At Mr. Donkin’s I saw a portrait of Bewick, which is said to be a great likeness, and which, though imagination goes a great way in such a case, really bespeaks that simplicity, accompanied with that genius, which distinguished the man. Mr. Wm. Armstrong was kind enough to make me a present of a copy of the last performance of this so justly celebrated man. It is entitled “Waits for Death,” exhibiting a poor old horse just about to die, and preceded by an explanatory writing, which does as much honour to the heart of Bewick as the whole of his designs put together do to his genius. The sight of the picture, the reading of the preface to it, and the fact that it was the last effort of the man; altogether make it difficult to prevent tears from starting from the eyes of any one not uncommonly steeled with insensibility.
You see nothing here that is pretty; but everything seems to be abundant in value; and one great thing is, the working people live well. Theirs is not a life of ease to be sure, but it is not a life of hunger. The pitmen have twenty-four shillings a week; they live rent-free, their fuel costs them nothing, and their doctor cost them nothing. Their work is terrible, to be sure; and, perhaps, they do not have what they ought to have; but, at any rate, they live well, their houses are good and their furniture good; and though they live not in a beautiful scene, they are in the scene where they were born, and their lives seem to be as good as that of the working part of mankind can reasonably expect. Almost the whole of the country hereabouts is owned by that curious thing called theDean and Chapterof Durham. Almost the whole of South Shields is theirs, granted upon leases with fines at stated periods. This Dean and Chapter are thelords of the Lords. Londonderry, with all his huffing and strutting, is but a tenant of the Dean and Chapter of Durham,who souse him so often with theirfinesthat it is said that he has had to pay them more than a hundred thousand pounds within the last ten or twelve years. What will Londonderry bet that, he is not thetenant of the publicbefore this day five years? There would be no difficulty in these cases, but on the contrary a very great convenience; because all these tenants of the Dean and Chapter might then purchase out-and-out, and make that property freehold, which they now hold by a tenure so uncertain and so capricious.
Alnwick, 7th Oct., 1832.
From Sunderland I came, early in the morning of the 5th of October, once more (and I hope not for the last time) to Newcastle, there to lecture on the paper-money, which I did, in the evening. But before I proceed further, I must record something that I heard at Sunderland respecting that babbling fellow Trevor! My readers will recollect the part which this fellow acted with regard to the “liberal Whig prosecution;” they will recollect that it was he who first mentioned the thing in the House of Commons, and suggested to the wise Ministers the propriety of prosecuting me; that Lord Althorp and Denmanhummedandha’dabout it; that the latter hadnot read it, and that the former would offer no opinion upon it; that Trevor came on again, encouraged by the works of the curate of Crowhurst, and by the bloody oldTimes, whose former editor and now printer is actually a candidate for Berkshire, supported by that unprincipled political prattler, Jephthah Marsh, whom I will call to an account as soon as I get back to the South. My readers will further recollect that the bloody oldTimesthen put forth another document as a confession of Goodman, made to Burrell, Tredcroft, and Scawen Blunt, while the culprit was in Horsham jail with a halter actually about his neck. My readers know theresultof this affair; but they have yet to learn some circumstances belonging to its progress, which circumstances are not to be stated here. They recollect, however, that from the very first I treated thisTrevorwith the utmost disdain; and that at the head of the articles which I wrote about him I put these words, “TREVOR AND POTATOES;” meaning that he hated me because I was resolved, fire or fire not, that working men should not live upon potatoes in my country. Now, mark; now, chopsticks of the South, mark the sagacity, the justice, the promptitude, and the excellent taste of these lads of the North! At the last general election, which took place after the “liberal Whig prosecution” had been begun, Trevor was a candidate for the city of Durham, which is about fourteen miles from this busy town of Sunderland. The freemenof Durham are the voters in that city, and some of these freemen reside at Sunderland. Therefore this fellow (I wish to God you couldseehim!) went to Sunderland to canvass these freemen residing there; and they pelted him out of the town; and (oh appropriate missiles!) pelted him out with the “accursed root,” hallooing and shouting after him—“Trevor and potatoes!” Ah! stupid coxcomb! little did he imagine, when he was playing his game with Althorp and Denman, what would be the ultimate effect of that game!
From Newcastle to Morpeth (the country is what I before described it to be). From Morpeth to this place (Alnwick), the country, generally speaking, is very poor as to land, scarcely any trees at all; the farms enormously extensive; only two churches, I think, in the whole of the twenty miles; scarcely anything worthy the name of a tree, and not one single dwelling having the appearance of a labourer’s house. Here appears neither hedging nor ditching; no such thing as a sheep-fold or a hurdle to be seen; the cattle and sheep very few in number; the farm servants living in the farm-houses, and very few of them; the thrashing done by machinery and horses; a country without people. This is a pretty country to take a minister from to govern the South of England! A pretty country to take a Lord Chancellor from to prattle aboutPoor Lawsand aboutsurplus population! My Lord Grey has, in fact, spent his life here, and Brougham has spent his life in the Inns of Court, or in the botheration of speculative books. How should either of them know anything about the eastern, southern, or western counties? I wish I had my dignitary Dr. Black here; I would soon make him see that he has all these number of years been talking about the bull’s horns instead of his tail and his buttocks. Besides the indescribable pleasure of having seen Newcastle, the Shieldses, Sunderland, Durham, and Hexham, I have now discovered the true ground of all the errors of the Scotchfeelosoferswith regard to population, and with regard to poor-laws. The two countries are as different as any two things of the same nature can possibly be; that which applies to the one does not at all apply to the other. The agricultural counties are covered all over with parish churches, and with people thinly distributed here and there.
Only look at the two counties of Dorset and Durham. Dorset contains 1,005 square miles; Durham contains 1,061 square miles. Dorset has 271parishes; Durham has 75 parishes. The population of Dorset is scattered over the whole of the county, there being no town of any magnitude in it. The population of Durham, though larger than that of Dorset, is almost all gathered together at the mouths of the Tyne, the Wear, and theTees. Northumberland has 1,871 square miles; and Suffolk has 1,512 square miles. Northumberland haseighty-eight parishes; and Suffolk hasfive hundred and ten parishes. So that here is a county one third part smaller than that of Northumberland with six times as many villages in it! What comparison is there to be made between states of society so essentially different? What rule is there, with regard to population and poor-laws, which can apply to both cases? And how is my Lord Howick, born and bred up in Northumberland, to know how to judge of a population suitable to Suffolk? Suffolk is a county teeming with production, as well as with people; and how brutal must that man be who would attempt to reduce the agricultural population of Suffolk to that of the number of Northumberland! The population of Northumberland, larger than Suffolk as it is, does not equal it in total population by nearly one-third, notwithstanding that one half of its whole population have got together on the banks of the Tyne. And are we to get rid of our people in the South, and supply the places of them by horses and machines? Why not have the people in the fertile counties of the South, where their very existence causes their food and their raiment to come? Blind and thoughtless must that man be who imagines that all butfarmsin the South are unproductive. I much question whether, taking a strip three miles each way from the road, coming from Newcastle to Alnwick, an equal quantity of what is calledwaste ground, together with the cottages that skirt it, do not exceed such strip of ground in point of produce. Yes, the cows, pigs, geese, poultry, gardens, bees and fuel that arise from thosewastes, far exceed, even in the capacity of sustaining people, similar breadths of ground, distributed into these large farms in the poorer parts of Northumberland. I have seen not less than ten thousand geese in one tract of common, in about six miles, going from Chobham towards Farnham in Surrey. I believe these geese alone, raised entirely by care and by the common, to be worth more than the clear profit that can be drawn from any similar breadth of land between Morpeth and Alnwick. What folly is it to talk, then, of applying to the counties of the South, principles and rules applicable to a country like this!
To-morrow morning I start for “Modern Athens”! My readers will, I dare say, perceive how much my “antalluct” has been improved since I crossed the Tyne. What it will get to when I shall have crossed the Tweed, God only knows. I wish very much that I could stop a day at Berwick, in order to find somefeelosoferto ascertain, by some chemical process, the exact degree of the improvement of the “antalluct.” I am afraid, however, that I shall not be able to manage this; forI must get along; beginning to feel devilishly home-sick since I have left Newcastle.
They tell me that Lord Howick, who is just married by-the-by, made a speech here the other day, during which he said, “that the Reform was only the means to an end; and that the end was cheap government.” Good! stand to that, my Lord, and, as you are now married, pray let the country fellows and girls marry too: let us havecheap government, and I warrant you that there will be room for us all, and plenty for us to eat and drink. It is the drones, and not the bees, that are too numerous; it is the vermin who live upon the taxes, and not those who work to raise them, that we want to get rid of. We are keeping fifty thousand tax-eaters to breed gentlemen and ladies for the industrious and laborious to keep. These are the opinions which I promulgate; and whatever your flatterers may say to the contrary, and whateverfeelosoficalstuff Brougham and his rabble of writers may put forth, these opinions of mine will finally prevail. I repeat my anxious wish (I would call it ahopeif I could) that your father’s resolution may be equal to his sense, and that he will do that which is demanded by the right which the people have to insist upon measures necessary to restore the greatness and happiness of the country; and, if he show a disposition to do this, I should deem myself the most criminal of all mankind, if I were to make use of any influence that I possess to render his undertaking more difficult than it naturally must be; but, if he show not that disposition, it will be my bounden duty to endeavour to drive him from the possession of power; for, be the consequences to individuals what they may, the greatness, the freedom, and the happiness of England must be restored.
END.
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Uniform with this Volume and Same Price.
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES ON SOME OF THE VOLUMES.
Shakespeare (6 vols.).
This is a complete edition of the plays and poems of the greatest of the world’s writers. It is printed from a carefully selected fount of type, and is one of the prettiest, as well as one of the cheapest, editions of Shakespeare ever published.
The Count of Monte-Cristo (2 vols.).Alexandre Dumas.
In “Monte-Cristo” Dumas left the path of historical fiction for the romance of his own time. It is the most famous of the world’s treasure stories, and tells how a young man, imprisoned on a false charge in a French fortress, learns from a fellow-prisoner the secret of great wealth hidden on a Mediterranean island; how he finds the treasure, and spends his remaining years rewarding his friends and avenging himself on his enemies.
Scenes of Clerical Life.George Eliot.
With the three stories in this volume—“Amos Barton,” “Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story,” and “Janet’s Repentance”—George Eliot made her first entry into fiction, and they still remain perhaps her most characteristic and delightful work.
Wild Wales.George Borrow.
This book was the result of Borrow’s wanderings after the publication of “Lavengro” and “The Romany Rye.” He tramped on foot throughout the country, and the work is a classic of description, both of the scenery and people.
Toilers of the Sea.Victor Hugo.
The Laughing Man.Victor Hugo.
Les Misérables (2 Vols.).Victor Hugo.
’Ninety-Three.Victor Hugo.
Victor Hugo took the romantic novel as invented by Sir Walter Scott and gave it a new and philosophic interest. All his great romances have a purpose. “Les Misérables” exposes the tyranny of human laws; “The Toilers of the Sea” shows the conflict of man with nature; “The Laughing Man” expounds the tyranny of the aristocratic ideal as exemplified in England. But being a great artist as well as a great thinker, he never turned his romances into pamphlets. Drama is always his aim, and no novelist has attained more often the supreme dramatic moment.
The cheapest books in the world. Produced in the same excellent form and convenient size as the other Nelson Libraries, they contain works which are out of copyright. Full List on application.
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THOMAS NELSON AND SONS.
Footnotes:
[1]I will not swear to the verywords; but this is the meaning of Voltaire: “Representatives of the people, the Lords and the King:Magnificentspectacle!Sacredsource of the Laws!”
[2]“Representatives of the people, of whom the people know nothing, must be miraculously well calculated to have the care of their money! Oh! People too happy! overwhelmed with blessings! Theenvyofyour neighbours, andadmiredby thewhole world!”
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation has been corrected without note.
The unmatched opening quotation mark on page 404 is presented as in the original text.
Other than the corrections noted by hover information, inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.