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Northern Star (1837-1852), 17th March 1849, Edition 1 of 3, Page 3, Untitled Article

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      RETRIBUTION ! ( TWethe accounts , in the daily papers , of a late " disastrous triumph" (!) in the runjaul ) , and the critical position of the victon . ) ( Prom Campbell ' s " Pleasures of Hope" ) "When Europe sought your subject realms to gain , And stretched her giant-sceptre o ' er the main , Taught her proud Larks the winding way to shape , JtoMfbraved the stormy spirit of the Cape ; Children of Brama ; then was mercy nigh , To wash the stain of Wood ' s eternal dye ? Did Peace descend to triumph and to save , "When freedom (?) Britons cross'd the Indian wave . Ah , no!—to more than Rome's ambition trap The nurse of Freedom gave it not to you I j $ Se thebold route of Europe * * g uilttegan , And in the march of nations led the van I "Rich in the gems of India ' s gaudy zone ,

      And plunder pil'd from kingdoms not their own—Degenerate trade ! thy minions could despise The heart-born anguish of a thousand cries ; Could lock , with impious hands , the teeming store , ¦ RTiile famished nations died along the shore ;* Could mock the-groans of fellow-men and bear The curse of Idngdoms peopled with despair ; Could stamp disgrace on man ' s polluted name , And barter , with their gold , eternal shame ? But hark ! as bowM to earth the Bramin kneels , From heavenly climes propitious thunder peals ! Of India ' s fate her guardian spirits tell , Prophetic murmurs breathing on the spell , And solemn sounds that awe the listening mind , Roll on the azure paths of every wind .

      •¦ Foes of mankind ( her guardian spirits say ) , Berolving ages bring the bitter day , lYhen Heaven ' s unerring arm shall fell on you , And blood for blood these Indian plains bedew ; Sine times have Brama ' s wheels of lightning hurl'd His awful presence o'er the alarmed world ; f Sine times hath Guilt , through all his giant frame , Convulsive trembled as the Mighty came ; > 'ine times hath suffering Mercy spar'd in vain—But Heaven shall burst her starry gates again ! He comes 3 dread Brama shakes the sunless sty With mura ' xing wrath , and thundersfrom on high ! Heaven ' s fiery horse , beneath his warrior form , Paws the light clouds , and gallops on the storm ! TVide waves his flickering sword ; his bright arms glow like summer suns , and light the world below \ Earth , and her trembling isles in Ocean ' s bed , Are shook ; and Nature rocks beneath his tread ! £ * * * To pour redress on India ' s injured realm , The oppressor to dethrone , the proud to whelm ; To chase destruction from her plundered shore "With arts and arms that trinmphed once before , The tenth Avatar comes ! at Heaven ' s command , Shall Seriswatter wave her hallowed wand ! And Camdes orient and Ganesa sublime , Shall bless withjoy their own propitious clime ! Come Heavenlv Power . ' primeval peace restore 1 Love' Merev \ "Wisdom!—rule for evermore 1 " * Campbell .

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      * WTiile famished nations died along the shore . The following account of British conduct , and its consequencesln Bengal , will afford a sufficient idea of the fict alluded to in this passage . After describing the monopoly of salt , bitel nut , and tobacco , the historian proceeds thus : — " Money in this current cauie only in drops ; it could not quench the thirst of those who waited in India to receive it . An expedient , such as it was , remained to quicken its pace . The natives could live with little salt , but « mld not want food . Some of the agents saw

      themselves well situated for collecting the rice into stores—they did so . They knew the Gentoos would rather die than violate the principles of their religion by eating flesh . The alternative would , therefore , be giving what they had , or dying . The inhabitants sunk ; they that cultivated the hind , and saw the harvest at the disposal of others planted in doubt—scarcity ensued . Then the monopoly was easier managed—sickness ensued . In several districts the languid living left the bodies of their numerous dead unburied . —Short History of the English Transactions in the East Lidies , page 145 .

      f Sine times liave UraiaJs tvkeeU , « fce . Among the sublime fictions of the Hindoo mythology , it is one article of belief , that the Deity , Brama , lias descended nine times upon the world in various forms , and that he is yet to appear a tenth time , in the figure of a warrior , upon a white horse , to cut off a' 3 incorrigible offenders . "Avatar" is the word used to express his descent . [ The Sikhs are not orthodox followers of Brama and his kindred deities , their religion being more akin to that promulgated l « y him of Mecca , Carlyle's " true prophet ; ' but tie Lite events in the region of the five rivers , may , nevertheless , prove " the voice of one crying in the Trilderness . " And the sooner the real Simon Pore shows his bronze visage ( for black men ' s gods are of the colour of white men ' s devils , and vice versa ) the better for humanity . A Frateiucai Democbat . J Dumfries , March 6 th , 1 S 49 .

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      TItE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FEANCOIS-EElVTi : , VISCOUNT DE CHATEAUBBIAM ) . Volume 1 . London Sdims and M'lxintE , Paternoster-row . [ Second Notice . ] The charge of egotism is too generally levelled at men who write their own memoirs . If an author takes himself for his subject , how can he avoid continually speaking of himself ? The critic who expects anything else is a fool . Certainly , there are two ways of speaking of one ' s self- —a modest and a boastful way . We can concern ) a man "writing his autobiography

      and not one tinge of egotism shading his story , but we" admit that autobiographies of that iind are not to be met with every day . Disinclined as we are to raise the cry of " egotist , " we must acknowledge that Chath-yubbiaM ) seems to have had no ordinary conceit of himself , and he takes care to let his readers know it . In describing his indifference to the great revolution of 1789 , he says , li I attached no importance to the questions then discussed , except as viewed in their general relation to liberty , and the dignity of human nature . " This is a large exception , an exception which should have made him attach the

      ctmost importance to the qnestions then discussal . But he goes on : — " Personal politics wearied me . My true atmosphere teas in loftier regions 11 " 0 ! the vanity of some men Ills true atmosphere was in regions loftier than those occupied by all the genius—well or ill-directed—of France—occupied by a KobesriEBHE and a Mirabeau 2 ! 2 We could cull a hundred similar samples of the autobiograimist ' s overweening vanitv from these pages .

      Bat -we will do him justice . His egotism seems to have been unaccompanied by haughtiness , or any offensive outward exhibition of the worship of self . That worship was an inward adoration , which , probably , is now for the £ rst time fully revealed . It will be seen in an extract we purpose quoting , that , when Ambassador in London , he was wearied and disgusted with the incense of flunkey dom , and happiest when he could quit his carriage to walk with " KingHob , " o * be relieved from ihe attendance of all his servants , even though left to open his own door himself ! This exhibits his personal demeanour in a most pleasing light , and contrasts , oddly enough , "with his undoubted , self-proclaimed vanity . Like most men who do themselves more than

      justice , Chaxeacbeiaxb , in spite of his possession of a feeling heart , is not free from the charge of being occasionall y unjust to others . He says ;— "In vain does Uotsssiuiu tell us that Le had two charming little eyes ; it is not the less certain—witness his portraits—that he had the air of a schoolmaster , or of a morose shoemaker . " We beg to say that our portrait of Eousseau gives a flat denial to Cha-Kaubeuoo )' s assertion . We , however , place small reliance on the evidence of portraits , which almost always either flatter or caricature the original . Bat even though the portraits of Eousseatj universally confirmed

      Cha-^ EH'BiiuxD ' s not very flattering pen-and-ink pic ture of the great philosopher , our autobiograjiList should have borne in mind that por-^ aiis ofKoussEAU were taken only after he ^ d become famous—after he had lost his J'jutii—and j ^ r persecution and unhappiness jfc'l made his physiognomy the outward portrait of t ] te tempest-tost man within . When j ^^ EiV w rote his " Confessions , " and desj T ^ aimself as possessing " two charming l ^' - ^ Vbewas describing himself not as v :. ^? a l-Teare < l , but as he was in his youth , •» .-n « ,-. captivated t jj C j lcari of Madame de ** & * , and 3 Ia 4 auie 3- — . and turned

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      the heads of nearly all the girls of his acquaintance . In love matters to the full as bashful and silly as Chateaubriakd himself , Rousseau was , nevertheless , carried by storm by his female admirers . Would that have happened had he had "the ah-of a schoolmaster , or of a morose shoemaker ? " Rousseau , though a long way off being faultless , was not vain , and in his extraordinary memoirs has said but little of his own personal appearance ; but we would wager a trifle that could we summon before us the shades of both himself and his critic , and compare both at the same youthful age , justice would bid us award the palm not to the Breton , hut to the Genevese . '

      CHATEAUBitiAM ) , viewed as a politician must be pronounced contemptible . His glances at the Revolution show him in the light of a prejudiced aristocrat , utterly incapable of tracing that tremendous effect to its causes . So far as he witnessed the Revolution he saw nothing but the phantasmagoric movements of a grim and gory mob . On the memoorable " 5 th of October" he could see nothing but "filth y fishwomen , " " pickpockets , " " prostitutes , " " baccJiantes , " " rag-gatherers , " " butchers with then * bloody aprons tied before them , " and "swarthy ourang-outangs , " surrounding the Royal Family on their way from Versailles to the Tuileries . Supposing no exaggeration in all this , these creatures were not

      manufactured by the Revolution ; they had been made what the Revolution found themignorant , brutalised , and desperate—by that venerable system of which Chateattbbiaito was so devoted an admirer . Governments , priesthoods , and aristocracies brutalise the masses , and drive them mad , and then pretend to be horror-struck at the work of then : hands . The pickpockets , prostitutes , &c , described with such disgust by Chateaubriand , never offended him or his order , as long as they were content to live and die quietly under the rule of that system which doomed them to misery and crime . 2 vbt the people , but Mngs , priests , and profitmongere , are answerable for all the " horrors" of the French Revolution .

      The following chapter is worth reading , although , "we must ¦ warn the reader not to swal low all Chateaubriand ' s big words : exaggeration is a sin with which he is fairly charge able .

      mihabeatt . A sharer by the disorders and the vicissitudes ol Ms hie in the greatest events , and connected with the existence of culprits , ravishers , and adventurers , Mirabeau , the tribune of the aristocracy , and the deputy of the democracy , had hi his nature something of Gracchus and Don Juan , of Catiline and Guzman D'Alfrache , of Cardinal de Richelieu and Cardinal de Itetz , of the rove of the Regency and of the savage of the Revolution . Besides this , he had something of the Mrabeatu , a Florentine family who had been exiled from their native country , and who retauied somo characteristics of those armed palaces and those grand factions celebrated by Dante , a family naturalised in France , and in which the republican spirit of the middle ages of Italy , and

      the feudal spirit of our own middle ages , were united in a succession of extraordinary men . The ugliness of Mirabeau , overlaid on the ground-• work of the peculiar beauty of his race , produced a sort of powerful face like those of the " Last Judgment " of Michael Angelo , the compatriot of the Arrighetti . The seams furrowed by the small-pox in the features of the orator had rather the appearance of scars left by the flames . Nature seemed to have moulded his head for empire or for the gibbet , and formed his arms to strangle a nation or to carry off a woman . "When he shook his mane and glared at the pepulace , he arrested their progress ; when he raised M 3 paw and showed his . clavrs , the people rushed on in fury . Amidst the frightful disorders of a sitting I have * seen him at the tribuno , sombre , ugly , and motionless ; he reminded one of the Chaos of Milton , impassible and without form ,

      brooding in the centre of its own confusion . lUiraheau resembled his father and his uncle , who , like St . Simon , wrote immortal pages to the devil . He was sometimes furnished with discourses for the tribune . He took from them what his mind could amalgamate with its own nature . If he adopted them entirely he pronounced them badly ; one could perceive that they were not his own by words which he interspersed here and there , and which revealed their origin . He drew his energy from his vices . These vices have not their birth hi a frigid temperament ; they are the offspring of deep , burning , stormy passion . A rudeness and brutality of manners , by annihilating aU moral sense , introduccs into society a species of barbarians . Those barbarians of civilisation , skilled in destruction like the Goths , have not , like them , the power of founding other structures . The latter were the huge children of a virgin nature—the former are the monstrous abortions of the same nature when

      depraved . Twice I met Mirabeau at a banquet ; on the first occasion at the house of Voltaire ' s niece , the Marchioness de Vilette , and on the socond occasion at the Palais Royal , along with some deputies of the opposition , to * whom Chapelier had introduced me . Cliapelier vrent to the scaffold in the same tumbril as my brother and M . de Malesherbes . Mirabeau spoke much , and above all , much about himself . This cub of a lion race—a lion himself with the head of a Chimera—this man , so positive in facts , was all romance , all poetry , all enthusiasm , in imagination and language . You could repognise in him the lover of Sophia , lofty in his sentiments , and capable of any sacrifice . "I found her , " said

      he , " that adorable woman—I learned to know what her soul was—that soul formed by the hands of nature in a moment of magnificence . " Mirabeau enchanted me with tales of love , with longings after retirement , with which he relieved and varied our dry discussions . He interested me also in another point of view . Like me he had been severely treated by his father , who had retained , as mine had done , the inflexible traditions of absolute parental authority . The great guest bunched out on foreign , but said almost nothing respecting domestic , politics . Nevertheless it was the latter which occupied his thoughts , lie allowed a few words to escape him of sovereign contempt for those men who proclaimed themselves

      superior , by rc . i 90 L of the inditierence which they affected for misfortunes and crimes . Mirabeau was born with a generous disposition , sensible to friendship , and ready to pardon offences . Notwithstanding bis hnmovaht }' , he never succeeded in stifling his conscience . He was corrupted only as regards himself . His upright and firm intellect never could view murder in the light of _ a lofty stretch of intellect . He had no admiration for slaughter-houses and receptacles of offal . Nevertheless , Mirabeau did not want for pride ; he hoasted outrageously . Although he had got himself appointed a woollen-draper for the purpose of being elected by the third estate , the order of the noblesse having had the honourable madness to reject him , he was proud of his birth : "A wild and vntamealklird . whose nest ivas perched between four

      turrets , " is his father ' s expression . He never forgot that he had been presented at court , ridden in the king ' carriages , and hunted with his Majesty . He required that he should be distinguished by the title of count . He was particular as to his colours , and clad his retainers in livery when every one else left it off . He spoke on all occasions , and on no occasion , about his relative , the Admiral de Coligny . TheMomteukhaving called him "Riqueti , " "Do you know , " said he angrily to the journalist , "that with your Riqueti you have puzzled Europe during three dap . " He repeated often the following impudent pleasantry which is so well known : — "In any other family my brother the Viscount would be the man of wit and the rako ; in my family he is the fool and the upright man . " Biographers represent the Viscount as intending by hi 3 speech to compare himself in humilitv with the other memhers of his

      family . At bottom , M . Mh-abeau was a monarchist , and he left on record the following noble saying : — "I wished to cure the French of their superstition for monarchy , and to substitute in its place a proper worship " In another letter , intended to be seen by Louis XVI ., he wrote thus , " I was unwilling to have laboured solely for a vast destruction . ' Nevertheless that is what he did . Heaven , to punish us for our talents ill employed , afflicts us with remorse for our success .

      Mirabeau moved public opinion with two levers . Ou the one ride he took as his fulcrum the masses , whose defender he had constituted himself whilst despising them . On the other , although a traitor to nis order , he retained its sympathy by afBnities ol caste and ties of common interest . That could never happen with a plebeian who should make himself the champion of the privileged classes . He would he abandoned by bis own party without gaining the aristocracy , which is in its nature ungrateful , and not to be won by any who is not born in its ranks . Moreover , aristocracy cannot make a nobleman on the spur of the moment , since nobility is the result of time . '

      Mirabeau has had many imitators . By freeing themselves from the ties of morality , people fancied that they were transforming themselves into Btatesmen . These imitations produced only petty villains . He who flatters himself that he is corrupted and a robber , is onlv a debauchee and a ecoundrel , lie who thinks lsnusclt * vicioua is only vile ; he who boasts that he is criminal is only infamous . Too soon for himself , too late for it , Mirabeau sold himself to we cc , u * , and t&o wurfc bought him ,

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      He staked his renown against a pension and an embassy . Cromwell was on the pomt of bartering his future glory for a title and the order of the Garter . -Notwithstanding his pride , Mirabeau did not value himself highly enough . La the present day , when the abundance of money and of places has raised the price of consciences , there is not a common jackanapes whose acquisition does not cost hundreds of thousands offranes . andthefirsthonours of the state . The grave freed Mirabeau from his promises , and placed him out of the reach of perils which most probably he could not have overcome . His life would have showu Ms weakness as regards good . His death has left him in possession of his power for doinnr o . ril .

      On leaving the dinner-table a discussion arose respecting the enemies of Mirabeau . I was placed next him , and had not uttered a single word . He looked me in the face with his eyes so expressive of pride , of vice , and of genius , and pressing his hand oa my ahouldev , hfc said to me , " They will never pardon me for my superiority ! " I still fancy I feel theimpress of that hand , as ff satan had touched 2110 with his fiery claw . "When Mirabeau fixed Ids gaze on the young mute , had he a presentiment of my future fate ? Did he ever think , he would one day appear before the tribunal of my recollections ? I was destined to become the historian of high personages . They have defiled past before me without my having clung to their mantle and been drawn by them down to

      posterity . Mirabeau ha 3 already undergone the metamorphosis which takes place in those whose memory is to live after them . Carried from the Pantheon to the gutter , and back again from the gutter to the Pantheon , he is elevated by the lapse of time , which serves him at the present day as a pedestal . People no longer see the real Miraoeau , but the ideal Mirabeau ; Mirabeau , such as he was drawn by painters to express the symbol or the myth of the epoch which he represented . He thus becomes more false and more true than the reality . Of so many reputations , so many actors , so many events , so many vices , there remain but three men , each attached to one of the three great revolutionary epochs , —Mirabeau to the aristocraey , Robespierre to the democracy , Bonaparte to despotism . Monarchy has none ! Trance has paid dearly for

      the three renowns which virtue cannot claim as her own . "We must correct Chateaubriand . Virtue does claim the renown of RoBESriEKKE as her own ; and thousands of Ms and her followers are ready to back her claim . In 1791 , Chateaubriand left France for the United States , influenced by the mad idea of discovering , by some sort of an overland expedition , the north-west passage . Arrived in the States , a letter of introduction , procured hun admission to Washington , with whom he dined . He is amongst the Indians of the Northern States of the Union when this volume closes .

      The Prologue to Boole II . ( devoted to an account of Chateaubriand ' s voyage to , and travels in , the United States ) written in London , April , 1822 , is , to our fancy , the most charming bit in the volume . Here it is : —

      POWER AND OBSCURITY . Thirty-one years after I had embarked a simple sub-lieutenant for America , I embarked for London with a passport couched in the following terms : — " Permit , " said this pasport , " his Lordship the Viscount de Chateaubriand , peer of France , Ambassador of the king to his Britannic Majesty , &c . &c . to pass . " No description of my person . My greatness was to make my features known in all places . A steam-vessel , chartered for myself alone , carried me from Calais to Dover . On placing my foot upon the English soil , on the 5 th of April , 1822 , I was saluted by the cannon of the fort . An officer arrived , sent by the commandant to offer me a guard of honour . Having driven to the Shipwright Inn , the proprietor and waiters received me with low

      bows and uncovered heads . The Liidy Mayoress invite 3 me to a soiree in the name of the fairest ladies of the town . M . Billing , an attache of my embassy , attended me . A dinner of enormous fish , and monstrous joints of beef , reeruits his Lordship the Ambassador , who has no appetite and who was not at all fatigued . The populace , collected beneath my windows , make the air resound with huzzas . The officer returns , and in spite of me , places sentinels at my door . The tollowing morning , after having distributed a considerable amount of the money of the king my master , I set out en route for London , amidst the report of cannon , in a light carriage drawn by four handsome horses , driven at full trot by two elegant jockeys . My people

      folowed in separate carriages , and couriers in my livery accompany the cortege , "\ Ye dash through Canterbury , attracting the gaze of John Bull , and stared at by all the equipages we met . At Blackheath , a moor formerly infested with robbers , I find a village altogether new . In a short time Ipcr-Coivo tn © immense canopy of smoke which hovers over the city of London . Plunging into the gulf of carbonised vapour , as into one of the jaws of Tartarus , and traversing the entire city , the streets of which I recognised , I drew up at the hotel of the embassy in Portland-place The chargl d ' affaires , the Count George de Caramon , the ' secretaries of the embassy , the Viscount de Marcellus , the Baron E . Decazes , M . d . e

      Bowrqueney , and the attaches of the embassy , received me with dignified politeness . All the officers , porters , valets-de-chambre , and footmen of the hotel are drawn up on the pathway . I am handed cards of the English Ministers , and the foreign ambassadors , who have already , been informed of my approaching arrival . On the 17 th May , in the year of grace , 1793 , 1 disembarked on my way to the same town Of London , an humble and obscure traveller , at Southampton , coming from Jersey . A o Lady Mayoress took notice of my appearance . The mayor of the town , William Smith , handed me , on the 18 th , a

      road-map for London , to which was attached an extract from the Alien Bill . My description was as follows : — " Francois de Chateaubriand , a French officer in the emigrant army , five feet four inches in height , slender figure , brown hair and whiskers . " I modestly shaved the cheapest vehicle with somo sailors on leave . I stopped at the meanest taverns on the way ; I entered , poor , ailing , and unknown , an opulent and renowned city , in which Mr . Pitt reigned absolute . I took lodgings , at six shillings per month , in an attic , lured for me by a cousin from Brittany , at the extremity of a little street adjoining Tottenham-court-road ,

      " Ah ! Monseigneur , how your life , To-day with luxuries so rife , Differs from those happy times !" At the present day another sort of obscurity overshadows me hi London . My political station throws into the shade my literary renown . There is not a fool in the three kingdoms who does not prefer the ambassador of Louis XVIII . to the author of " The Genius of Christianity . " I shall see what turn affairs will take after my decease , or when I shall have ceased to replace Monsieur the Duke Decazea at the court of George IV . —a succession as bizarre as the rest of my life . When residing in London as French Minister , one of my greatest delights was to leave my carriage at

      the corner of a square , and to traverse on foot the little streets which I had formerly frequented ; the cheap and popular suburbs where misfortune takes refuge under the protection of similar suffering ; the obscure retreats which had been my haunts along with the companions of my distress , when I knew not if I should have sufficient bread for the morrow —I whose table is spread , at the present day , with three or four courses . At all those mean and narrow doors , which were formerly open to me , I met none but strange countenances . I no longer saw , wandering to and fro , numbers of my countrymen , easily recognised by their gestures , their manner of walking , the cut and antiquity of their clothes . I no lonjrer perceived those martyr-priests , wearing

      the narrow collar , the large three-cornered hat , the long black riding-coat much worn , and who were saluted by the English in passing . Wide streets , lined with palaces , had been laid out , bridges built , and walks planted . Regent ' s-park occupies , in the neighbourhood of Portland-place , the site of the meadows which were formerly covered with groups of cattle . The cemetery , which could be Been from the dormer-windows of one of my attics , has disappeared within the boundary walls of a manufactory . When I called at Lord Liverpool ' s I could with difficulty recognise the empty space where the scaffold of Charles I . bad stood . Now buildings , hemming round the statue of Charles II . have advanced , carrying oblivion with them , over the site of these memorable events . Bow I regret , in the midst of my insipid pomp , that world of tribulation and o tears , those times when I shared my suffering with those of a colony

      of unfortunates ! It is true , then , that everything changes—that misfortune itself perishes like prosperity ! What has become of my brothers in exile ? Some are dead ; others have undergone yarioue vicissitudes . They have seen , like me , their relations and friends disappear from the scene . Ihey are less happv in their native country than they were in a foreign land . Had we not in that land our meetings together , our amusements , our fetes , and above all , our youth . Mothers of families and voun" girls , who commenced life m adversity , woiAt the weekly proceeds of their labour to Sen their hearts with aome ^ ancc of their native fountry . Att achments wore formed m the convev-Sons of the evening , after the day ' s work was done on the velvet meadows of Hampstead and of uuiit , uii iu chapels , adorned with our hands 'SSSd& ^ oS ^ the 21 st of Jaim 17 . Sfthe -imSSrv of the death of the Queen , and wer meSto tcar , by the funeral oration pronounced bv the emigrant curate at our native vil-

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      sometimes to view the vessels , loaded with the riches of the world , entering the docks , sometimes to admire the country houses at Richmond—we so poor , we banished from our paternal abodes . All these things were real sources of happiness . When I returned here in 1822 , in place of being received by my friend , shivering with cold , who opens the door of our garret to me with a familiar salutation and who reposes on hia pallet beside me , covering himself with his thread-bare garments and having as his only lamp the moonlight , I passed , amidst the glare of torches , between two files of lackeys , whose ranks were closed by five or six respectful , secretaries . Overwhelmed on n \ y way vrith a torrent of words— " Monseigneur "—• " My Lord "" Your Excellency "—' Monsieur the Ambassador "—I reached a drawing-room Carpeted with gold and SlllC *

      " I beseech you , gentlemen , leave me . ' A truce to there « My Lords . ' What do you wish mo to do tor you i to and amuse yourselves at the chancery as if I were not there . Do you imagine that you can Hiiike me look on this masquerade as serious ? Do you think that I am stupid enough to think my nature changed because I have changed my dress ?" We repea t our earnest recommendation of this volume , with thanks to the publisher for placing it withiii tho reach of all classes .

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      HOME COLONIES IN THE NETHERLANDS ( Abridged from the Commonwealth for March . ) In the application of machinery to manufacturing processes this country took the lead ; our exertions in this branch of national irdustry were both earlier in paint of time , and more successful in point of effect , than those of other nations . This enabled us for some time to undersell all rivals , and by degrees to attract to our own market the great body of purchasers who had in former days been supplied with wrought goods from other European countries . The foreign consumer would not continue to give a quarter of corn for a piece of cotton cloth which we could give him for half a quarter .

      This extra demand to supply foreign markets obviated , for a time , the necessary effect of machinery in throwing workmen out of employment : the additional demand for wrought commodities to be exported absorbed the quantum of human labour which would otherwise have been displaced by machinery The men merely changed their employment ; instead of working with the hand , they worked with machines ; from handicraftsmen they became mechanical craftsmen ; one million of men , by the aid of machines , did the work that had formerly occupied two millions ; and the goods wrought by the other million found their way into foreign markets . At that period , therefore , the effect of machinery , in abridging the employment of the working classes , was not felt ia ( his country ; it was , however , very sensiblv felt in others . Tbe manufacturing classes

      on the cantinent were reduced to great distress under the overwhelming influence of our rivalry ; but , although we prospered , and that greatly for a time , from the circumstances of our having taken the lead in abridging labour by mechanical contrivances , it was unreasonable to expect that this advantage should last for ever ; it was but natural that other nations , stimulated by our example , and burdened by a surplus population which our success had deprived of employment , should endeavour to follow in our steps . They , in turn , introduced machinery ; gradually acquired skill in its application ; and now some of them stand in tbat respect upon pretty nearly the same vantage ground as ourselves . Cotton goods , for example , are now fabricated as expeditiously , economically , aad vrith as little real outlay of labour , on the banks of the Seine as on those of the Kibble .

      But the period has at length arrived , when other nations have learnt to produce commodities with which we used to supply them—the foreign demand for . our manufactured productions is no longer , considering the increase of population on both sides , what it was , —it has necessarily relaxed , —and it now remains that we put our shoulders heartily to the wheel , and endeavour to extricate the labouring classes from the severe pressure of the difficulties

      occasioned , as we conceive , principally , if not exclusively , by these national changes . In short , the operations of these causes which , in the long run , are nearly as irresistable as the laws of nature , has rendered it indispensable , both for the welfare of the state and the happiness of individuals ! that the labour of a considerable portion of the population of this country should be transferred to some branch of national industry other than manufacturing operations .

      That , under any conceivable change , either in our policy or in that of other nations , the demand for manufacturing industry should revive to an extent which would permanently abseil ) the vast surplus of thatspecies of labour which now remains unoccupied in this country , is an expectation in which we dare not indulge . We feel , in short , a conviction , which no argument that readily presents itself to our minds can shake , tbat no measure can afford our labouring classes substantial relief which falls short of producing an entire change in the character of their industry—which does not transfer their labour from the manufactories in which they starve , to the soil of the country , ou which we entertain no doubt ,

      they might be made to subsist in comfort at least , if not in affluence . This proposition may appear paradoxical , as we have already admitted that even our agricultural population ia superabundant : it may sound somewhat strangely that we should propose pouring more water into a vessel which , upon our own showing , already overflows . With regard , however , to the idle hands which now press upon the resources of country parishes , it may be observed that their want of employment arises from the faulty organisation of the district , and from the defective cultivation which the occupiers bestow upon the

      soil . Every intelligent person conversant with the state of agriculture in this country , will acknowledge that scarcely one farm can be naet with on which a vast addition of manual labour might not be employed , to the great benefit not only of the labourer , but also of the occupier . But , leaving for the present out of our consideration the number of unemployed hands which a better system of tillage undoubtedly would absorb , we venture to reiterate what we have already more than once stated , that we possess in our numerous waste and uncultivated districts a source of employment which cannot speedily be exhausted .

      The natural capability of our waste lands to yield a return for the labour which might be employed in cultivating them is vehemently denied by certain economists ot the day ; and we are well aware that to the task of bandying words with them there would be no end . The arguments and reasonings of a pure economist of the modern school , like a hydra ' s head , grow the more abundantly the more frequently you crop them . But , as it happens , we are in a condition to appeal to facts which leave no doubt that a soil , inferior in natural produstiveness to most of our wastes and commons , can be made to yield the cultivator a produce exceeding the amount consumed by him while employed in tilling it .

      The Payes-de- 'Waes is , at this time , the most thickly peopled district belonging to the generally well-cultivated kingdom of the Netherlands . Two hunered and fifty years ago it was nothing but a dismal tract of deep loose sand , scantily sprinkled with heath . About the middle of the sixteenth century , the Duke of Parma cut a canal through this desert , in order to facilitate his military operations against the Flemings . This canal-attracted many of that industrious people to settle on its banks ; they built huts and began to reclaim the moor in their

      vicinity : their numbers daily increased , and cultivation gradually extended until the whole surface was at length reclaimed and brought under the finest tillage . At the present moment , in this district , a field of two acres , or even one , suffices for the sup . port of a whole family . Even now the traveller finds that the wheeU of his carriage sink into the sand ; but when he looks over the hedges , he sees the enclosures , groaning undera weight of produce which has conferred upon the Payes-de . Waes no ordinary celebrity in the annals of successful agriculture .

      Another striking instance of the effect of tillage upon the productive powers of land , which , in its original state , would have been pronounced by the philosopher hopeless and incurable , may be seen in the duchy of Cieves . There is a very interesting colony of agriculturists settled on the right hand of the road which leads from the little town of Goeh to the city of Cieves . In the commencement of the last century , the land occupied by this thriving establishment was a barren heath : about the year 1707 , one of the inspectors of the royal forests

      caused some pines to be sowed in the neighbour , hood . This was the first attempt of the kind which bad been made in that district ; and the plantation sprung up and prospered . Jud ging by the thriving appearance of these trees , a Dutch agriculturist was induced to believe that the land might be made to jield corn ; he resolved upon trying what could be done , and reclaimed one hundred and seventy acres of heath , vdiich he divided into six faring nndlet to so m any tenants . The experiment was completely successful ; aad , iii the year 17 , 40 , Qn ^ hundred , and

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      forty-five persons were found subsisting , in much comfort , upon the produce of one hundred and seventy acres of land , which ten years previously , was nothing but a black moor . # # . * But the most interesting , as well as successful experiment set en foot in any age , or in any country , to enable the indigent pauper to subsist independently of charity by the cultivation of the soil , is that which has been recently made in the Netherlands . The inhabitants of the countries which , now compose the kingdom of the Netherlands have been for ages remarkable for their manufacturing industry For a considerable period they supplied the less

      skilful , or less industrious , inhabitants of other parts of Europe , with a large proportion of the wrought commodities which they consumed . By degrees the English rivalled , and then out-stripped them . Borne down by our competition , the manufacturers of the Low Countries sustained a granual declen sion until they were somewhat revived by the operation of Buonaparte ' s prohibitory decrees . If these did not prove altogether successful in excluding our wrought goods , it cannot be denied that they threw such impediments in the way of their introduction as secured to the manufacturers of the Netherlands a considerable advantage in the continental markets : but with the peace of 1815 this partial monopoly

      disappeared ; and ever since , the demand for manufacturing labour has been rapidly declining ia the Netherlands . A large Droportion of the population has been thrown out of employment , and forced to subsist upon alms . The raiseuy suffered by these unemployed workmen , and the burden which their maintenance in a state of idleness imposed upon others , made a deep and general impression . Various plans for relieving them were unsuccessfully tried . Attempts were first made to give them employment in manufactories established for that purpose , by the communes to which they

      belonged ; but , as might have been expected , these entirely failed ; the market of the Netherlands was already overstocked with wrought commodities j and adding to this superabundant mass , was making bad worse . In a word , it was apparent that too large a proportion of the population had devoted themselves to manufactures , and that relief could only be obtained by diverting their industry toother objects ; and it was proposed to transfer this surplus population from the districts in which their labour was no longer profitable , to agricultural colonies established on some of the wastes and heaths with which the country abounds .

      The plan of establishing agricultural colonies was warmly taken up by the public ; and , in 1818 , a voluntary association was formed at the Hague for the purpose of carrying it iuto effect . The fvr 8 Ut"p was of course to raise funds to commence their operations . This was speedily done by the donations of benevolent individuals , as well as by a small annual subscription ( about five shillings English money ) which each member contributed towards the resources placed at the disposal of the managing committee . As thirty thousand persona put donn their names as subscribers the very first year , five thousand pounds were at once realised . Having thus laid a foundation , they determined to make

      in the first instance , an experiment upon a snj » ll scale , and purchased a tract | of land called Westerbeck Sloot , situated near the ' little town of Steenwyk , on the confines of the provinces of Drenthe , Friesland , and Overyssel . It contained between twelve and thirteen hundred acres of land , covered with heath and turf—except about one hundred aud forty acres , which had already been in some measure reclaimed . The whole cost the association four thousand six hundred a ? . d Bixty pounds . The money for this purpose was raised by loan at six per cent , the association engaging to liquidate the principal by regular instalments , in the course of sixteen years .

      The one hundred and forty acres in tillage were allowed to remain in the hands of the tenants by whom they were already occupied ; and three hundred and fifty acres of the waste were marked out and enclosed for the foundation of the first colony . The King of the Netherlands' second son , who interested himself warmly in the success of the undertaking , readily consented that the new establishment should bear his own name : hence it was called 11 Frederick ' s-Oord . " In order to facilitate the communication ot the colony with the neighbouring districts , and to

      reduce the expense of carriage , a little river , called the Aa , was rendered navigable ; a school-house , a warehouse , spinning-houses , and fifty-two dwellings , were then built . These works were begun in Sept . 1818 , and finished by the first day of the following Nonetuber , when they were taken possession of by fifty-two indigent families , collected from different parts ol the country ; and who , from that moment , ceased to be burdensome to the communities to which they belonged—the association taking upon itself exclusively the responsibility of their subsequent maintenance .

      It is needless to observe that these fifty two families possessed no funds of their own on which they could subsist till the ensuing harvest , which was the earliest , period at which they could expect to reap the fruits of the labour which they had bestowed upon the land . Thi 3 difficulty had , of course , been foreseen and provided against : the association found them in clothing and food , and employed them in reclaiming and preparing the land for tin first crop fof this labour , the colonists themselves , were paid , just as strangers would have been paid , in uroportion

      to the quantity of work which they executed . It was calculated beforehand , that to settle one family , consisting of from six to eight persons , upon one of these Seven acre allotments , would require , on the pa-1 of the society , an outkyof 1700 guilders , or £ 143 13 s . But most of the houses which have been subsequently built have cost the society considerably less than the original estimate . All the labour of building is performed by tbe colonists themselves at the fixed rate of wages ; and all the bricks are made of clay , and burnt with turf—both of these materials being found on the land . "

      For an account of the working- of this system , we must refer the reader to the full article in the Commonwealth . The following extracts set forth the result : — "lhave visited , ' ' says the Bavovv de Kevevberg . in his interesting account of this colony , " a great number of these family establishments . In every place the females were seen cheerfully occupied either in cleaning their dwellings or in preparing thefami ' y meal : the children , neatly clothed , and full of health and spirits , rivalled one another in the alac ity with which they turned their spinmng-wneeTis . The mothers boasted of their comfortable condition , and the productive industry of their children : indeed , it is not by any means aa unusual circumstance that these should , from the age of seven to eight , earn

      weekly ten , fifteen , or even twenty sols . The greater part of these earnings is carried to the account of each family ; but a small proportion is distributed among the children , to encourage them in their industry . I have scarcely observed a single dwelling whicadidnot exhibit some trace of extra labour , gratutiously performed by the colonists themselves , solely for the purpose of embellishing their modest habitations . Their little gardens , tastefu'ly and carefully laid out , present models of well-regulated cultivation ; they are nearly all ornamented with flowers , which gracefully surround the beds in which the nutritive vegetables ' are grown . These not only delight the eye of the spectator , but leave a pleasing impression on the mind of the man who traces these embellishments back to the causes to tvhick they owe their origin . "

      Another traveller , who receetly visited these colonies , speaks thus of their condition in 1826 : — " The crops were luxuriant , the people healthful , and the houses comfortable . Several of the colonists had acquired considerable property . Many gardens were planted with currant-bush ? s , pear and apple trees , and tastefully ornamented with flowers . Additional live stock , belonging to the colonists themselves , was frequently pointed out ; and around not a few of the houses lay webs of linen bleaching , which had been woven , on their own account , by persons who only four years before were among the outcasts efsociety . The families found at dinner had quite the appearance of wealthy peasants ; an * l from the quantity and quality of the food before them , they might have been considered as not inferior to the smaller tenantry of this country . "

      We pass over a mass of interesting information , to make way for the answer of the writer of the article to the objections of those who oppose the very idea of trying the experiment of such colonies in this country : — ' . „ , . ., , ,, , " Where the dampers vfill ask , \ s the umu to be found on which our unemployed paupers may be made to raise for themse lves a supply ot tood by their own industry ? We do not apprehend , that , in this respect , much difficulty could be experienced m a country which contains a trifle of between fryenty and thirty millions of acres of waste land , setting aside some ten or twelve additional mil ions of meadow and dry pasture land , which , as far as c < ncems the employment of our population , are little better than mere wastos . . _

      It will , perhaps be said , that , upon our own showing , a considerable outlay of capital Mill be required in the first instance ; it will be necessary to provide the means of maintaining the colonists wh'le tilling the ground during at ' east one year : and it may be urged , probably , as an additional objection , that this amount of capital must be withdrawn from tbe geneal capital of the country ; ami that the gain of oue

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      SSi ? f ** -s ? « len ' *» * Tho question is , not whether it may be expedient to transfer a certain capital from a branchofinStry , in which it is nonproductive , into another department-but whether it be expedient to render productive , both to the owners and the public a certain amount of capital which is now utterly wasted and yields no return to anybody . We speak of the enormous capital annually squandered upon the maintenance of able-bodied paupers . AU that is repuired is , that those who now throir ftivay their capital upon the unemployed labourer , should combine to lay it out in a manner which would enable the same man to raise food for himself by the sweat of his own brow . "

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      A Republican ' s Prayer . — " Strange that nien , from am to ago , should consent to hold their lives at the breath of another , merely that each in his turn may have the power of acting the tyrant according to law . ' Oh God ! give me poverty ! shower upon me all the imaginary hardships of human life I I will receive them all with thankfulness Turn mo a prey to the wild boasts of the desert , sol lie nevec again the victim of man dressed in the gore-dripping robes of authority . Suffer me at least to call life , and the pursuits of life , my own ! Let mo hold it at the mercy of elements , of the- hunger of beasts , or the revenge of barbarians , but not of the coldblooded prudence of monopolists and kings . "Godwin ' s Caleb Williams . A Wife . —A wife , full of truth , innocence , and love , is the prettiest flowor a man can wear next his loarfc :

      FntEiYDS . —If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life , he will soontmd himself left * lono . A man should keep his friendships in constant repair . —Johnson . A Bachelor's Life . —Miss Breincr tells us that tho lifo of a rich old bachelor- is a splendid breakfast , a tolerably ilat dinner , and a most miserable supper . Poverty . —Poverty is the only load -which is the heavier the more loved ones there are tO itSSISt III supporting it . —Hichtcr .

      Tbkth-Dlackebs !—In the east of Asia , where black teeth arc admired , from China to Knmtckatka , the profession of a tooth-stntner is quite a 3 extensively followed , and in no loss repute , thanthat of the European dentist , whose place it occupies . The duties annexed are , however , less comprehensive , being almost restricted to tho blackin " process , which , in a . thousand cases , must be found more convenient than our contrary requisition . Dental diseases are by no moans of such frequent occurrence in those regions as among the nations of Europe ; and phvsiciaus have ascribed tUe fact to

      the simpler diet of the people , and the thoughtless , indolent current in which their lives flow on —• scarcely more chequered by change or mental excitement than those of their sheep or cattle , which keep their teeth equally sound . The blacking business is practised by both sexes , and some of its chiefs enjoy consider able reputation and emolument from the permanence of their dye , and the jetty polish imparted by their art ; the secrets of which arc kept with Oriental tenacity , more especially from the barbarinns , as Huroncnna are politely " termed , the profession being determined against sharing their profits with them .

      Dickens versus Cowruit . —diaries Dickens having declined , in somewhat disparaging terms , to su £ scribe for a monument to Cowpcr , has been thus tomahawked by Gilfillnn : — " The ' Task' will outlive ' The llaunted Man . ' Dickens is but a 'Cricket on the Hearth , ' Cowper was an eagle of God ; and . his memory shall be cherished , and Tiia poems read , after the ' Pickwick Papers' are forgotten !" A Nation cannot Rebel . — " The only ends for which governments arc instituted , and obedience rendered to them , ate the obtaining of justice and protection , and tlicy who cannot provide for both give the people a right of taking such ways as best please themselves in order to their own safety . The whole body of a nation cannot be tied to any other obedience than is consistent with tho common good , according to their own judgment . The general revolt of a nation cannot l > o called rebellion . " —Algernon Sydney , A jfffzzLKK . —If a ship is of the feminine gender , why are not fighting vessels called women-of-war , instead of men-of-war ?

      Impoktast to Geologists . —At Wnllasey the sea is encroaching on the people ; at Rome tile people are encroaching on the see . SOXNET TO FAME . Fame , like a wayward girl , will still bo coy To those who woo her with , too slavish linces , But makes surrender to some thoughtless boy , And doats the moi-e upon a heart at ease . She is a Gypsy—will not speak to thoso Who liavo not learnt to be content without 5 ier ; A Jilt , whose ear was never whispered close , Who thinks they scandal her who talk about her A very Gypsy is slio , Xilus-boni , Sister-in-law to jealous Pofcinliar ; Ye love-sicic Bards ' . repay Iicr scorn fov seovn ; To Artists love-lorn I madmen that yo are ; Make your best bow to her and bill adieu . Then if she likes it , she will follow you .

      Keats . A Whig ' . — " We have , " the Nonconformist say 3 , " a confident expectation that the word ' Whig , 'as it passes dowsi to posterity , will gradually supersede the usb of that ill-sounding word ' humbug . ' In a few years , when one man wishes to denounce another as * what Carlyle calls a wind-bag , a person of huge pretence and despicable performance , ; i notorious impostor , an arrant client , lie will thunder out , after exhausting all other and milder terms of vituperation , ' You are a Whig . ' " " ETEnsnv . "—A maker of gold pens advertises , that fifteen years' experience justifies him in asserting that his pens arc everlasting ! Prom which ifc it would appear that fifteen years and eternity arc svnonvmous terms .

      The Amebicaxs and tiikir j \ ewspapkks . —There is no native American in the northern states , and low in tho southern , who cannot write and road . Tho result , is shown intlio smaller amount of crime . The astonishing activity of the press in America baffles all conjecture of its progress , when the continent becomes better peopled . In England , in the provinces , the number of newspapers decrease ; six or seven have fallen during the last year . In the old country , we have , or had recently , 470 newspapers to 28 , 000 , 000 of population , twelve of which appeared dnily . In America , having 20 , 000 , 000 of population , there were in 1 S 40 , no less than 133 daily , 125 twice or thrice a week , and 1 , 141 weekly newspapers , besides 227 periodical works . The

      circulation of a newspaper is Ireo by post within thirty miles around the place of publication . Beyond that distance , one and a kalf cents are charged on each as postage . Let it not be said that their papers are small : they are as large as ours in the larger tovns , and some of them vie with ths Times in the number of advertisements . Mr . Mackay shows , too , that an English is cheaper than an American paper , excepting the duty , of which there is none in tJie United States . The best papers cost 3 * d . English . Every house , even in tho most remote places , takes in a paper ; some take two . —JerroltVs Weekly News . Irish Melodies dose ixto Iisish ! — Moore ' s " Melodies" have been translated into 7 mA by Mr .

      Sullivan , of Cork , « 'in a manner , " says the GahvMj Vindicator , " which doea that gentleman the very highest credit . " It is rather curious that this was not done long ago . An Inisn Vkkdict . —An Irishman was indicted at the assizes at Twice for felony . His innocence w ; is proved , but , notwithstanding that , the jury found him guilty . The juuVo was shocked , anil said" Gentlemen , the prisoner's innocence \ va . s clearly proved . " " l ' cs , " said the foreman , " he is innocent of the crime now charged against him , but he stole my groy maw last Christmas . " Tue Wish Men ov tub East . — " I thought tbe wise men came from the cast , " said a western man to a Yankee . " And the further you go we 3 t the more you'll think so—Imutherguem .

      The Minister and nis Man . — " Sam , " said a late minister of Drumblade one day to his man of all works , " you must bottle the cask of whisky this forenoon ; but as the vapour from the whisky may bo injurious , take a g lass before you begin to prevent intoxication . " iSow , Samuel was an old soldier , and never was in better spirits than when bottling whisky ; and having received from his master a special license to taste , went to work most heartily . Some hours after the minister visited the cellar to

      inspect progress , and was horrified to find Sam lying his full length on tho floov , unconscious of all around . " O Sam ! " said the minister , " you have not taken my advice , and you see the consequence —rise , Sam , and take a glass yet , it may restore you . " Sam , nothing \ ot ) i , took the glass from tho minister ' s hand , and haying emptied it , said , "OhI sir , this is tho thirteenth glass l ' veta'en , bit I ' m nae better . " " ] 3 oard and lodging , and nothing to pay , as tno man said when he lay cm the police stretcher .

      "VYhntpart of speech is kissing ?— -It is a conjunction . "Why is the letter IS the most sorrowful of letters ? Because it is always in-eoxsolable . The Supreme 1 ' oweu . — " Thero remains still inherent power in tho people—a supreme power , to remove or alter the legislature , when they find the legislators act contrary to the trust re ' poscd in thorn , for when such trust is abused it is thereby forfeited , and devolves on those wlio gave jit . — Locke . A Mighty Mouth . —A man with an enormously largo mouth called on a dentist to get a tooth drawn . After tho dentist had prepared his instruments , and was about to commence operations , the man of mouth began to strain » " « stvcic ! : !; is mouth till he got it to = i most frlglitlul C-xtont . " Stay , sir , " said tlio dentist , " don t troubl * yourself to stretch your mouth anv wider , for i intend to stand on the outside ot it to uraw your OOthJ '

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      March 17 , 1849 . THE NORTHERN STAR . o —— —— ¦ —«—^— ___ ________ , __ _ _ a-m « . ^ . i . » , M . ^^_ . u

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), March 17, 1849, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1514/page/3/