Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 442 - Volume 17, New Series, June 19, 1852
Author: Various
Language: English
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                     CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL

  CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
  INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.


  No. 442. NEW SERIES.   SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1852.   PRICE 1-1/2_d._



THE OLD HOUSE IN CRANE COURT.

The roaring pell-mell of the principal thoroughfares of London is
curiously contrasted with the calm seclusion which is often found at
no great distance in certain lanes, courts, and passages, and the
effect is not a little heightened when in these by-places we light
upon some old building speaking of antique institutions or bygone
habits of society. We lately had this idea brought strikingly before
us on plunging abruptly out of Fleet Street into Crane Court, in
search of the establishment known as the Scottish Hospital. We were
all at once transferred into a quiet narrow street, as it might be
called, full of printing and lithographic offices, tall, dark, and
rusty, while closing up the further end stood a dingy building of
narrow front, presenting an ornamental porch. A few minutes served to
introduce us to a moderate-sized hall, having a long table in the
centre, and an arm-chair at the upper end, while several old portraits
graced the walls. It was not without a mental elevation of feeling, as
well as some surprise, that we learned that this was a hall in which
Newton had spent many an evening. It was, to be quite explicit, the
meeting-place of the Royal Society from 1710 till 1782, and,
consequently, during not much less than twenty years of the latter
life of the illustrious author of the _Principia_, who, as an
office-bearer in the institution, must have often taken an eminent
place here. We were not, however, immediately in quest of the
antiquities of the Royal Society. Our object was to form some
acquaintance with the valuable institution which has succeeded to it
in the possession of this house.

We must advert to a peculiarity of our Scottish countrymen, which can
be set down only on the credit side of their character--their sympathy
with each other when they meet as wanderers in foreign countries.
Scotland is just a small enough country to cause a certain unity of
feeling amongst the people. Wherever they are, they feel that Scotsmen
should stand, as their proverb has it, _shoulder to shoulder_. The
more distant the clime in which they meet, they remember with the more
intensity their common land of mountain and flood, their historical
and poetical associations, the various national institutions which
ages have endeared to them; and the more disposed are they to take an
interest in each other's welfare. This is a feeling in which time and
modern innovations work no change, and it is one of old-standing.

When James VI. acceded to the throne of Elizabeth, he was followed
southward by some of his favourite nobles, and there was of course an
end put to that exclusive system of the late monarch which had kept
down the number of Scotsmen in London, to what must now appear the
astonishingly small one of fifty-eight. Perhaps some exaggerations
have been indulged in with regard to the host of traders and craftsmen
who went southward in the train of King James, but there can be no
doubt, that it was considerable in point of numbers. But where wealth
is sought for, there also, by an inevitable law of nature, is poverty.
The better class of Scotchmen settled in London, soon found their
feelings of compassion excited in behalf of a set of miserable
fellow-countrymen who had failed to obtain employment or fix
themselves in a mercantile position, and for whom the stated charities
of the country were not available. Hence seems to have arisen, so
early as 1613, the necessity for some system of mutual charity among
the natives of Scotland in London. So far as can be ascertained, it
was a handful of journeymen or hired artisans, who in that year
associated to aid each other, and prevent themselves from becoming
burdensome to strangers--an interesting fact, as evincing in a remote
period the predominance of that spirit of independence for which the
modern Scottish peasantry has been famed, and which even yet survives
in some degree of vigour, notwithstanding the fatally counteractive
influence of poor-laws. The funds contributed by these worthy men were
put into a box, and kept there--for in those days there were no banks
to take a fruitful charge of money--and at certain periods the
contributors would meet, and see what they could spare for the relief
of such poor fellow-countrymen as had in the interval applied to them.
We have still a faint living image of this simple plan in the _boxes_
belonging to certain trades in our Scottish towns, or rather the
survivance of the phrase, for the money, we must presume, is now
everywhere relegated to the keeping of the banks. The institution in
those days was known as the SCOTTISH BOX, just as a money-dealing
company came to be called a bank, from the table (_banco_) which it
employed in transacting its business. From a very early period in its
history, it seems to have taken the form of what is now called a
Friendly Society, each person contributing an entrance-fee of 5s., and
6d. per quarter thereafter, so as to be entitled to certain benefits
in the event of poverty or sickness. Small sums were also lent to the
poorer members, without interest, and burial expenses were paid. We
find from the records that, in 1638, when the company was twenty in
number, and met in Lamb's Conduit Street, it allowed 20s. for a
certain class of those of its members who had died of the plague, and
30s. for others. The whole affair, however, was then on a limited
scale--the quarterly disbursements in 1661 amounting only to L.9, 4s.
Nevertheless, upwards of 300 poor Scotsmen, swept off by the
pestilence of 1665-6, were buried at the expense of the Box, while
numbers more were nourished during their sickness, without subjecting
the parishes in which they resided to the smallest expense. We have
not the slightest doubt, that not one of these people felt the
bitterness of a dependence on alms. If not actually entitled to relief
in consideration of previous payments of their own, they would feel
that they were beholden only to their kindly countrymen. It would be
like the members of a family helping each other. Humiliation could
have been felt only, if they had had to accept of alms from those
amongst whom they sojourned as strangers. Such is the way, at least,
in which we read the character of our countrymen.

In the year 1665, the Box was exalted into the character of a
corporation by a royal charter, the expenses attendant on which were
disbursed by gentlemen named Kinnear, Allen, Ewing, Donaldson, &c.
When they met at the Cross Keys in 'Coven Garden,' they found their
receipts to be L.116, 8s. 5d. The character of the times is seen in
one of their regulations, which imposed a fine of 2s. 6d. for every
oath used in the course of their quarterly business. The institution
was now becoming venerable, and, as usual, members began to exhibit
their affection for it by presents. The Mr Kinnear just mentioned,
conferred upon it an elegant silver cup. James Donaldson presented an
ivory mallet or hammer, to be used by the chairman in calling order.
Among the contributors, we find the name of Gilbert Burnet (afterwards
Bishop) as giving L.1 half-yearly. They had an hospital erected in
Blackfriars Street; but experience soon proved that confinement to a
charity workhouse was altogether uncongenial to the feelings and
habits of the Scottish poor, and they speedily returned to the plan of
assisting them by small outdoor pensions, which has ever since been
adhered to. In those days, no effort was made to secure permanency by
a sunk fund. They distributed each quarter-day all that had been
collected during the preceding interval. The consequence of this not
very Scotsman-like proceeding was that, in one of those periods of
decay which are apt to befall all charitable institutions, the
Scottish Hospital was threatened with extinction; and this would
undoubtedly have been its fate, but for the efforts of a few patriotic
Scotsmen who came to its aid.

Through the help of these gentlemen, a new charter was obtained
(1775), putting the institution upon a new and more liberal footing,
and at the same time providing for the establishment of a permanent
fund. Since then, through the virtue of the national spirit,
considerable sums have been obtained from the wealthier Scotch living
in London, and by the bequests of charitable individuals of the
nation; so that the hospital now distributes about L.2200 per annum,
chiefly in L.10 pensions to old people.[1] At the same time, a special
bequest of large amount (L.76,495) from William Kinloch, Esq., a
native of Kincardineshire, who had realised a fortune in India, allows
of a further distribution through the same channel of about L.1800,
most of it in pensions of L.4 to disabled soldiers and sailors. Thus
many hundreds of the Scotch poor of the metropolis may be said to be
kept by their fellow-countrymen from falling upon the parochial funds,
on which they would have a claim--a fact, we humbly think, on which
the nation at large may justifiably feel some little pride. As part of
the means of collecting this money, there is a festival twice a year,
usually presided over by some Scottish nobleman, and attended by a
great number of gentlemen connected with Scotland by birth or
otherwise. A committee of governors meets on the second Wednesday of
every month, to distribute the benefactions to the regular pensioners
and casual applicants; and, in accordance with the national habits of
feeling, this ceremony is always prefaced by divine service in the
chapel, according to the simple practice of the Presbyterian Church.
Since 1782, these transactions, as well as the general concerns of the
institution, have taken place in the old building in Crane Court,
where also the secretary has a permanent residence.

Such, then, is the institution which has succeeded to the possession
of the dusky hall in which the Royal Society at one time assembled. It
was with a mingled interest that we looked round it, reflecting on the
presence of such men as Newton and Bradley of old, and on the many
worthy deeds which had since been done in it by men of a different
stamp, but surely not unworthy to be mentioned in the same sentence. A
portrait of Queen Mary by Zucchero, and one of the Duke of Lauderdale
by Lely--though felt as reminiscences of Scotland--were scarcely
fitted of themselves to ornament the walls; but this, of course, is as
the accidents of gifts and bequests might determine. We felt it to be
more right and fitting, that the secretary should be our old friend
Major Adair, the son of that Dr Adair who accompanied Robert Burns on
his visit to Glendevon in 1787. He is one of those men of activity,
method, and detail, joined to unfailing good-humour, who are
invaluable to such an institution. He is also, as might be expected,
entirely a Scotsman, and evidently regards the hospital with feelings
akin to veneration. Nor could we refrain from sympathising in his
views, when we thought of the honourable national principle from which
the institution took its rise, and by which it continues to be
supported, as well as the practical good which it must be continually
achieving. To quote his own words: 'From a view of the numbers
relieved, it is evident, that while this institution is a real
blessing to the aged, the helpless, the diseased, and the unemployed
poor of Scotland, resident in London, Westminster, and the
neighbourhood, extending to a circle of ten miles radius from the hall
of the corporation, it is of incalculable benefit to the community at
large, who, by means of this charity, are spared the pain of beholding
so great an addition, as otherwise there would be, of our destitute
fellow-creatures seeking their wretched pittance in the streets,
liable to be taken up as vagrants and sent to the house of correction,
and probably subjected to greater evils and disgrace.' The major has a
pet scheme for extending the usefulness of the institution. It implies
that individuals should make foundations of from L.300 to L.400 each,
in order to produce pensions of L.10 a year; these to be in the care
and dispensation of the hospital, and each to bear for ever the name
of its founder; thus permanently connecting his memory with the
institution, and insuring that once a year, at least, some humble
fellow-countryman shall have occasion to rejoice that such a person as
he once existed. The idea involves the gratification of a fine natural
feeling, and we sincerely hope that it will be realised. And why,
since we have said so much, should we hesitate to add the more general
wish, that the Scottish Hospital may continue to enjoy an undiminished
measure of the patronage of our countrymen? May it flourish for ever!


FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Note by an Englishman._--It is not one of the least curious
particulars in the history of the Scottish Hospital, that it
substantiates by documentary evidence the fact, that Scotsmen, who
have gone to England, occasionally find their way back to their own
country. It appears from the books of the corporation, that in the
year ending 30th November 1850, the sum of L.30, 16s. 6d. was spent in
'passages' from London to Leith; and there is actually a corresponding
society in Edinburgh to receive the _revenants_, and pass them on to
their respective districts.



THE HUNCHBACK OF STRASBOURG.


In the department of the Bas-Rhin, France, and not more than about two
leagues north of Strasbourg, lived Antoine Delessert, who farmed, or
intended farming, his own land--about a ten-acre slice of 'national'
property, which had fallen to him, nobody very well knew how, during
the hurly-burly of the great Revolution. He was about five-and-thirty,
a widower, and had one child, likewise named Antoine, but familiarly
known as Le Bossu (hunchback)--a designation derived, like his
father's acres, from the Revolution, somebody having, during one of
the earlier and livelier episodes of that exciting drama, thrown the
poor little fellow out of a window in Strasbourg, and broken his back.
When this happened, Antoine, _père_, was a journeyman _ferblantier_
(tinman) of that city. Subsequently, he became an active, though
subordinate member of the local Salut Public; in virtue of which
patriotic function he obtained Les Près, the name of his magnificent
estate. Working at his trade was now, of course, out of the question.
Farming, as everybody knows, is a gentlemanly occupation, skill in
which comes by nature; and Citizen Delessert forthwith betook himself,
with his son, to Les Près, in the full belief that he had stepped at
once into the dignified and delightful position of the ousted
aristocrat, to whom Les Près had once belonged, and whose haughty head
he had seen fall into the basket. But envious clouds will darken the
brightest sky, and the new proprietor found, on taking possession of
his quiet, unencumbered domain, that property has its plagues as well
as pleasures. True, there was the land; but not a plant, or a seed
thereon or therein, nor an agricultural implement of any kind to work
it with. The walls of the old rambling house were standing, and the
roof, except in about a dozen places, kept out the rain with some
success; but the nimble, unrespecting fingers of preceding patriots
had carried off not only every vestige of furniture, usually so
called, but coppers, cistern, pump, locks, hinges--nay, some of the
very doors and window-frames! Delessert was profoundly discontented.
He remarked to Le Bossu, now a sharp lad of some twelve years of age,
that he was at last convinced of the entire truth of his cousin
Boisdet's frequent observation--that the Revolution, glorious as it
might be, had been stained and dishonoured by many shameful excesses;
an admission which the son, with keen remembrance of his compulsory
flight from the window, savagely endorsed.

'Peste!' exclaimed the new proprietor, after a lengthened and painful
examination of the dilapidations, and general nakedness of his
estate--'this is embarrassing. Citizen Destouches was right. I must
raise money upon the property, to replace what those brigands have
carried off. I shall require three thousand francs at the very least.'

The calculation was dispiriting; and after a night's lodging on the
bare floor, damply enveloped in a few old sacks, the financial horizon
did not look one whit less gloomy in the eyes of Citizen Delessert.
Destouches, he sadly reflected, was an iron-fisted notary-public, who
lent money, at exorbitant interest, to distressed landowners, and was
driving, people said, a thriving trade in that way just now. His pulse
must, however, be felt, and money be obtained, however hard the terms.
This was unmistakably evident; and with the conviction tugging at his
heart, Citizen Delessert took his pensive way towards Strasbourg.

'You guess my errand, Citizen Destouches?' said Delessert, addressing
a flinty-faced man of about his own age, in a small room of Numéro 9,
Rue Béchard.

'Yes--money: how much?'

'Three thousand francs is my calculation.'

'Three thousand francs! You are not afraid of opening your mouth, I
see. Three thousand francs!--humph! Security, ten acres of middling
land, uncultivated, and a tumble-down house; title, _droit de
guillotine_. It is a risk, but I think I may venture. Pierre Nadaud,'
he continued, addressing a black-browed, sly, sinister-eyed clerk,
'draw a bond, secured upon Les Près, and the appurtenances, for three
thousand francs, with interest at ten per cent.'----

'Morbleu! but that is famous interest!' interjected Delessert, though
timidly.

'Payable quarterly, if demanded,' the notary continued, without
heeding his client's observation; 'with power, of course, to the
lender to sell, if necessary, to reimburse his capital, as well as all
accruing _dommages-intérêts_!'

The borrower drew a long breath, but only muttered: 'Ah, well; no
matter! We shall work hard, Antoine and I.'

The legal document was soon formally drawn: Citizen Delessert signed
and sealed, and he had only now to pouch the cash, which the notary
placed upon the table.

'Ah ça!' he cried, eyeing the roll of paper proffered to his
acceptance with extreme disgust. 'It is not in those _chiffons_ of
assignats, is it, that I am to receive three thousand francs, at ten
per cent.?'

'My friend,' rejoined the notary, in a tone of great severity, 'take
care what you say. The offence of depreciating the credit or money of
the Republic is a grave one.'

'Who should know that better than I?' promptly replied Delessert. 'The
paper-money of our glorious Republic is of inestimable value; but the
fact is, Citizen Destouches, I have a weakness, I confess it, for
coined money--_argent métallique_. In case of fire, for instance,
it'----

'It is very remarkable,' interrupted the notary with increasing
sternness--'it is very remarkable, Pierre' (Pierre was an influential
member of the Salut Public), 'that the instant a man becomes a landed
proprietor, he betrays symptoms of _incivisme_: is discovered to be,
in fact, an _aristocq_ at heart.'

'I an _aristocq_!' exclaimed Delessert, turning very pale; 'you are
jesting, surely. See, I take these admirable assignats--three thousand
francs' worth at ten per cent.--with the greatest pleasure. Oh, never
mind counting among friends.'

'Pardon!' replied Destouches, with rigid scrupulosity. 'It is
necessary to be extremely cautious in matters of business. Deducting
thirty francs for the bond, you will, I think, find your money
correct; but count yourself.'

Delessert pretended to do so, but the rage in his heart so caused his
eyes to dance and dazzle, and his hands to shake, that he could
scarcely see the figures on the assignats, or separate one from the
other. He bundled them up at last, crammed them into his pocket, and
hurried off, with a sickly smile upon his face, and maledictions,
which found fierce utterance as soon as he had reached a safe
distance, trembling on his tongue.

'Scélérat! coquin!' he savagely muttered. 'Ten per cent. for this
moonshine money! I only wish---- But never mind, what's sauce for the
goose is sauce for the gander. I must try and buy in the same way
that I have been so charmingly sold.'

Earnestly meditating this equitable process, Citizen Delessert sought
his friend Jean Souday, who lived close by the Fossé des Tanneurs
(Tanners' Ditch.) Jean had a somewhat ancient mare to dispose of,
which our landed proprietor thought might answer his purpose. Cocotte
was a slight waif, sheared off by the sharp axe of the Place de la
Révolution, and Souday could therefore afford to sell her cheap. Fifty
francs _argent métallique_ would, Delessert knew, purchase her; but
with assignats, it was quite another affair. But, courage! He might
surely play the notary's game with his friend Souday: that could not
be so difficult.

'You have no use for Cocotte,' suggested Delessert modestly, after
exchanging fraternal salutations with his friend.

'Such an animal is always useful,' promptly answered Madame Souday, a
sharp, notable little woman, with a vinegar aspect.

'To be sure--to be sure! And what price do you put upon this useful
animal?'

'Cela dépend'---- replied Jean, with an interrogative glance at his
helpmate.

'Yes, as Jean says, that depends--entirely depends'---- responded the
wife.

'Upon what, citoyenne?'

'Upon what is offered, parbleu! We are in no hurry to part with
Cocotte; but money is tempting.'

'Well, then, suppose we say, between friends, fifty francs?'

'Fifty francs! That is very little; besides, I do not know that I
shall part with Cocotte at all.'

'Come, come; be reasonable. Sixty francs! Is it a bargain?'

Jean still shook his head. 'Tempt him with the actual sight of the
money,' confidentially suggested Madame Souday; 'that is the only way
to strike a bargain with my husband.'

Delessert preferred increasing his offer to this advice, and gradually
advanced to 100 francs, without in the least softening Jean Souday's
obduracy. The possessor of the assignats was fain, at last, to adopt
Madame Souday's iterated counsel, and placed 120 paper francs before
the owner of Cocotte. The husband and wife instantly, as silently,
exchanged with each other, by the only electric telegraph then in use,
the words: 'I thought so.'

'This is charming money, friend Delessert,' said Jean Souday; 'far
more precious to an enlightened mind than the barbarous coin stamped
with effigies of kings and queens of the _ancien régime_. It is very
tempting; still, I do not think I can part with Cocotte at any price.'

Poor Delessert ground his teeth with rage, but the expression of his
anger would avail nothing; and, yielding to hard necessity, he at
length, after much wrangling, became the purchaser of the old mare for
250 francs--in assignats. We give this as a specimen of the bargains
effected by the owner of Les Près with his borrowed capital, and as
affording a key to the bitter hatred he from that day cherished
towards the notary, by whom he had, as he conceived, been so
egregiously duped. Towards evening, he entered a wine-shop in the
suburb of Robertsau, drank freely, and talked still more so, fatigue
and vexation having rendered him both thirsty and bold. Destouches, he
assured everybody that would listen to him, was a robber--a villain--a
vampire blood-sucker, and he, Delessert, would be amply revenged on
him some fine day. Had the loquacious orator been eulogising some
one's extraordinary virtues, it is very probable that all he said
would have been forgotten by the morrow, but the memories of men are
more tenacious of slander and evil-speaking; and thus it happened that
Delessert's vituperative and menacing eloquence on this occasion was
thereafter reproduced against him with fatal power.

Albeit, the now nominal proprietor of Les Près, assisted by his son
and Cocotte, set to work manfully at his new vocation; and by dint of
working twice as hard, and faring much worse than he did as a
journeyman _ferblantier_, contrived to keep the wolf, if not far from
the door, at least from entering in. His son, Le Bossu, was a
cheerful, willing lad, with large, dark, inquisitive eyes, lit up with
much clearer intelligence than frequently falls to the share of
persons of his age and opportunities. The father and son were greatly
attached to each other; and it was chiefly the hope of bequeathing Les
Près, free from the usurious gripe of Destouches, to his boy, that
encouraged the elder Delessert to persevere in his well-nigh hopeless
husbandry. Two years thus passed, and matters were beginning to assume
a less dreary aspect, thanks chiefly to the notary's not having made
any demand in the interim for the interest of his mortgage.

'I have often wondered,' said Le Bossu one day, as he and his father
were eating their dinner of _soupe aux choux_ and black bread, 'that
Destouches has not called before. He may now as soon as he pleases,
thanks to our having sold that lot of damaged wheat at such a capital
price: corn must be getting up tremendously in the market. However,
you are ready for Destouches' demand of six hundred francs, which it
is now.'

'Parbleu! quite ready; all ready counted in those charming assignats;
and that is the joke of it. I wish the old villain may call or send
soon'----

A gentle tap at the door interrupted the speaker. The son opened it,
and the notary, accompanied by his familiar, Pierre Nadaud, quietly
glided in.

'Talk of the devil,' growled Delessert audibly, 'and you are sure to
get a whisk of his tail. Well, messieurs,' he added more loudly, 'your
business?'

'Money--interest now due on the mortgage for three thousand francs,'
replied M. Destouches with much suavity.

'Interest for two years,' continued the sourly-sardonic accents of
Pierre Nadaud; 'six hundred francs precisely.'

'Very good, you shall have the money directly.' Delessert left the
room; the notary took out and unclasped a note-book; and Pierre Nadaud
placed a slip of _papier timbré_ on the dinner-table, preparatory to
writing a receipt.

'Here,' said Delessert, re-entering with a roll of soiled paper in his
hand, 'here are your six hundred francs, well counted.'

The notary reclasped his note-book, and returned it to his pocket;
Pierre Nadaud resumed possession of the receipt paper.

'You are not aware, then, friend Delessert,' said the notary, 'that
creditors are no longer compelled to receive assignats in payment?'

'How? What do you say?'

'Pierre,' continued M. Destouches, 'read the extract from _Le bulletin
des Lois_, published last week.' Pierre did so with a ringing
emphasis, which would have rendered it intelligible to a child; and
the unhappy debtor fully comprehended that his paper-money was
comparatively worthless! It is needless to dwell upon the fury
manifested by Delessert, the cool obduracy of the notary, or the
cynical comments of the clerk. Enough to say, that M. Destouches
departed without his money, after civilly intimating that legal
proceedings would be taken forthwith. The son strove to soothe his
father's passionate despair, but his words fell upon unheeding ears;
and after several hours passed in alternate paroxysms of stormy rage
and gloomy reverie, the elder Delessert hastily left the house, taking
the direction of Strasbourg. Le Bossu watched his father's retreating
figure from the door until it was lost in the clouds of blinding snow
that was rapidly falling, and then sadly resumed some indoor
employment. It was late when he retired to bed, and his father had not
then returned. He would probably remain, the son thought, at
Strasbourg for the night.

The chill, lead-coloured dawn was faintly struggling on the horizon
with the black, gloomy night, when Le Bossu rose. Ten minutes
afterwards, his father strode hastily into the house, and threw
himself, without a word, upon a seat. His eyes, the son observed, were
blood-shot, either with rage or drink--perhaps both; and his entire
aspect wild, haggard, and fierce. Le Bossu silently presented him with
a measure of _vin ordinaire_. It was eagerly swallowed, though
Delessert's hand shook so that he could scarcely hold the pewter
flagon to his lips.

'Something has happened,' said Le Bossu presently.

'Morbleu!--yes. That is,' added the father, checking himself,
'something _might_ have happened, if---- Who's there?'

'Only the wind shaking the door. What _might_ have happened?'
persisted the son.

'I will tell you, Antoine. I set off for Strasbourg yesterday, to see
Destouches once again, and entreat him to accept the assignats in
part-payment at least. He was not at home. Marguérite, the old
servant, said he was gone to the cathedral, not long since reopened.
Well, I found the usurer just coming out of the great western
entrance, heathen as he is, looking as pious as a pilgrim. I accosted
him, told my errand, begged, prayed, stormed! It was all to no
purpose, except to attract the notice and comments of the passers-by.
Destouches went his way, and I, with fury in my heart, betook myself
to a wine-shop--Le Brun's. He would not even change an assignat to
take for what I drank, which was not a little; and I therefore owe him
for it. When the gendarmes cleared the house at last, I was nearly
crazed with rage and drink. I must have been so, or I should never
have gone to the Rue Béchard, forced myself once more into the
notary's presence, and--and'----

'And what?' quivered the young man, as his father abruptly stopped,
startled as before into silence by a sudden rattling of the crazy
door. 'And what?'

'And abused him for a flinty-hearted scoundrel, as he is. He ordered
me away, and threatened to call the guard. I was flinging out of the
house, when Marguérite twitched me by the sleeve, and I stepped aside
into the kitchen. "You must not think," she said, "of going home on
such a night as this." It was snowing furiously, and blowing a
hurricane at the time. "There is a straw pallet," Marguérite added,
"where you can sleep, and nobody the wiser." I yielded. The good woman
warmed some soup, and the storm not abating, I lay down to rest--to
rest, do I say?' shouted Delessert, jumping madly to his feet, and
pacing furiously to and fro--'the rest of devils! My blood was in a
flame; and rage, hate, despair, blew the consuming fire by turns. I
thought how I had been plundered by the mercenary ruffian sleeping
securely, as he thought, within a dozen yards of the man he had
ruined--sleeping securely just beyond the room containing the
_secrétaire_ in which the mortgage-deed of which I had been swindled
was deposited'----

'Oh, father!' gasped the son.

'Be silent, boy, and you shall know all! It may be that I dreamed all
this, for I think the creaking of a door, and a stealthy step on the
stair, awoke me; but perhaps that, too, was part of the dream.
However, I was at last wide awake, and I got up and looked out on the
cold night. The storm had passed, and the moon had temporarily broken
through the heavy clouds by which she was encompassed. Marguérite had
said I might let myself out, and I resolved to depart at once. I was
doing so, when, looking round, I perceived that the notary's
office-door was ajar. Instantly a demon whispered, that although the
law was restored, it was still blind and deaf as ever--could not see
or hear in that dark silence--and that I might easily baffle the
cheating usurer after all. Swiftly and softly, I darted towards the
half-opened door--entered. The notary's _secrétaire_, Antoine, was
wide open! I hunted with shaking hands for the deed, but could not
find it. There was money in the drawers, and I--I think I should have
taken some--did perhaps, I hardly know how--when I heard, or thought I
did, a rustling sound not far off. I gazed wildly round, and plainly
saw in the notary's bedroom--the door of which, I had not before
observed, was partly open--the shadow of a man's figure clearly traced
by the faint moonlight on the floor. I ran out of the room, and out of
the house, with the speed of a madman, and here--here I am!' This
said, he threw himself into a seat, and covered his face with his
hands.

'That is a chink of money,' said Le Bossu, who had listened in dumb
dismay to his father's concluding narrative. 'You had none, you said,
when at the wine-shop.'

'Money! Ah, it may be as I said---- Thunder of heaven!' cried the
wretched man, again fiercely springing to his feet, 'I am lost!'

'I fear so,' replied a commissaire de police, who had suddenly
entered, accompanied by several gendarmes--'if it be true, as we
suspect, that you are the assassin of the notary Destouches.'

The assassin of the notary Destouches! Le Bossu heard but these words,
and when he recovered consciousness, he found himself alone, save for
the presence of a neighbour, who had been summoned to his assistance.

The _procès verbal_ stated, in addition to much of what has been
already related, that the notary had been found dead in his bed, at a
very early hour of the morning, by his clerk Pierre Nadaud, who slept
in the house. The unfortunate man had been stifled, by a pillow it was
thought. His _secrétaire_ had been plundered of a very large sum,
amongst which were Dutch gold ducats--purchased by Destouches only the
day before--of the value of more than 6000 francs. Delessert's
mortgage-deed had also disappeared, although other papers of a similar
character had been left. Six crowns had been found on Delessert's
person, one of which was clipped in a peculiar manner, and was sworn
to by an _épicier_ as that offered him by the notary the day previous
to the murder, and refused by him. No other portion of the stolen
property could be found, although the police exerted themselves to the
utmost for that purpose.

There was, however, quite sufficient evidence to convict Delessert of
the crime, notwithstanding his persistent asseverations of innocence.
His known hatred of Destouches, the threats he had uttered concerning
him, his conduct in front of the cathedral, Marguérite's evidence, and
the finding the crown in his pocket, left no doubt of his guilt, and
he was condemned to suffer death by the guillotine. He appealed of
course, but that, everybody felt, could only prolong his life for a
short time, not save it.

There was one person, the convict's son, who did not for a moment
believe that his father was the assassin of Destouches. He was
satisfied in his own mind, that the real criminal was he whose step
Delessert had dreamed he heard upon the stair, who had opened the
office-door, and whose shadow fell across the bedroom floor; and his
eager, unresting thoughts were bent upon bringing this conviction home
to others. After awhile, light, though as yet dim and uncertain, broke
in upon his filial task.

About ten days after the conviction of Delessert, Pierre Nadaud called
upon M. Huguet, the procureur-général of Strasbourg. He had a serious
complaint to make of Delessert, _fils_. The young man, chiefly, he
supposed, because he had given evidence against his father, appeared
to be nourishing a monomaniacal hatred against him, Pierre Nadaud.
'Wherever I go,' said the irritated complainant, 'at whatever hour,
early in the morning and late at night, he dogs my steps. I can in no
manner escape him, and I verily believe those fierce, malevolent eyes
of his are never closed. I really fear he is meditating some violent
act. He should, I respectfully submit, be restrained--placed in a
_maison de santé_, for his intellects are certainly unsettled; or
otherwise prevented from accomplishing the mischief I am sure he
contemplates.'

M. Huguet listened attentively to this statement, reflected for a few
moments, said inquiry should be made in the matter, and civilly
dismissed the complainant.

In the evening of the same day, Le Bossu was brought before M. Huguet.
He replied to that gentleman's questioning by the avowal, that he
believed Nadaud had murdered M. Destouches. 'I believe also,' added
the young man, 'that I have at last hit upon a clue that will lead to
his conviction.'

'Indeed! Perhaps you will impart it to me?'

'Willingly. The property in gold and precious gems carried off has not
yet been traced. I have discovered its hiding-place.'

'Say you so? That is extremely fortunate.'

'You know, sir, that beyond the Rue des Vignes there are three houses
standing alone, which were gutted by fire some time since, and are now
only temporarily boarded up. That street is entirely out of Nadaud's
way, and yet he passes and repasses there five or six times a day.
When he did not know that I was watching him, he used to gaze
curiously at those houses, as if to notice if they were being
disturbed for any purpose. Lately, if he suspects I am at hand, he
keeps his face determinedly _away_ from them, but still seems to have
an unconquerable hankering after the spot. This very morning, there
was a cry raised close to the ruins, that a child had been run over by
a cart. Nadaud was passing: he knew I was close by, and violently
checking himself, as I could see, kept his eyes fixedly _averted_ from
the place, which I have no longer any doubt contains the stolen
treasure.'

'You are a shrewd lad,' said M. Huguet, after a thoughtful pause. 'An
examination shall at all events take place at nightfall. You, in the
meantime, remain here under surveillance.'

Between eleven and twelve o'clock, Le Bossu was again brought into M.
Huguet's presence. The commissary who arrested his father was also
there. 'You have made a surprising guess, if it _be_ a guess,' said
the procureur. 'The missing property has been found under a
hearth-stone of the centre house.' Le Bossu raised his hands, and
uttered a cry of delight. 'One moment,' continued M. Huguet. 'How do
we know this is not a trick concocted by you and your father to
mislead justice?'

'I have thought of that,' replied Le Bossu calmly. 'Let it be given
out that I am under restraint, in compliance with Nadaud's request;
then have some scaffolding placed to-morrow against the houses, as if
preparatory to their being pulled down, and you will see the result,
if a quiet watch is kept during the night.' The procureur and
commissary exchanged glances, and Le Bossu was removed from the room.

It was verging upon three o'clock in the morning, when the watchers
heard some one very quietly remove a portion of the back-boarding of
the centre house. Presently, a closely-muffled figure, with a
dark-lantern and a bag in his hand, crept through the opening, and
made direct for the hearth-stone; lifted it, turned on his light
slowly, gathered up the treasure, crammed it into his bag, and
murmured with an exulting chuckle as he reclosed the lantern and stood
upright: 'Safe--safe, at last!' At the instant, the light of half a
dozen lanterns flashed upon the miserable wretch, revealing the stern
faces of as many gendarmes. 'Quite safe, M. Pierre Nadaud!' echoed
their leader. 'Of that you may be assured.' He was unheard: the
detected culprit had fainted.

There is little to add. Nadaud perished by the guillotine, and
Delessert was, after a time, liberated. Whether or not he thought his
ill-gotten property had brought a curse with it, I cannot say; but, at
all events, he abandoned it to the notary's heirs, and set off with Le
Bossu for Paris, where, I believe, the sign of 'Delessert et Fils,
Ferblantiers,' still flourishes over the front of a respectably
furnished shop.



PHILOSOPHY OF THE SHEARS.


The vestiarian profession has always been ill-treated by the world.
Men have owed much, and in more senses than one, to their tailors, and
have been accustomed to pay their debt in sneers and railleries--often
in nothing else. The stage character of the tailor is stereotyped from
generation to generation; his goose is a perennial pun; and his
habitual melancholy is derived to this day from the flatulent diet on
which he _will_ persist in living--cabbage. He is effeminate,
cowardly, dishonest--a mere fraction of a man both in soul and body.
He is represented by the thinnest fellow in the company; his starved
person and frightened look are the unfailing signals for a laugh; and
he is never spoken to but in a gibe at his trade:

                'Thou liest, thou thread,
    Thou thimble,
    Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail;
    Away thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
    Or I shall so bemete thee with thy yard,
    As thou shalt think on prating while thou liv'st!'

All this is not a very favourable specimen of the way in which the
stage holds the mirror up to nature. We may suppose that a certain
character of effeminacy attached to a tailor in that olden time when
he was the fashioner for women as well as men; but now that he has no
professional dealings with the fair sex but when they assume masculine
'habits,' it is unreasonable to continue the stigma. In like manner,
when the cloth belonged to the customer, it was allowable enough to
suspect him of a little amiable weakness for cabbage; but now that he
is himself the clothier, the joke is pointless and absurd. Tailors,
however, can afford to laugh, as well as other people, at their
conventional double--or rather _ninth_, for at least in our own day
they have wrought very hard to elevate their calling into a science.
The period of lace and frippery of all kinds has passed away, and this
is the era of simple form, in which sartorial genius has only cloth to
work upon as severely plain as the statuary's marble. It is true, we
ourselves do not understand the 'anatomical principles' on which the
more philosophical of the craft proceed, nor does our scholarship
carry us quite the length of their Greek (?) terminology; but we
acknowledge the result in their workmanship, although we cannot trace
the steps by which it is brought about.

Very different is the plan now from what it was in the days of Shemus
nan Snachad, James of the Needle, hereditary tailor to Vich Ian Vohr,
when men were measured as classes rather than as individuals, and when
a cutter had only to glance at the customer to ascertain to which
category he belonged.

'You know the measure of a well-made man? Two double nails to the
small of the leg'----

'Eleven from haunch to heel, seven round the waist. I give your honour
leave to hang Shemus, if there's a pair of shears in the Highlands
that has a baulder sneck than her ain at the _camadh an truais_ (shape
of the trews).' And so the thing was done, without tape or figures,
without a word of Greek or anatomy! However, the anatomical tailors we
shall not meddle with for the present, because we do not understand
their science; nor with the Greek tailors, because we fear to take
the liberty; nor with the Hebrew tailors, because we are only a
Gentile ourselves. Our object is to draw attention to the doings of an
individual who interferes with no science but his own, and who
patronises exclusively his mother-tongue, which is not Hebrew, but
broad Scotch.

This individual is Mr Macdonald, a near neighbour of ours, who, about
eighteen years ago, listened with curiosity, but not with dread, to
the clamorous pretensions of the craft to which he belonged. At that
time, every man had a 'new principle' of his own for the sneck of the
shears, some theoretical mode of cutting, which was to make the coat
fit like the skin. Our neighbour, who had a practical and mechanical,
rather than a speculative head, resolved not to be behind in the race
of competition, but to proceed in a different way. 'It is all very
well,' thought he, 'to talk of principles and theories; but with the
requisite apparatus, the human figure may be measured as accurately as
a block of stone;' and accordingly he set to work, not to invent a
theory, but to construct a machine. This machine, though exhibited
some time ago in the School of Arts, and received with great favour,
we happened not to hear of till a few days ago; but a visit to our
neighbour puts it now in our power to report that his apparatus does
much more, as we shall presently explain, than measure a customer.

The machine consists of three perpendicular pieces of wood, the centre
one between six and seven feet high, with a plinth for the measuree to
stand upon. The wood is marked from top to bottom with inches and
parts of an inch, and is furnished with slides, fitting closely, but
movable at the pleasure of the operator. When the customer places
himself upon this machine, standing at his full height, he has much
the appearance of a man suffering the punishment of crucifixion, only
his arms, instead of being extended, hang motionless by his sides,
with the fingers pointed. A slide is now run up between the victim's
legs, to give the measurement of what is technically called the fork;
while others mark in like manner upon the inch scale, the position of
the knees, hips, tips of the fingers, shoulder, neck, head, &c. When
the operator is satisfied that he has thus obtained the accurate
admeasurement of the figure, in its natural position when standing
erect, the gentleman steps from the machine, and turning round, sees
an exact diagram, in wood, of his own proportions.

This instrument, it will be seen, is very well adapted for the object
for which it was intended; but it would, nevertheless, have escaped
our inspection but for the other purposes of observation to which it
has been applied by the ingenious inventor. He has measured in all
about 5000 adults, registering in a book the measurement of each, with
the names written by themselves. Among the autographs, we find that of
Sir David Wilkie in the neighbourhood of the names of half a dozen
American Indians. Here would be a new branch of inquiry for those who
are addicted to the study of character through the handwriting. With
such abundant materials before them, they would doubtless be able to
determine the height and general proportions of their unseen
correspondents. In the article of height, many men correspond to the
minutest portion of an inch; but in the other proportions of the
figure, it would seem that no two human beings are alike. So great is
the disparity in persons of the same height, that the trunk of an
individual of five feet and a half, is occasionally found to be as
long as that of a man of six feet. In fact, Mr Macdonald, in an early
period of his measurements, was so confounded by the difference in the
proportions, that he at once came to the conclusion, that our
population is made up of mixed tribes of mankind.

In the midst of all this diversity, the question was, What were the
proper proportions? or, in other words, What proportions constituted a
handsome figure? and here our vestiarian philosopher was for a long
time at a loss. At length, however, he took 300 measurements, without
selection, including the length of the trunk, of the head and neck,
and of the fork, and adding them all together, struck the average:
from which it resulted, that the average head and neck gives 10-1/2
inches; trunk, 25 inches; and fork, 32 inches; making the whole
figure, from the crown of the head to the sole of the _shoe_, 5 feet
7-1/2 inches. The word we have italicised is the drawback: a tailor
measures with the shoes on; and Mr Macdonald can only approximate to
the truth when he deducts half an inch for the sole, and declares the
average height of our population to be five feet seven inches. On this
basis, however, he constructed a scale of beauty applying to all
heights: If a man of 5 feet 7 inches give 10-1/2 inches for head and
neck, 25 for trunk, and 31-1/2 for fork, what should another give, of
6 feet, or any other height? The approximation of a man's actual
measurement to this rule of three determines his pretensions in the
way of symmetry; and the inventor of the _shibboleth_ has found it so
far to answer, that a figure coming near the rule invariably pleases
the eye, and gives the assurance of a handsome man. Independently of
this advantage, a man of such proportions has great strength, and is
able to withstand the fatigue of violent exercise for a longer period
than one less symmetrically formed.

The term 'adult,' however, used by Mr Macdonald to designate those he
measured, is not satisfactory--it does not inform us that the persons
measured had reached their full development; for men continue to grow,
as has been shewn by M. Quetelet, even after twenty-five. The height
given, notwithstanding--five feet seven inches--in all probability
approximates pretty closely to the true average; and the very
different result shewn in Professor Forbes's measurements in the
University must be set pretty nearly out of the question. The number
of Scotsmen measured by the professor was 523 in all; but these were
of eleven different ages, from fifteen to twenty-five, all averaged
separately; and supposing the number of each age to have been alike,
this would give less than fifty of the age of twenty-five--the average
height of whom was 69.3 inches. But independently of the smallness of
the number, the professor's customers were volunteers, and it is not
to be supposed that under-sized persons would put themselves forward
on such an occasion. It may be added, that even the height of the
boot-heels of young collegians of twenty-five would tend to falsify
the average.

Men do not only differ in their proportions from other men, but from
themselves. The arms and legs may be paired, but they are not matched,
and in every respect one side of the body is different from the other:
the eyes are not set straight across the face, neither is the mouth;
the nose is inclined to one side; the ears are of different sizes, and
one is nearer the crown of the head than the other; there are not two
fingers, nor two nails on the fingers, alike, and the same
disagreement runs through the whole figure. This, however, is so
common an observation, that we should not have thought it necessary to
mention it, but for the bearing the facts given by our statist have
upon the common theory by which the irregularity is sought to be
accounted for. This declares, that use is the cause of the greater
growth of one limb, &c.: that the right hand, for instance, is larger
than the left, because it is in more active service. It appears,
however, that although the left limbs are in general smaller, this is
not, as it is usually supposed, invariably the case; while the ears
and eyes, that are used indiscriminately, present the same relative
difference of size. We do not, therefore, make our own proportions in
this respect: we come into the world with them, and our occupations
merely exaggerate a natural defect. An idle man will have one arm half
an inch longer than the other; while a woman, who has been accustomed
in early years to carry a child, exhibits a difference amounting
sometimes to an inch and a half.

When these facts were first mentioned to us, we looked with some
curiosity at the machine from which we had just stepped out; and there
we found an illustration of them not highly flattering to our
self-esteem. Knees, hips, shoulders, ears, all were so ill-assorted,
that it seemed as if Nature had been actually trying her 'prentice
hand upon our peculiar self. It was in vain to bethink ourselves of
the physical eccentricities of the distinguished men of other times:

    'Ammon's great son one shoulder had too high;
    Such Ovid's nose, and, sir, you have an eye!'--

we might have gone through tho whole inventory of the figure, and
concluded the quotation:

    'Go on, obliging creatures, make me see
    All that disgraced my betters met in me.
    Say, for my comfort, languishing in bed,
    Just so immortal Maro held his head;
    And when I die, be sure you let me know--
    Great Homer died three thousand years ago!'

What we had seen, however, was only the length of the figure; but we
were informed by our philosophic tailor, that the limbs, &c., are
likewise irregularly placed as regards breadth. The trunk of the body
is of various shapes, which he distinguishes as the oval, the
circular, and the flat. The first has the arms placed in the middle;
in the second, they are more towards the back, and relatively long;
and in the third, more towards the front, and relatively short. The
length of the forearm should be the length of the lower part of the
leg, and if either longer or shorter, the difference appears in the
walk. If shorter, the walk is a kind of waddle, the elbows inclining
outwards; if longer, it is distinguished by a swinging motion, as if
the person carried weights in his hands. If the circumference of the
body, measured with an inch-tape just below the shoulders, be smaller
than the circumference of the hips, the person will rock in walking,
and plant his feet heavily upon the ground. If greater, so that the
chief weight is above the limbs, the step will be light, as is
familiarly seen in corpulent men, whose delicate mode of walking we
witness with ever-recurring surprise. If the shoulders slope
downwards, with the spine bending inwards, the individual 'cannot
throw a stone, or handle firearms with dexterity.' When inclined
forwards, and well relieved from the body, he may be a proficient in
these exercises. A peculiarity in walking is given by the size of the
head and neck being out of proportion; and an instance is mentioned of
a man being discharged from the army, on account of his conformation
rendering it impossible for him to keep his head steady.

All these are curious and suggestive particulars. It is customary to
refer awkwardness of manner to bad habit, and such diseases as
consumption either to imprudence or hereditary taint; but it may be
doubted whether taints are not mainly the result of original
conformation. Habit and imprudence may doubtless aggravate the evil,
just as exercise may enlarge a member of the body; but it is nature
which sows the seeds of decay in her own productions. Physically, the
child is a copy of the parents, even to their peculiarities of gait;
and these peculiarities would seem to depend on the correct or
incorrect balance of the members of the body. When the conformation is
of a kind which interferes with the play of the lungs, the same
transmission of course takes place, and consumption may be the fatal
inheritance. If the arrangement of the parts were perfect, it may be
doubted--for symmetry is the basis of health as well as
beauty--whether we should ever hear of such a thing as 'taint in the
blood.' If this theory were to gain ground, it would simplify much the
practice of medicine; for the disease would stand in visible and
tangible presence before the eyes, and the employment of inventions,
to counteract and finally conquer the eccentricities of nature, would
be governed by science, and thus relieved from the suspicion of
quackery, which at present more or less attaches to it. To pursue
these speculations, however, would lead us too far; and before
concluding, we must find room for a few more of our practical
philosopher's observations.

All good mechanics, it seems, have large hands and thick and short
fingers; which is pretty nearly the conclusion arrived at by
D'Arpentigny in _La Chirognomonie_, although the captain adds, that
the hands must be _en spatule_--that is to say, with the end of the
fingers enlarged in the form of a spatula. The hand is generally the
same breadth as the foot: a fact recognised by the country people,
who, when buying their shoes at fairs--which were the usual
mart--might have been seen thrusting in their hand to try the breadth,
when they had ascertained that the length was suitable. A short foot
gives a mincing walk, while a long one requires the person to bring
his body aplomb with the foot before taking the step, which thus
resembles a stride. Good dancers have the limbs short as compared with
the body, which has thus the necessary power over them; but if too
short, there is a deficiency of dexterity in the management of the
feet.

In conclusion, it will be seen, we think, that there is much to be
learned even in the business of the shears. There is no trade whatever
which will not afford materials for thought to an intelligent man, and
thus enlarge the mind and elevate the character.



THE NIGHTINGALE:

A MUSICAL QUESTION.


Is the song of the nightingale mirthful or melancholy? is a question
that has been discussed so often, that anything new on the subject
might be considered superfluous, were it not that the very fact of the
discussion is in itself a curiosity worthy of attention. The note in
dispute was heard with equal distinctness by Homer and Wordsworth; and
indeed there are few poets of any age or country who have not, at one
time or other in their lives, had the testimony of their own ears as
to its character. Whence, then, this difference of opinion? Listen to
Thomson's unqualified assertion, given with the seriousness of an
affidavit:

    ----'all abandoned to despair, she sings
    Her sorrows through the night, and on the bough
    Sole sitting still at every dying fall
    Takes up again her lamentable strain
    Of winding wo; till wide around the woods
    Sigh to her song and with her wail resound.'

Then Homer in the _Odyssey_, through Pope's paraphrase:

    'Sad Philomel, in bowery shades unseen,
    To vernal airs attunes her varied strains.'

Virgil, as rendered by Dryden:

    ----'she supplies the night with mournful strains
    And melancholy music fills the plains.'

Milton, too:

    ----'Philomel will deign a song
    In her sweetest, saddest plight,
    Smoothing the rugged brow of night,
    While Cynthia checks her dragon yoke
    Gently o'er the accustom'd oak:
    Sweet bird, that shun'st the noise of folly--
    Most musical, most melancholy.'

And again in _Comus_:

    ----'the love-lorn nightingale
    Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well.'

And Shakspeare makes his poor banished Valentine congratulate himself,
that in the forest he can

    ----'to the nightingale's complaining note
    Tune his distresses and record his wo.

We might go on much longer in this strain. We might give, likewise,
the mythological cause assigned for the imputed melancholy, and add
that some, not content with this, represent the bird as leaning its
breast against a thorn--

    'To aggravate the inward grief,
    Which makes its music so forlorn.'

But we would rather pause to admit candidly, that two of the above
witnesses might be challenged--Virgil and Thomson; who indeed should
be counted but as one, for the author of the _Seasons_, in the lines
quoted, has translated, though not so closely as Dryden, from the
_Georgics_ of the Latin poet. If you will read the passage--it matters
not whether in Virgil, Dryden, or Thomson--you will perceive that it
is a special occurrence that is spoken of: no statement whatever is
made as to the character of the nightingale's ordinary song. Thomson,
in the course of his humane and touching protest against the barbarous
art: 'through which birds are

                    ---- by tyrant man
    Inhuman caught, and in the narrow cage
    From liberty confined, and boundless air,'

represents the nightingale's misery when thus bereaved. This portion
of the lines shall stand entire; none, we are sure, would wish us
further to mangle the passage:

    'But chief, let not the nightingale lament
    Her ruined care, too delicately framed
    To brook the harsh confinement of the cage.
    Oft, when returning with her loaded bill,
    The astonished mother finds a vacant nest,
    By the rude hands of unrelenting clowns
    Robbed: to the ground the vain provision falls.
    Her pinions ruffle, and low drooping, scarce
    Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade;
    Where all abandoned to despair, she sings
    Her sorrows through the night.'

It will at once be seen that this description relates to an
exceptional condition, and we have yet to seek what character Virgil
and Thomson would give to the ordinary song of this paradoxical
musician. For the Roman, we do not know that any passage exists in his
works which can help us to a conclusion; but Thomson's testimony must
undoubtedly be ranged on the contra side, as appears from the
following lines in his _Agamemnon_:

    'Ah, far unlike the nightingale! she sings
    Unceasing through the balmy nights of May--
    She sings from love and joy.'

In the passage from his Spring, which we have given, we cannot but
fancy that the poet endeavoured--if we may so say--to effect a
compromise between the opinion which, through the influence of
classical poetry, generally prevailed as to the character of the
bird's music, and the opposing convictions which his own senses had
forced upon him. It was desirable to describe its strains according to
the popular fancy, and therefore he borrowed from Virgil such a
description of the bird's sorrow as under the assumed circumstances
did no violence to his own judgment.

Thomson is not the only poet in whom we fancy we detect some such
attempt at compromise. It appears to us that Villega, the Anacreon of
Spain, in the following little poem, which we give in Mr Wiffen's
translation, adopted, with a similar object, this idea of the
nightingale robbed of her young. The truthful and somewhat minute
description in the song, however, represents the bird's ordinary
performance, and but ill suits the circumstances under which it is
supposed to be uttered. The failure on the part of the poet may be
ascribed to his secret conviction, that the nightingale's was a
cheerful melody; and his labouring against that conviction to the
necessity he felt himself under of following his classical masters.

    'I have seen a nightingale
    On a sprig of thyme bewail,
    Seeing the dear nest that was
    Hers alone, borne off, alas!
    By a labourer: I heard,
    For this outrage, the poor bird
    Say a thousand mournful things
    To the wind, which on its wings
    From her to the guardian sky
    Bore her melancholy cry--
    Bore her tender tears. She spake
    As if her fond heart would break.
    One while in a sad, sweet note,
    Gurgled from her straining throat,
    She enforced her piteous tale,
    Mournful prayer and plaintive wail;
    One while with the shrill dispute,
    Quite o'er-wearied, she was mute;
    Then afresh, for her dear brood,
    Her harmonious shrieks renewed;
    Now she winged it round and round,
    Now she skimmed along the ground;
    Now from bough to bough in haste
    The delighted robber chased;
    And alighting in his path,
    Seemed to say, 'twixt grief and wrath:
    "Give me back, fierce rustic rude!
    Give me back my pretty brood!"
    And I saw the rustic still
    Answer: "That I never will!"'

Independently of the untruthfulness of which a naturalist would
complain in this description--for no birds under such circumstances of
distress sing, but merely repeat each its own peculiar piercing cry,
never at any other time heard, and which cannot be mistaken--there is
a palpable effort of ingenuity discoverable in the representation,
which seems to tell us that the writer was making up a story, rather
than uttering his own belief. It may even be doubted whether Virgil
himself, who seems first to have invented this fancy, and behind whose
broad mantle later poets have sheltered themselves, may not have felt
an inclination to depart from the Greek opinion of Philomel's ditty.
Why otherwise did he not simply and at once--as his masters Homer and
Theocritus had done before him--describe her notes as mournful,
instead of casting about for some cause that might excuse him for
giving them that character? But however this may be, we cannot conceal
from ourselves, that some stubborn passages still remain in the poets,
proclaiming that there are men, and those among the greatest and most
tasteful, to whose fancy the voice of the nightingale has sounded full
of wo.

Homer must be counted of this number--unless we think with Fox, in the
preface to his _History of Lord Holland_, that it is only as to her
wakefulness Penelope is compared to the night singing-bird; and so
must Milton (for although Coleridge has satisfactorily dealt with the
passage in _Il Penseroso_, the line of the Lady's song in _Comus_
remains still); and Shakspeare himself, who could scarcely be
influenced, as Milton might very possibly be, by the opinions of the
Grecian poets.

It is a strange contest we are here considering. Which of us would for
a moment doubt our ability to decide in a dispute as to the liveliness
or sadness of any given melody?--yet here we see the greatest poets,
the favoured children of nature, utterly at variance on a point
concerning which we should have expected to find even the most
ordinary minds able to decide.

The question becomes more involved from the fact, that some writers
take _both_ sides; for instance, Chiobrera in _Aleippo_: the
nightingale

    'Unwearied still reiterates her lays,
    Jocund _or_ sad, delightful to the ear;'

and Hartley Coleridge, in the following beautiful song, which we
transcribe the more readily because it has not long been published,
and may be new to many of our readers:

    ''Tis sweet to hear the merry lark,
      That bids a blithe good-morrow;
    But sweeter to hark in the twinkling dark
      To the soothing song of sorrow.
    Oh, nightingale! what doth she ail?
      And is she _sad_ or _jolly_?
    For ne'er on earth was sound of mirth
      So like to melancholy.

    The merry lark he soars on high,
      No worldly thought o'ertakes him;
    He sings aloud to the clear blue sky,
      And the daylight that awakes him.
    As sweet a lay, as loud, as gay,
      The nightingale is trilling;
    With feeling bliss, no less than his
      Her little heart is thrilling.

    Yet ever and anon a sigh
      Peers through her lavish mirth;
    For the lark's bold song is of the sky,
      And hers is of the earth.
    By night and day she tunes her lay,
      To drive away all sorrow;
    For bliss, alas! to-night may pass,
      And wo may come to-morrow.'

We must now cite one or two of the many passages which represent the
nightingale's as an _absolutely_ cheerful song. We fear we cannot
insist so much as Fox is disposed to do, on the evidence of Chaucer,
who continually styles the nightingale's a merry note, because it is
evident that in _his_ day the word had a somewhat different meaning
from that which it at present conveys. For example, the poet calls the
organ 'merry.' Nor dare we lay stress upon the instance which Cary
cites--in a note to his _Purgatory_--of a 'neglected poet,' Vallans,
who in his _Tale of Two Swannes_ ranks the 'merrie nightingale among
the cheerful birds,' because we do not know whether, even at the time
when Vallans wrote--the book was published, it seems, in
1590--'merrie' had come to bear its present signification.

We shall, however, find a witness among the writers of his period in
Gawain Douglas, who died Bishop of Dunkeld in 1522. He, in a prologue
to one of his _Æneids_, applies not only the word 'merry' to our bird,
but one of less questionable signification--'mirthful.' If we come
down to more modern times, we shall find Wordsworth, who seems above
all others, except Burns, to have had a catholic ear for the whole
multitude of natural sounds, not only refusing the character of
melancholy to the nightingale's song, but placing it below the
stock-dove's, because it is deficient in the pensiveness and
seriousness which mark the note of the latter.

However, of all testimonies which can be brought on this side of the
question, the strongest is that of Coleridge. No other has so
accurately described the song itself; moreover, he alone has entered
the lists avowedly as an antagonist, and confessing in so many words
to the existence of an opinion opposite to his own.

    'And hark! the nightingale begins its song,
    "Most musical, most melancholy" bird.
    A melancholy bird? oh, idle thought![2]
    In nature there is nothing melancholy.
    But some night-wandering man, whose heart was pierced
    With the resemblance of a grievous wrong,
    Or slow distemper, or neglected love,
    First named these notes a melancholy strain:
    And youths and maidens most poetical,
    Who lose the deepening twilight of the spring
    In ball-rooms and hot theatres, they still,
    Full of meek sympathy, must heave their sighs
    O'er Philomela's pity-pleading strains.
    My friend, and thou, our sister! we have learnt
    A different love: we may not thus profane
    Nature's sweet voices, always full of love
    And joyance! 'Tis the _merry_ nightingale
    That crowds and hurries and precipitates
    With fast-thick warble his delicious notes,
    As he were fearful that an April night
    Would be too short for him to utter forth
    His love-chant and disburden his full soul
    Of all its music!'

Little now remains to be said. We have laid before the reader
specimens of the two contending opinions, as well as of that which is
set up as a golden mean between them; and he has but to put down our
pages, and to walk forth--provided he does not live too far north, or
in some smoke-poisoned town--to judge for himself as to the true
character of the strains. Small risk, we think, would there be in
pronouncing on which side his verdict would be given! Well do we
remember the night when we first heard this sweet bird: how we
listened and refused to believe--for we were young, and our idea had
of course been that his song was a melancholy one--that those madly
hilarious sounds could come from the mournful nightingale. Wordsworth
attempts thus to account for the delusion under which the older poets
laboured on this subject:

    'Fancy, who leads the pastimes of the glad,
    Full oft is pleased a wayward dart to throw,
    Sending sad shadows after things not sad,
    Peopling the harmless fields with sighs of wo.
    Beneath her sway, a simple forest cry
    Becomes an echo of man's misery.
    What wonder? at her bidding ancient lays
    Steeped in dire grief the voice of Philomel,
    And that blithe messenger of summer days,
    The swallow, twittered, subject to like spell.'

It is curious that the people who first fixed the stigma of melancholy
upon our bird--the Greeks, or at least the Athenians, and it is of
them we speak--were perhaps the very gayest people that ever danced
upon the earth--absolute Frenchmen. The very sprightliness of their
temper, however, by the universally prevailing law of contrast, may
have induced in them a fondness for sad and doleful legends; and we
confess, for our own part, that while we from our hearts admire the
poetical beauty and elegance of their various fables, we do not a
little disrelish the constant vein of melancholy which pervades them
all. Not the least sad of their fictions is that which relates to the
nightingale; a story that has found its way--and even more universally
the opinion of the bird's music which it implied--amongst all the
nations whom Greece has instructed and civilised.

But we have yet another reply to the question, 'Why do most people
call the nightingale's a melancholy song?' It is heard by night,
'whilst our spirits are attentive,' and the solemn gloom of the hour
influences the judgment of the ear; for another false impression,
which like the monster Error of Spenser, has bred a thousand young
ones as ill-favoured as herself, ascribes melancholy to night. There
is no good reason why we should think thus of the night, still less
that the impression should influence our judgment in other matters;
and we owe no small thanks to those who have endeavoured to reclaim to
their proper uses these misdirected associations, and to teach, that

    'In nature there is nothing melancholy;'

but on the contrary,

    'Healing her wandering and distempered child,
    She pours around her softest influences,
    Her sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets,
    Her melodies of woods, and winds, and waters,
    Till he relent, and can no more endure
    To be a jarring and a dissonant thing
    Amid the general dance and harmony;
    But, bursting into tears, wins back his way,
    His angry spirit healed and harmonised
    By the benignant touch of love and beauty.'


FOOTNOTES:

[2] _Note by Coleridge._--'The passage in Milton possesses an
excellence far superior to that of mere description. It is spoken in
the character of the Melancholy Man, and has, therefore, a dramatic
propriety. The author makes this remark, to rescue himself from the
charge of having alluded with levity to a line of Milton's.'



THE TEA-COUNTRIES OF CHINA.


About four years ago, Mr Fortune, author of _Three Years' Wanderings
in the Northern Provinces of China_, was deputed by the East India
Company to proceed to China for the purpose of obtaining the finest
varieties of the tea-plant, as well as native manufacturers and
implements, for the government tea-plantations in the Himalaya. Being
acquainted with the Chinese language, and adopting the Chinese
costume, he penetrated into districts unvisited before by
Europeans--excepting, perhaps, the Catholic missionaries--exciting no
further curiosity as to his person or pedigree, than what was due to a
stranger from one of the provinces beyond the great wall. His
principal journeys were to Sung-lo, the great green-tea district, and
to the Bohea Mountains, the great black-tea district; besides a flying
visit to Kingtang, or Silver Island, in the Chusan archipelago. The
narrative, which he has since published,[3] manifests a good faculty
for observation; but travelling as privately as possible, he saw
little but the exterior aspects of the country, the appearance of
which he describes very graphically. As a botanist, he had a keen eye
for everything which promised to enlarge our knowledge of the Chinese
flora, and discovered many useful and ornamental trees and shrubs,
some of which, such as the funereal cypress, will one day produce a
striking and beautiful effect in our English landscape, and in our
cemeteries. Of social and political information relative to the
Celestial Empire, the book is quite barren; and we do not know that
there is anything in it which will be so acceptable to the reader, as
fresh and reliable information about his favourite beverage. To this,
therefore, our attention will be confined.

The plant in cultivation about Canton, from which the Canton teas are
made, is known to botanists as the _Thea bohea_; while the more
northern variety, found in the green-tea country, has been called
_Thea viridis_. The first appears to have been named upon the
supposition, that all the black teas of the Bohea Mountains were
obtained from this species; and the second was called _viridis_,
because it furnished the green teas of commerce. These names seem to
have misled the public; and hence many persons, until a few years ago,
firmly believed that black tea could be made only from _Thea bohea_,
and green tea only from _Thea viridis_. In his _Wanderings in China_,
published in 1846, Mr Fortune had stated that both teas could be made
from either plant, and that the difference in their appearance
depended upon manipulation, and upon that only. But the objection was
made, that although he had been in many of the tea-districts near the
coast, he had not seen those greater ones inland which furnish the
teas of commerce. Since that time, however, he has visited them,
without seeing reason to alter his statements. The two kinds of tea,
indeed, are rarely made in the same district; but this is a matter of
convenience. Districts which formerly were famous for black teas, now
produce nothing but green. At Canton, green and black teas are made
from the _Thea bohea_ at the pleasure of the manufacturer, and
according to demand. When the plants arrive from the farms fresh and
cool, they dry of a bright-green colour; but if they are delayed in
their transit, or remain in a confined state for too long a period,
they become heated, from a species of spontaneous fermentation; and
when loosened and spread open, emit vapours, and are sensibly warm to
the hand. When such plants are dried, the whole of the green colour is
found to have been destroyed, and a red-brown, and sometimes a
blackish-brown result is obtained. 'I had also noticed,' says Mr
Warrington, in a paper read by him before the Chemical Society, 'that
a clear infusion of such leaves, evaporated carefully to dryness, was
not all undissolved by water, but left a quantity of brown oxidised
extractive matter, to which the denomination _apothem_ has been
applied by some chemists; a similar result is obtained by the
evaporation of an infusion of black tea. The same action takes place
by the exposure of the infusions of many vegetable substances to the
oxidising influence of the atmosphere; they become darkened on the
surface, and this gradually spreads through the solution, and on
evaporation, the same oxidised extractive matter will remain insoluble
in water. Again, I had found that the green teas, when wetted and
redried, with exposure to the air, were nearly as dark in colour as
the ordinary black teas. From these observations, therefore, I was
induced to believe, that the peculiar characters and chemical
differences which distinguish black tea from green, were to be
attributed to a species of heating or fermentation, accompanied with
oxidation by exposure to the air, and not to its being submitted to a
higher temperature in the process of drying, as had been generally
concluded. My opinion was partly confirmed by ascertaining from
parties conversant with the Chinese manufacture, that the leaves for
the black teas were always allowed to remain exposed to the air in
mass for some time before they were roasted.'

This explanation by Mr Warrington from scientific data, is confirmed
by Mr Fortune from personal observation, and fully accounts, not only
for the difference in colour between the two teas, but also for the
effect produced on some constitutions by green tea, such as nervous
irritability, sleeplessness, &c.; and Mr Fortune truly remarks, that
what Mr Warrington observed in the laboratory of Apothecaries' Hall,
may be seen by every one who has a tree or bush in his garden. Mark
the leaves which are blown from trees in early autumn; they are brown,
or perhaps of a dullish green when they fall, but when they have been
exposed for some time in their detached state to air and moisture,
they become as black as our blackest teas. Without detailing the whole
process in the manufacture of either kind of tea, it may be stated in
reference to green tea, _1st_, That the leaves are roasted almost
immediately, after they are gathered; and _2d_, That they are dried
off quickly after the rolling process. In reference to black tea, on
the other hand, it may be observed, _1st_, That after being gathered,
the leaves are exposed for a considerable time; _2d_, That they are
tossed about until they become soft and flaccid, and are then left in
heaps; _3d_, That after being roasted for a few minutes and rolled,
they are exposed for some hours to the air in a soft and moist state;
and _4th_, That they are at last dried slowly over charcoal fires.
After all, then, genuine green tea is, as might reasonably be
conjectured, an article less artificial than black. There is, at the
same time, too much foundation for the suspicion, that the green teas
so much patronised in Europe and America, are not so innocently
manufactured. Mr Fortune witnessed the process of colouring them in
the Hung-chow green-tea country, and describes the process. The
substance used is a powder consisting of four parts of gypsum and
three parts of Prussian blue, which was applied to the teas during the
last process of roasting.

'During this part of the operation,' he says, 'the hands of the
workmen were quite blue. I could not help thinking, that if any
green-tea drinkers had been present during the operation, their taste
would have been corrected, and, I may be allowed to add, improved.
One day, an English gentleman in Shang-hae, being in conversation with
some Chinese from the green-tea country, asked them what reasons they
had for dyeing the tea, and whether it would not be better without
undergoing this process. They acknowledged that tea was much better
when prepared without having any such ingredients mixed with it, and
that they never drank dyed teas themselves; but justly remarked, that
as foreigners seemed to prefer having a mixture of Prussian blue and
gypsum with their tea, to make it look uniform and pretty, and as
these ingredients were cheap enough, the Chinese had no objections to
supply them, especially as such teas always fetched a higher price!'
The quantity of colouring matter used is rather more than an ounce to
14-1/2 lbs. of tea; so that in every 100 lbs. of coloured green tea
consumed in England or America, the consumer actually drinks nearly
half a pound of Prussian blue and gypsum! Samples of these
ingredients, procured from the Chinamen in the factory, were sent last
year to the Great Exhibition.

In the black-tea districts, as in the green, large quantities of young
plants are yearly raised from seeds. These seeds are gathered in the
month of October, and kept mixed up with sand and earth during the
winter months. In this manner they are kept fresh until spring, when
they are sown thickly in some corner of the farm, from which they are
afterwards transplanted. When about a year old, they are from nine
inches to a foot in height, and ready for transplanting. This is
always done at the change of the monsoon in spring, when fine warm
showers are of frequent occurrence. The most favourable situations are
on the slopes of the hills, as affording good drainage, which is of
the utmost importance; and which, on the plains, is attained by having
the lands above the watercourses. Other things being equal, a
moderately rich soil is preferred. They are planted in rows about four
feet apart (in poor soils, much closer), and have a very hedge-like
appearance when full grown. A plantation of tea, when seen at a
distance, looks like a little shrubbery of evergreens. As the
traveller threads his way amongst the rocky scenery of Woo-e-shan, he
is continually coming upon these plantations, which are dotted upon
the sides of all the hills. The leaves are of a rich dark-green, and
afford a pleasing contrast to the strange, and often barren scenery
which is everywhere around. The young plantations are generally
allowed to grow unmolested for two or three years, till they are
strong and healthy; and even then, great care is exercised not to
exhaust the plants by plucking them too bare. But, with every care,
they ultimately become stunted and unhealthy, and are never profitable
when they are old; hence, in the best-managed tea-districts, the
natives yearly remove old plantations, and supply their places with
fresh ones. About ten or twelve years is the average duration allowed
to the plants. The tea-farms are in general small, and their produce
is brought to market in the following manner: A tea-merchant from
Tsong-gan or Tsin-tsun, goes himself, or sends his agents, to all the
small towns, villages, and temples in the district, to purchase teas
from the priests and small farmers. When the teas so purchased are
taken to his house, they are mixed together, of course keeping the
different qualities as much apart as possible. By this means, a chop
(or parcel) of 600 chests is made; and all the tea of this chop is of
the same description or class. The large merchant in whose hands it is
now, has to refine it, and pack it for the foreign market. When the
chests are packed, the name of the chop is written upon each, or ought
to be; but it is not unusual to leave them unmarked till they reach
the port of exportation, when the name most in repute is, if possible,
put upon them. When the chop is purchased in the tea-district, a
number of coolies are engaged to carry the chests on their shoulders,
either to their ultimate destination, or to the nearest river. The
time occupied in the entire transport by land and river, from the
Bohea country to Canton, is about six weeks or two months. The
expenses of transit, of course, vary with localities, and other
circumstances; but, in general, those expenses are so very moderate,
that the middlemen realise large profits, while the small farmers and
manipulators are subjected to a grinding process, which keeps them in
comparative poverty.

Of late years, some attempts have been made to cultivate the tea-shrub
in America and Australia; but the result will not equal the
expectation entertained by the projectors of the scheme. The tea-plant
will grow wherever the climate and soil are suitable; but labour is so
much cheaper in China than in either of those countries, that
successful competition is impossible. The Chinese labourers do not
receive more than twopence or threepence a day. The difference,
therefore, in the cost of labour will afford ample protection to the
Chinese against all rivals whose circumstances in this respect are not
similar to their own.

India, however, is as favourably situated in all respects for
tea-cultivation as China itself, and its introduction, therefore, into
that country is a matter of equal interest and importance. In
procuring the additional seeds, implements, and workmen, Mr Fortune
succeeded beyond his expectations. Tea-seeds retain their vitality for
a very short period, if they are out of the ground; and after trying
various plans for transporting them to their destination, he adopted
the method of sowing them in Ward's cases soon after they were
gathered, which had the effect of preserving them in full life. The
same plan will answer as effectually in preserving other kinds of
seeds intended for transportation, and in which so much disappointment
is generally experienced. In due time, all the cases arrived at their
destination in perfect safety, and were handed over to Dr Jameson, the
superintendent of the botanical gardens in the north-west provinces,
and of the government tea-plantations. When opened, the tea-plants
were found to be in a very healthy state. No fewer than 12,838 plants
were counted, and many more were germinating. Notwithstanding their
long voyage from the north of China, and the frequent transhipment and
changes by the way, they seemed as green and vigorous as if they had
been growing all the while on the Chinese hills.

In these days, when tea is no longer a luxury, but a necessary of life
in England and her colonies, its production on Indian soil is worthy
of persevering effort. To the natives of India themselves, it would be
of the greatest value. The poor _paharie_, or hill-peasant, has
scarcely the common necessaries of life, and certainly none of its
luxuries. The common sorts of grain which his lands produce will
scarcely pay the carriage to the nearest market-town, far less yield
such a profit as to enable him to procure any articles of commerce. A
common blanket has to serve him for his covering by day and for his
bed at night, while his dwelling-house is a mere mud-hut, capable of
affording but little shelter from the inclemency of the weather. If
part of these lands produced tea, he would then have a healthy
beverage to drink, besides a commodity which would be of great value
in the market. Being of small bulk, and extremely light in proportion
to its value, the expense of carriage would be trifling, and he would
have the means of making himself and his family more comfortable and
more happy. In China, tea is one of the necessaries of life, in the
strictest sense of the word. A Chinese never drinks cold water, which
he abhors, and considers unhealthy. Tea is his favourite beverage from
morning to night--not what we call tea, mixed with milk and sugar--but
the essence of the herb itself drawn out in pure water. Those
acquainted with the habits of the people, can scarcely conceive of
their existence, were they deprived of the tea-plant; and there can be
no doubt that its extensive use adds much to their health and comfort.
The people of India are not unlike the Chinese in many of their
habits. The poor of both countries eat sparingly of animal food; rice,
and other grains and vegetables, form the staple articles on which
they live. This being the case, it is not at all unlikely that the
Indian will soon acquire a habit which is so universal in China. But
in order to enable him to drink tea, it must be produced at a cheap
rate, not at 4s. or 6s. a pound, but at 4d. or 6d.; and this can be
done, but only on his own hills. The accomplishment of this would be
an immense boon for the government to confer upon the people, and
might ultimately work a constitutional change in their character and
temperament--ridding them of their proverbial indolence, and endowing
them with that activity of body and mind which renders the Chinese so
un-Asiatic in their habits and employments.

That our readers may, if they choose, have 'tea as in China,' we quote
a recipe from a Chinese author, which may be of service to them.
'Whenever the tea is to be infused for use,' says Tüng-po, 'take water
from a running stream, and boil it over a lively fire. It is an old
custom to use running water boiled over a lively fire; that from
springs in the hills is said to be the best, and river-water the next,
while well-water is the worst. A lively fire is a clear and bright
charcoal fire. When making an infusion, do not boil the water too
hastily, as first it begins to sparkle like crabs' eyes, then somewhat
like fish's eyes, and lastly, it boils up like pearls innumerable,
springing and waving about. This is the way to boil the water.' The
same author gives the names of six different kinds of tea, all of
which are in high repute. As their names are rather flowery, they may
be quoted for the reader's amusement. They are these: the 'first
spring tea,' the 'white dew,' the 'coral dew,' the 'dewy shoots,' the
'money shoots,' and the 'rivulet garden tea.' 'Tea,' says he, 'is of a
cooling nature, and, if drunk too freely, will produce exhaustion and
lassitude. Country people, before drinking it, add ginger and salt, to
counteract this cooling property. It is an exceedingly useful plant;
cultivate it, and the benefit will be widely spread; drink it, and the
animal spirits will be lively and clear. The chief rulers, dukes, and
nobility, esteem it; the lower people, the poor and beggarly, will not
be destitute of it; all use it daily, and like it.' Another author
upon tea says, that 'drinking it tends to clear away all impurities,
drives off drowsiness, removes or prevents headache, and it is
universally in high esteem.'


FOOTNOTES:

[3] _A Journey to the Tea-Countries of China._ By Robert Fortune.
1852.



THE GREAT OYER OF POISONING.


In a previous article, an account was given of the proceedings against
the Earl and Countess of Somerset for the murder of Sir Thomas
Overbury. Though they were spared, several other persons were executed
for this offence; and the circumstances under which those who were
represented as the chief criminals escaped, while the others, whose
guilt was represented as merely secondary, were executed, is among the
most mysterious parts of the history. There was so much said about
poisoning throughout the whole inquiry, that Sir Edward Coke gave the
trials the name of 'The Great Oyer of Poisoning.' Oyer has long been a
technical term in English law; and it is almost unnecessary to
explain, that it is old French for _to hear_--_oyer and terminer_
meaning, to hear and determine. The same inscrutable reasons which
make the evidence so imperfect against the chief offenders, affect the
whole of it. But while the exact causes of the death of Sir Thomas
Overbury may be left in doubt, as well as the motives which led to it,
enough is revealed in the trials of the minor offenders to throw a
remarkable light on the strange habits of the time, and especially on
the profligacy and credulity of the court of King James.

The first person put to trial was Richard Weston, who had been
appointed for the purpose of taking charge of Sir Thomas Overbury. If
he had been murdered by poison, there could be no doubt that Weston
was one of the perpetrators. He had been brought up as an apothecary;
and it was said that he was selected on account of his being thus
enabled to dabble in poisons. The charge against him is very
indistinct. He was charged that he, 'in the Tower of London, in the
parish of Allhallows Barking, did obtain and get into his hand certain
poison of green and yellow colour, called rosalgar--knowing the same
to be deadly poison--and the same did maliciously and feloniously
mingle and compound in a kind of broth poured out into a certain
dish.' Weston long refused to plead to the indictment. Of old, a
person could not be put on trial unless he pleaded not guilty, and
demanded a trial. The law, however, provided for those who were
obstinate a more dreadful death than would be inflicted on the
scaffold. To frighten him into compliance, the court gave him a
description of it, telling him that he was 'to be extended, and then
to have weights laid upon him no more than he was able to bear, which
were by little and little to be increased; secondly, that he was to be
exposed in an open place near to the prison, in the open air, being
naked; and lastly, that he was to be preserved with the coarsest bread
that could be got, and water out of the next sink or puddle.' He was
told that 'oftentimes men lived in that extremity eight or nine days.'
People have sometimes endured the _peine forte et dure_, as it was
called, because, unless they pleaded and were convicted, their estates
were not forfeited; and they endured the death of protracted torture
for the sake of their families. Weston's object was supposed to be to
prevent a trial, the evidence in which would expose his great patrons
the Earl and Countess of Somerset. The motive was not, however, strong
enough to make him stand to his purpose. He pleaded to the indictment,
was found guilty, and executed at Tyburn.

The next person brought up was of a more interesting character--Anne
Turner, the widow of a physician. It is stated in the Report, that
when she appeared at the bar, the chief-justice Coke said to her:
'that women must be covered in the church, but not when they are
arraigned, and so caused her to put off her hat; which done, she
covered her hair with her handkerchief, being before dressed in her
hair with her handkerchief over it.' Although Mother Turner's pursuits
were of the questionable kind generally attributed to old hags--she
dealt in philters, soothsaying, and poisoning--she must have been a
young and beautiful woman. In some of the letters which were produced
at the trials, she was called 'Sweet Turner.' In a poem, called
_Overbury's Vision_, published in 1616, and reprinted in the seventh
volume of the Harleian Miscellany, she is thus enthusiastically
described--

    'It seemed that she had been some gentle dame;
    For on each part of her fair body's frame
    Nature such delicacy did bestow,
    That fairer object oft it doth not shew.
    Her crystal eye, beneath an ivory brow,
    Did shew what she at first had been; but now
    The roses on her lovely cheeks were dead;
    The earth's pale colour had all overspread
    Her sometime lovely look; and cruel Death,
    Coming untimely with his wintry breath,
    Blasted the fruit which, cherry-like in show,
    Upon her dainty lips did whilome grow.
    Oh, how the cruel cord did misbecome
    Her comely neck! And yet by law's just doom
    Had been her death.'

It might be said to be Mrs Turner's profession, to minister to all
the bad passions of intriguers. The wicked Countess of Essex employed
her to secure to her, by magic arts and otherwise, the affection of
Somerset, and at the same time to create alienation and distaste on
the part of her husband. Among the documents produced at her trial was
one said to be a list of 'what ladies loved what lords;' and it is
alleged that Coke prohibited its being read, because, whenever he cast
his eye on it, he saw there the name of his own wife. Some mysterious
articles were produced at the trial, which were believed to be
instruments of enchantment and diabolical agency. 'There were also
enchantments shewed in court, written in parchment, wherein were
contained all the names of the blessed Trinity mentioned in the
Scriptures; and in another parchment + B + C + D + E; and in a third,
likewise in parchment, were written all the names of the holy Trinity,
as also a figure, on which was written this word, _corpus_; and on the
parchment was fastened a little piece of the skin of a man. In some of
these parchments were the devil's particular names, who were conjured
to torment the Lord Somerset, and Sir Arthur Manwaring, if their loves
should not continue, the one to the Countess, the other to Mrs
Turner.' Along with these were some pictures, as they were termed, or,
more properly speaking, models of the human figure. 'At the shewing,'
says the report, 'of these, and inchanted papers, and other pictures
in court, there was heard a crack from the scaffolds, which caused
great fear, tumult, and confusion among the spectators, and throughout
the hall, every one fearing hurt, as if the devil had been present,
and grown angry to have his workmanship shewed by such as were not his
own scholars.'[4]

The small figures, which appeared to have created the chief
consternation, were, we are inclined to believe, very innocent things.
There was, it is true, a belief that an individual could be injured or
slain by operations on his likeness. There was, however, another
purpose connected with Mrs Turner's pursuits to which small jointed
images, like artists' lay figures, were used. This was to exhibit the
effect of any new fashion, or peculiar style of dress. In this manner
small figures, about the size of dolls, were long used in Paris. We
have seen people expressing their surprise at pictures of full-grown
Frenchwomen examining dolls, but in reality they were not more
triflingly occupied than those who now contemplate the latest fashions
in their favourite feminine periodical. Mrs Turner was very likely to
have occasion for such figures, for she was, with her other pursuits,
a sort of dressmaker, or _modiste_; in fact, she seems to have been a
ready minister to every kind of human vanity and folly, as well as to
a good deal of human wickedness. In the department of dress, she had a
name in her own sex and age as illustrious as that of Brummel among
dandies in the beginning of this century. As he was the inventor of
the starched cravat, she was his precursor in the invention of the
starched ruff, or, as it is generally said, of the yellow starch.

The best account we have of the starched ruff is by a man who wrote to
abuse it. An individual named Stubbes published an _Anatomy of
Abuses_. Having become extremely rare, a small impression of it was
lately reprinted, as a curious picture of the times. Stubbes dealt
trenchantly with everything that savoured of pride and ostentation in
dress; and he was peculiarly severe on Mrs Turner's invention, which
made the ruff stand against bad weather. He describes the ruffs as
having been made 'of cambric Holland lawn; or else of some other the
finest cloth that can be got for money, whereof some be a quarter of a
yard deep; yea, some more--very few less.' He describes with much glee
the elementary calamities to which, before the invention of the
starch, they were liable. 'If Æolus with his blasts, or Neptune with
his storms, chance to hit upon the crazy barque of their bruised
ruffs, then they goeth flip-flap in the wind, like rags that flew
abroad, lying upon their shoulders like the dish-clout of a slut.'
Having thus, with great exultation, described these reproofs to human
pride, he mentions how 'the devil, as he, in the fulness of his
malice, first invented these great ruffs, so hath he now found out
also two great pillars to bear up and maintain this his kingdom of
great ruffs--for the devil is king and prince over all the kingdom of
pride.' One pillar appears to have been a wire framework--something,
perhaps, of the nature of the hoop. The other was 'a certain kind of
liquid matter, which they call starch, wherein the devil hath willed
them to wash and dye their ruffs well; and this starch they make of
divers colours and hues--white, red, blue, purple, and the like,
which, being dry, will then stand stiff and inflexible about their
necks.'

Mrs Turner, at her execution, was arrayed in a ruff stiffened with the
material for the invention of which she was so famous. She had for her
scientific adviser a certain Dr Forman--a man who was believed to be
deep in all kinds of dangerous chemical lore, and at the same time to
possess a connection with the Evil One, which gave him powers greater
than those capable of being obtained through mere scientific agency.
Had he been alive, he would have undoubtedly been tried with the other
poisoners. His widow gave some account of his habits, and of his
wonderful apparatus, such as 'a ring which would open like a watch;'
but the glimpse obtained of him is brief and mysteriously tantalising.
We remember that, about twenty-five years ago, this man was made the
hero of a novel called _Forman_, which contains much effective
writing, but did not somehow fit the popular taste.

Notwithstanding the scientific ingenuity both of the males and females
concerned in this affair, the poisoning seems to have been conducted
in a very bungling manner when compared with the slow and secret
poisonings of the French and Italians. It is believed that a female of
Naples, called Tophana, who used a tasteless liquid, named after her
_Aqua Tophana_, killed with it 600 people before she was discovered to
be a murderess. The complete secrecy in which these foreigners
shrouded their operations--people seeming to drop off around them as
if by the silent operation of natural causes--was what made their
machinations so frightful. Poisoning, however, is a cowardly as well
as a cruel crime, which has never taken strong root in English habits;
and, as we have observed, the poisoners on this occasion,
notwithstanding the skill and knowledge enlisted by them in the
service, were arrant bunglers. Thus, the confession of James Franklin,
an accomplice, would seem to shew that Sir Thomas Overbury was
subjected to poisons enough to have deprived three cats of their
twenty-seven lives.

'Mrs Turner came to me from the countess, and wished me, from her, to
get the strongest poison I could for Sir T. Overbury. Accordingly, I
bought seven--viz., aquafortis, white arsenic, mercury, powder of
diamonds, _lapis costitus_, great spiders, and cantharides. All these
were given to Sir T. Overbury at several times. And further
confesseth, that the lieutenant knew of these poisons; for that
appeared, said he, by many letters which he writ to the Countess of
Essex, which I saw, and thereby knew that he knew of this matter. One
of these letters I read for the countess, because she could not read
it herself; in which the lieutenant used this speech: "Madam, the scab
is like the fox--the more he is cursed, the better he fareth." And
many other speeches. Sir T. never eat white salt, but there was white
arsenic put into it. Once he desired pig, and Mrs Turner put into it
_lapis costitus_. The white powder that was sent to Sir T. in a
letter, he knew to be white arsenic. At another time, he had two
partridges sent him by the court, and water and onions being the
sauce, Mrs Turner put in cantharides instead of pepper; so that there
was scarce anything that he did eat but there was some poison
mixed.'[5]

It is impossible to believe that the human frame could stand out for
weeks against so hot a siege. It would appear as if Franklin must
really have confessed too much. It has already been said, that the
confused state of the whole evidence renders it difficult to find how
far a case was made out against the Earl and Countess of Somerset.
Such a confession as Franklin's only makes matters still more
confused. That Sir Thomas Overbury really was poisoned, one can
scarcely doubt, if even a portion of what Franklin and the others say
is true; but the reckless manner in which the crime was gone about,
and the confusion of the whole evidence, is extremely perplexing. Not
the least remarkable feature in this tragedy is the number of people
concerned in it. We find, brought to trial, the Earl and Countess of
Somerset and Sir Thomas Monson, who, though said to be the guiltiest
of all, were spared: Weston, Franklin, and Mrs Turner, were executed:
Forman, and another man of science who was said to have given aid, had
gone to their account before the trials came on. Then, in Franklin's
confession, it was stated that 'the toothless maid, trusty Margaret,
was acquainted with the poisoning; so was Mrs Turner's man, Stephen;
so also was Mrs Home, the countess's own handmaid;' and several other
subordinate persons are alluded to in a similar manner.

The quietness and secrecy of the French and Italian poisonings have
been already alluded to. The poisoners, in general, instead of acting
in a bustling crowd, generally prepared themselves for their dreadful
task by secretly acquiring the competent knowledge, so that they might
not find it necessary to take the aid of confederates. They generally
did their work alone, or at most two would act together. It certainly
argues a sadly demoralised state of society in the reign of King
James, that so many persons should be found who would coolly connect
themselves with the work of death; but still there was not so much
real danger as in the quiet, systematic poisonings of such criminals
as Tophana and the Countess of Brinvilliers. The great Oyer of
poisoning was, however, calculated to make a very deep impression on
the public mind. It filled London with fear and suspicion. When
rumours about poisonings become prevalent, no one knows exactly how
far the crime has proceeded, and this and that event is remembered and
connected with it. All the sudden deaths within recollection are
recalled, and thus accounted for. People supposed to be adepts in
chemistry were in great danger from the populace, and one man, named
Lamb, was literally torn to pieces by a mob at Charing-Cross. The
people began to dwell upon the death of Prince Henry, the king's
eldest son, who had fallen suddenly. It was remembered that he was a
youth of a frank, manly disposition--the friend and companion of
Raleigh and of other heroic spirits. He liked popularity, and went
into many of the popular prejudices of the times--forming altogether
in his character a great contrast to his grave, dry, fastidious, and
suspicious brother Charles, who was to succeed to his vacant place. He
had died very suddenly--of fever, it was said; but popular rumour now
attributed his death to poison. Nay, it was said that his own father,
jealous of his popularity, was the perpetrator; and it was whispered
that _this_ was the secret which King James was so afraid his
favourite Somerset might tell if prosecuted to death. In a work called
_Truth brought to Light_, a copy was given of an alleged medical
report on a dissection of the body, calculated to confirm these
suspicions: it may be found in the _State Trials_, ii. 1002. Arthur
Wilson, who published his life and reign of King James during the
Commonwealth, said: 'Strange rumours are raised upon this sudden
expiration of our prince, the disease being so violent that the combat
of nature in the strength of youth (being almost nineteen years of
age) lasted not above five days. Some say he was poisoned with a bunch
of grapes; others attribute it to the venomous scent of a pair of
gloves presented to him (the distemper lying for the most part in the
head.) They that knew neither of these are stricken with fear and
amazement, as if they had tasted or felt the effects of those
violences. Private whisperings and suspicions of some new designs
afoot broaching prophetical terrors that a black Christmas would
produce a bloody Lent, &c.' Kennet, in his notes on Wilson's work,
says that he possesses a rare copy of a sermon preached while the
public mind was thus excited, 'wherein the preacher, who had been his
domestic chaplain, made such broad hints about the manner of his
(Prince Henry's) death, that melted the auditory into a flood of
tears, and occasioned his being dismissed the court.'

But suspicion did not stop here. When King James himself died in much
pain, his body shewing the unsightly symptoms consequent on his gross
habits, poison was again suspected; and as it had been said on the
former occasion, that the father had connived at the death of his son,
it was now whispered that the remaining son, anxious to commence his
ill-starred reign, was accessory to hurrying his father from the
world. The moral character of Charles I. is sufficient to acquit him
of such a charge. But historians even of late date have not entirely
acquitted his favourite, Buckingham, who, it was said, finding that
the king was tired of him, resolved to make him give place to the
prince, in whose good graces he felt secure. The authors of the
scandalous histories published during the Commonwealth, said that the
duke's mother administered the poison externally in the form of a
plaster.


FOOTNOTES:

[4] _State Trials_, ii. 932.

[5] _State Trials_, 941.



NEURALGIA.[6]


Obstructives and sceptics are in one sense benefactors: although they
do not generally originate improved modes of thought and action, they
at least prevent the adoption of crude theories and ill-digested
measures. To meet the criticism of these opponents, inventive genius
must more carefully bring its ideas and plans to the test of practical
experiment and thorough investigation; and as truth must ultimately
prevail, it cannot be considered unjust or injurious to insist upon
its presenting its credentials. This is, we submit, one of the
benefits resulting from schools, colleges, and guilds: it is difficult
to impress them with novel truths; but in a great degree they act as
breakwaters to the waves of error. In no department of social life is
this doctrine better illustrated than in the medical profession, which
is among the keenest and most sceptical of bodies in scrutinising
novelty; but it has rarely allowed any real improvement to remain
permanently untested and unadopted. We believe this to be the fair
view to take of a class of scientific men who have certainly had a
large share of sarcasm to endure.

General readers, for whom we profess to cater, take no great interest
in medical subjects and discussions; but as historians of what is
doing in the world of art, science, and literature, we think it our
duty to record, in a brief way, any information we can collect that
may be beneficial to the suffering portion of humanity; and in this
'miserable world' it is most probable that one-fourth part of our
readers are invalids. Why should they not have their little troubles,
whims, and maladies studied and cared for? The disease which gives a
title to this short notice is perhaps one of the most mysterious and
vexatious to which our nature is liable; both its cause and cure are
equally occult, and its _modus operandi_ is scarcely intelligible. A
contemporary thus playfully alludes to the subject in terms more funny
than precise:--'What is neuralgia? A nervous spasm, the cause of which
has, however, not been satisfactorily and conclusively demonstrated;
but we may, perhaps, obtain a clearer view of its nature, if we look
upon it as connected with "morbid nutrition." Every one knows that the
system is, or ought to be, constantly subject to a law of waste and
repair; and if the operation of this law is impeded by "cold," "mental
excitement," or any other baneful condition, diseases more or less
unpleasant must ensue. The _vis naturæ_ uses certain particles of
matter in forming nerves; others in forming membrane, bones, juices,
&c.; while used-up particles are expelled altogether from the system.
We can readily conceive that each order of atoms is used by a distinct
function, and has a different mission; and any morbid perversion or
mingling of their separate destinies must end in disorder and
suffering--nature's violent endeavour to restore the regularity of her
operations. A cough is simply an effort of the lungs or bronchiæ to
remove some offending intruder that ought to be doing duty elsewhere;
and may we not call neuralgia _a cough of a nerve_ to get rid of a
disagreeable oppression--nature's legitimate _coup d'état_ to put down
and transport those "_red socialist_" particles that would interfere
with the regularity of its constitution? Let us fancy, for a moment, a
delicate little army of atoms marching obediently along, to form new
nerve in place of the substance that is wasting away: another little
army of carbonaceous particles have just received orders to pack up
their luggage and be off, to make way for the advancing
nerve-battalion; but in their exodus they are met by a fierce
destroyer, in the shape of an east wind--a Caffre that suddenly throws
the ranks of General Carbon into disorder, and drives them back upon
the brilliant and pugnacious array of General Nerve: a battle-royal is
the result. General Nerve immediately places lance in rest, and
advances to the charge with the unsparing war-cry of: "Mr Ferguson,
you don't lodge here!" and if Caffre East-wind is not despised and
trifled with, he is generally beaten for a time; but great are the
sufferings of humanity--the scene of this encounter--while the fight
is raging.'

Now comes the question: How to get rid of this cruel invader? Dr
Downing has undertaken to give an answer, which we believe to be
satisfactory. In addition to the proper medical and hygienic
treatment, which is carefully and ably stated in the work before us,
Dr Downing has invented an apparatus which appears to be very
efficacious; and we will therefore allow him to describe it in his own
words:--'From considering tic douloureux as often a local disease,
depending on a state of excessive irritability, sensibility, or spasm
of a particular nerve, and from reflecting upon its causes, and
observing the effect of topical sedatives, I was led to the
conclusion, that the most direct way of quieting this state was by the
application of warmth and sedative vapour to the part, so as to soothe
the nerves, and calm them into regular action. For this purpose, I
devised an apparatus which answers the purpose sufficiently well. It
is a kind of fumigating instrument, in which dried herbs are burned,
and the heated vapour directed to any part of the body. It is
extremely simple in construction, and consists essentially of three
parts with their media of connection--a cylinder for igniting the
vegetable matter, bellows for maintaining a current of air through the
burning material, and tubes and cones for directing and concentrating
the stream of vapour. The chief medicinal effects I have noticed in
the use of this instrument are those of a sedative character; but its
remedial influence is not alone confined to the use of certain herbs.
A considerable power is attributable to the warm current or intense
heat generated. When the vegetable matter is ignited, and a current of
air is made to pass through the burning mass, a small or great degree
of heat can be produced at pleasure. Thus, when the hand is gently
pressed upon the bellows, a mild, warm stream of vapour is poured
forth which may act as a _douche_ to irritable parts; but by strongly
and rapidly compressing the same receptacle, the fire within the
cylinder is urged like that of a smith's forge, and the blast becomes
intensely hot and burning.'

Those who wish to know more of this mode of treatment, had better
refer to the work itself. We must content ourselves with having simply
drawn our readers' attention to it.


FOOTNOTES:

[6] _Neuralgia: its various Forms, Pathology, and Treatment._ Being
the Jacksonian Prize Essay of the Royal College of Surgeons for 1850;
with some Additions. By C. Toogood Downing, M.D., M.R.C.S. Churchill,
London.



ANCIENT GLACIERS IN THE LAKE COUNTRY.


Mr Robert Chambers, in a recent tour of the lakes of Westmoreland
(April 1852), has discovered that the valleys of that interesting
district were at one time occupied by glaciers. Glacialised surfaces
were previously observed in a few places not far from Kendal, but
without any conclusion as to the entire district. By Mr Chambers
conspicuous and unequivocal memorials of ice-action have been found in
most of the great central valleys, such as those of Derwentwater,
Ulleswater, Thirlwater, and Windermere. The principal phenomena are
rounded hummocks of rock on the skirts of the hills, and in the middle
of the valleys; and as these hummocks, whatever may be the direction
of the valleys, invariably present a smoothed side up, and an abrupt
side downwards (_stoss-seite_ and _lee-seite_ of the Scandinavian
geologists), it becomes certain that the glaciers proceeding from the
mountains at the upper extremities were local to the several valleys.
The smoothed hummocks are very noticeable in Derwentwater or
Borrowdale, the celebrated Bowderstone resting on one; a particularly
fine low surface appears at Grange, near the head of the lake. At
Patterdale, in Ulleswater Valley, the rocks are so much marked in this
manner, that the whole place bears a striking resemblance to the
sterile parts of Sweden; and some small rocky islets, near the head of
the lake, are unmistakable _roches moutonnées_. The two valleys
descending in opposite directions from Dunmail Raise, have had
glaciers proceeding from some central point: in that of Thirlwater,
the rounded hummocks are conspicuous at Armboth; in the other, near
Grasmere, and near the Windermere Railway Station. In all these cases,
the characteristic striation, or scratching produced on rock-surfaces
by glaciers, is more or less distinct, according as the surface may
have been protected in intermediate ages. Where any drift or alluvial
formation has covered it, the polish and striation are as perfect as
if they had been formed in recent times, and the lines are almost
invariably in the general direction of the valley.

       *       *       *       *       *

Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh.
Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West
Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street,
Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to
MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all
applications respecting their insertion must be made.





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