CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL

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

 NO. 432. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1852. PRICE 1-1/2_d. _

THE MEDIÆVAL MANIA. 

History is said to be a series of reactions. Society, like a pendulum, first drives one way, and then swings back in the opposite direction. At present, we may be said to be returning at full speed towards ataste for everything old, neglected, and for ages despised. Scienceand refinement have had their day, and now rude nature and theelemental are to be in the ascendant. In our boyhood, we learned theRoman alphabet; but youngsters now had need to add a knowledge ofblack-letter, which is rapidly getting back into fashion. Perfectionis only to be found in the darkness and ignorance of the middle ages. 

It is proper, no doubt, to get rid of what is tame and spiritless inart; and it must be owned that nearly everything that was done inarchitecture and decoration during the Georgian era was detestable. But it is one thing to reform, and another to revolutionise. Let us byall means go to nature for instruction; but nature under the exerciseof cultivated feeling--selecting what tends to ennoble and refine, notthat which degrades and sends us back to forms and ideas totally outof place in the nineteenth century, and which, for that very reason, can have nothing but a temporary reign, to be followed in thesucceeding age by a violent reaction. 

On a former occasion, we drew attention to this tendency towardsmediævalism as regards ornamental design, and took the GreatExhibition to witness the fact. We have also pointed to that strangephenomenon, the rise anew of monastic institutions among us, longafter their object is accomplished, giving a spectre-like expressionto an obsolete idea; we have exposed, likewise, the inclination of theworking-classes to trust to the protection, and, on every emergency, claim as a matter of right the aid of the wealthy, thus wilfully anddeliberately returning to the condition of serfdom: we have now totrace the mediæval mania in a department where, notwithstanding allthis ominous conjunction of symptoms, its appearance is trulysurprising--in the department of high art in painting. 

Our readers need not fear that we are about to inflict on them ascientific dissertation. All we wish to do, is to explain to them aword, with the meaning of which many of them are very imperfectlyacquainted, and by the mere explanation, to enable them to determineupon its claims to designate--not merely _a_ school, but _the_ schoolof art, destined, if founded in truth and nature, to overturn everyother. This word--Pre-Raphaelitism--is taken from the name of one ofthe Italian masters, and it is necessary, in order to understand thequestion, to ascertain what were the circumstances and the genius thathave thus set him up as a landmark in the history of art. 

After the fall of the Western Empire, the fine arts were lost, andtheir productions literally buried in the wreck. The minds of thecomposite nations that arose in Europe had no guide. Men were left totheir own instincts, only faintly aided by the ruins and traditions ofdegenerate Rome; and each series of countries had its own style ofart, framed or adopted by the genius of the people. During the middleages, the style most general in Northern Europe was the Gothic; and bythat term the whole system of art during the period is popularly knownin England. The state of painting, under the Gothic régime, may beseen in the stained windows of the cathedrals; in which strongoutlines and bright colours are laid down without any reference tochiaro-scuro, or the scientific arrangement of light and shadow. Thisseems a natural stage in art-development, and at the same moment itwas seen in equal perfection in China and Europe. In the formerregion, the people are now beginning to advance a step beyond, throughtheir imitation of English pictures; although, but a few years ago, they burst into fits of laughter on seeing the shadow of the nose in aportrait. In Europe, a gigantic and almost sudden stride was made, towards the close of the fifteenth century, under an influence fromwhich the Chinese were debarred, and the nature of which we shallpresently explain. 

Let us first, however, just notice, that the charms of gaudyinartistic colouring frequently exercise a powerful sway even overminds familiar with better things; although that sway is alwaysindicative of the decay of intellectual or moral freshness. Thus, itis remarked by an old Greek author (Dionysius of Halicarnassus), thatthe perfection to which painting had been brought by Apelles, haddegenerated under Augustus; the painters being so much fascinated bythe new art of colouring, that they neglected design, and preferredthe brilliant or gaudy to the solid, and counterfeit to naturalbeauty. What this 'perfection' of Apelles was, we cannot now tell; butthe probability is, that it existed only in design, and that the unionof this with artistic colouring was reserved for the modern masters. 

Before these masters appeared, and before the influence we are aboutto refer to was felt in Europe, some efforts were made by unassistedgenius to rise beyond the conventionalities of the time; in the latterhalf of the thirteenth century, Cimabue already surpassed his modernGreek preceptors; and his disciple Giotto was considered so naturaland original, that his style could not be referred to any existingschool, but was called the _maniera di Giotto_. 'Instead of the harshoutline, ' says Vasari, 'circumscribing the whole figure, the glaringeyes, the pointed hands and feet, and all the defects arising from atotal want of shadow, the figures of Giotto exhibit a better attitude;the heads have an air of life and freedom, the drapery is morenatural, and there are even some attempts at fore-shortening thelimbs. ' All this, however, although a decided improvement on mediævalart, was rude and imperfect--it was only the first faint dawn of abetter light. 'As yet, ' to use the words of Roscoe, 'the charactersrarely excelled the daily prototypes of common life; and their forms, although at times sufficiently accurate, were often vulgar andheavy. . . . To everything great and elevated, the art was yet astranger: even the celebrated picture of Pollajuolo exhibits only agroup of half-naked and vulgar wretches, discharging their arrows at amiserable fellow-creature, who, by changing places with one of hismurderers, might with equal propriety become a murderer himself. '

But the time at length came when that stimulus was to be communicatedto taste which sent a thrill throughout the general heart of Europe. The pictures of the old Greeks were lost for ever, dead and gone; buttheir statues were only buried--buried alive--and now, at the commandof wealth and genius, they were dug out of their tomb of ages, andcame forth, unharmed, in their enchanted life and immortal beauty. Yes, unharmed; for in the head, the torso, the limb, the hand, thefinger, the same principle of life existed as in the entire figure;and, owing to the sublime law of proportion, which bound all together, the minutest fragment indicated a perfect whole. The palace of Lorenzode Medici was the assembling-place, and the ideal beauty of the Greeksfound a new shrine in the groves of Florence. These became a trueacademia, where genius studied and taught, and where the presidingspirit of the place was Michael Angelo Buonarotti, [A] thesculptor--painter--architect--poet, whose universal mind appeared tofit him, not so much to shine in any one department--although shine hedid in all--as to give an impetus to the whole Revival. But MichaelAngelo, as a painter, excelled chiefly in design; while one who washis contemporary, and being a few years later in the field, has beensupposed by some to be his imitator, was the painter _par excellence_of the new era--the first great painter of the moderns. This wasRAPHAEL. He was the pupil of Perugino; and while such, contentedhimself with imitating, with the utmost fidelity, the works of thatartist; till at length emancipating himself from tutelage, he went forinspiration to the cartoons of Michael Angelo, to the sculptures ofthe Medici gardens, and to nature herself. Vasari makes Michael Angelothe magnus Apollo of Raphael; but Quatremère de Quincy assigns to thelatter artist a holier worship. In a letter from him, which he quotes, respecting his famous picture of the Galatea, Raphael says, that inorder to paint a beautiful woman, he must see many, but that, afterall, he must work upon a certain ideal image present in his mind. 'Wethus see, ' says the French critic, 'that he really sought after thebeautiful which Nature presents to art, but which the imagination ofthe artist alone can seize, and genius alone realise. '

Raphael was the first of the moderns to idealise beauty, or, in otherwords, to represent nature in the form she is striving, in herinfinite progression, to attain, but which as yet she only indicateshere and there in those hints and parts that prophetic genius combinesand moulds into a whole. He softened the harsh outlines, mellowed theglaring colours, and harmonised the awkward proportions of mediævalart. With him, a new epoch commenced, adorned by many illustriousnames, from Julio Romano, the poet of painters, to Titian, who clippedhis pencil in the rainbow. The Lombard school of Titian was the thirdof the three first great schools of the Revival, in which taste, emancipated from the darkness of the middle ages, sought inspirationin nature and the Greek sculptures. What would be thought if a schoolwere to arise three hundred years later, not merely discarding theexperience and teachings of the great masters, but claiming by itsvery name to return into the gulf from which these had beenemancipated? This school of decline has, in fact, made its appearanceamong the other symptoms of the mediæval mania, and we now gravelyhang up in our exhibitions the productions of the _Pre_-Raphaelites!The name at first provoked so much ridicule in England, that theirfriends were at pains to inform the world, that it was assumed merelyfor the purpose of intimating their entire separation from the_schools_ of Raphael and his successors, and their exclusive devotionto nature. The artists of Germany, however, with whom the maniacommenced, were less scrupulous. [1] They imitated, purposely, therudeness of the early painters, and even favourably distinguished thejuvenile works of Raphael when he was as yet the mere copyist ofPerugino. It is thus only the reformed schools the Pre-Raphaelistsavoid; for Mr Ruskin's notion, that there were no schools at allbefore Raphael, is quite too wild for answer. [2] The name, however, isof little consequence. The nature returned to is obviously, to any onewho has eyes in his head, the nature of the middle ages; and if ourreaders will look again at the quotations we have made above--whichwere not taken at random--they will find, in the words of Dionysius ofHalicarnassus, Vasari, and William Roscoe, a pretty accuratedescription of the genius and manner of the Pre-Raphaelites. 

Nor could the fact be otherwise. We have noticed the identity of tastebetween the Chinese and the unawakened Europeans, as pointing to anatural stage in art-development; and if we allot to the new school aposition one degree higher than that of Cimabue and Giotto, it is allthat can be claimed by artists, who have even attempted to dismissfrom their minds a later and nobler experience. Their rule is--to haveno rule; to copy nature, just as she happens to be before them; toselect nothing, reject nothing, subordinate nothing, and thus to haveno composition and no chiaro-scuro. They recognise no inequality, norelationship of objects: a pin in a lady's dress, and the nose on thelady's face, are treated with the same even-handed justice. Theharmony of colours is a mere dream: let them only be as bright as astained-glass window, and all is well. 

At this moment, there are two specimens of Pre-Raphaelitism to be seenat the Exhibition of the Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. They are bothdistinguished, like the philosopher in Andersen's Drop of Ditchwater, by having no name; but a quotation is appended to each of the numbersin the catalogue, and is to be supposed to indicate, the subject. No. 9, in the Great Room, has this quatrain from Tennyson--

 'She only said: "My life is dreary-- He cometh not!" she said; She said: "I'm aweary, aweary-- I would that I were dead. "'

In illustration of this awkwardly-constructed stanza, a female, uncomely and ungraceful, is represented as standing in the attitude ofa yawn, not indicated by the gaping mouth, but by the contortedperson, and arms twisted behind the back. She is close to astained-glass window, whose gaudy colours are challenged by her ownbright blue dress, the object of the artist throughout appearing to beviolent opposition, not harmony. The picture, with its violentdislocations, both of bones and impressions, conveys the idea ofanything but repose, although a mouse on the floor bids us notice, that notwithstanding appearances, the ungainly lady stretches herselfin silence. There cannot well be anything more inelegant and untruethan this piece; yet there is clever painting here and there; and someof the accessories, if taken without reference to the design, in whichthey are blots, are models of their kind. The thought belongs to themiddle ages; the mechanical touch to the post-Raphaelite era. 

The other picture, No. 93, in the same room, is larger and moreambitious. It represents a carpenter's workshop, with a mechanic ateach end of the long bench; one of these, a half-starved, hideouswretch, with hardly a trace of the human anatomy in his composition;and the other, a respectable and rather sagacious-looking person, withimmeasurable legs. Behind the bench is a frightful old woman, of thelowest class; and before it another, younger, but repulsively ugly andvulgar, examining, in conjunction with the respectable workman--andwith her brow knotted in an awful congeries of wrinkles up to herfiery hair--the hand of a little boy. This little boy, though plebeianand red-haired, is not unpleasing: he has apparently cut his handwhile playing with some of the edge-tools lying about the shop; whilehis brother, a better-figured as well as better-behaved boy, with ahairy apron round him, is making himself useful in carrying a basin ofsome dark-coloured stuff--probably carpenter's glue. But let us seewhat the legend attached to the number says: 'And one shall say untohim, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Thosewith which I was wounded in the house of my friends. '--Zechariah, xiii. 6. What does this mean? It means, innocent reader, that thepiece we have described in its principal features is the Holy Familyof the Pre-Raphaelites! This is their mode of going to nature, selecting nothing but the mean and repulsive, and rejecting nothingbut poetical and religious feeling and common decency. 

But if the theory of the Pre-Raphaelites is just as regards painting, it must be just as regards the other departments of taste. Suppose itapplied to musical composition. Let us throw overboard everything thatdegrades music to a science, and 'go to nature, ' as Mr Ruskincounsels, 'rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorningnothing. ' What would be the result? The result would be the torture ofeverybody in the country who had the misfortune to possess acultivated ear. And yet the music of that time would not be absolutelydisagreeable in itself: it would merely involve the deprivation ofwhat had become a necessary to the taste; for nature would stillinspire simple sounds, connected more or less with the feelings. Nature, in fact, proceeds in music upon laws that are merelyelaborated and carried out by science; while in painting, she offersan endless variety of objects and effects, to be selected, grouped, and made into a picture by the artist. We all feel this when gazing onnatural scenery. We are actuated by an unconscious eclecticism, andmake the composition for ourselves. To some natural scenes, no skillcould impart interest of any kind; others attain to a certaincharacter of the picturesque; while others, again, combine inthemselves all the elements of a good picture. But even with theselast, mere imitation will not do. Nature, as Hazlitt observes, 'has alarger canvas than man'--a canvas immensely larger; and the artist, since he cannot copy, must select. The same reasoning applies tofigure and group-painting, and its accessories. Nature rarely forms aperfect group, because it is not her purpose to embody a singleexpression. As for small accessorial objects, such as a pin or a leaf, being painted with the same care and accuracy as principal objects, this is a defect in drawing, that argues a singular want ofreflection. In nature, we see distinctly the figure and its moreprominent parts, but we see the minute accessorial parts soindistinctly, that sometimes we can scarcely tell what they are. Theprecise detailing of these objects, therefore, may have the truth offact, but it is destitute of the truth of nature. 

What would be the effect of the new system, if applied to romanticfiction? But the question is unnecessary; for the new system ignoresromance, which is the truth of nature not of fact. A pre-Raphaelitestory, taken from real life, might be romantic in its incidents andstriking in its catastrophe; but it would want coherence in thedesign, and therefore produce no sustained emotion; and its charactersbeing drawn, without selection, from vulgar prototypes, would excitemore disgust than interest. The drama?--but there the new theory ofart becomes too ridiculous: a tragedy on such a plan would be receivedwith alternate yawns of ennui and shouts of laughter. All these arepertinent questions; for fine art, in literature, music, sculpture, painting, architecture, forms a homogeneous circle under one law oftaste. 

It may be supposed that we are ascribing too much importance to thedepartment of the mediæval mania under examination; but, for our part, we 'scorn nothing' that presents a bar, however slight, to theprogress of civilisation and refinement. Pre-Raphaelitism is only oneform of a degradation of taste which appears to keep pace with theutilities of the time, and we shall never be slow in lending our aidto cleanse the temple of its desecrators. L. R. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See the _Moyen Age_ of Du Sommirard. 

[2] _Pre-Raphaelitism. _ By the author of _Modern Painters_. 

A LEGEND OF AMEN-CORNER. 

About the time that every prince in Europe was sending a specialembassy to London, to congratulate James I. On his book againstwitchcraft, which none of them ever professed to have read, a strangeoccurrence happened in an ancient house, situated in the Amen-Cornerof Paternoster Row. Like most of the houses of old London, its lowerhalf was brick, and its upper, English oak. It had been built in thetime of the first Tudor, but, being still a substantial tenement, waspurchased some ten years before the period of this narrative, by twobrothers named Christopher and Hubert, who carried on their businessthere. They were of English blood, but had been born in Germany, theirgrandfather having fled thither in Queen Mary's day under strongsuspicion of owning a Coverdale Bible; and in the good city ofAugsburg his son and grandsons had been brought up to his own craft, then known as the singular art and mystery of printing. A separate anda thinly-scattered guild was that of the printer in those days. Theircraft had nothing in common with the world's older arts, exceptingthose of the scribe and the scholar. The entire book-trade, nowdivided into so many branches, was in their hands--binder, engraver, printer and publisher, being generally the same person; and this, together with the laborious precision required in working theprimitive press, made them throughout Christendom a sort of caste whoacquired their trade by inheritance, and kept it as such. Twogenerations of their family had transmitted the types to Christopherand Hubert; but not to them alone. There had been an elder brother, Gottleib, who printed with them at Augsburg. Their mother had diedearly: the plague summoned their father when they were little morethan boys, and the man grieved sore to leave his sons so young, and anedition of the Latin Fathers, which he had calculated on finishing infive years with great praise and profit, just begun; but Gottleibpromised him that he would finish the work in his name, and take careof his young brothers till they were old enough to be expert andprudent printers; so the old man died in peace. 

Gottleib was the glory of his craft, and the praise of all Augsburg. Throughout Germany there was not a more skilful printer, nor in thecity a more wise and virtuous youth. Old men asked his help in theirdifficulties, the young chose him as umpire in their disputes. He wascharitable to the poor, a peacemaker among his neighbours, and afaithful and kindly guardian to his young brothers. Carefully heinstructed them in all the mysteries of their art, though itlengthened his own labour by many a toilsome hour. Patiently he borewith the waywardness and inexperience of their youth. At hearth, andboard, and labour, Gottleib was their blithe companion; in hard work, their help; in times of trouble, their comforter; and when disputescame between them, he was the ready arbitrator, on whose justice bothcould rely. At the church, they sat one on either side of him; onfestival and holiday, they walked out with each an arm of Gottleib, and the burgomaster's son was not more confident in his father. Thusthey lived and laboured cheerfully together, in the old house theirfather left them, for five years. The complete edition of the LatinFathers went forward, and the boys grew to man's estate, till Gottleibwas no longer the tallest of the three. Neighbours remarked, too, thathe looked no longer the strongest. His once ruddy cheek at times grewpale and wan; still, there was no complaint of sickness in the house, and the edition was completed. All men praised, and some printersenvied the work, though it was finished in the name of their deadfather. 

One evening, Gottleib rejoiced over it greatly, saying his promise wasfulfilled, and Christopher and Hubert were now as good printers ashimself: he bade them a kindly and glad good-night, and the youngbrothers talked long together, for Gottleib slept alone; but in themorning he did not come as usual to call them, and when they went towake him, their brother was kneeling at his bedside, with his handsclasped as if in prayer--an earlier summons had reached him, and thegreat soul was gone!

Honour and profit followed the work they had printed with him. Theircraft grew proud of them, and friends began to say they might beburgomasters in time; but the light of their days had gone down withGottleib. The old house had grown so dreary without him, that theycould not live in it. Every street and corner of the city broughttheir loss to mind; and hearing that there was peace and room forprinters in their father's country, the young men sold their Germandwelling to a wealthy burgher, collected their money, chattels, andtypes, and came with them to London. Paternoster Row was even in thosedays the resort of traders in books; and happening to see theantiquated house in Amen-Corner, the strangers thought it had apleasant likeness to their old home; so they purchased it at theexpense of nearly all they possessed, except their printing-press, with which they established themselves there, determined never topart, but live together in the country of their fathers. 

Hard by there lived a widow of German parentage, whose husband hadbeen a printer; but he and his seven children were all dead. Gunhilde, for such was her name, was old, poor, and lonely, and she became theirhousekeeper. Years of resolute toil and prudent frugality passed overthe brothers, till they were no longer strangers in old London, norinconsiderable among the inhabitants of the Row. Their press had doneits part in the work of the times. They had printed the 'Book ofSports' and the 'Westminster Confession;' broadside ballads concerningRobin Hood and Maid Marian; and heavy folios on Free-will andPredestination. Christopher and Hubert had increased in substance alsoto a degree never dreamed of in their German home. The dealers inbooks began to talk of them as somewhat notable men; but cares andcauses of division had come with property and importance. In somerespects, the brothers were of the same temper: both were earnest, brave, and high-spirited--strong to will, and steady to work. They hadbeen faithful friends and loving brethren through many a change andtrial; but there was a grievous fault in both. Each was given to exactfrom the other's friendship, though in a different fashion; forChristopher expected too much of inward affection, and Hubert had toomuch respect to outward observances. Alike, on the ground ofresemblance and of difference, sprang up the roots of bitterness whichtroubled their days. At first, their strangership, their strivings tolive and thrive in the English land, and, above all, the memory andloving counsels of their lost Gottleib, had bound them heart and handtogether; but as the years of manhood hardened heart and mind, asincreasing gains brought leisure and anxious looks on life, differences of opinion, of tastes, and of inclinations, graduallycrept in between them, and their elder brother waned away from theirremembrance, far off among the scenes and familiars of youth. 

Time brought further occasion of discord: the house of an Englishbookseller at the foot of the Row had grown more attractive than hisown to Hubert, because of a certain Mistress Margaret who lived therewith her father. The bookseller was old, narrow-minded, and stiff forpresbytery; he approved of no people but Englishmen, and had a specialprejudice against German Lutherans. His daughter believed firmly inhis wisdom, and had been from infancy the old man's darling. She wasfair, good, and clever; but the girl had a wayward pride, and a witthat was too ready for her judgment. Nevertheless, Hubert had foundfavour in her eyes as well as in those of her father, perhaps becausehe endeavoured earnestly to win it; while Christopher was composingtender verses, addressed to a young and very pious Catholic widow inthe neighbourhood, who held fast her then persecuted faith. 

The bookseller hesitated on giving his daughter to a Lutheran, and thewidow remained undecided; but under their influence, Christopher andHubert learned to contemn each other's choice, and dispute over creedswhich neither acknowledged. Thus the controversies of the age, withall their bigotry and uncharitableness, found entrance to their home. Christopher lost no opportunity of throwing scorn on the Puritans, onaccount of the bookseller; and Hubert never spared to testify againstPopish errors, by way of reflection on the widow. The lovingbrotherhood, which had been to them a rampart against the world's sinsand follies, was broken down, and all manner of petty jealousies, vanities, and mistakes, flowed in to swell the flood of strife. Therehad been fierce debates and bitter words between them, wrath thatovercame the friendship of years, hard misjudging of each other'smotives, and mighty magnifying of small offences. One evening they satin sullen pride and anger by the fire. It was the same hearth at whichfor ten years they had met when the work of the day was done. Theirearly difficulties in the great, strange city had been debated there. The gains of their prosperous days had been reckoned, their risks andspeculations discussed, but now their seats were pushed to the mostdistant corners, and between them stood a table covered with papersand account-books; for they had at last determined to divide theirpossessions to the uttermost farthing, and part company for ever. Withmerchant-like exactness, every tittle was reckoned up and shared. Theold house was to be sold to a Jew for a sum already agreed on, and oneitem only remained which they could not divide, an heirloom's valuebeing fixed upon it. That was the Coverdale Bible with which theirgrandfather had fled to Germany. 

Neither would consent to take the book, or receive anything in itsstead, for a savage pride was in their hearts; and there lay the largeworn folio, with its brazen clasps, between them. The day's work hadbeen hard, for though comparatively rich, Christopher and Hubert werelaborious men from habit, and the elder at length leaned his head onthe table to rest a moment, and think what could be done. Hubert alsoleaned his brow on his hand, and it might be the sight of that oldvolume, in spite of themselves, brought faraway memories crowding backon both. They thought of the German city where they had been born; oftheir long-dead father; and, last of all, of Gottleib. They knew thegrass was long upon his German grave; but suddenly, as wild and vagueregrets for all that had come and gone began to rise upon them, thedoor of their room was opened, and there entered a stranger of mostnoble presence and aspect, who, without a word, drew back the tableand seated himself between them. 

The brothers were astonished; but when he said in their own Germantongue: 'Friends, why do you muse so silently?' his voice sounded intheir ears like the church-bells of Augsburg. 

'We have cause for silence and musing, friend, ' said Christopher. 

'And what is your business with us?' demanded the fiery Hubert. 

'I have come, ' said the stranger, 'to shew you a rare and curioussight which lies in your very neighbourhood, though you never saw it, not having yet reached the ground from which it is rightly seen. '

'We have no time for sights at this late hour, ' cried Hubert. 

'Our accounts and goods occupy us now, but we will go to-morrow, ' saidChristopher. 

'Nay, friends, ' said the stranger, taking a hand of each, 'it werewell that you should see it soon. All who earnestly look upon thatsight, are somewhat instructed to their private benefit; and it may bethat you also will learn something touching the use of these, ' headded, pointing to the open account-books and the clasped Bible. 

Christopher and Hubert felt persuaded to accompany him: he led them, it seemed but a few steps from their own door, through a dark andnarrow lane, in which the busy men had never been; but there streetsand houses abruptly terminated, and they stood by the side of a broadand thronged highway. A road like that the brothers had never seen inall their journeys. It ran due east and west, from the rising to thesetting sun; but far to the eastward, a mist, like the smoke ofcongregated houses, shut out the view; and on the west, a fog moredense than that of autumn or mid-winter closed the prospect. The spacebetween was thronged with travellers, who emerged from the easternmist, and were manifestly going to the other. 

A light shone on them, but it was gray and uncertain, like that oftwilight. Sometimes the sun, sometimes the stars shone through, andstrange clouds and meteors passed across the sky. 

'What way is this, ' thought the brothers, 'which lies so near our owndwelling, and yet has neither night nor day?' But as their eyes grewaccustomed to the light, they perceived that the travellers on thatroad were of all ages--man, woman, and child. Yet each journeyed in atrack cut for himself in the soil, from which it appeared none couldstray. Some of these tracks were wide, and others narrow; some hadnumerous windings, and some were but slightly curved; many were roughand stony, others of the bare earth, with brambles growing thick attheir edges; and some were half covered with grass and wild-flowers. Christopher and Hubert, however, observed that none of them wereperfectly smooth or straight; that dust and rubbish were plentiful inthem all; and that every track on that highway crossed some other. Thetravellers, too, differed wonderfully in their manner of journeying. Some moved like mourners at a funeral; some like runners to a goal. There were those who went steadily forward, with the pace of soldierson a march; others, who seemed in great fear, looking perpetuallybehind or before them; and very few who walked at their ease. 

As the brothers marvelled at this diversity, they discovered thatthere was none of all the travellers without a burden, and in thatmatter there appeared no less variety. Bundles of every shape and sizewere on their shoulders: some looked huge, and were tied up insackcloth; others were covered with rich cloth, and bound with silkencords. Some bore theirs concealed under long mantles; but Christopherthought it was mostly weights of iron or lead they carried. Furtherparticulars astonished the brothers still more. The greater partappeared to have a strange propensity for increasing the difficultiesof their way, by walking in whatever manner was least practicable. Many augmented the burdens, under which they already staggered, withdust and rubbish, which they collected from all sides; and far morewere endeavouring to pile up the scattered stones and thorns on theirequally burdened neighbours. All this time, the air was filled with aclamour of complaints, generally referring to their tracks andburdens; and Christopher and Hubert remarked with amazement, that itwas by no means those who had the roughest track, or the heaviest baleto carry, that travelled most laboriously, or seemed least contentwith the journey. 

No traveller, indeed, appeared satisfied, and whenever their trackscrossed, the unruly creatures were sure to jostle each other; but letthe accident happen as it would, every man laid the blame loudly onhis neighbour. They had also innumerable disputes concerning theclouds and meteors of the sky; regarding the dust under their feet;and more especially touching some glimpses of an azure heaven, whichthey caught at times through the western mist. On that subject, thefierceness of their debates was marvellous, and the clamouroccasionally became deafening; but the brothers observed that thenoisiest traveller generally came quietly out of the one mist, anddisappeared with as little tumult in the other. 

'What think ye of these people?' said the stranger, when Christopherand Hubert had gazed and wondered long. 

'They are mad!' said Christopher, 'to give and take such trouble forno end. '

'What grievous disturbance they make about so short a journey!' criedHubert. 'Good stranger, tell us of what Bedlam are they?'

'They belong to all the madhouses of the world, ' said the stranger. 

'But why are they here?--where are they going?--and what lies beyondthese mists?' cried the brothers in a breath. 

'Dear brothers, who were so true and loving of old, ' said thestranger, 'concerning this matter, believe that you will learnhereafter; for the present, know that this which ye have seen is thegreat and busy road of life; but strive to become more wise andprudent travellers, and see that ye fall not out by the way. '

As he ceased, a gleam of sunshine broke through the twilight, and fellfull upon him. In its brightness, the noble aspect did not alter, butgrew more familiar to their eyes; and Christopher and Hubert knew atthe same moment that he was none other than their brother Gottleib. Both sprang to embrace him, but the way, the travellers, and Gottleib, vanished from them. They looked into each other's faces by the earlysunlight which streamed through the closed shutters of their room, andgleamed on the brazen clasps of the Coverdale Bible, still lyingbetween them on the table where they had fallen asleep. 

Such is the account of the affair given by themselves; although more, it is believed, to suit the taste and belief of the time they livedin than their own. The two brothers had passed many hours silent andin the dark; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the visionaryworld, into which they had unconsciously slipped, presented to bothsuch phenomena--founded on the meditations and recollections in whichboth had been immersed--as were easily rendered in the exoteric typesof romance. The brothers talked long over the vision, and couldscarcely satisfy even themselves that it was indeed a dream; but theyagreed on its use of wisdom and warning, and disputed no more. The oldhouse was not sold, nor the types divided. It is even affirmed thatthe bookseller's daughter and the Catholic widow lived there as rightfriendly sisters-in-law; and after many a broadside and folio page, the press they had worked for so many years at length struck off thetale we have just related--the German brothers supposing that somehonest men in England might profit, as they had done, by a look uponLife's Highway. 

DUST-SHOWERS AND RED-RAIN. 

Recent scientific investigations in Europe and America have thrownsome interesting light on the nature of these very curious phenomena. The results arrived at may be brought familiarly before our readers. 

Mr Charles Darwin, in the narrative of his voyage in the _Beagle_, states that while he was at St Jago, one of the Cape de Verd islands, in January 1832: 'The atmosphere was generally very hazy; this appearschiefly due to an impalpable dust, which is constantly falling, evenon vessels far out at sea. The dust, ' he goes on to say, 'is of abrown colour, and under the blow-pipe, easily fuses into a blackenamel. It is produced, as I believe, from the wear and tear ofvolcanic rocks, and must come from the coast of Africa. ' The sameopinion was held by scientific men generally, as well of the dust metwith in the North Atlantic, as of that which sometimes falls on theislands and shores of the Mediterranean: Africa was supposed to be theoriginal source of the air-borne particles. Some of the dust, however, having been sent to Ehrenberg of Berlin, that celebrated _savant_, after a microscopical examination, laid an account of his inquirybefore the Akademie der Wissenschaften, in May 1844, in which heshewed that the dust, so far from being inorganic, contained numerousspecimens of a species of flint-shelled animalcules, or infusoria, known as polygastrica, and minute portions of terrestrial plants. Theinvestigation led him to certain conclusions: '1. That meteoricdust-rain is of terrestrial origin. 2. That the same is not a rain ofvolcanic ashes. 3. That it is necessarily a dust carried up to a greatheight by a strong current of air or whirlwind from a dried-upswamp-region. 4. That the dust neither demonstrably nor necessarilycomes from Africa, notwithstanding that the wind may blow from thenceas the nearest land when the dust falls, because there are in it noforms whatsoever exclusively native to Africa. ' These were remarkablefacts, but warranted by the evidence: one, if not more, of theanimalcules was proved to be peculiar to America, and that country wasnaturally inferred to be the quarter from which they had been derived. 

The inquiry once begun was followed up; other specimens of dust weresubmitted to the same critical test, and found generally to contain amuch greater number and variety of infusoria than the first--mostlyfresh-water forms, but with a few of marine origin; whence theconclusion, that they had been brought from a coast-region; andespecially remarkable was the fact, that among all the forms there wasnot one peculiar to the African continent. One example was known tobelong to the Isle of France, the others were chiefly South American. After an examination of six specimens, obtained at differentintervals, Ehrenberg discovered that they contained four organisms incommon. 'I now consider myself, ' he observes, 'justified in theconclusion, that all the Atlantic dust may come only from one and thesame source, notwithstanding its extent and annual amount. Theconstant yellow and reddish colour of the dust, produced byferruginous matter, its falling with the trade-winds and not with theharmattan, increase the interest of the phenomena. '

It had always been supposed, that the dust which traversed theMediterranean was borne from the Great Sahara; but in a quantitycollected on board the ship _Revenge_, at Malta, an infusoria peculiarto Chili was met with, which, with other characteristics, proved thedust to be the same as that observed on the Atlantic. Their colour, too, was identical; while the Sahara is a 'dazzling white sand:' hencethe dust brought across the Mediterranean by the sirocco was notpeculiar to Africa. The conclusion here arrived at was still furtherverified by another sirocco-storm in May 1846, which extended toGenoa, and bore with it a dust that 'covered the roofs of the city ingreat abundance. ' This, as was clearly ascertained, containedformations identical with those which had been collected off the Capede Verd; and it was shewn that the dust-showers of the Atlantic, andthose of Malta and Genoa, were 'always of a yellow ochre-likecolour--not gray, like those of the kamsin, in North Africa. ' Thepeculiar colour of the dust was found to be caused by iron-oxide; andfrom one-sixth to one-third of the whole proved to consist 'ofdeterminable organic parts. ' In the following year, 1847, Ehrenberghad another opportunity of testing his conclusions, in specimens ofdust which had fallen in Italy and Sicily in 1802 and 1813; the sameresult came out on examination; 'several species peculiar to SouthAmerica, and none peculiar to Africa. '

Thus, omitting the two last-mentioned instances, there had been fivemarked falls of dust between 1830 and 1846; how many others passedwithout notice, it would now be impossible to ascertain. The showerssometimes occur at a distance of 800 miles from the coast of Africa, and this region lies between the parallels of 17 and 25 degrees northlatitude, and whence, as we have seen, they extend to the northernshores of the Mediterranean. In the dust collected from these variousfalls, there have been found altogether nineteen species of infusoria;of which eight were polythalamia, seven polygastrica, and twophytolitharia, these chiefly constituting the flint-earth portion ofthe dust. The iron was composed of the gaillonilla, and 'the carbonicchalk earth corresponded tolerably well to the smaller number ofpolythalamia. ' The uniform character of the specimens obtained atintervals over so long a course of years is especially remarkable. 

To turn, now, for a few moments to the second phenomenon indicated inour title. In October 1846, a fearful and furious hurricane visitedLyon and the district between that city and Grenoble, during whichoccurred a fall of blood-rain. A number of drops were caught andpreserved, and when the moisture had evaporated, there was seen thesame kind of dust--of yellowish-brown or red colour--as that which hadfallen in a dry state on the occasions already referred to. Thestrictest pains were taken to ascertain that it was not the commondust swept from roads during a gale of wind; and when placed under themicroscope, it exhibited a greater proportion of fresh-water andmarine formations than the former instances. Phytolitharia werenumerous, as also 'neatly-lobed vegetable scales;' which, as Ehrenbergobserves, is sufficient to disprove the assertion, that the substanceis formed in the atmosphere itself, and is not of European origin. Forthe first time, a living organism was met with--the '_Eunotiaamphyoxis_, with its ovaries green, and therefore capable of life. 'Here was a solution of the mystery: the dust, mingling with the dropsof water falling from the clouds, produced the red rain. Itsappearance is that of reddened water, and it cannot be calledblood-like without exaggeration. 

Again, in March 1847, a coloured snow fell in the Tyrol, presenting amost singular appearance, and, when dried, leaving behind abrick-coloured dust. Most of the organised forms therein containedwere European and American, with a few African; and again themicroscope shewed it to be similar to the dust before examined, leaving no room to suppose it of local origin. 'The predominatingforms, numerically, of one kind of dust, are also the predominatingforms in all the rest, ' as Ehrenberg observes; and says further:'Impossible as it is to conceive of all the storms now compared from1830 to 1847, as having a continuous genetic connection, it is equallyimpossible also to imagine the masses of dust transported by them, with such a degree of similarity, _not to have a geneticconnection_. . . . The great geographic extent of the phenomenon of areddish dust nearly filling the atmosphere, and itself filled withorganisms so similar, many of which are characteristic of SouthAmerica, not only admits of, but demands a more earnest attention tothe probable cyclical relations in the upper and lower atmosphere, whereby very great masses of fixed terrestrial matter, earths andmetals, and especially flint-earths, chalk, iron, and coal, apparentlyheterogeneous, and yet related by certain peculiarities, are heldswimming in the atmosphere, now like clouds thinly spread bywhirlwinds or electricity over a broad space, and now condensed, and, like the dust of the fir-blossoms, falling in showers in everydirection. '

Ehrenberg, then, states his views as to the cause of the phenomenon. 'Although far from attaching undue weight to a hypothesis, I cannotbut consider it a matter of duty to seek for a connection in thefacts, and feel myself constrained--on account of the above-mentionedparticulars, and in so far as they justify a conclusion--to suppose anatmospheric current, connecting America and Africa with the region ofthe trade-winds, and sometimes, particularly about the 15th and 16thof May, turning towards Europe, and bringing with it this verypeculiar, and apparently not African dust, in countless measure. Ifinstead of attacking hypothesis by hypothesis, we strive with unitedeffort to multiply scientific observations, we may then hope for aprogressive explanation of these mysterious relations, so especiallyworthy of study. '

Some progress has already been made by a transatlantic investigator inthe explanation so much desired by the distinguished naturalist. Lieutenant Maury, of Washington--an outline of whose views regardingthe winds was given in No. 412 of this Journal--finds in Ehrenberg'sresearches a beautiful and interesting confirmation of his own theory;namely, that the trade-winds of either hemisphere cross the belt ofequatorial calms. Observations at the Peak of Teneriffe have provedthat, while the trade-wind is sweeping along the surface of the oceanin one direction, a current in the higher regions of the atmosphere isblowing in the reverse direction. According to Lieutenant Maury, aperpetual upper current prevails from South America to North Africa, the volume being equal to that which flows southward by the north-easttrade-wind. This wind, it should be remembered, does not touch theAfrican continent, but the limits of its northern border are variable;whence the fact, that the falls of dust vary between 17 and 25 degreesof north latitude, as before stated. As the belt of calms shifts itsposition, so will there be a variation in the locality of thedescending atmospheric current. 

The dust-showers take place most frequently in spring and autumn; thatis, 'after the equinoxes, but at intervals varying from thirty tofifty days;' the cause being, that the equatorial calms, at the timeof the vernal equinox, extend to four degrees on either side theequator; and as the rainy season then prevails between those limits, no dust can consequently be taken up in those latitudes. But the sameperiod is the dry season in the valley of the lower Orinoco, and thesurface of that extensive region is in a favourable condition to giveoff dust; and at the time of the autumnal equinox, another part of thegreat Amazonian basin is parched with drought, on which LieutenantMaury observes: 'May not, therefore, the whirlwinds which accompanythe vernal equinox sweep over the lifeless plains of the lowerOrinoco, take up the "rain-dust, " which descends in the northernhemisphere in April and May--and may it not be the atmosphericaldisturbances which accompany the autumnal equinox, that take up themicroscopic organisms from the upper Orinoco and the great Amazonianbasin for the showers of October?' Humboldt gives a striking pictureof the region in question, and, if the phrase may be permitted, of itsdust-producing capabilities; so that the origin of this light powder, as regards one locality, may be said to be placed beyond a doubt. 

As yet, the reason why the dust falls, as it were, concretely, and notgenerally diffused through the atmosphere, is not known; it is one ofthe obscure points waiting further investigation. Why it should travelso far to fall in a particular spot is, in the present state of ourknowledge, not easy to explain. The coarsest dust is generally thefirst to fall; and it seems clear, that the descent occurs when andwhere the conditions are favourable. Lieutenant Maury considers, 'thatcertain electrical conditions are necessary to a shower of dust aswell as to a thunder-storm;' and that, in the periodical intervals, wemay get a clue to the rate of motion of the upper aerial currents, which appear to be 'remarkable for their general regularity, theirgeneral direction, and sharpness of limits. '

It is scarcely possible not to feel that the investigations herebriefly sketched, possess unusual interest. As Ehrenberg says, thesubject is one 'of vast, manifold, and rapidly-increasing importance, and is but the beginning of a future great department of knowledge. 'Now that it has been published in a connected form, and the attentionof scientific observers directed to it, we may hope soon to hear ofcorroborative evidence from all parts of the world. We may mention, asbearing on the question, that sand-showers are not unfrequent inChina. Dr M'Gowan of Ningpo, in a communication to the Asiatic Societyof Bengal, states, that at the beginning of 1851, three showersoccurred within five weeks; the last, which commenced on the 26thMarch, and continued four days, being the heaviest. The wind duringthe time varied from north-east to north-west, the breeze interruptedby occasional calms. No rain had fallen for six weeks; and though, asthe doctor observes, 'neither cloud, fog, nor mist obscured theheavens, yet the sun and moon were scarcely visible; the orb of dayappeared as if viewed through a smoked glass, the whole sky presentinga uniform rusty hue. At times, this sameness was disturbed, exhibitingbetween the spectator and the sun the appearance of a water-spout, owing to the gyratory motions of the impalpable mineral. The sandpenetrated the most secluded apartments; furniture wiped in themorning, would be so covered with it in the afternoon, that one couldwrite on it legibly. In the streets, it was annoying--entering theeyes, nostrils, and mouth, and grating under the teeth. My ophthalmicpatients generally suffered a relapse, and an unusual number of newcases soon after presented themselves. Were such heavy sand-storms offrequent occurrence, diseases of the visual organs would prevail to adestructive extent. '

These showers sometimes spread over several provinces at once, and farout to sea. The Chinese call them yellow-sand. Their source is thegreat desert of Gobi, or Sand-Ocean, more than 2000 miles long, andfrom 300 to 400 broad, in the interior of Asia. Dr M'Gowan states, that the fall amounted to ten grains per square foot, but withoutspecifying whether this quantity includes the whole duration of theshower. During calms, it remains suspended. The dust thus raised fromthe Mongolian steppes gives the peculiar tinge to the Yellow Sea. 

Notwithstanding the annoyance of these dust-showers, they have avaluable compensation. The Chinese, whose closeness of observation inagricultural matters is well known, assert that they are alwaysfollowed by a fruitful season--not, it is true, as cause, but aseffect. The explanation is, that the soil of the provinces mostsubject to the visitation, being of a compact character, is loosenedand lightened by the sand borne on the wind from the Tatarian plains, and at the same time, the lighter fertilising matters carried away bythe great rivers are replaced; and thus, that which at first sightappears an unmitigated evil, becomes the cause of good harvests, forthey invariably follow a fall of sand. 

THE CITY INQUEST FOR THE POOR. 

I keep a shop in the City, and open it every morning as Bow Churchbells are ringing out eight o'clock. I pay a very heavy rent, as wellas Queen's taxes and poor's-rates; and I could do neither, to saynothing of maintaining my family, if I did not mind my business, andwork hard. But by the help of constant attention and industry, I amhappy to say, I am able to make my shop keep me and my family too, which it does comfortably, and lifts me, in some sort, above theworld, and enables me to bear the character, which I should alwayslike to retain, of a respectable man. 

We dwellers in London City proper are supposed to entertain a veryhigh regard for respectability, and so we do; and I am going now todetail the operations of what, I suppose, must be called aninstitution altogether peculiar to the City, of which the world out ofthe City knows very little, and which has been in being I don't knowhow many centuries--before there were any poor-laws, or any 'goodQueen Bess;' and which must have been a respectable affair--if I amany judge of what that means--from the very first, whenever that was. It is a good thing to relieve necessity in any shape, and a betterthing to help it to help itself; but to dispense charity without doinga mischief in some way or other, either by rewarding imposture, encouraging idleness, or repressing the springs of self-reliance orself-exertion, is about the hardest business I have ever had to dowith, and I have had some knotty affairs to get through in my time. Now, the various wards of the City do every year, I think, manage thisdifficult matter very carefully and efficiently, though not without agood deal of trouble; and as I think their mode of doing it sets agood example, I have made up my mind to let the public know somethingabout the Inquest for the Poor, which comes off in December everyyear. I believe it will be a novelty to most people out of the Citylimits, and to not a few within them as well. What I know about it, Ihave derived from experience: that, indeed, is all I have to relate;and when I have told my tale, the reader will be as wise as I am, inthis respect at least. 

About the middle of last December, I received a citation to attend awardmote, to be held in the schoolroom of my parish. I was inexpectation of this summons, as, the parishioners being called upon inrotation, I knew that my turn would come on upon this occasion. Thenumber of tradesmen, who must be all of respectable character, summoned to the first meeting, is always greater than the numberrequired to serve on the inquest, because many find it veryinconvenient, and others find it impossible, to give their services. Valid excuses are admitted in plea against the performance of theduty; but a frivolous excuse is not allowed; and a tradesman, whoseturn it is to serve, if he can prefer no good reason for not serving, must serve or pay the fine. Six guineas is the heavy penalty inflictedupon a recusant who declines service altogether. This preliminarymeeting is called merely to insure a sufficient company to be inattendance in the vestry of ---- Church, at the general wardmote heldon St Thomas's Day. 

After an early breakfast on the morning of the day above named, Irepaired to the vestry, which was very fully attended, and where, inthe course of the forenoon, the common-councilmen for the ward wereelected for the ensuing year, and, their election settled, were allduly admonished respecting their duties by the chairman. Then, fromthe number of respectable tradesmen in attendance, myself and elevenothers were elected to prosecute the inquest for that year on behalfof the poor; and we in our turn were admonished by the same authority, that we were not to compass any treason, nor to conspire against HerMajesty the Queen--than which, I am very sure, nothing could have beenfurther from our thoughts. The inquest being thus incorporated, weproceeded to elect a foreman and a treasurer, and to decree fines fornon-attendance. The fines were appropriated to the payment ofexpenses, no part of the money collected being available for any otherpurpose than that of charity. The collection commenced by acontribution from each member of the inquest, each giving liberally, and setting a generous example. All these necessary preliminariesbeing settled, every man of us got into a handsome cloak, trimmed withfur, hired for the occasion, at a cost of five shillings per head, and, with the beadle of the ward blazing in scarlet and gold, pacingmajestically beneath a three-cornered hat, and pushing a ponderousgold mace in advance, we were marched off to Guildhall, to pass musterbefore Gog and Magog, and to be presented to his worship the lordmayor. His lordship, who was surrounded by a staff of officials ingorgeous liveries, was very glad to see us: indeed he told us so--saidthat he was extremely gratified at receiving so highly respectable acompany, and expressed more than once his satisfaction at finding thatwe were so ready to act in the cause of charity as to sacrifice ourvaluable time, and unite together for the succour of the distressed. He addressed us, in fact, for nearly a minute and a half; after which, as time was pressing, and others were waiting to be presented, we weresignaled forward to a side-door, and made a very sudden exit into thestreet, whence we marched back to the vestry to disrobe, with theexception of some few of our number, who knowing that the business ofthe charity was done for the day, abandoned their cloaks to the careof the owner, who contrives generally to be in attendance at thiscritical moment, and proceeded to look after their own privateaffairs. We all met, however, in the evening, and partook of asubstantial dinner, to which, according to a custom which hasprevailed from time immemorial, the church-wardens of the parish andthe foreman and treasurer of the inquest of the preceding year wereinvited. The dinner went off, as a dinner should do, with perfectharmony and good-feeling; and some very excellent speeches were madeon the subject of the inquest--its undeniable efficacy and utility, and its great antiquity. We broke up at a sober hour, each memberbeing charged to present himself at the vestry at nine in the morningon that day week, under the penalty of half-a-guinea. 

It would have suited my interests very well, when the day came round, to have forfeited my half-guinea, and have attended exclusively to myown business; but judging it more to my credit to go through with thework I had undertaken, I was at my post, together with several of mycolleagues, before the hour had struck. Some of our members did notcome at all the first day, but sent their half-guineas; others, havingto come in from the suburbs before omnibus-time, arrived too late, andwere fined in smaller sums for the breach of punctuality. Our partybeing at length complete, to the number of ten, we indue our cloaks, and, pioneered by the ward-beadle with his ponderous mace, we sallyforth to feel the charitable pulse of several parishes. Ten good menand true, swathed to the chin in voluminous folds of broad-clothfringed with fur, and headed by the ample proportions of themace-bearer in scarlet and cloth of gold; our apparition, and ourmission too, were plainly a mystery to the major part of thepopulation, who, seeing us but once a year, and then but momentarily, as the procession emerges suddenly from one door to plunge intoanother, do not very well know what to make of it. 'Is that there aburyin' or a marryin'?' 'What's that lot o' fellows after?' 'What's upnow, Jem?'--such are a few of the inquiries which from time to timetestified the astonishment of the uninitiated; to all of which ourimperturbable leader opposed a face as impenetrable as that of thesphinx of the desert. We should have been sadly at a loss, by the way, without him. He knew every soul in the whole ward who would come downto the extent of a sixpence for the sake of the poor; and he led hissmall phalanx boldly to the charge through all impediments. Under hisguidance, we did what certainly we should never have attempted withoutit. We stormed the stout citadels of the merchants, and carried theirstrongholds up as high as the third and fourth floors, and capturedmany a poor man's dinner from the very jaws of the cash-box. We divedinto cellars, and crouched and crept into subterranean dens. Wethreaded muddy lanes, and wandered among bewildering wharfs, andmounted lofts and sheds, and squeezed ourselves into all sorts ofout-of-the-way slums. We climbed ladders leading up into creakingtimber galleries, and got into regions of old planks and cobwebs, dimwith dust and odorous with ancient smells. We assailed the scholar athis studies, and the craftsman at his labour, and from all and each wemet with a courteous reception, and gathered the sinews ofbenevolence. The dispositions of men vary in few things more than intheir several modes of conferring a favour. Some of our most liberaldonors thoughtfully sent their bank-notes to the vestry, to save usthe trouble of waiting upon them; others, on the contrary, levied thefull value of their gifts, by keeping us wearily waiting before we gotthem. A barber, whom we found at his block busily weaving a wig, andwhose diminutive crib would not contain half our company, apologisedbecause it was not in his power to do much for us, and thendiffidently tendered a guinea. A portly dealer in feminine luxuriestalked largely of the claims of our indigent brethren, and the sacredobligations of charity, and wound up his sonorous homily with theclimax of half-a-crown. We found one burly gentleman, buried up to theelbows in red-tape and legal documents, who professed a perfecthorror, a rooted antipathy, to the poor in every shape, and who had adecided conviction that poverty was a nuisance which ought to be putdown. When he had said all this, and a great deal more, he veryconsistently lent a hand towards abating the nuisance, by presentingus with a contribution of double his usual annual subscription. Whenwe had got out of earshot, our experienced chaperon remarked to me:'When I hered him agoin' on so, I knowed he was agoin' to come down'ansome. He's a wery nice genelman, what enjoys a grumble, and don'tmind paying for it!'

Our domiciliary visits occupied between three and four days, and therain fell in torrents during the whole time. We were wet through inspite of the cloaks we wore, but canvassed the whole districtsuccessfully notwithstanding, and probably collected every shillingthat was to be got. Our guide had so often felt the pulse of the wholeward in this way, that he never suffered us to waste our time or ourdemands upon those whom he knew to be impracticable; and thus we gotthrough the business much more quickly, as well as more prosperously, than we could possibly have done had we been left to our ownresources. The result of our united labours was a purse of nearlyL. 200; and now came the more pleasant part of our duty--thedistribution of alms, at a season when poverty is most severely felt, to the most deserving of the most needy. 

The distribution took place a few days after the collection wasfinished. In the interim, blank tickets had been distributed to suchof the donors as chose to receive them, upon which they inscribed thenames of the poor persons whom they recommended for relief. The vestrywhere we were elected was the scene of the distribution. The body ofthe church was allotted for the accommodation of the poorticket-holders, who formed a numerous and very motley crowd, and whowere called in to receive their dole in rotation, by the ward-beadle, from a list which he had prepared. I suspect, however, that the systemof rotation was not very rigidly observed, inasmuch as half-a-dozenwomen, with squalling children in their arms, were among the veryfirst who were called in and dealt with, by which means something likepeace and quietness were obtained while the claims of the crowd of theremaining applicants were severally considered. What followed was avery different affair from that which transpires weekly at the parishpay-table. I have been church-warden, overseer, and guardian ofvarious parishes in my time, and I have seen the poor in allconditions and under all circumstances, and I thought I knew them wellenough; but I derived a new lesson now, and learned that it ispossible for humanity to undergo the direst misfortunes without losingheart and hope--to drain the cup of misery to the dregs withoutbecoming utterly selfish--and to be long immersed in the lowest depthsof necessity, and yet be human still. I shall describe one or two ofthese hapless claimants upon the benevolence of their wealthyfellow-citizens, premising that a few of them only are the recipientsof parish pay. They see no disgrace, perhaps, in participating in avoluntary alms, because it is voluntary, and, as such, cannot beregarded as the peculiar property of that numerous class who assertand maintain a life-interest in compulsory funds legally levied fortheir support. 

One of the first who seemed to attract general sympathy was an old, old man, trembling on the very verge of the grave, who had outlivedalmost every faculty of mind and body. He could walk only by instinct, advancing his foot mechanically, to save himself from falling, whenhe was pushed gently forwards. When standing, he could not seathimself--and when sitting, he could not get up without help. Inwhatever posture he was placed, there he remained. Altogetherinsensible to question and remark, he looked wildly round upon us, andsmiled, and winked with both eyes. These were his sole remainingcapabilities--to wink, and to look agreeable. He had been recommendedas an object worthy of charity by a liberal donor, and he was broughtin person to justify the recommendation. He was clean, and neat, andtidily dressed, but evidently in a state of perfect unconsciousness ofeverything around him. He had lived once, but it was in times longpast and gone: you might guess him to be what age you chose, but youcould hardly think him older than he was; time, who had stolen hisfaculties, had forgotten to wreck the casket that contained them: thespirit of life had left its tenement, and by some strange mistake, theanimated machine had gone on without it. My neighbour, the watchmaker, compared him to a clock with the striking-train run down, and theworks rusty beyond repair. He could not thank us for the alms we gavehim, but he did all he could--he winked, and smiled, and tried to makea bow, but failed in the attempt, and resigned himself cheerfully tothe care of his friends, who carried him off. 

Another quiet applicant was a lady, whose natural-born gentilitypoverty might obscure but could not conceal. Years of want andstruggling deprivation had dimmed her charms; but they had neitherbowed nor bent her stately form, nor quenched the inherent virtue ofself-respect, nor deprived her of the correct and appropriate diction, and the winning and courteous expression which once graced adrawing-room. She was introduced to us by the beadle as Lady W----;and although draped in very humble and well-worn apparel, she lookedwhat she was--a gentlewoman in every sense of the word; though beyondan empty title, she possessed hardly anything in the world. Sheanswered our inquiries with a natural courtesy, which at least some ofus felt to be a condescension. 'Gentlemen, ' she said, 'it is true, asyour attendant states, that I am a lady. In my youth, I married atitled man. I make no boast of that--it was, indeed, my misfortune. Iwas brought up and educated to occupy a station inferior to few: Ifilled that station for many years; it is not for me to say howappropriately; and though calamity has overtaken me now, and I havebeen familiar with necessity for so long a time, yet I feel that I ama lady still. I may be reproached with poverty, and that I can bear;but I trust I shall never be justly reproached with having fallen tothe level of my circumstances. I am grateful to you for the assistanceyou so kindly render me; and I can express that sentiment, and feel itdeeply, too, without humiliation, because the aid you supply is asvoluntary on your part as its acceptance is necessary on mine. ' Whenour foreman had instinctively wrapped the donation awarded to her in aquarter sheet of letter-paper, and presented her with it, she bentwith a dignified obeisance, and silently withdrew. 

A third applicant, worthy of a passing notice, was a lady of a verydifferent stamp. Who or what she had been in former years, I could notascertain, but she appeared before us in the character of amiddle-aged mince-pie monomaniac, and jam-tart amateur. The poorharmless creature was clad in the veriest shreds of dusky feminineattire, which barely shielded her limbs from the inclemency of theweather. She had a notion that she, too, was a lady, and that, being alady, she was bound to live by the consumption of pastry, and nothingelse. We were admonished by our custodian that whatever amount weawarded her, whether it were much or little, would be forthwithconsigned to the confectioner, in exchange for mince-pies and tarts ofthe very best quality; and I regret to say, that this announcement hadthe effect of reducing considerably the sum she derived from thecharity of the ward, and effectually preventing the consummation ofany very formidable debauch with her favourite viands. But the poorsimpleton was as merry as she was innocent and harmless; and allunsuspicious of the latent grudge which had lessened her gratuity, tripped hastily off, to enjoy at least one delicious repast. 

After we had sat some hours, a very distressing case was broughtforward. A poor woman, the wife of a working-man, and the mother of ayoung family, had been deserted by her husband, who had left her, besides her own children, the charge of his bedridden parents. Underthis accumulation of burdens, she had been heroically struggling forsome months, in the vain attempt, by her single energies, to ward offthe approach of want, and to act at the same time the part of nurse tothe old couple. She had succeeded in a great measure, and modestlysought but a little help to enable her to persevere in her arduousundertaking. 

Then came an old man, verging on fourscore, the very _beau ideal_ ofthe merchant's serving-man of the last century. He had once beencomparatively prosperous, but, judging from his cheerful face, perhapshardly ever happier than he was now. For fifty years of his life, hehad been _custos_ and confidential house keeper to a well-known firm, which, after four or five generations of unvarying prosperity, hadsunk in the panic of 1846 into the gulf of bankruptcy. In the generalwreck that followed, old Benjamin was forgotten, or remembered onlywith a pang of unavailing regret. He found a refuge, however, in somesmall garret, where he contrives to preserve his cheerfulness and hispigtail, the only outward and visible sign of his formerrespectability, and where he acts as master of the ceremonies to aclique of ancient ladies, his fellow-lodgers, to whom he is at oncethe guardian and the beau of the fourth floor. When he had receivedhis own little modicum of benevolence, he pleaded hard for theimmediate settlement of the claim of one of his fair _coterie_, awidow of fourscore and five; and finding that his request could not becomplied with, but that she must be left till her turn came, heretired to a corner of the room, and waited a full hour and more, until her business was settled, when he bowed ceremoniously, till hispigtail pointed to the zenith, and tendering his arm, escorted herhome with all the vivacity and politeness of the days of hoops andhigh-heeled shoes. I have scarcely yet found out the reason why it wasthat the spectacle of this happy, kind old soul, made me feel alittle, only a little, ashamed of myself. 

This cosy old couple had hardly tripped out of sight, when our prosysynod was honoured by the advent of a real and extraordinaryphenomenon. This was nothing less than a half-crazy poetess, whoprided herself on speaking in rhyme--and such rhyme, amusing from itsvery badness. On she was going at a great rate, when she was called toorder in a manner which admitted of no demur. 

'Mrs Margaret Maggs!' roared the beadle; and the tenth Muse, broughtto a sudden stand-still, ceased her oracular utterances, and, graspingher modicum of shining silver, vanished from the presence. 

The distribution lasted the whole of the day; and it was a weary dayfor some of the poor applicants, whose turn came last, and who almostfainted for want of refreshment. But all who deserved it, went homeeffectually relieved and gladdened; and many who did not, got a lessonupon the occasion, and learned that Charity is not always as blind asshe is supposed to be. The whole of the money collected is notdistributed at once. About a third part of the amount is reserveduntil the approach of the next ensuing winter, when a seconddistribution takes place, generally to the same applicants. 

I have heard it insinuated before now, that City functionaries of allsorts are prone to take too good care of themselves, whenever theymeet to consider the wants of the poor. I may perhaps be allowed tosay, that when we have a feast, we pay for it; and that not onefarthing of any collection made in the City for the poor was ever, tomy knowledge, appropriated to any other purpose. As a respectable man, I, for one, would never countenance any intromission of that kind. 

OCCASIONAL NOTES. 

LONDON CAB REFORM. 

If John Bull were not, with all his grumbling, one of the most patientanimals in existence, he could never have endured so long the cabswhich he has to employ for the conveyance of his person through thestreets of his metropolis. They are very poorly furnished and nasty, far below similar conveyances in any continental city with which weare acquainted. Greater fault still is to be found with the drivers, alarge proportion of whom are so prone to overreach, that it is hardlypossible to settle for their fares without a squabble. Our experienceleads us to say, that at an average a stranger pays 30 per cent. Abovethe proper sum, besides having his temper in almost every instanceruffled to some extent by the sense of having no adequate protectionfrom the rudeness of this class of men. For a lady, there seems to beno chance of escape but by the alternative of some enormousovercharge. Altogether, this department of public economy in London isin a most unsatisfactory state. Most people avoid using these streetvehicles whenever they can, and this is especially true of strangers. We can state as a fact, that a provincial gentleman of ouracquaintance is accustomed to take the inconvenience of the cab-systeminto account in deliberating whether he shall have a month of Londonlife or not. It is one of the repelling considerations, to a degreethat the Londoners themselves are not aware of. 

In an age of such exquisite contrivance and precision in mechanicaland commercial matters, it might have been anticipated that the badsystem of London cabs could not long survive. All dishonest businesseswrite their own doom. Those only thrive which sincerely seek the goodof the public. Accordingly, it is not surprising, at a time whenone-and-a-half per cent. Is a fact in banking, to find two large andpowerful companies getting up to supersede the bad, old, dear, cheating cabs with a new and civilised set. It is proposed by one ofthese bodies to 'provide for the public a superior class of carriages, horses, and drivers, at reduced and definite fares; to afford theutmost possible security for property, and especially prompt and easyredress of complaints. ' With better vehicles at three-fourths of thepresent charges--namely, 6d. A mile--and these to be settled for in amanner which will preclude disputes, this company deserves, and willbe sure to obtain, the public patronage. One good feature of theproposed arrangements will, we think, be highly satisfactory: thecompany will form a sufficient magistracy in itself to give quick andeasy redress in the case of any wrong. But, indeed, from theprecautions taken as to the employment of drivers, and the hold whichthe company will have over them, through the medium of guarantee andtheir own deposits in a benefit-fund, it seems to us that the goodconduct of the men towards their 'fares' must be effectually secured. The other company proposes to have two classes of vehicles--one at 8d. And the other at 4d. A mile; and it contemplates the use of amechanism for indicating the distance passed over. We most earnestlyhope that both companies will succeed in establishing themselves andcarrying an improvement so important to the public into effect. 

COLONIAL PENNY-POSTAGE. 

'I shall write to every one in turn, but it is expensive sending tomany at once, ' says one of the poor needlewomen, whom Mr SydneyHerbert's Female Emigration Fund has enabled to obtain a comfortablehome at Adelaide. Well might she complain of the expense. When athome, she could send a letter to the most distant corner of the UnitedKingdom for a penny. In Australia, she finds that the cost of sendinga letter to her mother in London is a shilling. It is strange that thecolonists do not make an outcry about so extravagant a charge. Of allthe anomalies in English legislation, our colonial postage-system iscertainly one of the most glaring; and yet, in the midst of so mucheffort for emigration and colonisation, hardly any one seems to beaware of it. The people of England, Ireland, and Scotland have, forthe last twelve years, enjoyed the incalculable benefits ofPenny-Postage, but they have never thought of extending its blessingsto their fellow-countrymen, scattered abroad among our variouscolonies over the whole surface of the globe. 

Under the old dear system, the cost of sending a letter home from anyof the colonies was not felt so much as it is now. The emigrant, before he left home, had always been accustomed to pay from 9d. To 1s. 2d. For letters from distant parts of the United Kingdom, and he couldnot complain at finding the postage from Canada or Australia to themother-country only a little dearer. But the case has been entirelychanged since Rowland Hill's plan came into operation. What seemed amoderate rate before that great improvement took place, is now anexorbitant charge, which no working-man will pay very frequently. Inthis, as in most other affairs, it is not the actual but thecomparative cost of the article which makes it seem dear. To a personwho has recently left his native land, and who is probably stillsuffering from homesickness, a letter from any beloved friend orrelative is worth far more than many shillings; indeed, the valuecannot be estimated in sterling coin. But, unfortunately, the firstmode in which the emigrant discovers that the social luxury ofcorrespondence has advanced 1100 per cent. In price, is not in thetempting shape of a letter from home. He must first write to hisfriends before he can expect them to write to him, and that is a taskwhich nine persons out of ten, on the most charitable calculation, arevery strongly tempted to procrastinate, from day to day, even withoutany pecuniary obstacle. But how much stronger the temptation to putoff the writing of 'that letter' from day to day for weeks, and atlast for months, when the poor emigrant, still struggling withdifficulties, finds that, instead of only a penny for each letter, hemust now pay a shilling? What wonder though many thousands, who haveleft friends and relatives behind them, all anxiously on the outlookfor some tidings of their welfare, should defer the task of writinghome for a month or two, finding it so dear; and, having got over thefirst few months, gradually become careless, and never write home atall? There are few people who have not known many instances of thiskind; and we have little doubt that it is owing mainly to this causethat they have given up all correspondence with the old country. 

It is strange that Mr Sydney Herbert, Mrs Chisholm, and the rest ofthose honourable men and women who have taken so much pains to promoteemigration, should not have seen the importance of obtaining colonialpostage reform. Mr Gibbon Wakefield, in his _England and America_, published nearly twenty years ago, lays much stress upon the impulsewhich healthy emigration to our colonies would derive from any measurewhich should enable the poorer class of emigrants to write home morefrequently. As a proof of this, he remarks, that the great emigrationfrom England which had recently taken place--an increase of about 200per cent. Over former years--had been mainly caused by the publicationof letters from poor emigrants to their friends at home. With a viewto encourage such correspondence, he suggests that, for some yearsafter their arrival in a colony, poor emigrants should be allowed theprivilege of sending their letters free of postage. Thanks to RowlandHill, we have learned that letters can be carried at so very small acost, that even the poor can afford to pay the sum charged by thepost-office authorities in this country; and it requires little morethan a stroke of the colonial secretary's pen to extend the sameinvaluable privilege to the thousands of emigrants who leave thiscountry every month for some one or other of our numerous colonies. What Mr Gibbon Wakefield says of the free-postage plan of that time, would apply with nearly equal force to the proposed ColonialPenny-Postage:--'In this way, not only would the necessary evil ofgoing to a colony be diminished--that is, the emigrants would departwith the pleasant assurance of being able to communicate with theirfriends at home--but the poorer classes in the mother-country wouldalways hear the truth as to the prospects of emigrants; and not onlythe truth, but truth in which they would not suspect any falsehood. 'He goes on to say, that the statements published about that time, byan emigration-board sitting in Downing Street, shewing what high wageswere obtainable in the colonies, 'though perfectly true, have not beenreceived with implicit faith by the harassed, and therefore suspiciousclass to whom they were addressed; nor would any statements made bythe government ever obtain so much credit as letters from theemigrants themselves. ' All who have ever paid any attention to thesubject of emigration, and who have mixed familiarly among the poorerclasses, will agree with Mr Wakefield. All the government returns thatever were made, backed by ever so many extracts from colonialnewspapers, about the high rate of wages, and the cheapness ofprovisions, will not make half the impression upon a poor man which asingle letter from an emigrant brother, a son, or a trustworthyfriend, will produce. 

We should be glad to see the country rouse itself on this importantquestion, regarding which numerous meetings have already been held. 

SURVEYING VOYAGE OF THE RATTLESNAKE. 

Since war went out of fashion, many officers of the British navy havebeen employed in exploring seas, and surveying coasts, in differentparts of the world, for the laudable purpose of facilitatingnavigation; and there would be little harm in supposing, that theremight be as much glory in verifying the position and extent of a shoalor sunken rock, as in capturing an enemy's frigate. At all events, these surveying voyages furnish useful occupation, not unattended withdanger; and they involve the necessity for a good deal of hard work, of a dry and technical character, three years being the time usuallyallotted to a cruise. Australia, owing to the dangerous character ofits northern and eastern shores, has been the scene of numeroussurveys, among the latest of which was that by Captain Blackwood inthe _Fly_. One important result of this survey was the finding of apassage through the great Barrier Reef for vessels navigating TorresStrait; but as more than one passage was considered essential to thesafety of a route so much frequented, the _Rattlesnake_ wascommissioned, in September 1846, for a further survey, to be carriedon in what is called the Coral Sea, having New Guinea, the LouisiadeArchipelago, and the continent of Australia, as its boundaries. [3]

After some months spent in preliminary examination of different partsof the Australian shores and seas, the _Rattlesnake_ sailed fromSydney, at the end of April 1848, for the main object of her cruise. She had the _Bramble_, a small schooner, as tender, and wasaccompanied by the _Tam o' Shanter_, a vessel chartered for theconveyance of Mr Kennedy's expedition, which was to land at RockinghamBay, 1200 miles to the northward, 'and explore the country to theeastward of the dividing range, running along the north-east coast ofAustralia, at a variable distance from the shore, and terminating atCape York. ' Having assisted in landing this party, and arranged tomeet them at the head of Princess Charlotte's Bay, on their toilsome, and, as it proved, disastrous overland journey, the ships pursuedtheir route, and soon commenced a series of triangulations, which werecontinued without a break for more than 600 miles. The _Bramble_waited ten days at the appointed rendezvous without seeing anything ofthe overland expedition, which, as it afterwards appeared, did notreach the same latitude until two months later, and then at aconsiderable distance from the coast. 

In October, the vessels were at Cape York, waiting for Mr Kennedy, andreceiving supplies from a storeship despatched from Sydney, andletters from the 'post-office' on Booby Island. In his capacity asnaturalist and ethnologist, Mr Macgillivray made frequent excursions, collecting plants and animals, and words for a vocabulary. The nativesare described as inordinately fond of smoking whenever they can get_choka_, as they call tobacco. 'The pipe--which is a piece of bambooas thick as the arm, and two or three feet long--is first filled withtobacco-smoke, and then handed round the company, seated on the groundin a ring; each takes a long inhalation, and passes the pipe to hisneighbour, slowly allowing the smoke to exhale. On several occasionsat Cape York, ' continues the author, 'I have seen a native so affectedby a single inhalation, as to be rendered nearly senseless, with theperspiration bursting out at every pore, and require a draught ofwater to restore him; and although myself a smoker, yet, on the onlyoccasion when I tried this mode of using tobacco, the sensations ofnausea and faintness were produced. ' There is something new in theidea of taking whiffs of ready-made smoke, which might perhaps beturned to account by enterprising purveyors of social enjoyments onthis side of the world. 

After the abortive attempt to establish the colony of 'NorthAustralia' at Port Curtis, at a cost of L. 15, 000, and the abandonmentof Port Essington, it is not uninteresting to learn that Cape Yorkpresents many natural capabilities for a settlement. There is a goodharbour, safe anchorage, abundance of fresh water all the year round, and a moderate extent of cultivable land, all of which will help toconstitute it a desirable coaling station for the contemplated line ofsteamers from Sydney to Singapore and India. The Port-Essingtonexperiment was so complete a failure, that after trying for elevenyears, the colonists were 'not even able to keep themselves in freshvegetables. ' Fortunately, but little encouragement was ever offered topermanent settlers, or the disappointments caused by an unproductivesoil and unhealthy climate would have been greatly multiplied. Asingular example of the _lex talionis_ occurred among the natives atthis place. One of them having been severely wounded in punishment foran offence, the penalty was considered too severe, and 'it was finallydetermined that, upon Munjerrijo's recovery, the two natives who hadwounded him should offer their heads to him to be struck with aclub--the usual way, it would appear, of settling such matters. '

Here we find, too, another of those instances of intelligence in anative, the more extraordinary when contrasted with the low mentalcondition of the aborigines in general. Sir Thomas Mitchell, and otherAustralian travellers, have spoken of their acutely-endowed guides interms almost of affection; and Mr Macgillivray relates that, duringhis stay at Port Essington, a native named Neinmal became greatlyattached to him. 'One day, ' he continues, 'while detained by rainyweather at my camp, I was busy in skinning a fish; Neinmal watched meattentively for some time, and then withdrew, but returned in half anhour afterwards with the skin of another fish in his hand, prepared byhimself, and so well done, too, that it was added to the collection. He went with us to Singapore, Java, and Sydney, and, from his greatgood-humour, became a favourite with all on board--picking up theEnglish language with facility, and readily conforming himself to ourcustoms and the discipline of the ship. He was very cleanly in hispersonal habits, and paid much attention to his dress, which wasalways kept neat and tidy. I was often much amused and surprised bythe oddity and justness of his remarks upon the many strange sightswhich a voyage of this kind brought before him. ' The _Nemesis_ steamerunderweigh puzzled him at first; he then thought it was 'all same bigcart, only got him shingles (wooden roofing-tiles, so called) onwheels!' Neinmal spoke of his countrymen as 'big fools, ' and heldwhite men in such estimation, that he volunteered for a voyage toEngland; but having been prevented, returned to Port Essington, wherehe learned to read and write. His superiority rendered him obnoxiousto the older members of his family; and one day, while on a visit tohis tribe, 'he was roused from sleep to find himself surrounded by ahost of savages thirsting for his blood. They told him to rise, but hemerely raised himself upon his elbow, and said: "If you want to killme, do so where I am; I won't get up. Give me a spear and club, andI'll fight you all one by one!" He had scarcely spoken, when he wasspeared from behind; spear after spear followed, and as he laywrithing on the ground, his savage murderers literally dashed him topieces with their clubs. '

In June 1849, the _Rattlesnake_ and _Bramble_ were at work in theLouisiade Archipelago, finding out the safest channels and anchoragesamong its numerous rocks, shoals, and reefs. The natives of some ofthe islands had never seen Europeans before, yet seemed littleinclined to acknowledge the superiority of their visitors. Theymanifested but little alarm on witnessing the effects of firearms; andon one occasion attacked two of the ship's boats with a courage andself-reliance extraordinary under the circumstances. In generalcharacteristics, they resemble the Torres Strait islanders: some ofthem friz their hair up into a mop two feet in diameter, wear a combnearly a yard long, and bunches of dogs' teeth hanging behind, by wayof ornament, and take no little pride in adorning their persons withpaint and tattoo-marks, and flowers and plants of strong odour. Bracelets of various kinds are a favourite decoration, and among thesethe most curious 'is that made of a human lower jaw, with one or morecollar-bones closing the upper side, crossing from one angle to theother. Whether these are the jaws of former friends or enemies, ' saysMr Macgillivray, 'we had no means of ascertaining; no great valueappeared to be attached to them; and it was observed, as a curiouscircumstance, that none of these jaws had the teeth discoloured by thepractice of betel-chewing. '

A supply of yams being wanted, the cutter was sent one day at thebeginning of July to open a trade, if possible, with the natives ofBrierly Island, on which occasion 'Mr Brady took charge of thebartering, and drawing a number of lines upon the sandy beach, explained that when each was covered with a yam, he would give an axein return. At first, some little difficulty occurred, as the yams werebrought down very slowly--two or three at a time; but at length thefirst batch was completed, and the axe handed over. The man who got ithad been trembling with anxiety for some time back, holding Mr Bradyby the arm, and watching the promised axe with eager eye. When heobtained possession of it, he became quite wild with joy, laughing andscreaming, and flourishing the axe over his head. After thiscommencement, the bartering went on briskly, amidst a great deal ofuproar--the men passing between the village and the beach at fullspeed, with basketfuls of yams, and too intent on getting the _kiramkelumai_ (iron axes) to think of anything else. ' In this way, 368pounds of yams were collected, at a cost of about a half-penny perpound. 

Among contrivances for procuring food, the natives of some of theislands train the sucking-fish (_Echeneis remora_) for the chase inthe water, as dogs are trained to hunt on land. A line is made fast tothe creature's tail; it is then started in pursuit of prey, and assoon as it has attached itself to a turtle, or any other 'game, ' theline is hauled in, and the prize secured. While the _Rattlesnake_ layat anchor, a number of sucking-fishes took up their quarters under herbottom, and whenever the sailors dropped a bait overboard, it wasalways seized by one of the _remoræ_, greatly to the annoyance of theanglers on deck. 'Being quite a nuisance, ' writes Mr Macgillivray, 'and useless as food, Jack often treated them as he would a shark, by"spritsail-yarding, " or some still less refined mode of torture. Oneday, some of us, while walking the poop, had our attention directed toa sucking-fish, about two and a half feet in length, which had beenmade fast by the tail to a billet of wood, by a fathom or so ofspun-yarn, and turned adrift. An immense striped shark, apparentlyabout fourteen feet in length, which had been cruising about the shipall the morning, sailed slowly up, and turning slightly on one side, attempted to seize the seemingly helpless fish; but the sucker, withgreat dexterity, made himself fast in a moment to the shark's back. Off darted the monster at full speed--the sucker holding on as fast asa limpet to a rock, and the billet towing astern. He then rolled overand over, tumbling about, when, wearied with his efforts, he lay quietfor a little. Seeing the float, the shark got it into his mouth, anddisengaging the sucker by a tug on the line, made a bolt at the fish;but his puny antagonist was again too quick, and fixing himself closebehind the dorsal fin, defied the efforts of the shark to disengagehim, although he rolled over and over, lashing the water with his tailuntil it foamed all round. ' After such a spirited combat, it issomewhat tantalising to read, that the final result could not clearlybe made out; it is scarcely possible, however, not to wish success tothe remora. 

On the 18th August, a party landed on the coast of New Guinea, andpaid a friendly visit to some of the Papuans who had been off to theship, and found them less fierce and distrustful than those of theislands. Some of them thought the muskets were water-vessels, andothers were afraid of a knife: it was too sharp. They are excellentmimics; and one of them imitated the English drummer so cleverly on anold tin-can, as to excite roars of laughter among all who witnessedthe performance. Some of their dances are extraordinary, moreresembling a fencing-match than movements of the light fantastic toe;and the following description of a dance after nightfall iscurious:--'On seeing a number of lights along the beach, we at firstthought they proceeded from a fishing-party, but on looking through anight-glass, the group was seen to consist of above a dozen people, each carrying a blazing torch, and going through the movements of adance. At one time, they extended rapidly into line; at another, closed, dividing into two parties, advancing and retreating, crossingand recrossing, and mixing up with each other. This continued for halfan hour; and having apparently been got up for our amusement, a rocketwas sent up for theirs, and a blue-light burned; but the dancing hadceased, and the lights disappeared. '

On the 1st October, the _Rattlesnake_ was again at Cape York. Aboutthe middle of the month, an incident occurred which relieved thedulness of a period of inactivity--the discovery and rescue of a whitewoman, who had been for some time a prisoner among the natives. Weshall abridge Mr Macgillivray's narrative of her story. Her name isBarbara Thomson; she was born at Aberdeen, and emigrated to New SouthWales with her parents. About four and a half years prior to theevent, she had accompanied her husband in a small cutter, to try tosave some part of the cargo of a whaler that had been wrecked on theBampton shoal. The pilot missed his route, two of the crew weredrowned by accident, another was left on a desert island, and at lastthe little vessel, caught by a gale in Torres Strait, struck upon areef on Prince of Wales Island. The only two men left on board weredrowned in attempting to swim to shore; but the woman was saved by aparty of natives, one of whom, Boroto by name, forced her to live withhim as his wife, in which position she for a time was exposed to muchcruelty, owing to the jealousy of the women of the tribe. Sheeventually was saved from persecution by a singular belief prevalentamong the natives--that white people are the ghosts of departedaborigines--one of the principal among the blacks having persuadedhimself that he had found in her his long-lost daughter, after whomBarbara was named Giom. The head-quarters of the tribe were on anisland, and the captive frequently saw vessels pass on their way toTorres Strait, but without any opportunity of making her case known. She had heard of the first arrival of the _Rattlesnake_ and tender atCape York; and on the last visit, had induced the blacks to escort herto within a short distance of the anchorage, they believing that sheonly wished to shake hands with her countrymen, and would soon return, laden with knives, axes, and tobacco. Although lame, she hurried on, fearing that her conductors might change their mind, and made towardssome of the ship's company, who were on shore shooting. Except afringe of leaves, she was quite naked, and her appearance was so dirtyand miserable, that they took her for a _gin_, or native woman, andpaid no attention to her, when she called out: 'I am a white woman;why do you leave me?' She was immediately taken on board the ship, andbut just in time to escape from a small party of the tribe, who hadfollowed to detain her. 

Mr Macgillivray continues: 'Upon being asked by Captain Stanley, whether she really preferred remaining with us to accompanying thenatives back to their island, as she would be allowed her free choicein the matter, she was so much agitated as to find difficulty inexpressing her thankfulness, making use of scraps of Englishalternately with the Kowrarega language, and then, suddenly awakeningto the recollection that she was not understood, the poor creatureblushed all over, and with downcast eyes beat her forehead with herhand, as if to assist in collecting her scattered thoughts. At length, after a pause, she found words to say: "Sir, I am a Christian, andwould rather go back to my own friends. " At the same tune, it wasremarked by every one that she had not lost the feelings of womanlymodesty; even after having lived so long among naked blacks, sheseemed acutely to feel the singularity of her position, dressed onlyin a couple of shirts, in the midst of a crowd of her own countrymen. '

In accordance with her wish, Mrs Thomson was kept on board, and had acabin given up to her own use; good living and medical attendance sooncured the soreness of her tanned and blistered skin, and theophthalmia, which had deprived her of the sight of one eye. The blackBoroto grew desperate when he found that she would not return to him, and threatened to cut off her head to satisfy his vengeance--acatastrophe which the rescued woman avoided by not going on shore; andshe was eventually handed over, in good condition, to her parents onthe return of the vessel to Sydney, at the beginning of 1850. 

Shortly afterwards, to the great sorrow of all on board, CaptainStanley died, at the early age of thirty-eight. He had brought hisscientific labours to a successful close, and might have lookedforward to a brief period of honourable repose; but the fatigue andanxiety of a laborious survey in a hot climate, and the news of thedecease of his father, the late Bishop of Norwich, depressed himbeyond the power of recovery. This was not the only melancholyincident connected with the _Rattlesnake's_ voyage. Mr Kennedy'sexpedition had proved a most disastrous failure. The party, as we haveseen, had landed in Rockingham Bay, and commenced their journeynorthwards, with a well-appointed caravan of carts, horses, and men, all in high spirits. But more than a month elapsed before they couldextricate themselves from the swamps and scrub which cover that partof the country; and at the beginning of November, five months later, they had not advanced more than 400 miles in a direct line: nineteenof the horses were dead, and the stock of provisions nearly exhausted. Mr Kennedy then determined on pushing forwards, with a light party, for Cape York, 150 miles distant, whence relief was to be sent to theeight individuals who were left behind, nearly worn out with fatigueand exhaustion. This party consisted of the leader; Jackey Jackey, afaithful and intelligent native; and three of the strongest of themen. One of the latter accidentally shot himself, and the other twobecame so weak, that they also were left at an encampment, with aslarge a supply of provisions as could be spared. After incrediblehardships, Mr Kennedy and his companion reached Escape River, twentymiles from Cape York, where they were attacked by a party of natives, while entangled in a scrub, and the gallant leader of the expeditionfell a victim to their ferocity. Three spears had entered his body, and Jackey Jackey, in simple but touching words, describes his lastmoments. 'Mr Kennedy, ' he asked, after having carried the wounded manout of sight of the natives, 'are you going to leave me?' 'Yes, myboy, I am going to leave you, ' was the reply of the dying man. 'I amvery bad, Jackey. You take the books, Jackey, to the captain; but notthe big ones: the governor will give anything for them. ' 'I then tiedup the papers. He then said: "Jackey, give me paper, and I willwrite. " I gave him paper and pencil, and he tried to write; and hethen fell back and died, and I caught him as he fell back, and heldhim, and I then turned round myself, and cried. I was crying a goodwhile, until I got well; that was about an hour, and then I buriedhim, I dug up the ground with a tomahawk, and covered him over withlogs, then grass, and my shirt and trousers. That night I left him, near dark. '

Jackey contrived to evade the pursuers, and a week afterwards got onboard the schooner, which was lying in Port Albany, Cape York, waitingthe arrival of Mr Kennedy's expedition. On learning the fatal result, the captain sailed, in the hope of saving the men who had been leftbehind. Of the two who had belonged to the advanced party, nothing wasdiscovered except some articles of clothing, and it was believed theyhad perished. Of the eight first left near Weymouth Bay, two werestill alive, but in the last stage of exhaustion, having enduredprivations and hardships almost without a parallel. 

The brig _Freak_ was subsequently despatched from Sydney, for thepurpose of securing any papers or documents, or the mortal remains ofany of the unfortunate expedition. Jackey Jackey was on board, and bymeans of his remarkable sagacity, led the way to the respective camps. The bones of two of the men were found; also some of Mr Kennedy'sinstruments, portions of his clothing, and his manuscript journal, which had been hidden in the hollow of a tree; but after a minutesearch for the place where his body had been buried, it could not bediscovered. 

We might extend this painful narrative did our space permit; but wemust now close, with a recommendation of the book under notice tothose who are interested in the progress of natural or geographicaldiscovery. 

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Narrative of the Voyage of H. M. S. Rattlesnake, commanded by thelate Captain Owen Stanley, during the years 1846-50, includingDiscoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, &c. &c. By John Macgillivray, F. R. G. S. , Naturalist to the Expedition. London: Boone. 2 vols. 8vo. 

A CELEBRATED FRENCH CLOCKMAKER. 

The superiority of French clocks and watches has been achieved only bythe laborious efforts of many ingenious artisans. Of one of these, towhom France owes no little of its celebrity in this branch of art, wepropose to speak. Bréguet was the name of this remarkable individual. He was a native of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, and thence he wasremoved, while young, to Versailles, for the purpose of learning hisbusiness as a horologist. His parents being poor, he found itnecessary to rely on his own energy for advancement in life. 

At Versailles, he served a regular apprenticeship, during which hisdiligence in improving himself was almost beyond example. He becamegreatly attached to his profession; and soon, by studiousperseverance, his talents were developed by real knowledge. At lengththe term of apprenticeship expired, and as the master was expressingto the pupil the satisfaction which his good conduct and diligence hadgiven him, he was struck with astonishment when he replied: 'Master, Ihave a favour to ask of you. I feel that I have not always as I oughtemployed my time, which was to have indemnified you for the cares andlessons you have spent on me. I beg of you, then, to permit me tocontinue with you three months longer without salary. ' This requestconfirmed the attachment of the master to his pupil. But scarcely wasthe apprenticeship of the latter over, when he lost his mother and hisstepfather, and found himself alone in the world with an eldersister--being thus left to provide, by his own industry, for themaintenance of two persons. Nevertheless, he ardently desired tocomplete his necessary studies, for he felt that the knowledge ofmathematics was absolutely indispensable to his attaining perfectionin his art. This determined purpose conquered every obstacle. Not onlydid he labour perseveringly for his sister and himself, but also foundmeans to attend regularly a course of public lectures which the AbbéMarie was then giving at the College Mazarin. The professor, havingremarked the unwearied assiduity of the young clockmaker, made afriend of him, and delighted in considering him as his beloved pupil. This friendship, founded on the truest esteem and the mostaffectionate gratitude, contributed wondrously to the progress of thestudent. 

The great metamorphosis which was effected so suddenly in the youngclockmaker was very remarkable. There is something very encouraging inhis example, affording as it does a proof of the power of the man whoarms himself with a determined purpose. At first, the struggle withdifficulties appears hard, painful, almost impossible; but only letthere be a little perseverance, the obstacles vanish one after theother, the way is made plain: instead of the thorns which seem tochoke it, verdant laurels suddenly spring up, the reward of constantand unwearied labour. Thus it was with our studious apprentice. Hisideas soon expand; his work acquires more precision; a new and a moreextended horizon opens before him. From a skilful workman, it is notlong before he becomes an accomplished artist. Yet a few years, andthe name of Bréguet is celebrated. 

At the epoch of the first troubles of the Revolution of 1789, Bréguethad already founded the establishment which has since produced so manymaster-pieces of mechanism. The most honourable, the most flatteringreputation was his. One anecdote will serve to prove the high reputein which he was held, even out of France. One day a watch, to theconstruction of which he had given his whole attention, happened tofall into the hands of Arnold, the celebrated English watchmaker. Heexamined it with interest, and surveyed with admiration the simplicityof its mechanism, the perfection of the workmanship. He could scarcelybe persuaded that a specimen thus executed could be the work of Frenchindustry. Yielding to the love of his art, he immediately set out forParis, without any other object than simply to become acquainted withthe French artist. On arriving in Paris, he went immediately to seeBréguet, and soon these two men were acquainted with each other. Theyseem, indeed, to have formed a mutual friendship. In order thatBréguet might give Arnold the highest token of his esteem andaffection, he requested him to take his son with him to be taught hisprofession, and this was acceded to. 

The Revolution destroyed the first establishment of Bréguet, andfinally forced the great artist to seek an asylum on a foreign shore. There generous assistance enabled him, with his son, to continue hisingenious experiments in his art. At length, having returned to Parisafter two years' absence, he opened a new establishment, whichcontinued to flourish till 1823, when France lost this man, the prideand boast of its industrial class. Bréguet was member of theInstitute, was clockmaker to the navy, and member of the Bureau ofLongitude. He was indeed the most celebrated clockmaker of the age; hehad brought to perfection every branch of his art. Nothing couldsurpass the delicacy and ingenuity of his free escapement with amaintaining power. To him we owe another escapement called 'natural, 'in which there is no spring, and oil is not needed; but another, andstill more perfect one, is the double escapement, where the precisionof the contacts renders the use of oil equally unnecessary, and inwhich the waste of power in the pendulum is repaired at eachvibration. 

The sea-watches or chronometers of Bréguet are famous throughout theworld. It is well known that these watches are every moment subject tochange of position, from the rolling and pitching of the vessel. Bréguet conceived the bold thought of enclosing the whole mechanism ofthe escapement and the spring in a circular envelope, making acomplete revolution every two minutes. The inequality of position isthus, as it were, equalised on that short lapse of time; the mechanismitself producing compensation, whether the chronometer is subjected toany continuous movement, or kept steady in an inclined or uprightposition. Bréguet did still more: he found means to preserve theregularity of his chronometers even in case of their getting anysudden shock or fall, and this he did by the parachute. Sir ThomasBrisbane put one of them to the proof, carrying it about with him onhorseback, and on long journeys and voyages; in sixteen months, thegreatest daily loss was only a second and a half--that is, the57, 600th part of a daily revolution. 

Such is the encouraging example of Bréguet, who was at first only aworkman. And to this he owes his being the best judge of good workmen, as he was the best friend to them. He sought out such everywhere, evenin other countries; gave them the instruction of a master of the art;and treated them with the kindness of a father. They were indebted tohim for their prosperity, and he owed to them the increase of fortuneand of fame. He well understood the advantages of a judicious divisionof labour, according to the several capabilities of artisans. By thismeans, he was able to meet the demand for pieces of his workmanship, not less remarkable for elegance and beauty than for extreme accuracy. It may indeed be said, that Bréguet's efforts gave a character toFrench horology that it has never lost. So much may one man do in hisday and generation to give an impetus to an important branch ofnational industry. 

SAINT ELIZABETH OF BOHEMIA. 

 'Would that we two were lying Beneath the church-yard sod, With our limbs at rest in the green earth's breast, And our souls at home with God!'[4]

 I never lay me down to sleep at night But in my heart I sing that little song: The angels hear it, as, a pitying throng, They touch my burning lids with fingers bright, Like moonbeams--pale, impalpable, and light. And when my daily pious tasks are done, And all my patient prayers said one by one, God hears it. Seems it sinful in His sight That round my slow burnt-offering of quenched will, One quivering human sigh creeps windlike still? That when my orisons in silence fail, Lingers one tremulous note of human wail? Dear lord--spouse--hero--martyr--saint! erelong I think God will forgive my singing that poor song. 

 A year ago, I bade my little son Bear on a pilgrimage a sacred load Of alms; he cried out, fainting on the road, 'Mother, O mother, would that this were done!' Him I reproved with tears, and said: 'Go on, Nor feebly sink ere half thy task be o'er. ' Would not God say to me the same, and more? I will not sing that song. Thou, dearest one, Husband--no, _brother_--stretch thy steadfast hand Across the void! Mine grasps it. Now I stand, My woman-weakness nerved to strength divine. We'll quaff life's aloe-cup as though 'twere wine, Each to the other; journeying on apart, Till at heaven's golden doors we two leap heart to heart. 

FOOTNOTES:

[4] From Kingsley's _Saint's Tragedy_. Elizabeth, Princess of Bohemia, the most sincere among the mistaken devotee saints of the middle ages, renounced her royal state, her husband and children, and spent herlife in the sternest asceticism, and in the most self-denying acts ofcharity. 

A MAN-OF-WAR, OR A MAN OF PEACE. 

It will probably be remembered that, a few years ago, a greatexcitement was caused by the discovery of vast deposits of guano uponthe island of Ichaboe, situated on the west coast of Africa. Theremarkable fertilising qualities of guano gave it great value as anarticle of commerce, and a large number of vessels were despatchedfrom various ports to take in cargoes at the island. It was computedthat at one time not less than 500 vessels were lying off Ichaboe, andas there was no settled authority to regulate the trade of the place, a scene of indescribable confusion and tumult soon presented itself. The crews of several of the ships having established themselves uponthe table-land at the top of the island (the island being little morethan a huge rock, rising with almost perpendicular cliffs from theocean), a dispute arose between them and their captains, which soonproceeded to open mutiny on the part of the men. The only access totheir position being by long ladders, the men set their masters atdefiance, and held possession of their stronghold, which wasinaccessible, except by permission of the mutineers. The captainsdespatched a vessel to the Cape of Good Hope, for the purpose oflaying a complaint before the governor, and soliciting his aid. Thegovernor was about to despatch a man-of-war--the only remedy that isgenerally thought of in such cases--when a good, devoted man, amissionary at Cape Town, named Bertram, hearing of the affair, represented to the governor his earnest desire to spare the effusionof blood, and his conviction that, if he were allowed to proceed tothe island, he could bring the quarrel to an amicable settlement. MrBertram obtained the consent of the authorities, and the order for thesailing of the man-of-war was suspended. He proceeded to Ichaboe, andbeing rowed ashore, began to ascend one of the lofty ladders. Twoseamen, well armed, who had guard above, shouted to know who he wasand what he wanted. 'A friend, who wants to speak to you, ' was thereply. The guards seeing a single man, unarmed, climbing fearlesslytowards them, permitted him to ascend. He called the men round him, spoke kindly but faithfully to them, heard their complaints, andundertook to negotiate for them. He did this with so much tact andjudgment, that a reconciliation was soon effected, and harmonyrestored between the captains and their crews. Mr Bertram remained tendays with the men on the summit of the island, employing the time tothe best advantage in preaching and teaching amongst them. It was onlyon the plea of urgent duty that the men would permit him to leavethem. They clustered round him, as he was about to descend fromamongst them for the last time; each was eager to wring him by thehand, and tears rolled down many a weather-beaten cheek as he badethem a last adieu. 'God bless you, sir!' they exclaimed; 'you havebeen our true friend; would that you could stay amongst us, for wefeel that you have done us good. ' It will be well for nations whenthey have more faith in the power of a man of peace, and less in thatof a man-of-war. --_Bond of Brotherhood_. 

NOTE TO INTENDING EMIGRANTS. 

In reply to numerous correspondents who make inquiry respecting themost suitable fields for emigration, we have again to intimate, thatwe cannot assume the responsibility of privately advising individualson the important step of emigrating to one place in preference toanother. Every one is best acquainted with his own desires, abilities, and necessities, and should, with the general assistance of publicopinion and the press, be able to make up his mind whether he shouldor should not emigrate, or what distant land will be to him mostanswerable and agreeable. With the view of doing all in our power toassist in forming this resolution, we have lately had prepared, underour own inspection, a series of cheap and accessible Manuals on thesubject of Emigration; containing, we believe, all desirableinformation for those who are disposed to emigrate; and a perusal ofwhich may possibly obviate the necessity of seeking private counsel onany point. The Manuals may be had from any of the ordinary agents forsupplying this Journal; they separately refer to AUSTRALIA, AMERICA, NEW ZEALAND, the CAPE, and PORT NATAL; and in addition, there is onedevoted to general considerations and directions. The whole, however, may be obtained bound in a single volume. 

_Price 4s. 6d. Cloth, Lettered, _

THE EMIGRANT'S MANUAL. 

A complete MANUAL for EMIGRANTS, embracing the latest and mosttrustworthy information, in One Volume. It may also be had in Parts, each referring to a distinct FIELD OF EMIGRATION. 

AUSTRALIA, 1_s. _--NEW ZEALAND, CAPE of GOOD HOPE, &c. 1_s. _--BRITISHAMERICA, and UNITED STATES of AMERICA, 1_s. _--EMIGRATION in itsPRACTICAL APPLICATION to INDIVIDUALS and COMMUNITIES, 1_s. _

 * * * * *

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