Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][ocr errors]

David's dame had, in the course of her experience, often een a comfortable supper prove a very agreeable diversion [polemical discourse. Not so on this evening. The arment between the learned patriarchs on the oaken settle the chimney-neuk, waxed hotter and hotter, and the ack pudding, colder and colder, to her secret grief, and at open discontent; for Mrs. Fennick, though the bosom ppanion of a self-denying saint, had a housewife's naturpride in her black, and in her white puddings; and Gifell considerably in her good graces from his open disect to her good things. Had he sojourned but two days ger in her frugal household, he would probably have rered this lost ground, and gained the more lasting and tantial praise of being "easily shot bye wi' his vic"As it was, she cried "Patience!" and turned the Mings

The subject for which her savoury messes were on this at permitted to freeze, was one which, though foreign to story, afterwards shook the church of Sourholes to its adation, and involved the latter days of its presiding tle in much trouble and turmoil. -There was no Cameronian meeting within twenty miles David Fennick's dwelling of Mossbrettles. The ancient erents to this nommade faith, remained at home on Saband read their bibles, when they could not attend the ic worship of their own sect; but the younger memof David's family, had, of late, strayed into the neighring parish-church-at first covertly, but now with less for concealment. There they had, among other defileats, acquired a taste for a sort of church-music, certainly overy alluring kind, but totally different from that to ch their venerable chief had been accustomed. To carry omestic plagues to the climax, Orpheus, assuming the use of a yellow lank weaver from the Riccartown of marnock, "fashed wi' a stamack complaint," had led into the parish, and, in widow Bonalie's public, p an evening class for teaching this new-fangled psaldy. In an evil hour David was teased into granting mission of his children to attend; and now, instead of old reverend way of twanging out the psalm, line by "their rants," David said, " ran straight on, run-line" as invading, in fact destroying for ever, his immutable ilege of doling it out line by line, rather than suffer interruption or suspension of their own "most sweet

ces."

The controversy was still novel to Mr. Gideon; and we do him the justice to say, that, notwithstanding his My prejudices and associations were all on the side of the aint antique method of chanting the psalms, his naturcandid spirit and sincere understanding rated the subfat its true importance; and David found a much less ons partisan than he had reckoned upon. He indeed bu: an indifferent part in the afflictions of David. Is it not written-there shall be line upon line ?" aned David, the thin white locks that straggled over his Je sunken temples trembling in the eagerness of his conversial zeal. "What's your opinion of that scripture, buster ?"

And is it not written-Praise ye continually-make joyful noise ?" said Robert, the smiling champion of St. ilia and her new lights.

Gideon was smitten to the heart's core with what he diy pronounced this Pharisaical Jesuitical wark—" And is mine! David," he cried, "to hear this din about robes phylacteries taking place o' the weightier matters of the and that in a corner of the vineyard ance fair and rishing. But I'll tell ye, gudeman, what has filled me th shame to hear, and grief, and indignation. In Glasyonder, even in kirks pretending to be reformed, bands enging bairns--they shame not to call them choirsMs and lassies lilting away at the praises of their aker, and as if it were an auld balland or a ratt-rhyme; and this they call leading the worship of à Presbyterian gregation, in the most hallowed and heaven-like exerof praise-themselves a' dumb! If we inaun ha’e a Fish preinding, take to the kist fu' o' whistles at ance, Rebert. Tinkling brass wire, and sounding timber boards,

have neither hearts to harden nor souls to ensnare, like puir simple bairns."

After delivering his testimony against this enormity, which was at that time quite a recent innovation, Mr. Gideon proceeded, as was his custom wherever he spent the night, to examine the young people and servants of the family, in their attainments in the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, and on their general religious knowledge.-The venerable head of the house had no reason to be ashamed of this exhibition. Whatever were their musical abberrations, they had been trained up in "the way they should go;" and there was good hope that they might never "depart from it." The boy who had conned his Latin lesson by the fire, the embryo preacher, next went over his penna and doceo, to the infinite delight of his mother. Even stern David grinned complacent, and owned "human lear was nae doubt a mean," and melted into entire delight when his little favourite son, the rosy, smiling, curly-haired Davie, with a good deal of kindly prompting from mother, sister, maiden, and brother, herd, and ploughman, in lisping accents went through his infant manual, and told "Who made him," and "Who redeemed him," very correctly. "And who was the strongest man, Davie ?"

"Samson!" replied Davie. "We ha'e a big grey Samson, the cart aver."

"Very right, Davie," said Gideon." And who was the wisest man?"

"Absalom!" cried Davie, undauntedly.

"O fie!" whispered the mother-" So-Sol-o-" "Solomon!" shouted Davie, triumphantly.

"Very right!"

"And he'll no be four till Candlemas!" whispered the mother, aside.

"And who was the meekest man, Davie ?" "Job."

"Hush, Davie-fie !" cried the sister.

"But it was though-just Moses," cried Davie, dealing her a playful blow, with the petulance of a spoiled, lively, and clever child.

Old David knitted his stern brows over this infant trick of the carnal heart in his beloved child.

"That was na right, my little man," said kind Gideon, in grave rebuke; and Davie looked alarmed, and with some cause. "But we must make a passover; for puir Davie sees his fau't. Think first now-what they call the Gudeman of Mossbrettles, and tell me Who was the man according to God's own heart?'"

"Wee Davie's ain Daddy David," cried the cunning and affectionate little rogue, throwing himself into his father's arms; and old David involuntarily kissed his brow, his grey eyes glistening, and after a short fervid clasp, put him hastily away, as if ashamed of this emotion of natural affection.

"Ye think me like auld Eli, minister," said he. And he instantly walked forth to meditate, and question of his own relaxed spirit, and screw up his resolution to chastise wee Davie.

The little victim, when invited to a private conference in his father's dormitory, first had his supper to eat, and then his prayers to say--and, finally, appealed to his mother, who, rebellious as her heart was, durst not for her life have interfered between her stern lord and his just displeasure; so the poor trembler disappeared, Gideon's heart yearning over him. The calm expostulating voice of David was heard for some time, and the low thick sob of Davie, then rose the voice of one in earnest prayer, and there was a moment's pause, followed by Davie's shrill scream of "Oh! father, father!-reason wi' me, and shew me my error, a wee whilie langer;" but the inexorable scourge de scended rapidly, perhaps severely; for David Fennick was no joker in any business to which he seriously thought that duty called him.

Such was the stern discipline of Scotland in those days. A great deal has since been said for and against the use of the rod. We have recorded wee Davie Mossbrettles' opinion, as decidely in favour of prayer and reasoning, and against stripes.

Davie was put to bed; and David the older again walked out to compose his spirit.

TRADITION OF THE NORSEMEN. The Norsemen were the more prone to superstitions, Some pious neighbours had, by this time, come in to ga- cause it was a favourite fancy of theirs that, in many ther the manna chance-dropt in this wilderness. Preachers stances, the change from life to death altered the temper and Probationers were often enough coming to Mossbrettles; the human spirit from benignant to malevolent; or pa but it was not every night that a true-blue unmingled Ca-haps, that when the soul left the body, its departure w meronian minister, of the fame of Mr. Haliburton, tarried there. David, this night, "had gotten a Levite for his priest," and felt his personal consequence augmented accordingly. So he beckoned forward his modest guests to chairs, and stools, and tubs overturned to make seats, with exactly the patronizing feelings of a fine lady, who has caught and lionized a fashionable poet or singer, for the amusement of her friends and the eclat of her rout, and of its celebration-paragraph in the Morning Post of the next day. How essentially the same, after all, are the enjoy.. ments of the great human family, however their external manifestations and their moral influences may vary.

The seeds of poetry in Gideon's character, were not unfrequently displayed in his selection of a portion of scripture to be read, or of the psalm to be sung. On this night, from this humble rustic group, a small farmer and a few poor Scottish cotters, from the bosom of the barren moor, there rose to heaven, slowly chanted, line by line, one of the most beautiful lyrics that ever was composed, judging of it merely as a literary composition-the 104th Psalmthe hymn of Universal nature to the Universal Creator! Far higher than this was Gideon's standard of judging the inspired writings.

A simple, scriptural, earnest, and affectionate prayer, almost as comprehensive as the hymn which had been sung, forgetting no class nor condition of sentient beings -concluded the domestic exercise; and when the group rose from their knees, Robert, David's eldest son, "a noble peasant," grasped the minister's hand and said

"Your ain, sir, and my father's auld-fashioned sughin' out o' the plaintive Dundee, and the noble Martyrs, dinnel stronger on the heart-strings after a', than a' their crinkum crankum new tunes."

occasionally supplied by a wicked demon, who took the
portunity to enter and occupy its late habitation.
Upon such a supposition the wild fiction that follows
probably grounded; which, extravagant as it is, pos. -
something striking to the imagination. Saxo Gramma"
tells us of the fare of two Norse princes or chiefs, whe
formed what was called a brotherhood in arms, imp
not only the firmest friendship and constant support, i
all the adventures which they should undertake in life.
binding them by a solemn compact, that after the di
of either, the survivor should descend alive ince
sepulchre of his brother-in-arms, and consent to be bu
along with him. The task of fulfilling this dreadful co
pact fell upon Asmund, his companion, Assueit, having '
slain in battle. The tomb was formed after the an
northern custom, in what was called the age of hills—
is, when it was usual to bury persons of distinguished to
or rank on some conspicuous spot, which was crowned
a mound. With this purpose a deep narrow vault
constructed, to be the apartment of the future tomb
which the sepulchral heap was to be piled. Here the-
posited arms, trophies, poured forth, perhaps, the blu
victims, introduced into the tomb the war-horses o
champions, and when these rites had been duly paid.
body of Assueit was placed in the dark and narrow be
while his faithful brother-in-arms entered and sat down
the corpse, without a word or look which testified regr
unwillingness to fulfil his fearful engagement. The sol
who had witnessed this singular interment of the deale
living, rolled a huge stone to the mouth of the tomb.
piled so much earth and stones above the spot as mad
mound visible from a great distance, and then, with
lamentation for the loss of such undaunted leaders,
dispersed themselves like a flock which has lost its shephe

+

Years passed away after years, and a century had elap ere a noble Swedish rover, bound upon some high adture, and supported by a gallant band of followers, arr. in the valley which took its name from the tomb of brethren-in-arms. The story was told to the stran whose leader determined on opening the sepulchre, † because, as already hinted, it was reckoned an heroic a to brave the anger of departed heroes by violating t tombs; partly to attain the arms and swords of proof. which the deceased had done their great actions.

"Robert, my man, if ye are led to think sae it is weel," replied Gideon. "So grieve not the grey-haired man i' the neuk, whose soul has travailed for the weal o' yours, ay when sweet sleep has sealed your ain eye-lids. Keep ye by these holy harmonies, wi' whilk the wail of the curlew and the plover, and the roar of the linn ha'e chimed in yon brave day yea, the sweet melodies that rose in the nightwatches, like myrrh and frankincense, and the rich spices, frae these very moss-hags, and coves, and cleuchs round about us, whither the red arm o' persecution had driven forth the stout true hearts o' covenanted Ayr, and favoured Gallowa'-Ayr, whose plants were as an orchard of pome-soldiers to work, and soon removed the earth ander granates with pleasant fruits. Alack! that the cankerworm should creep in-that they should either dwine or die!" This honest ancestral eulogy was highly acceptable to every present ear. But the puddings smoking hot were now served with the mashed potatoes, together with a jorum of stout, home-brewed, harvest ale, of which David partook very sparingly, Robert and Mr. Gideon with greater freedom.

Another hour passed in sober but social talk on public and family affairs. Gideon was pleased to hear that his friend David's " temporals" prospered, and that he was willing and eager to lend his carts, during the winter, to drive stones for the purpose of erecting a meeting-house in the vicinity. The honest man chose a private minute to confess to Gideon his sinful yearnings over the "bairn, wee Davie;" but honest Gideon slurred that offence on the present occasion, and, in spite of the "carts," rather warned his friend against "worldliness," and "covetousness," and "spiritual pride," than any excess of natural tenderness. From these sins David Fennick was certain that he stood wholly clear.

The whole family now retired to rest-to that "quiet sleep" for which Gideon had prayed-that quiet sleep which, in the words of his petition, "is Thy gift to Thy chosen

ones!"

And thus was closed the night in a small Scotch FARMER'S HA'!

He is

from one side of the mound, and laid bare the entrance. T
the stoutest of the rovers started back, when, instead
silence of a tomb, they heard within horrid cries, the C
of swords, the clang of armour, and all the noise of a "2"
tal combat between two furious champions. A young
rior was let down into the profound tomb by a cord, wh
was drawn up shortly after, in hopes of news from bet
But when the adventurer descended, some one threw a
from the cord, and took his place in the noose. When t
rope was pulled up, the soldiers, instead of their compra..
beheld Asmund, the survivor of the brethren-in-arms.
rushed into the open air, his sword drawn in his hand.
armour half torn from his body, the left side of his f
most scratched off, as by the talons of some wild beast.
had no sooner appeared in the light of day, than, with
improvisatory poetic talent, which these champions
united with heroic strength and bravery, he poured forth
string of verses containing the history of his hundred ye
conflict within the tomb. It seems that no sooner was
sepulchre closed, than the corpse of the slain Assurit
from the ground, inspired by some ravenous goule, and be
ing first torn to pieces and devoured the horses which
been entombed with them, threw himself upon the
panion who had just given him such a sign of dev
friendship, in order to treat him in the same manner.
bero, no way discountenanced by the horrors of his situati

[ocr errors]

took to his arms, and defended himself manfully against Assueit, or rather against the evil demon who tenanted that champion's body. In this manner the living brother waged a preternatural combat, which had endured during a whole century, when Asmund, at last obtaining the victory, prostrated his enemy, and by driving, as he boasted, a stake through his body, had finally reduced him to the state of quiet becoming a tenant of the tomb. Having chanted the triumphant account of his contest and victory, this mangled conqueror fell dead before them. The body of Assucit was taken out of the tomb, burnt, and the ashes dispersed to heaven; whilst that of the victor, now lifeless, and without a companion, was deposited there, so that it was hoped his slumbers might remain undisturbed. The precautions taken against Assueit's reviving a second time, remind us of those adopted in the Greek Islands, and in the Turkish provinces, against the Vampire. It affords also a derivation of the ancient English law in case of suicide, when a stake was driven through the body, originally to keep it secure in the tomb.-Sir Walter Scott.

It is difficult to determine, whether, when people are huddled together in this unnatural state, this sort of soldier-like discipline may, or may not, be necessary to effect the purposes of schooling; but I should think it a very strange thing, if a man, calculated to produce effect by his learning, could ever come to perfection from a beginning like this. It is altogether a thing I abhor. I do not say that it may not be useful when people are thus unnaturally congregated; and, above all things, I am not disposed to bestow censure on the motives of the parties promoting this mode of education; for the sacrifices which they make, in order to give success to their schemes, clearly prove that their motives are benevolent; but I am not the less convinced that it is a melancholy thing to behold; that it is the reverse of domestic life; that it reverses the order of nature; that it makes minds a fiction; and, which is amongst the greatest of its evils, it fashions the rising generation to habits of implicit submission, which is only another term for civil and political slavery. However, the consolation is, that it is impossible that it ever should become anything like general in any nation. The order of the world demands that nine-tenths of the people should be employed on, and in the affairs of the land; being so employed, they must be scattered about widely; and there must be homes and domestic life for the far greater part of the rising generation. When men contract a fondness for anything which has a great deal of novelty and of strangeness in it; when they brood over the contemplation of some wonderful discovery which they think they have made; when they suffer it long to absorb all the powers of their minds; when they have been in this state for any considerable length of time, they really become mad, as far as relates to the matter which has thus absorbed all their mental faculties; and they think themselves more wise than all the rest of mankind, in exact proportion to the degree of their madness. It is unfortunate enough when follies of this sort lead only to disap

real compassion, when the eccentric folly produces dissipation of fortune, and the ruin of families.

CURE FOR A CRIPPLE.

COBBETT'S ACCOUNT OF NEW LANARK. BEING at New Lanark, I was rather curious to know whether there were any reality in what we heard about the effects of the Owen "feelosophy," I had always understood that he had been the author of his own great fortune, and the founder of this village; but I found that the establishment had been founded by a Mr. Dale, who had had two or three daughters with great fortunes; that Mr. Owen had got one of these daughters, and one of these fortunes: that Mrs. Owen has been dead for some years; that the concern had long been in other hands; that the only part of it which was ever of his invention, was a large building, in which the "feelosofical" working people were intended to eat and drink in common; that they never did this; that there had been a place at some distance from Lanark, fixed upon for the execution of the "Owen Plan;" that a large space had been surrounded with a high stone wall for the pur-pointment and ridicule; but the parties become objects of pose; that the scheme had been abandoned; and that the wall had been taken down, and sold as old stones! The building, in New Lanark, which Owen had erected for the feelosophers" to carry on their community of eating and drinking, is used as a school-room; and here I saw boys in IT happened on a Sunday evening, about thirty years one place, and girls in another place, under masters ap- ago, that two sheep-stealers had meditated an attempt on the pointed for the purpose, carrying on what is called "edu- flock of a wealthy farmer in the parish of A, in the cation." There was one boy pointing with a stick to some- west neuk of Fife. The sheep were grazing in a park adthing stuck up upon the wall, and then all the rest of the joining the village churchyard, and hard by the public boys began bawling out what that was. In one large road. The eldest and most experienced of the depredators room they were all singing out something at the word of recommended that only one of them should go in among command, just like the tribe of little things in Bolt Court, the sheep, as it would not alarm them so much as two. ho there stun the whole neighbourhood with singing Accordingly the younger thief was dispatched to bring a God Save the King," "The Apostles' Creed," and the sheep, while the other went into the churchyard, and sat Pence Table," and the fellow, who leads the lazy life in down upon a through-stone to amuse himself till his comthe teaching of whom, ought to be sent to raking the ken- panion returned. Now it so happened that John, the minrzel, or filling a dung cart. In another great apartment of ister's man, had forgot to take home the Bible from the This house, there were eighteen boys and eighteen girls, the church, after the service of the day was over, which neBoys dressed in Highland dresses, without shoes on, naked glect was not perceived until the minister called for the om three inches above the knee, down to the foot, a tar- books to perform the duty of family worship, when John tan plaid close round the body, in their shirt sleeves, their was immediately sent to the church for the Bible. John hirt collars open, each having a girl by the arm, duly pro- not being possessed of a very daring spirit, and it being a portioned in point of size, the girls without caps, and with- dark winter night, was not very fond of visiting the abodes cut shoes and stockings; and there were these eighteen of the dead at such an hour; but when he arrived at the Couples, marching, arm in arm, in regular files, with a churchyard gate, and got a glimpse of the man sitting on !ck-step, slow march, to the sound of a fiddle, which a the through-stone, his hair stood on end, and his fears soon fellow, big enough to carry a quarter of wheat, or to dig conjured the thief into a demon. Without more ado he ten roods of ground in a day, was playing in the corner of wheeled about, and made the best of his way to the manse, the room, with an immense music book lying open before where he related his wonderful story, telling them that he him. There was another man who was commanding offi- saw the devil sitting on a grave breaking dead bones. cer of the marching couples, who, after having given us a old cripple mendicant, who was quartered at the manse march in quick step as well as slow-step, were disposed off during the Sabbath, (for the minister, contrary to the gein dancing order, a business that they seemed to perform neral character of his brethren, was a very charitable man,) with great regularity and elegance; and it was quite im- heard John telling his appalling story, laughed at him, possible to see the half-naked lads of twelve or thirteen, saying, "if I was as able to gang as you, I would soon putting their arms round the waists of the thinly-clad girls bring the Bible."-" Well," says John, "if you will accomof the same age, without clearly perceiving the manifest pany me, I will carry you on my back, and we'll may-be tendency of this mode of education, to prevent " premature be able to bring the Bible atween us." The beggar agreed, marriages," and to" check population." and mounted John accordingly, after he had wrapped him

An

self in his grey plaid. When they came within view of the thief, John would very fain have turned, but the beggar spurred him on, until they came within a very short distance of him, when he, supposing it to be his comrade coming with a sheep on his back, exclaimed, "Is he a fat ane?" John, whose heart was quaking before, on hearing this question put to him, could no longer resist his inclination to turn; he threw the old man off his back, saying, "Be he fat or be he lean, there he is to ye," and run what he was able. The mendicant, finding that he was thus left to his own resources to appease the devil as he could, mustered all his strength; and, strange to tell, his legs that had refused to perform their office for many a long year before, were suddenly strengthened he soon went past John, and regained the manse before him, and was never lame after.

SCRAPS.

DEATH OF LOGAN THE INDIAN CHIEF-An old officer of the United States army, who, soon after the close of the revolutionary war, was ordered to make surveys of the country watered by the Alleghany river, informed me that Logan's nephew, a remarkably fine young Indian, dined with him one day in his tent, and that he asked him what became of Logan. I killed him, was the reply. Why did you kill him? The nation ordered it. For what reason? He was too great a man to live: he talked so well, that although the whole nation had intended to put any plan in execution, yet, if Logan did not approve of it, he would soon gain a majority in favour of his opinions. Was he not then generally in the right? Often; but his influence divided the nation too much. Why did they choose you to put him to death? If any one else had done it I certainly would have killed him: I, who am his nephew, shall inherit his greatness. Will they not then kill you also? Yes: and when I become as great a man as Logan (laying his hand on his breast with dignity) I shall be content to die! He added, that he had shot him near the Alleghany river. When informed of the resolution of the council of his nation, Logan stopped his horse, drew himself up in attitude of great dignity, and received the fatal ball without a murmur.- -Vignas's Six Months

in America.

NEGLECTED MERIT.-Robinson Crusoe was hawked about through the trade as a work of neither mark nor likelihood, and at last accepted, as a proof of especial condescension, by an obscure retail bookseller. It is singular, but not the less true, and we leave our readers to draw their own inference from the fact, that almost every book of any pretensions to originality has been similarly neglected. Paradise Lost, with difficulty, found a publisher, while the whole trade vied with cach other in their eagerness to procure the works of such dull mechanical writers as Blackmore and Glover; Gulliver's Travels lay ten years in MS. for want of due encouragement from the booksellers; and in our own times, and in a lighter branch of literature, the Miseries of Human Life, and the still more ingenious Rejected Addresses, were refused by the trade with indifference, if not contempt. To crown the list of works thus misunderstood, Sir W. Scott has left it on record, that Waverley was actually declined three several times by the acutest publisher of his day; and at last ushered into the world, after it had lain twelve years unnoticed in its author's desk, with doubt, hesitation, and indifferCredite posteri!-Monthly Magazine.

ence.

THE DESTRUCTIVE TAXES.-We would destroy, the instant it was possible, the house and window tax, because they are unequal, and the people hate them. We would destroy the malt tax and the hop duty, because they impede the cultivation of the land, and subject tradesmen and farmers to a rigorous and despotic system of excise. We would destroy the tax on soap, because it is a bounty on dirt and disease; as we would destroy the Taxes on Knowledge, because they are bounties on ignorance and error. We would destroy the monopolies of the Bank of England, and of the East India Company, because they tax

the whole community for the exclusive benefit of the proprietors of Bank and East India Stock, and subject all commerce to be deranged by the caprice of individual, against which open and public and general competition is the only sure and certain guarantee. We would destroy the corn laws, because they cheat the farmer with a hope of prices he never realizes, and make him promise a higher rent than he can pay-because they tend to starve the poor and impoverish the opulent manufacturers-and be cause they do not even benefit those landlords whom they merely flatter with preserving for them a nominal superiority which must come to an end. We won't destroy the power of parsons and other justices to interfere with all the pastimes and amusements of the people, because that interference never has been exercised without souring the minds of the people, and making them feel deadly hatred for all those who appear to enjoy pleasures they are not permitted to share. We would destroy every pension not earned by useful public services. We would destroy every public office which is not indispensable for the real service of the public; limiting the whole action of the Government to the one great duty of protecting the property of individuals.-Brighton Guardian. MORAL AND POLITICAL EFFECTS OF RAILWAYS IN ENG LAND. The moral and political consequences of so greita change in the powers of transition of persons and intelligence from place to place, are not easily calculated. The concentr tion of mind and exertion which a great metropolis always es hibits, will be extended in a considerable degree to the whole realm. The same effect will be produced as if all distinces were lessened in the proportion in which the speed and cheapness of transit are increased. Towns, at present removed some stages from the metropolis, will become its suburbs; othes, now at a day's journey, will be removed to its immediate vici nity; business will be carried on with as much ease between them and the metropolis, as it is now between distant points of the metropolis itself. The ordinary habitations of various classes of citizens engaged in active business in the towns, will be at what now are regarded considerable distances from the places of their occupation. The salubrity of cities will thus be increased by superseding the necessity of heaping the inhabi by enabling the town population to spread itself over al fants together, storey upon storey, within a confined space; and a larger extent of surface, without incurring the inconvenience of distance. Let those who discard speculations like these, as wild and improbable, recur to the state of public opinion at no very remote period, on the subject of steam navigation. Within the memory of persons who have not yet passed the mardian of life, the possibility of traversing by the steam engine the rhas nels and seas that surround and intersect these islands, was regarded as the dream of enthusiasts. Nautical men, and men of science, rejected such speculations with equal incredulity, and could for a moment entertain them. with little less than scorn for the understanding of those who Yet we have witnessed steam-engines traversing, not these channels and seas alone, but sweeping the face of the waters round every coast in Europe, and even ploughing the great oceans of the world. If steam be not used as the only means of connecting the most distant habit able points of our planet, it is not because it is inadequate to the accomplishment of that end, but because local and acciden tal causes limit the supply of that material, from which, at the present moment, it derives its powers.-Edinburgh Review.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE

AND

EDINBURGH WEEKLY MAGAZINE.

CONDUCTED BY JOHN JOHNSTONE.

THE SCHOOLMASTER IS ABROAD.-LORD BROUGHAM.

No. 24.-VOL. II. SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1833. PRICE THREE-HALFPENCE.

FACTORY CHILDREN.

THIS is not the first time that we have endeavoured, in the pages of the Schoolmaster, to draw attention to the miserable condition of the greater number of the children employed in factories. To bring facts under notice, and keep them constantly in view, is, we are persuaded, all that is required to excite interest and sympathy in the public mind, and pro

cure some amelioration of the wretchedness of those unfortunate children. The circumstances brought out in the examinations before the Committee of the House of Commons, exceed any thing we had previously conceived. They speak trumpet-tongued, and any thing we might urge would but weaken the impression they are calculated to produce upon every heart that retains human feeling. By the extracts we give, it will be seen, that the grand objection against legislative interference is nugatory; for it is not the sacred relation of parent and child that would be disturbed or tampered with, but the connexion between the community, and the children thrown upon its funds or its charity. These poor children are generally the offspring of misfortune or vice, to whom early death would appear to be a positive blessing, as the only apparent means of rescuing them from degradation, suffering, and ultimately crime. We blush to say, that the most flagrant instances of this systematic cruelty that have yet transpired, have been traced to Scotland: nor does it mend the matter to find Scottish Members of Parliament (Mr. R. Fergusson, and Mr. Morrison) strenuously opposing the extension of the provisions of Mr. Sadler's Bill to this country, upon the ground, that with us there exists no necessity for legislative interference, so comfortable and happy are all the factory children in Scotland! This, we hope and believe, was said in ignorance, but it is most culpable ignorance. Our extracts of evidence are confined to-day to the Scotch Mills, and to the testimony of one individual, Alexander Dean, an overseer of a flax mill at Dundee, who has had considerable experience in those scenes of disgusting harshness and cruelty. The first mill he entered was Duntruin, near Dundee. He was then thirteen. There they worked not less than 17 hours a-day, exclusive of meals. The master's name was Braid. Four or five orphans, all that were left alive of

[blocks in formation]

employment.

How were they taken care of on the Sundays, then?— It was always one of the sons that staid at home and guarded them on Sunday; he would not suffer them to go to Church.

Were the children and young persons kept down to that work by chastisement ?—Yes.

Were they severely chastised ?-Frequently they were; for the least fault they were struck and abused.

You were speaking about children being prevented from deserting by being locked up; was it often that children made an attempt to escape ?—Yes, if they got the least opportunity.

Where were the hands that did not sleep in the mill sent 50 yards from the mill. at night? The houses which the hands slept in were about

What were they called ?-Bothies.

In any of those Bothies were the boys and girls mixed up indiscriminately at night ?—Yes; I myself with six boys, was in one apartment, with oldish girls.

What were the ages of those boys so locked up?-From 14 to 16.

14.

And what were the ages of the females ?-From 12 to

And you state that they were turned indiscriminately into the same Bothy?—Yes.

And locked up there all night ?—Yes.

He next got into employment at Birdevy Mill, near Dundee, where he was cardwinder, and

« PreviousContinue »