly similar that confusion between them and their respective achievements might otherwise possibly arise. It is a satisfaction to us however to relate, that the architect of the Bell Rock, having retired from the office of engineer to the Northern Lights, is still enjoying an honourable repose in Edin- ESSAY XII. MR. WINSTANLEY. 391 burgh, and that his son and successor in office is at present superintending the building of five lighthouses in Scotland. For the last century England has been a great school for the practical application of mechanical science. It is somewhat curious to compare the present condition of her intellectual resources in this department with those of the earlier attempts to light the Eddy stone the proceedings and .results of solid instruction with the desultory efforts of amateur ingenuity. A country gentleman and a silk-mercer were the predecessors of Smeaton at the Eddystone. The first, Mr. Winstanley, had distinguished himself by a talent for practical mechanical jokes, which must have made his country-house in Essex an agreeable and exciting residence for an uninitiated guest. You placed your foot in a slipper in your bed-room, and a ghost started up from the hearth ; you sat down in an easy-chair, and were made prisoner by its anus ; you sought the shade of an arbour, and were set afloat upon the canal. That the more serious device of such a brain should have been fantastic and unsound is less surprising than that it should have endured the weather of the ( 'luinnel for some three seasons. Mr. Winstanley commenced his operations on the Eddystone in 1696, a period when the doctrine was scarcely obsolete that storms might be raised by the malignity of elderly females. If storms could be provoked by the excesses of human complacency and presumption, Mr. Winstanley was quite the man to raise them. Having com- pleted a structure deficient in every element of stability, he was known to express a wish that the fiercest storm that ever blew might arise to test the fabric. He was truly the engineer of Mr. Sheridan Knowles' pleasant lines " \Ylio lays the top-stone of his sea-girt tower, And, smiling at it, bids the winds and waves To roar and whistle now but in a night Beholds the ocean sporting in its place." Short time indeed had poor Mr. Winstanley to " stand aghast ;" for, alas ! the undaunted gentleman was engaged in a visit of inspection when the storm he had challenged occurred, and its fury left no trace of the lighthouse, its attendants, or its architect. Mr. Rudyerd, who next undertook the task, was certainly a man of genius. It is possible that England at this time con- 392 THE SKERRYVORE LIGHTHOUSE; ESSAY XTI. tained no man more competent for the undertaking than the silkmercer of Ludgate-hill, the son of a Cornish vagrant, who had raised himself from rags and mendicancy by his talents and industry to a station of honourable competence. He designed, and with the assistance of two shipwrights constructed, an edi- fice, mainly of timber, courses of stone being introduced solely to obtain the advantage of that principal of vertical pressure of which we have already spoken. In this respect it did present some of that analogy to the oak-tree which the artist of Skerry- vore impugns in the case to which Smeaton applied the illustra- tion. It might be said to resemble a tree with iron roots, for the balks of timber which formed the base were bolted to the rock, so as to resist lift or lateral displacement, by iron branches, so called, spreading outward at the nether extremity, on the principle of that ancient and well-known instrument, the Lewis. Mr. Eudyerd did not indeed invent that simple and very inge- nious contrivance with which heavy stones have for ages past been raised by the crane, but he, as we believe, in the case of the Eddystone, first applied it to the fixture of bolts and stan- chions an application which is extolled by Smeaton as a feli- citous and material accession to the practical part of engineer- ing. It was largely adopted by Mr. E. Stevenson in his opera- tions on the Bell Eock, especially in that difficult and anxious one, the construction of the temporary barrack. In the case of Skerryvore the hardness of the rock made the process slow and unsuitable, and led Mr. A. Stevenson to adopt other contrivances. The worm had commenced ravages on Mr. Eudyerd's wooden structure, which, though capable of timely repair, would have led to considerable toil and expense had a longer duration been permitted to the edifice. It had presented, however, no symp- toms of serious instability or irremediable decay, when, in 1755, it met with a fate from which its situation might have appeared to be its security destruction, rapid and complete, by fire. The catastrophe left Mr. Eudyerd's skill unimpeached as an architect, for in respect of solidity his work had stood the test of nearly fifty winters ; but the many instances of marine confla- gration should have warned him that an edifice cased to the summit with tarred timbers was quite as combustible as a ship, and precaution against such accident seems to have been neglected in the arrangements of the lantern. ESSAY XII. NORTHERN LIGHT COMMISSIONERS. 393 The flashes of amateur ingenuity have paled their fires before the steady lustre of brighter lights and surer guides. The voice of a commercial people demanded aid for daring enterprise and great designs. Men like Smeaton and Brindley answered the call ; and not among the least of their followers are those to whom the humble tribute of these pages has been paid. At this moment we shall be pardoned for observing that the selec- tion and employment of such agents does credit to the Northern Light Commissioners. Did any doubt exist as to the merit of the services of that body, given, as they are, without fee or reward, we should be tempted to reply to the sceptic in some- thing like the language of Wren's epitaph " Si quaeras monu- mentum, eircumnaviga" It is known that suggestions have been made for the amalgamation of this and the Irish Board with the Trinity House. We do not claim an acquaintance with all the bearings of the question which would justify us in endeavouring to rouse the perfervid genius of Scottish nationality against such a proposition. We trust, however, that no hasty concession will be made to the mere principle of centralization a principle misapplied when it disturbs the working of machinery which experience has shown to be adequate to its functions and suc- cessful in its operation. :!:H RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ERSAT XIII. XIII. RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, DEC., 1851. ( a ) OF all the subsidiary materials upon which the writer of history, the man who analyses, weighs, and compares, can place reliance, the posthumous memoir has perhaps the most chances in favour of its? value. With respect to the great transactions of an eventful period, the persons most competent to afford evidence are not seldom, the least willing to speak out on this side the grave ; and such is perhaps the case with none so much as those who have borne a prominent part in warlike affairs. The spirit of com- radeship, which had its early growth in the barrack-room, clings to the soldier through his active career, and follows the veteran into retirement. The accidents of professional employment and of social intercourse alike keep him in contact with many to whom the publication of what he knows, to be true might be, to say the least, unpalatable. We have had access to more than one mili- tary MS., wisitten by men whose names would be a guarantee for knowledge, veracity, and justice for every claim on belief short of infallibility. There was not one among these narratives the author of which could have entered the United Service Club with comfort to himself two hours after its appearance on a book- seller's counter. He is on the best of terms with the mutilated K.C.B. who is dining at the next table. He knows him to be a (") 1. A us meinem Leben, u. s. w. Passages of my Life, % Frederick Charles Ferdinand, Baron of Muffling, otherwise by name Weiss. Berlin. 1851. 2. Memorien, u. s. w. Memoirs of the Prussian General of Infantry, Louis Baron of Wohogen. From his MSS. Leipzig. 1851. 3. Erinnerungen, u. s. w. Recollections of the War Times of 1806-1813. By Frederick von Miiller. Brunswick. 1851. 4. Commentaries on the War in Russia and Germany in 1812 and 1813. By Col. the Hon. George Cathcart. London. 1850. XTIT. MATERIALS FOR HISTORY. 395 brave and worthy gentleman, but was present when he clubbed, or overmarched, or underaiarched his battalion, or committed some blunder which all but compromised the issue of some bloody day. The unhappy incident may be too important to be omitted from any faithful record. Thirty years may have elapsed, and still the white-haired one-armed phantom rises, with a score per- haps of others, between the chronicler and the publisher. The historian, worthy of the name, will commonly wait for at least that period before he settles himself to his work. It is indeed easy to gather from the Gazettes of the day, and other official sources, facts enough to load the shelves of Paternoster-row with Histories in a dozen volumes. The numbers of killed and wounded the guns which either party took into the field and brought out of it these and many other essential particulars may be collected and classified and put into exquisite language by any clergyman without a cure, or lawyer without a brief, who feels himself inspired to the task ; but the result will no more be recognised by the initiated as a fair and sufficient picture of the past than the French bulletin from which it is in part de- rived. The human mind craves something more than a super- ficial knowledge of results. The best materials for its satisfac- tion may come slow, but they come at last. The statesman, and especially the soldier, the depositaries of the real history of the events in which they were principal actors, mute through life, are often eloquent after death. The memoir, shown perhaps by its author to at most one or two intimates, is bequeathed either for immediate or still deferred publication. Our view of this subject is well illustrated by the German press. It is not long since the sister of General Clausewitz, not without some hesitation, sanctioned the printing of his very valuable lucubra- tions. It is but yesterday that those of Wolzogen and Muffling have followed. The two latter are the works of men who, without the highest 7 O ostensible command, were privy to all the secrets of head-quarters, and exercised a strong practical influence over the movements of colossal armies. Both abstained from speaking out while surrounded by those to whom the disclosures required by truth might be uuwelcome ; both reserved those disclosures for a time when the grave should have received alike themselves and their fellow-actors in the great drama. We venture to assert that no 396 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. general history of the wars of Europe, from 1812 to 181 5, com- posed without access and reference to these, and such works as these, can have any claim to enduring trust and estimation. Such posthumous evidence must of course be taken with due reference to the character maintained through life by the witness, and with all allowance for the fact that he cannot be subjected to cross-examination. The first of these tests may be courted on behalf of the chief testimonies now before us with all the confidence due to soldiers and gentlemen of known service and untarnished reputation. The unavoidable imperfection of their evidence under the second head must be supplied by comparison with other sources of information and with each other. It will be found that one narrative occasionally corrects the other, but far more frequently that they meet on common ground only to corroborate each other with all the force of unconcerted accordance. We have to thank Colonel Cathcart for a work so far of a dif- ferent complexion, inasmuch as he having been, in virtue of his youth, rather an intelligent and impartial observer than an in- fluential actor, can afford to publish in his own lifetime his per- sonal reminiscences, with the pregnant comments which subse- quent experience and study have enabled him to append. English writers on strategy are rare. We owe Colonel Cathcart's solid and unpretending volume a notice, and he will not be ashamed of the company in which we have placed him. Of the foreigners on our list General. Muffling will obtain the most attention in this country. The surviving companions at least of the Duke of Wellington will welcome with interest his reminiscences of 1815. ; Frederick Baron von Muffling was born about the year 1775, for he describes himself as thirty years old in 1805, at which date he was married and had three children. His education had commenced, as he takes occasion to lament, at a period when thanks to Frederick the Great all that was considered neces- sary for a young officer was comprised under the single head of fluency in the French language. His father, a veteran of the Seven Years' War, submitted implicitly to this anti-national system ; and as the Docenten in vogue taught French entirely by ear, and not by grammatical rule, the instruction of Miiffling's boyhood was very limited. He lived to regret but not to repair ESSAY XIII. GENERAL MUFFLIXG'S WORK. 397 the absence of that solid intellectual substratum which is usually obtained through the medium of the dead languages. A natural taste for mathematics saved him, however, from many dangers and temptations of youth ; and after ten years of active service on the Rhine he took to these with such success that he was ap- pointed to assist the astronomer Zach in a survey of Thuringia. At the close of three years thus spent, his good fortune attached him to the staff corps, and gained him the patronage of that eminent patriot and scientific soldier Scharnhorst. General Muffling at the outset lays down two rules for him- self, his strict observance of which ought to be imitated by all who follow him in this path of literature. He promises to nar- rate in detail nothing but what he saw, heard, or thought at the time of the occurrence. With respect to that which he did hear and see, he passes lightly over all which has become no- torious from other sources. We scarcely know a work of its class which would so little bear abbreviation or omission of passages. We certainly know no German autobiography so utterly exempt from twaddle. In pursuance of the second rule he dismisses the actual campaign of Jena with a sentence, though, as serving on the staff of Prince Hohenlohe, and admitted to the confidence of the Duke of Brunswick, he was more than a witness of that great transaction. He gives, however, some graphic pictures of the councils which were held in the Prus- sian camp, and some delineations of the character and resources of the men who undertook to meet Napoleon in the field, which would alone suffice, if other evidence were wanting, to explain the disaster that prostrated his country at the feet of France. Before the commencement of hostilities he had been attached for a while to a corps pushed forward, under General Bliicher, to observe the movements of Marshal Bernadotte. Here he had found opportunity to note and admire the alert movements of the French infantry. He saw even their colonels marching with no wardrobe but what the knapsacks on their shoulders could contain, while the officers of a single Prussian battalion required fifty horses for their personal accommodation. He reported this observation to General Ruchel, soon to be distinguished for his large share in the defeat of Auerstadt. The General replied, " My friend, a Prussian gentleman does not go on foot" The Commander-in-Chief and those next in authority are thus introduced to us : 398 EUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. " The Duke of Brunswick enjoyed in his seventy-third year a remarkable degree of bodily activity and freshness of intellect, but had become mistrustful and circumspect io excess. He wanted simplicity in the discharge of his business ; and events had so far outgrown his stature that he was led by instead of leading them. He had accepted the command in order to prevent the war. I can assert this with confidence, because I heard it repeatedly from his own lips at moments when his subordinates had been aggravating the difficulties of his position, or indulging in practices behind his back to which he was anything but a party. At times, when I in strict confidence had been suggesting to him methods for enforcing and maintaining obedience, his ill humour vented itself upon the culprits in the plainest and bitterest descriptions of their peculiari- ties. He would call Prince Hohenlohe a vain and weak man, who suffered himself to be governed by Massenbach ; Euchel a/an/aro/t, Mollendorf a stupefied dotard, Kalkreuth a cunning intrigue-monger, and the subordinate generals, in the lump, a parcel of talentless Routiniers concluding uniformly, ' and it is with such a set we are to encounter a Napoleon ! No : the best service I can do the King will be if I can succeed in keeping peace.' " p. 15. Prince Hohenlohe, at the moment lie appeared on the scene, was endeavouring to suppress an active fit of gout by fierce friction with opodeldoc, which betrayed, by its perfume, the secret of his ailment to those who frequented his head-quarters. It is easy from sketches like these to divine the causes of the huge discomfiture, and to appreciate the infatuation which led Prince Louis and the war party of Berlin to believe that the traditions of Frederick the Great had in themselves virtue sufficient to afford a certain victory over the conquerors of Kussian and Austrian armies. To understand, however, the full extent of that infatuation, it is necessary to collect from other sources a knowledge of the real condition to which a reliance on these traditions, and the lazy neglect of the War department, liad reduced the army itself, from which so much was expected. A narrative which furnishes these particulars has been recently published, under Government authority, by Colonel Hb'pfner, of the Prussian General Staff. It is founded throughout on official documents, and exhibits, in scarcely credible detail, the vices of organization which brought the Prussian army into the field in a condition disgraceful as to equipment, with officers averaging, in their several ranks, double the age of their respective opponents, ESSAY XIII. FESTIVITIES AT ERFUKT. 399 and with troops incompetent, in respect of tactics and move- ment, to cope with the agile and manageable masses of the French. While the Prussian march was encumbered with the ollicers' horses above mentioned, with poultry-carts, and even with pianofortes, the men took the field in autumn without cloaks. Tim muskets of whole corps were so worn in the barrels that ball had for some time been forbidden as dangerous. The best equipped troops, however, in the world must have failed when guided against Napoleon by such councils as that which this author describes as taking place at Erfurt. Those who wish to know how nobly the Prussian soldier stood and fought, and marched and starved, under these hopeless circumstances, must follow him from Jena to the Oder, through the pages of Colonel Hopfner. Muffling accompanied the Duke of Saxe-Weimar through the miserable retreat of the remnant of the Prussian army to its final dispersion or capitulation on the Oder. The Duke had invited him, as a comrade in misfortune, to Weimar ; and two years later he procured his discharge from the Prussian service, with the view of profiting by this invitation. The pretty little city, which had for some time been the literary capital of Germany, now became the focus of its patriotism, and the centre of intrigues for its emancipation, which foiled the scrutiny of the French police. Muffling, attached to the person of the Duke, was the confidant and active instrument of these machinations. They were pursued under the very eye of Napoleon, who, in 1808, fixed upon Erfurt as the place for receiving, as a guest, the Emperor Alexander. Muffling had the painful task of acting, on the part of the Duke of Weimar, as master of the ceremonies for arranging, in concert with the French officials, the fStes of the occasion. One of these displays was indeed a strange device for cementing that friendship with Alexander which had been so carefully blazoned at Tilsit : it was a distribution of decorations and pro- motions to a French regiment which had specially earned these distinctions by its conduct against the Russian guards at Fried- land. The ceremony lasted two hours, and the Czar was kept in attendance on it, in the hollow square in which it was con- ducted, till the last cross had been awarded. The Grand Duke Constantino, less patient, slipped out of the circle. Other speci- mens of the faithful reflection of the tone and bearing of their 400 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. master, on the part of his subordinates, are given. All was borne quietly for the time. Another posthumous memoir has lately appeared, that of the Chancellor F. von Miiller, who at this period had frequent and familiar intercourse with Napoleon himself and the most marking men of his suite. The volume is rich in anecdotes of all these personages. Among its most curious relations is the statement that, during the festivities of 1808, Muller received from several Frenchmen, then and there present, the expression of their hopes that Napoleon might find in the resistance of Alexander a limit to the further indulgence of his measureless ambition. From Muller this intimation was carried to the Duke of Weimar, who, through the Duke of Oldenburg, conveyed it on to Alexander. A long conversation ensued between the Duke of Weimar himself and the Eussian Emperor. The latter, after explaining his reasons for adhering to his course of submission, closed the interview with the significant words, " C'est un torrent qu'il faut laisser passer." We beg pardon of General Muffling for introducing here such brief notice as our limits and main purpose allow of the amusing work of this civilian. In the hour of dismay and confusion which followed the French successes of 1806, Muller was employed to plead with the conqueror the cause of his master the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. His brief was an arduous one. His client was in arms in the service of Prussia : and, even when released from, his military obligations, proved somewhat intractable and tardy in making that full submission which Napoleon was able to exact, and little inclined to dispense with. It is but fair to Napoleon to give him credit for the impulse which would seem to have restrained him from blotting out the state of Weimar, like that of Brunswick, from his revised map of Germany. Some- thing was probably due to his wish at this time to conciliate Russia, but he really seems to have been mainly influenced by a genuine feeling of respect for the character and bearing of the Duchess, Goethe's great friend, who had remained at her capital through all the horrors of the neighbouring conflict, and had re- ceived Napoleon on its surrender with a dignity which extorted from him the compliment, addressed to Eapp, " Voila une femme a laquelle pas meme nos deux cents canons out pu faire peur." The fate, however, of Weimar long trembled in the balance. ESSAY XIII. FESTIVITIES AT ERFURT. 401 It was the lot of our Chancellor not only to negociate with Napoleon in person for its salvation as a state, but to advocate its material interests, as a country under military occupation, with a host of successive French authorities. With all these except Daru, whose harshness was brutal, he seems to have been successful, and not the least so with some of the roughest soldiers of Napoleon's court militant, Rapp especially, and Ney. With others, such as General Clarke, Denon, Maret, his business relations led to lasting intimacies, afterwards cultivated at Paris, and he was admitted a familiar and a favoured guest into the circle of Talleyrand. Some of the most agreeable pages of the memoir are devoted to the festivities of Erfurt. It was here that before an audience of sovereigns, and their men of council and action, the chef- d'osuvres of the French classic drama were acted by such per- formers as Talma, Lafond, Kaucourt, and Duchesnois. It was difficult, amid the confusion of great names and grand equipages, to preserve intact the rules even of military etiquette. The drums of the guard of honour at the theatre rolled thrice for an emperor, once only for a king. On one occasion the ar- morial bearings on the Wirtemberg carriage all but obtained the honours due only to France or Eussia. The officer was just in time to check the drummer with " Taisez-vous r ce n'est qu'un Roi." Among those who most keenly enjoyed the verses of Racine in the mouth of Talma was the author's friend, Goethe, of whose principal interview with Napoleon he gives a particular account. Napoleon was not inexpert at cramming for this kind of conver- sation. Wolzogen tells us how at Stuttgart he captivated the electress, albeit a daughter of our George III., by his remarks on English literature. For Goethe, however, he needed less pre- paration. Bourrienne mentions the Sorrows of Werther as one of the few books which he took with him to Egypt, and he now assured Goethe that he had read it seven times, accompanying the assertion with some detailed criticism, which Goethe acknow- ledged to be at once subtile and correct. Turning to the drama, he censured Voltaire's Mahomet, pointing out how unnatural it was to represent the religious conqueror as giving an unfavour- able description of himself. He condemned more severely the Fate-Dramas Schicksal-stiicke. " They belong," he said, " to a 2 D 402 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. darker age. What have we to do with Fate ? Policy is Fate." After an interval spent on matters of business with Daru and Soult, he returned to Goethe and the drama. " Tragedy," he said, " should be the school of kings and nations. That is the highest function the dramatic poet can attain. * You, for ex- ample, should treat the death of Csesar as it ought to be treated, in a grander style than that of Voltaire's piece. This might be the greatest performance of your life. You should show the world what Caesar would have done for its welfare ; how its destinies would have been altered, if time had been spared him to execute his lofty designs. Come to Paris. I demand this of you. There is the true point of view from which to contem- plate the world. There you will find materials for your powers." After every observation he added, " Qu'en dit Monsieur Go-et ?" As the courtly poet retired with his self-esteem fully consoled for the murderous divellication of a diphthong and the suppression of a final e in his unpronounceable name, Napoleon said to Berthier and Daru, " Voila un homme." At a subsequent ball, Napoleon, after a conversation with Goethe, turned suddenly round on the Chancellor, and asked, "Where is Wieland?" The question was rightly interpreted as a command, and a carriage sent by the Duke soon returned with the invalid veteran. The Emperor went to business with his wonted abruptness. After obtaining from Wieland a some- what hesitating preference among his own works for Oberon and Agathon, he put a question which he had once at Berlin addressed to Miiller the historian : what period in the annals of mankind he accounted the most fortunate for humanity? Miiller had given his verdict for the age of the Antonines. Wieland evaded the question. Greeks had been happy, emperors had been good. Good and evil, virtue and crime, alternated in the history of our race. It was the part of philosophy to make the evil endurable, by giving prominence to the good. " Bien, bien ! " said Buonaparte " but it is not just to paint, as Tacitus does, everything in black. True he is a skilful artist, a bold and seductive one, but his only aim was effect. History admits of no illusions. If is her part to enlighten and instruct, not to deal in impressive imagery. Tacitus has not disclosed the causes and inner motives of events, has not investigated the mystery of transactions and ideas, sufficiently to lay the foun- ESSAY XIII. NAPOLEON ON CHRISTIANITY. 403 dation of a fair and impartial verdict on the part of posterity. The Roman emperors were not so bad as Tacitus has described them. In tliis respect I give by far the preference to Montes- quieu ; he is more true and more just." Napoleon then adverted to the Christian religion and its history, especially to the causes of its rapid diffusion. " I see in this," he said, " a remarkable reaction of the Greek spirit as against the Roman. Greece, overpowered in a physical struggle, recovered a predominance in spirituals by embracing and fostering every germ of good which Providence had scattered on the earth. For the rest," he con- tinued here he drew close to Wieland, and held his hand up, so that no other but himself could hear "for the rest, it still remains a great question whether Jesus Christ ever existed." Wieland, hitherto a listener, replied with promptitude and ani- mation, " I know well, Sire, there are some senseless persons who doubt it ; but it seems to me as reasonable to doubt whether Julius Caesar ever lived, or whether your Majesty now lives." On this Napoleon clapped him on the shoulder, and said, " Good, good. The philosophers torment themselves to discover new systems : they will seek in vain for a better than that of Chris- tianity, by which man is reconciled to himself, and which gives pledges for public order and the peace of communities, as well as for the happiness and the hope of individuals." Napoleon seemed well inclined to continue the conversation ; but the old man showed symptoms of fatigue, and was considerately released. Miiller thinks that Napoleon had heard Wieland spoken of as the German Voltaire, and wished to test the justice of the ap- pellation. The Chancellor seems to have had the talent to ingratiate himself with the French occupants of his unfortunate country, and with none of them more than with Napoleon himself. The course of tliis true love did not, however, always run smooth, and before the memoir closes he has to recount one tre- mendous interview. In April of 1813 the advance of the Allies had reached Jena, while the French were concentrating in haste in and about Weimar. A contingent of Weimar, re- cently levied by order of Napoleon, had been carried off, and as the French suspected, with very gentle violence, by a corps of Cossacks, or, as was further reported, of Jena students dressed up as such. Miiller had been despatched to Jena, to provide 2 D 2 404 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. quarters for the French, but, finding it occupied by Prussian hussars, had with some difficulty returned. He was himself so far under no charge or suspicion. Two, however, of his intimate friends, councillors and officials of Weimar, had been arrested on their way to join him at Jena without a French passport, but bearing letters in cipher on their persons. They were in the citadel expecting a military trial and a short shrift. The Duke was absent under circumstances of strong suspicion, and Buona- parte was at Weimar, incensed to the utmost, and with little leisure and less inclination to revise or mitigate the sentence of a court martial. It was under these circumstances that Muller found himself one morning trembling in the great man's ante- chamber, and that when the doors flew open he was greeted with the question, " Where is your contingent ?" The Chancellor's attempt at explanation was followed for some minutes by a torrent of menace and invective. " I must," concluded Napoleon, "make an example. This evening the 5th corps will enter Jena. There, on my table, lies the order to Bertrand to burn the town. I am on the point of signing it." Further discussion and entreaty ensued. Napoleon at last tore the order, but with fearful threats against the ideologues and radoteurs of the univer- sity, against German revolutionists and Prussia. Much steam had now escaped, but the affair of the prisoners was yet un- touched. Napoleon approached it with his usual concision. " The case is simple ; they have, corresponded with the enemy beyond the outposts- therefore ought to be shot." "Their letters," said Muller, " were addressed to me ; why not arrest me also ?" " I have nothing to say to you," replied Napoleon ; " I knew you of old at Berlin, Posen, Erfurt." " Your Majesty also knows M. Von Spiegel. He had the honour to attend on your Majesty as Chamberlain, and to receive marks of your Majesty's satisfaction." At the word Chamberlain Napoleon drily re- marked, " I see no reason why a Chamberlain should not be hung." With this explosion the wrath exhaled. Our author was at last dismissed with compliments to the zeal of his friend- ship, and Berthier was empowered to deal with the case of the prisoners. They were shortly released, but one died of the shock inflicted by his adventure. To return to Muffling. Through a dreary interval of surveil- lance and subjection he bided his time, cheered at last by ESSAY XIII. GENERAL GNEISEXAU. 405 reports, albeit partial and circuitous, of Buonaparte's disasters in the invasion of Russia, till the news of the York defection gave the signal for the return, which he had ever meditated, to the Prussian service. A messenger, despatched with a letter in his shoe-sole to Scharnhorst, brought back, indeed, a reply pres- cribing delay for a season but Muffling soon afterwards found means to join his friend and protector at Altenburg. Scharnhorst was actively pressing on the now united sovereigns the scheme, of which he was in fact the author, of that hasty advance which met its first check at Liitzen. Scharnhorst was imperfectly informed as to the strength of Napoleon, and the intelligence brought by Muffling was valuable for the purpose of correcting too sanguine an estimate of the effect of the Moscow campaign on the indomitable resources of France. The project, however, of advance was still warmly pressed and as hotly resisted. Scharnhorst had carried the Czar with him, but both were well nigh overruled by the counter influence of the Russian peace party, headed by Kutusoff. From this they were relieved by the seasonable death of that incapable, debauched, and effete old man. Muffling saw at Liitzen his protector, Scharnhorst, borne from the field with a wound which, though considered slight at the time, carried him off a few days later at Prague. Scharnhorst was succeeded in his functions as chief of the staff, which amounted to no less than the real direction of the Prussian main force under the nominal command of Bliicher, by General Gneisenau. A great portion of Miiffling's volume con- sists of a running commentary on the operations of the army, as swayed by this able and influential person. It must, we have seen it suggested, be taken with the allowance due, not only to pretty frequent difference of opinion, but also to permanent differences in character and disposition, which made the two men uncongenial to each other. Gneisenau, no doubt, had endea- voured to procure the appointment of his friend Colonel Clause- wit z to the Quartermaster-Generalship of the Silesian army, and was little pleased at the selection of Muffling for that post. They were not, however, either of them men to sacrifice the service of their country to petty jealousies, and they worked throughout honestly and well together. Miiffling's criticisms are founded on very intimate knowledge of facts, and, we must add, 406 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. we really can detect in them no traces of rancour. In comparing Scharnhorst with Gneisenau, he speaks of both as remarkable for determination and perseverance in pursuit of their objects but of the former as a cautious and calculating preparer of the means of the latter as more adventurous, disposed to underrate the strength of his antagonist, and to rely on his own eventual resources at the critical moment. The most conspicuous of the Prussian actors in this great drama, the man of the exigency, Bliicher, receives much illustra- tion of his peculiarities from Miiffling's pen. His influence in strategical movements and plans of operation may be quoted at zero. At all times, however, his moral influence on the spirit of the army was immense, and could have been replaced by no other commander. When actual collision occurred, his personal qualities found their application and displayed their value. His contempt of danger, however, often degenerated into obstinacy ; and his propensity to boastful harangues sometimes led him into positions which he was reluctant to abandon and unable to main- tain. A striking instance of this is given in the author's nar- rative of the battle of Bautzen. The previous battle of Liitzen had been fought without a commander, or rather with half a dozen. At Bautzen the allied movements were directed by Alexander, and did, on the whole, no discredit to his military talents. At the close of the first day's action Colonel Muffing was desired to attend the council held to determine on the orders for the morrow. The King of Prussia was absent, and Bliicher is not mentioned. He was probably represented by Gneisenau. The Emperor was attended by Wittgenstein, who was still senior general of the Russian forces Barclay having only just arrived, and having declined to assume the chief command till after the battle and by the chief of the Eussian staff, Diebitsch. " The Emperor," says Muffling, " announced his conviction that Napoleon, who was inferior to us in cavalry, would attack our left in the mountainous ground and outflank us. I respectfully ex- pressed my doubts ; and being asked my reasons, I made an exposi- tion of the features of our position on our right, which showed that that quarter was the favourable point for Napoleon's attack. I showed that, unless we extended our right wing as far as the wind- ESSAY XJII. BATTLE OF BAUTZEN. 407 mill hill at Gleime, and occupied that height with a strong battery, Marshal Key would be before us at Weissenberg, through which ran the chaussee to Gorlitz, the line of retreat for our right wing and centre. The Emperor did not abandon his idea as to Napoleon's line of attack, but admitted my reasoning as to the position of our right wing. He asked the generalissimo, ' How strong is Barclay ?' Wittgenstein replied, without reflection, ' 15,000 men.' The Em- peror asked me, ' Are these sufficient ?' On my reply in the affirmative, Barclay received orders to occupy the post in question." p. 37. The battle commenced, and the weight of Ney's attack upon Barclay soon confirmed Miiffling's anticipations. " An aide-de-camp of the Emperor brought General Bliicher the order to despatch me to Barclay. I found him at the windmill hill, where a strong battery was just opening its fire. I made him acquainted with the conversation of the previous evening, and that the Emperor, as he had 15,000 men, reckoned on the fulfilment of his commission. Barclay was silent" The force of Ney meanwhile developed itself, till both Barclay and Muffling estimated his masses in sight at 40,000 men. " Barclay invited me to enter the miller's house, and bolted the door with much formality, while the balls from Ney's batteries were riddling the building. You believe, said he, that I have 15,000 men with me, and the Emperor believes the same. The moment is too important for longer silence. I have just 5000, and I leave you to judge whether I can hold out against the force you see in my front." After describing his utter consternation at this announcement, which affected the key of the allied position, every hopB of victory, and every chance of retreat, Muffling continues : " I looked at my watch : in twenty-five minutes they would be in possession of the mill. I galloped back to the Kreckwitz heights, reported facts, and showed the danger of our position. My wish to confine my communication to the General-in-chief and Gneisenau could not be gratified, for it had become the practice to communicate everything in hearing of all the officers at head-quarters. A lad practice. During my absence with Barclay the troops had taken their ground on the Kreckwitz heights. Gneisenau had formed an opinion that these were strong impregnable even. A little ex- 408 RUSSIAN AND GEEMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. ultation was the consequence, and Blucher had delivered himself of some of his inspiring harangues to the battalions, in which he designated the Kreckwitz heights as a second Thermopylae. I knew nothing of these antecedents. My foam-covered horse was a signal for all to come within hearing. I had nothing for it but to say with lapidary concision of style, ' General Barclay cannot hold the wind- mill-hill. He demands a reinforcement which will not avail him, and which we cannot spare. He will therefore retire behind Baruth, so that the enemy may not reach Weissenberg before us ; but we lose by this the cover of our right flank, and must take our measures in all haste.' " Gneisenau considered my views as not worthy of attention. Bliicher treated the assemblage to another spirited harangue, which was received with loud applause, and had the effect of postponing the measures necessary. A little later I found opportunity to explain to Gneisenau alone my views in greater detail. He fell into a gloomy silence and assumed a show of incredulity. Barclay, as I had foreseen, was scattered like dust. I had wished to see Preititz occupied. This measure had been considered unnecessary. I galloped thither, and was received with a volley from the enemy. Nothing remained but to employ the reserve (four battalions of guards) to retake that village. Napoleon was moving against our front under a heavy cannonade. The Eussian artillery attached to us (twenty -four 1 2-pounders) had engaged at too long a distance, and had expended its ammunition. Battery after battery dropped off to the rear. On our right flank, Ney was advancing with a great deployment of front towards the unoccupied heights, which there could be no question of disputing, as our reserve was already engaged. " Blucher, with Gneisenau and his staff, remained in the hottest cannonade, calmly observing what they could not prevent, the process of our being surrounded. After their recent discourses they could not command, they could at best consent to, a retreat. As Ney, after long hesitation, at length began to mount the heights, I drew out my watch, and said to General Blucher, by whom Gneisenau was standing, ' We have still a quarter of an hour, in which it may be possible to escape from our difficulty ; later than this we are surrounded. If we lose this opportunity, the cowards among us will surrender the brave will die fighting, but unhappily without the slightest profit to their country.' There was a silence. Gneisenau was deeply agitated. He spoke at last : ' Colonel Muffling is right.' Blucher consented to retire, and we escaped, taking the direction of Klein Burschwitz." It is to be noted, that though Bliicher in this case risked his ESSAY XIII. BATTLE OF BAUTZEN. 409 own person and the fortunes of his country rather than admit the practical refutation of his own eloquence, the calm obstinacy with which he clung to his position when the danger had become imminent saved the army. It produced a hesitation in the French movements which enabled the Prussians to reach Weis- senberg before Ney. Of the kind of service which Bliicher was always ready to render, the following passage affords a capital example. A battle was to be avoided, and for this purpose it was necessary to cross the Neisse (p. 79) : "Some delay of York's corps had produced a stoppage at the bridge, and an engagement at a disadvantage was unavoidable, unless the entire cavalry of the rearguard could pass a ford, to which, from its depth, they had little inclination, but remained, contrary to orders, impeding the passage of the bridge by the infantry. In this embarrassment I suggested to the General-in Chief to set the example. Without a moment's reflection he plunged into the stream up to the saddle-bow, followed by his staff. The cavalry could no longer hesitate, and under the protection of a 12- pound battery gained the right bank without the loss of a man." Whatever were the causes that induced Napoleon to consent to the armistice which followed the battle of Bautzen whether, as Colonel Cathcart thinks, hope of Austrian accession, or, in M iiming' s view, fears for Northern Germany the united testi- mony of the works before us leads us to the conviction that it was the salvation of the Allies, and one grand mistake of Napoleon's career. Barclay had now taken the command of the Russian army, and with its responsibilities was determined to exercise its powers. Muffing was the agent employed to negotiate with liim for the continued co-operation of his forces with those of Prussia. He found Barclay resolutely determined to risk no further collision with Napoleon, and to retire for six weeks beyond the Polish frontier to repair the disorganization of his troops. Such a movement would have reduced Prussia to the acceptance of an ignominious peace, and have cut off that promise of Austrian accession to the cause which the appearance of Napoleon's bitter enemy, Count Stadion, at the allied head- quarters was affording to those in the secret. At this critical moment Napoleon himself made overtures, which, with real 410 KUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. eagerness and some feigned reluctance, were caught at by the Allies. The armistice ensued which enabled Kussia and Prussia to recruit and organize their masses on the frontiers of Bohemia, and set Austria free to avenge the defeats of Austerlitz and Wagram. We commend to special attention a most lively and pic- turesque narrative of Bliicher's greatest victory that of the Katzbach, over Macdonald. It began in a fog and ended in a deluge. The fortunes of the fray were largely affected by these elemental accidents ; but the conflict was one of those to which the strong development of passion on the part of the Prussian soldier, divesting him of his usual character of a machine, gives a moral interest. It may be necessary to fight and subdue hostile nations and to occupy their territory. It is unwise to oppress, still un wiser to insult, those whom we cannot extirpate. The allied cause at the close of the armistice had received an accession, from which high expectations were entertained by some, in the persons of three men, two of whom had rendered great military services to France Bernadotte, Moreau, and Jomini. The author's estimation of the value of the first may be gathered from the following statement. Bliicher had received the orders of the Sovereigns to approach them in Bohemia by a movement to his left. The advices, however, received from Billow, who with Tauenzien and Winzingerode kept a sharp eye on the Crown Prince of Sweden, were of such a nature that Bliicher, on his own responsibility, moved to his right : " Thus," remarks our author, " the first of the three Frenchmen recruited by the Allied Sovereigns to subdue Napoleon required an army of 100,000 men to watch him." The second, Moreau, was quickly released from an ambiguous position by a soldier's death. Wolzogen is clear that he had not served the Allies long enough to acquire their confidence, and proves, we think, in spite of general opinion, that he was not at all consulted as to the arrangements for that operation against Dresden, in which he fell. Peace to his ashes ! The third, Jomini, did find sufficient opportunity at Dresden to impress the Sovereigns with his utter incapacity in the field, and was never consulted again. He was a great soldier on paper ESSAY XIII. BLUCHER'S ILLNESS. 411 in Miiffliiig's language, a Docent and is still, we see, cited by writers of that sort as an authority. Muffling passes lightly over the remainder of the last Ger- man campaign, but devotes many pages to that tissue of vicissitudes through which in the following year the Silesian army doggedly fought its way to Paris. There is scarcely a line of his narrative and commentary which does not deserve the close attention of the military student. It is well known that before the closing struggle occurred Bliicher's physical strength had given way ; but Muffling refutes the assertion that his illness at any time incapacitated him for giving his attention and sanction to the orders issued from head-quarters. The expecta- tion of his total failure or retirement brought to light the importance of his presence with the army. It was felt that no successor could be appointed who could be relied upon for the approaching crisis. Biilow had indeed joined from the Nether- lands with a large body of fresh and vigorous troops. It is necessary, however, to study Miiffling's pages to understand the jealousies and disputes which that very junction had created. General Billow enjoyed a well-earned reputation for great suc- cesses achieved in independent command, but his appointment at this juncture to that of the Silesian army would have been most unpopular. He was not, however, the first on the list for that post, which would have devolved upon his senior, the Kussian General Langeroii. The latter shrunk with unfeigned terror from the undertaking. Retiring from a visit to Bliicher's sick couch, and shocked at his appearance and condition, he said to Muffling, "De grace emportons ce cadavre avec nous." Bliicher fortunately rallied sufficiently to assist in an open carriage at the battle of Paris. Upon the pacification of Paris, Muffling was appointed chief of the staff to General Kleist, upon whom devolved the command of the Prussian army. The duties incident to its withdrawal from France and its establishment on the Lower Rhine left him no leisure to accept an invitation to accompany Bliicher to England. His functions on Kleist's staff gave him full employ- ment till the moment when Napoleon's return from Elba sum- moned Marshal Forwards again to the chief command. The reappointment of Gneisenau to his old post on the staff was a necessary consequence. The incapacity of Bliicher, not only to 412 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. devise any plan of operations, but to form any judgment of his own upon such as others might suggest, was now a notorious fact. Gneisenau had proved his own capacity for the task of superintending and directing his nominal Chief, and no real question arose as to the expediency of these two appointments. Many, however, and perplexing were the questions which did arise as to the selection of the Generals to head the four corps into which the army of operation was distributed. The Field- marshal's age, health, and habits of reckless self-exposure made the two contingencies of his fall or failure equally probable. In either case it was desired by the Court and its advisers that Gneisenau should continue in command, and carry on to their result the proceedings he would have commenced. This would be impossible if on Bliicher's disappearance any of the Generals senior to Gneisenau should be in the field to claim the succession. There were at least four among the Generals disposable, whose claims would be sanctioned not only on the score of seniority, but on that of service and reputation. Tauenzien had carried Wittenberg by assault ; York had conquered at Wartenberg ; Billow had saved Berlin at Dennewitz ; Kleist had saved Europe at Culm. It was known that none of these would serve under a junior, and least of all under Gneisenau, who, like Grollman, Boyer, and others, had been an active associate of the Tugend- bund. That famous society was more than suspected of anti- monarchical tendencies, and as such was eschewed by the officers of the old school. The difficulty was solved by the process of shelving the veterans, with the exception of Billow, who was appointed to the fourth corps, which, being destined as a reserve, was at this time not considered as likely to be actively engaged. Kleist was appointed to the command of the second German army assembling at Treves. Posts of honour and trust were found for Tauenzien and York in the interior. The three other corps of the army of operation were intrusted to Ziethen, Thiel- mann, and Borstell, all younger than Gneisenau. Of these, Borstell soon fell at variance with Bliicher for a refusal to execute certain measures of severity against the Saxon mutineers, and was replaced by General Pirch. Muffling meanwhile had applied for a front place in the ap- proaching conflict. On the arrival of Bliicher at Namur he received a reply which ordered him to our head-quarters, in ESSAY XIII. STAFF OF THE ENGLISH AKMY. 413 the capacity of a confidential intermediary between the English and Prussian Commanders-in-Chief. With some reluctance, and lamenting that his English studies had never been extended beyond a smattering of acquaintance with the Vicar of Wakefield and Thomson's Seasons, he betook himself to a task which we will venture to say he found less arduous and more agreeable than he had been taught to expect, and which he succeeded in discharging to the full satisfaction of both the parties concerned. It will amuse English readers to learn that Gneisenau warned him to be specially on his guard with the Duke of Wellington, for that the Duke's practice with subtle Nabobs and other Oriental potentates had made him such a proficient in falsehood as even to excel and outwit his teachers. We think it possible that the warnings of his predecessor in office, a certain General Roeder, were better founded. He represented the English officers as lamentably deficient in sound notions of ceremony and etiquette. One had kept his hat on in the General's room. Another, slow to comprehend his remarks, had answered him with a redoubled " Hee /" Armed with these admonitions, Muffling plunged into the new scene of his employment to find that the Duke was singularly unaddicted to lying, and that his own military reputation was sufficient to place him at once on the best terms with English gentlemen and soldiers of the Peninsula. He had next occasion to observe that in one im- portant respect the Duke exercised far greater power in his own army than Marshal Bliicher in the Prussian, for that he could suspend and send home any officer of any rank for disobedience of his orders. " To criticise or control the Commander-in-Chief was not a fashion with this army. Discipline was rigidly enforced ; every one knew his rights and his duties. The Duke in matters of service was very short and decided. He allowed questions, but dismissed all such as were unnecessary. His detractors alleged that he was inclined to encroach on the functions of others. This charge is at variance with my experience. His Military Secretary and Quartermaster- General were tried men. His Aides-de-camp and Galopins were young men of the best families in England, who thought it an honour to devote to their country and its greatest commander all the energies of their will and intellect. Mounting the finest horses of England's famous breed, they made it a point of honour, when- ever the Duke added the word ' quick ' to a message, to cover three 414 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. German miles in the hour, or, for a shorter distance, one mile in eighteen minutes." p. 214. i It is unnecessary to follow General Muffling through his clear and succinct exposition of the arrangements* of the two armies calculated to meet the two contingencies of the time an attack by Napoleon in the month of June, or, should that attack be so long deferred, a combined advance against him. He writes : " The Duke has been accused of a defective distribution of his troops in their cantonments. This censure is destitute of all foundation ; but it is the fact that his army was collected at its rendezvous later than he intended or expected. His principal masses were about Nivelles ; and if on the 14th of June he had transferred his head- quarters thither, he would have received his reports from Mons on the 15th, and would have heard at nine o'clock the cannonade of General von Ziethen." p. 233. We are not aware that we have met with this view of the sub- ject in any other writer, and we think it probable that it is as sound and felicitous as many other suggestions which came after the event. We may remark now, that it follows upon General Miiffling's full approval of the selection of Brussels for the head- quarters, and upon his statement that the first news of the attack on Ziethen at Charleroi, which opened the hostilities, reached the Duke at Brussels at 3 P.M. on the 15th. It is well known that by some unexplained defect in the Prussian arrangements, the report from Charleroi was some hours later than it should have been. It was, in fact, not the first account which reached the Duke ; for the Prince of Orange, who rode into Brussels to dine with the Duke, had brought intelligence of a cannonade in the direction of Charleroi. It is clear that on the 14th there was at least no more reason or temptation to shift the head-quarters to Nivelles than had existed for some days previous. It is hardly necessary to state that General Muffling shows how entirely every measure adopted by the Duke was governed by his deliberate resolution not to risk the concentration of his forces on a false point, and to uncover prematurely the favour- able line for a French attack by Mons. Our time would be wasted on any further confutation of Mr. Alison's theories on this business. The intercourse between the Duke and Muffling was evidently ESSAY XIII. ARRANGEMENTS OF THE ALLIES. 415 throughout intimate and cordial, but we must suspect that the latter's ignorance of our language now and then occasioned grave misapprehensions. Of this we feel sure an instance occurs in his account of the interview between the Duke and the Prussian Chiefs at the windmill of Bry before the commencement of the battle of Ligny. He says : " The Duke glanced over the Prussian arrangements and seemed satisfied with them." We are quite certain that if Baron Muffling had heard and understood any remarks addressed by the Duke to his staff at this juncture, he would have known that his Grace's satisfaction was merely that of a man determined to make the best of cir- cumstances which he could not alter. The Prussian arrangements had been very deliberately adopted on their own views of the system adapted to the character of their troops. They involved great and, as English officers conceived, avoidable exposure of their masses to the French artillery and as such the Duke thought them defective. In other respects Gneisenau's strategical reputation will hardly be increased by the narrative of his countryman : " As the heads of Napoleon's columns of attack were appearing at St. Amand, the Duke asked the Marshal and Gneisenau, ' "What do you wish me to do ?' In few words I had already explained to General Gneisenau that the Duke had the best intentions for the support of the Field-Marshal, and that he would do everything the latter could desire except divide his army, which it was against his principles to do. It seemed to me that as few troops were yet arrived at Quatre Bras, and the reserve could not be there sooner than four, it was of consequence that the English should concentrate themselves forwards, somewhat beyond Frasnes, thence advance direct towards the Prussian right at Wagnele, and there, arriving at a right angle with the Prussian position, close in upon Napoleon's left. Gneisenau had shaken his head, but had left me ignora'nt of what he had to allege against my suggestion. In reply to the Duke's question he answered that the best the Duke could do for the Prussian army would be, when his troops were collected at Quatre Bras, to move by the Namur chaussee to the left, and place himself in reserve behind the Prussian army, near Bry. The Duke looked at his map and was silent." p. 233. Muffling here gives some excellent and obvious reasons why 416 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. this measure was neither more nor less than impossible, and use- less were it possible. He proposed another expedient ; but Gneisenau adhering to his own view, the Duke at length said, "Well, I will come if I am not attacked myself" and rode off to assist the Prussian army, not indeed by a direct junction, but by occupying for the day and finally defeating 40,000 of Napoleon's troops under one of his best generals. We must resist the temptation to many further extracts from our author's terse pages on the three days' campaign. The following note appears to us worthy of translation as explanatory of a feature of the operations which has hitherto, as far as we are aware, escaped discussion : " The Duke had retired from Quatre Bras in three columns, by three chaussees ; and on the evening of the 17th Prince Frederick of Orange was at Hall, Lord Hill at Braine la Leud, and the Prince of Orange with the reserve at Mont St. Jean. This distribution was necessary, as Napoleon could dispose of these three roads for his ad- vance on Brussels. Napoleon on the 17th had pressed on by Genappes as far as Eosomme. On the two other roads no enemy had yet shown himself. On the 18th the offensive was taken by Napoleon on its greatest scale, but still the Nivelles road was nob overstepped by his left wing. These circumstances made it possible to draw Prince Frederick to the army, which would certainly have been done if entirely new circumstances had not arisen. The Duke had, twenty-four hours before, pledged himself to accept a battle at Mont St. Jean if Blucher would assist him there with one corps, 25,000 men. This being promised, the Duke was taking his measures for defence when he unexpectedly learned that, in addition to the one corps promised, Blucher was already on the march with his whole force, to break in by Planchenois on Napoleon's flank and rear. If three corps of the Prussian army should penetrate by the unguarded plateau of Eosomme, which was not improbable, Napoleon would be thrust from his line of retreat by Genappes, and might possibly lose even that by Nivelles. In this case Prince Frederick, with his 18,000 men (who might be accounted superfluous at Mont St. Jean), might have rendered the most essential service." p. 243. In the course of his narrative of the campaign of 1814, Muffling finds occasion to condemn the too great licence allowed by Prussian regulations to commanders of division to act on the offensive at their own discretion. He prefers the system of which he finds an illustration on the field of Waterloo. The ESBAY XIII. GENERAL MUFFLING. 417 French infantry were retiring in great disorder from an attack on our left, the one in which Picton fell : " Upon our left wing," says Muffling, " stood two brigades of English cavalry, of three regiments each. I invited their com- manders to cut in upon the infantry, observing that they could not fail to make some 3000 prisoners. Both agreed with me but shrugged their shoulders and said, unhappily, they dared not ; that the Duke was very particular as to the regulations on this head. I had subsequently occasion to interrogate the Duke as to these regulations, which I could with the less ceremony do, because the two officers in question were among the most distinguished of the army, and had with their brigades rendered the most signal service in the action. The Duke answered that the two generals had replied quite correctly, for if without his permission they had executed such an attack with the best success, he would have been obliged to bring them both to a court martial ; that it was a fixed rule that a general placed in a pre-arranged position has unlimited power to act within it according to his judgment namely, if the enemy attacks, to receive or to meet him, and in either case to pursue him, but never further than the obstacle behind which the position assigned lay. In one word, that such obstacle, pending further orders, was the boundary of his action." The ample and detailed reasons for strict adherence to this rule which follow from the Duke's lips, as recorded by Muffling, satisfied him and will not fail to satisfy any reader. In the par- ticular instance they found full justification, for these were the identical brigades which were moved from the left to the right at the close of the clay, and contributed so much to the confusion of the French retreat from their last famous attack on the English position. Muffling claims to himself the having given the order for this movement. He had been despatched to the left to forward the approach of the Prussians, and apparently with a large discretion in consequence of the circumstances. Having ascertained that Ziethen was near enough to put the English left out of all danger, he took upon himself to give the order to Generals Vivian and Vandeleur. Miiffling before the action had expressed some doubts as to the strength of Hougomont. After seeing the Prussians fairly at work he returned to the centre, taking with him a Prussian light battery. He found the Duke near La Haye Sainte. Pointing 2E 418 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. to Hougomont with his glass in his right hand, the Duke cried out, " Well, you see Macdonnell has held Hougomont." Speak- ing of the advance which soon ensued, Muffling says : " As the line of infantry moved forward, we saw nothing but small bodies of a few hundreds each with large intervals. The position in which the infantry had fought was marked out as far as the eye could reach by a red line. It was that of the killed and wounded." We quote the following as the best commentary on General Gneisenau's suspicions and warnings : " After this battle," says our author, " I had to congratulate myself on the never-interrupted confidence of the Duke. He had seen that I had the common advantage at heart, and that I enter- tained towards him the reverence due to those talents as a commander which did not more distinguish him than the openness and straight- forwardness of his character. Upon the march to Paris the Prussian army effected longer marches than the English. I took the liberty of respectfully calling the Duke's attention to this, and of suggesting that he would do well to keep better pace with his ally. He said nothing at the mo'ment, but when I afterwards urged him on the subject, replied, ' Do not press me upon this, for I tell you it won't do. If you knew the English army, its composition and habits, better, you would agree with me. I cannot separate from my tents and subsistence. My people must be kept in camp, and well taken care of, if order and discipline are to be maintained. It is better to arrive a couple of days later at Paris than that discipline should grow slack.' " The two instances of assault on fortified places which occurred on this march, Peronne and Cambray, afforded Muffling intense gratification as a spectator, by the parade precision with which they were conducted. We cannot omit his narrative of his own conduct in a some- what delicate negotiation between Marshal Bliicher and the Duke : " During the march on Paris the Field-Marshal had one leading object in view, the capture of Napoleon. The delivery of Napoleon was the invariable condition stipulated by him in eveiy conference with the French Commissioners sent to treat for peace or armistice. I received from him instructions to break to the Duke, that as the Congress of Vienna had declared Napoleon under outlawry ESSAY XIII. LETTERS OF MTJFFLING AND GNEISENAU. 419 ( Vbgelfrei), it was his (the Field-Marshal's) intention to shoot him whenever he got him. He desired at the same time to learn the Duke's views on this subject, as, if possible, he wished to act in concert with the Duke. The Duke stared at me with all his eyes, and in the first place disputed this interpretation of the Vienna declaration. However this might be, as concerned his own po- sition and that of the Field-Marshal with respect to Napoleon, it seemed to him that after the battle they had won they were much too conspicuous persons to be able to justify such a transaction in the eyes of entire Europe. I had felt the whole weight of this con- sideration before I most reluctantly undertook my mission, and was anything but disposed to dispute it. The Duke continued 'I therefore wish that my friend and colleague may adopt my view ; such an act would hand down our names to history with a stain, and posterity would say of us that we had not deserved to be the conquerors of Xapoleon, the rather because the act would have been superfluous and without an object or advantage.' " General Muffling adds, in an Appendix, three official letters, which he received on this subject from Gneisenau. The first is curious as showing that the Prussians really believed that the Duke could have no motive upon earth for not committing murder but the dread of the House of Commons : " Compiegne, June 27. The French General de Tremelin is at Koyons with the intention of proceeding to the Duke's head- quarters, and treating for the delivery of Buonaparte. Buonaparte has been declared under ban by the Allied Powers. The Duke may possibly -for Parliamentary considerations hesitate to fulfil the decla- ration of the Powers. Your Excellency will therefore direct the negotiation to the effect that Buonaparte may be delivered over to us, in order to his execution. " This is what eternal justice demands, what the declaration of March 13 defines and thus will the blood of our soldiers killed or mutilated on the 16th and 18th June be avenged. VON GNEISENAU." The third letter is as follows : " Senlis, June 29. I am directed by the Field-Marshal to request your Excellency to communicate to the Duke of ^'ellington that the Field-Marshal had intended to execute Buonaparte on the spot where the Due d'Enghien was shot ; that, out of deference, how- ever, to the Duke's wishes, he will abstain from that measure, but that the Duke must take on himself the responsibility for its non- enforcement. GNEISENAU. 2 E 2 420 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. "P.S. If the Duke declare himself against the execution, he thinks and acts in the matter as a. Briton. England is under weightier obligations to no mortal man than to this very malefactor, for by the occurrences of which he has been the author her wealth, prosperity, and power have attained their present elevation. They are masters of the seas, and have no longer to fear a rival in their sovereignty of it or in the commerce of the world. It is otherwise with Prussia. We have been impoverished by Buonaparte. Our nobility will never be able to right itself again. And ought we not to consider ourselves instruments of that Providence which has given us such a victory for the ends of eternal justice ? Does not the death of the Duke d'Enghien call for such a vengeance? Shall we not draw upon us the reproaches of the people of Prussia, Eussia, Spain, and Portugal, if we leave unperformed the duty which devolves upon us ? Be it so. If others will exercise theatrical magnanimity, I shall not set myself against it. We act in this from esteem for the Duke and weakness." We give, as we find them, these curious letters, which show the spirit of the time rather than of the writer and his nation. The best defence of that spirit would, perhaps, by suggested by a perusal of M. Lamartine's elaborate detail of the circumstances of the murder of the Duke d'Enghien. We should be sorry even on this ground to attempt the justification of the proposal. We think it fair, however, to call attention to the fact that the leaders of the army whose country had been the principal theatre of French insult and extortion retired from the rich capital they had conquered as poor as they entered it. Those who know the scale of income enjoyed by the average of Prussian officers- even of high rank, as compared with the wealth acquired by French Marshals and Generals from the plunder of the Con- tinent, will appreciate this fact. We are quite sure that time and reflection left these stern victors no reason to repent of their deference to the Duke's wishes. Another signal instance of this deference was the ap- pointment of our author to be Commandant of Paris, in pre- ference to Ziethen, who had been designated to that office. It is true that the Duke's recommendation was couched in terms simple, but difficult to resist : "There is no person who in his situation has done more to forward the objects of our operation, and it appears to me that, ESSAY XIII. THE CAMP OF DRISSA. 421 having had so much to do with us both and with our operations, he is the proper persou to be selected." With this eulogy from such a quarter we reluctantly quit General Muffling we can only advise readers to follow him through the discharge of his duty as Commandant of Paris, and his last employment on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople. Both chapters are rich in good matter. This German friend has for English reasons detained us so long, that we are unable to attempt a full dissection of the hardly less valuable work of his countryman General Wolzogen. Its main interest is connected with the Kussian campaign. Edu- cated in the military school of Stuttgart, and having studied the theoretical rather than the practical part of his profession in the Wiirttemberg and then the Prussian services, he became one of that band who, in the wreck of Prussia's fortunes at Jena, pre- ferred swimming to the bleak shores of Muscovy to abiding by the stranded vessel. It may now seem strange "that Kussia, itself one vast military gymnasium, should have welcomed military instructors from a quarter which had so recently proved its own insufficiency to encounter the common enemy ; but so it was. Virtue was still ascribed to a school which was supposed to retain the traditions of Frederick, and its professors were welcomed in peace, and used and trusted in the hour of need. The confidence indeed of the Czar was bestowed upon them so unreservedly and so pertinaciously, that all the efforts of the old Kussian party in the army efforts which drove the honest Barclay from command to replace him by the incapable Kutusoff were insufficient to neutralise the influence of the foreign adventurers, whom they hated and suspected. To these strangers was committed the task of devising the strategic scheme of defence for Russia against French invasion. The leading principles of that scheme were laid down by the Prussian General Phull, the confidential military adviser and instructor of Alexander. Wolzogen was employed to survey the ground, and when its main feature, the camp of Drissa, took shape and substance, Colonel Clausewitz was sent to report upon its condition and capabilities. This famous camp of Drissa and its authors have undergone severe criticism. That it was a mistake and a failure there can be no doubt. It is as clear from the evidence before us that if Barclay, 422 RUSSIAN AND GEEMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. trusting to its capabilities, had waited within it for the attack of Napoleon, had waited even twenty-four hours longer than he did, the destruction or capitulation of his army would have been the consequence. The mistake, however, as appears to us, was neither that Phull's master idea was unsound, nor that Wol- zogen's selection of the spot was, under the commission given him, injudicious. Phull's scheme was a continued but defensive retreat till the French army, marching from its base, should have been wasted down to an inferiority to that of Russia, falling back upon her resources and reinforcements. Nothing could have been sounder than that plan as applied to the vast extent of the Russian Empire. The great mistake seems to us to have been, that it was attempted to combine this principle with the defence of the western provinces, and with a stand at a spot too near the frontier to allow of its development. Wolzogen's instructions were to find a position within tfte western provinces of sufficient extent to contain the main army, and susceptible o"f such fortification as might prepare it for a defensive action. Clausewitz, a severe censurer of the camp, acknowledges that Drissa was not only the best, but the only spot at all fit for this purpose within the vast district assigned for Wolzogen's investigation. Other mistakes, for which the Prussian officers are not answerable, and which they pointed out in vain, were committed. The Russian force on paper was enor- mously magnified beyond its real amount, and the disposable force of the invader was equally underrated. Wolzogen's sug- gestions for the artificial defence of Drissa were also most imperfectly carried out. The consequence was that if Barclay had lingered another day in Drissa he would have found himself behind deficient bulwarks with some 120,000 men en duel with 200,000 of Napoleon's best troops. , Our author's account of the transaction discloses very un- reservedly the secrets of the Russian camp and councils, and shows on what a thread the fate of Europe at this moment de- pended. From Wilna to Drissa Barclay had conducted the retreat of the main army with great order. The question to fight or not to fight now presented itself for immediate decision. Alexander, still enamoured of all Phull's suggestions, was dis- posed for a stand and a battle. His generals, more sensible of the defects of the position, intrigued against Phull. The latter, ESSAY XIII. GENERAL WOLZOGEN ADVISES RETREAT. 423 a man of great honesty, but irritable, morose, despondent, and destitute of moral courage, threw up his cards in disgust and retired to St. Petersburgh. The dilemma was submitted to one of those councils of war which are usually the expedient of weakness and indecision. It was composed, besides the Czar, of Barclay, Araktschieff (afterwards famous as the organizer of the military colonies), P. Wolchonsky, Quartermaster-General, Wolzogen himself, and Colonel Michaud, a Piedmontese en- gineer. Alexander first called upon the latter, a notorious opponent of the camp, who stated important technical objections to the construction of the defences. Wolzogen, as one of the authors of the camp, was invited to reply. His speech, however, only led to the conclusions of Michaud for, while he was firm to justify its original selection as a position, he showed that many of the main conditions on which it had been recommended remained unfulfilled. Retreat he therefore considered impe- rative ; but whether it should be immediate or not, might, in his opinion, depend upon what was known to others of the French force and movements, and of those of the second Russian army under Prince Bagration. The Emperor's answer to these ques- tions was the rather astounding one, that nothing whatever was known of either. Wolzogen upon this advised instant retreat ; his advice was followed, and Europe was saved. The next service on which this adventurer was detached marks even more distinctly the confidence reposed in him. The re- union of Bagration with the main army had become of urgent necessity. When, however, Wolzogen pressed this upon Barclay, the latter replied, that repeated written orders had been sent to Bagration, but that whether he could not or would not obey them was still a mystery. Bagration was a pure Russian, older in the service than Barclay ; and to soothe his national jealousy and reconcile him to active co-operation with a junior general of Scoto-German extraction, the Prussian colonel's services were offered and accepted. Wolzogen, starting on this delicate mission, fell in with Bagration in the act of passing the Dnieper. He found the Prince much indisposed to obey the order for a junction with Barclay at Smolensko, and bent upon effecting an excentric retreat on the Ukraine. In a single conversation, however, Wolzogen managed to convince him, and his chief adviser General St. Priest, of the prejudice to his own reputation 424 KUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. and the cause of his country which would result from his further hesitation, and obtained an order for immediate movement in the direction required. The reward of this signal service was the usual one bitter hostility on the part of those who profited by it. The national party in the army had from the first been conspiring for the removal of Barclay, whom they detested for his foreign origin, and railed at for pusillanimity in retiring before double his own numbers. This party was headed by Generals Yermoloif and Toll. The latter, as chief of Barclay's staff, had frequently failed to satisfy that commander in his recommendations as to positions and movements, and had been overruled by the advice of Wol- zogen. Upon the junction of the two armies at Smolensko these intrigues came to a head, and the clamour for an assumption of the offensive descended even to the lower ranks, with such danger to all discipline that Barclay was compelled to execute some of the malcontents. His prime assailants were, however, too powerful to allow of methods so summary. The Grand Duke Constantino, whose opinions on strategy were probably worthless, but who was not unable to clothe them in clever language, flung his whole weight into the scale. Barclay was compelled to receive a petition for battle from his troops, and to submit to its discussion in a council of war. It was opened by Constantino, who urged that the true frontier of Russia having now been reached, it became necessary to risk a battle for the defence of one of her great cities Smolensko ; that her forces were now collected in face of an enemy demoralized by the difficulties of his previous advance, and that they would themselves become demoralized by further retreat. Barclay's resistance to these arguments appears to have been feeble, and he promised to con- sider, with Toll and Bagration's chief of the Staff, St. Priest, a scheme for an offensive movement on Eudnia. Wolzogen earnestly deprecated the project, and advised the fortification, as far as time would admit, of Smolensko, with a view to a defensive action under its walls. He was overruled Barclay yielded to the current and two days later the movement on Eudnia was begun. It was at first successful, for Pahlen and Platoff sur- prised the French outposts, and all but captured Marshal Sebas- tian! An incident here occurred which was nearly fatal to the life or liberty of Wolzogen, and, as narrated by him, shows the ESSAY XIII. DANGER OF WOLZOGEN. 425 precarious nature of the position of a foreign officer in the Kussian service. Barclay had committed to Wolzogen the task of examining a portfolio which the Cossacks had seized on Sebastiani's table. In this was found a hasty note from Murat, to the effect, that he had just discovered the intention of the enemy to effect a strong reconnoissance on Rudnia, and warning Sebastiani to retire immediately on his infantry. It was impos- sible to conjecture by what channel Murat had made this discovery, but Wolzogen at once saw his own danger. He knew that Toll and his other enemies at head-quarters had already accused him of treason, and he told Barclay that the charge would now be repeated. Barclay promised him support, and kept his word. Suspicion fell on other quarters, and several Polish officers were removed from the army. It was not, how- ever, till 1818 that Wolzogen learned the solution of the mystery and the full extent of the danger which he had escaped. An aide-de-ca*mp of Barclay, Lubomerski, had picked up from Toll's indiscreet conversation a garbled account of the result of the council, and inferred that Murat's head-quarters at Ljadui would be a main point of the intended attack. His mother was residing in this place, and he rashly despatched a domestic from the outposts with a letter advising her immediate flight, which letter was intercepted by Murat. Wolzogen's informant, the famous Baron Stein, further disclosed, that he was present when the report of the occurrence was brought to Alexander at St. Peters- burgh, and that Count Tolstoi, assuming Wolzogen's guilt, pressed the Emperor for an order for his immediate execution. Stein, being at this time in great favour, contrived not only to defeat that amiable suggestion, but to reinstate his maligned countryman in the Emperor's good opinion. Be it noted that Tolstoi, in advocating the death of the traitor, was inadvertently condemning his own son-in-law for the real culprit was, it seems, married to his daughter. Other startling instances are given of the enmity with which the author himself, and other foreigners, had to struggle in dis- charge of their duty. He accuses Toll, and even Bagration, of attempts to procure his death in battle. The substitution of Kutusoff for Barclay in command of the army is described by Wolzogen as effected against the will and opinion of the Emperor by the influence of the old Muscovite 426 KUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. nobility, aided by popular clamour. Other historians have in- vested Kutusoff with the glory due to a hoary fire-eater, who devotes his last energies to the service of his country. Wolzogen pictures him as an ambitious, worn-out debauchee, with much diplomatic cunning, but with no talents as a general, and as little taste for the personal exposure and fatigue of which Barclay was as lavish as the Duke of Wellington. He finds him, at a critical moment of the battle of Borodino, feasting with his staff two miles in rear of the line of fire, and ignorant of the state of the action, while Barclay's aides-de-camp were falling around him, like the Duke's at Waterloo. Something may be allowed for party feelings in this description, but it entirely accords with what Clausewitz tells us of that terrible day. The only feature of it on the Kussian side which savoured of a genial conception was the attack made by Ouvaroffs reserve cavalry on that of General Ornano upon Buonaparte's left. Executed in greater force, and properly supported, it might have paralysed the further advance of the French, and have inflicted irreparable ravage on their rear. As it was, set about by some 4000 men instead of 15,000, it made Napoleon mount his horse, and checked for an hour or two the advance of his left. Kussian narrators have not failed to attribute this splendid failure to the genius of " the old warrior," whom they depict as undisturbed by shot or shell directing the fortunes of the fray. It turns out that the old warrior had nothing more to do with the movement than by giving a half stupefied assent to the suggestion of a young and promising officer attached to Platoff, Prince Ernest of Hesse Philipsthal. Kutusoff 's rapid retreat and evacuation of Moscow formed a lamentable commentary on the victory which he claimed and the rewards which he received. His claim was founded on the fact that his troops remained through the night on a portion of the field of battle. Wolzogen asserts that he took the precaution of sending his report of the day to St. Petersburg!! by a mere chasseur, and not as usual by a staff-officer, whom it would have been inconvenient to expose to an imperial cross-examination. To justify the strange consequences of his alleged success, he resorted to the base device of impugning the anterior conduct of Barclay, and representing the surrender of Moscow as a corollary of that of Smolensko, and as a necessary result of the condition ESSAY XIII. CULM AND LEIPSIG. in which he had found the army on taking the command. Wol- zogen further accuses Kutusoff of an attempt to allot to Barclay the fate of Uriah, by assigning to him personally a quarter beyond the line of the outposts. Barclay, who had cheerfully served through Borodino under the man so absurdly set over him, now retired in disgust. Our author, released by this event from his duties on the staff, fell back on his situation as aide-de-camp to the Czar, and joined his Majesty at St. Petersburgh. Here, with the brief exception of a confidential mission to the Eussian left, he remained inactive till the commencement of the German campaign in 1813, through all the anxious vicissitudes of which he accompanied Alexander. We cannot attempt to follow him in his minute personal narrative of these great transactions from Liitzen to Leipsig. We may recommend for special attention his account of the day of Culm, into the complicated details of wliich accidents of employment gave him a close insight. This action, though fought on a small scale as compared with others, must, as the turning point of Napoleon's fortunes, take rank among the most important battles of the world. The honour of its success has been very generally assigned to Ostermann and Kleist. Our author awards it in the first instance to his own former pupil, Prince Eugene of Wiirttemberg, who persuaded Ostermann, in disregard of Barclay's orders, to oppose the Rus- sian guards to the advance of Vandamme ; in the next to the King of Prussia, for a timely collection of troops, solely upon his own judgment, to Ostermann's support ; and lastly, to the Austrian Colloredo, for attacking without waiting for orders from Schwarzenberg. Wolzogen was present at head-quarters during the whole of the conflict of Leipsig, which, measured whether by the numbers engaged, by the mutual slaughter, or by ulterior consequences, must be considered the greatest of modern times. His criticisms on certain Austrian movements, which he attributes to General Langenau, have excited a sharp controversy in Germany. That officer, having held long command in the Saxon army, was inti- mately acquainted with the ground, and was for that reason much consulted by Schwarzenberg and the already highly distinguished Eadetsky. To him Wolzogen attributes certain vicious dispo- sitions, which led to bad consequences, and among others to the capture of the Austrian General Meerfeldt. To us it appears 428 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. only surprising that, with an army composed of so many nations, affected in its movements by so many influences, and attended by so many Sovereigns, so few great mistakes were committed by the Allies. At a dinner, many years afterwar^, at Carlsbad, Bliicher gave the health of Schwarzenberg, as the Aan who, with three monarchs at his head-quarters, nevertheless gained the victory. Wolzogen's list of the allied loss at Leipsig is as follows : Killed and Wounded. r\ea~<>- Non-commissioned Officers Officers. and Privates- Russians .. .. 800 20,000 Austrians .. .. 360 7,000 Prussians .. .. 620 13,550 Swedes . 10 300 Total .. .. 1,790 40,850 The French loss he estimates at 38,000 killed and wounded, 30,000 prisoners, and 300 guns. Having followed Wolzogen thus far, it remains to state that he acted as chief of the staff to the third corps of the German contingent, commanded by Duke Charles of Saxe Weimar, which made the campaign of 1814 in Belgium under Billow. Upon Napoleon's return from Elba he quitted the Kussian service, and re-entered that of Prussia with the rank of General. He was destined to the command of a brigade in Bliicher's army, but an attack of painful disease, requiring a severe operation, prevented him from accepting that post. He was employed in various military and ministerial functions till 1836, when his increasing infirmities afforded the Prussian War Minister, Witzleben, a pretext for compelling his retirement. He survived till 1845, and occupied his latter years in the composition of a narrative which must be classed among the most excellent that have hitherto appeared to claim the attention of the soldier, the statesman, or the historian. The approbation we have ventured to express is unavoidably subject to one qualification. With every confidence in the honesty of the writer, we are without means of judging how far the friendships cultivated and the enmities encountered in the course of his eventful career may have clouded his judgment and embittered his censures. From all such misgivings we are re- leased in the perusal of the work which stands last on our list. ESSAY XIIL COLONEL CATHCART'S WORK. 429 Colonel Cathcart's position as aide-de-camp in the suite of his Excellent father, the late Earl Cathcart, gave him facilities for observing many most interesting transactions of the war, while it exempted him from any interest or participation in the jealousies, rivalries, and intrigues that all the while fermented around him. His personal narrative commences with the campaign of 1813. The previous portion of the volume comprises indeed a clear and compendious summary of the operations in Russia of the pre- ceding year ; but between this and the author's own narrative there is all the difference which exists between the " this I was told '' and " this I saw " of Father Herodotus. The young aide-de-camp, a lieutenant of nineteen, had been preceded by his father at the Imperial head-quarter of Kalisch, and joined it, at a day's journey in advance of that place, early in April. From this time till the fall of Paris he was constantly attached to it. His testimony confirms that of General Muffling in showing that the advance of the Allies into Saxony, by which they committed themselves to an immediate general action, was founded on false calculations of the French force. He says that it was not till the 24th of April, on reaching Dresden, that they became at all aware of the extent to which Napoleon had re- paired his losses ; and even when they engaged at Liitzen they appear to have been little prepared for the superiority of numbers which he developed before the close of the day. Both here, however, and at Bautzen they relied with justice on their great superiority in cavalry, which enabled them to break off the action almost at pleasure, and retreat with security. Liitzen was not a victory, as it was the fashion with the Allies to describe it; but they lost no guns and few prisoners, and inflicted a somewhat heavier loss than they sustained. It tested also the quality of their troops, which was considered by impar- tial judges as better than that of Napoleon's young levies, who behaved admirably as to courage, but showed defects of inex- perience. Colonel Cathcart's volume contains some amusing incidents of the life of a staff officer on active service, but is still more fertile in lessons on the art of war, founded on observation and re- miniscence. Of the former there is an instance connected with the retreat from Liitzen, in which, at the expense of a cross- country ride of 30 miles and a hazardous passage of a river, Lord 430 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. Cathcart anticipates the Czar at his quarters, and the father and son are rewarded by a partie carrfo at dinner with his Majesty. We apprehend that these feats must have ingratiated our officers with the Cossacks, whose habits of self-direction over the plains of Germany were pretty much those of our English fox-hunters. The retreat of the Allies on Bautzen without disputing the passage of the Elbe suggests one of the many concise and pithy paragraphs for which students will thank Colonel Cathcart : " Sufficient examples have arisen to prove to the satisfaction of all military men, that though a large river is without doubt an im- portant strategic feature in other respects, yet in modern warfare it is not to be relied upon as an obstacle that presents any serious feature in the way of a large advancing army ; for the leader of such an army can always out-manoeuvre his opponent by concealing his movements from those on the opposite bank, while the inter- vention of the river is sufficient to frustrate the enemy's means of watching by patroles, and a few hours gained at a suitable point will suffice to repair an old bridge or construct a new one, even in the presence of any hostile detachment likely to be on the spot." p. 138. In the way of military sketches we scarcely know any more striking than one in which Colonel Cathcart describes the Allied Sovereigns watching from their position at Bautzen, on the second morning, the manoeuvring of a single mass of 10,000 men drawn up under the eye of Napoleon in person. The appearance in the group of an individual dressed in " a bright yellow uniform," led to the supposition that the tasteful King of Naples, and with him his Italian levies, had joined the French army. It was afterwards ascertained that a Saxon postilion, in his usual livery jacket, had been telling Napoleon the names of the different villages (p. 160). The sentences that ensue afford a brief but sufficient com- mentary on a passage of Napoleon's career which enjoys the special admiration of Mr. Alison and others as an instance of his strategic ability : " In the following chapter it will be found that Napoleon through obstinacy like a headstrong gambler playing a losing game contrary to his own experience and former practice, determined to cling to Dresden and make it a centre of operations. Under existing circumstances this was a wilful departure from the prin- ESSAY Xm. COLONEL CATHCART'S WORK. 431 ciples of strategy ; for by doing so he left the line of communication with his true base, the Khine, at the mercy of his powerful enemy. The author is the more desirous of calling attention to this subject because a popular, and in most cases accurate writer of general history, has characterized this policy of Napoleon's as profoundly conceived and most ably carried into effect ! He trusts that the events recorded in this book alone will suffice to justify the true principles of strategy, and prove the worthlessness of the miscalled profound conception of operations with large armies radiating from an insulated centre without reference to the true base and line of communication." p. 254. Another grand maxim never attack without a reserve is well illustrated by Colonel Cathcart's remarks on the cavalry affair of Liebertwolkowitz. In this action 5000 French horse, headed by two cavalry officers of the greatest reputation as such in Europe, Murat and Latour Maubourg, had the fairest of chances for a blow, a la Murat, at a far inferior body of the Allies ; but, as the Colonel says, " They were obliged to abandon their enterprise, and fly before a force of light cavalry which altogether could not have amounted to 2000 jnen ; a result manifestly to be attributed to the greatest oversight or fault a cavalry officer can commit that of engaging his whole force without a second line or reserve." We could wish to see Colonel Cathcart's work reprinted in a shape suited to an officer's travelling library. Lucid, concise, and pregnant, it seems to us to be equally valuable for its facts and its commentaries. Literary piracy has of late been a lion in the path of translation. We hope it may have had the compen- sating effect of inducing more general study of the German language. But we think our extracts will support our assertion that all the foreign books on our present list deserve translation ; Miiffling's especially if it were but to cheer old companions like him who to Boeder's German-French responded only with that irreverent hee ! hee ! and who, we presume, would be still less likely to understand General Miiffling's German. We must here conclude a notice which has led ourselves insen- sibly back to times when the "twanging horn o'er yonder bridge " was wont to awaken the thrill of mingled hope arid fear in every English bosom. For our own and for all other nations 432 RUSSIAN AND GERMAN CAMPAIGNS. ESSAY XIII. of the earth we pray that the trumpet of war may long remain as silent as that postman's horn has since become ; but we are, we confess, far from confident in our anticipations on this subject. Who will not concur with the great winner of battles, that next to a great defeat a great victory is the greatest of human calamities ? We cannot, however, secure peace by ignoring the lessons of war, and no time is more fit for the study of these lessons than when the danger is, or is supposed to be, remote. ESSAY XIV. ANTIQUARIAN CLUBS. 433 XIV. DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, MARCH, 1852.(*) SCOTLAND for some years past has been the nursing-mother of associations devoted to the publication of records and monuments, hitherto unedited, of the lives, the laws, the manners, and the literature of our ancestors. Men who have neither leisure nor taste for the minuter study of the past may be disposed to draw odious comparisons between the weight and volume of the printed results and their literary value. We have heard jokes on this theme as dull as the least readable of the quartos in question. It is possible, however, even without a relish for char- tularies, or skill in monkish Latin, to entertain a high appre- ciation of the exertions of the Bannatyne and other Clubs, English and Irish as well as Scotch, of kindred aim and pursuit. Animated by the spirit of Sir Walter, they have spared neither toil nor expense in rescuing many real treasures from obscurity, and putting them beyond the reach of accidents. Highly ? however, as we estimate the zeal of our countrymen, we doubt whether any single result of their efforts exceeds in worth the work now made accessible to German scholars at least by the united labours of two Russian gentlemen. Happy should we be if this notice could induce one of the Scotch clubs, or two or three of them in friendly alliance, to undertake an edition of selections from the original text. In some few instances the Bannatyne and Maitland have so co-operated. Why should they not do so in many and why, in the present case, should not the () Tagebuch des Generals Patrick Gordon, wahrend seiner Kriegsdienste u. e. v. Diary of General Patrick Gordon, during his Military Services with the Swedes and Poles from 1655 to 1661, and his Residence in Bussiafrom 1661 to 1699. For the first time published in full by the Prince M. A. Obolenski and M. C. Posselt, Doctor in Philosophy. Vols. I and 2. University Press, Moscow: 1849-1851, 2 F 434 DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. Spalding join them ? We can hardly doubt that any well- attested literary applicant could obtain without difficulty the necessary permission from the Sovereign whose countenance was so handsomely extended to British science in the person of Sir Roderick Murchison. Having waited long for the second of these volumes, and fearing that the third may not very soon follow, we think it well to give now some brief account of the work ; and in doing so we shall make a free use of the excellent Preface contributed by the Moscow editors. General Patrick Gordon's career was no unimportant feature in one of those great eras of transition and development which leave their traces on the moral condition of mankind as conspi- cuous as any that the changes distinguished by geologists have imprinted on the earth's material surface. For forty years his abilities were devoted, without distraction or reserve, to the service of three Czars, during whose reigns a new order of things was prepared and partly established. Under Alexei Michailo- vitch and his immediate successor the talents displayed by Gordon, as well in the organization of the regular armies of the empire as in their command throughout many arduous campaigns, had raised him not only to a high degree of reputation in military circles, but to that favour at court without which he might have achieved everything for Russia,, but nothing for himself. His chief eminence was however reserved, in, the words of our Preface, for " the epoch when Peter Alexeivitch commenced that mar- vellous course for which he was alike destined and endowed by Providence." No slight interest must ever attach to the cha- racter and habits of the men who were his principal instruments. Among these Gordon, as the personal confidant and adviser of the young sovereign, unquestionably occupies a place of the highest rank not inferior even to his friend Lefort Of the many services which purchased this confidence it is sufficient here to name the suppression of the Janissaries of Russia the Strelitz regiments acknowledged to have been exclusively accomplished by the influence, vigour, and decision of Gordon. From that transaction to his death his personal intercourse with Peter was incessant. When, worn out with long service in council and in field, the veteran expired, his last moments of consciousness were watched by his master ; his eyes were closed ESSAY XIV. CHARACTER OF THE DIARY. 435 by the Imperial hand ; his obsequies were conducted on the most magnificent scale of pomp, under the minute regulation, and graced by the personal attendance, of the great man. After thus briefly establishing the claims of this Eussian General to something more than the attention of mere Scottish antiquarians we open the diary which he kept from his youth to the verge of the grave and which he himself thus intro- duces : " I am not unaware that it is considered a difficult task to write the history of one's own life, or a narrative of occurrences in which oneself has participated, just as it is difficult for an artist to paint his own portrait. Inasmuch, however, as I have prescribed to myself to confine my work strictly within the limits of a diary, without passing judgment on the actions related, or speaking of them either in praise or censure, following in this the maxim of the wise Cato Nee te lauddris nee te cidpaveris ipse the task, in my opinion, loses much of its difficulty. Mere reports I have stated as such, and truth for truth. Some political transactions, but chiefly such as were con- nected with military affairs, I have given in a continuous order ; others are but incompletely narrated, from the want of public and official documents, but are still, for the most part, such as I per- sonally witnessed and assisted in. In brief, I can assign no better reason for my labour than that it pleased me to undergo it ; nor am I much concerned for the applause of others, being well aware that to please all hath ever by the wise been held impossible." These are very much the principles on which, as we conceive, Herodotus would have kept a diary ; and they are adhered to with fidelity and perseverance in the text before us. The result is a narrative in which the great events of a stirring period are intermingled with many curious sketches of remote lands, and of the habits and actions of extraordinary individuals, concerning whom little is known from other sources. It is carried on through the most stormy vicissitudes of a life of military service, which in many particulars might have suggested to Schiller the Dragoon of the Prologue to Wallenstein, or to Scott that equally felicitous and more finished creation of genius the inimitable Dalgetty. Wounds and captivity scarcely occasion any inter- ruption to its progress ; it is sure in the evening after the hottest conflict to record the receipt of a letter on private affairs and the precise hour of the answer. The Kussian editors remark that 2 F 2 436 DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. it contains perhaps the only information now extant on a subject which cannot be deficient in interest to sundry Scottish families of the present day, in the shape of notices of many of that numerous body the Scotch gentlemen who in Gordon's time, like him, found employment and gained honour in the service of Russia. The names Brace, Crawfurd, Drummond, Dalzel, Gordons innumerable, and many others are of frequent oc- currence. It is added, that in Eussia no family papers or other documentary records of these men are now known to exist. In f every instance their race in that empire has died away ; and even the jejune information which in other countries the tomb- stone or the church-register often aifords is wanting there. It appears that in Moscow the sites somewhat reluctantly accorded as places of worship to Dissenting residents, Roman Catholic and Protestant, were frequently changed. In one of these changes the principal cemetery, which seems to have been common to both persuasions, suifered sweeping desecration. The famous traveller Tavernier is mentioned as one whose monument was here destroyed. Even that of the illustrious Lefort, erected by special order of his patron Peter, has perished. General Gordon's diary is supposed in its original state to have consisted of eight or perhaps nine bulky quartos. About the middle of the last century four of these had come, whether in virtue of any family connexion is not known, into the posses- sion of a certain Gordon, an Inspector in the Admiralty at St. Petersburgh. Upon his death, Count 'Alexander Stroganow, a distinguished promoter of science and literature, purchased them of the widow, who was unable to afford any information as to the missing volumes. The Count turned his purchase to good account, for he placed the MSS. in the hands of the learned historian of Russia, G. F. Miiller. The survey of them not only impressed Miiller with a sense of their value as materials for history, but brought it to his recollection that some of the missing portion had been used by a Professor Baier in the com- position of a tract which Miiller had himself inserted in a col- lection published by him in 1737. Baier had, in fact, drawn almost exclusively from this source his accounts of the two Russian campaigns of 1688 and 1689 against the Crim Tartars, and of the siege and reduction of Asow in 1696. After much fruitless search and inquiry, Miiller, repairing to Moscow soon ESSAY XIV. STRITTER'S ABSTRACT. 437 after the accession of Catherine II., had the satisfaction to discover the portion used by Baier two large volumes in the archives of the Foreign Affairs. Six volumes were, therefore, now in his hands, embracing the following years : Vol. L, from 1635 to 1659. II., from 1659 to 1667. III., from 1677 to 1678. IV., from 1684 to 1690. V., from 1690 to 1695. VI., from 1695 to 1699. As this is all which has been yet recovered, it will be seen that the continuity of the narrative has suffered two considerable interruptions. The first extends over ten years, from 1667 to 1677, being the time which intervened between Gordon's mission to the court of our own Charles II. and the commencement of an operation against the Turks in the Ukraine, known as the campaign of Tschigorin. The second is of some six years, 1678 to 1684, and comprises the time from the termination of the hostilities above mentioned to Gordon's return to Moscow and Kiew. A few other blanks occur, but without serious damage to the record. In what manner the two volumes used by Baier came into the archives where Miiller found them, is not known. The four others, with the rest of Miiller's literary collections, were purchased for the same repository on the death of that eminent man. It appears that so early as 1721 a Count Oster- mann had had access to the work, and commenced a translation of it into Russian. Miiller was anxious for one in German. He, however, shrunk from the labour in his own person, and de- volved it upon an academician, T. Stritter, who had been appointed his assistant in the office of Imperial Historiographer. Stritter, in prosecuting the delegated task, went upon a principle of selection giving a literal translation of passages of obvious curiosity, but abridging or slurring incidents sufficiently known from other sources, and many personal details which to his academical eyes appeared trivial, but of which Gordon's country- men of the Bannatyne must with ourselves regret the absence. This version, or abstract, was never either finished or printed. It was carried on only to the year 1691 ; leaving untouched the greater part of the fifth and the whole of the sixth volume. 438 DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. After Stritter's death his MS. fell, in separate portions, into the hands of two individuals, who have liberally furnished them for the assistance of the present editors. The greater part of the text of their first volume may, in fact, be considered as that of Stritter amplified and corrected, but retaining the substitution adopted by him of the third person for the first as it stood in Gordon's original. These accidents of alteration, mutilation, &c., however possibly unimportant in a purely historical point of view, increase our desire for a faithful impression of the Diary, or such parts of it as a judicious editor would retain, in the General's own English or Scotch. It is scarcely necessary here to follow the Preface through its specification of several works which have issued from the Russian press, and mostly in the Eussian language, since the discovery of the journal, and which are founded on its contents. Five or six are named a number which shows the interest with which it has been regarded by the literary men of Eussia. One English book said to be similarly founded on the journal is mentioned as having been purchased for a Eussian collector in London in 1835, but the editors have not been able to procure a sight of it. The diarist was born in 1635 the second son of John Gordon of Auchlichries a bleak possession near the coast of Aberdeen- shire. The Laird a cadet of that branch of the house of Gordon of which the Earl of Aberdeen is now the representative was a high cavalier ; and both he and his wife, an Ogilvie, were steady adherents to the Eomish faith. This last circum- stance prevented Patrick from partaking those educational advantages which the Mareschal College afforded to the Pro- testant Dalgetties of the district. Means were, however, found in country schools of the neighbourhood to save him from a boyhood of mere field-sports, and to furnish at least the rudi- ments of the classical training which Scotchmen of gentle birth have seldom been willing entirely to dispense with. At the age of sixteen he was taken home ; but the position of a younger brother without prospects concurred with a hopeless attachment to make home irksome, and his parents would seem to have given every encouragement to a scheme of travel in search of adventure and advancement no unusual or ineffectual resource for the class he belonged to. He left Aberdeen in a ship of 18 guns for Dantzig, in 1651. We have sometimes amused our- ESSAY XIV. ENTERS THE SWEDISH SERVICE. 439 selves with speculating on the emotions with which such young northern hidalgos, in many instances suddenly conveyed in the train of a Gunn or a Mackay from still remoter and wilder districts, must have contemplated the busy and opulent cities of Germany. The stately cathedral, the quay, the market-place, and the town-hall, must have presented contrasts strange and strong to the grey tower of the Highland chief, or even the more spacious gabled and turreted mansion of the Lowland laird. Wherever they went they carried with them the sagacity, the perseverance, and courage of their race " patient of labour and prodigal of blood " and such men as Gustavus Adolphus, Bernhard of Saxe- Weimar, and Peter the Great knew well to appreciate these qualities. In none were they more conspi- cuously united than in Patrick Gordon. He did not loiter in the great city, but betook himself to the completion of his classical education at the Jesuits' college of Braunsberg. After three years' devotion to study, particularly of Latin, becoming weary and homesick, he absconded without leave-taking, with the intention of returning to Scotland. Dis- appointed in his endeavours to obtain a passage from Dantzig, and then in an attempt to enter the Polish army, which cost him a fruitless journey to Warsaw, he came, after various adventures, to Hamburgh. The town was full of Swedish officers raising recruits for a war which their youthful king, Charles X., was preparing against Poland. By one of these, a Scotchman of his own name, he was persuaded to take service in the cavalry, and he joined, in July, 1655, at Stettin, the force there collected to the amount of 17,000 men under Field-marshal Wittenberg. Gordon details with particularity the pretexts alleged by the Swedish King for hostilities. They were probably for the most part false certainly all frivolous; and the diarist favours us with his private opinion as to the real motive of the war, namely, the desire of a young sovereign, fond of soldiering, to signalize his succession to the tlirone of Gustavus Adolphus and Christina by a little military glory. Poland presented peculiar attractions as an antagonist. She was the only country which in the actual state of Europe afforded any pretexts, bad as they were, for a quarrel. She was already assailed on the one side by Cossacks 440 DIAEY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. and Tartars, on that of Lithuania by the growing power of Eussia; and all these circumstances were represented to the Swedish prince by an interested class of advisers exiles, and fugitive nobles. Encouragement and assistance came, moreover, from a strange quarter. Two or three of the best regiments were raised with money furnished by Cromwell, whose object was to keep busy at a distance some of those ardent spirits whose activity might have been troublesome in Britain. The conse- quence was one of those long games " which, were their subjects wise, kings would not play at." The kind of discipline enforced in the armies of this day has been well illustrated in Callot's etchings : " On the 2nd of August," says Gordon, " the Field-marshal encamped near Posen, and showed extraordinary severity. For example, a boy of four- teen was hanged for throwing a stone at a Pole who was seeking in the camp, under escort, for a horse of which he had been robbed." He mentions, as a fact of which he had no reason to doubt, that between Stettin and Konin, where the King joined the army, 470 persons had been executed for slight offences. Gordon calls this "not justice, but tyranny," and says the King himself expressed the same opinion from which few will dissent. We cannot follow our diarist closely through the details of this wanton war. It was like many other campaigns of an age when war and peace depended rather on the caprices of kings, their ministers, or mistresses, tljan on the interests, the opinions, or even the passions of nations. The two armies avoided each other, and levied contributions on the districts they infested, in which the Jews paid double. A fort was now and then stormed, in which case the garrrison, with many com- pliments on their courage, were put to the sword. The principal events were the reduction of Cracow, and an action near Warsaw, soon after which Gordon was taken prisoner. Having endured more than four months' close arrest, he was at length released on the condition of taking service with his captors the Poles. He thus became a dragoon in the company of Constantine Lubomirski, the most illustrious of three brothers who all held high offices in the state. His changes of banner were not to be few. He was shortly again taken prisoner by some Brandenburg cavalry, and carried ESSAY XIV. TAKEN PRISONER. 441 before a Scotch General, Douglas, from whom he accepted an offer of service in a corps d'elite of his countrymen, which the General was then employed in organizing. This Douglas com- pany, in January, 1657, received orders to move out of its quarters in order to assist an operation against Dantzig, then held by the Poles. Gordon, before he could show face in the expedition, had to provide himself with two horses ; and this he effected, in his own words, " by means of his servant without money" for which mode of field-equipment he makes the excuse that if he had declined to employ it he must have remained to be eat with vermin, to freeze, or to starve. Sur- prised on a solitary ride by a party of peasants, he was ere long carried prisoner into Dantzig. He complains bitterly of the loss on this occasion of his Thomas a Kempis. His captors, however, being mere boors, of no practice in the honourable profession of arms, had neglected to pull off his boots in which he had concealed his money. He met here with many Scotch and Swedish fellows in captivity, as also with a distinguished name- sake in the Polish army to wit, Gordon of the steel hand by whom he was recognised as a clansman, and strongly urged to take service again with Poland. Resisting, for reasons not mentioned, this offer, which many others accepted, he was shortly included in a general exchange of prisoners, and rejoined his former company. Twice again, while serving with Sweden in the course of this year, he was captured, first by some Austrians, from whom he executed a hazardous escape, and then once more by the Poles. The latter adventure brought him into contact with the greatest man of his day, John Sobieski, but it can hardly be said that this circumstance adds any interest to the diary. As Sobieski, who is characterized merely as " a hard bargainer, though courteous," refused to exchange him, he adopted the ready resource of accepting sendee with his captors. In this his second engagement with the Poles, who had business first with Sweden, then with Muscovy, he found plentiful oppor- tunities for the display of his talents, and speedily rose to the rank of Captain-Lieutenant. The Poles, assisted by 40,000 Tartar auxiliaries, were successful against the Russians and Cossacks, who under command of a certain Wassilie Wassilie- vitsch Scherematew we love, like the Vicar of Wakefield, to give the whole name endured a terrible defeat, in which they 442 DIAKY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. lost 115 standards, 67 guns, and some 36,000 men killed and prisoners. This battle of Sibiodischtsche led in November, 1660, to the conclusion of a peace on terms, as might be expected, humiliating enough for the party so completely overthrown. The Poles are said to have suffered some loss in endeavouring to defend their prisoners from the Tartars, who were discontented with various items of the pacification. The Russians it is certain were plundered, and many of them dragged into slavery by these infidel allies of a Christian power. Scherematew himself was shamefully surrendered to them by the Polish commander. Gordon, returning from the scene of this wild work to War- saw, received intelligence of the restoration of his native monarch, Charles II. This event, suggesting to a good soldier of cavalier blood the prospect of some advancement at home, induced him to request his retirement from the Polish service. Lubomirski, however, was unwilling to part with such a follower, and before his reluctance was overcome Gordon had received letters from, his family which discouraged him in his project of return. We have indeed discovered no indications of any desire on the part of his kinsfolk for his re-appearance at the honoured chateau of Auchlichries. He persevered, nevertheless, in requesting his discharge, and received it in July, 1661, accompanied by a flattering certificate in florid Latin from Lubomirski. His persistance in urging this dismissal could have had no better reason than the mere love of change. 'He seems to have quite dropped the thoughts of home, and to have been steadily intent on carrying his now proved and conspicuous talents to one of the great military markets of Europe. None perhaps at this moment could afford fairer chances to a soldier of fortune and a Roman Catholic than the one he was quitting, for this was the brightest epoch of the fortunes of that kingdom. Gordon, however, had decided to quit the Polack, and only hesitated between Austria and Russia. After much pondering, his intimacy with several officers of the latter power, and among them some countrymen of his own, who, taken prisoners at the battle of Sibiodischtsche, had been placed under his custody, decided his choice. With two of these, a Colonel Crawfurd and a Captain Menzies, he journeyed to Moscow, arriving there in September. He was well received by Czar Alexis, a sovereign of more than average virtue ESSAY XIV. ENTERS THE RUSSIAN SERVICE. 443 and ability, who confirmed an appointment promised him by Crawfurd as major in that friend's own regiment. We find him almost immediately repenting his choice, and busy with various attempts and schemes for disengaging himself. These all proving hopeless, he applied himself with such diligence to the duties of his position, that he soon rose into favour. He continued, how- ever, so little satisfied with Muscovy and the Muscovites, that nothing but the press of his daily occupations saved him from sickness. Many inevitable incidents of the life of a stranger, without connexions, in a semi-civilized country, would sufficiently account for depression of spirits. In addition to the difficulties to be encountered from rude superiors, he had troublesome subjects to deal with in those under his own command. One of many instances which he records is equally characteristic of his energy as an officer and of his fidelity as a journalist. A Eussian captain in his regiment had encroached in various par- ticulars upon Major Gordon's authority. Colonel Crawfurd declining to listen to complaint on this subject, Gordon took it, in every sense of the word, into his own hands. Inveigling the Captain into his quarters without witnesses, he knocked him down and caned him till he could hardly rise. Called to account before Crawfurd, Gordon met the charge with a cool and imper- turbable denial of the entire transaction and this full equivalent to an Old Bailey alibi he repeated, on appeal to their General, with such cool skill, that the Captain, refused all redress, was fain to leave a regiment which boasted a Scottish Major. In 1662 the Major obtained a colonelcy. The routine of pro- fessional duty, though probably now pretty amply varied by gentle exercise of the above description, was still insufficient to dispel the melancholy which weighed upon his mind. He betook himself to the most dangerous resource which Moscow afforded, in the cultivation for the first time in his life, if we except the boyish romance, of female society. In the houses of the resident foreigners, which he principally frequented, he found himself beset at all hands by the snares of contending beauty. Foreigners at this period were not allowed to marry native Eussians, even on condition of conversion to the Greek Church. The younger strangers in the Czar's service were therefore considered by the daughters of the older as a game preserve of their own, and hunted down without mercy. It required all the 444: DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. caution of Gordon's country and county to preserve him from these harpies ; and to escape a disadvantageous alliance it became almost necessary to contract an eligible one. Not run away with by his feelings, but partly in self-defence, and partly on a calculation in which the advantages over-balanced scruples well weighed and doubts long entertained, he determined to marry. In sickness, in absence upon duty or travel, a wife pre- sented herself to his speculative eye as a useful nurse or steward. In the matter of expense he found reason to suspect that an unmarried man keeping house might be apt to suffer more waste than would suffice for the keep of a wife. While lying in bed on a Saturday morning all these considerations passed through the Aberdonian mind, and, " after earnest prayer for guidance," the last seems to have decided the struggle. The next task was that of passing in review the candidates for the honour which on some one he was at last resolved to confer. It fell on the daughter of a Brandenburgh Colonel, Albert Bockhoven, well educated, of the Koman Catholic faith, and of good blood by the father's side. The latter was a prisoner in the hands of the Poles a circumstance which did not prevent the engagement, but which delayed the marriage till 1664, when the Brand en- burgher's release by exchange was effected, principally through the intercession of his destined son-in-law. In the course of this year, 1664, Colonel Gordon, hearing of the death of his elder brother, requested leave for a journey to Scotland, which was peremptorily refused him. The next year, however, circumstances led to his visiting Britain in a semi- official character. The unsuccessful mission of Lord Carlisle to Moscow had led to differences between the courts, which had only been aggravated by that of an envoy equally touchy and punctilious, Daschkow, to Whitehall. That delicate hyperborean had returned with impressions and reports of the barbarism of England in matters of etiquette, and of the high prices of her commodities, which made his countrymen at the court of Moscow reluctant to undertake a similar office. The Czar determined to make Gordon, without an ostensible mission, the bearer of a letter to Charles II. Our Colonel, with a caution which the event justified, endeavoured to decline a service the difficulties of which were more certain than either its success or its re- muneration. Alexis, however, was now as peremptory in enfor- ESSAY XIV. UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO LEAVE. 445 cing a furlough as before in refusing it. War between England and Holland increased the troubles of the long and arduous route, which occupied the Colonel from June 29 to the 1st of October. He remained in London till February of the following year, enjoying, without the rank of ambassador, all privileges of access to the gay king and his ministers. For reasons not clearly stated he was ungraciously received on his return to Muscovy, and the royal displeasure was shown in the withholding the repayment of his outlay, an account which was not settled until the next reign. Ere long, however, he was restored to the command of his former regiment. In 1670 we see him in high command in the Ukraine employed in reducing to submission the rebellious Zaporagian Cossacks. In this distant warfare he was detained, probably because his talents were found indispensable, till 1677, when he was summoned to Moscow to answer charges preferred against him by one of his superiors. These he managed trium- phantly, though at the expense of much bribery and intrigue, to confute ; and returning to the Ukraine he conducted the defence of the capital, Tschigrin, against a combined attack of the Turks and Tartars, in a manner which entitled him to the highest rank among the Russian reputations of that day. The Colonel now renewed his endeavours to obtain his manu- mission from the service, but these, though supported by the intercession of the English envoy, had no better success than before. The Czar Fedor, who succeeded his father Alexis in 1676, had the acuteness to appreciate Gordon, and the year 1678 found him again employed in repelling a renewed assault upon Tschigrin. For a month his unwearied activity and engineering skill kept Turk and Tartar at bay, and no thought of surrender had suggested itself, when a sudden and imperative order from Moscow compelled him to abandon the place. He was the last man to retire, and he fired with his own hand the train of the principal magazine, by the subsequent explosion of which 4000 Turks were sent to the paradise of the faithful. Escaping with great risk, and hotly pursued, he was rewarded by promotion to the rank of Major-General. The first volume here closes. At this point also of the Diary occurs the second interruption of five years which however is practically remedied by the service-lists preserved in the ap- 446 DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. pendix. From these we find that in 1683 Gordon was made a Lieutenant-General. This, it must be remembered, was a critical period for the Empire. The Czar Fedor had died in 1682, without issue and without designating his successor. Of his two brothers, Ivan and Peter, the first was imbecile, and the second but ten years old. The regency devolved on their sister Sophia. Gordon was now very anxious to effect a change from the provincial quarters of Kiew to the seat of government ; and with this view he made in 1684 a journey to Moscow. By the Kegent and her able and all powerful favourite, Golitzin, he was graciously received, but studiously repulsed in all his endea- vours both towards the object above-mentioned, and the more important point of his discharge, which he was still pressing. He was complimented, confidentially advised with on some knotty questions, and peremptorily ordered back to Kiew. It was there that, while devoting his leisure to the improvement of the defences of the town, he formed the acquaintance and gained the enduring friendship of a kindred spirit and adventurer, the engineer Lefort, destined like himself to exercise a powerful and salutary influence over the illustrious man who in due time vin- dicated his right to the throne and eclipsed the fame of all its former occupants. In 1685 intelligence of the accession of James II. induced our staunch Romanist to renew his entreaties for leave of absence. It was at last granted, but only on a stipulation of speedy return, for which security was taken in the detention of his wife and children as hostages at Kiew. He effected his journey, and on this occasion visited Scotland. Eeturning in August, 1686, he brought with him a letter from the English King in support of his application for discharge. The proceeding was highly ill advised. A semi-barbarous government was sensi- tively jealous of such foreign interference, and it drew down upon Gordon a storm of resentment from the wayward and selfish Regent and her minister. He was threatened with degradation to the ranks, and obliged to petition for pardon in the style of a grave offender and contrite penitent. While this petition was awaiting its answer, behold there arrived another epistle from James II. announcing Gordon's appointment as English ambas- sador extraordinary at Moscow. Hereupon a council was held and it speedily arrived at the following decision " The ESSAY XIV. HIS INTERCOURSE WITH THE CZAR. 447 General Patrick Gordon cannot become English ambassador, because his presence is required with the great army in the approaching campaign against the Turks and Tartars." Nothing could be more logical ; and we find the Diarist, in 1687, on the Dnieper, serving as second to the General-in-chief Golitzin. That commander, after leading his men into the steppe, could devise no better plan of strategy than to lead them out again and abandon the campaign. The troops were therefore dismissed to their quarters, but not without signal marks of the favour and the liberality of the government. Gordon himself was promoted to the rank of General. The year 1688 was passed in Moscow. The regiments called the Buterkisch were at this time under his special command, and appear to have been regarded as a sort of model for the rest of the army. The corps formed at least a seminary for drum mers and fifers, who when duly accomplished were drafted off to Kolowenski, the residence at this period of young Peter. This circumstance appears to have led to communications be- tween Gordon and the Czar, and to have laid the foundation of their future familiarity. Gordon was at this time consulted by the Kegency on many matters of moment. A plan of his for the establishment of a new city in the Samara was approved and carried out ; another for military lines of defence on the Dnieper was equally approved, but the execution of it was postponed. He was also called upon to take the command of a fresh operation against the Crimea, but when the army had advanced as far as Perekop the attempt was considered too ar- duous, and abandoned. Gordon returned to Moscow, where events of greater importance to his own fortunes and those of Russia awaited him. The young Czar at first showed no great favour to the troops, and manifested opposition to the system of liberal reward by which now as on former occasions the Regency endeavoured to win the attachment of a force which was evidently assuming the character of a Praetorian guard. This policy, whatever its motive or its explanation, did not produce the consequences which might have been expected from it, for, at the crisis which shortly ensued of the struggle for power between the Czar and the Regency, Gordon and his regiments threw themselves into the party of the former, and by marching, contrary to the orders 448 DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. of the latter, to Troitza, decided the issue and placed Peter on the throne. Gordon was immediately admitted within the pre- cincts of the fortified convent, while the other commanders with their soldiers were encamped without its walls. He was hence- forth busily occupied in exercising the troops under the immediate inspection of majesty, and younger men might have found their strength insufficient for such occupation, varied as it was by the boisterous orgies in which Peter's favourites were called to take part. Of all the particulars of this remarkable intimacy, which continued through the few remaining years of Gordon's life, we are promised ample details in the sequel of the Diary. In 1694 he accompanied Peter on his second journey to Archangel. In the following year he mainly contributed to the establishment of an offensive alliance against the Turks with Austria, the policy of which he had at previous periods strongly advocated ; and he conducted, in the war which resulted, under the eye of Peter, the great operation of the siege of Asow. The Russian preparations, however, were insufficient for the reduction of that strong place in one campaign ; and it was not till the year following that it fell before Gordon's able assault. On the occasion of the trium- phal entry of the victorious army into Moscow he received from the Czar a medal worth 6 ducats, a gold cup, a costly suit of furs, and some ninety peasants. Many instances are mentioned in the Diary of these Homeric donations of live stock. One is connected with an amusing incident. When the Turks in 1677 retired from before Tschigrin, the welcome news was forwarded to Moscow by two captains. A colonel who was also despatched somewhat later to that city, finding the party with their horses sleeping in a meadow, contrived unperceived to cut the girths and stirrup leathers, and then, pursuing his own journey, was the first to bring the intelligence to the Czar. He was rewarded with fifty peasants ; the others, who arrived the same evening, got little but thanks. In the year 1697 took place .the memorable journey of the Czar to Holland on which occasion Gordon was left as second to the General-in-chief Schein in the administration of the mili- tary affairs of the empire. In this high capacity he visited Asow, to superintend the restoration and extension of its de- fences, which he had lately done his best to ruin ; and for similar purposes he proceeded to Taganrog, since made famous by the ESSAY XIV. DEFENCE OF TSCHIGRIN. 449 melancholy end of one of the most fortunate, in the world's esti- mation, but not in his own, of Peter's successors. His presence dissipated a commenced invasion of the Tartars, and he returned to Moscow to perform the yet more signal service already alluded to in the quelling of the revolt of the Strelitz regiments. The short remainder of his life was passed in the full enjoyment of the favour which this, the greatest of his exploits, had raised to the highest pitch. The Czar had scarcely recovered the shock of the decease of his other foreign favourite, Lefort, when he was called upon to "attend the death-bed of Gordon, who expired in his arms on the 29th of November, 1699. We have already expressed our hope that the principal parts of the narrative of a career so eventful as Gordon's may yet be furnished to English readers in the original form. A close com- parison of the German text now before us with that original is not necessary for the detection of some excusable errors in the translator. We are unwilling to swell our present notice either by any reference to these, or by extracts which could not convey the precise expression of the gallant old diarist. But for this we might be tempted by such passages as one which describes his escape from the rums of Tschigrin, when, deserted by the last adherents of his undisciplined and demoralized garrison, he crosses alone, with his sword in one hand and pistol in the other, the bridge swarming with Turks all carrying in their left hands, instead of the pistol, the heads of slaughtered Christians. The narrative of the defence of this place against some 100,000 Turks, a defence which lasted a month, and but for him would not have lasted an hour, is worthy of Drinkwater. But for the deficiency in interest which attaches to the wars of comparative savages, the defence of Tschigrin would rank as an exhibition of courage, resource, and endurance, with that of Vienna. To count the wounds with which the person of the iron veteran was scored in his various campaigns, is a task which has baffled our patience. On one perilous day we find him emerging from an ambuscade with the loss of his sword, hat, and a quantity of hair left in Polish hands, and with the gain of three arrows sticking in his hide or his jerkin. Occasional attacks of the plague he baffles by doses of Venice treacle, and other remedies stranger and more nauseous even than that famous compound of adder's fat with other poisons. Under a different species of difficulty his 2 G 450 DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. resources never fail him. We have already admired the imper- turbable denial with which he met the complaint of the Muscovite captain to whom he had administered the bastinado. He had engaged himself to the Baron d'Isola, for service under the Holy Roman Emperor, when circumstances induced him to prefer that of Eussia. Quitting Warsaw,"he leaves behind him with a friend two letters, the one dated as if from Thorn, for the day previous to that stipulated for his return, in which he announces that he is seized with a burning fever. The other, dated fourteen days later, admits some improvement, but describes the attack as having degenerated into a quotidian which deprives him of all hope of presenting his respects to the Imperial Majesty of Vienna. The interesting invalid was meanwhile with two Scottish com- panions riding fast to Moscow. He does not omit an oppor- tunity which many years afterwards presents itself in England, of claiming acquaintance with the Austrian Baron. The diary affords but scanty indications that liis residence at Braunsberg had left with Gordon a taste for literary occupa- tion. We noticed, however, his discomposure at the loss of his Thomas k Kempis which may remind the readers of Waverley of the Titus Livius of the Baron of Bradwardine : and we find him on his first journey to England acquiring of a Mr. Clayhills, in exchange for a sable fur and twelve dollars, a sorrel horse fully accoutred with a copy of Camden's Britannia thrown into the bargain. The death of an infant son in 1684 elicits from the paternal pen a Latin epitaph in six hexameters and pentameters, which, alas for the credit of the Jesuit fathers of Braunsberg, contain four false quantities. Some time after he entered the Russian service he disclaims any skill in engineering ; nor does he tell us much of the means by which he acquired that high proficiency in it which he exhibited on repeated occasions, but most especially in the defence of Tschigrin and the reduction of Asow. The diary makes mention now and then of his sending orders for works of repute de arte fortificatorid ; but the enemy seems to have been his best teacher. The Turk was in those days the most formidable assailant of fortified places. He brought to this department of warfare not only the fanatical courage of his predestinarian faith, and a lavish expenditure of labour, but great scientific skill, and singular expertness Avith the spade and shovel. Christian officers drew lessons from the ESSAY XIV. SECOND ENGLISH EXPEDITION. 451 maze of curved parallels, overlapping each other like the scales of a fish, with which the Mahometan made his cautious yet rapid approach towards his destined prey, and the mine with all its devices was a favourite engine of his further operations. The resources of the defender were taxed on such occasions to the utmost. The diary of his residence in Moscow contains an incident which shows that the system of espionage is no novelty in Russia and on which, we rather think, a little French vaudeville was afterwards founded. A Lithuanian prisoner of distinction falling ill obtained permission to consult an Italian physician. Their intercourse was watched, and the quick ear of the attendant caught, or seemed to catch, the suspicious words Crim Tartary frequently repeated. Both the Italian and his patient narrowly escaped being tortured and hanged for a conspiracy to levy war against the Czar in that region. It turned out that the doctor had been recommending an admixture of cream of tartar in the diet of the dyspeptic captive. We are forced to confess that the second volume is less inter- esting than the first its details are often most wearisome, and we really admire the perseverance of the translators. There occur nevertheless some incidents of capital importance as respects the fate of the great Czar, and many amusing enough anecdotes of Gordon's own adventurous history. Turning to his Second English Expedition in 1686 upon his arrival in London, where he took up his lodging at the Mitre tavern in Gracious (Gracechurch) Street, he gives some particulars of his expenditure on personal equipment for his court campaign, which show that at the then value of money and scale of fortunes the externals of a gentleman were not all cheap in this quarter. His wig costs him 71., his hat 11. 10s. His dinner 5*. 6d. His barber charges him a shilling for shaving, which we think scan- dalous ; shoes at 4. the pair seem decidedly cheap ; silk stock- ings 12*., not unreasonable; three swords cost 14. which seems very moderate indeed. He was as kindly received at the Court of James as he had been at that of Charles. The King relished his conversation, and questioned him with intelligence as to the habits and manners of the country of his adoption. Gordon, on taking leave at Windsor after a long audience of the King, bestowed an harangue, first in Dutch and then in English, 2 G 2 452 DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON. ESSAY XIV. on Prince George of Denmark, to which that uncolloquial personage returned no answer. The General's journey to Scot- land and visit to the house of his fathers afford little more than a record of civilities interchanged with the principal nobility at Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and of some thorny discussions with a brother and an uncle as to the administration, accounts and proceeds of the paternal property. These at length settled, a trading vessel once more conveys from Aberdeen our Caesar and the fortunes which valour and sagacity had so far exalted since he left the same port, an obscure adventurer, five and thirty years ago. The diary for September, 1689, supplies rich details of a crisis already alluded to in our references to the prefatory sketch. It was now that the mutual jealousies between the young Czar Peter and his able and intriguing sister, the Eegent Sophia, came to a point. Peter fled from Moscow to the fortified convent of Troitza, and a struggle ensued on his part to gain over the military, on hers to retain their fidelity. Her eloquence, but especially her gracious assiduity in pouring out glasses of brandy to officers and men, for some time held the scales in suspense. Gordon's part was a difficult one, and any false calculation of the strength or immediate preponderance of either party might have sent him to the block or at least to Siberia. A certain Colonel Retschaew, who had been bold enough to become the bearer of an unpalatable letter to the Regent from Troitza, only saved his head by the fortuitous and highly irregular absence of the Court executioner. Reflection, however, appeased the wrath or awoke the prudence of the Princess. He was pardoned, and received his glass of brandy from the royal hand. Gordon, in his impor- tant office as Commander of the foreign troops, the Swiss regiments of that period, played his game with no rash hand. It was not till the Strelitz corps had shown clear symptoms of dis- affection to the Regent, and after a very distinct order had reached Moscow, that, summoning all the foreign officers to Troitza, he ventured on his part to issue the cautious intimation that all who chose to be of the party might join him at a certain place and hour. The march commenced after dark, apparently under considerable apprehension of interruption, but was com- pleted without difficulty. The Princess, deserted by the Strelitz soldiery, was compelled to abandon the contest without conditions ESSAY XIV. SIEGE OF ASOW. 453 and to surrender her favourites and advisers to the vengeance of her brother. The principal of these, her minister Golitzin, was spared at the powerful intercession of his cousin, Peter's prime favourite, Boris Golitzin. The second in rank and influence, Schaklowitoi, was tortured, and, after an ample confession, obtained from Peter's humanity, to the great disgust of the courtiers, the favour of being executed without a repetition of the knout and rack. Many others followed him to the scaffold. Gordon asserts that the Czar himself was at this time averse to bloodshed, a weakness to which in his maturer age he was quite superior witness especially the Strelitz revolt. It was found necessary & employ the intervention of the Patriarch to over- come his present reluctance. The holy man succeeded in the discharge of this Christian office. Reward and punishment were dealt out with equal liberality, and blood and brandy flowed with Russian profusion at Troitza. The journal of the voyage in Peter's suite to Archangel is little more than a string of dates and names of villages and confluents of the Dwina, down which the Imperial fleet floated from Wo- logda to the port discovered by Chancellor, and to shores fre- quented by the Lapp and the Samoyede. Archangel and its roadstead became the scene of more than midnight carousals, in which Gordon and Lefort had to play their part on unequal terms with the physical as well as intellectual giant whom they served. Gordon, however, did not accompany the Czar on his principal excursions into the White Sea. During one of these our author was feasted on board an English trader, Captain Blaize, assisted by a brother navigator, Captain Shroud. Blaize and Shroud did all honour to their guest. Six successive healths were each saluted with twenty guns. The Czar liimself after- wards visited these English vessels, to the further great consump- tion of powder and strong drink. The siege of Asow in 1695 restores animation to the soldier's pages. Even in our own time, and under the energetic rule of Nicholas, the sieges of Turkish fortresses have not added to the reputation of the Russian arms. In Peter's day the Russians had everything to learn, and the lesson of this year was a severe one, though subsequently turned to good account. The Russian troops, especially the Strelitzes, though serving under the eye of their sovereign assisted by such men as Lefort and Gordon, 454 DIARY OF GENERAL GORDON: ESSAY XIV. showed little patience or zeal in the trenches and little courage in assault. The Turk behind his wall and the Tartar in the plain were more than a match as yet for such adversaries. Heavy loss in unsuccessful attacks and a somewhat disastrous retreat were the consequences. We gather from the Diary that torture was occasionally applied both to soldiers for cowardice in action and to prisoners at war as a means of extracting information. With this untoward business the second volume terminates. If it were only for the full details we expect of the grand Strelitz catastrophe, we should be anxious for the arrival of the third. In quitting our hero for the present we may observe that, like John Sobieski, and most other great men, he appears to have bequeathed no legacy of his higher qualities. Of his three sons none rose from obscurity, and two gave him much trouble by their dissolute and rebellious misbehaviour. Of their two sisters, one married a relation of her own, Alexander Gordon, who also became a General in the Russian service : a man of much military distinction, and who, among other experiences, had been made prisoner by Charles XII. at Narva. This eminent officer returned with his wife to Scotland in 1711 indited, at leisure, a Biography of Peter the Great, in two volumes well thumbed by ourselves in early days and died at his family seat of Achin- toul in 1752. His race is extinct.' The other daughter of old Patrick Ivanovitch (as he was called among the Muscovites) though twice married, died childless ; and it is believed that no lineal posterity now remains of the suppressor of the Strelitzes and conqueror of Asow. ESSAY XV. MH. WALLIN. 455 XV. TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW, DECEMBER, 1853 .() WE are willing to take for granted the accuracy of Mr. Helms as a translator ; and making this concession, albeit a blind one, to acknowledge our obligation for his labour. He would, however, have much enhanced that obligation if he had favoured us with some prefatory biographical notice of the enterprising traveller, whose narrative he has rescued from the comparative obscurity of a Scandinavian text. This task Mr. Helms has omitted to discharge. His translation, in the edition which has reached us, is not accompanied by preface, or by a word of in- formation beyond that afforded in the title-page, in one or two unimportant notes, and a sketch map of the route of the later journeys, an extension of which to the two former would be very desirable. From the fact announced in the title-page, that the original is in Swedish, we might naturally have inferred that Mr. Castren was a native and subject of Sweden. We are enabled, however, upon inquiry to inform our readers that he was we wish we could say is a subject of Russia, and a native of Fin- land. Those who go through the account of his travels will learn, with more sympathy than surprise, that the adventures it records undermined its author's constitution, and led to his premature decease. He is entitled to a share in the regret with which the announcement of the loss of another distinguished Finlander, the Oriental scholar and traveller, Mr. Wallin, lias been received in the scientific world. We are told nothing of his decease by the translator, but a note casually informs us that Mr. Castren lived to accomplish, under the auspices of the Russian Govern- (*) Mathias Alexander Castren, Travels in the North : containing a Journey in Lapland in 1838: Journey in Russian Karelia in 1839; Journey in Lapland, Northern Russia, and Siberia, in 1841-44. Translated into German (from the Swedish), by Henrik Helms. Leipzig : Avenarius and Mendelsohn. 1853. 456 TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSAY XV. ment, a very extended journey through Siberia and other parts of the Russian Asiatic dominion, as far as the frontiers of China, not noticed in this work, but which, we hope, may be the subject of a future publication. Of the many motives and pursuits which separately, or in combination, are daily leading explorers into the distant recesses and dark holes and corners of the earth, one of the most credit- able, the love of science, was Mr. Castren's. He was born in a Finland village, not far from the northern extremity of the Gulf of Bothnia. His education was obtained at the Alexander's College of Helsingfors, which, since its transference to that city from Abo, has, we believe, done credit to the liberal endowment of the Eussian Government. He seems, from his earliest years, to have formed the intention of devoting himself to the illustra- tion of the literature and antiquities of his country; and the main object of the travels recorded in the present volume was to trace the affinities of the languages of the coterminous Lap, the Samoyede, and the Ostiak, with his own and with each other. For this, and for the kindred purposes of investigating the habits, the liistory, and above all the superstitions, of these rude tribes, he faced the summer mosquito of the Lapland swamp, and the wintry blast of the Tundra, which not even the reindeer can confront and live. For these objects he traversed the White Sea in rickety vessels with drunken crews, and fed on raw fish and sawdust, and accepted shelter in the hut of the Samoyede beggar. The present volume contains the journal of three such expedi- tions. The general reader may open it without fear of encoun- tering the detailed results of the author's philological or other scientific researches. These must be sought elsewhere by the curious in Finn inflexions and Lap or Samoyede terminations, in the records of scientific societies, Russian and Scandinavian. Having thus early chosen his path of inquiry, Mr. Castren occupied himself for some fifteen years of his student life at Helsingfors with assiduous study of the Finn and other cognate languages, so far as books could enable him to pursue it. The aid, however, to be derived from books for such investigations as these was limited, and he long sighed in vain for pecuniary means and opportunity to visit the regions, the languages and manners of winch he wished to explore. In the year 1838 tho desired opening was at last presented to him. Dr. Ehrstrom, a ESSAY XV. SIX WEEKS AT MUOXONISKA. 457 friend and medical fellow-student, proposed to accept him as a companion, free of expense, on a tour in Lapland. They were subsequently joined by another alumnus of the Alexander Uni- versity, Magister Blank, a professor of natural history, and by a preacher named Durmann, charged with a mission to the Enare district of Lapmark. With these companions he started from a village near Tornea on the 25th June, 1838. In the early part of this journey, before they had overstepped the limits of Finnish civilization, they found their accommoda- tions somewhat improved by preparations for the reception of an expected French scientific expedition. These had, we presume, been made by special suggestion of Eussian authorities, for the guests were not looked forward to with pleasure. French scien- tific travellers had, it appears, on some former occasion, given offence and trouble to their entertainers. Englishmen bore a better reputation. They indeed, like the French, had given trouble, and been particular as to their accommodation, but then they had cheerfully paid double and triple prices for it. They had angled perpetually in the streams, and had bestowed all they caught upon their boatmen. We recognize our countrymen in this description. The 30th of June brought the party, after severe fatigue and hardship incident to up-stream navigation of rivers, varied by occasional portages, to the town of Muononiska. They were here deprived of the society of Dr. Ehrstrom, who received advices which compelled him to return to Tornea. How his loss as a paymaster was supplied we are not informed, but it seems not to have affected the plan of the expedition. Mr. Castren was reconciled to a six weeks stay at Muononiska, by intercourse with a Lap catechist, who, educated by a Finnish pastor, had been employed in the preparation of a translation of the Scrip- tures into his native language, and was now glad to exchange Lap for Finnish instruction with Mr. Castren. The party left this place on the llth July with no very distinct plan of route, other than that of penetrating Lapland proper by the best passage they could find of the mountain-ridge which forms the watershed between the North Sea and the Gulph of Bothnia. The journey which ensued, conducted partly on foot, partly on streams of difficult and hazardous navigation, was a series of labours, hardships, and privations, exasperated by inefficient 458 TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSAY XV. guides, frequent deluges of rain, unsheltered bivouacs, and the constant toil of carrying on their backs their wardrobe and stores. For these Mr. Castren was compensated by the garrulity of his guides, who regaled him with traditions principally founded on ancient border feuds between the Lap and the Russ of Karelia. The most interesting of these relate to a certain Palwio, and a race of Lapland heroes, of whom he was the progenitor. Some of the feats of strength or cunning attributed to these eminent persons are claimed in favour of a certain Laurukain, who figures in Finnish as well as Lappish legends in the characters of a Hercules, an Ulysses, and a William Tell. From some of these narratives it is evident that the adventure of the Cave of Poly- pheine, after finding favour with the Greek rhapsodist and Arab story-teller, has penetrated to the Arctic circle. Here, as also subsequently among the Karelians, our author found equally palpable traces of the principal exploits attributed to the Swiss hero. From what original source, or through what channels these traditions have travelled, it is probably vain to inquire or dispute. The triumph of courage over numbers, of policy over brute force, has its charms for the rudest nations, and, from Jack the Giant Killer to William Tell, the key-note of the strain is ever the same. It is true that many of the Lap and Finn tales relate to feats of preternatural strength and activity, but in many others the Palwio or Laurukain of the tradition overreaches his adversary by superior intelligence. He guides the Russian or Karelian marauder with a torch by night, and flinging it over a precipice, while he crouches in a cleft of the rock, procures their destruction. Surrounded in a hut, he dresses up a bag of feathers in a human semblance, and, while his enemies are stabbing at it and at one another, escapes by a loophole, &c. &c. The course pursued by the travellers led them to the great lake of Enare, and Uitzoki one of those centres of Lapland civilization which boast a church and a resident pastor, situated some two days' journey beyond that lake was the limit of this expedition. The abundance of fish in the waters of the lake and of the rivers which intersect the adjacent district, attract to their barren shores a scattered and scanty population, of habits which distinguish it from the regular nomad or mountain Lap. The nomad, depending exclusively on his herds of rein-deer for subsistence, dwells in tents, and shifts his abode perpetually in ESSAY XV. THE PASTOR OF UITZOKI. 459 search of fresh pastures. The fisher Lap, though he migrates between a summer and winter residence, and during the latter season dwells in the forest, and occasionally hunts the wild rein- deer, is more stationary in his habits, and builds himself a hut for his residence. He thus comes more within the reach of social intercourse, and of the religious instruction which the zealous missionaries of Finland have carried into these regions. In one respect, indeed, that of cleanliness, the nomad has the advantage. The filth of the fisher's hut is permanent ; the dwell- ing of the mountain Lap is at least purified by frequent removals to sites not saturated by corruption in its foulest forms. At Uitzoki the party found the pastoral residence occupied by one of those men who sacrifice on the shrine of Christian duty, not merely the comforts of civilized life, but talents and acquirements of a high order. On accepting his charge he had performed the journey from Tornea in the depth of winter, accompanied by a young wife and a female relation of the latter, fifteen years of age. He had found the parsonage vacated by his predecessor a wretched edifice, distant some fifteen miles from the nearest Lap habitation. After establishing himself and his family in this, he had returned from a pastoral excursion, guided to his home by the light of a conflagration from which its inmates had escaped with difficulty, but with a total loss of everything they possessed. A wretched hut, built for the tem- porary shelter of the Laps who resorted thither for divine service, afforded the family a shelter for the winter. He had since con- trived to build himself another dwelling, in which our party found him, after five years' residence, the father of a family, and the chief of a happy household. The latter was destined to be diminished by the visit of our travellers. The susceptible Durmann fell a victim to the attractions and accomplishments, musical especially, of the young lady, and he left Uitzoki, in company with our author, for Enare, a betrothed man. Their journey was hurried, for Mr. D. was engaged to perform service at the church of Enare, and love had delayed his departure to the last moment. The second of their three days' journey was one of eight Swedish, or nearly sixty English, miles, performed in wet clothes, and almost without rest or sustenance, for sixteen consecutive hours. In respect of the congregation for whom such sacrifices were encountered they were not ill-bestowed. At 460 TBAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSAY XV. Enare, remarkable evidence came under Mr. Castren's observa- tion of that craving for religious exercises, which would appear to increase as directly in proportion to privation as any sensual appetite. We have heard that, on the occasion of a pastoral visit to St. Kilda, a sermon of seven hours duration has been found not sufficient to satisfy, much less exhaust, its audience. Mr. Castren describes the Enare Laps as unremittingly occupied for twenty-four hours together with religious exercises, partly in the church and partly in their huts. Some of them knew the New Testament by heart; and during the service, while the Finns present were generally obliged to follow the psalm from the book, not a single Lap was reduced to this necessity. This is the more remarkable, because the introduction of the Lutheran faith and worship and it may probably be said of Christianity in any shape is of recent date. Some inroads upon heathenism and Seida, or idol worship, were probably made by Eoman Catholic missionaries before the Reformation. The first churches were built in the reign of Charles IX., about the year 1600 ; but so late as the year 1750 a Report was furnished to the chapter of Abo by a mission of inquiry, which described heathen- ism as generally prevalent. All honour to the men, such as the pastor of Uitzoki, who have effected this change. The names of the deities formerly worshipped are now all but forgotten Aija, Akka, and others. The Seidas of stone have been generally overthrown, and those of wood given to the flames ; though in some instances the former remain in unfrequented spots, such as certain islands of the Enare lake, objects of lingering super- stitious terror and avoidance, but no longer of worship. The Lapland summer is short. In early August the grass began to turn yellow, the willow-leaf to fade, and birds of passage were on the move. Though ill recovered from the fatigues of what Mr. Castren calls the " betrothal promenade," he commenced his homeward journey on the 15th of August. It proved, as may be supposed, a pretty close repetition of the labours and difficulties of the former. Their route led them by some Finnish settlements, principally dependent on agriculture for subsistence ; and here, in consequence of a succession of unfavourable seasons, they found the wretched inhabitants lite- rally living upon hay. The bark of trees is not an uncommon ingredient of the peasant's loaf in Finland and Scandinavia, and, ESSAY XV. SERPENT LEGISLATION. 461 mixed in equal or less proportion with rye-meal, reconciles itself to the " dura ilia " of the North. We have heard that a militia regiment, on annual duty at Stockholm, suffered at first severe illness from the rich diet of the loaf without the bark admixture. The inhabitants of Sombio had long been reduced to the bark without the rye, and supplied the place of the latter with chopped straw. Even the straw had now failed them, and recourse was had to a grass called by the Finn Westrikko, by the botanist Cerastium vulgare. From Sombio they found great difficulty in procuring a guide for a long day's journey over an extensive swamp. The marsh in question and other adjacent districts abound in serpents, and here, as well as subsequently in parts of Siberia inhabited by tribes of Finnish origin, our author had occasion to observe traces of that superstitious belief in certain powers and attributes of the ophidian race which in many nations has shown itself in the form of serpent-worship. Their guide believed that the serpents live in regulated societies, are subject to a sovereign, and meet in assemblies for purposes of legislation and police, in which sentence is passed on individuals of the human race and other animals who may have killed or injured one of the community. Certain stones, supposed to be the judgment-seats of the reptile Rhadamanthi, and various exuviae of the animal, are favourite ingredients of the charm and medicine-chest of the schaman or magician of the heathen Finn. On Mr. Castren's return from the above expedition, he learned that the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh con- templated the sending an expedition into Siberia. He therefore put himself in communication with Mr. Sogroen, a countryman and a member of the Academy, with a view of procuring his own adjunction to the undertaking, and pursued meanwhile with diligence a preparatory course of study. The project, however, was shortly abandoned, and Mr. Castren betook himself, for assistance in his views, to the Literary Society of Finland. From this body he succeeded in obtaining a scanty supply of roubles, and left Helsingfors in May, 1839, for Russian Karelia, from which he returned in September. The main object of this expe- dition, as he described it in his application to the Society, was to collect ballads, legends, and traditions in illustration of Fin- nish mythology, and especially of the Kalewala, the Edda, Iliad, or Xibelungen of Finland. Of these, by much perseverance in TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSA* XV. hunting out professional ballad-singers, and other depositories of national lore, he seems to have gathered a considerable harvest. This summer journey, through regions comparatively populous and civilized, was exempt from the severer trials of his former tour, but he found more difficulty in dealing with the inhabitants, many of them being sectarians, who, under the denomination of Kaskolnicks, profess to maintain the doctrines of the Greek Church in exceptional purity. As the author's subsequent journey brought him still further into contact with these fanatics, we leave them for the present. Our author, in his unwearied pursuit of magical lore and metrical traditions, here fell in again with those which contain all the leading particulars of the adventure of Ulysses with the Cyclops, and of William Tell's feat of archery. The latter, however, is told with the variation that the son is the active, and the father the passive, hero of the tale. The father hag been taken captive by a band of Finn marauders. His son, a boy of twelve years of age, threatens the party with his bow from a position of safety on the other side of a lake. The captors, dreading his skill, promise the father's liberty on a condition which father and son accept, identical with that of the Swiss tale. " Kaise one hand, and sink the other, for the water will attract the arrow," is the father's advice. The apple is duly cloven, and the father released. Here also our author again meets with the incident of the jump from the boat, applied as circumstantially to its special Karelian locality as it is by the boatmen of Lucerne to the spot which they designate as the scene of Tell's exploit. In the year 1841 Mr. Castren undertook a third journey in company with a party at the expense of a learned friend, a Dr. Lonrott. The original scheme of this expedition embraced only parts of Lapland and of the government of Archangel, but this plan was afterwards extended by Mr. Castren to beyond the Oural, and it occupied three years in its execution. The starting point was Kemi, in the neighbourhood of Tornea, and the time of departure the end of November was on this occasion chosen with a view to winter and sledge travelling. Carriage-roads, however, exist for some distance to the north of Tornea, and the journey of some 240 versts was performed in post-carriages, much impeded by the unusual mildness of the season. From ESSAY XV. SLEDGING. 463 this point it was their intention to cross the mountain-ridge into Kussian Lapmark, and to pursue their linguistic and ethnogra- phical researches in parts of that country hitherto unexplored. The report of Finn traders had described the community of the Lap village Akkala as freer from admixture and intercourse with Russians than any other, and as one which had preserved its language and nationality in exceptional purity. Finn and Lap report concurred in also celebrating it as the principal seat of all that now remains of the practice of sorcery. To this place, for these reasons, our travellers' wishes were in the first instance directed; and, as a party of Akkala traders were expected at Salla, they hoped, by making their acquaintance, to secure their services as guides. This intention, however, was completely foiled by the perfidious devices of the men of Salla, who, for some real or imagined interest of their own, contrived to meet the Akkala party, and not only to fill their minds with appre- hensions of the objects of the travellers, but to prevent them from advancing to the village. Mr. Castren and his companion found it advisable to change their plan, and to shape their course direct for Enare, with the view of thence pursuing, after Christ- mas, the exploration of Russian Lapland. They left Salla on the 1st December, and, after a few miles of travel on horseback, betook themselves to the Keris or rein- deer sledge, in regular Lapland guise. Sledging is not without its dangers, particularly to the novice, and of these Mr. Castren, in his journey of some 400 versts to Enare, as well as subse- quently, met with his share. For descending the slippery decli- vities, which are among the most difficult passages of a Lapland journey, the rich man has in reserve a spare animal, who, fastened behind the sledge, resists its forward motion, and acts as a living drag. The traveller who cannot afford this auxiliary has nothing for it but to give his reindeer his head, and trust to chance for the avoidance at full speed of casual obstacles tree, or stone, or snow-drift. The author soon found by experience that the attempt at guidance or restraint only added to the danger. During his short stay at Enare and his further journey to Kola he had much opportunity to study the habits and character of the Lap population, and to trace the distinctions between the fisher and the mountain Lap. An amiable trait of the less civilised mountaineer is the warmth of his affection towards wife, children, 464 TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSAY XV. and dependents. The cordiality of mutual greetings after sepa- ration was a freq uent and pleasant subject of admiration to Mr. Castren. One husband assured him that during thirty years of wedlock no worse word had passed between himself and his wife than " loddadsham," or " my little bird." It would be insufficient justice to the Laplander to contrast him in this respect with many tribes of equal or inferior pretensions to civilisation. The records of our own police offices show that the comparison may be drawn from quarters nearer home. The winter life of the man who depends on the reindeer for subsistence is one of per- petual toil and exposure. The " goatte," or principal family tent, is seldom during that season the abode of the able-bodied males of the household. They are obliged to keep watch against the eternal enemy the wolf, and to snateh their repose coiled in a snow-drift, or at best in the " lappu," an inferior kind of apology for a tent. Even with these exertions, and the assistance of well- trained dogs, it is impossible to protect herds of perhaps a thou- sand reindeer, and to drive within reach of protection an animal which strays widely in search of his daily food. The exhaustion of the pasturage of a district is the signal of migration to the entire family, and this is said to occur on an average twice a-month. To support the fatigues of this life the reindeer flesh gives powerful sustenance. During the winter the Lap seldom or never has to perform the office of butcher. The wolf saves him that trouble ; but by this he loses some of the best morsels, and, above all, his favourite delicacy the blood. Mr. Castren makes no mention of apprehension for his own safety, or of danger to travellers in general from the wolf. At Synjel, on the route to Kola, Mr. Castren first makes acquaintance with the Russian Lap. He is a fisher, and in summer migrates for that pursuit. In whiter he takes up a per- manent residence, and having less to do with the reindeer than the Enare fisher Lap has a greater tendency to the Russian fashion of collecting in villages. From the Russian, who is by nature a trader, he has also borrowed an aptitude for commercial transactions. The balance and weights are usually hanging in his hut, and he measures out to the traveller the provisions which he supplies. In respect of religious instruction the Russian Lap of the Greek Church is far below his Lutheran neighbour. The belief in magic and witchcraft, and the practice of those accom- ESSAY XT. TIMIDITY OF THE LAP WOMEN. 4C5 plishments, are prevalent, and Akkala is the Padua or principal university for these sciences. Our author's failure in his scheme for visiting that seminary prevented him from drinking diabolic lore at the fountain-head, -but the principal result of his inquiries amounted to this, that the magical power is usually exercised during a kind of mesmeric slumber, which, in the case of the professional magician, can be commanded at pleasure. Medical practice and the recovery of stolen or lost goods are usually the subjects of the magician's operations. The race appears to be of a nervous constitution best described by the French term " im- pressionable." Mr. Castren writes, page 151 : " I had often, on my journey through Lapmark, been warned to be cautious in my dealings with the Eussian Lap, and especially with the female sex, on account of a strange propensity among them to sudden fits of phrenzy, accompanied by the loss of consciousness and control over their actions. I treated these reports at first as fables of the ordinary kind applied to the people in question. I fell in however one day, in a village of Eussian Lapmark, with gome Karelians and two Eussian traders. These repeated the warning above-mentioned, advising me never to frighten a Lap woman, for in their opinion this was a ' res capitalis/ With reference to this caution one of the Karelians told me wliat follows. I was once, he said, when a boy, fishing out at sea, when I met with a boat rowed by Laplanders. Among them was a woman with a child at the breast. Upon seeing me in a dress unusual to her, she became so beside herself with fear that she flung the child into the sea." Another Karelian related how he was once in a society of Terski Laps : " We were talking of indifferent matters when a sound was heard like the blow of a hammer on the outer side of the wall. On the in- stant all the Laps present tumbled flat on the floor, and after some gesticulations with hands and feet, became stiff and immoveable as corpses. After a while they recovered and behaved as if nothing unusual had happened. To convince me of the truth of this, and other such tales, one of the Eussians proposed to show me evidence of the timidity of the Lap women. He began by putting out of the way knives, axes, and any other mischievous implements which happened to be at hand. He then came suddenly behind a woman present and clapped his hands. She sprung up like a fury and scratched, kicked, and pummelled the aggressor to our edification. After this exercise she sunk exhausted on a bench and recovered with difficulty her breath and senses. Having regained the latter she 2 H 466 TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSAY XV. declared herself determined, not to be so frightened again. In fact a second experiment only produced a piercing shriek. While she was priding herself on this success the other Russian flung a pocket-book, so that it passed just before her eyes, and ran instantly out of the room. The lady hereupon flew at every one present in succession, flinging one to the ground, dashing another against the wall, beating them, and tearing their hair out by handfuls. I sat in a corner waiting my own turn to come. I saw at last with horror her wild glance fixed on me. She was on the point of printing her nails in my face when two stout men in a fortunate moment seized her, and she sank fainting into their arms. It was the opinion of my com- panions that my spectacles had specially excited her phrenzy." Such a temperament as that indicated in this narrative must obviously be very favourable to a system of sorcery which appears to have much connexion with mesmerism and clairvoyance. The Lap population of the Russian territory Mr. Castren be- lieves to be rapidly merging its national characteristics in those of its masters. The last statistical reports estimate its numbers not higher than 1844 souls. From Enare 150 versts of sledge travelling brought the party to Kola, on the shores of the White Sea, the most northern city of European Russia, numbering some 1200 inhabitants, and possessed of a large church built by Peter the Great. Mr. Castren here found himself once more in con- tact with civilisation, at a festival season and in the shape of good men's feasts, sledge parties with pretty women in rich costumes, and other Russian convivialities. It was not for these, however, he travelled, nor may his descriptions of them detain his reviewer. Amid the flesh-pots of Kola he pined for the hut and the raw-fish of the Ostiak and the Samoyede. Advices from St. Petersburg!! made it necessary for him to shape his course for Archangel, and to abandon his projects for excursions among the Russian Laps. Kandalaes, on the western shore of the White Sea, was the first station to be reached. Their journey to this place was made difficult and vexatious by their encounter on the road with a column of the Russ and Karelian tribes who, to the number of 1200, under the name Meermauzen, or men of the sea, annually migrate to the coast, which they reach near Kola, and afterwards scatter north and south for the summer fishing. These parties, by whom our travellers found the wretched shelter of the first station huts crowded, were of the lowest class of hired labourers, their wealthier employers sailing in June to the various fishing stations. The fishery is over in ESSAY XV. THE RASKOLNICK PIETISTS. 467 August, but before that time many of the vessels which have procured their cargoes proceed to Vadso, Hammerfest, and other Norwegian harbours, to exchange their fish for corn, brandy, colonial produce, &c. The encounter with this rude horde was not without amusement and instruction, but the inconvenience was great, and the confusion prevented all study on the road of the niceties of the Kuss and Yerski Lap languages. We could scarcely hope to interest our readers with passing notices of these subjects, or with our author's speculations as to the manner in which in former times the fluctuating waves of Finn and Karelian population have come into collision with that of the Sclavonic Russian, and how the Lap has been squeezed between both. Such men as Mr. Castren are the hard workers who collect the rough materials of philology from which the gene- ralizers, the Bopps and Pritchards, afterwards sift the gold. From such labours the casual reader can derive no profit. Freed at length from this unwelcome hindrance, the travellers pursued their journey under considerable difficulties from weather and deficiency of reindeer. With one young and ill-trained animal I\Ir. Castren fell into a difficulty in the sense in which it is used in Arkansas or California, where it signifies mortal combat, for, after an upset, the animal turned upon him, and he fought for life, but luckily without serious consequences to man or beast. Kandalaes presented no attraction, and the journey was pursued 240 versts further south to Kem. This place presented nothing remarkable, but the religious gloom in which, as a principal seat of the Raskolnick pietists, it is shrouded. Isolation, voluntary martyrdom, and abstinence from all earthly enjoyment, are the characteristics of this sect. Contempt and persecution are the only favours they will accept from the uninitiated. Their scanty theological literature, which exists in an antiquated Sclavonic character, has few readers even among the educated, and is little better understood even by the priests than the Zend is by those Parsee doctors of Bombay who found a master and in- structor in the Danish scholar Westergaard. For the masses religious exercise is one of pure ceremonial, and this is conse- quently of the longest. There may be merit in listening to a sermon or in joining in a service for hours together. There must be greater merit in standing for an equal number of hours before an image doing nothing. Even Raskolnick nature some- times quails before this effort. He stands on for the number of 2 H 2 468 TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSAY XV. hours required, but occasionally relieves himself by conversation on indifferent subjects with bystanders. The great secret, however, of Easkolnick religion lies in the art and manner of making the sign of the cross. The misguided votary of the faith, which the Emperor Nicholas styles orthodox, crosses himself with the three first fingers. The Starowergh, or strict Easkol- nick, conceives that by making the sign with the thumb and the two last fingers he will be admitted to heaven without question. The fact is that the former method is the joint invention of the devil and a certain Kussian pseudo - saint, Nikon, who, after corrupting the text of scripture, contrived to enlist the reigning Czar in favour of the diabolical perversion, and to establish it in the Greek Church. Many other illustra- tions of the High Church principles of this singular sect might be adduced, but we consider the above a sufficient specimen of the present state of theology in Kem. In practice the Easkolnick clings with Hindoo tenacity to his system of sectarian isolation. He will not eat or bathe with the unorthodox, and the vessel used by the latter is polluted. Our author found elsewhere on his travels the inconvenience of this tenet, for arriving exhausted at a Easkolnick village he found it impossible to procure a vessel from which he could receive the refreshment the inhabitants were not unwilling on other grounds to furnish. The difficulty was solved by a charitable patriarch of the village council, who de- cided that, though a wooden vessel would be irremediably polluted, one of stone might be afterwards purified by sand and water. In this unattractive town and society the state of roads and weather compelled the party to abide for a month, and even then it was found impossible to proceed by land, as no summer road exists between Kem and Onega, the midway station towards Archangel. No opportunity presenting itself for a direct passage by sea to Archangel, Mr. Castren was advised to avail himself of a vessel about to sail for the island of Solovetzkoi, the seat of a famous convent, some thirty versts from Kem in the White Sea. After an uninteresting detention of ten days at this place they reached Archangel by a passage of four days, through floating ice, in an open boat. Mr. Castren had reckoned here upon the assistance to his studies of a Samoyede missionary, the Archimandrite Wenjamin. Archimandrites, however, are human, and Wenjamin's weakness was jealousy, and a conviction that a knowledge of the Samoyede ESSAY XV. PRAYER AND DRUNKENNESS. 469 language was too good a thing to be imparted. The churlish dignitary's refusal produced a change of plans, and a separation from Mr. Lonrott. That gentleman gave up his Samoyede projects in disgust, and betook himself to Olonetz, whence he proposed to fall back on another race of interesting barbarians, the Tschudi. Mr. Castren abided stedfastly by his original scheme of exploring the Tundras during the ensuing winter, at which season a!0ne those deserts are penetrable. The interval he proposed to turn to account by a journey among the Terzki Laps, who inhabit the western shores of the White Sea. With these views, in an evil hour of the 27th June, he em- barked in a large corn-laden vessel bound for the Murman coast, with a reasonable prospect of being landed at Ti Ostrowa in some twenty -four hours. He was suffering at this time from illness, severe enough to have detained a less persevering traveller. The stench of Russian sea-stores made the cabin insupportable ; on deck the sun was scorching. The choice between these alterna- tives was not always at Mr. Castren's disposal. Captain and crew were Easkolnicks to a man, and while they were busy with their interminable and senseless devotions in the cabin the solitary heathen passenger was forced to keep watch on deck. This was well enough during a dead calm, which at first oc- curred, but when it came on to blow the situation became one of responsibility. After a narrow escape of being dashed on the western shore, a shift of wind sent them, in a few hours, across the mouth of the White Sea to the eastern coast. Prayer had been the first resource of the ship's company, and that having failed general drunkenness was the next stupefaction, not exhilaration, being the object in view. The captain, indeed, was so bent on this result, that, finding his own brandy insuf- ficient for the purpose, he borrowed a bottle of rum from Mr. Castren's scanty store. When the gale and the rum had some- \vhat evaporated, the ship found herself, in company with some thirty others, in the sheltered roadstead of Simnia Gory. We can hardly be surprised that Mr. Castren here determined to quit such companions, whose society had become more irksome from attempts at his conversion, and to land at all risks, with a view to effecting his return to Archangel. After some difficulty he found one of the crew less drunken than the rest, and by him was skulled ashore, with his effects. After a life-and-death struggle with fever during some days, exasperated by brutal 470 TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSAY XV. inliospitality on the part of some fishers, the oiily inhabitants, he found himself under the inspection of two soldiers, who had been sent from the nearest settlement, Kuja, to examine the stranger's luggage and passport. These agents of authority proved his salvation ; for finding his passport in order, they conveyed him in their boat to Kuja, where the authorities treated him kindly, and when sufficiently recovered for\varded him on by sea to Archangel. Here, with only fifteen rubles in his pocket, he found some Samoyede beggars still poorer than liimself. One of these, for the reward of an occasional glass of brandy, con- sented to become at once his host, his servant, and his private tutor in the Samoyede language. In the hut and society of this man, in a village some seventeen versts from Archangel, he passed the remainder of the summer. Human thirst for know- ledge has seldom, we imagine, been more strongly illustrated. Letters of recommendation from high authorities, lay and eccle- siastical, and supplies of money, at length reached him from St. Petersburgh. Towards the end of November, he started with renewed enthusiasm for the Tundras, or deserts of European Eussia, which intervene between the White Sea and the Oural. As far as Mesen, 345 versts north of Archangel, the scanty population is Euss and Christian. At Mesen, as at Kola, civilization ceases, and further north the Samoyede retains for the most part, with his primitive habits and language, his heathen faith ; having, in fact, borrowed nothing from occasional inter- course with civilized man, but the means and practice of drunk- enness. During the author's stay at Mesen, his studies of cha- racter were principally conducted in the neighbourhood of a principal suburban tavern, the Elephant and Castle or Horns of that city. The snow around was constantly chequered with dark figures, who, with their faces pressed into it to protect them from the frost, were sleeping away the fumes of alcohol. Ever and anon some one would stagger out from the building with a coffee-pot in hand, and searching about for some object of affection wife, husband, or other relation would turn the face upward, and pour a draught of the nectar, which was not coffee, down the throat. Such are the pleasures of the Samoyede on a visit to the metropolis. Mr. Castren left Mesen on the 22nd December. At Somski, the first station on his route, he had made an appointment with a Tabide or Samoyede magician, of great repute for professional eminence. The sage kept his ESSAY XV. MEDICINE AND SOOTHSAYING. 471 appointment, but, unfortunately, having been just converted to Christianity, had burnt his drum, like Prospero, and now begged hard to be excused from reverting to forbidden practices. Mr. Castren, though armed with Government recommendations, was too good a Christian to use influence for such a purpose as enforcing a relapse into superstitious rites, and the convert AN as not unwilling to expound the secrets of his former calling. Of the two main divisions of the science, medicine and soothsaying, the former is most prevalent with the Finn, the latter with the Samoyede. The Tabide is a mere interpreter of the oracles of the Tabetsios, the spirits with whom he puts himself in commu- nication. The process is not, like that of the Akkala professors, mesmeric, but one of active drumming, noise, and gesticulation. The man who conducts it must bring youth and physical energy to the task. The Tabetsio laughs at age and decrepitude. With obstinate Tabetsios the magician, like the priests of Baal, must puncture and slash himself with sharp weapons. The latter practice is less common than it was in the good old times of sorcery ; but our author relates that, shortly before his arrival, a Tabide in the process of incantation had insisted on being shot at with a musket, and, after standing two shots from Saraoyede bystanders without injury, had been killed on the spot by a third fired by a Kussian. Eussian authorities were employed in an investigation into this tragical occurrence when Mr. Castren left Shumshi. The office of Tabide, as in Finland, is hereditary. "Magus nascitur non fit" is the general rule; but to this it seems there are exceptions. A drum, a circle, and a costume, are the principal paraphernalia. In the case of a missing rein- deer the circle is made of deer-horns ; in that of a human being it is made of human hair. The religious belief of the unconverted Samoyede is as usual founded on celestial and atmospheric phenomena. Their Num or God is lord of the sun, the stars, &c. ; the rainbow is his mantle, the thunder his voice. Any idea of him as a moral governor which may have been observed among them, Mr. Cas- tren considers as having been infused by Christian missionaries. Without any distinct belief in future reward or punishment, or even in any future state of existence, the Samoyede firmly believes in retribution for crime in this life, that murder will be punished by violent death, robbery by losses of reindeer, &c., and this to a degree which is said to act as a practical preventive 472 TRAVELS AMONG THE LAPS. ESSAY XV. of serious crime. Excess in liquor, however, though considered highly sinful, has attractions which few or none resist. In their language the Sunday of the Christian bears a name of which the translation, whether into English or German, becomes a pun. They see that day devoted by their instructors and their converted brethren to intoxication, and call it >Sind&y. Besides the Num or invisible God, and the Tabetsio, or deity visible only to the magician, they have the Habe or household idol, a fetiche of wood or stone, which they dress in coloured rags, consult, and worship. Some stones of larger size, and bearing some rude natural resemblance to the human form, are also, like the Seidas of the Laplander, objects of general reverence. The island of Waygatz is a chief repository of these. For special purposes, such as the ratification of oaths, fetiches are manufactured of earth or snow, but the most effectual security for an oath is that it should be solemnised over the snout of a bear. The sacrifice of a dog or reindeer is necessary when some benefit is demanded of the Tabetsio. On these occasions no woman may be present Mr. Castren's next enterprize was the passage of the Tundra to the Russian village Pustosersk, at the mouth of the Petschora, a sledge journey of 700 versts. For this arduous exploit two sledges with four reindeer attached to each were employed ; the traveller's sledge, which was covered, being attached to an un- covered one occupied by the guide. The village of Nes, on the north coast, was the first halting-place ; and in this remote corner of the world Mr. Castren found a resident angel in the shape of a Christian pastor's wife, a beautiful and accomplished person, who, in the absence of her husband on duty, proved a guardian angel to our traveller, not only harbouring him in comfort and luxury, but procuring him Samoyede instructors, and various opportunities for studying native manners. No wonder that he lingered in such a paradise till the '19th of January. His further course was one of danger as well as difficulty. Not only the storm of the Tundra occasionally brought the sledge to a stand, baffling the guide and paralysing the reindeer ; but even this desert is not exempt from the violence of man. The Sa- moyede, indeed, is harmless, and his active assistance is generally to be won by kind words and brandy ; but he himself is exposed to the oppression of Eussian traders, who degenerate into robbers, roam these wastes for the plunder of his reindeer, and have little respect for the traveller unaccompanied by some agent of Eus- ESSAY XV. ARRIVAL AT OBDORSK. sian authority. Through all these perils, resolution and endurance carried our traveller in safety. From Pustosersk Mr. Castren navigated the Petschora to the base of the Oural, and crossing that frontier range by one of many passes with which that barrier between Europe and Asia is in this latitude deeply indented, reached the Asiatic trading town of Obdorsk, near the mouth of the great Siberian river Ob. Here the volume closes. Here also our limits compel us to con- clude a notice which we trust our readers will think not ill bestowed on a most simple and unpretending narrative of toil and danger manfully endured in the cause of science. The author's style is not one either of salient passages and attempts at fine writing, or of dry and prolix detail. Having a large diges- tion for travels, we should willingly have encountered the diary, of which the published work is evidently a condensation. In its present shape it is probably better suited for readers of less leisure, and those must be difficult to please who can either open it at random, or go through it consecutively without satisfaction. Such men as Mr. Wallin and Mr. Castren do honour to a country which has its claims on the sympathy of Europe. For the convenience of political arrangements, and for the sake of general peace, Finland has undergone a process of absorption in which we apprehend her own wishes and feelings have been little consulted. 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